From 9c4d4dea98174718c08af11ec0dd05ea40b0af31 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Manoj Bableshwar Date: Thu, 4 May 2023 14:22:52 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 1/4] remove news summary dataset from repo, download using script in sample --- .../download-dataset.py | 6 +- .../news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json | 1 - .../news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl | 69 - .../news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl | 1723 ---- .../small_validation.jsonl | 80 - .../news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl | 344 - .../news-summary-dataset/train.jsonl | 8613 ----------------- .../news-summary-dataset/validation.jsonl | 401 - .../finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb | 32 +- 9 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 11243 deletions(-) rename sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/{news-summary-dataset => }/download-dataset.py (86%) delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_validation.jsonl delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/train.jsonl delete mode 100644 sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/validation.jsonl diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/download-dataset.py b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py similarity index 86% rename from sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/download-dataset.py rename to sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py index c25ad19702..cfea8436b4 100644 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/download-dataset.py +++ b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py @@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() # add an argument to specify a dataset name to download -parser.add_argument("--dataset", type=str, default="squad", help="dataset name") +parser.add_argument("--dataset", type=str, default="cnn_dailymail", help="dataset name") # add an argument to specify the config name of the dataset parser.add_argument( - "--config_name", type=str, default="plain_text", help="config name of the dataset" + "--config_name", type=str, default="3.0.0", help="config name of the dataset" ) # argument to save a fraction of the dataset parser.add_argument( @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ parser.add_argument( "--download_dir", type=str, - default="data", + default="./news-summary-dataset", help="directory to download the dataset to", ) args = parser.parse_args() diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json deleted file mode 100644 index fea5783af5..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json +++ /dev/null @@ -1 +0,0 @@ -{"inputs": {"input_string": ["(CNN)Deputies rushed Kenneth Morgan Stancil III from court Thursday after the 20-year-old murder suspect swore at a judge and tried to flip over a table. Stancil is accused of killing an employee Monday at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Relatives have said victim Ron Lane was gay, CNN affiliate WNCN reported, and investigators are looking into whether the shooting was a hate crime. Authorities arrested Stancil after he was found sleeping on a Florida beach on Tuesday. Just a few minutes into Thursday's hearing on the first-degree murder charge he faces, Stancil snapped back at the judge after he was offered a court-appointed lawyer. \"No, I don't need one,\" said Stancil, who stood before the judge with his legs shackled and his arms handcuffed in front of him. \"You know what I'm saying? I knew I would get life anyway.\" Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones interjected, pointing out that the maximum sentence Stancil faces is the death penalty. \"Yes, I know that,\" Stancil fired back. \"But when I knew what I had to do and I knew when I got caught, you know, I knew in my mind that I could get life, I could get the death penalty. You know what I'm saying? Do you follow my topic? I would have killed you, you know what I'm saying, if you're a f---ing child molester.\" The judge told him not to swear. \"I don't give a f--- what you want,\" Stancil said, lunging forward and lifting up the table in front of him. Deputies quickly corralled him and hustled him from the courtroom. The hearing resumed about 25 minutes later, when Stancil was brought back into the courtroom, this time with his arms handcuffed behind him. When asked again by Jones whether he wanted a lawyer, his response was quick -- and calm. \"Yes, sir,\" he said. In an interview with CNN affiliate WRAL, Stancil described himself as a neo-Nazi and said he hates gay people \"with a passion.\" Stancil had worked for Lane, the school's print shop operator, as part of a work-study program, but was let go from the program in early March because of poor attendance, college officials said. During the interview, and during a court appearance in Florida on Tuesday, Stancil said Lane deserved to die, accusing him of being a child molester who'd made advances in online messages to Stancil's 16-year-old brother. Lane's family has described those accusations as untrue and slanderous. His cousin, Steve Smith, told WRAL that Lane never made sexual advances toward children or anyone with whom he worked. He described him as a loving man who was dedicated to family and friends. \"Yes, Ron was gay. But people need to get over it,\" Smith said. \"That's between him and the Lord, him and his savior.\""]}} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl deleted file mode 100644 index 26a43123a9..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl +++ /dev/null @@ -1,69 +0,0 @@ -{"article":"(CNN)What was supposed to be a fantasy sports car ride at Walt Disney World Speedway turned deadly when a Lamborghini crashed into a guardrail. The crash took place Sunday at the Exotic Driving Experience, which bills itself as a chance to drive your dream car on a racetrack. The Lamborghini's passenger, 36-year-old Gary Terry of Davenport, Florida, died at the scene, Florida Highway Patrol said. The driver of the Lamborghini, 24-year-old Tavon Watson of Kissimmee, Florida, lost control of the vehicle, the Highway Patrol said. He was hospitalized with minor injuries. Petty Holdings, which operates the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway, released a statement Sunday night about the crash. \"On behalf of everyone in the organization, it is with a very heavy heart that we extend our deepest sympathies to those involved in today's tragic accident in Orlando,\" the company said. Petty Holdings also operates the Richard Petty Driving Experience -- a chance to drive or ride in NASCAR race cars named for the winningest driver in the sport's history. CNN's Vivan Kuo and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"The crash occurred at the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway .\nOfficials say the driver, 24-year-old Tavon Watson, lost control of a Lamborghini .\nPassenger Gary Terry, 36, died at the scene ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Just kill it already. That was the sentiment of many \"Vampire Diaries\" fans on Tuesday after star Nina Dobrev announced she will be leaving the CW show at the end of this season. \"I always knew I wanted Elena's story to be a six season adventure, and within those six years I got the journey of a lifetime,\" she posted on her social media accounts after a \"goodbye party\" at Lake Lanier outside Atlanta, where the show is filmed. \"I was a human, a vampire, a doppelganger, a crazy immortal, a doppelganger pretending to be human, a human pretending to be a doppelganger. I got kidnapped, killed, resurrected, tortured, cursed, body-snatched, was dead and undead, and there's still so much more to come before the season finale in May.\" And while that may be true, fans were feeling a little jilted. Many chastised the show's producers, some even Dobrev herself, for allowing the show to go on to a seventh season this fall after she departs. Many were upset that Dobrev's departure could sink hopes of seeing a satisfying denouement to the relationship between Dobrev's character, Elena Gilbert, and love interest vampire Damon Salvatore. Fans called the couple \"Delena.\" \"I feel angry, sad, depressed, numb but most of all I feel like part of me died along with Nina leaving TVD. Nothing will be the same again,\" Twitter user iDamonAndElena posted. Producer Julie Plec issued a statement supporting Dobrev's decision. \"Nina is excited to spread her wings, get some rest, travel the world and also take it by storm, and we support her a thousand-fold,\" she said in the statement, according to media accounts. \"We will miss Nina and the four hundred characters she played, but we look forward to the insane and exciting challenge of continuing to tell stories of our Salvatore Brothers and our much-loved and gifted ensemble.\" No thanks, some fans said. Dobrev seemed to anticipate the pain, urging fans to hold on through the show's finale next month. \"If you think you know what's coming, you don't,\" she said.","highlights":"\"Vampire Diaries\" star Nina Dobrev announces she's leaving the show .\n\"Nothing will be the same again,\" fans say ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez will need to keep his lawyers even after being convicted of murder and other charges in the death of Odin Lloyd. The 25-year-old potentially faces three more trials -- one criminal and two civil actions. Next up is another murder trial in which he is accused of killing two men and wounding another person near a Boston nightclub in July 2012. Prosecutors have said Hernandez fatally shot Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado when he fired into their 2003 BMW. Another passenger was wounded and two others were uninjured. Hernandez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. The trial was originally slated for May 28, but Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, said Wednesday the trial had been postponed and no new date had been set. \"We expect to select a new court date in the coming days and then set the amended trial track. The Suffolk indictments allege two counts of first-degree murder for the July 16, 2012, shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston's South End; three counts of armed assault with intent to murder and one count of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon for shots fired at three surviving victims; and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm,\" he said. The families of de Abreu and Furtado filed civil suits against Hernandez, and a judge froze his $5 million in assets, pending the outcome of the double-murder trial. The freeze includes the disputed $3.3 million signing bonus payment Hernandez claims he is owed by the New England Patriots. Hernandez is also being sued by a man who claims Hernandez shot him while they were in a limousine in Miami in February 2013. Alexander Bradley claims the then-New England Patriot tight end wounded him after the two got into a fight at a Miami strip club. In a lawsuit filed four months later, Bradley said Hernandez fired at him during a limo ride after leaving the club and that Hernandez intentionally \"possessed a gun which he was not legally licensed to have.\" Hernandez's lawyers have argued he couldn't defend himself properly while on trial in Massachusetts. There was no criminal charge in the case. And then there is the grievance over unpaid bonus money filed by the NFL players union on behalf of Hernandez, who signed a contract in 2012 that potentially was worth more than $40 million. If the grievance is heard by the league, Hernandez will be represented by the the National Football League Players' Association. Who was Odin Lloyd? CNN's Lawrence Crook contributed to this report.","highlights":"Aaron Hernandez has been found guilty in Odin Lloyd's death, but his troubles are not over .\nHe also faces murder charges in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, but trial was postponed .\nIn addition, Hernandez will face two civil lawsuits; one is in relation to Suffolk County case ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Michele Bachmann is comparing President Obama to the co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight. \"With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight - a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks,\" the Minnesota Republican and former representative wrote in a Facebook comment posted March 31. \"After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?\" Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, is accused by authorities of deliberately crashing the plane in the French Alps. He died in the crash along with 149 other crew and passengers. The motive of the March 24 crash is under investigation, though investigators are looking in to whether Lubitz feared a medical condition would cause him to lose his pilot's license. Many comments posted on her Facebook page blasted the former representative. Melissa Coca wrote, \"Comparing this tragedy to anything is moronic and despicable.\" Michael J Pristash wrote, \"Your allusion is so inappropriate and divisive, not to mention disrespectful on so many levels. Shame on you.\" Some also accused her of taking desperate measures to stay in the public eye. Lynda Anderson wrote, \"Posting outrageous things in a pathetic attempt to stay relevant?\" Negotiations are coming down to the wire between Iran, the United States and other nations on restricting Tehran's nuclear program to prevent the ability to develop an atomic bomb. One deadline passed Tuesday, but there is a June 30 deadline for a comprehensive deal -- with all technical and diplomatic impasses fully worked out. Bachmann is no stranger to voicing her opinion on the President's dealing with Iran, personally telling him to \"bomb Iran\" during the 2014 White House Christmas Party. \"I turned to the president and I said, something to the effect of, 'Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, because if you don't, Iran will have a nuclear weapon on your watch and the course of world history will change,'\" she told the Washington Free Beacon. The congresswoman, who sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, said Obama had a \"condescending smile on his face and laughed at me.\" She said he told her: \"Well Michele, it's just not that easy.\"","highlights":"Former GOP representative compares President Obama to Andreas Lubitz .\nBachmann said with possible Iran deal, Obama will fly \"entire nation into the rocks\"\nReaction on social media? She was blasted by Facebook commenters ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Deputies rushed Kenneth Morgan Stancil III from court Thursday after the 20-year-old murder suspect swore at a judge and tried to flip over a table. Stancil is accused of killing an employee Monday at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Relatives have said victim Ron Lane was gay, CNN affiliate WNCN reported, and investigators are looking into whether the shooting was a hate crime. Authorities arrested Stancil after he was found sleeping on a Florida beach on Tuesday. Just a few minutes into Thursday's hearing on the first-degree murder charge he faces, Stancil snapped back at the judge after he was offered a court-appointed lawyer. \"No, I don't need one,\" said Stancil, who stood before the judge with his legs shackled and his arms handcuffed in front of him. \"You know what I'm saying? I knew I would get life anyway.\" Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones interjected, pointing out that the maximum sentence Stancil faces is the death penalty. \"Yes, I know that,\" Stancil fired back. \"But when I knew what I had to do and I knew when I got caught, you know, I knew in my mind that I could get life, I could get the death penalty. You know what I'm saying? Do you follow my topic? I would have killed you, you know what I'm saying, if you're a f---ing child molester.\" The judge told him not to swear. \"I don't give a f--- what you want,\" Stancil said, lunging forward and lifting up the table in front of him. Deputies quickly corralled him and hustled him from the courtroom. The hearing resumed about 25 minutes later, when Stancil was brought back into the courtroom, this time with his arms handcuffed behind him. When asked again by Jones whether he wanted a lawyer, his response was quick -- and calm. \"Yes, sir,\" he said. In an interview with CNN affiliate WRAL, Stancil described himself as a neo-Nazi and said he hates gay people \"with a passion.\" Stancil had worked for Lane, the school's print shop operator, as part of a work-study program, but was let go from the program in early March because of poor attendance, college officials said. During the interview, and during a court appearance in Florida on Tuesday, Stancil said Lane deserved to die, accusing him of being a child molester who'd made advances in online messages to Stancil's 16-year-old brother. Lane's family has described those accusations as untrue and slanderous. His cousin, Steve Smith, told WRAL that Lane never made sexual advances toward children or anyone with whom he worked. He described him as a loving man who was dedicated to family and friends. \"Yes, Ron was gay. But people need to get over it,\" Smith said. \"That's between him and the Lord, him and his savior.\"","highlights":"Kenneth Morgan Stancil, charged with first-degree murder, swears at the judge .\nDeputies escort him from court after he tries to flip over a table .\nStancil is accused of killing an employee at Wayne Community College ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Easter is unique on the Christian calendar, a major point in the cycle of the religious year, and one that has always been able to resist the commercialization and culture warring that surrounds Christmas. That's in part because Easter is genuinely about how religious impulses, and patterns, can operate in ways that affect our lives. Nevertheless, I'm often surprised by how little people, even those supposedly within the Christian tradition, actually know about what is called Holy Week and its culmination on Easter Sunday. At a time when our culture is roiled by questions of identity and ethics (and tolerance) that have profound religious implications, it's worth pausing to explore this crucial holiday -- and the awareness of the human condition, in all its sadness and glory, that it engenders. After all, Holy Week calls mostly to those who incline their minds and hearts in its direction with seriousness of intent. Still, the fuss must puzzle those looking on, wondering what it all means. Why do Christians make so much of this springtime week, and make so much of Easter weekend? There is a phrase that many never come across, even among Christians: Easter Triduum. This refers to the three days of Easter that begin with Good Friday, proceed through Holy Saturday, and conclude with Easter Sunday. It's definitely a progression, although the word itself -- triduum -- can refer to any three days of prayer. Easter Triduum has a kind of major prologue in Maundy Thursday, the day when, by tradition, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem on the night before he was crucified. The idea of Holy Communion begins with this meal, which was a Passover meal. Jesus, of course, was Jewish, as were all his disciples. He was never trying to erase Judaism and found a new religion. His work involved modifying and extending Judaism in fresh ways. On Maundy Thursday, Christians sometimes practice the washing of feet, recalling that Jesus washed the very dusty feet of his disciples at the Last Supper as a way of demonstrating profound humility -- showing that he was himself a servant -- and modeling a kind of ideal behavior. Good Friday isn't, in fact, so good. It's the day of the crucifixion, when Jesus was scourged and beaten, forced to carry his cross to Golgotha, the \"place of the skull,\" and nailed to the cross itself for what must have been an agonizing death. The actual scene of the Crucifixion varies from gospel to gospel, as do his last words, assembled into the so-called \"seven last words\" of Jesus by adding up fragments from different gospels. Some of these words are quotations, as when Jesus asked God why he has abandoned him: This is a quote from the 22nd Psalm, which opens: \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" Good Friday is a day of death, sacrifice, displacement, fear. Holy Saturday is probably the least understood day of the Easter Triduum. It's a passageway between the darkness of the crucifixion and the bright hope of Easter. This day occupies an anxious space in human experience, when the certain knowledge of something dreadful isn't quite erased -- can't be erased -- simply by hope. It's a day of depression, a day of suspension. Then comes Easter, with the aura of the resurrection. I'm always moved by the deep symbolism of this mythic moment, when the body of Christ becomes what is called a \"glorified body.\" This was not, as I've said elsewhere, the Great Resuscitation, although that's part of it, too. Resurrection implies a total transformation, something beyond the physical realm. It's very important that almost nobody who encounters Jesus after the resurrection can really recognize him, know him, or understand him as the same person who was with them before he was crucified. Easter embraces the great mystery of resurrection, with its promise of transformation -- a shift from one form to another, and a change that moves well beyond any literal understanding. The three days of Easter, the Triduum, occur only once a year on the calendar. But the really interesting thing is that we all experience the pattern of the three days again and again. We find ourselves emptied out in small ways, nailed to our own trees in life, embarrassed or broken by life. It was the Buddha who famously observed that life is suffering. Good Friday embodies the Christian version of that truth. Jesus suffered in the way all of us must suffer. We must all die, perhaps less ignominiously but just as certainly. Our friends and families must die. We all experience illness, loss, sadness, a loss of confidence, darkness. This is simply part of the human experience. We dive again and again into Holy Saturday, too -- a period of transition, when the bleakness of suffering is perhaps slightly behind us but nothing restorative seems in view. We know well this in-between time; it's an anxious passage, with only a glimmer on the horizon of potential hope. And we've all been resurrected, again and again, perhaps in tiny ways. This is the joy of Easter, and it's not something reserved for one day on the calendar. It's there whenever we experience what T.S. Eliot once called the \"timeless moment,\" which can only occur -- paradoxically -- in time itself. It's a mystical point where timelessness intersects with time. I suspect we all experience the Triduum frequently, sometimes more than once in a single day. But the ritual enactment of these three days of the Easter season reminds all of those who practice Christianity -- and perhaps those who don't -- that we should expect to move through darkness into light. It's a pattern that describes a kind of spiritual progression. It's good cause for celebration, too: and one that won't easily be co-opted by secular culture.","highlights":"Jay Parini: When religious identity, ethics, tolerance are roiling the culture, it's worth looking at message of Holy Week and Easter .\nHe says ritual enactment of these three days is reminder that again and again the human condition moves through darkness into light ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Anyone who has given birth -- or been an observer of the event -- knows how arduous it can be. But to do it live on the Internet? With two hooves sticking out for several minutes in the midst of labor? Luckily, Katie -- a giraffe at the Dallas Zoo -- is a champ. In an hour-long labor captured by 10 cameras and streamed live by Animal Planet, Katie gave birth to a not-so-little baby (about 6 feet tall) early Friday evening. There was no immediate word on the newborn's gender or condition. But there were good signs, as seen on the live stream and Dallas Zoo's Twitter feed -- like its ears moving, its efforts to stand, and its nursing (or at least trying to nurse) from mom. \"We're so proud,\" the zoo tweeted. The newcomer's debut was a long time coming, especially when you count for Katie's 15-month gestation period -- average for a giraffe, according to Animal Planet. The baby joins a sister, 4-year-old calf Jamie. It wasn't immediately known how many people online saw Katie go into labor and give birth. But the giraffe definitely did have watchers in the form of fellow giraffes who saw the scene unfold from an abutting barn, one of them being Katie's BFF Jade. The fact that the spunky Katie held up so well under the spotlight isn't a total shocker. The zoo describes her as the \"diva\" among a herd of 12 giraffes at the zoo who loves to \"toss her head around\" when she doesn't like something. As Animal Planet noted, \"She's one of the only giraffes at the Dallas Zoo who can stick her long tongue out on cue.\" CNN's Justin Lear contributed to this report.","highlights":"Animal Planet captures Katie the giraffe's labor and delivery .\nThe new baby wiggles its ears, rises, tries to nurse from its mom ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Gastrointestinal illness has gripped 100 people on the cruise ship Celebrity Infinity, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control. Of the ship's 2,117 passengers, 95 have suffered from vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms, the CDC said. The illness has also affected five members of the 964-person crew. The CDC has yet to determine what's causing the ailments. Two staffers from the agency are scheduled to meet the West Coast-based ship in San Diego on Monday. The Infinity left San Diego on March 29. It made its last stop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on April 10, according to MarineTraffic.com. Celebrity Cruises has been taking action since the outbreak began, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures, keeping passengers informed and taking specimens from the afflicted for testing by the CDC, the agency says. According to the Maritime Executive, this is the third time the Celebrity Infinity has suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, with others occurring in 2006 and 2013. The ship was built in 2001 and refurbished in 2011.","highlights":"100 passengers and crew members have been sickened on Celebrity Infinity .\nThe ship, which is based on the West Coast, left San Diego in late March .\nThe CDC is scheduled to board the ship Monday ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A couple in their 20s, who led a youth ministry, and their baby boy were driving underneath a highway overpass in Bonney Lake, a Seattle suburb, when other motorists heard the crackle of a pending collapse. Concrete from a construction project crashed onto the family's car, killing Josh and Vanessa Ellis and their 8-month-old son, Hudson, authorities said. \"The damage was so severe it was impossible to tell how many victims were in the vehicle. The only thing we had was we could tell there was one victim,\" said Officer Todd Green of Bonney Lake Police Department, according to CNN affiliate KOMO. It took nine hours Monday for crews to remove enough debris to discover the death toll on Angeline Road underneath State Route 410, authorities said. Authorities continued their investigation Tuesday, but initial findings were that there was an ongoing construction project on the highway and a side jersey barrier \"came loose and fell onto the roadway,\" Green told the station. \"When it fell off the overpass, it landed square on the roof of the vehicle,\" Green added. Josh and Vanessa Ellis were youth pastors at the EastPointe Foursquare Church in Puyallup, near Bonney Lake, the church said. The couple earlier wrote a short autobiography on the church website: \"We love to laugh. We are passionate about seeing young people discover the love and grace that Jesus abundantly pours out on them. \"We get really excited about good coffee, quality time with friends and Seattle welcoming an NBA basketball team back to our city,\" the couple wrote. \"We love drive-in movies, frozen yogurt, dates to IKEA and trips to the beach.\" Lead Pastor James Ludlow said his church was reeling. \"We are stunned! Shocked! Wounded, broken and dismayed. But we know one thing for sure ... they are in glory in the loving arms of our King Jesus!\" Ludlow said on the church's Facebook page. Motorist Dawn Nelson was driving behind the Ellis' vehicle. \"I was just a second or two behind him,\" Nelson told KOMO. \"I could hear the three crunch sounds and then it just came down.\" Neighbors recounted a violent collapse. \"I thought a semi had come down the guardrail here in front,\" neighbor Katie Vance told the station. She felt the crash inside her home. \"It was a metal sound and a very heavy sound ... it was through your feet - like a guttural. It shook the whole house,\" she told the affiliate. CNN's Amanda Watts contributed to this story.","highlights":"Josh and Vanessa Ellis, a couple in their 20s, were youth pastors in a suburban Seattle church .\nThey and their 8-month-old son, Hudson, are killed when a highway barrier falls on their car .\n\"We are stunned! Shocked!\" the church's lead pastor writes on Facebook ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The Coxes can rest more comfortably living in Georgia now that their 5-year-old daughter can get the marijuana extract she needs. \"This means the world to us,\" said Haleigh Cox's mother, Janea Cox. Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bill Thursday that will legalize low-THC cannabis oil for certain \"medication-resistant epilepsies,\" while creating an infrastructure, registration process and research program for the drug. (THC is the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana.) The bill is dubbed Haleigh's Hope Act. Haleigh, who has been the face of the bill, was having hundreds of seizures a day and the five potent drugs meant to control them weren't making life better for the little girl. Janea Cox said in a March 2014 interview that she made the difficult decision to move her daughter to Colorado, where medical marijuana is legal, in hopes of saving her life. \"She was maxed out,\" Cox said. \"She'd quit breathing several times a day, and the doctors blamed it on the seizure medications.\" 10 diseases marijuana could affect . Cox had heard that a form of medical marijuana might help, but it wasn't available in Georgia. So a week after hearing a doctor's diagnosis that Haleigh might not live another three months, she and Haleigh packed up and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, Haleigh began a regimen of cannabis oil: four times a day and once at night. \"Every time she smiled I knew we did the right thing, because we hadn't seen her smile in three years,\" Cox said. \"Now she's thriving, she's healthy, she's happy, and they're absolutely shocked at the difference. So I think we've turned some nonbelievers into believers of cannabis oil.\" Deal is apparently one of those believers, signing HB1 on Thursday and opening the door for the use of cannabis oil to treat certain medical conditions. The bill will benefit not only people who suffer from chronic seizure disorders, but it also will allow patients to receive in-state treatment. To obtain a license in Georgia, you will need to have a specific covered condition, such as acute seizures. \"For the families enduring separation and patients suffering pain, the wait is finally over,\" Deal said Thursday. \"... Now, Georgia children and their families may return home while continuing to receive much-needed care.\" For Cox, it's a blessing \"to be able to come back home, and with Haleigh's medicine, it's done wonders for her -- going from 200-plus seizures a day and on her deathbed to a smiling, happy girl who says words now and looks us in the eye and lets us know she's in there.\" She added, \"Colorado has been good to us, but Georgia's home. Georgia's definitely home.\" With medical marijuana legal in nearly half the states, doctors are increasingly studying what effect the drug has on various ailments. While Georgia's law is specific to a handful of conditions, medical marijuana laws in states such as California permit marijuana use for an array of ailments. But as states rewrite their regulations, federal law remains the same: Marijuana is illegal to grow, sell or use for any purpose. Under the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed on Schedule 1, meaning it has \"no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.\" To backers of reform, it presents a Catch-22: Marijuana is restricted, in large part, because there is scant research to support medical uses, yet research is difficult to conduct because of tight restrictions.","highlights":"Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signs a medical marijuana bill .\nThe bill is inspired by Haleigh Cox, a 5-year-old whose seizures threatened her life ."} -{"article":"(CNN)For Lt. Colonel John Schwemmer, the scenery is all too familiar. This is his sixth tour in Iraq, and he's back doing a job that he's been tasked with before: training Iraqi soldiers. Schwemmer and other active U.S. military personnel are on the ground in Iraq, whipping often ill-equipped government troops into shape. They've been here before, but this time, he feels, they're getting it right. But the U.S. military isn't the only contingent of Western forces in the region -- dozens of foreigners, including Americans, have volunteered to take the fight to ISIS. And increasingly, U.S. military training efforts are being supplemented by outside agencies, who are working with Kurdish government troops and even militia in Iraq and Syria. \"Many of us do feel that we do have the skills and qualifications that can be used to benefit those in the region,\" said Ian Bradbury, a Canadian former soldier who is training Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq. While it is difficult to say how many foreign volunteers are fighting ISIS, a spokesman for a Kurdish militia fighting against them in Syria -- known as the YPG -- told the New York Times their forces include more than 100 American citizens. U.S. law enforcement officials say it is illegal to join a Syrian militia. But some organizations have set up recruitment drives online, featuring applications for foreign fighters complete with checklists of what to bring and advice on bringing body armor across international borders. Jordan Matson, a 28-year-old former U.S. army soldier from the tiny town of Sturtevant, Wisconsin, volunteered with the YPG. He told CNN that after much soul searching he realized that he needed to help in the battle against ISIS' brutal, expansionist regime. \"I got in contact with the YPG on Facebook and prayed about it for probably a month or two and asked, 'is this what I want to do?' and eventually, you know, decided to do it. \"All my life I wanted to be a solider... so I guess this just fits well over here.\" But foreign fighters aren't universally welcomed by those opposing ISIS. The Peshmerga, the military wing of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) that has been one of the most effective counterbalances to ISIS' expansion, has said they don't want or need foreign fighters, according to Bradbury. \"The information I've been getting back is that there's very little use for (Western fighters) on the front lines, especially on the KRG side -- they have significant numbers of personnel -- it's a source of Kurdish pride for them to rise up in scenarios like this. They more need the development assistance.\" Peshmerga spokesman Helgurd Hekmat also told Kurdish news wire Rudaw that it was illegal for foreigners to join their ranks. While individual fighters are not always accepted, volunteers working as military trainers are sharing their expertise to support those on the front lines of the fight against ISIS forces. Bradbury set up 1st North American Expeditionary Forces (1st NAEF), a training body which, he says, is currently providing material support and training to the Peshmerga, whose name means \"those who face death,\" in northern Iraq. \"Internal capacity building is by far the solution that you can put into a region that is suffering instability from conflict,\" he told CNN by phone from his base in Ottawa, Canada. \"Increasing their ability to maintain stability over the long term is far better than trying to influx it with a bunch of westerners who are going to leave within a short period of time.\" He was prompted to establish the group after seeing \"fairly significant gaps\" in the support provided by the coalition forces for the Kurdish, Iraqi regular and militia ranged against ISIS. The U.S. military is \"confident\" that its support of the forces battling ISIS on the ground is sufficient. \"We're confident the U.S. military mission of degrading and ultimately defeating (ISIS) will be found by working through our Middle Eastern partners and the international community,\" Maj. Omar Villarreal, Communication Integration Planner, U.S. Central Command Communication Integration Directorate, told CNN. \"The training element of the mission is no different. It relies on direct and comprehensive military cooperation with regional partner nations, who share a mutual interest in promoting security. One of the goals of the train and equip program, is to build the capabilities of the moderate Syrian fighters to defend the Syrian people. We are confident in our efforts.\" With coalition members keen to distance themselves from calls for Western boots on the ground -- and little political appetite from overseas for risking Western troops in what many see as a sectarian conflict, Bradbury contends that the best-case scenario is exactly the kind of logistical support that organizations like 1st NAEF are providing. ISIS is keen to play up religious and sectarian divisions in order to create the perception that they are the Sunni protectors of a persecuted underclass, sending non-Arab troops into the battlefield -- even in a support role -- could play into that divisive rhetoric. Bradbury downplays this risk, saying the threat is there, and is best contained in the region. Providing noncombat backing, such as medical, weaponry, logistical and training assistance would appear, he thinks, to be the best way of supporting those Kurdish and Arab troops on the front. \"Regardless of perceptions of any kind of us-against-them scenario, it absolutely is a world-against-ISIS issue that needs to take place and there definitely needs to be a global response,\" he said.","highlights":"Foreign fighters are increasingly signing up to fight ISIS on the front lines .\nFor some of the jihadist group's foes, foreign fighters are not welcome comrades .\nTraining and logistical support, some argue, is the best way to support the fight against ISIS ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Two years ago, the storied Boston Marathon ended in terror and altered the lives of runners, spectators and those who tried to come to their rescue. Just last week, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges related to the bombings at the race and the dramatic violence that dragged out for days afterward. The jury will begin deliberating his punishment next week. The death penalty is on the table. Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police, were intent on terrorizing not just Bostonians, but all Americans, prosecutors said. But the Tsarnaevs were not on the minds of most people in Boston on Wednesday. The injured victims and those who lost their lives were spoken of with reverence in somber ceremonies. Relatives of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the attack's youngest victim, and the family of Krystle Campbell stood with Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin Walsh. Bagpipes played and banners whipped in the wind on Boylston Street, the Boston Globe reported. Boston University graduate student Lingzi Lu also was killed in one of the two horrific blasts that brought chaos to the competitors and spectators near the race's finish line on April 15, 2013. Who were the victims? Many bombing survivors were in the crowd for Wednesday's events, the newspaper said. They wore white, blue and yellow pins celebrating \"One Boston Day,\" which was created to recognize acts of valor and to encourage kindness among Bostonians. Many there and those who couldn't observe the day in person tweeted their respect and memories using #BostonDay. The marathon historically happens on a Monday. This year, runners will take on the 26.2 mile challenge April 20. \"I think today will always be a little emotional for me -- Marathon Monday is my favorite day of the year, and will continue to be, despite these tragedies,\" Boston resident Lindsey Berkowitz told CNN. \"I have so much respect and support for all of the survivors, and hope the city continues to come together on this day to embrace the strength and resilience of Boston, and the love we all have for this great city.\" Melanie DiVasta was working just a mile from the finish line in 2013 when one of the bombs set by the Tsarnaevs exploded. Several of her friends were waiting at the finish line. They were unharmed. \"It was just an overwhelming feeling of shock to start hearing about it and seeing images,\" DiVasta said. \"You couldn't help but cry and just ask why.\" What's next for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev? CNN's Jareen Imam contributed to this report.","highlights":"Citizens gather to honor victims on One Boston Day, two years after the marathon bombings .\n\"Today will always be a little emotional for me,\" one Bostonian tells CNN ."} -{"article":"(CNN)I remember traveling one day in the local train in Mumbai with my mother, my younger sister and brother. The compartment was extremely crowded. As we prepared to disembark, I felt my skirt being lifted and someone groping my private parts. It was terrible. I wanted to scream, but my voice would have drowned in the noise of the crowd. I wanted to push the hands away, but my arms were pinned to my body. I wanted to cry but could only think to myself, \"Stop it! Please stop touching me.\" I was 13 years old. I never told anyone about that day until recently. Twenty-five years later, I continue to hear similar stories of women and girls being harassed on local transportation and other public spaces. The stories can be stomach churning: men masturbating on buses and at bus stops, boys stalking young girls -- both physically and online, men taking pictures of women without permission and uploading them on the Internet. Then there are just the everyday, uncomfortable stares, frequently accompanied by comments with sexual connotations. This isn't all simply anecdotal. A study by We the People found that 80% of women in Mumbai had been street harassed, primarily in crowded areas like trains and railway platforms. Most people, including women, only think of sexual violence as rape and tend to overlook touching, groping and stalking, not to mention the \"milder\" forms of ogling, leering, catcalling and whistling, even though all of this can be intimidating. Indeed, many women choose to limit their hours outside, select more conservative clothes, or opt for a longer but safer route home. It was only recently that I realized my phobia of trains likely originated with that bad experience I had as a child. I still avoid trains when I can. Most people are silent when inappropriate sexual behavior occurs to women. It was depressing to hear one young college student tell me in a recent sexual harassment workshop I led that \"staring and commenting by men is normal and I've learned to ignore it.\" The reality is that sexual harassment in India is pervasive in all aspects of life. It hits you in the face every day when you walk down the street, take local transport, go about your daily routine or at the workplace. According to U.N. Women's report, 1 in 3 women around the world face some form of sexual violence at least once in their lifetime. This statistic is likely even higher in India. Out of the 2,000 women who have attended workshops I've conducted, only a handful of them have never been at the receiving end of harassment in some setting of their daily lives. Shockingly, less than 10 of them had reported harassment to any official channel. Why are we constantly limiting our options rather than confronting sexual harassment? Over the past two years, I have been working to encourage women to talk about their experiences and realize the tremendous potential power they hold within themselves through acknowledging the problem and being a part of the change to shift the culture around sexual harassment in India. It is not always easy speaking up about sexual harassment. I know firsthand. But acknowledging that it is unacceptable is an important first step. India has laws for sexual violence in public spaces as well as at the workplace, and knowing these rules gives women the power to confront her harasser. But is it enough? Women still have to confront the cultural challenge of not feeling \"ashamed\" and bringing \"disrepute\" to their families while overcoming their fear of dealing with the police, who too often file complaints in the wrong categories to reduce the number of official cases on which their performance is judged. However, despite the barriers, two recent cases in India provide proof that even when the perpetrator is in a position of immense power, coming forward to report sexual harassment can make a difference. There is, for example, the young employee from an environmental research organization who alleged that her boss Rajendra Pachauri made unwelcome advances to her through text messages. Her bold and persistent quest for justice resulted in Pachauri stepping down from his position as chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Pachauri denied the allegations and insisted his computer and phone were hacked. His counsel stated in court that Pachauri's inbox was not hacked, but he had shared the password with several people who could have sent inappropriate emails to the employee under his name. Similarly, last year, Tarun Tejpal, founder of one of India's leading media companies, was arrested for sexually assaulting his employee in an elevator. She first told her female editor who reportedly did not take her seriously. She then spoke about it to her male colleagues who encouraged her to report the incident to the police. Tarun Tejpal, who explained the incident as a \"bad lapse of judgment,\" was let out on interim bail while the case is still ongoing. Women have allies -- both male and female -- who are willing to help clear the barriers. Women everywhere just need to find the courage to speak up. The alternative to speaking out is a world where women feel less able to live full lives, restricted and disempowered. We cannot accept harassment as part of our daily routine. We cannot ignore it -- for our own sake and the next generation of women.","highlights":"Women in India are street harassed, primarily in crowded areas like trains and railway platforms .\nElsa Marie D'Silva: It's time we speak up; we cannot accept harassment as part of our daily routine ."} -{"article":"(CNN)ESPN suspended reporter Britt McHenry for a week after a video of her berating a towing company employee surfaced Thursday. The sports network announced her suspension on Twitter. McHenry posted an apology on Twitter, saying she allowed her emotions to get away from her during a stressful situation at a Virginia business. \"I ... said some insulting and regrettable things.\" \"As frustrated as I was, I should always choose to be respectful and take the high road. I am so sorry for my actions and will learn from this mistake,\" she wrote. On the roughly one-minute long video that was captured by a surveillance camera, McHenry says to an employee at a register: \"I'm in the news, sweetheart. I will (expletive) sue this place.\" The employee tells McHenry she's being recorded, but it doesn't stop her from continuing her rant. \"That's why I have a degree and you don't,\" she says. \"I wouldn't work at a scumbag place like this. Makes my skin crawl even being here.\" Later McHenry says, \"maybe if I was missing some teeth they would hire me, huh?\" The employee apparently says something about McHenry's hair and the color of her roots. McHenry sasses back, saying, \"Oh, like yours, 'cause they look so stunning, 'cause I'm on television and you're in a (expletive) trailer, honey. Lose some weight, baby girl.\" CNN reached out to the Arlington towing company for comment but didn't hear immediately back. The edited video was first posted on the website LiveLeak, which said the incident occurred April 5. The video inspired the Twitter hashtag #firebrittmchenry. The reporter is one of several ESPN on-air talents to be suspended in the past 12 months. In February, anchor Keith Olbermann was not on the air for most of a week after a Twitter spat that the anchor had with fans of Penn State University. Bill Simmons was suspended in September for three weeks for calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a liar. Commentator Stephen A. Smith was suspended in July for a week for widely criticized remarks about domestic abuse that referred to possible \"provocation\" by victims. How McHenry could have responded . McHenry is based in Washington and the incident happened across the Potomac River in Arlington. McHenry joined ESPN in 2014. At the time of her hiring, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, Vince Doria, praised her knack for getting interviews with major sports celebrities. \"In a relatively short time, Britt has established a reputation for strong, aggressive reporting in the D.C. area, and an ability to land big interviews,\" said Doria. \"Her presence there will be a great benefit to ESPN's newsgathering and, as with all of our bureau reporters, she will be assigned to high-profile stories around the country.\" Before ESPN, she was with WJLA in Washington. McHenry joined the station in 2008 and the sports staff in 2010. She went to Stetson as an undergraduate and Northwestern for graduate studies in journalism. Opinion: Who's worse: Britt McHenry, or us?","highlights":"#firebrittmchenry has become a popular hashtag on Twitter .\nBritt McHenry is a reporter for the sports network, and she is based in Washington .\nShe apologized on Twitter for losing control of her emotions, not taking the high road ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A Duke student has admitted to hanging a noose made of rope from a tree near a student union, university officials said Thursday. The prestigious private school didn't identify the student, citing federal privacy laws. In a news release, it said the student was no longer on campus and will face student conduct review. The student was identified during an investigation by campus police and the office of student affairs and admitted to placing the noose on the tree early Wednesday, the university said. Officials are still trying to determine if other people were involved. Criminal investigations into the incident are ongoing as well. Students and faculty members marched Wednesday afternoon chanting \"We are not afraid. We stand together,\" after pictures of the noose were passed around on social media. At a forum held on the steps of Duke Chapel, close to where the noose was discovered at 2 a.m., hundreds of people gathered. \"You came here for the reason that you want to say with me, 'This is no Duke we will accept. This is no Duke we want. This is not the Duke we're here to experience. And this is not the Duke we're here to create,' \" Duke President Richard Brodhead told the crowd. The incident is one of several recent racist events to affect college students. Last month a fraternity at the University of Oklahoma had its charter removed after a video surfaced showing members using the N-word and referring to lynching in a chant. Two students were expelled. In February, a noose was hung around the neck of a statue of a famous civil rights figure at the University of Mississippi. A statement issued by Duke said there was a previous report of hate speech directed at students on campus. In the news release, the vice president for student affairs called the noose incident a \"cowardly act.\" \"To whomever committed this hateful and stupid act, I just want to say that if your intent was to create fear, it will have the opposite effect,\" Larry Moneta said Wednesday. Duke University is a private college with about 15,000 students in Durham, North Carolina. CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"Student is no longer on Duke University campus and will face disciplinary review .\nSchool officials identified student during investigation and the person admitted to hanging the noose, Duke says .\nThe noose, made of rope, was discovered on campus about 2 a.m."} -{"article":"(CNN)For those wondering if we would ever hear from the Bluth family again, the answer would appear to be yes. \"Arrested Development\" executive producer Brian Grazer said the show will return for a fifth season of 17 episodes. The Hollywood mogul was interviewed on Bill Simmons' podcast recently, and let it drop that fans can expect more of the quirky comedy. Netflix had no comment for CNN when asked to verify his statements. The fourth season was streamed exclusively on Netflix in 2013, after Fox canceled the show several years before. Despite critical acclaim, the series never had big ratings, but has a devoted fan base, who often quote from the show. It was not yet known if the full cast, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Will Arnett, will return for the season.","highlights":"Fan favorite series \"Arrested Development\" to return for a fifth season, according to producer .\nBrian Grazer claimed the show would be back in a podcast .\nNetflix is not commenting ."} -{"article":"(CNN)HBO just whetted our appetite for a new season of \"True Detective.\" The network released a teaser video for season 2 of the critically acclaimed show, and it looks intense. Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams and Taylor Kitsch star in the new season, which premieres June 21. Here's the plot synopsis, according to Den of Geek: . \"A bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California. Colin Farrell is Ray Velcoro, a compromised detective in the all-industrial City of Vinci, LA County. Vince Vaughn plays Frank Semyon, a criminal and entrepreneur in danger of losing his life's work, while his wife and closest ally (Kelly Reilly), struggles with his choices and her own. Rachel McAdams is Ani Bezzerides, a Ventura County Sheriff's detective often at odds with the system she serves, while Taylor Kitsch plays Paul Woodrugh, a war veteran and motorcycle cop for the California Highway Patrol who discovers a crime scene which triggers an investigation involving three law enforcement groups, multiple criminal collusions, and billions of dollars.\" Yes, please. The first season starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a pair of Louisiana State Police detectives investigating the death of a young woman. The crime drama proved to be a runaway hit, and the season 1 finale crashed the HBO Go site in March 2014.","highlights":"HBO released a teaser video for the new season, starting June 21 .\nThe series stars Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn ."} -{"article":"(CNN)At first police in Marana, Arizona, thought the shoplifted gun Mario Valencia held as he walked through a busy office park was locked and unable to fire. The cable through the lever and trigger couldn't be taken off, an officer was told by an employee of the Walmart where Valencia took the gun and some rounds of ammunition. But just 10 seconds after the worker told police that ... a shot. Valencia had fired into the air, and less than a minute later a police car slammed into him in a move that ended a crime spree and sparked nationwide discussion on the officer's unusual tactic. The 36-year-old Valencia was hospitalized and within a few days transferred to jail where he faces 15 charges, including shoplifting the .30-30 rifle. That February morning, police have said, Valencia committed several crimes in nearby Tucson before stealing a car and driving to the Walmart in Marana. There he went to the sporting goods department, asked to see a rifle, then told an employee he wanted the ammunition. Officer who drove into suspect justified, chief says . The woman told police she gave Valencia the rounds because he told her he would break the case with the bullets inside. He also told her not to do anything stupid. In spite of that she also said she didn't feel threatened, leading police to charge him with shoplifting and not armed robbery. Walmart told CNN's Miguel Marquez that the store clerk acted appropriately, even using a code to alert security to call police. Valencia took the gun and ammo and fled into a nearby business park where he encountered an officer in a slow-moving patrol car. At one point he pointed the weapon at an officer and at another he pointed it at his head. The officer told him several times to put down the gun, police have said. The officers that were tailing him assumed that he likely couldn't shoot anyone because of the store's lock. Marana police on Thursday said the cable gun lock was still on the rifle when it was recovered. But the wire that goes through the trigger and the lever to reload the gun were loose enough to allow it to still be used, police said. It also should have been wrapped through the lever twice, not once, police said. A Walmart spokesman told CNN that the rifle had been properly locked and might have been affected by the hard blow caused by the police car. Valencia, who is in Pima County Jail, will appear in court again on May 18.","highlights":"Before he was slammed into by a police car, Mario Valencia fired a rifle with a loosened lock .\nHe shoplifted the gun and ammo from a Walmart, where a saleswoman who showed him the weapon alerted security .\nWalmart says the lock was properly installed but police say it was loose when it was found ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Robert Bates says he gets it, how you might wonder how a cop could confuse a pistol for a stun gun. Bates -- the Tulsa County, Oklahoma, reserve sheriff's deputy accused of manslaughter in the death of a fleeing suspect -- told NBC's \"Today\" show Friday that he used to think that, too. \"Believe me,\" he told the show in his first appearance since being charged in the April 2 death of Eric Harris, \"it can happen to anyone.\" Harris died after Bates shot him -- accidentally, he says -- after calling out \"Taser! Taser!\" in a tussle captured on a police body camera. Bates told investigators that he mistook his firearm for the stun gun. How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser? While Bates is at the center of the maelstrom over Harris' death, he isn't the only one under scrutiny. The Oklahoma NAACP wants charges against other officers involved in Harris' death, and a state and federal investigation into the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office's treatment of minorities. The sheriff's office also finds itself fending off allegations that supervisors were told to forge Bates' training records. In his interview Friday with \"Today,\" Bates said he had the documentation to show he had completed the necessary training required of reserve deputies. \"That is absolutely the truth. I have it in writing,\" he told the show. And on Thursday, a sheriff's office official denied to the Tulsa World newspaper that any records had ever been forged. As an advanced reserve deputy, sheriff's office policy calls for Bates to have completed 480 hours of the field training officer program, according to the Tulsa World. Bates would also have needed firearms certification training. Officials have yet to locate records showing what training Bates completed, said Maj. Shannon Clark of the sheriff's office. But Clark did say it's possible that some training requirements may have been waived. Sheriff Stanley Glanz has the authority to waive any department policies, Clark said. \"The policies within our organization are signed off by the sheriff, but there are also policies that give the sheriff the ability to waive any policy within our organization. That's part of being a sheriff's office,\" Clark told the newspaper. Glanz told KFAQ radio this week that officials can't find records of Bates' firearms certification. The instructor who provided that training is now a U.S. Secret Service agent, and officials haven't been able to locate training records she was supposed to have turned in, Glanz told the station. Other discrepancies have surfaced about training that Bates claims to have attended, including questions about active shooter and homicide investigation instruction. Tulsa World reporter Dylan Goforth said the paper had been told by multiple sources that Bates' records had been falsified. The newspaper has not said who allegedly asked the supervisors to falsify the training records or why. But the orders apparently started years ago, \"back when (Bates) was trying to get on as a deputy,\" reporter Ziva Branstetter told CNN's \"New Day.\" Bates has donated equipment to the department and was also a donor to Glanz's re-election campaign, leading to allegations he had essentially paid to be a cop. He rejected that claim in the \"Today\" interview as \"unbelievably unfair.\" Bates' attorney, Clark Brewster, also has rejected the allegations of poor training or forgery as unfounded. He said those making the accusations include fired sheriff's office employees represented by the law firm that also represents Harris' family. \"His training is extensive and certainly adequate,\" Brewster told CNN on Thursday. Bates appeared on the \"Today\" show with his wife, two daughters and Brewster. He seemed composed but said he was still might be in shock over what had happened. \"I can tell you it stayed with me for a number of days,\" Bates said. \"I'm not at all sure it's not still with me today. Lack of sleep, inability to concentrate, all of those plus more. You know, I still can't believe it happened.\" In describing the events leading up to Harris' death, Bates said he was parked several blocks away from the site where an undercover deputy was conducting a sting operation to catch Harris in the act of illegally selling a gun. Bates said he had participated in \"several hundred\" such operations but always in a backup role where he would come in and \"clean up\" after deputies, taking photos and notes. But as deputies rolled up to arrest him after the sale, Harris bolted from the vehicle and ran toward Bates' position. As deputies were trying to subdue Harris, Bates told investigators he saw an opportunity to use his stun gun to help get the suspect under control. \"I yelled, 'Taser! Taser!' as required in training. The deputy below me ducked, he pulled away from it so that I could,\" Bates said. \"The laser light is the same on each weapon. I saw the light and I squeezed the trigger,\" Bates told \"Today.\" The result was not the staccato click of a well-deployed stun gun. Instead, it was a gunshot. \"I shot him! I'm sorry!\" Bates is heard emotionally saying on video of the incident. Bates apologized to Harris' family, who have rejected allegations he was violent and on drugs. Harris' brother, Andre Harris, said this week that he didn't think the shooting was racially motivated. Instead, he said, \"This is simply evil.\" But Bates,who is charged with second-degree manslaughter, said he didn't mean to kill Harris. His attorney has called it an \"excusable homicide.\" \"I rate this as No. 1 on my list of things in my life that I regret,\" said Bates, who is free on $25,000 bail.","highlights":"\"I rate this as No. 1 on my list of things in my life that I regret,\" Robert Bates tells \"Today\"\nHe says he didn't mean to kill Eric Harris and rejects claims his training records were forged .\n\"I still can't believe it happened,\" Bates tells the NBC show ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A New Jersey auction house has removed items from its April 17 event after an uproar from the public. The items are crafts and artifacts made by Japanese-Americans confined to World War II internment camps. A grass-roots campaign of a change.org petition, a Facebook page, and mediation by \"Star Trek\" actor George Takei has resulted in Rago Arts and Auction Center agreeing to pull the items from the sale. \"There is an essential discussion to be had about the sale of historical items that are a legacy of man's inhumanity to man. It extends beyond what is legal. It is something auction houses, galleries and dealers are faced with regularly,\" the auction house said. \"We hope this controversy will be the beginning of a discourse on this issue.\" Takei, who with his family spent time in one of the camps, thanked people for working to stop the sale. According to a comment on the Facebook page \"Japanese American History: NOT for Sale,\" he was working on the issue while on a trip to Australia. \"It took a few calls today here in the wee hours, and I'll be issuing a formal statement later, but we can all celebrate a bit today at this news,\" he wrote. The auction house said 24 lots of an original collection of works of art and crafts were removed. During World War II, about 117,000 people of Japanese descent were forced to live in 10 internment camps. The government called them relocation centers. Many of the people who lived there and their descendants had another phrase for the facilities. They call them concentration camps. Two-thirds of the people who were ordered there were native born U.S. citizens, according to the National Archives. CNN affiliate KGO reported the items were given to historian Allen Eaton, who opposed internment camps. The items were inherited from the historian's estate. Miriam Tucker, a partner with the auction house, said it had hoped the items would go to someone who cared about their historical meaning. \"For us, there could be no better resolution than for a suitable museum, foundation or members of the Japanese-American community with the means to preserve this collection to come forward and secure it for education, display and research,\" she said. KGO reported the people it talked to would like items returned to family members if possible and any other artifacts put in an exhibition. \"This was a gift and let the gift come full circle,\" said Judy Hamaguchi with the San Francisco Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. She was referring to a letter the organization sent to the auction house. \"It should be returned as a gift.\" The lots have been packed away for now, said auction house partner David Rago in an email. \"Once the dust settles from this auction weekend (1,200 lots in three days) we will work with a small group of people from the Japanese-American community who have identified themselves through this process as generous, informed, voices of reason,\" he wrote. He said a suitable institution is the best possible home and the auction house will work with the current owner to find the right place. The seller -- known in the auction business as the consignor -- has never been in a position where the items could be donated, Rago said. \"But the consignor, who has been a sensitive and dedicated custodian of this collection for over 35 years, has agreed this evening to work with Rago Auctions to secure appropriate placement of Eaton's life work,\" he added.","highlights":"The items were originally given to a historian who opposed the camps, CNN affiliate reports .\nAuctioneer hoped they would be bought by museum or someone who would donate them for historical appreciation .\nJapanese-Americans were furious about items from family members, others being sold ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Eyewitness video showing white North Charleston police Officer Michael Slager shooting to death an unarmed black man has exposed discrepancies in the reports of the first officers on the scene. Slager has been fired and charged with murder in the death of 50-year-old Walter Scott. A bystander's cell phone video, which began after an alleged struggle on the ground between Slager and Scott, shows the five-year police veteran shooting at Scott eight times as Scott runs away. Scott was hit five times. If words were exchanged between the men, they're are not audible on the tape. It's unclear what happened before Scott ran, or why he ran. The officer initially said that he used a Taser on Scott, who, Slager said, tried to take the weapon. Before Slager opens fire, the video shows a dark object falling behind Scott and hitting the ground. It's unclear whether that is the Taser. Later in the video, when Slager approaches Scott's body, Slager appears to drop a dark object near Scott. Slager is seen in the video handcuffing Scott after the shooting. Witness: I nearly erased shooting video out of fear . Feidin Santana, the witness who recorded the video, said he didn't see Scott grab Slager's Taser. His account contradicts what Slager told dispatchers. In two interviews with NBC, Santana said that he was walking to his job in North Charleston on Saturday morning when he saw Slager chase Scott, who had been pulled over for a broken taillight. Santana told NBC's Lester Holt on Wednesday that he saw the two men struggling on the ground. \"They were down on the (ground) ... before I started recording,\" Santana said. \"I remember the police (officer) had control of the situation. He had control of Scott.\" Santana said he heard the sound of a Taser being used. He believed Scott was trying to get away from it. But Scott never got the Taser or used it on the officer, Santana told NBC. Who was Walter Scott? A North Charleston Police report included brief statements from eight police officers, but not Slager. One officer, identified as Sgt. J. Gann, said in the report he was conducting a separate traffic stop about 9:30 a.m. Saturday when he heard -- apparently via radio -- Slager say he was \"in foot pursuit\" of another motorist. Gann said that while driving to the officer's location, \"Slager advised that he deployed his Taser and (requested) back up units.\" Seconds later, Gann reported, he heard Slager tell a dispatcher, \"Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser.\" Hours after the shooting, The Post and Courier of Charleston quoted a statement from police spokesman Spencer Pryor, who said Slager attempted to use his Taser to stop a fleeing suspect. The men struggled over the device, with the suspect taking the Taser and attempting to use it against Slager, the newspaper reported. In the police report, another officer, J. Banias, said he was heading to the scene about 10 minutes after the initial call. Slager asked him to \"secure his vehicle at the site of the traffic stop.\" Banias said he spoke to a passenger in the car Scott was driving. \"The passenger was ... detained and placed in the back seat of my vehicle,\" the officer reported. The passenger's identity was not given in the report, but the officer said in the report that the passenger was detained. Scott family spokesman Ryan Julison confirmed to CNN that a man was with Scott and said he is not related to the family. The family declined to provide any more information. A timeline of events . The North Charleston Police Department is not providing additional information, citing an ongoing investigation of Scott's killing by the independent South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Gann said when he arrived at the shooting scene, an officer identified only as Habersham \"was administering first aid\" to Scott. \"I exited my vehicle and assisted Officer Habersham with first aid and CPR to the driver,\" Gann said in the report. \"We continued to perform first aid and CPR until EMS arrived... When EMS and first responders arrived, EMS took care over providing care to the driver, who was pronounced deceased a short time later.\" Habersham, in his account, did not mention performing CPR. \"I attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds and (directing) the best route for EMS and fire to get to the victim faster,\" he said in the report. An officer identified as Sgt. Webb said that he requested an ambulance. Webb said that at 9:41 a.m. he saw Habersham \"administering chest compression to the defendant.\" North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers was asked at a news conference this week whether CPR was performed on Scott. \"I do not know. I was told that life-saving ... that they tried to save his life,\" Driggers said. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey added that not every North Charleston police officer is CPR certified. What we know about Officer Slager .","highlights":"More questions than answers emerge in controversial S.C. police shooting .\nOfficer Michael Slager, charged with murder, was fired from the North Charleston Police Department ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Duckie's still got moves. On Tuesday night's \"Late Late Show\" on CBS, actor Jon Cryer reprised the character's record-store dance to Otis Redding's \"Try a Little Tenderness,\" right down to the wall-dancing, the counter-bashing and, of course, the trademark white shoes. In the original scene, one of the best-loved bits from the 1986 John Hughes film, Cryer dances around a record store, lip-syncing the song as he tries to win the affection of Molly Ringwald's Andie. In Tuesday's recreation, he dances in tandem with host James Corden, who tweeted that he'd \"fulfilled a childhood dream\" by re-creating the scene with Cryer -- who turned 50 on Thursday. \"I watched that 'Try a Little Tenderness' dance routine so many times, the tape on the VHS wore out,\" Corden said on the show. Like Cryer, who has most recently appeared on \"Two and a Half Men,\" many of the film's original fans are well into middle age. But still some may have squealed like teenagers when they saw the routine.","highlights":"Jon Cryer revives \"Pretty in Pink's\" Duckie dance routine for \"The Late Late Show\"\nHost James Corden tweets that the bit \"fulfilled a childhood dream\""} -{"article":"Cedar Falls, Iowa (CNN)As aides politely tried to rush Ted Cruz from an event in Cedar Falls to one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, the presidential candidate continued shaking hands with anyone who wanted to meet him. Finally, after the selfies and conversations started to die down, his aides managed to move him closer to the door when a tall, burly man stopped him. \"Senator,\" he said, \"can I pray with you real quick?\" \"Yeah,\" Cruz said, as he clasped the man's upper arm and the two bowed their heads. It was one of the many moments when Cruz connected with voters on a religious level last week, as the senator from Texas hit the trail in Iowa for the first time as a presidential candidate. Being the only official contender in the race, Cruz drew large crowds during his two-day swing across the state. He's counting on Iowa, known for its vocal and active evangelical base, to propel him forward in what's expected to be a tough competition among a crowded field of GOP candidates. Cruz, himself, displays a pastoral swagger when he is speaking on stage and working a room. The senator regularly avoids using a podium, instead favoring pacing the stage with a wireless microphone, a scene reminiscent of a Sunday morning sermon. When he meets with people after events, he embraces each one's hand with both of his, softens his usually theatric tone and looks people square in the eye -- a familiar interaction between churchgoing Christians and their pastors. The past two winners of Iowa's caucuses rose to victory with support from the Christian right, and Cruz, who announced his bid last month at the well-known Baptist school Liberty University, is aiming to energize that same base and claim the coveted state as his prize. Evangelicals make up a large segment of Iowa's Republican voter bloc. According to a Des Moines Register\/Bloomberg Politics poll from January, 44% of likely 2016 Republican caucus-goers said they were born-again or evangelical Christians. Cruz has built a brand as a stalwart conservative willing to buck GOP leadership on fiscal issues, but he showed in Iowa last week that he's also eager to champion social issues at a time when many Republicans are anxious to avoid them. He was one of the loudest defenders of the religious freedom law in Indiana, which came under fire last week for what critics called paving a path to discrimination against gays and lesbians. He described the outrage over the laws as \"shameful\" and an \"assault\" on First Amendment rights. \"There are a lot of people here in Iowa and across the country whose hearts are breaking, watching what has happened in the last two weeks,\" Cruz said Friday night at an event in Des Moines. \"We have seen a grossly unfair vilification of religious liberty.\" RELATED: Republican 2016 hopefuls back Indiana's 'religious freedom' law . He's more than comfortable talking about his own faith and telling the story of how his father became a Christian and a pastor. Rafael Cruz, who's become a celebrity among Christian conservatives, will frequently visit Iowa over the next year, Cruz told voters. And Cruz's Iowa director, Bryan English, is a former pastor. Cruz's first television ads are appearing this weekend during programs on Fox News and NBC that are pegged to Easter Sunday. In the ad, Cruz talks about the impact of the \"transformative love of Jesus Christ\" on his life. While neither Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa in 2008, nor Rick Santorum, who won in 2012, went on to win the nomination, their successes helped launch them into high-profile battles with the then-front-runners. And with both of them likely running again in 2016, the competition will be stiff. That's why, for Cruz, courting evangelicals is only a component of a three-pronged strategy to win the nomination that also includes dominating the tea party faction and competing for the libertarian base. His stump speech hits on elements that appeal to each faction. He received standing ovations last week for calling to abolish the IRS, and, in a knock against the National Security Agency, he frequently tells audiences to leave their cell phones on so President Obama \"can hear every word I have to say.\" Cruz argued Thursday that the Republican Party needs to bridge the gap between what he described as the Ron Paul-Rand Paul faction of the party -- young libertarian-minded voters -- and the Santorum base -- evangelicals. The two blocs, he said, are \"not necessarily the best of chums.\" \"If we're going to win, we've got to bring that coalition together,\" he said in Cedar Falls. \"And I think we can do that.\" Cruz frequently says he wants to see a return of the evangelical vote to 2004 levels, when more than six in 10 evangelicals voted in the presidential election, a higher than normal turnout for the demographic. That number has waned slightly since 2004 -- but it's not too far off from the 56% of the overall population that voted in 2012. Still, his campaign believes that if it can tap into the group of evangelicals who've been staying home and get the demographic as a whole to overperform, then that could mean the difference of millions more at the polls. \"If you look at available places for the party to expand the vote, it doesn't exist in the middle, it exists in the evangelical vote,\" said Rick Tyler, a top Cruz adviser. \"It isn't a pond, it's an unfished ocean of available voters who are conservative.\" Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he expects to see record turnout among evangelicals in 2016 no matter who the nominee is or what that person says. Moore points to hot-button topics like religious freedom issues in the U.S., as well as increased attention to the killing of minority Christians in the Middle East and rising anti-Semitism. \"I don't think a candidate is going to be able to get very far simply by using evangelical lingo or by pointing to his or her personal faith,\" Moore said. \"I think a candidate is going to have to explain how he or she would protect religious liberty and would appoint justices and judges who will maintain the common good.\" Later in April, voters in Iowa will see the bulk of the GOP field tackle these issues when they take the stage at an event hosted by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. While the past two winners of the Iowa caucuses -- Santorum and Huckabee -- are likely running for president again, Steve Scheffler, president of the group, argued that the field is wide open in terms of who's going to win favor among evangelicals. Jeb Bush, while not popular among conservative activists, was known for his staunch anti-abortion record as Florida governor and touts his Catholic faith as a big force behind his policy views. Scott Walker is the son of a pastor. Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon, rose to fame in conservative circles after criticizing the Obama administration at a national prayer breakfast. And other likely candidates -- from Marco Rubio to Rick Perry to Rand Paul -- have made serious efforts to court the religious right. \"It's up for grabs. It's a clean slate regardless of if you've run before,\" Scheffler said. \"Naturally those two (Huckabee and Santorum) have the name recognition and database of people who supported them in the past, but by and large voters are going to say, 'Let me take a good look at all of these candidates.'\"","highlights":"Ted Cruz has built a brand as a stalwart conservative on fiscal issues .\nBut he's also eager to champion social issues at a time when many Republicans are eager to avoid them .\nCruz says the GOP needs to unite young libertarian-minded voters and evangelicals ."} -{"article":"(CNN)While the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq holds the world's gaze, a simultaneous transformation is getting less attention: the deterioration of al Qaeda. In an audio message released Sunday, al Qaeda confirmed that two of its leaders, known as Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Qari Abdullah Mansur, were killed in CIA drone strikes in January in North Waziristan, near the Afghan-Pakistan border. Farooq's real name was Raja Mohammad Suleman, al Qaeda said. He was a Pakistani who acted as the group's liaison to the Pakistan Taliban and was the deputy commander of al Qaeda's South Asia branch. (Mansur's real name was Qari Ubaidullah, a Pakistani who oversaw suicide missions against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan). Al Qaeda's South Asia branch is relatively new, announced with some fanfare back in September by al Qaeda's top leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The creation of the terror group's South Asia branch was seen by some terrorism analysts as an attempt to steal some of the limelight from ISIS, which is embroiled in a public dispute with al Qaeda for leadership of the global jihad movement. The deaths of the two men continue the decimation of al Qaeda's bench of leaders. On Monday, in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, local al Qaeda commander Nurul Hassan was killed in a raid, said Arif Hanif, district inspector general of police. Florida-raised Adnan Shukrijumah, 39, who was in charge of al Qaeda's operations to attack the West, was killed in December in a Pakistani military operation. Texas-born Mohanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, who also played a planning role for al Qaeda's operations, was arrested in Pakistan last year. The deaths of Ubaidullah and Suleman underline the fact that there are almost no top leaders of al Qaeda left except al-Zawahiri. Both Ubaidullah and Suleman were Pakistani. This is an indicator of how al Qaeda has become a largely Pakistan-focused group, increasingly able to do nothing of any significance outside of Pakistan or Afghanistan. Indeed, al Qaeda has virtually no capacity to carry out attacks in the West. The last successful al Qaeda attack in the West was the London transportation system bombings a decade ago. Al Qaeda is now reduced only to holding American hostages such as 73-year-old aid worker Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped from his home in the Pakistani city of Lahore on August 13, 2011. To be sure, al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, continues to pose a threat to American aviation. The group has built hard-to-detect bombs, which it has placed on U.S.-bound flights. Luckily, those bombs were faulty or were detected. The group also trained one of the gunmen who attacked the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January, killing 12, but it's not clear if AQAP had any direct role in planning this attack. Meanwhile, ISIS continues to attract Western recruits and also inspire \"homegrown\" terrorists in the West, but the core al Qaeda organization that killed almost 3,000 men, women and children on 9\/11 is on life support. Al Qaeda's confirmation of the deaths of Ubaidullah and Suleman is just one of the latest pieces of evidence for this assessment.","highlights":"Al Qaeda confirms that two of its leaders were killed in January drone strikes .\nOther leaders have been killed or captured recently .\nThe terrorist group's capacity to carry out attacks in the West has been greatly diminished ."} -{"article":"(CNN)More than 300 suspects have been arrested in South Africa in connection with deadly attacks on foreigners that have forced thousands to flee, the government said Sunday. \"We once again unequivocally condemn the maiming and killing of our brothers and sisters from other parts of the continent,\" the government said. \"No amount of frustration or anger can justify these attacks and looting of shops.\" Thousands sought refuge in temporary shelters after mobs with machetes attacked immigrants in Durban. The attacks in Durban killed two immigrants and three South Africans, including a 14-year-old boy, authorities said. Heavily armed police have scrambled to stop clashes after local residents accused immigrants from other African nations of taking their jobs. The government praised law enforcement agencies for stopping further bloodshed in Durban. \"We believe that their commitment to duty has prevented injuries and even deaths that could have happened if they security forces had not acted,\" it said. The xenophobic sentiment is certainly not representative of all South Africans. \"There has been an outpouring of support from ordinary South Africans who are disgusted with the attacks not only because they are foreign, or African, but because they are fellow human beings,\" said Gift of the Givers charity, which is helping those seeking refuge. The charity said last week that about 8,500 people had fled to refugee centers or police stations because of the violence. South Africa's government implored citizens to remember the country's history of overcoming challenges with the support of African neighbors. \"During the Apartheid many South Africans fled persecution and death at the hands of the Apartheid government,\" it said in its statement. \"Africa opened its doors and became a home away from home for many South Africans.\" President Jacob Zuma has canceled a trip to Indonesia and visited displaced foreign nationals in Chatsworth to express his support, the government said. The Gift of the Givers charity assured immigrants that it has a facility in Johannesburg to help those who might need shelter there. \"We have tents and all essential supplies on standby but pray that sanity prevails and this does not become necessary,\" it said. In the past, Johannesburg has been the epicenter of anti-immigrant tensions. In 2008, scores were killed in attacks in the poorest areas of Johannesburg. Most of the victims were Zimbabweans who had fled repression and dire economic circumstances. In that attack, police arrested more than 200 people for various crimes including rape, murder, robbery and theft. CNN's Larry Register contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Africa is battling xenophobic violence after some said foreigners are taking jobs away .\nA 14-year-old boy is among those killed after a mob with machetes targeted foreigners ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Jason Rezaian has sat in jail in Iran for nearly nine months. The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tehran was arrested in July on unspecified allegations. It took more than four months for a judge to hear charges against him. They remained publicly undisclosed until last week. The Iranian-American will be tried soon on espionage, Tehran's chief justice said. He is accused of economic spying, the Post reported, citing Iranian state media. The Washington Post did not mince words on the allegation. \"Any charges of that sort would be absurd, the product of fertile and twisted imaginations,\" the paper said in a statement. The State Department also reacted with term \"absurd\" after hearing of reports in Iran's press about the charges. \"If the reports are true, these charges are absurd, should be immediately dismissed and Jason should be immediately freed so that he can return to his family,\" the State Department official said. Since officers picked up Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, on July 22 at their home, the Post, the State Department and Rezaian's family have protested and called for his release. Salehi was released on bail in October. Rezaian was denied bail. And for months, he was denied access to proper legal representation, his family has said. Boxing great Muhammad Ali, also an American Muslim, appealed to Tehran last month to give Rezaian full access to legal representation and free him on bail. \"To my knowledge, Jason is a man of peace and great faith, a man whose dedication and respect for the Iranian people is evident in his work,\" Ali said in a religiously worded statement. The journalist has also not been allowed to see visitors aside from his wife and has endured long interrogations, family members have said. In December, after a 10-hour hearing, Rezaian signed a paper to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him, the Post reported. Iran's human rights chief, Mohammad Javad Larijani, told news outlet France 24 last year that he hoped Rezaian's case would come to a positive conclusion. He said, \"Let us hope that this fiasco will end on good terms.\" More on detained Americans . CNN's Sara Mazloumsaki and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officers arrested Jason Rezaian and his wife in July on unspecified allegations .\nIt took months to charge him; charges were made public last week .\nThe Washington Post and the State Department find the charges \"absurd\""} -{"article":"(CNN)For superhero fans, the cup runneth over. Most of us know the members of the Avengers by now: Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and the rest, and the fact that a few more like Quicksilver are joining the cast in the \"Avengers: Age of Ultron\" sequel. But there was one character who remained a mystery: the Vision, to be played by Paul Bettany. Thus far, we've only seen his eyes in a trailer. With less than a month to go before the movie hits theaters, Marvel Studios put all the speculation to rest with a poster featuring Bettany as the heroic android, who was a member of the superhero group for many years in the comics. Meanwhile, as many Marvel fans know, Thursday was the eve of the new Netflix series \"Daredevil,\" and after a photoshopped first look at Charlie Cox's iconic red Daredevil suit went out, Marvel put out a video of the real one. Not to be outdone, director Bryan Singer announced a new character for next year's sequel \"X-Men: Apocalypse,\" by telling Empire magazine that Ben Hardy would be playing the role of the winged mutant Angel. He even had a photo to share. And Thursday's new super images weren't quite done, because the questions over how Jamie Bell's rocky character The Thing in the rebooted \"Fantastic Four\" movie (out August 7) might look were also finally answered. And he looks ... pretty much like The Thing we already knew (but reportedly, CGI this time). Within 24 hours, we got yet another indication that the superhero trend isn't going anywhere anytime soon (and we didn't even talk about the new photo of Ryan Reynolds' \"Deadpool\").","highlights":"Marvel Studios releases first looks at Paul Bettany as the Vision in \"Avengers: Age of Ultron\" and Charlie Cox in full \"Daredevil\" costume .\nJamie Bell's character of The Thing was also unveiled for 20th Century Fox's Marvel-based reboot of \"Fantastic Four\"\nBryan Singer unveiled the first look at \"X-Men: Apocalypse\" Angel played by Ben Hardy ."} -{"article":"(Billboard)Fresh off his scorching performance at Coachella Saturday night (and days before his next one on the festival's second weekend), rocker Jack White announced he'll take a hiatus from touring. White will wrap his touring efforts in support of \"Lazeretto\" with a brief, first-ever acoustic tour that will hit \"the only five states left in the U.S. that he has yet to play,\" according to White's website. Rounding out the acoustic quartet on tour will be Fats Kaplin, Lillie Mae Rische and Dominic Davis. The shows will be unannounced until day-of-show, with tickets priced at $3 and limited to one ticket per person, to be purchased only at the venue on a first-come, first-served basis. Billboard: Jack White on Not Being a 'Sound-Bite Artist,' Living in the Wrong Era and Why Vinyl Records Are 'Hypnotic' The purposely vague announcement surely has fans (and journalists) scouring the Internet for White's touring history. Unclear is whether White includes his work with The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and Dead Weather in his touring history, or just his solo road work. Presumably, he's including all of his touring, with all bands, as Billboard could find only 29 states in which he has performed as Jack White. Tour dates with White Stripes add another 12 states. That leaves nine states for which we could not find a show for White: Hawaii (where a show is scheduled for tomorrow, April 15), Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Vermont, Iowa, and North and South Dakota. Billboard: Jack White Plays The Hits, Declares 'Music Is Sacred' at Coachella . Through the process of elimination (surely he has played Boise, Little Rock, and Salt Lake?), our guess as to which five \"states\" White will play on the brief acoustic run: South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont and ... Puerto Rico? If that's the case, this tour is in for some long jumps, with Puerto Rico to Vermont being a potential beast. (Though shipping acoustic instruments and ribbon mics will be a lot less taxing than a full electrified stage setup.) \u00a92015 Billboard. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Jack White taking a hiatus from touring after brief acoustic jaunt .\nHe'll play five states he has yet to get to, charge just $3 .\nPlaces and times of shows are currently a mystery ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces have successfully ousted ISIS from the nation's largest oil refinery, the coalition said Sunday. Iraqi security forces regained full control of the Baiji refinery, the Combined Joint Task Force said. A week ago, ISIS claimed it controlled part of the facility, posting images online that purported to back up the claim. Iraq is working to fortify the facility's defenses, the task force said in a statement. Over the past nine days, the coalition conducted 47 airstrikes in the area, the statement said. Meanwhile, Peshmerga forces -- also with the assistance of coalition strikes -- cleared 84 square kilometers (32 square miles) of ISIS-occupied territory in Iraq on Saturday, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said. The Peshmerga are the national military force of Kurdistan. \"Front-line reporting indicates at least 35 ISIS terrorists were killed during the offensive,\" the council said in a statement. The goal was to push back ISIS and \"diminish its ability to threaten the security of Kirkuk province,\" the statement said. \"This success follows an offensive south and west of Kirkuk\" last month in which 100 square kilometers (39 square miles) of terrain was cleared, the council said.","highlights":"Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces say they retook a key refinery from ISIS .\nPeshmerga forces also report retaking terrain from ISIS ."} -{"article":"(CNN)In her 40 years living in Rochelle, Illinois, Cathy Olson had never seen a tornado that big. \"I saw the top of the funnel cloud, and it was absolutely massive,\" she said. She watched the hulking gray twister grind past her town Thursday, tearing up its fringes. Farther north, in the rural Illinois hamlet of Fairdale, one person died as a twister shredded homes and ripped trees bare of leaves and most limbs. Only the thickest branches remained standing. It was the only death reported so far in two days of tornado touchdowns. Rochelle was fortunate. But in nearby Kirkland, debris was so thick on the roads, responders searching for trapped residents could not yet assess the damage or injuries, fire officials said. On Thursday, a video surfaced on YouTube of a massive twister barreling across an open field, barely missing farmhouses and barns. Images of the funnel turned up elsewhere on social media. Multiple tornadoes ripped through the rural Midwest on Thursday. A large and dangerous twister tore across fields in Iowa. And a twister touched down 70 miles outside of St. Louis. Eight tornadoes were reported Wednesday in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, the Storm Prediction Center said. But it appears residents have been fortunate enough to come away from the terrifying weather spectacle alive. Hail stones the size of tennis balls plummeted down on Ashton, Illinois. It could have been worse as severe tornado damage dotted a path not far from the dense populations of Chicago and Rockford -- the state's third largest city. The tornado cut a 22-mile path through Ogle County, according to disaster management coordinator Tom Richter. North of Rochelle, a tornado took away a local favorite restaurant -- Grubsteakers. \"It's kind of one of your little greasy spoon restaurants,\" said Eric Widick, who drove up in his truck to help out. \"We're a community. If one person is in need, we'll all be there for them.\" People were inside when the storm quashed Grubsteakers and turned over a semitruck parked outside. No one was killed or seriously injured, Widick said. Although a patron who found shelter in a restroom was trapped inside for about half an hour. People had been eating at Grubsteakers for some 25 years and will miss it, Widick said. In Rochelle, the tornado flattened some of Olson's friends' homes. A safe distance away from it, at her mother's house, she had to think about her husband, Chet, who was reelected mayor of the town of about 10,000 people the day before. He'd have a job ahead of him. \"I have not been able to get a hold of him, Olson said, \"but I know he's in touch with the sheriff and is safe,\" she said. Sheriff Brian VanVickle told journalists late Thursday that the tornado had spared life and limb in Ogle County aside from some people whose injuries were easily treatable. The county lost 20 homes -- one of them was his own. Fifty to 100 houses had significant damage, he said. Only foundations remained of some homes, said storm chaser Dan Gottschalk. \"You can hear the hissing everywhere from where the structures used to be,\" he said. Lindsey Clark, a reporter from CNN affiliate WREX, said rescuers were pulling trapped people from a home in the Rochelle area. VanVickle was newly elected sheriff of Rochelle on Wednesday. On Thursday, the storm took his house and his sister-in-law's. \"I've got the clothes on my back,\" he said. But his family wasn't at home when it hit. \"My family was on the way to Louisville, dog was in the basement and she survived.\" It was the first tornado the sheriff had ever seen in his county. \"I've lived here all my life, am the fifth generation in the county. My mom said this is the first time she's ever seen a tornado.\" He is thankful that the National Weather Service warned one could come. That saved lives, he believes. The service warned of a \"particularly dangerous situation.\" People across the Midwest should be on alert for severe weather. Tornado watches were set to run out early Friday. CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton, Catherine Shoichet, Greg Botelho, Dave Alsup, Steve Almasy, Jack Maddox and Sean Morris contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least one person died as a result of storms in Illinois, an official says .\nFire department: Rescuers searching for trapped victims in Kirkland, Illinois ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Four workers died in a massive oil rig fire that raged for hours off the coast of Mexico Wednesday. Mexican state oil company Pemex said 45 workers were injured in the blaze, which began early Wednesday morning. Two of them are in serious condition, the company said. Authorities evacuated about 300 people from the Abkatun Permanente platform after the fire started, Pemex said. At least 10 boats worked to battle the blaze for hours. The fire had been extinguished by Wednesday night, Pemex said in a Twitter post. The company denied rumors that the platform had collapsed and said there was no oil spill as a result of the fire. The state oil company hasn't said what caused the fire on the platform, which is located in the Gulf of Mexico's Campeche Sound. The fire began in the platform's dehydration and pumping area, Pemex said. CNN's Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.","highlights":"The fire on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico has been extinguished, Pemex says .\n45 workers were injured in the blaze, according to the state oil company .\nFour workers were killed in the oil rig fire, which started early Wednesday ."} -{"article":"(CNN)That's some rich \"American Pie.\" The lyrics to the famed Don McLean song sold for $1.2 million Tuesday morning at an auction held by Christie's. \"Don McLean's manuscript of 'American Pie' achieved the 3rd highest auction price for an American literary manuscript, a fitting tribute to one the foremost singer-songwriters of his generation,\" Christie's Tom Lecky said in a statement. McLean told Rolling Stone that it was time to part with the manuscript. \"I'm going to be 70 this year,\" the singer and songwriter said in February. \"I have two children and a wife, and none of them seem to have the mercantile instinct. I want to get the best deal that I can for them. It's time.\" Over the years, \"American Pie\" has become one of the most dissected and argued-about songs in the pop music canon. McLean has said that the opening lines were inspired by the death of Buddy Holly, but after that, it's all been conjecture -- which hasn't stopped a marching band's worth of analysts from trying to parse the symbols in the 8-minute, 33-second opus. Is the jester Bob Dylan? The football game Vietnam? The \"girl who sang the blues\" Janis Joplin? (One thing's certain: Buddy Holly's plane was NOT named \"American Pie.\") \"Over the years I've dealt with all these stupid questions of 'Who's that?' and 'Who's that?' \" McLean said. \"These are things I never had in my head for a second when I wrote the song. I was trying to capture something very ephemeral and I did, but it took a long time.\" The song catapulted the former folk singer to headliner status. The song hit No. 1 in early 1972, despite its length. (The 45-rpm single split the song in half on its A and B sides.) The draft that was auctioned is 16 pages: 237 lines of manuscript and 26 lines of typed text, according to Christie's. It includes lines that didn't make the final version as well as extensive notes -- all of which should be revealing, McLean said. The record for a popular music manuscript is held by Bob Dylan's \"Like a Rolling Stone,\" which sold for $2 million in June. Opinion: What's so great about 'American Pie'?","highlights":"Don McLean's \"American Pie\" lyrics auctioned for $1.2 million .\nThe song is dense with symbolism; McLean says lyrics, notes will reveal meaning .\n\"Pie\" is McLean's biggest hit, was No. 1 in 1972 ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Can you imagine paying $1,000 a month in rent to live in a one-car garage? Nicole, a 30-year-old woman, doesn't have to imagine this scenario because it's her everyday reality. The small and unusual living space is all that this employed, single mother can afford in her high-cost community in San Mateo, California. Nicole isn't alone in her struggles. CNN recently published a powerful piece called \"Poor kids of Silicon Valley\" that documents the affordable housing challenges facing families in the Bay Area. One aspect featured a house that is home to 16 people, including 11 children. Another chronicles a husband and wife named Rich and Stacey, both of whom have jobs, who are living in a San Jose homeless shelter with their two kids because they don't have the money to go anywhere else. Although Silicon Valley has unique characteristics, it isn't the only community confronting these challenges. Our entire nation is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. The agency I lead, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, recently released a report estimating that 7.7 million low-income households live in substandard housing, spend more than half their incomes on rent or both. These are families who are dedicating $1 out of every $2 they earn just to keep a roof over their head. And the more they spend on housing, the less they have to invest in their children's education, build up savings and shop at local businesses. These are outcomes that hurt our nation's economy and require us to respond with swift and bold action. HUD is working with local partners across the country to do just that. First, we're focusing on preserving the affordable housing that already exists. Since the mid-1970s, we have directed and insured loans for multifamily properties that have resulted in more than 700,000 affordable units. But by 2020, we're in danger of losing more than 125,000 because these mortgages are maturing, ending agreements to control rents in these units. So we've launched a preservation effort with private partners to keep these properties affordable for generations to come. We're also doing the same with public housing. Right now, the nation is losing 10,000 units of public housing every year, mainly because of disrepair, HUD created the Rental Assistance Demonstration initiative to bring private investment into the fold for the public good. It's cost neutral for the federal government and making a big impact for communities such as Lexington, North Carolina, where the local housing authority is making 58 years' worth of repairs in just 22 months, including new lighting, modern windows and better insulation to help residents stay warm and cut energy costs. RAD has allowed local communities to raise more than $733 million in new capital to date. That's why we're asking Congress to give every community the chance to participate by lifting the restrictions on this program. No American should ever have to wait six decades to have a decent and healthy place to call home. In addition to preservation, HUD is also working to create new affordable housing. A Harvard study revealed that in 2012, there were 11.5 million extremely low-income households and only 3.3 million affordable units available. It's clear that we can't preserve our way out of this problem. We've got to grow the supply to meet demand, so HUD is taking a multifaceted approach. For example, our HOME Investment Partnerships Program is leveraging $4 in private and other public resources for every $1 in HOME funds and leading to more than 1 million new and rehabilitated units for rent or sale to lower income families. This is more than just a statistic: It is progress for people, from the families living in the Broadway Crossing development in Washington to the seniors living in the Woodcrest Retirement Residence in Pennsylvania. To keep this momentum going, we've asked Congress to increase HOME funding by 16% to keep building affordable homes, prosperous partnerships and strong communities across the nation. We are also asking Congress to expand our Housing Choice Voucher Program, which allows recipients of modest means, the elderly, and people with disabilities to find housing in the private market. This includes restoring 67,000 vouchers that were lost to sequestration. And we're targeting our resources where they can have a big impact. For instance, HUD awarded $94 million in targeted homelessness assistance to 274 programs across the San Francisco Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, in January. And we continue to work with local partners to encourage private investment. To empower communities, President Barack Obama has also requested $300 million for new Local Housing Policy Grants to help them increase housing affordability, economic growth and access to jobs. All of this work is making a significant contribution to families and communities from coast-to-coast. Our nation's affordable housing challenges won't be solved overnight, and we still need to do more to make sure that more folks are able to prosper. Let's not squander this chance to make real progress for American families. Incredible things can happen when a wide variety of leaders come together for the common good. By leveraging private investment and increasing collaboration with state, local and tribal governments and other traditional housing partners, I know we can build a future where affordable housing is available to all.","highlights":"CNN's John Sutter told the story of the \"Poor kids of Silicon Valley\"\nHUD Secretary Juli\u00e1n Castro: Our shortage of affordable housing is a national crisis that stunts the economy ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The greater adjutant stork is a majestic bird. Standing about 5 feet tall with an average wingspan of 8 feet, it soars over the Boragaon landfill like a great protector. It knows the residents and shies away from strangers. \"They are intelligent birds. Every time I got close to them they would fly away,\" photographer Timothy Bouldry said. The dirty, wet conditions of the landfill attracted the endangered stork, and the stork attracted Bouldry. Through a series of photos taken within a day, he captures what it's like to live inside one of the largest dumping grounds in India. The Boragaon landfill is located in the city of Guwahati, about 300 miles from Bangladesh near the Bhutanese border. It's 94 acres of mostly fresh waste, surrounded by swamplands. (Other landfills, Bouldry says, contain older, compacted trash.) For the past seven years, Bouldry has traveled the world photographing landfills. He's visited places such as Haiti, Venezuela and Colombia. The greater adjutant stork initially drew Bouldry to Boragaon, but he became connected with the people. About 100 families live inside the Boragaon landfill. Every day, they search the area for treasure -- a tiny scrap of metal, a bit of plastic, maybe a bone. They use large hooks to sort through the garbage, which sometimes reaches two or three stories high. They work in teams, and more than often they are barefoot. \"They don't look at the things they're doing as being unsanitary or unhealthy or unsafe,\" Bouldry said. They collect plastic, metal and wires and sell it by the pound. The families make around $2 per day. Their homes are constructed by recycled materials, with sometimes several families living in one shanty at a time. With no electricity, no running water -- and an overabundance of trash -- they are experts at repurposing. \"You might see a refrigerator being used as a closet,\" he said. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. Some of the children living in Boragaon go to school on scholarship, but most of them work in the landfill to provide for their families. But don't be deceived: The people living here feel anything but destitute. Bouldry uses words such as \"love,\" \"hope\" and \"spirituality\" to describe them. \"I found that the landfill community is content,\" Bouldry said. \"They are not jaded by modern civilization.\" Bouldry lives and works inside the La Chureca landfill in Nicaragua, one of the largest landfills in the world. He helps the people living there grow gardens fertilized with compost he makes with organic waste from local smoothie shops. In addition to his photography, he teaches English and yoga classes a few times per week. But why? Bouldry went to art school in Boston. He's no stranger to sophisticated civilization. He said he found humanitarian photo projects to be the most fulfilling, and he became especially intrigued by landfills even though they are \"scary, dirty and kind of grotesque.\" \"This is my 'thank you' to the informal recyclers of the world,\" he said. Timothy Bouldry is a photographer based in New Hampshire. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.","highlights":"Photographer Timothy Bouldry spent time at a massive landfill in Guwahati, India .\nAbout 100 families live inside the Boragaon landfill, but Bouldry said they are \"content\""} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama says he is \"absolutely committed to making sure\" Israel maintains a military advantage over Iran. His comments to The New York Times, published on Sunday, come amid criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the deal that the United States and five other world powers struck with Iran. Tehran agreed to halt the country's nuclear ambitions, and in exchange, Western powers would drop sanctions that have hurt the Iran's economy. Obama said he understands and respects Netanyahu's stance that Israel is particularly vulnerable and doesn't \"have the luxury of testing these propositions\" in the deal. \"But what I would say to them is that not only am I absolutely committed to making sure they maintain their qualitative military edge, and that they can deter any potential future attacks, but what I'm willing to do is to make the kinds of commitments that would give everybody in the neighborhood, including Iran, a clarity that if Israel were to be attacked by any state, that we would stand by them,\" Obama said. That, he said, should be \"sufficient to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see whether or not we can at least take the nuclear issue off the table,\" he said. The framework negotiators announced last week would see Iran reduce its centrifuges from 19,000 to 5,060, limit the extent to which uranium necessary for nuclear weapons can be enriched and increase inspections. The talks over a final draft are scheduled to continue until June 30. But Netanyahu and Republican critics in Congress have complained that Iran won't have to shut down its nuclear facilities and that the country's leadership isn't trustworthy enough for the inspections to be as valuable as Obama says they are. Obama said even if Iran can't be trusted, there's still a case to be made for the deal. \"In fact, you could argue that if they are implacably opposed to us, all the more reason for us to want to have a deal in which we know what they're doing and that, for a long period of time, we can prevent them from having a nuclear weapon,\" Obama said.","highlights":"In an interview with The New York Times, President Obama says he understands Israel feels particularly vulnerable .\nObama calls the nuclear deal with Iran a \"once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\"\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many U.S. Republicans warn that Iran cannot be trusted ."} -{"article":"Marseille, France (CNN)Investigators have collected all the main evidence from the site where Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed, a French national police official told CNN on Saturday. Investigators are not expected to return to the crash site, said Capt. Yves Naffrechoux of the High Mountain Gendarmerie. The plane crashed March 24 in rugged terrain of the Alps about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the town of Seyne-les-Alpes. \"All the police investigators have left the (Germanwings) crash site,\" he said. \"There is only a private security company ensuring security around the crash site so that no one can go there.\" The security firm will guard the site until the remaining debris is collected and taken to secure locations for further analysis, if necessary, he said. The flight data recorder, or \"black box,\" was found Thursday by a member of the recovery team. The cockpit voice recorder was found days after the crash. In addition, out of more than 2,000 DNA samples collected from the crash site, lab workers have isolated 150 DNA profiles, said Brice Robin, Marseilles prosecutor. The crash killed all 150 people on board. Brice Robin, Marseilles prosecutor, said authorities have found 470 personnel effects at the site. That number includes 40 cell phones, though all those were badly damaged. Robin cast doubt that any useful information could be retrieved from those phones, given their condition. Authorities say the flight's co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the captain out of the cockpit and engineered the plane's demise. Initial tests on the flight data recorder show that Lubitz purposely used the controls to speed up the plane's descent, according to the French air accident investigation agency, the BEA. It also has emerged that Lubitz had battled depression years before he took the controls of Flight 9525 and that he had concealed from his employer recent medical leave notes saying he was unfit for work. Calls for crash avoidance technology . CNN's Margot Haddad reported from Marseille, and Greg Botelho wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"All the police investigators have left the (Germanwings) crash site,\" a police official says .\nPrivate security company is ensuring no one goes on the site, official says .\nAuthorities say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane, killing all 150 on board ."} -{"article":"(CNN)An American citizen was wounded by gunfire Thursday as she drove from the medical school in Karachi, Pakistan, where she works, police said. Debra Lobo, a 55-year-old California native, was shot in the right cheek and left arm and is unconscious but expected to survive, according to Mohamad Shah, a Karachi police spokesman. Police found pamphlets that the assailants had thrown into Lobo's car, written in Urdu, saying \"America should be burnt,\" Shah said. Lobo had left the Jinnah Medical and Dental College, where she works as vice principal, to pick up her two daughters from school. Two assailants on a passing motorcycle shot her while she was driving, Shah said. \"Our U.S. Consulate General in Karachi is in close contact with Pakistani authorities and is working to obtain more information,\" said a U.S. Embassy spokesperson. Lobo is being treated at the Karachi's Aga Khan Hospital, said Shah. She has lived in Pakistan since 1996 and is married to a Christian Pakistani who is a librarian at the American School in Karachi. Karachi police are investigating, Shah said.","highlights":"Debra Lobo, 55, is unconscious but is expected to survive after being shot Thursday, police say .\nShe is vice principal of the Jinnah Medical and Dental College in Karachi .\nPolice: She was on her way to pick up her daughters from school when she was shot ."} -{"article":"Obock, Djibouti (CNN)Amina Ali Qassim is sitting with her youngest grandchild on her lap, wiping away tears with her headscarf. Only a few months old, this is the baby girl whose ears she desperately tried to cover the night the aerial bombardment started. She lay awake, she says, in a village mosque on the Yemeni island of Birim, counting explosions as the baby cried. It could have been worse though. They could have still been in their house when the first missile landed. \"Our neighbor shouted to my husband 'you have to leave, they're coming.' And we just ran. As soon as we left the house, the first missile fell right by it and then a second on it. It burned everything to the ground,\" Qassim tells us. Qassim and her family fled Birim at first light, piling in with three other families. Twenty-five of them squeezed into one boat setting sail through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to Djibouti. Bab al-Mandab is one of the busiest waterways in the world, a thoroughfare for oil tankers and cargo ships. It's now being crossed by desperate Yemenis in rickety fishing boats seeking refuge from the conflict threatening to engulf their country. Qassim's son Mohamed describes the families' journey across this part of the Red Sea as \"a window into hell.\" \"The women were violently ill,\" he tells us. \"It was a catastrophe.\" It took them five hours to cross into the north of Djibouti, where the government is providing the refugees with temporary shelter in this unfinished orphanage here in Obock. And the U.N. says thousands more refugees are expected. Qassim and her family will soon have to move to the plastic tents that have been prepared for them on the dusty outskirts of the town, taking with them only the collection of plastic mats and pots neatly stacked in the corner. It's all that remains of everything they once owned. Her two daughters are trapped back in Yemen, in Taiz. She hasn't been able to reach them and the worry she says is almost unbearable. I ask her how many days it was after the Saudi aerial bombardment began that they left. She looks at me and laughs, \"How many days would you have stayed?\" Then she goes quiet, looking down at the granddaughter in her lap. Finally she tells me, \"I thought she would never be able to stop screaming. That the fear would stay with her forever.\" \"May God please have mercy on Yemen.\"","highlights":"Amina Ali Qassim's family sought shelter in a mosque before fleeing Yemen .\nThousands like them are boarding boats to sail to Djibouti .\nSaudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen in a bid to defeat Houthi rebels ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, women have been barred from attending most sports events involving men. But the situation appears set to improve in the coming months after a top Iranian sports official said that the ban will be lifted for some events. A plan to allow \"women and families\" to enter sports stadiums will come into effect in the next year, Deputy Sports Minister Abdolhamid Ahmadi said Saturday, according to state-run media. But it isn't clear exactly which games women will be able to attend. According to the state-run Press TV, Ahmadi said the restrictions would be lifted for indoor sports events. The rules won't change for all matches because some sports are mainly related to men and \"families are not interested in attending\" them, Press TV cited him as saying. Iranian authorities imposed the ban on women attending men's sports events after the revolution, deeming that mixed crowds watching games together was un-Islamic. During the ensuing decades, the crowds at soccer games, Iran's most popular sport, have been all male. Iranian women were briefly permitted to attend volleyball matches under the moderate President Mohammad Khatami, but the ban was reinstated in 2005 after the more hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power. The Iranian government has come under pressure from international sports officials over the restrictions. FIFA President Sepp Blatter called on Iran last month to end its \"intolerable\" ban on women attending soccer matches, saying the situation \"cannot continue.\" Iran had been in the running to host the 2019 edition of soccer's Asian Cup, but the tournament was awarded to the United Arab Emirates. The ban on women attending matches was widely seen as a major impediment to Iran's chances of securing the event. The ban came under the spotlight at the Asian Cup in Australia earlier this year, when thousands of female Iranian fans watched their soccer team without restriction. During the match against Iraq, activists called for the ban to end and unfurled a banner showing the face of Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran last year while trying to watch a volleyball match. Iranian officials have denied that Ghavami was arrested for attending the volleyball game, saying she was taken into custody for \"anti-Iran activities.\" The news agency Reuters reported that she was recently pardoned by the Court of Appeal. CNN's Annie Ramos contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian sports official: The ban will be lifted for some events in the coming year .\nBut he says \"families are not interested in attending\" some sports matches ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A popular Chinese television host known for impromptu satire is now the subject of controversy after being caught on camera cursing the late Chairman Mao Zedong. Bi Fujian, who works for state-run China Central Television, was filmed at a dinner party singing a revolutionary song that eulogizes the Communist Party's early years when he started going off script. \"The Communist Party, Chairman Mao. Don't mention that old son of a b***h. He made us suffer so bad,\" went Bi's improvised lyrics. The other dinner guests burst into laughter. Bi later apologized. \"My personal speech has led to grave social consequences, and I feel remorseful for that. I hereby sincerely apologize to the public. As a public figure, I shall learn the lesson from this incident, adhering to strict self-discipline,\" he posted on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform. Making disrespectful references to China's leaders in public is considered a taboo in China, even today. And Bi's comment was directed at the man regarded by many as the country's founding father -- despite his controversial reputation. The 75-second video clip, seemingly filmed on the cellphone of another dinner guest, was uploaded on Monday. Since then, it has been removed from video-sharing sites inside China, although it was still accessible on Weibo. It's unclear when the incident occurred, or what the relationsip was between the camera person and Bi. CCTV said it would investigate. \"As a CCTV presenter, Bi Fujian's speech in the online video has led to grave social consequences,\" the network said in a statement posted on its Weibo account. CCTV did not respond to a CNN request for comment. Fondly known as \"Grandpa Bi,\" the 56-year-old TV personality was born and grew up in the Mao era. The song Bi riffed on was part of a \"red\" Peking opera that was first performed in the late 1950s. It was popularized during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s -- which was launched by Mao -- when China was torn apart by violence and social unrest. The video quickly divided China's online community. Critics said Bi, as an influential public figure, deserved a harsh punishment. But others rushed to his defense, arguing that Bi was simply enjoying himself in a private setting and was set up by whoever uploaded the clip. The video also emerged just a day before the new head of CCTV started his job, leading some to wonder if it were a case of \"a new broom sweeps clean.\" Mao still divides opinion in China. His giant portrait hangs on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate, and thousands flock to see his embalmed body at his mausoleum in Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital. But despite this reverence, Mao's is a deeply flawed legacy. Many remember him as a brutal dictator who inspired fear, paranoia and famine, and whose actions resulted in tens of millions of deaths. CNN's Shen Lu contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bi apologizes on social media: \"My personal speech has led to grave social consequences\"\nChinese TV star filmed cursing the late Chairman Mao Zedong .\nMaking disrespectful references to China's leaders in public is still taboo ."} -{"article":"(CNN)It was a typical practice day for the Washington University of rowing team, but then danger came from beneath. The scene was Creve Coeur Lake outside of St. Louis early Friday morning. The team's boat got near the dock, when suddenly a swarm of Asian carp emerged from the water and went on the attack, some even going into the boat. Team member Devin Patel described the moment of terror: \"The fish was flopping on my legs. It was so slippery that I couldn't get a grip on it.\" Patel screamed at teammate Yoni David, \"Yoni, get it off me!\" Thankfully, no rowers were injured during the ordeal, but the strong smell of fish lingered in the moments afterward. Watch iReporter Benjamin Rosenbaum's video above.","highlights":"Rowing team at Washington University attacked by flying carp .\nMember of the team caught the attack on video ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The Cuba that photographer Carolina Sandretto captures is a world away from the images of neon 1950s American cars and postcard-worthy white sand beaches that most visitors to the island bring back home. Instead Sandretto focuses on \"solares,\" the crumbling buildings that many Cubans divide and cohabitate, often with several generations and separate families sharing one dwelling. \"This situation of bringing into your house your husband or your wife and living with your own parents in your late 30s and 40s, I always thought is really interesting and different than the U.S. but similar to my country since that's the way it was 50 years ago,\" said Sandretto, who is from Italy. Following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, houses and apartments were redistributed throughout Cuba and the government promised that everyone would have a home in the new socialist utopia. But building did not keep pace with the population, and Cubans were forced to adapt by dividing and re-dividing up homes to make room. \"It ends up to be a very interesting habitat,\" Sandretto said. \"Because there (are) so many different layers of people. It creates a whole community, even if neighbors really don't like each other.\" Sandretto said she first visited Cuba three years ago and was instantly hooked. \"I stayed and went back and back because it's a very unique place and people are really beautiful and amazing and with interesting stories,\" she said. Gaining entrance to the maze-like solares was a constant negotiation, Sandretto said, and plenty of times she was turned away. \"I always try to explain what I do, why I am there, why I am interested in where they live, the aim of my project,\" she said. Toting a 30-year-old Hasselblad 500cm camera, Sandretto found it was a good way to strike up a conversation with her subjects. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. \"They get curious when see someone going around with a bulky old camera,\" she said. \"I talk a lot. I am Italian. I speak Spanish, which helps but not a lot because you have to speak 'Cuban,' which is another language.\" Her persistence allowed her to capture intimate moments of Cubans resting in the sweltering heat, crowding around a communal TV or just going about life despite their disintegrating surroundings. There are no modern appliances or conveniences in her photographs. The people in these solares aren't the fortunate Cubans who have relatives visiting from Miami with flat-screens and smartphones in tow. Instead, there is the sense of time being whittled away -- one game of dominoes or one TV soap opera a time. Sandretto said she hopes to continue to document the changes on the island that occur as the United States and Cuba work to restore diplomatic relations and an inevitable influx of American visitors arrive. The thawing in relations could even change life in Cuba's solares. \"People want to travel, have access to the Internet and improve their economic situation,\" she said. \"I hope that's what happens.\" Carolina Sandretto is an Italian photographer based in New York. You can follow her on Twitter.","highlights":"Carolina Sandretto focuses on the crumbling buildings many Cubans live in together .\nThe maze-like \"solares\" often include separate families under one roof ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Remember the Tuskegee syphilis experiment from the 1930s? Scientists studied poor African-Americans in Alabama who'd contracted the venereal disease but didn't tell them they had the disease or do anything to cure them. A lawsuit filed this week alleges Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation helped conduct a similar study in Guatemala from 1945 to 1956. Orphans, inmates, psychiatric patients and prostitutes were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases to determine what drugs, including penicillin, worked best in stopping the diseases, the lawsuit says. The subjects of the experiments weren't told they'd been infected, the lawsuit says, causing some to die and others to pass the disease to their spouses, sexual partners and children. The suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages and has 774 plaintiffs, including people who were subjects in the experiments and their descendants. This is the second attempt to collect damages. In 2012, a class-action federal lawsuit was filed against the U.S. government over the Guatemala experiments conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service. A judge dismissed it, saying the Guatemalans could not sue the United States for grievances that happened overseas. The new lawsuit was filed in the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Johns Hopkins and the Rockefeller Foundation filed statements on their websites condemning the experiments, but denying responsibility. \"The plaintiffs' essential claim in this case is that prominent Johns Hopkins faculty members' participation on a government committee that reviewed funding applications was tantamount to conducting the research itself and that therefore Johns Hopkins should be held liable,\" the Johns Hopkins statement said. \"Neither assertion is true.\" The lawsuit alleges the Rockefeller Foundation funded Johns Hopkins' research into public health issues, including venereal disease, and employed scientists who monitored the Guatemala experiments. The lawsuit, the Rockefeller Foundation statement said, \"seeks improperly to assign 'guilt by association' in the absence of compensation from the United States federal government.\" The suit says Johns Hopkins and the Rockefeller Foundation designed, supported and benefited from the Guatemala experiments. Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical group and that company's owner, Mead Johnson, also are defendants. The pharmaceutical company supplied drugs for the experiments, the suit says. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers Squibb sent this statement to CNN: \"We've only just received the complaint in this matter. Bristol-Myers Squibb played an important role in the development of penicillin in the past and today we continue to focus our work on developing breakthrough medicines for serious disease. As a company dedicated to patients, we take this matter very seriously and are reviewing the allegations.\" Nobody doubts the experiments happened. In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized to Guatemala for the experiments, saying they were \"clearly unethical.\" In the 1930s and 1940s, the government followed a policy of funding scientific medical research but not controlling individual doctors, the suit says. The lawsuit says John Hopkins controlled and influenced the appointed panels that authorized funding for research into venereal disease. The lawsuit says prostitutes were infected to intentionally spread the disease and that syphilis spirochetes were injected into the spinal fluid of subjects. A woman in a psychiatric hospital had gonorrhea pus from a male subject injected into both her eyes, the suit says. The lawsuit doesn't say why the experiments ended. The results were never published and were not revealed until 2011, when the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues wrote a letter to President Barack Obama telling of its investigation, the suit says. CNN's Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lawsuit says scientists infected hundreds of Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases .\nA similar lawsuit filed against the U.S. government was dismissed ."} -{"article":"(CNN)I'm haunted by the video of Officer Michael Slager firing eight shots at Walter Scott as he fled his encounter with North Charleston police -- his back turned to the officer. What I find more disturbing is how the officer cuffs the fallen Scott and allows him to die face-down in the dirt while Slager appears to plant an item next to his body. I understand why people are skeptical of self-defense claims -- especially from law enforcement. If not for the video taken by a bystander, I can't help but think that this story would be shuttered behind the wall of an active investigation. As a defense attorney, I am more sensitive than anyone to the assumption of innocence for those accused of a crime, but this single piece of evidence -- a video of a man shot in the back while in full retreat -- defies any reasonable explanation. Thank God there was a camera. It will help ensure that justice will be served in this case. However, there is another camera that -- had it been deployed -- might have prevented the entire tragedy: a police body camera. Throughout the entire encounter with Scott, it's clear Slager had no idea someone was filming him. Had he known there would be video of his every move, would he have drawn his weapon on a fleeing man? Would he have fired? Eight times? Would he have misrepresented the encounter on his police report? Of course not. If Slager had been wearing a body camera, Scott would probably still be alive, and Slager wouldn't be facing the possibility of life in prison -- or a possible death sentence. Body cameras are expensive to deploy, sure. And storing the massive amounts of data that body cameras create costs even more. That cost, however -- if we're talking the monetary kind -- may be eclipsed by the punitive damages delivered to Scott's family in an inevitable civil suit against the North Charleston Police Department. Most importantly, we have to ask ourselves this: What's the value of a human life? Certainly it's worth the price of some mass data storage. And there's something else at stake. The public is losing confidence in law enforcement, and the strained relationship between minorities and police is reaching a breaking point. Every police shooting that captures headlines justifies an ever increasing fear of cops in the street. As fear ratchets up, so does the tension between cops and the people in the communities they serve. As tension rises, the risk of more shootings increases. It is a cycle of destruction that could lead to chaos. Police body cameras can help break this cycle. Studies have shown that both cops and people in the community act better when they know they are on camera. Complaints against cops decrease, and, most importantly, use-of-force incidents drop. I will admit that body cameras are only an interim solution. They only help compensate for the real underlying problem, which is this: There is a bias against black men that has infiltrated the criminal justice system, and we are seeing it in the disproportionate shooting of black men. When we look at this footage -- and when we see the dashboard camera from the other South Carolina officer who last year shot a man who was reaching for his driver's license -- it's clear that many cops are more likely to interpret actions, even routine actions, from black men as potentially aggressive. These may not be overtly racist cops. They may not intentionally treat black men differently, but we can't pretend that black men aren't being disproportionately targeted. All across the country, we see it happening, and with the proliferation of video, we're seeing it happen with alarming frequency. Somehow, we're going to have to beat this bias out of our system. Set tougher employment screening standards when hiring cops. Institute more training to help officers recognize the bias and adjust for it. As a society, we have to focus on the broad social changes needed to address disparities in income, education and opportunities -- disparities that keep us a racially divided nation. But social change, sadly, may take generations of hard work. In the meantime, if we can't immediately root out racial bias, we can at least put a bright spotlight on it, and we can start by focusing on the one interaction where racial bias results in the loss of life -- we can start by placing body-mounted cameras on cops.","highlights":"Mark O'Mara: Video captured Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott; if cop had been wearing a body camera, he probably wouldn't have fired .\nO'Mara says such cameras are expensive, but cheaper than wrongful death payouts -- and the cost of a human life.\nThe underlying problem is racial bias in policing; until that's solved, body cameras are a good interim solution ."} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)Three people were killed and five others were wounded Thursday afternoon when a group of armed assailants stormed into the attorney general's office in Balkh province, northern Afghanistan, according to a press release from the provincial governor's office. Although most staff members and civilians have been rescued, an exchange of fire between Afghan security forces and the assailants is ongoing, the statement says. Two police officers and a security guard of the provincial attorney general's office were among the dead. Afghan security forces are cautiously making advances in the fight in order to avoid civilian casualties, according to the press statement.","highlights":"Three people killed; five wounded in attack on attorney general's office in Balkh province .\nStaff and civilians have been rescued as gunmen engaged Afghan security forces ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Mullah Mohammed Omar is \"still the leader\" of the Taliban's self-declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. That appears to be the primary message of a biography, just published by the Taliban, of the reclusive militant who is credited with founding the group in the early 1990s. The Taliban's \"Cultural Commission\" released the 11-page document in several different translations on the movement's website, ostensibly to commemorate the 19th anniversary of an April 4, 1996, meeting in Afghanistan's Kandahar province when an assembly of Afghans swore allegiance to Omar. Several Afghan observers say the biography is aimed at dispelling rumors of Omar's demise. \"There have been a lot of rumors lately about him. Some people are saying that he is not alive,\" said Sayyed Muhammad Akbar Agha, a former Taliban insider who has written an autobiography about his days with the movement. \"I think the Taliban thought it was an important time to release his biography to give assurances that he is alive and present,\" Agha told CNN in a telephone interview. Bergen: Why U.S. must stay in Afghanistan past 2016 . The biography also appears to be an attempt to remind the world of the Afghan's jihadi leadership credentials, at a time when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has declared himself \"caliph\" of the world's Muslims. \"The Taliban has a huge leadership problem at a critical political moment,\" said Graeme Smith, a Kabul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group. \"Another caliph has announced himself to the world, and the Taliban has been silent. And that is getting noticed by militants across South Asia.\" Omar was famously camera-shy during the Taliban's six-year rule over most of Afghanistan. To this day, there are only a handful of photographs of the one-eyed leader. \"He never was actively involved in any of these propaganda campaigns. No publicity. No interviews. He never used the Internet,\" said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on Afghanistan who once interviewed Osama bin Laden. Omar then all but disappeared after a U.S.-led bombing campaign routed the Taliban from Kabul in 2001. Washington has offered a $10 million reward for his capture. The Taliban have released written statements purportedly made by the leader-in-hiding. But years without any video or audio recordings of the fugitive have led to growing speculation that Omar may have died. The biography challenges rumors of Omar's death by offering a description of his daily work schedule, which begins with prayers, study of the Quran, and then delivering \"orders in a specific way to his Jihadi commanders.\" The publication also seeks to fill in some of the gaps about the militant's early years, including the detail that his \"preferred weapon of choice\" was the RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade. According to the biography, Omar was born in 1960 in a village called Chah-i-Himmat in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. His father, a \"well-known and respected erudite and social figure,\" died only five years later, apparently of natural causes. Omar studied at a religious school, or madrassa, run by his uncle. The rise of the Communist Party in Afghanistan, and the subsequent 1979 Soviet invasion, interrupted the young man's studies and propelled him into the arms of the armed Afghan opposition known as the mujahedeen. For the next decade, Omar commanded rebel groups \"against the invading Russians and their internal communist puppets,\" according to the biography. Along the way, he was wounded a number of times and was blinded in his right eye. In one battle, the biography claims, Omar and a fighter named Mullah Biradar Akhund destroyed four Soviet tanks, even though they were armed with only four RPG rounds. The Taliban biography makes no mention of the fact that the U.S., allied with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, helped arm and bankroll the mujahedeen until the Soviet army withdrew in defeat in 1989. Afghan historians have documented the rapid rise of the Taliban in the chaotic years after the communist government in Kabul collapsed in 1992. The movement of warriors who identified themselves as religious scholars emerged to bring order to a country being ripped apart by rival mujahedeen warlords who battled one another for power. The Taliban biography says that Omar and his compatriots \"launched their struggle and fight against corruption and anarchy\" after an initial meeting in Kandahar in June 1994. Two years later, the Taliban captured Kabul and began imposing its austere interpretation of Islamic law on the rest of the country. While the document denounces the Taliban's post-9\/11 overthrow at the hands of a U.S.-backed coalition of rival Afghan fighters, it makes no mention of the Taliban's alliance with bin Laden and al Qaeda. During a decade in exile, the Saudi-born bin Laden continued to release periodic video and audio statements until he was killed by U.S. raid on his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011. Though Taliban militants have continued to battle the U.S.-backed government across Afghanistan, Omar has not been seen or heard from in years. The movement claims he continues to oversee a Taliban leadership council, judiciary and nine executive commissions, as well as military commanders who operate in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Exclusive: ISIS 'recruits Afghans' in chilling video . CNN's Masoud Popalzai contributed to this report from Kabul, Afghanistan.","highlights":"Mullah Omar, the reclusive founder of the Afghan Taliban, is still in charge, a new biography claims .\nAn ex-Taliban insider says there have been rumors that the one-eyed militant is dead ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The University of Michigan has decided to proceed with a screening of the film \"American Sniper\" despite objections from some students. More than 200 students signed a petition asking the school not to show the movie as part of UMix, a series of social events the university stages for students. Bradley Cooper was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL and the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. Kyle was fatally shot at a Texas shooting range in 2013. Some students believed the movie's depiction of the Iraq War reflected negatively on the Middle East and people from that region. Michigan's Detroit metropolitan area is home to the nation's largest Arab-American population. But there was a backlash to the decision to yank the movie, and a counter-petition asked school officials to reconsider. On Wednesday, E. Royster Harper, University of Michigan's vice president for student life, said in a statement that \"It was a mistake to cancel the showing of the movie 'American Sniper' on campus as part of a social event for students\" and that the show will go on. \"The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters,\" the statement said. UMix will offer a screening of the family-friendly \"Paddington\" for those who would rather not attend \"American Sniper.\" The announcement drew praise from Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh.","highlights":"Some complained about the film's depiction of the Iraq War .\nA petition asked the university not to show the Bradley Cooper film ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Kanye West has settled a lawsuit with a paparazzi photographer he assaulted -- and the two have shaken on it. The photographer, Daniel Ramos, had filed the civil suit against West after the hip-hop star attacked him and tried to wrestle his camera from him in July 2013 at Los Angeles International Airport. West pleaded no contest last year to a misdemeanor count of battery over the scuffle. A judge sentenced him to two years' probation, as well as anger management sessions and community service. Ramos and his lawyer, Gloria Allred, sought general and punitive damages in the civil suit, saying that West had interfered with the photographer's rights to pursue a lawful occupation. The case had been set for trial next week, but Allred issued a statement Tuesday night saying Ramos' side had filed a dismissal \"because the case was settled to the satisfaction of the parties.\" She didn't disclose the details of the settlement other than saying that \"one important aspect of it was an apology by Kanye West to our client, Daniel Ramos.\" Her statement included a picture of West and Ramos shaking hands, which she said happened after the apology. The original incident was caught on video, including the following exchange. \"Kanye! Kanye! Talk to me, Kanye!\" Ramos shouts outside a terminal at the Los Angeles airport on the night of July 19, 2013. \"What's' going on? Why can't we talk to you? I mean, why?\" he asks as West moves through a group of paparazzi. \"Now come on, Kanye, I don't want to fight with you,\" he says as West advances toward him. \"I told you, don't talk to me, right,\" West says. \"You're trying to get me in trouble so I step off and have to pay you like $250,000.\" West is then seen rushing the photographer and attempting to wrestle his camera from his hands. West retreats after about 15 seconds of scuffling with the photographer. \"We believe that this case sent an important message,\" Allred said. \"Celebrities are not above the law, and they have no right to physically attack someone simply because they were asked a question.\" Beverly Hills Police investigated an incident in January 2014 in which West was accused of assaulting a man at a Beverly Hills chiropractor's office. West avoided criminal charges by reaching a civil settlement with the man. Kanye West apologizes to Beck, Bruno Mars . CNN's Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.","highlights":"The rapper assaulted the photographer at Los Angeles International Airport in 2013 .\nWest apologized as part of the settlement, the photographer's lawyer says ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Seventy years ago, Anne Frank died of typhus in a Nazi concentration camp at the age of 15. Just two weeks after her supposed death on March 31, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she had been imprisoned was liberated -- timing that showed how close the Jewish diarist had been to surviving the Holocaust. But new research released by the Anne Frank House shows that Anne and her older sister, Margot Frank, died at least a month earlier than previously thought. Researchers re-examined archives of the Red Cross, the International Training Service and the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, along with testimonies of survivors. They concluded that Anne and Margot probably did not survive to March 1945 -- contradicting the date of death which had previously been determined by Dutch authorities. In 1944, Anne and seven others hiding in the Amsterdam secret annex were arrested and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Anne Frank's final entry . That same year, Anne and Margot were separated from their mother and sent away to work as slave labor at the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. Days at the camp were filled with terror and dread, witnesses said. The sisters stayed in a section of the overcrowded camp with no lighting, little water and no latrine. They slept on lice-ridden straw and violent storms shredded the tents, according to the researchers. Like the other prisoners, the sisters endured long hours at roll call. Her classmate, Nannette Blitz, recalled seeing Anne there in December 1944: \"She was no more than a skeleton by then. She was wrapped in a blanket; she couldn't bear to wear her clothes anymore because they were crawling with lice.\" Listen to Anne Frank's friends describe her concentration camp experience . As the Russians advanced further, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp became even more crowded, bringing more disease. A deadly typhus outbreak caused thousands to die each day. Typhus is an infectious disease caused by lice that breaks out in places with poor hygiene. The disease causes high fever, chills and skin eruptions. \"Because of the lice infesting the bedstraw and her clothes, Anne was exposed to the main carrier of epidemic typhus for an extended period,\" museum researchers wrote. They concluded that it's unlikely the sisters survived until March, because witnesses at the camp said the sisters both had symptoms before February 7. \"Most deaths caused by typhus occur around twelve days after the first symptoms appear,\" wrote authors Erika Prins and Gertjan Broek. The exact dates of death for Anne and Margot remain unclear. Margot died before Anne. \"Anne never gave up hope,\" said Blitz, her friend. \"She was absolutely convinced she would survive.\" Her diary endures as one of the world's most popular books. Read more about Anne Frank's cousin, a keeper of her legacy .","highlights":"Museum: Anne Frank died earlier than previously believed .\nResearchers re-examined archives and testimonies of survivors .\nAnne and older sister Margot Frank are believed to have died in February 1945 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) An Asiana Airlines plane overran a runway while landing at Japan's Hiroshima Airport on Tuesday evening, prompting the airport to temporarily close, the Japanese transportation ministry said. Twenty-three people had minor injuries after Flight 162 landed at 8:05 p.m., according to fire department and ministry sources. There were 73 passengers and eight crew members -- including five cabin attendants, two pilots and a maintenance official -- aboard when the flight took off from South Korea's Incheon International Airport at 6:34 p.m. local time, Asiana said in a statement late Tuesday. Authorities are investigating initial reports that the Airbus A320 may have hit an object on the runway during landing, causing damage to the rear of its body and the cover of the engine on the left wing, the ministry said. Video of the scene showed the aircraft's body turned around, with its nose pointing in the direction that the plane had come from. Hiroshima Airport closed because of the incident Tuesday night while fire department officials worked at the scene. Airbus, the plane's manufacturer, is aware of the incident and is working to gather more information, Airbus regional media relations manager Marie Caujolle said.","highlights":"The plane might have hit an object on the runway, the Japanese transportation ministry says .\n23 people have minor injuries, officials say .\nThe Airbus A320 overshot the Hiroshima Airport runway at 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, officials say ."} -{"article":"Hong Kong (CNN)There's a booming black market in Hong Kong, but it's not for fake Apple Watches, or the iPhone. Instead, people are going crazy for tins of butter cookies. Tourists and locals line up around the block for several hours just to get their hands on Jenny's cookies -- at $9 a tin. Its popularity has spurred bakeries to make and sell knockoffs, and the original store has signs warning against buying 'fake' Jenny's cookies. The tiny shop, located in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city's main shopping districts, is swarming with people handing over wads of cash for the \"little bear cookies\" as they are known across Asia. People are even hired to stand in line to buy the goods and are later resold at a 70% mark-up yards away, something the bakery also tries to discourage. A few meters away from the long cookie line, old ladies hold up paper signs advertising the cookies for sale. But when they see cameras approaching, they scurry away, only to reappear on another street corner. The frenzy in Hong Kong over the buttery treats is by no means an isolated example. In other parts of the world, food mania has erupted, swiftly winning people's hearts and stomachs, only to fizzle out in a few months. From cronuts to ramen burgers, here are some foods that people around the world have spent hours of their lives waiting for. Were they worth it?","highlights":"Tourists and locals queue for several hours to get their hands on Jenny's butter cookies .\nPeople are even hired to stand in line to buy the cookies, which are later sold at an up-to-70% mark-up .\nFood frenzies have also taken place in other parts of the world ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Cynthia Lennon, who married John Lennon when he was a struggling musician and was there when he rose to fame with the Beatles, died Wednesday, according to a post on the website of her son, Julian. She was 75. \"Cynthia Lennon passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain, following a short but brave battle with cancer. Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout,\" his website says. \"The family are thankful for your prayers. Please respect their privacy at this difficult time.\" John and Cynthia Lennon were married for six years, from 1962 to 1968. The pair met at art school, where Cynthia studied to be an illustrator and John practiced painting -- in between concerts with a band that would become the Beatles. \"When we were at art college, I think he was more interested in the music than he was in the art,\" she told ClassicBands.com. Cynthia Lennon, born Cynthia Powell in 1939, was a stabilizing force for the young John, who lost his mother when he was a teenager and was raised by his Aunt Mimi. \"John was always insecure,\" she said in a 2005 interview, having lost his mother at a young age. But his humor -- and his wildness -- were attractive, she told ClassicBands.com. \"He was a rebel. He was outrageous. That was something I hadn't experienced before the age that I was, which was about 16 or 17. I'd had quite a normal, straightforward life,\" she said. \"I was just instantly attracted to him.\" The two married in 1962, just as the Beatles were making their rise. Their son, Julian, was born April 8, 1963. Lennon's sometimes-brittle personality and his overwhelming fame became a challenge for Cynthia. During her pregnancy, \"I was not supposed to be known or heard about. In the wisdom, or lack of wisdom, anything to do with somebody becoming famous, male, was not supposed to be married or have (a) girlfriend.\" She was threatened by fans and occasionally in danger of being left behind in the band's whirlwind; when the group traveled to Bangor, Wales, to meet with the Maharishi in 1967, Cynthia was caught in a scrum and couldn't make the train in time. She was also there on the 1965 night George Harrison, Patti Boyd and Lennon were dosed with LSD -- an experience she disliked -- and traveled to India with the band in early 1968. The couple divorced in 1968, by which time John was seeing Yoko Ono. Cynthia Lennon married three more times after John and wrote two books about her marriage to the Beatle, \"A Twist of Lennon\" and \"John.\" She had no contact with the surviving members of the band until meeting up at the 2006 Las Vegas premiere of \"The Beatles Love.\" For all the difficulties and disappointments -- she described Julian, for whom she wrote \"John,\" as \"very scarred by life\" -- she acknowledged that the whirlwind could also be enthralling. \"The whole situation changed my life completely. God knows where I would've been ended up. I probably would've been a schoolteacher with about three or four children in a boring situation,\" she told ClassicBands.com. \"I've had the most amazing life, a wonderful life.\" She is survived by her son. Her fourth husband, Noel Charles, died in 2013. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Cynthia Lennon was John Lennon's first wife .\nShe was there during the rise of the Beatles .\nHer death was announced by her son, Julian ."} -{"article":"(CNN)It's obvious that Tom Brady's love for his wife, model Gisele Bundchen, will never go out of fashion. Bundchen walked the runway for the last time Wednesday, and the New England Patriots quarterback wasn't just there to support her in person, he expressed his emotions to the world on Facebook. \"Congratulations Love of my Life,\" Brady wrote. \"You inspire me every day to be a better person. I am so proud of you and everything you have accomplished on the runway. I have never met someone with more of a will to succeed and determination to overcome any obstacle in the way. You never cease to amaze me. Nobody loves life more than you and your beauty runs much deeper than what the eye can see. I can't wait to see what's next. I love you.\" He followed the text with two hashtags, #GOAT (\"greatest of all time\") and #thebestisyettocome. Bundchen, 34, announced her retirement from the catwalk last weekend. \"I am grateful that at 14, I was given the opportunity to start this journey. Today after 20 years in the industry, it is a privilege to be doing my last fashion show by choice and yet still be working in other facets of the business,\" the Brazilian-born model wrote on Instagram. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen struts her stuff a final time . Bundchen was the highest-paid model in 2014, according to Forbes magazine, with a total $47 million in contracts. She is the face of Chanel and Carolina Herrera and has her own line of lingerie. Bundchen and Brady have been married since 2009. The couple has two children. What's next for Bundchen? Based on an interview she did with Brazil's Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, sounds like more quality time with Brady and their children. \"I want to be with my family more and focus on special projects,\" she said. CNN's Shasta Darlington contributed to this story.","highlights":"Tom Brady to Gisele Bundchen: \"You inspire me every day\"\nBundchen had last runway show Wednesday .\nShe'll be focusing more on family, \"special projects\""} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)\"Grace of Monaco,\" starring Nicole Kidman as star-turned-princess Grace Kelly, is heading straight to Lifetime. The critically-panned film, which opened last year's Cannes Film Festival, will premiere on Lifetime on Memorial Day, May 25. After the movie performed poorly in its international engagements, The Weinstein Co., which first purchased U.S. distribution rights at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, decided to sell it directly to Lifetime rather than book it into U.S. theaters, a source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. THR: Grace of Monaco' Cannes review . The film, which was directed by Olivier Dahan and focuses on a period in the early '60s when Monaco was involved in a stand-off over taxes with France and Grace was contemplating a return to Hollywood, was originally scheduled for release in late 2013. Given the names involved, some handicappers had put it on their list of potential Oscar contenders. But when TWC pulled it out of awards contention and shifted its release to March 14, 2014, Dahan lashed out at TWC's Harvey Weinstein, over the movie's final cut, which the director was in the process of completing. \"There are two versions of the film for now, mine and his,\" Dahan complained, continuing, \"They want a commercial film smelling of daisies, taking out anything that exceeds that which is too abrupt, anything that makes it cinematic and breathe with life.\" That planned March release was then scrubbed, when Cannes expressed interest in debuting the director's version of the movie in May. Even before it screened, though, Grace's children blasted the picture as \"needlessly glamorized and historically inaccurate\" and boycotting the Cannes red carpet. THR: The Weinstein Co. nearing deal to keep 'Grace of Monaco' Weinstein didn't attend the movie's premiere either -- explaining that he had been visiting Syrian refugee camps in Jordan as part of a long-scheduled U.N.-sponsored trip. But TWC did strike a new distribution deal for the film in Cannes, agreeing to show Dahan's cut in the U.S., but acquiring rights for just $3 million upfront, a $2 million discount from its earlier contract. But TWC then did not slot \"Grace of Monaco\" into its fall, 2015 release schedule. Tim Roth costars as Kelly's husband Prince Rainier III, Frank Langella as Kelly's priest and confidante, Parker Posey as Grace's aid, and Paz Vega (\"Spanglish,\" \"Sex and Lucia\") as opera singer Maria Callas. See the original story at The Hollywood Reporter. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The film will premiere on Memorial Day .\nIt opened last year's Cannes Film Festival .\nA planned March theater release was scrubbed ."} -{"article":"Garissa, Kenya (CNN)The desks of the small Madrassa are empty. Its 573 students, all male, are staying home after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced three days of national mourning following last week's deadly attack at a nearby university. Only a few kilometers away, 147 people -- mostly students -- were brutally massacred when Al-Shabaab militants invaded the campus in Garissa, a town in northeastern Kenya. We've come to this particular Islamic religious school because the man suspected by Kenyan authorities of being the \"mastermind\" behind the atrocity -- Mohamed Mohamud -- once taught here. \"He was someone who was very quiet, he didn't like too much talk,\" recalls Sheikh Khalif Abdi Hussein, the principal at the Madrassa. He says he also taught with Mohamud for two years. \"When he left the Madrassa, he joined Al-Shabaab. But before, he was normal, just like me and other people.\" What worries authorities here is exactly that -- Mohamud was Kenyan. But now, say officials, Mohamud is in command of an Al-Shabaab militia based near Kenya's long, porous border with Somalia -- about 118 miles (190km) from Garissa -- who are believed to be responsible for numerous cross-border attacks into Kenya. The Islamist militant group, who are allied with al Qaeda, have been waging a bloody campaign for control of Somalia. With Kenyan troops part of an African Union force deployed in support of Somalia's United Nations-supported government, Kenya has now become a target. Last year, an attack by Al-Shabaab on a shopping center in the country's capital, Nairobi, claimed the lives of 68 people. Now Mohamud stands accused of being behind Thursday's attack -- the deadliest attack in the nation since al Qaeda killed more than 200 people at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. But Mohamud is not Kenya's only homegrown terrorist. The Kenyan Interior Ministry has said at least one of the four gunmen who carried out the attack on the university was also Kenyan. Abdirahim Abdullahi was in his 20s and the son of a government chief. His father says he lost contact with his son in 2013, shortly after he left university. The Kenyan government is concerned that Al-Shabaab is recruiting disaffected youth from inside the country. \"Our task of countering terrorism has been made all the more difficult by the fact that the planners and financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities,\" President Kenyatta said during an address to the nation in the aftermath of the massacre. Meanwhile, Sheikh Khalif insists his Madrassa has nothing to do with Mohamud's extreme, violent ideas. \"This man is a dangerous man, a killer, a criminal,\" he says. But he was also once a neighbor. And so Kenyans must now look within to tackle this very real threat to the country's -- and the region's -- stability.","highlights":"The attack at a Garissa university last week killed 147 people, mostly students .\nMohamed Mohamud taught at a Madrassa in the Kenyan town .\nAuthorities fear the rise of homegrown terrorists in the African country ."} -{"article":"Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)A day after winning Nigeria's presidency, Muhammadu Buhari told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he plans to aggressively fight corruption that has long plagued Nigeria and go after the root of the nation's unrest. Buhari said he'll \"rapidly give attention\" to curbing violence in the northeast part of Nigeria, where the terrorist group Boko Haram operates. By cooperating with neighboring nations Chad, Cameroon and Niger, he said his administration is confident it will be able to thwart criminals and others contributing to Nigeria's instability. For the first time in Nigeria's history, the opposition defeated the ruling party in democratic elections. Buhari defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan by about 2 million votes, according to Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission. The win comes after a long history of military rule, coups and botched attempts at democracy in Africa's most populous nation. In an exclusive live interview from Abuja, Buhari told Amanpour he was not concerned about reconciling the nation after a divisive campaign. He said now that he has been elected he will turn his focus to Boko Haram and \"plug holes\" in the \"corruption infrastructure\" in the country. \"A new day and a new Nigeria are upon us,\" Buhari said after his win Tuesday. \"The victory is yours, and the glory is that of our nation.\" Earlier, Jonathan phoned Buhari to concede defeat. The outgoing president also offered a written statement to his nation. \"I thank all Nigerians once again for the great opportunity I was given to lead this country, and assure you that I will continue to do my best at the helm of national affairs until the end of my tenure,\" Jonathan said. \"I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word.\" Buhari, 72, will be sworn in on May 29. He will take the helm at a critical time, as Nigeria grapples with Boko Haram, serious economic woes and corruption. This isn't Buhari's first time leading Nigeria, but it's his first time in nearly 30 years. A military coup brought Buhari to power in late 1983, closing a brief period of popular rule by Shehu Shagari. But Buhari himself was ousted by another military coup in August 1985. Read more: Who is Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari? His presidential win is the result of his fourth attempt to lead the country since he was ousted 30 years ago. Buhari is a Sunni Muslim from Nigeria's poorer North, while Jonathan comes from a Christian and animist South that is rich with oil. Buhari praised voters for exercising their right peacefully. \"Your vote affirms that you believe Nigeria's future can be better than what it is today,\" he said in his statement. \"You voted for change, and now change has come.\" Buhari campaigned as a born-again democrat to allay fears about his strict military regime. He stressed that Nigeria's security needs to be the next government's focus. His campaign was also fiercely anti-corruption. He ran under the slogan of \"new broom,\" and his supporters were often pictured holding brooms in the lead-up to the vote. Despite years of democracy, analysts say, corruption has hindered Nigeria from building a stable economy. One of Buhari's biggest challenges will be Boko Haram, which has been terrorizing Nigeria as it tries to institute a strict version of Sharia law in the country. In the past few years, the terror group has bombed churches and mosques, killed hundreds of people and kidnapped more than 200 teenage girls from a boarding school. Even the presidential vote had to be postponed because of the radical militants. The election was originally scheduled for February 14, but was delayed six weeks because the military needed more time to secure areas controlled by Boko Haram. Yet the violence persisted. On Saturday, residents in the northeastern state of Gombe said at least 11 people were killed in attacks at polling stations, apparently by Boko Haram extremists. Jonathan had been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram. Before the election, African affairs analyst Ayo Johnson said the vote would come down to who could make Nigeria feel safe. \"Many Nigerians will not forget (Buhari) was a military leader during a dictatorship,\" Johnson said. \"Or maybe they will feel that they need a military leader to address fundamental problems such as terrorism.\" Boko Haram isn't the only obstacle facing the new president. The economy is another major issue. Nigeria overtook South Africa last year as the region's largest economy. Nigeria is one of Africa's largest oil producers and is a major supplier of crude oil to the United States. It also hosts many international oil companies and workers. But many complain that the country's vast wealth from oil exports doesn't trickle down to the average citizen. As many as 70% of Nigerians live below the poverty line, surviving on less than a dollar a day. Christian Purefoy reported from Lagos; Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Stephanie Busari, Faith Karimi and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.","highlights":"Muhammadu Buhari tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he will fight corruption in Nigeria .\nNigeria is the most populous country in Africa and is grappling with violent Boko Haram extremists .\nNigeria is also Africa's biggest economy, but up to 70% of Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The jailing of four Blackwater security guards, eight years after they killed 17 Iraqi civilians in a shooting in Baghdad, is a positive step for justice -- but is also not enough. The kind of horror represented by the Blackwater case and others like it -- from Abu Ghraib to the massacre at Haditha to CIA waterboarding -- may be largely absent from public memory in the West these days, but it is being used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to support its sectarian narrative. In its propaganda, ISIS has been using Abu Ghraib and other cases of Western abuse to legitimize its current actions in Iraq as the latest episodes in over a decade of constant \"Sunni resistance\" to \"American aggression\" and to \"Shiite betrayal\"\u2014as phrased in an ISIS publication from late 2014 titled \"The Revived Caliphate,\" which chronicles the rise of ISIS since 2003. As the Iraqi government today struggles to regain the support of Sunnis in its fight against ISIS -- or even renew intra-Sunni trust -- this invocation of American transgressions by ISIS should be a sobering reminder of the importance of good governance in the pursuit of a solution to the unrest in Iraq. The lack of accountability in the aftermath of the American intervention in Iraq not only paved the way for abuses like Abu Ghraib and Blackwater, it also fuelled sectarian tension in the country -- and today ISIS is reaping the benefits. The U.S. poured money into Iraq after the 2003 invasion, but it did not make this support contingent upon a fair distribution of power and resources by the Iraqi government. This enabled the Shiite-dominated government of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discriminate against the Sunni community. The United States was also sloppy in relying on private security firms like Blackwater without implementing rigorous measures to regulate their behavior. It also turned a blind eye to the way its own troops were treating Iraqis. All those factors contributed to a rising sense of injustice that is now being conveniently packaged by ISIS to push its own version of Iraqi history. In \"The Revived Caliphate,\" Abu Ghraib is invoked three times as the place where Iraqi Sunnis who resisted the U.S. ended up as a result of their betrayal by Shiites who collaborated with the Americans. The publication first recounts attacks on Abu Ghraib at the height of the American intervention by al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) -- ISIS' predecessor -- to free imprisoned \"Sunnis\" who had been detained by the Americans. It then presents the Sahwa (Awakening) of 2007 -- when Sunni tribes collaborated with the U.S. to fight AQI -- as a case of intra-Sunni resentment that led the tribes to hand over AQI members \"to the Americans, where they were put through severe torture in the likes of the prisons of Abu Ghraib,\" according to the publication. It then links those two stories to the storming of the prison by ISIS in 2013 to free those who had been tortured by \"the Americans and Shi'a\" (as the publication puts it) over ten years. In bridging a decade of history and in placing the Shiites squarely in the category of \"enemy,\" ISIS is sending a strong message that its current fight in Iraq is about reversing longstanding injustices against Sunnis and restoring a sense of Sunni belonging under the umbrella of the \"caliphate.\" The civilians killed by the Blackwater guards, like the Abu Ghraib prisoners, were both Sunni and Shiite. But the repackaging of history by ISIS -- in which the Saddam Hussein regime is reinvented as a \"Sunni\" regime that tried to stand up to the United States and its Shiite allies -- glosses over those nuances. The reproduced images of Abu Ghraib prisoners in the aforementioned ISIS publication, juxtaposed with images of civilian deaths as a result of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS targets, are presented as \"proof\" of the group's narrative. And they are reinforced with text that frames America today as \"the air force of the Shi'a.\" It is becoming clear that ISIS cannot be defeated in Iraq without buy-in from the country's Sunnis. Without Sunni help, ISIS will continue to frame the conflict as one where Sunnis are once again being attacked by the U.S. and the Shiites -- particularly as Shiite militias have become a key part of the fight against the terror group in places like Tikrit. To balance out this Shiite involvement, the U.S. and Iraqi governments are counting on the establishment of a cross-sectarian Iraqi national guard, and hoping to resurrect the \"awakening\" to re-engage and unify the Sunnis under a nationalist umbrella. But those plans will not succeed unless serious steps are taken to ensure that good governance measures are in place to hold both Iraqis and all those affiliated with the anti-ISIS coalition to account. This should not just apply in the context of the current conflict -- so that scenarios like Abu Ghraib and Blackwater are not repeated -- but also when the dust settles. Good governance is the most effective antidote to sectarianism.","highlights":"ISIS is using past Western transgressions in Iraq to justify its brutality .\nLack of accountability following 2003 invasion paved way for abuse -- and for sectarian tensions ."} -{"article":"(CNN)When I was elected to the Kentucky State Senate in 1967, I became the first woman and the first person of color to serve in the body. Five decades later, I find it almost unfathomable that a politician from my own state is attempting to launch his presidential campaign on a record that includes questioning landmark voting rights and civil rights legislation. But that is what Rand Paul, who today declared he's running for president of the United States, is doing. His campaign team told reporters last week that his campaign announcement message would be about \"expanding the Republican Party\" -- a message of inclusion. But those of us listening today who he is hoping to include, heard nothing more than hype. I'm not buying it. Since coming to the U.S. Senate, Paul has tried to sell himself as a different type of Republican. He's tried to brand himself as the GOP's minority outreach candidate. The problem for Paul, and the GOP at large, is that they don't back up their words with their policies. Yes, it's about time that Republicans started seriously considering the fact that black voters are an important piece of the electoral puzzle. But they can't actually appeal to the community unless they have a real commitment to the issues facing minority communities. A quick survey of Sen. Paul's positions makes clear that he does not. Paul kicked off his announcement speech in Louisville by declaring \"I have a message that is loud and clear: We have come to take our country back.\" I have no doubt that under Paul's leadership, he would indeed take our country back -- in the wrong direction -- way back to a time when we were debating the Civil Rights Act -- which Paul has done since landing on the national stage; when there was no Department of Education -- a department he thinks \"should be done away with;\" when women didn't have choices -- choices Paul seeks to limit in Washington; when DREAMers weren't protected from deportation -- protections Paul currently opposes. In his inept speaking engagements at historically black colleges and universities, he has come across as condescending and lacking basic cultural competency. But Paul has also questioned the Civil Rights Act, and even claimed that private business owners have a right to discriminate. When asked about the need for a more robust Voting Rights Act following the Supreme Court's dismantling of the law, Paul dismissively remarked, \"We have an African-American President.\" When President Obama stood with John Lewis and other veterans of the civil rights movement in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge last month to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he inspired us all by saying: \"With effort, we can roll back poverty and the roadblocks to opportunity. ... With effort, we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge -- and that is the right to vote.\" America is better -- and we solve more problems -- with more democracy, not less. Unfortunately Rand Paul has demonstrated that he disagree with that basic principle. Paul tried once again from that stage in Louisville to fashion himself as the one member of his party courageous enough to try to broaden Republican appeal to constituencies they ignore year after year. But his record makes it very clear that his views are outdated, outside of the mainstream, and disqualifying for a man who wants to lead our country. The American people deserve a leader who won't disrespect their intelligence, who won't pander to them when it's convenient, and who won't work to dismantle the progress we have made over the last five decades. What I heard today, didn't change the facts about Rand Paul's record. The American people deserve better than Rand Paul.","highlights":"Georgia Powers: Rand Paul, running for president, would like minorities to think he's an advocate. His record on rights shows otherwise .\nOn civil rights, women's choice, voting rights, immigrant DREAMers, education, he has shown he'd take country backwards, she says ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Rebekah Gregory blinked back tears as she thought about the verdict. It had been almost two years since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother planted bombs at the Boston Marathon, setting off deadly explosions that wounded her and hundreds of others. In court last month, she testified that one of the blasts on that day in 2013 left her lying in the street, staring at her own bones. Now, jurors have found him guilty on all 30 counts he faced for the deadly bombings and their aftermath. But no verdict can ever totally make up for the pain, she said. \"I don't believe that there will ever be justice brought to this, no mater if he does get the death penalty or he remains in prison for the rest of his life,\" she said, crying as she spoke to reporters outside her Texas home. \"I do believe, however, that he should be held accountable for his actions. And I'm very thankful for each of the jury members that are making him do that.\" Gregory, who wrote a widely publicized letter to Tsarnaev after testifying, said the trial has left her and other victims reeling from a flood of emotions as they relive horrifying memories, but it's an important step. \"Everything is being brought up again full force. Our lives will never ever be the same, but I hope with this we can move forward and remember that we are still here for a reason, that there's a bigger plan,\" she said. \"I may be standing on one fake leg, but I'm standing here, stronger than ever, because someone tried to destroy me, and he failed.\" For Gregory and others who lived through the 2013 attack, Wednesday's verdict brought a mix of emotions, from triumphant vows to move forward, to expressions of gratitude, to debate over whether Tsarnaev should be sentenced to death. There were no outbursts inside the federal courthouse in Boston. In fact, there was barely any peripheral noise as people sat on the edges of their seats. As Tsarnaev fidgeted and scratched the back of his head, some survivors and victims' family members lowered their heads and dabbed tears. As CNN's Alexandra Field noted from inside the courtroom, \"They've waited a long time for this.\" The family of Sean Collier, a 26-year-old police officer shot to death in his patrol car on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, were terrorists who \"failed monumentally\" in striking fear in people. \"While today's verdict can never bring Sean back, we are thankful that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be held accountable for the evil that he brought to so many families,\" the Collier family said in a written statement. To Richard \"Dic\" Donohue, an MBTA police officer left in a pool of blood after being wounded in a shootout with the Tsarnaevs in Watertown, the verdicts show that \"as a society, ... terrorism will not prevail, and we will hold those accountable for their acts against our nation.\" \"Justice has been served today,\" Donahue tweeted. Survivor Karen Brassard said she needed to attend the trial to help her heal. She doesn't believe Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's brother Tamerlan, now dead, persuaded him to take part in the plot, as the defense contended. Dzhokhar, in her view, was \"all in.\" \"Obviously we are grateful for the outcome today,\" Brassard tolder reporters. \"It's not a happy occasion, but it's something that we can put one more step behind us.\" That sense of turning the page was echoed by Bruce Mendelsohn, who is among those who rushed to save lives at the marathon finish line. The verdicts mean that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is no longer a bombing suspect -- he is now officially a \"convicted killer.\" You can't call it celebration. But there is a newfound peace of mind, at least, in and around Boston. This was a community that suffered greatly after the bombing and subsequent manhunt. And they got through it by rallying around each other, a deep bond reflected in the mantra \"Boston Strong.\" That feeling was reaffirmed all around the city by Wednesday's verdict. And it's evident in people like Heather Abbott, who lost her left leg below the knee. Since then, she's become a living example of someone who wasn't stopped by the terror -- learning not only to walk again, but to run again. \"Nothing can ever replace the lives that were lost or changed forever,\" Abbott said Wednesday on Facebook. \"But at least there is some relief in knowing that justice is served and responsibility will be taken.\" That view was commonly shared. For those hurt -- physically, mentally, emotionally -- by the horrors of 2013, Wednesday was key to their progression. But it's not the end of the road. Just ask Jeff Bauman. The picture of him, bloodied, being rushed through the streets of Boston by good Samaritan Carlos Arredondo, became a symbol of the carnage and heroism from this attack. Even after losing both his legs, Bauman has become a symbol since of resilience -- moving on with his life, by marrying and fathering a child. On Wednesday, Bauman said the verdict \"will never replace the lives that were lost and so dramatically changed.\" \"But it is a relief,\" he added, \"and one step closer to closure.\" CNN's Ann O'Neill and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Survivor Jeff Bauman stresses \"we will never replace the lives that were lost\"\nA man who was at the finish line is glad Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now a \"convicted killer\"\n\"Justice has been served today,\" says a once wounded police officer ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Former Australia cricket captain and legendary broadcaster Richie Benaud has died at the age of 84. Benaud, whose witty one-liners from the commentary box resonated far beyond Australia's shores, said last year he was being treated for skin cancer. \"After Don Bradman, there has been no Australian player more famous than Richie Benaud,\" Cricket Australia said on its website. \"Benaud stood at the top of the game throughout his rich life, first as a record-breaking leg-spinner and captain, and then as cricket's most famous -- and most impersonated -- broadcaster.\" A veteran of 64 Test matches, Benaud was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. While many regarded his voice as the soundtrack to an Australian summer, Benaud was equally revered by the cricketing public on the other side of the world where he spent more than four decades with the BBC taking the game into millions of British living rooms. But whether you were sitting in Sydney or in South London, there were plenty of \"marvelous\" Richie moments from the box to savor: . \"And Glenn McGrath dismissed for two, just ninety-eight runs short of his century.\" \"From our broadcasting box you can't see any grass at all. It is simply a carpet of humanity.\" \"Captaincy is 90% luck and 10% skill. But don't try it without that 10%.\" News of his passing quickly generated a wave of condolences, including from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. \"To most Australians Richie Benaud was cricket. He personified its traditions and its values,\" Abbott said in a written statement Friday. \"While many Australians only know Richard Benaud as the voice of cricket, we should not forget that in his day he was a cricketer with few equals. It was why he was so insightful as a commentator. \"As a player his record has withstood the test of time. He led the Australian side from 1958\/59 through to 1963\/1964, never losing a series in his 28 Tests as captain. \"As captain, he was first to lead a full Australian tour to India and Pakistan in 1959\/60. He was the first cricketer to reach a Test double of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets. \"Given the special place Richie Benaud has in our national life, I have asked that on the day of his funeral flags fly at half-mast. I extend my condolences and the condolences of the Australian people, to his wife Daphne and his family and friends. Current Australian captain Michael Clarke posted an image of Benaud on Instagram with the message: \"What a man. Extremely sad day. You were a lot more then just a cricketer Richie. RIP.\" Clarke's former teammate Shane Warne also took to Instagram to post a touching letter to the late commentator. He wrote: \"Dear Richie, I've known you & Daphne for close to 30 years & to everyone you were a legend on all levels & rightly so too. \"As a cricketer, commentator & as a person, you were the best there's ever been & to top it off, an absolute gentleman... For me it was an honour & a privilege to call you a close friend & mentor, we had so many wonderful times together, talking cricket & in particular, our love & passion of leg spin bowling. \"I will cherish our entertaining dinners & all the fun times we shared over a long period of time. I would also like to thank you & Daphne for all your support & time you made for me as a young cricketer & leg spin bowler trying to make his way as an 18 year old, your tips & advice along the journey meant so much !!! \"Richie, you were loved by everyone, not just the cricket family, you were the godfather of cricket & you will be missed by all... R.I.P my friend.\" Benaud, who was born in 1930 in Penrith, New South Wales, lead Australia into an era of world dominance as a player. But it was after he hung up his spikes that his legendary status was confirmed. Writing in a column in The Australian, cricket writer Gideon Haigh wrote \"television was Benaud's calling, suiting his captain's spontaneity and intuition. \"He was authoritative but not pedantic, dignified but not pompous, and never spoke unless he had something to say. He was so popular that many humorists strove to imitate him, so distinctive that none ever quite got him right.\" The BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew agreed. \"He was quite simply peerless. Nobody else had his authority, popularity and skill,\" Agnew said in a column on the BBC website. \"If you speak to any broadcaster from any sport, they will point to Richie as the standard-bearer.\" Australian national team coach Darren Lehmann said Benaud set \"an incredibly high standard on and off the field.\" \"The fact that Australia never lost a series under his captaincy says so much and those standards were just as high when he turned his attention to calling the game,\" he told cricket.com.au. \"We loved listening to him commentate when the team was together in the dressing room. When he was on air, we always had the TV volume turned up because his comments were so insightful.\" Benaud's passing also drew messages of sympathy on social media from beyond his native Australia. Imran Khan, the former captain of Pakistan and now a leading politician there, tweeted: \"Saddened by the death of Richie Benaud, one of the greatest cricketing brains.\" While Kumar Sangakkara, the current captain of Sri Lanka's Test team, posted: \"So sad to hear about the passing of Richie Benaud. The great voice of cricket is no more. He defined an era with conviction and sincerity.\" British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: \"I grew up listening to Richie Benaud's wonderful cricket commentary. Like all fans of the sport, I will miss him very much.\" CNN's Pierre Meilhan and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report.","highlights":"Richie Benaud first earned fame as a cricket player, later as broadcaster .\nPrime Minister Tony Abbott calls him \"a cricketing champion and Australian icon\""} -{"article":"(CNN)Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill on Friday that would allow the state to perform executions with nitrogen gas if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or becomes unavailable. Nitrogen causes a quick loss of consciousness and then death from lack of oxygen, Fallin's office said in a press release. CNN affiliate KFOR says it's never been used in an execution in the United States. \"The person will become unconscious within eight to 10 seconds and death a few minutes later. In other words, a humane, quick and painless death,\" said Rep. Mike Christian, one of the bill's authors, according to KFOR. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told the Washington Post that the same \"painless\" argument had been used to advance the use of lethal injections. \"The hasty manner in which this bill sped into law reflects the same lack of care with which Oklahoma has managed its execution process historically,\" he said. Oklahoma's executions have been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews its use of lethal injections. Last year, the state came under scrutiny when it took 43 minutes to kill convicted killer Clayton Lockett. Fallin reaffirmed her support for the death penalty. \"Oklahoma executes murderers whose crimes are especially heinous,\" Fallin said. \"I support that policy, and I believe capital punishment must be performed effectively and without cruelty. The bill I signed today gives the state of Oklahoma another death penalty option that meets that standard.\" The governor's office said the first alternative for execution is lethal injection, followed by nitrogen gas, the electric chair and the firing squad.","highlights":"Nitrogen gas causes a quick loss of consciousness and then death from lack of oxygen, Oklahoma says .\nThe state's executions are on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the state's use of lethal injections ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Anthony Ray Hinton is thankful to be free after nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row for murders he says he didn't commit. And incredulous that it took so long. Hinton, 58, looked up, took in the sunshine and thanked God and his lawyers Friday morning outside the county jail in Birmingham, minutes after taking his first steps as a free man since 1985. He spoke of unjustly losing three decades of his life, under fear of execution, for something he didn't do. \"All they had to do was to test the gun, but when you think you're high and mighty and you're above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody,\" Hinton told reporters. \"But I've got news for you -- everybody that played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God.\" Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro had ordered Hinton released after granting the state's motion to dismiss charges against him. Hinton was convicted of murder in the 1985 deaths of two Birmingham-area, fast-food restaurant managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason. But a new trial was ordered in 2014 after firearms experts testified 12 years earlier that the revolver Hinton was said to have used in the crimes could not be matched to evidence in either case, and the two killings couldn't be linked to each other. \"Death Row Stories\": Hard questions about the U.S. capital punishment system . The state then declined to re-prosecute the case. Hinton was 29 at the time of the killings and had always maintained his innocence, said the Equal Justice Initiative, a group that helped win his release. \"Race, poverty, inadequate legal assistance, and prosecutorial indifference to innocence conspired to create a textbook example of injustice,\" Bryan Stevenson, the group's executive director and Hinton's lead attorney, said of his African-American client. \"I can't think of a case that more urgently dramatizes the need for reform than what has happened to Anthony Ray Hinton.\" Stevenson said the \"refusal of state prosecutors to re-examine this case despite persuasive and reliable evidence of innocence is disappointing and troubling.\" Amnesty report: Executions down but death sentences on the rise . Dressed in a dark suit and blue shirt, Hinton praised God for his release, saying he was sent \"not just a lawyer, but the best lawyers.\" He said he will continue to pray for the families of the murder victims. Both he and those families have suffered a miscarriage of justice, he said. \"For all of us that say that we believe in justice, this is the case to start showing, because I shouldn't have (sat) on death row for 30 years,\" he said. Woman who spent 22 years on death row has case tossed . Hinton was accompanied Friday by two of his sisters, one of whom still lives in the Birmingham area. Other siblings will fly to the area to see him soon, Stevenson said. His mother, with whom he lived at the time of his arrest, is no longer living, according to the lawyer. Hinton planned to spend at least this weekend at the home of a close friend. He will meet with his attorneys Monday to start planning for his immediate needs, such as obtaining identification and getting a health checkup, Stevenson said. The plan now is to spend a few weeks to get oriented with freedom and \"sort out what he wants to do,\" Stevenson said.","highlights":"Anthony Ray Hinton goes free Friday, decades after conviction for two murders .\nCourt ordered new trial in 2014, years after gun experts testified on his behalf .\nProsecution moved to dismiss charges this year ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The U.N. Security Council voted Tuesday in favor of an arms embargo on Houthis -- the minority group that has taken over large swaths of Yemen, including its capital, Sanaa -- and supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The resolution \"raises the cost\" for the Houthis, according to Mark Lyall Grant, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations. In addition to the arms embargo, it also demands that the Shiite group pull back and refrain from more violence and includes sanctions aimed at controlling the spread of terrorism, according to Grant. Russia abstained from Tuesday's vote, saying it didn't like the inclusion of sanctions. In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition that is conducting airstrikes on targets associated with Saleh's supporters and the Houthis, who have emerged as Yemen's most dominant force in recent months. Also Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi Arabian Minister of Defense Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz agreed to form a joint military commission to discuss the implementation of a major strategic maneuver inside Saudi Arabia, Egypt's state-run Ahram news agency reported. Egypt announced that it would dispatch several naval ships to help halt the rebels' advance. In response to media reports, Egyptian officials said no troops have yet been sent to Yemen. The Houthis forced President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January, though Hadi still claims he is Yemen's legitimate leader and is working with the Saudis and other allies to return to Yemen. Those allied with Hadi have accused the Iranian government of supporting the Houthis in their uprising in Yemen. They include Yemen's current ambassador to the United Nations, Khaled Mahfoodh Abdulla Bahah, who said Tuesday, \"We refuse (the) influence of Iran in Yemen affairs.\" CNN's Richard Roth and Dominique Dodley reported from New York, and CNN's Greg Botelho wrote this report from Atlanta. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Egypt, Saudi Arabia to launch joint military maneuvers inside Saudi borders .\nThe arms embargo applies to the Houthis and backers of ex-President Saleh .\nRussia abstains from the U.N. Security Council vote over the inclusion of sanctions ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Ten years ago, a prosecutor in Centre County, Pennsylvania, took a day off work and vanished. Since then, the case of Ray Gricar has become one of the most intriguing and talked about missing persons stories in the country. Investigators have taken dives to the bottom of lakes, dug up a grave, chased more than 300 reported sightings from Arizona to North Carolina, dropped fliers over Slovenia, consulted a psychic, interviewed a member of the Hell's Angels and enlisted NASA technology. But no one has been able to find the veteran district attorney, who was 59 when he disappeared. When he went missing that Friday morning on April 15, 2005, he left behind a live-in girlfriend, a beautiful and successful daughter and a bank account that was supposed to fund a fast-approaching retirement. His red Mini Cooper was found abandoned near a bridge on the Susquehanna River about 55 miles away from his home. Months later his county-issued laptop and hard drive were found -- separately -- on the banks of the river, too damaged to read. As far as hard evidence goes, that's about all police have. The best lead they got was the sighting of a woman who has not been identified, and information that he had searched online for ways to destroy a hard drive. What's left is theory, speculation and a case that's been cold almost from the beginning. \"When a district attorney goes missing, you know, it's pretty big. It's going to catch people's attention. A lot of people don't have a large footprint. This guy had influential friends, he was well known,\" said Todd Matthews, director of communications and case management for the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, or NamUs. From the start, investigators have considered three possibilities: Gricar committed suicide, fell victim to foul play or deliberately walked away. The prevailing theories have been suicide or walk-away, especially since 2009, when a search of his Google history on his home computer found that someone had been searching \"how to fry a hard drive\" and \"water damage to a notebook computer.\" Gricar, a private and quiet man, was spotted with a woman who was not his girlfriend the day he went missing, and cigarette ash was found near his car, even though he was not a smoker. Friends and colleagues recalled him being distant in the weeks that led up to his disappearance, and recounted his fascination with another law enforcement official from Ohio who vanished in 1985. Matthews said that NamUs has compared Gricar's DNA to unidentified bodies nine times since the database became available in 2009, but so far, none has been a match. \"Even if he chose to make himself go missing, it sounds like something was terribly wrong that caused a drastic change in his life. There's something wrong if he's Googled how to fry a hard drive. Did he Google it? Did someone else Google it? Was he threatened? Did he do something and is trying to cover it up? It's not a normal thing to Google that.\" Matt Rickard, the former investigator who had been in charge of the investigation for several years, thinks that hard drive is the key to cracking the case. He said he's still holding out hope that someday technology will allow investigators to recover the damaged data. \"I think there is something out there. Whether it's evidence or a person, there's something that could lead us to something,\" he said. \"In all honesty, somebody destroyed the hard drive and there was a reason. We have very few solid leads and the biggest one could be contained on that hard drive.\" In 2011, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing boys, it was revealed that it was Gricar who decided not to charge Sandusky when the first victim came forward in 1998. Gricar cited a lack of evidence. The intrigue already simmering in Gricar's case exploded. Sleuths desperately tried to find a link between the two cases, but investigators said there was no evidence that Gricar's disappearance had anything to do with Sandusky's crimes. But some have stuck to the homicide theory, suggesting that Gricar was an enemy of mob-like gangs in central Pennsylvania who were upset at his drug and corruption prosecutions. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist, said he considered writing a book about Gricar, his ties to the Sandusky case, and whether it led to suicide. But, Wecht said, he abandoned the book idea when it became clear there was not enough evidence. \"I don't think it's a great stretch,\" Wecht said. \"He was one of those guys with a very strong sense of justice and professional discipline and in light of what evolved and came to be disclosed -- I speak as a forensic pathologist who's done so many suicides over the years and what can bring someone to that point. It's pure conjecture, not based on any factual knowledge.\" Plus, Wecht said, if it was a suicide, \"I don't understand how they never recovered the body.\" Bob Buehner, a former district attorney in Montour County, Pennsylvania, who was Gricar's friend, has never accepted a suicide or walk-away theory. He believes his colleague was killed. Buehner has doubts that, 10 years later, state police can recover from what he considers a bungled start to the case. \"It didn't seem like there was any overall game plan that made sense in terms of a systematic investigation,\" Buehner said. \"One of the things I'd asked them to do from the first couple weeks is now impossible to do -- to do a hotel-motel canvas looking for the mystery woman seen with Ray and then match the names with photo IDs which police have access to.\" Buehner said those records are now gone and his faith in finding Gricar is dwindling. \"I give it a 50-50 at best and only because I'm an optimist and I hope that's what will happen,\" he said. \"As a pessimist, maybe 1 in 10 that we'll find him.\" Despite fresh eyes on the investigation when it was handed over to state authorities last year, the mystery woman has not been found. \"Pennsylvania State Police continue to chase down new leads and take a fresh look at old leads and we continue to hold out hope that something will break out in this case,\" said Centre County's District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller. \"Everybody, regardless of what position they held, deserves this kind of attention. In any missing persons case, he's not the only one, we feel discouraged when we can't answer the questions for the family, but it doesn't change our dedication to the case.\" The case has gotten significant attention on the national level, appearing on several true-crime television shows, including HLN's \"Nancy Grace.\" So it was strange to many in Pennsylvania that for years a case with such a high profile would be handled by the tiny Bellefonte Police Department, where one investigator was assigned to juggle Gricar's case along with several more. In 2014, the state police took over, but that was nine years after Gricar went missing and two years after he had been declared legally dead. Sources close to the investigation told CNN the case, as state police received it, was disorganized and porous. Evidence had been compromised in storage. Reports were missing. Evidence had been collecting dust in file cabinets. There was never a forensic audit of his finances. Today, some of Gricar's friends believe the case is damaged beyond repair. They have lost faith that there will ever be any answers. When asked if she thought things might change when state police got the case, Barbara Gray, his ex-wife and the mother of his daughter Lara, said no. \"The evidence is the same,\" she said. Lara declined to comment, and investigators said they've had trouble reaching her. \"There is always a remote possibility that we might never have an answer,\" said Lt. James Emigh, who leads the investigation for the Pennsylvania State Police after inheriting it last year. \"We still hold out hope, and the state police will however continue to diligently follow up every possible lead and attempt to bring closure to the family and friends of Ray.\"","highlights":"Prosecutor Ray Gricar has been missing for 10 years .\nHis laptop and hard drive were found too damaged to read .\nGricar has been declared legally dead ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Pardon us, \"Lost\" fans, but April 8 wasn't only your day. Yes, we know the significance of April 8, 2015, and the alignment of 4:23.42 p.m. on that date to everyone obsessed with the hit ABC show, and we heard about the general geek-outs that were occurring. But don't forget, April 8 was also \"Rex Manning Day.\" Twitter didn't, paying homage to the 1995 film \"Empire Records\" and the character of Rex Manning, played by the very dreamy Maxwell Caulfield. The movie -- also starring Liv Tyler, Anthony LaPaglia and Ren\u00e9e Zellweger -- centers on an independent record store in Delaware where, on April 8, former pop idol Manning is scheduled to make an in-store appearance. Fret not if you missed it, as we have some other dates made famous by films that you aren't going to want to let pass you by: . April 14 . Their love affair was doomed like two ships passing in the night, but it was so good while it lasted for Jack and Rose in the 1997 blockbuster movie \"Titanic.\" The sketch Jack does of his beloved is dated April 14, 1912. The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. April 25 . Thanks to the 2000 film \"Miss Congeniality,\" we now know that April 25 is the perfect date. Just don't forget to dress accordingly. October 3 . \"Mean Girls Day\" is officially October 3, given that's when Aaron Samuels (OMG, he is so hot!) asks Cady what day it is. Of course, she replies \"It's October 3.\" Honestly, any day is a good day to quote the 2004 film. It's so fetch. October 21, 2015 . Buckle up for this one. In the 1989 film \"Back to the Future Part II,\" Marty McFly and the gang travel to October 21, 2015. We hope to be celebrating that in our flying car that we are STILL waiting on, please and thank you.","highlights":"April 8 was huge for \"Lost\" and \"Empire Records\" fans .\nApril 14, April 25, October 21 are other big dates in movies ."} -{"article":"(CNN)On October 31, 2014, the Italian government announced the end of \"Mare Nostrum\" -- a naval mission that rescued would-be migrants in peril as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to seek security and a new life in Europe. In the operation's year-long existence, the Italian Navy and Coastguard had rescued an estimated 100,000 people. But it proved expensive and politically contentious, and Europe was not prepared to help Italy shoulder the burden of the crisis. Without European support, the Italian government cut back the naval assets dedicated to rescuing migrants. Mare Nostrum, which had been launched after some 600 people died when two migrant ships sank in 2013, was replaced by the more modest \"Operation Triton,\" under the auspices of the European Union's border agency, Frontex. Triton has about one-third of the funding of Mare Nostrum, with just six ships and patrol boats, two planes and one helicopter. It was designed as a policing rather than a humanitarian mission. At its inception, Klaus Rosler, operations director for Frontex, said \"Triton is not a replacement for Mare Nostrum.\" Nor was Frontex \"a coordinating body for search and rescue operations.\" Six months later, the argument about how to handle unprecedented numbers of desperate people heading for Europe continues unabated. Contributors to Triton include Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland and Iceland. Britain -- for example -- is not. It argues that search and rescue operations in international waters are \"an unintended 'pull factor,' encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths.\" It's perhaps no coincidence that immigration is a hot-button issue in Britain, with the UK Independence Party attacking the Conservative-led coalition government for being soft on allowing foreigners into the country. Similarly, the opposition Northern League in Italy opposed Mare Nostrum, accusing it of enticing migrants. If the first few months of this year are any guide, demand has not diminished even if the prospect of being rescued has. People from Syria, Mali and Eritrea are among the tens of thousands trying to escape repression, violence and abject poverty. Despite the danger, the great majority head first for Libya, where the collapse of authority allows smuggling operations to go unhindered. Italy -- the European state whose territory is closest to Libya -- has borne the brunt of the task of picking up, sheltering and providing food and medical help to the illegal migrants. In 2014, 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea. Italian ships have picked up about 11,000 migrants in the past week alone. The islands of Sicily and of Lampedusa (which is closer to Tunisia than to mainland Italy) see an almost daily influx of human misery. And at this time of year, there is a surge in the illegal trafficking as the weather and sea conditions improve. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said the Mediterranean is a sea, not a cemetery. On Sunday, in the wake of the latest disaster, he complained that Italy had been coping with the crisis in \"near solitude, sometimes assisted by some other international presence.\" Italy has also led calls for an international peacekeeping issue to help restore stability in Libya, not least in an effort to tackle the flow of migrants, many of whom set out from around Misrata and other ports in the west of the country. According to some human rights groups, the danger to migrants on the high seas has been accentuated by merchant ships turning a blind eye to boats in distress -- despite a maritime obligation to come to the aid of vessels in peril. After the latest sinking, the European Commission called an urgent meeting of foreign and interior ministers, saying that \"the reality is stark and our actions must therefore be bold. These are human lives at stake, and the European Union as a whole has a moral and humanitarian obligation to act.\" EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is Italian, said Sunday: \"We need to save human lives all together, as all together we need to protect our borders and to fight the trafficking of human beings.\" The task could not be \"left only to the southern countries,\" she insisted. But bold action is rarely a hallmark of the EU. The recently installed head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, has set out his priorities -- but they are yet to be acted upon. Junker said the current budget of Frontex - some 90 million euros ($97 million) - was \"a good start but does not yet equal the task of protecting Europe's common borders.\" That money has to cover all Frontex's roles -- and it's not only the Italian coast that is being targeted by migrants. Further east, thousands of migrants are trying to reach Greece by land and sea. According to the UN's refugee agency, 219,000 refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean last year. Junker has also argued for greater assistance to the European Asylum Support Office, which is based in Malta, arguing for \"more thorough risk assessments to spot problem areas before they become overloaded.\" Most controversially, Junker is proposing Europe adopt a common asylum system, saying that \"one and the same applicant for asylum can have a 70-75% chance of being granted asylum in one country of the European Union and less than 1%, with the same reasons, in another country.\" But progress toward a Europe-wide approach on migration is painfully slow. The European Commission plans to publish a policy document next month, but member states are in no hurry to grapple with such a politically explosive and costly subject. In the meantime, the argument in European meetings is likely to focus on priorities, with some (the UK and Germany) likely to argue that more resources must be devoted to cracking down on the lucrative people-smuggling racket. \"We must target the traffickers who are responsible for so many people dying at sea and prevent their innocent victims from being tricked or forced into making these perilous journeys,\" said British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Sunday. Others, including Italy, Greece, Spain and France, are expected to seek more concerted action in handling and funding the influx. But the hundreds of migrants being herded onto barely seaworthy boats from Libyan beaches will be oblivious to the debate. READ MORE: Migrant deaths at sea - what is Europe going to do?READ MORE: Why migrants are risking their lives to reach ItalyREAD MORE: 'I enter Europe or I die' - desperate migrants rescuedREAD MORE: How do illegal immigrants get into Europe?","highlights":"Italian Navy's \"Mare Nostrum\" mission to rescue would-be migrants in peril rescued an estimated 100,000 people .\nOperation ended in October 2014, but the tide of people trying to cross the Mediterranean has not abated .\nItaly has borne brunt of task of picking up, sheltering and providing food and medical help to illegal migrants ."} -{"article":"(CNN)One hundred and forty-seven victims. Many more families affected. Even more broken hopes and dreams. As Kenyans mourned those killed last week in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the nation, citizens used social media to share the victims' stories, hopes and dreams. Using the hashtag #147notjustanumber -- a reference to the number of people, mostly students, killed at Garissa University College on Thursday -- Kenyans tweeted pictures of the victims in happier times. Kenyan authorities have not released a list of the victims. The posts provided heart-wrenching details on the victims, including one about an elderly man whose dreams died with his son. He had reportedly taken a loan to educate him at the university, where he was killed by Al-Shabaab terrorists. The attack in Kenya killed 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel, and was the nation's deadliest since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998. Kenyan churches mourned the dead during Easter services Sunday as armed guards protected the congregations. In emotional services nationwide, churchgoers wept as they paid tribute to the victims of the massacre. The gunmen who attacked the university in the predawn hours separated Muslims from Christians and killed the latter. The extremist group has also killed Muslims in recent attacks. The Interior Ministry has identified one of the attackers killed by security forces as the son of a government official. The father of suspect Abdirahim Abdullahi is a chief in Mandera and had reported his son missing, officials said. The Islamist extremist group is based in Somalia, but it hasn't confined its terrorism to the nation that shares a border with Kenya. In 2013, militants attacked Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall, killing nearly 70 people.","highlights":"Kenyans use hashtag #147notjustanumber to honor victims of Kenya university attack .\nThe attack killed 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A trip to a former heavyweight champ's gaudy, abandoned mansion. The tallest and fastest \"giga-coaster\" in the world. A dramatic interview with a famed spiritual leader -- and the tearful reaction by one of his former students. These are some of the best videos of the week: . In the 1980s and '90s -- before he moved to Vegas and started keeping tigers as pets -- former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson lived in a Southington, Ohio, mansion. The home featured an indoor swimming pool, a marble-and-gold Jacuzzi (with mirrored ceiling, naturally) and an entertainment room large enough for small concerts. Tyson sold the house in 1999; it's due to become, of all things, a church. The video can be seen at the top of this story. Not a fan of roller coasters? You may want to skip the next video -- but for the rest of us, the thrill of watching is the next best thing to being there. The Fury 325 can be found at Carowinds amusement part in Charlotte, North Carolina. Watch the video: . In a CNN exclusive, Alisyn Camerota looked into allegations that Bikram yoga creator Bikram Choudhury sexually assaulted six former students. \"He's a person who's based a lot of truths on a lot of lies,\" said Sarah Baughn, who alleges that Choudhury sexually assaulted her. Watch the video: . CNN's Karl Penhaul spoke to a shepherd who witnessed the final seconds of Germanwings Flight 9525, which crashed in the French Alps last week. \"I saw the plane heading down along the valley and I said, 'My God, it's going to hit the mountain,' \" Jean Varrieras told Penhaul. \"I ducked my head. ... Then after that, I saw the smoke.\" Watch the video: . Magician and comedian Penn Jillette was part of a panel speaking to CNN's Don Lemon about the controversial Indiana religious freedom law. Jillette, an avowed atheist and libertarian, noted \"we are not talking about forcing people to engage in gay sex, or even endorse gay sex.\" His provocative opening led to an energetic back-and-forth with the Alliance Defending Freedom's Kristen Waggoner and the ACLU's Rita Sklar. Watch the video: . A professor of physics at a British university asked 100 people to create a composite with facial features they thought were beautiful -- and then asked another 100 to rate their attractiveness. You'll never guess what celebrities best fit the model. Watch the video: .","highlights":"Here are six of CNN's best videos of the week .\nClips include a look at Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A nuclear submarine being repaired at a Russian shipyard has caught on fire, according to a law enforcement source speaking to Russia's state-run news agency ITAR-Tass. \"The submarine is in a dry dock,\" Tass reports, citing the source, and there is no ammunition on board. \"The rubber insulation between the submarine's light and pressure hull is on fire,\" Tass reported. Russia's RIA Novosti news agency says insulation caught on fire as welding work was being done on the submarine. Tass reported that the fire began on a sub in the Zvyozdochka shipyard in northwestern Russia. Zvyozdochka spokesman Yevgeny Gladyshev told the news agency that the sub had been undergoing repairs since November 2013. \"Nuclear fuel from the sub's reactor has been unloaded,\" he reportedly said. \"There are no armaments or chemically active, dangerous substances, fissionable materials on it,\" Gladyshev said to Tass. \"The enterprise's personnel left the premises when the submarine caught fire, no one has been injured. The fire presents no threat to people and the shipyard.\"","highlights":"Submarine is in Zvyozdochka shipyard, in northwestern Russia .\nNo \"dangerous\" substances on the submarine, shipyard spokesman told ITAR-Tass ."} diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl deleted file mode 100644 index da5494d55b..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1723 +0,0 @@ -{"article":"(CNN) -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain in August will be on the same stage for the first time in the 2008 presidential campaign. The Rev. Rick Warren says he makes no endorsements because he shepherds \"both sides of the flock.\" The Rev. Rick Warren has invited them to appear at a leadership and compassion forum in his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, on August 16. Warren, the author of the best-selling book \"The Purpose Driven Life\" spoke with CNN's Wolf Blitzer by phone Tuesday from Sao Paulo, Brazil. BLITZER: Pastor Warren, how did you do it? How did you convince both of them to show up? PASTOR RICK WARREN, SADDLEBACK CHURCH: Well, Wolf, they've both been friends for a long time. I knew both John and Barack before either of them decided to run for office, had talked with them. Both of them have helped me in the past with our peace plan and with -- they've sent messages to Saddleback at some of our conferences. And so I just thought let's -- you know, I might be the guy to get them together. So, I called them up and said, let's do it. And they said, well, we'll do it if you be the only questioner, if you don't have a forum, don't have a panel. And if you'll ask all the questions, then we'll do it. BLITZER: But they're not going to be together. They're going to be separate. These are going to be Pastor Warren and Barack Obama, followed by Pastor Warren and John McCain. But there's not going to be any interchange between the two of them, is that right? WARREN: Yes. I'm going to -- my plan is to bring them out on stage together at the beginning or at the end. But what I want to do is I want to let each of them talk without interrupting each other. And it's not a debate format. There will be plenty of time for debates. What I want to do is get people to know the real person like I know them without a time barrier and a buzzer and a time for rebuttal. Let them just speak what they need to say. BLITZER: The last time we spoke was right after you invited Barack Obama when he was still running for the Democratic presidential nomination. You got some criticism from a few fellow evangelicals out there. You called him in the interview with me an amazing, an amazing man, Barack Obama. Could you see yourself supporting him for president? WARREN: Well, I don't support anybody for president publicly. I never endorse. I never campaign. You know, as a pastor, I don't really think that's my role. I have to shepherd both sides of the flock. And I have a church full of Democrats and a church full of Republicans and a church full of independents. So, I think they're both amazing men. I've known them for a long time. They're both very, very different. They have both different theories of government, different theories of leadership, different approaches to life. And I -- what I do is I think, because I know them, I think I can set up an environment that people can actually say, oh, so that's what that guy's really like. And I think I can do that for both John and for Barack.","highlights":"The Rev. Rick Warren will play host to candidates at his church .\nWarren says he's friends with both and wants people to know them as he does .\nWarren is author of the best-selling book \"The Purpose Driven Life\""} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The top court in Iraq sentenced two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers to death Wednesday for crimes against humanity. Tariq Aziz, seen in 2002, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity. The court also sentenced former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and a former senior official known as \"Chemical Ali\" -- Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- to 15 years in custody for crimes against humanity, an official with the Iraq High Tribunal told CNN. The men were sentenced for their roles in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants. In an unrelated trial last week, Al-Majeed was sentenced to death for his role in putting down an uprising in Baghdad a decade ago, Iraqi state TV reported. It was the third death sentence for al-Majeed, a cousin of Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq who was toppled from power by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003. Al-Majeed and other former members of Hussein's regime remain in U.S. custody. His execution has been delayed for political rather than legal reasons. In last week's trial, Aziz was acquitted. Aziz, one of the best-known faces of the Hussein regime, was Iraq's deputy prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and also served as minister of foreign affairs for part of that time. He was captured by U.S. forces in April 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Meanwhile, car bombs in the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk killed six people on Wednesday, officials told CNN. The Mosul car bomb, which targeted troops, killed four people and wounded 14 others, an Interior Ministry official said. The car, parked near the city's medical college, blew up near an Iraqi army patrol. Of the dead, three were soldiers. Four other soldiers were among those wounded. Mosul, which has long been a volatile city, has had a strong militant presence. In Kirkuk, a parked car bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing two civilians and wounding seven others. The oil-rich and ethnically diverse city is known for sectarian and political tension. People were injured in wo other incidents in Iraq on Wednesday. In Baghdad, mortar fire in a residential area wounded four civilians. And a roadside bomb in the largely Kurdish town of Jalawla in Diyala province wounded four police officers. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this story .","highlights":"NEW: Car bombs in northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk kill six people .\nTwo Saddam Hussein half-brothers sentenced to death for crimes against humanity .\nCourt gives 15-year sentences to former Deputy PM Tariq Aziz and \"Chemical Ali\"\n\"Chemical Ali,\" Hussein's cousin, already faces three death sentences ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Football superstar, celebrity, fashion icon, multimillion-dollar heartthrob. Now, David Beckham is headed for the Hollywood Hills as he takes his game to U.S. Major League Soccer. CNN looks at how Bekham fulfilled his dream of playing for Manchester United, and his time playing for England. The world's famous footballer has begun a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy team, and on Friday Beckham will meet the press and reveal his new shirt number. This week, we take an in depth look at the life and times of Beckham, as CNN's very own \"Becks,\" Becky Anderson, sets out to examine what makes the man tick -- as footballer, fashion icon and global phenomenon. It's a long way from the streets of east London to the Hollywood Hills and Becky charts Beckham's incredible rise to football stardom, a journey that has seen his skills grace the greatest stages in world soccer. She goes in pursuit of the current hottest property on the sports\/celebrity circuit in the U.S. and along the way explores exactly what's behind the man with the golden boot. CNN will look back at the life of Beckham, the wonderfully talented youngster who fulfilled his dream of playing for Manchester United, his marriage to pop star Victoria, and the trials and tribulations of playing for England. We'll look at the highs (scoring against Greece), the lows (being sent off during the World Cup), the Man. U departure for the Galacticos of Madrid -- and now the Home Depot stadium in L.A. We'll ask how Beckham and his family will adapt to life in Los Angeles -- the people, the places to see and be seen and the celebrity endorsement. Beckham is no stranger to exposure. He has teamed with Reggie Bush in an Adidas commercial, is the face of Motorola, is the face on a PlayStation game and doesn't need fashion tips as he has his own international clothing line. But what does the star couple need to do to become an accepted part of Tinseltown's glitterati? The road to major league football in the U.S.A. is a well-worn route for some of the world's greatest players. We talk to some of the former greats who came before him and examine what impact these overseas stars had on U.S. soccer and look at what is different now. We also get a rare glimpse inside the David Beckham academy in L.A, find out what drives the kids and who are their heroes. The perception that in the U.S.A. soccer is a \"game for girls\" after the teenage years is changing. More and more young kids are choosing the European game over the traditional U.S. sports. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Beckham has agreed to a five-year contract with Los Angeles Galaxy .\nNew contract took effect July 1, 2007 .\nFormer English captain to meet press, unveil new shirt number Friday .\nCNN to look at Beckham as footballer, fashion icon and global phenomenon ."} -{"article":"(ESSENCE.com) -- While the country celebrates the first black president, African-Americans are facing critical challenges from high unemployment, home foreclosures and a record number of black men in prison. Marc Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League. Despite these disparities and the fact that African-Americans have been hit hardest by the current economic meltdown, a recent New York Times\/CBS News poll found that 59 percent of African-Americans believe the country has made real progress in race relations, a 30 percent jump from last year. The National Urban League, in its report \"The State of Black America 2009,\" acknowledges the feeling of hope the Obama administration brings, but demands the president examine the sobering issues facing African-Americans. ESSENCE.com asked president and CEO of the Urban League Marc H. Morial whether or not the sentiments reflected in the poll mirror the national Black perspective. ESSENCE: With all of these factors that are challenging the African-American community today, do you really believe most of us feel like race relations between blacks and whites have improved? See how a few Americans feel about race relations \u00bb . Marc H. Morial: I know that a poll is a snapshot of time, and while it's important to keep the proper context, this is a positive thing. Yes, people are beginning to have a healthier view of race relations. But we must keep in mind the underlying conditions that people are currently living in. There are still very significant disparities between blacks and whites in America. The unemployment rate in the current recession is but one example. ESSENCE: Do you believe the election of the first African-American president had anything to do with the change in black attitude toward the future of the U.S.? Morial: This is clearly a visible example of the effect of President Obama's election. It has created hope, optimism and a better way of thinking about the issue of race. I just hope that it's sustainable. If it's sustainable, it means we can work towards addressing and alleviating some of those underlying conditions. We should hope that it maintains and translates into positive action to try to close some of the difficult challenges like the economic gap and the housing problem. ESSENCE: Does it surprise you that white people had an equally positive outlook on race relations? Morial: Not in light of Obama. He got more white votes than Kerry or Gore. He also got a higher black turnout than at any other time in American history. So he has demonstrated this unique important ability at the national level to appeal to a broad cross-section of people. People place a considerable amount of trust and optimism in his leadership. Watch an Essence editor talk about her interview with Michelle Obama \u00bb . ESSENCE: How have organizations like the National Urban League reinforced this new attitude about race? Morial: I really believe a great deal has to do with President Obama. To have that kind of effect and impact means that people are willing to move forward and they believe and hope that things are getting better. Our mission at the National Urban League is to help children and adults, young and old, achieve economic parity, through programs and public policy. Those that have worked in the trenches for many years to improve relations and conditions deserve some credit, but the issue for us is about sustainability and transferability. Have race relations improved? Watch to find out \u00bb . We want to see this epidemic of high school dropouts improve. We want to see this disparity that exists in economics reduced. These issues are so critical and important. My hope is that this new change in attitude will ultimately lead to that.","highlights":"African-Americans still face critical challenges such as high unemployment .\nMajority of blacks believe U.S. has made progress in race relations .\nNational Urban League CEO talks about \"The State of Black America 2009\"\nCEO: Obama \"has created hope, optimism and a better way of thinking\""} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Three people were killed and at least 84 were injured Saturday morning when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck northeastern Japan, Japanese officials said. The quake struck at about 8:43 a.m. north of Sendai, Japan. Another five people were missing, national police said. Officials said the earthquake led to the buckling of highways and caused some bridges to collapse. Bullet trains were also stopped in the affected areas. Two nuclear power plants in the region were not affected, officials said. Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said one man was killed when he was buried in a landslide in Fukushima Prefecture and the other was struck by a truck as he rushed out of his house in Iwate Prefecture. Officials have not yet released details of the third death. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda sent priority orders for rescue operations, Machimura said. The quake, which struck at about 8:43 a.m. (11:43 p.m. GMT Friday), was centered 100 km (60 miles) north of Sendai in southern Iwate prefecture. The Japanese Meteorological Agency said several strong aftershocks followed the initial quake. The Iwate government office said it had received reports that eight children and a teacher were injured by breaking windows at a preschool and that the earthquake produced landslides in some areas. The Miyagi fire department said there had been some injuries caused by falling furniture, and some bus passengers were injured when the vehicle bounced on a bridge. Two houses collapsed, the fire department said. East Japan Railway suspended Shinkansen bullet trains in the Tohoku region, and many other train lines in the region suspended operation as well. Expressways in Miyagi were also closed. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that operations at nuclear power plants in Fukushima prefecture were not affected, Kyodo said. There were no tsunami warnings issued after the quake. Local governments, fire departments and police were working to gather damage reports. CNN's Junko Ogura and Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three people dead, at least 84 injured after earthquake hits Japan .\nU.S. Geological Survey reports 7.0 magnitude quake on Japanese island of Honshu .\nQuake struck at around 8:43 a.m. Saturday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists in Colombia have unearthed the remains of a true prehistoric monster believed to be the biggest snake ever to have lived on Earth. An artist's impression of what Titanoboa cerrejonensis would have looked like. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the snake would have weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip -- dwarfing the largest modern pythons and anacondas which can grow to 6 meters (19.5 feet). Scientists believe it slithered around the planet between 58 and 60 million years ago. Geologist David Polly, who identified the position of the fossil vertebrae which made a size estimate possible, said in a statement Wednesday: \"At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips. The size is pretty amazing. \"But our team went a step further and asked, how warm would the Earth have to be to support a body of this size?\" Titanoboa's fossilized remains were discovered at a coal mine in the tropical Cerrejon region of northern Colombia by an international team of scientists. \"Truly enormous snakes really spark people's imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood,\" paleontologist Jonathan Bloch, who co-led the expedition, told reporters. \"The snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in the movie 'Anaconda' was not as big as the one we found.\" Based on the snake's size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said. \"Tropical ecosystems of South America were surprisingly different 60 million years ago,\" said Bloch. \"It was a rainforest, like today, but it was even hotter and the cold-blooded reptiles were all substantially larger. \"The result was, among other things, the largest snakes the world has ever seen...and hopefully ever will.\" According to Nature.com, snakes are poikilotherms (cold-blooded) that, unlike humans, need heat from their environment to power their metabolism. Therefore research suggests that at the time the region would have had to be no less than 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit for the snake to have survived. Most large snakes today live in the tropical regions of South America and south-east Asia, where the high temperatures allow them to grow to impressive sizes. Meanwhile, Carlos Jaramillo -- who was also part of the expedition -- said the tropical rainforest at Cerrejon appeared to have thrived at these temperatures. \"This data challenges the view that tropical vegetation lives near its climatic optimum, and it has profound implications in understanding the effect of current global warming on tropical plants,\" he said.","highlights":"Snake weighed 1,140 kgs (2,500 pounds), measured 13 meters (42.7 feet)\nScientists believe it lived between 58 and 60 million years ago .\nSize offers clues about world's temperature at this time .\nDiscovered by scientists in tropical northern region of Colombia ."} -{"article":"GONAIVES, Haiti (CNN) -- Four major storms have raked the desperately poor country of Haiti in the past month, leaving at least 341 people dead. A man carries drinking water through the flooded streets of Gonaives, Haiti, on Monday. Nine of the deaths were attributed to Fay, 79 to Gustav, 183 to Hanna and 70 to Ike, said Abel Nazaire, deputy head of Haiti's Civil Protection Service. The country's fragile infrastructure was overloaded after the storms and officials were concerned that the floodwaters could spread disease, Sophie Boutaud de la Combe, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, said Tuesday. Gonaives, on the west coast, is one of the hardest-hit cities. This week, Gonaives was knee-deep in filthy water and reachable only by water or air, with many of Haiti's bridges destroyed and roads flooded. \"My home is destroyed. I have no place to live with my kids. Everything I had just washed away,\" Roselene Josef told CNN. Watch desperate survivors in Gonaives \u00bb . Another survivor said, \"The flood washed away everything. I couldn't save anything. They should just move this city. Floods always destroy it.\" Aid workers warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis as attempts to deliver aid were frustrated by logistical problems. The U.S. Navy's USS Kearsarge arrived in the waters off Haiti on Monday to support the U.S. Agency for International Development's efforts to assist after the devastation. The vessel will help move cargo and equipment between affected cities and will deliver relief supplies, said the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command. But Monday, the Kearsarge wasn't able to deliver anything to Gonaives, because the ship's scout helicopters couldn't find a suitable place for supplies to be unloaded, according to The Associated Press. A U.S. Coast Guard ship carrying 35 tons of relief supplies arrived Saturday in Gonaives. The U.S. cutter was preceded by a ship carrying U.N. relief supplies, including 19 tons of high-energy biscuits, 50,000 bottles of water and water purification tablets, which arrived Friday in Gonaives, said Myrta Kaulard of the United Nations' World Food Program. CNN's Karl Penhaul watched as U.N. troops handed out scant supplies of food and water to a long line of Haitians. The line became chaotic, with people fighting over supplies. Watch the devastation Penhaul found in Haiti \u00bb . Hundreds of people had taken shelter in a school. They told Penhaul they had not received relief aid in a week. An official in Gonaives told the AP on Monday that nine people had died in shelters, including two children. It was not clear if they had died of starvation or some other cause, Daniel Dupiton of the region's civil protection department told the AP. When floodwaters were at their highest, some residents camped out on their roofs, their clothing and blankets hung over the sides of buildings. Some people \"have lost really everything. ... These are not rich people, these are people who were really struggling [already] against high food prices,\" Kaulard said. U.S. Navy Capt. Frank Ponds said he had flown over part of southern and northern Haiti. \"I saw towns that were completely flooded,\" Ponds said. \"I saw infrastructure, such as bridge[s] and roads, totally wiped out.\" The eye of Hurricane Ike never touched Haiti earlier this week, but the storm system did bring heavy rains and winds to Gonaives and other towns. Jean Pierre Guiteau, executive director for the Red Cross in Haiti, said 52 people were killed when a river burst its banks in the mountain town of Cabaret near the capital, Port-au-Prince. Another 21 bodies were pulled from sea at Fort-Libert\u00e9, Haiti, close to the border with the Dominican Republic. \"It's a very grim picture,\" Guiteau said Sunday. \"Things certainly are getting no better.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gonaives, Haiti, cut off from rest of country by flooded roads, washed-out bridges .\nSome flood survivors say they haven't received aid in a week .\nLogistical problems prompt aid workers to warn of deepening humanitarian crisis .\nAt least 341 people have died in four storms in Haiti ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A woman who helped raise a child with her female partner in Vermont before the pair split can visit the girl in Virginia even though that state doesn't recognize same-sex unions, a court ruled Friday. Janet Jenkins with Isabella, the daughter she helped raise with former partner Lisa Miller. Virginia's Supreme Court ruled that Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller's civil union in 2000 gave Vermont, and its law on same-sex unions, jurisdiction over their subsequent custody and visitation disputes. Miller moved to Virginia with the child in 2003, and a Vermont court granted Jenkins visitation rights. But Miller took the case to a Virginia court, which ruled that Jenkins had no such rights there. The case was considered by legal experts to be the first conflict between two state courts over a major legal question arising from same-sex unions. Jenkins' attorney, Joseph Price of the Washington law firm Arent Fox, said Friday's ruling \"just affirms the old principle that when these kinds of custody and visitation disputes begin in one state, that's where they should remain.\" \"You can't shop them around to another state,\" Price said. \"Virginia really had no choice but to enforce judgments and judicial orders from Vermont.\" Vermont is one of the few states that allow same-sex partners to enter into a civil union. Two years after Vermont recognized Miller and Jenkins' relationship, Miller gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination. The relationship deteriorated, and Miller and the baby moved to Virginia. A Vermont court later granted Miller a dissolution of the civil union and granted custody of the child to her and visitation rights to Jenkins. Miller then asked the courts in Virginia -- which does not recognize same-sex unions or marriages -- to take jurisdiction of the dispute. A Virginia state judge eventually ruled that Jenkins had no \"parentage or visitation rights.\" The Virginia high court ruling Friday returned the case to Vermont's control, meaning Jenkins can visit the girl, who is now 6. Miller's attorney, Mathew Staver, said he was \"disappointed the state sidestepped the larger legal questions.\" \"This case shows that one state is not an island in the same-sex marriage dispute, and underscores having state laws that protect traditional one-man, one-woman marriages,\" said Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, a law firm that fights on behalf of what it calls \"traditional families.\" Miller said in 2005 that she was doing what was best for her daughter and was no longer a lesbian. \"I am Isabella's mom. I did conceive her; I birthed her,\" she said. \"I'm raising her. And in my opinion, Isabella needs to stay with me 100 percent of the time, because I am the only person that she identifies as a mom.\" Miller lives with Isabella in Winchester, Virginia. Jenkins did not offer an immediate reaction to the ruling but said in 2005 that she was only fighting for her rights as a parent. \"Justice will be served for Isabella,\" she said. \"I believe that. And I'll do whatever it takes. I'll be with her for as long as I can, or I'll be without her for as long as I have to, but I'm her mom. \"She's born here [in Vermont]. She's always here.\" Price said Jenkins, who lives in Fair Haven, Vermont, was supposed to visit Isabella last weekend, but Miller didn't appear with the girl. Friday's ruling comes a week after the California Supreme Court's refusal to delay its recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Massachusetts also allows same-sex marriages; Vermont and three other states permit civil unions, and 12 other states give gay and lesbian couples some legal rights. Virginia amended its constitution in 2007 to decree that marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman.","highlights":"Virginia ruling gives Vermont court jurisdiction over case .\nJanet Jenkins and Lisa Miller were in civil union in Vermont but later split .\nMiller moved to Virginia with child; Vermont court allowed Jenkins visitation .\nMiller got Virginia court to block visitation; Friday's ruling overturns that ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Saudi lawyer who represented a woman kidnapped and raped by seven men said his license to practice has been reinstated. A protest appeared in India in November against the Saudi sentence. Lawyer and human rights activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem told CNN's Nic Robertson that the Justice Ministry has reinstated his license. Al-Lahem had previously told CNN that the Saudi judge revoked his license as punishment for speaking to the media about his client's case, which attracted international attention. His client, an engaged teenager, was raped by seven men who found her alone with a man unrelated to her. She has said she was meeting with the man to retrieve a photograph. The attack took place in Qatif in March 2006. The seven rapists were sentenced to two to nine years in prison but she also was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for having violated the kingdom's strict Islamic law by being alone with an unrelated man. The woman's sentence provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabian law. Under Saudi law, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. In challenging what he said were his suspension and disbarment, al-Lahem said he had received threats on his life from the religious right. Last month, Minister of Justice Abdallah bin Mohammed al-Sheikh, in a phone call to a Saudi Television newscast, said the lawyer's license had never been revoked. \"Such decisions are made through institutions in the kingdom,\" he said. \"The punishment of the lawyer or any lawyer does not come from a reaction; it comes from a carefully examined procedure within a special council in the ministry.\" He said the council charged with deciding law license revocations had not issued any decisions in the case. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Saudi lawyer Abdul Rahman al-Lahem says his license to practice is reinstated .\nAl-Lahem says license revoked because he publicized rape victim's conviction .\nSaudi minister last month denied license was ever revoked .\nRape victim was convicted of being alone with an unrelated man ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portuguese football coach Jose Mourinho caused outcry this week when he substituted Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari due to his low-energy levels -- which were a result of fasting. Muntari is a practicing Muslim who, like many of the same faith around the world, is currently not eating during the hours of daylight to mark the Ramadan holy period. The midfielder is not the only high-profile player who will be fasting, check out Fanzone's First XI of Islamic stars..","highlights":"Jose Mourinho substituted Sulley Muntari because he had been low energy .\nThe Ghanaian midfielder is a Muslim and had been fasting during Ramadan .\nFrance international Franck Ribery is another high-profile Muslim ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jody Powell, who served as press secretary for President Jimmy Carter, has died, a spokesman for the Carter Center said. He was 65. Former White House Press Secretary Jody Powell died Monday. Powell, who served in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981, died Monday of an apparent heart attack, Carter Center spokesman Tony Clark told CNN. Carter said he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter \"share a great personal loss today in the passing of Jody Powell.\" \"From the time he began, as a young graduate student, as my volunteer driver during my 1970 run for governor, no one worked more closely with me than Jody,\" the former president and former governor of Georgia said in a statement. \"Jody was beside me in every decision I made as a candidate, governor, and president, and I could always depend on his advice and counsel being candid and direct.\" Robert Gibbs, press secretary to President Barack Obama, said he was \"deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Jody Powell.\" \"As press secretary to President Carter, Jody served his country during a difficult time, and he always did the job with grace and good humor,\" Gibbs said in a statement. \"When I needed advice at the start of my own tenure as press secretary, he was always generous with his time and wise in his counsel. I'll miss his support and encouragement, and I'll be keeping him and his family in my thoughts and prayers,\" he said. After his press secretary stint under Carter, Powell headed a Washington public relations firm, Powell-Tate, partnering with Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, Sheila Tate.","highlights":"Carters \"share a great personal loss today in the passing of Jody Powell\"\nCarter: \"Beside me in every decision I made as a candidate, governor, and president\"\nPowell also headed Washington PR firm with Nancy Reagan's ex-press secretary ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Adam Walsh, Etan Patz and Madeleine McCann, before the first Amber Alert, before a young face stared back from the side of a milk carton, there was Danny. Danny Barter was 4 when he vanished in 1959 while on a family camping trip. Danny Barter vanished in 1959. He was on a family camping trip to Alabama's Perdido Bay. He was playing with his dad one minute, gone the next. \"Just like that,\" recalled his brother Mike Barter. Danny was 4 years old. Last weekend, his loved ones returned to the campsite and to the scene of the presumed stranger abduction. They came to remember Danny and to rededicate a half-century mission to find him. Even with the passage of time, their faith has not wavered. \"We've never doubted that he's ... out there,\" Mike Barter said. \"Until they prove otherwise, we hope one day we will be reunited.\" Their hope has been bolstered by investigators with the FBI and the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, which reopened the case last year after hearing of a recent conversation. \"A lead was sparked when someone was sitting in a public area talking about what happened,\" FBI spokeswoman Joyce Riggs wrote in an e-mail to the media. As cold case cops know, a wisp of a lead can turn into a big break, a fact FBI Special Agent Angela Tobon believes can solve the Daniel Barter mystery. \"Even if [people] think it's insignificant, it's probably not,\" Tobon said. \"Each little piece of the puzzle may not mean something, but when you put it all together, you get the big picture.\" Danny was the third youngest of Paul and Maxine Barter's seven children. He had brown hair and big brown eyes. \"He's such a very pretty and sweet child,\" his mom told the Mobile Register in an article published June 21, 1959. \"I can understand why someone would want to take him, because he's such a pretty child.\" Three days earlier, Danny, his parents and his siblings were enjoying a family outing near the Gulf shore. Danny and his dad had just returned from getting some drinks at a store. Tents were pitched. Fishing poles were prepared. And then someone noticed that Danny was gone. \"I had first believed that despite Danny's fear of water, he had wandered into the water and drowned,\" Maxine Barter told the Mobile Register. \"But not now. I believe he probably walked up the road, and someone picked him up.\" The search was extensive and immediate. Hundreds combed the land and the waters, looking for Danny. Bloodhounds were given his scent and dispatched to follow it. Alligators were killed and cut open. But there was no trace of Danny, then or now. For his parents and the police, the sickening conclusion was quickly reached: He was stolen by a human predator. Danny's mom could not fathom that the kidnapper would bring harm to her boy. \"I hope now that someone did take Danny, because I know if anyone wanted him bad enough to kidnap him, they would take good care of him,\" she said. Fifty years later, the family longs for closure. Paul and Maxine Barter are both deceased, but their children carry on the decades-long pursuit to know the truth. On dannybarter.com, a Web site dedicated to finding answers, the family posted this plea to the public: . \"We strongly believe that someone out there knows what happened to Danny and possibly knows him as another identity. We hope to find him safe and sound.\" The FBI is also seeking information on Danny Barter. It has published two photographs of him on its Web site. One shows the smiling child, taken in the months before Danny was abducted. The other picture is age-progressed, depicting what Danny would look like today at 54. If you have any information on the Danny Barter case, go to dannybarter.com or contact the FBI, your local police or the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office in Alabama.","highlights":"FBI says it has a new lead in a 50-year-old cold case .\nDanny Barter, 4, is believed to have been taken by a stranger .\nBoy went missing during a family camping trip in Perdido Bay, Alabama .\nFBI says someone was overheard talking about the boy's abduction ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Inauguration revelry began Sunday afternoon as thousands of people packed the National Mall in Washington for a free concert featuring big stars. Thousands gather Sunday afternoon on the National Mall in Washington. President-elect Barack Obama addressed a roaring crowd after 90 minutes of high-energy acts such as U2, Mary J. Blige, Usher and Beyonce. \"Welcome to this celebration of American renewal,\" he said. \"In the course of our history, only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now.\" \"I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure,\" Obama said. \"That it will prevail; that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.\" Watch Obama address the crowd \u00bb . Obama spent the morning visiting Arlington National Cemetery and attending church before heading to the \"We are One: Opening Inaugural Celebration\" at the Lincoln Memorial. It was nothing but good vibes -- a brief respite for an incoming president who will face huge problems after he takes office Tuesday. Bruce Springsteen opened the concert with his song \"The Rising,\" singing, \"How far I've gone\/How high I've climbed\/On my back's a 60 pound stone\/On my shoulder a half mile line.\" Along the National Mall, between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, people watched the concert on massive screens and sang along with \"America the Beautiful\" and \"This Land is Your Land.\" During U2's performance of \"Pride (In the Name of Love),\" a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., frontman Bono referenced the civil rights leader's \"I Have a Dream\" speech, saying that it was also, \"an Irish dream, a European dream, and African dream, an Israeli dream, and a Palestinian dream.\" Watch performances from the concert \u00bb . Obama mentioned the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and also referred to King's \"I Have a Dream\" speech, which took place in the same spot where he was standing. \"Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character's content,\" he said. Obama said what gives him \"the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us, but what fills the spaces in between. It is you -- Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there.\" Vice President-elect Joe Biden also spoke, pointing to those \"marble domes\" and towers of Washington surrounding the crowd which represent the \"majesty of a great nation -- all built stone by stone by American men and women.\" Work is about \"dignity\" and \"respect,\" he said, praising the ethic of hard-working Americans. \"We owe them the chance to go to work each day knowing they have the thanks of a grateful nation.\" Comedians and actors such as Steve Carell and Jamie Foxx brought some comic levity to the inauguration of a president who will face some serious problems in just a few days. Foxx, always the showman, urged \"Chi-town\" to \"stand up!\" Joined by his wife Michelle and their children, the President-elect stood up, laughing and clapping. Foxx did an impression of Obama's speech election night, as Obama laughed. Stevie Wonder belted out \"Higher Ground\" with Shakira and Usher. Herbie Hancock backed Sheryl Crow and will i. am. as they sang Bob Marley's \"One Love.\" Garth Brooks sang the 1971 folk rock classic \"American Pie\" followed by a choir-backed version of \"We shall be free.\" Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jack Black and Rosario Dawson also addressed the crowd. The celebration caps Obama's shortened version of President Abraham Lincoln's 1861 rail trip to Washington. Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president in Washington on Tuesday. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday morning suggests most Americans see Obama's inauguration as a chance for a divided America to unify. \"You know the country is in the middle of a honeymoon when 6 in 10 Republicans have a positive view of Obama,\" said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. CNN's John King interviewed Obama this week in Ohio. King noted that Obama will take the oath of office on the steps of a Capitol built on the backs of slaves and live in a house built on the backs of slaves. \"This has to be incredibly overwhelming,\" King said. Watch Obama's interview with King \u00bb . Obama replied, \"The notion that I will be standing there and sworn in as the 44th president, I think, is something that hopefully our children take for granted. But our grandparents are still stung by it and it's a remarkable moment.\"","highlights":"President-elect Barack Obama speaks at inaugural concert .\nObama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden visit Tomb of Unknowns .\nThe concert is being streamed live for free on HBO.com ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Brand new runways are opening at three major airports Thursday, giving the aviation community something to cheer about in a year of dismal economic and travel news. Washington Dulles International Airport's new runway opens Thursday ahead of the busy holiday travel season. Washington Dulles International Airport will get a fourth runway, its first runway addition since the airport opened in 1962. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport's new runway is part of a massive, multi-billion dollar modernization program. Previously, six of the airport's seven runways intersected. When the entire project is completed in 2014, the airport will have eight runways in parallel configurations considered safer and more efficient. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's new runway is being especially welcomed because of the region's notoriously wet climate. The airport's third runway will allow planes to take off and land two abreast during inclement weather. The current runways are too close to allow simultaneous operations in foul weather. Airport officials claim the new runway will cut delays in half. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said travelers will benefit from coast to coast. See runways at the three airports \u00bb . \"It is going to make a difference,\" Peters said. \"It is going to allow us to conduct more operations, meaning more takeoffs and landings per hour at these airports and will help move passengers efficiently through. \"That, we hope, will give travelers a good experience this holiday season,\" she said. President Bush, this week, touted the arrival of the three new runways, noting that 14 new runways will have opened during his administration. However, aviation experts warn airport infrastructure still lags behind demand, and that real estate realities in the New York area, perceived to be the epicenter of aviation delays, mean that new runways are least likely to be built where they are most needed. Watch what Web sites offer best travel deals \u00bb . \"It would really be nice if we had even one new runway\" at each of the nation's most congested airports, namely LaGuardia, Newark and JFK,\" aviation consultant Darryl Jenkins said. \"It would do an enormous amount to relieve congestion throughout the entire nation.\" iReport.com: What are your holiday travel plans? Jenkins said new runways in New York are pipe dreams because of land constraints and local opposition. \"Local opposition wins. There's no opposition that is as tough to beat down as local opposition,\" he said. Chicago O'Hare's International Airport, which has purchased more than 500 single-family homes to make room for expansion, remains in court battles with several property owners. Aviation experts argue the experience at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia demonstrate that new runways are invaluable to airlines and travelers. A new runway that opened there in 2006 has increased operations by 25 to 30 flights an hour, shaved minutes off average flight delays and saved airlines $10 million a week in fuel costs, airport officials said. Air traffic controllers are generally happy with the added concrete they will lord over. \"There's no greater supporter of runways than controllers,\" said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). \"It's reason to shout and celebrate from the rooftops.\" However, the new Dulles airport runway may not be of much benefit at the start. Controller Chris Sutherland, the NATCA representative for the Potomac Consolidated Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), explained that because only one taxiway has been completed, planes that land heading north must roll to a stop, turn around and taxi more than a mile and a half to the taxiway, costing the airlines both time and money. \"Bottom line, the users are going to fight us tooth and nail if we try to land them on that runway out there,\" Sutherland said. The airport also does not have the technology necessary to use all three parallel runways in inclement weather, he said. \"We're actually creating delays with additional new concrete and that's kind of going against why we built it in the first place,\" Sutherland said. An airport official and Department of Transportation officials said Washington-Dulles International Airport must open the new runway before it can close the center runway and complete work on the remaining taxiways. Work is scheduled for the spring. Jenkins jokingly said new runways inevitably come on line precisely when they are not needed, but he said airline delays are here to stay. \"There's every reason to believe that until we're all comfortably dead, we will all enjoy delays in air traffic,\" Jenkins said.","highlights":"New airport runways open Thursday in Seattle, Chicago and Washington .\nOfficials say new runways will make airports safer, more efficient .\nHowever, aviation experts caution airport infrastructure still lags behind demand ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Pandering.\" According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to pander is to: \"provide gratification for others' desires.\" So is that what John McCain and Barack Obama are doing with Hispanic voters? Sen. John McCain has said the issue of immigration would be a top priority for him as president. If you follow coverage of their speeches at three Latino events -- the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the League of United Latin American Citizens and The National Council of La Raza -- the answer would be yes. Why? Because the two candidates are talking about making immigration reform a priority if they reach the White House, and to make it there, they know the Hispanic vote can have a great impact. More than 9 million Hispanics are expected to vote on November 4th. They traditionally favor Democrats, but many have supported Republicans in key races. In 2004, for example, 40 percent of the Latino vote went to President Bush -- so going after them makes political sense. Do Hispanics care about immigration reform? Yes, they do. But it's not the only issue that concerns them. See where the candidates stand on immigration . They, too, pay more than $4 for a gallon of gas, and are worried about the economy, foreclosures, the war in Iraq and access to health care and education. But the debate on immigration has motivated many to apply for citizenship and many others to register to vote. Hispanics aren't a monolithic group as many seem to believe. Some families go back six or seven generations. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth. Cubans can stay if they make it to U.S soil. Latinos from all over Latin America come by plane. Surprisingly, a majority of Latino voters show a deep interest in immigration reform, even though it wouldn't benefit them directly because they are U.S. citizens. They believe reform would help in a community that shares a common language, even though it has many differences. They aren't na\u00efve and won't be swayed with tall tales. But to pander has a negative connotation and the concept seems highlighted when it refers to Hispanics, the largest- and fastest-growing minority in the nation. This electorate is familiar with politicians making promises they don't always keep -- and surely will see that McCain favors border security before immigration reform, a reform he put his name on at great cost. They are aware of the need to learn English in order to succeed, and not necessarily for every child to learn Spanish as Obama suggested. That could fuel fears about Hispanic influence, and spur some to use that fear to score political points. In this case, the approach goes in two directions. It can be seen as pandering to a specific group for political gain, but it can also be portrayed as a challenge to Hispanics. With greater clout comes higher responsibility; it means not only registering to vote, but actually doing it on Election Day, making those numbers count, showing that Latinos are more than a group with great potential. Is pandering to Hispanics any different from pandering to other groups? Why isn't there a similar outcry when candidates address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on the future of Israel? Or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? Isn't that pandering? Hispanics are coming of political age, and probably face a dilemma. But which is better -- being pandered to, or ignored? And no, it's not a trick question.","highlights":"Candidates talk about immigration reform at Latino events .\nHispanics care about a lot of other issues, says Juan Carlos Lopez .\nLatinos: The largest and fastest growing minority in the nation .\nCandidates' so-called pandering to Latinos shows the power of the Hispanic vote ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The BBC is refusing to broadcast a plea from leading British charities for aid to Gaza, saying the ad would compromise the public broadcaster's appearance of impartiality. Demonstrators protest at the BBC's central London offices Saturday against the broadcaster's decision. The decision prompted weekend protests in England and Scotland, with one group saying Sunday that 100 people had occupied the foyer of the BBC building in Glasgow, Scotland and would not leave until the BBC runs the ad. The Disasters Emergency Committee, which includes the British Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children and 10 other charities, plans to launch the ad on Monday. British broadcasters, led by the BBC, originally declined to air the appeal -- but in the face of criticism from government ministers and others, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 changed their minds. CNN was not approached to broadcast the ad, a DEC spokesman said. About 5,000 people demonstrated in front of the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday over the broadcaster's stance. Seven people were arrested. Watch protest against BBC decision \u00bb . In Glasgow, the London-based Stop the War Coalition said Sunday its supporters had moved into the foyer of the BBC building in what the group described as a peaceful protest. The group did not plan to move beyond the foyer but intended to stay there until the BBC changes its decision, said Keith Boyd, a coalition member who called CNN on Sunday. \"Primarily we are asking that the ad be shown,\" Boyd said. The BBC press office would not confirm whether its Glasgow office was being occupied or if protesters were even there. \"We don't comment on individual demonstrations,\" a statement from the BBC press office said. The BBC is standing by its decision to not air the ad, director general Mark Thompson wrote in a blog post on the corporation's Web site. \"We concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its wider coverage of the story,\" he wrote Saturday. \"Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programs but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story,\" Thompson said. \"Gaza remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues -- the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it -- are both at the heart of the story and contentious,\" he added. The BBC, which is funded by an obligatory license fee paid by every British household with a television, is required by its charter to be impartial. It does not carry commercial advertising but does broadcast charity appeals. The DEC is \"disappointed that the BBC declined to support the Gaza appeal,\" the spokesman told CNN. \"It might limit the reach of our key message to the general public.\" The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said the BBC had to make its own decision about impartiality. \"That is a decision they must make. We have no view on that subject,\" he said. Many readers of Thompson's blog post did have a view, however. The statement got hundreds of comments, most of them critical of the BBC. A commenter who signed in as \"bully--baiter\" said the BBC was taking a side, no matter what it did. \"Sorry Mr. Thompson but you cannot have it both ways. If deciding to accede to the DEC request would be seen as political then deciding not to accede to it is also political. Don't insult me with your disingenuous attempts to suggest it is otherwise,\" the commenter wrote. Other commenters simply rejected Thompson's position out of hand. \"I think the reasons for blocking help for a grave humanitarian disaster are simply astounding,\" \"brit--proud\" wrote. \"How can simply bringing food, medicines and homes to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians be seen as political impartiality? How stupid do the BBC think the British public are?\" But the corporation had its defenders as well. \"The last thing I want to do, is fund the BBC to broadcast propaganda,\" \"SternG\" wrote: \"There's no way I will pay the BBC to air the DEC's politically-motivated 'appeal' for Gaza. Gaza is run by a government which is internationally recognized as a terrorist group, including by the EU. There is no doubt that some aid\/fund will be 'procured' by Hamas. ... Good decision BBC.\" British broadcasters have refused to air some previous DEC appeals, the umbrella organization's spokesman said. A planned 2006 appeal for aid to victims of the war in Lebanon was scrapped because \"there were genuine concerns, shared by the aid agencies, about the deliverability of aid.\" Thompson cited doubts about whether DEC members could get aid to Gaza as a secondary reason for declining to take the ad.","highlights":"NEW: Protesters occupy part of BBC building in Scotland, group says .\nU.K. charity group Disasters Emergency Committee to launch appeal for Gaza aid .\nBBC refuses to broadcast ad, says would compromise appearance of impartiality .\nBBC, funded by obligatory license fee, is required by charter to be impartial ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctors at the Technical University of Munich have conducted the world's first double-arm transplant on a 54-year-old farmer who had lost both his arms in an accident, officials said. After transplant surgery, this farmer has new arms. His condition \"is very good under the circumstances.\" The operation was conducted at the university's \"Klinikum rechts der Isar\" last week, the clinic said in a statement Friday, following several years of preparatory work. The man's condition \"is very good under the circumstances,\" the statement said. \"Now it is a matter of avoiding future wound healing disorders, infections, strong side-effects caused by the drugs and in particular any rejective reaction.\" A team of 40 people participated in the transplant surgery, conducted July 25 and 26. The donor matched the host in sex, age, skin color, size and blood group, the statement said. The transplant subject had lost both his arms at the upper arm level six years ago, and two attempts with artificial limbs had been unsuccessful.","highlights":"Technical University of Munich doctors transplant arms on 54-year-old farmer .\nFarmer had lost both his arms in an accident six years ago .\n40 people conduct operation; several years spent preparing for the surgery .\nDonor matched the patient in sex, age, skin color, size and blood group ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the test pilot, the Air Force said. An F-22A fighter jet similar to this one crashed Wednesday during a test mission in California. The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) for unknown reasons, Air Force officials said. Lockheed Martin said the test pilot, David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, joined the company in 2003 and was a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release. At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter. In 2004, an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert. The pilot ejected and was not hurt, though the jet was destroyed. The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike. Once the Cold War ended, the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival. However, the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program, which was almost eliminated by Congress. In the end, the aircraft survived, and most of the problems were fixed -- except for the price tag, which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft.","highlights":"NEW: Test pilot David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, dies in crash .\nF-22A fighter jet crashes 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB around 10:30 a.m.\nThe one-seater jet was on a test mission when it crashed .\nAt $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter ."} -{"article":"COPENHAGEN, Denamrk (CNN) -- What makes someone decide to become an actor? It sometimes seems as if the average Hollywood star is motivated mainly by the promise of a fat pay check. Connie Nielsen shot to fame playing Lucilla in \"Gladiator.\" Or perhaps they're drawn to the celebrity lifestyle. Maybe they crave the love of an adoring public, or perhaps they see the movies as a way to leave their mark on the world, to be immortalized on celluloid. For Danish actress Connie Nielsen it was something quite different. For her, being an actor means being an outsider. \"As an artist you actually do have to make a choice to be an outsider. If you're an outsider you have the freedom to say what people on the inside don't dare to say,\" she told CNN. So Connie Nielsen is not your typical movie star. As a 5-foot-10-inch blonde Scandinavian beauty she has the looks of a classic silver screen siren, but she has steadfastly resisted a career as Hollywood eye candy and rejected the lifestyle that goes with it. \"I absolutely refuse the fame part of my business,\" she says. \"I refuse even the money side of my business. I try to do as good work as I can do, I try to grow in my art and reach for truth,\" she says. Raised in Elling, a small coastal village in Denmark, she is fluent in seven languages and studied acting in France and Italy, making her screen debut in French comedy \"Par O\u00f9 T'es Rentr\u00e9? On T'a Pas Vu Sortir\" (U.S. title \"How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave\") in 1984. She appeared in more French and Italian movies before landing a role opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in \"The Devil's Advocate\" in 1997. But it wasn't until 2000, when she was cast in Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning \"Gladiator\", that Nielsen landed a role that really let her show her acting ability. As Lucilla, the sister of the villainous Emperor Commodus, Nielsen brought some much-needed subtlety to the swords-and-sandals epic and held her own sharing the screen with Joaquin Phoenix and Russell Crowe. The movie made Nielsen an international star and she scored other successes with \"One Hour Photo\" in 2002, and \"The Hunted\" in 2003. But while the success of \"Gladiator\" opened doors for her, it also meant she had to fight the kind of typecasting that would try to limit her to playing \"the love interest\" to a male lead who got all the good lines. Nielsen has in the past been critical of Hollywood for its lack of female roles, saying \"you think once you've shown what you can do, and your movies have been successful, that snap, you work. So to discover the difference between guys' roles and girls' roles made me plain mad. It's unjust.\" But Nielsen has refused to be pigeonholed, seemingly drawn to difficult roles in controversial movies. She appeared in French movie \"Demonlover\", which dealt with pornography, violence and corporate amorality, while more recent films have taken on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Danish drama \"Br\u00f8dre\" (U.S. title \"Brothers\") is about a soldier who returns from Afghanistan a broken man, unable to communicate his experiences from the conflict. Playing his wife, Nielsen put in a powerful performance that won her awards and served to highlight how Hollywood had underused her talents. \"The Situation\" in 2006 was billed as the first film to be made about the Iraq war and told the story of ordinary Iraqis caught up in the conflict, while \"Battle of Seattle\" examined how peaceful protests erupted into riots when the World Trade Organization met in Seattle in 1999. Of her choice of subject matter, Nielsen says that rather than making a political point she is trying to show the human aspects of the conflicts. But Nielsen makes it clear that her career is not the focus of her life and she stresses the importance of making time outside the movies. She is passionate about literature and art and she is currently dating Lars Ulrich, drummer of rock group Metallica. She had a son with him in 2007 and has another son from a previous relationship. \"I will always find something that I want to try and become better at. I always love to spend more time with my friends, more time with my family, my extended family. I always want to read more books,\" she says. Perhaps her commitment to her art, her interest in social issues and her disavowal of fame simply reflect her Danish upbringing, but there's no doubt that compared to many other Hollywood stars Connie Nielsen is a breath of fresh air.","highlights":"Connie Nielsen made her name playing Lucilla in Ridley Scott's \"Gladiator\"\nShe has appeared in movies dealing with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .\nNielsen speaks seven languages and is passionate about art and literature ."} -{"article":"ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo acknowledged Monday that he is the father of a 2-year-old child who was conceived when he was a Roman Catholic bishop. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo speaks at a news conference in Asuncion on Monday. \"It's true that there was a relationship with Viviana Carrillo,\" Lugo told reporters, citing the mother. \"I assume all the responsibilities that could derive from such an act, recognizing the paternity of the child.\" He said he was making the acknowledgment \"with the most absolute honesty, transparency and feeling of obligation.\" The announcement came in the week after Carrillo had filed suit in a city in southern Paraguay seeking a paternity test. Judge Evelyn Peralta, who is overseeing the case, said she was treating it routinely. \"It is a case like any other, which involves the president and nothing more,\" she said. \"It will be processed as it should be.\" Some Cabinet members interpreted Lugo's acknowledgment of paternity as an indication of the change he has promised to bring about to achieve greater transparency in the public sector. \"This is the Paraguay that we want,\" said Liz Torres, minister of children's issues. \"This is the Paraguay of serious change, in which there is no double standard or secrets. It seems to be an example, a very big lesson.\" But some opposition party members said it appeared that Lugo had practically been forced to acknowledge what happened; that he had not done so willingly. Sen. Julio Cesar Velasquez of the opposition Colorado Party called on the Vatican to excommunicate Lugo. Lugo was laicized last year, around the time he assumed the presidency. Journalist Sanie Lopez Garelli contributed to this report from Asuncion.","highlights":"Fernando Lugo says he's the father of a 2-year-old conceived when he was a bishop .\nAnnouncement comes in the week after child's mother sued, seeking paternity test .\nSome Cabinet members say paternity disclosure reflects government transparency .\nBut opposition party member calls on Vatican to excommunicate Lugo ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- From the moment Justice David Souter announced he'd be stepping down, Washington has been gearing up for a confirmation fight. But as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Judge Sonia Sotomayor yesterday, \"Unless you have a complete meltdown, you are going to get confirmed.\" Robert Bork is not the only nominee who did not make it to the Supreme Court. Let's take a look back at eight nominees who didn't make it to the bench, at least on their first try. 1. Robert Bork . In our time, the most famous rejected nominee is Robert H. Bork, a legal scholar and U.S. Court of Appeals judge with a long paper trail of conservative opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, Bork could have tilted the Court decisively to the right. As a known quantity, he was an easy target for liberal opponents, who organized a campaign against him. He was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee after 12 days of hearings. Mental Floss: Washington's struggle to find a chief justice . 2. Alexander Wolcott . \"Oh degraded Country! How humiliating to the friends of moral virtue -- of religion and of all that is dear to the lover of his Country!\" the New-York Gazette Advertiser wailed in 1811 over President James Madison's nomination of customs inspector Alexander Wolcott. Wolcott's strong enforcement of the controversial embargoes against Great Britain and France cost him support in the Senate and in the press. The Senate turned him down by a 9-24 vote, the widest rejection in Supreme Court history. 3. Roger Taney . Roger B. Taney (pronounced tawny) is largely remembered as the chief justice who handed down the Dred Scott decision in 1857. With his sepulchral countenance, Taney is inextricably linked to the grim ruling that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. But when President Andrew Jackson nominated him in 1835 as associate justice, opposition Whigs were still smarting from Taney's removal of government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States while he was a recess-appointed Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate voted to indefinitely postpone the nomination. However, after Chief Justice John Marshall died in 1836, Jackson sent Taney's name up again. He was confirmed, this time as chief justice. 4. Ebenezer Hoar . You might think the Senate just couldn't stomach elevating to the highest court in the land a man with the name Ebenezer Hoar, but it seems the senators were offended by something other than aesthetics. As President Ulysses S. Grant's attorney general, Hoar had insisted on rewarding merit rather than political loyalty, thus blocking a well-trod route for patronage. So when Grant nominated Hoar to the Court in 1869, miffed Republican senators gave the virtuous Hoar thumbs down. Mental Floss: What was Marbury v. Madison? Who were Roe and Wade? 5 and 6. Wheeler Hazard Peckham and William B. Hornblower . A senator has the right to reject a court nomination simply because the nominee is from the senator's home state. Upon this invocation of \"senatorial courtesy\" rests the demise of Wheeler Hazard Peckham and William B. Hornblower. Both men were nominated by President Grover Cleveland. Both nominees were New Yorkers, and New York Sen. David Hill invoked senatorial courtesy to squelch their nominations in 1894. (Peckham's brother, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, became a justice in 1896.) 7. Harriet Miers . Some nominees withdrew themselves from consideration before they could be rejected. Such was the case of Harriet Miers, whom President George W. Bush nominated in 2005, but withdrew under criticism that she was unqualified. Mental Floss: Why there's a Mohammed statue at the Supreme Court? 8. Douglas Ginsburg . Another withdrawal was that of Douglas Ginsburg (not related to current justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), the conservative, former pot-smoking federal appellate judge who is a footnote in the Bork saga. After Bork was Borked, Reagan eyed the more moderate Anthony Kennedy for the seat. But Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) threatened a filibuster. So Reagan turned right again and proposed Ginsburg. But there was no getting around the revelation that Ginsburg had inhaled. Ginsburg withdrew himself from consideration, Reagan put forward Kennedy and the Senate, eager to move on, easily confirmed him. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"A total of eight Supreme Court nominees have failed to get a seat on the high bench .\nEbenezer Hoar got a thumbs down after blocking a well-trod route for patronage .\nWheeler Peckham and William B. Hornblower rejected through home state courtesy .\nNewspaper claimed Alexander Wolcott's nomination degraded the country ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Wednesday signed a sweeping energy bill that he said would help the country become \"stronger, cleaner and more secure.\" President Bush on Wednesday signs a bill raising auto fuel economy standards for the first time in decades. The bill -- approved overwhelmingly Tuesday by the House of Representatives -- raises automotive fuel economy standards for the first time in more than three decades, requiring a corporate average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also boosts federal support for alternative fuel research and energy conservation efforts. A Republican filibuster in the Senate removed provisions that Bush objected to that would have eliminated tax breaks for oil companies and a requirement that electric utilities produce a portion of their power from alternative sources. The current fuel-economy standards of 27.5 miles per gallon for passenger cars and 22.2 for light trucks were established in 1975. The new bill sets a single average standard for manufacturers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Tuesday's bill was \"a great, wonderful first step for an energy revolution that starts in America and ripples throughout the world.\" But Reid said Democrats would continue pushing to shift federal tax breaks away from fossil-fuel producers and into renewable energy research -- one of the party's top priorities when it took control of Congress in January. House opponents such as Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, complained that the bill will undo many of the efforts made to foster increased production of fossil fuels in an energy bill passed in 2005. \"I understand the consequences of elections. I understand there's a new majority,\" said Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. \"I do not understand how what made sense two years ago doesn't make sense today.\" Barton called the legislation a \"no-energy\" bill and \"a recipe for recession,\" arguing its mandated conservation measures would raise prices for fuel, homes and appliances for consumers. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"New law raises auto fuel efficiency standards .\nIncrease to fleet average of 35 miles per gallon is first in 32 years .\nSenate majority leader calls bill a \"great, wonderful first step\""} -{"article":"Singapore (CNN) -- While economists fret whether the sharp \"V\"-shaped drop of the financial crisis will turn into a double-dipped \"W\" recovery, Tan Pheng Hock is most worried about the \"P\" word: Protectionism. His Singapore-based ST Engineering builds aerospace and transport systems and control centers. Most of the group's $3 billion in revenues come from exports. \"When you have protectionism it breeds like a disease whereby people become so dependent on it,\" Tan said. \"The moment you remove it you get lots of resistance.\" As the business and government leaders gather for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Tan has good reason to be concerned. Few economies have borne the brunt of the financial crisis -- or the \"financial tsunami,\" as many Asian nations call it -- as has export-driven Singapore. The city-state's economic output took a record fall, with its GDP dropping 9.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to government statistics. Singapore lives and dies by the global economy. With no natural resources and a small domestic market, in a generation the city-state transformed itself from the third world British colony into a first world economic power by building its economy on exports and business services. While Singapore's economic health is quickly rebounding -- second quarter GDP was down only 3.5 percent, the best performance since the financial crisis exploded in September last year -- protectionist winds threaten to shatter any nascent recovery. \"With the crisis we've been through there have obviously been some protectionist tendencies beginning to rise, particularly in the Western world,\" Tan said. \"I hope we will see those quashed during the course of this week (at APEC).\" Although APEC was built as an avenue to promulgate freer trade among Pacific Rim economies, the first salvos of trade disputes between China and the U.S. have many concerned. In September, the U.S. placed tariffs on Chinese made automobile tires; China responded by cutting off imports of poultry parts (including chicken feet, a delicacy in China) and auto parts. More recently, China has begun an investigation whether Washington bailouts of U.S. carmakers constitutes unfair government supports of U.S. cars sold in China. The fact that the leaders of the two nations will be gathering here on Saturday ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to China puts implicit pressure to reduce the protectionist rhetoric, said Tan Khee Giap, chairman of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. \"At least they have to say that they will resist any form of protectionism at meetings like this,\" Tan said. Whether words will match deeds remains an open question. A survey of 400 business leaders released Wednesday by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council found a majority of those polled believe protectionism is likely to increase if the global recovery stalls. CNN's Andrew Stevens and Kevin Voigt contributed to this story.","highlights":"Singapore's 2Q GDP down 3.5 percent, best performance since crisis hit .\nPerformance follows 1Q GDP drop of 9.5 percent .\nTrade disputes between China, United States have many concerned .\nAPEC meeting may help reduce protectionist rhetoric, observer says ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Computer technicians have recovered about 22 million Bush administration e-mails that the Bush White House had said were missing, two watchdog groups that sued over the documents announced Monday. The e-mails date from 2003 to 2005, and had been \"mislabeled and effectively lost,\" according to the National Security Archive, a research group based at George Washington University. But Melanie Sloan, executive director of the liberal-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it could be years before most of the e-mails are made public. \"The e-mails themselves are not what we're getting,\" Sloan said. Documents related to the handling of e-mail under the Bush administration and subsequent information regarding how White House e-mails are currently archived will be released under a settlement with the Obama administration, which inherited a lawsuit the groups filed in 2007. But the National Archives must sort out which documents are covered by the Freedom of Information Act and which ones fall under the Presidential Records Act, which means they could be withheld for five to 10 years after the Bush administration left office in January, Sloan said. \"The National Archives will sort this out,\" she said. The e-mail controversy dates back to the Bush administration's 2006 firing of the top federal prosecutors in nine cities. After congressional committees demanded the administration produce documents related to the firings, the White House said millions of e-mails might have been lost from its servers. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive sued over the issue in 2007, arguing the Bush administration violated federal laws that require presidential records to be preserved. Court records have shown that the Bush administration knew about the e-mail problems as far back as 2005 and did nothing to fix them, Sloan said. \"They never made an effort to restore them,\" she said. But Scott Stanzel, a former deputy press secretary in the Bush White House, said the group \"has consistently tried to create a spooky conspiracy out of standard IT issues.\" \"We always indicated that there is an e-mail archiving system and a disaster recovery system,\" Stanzel said. \"We also indicated that e-mails not properly archived could be found on disaster recovery tapes. There is a big, big difference between something not being properly archived and it being 'lost' or 'missing,' as CREW would say.\" Monday's settlement allows for 94 days of e-mail traffic, scattered between January 2003 to April 2005, to be restored from backup tapes. Of those 94 days, 40 were picked by statistical sample; another 21 days were suggested by the White House; and the groups that filed suit picked 33 that seemed \"historically significant,\" from the months before the invasion of Iraq to the period when the firings of U.S. attorneys were being planned. Also requested were several days surrounding the announcement that a criminal investigation was under way into the disclosure of then-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. That investigation led to the conviction of White House aide I. Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents investigating the leak. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington represented Wilson and her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in a lawsuit over her exposure, which they argued was in retaliation for his accusation that the Bush administration over-hyped the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. A federal judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds in 2007, but Sloan said the missing e-mails raise the \"strong possibility\" that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald never received all the documents he requested during the leak investigation.","highlights":"White House had said that about 22 million Bush administration e-mails were missing .\nE-mails involve Bush administration's 2006 firing of top federal prosecutors .\nWhite House said during congressional hearings they might have been lost .\nSuing watchdog groups will settle lawsuit with the Obama administration ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cal Ripken Jr. will always be known for his consecutive games played streak, but it may surprise many people that just two years into his big-league career, he already was planning for life after baseball. Cal Ripken Jr. is introduced to the crowd at the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While many of the athletes who took to the playing fields of major league baseball this season only are focused on the game, Ripken began saving and planning for retirement long before his career neared its end. \"When I joined the Orioles [in 1982], the team was transitioning,\" said Ripken, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July. \"I saw guys who were 34, 35, 36 years old -- still young guys -- about to get out of the game, and I wondered what will they do now? \"It got me thinking about what I would want to do when I got out of the game. Most people don't realize how fast the time goes, but I turned those questions on myself.\" Though he quickly points out that he didn't dwell on those questions, Ripken admits it got him thinking, and eventually planning, so that when retirement came in 2001, the shift from baseball to business was easy. \"From the outside, I'm sure it looked like a smooth transition just by virtue of the fact that I had another thing to go into,\" he said. \"I had prepared for what was next.\" These days, five seasons after retiring from a 21-year career he spent with the Baltimore Orioles, Ripken is a businessman, team owner, radio-show host and author. He also will be a baseball analyst for TBS, which like CNN.com is owned by Time Warner. Ripken jumped full time into his company, Ripken Baseball, without taking any break, lessening the emotional jolt of retirement. \"I didn't give myself the luxury of taking a month off [after the baseball season],\" he said. \"I think I would have opened myself up to regret, thinking about the past. I had to get a minor league baseball team in that stadium. I just put my head down and started working.\" Ripken's first post-baseball venture was developing a youth ballpark in his hometown of Aberdeen, Maryland, financed in part by a $75,000 gift from the Major League Baseball Players Association. It was presented to him the night he broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. Ripken was a \"rookie\" for the second time in his life, this time in business. \"I was learning all over again, learning what was important,\" he said. \"The off-season never went by so fast. I had meetings, phone calls, plans and long days in the office. \"By the time I looked up, [the Orioles] were at spring training. I didn't think, 'They left without me,' which is what I thought I would do.\" Ripken's latest project is a business principles book called \"Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference,\" co-authored by Donald T. Phillips. The book, available April 10, was born out a speech Ripken gave about the \"secrets\" of his success. Writing it turned out to be an emotional journey, he said. \"I got to reflect on what my parents had taught me, the values and principles, right and wrong,\" Ripken said. \"It's good to be in touch with those things.\" The fact is, whether in baseball or business, Ripken rarely strays from the principles he learned from his late father, Cal Sr., a former player and manager. The book is filled with anecdotes from on and off the field. Now 46, Ripken is president and CEO of Ripken Baseball, and his brother, Bill, a former teammate, is executive vice president. The company owns minor league teams in Aberdeen and in Augusta, Georgia. The brothers also have co-written two books on baseball and co-host a baseball call-in show on weekends on XM Radio. There were reports in December that Ripken was heading a group that was interested in buying the Orioles, but Baltimore owner Peter Angelos denied that claim. \"There is no question that Cal and I have a great relationship,\" Angelos told The (Baltimore) Sun. \"He was a great player for the Orioles, and I have an affection for him. But what's being reported, there is simply no substance to it. It has not happened. There have been no such discussions.\" Still, Ripken said he probably would \"stick his nose in\" if the Orioles became available. Ripken, who has a boy and a girl, also has ventured into children's literature, and his first book is scheduled to be released Thursday. \"The Longest Season\" tells the story of the 21-game losing streak Ripken and his Orioles teammates endured in 1988 and teaches the lessons of perseverance. Ripken also continues his longstanding association with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America through the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. The foundation says it has refurbished fields, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the country and teamed up with Nike to help provide baseball and softball equipment to school sports programs nationwide. Asked what type of advice he would offer to young professional baseball players, Ripken said, \"Put that [huge contract] aside, save your money, that's your nest egg. In the off-season, think about skill development or the interests you have in a small way but be very careful. \"You can't think too much about retirement as a young player. You have to live a narrow existence for your sport.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive MLB games .\nNow runs baseball organization with brother Bill .\nFormer shortstop has written several books, hosts radio show ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A 14-year-old who was trained to kill by radicals in the tribal regions of Pakistan now sits in a crowded classroom at a detention facility in Kabul. His only wish is to see his parents again. Shakirullah, 14, is convicted of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. \"I miss my parents, my mom and dad,\" Shakirullah says in soft tones. Like others in tribal regions, he goes by one name. Shakirullah is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says Muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming a would-be bomber. \"I have been detained for trying to commit a suicide attack,\" he says. He says his recruiters told him it was his mission as a Muslim to kill British and American soldiers because they were killing Muslims. Watch teen say recruiters \"cheated me\" \u00bb . They told him that once he blew himself up he wouldn't die because God would save him for being a true Muslim. Asked what he now thinks of Americans and Westerners, Shakirullah is calm, but quick in his response. \"I don't know. God knows what type of people they are, whether they are good or bad. I don't know them,\" he says. Shakirullah now passes his hours in a cell block at a juvenile detention facility in Kabul. He is serving at least five years in detention. He is to be transferred to an adult prison in a couple of years, authorities say. He hasn't heard from his family in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. He tried to send them a letter through the International Committee of the Red Cross but is not sure it reached them. \"I don't know what they are thinking. They have no news of me,\" he says. On this day, Shakirullah attends a rehabilitation class, easily lost in the crowd of boys with shaved heads. All of the children are convicted for various crimes, including theft, fighting and even murder. Three boys like Shakirullah are here, all guilty of planning to kill themselves and others after being recruited by terrorist groups. With the increased violence in Afghanistan, international observers say they have seen more and more children being recruited by armed groups and national forces. The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan with its strict Islamic rule from 1996 to 2001, has regrouped and launched a fierce insurgency. \"As you see in many places in the world, children are being used in armed conflict. They've been recruited as child soldiers; they've been recruited as armed groups. And the phenomena is now impacting, again, Afghanistan,\" says Catherine Mbengue, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan. Watch one boy's struggle begging for food on streets \u00bb . Inside the detention center, Shakirullah walks up to his cell, his sandals sliding across the tile floor. The cell block is empty and has metal bunk beds lined across the wall and a television set, ready for the times they have electricity. Shakirullah shares this space with 10 other boys. He sits in the center of the room with a blanket draped around him. He barely makes eye contact and looks away as soon as he does. He is shy, but forthright in his words. \"I didn't want to do it but he forced me to go,\" he says of his recruiter. Rubbing his face with his hand, he says he now spends his time dreaming of his life back home in rural Pakistan. His eyes begin to water and his voice becomes softer when he talks about missing his mother. Asked what he misses most about her, he says simply, \"A mother is a mother.\" His was a life of farming and tranquility in Pakistan, he says. It was also a life that took a drastic turn when his father decided to send Shakirullah for studies at a madrassa. He says his dad wanted him to learn more about Islam and the Quran, something he could not do himself. He says his father didn't know radicals ran the school. In the madrassa, Shakirullah learned to recite the Quran in Arabic, not his native language. He relied solely on the fanatical interpretations the mullahs were giving him. \"When I finished reciting the Quran, a mullah then came to me and told me, 'Now that you have finished the Quran, you need to go and commit a suicide attack.' That I should go to Afghanistan to commit a suicide attack,\" he says. The teenager wasn't given the chance to say goodbye to his parents or siblings when he was driven to the Pakistan-Afghan border and handed over to strangers. He says he was taken to the southeastern province of Khost, a hotbed for terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Suicide attacks have risen in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban began in late 2001, after the 9\/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Shakirullah says that before the police arrested him, he was learning how to drive a car but that he was not sure how he was supposed to carry out his attack. Khost is the province where a suicide car bomb went off near a voter registration site this past Sunday, killing 16 people, 14 of whom were children. At the juvenile detention facility, Shakirullah and the others are now being taught a different interpretation of Islam. \"The teachers educate them on Islam, and explain to them that the acts that they were doing is not right for them and for others,\" says Mir Fayaz ah-Din, who works and lives with the boys at the facility, mentoring them and helping them in their rehabilitation. \"The way you want to kill yourself and someone else -- it in itself is a big offense in Islam.\" Shakirullah now says of his recruiters, \"They cheated me.\"","highlights":"Teen is serving at least 5 years for plot to carry out suicide bombing .\nHe says Muslim radicals at school duped him into becoming a would-be bomber .\nThe thing he misses most about home is his mom and dad: \"I miss my parents\"\nDetention facility is teaching jailed children a moderate interpretation of Islam ."} -{"article":"INDIO, California (CNN) -- Parents danced with their young children to the infectious hip-hop beat of Lupe Fiasco on the main stage. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O is immersed in the music at Coachella. Twentysomethings wearing feathers in their hair jumped up and down to Somali emcee K'naan in the Gobi tent. In the portable toilets, an impromptu discussion broke out about the \"awesomeness\" of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O. The mercury may have hovered close to 100 degrees, and somewhere outside the desert oasis of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival there was a global recession, but you'd never know it from the carefree crowd on Day 3 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Although exact figures have yet to be released, about 50,000 revelers turned out for the final day of the 2009 festival for an eclectic lineup that included former Jam front man Paul Weller, rap pioneers Public Enemy, a reunion of Irish indie darlings My Bloody Valentine and a nearly three-hour set from The Cure. Promoters say the turnout exceeded expectations, and this year's attendance figure might be the third largest in the festival's 10-year history. The three-day ticket price may have been steep -- roughly $300, including service charges -- but when divided among the 131 acts on the bill, that breaks down to less than $2.50 per act. This was also the first year concert promoter Goldenvoice offered layaway, which is how 18 percent chose to pay. The strong showing is good news for Bonnaroo, All Points West, Lollapalooza and other festivals taking place this spring and summer. Coachella was also moved up one weekend, which allowed for more kids on spring break to attend. Although Coachella is one of several music festivals in the United States, it still carries a certain cachet that's hard to match. Perhaps it's the scenery -- listening to music on a grassy polo field surrounded by swaying palm trees and craggy desert mountains. Or maybe it's the thrill of discovering new artists and rediscovering old ones standing shoulder-to-shoulder with friends, strangers and the random Hollywood celebrity. Or maybe it's the wacky moments that seem to happen only under the blistering desert sun. Where else could you get Morrissey -- a well-known vegetarian -- complaining in the middle of his Friday set that the smell of burning animals was making him sick, and that he only hoped it was human? The Moz was referring to meat grilling in a food booth across the polo field. And when troubled British neo-soul singer Amy Winehouse dropped out of her Saturday performance because she couldn't get a visa, M.I.A. stepped into her slot on the main stage -- but she apparently wasn't happy about the upgrade. Despite a massive, adoring crowd and a highly charged set, the new mom exclaimed, \"This is the main stage? Next time, I'm back in a tent! I prefer the sweat!\" This was after her tongue-in-cheek nod to Winehouse, where she sang, \"They tried to make me do the Oscars, I said, 'No, no, no.' \" Then, there were the memorable music moments. Friday headliner Sir Paul McCartney didn't end his playful, hit-filled set until about 54 minutes past the midnight curfew -- for a potential fine of $54,000. (According to Benjamin Guitron, media relations officer for the Indio Police Department, the promoter agrees to pay $1,000 for every minute past 12 a.m.) On Saturday, Seattle, Washington, indie pop band Fleet Foxes drew an overflowing crowd to the Outdoor Theatre, charming the audience with its delicate, baroque harmonies. Sunday headliners The Cure played 31 songs from the group's vast catalog -- concentrating heavily on early material, and for the most part, staying away from the biggest radio hits. They, too, played well past curfew -- continuing with their third encore even after the sound from the main PA system was cut off. My Bloody Valentine -- whose four members reunited last year after a decade apart -- was also a crowd pleaser, although an interlude where they played a single chord at maximum decibels for a mind-numbing 15 minutes left fans scratching their heads. Perry Farrell is the only artist who's performed at all 10 Coachella festivals -- in Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Satellite Party, as his alter ego DJ Peretz and in other incarnations. This year, he dueted with Thievery Corporation on the main stage, then headed over to the dance tent, where he joined his wife, Etty, for an electronic set. \"I would probably silently be very depressed if they wouldn't invite me, to tell you the truth. My mental health depends on them,\" he said with a laugh. Despite a time of belt-tightening, festivalgoers are finding a way to let it all hang out. According to The Desert Sun, the local newspaper, even two former first daughters couldn't resist the draw of the desert. It said Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager dropped into Coachella on Saturday -- complete with Secret Service. Guitron couldn't confirm the report, but he did say, \"I wouldn't be surprised if they did show up. Dignitaries just kind of show up like everybody else.\"","highlights":"Coachella music festival wraps up Sunday .\nIntriguing moments include vegetarian Morrissey complaining about grilling .\nBoth Paul McCartney and The Cure run past curfew; Cure is cut off ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that the most important thing he could achieve as president would be to deal with Iraq and the threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan while improving \"our influence around the world.\" Sen. Barack Obama, in his first interview since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, speaks with Wolf Blitzer. In his first interview since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Obama said he thinks the United States' influence around the world has been diminishing. \"The world wants to see the United States lead. They've been disappointed and disillusioned over the last seven, eight years,\" he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview on \"The Situation Room.\" \"I think there is still a sense everywhere I go that if the United States regains its sense of who it is and our values and our ideals, that we will continue to set the tone for a more peaceful and prosperous world.\" Watch the full interview with Obama \u00bb . Obama said he thinks the way the war in Iraq has been handled has kept the United States from focusing on key issues like energy policy, global warming and the economy. Americans want to succeed, he said, \"but we're going to have to make some investments and ensure that the dynamism and the innovation of the American people is released.\" \"It's very hard for us to do that when we're spending close to $200 billion a year in other countries, rebuilding those countries instead of focusing on making ourselves strong,\" he said. Obama downplayed headlines and stories, such as the cover of Time magazine, that have declared him the Democratic presidential nominee. \"I don't want to be jinxed. We've still got some work to do,\" he said. Watch an analysis of some of Obama's comments \u00bb . Obama predicted that he and Sen. Hillary Clinton would probably split the remaining contests and said Clinton would win the upcoming primary in West Virginia by a \"big margin.\" Obama won North Carolina by a 14-point margin Tuesday. Clinton squeaked out a win in Indiana by 2 points. In the days after those contests, some top Democrats have called on Clinton to step aside. Obama deflected a question about a potential joint ticket with the New York senator, saying it's too early to start thinking about running mates. \"Sen. Clinton has shown herself to be an extraordinary candidate. She's tireless, she's smart, she's capable, and so obviously she'd be on anybody's short list to be a potential vice presidential candidate,\" he said. \"But it would be presumptuous of me at this point ... to somehow suggest that she should be my running mate.\" Watch viewer responses to question: Should Obama offer Clinton the No. 2 spot? \u00bb . Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and a co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, commented Thursday on the possibility of a joint ticket. \"I think what she's interested in being the nominee of the party. ... We're fighting hard for it. This woman has been working tirelessly through this campaign. ... Hillary has earned the right to do whatever she wants to do.\" Obama said he's ready for what would be the next phase if he becomes the nominee: a matchup against Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate. Obama said he was offended when McCain said last month, \"It's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.\" \"I think it's disappointing because John McCain always says, 'Well, I'm not going to run that kind of politics,' and then to engage in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy on Hamas has been no different than his,\" Obama said. \"And so for him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.\" When asked to respond to McCain supporters -- such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- who have said Obama is not ready to be commander in chief, the senator from Illinois said he thinks what people are looking for is \"good judgment.\" \"I think I've consistently displayed the kind of judgment that the American people are looking for in the next president,\" he said. Watch Obama say why he's qualified to be president \u00bb . Romney responded later on \"The Situation Room,\" saying \"The truth of the matter is just as I said, that he doesn't have a record of accomplishments in the private sector or in the governmental sector ... hasn't pushed a major piece of legislation. \"He seems like a charming guy who's very well-spoken. But in terms of actually having led, actually having accomplished something, actually having a kind of leadership that America needs at a critical time with our economy ... he's untested. ... Frankly, Sen. McCain is someone who is tested and very proven,\" he added.","highlights":"Obama says he thinks U.S. influence has been diminishing .\nCandidate downplays notion that he is already the Democratic nominee .\nObama says it's too early to discuss potential running mates .\nClinton camp says she's \"fighting hard\" to be nominee, not running mate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's economic stimulus plan cleared its first hurdle, but it was hardly the bipartisan victory he hoped for -- not a single House Republican broke ranks to support it. The stimulus bill now moves to the Senate, where GOP members want less spending and more tax cuts. In fact, 11 Democrats also voted against the $819 billion package. But a win is a win, and so the White House strategy is to take the long view: Maybe the Senate will take out more of the controversial pork projects and tweak the tax cuts to win over more Republicans. The full Senate will vote on its version next week. Should the Senate and House pass different versions, the two bills would have to be conferenced together. Then both chambers would have to vote on the new conference version in the coming weeks. Watch what's next for the stimulus \u00bb . \"I do think it is so important that we slow this bill down in order to do it right,\" said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. Senate GOP sources report that there is a \"real split\" in the GOP caucus about the best way to proceed in the wake of Wednesday's vote in the House. The sources say Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, wants a \"smaller, narrower\" bill. Another group of Republicans including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is working to craft a larger package that would include more infrastructure spending. Generally, the sources say, the party is looking for more concessions from the White House on spending. The Senate has already made some changes in its version of the bill, which is approaching $900 billion. The Senate Finance Committee added about $70 billion to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was intended to place a tax on the wealthy but now hits many middle class families. The Senate bill adds more direct money for seniors, with a plan to send $300 checks to social security recipients and disabled veterans. Smaller changes in the Senate version include $108 million to extend worker retraining programs and a provision to block any taxes on the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits. Aides say housing relief is also going to be a big issue for some Republican senators. The main concerns are similar to those of their House counterparts. They want more tax cuts and less spending. \"We look forward to offering amendments to improve this critical legislation and move it back to the package President Obama originally proposed -- 40 percent tax relief, no wasteful spending and a bipartisan approach,\" McConnell said. Obama has made it clear that he's not willing to budge on some of the big ticket items, like how the tax cuts are structured. The version passed in the House is two-thirds spending and one-third tax cuts. Much of the $550 billion in spending is divided among these areas: $142 billion for education, $111 billion for health care, $90 billion for infrastructure, $72 billion for aid and benefits, $54 billion for energy, $16 billion for science and technology and $13 billion for housing. Those opposed to the bill say it includes too much wasteful spending, pointing to things like $335 million in funding for education on sexually transmitted diseases and $650 million for digital TV coupons. Watch why some say there's too much pork \u00bb . A growing number of Republicans and Democrats say measures such as those don't create jobs. The Democratic rationale is that healthier Americans will be more productive. And on the millions for digital television coupons, the hope is that money will go to new call centers explaining how the technology works. \"There's something in there for literally every interest. It's a pent-up wish list of spending programs that many around here have wanted to implement for a really long time,\" said Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota. Congressional leaders did drop some of the controversial provisions, like one that provided $200 million worth of contraceptives to low-income families. Obama personally called some House Democratic leaders to urge them to remove the family planning provision in hopes of winning bipartisan support. The White House is hoping that some Republicans will come on board in the Senate, where there already has been a little more compromise and a greater sense of bipartisanship. Some House Republicans have left the door open to being more receptive to changes made on the Senate side, and then perhaps voting yes if they get those changes when the final bill comes up for a vote. David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN, said that while there will be disagreements, some version will likely pass in the coming weeks. \"I think both sides are approaching this with some qualms, but they also feel -- especially the Democrats feel -- they have no choice. The economy is in urgent need to be addressed with a stimulus package,\" he said. \"We have got a very popular president. They're going to support him and go forward. And this package is going to pass. A version of this package is going to pass here in the next two or three weeks.\" The president hopes to have the plan passed by Congress and on his desk for signing by mid-February. CNN's Jim Acosta, Lisa Desjardins, Gloria Borger, Ed Henry, Kristi Keck and Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.","highlights":"Stimulus bill passed in the House with no support from Republicans .\nGOP senators want more tax cuts, less spending .\nPresident Obama has made a push for bipartisan support .\nObama made it clear that he's not willing to budge on some big ticket items ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate voted Thursday night to extend the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program with an infusion of $2 billion. President Obama is expected to sign the OK to spend $2 billion more on the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program. White House aides said earlier that President Obama will quickly sign the bill into law to prevent any interruption to the popular incentive. The Senate voted 60-37 to approve the measure already passed by the House. \"[President Obama's] going to want to make sure the funds are in place by this weekend,\" one senior White House official noted, because of the particularly brisk weekend business the program has sparked. The program under Obama's economic stimulus package pays people up to $4,500 for trading an older-model vehicle with low fuel efficiency for new vehicles that get better miles per gallon. \" 'Cash for Clunkers' has been a proven success. The initial transactions are generating a more than 50 percent increase in fuel economy; they are generating $700 to $1,000 in annual savings for consumers in reduced gas costs alone; and they are getting the oldest, dirtiest and most air polluting trucks and SUVs off the road for good,\" Obama said in a statement Thursday night. \"I want to thank Leader Reid and the members of the Senate who moved quickly to extend a program that benefits our recovery and our auto industry while reducing our economy's dependence on oil,\" he said. The program was intended to run until autumn, but higher than expected participation caused the government to warn last week the program would run out of money without an infusion from Congress. The extension would keep the program going through Labor Day. The House voted to add $2 billion to the program before it adjourned for the summer on Friday. With the Senate vote, the additional money will become available right away. Several top Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, raised concerns about pouring more money into the program at a time when the government is deep in debt. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other top Democrats had been lining up votes for the expansion by making the case that the program is providing a boost to the economy by increasing weak auto sales, while also helping the environment by getting \"clunkers\" off the road in favor of more fuel-efficient vehicles. The program calls for the engines of the clunkers to be made inoperable so the cars cannot be returned to the road. Watch what happens to 'clunkers' \u00bb . Democratic officials said several hurdles were cleared in order to allow the Senate to pass the bill with new money on Thursday night. On Monday, two key senators who opposed more money for the program announced they had changed their minds and now supported the extension. The announcement by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, boosted Democratic efforts to secure enough votes to pass the measure this week. CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama says program stimulates economy while getting old vehicles off road .\nSenate votes 60-37 to expand program with an infusion of $2 billion .\nProgram allows drivers to turn in gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient models .\nLawmakers fear program will run out of money without extension ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fire that claimed the lives of 44 children at a day-care center in Hermosillo, Mexico, started Friday in an air-conditioning unit in an adjacent warehouse, the attorney general of Sonora said Monday. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns her daughter, Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla, 2, on Sunday. Investigators have not determined whether the fire was caused by an overheated motor or deficiencies in its installation, said Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, according to the state-run news agency Notimex. However it started, there's no doubt it moved toward papers in bookshelves on the wall shared with the building housing ABC Day Care, where 141 children and day-care workers were, he said. The two buildings also shared a roof, which contained a false bottom made of polyurethane, which overheated, emitting highly toxic fumes, he said. He blamed all 44 of the deaths on the fumes. The general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security vowed investigators will pursue the case wherever the evidence takes them. Daniel Karam Toumeh had said Sunday that the building had passed an inspection on May 26. \"Here, I want to be very emphatic, in the sense that in Social Security we don't cover for anyone, don't defend anyone, we are the most interested in finding out what it was that happened,\" he said. As of Monday morning, 20 children ages 1-5 were hospitalized in Hermosillo, and 13 had been taken to other hospitals, including three to Sacramento Shriners Hospital in California, where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty. Watch parents gather at the site of the fire \u00bb . Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora, is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the U.S. border in northwestern Mexico. On a radio show, a firefighter said Monday that many of the children were napping at the time of the fire and died in their sleep. Jose Jesus Diaz, the first firefighter to enter the day-care center, told Radio Los Cheros that he arrived to find some people ramming the building with their vehicles in an effort to reach the children. Inside, Diaz said, he saw children in sleeping positions on the floor. \"They never knew what happened,\" Diaz told the radio station. The scene was one of people crying, calling out names and running with babies, he said. \"There's an image that I will carry for the rest of my life: a shirtless man walking outside holding a young boy, yelling 'fireman, fireman, save my son,' but the boy was already dead,\" Diaz said. Watch a town in deep shock \u00bb . Of the 20 children hospitalized in Hermosillo, 12 were in serious condition. The children taken to Children's Hospital in Sacramento are a 2-year-old boy in serious condition with burns over 20 percent of his body, a 3-year-old boy in critical condition with burns over 50 percent of his body, and a 3-year-old girl in critical condition with burns over 80 percent of her body, a hospital spokeswoman said. CNN's Mariano Castillo in Atlanta and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Rey Rodriguez in Hermosillo contributed to this story.","highlights":"Deadly fire at Mexican day-care center began at nearby warehouse, state official says .\n44 children killed in blaze; 30-plus kids hospitalized, some in serious condition .\nOfficial: Fire started with air conditioner; warehouse, day care shared wall .\nFirefighter found children in sleeping positions: \"They never knew what happened\""} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last month led to massive protests, on Tuesday called the balloting \"the most free election anywhere in the world.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected last month, setting off days of protests. \"It was a great event,\" he said in a nationally televised address. The election, which opponents charge was rigged, was followed by street demonstrations and civil unrest that led to the deaths of at least 20 protesters and the arrest of more than 1,000, according to Iranian state-run media. The numbers of casualties and arrests could not be independently verified by CNN because the Iranian government banned coverage by international journalists. The president, who said voter turnout was 85 percent, said opponents \"did not provide even one piece of document regarding irregularities or vote fraud.\" Without specifically mentioning the post-election violence, Ahmadinejad said criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation.\" Everyone has criticisms, he said. \"I have my own.\" But he accused the \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in his country's affairs, including the post-election situation. Some Iranians collaborated with enemies, the president said. Ahmadinejad also said Tuesday he believes the government should be \"substantially\" reorganized. Although he didn't elaborate, he said the areas of employment, housing, development and civil rights were high on the agenda. \"[We] need to create newer capacities and prepare ourselves for this new period,\" he said, apparently referring to his upcoming second term in office. \"With this election, we have entered a new era ... in domestic spheres and on an international level,\" he added. He called it \"an era of solidarity.\" \"The government is at the service of the entire people,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"Things will be done in a better way, more effective way, so we can reach higher aspirations.\" He said experts have been invited to help the government achieve progress.","highlights":"Iranian president calls recent vote \"most free election anywhere in the world\"\nIn address, he says criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation\"\nHe accuses \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in country's affairs .\nWidespread protests rocked Iran in days after Ahmadinejad's re-election ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN has asked its journalists across the country to offer their thoughts on how the economic crisis is affecting their cities. In this installment, Bob Crowley reports from Boston, Massachusetts. Hardware store owner Brendan Kenney says \"people who have money should go out and spend it.\" BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Brendan Kenney has seen enough bad news about the economy. \"I'm also getting tired of being worried,\" he says. His family has been running a small hardware store in Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, for about 56 years. He says business has slowed down a little, but mostly because winter is normally the slow time of year for them. Though he hopes the stimulus plan will help his and other small businesses, he believes people shouldn't be afraid. \"I think the American consumer holds a lot of power,\" he continues. \"I think people who have money should go out and spend it.\" Like many in the Boston area, Kenney doesn't want to hear more discouraging stories and sees that as part of the problem. \"It's just negative story after negative story, kind of creating a crisis of confidence.\" Watch Boston-area reaction to the economic slump \u00bb . South of Boston, Jose Nieto, from Plainville, has his own reasons to be discouraged. Between September and October of last year, he was laid off twice. Nieto, a civil engineer who works on road construction projects, had felt fortunate. After losing his job of 14 years, he was able to find employment after only being out of work for two weeks. After being on the new job for three weeks, however, he got called into the boss's office. \"I said, 'Oh, no. My God, not again.'\" He was faced with looking for work in an industry that traditionally slows down in the winter months. \"It's more than losing your job. It gives you a feeling of rejection,\" he says. Yet, Nieto feels this is a time to learn valuable lessons, especially for those who need to dip into their savings when unemployment checks don't cover all of the bills. \"I think a lot of people will learn from this situation, and, going forward, they'll try to save more money.\" He has been trying to stay healthy, busy and positive. Passing the time working on projects in his basement workshop and taking yoga classes has helped him get through the rough spots, and his luck is turning. He was offered a job that starts in March. \"It is a relief, because I'm employed,\" he says, \"however, I'm taking a job for much less money.\" Nieto believes that most employers cannot afford to hire at the salaries they could offer in the past. Like Kenney's hardware store, Sue Stein's American craft gallery, also in Brookline, is not seeing any major shifts in her business, yet. \"Our business has been certainly down, but not devastating,\" she says. Fire Opal, her gallery, sells everything from earrings to pottery to scarves, all made by artists from around the country. To keep her business healthy, she says, she is trying to make adjustments like buying less merchandise. But she is changing her approach to her customers as well. She says she tries to keep \"understanding that people are having a hard time and trying to find things that are more in their price range.\" Like Kenney and Nieto, Stein is also trying to stay optimistic. \"I think if we all are very careful,\" she says, \"we'll sort of ride it out and then things will adjust.\"","highlights":"Hardware store owner in Boston slams \"negative story after negative story\"\nWorker laid off twice in two months says he's trying to stay positive .\nLayoff also brings on feelings of rejection, worker says .\nGallery owner says business is down but not \"devastating\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Turkey's military said it killed at least 15 rebels in operations in northern Iraq earlier this week, but a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Security Forces denied the report, saying Turkey has not conducted any military operation or air assault there in the past two weeks. Turkish troops patrol near the border with Iraq during an offensive in February. A statement posted on the Turkish armed forces' official Web site said a group of PKK, or members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, was identified in northern Iraq, and said the group was believed to be planning an attack and trying to leak through the border into Turkey. The PKK, labeled a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, is comprised of militants who have been launching attacks against Turkey from bases in northern Iraq. The Turkish military said the PKK group \"came under fire by long-range weapons\" on Thursday, and 15 terrorists were killed. The same region was targeted by a Turkish air assault on Friday, the military said, adding that the number of casualties was not yet available. \"In the missions, only the places that were confirmed to belong to the terrorist group were targeted,\" the military statement said. \"Turkish armed forces acted with utmost sensitivity in order to avoid any negative impact of the strikes on the civilians in the region.\" However, Jabbar Yawer, a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Forces, said no air assault was conducted Thursday or Friday, and added that no operations have been conducted in northern Iraq for the past two weeks. The PKK has spent two decades fighting for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, with some of its attacks launched from inside Iraq \u00bb. The Iraqi government opposes the PKK's presence, but views a Turkish military incursion as a violation of its sovereignty. E-mail to a friend . CNN Turk's Begum Donmez and CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkey: At least 15 rebels in operations in northern Iraq earlier this week .\nSays Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members trying to get into Turkey .\nIraqi Kurdish Regional Security Forces denies the report, says no operation .\nPKK, labeled a terrorist group by U.S., EU, has attacked Turkey from N Iraq ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Los Angeles police have launched an internal investigation to determine who leaked a picture that appears to show a bruised and battered Rihanna. Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, before the Grammys on February 8. The close-up photo -- showing a woman with contusions on her forehead and below her eyes, and cuts on her lip -- was published on the entertainment Web site TMZ Thursday. TMZ said it was a photo of Rihanna. Twenty-one-year-old Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, on a Los Angeles street before the two were to perform at the Grammys on February 8. \"The unauthorized release of a domestic violence photograph immediately generated an internal investigation,\" an L.A. police spokesman said in a statement. \"The Los Angeles Police Department takes seriously its duty to maintain the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence. A violation of this type is considered serious misconduct, with penalties up to and including termination.\" A spokeswoman for Rihanna declined to comment. The chief investigator in the case had told CNN earlier that authorities had tried to guard against leaks. Detective Deshon Andrews said he had kept the case file closely guarded and that no copies had been made of the original photos and documents. Brown was arrested on February 8 in connection with the case and and booked on suspicion of making criminal threats. Authorities are trying to determine whether Brown should face domestic violence-related charges. Brown apologized for the incident this week. \"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,\" the 19-year-old said in a statement released by his spokesman. \"I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.\" CNN's Brittany Kaplan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Los Angeles police investigating leak of photo of a battered woman .\nTMZ Web site says photo is of R&B singer Rihanna .\nRihanna allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, on February 8 .\nThe two were scheduled to perform at the Grammys ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An extensive federal report released Monday concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness. A U.S. soldier wears protection against chemical weapons during the Gulf War in a February 1991 photo. That illness is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas. The 452-page report states that \"scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans.\" The report, compiled by a panel of scientific experts and veterans serving on the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, fails to identify any cure for the malady. It also notes that few veterans afflicted with Gulf War illness have recovered over time. \"Today's report brings to a close one of the darkest chapters in the legacy of the 1991 Gulf War,\" said Anthony Hardie, a member of the committee and a member of the advocacy group Veterans of Modern Warfare. \"This is a bittersweet victory, [because] this is what Gulf War veterans have been saying all along,\" Hardie said at a news conference in Washington. \"Years were squandered by the federal government ... trying to disprove that anything could be wrong with Gulf War veterans.\" The committee's report, titled \"Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans,\" was officially presented Monday to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. Noting that overall funding for research into Gulf War illness has declined dramatically since 2001, it calls for a \"renewed federal research commitment\" to \"identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues.\" Watch CNN's Elizabeth Cohen report more on Gulf War illness \u00bb . According to the report, Gulf War illness is a \"complex of multiple concurrent symptoms\" that \"typically includes persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems, and other chronic abnormalities.\" The illness may also be potentially tied to higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease -- among Gulf War veterans than veterans of other conflicts. The illness is identified as the consequence of multiple \"biological alterations\" affecting the brain and nervous system. iReport.com: Do you know someone affected by Gulf War illness? While it is sometimes difficult to issue a specific diagnosis of the disease, it is, according to the report, no longer difficult to identify a cause. The report identifies two Gulf War \"neurotoxic\" exposures that \"are causally associated with Gulf War illness.\" The first is the ingestion of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills, given to protect troops from effects of nerve agents. The second is exposure to dangerous pesticides used during the conflict. The report does not rule out other possible contributors to Gulf War illness -- including low-level exposure to nerve agents and close proximity to oil well fires -- though it fails to establish any clear link. The report concludes there is no clear link between the illness and a veteran's exposure to factors such as depleted uranium or an anthrax vaccine administered at the time. \"Gulf War illness isn't some imaginary syndrome,\" said Ken Robinson, the senior intelligence officer for the initial Department of Defense investigation into Gulf War illness in 1996-97. \"This is real, and it has devastated families. Now is the time to restore the funding cuts that have been made in the Veterans Administration. Our mission has to be to ensure that these veterans get help and become whole again.\" Robinson noted that soldiers in the field today are not at risk for Gulf War illness, because the military is no longer using the PB pills or pesticides that led to the illness in 1990 and 1991. The report backs Robinson's conclusion, noting that no problem similar to Gulf War illness has been discovered among veterans from the conflict in Bosnia in the 1990s or in the current engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. The committee report also backs Robinson's call for more effective treatments among veterans suffering from Gulf War illness. Noting that overall funding for research into Gulf War illness has declined dramatically since 2001, it calls for a \"renewed federal research commitment\" to \"identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues.\" Specifically, the report calls for at least $60 million in new annual federal funding on research committed to improving the health of Gulf War veterans.","highlights":"NEW: Officer who investigated illness: \"This is real, and it has devastated families\"\nOne in four Gulf War veterans suffer from Gulf War illness, report says .\nPesticides, drug used to thwart effects of nerve gas called most likely to blame .\nIllness termed \"a real condition with real causes and serious consequences\""} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 31-year-old Ecuadorean man who was beaten last Sunday in what New York City authorities say may have been a hate crime has died at a Queens hospital, his brother said Saturday. Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten after leaving a party at a Catholic church. Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother, Romel, had left a party on December 7 at St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church when several men approached them in a car in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, police said. The men allegedly began shouting anti-gay and anti-Latino vulgarities at the two men. Jose Sucuzhanay suffered severe head trauma and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital. He died Friday night from his injuries. Romel Sucuzhanay, 38, escaped with minor scrapes and has talked with detectives on the case. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she was \"horrified to learn that anti-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) and anti-Latino slurs were used by one or more of the assailants, raising this event to the level of a hate crime.\" Watch how attack has outraged the Latino community \u00bb . Quinn said she was in touch with the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force. According to police, however, the attack has not been categorized as a hate crime. \"This is a wake-up call and shows how far we still must come to address the devastating problem of hate crimes in our communities,\" said Diego Sucuzhanay, Jose's brother, in a written statement. \"Only by exposing these crimes and working together will we be able to make a difference.\" No arrests have been made in the case. Police are offering a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the attack. Sucuzhanay's mother arrived Saturday in New York from the family's home outside Quito, Ecuador, only to learn that he son had died, said family spokesman Francisco Moya. He said the victim had lived in the United States for more than a decade and was a legal resident, working as a real estate broker. A news conference is expected to be held Sunday afternoon.","highlights":"Immigrant dies from injuries sustained in possible bias attack .\nJose Sucuzhanay, brother assaulted by group of men after leaving party .\nGroup allegedly yelled anti-gay, anti-Latino vulgarities at men .\nMother learned of son's death shortly after arriving from Ecuador ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What appears to be the outline of a child in a fetal position can be seen in a photograph of the trunk liner from the car driven by Casey Anthony, a Florida woman charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter, according to documents released in the case. Caylee Anthony's skeletal remains were found near her family's home in December. \"A very interesting photo exists of the trunk liner ... which highlights the very large stain,\" FBI Intelligence Analyst Karen Cowan writes to a colleague in a September 2008 e-mail contained among nearly 1,000 pages of documents released Tuesday. \"If you look closely at this photo, there appears to be the outline or silhouette of a child in the fetal position. You can make out what may be the back, bottom and legs most clearly.\" An FBI supervisory photographic technologist replied in a later e-mail, \"We do not report conclusions about what may or may not have left any marks or impressions in cases like this -- it is too speculative. Others can draw their own conclusions about that.\" Watch Nancy Grace report on the documents \u00bb . Anthony, 23, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her daughter, Caylee Anthony. Prosecutors have said they are seeking the death penalty against her. The child's skeletal remains were found in December in a wooded area about a half-mile from the home where Caylee and her mother lived with Casey Anthony's parents. The cause of Caylee's death is homicide by undetermined means, authorities have said. Police released documents this year showing they believed that Caylee was slain within days of the time she was last seen and that her body was in the trunk of her mother's car for \"a period of time.\" An attorney for Casey Anthony's parents, Brad Conway, released more documents Wednesday, according to CNN affiliate WESH. Among them were results of an FBI test that show fibers taken from duct tape found across Caylee's mouth do not match similar fibers from tape that was found on a gas can in the Anthonys' garage, the station reported. \"It was easy in the beginning to say, 'Well, you know, the duct tape on the gas can and the duct tape at the crime scene, they're similar,' and people draw conclusions from that,\" Conway said. \"Now we have an FBI report that says they're dissimilar, that they're not matched. Now I think the view of the land is a little bit more accurate than it was six months ago.\" In a May interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" George and Cindy Anthony said they believe that their daughter is innocent. Other documents released Tuesday by authorities show that: . \u2022 Unidentified female DNA found on the duct tape on Caylee's mouth was matched to a female FBI agent involved in processing the site where the remains were found. \u2022 A hair found in the trunk of the car is consistent with that being from a dead body, although authorities cannot say that for sure. The hair is also consistent with that taken from Caylee's hairbrush and is different from Casey Anthony's hair. An FBI agent says in an e-mail that it would be good to have more than one hair showing decomposition, if others are found, because there could be some \"random possibility of why one hair would look like that.\" CNN's Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI intelligence analyst speculated on photo in September 2008 e-mail .\n\"We do not report conclusions ... in cases like this,\" supervisor replied .\nCasey Anthony is charged with murder in death of 3-year-old daughter .\nPolice believe that Caylee's body was in mother's car trunk ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The question is starting to feel a little old: Whom will Barack Obama pick as his vice president? Sen. Barack Obama has a big event scheduled Saturday. Will his No. 2 man (or woman) be by his side? With the clock ticking (the Democratic VP candidate delivers a big speech next Wednesday) the announcement is at most days and at least a few hours away. Everyday seems to be \"the day,\" the day the guessing game will finally end. In a poke at all of the VP buzz, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail to reporters Wednesday with the subject line \"Vice presidential ...\" The first line of the e-mail: \"Just kidding.\" The e-mail contained details about Obama's schedule with no mention of any of the potential vice presidential candidates. But if the top contenders have any inside information, they're doing a good job of keeping quiet. Sen. Joe Biden told reporters camped outside his Delaware home Tuesday that it's not him. \"You got better things to do, guys; I'm not the guy,\" he said. Asked where he would be Saturday -- when Obama is reportedly scheduled to hold a campaign event in Springfield, Illinois, that may feature his new running mate -- Biden replied, \"here,\" pointing to his driveway. He softened up a little later that night, telling reporters, \"I promise you, I don't know anything.\" Along with Biden, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine are considered to be among the top tier of VP contenders. Watch the latest on Obama's VP selection \u00bb . Bayh has managed to stay out of the spotlight this week. Does that mean he's dodging the question? He hit the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend and tried out the attack dog role, criticizing Republican John McCain for his stance on Georgia, Iraq and national security. When asked about the veepstakes, the former governor said he had \"nothing to report today.\" Kaine, on the other hand, seems to have no qualms about taking the main stage this week. A relative newcomer to national politics, Kaine is scheduled to appear alongside Obama on Thursday as the presumptive Democratic nominee campaigns in central Virginia. Could he be introduced as Obama's No. 2 man? The pair will host an invitation-only town hall meeting Thursday in Chesterfield County, a suburb of Richmond. Kaine's sturdy performance in the traditionally conservative Richmond suburbs helped vault him to the governorship in 2005. Obama has stops scheduled in Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday before returning home to Illinois for the Springfield event, which takes place where he first kicked off his presidential run. The event marks the beginning of a tour of battleground states leading into next week's convention in Denver, Colorado. The Obama campaign has kept the details on both the timing and selection of the running mate under wraps. They would neither confirm or deny whether Obama would appear with his VP candidate this weekend. iReport.com: Whom do you think Obama should pick? Although the focus in recent days has been on Bayh, Biden and Kaine, there are quite a few other serious contenders, and a curveball pick could always be in the works. Other big names thought to be in the running include retired Gen. Wesley Clark, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Obama's campaign says that when he makes up his mind, he'll send a text message and e-mail to his supporters to let them know who his sidekick will be.","highlights":"Democratic VP candidate gives big speech next Wednesday at convention .\nBarack Obama's campaign sends e-mail with subject: \"Vice presidential ...\"\nEvan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine considered top tier contenders .\nObama has big campaign event Saturday; VP pick could join him ."} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The high school honor student and the NFL's highest-paid defensive back stroll down the destitute streets of Skid Row. \"I can sell you something right quick,\" a drug dealer hisses. Another shouts, \"Gonna whoop your ass!\" More expletives are hurled. Seventeen-year-old Kenneth Chancey is giving a tour to Nnamdi Asomugha, showing the NFL star the streets that he and his sister used to walk to get to school while living in a Skid Row homeless shelter. Prostitutes, addicts and drug dealers scatter. \"Camera! Camera!\" they shout. The two make it safely past the park, one of the roughest areas of Los Angeles. An orange soda whizzes through the air, nearly hitting the teen and the Oakland Raiders' All-Pro cornerback worth $45 million. \"Wow,\" the teen says. \"I'm sure they watch you every Sunday, and they don't even recognize who you are.\" It is Kenneth's inner strength and his love for education that have brought together this high school class president and NFL star. \"The thing I took away is how fearless he is,\" Asomugha said later. \"The things he's been through are so big and so severe -- they were threatening our lives and throwing things at us on Skid Row. But it doesn't bother him. \"His potential meter is at 1,000 right now.\" Escaping through education . Even while Kenneth lived on Skid Row, he dreamed of attending Harvard to become a neurosurgeon. When Asomugha saw Kenneth's story on CNN, he wanted to help. He runs a foundation, the Asomugha College Tour for Scholars, that takes talented inner-city kids on tours of college campuses they otherwise would never be able to see. He's helped get 25 teens into college over the last four years. On this day, he's come to tell Kenneth that he will be among the 16 students traveling in the spring to visit schools in Washington, D.C. \"I'm thankful to be able to give back,\" Asomugha said. Hours before the Skid Row tour, Asomugha traveled to Hollywood's Helen Bernstein High School, where Kenneth is a starting running back in his senior year. They met at the school's football stadium, where Asomugha told Kenneth in person. \"This smile on my face,\" Kenneth said, \"is a freaking good thing. This is awesome!\" Asomugha leaned closer. \"You know who we're working on now?\" \"Obama?\" Kenneth asked nervously. \"We have to,\" the NFL star replied. Kenneth's fever-pitched excitement reached a crescendo, \"Oh my gosh!\" His father, Gordon Costello, joined in and handed a folded paper to Asomugha. The proud dad didn't show off football awards or his son's athletic achievements. Instead, it's Kenneth's latest report card, straight A's. \"He might overqualify for the tour,\" Asomugha said as he studied the report card. \"This shows someone with a lot of drive and ambition. These are some great grades.\" \"I'm at a loss for words,\" the teen said. \"Stuff like this doesn't happen every day.\" Asomugha came from a family where education was stressed from day one. He remembers asking his mom as a boy, \"Can I have some ice cream?\" \"No,\" she responded. \"You haven't finished your homework.\" \"I'd say, 'but I'm 3!' \" Asomugha's sister is a pediatrician, his mother holds a doctorate. Two other siblings have secondary degrees. \"I am the least educated in my family,\" Asomugha said. \"I catch a lot of heat from my family.\" The football star, who is the highest-paid defensive back in NFL history, has a degree in finance from the University of California-Berkeley. Kenneth is energized. \"I'm going to be the first one in my family to get a secondary education,\" he told Asomugha. \"And everyone will follow you,\" his father added. Kenneth spent his sixth-grade year living in a van with his mother and stepfather. His sister once was beaten up by someone who wanted her shirt. Kenneth was held up at gunpoint for his laptop. He refused to hand it over because his grandmother bought it for him. \"If you're going to shoot me, shoot me now,\" he told the would-be thief. \"He said, 'I ain't gonna kill no little kid.' \" Mantra: Always keep your head up . From February to August of this year, Kenneth lived at the Union Rescue Mission homeless shelter along Skid Row with his father and sister. After the CNN piece aired, his friend invited him and his sister, Stephanie, to stay with his family, while Kenneth's father looked for work. Outside Kenneth's earshot, the NFL star talked about how the teen is an inspiration, doing all the right things to achieve greatness in life. \"You don't hear about guys like Kenneth,\" Asomugha said. \"When you have your back against the wall and you're trying to fight and there are so many things -- so many obstacles -- against you but you're still keeping your head above the water like he's doing ... the sky's the limit.\" Kenneth says he constantly thought about dropping out to get a job to help his father financially. His dad would have none of it. \"Your education will pay off in the long run,\" his father always told him. On the tour at Skid Row, Kenneth took Asomugha to the shelter's rooftop. It's a million-dollar view of the Los Angeles skyline. It's where Kenneth studied. It's also where he learned his biggest lesson: to always keep his head up. The student and the football player leaned over the building's ledge. Down below, drug deals were being made. \"Anytime you look down over the ledge, you start to see the negative,\" Asomugha said. \"When you keep your head up, you're seeing all the positive. Was that your mantra?\" The teen smiled. \"That's how you do it in life,\" Kenneth said. \"I just try to keep my head up, to look into the future.\" Five years from now, he'll be graduating from college. The hell of Skid Row will be a distant memory. \"Once I succeed,\" he said, \"I will be able to help other people.\" CNN's Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha decides to help homeless teen after CNN report .\nKenneth Chancey, 17, lived in homeless shelter, yet made all A's and is class president .\nAsomugha will take Chancey and 19 other inner-city kids on college tour in spring ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, will go on trial March 16 on six charges including murder and incest. Josef Fritzl admitted fathering seven children by his daughter during her 24-year captivity. The Austrian Press Agency reported Thursday the trial was expected to last about five days and be held behind closed doors. Further details about the case would be announced Friday, it said. Fritzl, 73, was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, for 24 years. But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care. In all, Fritzl faces six charges at trial: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault, and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. If convicted, he could face life in prison. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's then-19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions. Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity, and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police. Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the 18-year-old girl had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write. Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending his \"missing\" daughter Elisabeth had dropped them off. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. In addition to murder, he will face the following charges: .","highlights":"Josef Fritzl accused of keeping daughter captive for decades, on trial March 16 .\nFritzl faces murder charge as one of 7 children he fathered by daughter died .\nOther charges include incest, rape, assault and involvement in slave trade ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man, incensed that a 6-year-old girl chose to walk through a path reserved for upper caste villagers, pushed her into burning embers, police in north India said Wednesday. She was seriously burned. Dalits, or \"untouchables,\" are victims of discrimination in India despite laws aimed at eliminating prejudice. The girl is a Dalit, or an \"untouchable,\" according to India's traditional caste system. India's constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country. The girl was walking with her mother down a path in the city of Mathura when she was accosted by a man in his late teens, said police superintendent R.K. Chaturvedi. \"He scolded them both and pushed her,\" Chaturvedi said. The girl fell about 3 to 4 feet into pile of burning embers by the side of the road. The girl remained in critical condition Wednesday. The man confessed to the crime and was charged with attempted murder, Chaturvedi said. The assault took place in India's Uttar Pradesh state, about 150 km (93 miles) south of Delhi. The state is governed by Mayawati, a woman who goes by one name and is India's most powerful Dalit politician. Her Bahujan Samaj Party seeks to get more political representation for Dalits, who are considered so low in the social order that they don't even rank among the four classes that make up the caste system. Hindus believe there are five main groups of people, four of which sprang from the body of the first man. The Brahmin class comes from the mouth. They are the priests and holy men, the most elevated of the castes. Next is the Ksatriyas, the kings, warriors and soldiers created from the arms. The Vaisyas come from the thighs. They are the merchants and traders of society. And the Sudras, or laborers, come from the feet. The last group is the Dalits, or the \"untouchables.\" They're considered too impure to have come from the primordial being. Untouchables are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells. They use different entry ways, coming and going from buildings. They number about 250 million in India, about 25 percent of the population, according to the Colorado, U.S.-based Dalit Freedom Network. \"Dalits are seen to pollute higher caste people if they come in touch with them, hence the 'untouchables,'\" the group says on its Web site. \"If a higher caste Hindu is touched by, or even had a Dalit's shadow fall across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.\" Recent weeks has seen a rise in violence against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN, reported Wednesday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Girl pushed into pile of burning embers by man in his late teens .\nMan charged with attempted murder .\nAssault took place in India's Uttar Pradesh state ."} -{"article":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Fay, stalled near Cape Canaveral, Florida, soaked portions of east-central Florida late Wednesday, and the National Hurricane Center said it could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of the state. Streets are flooded Wednesday in Port St. Lucie, Florida, in a photo from iReporter Bethany Schulstrom. As of 11 p.m. ET, the storm was just off the coast of central Florida about 35 miles southeast of Daytona Beach, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving slowly but could make landfall again in northern Florida Thursday, the hurricane center said. It would be the fourth time the storm makes landfall. Fay has come ashore in Florida twice after making landfall in Cuba. NASA reported receiving 21 inches of rain from the storm Wednesday, said Craig Fugate, Florida's emergency management director. Forecasters said they received an unofficial report of 22 inches northwest of Melbourne, Florida. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has asked President Bush to declare an emergency in the state to free up federal funding. The storm \"is producing historic flooding across a large portion of Brevard County,\" Crist wrote in a letter to Bush. \"Fay has and will continue to produce copious amounts of rain over a large portion of northeast Florida as the storm turns westward on August 21. \"Fay remains a significant threat,\" Crist continued, noting that tornadoes have touched down in seven counties. The governor pre-emptively declared a state of emergency last week. As of 11 p.m. ET, Fay the storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km\/h), and it was expected to move slowly toward the northwest overnight, according to a hurricane center advisory. \"This general motion is expected tonight with a gradual turn to the northwest and west-northwest on Thursday,\" the National Hurricane Center said. \"On this track, Fay is forecast to move very slowly across northern Florida on Thursday.\" Fay could make its fourth landfall Thursday along the Florida coast, possibly in the Jacksonville-Daytona Beach area, forecasters said. \"The storm continues to be a threat to this community,\" Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said. \"Looks like the worst is still ahead.\" Peyton said Jacksonville had set up shelters should people need them. Storm tides of 1 to 3 feet above normal are possible along the Florida's east coast, to the north of the center of Fay, the hurricane center said, adding that isolated tornadoes are possible over portions of northeastern Florida and southeast Georgia. The storm forced NASA to close for a second day because of \"potential wind threat,\" NASA said on its Web site. The agency was to announce Wednesday night whether it would also be shut Thursday. The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday afternoon that it was moving several ships and aircraft in anticipation of Fay's arrival in northeast Florida. Naval Air Station Jacksonville has evacuated 24 P-3 Orion aircraft to bases in Maine and Ohio. On the southeast coast of Florida, Fay flooded hundreds of homes in St. Lucie County, authorities said. Rescuers were using airboats and other means Wednesday to pick up stranded residents. Earlier in the day, the county's Public Safety Department said that as many as 8,000 homes might be affected in two low-lying areas but later scaled the number back. Crist announced the first known storm-related death. A 54-year-old man died from carbon monoxide fumes as he tested two gasoline-powered generators in his home in Highlands County, northwest of Lake Okeechobee in eastern Florida, Crist said, quoting the county's medical examiner. Crist said he wasn't sure when the man died, but the medical examiner received the body Monday. The severe flooding in St. Lucie County took authorities by surprise. Meg Defore said that the first floor of her home was 14 feet above ground but that water had reached the top of her doors. She left in a small boat. Near the north fork of the St. Lucie River, water gushed down streets and lapped at the doors of parked cars. iReporter Bethany Schulstrom, 16, said water was up to people's knees in the streets of Port St. Lucie. \"They sent a warning to everyone not to leave [their homes] because the snakes are coming out of their holes and there's fish everywhere,\" she said. A tropical storm warning, meaning that tropical conditions and winds of 39 to 73 mph are expected within a day, was in effect from Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County north to Altamaha Sound in Georgia. A tropical storm watch, meaning that those conditions are expected within 36 hours, remained in effect from north of Altamaha Sound to the Savannah River. In Melbourne, where a 50-year-old rainfall record was shattered, residents have been warned of an alligator swimming in the streets, according to CNN affiliate WKMG-TV in Orlando. CNN's John Zarrella and Barbara Starr contributed to this report .","highlights":"Rainfall could reach 30 inches in some areas, forecast says .\nAirboats help rescue people in flooded homes in St. Lucie County .\nKennedy Space Center will remain closed for a second day .\nTrack Fay with CNN's Hurricane Tracker ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a journalist who was hacked to death in southeastern Nepal was cremated Tuesday as businesses and public transportation in the town of Janakpur remained shut for a second day to protest the killing. Uma Singh, who was murdered in Nepal Sunday, had talked about the difficulties of practicing journalism. Authorities said they arrested four people in connection with the death of Uma Singh, but they did not release the suspects' names or possible motive, said Damakant Jayashi, associate editor of the online news Web site, myrepublica.com. \"Journalists and human rights groups have descended on the town, and shops are shuttered in what almost seems like a spontaneous protest,\" Jayashi said. \"Journalists are all wearing black bands on their arms. And the FM stations in the city, all day yesterday, they played mourning tunes instead of their regular programs.\" The killing of Singh, 26, is the latest in a \"troubling trend\" of attacks on reporters, the United Nations' human rights office in the country said. It asked the government to investigate the case and prosecute death threats against other journalists. \"Doing so will send a strong message that there will be no impunity for attacks against the media, nor for any serious crimes,\" the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal said. Singh wrote for a daily newspaper and reported for a radio station in Janakpur, about 240 km (150 miles) southeast of the capital city, Kathmandu. When she got home from work Sunday night, a group of about 15 men barged into the room she rented at a house and hacked her with \"khukhuris\" -- curved knives traditional to Nepal -- in full view of other boarders, authorities said. \"I am very very shocked,\" said Dharmendra Jha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, which is leading the protests. \"If the government is not ready to provide any kind of security to journalists, it will be very difficult to do journalism in a free mode.\" The group said it will announce a new phase of protests Wednesday. Authorities do not have a motive for the killing. In some of her articles, Singh spoke out against the dowry system, where a bride's family is forced to give cash and property to the groom's family before the wedding. Also Sunday, a group of men ransacked the house of another journalist in the same region, leaving a cross on her door and telling her it was her turn next, media groups said. Police do not know if the two incidents are related. In recent months, the number of attacks on journalists in Nepal have shot up. The federation released a year-end report, recording 284 incidents -- including three deaths and a kidnapping. Some of the assailants have ties to the Communist Party of Nepal, the largest party in Nepal's coalition government, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The party is led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or Prachanda -- a man who led a decade-long bloody insurgency before being sown in as prime minister. During the decade-long civil war, Maoist forces under him carried out numerous attacks on journalists they believed were opposed to their cause, Human Rights Watch said. And after he became prime minister, Prachanda issued a public warning to journalists while addressing a massive crowd in Kathmandu: \"Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people.\" Three years ago, Singh's father and elder brother disappeared. Her family has all along accused local Maoist leaders of being behind the disappearances, Jayashi said. Singh, herself, talked about the difficulties of practicing journalism in an interview with the United Nations last year. \"Various armed groups that are mushrooming have been a major challenge for us. We have been compelled to dance to their tunes. ...This makes us helpless,\" she said in the interview. \"What do we do? If we don't air the news of their choice, they threaten to kill us. Things have become very, very difficult for us.\"","highlights":"Nepalese journalist who reported on women's rights hacked to death Sunday .\nUma Singh said before her death: \"Things have become very, very difficult for us\"\nU.N. asks govt. to investigate, prosecute death threats against other journalists .\nJournalists group: 284 incidents against journalists in 2008, including 3 deaths ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Members of the international community have welcomed Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the United States -- and the first African-American to take leadership of his country. Barack and Michelle Obama pictured before the inauguration Tuesday in Washington. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said: \"I believe President Obama will exercise outstanding leadership and achieve great success, leading his distinguished team on each field including foreign policy, national security, economy, environment\/energy, in overcoming the serious economic situations and other difficult challenges. \"I am confident that Japan and the United States, which are in the position of leading the world, can create a better future, by putting together our expertise, will, passion and strategy. With this conviction, I intend to work hand in hand with President Obama, to further strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance, and make efforts towards the peace and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the world.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement: \"With your election, the American people has vigorously expressed its confidence in progress and in the future, as well as its resolve to have an open, new, strong and caring America that you embody. \"As you are entering office, I should like to convey to you, on my behalf and on the behalf of the people of France, my very best wishes for great success at the head of the American nation.\" UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking from Downing Street, said the new president was a \"man of great vision and moral purpose\" in comments reported by the UK Press Association. \"The whole world is watching the inauguration of President Obama, witnessing a new chapter in both American history and the world's history. He's not only the first black American president but he sets out with the determination to solve the world's problems.\" Watch world reaction to Obama's inauguration . In a statement Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: \"The greatest democracy in the world has again proven that it is a beacon and example for many countries. The entire State of Israel rejoices with the United States and welcomes President Obama, who took the oath of office this evening. \"Barack Obama's journey to the White House has impressed and inspired the entire world. I am convinced that the United States' deep and abiding ties with Israel will strengthen further. The values of democracy, brotherhood and freedom that constitute the building blocks of American society are also shared by Israeli society, together with the faith in man's power and ability to change and influence his surroundings. \"We wish the incoming President success in his office and are certain that we will be full partners in advancing peace and stability in the Middle East.\" In a speech to mark Australia Day, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: \"I believe from everything I have seen, read and heard and from the conversations that I have had with him that the American people have chosen well in their new president.\" Calling Barack Obama \" the hope of our time,\" Rudd added that \"Australia as always stands ready to work with America in the great challenges that lie ahead.\" Mwai Kibaki, president of Kenya, birthplace of Obama's father, said: \"On behalf of the government and the people of Kenya and on my own behalf, I extend our message of best wishes on the auspicious occasion of your inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. \"On this special day we recall the remarkable journey you have traveled to become the leader of your great country. Through that journey you have inspired many young and old people, not only in America but around the world with a strong message of hope. ... \"We, the people of Kenya, cherish the many years of bilateral ties with the U.S.A. and look forward to even stronger relations in areas that are mutually beneficial to our two countries.\" Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said: \"In my conversations with Senator Barack Obama before the elections and President-elect Obama after his election, it was made clear that the special relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines will continue unabated. Our ties run deep. Over two and a half million Americans are of Filipino descent.\" Mexican President Felipe Calderon said: \"I want to wish him, sincerely, ... great success in the work as the new President of the United States, Barack Obama.\" Calderon committed to work together on problems shared by the United States and Mexico and said that work Obama does to improve the U.S. economy will also be a boon to Mexico. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, visiting Gaza and Israel following the three-week conflict, told reporters: \"I sincerely hope that President Obama will take as a matter of priority these Middle East policies.\" South Africa's former president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter to Obama posted on the Nelson Mandela Foundation Web site: \"Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done. Amidst all of the human progress made over the last century the world in which we live remains one of great divisions, conflict, inequality, poverty and injustice. \"Amongst many around the world a sense of hopelessness had set in as so many problems remain unresolved and seemingly incapable of being resolved. You, Mister President, have brought a new voice of hope that these problems can be addressed and that we can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.\"","highlights":"Leaders around the world offer their congratulations to Obama inauguration .\nFrench president: U.S. has vigorously expressed confidence in progress .\nUK PM Brown: New president is a \"man of great vision and moral purpose\"\nKenya president: We recall your remarkable journey to become leader ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In the enchantingly original and romantic (500) Days of Summer, Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is a girl -- capricious, alluring, and not entirely knowable -- and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the greeting-card writer who convinces himself that she's \"better than the girl of my dreams.\" Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel fall in love -- for a time -- in \"(500) Days of Summer.\" Five hundred days is the duration of their relationship, but the movie presents those days out of order, as an impish romantic flipbook, so that we keep skipping forward and back -- from, say, day 8 to day 154. Most romantic comedies have half a dozen situations at best: Meet Cute, Infatuation, Pop Song Montage, Contrived Mix-Up, Angry Breakup, and Final Clinch. \"(500) Days of Summer\" is about the many unclassifiable moments in between. Director Marc Webb, working from Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's witty script, stages each scene as a vivid snapshot memory, and his sense of play is boundless. The film leaps in a heartbeat from the furtive glances (and shared fixation on the Smiths) that ignite an office love affair to a rooftop-party reconciliation that plays out, via split screen, in two simultaneous versions (how the hero wants it to be and how it happens) to a morning-after-the-first-sex saunter that evolves, with joyful hilarity, into a musical number scored to \"You Make My Dreams.\" This has to be the first movie ever to give equal props to Morrissey and Hall & Oates. \"(500) Days\" is like a mood ring cued to the ups, downs, and confusions of modern love. It's a Gen-Y \"Annie Hall\" made by a new-style Wes Anderson who uses his cleverness for humanity instead of postmodern superiority. None of it would work, though, without such lived-in performances. Deschanel makes the lovely, sensuous Summer just precocious enough to know what she wants without coming out and saying it, and Gordon-Levitt, with his junior Springsteenian chin jut, lets you read every glimmer of hope, pain, lust, and befuddlement beneath his nervy facade. It's a feat of star acting, and it helps make \"(500) Days\" not just bitter or sweet but everything in between. EW Grade: A . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"(500) Days of Summer\" is absolutely wonderful, says EW .\nFilm is about an 18-month relationship, but avoids pitfalls of formula .\nJoseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are outstanding ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter and dumping her body in Texas' Galveston Bay went on trial Tuesday on capital murder charges in the child's death, court officials said. Kimberly Dawn Trenor has pleaded guilty to an evidence-tampering charge, her attorney says. Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 20, pleaded guilty last week to tampering with evidence in the case, but she pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge, said her attorney, Tom Stickler. Trenor's husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 25, also faces capital murder and evidence-tampering charges, but is being tried separately and has not been arraigned. The body of Trenor's daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers, was found in October 2007 in a large plastic blue container on an uninhabited island in Galveston Bay. Jurors in Trenor's trial also will determine her sentence on the evidence-tampering charge, which carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison, according to The Houston Chronicle. Riley Ann's case drew national attention after a fisherman found her body. Authorities were unsure of her identity, and police dubbed her \"Baby Grace.\" After authorities distributed composite sketches of the girl nationwide, Sheryl Sawyers, the girl's paternal grandmother, contacted police from her Ohio home to say the drawing resembled her granddaughter. DNA testing confirmed the child's identity. According to an affidavit, Trenor told police Riley had been beaten and thrown across a room and that her head was held under water before she died on July 24, 2007. She said the couple hid the girl's body in a storage shed for one to two months before they put it in the plastic container and dumped it into the bay. The disposal of the girl's body led to the evidence-tampering charge. A medical examiner said Riley's skull was fractured in three places, injuries that would have been fatal. A capital murder charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, the Chronicle reported. A cross has since been erected on the island where the toddler was found, which was named Riley's Island in her honor, according to the Houston newspaper. Trenor and the girl moved to Texas from Ohio in May 2007 to be with Zeigler, whom Trenor had met on the Internet. While in custody, Trenor gave birth this summer to another child, who is now in the care of relatives, her attorney, Tom Stickler, said.","highlights":"Kimberly Dawn Trenor accused of killing her 2-year-old known as \"Baby Grace\"\nChild's body was found in plastic container on island in Texas' Galveston Bay .\nTrenor could receive sentence of life in prison if convicted ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Croatia held off a furious late onslaught from Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria to win 1-0 in their opening Group B match in Vienna on Sunday. Emmanuel Pogagtetz, left, fouls Croatia striker Ivica Olic to concede the match-winning penalty. The Croatians took the lead in the fourth minute when midfielder Luka Modric coolly slotted home from the penalty spot after Emmanuel Pogatetz clumsily body-checked striker Ivica Olic in the area. Slaven Bilic's team dominated the first half, and should have gone further ahead in the 35th minute but Olic's strike partner Mladen Petric blazed over the bar with a left-foot volley after beating the offside trap to run on to Vedran Corluka's cross. Austria's main threat had come from set-pieces, but they were not able to capitalize on a string of corners. However, the home players kept battling in the second half and squandered a series of chances to level the score in the final 15 minutes. Martin Harnik fired over the bar on 78 as Croatia scrambled to clear the danger, then substitute Ivica Vastic had a powerful header well saved by goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, who then kept out another low effort by the veteran midfielder. Pletikosa also had to deny a driven shot from Umit Korkmaz, who also came off the bench, while another substitute in Roman Kienast flicked a header just wide from a free kick in the third minute of time added on. Croatia went into the tournament as one of the outside bets, having qualified top of their group ahead of Russia with a victory away to England which eliminated the British team. However, their chances of success were dealt a massive blow when top scorer Eduardo da Silva was ruled out of the tournament due to a broken leg. None of Croatia's strikers managed to score in the warmup matches, and the Arsenal forward's goal-poaching ability was sorely missed on Sunday. The winning goal came after Modric and Olic combined down the left wing from a throw-in, and Pogatetz clearly impeded the striker well away from the Austria goal. The Middlesbrough defender was booked for protesting the referee's decision, but he could have no complaints with the ruling. Austria are the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams at the tournament in 92nd place, but showed great courage against a 15th-seeded Croatia side stacked with attacking talent. But they joined fellow co-hosts Switzerland in losing their opening match, following the Czech Republic's 1-0 victory on Saturday. Croatia next play Germany on Thursday, when Austria take on Poland. Coach Bilic was delighted to start with a victory, but was not so impressed with his team's performance. \"Some players were overwhelmed by playing at a great tournament but we started off with the best possible way -- with a win,\" Bilic told reporters. \"In the first 35 minutes we played excellently, of course the early lead contributed to that. \"They exerted more pressure in the second half and I'm sure that is not to do with a lack of strength from our players. But we confined ourselves to our penalty area too early. \"The last 15 minutes or so when they play all or nothing, you can do that -- but we started in the 60th minute or so. I didn't think the players were happy when they got back in the dressing room. I turned on the CD player and said they should sing because they won.\" Austria coach Josef Hickersberger was left frustrated by his side's failure to take their chances. \"This was the worst possible start you can have in an opening match of a major tournament,\" he said. \"We took some time to recover, during the first 30 minutes we were nervous. \"For the rest of the match we were playing the way we should have been playing. We even dominated in the second half of the match. We had good opportunities but unfortunately we weren't able to score a goal, so we are empty-handed. In our remaining games we need four points to go through.\" Austria: Jurgen Macho; Sebastian Proedl, Emanuel Pogatetz, Martin Stranzl; Joachim Standfest, Rene Aufhauser, Andreas Ivanschitz, Jurgen Saumel, Ronald Gercaliu; Martin Harnik, Roland Linz. Croatia: Stipe Pletikosa; Ivan Corluka, Robert Kovac, Josip Simunic, Danijel Pranjic; Darijo Srna, Niko Kovac, Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar; Ivica Olic, Mladen Petric.","highlights":"Croatia beat Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria 1-0 in opening Group B match .\nLuka Modric scores fourth-minute penalty after striker Ivica Olic is fouled .\nAustria battle back in the second half but miss a series of late chances .\nCroatia next play Germany on Thursday, while Austria take on Poland ."} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- An Egyptian business tycoon and a former police officer have been found guilty of last July's slaying of a rising Lebanese pop singer. Suzanne Tamim was found dead in her Dubai apartment in July. The case, with its high-profile victim and defendant, has captivated Egypt and the region. A judge convicted and sentenced to death real estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa and the former officer Muhsen el Sukkari on Thursday. Egypt's Grand Mufti -- the country's highest religious official -- will review the sentence and rule on June 25 if the men will be executed, the judge said. Because the two men were sentenced under Islamic law, it is widely expected that they would be hanged. Moustafa's lawyer told reporters outside the courtroom that he will appeal the conviction, saying there was \"a one million percent guarantee\" the sentence would be overturned. The singer, Suzanne Tamim, was found slain in her apartment in the United Arab Emirates. She had been stabbed and her throat slit. Prosecutors alleged that Moustafa, a parliament member for the ruling National Democratic Party, paid el Sukkari $2 million to kill Tamim. During the trial, Moustafa's lawyer told CNN his client loved the singer, but could not take Tamim as a second wife because his family objected. Polygamy is legal in Egypt, and it's not unusual for men -- such as Moustafa, a married father of three -- to take on additional wives. Prosecutors have said Tamim's death was a \"means of taking revenge,\" but have not elaborated. Moustafa and el Sukkari claim the prosecution's evidence could have been fabricated or tampered with by UAE authorities and should not be used against them. Although Tamim was killed in the United Arab Emirates, the Egyptian judiciary tried the case in Cairo because the accused were arrested in Egypt. After his arrest in September, Egyptian authorities indicted Moustafa, stripped him of his parliamentary immunity and jailed him pending trial. He also resigned as chairman of Talaat Moustafa Group -- a conglomerate with construction and real estate arms that was founded by his father, Talaat Moustafa. Moustafa's brother, Tarek Talaat Moustafa, now chairs the company. CNN's Raja Razek and Housam Ahmed contributed to this story.","highlights":"Egyptian mogul and ex-police officer guilty of Lebanese singer's murder .\nHer body was found in apartment in United Arab Emirates .\nProsecutors alleged ex-officer was paid $2M to kill singer Suzanne Tamim .\nEgypt's Grand Mufti -- highest religious official -- will review death sentence ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Relatives and friends of a judge and court reporter killed in a 2005 shooting at Atlanta's Fulton County Courthouse took the stand Thursday in the penalty phase of the gunman's trial. Some wept as they spoke of how the deaths have affected their lives and of their continued struggles with sadness, fear and anger. Claudia Barnes, widow of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, recalled asking permission to hold her husband's hand one last time before his body was cremated. \"He and I held hands constantly for 13 years,\" she said. She remembered running her hands over the judge's face -- over the temple, where the bullet fired by escaped prisoner Brian Gene Nichols entered his head -- and over the judge's beard, which she always kept trimmed. \"I hope the love of my life did not suffer,\" Claudia Barnes said softly, reading from prepared notes. \"My faith in God has allowed me to remain sane. ... At times, it almost seems too much for me, but I try to do the best that I can.\" She said her life with the judge \"was not long enough.\" Nichols, 36, was convicted this month of 54 counts including capital murder. He overpowered Fulton County Deputy Cynthia Hall on March 11, 2005, as he was being led into Barnes' courtroom to face a second trial on rape charges. Nichols then took Hall's gun from a lockbox and fatally shot three people at the courthouse: Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and Fulton County Deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley, who attempted to apprehend him outside the building. Nichols was also convicted of killing David Wilhelm, a federal customs agent, hours later at Wilhelm's home in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. Jurors heard victim impact statements Thursday as part of Nichols' penalty phase, in which they will decide whether he will receive the death penalty sought by prosecutors. As relatives of his victims spoke, Nichols appeared somber, with his eyes downcast, but showed no further emotion. \"Nothing anybody does will bring my daddy back,\" said an emotional Kiley Barnes, the judge's daughter. She said her father raised her from age 2 and \"made it his life's work to conquer becoming a single parent.\" She recalled her father asking her to bring him her Barbie doll and show him how to create pigtails on either side of her head, and said the judge once literally gave the shirt off his back to a man at a Christmas party after the man complimented him on it. She said her father shared his passion for the law with her, and she remembered how proud he was at her college graduation, as she was one step closer to becoming a lawyer. Kiley Barnes said she was hoping that after Nichols' conviction, she would feel better because justice had been done. \"Instead, I feel as heartbroken and as lonely as I did on March 11, 2005,\" she said. Brandau's daughter, Christina Scholte Greenway, was an 18-year-old college freshman at the time of the shootings. She told jurors her mother could not attend her graduation from college or nursing school or her wedding last month. \"My husband never got a chance to meet my mother,\" she said. \"I know in my heart that she would have loved him. ... I walked down the aisle wearing her veil.\" Brandau's sister, Trudy Brandau, said she lost the only remaining member of her immediate family. The two sisters had grown close after the deaths of another sister and both parents, she said. \"Julie's death changed everything in my life.\" Candee Wilhelm told jurors about her husband's death and how she was \"ripped in two\" when he was killed. \"David was simply the most wonderful person I will ever know,\" she said. Both she and sister-in-law Allison Wilhelm spoke of Russell, Wilhelm's mentally challenged brother, who was especially close to him. David Wilhelm planned to become his guardian when his parents grew too old to care for him, Allison Wilhelm said. Candee Wilhelm said she was adopted, and her husband helped her through the difficult process of locating her birth mother. The woman died in 2006, she said, but \"in a way, she was a gift from David.\" She remembered looking at her husband's body in the funeral home. \"As I stood there looking at this handsome man, bruised and battered from his murder, I remember thinking, 'This isn't my husband.' I touched his hand, his arm, his leg. David wasn't there anymore. I touched his hair. It was the only thing that really seemed familiar and real to me.\" Teasley's widow, Deborah, told jurors she had thought of the courthouse as a \"safe haven\" for her husband. \"I hate to think that he was dying outside on the street,\" she said of her husband. \"But the truth is, he was.\" She said her husband \"was and still is our hero. He was the love of my life, my husband and my friend.\" Deona Teasley said she was in the third grade when her father died. \"Why did someone do this to such a good person?\" she asked. \"He didn't deserve to die. He did not do anything wrong. ... We meant the world to him, and he meant the world to us.\"","highlights":"NEW: Officer's daughter: \"He didn't deserve to die. He did not do anything wrong\"\n\"I hope the love of my life did not suffer,\" judge's wife says .\nJudge's daughter feels as \"heartbroken and as lonely\" as day father was shot .\nNichols could be sentenced to the death penalty ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- How are the elements of the charming, traditional romantic comedy \"The Proposal\" like the checklist of a charming, traditional bride? Let me count the ways ... Ryan Reynolds wonders if marrying his boss, Sandra Bullock, is a good thing in \"The Proposal.\" Something old: The story of a haughty woman and an exasperated man who hate each other -- until they realize they love each other -- is proudly square, in the tradition of rom-coms from the 1940s and '50s. Or is it straight out of Shakespeare's 1590s? Sandra Bullock is the shrew, Margaret, a pitiless, high-powered New York book editor first seen multitasking in the midst of her aerobic workout (thus you know she needs to get ... loved). Ryan Reynolds is Andrew, her put-upon foil of an executive assistant, a younger man who accepts abuse as a media-industry hazing ritual. And there the two would remain, locked in mutual disdain, except for Margaret's fatal flaw -- she's Canadian. (So is \"X-Men's\" Wolverine; I thought our neighbors to the north were supposed to be nice.) Margaret, with her visa expired, faces deportation and makes the snap executive decision to marry Andrew in a green-card wedding. It's an offer the underling can't refuse if he wants to keep his job. (A sexual-harassment lawsuit would ruin the movie's mood.) OK, he says. But first comes a visit to the groom-to-be's family in Alaska. Amusing complications ensue. Something new: The chemical energy between Bullock and Reynolds is fresh and irresistible. In her mid-40s, Bullock has finessed her dewy America's Sweetheart comedy skills to a mature, pearly texture; she's lovable both as an uptight careerist in a pencil skirt and stilettos, and as a lonely lady in a flapping plaid bathrobe. Reynolds, meanwhile, is just refining his dry comedy thing, learning to get the most from his deceptive cute-face looks. Who knew these two would, hmmm, complete each other? Working together, both are surer and more disciplined in delivering their comedy goods. iReport.com: \"Proposal\" has \"plenty of laughs\" Something borrowed: The boisterous family dynamics. The eccentric supporting players (none more extreme than Oscar Nunez from \"The Office\"). The snappy screwball dialogue in Pete Chiarelli's script. And the way Anne Fletcher directs like a camp counselor wrangling bunkmates ... it's all been seen before. For a reason. These elements work. Something blue: As the wise and saucy matriarch of the family, the divine 87-year-old Betty White has fun as one hot grandma -- and inspires her younger stars to say \"I do,\" too. EW Grade: B+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"EW: \"The Proposal\" is a top-notch romantic comedy .\nMovie adheres to formula, but it's well done, very funny .\nCasting is perfect, script delivers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andrew McMahon always wanted to be a rock star. When his band, Jack's Mannequin, started touring in spring 2005, the unexpected happened. Andrew McMahon, singer for the band Jack's Mannequin, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005. McMahon was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Four years later, McMahon, now 26, is still at it. He has a new album out called \"The Glass Passenger\" and has taken the driver's seat in starting a cancer research organization, the Dear Jack Foundation. CNN's Nicole Lapin spoke with McMahon about living and working with cancer and now singing about it. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Watch Andrew McMahon's entire interview \u00bb . Nicole Lapin: For those people who don't know, you were formerly the front man for Something Corporate. When you started touring there, you had a bout with leukemia. When you were 22, you were diagnosed. What happened there? You first thought it was just fatigue, but it was something a lot worse. Andrew McMahon: Yeah, I was on the road. It was actually Jack's [Mannequin's] first tour; we had actually just finished recording \"Everything in Transit,\" which was my first record apart from Something Corporate. I was on the road and just kept losing my voice. It was just this thing that I couldn't figure out. I always had kind of this really durable voice and was known for being able to go out all night and wake up the next morning and be signing like a bird. Sure enough, I went to my voice doctor in New York City after having to cancel a show, and he thought I looked pale and didn't think I looked well, and he took my blood. They sent me to the hospital for more tests, and I found out the next week [that I had leukemia]. Lapin: But you kept touring. McMahon: No, after that point I was in the hospital. I started in New York and eventually flew back here and was treated at UCLA by a great doctor there. I spent the better part of six to eight months kind of battling back from that. I had a stem cell transplant from my sister in that period of time, and I eventually got back on the road the following summer.","highlights":"Andrew McMahon is the lead singer for Jack's Mannequin .\nSinger was diagnosed with leukemia during first headlining tour .\nHe created Dear Jack Foundation to raise awareness of cancer .\nThe band has since released \"The Glass Passenger\""} -{"article":"Editor's note: Bryan Batt, who plays the closeted art director Salvatore Romano in the Emmy award-winning cable TV series \"Mad Men,\" has acted in nine Broadway and nine Off-Broadway productions, such as \"Sunset Boulevard,\" \"Beauty and the Beast,\" \"Jeffrey\" and \"Starlight Express.\" Batt, who is 45, has been acting for 23 years. He spoke to CNN.com about being an openly gay actor. \"We have to work toward acceptance on all levels,\" says actor Bryan Batt, who is openly gay. (CNN) -- There was once a time when the revelation of one's homosexuality in Hollywood was thought to be a career-killer. Now, out gays and lesbians such as TV host Ellen DeGeneres and pop singer Clay Aiken are featured on the cover of People magazine. There are also more gay characters on prime-time television shows than ever before. But even with greater acceptance by the mainstream public, is coming out still a big deal? To shed light on the issue, CNN recently spoke to Bryan Batt, 45, about his experience as an openly gay actor in Hollywood. CNN: Has being openly gay affected your career? Batt: I came from the stage; much of my experience has been on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage. Being gay never really posed a problem. In the Broadway community, it's always been a little more accepted. There's something different with film acting and TV acting. You're in someone's home -- it's more intimate. When I look at someone, I really don't care about whom they're sleeping with or what they're doing. I'm thinking they either have talent or no talent. But people are really obsessed with wanting to know about the ins and outs of people's private lives. It's still like high school. Batt plays both straight, gay roles \u00bb . CNN: When did you come out? Batt: My real Broadway break was in \"Starlight Express.\" At that time, I was toying with [coming out]. It's harder to live a lie than to try to hide your natural instincts and your natural longings just to conform to what other people think you should be. I've heard of people doing it in Hollywood. It's a very sad and difficult choice. I think it's a personal journey, and I think people on their own time will figure it out. Clay Aiken is still really very, very young; he has to deal with his own issues. Thank God, when it was my time, no one was pushing me; no one was trying to force me. It was on my own terms intimately with my mother and brother. It went wonderfully. My mother said, \"No matter what, you're my son. I'm going to love you.\" Not one of my family or friends turned their back on me. I was fortunate, but it was still a very difficult thing to do, and I was fearful. Afterwards, it was like the heaviest weight was taken off my back; all those years worrying for nothing. But not everyone is as lucky; some people are shunned and kicked out of their homes and families, which is criminal. Just this year, I was asked to host a fundraiser for The Point Foundation, a wonderful group that provides full college scholarships to gay and lesbian students of merit who have suffered such treatment by their families and cannot afford tuition and the necessary funds for higher education -- an inspiring organization. I only told my mother and my brother after I was cast in \"Jeffrey,\" a play by Paul Rudnick that was the first AIDS comedy. I said to myself, if I get this, I've just got to sit down and talk with my family. My partner and I have been together 19 years, and that was the same time he told his parents. A good parent knows; they love and accept. What most good parents want for their children is for their child to be happy and healthy and be good contributing members of society. CNN: Are there barriers to what openly gay actors can do today? Batt: It's just like any prejudice, once you let go of any prejudice they all have to go. They're not based on facts, just on stereotypes. I really think yes, there might be some homophobia in Hollywood, but it's based on what will sell. Hollywood is a huge industry, a multibillion-dollar business. If actors who are gay will get ratings and will sell, they will get cast. There are always going to be people who look at people who are different and who disapprove [of them] either through fear or through ignorance. We have to work toward acceptance on all levels. How long ago were the civil rights movement and the women's movement? And, still today, women don't make the same amount of money as men do for doing the same job. CNN: What's your view of the character you play, Salvatore Romano, in \"Mad Men\"? Batt: The character basically is clearly gay to a 2007 audience, but no one in the world of 1960 is suspicious whatsoever. What a great role to play. This season, I'm married. I get stopped all the time on the street, and I get asked, \"When is your character coming out?\" What is he coming out to in 1962? I asked to get married this season. I thanked [series creator] Matthew Weiner, and he said, \"You asked.\" It provides another wonderful level to the character. That is what happened then and unfortunately still happens today. [In a recent episode, the \"Gold Violin,\"] the scene with my wife, it was just so poignant and painful, someone said to me that what she loved about the episode was that we clearly did love each other. We were like the gold violin, we were beautiful but we just didn't make music . CNN: What would you like to see Hollywood do? Batt: Continue to reward good work and put positive role models out there. The one thing about \"Brokeback Mountain\" -- it was a beautifully filmed and acted film depicting a tortured relationship. The reason I thought the movie was so great is people walked away thinking, \"Why couldn't they just be together?\" The more positive or interesting the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters, the better. They should show people who are living their good, healthy, responsible, productive lives as role models who just happen to be gay. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the subject.","highlights":"Actor Bryan Batt, who's openly gay, plays a closeted man in TV series \"Mad Men\"\nHomophobia that still exists in Hollywood is based on what will sell, Batt says .\nHe believes positive, interesting portrayals of gays and lesbians are beneficial ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Corporate lobbyists may have to jockey for attention alongside smaller, grassroots organizations under new ethics rules issued by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, one analyst says. President-elect Obama's rules will mean nonprofits will have an easier time being heard, an analyst says. Chai Feldblum, a Georgetown University professor who teaches lobbyists-in-training, said nonprofit groups are likely to have a stronger voice under the restrictions that Obama's transition staff issued this week. \"Lobbyists for business will absolutely get meetings with staff for people on the Hill, just like they got meetings before, so their access will not be denied,\" Feldblum said. \"Their positions will be heard, but now they won't be the only ones being heard.\" The rules, which transition co-chairman John Podesta announced Tuesday, bar federal lobbyists from contributing to or raising money for the transition effort. Those who leave the transition team will be barred for a year from lobbying the incoming administration on matters related to their transition jobs, and current lobbyists who join the team are barred for 12 months from working in policy fields related to their lobbying work. Podesta called the new policy \"the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.\" They follow a pledge Obama made during his campaign, when he instituted similar rules for aides and vowed that lobbyists \"will not drown out the voice of the American people.\" Feldblum said lobbying is protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, and that the trade's ranks in Washington are unlikely to shrink. But she said corporate lobbyists \"will have to share the stage with other people representing other points of view.\" \"I think that lobbyists for a broader range of the American public -- lobbyists for Catholic Charities USA, lobbyists for the Epilepsy Foundation, lobbyists for domestic violence groups -- people trying to bring those positions forward will have an easier time being heard,\" Feldblum said. One practicing lobbyist told CNN he hopes the new rules will improve the public image of a trade that has become a \"dirty word.\" Michael Lewan, who has pleaded the case for some of the biggest U.S. corporations for 16 years, said a stricter regime Congress imposed on itself after the influence-peddling scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff \"wasn't such a bad thing at all.\" \"We were all very upset when we found out we could no longer take Capitol Hill staffers to lunch,\" he said. \"But you know what? At the end of the day, we all saved money and lost weight.\" But seriously, Lewan said, both Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, blasted lobbyists on a near-daily basis during the presidential campaign, \"and it's my hope that we can bring down that level of vilification by cooperating with the new administration.\"","highlights":"Analyst: Corporate lobbyists will not be only ones heard by Obama's transition staff .\nTransition team's ethics rules will give nonprofits stronger voice, analyst says .\nOne of the rules: Federal lobbyists can't contribute to transition effort .\nTransition co-chairman: Ethics rules strictest \"of any transition team in history\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Greek physician Hippocrates was the first to use the words \"carcinos\" and \"carcinoma\" in 400 BC to describe tumors, which led to the term \"cancer\" being coined. Greek physician Hippocrates was the first to use the words \"carcinos\" and \"carcinoma\" to describe tumors, which led to the term 'cancer.\" Since his day, medical advances in the treatment of cancer have evolved significantly. Below we chart some of the key moments in the battle against cancer. 1890 -- William Stewart Halsted, the first professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Yale, performs the first mastectomy to treat breast cancer. 1895 -- Wilhelm Conrad R\u00f6ntgen discovers X-ray radiation, which makes the detection of tumors in the body much easier and non-invasive. Later in 1899, Tage Anton Ultimus Sjogren becomes the first person to successfully treat cancer with X-rays. 1896 -- Removal of the ovaries is performed for the first time to treat breast cancer. 1898 -- Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium and later use it to treat tumors. 1900 --Thor Stenbeck cures a patient with skin cancer using small doses of daily radiation therapy. This technique is later referred to as fractionated radiation therapy. 1900s -- Dr. George Papanicolaou invents the Pap smear test after his findings suggest that vaginal cell smears reveal the presence of cancer. 1943 -- The first electron linear accelerator is designed for radiation therapy. Today, it is widely used for treatment of cancer. Late 1960s -- Lars Leksell develops the Gamma Knife -- a radiosurgical tool that uses a high dose of radiation to eradicate cancerous cells. 1964 -- The Epstein-Barr virus is linked to human cancer for the first time. 1974 -- Dr. Lawrence Einhorn finds a cure for advanced testicular cancer. This changes the cure rate from 5 percent to 60 percent. 1975 -- Scientists Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein develop tailor-made antibodies in large quantities in a laboratory, leading to ways of attacking cancer and diagnosing disease. They go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1984. 1976 -- Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus discover oncogene, a gene that, when mutated or expressed at high levels, helps turn a normal cell into a cancer cell. They win the 1989 Nobel Prize. 1980s -- Anti-nausea drugs are developed to suppress the side effects of chemotherapy. 1991 -- The U.S. Human Genome project begins. The first gene transfers in humans also take place in that same year. 1998 -- Tamoxifen, a drug that helps reduce the risks of breast cancer by half in women is approved for wide use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 2004 -- The FDA approves Avastin, a monoclonal antibody that restricts tumor growth by blocking the formation of new blood vessels for the treatment of metastatic cancer. 2007 -- The FDA approves Nexavar, an oral inhibitor for liver cancer. This is the only drug approved for liver cancer. 2008 -- German scientist Harald zur Hausen wins a Nobel Prize for his research that found that oncogenic human papilloma virus, or HPV, causes cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. He made the discovery in the early 1980s. Sources: Emory University, Cure Today, Britannia.com . CNN intern Priyanka Deladia contributed to this report .","highlights":"Wilhelm Conrad R\u00f6ntgen discovers X-ray radiation in 1895 .\nLars Leksell develops the Gamma Knife in 1960s .\nAnti-nausea drugs to suppress chemotherapy side effects created in 80s .\nGerman scientist Harald zur Hausen wins a Nobel Prize in 2008 for HPV work ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- You don't have to be Jennifer Aniston to think that the four women who Krazy-Glued a cheater's penis to his stomach were way harsh and beyond psycho. If your ex's loved ones ask why you broke up, it's OK to admit he cheated on you, writer says. But in our less scrupulous\/mature moments, many of us want to punish a particularly nasty ex, especially if he was a cheater. Ladies, let's keep it legal (and Krazy Glue-free), OK? Here are 10 ideas: . 1. Email his crappiest crap e-mail to Jezebel.com's Crap E-mail From A Dude and when they publish it, discreetly post the link as your GChat away message. 2. Call up your hottest platonic male friend, grab your digital camera and go do something adorable together. Now it's time to create a Facebook photo album full of pics of you looking smiley. (Bonus points if your ex was slightly paranoid that this guy had a thing for you). The Frisky: Possible to remain friends with an ex? 3. Permanently adopt that comfy sweatshirt he left at your place. Especially if he's the one who caused the breakup, he probably doesn't have the cojones to ask for it back now. 4. Gain that extra 10 lbs that fills you out nicely, like Joan Holloway on \"Mad Men\"... 5. ...or lose that extra 10 lbs so you can fit into your sexy jeans again. Either way, this also requires a Facebook photo album. The Frisky: How Joan Holloway gives me confidence . 6. You might hear from his mom, sisters, or other family members you were close to after the breakup, especially if you dated for a long time. Airing too much of your dirty laundry to them will make you look like a psycho. But if he did cheat on you (and you didn't cheat back), it couldn't hurt to mention how his bad behavior led to the split. The Frisky: 10 rules on way men and women eat . Dude sure as hell didn't tell them the truth about why you broke up! And any mom or sister worth her salt will tear your ex a new one when they learn that's why he lost a great girl like you. The Frisky: Continue relationships with an ex's loved ones? 7. Ignore every single text, Tweet, Facebook poke and email from here on out. But kept posting stuff on your social networking sites on the regular. 8. If you're a songwriter or a poet, well, you know what to do. The creep who caused Ani Di Franco's song \"Untouchable Face\" probably hasn't forgotten what he did. 9. Penning aggressive-aggressive emails (as opposed to passive-aggressive ones) is always therapeutic. The Frisky: Passive aggressive notes Web site . 10. Spend a few months feeling down. Indulge in some therapy. Do some fun things single women do. Work extra-hard at your job and get a promotion. Go take a trip or buy some new clothes. Whenever you're ready, go meet a new guy. Fall in love. Have tons of great sex. Laugh a lot. Talk about baby names and where you want your honeymoon to be. The next time you run into your ex, mention all the great things that have happened in your life since you broke up ... or just smile. The Frisky: Happy to be single . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"If your ex cheated on you, there are legal ways to get even .\nDo whatever it takes to look your best, post pix on Facebook with male friend .\nIf his mom or sister ask about breakup, tell them he cheated on you .\nIgnore all social media contact from him. But post a song about his cheating ways ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of militants, believed to be foreign fighters, launched attacks on various military check posts in Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Saturday night and early Sunday morning, military officials said. A Pakistan soldier on patrol last fall against militants on the border of the Mohmand agency district. The ensuing fighting left 40 militants and six Pakistan soldiers dead, said military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas. \"This is one of the largest attacks we have seen,\" Abbas said. The attacks occurred at checkposts and military camps in the Mohmand agency, part of the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas where U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a presence of militants. Abbas said the fighters crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, and used rocket launchers and machine guns in their attacks. They have since been repelled, he said. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a porous 1,500-mile border. In recent months, Afghan officials have blamed militants operating from havens in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan of sneaking into their country and attacking security personnel. Pakistan has repeatedly denied involvement and bristled at the accusation, saying that Afghan lawmakers were making allegations without proof. Abbas' Sunday comments reverse those allegations, with Pakistan now blaming militants from Afghanistan attacking inside its soil.","highlights":"Attacks occurred at checkposts and military camps in the Mohmand agency .\n40 militants, six Pakistani soldiers killed in fighting, Pakistan says .\nMilitants crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, official says ."} -{"article":"OAKLEY, California (CNN) -- The black box sat inside a cabinet. Philip Garrido had given it to a friend for safekeeping, and that's where the friend kept it. The black box has jacks for plugging in headphones. Philip Garrido claimed it could speak his thoughts. \"He feels he can speak to you and me and everyone else using this box,\" said Garrido's friend and former business client, who spoke on condition of anonymity. \"He was a whack job, but he was a whack job who sounded like he had a really good heart,\" the friend added. Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were arrested last month and charged on more than two dozen counts, including kidnapping and rape. Authorities say the Garridos held Jaycee Dugard, 29, captive for nearly two decades in their backyard. Both have pleaded not guilty. Authorities have said Garrido, a registered sex offender, fathered Dugard's two children. A few days before his arrest, Garrido delivered some documents touting the device to the FBI. The black box is simple, with a handle, a metal switch and jacks for plugging in headphones. But it provides some insight into the mind of 58-year-old Garrido. Garrido told his friend and customers of his printing business that the box allowed him to communicate without speaking. \"He would move his lips and not speak ... and you would be able to hear his voice through the headphones,\" the friend said. Three years ago, Garrido demonstrated the box for clients of his printing business. The clients, some of them at least, went along with his claims for the device. \"I didn't want to tell him you're a kook and you don't know what you're talking about,\" said Tim Allen, who owns a glass shop in Antioch. Even so, Allen and several other former Garrido clients signed declarations saying the device worked. \"People believe in things. I didn't think it was my place to shoot him down,\" Allen said. Garrido so believed in the power of his invention that he wanted to have the device patented, so he solicited the help of a private investigator last year. \"He was speaking normal, dressed normal, acting normal,\" said Ralph Hernandez, who spent 30 years in law enforcement before becoming an independent private investigator. Hernandez said he agreed to help Garrido verify the testimonials that the product actually worked, but he never saw the box. Garrido told him it would be best if he didn't, the investigator said. Hernandez said he provided all the requested information to Garrido. \"This was like the last part before he would take whatever he had had to a lawyer to prepare for patenting,\" Hernandez said. Documents obtained by CNN include a news release that Garrido produced: . \"A Bay area man has made a major discovery concerning the phenomenon of voice,\" the release says, accompanied by a photograph of Garrido. Read the news release . Though it's not known whether Garrido hired a patent attorney, there's no record at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of a patent application or a patent granted to him. But 48 hours before he was arrested, Garrido gave the device to his friend for safekeeping. \"I can only guess that he knew something bad was going to happen,'' he said. Meanwhile, investigators will begin excavating part of the Garridos' California property Monday afternoon after two sheriff's dogs trained to find human remains alerted authorities of possible buried bones, officials said. The search is in the same area as a canine alert last week, said Lt. Chris Orrey of the Hayward, California, police department. Ground-penetrating radar also found an \"anomaly\" in that area, Orrey said Monday. Investigators have already found bone fragments at the property in unincorporated Contra Costa County but have not said whether they are human.","highlights":"Phillip Garrido told people box allowed him to communicate without speaking .\nHe would only move his lips, friend says, and you were supposed to hear his voice .\nGarrido and his wife face felony counts in case of Jaycee Dugard, abducted in 1991 .\nFor more on this story, watch \"Anderson Cooper 360\" Monday at 10 p.m. ET ."} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- An American man fighting for custody of his 9-year-old son has been invited to spend Christmas with the boy's Brazilian family, the family's attorney said Friday. David Goldman has been locked in a legal battle over custody of his son, Sean Goldman, with the family of the boy's deceased mother. The family's attorney, Sergio Tostes, said Friday that the legal battle had gone too far. \"It is about time that Sean's family, and I mean all Sean's family, get together. I am authorized by Mrs. Silvana Bianchi to invite you, Mr. Goldman, to spend Christmas night at her house,\" Tostes said, referring to Sean's maternal grandmother. \"This will be a long awaited family reunion\" \"I hope you can accept and we can talk logistics,\" he said, with the boy's grandmother standing next to him. Tostes also said that the family would consider allowing the boy to go to the United States, perhaps for the holidays, if Sean wants to go. However, \"Sean must be heard in court,\" he said. There was no immediate response from Goldman. Earlier Friday, Goldman slammed a decision by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice Thursday that prevented the boy's return to the United States. That decision had \"nothing to do with the merits\" of the case, he said. On Wednesday, a lower court unanimously upheld a decision ordering that Sean be returned to his father in New Jersey. That decision was made in accordance with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abductions. \"Every day that my son is under that roof, he is being severely psychologically damaged,\" Goldman said. He insisted that there is the \"utmost urgency\" for Sean to be reunited with him. \"My son is suffering, and he's losing the innocence of ... a child,\" Goldman said. The family argues that it would traumatize Sean to remove him from what has been his home since 2004, when his mother took him to Brazil on what she said would be a vacation. The family said Sean screamed with joy when he found out Thursday that he would not have to leave with his dad. The custody battle began in 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their then-4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and retaining custody of Sean. She died last year in childbirth. Goldman has argued that as the sole surviving parent, he should at last be granted custody. Instead of traveling to Brasilia, where the high court is, Goldman planned to stay in Rio de Janeiro on Friday, where he is just miles from Sean. He hasn't seen his son since February. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, who is traveling with Goldman, said three court-appointed psychologists tasked with determining the boy's emotional and psychological well-being had unanimously concluded that he is being hurt emotionally \"by the continuance of this abduction.\" Smith said Sean was previously put in front of a video camera as adults asked questions. The boy made remarks in that video that members of his mother's family suggest indicate he should stay in Brazil. If the court allows a child's drawings or such a videotape to be used as evidence in a courtroom, Smith said, \"every kidnapper everywhere in the world -- every child abductor in the world\" would have the children make such things. Goldman also addressed the videotape: \"What is he going to say? 'No, I hate it here,' knowing he'll go back up under their roof? What do you expect? He is an innocent, helpless, vulnerable, defenseless child that needs to be freed from this circumstance.\" Smith called on Brazil's full Supreme Court to \"vacate this illogical and unjust stay on the rightful return of Sean Goldman to his only dad.\" If the court does not do so, Smith said, he and Goldman hope Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes will. Smith also said Brazil's Central Authority, which represents interests of the International Court of Justice in the country, planned to appeal to get the justice's stay lifted. Brazil's Central Authority did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday. Goldman described how he longed to bring his son home in time for Christmas, to play with him in the yard, to go to movies and eat popcorn. Smith said that all the \"surveillance\" present at the time of the February visit -- including a psychologist that the family had \"almost right next to David and Sean the whole time\" -- made it \"an oppressive situation.\" \"David ought to be with his son, not on a visit but permanently,\" Smith said. The family has said Goldman can visit his son. \"It's not about going to a compound with a man standing over us, intimidating my son\" and \"making him nervous,\" Goldman said. He added that when his son \"was abducted,\" he would cry, \"I want to be with my dad.\" In separating the child from him, \"You poison the child's mind,\" he said. The case has drawn attention worldwide. Smith called it a \"major embarrassment to the Brazilian government.\" Goldman said he holds out hope that he will be able to take Sean home so the two \"can go on with our life as father and son.\" \"I'm ... begging for justice, begging,\" he said. \"Why is it so hard? Why?\" CNN's Adam Reiss contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Boy at center of custody dispute may be allowed to go to U.S., family says .\nU.S. lawmaker says man plans to appeal ruling to Brazil's Supreme Court .\nEx-wife took son to Brazil in 2004, never returned him to New Jersey .\nShe died in childbirth; boy's stepfather says he should stay in Brazil ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Somali suspect in the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama has been charged with piracy, a count that carries a minimum life sentence. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse arrives in the United States on Monday. He was charged with piracy Tuesday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse also has been charged with conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking and two firearm charges, according to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of New York. Muse \"conducted himself as the leader\" of the pirates who allegedly took over the Maersk Alabama, according to the criminal complaint. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Muse could be tried as an adult. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck had ordered the media and public out of the courtroom earlier while he evaluated Muse's age. Muse's father in Somalia told defense attorneys the young man was born on November 20, 1993 -- making him 15, the defense attorneys said. However, the prosecution argued otherwise, saying Muse made statements that suggest he is older. Before Peck closed the courtroom, Muse wiped his hand over his face at one point, and it appeared he was crying. He had worn a broad smile late Monday when he arrived in New York escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers. See timeline of events that led to piracy case \u00bb . Muse was arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship that pirates attacked on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . Peck read the young man his rights and said attorneys had been appointed to represent him because the suspect did not have the resources to hire representation himself. Muse said through an interpreter that he understood and said, \"I don't have any money.\" Pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship, on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. According to the criminal complaint, two of the 20 crew members -- all Americans -- saw lights heading toward the Maersk Alabama around 4:30 a.m. on April 8, while the ship was in the Indian Ocean. After a \"brief time,\" the lights disappeared, the complaint said, but about two hours later, the same crew members saw a small boat approaching and later heard \"what sounded like\" gunshots, the complaint said. Crew Member 1 then heard the ship's captain -- later identified as Capt. Richard Phillips -- on the radio saying that two pirates were on the ship's bridge. A third crew member, Crew Member 3, also heard the radio message and began shutting down the ship's power, the complaint said. The complaint said Muse, who was carrying a gun, was the first alleged pirate on the ship, and said the attackers used a portable ladder to climb on board. According to the complaint, Muse had fired his gun at Phillips, the captain said, and then took $30,000 from the ship's safe after he forced Phillips to open it. Watch Muse being hauled into court \u00bb . Muse demanded that the Maersk Alabama be stopped and that the crew give him the number of the ship's owner, the complaint said. The captain then ordered the crew to the bridge after Muse ordered him to do so, the complaint said, citing Crew Member 2. Muse then began canvassing the dark ship with Crew Member 2 as a guide, the complaint said. While they were going through the ship, Crew Member 3, who had not come to the bridge, tackled Muse to the ground, the complaint said. Crew Member 2 helped subdue Muse, and the two tied the young man's hands with wire and took him to the ship's safe room, where several crew members were hiding. After several hours, the remaining pirates said they would leave the ship if Muse was returned to them, and if a lifeboat was given to them. Phillips boarded the lifeboat with them and the ship's crew freed Muse, who then boarded the lifeboat, according to the criminal complaint. The boat floated a short distance from the Maersk, even as the Navy's USS Bainbridge arrived the next day. Over the next three days, officers on the Bainbridge communicated with the pirates by radio. \"In those communications, the pirates threatened to kill the captain if they were not provided with safe passage away from the scene,\" the complaint said. At one point, Phillips tried to escape and the pirates shot at him, the complaint said. On April 12, Muse boarded the USS Bainbridge and demanded safe passage for himself and the other pirates in exchange for Phillips' release. Muse also received medical treatment while he was on the warship, the complaint said. While Muse was away from the lifeboat, Navy SEALs shot and killed the three remaining pirates. The U.S. Navy recovered two loaded AK-47 assault rifles; two gunstraps, each containing three AK-47 magazines; one handgun magazine; and multiple cell phones and handheld radios from the lifeboat, according to the complaint. CNN's Deb Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Criminal complaint says pirate suspect \"conducted himself as the leader\"\nJudge rules piracy suspect will be tried as an adult .\nAbduwali Abdukhadir Muse also faces conspiracy charges .\nSuspect's father says he's 15; prosecution says boy indicated he's older ."} -{"article":"ROCKVILLE, Maryland (CNN) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced it is blocking the import from China of five species of seafood until their importers can prove they are not contaminated. About 10 percent of catfish eaten in the U.S. comes from China, according to the National Fisheries Institute. \"FDA is initiating an import alert against several species of imported Chinese farmed seafood because of numerous cases of contamination with drugs and unsafe food additives,\" said Dr. David Acheson, the agency's assistant commissioner for food protection, in a conference call with reporters. The species cited are catfish, eel, shrimp, basa and dace, he said. Basa is similar to catfish; dace is similar to carp. The medications cited include the antimicrobials nitrofuran, malachite green, gentian violet and fluoroquinolones. Nitrofuran, malachite green, and gentian violet have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Use of fluoroquinolones in food-producing animals can result in antibiotic resistance. None of them is approved for use in farmed seafood in the United States and some of them have been shown to cause cancer when fed to laboratory animals for \"prolonged periods of time,\" Acheson said. Alerts have been issued in the past, but Thursday's announcement is the largest. The food will not be allowed into the United States until the importer can prove it is free from harmful contaminants, Acheson said. He said the agency decided to broaden its previous alerts for products from individual companies to a countrywide alert after tests showed that 15 percent of those species of seafood produced by 18 companies in China contained traces of one or more of the contaminants. \"FDA is taking this action to protect the public health of the American people,\" he said. Watch more on the FDA's import alert on five kinds of fish from China. \u00bb . The products \"could cause serious health problems if consumed over a long period of time,\" he said. Still, Acheson added, the low levels of contaminants means that there is \"no imminent threat\" to the public health. China is the world's largest producer of farmed fish, accounting for 70 percent of the total produced, he said. It is the third-largest exporter of farmed fish to the United States. The action is an import alert, which means that these products from Chinese processors \"will be detained and refused entry into the United States until the importer can demonstrate that the product is safe and in compliance with applicable regulations,\" said Margaret O' K. Glavin, FDA's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. Last year, the FDA slapped a countrywide alert on all Chinese eel after tests showed residues of an antimicrobial agent, she said. Since then, and \"despite extensive communications between FDA and appropriate Chinese authorities to correct the problem, we have continued to find residues of certain veterinary drugs or food additives that are not permitted for use in the United States,\" she added. Glavin said the FDA inspects 5 percent of seafood from China. The first alert on Chinese seafood occurred before 2001, she said. \"We're not asking for this product to be withdrawn from the market or for people to take this out of their freezers and throw it away,\" Acheson said. \"This is a long-term health concern; it is not an acute health concern.\" China is not the sole offender, Glavin said. Import alerts have been ordered for firms in the Philippines, Mexico \"and several others,\" though this is the first countrywide import alert, she said. More than 80 percent of shrimp eaten in the United States is imported, including 7 percent from China, according to the National Fisheries Institute. About 10 percent of catfish eaten in the United States comes from China, the seafood industry advocacy group said. Last year, the United States imported 590,299 metric tons of shrimp from abroad; 68,150 metric tons of which came from China, according to the Department of Commerce. The United States imported $1.2 billion of fish from China in 2004, according to H. M. Johson & Associates, a seafood industry research group. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"FDA blocks import of shrimp, catfish, eel, basa and dace from China .\nFish won't be allowed until importers prove they are safe .\nThe fish were treated with antibiotics and antifungal medication .\nThe antibiotics are not allowed in U.S. fish ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that despite President Bush's low approval ratings, people will soon \"start to thank this president for what he's done.\" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says \"there is no greater honor than to serve this country,\" \"So we can sit here and talk about the long record, but what I would say to you is that this president has faced tougher circumstances than perhaps at any time since the end of World War II, and he has delivered policies that are going to stand the test of time,\" Rice said in an interview that aired on CBS' \"Sunday Morning.\" The secretary of state brushed off reports that suggest the United States' image is suffering abroad. She praised the administration's ability to change the conversation in the Middle East. \"This isn't a popularity contest. I'm sorry, it isn't. What the administration is responsible to do is to make good choices about Americans' interests and values in the long run -- not for today's headlines, but for history's judgment,\" she said. \"And I am quite certain that when the final chapters are written and it's clear that Saddam Hussein's Iraq is gone in favor of an Iraq that is favorable to the future of the Middle East; when the history is written of a U.S.-China relationship that is better than it's ever been; an India relationship that is deeper and better than it's ever been; a relationship with Brazil and other countries of the left of Latin America, better than it's ever been ... \"When one looks at what we've been able to do in terms of changing the conversation in the Middle East about democracy and values, this administration will be judged well, and I'll wait for history's judgment and not today's headlines.\" Asked by CBS' Rita Braver why some former diplomats say Americans are disliked around the world, Rice said that's \"just not true.\" \"I know what U.S. policy has achieved. And so I don't know what diplomats you're talking to, but look at the record,\" she said. Rice said she wasn't bothered by criticism about her or the administration's polices, saying if a person in her business is not being criticized, \"you're not doing something right.\" \"I'm here to make tough choices, and this president is here to make tough choices, and we have. And yes, I -- there are some things that I would do very differently if I had it to do over again. You don't have that luxury. You have to make the choices and take the positions that you do at the time,\" she said. Asked about historians who say Bush is one of the worst presidents, Rice said those \"aren't very good historians.\" \"If you're making historical judgments before an administration is already out -- even out of office, and if you're trying to make historical judgments when the nature of the Middle East is still to be determined, and when one cannot yet judge the effects of decisions that this President has taken on what the Middle East will become -- I mean, for goodness' sakes, good historians are still writing books about George Washington. Good historians are certainly still writing books about Harry Truman,\" she said. Rice, 54, said she has enjoyed working in the Bush administration during the last eight years, first as national security adviser, then as secretary of state. \"There is no greater honor than to serve this country,\" she said, adding that there is also no greater challenge. Rice said when the new administration takes over, she plans to return to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and write two books -- one on foreign policy and one about her parents.","highlights":"Condoleezza Rice says Bush's policies will \"stand the test of time\"\nRice says she's not bothered by criticism; says she's \"here to make tough choices\"\nSecretary of state says historians criticizing Bush \"aren't very good historians\"\nRice says she plans to write a book about foreign policy ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi King Abdullah has pardoned a rape victim who had been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison in a case that sparked international attention, a Saudi newspaper has reported. The case cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic law. Al-Jazirah newspaper quoted a Saudi Justice Ministry official saying King Abdullah issued a royal pardon Monday -- the same day that the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, begins in Saudi Arabia. The victim's husband told CNN he has not received an official letter regarding her pardon, but considers it to be legitimate since it was announced in an official Saudi newspaper. He thanked King Abdullah for the pardon, saying: \"This fatherly care and noble gesture will help (in) lifting the emotional and psychological stress and suffering that our family has been enduring.\" \"This is not something new because we know that the King was always generous in dealing with his people and the entire world,\" the husband said. \"This week, we have two holidays to celebrate; the Eid and this great news of the pardon.\" Saudi sources told CNN that the king's pardon was not related to the beginning of the Hajj nor the Eid al-Adha festival that follows, which is normally when the Saudi monarch issues amnesty for prisoners. Watch how Arab media is reporting the story. \u00bb . Saudi Arabia's Justice Minister Abdullah Bin Mohammad al-Sheikh told al-Jazirah newspaper that the king felt the pardon would be in the best interests of the Saudi people, and the decision did not reflect any lack of confidence in the Saudi justice system. The White House welcomed King Abdullah's decision, but National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe stressed that \"this is obviously a matter for the Saudi Arabians and King Abdullah.\" A Saudi court ruled the 19-year-old had an \"illegitimate relationship\" with a man who was not her husband, and that she was raped after she and the man were discovered in a \"compromising situation, her clothes on the ground.\" The rape took place in Qatif in March 2006 when the woman was engaged to be married. The case has drawn international attention, provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under strict Islamic law in Saudi Arabia. The woman was meeting with a man -- described by the woman's attorney as a former friend from whom she was retrieving a photograph -- when they both were abducted last March. Seven men, convicted of abducting the pair and raping her, were sentenced from two to nine years in prison. Abdul Rahman al-Lahim, the lawyer who represented the woman, faced a disciplinary hearing for \"insulting the Supreme Judicial Council and disobeying the rules and regulations\" of the judiciary. The hearing has been postponed. The woman's husband has been outspoken in his support for his wife. He called a Lebanese TV show to defend her, when a former Saudi judge claimed on the program that she \"spoil(ed) their marital bed\" by meeting an unrelated male \"in secret\" and admitted her guilt. Al-Lahim has said he hopes the case changes the Saudi justice system. \"We want to highlight the rape crimes in Saudi Arabia and the way they are handled and sentenced in court,\" he added. \"This is a new era for all of us.\" He said that the rape case had elicited a fierce response, including calls for his beheading. U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that King Abdullah \"knows our position loud and clear\" on the case. Under Saudi law, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, Saad Abedine and Isha Sesay contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Sources say pardon unrelated to Hajj nor subsequent Eid al-Adha .\nNEW: Justice minister says king felt pardon in best interests of Saudi people .\nReport: King Abdullah pardons rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes .\nA Saudi court had ruled the 19-year-old had an \"illegitimate relationship\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska has erupted again, shooting ash as high as 45,000 feet in the air on Saturday, experts said. A series of eruptions has been rattling Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano since Sunday. The eruption occurred at about 1:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. ET), the U.S. Geological Survey told CNN. Some of the ash fell around Anchorage, resulting in the airport to close, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The volcano erupted three times Friday, at times shooting ash as high as 51,000 feet. The eruptions are the latest in a series that began March 22. The Alaska Volcano Observatory has set the alert level at its highest possible designation -- red -- indicating that an eruption is under way or imminent and that the eruption will produce a \"significant emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.\" Friday's volcano activity prompted Alaska Airlines to limit flights to and from Anchorage, according to the airline's Web site. It canceled all its Thursday flights to and from Anchorage after an eruption earlier in the day sent an ash cloud 65,000 feet high. The eruptions are the latest in a series that began Sunday.","highlights":"NEW: Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska erupted again on Saturday .\nNEW: Eruption sent ash as high as 45,000 feet in the air, experts said .\nNEW: FAA says ash falling around Anchorage resulted in closure of the airport .\nMount Redoubt has been erupting since March 22 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot who made a treacherous crash-landing on New York's Hudson River look like a routine maneuver got a hero's welcome Saturday in his California hometown. Chesley B. Sullenberger was honored Saturday with a celebration in his hometown of Danville, California. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger put his US Airways jetliner down on the Hudson minutes after both engines failed, then walked the length of the drifting Airbus A320 twice to make certain that all 155 people on board got off safely. He was greeted by several thousand cheering people gathered around the town square in Danville, California, for a celebration in his honor. Mayor Newell Arnerich presented Sullenberger with a ceremonial key to the city, an upscale suburb near San Francisco. Sullenberger, who has avoided public comment since the January 15 incident, made very brief remarks. He thanked the crowd for an \"incredible outpouring of support.\" \"Circumstance determined that it was this experienced crew that was scheduled to fly on that particular flight on that particular day,\" Sullenberger said. \"But I know I can speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do. Thank you.\" Watch Sullenberger address the crowd \u00bb . Sullenberger's wife, Lorrie, fought back tears as she spoke of her husband. \"I have always known him to be an exemplary pilot. I knew what the outcome would be that day, because I knew my husband,\" she said. \"Mostly for me, he's the man that makes my cup of tea every morning.\" Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board continue to piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina. The jet's left engine, which apparently tore away from the plane on landing impact, was raised from the bottom of the Hudson on Friday. Sullenberger reported to air controllers that his plane had hit birds shortly before both engines shut down. On Saturday, the NTSB said a preliminary examination of the left engine found evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\" the same kind of damage reported on the right engine. An NTSB spokesman said that there was no evidence of organic material such as a dead bird in the left engine but that was not surprising because the engine had been under water for a week. Although the NTSB has not officially confirmed reports of a bird strike, the agency's findings and statements have not done anything to discount the bird-strike reports. Both engines will be shipped to the manufacturer in Ohio, where NTSB investigators will tear them down completely for examination.","highlights":"NEW: Left engine shows evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\" NTSB says .\nThousands greet US Airways pilot in Danville, California .\n\"We were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do,\" he says .\nInvestigators continue to piece together what happened ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Erica Williams is deputy director of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based organization that describes itself as dedicated to progressive causes. She works to engage the millennial generation and communities such as people of color, women and people of faith in the political process. She can be found at ericawilliamsonline.com and on Twitter at @ericawilliamsdc. Erica Williams says the idea that young people don't care about the health care issue is wrong. (CNN) -- As Congress returns to Capitol Hill, back from a recess of contentious town halls on health care reform, one new voice has the potential to break through the seemingly endless deadlock: the voice of young Americans. Just Thursday, there were more than 880,000 Facebook status updates posted with the meme of a demand for health care reform, generated organically and spread virally from young people and other Facebook users across the country. Some are regarding this as the first symbolic demonstration of young people's engagement in the debate despite the common, and categorically false, notion that young people \"don't care about health care reform.\" Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 represent nearly a third of the entire uninsured population, and two-thirds of those uninsured young people reported going without necessary medical care because of costs in 2007, according to research for the Commonwealth Fund. More than half of all young adults have low incomes (below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, $21,660 for a single person in 2009), and low-income young adults are more than 2.5 times as likely to be uninsured as higher-income young adults, according to the Urban Institute. And contrary to popular belief that young people see themselves as invincible college students who choose to remain uninsured, 56 percent of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are full-time workers who are half as likely to be covered by their employer as older workers. Millennials regarded health care reform as one of their top concerns during the 2008 election campaign, according to the Rock the Vote Poll of 18- to 29-year-olds, conducted in February 2008 by Lake Research Partners. Whether it is the 25-year-old freelancer with a pre-existing condition who can't purchase insurance in the individual market, the 20-year-old line cook who doesn't receive insurance through her job or the 28-year-old bank employee who is insured but is worried about the rising costs of premiums, young Americans experience the deficiencies of our health care system on a daily basis. Nevertheless, despite a recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey showing that 60 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 support Obama's reform plan, the voice of young Americans has been strikingly absent from the public, televised national debate. And that silence is a dangerous state of affairs for the larger dialogue around reform. Young Americans have the most at stake and the longest to live with the result, and they are often the primary voice of a moral imperative (the idea that health care reform is not only economically necessary but the just and fair thing to do). Without their voices, the health care reform debate will continue to be stalled and hemmed in by older Americans who are in a better economic position than young people and who are afraid to change the status quo, despite all signs that it is rapidly failing. Young people were such a vital force during the election, not simply because of their own voting turnout but because of their ability to reach out to their elders and persuade them. And what could be more needed now? But if health care reform matters so much to young people and their voice is so crucial in the debate, why the silence? Why does it appear as if young people aren't interested in the debate that will inform so much of their future? Well, if we are gauging America's overall interest in the debate by the aforementioned displays of partisan yelling, screaming and death panel-ing at some town halls, no wonder we think young people don't care. Those sideshows were a clear turnoff to a population that voted overwhelming for less partisanship and \"drama\" in its politics. Or perhaps it is because this administration did little in the early stages of the debate to engage and activate a \"fired-up and ready to go\" base of young people that saw health care reform as a top concern at the polls. Obama rarely highlights the fact that reform would provide protections against price differentials that often result in discrimination based on age and gender. Or what about the fact that the president's reform proposal would mean that a young person can be covered up until the age of 26 by a parent's plan, rather than the current limit of 19 for those who don't attend college? This is what young people should have been told. But it isn't too late. As 2008 showed, young people, like all other constituencies, speak when spoken to. As the debate slogs into what is sure to be the most consequential stage of the battle, President Obama has a prime opportunity to speak directly to those who should have been the base of this issue all along. It is beyond time for the White House, and other organizers working to support reform, to hit college campuses and other community centers where young people can be found, both on- and offline, and empower them to make their voices heard. In the meantime, young people are doing it themselves. Students across the country are beginning to plan their own town hall events and forums, designing health care T-shirts and sending in photo petitions to their elected officials. They are demanding real reform and trying to get the health care debate back on track. In order to succeed, the fight for bold health care reform needs the enthusiasm, support and perspective of young people. And time is running out. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Erica Williams.","highlights":"Erica Williams: There's a myth that young people don't care about health care .\nShe says young people showed concern about the issue in 2008 .\nShe says they overwhelmingly support Obama's health care plans .\nWilliams: Reform fight needs enthusiasm and perspective of young people ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cynde Strand, CNN's Beijing camerawoman during the crisis, had spent night after night in Tiananmen Square, amidst a heap of trash, leaning on her ladder, her head over her camera, just waiting for something to happen. Cynde Strand: \"I just knew this was the day it was going to end.\" If she was really exhausted, she'd lay plastic over the trash and cat-nap on that. \"Every night I would stay there,\" she recalled. \"Every night there'd be rumors that the troops were coming, or they weren't coming. And then there were all those kids we had gotten to know,\" she said about the demonstrators. \"Some days I'd start around 5 and just stay the whole night,\" she said. \"The sun would come up and I would just ache. But I knew I wanted to be there when it happened.\" She and Mike Chinoy, both based in Beijing and both keen watchers of the Chinese leadership, shared the feeling that the situation was going to end badly. The Chinese had been deeply embarrassed by the demonstrators during the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, they reasoned, and the students were still occupying Tiananmen Square, although their numbers had dwindled. See photos of the CNN team in Tiananmen Square in 1989 \u00bb . In their minds, the Chinese leadership just would not stand for that. And Strand had a feeling that whatever was going to happen was going to happen at night, when energy levels were low. \"That Saturday (June 3), I just knew this was the day it was going to end,\" she said. \"That peaceful people-power picnic sit-in was gone. There was anger, rock-throwing behind the Great Hall of the People. The tension was much higher.\" And then Strand and her team got word of troops coming towards the giant square. And then kids started running into one side of the square with bodies. \"I got everybody together and said, 'okay, this is it,'\" she recalled. \"'If you don't want to stay, you can go. You don't have to stay here with me, but you have to leave now.'\" She and soundman Kit Swartz stayed in the square for that entire historic night, determined to witness history. \"Bullets were whizzing overhead and then about 3 or 4 in the morning, they turned all the lights off,\" she said. \"Troops started pouring out of Mao's mausoleum, different troops came out from under Mao's portrait. Tanks moved in. By early morning, they had taken over the square and crushed that tent city.\" Strand didn't get to film much that overnight of June 4. It was dark, she and Swartz took shelter behind public bathrooms for awhile, and the most dramatic images she had managed to film had gone with producer Donna Liu back to the CNN bureau. Strand had no idea what had happened to the tapes. And no one at CNN knew what had happened to her and Kit. Her walkie-talkie battery was long dead and nobody had cellphones then. From CNN's base at the Beijing Hotel, the square, she knew, \"looked like hell, with buses on fire, APCs [armed personnel carriers] on fire and the Goddess of Democracy statue backlit by the fires burning on the road.\" Daytime broke. Chinese troops controlled the square. Strand and Swartz needed to get back to the CNN bureau. They flagged down a flat-bed rickshaw driver, who pedaled them and their gear to the Beijing Hotel. As they arrived, journalists leaned out of the hotel windows, begging to hear what had happened overnight. She walked into the CNN bureau. She and Chinoy looked at each other. She could see the palpable relief on his face. \"It was one of those moments,\" she recalled, \"just a deep connection between us. It said: 'We knew it was coming, and we survived it.'\" Cynde Strand is now Director of Coverage at CNN International, based in Atlanta . Daniela Deane was a chief sub-editor at the Reuters news agency in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen crisis .","highlights":"Camerawoman Cynde Strand had spent night after night in Tiananmen Square .\nAs troops arrived, she \"got everybody together and said, okay, this is it\"\n\"Bullets were whizzing overhead ... then they turned the lights off\"\nShe and soundman Kit Swartz stayed in the square for the entire historic night ."} -{"article":"EDGEWATER, New Jersey (CNN) -- People steadily file into movie theater No. 4, but they're not carrying buckets of popcorn or soda -- instead, it's Bibles and coffee. Worshippers sing at Joy Christian Fellowship, which meets at Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in New Jersey. The sign above the double door announces \"The Proposal,\" the latest Sandra Bullock movie, but there's no romantic comedy playing on the screen -- instead, the lyrics to a Christian song fade in and out to the beat of the music: \"We are here because of you, because of you.\" On this Sunday morning, the approximately 200 people on hand aren't here to watch a movie but to worship God. Some stand stoically as they sing, others sway back and forth with eyes closed, a few have their hands raised toward the ceiling. At the front of the theater below the screen is a six-piece rock band that continues to sing, \"Oh, beautiful sound. The joy of heaven here.\" And it's here -- at Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas -- where Joy Christian Fellowship has been meeting for the past two years. \"It's not a traditional church setting,\" said Danny Han, Joy Christian's senior pastor, \"but we turn this theater auditorium into a worship place.\" Reclining cushioned seats take the place of pews; the movie screen stands in for stained glass windows. An entertainment venue has turned out to be an unconventional yet conveniently popular religious venue, attracting a new crowd of worshippers deterred by the traditional church setting. About 200 churches are renting theater space under a one-year contract with National CineMedia, a nationwide multiplex cinema chain. That's an increase from three churches six years ago. \"The economy has had clearly a positive impact,\" said Kurt Hall, the CEO of National CineMedia, about the trend of Sunday theater rentals, \"as churches have found it more difficult to raise money to build their own buildings.\" It's an alternative not only for small start-up churches that cannot afford space but also for large churches seeking to set up multiple locations. The movie theater offers a perfect setting: comfortable seats, state-of-the-art audio-visual technology, central air, ample parking, and prime locations. Joy Christian Fellowship leases two theaters from National Amusements, another multiplex cinemas chain, at $1,000 for 3 1\/2 hours each Sunday. National CineMedia has \"Worship Solutions\" packages with negotiable rates. But what may have started as a practical and economical solution has surprisingly become a spiritual solution for boosting church attendance. Only about four in 10 Americans say they attend religious services at least once a week, according to surveys conducted in recent years by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In Indianapolis, Indiana, the Rev. Ethan Maple decided that since people weren't filling the church pews, he would go to them. In March he started The Movie Theater Church. \"We're reaching out to those who have no religious background and also people who have been hurt by the traditional church setting,\" Maple said. His vision is not to build a physical church but to build a church community in a comfortable and unintimidating place. \"Everyone's gone to see a movie, and going to a theater to see worship is not a huge jump.\" Courtney Gonzales said he had been in and out of churches all his life before he came to The Movie Theater Church. \"I really hadn't had a permanent church home and was always feeling sort of disconnected,\" he said, adding he was raised in a Catholic family but did not relate to the rituals. \"I never really felt anything was getting through to me.\" As soon as he walked into the movie theater, Gonzales said, he immediately connected. \"I just felt comfortable, unlike when I had been at other churches.\" Congregation members eat popcorn and drink soda while worshipping. The offering is collected in popcorn buckets. \"Sunday best\" is often sneakers, jeans and an untucked T-shirt. Song lyrics and movie clips that illustrate sermon points flash across the large screen. (And during normal theater hours, church ads are included in the movie previews.) \"Lots of pastors give us feedback that they've seen an increase in church attendance because they're in the movie theater,\" said Hall from National CineMedia, which has created a team of nine people exclusively focused on church-theater relations. At The Movie Theater Church, attendance for this year's Easter service was 268 people, up from 91 last year, Maple said. \"The numbers show that the congregation accepts this new church style.\" It's a style these churches want to keep. According to National CineMedia, 67 percent of their church clients consider the movie theater to be a permanent facility. \"We wouldn't go any other way,\" said Chris Jarrell, a pastor National Community Church in the District of Columbia area. \"We see this as a long-term strategy.\" Four of National Community Church's five locations are movie theaters near subway stops, including the Phoenix Movie Theater on the lower level of Union Station. Watch congregants talk about having services in a cinema \u00bb . However, Pastor Steve Kelly of Wave Church in Virginia said staying in a movie theater sends a certain message to the community. \"The moment you define yourself as 'We're just going to rent this facility,' you're saying that you're not necessarily here to stay,\" he said. His congregation has been leasing theater space for five years while they wait for more members and money to build a facility on 31 acres of already-purchased land. Being a tenant comes with other drawbacks, such as the task of transforming the theater into a sanctuary every Sunday. Kuen Doo, a member of Joy Christian Fellowship, is in charge of setting up for the 9:30 a.m. service. His morning begins at 7:30 a.m. at a storage location, which houses 14 large black boxes on wheels that contain everything from music stands to speakers, church signs to drum set. \"It takes about an hour to load everything, come to this movie theater, unload, and help set up,\" Doo said. At least 17 congregation members are devoted to setting up and breaking down each Sunday. Joy Christian Fellowship has to clear out before noon, when the matinees begin, and theater No. 4 -- along with other movie theaters nationwide -- no longer belongs to the church.","highlights":"Idea appeals to small start-ups, big churches seeking to set up multiple locations .\nAt one cinema-based church, Easter attendance was up threefold from year before .\nPastor: Staying in a movie theater risks sending message that you won't stick around .\nOne big drawback: Setting up and breaking down sanctuary weekly is a lot of work ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general was all but assured Friday when two key Democratic senators said they will vote in favor of the nominee despite questions about his views on \"waterboarding\" and the president's power to order electronic surveillance. Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York announced they would support the retired federal judge from New York just hours after the chairman of the Judiciary Committee announced his opposition to the nominee. Feinstein and Schumer are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on the Mukasey nomination Tuesday. If all the Republican members of the committee also vote for Mukasey, which is expected, his nomination will go before the full Senate. A leading Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday Mukasey is likely to be confirmed if his nomination passes the Judiciary Committee. Schumer had praised the nomination of Mukasey as a consensus candidate when the president announced Mukasey as his choice to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales gave up the post in September. \"This is an extremely difficult decision,\" Schumer said. \"When an administration so political, so out of touch with the realities of governing and so contemptuous of the rule of law is in charge, we are never left with an ideal choice. Judge Mukasey is not my ideal choice. However, Judge Mukasey, whose integrity and independence is respected even by those who oppose him, is far better than anyone could expect from this administration.\" A number of Democratic senators, however, have said they will oppose Mukasey because of questions about his views on the interrogation technique called \"waterboarding\" and the president's power to order electronic surveillance. Waterboarding involves restraining a suspect and using water to produce the sensation of drowning. Mukasey told senators this week that he finds waterboarding \"repugnant,\" but he could not answer whether the technique amounts to torture. While saying \"serious questions have been raised about Judge Mukasey's views on torture and on separation of powers,\" Feinstein said she would support the nominee because the Justice Department needed fresh leadership. \"First and foremost, Michael Mukasey is not Alberto Gonzales. Rather, he has forged an independent life path as a practitioner of the law and a federal judge in the Southern District of New York. \"I believe that Judge Mukasey is the best we will get and voting him down would only perpetuate acting and recess appointments, allowing the administration to avoid the transparency that confirmation hearings provide and diminish effective oversight by Congress.\" Just hours before Feinstein and Schumer announced their decisions, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, announced he would vote against the Mukasey nomination. Watch Sen. Leahy explain why he can't support the Mukasey nomination \u00bb . \"No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture,\" Leahy said. \"Waterboarding was used at least as long ago as the Spanish Inquisition. We prosecuted Japanese war criminals for waterboarding after World War II. \"I am eager to restore strong leadership and independence to the Department of Justice. I like Michael Mukasey. I wish that I could support his nomination. But I cannot. America needs to be certain and confident of the bedrock principle -- deeply embedded in our laws and our values -- that no one, not even the president, is above the law.\" President Bush demanded the Senate confirm Mukasey during a speech Thursday at the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank. \"In a time of war, it's vital for the president to have a full national security team in place,\" the president said. The president has equated asking Mukasey about his opinion of waterboarding with asking him about the CIA-run interrogation program, whose details are classified. Bush said the program does not violate U.S. bans on torture, but added that Mukasey \"does not want an uninformed opinion to be taken by our professional interrogators in the field as placing them in legal jeopardy.\" But Leahy said \"Judge Mukasey was not asked to evaluate any secret 'facts and circumstances.' \" \"He was asked whether waterboarding is illegal. Our law makes torture illegal, and waterboarding is torture, and it is illegal. It is frankly not dependent on any, quote, 'relevant facts and circumstances of the technique's past or proposed use,' \" he said, quoting from Mukasey's response to senators on the question. Sources with knowledge of the CIA-run interrogation program have said agents are no longer using waterboarding. But those sources have said waterboarding was used in the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, now facing trial before a military tribunal for planning al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The practice was used by the Spanish Inquisition, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and the World War II Japanese military, according to Human Rights Watch. It is specifically banned in U.S. law governing the treatment of prisoners by the U.S. military. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Feinstein, Schumer say they'll vote for attorney general nominee .\nMichael Mukasey's nomination now expected to pass Judiciary Committee .\nSen. Patrick Leahy says he will not vote to confirm Michael Mukasey .\nCommittee scheduled to vote on nomination on Tuesday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When \"La Bamba\" hit movie screens in 1987, audiences flocked to see the true story of singer Ritchie Valens, who died as a teen in an airplane crash almost three decades earlier. \"La Bamba\" starred Lou Diamond Phillips as singer Ritchie Valens. It's one of 40 films featured in the festival. But it was memorable for another reason. The film was the first box office hit directed by a Latino filmmaker and starring mostly Latino actors, said Chon Noriega, a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. \"La Bamba\" is part of the Latino Images in Film festival, which begins Tuesday and runs through May on Turner Classic Movies. The event features 40 films that show how Latinos have been depicted on the big screen and is part of the network's \"Race and Hollywood\" series. (Turner Classic Movies, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.) Noriega, who chose the films and also co-hosts the festival, talked with CNN.com about what he hopes viewers will take away from the movie line-up. Watch clips from some of the classic films \u00bb . The following is a edited version of that interview. CNN: What was your selection process? Chon Noriega: I decided I was going to focus specifically on Hollywood films that look substantively at either Latino characters or the Latino community. I came up with a master list of films, and it's only about 70. There really haven't been that many that have dealt explicitly with the Latino population. And then, from there, we looked at what was available. CNN: When you talk about Latino images, who do you include in that description? Noriega: It's a kind of pan-ethnic, multiracial category. But basically in terms of the series, what it reflects is Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cuban-Americans. There really haven't been, as far as I can tell, many Hollywood films that go beyond those three major groups. CNN: What do you hope to accomplish with this movie lineup? Noriega: By and large, these are films that really haven't been seen since their original release. We really don't have an idea of what the history has been in terms of how Hollywood has dealt with or represented what is now a pretty sizeable part of our population. We have an idea of what the stereotypes have been in terms of the kind of expendable characters that emerge within Westerns or action films, background characters like maids. CNN: What do you mean by expendable characters? Noriega: If I'm watching a science-fiction film and there happens to be a Latino character, I know that that character is going to be the first one to die. (laughs) It is almost inevitable. Or in a Western. They're really not there as characters; they're there as foils for the largely white characters that are defining the film and the story. To my mind, it's valuable just to go back and just see that these are the films that at different points represent how not just Hollywood but our society was trying to figure out where Latinos fit within the national culture. CNN: As people watch these movies, from very early Hollywood to the 1990s, what is the progression of Latino characters? Noriega: I don't know that we see a single trajectory of going from either one thing to another or from bad to better. You see certain recurring figures or types. You see different versions of the gangster kind of morphing into the gang member. But it's more or less an urban outlaw type, and that persists. I think you see little shifts in terms of when they're being made and who is making them. You have some of the same characters in \"My Family\/Mi Familia,\" but it's being made by a Chicano filmmaker as part of an attempt to show a very diverse view of what a family can be. CNN: What's your take on white actors playing Latino characters? Noriega: Actually, [co-host] Robert Osborne and I kind of went back and forth on that throughout the series because I think there are two views. One is: Actors are actors, and they play make-believe, and they pretend to be different types of characters, and in an ideal world, actors should be able to play anything they are able to do effectively. But when you look at it sociologically, you see it's only working one way, and that's where I think there's a problem. In the history of Hollywood, we're maybe able to identify 70 films that really focus on Latino characters, family or community, and a third of those have white actors playing the Latinos. And Latino actors are not really getting the same opportunity to play other types. CNN: How did the industry try to \"transform\" actors into Latino characters? Noriega: The Latino population -- and it's part of the irony of this -- it's not a racial group. It's a multiracial, multi-ethnic group. We talk about that in terms of \"West Side Story,\" where everybody's identified how Natalie Wood was in brownface playing a Puerto Rican. But in 1980, there was a revival of it on Broadway, and they actually cast a Puerto Rican actress. In the makeup room, they started putting brownface on her, [because] she wasn't dark enough to meet the expectations of what a Latina character would look like on stage. I've done focus groups with Latino actors in the Screen Actors Guild, and they continually talk about that there are these expectations of what a Latino character is going to look like and more often than not, Latino actors don't look like that. (laughs) CNN: What do you think about how Latinos are portrayed in film today? Noriega: We have a somewhat broader cohort of actors who are known, who are included in films, not always starring, but they get secondary roles in films and so there's in some sense more of a presence. When you look at the statistics in terms of the overall presence of Latinos in film and television, the numbers really haven't changed that much. So it's a kind of a subtle shift.","highlights":"Turner Classic Movies begins month-long Latino Images in Film festival .\nEvent features 40 films that show how Latinos have been depicted on the big screen .\nDiscussion tackles controversial practice of white actors playing Latino characters .\nScholar: Films show how Hollywood tried to figure out where Latinos fit in culture ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican federal police have arrested a fugitive on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, Mexican authorities said. Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco allegedly murdered his girlfriend and her two young sons. Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco is wanted in Elmore County, Idaho, on charges that he shot and killed three people, the FBI said. The charred remains of a woman and her sons, ages 2 and 4, were found inside a burned-out vehicle on August 11, 2002, it said. Each victim had been shot in the head or chest. The FBI was still working Friday to confirm the identity of the man in custody, said Debbie Dujanovic, a spokeswoman in the agency's Salt Lake City, Utah, field office. The Salt Lake City office has jurisdiction in the case. An extradition order was issued in January 2007, the Mexican attorney general's office said in a news release Thursday. A reward of up to $100,000 was being offered, the FBI said. Lopez, 33, was captured in Zihuatanejo, a city northwest of Acapulco on the Pacific Coast in southern Mexico, the Mexican attorney general's office said. Zihuatanejo is in Guerrero state, but Lopez was transferred to a jail in neighboring Michoacan state, officials said. The arrest came about after investigation and intelligence work by Mexican authorities, the attorney general's office said. According to the FBI, Lopez abducted his girlfriend, Rebecca Ramirez, and her two young sons from her father's house in Nyssa, Oregon, on July 30, 2002. The car he had been driving was found nearly two weeks later on a rural road near Mountain Home, Idaho, officials said. It had been torched with the three bodies inside. The suspect's brother, Simon Lopez Orozco, and Simon's wife, Maria Cruz Garcia, have been charged with accessory to first-degree murder, the FBI said. Garcia was arrested in California three years ago, but Simon Lopez Orozco is believed still at large. Mexican officials captured another FBI Top 10 fugitive on July 17. Emigdio Preciado Jr. was wanted in connection with the shooting of two Los Angeles County, California, sheriff's deputies in September 2000. He had been charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, attempted murder of a police officer.","highlights":"Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco is wanted in Elmore County, Idaho, .\nFBI was still working Friday to confirm the identity of the man in custody .\nWanted on charges he shot and killed three people, the FBI said.\nCharred remains of woman and her sons, ages 2 and 4, were found August 11, 2002 ."} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- February marks the beginning of Black History Month, a federally recognized, nationwide celebration that provides the opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African-Americans have played in the shaping of U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be, and why does it take place in February? We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice. - Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) on founding Negro History Week, 1926 . Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered a pioneer in the study of African-American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month, and has been called the \"Father of Black History.\" The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries . He received his education during the four-month term that was customary for black schools at the time. At 19, having taught himself English fundamentals and arithmetic, Woodson entered high school, where he completed a four-year curriculum in two years. He went on to receive his Master's degree in history from the University of Chicago, and he eventually earned a Ph.D from Harvard. Disturbed that history textbooks largely ignored America's black population, Woodson took on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation's history. To do this, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He also founded the group's widely respected publication, the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week. Woodson believed that \"the achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization.\" Woodson chose the second week of February for the celebration because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population: Frederick Douglass (February 14), an escaped slave who became one of the foremost black abolitionists and civil rights leaders in the nation, and President Abraham Lincoln (February 12), who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in America's confederate states. In 1976, Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month. The month is also sometimes referred to as African-American Heritage Month. (Source: http:\/\/blackhistorypages.net\/pages\/cgwoodson.php, http:\/\/www.chipublib.org\/002branches\/woodson\/woodsonbib.html)","highlights":"Use this information to understand the origins of Black History Month ."} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Juan Almeida, a Cuban revolutionary who fought alongside former Communist leader Fidel Castro, died of a heart attack Friday evening, according to state media. Almeida, left, sits with President Raul Castro on January 1, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Almeida, 82, was among only a handful of surviving Cuban leaders who still bore the title \"Commander of the Revolution.\" A vice president and member of the Communist government Central Committee, Almeida was among only a few black leaders in top government posts. He died of cardiac arrest late Friday evening, according Juventud Rebelde, Cuba's state-run youth newspaper. Widely admired among Cuban nationals, Almeida fought with Fidel and Raul Castro at the start of their campesino-led revolution, participating in the failed attacks on the Moncada army barracks in 1953 and later aboard the famed yacht, \"Granma,\" that carried the small group of Cuban rebels who would later topple U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Almeida's death highlights the mortality of an aging cast of Cuba's revolutionary leaders. Widespread speculation surrounding the health of Fidel Castro grew in 2006 after the former Communist leader underwent abdominal surgery and later ceded the presidency to his younger brother, Raul. The elder Castro has recently appeared in a series of photos and video looking healthier, though he has not appeared in public since 2006. Cuban state media reported that Sunday will be a day of national mourning and that flags will be flown at half-staff.","highlights":"Cuban revolutionary Juan Almeida died of a heart attack Friday evening .\nAlmeida, 82, was a vice president and member of the Central Committee .\nHe was among only a few black leaders in top government posts .\nAlmeida fought with the Castros at the start of their campesino-led revolution ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Had the government not delayed its controversial order that all computers be equipped with Green Dam by July 1, the result would have been the same -- Chinese computer retailers were far from ready. The Green Dam's developers say they've received death threats. PC sales representatives at Bainaohui, one of Beijing's largest electronics retailers, say their merchandise is not pre-installed with Green Dam, a Web filtering software the government said was necessary to prevent children from viewing pornography and other harmful content. Some retailers were unclear as to when the software would even be available on new units. Computer experts say manufacturers have not had enough time to pre-install new computers with the software -- which is one reason behind the government's delay. PC companies may also be taking more time to test the software after programming errors, with the potential to make computers susceptible to hackers, were detected by University of Michigan professors. The Chinese government said that these errors have been fixed. The international backlash against the Green Dam directive may be further delaying the pre-instillation process. Twenty-two chambers of commerce and trade groups made an appeal to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urging that he abandon the software mandate. \"China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues,\" said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in a press-release. With the support of U.S. trade officials, computer-makers including Dell and Hewlett-Packard are threatening to bring the matter to the World Trade Organization. Other computer manufactures, including Sony and Acer, say they are bound to comply with the Chinese policy. Domestically, Chinese Internet users are rallying against the government. Last week an anonymous group of \"netizens\" posted an open letter on Chinese blogs and forums. \"We hereby decide that from July 1 2009, we will start a full-scale global attack on all censorship systems you control,\" the message said. The Chinese artist, activist, and architect who designed the Olympic \"Bird's Nest\" stadium, is one of the leaders behind the cyber battle. Ai Weiwei called for his Twitter followers to boycott the Internet on July 1st. The Green Dam's developers say they've even received death threats. The Chinese online community has been in an uproar since the new policy became public, and a \"Declaration of Anonymous Internet Users 2009\" circulating directly addresses government censors, said Charles Mok, chairman of the Internet Society of Hong Kong. \"They are showing altered pictures of their own face using masks like that from 'V for Vendetta',\" said Mok, referring to the 2005 film updating the story of Guy Fawkes, who tried to destroy Parliament building in England in the 17th Century. \"It says, 'We're behind the mask; if one of us falls down, ten others will join.'\" Mok also questions the true intent of the Green Dam software. \"On its black list are 2000 words related to pornography and 6000 other types of politically sensitive key words like 'Falun Gong',\" he said, referring to the banned Chinese religious group. \"That ratio alone makes it obvious what's behind it.\" Sharp criticism of the software partially stems from fears that the software will simply further strengthen the government's control and censorship of the media. Yet the government said it is simply acting in response to parental complaints about the negative affects of the Internet on children. Responding to reporters' questions, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang acknowledges the controversy over the software in and outside China. \"However,\" he said in a regular press conference last week, \"no matter how many different views there are, the Chinese government assumes the responsibility to protect our youth from unhealthy information on the Internet, and so do various social circles and enterprises. This is the essence of this problem.\" The government said it is simply providing the software free of charge, as a pre-installed file on computer hard drives or as a CD, to give users to choice to install the software. China is not the first country to try to censor the Internet; Iran, Myanmar, even France and Germany in various ways attempt to put limits on the blogosphere. But analysts doubt whether this particular policy can even be enforced. Said Victor Gao, a former government functionary who now heads a policy think tank: \"The government always has its own views, but whether they are able to execute it to the detail and push it through the country is another issue.\" Watch why the filtering software mandate has been postponed \u00bb . The extent to which the software's can block harmful content is still in question. Unofficial tests by Internet enthusiasts showed that while Green Dam considered a cartoon of a cat in blue clothes safe, pictures of Garfield the Cat were sometimes blocked by the software because it is programmed to categorize images with large areas of \"yellow\" as pornographic. Over at Bainaohui, a hub of computer and Internet commerce in central Beijing, many salespersons seem oblivious to the new government edict. \"I think I've read something about it on line,\" said one. And what do they think of Green Dam? \"I have no idea since I have not used it yet,\" said a seller of computer software. Worried? \"I don't think there would be any impact,\" replied another. Meantime, Bainaohui's robust IT business continues unimpeded. CNN's Kevin Voigt contributed to this report.","highlights":"China extends deadline for Internet filtering software to accompany PCs .\nInternational backlash, unreadiness of retailers may be reasons behind the delay .\nGovernment says Green Dam software is designed to block porn .\nCritics say software can block all non-government sanctioned content ."} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Even the most sophisticated traveler could be forgiven for thinking that there's little more to Panama than its iconic canal, seaside capital, and snorkeler-packed Bocas del Toro islands. The Los Santos region of Panama has spectacular rolling farmlands and blissfully empty beaches. But there's a more secret and equally spectacular side to the country about a five-hour drive west from Panama City: the Pacific coast region of Los Santos. Here, rolling farmlands and stands of mahogany and cocobolo trees hug an azure coastline, luring surfers, nature buffs, and, increasingly, travelers and second-home owners from all over. Although roadside real-estate billboards suggest a far more developed future, Los Santos has managed to stay blessedly free of resorts. In their place are a handful of low-key -- and far more affordable -- boutique hotels. The most stylish is the seven-room Villa Camilla, just outside the fishing village of Pedas\u00ed. The red-tiled hideaway, located on an 800-acre parcel of the Azuero Peninsula, started out as a private escape for French interior designer Gilles St.-Gilles and his wife, Camilla. \"The area reminded us of Tuscany,\" says St.-Gilles, who landscaped the estate with fragrant jasmine, plumeria, and hibiscus. In 2005, the couple opened their place as a hotel, and last fall they added 20 new seaside duplex lofts. As stylish as they are family-friendly, the setups come with full-size kitchens, extra guest beds, and mosaic-tile flooring. An in-house stable is ready for shoreline horseback rides, and you can sign up for snorkeling trips to nearby Isla Ca\u00f1as, a palm-fringed refuge where thousands of leatherback turtles converge to build nests. Farther inland, the center of Pedas\u00ed has a cow-town vibe: Picture low-slung cottages painted bright green and yellow, and ranchers wearing handmade Panama hats. Yellow is also the color of choice at the new Casita Margarita. This five-room B&B comes with locally crafted cocobolo furniture and a wraparound veranda overlooking Pedas\u00ed's main street. Perhaps best of all, it's within walking distance of local hangout Mano Surf Community, a pro shop that does double duty as a caf\u00e9 and juice bar, and El Gringo Dusek, a no-frills, alfresco cantina run by retired U.S. Navy officer Joseph Dusek, which serves the best barbecue ribs in Los Santos. Of course, beyond the culinary surf and turf, the region's big draw is its blissfully empty beaches: Some of Panama's most scenic -- Los Destiladeros, Modro\u00f1o, and the black-sand Playa Venao with its eight-foot breaks -- are short drives from Pedas\u00ed. Closer to home, Pedas\u00ed's El Arenal is a good launchpad for day trips to Iguana Island. (Fishermen stationed by the pier rent their motorboats, captain included, for about $50 round trip.) The hotel-free and nearly visitor-free isle is named for its resident black and green iguanas. Sign up for an Iguana Island Foundation snorkeling and hiking tour; you might just get a good look at some hatchlings. While it may be hard to top that sight, 77-year-old Dalila Vera de Quintero knows how to command equal wows. Her lemon-yellow bakery in a bungalow, Dulceria Yely, is famous across Panama for its home-style sweets, like almond queques (pound cakes) and creamy chicheme, a shake blended from sweetened milk, fresh corn, and crushed vanilla beans. She also stashes a cake or two in the kitchen for favorite customers, such as former Panamanian president and Pedas\u00ed native Mireya Moscoso. Swoon loudly enough and Quintero may just reward you with a thick presidential slice. If you go ... LODGING . Villa Camilla Los Destiladeros, 011-507\/232-0171, , from $250 . Casita Margarita, Calle Central, 011-507\/995-2898, from $99 . FOOD . Mano Surf Community, Calle Estudiante and Calle Bolivar . El Gringo Dusek, Av. Central, 011-507\/995-2869, entr\u00e9es from $5 . Dulceria Yely, Calle Ofelia Reluz, 011-507\/995-2205, from 3\u00a2 . ACTIVITIES . Iguana Island Foundation, 011-507\/236-8117, full-day tour $90 . Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"The Pacific coast region of Los Santos is about five hours from Panama City .\nThe region's big draw is its blissfully empty beaches .\nThe town of Pedas\u00ed's is a good launchpad for day trips to Iguana Island ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Houston, Texas, say they have busted a prostitution ring that may involve more than 1,500 clients, including professional athletes, doctors and lawyers. Investigators were scouring computers files and credit card records on Monday, trying to verify a large client list that could ignite scandals throughout the city, CNN affiliate station KHOU reported. Police arrested alleged ringleaders Deborah Turbiville and her husband, Charlie, as part of a two-year investigation, the affiliate reported. Turbiville called herself the \"Heidi Fleiss of Houston,\" referring to a woman who was dubbed the \"Hollywood Madam\" for providing call girls to famous and wealthy clients, police said. Turbiville, who reportedly recruited prostitutes through the online site Craigslist, was in court Monday on a charge of promotion of prostitution. Investigators said the women met their clients in upscale hotels and charged about $350 an hour, the affiliate reported. Clients also met prostitutes in a luxurious three-bedroom apartment, police told the affiliate.","highlights":"Alleged ringleader dubbed \"Heidi Fleiss of Houston\"\nInvestigators say women met clients in upscale hotels, charged about $350 an hour .\nPolice scour computer files and credit card records to verify a large client list ."} -{"article":"WASHAKIE COUNTY, Wyoming (CNN) -- In the predawn darkness the agents switch the federal plates on their vehicles to local Wyoming tags and check they have no other signs showing they are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Edward Eugene Harper is believed to have lived a nomadic lifestyle since fleeing Mississippi. They want to give the impression that they are fish and wildlife officers, certainly not what they really are -- an elite squad in search of one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives. Their target lives eight miles up a dirt road in the Big Horn mountains of Washakie County -- and he is also not what he seems. For the past few years Edward Eugene Harper has been tending a flock of sheep in the semi-wilderness of the region. But 15 years ago he failed to turn up for a court appearance in Mississippi on charges he had molested two girls, aged 3 and 8. He'd been on the lam ever since. Recently the FBI had received a tip on his whereabouts. Watch how FBI planned hunt for fugitive \u00bb . Snipers spent the night watching the truck with a camper top where Harper, 63, has been sleeping for the past few weeks. Michael Rankin, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI's Denver, Colorado, field office and leader of the operation to capture Harper, said he wanted to use a ruse to get close to Harper. \"We don't want to alert him or anybody who might be a supporter of his, and we want to get as close to him without somehow raising his antenna that we may be law enforcement and we may be wanting to take him into custody,\" Rankin said. \"It's an individual that has been a fugitive for almost 15 years, so he certainly doesn't want to go to jail or be put into the system after being on the lam for this length of time.\" The locals are used to seeing officers from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and it's one of their men who will make the first contact and perhaps lead Harper to think the accompanying agents are also wildlife officials. The sun is up now and it is dusty and hot. At the end of the dirt road the FBI has officers working the command and control element, a team of crisis negotiators and investigators who will confirm Harper's identity, and a tactical unit aiming to make the arrest. FBI sources say they are concerned about another \"Ruby Ridge incident.\" In August 1992, more than 400 members of federal and local law enforcement and the military converged on the Idaho hillside where a white separatist, Randy Weaver, lived in a cabin with his family. By the end of the operation, there had been a 12-day siege and a U.S. marshal, Weaver's wife and his 14-year-old son were dead. Ruby Ridge became a rallying cry for right-wing militias, and agents do not want this arrest mission spiraling out of control. Harper subscribes to \"sovereign citizen\" ideology and once claimed to be a member of the Montana Freemen, a group that rejected the authority of the U.S. government, the FBI said. In the end, the arrest of Harper is nothing like Ruby Ridge. He puts up no resistance, no shots are fired and there is no standoff. Harper, now with a heavy beard, shaggy hair and wearing a black patch on his left eye, sits calmly in a government SUV heading back into the system and a county jail in Casper, Wyoming, as authorities begin the process of extraditing him to Mississippi. He has requested a public defender. \"It feels very good that everybody's safe,\" Rankin said as the teams leave the wilderness to head back to base where they can strike a name off their most wanted list.","highlights":"Accused child-molester Edward Eugene Harper detained in Wyoming .\nFBI snipers, investigators headed into wilderness before dawn to catch him .\nHarper skipped court date in 1994 and had been on the lam since ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Polish authorities in Pakistan say they are monitoring local reports that Taliban militants have executed a kidnapped Polish engineer. Pakistani Taliban militants offer prayers in Mamouzai area of . Orakzai Agency in November. Piotr Stancza was kidnapped September 28 from the city of Attock in Punjab province. Stancza had been based there for a Polish survey company searching for natural gas. Local reports and TV station Dawn News reported Stancza's execution Saturday. Polish Embassy spokesman Peter Adams said his offices were aware of local media reports but were waiting to hear officially from Pakistani authorities. He said all efforts had been made by Polish authorities to pressure the Pakistani government to do whatever it could to secure Stancza's release. \"From the Polish side, we did whatever we could, pressuring the Pakistani government on the presidential and prime minister level,\" Adams said. \"Problem was, this was solely Pakistan's responsibility. Demands were only towards [the] Pakistan government.\" Adams said there had been no demands for ransom. The Taliban had demanded the release of Taliban prisoners being held by the government and a pullout of government security forces from the tribal areas. Although there were assurances that the Pakistani government was doing everything it could and that Stancza would be freed soon, Adams said it was never clear what the government was actually doing to secure his release. \"We are waiting for confirmation and waiting for any answer [about] how this happened and why did this happen,\" Adams said. A spokesman for Pakistan's interior ministry said that the reports of Stancza's death have yet to be confirmed and that the case of his kidnapping was a high priority for the government. Shahid Ullah Baig said the government had been working hard to retrieve Stancza unharmed but did not give details. \"The Pakistan government is doing its level best to secure his release,\" he said, adding, \"Human life is more important to us than anything else.\" Kidnappings and attacks against foreigners have risen sharply in recent months throughout the country. Most recently, an American working for the United Nations was kidnapped in Quetta, and Peshawar has been the scene of various attacks against foreign diplomats and journalists.","highlights":"Piotr Stancza kidnapped September 28 from Attock in Punjab province .\nPolish authorities in Pakistan checking local reports .\nTaliban had demanded release of prisoners, pullout of forces ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Michelle Rhee says she runs at 100 miles per hour. As the chancellor of one of the nation's lowest-performing school districts, she says she has no choice -- too much bureaucracy to cut through, too many problems to fix after decades of neglect. Michelle Rhee says a sense of urgency has been missing for years in the District of Columbia's schools. Rhee closed 23 schools in her first year as the head of the District of Columbia's public schools, fired 36 principals and cut 15 percent -- about 121 jobs -- from the central office staff. And she's making no apologies. \"I think it's that sense of urgency that has been lacking for far too long in our public schools,\" Rhee told CNN as she began her second year on the job in late August. \"We are always going to put the best interests of kids above the rights, privileges and priorities of adults.\" Watch fighting for \"radical changes\" \u00bb . Rhee said \"radical\" changes are needed because only 12 percent of the District's eighth graders are proficient in reading and just 8 percent are proficient in math, but was quick to add that they're already seeing improvement. She highlighted gains in elementary reading and secondary level math and reading in the past year that outstripped all of the four prior years put together. An annual report card by Education Week, a newspaper that follows the nation's education system, earlier this year ranked the District's school system last, giving it a D+ overall and an F for student achievement in kindergarten through 12th grade. Those grades were based on data prior to Rhee's arrival. \"We need to see radical changes because the outcomes for kids that are happening right now are robbing them of their futures,\" said Rhee, a Democrat who supports President Bush's landmark education law known as No Child Left Behind. Watch Rhee describe telling employee: \"You need to find another job\" \u00bb . \"We have scores of kids in this city who don't have the advocates that they need in their lives who are able to maneuver and jockey through the public school system. And we can't allow those children to languish in classrooms where teachers are not performing.\" Her plan is ambitious: To completely transform the District's system within eight years for its 50,000 children. The plan focuses on top-down accountability, quantitative results like standardized test scores and, ultimately, working to close what she describes as \"the achievement gap between wealthy white kids and poor minority kids.\" \"I think it's absolutely possible within an eight-year period,\" she said. Watch D.C. schools need \"urgency\" \u00bb . Rhee, who is Korean-American, is operating in a largely African-American district. It is a district where 57 percent of the students qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. Rhee said when she first arrived on the job in 2007 she first heard whispers of: \"She's not from D.C., she's not African-American: Is she going to be able to relate to students and their families?\" \"I think that all dissipated quite quickly after I started getting out into the community and talking to people,\" said Rhee, a 38-year-old mother of two children attending local public schools. \"I think one of the things that comes across very clearly is the fact that I'm very passionate about this work. I'm very focused on it.\" But her plan to turn the failing school district on its head has met protest every step of the way, even from teachers. \"I think the people who view her aggressive actions as a positive thing, I think they are missing the boat because if it results in more chaos and more dysfunction, it's not the solution that we need,\" said Kerry Sylvia, a teacher at Cardozo Senior High School in her ninth year. Sylvia says the District has seen far too many superintendents over the years and fears Rhee is just another in the long list of those who come in touting their reforms and then leave. She does offer praise for Rhee holding teachers and administrators accountable for their lack of performance. However, she doesn't always care for Rhee's style, saying Rhee makes it seem like \"there's a lot of lazy teachers.\" \"She's pitting adults against children. She couches things in terms of 'I'm not here to keep jobs for adults. I'm not here to keep people's paychecks. I am here for the children,' \" Sylvia said. \"Well, guess what? I'm here for the children too.\" Before taking on her current role, Rhee founded The New Teacher Project, a non-profit organization that recruits quality teachers to high-poverty schools. Rhee holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University. One of the most controversial programs Rhee has introduced is a joint venture between D.C. schools and Harvard that pays middle school students cash -- up to $100 a month -- for good behavior and attendance. Rhee says such pilot programs have worked in other cities. She says the District's students have far too many bad incentives on the streets, from hustling to drug dealing, and need something to keep them focused. \"We're preparing them to understand that if you do the right thing, then good things will happen to you,\" Rhee said. Some in the District are skeptical, including Clarence Cherry, a fourth-generation Washingtonian and father of five. He calls the cash and Rhee's overall direction misguided and reckless. \"It's a very dangerous game that she's playing with,\" he said. But Cherry added, \"I want to give her an opportunity to prove to me as a parent that she genuinely ... is here for the kids.\" Others are fervent supporters of the new superintendent. Dr. Waheedah Shakoor, another teacher at Cardozo, has been in the District since 1979. He says he's been stunned at the amount of change that's happened in just one year under Rhee, from freshly painted walls to improved athletic facilities. \"Things that we've been asking for for many, many years have come to fruition within just the last 12 months,\" Shakoor said. Rhee is an appointee of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has backed her every move. \"I had the highest expectations of Michelle Rhee when she came into the job. She has exceeded every expectation,\" Fenty said. \"When you have a system that's been as underperforming as the District of Columbia public schools, you need to shake things up.\" Rhee says she'll continue to shake things, working at break-neck speed to improve the education and opportunity for her students and urban students across the country as fast as she can.","highlights":"D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee closed 23 schools, fired 36 principals in first year .\n\"We are always going to put the best interests of kids above the rights ... of adults\"\nCritic says Rhee has created \"more chaos and more dysfunction\"\nMayor backs his appointee, says when schools fail, \"you need to shake things up\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is asking Mexican federal authorities not to pull military units out of the region for at least another six months. A Mexican soldier controls traffic at the Mexico-U.S. border customs post in Ciudad Juarez on August 16. A decision on whether to withdraw the troops is expected before September 15. The troops were sent to the city across from El Paso, Texas, in the spring of 2008 to help quell violence involving warring drug cartels. An additional surge of troops was sent this spring. That surge appeared to work at first, cutting the homicide rate in Juarez drastically. But murders in the city spiked over the summer. Figures provided by the city show that in August. more than 300 people were killed, the deadliest month so far this year. In July, 260 died and in June, 220. Those numbers were in stark contrast to 16 homicides in March, 42 in April and 60 in May. The mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz, attributed the summer spike in violence to wars between cartels over the control of street drug-sale points. The cartels are hiring mostly youths to handle retail drug sales, he said, and that has resulted in most of the murder victims being between the ages of 14 and 25. The mayor said Juarez is not ready for the army's full withdrawal, even though he is aware the troops' presence was meant to be a temporary solution to give the city time to get rid of corrupt police officers, hire new ones and train its new force. \"We have accomplished the part that has to do with strengthening the police, but the city is in a very difficult situation. We are asking part of the army to stay and help us,\" Reyes Ferriz said. In September, 750 newly graduated police cadets are expected to join Ciudad Juarez Police Department, and another 400 in October, bringing the force to a total of about 3,000 officers. According to figures provided by the military, more than 6,000 soldiers are serving in Joint Operation Chihuahua in Juarez, of which 3,600 have been assigned to narco-traffic operations. The rest have been assigned to traffic duties and street patrols. The operation's spokesman, Enrique Torres, said the military is \"evaluating the security situation\" in the city and will be \"implementing a gradual withdrawal.\"","highlights":"Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz would like federal army troops to stay six more months .\nTroops were sent to Ciudad Juarez to quell drug-fueled murders .\nMurders down in spring, but spike in summer; more than 300 killed in August .\nDecision on whether to withdraw the troops is expected before September 15 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Move over, Edward Cullen. Tell those bayou bloodsuckers from \"True Blood\" to step aside, too. More than 112 years after he first climbed out of the coffin, the world's most famous vampire is back -- and he's bloodier than ever. \"Dracula the Un-Dead,\" released this month in the United States, is a sequel to Bram Stoker's 1897 classic written by Dacre Stoker, the original author's great-grandnephew. The book, co-written by Dracula historian Ian Holt, picks up 25 years after the Victorian-era monster is supposedly killed in the original and is based in part on 125 pages of handwritten notes that Bram Stoker left behind. But while many of the original characters are here -- troubled couple Jonathan and Mina Harker and vampire hunter Van Helsing among them -- the horror has gotten a 21st-century update. The sex and violence that Stoker deftly alluded to in the original are, at times, front and center in his descendant's sequel. \"You've got to keep in mind the perspective,\" said Dacre Stoker, a native of Montreal, Quebec, now living in Aiken, South Carolina. \"The degree of sex and violence he had, in this very stuffy and conservative Victorian society, was cutting edge at the time. Even the exposure of a woman's flesh, the piercing of the flesh, was a metaphor for the sex act.\" And with authors from Anne Rice and Charlaine Harris to Stephen King and Poppy Z. Brite having crafted their own, sometimes lurid, reworkings of the vampire legend, Stoker said he knew that the new book couldn't just be a straight continuation of the first. \"We've got to keep up with what other people are doing,\" he said. \"Otherwise, our story would be toast.\" Of all the books, movies and other tales to use Dracula's name throughout the decades, the novel is the first since the 1931 Bela Lugosi movie to have the Stoker family's endorsement and input. After Bram's death, his widow, Florence, sold the story's rights, and eventually, the most iconic character in the history of horror slipped into the public domain. Dacre said that before now, the only thing he'd ever received for his ancestor's work was the occasional Halloween wisecrack. \"We knew of the legacy of Bram Stoker, but as kids growing up in Montreal, it wasn't that big a deal,\" he said. \"Every now and then at Halloween you'd get joked: 'Is it safe to come to the Stoker house? Are we going to get candy or bitten in the neck?' \" It was a college writing project that revived his interest in his novelist ancestor, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who'd moved to London, England, by the time the book was written. Then, he was contacted by Holt in 2003. The historian said he wanted to work on a sequel and wanted to have a member of Stoker's family involved. Along the way, they uncovered a rare find at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Bram's own notes. It wasn't a plot outline, Dacre said, \"but what I did was find information, characters, little ideas -- plot threads that he had in mind 112 years ago that didn't make it into his story.\" Among the seeds for new plotlines was Bram's mention of a police investigator who plays prominently in \"Dracula the Un-Dead.\" Dacre said he'd always wondered at how the first book was full of murder but no police were involved. The notes also prompted the inclusion of Jack the Ripper, whose gruesome exploits gripped London around the time the elder Stoker was writing his novel and who is believed by some historians to have helped shape its plot. True fans of the vampire genre will find another historical figure they're likely familiar with gracing the book's pages and an even more unlikely appearance: Bram Stoker himself. \"Part of our plan was to paint a realistic picture of Bram Stoker,\" Dacre said of the author, who spent time as a reporter, theater critic and manager of London's Lyceum Theater. \"Everybody knows Dracula. Not many people know Bram Stoker.\" Response to and reviews of the book have been largely positive. \"This daring sequel captures the essence and gothic glory of the original,\" USA Today's Carroll Memmott wrote. Dacre, who is touring the United States in support of the release, said he was prepared for the inevitable backlash from pure-blood purists who don't think the original should be sullied with a follow-up. \"I have heard just a bit of it,\" he said. \"People say it's better to leave some of these mysteries alone; let's not solve them all. Believe me, when you read our story, you'll know we don't solve them all.\" And he has some other advice for those diehards: Lighten up. \"This is entertainment. Go with it,\" he said. \"If you don't want to read it, you don't have to.\"","highlights":"\"Dracula the Un-Dead\" written by Bram Stoker's descendant Dacre .\nVampire tale is more overtly violent, sexy than the 1897 original .\nBook has prompted good reviews, handful of bitter purists .\nJack the Ripper, Bram himself incorporated into new story ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain on Tuesday proposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling as part of his plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help combat rising gas prices. Sen. John McCain says it's time for the federal government \"to put our own reserves to use.\" \"The stakes are high for our citizens and for our economy,\" McCain, the presumed Republican nominee for president, said at a press conference Tuesday in Houston, Texas. Hours later, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush on Wednesday will ask Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling. Bush has long called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, but Perino said he now wants to go further. \"For years, the president has pushed Congress to expand our domestic oil supply, but Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked such action,\" she said. Earlier in the day, McCain, describing the high price of fuel, confused the cost of gallons versus barrels, which drew laughs from the crowd and the candidate himself. He quickly corrected himself. \"And with gasoline running at more than $4 a barrel ... a gallon ... I wish ... $4 a gallon, many do not have the luxury of waiting on the far-off plans of futurists and politicians,\" he said. \"We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use.\" McCain's plan would let individual states decide whether to explore drilling possibilities. Watch a McCain adviser describe the proposal \u00bb . The proposal could put McCain at odds with environmentalists who say it is incongruous with his plans to combat global warning. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a McCain ally, opposes offshore drilling. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist had expressed opposition to exploring coastal waters, but he said this week he supports McCain's plan to lift the moratorium and would not rule out letting his state choose to drill offshore. \"It's the last thing in the world I'd like to do, but I also understand what people are paying at the pump, and I understand the drag it is on our economy,\" Crist told the St. Petersburg Times. \"Something has to be done in a responsible, pragmatic way.\" The current law, which has been in effect since 1981, covers most of the country's coastal waters. Many officials from coastal states oppose offshore drilling because of the risk of oil spills. Environmentalists want offshore drilling to stop to protect oceans and beaches from further pollution. \"The next president must be willing to break with the energy policies, not just of the current administration, but the administrations that preceded it, and lead a great national campaign to achieve energy security for America,\" McCain said Tuesday. McCain on Monday said incentives could possibly be provided for states that choose to permit exploration off their coasts, adding that \"exploration is a step toward the longer-term goal.\" Tuesday's discussion marks the first in a series of talks about America's energy security that McCain will hold during the next two weeks as he lays out his plan to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. McCain opposes drilling in some parts of the wilderness and says those areas must be left undisturbed. \"When America set aside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we called it a 'refuge' for a reason,\" he said. McCain also criticized the energy policy of Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama. \"He says that high oil prices are not the problem, but only that they rose too quickly. He doesn't support new domestic production. He doesn't support new nuclear plants. He doesn't support more traditional use of coal, either,\" McCain said. \"So what does Sen. Obama support in energy policy? Well, for starters, he supported the energy bill of 2005 -- a grab bag of corporate favors that I opposed. And now he supports new taxes on energy producers. He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea too -- and a lot of good it did us.\" McCain argues that a windfall profits tax will only increase the country's dependence on foreign oil and be an obstacle to domestic exploration. \"I'm all for recycling -- but it's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970s,\" he said. Obama on Tuesday blasted McCain for changing his stance on offshore drilling. \"John McCain's support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades,\" he said. \"It's another example of short-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-term leadership we need to solve our dependence on oil,\" he said. Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson also criticized McCain's plan, saying it would ruin his state's tourism industry and would not solve the problem. \"I thought John McCain was serious when he said he wanted to make America less dependent on oil. I didn't think he was a flip-flopper. He knows that more drilling isn't the solution to high gas prices,\" Nelson said Tuesday. Obama said a windfall profits tax would ease the burden of energy costs on working families. He also wants to invest in affordable, renewable energy sources. Controversy over offshore drilling surfaced in the United States in 1969, after a crack in the seafloor led to a huge oil spill off Santa Barbara, California. During the 1970s, when many Arab nations launched an oil embargo, many U.S. officials pushed for the exploration of offshore drilling of the coastal United States. Environmentalists responded with loud protests. CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report .","highlights":"President Bush plans to ask Congress to lift offshore drilling ban Wednesday .\nMcCain says he opposes ban; states should decide .\nCurrent law bans drilling in most of the United States' coastal waters .\nMcCain would consider incentives for states that allow coastal exploration ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When powerlifting coach Nicola Vaughan-Ellis wanted to create a winning formula for her athletes, she didn't head to the weight room. Instead, she found herself in the classroom. Coach Nicola Vaughan-Ellis with athletes from Great Britain's powerlifting team. Head coach of Great Britain's powerlifting squad, Vaughan-Ellis participated in a course that's designed to boost the leadership and management skills of coaches. Vaughan-Ellis's responsibilities run the gamut from identifying up-and-coming talent to developing training programs. She had friends who were corporate performance directors, and realizing the skills they had were applicable to her own line of work, she decided to pursue a professional development course designed for coaches. \"We expect athletes to be the best they can be. Our responsibility as coaches is to be the best we can be,\" Vaughan-Ellis told CNN. In pursuit of becoming better managers and leaders, players in the business world have long turned to executive education programs. Elite coaches are taking a cue from business and turning to tailored programs too. In the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the desire to develop high caliber coaches is ramping up in the UK, said John Neal of Ashridge Business School, where Vaughan-Ellis took the coaching course. \"A lot of coach development work [in the UK] is ad hoc. It's becoming more clearly defined, but our vision is to establish a more development pathway for coaches,\" he told CNN. Vaughan-Ellis trains about 20 powerlifters as part of a program that was established to prepare athletes in Great Britain for major competitive events like the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Nutritionists, psychologists, fitness coaches and sports scientists are all focused on a goal of helping athletes achieve a performance edge, she says. But coaches also need to make sure they make the best decisions for their athletes. That requires a broad range of skills, from understanding the athlete experience and identifying particular challenges they may encounter as well as having a firm understanding of where funding comes from and making sure it's spent wisely . \"We prepare our athletes to be the best in the world. But we also have to make sure that we are making the best choices for them,\" she said. Ashridge, which specializes in customized education programs, has been running sport coaching courses since 2001. Its core World Class Sport Coach Development program is endorsed by the British Olympic Association. The course is made up of 10 one-day master classes that are spread out over a period of about 10 months. In a typical meeting, coaches are given scenarios, break up into groups for discussion and then present their responses to the class. The program is flexible so coaches can focus on the skills they want to improve. A wide range of topics are covered, from communication, negotiation and team building skills to body language, motivation and development of young players. Neal estimates that about 160 coaches have completed the coaching program since it was launched. Most participants are UK-based, but coaches come from around the world and represent a long list of sports that includes diving, swimming, rugby, hockey, shooting and cricket. Coaches have few opportunities to share their knowledge. According to Neal, that's one reason why the course has been popular. One measure of its success: Many coaches, like Vaughan-Ellis, participate more than once. Due to a lack of funding, however, coaches oftentimes end up paying for the course themselves. Ashridge heavily subsidizes the program and charges \u00a32,000, just about a quarter of what it actually costs to run it. But in return, the business school gets a unique perspective on decision making that is fed back into its executive education programs, Neal said. Elite coaches have a lot to offer companies, especially in the current economic downturn, Neal said. More businesses are under pressure to maximize efficiency, and many want to learn from the sport experience, since coaches are required to achieve results quickly. With 2012 less than three years away, Vaughan-Ellis is planning to return to Ashridge for a refresher. She says one of the advantages of the program is that it helps coaches deal with pressure by teaching them how to cope with and embrace change. That's an invaluable skill in athletics. \"Sport is change,\" she said. \"You're only as good as your last competition or as strong as your weakest link. You have to move forward and constantly evolve.\"","highlights":"With 2012 Games approaching, focus on coach development on the rise in UK .\nElite coaches turn to program run by Ashridge Business School to build skills .\nCourse designed to transfer lessons from business world to sport ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion. Surveillance video shows storekeeper Mohammad Sohail holding a robber at bay with a shotgun. Storekeeper Mohammad Sohail was closing up his Long Island convenience store just after midnight on May 21 when -- as shown on the store's surveillance video -- a man came in wielding a baseball bat and demanding money. \"He said, 'Hurry up and give me the money, give me the money!' and I said, 'Hold on',\" Sohail recalled in a phone interview with CNN on Tuesday, after the store video and his story was carried on local TV. Sohail said he reached under the counter, grabbed his gun and told the robber to drop the bat and get down on his knees. \"He's crying like a baby,\" Sohail said. \"He says, 'Don't call police, don't shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.' \" Amidst the man's apologies and pleas, Sohail said he felt a surge of compassion. He made the man promise never to rob anyone again and when he agreed, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. \"When he gets $40, he's very impressed, he says, 'I want to be a Muslim just like you,' \" Sohail said, adding he had the would-be criminal recite an Islamic oath. \"I said 'Congratulations. You are now a Muslim and your name is Nawaz Sharif Zardari.'\" When asked why he chose the hybrid of two Pakistani presidents' names, the Pakistani immigrant laughed and said he had been watching a South Asian news channel moments before the confrontation. Sohail said the man fled the store when he turned away to get the man some free milk. He said police might still be looking for the suspect but he doesn't intend to press charges. \"The guy, you know, everybody has a hard time right now, it's too bad for everybody right now in this economy,\" said the storekeeper.","highlights":"Long Island storekeeper Mohammad Sohail faces man wielding baseball bat .\nSohail grabs shotgun; stunned man begins to cry, says he has no food at home .\nMan's story tugs at Sohail's heartstrings, and he offers man money, bread, milk .\nAfter act of compassion, man says he wants to become a Muslim like Sohail ."} -{"article":"LEXINGTON, Georgia (CNN) -- A pack of dogs brought down and killed an animal-loving couple last weekend in rural northeastern Georgia, and a similar tragedy could occur anywhere dogs roam freely, authorities say. Two dogs from the pack that killed two people await euthanasia Tuesday at a shelter in northeast Georgia. Sheriff's deputies, code enforcement officers and other officials spent most of Monday and Tuesday rounding up 11 adult dogs and five puppies, Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Capt. Shalon Huff said. One more was trapped Wednesday morning, leaving one still to be captured, she said. \"We're just lucky this hasn't happened before,\" said Susan Fornash, director of the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter in Danielsville, where the captured dogs were held before being euthanized Tuesday under orders from a local judge. \"We've had people bring in a dog because it killed a goat or chased their horses or something like that. And to me, that was just the forerunner of something like this.\" Investigators say they believe that University of Georgia librarian Sherry Schweder, 65, went for her usual morning walk Saturday down Howard Thaxton Road, the narrow dirt lane that runs alongside the couple's property. The dogs were familiar in the area, investigators say, having been left behind when the person who had been caring for some of them moved out of a home at the end of the lane. Authorities theorize that halfway down the lane, about a quarter-mile from her home, Sherry Schweder was confronted by the dogs, which knocked her down and killed her. Her husband, retired UGA language professor Lothar Schweder, became concerned when she didn't return and went out in their Honda CRX to look for her. When he found her lying in the lane and got out to shoo away the dogs, they attacked and killed him too, investigators believe. Although no blood was seen on the dogs, other evidence and autopsy results convince authorities that the pack killed the Schweders, said Jim Fullington, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's office in nearby Athens. Watch what investigators learned \u00bb . Black bears occasionally pass through the area, but none have been reported recently, said Sgt. Doyte Chaffin, a wildlife officer with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Investigators found no prints other than those of dogs and humans, Fullington added. Humans can appear threatening to dogs that run in packs, said Bonnie Beaver, a professor in the department of small animal clinical sciences at Texas A&M University and an expert in pack behavior. \"From their perspective, a person is an alien, if you will,\" Beaver said. \"It would be the same as we would relate to a grizzly bear.\" Dogs kill an average of 10 to 20 people each year in the United States, Beaver said. The vast majority of those cases involve a single dog attacking a small child, she said. As few as two or three dogs, whether urban, suburban or rural, can behave like a pack, Beaver said. And when pack mentality takes over, \"they do insane things that they would not do\" under normal circumstances, she said. \"My bet is there was one ringleader who kind of started it\" in the Georgia case, Beaver said. Something as simple as making eye contact may have made one dog in the group feel threatened, and its body language put the other dogs on edge, triggering an \"escalation,\" she said. Even though none of the dogs weighed more than about 40 pounds, their numbers would have overwhelmed the victims. Screaming, flailing or trying to run would only make things worse, Beaver said. \"To be slight people, as I'm told they both were, and the ages that they were, I don't know what they could have done. I don't know what I would do,\" Fornash said. Jehovah's Witnesses walking up the lane to visit the lone house found the Schweders' mutilated bodies lying next to the car and called 911, Fullington said. He added that a sheriff's deputy had to fire a shot in the air to scare the dogs away. The house the evangelists had intended to visit was unoccupied, but it was home to at least some of the dogs, Fullington said. The owner, Howard Thaxton, had moved out some months earlier because of health and financial problems but had someone drive him every other day to leave food for the dogs, said GBI Special Agent Christopher Bish. Several empty 40-pound bags of Ol' Roy dog food were strewn about the property Tuesday. Thaxton, an amputee who Bish said was recently released from a hospital, has been cooperating with authorities. Thaxton doesn't believe that those animals were capable of killing people, law enforcement officials said. He has not been charged. \"We are still in discussions with the district attorney about culpability and what have you, but no decisions have been reached yet,\" Bish said. Bish said it took 14 visits to Thaxton's house to make initial contact with him. CNN's efforts to find Thaxton for comment were unsuccessful. Stopping the dogs from reproducing might have prevented the tragedy, Fornash said. Just a few dogs can multiply rapidly into a menace, she added. Watch how dog bites might be prevented \u00bb . \"In the blink of an eye, we have a pack of 50 dogs because people don't spay and neuter,\" she said. It took about 90 minutes to euthanize all 16 dogs, several of which were maggot-infested, Fornash said. No one asked that they be checked for rabies, and the sheriff directed that the carcasses be cremated immediately, she said. \"I'm heartbroken for the family,\" Fornash said. \"I can't even imagine how they must feel. And I'm also very sad for those animals, because if they had been cared for the way they should have been, this wouldn't have happened. It's not their fault.\" The Schweders' seven dogs and four of their cats were to be brought to the shelter Wednesday and eventually adopted out, she said. Thaxton's wood frame house that served as the dogs' home sits at the edge of a forest dotted with hunting campers and abandoned 1950s vehicles. Empty 5-gallon water bottles fill a ravine behind the house, and a derelict 1980s Chevy Caprice crouches next to a rusting John Deere tractor under a shade tree. After all the sheriff's deputies and trappers had left Tuesday afternoon, a scruffy red dog appeared, ears up, next to the tractor. The animal, alone, scampered off into the woods.","highlights":"Dogs attacked woman, husband who tried to help her, Georgia authorities say .\nSixteen animals euthanized; couple's pets to be adopted at same shelter .\nPack instincts make untamed dogs dangerous, expert says .\nSpaying and neutering of pets might have prevented tragedy, shelter director says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rick Warren -- the man at the center of an inaugural firestorm -- has built his career on an uncontroversial reputation. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. The irony of the furor over Warren's selection to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony is that the California minister first drew notice for his determination to expand the evangelical agenda beyond hot-button social issues like opposition to same-sex marriage. Warren has been described as the next Billy Graham, an evangelical leader with a moderate reputation and mass-market appeal -- although instead of massive open-air rallies and an out-sized television presence, Warren focused on forging partnerships with unlikely allies working to protect the environment and fight AIDS. As a pioneer of the mega-church movement, Warren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages for a wider audience. He penned \"The Purpose-Driven Life,\" a spiritually based self-help guide that brought mainstream best-seller status to a muted religious message. In his model, everyday concerns were a top priority: Attendees at his Saddleback Church -- now more than 20,000 strong -- could expect free classes on home finance, or assistance with child care needs. Warren urged ministers to adopt a Madison Avenue approach: to super-charge the growth of congregations by fine-tuning their pitch for the \"un-churched.\" He released bullet-point sermons with crossover potential, along with material to help churchgoers follow along. The church atmosphere he called for was a relaxed one, with dressed-down ministers leading services in nontraditional venues, featuring easy-listening music chosen with younger listeners in mind. But even as Warren's nonpartisan appeal led to increasingly high-profile roles -- like host of this summer's presidential faith forum, featuring Sens. Obama and John McCain -- controversy grew over his conservative stands on social issues. The headlines may be new, but Warren's positions aren't. During the last election cycle, he sent thousands of pastors an e-mail laying out what he viewed as non-negotiable issues for evangelicals deciding on their pick at the polls, from stem-cell research and abortion to same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, after Obama announced Warren as his choice, prominent liberal groups and gay rights proponents criticized the selection. Some said the choice signaled that Obama is not interested in advancing gay rights or protecting abortion rights. iReport.com: What do you think of the choice? Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said Wednesday that he feels a \"deep level of disrespect\" because of the choice of Warren and is calling on Obama to reconsider the move. Read more about the criticism of Obama's choice . On Thursday, Obama defended his decision to tap Warren. \"And I would note that a couple of years ago, I was invited to Rick Warren's church to speak, despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues like abortion. ... \"And that dialogue, I think, is part of what my campaign's been all about: That we're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is to be able to create an atmosphere ... where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.\" But progressive commentators said Warren is a symbol of division. \"When Obama advances a progressive agenda on social issues, as he's certain to do, Warren will continue to speak out on the other side,\" wrote the Washington Monthly's Steve Benen. \"Only now, he'll do so with the added authority that comes with being the president's hand-chosen pastor for the inauguration's invocation. Warren's status will soar, and his criticism of Obama's policies -- or Democrats' in general -- will resonate that much louder.\" Warren himself is working to contain the fallout from his support for California's Proposition 8. In an interview set to air this week, he denied that his stand against same-sex marriage meant he was homophobic. \"Of course not. I have always treated them with respect,\" he said. \"When they come and wanna talk to me, I talk to 'em. When the protesters came, we served them water and doughnuts.\"","highlights":"Pastor Rick Warren first drew notice for trying to expand past hot-button issues .\nWarren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages for a wider audience .\nPresident-elect Barack Obama chose Warren to deliver invocation at inauguration .\nGay, abortion rights activists angry about Obama's choice ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Welcome to democracy, Afghan-style. An Afghan woman in a burqa veil holds up a photograph of President Hamid Karzai. An incumbent president and 38 challengers, including two women, are vying for the votes of 17 million registered Afghans against a backdrop of war, graft, poverty and illiteracy. More than 3,000 donkeys, 3,000 cars and three helicopters will traverse harsh terrain to carry voting materials to remote polling stations. And 30 observer groups, domestic and international, will be on hand to help guard against fraud. This Thursday, Afghanistan holds its second-ever popular election, the results of which will put into office a new president and 420 provincial council winners. Preliminary results are scheduled September 3, with final results expected two weeks later. At the heart of every vote will be the two biggest impediments to progress for one of the poorest nations in the world: stifling corruption and an increasingly bloody Taliban resurgence. The number of Afghan civilians killed increased 24 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to the United Nations. NATO and U.S. forces have suffered record losses this summer, with 75 troops killed in the month of July alone. Amid the violence, the candidates continued their last-minute campaigning, with the hope that the elections can showcase Afghanistan's fledgling democracy. \"We hope that this election will go ahead in accordance with the constitution of this country and the rightful freedoms of our people, in the best manner possible, so that the Afghan nation can determine its future,\" said historian Omar Khan Massoudi, director of the National Museum in Kabul. Watch young Afghans talk about their hopes \u00bb . International donors are helping pay for the $223 million undertaking, and hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have moved into southern Afghanistan to protect voters against possible Taliban attacks. The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, expressed optimism that Thursday's vote would be Afghanistan's moment to shine. It's tough to organize elections during a war, he said, but the reality is that violence during elections is common place in many parts of the world. \"Afghanistan has never had a contested election,\" Holbrooke said. \"So this is a remarkable experiment in democracy and something that Afghanistan needs to give legitimacy to the new government.\" That legitimacy has become a key issue in the campaign. Frontrunner President Hamid Karzai's chief challengers -- former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah -- have both lashed out at the incumbent for failing to rein in corruption. In its annual global corruption perception index in 2008, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan 176 out of 180 countries and said graft was \"a major factor impeding the country's stability and future growth.\" Ghani told CNN the most significant challenge Afghanistan's next president faces is earning back the trust of the people. \"This government has lost it,\" he said in a recent interview. \"There is no sense of trust, not only in the current leadership, but in the political class as such. And in the capacity of the state or the international community to improve the lot of our people.\" Ghani characterized Karzai as a \"very poor manager\" who failed to deal with pressing issues and create any sense of momentum for the nation moving forward. As a guest on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS earlier this month, Ghani said Afghanistan's corruption had become a cancer that was \"eating through the society.\" Babrak Babarkhale, a former journalist and Mujahadeen fighter in the war to end Soviet occupation in the 1980s, said he planned to vote for Abdullah because he was fed up with corruption. \"We want to support Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to be our future president, to take all Afghans out of this corruption, away from this weak government,\" he said. Abdullah argued that people's dissatisfaction with the Karzai government has helped strengthen the insurgency. \"There is no doubt there is a hardcore element in it,\" he told CNN. \"But there are thousands of people under the same brand, Taliban, [who] have joined the insurgency because of other reasons.\" The insurgents are filling a vacuum left by Afghanistan's Western-backed government, which foreign diplomats and military commanders concede now suffers from nepotism, corruption and predatory practices. During a political debate Sunday, Karzai admitted that corruption was a problem but offered no specific cures. He also has been blamed for what has become the bloodiest summer since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Abdullah said last week that Karzai's government had failed to capitalize on the opportunities presented by international aid and troops. The government, Abdullah said, had failed to \"stabilize Afghanistan to the extent that eight years down the road, we would have been able to say less troops rather than more.\" Most polls, however, show Karzai with a commanding lead. Latifa, a Kabul housewife, said she was pleased with Karzai's stewardship and would vote for him. \"Like raising a child for seven years, in seven years he has helped our Kabul, our Afghanistan, stand on its own two feet,\" she said. \"We didn't know an election before, we hadn't seen a parliament.\" But can a nation as troubled as Afghanistan carry out fair and free elections? Some observers of Afghanistan and human rights activists have voiced their doubts. Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, said Thursday's election will be the most difficult he has encountered in his life. Besides the violence and corruption, weak infrastructure and a high illiteracy rate will add to election woes, he said. A new Gallup Poll found that fewer than one in four voting-age Afghans are confident the election will be fair and transparent. Voting in Afghanistan, Eide said, is not yet the kind of democratic expression understood in the West. \"If you look at the well-established democracies in the West, for instance, that's not possible under these circumstances,\" he said. \"But ... my objective is that we have credible, inclusive elections where the result will be accepted by the people. That is our level of ambition, and I think we will achieve that.\" Eide said a significant number of polling stations in strife-torn Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni and Wardak provinces will not be able to open due to security reasons. He said ballots ought to be counted at the polling center itself instead of transporting them elsewhere and increasing the possibility of fraud, encountered in the last election in 2004. Eide said 3,000 donkeys were \"mobilized\" to carry ballots to remote mountainous regions. Of the 4.6 million new registered voters, 39 percent are women. So thousands of women had to be employed to search burqa-clad female voters. Human Rights Watch, however, said Tuesday that the recruitment drive for women began too late, and as a result, not enough women will be available for security checks. \"Women voters have been badly let down by their government and its international backers,\" said Brad Adams, the organization's Asia director. Women's votes are key in Afghanistan, where the Taliban stripped women of equal rights and education. Human Rights Watch also said Tuesday that election-related violence was a serious impediment. Between April 25 and August 1, the rights group documented at least 13 political killings and at least 10 abductions of electoral commission officials, candidates and campaign workers. It said provincial council candidates had withdrawn after receiving death threats. The overall security situation is \"considerably worse than during the last elections,\" Human Rights Watch concluded. But despite the violence, despite the threats from the Taliban to disrupt the voting, enthusiasm filled the air Monday as the presidential candidates wrapped up their campaigns. A campaign rally resembled more a rock concert than a political event in Afghanistan, as Kabul stadium transformed into a sea of blue, Abdullah's campaign color. Supporters hoisted banners and sported T-shirts emblazoned with Abdullah's face. \"I believe there is a dire need for a change of course in Afghanistan, irrespective of who becomes the president,\" said Rauf Roashan of the Institute for Afghan Studies, a scholarly center founded by Afghans living abroad. Not yet old enough to vote, Ferishta, 15, a beauty school student, echoed Roashan's sentiments. If she could, she'd cast a ballot for Ghani. \"We want a president who is peaceful and caring,\" she said. \"We don't want any more bombs. In these bombs, so many Afghans have died, one person's son, one person's child.\" No one can say with any certainty whether abounding energy will translate into high turnout. Not in a war-ravaged nation. As though to serve reminder of the high stakes, Kabul came under attack again on Tuesday -- just two days before the polls open. CNN's Ivan Watson, Kevin Flower and Moni Basu contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 17 million Afghans are registered to vote .\nElections are scheduled amid increasing violence .\nA key issue for voters is government corruption .\nSome observers concerned elections will be neither fair nor free ."} -{"article":"GAALKACYO, Somalia (CNN) -- The U.S. government is delaying \"tens of millions\" of dollars in crucial humanitarian aid over concerns that the money is being diverted to a notorious militant group, a senior U.N. official said. Al-Shabaab militants ride through Mogadishu, Somalia, after a religious gathering in September. The U.S. government, concerned about the challenges in delivering assistance in a country wracked by civil war, says allegations that Al-Shabaab is stopping aid from reaching the people are under review. Although one U.S. government source said aid continues to flow to Somalia and hasn't been suspended, another said aid might not reach \"some parts of the country\" because of Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked terror group that is trying to overthrow the government. Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia has long been a lawless, war-ravaged nation. The United Nations says that nearly half the population is dependent on humanitarian assistance, and one in five children are acutely malnourished. Somalia has suffered through five consecutive seasons of drought, and the ongoing conflict has caused more than a million people to be displaced. Kiki Gbeho, head of office for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia, said the United States is reviewing whether its aid helps fund Al-Shabaab. The U.N. office, in a report issued in September, said the U.S. delay in reaching a decision on humanitarian funding \"is already impacting on many agencies and their programmes.\" The United Nations estimates that 60 percent of the people it needs to reach with emergency assistance live in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab. \"According to humanitarian principles, we have to serve people and need to deal with those in charge,\" Gbeho said. Peter Smerdon, chief spokesman for the World Food Program, the agency responsible for delivering aid to Somalia, would not comment on the U.S. funding controversy but said investigations into whether Al-Shabaab is assisted by U.N. aid assistance are \"ongoing.\" Food supplies could run out for millions of Somalis in the next few weeks, according to the United Nations. The U.S. government is traditionally the biggest donor for food assistance. The issue of breakdowns in humanitarian aid in Somalia has long concerned the United States. A senior administration official and an administration official spoke about the issue on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The senior U.S. administration official said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Transitional Federal Government President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed discussed in August how the \"delivery of services\" to the Somali people be broadened. Clinton said publicly in Nairobi that the United States continues to provide \"humanitarian assistance to the Somali people where delivery is feasible and effective.\" The administration official said that the aid has never stopped, adding that food bound for the World Food Program in Somalia is on a vessel and should arrive in a few weeks. The senior administration official said, \"We are working with groups there to ensure that we can deliver assistance without having to pay off Al-Shabaab in the process. It does mean that aid may get to certain parts of the country but not others.\"","highlights":"Washington reviewing claims that money is being diverted to militant group .\nU.N. estimates 60 percent of people who need aid live in militant-controlled areas .\nMillions could run out of food in the next few weeks, U.N. says ."} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Frank Santa Maria buys two tickets to Italy on Expedia. But when an agent misspells his wife's name, he must embark on an odyssey to ensure she'll be allowed to use her tickets. Will he be successful? Q: I recently bought tickets to Italy by calling Expedia. I spelled my wife's first name to the agent. That afternoon we left town for a trip. When we returned the tickets were at the front door and a confirmation e-mail was waiting. My wife's first name was spelled Crista instead of Christa. I immediately called Expedia, and was told I should have contacted them the day the e-mail was sent to me and that there would be a $150 re-ticketing fee. After several more calls and being put on \"hold\" for more than half an hour, a supervisor told me that there was nothing they could do. They couldn't even change the name on the ticket. I contacted the airline directly and they told me they would make a note on my wife's passenger record. My wife's tickets are still wrong and I'm afraid we may have a problem with our connecting airline or with customs. What can I do? -- Frank Santa Maria, New Braunfels, Texas . A: Expedia should have spelled your wife's name correctly. When it was clear that the company had made an error, it should have done everything in its power to fix it instead of giving you the runaround and forcing you to deal directly with your airline. Then again, it should have never come to this. First, why are you phoning an online travel agency to buy tickets? It may be more convenient, but online agencies are built to handle your purchases online. It's more efficient and reduces the chance of an error being introduced -- like misspelling a passenger's name. Second, you should always check your verification e-mail immediately. Expedia could have made a change to your ticket if you had caught the mistake earlier. It's essential that you review your itinerary as soon as possible. Believe me, I know. I just made this mistake and had to spend an extra day at my destination because I put the wrong date in my reservation. (See? It can happen to anyone.) I've dealt with too many wrong-name cases to count, and here are a few things I've learned. Passengers aren't turned away at the gate because of a typographical error on their tickets. Reservations systems have limitations that sometimes truncate last names or render non-English names in funny characters. Last names and first names are frequently flip-flopped. Ticket agents, gate agents and security screeners know that, and will let you through. I haven't heard of anyone being denied boarding because of a one-character difference in a name. I'm reasonably sure your wife would have been allowed to travel using her ticket, even if this had happened after the May 15 implementation of the first phase of the Transportation Security Administration's \"Secure Flight\" initiative, which requires that you provide your full name as it appears on your government-issued identification. Incidentally, the \"notation\" in her reservation would have almost certainly been visible to any connecting airline. And a customs agent wouldn't even pay attention to your ticket under normal circumstances. It's your customs form and passport that matter to them. Next time you buy tickets by phone -- and I hope there's no next time -- do yourself a big favor: When you offer your name to the agent, ask to have it spelled back. That way, you'll catch any errors before the transaction goes through. Once you have a reservation, it becomes much more difficult (or even impossible) to make a change. It shouldn't be that way. In an ideal world, you'd be able to change a name on a ticket. Airlines say they can't allow name changes for \"security reasons\" but I'm inclined to believe it has more to do with the fact that they would lose lots of money if passengers could give their tickets to friends and family. Or resell them. I contacted Expedia on your behalf, and it issued a new ticket with your wife's name spelled correctly. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Passenger purchased airline tickets from Expedia by phone .\nWhen he received the tickets, his wife's name was misspelled .\nTroubleshooter urged him to purchase online and to verify information .\nExpedia issued a corrected ticket when contacted by the Troubleshooter ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada is expected to plead guilty Wednesday in federal court to a count of lying to Congress about his knowledge of Major League Baseball players using performance-enhancing drugs, according to officials familiar with the case. Miguel Tejada, a shortstop for the Houston Astros, has been charged with lying to Congress. In a document filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Tejada is charged in a criminal \"information,\" a document that routinely signals a plea bargain agreement. The document does not directly accuse Tejada of using steroids or other substances. However, the court document says that in 2003 Tejada gave another player more than $5,000 in checks \"for substances which he believed to be HGH [human growth hormone].\" The document says Tejada lied to congressional investigators when he told them on August 26, 2005, that he had never heard discussions about steroids by other players, and that he never knew of any other player using steroids. After the December 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, which appeared to contradict Tejada, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada \"made knowingly false statements to the committee.\" The investigators concluded he had lied. \"Defendant Tejada unlawfully withheld pertinent information from the committee because defendant Tejada before and during his interview with the committee staff, then and there well knew that Player #1 [unidentified], one of his teammates on the Oakland Athletics, had used steroids and HGH,\" the document says. Tejada played for the Athletics from 1997 to 2003. He is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. Wednesday before a magistrate judge, indicating the charge against him will be a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of a year in jail. However, a government official familiar with the case said that under sentencing guidelines, Tejada could get from zero to 6 months, which means he may receive probation without jail time. Tejada, who started his MLB career in 1997, hit at least 30 home runs from 2000 through 2004 with the exception of 2003, when he hit 27. He won the American League's most valuable player award in 2002, when he hit a career-best 34 home runs. He matched that total in 2004, his first year with the Baltimore Orioles. He began playing with Houston in 2008. The information came one day after MLB star Alex Rodriguez -- the New York Yankees' third baseman since 2004 -- admitted that he had used a \"banned substance\" during the 2001-2003 seasons. Sports Illustrated had reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, when he was playing for the Texas Rangers.","highlights":"Court document: Tejada knew teammate used performance-enhancing drugs .\nDocument: Tejada lied in 2005 when he denied knowing of players using steroids .\nHouston Astros shortstop charged with lying to congressional investigators ."} -{"article":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Richard Barboza sits behind the steering wheel, patiently working a crossword puzzle. There's no rush. Time is one thing Barboza has plenty of. Richard Barboza, left, and John Nilsen are among those struggling in the current economic recession. It's just after sun-up. The streaks of light shimmer off the car windows. In the back of the Ford Explorer John Nilsen stirs. This is home. Clothes are kept in a suitcase. Food is wherever they can find it. \"It's definitely not something that you ever see yourself being, homeless,\" Nilsen says. But homeless they have been for the past six weeks, ever since the money ran out and they were evicted from the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, apartment they shared. Nilsen had lost his job, and Barboza is waiting for disability checks to start arriving. The line of homeless men and women has already started to form at the food bank when the two men walk up. The faces are always the same, with a few more added every day. Michael is a regular. He makes grasshoppers out of palm fronds, then sells them when he can for whatever he can get. James says he once played professional football for the Miami Dolphins. No one believes him. Nilsen and Barboza wait quietly for their turn to get in the front door. \"There's a lot of emotional and mental turmoil when you're in a situation like this,\" Nilsen says. Breakfast at the Cooperative Feeding Program is rushed. There are so many to feed. Seats at the tables are a premium. Nilsen and Barboza eat quickly their meal of sausage patties, an orange wedge, some cake and coffee. They want to get moving. It's back in the car and off to the County Library. They can charge their cell phone there and use the public computers for an hour. Nilsen checks Facebook to see how his friends are doing That's how he stays in touch. The two men then begin searching for places to rent on Florida's West Coast. \"Big old double-wide trailer,\" Nilsen snickers. A two-bedroom catches their eyes. \"I like the location,\" whispers Nilsen, \"It's just north of Tarpon Springs.\" If they can get enough money together, Barboza says they'd like to get out of Fort Lauderdale. \"After having spent 20 years here I'm due for a change anyway.\" Nilsen agrees. \"We've agreed that we're going to go together, that we're going to stick together. We've been through enough as it is. It's easier to have someone you trust with you when you're in a situation like this.\" In the afternoons, the two men try making a few bucks. Nilsen got $25 for participating in a food tasting. Barboza has an opportunity to be in a focus group that will pay him $75. Nilsen had been donating plasma twice a week, but now that he's homeless they can't use him anymore. Barboza made about $20 by panhandling on an Interstate 95 exit ramp for about an hour. He stopped after some other homeless men threatened to kill him for working their turf, he says. It's not easy finding work when your address is a license plate number. For Nilsen and Barboza, it's doubly difficult. Both men have disabilities. Barboza was injured in a car wreck. Nilsen had a blood clot in his right leg when he was 16. He walks with a limp and uses a cane. \"When we pull ourselves out of this,\" Nilsen says, \"it's gonna be something you can look back on and draw from and say, 'You know what, if I was able to get through that ...' \" The long days together living in a car don't allow for much space and not much alone time. \"We're at the point now when I know when not to say anything and he knows not to say anything. And he knows when I'm in a bad mood,\" Nilsen says with a laugh. \"He's got his strengths and weaknesses,\" adds Barboza, \"and I've got mine. We balance each other out.\" By the time five o'clock rolls around, the two are getting hungry. There was no lunch today. A nearby church is serving dinner. It's time to stand in another line. They know most of the people here from breakfast at the Cooperative. Many are longtime homeless. \"If they know better than I do how to survive, then let me ask and let me get the knowledge I need to survive for however long it's gonna be,\" Nilsen says. Outside the church a van pulls up The homeless are handed bags of toiletries. You take what you can get because you don't know how long it's gonna be before you get more, Nilsen says. A sliver of a moon shines now. \"The toughest part of the day for us,\" Barboza says, \"is once it gets dark until we go to the place where we sleep at night.\" For the next few hours the two men drive the neon sign-lit Fort Lauderdale streets. There are very few places, they say, where they can stop and park without police chasing them off. Once in a while they pull into a local park for a couple hours until the lights on the fields are turned off and the gates closed. At least here, they're not wasting gas. Every night is a challenge making it until 11 p.m., they say, when they can finally drive to their secret spot and bed down in the back of the old SUV.","highlights":"Two men evicted from their apartment when their money ran out .\nHome for the disabled pair is now an old Ford Explorer .\nMen wait in line with other homeless people for free meals .\nThey say police often chase them off when they park their vehicle ."} -{"article":"CHAMBLEE, Georgia (CNN) -- Janet McBride had to send someone to fetch lunch for her Saturday. The cheerful auto dealer receptionist didn't dare leave her switchboard during the waning hours of the federal government's \"Cash for Clunkers\" program. Car shoppers browse a Honda showroom Saturday morning in Marietta, Georgia. \"Our phones have been ringing off the hook,\" said a giddy Pete Richards, general manager of Ed Voyles Honda in Marietta, Georgia. \"... It's been great. Phenomenal.\" McBride was compiling a list of customers for swamped salespeople to call back. \"I try to keep it under control,\" McBride said. \"I think we need one of those number things -- 'Now serving Number 5.'\" As of 11 a.m. Saturday, the Honda dealership just north of Atlanta said it had made 108 clunker deals since the Car Allowance Rebate System program began on July 1, and Richards expected to do plenty more before closing down Sunday night. Watch what car buyers need to know \u00bb . \"If I don't do 30 of these today, I'll be amazed,\" he said. A normal Saturday would produce about 12 sales, he said. The program has generated so much traffic and new-car buzz that even non-qualifying and used car sales have jumped, Richards said. \"We're having a ball. I haven't worked a Saturday in probably two years. But I woke up at 3 o'clock this morning. Couldn't wait to get here,\" he said. \"It's like Christmas!\" McBride added before her phone rang again. It's more like the letdown of late Christmas afternoon across town at Jim Ellis Chevrolet in Chamblee, Georgia, where General Manager Mark Frost just wants to be done with the headaches the clunkers program has caused. \"If President Obama came and sat behind a computer and saw how his program is being administered, he's crack some heads,\" Frost said. \"My impression is that he's about excellence and execution, and there's some dumbass [at the Department of Transportation] sitting there looking at this computer and rejecting deals that are perfectly good.\" The 12 Atlanta-area dealerships under the Jim Ellis name had made 350 clunker deals worth almost $1.5 million in reimbursements and received payment for none, Frost said. Among those making deals was Mark Gallo, an Atlanta antiques dealer who traded in his eight-cylinder 1998 Chevy van for six-cylinder 2009 model. He received a $4,500 allowance for his clunker, which he guessed was $1,500 more than he would have gotten otherwise. The gas mileage still isn't great, \"but it's better than it was,\" Gallo said. \"And I needed a van.\" He'd been thinking about trading up for a while, but the end of the program prompted him to pull the trigger. \"I thought it was going to last a lot longer than it actually did, ... but I saw that it was ending on Monday and I said, 'Oh, damn! Scramble!'\" Also scrambling to make a deal Saturday was Rick Wright of Woodstock, Georgia. The ironworker has been working in Orlando, Florida. But when his wife, bus driver Cindy Wright, traded in their 1998 Chevy Tahoe for an '09 Traverse, he needed to be there in person to show his driver's license and sign over the title. \"I'm working out of town at the present time, so she calls me up and says, 'Hey, they're going to cut this off at 1 o'clock. Do you want the car?' And I said, 'Let's go for it,'\" said Rick Wright, who made the seven-hour drive in time to sign the deal around 10 a.m. Saturday. \"That was the only way we could get it done.\" While the government says the program continues through the end of business Sunday, Frost decreed that the last deal at the Jim Ellis dealerships had to be made by noon Saturday and the paperwork submitted by 1 p.m. in anticipation of continued problems with the CARS submission process. \"It's the paperwork that's the biggest pain in the neck,\" said Jim Ellis salesman Neil Krieger, who sold Gallo his van. Salespeople have been working long hours and making big commissions at both dealerships. \"It's been good for me. Oh yeah,\" the Wrights' salesman, who goes by the single name Kya, said. It's a matter of delayed gratification for the dealers, who will have to wait for the government to sort through the mountainous heap of applications, approve the deals and issue $3 billion in reimbursement. \"This could be devastating for dealers if they don't get this going and do this right,\" Frost said. \"A month from now, if all of our deals get paid, then Obama's my hero,\" he said. \"If, in a month from now, if we still have ... $200,000 that we're not getting paid, it's a disaster.\" Frost worries too much, Honda dealer Richards said. \"We're going to get our money,\" he said. \"We're making sure the deals are straight. If everybody's got their documentation right, they've got the buy of lifetime.\" Despite his concerns, Frost tried to remain optimistic in the program's final hours. After all, his dealership's sales are up 30 percent from last year, he said. \"People are coming in,\" he said not long after opening Saturday. \"I smell clunker.\"","highlights":"Customers rush in for final weekend of \"Cash for Clunkers\" program .\nPhone at Honda dealer in Georgia \"ringing off the hook\"\n\"It's like Christmas!\" dealership's busy receptionist says .\nGovernment red tape giving auto group's general manager headaches ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Latino immigrants living in Suffolk County, New York, have been living in an environment of intolerance and attacks against them, a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center said. The atmosphere of intolerance is stoked in part by anti-immigrant groups, an indifferent police department, and county leaders themselves, according to the report. The law center, which researches and keeps tabs on hate groups, became interested in the Long Island county after the November 8, 2008, murder of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant in Patchogue, New York. Prosecutors allege that the killers were a group of teenagers who targeted Latinos as part of a sport they called \"beaner-hopping.\" After four months of research in Suffolk County that included interviews with more than 70 Latino immigrants, 30 local religious leaders and other community leaders, the law center said it found a pattern of ethnic intolerance going back 10 years. Low-level harassment of Latinos in Suffolk County is common, the report said. \"They are regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted with apples, full soda cans, beer bottles and other projectiles,\" the report said. Latino residents riding bikes have been run off the road and others have been beaten with baseball bats or shot at with BB guns, the report said. \"Our feeling is that what we found is really the tip of a very ugly iceberg,\" Mark Potok, who edited the report, said at a news conference Wednesday. \"We were told stories that are absolutely hair-raising.\" The findings point to a disturbing larger trend, the report said. The situation in Suffolk \"is a microcosm of a problem facing the entire United States, where FBI statistics suggest a 40 percent rise in anti-Latino hate crimes between 2003 and 2007,\" the report said. Tuesday night in Patchogue, the same city where Lucero was killed, a church frequented by Latinos was vandalized with anti-Mexican graffiti, Potok said. The climate of fear in Suffolk County was created in part by anti-immigration voices that found sympathetic ears in the area, according to the report. Anti-immigrant groups, such as the now-defunct Sachem Quality of Life, \"heavily influenced the tone for public discourse on immigration in the area,\" the report said. This stance was adopted by county leaders themselves, the law center said. In August 2001, county legislator Michael D'Andre said that if his community were \"attacked\" by Latino day laborers, \"we'll be up in arms; we'll be out with baseball bats.\" In March 2007, another county legislator, Elie Mystal, said of Latino day laborers looking for work, \"If I'm living in a neighborhood and people are gathering like that, I would load my gun and start shooting, period.\" Both men later apologized for their remarks, according to news reports. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who was also criticized in the report for employing measures seen as anti-immigrant, responded to the report Wednesday with a list of facts he says were distorted or taken out of context by the law center. For instance, a statement in the report that raids evicted day laborers from their homes in Suffolk County was distorted, Levy's office said. The action in question affected a condemned house where 60 people were living in hazardous conditions, the statement said. The law center's contention that Levy tried to downplay the significance of the Lucero murder was a misrepresentation of a comment the executive made to a reporter, the statement said. The law center report also said Latinos who had suffered harassment and crimes against them seldom reported them to police because they seemed indifferent. \"Many said police did not take their reports of attacks seriously, often blaming the victim instead,\" the report said. The law center recommended that police receive training to take hate-motivated crimes more seriously, and that area leaders avoid language that could be conducive to inciting violence against immigrants.","highlights":"New York county studied by Southern Poverty Law Center after slaying .\nEcuadorian immigrant was killed in '08 in what prosecutors call a race crime .\nLatinos \"regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted\" with objects, report says .\n\"What we found is really the tip of a very ugly iceberg,\" law center spokesman says ."} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Republican strategist Alex Castellanos was a former campaign consultant for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and has worked on more than half a dozen presidential campaigns. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and public affairs consulting firm that specializes in advertising. He has produced many Republican political ads and has clients such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Alex Castellanos says Barack Obama's change theme has buckled to \"top-down liberalism.\" (CNN) -- In theater, they say the second act is the hardest to write. It requires relentless focus and discipline. The writer must give himself fearlessly to one central idea and never waver, though temptation is the opposite: There are many paths a story can take. So it is in politics, as Barack Obama's campaign is learning. The clear campaign of change ran into trouble in Act II when it was tasked with explaining what change actually meant. Obama, as they say in show business, \"ran out of script.\" The wind in his sails stalled in the hot calm of August and he has yet to recover. After John McCain's improbable resuscitation to seize the GOP nomination, the Arizona senator's top aides briefed him about his exacting challenge: He would go into the conventions trailing Obama by at least 8 percentage points and then battle back through the fall to parity. Yet, as cooler days and hotter rhetoric mark the start of the fall finale, it is Obama who finds himself clawing back, forced to attack, launching uncharacteristic partisan and personal attacks against a McCain who has \"lost track\" of and is \"confused\" about how many houses he owns. How did the soaring campaign of change become grinding politics-as-usual and crash so thunderously to earth? The Obama campaign's clear message in the primaries was a bottom-up, organic populism that cast voters themselves as the agents of change. \"We are the change we have been waiting for,\" Obama told his supporters during the primaries. In return, they sang, \"Yes we can.\" This heady mix of populism and change swelled his campaign into a cause. In marketing terms, it is called \"voter as hero.\" Obama empowered his supporters, telling them they, not the old political establishment, could achieve anything. Bottom-up politics is one thing, however. Bottom-up government, another. When Barack Obama became the nominee of the national Democratic establishment, the candidate of hope ran into political reality: His party's canons of governing are the opposite of change. Barack Obama may believe \"change doesn't come from the top down, it comes from the bottom up,\" but the leadership of his party doesn't. The national Democratic establishment, from the Daily Kos and MoveOn.org to Pelosi and Reid in Congress, still believe in top-down big-government from Washington, especially if they get to run the factory. Politically, they are industrial-age dinosaurs . They believe the era of big government is back, not over. They would keep money and power in their hands, not devolve it to the average American. That was not something the Denver Democrats were eager to confess. Instead, they advocated a sly European-style socialism that would not speak its intent. \"Decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege,\" the Democrats offered during the first night of their convention. A big-government health-care factory run by Washington? That's change? Why not the same for food, clothing and shelter? But relax, Joe Lunchbucket, an even bigger public-sector industrial plant will impose no cost on your family. Obama's party promises not to tax you, just business -- the people who sell you your groceries and gasoline and sign your paychecks. As Fred Thompson noted in his GOP convention speech, \"They won't take any water out of your side of the bucket. Just the other side.\" This is not \"voter as hero\" but, instead, \"voter as victim.\" A heroic Washington has all the money, the power, and the answers. Same old, same old. So the candidate of change fell silent. And he sang change never again. Barack Obama could have spoken truth to power. He could have pledged to confront the Democratic Party establishment. He could have brought a more natural, organic era of bottom-up government, not just bottom-up politics, to a dated party clinging to a decaying philosophy of authority. But when the irresistible force of Obama's bottom-up politics met the immovable object of Democratic Party power, it was the dream, not the power, that conceded. \"Yes we can\" turned out to mean not \"Yes the people can\", just \"Yes Washington can.\" Too bad. It would have refreshed the Democratic Party and the country. This movie is not new: The candidate who runs to change the establishment doesn't. Instead, we see it change him. The hope for real change in Washington has been suffocated by an older generation's embrace. Now, Barack Obama finds himself trapped without a post-partisan message. Instead of challenging politics-as-usual, he sells the usual partisan politics: \"Bush-McCain\", he shouts from rooftops, sounding like every other Democrat in the chorus, pretending partisanship is fresh. The story? Bottom-up change ran into top-down liberalism. Old-fashioned liberalism won. That's Act II. Stand by for the play's end. This opinions in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Alex Castellanos: Obama's message was populism and bottom-up change .\nObama campaign taken over by Democratic establishment, he says .\nCastellanos: Democratic party champions big government and opposes change .\n\"Yes we can\" turned into \"Yes Washington can,\" Castellanos says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Pentagon on Wednesday identified two U.S. soldiers who disappeared in Afghanistan this month, announcing the death of one of the men and saying that the whereabouts of the other remain unknown. Both soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division disappeared in the Morghab River near Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan on November 4. The Pentagon announced the death of Army Sgt. Benjamin Sherman, 21, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Army Sgt. Brandon Islip, 23, remains missing. Islip is from Richmond, Virginia. Both men were on a resupply mission when they disappeared, the Pentagon said. Last week, military divers found Sherman's body. Family members said he jumped into the river when he saw a fellow soldier struggling in the water. \"I know, that day, he jumped into the river to try to save his comrade was because he didn't just see another soldier in the water; he saw his brother,\" Sherman's sister, Meredith, said in a statement to CNN affiliate WCVB in Boston, Massachusetts. \"He didn't jump in because he was trained to but because that's what his heart told him to do.\"","highlights":"Two sergeants disappeared near border with Turkmenistan this month .\nDivers found body of one last week .\nFamily said he jumped into river after seeing fellow soldier struggle ."} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn't power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could. A prototype of a high-altitude wind turbine made by Magenn Power. The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over. The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome. Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America's Eastern Seaboard and China's coastline. \"The resource is really, really phenomenal,\" said Christine Archer of Cal State University-Chico, who co-authored a paper on the work published in the open-access journal Energies.\"There is a lot of energy up there, but it's not as steady as we thought. It's not going to be the silver bullet that will solve all of our energy problems, but it will have a role.\" For centuries, we've been using high-density fossil fuels, but peaking oil supplies and climate concerns have given new life to green technologies. Unfortunately, renewable energy is generally diffuse, meaning you need to cover a lot of area to get the energy you want. So engineers look for renewable resources that are as dense as possible. On that score, high-altitude wind looks very promising. Wind's power -- energy which can be used to do work like spinning magnets to generate electricity -- varies with the cube of its speed. So, a small increase in wind speed can lead to a big increase in the amount of mechanical energy you can harvest. High-altitude wind blows fast, is spread nicely across the globe, and is easier to predict than terrestrial wind. These properties have led inventors and scientists to cast their hopes upward, where strong winds have long been known to blow, as Etzler's dreamy quote shows. During the energy shocks of the 1970s, when new energy ideas of all kinds were bursting forth, engineers and schemers patented several designs for harnessing wind thousands of feet in the air. The two main design frameworks they came up with are still with us today. The first is essentially a power plant in the sky, generating electricity aloft and sending it down to Earth via a conductive tether. The second is more like a kite, transmitting mechanical energy to the ground, where generators turn it into electricity. Theoretically, both approaches could work, but nothing approaching a rigorous evaluation of the technologies has been conducted. The Department of Energy had a very small high-altitude wind program, which produced some of the first good data about the qualities of the wind up there, but it got axed as energy prices dropped in the 1980s and Reagan-era DOE officials directed funds elsewhere. The program hasn't been restarted, despite growing attention to renewables, but that's not because it's considered a bad idea. Rather, it is seen as just a little too far out on the horizon. \"We're very much aimed these days at things that we can fairly quickly commercialize, like in the next 10 years or so,\" said National Renewable Energy Laboratory spokesperson George Douglas. Startups like KiteGen, Sky Windpower, Magenn, and Makani (Google's secretive fundee) have come into the space over the last several years, and they seem to be working on much shorter timelines. \"We are not that far from working prototypes,\" Archer said, though she noted that the companies are all incredibly secretive about the data from their testing. Magenn CFO Barry Monette said he expects \"first revenue\" next year when they sell \"two to four\" working prototypes of their blimpy machine, which will operate at much lower altitudes. \"We do think that we're going to be first [to market], unless something happens,\" Monette said. In the long term, trying to power entire cities with machines like this would be difficult, largely because even in the best locations, the wind will fail at least 5 percent of the time. \"This means that you either need backup power, massive amounts of energy storage, or a continental- or even global-scale electricity grid to assure power availability,\" said co-author Ken Caldeira, an ecologist at Stanford University. \"So, while high-altitude wind may ultimately prove to be a major energy source, it requires substantial infrastructure.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Study: Wind machines placed thousands of feet above New York could power the city .\nEnough wind energy exists at high altitudes to meet global demand 100 times over .\nA kite-like device could transmit energy to generators that turn it into electricity .\nStartups are developing turbines, although they are still in the prototype stage ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Undercover officers rescued a baby gorilla from suspected animal traffickers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a national park in the country announced Tuesday. This baby gorilla was rescued from a suspected trafficker in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorilla, thought to be about two years old, was hidden at the bottom of a bag and covered with clothes when Congolese Wildlife Authority officers arrested the suspected trafficker on Sunday, Virunga National Park said. The gorilla, a female, was overheated and dehydrated after six hours in transit. She also had a puncture wound on her right leg, among other injuries, and is malnourished, but is responding to treatment, the park said in a statement. It is not clear if the young gorilla's mother is alive or dead, park spokeswoman Samantha Newport said. \"You can assume that a gorilla family was attacked in order for the traffickers to obtain a baby -- but it is impossible to know if a whole family was wiped out, just a few individuals, or none at all,\" she said. \"In most cases gorillas have to die to get a baby -- but we cannot know specifically for this case.\" The animal is now being looked after by specially trained carers, Newport said. \"This is of course not an ideal replacement for a mother -- but the best option we have,\" she told CNN via e-mail. Carers often have some veterinary training, but are not fully fledged vets, she added. But gorillas do not do well in situations like this, she warned. \"Gorillas, it is worth noting, are notoriously difficult to keep alive,\" she said. \"Chimps are fighters, as are bonobos. But gorillas -- when the going gets tough -- tend to just shut down. So it really is a critical time right now to ensure she gets the veterinary attention and human warmth that she needs to get through this.\" The suspect was getting off a plane from the interior of the country, near the gorillas' habitat, the park said. One person has been charged under the country's law forbidding the destruction of flora and fauna, Newport told CNN. The park did not name the suspect. Gorillas can fetch up to $20,000 on the black market, the head of Virunga National Park said. \"Investigations have yet to reveal where these animals are being sent and who is buying them, but on the ground sources tell us that a baby gorilla can fetch up to $20,000,\" said Emmanuel de Merode, the director. \"We must remember that for each trafficked baby gorilla, several gorillas have probably been killed in the wild.\" He led the three-month undercover operation that netted the suspect and the gorilla, the park said. The gorilla is a lowland eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), also known as the Grauer's Gorilla, a subspecies of Eastern Gorilla only found in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the park. Virunga National Park calls itself the oldest national park in Africa, established in 1925. It lies in a region that has been badly affected by the long-running war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorilla section is in a strategically important area near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda. A ranger was killed earlier this year, and rangers lost control of a large part of the park to rebels for over a year. But a census earlier this year suggests mountain gorillas are surviving despite poaching and war. Officials have long said that the 250-square kilometer gorilla reserve in the southern part of Virunga National Park is where around 200 of the world's 700 mountain gorillas live.","highlights":"Undercover officers rescue a baby gorilla from suspected animal traffickers .\nCongolese Wildlife Authority officers find gorilla hidden in bag .\nFemale gorilla was overheated and dehydrated after six hours in transit ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The head of China's quality watchdog is reported to have resigned over the tainted baby milk scandal that has killed four children and sickened nearly 53,000 others. The official Xinhua News Agency said Li Changjiang had quit with the approval of China's State Council. Li's agency is responsible for ensuring that China's food supply chain is safe. Monday's resignation came hours after the World Health Organization said the scandal had highlighted flaws in the country's entire food supply chain. The chemical melamine blamed for causing kidney stones and kidney failure has been detected in formula milk powder from 22 dairies across China. The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to baby milk powder, but tests have found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from China's two largest dairy producers, Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group, as well as Shanghai-based Bright Dairy. WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said on Monday quality issues could occur anywhere from the farm to the retail outlet. He said \"it's clearly something that is not acceptable and needs to be rectified and corrected,\" according to The Associated Press. Troedsson said the WHO was discussing with officials how to strengthen China's food quality system. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called milk manufacturers \"heartless\" and promised stricter laws to protect the public. China's Health Ministry said Sunday that about 13,000 children were hospitalized, while another 40,000 had undergone outpatient treatment for illnesses related to suspected melamine-tainted milk products. The scandal has spread beyond the mainland with melamine being found in three Chinese-made dairy products in Singapore. The country's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said tests on \"White Rabbit Creamy Candy\" showed that it was contaminated with melamine and it ordered stores to remove the product from shelves. Taiwan announced Monday it was banning the importation of all dairy products from China because of melamine contamination in milk supplies on the mainland, Taiwan's Health Ministry said Monday. And a second child in Hong Kong has been diagnosed with a kidney stones after drinking the tainted milk as worried parents continued to take their children for health checkups, the government said Monday, AP reported. The 4-year-old boy was in hospital in a stable condition, the Hong Kong government said in a statement. A three-year-old girl was sickened by a suspected melamine-tainted milk over the weekend -- the first known illness outside of mainland China. The Chinese premier visited Beijing hospitals and a supermarket Sunday to show his concern for the crisis. \"What we need to do now is to ensure that nothing like this happens in the future, not only in dairy products, but in all foods,\" he said. \"Manufacturers and owners of dairy companies should show more morality and social responsibility in these cases. They are heartless, so we have to create strict law and legislation. I'm sorry.\" Investigators arrested two brothers who sold milk used to produce the contaminated baby milk powder last week. They could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. The raw milk had been watered down and the chemical added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Watch CNN visit the company at the center of the scandal \u00bb . But anger has been directed not just at the producers accused of adulterating their milk to increase profits, but also at government regulators, Time magazine reported. \"Xinhua was quick to blame the dairy industry for their skewed rules, but what it didn't say was that the government also played a part in that ugly game,\" the magazine quoted a blogger, identified as sadmoon109, as saying. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition. Thousands of tons of the tainted milk powder have been recalled. Melamine is the same industrial contaminant from China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats last year. The chemical, a byproduct of plastic manufacturing, can be used to mimic high-protein additives. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . A senior dairy analyst said Chinese farmers were cutting corners to cope with rising costs for feed and labor. \"Before the melamine incident, I know they could have been adding organic stuff, say animal urine or skin,\" Chen Lianfang of Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant told Time. \"Basically, anything that can boost the protein reading.\" Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Head of China's quality watchdog resigns over tainted baby formula scandal .\nWHO representative said scandal shows up flaws in China's food supply chain .\nFour infants in China dead, 53,000 reported ill from tainted milk powder ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An unusual exhibition is confusing and amusing tourists and locals in central Copenhagen this month. Strange signs from around the world can be seen in Copenhagen, Denmark. \"Signspotting\" is a collection of more than 100 signs found by travelers around the world and recreated by travel writer Doug Lansky. \"I wanted it to look as if we'd stolen the sign or someone with a professional camera had taken a really good picture of it,\" he told CNN. See pictures from Signspotting in Copenhagen. \u00bb . Lansky started his collection almost 17 years ago, encouraged by friends who found his photos of strange signs more compelling than his treasured holiday snaps. As a travel columnist for the Chicago Tribune, he set about collecting photos of as many bizarre signs as he could. Interest in the project became so big that he eventually used them to replace the column itself. Signspotting Weekly was taken up by six papers, and before he knew it people began to send him pictures of signs they'd seen, eventually enough to fill a floor-to-ceiling cabinet. The photos filled two volumes of Signspotting books for Lonely Planet. Lansky chose the best for the first exhibition in Stockholm last year. \"I felt bad I hadn't seen them. I knew I wasn't going to go around the world to track it down so I thought I'd do it this way,\" he said. Creating the exhibition took hours of painstaking work to digitally enlarge the photos so they looked like the real thing. \"When most of these people sent these signs in they were on a postcard-sized photo and the actual sign was about the size of a postage stamp. To blow them up to this size was tricky,\" he said. The photos were then mounted onto real signs on metal poles standing in concrete bases. The free exhibition opened in Copenhagen, Denmark last week and will move to Arhus, Denmark on July 1st. Lansky is currently building a second exhibition for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.","highlights":"Doug Lansky has been collecting photos of amusing signs for 17 years .\nThe \"Signspotting\" street exhibition opened in Copenhagen last week .\nReproducing the life-sized signs from tiny photographs is a painstaking task .\nEach sign was digitally enlarged and mounted on metal poles ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal will face Celtic in a mouthwatering all-British tie later this month to decide who reaches the Champions League group stages. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will see his side face an early-season test against Celtic. Scottish side Celtic went into the final qualifying round with a superb 2-0 away win over Dinamo Moscow earlier this week, overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg. Arsenal, who reached the semifinals of the Champions League last season where they lost to Manchester United, will be favorites to go through, but according to their former striker Charlie Nicholas, who also played for the Celtic, they will not be relishing the task. \"They would have wanted to avoid each other,\" he told Sky Sports News. \"For Arsenal, the concern is the lack of players they've brought in and injuries. I think it will be very tight.\" The first leg matches will be played on August 18 and 19, the same week as the start of the English Premier League season, the return matches are on August 25 or 26. A total of 10 pairings were drawn with the prize for the winners a place in the lucrative group stages of the world's most prestigious club competition. The losers will drop down to play in the Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup. Five of the pairings feature match-ups between the champions of lower-rated leagues such as Latvia and Cyprus. European governing body UEFA effectively ring fenced five places in the group stages for these sides by separating them in the draw from teams from stronger leagues such as England, Italy and Spain. It has led to a series of intriguing clashes with Panathinaikos of Greece facing Spanish side Atletico Madrid. Portugal's Sporting Lisbon take on Fiorentina of Italy, deposed French champions Lyon play Anderlecht of Belgium and Romainian side Timisoara face Stuttgart of Germany. Timisoara surprisingly beat Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine in the previous qualifying round. Shakhtar won the UEFA Cup last season and will now be able to defend their title under the guise of the revamped Europa League. They were paired against Turkish side Sivasspor when the draw for the competition was also made at UEFA's headquaters in Nyon on Friday. Champions League play-off draw: . Champions group: . Sheriff (Mol) v Olympiakos (Gre) Salzburg (Aut) v Maccabi Haifa (Isr) Ventspils (Lat) v Zurich (Swi) Copenhagen (Den) v Apoel Nicosia (Cyp) Levski Sofia (Bul) v Debrecen (Hun) Non-champions group: . Lyon (Fr) v Anderlecht (Bel) Celtic (Sco) v Arsenal (Eng) Timisoara (Rom) v VfB Stuttgart (Ger) Sporting Lisbon (Por) v Fiorentina (Ita) Panathinaikos (Gre) v Atletico Madrid (Sp)","highlights":"Arsenal draw Celtic in all-British tie in final Champions League qualifying round .\nOther ties see Lyon face Anderlecht and Sporting Lisbon taking on Fiorentina .\nHolders Shakhtar Donetsk to take on Turkish side Sivasspor in Europa League ."} -{"article":"BRUNSWICK, Georgia (CNN) -- Guy Heinze Jr., the son of one of the victims of last week's killings of eight people in a southeast Georgia mobile home, has been arrested on eight counts of first degree murder, police said Friday. Guy Heinze Jr. faces eight first degree murder charges related to a shooting at a Georgia mobile home. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant Friday evening for Heinze, 22, just hours after he had been freed from jail on charges of tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer, Glynn County, Georgia, Police Chief Matt Doering said. \"I can assure you that this person is responsible,\" Doering said at a news conference Friday evening. The bodies were discovered last Saturday at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Seven died in the mobile home, and the eighth died Sunday at a hospital. Doering refused to reveal how the victims were killed or the suspected motive. A 3-year-old who was injured struggles on life support at a Savannah hospital, her grandmother said. Heinze, who is unemployed, told police he was not home when the killings occurred. Watch sheriff describe attack as \"the most heinous crime we've ever had in the community\" \u00bb . According to the earlier arrest warrant, Heinze provided \"investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members.\" The arrest warrant also said he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car. A man identified as Heinze reported the slayings. He told an emergency dispatcher when he called Saturday, \"I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death.\" Listen to the 911 call \u00bb . Seven of the eight victims will be buried Saturday, as a 3-year-old who was injured struggles to survive at a Savannah hospital. The toddler's grieving grandmother, Diane Isenhower, who lost four of her children in the rampage, said the child is on life support. Police said seven of the victims died in the mobile home, and the eighth died Sunday at a hospital. The funeral for Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held at mid-month. For the other seven, viewing was scheduled for Friday night, and a funeral is to be held Saturday afternoon at Youngs Island Church in Eulonia, Georgia. West was the boyfriend of Chrissy Toler, 22, who died along with her father, Russell D. Toler Sr., 44, and three siblings: Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; and Russell D. Toler Jr., 20. Michael Toler had Down syndrome. Russell Toler Sr. and Isenhower were divorced. Also killed were Guy Heinze Sr., 45 and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, police said. Clint Rowe, whose wife is Isenhower's sister, said the family was having trouble coping with the losses and noted that police, too, were affected. \"They're the ones who walked in on that, so you know it wears on the police as well,\" he said. Referring to Isenhower, he added, \"It has been a long week for her. She's lost all of her family, so naturally it would be.\" \"They're just as nice as they could be,\" Rowe said of the victims. \"Friendly folks. Down-to-earth folks.\" Watch Rowe talk about the killings \u00bb . Russell Toler Sr., who worked at a nearby factory, was a generous man who allowed relatives facing financial and health problems to live with him. There were 10 people in the mobile home, and their combined salaries were low, Rowe said. Among them was Toler's sister, Falagan, who was in a wheelchair. Police have not said how the victims died, although autopsies were completed Monday. The bodies were discovered Saturday at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Police have released few details of the crime scene. Doering acknowledged that there is fear in the community but said that releasing details of the slayings won't allay it. \"We, too, have that same fear. We're the ones that have to get out there and try to make people feel better as best that we can,\" he said. CNN's Sean Calebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Warrant lists eight counts of first degree murder for Guy Heinze Jr.\nHeinze told police he was not home when the killings occurred .\n3-year-old injured in last week's attack at Georgia mobile home is on life support .\nFuneral for seven victims will be held about Saturday ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest person, has died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 115, according to the home where she lived and Guinness World Records said Saturday. Gertrude Baines said she attributed her longevity to not drinking or smoking. Gertrude Baines passed away at the Western Convalescent Hospital at 7:25 a.m. (10:25 a.m. ET) Friday, Guinness World Records said. Born in 1894, Baines became the world's oldest person in January after the death of another 115-year-old, Maria de Jesus, from Portugal, Guinness World Records said. At her 115th birthday party in April, Baines shook her head in disbelief when presented with the certificate saying she was now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest person. \"She told me that she owes her longevity to the Lord, that she never did drink, never did smoke, and she never did fool around,\" her doctor, Dr. Charles Witt, said in April. Baines, whose grandparents were slaves, worked as a maid in Ohio State University dormitories until her retirement, and lived at the Los Angeles convalescent home for more than 10 years. Last November, she became the oldest African-American to vote for President Obama and received a letter from him on her 115th birthday, Guinness World Records said. Witt said Baines planned to vote for Obama again in 2012. Asked why she voted for Obama, Baines said it was because \"he's for the colored people,\" according to footage from The Los Angeles Times. She said she never thought a black man could become president. \"Everybody's glad for a colored man to be in there sometime,\" Baines said. \"We all are the same on the skin. It's dark, and theirs is white.\" Baines had few complaints, her doctor said. She fussed about the bacon not being crisp enough and the arthritis in her knees, Witt said. The smooth skin on Baines' face belied her 115 years, but she didn't attribute that to any anti-wrinkle cream or miracle product, according to her best friend, Lucille Fayall. She said Baines simply washed her face in cold water.","highlights":"Gertrude Baines dies at age 115, was world's oldest person .\nBaines credited longevity to God, not drinking or smoking .\nBaines was oldest African-American to vote for President Obama ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After a weekend of rumors, it's finally official: Heidi Klum and Seal are now the proud parents of a baby girl, Klum's representative confirmed. Heidi Klum met Seal in 2004, and the couple married a year later. The \"Project Runway\" host gave birth Friday night. Klum and Seal named their new bundle Lou Sulola Samuel. The couple, who married in 2005, have been busy babymaking ever since. Lou Sulola is the youngest of four: Henri, 4, Johan, 2 and Leni, 5, whom Klum had from a previous relationship. \"It's difficult to imagine loving another child as much as you love your existing children,\" Seal said of the birth in a statement Tuesday. \"Anyone who has a family will tell you this. Where will one find that extra love? If you love your existing children with all of your heart, how then can one possibly find more heart with which to love another?\" The answer to that question, the Grammy-winning singer said, \"came in the form of our fourth child and second daughter. \"Lou Sulola Samuel was born, and from the moment she looked into both of our eyes, it was endless love at first sight. She is beautiful beyond words, and we are happy that she chose us to watch her grow over the coming years,\" he said.","highlights":"Heidi Klum and Seal have confirmed their daughter was born Friday .\nThe couple named her Lou Sulola Samuel .\nShe has three siblings: Henri, Johan and Leni .\nSeal said when Lou Sulola was born, it was \"endless love at first sight.\""} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Thirty people convicted of drug and other criminal charges will be hanged on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday. A convicted Iranian drug dealer is hanged from a crane in the southern city of Shiraz in September. The 30 had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them, Iran's judiciary said in a statement. The verdicts are final, and the sentences will be carried out Sunday, according to Fars. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. The U.S. executed 42 people in 2007, according to Amnesty International. The Iranian judiciary's statement said that all 30 were convicted of crimes including murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships -- relationships between men and women who are not married to each other. Kidnapping and using weapons while committing a crime were among the charges. The statement said that 20 of the people were convicted of drug and alcohol dealing, armed robbery and smuggling arms. The judiciary said it will provide more details later as to the crimes committed by those condemned and added that the hangings should serve as a warning to those who are contemplating committing such crimes. Others are awaiting trial, and their sentences will be carried out as soon as the verdicts are pronounced by the courts, the judiciary said. The judiciary asked the public to notify the authorities if they have any information that might lead to arrest and convictions of criminals. Iran's government launched a campaign March 20 to increase public security and bring the crime rate down. Police cracked down on drug dealers, whom they called criminal gang members, and habitual criminals who use guns in the commission of their crime. Alleged weapons smugglers and people who break social and religious laws, including adulterers, were also targets. National television showed scenes of what were described as criminals being paraded in chains as a deterrent to others. The wave of arrests has subsided, as officials are now prosecuting the suspects and sentencing those convicted. Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"The condemned include people convicted of drug and alcohol offenses .\nIran executed 317 people in 2007, compared with 42 executions in U.S.\nIran's government announced a crackdown on crime in March ."} -{"article":"INDIO, California (CNN) -- Parents danced with their young children to the infectious hip-hop beat of Lupe Fiasco on the main stage. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O is immersed in the music at Coachella. Twentysomethings wearing feathers in their hair jumped up and down to Somali emcee K'naan in the Gobi tent. In the portable toilets, an impromptu discussion broke out about the \"awesomeness\" of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O. The mercury may have hovered close to 100 degrees, and somewhere outside the desert oasis of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival there was a global recession, but you'd never know it from the carefree crowd on Day 3 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Although exact figures have yet to be released, about 50,000 revelers turned out for the final day of the 2009 festival for an eclectic lineup that included former Jam front man Paul Weller, rap pioneers Public Enemy, a reunion of Irish indie darlings My Bloody Valentine and a nearly three-hour set from The Cure. Promoters say the turnout exceeded expectations, and this year's attendance figure might be the third largest in the festival's 10-year history. The three-day ticket price may have been steep -- roughly $300, including service charges -- but when divided among the 131 acts on the bill, that breaks down to less than $2.50 per act. This was also the first year concert promoter Goldenvoice offered layaway, which is how 18 percent chose to pay. The strong showing is good news for Bonnaroo, All Points West, Lollapalooza and other festivals taking place this spring and summer. Coachella was also moved up one weekend, which allowed for more kids on spring break to attend. Although Coachella is one of several music festivals in the United States, it still carries a certain cachet that's hard to match. Perhaps it's the scenery -- listening to music on a grassy polo field surrounded by swaying palm trees and craggy desert mountains. Or maybe it's the thrill of discovering new artists and rediscovering old ones standing shoulder-to-shoulder with friends, strangers and the random Hollywood celebrity. Or maybe it's the wacky moments that seem to happen only under the blistering desert sun. Where else could you get Morrissey -- a well-known vegetarian -- complaining in the middle of his Friday set that the smell of burning animals was making him sick, and that he only hoped it was human? The Moz was referring to meat grilling in a food booth across the polo field. And when troubled British neo-soul singer Amy Winehouse dropped out of her Saturday performance because she couldn't get a visa, M.I.A. stepped into her slot on the main stage -- but she apparently wasn't happy about the upgrade. Despite a massive, adoring crowd and a highly charged set, the new mom exclaimed, \"This is the main stage? Next time, I'm back in a tent! I prefer the sweat!\" This was after her tongue-in-cheek nod to Winehouse, where she sang, \"They tried to make me do the Oscars, I said, 'No, no, no.' \" Then, there were the memorable music moments. Friday headliner Sir Paul McCartney didn't end his playful, hit-filled set until about 54 minutes past the midnight curfew -- for a potential fine of $54,000. (According to Benjamin Guitron, media relations officer for the Indio Police Department, the promoter agrees to pay $1,000 for every minute past 12 a.m.) On Saturday, Seattle, Washington, indie pop band Fleet Foxes drew an overflowing crowd to the Outdoor Theatre, charming the audience with its delicate, baroque harmonies. Sunday headliners The Cure played 31 songs from the group's vast catalog -- concentrating heavily on early material, and for the most part, staying away from the biggest radio hits. They, too, played well past curfew -- continuing with their third encore even after the sound from the main PA system was cut off. My Bloody Valentine -- whose four members reunited last year after a decade apart -- was also a crowd pleaser, although an interlude where they played a single chord at maximum decibels for a mind-numbing 15 minutes left fans scratching their heads. Perry Farrell is the only artist who's performed at all 10 Coachella festivals -- in Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Satellite Party, as his alter ego DJ Peretz and in other incarnations. This year, he dueted with Thievery Corporation on the main stage, then headed over to the dance tent, where he joined his wife, Etty, for an electronic set. \"I would probably silently be very depressed if they wouldn't invite me, to tell you the truth. My mental health depends on them,\" he said with a laugh. Despite a time of belt-tightening, festivalgoers are finding a way to let it all hang out. According to The Desert Sun, the local newspaper, even two former first daughters couldn't resist the draw of the desert. It said Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager dropped into Coachella on Saturday -- complete with Secret Service. Guitron couldn't confirm the report, but he did say, \"I wouldn't be surprised if they did show up. Dignitaries just kind of show up like everybody else.\"","highlights":"Coachella music festival wraps up Sunday .\nIntriguing moments include vegetarian Morrissey complaining about grilling .\nBoth Paul McCartney and The Cure run past curfew; Cure is cut off ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of a woman who gave birth on Monday to octuplets said her daughter already has six children at home and was undergoing fertility treatment. Dr. Karen Maples is part of the large team of doctors and nurses that helped deliver the octuplets. The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that Angela Suleman said her daughter had the embryos implanted last year, resulting in the eight births. \"They all happened to take,\" Suleman told the Times. \"I looked at those babies. They are so tiny and so beautiful.\" The woman declined to have the number of embryos reduced when she discovered she was carrying multiples, the Times reported. The six older siblings range from ages 7 to 2, according to the newspaper. Suleman said she was concerned about her daughter's homecoming because her husband, a contract worker, is due to return to Iraq. In the meantime, the mother, who remains unidentified, appealed for privacy while she recovers from giving birth, medical officials said Thursday. In her written statement delivered by Dr. Karen Maples of the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in California, the woman who delivered eight babies in five minutes said she would soon make public the details of her \"miraculous experience.\" \"We understand that you are all curious about the arrival of the octuplets, and we appreciate your respect for our family's privacy,\" she said. \"The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals.\" \"Needless to say, the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well,\" she added. The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces -- are doing well following their Caesarean-section delivery at the Bellflower hospital, doctors said. They were born nine weeks premature. Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatalist, said all but one of the octuplets are now breathing on their own. That baby might be taken off breathing equipment Friday. Caring for eight premature babies is a challenge. Duties are being shared by a large team of hospital nurses and doctors for the time being. Two nurses have been assigned to each child, and all the babies are receiving fluids, proteins and vitamins intravenously, Gupta said. \"We feed them. ... We change diapers. ... When they cry, we console them,\" Gupta said. \"When the mom comes and touches the babies, you can definitely see their expression on their faces and body. They are very happy.\" The babies, who are being referred to by letters of the alphabet, will remain in the hospital for at least seven more weeks. Baby H made headlines for its surprise appearance during the delivery, which took months of preparation by a team of doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists. Watch a report on babies' progress \u00bb . The mother will not be able to hold her babies for another week, Gupta said. They are still fragile, developing intestines, he said. Doctors initially thought the mother was pregnant with seven fetuses. She was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest. During the seven weeks, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff members prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday, they were in for a surprise. \"After the seventh baby was born, we were taking a sigh of relief,\" Maples said. \"It was a surprise of our life when we in fact discovered there was an eighth baby,\" she said. \"We never had an assignment for baby H nurse or baby H doctor. We just had to go on the fly and figure out what to do.\" \"Baby G nurse stepped up. We handed off the baby to baby G nurse. She then delivered that last baby to the neonatologist of the baby F.\" \"It was all wonderful because of the teamwork and the training we did before,\" Maples said.","highlights":"Grandmother of the eight babies: 'They are so tiny and so beautiful'\nThe father, a contract worker, is due to return to Iraq, mother-in-law says .\nMother of babies appeals for privacy while she recovers from giving birth .\nLarge medical team monitoring babies; each infant has two devoted nurses ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: This is an excerpt from Jane Velez-Mitchell's new book \"iWant\" published by HCI Books. Velez-Mitchell anchors \"Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell\" on HLN nightly at 7 p.m. ET. Jane Velez-Mitchell writes about her journey from addiction and overconsumption to a simpler, honest life. This is the story of my ch . . . ch . . . changes, which took me from insanity to clarity, from egocentricity to altruism, from alcoholism to activism. These changes have marked an evolution in what I want from this life. I am what I want. What I seek to consume, possess, and achieve is a mirror that reflects my lusts and cravings, values and priorities, and moral boundaries or lack thereof. I am happy to say that what I want today is much less toxic and self-centered than what I used to want. It's taken decades of self-examination to peel back the layers and figure out what really makes me happy. And while I'm still searching for my ultimate bliss, I know for sure it's not what I once thought it was. It's not alcohol, cigarettes, money, food, sugar, or status symbols: I've consumed all of those in massive quantities, and they've just made me miserable. Now, I want what can't be tasted, smoked, worn, seen, or counted. It's the opposite of material. As sappy as it might sound, what I want is spiritual. Watch Jane talk about her new book \u00bb . The shift from material to spiritual is a particular challenge in our culture. We have allowed ourselves to be defined by our consumption, instead of by our ability to move beyond it. To keep consumers consuming, the corporate culture has brainwashed us into thinking we can change ourselves by changing what we buy, which pills we pop, what type of booze we swill, what gated community we join, what kind of golf clubs we swing, and what kind of cancer sticks we dangle between our lips. We've been told that certain consumer choices say a lot about us, that they reveal our character. If we've stepped up to a more prestigious brand, we've changed for the better. Nonsense! We cannot consume our way into personal growth. Yet, millions of us have bought into this cynical concept of faux identity. If you keep buying the \"latest and the greatest\" but feel like you're stuck in the same place, you're just changing labels, and that's not changing. That's rearranging. Real change occurs on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual levels, not in a shopping mall, a car dealership, online, at the drugstore, at the liquor store, or at the fast-food joint. For too long, we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated by forces whose sole purpose is PROFIT and POWER. We have given advertisers leave to claim that inanimate objects have spiritual qualities. One ad, in perhaps the world's most prestigious newspaper, urges us to buy an expensive diamond by insisting that such a purchase will feed the soul, lift the spirit, and increase our resolve to achieve whatever we wish. Really? How exactly does a diamond feed the soul? It's absurd! This is false advertising. Today, as a culture, we are awash in false advertising. As a society, we've lent legitimacy to these patent lies by literally buying into them. As a result of this unnecessary, self-indulgent consumption, we've gone a long way toward destroying our natural environment with our waste. Perhaps most important, by obsessing about material things, we've cheated ourselves out of the most fundamental aspect of the human experience: real experiences that result in real growth. Unlike diamonds, meaningful experiences can actually feed the soul, resulting in self-development and self-knowledge. Authentic change has allowed me to gradually learn why I'm here experiencing this existence as well as what I am destined to contribute during my lifetime. For me, meaningful change has been about getting sober, becoming honest, and adopting a new attitude. Sobriety has allowed me to shift the criteria I use for all the decisions I make from an ego-based formula of what's in it for me to a more evolved formula based on compassion for other people, other living creatures, and our environment. It's an ongoing struggle, and there are many times when I fail. But I keep trying. This book is my story of how I've progressed from self-obsession to a life that I hope will count. In the tradition of the Twelve Steps created by Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm going to lay out what it was like, what happened to change me, and what it's like now. For thirty years as a television news reporter, I've been recounting other people's mostly sordid stories. Frankly, the prospect of airing my own dirty laundry scares the wits out of me. The very thought of this sparks a flood of memories, primarily featuring the many stupid and embarrassing things I've done over the years, especially before I got sober. My face burns at the prospect of sharing some of these memories with you. I know we're all only as sick as our secrets. By pouring out the intimate details of my personal history, I am trying to get healthier through honesty. Still, I can't help but wonder if you really have to know every single one of my secrets. Is that what is meant by \u00adrigorous honesty? These thoughts swirl through my mind as I \u00adhuddle under my covers unable to sleep... ...There's so much to tell. But would you want to know everything about my personal struggles? You may simply be reading this book because you're interested in my life, and for that I thank you. But if you identify with my story, then we will both learn from my experience. That is the essence of all recovery programs. Many of the battles I'm fighting, the compulsions I'm struggling to conquer, are the same as those experienced by many of my friends, relatives, co\u00adworkers, and neighbors. Some struggle with overeating, with alcohol or drugs, with workaholism, with codependency, with compulsive spending, with gambling, with sex addiction, or with facing the truth about themselves -- whatever that truth may be. And virtually everyone I know, including myself, suffers from generic overconsumption -- a chronic craving for more of everything that is poisoning our lives, not to mention our oceans, skies, and forests. My friend once called himself a tornado of consumption. That description fits most Americans. Sadly, we're a nation of addicts. For a multitude of reasons -- our health, our finances, and our environment, among them -- we need to take immediate action to reduce our collective consumption levels. Unfortunately, addicts don't respond to reason or rationality. Just as you can't reason with a drunk who is on a binge, we are not going to lecture our way out of America's consumption mess. Fortunately, there are proven recovery methods out there that can help us get a handle on our addictive consumption. I've used them to deal with my plethora of addictions, and I will share these techniques with you while I tell you my story. From IWANT by Jane Velez-Mitchell. Available wherever books are sold. Copyright \u00a9 2009 Jane Velez-Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Jane Velez-Mitchell writes of her journey from addiction to a simpler, honest life .\nShe says it's taken decades of self-examination to find out what makes her happy .\nVelez-Mitchell: \"Change occurs on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual levels\""} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea will open its market to most U.S. beef, a senior government official said Thursday, according to state media. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the South Korean capital in protest at the deal . South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef in 2003 amid concerns over a case of mad cow disease in the United States. The ban closed what was then the third-largest market for U.S. beef exporters. It resumed limited imports last year -- allowing boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age -- but that re-opening was subject to interruptions and closed altogether in October 2007. A deal that South Korea and the United States struck last month bans the import of high-risk materials, like tonsils, brains, spinal cord marrow and a section of the small intestine, Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun said Thursday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. These parts pose the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans. The ban will be lifted within a few days, once the government's new import rules have been published. The pending resumption of U.S. beef imports hasn't been without political costs for President Lee Myung-bak. He apologized to the nation last week for failing to fully understand concerns about mad cow disease. In downtown Seoul, thousands of people have regularly staged protests, chanting \"We don't want crazy cows,\" since the deal to revive beef imports was announced. And the main opposition party has taken up the fight. \"We will be forced to make a critical decision if the government pushes through its plan to announce resumption of beef imports,\" said Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, Yonhap reported. \"If the government and the ruling party ignore this warning, we will come up with every possible measure to stop them.\" The opposition has already filed a suit to suspend implementation of new beef import terms, according to Yonhap. Lee's ruling Grand National Party (GNP) is working to soothe tensions, saying that American beef is safe to eat and that adequate safety precautions have been taken. \"The government has tried its best to free the public from unnecessary concerns, and sufficient countermeasures have been prepared,\" said Lee Hahn-koo, the party's chief policymaker, Yonhap reported. When South Korea and the United States reached the deal in April to re-open the South Korean market, they removed the major obstacle to U.S. congressional approval of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Lee urged the National Assembly this month to ratify the agreement as soon as possible to provide fresh impetus to the sluggish Korean economy, saying it will create 300,000 jobs. But the opposition has promised to fight the FTA until the beef pact is nullified. In 2003, the United States exported $815 million pounds of beef and beef variety meats to South Korea. The U.S. beef industry has lost up to $4 billion since the market closed, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation.","highlights":"South Korea to open market to most U.S. beef says government official .\nBan began in 2003 amid concerns over a case of mad cow disease in the U.S.\nNew agreement bans the import of high-risk materials, like tonsils and brains .\nThousands of S. Koreans have regularly staged protests against U.S. beef imports ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a \"significant escalation\" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday. An Iranian flag flies outside the building containing the reactor of Bushehr nuclear power plant, south of Tehran. White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker. Hersh told CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and \"do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program,\" Hersh said. \"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program,\" Hersh said. The new article, \"Preparing the Battlefield,\" is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran. He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. Watch Hersh discuss what he says are the administration's plans for Iran \u00bb . \"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment,\" White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN. \"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations,\" CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops. \"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else,\" Crocker said. Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran. He said the program resulted in \"a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos\" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people. The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said \"all options\" are open in dealing with the issue. Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work. U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons. Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers. The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said. In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would \"cost them heavily.\" In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with \"the respect they deserve.\" \"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations,\" said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action. Journalist Shirzad Bozorghmehr in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Yorker article says Congress authorized up to $400 million for covert ops in Iran .\nJournalist Seymour Hersh says program is being staged from Afghanistan .\nU.S. officials decline comment, deny the U.S. is launching raids from Iraq .\nIranian general says troops are building graves for invaders in the event of war ."} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced 11 people to death after convicting them of participating in post-election riots, state media reported Thursday. Two of the sentences have been carried out; the rest are under appeal, the Iranian Students News Agency said, quoting a court official. These are the first executions known to be related to the post-election violence that erupted across Iran in June and has continued since, Amnesty International said in a statement condemning the hangings. But a lawyer for one of the men executed on Thursday disputed a key part of the official report. \"Both of these men were arrested two months before the elections and they were in prison until their sentences were carried out. So how can someone who's in prison take part in protests?\" asked Nasrin Sotoudeh, a Tehran-based human rights lawyer who represented Arash Rahmanipour, one of two men hanged Thursday. Full coverage of the protests in Iran . His father had been scheduled to visit Rahmanipour on the day of the execution, and learned only from a TV report that his son was dead, Sotoudeh said, describing the family as \"extremely upset and shocked.\" \"Arash called his home two nights ago (Tuesday night) -- two nights before the sentence was carried out, and at that point Arash had no idea that his sentence was about to be carried out,\" she said. She said the hanging violated Iranian law. \"The entire process, the investigation, the trial, the handing down of the sentence and the carrying out of the sentence, were done illegally and in secret,\" she told CNN by phone. \"Arash's family and I did not have his case file. A sentence must first be announced to the defendant and his lawyer and only then can it be carried out, but this sentence was never announced to Arash or myself.\" She said he had been forced to confess. \"He told me his pregnant sister had been arrested, too,\" she said. \"In two sessions where he was interrogated, they placed his sister in front of him and told him if he wanted to see her free he had to admit to things he didn't do.\" Rahmanipour's sister was later released from prison but lost the baby due to stress, Sotoudeh said. Rahmanipour, 20, was charged with being a mohareb, or enemy of God, and being a member of Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran (API), a banned anti-regime monarchist group, his lawyer said. Amnesty International condemned the execution of Rahmanipour and the other man executed Thursday, Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani. \"These men were first unfairly convicted and now they have been unjustly killed. It is not even clear they had links to this group, as their 'confessions' appear to have been made under duress,\" said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa deputy director. The court said the defendants were convicted of \"waging war against God, trying to overthrow the Islamic government\" and membership in armed and anti-revolutionary groups. Anti-government demonstrations began after the disputed June 12 presidential vote, which re-elected hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over main opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. Late December marked the deadliest clashes in Iran since initial protests broke out in the summer. At least seven people were killed and hundreds were arrested, witnesses said, as they took to the streets on Ashura, which occurred on December 27. The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone and has blamed reformists for the violence.","highlights":"Eleven rioters sentenced to death for post-election riots, according to Iranian press .\nTwo of the sentences have been carried out; the rest are under appeal, ISNA said .\nAnti-government demonstrations began after the disputed June 12 presidential vote .\nWitnesses said hundreds of protesters were arrested on the Ashura holy day on December 27 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Wendy Williams knows that her syndicated television show often provides fodder for jokes on E!'s \"The Soup.\" She's more than all right with that. Wendy Williams is hoping to attract a broad audience for her daytime talk show. \"I love it,\" she said, letting out a throaty laugh. Williams is not at all bothered if people poke fun, because at least they are talking about her new show. Long known to her radio fans for her outspoken nature and sometimes controversial interviews with celebrities, she is now navigating the switch from radio to television with \"The Wendy Williams Show.\" Williams' mix of celeb guests, \"Hot Topics\" and straight-forward advice to audience members led Entertainment Weekly's critic-at-large Ken Tucker to headline a recent blog item \"Are you watching 'The Wendy Williams Show'? You should be.\" The talk show host said she is settling comfortably into her new role. \"The radio was wonderful, and for 23 wonderful years, the radio served me, and I served it,\" said Williams, who is scheduled to be inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame this fall. \"The transition for me seems very natural and very easy.\" Her career has not always been so. A self-described \"Jersey girl,\" Williams was reportedly dumped from New York's Hot 97 radio station in 1998 after a run-in with a fellow on-air personality. She eventually found success with a syndicated radio show, \"The Wendy Williams Experience,\" which aired on WBLS in New York. In 2008, she and her radio show made news after a talent booker accused Williams' husband\/manager, Kevin Hunter, of sexual harassment, accusations Williams has dismissed as false in earlier interviews. Williams has also had several high-profile feuds with celebrities, notably Whitney Houston, who have been less than enthusiastic about her dishy gossip style and what they perceived as prying questions. In a 2003 interview with Houston, she tangled on-air with the singer about Houston's drug use in an exchange that resulted in Houston delivering an expletive-laced diatribe. But while Williams still asks the questions many fans want to know (and retains her catchphrase, \"How you doin'?\"), she said, her television show is different. \"It's more polished,\" she said. \"Four hours on the radio versus one hour on TV -- that means you that you have to have five words instead of 35 words to explain what you are talking about.\" That doesn't stop her from sharing everything from her love of wigs to information about her breast implants -- without which, she recently told viewers, she was \"naturally a long, floppy A [cup].\" Rob Dauber, executive producer of the show, said daytime television needs Williams' bluntness. \"Wendy Williams has a really unique, honest personality who audiences really relate to,\" he said. \"The daytime viewer, I think, is hungry for a personality who is not afraid to speak the truth, to tell her own truth and to kind of let it all hang out. \"Wendy's not hiding anything from anybody about herself, and she's not afraid to show all of her faults.\" During a recent phone interview, Williams, mother of a 9-year old boy, chatted easily while trying to get clothes in the washing machine and dinner on the table for her family. \"After the show, it's real life,\" she said. \"Last night was parent night at school, and I forgot to include the box of tissues, pens that erase and a few other things,\" Williams said. \"No one said anything about it, but I went back in his folder and looked and immediately started sweating and feeling inadequate.\" She thinks daytime television fans can relate to her, because ultimately she is a fan, too. She rattles off countless shows she enjoys including \"Ellen,\" \"Oprah,\" \"Judge Judy\" and \"Dr. Oz.\" Williams said she aspires to attract higher-profile guests on her talk show and hopes the audience will give her time to find her stride. \"I know that the show is messy, because I'm messy,\" she said. \"But I have a staff of very talented people working with me.\" She said she is grateful for her radio audience but hopes to branch out to more fans via television -- including men. She said she often observes them at her show, clearly annoyed that they have been dragged there by women. \"I see their faces dragging long when I first come out, and somewhere around the end of 'Hot Topics,' they are roaring with laughter,\" she said. \"At the end of the day, I just want people to laugh and have a good time.\"","highlights":"Wendy Williams has made the transition from radio to daytime television .\nFormer radio personality now hosts \"The Wendy Williams Show\"\nShe says she hopes the audience gives the show a chance .\nWilliams: \"I just want people to laugh and have a good time\""} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- There's more to wearing the \"niqab\" -- the austere, all-covering veil favored by ultra-religious Muslim women -- than meets the eye. Cairo University students wearing niqab stand outside a university dormitory on Oct. 7 unable to enter due to the new rules preventing admission to niqab wearers. A recent declaration by a leading Egyptian cleric that women will not be allowed to wear the niqab in university areas frequented only by women has sparked demonstrations by female students in Cairo determined to wear the all-encompassing veil wherever they go. Egypt's Al-Azhar university, the highest seat of Sunni Islam, recently convened an all-male committee to rule on what women can wear at Egypt's public universities. The Shaikh of Al-Azhar, Shaikh Tantawi, announced after the meeting that a ban on the niqab, also known as the burqa, would apply to such university areas as female dormitories and all-women classes. Do you think Muslim women should wear the niqab? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . Even though that was a step down from a statement he made earlier that the niqab would be banned in all public universities, his ruling sparked controversy with the growing number of women in the country who choose to stay covered. The initiative from Al-Azhar is seen by many in Egypt as an attempt to counter the growing appeal of the strictest interpretations of Islam. An increasing number of young women in Egypt are turning to the niqab. The niqab is worn by many Muslim women throughout the Arab world and beyond and is most common in the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It is also commonly worn in Pakistan. \"The niqab should be worn under two circumstances,\" a cleaning lady who works at Al-Azhar, told CNN recently. \"A very beautiful woman should wear it to prevent men from fighting over her, and an ugly woman should wear it to hide her face.\" There is no consensus among Muslim scholars regarding the wearing of the niqab, the piece of cloth that covers a Muslim woman's face. Women who wear it usually also cover their hands. It is widely believed to be a tradition that comes from the Arabian peninsula, introduced to more liberal countries like Egypt by people who have lived and worked in ultra-conservative countries like Saudi Arabia. There's not much about it in the Koran, Muslim's holy book. The Koranic verse that applies to female head covering translates loosely as: \"O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks all over their bodies.\" And so consequently, there are plenty of interpretations. And all sorts of opinions in the Egyptian parliament. The opposition-led Muslim Brotherhood opposes the niqab ban. \"It's unacceptable that the niqab is treated as something bad that needs to be suppressed,\" Brotherhood member of parliament Muhamed Baltagi told CNN. \"It's unacceptable to violate private matters in this way.\" In Baltagi's opinion, it's a matter of personal choice and should not be dictated by the shaikh of Al-Azhar. Appointed by the president of Egypt, the shaikh of Al-Azhar is viewed as little more than an appendage of the authoritarian Egyptian government, and thus scorned as a state puppet by both religious and secular critics of the regime. Since the 1960s the shaikh of Al-Azhar has been appointed by the Egyptian president. In Europe, wearing the niqab has become a controversial issue too. Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy banned it from French classrooms. And British Justice Minister Jack Straw also recently asked women to remove them in his consituency office. In Cairo's main shopping district, the message on the niqab is decidedly mixed. The few niqabs on display are vastly outnumbered by far more risque outfits, including no shortage of mannequins sporting evening dressings with plunging necklines and naked arms. There are a few niqabs on display, but lots of less conservative clothing is on the shelves too. Outside Cairo University, some women go without any head covering at all. Most wear headscarves -- usually quite colorful ones. Those who choose to wear the niqab say the religious scholars should have asked a woman what she thought of the ban first. \"He should have taken at least one woman's opinion,\" said student Muna Abdel Fatah. \"Because the decision will impact on her.\" Daniela Deane contributed to this story.","highlights":"Recent ban on wearing the all-encompassing veil sparked demonstrations .\nBan of the veil, known as the \"niqab,\" seen by many as attempt to counter extremism .\nIncreasing number of young Muslim women want to cover themselves .\nNo consensus among Muslim scholars on covering up ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Grace, Kara and Trichelle were created to fill a void for young black girls who for so long have been playing with dolls that don't look like them. Stacy McBride-Irby, creator of the new Barbie, poses with the dolls. The new black Barbies released by Mattel have fuller lips, curlier hair and other features that the company says more accurately represent African-American women. Some have cheered the new dolls. Others jeered them, saying they're not black enough. \"I love the black Barbie. It's about time,\" Jua Simpson said on CNN's iReport, a user-generated news community. \"But the hair is still a step backwards, since most of our hair is not straight and light brown.\" Others disagree with critics who say the dolls should have had more natural black hairstyles, such as afros or braids. \"Many people have criticized the dolls for either having hair that's too long or too straight, but I have long, straight hair that I straightened. But it's my hair and a part of me,\" said Tanisa Zoe Samuel, an African-American iReporter from the Turks and Caicos, in the Caribbean. \"Black women come in all shades, shapes and varieties that there is just no way to capture everyone with three dolls.\" iReport.com: Samuel shares her thoughts on the new Barbie . The dolls were created by Stacy McBride-Irby, an African-American who watched her daughter play with dolls and wanted to create a doll that looked more like her. McBride-Irby said she has heard the criticism, but she also has received many kudos. \"They mean so much to me because they did come from a positive place,\" McBride-Irby said. \"My daughter loves the dolls. I've had dads thank me for creating this line of dolls that represent their little girls. These dolls are for girls all over the world.\" This is not the first time Mattel has released an ethnic doll that drew criticism. See photos of the black Barbie dolls \u00bb . In 1997, Mattel collaborated with cookie maker Nabisco to create Oreo Fun Barbie. The black version of the doll, which sported an Oreo-shaped purse, was criticized by some who noted that \"Oreo\" is a derogatory term in the black community. The word is used to describe someone who is perceived as black on the outside and white on the inside. For some, the talk about dolls is not just child's play. Some think early play with dolls can affect a girl's self-esteem later in life. Actress Nia Long, who appears in comedian Chris Rock's new documentary, \"Good Hair,\" recently talked about the issue on CNN. \"Historically, the Afrocentric features have not been celebrated,\" Long said. \"This makes us question the integrity of our beauty standard for ourselves.\"","highlights":"New black Barbies have fuller lips, curlier hair, more African-American features .\nSome have cheered the dolls; others have criticized them for being unrealistic .\n\"I love the black Barbie. It's about time,\" said CNN iReporter Jua Simpson .\niReport.com: Share your thoughts on the new black Barbie ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anyone who doubts Roland Burris' qualifications to serve as the next senator from Illinois may want to head to Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery. Roland Burris has erected a mausoleum listing his accompishments in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery. There, Burris, whom embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed to succeed President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate on Tuesday, has erected a granite mausoleum listing his many accomplishments. Under the seal of the state of Illinois and the words \"Trail Blazer,\" Burris, 71, has listed his many firsts in granite, including being the state's first African-American attorney general and the state's first African-American comptroller. The memorial also notes that Burris was the first African-American exchange student to Hamburg University in Germany from Southern Illinois University in 1959. There appears to be enough room to add \"U.S. senator\" to the memorial, but Burris may never get a chance to serve in Washington. A Senate Democratic aide told CNN on Wednesday that plans were in the works to prevent Burris from being seated in the Senate. After Blagojevich made the surprise move to appoint Obama's successor, Senate Democrats praised Burris but said they could not accept any appointment by Blagojevich after his arrest on corruption charges earlier this month. Federal prosecutors say he conspired to \"sell\" Obama's Senate seat for campaign donations and other favors.","highlights":"Roland Burris has erected a mausoleum in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery .\nGov. Rod Blagojevich picked Burris to succeed President-elect Obama in the Senate .\nMemorial lists firsts, including being the first black attorney general for Illinois ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. President Obama signs the executive order on stem cell policy Monday at the White House. Obama's move overturns an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time. Obama also signed a presidential memorandum establishing greater independence for federal science policies and programs. \"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values,\" Obama said at the White House. \"In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.\" Watch as Obama announces he's lifting the funding ban \u00bb . The president pledged to develop \"strict guidelines\" to ensure that such research \"never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction.\" Such a possibility, he maintained, is \"dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society or any society.\" Obama's order directs the NIH to develop revised guidelines on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research within 120 days, according to Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council. \"The president is, in effect, allowing federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research to the extent that it's permitted by law -- that is, work with stem cells themselves, not the derivation of stem cells,\" Varmus said in a conference call with reporters Sunday. While conceding that \"the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown\" and \"should not be overstated,\" Obama nevertheless expressed hope that the order will help spur faster progress in the search for cures to afflictions such as Parkinson's disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries. See a map of nations that have taken a lead in using human embryos in stem cell research \u00bb . Researchers highly value embryonic stem cells because of their potential to turn into any organ or tissue cell in the body. Stem cells have this ability for a short time. A few days before the embryo would implant in the uterus, it starts to develop into specific cells that will turn into skin or eyes or other parts of a developing fetus. Watch a doctor explain why embryotic stem cells are so important \u00bb . When the embryo is 4 or 5 days old, scientists extract the stem cells and put them in a petri dish. With the removal of these stem cells -- of which there may be about 30 -- the embryo is destroyed. Twenty-one of the 60 stem cell lines authorized for research under the Bush policy have proven useful to researchers. Bush twice vetoed legislation -- in July 2006 and June 2007 -- that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research. At the time, Bush maintained that scientific advances allowed researchers to conduct groundbreaking research without destroying human embryos. Conservative leaders echoed Bush's rationale in their criticism of Obama's decision. \"Advancements in science and research have moved faster than the debates among politicians in Washington, D.C., and breakthroughs announced in recent years confirm the full potential of stem cell research can be realized without the destruction of living human embryos,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Sunday. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the Bush policy imposed proper ethical limits on science. \"My basic tenet here is I don't think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth,\" Shelby said Sunday. \"I know that people argue there are other ways. I think we should continue our biomedical research everywhere we can, but we should have some ethics about it.\" The issue of whether to lift the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has, however, exposed a clear rift between the more moderate and conservative factions of the GOP. In February, a group of six moderate GOP congressmen sent a letter to Obama urging him to lift the funding ban. Former first lady Nancy Reagan also issued a statement Monday thanking Obama for lifting the ban. \"These new rules will now make it possible for scientists to move forward,\" Reagan said. \"Countless people, suffering from many different diseases, stand to benefit from the answers stem cell research can provide. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to do everything in our power to find cures for these diseases.\" President Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease after leaving office -- an affliction that many scientists say eventually may be cured with the help of embryonic stem cell research. Obama's presidential memorandum, however, may turn out to have a broader impact than his executive order. The memorandum is expected to create a clear change of tone from the Bush administration on a broad range of scientific issues. Bush's critics argued the former president allowed political factors improperly to influence funding decisions for science initiatives as well as to skew official government findings on issues such as global warming. Watch a GOP congressman say Obama is 'behind the times' \u00bb . Obama's memorandum directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy \"to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making.\" In a thinly veiled criticism of his predecessor, Obama reiterated a promise to base \"public policies on the soundest science\" as well as to \"appoint scientific advisers based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology.\"","highlights":"NEW: Former first lady Nancy Reagan thanks President Obama for lifting funding ban .\nObama: \"We have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research\"\nBush-era policy on embryonic stem cell research reversed .\nAdvocates: Move could boost medical progress; critics object to embryo destruction ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's hard-line Islamic group Al-Shabab seized control of Jowhar, the president's hometown, after a battle with pro-government forces Sunday. An Islamist fighter mans a position in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday. Jowhar is a major town 55 miles (88 kilometers) southeast of Mogadishu, the capital. \"All businesses are closed and residents are already fleeing while Al-Shabab are roaming the streets,\" a local journalist said. The town had been under the control of forces backing the transitional government, which is scrambling to cope with deadly advances from Al-Shabab in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab was once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which took over most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006. The United States says the group is affiliated with the al Qaeda terrorist network, and the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion that drove the ICU from power in 2006. After seizing control of Jowhar on Sunday, the rebels started conducting \"search operations in the police station and the provincial headquarters of the town,\" the journalist added. The clashes extended into the suburbs of the town, where sporadic fighting was going on between the rebels and government forces, said the journalist, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. The town's seizure comes amid escalating tension between Somalia's transitional government and the Al-Shabab militia, which has waged days-long attacks in the capital. In the latest round of violence, one person was killed and 15 others wounded when mortars slammed into a police academy in Mogadishu on Sunday. Clashes between the rebels and the government in Mogadishu have left at least 103 people dead and 420 wounded, Somali officials said Friday. The east African nation has not had an effective government since 1991. Last week, a spokesman for the rebel group said that it had successfully recruited more fighters. \"It is not only Somali jihadists that are fighting in Mogadishu against the government,\" said Sheikh Hassan Ya'qub, a spokesman for Al-Shabab. \"There are also foreign Muslim jihadist brothers who are fighting side by side with us.\" The new round of fighting stems from an interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, the spokesman said. Somalia's new president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, recently approved implementing sharia, but the rebel group wants the country to institute a stricter form. Meanwhile, a powerful Islamist warlord defected to the government Saturday after he disagreed with rebel Islamist groups on the war against the transitional government. The warlord, Sheikh Yusuf Mohamud Siad Indha Ade, was the military commander of Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is suspected by the United States of being a terrorist.","highlights":"Group Al-Shabab is affiliated with al Qaeda, according to the U.S.\nClashes between rebels and government killed 103, wounded 420, officials say .\nAl-Shabab recently said it has been successful at recruiting more members ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates seized control of a cargo vessel near the Seychelles Thursday, one of two attacks that took place within minutes of each other off the coast of east Africa, according to the European Union Naval Force. The International Maritime Bureau say attacks off the east coast of Africa have increased this year. The EU maritime patrol responded to the early morning attacks, along with the Seychelles Coast Guard. The crew of the Panama-flagged MV Al Khaliq said two pirates had boarded the vessel before communication was cut off with the crew. The EU force confirmed that six pirates have boarded the 180-meter long bulk carrier, with two attack skiffs in tow. They hoisted the \"mother skiff\" onto the vessel with a crane, the EU force said. A second attempted hijacking took place at approximately the same time, but the Italian-flagged cargo ship evaded the attack, the EU said. Armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, pirates opened fire on the MV Jolly Rosso about 460 miles (740 km) east of Mombasa, Kenya. A Belgium warship, part of the EU force, responded to the attack, which caused no casualties. The 200-meter MV Jolly Rosso continued its voyage. Pirate attacks off the coast of east Africa have significantly increased this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. But successful attacks have gone down as a result of a strong presence of international monitors. The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year, the bureau reported on Wednesday. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, it said. More than half of this year's attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. Out of those attacks, Somali pirates successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight others were wounded, four more killed and one is missing, the bureau said. On Monday, pirates hijacked a Chinese merchant ship and its 25-member crew about 630 miles (1,000 km) northeast of Seychelles. The pirates appeared to be heading toward Somalia, the European Union Naval Force said. China plans to make \"every effort to rescue\" the crew members, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, told reporters. The bulk carrier De Xin Hai is one of four ships that Somali pirates are holding for ransom with 80 crew members as hostages, the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday. Maritime authorities say two recent trends have led to a rise in piracy: access and opportunity. As global commerce picks up, more and more of the world's fuels, minerals and other crucial commodities travel by ship. Ninety-five percent of America's foreign trade, for instance, moves by water, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. That cargo is an easy target for robbers in countries that lack the resources to secure their shorelines, such as Somalia. Somalia's transitional government, which has a tenuous grip on power, has been unable to stop the pirates -- many of whom are based in the country's port cities. This has prompted Europe and other Western countries to step up maritime patrols. \"In the Gulf of Aden, the number of attacks have gone up. But because of the presence of naval vessels, the success rate of the pirates have decreased,\" said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau. \"The navies are responding very very effectively.\" Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. With the ransoms they collect, pirates can earn up to $40,000 a year, analysts say. That's a fortune for someone from an impoverished country. Some analysts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the piracies. \"Yes, the ransoms have probably caused the piracy to become a bit more rampant. But at the same time, from the owner's point of view, there is no other way currently to secure the safe release of the vessel along with the crew and the cargo,\" Mody said. \"It's basically a cycle.\" CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pirates have taken control of cargo vessel near the Seychelles off east cost of Africa .\nEuropean Union Naval Force say six pirates boarded 180-meter long carrier .\nA second attempted hijacking took place at approximately the same time .\nPirate attacks off east African coast have increased this year ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The number of movies nominated for the best picture Oscar will double next year, a move apparently aimed at bolstering sagging ratings for the Academy Awards broadcast. Danny Boyle exults in an Oscar win for \"Slumdog Millionaire\" earlier this year. \"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,\" Sid Ganis, president of the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said. Doubling the nominations would make it more likely a viewer's favorite movie is in the running for the top honor, which may make them want to watch the show, said Steve Pond, author of \"The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards.\" \"This clearly is a reaction to declining ratings,\" Pond said. \"Even though this last show the ratings were up ... over the last 10 years or so the ratings have been down.\" Oscar producers realized they \"can juice the show up all you want, but people watch the Oscars when there are movies competing that they have an interest in,\" Pond said. The best picture nominations often consist of movies that \"the vast majority of people have not seen,\" he said. The problem \"came to a head with 'The Dark Knight,' \" which sold more than $1 billion in tickets worldwide, but was snubbed by the academy in the best picture category last year, he said. The Batman sequel won best movie at the MTV Movie Awards and was chosen favorite movie by the People's Choice Awards. It also made many critics' top 10 lists. If the nomination field had been expanded last year, the film might have made the best picture list, \"which clearly would have been some kind of bump in the ratings,\" Pond said. This would also counter the impression among TV viewers that the awards show is \"for movie snobs who don't like the movies I like,\" he said. The decision to double the number of features films nominated is a return to the way the Oscars were awarded in its early decades, when as many as 12 movies were considered in the field of finalists, Ganis said. \"After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,\" Ganis said. \"The final outcome, of course, will be the same -- one best picture winner -- but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.\" Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced on February 2, 2010. The awards show is set for March 7 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. A best picture nomination often serves as a marketing boost for films, driving DVD sales for those films no longer in theaters.","highlights":"NEW: Nominating more films \"a reaction to declining ratings,\" says expert .\nAcademy Awards to nominate 10 best picture possibilities next year .\nAcademy has been nominating just five films for more than six decades .\n\"The Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots,\" says its president ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A conservative billionaire businessman and a former center-left president will face off in a runoff election in Chile's presidential race, based on official early results released Sunday. With more than 98 percent of polling stations counted, billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera led ex-president Eduardo Frei with 44 percent of the vote to Frei's 30 percent, Chile's interior ministry reported. \"This is a victory for all the Chileans who want change,\" Pinera said Sunday night. Frei began campaigning for the second-round immediately, asking in a speech for the supporters of the two other candidates who had their presidential ambitions dashed to join his cause. Frei said if he is elected, women and young people will have an important role in his government. He explicitly asked for those who voted for Marco Enriquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate, who were eliminated in Sunday's ballot, to vote for him in the runoff. In a concession speech, Enriquez-Ominami said that he would not endorse either candidate. The winner will follow the footsteps of a very popular president, Michelle Bachelet, who will be leaving office with high approval ratings for steering the country through the global economic downturn, and promoting progressive social reforms. Under Chile's constitutional term limits, a president cannot run for a second consecutive term. Bachelet endorsed Frei, a member of her same left-leaning coalition, but another leftist candidate who ran as an independent -- Enriquez-Ominami -- made an impressive run, pulling in 20 percent of the vote and splitting votes for the ruling party. Those who voted for him, \"have affirmed the desire for Chile to move forward and toward the future,\" he said. If Pinera triumphs in the expected January runoff election, it would mark the first time since the fall of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship that a conservative wins at the polls. In the 19 years since Pinochet's fall, all the presidents have come from the left-leaning coalition. Pinera, 60, is one of the country's wealthiest businessmen who previously served as a senator and president of the National Renovation party. Since completing one term as president, Frei returned to politics as a Christian Democrat senator who has campaigned on continuing Bachelet's policies. While Frei and Pinera were household names before the election, it was the 36-year-old Enriquez-Ominami who made a political name for himself in this presidential election. He worked as a television director before being elected as a congressman for the Socialist party in 2005. The son of a guerrilla leader from the 1970s, Enriquez-Ominami forged his own political path, breaking from the leftist coalition and running on his own. A fourth candidate, Arrate of the Communist Party, garnered 6 percent of Sunday's vote, according to the early vote figures.","highlights":"NEW: Sebastian Pinera, Eduardo Frei will face off in a runoff in Chile's presidential election .\nNEW: With over 98 percent of polling stations counted, Pinera held 44 % of vote to Frei's 30% .\nNEW: Enriquez-Ominami got 20 percent of the vote, splitting votes for ruling party .\nCandidate Jorge Arrate of the Communist Party, garnered 6 percent of Sunday's vote ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The head of Britain's intelligence services has warned that children as young as 15 are becoming involved in terrorist-related activity. Jonathan Evans, the chief of MI5, also said that at least 2,000 people in Britain pose a threat to the country's security because of their support for al Qaeda-inspired terrorism. \"As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country. They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism,\" he told a gathering of newspaper editors in Manchester. Evans said the figure of 2,000 -- an increase of 400 since November 2006 -- only included those the intelligence services knew about and that the actual number could be double. He said there had been 200 terrorist convictions in Britain since the September 11 attacks. The MI5 head added that over recent years much of the command and inspiration for attack planning in the UK had come from al Qaeda's remaining core leadership in the tribal areas of Pakistan. However, he said in the last 12 months terrorist plots on British soil were increasingly inspired by al Qaeda cadres in other countries, including in Iraq and East Africa. \"There is no doubt now that al Qaeda in Iraq aspires to promote terrorist attacks outside Iraq. There is no doubt that there is training activity and terrorist planning in East Africa -- particularly in Somalia -- which is focused on the UK,\" he told the Society of Editors meeting. According to Evans, there had been \"no decrease\" in the number of Russian covert intelligence officers operating in Britain since the end of the Cold War. He said that resources that could be devoted to counter-terrorism were instead being used to protect Britain against spying by Russia, China and others. \"A number of countries continue to devote considerable time and energy trying to steal our sensitive technology on civilian and military projects and trying to obtain political and economic intelligence at our expense,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"UK intel chief says children as young as 15 involved in terrorist-related activity .\nJonathan Evans: At least 2,000 people in Britain who pose threat to security .\nMI5 chief said the actual number could be double that ."} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from a flash flood in Indonesia's capital grew to 98 people on Sunday as rescuers widened their search for more than 130 other people in the aftermath. Members of a search and rescue team look for bodies near Jakarta. The nation's health ministry said 62 women, 31 men and three students had been killed. Of those, 12 bodies remained unidentified, ministry spokesman Rustam Pakaya said. Another 13 people were missing. The search for the missing will be called off Sunday night, he said. The flood started Friday morning after heavy rains caused waters to smash through a dam and rush into Jakarta. The breach unleashed a torrent of water that plowed into hundreds of homes in what some survivors described as a suburban \"tsunami.\" About 1,500 volunteers -- mostly students from two flooded universities in Jakarta -- are assisting in the search and rescue effort, said Mardjito, a social affairs ministry official who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. He said rescuers started using heavy machinery to lift debris. Still, the death toll is expected to rise. At least 50 people were injured and nearly 1,500 have been displaced. Mardjito said a camp for survivors so far has adequate supplies as members of political parties continue to send food, blankets, flashlights and other items amid a major election year. Sleeping residents were taken by surprise by the powerful flash flood as it crashed through the crowded Cirendeu district near Jakarta early Friday. Watch scenes of the flood devastation \u00bb . Drenched and shivering survivors were taking refuge on the rooftops of their homes as rescuers in rubber boats were struggling to reach them, said social affairs ministry official Mardjito. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently on the campaign trail ahead of the elections later this year, has said he had ordered senior ministers to visit the scene of the disaster. \"On behalf of the government, I express my condolences to the families of the dead victims and may their souls be accepted by God almighty,\" he said, according to the official Antara news agency. The rain obliterated a 255-meter-long section of the dam, releasing a wall of water from a 20-hectare lake that some survivors said reminded them of the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004. \"They said they had heard loud rumbling sounds like during a powerful earthquake. They later found out that the sounds came from the water rushing out from the dam's lake,\" according to Antara. Floods from heavy rains are an annual occurrence in and around Jakarta, a low-lying city on the northern coast of Java island, where poor infrastructure often results in polluted canals and rivers overflowing their banks and spilling into thousands of homes. In 2007, 38 people were killed and 430,000 forced from their homes when storm water 3 meters deep in some places swamped 75 percent of the capital, which is home to about 9 million people. With poor sanitation and a hot and humid climate, the risk of water-borne diseases is usually a major concern following floods in the city, where mosquito-transmitted malaria is also a threat. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 98 dead, many more missing, from flash floods in Jakarta .\nFlood began after heavy rains caused waters to smash through a dam .\nSurvivors say rumbling of waters sounded like an earthquake .\nRescuers are having difficulties reaching people because of mud ."} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Five Europeans rescued Saturday after an Indonesia diving trip went wrong had to fight off a Komodo dragon while they were waiting to be found, according to reports. Rescued diver Kath Mitchinso embraces fellow diver Ernest Lewandowsky as they arrive on Flores island. The group was found at Mantaolan, on the island of Rinca off the Komodo National Park, after going missing Thursday. The divers -- three Britons, a Frenchman and a Swede -- spent two nights on the deserted island, which is home to the large Komodo dragon, before rangers found them Saturday. Frenchman Laurent Pinel, 31, said the group had to fight off one dragon with rocks and scavenged for shellfish as they waited to be rescued, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. \"On the beach a Komodo dragon came amongst us [Friday] afternoon,\" Pinel said, describing how the group had to pelt the dangerous reptile with rocks to scare it away. \"We had nothing to eat. We ate some kind of mussels scraped from the rocks,\" Pinel told the newspaper. The husband of one of the other divers said he was told they were in good condition, although dehydrated. \"I'm just so relieved,\" said Mats Kohler, husband of Helena Neva Lainen. They are both from Sweden. An official said they were being taken to a hospital for examination. Searchers using boats located the missing divers at 11 a.m. Saturday (11 p.m. ET Friday), the official said. They arrived at a hospital in Labuan Bajo, on the western tip of the island of Flores, about two hours later, an official said. Watch a report on the discovery of the missing group \u00bb . They were one of two groups of divers who entered the water off Komodo National Park on Thursday and were supposed to be gone for an hour, said an employee of the dive company, Reef Seekers. The second group came back after the hour passed, but the first group failed to resurface, she said. Earlier, an official with the Komodo Divers Association said the group that returned comprised six snorkelers. Among those who went missing was one of the owners of the dive company, Kathleen Mitchinson, the employee said. The seas that the divers were in are known to be dangerous because of their strong tides, and that's one theory being investigated in the divers' disappearance, the employee said.","highlights":"Five European divers battled Komodo dragon before rescue .\nGroup found at Mantaolan, on the island of Rinca off Komodo National Park .\nMissing divers included three Britons, one Frenchwoman and a Swede ."} -{"article":"LONG ISLAND, New York (CNN) -- The death of a temporary Wal-Mart worker trampled by customers amid frantic Black Friday shopping could have been avoided, the union that represents retail workers said Saturday. Customers rushing to get into a Valley Stream, New York, Wal-Mart damaged doors and trampled a worker. Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m. Friday, police said. \"This incident was avoidable,\" said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York's largest grocery worker's union. \"Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner? \"This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart,\" he said. Watch father of trampled worker react \u00bb . Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar said Saturday that the company had no response to the union's comments, referring CNN to a written statement the retailer released Friday. The statement said the store added internal security, brought in outside security, erected barricades and worked with Nassau County police in anticipation of heavy crowds. \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased,\" Wal-Mart Senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in the statement. \"We are continuing to work closely with local law enforcement, and we are reaching out to those involved.\" Damour's death was one of two high-profile violent incidents on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally one of the year's busiest shopping days. Police say two men shot each other dead in a Toys \"R\" Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store. The fight did not appear to be related to shopping, according to authorities. At the Wal-Mart, police say that a line began forming at 9 p.m. Thursday and that, by 5 a.m. Friday, there were as many as 2,000 customers outside. A video showed about a dozen people knocked to the ground as the doors were opened and the crowd surged, breaking the doors. Minutes later, police trying to give Damour first aid were jostled by customers still running into the store, authorities said. The union is calling for an investigation \"by all levels of government\" to ensure justice for Damour's family and make sure that such an incident never happens at Wal-Mart again. Watch reaction to the incident \u00bb . \"If the safety of their customers and workers was a top priority, then this never would have happened,\" said Patrick Purcell, a projects director for the local UFCW. \"Wal-Mart must step up to the plate and ensure that all those injured, as well as the family of the deceased, be financially compensated for their injuries and their losses. Their words are weak.\" The UFCW has long been a harsh critic of Wal-Mart's, arguing that the world's largest retailer offers low wages and poor health care for its workers and pushes competitors and suppliers to do the same or go out of business. The group has had only marginal success in organizing Wal-Mart workers in the United States and Canada, citing aggressive anti-union efforts by Wal-Mart. The UFCW has 1.3 million members working largely in the retail, food and food-processing industries. CNN's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report.","highlights":"Retail workers union says Wal-Mart showed \"blatant irresponsibility\"\nDiscount chain said it made many preparations for Black Friday .\nTemporary worker was trampled as he unlocked doors at 5 a.m.\nUnion has been one of Wal-Mart's harshest critics ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- America's most recent war dead lie in a quiet patch of ground at Arlington National Cemetery known as Section 60. A soldier places flags alongside tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery. In that parcel are 485 men and women who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most tourists keep to other paths at the cemetery, visiting the Tomb of the Unknowns or President John F. Kennedy's gravesite. However, especially on Memorial Day weekend, relatives and friends pay their respects at the graves in Section 60. \"I wish that everyone in their lifetime could come here at least once,\" said David Christoff of Rossford, Ohio, as he stood where his son is buried. Marine Sgt. David Christoff Jr. died in Iraq two years ago at age 25. As his father's arms swept toward the rows of white granite gravestones, he said, \"You can see the cost of freedom. It's not free, by any means.\" \"These are all heroes. This is why we're free today. This is why my son was there.\" According to the latest numbers from the Department of Defense, 4,080 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq and 423 in Afghanistan. Arlington is one of more than 100 national cemeteries in the United States where there are military graves. Some families turn down the opportunity to have a loved one buried at Arlington, opting instead to have the grave closer to home. \"It's a hard place to be -- very emotional,\" said Jerry Fowler of Los Altos, California, while visiting the grave of her nephew, Army Sgt. Dale Brehm. He died in Iraq two years ago. \"All these people who lost their lives,\" Fowler said, \"and we just walk by like it's nothing. They meant something.\" \"When you walk down these rows,\" she added, \"you learn to respect every single person in this row, not just the person you came to see -- every one.\" At least 4 million people visit the cemetery each year, according to its Web site, and officials say Arlington, sadly, is running out of space for graves. There are more than 290,000 bodies buried there. Plans to expand the cemetery include seven areas where urns can hold the ashes of more than 100,000 people. Stepping lightly with heavy boots along the row of graves, Army medic Andrew Harriman of the 82nd Airborne dropped to one knee at several. \"We lost 22 guys from our unit,\" said the soldier, who was wounded in Iraq. He was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his valor. \"Every time I come to town, I stop by.\" Four of Harriman's friends are buried in Section 60. \"I don't think people realize how hard it is for the families and the co-workers or friends of these guys,\" he said. Also buried in Section 60 is Ross Andrew McGinnis of Knox, Pennsylvania. The 19-year-old Army specialist died in Baghdad when he threw himself on a grenade that had been tossed into his Humvee. He saved four fellow soldiers. Next month, McGinnis will be awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for his bravery. Not far from his resting place is the burial site of Capt. Maria Ines Ortiz, who became the first Army nurse killed in combat since Vietnam when she died in Iraq last year. Particularly touching are the mementos left at some of the graves -- photographs of wives and children, children's drawings, coins, greeting cards, notes, stones and even unopened beer bottles. Nino Livaudes was killed in Iraq in April 2003. At his grave is a multicolored, handmade card bearing the message: \"You are my hero, Daddy. I am 4 years old, and I miss you and love you very much, Grant.\"","highlights":"More than 290,000 veterans are buried at Arlington National Cemetery .\nSection 60 is final resting place for troops killed most recently in Iraq, Afghanistan .\nParticularly touching are the mementos left at some of the graves .\n\"You are my hero, Daddy. ... I miss you,\" reads one handmade card ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier convicted of rape and murder two decades ago will be executed December 10 in the nation's first military execution since 1961, the Army said Thursday. Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. A court-martial panel sitting at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unanimously convicted him of committing two murders and other crimes in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, and sentenced him to death. Gray's execution by injection will be carried out by Fort Leavenworth soldiers at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Army said in a news release. Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg. He was also convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at the post. Both military and civilian courts found Gray responsible for the crimes, which were committed between April 1986 and January 1987. Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes in a civilian court and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms. The general court-martial at Fort Bragg then tried him and in April 1988 convicted him of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. In July, President George W. Bush approved the Army's request to execute Gray. \"The president took action following completion of a full appellate process, which upheld the conviction and sentence to death,\" the Army said in the news release. \"Two petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied during the appellate processing of Pvt. Gray's case.\" Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed with presidential approval since 1951 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal system. The Army also sought Bush's authorization to execute another condemned soldier, Pvt. Dwight Loving, who was convicted of robbing and killing two cab drivers in 1988. The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was sentenced in 1955. The U.S. military hasn't actively pursued an execution for a military prisoner since President John F. Kennedy commuted a death sentence in 1962. Nine men are on military death row. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pvt. Ronald Gray convicted of raping, murdering fellow soldiers, civilian .\nGray will be executed December 10 by soldiers in Terre Haute, Indiana .\nArmy Pvt. John Bennett was last man executed by military in 1961 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He's the man who helped make \"Slumdog Millionaire\" an international hit, scoring the soundtrack of the Oscar winning film. Despite his performance at the Oscars ceremony and being caught up in all the glitz and adulation, Rahman is a reluctant star. Feeling like a millionaire: AR Rahman picked up two Oscar's for best original song and best score. He's worked on films since he was a teenager, taking over the role of family breadwinner after his father died and followed in his footsteps as a composer. While he had stints writing advertising jingles in India, composing for films has been his life's work so far, yet from his studio in Chennai he admitted to CNN he didn't want to score films. \"I kept saying next year I'll quit, next year I'll quit. And finally because I was sucked into it more and more, now I have the Oscars\" he said. His Oscar performance and acceptance speech was one of the most memorable at this year's awards. \"I thought if I get it I'll be quiet, if I don't get it I'll be quiet, so I was training my mind not to get over-emotional. So when I first got it I didn't feel it at all, it was like a rehearsal for me. When I finished my performance then I felt at ease and then I became very philosophical as you know, and I chose love over hate and all this stuff,\" he told CNN. Feted by many in media, his hit \"Jai ho\" was covered by the Pussy Cat Dolls, but the softly spoken Rahman doesn't find it hard to remain grounded. Rahman runs a music school in Chennai, the KM Music Conservatory that keeps him motivated and reminds him that music has a potency that can transform lives. \"Music can do so many things. I have my foundation, I have my music school. I have people teaching, kids are learning, so I take this as an advantage, the popularity and taking that and putting it into good things, which motivated me to work harder,\" he said. As well as working on more Hindi films, Hollywood beckons, if only for a new experience. There have also been rumors he may score the next James Bond film. \"I have a couple of offers from Hollywood. Pure American movies which I thought for the heck of it let's do it and a couple of other surprises that you'll know very soon if it works out. Big surprises I think,\" he said.","highlights":"Oscar-winning composer scored the soundtrack for 'Slumdog Millionaire'\nBegan work as a 13-year-old to support family after his father died .\nWill continue to score films in India and Hollywood; runs music school in Chennai ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 200 former fighters and other members of the Maoist People's Liberation Army -- including minors -- were discharged from a Maoist camp Thursday in line with Nepal's ongoing peace process, officials said. Those being discharged were part of a group deemed \"disqualified\" by United Nations findings in 2007, which identified at least 4,008 such combatants -- including 2,973 minors. The \"disqualified\" status applied to anyone under the age of 18 who was serving in the liberation army, and those who joined the Maoist group after its 10-year insurgency to abolish the country's monarchy ended in 2006. More than 15,000 died in the fighting and more than 100,000 people were displaced, according to the United Nations Web site. Nepal became a republic in 2008 following elections in which the people voted to abolish the monarchy. \"Those who left the Sindhuli camp today are no more members of the [Maoist] People's Liberation Army,\" Nanda Kishore Pun, commander of the Maoist People's Liberation Army, told CNN in a phone interview from Sindhuli, about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Kathmandu. The discharge process is expected to end in about a month. As part of the rehabilitation package for the disqualified combatants, the United Nations has offered to provide vocational skills training and education up to high school to those who want such opportunities, but Pun said that these offers are still being discussed. The process of the discharge is seen as in important part of the Nepal's ongoing peace process. The Maoists and other political parties in the country are discussing ways to integrate the 19,602 verified Maoist combatants into Nepal's security forces -- a move that made up part of the peace deal signed in 2006 to bring the peace process to a conclusion. Once the minors remain out of the command and control of the Maoist military structure for six months to a year, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) can be considered for removal from the list of parties that recruit and use children, which is included in the annual U.N. Secretary-General's report on Children and Armed Conflict. As the discharge and rehabilitation process began, about a dozen of the disqualified combatants were listed as being under the age of 16 and about 500 were under the age of 18. Though called combatants, the United Nations said the minors were used as messengers, cooks and porters during the fighting.","highlights":"More than 200 people were discharged from Maoist camp in Nepal .\nThey are former fighters and other members of the Maoist People's Liberation Army .\nPart of a group deemed \"disqualified\" by United Nations findings in 2007 .\nTheir discharge is seen as in important part of the Nepal's ongoing peace process ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shortly before his death, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking for the pontiff to pray for him as he struggled with an aggressive form of brain cancer, it was revealed at his graveside service Saturday evening. Members of the Kennedy family gather at the gravesite Saturday evening. Kennedy, the youngest and last-surviving brother of a heralded Kennedy generation, was laid to rest on a hillside at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his slain brothers, the late President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy -- both assassinated more than four decades ago. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick read a recent letter from Kennedy to the pope at the private burial ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. \"I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines,\" McCarrick said, quoting from Kennedy's letter. \"I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old, and preparing for the next passage of life,\" the cardinal read. Read excerpts from Kennedy's letter to pontiff . The burial service at dusk followed a eulogy by President Barack Obama in Massachusetts, a brief prayer service outside the U.S. Capitol and a procession through the crowd-lined street of Washington's streets. Among the congressional colleagues greeting the Kennedy family at the Capitol was 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, who has been out of the spotlight lately because of deteriorating health. Watch an overview of the day's events \u00bb . Many who had gathered at the Capitol were visibly emotional and wiping tears from their eyes. Some held framed photos of Kennedy, and many held American flags that they waved during a singing of \"America the Beautiful.\" The Rev. Daniel Coughlin -- chaplain of the House of Representatives -- said a prayer and addressed the family. \"Here we are to pray with you, offer sympathy and thank you,\" he said. \"Thank you for sharing the senator.\" Coughlin also noted that Kennedy's hopes were \"unquenchable, full of immortality.\" As Kennedy's widow, Vicki, went back into the car, she waved to the crowd and mouthed, \"Thank you\" as the crowd erupted into applause. The late senator's son, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, addressed those on the steps, saying how his father \"knew that he was only great because he had great people supporting him.\" \"He would be very proud to see you all out here today paying a final respect and tribute to his memory,\" he said. Earlier Saturday at the funeral in Boston, Massachusetts, Obama hailed Kennedy as \"a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate.\" \"He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow,\" the president said. \"We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights,\" Obama said, calling Kennedy \"the greatest legislator of our time.\" Watch President Obama's full eulogy \u00bb . Kennedy's son Ted Jr. delivered a tender, personal remembrance of his larger-than-life father. He said his father \"never stopped trying to right wrongs.\" Kennedy lived up to the ideals of three older brothers, all of whom died young -- Joseph in World War II, President John and Sen. Robert assassinated -- his son said. \"He answered Uncle Joe's call to patriotism, Uncle Jack's call to public service and Bobby's determination to seek a newer world. \"Unlike them, he lived to be a grandfather, and knowing what my cousins have been through, I feel grateful that I have had my father as long as I did,\" Ted Jr. said. \"My father was not perfect, but he believed in redemption,\" he said. And he said Kennedy had made light of his failure to become president, despite the weight of expectations on him as a Kennedy. \"I don't mind not being president, I just mind that someone else is,\" he quoted his father as saying, closing his remembrance with a line from Kennedy's famous 1980 concession speech that ended his presidential ambitions: \"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will never die.\" Watch as Ted Kennedy Jr. recalls his dad's help when he lost his leg as a boy \u00bb . The funeral began with a hearse bearing Kennedy's body through Boston rain from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library to Mission Church. A military honor guard carried the coffin through a sea of black umbrellas into the church. Watch as military honor guard carries Kennedy's casket \u00bb . People lined the streets of Boston cheering for Kennedy as the service began, despite the rain. Local bars and restaurants were packed with people watching the live coverage on television inside. Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter also came to honor the late legislator, known as the lion of the Senate. Vicki Kennedy accepted condolences from each of the current and former presidents before Holy Communion. The program concluded with an undated quote from Kennedy: \"For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.\" Many of Kennedy's fellow senators past and present came to say a final farewell. Other mourners included Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dan Quayle, all veterans of the Senate, where Kennedy served for 47 years. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, CIA chief Leon Panetta, and several Cabinet members also turned out to pay their respects. Watch as Mass for Kennedy begins \u00bb . Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, chatted with Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, in the pews before the ceremony began. Honorary pallbearers at the service included Dodd, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts -- his party's 2004 presidential candidate -- and long-time Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, also a Democrat. The actual pallbearers were Kennedy children, nieces and nephews. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed two pieces during the service, and was joined by the tenor Placido Domingo for one of them. At the graveside service were a number of family members, as well as Vice President Joe Biden. Kennedy's grave is 95 feet south of his brother Robert's, which is just steps away from the burial site of another brother, former President John F. Kennedy. A single white, wooden cross will be placed at the head of the grave and a marble footmarker put in place. The footmarker reads: \"Edward Moore Kennedy 1932-2009.\" The setup is identical to Robert Kennedy's grave, Arlington cemetery spokeswoman Kaitlin Horst told CNN. Kennedy, the patriarch of America's leading Democratic family for more than 40 years, died at the age of 77 on Tuesday, 15 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. CNN's Jessica Yellin, John King and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: In letter to Pope Benedict XVI, Kennedy asked for prayers .\nSen. Edward M. Kennedy laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery .\nPresident Obama hailed Kennedy as \"a champion for those who had none\""} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, Florida (CNN) -- A man serving a life sentence for robbing a drugstore has confessed to overpowering and fatally shooting a deputy who was taking him to court Wednesday, authorities said. Michael Mazza, 40, was arrested outside a pawn shop in Hollywood, Florida, hours after the death of Broward County Deputy Paul Rein sparked a massive manhunt. It was the third shooting of a Broward County sheriff's deputy in four months, and the second fatality. The incident happened as Mazza was being taken to the second day of his trial in connection with the armed robbery of a Coral Springs bank, Sheriff Al Lamberti said. Mazza was being transported in a medical van because of a medical condition, Lamberti said. The driver's compartment of the van was separated from the back by a cage or grill. Mazza and Rein left about 8:05 a.m., Lamberti said. Minutes later, a truck driver who saw all or part of the altercation near Pompano Beach called 911. \"All of this transpired within six minutes. That's all it took,\" Lamberti said. The struggle began when Rein apparently pulled the medical transport van over at an intersection. The deputy's body showed other injuries from the fight -- a broken finger, bruises and cuts, Lamberti said. Mazza allegedly took Rein's service weapon away from him and shot him, authorities said. Although two shots were fired, Rein was shot only once, the bullet entering his upper chest and exiting his lower back, Lamberti told reporters. After the shooting, Mazza is believed to have thrown Rein from the van and driven away. A city public works employee later spotted the blood-spattered van in Fort Lauderdale, Lamberti said. Mazza, meanwhile, is believed to have hitchhiked his way down to Hollywood, about 20 miles away. He approached a man at a pawn shop and asked for a ride. The man, who was headed to a second pawn shop, agreed. When the man arrived at the second pawn shop, he left Mazza in the car and went inside, Lamberti said. As he was talking to the clerk, a television in the shop began broadcasting news about the deputy's shooting, and showed a picture of Mazza, he said. The man \"tells the clerk, 'Hey, I have that guy in my car,' \" Lamberti said. He went back to the car, took his keys, came back and told the clerk to call police. Mazza was arrested shortly afterward. Rein's gun was found with Mazza in the man's car, the sheriff said. Mazza faces charges including first-degree murder and escape, Lamberti said. He was being interviewed by police Wednesday afternoon and was to appear before a judge at some point, he said, and afterward would be transported to Dade County Jail. Because the shooting was \"an emotionally charged event for all of us ... we feel it's probably better that he be housed at another facility outside of Broward County,\" Lamberti said, and Dade County agreed to house him. Mazza initially was reluctant to talk to authorities, but later agreed, and confessed to shooting Rein, the sheriff said. He offered no details. Lamberti said Mazza was serving a life sentence for robbing a drugstore in Coconut Creek, correcting his earlier statement that Mazza was serving two life sentences. He was on trial for robbery of the Coral Springs bank. Broward County also has a pending case against Mazza -- a February drugstore robbery in Pompano Beach, he said. Mazza was dressed in civilian clothes -- a suit -- rather than jail scrubs Wednesday because he had a court date, authorities have said. When caught, however, Mazza was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, Lamberti told reporters. Police are investigating whether he had planned the escape in advance and whether anyone helped him. Rein's co-workers told reporters he was \"in outstanding condition physically.\" The sheriff's office has fitness-for-duty standards that deputies must meet. Broward County deputies conduct some 400 to 500 inmate court transports a day -- one deputy transporting up to a handful of inmates, Lamberti said. Thin staffing and scant resources prevent more than one deputy being involved, he said. \"It's a routine thing,\" Lamberti said. \"But it shows, in this profession, nothing is routine, whether it be a domestic, a traffic stop or just transporting an inmate to court.\" As news of the escape broke, all 273 schools in Broward County went on lockdown, according to Nadine Drew, a spokeswoman for the school system. Lamberti said Rein's wife spoke to her husband by cell phone just 10 minutes before he was shot. \"She said you never think it's going to happen to you,\" the sheriff said. The deputy was memorialized Wednesday on the Web site of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Visitors to the site were greeted by a photo of Rein, with a caption saying, \"Husband. Father. Friend.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Deadly struggle \"transpired within six minutes. That's all it took,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Suspect faces charges including first-degree murder and escape .\nIncident happened as the deputy was transporting Michael Mazza to court .\nMazza was apprehended after a massive manhunt ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pontiac lovers are feeling nostalgic and mournful Monday amid General Motors announcement that it will end production of the car. Pontiac models, such as the 1969 GTO, helped usher in the era of the muscle cars, enthusiasts say. Jean Lindsay of western New York fondly recalls the muscle cars in her family's driveway: Two 1967 GTOs. \"I had two brothers, and they each had one of these cars,\" she said. \"The GTO represented the suburban culture of its time, heavily laden with root beer and plain beer.\" \"Those were the days of Bob's Big Boy [hamburger restaurant], when girls wore skates. Back then we pleasantly wasted gas looking for fun. It was a social thing.\" Debuting in 1964, the Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as the original muscle car. It was a risky model in that it featured a big-block engine in an intermediate-size frame. The GTO's success not only buoyed GM but helped jumpstart the high-performance market for Detroit's Big Three automakers -- and ushered in the era of the vehicle as status symbol. Watch GM's CEO explain why the company is cutting Pontiac \u00bb . \"It was a chick magnet, for God's sake. Even from a girl's standpoint,\" Lindsay said. Pontiac's other emblematic performance car, the Firebird Trans Am, featured the outline of a firebird on the hood -- the whole hood. It enjoyed a rise in popularity and brisk sales after being featured in the \"Smokey and the Bandit\" movie franchise beginning in the late 1970s. But like even the most sturdy odometer, the numbers, years ago, had begun to work against Detroit. After years of watching their market share erode to foreign automakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler were beset by a perfect storm of declining sales, slow innovation and a dogged recession. While all three shed jobs, GM and Chrysler took bailouts to survive; Ford chose to rely on its cash reserves to ride out the storm. In February, GM announced the end of the Saturn and Hummer lines while casting a ray of hope for Pontiac enthusiasts by saying that the brand would survive but be scaled back to a niche product. GM could file bankruptcy as a June 1 deadline looms. In the midst of pressure from the Obama administration to present a restructuring plan that shows the company's long-term viability, the automaker recently released a statement to downplay fears that brands Americans have patronized for generations are on the chopping block. \"General Motors has not announced any changes to its long-term viability plan or to the future status of any of its brands,\" the automaker said Friday in a statement on its Web site. Pontiac fans said on Friday that contemplating the closure of Pontiac feels like a longtime friend pulling out of the driveway for the last time. \"I think it's crazy [to end the brand],\" Max Thompson of Huntsville, Alabama, said. \"I think they ought to streamline versions of Pontiac. Just take it to a few models. Make it special, but not get rid of it because it's too iconic.\" ireport.com: See Thompson describe his wheels . Thompson, 46, said his 1973 Firebird Formula had him sold when he saw the stylistic front end. \"The hood of it looked cool,\" Thompson said. \"Just the front of it, it was a sexy-looking vehicle. It had a very sleek look for the time.\" Thompson said he doesn't drive his Firebird anymore, preserving it as a memento with 65,000 miles on it. The Pontiac brand didn't just appeal to baby boomers. The younger generation seems to have bonded with the brand during their time behind the wheel, too. Brian Hemgesberg of Flint, Michigan, said one of the reasons why he purchased his 2008 Pontiac G6 last year was because of what's under the hood. \"I like the engine, I only got the V6. ... I want to get the G8,\" Hemgesberg said. When asked if he pushed the engine, Hemgesberg, 22, let out a telling laugh. \"Yeah,\" he said. Like other Pontiac owners, Hemgesberg doesn't want to see the brand die. \"I think it'd be a pretty big mistake. I won't stop buying GM, I'd just buy Chevy. I think [Pontiac] is just a very good brand of car.\"","highlights":"Pontiac owners say bye to glory days of muscular iconic car .\nThe GTO, which debuted in 1964, is widely considered the original muscle car .\nGM may face bankruptcy if restructuring plan is not approved by feds ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bayern Munich stayed level on points with German Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen after beating Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in Saturday's late match. Unbeaten Leverkusen had defeated defending champions Wolfsburg 2-1 earlier in the day, but Bayern joined them on 48 points after 22 matches as Bayern came from behind with a victory that left the two teams separated by just one goal on for-and-against differential. Third-placed Schalke will seek to reduce their six-point deficit on the leaders with victory at home to Cologne on Sunday. Leverkusen took the lead three minutes after halftime at their BayArena ground as Stefan Reinartz pounced to score after veteran goalkeeper Andre Lenz spilled a free-kick by Toni Kroos. The hapless 36-year-old handed Leverkusen a second goal 20 minutes later in unfortunate circumstances as home striker Eren Derdiyok's header from another Kroos set-piece hit the bar, rebounded onto Lenz's leg and into the net. Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko pulled a goal back in the 79th minute but his side could not force an equalizer, and have now slumped to 14th place -- 23 points behind the leaders. Borussia Dortmund took a fifth-minute lead against Bayern Munich as Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations winner Mohamed Zidan profited from a mistake by defender Daniel Van Buyten. Bayern could already have been 2-0 down at that stage as Martin Demichelis and Mark Van Bommel cleared two shots off the line by Sven Bender. Van Bommel leveled in the 21st minute as the Dutch midfielder beat Dortmund goalkeeper Marc Ziegler from 20 yards, then compatriot Arjen Robben made it 2-1 five minutes after halftime when he was set up by France playmaker Franck Ribery, making his first start this year following injury problems. Ribery was again the provider as striker Mario Gomez sealed Bayern's ninth successive league victory in the 65th minute, cutting in from the left to beat Ziegler on the angle. Hamburg went three points clear of Dortmund in fourth place with a 3-1 win at Stuttgart as new signing Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored his first goals for the club. The veteran Dutch striker came off the bench in the 65th minute with the score at 1-1 to make his second outing since arriving from Real Madrid, scoring two typically opportunist efforts in three minutes as Stuttgart boss Christian Gross suffered his first defeat since taking the job in December. Sixth-placed Werder Bremen crushed third-bottom Hannover 5-1 away, scoring four times in the first half, while Bochum moved eight points clear of the bottom three with a 2-1 win at home to mid-table Hoffenheim. Basement side Hertha Berlin came from behind to earn a 1-1 draw at home to eighth-placed Mainz, but are still four points behind second-bottom Nuremberg, who lost 2-1 at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday night.","highlights":"Bayern Munich stay level on points with German Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen .\nUnbeaten Leverkusen defeat defending champions Wolfsburg 2-1 .\nBayern join them on 48 points with 3-1 victory against Borussia Dortmund .\nNew signing Ruud van Nistelrooy scores his first two goals for fourth-placed Hamburg ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A mother is seeking to have the womb of her severely disabled daughter removed to prevent the 15-year-old from feeling the pain and discomfort of menstruation. Doctors in Britain are now taking legal advice to see if they are permitted to carry out the hysterectomy on Katie Thorpe, who suffers from cerebral palsy. But a charity campaigning for the disabled said on Monday the move could infringe human rights and would set a \"disturbing precedent.\" Andy Rickell, executive director of disability charity Scope, told the Press Association: \"It is very difficult to see how this kind of invasive surgery, which is not medically necessary and which will be very painful and traumatic, can be in Katie's best interests. \"This case raises fundamental ethical issues about the way our society treats disabled people and the respect we have for disabled people's human and reproductive rights. Watch why the surgery is so controversial \u00bb . \"If this enforced sterilization is approved, it will have disturbing implications for young disabled girls across Britain.\" Katie's mother Alison Thorpe, who lives in Billericay, southern England, said the operation was in her daughter's best interests. \"First of all, this is not about me. If it was about me, I would have given up caring for Katie a long, long while ago,\" she told GMTV. \"It is about quality of life and for Katie to not have the associated problems of menstruation adds to her quality of life. It means she can continue with the quality of life we can give her now. \"Katie wouldn't understand menstruation at all. She has no comprehension about what will be happening to her body. All she would feel is the discomfort, the stomach cramps and the headaches, the mood swings, the tears, and wonder what is going on.\" Thorpe said an operation would be best for Katie, despite the initial pain it would cause. She added: \"The short-term pain and discomfort we can manage with painkillers. We will be able to manage that pain much better than menstruation once a month, when Katie cannot tell us 'I'm in pain.'\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mother seeks to have womb of severely disabled daughter, 15, removed .\nBriton wants to prevent cerebral palsy sufferer feeling pain of menstruation .\nUK doctors seek legal advice to see if they can perform hysterectomy .\nCharity for disabled says move could infringe human rights ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Friends and strangers across the country gathered on the streets and in schools, churches, bars and auditoriums to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. A diverse crowd in Los Angeles, California, cheers as Barack Obama takes the oath of office Tuesday. \"It's a great day to be an American,\" iReporter Roger Germann said at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, where revelers watched the inauguration on television monitors among exhibits of sharks and otters. Tuesday's inauguration brought together Americans from different walks of life, united in their hope that Obama will deliver on his promise to change the nation's course. Click the links to read views on President Obama's inauguration from people across the country. Reaction to speech What Obama means to Americans Hopes for Obama . Reaction to speech . Public inauguration-viewing parties were held in auditoriums, schools and arenas across the country, where the atmosphere mirrored the excitement in Washington. Watch people react at viewing parties \u00bb . \"People are cheering here as if they were there,\" Irene Koehler of Fremont, California, said of the atmosphere in Oakland's Oracle Arena. More than 200 parishioners from the First AME Church, the largest African-American Church in Los Angeles, gathered in the recreation hall to pray together and share in the excitement of an historic moment . Dressed in Obama shirts and hats, the level of audience participation had the effect of transporting the crowd to Washington. They stood when Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the crowd to \"please stand\" and bowed their heads in prayer. They sang along with Aretha Franklin and even took pictures of the screen when Obama appeared. A handful of viewers had tears in their eyes, but most were filled with \"pure joy.\" \"On Election Night, I was full of tears. I am all cried out -- it is all about joy now,\" said 72-year-old Shirley Turner-Haymer, the granddaughter of a former slave. Even young parishioners derived some significance from the event. \"It's really inspirational that we have a black president now ... because now I could see I can do whatever I want,\" said David Colvin, 10. Lynn Gabriel Thomas, far right, says she is watching the inauguration in honor of her father. Lynn Gabriel Thomas, daughter of Tuskegee Airman Daniel Moore, was one of about 300 people who crammed into the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena, California, to watch the inauguration. \"My father would be so thrilled to see this, Barack Obama being sworn in.\" Thomas said. \"He loved parades, and he hated crowds. I'm here for him.\" Across the country in New York's Bronx borough, students huddled in the halls of a school to watch the ceremony on a projection screen. \"They were cheering; they were clapping; they were in awe because everything we had talked about they were able to see,\" teacher Marta Rendon said. \"When they heard Obama's speech, they were right there clapping and screaming with the rest of us. It was really something. It was really amazing. Watch Obama promise hope over fear \u00bb . More than 100 people gathered at the central library in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, to watch the ceremony. \"It was really exciting to see people being excited about the country and really happy about there being a new president. And it was great to see such a collective sense of community ... hope and happiness,\" said Jessica Namakkal, a 29-year-old graduate student from Minneapolis. \"I think Obama's speech was great and that he really addressed the past eight years in a diplomatic and fair way, while also sort of pushing forward in a good way.\" The unusually bitter cold affected the turnout at Daytona Beach, Florida's, outdoor inauguration celebration, forcing people to take shelter at a local bar. Sean Mingo and his mother, Joan, watched the inauguration in Daytona Beach, Florida. More than 50 people packed into Mai Tai to watch the inauguration on television. Among them were Joan Mingo and her 13-year-old son, Sean, who stayed home from school to watch Obama take the oath of office. \"This is very historical,\" said Sean, who followed Obama's campaign and watched every debate. \"Obama is inspiring. I want to work in politics.\" Sean said his favorite line of Obama's speech was \"we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.\" As Obama was sworn in, the coffee-drinking bar patrons laughed, applauded and wiped tears from their eyes. \"Obama gives us hope, son, that you can be whatever you want,\" Joan Mingo said to her son. What Obama means to Americans . Obama's rise holds special meaning for Solas B. Lalgee, who was in New York's Times Square for the inauguration. View images from the inauguration \u00bb . \"I'm ecstatic,\" said Lalgee, 30, whose father is from the West Indies. \"It's the first time in my life I've ever had someone to look up to. I'm a mixed, multi-ethnic, multinational person, and I've never had someone I could look up to politically and say, 'That's somebody who can represent me. That's somebody who I can relate to. That's somebody that my family can relate to,' and the fact that he actually made it into office is just ... it gives me hope that I can do whatever I want to do in my life and not have a glass ceiling above me.\" \"To me, as an immigrant, it really means a lot to see a son of immigrants -- not only an African American but a son of immigrants -- come to the highest office in the land,\" she added. \"There's hope. And I hope to transmit that to my children.\" Chinoise Noble and her mother, Yolanda Lee-Singleton, watched the inauguration in Los Angeles' Nokia Plaza. In California at downtown Los Angeles' Nokia Plaza, 23-year-old Chinoise Noble clutched a photograph of her grandmother as tears streamed down her face. She said she brought the photo so her late grandmother could be with her on a day though that her grandmother never believed would come. She \"would never in a million years have thought there'd be a black president!\" Noble said. In Birmingham, Alabama, the site of racial turmoil during the Civil Rights era, Fred Jemison had high hopes for the Obama administration. \"The biggest thing that I look forward to, that I anticipate from this, is unity throughout the country, racially and politically,\" Jemison told CNN affiliate WBMA at Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium. At the Jewish Home, a senior living facility in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, about 70 residents and staff members watched the inauguration. \"This is wonderful and exciting,\" said 92-year-old Sylvia Segal, wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt. \"There's never been an inauguration like this one, with so many millions giving respect to the United States and an extraordinary man.\" Shelly Balzac, 81, said that he voted for Obama and that when he was a teenager, his father took him to Chicago's Soldier Field to witness Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaigning. \"It's momentous when you look at the conglomeration of all citizens of all colors and all creeds,\" said Balzac, a World War II veteran who said he witnessed the \"dehumanizing of blacks\" during those years and fought against it within the U.S. military. \"It is an emotional day for me,\" Balzac said. \"I realize the tremendous stride in making this a more unified country.\" Stan Keller and his daughter, Nancy, watch the inauguration at the Jewish Home in Los Angeles. \"I was crying inside all day,\" said Stan Keller, 88. He said Obama has inspired him to try to make a difference in the world. \"I came on Earth to make it a better place to live. I get that inspiration from this man,\" he said. iReporter Lee Ann Schmidt of Danbury, Connecticut, watched at home with her husband and two dogs. \"Just to be alive in this time to witness this, it means more to me than anything,\" she said. \"I'm 35. My generation has never really seen the entire country come together in a positive way like this. It really does give me hope for our country.\" In Raleigh, North Carolina, iReporter Sam Shaber watched the events with his parents at their house. \"We are all snowed in and have a bottle of champagne ready,\" he said. \"I am gay, and to have just any minority be elected is such a milestone in so many ways.\" Hopes for Obama . Jeff Teasley, a 49 year-old Navy veteran from Cheyenne, Wyoming, has been disabled since he hurt his back in 1990. Jeff Teasley, in his home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, hopes Obama is \"the best thing since running water.\" Teasley, a Republican who did not vote for Obama, was less enthusiastic over Obama's inauguration. Like many here in Wyoming, he fears that President Obama will expand the government and pass the cost onto people like him. \"With bigger government comes bigger taxes and with bigger taxes comes more strain on everybody's households.\" But Teasley said he is still rooting for the new president. \"I hope he pulls it off. I hope he's the best thing since running water because we need a leader, we need someone to direct these people in Washington.\" Others were more optimistic. In downtown Atlanta, Georgia, hundreds of people huddled together in freezing weather in Centennial Olympic Park to watch on two screens. Watch kids from Atlanta sing for Obama \u00bb . \"There's hope for a change,\" said Sonita Horn, a homemaker whose husband lost his job as an electrician in Atlanta and now travels three weeks out of four to Virginia for work. She said she hoped not only that Republicans and Democrats would find a way to work together but that the races would, too. \"Everyone will be treated equally,\" she predicted. \"We're now a United States of America, not a black America or a white America.\" CNN's Chris Welch, Michael Cary, Paul Vercammen, Lindy Hall and Jim Spellman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Man says Obama inspires him to make Earth \"a better place to live\"\nNEW: Republican hopes Obama turns out to be \"best thing since running water\"\nTeen who took off school to watch speech with mom calls Obama inspiring .\n\"It's a brand new day for the country,\" man in New York says ."} -{"article":"IN THE FLORIDA KEYS (CNN) -- In the early morning darkness of the Florida Keys, the low hum of the Mystic I is hardly enough to disturb the slumber of the tourists in their hotel rooms. A lobster fisherman holds two spiny tail lobsters caught during the Mystic I's trip off the Florida Keys. From the wheelhouse, Captain Karl Lessard steers his boat into the darkness toward the fertile fishing grounds off the small Island of Marathon, Florida. This is a ritual that Lessard has done thousands of times. \"I've been fishing for 38 years, my family has been fishing since the 1820s, there are a lot of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-generation fishermen that are here in the Keys,\" Lessard says. At dawn he reaches a spot that holds a special meaning for him. \"I pass where my mother's and father's ashes are scattered. Just around sunrise, it's a very spiritual place for me.\" In the light of a spectacular sunrise, Lessard plots his course on the open waters. \"I fish for the freedom,\" he explains. \"It's good for the soul. It's a fantastic way to make a living, coming out here in God's glory every day.\" He adds with a laugh that fishing also \"gets me away from the house. I hate those 'honey-do's.' \" It's spiny tail lobster season in the Florida Keys, and that is what Captain Karl and his three-man crew are on a quest for today. \"I am hoping to catch between 300 and 400 pounds, with the new moon that slows fishing down,\" the skipper says. They travel 20 miles offshore to where they have put out their traps. They hope to find them filled with the clawless crustaceans that live in these shallow waters. \"In the Keys, people really started fishing for lobster in the 1930s,\" Lessard says. \"Before that there was very little market for them.\" Lobster fishermen in years past worried more about the impact of things like hurricanes, but these days they have other concerns, namely the price they can get for their catch. \"This ... economy that we are in is not really promoting the sale of our product,\" Lessard says. \"Lobster is going from eight dollars a pound to three dollars a pound. We are basically in survival mode at the present time, but it is still a wonderful way to make a living.\" As a mate hooks the buoys and throws the line in the winches, the traps break onto the surface. As they are hoisted on deck the captain smiles at what he is seeing. \"We got some nice lobsters today, some grandes,\" he says. Watch the skipper at work on the water \u00bb . Lessard navigates his boat along his strings of traps as his crew pulls them, repeating the motion some 480 times. Two dolphins play off the bow. \"This is the most beautiful office that anyone could have in the world,\" the lobster fisherman says. \"If you feel the calling, there is no better way to make a living. It's something I've wanted to do since I was a child, and I'm blessed to have been able to do what I wanted to do in life, and have the freedom to do it. \"I hope my family can do it for another hundred years.\" As the afternoon wears on, the traps rise out of the ocean and fall back to the seabed, and a constant flow of lobster fills up the boat's holding tanks. The catch seems to be better than expected. \"Sometimes if you are lucky, it's better than being good. And if you're good and lucky, that's even better,\" Lessard jokes. With the last trap dropped back into the water, Lessard and the crew of the Mystic I head back to the dock, where they will place the day's catch onto the scales to see how good the sea has been to them. \"Today we caught 476 pounds. I didn't expect to do this well with the phase of the moon,\" Lessard says. Tomorrow morning the captain will rise again in the darkness and answer the calling that he and his family have heeded for generations. \"My family is out here, and I plan on being out here and joining them someday,\" Lessard says, \"although I would like it to be a long time from now.\"","highlights":"Lobster fisherman's family has been working the waters since the 1820s .\nCrew off the Florida Keys is on a quest for spiny tail lobster .\nBoat skipper laments the economic tailspin, falling price of lobster .\n\"This is the most beautiful office that anyone could have\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jack Borden would like you to consider working well past retirement age. As a 101-year-old attorney, he has the credibility to encourage it. Attorney Jack Borden, 101, says he's never thought about not working. \"What would I do?\" he said. Borden, who has been practicing law for the better part of 70 years, still spends about 40 hours a week at his office in Weatherford, Texas, handling estate planning, probate and real estate matters. Retire? Not while he's able to help folks. \"As long as you are capable, you ought to use what God gave you. He left me here for a reason, and with enough of a mind to do what it is I'm supposed to be doing,\" said Borden, who also has been a district attorney and Weatherford's mayor. He arrives at the practice he shares with his nephew at 6:30 a.m. He goes home for lunch at 10:45 a.m., rests in bed for 45 minutes -- doctor's orders after pneumonia a few years back -- returns to work by 12:45 p.m. and stays until at least 4. Not everyone who works past 65 does so because they want to. In a survey completed last month, 38 percent of respondents working past the age of 62 said they may have to delay retirement even further because of the recession, according to the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project. But in answer to another question in the same survey, 54 percent of workers 65 or older said they're working now mainly because they want to. Seventeen percent said their main reason was money, and 27 percent said both factors motivated them. \"Some of them enjoy it, and some of them need the money. But even if they need the money, they also enjoy the work,\" said Cynthia Metzler, president of Experience Works, a nonprofit that helps low-income workers ages 55 and older acquire new job skills. The group, which operates in 30 states and also uses federal funds to pay participants a minimum wage to work community service jobs while they look for other work, last month named Borden as America's Outstanding Oldest Worker -- a title it bestows annually to a worker over 100. Last week, Borden was in Washington to participate in events the group was holding to mark National Employ Older Workers Week. When it comes to putting off retirement out of desire, Borden is hardly alone. Preston Brown, 70, is a police officer in Yakima, Washington. He's enjoying the challenges that come with patrolling streets full time, and the experiences are relatively fresh: The former marketing worker and real estate broker didn't join the force until he was 51. He was attracted to law enforcement as a teen but was told he was too short. The height requirements eventually changed, and after some friends persuaded him to go on a patrol ride-along, he began a process that landed him a job with Yakima police in 1990. Whatever is required, from report-taking to chases, he's up for it. \"From time to time there will be a physical confrontation ... and we can get involved in foot chases and vehicle chases. Usually the vast quantity is on night shift more than [my daytime shift], but still I'm involved in those,\" Brown said. Nineteen years later and still in good shape, he has no plans to stop. He likes the pay but he doesn't have to work: His wife of 53 years has a pension. He could be doing other things, such as playing racquetball and motorcycling with friends, but because he gets four days off after working five roughly 11-hour days, he already has time for that. \"When I wake up and prepare to leave for work, I'm looking forward to it,\" he said. \"It's challenging and exciting.\" In Anderson, South Carolina, customers at a Chick-fil-A restaurant might see 88-year-old Frank Childers fixing a door. His wife, Gertrude Childers, 88, might be carrying a tray to a table or refreshing someone's beverage. When Frank Childers retired from his insurance sales job in 1985, he looked forward to free time and fishing. \"I stayed retired for five years. I got tired of sitting around,\" he said. Frank Childers, who had some mechanical experience before working in insurance, took some jobs to stay busy. In 1998, Jon Holmes, the owner-operator of three Anderson Chick-fil-As, asked him to lead his maintenance staff, and Childers has been working there since. Gertrude Childers, a former mill worker, also was hired in 1998 to be a dining room hostess at one of the restaurants. She works 20 hours a week; her husband works about 30. They each said they enjoy the work and the people they've met. They don't have to work for the money, they said, but the pay doesn't hurt. \"It's nice to have your own money, because when I want to go shopping, I don't have to ask nobody,\" Gertrude Childers said, laughing. Experience Works says many low-income workers 55 and older need to find jobs but can't, in part because of the recession. It points to the age group's unemployment rate: It was 6.8 percent in August, up from 2.9 percent three years earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's still better than the rate for all age groups, 9.7 percent in August. Lynn Dusenbery, 62, faces many more years of work out of necessity. The Ashland, Wisconsin, resident sold her floral business four years ago to cover medical bills. Once hoping to retire at 65, she now has no savings, is uninsured, and -- living in a rural area with perennially high unemployment -- still hasn't found full-time work. \"I was a florist for 40 years. I came out with no skills that would get me by in the outside world,\" Dusenbery said. Dusenbery enrolled with Experience Works three years ago and has picked up computer skills and other training and part-time jobs with the group. She's looking for full-time work. As for Borden, work is still energizing and rewarding. \"If I were to quit, I might last a year, but probably not over six months,\" said Borden. \"I have to use a walker because of old age, so there's not much else I could do except sit in my house. Why do that when I can not only enjoy life, but help some people?\"","highlights":"Texas attorney Jack Borden, 101, still works 40 hours a week .\nGroup named Borden \"America's Outstanding Oldest Worker\" for 2009 .\n\"If I were to quit, I might last ... not over six months,\" Borden says .\nPolice officer, 70, didn't become cop until he was 51 ."} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe Saturday for the first time since leaving the country shortly after the controversial March 29 election. Morgan Tsvangirai has been away from Zimbabwe trying to seek support from international leaders. Tsvangirai -- who contends he won the presidential race against longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe -- returned despite what his party said was a plot by the country's military to assassinate him and other party leaders. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, after a long delay, ruled that neither candidate won a necessary majority of the vote and set a date of June 27 for Tsvangirai to again face Mugabe in a runoff vote. Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have called for international observers to be allowed to monitor the runoff election, but Mugabe's government has refused the demand. Tsvangirai is expected to tour hospitals in Harare to visit victims of post-election violence. An MDC spokesman said two party members were found dead Wednesday night after being abducted from their homes in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe said Saturday that the opposition leader and the entire MDC leadership are \"at risk from this brutal regime.\" When contacted by CNN, a Cabinet member denied that the government had any possible role in the alleged plot, and said the report was an effort by the MDC to gain international sympathy. Chen Chimutengwende, Zimbabwe's minister of public and interactive affairs, accused Tsvangirai of \"trying to paint a false picture of what Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe authorities are like.\" \"There is no plot against him and there has never been any plot against him and he knows that,\" Chimutengwende said. He called the reports from Tsvangirai's party \"an effort to get sympathy from the international community.\" There have been numerous reports from the MDC and church groups since the March balloting about kidnappings, torture, and other violence, including the deaths of opposition party members. They say the violence targets opponents of Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. Mugabe has ruled the southern African country since it became independent 28 years ago.","highlights":"Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai returns to Zimbabwe .\nTsvangirai says he feels safe despite fears of a possible assassination bid .\nTsvangirai faces a runoff election against President Robert Mugabe June 27 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jose Mourinho has admitted he was left angered by the decision to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona, although the Inter Milan coach reveals he is delighted to welcome Samuel Eto'o to the San Siro. Jose Mourinho believes Inter Milan have done good business in selling Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona. Inter are on the verge of completing a deal which will see them receive 45 million euros ($64m) plus Eto'o for Ibrahimovic after both players agreed terms with their prospective clubs. Mourinho knows it will be a blow to lose last year's leading goalscorer in Serie A but, speaking about the deal for the first time, admitted it is a fantastic bit of business. \"I was a bit angry because no coach is happy to lose Ibrahimovic,\" the Portuguese told Sky Italia. \"But no one is not happy to have Eto'o -- we have lost a top player but we have taken another one. If I talk as a coach and a man on the pitch, I say that I don't want to lose this player. If I talk as a manager, I say that Inter have done great business,\" added Mourinho. Mourinho feels Ibrahimovic will adapt to life at the Nou Camp in no time but insists he would not make a similar move. \"He had this dream and wanted to go,\" added the Nerazzurri coach. \"He told me he would miss me and I told him exactly the same thing. He's going to a club in which I worked for four years, Barcelona are an extraordinary club and he will be happy. \"I didn't give him any advice but I spoke to him a few days before the final decision. I told him that if he wins the Champions League with Barcelona he won't be doing anything extraordinary, seeing as they have won it twice in three years. I like doing something extraordinary, not what's normal.\"","highlights":"Jose Mourinho angered by the decision to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona .\nHowever, Inter Milan coach happy to welcome Samuel Eto'o to the Italian club .\nInter Milan to receive 45 million euros ($64m) plus Eto'o for Swede Ibrahimovic ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fighting has prompted thousands of people in the southern part of Sudan's Darfur region to seek security and shelter at a refugee camp in the northern part of the war-torn area, according to the United Nations. A member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) stands guard near the Sudan-Chad border in 2007. The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that fighting in Muhajeria and Shearia between Sudanese government forces, and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), drove over 15,000 people north to the Zam Zam camp. The water supply to the camp is becoming strained with displaced people arriving there every day, OCHA said Wednesday. The government of Sudan has waged a brutal counter-insurgency against militias for the past six years, a war that some international critics have characterized as genocide. An estimated 300,000 people in the western Sudanese region have been killed through combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the United Nations. An additional 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and the violent Janjaweed militias. Fighting continues in the region despite the JEM and local government signing a \"goodwill and confidence-building\" agreement earlier in February, according to the U.N. The U.N.-African Union allied peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) will begin building a new community police center near Zam Zam in the next two weeks, the U.N. announced Saturday. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. Last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court for the government's campaign of violence in Darfur. Under pressure to end the fighting, Al-Bashir in November agreed to an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Darfur. But the rebel Justice and Equality Movement was not included in the case-fire talks. CNN's Katy Byron contributed to this report.","highlights":"Refugees seek security and shelter at refugee camp in north Darfur .\nDarfur government has waged counter-insurgency war against militias for six years .\nDarfur violence erupted in 2003 after rebel uprising against Sudanese government ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For years after his NFL career ended, Ted Johnson could barely muster the energy to leave his house. In healthy brain tissue, virtually no protein tangles, which show up as brown spots, are visible. \"I'd [leave to] go see my kids for maybe 15 minutes,\" said Johnson. \"Then I would go back home and close the curtains, turn the lights off and I'd stay in bed. That was my routine for two years. \"Those were bad days.\" These days, the former linebacker is less likely to recount the hundreds of tackles, scores of quarterback sacks or the three Super Bowl rings he earned as a linebacker for the New England Patriots. He is more likely to talk about suffering more than 100 concussions. \"I can definitely point to 2002 when I got back-to-back concussions. That's where the problems started,\" said Johnson, who retired after those two concussions. \"The depression, the sleep disorders and the mental fatigue.\" Until recently, the best medical definition for concussion was a jarring blow to the head that temporarily stunned the senses, occasionally leading to unconsciousness. It has been considered an invisible injury, impossible to test -- no MRI, no CT scan can detect it. Watch more on what goes on in athlete's brains \u00bb . But today, using tissue from retired NFL athletes culled posthumously, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE), at the Boston University School of Medicine, is shedding light on what concussions look like in the brain. The findings are stunning. Far from innocuous, invisible injuries, concussions confer tremendous brain damage. That damage has a name: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). On Tuesday afternoon, researchers at the CSTE released a study about the sixth documented case of CTE in former NFL player Tom McHale, who died in 2008 at the age of 45, and the youngest case to date, an 18-year-old multi-sport athlete who suffered multiple concussions. While CTE in an ex-NFL player's brain may have been expected, the beginnings of brain damage in an 18-year-old brain was a \"shocking\" finding, according to Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, and co-director of the CSTE. \"We think this is how chronic traumatic encephalopathy starts,\" said McKee. \"This is speculation, but I think we can assume that this would have continued to expand.\" CTE has thus far been found in the brains of six out of six former NFL players. \"What's been surprising is that it's so extensive,\" said McKee. \"It's throughout the brain, not just on the superficial aspects of the brain, but it's deep inside.\" CSTE studies reveal brown tangles flecked throughout the brain tissue of former NFL players who died young -- some as early as their 30s or 40s. McKee, who also studies Alzheimer's disease, says the tangles closely resemble what might be found in the brain of an 80-year-old with dementia. \"I knew what traumatic brain disease looked like in the very end stages, in the most severe cases,\" said McKee. \"To see the kind of changes we're seeing in 45-year-olds is basically unheard of.\" The damage affects the parts of the brain that control emotion, rage, hypersexuality, even breathing, and recent studies find that CTE is a progressive disease that eventually kills brain cells. Chris Nowinski knows well the impact of concussions. He was a football star at Harvard before wrestling professionally with World Wrestling Entertainment. In one moment, his dreams of a long career wrestling were dashed by a kick to his chin. That kick, which caused Nowinski to black out and effectively ended his career, capped a career riddled with concussions. \"My world changed,\" said Nowinski. \"I had depression. I had memory problems. My head hurt for five years.\" Nowinski began searching for studies, and what he found startled him. \"I realized when I was visiting a lot of doctors, they weren't giving me very good answers about what was wrong with my head,\" said Nowinski. \"I read [every study I could find] and I realized there was a ton of evidence showing concussions lead to depression, and multiple concussion can lead to Alzheimer's.\" Nowinski decided further study was needed, so he founded the Sports Legacy Institute along with Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and the co-director of the CSTE. The project solicits for study the brains of ex-athletes who suffered multiple concussions. Once a family agrees to donate the brain, it is delivered to scientists at the CSTE to look for signs of damage. So far, the evidence of CTE is compelling. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, along with other research institutions, has now identified traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of late NFL football players John Grimsley, Mike Webster, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk and Terry Long, in addition to McHale. Grimsley died of an accidental gunshot wound to the chest. Webster, Long and Strzelczyk all died after long bouts of depression, while Waters committed suicide in 2006 at age 44. McHale was found dead last year of an apparent drug overdose. \"Guys were dying,\" said Nowinski. \"The fact of the matter was guys were dying because they played sports 10 or 20 years before.\" So far, around 100 athletes have consented to have their brains studied after they die. Ted Johnson was one of the first to sign up. He said he believes that concussions he suffered while playing football explain the anger, depression and throbbing headaches that occasionally still plague him. Johnson said he played through concussions because he, like many other NFL athletes, did not understand the consequences. He has publicly criticized the NFL for not protecting players like him. \"They don't want you to know,\" said Johnson. \"It's not like when you get into the NFL there's a handout that says 'These are the effects of multiple concussions so beware.' \" In a statement, the NFL indicated that their staffs take a cautious, conservative approach to managing concussions. While they support research into the impact of concussions, they maintain that, \"Hundreds of thousands of people have played football and other sports without experiencing any problem of this type and there continues to be considerable debate within the medical community on the precise long-term effects of concussions and how they relate to other risk factors.\" The NFL is planning its own independent medical study of retired NFL players on the long-term effects of concussion. \"Really my main reason even for talking about this is to help the guys who are already retired,\" said Johnson. \"[They] are getting divorced, going bankrupt, can't work, are depressed, and don't know what's wrong with them. [It is] to give them a name for it so they can go get help.\" \"The idea that you can whack your head hundreds of times in your life and knock yourself out and get up and be fine is gone,\" said Nowinski. \"We know we can't do that anymore. This causes long-term damage.\"","highlights":"NEW: Researchers find start of brain damage in 18-year old athlete who died .\nNEW: Same type of brain damage found in sixth dead NFL player .\nDamage from repeated concussions is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy .\nSymptoms can include depression, sleep disorders, headaches ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama is expected to announce Friday the creation of the position of cyber czar, a person who will coordinate the nation's efforts to protect government and private computer systems from hackers, criminal gangs, terrorists and spies, people familiar with the plan said Thursday. President Obama is expected to announce Friday the creation of the position of \"cyber czar.\" The czar will report to both the national security adviser and the head of the National Economic Council, the sources said. Obama will not name anyone Friday to the post because the selection process is ongoing, they said. In addition, the White House will release a 40-page report that sets broad goals for combating cyber intrusions, but does not spell out in detail how to do so, said the sources, who would not agree to be identified because the report has not been released. Shortly after taking office, Obama ordered a 60-day review intended to ensure the federal government's cyber initiatives were \"appropriately integrated, resourced and coordinated with Congress and the private sector.\" Melissa Hathaway, a senior member of the National Security Council who led the review process, told a security conference late last year that a public-private partnership and international alliances would be key to solving cyber security problems. Another senior official said any solution would be a \"team sport\" requiring a \"holistic, comprehensive\" approach. Administration officials said that representatives of the private sector, government departments and agencies, academics, state and local officials and civil liberties and privacy experts were among those consulted during the review. The Department of Homeland Security reports the number of cyber attacks on government and private networks increased from 4,095 in 2005 to 72,065 in 2008. This month, a Transportation Department audit -- carried out after hackers got into a support system containing personnel records -- indicated the nation's air-traffic control system could be at risk. Hathaway expressed concern that critical infrastructures such as the nation's power grid and financial networks could be vulnerable. \"God forbid if somebody were to take down and or manipulate our financial system, and what would we do, and would it make the current financial crisis look like a walk in the park?\" she asked. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair recently told reporters the biggest cyber threat facing the United States is from nation states, particularly Russia and China. \"I think China is winning the sweepstakes for the origin of most attacks on U.S. persons and organizations,\" he said. The Bush administration's own review of the matter culminated in the mostly classified National Cybersecurity Initiative, which was enacted in January 2008. National Security Agency executive Sandra Stenar-Johnson said that plan consisted of 12 initiatives with three goals: reduce the current vulnerabilities in the system, defend against the full spectrum of threats, and develop next-generation technologies to maintain an edge over adversaries. The Bush initiative tapped the Department of Homeland Security as the lead agency in the cyber battle. Senior officials in the Obama administration say the White House will anchor the latest effort, providing guidance and direction to ensure all agencies and departments are working well together.","highlights":"Obama will announce post Friday, sources say .\nCyber czar to lead effort to protect government and private computer systems .\nWhite House will also release report with goals for combating cyber intrusions ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two fishermen remain missing after a commercial fishing vessel went down in frigid, treacherous waters off the Aleutian Islands about 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The fishing vessel Courageous helps search for missing men in waters off Alaska. A search for the two crew members of the 93-foot Katmai resumed at daybreak Friday. An e-mail sent by the doomed fishing boat to a nearby vessel said it was taking on water in the rear, where the steering was housed, the Coast Guard told The Associated Press on Thursday. Four of the boat's crew members were rescued and five bodies retrieved Wednesday near the Amchitka Pass, a strait that connects the Bering Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The names have been withheld pending the notification of families, a Coast Guard statement said. \"What can you say?\" said Jeff DeBell, chief financial officer of Katmai Fisheries, which owned the boat. He told The AP, \"We are devastated by what has happened. We are elated there have been survivors. We are just terribly saddened by the ones that are dead and are praying that those that are still in the water are alive.\" Watch rescue footage from the choppy waters \u00bb . The Seattle-based company told the AP the survivors were Capt. Henry Blake and crew members Guy Schroeder, Adam Foster and Harold Attling. The search began at about 1 a.m. Wednesday when the Coast Guard received an emergency signal from the Katmai, a 93-foot fishing vessel that had been battling 50-knot winds and nearly 20-foot waves. The signal originated from a wall-mounted satellite positioning device on the Katmai that reacts when it's touched or splashed with water, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said. Watch a \"Deadliest Catch\" captain talk about what may have happened on the rough seas \u00bb . At about that time, another vessel, the Blue Balard, sent an e-mail to the Coast Guard saying that it received a message from the Katmai that water was flooding its rear compartment. The message also said that the vessel had lost steering. The Coast Guard tried to e-mail the Balard back but received no response, likely because the seas are remote and Internet access can be spotty, Read said. Rescuers launched a C-130, a long-range surveillance aircraft, and went straight to the scene twice Wednesday morning, Read said. The boat was nowhere in sight, but the C-130 did spot two strobe lights on top of the water, he said. By this time, the weather was treacherous and the sky was darkening, according to Read. The C-130, having found no signs of life, dropped two life rafts and headed back, he said. On the second trip, at 11 a.m., the C-130 and a Jayhawk helicopter found two strobe lights floating in the water, one attached to a survival suit and the other to the emergency device that had first alerted the Coast Guard, Read said. They also found a body, he said. \"We knew the person was from the Katmai because the suit he was wearing had the name of the vessel on it,\" Read said. Roughly five hours later, the Coast Guard spotted four men on a life raft, all wearing survival suits. With the assistance of other vessels, the Courageous and the Patricia Lee, the bodies of four other men were recovered from the water, all wearing survival suits, Read said. The odds of someone surviving the frigid waters off Alaska's Aleutian Islands is minimal, said Read. Crews usually have survival suits that allow water to seep inside but have a mechanism that traps body heat. The search for the two remaining men began at 9:30 a.m. Alaska time Thursday, an hour before sunrise there. \"You just couldn't do anything earlier,\" Read said. \"It's darker the farther out you go, and they are really, really out there.\"","highlights":"NEW: Search resumes for two fishermen lost in frigid waters off Alaska .\nDistressed boat had sent e-mail that it was taking on water .\nFour fishermen rescued; five bodies have been recovered .\nCFO of company: We \"are praying that those that are still in the water are alive\""} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The A&E network quickly backed away from an earlier assurance that Michael Jackson's three children \"are not part of\" a reality show it is taping with four of the pop star's brothers. Before their father's death, Michael Jackson's children, Paris, Prince and \"Blanket\" were not often seen in public. The network said late Wednesday it was \"entirely possible\" that \"other members of the Jackson family\" could appear on the show, but it is too soon to know. US Weekly magazine quoted an unidentified source as saying that despite a sharp division in the Jackson family over the matter, Prince, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7, would be included in the show. \"The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty,\" which focuses on the lives of four of the Jackson brothers -- Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon -- was in the works before the singer's June 25 death. \"Filming is taking place right now,\" A&E said in the late Wednesday statement. \"As production moves forward, it is entirely possible that the brothers' paths will intersect with other members of the Jackson family, who may or may not be included in the finished series. However, we cannot at this point definitively know who else may make an appearance in the series.\" Earlier Wednesday, however, the network had seemed to rule out their appearance, saying, \"They are not part of the series.\" Jackson went to great lengths for years to keep his children out of the public eye, including covering their faces with masks and scarves. It was only at the public memorial service for Jackson that the world got a close look at them -- and began learning about their personalities. The magazine's source is quoted as saying that the oldest Jackson sister, Rebbie, \"feels Michael would spin in his grave if he knew his kids would be on this show.\" The public relations firm hired by the Jackson family soon after Michael Jackson's death issued a short statement Wednesday morning that did not dispute the US Weekly report. \"We are not going to comment,\" the statement said. The decision would be left to Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother, according to the lawyer appointed in August to represent the children in the probate of their father's will. Katherine Jackson was given guardianship over the children by a Los Angeles judge. The reality show is tentatively set to begin airing in December. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"A&E to broadcast reality show featuring some of Michael Jackson's family .\nUS Weekly magazine says Jackson's children's will be part of the show .\nNetwork first says children won't be in show, then says they may .\nJackson, who died June 25, generally kept children from public view ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After hours of back and forth between members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided Friday evening to accept noncelibate clergy members and lay leaders who are in \"lifelong\" and \"monogamous\" same-sex relationships. Previous Evangelical Lutheran Church policy allows gay and lesbian clergy, lay people to serve only if celibate. One of the country's largest Protestant denominations, the Lutheran church approved four recommendations to its ministry's policies that underscore a new approach to homosexuality. While the recommendations passed at the weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, do not address recognizing same-sex marriage or civil unions, they do allow congregations to support same-sex relationships among their members and allow individuals in same-sex relationships to hold clergy positions. The previous policy of the 4.6-million member church allowed gay people to serve as members of professional rosters only if they were celibate. Some members argued prior to the vote that the change would fly in the face of religious teachings. \"Brothers and sisters, I ask you, before you dig yourselves deeper into this hole, if you are so absolutely certain that these behaviors are not sinful that you are willing to place yourselves and this church at the spiritual risk that comes from encouraging sin,\" said the Rev. Steven Frock of the Western Iowa Synod. Among those on the other side was Alan Wold of the Northern Illinois Synod. \"If according to some I am going to be in err for supporting this... Let me err on the side of mercy, grace, justice, and love of neighbor. Let me err on the side of gospel, which makes all things new.\" Many feared the emotional debate could tear at the unity of the church. So the members voted to re-order their resolutions -- moving to the top a resolution that the church \"commit itself to bear one another's burdens, love thy neighbor, and respect the bound consciences of all.\" It passed with overwhelming support. Other religious denominations, including Episcopalians and Unitarians, have made moves to accept gay clergy, and Evangelical Lutherans would not be the first to accept those openly in same-sex relationships, said David Masci, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But ELCA would be the largest to make such a move. The church is the third largest Protestant denomination, representing 2 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Forum. The battle Friday was the latest in what Masci said many \"socially moderate\" denominations, including those in Judaism, are grappling with: balancing the growing acceptance of same-sex relationships with traditional teachings. As some have moved toward accepting same-sex relationships, within those same denominations \"you see more conservative wings that are pushing back against it,\" said Masci. On hand for Friday's debate were hundreds of \"interested parties\" -- including some people who are not members of the church, said John Brooks, ELCA spokesman. When asked whether there had been protests or rallies on either side outside the convention site, he responded, \"Interestingly, no.\" In the convention hall, Brooks said, \"The debates haven't been rancorous or mean-spirited in any way. They've been quite civil. But people have been passionate with their feelings.\" The Rev. Terri Stagner-Collier of the Southeastern Synod said a vote in favor of the resolutions would cause members of her own family to leave the church. Her sister \"felt her church was being ripped away from her,\" Stagner-Collier said tearfully, adding, I urge you not to do this to all of those people in the pew and in my family.\" Sara Gross of the Oregon Synod said some \"dear members\" of the church will be lost if the resolution passes. But, she said, \"A vote to reject this recommendation sends a message to the world saying 'not all are welcome.'\" In a \"changing world,\" Gross argued, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America \"needs to be a voice that stands up and says 'yes.'\" CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Evangelical Lutheran Church to accept gay clergy in lifelong relationships .\nNew policy would allow them to serve if in monogamous relationships .\nPrevious policy allows gays, lesbians to serve as clergy, lay leaders if celibate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the highly anticipated movie \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\" opened Friday in theaters, many fans had already seen it. The pirating and distribution of \"Wolverine,\" starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI. The online leak of a pirated, unfinished version of the 20th Century Fox film a month ago sent federal authorities springing into action and stoked a heated conversation within the entertainment industry about digital piracy. Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of \"Wolverine\" is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line. It's rare for high-quality copies of a big-budget blockbuster to appear on the Internet more than a month before the film's release, experts say. Within a week of \"Wolverine's\" March 31 leak, more than a million people had downloaded the movie, according to TorrentFreak, a blog devoted to the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. Watch intrepid reporter look for answers \u00bb . \"Unfortunately, the recent leak of the Fox film 'Wolverine' provided a stark backdrop to the impact that digital piracy has on the large investments that producers make in creating state-of-the-art films,\" said Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who oversaw a congressional hearing on piracy after the leak. \"During our hearing in Los Angeles, director Steven Soderbergh said that in 2007, the entertainment industry generated a trade surplus of $13.6 billion,\" Berman added. \"Imagine what those numbers would be if we could rein in piracy.\" Bootleg, or illegally copied, movies have long been a thorn to the film industry. In 2003, a version of Universal's \"The Hulk\" appeared on the Internet two weeks before the film opened. A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to the theft. And in 2005, a pirated print of \"Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith\" was uploaded to the Web within hours of the movie's release. But where Hollywood's biggest headache used to be murky, muffled copies of films taken by someone who snuck a camcorder into a theater, today's pirates are getting more sophisticated and gaining access to better-quality goods. Greg Sandoval, who covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News, said that in the digital age, thieves can gain access to near-perfect advance copies of films on DVD that have greater potential to undermine a movie's box-office prospects. And even studios' attempts at safeguarding their products against piracy, such as by encoding DVDs with digital watermarks that allow authorities to trace individual copies, aren't enough, Sandoval said. He said tech-savvy thieves have figured out how to strip such watermarks from DVDs. \"When you're talking about digital content ... it's impossible to lock it down completely\" from theft, Sandoval said. \"These hackers are very creative. Sometimes, they're one step ahead of the security experts.\" 20th Century Fox issued a statement vowing to prosecute the \"Wolverine\" thief \"to the fullest extent of the law.\" The FBI is investigating, but as of Thursday, no arrests had been made. Darcy Antonellis, president of technical operations for Warner Bros. (which is owned by the parent company of CNN), said the growth of technology has aided the pirates. \"Digital piracy has continued to increase with greater access to [files] and improved broadband services,\" said Antonellis, who helps oversee Warner Bros.' anti-piracy efforts. \"As broadband services increase their capacity to support legitimate services, they also enable increased illegal file-sharing. Technologies have evolved to encumber such distribution but must compete with the strength of viral or super distribution of content.\" The bad guys aren't the only ones keeping up with the technology. Keith Bolcar, special agent in charge of the FBI's cyber division in Los Angeles, said agents and their partners as \"doing everything we can to keep up with the learning curve of technology, hopefully just as fast as our criminal subjects.\" The FBI meets routinely with studio representatives to share intelligence, to discuss strategy and to detect and fix vulnerabilities in security measures, he said. \"While I can't discuss investigative techniques, we employ a myriad of sophisticated methods to solve these crimes,\" said Bolcar, whose office is investigating the \"Wolverine\" leak. \"Our investigators receive extensive training and are technologically savvy.\" Hollywood also faces the challenge of protecting digital files that pass through so many hands while in production and post-production. Antonellis said Warner Bros. works diligently to safeguard its properties. \"Each project, for us, is unique, with its own unique set of challenges,\" she said. \"Whether there are 50 or 500 people involved in the process, we try to focus on ownership\/responsibility of our assets throughout the entire production through to distribution process.\" John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America, said digital piracy can take many forms, including peer-to-peer file sharing and streaming. Malcolm said the association is conducting a lot of outreach to universities and Internet service providers to help them address piracy that occurs over their systems. The issue is global, Malcolm said, as evidenced by pending litigation in France that would shut down Internet accounts of illegal downloaders. The association is in litigation against an Australian service provider, iiNet, to try to establish the legal parameters of its responsibility in policing its system, Malcolm said. \"In some cases, we are making great progress with ISP, and in some cases, it's a little bit tougher going,\" Malcolm said. \"After all, it's their broadband that's being eaten up, and it slows down their systems.\" Berman, D-California, said advances in technologies that enable filtering and other anti-theft tools will help curb piracy. So will creating more sites where viewers can legitimately access movies, shows and music, such as Hulu and the recently announced Vevo, a partnership between Universal Music and YouTube. \"Given how pirated materials often damage computers with viruses, spyware and other problems, consumers will continue to embrace the innovative, legitimate sites that are becoming more and more available,\" Berman said. Malcolm agrees. He said there are more than 350 sites that legitimately distribute digital content. If a person is a true movie lover, they will want to respect the art, the artists and the countless people behind the scenes who make the magic happen, Malcolm said. \"I hear periodically, 'Well, Tom Cruise has enough money' or 'Tom Hanks has enough money,' \" Malcolm said. \"I would say to movie lovers, stick around and watch all of the credits. When you see hundreds of names scrolling across the screen, those are the people whose talents contributed to making that movie, and they need to make a living.\" CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pirated version of \"Wolverine\" distributed online weeks before movie's debut .\nIndustry employs technology like digital watermarks to hinder thieves .\nPending French legislation would shut down Internet accounts of downloaders .\nMPAA exec says fans should consider the livelihood of those who make films ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Paolo Maldini and Luis Figo brought down the curtain on their remarkable careers as their Milan clubs both scored victories on the final day of the Serie A season. Maldini was given a special presentation as he made his 902nd and final appearance for Milan. The 40-year-old Maldini was playing his 902nd game for Milan who won 2-0 at Fiorentina while Portuguese international Figo helped champions Inter to a 4-3 home win over Atalanta. Milan's victory helped them secure the third Champions League place in Italy and automatic qualification to the group stages. Juventus, who beat Lazio 2-0 with Vincenzo Iaquinta scoring twice, finished level on points with Milan, while Fiorentina will go into the Champions League final qualifying round after finishing fourth. Inter had clinched the title two weeks ago, with a Zlatan Ibrahimovic double making sure that they would round off their season in style, the Swede finishing Serie A's top scorer with 25 goals. Figo has been with Inter since 2005 and has helped the club to four straight league titles to become a firm favorite with the fans who gave him a rousing farewell. Former Italian international defender Maldini was completing an incredible 24 seasons at Milan. Inter finished top with 84 points with Milan and Juventus on 74, with Fiorentina fourth with 68. In the relegation dogfight, Torino joined Reggina and Lecce in making the drop from Serie A as they lost 3-2 at AS Roma. Bologna beat Catania 3-1 to finish in the 17th place with 37 points, while Torino ended on 34. Bari, Parma and the winner of the promotion playoff will be the newcomers in Serie A next season.","highlights":"Paolo Maldini plays 902nd and final match for AC Milan in 2-0 win over Fiorentina .\nLuis Figo ends his career as champions Inter Milan beat Atalanta 4-2 .\nTorino relegated to Serie B with 3-2 defeat to AS Roma ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday that more Africans have fled poverty and conflict on the continent during the first 10 months of this year than in all of 2007. A woman who has been displaced by the current fighting in the Congo. The bulk of the more than 96,000 African refugees headed to Yemen and Italy, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office. The rest sought refuge in Malta, Greece, Spain and the Canary Islands, the agency said. Last weekend, at least 60 refugees died en route to Yemen, a frequent destination for Somali and Ethiopian refugees, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF. UNHCR said most of those who died were forced overboard in deep water off Yemen's coast by smugglers who demanded more money than the $100 they paid for the journey. \"Those who did not or could not pay extra were severely beaten by the smugglers,\" UNHCR said in a news release Tuesday. \"Up to 40 -- mainly Ethiopians -- [were] thrown overboard despite their pleas for mercy.\" Andreas Koutepas, MSF's field coordinator in southern Yemen, said such a high number of refugee deaths in a short period of time \"is not usual at all.\" \"For the whole of September until now, we've had 27 dead and now suddenly we reach this number,\" Koutepas told CNN from MSF's base in Ahwar, Yemen. \"We are quite shocked here.\" About 30,000 African refugees arrived on boats on Italy's shores during the first 10 months of this year compared with 19,900 refugees last year, according to UNHCR. In Malta, an estimated 2,600 boat people arrived in the first nine months of this year from North Africa, compared with 1,800 last year, UNHCR said.. The agency said that from January to October this year, 509 of those attempting to make the journey to Italy and Malta died, compared with last year's death toll of 471. More than 38,000 people have made the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen during the first 10 months of this year, a \"considerable increase from the 29,500 who made the same journey during the whole of last year,\" UNHCR said Tuesday. However, the death toll on that route has remained lower so far this year: more than 600 have died or disappeared en route to Yemen compared to 1,400 killed last year. In late September, at least 52 Somalis died when the boat smuggling them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen broke down, and they were left adrift with no food or water for 18 days, according to the U.N. Many are fleeing the war in Somalia, but Koutepas of MSF told CNN on Monday that he has noticed a recent increase in the number of refugees from Ethiopia. \"It used to be 10 percent of total arrival, and now it's around 50-50,\" he said. Yemen is a common destination for Somalis fleeing economic hardship and war because of its proximity. It is also an attractive location because Somalis receive automatic refugee status in the fellow Muslim country. New smuggling routes, including some based out of Djibouti -- which lies north of Somalia and is much closer to Yemen -- have also led to the increase in refugees, according to the UNHCR. But according to the Yemen Post, Yemen is just a stopping point for most of the refugees, who then travel on to the wealthier Persian Gulf states or Europe and the United States. Earlier this year, Yemen's coast guard stepped up patrols of its coastline in an attempt to deter the smugglers. Some of the smuggling boats seized by Yemen's coast guard are given to Somali fishermen who suffered losses in the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As part of a $19 million operation, UNHCR operates shelters and reception centers for the refugees in Yemen and has increased its efforts to discourage people from making the illegal crossing to Yemen. It has also sponsored training programs for coast guard personnel and other officials. MSF said the plight of the refugees has been overshadowed by the dozens of pirate attacks off Somalia's coast that have grabbed international headlines in recent months. \"A lot of attention has been paid lately to tackling the issue of piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa,\" said MSF Yemen mission leader Francis Coteur. \"Unfortunately, little attention is paid to the drama of the refugees crossing the same waters in horrific conditions. Much more needs to be done to address this issue.\"","highlights":"More Africans have already fled poverty and conflict so far this year than in 2007 .\nBulk of the more than 96,000 African refugees headed to Yemen and Italy, U.N. says .\nRest sought refuge in Malta, Greece, Spain and the Canary Islands ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spec. Shaun Gopaul woke up at 4 a.m. on May 12, 2007, and waited at a battle position south of Baghdad for members of his company to pick him up. Sgt. Alex Jimenez, left, and Spc. Shaun Gopaul had served in the military together since 2005. One of those he expected to see was the larger-than-life figure of Sgt. Alex Jimenez, who cared so much about his fellow soldiers that he made sure every one was comfortable and who cared so much about the Iraqis he was fighting for that he learned Arabic on his own so he could talk with them. \"He was a good guy, you know. He had a big heart,\" Gopaul said. But Jimenez and the other soldiers never came. While he was waiting, Gopaul heard on the radio that Sgt. Alex Jimenez -- the first person he met in the company and also his best friend -- and other members of his company had been ambushed and captured by insurgents in a section of Iraq known as the Triangle of Death. Gopaul said Friday that during the time Jimenez and other members of the company were missing, he tried to keep upbeat and hoped that his best friend would come home safely. But on Friday the military confirmed they found the bodies of Jimenez and 19-year-old Pvt. Byron W. Fouty and returned them to the United States. \"In a way, I'm glad that he's home,\" Gopaul said. \"It's just not in the way that we wanted.\" The body of a third soldier who was captured -- Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, California -- was pulled from the Euphrates River in Babil province 11 days after the attack. After they began serving together in 2005, Gopaul said he and Jimenez were inseparable. When Gopaul arrived, Jimenez offered to let him bunk with him because many of the servicemen were younger than he. It was Gopaul's first tour in Iraq and Jimenez, who was on his second tour, took it upon himself to help new soldiers from Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Regiment -- nicknamed the polar bears -- learn the ropes. \"He grabbed all the new guys and put us where we needed to be and showed us how to do our jobs,\" Gopaul said. \"He saved our lives by showing us the right way to do things and where to be so we wouldn't be hurt.\" Jimenez, 25, even took it upon himself to start learning Arabic, Gopaul said. He studied the language until he eventually became fluent. Then, he taught the entire platoon and company so they would have an easier time talking to locals. \"It was awesome, because if we didn't have an interpreter we had him to help out,\" Gopaul said. During their free time the two soldiers wrote and sang music -- often reggaeton -- sometimes about being in the Army. Above all, Gopaul said, Jimenez was known for his sense of humor and always being there for anyone who needed it. \"I've been getting a lot of calls from a lot of people across different battalions who knew him and knew the size of his heart, Gopaul said. The last time he spoke to Jimenez, Gopaul was returning from time off and Jimenez called to let him know what was going on in Iraq and see how his good friend was doing. \"I told him 'I'll see you in a couple days,' \" Gopaul said. \"But that was it. I never saw him again.\" Gopaul said he has taken a 14-day leave from service and will go to visit members of the Jimenez family who live in New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Black ribbons of mourning replaced the yellow ribbons around the Jimenez home Thursday afternoon. A POW\/MIA flag that had been hanging from the home for more than a year was also replaced by a U.S. flag. \"This has all been pretty hard,\" Gopaul said. \"But one thing is for sure -- we'll never forget him.\"","highlights":"Shaun Gopaul, Alex Jimenez served together in military starting in 2005 .\nGopaul: \"He saved our lives\" by showing us what to do .\nBodies of Jimenez, another soldier found in Iraq after a year .\nJimenez learned Arabic and taught others so they could talk to locals ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Your saliva is doing all kinds of useful things for you all the time -- for instance, helping you chew and taste food. It's also home to more than 600 species of bacteria, which are harmlessly enjoying the moisture of your mouth. There's a slew of bacteria floating around in your mouth, but it's generally harmless. Since people have different eating habits in different places, you might think an American's saliva might look a lot different from, say, a South African's. But a new study published in the journal Genome Research finds that bacteria in saliva may not be as related to environment and diet as you might think. In fact, researchers found that the human salivary microbiome -- that is, the community of bacteria in saliva -- does not vary greatly between different geographic locations. That means your saliva is just as different from your neighbor's as someone's on the other side of the planet. \"It was somewhat surprising to us, because in our sampling we didn't control for diet, or environment, or anything like that,\" said Mark Stoneking of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and co-author of the study. Now, Stoneking and colleagues are trying to figure out why. One theory is that since the researchers looked only at the genus of the bacteria in question, they might find more differences at the level of individual species. They are investigating this in a follow-up study. Stoneking became interested in surveying the bacteria of saliva when he learned that saliva contains more DNA than blood, if you include DNA of bacteria and other organisms. Human blood, as you might guess, still contains more human DNA than saliva. Watch CNN's Elizabeth Landau talk more about saliva \u00bb . Researchers took saliva samples from a total of 120 healthy subjects. The countries represented in this sample were Germany, Poland, Turkey, Georgia, China, Philippines, South Africa, Republic of the Congo, Argentina, Bolivia and the United States. This was the first global survey of bacteria diversity in human saliva. The most common type of bacteria found in the survey of saliva was Streptococcus, Stoneking said. People typically have Streptococcus in their mouths living benignly, although certain species are responsible for diseases such as strep throat, meningitis and bacterial pneumonia. Why do you need hundreds of bacteria species in your mouth? It turns out they're mostly not helping you at all -- you're just giving them a warm, moist home. \"Having those bacteria -- that's the price we have to pay for having a lot of saliva in the mouth to begin with,\" said Nate Dominy, anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dominy, who has studied enzymes in saliva, found the results surprising, and said no one had previously surveyed the variety of bacteria in saliva. What else is inside saliva? One component of saliva that has been shown to vary according to diet is amylase, the only digestive enzyme that converts starch into sugar, Dominy said. Amylase is also found in the pancreas and the small intestine. The human body evolved to start the digestive process early, in the mouth, so we can maximize the amount of sugar that we take in, Dominy said. \"Given that we have such large brains, and our brains are metabolically very demanding tissues, they're extremely costly and expensive to maintain, so we need a lot of sugar,\" he said. Americans in particular have a lot of amylase in their saliva because their diets are full of starch: chips, rice and baked potatoes. But the Pygmies of central Africa, for example, eat mostly game animals, honey and fruit. They have relatively little amylase in their saliva. Dominy and colleagues found these differences at the genetic level, meaning natural selection has favored large quantities of amylase in populations with starchy diets. But there is also evidence that amylase levels can rise and fall within an individual's lifetime. A study on college students in Ghana, who typically eat a lot of meat at the university, found that students who had grown up eating traditional starchy Ghanaian home-cooked meals had lower levels of amylase after attending the school. Humans have had starch as an important part of their diet for at least 12,000 years, since the advent of agriculture, he said. So what else is spit good for? Saliva spreads molecules to the taste receptors on the tongue so you can tell whether something is salty, sour, sweet or spicy, Dominy said. It also helps soften food and spread it to your teeth so that you don't have to chew as hard. Compared with other animals, humans are not very good at detecting toxins, he said. As a result, humans vomit much more than other species, and saliva buffers the acid that results from throwing up -- meaning you'll likely salivate immediately beforehand to limit the damage. \"A lot of the value of saliva is attributable to the fact that, in human evolution, we've had to eat marginal plant foods, things that are marginal in quality and full of toxins, and we need these particular salivary adaptations to help cope with those types of food,\" he said.","highlights":"Saliva contains more DNA than blood because of all of the oral bacteria .\nMost common type of bacteria in saliva is Streptococcus, in a mostly harmless form .\nSaliva spreads molecules to the taste receptors on the tongue ."} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- As Tehran approaches the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis, in which dozens of Americans where held against their will for 444 days, the Islamic republic is firmly warning against reformists taking to the streets to protest the government. Still reeling from the massive demonstration that followed the country's disputed presidential election, Iran on Wednesday will commemorate November 4, 1979, when a group of Islamist students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 53 hostages and effectively ending diplomatic relations with the United States. While the government will allow the \"faithful\" to celebrate the anniversary of the embassy seizure, those who \"intend to gather illegally and spread lies among people who gather to peacefully participate ... will be held responsible for their actions,\" said Ahmad Reza Radan, head of Iran's security forces, according to the semi-official Iran Student Correspondent Association. The government of Iran arrested more than 1,000 people in a massive crackdown after the June 12 election, in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner. In the aftermath of the fallout, the government accused several reformists, including opposition candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi, of spreading anti-government propaganda and fueling the anger among the public. Despite warnings from Iran's hardline leaders, the reformists have largely refused to back down. They released the names of 72 protesters they say were killed in the unrest that followed the election -- more than double the government's official number. Karrubi, a former parliamentary speaker, has been especially vocal about the claims of detainee rape. He publishing a firsthand account of one alleged victim on his Web site last month. He has been scorned by government hard-liners, whose credibility and legitimacy have been publicly questioned since the elections. On Wednesday, Islamic authorities tried to pre-emptively silence anti-government demonstrations and rhetoric. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Hossein Sajedinia, deputy of operations for Iran's security forces, said, \"The police will not allow a handful [of individuals] to disrupt the organization and safety of this day, by fooling people and the youth.\"","highlights":"Wednesday marks 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis .\nIran is firmly warning against reformists taking to the streets to protest the government .\nSecurity forces chief says the \"faithful\" will be allowed to to celebrate the anniversary .\nReformists have released names of 72 protesters they say were killed after June elections ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dozens of flights were delayed at India's New Delhi airport Monday after lizards, birds and jackals strayed on to a runway to seek refuge from the monsoon rains. Kids play cricket through a downpour in New Delhi as monsoon rains came early to the area this week. Animal rescuers rounded up the critters and moved them to habitats outside airport property. But the operation delayed several flights and shut down the runway for some time, airport spokesman Arun Arora said. Kartick Satyanarayan of the conservation group Wildlife SOS said the animals descended on the runway in search of dry ground. His group works with the airport to move wildlife from airport property to a sanctuary on the outskirts of the capital. \"It's been raining cats and dogs the last two days. And when it rains like this, water goes in and fills the burrows of these animals,\" he said. \"The runway,\" he added, \"is the only safe area. So they come out.\" While monsoon rains typically sweep across the subcontinent in early June, they usually do not reach the capital city of New Delhi and other regions in northern India until early July. Watch how Indians cope with monsoon waters \u00bb . They came about two weeks early in the northern part of the country this year, killing at least 20 people in landslides, home collapses and floods. The airport sits on more than 2,000 acres that, over the years, have become home to jackals, porcupines, dogs, cats and a variety of birds. Arora would not say how many flights were delayed during the rescue operation. The airport handles 13,000 domestic and 9,500 international passengers a day. \"(The) numbers are speculative as it is difficult to attribute delays to bad weather, strong winds, birds or animals,\" Arora said. In the past, animals on the runway have disrupted flights at the airport -- particularly during the monsoon season, Satyanarayan said. \"The monitor lizards -- they look frightening but they are harmless animals,\" he said. \"But they can grow about three to four feet long. And at the velocity a plane lands, the [lizards] can still cause damage.\"","highlights":"Jackals, monitor lizards and birds descend on runway at New Delhi airport .\nAnimal invasion delays flights as wildlife group comes to the rescue .\nAnimals take to runway to dry off and warm up after monsoon rain ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Norwegian Tony Andre Hansen has been stripped of his Olympic showjumping bronze medal -- and banned for our-and-a-half months by the International Equestrian Federation -- after his horse tested positive for a banned substance at the Beijing Games. Hansen was Norway's highest-scoring rider as the nation finished third in the Olympic team showjumping. The 29-year-old Hansen was the best performer in a four-rider Norway team which won bronze under a scoring system where the top three count. Without his scores, his teammates -- Morten Djupvik, Stein Endresen, and Geir Gulliksen -- drop out of medal contention. The fourth-placed Switzerland team of Steve Guerdat, Christina Liebherr, Niklaus Schurtenberger and Pius Schwizer will now be awarded the bronze medals by the International Olympic Committee. The United States won gold, beating Canada in a jumpoff in Hong Kong, where the equestrian events were staged last August. Hansen's horse, Camiro, tested positive for capsaicin, a banned pain relieving medication. He was provisionally suspended and did not complete the individual jumping competition. However, he is free to return to competition on January 3 as his suspension was backdated. \"It is each person's duty to ensure that no prohibited substance is present in his or her horse's body during an event,\" said the FEI. Although the drug can be used out-of-competition as a legal medication, it is also classed as a doping substance if used to inflame a horse's legs. This is done to encourage horses to jump higher because striking an obstacle becomes more painful. Hansen is the fourth rider disqualified and suspended in cases involving capsaicin: Germany's Christian Ahlmann was suspended for four months, Brazil's Bernardo Alves for three-and-a-half months, and Irish rider Denis Lynch got a three-month ban.","highlights":"Norwegian Tony Andre Hansen is stripped of his Olympic showjumping gold .\nHansen's horse horse tested positive for banned substance at Beijing Games .\nThe fourth-placed Switzerland team have now been promoted to third position ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Up to 1,000 human rights campaigners demonstrated Saturday in front of No. 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling on the British government to demand that full democracy be restored in Pakistan. Jemima Khan, center, ex-wife for former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan, joins protesters in London. Protesters waved placards and chanted in support of the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a week after he imposed a state of emergency in the country. The crowd of demonstrators massed behind barriers and included Jemima Khan, the ex-wife of former Pakistani cricket star turned politician Imran Khan. The demonstrators carried placards saying \"Free the innocent\" and \"End Musharraf's Regime\" and waved Pakistani flags. Imran Khan, who heads the the Movement for Justice Party, has been under house arrest since the emergency declaration. His ex-wife delivered a petition to a doorman at Downing Street, calling on Britain to use its influence to ensure that all institutions are in place well in advance of Pakistani elections originally scheduled for early next year. The petition also demands that Pakistan restore democracy and the judiciary and calls on Musharraf to release all political prisoners, including lawyers, journalists and opposition politicians. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Human rights campaigners demonstrate in front of No. 10 Downing Street .\nProtests urged UK government to demand full democracy restored in Pakistan .\nCricketer turned politician Imran Khan's ex wife Jemima among protesters ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson ended a trip to the Ivory Coast on Friday, after he spoke to leaders from the nation's political parties and was honored as a prince by a tribe in the West African nation. Jesse Jackson says ceremony to name him a prince of the Agni people was \"very exciting.\" Jackson said he met with President Laurent Gbagbo and leading members of two opposition parties, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. Bedie is a former president of the nation and Ouattara is a former prime minister. Jackson said his mission was not to endorse a candidate, \"but a process.\" \"I wanted the three of them to agree ... [to] campaign vigorously ... not to create divisive language, to each agree to support the winner, [and] end the [U.N.] sanctions,\" he said. \"I think there's a common agreement on these points. This country has so much to offer the world and Africa.\" The United Nations imposed sanctions on the nation in 2004, among them, a ban on arms and diamond trades, a travel ban and asset freezes for some individuals. The sanctions, renewed last year, are in effect until October 29. Earlier in Jackson's trip, Amon N'Douffou V, king of the Krindjabo kingdom, named Jackson a prince of the Agni people, news reports said. Jackson said it was a \"very exciting ceremony.\" Jackson's wife, Jacqueline, suffered a broken leg during the trip when a stage she and her husband were on collapsed, Jackson told CNN in a telephone interview. \"We had excellent medical care,\" the pastor said, adding that the collapse was \"not the fault of the organizers,\" but that too many people had gathered on the stage. Official news agency Agence Ivoirienne de Presse reported that the stage collapse occurred in a sports complex in Yopougon, north of Abidjan. A doctor was to accompany them on their Friday night flight back to the United States, Jackson said. The coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials. In a July 30 statement, the U.N. Security Council said \"any postponement of the elections of 29 November would be inconsistent with a credible process\" and with a peace agreement that had followed an armed rebellion in 2002 that had divided the country in two. The Security Council said it would review progress toward elections before October 15. In March, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the \"United States believes that long-delayed presidential elections are still technically possible in 2009 and calls on all parties to take every step necessary to ensure that credible elections go forward as promised.\" The statement said more than 5.7 million people had been enrolled as voters on a \"preliminary basis.\"","highlights":"Coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials .\nJackson meets with president, opposition leaders in trip to West African nation .\nLeader of Krindjabo kingdom reportedly names Jackson a prince of the Agni people .\nJackson: Wife received \"excellent medical care\" after breaking leg in stage collapse ."} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A report from an Israeli advocacy group based on what it says is the testimony of several unnamed Israeli soldiers accuses the Israeli military of intentionally putting Palestinian civilians at risk during its recent operation in Gaza. Palestinian Majid Abed Raboh, left, shows Wednesday how he says Israeli soldiers used him as a human shield. The report, released Wednesday from a group called \"Breaking the Silence\" -- which includes former Israeli soldiers -- has been dismissed by the Israeli military as slanderous. In the 110-page report, the group said some of the 26 soldiers interviewed said they used Palestinians as human shields during the military's more than two-week long ground operation in Gaza earlier this year. \"In some cases a civilian would be forced to walk in front of soldier while the soldier places his gun barrel on the civilian's shoulder,\" the report states. Other soldiers talk about destroying buildings even though the structures posed no direct threat. They also said that white phosphorus was used in densely populated areas and describe the rules of engagement as \"permissive.\" Phosphorus shells can be used to create a smokescreen for troops. In creating the diversion, the element ignites when exposed to oxygen and can cause severe burns. International law calls on militaries to limit the use white phosphorus in civilian areas. Other organizations, including the United Nations' Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights, have criticized the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza. Israel has questioned the legitimacy of those claims, as well. The stories presented by Breaking the Silence are anonymous accounts which CNN cannot independently verify. The group said that the soldiers were not willing to speak with the media. In response to the report's allegations, the Israeli military said it complied with international law on all fronts. The advocacy group said many of the soldiers interviewed in its report are still serving and fear repercussions if they reveal their identity, and they did not take their complaints up the chain of command. The Israeli military has rejected the report, saying the anonymous nature of the testimonies means they lack credibility. \"There are no factual details, no places, no names of incidents in specific houses on a specific date,\" military spokesman Lt. Col. Avital Liebovitch said. \"I would be more than happy to be provided with these details and I will be able to investigate them.\" The Israeli military conducted its own investigation into soldiers' actions during Operation Cast Lead, its 22-day military offensive in January against the militant group Hamas in an effort to end ongoing rocket attacks. It found that Israeli forces \"operated in accordance with international law\" although there were a few incidents in which \"intelligence or operational errors\" occurred. Fighting left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead according to officials in Gaza, while Israel put that death toll closer to 1,100, saying more than 70 percent of those killed were Hamas militants. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the operation, including three civilians. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, responding to the report which was widely publicized in Israel, said the criticism was \"misplaced and misdirected.\" \"If someone has a criticism, or information or conclusions about IDF (Israel Defense Forces) actions, they should bring them to me, as minister of defense of the state of Israel, and to the Israeli government that instructed the IDF to restore quiet to the communities in the south,\" Barak said. \"The IDF is the most moral army in the world and it operates according to the highest ethical code.\" CNN did independently obtain corroborating detail on one anonymous claim in the report. Gaza resident Shafiq Daher told CNN earlier this week that he was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers during the recent Gaza military operation. His description of his experience closely matched an account given in the Breaking the Silence report. \"He was holding with all his strength like this and with his heavy machine gun on the other shoulder,\" said Daher, who demonstrated how the soldier walked behind him as they approached his neighbors' homes. The Israeli military would not comment on whether Palestinians were used as human shields in Gaza, saying only that there are dozens of ongoing internal investigations into individual soldier conduct. Daher, who lives in Jabaliya outside Gaza City, said he was forced to search his neighbors' homes this way for about a week, under heavy fire. He said he was also given a hammer and told to break through his neighbors' walls. \"I felt like a dead man walking,\" he said. \"I was walking and praying to God and thought this is what death is like.\"","highlights":"Israeli advocacy group bases report on testimony of unnamed Israeli soldiers .\nSoldiers say they used civilians as shields, phosphorus in crowded areas .\nSoldiers referring to operation in Gaza; between 1,100 and 1,400 Palestinians killed .\nIsraeli military calls report slanderous, lacking in credibility ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal authorities have charged seven men in North Carolina with supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad, the Justice Department announced Monday. Daniel Patrick Boyd, left, and Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan are two of the seven men charged. Officials said one of the men, identified as North Carolina resident and U.S. native Daniel Patrick Boyd, had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he trained in terrorist camps to carry out \"violent jihad.\" Boyd, 39, who went by the name Saifullah, was charged along with two of his sons: Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as Mohammed, and Zakariya Boyd, 20. The four others also are residents of North Carolina, and all seven are accused of engaging in weapons training and military tactics in their home state, the Justice Department said. \"We consider this significant. We've been watching them for some time, and we think they were dangerous,\" said a federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified. The Boyd family and defendant Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan are identified as U.S.-born citizens. Defendant Hysen Sherifi is identified as a native of Kosovo who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, and Hiyad Yaghi and Anes Subasic are said to be naturalized U.S. citizens. Officials did not immediately identify their native countries. The indictment, made public by the Justice Department, says Daniel Boyd and others left the United States for Israel in June 2007 to \"engage in violent jihad but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts.\" The defendants, with a substantial cache of weapons, had \"practiced military tactics and use of weapons on private property in Caswell County, North Carolina, in June and July 2009,\" the indictment says. The documents make no reference to a direct threat to individuals or property in the United States. In a written statement, the Justice Department's top counterterrorism official, David Kris, said that Daniel Boyd, \"a veteran of terrorist training camps\" had conspired with others to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill.\" The U.S. attorney in Raleigh, George E. B. Holding, said, \"These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far-away land, but can grow and fester right here at home.\" The defendants made an initial appearance in federal court in North Carolina. Officials said they are expected to return to court Thursday for detention hearings.","highlights":"U.S. native and two sons are among suspects .\nMan accused of attending training camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan .\nSeven \"practiced military tactics\" in North Carolina, indictment says .\nNo mention of direct threats to individuals or property in United States ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eighteen people, including two soldiers, were killed Saturday in a gunbattle between the Mexican army and organized-crime suspects in the Mexican resort town of Acapulco, the Mexican Ministry of Defense said Sunday. Mexican soldiers hold rifles Saturday during a clash with organized-crime suspects in Acapulco. The incident began about 7 p.m., when the soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco \"to exploit information obtained through an anonymous tip,\" the ministry said in a statement. The soldiers were met by gunfire, it said. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Two soldiers and 16 gunmen were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. The gunmen were not identified, but the statement called them \"members of organized crime.\" Authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said. CNN's Arthur Brice and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Luisa Calad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mexican soldiers, organized-crime suspects fight in Acapulco, authorities say .\nTwo soldiers, 16 \"members of organized crime\" killed; nine other soldiers wounded .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nSoldiers were investigating anonymous tip, says Mexican Defense Ministry ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Mat Kearney has every right to be frustrated. Mat Kearney's music has gotten a boost through music video channels and \"Grey's Anatomy.\" As he walks to his tour bus behind Hollywood's Palladium -- where he'll play in a few hours -- he's already had to cope with logistical snafus, shortened sound checks and general confusion. And the tour is just beginning. There are more than 30 cities and 10 weeks to come. But as he approaches the bus, he is completely overtaken by an obscure flower hanging off a fence behind the venue. \"I've never seen anything like that,\" he says, looking at the blue-and-white bloom. \"I've got to take one of these.\" Kearney should be smelling the flowers. His music, such as the song \"Nothing Left to Lose,\" has received consistent airplay on music TV channels -- which earned him a headlining slot on a VH1-sponsored tour -- and repeated appearances in TV and film. Most notably, \"Grey's Anatomy\" used his song \"Breathe In, Breathe Out.\" His new album, \"City of Black & White\" (Aware\/Columbia), is out Tuesday. Watch the video for the single \"Closer to Love\" \u00bb . The Oregon-born musician, 30, sat down with CNN to talk about his songwriting journey, combining a big sound with personal observations and a certain \"weird TV show.\" The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: How important was Nashville, Tennessee, in your decision to be a songwriter? Mat Kearney: The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik and even Ryan Adams. ... That was the first place I really started playing music and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage. CNN: This whirlwind world tour you completed last year -- how did it impact this new album and you personally? Kearney: That tour was three years long. [So] this record was a return back to community in Nashville and to sing. ... So, [the tour] created this void for wanting to connect in a local way. So many things happen when you're not out there running and gunning. Falling in love with someone, getting your heart broken, being around friends -- that stuff can only happen when you stick around for a while. CNN: What's the significance of the title -- \"City of Black & White\"? Kearney: The title track I wrote in Istanbul. We stayed in this place that overlooked the Bosporus, which splits Europe from Asia. The song is about worlds colliding, being that far away from home, and also longing to be with someone you love in that distant land. ... It seemed like a good cornerstone to build the record on. CNN: You're an avid traveler, but this record is more concerned with planting roots. How do you reconcile the two? Kearney: I don't think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up. That's the fun of this whole journey for me. There are people I love in Nashville and would not want to go a day without talking to, but I want to see the world. The record is coming out of an experience of reconciling those two things. I played 275 shows for two years straight. You have to travel between those shows. So you're gone. Some of those experiences shape the record. There's a romantic side to it. This isn't a one-night stand record. It's not youthful idealism that's going after the masses. There's some ideas of, say, that prodigal son who has walked away from you and you're sitting there saying, \"I'm here for you if you need me.\" CNN: The sound is big but the lyrics are intensely personal. How did you meld those ideas together? Kearney: Yeah, it's like the biggest song is one of the most personal. \"Fire and Rain\" [not the James Taylor song] is a crazy four-on-the-floor song, but it's a song about someone who has left you. Something about the juxtaposition of those two seem so interesting to me. I didn't plan it. It just kind of happened. CNN: You're one of the last musicians I have seen actually get airplay on [music television channels], and you broke through because of it. Kearney: It's interesting how my music has gained success being accompanied by images. When I was in college I wanted to study film. My first passion was to be a cinematographer. So maybe there's something innate in my music where it partners well with images. It's worked on weird TV shows where doctors are making out and people getting logs pulled out of their stomachs [laughs]. Somehow my music seems to work with that. CNN: How did your music become such an integral part of that show [\"Grey's Anatomy\"]? Kearney: I really don't know. Somebody somewhere ... started using these songs and they seem to work. There are certain songs that lend themselves to images. No one's licensing [Katy Perry's] \"I Kissed a Girl\" and putting it in shows. That's a narrow-focused message that doesn't need much [in the way of] images.","highlights":"Mat Kearney enjoys growing success; new album is \"City of Black & White\"\nKearney has earned airplay on TV, including \"Grey's Anatomy\"\nKearney likes juxtaposition of personal lyrics, big musical sound ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's foremost aviation showcase celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The Spitfire is one of the aircraft from Farnborough's inaugural show getting airborne once again to celebrate the airshow's 60th year. The 46th Farnborough International Airshow will commemorate the first show ever held in 1948 at this year's event in Hampshire which runs from July 14 to 20. \"As we look back on the past 60 years, we also are excited to continue looking forward to the next 60 years,\" said John Cairns, Head of Services at Farnborough International Limited (FIL) which runs the biennial airshow. To mark the occasion, Farnborough's world-renowned flying display will include aircraft which flew at the first show like the Swordfish, Spitfire, Sea Hawk and Sea Fury. Adding a modern twist to the mix will be the debut of The Blades, the world's only globally accredited aerobatic airline. The airshow was first established as a way for the British public to see and learn about the best of aviation. Staying true to its original purpose, on both Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July -- Farnborough's \"public weekend\" -- there will be a four-and-a-half-hour flying display. Highlights include perennial favourites the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force aerobatic team who will close the show with their aerial gymnastics, as well as the debut of the Aero Sekur Shooting Stars, an Italian ladies' parachute team who will be providing daily skydiving displays. \"Farnborough, in essence, has always been about innovation, and I am delighted that to a long line of distinguished 'Farnborough Firsts' I am able to add some very worthy new firsts, including the first ever women's parachute team to appear at the Airshow; the world's first aerobatic airline and the first business aviation jet to have been developed at Farnborough,\" continued Cairns. As well as displaying aircraft for the public, Farnborough has also established itself as one of the world's premier showcases for the aviation business world. This year, 1,500 companies from 35 countries as diverse as Colombia and Bahrain will be exhibiting planes and other technologies in a show that is predicted to be Farnborough's biggest to date. On the trade days which run from Monday 14 to Friday 18 July, business attendees will be able to see the world's latest aerospace innovations in the air. A full range of civil, business and defence aircraft will take part in flying displays. These include the Airbus AB380; HAL helicopters; the Kestrel JP10 (originally conceived at Farnborough airfield); the MiG 29; the EADS Eurofighter; the F 16 and F18; the MB 346; the AB 609; MB 311. In 2006, Farnborough trade week accumulated $42 billion worth of orders including $550 million in business aviation orders. The Airbus A380 also made its UK debut at Farnborough that year. \"Our intention has always been to build on the success of the 2006 event, and to ensure that this year's show delivers an incomparable business service for our exhibitors and their customers, ensuring that they can gain maximum benefit and opportunity from attending Farnborough Airshow -- whether that is taking orders, making sales or developing new business,\" said Amanda Stainer, the Airshow's Exhibition and Events Director. To find out more about Farnborough International Airshow go to: www.farnborough.com\/ .","highlights":"Farnborough International Airshow celebrates its 60th year in 2008 .\nFlying displays will include Spitfire and Sea Hawk planes which first flew in 1948 .\nAerospace industry will be represented by 1,500 companies from 25 countries .\nProfessionals will be able to see the MiG 29 and the F 16 fighter jets in the air ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Debbie Phelps, the mother of swimming star Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing, is the author of a new memoir, \"A Mother For All Seasons.\" Debbie Phelps, mother of Olympian Michael Phelps, tells Larry King her son has strong values. Phelps spoke with CNN's Larry King about her new book, a recent tabloid report detailing her son's partying ways and the infamous bong photo. The following is an edited version of the transcript. Larry King: You have this terrific new book coming. If I do say so myself, it's inspiring. Yet (Thursday's) lead story in the \"New York Daily News\" gate crasher column -- I don't know who writes that -- \"tsk, tsk,\" it says, \"Michael Phelps, partying your face off in public is not the way to reclaim your good guy image. The Olympian was been laying relatively low since his bong smoking scandal in January was out in full force Tuesday night at New York City hot spot Marquis\" -- I think is the name -- \"Michael was definitely having a good time, an eyewitness tells us, drinking straight from a bottle of Grey Goose. When the DJ started playing MIA's 'Paper Planes,' he got up started dancing like a loon and kept on yelling 'shots.' Phelps definitely had enough alcohol on hand for several four round. He ordered four bottles of Vodka.\" Is this tough for a mother? How do you react? Debbie Phelps: It's one thing that I learn at a very early age is I don't get caught up in gossip columns. I know my son. He has great values, lots of integrity. That's what I think about that. King: Did you talk to him about this? Phelps: I always talk to Michael. I talk to Michael every day. We talked about training today and things of that nature. King: But it would be normal to say, what happened, wouldn't it? I would say that to my son. Phelps: We give support. We give guidance. We give an ear to listen. And, again, I don't get caught up in gossip. King: Therefore, you don't believe it? I just want to establish what your feelings are. Phelps: I don't get caught up in gossip, Mr. King. King: What about something that wasn't gossip, the picture with the bong thing. It was a picture. Phelps: It's a picture, that's true. But, you know, a picture can say many things. It has many words. It has many meanings. It has many visualizations that you want to think. It depends on the person who is looking at that picture. You know, as a mom, I support all three of my children. I believe that no matter who you are in this country, in this world, there are obstacles that get into your life. I call them speed bumps in school sometimes. I heard someone say lightning bolts. That's another term for that. But, you know, how do we grow? How do we learn? You raise a child through 18. You send them off to college. You give them the roots. You give them the foundation to be a strong, young man, a strong lady. Life throws curve balls to you sometimes. How do you handle that curve ball? King: Michael is 23. That's an adult. He's an adult. Phelps: A young adult. King: Young adult. So one could say it's his life. He chooses to lead it. As our parent, we do our best to guide them, but 23 is 23. Do you view him still as a kid? Phelps: I view my 31-year-old daughter as a kid sometimes. You know, I look at each of my children independently and individually of themselves. They have many strong values, strong points, professionalism. I'm just very proud of all three of them and everything they've done. King: Do you think these kind of stories -- and you don't pay attention to them -- hurt your book? Phelps: I was asked many times and told many times, \"Debbie, you need to write a book some day.\" As an educator, I'm thinking, I would really like to do that. It became a personal goal of mine to be able to publish a book, not knowing exactly what it was going to be. Was it going to be my life? Was it going to be parenting? Was it going to be swimming? Was it just going to be motivational and inspirational? When I take a look at the book I was able to write, I have great pride in that book because it shows other people, every woman, but not even women -- men can read this book also -- the inspiration and motivation of life. King: The question is, \"Do you think these kind of stories might hurt the chance of people buying the book, which is what you want?\" Phelps: People are going to have to make that decision. King: Do you think it might? Phelps: Life is life. I do want to say, though, in reference to the Beijing Olympics, we, as a family, I think, made a great impression on the world, on the United States. My son has great love for me. It's a great bonding relationship. Families are very important. King: Is he still a role model, do you think? Phelps: You know, when I think of the word role model, I'll go back to me being a little girl. It was my mom and my dad. They were my role models when I was growing up. When I hear that role model in a sentence with my son, what I think about with Michael is what he does with and for children. It might be things people don't even know of -- his association with the Boys and Girls Club. For years, he has done that (and) his association with Make A Wish. He touches kids' lives. So if an individual, wherever they may be, may select my son as a role model, I say that my son has strong values. I say he's a human being. And I say that from obstacles that get in people's ways -- we all have them, Mr. King, and you know that -- what do you learn from them and how do you rise above the occasion?","highlights":"Debbie Phelps says she doesn't get caught up in gossip involving son, Michael .\nMichael Phelps reportedly seen partying at NY bar .\nPhelps apologized in January after photo shows him smoking from bong ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A sculpture of a giant white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of an unusual scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England. The 50-meter high horse will dominate the landscape around Ebbsfleet. The 50-meter equine artwork was Tuesday announced as the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, set to be a new stop on the Eurostar London-to-Paris rail link. Designed by artist Mark Wallinger -- whose previous work has included dressing in a bear suit and wandering around a gallery in Berlin -- the \u00a32 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK. Wallinger's horse -- which echoes ancient white horse symbols carved into hillsides around Britain -- beat a shortlist of designs that included a tower of stacked cubes and giant steel nest. Victoria Pomery, head of the panel that selected the design, described the 33-times normal size horse as \"outstanding.\" \"Mark is a superb artist of world renown and his sculpture will become a real landmark for Ebbsfleet Valley and the whole region,\" she said. It drew a less favorable response from readers of local Web site Kentnews.com, who described it as a \"waste of money,\" an \"abomination\" and \"depressing.\" One correspondent, Andy Smith, added: \"This horse looks extremely silly.\"","highlights":"Giant horse announced as winner of competition to design new landmark .\nEquine artwork is brainchild of conceptual artist Mark Wallinger .\nDesign's selectors describe sculpture as \"outstanding,\" critics say it's \"silly\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Painfully hot, they make your eyes water, your heart race and can turn your face embarrassingly red. Chilies have been used for many millenia both for their medicinal benefits and exciting falvor. Once only a staple of cuisine from far flung regions of the world, chilies can now be found in almost any dish around the globe. Last week an Indian woman wolfed down 51 \"ghost chilies,\" -- the world's spiciest -- in two minutes and smeared the seeds on her eyes for an entry into the Guinness World Records. Anandita Dutta Tamuly, 28, achieved the bizarre and fiery undertaking in the Indian north-eastern state of Assam. She was cheered on by British chef Gordon Ramsay, who also attempted a bite of the hot stuff before begging for water. A single seed can cause watering eyes, as well as a burning sensation in the mouth that can last up to five hours. A chili's spiciness is measured in Scoville units; the number of times a chili extract must be diluted in water in order for it to lose its heat. The \"ghost chili\", also known as bhut jolokia, has more than 1 million Scoville units, while Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units and jalapeno peppers from 2,500 to 8,000 units. Chilies have formed part of the diet in the Americas since approximately 7,500 BC and owe most of their fame to their sometimes unbearably spicy flavor. But they have also long been recognized for their health benefits. Scientific research --and legend-- have attributed health wonders to chilies over the years. Diego Alvarez Chanca, a physician on explorer Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, first wrote about the pepper's medicinal effects back in 1494. Below we look at effects eating chilies has on the body. Skin . Other than for its flavor-enhancing qualities, chili is, oddly enough, used to fight the summer heat. As the chili causes extreme sweating and blood rushing to the face, it cools the body down when the sweat evaporates, making it useful for combating heat. These same heat inducing properties are said to have a cumulative effect and over time are believed to alleviate pain when used in treatments for anything from arthritis and psoriasis to shingles and severe burns. Brain . The substances that give chili peppers their intensity when eaten or applied on the skin are called capsaicinoids. When consumed, capsaicinoids connect with pain receptors in the mouth and throat that are normally responsible for sensing heat. Once activated by the capsaicinoids, these receptors send a message to the brain that the person has consumed something hot. The brain responds to the burning sensation by raising the heart rate, increasing perspiration and releasing endorphins, called the body's \"natural painkillers\" and \"happy hormones.\" Stomach . Chilies have long been associated with soothing the digestive system, by acting as stomach cleansers. According to the UK Food Guide, chili helps to settle stomach upset and encourages the production of good digestive acid. Chili aficionados believe the fruits can also induce weight loss because the substance that makes them \"hot\" speed up the body's metabolism. However, one study by the American Institute of Cancer Research performed in Mexico showed in 2003 that a high consumption of chilies (approximately nine to 25 jalapeno peppers per day) is in fact associated with stomach cancer. Immune system . Red chilies contain high amounts of carotene and vitamin C. It is said that chilies contain more vitamin C than citrus fruits. Chili peppers are also a good source of vitamin B6 and are very high in potassium, magnesium and iron, giving them a reputation for naturally boosting the body's immune system. Heart and other cardiovascular effects . A 2006 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that after adding chili to the diet, bad cholesterol, that can often lead to heart problems, took a longer time to develop into heart diseases.","highlights":"An Indian woman last week wolfed down 51 \"ghost chilies\" in two minutes .\nThe ghost chili has 1 million Scoville units, the measurement of a chili's heat .\nChilies have also long been recognized for their health benefits ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two giant pandas arrived in Taiwan Tuesday after leaving China's Sichuan province for their new home, in a sign of improving ties between the cross-strait neighbors. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan rest at a giant panda research center in Sichuan province on Monday. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, both four years old, had been living in Ya'an since the May 12 earthquake that damaged their former home in Wolong in Sichuan, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The pandas ate a meal of steamed corn buns and carrots before they were placed in a truck and taken to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu. From there, they were flown to Taiwan. \"They had a good breakfast to sustain them on the long journey,\" said a Taiwan keeper traveling with the animals to the island, according to Xinhua. The panda goodwill was the latest sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei. Watch more about the pandas \u00bb . Regularly scheduled commercial flights, shipping and mail between Taiwan and China resumed last week for the first time since the 1949 revolution that brought the Communist Party to power on the Chinese mainland. On Monday, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said China would provide 130 billion yuan ($19 billion) in financing over the next two to three years to Taiwan-based companies doing business in the mainland. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has been cultivating ties with Beijing since winning office in March. Ma, a Nationalist, opposes reunification with China but ran on a platform touting the economic benefits of better relations with the mainland. In June -- in the first formal talks between the two sides in almost a decade --Chinese and Taiwanese officials agreed to set up permanent offices in each other's territories. Taiwan separated from China after the communists' victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949. About 2 million Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a government there. Beijing has always considered the island a part of China and has threatened to go to war should Taiwan declare formal independence. China said in May 2005 it would give the island two giant pandas, but their departure was delayed for more than three years. Improved ties between the two sides made the delivery of the pandas possible, Xinhua reported. The pair, whose names Tuan and Yuan together mean \"reunion,\" will live in a four-story building at the Taipei city zoo, and their lodgings will include an outdoor playground, the agency said. After a one-month quarantine, the pandas are expected to make their debut in Taiwan during the Chinese lunar new year. There are about 1,590 pandas living in China's wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. There were 239 captive-bred giant pandas in China in 2007, Xinhua reported. One panda died in the May quake, while another is still missing, according to an official at the China Panda Protection Studies Center in Wolong.","highlights":"Pandas will live at Taipei zoo, expected to debut during the Chinese lunar new year .\nPanda goodwill the latest sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei .\nRegular flights began between the two sides for the first time since 1949 .\nAbout 1,590 pandas live in China's wild, and there were 239 captive bred in 2007 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of eight people killed in a southeast Georgia mobile home last month recently had been awarded $25,000 in a civil lawsuit, officials said. Guy Heinze Jr. faces eight counts of first-degree murder in last month's killings in a Georgia mobile home. Guy Heinze Sr., 46, was granted the award by the McIntosh County, Georgia, Magistrate Court in a suit over a mobile home that he owned, court officials said. He had not received the money as the ruling was under appeal. Heinze was found dead August 29 in his Brunswick mobile home along with six others. An eighth person died later at a hospital. Police said all of the victims died from \"blunt force trauma,\" but they did not provide any further details. Heinze's son, Guy Heinze Jr., 22, faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths. Police suspect he acted alone, according to a statement from the Glynn County Police Department. The younger Heinze has made his initial court appearance via closed-circuit television from the Glynn County Detention Center, his attorney, Ron Harrison, said Tuesday. His preliminary hearing likely will come next week, Harrison said. The elder Heinze told relatives about the award days before his death, family members said. Court officials said the ruling was issued August 11, and an appeal was filed six days later. Harrison said he was aware of the award in the lawsuit but would not comment on it. Police also are aware of it, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said, but he declined comment on whether it is being explored as a possible motive in the slayings. Watch hints of a possible motive \u00bb . Harrison said he last saw his client on Friday, as he was not required to appear with him to hear the charges read. The younger Heinze \"continues to deny any involvement in the murders and urges anyone with information to contact authorities,\" he said Tuesday. He described his client as \"not good, disappointed, upset, angry.\" Heinze called 911 to report the slayings, telling the dispatcher, \"My whole family is dead.\" He was arrested just afterward and initially was charged with tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer as well as facing drug charges. Hear the 911 call \u00bb . An arrest warrant said he provided police \"with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members\" and that he removed a shotgun from the mobile home and hid it in his car. He was arrested on the murder charges hours after being freed from jail on the initial charges. Family members said he was on his way to attend the visitation for the victims but was arrested before arriving. A police chaplain called relatives to tell them of the arrest, family members said. Police have not released the cause of death for any of the victims. Heinze told dispatchers in his 911 call they appeared to have been beaten to death. Funerals were held Saturday for seven of the eight victims. Besides the elder Heinze, they were Brenda Gail Falagan, 49; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Chrissy Toler, 22; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held mid-month. A ninth victim, a 3-year-old, was on life support at a Savannah, Georgia, hospital as of Saturday, her grandmother said. Guy Heinze Sr.'s father, William Heinze, told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida, at the funerals that he doubted his grandson was responsible for the deaths. \"We want to know what really happened,\" he said. \"The police may think they know what happened, but we want to really know the truth.\" Brunswick is about 300 miles southeast of Atlanta on Georgia's Atlantic coast. CNN's Ashley Hayes, Sean Callebs and Chris Youd contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Police said all of the victims died from \"blunt force trauma\"\nThe $25,000 award from suit was under appeal .\nWarrant lists eight counts of first-degree murder for Guy Heinze Jr.\nHeinze is the son of the man who won the lawsuit ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. He was a co-host of \"Crossfire\" on CNN with Robert Novak from 2002 to 2005. Paul Begala says he admired Robert Novak for his skepticism about authority, work ethic and faith in his beliefs. (CNN) -- In our innumerable debates, I delighted in calling Bob Novak \"the finest mind of the 12th century.\" One time, though, he scowled and growled, \"I prefer the 15th century. Spanish Inquisition. Those were the days.\" Novak left this world on Tuesday, but he also left his mark. Needless to say I disagreed with Bob about virtually every political issue, and sometimes our on-air debates continued as profanity-laced shouting matches after the show ended. Despite our profound differences, though, we were friends. Here's why: . Bob was an iconoclast. He loved poking conventional wisdom in the eye. If all the media elite were perched on the same wire, Bob would land on the opposite wire and gleefully squawk at them. Bob was an ideologue more than a partisan. One of the many sources of tension between us was the fact that I am a partisan Democrat who believes that, from time to time, my personal ideological agenda must take a backseat to advancing a broader progressive agenda carried by my party. Not Bob. He was a conservative first, last and always, and when he felt the Republican Party had strayed from his hard-core anti-tax, anti-government ideology he would hammer the GOP with the same withering ridicule he usually dispensed to Democrats. Bob was deeply skeptical of authority. He was a lowly lieutenant in the United States Army, and he instinctively distrusted big shots -- a rarity in a town that is often dazzled by rank. For a guy who said he preferred business to government, he was not afraid to show his contempt for network executives with whom he disagreed. Bob had a remarkable work ethic. In the predawn hours after the 2004 presidential debate in Miami, Bob slipped in the shower, breaking his hip. The injury was terribly painful, and Bob was rushed to the hospital. Within 24 hours he was propped up in bed, working the phones and banging out a column on his laptop. Bob was an old-school reporter. Most pundits (your humble author included) devour the reporting of others and regurgitate our opinions. While strongly opinionated, Bob also reported. His sources, especially in the GOP, were wide and deep. When I was a White House official, one of my most dreaded responsibilities was dealing with Bob. He didn't support much of anything we were trying to do, but he never lied to me, never broke his word, and tried his hardest to get things right. Accuracy mattered enormously. Bob could be civil. This will astonish some, because Bob could also be rude. But he taught me at least one lesson in civility. On \"Crossfire,\" I carried a debate over into the commercial break. I badgered and hectored and attacked the guest who was on the right. I was angry and I let him have it. \"Wait just a #*& $@#^ minute,\" Bob screamed at me. \"You're out of line. You're being rude. Get off his back. He's come here on our show to make his case and you're abusing him. We call them 'guests' for a reason, Paul.\" He was right. Bob loved sports. One tiny island of common ground Bob and I could share was a love of sports. When James Carville and I joined \"Crossfire\" in 2002, CNN had a much-hyped debut planned for April 1. Bob didn't care. Maryland was playing for the NCAA basketball championship and he was going to be there. Producers pleaded, but Bob was unmoved. He did the show via satellite from Atlanta, Georgia, and when Coach Gary Williams cut down the net for the Terps, Bob was courtside. Bob became a Catholic. My brand of Catholicism and Bob's were as different as our brands of politics, but as a cradle Catholic I admire anyone who, at age 67, is still seeking the divine, still questioning, still open to a new faith. We spoke about faith often, and I'm sure his Catholic faith gave him great comfort as he battled the disease that claimed his life. Requiem in pace, friend. Or, as Bob might prefer: Goodnight, sweet Prince of Darkness. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Begala.","highlights":"Paul Begala: Bob Novak was a friend even though we differed on many issues .\nHe says Novak was true to his conservative beliefs even when GOP strayed .\nHe says Novak worked very hard at being a reporter as well as an advocate ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution extending the mandate of NATO-led military forces in Afghanistan for a year, hours after a deadly bombing near the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The bomb exploded in the center of Kabul on the corner of Passport Lane and the Indian Embassy. The suicide car bomb attack on Thursday left at least 17 people dead, most of them civilians, and 63 wounded. \"I think this is another reminder of the dangers that the Taliban pose to the Afghan population and to the international community in Afghanistan, and the importance of the continued international efforts there,\" said John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the world body, after the resolution was passed. The council provides international legal approval for the deployment of NATO troops to assist in the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The resolution, however, did not address troop numbers, an issue that has generated controversy since the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested an additional 40,000 troops. The Security Council also condemned the attack, calling for the \"perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism\" to be brought to justice. In addition to extending the mandate, the resolution stressed the need to bolster Afghan security forces to help them become self-sufficient in protecting their country. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's new leader, recently announced that NATO forces would begin training Afghan police and increase training of the Afghan National Army. Some 90,000 international forces are deployed in Afghanistan, with 35,000 serving with NATO and 65,000 with the United States. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Thursday bombing, saying an Afghan national in a sport utility vehicle carried out the attack. The bomber had intended to strike the embassy, Indian officials said. Watch what a local shopkeeper says about the area \u00bb . \"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the embassy gates,\" Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry, told CNN on Thursday. \"The embassy was the target.\" The bomb went off about 8:30 a.m., just as offices and shops were opening for the day. The force of the blast shattered some of the embassy's windows, according to Prakash. The bombing came a year after a similar deadly attack outside the Indian Embassy. The Thursday attack killed 17 -- most of them civilians -- and 63 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said. The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking Indian Embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police officers. The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the the embassy, said staffer J.P. Singh, but \"there were no casualties on the Indian side.\" The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings. The explosion shattered car windows and toppled restaurant walls. Paramedics dug through twisted metal and debris, looking for survivors. A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an obvious assault on civilians and said \"the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent people for their malicious goals.\" About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7, 2008, attack were two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school. More than 100 were wounded in that blast. Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation. India is the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing millions of dollars to help with reconstruction efforts there. CNN's Atia Abawi and Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.N. Security Council condemns Kabul attack, calls for justice .\nNEW: Resolution does not address troop numbers; comes hours after Kabul attack .\nBombing near Indian Embassy in Kabul killed at least 17 people .\nNATO's new leader Rasmussen recently announced training of Afghan police ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Sportsmen and women being caught taking drugs is not a new phenomenon -- but it's still a shock when the news breaks. Romania's Adrian Mutu was sacked by Chelsea and banned from the game for testing positive for cocaine. Only recently Michael Phelps, who shattered Olympic records by claiming eight golds in the pool in Beijing last year, was caught on camera with a marijuana pipe to his mouth. The American is far from alone. The history of sport is peppered with drug use, usually of the performance-enhancing kind: athletics has been blighted by it, cycling has lost much of its credibility because of it and baseball has proven to be far from immune. But football, the world's most popular game in terms of fan following and participation, does not seem to have had its share of drugs scandals, not least in the world's most high profile division, the English Premier League. No top-flight player in English football has ever tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs in a league match. The closest anyone has come is Middlesbrough FC defender Abel Xavier, who was banned from football by UEFA for 18 months in 2005 when he tested positive for the steroid dianabol after a UEFA Cup match. The English Football Association (FA) takes its lead on doping from UK Sport, the body which regulates drug testing in the UK based on the code set out by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Let us know your views of drugs and drug testing in football. UK Sport's Russell Langley does not believe more tests would necessarily return more positive results. \"It's a difficult question to answer,\" he said. \"The stats show what they show. But it's fair to say if doping was going on at that level we would have unearthed it. \"Our focus at UK Sport is not on more and more testing -- we don't think that's going to answer the question about whether there's more doping out there. \"What we want to do is make every test we do as effective as possible. If there are people out there doping we've got to have the right level of intelligence and information to target them. \"Testing at no notice and out of competition is where we think we've got the best chance of being able to catch any sportsmen taking drugs,\" he added. English footballers can be tested after matches (in competition) and at training sessions (out of competition). Until a few years ago, a tester was forbidden from turning up at a footballer's house unannounced (no notice). But the FA has altered its stance as part of its claim that it \"maintains the largest and most comprehensive out-of-competition testing program in international football.\" They conduct 1,600 random, no-notice drug tests per season, which the World Anti-Doping Code and the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping on Sport state is the most effective method of combating the use of drugs in sport. But those 1,600 tests are conducted on professional players, non-league football, women's football and youth team football. It means the chances are small of catching any Premier League star who may be using drugs. Down the years, Italy's Serie A has seen the most cases of players getting caught with either performance-enhancing or recreational drugs in their system. One reason for this is the Italian authorities' no-nonsense stance: two players from each squad are drawn at random to be tested after every match. And it has worked. Household names such as Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids, Pep Guardiola, Fernando Couto, Francesco Flachi, Mohamed Kallon and Diego Maradona have all been caught in the last two decades. By way of comparison, Billy Turley, a goalkeeper in one of England's lower leagues, was let off with warning after being found to have taken the steroid nandrolone in the 2002-03 season. It took a further positive test for cocaine for him to get a six-month ban. But on the issue of combating social drugs -- something not demanded by WADA's code -- Langley believes the FA's stance is to be applauded. He said: \"They invest heavily in their testing program. They recognize that a particular problem for their sport is social drugs so this separate testing goes on. They don't have to do it. \"This carries a different set of sanctions which are controlled by the FA and the aim of that program is about rehabilitation rather than punishment.\" Langley said the sanctions send out a strong message that the FA is prepared to do something about it. \"They recognize their responsibility -- football is a huge role model for youngsters,\" he added. Chris Armstrong, then of Crystal Palace, became the first Premier League player to fail a drug test when he tested positive for cannabis in 1995. He was back playing within a month following a brief spell in rehab. Chelsea's Mark Bosnich and Adrian Mutu have both been caught with cocaine in their systems and both were banned and sacked by the club in the 2000s. The FA also wants to make sure that players understand that not taking a test is not an option either, making an example of Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand. The center-back missed a scheduled drugs test in 2003 and was belatedly suspended for eight months and fined \u00a350,000. Ferdinand could have got a bigger punishment. The FA's guidelines state that for a first offence a minimum suspension of three months up to a maximum of two years will apply, but a lack of consistency has always dogged punishments for drug offences. No other footballer has been reported as missing a test since. The FA is far from blind to the issue of drugs in English football and since the Ferdinand incident their policies and punishments have been tightened. But as long as a player's chances of getting caught remain comparatively small, drugs in football appears to be an issue the FA is keeping a lid on rather than eradicating.","highlights":"Football has seen a number of high-profile players fail drugs tests .\nEnglish FA tests for both performance-enhancing and social drugs .\nDifferent punishments are given depending on the offence ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Record oil prices, the sub-prime mortgage mess and slumping stock markets are hardly music to the ears of investors. In tough economic times like these, investors seek out safe, stable investments such as guaranteed government bonds or CDs. Yet a growing number are being wooed by the sweet sounds, and profits, of something new -- investment funds specializing in high-end musical instruments. The Stradivarius violin -- only about 700 are believed to exist -- is the premier investment instrument. Talented musicians want them, but can't afford them -- one fetched $3.5 million at auction. Enter Nigel Brown, winner of The Queen's Award for Enterprise and Chairman of the NW Brown Group, a financial services company. He brings musician and investor together. \"What happens is, a musician comes along to see me, having fallen in love with an instrument,\" Brown says. \"Then, what I do is to pull a syndicate of people together to buy this instrument so that the musician can then have the use of it ...\" Down the road, the musician can buy the instrument from the investors. They split the profits if its value appreciates. That's how violinist Matthew Trusler got his $2 million Stradivarius. Brown loved Trusler's playing and funded the instrument himself. \"They are just the most fantastic violins that were ever made,\" Trusler says, clutching his. \"This one was made in 1711 ... and it's been around for 300 years and it's a really wonderful violin.\" Not everyone is convinced a Stradivarius is such a great deal -- particularly modern instrument makers. \"I think if you can get hold of one of the very best Strads, not just any Strad ... I think they probably give you, as a player, something special,\" says violin-maker Andreas Hudelmayer. \"But if you can't have one of the very few best, you are just as well off with a new instrument.\" His reasoning? The cost of insuring a Stradivarius for just a couple of years would pay for a new, top-quality violin, Hudelmayer says. Even so, the reality is that old violins are attracting those looking for alternative investments. A new hedge fund called the Fine Violins Fund is dedicated to top-range instruments. The latest studies show exclusive violins are earning a steady 3.5 percent a year since 1850. That beats U.S. Treasury bonds over the same timeframe, with their 2.19 percent average yield. Of course, you have to be in the investment game for the long haul. \"They've proved to be fantastic investments,\" says Simon Morris, director of Beare's -- a broker and appraiser of high-end violins, violas and cellos. \"For many of the musicians that bought say in the 1960s, they've been the best pension plan they could've had. \"Like anything, you have to purchase well and sell well. You can't just go and buy any old thing.\" But for these investors, the financial return is only part of the investment. \"The fact they make a financial gain is of course gratifying at the end of the day, but it is mostly the support of the musician,\" says Brown. \"They like being able to go along to a concert and hear their instrument performed by their artist.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Investors are being wooed by funds specializing in high-end musical instruments .\nThe Stradivarius violin is the premier investment instrument .\nA new hedge fund called the Fine Violins Fund is dedicated to top-range instruments ."} -{"article":"LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police raided an Islamic school and arrested seven students hours after a blast in a mosque in northern Pakistan left at least 50 dead and dozens injured, according to an Associated Press report. A man, right, mourns the death of his two sons in a suicide attack near Peshawar that killed at least 50. A bomb, packed with ball-bearings and nails, tore through Eid prayers at a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers northeast of Peshawar on Friday, targeting Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, former Pakistani interior minister, local police told CNN. The blast left blood-stained clothes, hats and shoes as well as body parts and pieces of flesh scattered across the mosque, according to reports. The attack is the most recent in a series of attacks in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and occurred near Sherpao's residence in Charsadda -- an area approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of the city of Peshawar. Watch what's known about the blast \u00bb . Police investigators say Taliban or al Qaeda elements could have been involved and they believe the former minister was targeted over his supervision of operations against militants in Pakistan's tribal areas including the restive NWFP. This attack is the deadliest in Pakistan since 136 people were killed in the southern port city of Karachi on October 18 in a suicide bombing targeting the convoy of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister. See photos from the blast's aftermath \u00bb . Bhutto returned to the country after eight years in self-imposed exile ahead of January parliamentary elections. The attack comes in the midst of continued operations by the Pakistani army to rout out militants in the swat valley in the north of the country, an area the government considers a front-line in the so-called global war on terror. A former tourist destination about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Islamabad, The Swat Valley has been plagued by violence and has become a hotbed for militants. Earlier this month, the army said it has retaken towns seized by militants over the summer, killing 290 and capturing 140. The attack also comes less than a week after President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency he said was necessary to ensure the country's stability but that critics said was a move to stifle the country's judiciary, curb the media and secure more power. While Musharraf has promised free and fair parliamentary elections, continued instability in the tribal areas and the threat of attack on large crowds has kept people from attending political rallies and dampened the country's political process. Campaigners from various political parties say fewer people are coming out to show their support. The president -- who survived two assassination attempts in December 2003 -- denounced Friday's attack, speaking out against what he said was a small number of Muslim extremists who would carry out such an act, according to a report from the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. He ordered security and intelligence agencies to find those responsible. A spokesperson for the U.N. said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemns the attack and he \"urges all political forces in Pakistan to unite against the scourge of terrorism and to act together to create a peaceful environment ahead of the Parliamentary elections.\" This is the second attempt on Sherpao's life since April, when a suicide bomber blew himself up just a few feet from Sherpao during a political rally, injuring him and killing at least 28 people. The APP reported that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber inside the mosque, as people were gathering for religious observances of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim celebration of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. \"We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred,\" said Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast whose white cloak and pants were torn and spattered with blood, an AP report said. Despite security measures at the mosque, the bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive, provincial police chief Sharif Virk said, the report added. A Peshawar hospital was wracked with chaos as the injured arrived in pickup trucks, ambulance sirens wailed and the wounded screamed for help, the report said. The bomb contained between 13-17 pounds of explosives and was filled with nails and ball bearings to maximize casualties, said the head of the bomb unit at the scene, who declined to give his name. Sherpao and his two sons were in the first row of the mosque, the APP report said. Mustafa Khan Sherpao had leg injuries while Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao \"escaped unhurt.\" Sherpao was Pakistan's interior minister -- the country's top civilian security official -- before Musharraf announced a caretaker government in November ahead of elections. He heads the breakaway political group Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao, is a vocal critic of religious extremism, pro-Musharraf and a candidate in upcoming elections. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bomb detonated at mosque northeast of Peshawar, Pakistan .\nLocal police: At least 50 dead in attack on Eid prayers .\nReports: Former interior minister was target, escapes blast, one son injured .\nMinister supervised military operations in tribal areas against militants ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lectures, slide shows and notes are often boring, but people are using technology to find entertainment in these unlikely places. Spoof notes of \"Star Wars\" are scribbled into a fun online \"pencast.\" Some use high-tech pens to track presentations. Others share PowerPoints in slide show form online. These technologically spiced-up presentations seem to be getting more attention these days. They're also creating buzz about what the future of presentations might hold. Consider \"pencasts,\" which are made using the Pulse SmartPen and specially gridded paper, both sold by the California startup Livescribe. The pen writes like an ordinary pen but also has a voice recorder, and it \"notes\" (so to speak) which notes were taken at which point in the recording. Some quirky SmartPen presentations come off as comedy sketches. One popular presentation muses about how George Lucas might have come up with the idea for Star Wars. Some university students love the technology because they can record and play back what their professor was saying at an exact point in their notes -- which is especially useful when you can't read your own writing. And many professors are all for it, too. \"I feel like this is one of those 'Rear View Mirror' moments in which a new technology comes into our lives with enormous potential and we just don't know what to do with it yet,\" blogs Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropology and digital ethnography professor at Kansas State University. \"We think of it in terms of what we know (pen and paper) and fail to recognize the potential.\" That potential -- for entertainment and serious uses alike -- can be gleaned from pencasts posted on the Livescribe Web site's community section, which is about a year old. The pencasts posted there have collectively received more than 1.5 million views. Soon, it will be easier to embed pencasts on other sites, like personal blogs, the company says. Slide shows are further along in popularity. A startup called SlideShare launched in late 2006 with the idea of allowing people to easily share their PowerPoint presentations. Its site had more than 15 million visitors last month, and its 2008 contest for the best presentations showed off the form's potential. The best are far removed from the dull bullet-point presentations you might have fallen asleep to. Many use dramatic images, striking design and memorable phrases. Former Vice President Al Gore developed his presentation on the planet's environmental challenges into the Academy Award-winning documentary and best-selling book \"An Inconvenient Truth.\" Last year's top SlideShare presentation, called \"Thirst,\" highlights the looming water crisis and has nearly 200,000 views. Others are more light-hearted. The No. 2 spot (with more than 60,000 views) went to a presentation called \"Foot Notes.\" It shows pictures of the narrator's feet in various places she's been (like on cobblestone corridors in Prague and a dance floor in Chicago), interspersed with inspiring quotes related to feet and walking. Finally, for many people, the most dreaded, boring form of communication of all is the lecture. But then, how to explain the popularity of the TED videos? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The conference started in the mid-'80s and has become a networking event of sorts for the world's best and brightest. Dozens of speakers give presentations of about 20 minutes each -- the perfect duration for a juicy \"media snack.\" TED.com started introducing TEDTalks to the public for free in July 2006, and by the following year, there were more than a hundred talks dating back to 2002. Broken down into dozens of themes, today they're popular fodder for video iPods. In one, the amputee athlete and model Aimee Mullins talks about how her many pairs of artificial legs often beat having a single pair of regular ones -- some make her taller, others are works of art. In another, Jill Tarter, an astronomer and director of the Center for SETI Research, discusses how insanely large the universe is and what a \"waste of space\" it would be if life on Earth were indeed all there is. It's hard to watch a handful of TED videos and not feel your perspective broadening. That helps explain how, despite the lecture format, TEDTalks has become hugely popular. A few months ago, the videos surpassed the 100 million views mark -- not bad for a bunch of lectures.","highlights":"Technology injects new life into a dull medium: presentations .\nSmartPens bring audio and written notes together .\nGrowth in online applications makes slide shows and lectures more interesting .\nSuccess of TED lectures means educational content can be popular ."} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Roy Bennett, the former Zimbabwean opposition activist who was arrested Friday shortly before he was due to become a Cabinet minister, has been charged with conspiracy to commit banditry, sabotage and terrorism, his lawyer told CNN. Roy Bennett, left, pictured with MDC leader Morgan Tzvangirai, is also the party's treasurer. The Movement for Democratic Change nominated Bennett to be deputy minister of agriculture in a national unity government with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1980. Bennett was arrested on Friday while on his way to South Africa, where he has been living for three years. Bennett, who is also the party's treasurer, was pulled from an aircraft at the airport in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, the MDC said. Police accuse him of funding the acquisition of weapons to commit the crimes he is charged with. Bennett will appear in the Mutare magistrate's court on Monday, his lawyer Trust Maanda told CNN. Bennett, a white coffee grower, is an old foe of Mugabe's government. His farms were seized during the country's controversial land reform program. He has previously being jailed for assaulting Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in parliament. Hundreds of party members and supporters Friday surrounded the Mutare police station where Bennett was being held, the party said. The incident happened the same day that other MDC ministers in the new unity government took their oaths of office. The swearing-in eventually took place but was delayed, the MDC said, because Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party wanted to appoint more ministers than they were allowed in the new government. Under the power-sharing deal signed in September, the ruling ZANU-PF party gets 17 cabinet posts and the MDC gets 13. Mugabe brought a \"bloated\" list of 22 Cabinet ministers to the swearing-in ceremony, but the MDC leadership insisted Mugabe stick to the 17 agreed Cabinet posts. The stalemate lasted for more than an hour, until Mugabe's party agreed that only 17 of their proposed ministers take office. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Zimbabwean minister gaces accusations of banditry, sabotage and terrorism .\nRoy Bennett pulled from aircraft as he was about to fly to South Africa .\nMDC supporters rallied at police station where Bennett was held ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The co-pilot of a plane that crashed in Buffalo, New York, in February was feeling ill and had considered backing out of the flight, according to a cockpit voice recorder transcript released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board. First Officer Rebecca Shaw said before takeoff: \"You know, we'll see how it feels flying.\" \"You know, we'll see how it feels flying,\" First Officer Rebecca Shaw said as the plane prepared for takeoff. \"If the pressure's just too much, I, you know, I could always call in tomorrow.\" She added, \"I'm pretty tough.\" At a safety board hearing in May, NTSB investigators said Shaw had pulled an all-nighter before she got on the plane. After three days off, she had commuted through the night from Seattle, Washington, catching rides on FedEx flights to get to Newark, New Jersey, investigators said. Colgan Flight 3407 crashed February 12 during an instrument approach to Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. The four crew members and all 45 passengers died; there was also one fatality on the ground. The transcript indicates intermittent sneezes and sniffles during the flight. The report released Monday adds to the factual material connected to the investigation and does not provide analysis into the probable cause of the accident, the safety board said. The other pilot on the flight, Capt. Marvin Renslow had nearly a full day off beforehand, but safety board investigators found that he slept in the Newark Airport crew lounge, against Colgan Air regulations. CNN's Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.","highlights":"Transcripts show that Rebecca Shaw was feeling ill .\nShaw said that if pressure was too much, she could call out the next day .\nColgan Flight 3407 crashed February 12 during approach to Buffalo ."} -{"article":"UNITY, New Hampshire (CNN) -- The day began with a kiss. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama leave Washington on Friday for a rally in New Hampshire. Sen. Barack Obama, on the tarmac at Reagan Washington National Airport, reached out to shake Sen. Hillary Clinton's hand and leaned down to kiss her cheek. It went on from there. Wearing a tie that matched her suit, he put his hand on her back, guiding the way up the plane steps. They sat side-by-side for the flight up to Manchester, New Hampshire, chatting amiably. One overheard conversation was about the plane. Clinton had used it during the primary season. They hopped on a souped-up bus for the 1\u00bd-hour ride to Unity, New Hampshire. The honorary mayor of Unity introduced the pair, admitting that he was a Republican who voted for John McCain in the primary. He didn't seem so sure about the general election. They walked onstage to the tune of \"Beautiful Day.\" Arms around each other's waists, they smiled and waved at the crowd. Every camera angle had UNITY signs, big and little, in the backdrop. She said she wants to help elect him president. He gave an ode to Hillary: \"She rocks.\" Watch more from Unity \u00bb . One woman stood at the back, periodically yelling, \"Hillary for VP!\" A few others, older women, stubbornly held up tattered Hillary For President placards. But the vast majority cheered her, \"Thank you, Hillary!\" and him, \"Yes, we can!\" They held new signs for the new times: \"UNITY FOR CHANGE.\" As the dynamic duo glowed onstage, a Clinton staffer circulated through the press corps with word that Hillary and Bill Clinton had gone online to give the maximum contribution allowed by law to the Obama for President campaign. It was the picture-perfect day of togetherness that Barack Obama had wanted. It was not entirely believable, but politics is the art of pragmatism.","highlights":"Sens. Clinton and Obama hold a unity rally in Unity, New Hampshire .\nCrowley: A \"day of togetherness that Barack Obama had wanted\"\n\"It was not entirely believable, but politics is the art of pragmatism,\" Crowley adds ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson carded a solid 69 in the opening round of the WGC-CA Championship but it was his highly unusual recovery shot on the 12th on the Blue Monster course at Doral which raised more than a few eyebrows. Stenson did not leave much to the imagination with his Doral antics. Stenson stripped down to the bare essentials -- a pair of white boxer shorts -- before wading into the mud to hack out his ball after an wayward tee shot. The watching galleries could hardly believe their eyes as the tall Swede peeled off his clothes. \"Shirt, trousers, socks, shoes, hat, the lot was off,\" he told the Press Association. \"Because of the mud I couldn't really afford to play in any of my clothes as they would have been a real mess down the last six or so holes so I had no option,\" Stenson explained. After getting the ball back on to the fairway, Stenson eventually made a one-over par bogey on the hole when he could have dropped at least two shots by taking a drop. \"If you are saving a shot, that has to be worth taking your shirt and trousers,\" he added. What do you think of Stenson's cheeky recovery shot ? The incident proved the main talking point on the day that Tiger Woods made his return to strokeplay golf and 32-year-old Stenson jokingly said it might offer a new avenue for sponsorships. \"Absolutely, you never know, after this I might have a new endorsement with PlayGirl or something like that.\" European Ryder Cup star Stenson is playing for the $1.4 million first prize in the tournament in Florida which has an elite 81-strong field. His recovery shot evoked memories of the last-hole drama at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie when tournament leader Jean Van de Velde waded into the Barry Burn after taking off his shoes and socks. The Frenchman at least spared the blushes of the crowds by keeping on his clothes but he made a hash of hole and lost his chance of winning the famous major.","highlights":"Henrik Stenson creates a stir with 'striptease' at top tournament in Florida .\nSwedish star strips down to the bare essentials to play his ball out of the mud .\nTactic works as he saves at least a shot and cards a three-under 69 ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- An Amtrak train traveling from New York to Washington struck and killed a 14-year-old girl Tuesday morning, the rail operator said. Details on how the accident occurred were not immediately available, and the girl was not named. Baltimore County Police Lt. Robert McCullough said there were other children at the scene who knew the victim. Nearly two hours after the fatality occurred, emergency management officials in Washington announced that one out of four railroad tracks between Washington and Maryland had been \"cleared for reduced speed service.\" Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said trains were traveling in both directions but had to take turns using the single set of tracks. Amtrak halted all trains through the area near Essex, Maryland, to give investigators access to the scene. Authorities said the teen was hit at 9:02 a.m. ET. Connell said the incident occurred 11 miles north of the Baltimore, Maryland, rail station. Both Baltimore County Police and Amtrak were investigating.","highlights":"14-year-old struck by train headed from New York to Washington .\nAll trains halted throughout area during investigation .\nOne track was reopened at 10:45 a.m."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles firefighters and city crews worked for several hours Tuesday to rescue one of their own: a 22-ton firetruck that was nearly swallowed by a water-logged sinkhole. Two firefighters crawled out of the truck's windows after it sank Tuesday morning. No one was injured. The incident happened after four firefighters took the truck to the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Valley Village, where flooding had been reported after a water main break, just before 6 a.m. PT. After seeing running water in the road, a fire captain instructed the rig's driver to back up and had two firefighters get out of the truck to direct it. That's when the ground gave way and the front of the truck began quickly sinking. The driver and captain crawled out of the truck's windows to escape. The four firefighters were not injured. Workers had to simultaneously pull and lift the truck to get it out of the sinkhole. Watch workers pull truck from sinkhole . CNN's Carey Bodenheimer contributed to this report.","highlights":"Los Angeles firetruck nearly swallowed by sinkhole Tuesday morning .\nFirefighters in truck were responding to flooding call when incident happened .\nTwo firefighters escaped truck through windows; no injuries reported ."} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- Some Florida minimum-security inmates want to know: Can you handle the heat? Inmates work with peppers at the Hillsborough County Jail in Tampa, Florida. Hot sauce heat, that is -- Jail House Fire Hot Sauce, cooked up by inmates at the Hillsborough County Jail and now offered for sale. The idea to make Jail House Fire Hot Sauce came from a Cuban former inmate who thought food in the big house was bland. Allen Boatman, the head of the jail's horticulture program, remembers what his former trusty said: \"We're growing these peppers. Why don't we use them?\" Peppers are grown as part of the jail's horticulture program, which is voluntary and offered only to minimum-security trusties. The inmates learn about growing plants, ornamentals, trees, herbs and vegetables -- including more than 1,200 varieties of peppers. \"I thought that was a great idea, so I started doing research on some of the recipes,\" says Boatman. The research led to a variety of hot sauces that can be bought for $7 a bottle at the jail in Tampa, Florida, or online at www.jailhousefire.org. There are three different sauces for sale: . Coming soon is a fourth sauce: Misdemeanor. Watch the inmates at work on hot sauce \u00bb . Orders for the Jail House Fire sauces have come in from as far away as Germany, England and even Australia. The inmates make no money from this product. The money goes back into an inmate fund that pays for things like the greenhouse where the peppers are grown. The horticulture program pays for itself, says Boatman, so no taxpayer money is used. Several times a year the program hosts a sale of its ornamentals, shrubs and trees, and the locals turn up to support the program. The money raised is used to purchase necessities like fertilizer and soil. A green thumb is not the only thing that inmate and program member Deline is developing, he says. \"We learn a lot about professionalism, respect, teamwork, ya know -- all that helps,\" Deline says. And working in the fields is good for the inmates' self-worth, Boatman says. \"They actually see something growing that they've been involved in. It gives them a lot of sense of pride and accomplishment,\" says Boatman. \"Possibly that'll give them some momentum when they are released to go and get a job and start being a productive member of society.\" Boatman doesn't just wish his trusties a good future; he gives them an opportunity. When the inmates are released, they are given a certificate of completion in vocational horticulture. This certificate comes from the school board, with no mention of the program behind bars. Deline hopes this will work in his favor when he starts looking for a job. \"Florida is full of a lot of landscaping [and] landscaping companies, a lot of nursery companies,\" Deline says. \"Maybe I can use the experience to better myself in the future.\"","highlights":"Florida minimum-security jail raises peppers, uses them in hot sauce .\nThree inmate-produced sauces available: \"Original,\" \"Smoke\" and \"No Escape\"\nProceeds from sale of sauces goes back into jail's horticulture program .\nJail program also teaches job skills to soon-to-be-released inmates ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Tables set in apple green, ruby and gold with arrangements of roses, hydrangeas and sweet peas awaited guests to Tuesday's White House state dinner. The place settings in fine china from three previous administrations -- Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush -- are flanked by crystal glasses and five pieces of silverware. Place cards are handwritten, including two that read \"The President\" and \"Mrs. Obama.\" The first state dinner of Barack Obama's presidency, in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will take place in a tent set up on the White House South Lawn, with a view of the Washington Monument. Guests will sit at round tables for 10, with the floral arrangements intended to pay homage to the state bird of India, the Indian peacock, and the dinner featuring a seasonal menu reflecting American and Indian flavors, according to the White House. The first course will be a potato and eggplant salad made with White House-grown arugula and accompanied by an onion-seed vinaigrette. Red lentil soup with fresh cheese follows, and then a choice of entrees: roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chickpeas and okra for vegetarians, or green curry prawns and caramelized salsify with smoked collard greens. Dessert will be pumpkin pie tart or pear tatin with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Each course is paired with its own wine, all of American vintage. Michelle Obama worked with guest chef Marcus Samuelsson and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford to \"create a menu that reflects the best of American cuisine, continues this White House's commitment to serving fresh, sustainable and regional food, and honors the culinary excellence and flavors that are present in Indian cuisine,\" the White House said. The herbs and lettuces were harvested from the White House Kitchen Garden started by the first lady, and honey from the White House beehive is being used to poach the dessert pears.","highlights":"Dinner in honor of Indian premier will take place on White House South Lawn .\nFloral arrangements intended to pay homage to the Indian peacock .\nDinner reflecting Indian and American flavors uses herbs from White House garden ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elizabeth McCutchen and a friend were walking to book club two weeks ago in quaint Farmville, Virginia, when they strolled by a home on First Avenue. \"Something smells dead,\" her friend said. Richard Samuel McCroskey has been arrested in connection with the killings of four people in Virginia. They were thinking animal. A dog, a cat, something like that. They never imagined they were smelling the remains of massacred humans. It was Thursday, September 17. But another 24 hours would pass before police made the gruesome discovery. Richard Samuel McCroskey III -- a 20-year-old rapper in the underground genre of \"Horrorcore\" who sang of chopping people into pieces -- has been arrested in connection with the slayings. The crime scene was so horrifying police would not even describe it, saying only that the victims died of blunt force trauma. The victims were Mark Niederbrock, 50, the beloved pastor at Walker's Presbyterian Church; his 16-year-old daughter, Emma Niederbrock; Melanie Wells, Emma's 18-year-old friend from West Virginia; and Niederbrock's estranged wife, Debra Kelley, 53, a professor at Longwood University. McCroskey has been charged only in the killing of Mark Niederbrock. Police and the prosecutor's office did not return repeated phone calls from CNN. But in late September, authorities said more charges are pending. Emma was described as a fan of Horrorcore and had met McCroskey through their mutual affection for the little-known music genre. Police said she invited McCroskey to fly from his northern California home, stay with her in Virginia and then attend the Strictly for the Wicked Festival, a Horrorcore fest in Michigan featuring bands with names like Dismembered Fetus and Phrozen Body Boy. Nobody saw what would come next. The slayings have been the talk of Farmville, a town of 7,000 that is home to Longwood University and nearby Hampden-Sydney College. Senseless is the word you hear most. It's not just the macabre nature of the killings that has people talking. It's the grotesque lyrics of the Horrorcore singer; it's that it happened under their noses. McCroskey is a young man with no criminal record who took delight in the blend of horror hip-hop that celebrated macabre killings. He went by the name Syko Sam. In one YouTube video, he holds a hatchet and sings about killing people and putting their remains in black bags: \"Last night I was the murderous rage. Now, I gotta get rid of the bodies before the corpses start to get to rotting.\" 'Stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled' Authorities have not specified when the Virginia killings occurred, but at 4 a.m. on Friday, September 18, tow-truck driver Elton Napier was called out to Poor House Road to help McCroskey, whose car was stuck. Napier said McCroskey was wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and \"was really smelling bad, like real bad. I can't describe it.\" McCroskey was driving Mark Niederbrock's Honda. Napier said two sheriff's deputies were at the scene and McCroskey was ticketed for driving without a license. At the time, authorities didn't know the pastor had been slain. When McCroskey hopped into Napier's flatbed, the tow-truck driver said he started gagging from the odor and immediately rolled down the windows. \"I just held my head out the window so the wind would hit me in the face,\" he said. \"That was the stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled.\" Napier drove McCroskey about four miles to a convenience store. McCroskey told Napier he was visiting his girlfriend and her father lent him the car. McCroskey fetched a black bag from the Honda before they parted. Napier went inside to get a cup of coffee. According to police, McCroskey eventually caught a cab to Richmond International Airport. By mid-afternoon that same day, police found the bodies at the home on First Avenue. McCroskey was arrested the next day at the airport, where he had spent the night. When he was being led to jail, McCroskey told reporters, \"Jesus told me to do it.\" Suspect's family, community grieve . Sarah McCroskey of California told CNN-affiliate WWBT that her brother had been looking forward to his visit to Virginia for weeks. She mourned his arrest and struggled with the accusations against him. \"I want to hear his voice. I am so concerned, so worried -- not just for him [but] other people, other families involved dealing with this loss,\" she said. Read WWBT's special coverage . Defense attorney Cary Bowen told CNN, \"I don't want to say he's in shock. That's a medical term, but it's a big experience for him. ... I'm not sure he gets the severity of everything right now.\" The community is still devastated by the events as it struggles to move forward. Memorial services were held over the weekend for Emma Niederbrock and her mother, Debra Kelley. The Rev. Sylvia Meadows of Farmville United Methodist Church baptized Emma at age 5 and her father when he was an adult. The pastor said the church has invited an occult specialist to speak with members of the community to help them come to grips with the dark side of humanity. \"We have looked evil in the face and cannot deny that it exists,\" Meadows said. \"God is stronger than evil. God is bigger.\" Luther Glenn, a member of Walker's Presbyterian Church where Niederbrock was pastor, took issue with McCroskey's comment about Jesus telling him to act. \"I think it's deeply rooted in Satan, if you want to know the truth.\" Elizabeth McCutchen, who passed the First Avenue home some time after the slayings, said the killings have affected every fabric of the community: the churches, the colleges, and their youth. \"This is the kind of town that goes to the rescue of survivors, but there's nobody [left] -- we can't do anything about it,\" she said. \"It's been really, really upsetting.\" CNN's Gary Tuchman and Susan Chun contributed to this report.","highlights":"20-year-old rapper of \"Horrorcore\" accused of Virginia slayings .\nLittle known underground music genre celebrates macabre killings .\nTow-truck driver gave suspect a lift; said he was \"stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled\"\nDefense lawyer said he's unsure Richard McCroskey \"gets the severity of everything\""} -{"article":"Detroit, Michigan (CNN) -- Six men appeared in federal court Thursday, a day after they were arrested in raids targeting an African-American Muslim group that the FBI said sought to establish an Islamic state in the United States. Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the alleged leader of the African-American Muslim converts, was fatally shot during one of Wednesday's raids in the Detroit area after he fired at law enforcement agents who were trying to arrest him and four other suspects. An FBI dog was also killed. Authorities say Abdullah was the imam at a Detroit mosque where he preached offensive jihad, including violence against the U.S. government and law enforcement. A criminal complaint states that he repeatedly told three confidential informants he would never be taken alive, saying \"If they're coming to get me, I'll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody.\" Abdullah was one of 11 men charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of firearms, and tampering with motor vehicle identification numbers, the FBI said in a news release. Eight suspects were in custody, including one man already in prison on an unrelated charge and another man who was arrested on Wednesday and added to the charging sheet, U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Susan Plochinski said Thursday. An additional suspect was taken into custody in Canada on Thursday, an FBI statement said. Two men remain at large. Mujahid Carswell, aka Mujahid Abdullah, was taken into custody in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, by Canadian authorities Thursday afternoon, the FBI said. According to the federal criminal complaint, Carswell, 30, is the eldest son of Abdullah, who was killed in the raid Wednesday. Canadian Border Patrol is holding him on immigration violations, the FBI said. Of the six suspects who appeared Thursday afternoon in court, Abdullah Beard was ordered held without bail; and Muhammad Abdul Salaam's bail decision was delayed, as was that for Gary Laverne Porter, a 38-year teacher who was arrested at an area school. Ali Abdul Raqib was given a $10,000 unsecured bond; Abdul Saboor was given a $100,000 bond, despite a prosecution request that he be held without bond. Another man, Acie Pusha, who was arrested Wednesday, was described by the prosecutor as \"minimally involved\" and given a $10,000 bond. The FBI criminal complaint says the group held target practice in a mosque basement, blowing holes in concrete walls. It includes references to possible attacks on the government, including Detroit's federal building and the FBI. There is also discussion about causing trouble at the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit. But the men were not arrested for any of that. Two law enforcement sources said the information about possible attacks was included in the charging document to add \"context for the crimes they're charged with, the purpose of the group.\" \"They had to earn money for their mosque and the Ummah,\" one of the sources said. \"And the purpose of Ummah was to set up a separatist state.\" Ummah refers to the nationwide group to which the suspects belonged, according to the complaint. It's a group made up of mostly African-American members, including some who converted to Islam while in prison. Ummah is led by Jamil Abdullah al-Amin -- formerly known as H. Rap Brown -- a 1960s radical and former member of the Black Panthers who once said \"violence was as American as cherry pie.\" He is serving a life sentence in Colorado's Supermax prison for killing two Georgia police officers. Andrew Arena, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, contacted local imams and civil rights leaders in Detroit during Wednesday's operation \"to bridge any gaps that could possible come over this,\" FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said. \"He'd rather they hear it from him,\" she added. \"We have a good relationship with the community and we want to keep it that way.\" In the 43-page criminal complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan and unsealed Wednesday, authorities said the arrests were made based on information gleaned from confidential sources identified only as S-1, S-2 and S-3. \"S-1 heard Abdullah encourage his followers to 'pick up guns and do something' rather than try to achieve their goals through peaceful means,\" the complaint said. S-2 recorded a conversation on December 12, 2007, in which Abdullah said, \"I got some soldiers with me, so it's not like I, I don't have, you know, nothing. Brothers that I know would, you know, if I say 'Let's go, we going to go and do something,' they would do it,\" the complaint said. S-3 said that, on March 21, 2008, Luqman Abdullah told him \"that the FBI is the enemy of Islam,\" the complaint said. The other men charged were identified as: . \u2022 Mohammad Abdul Bassir, aka Franklin D. Roosevelt Williams. He is serving a prison term at Ojibway Correctional Facility in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. \u2022 Mujahid Carswell. \u2022 Mohammad Philistine. \u2022 Yassir Ali Khan. \u2022 Adam Hussain Ibraheem. Acie Pusha was arrested on Wednesday and added to the charging sheet, Plochinski said Thursday. She would not provide details about the charges against Pusha. The two charged but still at large are Philistine, also known as Mohammad Alsahi, a 33-year-old resident of Ontario; and Khan, 30, who is believed to be a resident of Ontario and Warren, Michigan. All of the defendants \"are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years, and known to be armed,\" the FBI said. The complaint was filed by the FBI's counter-terrorism squad in the Eastern District of Michigan. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Carol Cratty and Ross Levitt contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Six appear in federal court Thursday, a day after they were arrested in raids .\nAlleged group leader was fatally shot Wednesday after firing at law enforcement agents .\nFBI says men were members of Ummah, led by former H. Rap Brown .\nLaw enforcement sources say Ummah seeks to set up Islamic state in U.S."} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox will testify Friday in an Italian courtroom to defend herself against charges that she took part in the killing of her roommate two years ago, her lawyer said. American college student Amanda Knox, 21, is expected to take the witness stand Friday at her Italian murder trial. Knox, 21, an American college student from Seattle, Washington, will be questioned by her attorneys first and her testimony could continue Saturday, said Luciano Ghriga, one of her lawyers. The trial against Knox and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, began January 16 in Perugia, a university town about 185 kilometers (115 miles) north of Rome. They are charged with murder and sexual assault in the November 2007 slaying of Knox's roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, who died in what prosecutors called a \"drug-fueled sex game\" with the couple. A third person, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted of murder in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Kercher was found dead in her bed, half-naked, with a knife wound to her neck. In court papers, prosecutors stated that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors say they have physical evidence placing the defendants at the scene, and that they gave investigators confusing and contradictory statements about their whereabouts the night Kercher died. Knox first said she was at the house she shared with Kercher, then changed her story, according to court records. Sollecito, meanwhile, said he was never at the house, but was at his apartment, watching a movie on his computer with Knox. Later, he told investigators he did not remember whether Knox was with him the entire night. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that the physical evidence was tainted by sloppy police work. The case is being heard by a panel of eight judges. The trial has drawn more than 140 journalists from 86 news outlets to the courthouse in Perugia, Italy. The presiding judge in the case, Giancarlo Massei, has barred cameras from the courtroom and said he could completely close portions of the trial dealing with the most graphic sexual assault allegations.","highlights":"Murder trial makes American student Amanda Knox well-known in Italy .\nBritish student Meredith Kercher found dead in house shared with Knox .\nProsecutors say they have evidence placing Knox, other defendants at scene .\nKnox's former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, also faces murder charges ."} -{"article":"CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CNN) -- After making landfall on Mexico's Baja California peninsula, Category 1 Hurricane Jimena was weakening Wednesday night, forecasters said. After making landfall on Baja California, Hurricane Jimena started weakening Wednesday night. The storm made landfall Wednesday afternoon between Puerto San Andresito and San Juanico, Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said. As of 8 p.m. ET, the center of Jimena was located near San Buenaventura, Mexico, and about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Santa Rosalia, Mexico. It was moving north at near 12 mph (19 kph), and was expected to turn northwest and slow Wednesday night before turning west on Thursday. \"On the forecast track, the center of Jimena will move over the central Baja California peninsula tonight and Thursday, then move into the Pacific west of Baja California late Thursday or Thursday night,\" the Hurricane Center said. See the storm's projected path \u00bb . The storm's maximum sustained winds had decreased slightly, to 80 mph (129 kph) with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. Jimena is expected to weaken into a tropical storm Wednesday night, forecasters said. At its peak Tuesday, Jimena was a Category 4 storm, with winds of 145 mph (233 kph). A hurricane warning remained in effect for parts of the Baja peninsula, from Bahia Magdalena north to Punta Abreojos on the west coast, and from San Evaristo north to Mulege on the east coast, the Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions, including winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph), are expected within 24 hours. A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were in effect for the Baja California peninsula north of Punta Abreojos to Punta Eugenia on the west coast, and north of Mulege to Bahia San Juan Bautista on the east coast. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the peninsula north of Punta Eugenia to San Jose de las Palomas on the west coast, and north of Bahia San Juan Bautista to Bahia de los Angeles on the east coast. A tropical storm warning also was issued for northwestern mainland Mexico, from Huatabampito to Bahia Kino, the Hurricane Center said. A tropical storm warning means conditions including winds of at least 39 mph (63 kph) are expected within 24 hours. Jimena is expected to produce between 5 and 10 inches of rain over the southern half of the peninsula, with 15 inches possible on some areas. \"These rains could produce life-threatening floods and mudslides,\" the Hurricane Center said. In addition, \"a dangerous storm surge along with large and dangerous battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California peninsula,\" forecasters said. CNN's Betty Nguyen, Matt Cherry and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Storm hits between Puerto San Andresito and San Juanico, Mexico .\nJimena expected to weaken into a tropical storm Wednesday night .\nHurricane warning remains in effect for parts of the Baja peninsula Wednesday night .\nJimena could bring up to 10 inches of rain to Baja California, western Mexico ."} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton introduced herself as a \"proud supporter of Barack Obama\" at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday as she called on her party to rally behind her former rival. Sen. Hillary Clinton, with daughter Chelsea, receives a standing ovation from the Democratic delegates. \"Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future. And it's a fight we must win together,\" she said. Leading up to her address, there was a lot of speculation about what she would say and whether she would make a strong enough call for unity. But she made a very strident case for Obama's candidacy. \"No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president,\" Clinton said. Her speech, which was the last of the night, followed a line up of other Democrats who used their time at the podium to attack President Bush's record and McCain's policies. Appearing strong and energized, Clinton thanked her voters for supporting her historic campaign as a female candidate and reached out to those wary of Obama by telling them they weren't in this for her, but for her cause. That cause, she said, is the same thing that Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party are fighting for. Watch Clinton's entire speech \u00bb . Many analysts said the speech would end speculation that Clinton has not fully embraced Obama as her party's candidate. Clinton mentioned Obama by name more than twice as many times as she mentioned the party as a whole. Analysts weigh in on the night's speakers \u00bb . \"I thought she was a class act,\" said political analyst David Gergen, who worked in the Clinton administration. \"I think it could well be said that nothing has so become her campaign as the way she has ended it here tonight.\" Clinton also praised Obama's newly tapped vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. The former first lady called Biden \"pragmatic, tough and wise.\" Watch Clinton talk about the Obama-Biden team \u00bb . Clinton was met with a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience. Only a few pockets of the standing-room only convention center weren't on their feet cheering for her. Observers said she had the biggest reception of the evening. As soon as the speech ended, the McCain campaign issued a statement implying that Clinton did nothing to dispel her previous criticism of Obama. \"Sen. Clinton ran her presidential campaign making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander-in-chief. Nowhere tonight did she alter that assessment,\" McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. \"Nowhere tonight did she say that Barack Obama is ready to lead. Millions of Hillary Clinton supporters and millions of Americans remain concerned about whether Barack Obama is ready to be president.\" The McCain campaign has stepped up its effort to woo disaffected Clinton supporters, running ads highlighting Clinton's criticism of Obama during the primaries. Obama called Clinton after the speech and thanked her for her support and said she could not have done a better job. Earlier, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner appealed across party lines in his keynote address. Obama has been campaigning hard to win Virginia, which hasn't voted for a Democratic president since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Watch Warner make his case for Obama \u00bb . According to CNN's electoral map, the state is a toss-up going into the general election. In order for Obama to take the state's 13 electoral votes, he would need to win over some of Virginia's independent and Republican voters. Instead of tearing into the current administration, Warner talked about ideas -- highlighting science and technology. \"I know we're at the Democratic convention, but if an idea works, it really doesn't matter if it has an 'R' or 'D' next to it,\" Warner said. \"Because this election isn't about liberal versus conservative. It's not about left versus right. It's about the future versus the past.\" His words echoed Obama's own keynote speech of four years ago when the then little known senator from Illinois spoke of what united rather than divided Americans. In 2004, before John Kerry was nominated for president, Obama said to delegates: \"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.\" Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said Warner's address could do for him what Obama's address did four years ago. Watch Warner's entire speech \u00bb . \"It's a very powerful speech. He's going to come out of this convention the way Barack Obama came out of the last convention -- as the rock star, as the next guy,\" he said. \"It was an important speech because if this election is about experience and strength, McCain wins. But if this election's about the past versus the future, Republicans have a much tougher job.\" Warner's most blunt criticism of President Bush was that he has kept the country from living up to its potential. Tuesday's other speakers played up Obama's message of change and tore into McCain, saying he would only bring about more of the same. Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey Jr. at one point feigned shock at the idea that the Republican Party was asking for four more years in the White House, promising the party of President Bush and McCain \"not four more years, but four more months.\" In response, the delegates jumped to their feet shouting, \"Four more months! Four more months!\" Audience members also waved signs that said \"McCain more of the same.\"","highlights":"NEW: Hillary Clinton: The time is now for Democrats to unite .\nNEW: Barack Obama calls Clinton and thanks her for her support .\nSpeakers at Democratic convention tie McCain to Bush policies .\nFormer Virginia Gov. Mark Warner appeals across party lines in keynote address ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Chris Brown song called \"Not My Fault\" was recorded three years ago and is not about Rihanna, its producers said. Chris Brown pleaded guilty in an assault case regarding his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. The music appeared online Tuesday, a day after the singer admitted guilt to assaulting Rihanna, his former girlfriend. Brown's record label also said the music was not \"new.\" Although Brown accepted a plea deal in which he could avoid jail time, any appearance that he is not remorseful could be damaging, since the judge is not bound by those terms when she sentences him in August. The song, which appeared on YouTube, includes the line \"It's not my fault, right?\" The publicist for the Neptunes, a music producing duo that has worked in the studio with Brown, said the music was a demo recorded three years ago. She said they do not know how the song made its way onto YouTube. Jive Records, which distributes Brown's music, said \"there are no 'new' songs from Chris Brown currently being promoted by Chris or his record label.\" \"There are several old demos circulating that are being falsely promoted as new material from Chris,\" a Jive Records statement said. In the song, Brown sings: . \"I picked up the paper and the headline reads, it says 'singer brokenhearted in some satin sheets.' And I'm like, why? We had a hell of a time.\" \"When I first met you, I told ya that you'll be safe. In the midst of arguing something, falls to the floor and breaks. You look down and see what you dropped, oh, it's your heart.\" \"Shortie's caught up from a long night. She's ready to fall but she's all right. That's just something that can happen when you put it down. She's caught up, it's not my fault, right.\" \"You see, her mama called me, really steamed. She said 'My daughter won't eat and she don't sleep. She just cries.' \" Brown was arrested in connection with an altercation that began with an argument with Rihanna inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street in February. Prosecutors agreed to recommend five years of probation and 180 days of community service for Brown in exchange for his guilty plea on one count of assault with the intent of doing great bodily injury.","highlights":"Chris Brown song \"Not My Fault\" appeared online Tuesday .\nSong was recorded three years ago, has nothing to do with Rihanna, say producers .\nBrown agreed to a plea deal Monday in case involving ex-girlfriend Rihanna ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A nationally syndicated columnist, Martin has said he will vote for Barack Obama in November. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland S. Martin says Lifeway Christian Stores should be given hell for its actions against GospelToday. (CNN) -- In the 19 years that Teresa Hairston has published her magazine, GospelToday, she has never faced a major situation with Christian bookstores across the country that carry the publication. She's tackled any number of issues over the years,and has featured a number of celebrities and ministers, ranging from Yolanda Adams to Bishop T.D. Jakes to Kirk Franklin. But when the Atlanta, Georgia, entrepreneur decided to feature five female pastors on her cover this month, she says, Lifeway Christian Stores treated her like she had converted her Christian publication to something akin to the tastes of porn purveyor Larry Flynt. Apparently, the owner of Lifeway, the Southern Baptist Convention, wasn't too happy with Hairston telling the story of female pastors, because the women go against their 2000 decree that only men can serve in the role of reverend or pastor. According to Hairston, the Christian company didn't even give her the courtesy of a heads-up. \"We got an anonymous tip,\" she told me Tuesday on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and after checking it out, she discovered that the magazine had been removed from the shelves in all of Lifeway's 100-plus stores nationwide and had been placed behind the counter. \"They have never called me,\" Hairston said. \"Never sent an e-mail. Nothing. I had to go see my distributor to verify what they had done.\" The actions of Lifeway didn't stun me. I had seen this movie before. A few years ago, my wife was a longtime Lifeway teacher. She had taught at the company's teaching centers for years, but then one day, she was notified that she would have to take down her Web site and comply with their rules against female pastors or be dropped as a teacher. Her crime? Calling herself the Rev. Jacquie Hood Martin. It wasn't that she did so for the heck of it. She graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; was the first female staff pastor at Houston's Brookhollow Baptist Church\/the Church Without Walls, a Southern Baptist Convention church; and has been leading folks to the Lord all over the country for 20 years. She was angered by Lifeway's decision but made it clear that she didn't serve the bookstore or even the Southern Baptist Convention. She made a commitment to serving Jesus Christ and was not about to back away from her call to ministry because a male-dominated organization decided that its interpretation of the Bible calls for a woman not to be in the pulpit. So she cut them off and kept on calling herself the Rev. Jacquie Hood Martin. Religious folks will quickly say that Scripture is clear that women can't be pastors and lead men, yet Hairston says that when she featured Pastor Paula White on her cover two years ago, Lifeway didn't take any action against the magazine. Anyone who has served in a church or been a member of any faith knows that there are those who have strict interpretations of their faith's writings, while others have a different interpretation. I've heard Brookhollow's pastor, the Rev. Dr. Ralph Douglas West Sr., preach several sermons stating that what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy with regards to only men preaching was specific to that church and not a blanket ban. Second, there were instances where Paul wrote that his views were his own and not mandates from God. That is a doctrinal fight that any of us can have any time (and I love it how these same Bible thumpers ignore the biblical story of Deborah, who was a judge in the Old Testament -- and was over men). But what is a greater issue is that Lifeway clearly has no respect for freedom of the press. Here is arguably the top Christian bookstore in the country making a decision based on their teachings and applying it to a magazine. A spokesman for Lifeway Resources, which runs the stores, was quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week as saying of female pastors, \"It is contrary to what we believe.\" So does Lifeway and, by extension, the Southern Baptist Convention, fight vigorously for freedom of religion, but it doesn't give a hoot about the other freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution? I now wonder whether Lifeway makes it its business to cull through any number of magazines and search for stories that go against its doctrine and pull them from the shelves. This is the kind of nonsense that drives more people away from religion. I suppose it's fitting that this story would come out the same time as Bill Maher releases his religious documentary, \"Religulous,\" which skewers all the major religions for their dogma. I'm sure he feasted on positions of the Southern Baptist Convention. The conduct of Lifeway and the Southern Baptist Convention is shameful, and they owe Hairston an apology for their actions. Yet she's taken it in stride, saying that instead of giving the company hell, she'll \"give them heaven.\" I say, give them a lot of hell for this, because they deserve it for actions. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Lifeway stores put Christian magazine behind counter .\nMagazine featured female pastors on its cover .\nLifeway has no respect for freedom of the press, Martin says .\nLifeway, Southern Baptist Convention should apologize, he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The crew members of a North Korean freighter regained control of their ship from pirates who hijacked the vessel off Somalia, but not without a deadly fight, the U.S. Navy reported Tuesday. The USS James E. Williams ordered pirates to give up their weapons, the Navy says. When the battle aboard the Dai Hong Dan was over, two pirates were dead and five were captured, the Navy said. Three wounded crew members from the cargo ship were being treated aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams. The captured pirates were being held aboard the North Korean vessel, the Navy said. The bandits had seized the ship's bridge, while the crew kept control of the steering gear and engines, the Navy said. The Koreans moved against the attackers after the Williams -- responding to reports of the hijacking -- ordered the pirates to give up their weapons, according to the Navy. When the crew members stormed the bridge, the deadly battle began. After the crew regained control, Navy sailors boarded the Dai Hong Dan to help with the injured. North Korea and the United States have no diplomatic relations. Watch why the U.S. helped the North Koreans \u00bb . The incident took place about 70 miles northeast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the Navy said. It is the second incident of piracy reported in recent days. A second U.S. Navy destroyer was searching waters off Somalia for pirates who hijacked a Japanese-owned ship, military officials said. Over the weekend, gunmen aboard two skiffs hijacked the Panamanian-flagged Golden Nori off the Socotra archipelago near the Horn of Africa, said Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for the Kenyan-based Seafarers' Assistance Program. The guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke has been pursuing the pirates after entering Somali waters with the permission of the troubled transitional government in Mogadishu, U.S. officials said Monday. In recent years, warships have stayed outside the 12-mile limit when chasing pirates. Two military officials familiar with the details confirmed the ongoing operation. The Navy's pursuit of the pirates began Sunday night when the Golden Nori radioed for help. The Burke's sister ship, the USS Porter, opened fire and sank the pirate skiffs tied to the Golden Nori's stern before the Burke took over shadowing the hijacked vessel. When the shots were fired, it was not known the ship was filled with highly flammable benzene. U.S. military officials indicate there is a great deal of concern about the cargo because it is so sensitive. Benzene, which U.S. authorities have declared a known human carcinogen, is used as a solvent and to make plastics and synthetic fabrics. Four other ships in the region remain in pirate hands, the Navy said. U.S. and NATO warships have been patrolling off the Horn of Africa for years in an effort to crack down on piracy off Somalia, where a U.N.-backed transitional government is struggling to restore order after 15 years of near-anarchy. See how piracy is worse than 2006 \u00bb . On Monday, the head of the transitional government resigned as his administration -- backed by Ethiopian troops -- battled insurgents from the Islamic movement that seized control of Mogadishu in 2006. Hospital officials reported 30 dead in three days of clashes on the city's south side. In June, the ship USS Carter Hall fired warning shots in an attempt to stop a hijacked Danish cargo ship off Somalia, but the American vessel turned away when the pirated ship entered Somali waters. In May, a U.S. Navy advisory warned merchant ships to stay at least 200 miles off the Somali coast. But the U.S. Maritime Administration said pirates sometimes issue false distress calls to lure ships closer to shore. See the warning area \u00bb . The pirates often are armed with automatic rifles and shoulder-fired rockets, according to a recent warning from the agency. \"To date, vessels that increase speed and take evasive maneuvers avoid boarding, while those that slow down are boarded, taken to the Somali coastline and released after successful ransom payment, often after protracted negotiations of as much as 11 weeks,\" the warning advised. The agency issued a new warning to sailors in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen, after Sunday's hijacking. E-mail to a friend . CNN correspondents Barbara Starr at the Pentagon and Christian Purefoy in Nairobi contributed to this report.","highlights":"North Korean crew recaptures hijacked vessel .\nNavy says two pirates killed, five captured; three from crew injured .\nUSS Arleigh Burke enters Somali territorial waters to pursue other pirates .\nPirates aboard hijacked Golden Nori carrying highly flammable benzene ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's president escaped an opportunistic attack by Islamic militants Wednesday as deadly fighting erupted in the center of Mogadishu, officials said. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was returning from a trip to Yemen when insurgents began firing mortars, resulted in a clash with African Union peacekeepers, the president's director of communications told CNN. \"The Islamic insurgents were just guessing the arrival of the president so they started firing mortars, just to send a kind of their regular violent message that they are around,\" said Abdulkadir Barnamij. The heaviest of the fighting was centered on Maka Al Mukarama, which links the airport to the presidential palace but it is heavily guarded by forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia. Meanwhile Ali Muse, head of an emergency group in the city, confirmed to CNN that three people died and 16 others were wounded in the fighting. \"The casualty (number) is small because people deserted the streets soon after the fighting started,\" said Ali Muse. -- Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report .","highlights":"President's office: Islamist insurgents, African Union peacekeepers exchanged fire .\nFighting left at least five dead, according to Shabelle Media network .\nThe heaviest of the fighting centered on area linking airport to the presidential palace ."} -{"article":"(REAL SIMPLE) -- With soaring gas prices and travel costs, the cheapest route to whisk yourself away this summer is through a good book. Ten top-selling authors share their favorite lazy-summer-day reads. \u2022 One-day reads . Augusten Burroughs \"The Member of the Wedding,\" by Carson McCullers \"A slender 163 pages, but it inhales all the light, matter, and gravity in the vicinity. Stunningly evocative and gorgeously written, this truly magnificent book will replace your entire life for one perfect day.\" Jackie Collins \"Whacked,\" by Jules Asner \"She's a first-time author, married to director Steven Soderbergh, and this delicious tale of revenge -- set in L.A. -- rocks!\" Nelson Demille \"The Prince,\" by Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli \"It's, well...Machiavellian. A great help if you're dealing with a summer landlord or a difficult au pair.\" Janet Evanovich \"The Concrete Blonde,\" by Michael Connelly \"A classic in Connelly's Harry Bosch detective series -- and one of my favorites.\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"The Principles of Uncertainty,\" by Maira Kalman \"Gorgeous and touching. A quirky year-in-the-life as told by one of our most wonderful illustrators -- short in words, but rich in little visual pleasures.\" Philippa Gregory \"Dragonwyck,\" by Anya Seton \"A gothic novel set in 1844 America. At times it's utterly ridiculous, but it is truly haunting. Think an American Jane Eyre at high speed. A great book to gulp down in a day.\" Sophie Kinsella \"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,\" by Mark Haddon \"Its hero, an autistic 15-year-old, is one of the most poignant in contemporary literature.\" James Patterson \"No Country for Old Men,\" by Cormac McCarthy \"The only thriller I have ever read that also qualifies as art, at least in my mind.\" Jodi Picoult \"The Third Angel,\" by Alice Hoffman \"I inhale anything Alice writes, but this stunning book is among her loveliest. Once I started it, I didn't put it down.\" Danielle Steel \"Change of Heart,\" by Jodi Picoult \"Anything by Jodi Picoult.\" \u2022 Books for a long weekend . Augusten Burroughs \"The House of Mirth,\" by Edith Wharton \"The only thing more delicious than spending a weekend reading The House of Mirth is reading it in the grass or on the sand. Mosquitoes will leave you alone. It will not rain. This is Edith Wharton. Nature bends.\" Jackie Collins \"The Great Gatsby,\" by F. Scott Fitzgerald \"Jay Gatsby is so charismatic, sexy, and mysterious, and I love him. Good to share with a guy in bed!\" Nelson Demille \"The Gold Coast,\" \"by me\" \"What can I say? Read it on the beach and attract favorable comments.\" Janet Evanovich \"The Two Minute Rule,\" by Robert Crais It's Crais, for crying out loud! Who wouldn't want to spend a weekend with Robert Crais?\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,\" by Anne Fadiman \"The heartbreaking true story of an immigrant Hmong child's epilepsy and the American doctors who tried to 'cure' her (not realizing that traditional Hmong families see epilepsy as something of a blessing). A story of moral and cultural complexity.\" Philippa Gregory \"Lottery,\" by Patricia Wood \"A hugely feel-good novel that had me laughing out loud at the hero's rise to happiness from absolute despair.\" Sophie Kinsella \"The Tenderness of Wolves,\" by Stef Penny \"A gripping, atmospheric murder story set in the snowy wastes of Canada, with some wonderful descriptions of an extreme landscape. I never knew I could be so riveted by snow!\" James Patterson \"Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge,\" by Evan S. Connell \"Astonishingly different points of view, in two books, from a wife and a husband, on the history of a family's life in Kansas City.\" Jodi Picoult \"Skeletons at the Feast,\" by Chris Bohjalian \"A Bohjalian novel is guaranteed to be rich in character and gorgeous writing. This latest, based on a real journal, delves into the history of World War II.\" Danielle Steel \"Become a Better You,\" by Joel Osteen . \u2022 Books to savor all summer . Augusten Burroughs \"Tennessee Williams, Flannery O'Connor, and Tillie Olsen. Spend the entire summer with them. It doesn't matter what you read or which order you read them in. The wisdom and heartbreak centers of your brain will be electrified. I do not have the words to tell you what a fine summer you will have and how much you will never regret it.\" Jackie Collins \"The Godfather,\" by Mario Puzo \"You can re-reread it all summer and it will still seem fresh and so true. The characters jump off the page.\" Nelson Demille \"Of Human Bondage,\" by W. Somerset Maugham \"Not for the beach, but for rainy days and quiet summer nights. One of my favorites.\" Janet Evanovich 65 Years of Little Golden Books \"Pictures, smiles, happy endings -- a trip back to simpler times.\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"The Treasury of Oz,\" by L. Frank Baum \"If by some miracle I had a summer to sit and read, I would treat myself to rereading the most delightful books of my childhood -- the Oz books. Baum sent plucky Dorothy back to Oz more than a dozen times after The Wizard of Oz, and her wondrous adventures just get better. If you can borrow a 10-year-old to share this experience with, all the better!\" Philippa Gregory \"History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe,\" by Rodney Bolt \"This takes you into the fictional heart of Shakespeare's England, suggests a wonderfully imaginative explanation of the genius of the Bard's plays, makes your head spin with possibilities -- and makes you wonder who did write all those wonderful plays.\" Sophie Kinsella Jane Austen: The Complete Novels \"Austen is a perennial delight.\" James Patterson \"One Hundred Years of Solitude,\" by Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez \"Absolutely magnificent magical realism, and probably my favorite novel ever.\" Jodi Picoult \"Sadly, the only books I'll be savoring all summer are college information guides, since I have a senior in high school next year.\" Danielle Steel \"Danielle Steel :)\" \u2022 Books to dip into and out of . Augusten Burroughs The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson \"We know Emily Dickinson lived in olden days and she was a poet and seldom left her home. But read one of her poems -- any one will do -- and you'll see the evidence of a glittering genius. You will be amazed by what one brilliant woman can accomplish alone in her bedroom without e-mail, a telephone, or a best friend.\" Jackie Collins \"Anything by Elmore Leonard. Short, smart, hilarious.\" Nelson Demille \"The Atlantic Book of British and American Poetry,\" edited by Edith Sitwell \"Sitwell picked the best of the best in the English language. Excellent with a bottle of wine on the porch or the patio.\" Janet Evanovich \"Disney Princess The Ultimate Sticker Book\" \"Stick Snow White and Cinderella on the pages and make up your own stories.\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"Meditations,\" by Marcus Aurelius \"I keep a copy by my bed. And the fact that the ruminations of a second-century Roman emperor bring me comfort, delight, and inspiration is a clue to how timeless this is. Even those of us who aren't governing empires can benefit from these musings on courage and decency.\" Philippa Gregory \"Sappho: A New Translation,\" translated by Mary Barnard \"It sounds fearfully heavy, but it is absolutely contemporary in feel. A friend who teaches a course in Sappho sent me one poem: 'Don't ask me what to wear.' This is a poet who lived thousands of years ago, yet her work will make a modern woman laugh with recognition.\" Sophie Kinsella \"The Portable Dorothy Parker,\" edited by Marion Meade \"I adore her wit and dark humor.\" James Patterson \"Nine Horses,\" by Billy Collins \"Collins makes writing accessible poetry seem easy.\" Jodi Picoult The Best American Short Stories \"I am a sucker for this collection and keep a copy of the 2007 edition, edited by Stephen King, in the guest room of our lake house.\" Danielle Steel \"Anything religious.\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Jackie Collins recommends \"Whacked,\" by Jules Asner, a tale of revenge set in L.A.\nJames Patterson picks the thriller \"No Country for Old Men,\" by Cormac McCarthy .\nFor a long weekend, Danielle Steele likes Joel Osteen's \"Become a Better You\"\nSophie Kinsella: \"[Jane] Austen is a perennial delight\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A seventh minute goal from Brazilian teenager Alexander Pato proved enough to give AC Milan a 1-0 home victory over Fiorentina in a match totally dominated by Manchester City's $150 million bid for playmaker Kaka this week. Pato (right) and David Beckham celebrate Milan's only goal at the San Siro on Saturday evening. The goal was created by David Beckham who beat two defenders to a loose ball. He poked it back to Marek Jankulovski who played in Pato inside the penalty area. There still appeared no danger to the Fiorentina goal, but Pato hit a stunning strike from the left that went in off the far post. Fiorentina should have equalized on 66 minutes when Juan Vargas got to the byline and crossed to Mario Santana but the Argentine put his shot too close to goalkeeper Christian Abbiati who managed to save. The result leaves Milan in third place on 37 points, six points behind leaders and city rivals Inter, who have a game in hand. Jose Mourinho's side travel to Atalanta on Sunday. Jankulovski collected a late red card for timewasting, but Milan held on to secure the three points. Meanwhile, Milan supporters made their opposition to the Kaka bid, and his possible departure, perfectly clear throughout the match -- unveiling a host of banners and singing songs pleading with the Brazilian to stay at the San Siro. Reggina remain deep in relegation trouble after suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Siena. Mario Frick's goal 15 minutes from time was enough to give the Bianconeri three points which sees them leapfrog Sampdoria and move up to the relative comfort of 14th spot. Siena in contrast, stay second from bottom and could slip to the foot of the Serie A standings if Chievo beat Napoli on Sunday.","highlights":"Alexander Pato scores seventh minute goal as AC Milan defeat Fiorentina 1-0 .\nThe win puts Milan within six points of Serie A leaders and rivals Inter at top .\nMilan supporters display displeasure at Kaka's possible departure from club ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I wanted to believe the man in front of me wasn't a rapist. I knew he was a former Sudanese soldier, I knew he wanted to talk about rape in Darfur. A humanitarian group working on Darfur issues had introduced him to us. They told us his testimony was important to hear. A woman left homeless by conflict in Darfur walks along railway tracks. Last year in Darfur aid workers told me children as young as five were being raped in the huge displacement camps that are home to several million Darfuris. In some camps, they told me, rape had become so common that as many as 20 babies a month born from rape were being abandoned. As I sat inches from Adam --not his real name -- I feared the revulsion I knew I would feel at my own questions as I asked about rape and his involvement. I have interviewed rape survivors in Darfur. I have two daughters. I am a human being with a conscience. It would be hard to listen to his replies. He told me he was conscripted by force in to the Sudanese army in the summer of 2002. He thought he was being taken for six months' national service and then would be released. The conversation was slow going at first. We were both holding off from delving into the sordid details he'd come to discuss. His answers were short, he told me he got no pay from the army, only food and drink. He said he was rounded up in an army truck from a market in Darfur and trained to kill. He said he was armed with Kalashnikovs and told to \"shoot targets.\" Watch ex-soldier describe brutal attacks on children to Nic Robertson \u00bb . Then, he says, his officers told him \"we will be taken to a patrol and then soon after that we were asked to join other people to go and burn and kill people\". That's when he says he realized he wasn't getting national service training, that in fact, he was being forced into war against his will, with his own people. \"They are black,\" he told me, noting the difference between the lighter skinned rulers of Sudan and the darker farmers of Darfur. \"I am black,\" he said, \"this shouldn't be happening.\" But, he said, worse than being told to kill his own people, was that if he tried to resist, he himself would be killed. \"The order is that the soldiers at the front, and there are some people who are watching you from behind, if you try to escape or do anything you will get shot. The order is that we go to the village, burn it and kill the people.\" It felt as Adam was beginning to open up a little -- not easy, given the topic, and the lights and cameras all around us. He was beginning to talk a bit more, answer questions with more than one or two words. But it was following a pattern: I'd have to lead the way. We were both waiting for the inevitable. How he came to know of rape in Darfur. And that's when he said it. Watch warrant being issued for president \u00bb . He brought up the rape by himself. He was talking through a translator but his voice was quiet. I thought I heard anger, heard him slow and his voice drop: \"I had no choice,\" he said \"but I will say that I didn't kill anybody but the raping of the small children, it was bad\" I knew this was going to be difficult and now it had begun. What happens with the children, I asked. \"They cry out,\" he answered. \"And what happens when they cry out?\" \"Two persons will capture her while she is crying and another raping her, then they leave her there,\" came his reply. Silence. \"What do I ask now?\" I thought. Be forensic. Get the story. This is important testimony, I reminded myself. And so we continued, Adam describing in detail how soldiers raped girls as young as 12. How officers ordered them to do this to make people flee their villages, run away and never come back. Through all of this, Adam didn't once mention whether he actually had been directly involved in the raping. He said he tried to desert the army as soon as he could, but was caught and tortured. He showed me the scars where he said he was tied down beneath a tree and officers set fire to tires above him, dripping burning rubber on his body. Eventually, he said, he did get away, went to his sisters, tried joining the rebels to fight the army. But even there, his troubles were far from over. Incredibly, he said, the rebels didn't trust him; he was kept at their camp and only escaped when it was bombed by the army. The end of his story, but we weren't really done. One more question. Had he been forced to rape children? \"Yes I did, they were government orders,\" came his reply. How many? \"Well it didn't feel like raping, I was feeling very bad but as I was ordered, I had to do something. What I did was take off my trousers and lay myself on top of the girl but I didn't feel like raping, so I lay there for about 15 minutes.\" I want to be sure I understand him. \"So you didn't actually penetrate the girls?\" I ask. No, he says, \"because I had no feeling for it, my penis didn't actually wake up, so there was no actual penetration,\" he replied. There were other people in the room, the translator, a cameraman, our producer Jonathan Wald, but I had forgotten they were there. My thoughts were entirely locked on Adam. What more could I ask? I was emotionally drained. There was no way of knowing whether he was telling me the truth. Only in the measure of his voice was there a clue. Here, sitting on an office chair, thousands of miles away from Darfur, the memories come flooding back. The many, traumatized women and children we've interviewed, distraught families, unable to protect themselves. The pain we put them through, to recount, to relive, their nightmares. Each time, I've asked myself can I justify the suffering these questions cause? Each time, I tell myself it is only their own accounts that can cast light on the darkened corner of humanity they inhabit. Only their own accounts that can help break their cycle of suffering. Time and again, though, it seems telling the world their stories has little tangible impact on their reality of their lives. And now I'm face-to-face with a man who says he was part of the suffering, albeit by his own account not complicit and not guilty. I am left with the thought perhaps Adam's words carry even greater power. If his story is true -- and it mirrors other accounts emerging from Darfur -- then it implicates the government in these terrible crimes. He says he has trouble sleeping at nights. I can understand why. He is not alone. Aid workers say millions of women in Darfur not only have trouble sleeping at nights, but live in fear of rape 24 hours a day.","highlights":"Former soldier says he was armed with a Kalashnikov and told to kill .\n\"Adam\" describes taking part in rape attacks on children in Darfur .\nVictims included girls as young as 12, he says ."} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- The Cyrus family is ready to rock and always on a roll at its new L.A. home. Kick back and chill out with Billy Ray, Miley and the entire guitar-crazy clan. Billy Ray, Tish and Miley join Braison and Noah for chips and salsa in the kitchen before a rare barbecue. After months on the road, playing concerts one city at a time, Hannah Montana deserves a little R&R when she gets home. \"I just Superman onto my bed,\" says Miley Cyrus, 15, whose Disney Channel alter ego has made her a pop sensation, with two multiplatinum sound-track albums and more than 70 sold-out concerts in the past year. \"I love to sleep. I'd sleep all day if I could.\" Her father and Hannah co-star, country music icon Billy Ray Cyrus, prefers to think of the family's Mediterranean-style villa in North Hollywood as more than a crash pad. \"I like for the house to be an escape from the insanity that is outside,\" says the 46-year-old singer and actor best known for his signature hit \"Achy Breaky Heart.\" Inside, the superstars focus simply on relaxing with Miley's mom and manager, Tish, 41, grandmother Loretta Finley (who runs Miley's fan club), 72, brothers Trace, 19, and Braison, 14, and sisters Brandi, 21, and Noah, 8. \"Our house is fun,\" says Miley. \"Parts of it are really modern, but it's mostly old Italian country.\" She opted for a \"more chill\" vibe in her two-room bedroom one for sleeping, one for hanging out and playing music with friends such as dancer Mandy Jiroux and High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale. Inspired by the ultra-cool Viceroy Hotel in nearby Santa Monica, the suite has sea blue walls, coral-filled lamps and a delicate shell chandelier that hangs over her bed. \"It feels beachy and Old Hollywood,\" says Miley. \"I love the way the room is laid out.\" Billy Ray felt the same way about the entire house the first time he saw it in 2007, when the family decided they needed more space and privacy in the after-blast of Hannah Montana's success... \"I just walked in and said, 'That's it; that's the place,'\" he says. Though Billy Ray and Miley have work to do in their native Tennessee, where the highly anticipated Hannah Montana movie is filming, right now he's eager to lead his youngest daughter on a roller-skating expedition around the house. Miley sits at the foot of the stairs, teaching her brother how to break in his guitar strings. The Cyrus clan is happy to be home, even if the comings and goings of family and friends sometimes get as crazy as life on the road. \"It feels like we're at the YMCA; there are so many people just in our family,\" Miley says with a laugh. \"Then our friends come over, and it's like, OK, this is a stinkin' country club!\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Miley Cyrus' Disney Channel alter ego is Hannah Montana, a pop sensation .\nCyrus has two bedrooms, one for sleeping and one for hanging out .\nThe family bought their new L.A. home in the wake of Cyrus' recent success .\nCyrus lives with her mom, dad, grandmother, two brothers and two sisters ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Children with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities should be among the first to be vaccinated against H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Thursday. CDC: The H1N1 virus is spreading in the United States, particularly in the Southeast. And high-risk children under 18 years of age should be rushed to a doctor at the first sign of the virus, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director. In addition, doctors should be aware that some otherwise healthy children with bacterial infections may be more susceptible to the flu, he told reporters during a conference call. Frieden said the vaccine should be available by mid-October, and will be free at public hospitals and other sites. All schoolchildren should be vaccinated, he said. \"We also are recommending that all people with underlying conditions get vaccinated -- people who have asthma, diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, neuromuscular conditions, neurological conditions that increase their risk factors and women who are pregnant,\" Frieden added. As of August 22, there had been 556 deaths in the United States associated with the H1N1 virus, and 42 of those deaths were children under the age of 18. The figures were published August 28 on the CDC Web site. Thursday, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report focused on the pediatric cases -- 36 that were counted among the 477 flu-related deaths up to August 8. Watch more on what the CDC had to say about H1N1 influenza \u00bb . Seven of the children who died were younger than 5 years old, the report said, and 24 had underlying disabilities, such as muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy, or one or more high-risk medical conditions. Frieden said the H1N1 virus -- which he said never really went away, judging by the cases reported this summer -- is spreading in the United States, particularly in the Southeast. \"The good news is that so far, everything that we've seen, both in this country and abroad, shows that the virus has not changed to become more deadly. That means that although it may affect lots of people, most people will not be severely ill,\" he said. He noted, however, that both H1N1 and the seasonal flu are unpredictable. Because of this, health professionals have to be ready to change their protocols based on any new information. On Wednesday, the CDC said there were six suspected cases among its approximately 7,000 employees at the Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters. Frieden referenced findings by federal agencies who were asked to study the impact of H1N1 in the Southern Hemisphere. They examined data from Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand and Uruguay, since they more closely resemble U.S. demographics and economic development. \"All countries report that after mid-July, disease activity in most parts of the country decreased. This indicates that the duration of the current influenza season in the Southern Hemisphere, in which the 2009 H1N1 virus is the predominate strain, may be similar in length to an average seasonal influenza season,\" according to the Flu.gov Web site. Earlier Thursday, the Institute of Medicine released a report recommending a major step up in protection for health workers dealing with patients suspected or confirmed to have H1N1 influenza. The institute, in recommendations requested by the CDC, said loose paper masks are inadequate because workers can still breathe in the virus. Instead, health workers should switch to a specific type of mask -- N95 respirators -- that form an airtight seal around the nose and mouth. CNN's Mariam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC: Children with medical issues should be among the first to get H1N1 vaccine .\nHead of CDC predicts the vaccine should be available by mid-October .\nAs of August 22, 42 of the 556 U.S. deaths linked to H1N1 virus were in kids ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new witness in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann has told investigators he talked with a \"Victoria Beckham look-a-like\" who may have revealed clues about the girl's fate, a family spokesman said Thursday. Sketch shows woman who may hold new clues to disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Investigators would not release what was said in the conversation but the clues have led police to try to find the woman. Madeleine vanished from the family's holiday villa at the Portuguese beach resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007 as her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined in a nearby restaurant. She was 3 years old at the time. The suspicious woman was seen outside a bar in Barcelona, Spain, by partygoers on May 7, 2007, and the new witness had a conversation with this woman, said McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell. Watch McCann spokesman describe new lead \u00bb . Authorities released a sketch of the person, described as a woman who spoke with an Australian accent and who could also speak fluent Spanish. Former detective inspector Dave Edgar, who was hired by the McCann family, called the new witness a significant movement in the case. Edgar would not say why the witness waited so long to come forward, stating only it was personal reasons. Mitchell described the woman they are looking for as similar in appearance to the former Spice Girl singer and wife of soccer star David Beckham. She was described as in her 30s and about 5 feet 2 inches tall. Madeleine's parents have garnered international support in an effort to find their daughter, enlisting the aid of celebrities and even Pope Benedict XVI. At one point, authorities in Portugal had named the girl's parents as suspects, along with a British man living in Portugal, Robert Murat. But a spokesman for the Portuguese public prosecutor's office said in July 2008 that authorities found no evidence of involvement by any of the three and were no longer considering them suspects. Portuguese investigators closed the case in July 2008.","highlights":"Investigators would not release specific details of new clues .\nMadeleine McCann vanished from holiday villa in Portugal in May 2007 .\nMadeleine's parents have garnered international support in hunt for their child ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A three-day manhunt ended when officials caught a murder suspect who escaped from a southeastern Louisiana jail with three other inmates, a police news release said. Timothy Murray, 29, who is charged with murder, has been recaptured, authorities in Louisiana say. Police found Timothy Murray at about 1 a.m. Sunday in a wooded stretch in the Folsom area of St. Tammany Parish, the release said. Police returned Murray to the St. Tammany Parish Jail in Covington, north of New Orleans, Louisiana. Murray, 29, is charged with murder, said Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. Three other escapees were rearrested Friday, Bonnett said. Thursday night's escape by Murray and the three others prompted a massive search using dogs, three helicopters and more than 100 officers, Bonnett said. Bonnett said he could not speak to how long it took to plan the escape, but that \"it clearly was a situation where there appeared to be a great amount of planning and forethought.\" The inmates captured Friday were Gary Slaydon, 27; Eric Buras, 30; and Jason Gainey, 27. Slaydon is charged with attempted murder, and Buras is a murder suspect. Gainey has been convicted of murder. They were found in a wooded area about a mile from the jail, Bonnett said. The men escaped about 9 p.m. Thursday, Bonnett said, and the escape was not discovered until a resident and Covington police reported seeing what appeared to be inmates in jail uniforms walking down a street. About the time those calls came in, jailers were doing a routine head count and found the four men missing, Bonnett said.","highlights":"Escaped inmate captured in Louisiana after three-day manhunt, police say .\nMan, 29, is charged with murder, police say .\nFour men escaped from jail in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, last week .\nThree found earlier in area near jail north of New Orleans, official says ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On their son's last night as president, a melancholy former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, made an impromptu visit to the White House's press briefing room and told reporters how much they'll miss the building. Ex-President George H.W. Bush says he'll miss coming and going from the White House. \"We will miss coming and going, but it's time to move on,\" said the former president, who was a frequent visitor during his son's two terms in office. \"The Bushes are going to a happy life.\" When a reporter suggested that perhaps one of their other sons, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will take the White House someday, the former president smiled. \"Maybe Jeb will do something. I'd like to see him try,\" the former president said. Barbara Bush, who was first lady from 1989 to 1993, said the hardest part of the night was saying goodbye to the White House residence staff a second time. \"In tears twice,\" she said, her eyes red. She added that she and her husband are looking forward to attending Tuesday's inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. \"Very exciting day,\" she said. In addition to the inauguration, the former first couple was to attend a final dinner at the White House with current President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and the first couple's two daughters, Barbara and Jenna. As the former first couple left the briefing room, some reporters and photographers spontaneously started clapping out of respect. Your view of history . The ex-president, who was using a long walking stick to get around, quipped, \"You didn't clap when I was president, what the hell is going on?\"","highlights":"Former president, wife visit White House on son's last night as president .\nGeorge H.W. Bush smiles when reporter suggests other son could run .\nBarbara Bush reflects on saying goodbye to White House staff for second time .\nFormer first couple attending inauguration of Barack Obama ."} -{"article":"GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A large explosion late Tuesday at a wedding party for relatives of a Fatah leader injured at least 50 people in Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said. A bomb Tuesday injured relatives of Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser. Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, the uncle of the groom, did not attend the wedding, according to witnesses. The cause of the explosion, which occurred at 11:10 p.m. in Khan Younis, was not known. Dahlan is the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser. Details of Tuesday's explosion were not immediately clear. Dahlan's associates in recent years have been targeted by Hamas as tensions between the militant group and rival Fatah -- the Palestine Liberation Organization's largest faction -- escalated. In January 2007, Hamas gunmen tried to kill Dahlan's bodyguard. Dahlan was not present at the time of the attack. In that month alone, Fatah and Hamas militants abducted more than 50 members of their rival groups -- most of them in the West Bank town of Nablus -- according to Palestinian security sources. Dahlan's nephew was kidnapped the next month amid a fragile cease-fire between supporters of Hamas and Fatah. In late December 2006, Hamas accused Dahlan of orchestrating an assassination attempt on its leader Ismail Haniya. Haniya's son was injured in the attack. Dahlan has described himself to CNN in the past as being involved in directing Fatah's military response to Hamas' military \"provocation.\" Dahlan is particularly disliked by Hamas because during his leadership of the Preventive Security Forces in the 1990s, Hamas members were apprehended and tortured. After a series of suicide bombings in Israel in 1996, Dahlan took a major part in the Palestinian Authority's effort to crack down on Hamas. CNN's Talal Abu-Rahma in Gaza City contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan is uncle of the groom .\nDahlan did not attend the wedding in Gaza .\nThe cause of the explosion is not known .\nHamas says Dahlan has sought to assassinate its leader Ismail Haniya ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leszek Balcerowicz, Poland's former finance minister, recently said his country is enjoying \"its best period in 300 years.\" CNN looks at how the country emerged from communism to become one of eastern Europe's most stable and thriving democracies. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa addresses striking workers in Gdansk, Poland in 1989. Modern Poland gained independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Almost six million Poles, including the majority of the country's large Jewish population, died during the devastating six-year conflict. The shadow of Stalin continued to loom large over Poland after the war, when the communist-dominated government ensured that Poland would become a Soviet satellite state for the next 40 years. The following decades were punctuated by revolts against the repressive authoritarian regime in Warsaw, but none had a greater impact on Poland's political future than events in 1980 at a shipyard in western Poland. With a struggling economy and rumors of corruption and mismanagement within the state causing widespread discontent, a series of strikes by workers paralyzed the country. Eventually the government was forced to negotiate and on August 31, 1980, workers at the massive Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, signed a deal giving workers the right to strike and form trade unions. This heralded the creation of the Solidarity movement, which would ultimately be instrumental in bringing Poland's communist era to an end. The presence in the Vatican at the time of Polish-born Pope John-Paul II was also a significant influence on the movement throughout the 1980s, as the Catholic church had remained a very potent force in Polish life. The Pope even made a visit to the country in 1979. Despite Soviet-endorsed attempts to slow the erosion of the regime's grip on power -- including the declaration of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981 which outlawed Solidarity -- Poland's worsening economic situation, compounded by further nationwide strikes, meant that the government had no alternative but to negotiate a date for free elections with Walesa and the Solidarity movement. Solidarity members won a stunning victory in the election of 1989, taking almost all the seats in the Senate and all of the 169 seats they were allowed to contest in the Sejm or parliament. This gave them substantial influence in the new government. Activist and journalist Tadeusz Mazowiecki was appointed prime minister, while Lech Walesa was elected as president the following year. Were you in Poland in 1989? Send us your memories . After years of economic mismanagement under the communists, Poland embarked on a painful reform program under finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz -- especially in traditional heavy industries such as coal and steel -- which moved away from the inefficient state-controlled system of economic planning. Despite growing unemployment and a dilapidated infrastructure, Poland was slowly transformed into an investment-friendly, market economy. Banking and lending policies were reformed, while newly reshaped ownership relations, independent enterprises and strengthened domestic competition all had a massive impact. Over a relatively short period of time, Poland had become one of the most dynamically developing economies in Europe and by the mid-1990s, it became known as the \"Tiger of Europe.\" Poland also liberalized its international trade during this period. The national currency -- the zloty -- became convertible to other currencies and internal convertibility was also established, providing another platform for dynamic economic growth. New markets in countries that had been treated not so long before as ideological as well as economic enemies were opened up to Polish companies. The EU and U.S. were now the key markets for Polish goods. This realignment of policy was emphasized by its accession into the European Union in 2004. It had also joined NATO in 1999. Unfortunately the continuing problem of high unemployment and the promise of better salaries encouraged many Poles to work in other EU countries after 2004. However this trend started to reverse in 2008 as the Polish economy enjoyed a boom period. Politically, Poland has also successfully transformed itself into a fully democratic country. Since 1991 the Polish people have voted in parliamentary elections and four presidential elections -- all free and fair. Incumbent governments have transferred power smoothly and constitutionally in every instance to their successors.","highlights":"Poland was ruled by Soviet-backed regime after the Second World War .\nSolidarity movement became a key factor in the fall of communist regime .\nCentrally-planned economic system replaced by free market economy .\nPoland joined the European Union in 2004 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Humanitarian aid agencies scrambled Monday to offer help to the tens of thousands of people in need after Tamil separatists declared an end to their quarter-century struggle in Sri Lanka. A Tamil refugee holds her child at a tented site in Vavuniya. The United Nations said Monday that over the past few days some 65,000 people had fled what had been the fighting zone in northeast Sri Lanka, bringing to 265,000 the number of internally displaced people, which it refers to as IDPs. \"This latest massive influx of people, who have endured extreme conditions, will put an even greater strain on the transit and IDP sites that are already buckling under the pressure of the existing IDP population,\" the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a written statement. The agency pledged to erect an additional 10,000 shelters to accommodate people streaming from the combat zone. It reiterated its request for the Sri Lankan government to set aside land for the construction of emergency shelters, water and sanitation facilities and public buildings in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Kilinochchi. And it called on the government to improve conditions at 42 sites already hosting the displaced people, and to ensure adequate care and maintenance for them. But the United Nations said its access to the sites in Vavuniya had been curtailed in recent days \"and this affects our ability to monitor and distribute aid to the displaced. We hope this ends quickly.\" Suresh Bartlett, aid agency World Vision's national director, said, \"The conventional war may be over but the real challenge now is to foster an environment where fractured and displaced Tamil communities can heal and have a real chance at creating a future for themselves and their children.\" Among the pressing issues, he said, is getting people back to their land and homes as quickly as possible, which in some cases will require that land be demined and buildings be repaired. About 80,000 of the displaced -- a third of the people in camps -- are children, who need emotional, psychosocial and educational support in addition to physical aid. \"It is important to get people home as quickly as possible so they can feel a sense of ownership over their own lives, recover their dignity and livelihoods and create an environment where their children feel safe,\" he said. In a telephone interview from Colombo, Sri Lanka's most populous city, Bartlett said that the displacement camps are overcrowded, with two and three families staying in shelters intended for a single family. \"A lot more needs to be done,\" he said. \"More land needs to be cleared, more shelters set up\" and safe drinking-water supplies assured. \"It's not easy and it's not straightforward.\" He said many of the people still streaming into the camps are malnourished. Though the end of the conflict marks a great opportunity, \"we can do with all the international support that we can get at this time,\" he said. Estimates put the number of civilians killed in the conflict at 70,000 to 80,000, but Bartlett acknowledged that the true number may never be known. Medecins Sans Frontieres, the aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, was trying to scale up on Monday, a spokeswoman said. The group's head of mission, Hugues Robert, said the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization is staffing three hospitals in the region, where it was screening people seeking help to determine their needs, stabilize them, then treat them. With fighting apparently ended, Robert predicted that the organization's team of 343 national staff and approximately 50 international staff will focus many of their efforts on providing post-operative care. \"We have a lot of wounded people,\" he said. One area of need that remains largely unaddressed, he said, is mental health. Amnesty International called for steps to be taken to ensure civilians and captured fighters are protected. \"The Sri Lankan government must ensure that its forces fully respect international law, including all provisions relating to protecting civilians from the effect of hostilities,\" said Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi. Amnesty International called on the Sri Lankan government to give humanitarian agencies full access; to allow independent observers to monitor the situation to guard against human-rights violations; and to register displaced people as a safeguard against enforced disappearances. Zarifi called on the international community to deploy monitors. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly called the end of fighting \"an opportunity for Sri Lanka to turn the page on its past and build a Sri Lanka rooted in democracy, tolerance, and respect for human rights.\" He said it is \"vital for the government to provide for the needs of the civilians now living in relief camps. Providing food, water, shelter, basic health care, and sanitation as well as expediting their return to their homes should be a top priority for the government.\"","highlights":"U.N.: 65,000 people flee fighting zone in northeast Sri Lanka in past days .\nBrings total number of internally displaced people to 265,000 .\nAbout 80,000 -- a third of the people in displacement camps -- are children .\nU.N. pledges to erect an additional 10,000 shelters to accommodate people ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A NATO airstrike on a pair of hijacked fuel trucks early Friday in northern Afghanistan killed at least 90 people -- a mix of Taliban militants and civilians, NATO and provincial officials said. A victim of an ISAF airstrike on a hijacked oil tanker is carried into the Kunduz hospital on Friday. Capt. Elizabeth Mathias of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, also known as ISAF, said the military believed there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack. NATO learned afterward that was not the case. \"Based on what we know, there were civilians there,\" Mathias said. Local Afghan officials were quoted as saying in some news reports that nearly half the people killed in the airstrike were civilians who rushed the fuel trucks. Mathias declined to confirm those numbers. Investigators are trying to determine who was at the site and whether a mistake was made, Mathias said. She said a local NATO team is already in Kunduz province conducting an investigation with Afghan forces and another team from the central office is on its way. Watch more about the airstrikes \u00bb . \"Because of the prevalence of reports of civilian casualties, we don't want to be seen as ignoring the situation,\" Mathias said. \"We don't want to wait. If something happened, we want to apologize.\" Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is following the investigation, his public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, said in an e-mail. \"He takes the possible loss of any innocent life seriously, and while he will not rush to judgment on the facts, he is following the investigation very closely,\" Sholtis said. Brigadier General Eric Tremblay released a statement that said, \"ISAF will do whatever is necessary to help the community, including medical assistance and evacuation as requested. ISAF regrets any unnecessary loss of human life, and is deeply concerned for the suffering that this action may have caused to our Afghan friends.\" See images of the strike aftermath \u00bb . Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was \"deeply saddened\" by the deaths and reiterated that no civilians should be killed or injured in anti-terrorist military operations. Sholtis said McChrystal \"has been in touch with President Karzai and leadership of the major ministries on the incident.\" Karzai's office issued a statement saying he had ordered a delegation to the area to investigate the incident and report back to him as soon as possible. The delegation includes representatives of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, National Directorate of Security, and the Provincial Administrative Department, according to the statement. A spokesman for the provincial governor, Mahboobullah Sayeedi, said more than 90 people were killed. The fuel trucks were hijacked late Thursday in Kunduz province and were spotted several hours later on the banks of the Kunduz River, ISAF said. The hijacked vehicles became stuck in the Chardara area of the Ali Abaad district while trying to cross the river, according to Sayeedi. Militants had commandeered the trucks, which were carrying fuel for NATO forces, he said. People tried to empty fuel from the tankers when they couldn't go any farther. With the trucks stuck on the riverbank, the German commander of the NATO forces called in the airstrike around 2:30 a.m., the German military said. No German soldiers or planes were involved in the airstrike, but a German patrol made it to the site about 10 hours after the attack and came under small-arms fire, the German military said. The patrol continued its investigation Friday afternoon. CNN's Chris Lawrence, Ingrid Formanek and Wahid Mayar contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Top U.S. commander in country is following the investigation, an aide says .\nDeath toll from NATO airstrike on oil tankers in northern part of country exceeds 90 .\nLocal Afghan officials quoted as saying many civilians were killed in the attack .\nTarget of attack was two fuel trucks that had been hijacked by militants ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Genarlow Wilson, freed last week from a Georgia prison, said he's glad he rejected a plea deal from prosecutors, even if it would have sprung him from prison months earlier. Genarlow Wilson tells CNN on Sunday that he will be more conservative and alert in the future. The 21-year-old, who served two years of a 10-year sentence for aggravated child molestation, said the prospect of being labeled a sex offender drove him to turn down the deal. He had to think about his 9-year-old sister and having a family of his own one day, he said Sunday. \"It might've been lesser time, but then again, I would have nowhere to go because I would have no home,\" Wilson said during a CNN interview scheduled to air Monday at 8 p.m. \"I wouldn't be able to stay with my mother because I have a little sister. You know, when you're a sex offender you can't be around kids. Basically, I can't even have kids myself, you know, so what is the point of life?\" he asked. In 2005, a jury found Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a 2003 New Year's Eve party. Wilson was 17 at the time of the party. Watch Wilson say why he rejected the plea deal \u00bb . The conviction carried a 10-year mandatory prison sentence and a sex offender designation. According to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, prosecutors in Douglas County, Georgia, offered Wilson a plea deal that would have reduced his sentence, possibly to time served, and would have eventually removed the conviction and sex offender status from his record. Defense attorney B.J. Bernstein said in June that Wilson rejected the deal because he didn't want to plead guilty to a felony with a 15-year sentence. The state Legislature last year amended the law under which Wilson was convicted, making such sexual encounters misdemeanors. However, the Legislature did not make the law retroactive, so it had no effect on Wilson's sentence. Now 21, Wilson was released Friday after the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the young man's sentence \"constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.\" Wilson said Sunday he feels no \"negative energy\" toward District Attorney David McDade, who fought efforts to have Wilson's sentence reduced. Instead, Wilson said, he is focused on the future and hopes to soon immerse himself in his college studies. He wants to major in sociology, he said, \"because I feel like I've been living my major.\" The new Genarlow Wilson will be more conservative, more alert and more appreciative of the blessings bestowed upon him, he said. \"When it seems like you have everything, you know, you feel like you have no worries until it's all gone, and I know what it feels like to be without and I don't want to ever feel like that again,\" said the former honor student, football star and homecoming king. \"I don't ever want to see the inside of a prison or a prison, period.\" Though he called his sentence \"absurd,\" Wilson said he understands that prosecutors \"were doing their job and they felt they were carrying out the law.\" Wilson also said he knows what he did was foolish. \"I was young then. I did some idiotic things in my teen years, but you know, every average teen does,\" he said. \"I don't think any of us made very wise decisions, but I don't think that any of us can go back then and change what happened.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Genarlow Wilson: Accepting plea deal would have left him without a home .\nWilson, 21, promises to be more conservative, alert and thankful in future .\nHe plans to study sociology in college -- \"I feel like I've been living my major\"\nWilson served two years in prison after consensual oral sex with teen girl ."} -{"article":"BURBANK, California (CNN) -- Jay Leno ended his 17-year reign as the host of \"The Tonight Show\" Friday with the children of people who met and started families while working at the long-running late-night show during his tenure, according to audience members who attended the taping. Jay Leno stands with the children of people who met and started families while working on the show. \"Jay said that's what he wanted his legacy to be,\" said Kevin Anthony of Miami, Florida. \"His staff members, from stage managers to runners, who met, got married and had kids joined Jay on the stage and he took a picture with the 70 kids of those parents.\" \"Jay also thanked his wife,\" said Kathy Young of Los Angeles, \"Jay said, when these kids are asked what was the 'Tonight Show' about, I want them to say, my parents met while working on the show and they had me. And that's what the 'Tonight Show' was all about.\" Others in the audience said the show was about celebration. \"It was amazing,\" said Justin Herring from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. \"It was a celebration more than emotional,\" he said. \"It didn't feel like a last show, more like a transition.\" Rosa Moore from Denver, Colorado, said Leno became teary-eyed when James Taylor sang \"Sweet Baby James.\" \"When James Taylor sang the line, 'I'm 10 miles from Boston with a thousand miles more to go,' Jay wiped his eye,\" said Moore. \"Jay explained that when he left Boston for Los Angeles, he was just outside of Boston when he heard that line and it gave him the courage to keep going,\" she said. \"It's like the song is Jay's personal soundtrack.\" Leno will be back in the fall with a new prime time show, and he's taking most of his staff with him. The new show will have some of the same elements as \"The Tonight Show\" but with some new features. Conan O'Brien, Leno's first guest Friday night, will be taking over \"The Tonight Show\" hosting duties beginning Monday.","highlights":"Leno brings out kids of those who met, married while working on his show .\nAudience members say show also includes song by James Taylor .\nConan O'Brien, Leno's first guest, takes over show Monday .\nLeno moves to prime time in the fall ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mormon leader Gordon B. Hinckley died Sunday night at age 97, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced. Gordon B. Hinckley, 97, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Sunday. Hinckley had \"been in failing health for some time and his passing is due to age,\" said church spokesman Bruce Olsen. \"He was speaking in public as late as two to three weeks ago and had a full schedule in his office as late as last week.\" Hinckley became president of the Salt Lake City-based church in 1995, at age 84, and had been a member of its top leadership since the 1960s. Mormon church presidents serve for life. The church has about 13 million members worldwide and has experienced 5 percent annual growth in recent years. He died about 7 p.m. Sunday with his family by his side, church officials said. \"His life was a true testament of service, and he had an abiding love for others,\" said U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican and fellow Mormon. \"His wit, wisdom, and exemplary leadership will be missed by not only members of our faith, but by people of all faiths throughout the world.\" Hinckley married Marjorie Pay at the Salt Lake City temple in 1937. They had five children, 25 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. Marjorie Hinckley died in 2004. \"I've been blessed so abundantly that I can never get over it,\" Hinckley told CNN's Larry King in 2004. \"I just feel so richly blessed. I want to extend that to others, whenever I can.\" Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Mormon church. President Bush awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. Watch Hinckley receive medal, share his views \u00bb . According to a church statement, Hinckley was the most-traveled president in the church's history, visiting more than 60 countries. He also oversaw a massive temple-building program, doubling the number of temples worldwide to more than 100. Hinckley spent 70 years working in the church and is considered the architect of its vast public relations network. He worked to defuse controversies over polygamy and to promote full inclusion of nonwhites. Mormons believe the president of the church is a living prophet and apostle. They considered his words divinely inspired, including his views on homosexuality and the role of men and women in the home. \"We are not anti-gay. We are pro-family, let me put it that way,\" Hinckley told King in 2004. \"We love these people and try to work with them and help them. We know they have a problem. We want to help them solve that problem.\" In an earlier interview with King, Hinckley laid out his views on family structure. \"Put father at the head of the house again,\" he said. \"A good father, who loves his wife and whose wife loves him, and whose children love him ... and let them grow together as good citizens of the land.\" A church body known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles becomes its governing body upon the death of a president. It will choose a successor after Hinckley's funeral. No arrangements have been announced, Olsen said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Matt Smith, Ed Payne and Ninette Sosa contributed to this story.","highlights":"Hinckley was president of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1995 .\nThe Church will choose a successor after Hinckley's funeral .\nHinckley died at about 7 p.m. with his family by his side ."} -{"article":"EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois (CNN) -- A man suspected of bludgeoning eight people to death is a methamphetamine addict with a history of fighting with police, an investigator said as the suspected spree killer made his first court appearance. Suspected spree killer Nicholas Troy Sheley, 28, did not enter a plea during his first court appearance. Nicholas T. Sheley, 28, is being held on $1 million bail in one slaying as police and prosecutors prepare additional charges in connection with a week-long killing spree in two states. Sheley, 28, appeared in an Illinois courtroom on Wednesday via closed-circuit television, but did not enter a plea. He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ronald Randall, 65, whose body was found behind a grocery story in Galesburg. Other charges include aggravated battery, vehicle hijacking and vehicle theft. Watch Sheley's perp walk \u00bb . Sheley, who wore a green-and-white striped jail jumpsuit, said little except to answer \"yes, sir,\" to a series of questions from Judge Edward Ferguson. Authorities say Sheley's alleged burst of violence spanned 300 miles until he gave up without a fight when police confronted him as he smoked outside a bar in Granite City, Illinois, on Tuesday night. Map: See where the bodies were found \u00bb . Additional charges are being filed in a second Illinois county which encompasses two other towns where police believe Sheley killed five people, authorities said. Authorities also suspect Sheley in connection with the slayings of an Arkansas couple in Festus, Missouri. All eight victims, which include a child, died from blunt-force trauma to the head, officials said. Sheley's capture ended an intensive manhunt, which included a $25,000 reward offer. Sheley had stopped at Bindy's bar, a popular cop bar in a Granite City shopping center. Two patrons who recognized him from news reports called police. Bar owner Bill Watson told CNN Sheley came in, drank a glass of water and went to the restroom. When he returned from the restroom, Sheley asked for a lighter but was told he had to go outside to smoke. He was outside smoking when authorities arrived and arrested him. As bar patrons celebrated Sheley's arrest, a family member of one of the victims called and thanked them for their assistance, Watson said. \"It really hit home and made us realize really what this guy was all about,\" Watson said. New of Sheley's capture calmed nerves in small towns from the Chicago to St. Louis areas. Police conducting a welfare check Sunday at an apartment in Rock Falls, Illinois, found four people dead, including the child. Sheley was a \"known associate\" to at least one of the Rock Falls victims, state police said. Rock Falls is across the Rock River from Sterling; both are in Whiteside County. The following day, Monday, authorities found Randall's body in Galesburg, about 80 miles south of Rock Falls, and obtained an arrest warrant naming Sheley. The couple found dead in Festus, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, was in town for a graduation, authorities said, and were last seen at a Comfort Inn there. Sheley is not believed to have had a prior relationship with the couple, police said. During the hunt for Sheley, the St. Louis County Police Department issued a bulletin describing him as an \"extremely dangerous\" methamphetamine addict. \"He has stated to his ex-wife that he has more killing to do,\" the bulletin said. According to a Tuesday affidavit by FBI Special Agent Susan Hanson, Sheley invaded a home in Sterling, Illinois -- just a mile from Rock Falls -- on June 14. A woman inside the home told police the man was Sheley, it says. Sheley then took off to Iowa where he made a phone call in Sterling on Saturday and then went to Missouri, according to the affidavit. A gas station attendant in Galesburg, less than 60 miles from where the call was placed near Davenport, Iowa, told police that he saw Sheley, who appeared to have blood on him, at the gas station, the affidavit stated. A stolen truck belonging to Randall, the victim in Galesburg, was recovered Sunday in Festus, near an Anheuser-Busch distribution plant, authorities said. CNN's Ismael Estrada, Susan Roesgen and Lee Garen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspected spree killer described as meth addict .\nNicholas T. Sheley, 28, did not enter a plea at first court appearance .\nPolice say ex-con tied to eight killings over past week in Illinois, Missouri .\nAll eight victims died of blunt-force trauma to head, authorities say ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two additional suspects in the strangulation of an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor were arrested Friday, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. Felix Brinkmann dances at a 2008 birthday party. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies,\" his son says. Aljulah Cutts, 27, and his brother Hasib, 30, were taken into custody in Manhattan in connection with the death last week of Guido Felix Brinkmann, the district attorney's office said. A spokeswoman declined to specify what, if any, connection the men are suspected to have had to the victim or to a woman previously arrested in the case. Police also would not say what charges the two might face. The woman, Angela Murray, 30, of the Bronx, was arraigned Sunday on one count of murder in the second degree and three counts of robbery in the case. Brinkmann was found dead in the bedroom of his apartment July 30, his hands tied behind his back, police said. A safe was missing from the apartment, and his car had been stolen. Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, was held in the Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz camps during World War II. After the war, he and his wife, who also survived Auschwitz, came to America. In 1971, Brinkmann co-founded Adam's Apple disco in Manhattan, and later was the real estate manager of a mixed-use building in the Bronx, according to his son, Rick Brinkman, who uses a different spelling for his last name. Brinkmann's wife died last year. CNN's Jason Kessler and Chris Kokenes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man, brother taken into custody in connection with Guido Felix Brinkmann's death .\nWoman previously arrested in the case was arraigned Sunday .\nBrinkmann, 89, was found strangled last week in his Manhattan apartment .\nA safe was missing from the apartment, and Brinkmann's car had been stolen ."} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Two cable powerhouses have announced an ambitious pilot program that aims to convince their customers that, actually, TV on the web should not be free. Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, speaks at the NCTA conference in Washington. With a service called TV Everywhere, Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers access to \"premium\" television content via broadband, and later cellphone connections. To begin with, 5,000 Comcast subscribers will begin testing the system next month, giving them access to Time Warner's TBS and TNT channels on their computers, and the same channels' video-on-demand catalogs on their cable boxes. If you made peace long ago with the idea of paying a monthly cable bill, this probably sounds great. It means watching your existing subscription on new screens without paying additional fees or buying more hardware. (Of course, as consumers adopt TV Everywhere, they can probably expect price increases.) But if you prefer to watch your television for free on ad-supported sites like Hulu while paying only for the internet connection that delivers it, you could be in for a rude awakening. TV Everywhere represents an alternative -- and possible threat -- to the popular Hulu model. If the pilot program impresses the group -- and proves to other networks that its user-authentication system is secure -- Comcast and Time Warner expect the other television programmers, ISPs and mobile providers to join, giving all cable subscribers a way to watch the content they pay for on their televisions using any broadband-connected computer or authenticated cellphone. Already \"at least 92 percent of Americans qualify to watch this for free online,\" according to Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner. For these subscribers, TV Everywhere represents a potential win. The only question is whether they will keep paying for the old cable subscription model as their viewing habits shift online. There's nothing to stop television networks from putting their content on both Hulu and TV Everywhere, because TV Everywhere's contract will be non-exclusive, according to Bewkes. However, given the choice between Hulu and TV Everywhere, television programmers have an incentive to go with the latter. Only the TV Everywhere model promises to port yesterday's lucrative business model onto today's platforms. And that, according to some critics, is exactly the problem. \"[TV Everywhere] raises substantial anti-competitive issues by restricting the availability of programming to the favored distribution methods,\" said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of the public interest group Public Knowledge. \"Under the TV Everywhere plan, no other program distributors would be able to emerge, and no consumers will be able to 'cut the cord' because they find what they want online. As a result, consumers will be the losers. \"In addition, we are concerned that this program violates the open nature of the internet. By adding this additional toll lane, Comcast and Time Warner want to create their own 'managed channel' within the internet and turn the internet into their own private cable channel.\" So, what about Hulu? Will its deals fall through given this new option? \"There will be some part [of Time Warner's content] that will be out there [on Hulu], said Bewkes.\"Short-form content, I think, will continue to be available -- promotional content will continue to be available.\" However, only cable subscribers will be able to access other content online -- through officially licensed avenues, anyway. Bewkes added that some other television programmers have avoided Hulu \"for security concerns and because they didn't like the model,\" but that they will give TV Everywhere a chance. \"Consumers vote every single month with their pocketbook,\" he added. \"They don't have to subscribe to cable. They don't have to pay for these services, yet they do. The number of people paying for subscription television has gone up and up and up every single quarter that we've been in the business.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers online access to tv content .\nProgram is called TV Everywhere and will begin testing next month .\nTV Everywhere represents alternative -- and possible threat -- to popular Hulu model .\nSome of Time Warner's content will remain on Hulu.com ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Retired Gen. Colin Powell has a choice blend of political and military experience, and many thought he'd make a great president, but Powell said Wednesday that he just didn't have it in him. Colin Powell, left, embraces Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel at the inauguration Tuesday. His wife, Alma, had feared that such an endeavor would change their family life. She also had concerns about Powell's safety, he said Wednesday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"But I was a soldier. That wasn't my concern,\" he said. \"I never found inside of me the internal passion that you've got to have to run for elected office.\" Many GOP pundits had hoped Powell, who served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush's father and President Clinton, would make a run at the Oval Office. The former four-star general and Vietnam War veteran's military credentials are staunch, rivaled only by his accomplishments as a statesman. Watch Powell explain why the White House wasn't for him \u00bb . In addition to chairing the Joint Chiefs, the lifelong Republican served as national security adviser under President Reagan and oversaw the 1989 invasion of Panama that toppled Gen. Manuel Noriega as well as Operation Desert Storm during the 1991 Gulf War. He has two Presidential Medals of Freedom to his name. As Bush's secretary of state, he spearheaded efforts to increase U.S. foreign assistance throughout the world, and he helped develop Bush's HIV\/AIDS prevention and treatment program, which is credited with being the largest such endeavor ever. However, Powell drew heavy criticism over his remarks before the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Powell made the assertion while attempting to convince the world body that the U.S. should go to war with Iraq. Powell abruptly retired from Bush's Cabinet in 2005, but he did not cite his time a secretary of state Wednesday when explaining why he never sought the presidency. \"I never woke up a single morning to go think about this, to talk to people about it and find in my heart and soul the passion that a Barack Obama or a John McCain or a George Bush or a Bill Clinton had,\" he said. \"It just wasn't me, and you've got to be true to yourself, and I've tried to be true to myself.\" The stance is not new for Powell, who held a news conference in November 1995 to announce that he would not run for president. \"To offer myself as a candidate for president requires a commitment and a passion to run the race and to succeed in the quest,\" he said then, \"a passion and commitment that, despite my every effort, I do not yet have for political life, because such a life requires a calling that I do not yet hear.\" No stranger to advising presidents, Powell told CNN that Obama has a great deal of work ahead. Not only does he have to deal with the crisis du jour -- like righting the economy at home -- he needs to keep his eyes on crises abroad while never foregoing long-range planning. Watch what Powell says Obama must do \u00bb . \"You can never avoid it,\" he said. \"Once you're the president, every crisis comes to your desk, and you have to deal with it. ... But that doesn't mean that you can't stand back and look farther out.\" Repairing America's broken image and poverty alleviation -- both at home and abroad -- will pose major challenges, he said, and both have wide-ranging implications. Poverty incubates terror, and it is incumbent upon the U.S. to stamp out the hunger, unemployment and illiteracy that breed suicide bombers and other insurgents, Powell said. He called poverty alleviation \"one of the most important challenges facing the world.\" \"For those of us who are wealthy, we should reach out not only to our own citizens who need help, but the rest of the world,\" he said. \"If you want to get rid of sources of terrorism, if you want to get people moving in the right direction, you've got to help them get jobs, clean water, health care for their kids, educate their kids -- and America has a great responsibility to do this.\" Obama also needs to consider what other nations think of the U.S. and help repair the American reputation. The challenge is daunting, but Powell said America's good standing is \"recoverable.\" The sea of diverse faces in attendance at Obama's inauguration ceremony speaks to the reverence that America still enjoys in the world, said the son of Jamaican immigrants and father of three. If Obama can turn the economy around and rectify situations in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, he will begin repairing the nation's image, \"because there's still a solid, residual level of affection and respect for the United States of America.\" But Powell acknowledges that his former boss and Obama's predecessor made things difficult. \"Iraq and the Guantanamo situation -- which I have been preaching for years should have been closed years ago -- Abu Ghraib and a lack of progress in the Middle East and a certain way in which we deal with the world on international issues, I think damaged our reputation with the world,\" he said. Obama is off to a good start, he said, and is doing the right thing by reaching across the aisle for help. It was gracious of Obama to hold a dinner in Sen. John McCain's honor after a testy campaign and gracious of McCain to accept, and Powell said he hopes that spirit will permeate Obama's presidency. Powell conceded, though, that bipartisanship won't always be the answer to Obama's problems and said the 44th president will need to rely on the wisdom of those who forged the country more than two centuries ago. \"We're supposed to be a partisan country. That's the way the founding fathers intended for us to move forward,\" he said. \"People have strong views on both sides of an issue. Argue it out. Fight it out, just like they did in that summer of 1787 when they were writing the Constitution -- and then ultimately both sides make compromises in order to achieve consensus, and then you move the country forward.\" CNN's John Roberts contributed to this report.","highlights":"Powell: I just didn't have the passion that a Barack Obama or George Bush has .\nMany in GOP felt former Joint Chiefs chairman, secretary of state could be president .\nPoverty \"one of the most important challenges facing the world,\" ex-general says .\nIraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib among factors damaging U.S. reputation in world ."} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Heavy rains triggered by El Nino weather patterns could potentially prove devastating for east African nations that have been water-starved for months, the United Nations has warned. A Turkana boy holds an empty cup in a village in northwestern Kenya. Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda are facing mudslides, crop destruction, waterborne diseases and disrupted road networks, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday. Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia could also be affected. The effects of flooding are expected to be exacerbated because so much greenery has disappeared in the drought. \"More than 23 million people in pastoral, agricultural and suburban communities, as well as internally displaced people and refugees in the region, are reeling from the impact of water and food shortages, pasture scarcity, conflict and insecurity,\" said John Holmes, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs who is coordinating emergency relief operations. \"While we cannot prevent these climatic shocks, we certainly can mitigate their disastrous effects through forward planning and the right funding from the donor community,\" he said. Uganda, hit by El Nino a decade ago, is planning to apply some of the lessons learned this time around, said Fred Opolot, a government spokesman. \"The government has allocated funds and resources to areas that will be affected,\" he said. \"Our disaster preparedness department is using press briefings, among other ways, to inform the public.\" Though the department is not very well-funded, he said, the government is working with groups such as the United Nations and international aid agencies to prepare for floods. \"It is a multifaceted effort ... we want to ensure citizens are sensitized to the dangers of El Nino and things such as bridges are in good condition.\" The rainy season begins in the Horn of Africa in mid-October and runs through the end of the year. Meteorologists have forecasted that this year's rains will be more intense than usual because of the El Nino phenomenon, caused by a rise in temperature in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Aid agencies are already buckling under the weight of helping millions of people who have suffered through months of failed crops, drought and erratic rains caused by climate change. In Somalia, 450,000 people in the Juba and Shabelle river basins could suffer, the United Nations estimates. In neighboring Kenya, some 750,000 people -- 150,000 of whom are refugees -- could be affected. The Turkana, a pastoral tribe in northeastern Kenya, is already reeling from a severe drought that has left scores of people dead and remains of skeletal cows strewn across the flat, arid land. The remote region has no access to resources, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods. CNN's Moni Basu and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. humanitarian agency: East African nations facing flooding, mudslides .\nWarning comes after months of drought in region which has decimated greenery .\nRainy season in Horn of Africa usually begins in mid-October, runs to end of year .\nKenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia set to be affected ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The person who leaked British lawmakers' controversial expense claims earlier this year, triggering a national scandal, was motivated by outrage at apparent equipment shortages for British troops, a newspaper said Friday. The mole was angry at apparent equipment shortages for British troops deployed around the world. The mole was one of 20 people employed to process and censor the expenses claims before their scheduled official release in July, according to The Daily Telegraph. The man leaked the claims to the Telegraph, which printed them in a series of front-page articles in May. The articles brought public embarrassment to Parliament and even forced some lawmakers to resign. The 20 employees going through the claims were guarded by British soldiers to ensure nothing was leaked. The soldiers were working there in between tours of duty in order to earn extra money to pay for badly needed military equipment, the Telegraph said. One of the soldiers had taken on the temporary work to earn enough money to buy a lightweight Kevlar protective vest similar to the ones used by U.S. troops, while another soldier was trying to earn money for desert boots, gloves, and sunglasses, the Telegraph said. Hearing the soldiers' stories while at the same time looking through what were revealed as excessive claims made by lawmakers, prompted the mole to take action, the newspaper said. \"It's not easy to watch footage on the television news of a coffin draped in a Union Jack and then come in to work the next day and see on your computer screen what (members of Parliament) are taking for themselves,\" the mole told the Telegraph. \"Hearing from the serving soldiers about how they were having to work there to earn enough money to buy themselves decent equipment, while the MPs could find public money to buy themselves all sorts of extravagances, only added to the feeling that the public should know what was going on.\" Watch report on what prompted outrage \u00bb . The Telegraph does not name the man who leaked the claims. He tells his story in a book, \"No Expenses Spared,\" released Friday about the scandal written by two Telegraph reporters. Speaking in the book, the mole says he is \"bloody glad\" he released the information, but is disappointed in the reaction from lawmakers so far. Controversial claims detailed by the newspaper included thousands of dollars' worth of interest on a mortgage that had already been paid, money spent to clean a moat on a country estate, and more than $1,000 spent on a small house on a pond for ducks. More than a dozen members of Parliament caught up in the scandal promised to step down in the next election. It led Prime Minister Gordon Brown to reshuffle his Cabinet and forced the speaker of the House of Commons to resign, the first time that had happened since 1695. Claims for allowances for second homes -- which most lawmakers have because they need to be in London for parliamentary business -- were a big point of controversy. The Telegraph exposed how some lawmakers \"flipped\" the designation of their main and second homes to avoid taxes or make big allowance claims. Many lawmakers defended their claims as being within the rules. But even where that was the case, the public criticized lawmakers for greed and for taking advantage. The reports forced the government to release the claims in June, a month earlier than planned. But unlike the information revealed by the Telegraph, the officially released documents were redacted, with key details blocked from view. Parliament said the edits were made to protect the security and privacy of lawmakers, their staffs and third parties. The issue of equipment shortages for British troops has been simmering for years. Some relatives of fallen soldiers have blamed their loved ones' deaths on a lack of proper gear in the battlefield. This month, the widow and father-in-law of Sjt. Paul McAleese, killed by a bomb in Afghanistan, said the soldier had voiced concerns about safety conditions at his base in Wishtan. The father-in-law, Stephen Minter, wrote a letter to Brown detailing what he believed to be a lack of equipment for British troops. In July, Sasha Buckley, the childhood sweetheart of Rifleman Daniel Hume, who was killed in Afghanistan, voiced the same concerns to the Daily Mail newspaper. \"The real tragedy is that he won't be the last soldier killed out there,\" she told the paper. \"There will be many more coming home unless the government give them the support they need. That means more equipment now -- soldiers like Dan deserve better.\" The Ministry of Defence has maintained that soldiers are properly equipped. In a statement Friday, a ministry spokesman said providing the best equipment for British troops is the top priority. \"Every soldier who deploys to Afghanistan receives Osprey body armor and a Mark 6a helmet,\" the spokesman said in a statement. \"They also receive a black bag containing all their operational requirements. Valued at \u00a33,500 ($5,600), it contains everything a soldier will need from boots and socks to camel backs (strap-on water bottles). Commanders now have a variety of helicopters, protected patrol vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and other key equipments at their disposal, and we are committed to ensuring that their needs are met, both in the short and long term. Since 2006, we have delivered equipment valued at more than 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) to the armed forces.\"","highlights":"Mole one of 20 people employed to process and censor MPs' expenses .\nSoldiers guarding them did so to earn extra cash between tours of duty .\nMole became angry at MP claims as soldiers saved to buy essential equipment .\nClaims included thousands of dollars' worth of interest on mortgages already paid ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Katy Brown is an Internet-savvy college freshman with conservative perspectives who worries about the future of the Republican Party. Katy Brown, Kevin Neugebauer, Barbara Rademacher and Chuck Burkhard discuss the future of the GOP. Brown, a student at Kent State University in Ohio, joined other Republicans and conservative independent iReporters in an online roundtable discussion. The Republican National Committee selected Michael Steele to become its chairman Friday during its annual winter meeting after the decisive victory of President Obama in November. Over the next four years, Republicans must regroup and establish a strategy, and the new GOP leader must navigate a political landscape where the Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress. \"I think we'll come with somebody who has experience, knows what they're talking about, is good with both liberals and conservatives, both Democrats and Republicans,\" Brown said of a future Republican presidential nominee. iReport.com: Watch Brown respond to one of Obama's Cabinet picks . Kevin Neugebauer of Katy, Texas, a Republican who voted for Sen. John McCain in the election, said during the chat that he thinks the majority of Americans are conservative and that he wants to see the party head in a more conservative direction. iReport.com: 'McCain wasn't conservative enough to win' Neugebauer thinks that abiding by conservative principles, especially fiscally, is the only way to solve the country's financial problems. \"I don't want to have to mortgage my kids' future to get us out of the things we're doing today,\" he said. Another panel participant, Chuck Burkhard of Windber, Pennsylvania, voted for McCain as a registered Republican but plans to become an independent. Watch the iReporters talk over a Web chat \u00bb . He feels that the Bush administration failed at making government smaller and reducing spending, which he thinks Republicans should make a top priority. He hopes that the party will take a new direction and reach out to more people. \"I really think the Republicans will reach out with a grass-roots campaign,\" he said. iReport.com: 'I choose Sen. McCain' Neugebauer said he thinks the Republican Party needs a \"fresh new face\" who can set the agenda. He says the government needs to be smaller and thinks politicians waste money on \"stuff that the government has no business being in.\" The fourth panel participant, Barbara Rademacher, said she had a difficult time making her decision during the 2008 election. She finally settled on McCain but says she is very much an independent voter. Social issues such as abortion are what swung her to the right, but she said the party focused too much on attacks. \"I hate the Republican Party the way it is right now. I hated the way they acted during the election and some of the ideas they came up with as election strategies,\" she said. Rademacher said she thinks former Gov. Mike Huckabee, a candidate in the 2008 race, would be a good president because of his experience. She says he has integrity, intelligence and charisma, as well as the ability to manage money. iReport.com: How will Huckabee reform the party? \"I think he may be the only hope for the Republican Party,\" she said. Burkhard, Brown and Neugebauer all agreed that Huckabee would be a good presidential candidate. Neugebauer said he also likes former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and advocated for a return to strong Republican politics. \"I just think what we need to do is, we need to concentrate on the core values that the Republican Party was started on,\" he said. \"There's too many fence-huggers. They'll say one thing just to get votes, and they actually are thinking the other way. You really need someone in there that can rally the troops and somebody with good morals and a good record.\" Paul A. Beck, a political science professor at Ohio State University, said that although Obama is president, there is a large number of conservative people in the country, and they will want their say. \"We have to remember that the 2000 and 2004 elections were very narrow elections,\" Beck said. \"The country was very divided in those elections.\" He said he feels that many voters looked at Bush's administration and blamed him for the downfall of the economy and the war in Iraq, creating trouble for the Republican candidates who would attempt to follow him. \"It looks like the Bush administration fumbled the ball. McCain didn't know quite what to do,\" he said. Hao Li, a student at the University of Southern California, said he wasn't Bush's biggest fan but thought the former president did \"the right thing.\" Li said he lives the divide in this country every day as a committed Republican and McCain voter in a state that went for Obama. He describes himself as strongly fiscally conservative and socially moderate. He feels that the GOP needs to make greater efforts to reach out to minorities and young people if party members hope for success. Watch Hao Li ask about reaching out to young people in a 'Digg Dialogg' \"The party has its way of saying, 'Just work hard, and you'll get there,' and they don't really outreach to the minority community. The party shouldn't change its basic principles, but the party should outreach to women and minorities.\"","highlights":"Republican National Committee names Michael Steele as chairman .\nKaty Brown advocates bipartisan cooperation during iReport roundtable chat .\nKevin Neugebauer suggests Republicans need to return to conservative roots .\niReport.com: Hao Li asks how the party can reach out to younger voters ."} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- White students at a South African university tricked black residence hall workers into eating stew containing urine, prompting a march Wednesday in which five people were arrested, university officials said. Students protest against a racist video on the campus of Free State University in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The white students made a video of the incident, which they staged in reaction to the university's efforts to integrate its residences, according to a statement from the University of the Free State. The protesters on Wednesday included black and white students who later marched to the residence where the video was made and demanded that it be shut down, witnesses said. The video surfaced on Tuesday but was made in September, the university said. In the video, white male students at Reitz Residence are seen encouraging at least three black female housekeepers to participate in what the students call the \"Reitz Fear Factor,\" an apparent reference to the television show in which contestants eat live worms or compete in other feats. Watch excerpts of video that sparked outrage \u00bb . In one scene from the video, a student mixes what looks like a beef stew in a plastic bowl and adds garlic and other items. Then he tells the camera he will add the \"special ingredient.\" The student then urinates into the mixture, which he later stirs up and puts in a microwave. Other students can be heard laughing on the tape. The next scene shows a different student urging at least three housekeepers to drink cups full of the stew, saying, \"This is our dorm's 'Fear Factor.' We want to see who has the best 'Fear Factor.'\" On the video, the student does not tell the women that there is urine in the mixture. The women, on their knees, spit the stew into buckets after tasting it. Some appeared to vomit, but the women also laughed during the incident as the student urged them on. Next, the women struggle to run in what appears to be a race. The video is put in slow-motion as the theme from \"Chariots of Fire\" plays. Finally, one of the students awards a large bottle of whiskey to one of the women, telling her she has won the \"Fear Factor.\" At the end of the video, a message appears on the screen in Afrikaans saying, \"That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration.\" University officials and human rights groups in South Africa denounced the video. \"The executive management of the [university] condemns this video in the strongest possible terms as a gross violation of the human dignity of the workers involved,\" said UFS Rector Frederick Fourie in a statement posted on the university's Web site. \"We have immediately started with a most urgent investigation into this matter,\" he added. Later Wednesday, Fourie met with the employees seen in the video and apologized to them, a statement from the university said. Counseling is being provided for the workers, it added. The students involved in the video have been identified and will be suspended, Fourie said, and charges against the men will be filed with the South African Police Service. Two of the students in the video are still enrolled at the university but had been barred from the campus in Bloemfontein, according to the university. Two others completed their studies last year. The students seen in the video have not made any public comment since the video surfaced. \"I am deeply saddened that students apparently see nothing wrong in producing such an offensive and degrading video. I have publicly said several times that the UFS is not a place for racism,\" the rector's statement said. \"The fact that it is openly linked to the integration process in UFS residences is also most disturbing,\" Fourie said. A spokeswoman in Free State province for the Democratic Alliance -- an opposition party which says it puts equal rights for all South Africans at the center of its policies -- called the video \"shocking and inhumane.\" \"It looked like they were willing [participants] but they didn't know what purpose the video served. ... It was quite humiliating at the end to see the quite senior ladies on their knees eating the meat,\" said spokeswoman Liana Van Wyk, the South African Press Association reported. Helen Zille, the Democratic Alliance's leader, Wednesday asked the South African Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation into racial tensions at the university. \"The abhorrent footage of students abusing university workers is a fundamental infringement on the victims' constitutional right to have their dignity respected and protected,\" Zille said in a statement posted on the group's Web site. \"This incident is symptomatic of racial tensions that have been simmering at the campus for some time over the issue of hostel [residence] integration,\" she said. Fourie acknowledged in his statement that \"the university is going through a difficult time with its efforts to racially integrate its residences and to create a new residence culture based on diversity, respect, human dignity and human rights.\" He added, \"These kinds of actions make it all the more important that we succeed with establishing such a new institutional culture on the campus. I appeal to all staff and students to remain calm and to act in the best interests of the university.\" The university, a research center, is one of South Africa's oldest; founded in 1904. It has more than 25,000 students, according to its Web site, and uses a parallel-medium instruction in English and Afrikaans for its full range of undergraduate and graduate programs. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kim Norgaard contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video made of incident surfaces, brings campus protest .\nVideo made to protest residence hall integration, university says .\nWhite males urinated into stew, served it to black workers .\nVideo makers told workers they were playing \"Fear Factor\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Big Ben, arguably the world's most famous clock, celebrates on Sunday 150 years of keeping London on time. The British landmark has lived through war, bad weather and disasters. Big Ben's distinctive bongs have been a part of the London scene for 150 years. Big Ben is the 14-ton bell inside the world's largest four-faced chiming clock, although most people use the name to describe the tower that houses it. The clock is perched on a 96-meter (310-foot) elegant tower at the Westminster Bridge end of the Palace of Westminster. The Victorian masterpiece, which provides distinctive chimes known as bongs, was voted Britain's favorite monument in 2008. It has been featured in films such as \"101 Dalmatians\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.\" Big Ben has been disrupted a few times over the years for various reasons, including weather and breakages. Its bongs went silent for about two months in August 2007 to allow a crew to repair its mechanism system. During that time, the rest of the clock was running on an electric system. It was fully restarted again October 1. The clock pays tribute to Britain's royal history: It has a Latin inscription of the phrase: \"O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First.\" The ornate masterpiece has some quirky features. The hour hand, which weighs 300 kilograms (661 pounds), is made of gun metal while the minute hands are made of copper sheet. The minute hands would not work when they were first made of cast iron because they were too heavy. The clock started working on May 31, 1859, after the lighter copper hands were installed. The origins of the landmark's name are obscure. Some say it was named after the 1850s heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt while others suggest it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a former member of parliament. Hall, the commissioner of works in 1859, was responsible for ordering the bell. Alan Hughes, the director of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made the bell, prefers the latter. \"I suppose I like it chiefly because it was a nickname of a man who was big and loud and pompous, and never used one word if 27 would do,\" he said in a 2008 interview. Hughes' company also made America's Liberty Bell and a number of others for cathedrals and churches around the world.","highlights":"London's Big Ben turns 150 years old on Sunday .\nLast year, Victorian masterpiece was voted Britain's favorite monument .\nNo one is quite sure where the clock's moniker came from ."} -{"article":"KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- In an effort to shut down Khartoum's Unity High School, a disgruntled former employee alerted Sudanese officials that a British teacher had allowed her class to name a teddy bear \"Mohammed,\" a British source and Sudanese presidential palace source told Time magazine's Sam Dealey. An undated amateur photo shows Gillian Gibbons, who was jailed for allowing children to name a teddy bear \"Mohammed\". Gillian Gibbons, 54, was convicted last week of insulting religion and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her from her prison sentence on Monday and she later left on a flight for England. The two sources said Sarah Khawad was fired as the school's secretary in November after an employment spat and threatened to shut down the school. The sources said Khawad did not appear to have a vendetta against Gibbons, but hoped that by bringing the teddy bear incident to the education minister's attention, he would close down the school for anti-Islamic teachings. Watch Time magazine's Sam Dealey's report on the pardon \u00bb . The private school was shut down after the controversy came to light last week. It is unclear if it will reopen. Although there is no ban in the Quran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's founder, some Muslims consider likenesses highly offensive. The sources said they have confirmed the account with Gibbons. Defense attorneys confirmed that it was Khawad who launched the initial complaint against Gibbons, not a parent as originally thought. Khawad also testified at Gibbons' trial. Before approaching Sudan's education minister, the two sources said Khawad tried to enlist two parents, who were also teachers at the school, to join in her protest against the teddy bear's name, but they declined. Gibbons had been working at the school -- popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates -- since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, said the head of Unity High School, Robert Boulos. She had asked her class of 7-year-olds to come up with a name for the toy as part of a school project, he said. Classmates took turns taking the teddy bear home with them, accompanied by a diary with the bear's name written in the front of it, he said. She was taken into custody on November 25 and tried days later in a Sudanese court. She was cleared of other charges of inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. Gibbons had initially faced the possibility of 40 lashes and a six-month jail term for insulting Islam. The incident sparked a diplomatic row, with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband calling on his Sudanese counterpart to dismiss the charges. Two British lawmakers, both Muslims, traveled to Khartoum to help secure her release. It also resulted in angry protests in Khartoum, with some calling for the British woman's execution. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Disgruntled ex-employee said teacher let class name teddy \"Mohammed\"\nSources: Sarah Khawad trying to shut down Khartoum's Unity High School .\nBriton Gillian Gibbons convicted of insulting religion released from jail .\nGillian Gibbons taken to British Embassy in Khartoum to await flight home ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British authorities and environmental groups were welcoming the launch this week of the world's first biodegradable chewing gum, which they say could help save some of the millions spent on clearing up the mess ordinary gum creates. Manufacturers say the gum decomposes within six weeks. The new gum becomes non-adhesive when dry and decomposes to dust within six weeks, a spokesman for Mexico's Chicza Mayan Rainforest Chewing Gum told CNN. The makers of Chicza say it is the first biodegradable chewing gum ever sold. Environmental and waste management groups told CNN that they, too, believe it is a first. Unlike other gums that contain petrochemicals the natural gum is produced from the sap of the chicozapote tree found in the Mexican rainforest, a spokesman for Chicza told CNN. A spokesman for campaign group Keep Britain Tidy told CNN they welcome any product that can help eradicate the staining on pavements caused by dropped chewing gum. Removing chewing gum litter costs local authorities \u00a3150 million ($222 million) a year, a spokesman for the Local Government Association told CNN. Sixty-five percent of British streets have chewing gum stuck on them, a spokesman from Keep Britain Tidy told CNN. One of the worst-affected areas is Westminster in central London, where a comprehensive gum clean-up would cost \u00a39 million ($13.4 million), according to Westminster City Council. \"Gum litter is a constant problem for us, especially given the vast number of visitors to Westminster every day. We spend \u00a3100,000 ($148,000) a year cleaning ugly blobs of conventional chewing gum off our streets,\" Westminster City Councilor Danny Chalkley said in a written statement. \"It's an incredibly expensive and time-consuming task, so anything that could reduce the problem is very welcome indeed.\" he said. British parliamentarians have called on the government to introduce a tax on chewing gum, with the money raised going toward the cost of gum removal. In Britain, offenders can be fined up to \u00a380 ($119) for discarding used chewing gum on a street. The producer of the new gum is Consorcio Chiclero, which comprises 46 cooperatives with around 2,000 chicleros farmers, working in an area of 1.3 million hectares of rainforest, according to a statement from Chicza. Locals have been extracting the natural chicle gum base from the bark of the chicozapote trees for a century, a spokesman for Chicza told CNN. After years of exporting the gum base to be used as an ingredient in the manufacture of regular chewing gum, the cooperative recently decided to start making its own gum using only chicle gum base and natural flavorings and sweeteners, Chicza said. The company launched its gum in Britain this week. It is available at a chain of supermarkets and Mexican restaurants. The Chicza gum sells for \u00a31.39 ($2.06) for a pack of 12 squares.","highlights":"Authorities, green groups welcome launch of world's first biodegradable gum .\nChewing gum costs millions to remove from city sidewalks .\nManufacturers say new Mexican product decomposes in six weeks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi, was the first female prime minister of Pakistan and of any Islamic nation. She led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. Benazir Bhutto died Thursday after a suicide bombing at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto, 54, spent eight years in self-imposed exile in Great Britain and Dubai after President Farooq Leghari dismissed her second administration amid accusations of corruption, intimidation of the judiciary, a breakdown of law and order, and undermining the justice system. She was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison. The conviction was later overturned but she remained in exile until this year. She returned to Pakistan in October after President Pervez Musharraf signed an amnesty lifting corruption charges. Watch political history of Bhutto \u00bb . In a September 26 interview on CNN's \"The Situation Room,\" Bhutto said she expected threats against her life as she prepared to lead a push for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. \"After military dictatorship an anarchic situation developed, which the terrorists and Osama (bin Laden) have exploited,\" she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. \"They don't want democracy, they don't want me back, and they don't believe in women governing nations, so they will try to plot against me. \"But these are risks that must be taken. I'm prepared to take them,\" she said. Bhutto narrowly escaped injury on October 18 when a suicide bombing near her convoy in Karachi killed 126 people. \"Soon thereafter, I was asked by authorities not to travel in cars with tinted windows -- which protected me from identification by terrorists -- or travel with privately armed guards,\" she wrote for CNN.com in November. \"I began to feel the net was being tightened around me when police security outside my home in Karachi was reduced, even as I was told that other assassination plots were in the offing.\" \"I decided not to be holed up in my home, a virtual prisoner,\" she wrote. \"I went to my ancestral village of Larkana to pray at my father's grave. Everywhere, the people rallied around me in a frenzy of joy. I feel humbled by their love and trust.\" Musharraf declared a state of emergency and placed Bhutto under house arrest twice in November as anti-government rallies grew in Rawalpindi. The arrest warrant was lifted November 16. She filed a nomination paper for a parliamentary seat on November 25 and appeared headed for a power showdown with Musharraf before she was assassinated Thursday. See a timeline of Bhutto's political career \u00bb . Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former president and prime minister of Pakistan, who was hanged in 1979 for the murder of a political opponent two years after he was ousted as prime minister in a military coup. Benazir Bhutto was the de facto leader of her father's Pakistan People's Party. Her brother, Murtaza, was killed along with six others in a 1996 shootout with police at his home. Another brother, Shahnawaz, died mysteriously in France in 1985. \"I know the past is tragic, but I'm an optimist by nature,\" Bhutto told Blitzer in September. \"I put my faith in the people of Pakistan, I put my faith in God. I feel that what I am doing is for a good cause, for a right cause -- to save Pakistan from extremists and militants and to build regional security. \"I know the danger is out there, but I'm prepared to take those risks.\" Benazir Bhutto earned degrees from Radcliffe College and Oxford University and received an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1989. She leaves her husband of 20 years, Asif Ali Zardari, two daughters and a son. Bhutto's husband issued a statement Thursday from his home in Dubai saying, \"All I can say is we're devastated, it's a total shock.\" President Bush, on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said Bhutto \"refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country.\" \"We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror and extremism,\" Bush said. \"We urge them to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Bush: Bhutto \"refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country\"\nBhutto was first female prime minister of a Muslim country .\nBhutto survived assassination attempt in October .\nHer father, a former prime minister, was hanged in 1979 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's newborn twins have been published for the first time after a magazine bidding war which news agencies claim topped $14 million. Hola! magazine, the Spanish sister publication to Hello!, has also published images of the Jolie-Pitt twins. Hello! magazine, which won international rights to the images, and People magazine, which took U.S. rights, published the photographs in their latest editions, which hit newsstands Monday. The two publications, which have previously secured image rights to the couple's elder children, are believed to have shared the costs, The Associated Press reported over the weekend. The agency quoted an unnamed source, not authorized to speak about the deal, as saying the pictures had fetched $14 million. The images show the couple, newborns Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline and the rest of the Jolie-Pitt family -- Maddox, 7, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2. The twins were born by Cesarian section at the Lenval hospital in the French Riviera resort of Nice on July 12. Hello! magazine, which heralds its coverage as the \"biggest exclusive of the year,\" devotes 17 pages of coverage to the twins' arrival. In an interview published in the magazine, Jolie says: \"Wanting a big family is one of the things that brought Brad and I together.\" Pitt adds: \"When Ange and I were told we were having twins we burst into hysterics... We didn't see this one coming.\" Watch why the photos went for so much money \u00bb . Larry Hackett, the managing editor of People said that it was \"thrilled\" to have carried the images. People, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner. Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images, which organized the photo shoot, said that all the proceeds would go toward the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which earlier this year donated $1 million to help children in Iraq. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Magazines publish images of Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt twins for the first time .\nAP: Rights to images secured after $14M joint bid by Hello! and People magazines .\nVivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon born July 12 in Nice, southern France ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mother and her infant were killed by a tornado that hit Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Friday, a family member told CNN. Powerful tornado winds ripped through Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Friday, leaving a trail of destruction. About 36 people were injured, at least two of them critically, officials said. Early Saturday, officials said about 250 homes had been damaged or destroyed. The woman who was killed, Kori Bryant, was at home with her daughter, Olivia, when the tornado struck, said family member Mark McClure. Another family member, who found the mother and daughter after the tornado, said attempts were made to resuscitate the infant, but she couldn't be saved, according to McClure. The baby was found in her car seat. Her parents had put her in the seat, thinking it would be safer for her, McClure said. The Bryants were in the hallway with the baby when the tornado struck. The woman's husband, John Bryant, was found about two houses away, McClure said. His back and ribs were broken, and a lung had collapsed. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Hospital, and he will undergo surgery when his blood pressure stabilizes, McClure said. John's brother told him yesterday that his wife and daughter had died, McClure said. The bad weather began about noon when a band of severe thunderstorms swept across the state from the southwest, said Donnie Smith, a public information officer with the Tennessee Department of Emergency Management in Nashville. Just before 1:40 p.m., the tornado hit Murfreesboro in Rutherford County, 30 miles southeast of Nashville, he said. Thirty-six people were treated for tornado-related injuries at Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro, said hospital spokeswoman Martha Tolbert. The search-and-rescue effort was continuing into the evening, Smith said. Watch damage caused by tornado in Murfreesboro \u00bb . Elsewhere in the region, the town of Mena, Arkansas, is cleaning up after a tornado roared through, killing three people and damaging or destroying more than 100 homes, an Arkansas official said. The town looked like a \"war zone\" as soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard went house to house searching for victims of the twister that hit Thursday night, said Capt. Christopher Heathscott. About 50 soldiers also helped with security and food distribution. Mena, population 6,000, took a heavy hit on the west side of town, as the storm swept through downtown before heading up state Highway 71, said Tommy Jackson from the state Department of Emergency Management. \"It looks like a war zone out here,\" said James Reeves, also from the department. Watch scenes of devastation in Mena \u00bb . The tornado damaged the county hospital, Mena City Hall, a middle school, churches, a library, the Masonic lodge and the courthouse -- which houses the 911 emergency dispatch center and a detention center, Reeves said. He said electricity and gas were out in the western half of the city. Two plants at an industrial park were destroyed, said reporter Charles Crowson of CNN affiliate KTHV-TV. He said utility crews were trying to stop a gas leak there. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told Crowson the county detention center was \"uninhabitable.\" There were 18 inmates in the jail at the time of the tornado, and they were moved to neighboring jurisdictions, he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . CNN's Melissa Roberts and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Parents in hallway with baby in car seat when tornado hit Murfreesboro .\nMother died, father found two houses away when tornado hit .\nTornado hit Mena, Arkansas, on Thursday; 3 people confirmed dead ."} -{"article":"Orlando, Florida (CNN) -- A former astronaut who was accused of assaulting a romantic rival in the parking lot of the Orlando airport will avoid prison after pleading guilty to lesser charges as part of a plea agreement. Citing Lisa Marie Nowak's lack of a criminal history, Orange County Circuit Judge Marc Lubet sentenced her to a year of probation. She was given credit for the two days she served in the county jail after her arrest. Nowak, 46, must also perform 50 hours of community service and have no contact with the victim in the case, former Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. She must also send Shipman a letter of apology within 10 days, \"a sincere letter of apology, not one of these vanilla things that I see from other defendants,\" Lubet told Nowak. \"It's been almost three years since the events took place that caused this nightmare for Ms. Shipman, and you are 100 percent responsible.\" In addition, Nowak must complete an eight-hour anger management course within her first 30 days of probation, Lubet said. Nowak told the judge she had undergone counseling for 1\u00bd years and the counseling is complete, so the judge said he would not order more. Lubet said he was treating Nowak as any defendant would be treated, saying he doubts any judge would send a defendant to prison on a first offense. Shipman delivered an emotional victim statement before Nowak's sentencing, telling the court she remains convinced Nowak planned to kill her. \"Shortly after I turned 30 years old, Lisa Nowak hunted me down and attacked me in a dark parking lot,\" she said, adding that she is \"still reeling from her vicious attack\" and attempting to piece her life back together. \"The world as I knew it before Lisa Nowak is gone,\" Shipman said. \"Every stranger I see is a potential attacker. Going out in public is exhausting.\" She said she has undergone nearly three years of counseling, but suffers from nightmares, anxiety and health problems such as high blood pressure and chest pains because of the incident. Nowak initially was charged with attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, battery and burglary of a vehicle using a weapon. If convicted, she could have faced a sentence of up to life in prison. Prosecutors accused Nowak of driving nearly 900 miles from Houston, Texas, to Orlando -- wearing NASA diapers to cut down on the number of stops she needed to make -- and donning a disguise before following Shipman from the airport's baggage claim to the parking lot in February 2007. Nowak's attorney, Don Lykkebak, has denied that she wore the diapers. Nowak has said she went to the airport to talk to Shipman, who had begun dating Nowak's former love interest, Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein. But Shipman, in her comments Tuesday, called that claim \"at best, ridiculous,\" saying that Nowak, whom she did not know, had ample opportunity to talk to her, as she \"stealthily followed me for hours.\" \"I'm a very friendly person, your honor,\" Shipman said, adding that she would have welcomed Nowak's company \"over some hot chocolate, while I was waiting for my suitcase to arrive.\" She recounted the incident and her terror as she realized Nowak was following her in the dark parking lot, as she could hear the swishing of Nowak's pants as she walked. She said she sprinted to her car, and Nowak attempted to open the car door and beat on her window, then spun a tale of being a helpless traveler who was afraid of being in a dark parking lot. Shipman said she cracked her window, and Nowak sprayed her in the face with pepper spray. \"She blasted me with what felt like acid,\" Shipman said. \"... I stomped on the gas and wondered if there was a gun pointed at my head.\" At a hearing in November 2007, Orlando Police Detective William Becton testified that in a search of Nowak's car, he found maps showing how to reach the airport and its layout, a buck knife and papers, including a letter Nowak appeared to have written to Oefelein's mother. He testified he found used and clean diapers in the car. Police previously had said they also found a BB gun, a steel mallet, a 4-inch knife and rubber tubing in the vehicle. Shipman said Tuesday she thought she had escaped a carjacking. \"I had no idea that a highly paid, high-ranking military officer had just attacked me.\" When she found out she had been attacked by a \"sister in arms,\" she said, she was heartbroken. Shipman said the resulting media attention and scrutiny has placed additional stress on her and her family. Before sentencing, Nowak turned to Shipman and apologized. \"I am sincerely sorry for causing fear and misunderstanding and all of the intense public exposure that you have suffered,\" Nowak said. \"I hope very much that we can all move forward from this with privacy and peace.\" Lubet said he accepted her apology as sincere, but in sentencing her he noted that he was certain her conviction would affect her Navy career and retirement. Still, the judge told Nowak, \"you brought this on yourself, and I don't have any sympathy for you in that respect.\" Shipman has left the military and Oefelein has left the astronaut corps, and the two live in Anchorage, Alaska, where they run a company called Adventure Write as freelance writers and photographers. People.com reported in July the two were engaged. Lubet also ordered Nowak to stay away from Oefelein after Shipman alleged in her remarks she found a book with suggestive notes inside that Nowak had sent Oefelein after the incident despite a no-contact order. \"No books, no messages, no poems, nothing,\" Lubet said. \"It's not a problem,\" Nowak responded. CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lisa Marie Nowak, a former astronaut, accused of assaulting a romantic rival .\nFlorida judge sentences Nowak to year on probation, community service .\nProsecutors say she drove 900 miles in diapers, wore disguise, followed woman through airport ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You pay for checking your baggage, for snacks and for extra legroom. Word is one airline has even toyed with charging you to use the toilet. So it makes perfect sense to some fliers that heavier passengers should pay for spilling over into the next seat. Earlier this year, United Airlines formalized a policy that charges some larger passengers for a second seat. Frequent flier Ross Murphy, 54, has been sandwiched between larger fliers in coach, and he believes they should have to shell out for a second seat. \"They have a right to sit in the seat next to me,\" said Murphy, who travels cross-country at least 15 times a year to watch his sons' sporting matches. \"But they don't have a right to sit in my lap.\" A growing number of airlines are forcing bigger passengers to pay more as they cope with the costly and uncomfortable quandary that arises when obese passengers cannot squeeze into a single coach seat. With airlines trimming flight schedules -- meaning fuller passenger loads this summer -- the issue is bound to spur some awkward encounters. Chart: Compare some of the common airline fees . \"It's a growing problem, no pun intended,\" said George Hobica, president of AirfareWatchdog.com, a site that is part of Smarter Travel Media LLC, which provides airfare deals and advice. \"Everyone suffers. The obese people suffer and the people who are skinny and get spilled over on suffer as well.\" U.S. obesity rates have mushroomed during the last 25 years, but the width of a coach airplane seat has changed little, remaining between 17 and 18 inches in most commercial planes. More than one-third of Americans fall into the obese category, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This makes traveling in tight spaces vexing for airlines trying to bolster profits by selling the maximum number of seats. The Federal Aviation Administration does not regulate seat width, but it does require passengers be able to sit belted and with both arm rests down to comply with safety standards. In April, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines formalized a policy that says passengers who are unable to safely fit into one seat must pay full price for a second seat. They may receive it free if the plane has vacant seats. Flight attendants on the airlines are responsible for making sure passengers are fitting in their seats and may ask a heavier passengers requiring two seats to pay extra. Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United, said the company received 700 complaints in 2008 from passengers who were upset because a larger passenger encroached on his or her seat. \"This new policy was created for the comfort and well-being of all our guests on board,\" Urbanski said. A survey conducted this year by Europe's low-fare airline Ryanair found a third of the 100,000 passengers polled believed a \"fat tax\" should be instituted, requiring heavier passengers to pay more. Most U.S. airlines have a policy or plan for dealing with heavier passengers, though some are not formalized like United's. Officials worry heavier passengers squished into one seat may pose a safety hazard when a plane must be evacuated during an emergency. Southwest Airlines has had a \"customer of size policy\" for more than 20 years, requiring passengers to buy a second seat on a full plane if their body crosses the armrest boundary. The company will issue refunds if unoccupied seats are available, which they say is the case 97 percent of the time. Airlines with open seating policies such as Southwest find it easier to relocate passengers in need of an extra seat. On all airlines, passengers can buy first-class or business-class seats, which are wider. But those tickets cost more than a coach seat. Experts at Boeing Company, an aircraft manufacturer, say 17-inch seats can accommodate 95 percent of the traveling public. They say studies have found most seat space invasions happen because of wider shoulders and not derrieres. Still, some larger passengers who need more than one seat believe being charged extra is discriminatory and the airlines are not accommodating the growing American waistline. \"The airlines need to be making bigger seats,\" said Peggy Howell, a spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a group based in San Francisco, California. \"It's not safe to be cramming us into two seats.\" Lawsuits have been filed by heavier passengers and by those who complain about large passengers encroaching on their space. The courts have ruled the airline policies are within their rights. In the United States, there aren't any discrimination laws to protect obese people, attorneys say. (In some employment discrimination cases, attorneys have been able to win by proving obesity was a genetic disease beyond the person's control.) In 2003, the issue of passenger weight surfaced when a commuter plane crashed on takeoff from Charlotte, North Carolina, because of excess weight and a maintenance error. The accident prompted the FAA to increase the estimated weight per passenger by 10 pounds, including 20 pounds of carry-on luggage. For example, the average weight for a passenger traveling in the summer (including carry-on luggage) went from 180 pounds in 1995 to 190 pounds in 2003. \"We realized after that accident that the weights we were using probably didn't reflect the current state of the American traveling public,\" said Les Dorr, a spokesman with aviation safety at the FAA. In 2004, a CDC scientist studied the effects of obesity on the airline industry. The scientist calculated his findings based on data revealing the average weight of an American had increased by 10 pounds in the 1990s. He estimated the extra weight cost airlines $275 million extra for fuel in 2000. The figures are likely higher today, with fuel costs rising. Scott Cluthe, 57, who works in the radio industry in Houston, Texas, a city known for its obesity epidemic, said average-sized passengers should not have to incur the higher fuel cost caused by the airline's heavier customers. \"A small child needs to pay for a flight, so why wouldn't an obese person?\" said Cluthe, who flies several times a year, mostly in coach, for personal trips. \"I'm not a discriminatory person, but we have to look at the reality of the situation. It's getting a little crowded in here.\" Some larger passengers don't mind paying for the second seat. Other heavier fliers argue while tall passengers pay a fee for legroom, the fees are only a fraction of the price of a entire seat. Air France offers obese passengers booking a second seat up to 33 percent off the ticket price, depending on the type of seat and availability. Mike Vasey of Cheyenne, Wyoming says even some normal-sized people can't fly comfortably when they are packed in the cabin like sardines. Vasey, 45, who considers himself a large guy at 400 pounds and over six feet tall, usually pays for two seats. \"I'd rather be comfortable first ,\" he said, \"and worry about discrimination later.\"","highlights":"Obesity rates have grown in the last 25 years but plane seat sizes remain the same .\nA growing number of airlines are creating polices to deal with heavier passengers .\nHeavier passengers cost more fuel and space, say some passengers .\nNational Association of Fat Acceptance says it's unsafe to cram passengers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The French Navy captured 11 suspected pirates off the coast of Kenya Wednesday, the French Ministry of Defense announced. The French frigate Nivose, pictured last year patrolling the Gulf of Aden. The Navy tracked the pirates overnight after they attacked a ship called the Safmarine Asia. The French launched a helicopter from the frigate Nivose to head off the attack Tuesday night, then seized the suspected pirates Wednesday morning, the statement said. Both the European Union and the United States have been patrolling the region since an upsurge in piracy off the coast of Somalia last year. U.S. snipers killed three pirates holding a U.S. ship captain hostage Sunday. The captain, Richard Phillips, was held in a lifeboat for days after his ship, the Maersk Alabama, was seized last week . But pirates in Somalia vowed revenge, saying that an attack on another ship, the Liberty Sun, was a response to the killing of Phillips' captors. \"It was a revenge,\" Hassan Mohamud told a Somali journalist. \"The U.S. ship escaped by a matter of chance.\"","highlights":"French Ministry of Defense says they were captured off the coast of Kenya .\nNavy tracked pirates overnight after they attacked ship called the Safmarine Asia .\nHelicopter launched from frigate Tuesday night; 11 captured Wednesday ."} -{"article":"HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- Battered by the current economic recession, Hawaii's economy could get a strong boost from two key sporting events. The Pro Bowl this year was played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. It will return there in 2011. The National Football League's Pro Bowl Game will return to Honolulu in 2011 -- an event that is expected to bring millions of dollars in revenue. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann is also hoping to lure the 31st Summer Olympic Games -- but not to his city. He's actively supporting Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Games. \"How does that play out for Hawaii? Well, obviously if we get the Olympics -- that is (the) USA -- we benefit from a Discover America campaign that we'd like to see with visitors coming prior to Chicago to Hawaii or after, and visiting other parts of our country,\" the mayor said. \"What I really want to do is promote Hawaii as a great place for some of these teams to come and do a little R&R (rest and relaxation) or training before they go on to the Olympics in Chicago.\" Hannemann will head to Chicago, Illinois, this weekend to court International Olympics Committee members, who are in the Windy City to evaluate its plan to host the Games. On October 2, the IOC will choose among Chicago; Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; or Tokyo, Japan, as the 2016 host city. Hannemann co-chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Olympic Task Force, along with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, which he said aims \"to bring the Olympics to America in 2016.\" Hawaii's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, and the economic recession means fewer people are visiting the island state. With three-quarters of the state's population living in Honolulu, Hannemann said, workers are especially hit hard in the capital city. \"The slowdown in tourism has resulted in shorter hours, in some cases even a decrease in their wages, and hopefully a last resort is some of them are being laid off as a result of some of these businesses going out of business,\" he said. \"So our job is just to continue to do what we can to work with private industry to shore up the tourism industry. It is our No. 1 industry, nothing comes close.\" Tourism accounts for between $10 billion and $12 billion each year compared to Hawaii's second-largest industry, which is military spending, according to Hannemann. That accounts for between $3 billion and $4 billion annually, the mayor said. Last month, the Hawaii Tourism Authority voted to allow the NFL's Pro Bowl game to return to Hawaii in 2011 and 2012. The game has been held the week after the Super Bowl at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu since 1980, and has sold out every time. Next year, it will take place in Miami, Florida, before the Super Bowl -- raising concerns that it will not be as much of a draw because no Super Bowl players will participate in the game. Hawaii authorities agreed to allow the game to return to the state under the condition that the NFL would consider returning the Pro Bowl to the Sunday after the Super Bowl \"depending on the success, or failure, of the 2010 game in Miami,\" according to the NFL. Hannemann said the tens of thousands of people who attend the game annually have then spent \"at least $30 million\" across the state of Hawaii. Losing the game would not only be an economic loss for the state, but a \"major downer\" for residents, he said. \"People (have) said, 'Oh, my goodness, now we lost the Pro Bowl. We've had it here for over 20 years, it's been a sell-out. What's going on here? ... Everything's going to go out of Hawaii,' \" Hannemann said. \"So I got involved, I went and talked to some of the commissioners there, I changed their votes, and we're able to keep the Pro Bowl here.\" But hosting the Pro Bowl will come at a cost. Hawaii will have to pay $4 million each year it hosts the game. In a recent commentary in the East Oahu Sun newspaper, writer Joe Edwards questioned whether the cost of hosting the game would come at the expense of projects more vital to residents -- such as a long-awaited rail transit project. \"Don't get me wrong: I like the Pro Bowl. I've been to several. It's a great show. But our own citizens, and our own football team, should come well before the NFL,\" Edwards wrote. Hannemann insists that despite the recession, he will be able to deliver on his campaign promise of a public rail system in Honolulu, which is scheduled to break ground this year. \"Even under the rubric of a stimulus package, we're going to get some monies there to push this out,\" Hannemann said, noting that Hawaii's senior U.S. senator, Daniel Inouye, is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He also said the measure is supported by President Barack Obama, who was born and grew up in Hawaii. \"These are tough times, but if there's a necessary project -- what I call a need-to-have versus a nice-to-have -- I'm going to make all the justification in the world and then we're going to do it,\" he said.","highlights":"NFL's Pro Bowl will return to Hawaii in 2011 .\nMayor hopes Chicago gets the Olympics -- and that attendees stop off in Hawaii .\nHawaii's economy is heavily dependent on tourism .\nOne writer questions the cost of hosting the Pro Bowl ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Archaeologists have discovered what they think are ruins of an Aztec pyramid razed by vengeful Spanish conquerors in what is now one of Mexico City's most crime-ridden districts. Construction workers unearthed ancient walls in the busy Iztapalapa neighborhood in June, and government archeologists said Wednesday they believe they may be part of the main pyramid of the Aztec city, destroyed by conquistador Hernan Cortes in the 16th century. Iztapalapa, now infamous for violent crime and drug dealing, has grown into a sprawling, poor district of the capital, obscuring the ruins. \"We knew the general location but couldn't explore because it's a big urban area,\" said government archeologist Jesus Sanchez, who is director of the site. Iztapalapa's ruler, Cuitlahuac, nearly annihilated Cortes and his Spanish troops in 1520 in what became known as the Sad Night. After eventual victory, Cortes destroyed the city. Sanchez hopes he has found the city's main pyramid just below the neighborhood's central plaza and garden. He and his team will spend more than a year investigating before deciding whether to excavate. Mexico City is littered with pre-Hispanic ruins. In October, archeologists in the city's central Zocalo square unearthed a 15th century Aztec altar and a 12-ton stone idol just yards from choking downtown traffic. The Aztecs, a warlike and deeply religious people who built monumental works, ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Ruins of an Aztec pyramid uncovered in Iztapalapa neighborhood, Mexico City .\nIztapalapa is a sprawling, crime-ridden district .\nThe Aztecs ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton on Saturday will officially suspend her campaign for the presidency and \"express her support for Senator Obama and party unity,\" her campaign said Wednesday. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she will let her supporters and party leaders decide her course. The Clinton campaign said she will make the announcement at \"an event in Washington, D.C.,\" where she will also thank her supporters. Sen. Barack Obama and Clinton were in Washington on Wednesday to each address the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The candidates ran into each other at the AIPAC conference and had a brief chat, Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass said. \"She's an extraordinary leader of the Democratic Party and has made history alongside me over the last 16 months. I'm very proud to have competed against her,\" Obama told the Israel lobbying group. Obama became his party's presumptive nominee Tuesday and will be looking to unite Democrats divided by the long and contentious primary season. \"I am very confident how unified the Democratic Party is going to be to win in November,\" he said in a Senate hallway Wednesday. iReport.com: Obama\/Clinton -- dream team or nightmare? Some say that putting Clinton on the ticket might fit the bill for uniting Democrats. Clinton lavished her opponent with praise Tuesday, saying he ran an \"extraordinary race\" and made politics more palatable for many. Watch how the primary played out \u00bb . Prominent Clinton backer Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, thinks the New York senator could have been \"far more generous\" during her speech Tuesday night after it was clear that Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination. Rangel, the senior member of the New York congressional delegation and an early supporter of Clinton's presidential campaign, said Wednesday that Clinton should have been more clear about what her plans are. \"I would agree that after the math was in before her speech, that she could have been far more generous in terms of being more specific and saying that she wants a Democratic victory,\" Rangel said on MSNBC. \"I don't see what they're talking about in prolonging this,\" Rangel added. \"There's nothing to prolong if you're not going to take the fight to the convention floor. ... I don't know why she could not have been more open in terms of doing up front what she intends to do later.\" But with some Democrats clamoring for her to join Obama on the ticket, and with the Democratic National Convention -- and thus, the official anointment -- still more than two months out, the senator from New York gave no hint as to her plans. See VP prospects' pros, cons \u00bb . She again invoked the popular vote, saying she snared \"more votes than any primary candidate in history,\" but primaries come down to delegates, and according to CNN calculations, Obama has her beaten, 2,156 to 1,923. Even the White House seemed convinced of Obama's victory. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that President Bush congratulated Obama on becoming the first black nominee from a major party. She said his win shows that the United States \"has come a long way.\" Clinton vowed to keep fighting for an end to the war in Iraq, for universal health care, for a stronger economy and better energy policy, but she didn't indicate in what capacity she would wage these battles. That, she said, would be up to her supporters and the party brass. See what lies in store this fall \u00bb . The party's best interests were high on the minds of party leaders Wednesday, as Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and DNC Chairman Howard Dean called on Democrats to focus on the general election. \"To that end, we are urging all remaining uncommitted superdelegates to make their decisions known by Friday of this week so that our party can stand united and begin our march toward reversing the eight years of failed Bush\/McCain policies that have weakened our country,\" said a statement from the four. Billionaire businessman Bob Johnson, a close Clinton adviser and friend, said on CNN's \"American Morning\" on Wednesday that Obama could best forge party unity by offering Clinton the vice presidential slot. A day after the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana, Johnson sent a letter to House Majority Whip James Clyburn to lobby the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Clinton as Obama's running mate. Saying Clinton would \"entertain the idea if it's offered,\" Johnson said, \"This is Sen. Obama's decision. If the Congress members can come together and agree as I do that it would be in the best interest of the party to have Sen. Clinton on the ticket, they carry that petition to Sen. Obama.\" Watch how the world reacted to Obama's win \u00bb . \"This is not a pressure. This is elected officials giving their best judgment,\" said Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television. Johnson's letter to Clyburn says, \"You know as well as I the deep affection that millions of African-Americans hold for both Senator Clinton and President Clinton.\" It continues, \"But most important, we need to have the certainty of winning; and, I believe, without question, that Barack Obama as president and Hillary Clinton as vice president bring that certainty to the ticket.\" Watch Johnson urge Obama to pick Clinton \u00bb . Johnson is one of many influential Clinton supporters who have raised the prospect of her joining Obama on the ticket. They say she has solid credentials and wide appeal, exemplified by her popular support in states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, which will be crucial to a Democratic victory in the fall. Obama and Clinton spoke by phone for a few minutes Wednesday. He told her he wants to \"sit down when it makes sense\" for her, said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs. Clinton said that would happen soon, Gibbs said, but he also said Obama did not raise the issue of the vice presidency. Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe confirmed that there had been \"absolutely zero discussions\" on the matter. The Clinton campaign issued a statement saying she was open to becoming vice president. \"She would do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain,\" the statement said. CNN's Alexander Mooney and Ed Hornick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton will suspend presidential campaign Saturday, sources say .\nObama, Clinton spoke by phone Wednesday, but VP slot was not discussed .\nRangel says Clinton could've been \"far more generous\" on Tuesday night .\nObama says he's \"very confident\" he can unite Democrats by November ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United Kingdom has MI-5, which roots out spies and terrorists in the British Isles. The RAND Corporation said one option would be for domestic intelligence to operate under the FBI. Canada has CSIS -- the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Now Congress is asking: Should the U.S. have its own domestic intelligence agency? On Monday, at the request of Congress, the RAND Corporation outlined the pros and cons of establishing a domestic intelligence agency. It also discussed different ways to organize a new entity, either as part of an existing department or as a new agency. But there's one thing you won't find in the report -- a recommendation on what to do. \"We were not asked to make a recommendation, and this assessment does not do so,\" the report says. Instead, says RAND's Gregory Treverton, the report provides a \"framework\" for policymakers to use when deciding whether and how to reorganize counter-intelligence efforts at home. RAND is a nonprofit think tank seeking to help improve policy and decision making through objective research and analysis. Collecting intelligence domestically always has been a sensitive issue, at least partially because of episodic abuses by the government, notably against civil rights leaders, unions, antiwar organizations or even communists and hate groups. But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks renewed calls for increased domestic intelligence to prevent future attacks. Critics said that in the lead-up to the attacks, the FBI devalued counterterrorism agents and failed to heed signs that an attack was imminent. \"If you didn't carry a gun, you didn't count so much,\" Treverton said. After the attacks, the FBI moved to transform its primary mission from law enforcement to counterterrorism intelligence and prevention. It now focuses on terrorism through its National Security Branch and the National Counterterrorism Center. The RAND report focuses on two options to the current system. In one, a new agency would be created using intelligence agencies from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence community. A second option is to create an \"agency within an agency\" in the FBI or DHS. The first option would result in an organization with a clear, unambiguous mission, and might be able to draw on a more diverse recruitment pool, such as linguists and historians who are not normally attracted to law enforcement. On the flip side, such massive reorganizations typically involve political compromises that could affect its performance. The second option -- an \"agency within an agency\" -- could involve less short-term disruption, but could be hindered by a \"lack of clarity of a single mission,\" the report says. RAND also suggests a range of actions short of reorganization that could improve domestic intelligence gathering, such as increasing resources, improving leadership and changing bureaucratic cultures. The report does not assess the FBI's performance since 9\/11, Treverton said, but he believes Congress should seek an independent assessment. A panel of experts that RAND convened guessed that the probability of a terrorist attack had decreased about one-third since the September 11, 2001. But \"they were not enthusiastic about alternatives\" to current counterterrorism organizations. In a cautionary note, the report says that while public acceptance of domestic intelligence activities is imperative, public attitudes about what is considered acceptable \"can both be fragile and shift significantly over time.\" \"Public demand for domestic intelligence is driven by the perceived threat, and those perceptions can change much more rapidly than the threat itself,\" the report says. For instance, immediately after the 9\/11 attacks, 49 percent of people surveyed were worried \"a great deal\" about more attacks. Two years later, that had dropped to 25 percent.","highlights":"Nonprofit think tank RAND outlines pros and cons at request of Congress .\nGroup says government could create new agency specifically for domestic intel .\nOther option includes agency operating under Homeland Security or FBI .\nSeptember 11 attacks renewed calls for domestic intel to help prevent future ones ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: The Rev. Donald Cozzens is writer in residence and adjunct professor of theology at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. A priest of the Diocese of Cleveland with a doctoral degree, he is the author of several books on the Catholic Church, including \"Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church\" and \"Freeing Celibacy,\" both published by Liturgical Press. For another view on this topic, read here. The Rev. Donald Cozzens says the debate over celibacy for priests will be around for decades. (CNN) -- It's an issue that simply won't go away. In spite of signals from the Vatican discouraging even discussions of obligatory celibacy for Catholic priests, the almost 1,000-year-old rule is under the microscope. And it will be for decades to come. Here's why. In the Catholic tradition, even though sex is cast as sinful unless expressed in the conjugal embrace of husband and wife, it is held as fundamentally good, a part of God's creation. The church even holds that marriage (including spousal lovemaking) is a sacrament -- something sacred that contributes to the sanctity of husbands and wives. In light of this official teaching, it is dawning on many Catholics that mandatory celibacy for priests, a canonically imposed discipline of the church, is precisely that -- a discipline. They are asking, \"How is it that a discipline of the church has been allowed to trump a sacrament of the church?\" In effect, the church is saying that should God call a man to the priesthood, God will not, at the same time, call that individual to the sacrament of marriage. It's right to ask, how does the church know this? Public opinion surveys indicate that most Catholics, priests included, believe the discipline of celibacy needs a serious review. Recently the retired archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan, observed that obligatory celibacy is open for discussion. It is not, Egan noted, a matter of dogma. For decades now, bishops from Asia, Europe and the Americas have asked Vatican officials to consider optional celibacy for priests. The church's official response is consistent and succinct: As a precious gift from God, the discipline of celibacy for priests will remain in place. This, in spite of the inherent paradox lying just below the claim that the gift of celibacy is a precious gift of God to the priesthood and the church: How can a gift be legislated? The church answers that if a man is called to the priesthood, God will grant him the gift of celibacy. Many priests today wonder how church leaders know this. Reading the mind of God in this matter -- in any matter of church discipline -- is risky business. More and more Catholics today are coming to understand that celibacy as a universal law for priests had its origins in the 12th century and that during the church's first millennium, priests and bishops -- and at least thirty-nine popes -- were married. Still, most well-read cradle Catholics are surprised to learn that St. Anastasius, pope from 399 to 401, was succeeded by his son, Pope St. Innocent I, and that a century later Pope St. Hormisdas' son, St. Silverius, also was elected to the papacy. Even in our secular world, it's common to speak of church-based ministry as a calling, a vocation. Isn't it possible that God would call an individual to the priesthood and to the sacrament of marriage? God apparently did so for more than half the church's history. How do we know that God isn't doing so today? For some years now I've been teaching in the religious studies department at John Carroll University in Cleveland. I've asked dozens of serious, healthy young students if they have given any thought to being a priest. They seem flattered by the question. With only one exception, each has answered, \"Yes, I've thought about being a priest, but I want a family.\" There are, of course, other factors, urgent and pressing, that will keep the celibacy issue alive. The Catholic priesthood is aging. The average age of active priests hovers at 60, and if retired priests are factored in, it is considerably higher. Moreover, Catholic seminaries are lucky to be half full. Parish staffing challenges alone will press for a review of the celibacy rule. Catholic bishops simply do not have enough priests to meet the pastoral and sacramental needs of the Catholic faithful. Closing and merging parishes may offer some temporary relief for overworked priests, but the shortfall of priests will continue to challenge the vitality of Catholic parishes and the health of Catholic clergy for decades to come. But the most human, existential factor that should keep the celibacy issue on the table is the spiritual and emotional health of priests. Celibacy really isn't the issue -- mandatory or obligatory celibacy is. There are many priests who do possess the gift of celibacy -- it is their \"truth\" so to speak -- and their humanity, warmth and pastoral effectiveness give abundant evidence of their authentic celibate lives. But there remain other priests who believe deep down they are called to the priesthood but not to celibacy. And for these men, the burden of mandated celibacy threatens their spiritual and emotional well-being. The priesthood may be their \"truth,\" but mandated celibacy wraps them in a cloak of loneliness and struggle. I don't know Father Alberto Cutie. He appears to have touched the lives of many and preached the gospel with power and conviction. I suspect he feels called by God to be a priest, but not a celibate priest. Surely he knows that Easter Rite Catholic priests are allowed to marry and that the church welcomes into the priesthood married convert ministers from other Christian denominations. Surely he knows that in many parts of the Catholic world, clerical celibacy is openly flouted, and church authorities choose not to notice. I wonder if church officials understand the burden they place on the shoulders of a man who believes he is called to priestly ministry but not to celibacy. Certainly, a married priesthood will have burdens of its own and, sadly, scandals of its own -- infidelity and abuse among others. But it should be left to the individual priest and seminarian to determine whether or not he is blessed with the gift of celibacy. A mandated \"gift,\" after all, is really no gift at all. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the Rev. Donald Cozzens.","highlights":"The Rev. Donald Cozzens: Celibacy is 1,000 years old but not intrinsic to the church .\nMany popes were married in the first millennium of the church, Cozzens says .\nCozzens says church views marriage as sacred; why should priests be denied it?\nCozzens: Celibacy is a gift that should be optional, not mandated by the church ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that House committees will begin action on President-elect Barack Obama's proposed economic recovery package in the next couple of weeks, with a vote in the full House slated for the week after Obama's inauguration. Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will not go on a break until an economic recovery package is passed. Obama will take office January 20. If that schedule slips, Pelosi, D-California, pledged to cancel the House's planned weeklong break in mid-February for Presidents Day. \"We are not going home without an economic recovery package,\" Pelosi said. Pelosi said Obama's plan has broad public support \"almost sight unseen,\" citing a poll from Politico that says 79 percent of Americans support the president-elect's plan. A senior Pelosi aide said discussions about the details are ongoing between the Obama transition team and key leaders. The Ways and Means Committee will focus on the tax piece, approximately $300 billion in tax cuts. Obama transition aides met with Democrats on that committee Wednesday morning to discuss various proposals, according to another Democratic aide. The Appropriations Committee is tasked with drafting details on spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, food stamps and other aid to states. Sidestepping a question on possible roadblocks for the bill, Pelosi instead touted the new muscle of the expanded Democratic majority. \"We have been so used to an uphill fight, but now we have arrived. We have a big, strong, something like an 80-vote majority in the Congress, in the House, with a Democratic president in the White House,\" she said. In a speech Thursday, Obama said it was imperative that Congress move quickly to pass the stimulus package once he takes office, warning that a failure to do so would have devastating long-term consequences to the nation's economy. \"We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime, a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks,\" Obama said at George Mason University in Virginia. Watch Obama call for \"dramatic action\" on the economy \u00bb . \"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible,\" Obama continued. \"If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years.\" Key members of Obama's own party, however, said they opposed central tax measures of the president-elect's proposals after emerging from a closed-door meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. Watch Obama explain his tax proposals \u00bb . In particular, they do not think that giving employers a $3,000 tax credit for each worker they hired would work. \"I'm not that excited about that,\" said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. \"Having a tax credit for hiring is not going to change that dynamic; creating a direct job will. So I'd rather spend the money on the infrastructure, on direct investment, on energy conversion and other kinds of things, much more directly and much more rapidly and much more certainly create a real job.\" Sen. Kent Conrad agreed. \"I think it's unlikely to be effective,\" the North Dakota senator said. \"If you think about it, businesspeople are not going to hire people to produce products that are not selling. Who is going to hire in the auto industry if you give them a $3,000 credit to make cars that people are not buying?\" A second Obama tax proposal that several Democrats were down on is payroll tax credits, amounting to about $20 per paycheck and totaling $500 per person and $1,000 for couples earning less than $200,000 a year. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said he doubted that proposal would do much to stimulate the economy. \"We have an example from the first stimulus that indicates just giving people $500 to $600, while certainly welcome when there's this much economic hurt, may not be the best use of stimulus,\" Wyden said. Instead, Wyden said, pumping more money into infrastructure spending would be more effective in creating jobs. Conrad agreed with Wyden. \"Twenty dollars a week? I don't think that will be effective, either. That is in terms of economic impact. We have got to focus on what is actually going to lift the economy,\" Conrad said. None of the senators CNN spoke with after the meeting said they thought the opposition to these provisions would derail the bill but suggested that many meetings would be needed with the Obama team to hammer out an agreement. First votes in the Finance Committee, which must approve the tax components of the stimulus plan, could come in the next two weeks, senators and aides said. CNN's Deirdre Walsh, Dana Bash and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"Speaker Nancy Pelosi sets full House vote on stimulus for week of January 25 .\nHouse committees will work on Obama's plan over the next couple of weeks .\nSenate Democrats balk at proposal to give employers $3,000 for each worker hired ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Parma have signed AC Milan's 18-year-old Alberto Paloschi in a co-ownership deal, the Serie B club announced on their Web site on Wednesday. Paloschi scored with his first touch when he made his debut as a Milan sub in February. Paloschi made an instant impact when he made his debut for Milan in February, scoring against Siena with his first touch as substitute. He scored twice in seven appearances last season but his prospects of regular first team football this season diminished sharply after the signings of Andrei Shevchenko and Ronaldinho. Parma were relegated from Serie A last season.. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has said that that Italy full-back Massimo Oddo could be leaving soon. Galliano told Gazzetta dello Sport: \"Lyon are interested in our full-back and anything is possible.\" The 32-year-old former Lazio right-back is likely to lose his first team spot to new signing Gianluca Zambrotta from Barcelona. Oddo was in Italy's World Cup winning squad in Germany in 2006 but was not chosen for the Euro 2008 finals in June. Lyon already have an Italian at left-back in Fabio Grosso, who was also a World Cup winner in 2006.","highlights":"Alberto Paloschi is moving from Milan to Parma in a co-ownership deal .\nThe 18-year-old scored with his first touch in his Milan debut in February .\nLyon are interested in signing Milan right-back Massimo Oddo ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Sharon Long's work has earned her the nickname \"Skull Lady.\" Sharon Long is a forensic artist whose job is to help identify the dead, often murder victims. She is a forensic artist whose job is to give faces -- and sometimes identities -- back to anonymous murder victims who have been robbed of both. Armed with sculptor's clay, glass eyes, wigs and research, Long creates a face from a human skull. When Fort Myers, Florida, police found eight sets of human remains in the woods in March, they turned to her -- anything to help identify the people who were so mercilessly left to rot amid the trees and mud. \"[Police] have no other way. They have no fingerprints; they have no flesh. Usually, the last resort is building a face,\" Long said. See the \"skull lady\" at work \u00bb . She hopes that when the faces of those killed get printed in newspapers or appear on TV or online, a friend or loved one recognizes them and says, \"Gee, we haven't seen so-and-so for a while, and that kind of looks like him.\" \"Then, at least, you have a lead, and then you can get DNA from people. And then [police] have something to go on.\" Long, 67, has made faces for the unknown victims of grisly homicides and solved historical mysteries. During her 20-year career, the forensics specialist from the University of Wyoming helped identify the crew of the H.L Hunley, a Confederate submarine sunk during the Civil War. She also created the first picture of the only explorer to have died on the Lewis and Clark expedition. When law enforcement asks for Long's assistance, it is almost always on a case that has gone very cold. And that was exactly the case in Fort Myers, where police were desperate for any information on the dead they found: eight men killed, their bodies discovered in a wooded area on March 23, 2007. Watch how bones can give clues to investigators \u00bb . There were no witnesses, no leads and little evidence of killings other than the victims' bones. If Long could identify the victims of the crime, it might help to catch a serial killer. But before Long could create any likeness of the victims, she would have to do a lot of work -- hundreds of hours of it. Long first creates a mold of the skull and uses it to make a plaster replica. She puts eraser tips on points to mark tissue depth. Sculptor's clay fills in for skin and muscle. The faded gumline on the skull's teeth helps Long determine how thick the person's lips were. The victim's hair and eye color requires guesswork and research, Long says. Often while working on cases, she talks to people who lived in the same area as the victim or victims to find out the most common eye color and what hairstyles are in fashion. See how to decode a face \u00bb . She spent two months on the Fort Myers skulls. \"I start working, and 15 hours can go by, and I don't get up and move, and you don't realize how much time has gone by, and, well, that's how intense I get,\" she said. \"It's like you get carried away in this life of somebody. I start trying to think of them as being an alive person and doing something and not getting killed.\" Eventually, publicity about the Fort Myers case would lead people with missing relatives to submit their DNA. Testing revealed that two of the men were Erik Kohler and John Blevins. Both men lived hardscrabble lives and had run-ins with police. Both disappeared in 1995. At a news conference last month where Fort Myers police unveiled Long's sculptures, investigators said they still need to identify the other six victims if they are to solve the case. Kohler and Blevins didn't closely mirror Long's sculptures of their faces, but there were some similarities, some facial features that looked liked the two dead men. And that's what police say they want: They hope people with missing relatives will look at every detail of the other six sculptures to see whether they notice any resemblance, no matter how faint. \"Going into this, I knew there would be some level of subjectivity in the art part of it, but I think what it does is generate the interest,\" Fort Myers Police Detective Barry Lewis said. \"I am just looking for that one little similarity, that one little key that someone could recognize that they could make a call that that is their loved one.\" Since the news conference, police say, they have received hundreds of leads. Long's work on the case might be done, but she still has nightmares about the eight men killed. \"I hear screaming, and I hear pleading, and I hear all these things which I couldn't imagine,\" she said. \"I can see somebody dragging a body out there, and here he kept taking them to the same area. I think, what in the hell is wrong with this guy?\" Six of those killed remain nameless. And police are still trying to find the killer. Authorities urge anyone with more information on the case to call 877-667-1296. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sharon Long is forensic artist who creates faces from skulls .\nFort Myers, Florida, police called her after they found eight sets of remains .\nOnly two of the eight remains have been identified ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security and FBI have issued security bulletins to raise awareness regarding \"terrorist interest\" in attacking sports and entertainment venues as well as luxury hotels. The bulletins, which were sent to law enforcement Monday, said that authorities did not know of any credible or specific terrorist plots to attack U.S. stadiums, arenas or luxury hotels. However, it said that terrorist groups such as al Qaeda view crowded stadiums and arenas as potential targets. It said hotels are also attractive targets for terrorists. The Department of Homeland Security said it released the notes to assist law enforcement partners as they go about their daily duties. \"While DHS and FBI have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity,\" the department said. The bulletins did not mention the recent arrest of three men in connection with what the Justice Department has said was a plot to detonate bombs in the United States. The men are charged with lying to federal agents during the probe of the alleged plot. The bulletin on stadiums and arenas said that previous attacks against crowd gatherings have included improvised explosive devices and car bombs, \"tactics that are also applicable to many stadiums and arenas. ... \"Detained terrorists have also discussed the use of aircraft and chemical weapons to attack stadiums and arenas. \" It said the al Qaeda training manual lists \" 'blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality and sin ... and attacking vital economic centers' as a key objective.\" The bulletins on luxury hotels said analysis of previous attacks abroad and thwarted plots showed that terrorists have used paramilitary and \"small unit\" tactics, explosives, improvised explosive devices and car bombs. It said hotel owners can protect their properties by installing fencing or walls around the buildings and populated areas; implementing random screening of people and their possessions; and training security staff.","highlights":"Department of Homeland Security and FBI issue security bulletins .\nNo credible or specific terrorist attack threats at this time, agencies say .\nCrowds at stadiums, hotels generate terrorist attention, agencies say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Phillip Garrido was registered as a sex offender, regularly visited by parole officers and fitted with an ankle bracelet to track his movements -- but nothing prevented him from being around children, according to a victims' advocacy group. Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, was arraigned in California on Friday. Garrido is charged with kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, when she was 11, and raping her over the course of years. Police say Dugard lived in a huddle of tents and outbuildings hidden behind Garrido's home, and gave birth to two daughters, now 11 and 15, fathered by Garrido. Garrido and his wife Nancy were arrested last week. Both have pleaded not guilty. \"Here we have a guy who is essentially under every kind of supervision we allow. Law enforcement had every tool available to them, and [the tools] failed,\" said Robert Coombs, spokesman for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Gordon Hinkle, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said a parole officer visited Garrido at his home, sometimes unannounced, twice a month. Garrido was also required to go to the agent's office once or twice a month, Hinkle said. Garrido wore a GPS anklet, and his movements were tracked passively, Hinkle said, meaning parole officers checked his location after the fact, as opposed to active monitoring, which involves watching parolees' comings and goings in real time. Despite the tight supervision, Garrido \"was technically allowed to be around minors,\" Coombs said, because his parole stemmed from the November 1976 rape of Katie Callaway Hall, who was 25 at the time of the assault. He was sentenced in 1977 to 50 years at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, for kidnapping, because he abducted Hall in California and transported her across the state line to Reno, Nevada, where he raped her in a warehouse, according to court documents. A Nevada court separately sentenced him to five years to life for the rape conviction, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. While in prison in 1978, Garrido sent a handwritten letter to Judge Bruce R. Thompson, saying he was recovering from seven years of LSD use and progressing well. \"I am so ashamed of my past. But my future is now in controle [sic],\" he wrote. Court documents show Garrido requested that his 50-year sentence be reduced to 25, making him eligible for parole in eight years, \"where he could be released to the state of Nevada as an educated person and being a rehabilitated person.\" According to a 1978 court transcript, attorney Willard Van Hazel Jr. told a judge, \"Without the influence of any of this drug involvement, I think Mr. Garrido would pause before carrying out sexual fantasies.\" After more than a decade at Leavenworth, Garrido received a federal parole but was sent to Carson City, Nevada, in January 1988 to serve his rape sentence. However, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, he was automatically eligible for state parole because of the time served in federal prison. The Nevada Offender Tracking Information System indicates he appeared four times before the parole board, which granted his request in August 1988, about 11 years after he was incarcerated. He moved to Antioch, California. Three years later, 11-year-old Dugard was abducted from her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, about 100 miles northeast. \"He served about 20 percent of his sentence, and it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out if he served only one-third of his sentence, Jaycee Dugard doesn't end up in the predicament that she's in,\" said Andy Kahan, a crime victims' advocate in Houston, Texas. Citing revised federal sentencing guidelines, Kahan and Illinois defense attorney Stephen Komie concur that this is not something that could happen today. \"If he got 50 years, say, he would have 600 months. He would only get 50 months off. He would do 550 months,\" Komie said. \"So this would not be repeated in the federal system again.\" Added Kahan, \"You're going to have to do at least a minimum of half of your term without any good time credits before you can even see the light of day or say hello to a parole board member.\" In 1993, five years after his release from a Nevada prison, Garrido was jailed on a parole violation, but it's unclear what that offense was. Tom Hutchinson, spokesman for the U.S. Parole Commission, said documents have been requested and should be available later this week. Garrido was released later that year. California took over his parole supervision in 1999, Hinkle said, but regular visits did nothing to unearth Dugard's abduction or Garrido's backyard secrets. Another visit by law enforcement was the direct result of a 2006 call a neighbor made to 911, reporting that women and children were living in tents behind Garrido's house. Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said he didn't think the deputy who responded knew at the time that Garrido was a sex offender and the deputy spoke to Garrido in the home's front yard. \"We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two,\" the sheriff said. \"We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation.\" Hinkle acknowledged that neighbors called police again with a similar complaint in 2008. To his knowledge, Hinkle said, the deputy didn't contact Garrido's parole officer in either instance. Even if the deputy had made contact, there is no guarantee the parole officer would have found the compound. It was that well-hidden, Hinkle said. \"If you were to walk in the backyard, you would see a fence that ran from one end to the other,\" Hinkle said, describing how the fence created the illusion of a \"false backyard.\" \"It would not be immediately apparent that [the tents and outbuildings were] back there,\" he said. Kahan partially blames the economics of the criminal justice system -- not just in California, but nationwide -- and said Garrido likely became less of a priority as the time since his crimes passed. Despite the heinous nature of Garrido's 1976 crime, it paled in comparison to allegedly holding a young girl hostage and raping her for 18 years, Coombs said. \"Nothing in this guy's case history indicated he was capable of such evil, if you will,\" he said. \"It was so far out of the picture, they didn't even look for it.\" Rather than there not being enough money to fund the proper supervision of parolees, it's more a matter of priorities, Coombs said, citing the GPS device Garrido wore on his ankle. Although CALCASA has no official tally, it estimates California has spent roughly $500 million on GPS devices for 6,600 of the state's sex offenders. Garrido was fitted with a device after 2006 when voters OK'd a law requiring felony sex offenders to wear tracking devices for life. \"We know where this guy is, so we think we're safe,\" he said, \"but the place where we knew he was was the place where he was offending. GPS just tells you where they are. It doesn't tell you what they're doing.\" Each dollar spent on GPS equipment \"is one dollar you're not spending on real, traditional parole techniques, like talking to collateral contacts and neighbors,\" he said. Coombs also criticized the lack of communication across jurisdictions. Had Garrido's parole officer received a call from police and spoken to the neighbor who made the 911 call in 2006, authorities might have found Dugard three years earlier, Coombs said. Hinkle said the officer who flushed out Garrido's alleged crimes had only been supervising him since December. When the officer learned from campus police that Garrido had 11- and 15-year-old girls in tow while proselytizing at the University of California-Berkeley, he called Garrido in for a meeting. Garrido arrived with his wife, Dugard and the two girls. Hinkle would not provide details of the conversation -- it could affect the investigation and prosecution, he said -- but he did say Garrido and his wife were not forthcoming about Dugard's and the girls' identities. It was the parole officer's diligence that ultimately yielded the Garridos' arrest and Dugard and her daughters' freedom. Said Hinkle, \"They were coming in being elusive and deceptive about their identities, and the agent would not let go.\" CNN's Mallory Simon, Irving Last and Kiran Chetry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Parole officer may have seen \"false backyard,\" suspected nothing, official says .\nNEW: Spokesman: Deputy didn't call parole officer after 911 calls about Garrido .\nGarrido was released from prison early after saying he had drug use under control .\nGarrido likely became lower priority as time since his crimes passed, expert says ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A 22-year-old medical student suspected of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad was arraigned Tuesday and will be held without bail. Medical student Philip Markoff, 22, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. Philip Markoff, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, listened intently but did not speak during the hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Dressed in a blue-striped shirt and slacks, Markoff was handcuffed and wearing leg irons. His attorney, John Salsberg, told reporters after the hearing that Markoff is \"not guilty of the charges. He has his family's support. I have not received any document or report or piece of evidence other than what I heard in the courtroom. All I have at the moment are words -- no proof of anything.\" A woman identifying herself as Markoff's fiancee also maintained his innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News. Megan McAllister said Markoff \"is the wrong man\" and \"was set up.\" \"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public,\" McAllister wrote. \"All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!\" She accused Boston police of \"trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new??\" Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters, \"This was a brutal, vicious crime -- savage. And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them.\" A procedural not-guilty plea was entered on Markoff's behalf, Conley said. A Boston University spokeswoman said the school suspended Markoff, who has no criminal record, when it learned of the charges on Monday. Markoff is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Evidence from the scene suggests that Brisman \"put up a fight,\" prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said during the hearing Tuesday. Police said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. She sustained blunt head trauma, Hickman said, and was shot three times at close range. One of those bullets passed through her heart, killing her, she said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the robbery four days earlier of a woman at a Westin Hotel. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound, Hickman said. She was robbed of $800 and personal items, and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth, Hickman said in court Tuesday. Police said earlier the Westin victim was 29. She was not identified. Authorities believe the motive in Brisman's death was robbery, Conley told reporters, and she was killed during a struggle. In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Watch police say assailant has perused Craigslist ads \u00bb . Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, according to Boston police, who sought public assistance identifying the man. Police traced the Internet communications with Brisman to an e-mail account opened the day before her death, Conley said. Using Internet provider information, they found the computer was at Markoff's residence in Quincy, Massachusetts, he said. Authorities put the home under surveillance, Conley said, and \"the case just begins to build from there.\" \"This poor woman, Julissa Brisman, no matter what choices she made or decisions she made in life, she is a human being who's entitled to dignity and respect,\" Conley said. There may be more victims that authorities are unaware of, he said, adding that the prosecutor's goal is to hold Markoff accountable, not to pursue women who may be advertising on Craigslist. \"If you have been a victim like these victims have, please come forward,\" he said. Markoff is \"bearing up,\" according to attorney Salsberg. \"It's obviously a difficult time for anybody in these circumstances with the charges that have been brought against him. ... He's pleaded not guilty. He is not guilty,\" said Salsberg. McAllister, in her e-mail to ABC, wrote, \"Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life, so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share a wonderful, meaningful life together.\" The couple's wedding Web site had been taken down or was unavailable as of Tuesday afternoon. Authorities in Boston are working with police in Warwick, Rhode Island, on what could be a related case. On April 16 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney said. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, McCartney said. He said no conclusions could be made yet, but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told CNN the company is \"horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence.\" He promised that Craigslist will evaluate the incident to see if additional measures could be introduced to protect users. CNN's Mary Snow and Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"Not-guilty plea entered in Philip Markoff's behalf in woman's slaying in Boston .\nProsecutors say semiautomatic firearm found in search of student's home .\nCEO says Craigslist looking for ways to make site safer in wake of killing .\nE-mail from suspect's fiancee says police have \"wrong man\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- iReporters have a message for Richard Wright: Shine on, you crazy diamond. Jessica Schuette's tattoo reminds her of her late friend, who was a big fan of Pink Floyd. Wright, a founding member of epic rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. The keyboardist had been battling cancer and succumbed at his home in Britain. Wright is credited with writing some of the band's most well-known hits, such as \"The Great Gig in the Sky\" and \"Us and Them.\" Pink Floyd has thousands of devoted fans across the world, and the news of Wright's death inspired many of them to write into iReport to share how Richard Wright and the rest of the group touched and changed their lives. Jessica Schuette shared a photo of her Pink Floyd-inspired tattoo: a shimmering diamond above the words \"shine on.\" She got the tattoo in 2005 in memory of her best friend, who died in a car accident. \"This was her favorite song. I got this tattoo to remember her,\" Schuette said. \"If that doesn't say something about the impact that this band has had on people, I don't know what will.\" Pink Floyd touched the lives of Schuette and her friend even though they were never able to see one of the band's legendary live shows. Schuette, who is a dedicated Pink Floyd fan herself, pointed out that she's only 21 -- born 13 years after they released the epic album \"Dark Side of the Moon,\" and too young to have seen the band live when they were touring. iReport.com: Read more of Schuette's thoughts . Omar Pelea of Miami, Florida, hopes the tragedy of Wright's death will give Schuette and other fans their long-awaited chance to see the group live. He hopes the death will inspire the other members of Pink Floyd to begin touring again. Pink Floyd has not toured with lead singer and songwriter Roger Waters since 1981, although Rogers reunited with the band in 2005 for a concert at Live 8 in London. \"Now would be a good time for the remaining members to contemplate the fact that a reunion is running short on time,\" he said. \"There are bigger things in life than their differences. Perhaps they should put those differences aside and play for the world one last time.\" \"To me, Pink Floyd is the greatest band ever to play on this Earth,\" he added. iReport.com: Pelea compares Wright to the late George Harrison . Long-time Pink Floyd fan Pamela Keenan had the chance to perform some of the group's greatest works herself. She is a member of Endicott Performing Arts Center, a theatre company in Endicott, New York, that has performed its own adaptations of \"The Wall\" and \"Dark Side of the Moon.\" \"We had a band on the stage with us. We had images and films projected on the back of the stage and we had full choreography and vocals for all the songs from each album,\" she said. \"I listened to all of the music over and over again as a teen, but to be able to perform it in my 30s brought a new respect for the lyrics and the sheer musical genius.\" iReport.com: See a Pink Floyd-themed bike ride . Keenan described Pink Floyd as \"one of the greatest bands that's ever been in existence,\" but thinks the group is underrated by mainstream society today. \"Children aren't exposed to it anymore,\" she said. \"My kids are exposed to it because we did the shows -- and they love it.\" iReport.com: Keen recalls Pink Floyd stage show . \"I credit Pink Floyd for being a big part of my imagination,\" said Dean Spiegal, who creates psychedelic videos inspired by the group's music. \"Floyd was not a band, it was an experience. They did not make music for the people, they made music for their minds.\" iReport.com: Watch Spiegel's video tribute . And Eric Beck put it simply: . \"It changed my life. It changed my life,\" he said of \"Dark Side of the Moon.\" \"Rick Wright made a major contribution to my life. And I will forever be so grateful to him and the rest of the band.\" iReport.com: Beck shares his memories via webcam .","highlights":"Pink Floyd fans shared their memories of late keyboardist Richard Wright .\niReporters include theater company member who paid tribute to the band .\nJimi Lee remembers the first time he heard \"Dark Side of the Moon\"\nShare your memories of Pink Floyd and Wright at iReport.com ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Donna Zovko will have to wait to travel to Falluja to see where her son died in one of the Iraq war's most infamous attacks. Clockwise from upper left: Wesley Batalona, Mike Teague, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko . \"My dream was to go for the fifth anniversary, and that didn't come true,\" Zovko said this week while visiting friends in Boston, Massachusetts. \"It's not that I'm afraid for me. But people with me on the trip would be in more danger.\" Tuesday marks five years since her son Jerry Zovko and three other civilian employees of the Blackwater private security firm were ambushed in Falluja on March 31, 2004. Gunmen attacked vehicles holding Zovko, Mike Teague, Wesley Batalona and Scott Helvenston and set the vehicles on fire. Shocking images beamed around the world showed Iraqis celebrating in front of charred bodies strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River. The remains were dragged through the streets. Donna Zovko honors her son \u00bb . \"I didn't realize until way after the incident that he had been decapitated,\" said Helvenston's mother, Katy Helvenston-Wettengel, from her Florida home. \"They cut his heart out. How can anybody be that hateful?\" To identify his body, she said, investigators had to gather DNA samples from her son's children. A half-decade after the notorious attack, memories of the gruesome images have faded somewhat from the public eye, as the United States plans to reduce troop numbers in Iraq and a wrongful death suit brought by the four families heads to court-ordered arbitration. The families accuse Blackwater of failing to prepare the men for their mission that day. A 2007 House oversight committee report concluded that Blackwater \"ignored multiple warnings about the dangers\" and failed to supply armored vehicles, machine guns, sufficient intelligence or even a map. Blackwater responded by saying the experienced military veterans on the team \"had all of the resources they needed\" and were victims of a \"well-planned ambush.\" In the days after the attack, Blackwater was largely silent beyond a statement that said, \"We grieve today for the loss of our colleagues and we pray for their families.\" But the families said they ran into a stone wall trying to get details of what happened in Falluja. \"For the next three months, they never returned my calls,\" Helvenston's mother said. \"Our families were destroyed. We will never be the same.\" For Zovko, the suit is not about money or punishment. \"I want to hear the truth,\" she said. \"I want to know what my Jerry was doing before the mission. Why they didn't they have the maps? I want to know who he spoke to last.\" What makes this anniversary different from past years, she said, was an encounter this month in Boston with an Iraqi who claimed that he was at the scene of the attack shortly after the massacre. He offered Zovko new alleged details of the attack, which she says brought her comfort. The Iraqi man, whom she wouldn't identify, told her that the attackers did not appear to be targeting the motorcade containing her son and his three comrades. \"We used to think maybe the attack was done on purpose,\" she said. The news made her feel like \"I was lifted into the air,\" she said. \"For me, it was good. I miss my Jerry more today than yesterday.\" The gruesome attack put the little-known North Carolina-based security company into the American lexicon and on the world stage. It also changed the course of the war. The House report called it a \"turning point in public opinion about the war,\" which led to the first major U.S. offensive in Falluja. The fighting lasted three weeks, killing 36 U.S. service members, about 200 insurgents and an estimated 600 Iraqi civilians, according to the report. In the ensuing years, Blackwater and other private security firms in Iraq received hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts. Tactics used by the private security firms sometimes created ill will among Iraqis and Blackwater in particular was criticized, even by some in the U.S. military, for its allegedly reckless use of deadly force. Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder and former CEO, dismissed such allegations as \"baseless\" after his company was criticized by the Iraqi government for an incident in which its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded others while protecting a U.S. State Department convoy in Baghdad on September 16, 2007. \"To the extent there was the loss of innocent life, let me be clear that I consider that tragic,\" Prince said, adding that the Blackwater team \"acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone\" that day. Five ex-Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty in January to charges of voluntary manslaughter stemming from their involvement in the shootings. A sixth pleaded guilty to voluntary and attempted manslaughter. That same month, the Iraqi government refused to grant the firm an operating license, and the U.S. State Department announced that it will not renew its contract. In the two months since the exit of the Bush administration, Prince has stepped down as CEO and brought in a new leadership team. The company has changed its name to Xe, but Prince is still chairman. \"I think Blackwater's been punished enough,\" Zovko said, \"but they will be punished more. It's time our government makes some rules and regulations about what civilian contractors can do in their wars.\" This week, Xe released a brief statement to CNN about the Falluja killings, saying the \"sacrifices of these brave men have not been forgotten. On the five-year anniversary of their death, the company continues to mourn their loss. Our thoughts remain with their families and loved ones.\" Prince's promise . Both mothers seem to be making a conscious effort to control their anger five years on. \"I refuse to hate, but if I were gonna hate anybody, it would be Blackwater and Erik Prince,\" Helvenston-Wettengel said. \"I want Blackwater exposed for who they are, and I want them out of business.\" Zovko said she relies on her Catholic faith to control her anger. In 2007, Prince told CNN he would be willing to meet with Zovko, but 16 months later, no such meeting has taken place. \"He hasn't honored his promise, but I believe he will,\" Zovko said. \"Sometimes I think he doesn't have a heart, but he really does.\" Zovko said she wants to ask Prince, \"Where are my Jerry's three suitcases with personal things that I have never received?\" Also, she said Prince promised to invite Zovko to Blackwater's headquarters in North Carolina to see memorial stones and trees that were planted honoring the victims. \"That hasn't happened,\" Zovko said. Helvenston-Wettengel also said she'd like to meet with Prince. \"I'd like to look him in the eye, yeah. I'd say, 'How can you live with yourself?' \" CNN sought a response from Prince about his promised meeting with Zovko. Company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Prince had tried to meet with Zovko in early 2008 but was unable to \"due to scheduling conflicts.\" Both mothers' sons went to Iraq after careers in the U.S. military. Jerry Zovko, a former Army Ranger, had gone as a security contractor to train Iraqi soldiers. When that contract ended in late 2003, he signed on with a different company, Blackwater, according to his mother. For Scott Helvenston, Iraq was just the final chapter of a colorful career for the former Navy SEAL, a life that included a job as a stuntman and consultant for Hollywood films. On the set of 1997's \"G.I. Jane,\" shot in Jacksonville, Florida, Helvenston put Demi Moore through a rigorous training program, his mother said, even managing to grab a small role as an extra. A divorced father of two, Helvenston told his mother he would return from Iraq in two months, she said. \"He was going to go over there and make a bunch of money and come back and give it to his ex-wife,\" she said. Zovko and Helvenston-Wettengel have become close friends in the years since the tragedy, but on this anniversary, the two mothers will not be together to share their support and grief with each other. \"Traveling is getting to be troublesome for us both,\" said Zovko, who plans to remain near her home in Bratenahl, Ohio, to attend morning and evening masses at Cleveland's St. Paul Croatian Church. Helvenston-Wettengel also said she plans to attend church Tuesday in her hometown of Leesburg, Florida. Legal setbacks . As for the families' wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater, a federal judge in 2007 ordered that the case be taken out of the courts to be decided by a three-member arbitration panel. Senior U.S. District Judge James Fox sent the case to arbitration based on Blackwater's argument that the four victims had signed an agreement not to sue the company. A hearing is set for June 23. In court, Blackwater had argued that it was immune to such a lawsuit because, as an extension of the military, it cannot be held responsible for deaths in a war zone. At this point, Zovko said, both sides are losers. \"I lost my son, and Blackwater lost the dignity of the company they thought they were.\" Helvenston said she wants the whole thing to just end, but events keep dragging it out. \"They won't let me let it go.\" CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"It's been five years since killings of four U.S. contractors in Falluja .\nVictim's mom: \"I want Blackwater exposed and out of business\"\nBlackwater, renamed Xe, says it \"continues to mourn\" the loss of the four men .\nAnother mom: Both sides are losers in Blackwater suit ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tough economic times are taking a toll across the spectrum of business and individual activity -- and the country's institutions of higher learning are no exception. Andy Warhol is one of the artists in Brandeis University's acclaimed Rose Art Museum. Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts, will be taking an extraordinary step to preserve its educational mission -- the school's board of trustees voted Monday to close its acclaimed Rose Art Museum. The university will sell every one of the approximately 6,000 items in the museum, opened in 1961. \"These are extraordinary times, we cannot control or fix the nation's economic problems,\" university president Jehuda Reinharz said. \"We can only do what we have been entrusted to do -- act responsibly with the best interests of our students and their futures foremost in mind.\" University spokesman Dennis Nealon said that the move to sell off the museum's exhibits was \"a very hard and painful decision\" but a necessary one for the school's survival. He said the decision, which calls for the museum to close in the summer, will not affect the university's \"commitment to the arts and the teaching of the arts.\" The facility will become a fine arts teaching center with an exhibition gallery and studio space, he said. The museum's collection includes iconic paintings by such luminaries of American art as Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz and Roy Lichtenstein. Nealon said most of the museum's acquisitions are paintings and sculptures. The school has not undertaken a recent appraisal of the works, Nealon said, adding that the process may take as much as two years to complete. Brandeis, founded in 1948, is the only non-sectarian, Jewish-sponsored university in the country.","highlights":"Brandeis trustees vote to close Rose Art Museum, sell collection .\nUniversity spokesman says \"painful decision\" necessary for school's survival .\nCollection includes iconic paintings by Warhol, Johns and Lichtenstein .\nBrandeis is the only nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored university in nation ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A second lingerie-modeling photo of Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has appeared after she assured pageant officials this week that the earlier shot was the only one she had appeared in. Miss California USA Carrie Prejean may lose her crown because of some semi-nude photos she appeared in. The Web site that published the first picture published a second one Wednesday. It had already promised to \"slowly roll out\" more photos. After the appearance of the first photo, the possibility that racier images could emerge prompted \"closed-door meetings\" Tuesday to consider stripping Prejean of her beauty queen title, pageant spokesman Ron Neal said. Although Neal said Prejean \"breached her contract\" by keeping the semi-nude photo or photos a secret, the only pictures published so far appear about as revealing as the bikini Prejean wore in the pageant's swimsuit competition. \"We have been told by Carrie Prejean there are no other photos other than the one circulating in existence. She should know better than anyone,\" Miss California USA Director Keith Lewis said Wednesday before the latest photo was released. Watch reaction to racy photos \u00bb . Pageant officials were not immediately available for comment on the new picture. The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of controversy since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the national pageant stage last month. She finished as runner-up to Miss USA. In a statement given to CNN on Tuesday, Prejean said the photos -- and she did use the plural -- were being used in a \"vicious and mean-spirited\" effort to silence her for \"defending traditional marriage.\" While she vowed to \"continue to support and defend marriage as the honorable institution it is,\" Prejean may be doing so without the Miss California USA title. State pageant officials met Tuesday with lawyers and representatives of Donald Trump, who owns the international competition, to consider whether they had grounds to take the crown away from Prejean, according to Neal. \"When you compete for Miss California, you're supposed to disclose whether you posed for nude or semi-nude photos, because it's grounds for disqualification,\" he said. CNN obtained a copy of the pageant contract Prejean signed last year, in which she agreed that the discovery of semi-nude photos could mean disqualification. The first photo made public shows Prejean -- who said she was 17 at the time -- wearing pink panties and no top. She is turned away from the camera, with her arm hiding most of her breast. The second photo is essentially the same, but Prejean is looking over her opposite shoulder. It was unclear whether pageant officials would consider that a semi-nude photo, in light of their standard requirement that contestants parade across stage wearing a bikini that arguably shows more skin. Ahead of the second photo being published, Nik Richie -- of TheDirty.com -- said he was upgrading his Web site's servers to handle the flood of traffic he expects will come after he posts the additional photos. \"I will slowly roll these out,\" Richie said. The Web site appeared to be overwhelmed by traffic early Thursday. CNN tried to access it, but could not. \"We'll see what happens with those and we want to know who's releasing them,\" Neal said. Shanna Moakler, the co-executive director of the Miss California USA organization, will meet with Tami Farrell, the runner-up for the title, \"to discuss the possible next steps,\" Neal said. Prejean defended the photos, which she said were taken when she was a teenager aspiring to be a Victoria's Secret model. \"I am a Christian, and I am a model,\" she said. \"Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos.\" She said the photos \"have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.\" \"I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be,\" she said. \"But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others' opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks.\" Her publicist, Melany Ethridge, confirmed a comment she gave to celebrity Web site TMZ in which she said Prejean was 17 when she posed for the photos, hoping they would land her a modeling job. \"In her naivete, an agent convinced her to pose for this photo to submit to a lingerie company, claiming they could make her the next Victoria's Secret model,\" Ethridge told TMZ. \"She has since learned what a lie that was, and what a mistake it was to have the photo taken.\" Prejean announced last week that she would star in a new $1.5 million ad campaign supporting \"opposite marriage\" (marriage between a man and a woman) funded by the National Organization for Marriage. \"Marriage is good,\" Prejean said at a news conference announcing the ad campaign. \"There is something special about unions of husband and wife. Unless we bring men and women together, children will not have mothers and fathers.\" CNN's Aileen Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says she posed for one semi-nude photo .\nA Web site says it has more photos of Prejean, and plans to slowly roll them out .\nPrejean is in the news for her response to question about same-sex marriage ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died, her publicist, Patty Freedman, told CNN on Thursday. Actress Eartha Kitt, shown at a benefit for the Actors Fund in 2003, performed almost until the end of her life. Kitt, 81, died in New York, where she was being treated for colon cancer, Freedman said. Her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, was by her side. She was performing almost until the end, taping a PBS special six weeks ago in Chicago, Illinois. The show is set to air in February. The ringtone version of her recording of the saucy Christmas song \"Santa Baby\" was certified gold earlier this month. Kitt was well known for her distinctive voice and made a name for herself in her portrayal of Catwoman in the television series \"Batman.\" That role produced Kitt's recognizable sultry cat growl. She worked in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television during her lengthy career. According to Kitt's official Web site, she was nominated for a Tony three times, a Grammy and Emmy twice. According to the biography on that site, Kitt lived in Connecticut near her daughter and four grandchildren. Kitt was ostracized at an early age because of her mixed-race heritage, the biography says. At age 8, she was sent from the cotton fields of South Carolina by her mother to live with her aunt in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, the site said. As a teen, she auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe, was hired as a featured dancer and vocalist, and toured worldwide with the company. This launched Kitt into a life of roles in the entertainment field. According to the book \"Contemporary Black Biography,\" she was adored in Europe in the 1950s as a cabaret singer. In the United States, her dance career led to a critically acclaimed stint on Broadway, including the play \"New Faces of 1952,\" which was later made into a movie. Broadway stardom landed Kitt a recording deal that led to a string of best-selling records, including \"Love for Sale,\" \"I Want to Be Evil,\" \"Santa Baby\" and \"Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa.\" She recorded more than 20 albums, worked in hundreds of television and movie roles, and was invited as a guest to the White House several times. CNN's David Daniel contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kitt died in New York, where she was being treated for colon cancer .\nHer daughter, Kitt Shapiro, was by her side .\nHer recording of saucy Christmas song \"Santa Baby\" was certified gold last week .\nKitt made a name for herself in as Catwoman in \"Batman\" TV series ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Gregg Wenzel died six years ago in Ethiopia, the obituaries said he was a U.S. Foreign Service officer killed by a drunken driver on the streets of Addis Ababa. CIA Director Leon Panetta spoke Monday at a ceremony commemorating fallen CIA officers. Monday the public learned the State Department job was a cover for his real occupation: CIA spy. At a ceremony commemorating those who died in the line of duty, CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed Wenzel's affiliation with the agency and noted Wenzel was a member of the first clandestine service class to graduate after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. \"He helped unite the class and kept its spirits high in the toughest moments,\" Panetta said. Wenzel left his job as an attorney to join the agency. He was 33 years old when the car he was riding in was hit by a drunken driver who to this day remains a fugitive. There are now 90 stars prominently displayed on the memorial wall in the spacious atrium of CIA headquarters, each commemorating an officer, like Wenzel, who died while serving the country. The 90th star was added recently, but as with most of the victims, the person's name and nature of service will remain unknown to the public so as not to compromise secret operations. At the annual memorial service attended by hundreds of employees, retirees and family members, Panetta paid homage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. \"Their patriotism and leadership, courage and decency are models for all of us,\" said the director, adding, \"their work is our work now. And their spirit abides with us.\" Panetta also announced the beginning of a new tradition. Family members of the fallen officers will receive a replica of the star from the wall. The first star was given to the brothers of Douglas Mackiernan, the first CIA operations officer killed in the line of duty, shot to death in Tibet after fleeing China in 1950.","highlights":"Gregg Wenzel died six years ago in Ethiopia .\nObituaries said he was a U.S. Foreign Service officer killed by a drunken driver .\nAt ceremony for fallen CIA officers, CIA Director revealed Wenzel was a CIA spy ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Illinois state Senate on Monday began its impeachment trial against Gov. Rod Blagojevich without the governor present. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich denies any wrongdoing. Blagojevich said he expects lawmakers to vote to convict him. He is facing federal corruption allegations, including trying to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Barack Obama was elected president. The second-term Democratic governor has denied wrongdoing. Instead of attending the trial, Blagojevich hit the media circuit Monday. He appeared on ABC's \"Good Morning America\" and \"The View,\" and was scheduled to give his first live prime-time interview Monday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Speaking on \"Good Morning America,\" Blagojevich restated his complaints about what he called the \"unconstitutional\" impeachment trial, which he said \"denies me the right to call witnesses to defend myself and prove my innocence.\" Watch Blagojevich say he's done \"nothing wrong\" \u00bb . He said he is certain the Illinois Senate will vote to remove him from office and said he expects they will demand he step down \"relatively soon.\" Earlier this month, the Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach him. Blagojevich has said the vote was politically motivated. Under the Illinois Constitution, the House can vote to impeach an executive or judicial officer, but it is the Senate that conducts the trial. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate is required to convict an officer of an impeachable offense. According to a federal complaint issued in December, Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris -- who also was arrested on federal corruption charges -- were \"conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits\" for the governor by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a U.S. senator to replace Obama. \"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden,\" Blagojevich allegedly said in one recorded phone conversation, referring to his authority to appoint, according to the complaint. \"I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing.\" When asked about those alleged quotes, Blagojevich told ABC that federal prosecutors \"took snippets of conversations completely out of context.\" \"When the whole story comes out, you'll see that the effort was to work to have a senator who can best represent Illinois,\" he said. Blagojevich has said his rights are being violated because he cannot challenge assertions in the House impeachment report. Watch Blagojevich demand a fair trial \u00bb . Blagojevich also is asking for a change in a Senate trial rule that he said is preventing him from calling witnesses such as Valerie Jarrett, a confidant of Obama's; Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.; and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel, claimed Blagojevich, agrees that he did not break any laws. State Sen. Matt Murphy, part of the nine-member committee that put the Senate trial rules together, called Blagojevich's complaints \"the theater of the absurd.\" iReport.com: Do you trust your political leaders? \"What you've seen here ... is a cynical effort on the part of this governor that's perfectly consistent with his actions over the last six years, to try and further undermine the faith in this process that the people already have,\" Murphy said. He said the House prosecution team responsible for presenting the impeachment case to the Senate is operating under the same restrictions as Blagojevich with regard to calling witnesses. Murphy said on \"Good Morning America\" that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked both sides to \"defer to the criminal prosecution\" of Blagojevich and \"limit witnesses.\" He noted that the governor has every right to submit \"positive statements that the governor says exonerate him\" -- such as those from Jarrett, Jackson and Emanuel -- as evidence in the Senate trial. \"We have lowered the standard for the admission of evidence for the governor to bend over backward to make this fair,\" Murphy said. \"The suggestion that this is somehow unfair to the governor is the most self-serving, ludicrous statement I have ever heard in my life. It couldn't be fairer for this guy.\" Blagojevich missed deadlines this month for answering the impeachment charge and for filing a motion to dismiss, a spokesman for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has said.","highlights":"Impeachment trial proceedings for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich begin .\nIllinois governor says impeachment trial is \"unconstitutional\"\nBlagojevich scheduled multiple television appearances Monday .\nBlagojevich accused of scheming to sell Barack Obama's ex-Senate seat ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sir Edmund Hillary has been laid to rest in New Zealand after thousands paid tribute to a mountaineer whose conquest of Mt Everest in 1953 was one of the 20th century's defining moments. A last farewell to Sir Edmund Hillary. Guests filled Auckland's Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral and an overflow area next door for a service. Among the guests were politicians, mountaineers and friends. Lady Hillary sat with family and Prime Minister Helen Clark. In the congregation were members of Nepal's Sherpa community and Buddhist monks. In front of them, Hillary's coffin was draped in a New Zealand flag and covered in wreaths. See photos of the funeral service \u00bb . As the service began, Sherpas laid Tibetan prayer scarves on the coffin. In Nepal, schools were due to ring bells as the service started. Hillary's son, Peter, told the congregation: \"Adventure was compulsory growing up in the Hillary household. He took us to the most extraordinary places.\" His daughter, Sarah spoke of a childhood where Sir Edmund was planning expeditions, and coming home to a family eager to see him again. \"When asked at primary school what my father did, I was unable to find an answer.\" Clark said: \"He was a role model for a generation of New Zealanders... We mourn as a nation because we know we are saying goodbye to a friend.\" On Monday, New Zealanders filed past Hillary's casket as they paid final respects in Auckland's Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral. Four soldiers, rifles at rest, stood guard as ordinary New Zealanders said goodbye to a national hero, whose achievements are known around the world. Hillary's widow attended the tribute, which featured Maori song and dance. Clark, called it a celebration of a \"very great\" life. Hillary, who was 88, died at Auckland City Hospital on January 11. On May 29, 1953, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa guide, became the first men to climb the 29,035 feet to the top of Everest and safely return. Hillary, who served during World War II in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, began climbing while in high school and traveled to the central Himalayas to join a British party exploring the southern face of Everest in 1951. He returned in 1953, when he and Norgay made their ascent -- spending 15-30 minutes at the summit. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on his return to England, but continued exploring -- reaching the South Pole by tractor in 1958, joining the first group to climb Antarctica's Mount Herschel in 1967 and boating east Himalayan rivers and the Ganges. His Himalayan Trust has helped build schools, hospitals and airstrips in Nepal since 1961. He was also a strong supporter of environmental causes and worked to improve the lives of Nepal's Sherpas. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New Zealand says final goodbye to national hero Sir Edmund Hillary .\nIn the congregation is family, Nepalese Sherpas, politicians and friends .\nHillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to climb Mount Everest ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa lock Bakkies Botha will miss the final Test against the British and Irish Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday after failing in his appeal against a two-week ban. Bakkies Botha will be eligible to return for the start of the Springboks' Tri-Nations campaign. The 29-year-old was cited for a dangerous charge which left Lions prop Adam Jones with a dislocated shoulder. Jones was forced off shortly after halftime during last Saturday's second Test in Pretoria, in which the Springboks fought back to snatch a 28-25 victory and clinch a 2-0 series triumph. The incident ended Jones' tour, while Lions center Brian O'Driscoll also went home early after suffering concussion in the same match. Beginner's guide to the Lions. The South African management decided to appeal as they felt Botha had legally been trying to clear out a ruck. Assistant coach Dick Muir said: \"We certainly don't see any wrongdoing in that challenge and if it wasn't for the injury which came from it, I don't think anything would have been said about it.\" The Blue Bulls forward will return in time for the Springboks' Tri-Nations opener against the All Blacks in Bloemfontein on July 25. For Saturday's third Test against the Lions, Botha will be replaced by Johann Muller, who captained his Sharks province to defeat against the tourists in one of the warm-up matches. He gets his chance with Andries Bekker injured and versatile loose-forward Danie Rossouw struggling with concussion. The Springboks will also be without flanker Schalk Burger, who was banned for eight weeks for eye-gouging Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald. There was no appeal on that ruling, but the International Rugby Union has pledged to review its punishments for such offenses in the wake of criticism that the player got off lightly. Peter de Villiers has made 10 changes, leaving captain John Smit, vice-captain Victor Matfield, Fourie du Preez, Tendai Mtawarira and Juan Smith as the only survivors in the starting XV. Last weekend's match-winner Morne Steyn starts in place of fly-half in place of Ruan Pienaar, who has paid for his poor goalkicking form. Zane Kirchner will make his debut at full-back, while Odwa Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier and Jongi Nokwe also come in to the backline. Chiliboy Ralepelle, Heinrich Brussow and Ryan Kankowski join Muller as new faces in the forward pack. Lions boss Ian McGeechan has made seven changes and one positional alteration, meaning mean just four players will have started all three Tests: fly-half Stephen Jones, scrum-half Mike Phillips, skipper Paul O'Connell and No. 8 Jamie Heaslip. With Wales center Jamie Roberts joining O'Driscoll on the sidelines due to a wrist injury, England's Riki Flutey forms a new midfield combination with Tommy Bowe, who switches from the wing. Ugo Monye, dropped after the first Test defeat, returns on the right wing, with world player of the year Shane Williams starts in place of Fitzgerald on the left. Teams for the third Test: . South Africa: Z Kirchner; O Ndungane, J Fourie, W Olivier, J Nokwe; M Steyn, F du Preez; T Mtawarira, C Ralepelle, J Smit, J Muller, V Matfield, H Brussow, J Smith, R Kankowski. Replacements: B du Plessis, G Steenkamp, D Carstens, S Sykes, P Spies, R Pienaar, F Steyn. British and Irish Lions: R Kearney; U Monye, T Bowe, R Flutey, S Williams; S Jones, M Phillips; J Heaslip, M Williams, J Worsley; P O'Connell, S Shaw; P Vickery, M Rees, A Sheridan. Replacements: R Ford, J Hayes, A-W Jones, D Wallace, T Croft, H Ellis, J Hook.","highlights":"South Africa lock Bakkies Botha out of final Test against British and Irish Lions .\nSpringboks fail in appeal against forward's two-week ban for dangerous charge .\nBotha's challenge on Adam Jones left Lions prop with dislocated shoulder .\nBoth teams make wholesale changes for third match, with series decided ."} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Two people have died and 28 people have fallen ill with matching strains of E. coli after an outbreak in ground beef, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Sixteen of those people are in hospitals and three have developed kidney failure as a result of the contamination, the CDC said late Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that Fairbank Farms in Ashville, New York, was recalling more than half a million pounds of fresh ground beef products that may be contaminated with a strain of E. coli, a potentially deadly species of bacteria. The products subject to recall were sent to retailers including Trader Joe's, Price Chopper, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Shaw's, BJ's, Ford Brothers, and Giant Food Stores. The exact products affected are listed on the USDA's Web site. The recall was for distribution centers in eight states, but Fairbank Farms said some retailers may have sent the affected beef to other states. Each package is printed with \"EST. 492\" inside the USDA mark of inspection or on the nutrition label. They were packaged on September 15 and 16 and may have been labeled at the retail stores with a sell-by date from September 19 through 28, the USDA said. Consumers should ask at their point of purchase if the products they have purchased are subject to recall, the USDA said. E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, seniors and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service advised consumers to safely prepare raw meat products, whether they are fresh or frozen, and only consume ground beef that has been cooked to a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The only way to be sure ground beef is cooked to a high enough temperature to kill harmful bacteria is to use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature, the FSIS said. Of the 28 people infected with E. coli from the outbreak, eight are in Massachusetts; four each are in Connecticut and New Hampshire; two each are in Maine, Pennsylvania and South Dakota; and one each is in California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Vermont, according to the CDC.","highlights":"Two people have died after becoming infected with E. coli in this outbreak .\nE. coli is a bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, kidney failure .\nUse a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of beef ."} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Italy national coach Roberto Donadoni has left Cristiano Lucarelli in his squad for next Saturday's crucial Euro 2008 qualifier in Scotland. Lucarelli keeps his place in the Italian squad after scoring twice against South Africa. The Shakhtar Donetsk striker is in fine form and has been rewarded for his inspiring performance in last month's friendly against South Africa, when he scored twice in the world champions' victory. While Donadoni has again left out veteran forwards Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero, he has handed Juventus striker and Italy under-21 international Raffaele Palladino his first call-up to the senior squad. Donadoni's squad is also boosted by the return from suspension of captain Fabio Cannavaro, . Italy go into the clash in Glasgow third in Group B, two points behind leaders France and one point below Scotland. Italy end their qualifying campaign by taking on bottom side the Faroe Islands in Modena on November 21. Italy squad: . Goalkeepers: Marco Amelia (Livorno), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Gianluca Curci (Roma) Defenders: Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Daniele Bonera (AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Fabio Grosso (Lyon), Massimo Oddo (AC Milan), Christian Panucci (Roma), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona) Midfielders: Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Simone Perrotta (Roma), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan) Strikers: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Cristiano Lucarelli (Shakhtar Donetsk), Raffaele Palladino (Juventus), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich) E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Striker Cristiano Lucarelli keeps his place in Italy's squad to face Scotland .\nLucarelli impressed by scoring twice in the recent victory over South Africa .\nJuventus striker Raffaele Palladino earns his first call-up to the senior squad ."} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- YouTube this week announced the biggest viral video sensations of 2009, with Scottish singer Susan Boyle topping the list. The most pressing question for aspiring video creators: How do you repeat that kind of success? Value in views . Topping the YouTube charts brings significant value -- Boyle's clip had more than 120 million views on the site. Had the parties involved negotiated an ad revenue split (they initially did not), a not-inconceivable $10 cost-per-thousand-impressions would have yielded revenue in excess of $1 million. When a clip has a commercial purpose, the brand value may be significantly higher: Evian's Roller Babies ad ranked fifth, with more than 27 million views, and the company says the campaign's success slowed its sales decline. A commercial impact was also felt in the case of the JK Wedding Entrance Dance (more than 33 million views). The clip, which features a wedding party dancing down the aisle to Chris Brown's \"Forever,\" sent the track rocketing up the iTunes charts. What are the commonalities here, and is there a formula for viral video success? A definitive answer is infuriatingly absent. The cute factor . The cute factor is perhaps the most prevalent trend among popular YouTube videos. In YouTube's most-viewed videos of all time, you'll find such adorable clips as a boy biting his brother's finger (140 million views), a baby laughing hysterically (100 million views), a sneezing panda (46 million views) and even the Evian ad. The explanation is simple: When a clip makes us happy, we feel compelled to share that sentiment with others. Humor . If our willingness to share is based on our emotional reaction to a clip, it follows that humor ranks highly on YouTube. From Jeff Dunham's ventriloquist act \"Achmed the Dead Terrorist\" to the obscure humor of \"Charlie The Unicorn,\" laughter is a common theme. In some cases, humor is not the intent: Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain has surpassed 45 million views, our amusement (and discomfort) deriving from Zonday's utterly bizarre performance. Comedy has geographical limitations however: What's funny in one country may be unfathomable in another. This perhaps explains why laughing babies consistently outrank standup comedians: funny doesn't travel. Emotional response . Not every popular clip evokes laughter -- performances from Susan Boyle and Paul Potts tug at the heartstrings. So too does the Free Hugs campaign -- a music video featuring an Australian man giving out \"Free Hugs\" to strangers in public places has received more than 53 million views. Music . Music videos are by far the most viewed content on YouTube. Had YouTube not created a second list to highlight top music videos on the site, these would have dominated the rankings for 2009. The knowledge that best-selling artists rank highly on video sites may be of little utility to aspiring YouTube stars -- except to note that dancing videos and \"lip dubs\" have proved popular. With 132 million views, Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance is a breakout success. Cumulative advantage . Is the quality of the clip the only factor affecting its success? Or could it be that the rich get richer, even in the seemingly egalitarian world of YouTube? Since most YouTube users head straight to the site's \"Popular\" page, clips that show early promise may continue to gain momentum for weeks and years. This process of cumulative advantage may help to explain why one laughing baby shoots to the top of the charts and another giggles in obscurity. No formula? It may be the case that there's no simple formula for YouTube popularity. In fact, it may be that the only true guarantee of success is novelty. The unexpected, the bizarre, the humorous, the offbeat, the emotionally affecting -- these authentic elements are hard to bottle, and fakes are easy to spot. What will be YouTube's breakout video of 2010? We'll know it when we see it.","highlights":"Mashable's Pete Cashmore ponders what makes a YouTube video a viral smash .\nTopping the YouTube charts brings significant value to advertisers and video producers .\nWhy \"cute\" works: When a clip makes us happy, we want to share that feeling with others .\nThe only guarantee of success may be novelty: the unexpected, the bizarre ."} -{"article":"DECATUR, Georgia (CNN) -- One falling tree saved John Kiefer from another. Windstorms in Atlanta, Georgia, uprooted several trees, including this one that fell through John Kiefer's home. Kiefer was sitting on his sofa Monday morning while a brief but intense windstorm blew through the Atlanta, Georgia, area, including Decatur. He heard a tree crash in his backyard and got up to investigate. That tree knocked down a chain-link fence, and Kiefer was getting worried about several other large backyard trees that were swaying in the wind. \"And as I'm watching those move and sway, this crashed down,\" he said. \"This\" was a 50-foot red oak in the front yard that fell onto his living room, splitting his house in half and coming to rest a few inches above where he had been sitting on the couch. \"Yeah, it's a mess,\" he said as he surveyed the tangle of broken wood beams, plaster, bricks and gray insulation. Curiously, Kiefer's electricity was still on, and cable TV was still playing less then 10 feet away from the massive tree trunk in his living room. An ancient upright piano and various collectibles on it were unharmed. Kiefer had been away over the weekend, visiting a son in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his three dogs were still at the kennel where he boarded them. They'll be staying there a bit longer. Three years of drought in Georgia have weakened trees' root systems, and recent heavy rains loosened the soil around them, said Kiefer, who works at a plastics recycling company in nearby Stone Mountain. The windstorm brought down hundreds of trees in the area, including one that crushed a car, killing the person inside, and one that fell on a nursing home, where no one was hurt, CNN affiliate WGCL reported. Service was disrupted on Atlanta's MARTA rail transit system, according to WGCL. Power and traffic signals were out in many areas. Watch CNN report about dangerous storms \u00bb . Despite having a tree lying across his living room, Kiefer seemed remarkably calm, but that was a new development. \"Couple of hours ago my knees where shaking pretty good,\" he admitted. But, he said, God was looking out for him. \"Actually, he saved my life,\" Kiefer said. \"When I came outside to investigate that noise, that was my warning to get up off that couch. And then, not to go back in the house when it got real windy, but to stand right there where that tree stopped. There are no coincidences.\"","highlights":"Brief but intense windstorm blows through Atlanta, Georgia .\nWinds brought down hundreds of trees, including one that killed person inside car .\nAnother tree fell on a nursing home; no one was hurt ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi who was captured on videotape torturing an Afghan grain dealer has reportedly been detained, a senior U.S. State Department official told CNN Saturday. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, pictured here, allegedly tortured a business associate on videotape. The official said the government of the United Arab Emirates, which includes Abu Dhabi as one of its seven emirates, told the State Department that Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan is under house arrest pending an investigation, but that the United States has not independently confirmed the development. The videotape emerged last month in a federal civil lawsuit filed in Houston, Texas, by Bassam Nabulsi, a U.S. citizen, against the sheikh. Former business partners, the men had a falling out, in part over the tape. In a statement to CNN, the sheikh's U.S. attorney said Nabulsi is using the videotape to influence the court over a business dispute. The tape of the heinous torture session is delaying the ratification of a civil nuclear deal between the United Arab Emirates and the United States, senior U.S. officials familiar with the case have said. The senior U.S. officials said the administration has held off on the ratification process because it believes sensitivities over the story can hurt its passage. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch called the sheikh's reported detention \"a significant development\" but said the UAE government needs to do more to restore confidence in its judicial system. \"The videotape of this episode shocked the world,\" said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. \"The report of the arrest was reassuring, but now the government needs to make the details public. Secretive prosecutions will not deter further abuses and torture.\" On the tape, Sheikh Issa appears to burn with rage. Apparently believing he was cheated in a business deal, the sheikh was trying to extract a confession from the Afghan grain dealer. With a private security officer assisting, Sheikh Issa is seen stuffing sand in the Afghan's mouth. As the grain dealer pleads and whimpers, he is beaten with a nailed board, burned in the genitals with a cigarette lighter, shocked with a cattle prod and led to believe he would be shot. Salt is literally poured on his wounds. The 45 minutes of torture appears on a nearly three-hour-long videotape shot in late 2004 in the desert outside Abu Dhabi. It was made at the direction of the sheikh himself. The tape has been viewed by CNN. Watch portions of the tape and Nabulsi tell his story \u00bb . After international concerns over the tape mounted in late April, Abu Dhabi's government issued a statement saying it deplored the contents of the video and planned an immediate and comprehensive review of it. The sheikh, who holds no official government position, is the half-brother of the UAE's ruler, President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Human Rights Watch sent a April 28 letter to the president imploring him to form \"an independent body\" to probe both the torture and and the \"failure\" of the UAE's Interior Ministry \"to bring those involved to justice.\" The group reiterated that call Saturday. As for the grain dealer, UAE officials say he survived the ordeal, and said the sheikh and the grain dealer settled the matter privately by agreeing not to bring formal charges against each other. However, Nabulsi's attorney, Anthony Buzbee, said the grain dealer can't be located and it is not known whether he is alive.","highlights":"State Department official says member of Abu Dhabi royal family reportedly detained .\nInvestigation continuing after videotape shows sheikh torturing grain merchant .\nVideotape emerged last month in federal civil lawsuit filed in the United States .\nU.S. senior officials say case is holding up a U.S. nuclear deal with the UAE ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is not often that football players are actively encouraged to play dirty -- unless of course they are taking part in a unique variant of the game called \"Swamp Soccer\" when it is virtually unavoidable. The competition is fierce in the 2009 Swamp Soccer World Championship held in Scotland . Originating from the bogs of Finland, the game was started by cross-country skiers who used the football matches in knee-deep mud to strengthen their leg muscles. The first tournament took place in 1997 with 13 teams, but now annual events take place in Sweden, Iceland, Russia and Brazil which can often feature over 200 teams. What do you think of Swamp Soccer? Do you prefer Beach Football of another form of the game? Let us know your thoughts on the 'Sound off' box below. Glasgow Rangers fan Stewart Miller imported the concept to the United Kingdom after a chance meeting with founder Jyrki Vaananen while on a business trip to Iceland. Miller launched the first UK tournament in 2005 and now teams travel from all over the globe to the Scottish village of Strachur to try and become the annual Swamp Soccer World Champions. Watch the action from the bog \u00bb. \"We had teams coming from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand to take part in the tournament this year so there is an international flavor to the event,\" Miller told CNN. \"There is a huge appetite to try out new things and I think that's why Swamp Soccer is able to capture the imagination of people. \"The basic rules of football also apply to Swamp Soccer with the exception that matches are played in thick mud with six players on an oversized five-a-side pitch. \"It's probably one of the only sports in the world where the worse the conditions are the better the sporting spectacle!\" There is no offside in Swamp Soccer while kick-offs, throw-ins, corner kicks, free kicks and penalties are taken by using the hands to drop the ball onto a chosen foot. Teams are also allowed to make unlimited substitutions although no shoe changing is allowed for the match duration. Miller believes that the oft-used quote that the state of a pitch can bridge the gap between two unevenly match teams is even more applicable with Swamp Soccer. \"You could put the Brazilian national side up against an amateur team and you wouldn't know who would come out on top -- the pitch really does prove to be a leveler in this instance,\" he said. \"Although professional footballers are precious commodities these days -- I'm not sure we'll see any stars getting caked in mud too soon, most of them are far to pampered for that. \"Nobody's ever been injured seriously playing in the swamp, sometimes somebody's got a cut or two but nothing big -- so maybe when they retire from the game they might be prepared to give it a go.\" The imaginatively titled Real Mudrid, Mudchesthair United and Cowdungbeath were unable to make it past the group stages in the 44-team event which was won by FC Full Gunge from Poole in England who retained their title with a 1-0 victory over The Chocolate Men. This year's Swamp Soccer tournament was held in a village in the Scottish countryside but Miller revealed that he intends to bring the mud game to metropolitan areas. He added: \"The future for Swamp Soccer is in the city and of course I'm certain we'll bring all the mud with us. It will certainly make a great spectacle if set up a swamp in the middle of Glasgow or Edinburgh, so watch this space.\" If you are interested in taking part in the 2010 Swamp Soccer World Championships visit the official Web site of the tournament.","highlights":"Swamp Soccer was started by cross-country skiers on the bogs of Finland .\nThe 2009 World Championships have just been held in Strachur, Scotland .\nCompetitors came from all over the world to take part in the tournament ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain cemented his front-runner status Tuesday, piling up big wins coast-to-coast, according to CNN projections. Democratic voters remain evenly split over which of their candidates they would rather see get the nomination. Sen. Barack Obama won more states Tuesday, but Sen. Hillary Clinton won states with higher delegate counts. McCain capped the night by taking California and its 170 delegates. After having been nearly written off last summer, the Arizona senator finally felt comfortable enough to call himself the front-runner. \"Tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination of president of the United States. And I don't really mind it one bit,\" he said as results came in Tuesday. Watch McCain claim front-runner status \u00bb . On the Democratic side, Clinton took California, according to CNN projections. While most Republican contests are winner-take-all, most Democratic contests are awarded proportionally based on the number of congressional districts won. Clinton took the larger share of California's 370 Democratic delegates. More about delegates . \"We know what we need is someone ready on day one to solve our problems and seize those opportunities,\" Clinton said Tuesday. \"Because when the bright lights are off and the cameras are gone, who can you count on to listen to you, to stand up for you, to deliver solutions for you?\" Watch Clinton speak to her supporters \u00bb . McCain also won Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Delaware and Arizona, his home state, according to CNN projections. Full February 5 results . McCain has gathered 514 delegates so far in his presidential campaign, including Tuesday night's projections. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 177 delegates, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 122. What do the results mean? \u00bb . In Georgia, Huckabee edged out McCain, who held a slim margin over Romney. Romney got wins in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana and Utah. See who won the popular vote in each state \u00bb . \"One thing that's clear -- this campaign's going on,\" Romney said. \"I think there's some people who thought that it was all going to be done tonight, but it's not all done tonight. We're going to keep on battling.\" Watch Romney vow to fight \u00bb . In addition to Georgia, Huckabee picked up Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia. Watch what Huckabee says about Tuesday's results \u00bb . Going into Super Tuesday, the Republican race had largely been viewed as a fight between McCain and Romney. \"Over the past few days, a lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race. Well, you know what? It is, and we're in it,\" Huckabee said as the results came in. In all, 1,020 Republican delegates were up for grabs Tuesday. To clinch the nomination, a candidate must win 1,191 delegates. Tuesday's contests did not produce a front-runner on the Democratic side. \"Our time has come, our movement is real and change is coming to America,\" Obama said Tuesday. \"We are more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and always will be the United States of America.\" Watch Obama rally his supporters \u00bb . The biggest prizes that Obama won were his home state of Illinois and Georgia, and a larger share of the 288 delegates in those states. Obama also won Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah. Between those states, he would be awarded the larger share of 278 delegates. Watch what the early results mean \u00bb . Clinton was also projected to win her home state of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and the larger share of the 329 delegates at stake in those states. Clinton also won Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and the larger share of the 235 delegates in those states. Republican conservative voters appear to be evenly split between Romney and Huckabee, according to preliminary exit polls of Super Tuesday voters. Of those who voted for Huckabee or Romney, about 80 percent identified themselves as conservative, according to the polls. Watch why voters picked their candidates \u00bb . Only 49 percent of McCain's voters said they were conservative, a sign that the Arizona senator's efforts during the past week to placate conservative voters have not paid off. On the Democratic side, those who made up their mind in the past three days appear to be torn between Obama and Clinton. According to the exit polls, Obama and Clinton are essentially splitting those voters, with 47 percent going for Obama and 46 percent for Clinton. Watch how CNN analysts view the GOP race \u00bb . On the Republican side, front-runners McCain and Romney have engaged in bitter exchanges over their conservative records in recent weeks. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Bill Schneider contributed to this report.","highlights":"McCain solidifies front-runner status .\nClinton takes delegate-rich states .\nHuckabee, Romney vow to keep fighting .\nObama winning more states, but Clinton winning states with more delegates ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In 1981, Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni was preparing to leave Egypt for a clinical attachment in England when her father had a heart attack. He fell in the street, and was taken to a public hospital, where Dr Kamal-Yanni kept vigil at his bedside until he regained his strength. A doctor at a hospital in India where health indicators have showed no significant improvement in seven years. During his stay in the hospital, she was appalled at the low level of healthcare available to him. \"It was awful. There was no medicine,\" she told CNN. As a doctor, Kamal-Yanni was able to watch over her father's progress. Her professional opinion on his recovery was striking. \"My father survived that heart attack for two reasons,\" she said. \"One, because of God's will, and two, because he had a strong will. It was nothing to do with the health service.\" The following year, Kamal-Yanni came to England to do a clinical attachment. She found herself deeply affected by the stark contrast between the healthcare available in Britain, on the publicly funded National Health Service, and the healthcare available at home in Egypt. She found herself slipping into depression. \"I couldn't talk to the patients; I couldn't talk to the doctors. I just couldn't cope with it,\" she revealed to CNN. \"I couldn't understand why every time I saw a monitor next to a patient I was so upset.\" It dawned on her that the gulf in care was troubling her. \"I kept thinking why on earth my dad didn't have that. The only reason was that he happened to be born in Egypt and these people had the luck to be born [in England].\" Kamal-Yanni is now a senior health & HIV policy advisor at third-world charity Oxfam. Her first-hand experience of the divide between the healthcare available in richer countries, and that on offer in poorer ones, has given her the impetus to try and narrow the gap. While Western countries are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge, discovering the potential of nanotechnology and other high-tech solutions to the developed world's diseases, like diabetes, cancer and obesity, poor countries are struggling to combat health problems such as HIV, malaria and TB. Lack of infrastructure . And it's not as simple as shipping medicines and supplies in bulk quantities. Oxfam's \"Paying for People\" report, published in February this year, said that poor countries are suffering because they lack the infrastructure of a health service. The WHO's 2006 \"World Health Report\" also indicates that 4.25 million doctors, nurses and health workers are needed across 57 countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has 600,000 health workers: one million more are required. Without these key workers, it is questionable whether healthcare in poor countries can be improved. Nicky Wimble, a spokesperson for Oxfam, told CNN, \"There is money coming in for drugs now, but there's no commitment to long-term aid.\" Governments are unable to give healthcare workers with job security and doctors and nurses, where they do exist, are largely poorly paid: so people choose other careers. \"They're either becoming taxi drivers, or working for private businesses,\" Wimble says. This double brain-drain (one internal, one external as those who do train are tempted away by higher salaries and brighter futures in developed countries) means that even if drugs make it to poorer areas, there can be no one to administer them. \"Drugs are sitting in cupboards,\" Wimble told CNN. \"Or they're available in cities but people in rural areas don't have the bus fares to get to them.\" Vulnerable to disease . Dr Kamal-Yanni backs this up. She told CNN, \"There is no public investment in health systems so people have to pay for it. If you're poor you can't buy your healthcare and if you're a woman who happens to be poor you might as well forget it.\" And in countries where no healthcare system exists, people are extremely vulnerable to diseases, which can spread rampantly and unchecked through communities. Dr Kamal-Yanni paints a worrying picture. \"Particularly in Africa, they're not equipped to face anything -- not HIV, let alone avian flu. If something like avian flu hit Africa with no health system, no health workers and no money, it would spread. We can't contain it in Africa. The world would wake up and realize that, but in the meantime, it would have wiped out goodness knows how many millions of people.\" It's not just in Africa. HIV is a known crisis there, but it is anticipated that more people will be infected in India than anywhere else, as the disease spreads quickly through its billion-strong population. Increasingly, countries like these are having to deal with a boom in incommunicable diseases, like diabetes and cancer. Chronic diseases like diabetes have the additional problem that they require long-term care, and therefore long-term funding. Dr Kamal-Yanni explained the difficulties of that situation. \"You buy the pills today, but maybe tomorrow you don't have enough money so you're never cured and develop complications.\" What lies ahead? Dr Kamal-Yanni sees three possible outcomes for health in poor countries. The first, as she explained, is bleak. She told CNN, \"If things continue as they are, with rising infection, increasing resistance to drugs, HIV and malaria run unchecked, chronic and non-communicable diseases are ignored and no money is spent on a health system, then the gap will just increase and the situation will get worse and worse.\" Dr Kamal-Yanni is hopeful, however, that the situation will improve somewhat. She explained a second scenario, the one she feels is most likely to happen. \"If the international community invests a little bit, things will be slightly better,\" she told CNN. \"More people with HIV will get treatment, as will people with TB and malaria. But non-communicable chronic diseases [like diabetes] will be ignored.\" But large-scale epidemics like avian flu or SARS would still remain a huge threat in this scenario, as would diseases like cancer. \"Who's going to pay for medicine for cancer, which is increasing like anything in developing countries?\" asks Dr Kamal-Yanni. \"Nobody.\" Hope for the future . But there is a third scenario, which holds out more hope for people in developing countries. Dr Kamal-Yanni says, \"If public pressure is high, southern governments, donors and the international community will decide that health is really a priority. We'll put our money where our mouth is and we'll fulfil the commitments that we've made before.\" She says that in the first instance, African countries need to be encouraged to divert 16 percent of their budget to health. (Currently, nearly a third allocate less than five percent.) \"Then they will realize that this is not enough, so they'll put in more,\" she continues. If this money were to be added to the $50 billion promised by G8, the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, in Gleneagles in 2005, it would have a huge impact on health and education, particularly in Africa. And education is the key, Dr Kamal-Yanni believes. She explained, \"You can't separate health and education because unless you educate doctors and nurses, and midwives and pharmacists, you can't run a health service.\" Working together . It's also important for donors and governments to work together to provide a cohesive service, she says. \"They really need to start coordinating their work so it's not a series of vertical programs that don't relate to each other and waste resources.\" Oxfam's Nicky Wimble agrees. She told CNN, \"Over the last 100 years, countries like France, Britain and America have developed by giving their people free education and healthcare. It's a major way to bring people out of poverty.\" Wimble cites the example of education, where the number of children not in school worldwide has fallen from around 120 million to around 80 million. \"The key is getting governments to commit to it as a part of their aid package, and monitoring the aid package so that the money is tracked to ensure that it gets to where it's intended,\" she said. \"It's working for education, and they think it'll work for healthcare too, but it needs committed investment.\" And in the meantime, people like Mohga Kamal-Yanni will continue their work to pressure governments to encourage positive change. She says, \"That's my motivation to do this work. It's not for me; it's a life thing. My dream in life is for everybody in Africa to have access to a publicly financed, publicly run healthcare service with strong regulation, quality, care and equity.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Oxfam: Lack of infrastructure is the greatest danger to health in poor countries .\nWHO: 4.25 million more doctors and nurses needed worldwide .\nPoor countries won't cope with SARS, avian flu .\nPositive policy changes have seen number of children not in school fall by a third ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year, according to U.S. military officials. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with its high mountain terrain. The troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected build-up of U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout next year. Earlier this year, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, requested at least 20,000 additional troops be sent there to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The officials could not say what units are being tapped to go because those units are now being told of their deployment and the announcement has not yet been made public. The aviation brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies around the country. There are more than 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a Dutch soldier was killed Friday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO command confirmed. The soldier died in an improvised explosive device strike, according to a news release from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. \"Our sincere condolences and sympathies are with the family and friends of this brave soldier, especially during this holiday season,\" said ISAF spokesman Capt. Mark Windsor Royal Navy. \"This soldier's death is an irreplaceable loss to all of us who fight for the peace and stability of Afghanistan. ISAF will continue to fight for the cause for which this brave soldier gave his life.\" Eighteen Dutch troops have died in the Afghan conflict, according to a CNN count of casualty figures.","highlights":"Troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade; transport helicopters to be sent .\nThey are latest to be approved for expected build-up of U.S. troops next year .\nDutch soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO confirms .\nSoldier died in an improved explosive device strike ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With moments of silence punctuated by somber music, readings of names, and tears, Americans held solemn memorial services Thursday to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. President Bush comforts a mourner Thursday at the dedication of the Pentagon's 9\/11 memorial. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned to the Pentagon to help dedicate a memorial to victims of the attack there. \"Today we renew our vows to never forget how this long struggle began and to never forget those who fell first,\" said Rumsfeld, who despite his high office helped carry the wounded from the burning building seven years ago. \"We will never forget the way this huge building shook. We will not forget our colleagues and friends who were taken from us and their families. \"And we will not forget what that deadly attack has meant for our nation.\" Watch Rumsfeld speak \u00bb . Rumsfeld donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to help build the Pentagon memorial. President Bush followed Rumsfeld at the lectern. \"On a day when buildings fell, heroes rose,\" Bush said. \"... One of the worst days in America's history saw some of the bravest acts in America's history.\" Watch Bush speak \u00bb . After the ceremony, participants moved through the memorial, finding and touching the benches honoring loved ones, colleagues and fellow citizens. Earlier, a bagpiper walked alone across the Pentagon memorial playing \"Amazing Grace.\" Watch the bagpiper's moving solo \u00bb . Seven years ago, al Qaeda terrorists used hijacked airplanes to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- the twin symbols of America's financial and military might. Another hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. iReport.com: 'I just sat in my car and cried' At the Pentagon, the ceremony dedicated a memorial to the 184 victims killed when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building's west wall. An American flag was raised smartly to the top of a flagpole, then slowly lowered to half-staff, and a band played the national anthem. Watch and listen to Thursday's ceremonies \u00bb . At the White House, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, observed a moment of silence on the South Lawn at 8:46 a.m., the moment when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower of the World Trade Center. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced a moment of silence also at 8:46 a.m. Throughout the day's ceremonies, he was also to call for moments of silence to mark the time the second plane hit the south tower, the fall of the south tower, and then the fall of the north tower. Watch an audio slide show about that day \u00bb . \"We come each year to stand alongside those who loved and lost the most, to bear witness to the day which began like any other and ended as none ever has,\" Bloomberg said. Flanked by police officers, firefighters and other officials, Bloomberg quoted what he called an Irish proverb: \"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.\" Watch Bloomberg honor the victims \u00bb . Relatives then began to read the names of the 2,751 victims at the crash site, commonly called ground zero. Moments of silence were also observed at 9:03 a.m., the moment in 2001 that the south tower of the World Trade Center was struck by United Airlines Flight 175; 9:59 a.m., when that tower fell; and 10:29 a.m., marking the collapse of the north tower. The New York Stock Exchange observed a moment of silence before its opening bell sounded. In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, spoke for less than two minutes at a ceremony to remember the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, who perished after the hijacked plane went down in a field there. Watch Americans remember 9\/11 victims \u00bb . It is believed that the passengers and crew, aware of the fate of at least some of the other hijacked planes, fought back against the men who had taken control of their aircraft, leading to its crash. The services were held at a temporary memorial near the western Pennsylvania crash site. McCain and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Barack Obama, agreed to suspend campaigning for the day. Both candidates were to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the World Trade Center site at 3:30 p.m.","highlights":"NEW: Former defense secretary donated thousands for memorial .\n'On a day when buildings fell, heroes rose,' president says .\nDay 'began like any other and ended as none ever has,' New York mayor says .\nWatch 9\/11 memorials in New York and Washington on CNN.com Live ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From the time she was an 11-year-old, blue-eyed, freckle-faced blonde until she was a 29-year-old woman with two children, Jaycee Dugard was kept locked away in a backyard compound of sheds and tarps by a couple who police say abducted her. Jaycee Dugard was locked in a shed tucked under a blue tarp in her alleged captor's backyard. She was more than 160 miles from home, and her family had no idea where she was. Nobody else knew she was there except the couple who snatched her off the street in front of her house in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991, and took her straight to the soundproof shed, police said. Dugard's pocket of Phillip and Nancy Garrido's backyard in Antioch, California, was so overgrown no one even knew it existed. The details about Dugard's time in captivity emerged Thursday after one of Northern California's most enduring mysteries was solved and the Garridos were arrested and accused of her kidnapping. Anyone who came across the couple's backyard, littered with garbage cans and a dishwasher, would assume that it ended at a 6-foot fence. Watch aerial images of the backyard compound \u00bb . \"You could walk through the backyard and never know there was another set of living circumstances,\" said Fred Kollar, undersheriff of El Dorado County. \"There was nothing that would cause you to question it. You can't see it from either adjoining property. It was presumably well arranged.\" But tucked away beyond the tangle of bushes, high grass and trees was a blue tarp that concealed the only world Dugard had known since her abduction. Kollar said the property had \"a hidden backyard within a backyard.\" It included several sheds no taller than 6 feet, two tents and several outbuildings, \"where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives.\" It also held a vehicle that matched the description of the car used in Dugard's kidnapping, Kollar said. The \"secondary\" backyard was inside the first and was \"screened from view.\" One of the sheds was soundproof, he said. In it were sheds and tarps, a makeshift bathroom and shower, along with electricity supplied by extension cords. Kollar compared the primitive conditions to camping. Dugard lived for several years there by herself. The sheds were locked from the outside. She grew up and had her captor's children there, and raised them there. \"None of them have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor,\" Kollar said. \"They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will, at the rear of the house,\" he said. \"They were born there.\" The children, both girls, are now 15 and 11. \"They are all in good health,\" Kollar said in response to a question about how Dugard and her children are doing. \"But living in a backyard for the last 18 years does take its toll.\"","highlights":"Jaycee Dugard locked in soundproof sheds in alleged captor's backyard for 18 years .\nCompound of sheds, tarps equipped with makeshift bathroom and shower .\nDugard also had two children with her captor, gave birth and raised them there .\nAuthorities: \"They were kept in complete isolation in this compound\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Dan Neumann was a 14-year-old struggling against cancer when he came across an unexpected ally in his battle. Cancer survivor Dan Neumann plays Re-Mission and is helping create the game's next edition. He was receiving treatment for leukemia at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in 2004 when he saw a flyer inviting teenage cancer patients to test a new video game. A self-described gamer, Neumann says he was immediately drawn to the posting. He signed up to try it and was won over by the game, which simulated what goes on inside the bodies of cancer patients. \"When you go through cancer treatment, chemotherapy becomes something you dread,\" Neumann, now 19, recalled. \"But with the game you're actively playing something and shooting cells.\" That game eventually became Re-Mission, a video game that's helping teenagers around the world in their fight against cancer. Since its release in 2006, more than 145,000 free copies have been distributed, and now a new version of the game is in the works. See what it's like to play the game \u00bb . Pamela Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, came up with the idea for the game. A former lab technician and avid video game player, she thought kids could learn a lot by experiencing the treatment process in a vivid way. That led her to launch HopeLab, a non-profit that took Re-Mission from the drawing board to an actual product. The organization, which focuses on using technology to create positive health outcomes in kids, was recently recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama for its innovative approach to tackling health challenges. Players control a tiny robot who travels through the human body to destroy harmful cancer cells. Along the way, she breaks down complex medical terminology and explains what's going on when the body undergoes treatment like chemotherapy. By making cancer a visible foe, Re-Mission gives kids a different mental view of who their enemy is, said Dr. Steve Cole, vice president of research at HopeLab. That's something that teenagers around the world can benefit from. Video games like Re-Mission transcend national boundaries and cultures, he told CNN. \"Everybody wants to beat death.\" Re-Mission has been distributed to 81 countries, and patients anywhere in the world can download it for free online. According to Cole, providing an opportunity to experience the positive emotions that come from treatment can change the behavior of young patients and can make a real difference in their health. A study he conducted that was published in 2008 showed that patients who played Re-Mission took their medication more consistently and learned more about their disease than those who didn't. \"What this game is really built to do is help teenagers be better participants in their own medical care enterprise,\" said Cole. \"It gives them a real opportunity to affect their own health outcomes.\" Neumann says when he was in the hospital, doctors walked him through pamphlets describing the chemotherapy process. But it was the game that ultimately made him feel better about his treatment. \"There's a lot of complex medical terminology, which is hard to digest at that age,\" he said. \"Re-Mission encourages you to learn that your chemotherapy is doing something.\" Now in remission, Neumann is helping HopeLab develop the next edition of the game. In the early stages of development, the new product is expected to be released in 2012 at the earliest. He's been providing feedback on his experience as a cancer survivor and gamer to help developers understand what patients personally get out of playing Re-Mission. He wants other teenagers to experience the game, and says they shouldn't shy away even if they've never played video games before. \"Re-Mission is an excellent game for any cancer patient, regardless of whether they're a gamer,\" he said. \"It really makes you feel like you're engaging in your treatment.\"","highlights":"Re-Mission video game helps patients visualize battle against cancer .\nNon-profit organization HopeLab is planning new version for 2012 .\nCancer survivor says game helped change his attitude towards treatment .\nTeenagers around the world can benefit from game, HopeLab says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda's second-in-command called on Pakistanis to back Islamic militants in the country's tribal areas against what he called an ongoing assault by American \"crusaders\" and the Pakistani army. Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri appears in a video released on September 2, 2006. Punishment from God was promised for Muslims who did not follow the words of Ayman al-Zawahiri in a video that appeared on radical Islamist Web sites Thursday. \"The war in the tribal areas and Swat [Valley] is an inseparable part of the crusaders' assault on the Muslims the length and breadth of the Islamic world,\" al-Zawahiri said in the video, titled \"Path of Doom.\" \"This is the battle, briefly and plainly; and this is why anyone who supports the Americans and Pakistan army -- under any pretext, ploy or lie -- is in fact standing with, backing and supporting the crusaders against Islam and Muslims.\" The Pakistani military is fighting Taliban militants in the country's north, and missile attacks from suspected U.S. drones have targeted militant leaders -- one of them killing Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. Reports from the region suggest government troops have dislodged the Taliban from many areas of the North West Frontier Province, but militant attacks continue daily. In the video, Al-Zawahiri suggested that the United States has wider goals in the region. \"They want to eliminate the Mujahedeen (Islamic militants) in the tribal areas so they can seek to smother the Jihad in Afghanistan,\" he said. NATO-led forces are battling the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan as well. U.S. and British forces launched offensives in Helmand province this summer. Al-Zawahiri warned Muslims that they have a religious duty to support the jihad, or struggle, or face punishment from God. \"No people abandons Jihad without Allah giving them a general punishment,\" he said, quoting the Quran. Al-Zawahiri also prayed for the annihilation \"the Americans and Jews\" and anyone who might help them.","highlights":"Al Qaeda's second-in-command calls Pakistanis to back Islamic militants in video .\nThe Pakistani military is fighting Taliban militants in the country's north .\nVideo, in which Ayman al-Zawahiri speaks, appeared on radical Islamist Web sites ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The family behind a dramatic flight of a helium balloon that floated free appeared on a reality show that highlighted concerns about the children's safety. The Heene family appeared on two episodes of ABC's \"Wife Swap.\" Richard and Mayumi Heene and their three sons were featured on the ABC show \"Wife Swap,\" in which the mothers of two often opposite families switch places for two weeks. Mayumi Heene traded places with Karen Martel, whose husband runs a child-proofing business intended to keep children safe, according to a recap posted on Reality TV Magazine. In listing information on the Heene family, ABC's \"Wife Swap\" Web site described them this way: \"When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm.\" The description of the episode from ABC that appears on the Web site said \"[Martel] is shocked as the Heene kids jump off banisters and run wild, and appalled by Richard's attitude to women.\" \"Meanwhile at the Martels', Mayumi Heene sees safety gates everywhere and wonders how the family have fun. She asks the kids about their anxieties and confronts Jay about the climate of fear in his house.\" The Heenes reportedly allowed their children to accompany them as they tracked Hurricane Gustav. A YouTube video of the family appearing on Denver, Colorado's KMGH local newscast features two of the Heene sons briefly discussing chasing the Hurricane. \"What my kids learn from these storms and what they walk away with is the fact that these storms can be very deadly,\" Richard Heene told the KMGH reporter. According to the newscast, the family track 30 to 40 weather activities a year. The family was invited back by ABC to appear on the 100th episode of \"Wife Swap,\" where Mayumi Heene switched places with Sheree Silver, a psychic. A Los Angeles Times story documented the show by saying \"The Heene family, with its three rowdy boys, is anchored by father Richard, whose anger arrives in sudden bolts between his fringe science projects.\" \"The Silvers, who have two quirky, artistically inclined sons, revolve around the mother, Sheree, who is a psychic and who initially fails to impress Richard. 'Sheree's like a clogged drain, OK? Things aren't happening,' he barks. 'I'll bet you the heaviest thing she lifts is the fork to her mouth.' \" Mayumi Heene reportedly found it difficult on the show to adjust to Silver's household. \"It's their spouses who struggle most,\" the Los Angeles Times story said. \"Richard's wife, Mayumi, finding Sheree's 'househusband,' Sam Castiglia, to be 'a very feminine husband' and finds it tough to even tolerate the quirks of the Silver children, who are so unlike her own, seeming less like a parent than a conspirator against the alien family. So much for learning.\" A balloon that was set adrift from the Heenes' Fort Collins, Colorado, home was empty when it landed, and authorities later found one of the Heene sons -- who initially had been thought to be in the balloon -- safe on the ground. Officials said he had been hiding in the attic of the family's garage. What appears to be the three Heene boys are featured in a YouTube rap music video that seems to spoof overprotective parents.","highlights":"The Heene family of Fort Collins, Colorado, appeared on \"Wife Swap\" twice .\nOne episode had mother trading places with wife of child-proofing business owner .\nThat mother reportedly \"shocked\" by the Heene kids' behavior .\nHeene family chases storms together ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The European Union on Monday removed the People's Mujajedeen of Iran from its list of terrorist organizations. Forty-seven groups remain on the EU's list. Iranian police guard French embassy in Tehran on January 25 during protest against EU decision. Here are some of the main ones. -- Aum Shinri Kyo: Doomsday cult in Japan. Responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Toyko subway that killed 12 and wounded some 5,000. -- Real IRA: Separatists in Northern Ireland. Responsible for the Omagh bombing in 1998 that killed 28 people. -- Jemaah Islamiyah: Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Indonesia and one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world. Carried out the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 that killed more than 200 tourists, most of them Westerners. -- PKK, or Kurdish Workers' Party: Marxist group fighting for an independent state for Turkish Kurds. -- Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. -- Hamas: Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that rules Gaza. Its military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and the Israeli military. -- Tamil Tigers, or LTTE: Ethnic separatists fighting the Sri Lankan government. Responsible for fatal attacks against soldiers and civilians since conflict with the government began in 1983. -- ETA: Basque separatists in northern Spain. Blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries during a 40-year campaign. -- FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia: Marxist insurgents who have been fighting the government since the 1960s. -- CNN's Tom Boltman contributed to this list.","highlights":"PMoI, or Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, opposed Iran govt. for decades .\nEU delisted group because of an order by the European Court of Justice .\nIran has accused the European Union of acting against international law ."} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- He lies in a bed on a balloon-type mattress, to reduce pressure on his burned body. He is covered with bandages; a ventilator breathes for Michael Brewer because he can't do it for himself. He's hooked up to the marvels of modern medicine that are trying to give the 15-year-old burn victim a chance to be a kid once again. Sixty-five percent of his body is covered with second- and third-degree burns. \"People are writing horror stories ... but people just can't imagine the kind of sickness we're talking about,\" said Dr. Nicholas Namias, medical director of the University of Miami\/Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center in Miami. \"I've been to movies like everyone else, and Hollywood hasn't even thought of something like this,\" Namias said. Brewer is heavily sedated, and the ventilator does not allow him to speak. His open wounds are covered by bandages, which are changed daily. It's a four-hour process. He has not been able to speak with police since his desperate fight for life began October 12, when police say five teenage friends, including a 13-year-old, doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire. The attack occurred after Brewer reported to police that one of the youths had stolen his father's bicycle. Police say the bicycle was stolen because Brewer did not pay one of the boys $40 for a video game. According to police, witnesses said the teens called Brewer \"a snitch\" as they used a lighter to set him ablaze. Namias explained how Brewer's organs are not functioning the way they should be, but that is expected at this early stage of recovery. \"He's still on the ventilator and advanced modes of mechanical ventilation. We are breathing for him. His contribution to the breathing is trivial,\" Namias said. Namias also explained that in burn cases, words must be chosen carefully when talking about patients and their condition because so much is at risk and so much can change quickly. \"When you say he's doing OK, in this situation it means he's alive and responding to treatments,\" Namias said. \"We're still dealing with the respiratory failure. We're dealing with infection now and the need to supply the massive amount of nutrition that this person needs to survive.\" On Monday, the five teens who are accused of taking part in the attack appeared separately before judges in Broward County, Florida. State prosecutors were granted additional time to build their case. Formal charges are expected later this month. For now, all five teens are being held in custody. Four of the boys, all 15 years old, could be charged as adults. The 13-year-old also could be charged as an adult but under Florida law only if Brewer dies. Michael Brewer's parents, Valerie and Michael Brewer Sr., issued a written statement through the hospital last week. They are not granting interviews. \"The recovery process will be baby steps, but eventually he will be whole again,\" they wrote. But their son's injuries enter the realm of medicine and science that has no guarantee. \"There's no evolutionary mechanism to survive a 65 percent burn,\" Namias said. \"Surviving is a miracle of modern medicine and about the technology and the things we do. This is not like a gunshot and you come out of the [operating room], and say everything's going to be OK,\" he added. \"We never give up, and we never predict it. ... Our expectation is survival.\" Across the hospital floor in the burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital, six other people's lives also are at stake: all victims of various accidents, all with burns similar to Michael Brewer's. They, too, are trying to regain at least a part of what they used to have. \"It's understandable that people can be burned in accidents,\" Namias said. \"But this was no accident. This didn't have to happen at all.\"","highlights":"Police say teens doused Michael Brewer, 15, with rubbing alcohol and set him ablaze .\nAttack came after Brewer reported that one boy had stolen his father's bicycle .\n65 percent of Brewer's body is covered in second-, third-degree burns .\nTeen suspects appeared before judges Monday in Florida ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A high-ranking al Qaeda leader has called on China's minority Uyghurs to prepare for a holy war against the Chinese government. Security has been increased recently on the streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. \"There is no way for salvation and to lift this oppression and tyranny unless you ... seriously prepare for jihad in the name of God and carry your weapons against the ruthless brutal invader thugs,\" Abu Yahia Al-Libi said Wednesday in a video on an Islamist Web site. He delivered his message in Arabic. The Uyghurs are Muslims in western China's Xinjiang province. Some Islamists refer to the region as East Turkistan. Al-Libi's proclamation was in reaction to the violence that has recently shaken Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. There, long-simmering resentment between minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese erupted into riots and left more than 200 people dead in July. The following month, a series of stabbings -- with syringes used as weapons -- added to the unrest. \"What we saw and heard in the recent events in Turkistan was not accidental and didn't happen overnight. This is an intifada (an uprising) and a usual response to the decades of oppression, the organized cleansing and the systematic repression until the people had enough,\" Al-Libi said. \"This was not the first uprising that the oppressed Muslim people carried out, because they keep grieving and struggling to preserve their identity against the aggressors.\" Chinese officials could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Al-Libi regularly produces video messages and has, in the past, called on Pakistanis and Somalis to resist their \"apostate\" governments. He is considered one of al Qaeda's top strategists and one of its most vocal leaders in its propaganda campaign . In his latest message, Al-Libi called on Muslims worldwide to support the Uyghurs. And he vowed that China will suffer the same fate that the former Soviet Union did when it invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s -- only to be thwarted by Islamist fighters. \"To you, the state of atheism and obstinacy: You are coming to an end and you will face the same fate of the Russian bear of disintegration and division,\" he said. \"You will encounter the same defeat when your nation will fight in its own backyard the humble minority of Muslims who are stronger in faith.\" In July, a leader of an al Qaeda-linked group also denounced Chinese treatment of Uyghurs and threatened revenge. The leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party, in a video on Islamic Web sites, blamed the Chinese for \"genocide.\" The speaker urged Uyghurs to \"kill the Chinese communists where you find them, take them and besiege them and ambush them wherever you can.\" The U.S. State Department said the group has taken credit for violence in the past.","highlights":"Uyghurs are Muslims in western China's Xinjiang province .\nAbu Yahia Al-Libi's comments a reaction to recent violence in Xinjiang's capital .\nTension between Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese erupted into riots in July .\nAl-Libi considered one of al Qaeda's top strategists and most vocal leaders ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama weighed in Thursday on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, urging Israel to open Gaza border crossings and telling the Islamic fundamentalist organization to stop rocket fire into the Jewish state. President Obama called on both Israel and Hamas to make changes toward Mideast peace. He urged Israel to allow the flow of aid and commerce into the Palestinian territory. \"Our hearts go out to Palestinian civilians who are in need of immediate food, clean water and basic medical care,\" he said. The crossings should be opened with an \"appropriate monitoring,\" he added. Obama said Hamas leaders, for their part, must put an end to rocket attacks. He said he will send former Sen. George Mitchell, who was appointed Thursday as special envoy for Middle East peace, to the region as soon as possible. Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at her new office in the State Department, promising a renewed emphasis on candor and \"robust diplomacy\" as the primary means for advancing American interests around the world. America's new chief diplomat walked through the front doors of the State Department lobby shortly after 9 a.m. ET to thunderous applause from an overflow crowd of about 1,000 career diplomats and other department employees. \"I believe with all of my heart that this is a new era for America,\" Clinton told her colleagues. \"President Obama set the tone with his inaugural address. ... Robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America's future.\" Watch Clinton greet her new employees \u00bb . In remarks that could be interpreted as a rebuke of the departed Bush administration, Clinton also said that the Obama administration would not \"tolerate the divisiveness and paralysis that has undermined our ability to get things done for America.\" Clinton also called for a new sense of candor and free exchange of ideas. She urged the country's diplomatic corps to think \"outside the proverbial box.\" \"There's nothing I welcome more than a good debate and the kind of dialogue that will make us better,\" she said. Clinton later attended an intelligence briefing and a meeting with members of the Diplomatic Security Service. She also walked through various State Department offices, including the operations center. Clinton also phoned international leaders, according to acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood. She is expected to call Asian leaders later Thursday. Clinton will also visit the U.S. Agency for International Development, which she praised \"for the work they've done on behalf of development through some very difficult years.\" During her confirmation hearing, Clinton pledged to secure more resources for the State Department and USAID, which has seen a lot of its development work fall to the Pentagon during the Bush administration. Clinton is the 67th U.S. secretary of state. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama urges Israel to open Gaza border crossings .\nHillary Clinton receives intelligence briefing on first day at State .\nClinton greets employees at the State Department .\nClinton was confirmed as secretary of state Wednesday ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Police in Tibet have arrested 16 Buddhist monks and are seeking three more for their alleged involvement in one bombing and two attempted bombings, authorities in Tibet told state-run media. Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers are shown in the streets of Lhasa, Tibet, on March 14. All three cases occurred in Tibet's Mangkam county during the first half of April, according to the Tibet Autonomous Regional Department of Public Security. The suspects confessed, police said, saying they had listened to foreign radio and were following separatist propaganda from the Dalai Lama, China's Xinhua news agency reported. CNN could not confirm whether the suspects confessed. The Dalai Lama has said he does not advocate violence or a separate and independent Tibet. He has said he wants a genuine autonomy that preserves the cultural heritage of Tibet. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama and his followers for violence that erupted March 14 amid anti-Chinese demonstrations in Tibet. Some protesters advocated independence from China while others demonstrated against the growing influence of ethnic Han Chinese in Tibet and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations. The Chinese authorities cracked down on the protests, which began peacefully on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising. Widespread violence broke out across China's Tibetan region, especially in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, following a week of protests by hundreds of Buddhist monks. \"Real Buddhists should learn Buddhist scriptures by heart, love their country and their religion, abide by the law, and bring happiness to people,\" said Dainzin Chilai, vice-chairman of the China Buddhist Association and vice-chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Tibet Autonomous Region. \"They should not involve themselves in cruel killing and sabotage.\" Both groups Chilai represents are affiliated with the Chinese government. The unrest resulted in the deaths of at least 18 civilians and one police officer, according to government figures. It also injured 382 civilians and 241 police officers and led to the looting of businesses and home and the burning of shops and vehicles. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140. At the time of the unrest, roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces, demolishing military trucks and pushing back riot police, a witness told CNN, and Tibetans seemed to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.","highlights":"Arrests tied to three bombings in April, police tell Xinhua .\nChina says suspects confessed; CNN could not confirm .\nLhasa, Tibet was site of deadly unrest in March ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Hampshire's Senate has approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry, but critics and supporters of the legislation say their work isn't over. New Hampshire could become the fifth state to allow same-sex marriage if a bill becomes law. \"We were obviously disappointed,\" Kevin Smith, executive director of the conservative Cornerstone Policy Research Action group, said Thursday. \"We don't think the voters are going to forget about it.\" On the other side, members of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition, a group that has worked since 2001 for same-sex marriage, were \"absolutely thrilled,\" said Mo Baxley, its executive director. But noting that the bill is returning to the House of Representatives for consideration of changes made by the Senate, Baxley added, \"I think the work continues.\" Her organization will encourage supporters to contact their representatives ahead of the House vote, she said. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 13-11 in favor of the bill, which differs from the House-approved version in that it distinguishes between civil and religious marriage. It allows each religion to decide whether to acknowledge same-sex marriage but extends the option of civil marriage to any two individuals, said state Senate spokeswoman Anne Saunders. The House, which passed the earlier version last month by a margin of seven votes, 186-179, must approve the changed version before it can be sent to Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat who has questioned the need for the bill. After the Senate vote, Lynch released a statement saying he believes that \"the fundamental issue is about providing the same rights and protections to same-sex couples as are available to heterosexual couples. This was accomplished through the passage of the civil unions law two years ago.\" Lynch signed the state's civil unions law in May 2007. \"To achieve further real progress,\" he added, \"the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions.\" Earlier this month, the governor said he believes the word \"marriage\" should be used only to describe a marriage between a man and a woman, the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester reported. \"I think the word 'marriage' is reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman, and I think the real issues really are rights and protections for gay and lesbian couples,\" he told reporters on April 15, according to the newspaper. Smith said his organization, which was established in 2000, would \"lobby hard\" to get the governor to veto the bill. He said he expected it to pass the House. \"Look, this is a matter of holding the governor accountable,\" he said. \"He's been very public with his views on same-sex marriage in the state. ... We'll see if he was misleading the voters of New Hampshire or if he'll stand by his word and actually veto it.\" Were the bill to become law, New Hampshire would become the fifth state allowing same-sex marriage, joining Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts and Iowa. Only Vermont has established the practice legislatively. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Same-sex marriage bill returns to New Hampshire House after Senate approval .\nCritic of the bill: \"We don't think the voters are going to forget about it\"\nIf bill passes the House, it will be sent to the governor for approval or veto .\nGov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has questioned the need for the bill ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Valerie Jarrett does not like to talk about herself. I know this because we've sat down on numerous occasions for interviews, going back to the early days of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. But this one was perhaps the most challenging because the focus was on her. She is fiercely loyal to Obama, as one of his closest friends. But she also advises him as president, with the title of Senior Adviser and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison. The ultimate insider does not spill the beans. But doing a series on the power players inside the White House would not be complete without looking at Jarrett's role. She has called her relationship with the president a \"mind meld.\" \"We're good friends who have known each other for a long time,\" Jarrett says. \"Eighteen years, you get a pretty good sense of him.\" Her first sense of him came in 1991 when Obama was a young law professor in Chicago, Illinois. Jarrett was interviewing his fianc\u00e9e, the future first lady, Michelle Robinson, for a job in Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's office. The protective partner, Obama, was making sure Jarrett was on the up and up. Jarrett first explained the scene when I interviewed her in May 2008. \"They sat next to each other and when she was speaking he would just look at her with this adoring look,\"Jarrett said with a laugh, \"but he was really tough on me in the nicest possible way.\" The three became fast friends. Now Obama says he runs every important decision by Jarrett, trusts her completely and considers her family. When I bring this to her attention she accepts her role humbly. \"Well, I hope he would trust me the way any close friend does. He knows I have his best interest at heart and that I understand, because I'm part of the administration, the myriad of challenges he faces,\" Jarrett says. \"So I hope he views me a sounding board, someone who's going to be honest, direct and candid with him at all times.\" She laughs when I suggest perhaps she is his consigliere. \"You can tell I'm uncomfortable with this,\" she says when I try to get her to focus more on her role. She does not like to be singled out from the rest of the White House team. Instead she paints a picture of what it would be like if I were in an Oval Office meeting with the president. \"When everyone's done talking, if there've been a couple of people who've been quiet, he'll say, 'Well, Suzanne, what do you think of this issue?' \" Jarrett says. She describes his style in running the meetings as \"accommodating.\" \"He reads people very well. He's extraordinarily perceptive. He can tell from the body language if someone is uncomfortable with something,\" Jarrett says. But she can also read the president's body language when he's heard enough talk. \"He's not moody, but you can tell when he's ready for a conversation to end,\" Jarrett says. \"He enjoys making sure there is robust debate, but when he's finished with debate he's finished. He's ready to move on. So I can detect when enough is enough, let's bring in the next issue.\" Jarrett says newcomers to the administration have pulled her aside to get her take on how things were going. \"Particularly early on, people who didn't know the president as well as I did would come to me after a meeting and say 'What did he really mean? I know he said this, but what is he really thinking?' and I took such delight in being able to say he meant exactly what he said. That's who he is.\" It's the intangibles that Jarrett sometimes brings to the table. \"People are always looking for the hidden intent, the body language, and he is about as straight a shooter as you're going to ever come across. So I think part of what I do is go around and give people some comfort to really trust what he said. He meant exactly what he said. You can take him at face value.\" Jarrett says the president does not make deals after his meetings are done. People don't trail him through the back door trying to change his mind. \"That's just not the way he operates,\" Jarrett says. \"He likes to hear from everybody at the same time. Then he makes a decision.\" Jarrett's job includes acting as a liaison to the business community and conducting outreach to African-American groups. But it's her role as confidante to the president that makes her the ultimate insider. Jarrett sits in on Obama's daily briefings in the morning that deal with national security and the economy. She also attends policy meetings regarding the president's agenda on health care, energy and education. She facilitates and hosts small groups of CEOs to have lunch with Obama. And she heads the Office of Public Engagement as the president's contact with outside groups. Jarrett says she also spends \"a good deal of time\" with Michelle Obama both personally and professionally. Part of her portfolio is working closely with the first lady's team, \"making sure there's seamless interaction between the East and West Wings.\" Jarrett occupies the office previously used by Karl Rove and former first lady Hillary Clinton. She is often the only woman in the room in briefings with the president. But she dismisses talk of tension with \"the boys,\" as some of the male power players are referred to in the White House. \"We really do pull together as a team,\" Jarrett says. While Jarrett's ability to freelance as the president's senior adviser has rankled some, Jarrett says being inside the circle of power is a \"warm\" and \"inclusive\" environment. As for Obama's all-male pickup basketball games, Jarrett says that's not where the real power resides. \"I think what's really important is who does the president surround himself with and give substantial responsibilities to.\" Jarrett's got plenty of responsibility. Her challenge is separating her friendship with the president from her job. Often she takes her cues from where she stands. \"If we're in the Oval Office, I call him \"Mr. President.\" It's very formal. I think it's appropriate. It's not just deferential to him but to the office,\" Jarrett says. \"I really try to compartmentalize our friendship and what my role is outside the office, and my role as senior adviser.\" When I ask her if that's a difficult thing to do, requiring her to flip a switch, she says \"no.\" She says when she's in the Oval Office, they're all about business, outside, \"everything but business.\" \"The one thing I don't do is try to mix the two. I don't try to be his friend when we're having a business conversation and I try not to burden him with office issues when trying to have downtime,\" Jarrett says. When they're hanging out as friends, it's often indulging in their favorite pastime. \"We like to eat,\" Jarrett says with a hearty laugh. \"He's a healthy eater. I'm not. We have a lot of wonderful conversations around the dinner table -- something we've always enjoyed.\" But now that dinner table is in the White House. The movies they enjoy watching, they now take in at the White House movie theater. But despite that, Jarrett insists her longtime friend is the same. She says what she finds \"so appealing\" is he's still \"grounded.\" \"He has a very good sense of self, he's steady. His temperament is very predictable,\" she says. A year after Obama captured the White House, Jarrett is still in awe. \"Not a day goes by I don't pinch myself and treasure this experience and opportunity to serve this president who also happens to be my friend.\"","highlights":"Jarrett has known Barack and Michelle Obama for 18 years .\nShe's now a senior adviser in the Obama White House .\nObama says he runs every important decision by Jarrett .\nShe says she tries to keep business role, friendship separate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres said he had an amicable phone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a day after Erdogan stormed offstage during an angry exchange with Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves the stage Thursday, as Israeli President Shimon Peres sits, left. Peres said he and Erdogan did not take the spat personally. \"I called him up and said, yes, it's nothing against you, nothing against Turkey. We consider you as a friend,\" Peres said. He said Erdogan reciprocated. Although there was no mention of an apology, Peres said there was a polite exchange between the two leaders. \"I didn't take it personally. I didn't go for a personal fight. I answered unfounded accusations. It was my duty. And they didn't change my mind,\" he said. Watch Shimon Peres on the Gaza conflict \u00bb . Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation, has long been the Jewish state's closest military and economic partner in the region, and Turkey recently mediated indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria. But many Turks have been incensed with Israel over its three-week military operation that ended there earlier this month. And in Davos, Erdogan was angered after Peres said that Israel is committed to peace and blamed Hamas for the fighting in Gaza, where Israel staged a three-week military operation that ended earlier this month. When Erdogan began responding, a moderator cut him off, saying the debate had run over its allotted time. Erdogan patted the moderator on the arm until he was granted one more minute to respond. Watch commentary on Erdogan's angry exchange \u00bb . \"I know the reason behind raising your voice is because of the guilty psychology,\" he said to Peres. \"My voice will not be that loud. You must know that. When it comes to killing -- you know killing very well. I know how you hit, kill children on the beaches.\" He then left the stage, complaining that Peres was receiving preferential treatment. \"From now on, Davos is finished for me,\" Erdogan said. \"I will not come back. You won't let people talk. You gave him 25 minutes, but you gave me 12 minutes. This is not right.\" Erdogan had described the military campaign against Hamas fighters in Gaza as \"barbaric\" and accused Israel of using excessive force. He said: \"The Palestinian Territories are like an open-air prison, isolated from the world. I have always been a leader who said anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity. But so is anti-Islamism.\" Peres had said Hamas was responsible for the \"tragedy,\" accusing the Islamist militants of creating a \"dangerous dictatorship.\" \"Israel left Gaza completely -- no occupation,\" Peres said. \"I want to understand why they throw rockets at us.\" On Friday, after his outburst, Erdogan returned home to a hero's welcome. Thousands of people lined up at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, cheering and waving signs. A large banner read, \"You Will Never Walk Alone,\" and smaller signs bore phrases including \"Davos Conqueror.\" People also were seen waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and throwing flowers on the road leading to Erdogan's home. Despite the glowing response at the airport, there has been some criticism in the Turkish media of Erdogan's exchange with the Israeli president. CNN Turk's Deniz Bayramoglu said the issue was still \"hot\" with Erdogan's secularist political opponents speaking out against the prime minister. \"They also say that Israel's behavior in Gaza is unacceptable but they are very critical of Prime Minister Erdogan's behavior,\" Bayramoglu said. \"Some are saying they are really proud of Prime Minister Erdogan and some are saying it is a diplomatic scandal.\" Erdogan explained whom he was directing his anger at during a news conference at the airport. \"My words were only to the Israeli government, not the Israeli people,\" he said. CNN's Simon Hooper and Talia Kayali contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkish Prime Minister angered during debate on Gaza at World Economic Forum .\nRecep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel's Gaza campaign \"barbaric,\" stormed off stage .\nIsraeli president Shimon Peres said he and Erdogan did not take spat personally .\nErdogan returned home to a hero's welcome in Istanbul ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Richard M. Nixon and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici, in 1971 discussed ways their countries could work together to overthrow the socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, according to a newly declassified document. President Richard M. Nixon, right, and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici. During a meeting of the two leaders at the White House on December 9 of that year, Medici was discussing the possibility of a coup by the Chilean military with assistance from Brazilian military officers when Nixon said that it was \"very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field,\" according to the document. Nixon offered money or other discreet aid for the effort if it could be made available, the document shows. \"We must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros, and try where possible to reverse these trends,\" Nixon said. Medici said he was \"happy to see that the Brazilian and American positions and views\" were so close. The declassified document, a previously top secret memorandum for Nixon's file written by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, was published by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute in Washington. The memorandum, along with other documents, were declassified in July as part of the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States series. \"This is an explosive document that details collusion between the colossus of the North [the United States] and the colossus of the South [Brazil],\" said Peter Kornbluh, the director of a Chile and Brazil Documentation Project for the National Security Archive. He called it \"a smoking gun of confirmation of Brazil's effort to engage in operations to overthrow the government of Chile and a discussion of collusion with the United States.\" The two leaders also discussed the creation of a back channel for direct communication outside normal diplomatic protocols, according to the document. Each designated personal aides to carry handwritten communications back and forth to keep discussions out of official records. \"I think there is precedent, but we've never seen it detailed in a document this way, in which two presidents set up the utmost secret of back-channel communications so they can discuss the most sensitive aspects of collusion and collaboration in efforts to challenge the left in Latin America and change the futures of select Latin American governments,\" Kornbluh said. He added that \"there's a significant paper trail of evidence of what that collusion was that remains secret, and we're going to have to press Brazil and Washington to recover those documents.\" Despite the leaders' effort to keep the subject of their talks secret, word got out. A declassified CIA memorandum written some time after the Nixon-Medici meeting in Washington said that word of the secret talks between the two leaders about shaping Brazilian foreign policy filtered down to Brazilian military officers by a \"Cabinet leak.\" Gen. Vicente Dale Coutinho, commander of Brazil's 4th Army, reacted to this by saying that the United States obviously wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work,\" it said. A declassified CIA national intelligence estimate written in 1972 concluded, \"Brazil will be playing a bigger role in hemispheric affairs and seeking to fill whatever vacuum the U.S. leaves behind. It is unlikely that Brazil will intervene openly in its neighbors' internal affairs, but the regime will not be above using the threat of intervention or tools of diplomacy and covert action to oppose leftist regimes, to keep friendly governments in office, or to help place them there.\" The newly published documents do not offer any conclusive proof of Brazilian involvement in the Chilean coup of 1973, which the Nixon administration supported. Kornbluh said that with the passage of time and change in governments in all of the countries involved, the real story of diplomatic and covert collusion between the United States and Brazil in Chile can finally be told. The National Security Archive will push for the declassification and publication of more top-secret documents from the Nixon library, he said, and will approach Brazilian government officials to ask for their cooperation in getting documents released in Washington and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Kornbluh said he also hopes that surviving Chilean government and military officers from the era who knew of any arrangements with the Brazilian government will come forward and tell their stories. \"This is history for history's sake, but history will not find closure until it's fully aired,\" he said.","highlights":"Document shows Richard M. Nixon, Emilio Medici had like-minded goals .\nIt says two leaders met at White House, Nixon offered money or other discreet aid .\nCIA memo says Brazilian general thought U.S. wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work\"\nMemo, other documents were declassified in July of this year as part of project ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After Denise Honeycutt sashayed down the catwalk modeling a sleek sleeveless black dress with a blue lace jacket, she felt so good she bought the outfit. A model walks the runway at the Arlington United Methodist Church fashion show in an outfit from Goodwill. \"I got those two pieces and a skirt for $20,\" she said. \"How's that for a deal?\" Such bargains may not be haute couture, but during a recession they are a thrifty shopper's dream. As budgets tighten during the economic crunch, buying used clothing is no longer just for fans of vintage wear. Many are discovering the hidden treasures in consignment shops, as well as thrift stores and other places once thought to be only for the destitute. That's a message that Brendan Hurley, senior vice president of Marketing and Communications for Goodwill of Greater Washington, has been working hard to get out. Goodwill of Greater Washington provided the fashions Honeycutt modeled for the show at the Arlington United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia, and has been actively campaigning to spread the word that Goodwill fashion is contemporary and hot. \"Most people have a misunderstanding of Goodwill's mission and they believe that our mission is to sell inexpensive merchandise to the poor,\" Hurley said. \"In fact, Goodwill's mission is to provide job training and employment services to people with disadvantages and disabilities. We just happen to fund that mission through the resale of donated items at our retail stores.\" To change the negative perception, Hurley said that four years ago they started a campaign to make the stores more appealing as a source of inexpensive fashions by holding virtual and live fashion shows. See one of Goodwill's fashion shows \u00bb . Hurley said things really took off after they launched a viral marketing campaign and the very successful DCGoodWillFashions blog. Em Hall is the retail marketing manager who blogs as the DC Goodwill Fashionista in a gig that has become so high-profile that she was invited to blog this year from Fashion Week in New York. About once a month on average, Hall and her team put together \"travel and trunk shows\" where they pull merchandise from their nine stores, put them on rolling racks and take them to events for attendees to shop. People respond to the great prices and selection as well as the opportunity to recycle by buying someone's gently used clothing, Hall said. iReport.com: Tell us about your thrift fashions . \"The response has been tremendous,\" Hall said. \"We know that finding that treasure at Goodwill, finding that vintage piece, really resonates with people.\" Across the country, Goodwill stores have launched several creative ideas to attract divas (or divos) who may have more style than funds. Goodwill Industries of Michiana Inc. of South Bend, Indiana, has \"Boutique Days,\" where they work with local fashion reporter and consultant Kathy Friend to raise awareness that Goodwill can be an excellent resource for brand name and designer clothing. Those who donate at least 20 clothing items receive an opportunity for a private consultation with Friend at a reduced rate. \"On a trip to Goodwill I've found Chanel handbags still in the tissue paper and in Saks Fifth Avenue bags,\" said Friend, who as part of her consultation teaches clients everything from how to spot signs of wear to how they can get pieces altered. \"I was like, are you kidding me?\" See examples of fashionable outfits from Goodwill \u00bb . The Goodwill\/Easter Seals program in Minnesota held a \"Second Runway\" fashion show in February where 30 volunteer fashion designers took existing clothes from surrounding Goodwill stores and turned them into hip new outfits. The event attracted more than 500 attendees. \"We were given $50 and we could create up to three looks out of things we found at the Goodwill,\" said designer Kristina Bell, who whipped up a cute little dress out of recycled T-shirts. \"I've always been a thrifter, but now it's a really good way to save money.\" Someone else's hard times can be a fashionista's gain. Denise McShane owns McShane's Exchange, whose two locations in the Chicago, Illinois, neighborhood of Lincoln Park have seen an uptick in those unloading their Prada and St. John. \"Business has really boomed,\" McShane said. \"The bad news is that we are in a recession, but I absolutely have had a surge in consigners.\" McShane said she offers those who still have a cash stash a bit of retail therapy during hard times. They can get great buys at a reduced rate. Such shops, known in the industry as resale stores, have long attracted quality merchandise, said Barbara Nell, owner of The Daisy Shop on Oak in Chicago. Nell said women are bringing in only the best for resale. \"Women seem to be cleaning their closets of their most luxurious items,\" said Nell. \"It's not just the bread and butter or staples of their wardrobe anymore.\" iReporter Elizabeth McElherne scored a $25 mink coat in August at a shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Check out Elizabeth's iReport on her find . \"If you can't buy something new, you might as well recycle and buy someone else's stuff,\" McElherne said. \"I saw that coat and I said 'If it's less than $100 I have to get it.' \" Nicole Mladic is the \"babe\" behind the \"Budgeting Babe\" blog for \"young, working women who want to spend like Carrie in a Jimmy Choo store but have a budget closer to Roseanne.\" Mladic said she encourages her readers to not only shop thrift, but also to be generous in their giving. \"I make sure to thin out my wardrobe every so often,\" she said. \"Any pieces that I am not wearing, I donate.\" That type of generosity is much appreciated, especially in the current economy. Melissa Temme, a national spokeswoman for the Salvation Army, said that while the need for low-cost clothing is increasing, donations for such clothing have remained consistent and that could spell trouble. \"It means that down the road we may not be able to stock our shelves,\" Temme said. \"In the long term, that's a concern.\" Katherine Ransom, communications manager for Goodwill of Orange County, California, said that as more people turn to thrift fashions to help stretch their dollars, they are discovering the clothing is a lot more current than they might have imagined. Ransom said even Hollywood types are getting in on the act, as wardrobe consultants for television shows and movies are also perusing the racks for good buys. A recently launched coupon campaign is bringing in even more shoppers, she said. \"People are saying 'I've never done this before, but now is a good time to start,' \" said Ransom, whose organization launched shopgoodwill.com 10 years ago. It now includes merchandise from 77 Goodwill organizations around the country. \"They are taking advantage of the quality merchandise with really deep discounts.\"","highlights":"Buying used clothing gains popularity during a recession .\nConsignment and thrift stores seeing increased business .\nGoodwill and Salvation Army increasing visibility as fashion hot spots .\nShop owner: \"Women cleaning their closets of their most luxurious items\""} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in January, will star in a reality television series about her family, a TV executive said. Nadya Suleman will star in a \"quasi-reality TV series,\" says a TV executive. The Eyeworks executive, who asked not to be named, confirmed a Us magazine report that quoted Suleman's lawyer, Jeff Czech, saying a deal has been reached after months of negotiations. The \"quasi-reality TV series\" would be \"an arrangement whereby several events in the children's lives would be filmed in a documentary series,\" Czech told Us. Eyeworks' British division will produce the show, the Eyeworks executive said. \"There is a story to be told\" about the family, he said. \"They might be several shows aired during a year. There are all kinds of possibilities. It really depends on what the networks want,\" Czech was quoted as saying. Though he said the show has not been named, Suleman has sought to trademark her media nickname -- Octomom -- for a TV show and a line of diapers. Suleman has six other children. All 14 were conceived through in-vitro fertilization.","highlights":"Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets in January and had 6 children already .\nSuleman will star in a TV show, produced by Eyeworks' British division .\nThe \"quasi-reality TV series\" would film the lives of her children in documentary style ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The economic downturn may take its toll at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, which opens Wednesday night. But as always, the show will go on. Eli Roth and Brad Pitt are men on a mission in Quentin Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds.\" Studios are cutting back on parties and all the glitz that goes with them, according to news reports. Moreover, there will be fewer people around to cover Cannes, as news organizations around the world trim costs. (Several, in fact, have tightened up by eliminating their movie reviewers.) Nevertheless, those who attend may see a bumper crop of good and intriguing films, Variety's Jay Weissberg told Reuters. \"We've all been hoping Cannes would pull something out of the bag to make us feel good again. On paper, they have.\" Leah Rozen, film critic for People magazine, said there are several promising contenders for the Palme d'Or, Cannes' top prize, as well as a number of notable movies premiering out of competition. \"What Cannes really is, is an international festival, and you really see world cinema,\" she said. \"This year, there are 52 films that are going to be represented, of which 20 are in competition.\" See Rozen talk about some of this year's promising works \u00bb . Two of the films in competition are American: Quentin Tarantino's World War II movie, \"Inglourious Basterds,\" and Ang Lee's \"Taking Woodstock,\" a tale about the 1969 music festival. Tarantino told The New York Times that he's been hoping to do a war movie for years. \"You've got to make a movie about something, and I'm a film guy, so I think in terms of genres,\" he said. However, the maker of \"Pulp Fiction\" and \"Jackie Brown\" added, that doesn't mean what he ends up with resembles what he started with: \"It's simply the spark that starts the fire.\" \"Inglourious Basterds\" was inspired by a 1978 Italian film that starred Bo Svenson (\"Walking Tall, Part 2\") and football player-turned-actor Fred Williamson (\"Black Caesar\"). Tarantino's film, which he characterized to the Times as \"not a remake,\" stars Brad Pitt and Mike Myers. Cannes has been good to Tarantino; he won the Palme d'Or for \"Pulp Fiction\" 15 years ago. Buzz has been high on \"Basterds\" since Tarantino announced the project several years ago. \"Taking Woodstock,\" the new film by \"Brokeback Mountain\" director Lee, is based on the book by Elliot Tiber, whose hotelier parents owned a musical festival permit in Bethel, New York, where Woodstock was held. The cast includes Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur, on whose farm the festival was finally held. Other films in competition include Lars von Trier's \"Antichrist,\" Jane Campion's \"Bright Star\" and Pedro Almodovar's \"Broken Embraces.\" Gallery: Some of Cannes' recent winners \u00bb . But this year's Cannes festival is attracting plenty of attention for its out-of-competition films as well. The festival is opening with \"Up,\" the latest animated work from Pixar. \"That sort of breaks convention to open with what is, basically, a fancy cartoon,\" Rozen said. Also at Cannes will be Heath Ledger's last film, \"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.\" The Oscar-winning \"Dark Knight\" actor died during the making of the Terry Gilliam film; Gilliam managed to complete it by doing some rewriting and casting other actors -- including Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp -- to play Ledger's part. Despite the interest in seeing Ledger, the film is still struggling to find a buyer, though Entertainment Weekly recently reported that a Los Angeles screening went over well. Cannes, which also functions as a huge film marketplace, may widen the net in attracting distributors. But much of the fun from Cannes comes from the films that emerge from nowhere. Recent winners of the Palme d'Or include 2000's \"Dancer in the Dark,\" which established singer Bjork as an actress, and \"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,\" a Romanian film that ended up topping many critics' lists in 2007. \"One thing that always surprises me is that some of the films you have the lowest expectations for turn out to be terrific, and sometimes the bigger films turn out to be disappointments,\" Rozen said.","highlights":"Quentin Tarantino's new film, \"Inglourious Basterds,\" playing Cannes .\nHeath Ledger's last film, \"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,\" also to be shown .\nPixar's \"Up\" to open famed French festival, which begins Wednesday ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Volunteering with local law enforcement, Shaquille O'Neal has learned from his peers that domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous for police officers. NBA star Shaquille O'Neal praises Karen Earl for her efforts on behalf of domestic abuse victims. \"[It's] a very disturbing thing,\" said the NBA star, who has dealt mainly with children's cases. \"I don't really think a lot of women know what to do.\" That's where Karen Earl comes in. As executive director of the Jenesse Center, the oldest domestic violence intervention program in south central Los Angeles, California, Earl is a \"tireless and fearless\" champion of women and children living in abusive situations, O'Neal said. The Phoenix Suns center called Earl \"the pillow of women's society.\" For more than two decades, Earl has helped give victims a way out through the Jenesse Center, which provides shelter, education, outreach and legal services to more than 8,500 victims of domestic violence every year. \"Thank God for Miss Earl,\" O'Neal said. \"She takes women that have been involved in domestic abuse situations and gives them a place to come rest their head.\" According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year, and one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Earl has heard countless stories of domestic abuse and has seen a range of tipping points before victims seek help. She is working to lower these statistics. She recalled one woman whose husband beat her with an iron; for another, \"the beatings were standard, but when he sold their refrigerator and she couldn't keep her baby's milk cold anymore, she knew it was time to go.\" These women were able to find shelter and support -- and ultimately safety and success -- through the Jenesse Center. \"It is not normal to go to bed afraid,\" Earl said. \"And the thing that I know for sure is that there is help.\" When Earl began volunteering at the center in 1986, she said, she often thought of what her own mother went through. \"I remember us having to run out of the house at midnight with sheets wrapped around us. I know the impact it had on my mom, and of course the impact on me and my siblings,\" she said. \"I wish there were a place back then, but nobody talked about it. It was just family business; it was personal.\" Watch Earl discuss the center's mission to heal through art \u00bb . Today, Earl serves as Jenesse Center's executive director and calls her work with staff, fundraising and volunteer recruitment \"a 24-hour thing.\" The process of healing for victims generally starts with a phone call to the center's hot line, she said. The center provides counseling and literature and has a 30-day emergency shelter for women and their families. Earl said this emergency period \"is a time of regrouping\" and lets the women know that they're not alone and that they didn't do anything wrong. The center also provides long-term support. \"Women and their children can stay for two years,\" Earl said. \"Every able body, every day, gets up and takes classes. And when they're not taking classes, they're looking for employment, going through counseling sessions or [getting] legal assistance.\" For Earl, comprehensive care through a team approach is the key to the center's success. She said she has seen women at the center earn graduate degrees and become \"full-fledge\" professionals -- and that changing lives is what keeps her going. O'Neal said the center helps point women in the right direction and gives them the chance to overcome adversity. \"They'll help you get an apartment. They'll help you get a job. They help you get back on your feet and become the beautiful woman that you are.\"","highlights":"O'Neal's work in law enforcement taught him the serious nature of domestic violence .\nHis hero, Karen Earl, runs the Jenesse Center, which aids abuse victims .\nThe Los Angeles center helps more than 8,500 victims every year .\nThe center gives women a chance to overcome adversity, O'Neal said ."} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- It is the most popular photograph in history: Argentine revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara stares pensively at the horizon, his steely eyes shielded behind a thick beard and his trademark beret. The shot -- taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda in Havana on March 5, 1960 -- turned the charismatic and controversial leader into a cultural icon. Che's image, here advertising soda, is still seen around the world. Now, nearly a half-century later, the photograph is used by communists and capitalists, Marxists and marketers to sell ideas. In his new book, \"Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image\" (Vintage Books), journalist Michael Casey examines how this photograph came to take on a life of its own and become the most reproduced photograph in the world. \"The Korda photograph can be seen on t-shirts, beach towels and condoms, even,\" he said. \"And it is in all corners of the world. You can find it in East Timor, parts of Africa, Israel, as well as Lebanon. You can see it in the United States and here in Latin America. And what this book is trying to do is discover why. What made this thing so big? So universal?\" The life of Che, the Argentine-born doctor turned revolutionary, has been well documented since his death in a Bolivian jungle in 1967. Countless books have been written about his role in leading Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution and translated into dozens of languages. Hollywood has given Che the treatment twice: in 2004's \"Motorcycle Diaries\" and last year in a two-part biopic starring Benicio Del Toro. Last month, \"Che: The Musical\" premiered at the Konex Cultural Center in Buenos Aires. What Casey -- the Buenos Aires bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires -- discovered during three years of investigation throughout Latin America for the book, was that Korda's image became so popular because it was promoted by people from all walks of life, including Castro, pop-artist Andy Warhol and countless students from Paris, Berkeley and beyond, who embraced the image as a symbol of rebellion during an era when the world was aching for change. \"Whether or not people believe in Che's hard-line version of Marxism, they want hope,\" Casey said. \"They want hope and beauty -- and somehow both of those things are encapsulated in this image. And so you get people investing their dreams in it. I think that is at the heart of it, with all these other forces: political, artistic, marketing, economic, all coming together in a way that really makes it a ubiquitous brand.\" Watch author Michael Casey discuss the Che Guevara image \u00bb . The brand, Casey writes, is the \"quintessential post-modern icon\" but may be surpassed by a newer image: artist Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama \"Hope\" poster, which Obama used during his run to the White House. \"I think that Obama is extremely cognizant of the power of images,\" Casey said. \"[The 'Hope'] poster is very much caught up in some of these forces that moved Che forward. They are very different people, obviously, but that's only part of the point. \"Part of the point is that the U.S. is engaged in a battle of brands, always has been. 'Uncle Sam vs. Che' if you really want to boil it down to what Latin America and its ugly history in part has been,\" he said. \"So, part of the United States' battle to improve relations with the region is improving its image. And in some respects you now have an alternative brand with Obama. The previous brand did not sell very well in Latin America. The new brand is getting off to a much better start.\" So while U.S. relations with Latin America, and much of the world, look to be changing, it's safe to say that the Che image -- and its ability to mean all things to all people -- will likely always stay the same.","highlights":"Photo of revolutionary Che Guevara is the most reproduced image in history .\nMichael Casey examines how photo became \"quintessential post-modern icon\"\nThe picture was taken on March 5, 1960 by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda .\nThe image is now seen around the world, on everything from t-shirts to condoms ."} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia -- UEFA have confirmed that Slovakian referee Lubos Michel will take charge of Wednesday's Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow. Michel refereed the 2003 UEFA Cup final when Jose Mourinho's Porto beat Celtic. Michel, 40 last week,is remembered by Chelsea fans for controversially awarding a goal to Liverpool against the Londoners in the semifinals of the 2005 competition. Chelsea's manager at the time Jose Mourinho always insisted that Luis Garcia's shot did not cross the line. Michel is regarded as one of the top referees in the world and officiated at Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup, including the tense Germany v Argentina game in the first knock-out round. He also refereed the 2003 UEFA Cup final when Mourinho's Porto triumphed over Celtic. Michel speaks English, Russian, German and Polish as well as his native language. Michel will be supported at the Luzhniki Stadium by the assistant referees who have partnered him at major tournaments - Roman Slysko (34) and Martin Balko (36). The fourth official will be Vladimir Hrinak (44), also from Slovakia. Meanwhile, senior police officers from Manchester traveled to Moscow on Monday to help prevent fan violence from marring the final. Manchester police will serve in an advisory role as Russian authorities prepare for Wednesday's match. \"A number of my officers and I have flown out to Moscow to meet local police and help draw up arrangements to police the fixture,\" said chief superintendent Janette McCormick. \"Although GMP officers have no powers of arrest abroad and ultimate responsibility for policing the game lies with the Russian authorities, we have been gathering intelligence on potential and known troublemakers and GMP officers will be in Moscow in an advisory role,\" McCormick added. As Manchester United flew out on Monday, plain-clothed intelligence officers were stationed at Manchester Airport to target known or potential troublemakers from heading to the Russian capital. Ban orders imposed on fans with soccer-related convictions will be rigorously enforced in the next two days to prevent them from flying to Moscow. \"As with all operations like this, we are sending out a clear message to people intending to travel to commit violence to think again,\" said police chief inspector Robert Tinsley, who is based at the airport. The airport is expecting 20,000 more passengers than usual to be flying to Moscow. The British embassy in Moscow have announced that their consular section will stay open on May 21 and 22 to help English fans arriving for the final. \"The consular department will extend their working hours on Wednesday and Thursday to support English citizens coming here to watch the Champions' League final,\" the embassy press service said. The press service report added that a 24-hour telephone \"hot line\" would be organized by the embassy.","highlights":"Lubos Michel will referee Wednesday's Champions League final in Moscow .\nFellow-Slovakians Roman Slysko and Martin Balko will be his two assistants .\nVladimir Hrinak will be fourth official at the Manchester Utd v Chelsea clash ."} -{"article":"GALVESTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rescuers in Galveston, Texas, were going door-to-door Saturday to check on the estimated 20,000 people who failed to flee Hurricane Ike, which has slowed to tropical storm status. Park benches are strewn about in downtown Houston Saturday during Hurricane Ike. As of Saturday afternoon, the Galveston Fire Department had taken 27 people to a shelter in a high school on the coastal island, which was without electricity or water pressure. No casualties had been discovered so far in the search and rescue efforts, which have been hampered by heavy flooding and scattered debris. Galveston had ordered evacuation of the island, but Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said about 40 percent of the city's 57,523 residents chose to stay. LeBlanc said the island would be closed while authorities assess damages, including to the causeway, which was in \"bad shape\" because of debris and road damage. \"The road buckled in a number of places,\" LeBlanc said. \"Even if we opened it up you couldn't get through.\" LeBlanc said 17 buildings on the island had been destroyed by fires, potent winds and a strong storm surge. \"We are in a recovery mode,\" Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said in a press conference Saturday afternoon. \"This eye came right over us, stayed a while and went on, but it brought a lot of damage to our city.\" Ike was downgraded Saturday to a tropical storm 11 hours after it crashed ashore as a Texas-sized hurricane that walloped southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. In its wake, Ike -- which smashed into the coast as a Category 2 hurricane -- left four people dead, millions without power and destroyed homes and businesses along the Gulf Coast with powerful winds, rain and floodwaters. President Bush declared 29 Texas counties and parts of Louisianans major disaster areas, making federal funds available for recovery from the storm. View images of places hit by Ike \u00bb . Many people, like D.J. Knight of Pearlman, Texas, decided to ride out the storm at home, despite voluntary and mandatory orders issued across the region. \"The windows looked like they would explode,\" said Knight, a mother of two. \"It just wouldn't stop.\" Now, without electricity and surrounded by flooded roads and wreckage, Knight wonders whether it was worth enduring a sleepless night as the storm shook her home, located about halfway between Galveston and Houston. \"I didn't think it would be as bad as it was,\" she said. \"It was horrible.\" Knight is one of thousands waiting for assistance as the state rolls out the largest search and rescue operation in Texas history. See pictures of the storm's destruction \u00bb . Gov. Rick Perry dispatched a 1,000-strong search and rescue team, including state troopers, pilots and members of the National Guard. Lines of National Guard trucks and ambulances were deployed from San Antonio even as officials are trying to grasp the extent of damage and the number of Texans stranded by the storm. However, flooding and debris have impeded rescue efforts in some areas, adding to the uncertainty about how many Texans actually survived the storm. \"We're obviously concerned that there may be people we find who didn't get out and who are going to be in the rubble of what we uncover,\" said Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. \"We hope for the best, but I do want to prepare people for the fact they we may have some fatalities.\" Chertoff said 40,000 Texans were in 250 shelters, and that food and water would be distributed in about 20 coastal locations as rescue efforts continue. In Galveston, which bore the brunt of the storm, floods filled the historic district with 7 feet of water at the storm's peak, said Galveston County official Margaret Bunch. Watch how a spunky little girl braved the storm \u00bb . A foot of water flooded the city's main courthouse, where many people rode out the storm, she said. Wanda Collins' garage filled with 5 feet of water, ruining everything inside, including a 2002 pickup truck, two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a freezer and a washer and dryer. \"I have never in my life seen water like this,\" the 30-year Galveston resident said. Burle and Jamie Holmes also refused to leave their Galveston home despite a grim warning from the National Weather Service. Ike forced the couple and their dog, Trouble, into the attic, tossing their furniture like toys across the house. \"We lost everything,\" Jamie Holmes. Curfews are in place in Galveston until dawn Monday and in Houston's Harris County until 6 a.m. Sunday. Houston Mayor Bill White said his city appears to have avoided loss of life, but streets blocked by floodwaters, downed trees and power lines hampered efforts to determine the full extent of the damage. Authorities shut down downtown Houston, where the streets were littered with traffic lights and glass, for cleanup and damage assessment. The city's tallest skyscraper, the 75-story JP Morgan Chase Tower, was missing many of its windows. See iReporter's images of destruction \u00bb . White advised residents to drink bottled or boiled tap water as a precaution after a power outage reduced water pressure, but he said nothing indicated that the water supply was contaminated. Brennan's, a popular restaurant in downtown Houston for almost four decades, burned down Friday night as Ike battered the city. North of Houston, a 10 -year-old boy died when a falling tree limb hit him in the head, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said. The boy's father was cutting down a dead tree in the family's yard in preparation for Ike's heavy winds early Saturday. Nearly 2.6 million customers in Texas and Louisiana lack power because of Ike, the U.S. Energy Department said on Saturday. In Brazoria County, emergency management officials said the main power line for the Texas\/New Mexico grid was down. CenterPoint Energy said 90 percent of its customers were without electricity and it could take a month or more to get power restored to all of them. iReporter Jackie Hensler of Houston said her apartment building's power was restored quickly on Saturday morning after a stormy night. \"There are lots of trees down; they've been uprooted or snapped,\" she said after venturing outside. \"There's lots of debris in the streets, like boards and plywood from homes.\" Watch how the roof peeled off a building \u00bb . Hurricane Ike proved to be a huge storm system, 900 miles across at its largest. It remained a hurricane hours after crashing ashore over Galveston at 2:10 a.m. Its maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph, with higher gusts. It was expected to continue to weaken and move into western Arkansas by Saturday night. Track the storm \u00bb . The storm surge, however, was smaller than forecast. The greatest surge, of 15 feet, happened at Sabine Pass, near the Texas-Louisiana line. Authorities had predicted surges of 20 to 25 feet. Authorities in Orange County, Texas, on the Louisiana line, were using large dump trucks Saturday to rescue residents trapped on their roofs by massive flooding, a county judge told CNN. The city of Orange and the town of Bridge City were flooded, Beaumont emergency official Brad Peneffon said. Watch the storm surge in Beaumont \u00bb . Rescuers fanned out in boats Saturday in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, after the storm surge flooded 1,800 homes. Gas prices soared across the country amid fears the storm would disrupt fuel supplies. Ike hit a region that is home to about 25 percent of the United States' oil refining capacity, and the storm's progress across the Gulf of Mexico shut down crude oil collection from Gulf oil fields. The U.S. Department of Energy said 14 refineries were closed by the storm, along with two Texas strategic petroleum reserve sites. In Knoxville, Tennessee, Sean Kennedy expressed dismay at the difference a day made to gas prices. iReport.com: Evacuees, San Antonio mayor talk about Ike . \"I filled up my tank yesterday morning on the way to work for $3.59 a gallon,\" he said. \"This morning, gas prices at the same station were $5 a gallon for regular and $5.25 for premium.\" The Coast Guard said early Saturday that 22 people aboard a freighter that was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico were safe after the storm. Some good news came out of the region Saturday. About 175 miles west of Houston, a storm evacuee delivered a baby in the ladies' bathroom at a shelter in New Braunfels. \"The credit goes to the mother,\" said Dr. Mark Burns, who helped deliver the baby. \"She did a beautiful job with her delivery.\" CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Rusty Dornin, Sean Callebs, Rob Marciano, Gary Tuchman, Arthur Brice, Deb Krajnak and Elise Miller contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Wreckage impedes rescue efforts, adding to uncertainty about survivors .\nTexas woman wonders whether it was worth it to ride out storm in home .\nFour deaths in Texas attributed to Ike, now a tropical storm with 45 mph winds .\n2.6 million affected by power outages, U.S. Energy Department says ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The CEO of Southwest Airlines said Friday he has ordered an investigation into charges the discount carrier flew airplanes that weren't properly inspected for safety. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly tells CNN the airline is surprised at FAA charges. Gary Kelly said Southwest was caught off guard when the Federal Aviation Administration notified it on Thursday that it may be hit with a record $10.2 million federal fine for alleged violations involving fuselage crack inspections. Kelly called the fine \"unfair\" and \"unprecedented.\" The FAA on Thursday accused Southwest of operating the 47 airplanes last year without conducting mandatory checks for fuselage cracking. The airline has 30 days to respond. Kelly told CNN safety was never an issue. \"In this particular situation, we identified a gap in our documentation. We voluntarily reported that to the FAA. We worked out with the FAA how to fix that problem, and we fixed it,\" he said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Asked why, then, the discount carrier was called on the carpet, Kelly replied, \"We were surprised yesterday to get that notification by the FAA as well. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported as late as last month the FAA said that it had no safety issues with Southwest Airlines.\" \"I've ordered an investigation as to exactly what happened in this event,\" Kelly said. \"It occurred in March of 2007. These aircraft are inspected inch by inch. In this particular incident, over 99 percent of the inspections were completed, according to documentation.\" Watch what's raising concerns about Southwest \u00bb . He said that after fuselage cracks were discovered in about half a dozen of the airline's 737s, 47 planes were reinspected over a 10-day period. Boeing Inc., the plane's manufacturer, which was contacted when the problems arose, said that at no time were the cracks unsafe, Kelly said. \"Cracks do occur. That's why we do inspections.\" He said Boeing issued a release Thursday saying Southwest \"acted responsibly, and at no time were the aircraft operated in an unsafe manner.\" The FAA issued a statement saying that Southwest improperly inspected the planes for cracks, then allowed them to fly an additional 1,451 flights, knowing they weren't airworthy. Kelly was asked about FAA allegations that an inspector knew about the problems, but continued to allow the planes to be flown. He didn't answer the question directly, saying the airline has an ongoing relationship with the federal agency and there is a complicated system of inspections. \"Our interpretation of the guidance that we got from the FAA at the time was that we were in compliance with all laws and regulations,\" Kelly said. \"I think the FAA has a different view of that today, and that's something that we're investigating as well. But the important point is that at no time were we operating in an unsafe manner, and I think our history proves it.\" Calling the situation detailed in the FAA documents \"one of the worst safety violations\" he has ever seen, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, is expected to convene a hearing to ask why the airline may have allegedly put its passengers in danger. He heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Watch passengers react to the charges \u00bb . The FAA documents allege that Southwest flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks. The 117 number includes the 47 planes alleged to have flown without fuselage checks and 70 additional planes allegedly flown without mandatory rudder inspections. In some cases, the documents say, the planes flew for 30 months past government inspection deadlines. It should have grounded them until the inspections could be completed. The planes were \"not airworthy\" according to congressional air safety investigators. Southwest Airlines, which carried more passengers in the United States than any other airline last year, said in a written statement Thursday that it looks forward to making details of the case public -- saying those details will support the airline's actions. The documents were prepared by two FAA safety inspectors who have requested whistle-blower status from Oberstar's committee. The two inspectors have been subpoenaed to testify before the committee. The whistle-blowers say FAA managers knew about the lapse in safety at Southwest, but decided to allow the airline to conduct the safety checks on a slower schedule because taking \"aircraft out of service would have disrupted Southwest Airlines' flight schedule.\" Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman, told CNN that the administration has taken action and that a supervisor who was in charge of overseeing Southwest is \"no longer in a supervisory position.\" The mandatory checks for fuselage cracks were required after the cabin of an Aloha Airlines 737 tore apart in midair in 1988, killing a flight attendant. The incident was blamed on cracks in the fuselage that grew wider as the plane underwent pressure changes during flight . Southwest Airlines has never had a catastrophic crash. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Drew Griffin and Scott Bronstein contributed to this report.","highlights":"Southwest Airlines CEO says airline was surprised at FAA charges .\nFAA charged Thursday that Southwest skipped mandatory inspections of 117 planes .\nSouthwest CEO Gary Kelly says safety was never compromised .\nFAA has started process to fine a record $10.2 million over 47 fuselage inspections ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Norway has condemned the ransacking of the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo by Tamil demonstrators. The entrance to Sri Lanka's embassy in Oslo on Sunday. Video posted on Norway's TV 2 Web site showed demonstrators smashing through re-enforced glass at the embassy on Sunday. The aftermath showed embassy offices that had been trashed, with furniture, artwork and potted plants dumped on the floor. Countertops had been bashed and splintered. \"Please help the Tamils. Stop the massacre of Tamils,\" a sign carried by one of the demonstrators said. The foreign ministry said it has requested that police tighten security at the embassy, which is located in an office building. \"I deeply deplore the fact that unauthorized persons unlawfully forced their way into the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo and caused extensive damage,\" said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. \"This is a violation of Norwegian law and an action that is totally unacceptable.\" Rohitha Bogollagama, Sri Lanka's foreign affairs minister, called for authorities to \"seek immediate arrest of the perpetrators of this serious act of terror\" during a CNN interview in New Delhi, India. The attack came as Sri Lanka's president ordered military troops to restrict their offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels while the nation celebrates the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The two-day celebrations began Monday. The order was meant to allow the thousands of Tamils trapped by the fighting to travel for the New Year, said a statement from the office of President Mahinda Rajapakse. Troops are in the midst of an intense military push in northern Sri Lanka, where they have snatched back large swaths of land from the Tamil rebels. The rebels have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. A statement on the Sri Lankan defense ministry Web site called on Norway to \"bring the perpetrators to justice immediately.\" \"The perpetrators can be readily identified on the CCTV recording which has been made available to the authorities,\" the statement said. \"The demonstrations, which had been building up in intensity in the past few days, provide an indication that something was being planned.\" CNN's Harmeet Singh and Iqbal Athas contributed to this report .","highlights":"Norway's FM says actions by Tamil protesters are \"totally unacceptable\"\nThe foreign ministry has requested that police tighten security at the embassy .\nSri Lanka foreign affairs minister calls for authorities to arrest perpetrators .\nTamil rebels have fought for an independent homeland since 1983 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French Prime Minister Francois Fillon unveiled further details Monday of a 26 billion-euro ($33 billion) business stimulus package which his government hopes can stall falling growth and prevent the country joining other major European economies in recession. Up to 1,000 projects will benefit from the package, which was first proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy in December and approved by French lawmakers last week. Around 20 billion euros of the total amount will be spent over the next 12 months. Businesses will receive 11.4 billion euros while the same amount will be invested in public projects with social housing identified as a priority. The final 4 billion euros will be spent on improving France's transport, energy and postal service infrastructure. The package is expected to stimulate economic growth of around 1.3 percent, Fillon said. France has so far avoided the worst of the recession that has gripped many of its western European neighbors, including Germany and the UK. But unemployment rose by a further 45,000 in December after surging by 64,000 in November, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday, adding that she would be \"very surprised\" if France experienced positive growth in 2009. Speaking to CNN this weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lagarde, defended the case for public spending in the face of fears that stimulus packages amounted to storing up unmanageable debts for future generations. \"When the house is on fire we don't look at what can be built, Lagarde said. \"We need to kick start (the economy) and we need to restore confidence.\"","highlights":"French government to spend $33 billion in effort to bolster economy .\nFrench PM Fillon hopes package will stimulate 1.3 percent in 2009 .\nUnemployment rose by 45,000 in December, according to French finance minister ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The City of Brotherly Love isn't exactly embracing the news that one-time quarterback phenom and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick is joining their Philadelphia Eagles. Former Atlanta Falcon Michael Vick, right, was known more for his elusiveness than his throwing prowess. Vick's agent announced Thursday that the former Atlanta Falcon signed a two-year deal with the Eagles, which reportedly could be worth more than $6 million. He won't be able to play a regular season game until week six in October, and then, only if the National Football League fully reinstates him. \"Too bad they don't have him for the whole year,\" Eagles fan Charles James told CNN affiliate philly.com. The NFL indefinitely suspended Vick in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia. Vick, 29, left a Kansas prison in May to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. Some Eagles fans don't think Vick's punishment was sufficient and were trying to unload their game and season tickets on craigslist.com, making it clear they were less than eager to see Vick in Philly green. iReport.com: What do you think of Vick's return? A post from one irked fan looking to peddle two lower-level season tickets said: \"The last thing my son and I want to see is Michael Vick in an Eagles jersey. We made up our mind to sell the tickets ... $3000 cash gets the tickets. Any info feel free to ask, serious buyers only, I want the deal done fast.\" Lower-level season tickets were selling on an unrelated auction site for as much as $10,000 a pair. Bob Jenkins of northeast Philadelphia predicted most Eagles fans -- known to be some of the nation's most demanding -- won't be badmouthing the decision. \"The only people who won't be quiet are the people who don't like the Eagles,\" Jenkins told philly.com. \"Of course, they're going to be talking because he's going to be throwing some touchdowns.\" Despite Jenkins' assumption, it's unclear what role Vick will play on the team. A gifted athlete known more for his dazzling runs than his pinpoint throws, Vick's last season in 2006 was a bit of a disappointment to Atlanta fans. The Falcons finished 7-9, and Vick had a completion percentage of 52.6. He also threw for 2,474 yards, more than 1,000 fewer yards than the Patriots' Tom Brady, who completed 62 percent of his passes, and almost 2,000 yards behind the Colts' Peyton Manning, who completed 65 percent of his tosses. However, Vick also ran for 1,039 yards, the most ever by a quarterback. Mike Giunta of Tabernacle, New Jersey, told CNN affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that signing Vick would spawn \"dissension\" among the Eagles, who made it to their conference championship last season, losing to the Arizona Cardinals. Giunta predicted the move would create consternation between Vick and five-time Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb. \"McNabb's going to be looking over his shoulder constantly now,\" Giunta said. McNabb said in a Thursday news conference that he welcomed the addition of Vick and he \"pretty much lobbied to get him here because everybody deserves a second chance.\" Several Eagles fans concur. One of them, Leroy Emerson of north Philadelphia, told philly.com, \"That was the best move the Eagles ever made, one of the best.\" Some fans, however, were licking their wounds and pointing to the most severe dogfighting allegations leveled against Vick: that he hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted and drowned them. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have both skewered Vick. The latter alluded to Vick being a \"psychopath\" earlier this year and released a statement Friday saying, \"Millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed\" in the Eagles. \"PETA certainly hopes that Vick has learned his lesson and feels truly remorseful for his crimes -- but since he's given no public indication that that's the case, only time will tell,\" the statement said. Upon being conditionally reinstated to the NFL last month, Vick acknowledged making \"terrible mistakes\" and said he had used the past two years to re-evaluate his life. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick also offered to work with the organization on its anti-dogfighting campaign. To some Eagles fans, though, the nature of Vick's crimes is too much to forgive. \"I'm just a little upset with it because I'm such an animal lover,\" Susan Wilson of Pitman, New Jersey, told WPVI. Kelley Williams of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, told the station that she, too, had trouble accepting Vick's signing. \"I think he should be out of the NFL altogether,\" she said. Sports talk shows already are predicting that Vick can redeem himself only by making big plays, and at least some of the Philadelphia faithful concur he can shut up his critics on the field. \"If they keep him,\" fan James told philly.com, \"he'll be the man.\"","highlights":"Michael Vick signs deal with Philadelphia Eagles, could play in October .\nCraigslist ticket seller says he, son don't want to see \"Vick in an Eagles jersey\"\nSeveral Eagles fans tell CNN affiliates they are excited by prospect of Vick's arrival .\nAnimal lovers still reluctant to give Vick a chance after almost two years in prison ."} -{"article":"MBOLA, Tanzania (CNN) -- Moved by a 2007 trip to Ghana, singer\/songwriter John Legend joined the fight to end extreme poverty in his lifetime. And based on his experiences in poor, rural areas of Africa, he says, real change is possible. John Legend says \"Mama\" Mwadawa Ruziga's role in uplifting her community inspired him. \"I don't want people to only see Africa as a bunch of victims,\" Legend says. \"The people that I've come across in these extremely impoverished villages, they want to work. They want to participate in their own development.\" To help people lift themselves out of poverty, Legend founded the Show Me Campaign, named after one of his songs. Partnering with economist Jeffrey Sachs' Millennium Promise organization, Legend's group adopted Mbola, a remote village in Tanzania that has little access to drinking water and improved farming techniques, according to Millennium Promise. \"The folks in Mbola are starting at a supreme disadvantage. Most of them are living on less than a dollar a day,\" Legend says. \"It's difficult for them to even survive.\" On his 2007 visit to Mbola, Legend met \"Mama\" Mwadawa Ruziga, a single mother of two who was freeing herself from poverty. Her entrepreneurial spirit impressed Legend and solidified his belief that sustainable development at the community level can work in the fight against poverty. Ruziga leads a local business collective that sells products -- like wine, jam and juice -- that it makes out of indigenous fruits. \"I was really inspired by her willingness to not just wait for a handout, but really take an active role in helping to uplift her community,\" he says. Through the Show Me Campaign, Legend has pledged to raise $1.5 million over five years to support programs similar to Ruziga's that are aimed at alleviating poverty in Mbola. But this is not just about cutting a check, he says. \"You can always go in and bring an influx of money and address things temporarily. But if development's not sustainable, then something's wrong,\" Legend says. \"This is about teaching them how to farm better, improving the education system, getting water pumps. The idea is that [the community] will continue to sustain themselves over time.\" Before joining her collective, Ruziga, 47, says her life was at an all-time low. For years, she suffered through malaria and droughts. \"The only thing I did was farming, then I would just sit idle with nothing to do. But after joining the group, my life changed for the better, slowly by slowly,\" Ruziga says. In addition to agricultural processing, Ruziga's group focuses on horticulture and tree planting. Ruziga herself has been instrumental to the success of the group, traveling to trade shows in the Tanzanian cities of Tabora and Dar es Salaam to sell their products. \"Our group has spread to other areas of Tanzania, and we've experienced great success because many people have come to know about us,\" Ruziga says. Watch Legend talk about meeting Ruziga, and see her group making products \u00bb . Six different villages have adopted the group's successful model. \"I think she's a great example of someone who's given the tools to succeed, having the energy, having the follow-through, having the leadership skills to go ahead and do it,\" Legend says. Not only has Ruziga's group changed her own life, but other members' lives have also improved. This is the first time that some of them have ever earned an income. \"Now they are more educated than before,\" Ruziga says. \"The group provides them with a platform to exchange and explore ideas, and the revenue collected enables the members to cater for their basic needs.\" Ruziga believes that the future depends on women taking an active role in their future and says her community is happy with the help and encouragement Legend offers them. For Legend, Ruziga's passion is inspiring and motivating. Watch Legend visit with Ruziga and her group during his trip to Mbola \u00bb . \"Mama Ruziga is an example of someone who is personally taking her destiny in her hands, and the destiny of her community into her hands. She is a leader, she's inspirational, and she's one of my heroes.\"","highlights":"Legend's hero, \"Mama\" Mwadawa Ruziga, is lifting herself and others from poverty .\nThey met when the singer\/songwriter visited Tanzania on an anti-poverty campaign .\nRuziga leads a business collective that makes products from local fruits, sells them .\nThis is the first time some members of her group have ever earned an income ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two monorail trains at Walt Disney World collided early Sunday, killing a 21-year-old driver. A 2 a.m. ET monorail crash at Disney World killed one person, a park spokesman said. A witness said one of the trains rammed into the back of a stationary train about 2 a.m. at the resort's Ticket and Transport Center. There were eight people on board at the time, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. A second employee was taken to a hospital to be checked; the six guests -- members of a single family -- were evaluated by paramedics at the scene and released. Disney World officials said none of the seven was injured. Authorities identified the driver as Austin Wuennenberg, a senior at Stetson University studying computer science. \"It's a terrible day for us,\" said Mike Griffin, Disney's vice president for public affairs. \"Our hearts go out to Austin and his family.\" A statement from Wuennenberg's family said, \"He always enjoyed his work at Disney, and especially enoyed his work as a monorail pilot. He has many great friends who he has positively influenced; everyone will truly miss this dynamic young man.\" The theme park is working with county authorities and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the investigation. \"The safety of our cast and our guests is legendary and it's our top priority,\" Griffin said. Disney World calls its employees \"cast members.\" The monorail was shut after the accident, Griffin said. Images from the scene showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit the other train at a station.","highlights":"Driver identified as Austin Wuennenberg, 21 .\nEight people were aboard, including family of six .\nCrash occurred about 2 a.m. at Ticket and Transport Center .\nWitness says one monorail train rammed into a stationary train ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Gosselin last appeared on Larry King Live on May 10. A little more than a month later, on June 22, she and her husband Jon filed for divorce and announced their split that same day in a special edition of their show. Kate Gosselin says she and her kids would like to continue their TV show, but admits it will be up to the network. Gosselin returned to Larry King Live on Tuesday to discuss her sextuplets, the future of her show and how she feels about Jon. The following is an edited version of the interview: . Larry King: How much do they know about what's going on? The 9-year-olds probably do, right? Kate Gosselin: They understand the process. They're working through it, the same that Jon and I are. They're doing remarkably well. This has opened up a lot of discussions between them and myself. A lot of questions come my way, and we're dealing with it. They're doing very well considering. Watch Gosselin discuss the split \u00bb . King: Why did you agree to do this reality show in the first place? Gosselin: In the very beginning, we started filming a one-hour special. It was a way to document what was happening in our lives. At that time, there was a lot of local news stories. There were a lot of people in the country and the world, believe it or not, pulling for us. As you know, sextuplets are not born every day, so there was a lot of interest. We did the one-hour special to show everyone. I always pictured like the little old lady that was sitting at home who was praying for us, rooting for us and needing to know what happened to those babies that were born. So we did it for that reason as well as to collect the memories for ourselves. King: Why did you agree to do a regular reality show? You could have said that's the special, here's my life, goodbye. Gosselin: I could have. At that point, the one-hour special was a very good experience. The network, TLC, we were on Discovery Health at that time. Now, TLC is wonderful, supportive, and it was a great experience for us. So we, you know, really moved forward because of that reason. It was healthy and safe and fun. King: Do the kids talk to you about divorce? Gosselin: They do. And as any child, you know, when their parents are divorcing, the goal is peace and we've achieved that numerous times. The Fourth of July we spent together as a family. My goal is, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what place, you know, one of us is in, my goal is really peace and the best that it can be for the kids. King: Do they get counseling? Gosselin: We have not started that process, but I feel like it is a very normal thing to do. And absolutely, when the time is right. King: Jon is quoted in the new \"Us Weekly\": \"I wish I had a 9 to 5 job instead of the nightmare I'm living. This is 24\/7. I don't even want to do taping the show anymore.\" What's your reaction to that? Gosselin: Jon's opinions and his goals are his. I know that, personally, for myself and the kids, this has been a good experience. It continues to be a good experience. And, you know, really the network has been extremely supportive, above and beyond, I feel, what they need to be. And I only experience good things. Everyone works. Everyone has a job. Everyone has what they're dealing with. And, generally speaking, this is the most flexible, workable, wonderful job for myself. King: How long have you been doing it now? Gosselin: We are in season 5. We started filming in August of 2005. King: Why is it such a good thing to have a private life public? Gosselin: It's been a source of huge -- for whatever reason -- inspiration for a lot of people. Many, many people -- many parents feel that their decisions are, maybe not, great decisions. Every parent has that, you know, parent guilt of my goal is to produce wonderful, productive individuals and put them out into society. That is the goal of a parent -- for us to show the world that we are not perfect, life is unpredictable, but life always goes on and there's always, always, always something to look forward to. And for me, that is raising my children to the best of my ability. King: But as an intelligent person, you also know to all good things, there are downsides. Gosselin: Absolutely. With every positive, there is a negative across the board in life. It's about choosing to see the positive and working with the negative. King: So what happens now? Are you and the kids going to do the show and Jon is out? Gosselin: I'm not the person to make that decision. I know that myself and the kids will continue the show. King: But if Jon says I don't want to do it anymore, I don't want to be part of it, I'm divorced, I don't need this, will the network say it's you and the kids? Gosselin: That would be a question for the network. King: Will the name of the show change? Gosselin: That would be a question for the network. King: And if they said forget it, that would be OK with you? If they said we'll continue, that's OK with you? Gosselin: That will be their decision. King: You've become famous worldwide over this. What's the downside of that? Gosselin: You know, I could really live without the following. King: Attention? Gosselin: Yes. I could live my whole life -- I would have to say that is absolutely the negative. I realize it comes with it. I know that it goes along with it. I'm smart enough to figure out that, you know, there's interest. It's going to be interest across the board. It's another learning lesson. King: You and Jon renewed your marriage vows a year ago this month in Hawaii. What happened? How do you go from renewing vows to filing for divorce in a year? Gosselin: It is a question I ask myself every day. I don't have the answer. King: But (Jon) made this decision? Gosselin: You know, it's just an issue that we discussed amongst ourselves. I don't feel like that is something that we need to discuss the details of. King: Yes, but when you get so famous, you and him and the kids, and then you leave out those details, don't you disappoint the audience that's come to expect more? Gosselin: My main concern is my kids. And I don't want them to see or hear anything on TV that I didn't discuss with them. And we discussed what they need to know at their developmental age groups. But I don't feel like I need to go any further than that at this time.","highlights":"Kate Gosselin says sextuplets are doing well despite parents' breakup .\nGosselin says she doesn't know what led to split with husband Jon .\nGosselin wants to continue TV show, but says it's network's decision ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A man charged with stalking sports reporter Erin Andrews is now accused of making nude videotapes of her in one more city than previously thought, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Michael David Barrett, 48, is accused of surreptitiously videotaping the ESPN reporter through hotel peepholes and posting the videos online. Authorities previously had said they believed most of the videos were made at a Nashville, Tennessee, hotel in September 2008. But the information filed Wednesday alleges that Barrett also taped Andrews through an altered peephole in a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2008. Barrett stayed in the hotel room next door to Andrews, the information said. He is charged with interstate stalking, which carries a potential sentence of five years in prison, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California. Barrett was arrested in Illinois, but will make an initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, Mrozek said. He is scheduled to be arraigned on November 23 and will be asked to enter a plea. An Illinois judge last month released Barrett on bail. Barrett waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury, Mrozek said, and authorities on Wednesday filed a criminal information against him in place of an indictment. Investigators found that Barrett reserved a room at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hotel where Andrews was staying in July 2008, but did not check in, according to prosecutors and the initial criminal complaint against him last month. The complaint accused him of making seven videos from the surreptitious tapes. In Nashville, the door peephole into Andrews' room was altered with a hacksaw, and the peephole to her room in Milwaukee was altered in a similar way, the criminal complaint said. Authorities believe the videos were taken with a cell phone camera. In addition, the complaint said that Barrett \"traveled from Illinois to Victim Andrews' home state\" in August 2008, but did not specify which state. Barrett allegedly attempted to sell the videos to celebrity gossip site TMZ in January 2009. TMZ did not purchase the images, but employees of the Web site assisted in the investigation by providing information to Andrews' attorneys, authorities said. However, the videos were posted to other Web sites by Barrett, the criminal complaint said, with labels like \"Sexy and hot blonde sports celebrity shows us her all.\" Andrews, 31, is a sideline reporter for ESPN, traveling around the country covering college football games. The criminal complaint said she became aware of the videos in July and that their posting has caused her distress, anxiety and trouble sleeping.","highlights":"Man accused of surreptitiously taping Andrews nude, posting videos online .\nPreviously, most of the tapes were thought to have been shot in a Nashville hotel .\nCourt documents filed Wednesday claim videos also were made in Columbus, Ohio .\nStalking charge carries a potential five-year prison sentence ."} -{"article":"PATUAKHALI, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Survivors of a storm that killed more than 3,000 people in the impoverished nation of Bangladesh grieved and buried their loved ones Monday as they waited for aid to arrive. Villagers grieve in Patargata, around 125 miles south of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Monday. The number of dead killed from Cyclone Sidr -- now at 3,114 -- is expected to rise yet further as the South Asian nation continues to assess the damage. The Bangladesh Red Crescent fears the death toll could be 5,000 -- perhaps even reaching as high as 10,000. In the fishing village of Galachipa, in Patuakhali district, Dhalan Mridha was grieving for family members who died in the cyclone after ignoring an alert issued by authorities. \"Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to bed. Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hut was swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter,\" Mridha, a 45-year-old farm worker, told The Associated Press. On the way to a shelter, Mridha lost contact with his wife, mother and two children. The next morning he found their bodies. The Category 4 cyclone raked Bangladesh's southwest coast on Thursday with maximum sustained winds of 241 km\/h (150 mph), destroying fishermen's hamlets and villages. Thousands are still missing, while an estimated 280,000 others are unable to return to their homes which were wiped out by the storm. Many grieving families are now burying loved ones in single graves as no male members are available to dig them. Most houses in the region are made of flimsy materials such as bamboo and corrugated iron, and had no chance of withstanding the storm's powerful winds. In addition, the storm-struck area is criss-crossed by a huge river delta which surged as Sidr pushed through, wiping out many villages and littering the river's shores with debris. Watch as people are left to fend for themselves \u00bb . Low-lying Bangladesh is already prone to flooding which has wiped out the country's rice production -- a major food staple for the impoverished country. Improved warning systems and shelters have kept the number of deaths far lower than the disastrous cyclones in the region of 1970 and 1991, when the tolls were in the hundreds of thousands. Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed visited the devastated region Sunday, handing out some aid to the crowds of people before members of the international media. It was seen largely a token effort as hundreds were left empty-handed and furious. Security officials struggled to hold back the crowd. See dramatic photos of storm survivors \u00bb . Sidr has already ruined Bangladesh's rice harvest, but the international community is rallying to make sure the country does not suffer as acutely as it has in the past. Nearly a million people died after massive floods wiped out the country's rice production in 1974. International aid organizations promised initial packages of $25 million during a meeting with Bangladesh agencies Monday, the U.N.'s World Food Program said. The United States has offered more than $2 million as an initial contribution for emergency relief, and sent two U.S. Navy carriers to help in recovery operations. In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is airlifting in relief supplies and an 18-person Department of Defense medical team is in Bangladesh helping the estimated 15,000 injured by the storm. Bangladesh's government held an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday to assess the disaster and discuss recovery issues, Bangladeshi government spokesman Fahim Munaim told CNN. Officials fear the scope of the destruction may be much more extensive since there are remote areas where conditions cannot yet be determined. Munaim said nearly a third of Bangladesh's 64 districts were affected by the cyclone, most of those along the southern coast. The Bangladeshi military is working to provide shelter for the many people who have been displaced. International aid groups -- including Save the Children, World Vision, and the Red Crescent, which already have offices in Bangladesh -- are deploying resources to the cyclone-stricken region but -- like the government -- they have found it nearly impossible to reach the more remote areas to assess conditions. Roads to remote areas are either blocked by massive trees fallen by the storm, or so severely damaged that it is impossible for vehicles to use. Clearing could take weeks in the remote areas because it must be done by hand -- there are no chainsaws and modern machinery to speed up the process. Along the broken road that leads into Kolapara, the body of an 8-year-old girl called Rummie was carefully carried away for burial. Overwhelmed with sadness, her mother Khadija was steadied by a relative. \"I am feeling too much pain in my heart,\" she said. \"I have lost my daughter, so I am a victim of the cyclone as well.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Survivors of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh waiting for aid to arrive .\nRed Crescent Society official says deaths could rise to 5,000-10,000 .\nBangladeshi president distributes aid; angry survivors go empty-handed .\nThousands remain missing; estimated 280,000 homeless ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Late-night talker David Letterman married his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko, last week, according to a transcript of the taping of his Monday night show. Late-night host David Letterman says he \"avoided getting married for ... 23 years.\" The wedding was at the courthouse in Choteau, Montana, on Thursday, he said, according to quotes from CBS' \"Late Show with David Letterman\" provided to CNN by Letterman's publicist, Tom Keaney. \"Regina and I began dating in February of 1986, and I said, 'Well, things are going pretty good, let's just see what happens in about 10 years ... ,\" he joked during the taping. Watch Letterman spill the beans \u00bb . \"I had avoided getting married pretty good [sic] for, like, 23 years, and ... honestly, whether this happened or not, I secretly felt that men who were married admired me -- like I was the last of the real gunslingers.\" Lasko is a former \"Late Show\" staffer. The couple have a son, Harry. Letterman told his audience that the wedding almost didn't happen after the couple, son in tow, got their pickup truck stuck in the mud on the way to the ceremony. \"So I get out of the truck and I walk two miles back to the house into a 50 mph wind. It's not Beverly Hills, it's Montana, for God's sakes,' \" he said. \"And the whole way, I'm thinking, 'See, smartass? See? See? You try to get married, this is what happens.' \" When he returned with a car, he said -- presumably joking -- that his son was disappointed, \"because mom had told him if I wasn't back in an hour, the deal was off.\"","highlights":"Talk-show host marries Regina Lasko, who he began dating in 1986 .\nLetterman talks of last week's wedding on his show Monday night .\nLetterman and Lasko have a son; were married in Montana ."} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A 100-inch, high definition screen projects an intense college basketball game. Massage therapists rub the nervous tensions of men and women away. Scissors skillfully cut men's hair. Two chandeliers adorn the main room, complimented by brick walls and a glass bar that doubles as a retail counter. Sean Heywood, right, and Kumi Walker own MR., a barbershop and wine bar in San Francisco, California. This is not your typical barbershop. And that has always been the vision of owners Kumi Walker and Sean Heywood. \"We are literally trying to create a new version of the country club golf experience. But we're replacing golf with haircuts, and we're putting it in urban environments,\" says Heywood. MR. (for mister) is their first business venture. It's an upscale barbershop, wine bar and lounge in the financial district of San Francisco where memberships cost $65 to $250 a month. In addition to the basic services, those who become members benefit from exclusive services like golf putting clinics and human resource workshops. \"We're trying to thrive, not just survive,\" Heywood said. MR. takes the cultural aspect of the black barbershop experience and modernizes it, making it a place where businesspeople of all races can network. \"We looked at our social lives, and we had black friends, Asian friends, Latino friends, white friends. We would do a lot of things socially together, but when it came to getting our hair cut, we would all split up,\" Walker says. Watch Walker talk about the difficulty of starting and running a business \u00bb . The two entrepreneurs are bridging a cultural divide, and also giving back to the community. They offer free lifetime memberships to MR. to those in good standing with a re-entry program called Back on Track. Among other things, Back on Track offers first-time, low-level criminal offenders GED preparation, tutoring, money-management instruction and job training and placement. And that's where MR. steps in. The membership provides them with one free haircut, trim, and shoeshine monthly. \"We'll take care of their grooming so that they don't have to. And they're ready for all the different jobs that they pursue going forward,\" Walker says. Giving back is paramount for the entrepreneurs. And the story of one black business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, inspires them. It was known as Black Wall Street, and it was destroyed in a race riot and fire 88 years ago. \"All of the businesses that we wanted to create, we wanted to encompass the culture of, if that community still existed today, what it would look like,\" says Walker, who says he read about the riot six years ago. Imagine a credit union, a barbershop, a library, and men in freshly pressed suits with top hats sauntering on sidewalks. The melodic sounds of jazz flow into the streets from several nightclubs. A thriving community of black-owned businesses serve their clientele across a 42-block area. That was the community that existed in the segregated neighborhood of Greenwood from 1830 to 1921. But on the evening of May 31, 1921, white mobs entered Greenwood with torches and guns. Black residents gathered to protect a young man accused of assaulting a white woman. When the smoke from fires cleared on June 1, more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other institutions were burned or destroyed, according to the report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. \"People came and said, 'Run, they are shooting people,' \" says Wess Young, who was 4 then. \"We evacuated. They were destroying everything.\" The death toll has been debated for years, because many victims were dumped in mass graves. An American Red Cross estimate puts the total at 300, much higher than the 36 reported by local officials. The riot devastated the social underpinnings of the Greenwood community and leveled a black economic force. Greenwood was rebuilt, but it never recovered. \"It was a really tragic end to thriving businesses. I think we'd be a lot further ahead had that area been able to continue to thrive,\" says Walker. Wess Young and his family rebuilt their lives in Tulsa. When asked what he thought America would be like if the Tulsa race riot had not happened, he answers without hesitation, \"We would have had a black president before now. ... He has done a good job, but we [blacks are] still in a box.\" His advice to people is to let go of the past once they've learned from it. \"Hate will destroy your whole universe -- got to learn how to forgive, but never forget,\" Young says. Walker says these stories of black struggle and survival motivate him. \"I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors,\" he says. \"I just want to be as successful as possible so I can turn around and be mentors and sponsors to other people who come after me.\"","highlights":"Entrepreneur read about famed Black Wall Street that was destroyed in 1921 .\nHe and partner created modern barbershop to honor memory of district .\nBlack Wall Street burned to ground during massive race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma .\nTulsa race riot survivor: \"Learn how to forgive, but never forget\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dr. J. Stephen Jones had seven vasectomies to perform in a day. Some urologists around the country are reporting increased numbers of patients coming in for vasectomies. The schedule for Jones, a Cleveland, Ohio, urologist, has become more crowded during a recent boom in vasectomies. \"My staff came to me and said, what's happening?\" said Jones, the chairman of the Department of Regional Urology of Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. \"Why are we suddenly having an explosion in guys asking for vasectomies?\" They looked at their statistics and realized the uptick started around November as the economic crisis deepened. October went down in the history books as one of Wall Street's worst months. Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman's fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy. \"It's unlikely that some guy read the Dow Jones numbers that day and said, 'Why don't we have a vasectomy?' \" Jones said. \"More likely, people have already been considering it and typically a guy and his wife have spoken a year or two about this.\" Jones was told by patients that they were getting vasectomies because they were losing their jobs and health insurance, or concerned about being out of work soon. \"They realize they don't have the financial security long-term with what's going on,\" Jones said. \"Several of them have mentioned, 'We can't afford to have any more children in this economy.' My perception is that it's more of the concept of raising children in an uncertain economic future.\" Much like Jones, Dr. Marc Goldstein, surgeon-in-chief of male reproductive medicine and surgery at the Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine in New York, saw a 48 percent increase in vasectomy consultations compared with the same time last year. \"I have never seen anything like this,\" said Goldstein, a urologist for the last 30 years. \"When things started to go south in the stock market, then the vasectomy consults went north.\" Half of Goldstein's New York patients work in the financial sector. New patients filed into his office in November. \"I think the situation of finance and the economy is the major reason,\" Goldstein said. \"Some of them have mentioned that, 'It cost $30,000 a year to put my kids in private school and I can't afford to have another one.' It's never the sole reason, but it's certainly a contributing factor.\" During the vasectomy, the doctor cuts the two vas deferens, which are the tubes carrying sperm from the testicles to become semen. After the procedure, men can still have sex, but their semen does not contain sperm and therefore they can no longer father children. Doctors can attempt to reverse the procedure, but vasectomy reversals are expensive and only work half the time in restoring sperm flow. Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a private research firm, said the National Center for Health Statistics' data showed that, \"During bad economic times, the Depression and the recession in the 1970s, the birth rate did go down.\" See the chart on fertility rates in the United States from 1917 to 2007 \u00bb . \"Some folks will postpone having kids,\" he said. \"If you had a vasectomy, you've made a bigger decision that you're never going to have another child.\" When people stop having children, it implies a loss of confidence in their future employment prospects. \"Am I going to have a job in six months or a year from now?\" Haub said. \"If I'm concerned about that, people are not going to increase their financial obligations... It's na\u00efve to say the economy didn't play a significant role in lowering the birth rate.\" It's too early to tell whether this recession has crimped the birth rate, Haub said. At this point, most of the evidence of increased vasectomies has been anecdotal from practicing urologists, because there is no national registry for sterilizations. The number of appointment requests spiked 30 percent in January 2009 on the Web site vasectomy.com, which links people with local urologists. But throughout the last few months, appointment requests have been fairly level, said Dr. Ted Benderev, founder of the site. Dr. Lawrence Ross, a professor of urology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former president of the American Urological Association, said the school's clinics have seen moderate increases in the last six months to a year and that vasectomies are growing popular among lower-income clients. \"My guess is that since economic times have worsened, people are concerned about their ability to raise larger families and are opting for more permanent birth control,\" Ross said. People who are concerned about losing their health insurance are trying to take advantage of the coverage for a procedure they've long considered. \"It may have something to do with the economy,\" said Dr. Bryan Kansas, a urologist. \"I can't count on my hands, in the last three months, the number of times someone has said they're about to lose their insurance and ask to squeeze them in.\" He and his colleagues have seen a similar uptick in their Austin, Texas, practice called The Urology Team. Throughout March Madness, Kansas' office has a special on vasectomies called, \"Vas-Madness\" to capitalize on their patient's obsession with the college basketball tournament. Patients \"would love to have a procedure, go home and sit there when you've got all-day programming, watch basketball,\" Kansas said. After the less-than-hourlong procedure, patients usually spend a day or two recovering, moving gingerly and icing the soreness. Some men time their vasectomies around the time of major sports events such as the Masters Golf Tournament and the NCAA basketball tournament to keep themselves entertained during recovery. Vasectomies are likely to produce tenderness, discomfort and slight swelling and the patient is usually able to return to usual activities within a week.","highlights":"Urologists report a higher demand for vasectomies in recent months .\nIn New York, vasectomies increase after stocks tumble in fall 2008 .\nDuring recessions, people have fewer children, according to health statistics ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court offered unanimous support for police Wednesday by allowing drug evidence gathered after an arrest that violated state law to be used at trial, an important search-and-seizure case turning on the constitutional limits of \"probable cause.\" The Supreme Court unanimously gave police broader powers to search for and seize evidence. \"When officers have probable cause to believe that a person has committed a crime in their presence, the Fourth Amendment permits them to make an arrest, and to search the suspect in order to safeguard evidence and ensure their own safety,\" Justice Antonin Scalia wrote. David Lee Moore was stopped by Portsmouth, Virginia, officers five years ago for driving his vehicle on a suspended license. Under state law in such incidents, only a summons is to be issued and the motorist is to be allowed to go. Instead, detectives detained Moore for almost an hour, arrested him, then searched him and found cocaine. At trial, Moore's lawyers tried to suppress the evidence, but the state judge allowed it, even though the court noted the arrest violated state law. A police detective, asked why the man was arrested, replied, \"Just our prerogative.\" While some of the justices expressed concern about that level of discretion at oral arguments in January, their 9-0 ruling raised few such doubts. \"The arrest rules that the officers violated were those of state law alone,\" Scalia said. \"It is not the province of the Fourth Amendment to enforce state law.\" The state had argued an arrest is constitutionally reasonable if officers have probable cause to believe a suspect has committed a crime. \"This standard represents the best compromise between the needs of the citizens and the duty of the government to combat crime,\" Stephen McCullough, Virginia's deputy solicitor general, had told the high court. But Moore's attorney, Thomas Goldstein, called an \"extreme proposition\" the idea that it would be reasonable \"to go out and arrest someone for a non-arrestable offense and not only do that, but having committed that trespass at common law, to further search them.\" There has been widespread judicial confusion over how such police searches should be handled. Some lower courts had ruled that when state arrest law is violated, the Constitution provides a remedy in the suppression of any evidence resulting from the arrest and a related search. But the justices agreed with the majority of courts that said constitutional requirements are satisfied when an officer has probable cause to make an arrest, even if some provision of state law was violated in the process. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a concurring opinion suggesting Virginia change its law to make driving on a suspended license an arrestable offense. During arguments, Ginsburg spoke for several colleagues when she pointed out that if a summons had been issued in Moore's case, any incriminating evidence would have been excluded. \"Would you explain the logic to saying that when the police violate state law, then the evidence can come in, but when they comply with state law, it can't,\" she asked. The ruling means Moore's original jury conviction and 3-\u00bd year prison term will stand. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Case involves Virginia man stopped for driving with suspended license .\nInstead of issuing ticket, police detained him and searched his car .\nArrest violated state's law, but trial judge allowed evidence of drugs .\nJustices ruled that officers had probable cause for search ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration is looking into a report that Louisiana Sen. David Vitter had an angry altercation with an airline worker at Washington Dulles International Airport last week. Louisiana Sen. David Vitter reportedly went into a \"tirade\" with a Washington Dulles International Airport worker. The agency is not doing a formal investigation, TSA spokesman Sterling Payne told CNN, but it is gathering information to determine if one is needed. \"We are looking into the reported incident,\" Payne said. An aide to Vitter said Friday morning the Republican senator had not been contacted by the TSA and maintains the media account of the incident is overblown. Roll Call had a report in its gossip column earlier this week, based on an unnamed eyewitness, that Vitter arrived at the airport 20 minutes before his United Airlines flight was scheduled to depart. The door to the boarding bridge was already closed, but Vitter opened it anyway, triggering an alarm. The paper said an airline worker warned him not to enter the walkway, which led to a \"tirade\" by Vitter who \"remained defiant.\" The source told Roll Call the senator left the area before airport police arrived. Vitter has refused to answer reporters' questions about the incident, but in a statement Wednesday described his actions more innocently and the Roll Call report \"silly.\" \"After being delayed on the Senate floor ensuring a vote on my anti-pay raise amendment and in a rush to make my flight home for town hall meetings the next day, I accidentally went through the wrong door at the gate,\" he said. \"I did have a conversation with an airline employee, but it was certainly not like this silly gossip column made it out to be.\" Vitter has been the subject of unwelcome headlines before. In 2007, he was linked to a Washington, D.C., prostitution ring. He denied allegations he had relationships with prostitutes, but apologized for \"a very serious sin.\" Joel DiGrado, Vitter's spokesman, said the congressman would not comment further on the issue. CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"TSA gathers information about alleged incident involving Louisiana Sen. David Vitter .\nVitter reportedly had angry confrontation with airport worker .\nVitter says media account of incident is overblown ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is the co-editor of \"Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s\" and is completing a book on the history of national-security politics since World War II, to be published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian Zelizer says Obama and Congress must decide whether to rein in presidential power. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- Executive power has been one of the defining characteristics of President George W. Bush's administration. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and many members of the White House pushed to expand executive power -- as much as any specific domestic or foreign policy -- from the beginning of the administration. The Bush administration formed in a direct conversation with the presidential politics of the 1970s. Several members of the Bush administration came of professional age working in the Nixon and Ford administrations. They watched an assertive Congress respond to the Watergate scandal by revitalizing legislative power through the War Powers Act of 1973, the Budget Reform of 1974, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Independent Counsel Act in 1978. The Bush administration thought vesting Congress with so much power was dangerous, because it saw the legislative branch as inefficient. Building on efforts since President Ronald Reagan to reverse the congressional reforms of the 1970s, the current White House spent enormous political energy, before and after 9\/11, trying to reclaim power for the executive branch. The expansion of presidential power is not unique to the Bush administration. It began early in the 20th century and, despite some exceptional periods such as the 1970s, continued steadily throughout. But in several respects, this expansion was bigger in scale and scope than under previous presidents. For example, as a way to agree to legislation without agreeing to follow the intention of Congress, Bush issued statements when he signed bills -- doing so far more frequently than preceding presidents. When Congress passed a bill banning the use of torture in December 2005, Bush added a signing statement allowing him to bypass the law in his role as Commander-in-Chief. Bush also used executive orders to achieve policy objectives without obtaining congressional consent. Most of the president's national security programs were also conducted under high levels of secrecy and sometimes ignored rules such as those spelled out by FISA. Even when Republicans controlled Congress between 2002 and 2006, the president barely consulted with the leadership. After the 2000 elections, many Republican moderates were optimistic they would have more power than ever because the White House would be forced to court their vote in the evenly divided Senate. But they were wrong. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island said he was disillusioned early in the Bush administration when Cheney met with a group of Republican moderates. Cheney simply listed the bills the administration would pursue -- such as canceling U.S. support for the International Criminal Court and cutting taxes -- and informed them the president expected their vote. The chances for restoring a better balance of power remain unclear. There was a notable silence on the issue during the 2008 presidential campaign. Congressional Democrats and President-elect Barack Obama have been extremely critical of Bush's muscular approach to the executive branch. But though Obama has promised to reverse a number of executive decisions made by Bush, it is hard to tell how far he will go. Most important, it is extremely rare in the postwar period for presidents to voluntarily relinquish power. Democrats in Congress might not be willing to do to Obama what they did to Richard Nixon or even Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. After decades of Republican rule, Democrats now believe they have an opportunity to build a new majority. In addition, in a time of true crisis there will be less incentive to challenge the institutional prerogatives of their president. But Congress and the White House must do something to reverse the trends of the past eight years. We need an executive branch that is accountable and a Congress that is active. So what can be done? The first solution is informal. The White House must alter the dynamic with Congress and create strong lines of consultation with legislative leaders. President Franklin Roosevelt worked closely with legislators during the New Deal to develop economic ideas and figure out the nuts and bolts of legislation. Obama must do the same. The second solution is legislative. Congress should not be timid about passing legislation to empower the legislative branch. After The Boston Globe reported the extensive use of executive signing statements by the Bush administration, there was discussion about legislation to curtail the power, but proposals for the legislation faded away. Congress needs to consider passing measures in this and other areas, such as further defining what kinds of interrogation techniques can be used by the U.S. military and intelligence services. The final solution involves oversight. There has been a dramatic increase in congressional oversight since Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. Legislators have been more willing to hold hearings and conduct investigations into everything from the ethical conduct of the White House to the administration of key government programs. But oversight under divided government is easier politically than under the united government -- Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress -- we will have after January 20. The aim of stronger oversight is to avoid failures such as FEMA's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina or the politicization at the Department of Justice. The fact that Democrats control the White House is no excuse for the party's leaders in Congress to become lapdogs. Obama must be held responsible as well. While presidents don't like to give up power, maybe this president will be different. At a minimum, Obama should avoid the techniques used so often in recent years to circumvent legislative will. It is not enough to reverse Bush's executive orders -- the crucial question is whether Obama uses such orders as frequently himself. If the nation can create a better balance between the executive and legislative branches, the country will benefit. The New Deal proved when both branches work together, the nation can produce some of its finest and most effective programs. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Bush administration sought to rebuild presidential power .\nHe says they wanted to reverse Watergate-inspired reforms from the 1970s .\nZelizer says Congress' role was diminished during the Bush administration .\nHe says Obama, Congress must decide whether to strengthen legislative role ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday extended permission for hundreds of pilots to carry firearms -- just hours before their certification to carry the weapons was to expire, according to an organization which represents the pilots. \"A few hundred\" Federal Flight Deck Officers -- or FFDOs -- were to lose their certification to carry firearms effective midnight on New Year's Eve, said Mike Karn, executive vice president of the Federal Flight Deck Officer Association. The loss would have come at a time of heightened concern about air security because of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day. But Karn said the DHS's Federal Air Marshal program notified him Thursday afternoon that the pilots' certification would be extended. A Transportation Security Administration official confirmed that certifications had been extended for six months \"in light of recent events.\" The official said that \"due to an internal miscommunication, scheduled notifications to these officers were prematurely issued,\" but he offered no further explanation. FFDOs are commercial pilots who volunteer to undergo training so they can carry weapons to protect their aircraft. They undergo initial training at federal law enforcement training academies and must re-qualify with firearms every six months, and undergo a two-day recurrent training every three to five years. \"I'm grateful [for the extension] because that will keep the most cost-effective last line of defense [of aircraft] in place,\" Karn said. \"But I'm still concerned that such a limited budget has been approved for this program, and volunteers who want to protect the American public will be turned away.\" Karn said the budget for the program has not increased since 2003, effectively capping the number of armed pilots. The exact number of FFDOs is classified, but government officials have said in the past the number greatly exceeds the number of federal air marshals -- plain-clothed officers who fly in the cabin of the plane to protect aircraft. Several FFDOs contacted by CNN said DHS has made getting recurrent training onerous for pilots, limiting the number and sizes of classes. Pilots also must pay for their own hotels and food during training -- \"our own time and our own dime,\" said one pilot -- placing a further burden on them. Had the loss of certification occurred, it would not have affected the pilots' flight clearance, only their ability to carry weapons.","highlights":"Federal Flight Deck Officers were to lose certification effective midnight tonight .\nCertifications have been extended for six months \"in light of recent events,\" official says .\nOfficials have said there are more FFDOs than federal air marshals, number is classified .\nPilot organization concerned that limited budget will deter pilots from volunteering ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Fighting raged in Afghanistan over the weekend, with a suicide bombing slaying six people, a NATO-led soldier and an Afghan police officer dying in an \"altercation,\" and troops killing several insurgents in battles, authorities said. Fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces continues to rage in Afghanistan. The suicide bombing on Sunday killed six people in a bazaar in Spin Boldak, located in Kandahar province, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Monday. Along with the deaths, at least 17 people were wounded, and ISAF condemned the assault. Four of those killed were Afghan border police officers, ISAF said. The location is in southern Afghanistan. The ISAF soldier and an Afghan police officer were killed after seven people were apprehended in connection with a roadside bombing in Paktia province on Sunday that targeted an Afghan National Police and ISAF patrol. The location is in eastern Afghanistan. \"The detained civilians were then transferred to the ANP station at the Jaji District Center. While at the district center, there was an altercation during which an ANP officer and one ISAF soldier were killed,\" ISAF said in a Monday news release. The U.S.-led coalition on Monday reported fighting between U.S. and Afghan troops and insurgents over the last two days -- Sunday in Kandahar province and Saturday in Helmand province. \"Several insurgents\" were reported killed in both incidents. Two insurgents died in fighting on Friday in another southern region -- Zabul province, the coalition said on Monday.","highlights":"Militants kill eight people and injure at least 17 in latest attacks .\nInsurgents killed a coalition soldier in eastern Afghanistan .\nSoldier's name and nationality held until family members could be notified ."} -{"article":"LONDON (CNN) -- Did President Obama land a Nobel peace prize at such an early stage of his presidency simply because he's not George W. Bush? A \"surprised and humbled\" Obama said he would accept the Nobel peace prize as a \"call to action.\" Diplomatic circles are certainly not dismissing such a notion and a \"surprised and humbled\" Obama has himself agreed that the award (for which nominations had to be submitted only two weeks after his inauguration) can hardly have been a recognition of anything he has yet accomplished. It is a prize for aspiration rather than achievement. One of the best deliberate laughs Bush obtained in his last days in office came when he expressed himself pleased at the street reception during his attendance at a NATO summit in Romania. \"A lot of the crowd were waving... some of them with all five fingers,\" he said. Bush was acknowledging that many in Old Europe at least could not wait to say goodbye to a man whom they saw as a Cold Warrior at heart, the president who had led the world into a disastrous intervention in Iraq and a man heading a gas-guzzling nation who was not prepared to help the world cope with climate change. For many Europeans, the chief concern through the long, drawn-out race for the Democratic nomination and through the presidential election was that the result should give them anybody but Bush. Watch reaction in Europe to Obama's award . They were uneasy about his missile defense shield plans to base U.S. military installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. They felt he had never lived up to his pledge to work as hard on the Middle East peace process as Tony Blair had done on bringing peace to Northern Ireland. Especially they felt that the internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and the \"extraordinary rendition\" to countries where terror suspects might have been tortured was an affront to democracy which besmirched the reputation not only of the U.S. but of its allies, too. Europeans were alarmed that Bush seemed to be encouraging the climate change deniers. And although he became readier to listen to his European allies during his second term, they never really took to the man whose instinctive response was to use America's military might in the world's trouble spots rather than to stay at the negotiating table and who had little time for the United Nations. Couple that with the words in the Norwegian Nobel Committee's citation that the peace prize is being awarded to Obama \"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples\" and that they have \"attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,\" and the message is clear. Unusually, this is a world statesman being rewarded not for what he has done but for representing a new beginning. As Mikhail Gorbachev was quick to point out, the Obama presidency is a big signal -- \"He has given hope.\" By commenting approvingly that Obama has created a new climate in international politics, with emphasis on the role of diplomacy and of the United Nations, the Nobel Committee is clearly encouraging the new president, after just eight months in office, to continue with a style that Europeans find much more comfortable than that of Bush and the neo-conservatives. Those who worked with Bush are likely to feel aggrieved and to maintain that they, too, were working for the extension of democracy for which Obama is now being commended. As Europe digested the news of the prize, nobody wanted to go public with critical comment on a man who is still seen across Europe as a beacon of hope. But there were off-the-record mutters that this was all somewhat premature. Cool heads were noting that while intentions have been expressed, there has been no significant progress yet on the Middle East peace process. The proposed closedown of Guantanamo Bay has been announced but it has not happened. There are still large numbers of American troops in Iraq and the numbers in Afghanistan are likely to be increased. While Obama has spoken of his hope of agreeing with Russia on a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads, we are nowhere near to seeing an end to nuclear weapons, which are currently in the possession of the U.S., Russia, China, India, the United Kingdom, France, Pakistan and Israel. Obama may want the Senate to ratify the test-ban treaty but that has not happened yet and his moves on climate change, too, will require congressional compliance. The truth, say many continental commentators, is that Obama deserves a badge for effort -- an effort begun by scrapping the missile shield development in Poland and the Czech Republic -- but a peace prize is a step too far at such an early stage. He is being rewarded not for solid achievement but for creating new hope -- in effect, for not being Bush. It may well be, as President Sarkozy of France has declared, that the award \"confirms finally America's return to the hearts of the people of the world.\" But some fear that America's conservatives will take it as a sign of weakness and become more obstructive to Obama's aims. Meanwhile, others are wondering: \"What on earth will they give him when he does have a real achievement to point to?\"","highlights":"Oakley: Obama's Nobel an award for aspiration rather than achievement .\nEuropeans had hopes that Bush's successor would be different .\nNobel committee said Obama had created favorable international political climate .\nSome commentators say Obama should be saluted for effort but not yet a Nobel ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to U.S. cycling legend Lance Armstrong was stolen from a team truck in California just hours after he rode it Saturday on the first day of a nine-day race. Lance Armstrong's bike was stolen after he competed in the first day of the Amgen Tour of California. Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong is racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week as he attempts another comeback after retiring from the sport in 2005. Armstrong's first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. Armstrong announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. \"There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered,\" he wrote. The bicycle that was stolen is not the one Armstrong rides every day during the race. The stolen bike is used only for time trials, a race in which cyclists ride individually at staggered intervals over a set distance and try to get the best time. The thieves took four bicycles from a truck Armstrong's Astana team had parked behind a hotel in Sacramento. The other three bicycles belonged to team members Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych, Astana said. Armstrong, 37, won the Tour de France, considered the premier bicycle race in the world, a record seven times from 1999-2005. The 750-mile Amgen Tour of California ends Sunday. It is the second major race in which Armstrong has participated since announcing his comeback in September. He raced last month in the Tour Down Under in Australia, finishing 29th. Armstrong said he is aiming for another Tour de France victory this summer and was not expected to contend in the Australian race, which he used to gauge his fitness level after more than three years out of the saddle.","highlights":"One-of-a-kind bicycle taken from team truck in California .\nArmstrong posted announcement of theft on Twitter account .\nChampion cyclist aiming for comeback with participation in Amgen Tour ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With their nation under high security alert, South Koreans mourned a former leader at a funeral ceremony Friday morning. The hearse carrying Roh Moo-Hyun's coffin heads for Seoul at Roh's hometown village of Bonghwa in Gimhae. Officials and dignitaries gathered in Seoul's Kyungbok Palace to honor former President Roh Moo-Hyun, who committed suicide last week. South Koreans poured into the streets to catch a glimpse of the black Cadillac making a five-and-a-half hour journey from Roh's home in the village of Bongha to the capital. Some bowed their heads or wept openly. Others, still stunned from the loss, stood quietly in black as the hearse drove by. Scores of Roh's supporters handed out yellow balloons, the color associated with Roh's political campaign. Other supporters had posters of Roh's image that read, \"President in my heart\" and \"You are my president.\" A person who walked by Roh's memorial site said, \"Roh understood the difficulties of normal people. We feel he acted like a shield for people with no power. He was the people's president.\" One woman on her way to work in Seoul said: \"He was the first president South Koreans picked with their own hands.\" She was referring to the fact that Roh didn't have a big political machine behind him. He won the election in 2002 by razor thin margin and his appeal was that he related to the common person. This week has been marred by grief and tension for South Koreans as they grappled with Roh's sudden death and renewed threats from North Korea. Following the official ceremony, Roh's body will be taken to the plaza in front of Seoul's city hall, where large crowds are expected to say goodbye to a beloved leader. He will be cremated later Friday and the remains carried back by hearse to Bongha. Roh, who served between 2003 and 2008, jumped from a hill behind his house last Saturday, government officials said. His death came amid an investigation into a bribery scandal that had tarnished his reputation. However, tens of thousands of people have visited memorial shrines for Roh, laying white chrysanthemums in a traditional show of grief and leaving cigarettes on the altars to remember a man who was reported to have taken up smoking during the investigation. In a suicide note given to the media by his lawyer, Roh wrote: \"I am in debt to too many people. Too many people have suffered because of me. And I cannot imagine the suffering they will go through in the future.\" Prosecutors were investigating the former president for allegedly receiving $6 million in bribes from a South Korean businessman while in office. Roh's wife was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors Saturday, and Roh was planning to answer a second round of questions next week. Why some South Koreans are angry about Roh's death \u00bb . The investigation has now been suspended. The debate over Roh's suicide has occupied as much column space in South Korea's press as the recent aggressive behavior shown by the North. On Tuesday, the conservative Chosun Ilbo urged South Koreans to remember the words of the former president's suicide note. \"Roh's abrupt death brings home how vain the rise and fall of power is and how futile it is to nurse hatred and conflict in pursuit of them. Roh himself said in his will, 'Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't blame anybody.' He would not have wished his own death to cause more political confusion and social conflict,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. It also criticized prosecutors who \"seem to have worried about public consensus rather than focusing on principles.\" The left-leaning Hankoryeh called Roh's death \"political murder,\" echoing the widespread feeling that the former president paid too high a price for his alleged crime. \"The case of late President Roh was the most unfortunate in South Korean history, brought about by the Lee Myung-bak administration, which despised the person more than the crime,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. The mood on South Korea's influential blogs and message boards was somber and split between messages of comfort, dismay at Roh's decision to end his life and angry accusations against prosecutors and the government. \"President Roh's perseverance to provide Korea with a true democracy has come to a sudden end. We saw the grief of his demise in the eyes of millions of Koreans,\" read a message posted on the popular Daum Agora Web portal. \"Prosecutors and the police! Are you the people of the Republic of Korea?,\" asked another. Just before he left the presidency, Roh became the first South Korean leader to cross the demilitarized zone and meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. He believed in the \"sunshine policy\" of his predecessor, Kim Dae-Jung, that sought to engage the north, and Roh also promised aid. CNN's Pauline Chiou and freelance journalist Nicolai Hartvig contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Motorcade accompanying Roh's body on way to the capital, Seoul .\nNEW: Grief-stricken S. Koreans pour out onto the streets to pay final respects .\nRoh Moo-Hyun took his own life amid an ongoing corruption investigation .\nRoh was in office between 2003 and 2008 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military is distributing pamphlets in eastern Afghanistan in an effort to find a soldier who has been missing for more than two weeks, the military said Thursday. A soldier mans a weapon at the rear of a U.S. Army helicopter over Afghanistan in May. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for kidnapping the soldier, who has not been identified, along with three Afghan soldiers. All went missing on June 30 in southeastern Afghanistan. The military believes the soldier may have been moved to various locations, including across the border into Pakistan, U.S. military officials said. There are two versions of the pamphlets, which are in the Pashto language and were made available to CNN by U.S. Forces Afghanistan. One shows the image of an American soldier shaking hands in a group of kids with the message, \"One of our American guests is missing. Return the guest to his home. Call us at ...\" and lists a phone number. The other shows a U.S. soldier kicking down a door, and then an outstretched hand with the superimposed image of a soldier, his head and arms drooping, and the words, \"If you do not release the U.S. soldier then ... you will be hunted,\" Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said Thursday. Soldiers have posted and handed out the pamphlets across Ghazni and Paktia provinces over the past 24 hours, Mathias said. Days after the soldier went missing, a senior U.S. military official said, he and the three missing Afghan soldiers were captured by low-level militants and then quickly \"sold\" to the clan and network led by warlord Siraj Haqqani, who is believed to be deeply involved in the action. The Haqqani clan operates on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border and is well known to the U.S. military. The soldier apparently left his small outpost on his own on June 30 with no apparent means of defending himself, the official said. Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said the U.S. soldier visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district in Paktika province, got drunk, and was ambushed while returning to his car. Sangeen said the soldier was taken to a safe place. Paktika and Paktia provinces are adjacent. CNN could not independently verify Sangeen's claims. A source with the U.S. military denied the claim that the soldier was drunk. \"The Taliban are known for lying, and what they are claiming [is] not true,\" the source said.","highlights":"Taliban says it kidnapped U.S. soldier, who has not been identified .\nSoldier, with 3 Afghan soldiers, went missing June 30 in southeastern Afghanistan .\nPamphlets come in two versions: One has an appeal, the other has a warning .\nSoldier apparently left outpost on his own with no means of defending himself ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Amazon rainforest is so vast and full of life that even its defenders don't know exactly what it is they are protecting. In the past 40 years, roughly 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been wiped out. \"The wealth of biodiversity is so immense, we cannot even estimate the amount we don't know,\" says Cl\u00e1udio C. Maretti, Brazil-based director for conservation for the World Wildlife Fund. \"Every new expedition you do to the Amazon, you might find one new species of fish. Every other, you might find some new bird or frog.\" The Amazon rainforest, which encompasses an area nearly as large as the continental United States and stretches across nine countries, is considered the world's richest and most varied natural habitat, with several million species of insects, plants, birds and fish calling it home. It also plays an important role in regulating Earth's temperature as its dense vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen into the air. But the Amazon has been under pressure from outside forces for decades. In the past 40 years, roughly 20 percent of the rainforest has been wiped out. Maretti says an additional 17 percent has been degraded to varying degrees. \"We have been deforesting at enormous rates,\" Maretti says. The chief drivers of this deforestation are large-scale business interests involved in logging, mining, agriculture and, especially, cattle ranching. Some of this activity is sanctioned by the government; much of it is not. Greenpeace estimates as much as 80 percent of the logging is illegal. The Amazon rainforest is just one of many habitats around the world threatened by encroaching development or natural resource extraction. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that 50,000 square miles of forest -- more than three times the size of Switzerland -- are lost each year because of clearing and degradation. The threat is particularly acute in the more tropical areas of South America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Cambodia, for example, lost nearly 30 percent of its primary forests from 2000 to 2005, according to FAO. Vietnam lost close to 55 percent of its primary forests, FAO found. And Nigeria lost nearly 56 percent of its primary forests over the same period, the worst rate of forest loss in the world, according to FAO. The destruction of the Earth's oldest and richest forests is not a new phenomenon, but the rate of destruction has increased in recent decades. \"Worldwide, one-half of all forests we've lost in the last 10,000 years has occurred in the last 80 years. Half of that was destroyed in the last 30 years,\" says Scott Paul, Forest Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace. Paul says the chief driver of forest destruction is the buying and selling of forest products and farm products in the international market, not to meet local needs. \"The timber market, and also for agriculture, mining: When it plugs into the international economic system, that's when you've got to watch it,\" he says. Paul would like to see a certification system so that consumers know the source and conditions under which the product they're consuming was harvested. \"If you buy wine and cheese, we can tell the region and the year. But forest products have always been cut in remote and distant areas and thrown in a pipe and spit out on the other side. There is no way to determine if something came from a well-managed forest or an illegal forest where there is slavery, murder, drug trade, etc.,\" he says. While the story of the world's old-growth forests would appear to be one of unremitting destruction, forests lost to logging and agriculture are actually growing back in some areas, such as the northeast region of the United States and parts of Europe. This thrills some wildlife advocates who would like to see the restoration of exiled or decimated species. \"Northern New England is the only place in the eastern United States where you have the potential for large-scale wilderness where wolves, lynxes, cougars, woodland caribou and salmon rivers could be restored,\" according to Michael J. Kellett, executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods. \"We could literally have almost the entire ecosystem of the Maine woods as it once was.\" With large-scale agriculture all but gone from New England and logging companies concentrating their attention elsewhere, Kellett's biggest fear is that real estate development could begin to carve up the vast forests of Maine. His proposed solution: create a national park. In Brazil in recent years, the government reportedly has stepped up efforts to slow the Amazon's destruction. Last October, Brazil said the rate of deforestation plunged 41 percent because of the enforcement of environmental laws. Environmental groups say the drop also was caused by the fall of soy prices and the rise of Brazil's currency against the dollar, making the country's exports more expensive. The World Wildlife Fund's Maretti is hopeful that Brazil, with international help, will be able to protect even more of the Amazon, an area he considers among the most vital natural habitats in the world. \"We do have strong civil society. We do have more governance,\" Maretti says. \"But we certainly need support from abroad. I don't believe Brazil can do this job alone.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"UN: More than 50,000 square miles of forest lost each year .\nMost trees cut down for international sale .\nSome forests making comeback in U.S., Europe ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roughly etched onto Brian's arm is a swastika tattoo. Brian's sinister-looking tattoo is etched into his skin . The 11-year-old says his 10-year-old friend Temashi spent two days \"scratching\" the image onto his skin with a match stick. It only hurt a little bit, said Brian, one of thousands of Zimbabwean children who have fled their ravaged homeland for what they hope will be a better life in South Africa. For Brian and his friend, the symbol of the swastika does not represent the horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. Instead, they say the ominous jagged lines on their arms mean \"Germans never surrender.\" It is a twisted interpretation that, however misguided, gives strength to Brian, marking him as a \"man\" and \"someone who does not surrender,\" he said quietly in a soft voice. Watch the boys explain what the tattoos mean to them \u00bb . Brian and his young compatriots from Zimbabwe are on their own in a new country. Charities such as Save the Children and UNICEF classify them as \"unaccompanied minors,\" but those words do not begin to describe their situation. They endure unimaginable hardships traveling to South Africa by themselves or with small groups of friends. They hitch rides on trucks, trains and taxis. Brian and his friends told CNN that when they got to the South African border at Beitbridge authorities let them walk through without passports or other documents. They then made their way to the border town of Musina, where boys beg on the streets or work on farms, and girls seem to disappear into South African society. UNICEF representative Shantha Bloemen said many Zimbabwean girls either turn to prostitution or work as domestic servants. Nearly all of the children -- some younger than 10 -- leave Zimbabwe because they hope their life will be better in South Africa. They said hunger, non-functioning schools and poverty were the reasons they left. Many are orphans, while some have parents, but they all dislike Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime -- a government that has left them with no choice but to abandon their homes and join the exodus south. A quarter of Zimbabwe's population has fled the country, mostly to neighboring South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, humanitarian groups said. The United Nations and Save the Children, which has an office based in Musina, report there has been a troubling increase in the number of children under 18 years old who are making the risky journey south from their homes in Zimbabwe to South Africa in search of work and food. Social workers from Save the Children and UNICEF told CNN that in June, 175 Zimbabwean children came over the border illegally and alone. In November, 1,016 kids made the same perilous journey. The boys older than 16 hang around Musina, sleeping on the sidewalk by a sports stadium along with older homeless men. Their days are spent waiting in line, jostling alongside hundreds of Zimbabwean adults, trying to apply for political asylum at a makeshift center opened by South African authorities. A South African official who processes asylum applications says it is common for youngsters to lie about their age so they can get the papers to stay in the country legally. Many, though, cannot get the necessary papers because they do not carry documentation or have adults who can vouch for who they are and where they come from. So, they wander the streets, begging for money. The younger ones like Brian are picked up by police and housed in a safe place until authorities and aid agencies can figure out what to do with them. While they wait for a future that never seems to arrive, boys like Brian and Temashi -- a legacy of Mugabe's regime -- struggle to survive in the world they now find themselves in.","highlights":"25 percent of Zimbabwe's population has fled the nation, humanitarian groups say .\nIn November, 1,016 kids traveled to South Africa, social workers say .\nMost children say they leave due to hunger, poverty, non-functioning schools .\nBoys work in South African farms, beg on streets; girls become prostitutes, maids ."} -{"article":"DOUGLAS, Arizona (CNN) -- It's a tale of homeland security concerns blocking wildlife management, and the hue and cry that ensues. This photo, taken by Warner Glenn in 1996, is believed to be the first of a live jaguar in the United States. When most people think of jaguars, they think of the jungles of Central and South America, not the remote desert ranges between the United States and Mexico. That region is known as mountain lion country, and that's what rancher Warner Glenn thought he was tracking when he saddled up his mules on a summer day 12 years ago near Douglas, Arizona. Glenn has hunted mountain lions for 60 years, since he was eight years old. But Glenn was stunned when he saw what his hunting dogs had chased up to a high mountain perch. The rancher took what's believed to be the first photo of a live jaguar in the United States. But it wasn't his last. In 2006, some 40 miles away, Glenn and his hunting party again cornered a jaguar -- a different one. Jaguars, an endangered species, have a breeding population in northern Mexico. Scientists believe there are no more than 120 left in the wild there. It's believed that since 1910, the cats are only visitors north of the border. They have been virtually unstudied here until recently. But Glenn and other conservationists worry that the possible return of breeding jaguars to the United States could be stopped in its tracks. The reason: the border fence. Last month the Department of Homeland Security waived 30 environmental laws to finish 470 miles of the fence by the end of the year. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress that the agency continues to talk to some 600 landowners along the border to get their input. But in order to comply with the congressional mandate, he said, there is no time to deal with \"unnecessary delays caused by administrative processes or potential litigation.\" \"We are currently in a lawless situation at the border,\" says Chertoff. \"I feel an urgency to get this tactical infrastructure in. And although we're going to be respectful of the environment, we're going to be expeditious.\" Two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, have filed appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming the waivers are unconstitutional and set a dangerous precedent. \"National security and environmental protection do not have to be at odds with each other,\" says Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Matt Clark. \"If we can drop this arbitrary deadline for constructing the fence and go through the proper procedures, then there are inevitably ways to minimize environmental impact, but as it is now it's throwing all of those laws out the window.\" Mountain lion tracker Jack Childs also worries about the impact of the fence on local wildlife, especially the jaguar. Childs captured the first video of a live jaguar in the late summer of 1996, a few months after Warner Glenn. Watch Childs and Glenn talk about efforts to preserve the jaguar \u00bb . \"I knew historically there had been a few jaguars sighted in Arizona but in the last hundred years never in any numbers.\" His encounter sparked a passion for the big cats. Along with wife Anna and biologist Emil McCain, he created the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project. See images of the controversy \u00bb . Childs and McCain hike into remote mountain areas where the jaguars roam and have placed more than 50 motion sensor cameras near the border. They've taken 69 photos of three different jaguars since 2001, including several of the same cat Childs first saw in 1996. He has nicknamed that cat Macho B. A jaguar's spots are like fingerprints -- each cat has a unique set. One of the spots on Macho B resembles a Pinocchio cartoon figure, and that's how they identify him. \"We spend a lot of time walking along the border during the daytime, and we actually find his tracks going through the fence, so we know for sure that he crosses back and forth,\" says Childs. \"A fence like that is going to inhibit wildlife movements and migrations back and forth. It's not going to effectively stop human traffic. They've got wire cutters and torches.\" See where the jaguars have been spotted \u00bb . Childs says the fence also has an impact on wildlife because drug runners and human traffickers have been pushed up into the mountain areas to avoid the fence in the lowland valleys. \"It's impacting the animals number one, what's going on down there. It's almost brought my wildlife study to a stop because they (the traffickers) are tearing down my cameras as fast as I'm putting them up because they think we're taking pictures of them.\" The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finds itself in a unique position. Its mission is wildlife and habitat protection, but it must uphold another federal agency's mission to override environmental concerns. Bill Radke, manager of the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge, says the Border Patrol is trying to work with his agency. \"The hope is that by working with Border Patrol that we can meet the national security mandate and at the same time protect the wildlife,\" says Radke. \"Border Patrol is putting up camera towers but are putting them up on areas that are off the refuge. They're working on barriers but not barriers that would impede wildlife and large animals like jaguars.\" At 6 foot 6, with steely blue eyes, dressed in leather chaps astride his mule, rancher Warner Glenn is every inch the American cowboy. And he is a man forever changed by his encounters with the jaguar. He has written a book, \"Eyes of Fire,\" about his experience. He says he'd like to \"invite Mr. Bush to come out on a mule\" so he can see \"what's going on here in these mountains.\" For Glenn, the cat represents all that is wild about the Southwest. \"It would be a loss to me that maybe my granddaughter or my daughter wouldn't be able to see one like I have. It's just an animal that's a beautiful, magnificent cat and they're having a little bit of trouble surviving. But they're doing it, and I would hate to see us do anything that would cause the survival of that cat to go backwards. \"I'm a livestock rancher, but I wouldn't mind donating a few calves to that jaguar, so to speak.\" Biologist Emil McCain agrees. \"They are part of our natural heritage. They are part of the American West. They are part of the American wild as much as the bald eagle or the grizzly bear, and the jaguar is really special because it is such an elusive and beautiful creature [that] it evokes a sense of imagination and curiosity about the natural world.\" Though the jaguar is elusive, conservationists say the animal is caught -- in the political crossfire at the border. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"It is believed that jaguars in northern Mexico total no more than 120 .\nConservationists worry that border fence could prevent return of breeding jaguars .\nHomeland Security officials have waived laws to make sure fence is completed .\nAgencies look for solution that enhances security while preserving wildlife ."} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Angered by what he perceived as the systemic discrimination of the minority Tamils by successive Sri Lankan governments, 18-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran, armed with just a revolver, set out in 1972 to right the perceived wrongs by forming a militant group. Sri Lanka's defense ministry says this handout photo shows troops with a captured Tamil Tiger craft. That group eventually morphed into the Tamil Tigers, who have engaged in a brutal 25-year insurgency for an independent Tamil state that has left more than 70,000 dead. Along the way, the group has been declared a terrorist organization in 32 countries, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the suicide belt. It was also behind the assassination of two world leaders -- the only terrorist organization to do so. Over the weekend, the militants offered to \"silence\" their guns after an intense military offensive decimated their ranks, usurping them from their stronghold in the north and east of the country, and cornered the remaining rebels on a small stretch of land. Watch more on the possible end to the conflict \u00bb . On Monday afternoon, the Sri Lankan government said it had killed Prabhakaran. If the rebels now follow through on their announcement, the action will potentially mark the end of the longest-running civil war in Asia. Who are the Tamils? The Tamils are an ethnic group that makes up about 12 percent of Sri Lanka's population of about 20 million. They mostly dominate the northern and eastern part of the country. Tamils are mostly Hindu and speak Tamil. That sets them apart from Sri Lanka's majority group, the Sinhalese, who make up 74 percent of the population. They are Buddhists and speak Sinhala. The tension between the two ethnic groups date to the British colonization of the country -- an island in the Indian Ocean, south of India. At the time, the country was known as Ceylon. Many Sri Lankans regarded the Tamils as British collaborators and resented the preferential treatment they received. The tables turned when the country achieved independence in 1948 and the Sinhalese majority dominated government. It was the Tamils then who claimed they were being discriminated against in politics, employment and education. By the 1970s Tamil politicians were demanding a separate Tamil state. It would be called Tamil Eelam. In this climate Prabhakaran emerged with his militant group, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Who is Prabhakaran? Prabhakaran operated from a secret jungle base in the northeastern part of the country, granting few media interviews and remaining an elusive figure to even many Tigers. He was reputed to wear a cyanide capsule around his neck -- to swallow rather than risk capture. And he reportedly expected the same dedication from his troops. As a result, few Tigers have been captured alive. To Prabhakaran's supporters he was a hero fighting for the rights of his people. The Sri Lankan government deemed him a war criminal with disregard for civilian casualties. He was wanted by Interpol on charges including terrorism and organized crime. In 1975, three years after forming his group, Prabhakaran was accused of fatally shooting the mayor of Jaffna, his birthplace. Prabhakaran was also accused of masterminding the killing of then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later, a Tigers' suicide bomber, allegedly acting under Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . Who are the Tamil Tigers? The Tigers reportedly number about 10,000, recruited from villagers in Tamil-dominated areas and unemployed Tamil youths who think they were passed over for jobs because of their ethnicity. Their armed struggle began in July 1983 when the Tigers killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. It led to, what was until then, the largest outburst of violence in the island's history. Hundreds of Tamils were killed, thousands left homeless and more than 100,000 fled to south India. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Tigers have -- until now -- shown no signs of being overpowered by the Sri Lankan military. The Tigers are infamous for suicide bombings, with men and women strapping on suicide vests for more than 200 attacks against Sri Lankan citizens and dozens of high-profile political leaders. In addition to perpetrating the attacks that killed Gandhi and Premadasa, the rebels have carried out the assassinations of two lawmakers and four ministers. A suicide bomber targeted Sri Lankan then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999 while she was campaigning for re-election. She was wounded but survived. The Tigers, however, have refrained from targeting Western tourists out of fear that foreign governments would crack down on Tamil expatriates who raise money for them abroad, the U.S. State Department said. Have there been peace talks? Periodically fighting has briefly halted because of a handful of peace agreements. By February 2002 the Tigers had dropped their demands for a separate homeland in exchange for a power-sharing deal with the government. Norway and some other countries agreed to monitor the ceasefire. A year later the rebels dropped out of the negotiations, saying they were being marginalized. They launched a suicide bombing campaign soon after. What led to renewed fighting? In January 2008 the Sri Lankan government announced it was annulling the nearly six-year-old truce with the rebels, declaring that it would crush the rebels. The fighting intensified with security forces driving the rebels from their strongholds in the east and north of the country. The government asked the rebels to lay down arms; the rebels vowed to continue. Caught in the crossfire were civilians, thousands of whom were displaced and hundreds killed. International aid groups expressed concern that both the government and the rebels disregarded civilian safety even in no-fire zones and hospitals. Both sides blamed the other for civilian casualties and exaggerated accounts of their victories. With journalists not allowed into the battle zones, their claims could not be independently confirmed. On Sunday, the Tigers posted an \"urgent statement\" on a pro-rebel Web site, saying the battle had reached \"its bitter end.\" \"We have decided to silence our guns,\" the statement said. Euphoria gripped the war-wracked nation. And Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa readied to announce to Tuesday that military operations had ended. But one last order of business awaited: The capture, dead or alive, of Prabhakaran. In the past, the Tigers have emerged from near-defeat. But if Prabhakaran's death is confirmed, the government is optimistic that it can write off the Tigers. CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report, which includes information from various sources. They include the U.S. State Department, the FBI, Interpol, Human Rights Watch, the Council on Foreign Relations, the CIA Factbook, and previous CNN reports.","highlights":"25-year long insurgency has killed more than 70,000 people .\nTamil leader reportedly wore a cyanide capsule around his neck .\nFBI says group pioneered use of suicide belts for bomb attacks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fabian Cancellara retained his gold jersey at the Vuelta Espana despite being caught up in a huge pile-up involving the leading riders near the end of Tuesday's fourth stage from Venlo to Liege. Andre Greipel of Team Columbia celebrates as he wins the 225km fourth stage of the Tour of Spain. Andre Greipel of Team Columbia edged out Belgian Wouter Weylandt and fellow German cyclists Bert Grabsch and Marcel Sieberg in a sprint finish to the rain-hit 225km leg which saw the race move from the Netherlands into Belgium. They moved clear after the main pack endured a major spill two kilometers from the end of the stage, which featured the first real climbs of the race. Switzerland's Cancellara now has a nine-second lead over Belgian sprint specialist Tom Boonen, who moved up to second as the top 57 riders involved in the crash were given the same time as the leaders. Grabsch is third, 11 seconds off the pace, with Greipel next at the same time following his fourth-place finishes on the two previous stages. \"My goal before starting the Vuelta was to win a stage,\" Greipel told the Vuelta's official Web site. \"I accomplished that here in Liege and now we'll just take it one day at a time. However, I really want to direct my first words to my fellow racers in the peloton who were involved in the spill. \"I just hope everyone can continue the race. As for me, I received great support from my team and that made my job much easier.\" On a difficult day for riding, the temperature dropped from 25C to 17C and persistent rain led to several falls for the competitors. Ezequiel Mosquera was one to cross the finish line in an apparent pain, though no details were released as to his condition. Lars Boom of Rabobank led a breakaway from the 21km mark with Dominik Roels (Milram), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia Cajasur) and Sergei Lagutin (Vacansoleil), and they built a 14-minute lead by 55km. However, that was slowly trimmed to just 2:35 with 47km remaining, and then to less than two minutes after the third and final ranked climb. Once they were caught, Enrico Gasparotto of Lampre went 10 seconds clear with 10km left but was also reeled in just before the mass crash. The riders have a much much-needed day off on Wednesday before moving to Spain for the 174km fifth stage from the Catalan city of Tarragona to the coastal city of Vinaros in Castellon. British rider Charles Wegelius became the first entrant to quit the event, meaning that New Zealander Julian Dean of the Garmin team is now the only man with a chance of completing all three of the sport's major three-week races this season. The duo started the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta along with Cancellara, Britain's David Millar and American Tyler Farrar, with the latter trio failing to finish in Italy.","highlights":"Fabian Cancellara retains his gold jersey at Vuelta Espana despite pile-up .\nAndre Greipel of Team Columbia wins fourth stage to Liege after late mass crash .\nAll the peloton given the same time as leaders following rain-hit day of racing .\nRiders have a rest day on Wednesday before the race moves into Spain ."} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- On your next trip, you could be checking into a wine cask, a salvaged 727 airplane, or a room where the furniture defies the law of gravity. The casks at the Hotel De Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands once held the equivalent of 19,333 bottles of wine. Upside-down stay . At Berlin's Propeller Island City Lodge, each of the 30 rooms is weird in its own way. The artist-owner, Lars Stroschen, has seen to that. One room, the first built, is made to look like a brightly painted medieval town, with an ultra-mini golf course surrounding the castle bed. Another has furniture attached to the ceiling, another has coffins for beds, and still another has lion cages on stilts (the Web site claims that kids \"love to sleep\" in them). Then there's the Freedom Room, which resembles a prison, complete with a toilet next to the bed -- oh, that German humor! 011-49\/30-891-90-16, propeller-island.com. A place to unwine'd . When they were owned by a Swiss ch\u00e2teau, the four enormous casks on the grounds of the Hotel De Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands held the equivalent of 19,333 bottles of wine. Now, after some creative recycling, it's guests rather than booze that mellow out inside the casks. The richly worn and airtight oak barrels have two narrow beds, with a small sitting area outside. The grounds are quite close to tiny Stavoren's harbor, which was a major port in the Middle Ages. 011-31\/51-46-81-202, hotel-vrouwevanstavoren.nl. A bad trip (with none of the consequences) The daughter of Ho Chi Minh's number two masterminded the Hang Nga Guest House and Art Gallery, a complex that more than earns its local nickname, the Crazy House. This LSD nightmare's three main buildings are Gaudi-esque concrete treehouse-like growths that appear as if they flowed organically out of the ground. Inside, the walls seem to dissolve into the floor, and right angles are avoided entirely. Each guest room is built around a different animal theme: the Eagle Room has a big-beaked bird standing atop a huge egg, while another has arm-sized ants crawling up the wall. The animal theme continues outside -- a large giraffe statue on the property contains a teahouse, and human-size \"spider webs\" are set up here and there. 011-84\/63-82-20-70. Budget Travel: Check out these unusual hotels . In a league of its own . Hydrophobics should stay far from Jules' Undersea Lodge, named for novelist Jules Verne of \"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea\" fame. The 600-square-foot lodge, a former marine lab, is 21 feet underwater, close to the bottom of the mangrove-filled Emerald Lagoon, in Key Largo. You'll have to know how to scuba dive to reach your room, and guests without the mandatory certification must take a course at the hotel. Once you've reached the lodge, which sleeps up to six, you'll be close to angelfish, anemones, barracuda, oysters, and other creatures -- each room is equipped with a 42-inch window, so you don't need to be suited up to keep an eye on the neighborhood. 305\/451-2353, jul.com. Crash in a jet plane . Near a beach that's within Manuel Antonio National Park, the Hotel Costa Verde doesn't lack for great sights. But few are as amazing as its own 727 Fuselage Suite, a salvaged 1965 Boeing 727-100 that looks as if it's crashed into the Costa Rican jungle (it's actually mounted atop a 50-foot pillar and reached via a spiral staircase). The jet's interior was once able to hold up to 125 passengers, but there are few reminders left of its days in the service of South African Airways and Colombia's Avianca Airlines. The suite's two bedrooms, dining area, and sitting room are now covered over entirely in teak to match the surroundings. Guests can play \"spot the toucan\" on the small wood deck that sits on top of the right wing. 011-506\/27-77-05-84 or 866\/854-7958, costaverde.com\/727.html. Your escape pod awaits . Colored bright-orange for easy visibility, the '70s-era escape pods that make up the Capsule Hotel once hung outside oil rigs, ready to be deployed in case of an evacuation. Recycled by self-proclaimed \"garbage architect\" Denis Oudendijk, the fleet of pods now rotates among different moorings in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. At the moment, two are in the western Dutch town of Vlissingen and another is in The Hague. For a kind of James Bond-meets-Barbarella twist, opt to book your pod with a disco ball and all the spy's movies on DVD. It's a super-kitschy nod to a similar pod's appearance in \"The Spy Who Loved Me.\" 011-31\/641-76-55-60, capsulehotel.info. On the road again . Imagine how much ground you could cover if you took your bed with you. That's the idea behind Exploranter Overland Hotel, a converted 25-ton truck that's a true hotel on wheels in Brazil. An awning extends out from the truck's side to provide some al fresco shade at lunchtime. The \"kitchen\" comes tricked out with fridges, freezers, and a large convection oven -- on this trip, the restaurant comes with you too, and sometimes nearby cooks are brought in to give guests a taste of the local cuisine. Your luggage and sleeping quarters are towed behind you, in a trailer that sleeps up to 24. With so much flexibility, guests can see Brazil's back country, far from crowds and sometimes any other people at all. The tours, which last from three days up to three months or more, have included horseback riding, vineyard tours, bird watching, and rodeos. 011-55\/11-99-38-00-58, exploranter.com. Where the penthouse is a trailer park . Cape Town, South Africa's sleek Grand Daddy hotel has a surprise on its roof: a fleet of seven Airstream trailers, six of which were imported from the U.S. The aluminum-clad \"rooms,\" which sleep two people, have been done in playful themes that incorporate icons like \"Goldilocks and the Three Bears\" (a blonde wig and a bear suit are available for dress-up), and John Lennon and Yoko Ono (the room's white-on-white furnishings include an enormous bed, natch). If you don't want to stray as far from the trailers' original looks, there's the Pleasantville model, an Eisenhower-era fantasia with chintz, harvest-gold curtains, and flower-covered throw pillows. 011-27\/21-424-7247, granddaddy.co.za. STILL WEIRD! Meet the giraffes (from the 2008 edition) Without sacrificing its estate-in-the-country dignity -- or all of it, anyway -- Giraffe Manor in Langata, Kenya, is arranged so that roaming giraffes can poke their heads into any open window or doorway with impunity and lather guests with their sticky, prehensile tongues. Your guesthouse is their guesthouse, so the silly creatures pop up everywhere, including over the breakfast table, in the lobby, and through the curtains of the five guest rooms for adults. 011-254\/20-890-948, off-hours 011-254\/20-891-078, giraffemanor.com. Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved.","highlights":"Guests can mellow out inside wine casks in the Netherlands .\nA sleek Cape Town, South Africa, hotel has an Airstream trailer park on the roof .\nA Costa Rica hotel offers stays inside a salvaged airplane ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- All sides involved in the controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells in research claimed vindication Tuesday after two teams of researchers reported having reprogrammed human skin cells to act like the stem cells, which have the potential of morphing into other cells and thereby curing disease. President Bush has twice vetoed bills that would have eased limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research. People who believe that life begins at conception liken the destruction of the embryonic stem cells to killing and therefore oppose their use in research. The new research, they said, shows that alternatives are available. \"By avoiding techniques that destroy life, while vigorously supporting alternative approaches, President Bush is encouraging scientific advancement within ethical boundaries,\" the White House said Tuesday in a written statement on the new research. Bush has twice vetoed bills that would have eased restrictions on the use of federal funds for research involving embryonic stem cells. Watch Bush state why he opposes the use of stem cells . In August 2001, he limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to lines that had already been created. But some researchers say those cells are not useful. \"The president believes medical problems can be solved without compromising either the high aims of science or the sanctity of human life,\" the White House statement said. \"We will continue to encourage scientists to expand the frontiers of stem cell research and continue to advance the understanding of human biology in an ethically responsible way.\" Watch a Harvard expert talk about what's next in stem cell research \u00bb . \"This breakthrough provides further evidence that the most promising avenues of stem cell research are also the most ethical,\" concurred Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, a physician. \"Politicians should note that the scientific community is moving rapidly without the assistance of laws requiring the taxpayer-funded destruction of human life.\" He added, \"This breakthrough helps vindicate President Bush's policy and his vetoes of Congress' short-sighted and outdated approach to stem cell research. History will note the wisdom of President Bush's refusal to set a dangerous precedent that could not be easily undone.\" And Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said he believes \"that the current stem cell policy has been very important in driving the discovery of ethical and successful ways for scientists to find treatments and cures. \"What has too often been missing from this important debate is a simple fact of modern science: Encouraging medical research and protecting the sanctity of life are not mutually exclusive goals.\" The methods described in the papers about the new research \"should continue to be pursued and strongly promoted, as they should help to steer the entire field of stem cell research in a more explicitly ethical direction by circumventing the moral quagmire associated with destroying human embryos,\" said the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a posting on its Web site. But those views were not shared by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who has pushed for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and said he will continue to do so. \"Our top researchers recognize that this new development does not mean that we should discontinue studying embryonic stem cells,\" he said in a written statement. \"Scientists may yet find that embryonic stem cells are more powerful. We need to continue to pursue all alternatives as we search for treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's and spinal cord injuries.\" He added that Tuesday's announcement \"reiterates the need for federal support for medical research and again points out the president's misplaced priorities in vetoing the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill which included a substantial increase for the National Institutes of Health.\" A lead author of one of the landmark studies, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, urged that reprogrammed cells not wholly supplant embryonic stem cells in research. \"I don't like the idea of pulling the plug,\" he told reporters in a conference call. He added that Tuesday's advances in reprogramming cells would not have been possible without the advancements in embryonic stem cell research over the past decade. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Teams report reprogramming human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells .\nBush: advance is \"within ethical boundaries\"\nHarkin: \"We need to continue to pursue all alternatives\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The father of a Florida girl who has been missing for nearly six months was charged Thursday with burglary with assault, police told CNN. Ronald Cummings was arrested on felony charges of burglary with assault, officials said. Ronald Cummings is being held on $12,500 bond for the felony charges, the Florida Putnam County Sheriff's Office said. There were no other details on his arrest available. Cummings' daughter, Haleigh Cummings, went missing from his home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9. Cummings has made several public pleas for information about his daughter's disappearance, even begging whoever might be holding her to just return her home. Police have said they think Haleigh was abducted but have provided few details. In March, Cummings married his then-girlfriend Misty Croslin, who was the last person known to have seen the 5-year-old child alive, saying it was what Haleigh would have wanted. Croslin, 17, said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. the night Haleigh disappeared. Croslin said she went to sleep herself at about 10 p.m. but awoke at 3 a.m. to find Haleigh missing and a back door propped open by bricks. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. CNN's Maria White and John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ronald Cummings is being held on $12,500 bond .\nHe was charged Thursday with burglary with assault .\nDaughter Haleigh Cummings went missing from his home on February 9 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, whose public battle with anal cancer has brought new attention to a rarely discussed disease, has not been given a timetable from her doctor about how much time she has left, according to her friend Alana Stewart. Farrah Fawcett, seen here in 2006, has waged a very public battle with anal cancer. \"No one has said to her you have two months to live,\" Stewart said Monday. \"So I'm looking at that as a really good sign.\" Stewart talked with Lara Spencer, host of \"The Insider,\" who discussed her interview with Fawcett's close friend on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Monday night. Spencer said Fawcett, her family and friends are clinging to hope for a recovery. \"She [Alana Stewart] doesn't want to throw out a number. And neither does Farrah. ... They're still hoping for that miracle,\" Spencer said. \"Farrah's Story,\" a documentary-style program that has followed the course of her illness and showed her grueling treatment in graphic detail, aired on NBC Friday and was viewed by almost 9 million people. Fawcett and partner Ryan O'Neal watched the show together, Spencer confirmed. \"Alana said it was the ultimate in bittersweet,\" Spencer said. \"You know, they're reliving two years of hell that they've endured together.\" King asked Spencer whether Fawcett, who made her name a household word on the hit '70s TV series \"Charlie's Angels,\" and O'Neal might marry. \"He said you never know. He was cagey about it,\" Spencer said. \"And, you know, I think he would in a second. He's so madly in love with her.\" King also had a panel of medical experts on his show to discuss Fawcett's cancer. Dr. Thomas Vogl, who at one time treated the actress in Germany, called her medical condition \"very, very serious.\" Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist in New York, said only about 5,000 cases of anal cancer are diagnosed in the United States yearly. Unlike Fawcett's case, it usually doesn't spread, and only about 10 to 15 percent of cases are advanced, Ocean said. Fawcett's cancer, however, is in Stage 4 and has spread to her liver. Ocean said there are various causes of anal cancer. \"One of the causes is a virus called the human papilloma virus, which is a sexually transmitted virus. It seems to be more common in women, in general, outside of any viral infections. Smoking is actually a risk factor,\" she said. King asked Dr. Paul Song, a radiation oncologist, if he had seen Stage 4 cancer cured. \"Not with anal cancer. I have seen it with other GI malignancies such as rectal cancer,\" Song said. \"But anal cancer is a little bit more difficult to treat.\" Despite the bleak outlook, Song had praise for Fawcett and her documentary. \"I think one of the most powerful things that Miss Fawcett did in this documentary was give patients a sense of hope and to just show how she's handled this with such courage and dignity,\" Song said. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta told King that doctors have to strike a delicate balance when they are caring for patients such as Fawcett. \"You have to be absolutely honest with patients, but, you know, you don't want to strip away their hope and optimism, either. There are people, Larry, as you know, who beat the odds,\" Gupta said. Vogl told King he developed a close relationship with Fawcett during the time he treated her in Germany and expressed admiration for his one-time patient. \"From a lot of treatments and contact and communication, I think she is extremely special, an extremely brave person,\" he said.","highlights":"\"Insider\" host Lara Spencer says friends, family holding out for a miracle .\nFarrah Fawcett has been fighting Stage 4 anal cancer, which has spread .\nDoctor who once treated her calls condition \"very, very serious\"\nAnother doctor said actress has handled illness with \"courage and dignity\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The news editor of the Zambian newspaper The Post has gone on trial for allegedly circulating obscene material to politicians, the newspaper states on its Web site. Zambia President Rupiah Banda has branded the childbirth photos pornographic. In early June, Chansa Kabwela wrote to the country's vice president, health minister and several non-governmental organizations to highlight problems in the country's health-care system -- especially the problems pregnant women faced during a strike by health-care workers. In her letter, Kabwela included several photos of a woman giving birth in a parking lot outside a hospital from which she had been turned away, according to Reporters Without Borders. The country's president, Rupiah Banda, branded the photos pornographic and called for Kabwela's arrest and prosecution, according to the press freedom organization. \"Kabwela's arrest is shocking and the grounds are ridiculous,\" the organization said in a statement on its Web site after the arrest. Now the trial into the alleged obscene photos has begun in the Lusaka magistrate's court, the newspaper Web site says. One of the first witnesses, Kenneth Ngosa, a senior private secretary to the vice president, told the court he was immediately disturbed by the pictures he found inside the letter, according to the paper. The Post described the courtroom as \"packed to capacity\" and said \"people from all works of life including musicians and opposition political party members\" had come to support Kabwela. Defense lawyer George Chisanga has asked the court to look into whether the president's order to arrest and prosecute Kabwela could influence the course of justice. A joint statement from several Zambian media organizations, published on The Post's Web site, calls for the government to amend the law on obscenity to clarify what constitutes obscenity and material that can corrupt morals. The statement concedes that the pictures were in bad taste, but notes that they were sent on behalf of a good cause: to end the strike. CNN efforts to obtain comment from both The Post and the Zambian government have been unsuccessful. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, in 2004 the mortality rate of children under 5 years old in Zambia was 182 per 1,000 live births. In the United States, under-5 mortality rate was 8 per 1,000 live births in 2006. Skilled health personnel attended only 43 percent of childbirths in Zambia in 2002, according to the health organization.","highlights":"News editor of Zambian newspaper on trial for circulating obscene material .\nChansa Kabwela sent pictures of a woman giving birth in a parking lot to President .\nShe says she wanted to highlight problems in country's healthcare system .\nPresident Banda branded the images pornographic and had Kabwela arrested ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Not only is Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi the first woman to hold a ministerial post in the United Arab Emirates, the first female minister of economy in the Gulf, and the first to start a Middle Eastern BB marketplace, but she's also the first minister - anywhere in the world - to launch her own perfume line. Member of Sharjah royal family and one of Forbes' 100 most powerful women, Sheikha Lubna took the post of minister for economy and planning of United Arab Emirates in 2004. Her background is in IT and before the government appointment worked at the Dubai Ports Authority where she gained the \"Distinguished Government Employee Award\" in 1999 for developing a documentation system that reduced cargo turnaround from one hour to ten minutes. In 2000, Sheikha Lubna founded Tejari, the first Middle Eastern business-to-business marketplace. As a result of Tejari (Arabic for commerce) 70 percent of Dubai's government purchases are made online, while only 30 percent of bureaucrats were web-literate before its launch. One of the cornerstones of Sheikha Lubna's work has been to allow for foreign ownership, so when John Defterios met up with her, he began by asking her about her upcoming strategy. Sheikha Lubna: We are looking with scrutiny at the companies a lot at the moment and we have several sectors. We will evaluate each sector, from the service side, finance, accounting. And any sector that we believe we need further development in terms of economic growth, then we will focus on that: on increasing the acquisition or the ownership of the foreign company. Defterios: If you look at the Middle East, specifically within this Gulf region, it's quite a radical change to open up specific sectors to majority foreign ownership. Is this society in the region ready for this move? Sheikha Lubna: Interestingly, the United Arab Emirates is host to 80 percent of its population coming from outside. We host 200 nationalities, so for us, the contribution to the economy has already started over 15 years ago with the existence of the expatriate community. So in many ways I think the openness is only a natural path: it's an organic path to continue the openness that exists. Foreign direct investment is not your own wealth. When you have your own wealth, you have a tendency to be complacent sometimes, because it's your money and you may not think you need to actually strengthen your infrastructure. However, if you look at foreign direct investment, it mandates you to be much more transparent, you have to be very diligent about your work, and it also creates new knowledge coming into the country and you can create more development through employment. Defterios: It's interesting, you read the front line of the DP World, P&O acquisition and the furor it created in the United States particularly within Congress. What are the lessons, not just from the UAE perspective, but the lessons learned from both sides during that whole process? Sheikha Lubna: First of all, I think it is important to understand, in this global world, there is a circulation of funds and there is excess of wealth that has to go somewhere. Liquidity of markets sometimes means you invest internally or you invest abroad. We've learned a lesson being in the oil crises earlier that you need to diversify your money and look into investment abroad. And we've seen this where the UAE invests in the Far East, Australia, Asia as well as in Europe and the United States. What's more important to understand is that if you're going to lock up your interest in terms of selling either because of protectionism or a particular idea in your mind that I don't want to sell to this particular organization versus another, there are other places. Defterios: That's not a veiled message your saying, that's pretty forthright this comment. Sheikha Lubna: But it's a message to all of us. If today I lock up my investment opportunity here, money will not come to me, money will go somewhere else. When I have investment coming from abroad, it creates confidence in this country that 'I am a global image'. So when I say it, I am not directing this as a message to a particular country. I am saying all countries are equal when it comes to regulation, when it comes to responsibility, when it comes to strategy in terms of attracting foreign funds and wealth coming to the country. So that's really a lesson that's very very critical. Defterios: A number of firsts: the first to start a B2B marketplace; the first female minister within the country, an economy minister; and the first to launch a perfume range as well. What is it all about? Trailblazing, setting examples, being an entrepreneur? How would you describe what you're doing here? Sheikha Lubna: Everybody laughs about the perfume. One, I think the United Arab Emirates, since inception (it's not from today but from the founder late Sheikh Zayed) has always given equal opportunities for women. But it's up to us as women to decide what is it that we can push, and what it is that we can do and not do. In my personal belief you need a bridge, you need a door opener for women. And sometimes women do not want to take the risk. Sometimes they are shy of achieving what they should be achieving. I had the opportunity and I had the trust from the government and the community, so to me, it is setting the example internally for the young women, and men by the way. Be it in technology, or economy or e-commerce. Defterios: And the perfume line is the exclamation point? Sheikha Lubna: A young woman, actually a perfume creator, who sells exclusively to Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai, decided to create a perfume with my name. So I had two mandates from her. One, I had to smell it, otherwise if it doesn't smell good I'm not going to take it as a name. So one, I had to actually agree to the scent of the perfume. And it's an Arabic perfume by the way. And second, my mandate was that I would only launch it with my name for her, if she gives 20 percent of its sales and revenue to the Friends of Cancer Patients. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sheikha Lubna was first female minister in the United Arab Emirates .\nOpenness to foreign ownership is the \"natural path\", she says .\nIf countries \"lock up\" interest due to protectionism there are other places to go ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Recently, I discovered that one of my best friends had ditched me after I logged onto Facebook and found her profile had disappeared from my page. When you break up with a best friend online, things can get murky. We'd been having problems that had culminated in a huge argument the day before, but I figured we'd get through it. I figured wrong. Still, being given the heave-ho by way of a social networking site? My first reaction was to laugh. I mean, we're adults. Unfriending me seemed tantamount to toilet-papering my locker or scribbling my phone number on the boy's locker room wall. We had been close for well over a decade. We supported each other through parental deaths, and together we'd bitched and moaned about men for untold hours. I loved her amazing daughter -- buying that little girl Christmas presents was the highlight of my holidays. Suddenly, that was all gone. Suddenly, I wasn't laughing. I was crying. We know what to do when boyfriends dump us: sob. We eat everything in the house or take to our beds and refuse all sustenance. Usually, there's yelling -- at least at my house. The Frisky: How NOT to help heal a broken heart . We purge them from our lives. We delete all their emails and erase their number from every electronic device we own. But when you break up with a girlfriend, things are murkier. For one thing, people don't feel sorry for you the way they do when a romantic relationship bites the dust. You can't blame them; it's not like you were in love or planning a future with your friend. (Even though you assumed she'd be part of it.) So, getting wound up about the loss seems somehow, I don't know, less legit. Is it? It hurts as much as any other heartbreak. Victoria Clark made a short film on the subject: \"Ruminations on You and Me.\" I asked her about the process of grieving a dead friendship. \"As a woman, I expect men to come and go because of the nature of love,\" she explained. \"But your girls are supposed to be on your side, no matter what ... That's what I wanted to believe for a long time, but now I know that that's not always reality.\" The Frisky: What are your rules for friendship on Facebook? A friend of mine was saddened when her BFF excised my friend from her life after landing a boyfriend. \"She hated being single, so if there was a man anywhere in the vicinity, you'd be kicked to the curb,\" my pal explained wistfully. Even forewarned with this knowledge, it stung when she was dismissed from her friend's life. The Frisky: Five ways to unfriend a friend . Unlike my breakup, there was no dramatic defriending. This woman utilized the passive-aggressive method of choice: the slow fade. \"I remember buying her a birthday gift, but somehow she just never had the time to come collect it.\" The Frisky: Ten songs about friendship . Like any other kind of relationship, friendships end. It's not like I've never dumped a pal. I've gotten back together with a few. Because I miss her and love her, I gave making up a shot with this one. A few weeks after I was banished from her Facebook page, I emailed her an apologetic note. I never heard back. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Author gets ditched on Facebook by good friend and doesn't know what to do .\nPeople don't feel as sorry for you with a friend breakup .\nYou can't blame your friend -- it's not like you were in love .\nLike any other kind of relationship, friendships end but you have to go on ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama visited military personnel and their families enjoying Christmas dinner at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii Thursday during his holiday vacation. President-elect Obama shakes hands with troops having Christmas dinner at a military base in Hawaii. Obama went to Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay on Oahu where he mingled with Marines and sailors. Obama and the troops also had a traditional dinner including turkey, roast beef, ham and trimmings. Obama, dressed casually in a blue polo shirt and dark khaki trousers, chatted casually, shook hands and posed for photos with men and women in the dining hall, which had been decorated with Christmas trees and Santa figurines. Shortly before Obama entered the room, a Marine shouted to the crowd scattered across 25 tables, \"You need to take you seats, the president-elect is going to be coming.\" Obama, who spent about an hour at the Marine base, worked his way around the room, table by table. \"Just wanted to say, 'Hi, hey guys,'\" Obama said at one point while reporters were allowed in the room. \"Hey guys, Merry Christmas,\" he said to another group. Obama also highlighted the service of the country's military men and women now overseas in a holiday message to be broadcast on radio this Saturday. \"As we celebrate this joyous time of year, our thoughts turn to the brave men and women who serve our country far from home,\" he said in the message, which was posted online Wednesday. \"Their extraordinary and selfless sacrifice is an inspiration to us all, and part of the unbroken line of heroism that has made our freedom and prosperity possible for over two centuries.\" Watch Obama's holiday message \u00bb . More than 140,000 soldiers are currently serving in Iraq, as well as roughly 30,000 in Afghanistan. In the broadcast message, Obama also called on Americans to \"renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship.\" \"These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy,\" he said. \"Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans -- that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. ... We must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.\" Obama said that notion \"will guide my administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work ... and reach the promise of a brighter day.\"","highlights":"President-elect Barack Obama mingles with troops in Hawaii on Christmas Day .\nObama praised country's military men and women in online message .\nObama calls on Americans to \"renew a sense of common purpose\""} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A lawsuit filed January 30 by baseball great Roberto Alomar's ex-girlfriend alleges he engaged in unprotected sex with her while suffering from HIV\/AIDS. Roberto Alomar's ex-girlfriend says he had unprotected sex with her while infected with HIV. Ilya Dall is asking for $15 million for \"personal injuries\" suffered due to Alomar's negligence. She and her two children lived with the former New York Mets slugger for three years. She alleges that he started exhibiting signs of HIV as early as 2005, but twice refused recommendations for an HIV test by his doctor, saying that earlier tests for the disease had come back negative, according to court papers. Alomar's lawyer, Charles Bach, was not available for comment, but attorney Luke Pittoni, who also represents Alomar, said, \"We believe this is a totally frivolous lawsuit -- these allegations are baseless, he's healthy and he'd like to keep his health status private. We'll do our talking in court.\" Anthony Piancentini, who is representing Dall, said he has \"no comment\" at this time. Dall says in court papers that Alomar told her \"I don't have HIV.\" She alleges he \"lied and purposefully misrepresented his physical condition\" and \"that he was endangering the health and well being of [Dall] by continuing to have unprotected sexual relations with [her],\" according to the lawsuit. Court papers list several physical ailments that Dall says Alomar exhibited from early 2005 on, including white spots on his mouth and throat, extreme fatigue, back and vision problems, and shingles. In early 2006, Alomar submitted to an HIV test that, according to court papers, confirmed he was HIV positive in February 2006. Dall says she went for an HIV test shortly afterward and the results were negative. The couple visited a disease specialist shortly after Alomar's diagnosis, who found a mass in Alomar's chest and advised the couple that he was suffering from full-blown AIDS, according to the lawsuit. Dall alleges that a few days later, Alomar's skin was turning purple and he was foaming at the mouth; a spinal tap on February 21, 2006, confirmed he had full-blown AIDS, court papers said. Dall claims in the lawsuit that Alomar's negligence caused her severe \"emotional distress\" over the health of her children. Court papers say that because the couple lived with the children, they may have been exposed to Alomar's saliva or blood in the bathroom, through things like toothbrushes and other items. Dall claims to suffer from \"permanent emotional distress\" even after repeatedly testing negative for HIV. The lawsuit claims her fear of contracting the disease is known as \"AIDS phobia\" and that she suffers from permanent post-traumatic stress disorder. Alomar requested Tuesday that the suit be moved to Brooklyn, New York, federal court. It was originally filed in Supreme Court in Queens, New York. An initial conference on the case is expected on April 15 in Brooklyn federal court. Alomar is the son and brother of major leaguers -- father Sandy Alomar was a second baseman with several teams between 1964 and 1978 and brother Sandy Alomar Jr. is a former catcher who played from 1988 to 2007. Roberto Alomar retired in 2004 with a .300 lifetime batting average, 12 All-Star game selections and 10 Gold Gloves. He was the All Star Game MVP in 1998 and played on two Toronto Blue Jays World Series champion teams. Alomar, then playing for the Baltimore Orioles, is also known for an incident in 1996 during a game against the Blue Jays when he spat in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck following a heated argument over a third strike. After the incident, Alomar claimed the umpire uttered a slur to him during the argument.","highlights":"Ex-girlfriend says he denied having HIV\/AIDS, had unprotected sex with her .\nWoman says Alomar endangered her health by lying to her about disease .\nCourt papers say tests in 2006 showed Alomar had full-blown AIDS .\nAlomar's representative says claims are part of \"frivolous lawsuit\""} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities said they have arrested the leader of a drug cartel that set off two grenades during a public celebration in September, killing eight people and wounding more than 100. Cesar Duarte, president of the federal chamber of deputies, says he supports the government plan on narcotrafficking. Alberto Espinoza Barron, known as \"the Strawberry,\" heads the \"Michoacan Family,\" which operates in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico, authorities said. Officials say the cartel set off the two grenades September 15 in the public plaza in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. Espinoza Barron's arrest Monday, which officials did not confirm until Tuesday, came just days after Mexican officials arrested an army major assigned to a guard unit protecting Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The army major, Arturo Gonzalez Rodriguez, was paid as much as $100,000 a month for passing information to a drug cartel, officials said after the officer's arrest Friday. Espinoza Barron's arrest by the military as part of its permanent presence in Michoacan came at a time when some are questioning the military's role in the war against narcotics traffickers. \"I believe that we need to totally change our strategies since the results have been awful,\" said Juan Francisco Rivera of the Mexican Commission on National Security. \"It's not me who is saying that, because the president himself has recognized it. I don't believe the country is willing to keep committing errors.\" Others believe that the military, known by the acronym SEDENA, is the only institution capable of confronting organized crime. \"The participation by SEDENA is necessary because there is a threat and harm to national security,\" said Guillermo Velasco, member of an organization called Better Society, Better Government. \"It's known that many of the successes have come from the work done by military intelligence and investigation.\" Amid this debate, the secretary for national defense recently proposed a 60-year prison term for any military member linked to organized crime. \"We believe the national defense secretary's position is adequate,\" said Cesar Duarte, president of the federal chamber of deputies. \"We support him with respect to implementing major punishment for elements that are infiltrated or compromised with narcotrafficking.\" In many parts of the country, narcotraffickers constantly recruit low-level soldiers. The secretary of defense has said that in the past seven years about 100,000 soldiers have quit to join the drug cartels.","highlights":"Mexico arrests Alberto Espinoza Barron, known as \"the Strawberry\"\nHe heads the \"Michoacan Family,\" accused of setting grenades that killed 8 .\nSome question military's role in the war against narcotics traffickers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- England international footballer Steven Gerrard was found not guilty of affray by a court in his home city on Friday. England international Steven Gerrard was cleared by a court in Liverpool of affray. The jury at Liverpool Crown Court took a little over an hour to clear Gerrard of charges relating to a fracas in a nightclub bar in the north-western of England city on December 29 of last year. They accepted the Liverpool captain's version that he acted in self defense in punching businessman Marcus McGhee. The 29-year-old was the only one of the seven defendants in the case to be cleared after an incident which was described by judge Henry Globe as an \"explosion of violence.\" Gerrard spoke of his relief outside the court. \"Can I just say how pleased I am with today's verdict,\" he said. \"I'm glad to put this case behind me and I am really looking forward to the season ahead and concentrating on my football now. \"I would just like to say a big thank you to my legal team and to my friends and family and everyone at Liverpool football club for supporting me.\" His comments were met with a round of applause from a large group of fans of the Premier League club who had gathered outside the court, before he was ushered away. Gerrard was celebrating in the Lounge Inn in Southport, a suburb of Liverpool, after scoring twice his team's 5-1 win at Newcastle which took them to the top of the Premier League. Video footage, which was available to the court, showed the moment around 2.am in the morning when trouble flared. Gerrard apparently wanted to change the music on the CD player and the 34-year-old McGee said the football star had acted aggressively in trying to grab the device. In the fracas which followed, Gerrard admitted throwing three punches but said only one connected. He claimed, and his version was accepted by the jury, that he believed he was about to be attacked himself. \"You did not start the violence, it was started by the violent elbowing of Marcus McGee in the face by one of your friends, John Doran,\" Globe said. \"The victim's consequential actions of reeling backwards and then forwards and your actions in response to that movement forward has to be seen against that background,\" he added. Five other men have already pleaded guilty to affray and another admitted a lesser charge of threatening behavior. They will be sentenced at a later date.","highlights":"England football star Steven Gerrard cleared of affray charge by Liverpool court .\nGerrard admitted punching 34-year-old businessman Marcus McGhee .\nJury accepted his version that he acted in self defense in nightclub brawl ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Continental Airlines plane that crashed in Clarence Center, New York, late Thursday is one of several major incidents over the past two months. The wreckage of a Continental Airlines 737 sits off a runway at Denver International Airport in December. \u2022 On February 12, Continental Flight 3407 crashed en route to Buffalo, New York, killing 49 people. \u2022 On January 27, Empire Airlines Flight 8284 crashed 300 feet short while on approach to a runway at Lubbock International Airport in Texas. The plane was arriving from Fort Worth, Texas. The aircraft was destroyed by the crash and a post-impact fire. Two crew members suffered minor injuries. \u2022 On January 15, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River while en route from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina. All 155 passengers survived, with few injuries. \u2022 On December 20, 2008, Continental Flight 1404 departed the left side of the runway during takeoff from Denver International Airport in Denver. The flight was en route to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. A total of 38 passengers and crew were taken to hospitals, and five were admitted. There were no fatalities. The airplane was substantially damaged and experienced a post-crash fire, which was located on the right side of the aircraft. CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thursday's deadly plane crash in Buffalo is part of a spate of recent incidents .\nU.S. Airways Flight 1549 landed in Hudson River on January 15 .\nContinental Flight 1404 slides off runway during takeoff at Denver International Airport ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescuers have found the body of a man who was one of six people aboard a small airplane that crashed Sunday evening near the northern shore of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Cessna 206 single-engine aircraft went down about a half mile off the coast of Quebradillas. The man's body was found Monday less than 150 feet from shore, Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad said. The Coast Guard launched two more search missions Tuesday morning for four men and one woman still missing. Authorities have not released their identities, nor the name of the man found Monday. \"The Coast Guard will continue to search as long as there is the possibility of finding any survivors,\" Castrodad said. Eighteen divers will conduct searches Tuesday in the area where the body was found, the Coast Guard spokesman said. Volunteer divers from Arecibo found the body Monday, said Jose Daniel Echeverria, spokesman for the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency, which also is involved in the search. As of Tuesday, the Coast Guard will have conducted 12 search operations, eight done by four HH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Borinquen and four by the Cutter Matinicus, Castrodad said. The search is complicated, he said, by the roughness of the area. \"It's like a cliff,\" he said. \"The surf is very rough. It's hard to get in that area.\" Smaller boats from the emergency management agency and the Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces for Rapid Action are being used because they can reach areas that the Coast Guard cutter cannot, Castrodad said. The private plane, chartered by Tropical Aviation Corp., took off from the Dominican Republic and was on its way to an airport in Puerto Rico when it went down Sunday evening, officials said. The four males and one female onboard were returning to Puerto Rico after spending the weekend in the Dominican Republic, said Noemi Corporan, service manager for Tropical Aviation. The passengers were San Juan residents and had flown to the Dominican Republic on Friday, she said. The airplane took off from Casa de Campo International Airport in the Dominican Republic and was supposed to land at the Luis Mu\u00f1oz Marin International Airport in Carolina to clear U.S. customs before going on to the Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, the Coast Guard said. A 911 emergency operator notified the Coast Guard at 6:51 p.m. Sunday that an aircraft had crashed into the waters off Quebradillas. Searchers found a debris field in the area late Sunday. In the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, a man who said he spent the weekend with the missing passengers said he urged them not to leave Sunday night because of severe weather. Retired businessman Manuel \"Manolin\" Lecaroz, 64, told El Nuevo Dia newspaper that the group left because one of them had business to conduct Monday morning. He did not have a premonition, Lecaroz said. \"It's just that you can't fly when the weather is bad.\" The winds and heavy rains that were still being felt in Puerto Rico on Monday had ruined the group's chances to spend the weekend fishing and playing golf in the Dominican Republic, which is 79 miles (127 kilometers) away. \"It rained every day,\" Lecaroz told the Puerto Rican newspaper. \"The wind was blowing very hard, so much that we couldn't go out in the boat any day.\" As they left Sunday night, group members hugged Lecaroz and talked about returning later this month to fish and golf, he said.","highlights":"Coast Guard launches search missions for five still missing after plane went down .\nDivers find man's body near shore of Quebradillas, Puerto Rico .\nSearch complicated by the roughness of the area, U.S. Coast Guard official says .\nSix onboard private plane returning to Puerto Rico from Dominican Republic ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A judge has declared a mistrial in the retrial of six men accused of plotting terrorist acts with al Qaeda. Narseal Batiste, the group's alleged ringleader, testified he wasn't serious about the terrorism threats he made. The decision comes after 13 days of deliberation and marks the second time government prosecutors have failed to convince a jury that the six defendants were guilty of terror-related charges. It is unclear whether the government will pursue a third trial against the defendants. The first trial ended in a mistrial last December after nine days of deliberations left a jury hopelessly deadlocked on the six defendants. A seventh was acquitted. The defendants are known as the \"Liberty City 7\" because authorities say the men operated out of a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City housing project. After their arrests in June 2006, federal officials said the homegrown terror plot may have included as its possible targets the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago -- the tallest building in North America -- as well as the FBI's Miami offices and other sites. E-mail to a friend . CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge declares mistrial in the retrial of Miami terrorism case .\nMen accused of plotting to target Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices .\nDefendants faced up to 70 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy charges .\nFirst trial ended in a mistrial in December, also because of a hung jury ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN has asked its journalists across the country to offer their thoughts on how the economic crisis is affecting their cities. In this installment, All Platform Journalist John Couwels reports from Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has announced that it will lay off employees. ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Orlando: What first comes to mind? Walt Disney World or Universal resorts, perhaps? The two parks are the nation's biggest tourist draws. As a new resident of Orlando, I find that the tourist areas are more removed from the city than I thought. Still, some people in the area where I currently live either work or have business dealings at tourist attractions. As with every city in the United States, Orlando is dealing with the fallout of an economic slowdown. Tourism officials expect an 8 percent to 10 percent drop in tourism dollars for 2009. Nonetheless, during a recent visit to Disney's Magic Kingdom with my family, I experienced a packed park. My first visit in 10 years: The park did not seem any different except for the $129 I paid for a six-month Florida resident pass. Disney World recently announced a major loss in income and that layoffs are expected. Sources within Disney say the layoffs could begin this week. Disney will not say how many people will be eliminated while it restructures and consolidates operations. I have not heard panic among businesses and city officials over the Disney announcement, despite the fact Disney World says it is the biggest single-site employer in the United States with 62,000. Disney spokesman Mike Griffin said: \"We are bigger than the Pentagon.\" Disney told me cuts would be significant, affecting back office workers. Griffin said guests visiting the parks would not see any difference. Danielle Courtney, spokeswoman of the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she was sure that \"Disney will provide a value experience for their guests.\" But she said Disney is doing what every other business is doing: cutting costs. Orlando's economic and development director, Bill Billingsley, said the city has not lost a significant amount of jobs. Billingsley is concerned about the Disney layoffs but optimistic on the limited effect on the city's economic health. From the big corporations to the funky little tea and sandwich shop east of downtown, businesses are feeling the pinch. The owner of Pom Pom's Teahouse and Sandwicheria was telling my friend how she had to cut everyone's hours to part time to save on expenses. The store has been open since 2006. Owner Pom Moongauklang, a trained pastry chef, told me she's doing whatever it takes to stay open. Pom cut her four employees' hours instead of their jobs, lowered prices and extended hours to 24 hours on the weekends. Pom said of the 60- to 70-hour work week: \"It's killing me, but it's working.\" Along the epicenter of tourist hotels, restaurants and T-shirt shops, International Drive business owners say they are hurting. Aby Aly, owner of a gift shop selling goods from T-shirts to plush dolls, said that \"business is off by 35 percent, and people are not buying.\" As I drive around town, I do not see a large number of closed-down stores. Like other cities, Orlando has seen big national chain closures like Linen-N-Things and Circuit City. Yet at two of the area's outlet malls, you would never know there is an economic crisis. I waited 10 minutes in line to enter the parking lot. In the suburbs where foreclosures are their highest, more businesses have closed their doors. As I looked for a house to rent I was surprised how a one-bedroom condo in downtown was the same price as a four-bedroom house only five miles away. Real estate agent Sue Bee Laginess said the city has a glut of homes and condominiums for sale or rent. She said her office has seen business double from four months ago because of the low prices. The agent said owners have either lowered prices, been foreclosed on or are selling the house for the amount owed to the bank. For one store in my new quaint neighborhood of College Park, business has never been better: Top Drawer Consignments. Fred Rodgers, a former Disney designer and one of the store's owners, said \"the tough economy is helping us.\" Shoppers say they save money buying used furniture. Yet College Park has not been immune from the economic crisis; real estate offices and gift shops have closed there, too. Despite the downturn, Orlando officials believe their city has fared better than most. Orlando's economic development director told me Orlando is building a medical city that will add 10,000 jobs in the coming years. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer will give his State of Orlando speech Wednesday, the same week the area's biggest employer could begin layoffs.","highlights":"Resort mecca Orlando, Florida, feels the pinch of economic slowdown .\nDisney World reports it will have to lay off employees .\nConsignment store bucks trend; business good there .\nCity officials say upcoming medical development will add 10,000 jobs ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Mad Men\" and \"Damages\" found themselves on top when the nominations for the 60th Annual Primetime Emmys came out Thursday morning -- but, again, there was no love for HBO's \"The Wire.\" Emmy nominee Jon Hamm stars as ad exec Don Draper in \"Mad Men,\" which earned 16 nominations. AMC's \"Mad Men\" and FX's \"Damages\" made Emmy history Thursday as the first basic-cable series to be nominated for best drama. The pair, which had made the 10-series Emmy shortlist, have been widely hailed by critics and have received good ratings for basic-cable series -- though \"Damages\" star Glenn Close said she hopes the Emmys help boost the show's audience. \"We need all the help we can get,\" she told The Associated Press. On the other hand, HBO's \"The Wire\" -- which concluded its fifth and final season this year -- once again came up empty in the best drama nominations. It did receive one nod, for writing. The series, though much praised and dissected by a hard-core group of fans, has received little recognition from the Emmys, with just one previous nomination -- also for writing -- in 2005. Check out some of the top Emmy nods this year \u00bb . Indeed, HBO has struggled to find a drama to take the place of the much-lauded \"The Sopranos,\" which won best drama last year after a storied run. \"Mad Men,\" which has made AMC into a player, was allegedly turned down by the cable giant, and shows such as the quickly canceled \"John From Cincinnati\" and \"Rome\" haven't had the same impact. On the other hand, \"In Treatment\" received a nomination for Gabriel Byrne's performance as a therapist, and the network's comedies, particularly \"Entourage,\" have performed strongly. Moreover, the network's short-form programming, such as the miniseries \"John Adams\" and the TV movie \"Recount,\" dominated their Emmy categories: \"John Adams\" led all nominees with 23 nominations, and \"Recount,\" about the 2000 presidential election battle, received 11. \"The network has made up for [its lack of drama series success] in other forms,\" Variety TV editor Michael Schneider told CNN. \"It's still the most nominated network and has the most nominated program.\" HBO led all networks with 85 nominations. Among broadcast networks, ABC led with 76 nominations. Among regularly scheduled TV series, \"30 Rock\" earned 17 nominations and \"Mad Men\" received 16. The 17 nominations for \"30 Rock\" were a record number in a single year for a comedy series. Newcomer \"Pushing Daisies,\" the whimsical series on ABC, received 12 nominations. Given that the show only aired nine episodes -- and hasn't been on the air in months due to the writers strike -- its recognition was a surprise, Schneider said. \"It was nice that voters still remembered it,\" he said. Along with \"Damages\" and \"Mad Men,\" nominees for best drama include \"Boston Legal,\" \"Dexter,\" \"House\" and \"Lost.\" Comedy series nominees are \"Curb Your Enthusiasm,\" \"Entourage,\" \"The Office,\" \"30 Rock\" and \"Two and a Half Men.\" Cable series dominated the dramatic acting nominations, with four of the six actors and three of the five actresses appearing on basic or pay cable. Best actor in a drama nominees are Byrne (\"In Treatment\"), Bryan Cranston (\"Breaking Bad\"), Michael C. Hall (\"Dexter\"), Jon Hamm (\"Mad Men\"), Hugh Laurie (\"House\") and James Spader (\"Boston Legal\"). \"Dexter,\" which originated on Showtime, earned a short run on CBS following the writers strike. The nominees for best actress in a drama are Close (\"Damages\"), Sally Field (\"Brothers and Sisters\"), Mariska Hargitay (\"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\"), Holly Hunter (\"Saving Grace\") and Kyra Sedgwick (\"The Closer\"). A number of familiar names were included among nominees for comedies. The nominees for best actor in a comedy are Alec Baldwin (\"30 Rock\"), Steve Carell (\"The Office\"), Lee Pace (\"Pushing Daisies\"), Tony Shalhoub (\"Monk\") and Charlie Sheen (\"Two and a Half Men\"). Only Pace is a newcomer. The nominees for best actress in a comedy are Christina Applegate (\"Samantha Who?\"), America Ferrera (\"Ugly Betty\"), Tina Fey (\"30 Rock\"), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (\"The New Adventures of Old Christine\") and Mary-Louise Parker (\"Weeds\"). Sarah Silverman earned three nominations, all for different programs: one for a guest shot on \"Monk,\" another for contributing to \"Jimmy Kimmel Live\" and a third for producing her own \"The Sarah Silverman Program.\" Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris and TV academy Chairman John Shaffner announced the nominations Thursday. Chenoweth was particularly bubbly, throwing in a non sequitur about once dating \"Survivor\" host Jeff Probst and declining to sing \"Happy Birthday\" because \"the Emmys can't afford me to sing that song\" due to licensing arrangements. Both Chenoweth (\"Pushing Daisies\") and Harris (\"How I Met Your Mother\") were nominated in supporting actor categories. Two highly rated shows, \"Grey's Anatomy\" and \"Desperate Housewives,\" were snubbed. \"Grey's,\" a regular nominee for best drama, was left off that list, though star Sandra Oh was nominated for best supporting actress. \"Housewives,\" which won six Emmys its debut season, was ignored in both best comedy series and best actress in a comedy series categories. Two guest stars did receive nominations. Stephen Colbert, nominated for individual performance in a variety or musical program, put everything in perspective. \"What an honor, unless I don't win,\" he told the AP. The Emmy Awards ceremony will be held September 21 and broadcast on ABC. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Mad Men\" and \"Damages\" earn best drama nominations .\nHBO miniseries \"John Adams\" receives 23 nominations .\nEmmys snub \"The Wire,\" \"Grey's Anatomy,\" \"Desperate Housewives\"\nCeremony will be broadcast on ABC on September 21 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Every dog has his day, but Sir Lancelot -- or at least his carbon copy -- has a second one. Edgar and Nina Otto show off 10-week-old Lancey, a clone of \"the most human of any dog we've ever had.\" A Boca Raton, Florida, couple paid a California firm $155,000 to clone their beloved Labrador retriever, who died from cancer a year ago. The clone, a 10-week-old puppy dubbed Lancey, was hand-delivered to them earlier this week by Lou Hawthorne, chairman of BioArts International, a biotechnology company. \"One minute with Lancey and you know he's special. He's both extremely aware and very sweet,\" Hawthorne said in a BioArts statement. Edgar and Nina Otto said they began thinking about cloning Sir Lancelot about five years ago. \"I said 'Well, you know, it wouldn't hurt to have his DNA frozen,' and that's what we did,\" Nina Otto told CNN affiliate WPBF. The Ottos were one of five families to bid and win a BioArts auction for a chance to clone their family dog, according to a BioArts statement. Lancey is the world's first commercially cloned dog, the company said; the Ottos are the first of six current clients to receive their clone. Sir Lancelot's DNA sample was sent to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, which provides cloning services to BioArts. Researchers there put the DNA into an egg, and Lancey was born November 18, according to BioArts. The Ottos said they have had many beloved dogs over the years -- and have nine others currently -- but maintain Sir Lancelot was special. \"Sir Lancelot was the most human of any dog we've ever had,\" Edgar Otto said in the BioArts statement. \"He was a prince among dogs.\" In an interview with WPBF, Edgar Otto said Sir Lancelot \"was a very, very, very special dog to us. And we've given a lot more to the Humane Society than we've ever spent on this project.\" Watch the Ottos talk about Lancelot and Lancey \u00bb . For its part, the Humane Society of the United States says it's against the commercial cloning of animals. \"Given the current pet overpopulation problem, which costs millions of animals their lives and millions in public tax dollars each year, the cloning of pets has no social value and in fact may lead to increased animal suffering,\" the organization said on its Web site. \"For those looking to replace a lost pet, cloning will not create an animal identical to the one who is gone; cloning cannot replicate an animal's uniqueness. Cloning can only replicate the pet's genetics, which influence but do not determine his physical attributes or personality.\" The Ottos, however, said replicating Sir Lancelot's genetics is enough for them. Edgar Otto said he realizes Lancey might not be just like their departed dog, but \"if he's different, we're not going to love him any less.\" Edgar Otto is the son of the late Edwin Otto, who was part of the founding of NASCAR and a \"motorsports pioneer,\" according to www.ottomotorsports.com.","highlights":"Couple won auction to clone family dog, biotech company says .\nLancey is world's first commercially cloned dog, company says .\nDNA of deceased dog sent to S. Korea, and cloned puppy born November 18 .\nHumane Society says it's against commercial cloning of animals ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A celebrity gossip Web site has caught Maria Shriver a third time apparently violating California's law against using a cell phone while driving. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says \"swift action\" will be taken on wife Maria Shriver's driving \"violations.\" Web site TMZ posted a 17-second video Tuesday showing the California first lady apparently speaking into a cell phone while turning a corner in Brentwood in a black SUV. She puts the phone down part way through the video, but it's not clear whether she did so because she had finished her conversation or because she noticed cameras following her. The site also photographed Shriver allegedly chatting while driving on Sunday and on June 12. Shriver's husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, last year supported and signed into law a ban on using handheld communication devices while driving. Enforcement of the ban began July 1, 2008; it carries a $20 fine for a first violation; $50 for each subsequent offense. A similar law banning texting while driving took effect January 1 this year. Watch Shriver driving while on her cell phone . By the end of September, the California Highway Patrol had issued tickets for about 150,000 cell phone infractions, said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety. No one keeps track of infractions cited by county and local departments, he said. See where laws limit cell phone use in cars \u00bb . Shriver has not been cited. In Los Angeles County, where Brentwood is, the Superior Court has set the cost at about $93 for the first ticket and $201 for the next one, meaning Shriver would owe at least $300 in fines and court fees had she been caught by police, CNN affiliate KTLA-TV reported. On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger sent a Twitter message to TMZ editor Harvey Levin: \"Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There's going to be swift action.\" What that action might entail was not specified. Shriver on Wednesday issued an apology: . \"I'm sorry,\" she said in a statement. \"I will be donating my favorite old cell phone to my Women's Conference partner Verizon through their HopeLine program that helps domestic violence shelters. I invite anyone else who wants to recycle their old phone to join me. That's my version of swift action with a higher purpose.\" The traffic office referred questions about Shriver to the governor's office, which declined to comment. \"We don't really think that hand-held bans have a whole lot of impact,\" said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association in Washington. The association urges drivers not to use phones, including hands-free devices, while driving, but does not support laws banning them, he said. The attention to Shriver \"alludes to a bigger problem, and that's the fact that everybody does it,\" Adkins said. \"Not only are public officials doing it, but we have to educate the highway safety community. ... Cops frequently are on their cell phones when they drive. \"The Shriver case really underscores the scope of the problem. We have a lot of educating to do.\" Shriver's most recent alleged violations come on the heels of AAA Northern California's \"Heads Up Driving Week,\" during which the auto club urged motorists to get in the habit of driving without distractions such as cell phones, fast food and tuning the stereo. \"We hope that by driving distraction-free for a week, people can pick up the habit for life,\" AAA spokesman Matt Skryja said in a news release. Seven states and the District of Columbia ban all handheld cell phone use by drivers. Several other states allow localities to set their own limits on cell phone use.","highlights":"NEW: Shriver apologizes and says she will donate her cell phone to charity .\nCalifornia Highway Patrol issues 150,000 cell phone tickets in first year .\nGossip site catches Shriver apparently violating cell phone law; she's not cited .\nCalifornia first lady's gaffes point to bigger problem, safety advocate says ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's the man who has just rejected offers of up to $700,000 a week in wages -- but who really is Kaka? And what has he done to deserve so much money? Wanted man: Kaka overcame a spine fracture before getting to the top of world football. Born in Brazil in 1982, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, or \"Kaka\" as he is more commonly known, is a footballer with Italian club AC Milan. His name, Kaka, is believed to come from a brother, who began calling him that due to his inability to say his proper name -- Ricardo. Said to be an amazing talent from a very young age, the attacking midfielder began his career with Sao Paulo at the tender age of eight, and had signed his first contract before his 16th birthday. Do you think Kaka should have stayed at AC Milan or taken the money at Manchester City? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. However, when all seemed set for a perfect career, Kaka suffered a serious, potentially paralyzing injury from a swimming pool accident in 2000. The then 18-year-old fractured a vertebra in his spine -- an injury that many thought could have ended his career and even prevented him from walking again. Kaka did recover though, and it's something that the deeply religious Brazilian has put down to the help of God, and ever since has given some of his income to his Church. Once recovered, he didn't waste time in getting his career restarted. By January 2001 he had made his debut in the Sao Paulo senior team and led the team to its first Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo championship. The following year he was a part of the Brazil team which won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and in 2003 his talents had attracted the interest of European clubs and he signed to AC Milan for euro 9 million ($12 million) per season, and remains under contract with them through 2013. Since then he's won the Serie A, UEFA Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup with AC Milan, while on a personal level he won the 2007 Ballon d'Or Award for the best player in Europe and the FIFA World Player of the Year 2007 -- among many other awards. His international performances have continued to be strong -- and he has now scored 23 goals for Brazil. Such is his influence inside and outside of football, that Kaka was named in the Time 100 most influential people in 2008. Outside of the game Kaka has continued to be a devout Christian. He married his long-time partner Caroline Celico in 2005, and they had their first child in June 2008. Oddly, the current season (in which he finds himself being offered the biggest football salary ever) hasn't been as profitable for Kaka. The 26-year-old has struggled with a groin injury and has not managed to combine as smoothly within the AC Milan team compared to previous seasons. Still, that did not seem to worry Manchester City -- or Real Madrid, and for now at least, the $150 million transfer effort remains the biggest in football's history.","highlights":"Kaka is a Brazilian attacking midfielder who plays at AC Milan in Italy .\nAt the age of 18 Kaka broke a vertebra in a swimming pool accident .\nHe was named FIFA World Player of the Year for 2007 ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the oldest surviving human brain in Britain, dating back at least 2,000 years to the Iron Age. A representation of the skull generated from the CT scans taken at York Hospital. The remains of the brain were found in a skull unearthed during excavations at York University in northern England, a statement from the university said Friday. The dig site was described by investigators from York Archaeological Trust as being in an extensive prehistoric farming landscape of fields, track ways and buildings dating back to at least 300 BC. They believe the skull, which was found on its own in a muddy pit, may have been a ritual offering. Rachel Cubitt, who was taking part in the dig, described how she felt something move inside the cranium as she cleaned the soil-covered skull's outer surface. Peering through the base of the skull, she spotted an unusual yellow substance. \"It jogged my memory of a university lecture on the rare survival of ancient brain tissue. We gave the skull special conservation treatment as a result, and sought expert medical opinion,\" she said in a statement on York University's Web site. A sophisticated CT scanner at York Hospital was then used to produce startlingly clear images of the skull's contents. Philip Duffey, Consultant Neurologist at the Hospital said: \"I'm amazed and excited that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin. I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition.\" Dr Sonia O'Connor, Research Fellow in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford added: \"The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare. This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide.\" According to York University, the find is the second major discovery during archaeological investigations on the site of the University's $745 million campus expansion. Earlier this year, the skeleton of a man believed to be one of Britain's earliest victims of tuberculosis was discovered in a shallow grave. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the man died in the fourth century late-Roman period.","highlights":"Skull found at site of York University's $745 million campus expansion .\nInvestigator spotted an unusual yellow substance inside the skull .\nHospital scanner used to produce clear images of the brain tissue .\nExpert: Survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is rare ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former NBA star and TNT sports analyst Charles Barkley attended the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday and answered five questions for CNN.com at the CNN Grill. Former NBA star Charles Barkley says the next president must deal with poverty and the war in Iraq. CNN.com: Why are you here in Denver? Barkley: I just wanted to be here. I'm just so excited. I never thought in my lifetime we'd have a black man with a legitimate shot of being president. CNN.com: Are you a Barack Obama supporter? Barkley: Barack has been a friend of mine for a long time. I met him when I was writing my last book, and he was running for Senate, and I got to know him, and we stayed in contact. I consider him a friend. I think he'd make a fantastic president. I want to make it clear that if I didn't think he could do the job, I wouldn't vote for him. I think he'd make a fantastic president. And I'm not voting for him because he's black. I think he's a great person. CNN.com: What do you think the Democrats need to do here to win the White House? Barkley: I think they've got to just make sure to get those troops home from Iraq, that's a big deal. But No. 1, we've got to give poor people a chance. America is divided by economics, and we as Americans, we've got to do a better job of supporting poor people. CNN.com: How? Barkley: We've got to improve the public school system. If you're born in this country poor, whether you're white or black, you're going to be born in a bad neighborhood; you're going to go to a bad school. It's going to be very difficult for poor people to be successful. iReport.com: Are you at the DNC? Share sights, sounds . CNN.com: What are you doing in Denver for fun? Barkley: I'm going to the Hill Harper party tonight. Last night we just went out and had a real nice meal and just took it easy because I knew today was going to be a long day. I just want to be here. Plain and simple. CNN.com: Are you running for governor in Alabama? Barkley: I'm planning on running for governor. I can't screw up Alabama. Politics, it's just so important, and I just want to do good things with my name, and I'm just going to keep continuing to do that.","highlights":"Former NBA player Charles Barkley says he favors his friend Obama .\nAmerica's public schools should be a priority, Barkley says .\nTNT sports analyst also says he's running for governor of Alabama .\n\"I just want to do good things with my name,\" he says ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sometimes, a T-shirt just doesn't cut it. Allie Tompkins, 19, gets her first tattoo at Fatty's Tattooz on Monday. For those who want a more permanent way to showcase their support for Barack Obama, Washington's tattoo parlors are ready to help. \"There's nothing more memorable than a tattoo,\" said Matt Jessup, better known as \"Fatty,\" the owner of Fatty's Custom Tattooz and Body Piercing. His shop is celebrating what it has dubbed the \"Obamathan,\" where customers can get a free \"Obama '08\" logo tattoo if they buy another tattoo worth $200. The Obama tattoo, Fatty says, is worth $70. \"A lot of people are feeling very inspired and taken by this moment in our nation's history. And for many people, they are in town for this historic event, they want something to remember it by,\" he said. At Fatty's and other tattoo shops in the area, there have been multiple inquiries about getting inked with an Obama image, they say, but only a few people have actually gone through with. The most popular choices so far have been the Obama logo, the word \"hope,\" and the now iconic red-and-blue Obama hope poster by Shepard Fairey. T.J. Mohler, who works at Jinx Proof Tattoos, said business has been up as people flood the city, but only \"about two or three\" customers have gotten an Obama tattoo. One of those people is Mohler himself, who opted for a 5 x 7-inch Obama image on his leg. \"When I look back in 50 years, it will remind me of the time and how excited everyone is,\" Mohler said. None of the shop owners reported any history of George W. Bush tattoos. \"No such thing,\" said Jason Anthony, owner of Midtown Tattoo. Fatty says he's hoping the number of people getting Obama art will grow as more visitors arrive and word about the Obamathon gets out. \"We're still rolling with it through the week, so I'm hoping that we'll get more interest,\" he said. On Wednesday, Fatty has plans to tattoo a portrait of Obama's face on one customer. That piece of art is worth $600, but the customer is getting it for free because she was the winner of one of the shop's promotions. But for those wary of permanent ink, there are some alternatives available. Glam Rock Art is a Washington business specializing in airbrush tattoos and body art. Owner and artist Nicole Graves has ordered custom Obama stencils in response to requests from customers. Fatty's also offers a removable option -- the Obama piercing. It's an orbital ring with a blue bead that costs $44, in honor of the 44th president. And if a customer has a change of heart post-tattoo, Fatty says all is not lost. \"Come on back and I'll cover it up with something else,\" he said.","highlights":"Tattoo parlors offering permanent memories of Barack Obama's inauguration .\nMost popular tattoos: Obama logo, \"hope,\" iconic red-and-blue Obama poster .\nOwner: \"A lot of people are feeling very inspired and taken by this moment\"\nTemporary options include Obama piercings, airbrush tattoos ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- ZipRealty is a full-service residential real estate brokerage firm which uses the Internet, proprietary technology and employee real estate agents to provide home buyers and sellers with value-added online service. ZipRealty's Web site provides users with access to comprehensive home listings data. ZipRealty's Web site provides users with access to comprehensive local Multiple Listing Services home listings data, as well as other relevant market and neighborhood information. Its proprietary business management system and technology platform help to reduce costs, allowing the company to pass on savings to consumers. ZipRealty was launched on August 29, 1999. Three weeks later, on September 21, the company celebrated the acceptance of its first real estate offer. ZipRealty completed its initial public offering on November 10, 2004. It currently operates in 34 major metropolitan areas in 19 states and the District of Columbia with over 2,000 sales agents.","highlights":"ZipRealty uses Internet, proprietary technology, employee real estate agents .\nWeb site provides users with home listings, market and neighborhood info .\nZipRealty completed its initial public offering on November 10, 2004 ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Wearing a plaid green A-line spring skirt from her new fashion line, paired with a black patent leather belt and black leather gladiator sandal stilettos, \"Sex and the City\" actress Kristin Davis is the perfect combination of sweet and fierce when we meet up after her fashion show at the Belk department store in Atlanta, Georgia. Kristin Davis surrounded by models and Belk store official Arlene Goldstein. It's a look that totally says her character, Charlotte, with a little bit of screen pal Carrie. Davis is so much like her character, adorable and upbeat, I expect Carrie or Samantha to drop in on our conversation and say something to shock her. As any true fan knows ... OK ... as every woman knows, watching \"Sex and the City\" was like being front row at a fashion show with a plot. TV show and movie costume designer Patricia Field dressed the characters in haute couture as they skipped down the streets of New York City in $600 stilettos. But is this reality? Most sane women wouldn't choose to walk even one city block in high heels. And most women certainly can't spend a month's rent on a belt or bag, even if they have a truly fabulous party to wear it to. So, what about us, the fashionistas on a budget? Are we to be ignored, forced to wear boring clothing and practical shoes? Luckily, no; designers are catching on. Target features affordable lines from high-end designers like Alexander McQueen and Isaac Mizrahi. All of the pieces in Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line Bitten cost less than $20 before the clothing store that carried them went under. Davis is the latest celebrity to jump on the clothing label bandwagon, designing a line for Belk department stores. Will she meet the same fate as Parker? Davis has the following to be successful. Although her character was by far the most conservatively dressed (Carrie strolling through town in just a bra top, anyone?), she had the most wearable wardrobe, and Davis became a fashion icon along with the rest of the ladies. Her favorite piece from her line? \"I can't decide, impossible to choose!\" she says. So I choose for her: definitely the gladiator heels. \"It's important for women to have a strong shoe,\" she says. \"Then you can wear anything on top. With a strong shoe on, you're good to go.\" She admits she didn't have a defined style before meeting Field, who bluntly told her that \"Sexy Secretary\" was going to be her look. Davis' philosophy is a good one: Stick with what works. She takes the look that Field defined for her \"Sex and the City\" character. Original it's not, but everything coming down the runway is something the stylish Charlotte York would definitely wear. Davis is in touch with all of us real women out there, saying, \"I don't want to make clothing that only skinny actresses could wear.\" Her solution? Dresses, shoes and swimsuits worthy of a \"Sex and the City\" episode that you don't need Park Avenue pockets to afford. It's versatile enough to look good on every body type. \"Everyone has body issues. I really wanted to create pieces that looked good on different kinds of bodies. I had all of my family members trying on the outfits!\" she says with a laugh. Davis won't spill any secrets from the scripts of the \"Sex and the City\" movie sequel, which comes out in May 2010, but she admits it's a \"happy\" movie. She does hint that our famous foursome might have to cut back a little on their clothing expenses as art imitates life. And she's willing to share some fashion tips: How to look like you stepped out of the wardrobe room on the set of the next \"Sex and the City\" movie? Green. \"It's THE color\" she says. And hey, who doesn't need to save some green? It all works out perfectly. I left the meeting with Davis to check out her displays. Then I skipped out into the streets of Atlanta, in a pair of her new gladiator stiletto sandals. That I got on sale, of course.","highlights":"\"Sex and the City\" actress Kristin Davis says women need strong shoes .\nThe actress says her new fashion line fits different types of bodies .\nShe says \"Sex\" movie sequel will have characters spending less .\nGreen will be the hot color in the latest movie, Davis says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service has just entered \"The Twilight Zone.\" \"The Honeymooners\" is one of 20 classic TV stamps that will soon find its way on the corner of envelopes. The classic show appears on one of 20 stamps released this week, featuring 1950s hit television shows. The first-class stamps include images of \"Dragnet,\" \"The Ed Sullivan Show,\" \"The Honeymooners,\" \"I Love Lucy,\" \"Lassie,\" \"The Lone Ranger,\" \"Ozzie and Harriet\" and \"Perry Mason.\" \"All of the classic television shows represented on these stamps represent the collective memory of a generation well deserving of entertainment,\" said James C. Miller III, a Postal Service board member. \"It was a generation that survived the Great Depression and fought World War II. They were pioneers -- creative geniuses -- who brought television shows of the 1950s into our homes, breaking new ground to provide entertainment for everyone.\" The retro-style stamps, featuring black-and-white images of the shows, were designed by Carl Herrman, an artist from Las Vegas, Nevada. The Postal Service releases several commemorative stamps annually. This year's releases have included civil rights pioneers, President Abraham Lincoln and author Edgar Allan Poe.","highlights":"New postage stamps will commemorate \"Golden Age of TV\"\n\"The Honeymooners,\" \"I Love Lucy\" among 20 classic TV shows honored .\nRetro-style stamps were designed by artist Carl Herrman ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Heidi Newfield goes into Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards with five nominations. It's more than any other female, but she still considers herself the dark horse -- and in many ways, she is, especially since she's up for top female vocalist against such heavyweights as Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. Heidi Newfield says she considers herself an underdog at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards. For 10 years, Newfield was the lead singer of the honky-tonk trio Trick Pony. Her soulful debut solo album, \"What Am I Waiting for,\" was released in August to stellar reviews -- many from critics who scoffed at the high-energy antics of her former band. If you spend any time with the petite blonde from Northern California, you're struck by how many times she says, \"Please\" and \"Thank you.\" There's a smile for everyone -- waiters, doormen, cameramen -- and she steers conversation away from herself to ask how others are doing. Newfield is a nice girl. But her life changed when a fellow musician told her to stop being so nice, as she revealed in the following interview with CNN: Watch Newfield talk about her nominations \u00bb . CNN: What went through your head when you received five nominations for this year's Academy of Country Music Awards? Heidi Newfield: I thought one or two would be so fabulous, that would be so great. And they kept calling my name, and you know, I won't lie -- I'm going to tell on my husband -- the tears started flowing, and we were just really happy. All the hard work, all the time, and all the road -- and just the experience over time starts to play back in your mind, just like a movie.This is a really special time. CNN: Was it validation that leaving Trick Pony was the right thing to do? Newfield: People tell you, \"You can't do this.\" You know in country music oftentimes it does not work when a front person leaves a group. In other genres -- pop, rock, hip-hop and rap -- people can leave all the time and do amazing things on their own. Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Sting -- there's a gazillion people. But in country, we have that tight-knit, almost family relationship with our fans, so when you change something up, they don't always like that very much. CNN: Did you feel guilty about leaving Trick Pony? Newfield: No, not an ounce of guilt. I left Trick Pony with my head held high. I felt like I left with total dignity and class, and I didn't leave anybody hanging. I fulfilled every obligation, no matter how hard it was -- and it was hard. There was a lot of drama, and they weren't exactly happy with me. I don't mind saying this, but it was miserable the last several months. But my intuition was saying it's time to make a change. So did I stay too long? I don't know. I mean, everything happens for a reason. Had I left three years ago, maybe I wouldn't have been the same person I am today. CNN: John Popper from Blues Traveler kind of gave you a kick in the pants. Newfield: Oh, I love Poppy! We talk all the time, I kid you not. John was on a USO tour with us for 2\u00bd weeks, so we got to know each other really well. Every night, he would come on stage and do a [harmonica] number with me. On the last night of the tour, we were in Germany, and we were at this pub, and Poppy said to me, \"You love this, and it's clear you're a musician -- but you need to learn to stop being so nice. You need to speak your mind and step up and step up for yourself.\" His actual words were, \"When you learn to be a b----,\" that's what he told me. And I thought, \"Well, my philosophy is I don't think you ever, ever, ever have to be a diva or a prima donna to make it to a certain level.\" I think you can always treat people with respect and be nice, and I always plan on doing that. But what he said was right. When you start to believe in yourself, that's when there's no limit to what you can do. CNN: Your debut solo album, \"What Am I Waiting for,\" shows a lot of growth. It's much more introspective and mature, whereas Trick Pony's music was brash and not as multidimensional. Newfield: When my producer Tony Brown and I first sat down to talk about making this album, one of the first things that came out of his mouth was, \"We have to show people who you really are. We need to cut songs, and you need to explore parts of your vocals that you never got a change to showcase.\" All the ACM nominations are validation that we are on the path to doing just that and being taken seriously as an artist -- as a singer, as a songwriter and as a musician. We made a record that made people say, \"Hey, this girl can sing.\" And that's what I had always hoped. CNN: Still, it's a building process, and in a lot of ways, you're starting from scratch. Newfield: At this one fair that I went to, they had my name spelled H-e-d-y instead of H-e-i-d-i. Hedy Newfield. And I thought, \"Oh, that's just great.\" And, of course, you go up to the promoter and say, \"Come on, hook a sister up here.\" So we're fixing that. CNN: Of the five awards you're up for at the ACMs, you have to be most thrilled about top female vocalist. [Newfield is up against Underwood, Swift, Lee Ann Womack and Miranda Lambert.) Newfield: I'm the biggest dark horse ever. I'm the big underdog, but I like to be the underdog. I hope the makeup's rockin'. I hope I look good at that moment when they call out, \"Carrie Underwood.\"","highlights":"Heidi Newfield is up for five Academy of Country Music Awards .\nNewfield pursuing solo career after being lead singer of Trick Pony .\nSinger doesn't want to be a diva but takes advice about not being so nice ."} -{"article":"GLASGOW, Scotland -- Wednesday's Glasgow derby between Celtic and Rangers has been postponed as a mark of respect following the death of Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell, the Scottish Premier League announced. O'Donnell, left, celebrates Motherwell's Scottish Cup final win against Dundee in May 1991. \"These are never easy decisions. But we recognise that as a former player, Phil was part of Celtic's extended football family,\" said SPL secretary Iain Blair. \"After consultation with Rangers we agreed to postpone the Old Firm fixture on the second of January.\" Motherwell's game against Hibernian on the same day was called off on Saturday night in the hours after O'Donnell, 35, died following his on-field collapse. Gretna's match against St Mirren was also postponed as it was scheduled to take place at Fir Park which has become a shrine to the memory of O'Donnell, but the SPL confirmed that the other three fixtures scheduled for Wednesday will go ahead. Celtic skipper Stephen McManus spoke out in favor of the postponement after he and his team-mates met on Monday morning for the first time since O'Donnell's death. \"A number of our squad have very close connections to Phil's family and feel it would be inappropriate to proceed with this match at such a time, following such a tragic event,\" he said. Rangers manager Walter Smith agreed that the game should not be played. \"You cannot think of playing at a time like this,\" he said. \"Obviously it is a very difficult time for everybody, especially Phil O'Donnell's family.\" Motherwell's home game against Celtic next Sunday had already been postponed by the SPL. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Glasgow derby between Celtic and Rangers on Wednesday is postponed .\nDecision made as a mark of respect after death of ex-player Phil O'Donnell .\nMotherwell's home game against Celtic next Sunday was already called off ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military did major damage to the site of one of the wonders of the ancient world while converting it into a base, the United Nations said in a new report. An U.S. soldier looks over the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq in 2004. The site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was converted into Camp Alpha shortly after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. The troops and their contractors caused \"major damage\" by digging, cutting, scraping and leveling while they were revamping the site to meet military standards, the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, said in a report. \"Key structures that were damaged include the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way,\" the report added. The Ishtar Gate, an entrance to the northern part of the city, is decorated with animals that portray the symbol of the god of the city of Babylon. \"Damage to the gate includes smashed bricks on nine of the bodies of the animals adorning the gate,\" according to the report. A military official said she had not seen the U.N. report, but added that one of the reasons troops set up a base at the site was to safeguard it. \"Coalition forces first occupied the Babylon site in April 2003 during the ground campaign of Operation Iraqi Freedom with a purpose, among others, of protecting the ruins from looting after the provincial museums in Babylon and Kufa were robbed of their entire contents,\" said Lt. Col. Tamara Parker, a spokeswoman. \"U.S. forces respect historical sites in Iraq,\" she added. The United Nations lists additional damage to the site, including trenches used as firing positions and barbed wire secured to various spots. The stakes used to set up the barbed wire damaged walls, according to the report. Babylon, an hour's drive south of Baghdad, dates to ancient Mesopotamia. The city on the banks of the Euphrates River was the home of Hammurabi and later Nebuchadnezzar, who built the famous gardens for his wife. Alexander the Great wished to make Babylon his capital, but died before realizing his plan. During colonial times, archaeologists hauled off Babylon's artifacts to Europe. Some of those artifacts can be seen in a museum in Berlin, Germany. The site was occupied by Camp Alpha from September 2003 till December 2004, the report said. The United States has agreed to pay $800,000 to help rehabilitate the Babylon site, an Iraqi official said. \"We were very disappointed when multinational forces took over these ancient sites as bases although they knew how important these sites are to Iraqis and to the entire world,\" said Abdulzahra al-Talaqani, spokesman for the ministry of tourism. Plans are under way to clean up the area in August with the help of hundreds of volunteers, according to al-Talaqani. The U.N. report noted that U.S. troops were not solely responsible for ruining the 4,000-year-old city. Before their arrival, local residents had contributed to the damage, mostly through development, the report said. \"The features of the western side of the city of Babylon disappeared many years ago due to encroachment by agriculture and development on the archaeological zone,\" the report said.","highlights":"U.N. report claims U.S. troops damaged city of Babylon during Iraq invasion .\nCamp Alpha was built on site of Iraq's historic Hanging Gardens .\nReport cites extensive damage to Ishtar's Gate, Processional Way .\nUnited States to pay $800,000 to clean Babylon site ."} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Alice Temperley likes to camp. Which is why the British fashion designer, who escapes her London workshop to rusticate in a tepee on her Somerset country estate, was recently commissioned by One & Only Le Saint G\u00e9ran to erect a similar structure on their beach in Mauritius. \"It's escapism to the nth degree,\" says designer Bill Bensley of the tents at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, in Thailand's Golden Triangle. The 17-foot-high tepee is decked out with beads, streaming ribbons, and embroidered patches -- a look Temperley likens to \"a jewelry box that glistens in the sand.\" The resort offers cookouts by the tent -- marshmallows included -- served by a liveried butler. By any definition, this is an indulgent experience, but given its availability in a structure originally designed for the life nomadic, it signals a shift in our perception of both luxury and escapism. Suddenly, a heightened sense of well-being may owe less to four sheltering walls than to a temporary shedding, not just of our inhibitions but also of all the weighty paraphernalia that clutters up a sedentary life. Tents pitched in far-flung locales have always had romantic cachet -- who could forget Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in \"Out of Africa.\" And now there's a trend of textile pleasure domes being adapted for use in diverse settings across the globe. \"They provide an experience that you could miss in an ordinary concrete box,\" says designer Bill Bensley of the tents at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, in Thailand's Golden Triangle. \"Guests can hear the sound of elephants munching their way through the jungle. It's escapism to the nth degree.\" Travel + Leisure: See the world's best tented camps . That sentiment is evident in Bensley's design for the resort. He drew inspiration from northern Thailand's hill-tribe villages as well as camps he visited in Botswana, and he filled the 15 tents with metal craftwork from local artisans, along with explorer-themed antiques (an old compass, rifles, primitive fishing tools). Like Temperley, Nairobi-based fashion designer Anna Trzebinski is also dabbling in the world of hotels, opening the tented Lemarti's Camp near Kenya's Laikipia Plateau last year. She stitches tents of locally loomed cotton in the same workshop where she creates beaded tunics and accessories inspired by indigenous Kenyan designs. Set on platforms above a river bend, the camp's tents are furnished with tables and beds built with wood from dhow boats, and decorated with African-themed found objets d'art: crocodile skulls, elephant shoulder blades, beaded walking sticks and clubs. \"For me, a tent should be the veil between you and Mother Africa, a sheer shield to protect but not in any way disconnect you from her presence. To be under canvas on a comfortable bed, with the smell of acacia blossoms -- in the old safari days this was intoxicating enough, but now we have the ability to improve on the concept.\" And that's exactly what Banyan Tree is doing with one of its latest resorts, the Banyan Tree Maldives Madivaru, on a coral atoll in the Maldives. Created by Dharmali Kusumadi, one of the group's head designers, it's by far the most cosseting tented property available today. Only 18 guests at a time can stay on the private island. Rooms come in the form of three conjoined tents facing a cobalt-blue lagoon: a king-size platform bed dominates the air-conditioned sleeping tent, while the bathing pavilion has a claw-foot tub. A butler and massage therapist are at guests' beck and call. Spas, too, are employing tents to help travelers abandon worldly cares. In Arizona's Sonoran Desert, Miraval Tucson Resort & Spa guests take treatments in one of six new tents styled by Irish-born designer Clodagh. \"For me, a tent evokes impermanence,\" she says. \"It reflects the impermanence of the spa treatment as well.\" Set in a botanical garden shaded by paloverde trees, each of the tents has natural cleft-stone flooring, an acacia-wood bench, and walls made of saguaro and ocotillo cacti. Tipping the indulgence scale, Taj Hotels' Rambagh Palace, in Jaipur, has put up two new spa suite tents patterned after a 16th-century Mughal encampment. When India's royalty went camping, their tasseled tents were made of velvet and embroidered silk. Devised by husband-and-wife hotel design team Amit and Shalini Gehlot, the billowing pavilions contain handwoven carpets, royal pennants, and love swings made from salvaged shesham wood. And if that's not adequate escapism, this month Taj opens Banjaar Tola, a safari lodge with 18 tented suites in the bamboo forests of Madhya Pradesh, a four-hour drive from Jabalpur. Created by one of India's top architects, Sanjay Prakash, each tent has bamboo floors, solar-powered heated pools, and traditional artwork from nearby Chattisgarh. Definitely fit for a mogul on the move. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Shane Mitchell is a special correspondent for Travel + Leisure.","highlights":"A resort in Mauritius commissioned a 17-foot-high tepee from a fashion designer .\nTextile shelters are being adapted for use in diverse settings across the globe .\nThe tented Lemarti's Camp near Kenya's Laikipia Plateau opened last year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama spoke with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday about the violence in Gaza, which has left as many as 225 people dead, two transition aides told CNN. Barack Obama's approach to the Middle East as president will be the subject of much scrutiny. \"The president-elect appreciated the call and the information from Secretary Rice,\" one aide said, adding that Obama initiated the eight-minute phone call. \"He will continue to closely monitor these and other global events.\" Israeli airstrikes pounded targets in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday and continued into the night, retaliating against Palestinian militants who have been escalating rocket attacks against southern Israel. The fighting ignited eight days after a six-month Egypt-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israel expired. Obama has pledged to make Middle East peace a priority from the beginning of his presidency. Arabs are calling for a more even-handed approach than the Bush administration, but Israel is expecting Obama to stay true to the pro-Israel posture he showed during the campaign. But one analyst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cautioned against putting \"dangerously high\" expectations on the incoming administration. \"I think the tone of American politics will change: You're going to get a serious effort on behalf of the new administration,\" said Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center and a former adviser to six secretaries of state on Arab-Israeli relations. But, he told CNN, \"the fact is that unless the Israelis and Palestinians are prepared -- which they're not right now -- to take the political decisions required to overcome the gaps and to sell an agreement to their respective constituents, there's not much a new president, no matter how bold or charismatic he may be, is going to be able to do about that.\" CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"President-elect initiated eight-minute call with secretary of state .\nObama \"will continue to closely monitor\" Middle East events, aide says .\nHe has promised to make peace in the region a priority ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Tino Schaedler is an architect-turned-digital design artist whose groundbreaking work has been seen in \"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.\" Tino Schaedler, Jean-Lucien Gay and Michael J. Brown talk about design, virtuality and the future . Schaedler's next film project is \"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,\" a fantasy epic starring Jake Gyllenhaal and due in 2010. In 2007 he joined with Michael J. Brown and Jean-Lucien Gay to found NAU, a cross-disciplinary design collective positioned between architecture and film. CNN talked to Schaedler and his NAU colleagues, as well as collaborator Ken Leung, a graphic designer. CNN: You have said that graphic design is very powerful. Can you explain why? TS: I think graphic design, for us, is very important as it helps to break down very complex information into digestible, easy-to-understand buttons or whatever. In the world we're living in, we're flooded with information and need someone to almost kind of channel it and create signs that we can read. That's why I think graphic design becomes more important, the more complex our world becomes. CNN: Can you explain the work that NAU does? TS: NAU is a company that I founded with Michael and Jean-Lucien, friends from the architect firm I worked at. I guess we all wanted to collaborate, and me being interested in drifting back from the world of architecture to the world of film, I guess Michael and Jean-Lucien had something to offer. They usually take over the architectural side of things and I can be more free and visionary. I push them further with the kind of ideas I come up with and at the same time they make my ideas real. JLG: The idea was really to create a label, a structure that could cope with all the different locations that we're working from. It's also about the idea of remote collaboration. CNN: How important is it for you to collaborate with people? TS: For me, working with Ken has been like adding a whole new layer to the 3D worlds that I'm designing. I always liked the combination of high-end 3D graphics and subtle 2D graphics. I think for me, collaboration is also about creating situations that we'll both profit from. Also there are new tools we use that are a combination of Skype, video conferencing and Photoshop which allow you to do a video conference, which allow me to use a sketchpad that the other person can see. We can sketch correspondingly with each other and create something although we are not sitting in the same office. KL: Working with Tino, I've seen my work transformed into 3D. My background is print and magazines, so in this sense, things come alive, they move, it makes it real. CNN: How does architecture tie in with digital or 3D design? TS: You need two images and through the images you can interpolate the architectural spatial design which creates a 3D model... that technique also comes into film because it is photogrammetry, (a way of measuring 2D or 3D objects from photo-grammes or photographs as well as electronic imagery.) CNN: Didn't the makers of \"The Matrix\" use similar technology? TS: They basically just have the actress [Carrie-Ann Moss] up in the air and they take a photograph each at the same time so that's why she's in that movement... the camera moves around her but she doesn't move because its all different shots so you stretch the whole experience in two or three seconds. We're doing something similar on [the film] \"Prince of Persia\" that I've just finished. We record some action with five cameras... from these five images they recreate the actors as 3D objects and then project according to which angle. It's fascinating what kind of technology is out there. CNN: Can you define the relationship between working as architects and still working on a project like the Cocoon? MB: For us, it's less about the physical infrastructure that you are creating and more about the spaces and the experiences that you have there. In that sense I see a development of designers who are working across many media. CNN: Let's talk more about the Cocoon. What is it? TS: I actually had the idea for the Cocoon when I was walking down Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon. We know how manic it can be when everyone is shopping. I thought it would be brilliant to have something like a telephone booth that could help me disappear from the madness and allow me to relax or walk through the Amazon or let me sleep under a starry sky or whatever. You also have to see it like a retreat, it's to chill out. MB: I think the important elements for us were to be able to ask, \"Can I communicate with this piece through physical actions that are not so much tied to moving my fingers across the keyboard, but are much more about how I walk down the street, how I wave to people.\" How can I break down the barrier which is typically this sort of 2D screen between me and this digital world? CNN: Will we end up wired to computers and never see each other? KL: It's very different from gaming in the 80s. Then, you'd go to a computer game parlor and sit in a car for example. This is kind of taking it one step further, you're a bit more enclosed and the graphics are a lot better. I wouldn't be so daunted going into it. TS: For me, the true potential evolves more once the virtual information is completely freed from any medium that displays it. That's actually not far from the Cocoon because the next big step is the interface - if I can interact with something that's in front of me, I'm also using my body and that's also what the Cocoon is establishing. I see virtuality, once it's fully unfolded, as contributing to the slowing process that puts us back in tune with ourselves. CNN: What appeals to you most about the Cocoon project? KL: It's almost like being in your own virtual world. You see people with their iPods. They want to be in their own worlds, this is taking it one step further. But the good thing is you're using your whole body and almost becoming part of it. TS: I think [the Cocoon] frees virtuality from the computer. I've been dealing with this concept for probably ten years, because it was a big theme in architecture in the 90s. Everyone was afraid that architecture would disappear and be completely replaced by virtuality. I think it's got such amazing potential to make the world so much more exciting. When we think about our childhoods or watching \"Star Trek\" - seeing people being beamed - there's so much cool stuff and ideas... the future is now. CNN: Is the world ready for it? TS: I think it always takes some time to invent something, then for people to adapt it. I think with technology accelerating we also accelerate in the way that we adapt it so I think it's always no problem to get used to that and to enjoy it as well. CNN: What role do you see the Cocoon playing in the real world? TS: While working on the project, I read an article which talked about how in the future we would be much more limited in the way that we can physically travel. It will be a luxury to have a car or travel across countries and continents. It also mentioned that virtuality and Internet communication will be much more enhanced and will be even more importance. I think with the Cocoon and the technology that we propose in there, to travel to places, to work remotely, to have enhanced communication for remote shopping, will be even more important. Michael: For us the Cocoon is, I hope, the first step in trying to bring people a little bit more freedom from how they work and how they communicate. CNN: Do you think we're getting better at it? KL: I do. Personally, I loved the modernism of the 60s and 70s; everything was boiled down and focused on central points. Now we've got so many tricks with computers that we tend to go overboard, but I think the ideas are lacking and that people need to focus on the ideas first. I think we kind of share the same visual sensibility as well. Tino will send back a brief and I will send three options and we'll narrow it down from there. We work together quite well. CNN: Is it weird being together? TS: You know something like this always evolves. You start a project with certain expectations and I've had other collaborations that don't work that well and some where there's kind of a chemistry where things kind of create a synergy and something evolves that you would not be able to do yourself. CNN: Ken, where do you see the future of entertainment from your perspective, from print and magazines as entertainment, what's the future? KL: Well I think there is a future in magazines, I think people still want to have time and space from all the rush of the world. To me, when I'm on a plane, I'm happy because I'm not going to be interrupted by anyone and that's kind of the same with the Cocoon. I think its kind of getting away from reality; it's just the need to get your thoughts together.","highlights":"Tino Schaedler, colleagues talk about NAU, a remote collaboration project .\nThey discuss the concept of virtual reality, 3D design and the Internet .\nCocoon project is about being entertained in our own virtual world ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A watchdog group critical of pork barrel spending released its latest findings Wednesday targeting the top Congressional \"porkers.\" Some of the pork projects, according to the group, include a Lobster Institute; the Rocky Flats, Colorado, Cold War Museum; and the First Tee, a program to build young people's character through golf. Members of Congress requested funds for all these pet projects and thousands of others last year, according to the latest copy of the annual \"Pig Book\" released by Citizens Against Government Waste. \"Congress stuffed 11,610 projects\" worth $17.2 billion into a dozen spending bills, the group said in the report released Wednesday. The \"Pig Book\" names dozens of what the citizens group considers the most egregious porkers, the lawmakers who funnel money to projects on their home turf. Interactive: Pork barrel spending \u00bb . Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, requested the most money, $892.2 million, according to the group. In a statement to CNN, Cochran said he doesn't \"accept the premise\" of the group's claim that \"any and all federal spending not specifically requested by the Executive Branch is wasteful and irresponsible.\" \"The Congress is vested with the power to appropriate funds to be spent by the federal government by the U. S. Constitution. We will continue to carry out that responsibility with care and a commitment to serve the public interest,\" he said. \"There were several candidates for the Narcissist Award,\" Tom Schatz, the president of the group said. Read the group's 2008 report . \"But this one went to House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel for the Charles Rangel Public Service Center at the City College of New York -- $1,950,000 [for a project] that he named after himself.\" Rangel, a Democrat from New York, said last summer he was \"honored that City College chose to have my name attached to what is an important project, not just for the residents of my congressional district, but for New York City and this nation.\" Some lawmakers defended their earmarks, such as Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, who channeled $742,764 to olive fruit fly research. \"The olive fruit fly has infested thousands of California olive groves and is the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries,\" he said. Schatz responded that his organization is criticizing the way lawmakers direct money to specific projects, not the projects themselves. \"There are existing programs for virtually everything in the 'Pig Book.' If members [of Congress] believe they should be given additional funding, give them to the agencies rather than to specific projects,\" he said. The problem with earmarks, he said, is that \"we don't know if [the projects] are valuable or not.\" Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, the third ranking Democrat in the House, defended his earmark for a program that funds a youth golf program for children on U.S. military bases. \"It's a character building program, that seems to be working well for low income kids and that's why we do it throughout the United States of America. I just feel that children living on military installations ought to have this program as well,\" Clyburn told CNN. Clyburn also defended the practice of earmarking federal funds. \"I can name earmark after earmark, there's absolutely nothing wrong with congresspeople responding to their constituents and funding programs that they feel are necessary to improve the quality of life of the people who live in their districts.\" Clyburn also raised questions about the group releasing the \"Pig Book\" saying, \"they're not telling the truth about this earmark no more than them telling the truth about where they get their money from. The committee against government waste isn't against government waste.\" He cited press reports from the St. Petersburg Times that the Committee Against Government Waste received money from the tobacco industry and other private groups to lobby Congress. Both parties came in for criticism, with the Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, topping the Republicans in spending. The Democrats were behind 5,199 projects worth $5.5 billion, while the Republicans earmarked 3,408 projects worth $4.4 billion, the citizen's group said. And in a sign bipartisanship is not dead, the two parties jointly backed 2,518 projects worth $3.8 billion. Interactive: Map of pork per capita by state \u00bb . The three senators running for president were not among the top targets of criticism, and one got an entirely clean bill from the watchdog group. \"Sen. [Barack] Obama had 53 earmarks worth $97 million dollars, and Sen. [Hillary] Clinton had 281 earmarks worth $296 million. Sen. Obama recently said he would not request any project for this upcoming fiscal year,\" said Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste. \"And of course Sen. [John] McCain has never requested them and he won't be doing so in 2009. So now the question is if Sen. Clinton will join the other major candidates in saying that she will not request any earmarks for 2009.\" To qualify for the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of these standards: it was requested by only one chamber of Congress; was not specifically authorized; was not competitively awarded; was not requested by the president; greatly exceeded the president's budget request or the previous year's funding; was not the subject of congressional hearings; or served only a local or special interests. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Hornick and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: GOP Sen. Thad Cochran, Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn respond to report .\nCitizens Against Government Waste releases annual pork spending report .\nSome of the biggest pork projects, according to the group, include a Lobster Institute .\nDemocrats were behind 5,199 projects, while Republicans were behind 3,408 ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Although President-elect Barack Obama will become the next commander-in-chief in just two weeks, several key issues remain to be resolved regarding the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq and the buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A U.S. soldier patrols in a village north of Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. A closed-door meeting Monday at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. David Petraeus -- who is in charge of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- ended with no consensus on troop plans for either country, several top U.S. military officials told CNN. The officials, who did not want to be identified because the meeting was private, all offered CNN similar accounts of the discussions. In addition, a review of the Afghanistan war strategy being conducted by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen is also incomplete and has not been approved by the Joint Chiefs. That review, according to one official, will not be finished until the Obama administration is in office. The Monday meeting was polite, one official said, but also interesting and intense. A second official described the discussion as lively and said it ranged further than originally anticipated. The session was held in the \"tank,\" a secure meeting room inside the Pentagon reserved for some of the most sensitive and classified conversations by top officials. It was called to discuss yet again how the drawdown of troops in Iraq could be scheduled so that more troops could be sent to Afghanistan -- an issue that the chiefs have struggled to resolve for months. According to the officials, a 10-page plan from the U.S. Central Command calls for a very gradual drawdown between now and the end of 2011, when all U.S. troops are supposed to be out of Iraq under the terms of a recent agreement between the two countries. But Petraeus and other top U.S. commanders in Iraq are reluctant to agree to any specific drawdowns of units more than six months ahead of time because of the uncertain security situation and the upcoming elections in Iraq, according to a second official. \"The real debate is over the timing and risk of drawing down troops in Iraq,\" the second official said. That decision is considered a vital first step. Military officials have long said the Pentagon needs to have some assurance of drawdowns over the next year in order to free up enough troops to send more units to Afghanistan, where commanders are asking for up to 30,000 additional troops. The Marine Corps is continuing to press its position that several thousand Marines could be withdrawn from Iraq in the coming months, with their replacements going to Afghanistan instead. The current calculation is that the full complement of troops for Afghanistan could not be completely sent until sometime next year or in 2011. Some commanders in Afghanistan say that's too late, given the deteriorating security situation there. Once in office, Obama is expected to ask commanders to develop a plan for a 16-month drawdown, as he promised during his campaign for the White House. It's not clear if the Joint Chiefs and Petraeus will recommend that there is unacceptable risk in the quicker drawdown option. The second official also emphasized that even though Washington and Baghdad have agreed that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by 2011, there is a general private understanding by both sides that some U.S. troops could remain there or in neighboring Kuwait to provide help in key areas such as training, securing borders and providing airlift capabilities. Obama has also said he wants a residual force to remain in Iraq.","highlights":"Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David Petraeus hold closed-door meeting .\nOfficials say meeting ended with no consensus on troop plans .\nDiscussions deal with pulling troops out of Iraq, beefing up forces in Afghanistan .\nObama, once in office, is expected to ask for plan on Iraq troop drawdown ."} -{"article":"ST. BERNARD PARISH, Louisiana (CNN) -- \"We were a normal red-blooded American family,\" recalls Rudy Aguilar. \"And ... it took [one day] to wipe us out.\" Liz McCartney moved to St. Bernard Parish to help residents rebuild their homes after Katrina. A lifelong resident of St. Bernard Parish, a community just east of New Orleans, Aguilar lost everything during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Nearly three years later, like many in his area, Aguilar is still struggling to get back on his feet. But now he has help. From her home 1,000 miles away in Washington, Liz McCartney was haunted by images of the storm's destruction and stories of people like Aguilar. In February 2006, she and her boyfriend, Zack Rosenburg, went to New Orleans to volunteer. The experience changed their lives -- so much that they quit their jobs and moved to St. Bernard Parish. Now they're dedicated to helping people rebuild and move back into their homes. Watch McCartney describe how the St. Bernard Project is rebuilding homes \u00bb . McCartney said that when she first arrived in St. Bernard Parish, she was stunned. \"We just wanted to pitch in and help out,\" McCartney, now 35, recalls. \"I naively thought that six months later, you'd see all kinds of progress. [But it] looked like the storm had just rolled through.\" St. Bernard Parish was once home to 67,000 residents, but Katrina left nearly all of the area's homes uninhabitable. As McCartney got to know the locals, she was reminded of her parents and grandparents. \"These were people who worked their whole lives, put their kids through college, and had never had to receive [help] before,\" she says. That's when she decided to do more to help the community recover. By June 2006, the couple had left Washington and moved to St. Bernard Parish. Neither knew anything about construction, but both felt they could use their experience raising money and organizing volunteers to help with the rebuilding effort. Local residents, touched by the couple's leap of faith, taught them basic construction. Within two months, McCartney and Rosenburg opened the nonprofit St. Bernard Project, which focuses on helping those they consider most in need -- senior citizens and families with children. The formula is straightforward: With donations, volunteers and skilled supervisors, homes get rebuilt -- and people move home. \"It's not rocket science,\" McCartney says. \"The problems in this community are widespread, but the solutions are really simple.\" Yet this simple equation yields impressive results. The St. Bernard Project can transform a gutted house into a livable home in just eight to 12 weeks for an average cost of $12,000. For residents like Aguilar, the St. Bernard Project has been a lifesaver. In the years since Katrina, he lost his job and struggled with health problems. \"I was so beaten down,\" he says. \"I was gonna blow myself away.\" When the Saint Bernard Project agreed to rebuild his home, the relief he felt was palpable. \"They saved my life.\" Watch Aguilar describe his own Katrina experience \u00bb . To date, more than 6,000 volunteers have worked with the St. Bernard Project, enabling more than 120 families to move back into their homes. McCartney says every house her group rebuilds has an impact on the community as a whole. \"Once you get one family back, other families are willing to come back as well,\" she says. \"There's a very nice ripple effect.\" McCartney and Rosenburg plan to keep working until all the homes in St. Bernard Parish are rebuilt. \"We're here until we work ourselves out of a job,\" she says. Watch McCartney describe her turning point while volunteering in New Orleans \u00bb . For Aguilar, McCartney isn't just rebuilding homes -- she's restoring a sense of hope to the community. \"Little by little, one house at a time, we'll be back,\" he says. \"I feel it. I know it.\"","highlights":"Katrina left St. Bernard Parish, once home to 67,000, virtually uninhabitable .\nLiz McCartney moved from Washington to New Orleans to help rebuild homes .\nShe and her boyfriend started St. Bernard Project, focusing on seniors, families ."} -{"article":"BRYCEVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- Michael Ratley was known as a hero. Michael Ratley will spend the rest of his life in jail, without parole, for killing his wife with a hammer. In December 2006, Ratley carried his 2-week-old son, Aiden, and his wife, Effie Ratley, 29, from the flames as fire engulfed their Bryceville, Florida, trailer. Days after the fire, a teary-eyed Ratley told local media that love drove him to save their lives. \"I might have lost everything physical, but I've still got my two most precious things,\" Michael Ratley told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV at the time. A month later, Effie Ratley was dead, bludgeoned with a hammer in a bedroom of her in-laws' home, not far from the trailer's ashes on a dirt road marked only with a black arrow on a wooden sign. The man who was hailed as a hero for saving his wife was convicted in July of murdering her. On Tuesday, a Nassau County Court jury in Yulee, Florida, said he should spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime. Circuit Judge Robert Foster sentenced the 25-year-old to life without possibility of parole. What changed a heroic husband into a hammer-wielding wife killer? Hero gets life for murder \u00bb . During the trial, no motive was offered. On January 27, 2007, with his parents downstairs watching TV with the door shut and his infant son in the other room, prosecutors said, Ratley put on a pair of thick black gloves, grabbed a heavy-duty hammer and went into the bedroom where his wife was lying down after taking some medication. He lifted the hammer and \"savagely and brutally beat her on the head over and over\" -- at least seven times, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda. During the trial, Ratley said he had nothing to do with the slaying. His defense lawyers argued that an intruder, who Ratley alleged attacked him in the barn the night before, was the culprit. But prosecutors said that was part of Ratley's plan, setting up for a scenario in which an intruder killed his wife by cutting the wire on their window. Testifying on Tuesday, his friends and family spoke of him as a church-going, gentle man who always went out of his way to help others -- the elderly at a nursing home, a neighbor whose husband was slain and sick family members. \"He has always been a caring, nonviolent person,\" said his mother, Cindy Ratley. \"He'd give you the shirt off his back.\" Cindy Ratley said it had been her dream to have her close-knit family living together on her secluded 20 acres. Witnesses for Ratley tried in court to give a picture of the son, grandson, and friend they said he had always been, with the defense calling the murder a \"single, horrible snapshot\" in Ratley's overwhelmingly positive life. They urged the jury to give Ratley's son a chance to know his father, one who cares and loves deeply for him, they said. As his mother and others left the witness stand in the packed and divided courtroom, they each told Ratley they stood behind him and loved him. As they walked back to sit down, many mouthed, \"I love you.\" The prosecutors argued Ratley's character couldn't be clearer, based on his actions. \"Unfortunately, the best example we have of his character is in what he did. This shows his best character,\" de la Rionda said, showing the jurors gruesome photos of Effie Ratley's injuries. De la Rionda disputed the description of Ratley as a wonderful father. \"This loving father had no problem whatsoever -- a short distance from his son -- exterminating the life of his son's mother,\" he said. Michael Ratley met Effie Williams when she was having car trouble. He offered to buy a new tire for her and change it. Effie Ratley, who enjoyed listening to '50s music and watching black-and-white movies, was thrilled when she and her husband had their baby, her family told the court Tuesday. \"Her son was her pride and joy,\" said her stepmother, Joy Williams, wearing a purple and pink \"Justice for Effie\" bracelet. \"But she never knew more than six weeks of her motherhood dreams.\" By all accounts, the Ratleys' relationship had its rocky points. They were married, separated and remarried. Michael Ratley's family said that the first time the couple got married, they were worried he wasn't mature enough, that he needed to grow up, and they said the couple definitely had growing pains. \"He didn't know if he could love her enough, because he only wanted the best for her,\" Donna Stanley said, talking about her nephew. Effie Ratley's father, Duane Williams, cried on the stand Tuesday as he talked about his only daughter. His voice quivered as he tried to explain how he feels her loss each day. \"She's the first thing I think about in the morning when I wake up,\" he said, his voice wavering. \"And the last thing before I go to bed.\" Neither Effie or Michael Ratley's families wanted to speak about the sentencing after the hearing, but de la Rionda said Effie's family was pleased with the result. \"They were always hoping for [the] death [penalty], but they're happy he's going to get life and he's not going to be able to get out,\" de le Rionda said. \"He's going to die in prison.\" While the announcement of the sentence, which spared him from death, was greeted with a pronounced \"Yes!\" from Michael Ratley's family inside court, the gravity of the situation seemed to hit during a short recess. His grandmother began sobbing. Family members comforted her until Cindy Ratley sat down next to her. The two cried and embraced for a couple of minutes. Michael Ratley looked over, saw his grandmother upset, and he, too, began to cry.","highlights":"Michael Ratley, 25, sentenced to life without parole for murdering wife .\nProsecutors: Ratley beat wife with hammer four weeks after rescuing her from fire .\nFamily says Ratley was gentle man; attorneys call murder \"single, horrible snapshot\"\nEffie Ratley's family recall her spirit, love for newborn son ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Almost everyone knows that each state of the Union has its own flag. State flags, however, are just the most visible elements of an elaborate, esoteric system of legalized symbols that characterize and codify our united states. It's time we were all exposed to the bizarre symbology of state identity-politics. Texas' state flower, the bluebonnet, is celebrated in the Texas state song. To begin with, some of the most well-known state symbols allude to lesser-known meanings and histories. I grew up in Wisconsin and only recently learned that the Badger State title originally refers not to Bucky, nor to the savage beast itself, but to lead miners in the 1820s and 30s. These miners moved from prospect to prospect in southwestern Wisconsin, traveling light and often, with little money for luxury. When winter came and conditions worsened, those miners too far from home to migrate would dig themselves sheltering caves in the hills -- like badgers. These temporary dwellings could be abandoned if a prospect proved fruitless, without much regret; and if the lead pickings were good, the lucky miner could fluff up his badger hole or upgrade to a more traditional Euro-American residence. For this practice Wisconsin miners were dubbed \"badgers\" -- a jibe that was soon appropriated as a proud, statewide nickname. Bucky didn't come along until 1949; the furry, quadruped badger, notoriously vicious when cornered, wasn't declared Wisconsin's state animal until 1957. Other miners migrated south for the winter to the far end of Illinois, much like the region's sucker fish; which earned them the nickname of Suckers, and their state of Illinois its unenviable nickname, The Sucker State. Mental Floss: How 22 colleges got their nicknames . 'Rebel' woodpecker . The state bird of Alabama has another tale behind it. They honor a little woodpecker they call the yellowhammer, which is known outside of Alabama as the northern flicker, the common flicker, or simply The Flicker. (It eats a lot of ants, and is not to be confused with the yellowhammer bunting of Europe and New Zealand.) State birds are chosen for reasons many and varied, some meaningful and others frivolous -- from the pretty songs they sing to their proximity to extinction -- and I believe this is the only bird singled out for its resemblance to Confederate uniforms. The story goes that a clean, trim, flashy bunch of new Confederate recruits one day passed by a weary, bedraggled, dusty pod of veterans, and their fresh uniforms, grey tinged with brilliant yellow, reminded some jokester vet of the woodpecker, so he let out a mocking call: \"Yallerhammer, yallerhammer, flicker, flicker!\" The jeer stuck, and the recruits were soon labeled the Yellowhammer Company. Later, as these things go, all Alabama troops were known as Yellowhammers, the whole state as the Yellowhammer State, and Confederate veterans developed a habit of wearing yellow feathers in their caps and lapels to dress up for post-war reunions. How entertaining and informative. But the real fun starts when these state symbols more shamelessly approach the ridiculous. Let us consider some of the finest specimens: . Eat and drink to the honor of the state . Most states have at least one form of official food. In Louisiana, the official doughnut is the beignet. (I'm unaware of any other state doughnuts -- and I'm disappointed.) New York's official muffin is made with apples; Minnesota's with blueberries; and none have yet found it fit to honor the vegan bran and raisin muffin, despite whatever strange wonders it works on the abdominal tubing. Vermont is the only state with an official flavor: maple, as in maple syrup -- but because they've designated the \"flavor,\" not the \"syrup,\" we can assume the appointment includes everything from maple-glaze for ham to autumnal maple lattes. Shockingly, Oklahoma has recognized a complete (and daunting) meal: fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbeque pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, chicken friend steak, black-eyed peas, strawberries, and pecan pies. Mental Floss: 6 food challenges for the super hungry . As for state drinks, Nebraska has Kool-Aid, Indiana has water (hubris!), and Alabama, the standout, has Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey -- a re-creation of some well-regarded illegal moonshine made in the backwoods by a man named Clyde May. Silly, sentimental, and insulting songs . All states have songs, too, except New Jersey. Most states have more than one. There are state ballads, state marches, state waltzes, and so on. Connecticut has a state cantata (a narrative piece intermixed with solos and choruses); Louisiana has a state environmental song (\"The Gifts of the Earth\"); Massachusetts a polka (\"Say Hello to Someone from Massachusetts\"); a couple states have lullabies; and Ohio has an official rock song, \"Hang On Sloopy.\" Two state anthems, Maryland's and Iowa's, are set to the familiar tune of \"O Tannenbaum!\", or \"O Christmas Tree!\"; but no states have designated official Christmas songs. And despite Texas' tough boy image (their official footwear is the cowboy boot), it's the only state with an official flower song -- in praise of its state flower, the bluebonnet. Many of the traditional states songs are brazenly effusive. Arizona's begins, \"I love you, Arizona,\" and continues, rather romantically, \"You're the magic in me.\" California's is similar, without the magic: \"I love you, California, you're the greatest state of all.\" South Dakotans use the superlative when singing to \"The state we love the best.\" Usually they're just hilarious, but a few of these songs bear some heinously outdated lyrics. With a nod to the old Eternal Feminine, North Carolina praises its women as Queens of the Forest, \"So graceful, so constant, yet to gentlest breath trembling.\" The real trouble comes, though, with old minstrel tunes that portray humble \"darkies\" praising \"old Massa\" in song and romanticizing their cotton-picking servitude. Kentucky changed the language for \"My Old Kentucky Home\" in 1986 to glaze over such indiscretions. But Virginia still seems to have trouble acknowledging its error, and simply demoted its song, \"Carry Me Back To Old Virginny,\" to the status of \"state song emeritus.\" Virginia still seeks an adequate replacement, preferably one that doesn't idealize slavery. Every state for itself . Besides these strange variations on common themes, many states have even more idiosyncratic symbols. Since 1962, the official sport of Maryland has been jousting, and more recently, the state's official \"exercise\" was declared to be walking. Not even mall-walking or speed-walking -- just \"walking.\" Kentucky doesn't have a \"sport,\" but it does have an official tug-of-war: the Fordsville Tug-of-War Championship. Mississippi has a state toy, the teddy bear; Massachusetts a state bean, the navy bean; and Oklahoma proudly boasts the only state cartoon character, a gust of wind named Gusty that was used to report weather and news, between 1954 and 1989. Mental Floss: State nickname quiz . While many designations seem absurd, most aim to represent some definite aspect of a state's intended \"character.\" Legislators want icons that mean something, that give you a sense of the land and its people -- something like the bolo tie. Arizona named the bolo tie its official neckwear back in 1971. And more recently, in 2007, New Mexico added the same to its list of emblems. Apparently, it was an Arizona silversmith who invented the string-and-buckle necktie when he took off his hatband to avoid losing the precious buckle during a high-wind horse ride, and hung it around his neck. This discovery occurred as late as 1940, but the bolo's become such an icon that it's hard to imagine a Wild West without it. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Wisconsin's Badger State comes from miners who dug caves to survive winters .\nAlabama's state bird is a flashy-looking woodpecker .\nState drinks: Nebraska -- Kool-Aid, Indiana -- water .\nMississippi state toy: the teddy bear; Massachusetts state bean: navy bean ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When David Green, 22, graduated from Western Washington University in December, he applied for dozens of jobs, from fast food to secretarial positions -- sending out more than 50 resumes and scoring only two interviews in the process. The organization Reach to Teach has seen a 100 percent increase in applications to teach English in Asia. \"It was horrible. I couldn't find anything,\" said Green, a history and social studies major. With few employment options in his hometown of Bellingham, Washington, Green applied to teach English in a South Korean middle school through Reach to Teach, an organization that assists college graduates with finding teaching positions in Asia. Green, who counts trips to Canada as his only experience abroad, will be leaving for Seoul on March 20 for one year. \"I am scared. I've only had one major breakdown so far, ... but I'm really excited about being on my own ... somewhere completely new where I know absolutely no one,\" he said. Like Green, many recent college graduates are searching for alternatives to jumping into the job market in the face of the recession. An increasing number of young Americans are searching out paid positions teaching English in countries like South Korea, Japan, China and Spain as a means to expand their horizons and weather the economic doldrums. Mitch Gordon, director of school relations for Reach to Teach, said his organization has seen more than a 100 percent increase in applications in the last six months, with 3,784 applicants compared to 1,488 during the same six-month period last year. The application system doesn't track U.S. applicants separately, but Gordon estimates more than 70 percent are from the United States. The program also has seen a significant increase in current teachers extending their teaching contracts abroad for an extra year. Gordon said he believes the recession is the primary reason for the steady increase in applicants, and the increase has made the program more competitive. \"We have more people for the same number of positions,\" he said. \"We're able to raise our standards a little bit more.\" Japan's JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program also has recorded a jump in applicants. For 2009 positions, the Japanese government-sponsored program has received 15 percent more U.S. applications than last year, according to program coordinator Joelle Williams. The program attributes the jump in part to the economic situation and the tough job market in the United States. JET officials also noticed that more applications arrived farther in advance of the deadline this year. 'Taking control of my own life' Ayana Hosten, a spring 2008 graduate of Claremont McKenna College, has been working as an English teaching assistant in Madrid, Spain, since February through a program organized by the Ministry of Education of Spain. Her contract is ending in June and she is already looking to extend her stay for another year. Spain's Ministry of Education has announced more than 1,200 openings for U.S. and Canadian \"cultural ambassadors\" for the 2009-2010 school year. Grants provide the teaching assistants with about $900 a month for the eight-month stay. Teachers are responsible for their own lodging and transportation costs, and applicants should have a functional knowledge of Spanish. For Hosten, 22, going to Spain was a way to escape a rough job market that left her without a full-time job between graduating and applying for the teaching program. \"After being unemployed for three months, it really started to affect me emotionally, which was something I was not prepared for,\" Hosten said in an e-mail. \"Going to Spain was me taking control of my own life and pretty much just wiping my hands of the financial crisis.\" Travis Lee, a University of Tennessee alumnus who is in a teaching program sponsored by a university in Wuhan, China, began teaching English in September 2008, originally intending to stay for one year. \"Now I'm thinking of extending my stay for another semester or full year, and if I really like it and can't find a job in America, who knows?\" Lee said in an e-mail. He said the economy and the tight job market have been a big influence in his consideration to stay in China. Trying another path . For many recent graduates, working abroad is becoming a more secure option than searching for a job in the United States. Most teaching programs in other countries will provide teachers with a salary and health insurance, and some programs in Asia will even provide free housing, said Jake Hanin, a teach abroad program coordinator for the Council on International Education Exchange, who also has noticed an increase in applications. For programs in Asia, fluency in English is usually the most important qualification for teaching jobs, and many do not require applicants to have previous teaching experience, Hanin said. Lee's salary in China is approximately $555 per month, which he says is more than enough to live comfortably in Wuhan. The university also provides him with a rent-free apartment and pays his electric bill. \"We make twice what a Chinese teacher with a bachelor's makes and we do half the work,\" Lee said in an e-mail. But for Lee and many other recent graduates, working abroad is primarily about having once-in-a-lifetime experiences in a completely different culture. \"You have plenty of time to get a career, start a family, and follow that path,\" Lee said. \"Why not try another path first? What have you got to lose?\" CNN's Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.","highlights":"Economy is prompting some recent grads to delay entering U.S. workforce .\nReach to Teach applications are up 100 percent from last year .\nJapan's JET program receives 15 percent more U.S. applications ."} -{"article":"PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- A helicopter crashed into a building in Panama City on Thursday, killing 11 of the 12 people aboard, including Chile's federal police chief, a Panamanian government official said. The incident occurred during the afternoon in a commercial zone of the city as the Panamanian helicopter was carrying several Panamanian police officials and six members of a group from Chile. They had been attending a regional forum in the city of Colon, the official said. Witnesses said a rotor blade hit a three-story building, causing the helicopter to fall in a ball of fire. Several people on the ground were burned, and the building -- which houses a clothing store -- also caught fire. Watch emergency workers at the scene \u00bb . It took firefighters hours to control the flames and to keep the blaze from spreading to other buildings. \"The principal problem is the smoke and the toxic gases; that's what makes the work more difficult,\" said Cecilio Lasso, one of the firefighters. Chilean police chief Gen. Jose Alejandro Bernales and his wife were among the dead, the official said. A delegation from Chile was expected to arrive late Thursday to help identify the bodies. No cause was immediately identified for the crash. \"It's an old but well-maintained helicopter,\" said Daniel Delgado Diamante, minister of government and justice. \"It was in good shape. Of course, now there will be a process of validating that.\" The Chilean government has declared three days of mourning.","highlights":"11 of 12 people on helicopter were killed, including Chile's national police chief .\nIncident occurred during the afternoon in a commercial zone of Panama City .\nWitnesses said a blade of the rotor hit a three-story building .\nNo cause of the crash was immediately identified ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The sagging economy is taking a bite out of federal school-meal subsidies as more students take advantage of free or low-price breakfasts and lunches, nutritionists say in a report released Thursday. About 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program, a group reports. The School Nutrition Association surveyed more than 130 school nutrition directors from 38 states to produce its report, \"Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises.\" The nonprofit organization said that about 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program in 2008-09 than in the previous school year. That represents an average increase of 2.5 percent from 2007-08, the report says. These numbers hold true despite a slight decline in the number of students enrolled in public schools this school year, according to the study. More than three-quarters of the districts surveyed reported a rise in the number of students eating free meals under the U.S. Department of Agriculture program, the report says. Many of the school district employees who monitor the food programs complain that the federal subsidies fall far short of the rising costs. According to the association, the estimated average cost to prepare a school meal is $2.90, but the federal reimbursement is $2.57. School lunch programs are experiencing a potential loss of at least $4.5 million per school day, based on 30 million school lunches provided, the group says. The good news, according to association President Katie Wilson, is that \"this year, when hunger is more common, more students are able to eat a balanced, nutritious meal at school.\" Meals served under the USDA programs must meet nutrition guidelines based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For lunches, that means no more than 30 percent of calories can come from fat and fewer than 10 percent from saturated fat.","highlights":"Number of students eating subsidized meals rises 2.5 percent, nonprofit says .\nUse of USDA programs rises even as enrollment falls, report notes .\nSchools complain that USDA doesn't cover full cost of meals .\nSchool Nutrition Association surveyed 130 school food directors in 38 states ."} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- All that glitters may not be gold, but for Colombia's narco-molls the most important thing is that it glitters. Yovanna Guzman was 19 when she met drug boss Wilber Varela, and she says he showered her with luxuries. Beauty queens, fashion models, actresses or regular girls made good are lovers of drug capos and above all lovers of the finest luxuries that cocaine money can buy. Few are prepared to speak publicly and even less to appear on camera. Those who date mob bosses don't want to blow their cover. It could expose their boyfriends to arrest and themselves to retaliation. In addition, it could bring anti-drug police sniffing, ready to seize ill-gotten gains. One exception is Yovanna Guzman, a former beauty queen and model, with a mane of blond hair and a pneumatic figure -- a sure passport into the narco underworld where cup size is more important than IQ. For eight years, she was the lover of one of Colombia's most ruthless cocaine traffickers, Wilber Varela. He was head of the North Valle Cartel. \"He had two faces. I saw him so tender with the ones he loved, then you see the cartel killings. He always said he was the best of friends and the worst of enemies,\" Guzman said during an interview in Bogota. Watch Guzman describe Varela and how she met him \u00bb . The Colombian government accused Varela of running tons of cocaine to the United States via Central America in go-fast speedboats and to Europe in small jets. Should drugs be legalized? Sound off below . Authorities put a $5 million bounty on his head. He gained a reputation for brutality during a yearslong dispute with a splinter faction of the same cartel, led by Diego Montoya, who until his capture in 2007 was listed alongside Osama bin Laden on the FBI's list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives. Guzman was 19 when she met Varela. He told her he was a cattle rancher. She didn't ask questions and said she only found out the truth when she saw a Wanted poster with her boyfriend's mug shot. He wooed her with expensive gifts and sponsored her through Chica Med, a second-rate beauty pageant organizers concede was viewed as a cattle market by gangsters looking for new girls. Some mob bosses bought the beauty title as a gift for their molls, though it's not clear whether Varela paid for Guzman's title. \"There were the vacations, the cars and the luxury SUVs and, of course, jewelry. There was always jewelry. But there were small details too like flowers,\" she said. \"Of course, the luxuries don't make you fall in love, but they do dazzle you. When you get dazzled, you get carried away, but then you ask yourself where is the love and my principles?\" Guzman said Varela's first gift to her was a Rolex watch, followed by a Cartier watch, diamonds, jewelry, top-of-the-range sport utility vehicles and luxury apartments. She said she now realizes she was being bought and admits she sold herself. \"I feel all of us have a price up to a point. Sometimes you feel luxuries like the designer clothes, shoes and handbags are important. But afterward you realize you're empty inside,\" she said. Very quickly her drug lord boyfriend locked Guzman in a golden cage. He forbade her to do photo shoots or party with male friends, even though he had a stable of other top model girlfriends. \"He was very jealous, and what's his is his and belongs to nobody else and nobody can touch it, look at it or mess with it,\" she said. As Colombia's law enforcers stepped up the hunt for Varela, Guzman's time with him became less frequent. But she said he always seemed to know where she was or to whom she had talked. At one point, she said, a jealous Varela sent one of his lieutenants to shoot her in the leg. \"When I got shot, I was supposedly never going to walk properly again. The bullet could easily have hit me somewhere else and killed me. But I pulled myself together and I said I'm not going to be crippled,\" she said. What Guzman wouldn't explain was the reason for the punishment shooting. She giggled and promised to reveal the full details in a book she's writing. She said she hopes her experiences will serve as a cautionary tale for other young women on the trail of easy money. Whether or not they will take a leaf out of that book is another matter. Ordinary Colombians seem to have an unshakable attraction to glamorous narco-lifestyles judging by the sky-high ratings of two TV soap operas. The \"Cartel\" tells the story of the rise of the North Valle mob that Varela headed. The sequel, called \"Mafia Dolls,\" portrays women such as Guzman. One of the silicone-enhanced actresses who played a supporting role in both soaps said that since her TV appearances she has received offers from real-life drug dealers, both in Medellin and Cali. \"Those narcos watch TV and are always on the lookout for fresh meat. So I began getting the calls when I appeared in 'The Cartel,' \" she said. \"I got a phone call from a guy who is a showbiz publicist, and he told me a guy from Medellin was offering $7,500 for me to spend the evening with him.\" She said she refused that overture. Days later, a new BMW X5 SUV, with a bow on top, was left outside her home by the same drug trafficker who was trying to woo her. She said she returned the gift but gave no explanation how she found out the return address, given how secretive Colombian mob bosses are. \"All those narcos care about is how big your breasts are. If they want you, the first thing they do is send you to their plastic surgeons to have silicone implants. But it's them who decide how big you should be, not you,\" she went on. Guzman dares tell her story now for a simple reason -- Varela is dead. He was slain last year by one of his power-hungry lieutenants eager to take over the business. It marked the end of a nightmare she walked into with her eyes wide open. \"[When I heard the news], I didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Varela had his good side, but my freedom doesn't have a price,\" she said. \"I felt the golden cage had been flung open, and I could fly again.\"","highlights":"Former girlfriend of Colombian drug lord admits being bought by luxuries .\nYovanna Guzman dated cartel head Wilber Varela for eight years .\nGuzman says he bought her cars, vacations, jewels but also ordered her shot in leg .\nShe says she felt her \"golden cage\" had opened when he was killed last year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Heavy rain that began pounding California on Tuesday threatened to unleash dangerous floods and mudslides, especially in areas ravaged by wildfires. Residents of La Canada Flintridge, California, fill sandbags to prepare heavy rains in the fire-affected area. \"Very heavy rain is likely over the Sierra Nevada and foothills from later today through Wednesday morning as a strong and very moist Pacific storm moves into the region,\" the National Weather Service said. Up to 8 inches of rain could fall in areas above 4,000 feet, it said. Forecasters described it as the first major storm of the season. The Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services issued a mandatory evacuation order for 60 homes in a section of Davenport, an unincorporated community north of Santa Cruz along the state's central coast. The San Lorenzo Valley high school, middle school, and elementary schools are closed, the county said. Many roads were flooding in Santa Cruz County, emergency management officials said. The area burned in the summer's Lockheed fire, increasing the chances of mudslides in the current storm. Wind gusts above 50 mph were reported from automated observation sites at high elevations, and rainfall was heavy over the Santa Cruz Mountains, the weather service said. Gusty winds were reported in the San Francisco Bay Area, but heavy rain there was expected to end by early evening. \"Although it has been very dry for a lengthy period of time, excessive amounts of rain of this magnitude may produce flooding in locations that normally do not flood during an early autumn rainfall,\" the weather service said. California's Emergency Management Agency was conducting conference calls with the National Weather Service to stay abreast of the latest reports, spokesman Greg Renick said. The agency had advised other agencies to make emergency preparations, he said. Sandbags have been positioned at vulnerable locations. \"We have activated the state Operations Center in Sacramento and also activated the centers in Los Alamitos and Oakland,\" Renick said. One major area of concern is the land burned by the Station wildfire in August and September, forecasters said. That 160,000-acre fire destroyed about 80 homes in Los Angeles County. \"The heavy rain will create favorable conditions for mud and rock slides over burn scars,\" said the weather service, which issued numerous flood watches and warnings. Forecasters said debris flows also were possible in or near areas burned by blazes such as the Big Meadows Fire in Yosemite National Park, the Power Fire in Tulare County and the fire in San Bernardino National Forest.","highlights":"Evacuations ordered, schools closed near Santa Cruz .\nStorm is expected to dump as much as 8 inches of rain .\nStorm could hit parts of Southern California that the Station wildfire burned .\nResidents filled sandbags to prepare for flooding ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Polaroid Corp. announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Minnesota-based company said it is taking itself and its subsidiaries into bankruptcy in order to restructure its finances. \"Our operations are strong and during this process Polaroid will ship products to our retail partners, work with our suppliers and contract manufacturers to fulfill retailer demand ...\" said Mary L. Jeffries, Polaroid chief executive officer. \"We expect to continue our operations as normal during the reorganization and are planning for new product launches in 2009,\" she said, adding that employees should receive their paychecks without interruption. The bankruptcy filing was necessary because of an investigation of its parent company, Petters Group Worldwide, which has owned Polaroid since 2005, the Polaroid statement said. The group's founder and other employees are under investigation for fraud. Polaroid said the investigation does not involve its leadership team.","highlights":"\"Our operations are strong,\" Polaroid CEO says; company will \"fulfill retailer demand\"\nPolaroid: Bankruptcy filing necessary because of investigation of parent Petters .\nBankruptcy will allow restructuring of finances, company says .\niReport.com: Share your favorite Polaroid pictures ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Mark Gendreau, MD, is senior staff physician and vice chairman of emergency medicine at Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts, and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. His interests include health issues associated with commercial air travel, including transmission of infectious diseases. Dr. Mark Gendreau says swine flu is focusing attention on how to avoid getting a disease while traveling by air. (CNN) -- The novel swine flu is showing the world just how interconnected we are and how commercial aircraft can serve as vehicles of rapid disease spread. I am frequently asked: What is the risk of catching an illness while flying? In a nutshell, the risk of getting an infection while you're in an enclosed space such as an airplane depends upon three factors: The infectiousness of the contagious person spreading the illness; the degree of your exposure (how close you are to the contagious person and for how long); and the ventilation of the space or passenger cabin. We really have no control over the infectiousness of our fellow passengers, and usually, you really don't have much of a choice about your seating partners. So the exposure is pure chance. But this doesn't mean that you are doomed. Most respiratory viral infectious diseases -- like influenza and the common cold -- transmit via droplets contaminated with the offending microorganism when the infectious person coughs or sneezes. These droplets are propelled no farther than 3 feet and can land on an inanimate object -- such as a seat, overhead bin or seat tray -- or on your body. This is why hand hygiene is so critical and is the single most significant thing you can do to protect yourself and your family when you are traveling or out in public. Study after study shows marked reductions in transmission in public spaces when hand hygiene is practiced, and a recent study found nearly undetectable influenza particle levels after hands contaminated with influenza were washed with either soap and water or an over-the-counter gel containing at least 50 percent alcohol. Sanitize your hands before eating, drinking and after retrieving something from the overhead bin or returning from the restroom, and you have just cut your chances of getting infected by at least 40 percent. One of my disappointments with the airline industry is its lack of providing alcohol-based hand sanitizers to passengers. Such a service would go a long way in eliminating infection spread within aircraft. iReport.com: Have swine flu fears altered your travel plans? Ventilation is the final crucial element to consider in minimizing infection spread. Ventilation dilutes the concentration of infectious particles within any confined space, thereby reducing the probability of infection. Experience shows us that transmission becomes widespread within the passenger cabin involving all sections when the ventilation system is not working -- as evidenced by an influenza outbreak in 1979 involving passengers being kept aboard grounded aircraft with an inoperative ventilation system. Air circulation patterns aboard standard commercial aircraft are side-to-side (laminar), with air entering the cabin from overhead, circulating across the aircraft and exiting the cabin near the floor. Little to no front-to -back (longitudinal) airflow takes place. This air circulation pattern \"compartmentalizes\" the air flow into sections, thereby limiting the spread of airborne particles throughout the passenger cabin. Ventilation can involve either 100 percent fresh air in which outside air enters and leaves the cabin in a single pass or a system in which various fractions of air are recirculated from the aircraft cabin and mixed with fresh air. Most commercial aircraft in service recirculate 50 percent of the air delivered to the passenger cabin for improved control of cabin circulation, humidity and fuel efficiency. The recirculated air usually passes through high-efficiency particulate (HEPA) filters before delivery into the cabin. HEPA filtering of recirculated cabin air to minimize exposure to infectious particles is established within scientific literature, practiced daily in health care facilities and is strongly endorsed by the medical community and cabin health experts. However, oddly enough, the Federal Aviation Administration, its British counterpart, the Civil Aviation Authority, and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities do not require the use of these filters on commercial airlines. Efforts to improve international regulations regarding the certification, inspection and maintenance of aircraft environmental control systems are needed. To minimize the risk of disease spread by aircraft, regulations requiring HEPA filters for any aircraft that uses recirculated air should be seriously considered. In the meantime, you can improve the ventilation at your seat by turning on the overhead air vent to low and positioning the airflow to be slightly in front of your face. This may create enough air turbulence to push a viral particle from landing on your face and mucous membranes. Finally, face masks are effective. In 2003, during the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, 76 percent of Hong Kong residents wore simple masks, and in this case, mask use was associated with a lower incidence of SARS, as well as upper respiratory tract infections and influenza. A recent analysis of public health interventions used during the SARS epidemic suggests that the use of masks by the public was 68 percent effective in decreasing rates of infection, with simple face masks, and 91 percent effective for more sophisticated N95 face masks. The take-home message is this: Use a surgical mask when you are traveling to areas that have reported cases of swine flu and bring an additional one to give to anyone near you who forgot one or appears to be sick and is coughing or sneezing. Prevention of a disease outbreak is the most important means of control and requires a proactive approach. The aviation industry and medical community should better educate the general public about health issues related to air travel and infection control. The only way to eliminate any risk of cross-infection in the aircraft cabin -- or the rapid worldwide spread of an infectious agent -- is to prevent would-be passengers who are either substantially exposed to or carrying transmissible infections from flying. This needs to come from education and promoting individual responsibility, since the systematic screening of passengers for contagious diseases is impractical. Although thermal scanners used in airports may detect travelers with symptoms, they are not effective since people exposed to an infectious disease could travel without any signs or symptoms and yet still be infectious. The late Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg once said \"The microbe that felled one child in a distant continent yesterday can reach yours today, and seed a global pandemic tomorrow.\" True words. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mark Gendreau.","highlights":"Mark Gendreau: Swine flu is focusing attention on illness and air travel .\nHe says three things affect the likelihood of your getting sick from a plane trip .\nGendreau: Sick passengers, your exposure and ventilation are key factors .\nHe says using hand sanitizers on planes would help prevent spread ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- One million free text messages will be sent every day for 12 months from Monday in South Africa in a bid to raise HIV awareness and encourage testing for the disease. Former South African president Nelson Mandela launched a similar cell phone initiative in 2003. The ambitious Project Masiluleke is being rolled out across the country after a pilot period that saw calls to a AIDS national helpline shoot up by 200 percent, organizers say. The United Nations estimates that there are currently six million people living with HIV in South Africa and just one in 10 get the treatment they need. \"South Africa is the epicenter of the global HIV epidemic,\" said HIV activist Zinny Thabethe in Octorber at an annual conference for the social innovation network Pop!Tech, an organization instrumental in developing the concept. 'Project Masiluleke,' or 'Project M' was set up to try to encourage people to seek testing and treatment in a country where cell phones are abundant. Africa is cited as the fastest growing mobile-phone network in the world. In South Africa, more than 80 percent of the population has one -- the country has a population of 49 million, and it is estimated that 43 million have cell phones. Almost 95 percent of the phones are prepaid. The initiative plans to broadcast millions of health messages every month to phones across South Africa. \"This is the largest ever use of cell phones for health information,\" said Gustav Praekelt, one of the project's originators. \"There is near universal coverage,\" said Praekelt during the launch of the project. \"And in the absence of other services, the mobile phone has become the central component for people to get access to information.\" Organizers say 'Project M' will offer South Africans the privacy to get tested and pursue treatment options and counseling by staff who are HIV positive themselves. The system sends the messages using a so-called \"Please Call Me\" (PCM) service. This free form of text messaging, common across Africa, allows someone without any phone credit to send a text to a friend asking them to call. Each sent PCM message has the words \"Please Call Me,\" the phone number of the caller, and space for an additional 120 characters. The extra space is normally filled with advertising, which helps offset the cost of running the service. The message reads: \"Frequently sick, tired, losing weight and scared that you might be HIV positive? Please call AIDS Helpline 0800012322.\" Encouraging people to get tested is a huge challenge in a country where people with the AIDS virus still face stigma and shame. However, 'Project M' appears to be having an impact, since it was initiated in October. \"We have observed a dramatic increase in the call rate to the AIDS Helpline -- from approximately 1,300 calls per day to a new average of 3,600,\" said Milo Zama, Projects Development Manager for LifeLine, one of the partners. Trained operators provide callers with accurate healthcare information, and referrals to local testing clinics . Many of the messages are broadcast in English and in local languages such as Zulu. As well as Pop!Tech, the project has been developed and funded by HIV charities and technology and design firms, including Nokia Siemens, MTN, the Praekelt Foundation, iTeach and National Geographic. Pop!Tech's Director of Communications Jason Rzepka told CNN there are plans to expand the project to other affected countries after its official launch in February 2009. He said: \"One of the objectives of the February launch event will be to secure additional funding, so we can continue to expand Project Masiluleke into its planned 2nd and 3rd phases beyond South Africa.\"","highlights":"One million free texts will be sent every day for 12 months from Monday .\nProject Masiluleke has seen rise in use of AIDS helpline during pilot project .\nThe initiative plans to send millions of health messages every month ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Lance Arneson, who helped trigger the global phenomenon of role-playing games as co-inventor of \"Dungeons & Dragons,\" has died at the age of 61. A statement on the game's official Web site, wizards.com, said Arneson died Tuesday evening \"after waging one final battle against cancer.\" Arneson \"developed many of the fundamental ideas of role playing: that each player controls just one hero, that heroes gain power through adventures, and that personality is as important as combat prowess,\" the statement said. The game's co-creator, Gary Gygax, died last year. In 1974, Arneson and Gygax created \"Dungeons & Dragons,\" which allowed players to assume roles in a magical world. They could be fighters or wizards, elves or dwarfs. \"As characters journey through various lands, they search for hidden treasures while battling menacing monsters with their own brains and brawn,\" a description on wizards.com says. Some games would last days or weeks -- or even longer. \"Game campaigns are as limitless as the player's imaginations,\" wizards.com says. What began as a hand-assembled print run of 1,000 games quickly sold out. Young people all over the world started buying up the game. By 1982, sales broke the $20 million mark. Arneson filed a series of lawsuits against Gygax insisting he was not being given credit or proper royalties for his work creating the game. The suits were settled. \"Dungeons and Dragons\" spawned video games, novels, a cartoon, and a movie. The franchise saw a surge this decade after \"The Lord of the Rings\" and \"Harry Potter\" movies took off.","highlights":"David Lance Arneson has died at the age of 61 .\nHe helped trigger phenomenon of role-playing games .\nStatement: Arneson died \"after waging one final battle against cancer\"\n\"Dungeons and Dragons\" spawned video games, novels, a cartoon, and a movie ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It started with sinus congestion for Shawna Coronado. Then the splitting migraines came. Coronado soon discovered the furry causes: Harrington and Kalamazoo. Shawna Coronado endures headaches and congestion to keep her 30-pound pug, Harrington. Her 30-pound pug and orange tabby scattered dead skin flakes around the house, triggering Coronado's allergic reactions. Her two daughters are also allergic, but their reactions are less severe. Like the 10 million American pet owners with allergies, the Coronados faced a dilemma: Can human and dog co-exist in the same house? \"We love them,\" said Coronado about her family's pets. \"They're adorable. They're really our babies. They're part of the family. We could never live without them.\" Allergies can cause itchy eyes, hives, sneezing, congestion or even asthma. To keep animals around, allergic pet owners get shots, pop antihistamines, squeeze eyedrops, squirt nasal spray, use inhalers or just deal with it. Others try to find a dog that won't trigger the symptoms. President-elect Barack Obama's family has said his family is seeking a \"hypoallergenic dog,\" because of his eldest daughter, Malia's, allergies. Unfortunately, there's no such thing. The belief that certain breeds are hypoallergenic is \"a complete misconception,\" said Dr. Robert Wood, chief of pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. \"You can't predict by type or breed, or length of hair.\" Pet allergies are not caused by dog hair, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology noted in a recent statement. \"The allergen is produced in saliva, urine, dander-- it's not just hair,\" said Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, an allergist at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. \"Even with a hairless dog, there are still allergens.\" For their next pet, the Coronados are considering a poodle. Although poodles, bichon frises and Malteses are often touted as hypoallergenic dogs, these breeds all produce allergens. There hasn't been sufficient research to determine whether certain breeds are more allergy-friendly, said Dr. Clifford Bassett, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at The Long Island College Hospital in New York. \"There is not a lot of research in this area,\" he said. \"There are differences between breeds, but we don't have research to definitively say. They all produce allergens.\" The key factors are the animal's size and the volume of hair. The fur can collect pollens, mold spore and allergens and bring them indoors, triggering reactions. Even so, reactions vary widely, because everyone's body is different, doctors say. Before committing to a pet, make an arrangement to bring the animal to the home for a trial period to see how the person with allergies fares. \"It's always going to be trial and error,\" Wood said. \"Someone might be allergic to one breed, but the main dog allergen that people are allergic to is present in all dogs.\" It is also possible for someone to develop dog allergies months or years after bringing the animal home. If symptoms arise, doctors recommend getting tested to be certain that the allergy is coming from the animal. Allergic reactions could come from other irritants, such as pollen or dust. A person's allergies can also inexplicably change over time. In the same way that some people outgrow food allergies, there is a rare possibility that pet owners could outgrow their allergies to animals, experts said. Pills and medications are available to treat the symptoms, but the best remedy, said Philatanakul, is to not have pets. \"There's nothing that can be done except for avoidance,\" she said. \"There's no cure. You're exposing yourself to high levels of allergens in your home. We generally recommend they should not have a pet. It's not recommended.\" For many families, having a loving, furry companion outweighs the runny noses, wheezing and water eyes. Coronado, who is also allergic to mold, dust and yeast, suspects it's not just the dog and cat causing her headaches. After cutting out beer, bread and cheese from her diet, she says she doesn't get as many allergic reactions. But she can't pick up the cat without getting congested. Sometimes Harrington and Kalamazoo trot into the house bringing all sorts of allergens with them and trigger her allergic reactions. Despite the discomforts, the Coronados aren't getting rid of their animals. \"Our lives are so enriched because we have dogs and cats,\" she said. \"You can live in a positive way and live well with the pets or you can suffer every day and think it's miserable. It's really how you look at it. The reason we live with pets is because we live life in a positive way and we work it out.\" Her two daughters have cat allergies, but they don't have asthma or breathing difficulties, so Kalamazoo is staying put in their Warrenville, Illinois, home. \"Pets are healing for we humans,\" Coronado said. \"They are for my children. We adore them as part of the family. On a mental health level, children gain something from pets. Children gain a lot from being in nature and being outside. Dogs and cats as pets are part of that experience.\" Pets do provide therapeutic value, said Bassett. \"Pets make people feel good,\" he said. \"Pets reduce anxiety, blood pressure. Pets are here to stay.\"","highlights":"10 million American pet owners have allergies .\nAllergies caused by protein in animal dander, saliva or urine, not by hair .\nBelief that certain breeds are hypoallergenic is \"a complete misconception\"\nMedications available to treat symptoms, but best remedy is not to have pets ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Prejudice is a funny thing. I was prepared not to like BMW's M6. Not that I thought it would be a bad car -- BMW, as a rule, isn't prone to making duff automobiles -- it's just I wasn't entirely sure what it was supposed to be. An executive coupe with a 5-liter V10 engine and 500 bhp? With a price tag that could buy you a Porsche 911 or most of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage? What fresh nonsense was this? But prejudice is there to be challenged. The aggressive front air intakes, 19\" alloy wheels and carbon fiber roof mean that this isn't any ordinary 6-Series . Taking delivery of the M6 at my home in Brighton, southern England, I felt the car looked ever so slightly out of place. After all I live in an electoral ward which elected three Green representatives to the City council and is predicted to deliver the first Green Party member to the national government at the next general election. Muscular sports cars aren't common sights on my street (someone once parked a Porsche Cayenne Turbo here but he got a dirty look for it). An acquaintance, Kevin, strolled past. \"Hello,\" I said, \"it's not mine\". Second-guessing his likely prejudices I added, \"It's rather ostentatious, I know.\" \"I don't know,\" replied Kevin, \"I think it's quite understated, quite elegant.\" One prejudice quashed. My wife and I then filled the surprisingly roomy trunk with our luggage and various gifts (the weekend being the occasion of my father-in-law's 70th birthday) and prepared for our journey to the Staffordshire moorlands in central England. You can spend a lot of time preparing for a journey in an M6. You can choose a location for the sat-nav to direct you to and whether the directions are displayed as a map or as a perspective diagram. You can choose to listen to CD, radio or an external audio source and then modify the acoustic properties with a graphic equalizer and various surround sound settings. You can program the \"M\" button on the steering wheel so that the various suspension, gearing and power settings can be switched between sedate motorway driving and utter lunacy. You can adjust the seat's height and rake; inflate, deflate and position the lumbar support so the small of your back is just so and adjust the seat wings to hold you as tight as a doting grandmother, should you wish. The car is started with a start\/stop button. This is best done with the window open because the M6 is front-engined and the general cabin ambience is too refined to be invaded with the brutish noises of the 5-liter V10. Even so, the hood's sound insulation means that you never get the eviscerating snarl that juvenile men -- such as myself -- expect from a supercar. The automatic gearbox can be put in a fully-automatic mode, or gears can be selected by nudging the sequential gear lever, or flipping the paddle-shifts behind the steering wheel. The car is surprisingly civilized at low speeds. It doesn't feel like you're taming a monster. If anything there's a slight lag between pushing the throttle and the forwards crawl. Navigational and speedometer readings are projected onto the windscreen by the head-up display, creating the impression of a floating screen a few feet in front of the car. This omnipresent reminder of speed is good news for my (unblemished) driving licence as it is horribly easily to drive way too fast in the M6. It is so stable that 30 mph feels like a walking pace and I wouldn't want to incriminate myself by stating the speed I found myself doing on the public highway while thinking I was driving at just about the speed limit. Naturally the head-up display can also be customized and, in \"M\" mode displays speed and a graphic display of rev ranges, in favor of navigational instructions. Put simply the M6 is perfect on the highways, which would make up the majority of my journey (much of it, coincidentally, on a highway called the \"M6\"). You are under no compulsion to drive like a hooligan. With the power button off (meaning you have only 400 not 500 horses at your disposal), and at its least-sporty setting, the M6 drives like a perfectly ordinary BMW -- composed, sturdy but able to accelerate out of trouble when necessary. On country roads it handles diligently, holding corners reassuringly but without the physical sensation you get driving smaller, lower sports cars. I'm assured that you can drive the M6 like a hooligan if you wish, taking advantage of the M-Diff system -- a torque-sensing differential that can provide between zero and 100 per cent of the drive forces to either driven wheel -- and the MDynamic mode which allows the car to perform on the edge for as long as possible before kicking in the dynamic stability control to keep the car in line. Sadly time, conditions, and my wife's insistence that we arrived in one piece, prevented me from testing these attributes. The point of the M6, then, is that it's both a refined, four-seater grand tourer and a sports car. It has, as the car wash attendant in a supermarket parking lot in Cheadle suggested \"too much electronics\" but those electronics are necessary for performing the car's dual roles. The car's not without niggles: the indicator stalk is too short (and would it hurt to put an indicator display on the head-up?). It's very thirsty (officially 19 mpg, but we managed rather less) and the 70-liter tank is insufficient for long journeys. The lag between gear changes at low speed is rather annoying. And the compromise between sports car thrills and autobahn civility means that it doesn't sound, or look, like a schoolboy's fantasy. But perhaps that's the point. Far from being ostentatious, the M6 is the devil dressed as middle-management: it does bad things very respectably. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"500 bhp V10-engined variant of the BMW 6-Series .\nSeats four adults in comfort, while providing sports car thrills .\nSurprisingly practical, but offers disappointing fuel economy and range ."} -{"article":"PADUCAH, Kentucky (CNN) -- He arrives in the early morning hours, when the downtown streets here are empty and quiet. Former U.S. soldier Steven Green has been convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. An electric gate jerks to life as the black sedan with tinted windows pulls into a parking lot protected by an iron fence. It's five blocks from the local county jail to the U.S. Federal Courthouse of Western Kentucky. Not even a five-minute drive. This is the only freedom Steven Green knows. He's ushered from the car by a contingent of U.S. marshals. It's 30 feet out in the open air. A brief chance to look up at the clouds. A moment to hear sounds not reverberated against cell walls: a bird, a car engine, a breeze in nearby trees. He is a lanky 24-year-old. He looks lean, like he could grow a little more. Not really a man, but too old to be called a boy. Regardless, he is a convicted murderer, rapist, and conspirator. The orange prison coveralls make him look a bit taller. The jury never sees Green in the fluorescent jumpsuit. Inside the federal courthouse there is a change of clothes. Usually it's a button-down shirt and a pair of khakis. He keeps his cuffs buttoned. He looks nerdish, and you half expect him to start working on the courtroom computers. Not like a man who once asked FBI agents if they thought he was \"a monster.\" Evidence comes in a steady display of pictures and videos that seem oddly connected. The snapshot of a smiling woman lying in a field of bluebonnets. The image of a dead Iraqi strapped to the hood of an Army Humvee. A high school yearbook photo of a Texas football team. The diagram of a brain cell. Video of a firefight shot from an insurgent perspective. The most unusual trial exhibit sits against the wall behind the prosecutor's table: a small architectural mock-up of a home. Roughly 18 by 18 inches, it is like no home in Kentucky. A flat-topped square with a raised rectangular structure at the top providing access to the roof. It is beige in color. The tiny windows have tiny bars. It is a 3-D map of a crime scene. Earlier this month, a jury found Green guilty of a raping a 14-year-old girl who lived in the home in Iraq, then killing her and setting her body on fire to destroy evidence. Green also was found guilty of killing the girl's parents and 6-year-old sister. There is a casual manner to Steven Green's daily entrance into the courtroom. It defies the circumstances of the moment and the imagination without proper context. This is the sentencing phase of his death penalty trial and he is the defendant. Testimony resumes Monday, with the expectation of closing arguments as early as Wednesday. Green faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, or death in prison. The testimony transports the court to unusual places: across Texas following Green's dysfunctional childhood, into the sense of structure and order of Army basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and back to the chaos of horrendous combat situations four years ago in Iraq's Triangle of Death. Green is a former member of the 101st Airborne Division, inserted into a very bad section of Iraq during some of the worst fighting of the war. His memories are of a place known as Yusufiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Jurors form a mental picture of his life then as former members of his unit, Bravo Company, take the stand. Amid the military lingo, the witnesses pause occasionally, struggling to convey the contempt, confusion, exhaustion, and death they knew. They speak of being shot, of killings, booby traps and sudden bloody dismemberments. This toxic emotional mix is what former Pfc. Green knew in 2005 and 2006 almost every day, along with the very real possibility of his own death. If the jury opts for its most extreme option -- the death penalty -- unlike his daily death watch in Iraq, at least Green will see that coming. When a friend or family member enters the courtroom, Green tries to make anxious eye contact. He whispers a lot to his attorneys. His hands stay around his face and his gaze on the table when the victims' family speak through an interpreter. The Al-Janabis' relatives do not speak of details of the crime. The questions come only from the prosecution, and the defense does not cross-examine. They speak of an orchard worker, Kassem, and his wife, Fakhriya. They speak of a simple family who did not own either their home or the furniture. They speak of a funny 6-year-old girl, Hadeel, being chased through the orchard trees by siblings. They speak of a 14-year-old girl, Abeer, with dreams of living in the city and wearing nice clothes. The jury never hears the words \"rape\" or \"murder\" come from the translation. It is a testimony about loss. The defendant sits rigid the entire time. The mention of other names comes frequently in court. Spc. James Barker: The jury knows him as the soldier who concocted a plan over a card game to target the Al-Janabi family -- a mission of gang-rape and murder. Sgt. Paul Cortez: The defense counsel describes him as senior non-commissioned officer, the one who approved the mission as long as he was the first to rape Abeer. Pfc. Jesse Spielman: His name is familiar as the fourth member of the squad to leave their traffic checkpoint on March 12, 2006, after donning disguises, and enter the Al-Janabi home. Pfc. Bryan Howard is the soldier left behind to guard their post. Each is out of the Army, sentenced to prison time by a military court for his part in the crime and the failed coverup. Green, the trigger man, is the odd man out. He sits before the jury, convicted in civil court for this war atrocity. His early release from the Army two months after the crime is a possible death sentence, while three of his accomplices face the possibility of parole from an Army prison in 2016. Green still sports a military haircut. Seated at the table alongside his defense team, he often leans over and speaks with Darren Wolff, a former Marine Corps captain turned Kentucky defense lawyer. There are letters on file in the court docket from Wolff petitioning Defense Secretary Robert Gates to re-enlist Green in the Army, so the former private could face trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is not unheard of in this war. Wolff points out in conversation that the Pentagon re-activated two former Marines after word surfaced of an alleged murder in Falluja in 2004. He says Green should face a jury of his military peers. The fact that has not happened, and the former Army private sits in the U.S. District Court of Western Kentucky tried under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act for crimes committed in Iraq, may be a point of appeal. At the end of the day, Green exits the courtroom, climbs back into his prison garb and is shackled. There's another short walk to the car, then a five-block return drive to take in the world. He returns to solitary confinement. This is his human interaction for the day.","highlights":"Steven Green was convicted of murder, rape in deaths of girl and her family in Iraq .\nJury in Kentucky to decide his sentence; death penalty a possibility .\nClosing arguments could start as soon as Wednesday .\nGreen faces harsher penalty because he had left Army and was tried in civilian court ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Colorado say criminal charges are expected to be filed against Richard Heene, a storm-chasing father whose giant Mylar balloon ascended into the sky earlier this week, sparking fears that his 6-year-old was aboard. Richard and Mayumi Heene leave the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Saturday. \"We do anticipate at some point in the future, there will be some criminal charges filed with regards to this incident,\" Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said. The saga captured the nation's attention early Thursday afternoon, after authorities reported the family's homemade helium balloon was set adrift, apparently with young Falcon Heene inside. Since then, speculation has mounted over whether the incident was a hoax by the father, who has appeared with his family on ABC's \"Wife Swap,\" and posted videos of storm chasing and other activities online. Earlier Saturday, in an impromptu press conference outside his home, Heene told reporters the runaway balloon incident was \"absolutely no hoax.\" The incident prompted a widespread search in northern Colorado that included law enforcement from several counties, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Colorado National Guard. It ended when Falcon climbed down from the attic above the garage at the family's Fort Collins, Colorado, home. If the incident was a hoax, the only charge local authorities could press would be making a false report to authorities -- a Class 3 misdemeanor, Alderden told reporters Saturday. However, a misdemeanor \"hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances,\" the sheriff said. \"We certainly want to talk to FAA officials and federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that would be more appropriate in the circumstances than what we're able to do locally,\" he said. He said further details would be disclosed Sunday morning, and that neither Richard nor Mayumi Heene, who came in voluntarily Saturday, was under arrest. The couple emerged Saturday evening from the sheriff's office after several hours of interviews with investigators. \"I was talking to the sheriff's department just now to further things along,\" Richard Heene told reporters outside the building. \"We're doing well.\" He refused to take questions before the couple drove away in their minivan. Earlier Saturday, Heene emerged from his house and offered a cardboard box for the media to submit questions. Watch Heene reveal question box \u00bb . \"I got people e-mailing me, calling me; they've got a lot of questions, and I don't know how to quite frankly answer any of them other than I've got a box,\" Heene said around 10 a.m. He said he'd answer the questions later Saturday night. \"I'm going to place the box up front. Please write your questions down,\" he said. \"I have no idea what the news are saying. I don't have cable.\" Speculation began to mount over whether the incident was staged after the family appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Thursday night. Heene asked Falcon why he had not come out from hiding when his parents were calling for him. \"You guys said we did this for the show,\" the boy said. Heene said his son was confused when he made the \"show\" remark. There were media assembled on the front lawn asking all sorts of questions, and that's what Falcon was referring to, Heene said. Alderden said Friday that -- based on reports that the parents \"took these children into potentially dangerous situations\" with tornado chases, the experimental balloons and other activities -- it would be \"appropriate to involve child protection [services] to at least see what the family situation is and whether the children are in a safe condition.\" Earlier, the sheriff told reporters his department contacted child protection officials but asked them not to contact the family until investigators had a chance to re-interview them.","highlights":"NEW: Criminal charges expected \"sometime in the near future,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Sheriff says he wants to consult FAA to see if federal charges apply .\nFather of boy thought to be in runaway balloon says he'll answer questions .\nRichard Heene sets box in front of home to receive reporters' queries ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is blasting Congressional Democrats for not sending a bill that would fund veterans' care programs to the president's desk by Veterans Day. The White House's Dana Perino accused Democrats of holding veterans care funding hostage. \"There's absolutely no reason that the veterans' bill could not have been signed by the president today, except for the political games that the Democrats decided to play with it,\" White House press secretary Dana Perino said Sunday in Crawford, Texas. Congressional Democrats had attached legislation funding veterans programs to a $150.7 billion bill that also funded a number of domestic priorities, including health, labor and education. Democrats also added $3.7 billion to what the president budgeted for veterans programs. The labor-health-education bill would increase funding by more than $10 billion over last year's funding for those programs. The president has threatened to veto the bill because of the added spending. The House passed a health-labor-education bill 269-142 last week with the veterans funding attached, but the Senate later voted to strip out the veterans funding and send the health-labor-education bill to the president. Perino accused the Democrats of \"trying to hold hostage our veterans to extra domestic spending or increases in taxes.\" \"The president wants clean legislation, a clean bill to fund the veterans,\" Perino said. On Saturday, the Democratic congressional leadership sent a letter to President Bush saying they welcomed a dialogue on spending, sayings disagreements over funding levels \"have never been so great that we cannot reach agreement on a spending plan that meets the needs of the American people.\" \"Key to this dialogue, however, is some willingness on your part to actually find common ground,\" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said in the letter. The leadership said last year's Congress, which was still under Republican control, had never passed a separate bill funding veterans programs. Congress also sent to the president legislation that would fund veterans care at the levels requested by the president through December 14, the leadership said. The current funding level \"is still below the $3.9 billion extra that we passed,\" said Nadeam Elshami, spokesman Pelosi. \"We are committed to getting the extra funding that the Congress already voted on the president's desk for his signature.\" The leadership blamed Republican members of Congress for stalling the funding for the veterans programs by blocking its inclusion in the larger spending bill. Perino, though, said the Democrats could still send a separate bill to the president funding the veterans program that passed both chambers of Congress. \"The Democrats decided not to send the president this bill,\" Perino said. \"That has to be laid at their feet.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House accuses Democrats of holding hostage funding for veterans care .\nFunding was attached to large health-labor-education bill .\nWhite House says it wants a clean bill that only funds veterans programs .\nDemocrats call on White House to engage in a dialogue on spending levels ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans of the character Easy Rawlins don't want to hear it, but author Walter Mosley says he has officially moved on. Author Walter Mosley found fame with his Easy Rawlins mysteries and has debuted a new series. The prolific writer seemingly wrapped up his beloved series -- which spawned the 1995 film \"Devil in a Blue Dress\" starring Denzel Washington -- in 2007 with the 10th Easy Rawlins mystery, \"Blonde Faith.\" The ending saddened die-hard fans who had faithfully followed the adventures of the Los Angeles, California-based everyman-turned-private investigator whose stories played out in an era from the Jim Crow 1940s to the politically charged 1960s. Now Mosley, who has found success writing everything from erotica to science fiction, has launched a new mystery series with the release of his book \"The Long Fall\" (Riverhead). The book features an ex-boxer named Leonid Trotter McGill, the latest colorfully named Mosley character. Three of his previous books involved ex-convict Socrates Fortlow, and another trio concerned bookseller Paris Minton. But the new novel takes Mosley to a different place and time. Instead of mid-20th century Los Angeles, \"The Long Fall\" is set in modern-day New York, where McGill is finding it hard to leave his less-than-stellar past behind. That past includes a childhood as a red-diaper baby abandoned by his union organizer father and left to fend for himself at an early age, a loveless marriage to an unfaithful woman named Katrina and a son who's a burgeoning criminal mastermind. Moreover, he's at work on a case where you just know people are going to die. Such page turners are nothing new for Mosley, who is known for his strong, black male characters and his passionate musings on race, politics and the writing life. McGill's creator recently spoke with CNN about the new mystery novel, why he doesn't miss Easy, and how the changes in the United States are mirrored in his writing. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Why leave Los Angeles for a setting in modern-day New York? Walter Mosley: I have been a resident of both cities. The new series being contemporary and about a character who in some murky ways reflects where America is right now, New York seemed the right place for that. CNN: How so? Where do you think America is right now? Mosley: I think that America has made a decision, after about 20 years of going in one direction, to go in another direction: to leave rampant and amoral kind of deregulation and also rampant and immoral wars and say, \"Maybe we should be doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing,\" or redefining what the right thing is, at any rate. Those kinds of decisions, there are only two places [the setting] can be, and that's either in Washington, D.C., which I feel is very limiting because it's a one-business town, or New York, where everything from economics to government is centered. So I decided on New York. CNN: McGill is trying to leave behind his shady past. Do you feel like America is trying to do the same? Mosley: Yes, I think that's exactly what's happening. I think America is trying to seek redemption after having done many things wrong in the eyes of the world in general. Leonid McGill is trying to seek redemption after a long criminal history. His history is somewhat forgivable, but still it's criminal. CNN: Did you approach this book differently than you did when you were writing the Easy Rawlins mysteries? Mosley: Yes and no. All books are different, so each of the Easy Rawlins books I wrote I approached differently. [Leonid] is a new character and he has a unique life that I had to begin to learn. I knew Easy very well, but Leonid I had to learn who he was. CNN: In your new book, I love that McGill's wife's name is \"Katrina\" and she leaves lots of destruction in her wake. Mosley: [chuckling] It's true, but the first story I wrote about Leonid [a story called \"Karma\" published in the anthology \"Dangerous Women\"] was before the hurricane and that was a long time ago. It's funny that it worked out like that. CNN: What do you like about McGill? Mosley: This is the first time in my experiments in crime fiction that I've written a hard-boiled detective character. This is going all the way back to the beginning of the genre in the '30s, where you have a guy who gets thumped upside the head a lot and he's just as bad as the people he's after. In the old style, you never knew what was going on inside the hard-boiled character's head, but in these stories I am actually discovering the underlying character of the hard-boiled detective, and for me that's been a great deal of fun. CNN: You've written so many various genres. What is it about the genre of crime fiction that appeals to you? Mosley: Originally I got into it because you can talk about worlds that people wouldn't read about ordinarily unless they had a particular interest in it. Everybody reads crime fiction and they read it to find out about different worlds. I like writing in different genres. There's all this stuff that I really enjoy doing because I think they all serve different purposes. And listen, I'm known as a crime writer, people like it and I enjoy it. CNN: For your fans, a lot of them miss Easy Rawlins. Do you miss him at all? Mosley: No, he's right there on the shelf. All I have to do is reach up and pull him down. I'm finished with that. I'm moving on.","highlights":"Writer Walter Mosley is best known for his Easy Rawlins mystery series .\nHis new book, \"The Long Fall,\" introduces the character of Leonid McGill .\nUnlike past books, the new novel is set in modern-day New York .\nMosley says he enjoyed first time writing a \"hard-boiled detective\" novel ."} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Shell-shocked and scarred both inside and out, they huddle in tents, water and medicine in short supply -- hundreds of thousands of people, civilian victims of Sri Lanka's recently-ended civil war. Displaced Sri Lankan people look out from inside a camp in Cheddikulam. \"We suffered a lot because shelling was coming from everywhere,\" said a 38-year-old man identifying himself as Vishwamala. \"Firing, shelling -- many, many people have died ... there was nobody there to carry the dead. A lot of dead were left on the road.\" Another survivor, Krisha Duray, recalls \"running and running\" to escape shelling by both the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tiger rebels, who waged a bloody 25-year war. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday visited refugee camps housing such victims. \"I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen,\" he said. Ban requested that the United Nations be provided full access to the displacement camps in order to provide aid. In a joint statement issued Saturday, Ban and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the United Nations will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced persons, and that the government will continue to provide access to humanitarian agencies. That access, however, is limited. The United Nations and other organizations have never had full access, as government officials fear some remaining Tamil Tiger rebels may be hiding in the camps and are screening those inside. Watch the U.N. chief discuss the humanitarian crisis \u00bb . Sri Lanka's Sunday Times newspaper reported that attempts to smuggle youths out of the camps has prompted the government to impose restrictions on visits. Rajiva Wijesinha, the nation's human rights ministry secretary, was quoted as telling the newspaper that people \"with the connivance of Non-Governmental Organization workers\" were involved in the plot. Because of the plot, \"a thorough screening of IDPs was under way,\" the newspaper said. \"I have United Nations humanitarian agencies, and there are ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and many other international humanitarian agency workers,\" Ban said in a Saturday news conference, according to a transcript. \"They should be given unimpeded access and freedom of movement within the camp. That is what I have asked the foreign minister and the president (for), and I was assured that the leaders of the Sri Lankan government will make sure (of this).\" Sri Lanka's government as of Sunday had not responded to Ban's appeal. But the joint statement Saturday said, \"The government will expedite the necessary basic and civil infrastructure as well as (the) means of livelihood necessary for the IDPs to resume their normal lives at the earliest. \"The Secretary-General welcomed the announcement by the government expressing its intention to dismantle the welfare villages at the earliest as outlined in the plan to resettle the bulk of IDPs and call for its early implementation.\" Ban toured Manik Farm, a sprawling camp for internally displaced people in the country's north, days after Sri Lanka declared victory in a 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tigers rebels. About 250,000 to 300,000 people are refugees in the country, according to humanitarian groups and U.N. figures. Some in the camp have experienced fierce fighting in recent months, saying that at moments they did not believe they were going to survive. Asked whether he agrees with the military's assertions that not many civilians died in the violence, Ban told CNN he believes there were many civilian casualties. While the war's end elicited celebrations in parts of the country, humanitarian groups and the United Nations worry about those uprooted by the fighting. Ban arrived in the South Asian island nation Friday, saying he came to offer help and partnership. \"I hope my visit today can help begin a process of national recovery, renewal and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans,\" Ban said in a written statement issued Friday. \"That is why I am here.\" He said he would urge the government to expedite the screening and processing of refugees and ensure that displaced camps have adequate supplies of food, medicine and water. With the war's end, \"the government of Sri Lanka faces many immediate and long-term challenges relating to issues of relief, rehabilitation, resettlement and reconciliation,\" the joint statement said. Ban also flew to the site of the civil war's final battle, near Mullaitivu. CNN's Iqbal Athas in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ban Ki-moon says camp contains \"the most appalling scenes I have seen\"\nBan asks president to grant unrestricted access to humanitarian agencies .\nAbout 250,000 to 300,000 people are refugees in the country, aid agencies say .\nSri Lankan government has declared victory in the country's 25-year civil war ."} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Passengers said they saw flames and then heard an explosion moments before a Spanair jet crashed on takeoff Wednesday at Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 153 people, according to local media. Medical personnel tend to an injured passenger at Madrid's Barajas airport. The Spanair Flight JK5022 was carrying 172 people. There were 19 survivors, including two infants, Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said. The 19 were being treated at a hospital, Alvaraez said. The severity of the injuries varies, but many of the injured have been treated for burns, Spanish Red Cross spokeswoman Olivia Acosa said. Watch as the wounded arrive at a hospital \u00bb . The flight was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, two hours away. Local officials said one of the engines caught fire. The aircraft, an MD-82, has two jet engines, both at the rear. The burning plane came to rest in a gully about 2:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. ET). The crash sent up a plume of smoke visible from several kilometers away. At the time of the crash, weather conditions were hot and clear. Watch smoke rising from airport \u00bb . A survivor told Spain's ABC newspaper that she and other passengers heard an explosion as the plane was taking off. iReport: Send us your pictures, video, information. \"She said they could see the fire, ... and then it was not even a minute or so they heard [something] blow up,\" reporter Carlota Fomina told CNN. \"They were about 200 meters [660 feet] in the air, and then they were landing but not crashing. They were landing, like, little by little; it was not like they [fell] down suddenly.\" The MD-82 was carrying 162 passengers, four non-working crew members and six working crew members, Spanair said. After contacting families, the airline published the names of those aboard on its Web site. Watch as relatives of survivors start arriving at the airport \u00bb . Some of the survivors have serious injuries, while others have non-life-threatening injuries. Many of the injured were treated for burns, she said. The aircraft was carrying seven passengers from Lufthansa Flight 2554, according to the airline. Spanair, a low-cost airline that has a flight-sharing agreement with Lufthansa, is owned by SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Barajas Airport closed after the crash but reopened more than two hours later, allowing a limited number of takeoffs and landings, an airport official said. See a map of the airport \u00bb . Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero arrived at the airport Wednesday evening after cutting short a vacation. \"The government will do all it can to support the families in this difficult situation,\" he said. \"The whole government, logically, is affected, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy.\" The fatal crash was the first at the airport since December 1983, when 93 people were killed as two Spanish airliners collided. The airport, eight miles (13 km) northeast of central Madrid, is Spain's busiest, handling more than 40 million passengers a year. The United States National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigation team to Madrid because the aircraft is American-made, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said. Spanair has set up a local emergency number for family members and friends phoning from Spain: +34 800-400-200. CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman, Brian Todd and Kathleen Koch contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Local officials say one of jet's two engines caught fire .\nNEW: Two infants among 19 survivors, Spanish official says .\nNEW: Passenger list posted on Spanair Web site .\nMD-82 crashed while taking off from Madrid's main airport ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ed Rollins, who was political director for President Reagan, is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign. Ron Silver, seen in a 2006 photo, was an actor with a strong interest in justice and peace, Ed Rollins says. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The lights on Broadway were dimmed Wednesday night to honor Ron Silver, the Tony-award winning actor who was buried Wednesday after a courageous battle against cancer of the esophagus. Ron was a lifelong social liberal and a Democratic activist, but you couldn't narrowly define him. And to those of us privileged to be his friend, he was an extraordinary pal. In the 25 years we were friends, he and I faced off most of that time on opposite sides of the political spectrum. In this era when people want bipartisanship, Ron was the role model. Our earliest encounters began when I was managing Ronald Reagan's campaign and he was a Dukakis supporter. He was passionate and a true intellectual. I have spent much of my life around smart people (fortunately a lot smarter than I) and Ron was one of the smartest. Whatever the topic, he had an opinion on it and probably had just read a book or two on the subject. Ron was a Chinese and international relations scholar and had no casual thoughts, only deep convictions. He backed up his opinions with empirical evidence and could rattle off facts like a baseball statistician. \"Eddie, why do you think that way?\" (Only my mother and wife have called me Eddie.) \"Why would a smart man like you ever come to that conclusion?\" And then we would proceed to discuss the topic for hours. I don't think we ever changed each other's opinions, but after a bottle or two of wine or a bottle of Scotch had been emptied, we still respected each other. We never had a cross word and no discussion ever ended in anger. After a while I learned it wasn't personal and it wasn't because I was Republican. Ron argued with everyone -- even those on his side in an issue -- because he had great curiosity and always wanted to know more. The closest we ever came to harsh words was when I teased him on his Emmy nomination for a recurring role as a slick campaign strategist on the TV show \"The West Wing.\" \"You would have won if you asked me how to play the part,\" I declared. \"After all you're just an actor. I am the real thing. I worked in the real West Wing and I managed a real campaign that won 49 states,\" He quickly replied with a big grin: \"Why the hell would I want the input of a guy who lost Minnesota [the only state Reagan lost]? And remember, you only won because you had an actor named Ron making you look good!\" Our discussions often ended in laughter. Because for Ron, politics was serious but it was also fun. I don't think he enjoyed anything more than a great political debate. To Ron, debate was an educational experience. To those of us on the opposite side it was like a combat sport. Several years ago, I was approached by one of the planners for the 2004 Republican Convention in New York. He wanted to know if I could recommend any movie or entertainment stars who would be willing to participate in the convention. Since the passing of the Reagan era, Republicans haven't had a long list of entertainers to choose from. From our discussions, I knew that Ron supported President Bush's battle against Islamic terrorism and the war in Iraq and he had been profoundly affected by 9\/11. I asked him would he be willing to participate if asked. He said yes, but emphatically stated he was remaining a Democrat. But he also knew that when he publicly supported Bush on the war, it would affect his long relationships in Hollywood and could cost him future work. Ron's Monday night convention speech was short, less than five minutes and only 429 words in length. It wasn't covered by any of the major networks, but it was still one of the best of the night. When he stated: . \"I am grateful for the chance to speak tonight to express my support for our commander-in-chief, for our brave troops and for the vital cause which they have undertaken,\" his career as a major Hollywood player was over. Even though he had been a president of both the Actor's Equity Guild and the Creative Coalition that he co-founded, he challenged the entertainment industry with these spoken words: . \"Even though I am a well-recognized liberal on many issues confronting our society today, I find it ironic that many human rights advocates and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest repression, for which I applaud them, but they are usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalog repeatedly.\" Ron was disappointed when he did lose future work and even a few \"so-called Hollywood friends,\" but not surprised. But he said what he believed and never regretted doing it. Ron was always determined to give back something to his country and New York, the city where he, his parents, grandparents and great grandparents were born and loved. Whether he was fighting for the cause of Israel or social justice for the poor or for more funding for the National Endowment for the Arts or AIDS research, he was passionate about his causes. Even though he was close to death, he attended President Obama's inauguration because he thought it was a great day for the country and he didn't want to miss it. And just a few weeks ago while still undergoing chemotherapy, Ron attended the latest board of directors meeting in Washington of The United States Institute of Peace. The Peace Institute is an independent, nonpartisan institution established and funded by Congress whose 12 members are appointed by the president. The organizational goals are to help prevent and resolve violent international conflicts. Ron was appointed in 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate for a four-year term. He told me it was his most important role and a part he was never prouder to play. As the dimming of the lights on Broadway signaled Wednesday night, Ron's voice is now quiet -- and missed. His life's work not only lit up Broadway and filled the big screen, it also inspired others to action. The many roles he played on the stage, in movies and on television pale in comparisons to the real roles he lived in his life. Ron was a great friend, a great father and a great American. We will miss you, my friend. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Rollins.","highlights":"Ed Rollins: Ron Silver was a liberal Democrat, but impossible to narrowly define .\nHe says Silver was passionate and knowledgeable about current events .\nHe says Silver faced a backlash in Hollywood because he supported Bush on war .\nSilver's work lit up Broadway, television and films, Rollins says ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office asked police to do more investigative work before a decision is made on whether charges will be filed in the domestic violence case against singer Chris Brown, according to a spokeswoman for the DA. Chris Brown attends a party saluting music producer Clive Davis in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday. The LAPD's chief investigator in case, Detective Deshon Andrews, told CNN he hand-carried his findings to the district attorney Tuesday afternoon. Prosecutors looked at the files and then asked Andrews for \"an additional investigation,\" DA spokeswoman Jane Robinson said. Andrews said that to keep photos and documents from leaking to the media, he has kept the case file closely guarded and allowed no copies of the material to be made. Watch the latest about the case \u00bb . Police have refused media requests to hear the 911 call that led to their investigation early Sunday, but Andrews said it mostly recorded the sound of \"a screaming woman.\" Brown, 19, turned himself in Sunday night after police said they were looking for him. He was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. Brown was later released on a $50,000 bond. He is expected to appear in court on March 5. Police said Brown and a woman were in a vehicle near Hollywood's Hancock Park early Sunday when they became involved in an argument. The woman \"suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker,\" police said. Police did not identify the woman, but sources close to the couple told CNN the alleged victim was his girlfriend, singer Rihanna, 20. Brown's lawyer has not responded to several requests for comment. CNN's Jennifer Wolfe and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: L.A. DA's office wants more investigation of Chris Brown case .\nPolice: Brown turned himself in after woman accused him of attacking her .\nPolice haven't named woman; sources say it was girlfriend Rihanna ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 2,100 registered North Carolina sex offenders were found on the social networking site MySpace, the state attorney general's office said Tuesday. North Carolina bans sex offenders within the state from social networking sites where children are members. In response to a subpoena from state Attorney General Roy Cooper, \"MySpace turned over the names, IP and e-mail addresses of 2,116 convicted North Carolina sex offenders found on its social networking Web site,\" Cooper's office said in a written statement. Cooper has requested similar information from Facebook, another popular social networking site, the statement said. MySpace has told North Carolina authorities that the sex offenders it identified have been removed from the site. North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation is sharing the sex offenders' information with all 100 sheriffs in the state, Cooper's office said. \"It's no secret that child predators are on these Web sites,\" Cooper said in the statement. \"Turning over information about these predators to law enforcement helps, but MySpace, Facebook and other social networks need to do much more to protect kids online.\" North Carolina passed a law last year banning sex offenders within the state from social networking sites where children are members, making it a felony offense. Sex offenders on social networking sites is not a new issue. Last month, Newsweek magazine reported that Facebook said it had removed 5,585 convicted sex offenders from its site between May 2008 and January 2009. MySpace also announced it had removed 90,000 sex offenders in a two-year period, the magazine said. Last June, the Texas attorney general's office said it had arrested seven convicted sex offenders who violated their parole conditions by creating MySpace profiles, according to an article on the TechNewsWorld Web site. Cooper and Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, for more than three years have led a group of attorneys general in working to make social networking safer, Cooper's office said. The group is pushing social networks to use technology such as age and identity verification to better protect users who may be children. After discussions with the group, MySpace became the first social networking site to develop technology aimed at finding and removing sex offenders, the North Carolina statement said. Cooper is pushing Facebook to take similar steps. But, Cooper's office said, \"the information provided by MySpace does not include sex offenders who have not been convicted, are not registered or may be using aliases on the site. Cooper remains concerned about other sex offenders on the site who may be lying about who they are, and is continuing to ask MySpace to do more to protect children on the site.\"","highlights":"Site provided names, IP and e-mail addresses of offenders it found, AG says .\nSimilar information requested from Facebook networking site, he says .\nMySpace says that sex offenders it identified have been removed from site .\nNorth Carolina officials sharing sex offenders' data with all sheriffs in the state ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Taliban in Pakistan have issued a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Pakistani government, by declaring the country's entire legal system \"un-Islamic.\" Taliban representatives leave talks in Peshawar in February after reaching a deal on Sharia law in Swat. \"Let the judges and the lawyers go to Islamic university,\" said Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman in Pakistan's Swat Valley. \"(After) they learn Islamic rules, Islamic regulation, they can continue to work.\" In a telephone interview Tuesday with CNN, Khan demanded the imposition of Islamic sharia law all across the country. He also called for the creation of jaziya, an Islamic tax, to be levied on all non-Muslims in Pakistan. And Khan denounced any Pakistanis who disagreed with his interpretation of Islam, calling them \"non-Muslims.\" The Taliban militant echoed statements made by Sufi Muhammed, an Islamist fundamentalist leader who helped broker a peace deal between the Pakistani government and the Taliban in Swat Valley. Last week, the deal led to the implementation of sharia law in Swat, an alpine region that was once one of Pakistan's most popular destinations for foreign tourists. Speaking before an audience of tens of thousands on Sunday, Sufi Muhammed declared democracy and Pakistan's judicial system \"un-Islamic.\" Since reaching his peace deal with the government in Islamabad, Muhammed has been appointing qazis, or clerics, to serve as judges in Islamic courts in Swat. The rise of the Taliban in Swat has alarmed and frightened some members of local civil society there. \"This is a time bomb for the country,\" said Aftab Alam, the head of the lawyers' association in Swat district. Speaking by telephone from the town of Mingora, Alam claimed Taliban militants have kidnapped, ransomed and even killed lawyers in recent months. \"The only sane voice against the militants, the only sane voice against the criminals, is the lawyer community,\" he said. \"And this is why we have been declared by them, I mean the militants, liable to death.\" This week, some secular Pakistani political parties publicly condemned the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam. But many other prominent officials appear unwilling or unable to challenge the creeping Taliban conversion of Pakistani society. For example, Ali Ahmed Kurd, one of the leaders of the lawyers protest movement which helped bring down the government of military ruler Pervez Musharraf, declined to comment on Tuesday when asked by CNN about Sufi Mohammed's comments. In recent months, videos have emerged showing what appear to be Taliban militants in Swat meting out vigilante justice. One video shows men beating a woman accused of adultery with a cane. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan initially claimed responsibility for the public caning in interviews with Pakistani TV stations. But in his interview with CNN on Tuesday he reversed his position, accusing \"opponents of Islam\" of making fake videos to hurt his movement's image. Meanwhile, in another Taliban-run region called Orakzai, details emerged of militants forcing a small community of Sikhs to pay a jaziya or \"minority tax\" of 10.5 million rupees, roughly 18,000 dollars earlier this month. During his interview, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said that if his vision of an Islamic society is fulfilled in Pakistan, terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden will be welcome to travel and live openly here. \"Sure, he's a Muslim, he can go anywhere,\" Khan said. Khan added that he would like to see sharia law implemented beyond Pakistan, even in America, a country he knows intimately. For four years, the Taliban spokesman lived in the United States, working as a painter near Boston.","highlights":"Taliban in Pakistan demand imposition of Islamic sharia law across country .\nGovernment-Taliban deal has led to implementation of sharia law in Swat Valley .\nFundamentalist leader declares Pakistan's judicial system \"un-Islamic\"\nSecular Pakistani political parties have condemned strict interpretation of Islam ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A recent scientific expedition in Colombia's mountainous Darien region has unearthed 10 new species of amphibians, an environmental organization said. A new species of salamander was one of the exciting discoveries in Colombia's Darien region. Scientists with Conservation International on Monday announced the discovery of 10 new species in what's being referred to as a safe haven for frogs located in the west of the country on the border with Panama. The discovery of 10 amphibians, which are believed to be new to science, was the result of a three-week survey of the area, the group said. The new species were discovered as part of a CI program aimed at assessing the ecological health of a given area. Scientists identified nearly 60 species of amphibians, 20 reptiles and 120 species of birds, the group said in a prepared statement. The discoveries come as global extinction rates continue to rise. Experts with Conservation International argue that the discovery is particularly significant since amphibians serve as an accurate gauge of an area's ecological health. Amphibians can act as an early warning sign of pollution such as acid rain due to their porous, absorbent skin. The sensitivity of these species to low level environmental threats can also act as a barometer for human health. Conservation International says the discovery offered renewed optimism. \"The high number of new amphibian species found is a sign of hope, even with the serious threat of extinction that this animal group faces in many other regions of the country and the world, \" says Jose Vicente Rodriguez Mahecha, Scientific Director of CI-Colombia, who was part of the team that discovered the new species. The region is, however, not immune to modern threats. According to Conservation International, between 25 percent to 30 percent of the natural vegetation in the Darien area is currently being deforested. For the scientists, the hope now is that the discoveries will renew efforts to conserve the region and manage its rich biodiversity.","highlights":"Ten new species of amphibians found in Colombia near border with Panama .\nConservation International says the discovery offered renewed optimism .\n25-30 percent of vegetation in the Darien area is currently being deforested ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick arrived at his home in Hampton, Virginia, on Thursday morning. Michael Vick, left, arrives at federal court with attorney Billy Martin in Richmond, Viriginia, in 2007. \"He is happy to be reunited with his family,\" said Chris Garrett, a spokesman for Vick. Vick was released from a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, on Wednesday. He will serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement in Virginia, his publicist Judy Smith said. Vick is a native of Newport News, Virginia. Watch a panel discuss his release \u00bb . Vick, 28, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He could return to professional football as soon as September if reinstated by the NFL, according to the sports agent who negotiated Vick's 10-year, $140 million contract with the Falcons. Meanwhile, Vick's attorneys have said he will work at a Newport News construction firm after his release and he has also agreed to participate in a documentary for $600,000. Last month, a federal bankruptcy judge denied a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan presented by Vick and urged him to offer another plan. The original plan called for Vick to come up with $750,000 to $1 million in cash to be paid to creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro said, but he said he saw no evidence Vick could come up with that much. Santoro suggested Vick's next plan not call for him to keep two houses and three cars, as did the rejected proposal. In testimony, Vick acknowledged committing a \"heinous\" act and said he should have acted more maturely. He said he has been earning 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor in prison. His Falcons salary, he said, was between $10 million and $12 million. He acknowledged failing to handle his money well. After his release, Vick will work with the Humane Society of the United States on anti-dogfighting campaigns, Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle told CNN Tuesday. Vick will work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting, and on programs to assist young people who have already been involved in the blood sport. Watch more about Vick's dogs \u00bb . Pacelle said the Humane Society was approached by Vick's representatives. He said he has traveled to Kansas twice to meet with the former quarterback, and during the second visit, the two discussed how Vick could use his sway over youths to discourage them from involvement in dogfighting, as well as help those who were apprehended in connection with it. Details have not yet been hammered out, Pacelle said, but will be in the next couple of days. iReport.com: Does Vick deserve a second chance? More attention has been paid to dogfighting as a result of Vick's case, Pacelle said. The Humane Society, which offers rewards for tips involving dogfighting, has recently paid out $40,000 in five cases, he said. CNN's Marylynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick released from prison on Wednesday .\nVick will serve last two months of sentence in home confinement .\nAttorneys have said Vick will work at construction firm; Vick has OK'd documentary .\nVick, 28, pleaded guilty in 2007 to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia ."} -{"article":"OSWIECIM, Poland (CNN) -- Israel's vice prime minister compared Iran to Nazi Germany on Tuesday at the site of one of World War II's most notorious death camps. Israel's vice prime minister Silvan Shalom said Tuesday \"Israel can never live with\" a nuclear Iran. The Islamic republic's alleged efforts to acquire nuclear weapons are \"not far away, not at all, to what Hitler did to the Jewish people just 65 years ago,\" Silvan Shalom said at the former Auschwitz camp. \"Israel can never live with the idea that Iran will hold a nuclear bomb,\" Shalom added, reiterating long-standing Israeli policy. He was speaking as Israel observes its Holocaust memorial day, remembering the roughly 6 million Jews who were killed by the Nazi regime during World War II simply for being Jewish. A day earlier, Iran's president caused an uproar at a United Nations anti-racism conference by accusing Israel of having a racist government and committing genocide. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the West made \"an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering ... in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine.\" Dozens of European diplomats walked out of the speech, but a majority of the conference delegates stayed, and there was some cheering. Iran denies its nuclear program is aimed at building bombs, but Israel and the United States do not believe it. CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iran's nuclear effort compared to Nazi Germany's killing of Jews .\nIsrael's vice prime minister speaks on Holocaust remembrance day .\nIran denies nuclear program has military purposes ."} -{"article":"CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines (CNN) -- Typhoon Parma crossed the northern tip of the already storm-battered Philippines over the weekend, triggering landslides that killed at least 12 people, local media reported Sunday. Residents paddle boats through the streets of Santa Cruz, south of Manila. At least three other deaths related to the storms were confirmed earlier. Among the latest victims were children ages 8 and 10, a local reporter who was at the scene of both landslides told CNN. The storm is expected to stall for at least three days north of Luzon -- the largest of the Philippine islands -- dumping more rain on the island nation still reeling from a typhoon last week, said CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. Heavy rains will remain, but wind will not be much of a factor, Cabrera said. At 11 p.m. ET on Saturday, Parma had maximum sustained winds of 120 kph ( 74 mph), Cabrera said. Aid agencies were in the area assisting survivors. \"There are many uprooted trees, as well as down power lines, making roads impassable in some areas,\" said Wilma Lacaden, a member of the World Vision organization, in a statement. \"Homes constructed of light materials were blown away. In many areas, there is no electricity, and rivers have overflowed, making some towns and villages inaccessible.\" World Vision staffers handed out food and candles to 200 families on Saturday night, and plan to assist another 350 families in nearby Zambales on Sunday, distributing relief packs of food and water, the statement said. Parma, known locally as Typhoon Pepeng, made landfall Saturday afternoon in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon. Tens of thousands of people fled their homes for safer shelter. Winds whipped the coastline and felled power lines in northernmost Cagayan Province. Debris littered the roads, making evacuations more difficult. Read about the fate of a farming community in Cagayan . Parma avoided a direct hit on heavily populated Manila. In the capital city on Sunday, it was sunny, Manila resident Arturo Fidelino said in an e-mail to CNN, adding the last few days have been \"grueling\" for Filipinos. \"After those two horrendous typhoons ... we've got to start picking up the pieces and move on,\" he said. \"Easy for me to say and for those who were not worst hit by the devastation, but too difficult for those whose houses were wiped out, furniture destroyed and relatives and loved ones nowhere to be found.\" However, he said people have banded together to help one another, and it \"has made me realize that the 'bayanihan spirit' (part of Filipino culture where neighbors help each other) among Filipinos is still alive and kicking. All along I thought that it has just been part of our history and not part of this present times. I was mistaken.\" Fidelino wrote his 73-year-old mother had to be evacuated when her home flooded. The typhoon is expected to dump as much as 8 to 20 inches of rain in areas still water-logged from last week's Typhoon Ketsana. That storm resulted in the heaviest rainfall in 40 years and at one point, 80 percent of Manila was submerged. Ketsana, which swallowed whole houses and buses, killed 246 in the Philippines. An additional 38 are missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. The storm affected nearly 2 million people. CNN's Eunice Yoon and Pamela Boykoff in Cabantuan City, and Josh Levs in Atlanta contributed to this report.","highlights":"15 dead in Philippines from Typhoon Parma, local media report .\nStorm heads to sea after crossing northern Philippines .\nTens of thousands of Filipinos sought shelter in evacuation centers .\nThe biggest threat was rain in areas water-logged by Typhoon Ketsana ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ecological and conservation groups are praising a move by the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new restrictions on rat poisons to help reduce the threat of accidental exposure to children and wildlife. The rules say only farmers, livestock owners and certified rodent control employees can buy rat poison in bulk. \"We are very happy that the EPA has done all it can to get these products off of the consumer market,\" said Michael Fry, director of conservation advocacy for the American Bird Conservancy. \"By putting these restrictions in place, they are allowing a compromise to be made between themselves and organizations who have been working on this problem for a long time.\" The EPA's new measures, which were handed down Thursday, require that rat poisons be kept in bait stations above ground and in containers that meet agency standards. Loose bait, such as pellets, and the four most hazardous types of pesticides, known as \"second-generation anticoagulants,\" will no longer be sold for personal use. Under the new restrictions, only farmers, livestock owners and certified rodent control employees will be allowed to purchase rat poison in bulk. Bags larger than 8 pounds will no longer be sold at hardware and home-improvement stores. Children who come into contact with highly toxic pellets can experience terrible symptoms from digesting them. They include internal bleeding, nosebleeds, hair loss and extensive bruising. Between 2001 and 2003, rat poison was responsible for nearly 60,000 poisonings, according to a study done by the American Association of Poison Control Centers. About 250 of these yearly exposures result in serious injuries or death. The EPA said it believes the restrictions will not only keep the products out of children's hands, but also reduce the ecological and wildlife risks associated with exposure to rat poison. Bait blocks that are typically placed on the ground use fish and other flavors that attract endangered species, including mountain lions. \"In California, almost every animal tested by the National Wildlife Service had residues of rodenticides,\" said Fry. \"The rat baits are also very lethal to scavengers, because the toxins remain in the rodent's body long after they initially die.\" Although the EPA is receiving considerable praise for the initiative, this isn't the first time the agency has worked to combat the threat of rat poison. In 1998, the EPA established two standards for rat poison. The agency required manufacturers to include an ingredient that made the poison taste bitter and use an indicator dye that would make the ingestion of pesticides more recognizable. But regulations were revoked in 2001 after the agency came to a mutual agreement with manufacturers to rescind the requirements. \"We determined that the dye wasn't effective in keeping children from being accidentally exposed and the bittering agent actually resulted in a loss of efficiency in controlling rodents,\" said Steven Bradbury, director of the agency's Division of Special Review and Re-registration. \"In our decision Thursday, we felt that we needed an approach that would stop children coming in contact with the pesticides in the first place. That ultimately led to the implementation of bait stations,\" Bradbury said. The decision to revoke the requirements led the West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. and the Natural Resource Defense Council to file a lawsuit three years later. Both organizations saw the retraction as a way to make it easy for consumers to purchase unsafe rodenticides over the counter. According to the West Harlem group, inner-city housing and park departments such as the New York City Housing Authority could continue laying rat baits in public areas that were easily accessible to children. \"Studies show that the number of poisonings in minority children is much higher than others,\" said Aaron Colangelo, a staff attorney at the Natural Resource Defense Council. \"Not only do we have an environmental health issue, but an environmental justice issue as well.\" New York State Health Department studies showed that 57 percent of children hospitalized for rat poisoning were black and 26 percent were Latino. The EPA said it is working to reduce those numbers in upcoming years with regulations like the ones it introduced this week. \"We were frustrated that the EPA dragged their feet for three years before finally taking some productive steps,\" said Colangelo. \"But, from our perspective, they are finally starting to do what needs to be done in order to protect children.\" After June 4, rat poison manufacturers will have 90 days to comply with the EPA's guidelines. They will then have the opportunity to design new bait stations and formulas for their poisons. All new products should be registered and certified by June 2011.","highlights":"EPA says new regulations will reduce rat poison exposure to children, wildlife .\nEnvironmental groups laud efforts to keep rat poison off consumer market .\nNew restrictions prohibit sale of loose pellets, bulk bags for personal use .\nBait blocks for rats that are used in the wild can attract endangered species ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In 1991, Nirvana changed American rock music with an album that featured a naked baby on the cover. Fred Thorne played in bands for 18 years and says Kurt Cobain's legacy always stuck with him. Now, that naked baby is 17 years old and a high school graduate. The album, \"Nevermind,\" is a classic beloved by music aficionados across the world. It soared to the top of the Billboard charts, swiftly ending the '80s era of dance pop and \"hair metal\" and replacing it with the \"grunge\" movement. In doing so, it irreversibly changed the tastes and even lives of millions of musicians and music lovers. \"One song changed the way we look at rock music,\" said Russ Lancaster of \"Smells Like Teen Spirit,\" the first track on the record. \"Just like the Beatles changed pop music 30 years prior, Nirvana's breakthrough album achieved the same level of power in terms of changing pop music. They weren't singing anymore about happy, funny songs. They were taking a real dark turn to pop music, and it changed everything. Back then it was really different to hear that on the radio. It opened up a floodgate of artists that might never have been heard before that.\" What artists, exactly? Lancaster says Pearl Jam comes to mind, and that the entire emo genre might never have come into existence if it wasn't for grunge. \"It wouldn't have the visibility it has today without the stepping-stone that grunge gave it,\" he said. iReport.com: Passing grunge onto the next generation . Pat Ferguson said grunge also was crucial to indie rock becoming mainstream. \"What I appreciate 'Nevermind' the most for was paving the way for other indie bands that I really ended up liking to get put out into the mainstream. Not so much for the exposure they got, but so that everyone could more readily get their product,\" he said. \"It was a world without iTunes, Rhapsody or Napster. The only way you got exposure to music that wasn't pop [or] country was living close enough to a university-run radio station or having a friend who had access to it. It wasn't long after the grunge era started that other indie rock bands like Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Superchunk, fIREHOSE and a wealth of others broke out and started becoming a bit more accessible.\" iReport.com: 'A lot of bands owe a lot to that record' For Derek Ivy, the influence of Nirvana is a little more personal. Hearing \"Nevermind\" and the band's other albums inspired him to learn guitar as a teenager, and he still plays in a band called Golden Hours. \"Nirvana taught me to play music,\" said Ivy. \"Everybody has the first few songs they ever learn to play, and for me it was mostly this Nirvana stuff. When I hear this album or think of it, I recall the countless afternoons I spent playing these songs on guitar and, later, drums. I remember learning every song on it, and pretty much every other Nirvana song.\" Ivy said Nirvana front man and songwriter Kurt Cobain was an important influence in his life, musically and otherwise. \"Kurt Cobain was one of my earliest and greatest musical influences, as I'm sure countless others can attest to. And he's a tremendous influence on me in a lot of different ways,\" he said. \"When Kurt died, I felt like I'd lost a personal friend, even though I didn't know him and I was only 14 at the time. It was sort of like, here you go, here's adulthood.\" iReport.com: 'My teenage years would have been considerably less bearable were it not for this band' Cobain was also a profound figure in Fred Thorne's life. Thorne played in bands for 18 years, and he said Cobain's success on the charts and ultimate suicide led him to heed the Nirvana front man's advice: \"Be careful what you wish for.\" \"These words were the fuel for the angst I needed to 'kill it' on stage and give everything I had to just flat out rocking,\" Thorne said. \"That meant no record deals, no big crowds, no bitching at the sound man because I couldn't hear the vocals in the monitor, no perfect intonation, no perfect pitch, and if I blew out my voice...bonus! These words left me not wanting, but left me satisfied that I played that bar gig to 10 or 20 people like it was my last. In a way I felt like I did it for Kurt. I did it because I knew how badly he wanted to go back to those days of being a nobody and getting booed off the stage, or duct taping gear together and saying...we can just make noise, vent our angst and throw all regard for approval out the window.\" iReport.com: 'Kurt will always be an icon for indie musicians' Of course, not everybody enjoyed \"Nevermind\" or the grunge movement it popularized. Take David Gillespie, for example. He agreed that \"Nevermind\" was a turning point in music, but for him, the turn was for the worse. \"Thanks for ending the greatest era of music ever,\" he wrote in his iReport.com submission. \"The onslaught of grunge killed off the best music. The '80s brought such incredible talent and songs that no other decade or era could match.\" Gillespie said he doesn't think the grunge movement could compete with styles like glam rock and 1980s dance pop in terms of musicianship. \"Nirvana was not exactly the most musically talented band. Then again, they didn't really need to be,\" he said. \"Grunge as a music form wasn't about technical prowess and didn't need to sound good.\" iReport.com: 'Their music was bland and depressing' Amy Suarez, who called the record \"the pinnacle of my music heaven,\" said that opinions of \"Nevermind\" and the grunge movement are probably just a reflection of the different generations. \"I truly believe that Nirvana, its predecessors and like bands of that time will forever be thought, to me, to be the best and most influential music of my life,\" she said. \"I know that everyone who loves music can say that about the music of their prime. So, I guess I would agree with others who would say that Nirvana was great for many and meant nothing to others; it's just a matter of timing.\" iReport.com: 'Not everything has to be complicated to be good'","highlights":"iReporters share their memories of Nirvana and the \"grunge\" era .\nPat Ferguson says Nirvana opened the door for indie rock groups of the 1990s .\nFred Thorne and Derek Ivy say they were profoundly influenced by Kurt Cobain .\niReport.com: Share your memories of the grunge era ."} -{"article":"Vilseck, Germany (CNN) -- The wives of three Army sergeants in prison for premeditated murder say their husbands are war heroes who should not be in prison. \"I can sympathize with them that they felt like there was nothing else they could do,\" said Jamie Leahy, wife of Sgt. Michael Leahy, a 28-year-old medic. She said her husband and the other two sergeants were heroes for protecting other soldiers. Leahy, 1st Sgt. John Hatley and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo killed four Iraqi men whom they had taken into custody at a canal in Baghdad, Iraq. During the investigation of the killings, Leahy told Army investigators that the same men they had captured would be shooting at them again if they had released them. \"It's like somebody keeps coming and breaking into your house, and you told the cops, 'This is who it is, I saw them, they were in my house,' \" Jamie Leahy told CNN's \"AC 360\u00b0.\" \"And that's not enough, and they are able to keep coming in and breaking into your house. \"I know it's more severe than that, but I mean if somebody kept coming in and breaking into your house, I think that the person would either want to get a gun or something to protect themselves because you feel like in your own home, you can't even be safe.\" Earlier this year, Leahy, Hatley and Mayo were convicted of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder in the killings of the four Iraqi detainees in March 2007. Documents obtained by CNN, as well as Army interrogation tapes, reveal that Hatley believed that if the men were taken to a detainee holding area, they would be released because there was not enough evidence to hold them. \"It's like you're letting somebody go so they can come back and terrorize you again and try and kill you and maybe be successful next time,\" Jaime Leahy said. Kim Hatley made a video in a field in Schweinfurt, Germany, where she and her husband lived before he was sent to the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In the video, she holds up cards asking for help in freeing \"three American heroes.\" \"They served their country, and they've been through a lot, and so have the family members,\" she told CNN. \"But, in life, with any challenge, you can't just look at one incident. This does not define who these soldiers are.\" Kim Hatley says her husband is a \"good man.\" \"I don't think my husband should have gone to prison,\" she said. \"I don't think that was fair. I don't think any of our soldiers should have gone to prison.\" And Johana Mayo said her husband has been punished enough. \"I think that he's given and sacrificed a lot,\" she said. \"I think he's a war hero. He's not a criminal and he's ... being treated as a criminal, and he shouldn't be.\" The Mayos have three children, ages 15 months, 6 and 11. Johana Mayo is legally blind and cannot drive. \"I was used to relying on my husband for everything,\" she said. \"You know, and he was the one that drove the kids around. He was the one that took care of their homework and anything -- grocery shopping -- everything. I relied on him for everything, and now I feel like I have to turn to my daughter a lot, and she's only 11.\" All three wives have set up Web sites to support their husbands: defendjohnhatley.com, defendjosephmayo.com and supportsgtleahy.com. Hatley, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, got clemency with his sentence reduced to 40 years. Both Leahy, who also received a life sentence, and Mayo, who got 35 years, had their sentences reduced to 20 years. All three sergeants were reduced in rank to private and sent to Fort Leavenworth. \"I think that what happened was done to protect the soldiers, to keep our soldiers safe from getting harmed or killed,\" Johana Mayo said.","highlights":"Wives say three Army sergeants convicted of murder should not be in prison .\nThey say their husbands were heroes for protecting other soldiers in Iraq .\nAll three wives have set up Web sites to support their husbands .\nWatch Saturday, Sunday at 8 and 11 p.m. ET; read blog posts: Abbie Boudreau; Scott Zamost ."} -{"article":"NEWARK, New Jersey (CNN) -- The most \"far-flung and exotic fugitive investigation ever conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service\" ended early Sunday with convicted child molester Alan Horowitz in custody on U.S. soil. Alan Horowitz was convicted in 1991 on 34 counts of child molestation. Officers from the U.S. Marshals service arrested the 60-year-old at Newark Liberty International Airport after a 15-hour flight from New Delhi, India. The ordained Orthodox rabbi and former child psychologist was arrested on May 22 at a seaside resort in Mahabalipuram, India, according to parole officer Robert Georgia. An agent from the Diplomatic Security Service escorted him aboard the Continental Airlines flight, authorities said. He is being held at a correctional facility in New Jersey and will appear before an extradition judge on July 16th before being taken to New York to face a parole violation charge there. He also faces a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Watch Horowitz in custody at Newark airport \u00bb . A number of Internet tipsters in India were responsible for alerting the Marshal's service to Horowitz's whereabouts, said U.S. Marshal Gary Mattison, who was assigned to track down Horowitz last year. Horowitz served 13 years of a 10-20 year sentence for child molestation and was released on parole in 2004, authorities said. In June 2006, he fled the country shortly after meeting with his parole officer, setting off the manhunt that involved the Indian police, agents from the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Marshals, U.S. Marshals told CNN. Horowitz's 1991 conviction was on 34 counts of child molestation in Schenectady, New York. A dual citizen of the United States and Israel, Horowitz has also been convicted of \"perverted sexual practices\" in Maryland, where he was found guilty of abusing one of his patients, federal marshals said. During the 1980s, while he was living in Israel, he was the subject of a police investigation into charges he was sexually abusing his second wife's children, according to the U.S. Marshal service. He also faced another sexual misconduct investigation while living in North Carolina, authorities say. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Katia Porzecanski contributed to this report.","highlights":"Horowitz is an ordained Orthodox rabbi and a former child psychologist .\nHe was escorted aboard the U.S.-bound flight by a U.S. agent, authorities say .\nHorowitz was subject of investigations in U.S., Israel; had multiple convictions ."} -{"article":"SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- The three Americans rescued after more than five years in captivity in Colombia say they are doing well but are \"overwhelmed with emotion,\" according to a statement released on their behalf. \"Words alone can never possibly express the thrill and excitement we feel to be back home in the United States of America with our families at our side,\" the Friday statement from Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell said. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had held the three U.S. government contractors since February 2003, after their plane crashed in a remote region of the South American country. They were among 15 hostages rescued Wednesday in a Colombian military operation. Watch Colombians celebrate success \u00bb . Also among the rescued hostages was French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who returned to France on Friday. She is undergoing medical tests at a Paris military hospital, The Associated Press reported. Watch Betancourt's joyous return to France \u00bb . Shortly after the plane crashed, FARC members killed contractor Tom Janis, according to employer Northrop Grumman, and Colombian army Sgt. Luis Cruz, according to the U.S. State Department. The three freed Americans are being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Learn about the former hostages \u00bb . \"For five-and-a-half long years, we all hoped and prayed this day would come,\" their statement said. \"Now that it has, we're just overwhelmed with emotion. The love and the joy we're all experiencing is beyond description. \"We want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the government and the armed forces of Colombia. The operation they conducted to rescue us was one for the history books -- something we will never forget for the rest of our lives.\" Colombian authorities unveiled details and a videotape Friday describing the mission, which involved tricking the leftist rebels into giving up their hostages. Watch video of the rescue \u00bb . Government agents had infiltrated the FARC leadership over several months. This week they talked the rebels into moving the hostages, saying a humanitarian group wanted to check on them. A helicopter carrying fake rebels picked up the hostages at a rendezvous point, ostensibly to take them to another rebel camp. It actually was a government helicopter, and the hostages were whisked to freedom without a shot being fired. Learn about FARC \u00bb . On Thursday, doctors at the Brooke Army Medical Center said the three Americans appeared to be in good health. Initial tests had for now ruled out the suspicion of infectious diseases, and although other medical tests are pending, \"everything really looks well,\" said Col. Jackie Hayes, a psychiatrist and the lead physician on the men's medical team. Hayes said patient confidentiality rules prevented him from commenting on reports that Gonsalves was suffering from hepatitis. Maj. Gen. Keith Huber, commander of U.S. Army South, said the contractors were in the second phase of a three-phase process designed to ease their transition back to normal life. \"They greeted me with a strong handshake and clear eyes and an incredible smile,\" he said.","highlights":"Three men, safe in Texas, express gratitude to Colombian military .\nEx-hostages said to be doing well, in reintegration process .\nFrench-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt undergoing medical tests in Paris .\n15 hostages freed Wednesday when Colombian agents tricked rebels ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Whether you're looking for a laid-back evening or want to party the night away, there are plenty of bars and clubs in Malmo to keep you entertained. Slagthuset is Scandinavia's biggest nightclub. Many nights start out in Lilla Torg, which boasts a wide array of restaurants and lounges. Sip cocktails at Victors -- if the weather's good, grab your drinks and head to the outdoor terrace. An equally popular hangout is nearby Moosehead, which has a more casual-woodsy vibe. Be sure to order the moose meat burger. A vibrant club scene exists in Malmo, which is home to Slagthuset (Jorgen Kocksgatan 7A) -- the largest nightclub in Scandinavia. Young dancers spread out over three dance floors at the club located behind Central Station. As its name suggests, Club Prive (Malmborgsgatan 7) draws an exclusive crowd. To chill in style, head to Torso Twisted (Vastra Varvsgatan 44) in the hip Western Harbor district. The restaurant serves gastronomic delights, and at night the lounge is decidedly cool. Indulge in one of the lavish cocktails or sample from the impressive wine list. You can also find the trendy set partying the evening away at Hipp (Kalendegatan 12). You can hang out in the restaurant or two bars or head straight to the pulsating nightclub. Satisfy your thirst for beer at Tva Krogare (Storgatan 35). The pub dishes up traditional Swedish fare and you'll likely find locals playing a game of darts. For a taste of British in Malmo, try The Bishop's Arms (Norra Vallgatan 62). Located inside the Hotel Savoy, it serves staples like fish and chips and has a wide assortment of beers available. If parties begin in Lilla Torg, they tend to end in Mollevangen. The bohemian neighborhood is dotted with bars that stay open well into the night. Prices in this area aren't as cheap as they once were but are still lower than compared to what you'll find in the city center. Local musicians hang out at hip Tempo Bar and Kok (Sodra Skolgatan 30). For something a little different, try Chokladfabriken (Bergsgatan 33), a club housed in an old chocolate factory that plays mostly hip hop, funk and soul. Malmo's passion for music makes it a great place to take in live performances. Kulturbolaget (Bergsgatan 18), one of the best venues for live acts, is a veritable Swedish institution. The club puts on about 220 rock concerts annually. Inkonst (Bergsgatan 29), a so-called culture house, puts on shows and club evenings. Jazz enthusiasts get into their groove at Jeriko (Spangatan 38), named such because it's housed in a former church. .................... Malmo City Guide: . Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . Do you agree with our Malmo picks? Share your comments and suggestions in the SoundOff box below.","highlights":"The bars and restaurants around Lilla Torg are a great place to start the night .\nFrom rock to jazz, there are plenty of venues to take in live music .\nMalmo is a clubber's paradise, with several pulsating nightclubs ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson knew \"exactly how his fate would be played out\" and feared his death would echo that of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley wrote in an online blog posted Friday morning. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley in 1994. Presley says, \"I loved him very much\" and believes he loved her. Presley -- the daughter of Elvis, the \"King of Rock,\" and the ex-wife of Jackson, the \"King of Pop\" -- wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted \"to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.\" Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog. She said her short marriage to Jackson -- from May 1994 until January 1996 -- \"was not 'a sham' as is being reported in the press,\" but she divorced him because she was \"in over my head in trying\" to save Jackson \"from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" Jackson talked with her about his death during \"a deep conversation\" 14 years ago about \"the circumstances of my father's death.\" Watch more from Presley on Jackson \u00bb . \"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,' \" Presley wrote. \"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.\" That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson's death Thursday, she said. \"I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,\" she wrote. \"A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.\" Elvis Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem. \"As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977, happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted,\" she wrote. \"I wanted to 'save him',\" she wrote. \"I wanted to save him from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" \"The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow,\" Presley wrote. Their marriage, which some suggested was only to help Jackson's image, was real, she said. \"It was an unusual relationship, yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a 'normal life' found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part,\" she wrote. \"Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.\" Presley called Jackson \"an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.\" \"When he used it for something good, it was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad,\" she wrote. Presley's blog entry ended with a thank you to those who would read it. \"I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.\" Presley's blog can be found online at http:\/\/bit.ly\/5wR7p .","highlights":"Lisa-Marie Presley, Jackson were married from 1994 to 1996 .\nShe says Jackson feared he would die like her father, Elvis Presley .\nPresley says their marriage was not \"a sham\" as press has said .\n\"I wanted to save him from the inevitable,\" she says ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Kanye West called Taylor Swift with a \"very sincere\" apology Tuesday for interrupting her acceptance speech at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, Swift said. Kanye West called Taylor Swift to apologize for hijacking her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. West phoned Swift following her appearance on ABC's \"The View\" Tuesday, her publicist said. Swift talked about it in a radio interview with ABC. \"Kanye did call me and he was very sincere in his apology,\" she said. \"And I accepted that apology.\" The apology came the morning after West, in an interview with Jay Leno, appeared to blame the pain of his mother's death two years ago for his \"rude\" behavior. The rapper told Leno he would now \"take some time off\" to think about how he will \"make it through the rest of this life.\" West's appearance on the prime-time premiere of \"The Jay Leno Show\" capped a 24-hour period that began Sunday evening with him strolling down the red carpet at New York's Radio City Music Hall while gulping from a bottle of cognac. The low-light came about an hour later, when West jumped onstage and grabbed the microphone from Swift as she accepted the Best Female Video award. West declared that Beyonce Knowles should have won. West appeared sober and humble when he spoke on Leno's Los Angeles stage Monday, an appearance that was originally to be just musical. Watch West give an emotional interview to Leno \u00bb . \"I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong,\" West told Leno. \"And it wasn't a spectacle, you know. It was actually someone's emotions, you know, that I stepped on and it was very, it was just, it was rude, period.\" When Leno asked West what his mother would have thought of his behavior, he fell silent for more than a dozen seconds and appeared near tears. Leno pressed him again. \"Would she be disappointed in this? Would she give you a lecture?\" West gave a rambling, emotional answer: . \"Yeah, you know, obviously, you know, I deal with hurt and, you know, so many, you know, celebrities, they never take the time off, and I've never taken the time off to really, you know, I just, music after music and tour after tour on tour, and I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt.\" West said he wasn't trying to justify his behavior, \"because I was just in the wrong. That's clear.\" \"But I need to, after this, just to take some time off and analyze how I'm going to, you know, make it through rest of this life, how I'm going to improve,\" he said. \"Because, I am a celebrity and that's something I have to deal with.\" He said he would like to personally apologize to Swift, a 19-year-old pop-country singer. \"And if there's anything I can do to help Taylor in the future or help anyone, I want to live this thing. It's hard sometimes, so.\" After his four-minute talk with Leno, West joined fellow hip-hop superstars Jay-Z and Rihanna to perform \"Run This Town,\" a song they recorded together. The timing of West's antics came at a good time for Leno, who embarked on a new era of his career Monday. After 17 years of hosting \"The Tonight Show,\" Leno debuted his 10 p.m. weeknight talk show on NBC. Apologies from celebrities behaving badly have boosted Leno's ratings. In 1995, Leno enjoyed a ratings-grabbing moment when he asked actor Hugh Grant, \"What the hell were you thinking?\" Grant had been arrested two weeks earlier for public lewd conduct with a Hollywood hooker. When Grant told Leno \"I did a bad thing,\" it gave Leno's \"Tonight Show\" a viewership bump that has been credited with solidifying his lead over rival David Letterman in the late-night ratings war. This is just the kind of \"immediacy\" Leno was talking about in a call with reporters last week. \"The idea here is that we'll tape a new, fresh show every single day, talking about the events that happened that day that night,\" Leno said. Jerry Seinfeld also appeared on Leno's premiere Monday.","highlights":"Kanye West reaches out to Taylor Swift to apologize .\nRapper had interrupted Swift as she accepted the Best Female Video award .\nWest contacted her after she appeared on \"The View\"\nCountry singer said she accepted his apology ."} -{"article":"MACAU, China -- Pete Sampras rolled back the years to upset current world number one Roger Federer in an exhibition match in Macau on Saturday. Sampras enjoyed the spoils of victory in Macau after two previous defeats to Federer. Federer had one the two previous clashes in an Asian series in straight sets but was handed a 7-6 6-4 defeat in the finale. American ace Sampras downplayed his victory, noting Federer was coming off a long season and that he was helped by his big serve and the fast indoor carpet surface. He had only aimed to win one set during the three-match series. \"Let's not get carried away,\" he said at a news conference. Sampras ruled out a comeback from retirement, telling the audience after the match, \"I had my time in the 90s.\" Federer tried to put on a positive spin on the loss, saying he wasn't embarrassed to lose to his idol, but still showed some disappointment. \"It's been tough beating my idol the last two times. I'm happy that he got me at least once,\" he said, but adding, \"I hope we can do it again in the future. I'd like to get him back.\" The two players have won a combined 26 Grand Slam titles, but Sampras, 36, retired five years ago after winning the U.S. Open in 2002. Federer is coming off another outstanding season in which he won three grand slams and last week's Masters Cup in Shanghai. \"I'm sort of surprised. This guy can play tennis, you know,\" the Swiss player said after his loss Saturday. Federer beat Sampras 6-4 6-3 in Seoul on Tuesday and edged the American 7-6 7-6 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. In Macau, Federer was never able able to force a break point on the powerful Sampras serve, but had set points at 6-5 and 8-7 in the tiebreak. But Sampras saved both and a run of three points, capped by a forehand winner, gave him the opener. The ninth game of the second second proved vital as a forehand error by Federer gave Sampras a break point which he gratefully took with another fine forehand. Sampras closed out the match as a Federer backhand return sailed long. Federer said he thought Sampras could still beat the world's top five players on a fast surface. Sampras then predicted that Federer could beat his record of most grand slam wins (14) \"if not next year, pretty soon.\" \"He's a great, great player. He's got things in his game that I couldn't do,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pete Sampras beats world nunber one Roger Federer in exhibition in Macau .\nSampras wins 7-6 6-4 but rules out comeback to main ATP tour .\nFederer had won their two previous exhibition matches on Asian tour ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mohammed Alshaya owns more high street brands than most fashion addicts could stuff in their closets. Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of Alshaya's retail division, tells MME he sees a new mindset in the Gulf . Topshop, Coast, NEXT and River Island are just some of the big names he's imported from the United Kingdom to shopping centers in the Middle East. As chief executive of M.H. Alshaya, he knows what sells: tried and tested Western brands that will appeal to local shoppers. And his empire is not limited to clothing. In the past month, he's taken Mothercare and The Body Shop to Central Eastern Europe. With the addition of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, M.H. Alshaya now operates in 16 markets including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Poland and Russia. John Defterios spoke with Mohammed Alshaya, and started by asking him for his thoughts on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plans for a single currency. (JD): I would imagine as a retail operation you'd be a huge proponent of a single currency within the GCC. Is it realistic within the next 4 to 5 years? (MA): I think it can be, as long as there is a will of the leaders to get together and decide. It is a huge leap towards efficiency, conciliation, getting closer between the six countries. One single Central Bank that governs and regulates is much better than the current six, I believe. (JD): Have you ever done any calculations of what impact it would have on your back office operations? (MA): Not yet, but it will be great, I think. (JD): You're one of the largest retail operations throughout the Arabian Peninsula. With all this growth that we're seeing right now, it must have a direct impact on the retail sector. What sort of annual growth are you experiencing? (MA): We're experiencing close to 25 percent annual growth, if not 30 percent in some cases, like in Dubai. (JD): Do you have any sort of concerns that this is going to be a bubble like the 1970s where the money was not deployed correctly? It seems different from my vantage point, do you share that view? (MA): There is a new generation of people from the region that are leading businesses and strong leadership in the government that have mitigated any concern. And if you see now the statistics, the Gulf is the seventh largest economy in the world. In ten, in 15 years time, it will be the fifth. So I see a new mindset, a new attitude. (JD): One of the other things I wanted to ask you about is your moves into other countries. The Alshaya group is very well known throughout the Arabian Peninsula, but you're moving into other markets, into Eastern Europe, specifically into Russia. Do you have the expertise to go into these markets? (MA): Well, yes. We have the expertise, and the expertise is by really retaining good management, and traveling with them into new markets. I'm not going to open shops myself. We have a very strong team in Russia; Russians that are taking our investment into good projects like Starbucks which we opened two months ago, two stores. We acquired a business there. So we have plans like Mothercare, Bodyshop, NEXT. (JD): So you can basically move this group into any city and have that potpourri of offers? (MA): We have the software. We have the software to launch the retail portfolio into a new market. (JD): Obviously you're a family business. You feel quite strongly about preserving culture and the family structure, and the need for family businesses to create jobs, because they represent 75 percent of all turnover in the Gulf. (MA): We have a social responsibility toward our people. We have to make sure we have jobs for them if the government is not going to compete, and is going to take away some of the people who would be relevant to our business. Another issue that might challenge us to do that is the wealth creation -- whether (potential employees) would be attracted to be in a department store selling or in a coffee shop making coffee -- that, we will see. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"MME speaks with Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of M.H. Alshaya's retail division .\nRetail division seeing annual growth of 25 percent, up to 30 percent in Dubai .\nGroup taking Starbucks, Mothercare, Body Shop into Eastern Europe, Russia .\nOn GCC single currency: It is a huge leap towards efficiency, conciliation ."} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- Gunshots rang out in Uganda's capital Saturday in a fresh burst of unrest after loyalists of a traditional kingdom battled with government forces for a third day. Residents of the Kasubi suburb, west of Kampala, try to flee from violence as a soldier takes photos. Local media reports put the death toll at 13 since the rioting started, but attempts by CNN to confirm with local authorities were unsuccessful. An uneasy calm had swept over Kampala early in the day as police and the army patrolled the city in military convoys. By midafternoon, witnesses reported gunshots and isolated cases of riots. The unrest Saturday started after rumors circulated by text messages that the king of the Buganda kingdom had been detained, said Judith Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman. But a Buganda kingdom official refuted the rumor. \"It is not true -- the king has not been arrested, \" David Mpanga said. Tensions between the Buganda kingdom -- headed by King Ronald Mutebi II -- and President Yoweri Museveni have intensified in recent years. The two sides spar over land, sovereignty and political power. Kings in the east African nation are limited to a ceremonial role overseeing traditional and cultural affairs. Museveni has accused the Buganda kingdom, which is made of of Bagandans, of receiving foreign funding to carry out a hate campaign against the government. Bagandans are the dominant ethnicity and one of four ancient kingdoms in the nation. Violence flared Thursday when the government said it would not allow the Buganda king to travel to an area inhabited by a renegade rival group. The president said he tried to contact the king to discuss the issue as \"mature people,\" but he could not reach him by phone. After the travel ban, young Bagandans took the streets, stealing ammunition from a police station and confronting officers, whom they accused of harassment. Police and army officers were injured, and at least four people were killed, the nation's police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura said Friday. Rioters also burned tires and cars, set buildings on fire and looted stores, according to witnesses. The streets in the capital were strewn with debris Saturday, including torched cars and burned tires. \"Soldiers are walking in a single file, waiting for rioters and ready to confront them,\" said Allan Mugabi, a resident of Kampala. Journalist Samson Ntale contributed to this report .","highlights":"Local media put death toll from riots at 13, CNN unable to confirm figure .\nViolence flared Thursday after government imposed travel ban on Buganda king .\nWitnesses say young Bagandans burned tires, cars and looted stores .\nTension between splintered kingdom and Uganda's president has been on rise ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When shots rang out at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last week, security officers Harry Weeks and Jason McCuiston were stunned. Harry Weeks, left, and Jason McCuiston fired on James von Brunn at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. \"I would say it was surreal, both of us couldn't believe what was happening,\" Weeks told CNN in his first national televised interview since the June 10 shooting. \"I know myself I just, I heard 'pop, pop' and it was surreal.\" McCuiston added: \"It wasn't normal. You knew something was wrong and you knew it was very bad.\" What went terribly wrong is that white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly walked into the museum and started firing his rifle, shooting security officer Stephen Johns in the chest. Despite their initial shock, Weeks and McCuiston kept their composure enough to draw their weapons and start shooting at von Brunn, 88. Weeks had fired his gun in the line of duty 25 years earlier as a Washington, D.C., police officer. But he said nothing compared to this bloody confrontation. \"This was terrible,\" Weeks said softly. \"This was worse. ... We lost Officer Johns.\" Johns died shortly after the shooting, leaving behind a family that includes a teenage son who told CNN affiliate WUSA-TV the day after the tragedy that his dad was \"my hero.\" Watching a video clip of those comments, McCuiston started crying. \"First thing I thought about, I have an 11-year-old,\" the officer said before breaking down. Watch the officers tell their story \u00bb . Just moments before their joint interview with CNN on Thursday, McCuiston and Weeks attended a grief counseling session together, and both men say they are still struggling with their emotions. The security officers said they believe von Brunn will survive his wounds and eventually face trial. So they would not discuss details of the shootout out of a fear of jeopardizing the criminal investigation, but they were willing to discuss their memories of Johns so that the public knows more about him. McCuiston said the 6-foot-6-inch, 300-pound Johns was a \"gentle giant\" who was always friendly to colleagues and museum visitors. \"Just an awesome guy,\" he recalled. \"Grin from ear to ear. You'd never know that man probably ever had a bad day in his life.\" Weeks said he wanted the world to see \"what a man of hate did to this family, and the grief he caused. Let's all remember Officer Johns, and his family, because he took the ultimate -- he did his job and he was where he was supposed to be -- and the family suffered. That could have been anyone.\" McCuiston and Weeks, however, deflected suggestions that they may be heroes as well because if they had not stopped von Brunn, there's no telling how many of the more than 2,000 people visiting the museum at the time could have been injured or killed. \"A lot of people are going to be saying what they have been saying, 'You are a hero, you're this, you're that,' \" McCuiston said. \"It's like we tell everybody, 'We chose this job, it's a job. It's the same as a firefighter who would walk into a building, that is his job, he chose to do it.' \" Johns' funeral on Friday has been moved to a larger church in the Washington area to accommodate all of the people who want to attend, and the museum will be closed most of the day so that his colleagues can attend. \"Everyone knows when you lose someone, death is one of the worst things, even though it is reality,\" McCuiston said. \"Time will hopefully heal all, and hopefully there will be a little bit of closure with us and the family and we can all just move forward but never forget what a wonderful man he was.\"","highlights":"Security officers Harry Weeks and Jason McCuiston recall shooting, fellow officer .\nWhen they heard shots at museum, they knew something had gone terribly wrong .\nThey call slain officer a \"gentle giant\" who was always friendly to colleagues, visitors .\nMen, who shot shooting suspect, say they're not heroes, were just doing their jobs ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau, the last two months have been a whirlwind. \"Full of the best moments and the scariest moments of my life,\" says the 24-year-old Olympic swimmer. Eric Shanteau said he felt angry when he found out he had testicular cancer. \"Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, 'I want to make an Olympic team. That's where I want to be'.\" In June, a week before the qualifying round of the Olympics he was told he had testicular cancer. \"My initial reaction was probably anger more than anything else,\" he says. \"I'm used to being in control of everything. I'm in control of how I train, how I race and then to all of a sudden have that control ripped away from me was tough.\" After weeks of tests to determine the \"stage\" or spread of the cancer, Shanteau's team of doctors cleared him to compete in the Beijing Olympics, which meant carefully monitoring his tumor but delaying treatment. Though putting off the surgery was controversial to some, Eric says it was an educated choice based on numerous doctor evaluations. \"I hope people understand that if I was in a different position with my test results, then I wouldn't have put off having surgery.\" He swam a personal best in the 200 meter breaststroke. He did not qualify for the finals. Cancer was a motivator, he says, because he knew it meant he could be facing his last competition. He put everything he had into that heat. \"Leave it all in the pool, and I don't look back and regret anything as far as how I raced.\" Once back from Beijing, Shanteau invited CNN to spend time with him the night before his surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Though admittedly a little scared, he spent the evening relaxing with his family, cooking dinner, walking the dog. A source of inspiration, he says, were fans who shared their stories of beating cancer. \"They send me their story and it helps me to learn that people are going through the same thing I am all over the world,\" says Shanteau. \"They all affect me in a different way and it's been really encouraging to share in this experience with other people.\" Testicular cancer will be diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime. It is the most common form of cancer for 15- to 34-year-olds. It is also one of the most curable if discovered early. Nearly 140,000 men in the United States are testicular cancer survivors. Shanteau says he experienced no symptoms of cancer and came across the tumor by chance. \"I've been in a Speedo half my life,\" he says. \"So I am really comfortable with my body. One day I just felt something that wasn't suppose to be there. I decided to go and get it checked out.\" He adds that although he had the \"greatest excuse in the world\" -- an Olympic dream -- to ignore the lump, he understood the importance of early detection. Shanteau's father Rick, is battling lung cancer and responding well to treatment. \"A lot of guys, if they hear a rattle in their car, they're at the mechanic the next day,\" he says. \"But if they feel something [physically] that they don't think should be there, it takes them a year to get to their doctor and that's just is not smart . There's really no excuse because it can save your life.\" Fast forward to Shanteau's recent operation at Emory University Hospital. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was with Shanteau during the surgery and spoke with the lead surgeon, Dr. Jeff Carney, moments afterward. \"I think the operation went very well,\" Carney said. \"Eric's a very healthy young man, very thin, in excellent shape. That makes my job easy.\" Later that week, Shanteau's pathology results revealed that the operation removed the most of the cancer. \"The majority of it is gone.\" he tells CNN. \"There is a small chance it could come back but I shouldn't need chemotherapy at this point, so I am really optimistic.\" His treatment plan is to keep a close eye on his health for the next year with regular medical tests. \"Obviously, it would have been nice if the doctor said, 'You're completely in the clear,' but my results are exactly what the doctors expected.\" Eric says the cancer diagnosis gave him a different perspective on life. \"I appreciate life much more now,\" he says. \"I don't let myself get upset about the little nitpicky things anymore. Food even seems to taste better. It is really great.\" As for Shanteau's swimming career, he plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome. \"2012 [the next Olympics] is a push for me. Right now I'm just kind of taking it year by year and we'll see what happens.\"","highlights":"Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau found out about his cancer in June .\nHe delayed treatment so he could compete in the games in Beijing .\nTesticular cancer will be diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime .\nHe plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide -- more than any other drug -- and the opiate heroin kills five times as many people in NATO countries each year than the eight-year total of NATO troops killed in Afghan combat, the United Nations said Wednesday. An Afghan police officer digs up a field of opium poppies in April. About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market for the drug and also fueling terrorism and insurgencies: The Taliban raised $450 million to $600 million over the past four years by \"taxing\" opium farmers and traffickers, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a report. Not all the money is going into the pockets of rebels or drug dealers; some Afghan officials are making money off the trade as well, he said. \"The Afghan drug economy generates several hundred million dollars per year into evil hands: some with black turbans, some with white collars,\" Costa said. The latter reference is \"to officials in the Afghan administration, federal government of Kabul or the provinces or the army or the police,\" Costa told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Watch Costa talk about the problems \u00bb . And the problem is spreading, he added. Drug money is funding insurgencies in Central Asia, which has huge energy reserves, Costa said. \"The Silk Route, turned into a heroin route, is carving out a path of death and violence through one of the world's most strategic yet volatile regions,\" he said. Authorities are seizing too little heroin, intercepting only about 20 percent of opiate traffic around the world, according to the U.N. report, \"Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: the Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium.\" It comes on the heels of a U.N. warning last month that two years' worth of opium is effectively \"missing,\" probably stockpiled by the Taliban and criminal gangs. More than 12,000 tons of opium, which can be consumed as a narcotic itself or turned into heroin, is unaccounted for, the United Nations estimated in September. It is not clear who has it or why, but the United Nations speculates that criminals could be holding it as a hedge against falling prices or that insurgents or terrorists could be stockpiling it to fund attacks. The latest report claims to be the first systematic attempt to track where Afghan opium ends up. See how Afghan heroin reaches Europe and the West \u00bb . Europe and Russia together consume just under half of the heroin coming out of Afghanistan, the United Nations concluded, and Iran is by far the single largest consumer of Afghan opium. Afghanistan is also probably supplying an increasing share of the heroin in China -- perhaps as much as a quarter, the report said. Afghanistan is by far the world's largest producer of opium, although Laos, Myanmar and Latin America produce small quantities, it said. The United Nations found that Afghanistan may be supplying more heroin to the United States and Canada than had been suspected. The two North American countries consume more than twice as much heroin as Latin America produces. That means either that more Afghan heroin is making its way to North America than had been known or that Mexico and Columbia are producing more than was realized, the United Nations said. The report confirmed an estimate that $400 million in drug profits goes to the Taliban, Costa said. The Taliban \"are deeply involved\" in processing, in protecting farmers and in exporting, he said. The solution \"is very clear,\" he said. \"We need a much greater effort and commitment by governments to prevent drug addiction, to take care of drug addicts ... to reduce demand.\" But the popular will for change needs to increase, he said, noting that the Security Council in 2006 and 2007 passed resolutions inviting member states to give the names of drug traffickers to authorities so that their ability to travel can be curtailed and their assets seized. \"So far, much to my dismay, not a single name was provided to the Security Council,\" he said. The report offered little new in the way of possible solutions, said Ethan Nadelmann, founding executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes alternatives to the war on drugs. \"It's very good at describing a problem,\" he said. \"But it truly is devoid of any kind of pragmatic solution, and it essentially suggests that the answer is to keep doing more of what's failed us in the past.\" So long as there is a global demand for opium, there will be a supply, he said. \"If Afghanistan were suddenly wiped out as a producer of opium -- by bad weather or a blight or eradication efforts -- other parts of the world would simply emerge as new producers, \"creating all sorts of new problems,\" he said. And Afghanistan itself would not be helped either, he said. \"You would see in Afghanistan millions of people probably flocking to the cities unable to make a living and probably turning more to the Taliban than they are now,\" he said. He listed three possible options. The first, global legalization and control, \"is not happening, not any time soon,\" he said. The second option is to increase drug treatment for addicts who want it and to provide legal access to the drug, as Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Spain and Canada have done, he said. \"In all of these places, there are small, growing programs of heroin maintenance that allow addicts to obtain pharmaceutical-grade heroin from legal sources rather than from the black market,\" he said. But Nadelmann added that more people died of opiate overdose last year involving pharmaceutical opiates than died from illegal heroin. A third possibility, he said, would be to view Afghanistan as essentially a red-light zone of global opium production and to think about the solution as a vice-control challenge, \"which means acknowledge that Afghanistan is going to continue to be the world's supplier of illegal opium for the foreseeable future and then focus on manipulating and regulating the market participants, even though it is still illegal.\" He added, \"That, I think, is in some respects the de facto strategy, even though it cannot be stated openly, for political reasons.\"","highlights":"Afghan heroin trade funds terrorism, insurgencies, U.N. report says .\n12,000 tons of opium missing, probably stockpiled by Taliban, gangs, U.N. says .\nAfghanistan is world's largest producer of opium, from which heroin is made .\nIran is by far largest consumer of Afghan heroin, U.N. report says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Electronics giant Sony launched its eagerly anticipated social-networking site Thursday for PlayStation 3 users. A gamer plays Sony's PlayStation 3. PlayStation Home, which can be downloaded free of charge, will allow PS3 gamers to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences through their own personal \"avatars,\" or three-dimensional virtual representations of themselves. Users will be able to chat to each other in Home Square -- a kind of PlayStation clubhouse -- before heading over to the bowling alley to bowl, play pool or use the gaming arcade. They will also be able to access music and video. Users will eventually be able to customize their avatars and virtual apartments with the latest virtual clothing from designers such as Diesel and furniture maker Ligne Roset. Sony also plans to introduce Red Bull Island, where users can jump into the cockpit of a Red Bull Air Race plane and compete against other Home users. \"The idea behind Home is to create a virtual space for PS3 owners to meet up, talk and play games - the easiest way to think of it is as a hybrid of Facebook, Second Life and the prettiest game lobby ever,\" Tim Clark, editor in chief at Official PlayStation Magazine UK, told the BBC. All you need to download Home is a PlayStation Network account and access to PlayStation Store. Providing you have the latest system software update installed, the Home icon will appear under PlayStation Network on the PS3 Home Menu (XMB). \"PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with a combination of the power of PS3 and the PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,\" said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment on the company's Web site.","highlights":"PlayStation Home can be downloaded free of charge by PS3 users .\nUsers communicate, share gaming experiences through their own avatars .\nDesigned along the lines of 3-D Second Life virtual world ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ghana international Michael Essien has followed goalkeeper Petr Cech in agreeing a new five-year contract with English Premier League side Chelsea. Michael Essien has made a big impression on new Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. The midfielder, who is in China for the start of the club's pre-season tour, is now tied to the London outfit until the summer of 2013. The 25-year-old has made 143 appearances since moving to Stamford Bridge from French club Lyon in a $49 million transfer in August 2005, scoring 14 goals in total and helping Chelsea win the league title that season. Essien's decision to commit his long-term future to the club is a boost for new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, who allowed veteran holding midfielder Claude Makelele to join Paris St Germain on Monday. \"I have not been here long but it is clear to me that Michael Essien is one of the best midfield players in the world,\" Scolari said. \"I have always admired him and it is good news for me and for Chelsea that he signs for so long.\" The Accra-born Essien, who started his career in France with Bastia in 2000 before moving to Lyon three years later, was also pleased with the deal. \"I am really pleased to have extended my career with Chelsea,\" he said. \"I am very happy here. We have a great team and fantastic fans who have always made me welcome. \"With the addition of the new manager, I am feeling very positive about the season ahead.\" Chelsea announced on Monday that Czech Republic goalkeeper Cech signed a new five-year deal, while England full-back Wayne Bridge committed himself to four more years last week. Scolari is still seeking to keep England midfielder Frank Lampard, who has ended talks over a new deal and now appears to be resigned to waiting until his contract runs out before joining Inter Milan following the upcoming season. The Brazilian has so far added only Portugal playmaker Deco to his midfield ranks. His first match in charge will be Wednesday's friendly against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, one of the three games the team will play in China. Striker Didier Drogba, who has been linked with moves to AC Milan and Barcelona, is not among the touring squad due to a recurring knee problem. Khalid Boulahrouz, meanwhile, completed his transfer from Chelsea to Stuttgart on a four-year contract with the Bundesliga club. The Netherlands central defender was released Monday by Chelsea and arrived in Stuttgart's training camp in Austria shortly before midnight after passing a medical exam in Stuttgart. The deal between Stuttgart and Chelsea was completed Tuesday. Details were not given. The Dutchman played for Hamburger SV for two seasons before going to Chelsea in 2006. He was loaned to FC Sevilla last season. Boulahrouz's departure came a day after 35-year-old former France international Claude Makelele signed a two-year deal with Paris-Saint Germain after joining from Chelsea on a free transfer.","highlights":"Ghana international Michael Essien signs new five-year contract with Chelsea .\nMidfielder follows Petr Cech and Wayne Bridge in agreeing long-term deals .\nThe 25-year-old has made 143 appearances since joining from Lyon in 2005 .\nDutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz leaves Chelsea for Stuttgart on 4-year deal ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama's two daughters had another reason to high-five their dad's election to the presidency Tuesday night: they're getting a puppy. President Bush's dog Barney walks in the White House Rose Garden in 2007. \"Sasha and Malia,\" Obama said in his victory speech at Chicago's Grant Park, \"I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House.\" The new White House pet will follow in the paw-steps of a menagerie of animals that have had the run of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the years. The Bush family shared their eight years at the White House with a cat, a feisty English springer spaniel and two Scottish terriers -- all of whom have their own pages on the president's Web site. The Clintons' Washington stay included a cat, Socks, who did not get along with their chocolate Labrador retriever, Buddy. And Millie the springer spaniel's canine view of life in the White House -- as \"told to\" then-first lady Barbara Bush -- became a best-seller that outsold the memoirs of President George H.W. Bush. While many presidents took to heart President Harry Truman's admonishment -- \"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog\" -- first pets have come in all shapes, sizes and species. Thomas Jefferson kept two grizzly bears in a cage on the White House lawn, while John Quincy Adams is said to have let his alligator use a bathtub inside. Calvin Coolidge walked his raccoons on a leash. Theodore Roosevelt's sons escorted their pet pony onto the White House elevator to cheer up a sick sibling. And perhaps the strangest of all: Martin Van Buren briefly owned two tiger cubs, a gift from the Sultan of Oman. Pets have sometimes been a boon to a president's image. But some have also taken a bite out of their popularity. Animal lovers howled in protest when Lyndon B. Johnson picked up his beagles, Him and Her, by the ears to provide photographers a better view. On the other hand, Richard Nixon -- running for vice president and accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions -- successfully defended himself in his famous \"Checkers Speech.\" The only gift he ever accepted was \"a little cocker spaniel dog\" that his daughter named Checkers, Nixon said. \"And I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it,\" he added. Come January, the Obamas will make history by becoming the first African-American family to move into the White House. But if Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, get what they've been promised, the new tenants will keep one long-standing tradition alive ... and wagging.","highlights":"President-elect Obama promises his daughters a puppy .\nWhite House has a history of president pets -- from dogs to tiger cubs .\nPresident Bush had three dogs and cat, President Clinton a dog and cat ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Kansas are looking for a boy who disappeared about a decade ago, but was not reported missing until a few weeks ago. Adam Herrman has not been seen since 1999, when he was 11 or 12. \"We don't know what happened to Adam Herrman past '99, when he was last seen,\" Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said at a news conference in El Dorado. \"Is he alive, is he dead? That one I can't answer because we don't know,\" he added. Adam was 11 or 12 when he was last seen, Murphy said. At the time, he was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a small town in southern Kansas, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman. The couple did not report him missing, Murphy said. A few weeks ago, a person notified Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Children's Unit of a \"concern\" regarding Adam, Murphy said. The agency did not immediately return CNN's phone call seeking additional information. Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple \"really rue the fact that they didn't\" report the boy missing. \"They feel very guilty\" about not doing that, he said in a telephone interview. The couple told him the boy had run away frequently, he said, and they believed him to be either with his biological parents or homeless. Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, \"they were very worried about him,\" he said. Authorities have searched the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park, where the family had lived, and discovered an \"answer\" to one of their questions, Murphy said, without explaining. \"We did find one of the answers we were looking for, but I am holding that one very tightly,\" he said. Eisenbise said authorities also executed a search warrant on December 15 at the Herrmans' home in Derby, a town just outside of Wichita. They took the couple's computer, he said. Murphy said the couple is cooperating and had not been charged with anything. Citing a relative, the Wichita Eagle reported the Herrmans had taken Adam into foster care and later adopted him. Michelle Ponce of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which oversees adoption and foster care, said she could not release any details regard Adam's case, and could confirm only that he had been in foster care at some point, but was no longer in foster care in 1999. Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said in a phone interview. He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born on June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed. His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in different foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported. \"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children and evidently it wasn't,\" Irvin Groeninger told KWCH. \"If he was still in my custody this would have never happened.\" Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she last saw her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party. A year or two later, he sent her a Christmas card, she said. \"And that was the end of my contact with him,\" she told KWCH. \"He had the cutest little round face, little bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek,\" she remembered. \"I'm just awestruck as how something like that could actually happen, and how he could be missing as long as he's been and nobody say anything,\" she said. Murphy said Adam's name appears on a legal document later than 1999. \"We know that he was listed in a legal action as if he was still living at home, and I'm not certain of the date, but it was beyond 1999,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"Sheriff says no trace of Adam Herrman found after 1999 .\nParents did not report him missing until recently .\nPolice say they don't know if he is dead or alive .\nAdam was 11 or 12 in 1999 ."} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Record the CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Busted! Mortgage Meltdown when it airs commercial-free on Monday, October 6, 2008, from approximately 4:10-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.) Program Overview . Home loans gone bad are wrecking the U.S. economy. CNN teams up with Fortune Magazine's Andy Serwer to investigate how the housing boom went bust. The fallout begins on Wall Street, where billions of dollars in American mortgages were bought, bundled and sold around the world. CNN takes the high-stakes mortgage game to Delmonico's, a Wall Street institution since 1837, where the likes of J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie once wheeled and dealed. Host Andy Serwer plays dealer and invites a few experts to face off on the mortgage crisis. Guest players include New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman, CNN's Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis, securities guru Janet Tavakoli, investment strategist Peter Dunay and mortgage broker Jon Shibley. Grade Levels: 11-12, College . Subject Areas: Business, Economics, Finance, Social Studies, Life Skills . Objectives: . The CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Busted! Mortgage Meltdown and its corresponding discussion questions and activity challenge students to: . Curriculum Connections . Economics America National Standards . Standard 10 : Role of Economic Institutions . Students will understand that: Institutions evolve in market economies to help individuals and groups accomplish their goals. Banks, labor unions, corporations, legal systems, and not-for-profit organizations are examples of important institutions. A different kind of institution, clearly defined and enforced property rights, is essential to a market economy. Standard 16 : Role of Government . Students will understand that: There is an economic role for government in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. Governments often provide for national defense, address environmental concerns, define and protect property rights, and attempt to make markets more competitive. Most government policies also redistribute income. The Economics America National Standards (http:\/\/www.ncee.net\/ea\/standards\/) are published by the National Council on Economic Education (http:\/\/www.ncee.net\/). Social Studies . Standard V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions. Standard VI. Power, Authority, and Governance: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/strands\/) are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/ncss.org\/). Discussion Questions . Suggested Activity . Point out to students that one of the best ways for them to prepare for homeownership is to arm themselves with knowledge, and that the purpose of this activity is to help them obtain this information. Group students and instruct each group to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the top ten things that first-time homebuyers should know before they shop for a mortgage. Groups may want to include information that addresses these points: . Have groups deliver their presentations to the class. If possible, invite a realtor or mortgage broker to attend the presentations and discuss the guidelines that are used to determine whether or not a homebuyer can afford a home. Extension . Following the presentations, direct students to print and online resources to identify homes that are for sale in their community, as well as the current interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage, a 15-year fixed mortgage and a 5\/1 ARM. Next, have each student select a house and use an online amortization schedule calculator to determine what the monthly payment (principle + interest) would be for each type of loan, assuming that the loan was for 80% of the purchase price of the home. Instruct students to identify the potential benefits and drawbacks of each type of loan, and to select the loan type that they feel would be the best choice for the homebuyer. Then, have each student determine the salary that he or she thinks a person would need to earn to afford the monthly mortgage payments. After students share their research, ask: . Keywords . mortgage, subprime, foreclosure, economy, interest rates, credit risk, housing prices, homeowner, real estate, mortgage broker, reverse redlining, Wall Street, Federal Reserve, securities, regulation, predatory lending, housing bubble, capitalism, recession, depression .","highlights":"Learn about the different types of home loans that are available to consumers .\nExamine the current mortgage crisis in the U.S.\nIdentify the economic and social ripple effects of this crisis .\nDetermine ten things homebuyers should know before they shop for a mortgage ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's president said Tuesday his country welcomes talks with the United States \"in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.\" Women in Tehran celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution Tuesday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks a day after President Barack Obama said the United States is looking for opportunities for \"face to face\" dialogue with Iran, even though he has \"deep concerns\" about Tehran's actions. \"Right now, the world is entering the era of dialogue,\" Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of people in a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. \"The new U.S. administration announced that it's willing to bring about a number of changes and is now taking the course for dialogue. It's quite clear that real change should be fundamental, not just a tactical change, and it is quite clear that the Iranian nation will greet real changes. \"The Iranian nation is ready to hold up talks, but talks in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect,\" Ahmadinejad said. In Washington, Obama was asked about U.S. relations with Iran during his first prime-time news conference on Monday night. Watch news conference in full \u00bb . \"There's been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it's not going to happen overnight,\" Obama said. He said his administration is reviewing existing U.S. policy toward Iran, which supports groups Washington has branded terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and has defied U.N. demands to halt its uranium enrichment program. Despite those concerns, Obama said his administration wants to use \"all the resources at the United States' disposal\" to resolve those concerns. \"My expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction,\" Obama said. \"So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there's the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress.\" The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since 1979. During that year, the Shah of Iran was forced to flee the country and the Ayatollah Khomeini took power. Later that year, Iranian students took over and seized hostages at the U.S. Embassy. Relations have been cut since then. U.S. President George W. Bush labeled Iran as a member of the \"axis of evil\" after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Iran celebrated the 30th anniversary of the revolution Tuesday with crowds chanting \"Death to America.\" Watch the parade in Iran \u00bb . Tensions have rippled over issues such as Iran's nuclear program, Israel, and Iraq, and have been aggravated since the outspoken Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. Western nations believe Iran is intent on building a nuclear weapon. Ahmadinejad has been criticized for his vehemence against and provocative remarks toward Israel and for Iran's support of Hamas militants in Gaza and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon -- militants groups that Israel has battled. Also, the United States has accused Iran of backing Iraqi insurgents. In recent years, the Iraq conflict has provided an opportunity for Iran and the United States to cooperate since both countries support the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and Iraqis have urged both countries to put aside their differences in helping Iraq. In 2007, U.S. and Iraqi envoys met several times in Baghdad. Ahmadinejad addressed the conflict in Iraq, saying that 1 million people have been killed and others have been displaced because of the \"Bush administration war on Iraq.\" \"To deal with the root cause of insecurity I think that we should go and find the main culprits, including Bush himself and his administration. They must be put on trial,\" said Ahmadinejad. \"The world does not want to see the dark age of Bush being repeated.\" Addressing the issue of terrorism, Ahmadinejad said Iran has been fighting terror for 30 years and that Iran itself been victimized by terror. \"If you want to fight terrorism in practice come and work with the Iranian nation,\" he said. \"If you want to eradicate the root causes of massacres and aggression, let's sit together and see what has been behind the reasons why we have had wars in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.\" As usual, he had harsh words for Israel, a state he loathes and a topic that whips up passions among his supporters. \"If you want to eradicate crime, let's work together with the Iranian nation and other nations of the world and let's put on trial the Zionist leaders of the Zionist regime,\" the Iranian leader said. As for nuclear power, Iran has said it wants to harness it for energy and Ahmadinejad indicated Iran is against deploying nuclear weaponry. \"If you want to fight proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, then you should join us and help us so that we will show you the right way. Yes we're opposed to nuclear weapons of mass destruction. They're real threats and they must be destroyed. Iran has been a victim of the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction but the only way would be justice and the use of appropriate mechanisms,\" he said. \"If they really want to have real security, then they should be able to work with us and then we will be able to revisit the structure of the Security Council -- and remember the Security Council itself is the root cause of discrimination -- we should change this structure and then have justice.\" The United States also is concerned about Iran's technological pursuits. Iran successfully launched its first satellite into orbit last week, a step hailed by Iran's president as a \"source of pride\" for the Islamic republic, according to state-run news outlets. The launch of the satellite Omid -- which means \"Hope\" in Farsi -- was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution in Iran, according to Iranian media reports. U.S. Department of Defense officials confirmed the launch, and the State Department expressed \"grave concern.\" In August, Iran performed a test of a rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit. Iranian officials declared that mission a success, but U.S. officials disputed that. Senior U.S. officials had expressed concerned about the test of the rocket, saying Iran could use the rocket to deliver warheads. On Monday, Obama said Iran must \"send some signals that it wants to act differently, as well, and recognize that, even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities.\" \"It's important that, even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country, that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable, that we're clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing.\" Praising Iran's people history and traditions as \"extraordinary, Obama says the nation's actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity both in the region and around the world.\" \"Their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they've used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, that all those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace.\"","highlights":"U.S. seeking opportunities for \"face to face\" dialogue with Iran, says Obama .\nIranian president Ahmadinejad: We welcome Obama comments .\nU.S. has not had diplomatic ties with Iran for nearly three decades .\nAhmadinejad makes speech as Iranians mark 30th anniversary of Islamic revolution."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This week on Inside Africa -- . A photographer's powerful pictures cover the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then, Nkepile Mabuse catches up with a World Cup legend spreading football excitement in South Africa. And David McKenzie introduces us to a modest Angolan football squad and looks at the passion behind their play. Violence in Congo . The Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in bloody conflict for more than a decade. The violence has killed millions and displaced hundreds of thousands. Photographer Peter Biro turned his lens on this grim reality when he visited the country late last year. And he hopes his photos will shed light on one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. He shared with us, some of his pictures -- and the stories behind them. Africa's buzz . Over the next few months, some of football's biggest names will descend on South Africa, ahead of the FIFA World Cup. And the sporting world was abuzz when Argentine coach Diego Maradona took his turn touring the country. Nkepile Mabuse caught up with the controversial football star in South Africa, where he remains a hero to many fans. Football in Luanda . While many of the continent's top players are in state-of-the-art stadiums, many footballers in Luanda still struggle to find a decent place to play. David McKenzie visits an Angolan team getting the most out of their makeshift field. Madonna's adoptions . Celebrity charities and their causes can attract more attention to countries in need. In Malawi, an American pop star's connection to the country has helped to do just that. Madonna became more invested in the nation when she adopted two children there. Alina Cho talked to the singer about efforts to help other orphans in Malawi.","highlights":"Inside Africa catches up with a World Cup legend spreading football excitement in South Africa.\nDavid McKenzie discovers the passion of the Angolan football squad and.\nAlina Cho speaks to Madonna about her efforts to help other Malawi's orphans."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The FBI on Monday arrested the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, on federal charges including conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns. Mayor Larry Langford, right, appears at a news conference Monday in Birmingham, Alabama. Larry Langford, 62, is named in an indictment that alleges criminal activity while he was a county commissioner, said U.S. Attorney Alice Martin. As president of the Jefferson County Commission and head of its department of finance and general services from November 2002 until about November 2006, Langford put his personal affairs ahead of those of the county, Martin said. \"Our investigation has revealed, and the indictment alleges, that Langford sold his public office to his friends and political supporters,\" Martin said. Also named in the 101-count indictment are William Blount, 55, a Montgomery, Alabama, investment banker, and Albert LaPierre, 58, a Birmingham lobbyist, neither of whom returned calls from CNN. \"Langford steered lucrative business to William Blount and his company and he, in turn, earned in excess of $7.1 million and, with the help of lobbyist Albert LaPierre, they ensured that Larry Langford's crushing personal debts were paid off through payoffs of loans, store charge accounts, purchases of clothing and jewelry and other items of value that exceeded $230,000 over a period from 2002 to 2006,\" Martin said. The allegations go back to a 1996 consent decree entered into by the commission to bring Jefferson County into compliance with the Clean Water Act, which required authorizing billions of dollars in transactions. After making his first appearance in U.S. District Court on Monday, Langford appeared outside the courthouse with his lawyer, who said he had told his client not to talk to reporters. \"He's got a city to run and right now, or very shortly, he's headed back to City Hall,\" the lawyer said. An indictment on some counts was returned in June to ensure they were not rendered moot by a five-year statute of limitations, Martin said. The superseding indictment returned last Tuesday by a federal grand jury was unsealed Monday after Langford's arrest. The other two men named in the indictment agreed to turn themselves in, she said. Langford conspired with Blount and LaPierre \"to solicit and to accept bribes, to use influence and position to ensure that Blount and his company, Blount Parrish Inc., was involved in Jefferson County's bonds and swap transactions related to multibillion-dollar sewer debt,\" Martin said. Though the financing was set up by then-big financial institutions -- including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America -- \"Langford used his position to make it a condition that those financial institutions include Blount Parrish in the financing deals and paid Blount Parrish a fee in order to get the county financing business,\" Martin said. She cited an October 2003 financial transaction that included Bank of America and Lehman Special Financing Corp. that required Lehman to pay an \"arrangement fee\" of $35,000 to Blount's company. In all, she said, Blount and his company received $7.1 million in fees related to Jefferson County's financial transactions. In turn, Blount paid lobbyist LaPierre approximately $219,000 for \"consulting fees,\" Martin said. She added, \"Through a web of financing agreements, Langford required many institutions to use Blount as a consultant so Blount would make fees and in turn pay off Langford. It was a classic pay-to-play scheme.\" Martin said Blount and Langford traveled together to New York, where Blount bought Langford clothing and jewelry from high-end stores that included Tourneau, Zegna, Ferragamo and Turnbull & Asser. In addition, Blount bought Rolex watches and other jewelry for Langford from a Birmingham store, Martin said. Federal authorities are seeking criminal forfeiture of about $7.6 million from each of the men. Langford is named in 60 counts of the superseding indictment; Blount in 43 counts; and LaPierre in 22 counts. In addition to the fines, each defendant would face a maximum of 10 years for each bribery and money-laundering count, 20 years for each fraud count, five years for the conspiracy count and three years for each tax count. In a written statement, the mayor's office said city business will continue as usual. \"We are glad the mayor will finally have his day in court,\" said Langford's chief of staff, Deborah Vance-Bowie. \"As members of his team, we stand behind him and look forward to the day when we can return the focus to the important issues before the city.\" A public information officer said the president of the current five-member Jefferson County Commission, Bettye Collins, would have no comment .","highlights":"Larry Langford engaged in fraud, bribery, indictment says .\nInvestment banker and lobbyist also named in indictment .\nProsecutor describes \"web of financing agreements\" among the three .\nLangford attorney says he told Langford not to talk to media and \"he's got a city to run\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Marine husband of a slain Fort Bragg soldier was charged with murder Monday and another Marine was charged with aiding the crime, a local police chief said. Fayetteville, North Carolina, police released this undated photo of 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc. Authorities have been searching for the missing soldier, Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, 24, since a fire torched her North Carolina apartment on July 10. Marine Cpl. John Wimunc and fellow Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden were initially charged with arson, but after police interviews Wimunc was charged with first-degree murder, said Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine. Alden was charged with felony accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, Bergamine said. Both were taken to Cumberland County's jail and held without bond, he said. Earlier, a witness found a charred body in woods, but Detective Jeff Locklear told reporters that police were still awaiting a positive identification from the medical examiner and could not say for certain it was Holley Wimunc. The lieutenant's father released a statement about the death Monday in which he said his daughter was a nurse at a military hospital and had two children. \"It is with profound sadness that our family just received the news from authorities that our beloved daughter Holley is dead,\" Wimunc's father said in a statement released to CNN affiliate WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina. \"Since last Thursday's shocking news about Holley's burned apartment and her missing person status, our family through the country has nonetheless been holding on to a thin thread of hope that she would be found alive.\" Military officials said both Marines were stationed at Camp Lejeune, which is about two hours away from Wimunc's Fayetteville home. Joe Lenczyk -- resident agent-in-charge for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- said Wimunc and her husband were estranged and lived apart. Wimunc is the second female soldier from Fort Bragg to die under suspicious circumstances in recent weeks. Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, 23, was seven months pregnant at the time of her death in June, authorities said. Investigators say they are treating that death as a homicide. Camp Lejeune also has had a suspicious death of a female soldier this year. Twenty-year-old pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach's charred body was found January in the back yard of another Marine stationed at the base. That suspect, U.S. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, was captured in April in Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Soldier's husband, Cpl. John Wimunc, charged with murder .\nMarine Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden charged with arson in connection with the crime .\nAuthorities have been searching for 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc since July 10 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper appealed directly to Canadians for support Wednesday, vowing in a nationally televised address on the economy that he will do all he can to halt his opponents from carrying out a no-confidence vote in Parliament -- as planned for Monday -- and forming a coalition government that would replace his own. Prime Minister Stephen Harper accuses coalition leaders of \"betrayal\" by relying on Quebec separatists' support. \"Unfortunately, even before the government has brought forward its budget, and only seven weeks after a general election, the opposition wants to overturn the results of that election,\" said the prime minister, whose Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections on October 14. \"Canada's government cannot enter into a power-sharing coalition with a separatist party at a time of global insecurity,\" he said. \"Canada's government must stand unequivocally for keeping the country together.\" The country is undergoing \"a pivotal moment in our history,\" he said, then ticked through a list of efforts his government is making to help the country survive the economic crisis, including personal tax reductions, doubling of spending on infrastructure, injecting liquidity into the financial markets and securing pension plans. iReport.com: Outrage brewing in Canada . \"Tonight, I pledge to you that Canada's government will use every legal means at our disposal to protect our democracy, protect our economy and to protect Canada,\" he said. Though Harper did not specify what those legal means might entail, his opponents predicted that he would try to dissolve Parliament and wasted no time in voicing their opposition. The Liberal Party, which lost seats in the October vote, and the leftist New Democratic Party announced plans earlier this week to form a governing coalition with the support of the Bloc Quebecois, which supports independence for French-speaking Quebec. In a televised address that followed Harper's, opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion called for a vote of confidence. He said he had asked Canada's Governor-General Michaelle Jean -- the acting head of state who would call for a new election or a confidence vote -- \"to refuse any request by the prime minister to suspend Parliament until he has demonstrated to her that he still commands the confidence of the house.\" He said Canada \"is facing the impact of the global economic crisis\" and must act quickly. \"Stephen Harper refuses to propose measures to stimulate the economy\" and his party has lost the confidence of the majority of the House of Commons, he said. \"This means that they have lost the right to govern,\" Dion said. He said he and Jack Layton, head of the New Democratic Party, had agreed to form a coalition government to address the economic crisis, and that the Green Party supported it too. \"Coalitions are normal and put in practice in many parts of the world and are able to work very successfully,\" he said. \"Mr. Harper's solution is to extend the crisis by avoiding a simple vote -- by suspending Parliament and continuing the confusion,\" Dion said. \"We offer a better way. We say, settle it now and let's get to work on the people's business.\" The vote scheduled for Monday ought to be allowed to proceed, he said. In separate televised remarks, Layton accused Harper of having \"delivered a partisan attack.\" The Conservative Party's plan would create no jobs and protect no pensions, he said. \"He seems to be more interested in his job than in protecting your job,\" Layton said. \"Now, that's simply wrong.\"","highlights":"Opposition parties seek to oust Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government .\nHarper's Tories gained seats in Canada's October elections but fell short of majority .\nLiberal and New Democratic parties join with Bloc Quebecois to try to unseat Tories .\nHarper could buy time by asking governor general to suspend parliament till January ."} -{"article":"(RealSimple.com) -- Overwashing, overapplying, and product overkill won't improve your skin. Rein in your regimen to get real results. Want beautiful skin like model Megan Gale? Don't overdo it, experts say. Cleansing and exfoliating . You don't need to wash or scrub as often -- or as vigorously -- as you may think. \"Many women go overboard here, figuring it will make their skin look better if they do both more frequently,\" says dermatologist Leslie Baumann. \"But that only damages the skin's natural barrier and creates dryness and irritation.\" Combination skin . How often: Wash your face twice a day, and gently exfoliate once or twice a week; this is enough to keep skin balanced and encourage cell turnover, according to experts. What to look for: A mild cleanser that isn't too rich or too drying, says Mary Lupo, a dermatologist in New Orleans, Louisiana. Use an exfoliant that contains gentle particles or acids to remove dead cells without abrading your skin. Where to find it: Cleanser -- Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash, $6 at drugstores. Exfoliant -- St. Ives Elements Microdermabrasion Scrub, $7 at drugstores. Dry skin . How often: Cleanse skin at night, when it's dirtiest. Rinse with cool water in the morning to help maintain natural oils. If skin is flaky, exfoliate once a week, says Lisa Donofrio, a professor of dermatology at Yale University. What to look for: A cleansing oil or creamy wash that has moisturizing ingredients, such as glycerin. If you have sensitive skin to boot, avoid products that contain fragrances or alcohol, which can irritate. Where to find it: Cleanser -- Laura Mercier Purifying Oil, $40, www.sephora.com; or CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, $11.50 at drugstores. Exfoliant -- Your safest bet is to use a wet washcloth. Oily\/acne-prone skin . How often: Lather up two to three times a day (as needed) but never more; overwashing kicks oil glands into overproduction. Exfoliate once or twice a week, but skip this if you have acne; the friction can make it worse. What to look for: An oil-free, non-comedogenic foaming cleanser that contains salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide to prevent breakouts. The scrub should contain mild acids to keep the pores open and clean. Where to find it: Cleanser -- Aveeno Clear Complexion Foaming Cleanser, $7 at drugstores. Exfoliant -- Bior\u00e9 Pore Unclogging Scrub, $6 at drugstores. Sensitive skin . How often: Wash once a day if your skin is irritated by nearly everything or if you have eczema or psoriasis; twice a day if your skin is dirty. Forget about exfoliating, as it's too abrasive for your skin type. What to look for: Hypoallergenic and fragrance- and soap-free cleansers. Calming ingredients, like green tea, chamomile, feverfew, and aloe, are a bonus. As a general rule, the fewer ingredients in a product, the better. Where to find it: Cleanser -- La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermo-Cleanser ($19.50, www.laroche-posay.com). Apply with your fingers. \"Think of the way you'd touch a newborn,\" says Barbara Reed, a Denver, Colorado, dermatologist. Portion control . \u2022 Use a quarter-size amount of cleanser on most skin types. \u2022 A dime-size dollop of scrub will do. \u2022 A pea-size dab of cleanser is plenty for sensitive skin. Real Simple: Best facial cleansers . Moisturizing and protecting . No matter what your skin type, moisture is important. \"If your skin isn't hydrated, it can't protect itself from the free radicals that cause damage, discoloration, and wrinkles,\" says dermatologist Leslie Baumann. Year-round daily sun protection is also a must. Fortunately there are moisturizers with SPF available for every complexion. Combination skin . How often: Each morning, apply moisturizer with SPF after cleansing your skin. Reapply if you're spending more than 30 minutes outside, as sun-screens break down in sunlight over time. What to look for: A medium-weight lotion with skin-protective antioxidants, such as green tea, coenzyme Q10, and vitamin C, and broad-spectrum sun protection with an SPF of 15 or higher. Where to find it: L'Or\u00e9al Paris Revitalift UV Daily Moisturizing Cream with Mexoryl SX SPF 15, $22 at drugstores; or Clinique Super-defense SPF 25 Age Defense Moisturizer Dry Combination, $43, www.clinique.com. Dry skin . How often: To help seal in water, apply moisturizer with SPF once a day, right after cleansing, while your skin is still damp. Reapply at midday if your skin begins to feel tight, and use a cream at night. What to look for: A rich cream that contains antioxidants, plus hyaluronic acid, glycerin, or ceramides. \"Hyaluronic acid and glycerin bind in moisture, and ceramides prevent water loss from the skin,\" says Donofrio. Where to find it: Dove Pro Age Day Moisturizer SPF 15, $14 at drugstores; or Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer SPF 15, $10.50 at drugstores. Oily\/acne-prone skin . How often: Moisturize every morning. Oily skin needs the right type of moisture and lightweight, non-comedogenic sun protection. Reapply as needed, since blotting away shine can remove sunscreen. What to look for: An oil-free, featherweight lotion, serum, or gel with antioxidants. If you're acne-prone, avoid products with cocoa butter, cinnamon, or coconut oil, as they can trigger breakouts, says Baumann. Where to find it: DDF Ultra-Lite Oil-Free Moisturizing Dew SPF 15, $38, www.ddfskincare.com; or Clean & Clear Soft Oil-Free Day Moisturizer SPF 15, $8.50 at drugstores. Sensitive skin . How often: In the morning, apply moisturizer to skin that has been dabbed dry. Ingredients penetrate wet skin more deeply, which is often a good thing, but this can irritate sensitive skin. What to look for: Fragrance-free lotions or creams that contain anti-inflammatories, such as chamomile, green tea, feverfew, and caffeine. Avoid lipoic acid, as it can be irritating. Where to find it: Eucerin Redness Relief Soothing Moisture Lotion SPF 15, $14 at drugstores; or Dermalogica Super Sensitive Faceblock SPF 30, $45, www.dermalogica.com for locations. Portion control . Use a nickel-to quarter-size amount of moisturizer with SPF for face coverage. Real Simple: Seventeen affordable moisturizers . Treating and troubleshooting . Nighttime is best for targeting fine lines, blemishes, and discoloration. That's when the skin repairs itself, and the sun isn't around to degrade the active ingredients in the treatments. Careful and consistent use of effective products (most also provide moisture) will gradually yield great results. Combination skin . To keep it smooth: Four nights a week, use a cream with retinol, a potent, tried-and-true wrinkle reducer. Try: Philosophy Help Me Retinol Night Treatment, $45, www.philosophy.com. To clear it up: Use a 5 percent benzoyl peroxide or 2 percent salicylic acid gel nightly. Try: B. Kamins Medicated Acne Gel 5, $26, www.bkamins.com; or Neutrogena Rapid Clear Acne Eliminating Gel, $8 at drugstores. To even tone: Retinol evens tone, but for darker spots, at night use a formula that also has skin-lightening licorice, kojic acid, soy, or vitamin C. Try: RoC Multi-Correxion Night Treatment, $25 at drugstores. Dry skin . To keep it smooth: As dry skin can be sensitive, apply gentle retinols every other night with a moisturizer. Try: Av\u00e8ne R\u00e9trinal Cream .05, $56, www.skincarerx.com. Other nights, just moisturize. To clear it up: Heal blemishes using a moisturizing 2 percent salicylic acid treatment or a sulfur-based salve once or twice a week. Try: AcneWorx Gentle Moisturizing Clear Acne Treatment Gel, $20, www.amazon.com. To even tone: Slather on a rich cream that contains skin-brightening ingredients, like coffeeberry extract, each night. Try: Reval\u00e9Skin Night Cream, $99, www.skincarerx.com. Oily\/acne-prone skin . To keep it smooth: Nightly use of a retinol gel or serum softens fine lines (skip it on nights you treat blemishes, as below). Try: Replenix Retinol Plus Smoothing Serum 3X, $56, www.skincarerx.com. To clear it up: Oily skin can take a 5 or 10 percent benzoyl peroxide gel twice a day, says Sonia Badreshia-Bansal, a dermatologist in Danville, California. Try: Clean & Clear Persa-Gel 10, $5 at drugstores. To even tone: Each night smooth a thin layer of a lightweight vitamin C serum over your face to gradually lighten any discoloration. Try: Avon Anew Alternative Clearly C 10% Vitamin C Serum, $20, www.avon.com. Sensitive skin . To keep it smooth: Every third night, apply a mild retinol (see dry skin). Or use peptides nightly on lines. Try: Olay Regenerist Night Recovery Moisturizing Treatment, $18 at drugstores. To clear it up: Treat blemishes with a 2 percent salicylic acid treatment and follow with moisturizer. Try: Exuviance Blemish Treatment Gel, $16, www.exuviance.com. Avoid benzoyl peroxide, which can be irritating. To even tone: Consider a nightly application of a lotion with a gentle lightener, like a niacin derivative or vitamin C. Try: NIA 24 Intensive Recovery Complex, $110, www.skincarerx.com. Portion control . \u2022 A pea-size amount of a retinol cream is adequate. \u2022 A dime-size dollop of a skin brightener or moisturizer will do the trick. \u2022 A sunflower seed--size dot of an acne salve is all your spots require. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Overwashing, overapplying and product overkill won't improve your skin .\nWhich of these regimens should you be using for your type of skin?\nDry skin types should apply moisturizer with SPF once a day .\nSensitive skin should only apply a mild retinol every third night to fight aging ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: You can follow the Bilsons' progress on CNN American Morning 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. through February 4. Mary Bilson tries to contain her autistic daughter Marissa's tantrum, as Marissa's brother Brendan looks on. Seal Beach, CALIFORNIA (CNN) -- The Bilson family is like many other families: three kids, a cat, and a small, lovely home with lots of family photos and carved wooden wall signs with sayings like \"Live, Laugh, Love.\" But step inside their house after 4 p.m. most weekdays and you'll want to cover your ears because of the noise -- the screaming, to be exact. These are not the shouts of sibling rivalry or parental annoyance. This is the high-pitched, ear-shattering sound of a 13-year-old girl. More accurately, it is the sound of a frustrated, irritated, very loud teenager with autism. Marissa, the middle Bilson child, was diagnosed with autism when she was a toddler. Her mother, Mary, a nurse, knew something wasn't right early on, when young Marissa's tantrums were off the charts and seemingly unwarranted. But during the first few years, doctors told Mary Bilson that her daughter was fine and this behavior would eventually pass. They were wrong on both counts. Marissa's behavior has not passed; it has, in fact, become worse. According to Bilson, Marissa and her tantrums rule the household. \"I don't want to hear her screaming and tantruming, so we pretty much let her do what she wants,\" Bilson says. \"We\" means Mary, her husband, John, and their two other children, Brittany, 15, and 6-year-old Brendan. Keeping the peace means that, when it comes to Marissa, the rules are different. She is allowed unlimited time on the one family computer. She is allowed access to her siblings' rooms and possessions. She is allowed to eat dinner at the computer instead of the family table. Watch part one of the Bilsons' journey \u00bb . But before you sit in judgment of the Bilsons, and suggest they just need a firm hand to keep their middle child in line, consider one thing: They are trying to cope with a child with severely impaired social sensibilities. \"Do you think people who don't have children with autism know how tough it is to deal with them?\" CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, asked Marissa's mom in a recent interview. \"No,\" Mary Bilson replied. \"And I don't see how they could.\" She's right -- we can't, because many of us have never seen autism in action, day in and day out. Learn more about autism \u00bb . Autism is described on the National Institutes of Health Web site as a \"developmental disorder that appears in the first three years of life, and affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.\" According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism and related disorders affect about one out of every 150 babies born each year. Autism manifests itself in many different ways. Although there are some common threads, like language issues, repetitive movements and difficulties connecting to others, specific behavioral patterns are largely unique to the individual. \"Children with autism are all different; they are like snowflakes,\" explains Dr. Ronald Leaf, co-director of the group Autism Partnership. The one thing that Leaf believes they all have in common is that \"they are not expected to do enough.\" Leaf insists we have set the bar too low for what we think children and adults with autism can do. \"They are highly teachable,\" he says. \"You just have to have a good teacher.\" A good teacher is exactly what Bilson was looking for to help her with Marissa. The family had already tried various programs, starting when Marissa was a toddler -- but nothing completely worked for her. And as Marissa entered her teen years, her behavior grew worse. Mary knew that her daughter needed to be reined in, and it needed to be done now. \"She is getting older. She's 13 and her tantrums are louder and longer than they used to be. It's just so inappropriate. It was OK when she was much younger, but now that she's going to be an adult soon, she can't be behaving this way,\" Bilson says with tired resignation. But what could the Bilsons do? This family doesn't have a lot of extra money, and most programs either aren't covered by insurance or have long waiting lists. The costs are staggering, according to the Web site FightingAutism.org. Families with autistic children can expect to spend $30,000 annually to provide proper medical, educational and other assistance necessary for dealing with an autistic child. Watch part two of the Bilsons' journey \u00bb . Enter Autism Partnership, or AP. This group, founded in 1994, offers extensive therapeutic services to children and adults with the disorder. One of its most unique programs is an intensive one-on-one, at-home intervention service that is similar in scope to what happens on the television show \"Nanny 911.\" It's not cheap -- about $2,500 per day, typically for a five-day period (with additional days on an \"as needed\" basis). Most of AP's work is grounded in a behavior modification technique known as Applied Behavioral Analysis or ABA. Essentially, the method breaks down behavior patterns, rewarding proper behavior while being careful not to encourage improper responses. And that is exactly how AP therapist Rick Schroeder hopes to reshape Marissa Bilson's worst behavior. The group, which met Marissa while working in her school, offered the Bilson family a free week-long intervention with the proviso that CNN be allowed to record the process. The week started off with a day of observation -- a day with lots and lots of screaming and tantrums, that left Schroeder stunned. He had observed Marissa at school where, he says, she was much less demonstrative. But Schroeder is still eager and ready to tackle the challenge. \"I think the family is starting to realize something needs to change, and that's very good,\" he says after his day of observation. \"As far as Marissa's behavior goes -- and the level that she is capable of going to -- she's pretty much out of control, for sure.\"","highlights":"CDC: Autism and related disorders affect one out of every 150 children .\nEach autistic child is unique in his or her behavior, but there are common threads .\nSocial skills, communication are common problem areas .\nMarissa screams, throws tantrums -- behavior her family hopes to change ."} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese voters were heading to the polls on Sunday with their main choices to lead the next government a Hezbollah-backed alliance or a U.S.-backed coalition. Hezbollah party workers in the southern town of Nabatiyah hope for an election victory. Analysts say the race will be tight, with the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" possibly winning a majority of seats in parliament. The polls opened at 1200 GMT and will close 12 hours later. Turnout is expected to be high among the country's 3 million registered voters. About 50,000 troops were on the streets, but the run-up to the balloting had been free of violence. The vote comes at a critical time for Lebanon as it sits amid a power struggle between a weakened pro-Western government and a stronger pro-Syrian Hezbollah political bloc that has gained political momentum in recent years. The United States considers Hezbollah -- which is supported by both Syria and Iran -- to be a terrorist organization. The group grew in popularity after its militant wing claimed victory over Israel after a 34-day military conflict in 2006. Since then, it has been more widely perceived by its supporters to be the \"defenders\" of Lebanon. Though U.S. President Barack Obama didn't mention the Lebanese general election in his address on Thursday, he did call for religious tolerance in the Muslim world, noting sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites and the struggles faced by religious minorities. \"The richness of religious diversity must be upheld -- whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt,\" he said, referring to Christian groups in those countries. \"And if we are being honest, fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.\" In Lebanon's unique power-sharing government, the presidency is reserved for Maronite Christians, the speaker of parliament is always a Shia Muslim, and the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim. The law was created to balance power among Lebanon's three main religious groups. Analysts say the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" may win a parliamentary majority with the support of Christian opposition leader Gen. Michel Aoun -- the only prominent Christian politician to back the bloc. \"They keep trying to scare the Christian voters with their stories about Hezbollah's weapons, so to all of those who complain about Hezbollah, can they tell us how they will disarm the party,\" Aoun told supporters Friday. \"Hezbollah's weapons will no longer be a problem when the causes behind its existence disappear, including the borders' issues.\" A close look at Lebanon's political landscape reveals that the country's Christian voters are split on how they will cast their ballots. Some Christian voters want their representatives to step out of the shadows of Hezbollah and Saad Hariri, who leads the Sunni-dominated \"March 14 coalition.\" Christian voters are divided between supporting Aoun and other Christian leaders who want Hezbollah to disarm. \"In these elections, Christians look more divided than ever while others seem more unified than ever,\" said Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. For the Obama administration, the elections could be indicative of the president's odds of pushing stability in the region. Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jimmy Carter said the United States should work with whichever coalition wins. Carter was in Beirut as part of more than 200 international observers monitoring the election. He also oversaw balloting in Gaza during the elections in the Palestinian territory in January 2006. The Palestinian militant group Hamas won that race \"fairly and squarely\" by a huge margin, Carter said. The United States and Israel later refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Hamas win. \"And it's resulted in a split in the Palestinians and a very difficult situation there,\" Carter added. \"I think they (the United States) learned a hard lesson that they should accept the results of an election.\" Two senior Obama administration officials -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden -- have visited Lebanon in recent months, signaling concerns with a possible Hezbollah victory. During his trip to Beirut two weeks ago, Biden warned the country that while the United States supports Lebanon's democratic process, it will reconsider its assistance to the country if its next government strays from certain \"fundamental principles.\" Biden's visit followed Clinton's April trip to Beirut in which she called for an \"open and free\" election without outside interference -- a veiled reference to Iran and Syria. Such rhetoric has been dismissed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as \"meddling.\" The Hezbollah leader has been increasingly vocal in the lead-up to the election, blasting the current government as powerless. However, part of the reason Lebanon's government is crippled is that it made concessions to Hezbollah -- including giving them veto power -- in order to end a political stalemate that boiled over into violence of historic proportions last year. While some analysts are concerned Hezbollah could gain more control over Lebanon's government after Sunday's vote, a key Lebanese politician, Dori Chamoun, warned that assessment may be misleading. Chamoun, who opposes the March 8 alliance, said talk of Hezbollah's possible victory may be based on \"rumors\" and propaganda being spread by the Shiite militia and their political allies. \"They (Hezbollah) think they can scare many but no one is scared,\" Chamoun told CNN. \"They can spread all kinds of rumors on their four TV stations saying that they will win this upcoming elections.\" Chamoun, whose father, Camille Chamoun, was Lebanon's president in the 1950s, is running for a seat in parliament. Even if a Hezbollah-dominated government does move in, it could have trouble working with Christian and Sunni Muslim politicians who -- under Lebanese law -- must participate in the government. It would also be difficult to find a Sunni political figure willing to serve as prime minister in a Hezbollah-led government since the majority of Lebanon's prominent Sunni politicians are aligned with Hariri's March 14 coalition, which has declared it will not participate in any government if Hezbollah wins. Lebanon's political landscape could be shifting after a similar shift in neighboring Israel. Voters in the Jewish state overwhelmingly supported conservative parties over more moderate groups, bringing into power Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. Netanyahu is viewed in the Arab world as more hawkish than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who ordered the war against Hezbollah in 2006. A Hezbollah victory in Lebanon could further inflame tensions with Israel, particularly with an estimated 30,000 rockets pointed at Israel from southern Lebanon -- all under the control of Hezbollah. CNN's Cal Perry, Octavia Nasr and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Analysts say the race will be tight .\nSome say the Hezbollah-dominated alliance may win a parliamentary majority .\nTurnout is expected to be high among the country's 3 million registered voters .\nAbout 50,000 troops deploy to the streets ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One can only imagine the sights this hat has seen. Perched atop a man who towered over his peers at 6 foot 4 inches, this hat must have had quite a view. \"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life\" will be on display through January 2011. It may have been there when a divided nation -- a devastating Civil War on the horizon -- elected a politician from Illinois as president. It could have watched as this president, so desperate to preserve the Union, carefully drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, thus changing the course of American history. And we know for sure that this hat was witness to a tragic April night when the same president was fatally shot while enjoying a play. The iconic top hat, part of a collection of items associated with Abraham Lincoln, is now on display at the National Museum of American History. Nearly three years in the making, \"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life\" is part of the Smithsonian Institution's bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth and a rare glimpse into the life of one of our nation's greatest presidents. Nearly two centuries later, still adorned with a black band of mourning for a son who died too early, Lincoln's hat is worn-down, yet strangely magnificent. Maybe it is the hat's history that gives it such a majestic quality. Or perhaps it is simply that a top hat always commands a certain reverence -- an attribute that may reveal a great deal about the vanity of its owner. \"Why would somebody who is 6 foot 4 inches decide to wear a tall hat?\" asks Harry Rubenstein, curator of the exhibit. \"He clearly has this desire to stand out in the crowd, to make his place in it.\" Rubenstein hopes this is the type of intimate detail about our 16th president's life that people will take away from the ongoing Lincoln exhibit. \"This is the first time we've brought together all of the museum's best Lincoln objects to tell the story of Lincoln's life,\" Rubenstein says. \"And I think it's a different kind of story that emerges -- one that's more intimate and more personal and one that brings this story to life in very tangible ways.\" Watch descriptions of items in the Lincoln exhibit \u00bb . The Smithsonian Institution started its Lincoln collection more than 140 years ago, Rubenstein says. The exhibit, which opened in January, houses more than 60 items from Abraham Lincoln's life, spanning his humble beginnings, his political career, his life in the White House, and even relics recovered in the wake of his assassination. Rubenstein says the collection includes \"little personal objects of things he touched and used at pivotal moments in his life,\" like his office suit, his gold pocket watch -- and a coffee cup he left on a windowsill the night of his assassination. The exhibit is also home to more significant objects, such as the inkstand Lincoln used to draft the Emancipation Proclamation, and a patent model of a device he invented for lifting boats over sand bars. See photos from the exhibit \u00bb . Also on display is memorabilia from the 1860 presidential election campaign -- such as a replica poster portraying a young and masculine Lincoln splitting rail -- that reveal a candidate not impervious to the somewhat superficial aspects of the American political system. Rubenstein says that although Lincoln scoffed at his party's attempts to brand him as \"Old Abe the Rail Splitter,\" he understood the importance of appealing to the masses and creating an image to \"link him and his ideals in an iconic kind of way.\" Perhaps no one is more aware of the power of Lincoln's iconic image than President Barack Obama, who frequently cited his Illinois predecessor as a source of inspiration for his own presidency. While Rubenstein warns against drawing too much of a comparison between presidents -- the two Illinoisans have been linked by their reformist platforms, their penchant for eloquent speeches, and even for their physical likenesses -- he acknowledges the significance of the symbolic timing: As the first African-American becomes president, the nation celebrates the 200th birthday of the man who ended slavery. \"We have a president from Illinois -- the land of Lincoln -- who has found inspiration in the Lincoln story. ... It's clearly an historic moment,\" Rubenstein says. Nonetheless, as the nation celebrates Obama's momentous election, \"An Extraordinary Life\" is a reminder of the relevance of Lincoln's legacy today and commemorates the incredible life that he led. \"It is amazing ...here is this individual from a family in the middle of the woods in Kentucky ... [struggling] to educate himself,\" Rubenstein says. \"To then take on this incredible responsibility, [and] beyond that, his ability to articulate those ideas to inspire not only his generation, but for us today ... it's an extraordinary odyssey that he took.\" Visit \"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life\" at the National Museum of American History on the National Mall, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., in Washington, D.C. The exhibit runs through January 2011. For more information, or to view the online exhibit, visit the museum's Web site.","highlights":"National Museum of American History exhibit honors Abraham Lincoln .\nExhibit is part of Smithsonian Institution's bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birth .\nShow brings together \"all of the museum's best Lincoln objects,\" curator says .\nAmong objects on display are Lincoln's hat, suit, coffee cup, pocket watch ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- George Harrison's closest friends and family gathered in Hollywood on Tuesday to dedicate the late Beatle's star on the Walk of Fame. From left, musicians Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Paul McCartney join Harrison's relatives for dedication of his star. \"There's someone here from every important stage of George's life and career,\" Harrison's widow, Olivia, said. Harrison, who was 58 when he died of cancer in 2001, becomes the second Beatle with a Hollywood star. John Lennon was the first. The new star is next to the iconic Hollywood headquarters of Capitol Records, the distributor of much of Harrison's music for the past five decades. Tuesday's ceremony coincided with the Capitol\/EMI announcement that it will release Harrison's first solo greatest hits collection -- \"Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison\" -- on June 16. Actor Tom Hanks said the world changed for him in January 1964 when he heard his first Beatles song. \"That's when we escaped the doldrums and moved on to a brighter, better, more joyful future,\" Hanks said. Superstar musicians Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne attended the star's dedication, but they did not address the crowd. Scores of Harrison fans showed up for the event, with some traveling from as far as Liverpool, England. \"We all have deep feelings for George, because he was such a deep-feeling person,\" Olivia Harrison said. \"He was a beautiful, mystical man, living in a material world,\" she said. \"He was funny as the day is long and just as perplexing.\" His son, Dhani, 30, joked about his father's star. \"It's good, it's lovely and it's nice and shiny and I'm glad it's not outside of Frederick's of Hollywood,\" he said. Harrison was just 15 when schoolmate Paul McCartney asked him to join his and John Lennon's band, the Quarrymen. The band evolved into the Beatles and the rest is history. Harrison played lead guitar and sang for the Beatles. Songs penned by Harrison included \"Taxman,\" \"While My Guitar Gently Weeps,\" \"Something\" and \"Here Comes the Sun.\" Harrison was a pioneer of what has since become a tradition of rock stars supporting charitable causes with their music. In 1971, he helped organize the star-studded \"Concert for Bangladesh\" at New York's Madison Square Garden. In addition to his post-Beatles solo career, Harrison played with several groups -- most notably the Traveling Wilburys, alongside Petty, Lynne, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Harrison's star next to Hollywood headquarters of Capitol Records .\nHarrison, who died of cancer in 2001, is second Beatle with star after John Lennon .\nSome fans travel from as far as Liverpool, England for dedication of Harrison's star .\nHarrison penned many Beatles songs before launching successful solo career ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British soldier Phil Packer was told a year ago that he would never walk again, but on Saturday he finished the London Marathon. Londoners applaud Maj. Phil Packer, who was told he'd never walk again. He completed the race 13 days after it started, walking on crutches for two miles a day -- the most his doctor would allow -- in order to raise money for charity. Flanked by cheering soldiers and supporters, an obviously emotional Packer had defied medical opinion after his lower spine was badly injured in the aftermath of a rocket attack on his base in Basra, Iraq, in February 2008. The attack sent a vehicle rolling down a sand bank, striking Packer \"head on\" and dragging him under it. The 36-year-old was left with no feeling or motor control in his legs, and no bladder or bowel control. Watch more on soldier's battle \u00bb . Packer was in hospital for more than four months and it was then he decided to complete three challenges to help raise \u00a31 million ($1.5 million) for Help for Heroes, a British charity supporting wounded veterans. In February he rowed the English Channel, and next month he plans to climb El Capitan -- one of America's iconic mountaineering sites -- a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in California. Packer, who was met at the marathon finish line by British Olympian Steve Redgrave, said that he was \u00a3370,000 ($558,000) short of his goal but he was hoping for more donations. Dressed in a white charity T-shirt and desert fatigues, he was emotional. \"It's looking after our injured servicemen,\" he said. \"There's a lot of people that can't do this, so this is for them.\" Earlier this week he told CNN that he \"wanted to be able to move on in life.\" \"I wanted to do something for other personnel who had been wounded. \"I don't want to be helped. I want to help other people. Not that I'm not grateful, but... you know... I really want to be able to help people.\" He attributed being back on his feet to \"fantastic medical support\" from Britain's Ministry of Defense and National Health Service. \"So many improvements are being made\" in medicine, he said. \"It's an evolving process.\" Watch more on Phil Packer \u00bb . However, he did not know whether he would be able to walk without crutches. \"I gotta see how it goes. Take every improvement as it comes.\" Packer is far from alone; the six-year war in Iraq has disabled thousands of people. Britain's Ministry of Defense did not respond to a CNN question about how many service members had been permanently disabled in the war. In the United States, the Congressional Research Service reported in March that 31,131 troops had been wounded in Iraq. That figure is for battlefield injuries; many more veterans were later diagnosed with some sort of traumatic brain injury, but it is difficult to determine an exact number because of how the data is kept. It's not clear how many of the injuries are permanent because the Department of Veterans' Affairs does not classify some disabilities that way until 10 years after the injury, said Ryan Gallucci of AmVets, a veterans' service organization. Statistics for Iraqis are even harder to come by. Estimates of the number of wounded range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Iraq's Ministry of Heath says one in four wounded Iraqis have lost at least one limb. Britain's Prince Charles is among those who have expressed support for Packer. \"You are, if I may say so, a credit to the Royal Military Police and to the British Army as a whole,\" the heir to the British throne wrote in a letter posted on Packer's Web site, http:\/\/www.philpacker.com\/. Packer is still on active duty and intends to remain so. \"I've still got a career in the armed forces. I'm going to go back to it.\" He has 16 years of service under his belt, including time as an enlisted man before he went to officer training school and is, he noted with a rueful laugh, 20 years from retirement. He's been asked to be an ambassador for Prince Charles' charity, the Prince's Trust, which focuses on helping young people, in addition to his life in what he calls \"the disability community.\" After his two-week effort, Packer was asked whether he would be relaxing in a warm bath. No, he said, \"I'm going to have a drink.\" And with that, the army major lifted a shot glass and toasted his supporters. CNN's Richard Greene contributed to this report.","highlights":"Phil Packer, 36, was wounded in the aftermath of a rocket attack in Iraq .\nHe walked on crutches for two miles a day to finish the London Marathon .\nHe finished the marathon Saturday, 13 days after everyone else ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man accused of killing eight people in a shooting spree at a North Carolina nursing home is the husband of a woman who worked there, police said Monday. Robert Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the nursing home shootings. The two may have been separated, said Carthage, North Carolina, Police Chief Chris McKenzie. He did not say if the wife was in the building at the time. The alleged gunman, Robert Stewart, was carrying several weapons, authorities said. Seven patients and a nurse were killed, and three people were wounded, including a visitor and a police officer. All the wounded are expected to survive, McKenzie said. Officer Justin Garner was shot in the leg, McKenzie said. \"As I understand, there were three pellets in his shin, leg and foot,\" he said. Garner entered the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center alone with no backup and brought the shooting spree to an end with a single shot, hitting Stewart in the \"chest, upper torso area,\" McKenzie said. \"If that's not heroism, I don't know what is,\" he said. Garner is \"in very good spirits, resting at home,\" he added. McKenzie said he did not know the latest on Stewart's condition. The alleged gunman's motive remained a mystery. Stewart has not made a public statement nor has an attorney on his behalf. His wife has not issued a statement either. Meanwhile, his ex-wife, Sue Griffin, told CNN affiliate WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, \"He did have some violent tendencies from time to time.\" She added that when she heard the news of Sunday's shooting, \"I couldn't believe it -- then I stopped, thought about it and thought, 'It is possible. It's possible.' \" At a news conference Monday, McKenzie described the shooting spree as \"unimaginable\" and \"horrific.\" \"Everything that you can possibly imagine that is bad in the world,\" he said. \"This doesn't happen, but it did.\" He described the small town as \"strong, faith-based -- and that faith will get this community through this.\" The tragedy draws attention to what McKenzie called the toughest part of training police officers. Officers are told not to wait for backup when there are many lives on the line, he said. \"That's the hardest thing -- to try to convince them you can't wait, you have to go.\" If Garner had waited for backup, \"there would have been a lot more people [killed],\" McKenzie said. The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said. A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham that Stewart was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and other weapons. Jerry Avant Sr. told WRAL that his son, Jerry Avant, a 39-year-old registered nurse, was the employee who was killed in the shooting. He said a doctor told him that his son had been shot more than two dozen times. The elder Avant said the doctor told him his son \"undoubtedly saved a lot of lives.\" Watch dad praise his son's bravery \u00bb . Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a police officer, and other charges are pending, Krueger said. Carthage is about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh. See map showing Carthage and Raleigh \u00bb .","highlights":"NEW: Alleged gunman may have been separated from wife .\nNEW: Lone police officer took down shooter, chief says .\nNEW: Police say they don't have motive in slayings .\nEight people shot and killed Sunday at North Carolina nursing home ."} -{"article":"ONDO, Nigeria (CNN) -- In the dark of the early morning, the assembled drug agents murmur a short prayer before setting out on an early morning drugs raid. A agent torches marijuana plants found in the Nigerian forests but there could be hundreds more farms. After a few short orders, we set off into the deep undergrowth of southern Nigeria's forests on a tip-off that somewhere ahead are hidden farms illegally growing cannabis. \"It's dangerous because some of them have machetes and in the deeper forest they have pump action shotguns that they use,\" explained Gaura Shedow, Nigeria's narcotics commander for Ondo state. Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, or NDLEA, are battling to stop drugs illegally transited through the country, from Latin America and Asia into Europe and the U.S., spilling over into the streets of Nigeria. As we approach the farm, orders go for out for silence and torches out. The agents spill into an opening in the dense forest, and in the red-glow of the rising sun we can make out the unmistakable leaf of the marijuana plant. NDLEA suspects there may be hundreds of farms hidden in the forest - estimating the crop they've found this morning to be about $6,000. Despite NDLEA's efforts the farmers are nowhere to be seen, but Commander Gaura remains practical. \"The people that stay in these farms are not the big people. The big men stay in the cities -- they don't even come to the farmlands.\" Nigeria is on the frontline in the global war on drugs -- an international gateway for cocaine from Latin America and heroin from Asia to abusers in Europe and the United States. It's not known exactly how much is transited through Nigeria but NDLEA says last year they seized over 300 tons of narcotics. Focusing primarily on the main transit points -- roads, ports and airports - NDLEA claim to have convicted over 1,800 traffickers. Most of them are Nigerian. \"We do have a big expatriate community of Nigerians in Europe and United States,\" explains Dagmar Thomas at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Nigeria. \"And there is always the danger that these communities are tapped into by organized crime cartels.\" We spoke to one man arrested for trying to trafficking cocaine to Europe. A young graduate, he explained how after losing his job in Spain he was tempted by the offer of $5,000 to transport cocaine packets in his stomach. \"When you are swallowing - taking in this thing into your body it's just as if you are signing your death warrant ... but this is what many youths do today just to make a living.\" And with low-ranking NDLEA officers paid on average $200 a month corruption within the agency is a key concern. \"Yes, certainly there was a lot -- a lot, I think -- of corruption in the agency,\" explained Ahmadu Giade, the agency's chairman. \"But so long as I continue as chairman of the agency, so long I will continue to dismiss anybody who's involved in corruption -- I will never spare him.\" But neither do the drugs. Living under a bridge in Nigeria's over-crowded metropolis, Lagos, Mercy Jon sleeps behind a public toilet with five other people. She prostitutes herself to pay for her cocaine habit. \"Cocaine has destroyed my life - if it was not for the cocaine I'm taking, I would not be in such a place because I'm a learned somebody. My parents spent a lot to make sure I go to school, but because of cocaine I've ruined everything.\" Mercy Jon is being helped by one of only a handful of drug rehabilitation centers in Lagos -- Freedom Foundation. But struggling to find funding to cope with the number of addicts, their founder Tony Rapu is seeing a disturbing trend. \"I actually think its increasing -- in the past few years we've seen more cases of heroin and cocaine abuse and in the area of marijuana it's like its getting even more common.\" Watching his officers systematically set about cutting and burning the seized cannabis crop Commander Gaura gestures to the flames. \"We prefer to get to the grass roots and cut it down before it gets to the streets.\" But with the farmers and drug barons still in hiding Nigeria's drug war is far from over.","highlights":"Nigerian drug agents patrol southern forests hunting for hidden drug farms .\nNigeria is hub for trafficking and fears problem is spilling into its streets .\nCourier paid $5,000 to transport cocaine in stomach; drug agent paid $200 a month .\nEducated addict now living under bridge says her life was destroyed by cocaine ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tornado pummeled Pensacola, Florida, Thursday, severely damaging a church with an attached day care center, destroying homes and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power, the mayor said. Christy Fayard took this photo of an overturned car in the parking lot of a store Thursday in Pensacola, Florida. \"We had about 15 or 20 minutes notice from the weather service that Doppler radar indicated that there was, in fact, a rotation in this one severe thunderstorm,\" Mayor John Fogg said. \"We aren't used to tornadoes in this area.\" The day care center next to the Greater Little Rock Baptist Church \"took a direct hit,\" but the children already had been moved to a safer location, said Glenn Austin, spokesman for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Video showed frantic, tearful parents rushing into the building to get their children. Christie Fayard said she and her co-workers saw the tornado from their building about two miles away. \"We took cover. We just went to a break room and let it pass,\" said Fayard, who is the sister of CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera. After the storm passed, Fayard left work and saw a vehicle overturned in a Target store parking lot. \"We had ample warning,\" Fayard said. \"I think the local media did a great job [warning people].\" Another Pensacola resident who saw the twister pass said it made a frightening noise. \"It sounded creepy, like a bunch of cars were driving over my house,\" Leeann Franzonne told The Associated Press. The tornado was spotted about 9 a.m. and dissipated about 40 minutes later, Austin said. It moved roughly from southwest to northeast, with the biggest apparent damage in the southwest, where older suburbs are located. The twister followed a skipping pattern, sporadically receding into the clouds and then touching down again. Watch where the storm ripped through Pensacola \u00bb . It battered many buildings downtown, blew the roofs off sections of Cordova Mall northeast of downtown, and damaged Pensacola Junior College, where classes were canceled for the rest of the day. See more photos of the violent storm \u00bb . Four houses were destroyed and more than 80 were damaged, according to Escambia County officials. Several people were taken to hospitals in the Pensacola area, with what seemed to be minor injuries, Austin said. Four people were treated for minor injuries at Baptist Hospital, and released, said spokeswoman Candy McGuyre. \"Here at the sheriff's office, we were evacuated down to the basement at one point,\" Austin said. Officials have a system in place to deal with hurricanes, but not tornadoes, Fogg said. Still, shelters were quickly set up Thursday for the homeless, he said. At least 6,800 homes and businesses were without power, according to Gulf Power spokesman John Hutchinson, who advised that it may take some time to restore electricity because of the continuing storms. More stormy weather may be on its way. Florida's emergency management officials issued a statement warning residents and visitors in north Florida that storms and isolated tornadoes were expected during the evening and overnight through Friday. Earlier Thursday, two people died in their mobile home when high winds from a possible tornado hit northeastern Missouri, CNN affiliate KMBC reported. Other tornadoes struck the southwestern part of the state but did not cause much damage, KMBC added. Wednesday night, two tents were blown down at Tulsa, Oklahoma's, Oktoberfest, sending 21 people to hospitals, Tina Wells, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Emergency Medical Services Authority, told The Associated Press. Oktoberfest organizer Michael Sanders said he and about 2,000 other people went into a beer garden tent as a light rain started to fall on the festival. \"Soon as I got in there, within seconds, without warning, there was this huge gust of wind ... and the tent started collapsing,\" Sanders said. The thunderstorms damaged about 25 mobile homes and travel trailers in a mobile home park near Oologah, northeast of Tulsa, the Oologah-Talala Emergency Medical Services District said. None of the five injuries reported was believed to be life threatening, officials said. Trees and power lines were down throughout the area. Four victims had been in one mobile home that was destroyed, AP reported. Wind gusts in Kingfisher County reached 86 mph, Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis told the AP. A tornado damaged six homes in a rural area near Mount Vernon, Missouri, Lawrence County Sheriff's Lt. Brad Delay said. Delay said he followed the tornado in his patrol car. About 4 inches of rain brought flash flooding and high stream levels in Kansas City, Missouri, CNN affiliate KMBC reported. A teenage boy was swept away by water rushing through a culvert, but he managed to pull himself to safety before rescuers arrived, KMBC reported. Flooding from the same storm system is threatening the autumn harvest in Iowa, where high water also ruined farmers' first plantings in the spring, CNN affiliate KETV in Omaha, Nebraska, reported. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least four people hurt in Pensacola, Florida .\nTornado hits day care, but children OK, sheriff's spokesman says .\nStorm skips over high school, hits mall, official says .\nTornado kills couple in Missouri, CNN affiliate says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stonehenge, an enigma to visitors and scientists alike for so many years, became less of a mystery after a discovery announced to the world this week. A stone circle discovered near Stonehenge may suggest the prehistoric monument was part of a funeral route. Archaeologists have unearthed a new stone circle near Stonehenge that lends credence to the theory that the famous prehistoric monument in Britain was part of a funeral complex. University of Bristol archaeologist Joshua Pollard described the new find as \"incredible\" because it establishes Stonehenge as part of a larger ceremonial complex linked to the nearby River Avon. \"No one could have predicted there was another stone circle so close by,\" said Pollard, co-director of the excavation project that began in 2004. This, he said, changes the perception of the popular tourist destination 90 miles west of London. The new find, dubbed \"Bluestonehenge\" after the color of the 25 Welsh stones of which it was once composed, sits along the Avon a mile away from its famous sister circle, Pollard said. Neolithic peoples would have come down river by boat and literally stepped off into Bluestonehenge, Pollard said. They may have congregated at certain times of the year, including the winter solstice, and carried remains of the dead from Bluestonehenge down an almost two-mile funeral processional route to a cemetery at Stonehenge to bury them. \"It could be that Bluestonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge,\" said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield who co-directed the project with Pollard. \"Not many people know that Stonehenge was Britain's largest burial ground at that time,\" he said. \"Maybe the blue stone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself.\" Proof of life artifacts -- pottery, animal bones, food residues and flint tools used in the Stone Age -- are decidedly absent at Stonehenge but were found upstream in a village discovered by the excavation team in 2005, leading researchers to believe that Stonehenge was indeed a burial ground. But people have debated the purpose of Stonehenge for decades. Known for its orientation in relation to the rising and setting sun, the circle of stones represented a prehistoric temple to some. Others argued it was an astronomical observatory. Or that it was a marker of time. But Pollard is sticking to his theory. He said others have not based their suppositions on archaeological finds. Archaeologists began the latest excavation with the hope of tracking the course of the avenue that led to Stonehenge. They had no idea they would stumble upon a second circle that would help uncover the mystery of Stonehenge. The stones at Bluestonehenge were removed thousands of years ago, Pollard said, but the sizes of the remaining pits, about 33 feet in diameter, point to giant blue stones from the Preseli Mountains of Wales, about 150 miles away. Pollard said that Neolithic people dragged the pillarlike blue stones along the processional route to Stonehenge to incorporate them in a major rebuilding that took place around 2500 B.C. Archaeologists know that after 2500, Stonehenge consisted of about 60 Welsh stones and 83 local sarsen stones. Some of the blue stones that once stood on the river's edge probably now stand within the center of Stonehenge, Pollard said. Scientists plan to use radiocarbon dating techniques to better understand the history of the entire site. Stonehenge remains as striking as ever. But with each new find, the enigma fades just a little.","highlights":"Discovery of lost stone circle sheds new light on Stonehenge's purpose .\nResearchers say \"Bluestonehenge\" was starting point of funeral processional route .\nBluestonehenge is named after color of Welsh stones from which it was formed .\nSome have viewed Stonehenge as temple, astronomical observatory ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The woman whose death has come to symbolize Iranian resistance to the government's official election results did not die the way the opposition claims, government-backed Press TV said Sunday. A boy lights a candle beside a photo of Neda during a protest against Iranian elections in Frankfurt, Germany. Two people told Press TV there were no security forces in the area when Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was killed on June 20. Neda's death was captured on amateur video -- most likely by a cell phone -- and posted online. Within hours, she had become the iconic victim of the Iranian government crackdown. Eyewitnesses say Neda was shot by pro-government Basij militiamen perched on a rooftop. But Press TV said the type of bullet that killed her is not used by Iranian security forces. A man who told the state-funded network he had helped take her to a hospital said, \"There were no security forces or any member of the Basij\" government-backed paramilitary present when she was killed. Press TV did not name the man, who spoke Farsi and was subtitled in English on the broadcast. CNN has not identified him and cannot confirm his account. Watch more about Neda's death \u00bb . \"I didn't see who shot who,\" he said. \"The whole scene looked suspicious to me.\" A second man, whom Press TV identified as Neda's music teacher who was with her when she died, told the station there was \"no security forces in this street\" when she was shot. Press TV did not name the man, who had a gray mustache and ponytail. He spoke Farsi and was subtitled in English as he walked and pointed at what Press TV said was the scene of the shooting. She was with a family friend who is a music teacher when she was killed. He appears to be the man who spoke to the Iranian broadcaster. \"There was no sign of a protest,\" he said. \"We crossed the street to the other side to get a cab... When we reached this spot, a gunshot was heard. There was no shooting here... There were no security forces in this street. There were around 20, 30 people in this street. One shot was heard and that bullet hit Neda.\" \"The bullet was apparently fired from a small caliber pistol that's not used by Iranian security forces,\" the Press TV anchor said. Iran has strict gun-control laws that bar private citizens from carrying firearms. U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he had seen the video of Neda's death and called it \"heartbreaking. \"And I think anyone who sees it knows there's something fundamentally unjust about it,\" he said. The shaky video of her death shows her walking with a man, a teacher of music and philosophy, near an anti-government demonstration. After being stuck in traffic for more than an hour inside a Peugeot 206 -- a subcompact with a poorly working air conditioner -- Neda and the friend decided to get out of the car for some fresh air, a friend of Neda's told CNN after her death. The two were near where protesters were chanting in opposition to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose calls for an end to anti-government demonstrations have sparked defiance across the nation. Neda, wearing a baseball cap over a black scarf, a black shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes, does not appear to be chanting and seems to be observing the demonstration. Suddenly, Neda is on the ground -- felled by a single gunshot wound to the chest. Several men kneel at her side and place pressure on her chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. \"She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!\" shouts one man. By now, Neda's eyes have rolled to her right; her body is limp. Blood streams from her mouth, then from her nose. For a second, her face is hidden from view as the camera goes behind one of the men. When Neda's face comes back into view, it is covered with blood. Iran's ambassador to Mexico -- one of few Iranian officials who has spoken to CNN since the disputed June 12 presidential election -- suggested American intelligence services could be responsible for her death. \"This death of Neda is very suspicious,\" Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri said. \"My question is, how is it that this Miss Neda is shot from behind, got shot in front of several cameras, and is shot in an area where no significant demonstration was behind held? \"Well, if the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the government elements, then choosing women is an appropriate choice, because the death of a woman draws more sympathy,\" Ghadiri said. CIA spokesman George Little responded, \"Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd and offensive.\"","highlights":"Press TV: No security forces in area when Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was killed .\nHer death was captured on amateur video and posted online June 20 .\nEyewitnesses say Neda was shot by pro-government Basij militiamen .\nPress TV say type of bullet that killed her not used by Iranian security forces ."} -{"article":"CISHAN, Taiwan (CNN) -- Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday he accepts responsibility for the government's slow response after Typhoon Morakot slammed into the island killing at more than 120 people and unleashing floods, mudslides and misery. Mourners kneel and pray to the dead as they face the devastated valley of Shiao Lin. Ma, who has faced heavy criticism from victims of the disaster, ruled out resignation, insisting his government did its best in the face of difficulties, however he pledged an investigation into any irregularities. \"Certainly, I will take full responsibility whatever the blame is because, after all, I am the president of this country,\" Ma told CNN, saying heavy rains grounded rescue helicopters in the first few days after the storm hit, delaying relief. \"Once the weather was good -- that is the 14th of August -- we were able to evacuate 2,518 people. It's a record,\" he said. Hundreds of people still await rescue in remote areas of Taiwan, where torrential downpours, dense fog, rugged terrain and raging rivers have hampered relief efforts. Washed-out roads and collapsed bridges have made some rescue operations impossible . Touring disaster areas, Ma has been confronted by angry survivors, and even provoked a scuffle when he opened a weekend baseball game as protesters demanded he step down. Ma has offered apologies and promises to do better. \"We will find out not only to correct the mistakes but (also) to punish the people responsible,\" he said. Rescue efforts were ongoing Sunday with military helicopters bringing stranded villagers to their waiting relatives. Watch rescue efforts in Taiwan \u00bb . Others, waiting days in anguish for word on their loved ones, lashed out in anger. \"Local officials don't care,\" one man said. \"There are still people there and they don't do anything.\" On Saturday, weeping relatives of typhoon victims set up shrines near devastated villages to calm the spirits of the dead and honor the belief that their souls will return home after seven days. Watch mourners call home souls of the dead \u00bb . Morakot hit the island last weekend, dropping 2.6 meters (102 inches) of rain. Before it roared on to mainland China on Sunday, the storm killed at least 123 people in Taiwan. The death toll could climb to more than 300 after more villagers buried by mudslides and floodwaters are found, Taiwan officials have said. Southern and central Taiwan were hardest hit by the storm. Mudslides inundated some places in the south, including the village of Shiao Lin, where 160 homes were lost. Authorities believe hundreds of people could be trapped under five stories of mud in the village. International aid efforts were mobilizing on Sunday, however these were complicated by diplomatic pitfalls in the face of China's territorial claims over Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province awaiting reunification. The U.S. military has begun a \"modest\" humanitarian aid mission to Taiwan with the dispatch of a Marine Corps C-130 cargo plane carrying plastic tarpaulins for shelter, U.S. defense officials said. Also Sunday, the USS Denver was en route to the Taiwanese coast with additional humanitarian aid and water purification capabilities, the officials said. The Navy ship is expected to arrive Monday, but officials could not say when it will launch its heavy-lift helicopters to drop the aid. Sources in Washington have said in providing aid to Taiwan, the United States must be sensitive to its territorial relationship with China. CNN's John Vause in Cishan, Taiwan; Pauline Chiou in Shiao Lin, Taiwan; and Mike Mount in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taiwan's leader says he takes blame for slow typhoon response .\nMa Ying-jeou has refused to stand down over criticism .\nTyphoon killed 123 people in Taiwan and left many thousands homeless ."} -{"article":"LOGANVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- The crowd cheered as Morgan Lawless faced her first pitch of the fall baseball season. Morgan Lawless, who has cerebral palsy, plays baseball at Bay Creek Park near Atlanta, Georgia. The 14-year-old middle-school student clenched her teeth as she swung the bat into a single. Instead of running to first base, Lawless zoomed over in her motorized wheelchair. Lawless has cerebral palsy. She's among nearly 300 children who play in a special-needs baseball league at Bay Creek Park in the Atlanta, Georgia, suburb of Loganville. \"It's actually fun because we get to be kids and we can play like regular people,\" Lawless said. What's different about this ballpark is that the field is made of a rubberized material that allows for easier movement in wheelchairs. \"We started out on a dirt field,\" said league founder Cathy Smith. \"But power wheelchairs and dirt don't mix.\" Smith helped raise some of the half-million dollars in private and county funding needed to build the field in 2004. She said she gets goosebumps whenever she watches the young players come across home plate. \"The grin and smile on their faces just says it all.\" Coach Tom Estes joined the program eight years ago with his now-15-year-old son, Justin, who has cerebral palsy. Estes noted that some of the players, like his son, use a wheelchair, but others with autism, Down syndrome and multiple sclerosis are ambulatory. Health Minute: Watch more on special needs baseball \u00bb . During a game, the children are paired with young helpers from another local baseball league. No special skills are required to participate, Estes said. \"If we have to help them hit, help them run, help them catch, we are simply here to let them play baseball.\" The coaches have taken extra precautions to make sure no one gets hurt. The players wear batting helmets, and a coach feeds large, softball-sized rubber balls into a pitching machine to control the direction. There are no umpires, and no one really keeps score. \"We have a lot of tie ball games,\" Estes chuckled. The games are short, just two innings, but everyone gets to play. \"It's not about competition as much as it is about the ability to just do what other kids do,\" said Mike Lawless, Morgan's father. He said his daughter looks forward to the games all week. So does Estes' son. \"Until you get involved, you don't realize the closed life they live,\" Tom Estes said. Being part of the team gives the players a sense of independence and self control and gets them outside in the fresh air, he said. \"They're out here doing the same thing as the other kids. They really don't do that on a normal basis.\" The weekly games also give the kids something to brag about in school on Monday morning, Estes said. \"They hear everyone else talking about it...and my son can say, 'Yeah, I hit a home run yesterday, too. It was great.' \" Justin Estes seemed to take all the attention in stride. And what does he think is the best part about playing baseball? Pointing past his wheelchair to the smooth surface of the field, he said simply, \"No ruts.\"","highlights":"Special-needs baseball league near Atlanta has nearly 300 children .\nSome players use a wheelchair, but others are ambulatory .\nField is made of a rubberized material that allows wheelchairs to move more easily .\nThere are no umpires, and no one really keeps score ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The e-mail arrived from Uzbekistan on February 26. It was titled \"Bad News.\" Abdul Dadahanov had intended to study business, but changed his mind after 9\/11, his academic adviser said. \"Dear Mama Judy,\" a young woman named Aziza Dadahanov wrote in shaky English. \"Very very bad news!!! Abdul is given 8 years of prison. Today was the verdict. Now i feel myself very bad. And i can't write now. I am shocked.\" \"It was like being kicked in the stomach,\" recalled Judy Skartvedt, a retired flight attendant living in Easton, Connecticut. She knew Dadahanov's husband, Abdul Dadahanov, as an Uzbek exchange student who had wanted to help heal people after the 9\/11 attacks. She thought of him as an open-minded Muslim whom her family had hosted when he came on a scholarship to study at Fairfield University in 2001. \"We were totally shocked that someone like Abdul could be arrested for anything,\" Skartvedt said. \"We haven't stopped worrying about his safety.\" The 32-year-old faces eight years in a labor camp for participation in what the Uzbekistan government says is an extremist religious organization, according to Forum 18, a religious freedom watchdog organization . The group says that Uzbek security forces arrested Dadahanov and four other men -- Bakhrom Ibrahimov, Davron Kabilov, Rovshanbek Favoyev and Botyrbek Eshkuziyev -- last summer after the men had written for an Islamic journal called Irmoq. The National Security Service reportedly claimed the magazine was \"sponsored by a Turkish radical religious movement.\" Officials from the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington have refused to comment on the case. Forum 18 says Dadahanov and the four other Uzbek men were convicted of \"dissemination of information and materials containing ideas of religious extremism, separatism and fundamentalism, calls for pogroms or violent eviction of individuals aimed at creating panic among the population.\" Human rights organizations say the convictions appear to be part of a broader crackdown in the former Soviet republic, targeting members of \"Nurchilar,\" a moderate Muslim movement of Turkish origin, which follows the writing of a 19th-century Sufi Muslim theologian. \"Unfortunately this is not an unusual case,\" said Igor Vorontsov, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in St. Petersburg. \"The [Uzbek] government has persisted in its persecution of independent Muslims.\" Thousands of miles from the Republic of Uzbekistan, news of Dadahanov's jail sentence has stunned academics and Christian community leaders in Connecticut. They fondly describe a committed social activist and observant Muslim, who rode between work and classes on a secondhand bicycle and spent more than a year distributing food to soup kitchens in one of America's poorer cities. \"He had a naive trust in the goodness of human beings,\" said Patty Jenson, an administrator at the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. \"I am shocked. I know he is there [in prison] unjustly. What is happening is unjust.\" \"He was a man of his word, he was gentle and kind,\" said Charlene Chambers, the director of King's Pantry, a nonprofit organization that distributes food to homeless people in Bridgeport. \"Our common bond was feeding people who can't feed themselves and clothing those people who can't clothe themselves.\" Dadahanov's academic adviser, Katherine Kidd, said the young Uzbek originally intended to study business when he arrived at Fairfield University on a scholarship from the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation. That changed September 11, 2001. Kidd choked up as she recalled his visit to her office, hours after the terrorist attacks. \"He said, 'Dr. Kidd, I have to do something to tell people that this is not what Islam is about.' He said, 'I want to be part of things that are done here to bring healing to people after 9\/11.' \" Dadahanov began working closely with Kidd's husband, Pastor John Kidd, who was a Lutheran minister and the executive director of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. Pastor Kidd helped Dadahanov tour churches and work with synagogues, giving lectures on his interpretation of Islam. Dadahanov also appeared before audiences dressed in traditional Central Asian attire, in an effort to spread cultural awareness about Uzbekistan. Advisers say the young Uzbek was inspired by his interaction with church and community groups. Gradually, he shifted his academic focus from business to grassroots community service and education reform. \"He would regularly say 'Wow, how can I do this in Uzbekistan, and make my country and my community better and stronger?'\" Katherine Kidd explained. Dadahanov helped establish a small prayer room for Muslim students at Fairfield University. He also launched a book drive, shipping secondhand books to Uzbekistan to help teach English in his home country. And he was eventually hired at the Council of Churches, and tasked with distributing Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to 26 feeding programs across Bridgeport. \"He wanted to be involved in the frontline programs,\" John Kidd said. \"Ultimately, it's sad that all these things he came to see in terms of how you build a community, how you take responsibility for the life of a community, is at least in part what put him at odds with the authorities in Uzbekistan.\" When he returned to Uzbekistan in 2004 after two and a half years in Connecticut, Dadahanov set up an English-language school with friends. The school offered English lessons to young Uzbeks at an affordable price -- a remarkable achievement in a society in which the government controls almost all facets of the economy. There is little tolerance for independent grassroots activism in Uzbekistan. The country has had the same authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, since it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The State Department's recently published 2008 human rights report states \"torture remain systemic in [Uzbekistan's] law enforcement ... human rights activists and journalists who criticized the government continued to be subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest, politically motivated prosecution, forced psychiatric treatment and physical attack.\" Uzbek security forces frequently target religious activists. \"The government has almost a paranoia of any independent religious activity, particularly those related to Islam,\" said Sean Roberts, a Central Asia expert at George Washington University. \"The Uzbek government tries to control the religious sector very similar to the way the Soviets did. They have a state Muslim board that oversees what is proper Islam - anything that falls out of that scope is seen as threatening and seditious.\" The Uzbek government says it \"views the ensuring of human rights and freedoms of its citizens as its highest priority.\" A statement posted on the Web site of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington cited the passage of more then 120 laws and 60 international treaties aimed at improving the country's human rights record. The Uzbek government says it is making reforms of its judicial and penitentiary system, aimed at \"prosecuting and punishing for the use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.\" Dadahanov's former professors invited him to return on a scholarship to the United States after his arrest, and two families offered to house Dadahanov, his wife Aziza and young son Abdulrahman. Dr. Orin Grossman, Fairfield University's academic vice president, hoped the graduate school offer would allow Uzbek authorities to release Dadahanov. \"It obviously didn't work,\" he wrote in an e-mail to CNN. Accounts of appalling conditions in Uzbek prisons have worried Dadahanov's American friends, who remember how the slim Uzbek rode to barbecues on his bicycle, carrying a giant watermelon in a backpack as a gift. The hardest part has been trying to get information from Dadahanov's family in Tashkent. \"The government is tapping their phone and tracking their e-mail,\" Katherine Kidd said. \"We're pretty much sure neither of those is secure from the government.\"","highlights":"Abdul Dadahanov jailed in Uzbekistan, accused of extremist religious activities .\nAmerican family recalls how the man wanted to aid healing after 9\/11 .\nRights groups say Dadahanov is victim of crackdown on \"independent Muslims\"\nFriends in the U.S. fear for health of \"gentle, kind\" man in Uzbek prisons ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection was under way Thursday in the case of a man accused of sexually assaulting a toddler and capturing it on videotape years ago, a crime that triggered a nationwide manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007. Chester Arthur Stiles faces life imprisonment if convicted of videtaping a sexual assault on a child. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces 22 felony counts in connection with the videotape, including lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor and attempted sexual assault with a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Thursday is the third day of jury selection, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some 200 potential jurors were called, according to CNN affiliate KVBC. As of Thursday morning, only seven jurors had passed on to the next stage of selection, Sommermeyer said. Prosecutors hope to seat 15 jurors eventually, Sommermeyer told CNN, meaning they'll want a pool of about 35 to pick from in the final stage. Picking a jury in the case is challenging, according to KVBC, not only because of the media attention the case has drawn, but because of the crimes Stiles is accused of. A questionnaire given to potential jurors has one question addressing the videotape: \"As a juror, despite the graphic nature of the videotape, can you promise to remain fair and impartial and objectively evaluate all evidence for returning a verdict?\" \"One, you let them know what the case involves and they've heard it on the news, it's a little difficult to get over any preconceived notions that they had about the case,\" defense attorney Stacey Roundtree told KVBC. \"However, we do have faith in this community that they want to do the right thing,\" she said. \"Most of the jury trials I've had, the jurors go out of their way to make the right decision. They go out of their way to follow the judge's rules, and we're confident we can have that happen in this case.\" The tape was given to authorities in September 2007 by a man who said he had found it in the desert five months before. On it, police found images of the small girl being sexually assaulted. After attempting unsuccessfully to find out the girl's identity, authorities turned to the media for help and released a picture of the girl, and the case drew nationwide attention. She was found in October 2007. An attorney for the child's mother said she is 7 years old and safe and healthy. The rape occurred before her third birthday while she was in the care of a baby sitter her mother had hired, he said. The mother did not know the girl had been victimized. After the girl was found, authorities asked CNN and other news organizations to stop showing her picture. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was arrested in a traffic stop in October 2007. Police said at the time they pulled Stiles' car over because it had no license plate and became suspicious when the driver displayed an expired California license with a photo that did not match his appearance. \"He finally told us, 'Hey, I'm Chester Stiles,'\" said Henderson, Nevada, police Officer Mike Dye. \"'I'm the guy you're looking for.\" Stiles told police he was \"sick of running,\" Dye said. The mother of the girl shown on the tape, meanwhile, went on \"The Dr. Phil Show\" after Stiles' arrest, saying that while she was \"relieved,\" it would have been \"better if they found him dead.\" She said her daughter remembers nothing about the alleged assault. \"Nothing that I have seen in my career comes close to what this girl has gone through,\" Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff Tony DeMeo said during the manhunt for Stiles. The man who turned the tape over to authorities, Darrin Tuck, faced criminal charges because of the delay in turning it over, during which authorities alleged he showed it to others. A judge gave Tuck a one-year suspended sentence and three years' probation in April after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He initially had faced a felony count of possession of child pornography.","highlights":"Chester Arthur Stiles faces 22 felony counts in connection with sex tape .\nTape showed girl younger than 3 being sexually assaulted .\nThe tape surfaced years after the alleged assault .\nPotential jurors know about case, have strong feelings about it ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sonia Sotomayor strongly asserted her adherence to the law while dodging questions about her personal beliefs on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sonia Sotomayor answers questions from senators on Wednesday, the third day of her confirmation hearings. Asked repeatedly Wednesday by Republicans about her controversial statement that a \"wise Latina\" could reach a better decision than a white man, Sotomayor called it a poorly expressed but valid point about the value of differing perspectives in applying the law. Senators from both parties pressed her on her personal views on issues such as abortion, gun control and executive powers. But Sotomayor consistently answered she needed to know the specifics of a particular case, such as applicable state statutes and other facts. Sensing frustration over her responses, the federal appellate judge offered an explanation about how judges approach the law. \"What we do is different than the conversations citizens have about what they want the law to do,\" Sotomayor said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, who sought her views on the legality of some kinds of abortions and whether there was a fundamental right to possess firearms and self-defense. Judges look at the facts of a case and apply the law based on those facts, she said. \"It's not that we make a broad policy choice and say this is what we want,\" Sotomayor continued. Watch Face Off: Should Sotomayor be confirmed? \u00bb . Her performance rankled Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the former Republican committee chairman who changed parties last April. Specter repeatedly cut off Sotomayor's responses Wednesday, saying she was not answering his questions. Later, in praising Sotomayor's record as a judge, Specter said: \"I'm not commenting about your answers, but your record is exemplary.\" \"You'll be judged on your record more than your answers,\" he said. If approved by the committee and confirmed by the full Senate, the 55-year-old Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, the third female justice and the 111th person to sit on the nation's highest court. Watch Sotomayor being questioned \u00bb . Her dispassionate answers on a range of issues displayed a command of legal concepts that impressed even her harshest interrogators. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, appeared to rule out a filibuster attempt against the nomination by his minority party, telling Sotomayor that \"you will get that up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.\" Watch Cornyn quiz Sotomayor on abortion \u00bb . Democrats predicted she would be confirmed with support from members of both parties. Cornyn and other Republicans raised the \"wise Latina\" statement for a second straight day, asking whether it meant she had a gender, ethnic or racial bias. Sotomayor said the remark she made in several speeches was never intended to mean that one gender, ethnic or racial group was better than another. \"It is clear from the attention that my words have gotten and the manner in which it has been understood by some people that my words failed,\" Sotomayor said. \"They didn't work.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the Sotomayor hearings . However, she defended the point she was trying to make, and said other Supreme Court justices including Sandra Day O'Connor and Samuel Alito had expressed similar thoughts. \"The message that the entire speech attempted to deliver, however, remains the message that I think Justice O'Connor meant, the message that higher nominees, including Justice Alito, meant when he said that he considers his Italian ancestry when deciding discrimination cases,\" said Sotomayor. See how Sotomayor compares with justices on the court \u00bb . O'Connor, the first woman Supreme Court justice, had said she believed a wise female judge and a wise male judge could reach the same conclusion. \"I don't think Justice O'Connor meant that personal experiences compel results in any way,\" Sotomayor said. \"I think life experiences generally, whether it's that I'm a Latina or was a state prosecutor or have been a commercial litigator or been a trial judge and an appellate judge, that the mixture of all of those things, the amalgam of them help me to listen and understand.\" She repeated her statement from Tuesday that poor wording caused misunderstanding of what she meant to say, explaining that judges \"rely on the law to command the results in the case.\" \"So when one talks about life experiences, and even in the context of my speech, my message was different than I understand my words have been understood by some,\" Sotomayor continued. Cornyn pressed Sotomayor if she stood by her words from Tuesday's testimony that her \"wise Latina\" statement was a failed rhetorical flourish using \"words that don't make sense and that they're a bad idea?\" \"I stand by the words. It fell flat,\" Sotomayor responded. \"And I understand that some people have understood them in a way that I never intended. And I would hope that, in the text of the speech, that they would be understood.\" In one of Wednesday's few sharp exchanges, Sotomayor rejected Alabama Sen. Jeff Session's contention that she had pre-judged the issue of gun control. Learn more about Sotomayor's past rulings \u00bb . Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, asked whether she would recuse herself from gun control cases because she ruled in the past that the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment does not apply to state gun control laws. \"I have not made up my mind. I didn't say that I didn't believe it was fundamental,\" Sotomayor shot back. She explained that the word \"fundamental\" in legal terms refers to whether a federal statute applies to the states. The ruling cited by Sessions referred to a prior case that made the determination, Sotomayor said, so she was following the precedent. Sotomayor previously said she recognizes an individual right to bear arms as recently identified by the Supreme Court in the ruling District of Columbia v. Heller. Also Wednesday, Sotomayor told how an episode of the television show \"Perry Mason\" influenced her to become a prosecutor. She cited an episode in which Perry Mason, after winning yet another case, consoles beleaguered prosecutor Hamilton Burger by noting it must be hard to expend such effort only to have charges dismissed. \"No, my job as a prosecutor is to do justice, and justice is served when a guilty man is convicted and an innocent man is not,\" she quoted the prosecutor as saying. \"That TV character said something that motivated my choices in life,\" Sotomayor said.","highlights":"NEW: Sotomayor asserts adherence to law, dodges questions about personal views .\nGOP senator calls Sonia Sotomayor's answers \"muddled, confusing\"\nSupreme Court nominee says \"wise Latina\" remark didn't mean one group is better .\nSotomayor questioned by senators on third day of confirmation hearings ."} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain -- David Nalbandian battled back to stun world No. 1 Roger Federer with a 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory in the final of the Madrid Masters on Sunday. David Nalbandian celebrates after upsetting Roger Federer in the Madrid Masters final. The Argentine, ranked 25th in the world, repeated his 2005 upset win over the Swiss star in that year's season-ending Masters Cup -- also an indoor event. Defending champion Federer, playing in his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open six weeks ago, made 38 unforced errors. Nalbandian became only the third player -- and the second this year after Novak Djokovic in Montreal in August -- to beat the world's top-three players en route to winning a title. German legend Boris Becker was the first to perform the feat 13 years ago. Nalbandian ousted second-ranked Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and then Serbian Djokovic in Saturday's semis. The 25-year-old, who lost in the Madrid final in 2004, claimed his first triumph on the ATP Tour since May, 2006, on clay in Portugal. He spent a year without a coach, but has revived his career since teaming up with Hernan Gumy. \"I'm extremely contented to beat the world number one,\" Nalbandian said. \"Roger and I have a long history and I think that influenced the match. \"It was an extremely hard first set. But I tightened the teeth and I began to play more strongly. Things came out fine, I played incredible, and that of course that helps.\" Federer added: \"He served well, I was quite surprised with how well he served. \"He came back strong and played well in the end. \"He was a better player all in all. I was struggling after the first set to play aggressively, for some reason. He played tough and didn't miss any more. I couldn't play way I wanted to. It was a pity, he played a great tournament.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"David Nalbandian won Madrid Masters after beating top seed Roger Federer .\nThe Argentine triumphed 1-6 6-3 6-3 against the Swiss defending champion .\nHe became third man to beat world's three top players en route to a title ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Last August, then-Republican presidential nominee John McCain introduced to the nation his surprise pick for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a strong base of supporters, as well as a steady supply of vocal critics. At the time, little was known about the fresh-faced, first-term governor, but within days, Palin's face was on newspapers, magazines and tabloids. Since then, Palin has become a polarizing figure in the Republican Party. Her passionate supporters are countered with equally fervent critics. And even though it's been nearly a year since she ventured onto the national stage and more than eight months since the Republican ticket lost the election, as Palin prepares to leave office, the public's interest in her has yet to wane. Palin explains why she's stepping down . \"She's kind of a shooting star that caught fire and kept burning,\" said Lorenzo Benet, an assistant editor for People magazine and author of \"Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin.\" \"When she walks into a room, she definitely commands attention and she gets more than most. She's definitely a star,\" said Benet, who was the only national journalist to have spent much time with Palin in the weeks before she was announced as McCain's running mate. Palin, a mother of five, \"caught the imagination\" of the public because there is no one else like her, Benet said. \"Particularly for conservative America, there hasn't been a rallying figure of this type,\" he noted. In the days leading up to Palin's debut speech at the Republican National Convention last September, Palin revealed that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant. The announcement followed Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby was actually Bristol's. The instant fascination with Palin and her family was just a glimpse of what was to come. The public wanted to know everything it could about the Alaska governor, whose resume also included beauty queen, high school basketball star, TV sportcaster and mayor of the small Alaska town of Wasilla. Amid all the rumors and negative press, Palin showed herself to be a fierce attack dog and came out throwing punches in her speech at the RNC. The self-described \"hockey mom\" tore into then-candidate Barack Obama as two-faced, inexperienced and intoxicated by the sound of his own voice. Even her critics recognized the spirit she brought to the GOP. Palin continued to throw flames on the campaign trail, energizing her supporters and outraging her adversaries. \"She yelled fire in a crowded theater. She really did, in some of her speeches --'palling around' with terrorists and some of the other slurs she was hurling in the way of Obama and the Democrats,\" said Larry Persily, a former Palin staffer and Alaskan journalist. \"That turned off an equally big chunk of the American public that found it distasteful, destructive, divisive, mean and ignorant. Whereas others said, 'Way to go girl. You stick it to them,\" he said. But Palin hasn't always been such a divisive figure. Before entering the national scene, Palin, who knocked out incumbent Republican Frank Murkowski in the gubernatorial primary, was touted as one of the most popular governors in the country, with approval ratings nearing 90 percent. She was seen as a champion of ethics, determined to root out corruption and challenge the status quo. For those in Alaska, Palin's Reaganesque appeal was nothing new. She secured her role as a local hero back in 1982 when she led Wasilla High School's basketball team to a state championship. And in a small community like Wasilla, that was a big deal. Alaskans liked her \"combativeness and feistiness,\" Benet said, and resurrected her nickname of \"Barracuda\" during her successful 1996 campaign to be Wasilla's mayor. But when Palin's \"Barracuda\" side hit the national stage, it was met with mixed reactions. Evangelia Souris, the president of Optimum International Center for Image Management, says Palin's potential is the driving force behind the public's love-hate relationship with her. \"That's what people are drawn to, and that's what actually threatens others. She definitely has the power to shake up a lot of old-school institutions.\" said Souris, who has advised politicians. Furthermore, Souris said, \"I just don't think people were ready for somebody so attractive and so fashionable and so hip to actually be campaigning. She falls out of the norm,\" Souris added. But despite grumblings from some that they're sick of hearing about her, stories about her continue to get a lot of attention. Benet said People magazine follows two politicians: \"One is Obama, and one is Sarah Palin -- and then there's everybody else.\" From being dogged by ethics complaints, to her public fight with Levi Johnston (the father of her grandson and ex-fiance of her daughter), to her recent announcement that she's resigning this week as governor, Palin has maintained a steady presence in the public eye since stepping off the campaign trail. Michael Carey, a columnist with the Anchorage Daily News, says Palin stirs excitement -- and hostility -- because \"people want to see her even if they don't like her.\" He likens the public's interest with her to \"drinking on the sly.\" People say, \"I don't want to do this, I know I shouldn't, but I do it anyway,\" he said. Some people love Palin, Persily said, because they can relate to her. \"I think much of America said, 'Oh gee look at her, she's just like us. Kind of dumb on some things, kind of smart on others. Imperfect. And not at all embarrassed to show all of her imperfections.'\" But others saw her imperfections as inadequacies. \"She's simplistic. Some people love the simplistic approach to problems. Others shake their heads and say, 'My God, you don't get it.'\" Persily added. Opponents have been quick to question Palin's intellectual chops, pointing to her spotty college career. Palin attended five colleges, graduating from the University of Idaho with a communications degree in 1987. A series of botched national interviews didn't do much to disprove their point. But even Palin's critics admire her ability to connect with the people, Benet said. \"I don't think I've ever really met anyone like that, except maybe Bill Clinton, that will have that interpersonal eye contact with you and will remember your name and your kids' names, and make small talk with you and be really sincere about it,\" he said. Benet predicted that while Palin might take a short break to recoup once she hands off power on Sunday, \"she'll be back in the public eye.\" \"I do see her turning this to her advantage,\" he said, noting that she's made a similar move before. In 2004, Palin stepped down as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after less than a year on the job, amid controversy over ethics allegations against another committee member. She turned that move around and used it as a launchpad to run for governor, because she went after the corruption going on in Alaska at the time. \"For me, I think she's just catching her breath. She's just too young to retire,\" he added. \"She did say 10 years ago she wanted to be president some day. She hasn't backed off from that.\" In Carey's opinion, Palin's career as an elected official is over, but he doesn't expect Palin to be leaving the headlines anytime soon. \"She's gone from being our governor or a public figure in Alaska to being a national celebrity,\" he said. \"It's clear that her days of governor -- there are just a few of them left, but she's really only at the beginning of her career as a celebrity.\"","highlights":"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stepping down from office on Sunday .\nIn the year since her national debut, she's become a polarizing figure in the GOP .\nPeople are drawn to -- and threatened by -- her potential, image consultant says .\nPalin is beginning her career as a national celebrity, columnist Michael Carey says ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The chairman of India's UB Group, which includes Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, made the winning $1.8 million bid on a number of Mahatma Gandhi's personal items on auction. Mahatma Gandhi was known for his peaceful opposition to tyranny, which led to India's independence. Vijay Mallya was expected to return the items to the Indian government, according to CNN-IBN, CNN's sister station in India. Controversy surrounded the sale Thursday of Gandhi's items -- among them his metal-rimmed glasses, pocket watch, sandals, bowl and plate -- prompting the seller, James Otis, to ask that the items be withdrawn from the auction. India voiced strong objections to the auction. Its Ministry of External Affairs said the bidding would \"commercialize and thereby demean the memory of the Father of the Nation and everything that he stood for in his life, beliefs and actions.\" On Tuesday, a New Delhi court issued an injunction to stop the sale. Watch the auction stoke high interest \u00bb . But the Antiquorum auction house in Manhattan went ahead with the auction as scheduled. The Indian government had rejected an offer from Otis, who had asked the Indian government to expand its spending on the poor in exchange for the items. India's government already spends a large amount of money on the country's disadvantaged sectors, India's culture minister Ambika Soni told reporters Thursday. Still, the government had hoped Otis would not allow the public to bid on the items. Soni, the culture minister, said that India's government exercised several options to stop the auction at the Antiquorum in New York. Gandhi, who waged a long struggle against British rule in India, was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic on January 30, 1948. He is still widely revered for his insistence on non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress. Many Indians believe selling Gandhi's items for profit is outrageous. \"I feel very sad about it because Gandhi himself never believed in private possessions,\" said Varsha Das, director of India's National Gandhi Museum, using a term of endearment for Gandhi. \"He gave away everything. He did not even have a home to live in.\" CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mallya expected to return items to Indian government, CNN-IBN reports .\nIndia's Ministry of External Affairs: Bidding would \"commercialize\" Gandhi's memory .\nControversy prompted seller James Otis to ask that items be withdrawn from auction ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the shadows of Mount Redoubt, Alaskans are calmly waiting for the volcano to erupt -- an event that could occur at any time. Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano spews ash and steam during an eruption in 1989. \"The level of seismic activity\" has \"increased markedly\" in recent days at the 10,197-foot peak located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the state's most populous city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. \"We don't have a crystal ball,\" said Peter Cervelli, a research geophysicist with the observatory, which is aggressively monitoring the volcano. But \"we expect based on the past behavior of this volcano that this activity is going to culminate in an eruption.\" The activity has consisted \"of a combination of discrete, relatively small earthquakes and periods of more continuous volcanic tremor,\" Cervelli said. Scientists raised the alert status Sunday to a \"watch\" level, the second-highest, based on seismic activity detected January 23. PopSci.com: Predicting eruptions . The \"watch\" status means the \"volcano is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption, time frame uncertain, or eruption is under way but poses limited hazards,\" according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Maureen Burke, 29, a coffee shop manager in Anchorage, said she remembers the last eruption and isn't too worried this time. PopSci.com: Prehistoric explosions wiped out ocean life -- and created petroleum . She said living in Alaska and being close to nature, residents just laugh such events off, dealing with them as they come. Falling ash is a potential problem. The best way to protect yourself from the harmful showers of ash is to wear a mask, Missy Moore, 33, said. As an administrator and supervisor of Starbright Early Learning Center in Anchorage, Moore said, \"it's really not anything to worry about just yet.\" PopSci.com: Google Earth environment guide . If Mount Redoubt covers nearby cities with ash, Moore said the school will adhere to the public school district's guidelines. \"If the [public] school district closes schools, our school closes too. The city of Anchorage advises citizens to stay indoors,\" Moore said. \"The ash can get into your engines and mess up your car.\" Shana Medcoff, 17, a barista in Kenai, about 50 miles from the volcano, said residents are encouraged to buy air filters for their cars. PopSci.com: Spying on a hostile landscape . Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago, in December 1989, and that lasted until April 1990. Geologists think there could be an eruption \"similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90.\" Learn more about Redoubt and its history \u00bb . That eruption spread ash in Kenai and Anchorage, where it disrupted air traffic operations. Cervelli said the ash plumes caused engine failure on a jet. \"It's not the closest volcano to Anchorage,\" Cervelli said, but \"it has the potential to disrupt air traffic at Anchorage.\" The 1989-90 volcano also spurred volcanic mudflows, or lahars, that flowed east down the Drift River. The ash fall was seen as far away as Fairbanks and the Yukon Territory border. The observatory has set up a Web camera near the summit of the volcano and another within Cook Inlet. It plans to do continuous visual surveillance, measure gas output and analyze satellite and weather-radar data.","highlights":"NEW: Scientists raise alert level to \"watch,\" the second highest state of alert .\nThe 10,200-foot Mount Redoubt is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska .\nVolcano last erupted in December 1989 .\nEruption could spawn huge mudflows, disrupt flights with ash ."} -{"article":"WHITE OAK, Maryland (CNN) -- Seeking to remove unapproved drugs from the marketplace, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday ordered nine companies to stop manufacturing narcotics whose therapeutic claims have not been proved. The FDA ordered nine companies to stop selling unapproved drugs marketed for pain relief. The FDA's warning letters notified the companies they may be subject to legal action if they do not stop manufacturing and distributing \"prescription unapproved products\" that include high-concentrate morphine sulfate oral solutions and immediate-release tablets containing morphine sulfate, hydromorphone or oxycodone. This action does not include oxycodone capsules. All of these drugs are used for pain relief and are forms of previously approved medications. The agency says this is not a recall, but is instead a warning to manufacturers. The companies have 60 days to pull these pain-relief drugs from the market. Distributors have 90 days to stop shipping them. If these drugs are not off the market by those deadlines, a company could face seizure of the narcotics and legal action. \"We estimate there are several hundred unapproved drugs out there,\" said Deborah Autor, director of the office of compliance within the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. \"We will continue to take aggressive action against those firms that do not have the required FDA approval for their drugs. Today's warning letters are another demonstration of our commitment to remove illegal, unproved drugs from the market.\" Although the FDA does not know whether these drugs are unsafe, it has not approved them so cannot certify that the products are 100 percent safe and effective. \"Consumers have a right to expect that their drugs meet the FDA's safety and effectiveness standards,\" said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. \"Doctors and patients are often unaware that not all drugs on the market are backed by FDA approval. It is a high priority for the FDA to remove these products from the market because they may be unsafe, ineffective, inappropriately labeled, or of poor quality.\" The FDA believes Americans have access to plenty of legal narcotics for pain relief and removing these unapproved drugs will not create a shortage. Consumers who may be concerned that they are taking any unapproved drug products should refer to the FDA's Unapproved Drugs Web page, which includes a list of manufacturers of these products. Those who find they are taking unapproved drugs should see their health care professionals for treatment options. Those companies receiving warning letters are Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc., Columbus, Ohio; Cody Laboratories Inc., Cody, Wyoming; Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., Mahwah, New Jersey; Lannett Company Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lehigh Valley Technologies Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania; Mallinckrodt Inc. Pharmaceuticals Group, St. Louis, Missouri; Physicians Total Care Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma; Roxane Laboratories Inc., Columbus, Ohio; and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc., Newport, Kentucky.","highlights":"FDA warns manufacturers they have 60 days to pull unapproved drugs from market .\nOfficials don't know if drugs are unsafe; they have never been approved .\nRemoving unapproved drugs not expected to create a shortage of pain relievers ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief presidential campaign strategist is quitting his post amid criticism of his public relations firm's contacts with the Colombian government over a pending free-trade deal, Clinton's campaign announced. Mark Penn will continue to advise Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Mark Penn and his political consulting firm will continue to advise the New York senator's Democratic presidential bid, but Penn will give up his job as chief strategist, campaign manager Maggie Williams said. \"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign,\" Williams said. Clinton did not answer reporters' questions about Penn's exit during a campaign stop in New Mexico on Sunday. Penn is CEO of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller and is president of Penn, Schoen and Berland, his political consulting firm. Friday, he acknowledged he had met with the Colombian ambassador to the United States earlier in the week in his role as Burson-Marsteller's chief to discuss the pending U.S.-Colombia trade pact, which Clinton has criticized on the campaign trail. Penn called the meeting \"an error in judgment that will not be repeated,\" and apologized. That prompted Colombia's government to fire the company Saturday, calling the remarks \"a lack of respect to Colombians.\" Clinton and top aides were sharply critical of rival Democrat Barack Obama in February when reports indicated that his top economic adviser had suggested to a Canadian official that Obama was not as supportive of changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement as the Illinois senator claimed to be on the campaign trail. Penn said Friday that Clinton's opposition to the U.S.-Colombia pact, which the Bush administration is trying to push through Congress, \"is clear and was not discussed\" during his meeting with the ambassador. And Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said Penn's meeting was \"not in any way done on behalf of the campaign.\" But Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell -- a key Clinton backer in his state's April 22 primary -- suggested Sunday that Penn needed to go. \"I think you've got to make it very clear for someone who is a consultant, who you are representing and who you are not representing, and I would hope that Mr. Penn, when he talked to the Colombians, made that clear. And it doesn't sound to me like he did, and that's something the campaign should take into question,\" Rendell told NBC's \"Meet the Press.\" Sources in the Clinton campaign said that Penn realized this weekend that he needed to step aside, and that Clinton was disappointed that he had met with the Colombians. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mark Penn is CEO of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller .\nPenn met with Colombia ambassador over trade pact .\nColombia fired Penn's company on Saturday .\nPenn will continue to have advisory role in campaign ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The earthquake in Sichuan, southwestern China, last May left around 69,000 people dead and 15 million people displaced. Now ecologists have assessed the earthquake's impact on biodiversity and the habitat for some of the last existing wild giant pandas. Giant pandas are more endangered than ever since the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. According to the report published in \"Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment\", 23 percent of the pandas' habitat in the study area was destroyed, and fragmentation of the remaining habitat could hinder panda reproduction. The Sichuan region is designated as a global hotspot for biodiversity, according to Conservation International. Home to more than 12,000 species of plants and 1,122 species of vertebrates, the area includes more than half of the habitat for the Earth's wild giant panda population, said study lead author Weihua Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. \"We estimate that above 60 percent of the wild giant panda population was affected to some extent by the earthquake,\" said Xu in the report. In an effort to develop conservation strategies for the panda's remaining habitat, Xu and his colleagues used satellite imagery to determine the pandas' habitat loss and fragmentation in the South Minshan region, which is adjacent to the earthquake's epicenter. Since forests are the main vegetation type used by the pandas, the authors compared forested areas in satellite images from September 2007, before the earthquake, to images after the earthquake and its aftershocks, in July 2008. The authors then combined results based on these satellite data with criteria that make forests suitable for pandas, including elevation, slope incline and presence of bamboo. Their analyses revealed that more than 354 square kilometers, or about 23 percent, of the pandas' habitat was converted to bare land. Of the remaining habitat, the researchers found that large habitat areas had been fragmented into smaller, disconnected patches, which Xu says can be just as harmful as habitat destruction. \"It is probable that habitat fragmentation has separated the giant panda population inhabiting this region, which could be as low as 35 individuals,\" said Xu. \"This kind of isolation increases their risk of extinction in the wild, due in part to a higher likelihood of inbreeding.\" Xu and his colleagues proposed a plan to encourage pandas to move between patches using specially protected corridors. They also recommend areas to be protected outside of nature reserves and that post-earthquake relocation of affected towns takes panda habitat into consideration. \"It is vital to the survival of this species that measures are taken to protect panda habitat outside nature reserves,\" said Xu. \"Giant pandas in this region are more vulnerable than ever to human disturbance, including post-earthquake reconstruction and tourism. When coupled with these increasing human activities, natural disasters create unprecedented challenges for biodiversity conservation.\"","highlights":"New report on affect of 2008 Sichuan earthquake on wild giant panda population .\nReport: 23 percent of habitat has disappeared; 60 percent of giant pandas affected .\nEstimates that wild panda population in affected region could be as low as 35 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Zealand warmed up for their Tri-Nations decider against Australia with a 101-14 rout of Samoa in a one-off rugby union Test on Wednesday in New Plymouth, running in 15 tries. Conrad Smith touches down for one of his two tries in the All Blacks win. Fullback Mils Muliaina scored three tries in the first half, center Conrad Smith and winger Richard Kahui touched down twice and nine other players added their names to the New Zealand scoresheet as the All Blacks beat a weakened Samoan team by a record margin. New Zealand led 47-7, seven tries to one, at halftime and added eight tries, including a penalty try, in the second spell to surpass their highest score against Samoa. The All Blacks had a 26-0 lead after 16 minutes and set their record score against Samoa -- surpassing the 71-13 in 1999 -- despite being held scoreless for periods of 18 minutes in the first half and 10 minutes in the second. It was the fifth time New Zealand had reached 100 points in a match, with the All Blacks' record being the 145-17 win over Japan at the 1995 World Cup. Samoa was forced to pick a severely under-strength side because many of its leading and most-experienced players are involved with European club sides. Most of the players who took the field Wednesday were young and Samoa-based and playing against the All Blacks for the first time. Although outgunned by an All Blacks team which overwhelmingly controlled territory and possession, Samoa played with great spirit and scored a try in each half. Flyhalf Uale Mai scored and converted his own try after 28 minutes and flanker Alafoti Faosiliva touched down off a break by Uale Mai four minutes before fulltime. \"What can you say? 100 points,\" Samoa captain Filipo Levi said. \"It shows the All Blacks are on fire at the moment. They've showed in the Tri-Nations competition that they're a very consistent team. \"For some of our boys it was a big step up from playing club rugby in Samoa but, having said that, it was a big learning curve.\" Flyhalf Daniel Carter converted six of the All Blacks' first-half tries, surpassing 2,000 points in first-class rugby, and his replacement Stephen Donald scored his first Test try and converted seven of New Zealand's eight second-half tries. The match was scheduled to help the All Blacks bridge the three-week gap between their most recent Tri-Nations clash with South Africa and their next, against Australia, at Brisbane on September 13. The Brisbane match will decide the outcome of the Tri-Nations tournament. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Zealand rout Samao 101-14 in rugby union Test in New Plymouth .\nAll Blacks run in 15 tries as they warm up for Tri-Nations decider against Australia .\nFlyhalf Dan Carter passes 2,000 first class points during match ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met Monday night with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House announced. It was the ninth meeting of the president's war council to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, as requested by the U.S. commander on the ground there. The White House made no statement after the meeting ended at 10 p.m. ET (0300 GMT). The meeting included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, Afghanistan commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and other senior officials, the White House said earlier. At the last war council meeting -- on November 11, Veteran's Day -- Obama pushed for revisions in proposed plans for troop increases to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government. Obama would seek answers to the questions he posed on November 11 about \"not just how we get people there, but what's the strategy for getting them out,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said before the meeting. No matter what happened at the meeting, Gibbs said, Obama will not announce a decision on troop deployment until at least next week. One option calls for sending about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in addition to the 68,000 already committed to the country, with other options involving variations of that plan, sources told CNN. Before the November 11 meeting, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, told CNN that the decision-making process was approaching completion. Petraeus emphasized the need to focus on the mission of ensuring that Afghanistan \"does not once again become a sanctuary or safe haven for al Qaeda and the kind of transnational extremists that carried out the 9\/11 attacks.\" The Obama administration has expressed concerns about Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's viability and has ratcheted up pressure to end corruption in order to combat an intensifying Taliban insurgency. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a trip to Afghanistan last week to attend Karzai's inauguration after his recent re-election, reiterated the U.S. concerns in a dinner meeting with Karzai and encouraged him to seize the \"clear window of opportunity\" before him at a \"critical moment\" in Afghanistan's history. The United States and other countries are increasing their civilian presence in Afghanistan to bolster efforts to stabilize the country, the the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters on Monday. Asked about the corruption problem, Holbrooke noted that some Afghan government ministers have \"extraordinary records\" of accomplishment. The United States will work with those ministers, while recognizing that years of civil war and social woes have weakened overall leadership capabilities in Afghanistan, he said. \"This is one of the main reasons we're increasing our civilian role,\" Holbrooke said. \"And it's extremely delicate to get the mix right. We want to help the Afghans help themselves. We do not want to replace a sovereign government with internationals.\" Republican opponents are pushing Obama to quickly agree to McChrystal's reported request for up to 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan as part of a counterinsurgency strategy. \"This won't be perfect or easy, but it will allow America's fighting men and women to leave Afghanistan with honor, and it will enable Afghans to build a better, more peaceful future,\" said a letter to Obama from 10 Republican senators sent on Veteran's Day.","highlights":"NEW: White House makes no statement after meeting ended .\nObama will not announce decision until at least next week .\nMeeting included Biden, Gates, Mullen, McChrystal, Eikenberry, White House says .\nObama wanted clarification on how, when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Florida school administrators face contempt charges and possible prison time for saying a prayer at a school luncheon. Pace High School enacted a decree in January banning officials from promoting religion at school events. Frank Lay, principal of Pace High School, and Athletic Director Robert Freeman are accused of violating a consent decree banning employees of Santa Rosa County schools from endorsing religion. They face a non-jury trial September 17 before U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers. The statute under which they are charged carries a maximum penalty of up to six months in prison, subject to sentencing guidelines. Attorneys defending Lay and Freeman call it outrageous that the two are being prosecuted for \"a simple prayer.\" But the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the consent decree, maintains that students have a right to be free from administrators foisting their religious beliefs on them. Still, an ACLU representative said the organization never suggested that people should go to jail for violating the decree. Watch why lawyer thinks men did nothing wrong \u00bb . The ACLU filed suit last year against the district on behalf of two Pace students who alleged that \"school officials regularly promoted religion and led prayers at school events,\" according to an ACLU statement. Both parties approved the consent decree put in place January 9, under which district and school officials are \"permanently prohibited from promoting, advancing, endorsing, participating in or causing prayers during or in conjunction with school events,\" the ACLU said. Lay was a party in the initial lawsuit, and his attorney was among those approving the consent decree, according to the organization. In addition, the court required that all district employees receive a copy. On January 28, \"Lay asked Freeman to offer a prayer of blessing during a school-day luncheon for the dedication of a new fieldhouse at Pace High School,\" according to court documents. \"Freeman complied with the request and offered the prayer at the event. It appears this was a school-sponsored event attended by students, faculty and community members.\" Attorneys from Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal group helping defend Lay and Freeman, said in a written statement that attendees included booster club members and other adults who helped the field house project, all \"consenting adults.\" In a February 4 letter to district Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick in which Lay acknowledged the incident, he said that although past football booster club members \"and other adults associated with the school system\" were at the luncheon, culinary class students were in charge of food preparation and serving. Lay wrote that he asked Freeman to bless the food \"for the adults. ... I take full responsibility for this action. My actions were overt and not meant to circumvent any court order or constitutional mandate.\" In response, Wyrosdick noted in a letter to Lay that in a meeting, the principal had admitted that \"you are, and were at the date of this incident, aware of the court injunction and aware that this type of action is not permissible under the injunction.\" Wyrosdick recounted telling Lay that the prayer was not appropriate. \"This note is to share with you written instructions to avoid this type of action,\" the superintendent said. Both letters are in the public court file. \"It is a sad day in America when school officials are criminally prosecuted for a prayer over a meal,\" said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at Liberty University, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. \"It is outrageous and an offense to the First Amendment to punish a school official for a simple prayer.\" Liberty Counsel said it is challenging the consent decree, maintaining that it \"unconstitutionally infringes on the rights of teachers, administrators and students.\" The ACLU, according to the Liberty Counsel statement, has begun \"to go against individual employees.\" The organization said that neither man \"willfully violated any orders of the court.\" \"We're not going after individuals,\" said Glenn Katon, director of the Religious Freedom Project for the ACLU of Florida. \"We're just trying to make sure that school employees comply with the court order.\" The ACLU did not request the criminal contempt charges against Lay and Freeman, he said; the judge initiated them after seeing a reference to the incident in a motion. And the ACLU is not involved in the criminal proceedings, he said. \"We certainly never suggested that anyone go to jail,\" Katon said. Lay is not facing jail time for praying, he said, but for violating a court order. \"The moral of this story is, for us, this is about the students' right to be free from teachers and school administrators thrusting upon the students their religious beliefs,\" Katon said. \"They keep talking about the religious rights of the administrators, but the administrators and the principals don't have any right to trumpet their religious beliefs in a school setting.\" Neither Lay nor Freeman has been placed on leave, according to the school district. Pace is about 10 miles north of Pensacola, Florida.","highlights":"Attorneys: It's troubling that officials are being prosecuted for \"simple prayer\"\nSchool's principal, athletic director could be jailed for six months .\nACLU says it supports prayer ban but never suggested officials should be jailed .\nPrincipal acknowledges requesting prayer but didn't mean to circumvent court order ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canadian ski resort gondola cars that were left dangling and swaying with terrified skiers inside failed because ice buildup snapped a supporting tower, the resort said Thursday. One gondola car is suspended above an icy creek at a ski resort near Whistler, British Columbia. In a rare occurrence called ice-jacking, water seeped into the lower section of the lift tower and turned to ice Tuesday at Whistler Blackcomb resort, 177 kilometers (110 miles) north of Vancouver, a resort official said in a press release Thursday. The lift hangs from a tower that is spliced into two parts. Extremely cold temperatures caused the ice buildup that exerted 800 tons of pressure between the two parts that hold the tower together, causing them to rupture, according to Whistler Blackcomb. The section of the lift affected by the accident had 15 cars going up the mountain and 15 coming down at the time, but they weren't carrying a lot of passengers, according to Doug Forseth, senior vice president of the resort. He said 53 passengers had been rescued from the stranded cars. No skiers at the Whistler, British Columbia, resort were seriously injured. \"The towers are not normally designed to allow for any water penetration and so this failure is a very unusual situation,\" said Warren Sparks, senior vice president of Doppelmayr Canada, the engineering firm that investigated the accident. They are trying to figure out what caused the water to pool. He said independent structural engineers are examining the tower from Vancouver-based CVMM Consulting Engineers. \"The evidence so far indicates a sudden rupture rather than a fatigue failure over an extended period,\" Sparks said. At least two gondola cars broke away and hit the ground, both from relatively low heights near the tower that split, and caused the system's heavy cable line to slacken, according to Tyler Noble, a reporter for CNNRadio affiliate CKNW in Vancouver. \"One hit a bus stop and the other hit a house,\" Noble said Wednesday. \"Another one was suspended over a creek, but everyone is out of that car.\" The broken Excaliber Gondola was not operating Thursday. Whistler engineers checked eight similar towers across the two mountains of the resort. All passed those inspections, and are open Thursday, the release said. The British Columbia Authority says it does not expect to rescind operating permits on any lifts at the resort, other than the Excaliber Gondola. Jeff Colburn, general manager of Silver Mountain Resort in Kellogg, Idaho, said a lift tower at his resort was similarly damaged by ice in December 2006. The damage was discovered in the morning before the slopes opened, so no one was endangered, he said. The damaged tower was replaced in about three weeks, Colburn said, and the resort's business was not significantly disrupted. \"We check our towers in the summer now, and we also check before we open up for ski season as well just to make sure they don't have any water in them, and we've worked with the manufacturers,\" he said. Holes have been drilled in the bases of towers so that water can drain out, Colburn said. CNN's Ashley Fantz and Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Ice-jacking\" caused a lift at a Canadian ski resort to fail, Whistler resort says .\nWater in supporting tower caused it to rupture .\nTwo gondola cars broke away and hit the ground, one dangled over frozen creek .\nLift tower at Idaho resort suffered similar damage in December 2006 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a reality TV contestant suspected in his wife's slaying, was found hanging from a coat rack in a motel room in an apparent suicide, according to Canadian officials. Police were hunting for Ryan Alexander Jenkins after the death of Jasmine Fiore. Staff at a motel in Hope, British Columbia, found Jenkins dead, officials said. \"It was a man hanging by a belt from a coat rack,\" Kevin Walker, the manager of the budget Thunderbird Motel, told CNN affiliate CTV on Sunday. Walker said a woman, about 20 to 25 years old, dropped off Jenkins at the motel on Friday in a silver Chrysler PT Cruiser with Alberta tags. Police have not been able to identify the woman. Watch how suspect found in hotel \u00bb . Earlier Sunday, Canadian authorities said they had credible information that Jenkins was in Canada and called on him to turn himself in. He was believed to be armed and dangerous. Watch what led police to hotel room \u00bb . The nude body of Jenkins' wife, former swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore, was found last weekend in Orange County, California. CNN has not confirmed reports that the marriage was annulled. Fiore's body was found last Saturday in a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim, California. Her teeth had been extracted and fingers removed in what police said was an apparent attempt to conceal her identity. Law enforcement sources have told CNN that Fiore was identified through the serial numbers on her breast implants. Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive in San Diego at a poker game with Jenkins, the night before the body was found. Jenkins reported Fiore missing last Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said. The body was identified Monday as Fiore. While the cause of death had not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner's report indicated she was strangled. According to court records in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jenkins was charged in June with battery for allegedly striking Fiore in the arm with his fist. And in 2007, Jenkins pleaded guilty in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to assault in a separate case. He was sentenced to 15 months probation, ordered to undergo counseling for domestic violence and sex addiction and to stay away from the person involved, according to court records. Jenkins, who appeared on the VH1 show \"Megan Wants a Millionaire,\" is from Calgary. 51Minds, which produced \"Megan Wants a Millionaire,\" said Thursday in a written statement that it \"was not aware of Ryan Jenkins' record when it cast him. \"The company did have in place what it thought was a thorough vetting process that involved complete background checks by an outside company for all contestants on its shows,\" it said. \"Clearly, the process did not work properly in this case. 51 Minds is investigating what went wrong and taking steps to ensure that this sort of lapse never occurs again.\" CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Body of Ryan Jenkins found hanged in British Columbia hotel, police say .\nAuthorities say preliminary evidence points to suicide .\nBody of Jasmine Fiore, 28, found stuffed into a suitcase inside a dumpster .\nHer teeth were extracted, fingers removed, making it harder to identify body ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she is \"praying\" that President Bush has a change of heart and does not veto a bipartisan children's health insurance bill that he has labeled an unwarranted expansion of government-run health insurance. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applauds after signing the State Children's Health Insurance legislation Friday. \"The tide is going a different way than a presidential veto would reflect,\" Pelosi, a California Democrat, said. \"It was with great friendship that I reached out to the president this morning to say that I was still praying that he would have a change of heart and sign this legislation.\" \"I think I have to pray a little harder, but I will not give up,\" Pelosi said. Pelosi's comments came a day after the Senate voted 67-29 for the measure, which would expand the State Children's Health Insurance program by up to 4 million children. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Friday said Bush still intends to veto the bill when it arrives at his desk. Perino also said the disagreement between Congress and the White House was a simple policy difference, not \"about who cares about children more than the other.\" \"The president is saying, 'Let's take care of the neediest children first, let's not put scarce federal dollars toward a program that was meant for the poorest children and let it creep up to middle-income families with incomes up to $83,000 a year,' \" Perino said. Bush and many Republicans contend that the program's original intent -- to give parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance coverage for their children -- would be changed under the current bill, prompting parents to wind up dropping private coverage their children already have to get cheaper coverage under the bill. Perino also objected that the rhetoric surrounding the SCHIP bill has become too heated. \"I think it is preposterous for people to suggest the president of the United States doesn't care about children, that he wants children to suffer,\" Perino said. The bill enjoys bipartisan support. Eighteen Republican senators Thursday night joined all the Democrats in voting for expanding the popular program from its current annual budget of $5 billion to $12 billion for the next five years. Four senators -- Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas and Democrats Joseph Biden of Delaware and Barack Obama of Illinois -- did not vote. With the current program scheduled to expire Saturday, the White House encouraged Congress to send the president a continuing resolution extending the program. \"We should take this time to arrive at a more rational, bipartisan SCHIP reauthorization bill that focuses on children in poor families who don't currently have insurance, rather than raising taxes to cover people who already have private insurance,\" Perino added. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was among those Republicans who split from the president. \"It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for,\" he told his colleagues on the Senate floor prior to the vote. \"It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue.\" Though 67 votes in the 100-person chamber would suffice to overturn a veto, the House version, which was approved Tuesday, fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"House Speaker Pelosi \"praying\" that president has change of heart on bill .\nMeasure expanding kids' health insurance program passed Senate .\nBush objects to measure expanding coverage beyond just poor children .\nWhite House says expansion would cover children from middle-class families ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A high-pitched device used to combat anti-social behavior among young people has been called \"unfair\" by children's campaigners in England. \"The Mosquito\" has been used to combat anti-social behavior among young people across England . The Children's Commissioner for England, who oversees children's rights, has called for a ban on the ultra-sonic gadget, known as \"The Mosquito,\" which disperses young people by emitting sharp, piercing sounds. The device causes discomfort to younger ears by exploiting their ability to hear very high frequencies -- a power which declines once they reach their 20s. But human rights groups say the machine infringes civil rights and creates a divide between young and old. Launching the \"Buzz Off\" campaign, England's Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green said: \"I have spoken to many children and young people from all over England who have been deeply affected by ultra-sonic teenage deterrents.\" Aynsley-Green said about 3,500 of the devices are in use across England to split up gatherings of youth in areas such as parks and shops. \"These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving,\" he added. Youth leaders backed the campaign, adding that The Mosquito fails to address the root problems of anti-social behavior among youths -- and may even push teenagers to congregate in unsafe areas. \"Police, local authorities, and business instead should work collectively with young people and their communities to address the underlying causes of anti-social behavior in areas that cause concern,\" said Fiona Blacke, chief executive of the National Youth Agency, a government-funded group that works with young people on social development. The Mosquito was invented by Howard Stapleton, from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, and is manufactured by Compound Security Systems. The company describes The Mosquito as an \"ultrasonic teenage deterrent\" and \"the most effective tool in our fight against anti social behavior.\" It says the device has a range of 15 to 20 meters and teenagers are \"acutely aware of The Mosquito and usually move away from an area within an average of 8 to 10 minutes.\" The company says The Mosquito has proved popular with shop keepers who buy it to move along gatherings of teenagers and anti-social youths. It could not be contacted for a response to criticism of the deterrent. Railway companies have also placed the device to discourage youths from spraying graffiti on trains and station walls, Compound Security said. The controversial gadget was first used by shopkeeper Robert Gough, from South Wales. He told The Times newspaper: \"Either someone has come along and wiped them off the face of the earth, or it's working.\" However, Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: \"What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children? Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids. \"The Mosquito has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Campaigners want to ban ultra-sonic device used against young people .\n\"The Mosquito\" emits sharp sounds that can only be heard by under 20s .\nAbout 3,500 of the devices are used in England to disperse young people .\nHuman rights groups say they create divide between young and old ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 19-year-old woman whose hospitalization exposed a shocking Austrian incest case is recovering well and wants to see the ocean and a pop concert, her doctors and a family lawyer said Wednesday. Dr. Albert Reiter, who treated Kerstin, is confident Kerstin will make a full recovery in time. She and other children who were held captive for years are slowly adapting to modern life, they said. Kerstin Fritzl, whom doctors placed in an artificial coma after she was admitted to a hospital in April for multiple organ failure, is now well enough to speak, stand and walk with assistance, her doctors said. Doctors said that \"little novelties\" such as seeing a cloud go by are now big events for the former captives. Kerstin has said she wants to see the ocean and go to a concert by British singer Robbie Williams, said Dr. Berhold Kepplinger, director of the clinic where the family is living. He described how excited Kerstin was to hear Robbie Williams songs in her hospital room and said she was moving around to the music so much that doctors had to quiet her down. It was then, Kepplinger said, that doctors became confident Kerstin can become fully healthy and develop normally. Her immune system has improved, and she is continuing to have physiotherapy, including strengthening exercises, he said. Watch doctors describe what happened when the teen opened her eyes \u00bb . The two parts of her family -- those who were locked in a basement, like Kerstin, and those who lived above ground, apparently unaware of the abuse of their mother and siblings -- are getting to know each other again, the doctors and the family's lawyer said. \"We are so glad that things have turned out so positively so far,\" said lawyer Christoph Herbst, who appeared at a news conference at a hotel near Amstetten, west of Vienna, where Kerstin and her family are recovering. Kerstin is the oldest daughter of an incestuous relationship between Elisabeth, 43, and Elisabeth's father, Josef Fritzl, 73, according to police. He is awaiting trial. Police say he confessed to holding Elisabeth captive since 1984 and raping her repeatedly, fathering seven children with her. Six of the children survived. Kerstin fell unconscious in April, and Elisabeth convinced her father that she needed urgent medical attention. Kerstin was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, where staff grew suspicious and called police, who opened an investigation and uncovered the abuse. Kerstin was suffering from kidney, lung, and liver failure when she arrived at the hospital, said Dr. Albert Reiter, director of the hospital. Doctors were able to turn her health around, but they kept her in a coma with artificial respiration for weeks, he said. Doctors started reducing Kerstin's medication May 12, allowing her to emerge from the coma, he said. Three days later, she opened her eyes and smiled at her carers, he said, and doctors were soon able to take the breathing tube from her throat. Her mother was at Kerstin's bedside regularly, and doctors credited that with helping Kerstin's health improve. On Sunday, Kerstin finally met with other family members and was able to say hello to them, he said. Kerstin and the rest of the family were also able to move into an apartment at a regional clinic nearby. \"It was a special moment where, walking, we were able to support her and cross the threshold into a new house and into a new life,\" Reiter said. Kerstin and two of her brothers, ages 18 and 5, had spent their entire lives trapped in the cellar with their mother, never seeing daylight. A television was their only contact with the outside world. The other three children Josef Fritzl fathered with Elisabeth were taken as infants to live above ground with Fritzl and his wife, who says she had no idea her daughter was being held captive. In recent weeks, the wife and the three children have had several meetings with Kerstin and the others formerly held in the basement. The doctors said that all are receiving therapy and are getting to know each other. \"It is clear that [the two sides] have a different temper of life,\" Kepplinger said. \"These different ways of living, the two parts of the family, still have to come to some agreement.\" Still, the entire family is \"very happy\" to be reunited, Herbst said. \"This is an incredible drawing-near to each other. There is incredible joy among them,\" he said. \"It is wonderful to see the way they are living together.\" He appealed to the public and the media to give the family privacy. There continues to be \"big ambivalence\" about the \"grandfather issue,\" as Kepplinger called it, and therapists are helping the family members cope with the complicated relationship they have with each other and with Fritzl, who is now behind bars.","highlights":"Daughter of Austrian incest victim reunited with family, expected to make full recovery .\nKerstin Fritzl, 19, has spent her entire life in cellar .\nThe dungeon was uncovered after she was taken to hospital with illness .\nJosef Fritzl, 73, has allegedly confessed to incestuous relationship with teen's mom ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Now it's the Republicans' turn. Charlie Daniels will headline a concert Wednesday in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. The Democrats turned out the star power for its convention in Denver, Colorado, right up to the final night, when the 80,000-strong crowd attending Sen. Barack Obama's closing speech at Invesco Field was serenaded by Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder, among others. The Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, may not have the same oomph, but it won't lack for well-known visitors. After mixing and mingling in Denver with Democrats, the nonpartisan Creative Coalition is scheduled to join the festivities in the Twin Cities. The organization is devoted to arts advocacy as well as issues such as health care and affordable housing. Its spokespeople include Warren Beatty, Dana Delany, Tim Daly, Giancarlo Esposito and Matthew Modine. The group is showing a film, \"14 Women,\" about the 14 female senators of the 109th Congress. Creative Coalition Executive Director Robin Bronk told The Hollywood Reporter that the organization was determined to present some steak with its celebrity sizzle. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos from around the Republican Convention . \"We have a great track record of bringing substance with splash,\" she said. The group is sponsoring a Charlie Daniels Band concert on Wednesday. The Black Eyed Peas played the group's Denver show. Retail chain Target is co-sponsor of both shows. Also in Minneapolis: a show titled \"The Songwriters Circle: The Songs We Love,\" which will feature performances by Brett James (who wrote \"Jesus, Take the Wheel\") and Greg Laswell (\"What a Day\"), according to RollingStone.com. The show is sponsored the The Recording Academy and its GRAMMY Foundation. Among other celebrities expected to be present are the Beach Boys -- who will be headlining a concert of their own Monday -- Gretchen Wilson and Sammy Hagar. However, one of the GOP's biggest celebrity names, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, may not make the trip. Schwarzenegger has said that state business may keep him in Sacramento. Not every event will be sanctioned by the convention, of course. The politically active band Rage Against the Machine, which played a free show in Denver, has scheduled a Minneapolis concert, though it's far from free: Tickets are $60 for the show at the Target Center on Wednesday. Rage guitarist Tom Morello is also teaming with Steve Earle for a union rally on Labor Day. There are also several arts-related events in a lower key. According to The New York Times, artists will be coming to Minneapolis-St. Paul to mount various forms of political theater, from creating ice sculptures to inviting the public to perform karaoke versions of convention speeches. Though some of the exhibits will be politically pointed, organizers are careful to characterize them as nonpartisan -- and expect some unusual discourse. \"You expect people to respond by organizing a protest and throwing their fists in the air, and you also expect people to respond by flying 1,000 American flags,\" Sarah Peters of Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, which is taking part in that city's \"UnConvention,\" told the Times. \"And those are two legitimate ways to respond to politics, but there is a whole in-between area that doesn't get talked about.\"","highlights":"GOP convention to include celebrities, some performing, others visiting .\nRage Against the Machine, which played in Denver, Colorado, also in Twin Cities .\nArt installations reportedly to express nonpartisanship ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I wanted to believe the man in front of me wasn't a rapist. I knew he was a former Sudanese soldier, I knew he wanted to talk about rape in Darfur. A humanitarian group working on Darfur issues had introduced him to us. They told us his testimony was important to hear. A woman left homeless by conflict in Darfur walks along railway tracks. Last year in Darfur aid workers told me children as young as five were being raped in the huge displacement camps that are home to several million Darfuris. In some camps, they told me, rape had become so common that as many as 20 babies a month born from rape were being abandoned. As I sat inches from Adam --not his real name -- I feared the revulsion I knew I would feel at my own questions as I asked about rape and his involvement. I have interviewed rape survivors in Darfur. I have two daughters. I am a human being with a conscience. It would be hard to listen to his replies. He told me he was conscripted by force in to the Sudanese army in the summer of 2002. He thought he was being taken for six months' national service and then would be released. The conversation was slow going at first. We were both holding off from delving into the sordid details he'd come to discuss. His answers were short, he told me he got no pay from the army, only food and drink. He said he was rounded up in an army truck from a market in Darfur and trained to kill. He said he was armed with Kalashnikovs and told to \"shoot targets.\" Watch ex-soldier describe brutal attacks on children to Nic Robertson \u00bb . Then, he says, his officers told him \"we will be taken to a patrol and then soon after that we were asked to join other people to go and burn and kill people\". That's when he says he realized he wasn't getting national service training, that in fact, he was being forced into war against his will, with his own people. \"They are black,\" he told me, noting the difference between the lighter skinned rulers of Sudan and the darker farmers of Darfur. \"I am black,\" he said, \"this shouldn't be happening.\" But, he said, worse than being told to kill his own people, was that if he tried to resist, he himself would be killed. \"The order is that the soldiers at the front, and there are some people who are watching you from behind, if you try to escape or do anything you will get shot. The order is that we go to the village, burn it and kill the people.\" It felt as Adam was beginning to open up a little -- not easy, given the topic, and the lights and cameras all around us. He was beginning to talk a bit more, answer questions with more than one or two words. But it was following a pattern: I'd have to lead the way. We were both waiting for the inevitable. How he came to know of rape in Darfur. And that's when he said it. Watch warrant being issued for president \u00bb . He brought up the rape by himself. He was talking through a translator but his voice was quiet. I thought I heard anger, heard him slow and his voice drop: \"I had no choice,\" he said \"but I will say that I didn't kill anybody but the raping of the small children, it was bad\" I knew this was going to be difficult and now it had begun. What happens with the children, I asked. \"They cry out,\" he answered. \"And what happens when they cry out?\" \"Two persons will capture her while she is crying and another raping her, then they leave her there,\" came his reply. Silence. \"What do I ask now?\" I thought. Be forensic. Get the story. This is important testimony, I reminded myself. And so we continued, Adam describing in detail how soldiers raped girls as young as 12. How officers ordered them to do this to make people flee their villages, run away and never come back. Through all of this, Adam didn't once mention whether he actually had been directly involved in the raping. He said he tried to desert the army as soon as he could, but was caught and tortured. He showed me the scars where he said he was tied down beneath a tree and officers set fire to tires above him, dripping burning rubber on his body. Eventually, he said, he did get away, went to his sisters, tried joining the rebels to fight the army. But even there, his troubles were far from over. Incredibly, he said, the rebels didn't trust him; he was kept at their camp and only escaped when it was bombed by the army. The end of his story, but we weren't really done. One more question. Had he been forced to rape children? \"Yes I did, they were government orders,\" came his reply. How many? \"Well it didn't feel like raping, I was feeling very bad but as I was ordered, I had to do something. What I did was take off my trousers and lay myself on top of the girl but I didn't feel like raping, so I lay there for about 15 minutes.\" I want to be sure I understand him. \"So you didn't actually penetrate the girls?\" I ask. No, he says, \"because I had no feeling for it, my penis didn't actually wake up, so there was no actual penetration,\" he replied. There were other people in the room, the translator, a cameraman, our producer Jonathan Wald, but I had forgotten they were there. My thoughts were entirely locked on Adam. What more could I ask? I was emotionally drained. There was no way of knowing whether he was telling me the truth. Only in the measure of his voice was there a clue. Here, sitting on an office chair, thousands of miles away from Darfur, the memories come flooding back. The many, traumatized women and children we've interviewed, distraught families, unable to protect themselves. The pain we put them through, to recount, to relive, their nightmares. Each time, I've asked myself can I justify the suffering these questions cause? Each time, I tell myself it is only their own accounts that can cast light on the darkened corner of humanity they inhabit. Only their own accounts that can help break their cycle of suffering. Time and again, though, it seems telling the world their stories has little tangible impact on their reality of their lives. And now I'm face-to-face with a man who says he was part of the suffering, albeit by his own account not complicit and not guilty. I am left with the thought perhaps Adam's words carry even greater power. If his story is true -- and it mirrors other accounts emerging from Darfur -- then it implicates the government in these terrible crimes. He says he has trouble sleeping at nights. I can understand why. He is not alone. Aid workers say millions of women in Darfur not only have trouble sleeping at nights, but live in fear of rape 24 hours a day.","highlights":"Former soldier says he was armed with a Kalashnikov and told to kill .\n\"Adam\" describes taking part in rape attacks on children in Darfur .\nVictims included girls as young as 12, he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Wiping tears from his cheeks, a man who survived avalanches that killed eight snowmobilers in western Canada said Wednesday that he and two others tried to save their friends but eventually left the mountain because of the threat of more slides. Jeffrey Adams says he freed himself and helped free two others before making a \"gut-wrenching\" decision to leave. Jeffrey Adams, with his his fianc\u00e9e at his side, said he and the two other survivors \"did everything we could to try to save\" the eight Sunday. \"They died doing what they loved. ... I'm truly sorry to the families that we couldn't find them,\" Adams said. Adams described digging himself out after the avalanches struck the group Sunday in British Columbia about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) east of Fernie, a town in the Canadian Rockies about 300 kilometers (186 miles) southwest of Calgary, Alberta. Both avalanches left him buried but near the surface, he said. He was able to dig himself out, choking on snow, and free a second companion without gloves or gear. Watch Adams describe digging himself, others out \u00bb . Adams and six others had been snowmobiling near the base of a mountain when the first avalanche happened, he said. The avalanche buried him for \"a minute or two,\" but he was able to free himself. He started digging for a companion as another group of four people showed up to help, Adams said. One called 911 on a transmitter. But then they heard a crack, and a second slide buried all 11 of them, Adams said. Miraculously, he said, only 8 to 10 inches of snow covered him. \"When I opened my eyes, I could see daylight,\" he said. \"I was digging. I managed to get my mouth free. I was already choking. I took a few breaths. After about five minutes of struggling, I got myself out, looked around and realized there wasn't anybody else -- couldn't see any sleds, no gear, nothing.\" He yelled for his friends and heard an answer, and he was able to dig out one man, whom he identified as Jeremy. The two were working on freeing a third man, James, when they heard another crack. \"We said, 'Sorry, James, we've got to run,' \" Adams remembered tearfully. \"As we were running away from James, he was saying, 'Don't leave me here! Don't leave me here!' We kept saying we're sorry. We went off and sat to the side, and the slide never hit us in the area we were in. We just got the snow cloud. We went back in and finally got James out.\" But then the three looked around and saw no one. They considered getting the one snowmobile that wasn't struck by the avalanche, but determined that the area was too unsafe. \"That's when we had to make the gut-wrenching decision to leave our eight friends and start walking off the mountain,\" an emotional Adams said. The group had walked for about 10 minutes and was thinking of going back, but when he turned to look, \"the whole center of the mountain came down\" in a fourth avalanche. \"We just decided our best bet was to keep walking,\" he said. They were hoping for a helicopter in response to the earlier 911 call, he said, and one eventually arrived and picked them up. Searchers found seven bodies Monday and the eighth Tuesday. Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the dead as Danny Bjarnason, 28; Kane Rusnak, 30; Warren Rothel, 33; Michael Stier, 20; Len Stier, 45; Blayne Wilson, 26; Kurt Kabel, 28; and Thomas Talarico, 32. Adams and the other two survivors, James and Jeremy -- whose last names and ages were not given -- suffered minor injuries. One was hospitalized overnight. \"It's hard,\" Adams said. \"I replay it in my head all the time whether it was the right decision or not.\" He said he had spoken with the families of most of the other men. \"So far, all of them are supporting our decision to leave,\" he said. \"It was a hard one, to leave eight guys up there.\" He described the victims as \"good buddies,\" his voice breaking. Experts told him the second avalanche hit the group at 150 kph (93 mph), Adams said. He estimated the wall of snow was 15 feet high. He said members of the group knew the avalanche danger was high, and that's why they weren't climbing the mountain. Even buried under a few inches of snow, \"you don't know what way is up and what is down,\" he said. \"You can't move. You simply can't move in it,\" Adams said. The snowmobilers were from Sparwood, British Columbia. They were in an area called Harvey Pass, which police called \"a popular backcountry snowmobile destination.\" Sparwood Mayor David Wilks said all the victims were upstanding citizens who worked as businessmen or in coal mines. The mayor said temperatures were as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks, though the air had warmed to 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmer temperatures could melt and loosen packed snow, raising the danger of avalanches.","highlights":"Survivor says decision to leave eight behind was \"gut-wrenching\"\n\"I replay it in my head all the time,\" Jeffrey Adams says .\nAdams describes digging himself out twice, helping two others escape .\nEight bodies were found Monday and Tuesday ."} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- In a major shake-up the likes of which Cubans have not seen for decades, President Raul Castro on Monday reorganized his Cabinet, replacing longtime aides to his brother Fidel, who resigned from office a year ago, citing poor health. Cuban President Raul Castro is moving his own people into power, analysts say. Some analysts said the changes appear to be an attempt by Raul Castro to put his own supporters into positions of power. Among the changes: . Felipe Perez Roque, the 43-year-old foreign minister, was replaced by his deputy, Bruno Rodriguez Aprilla. Carlos Lage Davila, an economist, lost his job as Cabinet secretary, but no mention was made of removing him from his other post as vice president of the Council of State. Lage, who helped guide the nation through its \"special period\" of dire economic times in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the loss of billions in subsidies, was replaced by Brig. Gen. Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra; Raul Castro is also commander in chief of the armed forces. \"It looks like Raul putting some of his own people in,\" said Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy in Washington, who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter administration. Smith noted that Cuba's government underwent \"quite a few shake-ups after the revolution first came in\" in 1959, but said Monday's move \"is the biggest shake-up that I've seen in a very long time ... for the last 30 or 40 years.\" \"This is obviously a major move,\" concurred Vicki Huddleston, who led the Interests Section during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and is a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. \"[There is] nothing like this that I can recall since the late 1960s.\" She noted that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with both Castro brothers during a visit late in February to Havana, on what Granma described as a \"work visit,\" and speculated that Raul Castro may have asked him then to buy in on the changes. \"They really need Chavez to be on board, because without the subsidized oil from Venezuela, they're dead,\" Huddleston said. With the Cuban economy hamstrung by the world economy, Raul Castro may have decided it is time for him to make reforms of his own without worrying about second-guessing by his brother or his brother's allies, she said. Huddleston speculated that the changes could portend the government once again allowing private enterprise to flourish in Cuba. Communist leader Fidel Castro experimented with that during the 1990s, but pulled back. \"It represents a significant step by Raul Castro to gain autonomy and, essentially, distance himself from Fidel's old gang,\" said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. \"In other words, he feels confident enough that he has an independent base of power.\" He said Raul Castro's moves to date have proven popular not only with his party members, but also with the general population. Still, Raul Castro should not take that support for granted, Birns said. \"It may be that, if he makes too many moves, the party will feel that their privileges are being taken away, and that will make them unhappy.\" Otto Reich, who served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said he was withholding judgment. \"It's a little early to tell what this really means,\" he said. \"Some people are saying the Fidelistas are being replaced by the Raulistas. But the other side is: Are we talking about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?\" The state-run newspaper Granma published an official notice from the State Council that said the changes were intended to form a structure that is \"more compact and functional, with fewer organisms of the central administration of the state and a better distribution of the functions that they carry out.\" CNN's Morgan Neill and Shasta Darlington in Havana, Tom Watkins and Arthur Brice contributed to this story.","highlights":"Several longtime aides to Fidel Castro are replaced .\nForeign minister and Cabinet secretary move aside .\nAnalyst says it's the biggest shake-up in 30 or 40 years ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They are domestic relics of a bygone era when space travel was new and exciting and the world was buzzing with optimism about what could be. This Coney Island playground climbing frame is one of the larger items clogging the Kleeman family's barn. NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing 40 years ago reinvigorated demand for space-inspired mementoes that was stirring well before the start of the Space Age in the 1950s. Shops offered everything from rocket-shaped lamps, to skateboards, biscuit tins and toys emblazoned with stars and futuristic astronauts. Such was the excitement surrounding the momentous moon landing in 1969 that some were moved to create their own memorabilia in needlepoint and tin. See memorabilia of 1969 moon landing \u00bb . Many early examples of space-inspired design, both professional and homemade, can now be found in a 100ft hay barn at the Kleeman family home in the U.S. state of Connecticut. They're not on display -- yet -- but the family hopes to soon show the world what they call the \"Space Age Museum,\" a collection of as many as 10,000 pieces inspired by humanity's adventures in space. \"Everything started with a toy ray gun Peter and I bought at a flea market in Brimfield, Massachusetts 20 years ago for $10,\" John Kleeman said. \"We have never lost the excitement of that first find and since then we have continued our quest for cultural artifacts which tell the back story of the Space Age -- how ordinary folk like us experienced the magic, adventure and meaning of human space exploration.\" Weekend trips to markets and auctions became more frequent and over time the collection grew to include more cumbersome items including a 40-foot promotional trailer based on the design of \"Terra IV,\" a battle cruiser in the 1950s U.S. television series, \"Space Patrol.\" \"They had a movie theatre inside so 40 people could sit inside it and watch a rocket launch,\" John's son Peter explained. \"We had to adjust the doors to the barn to fit it, but it's in our barn now.\" As the barn became more crowded, references to their \"collection\" morphed into \"the museum\" and their father-son hobby transformed into a potential business. \"It was kind of a 'some day' kind of thing,\" Peter said. \"My dad had a day job as an attorney and I was in college and we said some day we'll create a museum so people can visit.\" \"Then three or four years ago I was at a point where I'd been working in the outdoors leading trips for youth at risk and thinking, \"Do I want to do this forever? How am I going to fit this space museum into the picture some day?' I realized that I'd like to do it now.\" Since then, they've been carefully peeling back layers of packaging and photographing their second-hand treasures for a digital catalogue. \"My mum is surprisingly and wonderfully supportive of all this,\" Peter said. \"Because it's a family business she always gets consulted, especially on large acquisitions. I think there have been some vetoes but there's nothing that she's vetoed that we wish that we'd gotten.\" Now 29, Peter Kleeman travels back and forth from his parents' house and his new home in New York to build the business. \"For now we'd like to contract out our exhibits to other museums and then if funding and the right sponsorship came in we'd be open to doing a permanent location so people could visit,\" he said. For Peter, the Space Age Museum is not simply about nostalgia; it's an important reminder of the enthusiasm that once gripped the world about future frontiers that has slowly deflated with time. \"One of the questions I ask myself is, 'what would it take to turn that around and for us to have a more creative and adventurous optimism for the future, and get that pioneering spirit back in our culture?'\" A mission to Mars might be one, he suggested, along with a long-term plan for future exploration. This museum curator is not in the camp that argues that money for space programs is better spent at home. \"A lot of people feel that because of our environment and different social and economic struggles that are going on in the planet that we should just focus all of our resources on fixing things here,\" he said. \"I agree -- there's a lot that's not working on our planet. We should be taking care of each other but that shouldn't stop us from also exploring -- there's a got to be a way to balance it. \"I think that knowing our place in the solar system and beyond helps give us perspective on who we are and where we are. I think it can be humbling and it also helps us remember how precious and rare our planet is and that we really need to protect it and manage its resources better.\"","highlights":"For more than 20 years the Kleeman family has collected space-inspired items .\nCollection includes rocket-shaped lamps, old space toys, climbing frames .\nFamily preparing to launch the \"Space Age Museum\" to display exhibits .\nKleeman: \"Knowing our place in the solar system helps give us perspective\""} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A company accused of encouraging hundreds to illegally enter the United States and then hiring them using fake Social Security numbers has agreed to pay the largest settlement ever in a workplace immigration bust, the Department of Justice said Friday. Relatives of people arrested in IFCO raids gather for a news conference in July 2006. IFCO Systems North America, a pallet and crate company, will pay a $20.7 million settlement, which includes $18.1 million in fines and $2.6 million for overtime violations, the Department of Justice said. In early 2006, immigration officials raided 45 IFCO sites, arresting almost 1,200 low-level workers. Federal officials also charged several managers, accusing them of using \"as a business model the systematic violation of United States law.\" To date, nine IFCO managers and employees have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct, the Justice Department said. Four managers are awaiting trial on felony charges and the investigation is continuing, it said. The Justice Department said it will not pursue criminal charges against the company if it complies with the terms of the settlement. \"The agreement severely punishes IFCO for its serious immigration and employment violations,\" acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Baxter said. \"But it also allows the corporation to continue its operations, so that its lawful employees and innocent shareholders do not suffer the consequences of a business failure in this economy.\" IFCO's violation of the law was flagrant, officials said. More than half of the company's 5,800 workers during 2005 had invalid Social Security numbers, and the company ignored at least 13 letters from the Social Security Administration about questionable Social Security numbers. IFCO records suggests that as many as 6,000 illegal immigrants worked at company plants from 2003 to 2006, the Justice Department said. Federal officials said Friday that IFCO \"acknowledges and accepts responsibility for the unlawful conduct of its managers and employees.\" An IFCO official could not be reached for comment.","highlights":"Pallet and crate company IFCO Systems North America will pay $20.7 million .\nIFCO accused of luring workers to U.S., giving them fake Social Security numbers .\nJustice won't pursue criminal charges if company complies with settlement .\nAs many as 6,000 illegal immigrants worked for company from 2003 to 2006 ."} -{"article":"KEY WEST, Florida (CNN) -- The USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a retired U.S. Navy warship, embarked on a sedentary new career Wednesday on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. The USNS Vandenberg was intentionally sunk Wednesday to create an artificial reef for marine life. The decommissioned warship was scuttled in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary between 10:20 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. ET to become the world's second-largest artificial coral reef. The 17,250-ton ship sank in less than two minutes, said Andy Newman, spokesman for the Florida Keys Tourism Council. It is resting about 140 feet below the surface, but much of its bulk is only 40 to 70 feet below the surface. \"It went down like a rock,\" he told CNN. \"Everything looked very, very smooth.\" About 300 boats positioned themselves as close as possible to the site, and cheers went up when the Vandenberg slipped beneath the water seven miles south of Key West, the spokesman said. Watch the Vandenberg sink \u00bb . Newman, who was circling in a helicopter above the 522-foot-long ship, said the Vandenberg appeared to rest in a level position on the Gulf floor. Divers were to assess its position Wednesday. Authorities said once final assessments of the ship are made, divers can begin exploring. The goal of the $8.6 million project is to divert fishing and diving pressure away from natural reefs, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission \"estimates that the vessel's life span of at least 100 years will contribute stable, long-term habitat for scores of marine fish species, and provide exceptional diving and fishing opportunities for Florida residents and visitors,\" its Web site says. To sink the Vandenberg, holes were made above the waterline in the side of the ship and throughout various decks, Newman said. Explosive charges were embedded in the bilge area below the water. The explosives detonated inside the hull, blowing outward. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that the Vandenberg artificial reef will result in an annual increase of about $7.5 million in expenditures in the economy of Monroe County, which includes Key West. Sinkthevandenberg.com -- a joint effort by Artificial Reefs of the Keys and Valeo Films -- had offered a live, online stream of the event, but the system apparently was overloaded, making the site inaccessible. The Vandenberg was built at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond, California, in 1943. It was commissioned as a World War II troop transport ship. After Japan surrendered, the Vandenberg was the first Navy ship to return to New York Harbor. During the 1950s the ship was used to transport refugees from Europe and Australia to America. In the 1960s the Air Force used the Vandenberg to track missiles. It also was used to track rockets and early space shuttle launches. The ship was decommissioned in 1986 and was anchored with more than 25 other mothballed ships in Norfolk, Virginia. The Vandenberg was towed to Key West last month. The Vandenberg was chosen from among 400 decommissioned military vessels mainly based on appearance: \"her topside structure, her smooth, interesting hull lines, big girth and her starring role in a motion picture,\" Newman said. The ship was featured in the 1999 movie \"Virus,\" starring Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis. Four men who had served on the Vandenberg traveled to Key West to see the ship go to its final resting place. Patrick Utecht worked for more than 20 years as a civilian contractor on the Vandenberg when it was used for missile and radar tracking and data collection. When he heard about its future as part of an artificial reef, Utecht said, \"My feeling was one of elation.\" \"I can say that many of us [crew members] were thrilled that where she was going, she would keep her name and place in history.\" \"I think it's a far better use of her than being cut up,\" he added. The largest ship ever scuttled to create an artificial reef was the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, which sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast in 2006, according to the U.S. Navy. The former warship slipped under the water about 24 miles south of Pensacola, Florida, the Navy says on its Web site. The Oriskany was 888 feet long, and weighed 32,000 tons. It sank in water about 212 feet deep.","highlights":"A decommissioned U.S. Navy warship was intentionally sunk off the Florida Keys .\nThe USNS Vandenberg will become the world's second-largest artificial reef .\nThe sunken ship will create a long-term habitat for scores of marine fish species .\nThe ship was built in 1943 and commissioned as a WWII troop transport ship ."} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- From the custom-made, hand-beaded white dress to silver-studded high-heeled shoes, diamond jewelry and tiara, Jenny Ferro is preparing for a day she's dreamed about since she was 3 years old. \"I'm really excited,\" says Jenny, eagerly nodding her head. \"Really, really, a lot!\" She isn't getting married. The 15-year-old is preparing for her quincea\u00f1era, a coming-of-age ritual in Latin culture, marking a young girl's entrance into womanhood. The centuries-old tradition began as a ceremony to introduce girls to society on their 15th birthday and signified that they were ready for marriage. Today, many quincea\u00f1eras have become much more elaborate. Jenny and her mother, Marlene Ferro, have worked out every detail of the party well in advance, from the rehearsal to the reception to the flower girl and the music. The theme of the party is bedazzled. First, there is the dress, which Marlene had designed specially for her daughter. It cost about $800. Then there are the shoes, high-heeled and silver to match the dress. During the party, the high heels will be ceremoniously slipped onto her feet to replace her flat shoes -- a symbolic transition of her journey from childhood to womanhood. \"It makes her look like a princess,\" gushes Marlene Ferro. Quincea\u00f1eras are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. One reason for their popularity is a greater acceptance of Latin culture in America, according to Michele Salcedo, author of \"Quincea\u00f1era!\" a comprehensive guide to the celebration. \"The 15th birthday, culturally, is a milestone. It doesn't have to be celebrated with a party at all, but it is generally marked by something quite special,\" Salcedo says. Experts believe the quincea\u00f1era is rooted in Mayan, Aztec and European traditions. Today, many coming-of-age ceremonies resemble lavish \"Sweet 16\" celebrations. Beyond the elaborate apparel, food and festivities, modern quincea\u00f1eras often feature a court of 15 people, typically consisting of family and friends. As the event continues to grow in popularity, the makeup of the court has also changed. \"It has gone beyond Latinos, so that a lot of Latino girls will have not only family members in court but they will reach out to non-Latino friends,\" says Salcedo. \"So it's a way of reaching out and extending social ties and bringing people in who might not otherwise have an opportunity to know a Latino family and to know the culture.\" Family plays the largest role in the quincea\u00f1era, leading up to and during the party. Mothers, fathers, grandparents and godparents can spend years preparing a night to remember for the young girl. The tradition is just as important to the family as it is to the young woman. The large, extravagant celebrations often symbolize a family's hard work and success. How has America changed Latinos? Marlene Ferro, who emigrated from Cuba as a child with her parents, says Jenny's quincea\u00f1era was a gift to both of them. The 43-year-old, single mother of three, saved for years and estimates that she spent at least $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era. \"I was able to accomplish something that I had been looking forward to for 15 years,\" says Marlene Ferro. The parties can be as big and expensive as a family can imagine and costs can escalate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Salcedo. She recommends that families manage expectations before the party planning even begins. iReporter Alexis Fernandez's quincea\u00f1era was a big event in Alaska . \"Sometimes people go way overboard and [spend] much more on the celebration than they can afford and that's the downside of the quincea\u00f1era,\" says Salcedo. \"Because when it's done right it can be a beautiful family celebration and a celebration of a milestone that a young girl goes through.\" Quincea\u00f1eras have changed over the years. Even though her tiara was taller than her daughter's, Marlene says her quincea\u00f1era was simple. It was a small gathering at her sister's apartment with family and friends. She wore borrowed jewelry from a family member, had a homemade cake and danced with her father. Marlene Ferro's 15th birthday present was a telephone in her bedroom. \"I didn't have a big quince party. I chose to have a small party with my friends,\" she remembers. \"My dress was really easy ... I didn't have an option. It was this one or that one. Now, we give our kids the option.\" iReporter Diamond Ramirez's mother, grandmother never had quincea\u00f1eras . There's a spiritual element to these celebrations as well, says Salcedo. The church plays a role in helping to prepare teenage girls for this transition to womanhood. Ceremonies and classes before the coming-of-age celebration teach the young women that with adulthood come certain responsibilities, both physical and spiritual. \"When it's done in the spirit that it probably should be, the girl has certain responsibilities and by the end of the process, she's met them and she has showed her mother that she can, in fact, be responsible and she does acquire ... a bit more maturity then she [had] before,\" says Salcedo. As the celebrations become more popular in the United States, they also offer an opportunity for more Americans to participate. \"It's a way to push back a lot of the negativity that a lot of Latinos feel is directed at Latinos,\" says Salcedo. \"It is a way for people who have recently arrived, or maybe not so recently arrived, to say 'I have done well here' ... I'm throwing this party for my daughter and I'm inviting all of you to partake of my generosity so that you can see exactly how well we've done.\"","highlights":"Quincea\u00f1eras, or 15th birthday celebrations, mark a girl's transition to womanhood .\nJenny Ferro, 15, has been preparing for her celebration since she was 3 years old .\nMarlene Ferro estimates she spent $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era .\nExpert: The elaborate parties are a way for Latinos to say 'I have done well here'"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mexican and Colombian officials working with U.S. agents have seized about $41 million in cash hidden in shipping containers, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Monday. Colombian authorities seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency in Buenaventura, Colombia, on September 9. The U.S. agency, commonly called ICE, says the seizures were made September 9-18. It called them the largest seizure of cash ever found in shipping containers destined for Colombia and the largest for the agency since its inception. According to ICE: . \u2022 On September 9, Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian national police, acting on intelligence reports, seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in two shipping containers. The containers were aboard a vessel that sailed from the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was headed to Buenaventura, Colombia. Colombian customs inspectors said it was the most cash ever seized by police at a port in the nation. \u2022 On September 10, a second seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11.2 million also was made at the Buenaventura port. \u2022 On September 11, a shipment of $11 million was discovered hidden inside two shipping containers at the Port of Manzanillo. \u2022 On September 14, ICE special agents, along with Colombian authorities, discovered three additional shipping containers in Buenaventura containing about $5 million in $100 and $50 bills. These shipping containers also originated in Manzanillo. \u2022 On September 18, authorities seized $2.15 million in $100 bills concealed inside two containers aboard a vessel that arrived in Manzanillo. \"This seizure represents a bad day for organized crime,\" ICE Director John Morton said at a Monday news conference in Washington. \"Forty-one million dollars is not a rounding error. The loss of that kind of money hurts.\" All of the money was concealed in sacks of fertilizer chemicals in containers transported on commercial ships, Morton said. Watch investigators uncover cash \u00bb . \"When it's packed in very large containers, it's extremely difficult to probe; it's extremely difficult to X-ray. And so it was a very good means of concealing currency,\" he said. The ports of Buenaventura and Manzanillo are key points along a well-known route used for smuggling cocaine northward to Mexico and then on to the United States, and for sending cash back into Colombia, where most of the cocaine originates, ICE said in a news release. Morton called the smugglers \"very, very sophisticated,\" saying they were using the lawful shipping trade to send drug profits from the U.S. through Mexico to Colombia. Morton said the money will be forfeited in accordance with the laws of the nations where it was seized, with Colombia keeping $28 million and Mexico getting $13 million. \"None of these monies will be forfeited to the United States,\" he said. While large, this month's cash seizure is not a record. In March of 2007, officials in Mexico officials confiscated $207 million in cash in what was then called the largest drug-related cash seizure in history. ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, investigating financial crime, trade fraud, narcotics smuggling and cash smuggling, the agency said. ICE was established in 2003 after the Homeland Security Act of 2002. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joint operation nets about $41 million in cash hidden in shipping containers .\nMexican, Colombian authorities working with U.S. agents seize money in 2 ports .\nU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement calls ports key points in drug trade route ."} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- For Kenny Ortega, Travis Payne and Michael Bearden, \"It\" is a bittersweet feeling. The three men expected to be spending their time this summer and fall working on Michael Jackson's concert engagement at London's O2 Arena, which was scheduled to begin in July. Instead, they are talking about Jackson's last days and the new movie about that time, \"This Is It.\" In an interview, they described \"This Is It,\" the movie that they've made from rehearsal and backstage footage of Jackson, shot just before he died June 25. The film, which has been dominating advance ticket sale outlets, opens wide on Wednesday. The full movie wasn't screened for critics, with only 12 minutes of footage available to the media before the interviews. But as director Ortega describes it, the film tries to blend backstage footage with the performance to give an inside glimpse of those last days at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The scenes show the superstar working on his dance moves, figuring out choreography, practicing on stage and running the show. From the clips, there's no question that Jackson was in charge. His physicality is vibrant: At one point, he dances with a troupe of top-notch hoofers and keeps up with all of them. There's no indication of the infirmities that would ultimately take his life. All three men -- Payne was the show's choreographer and Bearden its music supervisor -- stressed how they wanted this movie to represent the Jackson they knew. \"It was an honor project,\" Bearden said. According to Ortega, the film is for the fans. He said he was inundated with e-mails from fans wanting to know just what Jackson had planned for the concerts he would never give. Above all, they said they were concerned about Jackson's three children. They said that they wanted to make a film that his kids -- Prince Michael, Paris and \"Blanket\" -- would be able to see in years to come that would make them proud of their father. Though the men acknowledged a heavy responsibility, there were light moments during the interviews. Payne and Bearden both smiled as they talked about working for the King of Pop and how he'd try to tell people what he wanted. \"I know you mean well, but ...,\" Jackson would say as he corrected colleagues, they recalled. But all of them talked about he emotional toll that making this film has taken on them. There were \"a lot of tissue moments on this film,\" Bearden said. Watch a former Jackson guitarist reflect on his career . Ortega added that he didn't know whether he could handle the emotional stress involved in making this movie so quickly. Ultimately, according to Ortega, the movie proved to be cathartic. \"I thought I'd collapse,\" Ortega said. \"I thought I'll never get through it, it's too hard, it's too soon, but in fact it was healing and helpful.\" He hopes Jackson's fans will feel the same way.","highlights":"\"This Is It,\" Michael Jackson concert film, is dominating advance ticket sales .\nFilm was tough to make, musician's colleagues say .\nProduction was for the fans but especially for Jackson's children .\n\"American Morning\" looks at the value of Michael Jackson's estate Monday 6 a.m. ET ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Natasha Richardson, a film star, Tony-winning stage actress and member of the famed Redgrave acting family, died Wednesday after suffering injuries in a ski accident, according to a family statement. She was 45. Natasha Richardson fell on a beginners' slope in Canada. Richardson, wife of actor Liam Neeson, was injured Monday in a fall on a ski slope at a Quebec resort about 80 miles northwest of Montreal. Richardson's family released a statement saying, \"Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.\" According to a statement from Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, Richardson fell during a lesson on a beginners' trail. Watch a report on Richardson's life \u00bb . \"She did not show any visible sign of injury, but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor,\" the statement said. Richardson, accompanied by her instructor, returned to her hotel, but about an hour after the fall was \"not feeling good,\" the statement said. An ambulance was called, and Richardson was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. From there she was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Friends and colleagues were saddened by her death. \"Natasha was brilliant, beautiful, funny, talented beyond measure, as emotionally raw as she was razor sharp,\" said Jodie Foster, who worked with Richardson in \"Nell,\" in a statement. \"Tasha loved fiercely and that love continues in all of us who knew her. May Liam, her beautiful boys and her loving family hold her close as they move through this tragic moment.\" \"Natasha combined the best of [her parents, Vanessa] Redgrave and [Tony] Richardson: the enormous depth and emotional force of a great actor on the one hand, and the intelligence and objectivity of a great director on the other. She was a one-of-a-kind, a magnificent actress,\" said director Sam Mendes in a statement. Mendes directed Richardson in her Tony-winning \"Cabaret\" performance. Richardson was practically born to perform. Her grandfather, Sir Michael Redgrave, was a famed British actor. Her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, is an Oscar-winning actress, and her father, the late director Tony Richardson, helmed such films as \"Look Back in Anger,\" \"The Entertainer\" and the Oscar-winning \"Tom Jones.\" Natasha Richardson's uncle Corin Redgrave, aunt Lynn Redgrave, and sister Joely Richardson are also noted performers. But being part of a family of actors wasn't always easy for Richardson. Her parents divorced when she was 4 and her mother, involved in controversial political causes, gave away a lot of money, putting the family in financial straits, according to the BBC. Then there was the family heritage, of which Richardson once said, \"Though my name opened doors it didn't get me work, and a lot of pressure comes from having a mother who is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation,\" the BBC reported. In 2007, Richardson worked with her mother in the film \"Evening.\" Richardson said she made one point to director Lajos Koltai about the relatives working together. \"This is a unique opportunity,\" she said she told him. \"This is the one time my mother and I are going to play mother and daughter on screen, so you've got to take advantage of it.\" Watch Richardson talk about working with her mom \u00bb . Richardson's first film role was a bit part in her father's \"The Charge of the Light Brigade\" (1968), made when she was 4. After a handful of roles through her teens and early 20s, she broke through as Mary Shelley in Ken Russell's film \"Gothic,\" and followed that up as Patty Hearst in Paul Schrader's 1988 film of the same name. iReport.com: Share memories of Richardson . Richardson's other notable films included \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (1990); the TV movie \"Zelda\" (1993); \"Nell\" (1994), alongside Neeson, whom she married in 1994; the 1998 remake of \"The Parent Trap\"; and \"Wild Child\" (2008). Watch Larry King and his panel talk about Richardson's career and death \u00bb . But some of Richardson's greatest successes were on the stage. At 22, she played opposite her mother and Jonathan Pryce in a London production of Anton Chekhov's \"The Seagull\"; the performance earned her the London Drama Critics' most promising newcomer award. She won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of \"Cabaret\" and earned raves for her Blanche DuBois in a 2005 production of \"A Streetcar Named Desire.\" She was scheduled to perform in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's \"A Little Night Music\" this year, following a January benefit performance of the show. She and Neeson have two children, Michael and Daniel. Richardson was married to Robert Fox from 1990 to 1994.","highlights":"Actress Natasha Richardson fell Monday while skiing .\nRichardson appeared fine, but became ill soon after .\nActress, 45, was daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, wife of Liam Neeson .\nFamily says they are \"shocked and devastated,\" thank all for support ."} -{"article":"CNN Student News -- June 29, 2007 . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks for checking out our latest summer edition of CNN Student News, where today's show, all about tech. I'm Carl Azuz. A college professor has found a way for his students to listen to his lectures even when they're not in the classroom. And we talk to students and experts to find out some of the ways technology is being used in schools. First Up: Gadget Gifts . AZUZ: It's better to give than to receive. You've probably heard it a hundred times. But when that gift is for a techie, there's a gaggle of gadgets to go through. So how do you know which present to pick? Reynolds Wolf is here to help with the breakdown on some cool tech toys. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN REPORTER: Are you searching for that perfect gift, but you are just a little bit stumped? Well, no worries. Brian Cooley from CNET.com is here to help us out, steer us clear and hopefully give us some great ideas. And I know you have some great ideas for us. BRIAN COOLEY, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, CNET.COM: Look at these beauties. First of all, for gaming, you know the Nintendo Wii is hot, but you can't find one? The Nintendo DS Light is a pretty good placeholder. The dual screen that it's known for, they've slimmed it down from its original DS. And of course that great legacy of all those great Nintendo games. And pretty cheep. For $130 or less you can get one of these. That's very affordable. Check out this music player, Reynolds. It's gonna be the next kind of iPod. It's from SanDisk. It's called the Sansa Connect. That little bump is a WiFi antenna. This can connect wirelessly to the Internet or to other devices like it to share music, download music and stream Internet radio. That is really the future of iPod-like devices. If you want to give a phone, but you also want to give a music player, this one does both. NOKIA's 5300 Music Express is a great music player. It's not an iPod, but it's not bad. Transport controls and volume buttons out here tell you that it's something different. And then for a camera, I like this very flat Sony T100. It's pocket-size, which is very hot these days. Nice slide-down door. 8 mega pixels, image stabilization and a great big screen for sharing photos. WOLF: Brian Cooley of CNET.com, thank you so much. COOLEY: You bet. (END VIDEO CLIP) Shoutout . GEORGE RAMSAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! When did the first iPod debut? If you think you know it, shout it out. Was it: A) 1997, B) 1999, C) 2001 or D) 2003? You've got three seconds -- Go! If you guessed C, you've got the right tune. The popular portable players first made the scene in the fall of 2001. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Tech in the Classroom . AZUZ: Whether it's an iPod, Sony, Samsung or Zune, it seems like you can't go anywhere these days without seeing people plugged in to some type of MP3 player. And if you're on a college campus, you might think students walking around with their ear buds in are listening to music. But don't be fooled. They could just be studying up for class. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AZUZ: Walk around any college campus and those famous white earplugs seem to be everywhere. But sometimes the playlist isn't quite what you'd expect. Lectures on Computer Science instead of American Idol. Not so much Sum 41 as History 101. Some teachers have used the audio iPod in their lessons, but at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Jim Foley hopes to transfer his visual Web lectures to the video iPod. PROFESSOR FOLEY, USER INTERFACE DESIGN TEACHER: The students who did Web lectures earned grades that were about 10% better -- we did that three years ago. AZUZ: As MP3 players become essential parts of students' lives, they have the potential to rival the laptop as learning tools in the classroom. With a graduate student's help, Foley records lectures before class, so that students can raise questions when they arrive. Students from Foley's User Interface Design course say they find it valuable to review lectures when convenient. KATHY PHAM, STUDENT IN PROFESSOR FOLEY'S USER INTERFACE DESIGN CLASS: It takes 15 minutes to walk from one side of campus to the other side of campus. And to be able just to download the mp3 to my iPod and just walk across campus, would be very beneficial. SCOTT GILLILAND, STUDENT IN PROFESSOR FOLEY'S USER INTERFACE DESIGN CLASS: A lot of people can't get to a full desktop computer whenever they need to listen to the lectures, and it's nice to be able to take them with you. AZUZ: Although students show enthusiasm towards MP3 players, there are limitations because they're small. FOLEY: The screen resolution is smaller and navigating between pages will be a little bit slower than on the computer because on the computer I just use the mouse. With the iPod I have to use the scrollwheel and scroll around. AZUZ: Like the laptop, the MP3 player is a popular and revolutionary way to gather and disseminate information. Regardless of what teachers decide to use, players and laptops will remain allies. Besides, you need a laptop to operate an iPod and vice versa. (END VIDEO CLIP) Podcast Promo . AZUZ: And if downloading lectures isn't enough, we've got another cool thing you can do with an MP3 player: watch CNN Student News! That's right, you can download our Podcast at CNNstudentnews.com or at iTunes. So you won't miss out on the news when you're on the go. Now and Then . RAMSAY: With cell phones, thin is in. But you had to flex some muscle to handle its oversized ancestor. An iPod can hold your whole music library. But a vintage Walkman let you jam out one cassette at a time. Microchips keep getting smaller and smaller. But old school computers took up a lot more space. And game controllers have buttons for every possible move. But the retro version? One button, one joystick, tons of fun. Learning with Technology . AZUZ: It's not just slimmer cell phones and smaller computers. Advances in technology are changing the world we live in all the time. And one of the places where those changes are taking place is schools. So we talked to some students and experts to hear what they have to say about teaching with tech. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRINA DAVIS, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION: We started off, when we were first starting to integrate technology, kind of at that basic level. MATTHEW LEWIS, JUNIOR, GREENSIDE HIGH SCHOOL: We of course use laptops and computers. Each teacher is assigned a laptop. And also, we have computer labs and a media center with computers inside. DON KNEZEK, CEO, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION: Certainly just dropping technology into a learning environment doesn't necessarily improve it unless you are sure that the activities that you are doing align with the expectations that you have for learning. AMMARAH MAHMOUD, JUNIOR, SALEM HIGH SCHOOL: I think many careers today require for people to know how to use technology, so it's important to learn that in school . KNEZEK: So you can't convince me that a student without basic fundamental technology skills is on equal footing for employment. MAHMOUD: I don't think schooling should be technology dependent, because I think that, at the same time, we shouldn't rely on something that doesn't have a mind of its own. KNEZEK: You can certainly abuse technology. You can abuse the printed word. You can abuse access to external resources. Certainly if teachers and school leaders and parents use the same standards that they would use for any resource for technologies, then we're in fine shape. LEWIS: I can see people in the future having something where you just scan, and all of your, you know, personal information comes up and everything about you can come up on a screen, and I think that's really cool. DAVIS: Customization, very innovative, lots of gaming, lots of 3-dimensional spaces and just social spaces that feed on the needs of young learners. (END VIDEO CLIP) Goodbye . AZUZ: And that is the last word in this special edition of CNN Student News. We'll see you back here soon for our next summer show. And of course we thank you for watching everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Get a glimpse at the next generation of gadgets .\nHow the teaching role of MP3 players is growing .\nWhat officials say about tech on campus ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The disabled young son of UK opposition leader David Cameron has died. David Cameron leaves the family home after the death of his 6-year-old son on February 25. Ivan Cameron, six, passed away early Wednesday, the UK's Press Association reported a Conservative Party spokesman as saying. \"It is with great sadness that David and Samantha Cameron must confirm the death of their six-year-old son Ivan,\" the spokesman said according to the agency. The spokesman said that Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, was taken ill overnight and died at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, central London early Wednesday morning. \"David and Samantha would ask that their privacy is respected at this terribly difficult time,\" the spokesman added. Meanwhile, the queen sent a private message of sympathy to the Camerons, Buckingham Palace said. Prime minister Gordon Brown said the \"thoughts and prayers of the whole country\" would be with the Conservative leader and his family, The Guardian newspaper reported, while prime minister's question time -- which offers Cameron a weekly opportunity to grill Brown in parliament -- was cancelled at Brown's suggestion. The prime minister, together with other senior British politicians, instead offered their condolences in the parliament chamber. \"I know that the whole house will want to express their sorrow at the death of Ivan Cameron,\" Brown told lawmakers, according to The Guardian. \"He brought joy to all those around him. Every child is precious and irreplaceable. The death of a child is an unbearable sorrow no parents should have to endure.\" Brown and his wife Sarah lost their first child, Jennifer Jane, in 2001 after she was born prematurely and died 10 days later. They have two sons, John and Fraser, who suffers from cystic fibrosis.","highlights":"UK media: Young son of opposition leader David Cameron has died .\nIvan Cameron, six, passed away early Wednesday, Conservative Party says .\nIvan Cameron suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy .\nBritish PM Gordon Brown offered his condolences in parliament ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police are examining grainy hotel surveillance video and following up on new leads, including a reported sighting, in the case of a 17-year-old girl who traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for spring break last week and then disappeared. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mother says she thought her daughter was at a beach in New York, not South Carolina. The possible sighting of Brittanee Drexel was on a bus Wednesday morning in the Myrtle Beach area, according to police, who later showed photos of her to passengers. As investigators try to build a timeline of the events leading to Brittanee's disappearance Saturday night, they are also scrutinizing hotel security video for signs of a young woman in distress, or other clues. Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel, told HLN's Nancy Grace that she had forbidden the Rochester, New York, high school junior from going to Myrtle Beach, a popular destination for high school and college students on spring break. Although they stayed in touch by phone and spoke on Saturday, Drexel said she believed the girl was in Rochester when she actually was in Myrtle Beach. \"I didn't have any idea that she was going to do this,\" Drexel said. \"I do trust my daughter, and she needed to cool down a little bit because she was upset that I wasn't going to let her go.\" Drexel said her daughter rode there in a car with several friends. She thinks Brittanee used money she had earned and borrowed to finance her trip.","highlights":"Police show girl's photo to bus passengers after reported sighting .\nBrittanee Drexel, 17, went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., without mother's permission .\nRochester, N.Y., high school junior last seen on Saturday night ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Why would an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer and single mother want to tack reality TV star onto her long list of accomplishments? Kandi Burruss says she is happy to join the \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\" cast. For Kandi Burruss, the newest member of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, the answer is simple: \"I was a fan last year. I love the show.\" The second season of Bravo's hit show is set to premier on Thursday with Burruss replacing cast member DeShawn Snow. Burruss is well-known in the music industry as a former member of the platinum-selling R&B girl group Xscape and co-writer of such hits as Destiny's Child's \"Bills, Bills, Bills\" and TLC's \"No Scrubs,\" for which she won a Grammy. The Atlanta native almost ended up on another reality show with former group mate and writing partner Tameka \"Tiny\" Cottle, who is the fianc\u00e9e of rapper T.I. and now stars on BET's \"Tiny & Toya\" alongside Antonia \"Toya\" Carter, the ex-wife of Lil' Wayne. The deal for that show didn't work out and Burruss said she was more than happy to sign on with Bravo's wildly successful southern edition of the \"Housewives\" franchise, which chronicles the lives of a group of affluent African-American women in the ATL. Burruss was already friendly with cast mate Lisa Wu Hartwell, whom she met through their mutual friend Cottle. Having watched the show -- which last season enraptured viewers with a mix of constant infighting, lavish lifestyles and a healthy dose of drama -- Burruss said she was more concerned with being thrust into the public eye than she was with getting along with the cast. \"The only thing that made me hesitant about wanting to be a part of the show is the fact that people are so critical of the show,\" she said. \"Just dealing with people on the outside judging you. That part is going to be something that I am going to have to get used to.\" The artist has already had to get acclimated to people smearing her personal life on the Internet. Watch Burruss discuss her time on the show \u00bb . Newly engaged to a father of six children, Burruss has watched him get attacked in blogs and is protective of the man who she said even her mother isn't thrilled about her marrying. \"[The show] has been very, very stressful on the relationship,\" she said. \"I guess [people] couldn't find anything bad [to say] about me, so they wanted to go in on my fianc\u00e9.\" Her caring nature and laid-back personality make Burruss special in the industry, said rapper Rick Ross. \"She's a very humble person, maybe one of the most humble people among the biggest songwriters in the industry,\" said Ross, who collaborated with Burruss on a track for a new solo album she has in the works. \"It's good to be around the greats and she most definitely is one of the greatest in the industry.\" Her home music studio attests to that. The walls are covered with gold and platinum records for her work with several high-profile artists including Alicia Keys, *NSYNC, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Being part of a girl group helped prepare her for the drama of dealing with the other housewives' personalities, Burruss said, though she admitted clashing with outspoken cast mate NeNe Leakes during filming. \"I was a fan of hers last year,\" Burruss said. \"All that wild and crazy stuff she says to people, when you're watching it, it's funny, it's hilarious... but when it's directed at you, it's not funny anymore.\" Burruss got along better with aspiring singer Kim Zolciak, who Burruss will assist in achieving her dream of breaking into the industry. Last season, fans of the show -- and some of the other housewives -- slammed Zolciak for her less-than-stellar voice. \"Everybody loves to hate on Kim. But what I have to say is that Kim is actually cooler in person than she came off on the show,\" said Burruss, who in 1999 won top songwriter of the year from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. \"I wanted to help her out because I love helping the underdog.\" The busy artist said she has no idea if she will be invited back for another season. Appearing on the show, which Burruss said is not scripted, was fun, but she is busy with an upcoming album and with caring for her daughter, Riley, she said. She doubts she will be addicted to appearing on reality TV like she is addicted to music, Burruss said. \"It's just another way for people to get to know you and hopefully they see me in a good light,\" she said. \"You always hope that it doesn't backfire.\"","highlights":"Kandi Burruss is the newest member of Bravo's \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\"\nAn accomplished singer\/songwriter\/producer, she was a fan last season .\nBurruss confirms she and cast mate NeNe Leakes didn't get along .\nThe single mother hopes fans will see her in \"a good light\""} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan exile leaders, meeting in northern India to debate a potential new approach to Tibet's decades-long struggle for autonomy, have voted to stay with the Dalai Lama's current \"middle way approach,\" according to a spokesman for the spiritual leader. Some have sought Tibet's independence from China, but the Dalai Lama has sought autonomy. \"The majority of the people have spoken and have requested his holiness the Dalai Lama to continue with his middle way approach,\" said spokesman Tenzin Taklha. The meeting was called after the Dalai Lama acknowledged he had failed in his efforts to convince China to restore the territory's autonomy. He did not attend the week-long conference in Dharamsala, a town in the hills of north India where he lives in exile. He called the meeting, he said, to offer the exiles an opportunity to discuss \"the best possible future course of action\" for Tibet. Takhla said the Tibetans demonstrated that the Dalai Lama was their undisputed leader, and they hoped China would recognize him as such and negotiations toward a realistic solution could be held. There was a small minority who said they wanted to demand Tibet's independence, Takhla said. The \"middle way\" approach with Beijing is one in which Tibetans want a level of autonomy that will allow them to protect and preserve their culture, religion and national identity. In exchange, China could continue to claim Tibet as part of its territory. Some in Tibet have advocated independence from China, but the Dalai Lama has long called for genuine autonomy. Tibet is technically autonomous from the central Chinese government, but the Dalai Lama and others have said they favor real autonomy and resent the slow erosion of their culture amid an influx of Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China. Learn about Tibet's history of conflict \u00bb . The resentment spilled over in March, when Buddhist monks initiated peaceful anti-Chinese protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The demonstrations began March 14, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule that sent the Dalai Lama into exile. The protests soon turned violent, with demonstrators burning vehicles and shops. Some protesters advocated independence from China, while others demonstrated against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in Tibet and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations. The subsequent crackdown left 18 civilians and one police officer dead, according to the Chinese government. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140. China blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for the March riots -- a charge he has consistently denied.","highlights":"Tibetan exile leaders back Dalai Lama's current \"middle way approach\"\nThe Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, seeks genuine autonomy from Beijing .\nSmall minority want to demand Tibet's independence, spokesman says ."} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Barack Obama sometimes gets ribbed for his outsized ideas, like the massive stage built in Denver, Colorado, to accept the Democratic presidential nomination. But an artist in Barcelona, Spain, may be about to outdo the candidate himself. Large-format sketches have long been a focus of artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's work. The artist plans to create a gigantic face of Obama sculpted from gravel and sand, which will cover nearly 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of Barcelona beachfront before the U.S. elections. \"The size of the piece is intrinsic to its value,\" the artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, said Saturday. He hopes it will be big enough to be seen on Google Earth. \"Obama's personality -- his youth, personal history and message of a new politics -- has fused with the historical moment to create someone larger than life,\" says the artist's dossier about the work, titled \"Expectation.\" The huge size also alludes \"to the global impact of this election,\" the dossier adds. iReport.com: What do you want to ask Sen. Obama? Rodriguez-Gerada, 42, is a Cuban-born American who grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey, near New York, and now lives in Barcelona. The artist, who has long focused on large-format sketches and other designs, said he had been planning to put an anonymous face on Barcelona's Mediterranean beachfront but shelved the idea. Then, six weeks ago, he decided it should be Obama's face. \"Everybody's doing work about Obama,\" he said. \"I was talking to my wife about the importance of this election internationally. It all came together.\" The idea, that is. The execution of the project is still a work in progress, but with a lot of help pouring in. The artist has created what he calls a \"vectored image\" from different photos of Obama, showing the candidate's face looking left over his shoulder. He will use 500 tons of material -- mainly gravel but also sand and possibly some soil in black, brown and white tones -- to create the image on a flat piece of land slightly raised and overlooking the Mediterranean, near downtown Barcelona. The artist and a Barcelona newspaper say the city has temporarily ceded use of the land for the project. The portrait of Obama's face will be 445 feet long by 264 feet wide (139.28 by 82.67 meters) and the artist hopes to have it done by late next week or no later than November 3, the day before the U.S. elections. The materials have been donated, along with bulldozers and their drivers. The crews will initially spread the materials along white lines, and other markers that will be laid out according to the sketch. Then, the artist's technical team will direct volunteers with garden rakes to put the final touches on the materials, making sure the various colors are spread properly on the ground in order to depict Obama's eyes, hair, cheeks and collar, according to the plans. Rodriguez-Gerada said he'll need to raise about $18,700 (15,000 euros) for other costs, such as rakes and gloves for volunteers, documentation, even portable toilets for the crew. He said it's his \"biggest work ever, in scale and complexity.\" He's a self-described political independent until recently, when he joined Democrats Abroad in Spain. But he added that the art project is his alone, without help from any political organization or campaign, and he won't be paid for it. Rodriguez-Gerada said this project also aims to address the issue of \"trying to find heroes with empathy for the problems of the world. We really need empathy from Barack Obama. There's a need to do positive things for the future.\" Obama's giant face would be environmentally friendly, with all natural colors, so the materials could be recycled, the artist said. Rodriguez-Gerada's not sure how long the face would remain in place in Barcelona, because the site is slated to be used for a new municipal building. But even if the face isn't permanent, it might be the start of outsized artistic images of Obama. Barcelona journalist Matt Elmore contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cuban-American artist plans to finish work before U.S. elections .\n500 tons of material will cover 2.5 acres of beachfront .\nDemocratic presidential candidate is \"larger than life,\" artist says .\nProject also aims to address issue of \"trying to find heroes\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A videotape on a Russian Web site allegedly showing a State Department employee having sex with a prostitute is a \"smear campaign\" meant to discredit the man, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. The State Department has said the tape allegedly showing an employee having sex with a prostitute is a fake. The employee, Brendan Kyle Hatcher, denied any encounter with a prostitute to his superiors at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, another State Department official said. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, \"supports\" Hatcher, who remains at his job at the embassy. Hatcher had previously worked in the sensitive area of religious and human rights in Russia, the spokesman said. \"Mr. Hatcher ... enjoys the full confidence of Ambassador Beyrle and fully intends to serve out the rest of his tour in Moscow,\" Kelly said at an afternoon briefing at the State Department. The United States \"deplores this type of campaign and use of the Internet to smear a foreign service officer of good standing,\" he added. Watch why the U.S. says the tape is doctored \u00bb . Beyrle was unequivocal in expressing his support in an interview with ABC News. \"Kyle Hatcher has done nothing wrong,\" he said. \"Clearly, the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated.\" A senior State Department official said, \"It's a doctored tape and a set-up designed to implicate someone working as a liaison with religious and human rights groups in Russia.\" The official said Hatcher, who is married, \"was approached by Russians; they tried to blackmail him, but he did everything correctly,\" reporting the incident to his supervisors at the Embassy. The tape then appeared on the tabloid newspaper Web site Compromat.ru and was picked up by other outlets. Diplomatic sources who declined to be named said Compromat.ru has a history of ties to Russia's security services. Russia's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about the video. Another senior State Department official, who has seen the video, said \"it's clear to me that it's him,\" referring to portions showing Hatcher alone in the hotel room. \"But then the lights go down,\" and the footage from there on is faked, that official said. The video of Hatcher in the hotel room was taken last year, \"somewhere in Siberia,\" said the senior State Department official who watched the video. It was shot in a hotel that Hatcher visited, the official said. When questioned about the possible motivation for creating the video, the official said it's presumed \"it was done because of his human rights work,\" in Russia. The official doubted the incident will have any effect on U.S.-Russian relations and noted that the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have both been \"very cooperative\" in the months since the footage came to light. \"The vast majority of people there are working toward better relations,\" the official said. Another official said Hatcher is a \"great officer\" who, until last summer, was a political reporting officer focusing on religious freedom issues in Russia. The assignment lasts two years: one year in that specialty and a year on the visa-issuing line at the embassy. Last year, this official said, Hatcher was the lead officer compiling the State Department's Religious Freedom report and was given an award for his work by the ambassador. Another official confirmed that Hatcher received a meritorious honor award in 2009 and a group award in 2008. Hatcher, one official said, worked with religious groups that are considered \"outside the mainstream\" in Russia, such as Protestants and non-Christians. Such faiths often face official and unofficial discrimination in the largely Russian-Orthodox society. Another senior State Department official said, \"there is a lot of inertia\" among some special security services in Russia. \"They are pretty much unreconstructed,\" he said. The security services may have wanted to compromise Hatcher's ability to work with religious groups, he says, \"or they may have wanted to throw a stick into the spokes\" of the U.S.-Russia relationship. \"Some in Moscow,\" he said, \"are looking to integrate with the West, and others are trying to stop that.\" The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow and Paul Courson in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Russian officials are being \"very cooperative,\" U.S. official says .\nRussian site allegedly shows State Department employee having sex with prostitute .\nU.S. ambassador says video clips \"clearly fabricated\"\nOfficial: Tape meant to discredit employee working in religious and human rights ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lankans went to the polls on Tuesday in the island nation's first peacetime presidential election in 26 years, despite explosions and mortar fire in the capital of Northern Province hours before polls opened. Once a stronghold for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Northern Province city of Jaffna was a frequent battleground for the rebels and Sri Lankan government troops until a government offensive last year crushed the Tigers. While it wasn't clear what the explosions were, they were nothing new for Jaffnans, who have lived under military control for decades. More than 14 million Sri Lankans are expected to elect their sixth executive president to a six-year term. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking a fresh mandate for his government, but he faces a tough challenge from his one-time confidante and former Army commander, retired General Sarath Fonseka. Rajapaksa cast his vote in his ancestral town of Medamulana, near the southern town of Tangalle. \"I am very confident of victory,\" he told journalists. Fonseka was expected to visit a polling booth in Colombo. Queues were large outside most polling booths in Colombo and principal towns, election officials said. \"I waited in a queue for 45 minutes before I could cast my ballot,\" said Damayantha Perera of the Colombo suburb of Maharagama. \"I also had to wait for almost an hour,\" said W. Ramiah, a resident of Nugegoda, also of Colombo. Fonseka, who won wide acclaim for leading troops to military victory against the rebels, broke ranks with the Rajapaksa administration after he was elevated to the largely ceremonial post of chief of defense staff in July after retiring as Army commander. After Fonseka announced his presidential bid, the main opposition parties -- with widely diverse political ideologies -- closed ranks behind him to make him their common candidate. \"There has been abuse of power, corruption and nepotism. We want to abolish the executive presidency and make the parliament more answerable to the people. The best person to do this is the one who defeated terrorism,\" Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party, told CNN. Many of Rajapaksa's family members, including his brothers, hold key positions in the government: Chamal is a Cabinet minister, Gotabhaya is Defense Secretary, and Basil is a member of parliament and senior presidential adviser. Other members of the family hold important positions locally and in Sri Lanka's diplomatic missions abroad. The coalition of parties backing Fonseka includes a main opposition right wing party and a leftist Marxist outfit, as well as the Tamil National Alliance. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a branch of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, said the situation in Sri Lanka, however, is \"a picture of dysfunction and breakdown.\" There have been allegations of interference with mail-in ballots, according to the group. Most of the complaints have been against members of Rajapaksa's government, it said. There have been more than 700 reports of violence ahead of the election, with at least four deaths reported, Saravanamuttu said. Sri Lankans are casting their ballots in more than 11,000 voting booths across the nation. Local leaders have urged a peaceful voting day amid the escalating violence, including the shooting deaths of two people -- one a supporter of the opposition and the other of the government. A contingent of 85,000 police officers have been deployed to maintain law and order, said Mahinda Balasooriya, the inspector general of police. Each polling station has two to three police officers on duty, he said. The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that the U.N. chief was \"concerned about the growing violence in the lead-up to the presidential election.\" \"The peaceful conduct of the first post-conflict national election is of the highest importance for long-term peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka,\" he added. CNN's Sara Sidner and Iqbal Athas contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Queues were large outside most Colombo polling booths, election officials say .\nNEW: President Rajapaksa casts his vote in ancestral town of Medamulana .\nHe faces tough challenge from retired Gen. Fonseka .\nPolice: Contingent of 85,000 police officers deployed to maintain law and order ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A Washington-based imam told CNN on Monday that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan approached him for help finding a wife. Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, said Hasan came to him at least two years ago as the cleric conducted services at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. \"He said he wanted someone to help him serve, deploy and be understandable and understanding of his own military career,\" Hendi said. \"He saw himself as someone ... continuing his service with the U.S. military till the end of his career.\" The imam said he spoke with Hasan on at least two occasions about his search for a spouse. \"It's not easy to find, in general, someone who will be willing to travel with you and deploy with you every two years,\" Hendi said. \"But he did want a wife who would stand by him, is [a] loyal American, who will help him do his work and his service for the U.S. military.\" The imam's comments about Hasan's search for someone who would remain with him throughout his military career were at odds with some statements by Hasan's family. Relatives have said Hasan tried unsuccessfully to leave the military early -- requests that may have come after Hasan contacted Hendi. The cleric said he did try to help Hasan in his search, thinking of women he knew to whom he could introduce the Army psychiatrist, but he never heard from Hasan again. Authorities say Hasan opened fire at a military processing center at Fort Hood Army Post on November 5, killing 13 people. Hasan, who was seriously wounded in the incident, was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder -- charges that make him eligible for the death penalty. Two other imams have told CNN similar stories about Hasan's search for a wife, and about his conservatism and apparent devotion to Islam -- but those accounts seem to be inconsistent with behavior Hasan exhibited in the last few months. The manager of a strip club near Fort Hood has told reporters that Hasan visited the club a handful of times, staying for several hours each time. \"You know, for me, everything that he did is against the teachings of Islam. Killing fellow soldiers, fellow citizen men and women, the shooting, the bloodshed, speaks of someone who did not understand his faith very well. Islam is against going to strip clubs, but it's also against killing fellow citizens,\" Hendi told CNN. When taken as a whole, Hasan's actions in the weeks before the attack at Fort Hood -- the giving away of his possessions, his sometimes conservative dress in white Muslim clothing, and his previous defense of suicide bombings during presentations to classmates -- seem to be those of someone who was preparing for his own death, said CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. \"I think what he was doing was sort of a jihadist 'death-by-cop,'\" said Bergen, who based his observations on news reports about Hasan. \"Here's a guy who obviously had personal problems. He's a loner, he avoids women basically, has few friends, and then grafted onto that, he finds sort of a jihadist ideology as a way of making sense of everything, and he decides to martyr himself.\" Bergen and other experts say Hasan could be someone who engaged in what they call \"self-radicalization\": the idea that militant religion might provide an answer to psychological problems that someone already has. Hasan remained hospitalized in Texas, paralyzed from the waist down, his lawyer said. He was shot by a civilian police officer, who was also wounded in the attack.","highlights":"Imam: Nidal Malik Hasan wanted wife who could deal with his military career .\nYahya Hendi is third imam to tell CNN Hasan asked for help finding wife .\nManager of strip club tells reporters Hasan visited there several times .\nHendi says strip club visits violate Islam -- and so does \"killing fellow citizens\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the southern Baja California peninsula Monday in preparation for Hurricane Jimena, a powerful Category 4 storm with winds near 155 mph (250 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters expect Hurricane Jimena to approach the southwestern tip of Baja California's peninsula Tuesday. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. The storm could bring as much as 2 feet of rain to the area, along with dangerous, battering waves, forecasters said. Jimena was centered about 285 miles (460 km) south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, according to the hurricane center. It was traveling northwest near 10 mph (17 kph) but meteorologists expect Jimena to pick up speed in the coming day. Forecasters expect the storm to continue in a northwest motion and approach the southwestern tip of Baja California Tuesday, forecasters said. \"It's not expected to change in strength very much during the next day or so,\" said Daniel Brown, a hurricane specialist at the center. See the storm's projected path \u00bb . \"It may begin to weaken a little as it approaches the Baja peninsula, but it's expected to remain a very dangerous hurricane, perhaps a Category 3 as it approaches that area.\" Jimena is the 10th named storm of the Pacific season. Residents in spots expected to be hit by Jimena should prepare for potentially rough conditions, Brown said. Tropical Storm Kevin is also making its presence felt in the Pacific Ocean, just to the west of Jimena, but it is weak and is not expected to do any damage, according to Brown. \"For the eastern Pacific, it has been about a near-normal season. It has gotten much busier here during the month of August,\" Brown said. CNN's John Lorinc contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Hurricane warning issued for the southern Baja California peninsula .\nThe Category 4 storm is centered off Cabo San Lucas, traveling northwest at 10 mph .\nJimena's sustained winds near 155 mph, but forecasters expect it to pick up speed ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Grammy-winning rapper Coolio was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday on suspicion of possessing illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia, according to a spokeswoman for the airport. Coolio's \"Gangsta's Paradise\" was used in the movie \"Dangerous Minds.\" Coolio, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was taken to the Van Nuys Division station for booking, the spokeswoman said. A source at the airport's public relations division confirmed the arrest but declined to be named. Coolio is best known for his 1995 hip-hop hit \"Gangsta's Paradise.\" Efforts to reach his publicist were unsuccessful.","highlights":"Grammy winner held at Los Angeles International Airport .\nHe is accused of possessing illegal drugs, paraphernalia .\nHis best-known hit is \"Gangsta's Paradise\""} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Michelle Obama dazzled on the dance floor Tuesday night at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, wearing an elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created for her by 26-year-old designer, Jason Wu. First lady Michelle Obama dazzled in a Jason Wu original gown. The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes, Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver embroidery. The first lady accessorized with diamond chandelier earrings, a white gold and diamond ring and a stack of diamond bangles by jeweler Loree Rodkin. The president summed up his wife's look best before their first dance -- to Beyonc\u00e9's rendition of \"At Last\" -- when he said, \"First of all, how good-looking is my wife?\" Michelle Obama has worn Wu once before, during an interview with Barbara Walters. Wu, one of America's leading young designers, debuted his first collection in February 2006 and has since earned accolades such as Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award. Watch InStyle.com's Joe Berean discuss the gown \u00bb . Obama was likely introduced to the designer in one of her favorite Chicago, Illinois, boutiques, Ikram. The new first lady has made a conscious effort to support young, diverse talent in the fashion community. In choosing Wu, who is originally from Taiwan, Obama continues a tradition of wearing American designers who hail from other countries. They include Cuban-American designers Isabel Toledo, who designed her yellow lace inauguration ensemble; Narciso Rodriguez, designer of the red and black dress she wore on election night; and designer Thakoon Panichgul, originally from Thailand, who designed the floral dress she wore the evening her husband accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Michelle Obama's style statement is one meant to inspire ethnic and class diversity in the world of fashion. Aside from being a socially conscious purveyor of style, Obama also sends a clear message of hope and promise by choosing colorful, reasonably priced pieces. Watch the Obamas enjoy the night \u00bb . She prefers bright, cheerful shades such as yellow, electric blue, red and purple, and has been seen on multiple occasions in head-to-toe looks from moderately priced American retailer J.Crew. In fact, daughters Malia and Sasha braved Tuesday's chilly weather in coats from the brand's children's collection. Michelle Obama was first seen in J.Crew during a visit to the \"Tonight Show\" with Jay Leno on October 27. \"This is a J.Crew ensemble,\" she told the host. \"We ladies, we know J.Crew.\" The first lady also said she had a penchant for Internet shopping, saying, \"When you don't have time, you gotta click!\" Obama wore J.Crew again at the Kids' Inaugural Concert on Monday. She gave the colorful ensemble a luxe spin with dangling green sapphire earrings from Loree Rodkin and a Deco-inspired belt buckle. InStyle magazine Fashion Director Hal Rubenstein appreciates Obama's straightforward approach to fashion. \"People tend to think classic looks are synonymous with boring, but they're not,\" he explains. \"Michelle Obama has a specific style that works for her. She has a lady-like approach to style that is elegant and inspiring. \"What we'll see as a result is this idea of looking put-together and sophisticated, as opposed to being daring or flamboyant. It's all about looking polished, like you know what you're doing.\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"First lady's elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created by 26-year-old Jason Wu .\nThe one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes .\nMichelle Obama has tradition of wearing American designers from other nations .\nHer time-saving shopping secret -- buying on the Internet ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four boys ages 9 to 14 have been charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year old girl, police in Phoenix, Arizona, said Wednesday. The girl was lured into a vacant storage shed by the suspects, who offered her chewing gum, police said at a news conference. The girl was restrained while the boys -- ages 9, 10, 13 and 14 -- sexually assaulted her, police said of the July 16 incident. All the suspects except for the 14-year-old live in the same apartment complex, according to Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill. The 14-year-old has been charged as an adult, Hill said. Detectives said the girl was placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services after the attack because of her parents' attitude toward her. The girl and the boys charged are all from families that have come to the United States from the West African nation of Liberia, police said.","highlights":"Police in Phoenix, Arizona, say 8-year-old girl lured to vacant shed with gum .\nFour boys ages 9 to 14 have been charged with sexually assaulting girl .\nGirl placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized Friday for a department assessment that suggested returning combat veterans could be recruited by right-wing extremist groups. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says she offered her \"sincere apologies for any offense.\" She met with American Legion National Commander David Rehbein at Homeland Security headquarters. \"The secretary started the meeting with an apology to me personally, to the American Legion and to the entire veterans community,\" Rehbein told reporters after the meeting. In a statement issued by the department, Napolitano said, \"We connected meaningfully about the important issues that have emerged over recent days, and I offered him my sincere apologies for any offense to our veterans caused by this report. ... I pledge that the department has fixed the internal process that allowed this document to be released before it was ready.\" The report was an unclassified assessment sent to law enforcement agencies. It was titled \"Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.\" The mention of combat veterans surfaced on a conservative radio program earlier this month, and it drew the scorn of commentators and conservative members of Congress. Rep. John Carter, R -Texas, called on Napolitano to resign. Rehbein said Friday it is time to move forward. \"In the mind of the American Legion, I think her apology was sufficient,\" he said. \"The way the Vietnam veterans were treated once they came home, that's what drives the sensitivity to this, because those things start small and then grow from there, and we need to make sure anytime something like that happens we need to step on that and make sure it goes away very quickly.\"","highlights":"Homeland Security report says veterans could be recruited by right-wing extremists .\nHomeland Security chief apologizes for \"any offense caused by this report'\nNapolitano says document was released before it was ready .\nAmerican Legion commander accepts apology, says it's time to move on ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first person ever convicted in Idaho of knowingly spreading the HIV virus is facing new charges for the same offense, authorities said Thursday. An Ada County, Idaho, grand jury on Tuesday returned an indictment charging Kerry Thomas, 45, with seven counts of knowingly transferring the HIV virus, Jean Fisher, Ada County deputy prosecutor, told CNN. In 1990, Thomas was charged with four counts of HIV transmission and two counts of statutory rape, Fisher said. As part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty only to the rape charges. According to Fisher, Thomas received a 12-year sentence and had to serve three years before being eligible for parole. He was later granted early release. In 1996, however, Thomas was again charged with one count of HIV transmission, and a jury convicted him, Fisher said. He received a 15-year sentence with a seven-year minimum. Now out on parole, Thomas faces possible life in prison on the new charges because prosecutors are seeking his designation as a \"persistent violator.\" It was not immediately known whether Thomas was in custody Thursday. He was not listed online among the inmates in the Ada County Jail. Asked why Thomas would continue to spread the virus, which causes AIDS, Fisher said, \"That's the $64,000 question, for a person who has been to prison twice.\"","highlights":"Kerry Thomas was indicted for second time for knowingly transferring HIV virus .\nIn 1990, Thomas was charged with four counts of HIV transmission .\nIf convicted, Thomas could face life in prison ."} -{"article":"DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Army convoys are combing areas around the Bangladeshi border guard headquarters, vowing to punish participants in this week's bloody mutiny, which killed nearly 100 army officers and civilians, according to The New Nation newspaper. Bangladeshi firefighters continued to uncover bodies Friday of Bangladesh Rifles officers from a mass grave. More than 160 army officers were inside the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) when the mutiny broke out on Wednesday morning, local reports said. So far, 88 bodies have been recovered from mass graves in the outskirts of Dhaka, the newspaper reported. At least 22 bodies have also been recovered from the Buriganga River after the rebelling troops dumped them down a sewer during the standoff, authorities said. The 88 found dead were among those 169 officers, the newspaper reported. Another 27 emerged from their captivity in the headquarters of the BDR, a 65,000-strong paramilitary outfit primarily responsible for guarding the country's borders. About 200 BDR soldiers have been arrested. The mutiny began Wednesday when BDR members took dozens of their superiors hostage. It was the second day of BDR Week, when army officers and troop members from various BDR outposts along the border were in the capital for celebrations. The New Nation reported that the mutinous border guards surrendered their weapons on Thursday after the government declared an amnesty. The rebellion was spurred by years of discontent among the ranks of the BDR troops. Recruits complained their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and opportunities to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Bangladesh and its South Asian neighbors contribute the most troops to U.N. operations and the pay is far greater than the meager salary the jawans -- as the BDR troops are called -- make.","highlights":"Bangladeshi army vows to punish participants in this week's bloody mutiny .\nSo far, 88 bodies reportedly recovered from mass graves in outskirts of Dhaka .\nAt least 22 bodies found in river after rebelling troops dumped them down sewer .\nMore than 160 were inside Bangladesh Rifles headquarters when mutiny erupted ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Piracy off the coast of Somalia rose nearly 200 percent in 2008 compared to the year before, with bolder attacks over greater distances, an international piracy monitor said Friday. The French military on patrol in the Gulf of Aden. Somalia and the Gulf of Aden were the worst areas for piracy in 2008, according to the annual report from International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center (PRC). It said 42 vessels were hijacked there and 815 crew members taken hostage -- more than any place else in the world. The increased ability of pirates to sail farther out to sea, coupled with the inability of the Somali government to respond, led to what the report called an \"unprecedented\" rise in piracy in the area. The problems off the Somali coast contributed to a global rise in piracy, which was up 11 percent in 2008 from the year before, the report said. \"The 2008 statistics surpass all figures recorded by the PRC since it began its worldwide reporting function in 1991,\" said IMB Director Captain Pottengal Mukundan. Worldwide in 2008, a total of 49 vessels were hijacked and 889 crew members taken hostage, the report said. Eleven crew members were killed and 21 others are missing and presumed dead. The pirates are targeting every kind of vessel and are better armed and prepared to assault and injure the crew, the report said. Incidents involving guns nearly doubled from 72 in 2007 to 139 last year. Pirate attacks last year included the hijacking of the largest ship ever taken by pirates, an oil supertanker called the Sirius Star. Attackers seized the giant ship and its 23-man crew in November and only released it last week after receiving a $3.5 million ransom payment. The carrier's crew was released unharmed. Last year's uptick in hijackings off East Africa has already spurred a number of international navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden. Mukundan said he hoped that more governments would authorize their naval forces to patrol the region. \"International navies are the only ones capable of effective response against piracy in the region and can help to secure the safety and security of this major maritime trade route,\" Mukundan said. Nigeria ranks second in world piracy with 40 reported incidents last year, including five hijackings and 39 crew members kidnapped. The main difference between the East and West African pirate activities is that almost all the incidents in Nigeria are conducted within its territorial waters, whereas most of the incidents along the East coast of Africa and the Gulf of Aden occur on the high seas, the report said. That means vessels in the Gulf area have a much harder time staying away from pirate-infested waters. The motives for the attacks are also different. In Somalia the motives are financial while in Nigeria they are at least partly political, the report said. Under-reporting of piracy in Nigerian waters is also a problem for the International Maritime Bureau, the report said. While 2008 appeared to be a bad year for piracy, the report noted declines in other areas of the world, especially in Indonesia. Mukundan said sustained anti-piracy efforts by Indonesian authorities have resulted in declines every year. More than 121 attacks were reported there in 2003 but only 28 were reported last year, most of which were opportunistic, low-level attacks, Mukundan said. Only two attacks happened last year in the Malacca Straits, which lie between Indonesia and Malaysia, compared to seven the year before, the report said. Farther south, the Singapore Straits saw a slight rise in incidents, going from three to six, the report said. \"This welcome reduction has been the cumulative result of increased vigilance and patrolling by the littoral states and the continued precautionary measures on board ships,\" the report said. \"With the world economy in its present uncertain condition, there is a possibility of piracy increasing. Navies and coast guards must continue therefore to maintain their efforts against pirates.\"","highlights":"Somalia, Gulf of Aden confirmed as worst area for piracy in 2008 .\n42 of 49 hijackings in 2008 were in the region, says Piracy Reporting Center .\nPRC says international navies are the only ones capable of effective response ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Army ground commanders in Afghanistan say they need help, fast. That's not a request for more troops, but a request from commanders who say the current camouflage uniform is not blending well in the diverse countryside. U.S. Army commanders in Afghanistan say the current uniform does not blend well in the countryside. In response, the Army later this month will field-test two new camouflage color schemes and patterns on about 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, where the terrain is extremely varied. Commanders have had problems there because of the numerous changes in environments a soldier can move in and out of in a short period of time -- from woodland to desert to alpine, and to rocky and snowy mountain tops. The current uniform, known as the Army Combat Uniform or ACU, has lighter shades of green and tan, which some commanders have complained does not blend well if soldiers need to stay motionless on a mission, as snipers or reconnaissance troops must. The effort by the Army was recently accelerated, according to Army officials, after U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, told the Army he had a number of complaints from soldiers in Afghanistan who said the current camouflage pattern was not effective in the mountainous regions. Two yet-to-be-identified battalions -- a battalion has about 500 troops -- will test the two patterns, with initial results being turned into Army researchers by the end of October. While deployed, all 1,000 soldiers will have their regularly issued ACUs. In addition, one battalion will also get one of the new camouflage uniforms with a test pattern known as \"MultiCam.\" The pattern is made up of numerous blobs of white, brown, tan, black and greens for a more woodland look, and is already being worn by snipers and special operations forces. The other brigade will test a similar pattern to the ACU, called the Universal Cammo Pattern-Delta or \"UCP-Delta.\" While the pattern is the same, a series of \"digitized\" blocks of green and tan, the test uniform adds what he Army calls \"coyote brown\" and a slight color darkening all around to the greens and tans. The look is also designed to blend in the woods. Both battalions will be based in eastern Afghanistan where the terrain is the most rugged and diverse, Army officials said. The Army hopes to have the field input and a decision on what pattern is best by the end of January 2010 and the fielding of the new uniform as early as June 2010. Troops will still keep the existing ACU, and commanders will be able to decide mission by mission what the soldiers should wear, according to Army officials. The testing is part of the Army's long-term development of a permanent alternative to the current ACU, according to Army officials.","highlights":"Commanders say current uniform doesn't blend well in Afghanistan's countryside .\nArmy this month will field-test two new camouflage patterns in Afghanistan .\nArmy hopes to have decision on new pattern by the end of January 2010 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A conference of Islamic prosecutors in Iran worked Wednesday to draft an indictment against Israeli leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. Palestinian women walk past a building destroyed during Israel's campaign in Gaza. The charges stem from Israel's late-December offensive into Gaza against Hamas militants. The Israeli military has been accused of using excessive and indiscriminate force in civilian areas. Israel is \"a regime that only understands the language of violence and force,\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the gathering, in calling for the prosecution of Israeli \"criminals.\" \"I am confident that there will come a day when all Zionist criminals will be brought to justice,\" he said on the second day of the conference in Tehran, the capital of Iran. The Iranian president regularly rails against Israel and has called for the Jewish state's elimination. Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said: \"The day when this conference will start dealing with human rights in the countries that are members of this organization will be the day that their claims concerning Israel will be deserved to be heard, not before. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, let alone commit suicide bombings.\" \"The accusations themselves are nothing more than the hysterical, hostile coverage of the media in these countries and not based on solid facts,\" he continued. Human Rights Watch, in a report released last month, said there was evidence that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza by firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas. Israel has rejected that claim. Israel also has said that the offensive was to defend against repeated rocket attacks by Palestinians. The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday its forces \"operated in accordance with international law\" during recent fighting in Gaza, but said there were a few incidents in which \"intelligence or operational errors\" occurred. This is the conclusion of probes that emerged from Operation Cast Lead, in which Israel was broadly criticized for its actions in Gaza. Phosphorus shells can be used to create a smokescreen for troops. In creating the diversion, the element ignites when exposed to oxygen and can cause severe burns. The Israeli offensive was launched December 27 and ended January 17 with a cease-fire. Of the 1,453 people estimated killed in the conflict, 1,440 were Palestinian, including 431 children, a U.N. report recently said. Thirteen Israelis died -- three civilians and six soldiers were killed by Hamas, and four soldiers were killed by friendly fire -- the report said. A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister called the U.N. report an example of the \"one-sided and unfair\" attitude of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which had requested it. The two days of meetings in the Iranian capital have included more than 200 senior judicial officials from the Organization of the Islamic Conference -- an association of 56 states. The organization might ask the U.N. International Court of Justice to charge Israeli leaders with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. The court would not be obligated to act.","highlights":"Islamic prosecutors draft indictment against Israeli leaders over Gaza offensive .\nIranian President Ahmadinejad says \"Zionist criminals\" should face justice .\nHuman Rights Watch says evidence Israel committed war crimes .\nIsraeli spokesman says claims are \"hysterical, hostile... not based on solid facts ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates off the eastern coast of Africa fired on U.S. sailors Saturday as they tried to reach the lifeboat where an American captain is being held, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told CNN. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, is now at the scene. The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, back to the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, the official said. Capt. Richard Phillips reportedly offered himself as a hostage to the pirates during an attack Wednesday on the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean. The Alabama was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, with a cargo of food aid when it was hijacked about 350 miles off the Somalia coast. The American crew regained control of the vessel, but the Maersk company would not say how. There are about 20 crew members. The Alabama arrived Saturday in Mombasa, along with an 18-person armed security detail on board. \"For security reasons, the vessel will berth in a restricted area of the port and will not be accessible to the media. FBI agents will debrief members of the crew on board the vessel before they disembark. The crew will not be available to the media in Mombasa,\" Maersk Ltd. said. Watch the latest Maersk briefing \u00bb . The U.S. Navy -- which is in charge of the situation -- requested help from the FBI to resolve the standoff. The FBI is launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI's New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Agents from the office were scheduled to leave for Africa sometime this weekend, the officials said. Phillips lives in Underhill, Vermont, where neighbor and longtime family friend, Tom Walsh, told CNN the captain's wife, Andrea, was surrounded by relatives. \"If they need us to help with anything. That's kind of the way it is in these communities. ... just showing that we're concerned. We want to do whatever she needs,\" Walsh said. \"She has a lot of family there.\" Watch more about the hostage situation \u00bb . Earlier Saturday, pirates sailing a hijacked German cargo ship returned to port after failing to reach the area of the standoff with the Bainbridge, a local journalist told CNN. The German ship Hansa Stavanger was among several pirated vessels trying to sail to the area some 300 miles off the Somali coast, a Somali journalist told CNN. The pirate crew had intended to help the pirates holding Phillips but turned back because of the U.S. naval presence, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger is now at the Somali port of Eyl, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger was hijacked April 4 off the Somali coast. Pirates have been searching the waters off Africa's coast for the Alabama's lifeboat, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation said Friday. They are using hijacked vessels and skiffs launched from larger ships, the official said. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has joined the Bainbridge in the area. A third ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer -- with a medical facility aboard -- should be there by the end of the day. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on how the pirates are being handled . Phillips is being held by four gunmen in the covered, fiberglass lifeboat. He jumped overboard at one point to try to escape, but one of the pirates jumped into the water after him and brought him back onboard the 28-foot boat. The pirates fired shots, the military official said, without providing further details. Phillips appeared to be tied up by the pirates after the escape attempt, a Defense Department official told CNN. For the U.S. Navy, bringing in more firepower is more than just a means to resolve a hostage situation, said Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Attacks in the area have picked up so drastically in recent months that the Navy has to reposition some of its fleet to deal with the threats, he said. The pirates have shown no signs of giving in. Meanwhile, the acts of piracy were having an effect on tourists disembarking from ships in Mombasa. \"Well, we got the international news stories on television on the ship and everybody's concerned about the route that we were on because there was always the possibility that we would be approached by pirates,\" one male passenger said. CNN's Stephanie Elam, Mohammed Jamjoom and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gunfire from pirates forces sailors, who did not return fire, to turn back .\nNEW: FBI launches criminal investigation into hijacking, hostage-taking .\nMaersk Alabama arrives in Mombasa, Kenya under armed guard .\nCapt. Richard Phillips is being held by four gunmen in covered, fiberglass lifeboat ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When makers of one of the most anticipated video games of the year invited users to help design part of the game, the gamers jumped at the chance to create animated characters. Users will have the option to incorporate other people's \"Spore\" designs or choose to block them all. But some took it upon themselves to create something entirely different: a new kind of Internet porn. It started when the makers of \"Spore\" released a Creature Creator program that allowed users to develop their own characters to drum up hype before the game's scheduled release in September. The game, a joint venture from \"Sims\" creator Will Wright and Electronic Arts, allows users to create a unique creature and then control its evolution from a single cell into a complex cultural civilization. Within 24 hours of the Creature Creator's release, gamers had gone creature-crazy, designing millions of critters that were all thrown into a database and shown on a YouTube channel for the public to see. But scrolling through the database -- past the three-legged sea horse, past the seven-eyed wildebeest and the half-motorcycle-half-pig -- revealed something many users didn't expect. Buried among the more wholesome attempts were two-legged dancing testicles, a \"giant breast monster\" and a four-legged \"phallic fornication machine,\" for starters. Watch Bradshaw demonstrate the \"Creature Creator\" and \"Spore\" \u00bb . These naughty -- some would say obscene -- creations have spawned an Internet meme nicknamed \"Sporn,\" short for \"Spore\" porn. For EA, the developer of \"Spore,\" it's the downside to tapping into the booming user-generated content arena, which has made sites like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook and Second Life so popular. These games and sites often allow people to create and host their own content in addition to creating cartoon personas, called avatars, for themselves. Many of the popular user-generated content sites have faced similar challenges in trying to control obscene material. In Second Life, users can read Slustler, a cyberporn magazine, or buy programs that allow them to have animated sex with other characters. \"Whether it's modeling clay, dolls or crayons, a small number of people can be counted on to use it for something vulgar,\" said Lucy Bradshaw, \"Spore's\" executive producer. Despite its \"Sporn\" issues, \"Spore\" is poised to become one of the most popular games because of its ability to let people tell their own story, rather than one mapped out for them, Bradshaw said. \"Rather than putting players in the shoes of Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins, we're giving them the opportunity to be George Lucas or Peter Jackson, as they create their own universe from scratch,\" she said. But for every George Lucas and Peter Jackson, there's always a spoiler. Enter the Spornmaster, a 37-year-old Web developer who refused to give his name for this interview. He, like many others, has spent hours creating characters and turning them into sexual beings. \"It came up simply as something silly and juvenile to do,\" he said. The creatures are not just static. Users can create animated scenarios for the characters to engage in, some of which include sexually graphic acts. When EA got word of the Sporn creations, it began working with YouTube to pull them down. Players who repeatedly upload \"offensive content\" are warned, suspended and eventually banned, Bradshaw said. But the policing isn't restricted to EA and YouTube. Users also are able to flag and report content that they find offensive. That angered some content creators, who feel that they should be able to create whatever they want. \"It was a totally ridiculous overreaction,\" the 37-year-old Web developer said. \"I admit it is silly and juvenile, but I don't think there's anything perverted, vile or awful about it. If people find it offensive, they can simply not search for it online. No one is forcing anyone to see this content.\" In response, he created a site to preserve as many of his naughty creations as possible. He said many other creators of Sporn have told him that they too were only joking around. But the Web developer and other Sporn creators have had their share of critics. On blogs and message boards, some have called these creators perverts. \"I consider this very similar to child pornography, at least to the extent of distributing the material to children,\" said 18-year-old Michael James from Calgary, Alberta. James said he has flagged about 10 of the \"disgusting\" creations. EA plans to make sure nobody sees the content if they don't want to, Bradshaw said. When playing \"Spore,\" users will be given three choices regarding people's creations: to receive no outside content, to receive content from buddies only or to receive all external content. Bradshaw hopes the sexual characters don't spoil \"Spore\" for everyone or get in the way of what she says is a revolutionary game. \"User-created content gives players total control over their game experience and empowers them to express their creativity in ways that they never thought possible,\" Bradshaw said. \"It also gives them a powerful emotional connection to the game, since they've created the world from scratch.\" Miles Moffit, a gamer attending the University of Georgia who has created tons of \"clean\" characters on his own, is glad to know EA will be regulating what makes it into the game. Moffit is eagerly awaiting the game's September 7 release. And if by chance a Sporn character shows up in his virtual \"Spore\" world, he has a plan. \"My initial reaction to discovering it in my final game would be to ban it so it wouldn't show up again and then blow it to pieces for the sheer satisfaction of it,\" Moffit said. \"Go ahead, create a walking phallus. See how long it lasts in the databases and galaxies of 'Spore.' \"","highlights":"Creature Creator allows gamers to design characters for new \"Spore\" game .\nSome users have created sexual creatures, now known as \"Sporn\"\n\"Spore\" maker EA is banning those who continue to upload offensive creations .\nOne Sporn creator: \"I don't think there's anything perverted, vile or awful about it\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five people were killed in a boating accident near Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday evening, a rescue official said. CNN affiliate WJXT shows the scene of the deadly boating accident near Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday. Twelve people were aboard the boat that crashed into 25-foot tugboat and barge at a dock and boat launch under construction on the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Valley, said Jeremy Robshaw, a spokesman for St. Johns County Fire and Rescue. The remaining seven were hospitalized for serious injuries, he said. The accident happened about 7 p.m. about 20 miles southeast of downtown Jacksonville. Robshaw said rescuers couldn't initially reach the end of the unfinished dock, but laid plywood sheets on the structure to get to crash victims.","highlights":"Rescue official: 12 people were aboard the boat near Jacksonville, Florida .\nBoat crashed into tugboat, barge and dock under construction .\nFive people killed; remaining seven take to hospital with serious injuries .\nRescuers had to use plywood panels to reach the passengers ."} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- Paul Lee got his liver from an executed Chinese prisoner; Karam in Egypt bought a kidney for his sister for $5,300; in Istanbul Hakan is holding out for $30,700 for one of his kidneys. Doctors in Pakistan have been arrested for abducting people, drugging them and stealing their kidneys. They are not so unusual: a dire shortage of donated organs in rich countries is sending foreigners with end-stage illnesses to poorer places like China, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Colombia and the Philippines to buy a new lease of life. Lee, a 53-year-old chief subway technician in Hong Kong, was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2005 but doctors denied him a transplant because they feared the tumor would spread. A friend told him about a transplant hospital in China's north eastern Tianjin city and he signed up for a place. That April, he paid 260,000 yuan ($34,380) for a transplant -- surgery that saved his life. \"The hospital has connections with a lot of prisons,\" Lee told Reuters. \"Mine came from an executed prisoner from Heilongjiang. I thank the donor deeply.\" The World Health Organization estimates that 21,000 liver transplants are carried out annually, but medical experts put annual worldwide demand at at least 90,000. Demand for kidneys also exceeds supply, and that has given rise to organ trafficking and a black market for rich people and \"transplant tourists\" who travel to poor countries to buy body parts from people with few other routes to a better living. A donor in South Africa receives $700 for a kidney compared with $30,000 in the United States. A lack of transparency and little protection for donors has spurred calls by international bodies to crack down on, or at least regulate, the trade. But even where the trade is banned, laws are often muddled or laced with loopholes, which are sometimes defended by vested interests. And the unregulated route is much less complicated for the recipient. Any transplant procedure involving a living donor carries risks for the donor -- especially for liver transplants which involve removing part of the donor's liver. The complications can include bleeding, infection, even death. In the transplant trade, the recipient need not worry about, for example, exposing a living relative to that risk. \"It is cheaper and your next of kin is not taking the risk and you don't have to care for someone you don't know. Once you pay, it is discarded in a way, it is dispensable,\" said Luc Noel, a Geneva-based coordinator for Clinical Procedures at the World Health Organization. China recently banned the sale of human organs and restricted transplants for foreigners, saying it must first meet demand at home for 2 million organs a year. Only 20,000 transplants are carried out in China each year. Of these, 3,000 are liver transplants and 95 percent of them use livers from dead donors. China defended its use of organs from executed prisoners, saying consent was obtained from convicts or their families. A transplant operation using the liver of a dead donor costs around $33,000 in China. \"What is important is the transparency, it has to be open to scrutiny ... if China makes its current system open to scrutiny and very transparent, that would do good,\" said the WHO's Noel. In Asia, a cultural obsession with keeping the body of the deceased intact has stymied public organ donation programs. Excluding China, Asia has fewer than 200 livers donated by people ahead of their death each year, said Lo Chung-man, professor of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery at the University of Hong Kong. Pakistan, where trade in human organs is not illegal, is turning into a \"kidney bazaar\", said the chief executive of Pakistan's Kidney Foundation, Jaffar Naqvi. There are no confirmed figures for the number of foreigners coming to the country for new kidneys but Naqvi said there were 13 centers in Lahore alone which reported more than 2,000 transplants last year from bought kidneys. Patients, mostly from Europe, Saudi Arabia and India, pay about 500,000 rupees ($8,500) for a new kidney, he said. Donors are paid $300 to $1,000 and often get no medical care after the surgery. There is no consent in some cases. In May police arrested nine people, four of them doctors, for abducting people, drugging them and stealing their kidneys for transplant operations. In the pipeline is a draft law aimed at banning the trade, but a powerful lobby bent on preserving it is trying to ensure it allows kidney donations for a non-relative, with no payment. Such a clause allowing \"altruistic\" organ donations will ensure the trade continues with secret payment to donors, Naqvi said. Stories of people selling their organs, especially kidneys, are not uncommon in Egypt, where more than 30 percent of a population of more than 73 million people live below the poverty line. Karam, who asked to be identified only by his first name because organ trading is illegal, said it took him only 15 days to secure a kidney for his sister who was suffering from kidney failure. He said a doctor found him a man willing to sell his kidney for 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,300). \"The fees of the doctor were 5,000 pounds. Both his money and the fees of the hospital were deducted from the money the 'donor' received,\" said Karam. He said doctors usually help in finding people willing to sell their organs from their patients' lists. Abdel-Kader Hegazy, head of the disciplinary committee at the Doctors' Union, said Egyptian law lacks clear punishment for those involved in illegal transplants, making it easy for doctors to repeat the offence. \"The law says it is illegal to trade in organs but does not specify the punishment. We at the union suspended many doctors and closed their practices, but they have appealed before courts and won their licenses back,\" he told Reuters. \"It is an annoying and a regrettable situation. Well-known doctors and professors are doing this. They are rich people but they do it because they have no moral values.\" The union has been pushing for legislation to regulate organ transplants, with a draft bill including heavy fines and a prison sentence for those involved and a ban on transplants between people of different nationalities. But the draft law has been languishing in parliament for several years because of differences between doctors and senior Muslim religious leaders on whether Islam allows organ transplants in the case of clinical deaths. In Turkey, students, unemployed young men and struggling fathers post adverts on the Internet selling their kidneys, listing their drinking and smoking habits and blood type. These would-be donors say they have had enquiries from Germany, Israel and Turkey with asking prices going up to 50,000 lira ($38,760). Hakan, a 27-year-old security guard in Istanbul with two young children who also requested only his first name be published, told Reuters he received five or six offers from Turkey and Germany, offering 10,000-15,000 lira ($11,600), but he's holding out for 40,000 lira. \"Of course it's frightening but there's nothing else to be done,\" he said, adding he hadn't told his wife as he knew she would object. \"I'm doing it because of my family, if I was alone it wouldn't matter. I've got two children ... there's nothing else I can do for them.\" E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Organ shortage in rich states has created a trade from poorer countries .\n\"Transplant tourists\" travel to poor countries to buy organs from the desperate .\nPakistan, where trade in human organs is legal, is turning into a \"kidney bazaar\"\nPatients pay $8,500 for a new kidney, while donors are paid just $300 to $1,000 ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- She's been called the \"mother of the believers,\" a middle-aged woman possibly responsible for recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers in Iraq and involvement in at least 28 terrorist operations. Television picture reportedly showing Samira Ahmed Jassim during her alleged confession. Now she's in jail, arrested on January 21 in what an Iraqi commander called \"heroic\" security force operations that unfolded without \"any losses.\" Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad command, identified the suspect as Samira Ahmed Jassim, also known as Umm-al-Moumineen, or \"the mother of the believers.\" The arrest is considered a major stride in confronting the challenge of female suicide bombers, more than 30 of whom detonated themselves last year. Atta couldn't say where she was detained for intelligence reasons. That's because the authorities are after more targets. The bombers were recruited in Baghdad and Diyala province for the Ansar al-Sunna militant group, said Atta, who added police were aware of the identities of the women, including their fake names on fake IDs, and were on the hunt for them. They said they were also trying to verify Jassim's confessions. Atta played a DVD for reporters with excerpts of the confessions of Jassim, who is in her 40s or 50s. Wearing a black robe and veil, she said she was asked by a man named \"Shaker\" to recruit women for an Ansar al-Sunna operative named Hareth, also known as Abu Rami. She spoke about a number of the women she recruited, spending days talking to prospective operatives and persuading them to carry out attacks. Jassim said she would deliver a recruit to Shaker. Later, she returned and picked up the recruit, dropping them at locations like the Muqdadiya police station, a Sons of Iraq office and a Baghdad car park. One woman she recruited didn't even look at Jassim when she was picked up for a job. She just whispered Quranic verses en route to a bombing. Another woman -- described as psychologically challenged -- came from a financially hard-up family. In November, 18 would-be female suicide bombers turned themselves in to coalition forces in northern Iraq. The women, whose ages and names were not released by the military, gave themselves up after being persuaded by religious leaders and family members to \"cease their training in suicide operations and reconcile,\" the U.S. military said. The women were connected to al Qaeda in Iraq suicide bombing cells, but it was not clear where they had been training or operating. The statement also did not say where the women turned themselves in, though the northern city of Mosul and surrounding parts of northern Iraq are still a hotbed for insurgent activity and considered the last stronghold for al Qaeda in Iraq. Troops have launched operations targeting members of families of suspected female bombers trying to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls. Intelligence gathered from detainees indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women with three main characteristics: those who are illiterate, are deeply religious or have financial struggles, most likely because they've lost the male head of the household. Females always have played a role in the insurgency in Iraq, helping feed militants, hiding them in their homes and helping to sneak weapons around the country. They have proven to be highly effective in their operations, because of the cultural convention that women are not to be searched by men for cultural and religious reasons. The U.S. military has created a program called the Daughters of Iraq, analogous to U.S. backed Sons of Iraq, to conduct searches of women.","highlights":"Jassim also known as Umm-al-Moumineen, or mother of the believers .\nArrested on Jan. 21 in what an Iraqi commander called \"heroic\" security operation .\nConsidered a major stride in confronting challenge of female suicide bombers .\nTroops have launched operations targeting families of suspected bombers ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The number of drug-related killings in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, so far this year has reached 1,647, surpassing the death toll for all of 2008, a city spokesman told CNN. Police gather at the rehab facility where 17 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in early September. A spate of killings since the weekend, including 12 on Tuesday, pushed this year's death toll higher than the 1,607 recorded murders for last year, spokesman Sergio Belmonte told CNN. Killings in Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, began to spike in early 2008, when the Sinaloa drug cartel began a turf war with the Juarez cartel. In response, President Felipe Calderon sent federal troops to patrol the city. About 7,500 troops will remain in Juarez at least for another six months at the mayor's request, officials said. The army presence has helped curb the violent daylight shootouts that damaged the city's image and threatened its economy, but killings and reprisals among street-level dealers continue to mount, Belmonte said. On Monday, 635 new police officers graduated from the police academy and joined the ranks of a force that had been thinned by about 700 in the city's effort to root out corrupt cops. The police department is now up to more than 2,600 officers, Belmonte said. Another 400 cadets are expected to join the force in October. Officials hope that the larger police force, together with investments in police equipment and a new crime-stoppers phone system, will turn things around for the city. More than 5,100 have been killed in drug-cartel violence across Mexico this year, according to a tally by the newspaper El Universal.","highlights":"Killings since the weekend pushed 2009 death toll past 1,607 killed in 2008 .\nKillings increased as Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels began turf war in 2008 .\nIn response, President Felipe Calderon sent federal troops to patrol the city .\nMore than 5,100 killed in 2009 drug-cartel violence in Mexico, says newspaper ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Derek Mears has a big hockey mask to fill. Derek Mears arrives on the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the new \"Friday the 13th\" movie. Mears was cast as the iconic boogeyman Jason Voorhees in the new \"Friday the 13th\" movie. A remake of the original 1980 film, the new movie aims to breathe life into the former franchise about a psychopathic killer who preys on a group of young people at the fictitious Camp Crystal Lake. Mears is no stranger to the horror genre, having co-starred in \"The Hills Have Eyes II.\" His career is extensive and includes stints as a stuntman in two of the popular \"Pirates of the Caribbean\" films. He recently spoke to CNN about taking a turn as the ultimate evil, the thrill of continuing a slasher legacy and why he's really not that bloody nice. CNN: You aren't that scary in person, so what made you think you could be that scary on camera? Derek Mears: I've got a lot of issues. I've got a whole lot of daddy issues. No, I sound like a basket case. It's funny with acting -- we all wear masks in our normal life. Not to sound like a weirdo in the hockey mask, but like right now I'm really excited about the film and excited about playing the character, and I will start to speak faster. That's kind of what's coming over me: \"Oh you're, you're really nice,\" but ... on the other side of me there are other Dereks that are angry, and like I said before, have a little bit of issues. CNN: Tell me a little bit about how you were approached. Did you know they were making it before they came to you? Was it kind of a shock? Mears: It's so weird. There's two different versions. There's my version of how it went about, and there's the producer's version. I'll tell the producer's version because my version is really, really long. The short version of my version was I heard they were doing a new \"Friday the 13th,\" and I've never tried to pursue a role before and I went, I really want to do this. So when I heard they were doing it, before I even had an audition, I started training for it. I found out a little about what they wanted for the character -- that he wasn't going to be super, you know bulky or big, that he's more functional. He's still big, but he's lean. So I started training that way and trying to do what I could just to get an audition. On the other end, on the producer's end, they asked a bunch of different industry professionals. They said, \"Hey, were doing a new 'Friday the 13th.' Who do you think would be a great new Jason?\" And my name kept popping up, which I'm blown away by. They brought me in for an audition, and I met with them. and they called me the next day and went, \"OK, you're the guy.\" And I still don't believe it till this day. I'm blown away. CNN: How did you keep it light on the set? Mears: Believe it or not, all the actors ... got along so well. I have never been so close to a cast before on set. We were just goofing around and playing, but then when it's time to work and get serious with certain scenes, we'd all switch over and do our job and get to the point where we needed to. CNN: Had you seen any of the original \"Friday the 13th\" movies? Mears: Oh yeah. I mean, I'm a fan. I consider myself a fan of the series. I already knew all of the originals. I had them all on DVD, and when I first met with Platinum Dunes [the production company behind the new movie], I told them, \"Hey look, I'm a fan of the series first and foremost. If I'm right for the part, fantastic. If I'm not right for the part, that's OK, too. I, just as a fan, want to see a good 'Friday the 13th' film. I want to see the series continue so if I can help it, awesome, but I just want to see something good.\" CNN: Did you try to model your character after previous Jasons, or did you try to kind of take it and make it your own? Mears: Definitely make it my own. I used the script that Mark Swift and Damian Shannon wrote as a blueprint -- like you would for any acting role where I knew the other guys who've played \"Jason\" before, and what they've done, but you kind of shove that away somewhere deep in your brain and build your character from the new script. And there are times in the film here and there where I would do little tips of the hats or little homage for the guys who have played him before. CNN: It's kind of a dream come true. Mears: Yeah, that's why I keep saying the words this whole interview like \"unbelievable,\" unbelievable because I don't believe it. CNN: Which is funny. You don't usually think of such happiness and glee [on a horror movie set]. Mears: And trust me, you won't see that in the final product. CNN's Brittany Kaplan contributed to this article.","highlights":"Actor Derek Mears takes on role of Jason in new \"Friday the 13th\"\nActor heard from producers that he was a popular casting choice .\nOf iconic role, Mears says he tried to \"definitely make it my own\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven years after devastating terrorist attacks brought death to New York's World Trade Centers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, the first permanent, on-site memorial is being dedicated Thursday at the Pentagon. An artist's rendering shows the New York 9\/11 memorial, with the museum entry pavilion between two pools. Official memorials at the other two sites are still years away. In New York, construction has begun on a complex that will include a memorial with a tree-shaded plaza and reflecting pools, and an underground museum with an entry pavilion. It's part of a bigger project, including new office towers and a transportation hub, whose target date has been repeatedly delayed. The goal is to open the memorial to the public by the 10th anniversary of the attacks, in 2011, and the museum by the year after. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stressed the importance of those dates and called progress \"frustratingly slow\" in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. \"The memorial must be completed by the 10th anniversary,\" Bloomberg wrote. \"No more excuses, no more delays.\" Watch and listen to Thursday's memorial services \u00bb . However, on CNN's \"American Morning\" Thursday, Bloomberg said quality is more important than speed of construction. \"We want to make sure what we build is the right thing, that 100 years from now people will look back and say, 'They built it well and built the right thing,'\" Bloomberg said. \"Nobody's going to remember if it took five years or 10 years. I'd like it to go faster. I've recommended we reduce the level of bureaucracy, but that's not our number one priority.\" Federal, state and local governments, as well as several agencies and private developers are involved in the planning and construction. \"It's a complex site, and there was an extensive public process involved in determining the plans for the site,\" Lynn Rasic of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum said Wednesday. \"And I think what's important now is that we look forward and do everything possible to meet the 10th anniversary date.\" iReport: How are you observing 9\/11? The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, says it's on board as far as the date for opening the memorial. Completion dates for the museum and pavilion are part of a review to be finished by September 30, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. \"We don't want to put any more false hopes, false dates out there in the public domain that can't be met. That's why they want to make sure this thing is a thorough review and we have realistic and achievable dates that we come out with,\" he said. Coleman said the Port Authority hasn't felt pressure from families of September 11 victims to speed up the process. \"What we're hearing from family members is that they want to see it done right, rather than rushed,\" he said. The memorial will feature two huge reflecting pools, with waterfalls flowing down their sides, where the iconic twin towers stood, according to the memorial's Web site. Engraved around the pools will be the names of those who died in the September 11 attacks as well as the victims of a 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Watch and listen to sights and sounds from 9\/11 \u00bb . The steel and glass entry pavilion will include two large steel columns salvaged from the twin towers. As visitors descend underground into the museum, they'll see the slurry wall, the bedrock that held back the Hudson River when the towers collapsed. The Pennsylvania memorial is also scheduled to be completed by the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It will center on the site where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers apparently wrested control of the plane from the hijackers. A plaza will surround the crash site, known as Sacred Ground. Plans call for a Tower of Voices, with 40 windchimes representing the 40 passengers and crew members who died. The Pentagon memorial, opening Thursday, includes a bench, a tree and a pool for each of the 184 people killed there when another hijacked airliner crashed into the building. Watch a victim's family tour Pentagon memorial \u00bb . The areas are arranged in order of the victims' ages, ranging from the youngest, 3-year-old Dana Falkenberg, to the oldest, John D. Yamnicky, 71, according to a Defense Department Web site. \"When we learned that there were five children who lost their lives that day, that's really what sparked the idea,\" designer Keith Kaseman said. To read the name of a person killed in the Pentagon, a visitor must look toward the building; if the victim was on board the airplane, the name can be seen by looking up. After dedication ceremonies, the memorial opens to the public at 7 p.m. ET. \"This place is really all about the visitor's thoughts, your interpretation,\" Kaseman said.","highlights":"World Trade Center memorial plaza scheduled to open in 2011, museum in 2012 .\nMemorial at Pennsylvania plane crash site also due to open in 2011 .\nPentagon memorial including benches, trees, pools is dedicated Thursday .\nWatch 9\/11 memorials in New York and Washington on CNN.com Live ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"A gruesome scene\" is how one investigator described the aftermath of five killings in Tennessee. A sixth body was found in Alabama. Police gather outside one of the scenes of mutliple slayings in Fayetteville, Tennessee, on Saturday. Kristin Helm of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation told CNN on Saturday that authorities have Jacob Shafer in custody in connection with the deaths. She added that authorities are not looking for additional suspects. Huntsville, Alabama, Police Sgt. Mickey Allen said Tennessee authorities told him a man confessed to a slaying in Huntsville, Alabama, and to five other killings in Fayetteville, Tennessee. Allen didn't identify the man. Shafer has been questioned by the TBI and is expected to face murder charges, Helm said. Sheriff Murray Blackwelder, who held an afternoon news conference, called the slayings \"one of the worst crimes Lincoln County has ever seen.\" He didn't describe how the Lincoln County, Tennessee, victims died. Dr. Bruce Levy, medical examiner for Tennessee, was working to identify the bodies found in that state, Helm said. Fayetteville police responded to a call to South Lincoln Road about 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET), Blackwelder said. Police found three crime scenes and five bodies on that street, he said. The five victims, some of whom were related, were found in two homes, Helm said. Investigators think the killings occurred either Friday night or early Saturday, she said. The sixth body was found at a business in Huntsville, Sheriff Allen said. He said he is unsure of the connection between the crime scenes in Tennessee and Alabama. Huntsville is about 30 miles from Fayetteville. \"We have no clue yet as to what unfolded there and how it relates to here,\" Allen said. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Man taken in custody by Tennessee authorities in six slayings .\nNEW: Suspect identified as Jacob Lee Shafer, who faces murder charges, TBI says .\nNEW: Authorities say an undientified man has confessed to the killings .\nFive bodies were found at two homes in Tennessee; one victim in Alabama ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In Focus -- Gulf football interests . News of an English football deal sent the British media into a frenzy this week, when a private Abu Dhabi group announced a planned takeover of Manchester City. Sheikha Hanadi al Thani talks about the real estate bubble in Qatar . With the likes of Emirates, Etihad and Saudi Telecom, the Gulf has long had an interest in English football. Are they sound investments or a matter of prestige? MME investigates. Facetime with Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani, CEO, Al Waab City Real Estate Development . Since 2005 when the World Economic Forum named her the \"Young Global Leader of the Year,\" Sheikha Hanadi al Thani has become an inspiration to women across the Arab world. She founded the first firm in Qatar to conduct investment banking and is now the CEO of Al Wa'ab City, a property development that's set to open in 2010. She talks to MME about the real estate bubble in Qatar and being a businesswoman in the Gulf. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: Friday: 0815, 1845 Saturday: 0545 Sunday 0715 .","highlights":"On this week's MME we look at Gulf interests in English football .\nWe talk to Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani, CEO, Al Waab City Real Estate Development .\nAl Thani, who started the first investment bank in Qatar, talks about property ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you're looking for love and not having much luck, maybe you could increase your success by getting a bit more passionate -- about helping others. Dave Chung and Kim Benty share a love of volunteer work in New Orleans. When singles write to advice columnists complaining about being lonely, they are often urged to volunteer. Duane Bates, the public relations director for Habitat for Humanity, says it's not unusual for their volunteers to meet on a building site and \"end up together.\" Victor Fasolino was living in New Jersey and his future wife, Lora, was living in Seattle, Washington, when the two met in Hungary in 1996 while volunteering on a Jimmy Carter Work Project for Habitat. \"I thought she was an attractive young lady,\" recalls Victor Fasolino, adding that they were working 10-12 hour days so it wasn't until the project was almost complete that they got to spend much time together. Both were committed volunteers and had signed up for a Habitat fundraising bike ride of 500 miles two weeks after they returned to the United States. They got to know each other while pedaling from Kentucky to Atlanta, Georgia. The two got married one year later atop a house they helped build during another project in Pikesville, Kentucky. Other volunteers had cleaned and scraped a ladder so the bride wouldn't get her wedding gown dirty climbing to the roof. The groom wore a tuxedo, a local minister officiated and a fiddler joined them on the roof to provide the music. This year, Victor, 56, and Lora Fasolino, 46, will again work on former President Carter's 2009 Habitat work project, building houses in five countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and China -- along the Mekong River in southeast Asia. In 2007, Dave Chung and Kim Benty found each other while helping Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans, Louisiana. Chung had been a pro golfer playing mini-tours in California and living half the year in Toronto, Ontario, when he got the urge to drive down to New Orleans to volunteer. \"I really liked the place, and the people,\" says Chung. \"The original plan was to come down here for two months and go to a friend's wedding, but I ended up staying.\" At first the 30-something golfer worked for Habitat for Humanity, learning plumbing and wiring. Then he went to work with Liz McCartney, 2008 CNN Hero of the Year, at the St. Bernard Project. Meanwhile, Kim Benty, 36, an interpreter for the deaf in the western New York town of Batavia, began a series of trips in July 2007 to work with volunteers in the same area. Benty was smitten after meeting Chung on her first trip, but he merely smiled and went back to work. \"He was doing a little of everything, a runner, bringing supplies, our construction manager,\" Benty remembers. \"I thought, you know, I am just another volunteer to him.\" There were several more trips, a few chance meetings -- but no sparks. But something changed when they met yet again in December 2008 at a friend's Christmas party. \"We just hit it off that night,\" Chung says. Chung says he was attracted to her for a million little reasons: \"She's attractive, fun to be around and both of us are kind of easygoing.\" But then it was time for Benty to go back to New York and for Chung to make the long drive to Canada to see his relatives. Chung's New Year's Eve plans fell though, so he asked Benty about coming down. They hung out for a few days and Chung was set to drive by himself back to New Orleans. \"She hopped in the car with me, and came down. It really surprised the people who knew her,\" Chung says, \"because she is the kind of person who likes to plan everything.\" \"Ha, it did surprise people,\" Benty admits. \"I am very conservative, a planner, it was out of context for me.\" They both admit they are at a crossroads of sorts. Psychologist Diana Kirschner, author of the book, \"Love in 90 Days,\" says the couple's relationship could go either way. \"I've seen couples come together in some kind of mission or some kind of movement, and they work together really well when they're within the mission. There's a sense of a bond because of their joint commitment to the mission,\" says Kirschner. \"But then when the mission ends, or if it ends, they just look at each other and find they have nothing in common.\" \"However, I've also seen it where couples come together like this and basically decide to stay on the mission the rest of their lives. And they marry and they stay on the mission. Their marriage is all about being together and helping each other fulfill their purpose in this mission,\" Kirschner says. That's what happened to Carol and John Coonrod, who met in 1985 while working for several weeks in Washington on a book promotion for the The Hunger Project, an organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty in the world. \"The last night when we all went out for a drink, we kind of looked at each other and noticed who we'd been working with all that time -- and we've been together ever since,\" said Carol Coonrod, 62, adding that her husband, 57, always says, \"We're living happily ever after.\" The couple, who have no children, are both on staff at the organization. \"We've had a relationship that was formed within The Hunger Project and that has always been our senior mission, part of a senior commitment,\" said Carol Coonrod. \"And within that we've created a partnership and a marriage.\" Their shared passion for their work has driven them during their more than two-decade marriage. \"As we've gotten older, we've sort of rediscovered the rest of life and we've continued to be partners, not only in work, but also in our leisure and the rest of our life. We're wonderfully compatible and enjoy vacation and nonwork time as much as working together,\" says the veteran volunteer. The younger volunteer couple is still pondering their relationship. \"We're not trying to put pressure on ourselves, we are trying to have a good time,\" Chung says. But they are certain about one thing. \"Our passion is to be down here with the St. Bernard Project,\" says Benty. \"You know, that is how life works,\" Chung said. \"It works in strange ways. Stuff you don't plan on is the stuff you remember.\"","highlights":"Couple who met working with Habitat for Humanity gets married atop house .\nOrganization spokesman says it's not unusual for volunteers to \"end up together\"\nPassion for ending world hunger brings Carol and John Coonrod together ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The risk of being jolted by 1,500 volts of electricity hasn't scared them off. Neither have fears of falling off the speeding electric trains. Thousands of passengers ride on overloaded trains in Jakarta every day. So Indonesian railway officials on Monday will unleash a new weapon on commuters who squat on top of railway cars: spray them with colored dye, a local newspaper reported. The state transit agency told the English-language newspaper Jakarta Post that it hopes the \"unique approach\" will deter passengers riding illegally on rooftops. Trains are the cheapest and fastest form of transportation for office workers commuting between the capital city Jakarta and neighboring towns. Throngs of thousands cram the trains during the morning and evening rush hours, making it impossible for everyone to snag space inside packed cars. Under the new plan, security officials at each station will \"mark\" roof riders with dye as trains depart. When the passengers disembark at their destination, officials can then easily identify them. \"We will confiscate their IDs and give them a ticket,\" Akhmand Sujadi, regional spokesman for the transit agency Kerata Api, told the newspaper. \"We will send a copy of the ticket to their family, their local neighborhood unit head, their employer, or, if they're students, their headmasters.\" The offenders can reclaim their ID cards once they write a letter \"regarding their behavior, to be signed by the person who received their ticket.\" More than 320,000 passengers rode trains to and from work every day last year, the newspaper reported. The crush of passengers meant revenues of 248 billion Rupiahs ($26.8 million) for the system. But many commuters prefer to ride on top of passenger cars -- either due to a lack of space inside or because they can't afford the ticket, which start at 1,000 Rupiahs ($0.11) At least 53 rooftop riders died in the last two years, the newspaper reported. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Commuters who squat on train roofs in Indonesia targeted with colored dye .\nOfficials hope \"unique approach\" will deter passengers riding illegally .\nSecurity officials at stations will \"mark\" roof riders with dye as trains depart .\nWhen passengers disembark at destination, officials can easily identify them ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With the 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa next year CNN takes a look at one of the greatest talents South African football has ever produced, Jomo Sono. Jomo Sono's international career never took off because of South Africa's exclusion from world football. Matsilela Ephraim Sono was born in 1955 in Soweto, but his career as an international player never got off the ground as South Africa were officially expelled by world governing body FIFA in 1976 during the apartheid regime in the country. The Black Prince, as he was known, made his mark as a player of legendary skill who was denied a world stage through circumstances beyond his control. Sono was a midfield general and renowned for his dribbling and accurate passing -- but it is difficult to say how he would have faired against the best players in the world as he was not given the opportunity. Watch CNN's interview with Sono. \"He was one of the first South Africans to play overseas where he played for the New York Cosmos alongside Pele,\" South African football writer Mo Allie told CNN. \"He played at a time when South Africa was internationally isolated so there was no opportunity for players to showcase their skills to the world. \"But he was fortunate in that he got the opportunity to go to the U.S. and he did very well there, playing alongside greats such as Pele.\" After accomplishing everything that he set out to do at home club Orlando Pirates, Sono starred for the New York Cosmos, Colorado Caribous and Toronto Blizzard in the United States. On his return to South Africa after his retirement, Sono bought the Highlands Park Club in Johannesburg in 1982 and renamed it Jomo Cosmos in honor of his old team in New York, before becoming coach of the South African national side. \"So many of today's South African players would have heard a lot about Jomo Sono but many wouldn't have seen him in action apart from a few snippets of TV highlights,\" Allie added. \"They will identify more with him as a coach because he led the national side in the 1998 African Cup of Nations and took them to the 2002 World Cup finals.\" Sono has proved to be as astute off the pitch as he was on it and has become a successful businessman, owning a number of companies around Johannesburg. And the current South African squad will be looking to carry on his footballing legacy when they attempt to become the first African team to win the World Cup next year.","highlights":"Jomo Sono is one of the greatest footballers South Africa has ever produced .\nSono's international career never took off because of South Africa's exclusion .\nHe was major success at Orlando Pirates before playing in the United States .\nSono also coached South African national side to the 2002 World Cup finals ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1 million babies born prematurely die each year before they are a month old, the March of Dimes said Sunday in the first comprehensive global report on premature births. A premature baby rests at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in October 2007. The organization suggested the situation could worsen if the rate of premature births increases. Each year, 12.9 million infants -- or nearly 10 percent of the annual worldwide birth total -- are born before 37 weeks of development in the womb, the organization said. More than 85 percent of the premature births occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia. \"Premature births are an enormous global problem that is exacting a huge toll emotionally, physically and financially on families, medical systems and economies,\" March of Dimes President Jennifer Howse said in a statement. \"In the United States alone, the annual cost of caring for preterm babies and their associated health problems tops $26 billion.\" The March of Dimes report, which used data collected by the World Health Organization, breaks down premature birth rates by continent. The highest premature birth rate is in Africa, where 11.9 percent of births each year are preterm, with more than 4 million premature deliveries annually. In populous Asia, although the preterm birth rate is lower at 9.1 percent, the number of premature births is higher, at nearly 7 million a year. While North America -- consisting of the United States and Canada in this report -- counts fewer than 500,000 premature births a year, its preterm birth rate is close to that of Africa, at 10.6 percent of all births, according to the report. The rate is the world's second highest. In the United States, the rate of preterm births has increased 36 percent in the past 25 years, with births between the 34th and 36th week of gestation accounting for the majority of the increase, the organization found. Much of the hike in preterm births is linked to more pregnancies after the age of 35 and the use of fertility treatments that can lead to multiple births. \"Wherever trend data are available, rates of preterm birth are increasing,\" the report said. Infants who survive premature birth face lifelong health risks, including the possible development of cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, learning disabilities and other chronic conditions, according to the March of Dimes. \"Preterm birth is a global problem that needs greater attention by policymakers, researchers, health care providers, the media, donor organizations and other stakeholders,\" the report said. \"The marked disparities in preterm birth along racial\/ethnic lines in many high-income countries and the concentration of preterm births in Africa and Asia also clearly indicate that addressing preterm birth is essential for reducing the pronounced inequities in neonatal health and for the world to achieve,\" it added. The March of Dimes, a nonprofit agency engaged in pregnancy and baby health research, said some premature births can be prevented by addressing risk factors in mothers, including diabetes, high blood pressure, nutrition, body weight and tobacco and alcohol use. Women who earlier gave birth to a preemie face a greater risk of having another. While doctors know some of the health and behavior factors in mothers that increase the risk of preterm births, doctors have yet to identify a reliable remedy to prevent early labor, said Christopher Howson, vice president for global programs of the March of Dimes. \"While much can be done right now to reduce death and disability from preterm birth even in low-resource settings, we need to know more about the underlying causes of premature birth in order to develop effective prevention strategies,\" Howson said.","highlights":"March of Dimes: Nearly 10 percent of world's births are premature .\nMore than 85 percent of premature births are in developing parts of Africa, Asia .\nBut North America has world's second-highest premature birth rate .\nDoctors have yet to identify a reliable remedy to prevent early labor, group says ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy is having hundreds of its older F\/A-18 fighter jets inspected, including some flying operations over Afghanistan, for cracks in part of a wing assembly, officials said Friday. Inspectors looking at F\/A-18 fighter jets have found 15 with stress crack problems on the wings. Some 636 F\/A-18 A through D model Hornets in both the Navy and the Marine Corps are being inspected for stress cracks on a hinge connecting the aileron to the flaps on the back side of the wings, according to Navy spokesmen. Inspectors started looking at the planes Thursday and have found 15 aircrafts with the problem. A panel on the wing can be swapped out with a new one to get rid of the problem. The Navy is still looking at the hinge in question to see whether the problem is severe enough to ground the Hornets and come up for a permanent fix for the hinge. Navy officials said there are no immediate plans to ground the 636 planes. This month, a post-flight inspection of one F\/A-18 found a crack, and it was determined to be systemic enough to warrant an inspection of the older F\/A-18s, according to Navy officials. The Navy also flies the Super Hornet, a newer version of the F\/A-18. That plane is not part of this inspection. Navy flight operations around the world will not be interrupted because of the inspections, officials said.","highlights":"636 F\/A-18 A through D model Hornets being inspected for stress crack .\nInspectors started looking at planes Thursday and have found 15 with problem .\nNavy officials said there are no immediate plans to ground the planes ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A sculpture of a giant white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of an unusual scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England. The 50-meter high horse will dominate the landscape around Ebbsfleet. The 50-meter equine artwork was Tuesday announced as the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, set to be a new stop on the Eurostar London-to-Paris rail link. Designed by artist Mark Wallinger -- whose previous work has included dressing in a bear suit and wandering around a gallery in Berlin -- the \u00a32 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK. Wallinger's horse -- which echoes ancient white horse symbols carved into hillsides around Britain -- beat a shortlist of designs that included a tower of stacked cubes and giant steel nest. Victoria Pomery, head of the panel that selected the design, described the 33-times normal size horse as \"outstanding.\" \"Mark is a superb artist of world renown and his sculpture will become a real landmark for Ebbsfleet Valley and the whole region,\" she said. It drew a less favorable response from readers of local Web site Kentnews.com, who described it as a \"waste of money,\" an \"abomination\" and \"depressing.\" One correspondent, Andy Smith, added: \"This horse looks extremely silly.\"","highlights":"Giant horse announced as winner of competition to design new landmark .\nEquine artwork is brainchild of conceptual artist Mark Wallinger .\nDesign's selectors describe sculpture as \"outstanding,\" critics say it's \"silly\""} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Since the dawn of time, people have found nifty ways to clean up after the bathroom act. The most common solution was simply to grab what was at hand: coconuts, shells, snow, moss, hay, leaves, grass, corncobs, sheep's wool -- and, later, thanks to the printing press -- newspapers, magazines, and pages of books. The average American uses 57 squares a day and 50 pounds of toilet paper per year. The ancient Greeks used clay and stone; the Romans, sponges and salt water. But the idea of a commercial product designed solely to wipe one's bum? That started about 150 years ago, right here in the U.S.A. In less than a century, Uncle Sam's marketing genius turned something disposable into something indispensable. Toilet paper gets on a roll . The first products designed specifically to wipe one's nethers were aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp dispensed from Kleenex-like boxes. They were invented in 1857 by a New York entrepreneur named Joseph Gayetty, who claimed his sheets prevented hemorrhoids. Gayetty was so proud of his therapeutic bathroom paper that he had his name printed on each sheet. But his success was limited. Americans soon grew accustomed to wiping with the Sears Roebuck catalog, and they saw no need to spend money on something that came in the mail for free. Toilet paper took its next leap forward in 1890, when two brothers named Clarence and E. Irvin Scott popularized the concept of toilet paper on a roll. The Scotts' brand became more successful than Gayetty's medicated wipes, in part because they built a steady trade selling toilet paper to hotels and drugstores. But it was still an uphill battle to get the public to openly buy the product, largely because Americans remained embarrassed by bodily functions. In fact, the Scott brothers were so ashamed of the nature of their work that they didn't take proper credit for their innovation until 1902. \"No one wanted to ask for it by name,\" says Dave Praeger, author of \"Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product.\" \"It was so taboo that you couldn't even talk about the product.\" By 1930, the German paper company Hakle began using the tag line, \"Ask for a roll of Hakle and you won't have to say toilet paper!\" As time passed, toilet tissues slowly became an American staple. But widespread acceptance of the product didn't officially occur until a new technology demanded it. At the end of the 19th century, more and more homes were being built with sit-down flush toilets tied to indoor plumbing systems. And because people required a product that could be flushed away with minimal damage to the pipes, corncobs and moss no longer cut it. In no time, toilet paper ads boasted that the product was recommended by both doctors and plumbers. Mental Floss: 5 times drug companies promised too much . Strength of going soft . In the early 1900s, toilet paper was still being marketed as a medicinal item. But in 1928, the Hoberg Paper Company tried a different tack. On the advice of its ad men, the company introduced a brand called Charmin and fitted the product with a feminine logo that depicted a beautiful woman. The genius of the campaign was that by evincing softness and femininity, the company could avoid talking about toilet paper's actual purpose. Charmin was enormously successful, and the tactic helped the brand survive the Great Depression. (It also helped that, in 1932, Charmin began marketing economy-size packs of four rolls.) Decades later, the dainty ladies were replaced with babies and bear cubs -- advertising vehicles that still stock the aisles today. By the 1970s, America could no longer conceive of life without toilet paper. Case in point: In December 1973, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson joked about a toilet paper shortage during his opening monologue. But America didn't laugh. Instead, TV watchers across the country ran out to their local grocery stores and bought up as much of the stuff as they could. Also telling was that, in 1978, a TV Guide poll named Mr. Whipple --the affable grocer who implored customers, \"Please don't squeeze the Charmin\" -- the third best-known man in America, behind former President Richard Nixon and the Rev. Billy Graham. Mental Floss: Cheetos Lip Balm and other bizarre brand extensions . Rolling the world . Currently, the United States spends more than $6 billion a year on toilet tissue -- more than any other nation in the world. Americans, on average, use 57 squares a day and 50 pounds a year. Even still, the toilet paper market in the United States has largely plateaued. The real growth in the industry is happening in developing countries. There, it's booming. Toilet paper revenues in Brazil alone have more than doubled since 2004. The radical upswing in sales is believed to be driven by a combination of changing demographics, social expectations, and disposable income. \"The spread of globalization can kind of be measured by the spread of Western bathroom practices,\" says Praeger. When average citizens in a country start buying toilet paper, wealth and consumerism have arrived. It signifies that people not only have extra cash to spend, but they've also come under the influence of Western marketing. America without toilet paper? Even as the markets boom in developing nations, toilet paper manufacturers find themselves needing to charge more per roll to make a profit. That's because production costs are rising. During the past few years, pulp has become more expensive, energy costs are rising, and even water is becoming scarce. As the climate continues to change, toilet paper companies may need to keep hiking up their prices. The question is, if toilet paper becomes a luxury item, can Americans live without it? Mental Floss: Why does bottled water have an expiration date? The truth is that we did live without it, for a very long time. And even now, a lot of people do. In Japan, the Washlet -- a toilet that comes equipped with a bidet and an air-blower -- is growing increasingly popular. And all over the world, water remains one of the most common methods of self-cleaning. Many places in India, the Middle East, and Asia, for instance, still depend on a bucket and a spigot. But as our economy continues to circle the drain, will Americans part with their beloved toilet paper in order to adopt more money-saving measures? Or will we keep flushing our cash away? Praeger, for one, believes a toilet-paper apocalypse is hardly likely. After all, the American marketing machine is a powerful thing. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Ancient Greeks used clay,stone; Romans, sponges and salt water as toilet paper .\nU.S. man designs aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp in 1857 .\nJohnny Carson joked about toilet paper shortage, people bought out stores .\nU.S. buys $6 billion of toilet tissue annually -- more than any other nation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates captured a Belgian ship and said they were taking it to the coast of Somalia after the vessel was reported missing early Saturday, NATO and pirate sources told CNN. The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien tracked seven pirates Saturday back to their mother ship. The Pompei, a Belgian-registered ship believed to have a mostly Belgian and Croatian crew, was one of two vessels that came under attack near the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles on Saturday, the sources said. The second ship escaped the attack after a brief exchange of gunfire with pirate vessels, the pirate source added. Meanwhile, Dutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen after tracking the pirates to their \"mother ship\" in the western Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a NATO maritime spokesman said. The Belgian government tried to communicate with the Pompei \"without success\" before the ship was confirmed to have been hijacked, according to an official. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . \"This morning we received two different channels, a silent alert, that there was a problem on the boat, which is a Belgian boat on its way to Seychelles,\" Belgium Government Crisis Center spokesman Peter Martens told reporters. \"We tried to have a contact with the ship but without success until now.\" The archipelago where the attack occurred is roughly 800 miles off the Somali coastline. \"Somali pirates are getting wilder and out of control,\" pirate spokesman Ali Sugulle said on April 11. \"They go too far away from the Somali [coast] and go to the Kenyan coast even.\" The European Union, NATO and the United States have been patrolling the waters off Somalia since an upsurge in piracy in the region last year. No NATO vessels were in the region at the time of the attack, said Cmdr. Chris Davies from NATO's Maritime Component Command Headquarters in Northwood, England. Meanwhile, the Dutch rescue operation happened after pirates launched an unsuccessful attack on petroleum tanker MT Handytankers Magic, NATO Cmdr. Chris Davies told CNN. The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien was with the NATO fleet patrolling the region. After the Dutch disarmed the pirates, they released them, Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman from the maritime headquarters, told CNN. Because the crew was on a NATO mission, they lacked the jurisdiction to hold them, according to reports. The MT Handytankers Magic is part of a fleet belonging to Handytankers, a company that distributes petroleum products in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the United States, according to the company's Web site. Last week pirates attacked a U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama, off the Somali coast. The crew regained control of the ship but the captain was taken hostage and held for five days on a lifeboat. The crisis ended when U.S. Navy sharpshooters shot and killed three of the pirates who were holding the captain. Journalist Mohammed Amiin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The Pompei, a Belgian-registered ship, was one of two vessels attacked .\nNEW: Islands where attack occurred are roughly 800 miles off Somali coast .\nDutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen .\nPirates were disarmed and freed because crew lacked jurisdiction to hold them ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Four people were killed early Saturday after a fire broke out at a state-run group home for mentally disabled residents in upstate New York, the governor's office said. A fire killed four people at a state-run group home for the mentally disabled in Wells, New York. The fire started at about 5:30 a.m. at the facility in Wells, New York, about 70 miles north of the state capital of Albany, where nine residents lived, and two staffers were on duty at the time of the fire. Two victims died at the site of the fire and two died during hospitalization, according to a statement from New York Gov. David Paterson's office. Two other residents were taken to area hospitals, including one taken from the scene by helicopter, said Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for the governor's office. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Shorenstein said.","highlights":"Two died at site of fire, two died at hospital, Gov. David Paterson's office says .\nFire started around 5:30 a.m. in home for mentally disabled 70 miles from Albany .\nThe cause of the fire is under investigation ."} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Texas terrorism suspect Hosam Smadi recorded a seven-minute video message for al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden before his arrest on charges of plotting to blow up a Dallas building, an FBI agent testified Monday. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi said through his lawyer that he understood the charges Friday. No details of the message were provided in court. But FBI Special Agent Thomas Petrowski said the video was recorded in a hotel room with the assistance of undercover FBI operatives and Smadi intended for it to be delivered to or seen by bin Laden, the fugitive leader of the terrorist network behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian living in the United States illegally, is charged with plotting to set off a bomb at the base of the 60-story Fountain Plaza office tower in downtown Dallas. He was arrested September 24 after federal agents said he tried to trigger an improvised bomb attached to a vehicle at the base of the building. At a brief hearing in Dallas on Monday, Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez ordered Smadi bound over for future hearings. Peter Fleury, the public defender representing Smadi, told reporters that his client remains held under immigration law, with no bail set. Fleury called his client \"a scared 19-year-old kid held away from his family,\" who could face additional charges from a grand jury. Prosecutors don't have to share the evidence against Smadi until after a grand jury acts, so lawyers don't know the full extent of the case against him, Fleury said. \"We have got a lot of work to do,\" he said. \"They have had the case since March. We just got the case. We're way behind them.\" Friends in the town of Italy, Texas, about 45 miles south of Dallas, said Smadi was outgoing and friendly -- but one told CNN last week that the teen started showing signs of depression about six months ago, around the same time the FBI started believing he was serious about carrying out a bomb plot. CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI: Suspect recorded video in hotel; intended for Osama bin Laden to see it .\nHosam Smadi accused of plotting to bomb Dallas skyscraper .\nLawyer: Smadi \"a scared 19-year-old kid held away from his family\"\nJudge also ordered Smadi bound over for future hearings ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- From four leaf clovers to a severed rabbit's foot, when it comes to lucky mascots reason and taste often go out of the window. David Beckham's teammates give his bottom a squeeze after scoring his first goal for AC Milan in their 4-1 defeat of Bologna. No more so than at AC Milan where one charm is being held responsible for the team's recent upturn in fortunes on the pitch: David Beckham's bottom. Since Beckham's arrival at the San Siro, the England midfielder has started every game and scored his first goal in last weekend's demolition of Bologna. But as he walked away after celebrating the goal, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo both stroked his left bum cheek. This was apparently because they believe Beckham's posterior has as much to do with Milan's revival as his sweet right foot. \"Italy is a superstitious country, people touch things for luck,\" an AC Milan spokesperson told UK newspaper \"The Sun.\" \"Now the players are doing the same thing with Becks' bottom. He is seen as lucky.\" Have your say: what are the strangest footballing superstitions that you have seen? One English newspaper has even taken to calling him \"Goldenbuns\", a play on \"Goldenballs\", the pet name his wife Victoria uses and for which he is still good naturedly mocked when it emerged in the press. Football has a long history of superstitions. Below are some of the strangest rituals: . Kissing Fabien Barthez's head Barthez's big shiny pate became something of a totem for the French during the 1998 World Cup. The ritual was always the same. Veteran defender Laurent Blanc would approach his eccentric goalkeeper before planting a kiss on the top of his head. The team insisted that Blanc maintained the tradition as Les Bleus reached the finals. The French ended up beating Brazil 3-0. Goalmouth: Beckham \"dreams\" of Milan move. Beanie the Horse watches the action With his blond hair, steely grimace and piercing stare, Stuart Pearce was known on the pitch for his hard tackling, no-nonsense ways. Off it he's, well, a bit of a softy. Whilst in charge of Manchester City the former England defender started bringing a rather bizarre charm, placing it near the dug out so it could observe the action: Beanie, a cuddly woolen horse. It didn't do him much good. He was fired later that season. Blessing from a juju man \"Juju\" men used to be a regular fixture at African football matches. These self-appointed holy men would bless or curse teams for money. Even government ministers were seduced by them. When the Ivory Coast won the African Cup of Nations in 1992, the government claimed it was because the sports minister paid a \"juju\" man to bless the team. But he angered them by refusing to pay up. The result? A hex that saw the team endure a miserable ten year losing streak. Tired of defeat, the government begged the juju men for forgiveness, coughing up the $2000. Ivory Coast promptly qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Invoking the power of the Virgin Mary Take a look at Newcastle United's goalkeeper Shay Given before a match. If you look carefully you'll notice him dropping a bottle into the back of the goal. No, not a bottle full of Gatorade but rather a small vial of Holy Water from Lourdes, France. It was there that it is claimed the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858. It has since become a place of pilgrimage for the sick, drawn to the allegedly healing waters. \"I carry it in my kit bag and it goes everywhere with me,\" Given said back in 2002. At the time of writing, Given is still injury free. If all else fails, urinate... When Barry Fry, then Birmingham City's boss, watched his team lose another game, enough was enough. For years the club had suffered from dismal form at their St Andrews ground in Birmingham, England, and had not won anything of note for decades. The reason, fans and club officials feared, was a gypsy curse spat out at the club's owners when they evicted a band of travelers to make way for their new stadium. Managers had tried and failed to lift the curse -- one even placed crucifixes in the floodlights, but it was Barry Fry who had the most ingenious method. He urinated in each corner of the ground. Birmingham City haven't won anything of note since. Employing an Ecuadorian warlock Tzamarenda Naychapi played a pivotal role in Ecuador's 2006 World Cup campaign. The UK's Guardian newspaper described how Naychapi - a warlock who was described as a \"witch doctor-cum-shaman-cum-priest-type-fella\" - traveled to Germany before the World Cup to cast spells on all 12 stadiums, not to mention the pitch and the goals, in a bid to turn the gods in Ecuador's favor. The South American minnows went on to shock both Costa Rica and Poland, qualifying for the second round for the first time in their history before losing to England 1-0. But then again England had their own magical good luck charm to call upon. David Beckham scored the only goal.","highlights":"David Beckham's bottom becomes AC Milan's lucky charm .\nTeammates pinch the England player's posterior during match .\nAC Milan have yet to lose since Beckham signed on loan from LA Galaxy .\nCNN looks at other odd footballing superstitions ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World number one golfer Tiger Woods has become a dad for the second time after wife Elin gave birth to a boy, Charlie Axel, on Sunday. Elin hands daughter Sam to Tiger after his victory at last year's U.S. Open. The couple already have a daughter Sam Alexis, who was born in June 2007, and proud dad Tiger announced news of the latest family addition on his official Web site on Monday. \"Elin and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our son, Charlie Axel Woods,\" said Woods who has been sidelined since knee surgery following his 14th major triumph at the U.S. Open last June. \"Both Charlie and Elin are doing great and we want to thank everyone for their sincere best wishes and kind thoughts. \"Sam is very excited to be a big sister and we feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. I also want to thank our doctors, nurses and the hospital staff for their personal and professional care. \"We look forward to introducing Charlie to you at the appropriate time, and again thanks from all of us for your kindness and support.\" The arrival of Charlie Axel comes as Woods prepares to return to the Tour with his earliest realistic comeback in three weeks at the Accenture World Match Play in Tucson where he would be the defending champion. However, reports suggest he may wait until the Tour comes to Florida, where he lives, next month. \"I have no restrictions -- it's just a matter of getting my golf endurance up. I don't have my golf stamina back yet,\" he said on his Web site. \"I am excited about returning to competition. Early on I didn't miss golf because I enjoyed staying home with Elin and Sam and I knew I wasn't physically able to play. \"The truth is, I would have embarrassed myself. Now I'm getting my feel and practice back. It's just a matter of playing more on the course. \"I'm working hard to get myself back into tournament shape and will return as soon as I'm ready.\" Woods position at the top of the world rankings -- he was 11 points clear at the time of surgery -- is currently under threat from Spanish star Sergio Garcia who has closed the gap to less than three points.","highlights":"World number one golfer Tiger Woods has become a dad for the second time .\nWife Elin gave birth to boy, Charlie Axel, on Sunday Woods says on Web site .\nArrival of Charlie Axel comes as Woods prepares for Tour return after surgery ."} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli Military said Thursday that the \"vast majority\" of Palestinians killed in the recent Gaza conflict were \"terror operatives\" and the number of people killed was less than Palestinian sources reported. Israel says the majority of Palestinians killed during \"Operation Cast Lead\" were \"terror operatives.\" In an e-mailed statement the Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office claimed their figures contained the names of 1,166 Palestinians killed in the conflict, called \"Operation Cast Lead.\" The Israeli military said 709 of them were \"identified as Hamas terror operatives, among them several from various other terror organizations.\" The remaining, the statement claims, were comprised of 162 names who \"have not yet been attributed to any organization.\" \"Furthermore, it has come to our understanding that 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation, 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them were women.\" The Israeli military said it was releasing the findings to counter \"false information originating from various Palestinian sources, and in order to remove any doubt regarding the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead.\" The numbers presented by the Israeli military differ sharply from those reported by Palestinian sources. At the conclusion of the fighting, the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza had put the death toll at over 1,300, with the majority made up of non-combatants. More recently the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) published a study that put the total death toll at 1,417, including 926 civilians of which 313 were children under the age of 18 and 116 women. It reports that the remainder was made of 255 \"non-combatant\" police officers and 236 who were took \"an active part in hostilities.\" Jaber Wishah, a deputy director for PCHR told CNN his organization \"stands firmly on our published figures\" and that Israel's choice to classify police officers as combatants is \"illegal.\" \"Such classification constitutes a willful violation of the principle of 'distinction' which is a key component of customary international law. This raises serious doubts about the accuracy of the figures published by the Israelis,\" he said. Wishah said the civilian death toll included \"large numbers of deaths inside people's homes and other civilian facilities\" and that it indicated \"the extent to which civilians were intentionally targeted.\" Wishah said that until the Israeli government produced the names and details on which its figures were based that he could not comment further. The Israeli military has maintained that it went to great lengths to minimize civilian deaths and put the responsibility of civilian deaths on Hamas. \"The Hamas terror organization placed the primary fighting scene at the heart of civilian neighborhoods as it booby-trapped homes, fired from schools and used civilians as human shields,\" the IDF said. Asked about the discrepancy in numbers, an Israeli military official suggested that natural occurring deaths in Gaza had been included in the Palestinian death toll numbers and that the total ratio of non-combatant to combatants killed was low. A spokesman for the Israeli military said it could not immediately make the list of killed Palestinians available and could not offer more detail on methodology.","highlights":"Israel: \"Vast majority\" of Palestinians killed in Gaza were \"terror operatives\"\nMilitary says number of people killed less than Palestinian sources reported .\nIsrael says 1,166 died, with 709 \"identified as Hamas terror operatives\""} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian serial murderer dubbed the \"Chessboard Killer\" was given the maximum sentence of life in prison Monday and ordered to undergo psychiatric therapy for a string of at least 48 murders that terrorized Moscow for years. A Moscow jury convicted Alexander Pichushkin last week of 48 murders and three attempted murders. Pichushkin claimed he had actually committed 60 murders, though prosecutors were unable to find evidence to prove that. Pichushkin earned the nickname \"Chessboard Killer\" for saying he had intended to kill one person for each of the 64 squares on a chessboard. In ordering Pichushkin to receive compulsory psychiatric therapy, the judge said the defendant has a mental disorder but is still sane and cannot avoid responsibility for his crimes. Throughout his trial, Pichushkin gloated over his crimes and ridiculed the police case against him. \"I was dismayed my work had been attributed to others,\" Pichushkin said. \"In one week, I killed two people. If they hadn't caught me, I would have never stopped. Having caught me, they saved many lives.\" Watch video report on serial killer Alexander Pichushkin . For years until his arrest in June 2006, Pichushkin kept Moscow on edge, stalking the heavily forested Bitsa Park on the city's southern outskirts and preying on the homeless and elderly. Pichushkin claimed to have committed all but one of his murders in the park. He lured his victims with the promise of alcohol and, after getting them drunk on vodka, he beat them to death and dumped their bodies in the park. It led Russian media to give Pichushkin his other nickname, the \"Bitsa Maniac.\" Over the years, Russian police recovered dozens of corpses, some with sticks and vodka bottles rammed into their skulls. But the crucial lead came in 2005, when a woman Pichushkin worked with at a vegetable store was found dead. She had left a note at her home saying she was going for a walk with him. Pichushkin said he had been aware of the note but killed her anyway. E-mail to a friend . CNN Correspondent Matthew Chance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Moscow court sentences serial killer to maximum sentence of life in prison .\nAlexander Pichushkin was found guilty of killing 48 people .\nHe was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment at the prison ."} -{"article":"CHEBARKUL, Russia (Reuters) -- President Vladimir Putin said on Friday security threats had forced Russia to revive the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on regular patrols beyond its borders. A Russian strategic bomber flies over an airfield outside Moscow during an air show. Putin said 14 strategic bombers had taken off simultaneously from airfields across Russia in the early hours of Friday on long-range missions. \"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis,\" Putin told reporters after inspecting joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains. \"Today, August 17 at 00:00 hours, 14 strategic bombers took to the air from seven airfields across the country, along with support and refueling aircraft ... From today such patrols will be carried out on a regular basis. \"We hope our partners will treat this with understanding.\" At U.S. President George W. Bush's Texas ranch, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said he did not believe the flights posed a threat to the United States. \"Militaries around the world engage in a variety of activities, so this is not entirely surprising,\" he said. But the sorties are likely to add to Western concern about Russia's growing assertiveness. That trend has prompted some U.S. policymakers to draw parallels with the Cold War. Putin caused a stir this year by saying Russian missiles would once again be aimed at targets in Europe if Washington persisted with plans to build a missile defense shield in eastern Europe. Russian diplomats have clashed with the United States and European governments on issues such as Kosovo, energy, and Moscow's treatment of its ex-Soviet neighbors. Western military leaders have said this year that Russian flights near their airspace were becoming more frequent after a long quiet period. One Western defense official called the flights \"a little bit of chest-pounding, trying to let people know Russia is back in the game\". Putin said that when Russia had cut its flights in 1992, other military powers had not reciprocated. \"Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation,\" Putin said. That appeared to be a swipe at the U.S. and NATO, whose strategic bombers have continued to fly long-range missions. As Putin spoke to reporters and television cameras, four Russian military helicopters appeared and hovered in the background while Russian tanks trundled behind him, even though the exercises had ended long before. During the Cold War, Russian long-range bombers, which can carry strategic nuclear weapons, played elaborate games of cat-and-mouse with Western air forces. Earlier this month Russian air force generals said bomber crews had flown near the Pacific island of Guam, where the U.S. military has a base, and \"exchanged smiles\" with U.S. pilots scrambled to track them. The Pentagon said the Russian aircraft had not come close enough to U.S. ships to prompt American aircraft to react. In July, two Russian Tu-95 \"Bear\" bombers made unusually long sorties over the North Sea, leading Norway and Britain to scramble fighter jets to follow them. Russia's air force said later it was a routine flight. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Russia to send bomber aircraft on long-range flights on a permanent basis .\nPresident Vladimir Putin said the move was in response to security threats .\nThe White House says the flights do not pose a threat to the United States ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Elizabeth and Mary Profit will not be taking center court at the U.S. Open women's doubles final to face Venus and Serena Williams, but they share many of the athletic qualities that have made Venus and Serena the most dominant sisters in tennis history. Elizabeth Profit plays tennis while wearing an insulin monitor at her waist in this family photo. Elizabeth is 13 years old and holds a top ten ranking among 14-year-olds in Southern California. She is already defeating top-ranked players in the 18-year-old division. Her sister Mary, at 11, is also a top-ranked player and dominating her age group. Mary won her first tournament at the age of 6. Both girls started playing tennis as infants by hitting balls of socks across their living room. Their mother, Yvonne Profit, recognized their talent and saw it as an opportunity to develop sportsmanship and character and help them earn athletic scholarships at top national universities. So far, they have exceeded her expectations. In a sport that more often tends to develop players from affluent backgrounds, Elizabeth and Mary have already beaten overwhelming odds and endured the kind of adversity that too often ends in defeat. Watch how the sisters hope to achieve their tennis dreams \u00bb . The Profit sisters grew up in a single-parent household and trained with less than stellar coaches. They developed an exemplary work ethic to compensate for a lack of resources, Elizabeth said. Yvonne, who earned a degree at the University of Michigan, decided to give up her full-time job and move her daughters into an RV to keep up with the rigorous demands of traveling for tournaments. Elizabeth sleeps on a couch. There is a portable stove and shower. But the girls view living in an RV as an inconvenience rather than a hardship. The Profit sisters may be on a path toward a professional tennis career, but Elizabeth's story off the court is just as compelling. She has juvenile diabetes and has been living with the disease since the age of 2, when her body stopped producing insulin. Elizabeth learned how to test her blood sugar levels before the age of 3 and two years later, she began administering insulin injections on her own. \"My mom said I'm not going use my diabetes as a disability,\" said Elizabeth. \"I've got it for the rest of my life. And if they miraculously find a cure for it then that's great, but I have to live with it. I can't make excuses.\" Until she learned how to manage diabetes, Elizabeth found herself collapsing at times. \"In this one particular tournament Elizabeth played in, her blood sugar was totally out of control and I kept hollering out to her, 'Quit! Retire, you don't have to do this,' \" said Yvonne. \"She stopped and she turned around and said, 'I can do this. I can do this, Mom.' \" Elizabeth went on to win the match and the tournament. \"By the time we got home, she had collapsed on the floor. And I said, 'Sweetie pie, why didn't you quit?' \" Yvonne remembered. \"Because you didn't raise me to be a quitter,\" Elizabeth told her mother. In spite of her diabetes, Elizabeth reached the No. 1 ranking in her age group in Southern California at 10 years old. Her sister Mary knows that diabetes can be debilitating and a matter of life and death, so she constantly watches over her older sister. \"Sometimes when I wake up to go to the bathroom, I check her blood sugar, when my mom's sleeping,\" said Mary. \"Sometimes I wake up and give her something if her blood sugar is low.\" For the past ten years, Yvonne said, she has been unable to obtain private health insurance on the open market for her daughter because diabetes is considered a pre-existing medical condition. Elizabeth used to rely on a large insulin pump to make it through the day, but now she wears a small patch that releases insulin. Despite the inconvenience of checking her blood sugar level a dozen times a day, Elizabeth has not let diabetes deter her from achieving her goals. \"At 17, I hope to see myself in the quarters of the U.S. Open like Melanie Oudin,\" she said. \"I hope to win some grand slams and get that No. 1 ranking.\" Elizabeth's advice to anyone with diabetes is universal. \"I'd say if you give up, you're going to have to look back on your life and say, 'Oh I could have done this, I could have done that,' \" she said. \"You don't want to let life pass you by. You're going to have so many years to live, so you might as well have fun while you do it. And once you die, you're going to have a legacy behind, so make your life as fun as you can.\" Next year, Yvonne is planning to enter Elizabeth on the women's professional tour, at the same age that Serena and Venus Williams turned pro.","highlights":"Tennis player Elizabeth Profit, 13, ranks high in her age group; to turn pro next year .\nElizabeth has juvenile diabetes, manages it; \"I can't make excuses,\" she says .\nSister Mary, 11, also a rising tennis star, watches over her older sister .\n\"You don't want to let life pass you by,\" Elizabeth advises others with diabetes ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama reached out to citizens of the world Tuesday, saying in an op-ed piece that ran in 31 newspapers around the globe that there is an urgent need for worldwide economic cooperation. President Obama will discuss the economic downturn with other world leaders next week at the Group of 20 meeting. Obama's move comes ahead of next week's Group of 20 meeting in London, England, in which leaders of the world's richest nations will discuss the global economic downturn. \"My message is clear,\" Obama wrote. \"The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose. Much good work has been done, but much more remains.\" The president is scheduled to hold his second prime-time news conference at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday. In the op-ed, Obama spoke about the upcoming G-20 meeting, saying that world leaders have to work together. Watch as the White House press secretary outlines Obama's economic strategy \u00bb . \"We are living through a time of global economic challenges that cannot be met by half measures or the isolated efforts of any nation,\" Obama said. \"Now, the leaders of the Group of 20 have a responsibility to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jump-starts recovery, but also launches a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.\" The president also pointed out that although the United States is separated by two oceans from most of the rest of the world, a global economy renders those geographic distinctions moot. \"Once and for all, we have learned that the success of the American economy is inextricably linked to the global economy,\" Obama said. \"There is no line between action that restores growth within our borders and action that supports it beyond.\" Next week's G-20 summit will be Obama's first meeting as president with many of the world's leaders. He will meet many of the Western Hemisphere's leaders at the Fifth Summit of the Americas next month in Trinidad and Tobago.","highlights":"President Obama urges nations to work together ahead of Group of 20 meeting .\nObama's op-ed piece runs in 31 newspapers worldwide .\nPresident set to hold prime-time news conference Tuesday night .\nObama: U.S. economy's success is \"inextricably linked to the global economy\""} -{"article":"ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Sex columnist Dan Savage and author of the popular syndicated sex advice column \"Savage Love,\" made his way to St. Paul, Minnesota, to attend the Republican National Convention where he is filming a piece for HBO's \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" Sex columnist Dan Savage is reporting on the GOP convention for HBO's \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" Planted in the CNN Grill, Savage shares his thoughts on John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, tells us what a sex columnist is doing at a political convention, and gives us his take on who's sexier, Democrats or Republicans. Here are five questions for Dan Savage: . CNN: You're here because you're a lifelong Republican? Savage: No, that's not true, actually. I'm a Democrat, although I am a registered Republican in Washington State, but just to drive the Washington State Republican Party up the wall. CNN: Why are you here? Savage: I was here to see if I could find any evidence of George W. Bush at the convention. And I found very little. There was that satellite feed. I bought this button [points to Dick Cheney button on his shirt]. This will be the only time you'll see Dick Cheney at the convention is when you see me walk by with this button ... I wasn't able to purchase it here ... I mean you talk to Republican delegates walking around, a lot of them will admit that George Bush has been a major disappointment and they're happy that he's not here. And one of the reasons that they're happy he's not here is that they don't want America reminded that four years ago and eight years ago, these same delegates ... thought George Bush walked on water. CNN: Why would \"Real Time with Bill Maher\" send a sex columnist to cover the Republican National Convention? Savage: Because when you're a sex writer in America you have to write about politics because politicians will not stop obsessing about it -- screwing around with people's sex lives. Often when I write about politics in \"Savage Love,\" my sex advice column, people write to me and say, \"you're a sex columnist, stick to sex.\" And I'll say -- I usually respond -- \"I'll be able to stick to sex when politicians stick to politics and leave our sex lives alone, and stop politicizing our sex lives.\" But they do. And it's one of the major differences between the two political parties, our sexual issues. And so my view is very relevant, I feel very at home here. CNN: Any thoughts on McCain's running mate choice? Savage: I think Palin has been the clown car of the vice presidential nominee. You never know what's going to pop out of Palin next. CNN: Who's sexier: Republicans or Democrats? Savage: Well, there's just something about those Young Republicans. They're very sexy. They're very tense and nervous. I spoke to a lot of them because I've been running around the convention asking teenagers throughout the convention if they're virgins or not. 'Cuz I feel like I have a right to know because we've invested over a billion dollars in abstinence education programs under George Bush.","highlights":"Savage: Here to see if I could find any evidence of George W. Bush at the convention .\nSavage: I found very little of Bush or Cheney .\nSavage: \"I think Palin has been the clown car of the vice presidential nominee\"\nSavage: \"You never know what's going to pop out of Palin next\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- More than 100 Romanians fled their homes Tuesday night in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following what politicians called \"racist attacks and intimidation.\" A Romanian woman and her child are escorted by police in Belfast on Wednesday. \"On Tuesday evening, when the Romanians saw their windows starting to be smashed, they felt the threats were very real and contacted the police,\" said Trish Morgan, the media relations manager at the Belfast City Church, which took them in. A church member was advised by the police that \"the situation was getting too tense,\" and that the group -- 113 people in all -- needed to find a safe place that could accommodate them quickly. The member contacted the church, and that's where they went, Morgan said. The Romanians were \"quite scared\" upon arrival at the church but \"relieved to be out of the situation,\" she added. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday condemned what one member of Parliament called \"appalling racist attacks,\" and said he hoped the authorities would be able to \"take all the action necessary to protect them.\" Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland -- a province of the United Kingdom -- visited the families on Wednesday, his party Sinn Fein announced. \"People are shocked and completely disgusted by this incident,\" he said in a statement \"I came here this morning to show very clearly my commitment to facing up to any form of intimidation in our community, no matter where it may come from. \"I met with numerous families who are genuinely fearful for their lives and those of their families; I held a five-day-old baby girl in my arms today. She was born in Belfast and now forced to leave her home as a result of attacks by racist, criminal thugs,\" McGuinness said. He was speaking at the O-Zone leisure center, where the families have moved because the space is larger than the church. Race-hate crime in south Belfast has increased in the past six months, Sinn Fein equality and human rights expert Vincent Parker said. The incident came only a day after violence broke out at an anti-racism rally in support of Romanians in Belfast. Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long called Monday's scuffles \"totally unacceptable.\" \"A small minority of people have sadly taken away from an event which had been organized by the local community to show solidarity for their Romanian neighbors, and to express their abhorrence at their homes being subjected to racist attacks,\" she said Tuesday. CNN's Eve Bower contributed to this report.","highlights":"113 Romanians flee homes in Belfast after windows smashed .\nRomanians were sheltered by local church, later moved to leisure center .\nNorthern Irish politicians condemn \"racist attacks and intimidation\"\nUK PM Brown urges authorities to \"take all action necessary to protect them\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- T-shirts and other official merchandise from what were billed as Michael Jackson's last concerts are up for sale, the shows' promoter told fans by e-mail Thursday. Official merchandise from Michael Jackson's \"This Is It\" tour is for sale, according to the shows' promoter. The e-mail, which went to people with tickets to London tour dates that were to start in July, reaffirmed an earlier announcement that ticketholders will receive a full refund or, if they chose, a commemorative ticket for the tour. The concert merchandise includes Jackson belt buckles, socks, hats, wallets, music and a myriad of T-shirts. \"Early in June, Michael Jackson approved a line of official merchandise for you, his fans,\" said the e-mail from concert promoter AEG Live. \"As we mourn the loss of one of the greatest talents the world has ever seen, we are only beginning to feel the impact that Michael left upon us all. A variety of official merchandise commemorates this incredible talent and preserves the legacy that is Michael Jackson.\" Fifty sold-out Jackson concerts were scheduled for the O2 Arena in London, starting July 13. The shows were billed as the final concerts of his career and were called \"This Is It.\" Jackson was expected to earn $50 million from the London shows. The singer died with debts estimated at $500 million, and his estate will take years to unravel legally. On Wednesday, Paul McCartney refuted media accounts about the fate of the Beatles song catalog, which Jackson co-owned. \"Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will, which was completely made up and something I didn't believe for a second,\" a statement on McCartney's Web site said. \"Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn't leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report was true and, therefore, the report that I'm devastated is also totally false, so don't believe everything you read folks!\"","highlights":"Fans were told by e-mail Thursday that \"This Is It\" tour merchandise was for sale .\nJackson himself approved a line of official merchandise in early June .\nPaul McCartney refuted media accounts about the fate of the Beatles song catalog ."} -{"article":"GREENVILLE, South Carolina -- Some are girlish 22-year-olds; others are women approaching 40. They come from South Carolina's rural counties and its booming cities. They are loud and muted, lively and vacant, hopeful and desperate. A pregnant Ashley Hendrix sought treatment at Serenity Place for her painkiller addiction. As different as they are, they share a connection to two powerful forces : their addictions and their babies. They are swallowed by the same shameful past. They don't know if they can be good mothers. They don't know if they can be clean mothers. They're here at a state-run drug-treatment program to learn how to do both. On this summer day, Ashley Hendrix, 24, is eight months pregnant with her first child and one of 16 women at the Phoenix Center's Serenity Place. This is her last shot to get clean -- or face jail. South Carolina's state supreme court is alone in upholding the prosecution of pregnant women for the damage drugs might do to their unborn children. Across the country, local and state agencies have found ways to prosecute pregnant women for drug use, but the cases are often rejected by the courts. And judges in more than two dozen states have overturned decisions that criminalize pregnant addicts. In recent years, Missouri and North Dakota have ruled against charging pregnant women with neglect and endangerment. Illegal substances -- marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription drugs -- consumed Hendrix for more than a decade. \"To this day, I still cry about it, \" she said, \"that if anything does come out wrong with my baby, I know that my drug use is the reason why. Since 1989, at least 126 women in South Carolina have been arrested during their pregnancies, according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Most were charged with drug and alcohol use that posed harm to the fetus the woman was carrying. During the same period, only about 80 pregnant women were arrested on similar charges in all other states combined. \"Word on the street\" in South Carolina, says Stephen Donaldson, program manager of a drug-treatment facility in Charleston County, \"is if you use during pregnancy, you're being prosecuted or you're losing your baby.\" Over the last 15 years, that message has driven many women to Serenity Place, a residential treatment center designed for pregnant women and new mothers. Here, the ultimate goal is to help the women recover from their addiction but Serenity also strives to give the women the confidence to become better mothers. They want the women to know there are second chances, and there is hope. \"I'm grateful everyday for being here and I'm grateful to have my baby with me,\" says a freckled Kim Clark, 28, who gave birth to her son Jaelyn at the center. \"I've been using drugs since I was 11 years old. I didn't know any other life. And I've learned a lot about myself. I've been taught things here.\" She graduated in August, has her own apartment now and works to support herself and her son. Some women arrive here voluntarily. Others were sent by the state's Department of Social Services. Others made a plea bargain with the courts, allowing them one last chance at treatment to avoid prison. \"My biggest fear was the [health of the] baby, but right behind that was that 'I'm going to go to jail',\" says Sandria Doremus, one of Hendrix' classmates at Serenity. Afraid of being turned in for her opiate addiction, she delayed getting prenatal care. \"I should have gone in a lot sooner,\" she admits. Doremus, 37, arrived at Serenity after a hospital reported her drug use to law enforcement officials, as required by law. She has sandy blond hair and warm blue eyes that open up her leathered face. She cuddled her 8-month-old son, Matthew, when CNN visited the center in July. Born with heroin in his system, Matthew was placed on methadone. Today, he is healthy, but studies show drug-exposed babies can face developmental delays and learning disabilities in later years. Watch the women of Serenity Place share their story \u00bb . In 1997, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a fetus in the third trimester was viable and charges of child abuse, neglect and murder could apply to the mother. Some treatment providers and advocacy experts say this ruling opened the door for prosecutors to charge pregnant women. \"These are addicts who become pregnant,\" says Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. \"They aren't women who chose to use drugs after becoming pregnant.\" 'If I didn't have pills, I felt like I had nothing' Hendrix's drug addiction started long before her pregnancy. She was born into a world of drugs. She says her mother was an addict, her father a violent alcoholic who once held a shotgun to her grandmother's head. Hendrix's grandparents rescued her at age 3 by taking her into their home in rural Union, South Carolina. She has fond memories of her grandfather, but one morning, shortly after her 12th birthday, Hendrix watched her 54-year-old grandfather die from a heart attack. The innocent girl started experimenting with drugs, partly because she couldn't cope with her feelings, she says, but mostly to fit in. By the time she turned 18, marijuana use gave way to cocaine and methamphetamine. Then she discovered prescription painkillers: Lower tabs. OxyContin. Percocet. \"It wasn't even about being high anymore. It was just being able to cope with everyday life,\" Hendrix says. \"If I didn't have the pills, I felt like I had nothing.\" Hendrix could no longer leave bed without the painkillers. Her routine consisted of melting OxyContin pills with water, placing the mixture into a syringe and shooting up, even during her pregnancy. By April of this year, she was six months pregnant and on probation for stealing jewelry to feed her drug habit. She took herself to Serenity Place. Tucked alongside empty factories in a once-thriving textile district, the center looks more like a college dormitory inside than a sterile treatment center. Homemade posters, photo collages and cards congratulating the women for giving birth are strewn along the hallways. There is a communal kitchen and colorful playgrounds. Research shows women who remain with their children during treatment have better chances of defeating their addictions. But a national study in 2005 found that only 3 percent of treatment centers had programs tailored specifically to pregnant women. About 14 percent of treatment centers accepted pregnant or postpartum women. The women at Serenity Place follow a rigid schedule that includes therapy, parenting classes and chores. They aren't allowed phone calls or the freedom to surf the Internet without permission. Security cameras guard all exits. The structure can be particularly hard for addicts who grew up in dysfunctional households with few rules. Women spend on average six months in treatment. If a woman violates the rules, she can be removed from the program. On some occasions, women have walked out of the center, leaving their newborns behind. Why prosecute? Why should addicted women be given a chance at motherhood? What about the welfare of the children? These are the questions asked by South Carolina prosecutors, known as solicitors general. Several solicitors general contacted by CNN declined to comment on how many such cases they have prosecuted, but they say that charging pregnant women has become less common in the state. Bob Ariail, solicitor of Greenville, says his district's policy is a far cry from the 1990s, when then-South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, an anti-abortion advocate, publicly declared he would aggressively crack down on pregnant mothers accused of substance abuse. Condon often referred to a fetus as his \"fellow South Carolinian.\" Despite several phone calls by CNN, Condon, who is now a private lawyer in South Carolina, could not be reached for comment. In his two decades as a Democratic state representative, Joe Neal of Columbia, South Carolina, has pushed for more drug treatment funding, an effort he says has little chance in these tough economic times. \"Drug treatment?\" says Neal. \"South Carolina's response to addiction has been incarceration not treatment.\" But Wanda McMichael, manager of women's services at Serenity Place, knows treatment can be beneficial. She guides women like Hendrix and the others through that process. Some who graduated from the program when it began in 1993 still remain clean. \"What's the other alternative if they don't come here?\" says McMichael. \"It's prison. That costs more than treatment, but a lot of people don't know that. If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die.\" A healthy baby, a new hope . Most of the women at Serenity Place say they were little girls the first time they used drugs, some as young as 8. Many could not recall what sobriety felt like until they came to the center. Hendrix says her own mother was 15 when she gave birth to her and then abandoned her. \"She was real pretty. Blond hair, pale skin like me,\" Hendrix says. \"I have her nose and lips. She just didn't respect herself.\" Hendrix doesn't want to be like her mother. Her son, who was born July 24, is healthy. In August, Hendrix left Serenity for an intensive outpatient treatment program, and she and her baby live with her grandmother in Union. Of the 16 women enrolled in Serenity in July, half have graduated, program directors say. Six continue receiving treatment and two have left the center. Three women are on a waiting list to get in, including one who is pregnant. Hendrix hopes to get her GED and enroll in the University of South Carolina to study psychology next year. \"I am happy today,\" she says, \"and that's something I haven't felt in a long time. \"My grandmother. My baby. They make me happy. But you know, it's not about them, jail or none of that anymore. That all changed. I am doing this for me.\"","highlights":"Serenity Place in South Carolina caters treatment programs to pregnant addicts .\nSouth Carolina has been known to prosecute women in their third trimester .\nA pregnant Ashley Hendrix sought treatment earlier this year for her addiction .\n\"If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die,\" a counselor says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They might make you punch the air or bring a tear to your eye: this month on the Screening Room, we've picked our top ten life-affirming moments from the movies. Our number one: Jimmy Stewart discovers life is sweet in \"It's A Wonderful Life\" From heartwarming classics to instant blockbusters, these are the on-screen scenes that never fail to fill you with joie de vivre. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Post your comments to the Screening Room blog and we'll publish the best. Read other CNN viewers' favorite life-affirming movie moments, and tell us yours >> . 1. It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) \"Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.\" Perennial Christmas favorite \"It's A Wonderful Life\" sees habitual do-gooder George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) pulled back from the brink of despair by wannabe angel Clarence. As Bailey embraces his life with joy, it's his friend's final sign-off that draws a sentimental tear from even the most stone-hearted viewer. 2. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) After the battle, Crassus (Laurence Olivier) promises to spare the rebel slaves' lives if they give up Spartacus (Kirk Douglas). In a stirring response, knowing that they are condemning themselves to death by crucifixion, they each rise with a cry of \"I am Spartacus!\" One moment's freedom has never tasted so sweet. 3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) A tense frisson of resentment ripples through Rick's Bar as the boorish Nazi officers strike up in patriotic song. But a command from Lazlo (Paul Henreid), a nod from Rick (Humphrey Bogart), and a rousing chorus of the Marseillaise sees the hated occupiers put firmly back in their place. 4. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994) In the harsh conditions of Shawshank Penitentiary, Andy (Tim Robbins) seizes an opportunity to lock himself in an office and broadcast a Mozart aria over the PA system. The heavenly voices shine light into the darkest depths of despair, bringing humanity to a place where there is none. 5. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) \"James -- earn this. Earn it.\" As the gunfire pauses, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) implores Private Ryan (Matt Damon) -- and, by proxy, us -- not to waste a drop of life: the greatest of gifts is too precious to be frittered away. 6. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Roy the replicant's deep humanity comes to the fore as his last moments slip away. Rutger Hauer's lines on life's fleeting nature -- \"lost in time like tears in the rain\" -- are both provocative and poignant: has he become more human than the people who seek to hunt him down? 7. American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999) \"It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world.\" Kevin Spacey's closing speech inspires us to look at the world around us with fresh eyes, from the flaws in our loved ones to plastic bags caught in the wind. 8. Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) \"Take good care of the forest, Huey.\" Renegade botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) blasts the world's last remaining plant life into deep space, with only a robot to tend to it. A timely reminder of how one man's actions can preserve life and hope. 9. Dead Poets' Society (Peter Weir, 1989) Mr Keating (Robin Williams) inspires his young charges to seize the day and throw off the shackles of their privileged yet stuffy school. We challenge you not to feel a lump in your throat when Todd (played by a young Ethan Hawke) and his classmates stand on the desk in spirited tribute to their disgraced teacher. 10. Victory (John Huston, 1981) \"Come on lads, we can win this one!\" Ludicrous yet rousing, \"Victory\" pitted plucky British footballers, led by Michael Caine and fortified by Pele and Sly, against a dastardly German team in a high-profile game that's weighted against them. Their plot? To escape during half time. But who wants to flee midway when there's a match to be won? \"Victoire! Victoire!\" chant the crowd. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Sound off and read others' thoughts in the Screening Room blog. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Films full of life-affirming moments include \"Casablanca,\" \"Silent Running\"\n\"It's a Wonderful Life\" tops list from \"The Screening Room\"\nList by no means complete; send us yours ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jennifer Muzquiz was \"goth\" in high school. She had, and still has, multicolored hair, a \"face full of piercings,\" and an all-black wardrobe, even though she no longer identifies with the goth subculture. And while her style had always earned her her fair share of strange glances, she says everything changed for the worse after the Columbine school shootings on April 20, 1999. Jennifer Muzquiz, in all black, decided to study at home after feeling shunned as a goth after Columbine. It was on that day that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and teachers in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The massacre was one of the deadliest school shootings in history, and it had a profound effect on students and teachers across the country. As the media and the public groped for meaning behind the incident, there were plenty of theories about the motive behind the massacre. One of these was that Harris and Klebold were members of the goth subculture, or \"trench-coat mafia\" as they were known at Columbine, and thus had been outcasts. This theory has been widely refuted, but for goth students around the country, the damage was done. \"As a result [of Columbine], the public were afraid of the 'goths' and 'punks' and 'metalheads' at school,\" says Muzquiz, who was a high school senior at the time. \"Parents, often successfully, lobbied to get trench coats and all-black attire banned in their local schools. School administrators started considering these groups to be gangs and harassment of students was rampant, with unwarranted backpack searches, detainment in the hallways by security guards, and being called into the administrative offices for questioning.\" Rumors ran rampant about kids who \"looked like they were going to bring a gun to school,\" and Muzquiz says her classmates quickly learned if they wanted to cause trouble for a student, all they had to do was report that student had a list of enemies. \"They could simply report to administrators that the person had an 'enemies list' and the school would quickly swoop in to rectify the situation, even when it wasn't the truth. ... The accused would forever be known as 'the kid with the list' and ostracized,\" she says. Because of this and the new dress code restrictions, her goth friends \"were afraid to go to school.\" Muzquiz herself caught so much flak for her appearance that she went into home studies. And though she was no longer in school, discrimination couldn't be avoided. People in town would cross to the other side of the street to avoid her and her friends, she says. iReport.com: 'Sadly, teens still tend to shun those who are different than they are' Muzquiz was even interviewed by the national media about her experiences after Columbine. At first she regretted it and feared backlash. \"I had already gotten enough crap since Columbine about wearing all black,\" she says. But she was glad she did it after receiving e-mails from other students who identified with her and thanked her for the interviews, including one girl who was suicidal until reading an article about her. \"One girl even had e-mailed me and said [she] was coming home to write a suicide note ... and kill herself after school. She read the article about me and it made her think twice,\" says Muzquiz. \"In the article, I said it's not worth letting these people get to you. It's not up to them to tell you that you're wrong. She thanked me.\" \"[To have] a 14-year-old e-mail me ... it was just, like, whoa, I don't care who says anything bad ... I helped someone,\" says Muzquiz. \"To this day that just sticks with me. Anything I do in my life -- nothing's going to measure to that, the fact that I helped someone realize that there's more to life.\" Things changed for teachers after Columbine, too. Many say they realized they weren't just responsible for their students' knowledge, but for their overall well-being. \"Life was never the same after that day,\" says Barbara Rademacher, a veteran teacher from Rogers, Arkansas. Schools across the country instituted new security measures such as see-through backpacks and metal detectors, and teachers were trained to deal with violent behavior. But more than that, says Rademacher, \"teachers and students are always just a little afraid.\" \"What Columbine said to me as an educator was that we in the education community hold people's lives in our hands. ... We as educators have a much higher duty, a much higher call, than just to teach our subject areas. ... Columbine was to education what 9\/11 was to the United States: a shattering wake-up call, a disaster so profound, it permanently changed our world view.\" iReport.com: 'Education is literally a matter of life and death' Kym Godwin remembers a similar wake-up call after the shooting. She was a first-year teacher in Ilwaco, Washington, at the time. \"I think most people who go into teaching have the desire to go out there and change the world and enlighten kids and bring them to this great level of knowledge,\" she says. \"I remember when it happened, all of a sudden, it was like: 'How can I give them all of this knowledge if I can't keep them safe?' I realized at that moment that my job wasn't just giving them academic learning, it was also about protecting them and making them feel like they're in a safe place.\" This realization hit home for her when her school had a lockdown. Teenagers from another part of town had entered the school, allegedly looking for a student there. A school security guard apprehended them right outside the door to Godwin's classroom. \"I remember thinking, what would happen if somebody actually walked in the door? ... And that's when it hit me, that the kids have to be able to trust me as their teacher to protect them regardless of who walks through that door. I told the kids, this is real, and I am the one in control and I will protect you. ... And I found out afterward that virtually every teacher in the building did the exact same thing. The kids looked to us and knew we were there to keep them safe.\" Godwin also means \"safe\" in a different way. It includes protecting her students from physical harm, yes, but also protecting them from bullying or social stigmas that could potentially lead to violent behavior. Some investigators have said there is evidence to suggest the Columbine shooters were victims of bullying or ostracism, and Godwin says this is a nationwide problem. \"What happened at Columbine could happen virtually anywhere. Kids get picked on, and it could get to a point where they snap. They're human beings,\" she says. iReport.com: 'My students are my kids'","highlights":"Columbine shootings forever changed atmosphere in schools nationwide .\nJennifer Muzquiz says she was discriminated against as a \"goth\"\nTeachers became concerned with protecting students from physical, emotional harm .\niReport.com: How did Columbine affect your life?"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bolivians are widely expected to approve a new constitution Sunday that would allow leftist President Evo Morales to run for another term this year, which he can't do under the current document. The new constitution would eliminate term limits and allow President Evo Morales to run again for president. The new constitution would replace the 1967 charter and give greater voice to the indigenous people who make up most of the country. It would also give more power to the central government. Morales, speaking at rallies in La Paz and Cochabamba this week, said the new document will propel the nation. \"Once approved, this will be the refoundation of Bolivia and the refoundation of a new state where there will be equality and we will all have the same rights and the same obligations,\" he said. Others say the referendum is a way for Morales to keep himself in power, a move that could plunge the country into further violence, division and uncertainty. That effort, critics say, is in ample evidence as some regions fight to break away and as the deaths of up to 30 peasant government supporters a few months ago led to accusations of a right-wing massacre. \"What will be opened is a new chapter of violence,\" said Carlos Toranzo, an investigator in La Paz with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a policy institute associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany. As campaigning on Sunday's referendum came to a close Thursday with massive festive rallies for each side, Bolivians gave voice to the chasm that separates them. \"What this constitutional project does is divide us,\" said Fernanda San Martin, who was at the final opposition rally in the city of Santa Cruz. \"What it does is feed hate and racism in the country.\" Efrain Tico Quispe, at a rally in favor of the new constitution, sees it from a different perspective. \"For them, it's division. It doesn't benefit them,\" he said. \"But for humble people of our class, it serves us well.\" The referendum has two parts: a straight yes-or-no vote on adopting the new constitution and a question asking Bolivians whether the maximum amount of private property that can be owned should be 5,000 or 10,000 hectares (12,355 or 24,710 acres). The wide-ranging constitution would give the government a greater role in the economy and more control over natural resources, broaden nationalization of private industries and increase the rights of indigenous people. The new document also would eliminate term limits for all elected offices and would allow the president to run for re-election to a second consecutive five-year term. The current constitution limits the president to one five-year term. Under provisions of the new constitution, current terms would not be counted, so Morales could run in December and in 2014. In return for support for the constitution, Morales reportedly has agreed not to run in 2014 if he wins this year. But Morales, who was elected in December 2005 by the largest margin since civilian rule was restored in 1982, would still be in office for nine years. That part bothers those who see the vote as a way for Morales to keep himself in power. Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute in Washington, warns against politicians \"who use democracy to concentrate power.\" Sunday's vote comes after a long and troubled path that saw the referendum postponed three times. Morales, who campaigned on a promise to change the constitution, convened a constitutional assembly in July 2006, with a referendum scheduled for August 2007. The assembly did not have a draft document ready until December 2007. After much wrangling and accusations that opponents were locked out of crucial votes, the Bolivian congress approved a referendum in February 2008, scheduling it for May. But the government suspended that vote in March because some of the nation's nine departments, or states, wanted to hold local referendums on greater autonomy during the May balloting. In August, Morales said the referendum would be held in December. That vote also was postponed after unrest in Pando department in which pro-government peasants were killed. In October, an agreement was reached to hold the referendum January 25, 2009. Hakim and others understand why many Bolivians are eager for the vote, particularly in a country with 85 percent indigenous or mestizo lineage and only 15 percent white. \"There's a certain amount of ethnic identity that's involved. That's really important,\" said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. \"People believe that somehow this is going to translate into something positive for their lives.\" A turning point came with the election of Morales, the nation's first Indian president. \"In Bolivia, you have a society that was very segregated,\" Hakim said. \"There was a lot of repression against Indian groups. There's a lot of impatience in the country. They feel that past governments have neglected them. They feel that the international communities and the United States have ignored them.\" Morales, who won a recall vote last summer by a two-thirds margin, also is eager for a vote. The referendum is as much about him as it is the constitution. \"It's a very important development,\" said Erasto Almeida, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, a political research and consulting firm. \"Morales came into office with an agenda of radical change. The new constitution is an important step to consolidate this agenda.\" Analysts and everyday Bolivians agree that the referendum is nearly certain to pass. DeShazo notes that more than 100 new laws will be required to put the constitution into play. That will take time. Almeida points out that Morales had to compromise on many issues \"as the result of a long and difficult negotiation.\" More than 100 of the 411 articles in the constitution Morales' party drafted in 2007 were changed as a result of negotiations with congress, DeShazo said. \"The fact that Morales made concessions and made the constitution more moderate makes the constitution more resilient,\" Almeida said. He sees a couple of ways in which the opposition might try to make trouble for Morales. \"He's going to get about two-thirds [of the vote]. That's what's expected,\" Almeida said. \"If he gets lower, you could have more tension because the opposition will be emboldened.\" If Morales gets significantly more of the vote than expected and tries to ram through his agenda, the opposition also could be energized, Almeida said. Toranzo, the La Paz investigator with the Ebert Foundation, has a more dire forecast. \"From Monday on,\" he said, \"Bolivians won't know what to respect: what was before or what will come. This will destabilize the country.\" He also thinks Bolivia's faltering economy may factor into Sunday's vote. The constitution was formulated, he said, \"during a time of fat cows, but it is being voted on during a time of skinny cows.\" Though spirited, the campaign has been relatively trouble-free. About 3.8 million Bolivians are eligible to cast ballots in the mandatory voting. Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center, is head of a nine-person group of observers sent by former President Carter, who frequently monitors elections. The Organization of American States has sent a 65-person delegation, and the European Union has 45 observers, she said. \"It's fairly quiet now. It's fairly calm,\" she said Friday. \"There were some protesters. There was a little bit of rock-throwing. But there has been no real violence, no deaths. There's more real calm than previous events in Bolivia.\" Hakim agrees, to a point. \"It's a drama that's playing itself out now,\" he said. \"The degree of polarization and friction does not leave me terribly optimistic. On the other hand, things haven't gotten out of hand.\" CNN's Gloria Carrasco in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"New constitution would eliminate term limits, give more voice to indigenous people .\nSome say it's just way for president to keep himself in power .\nCritics express concern that dramatic change could lead to violence, divisions .\nPolicy investigator: \"Bolivians won't know what to respect\" under new constitution ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nineteen political prisoners were released by the government of Myanmar over the weekend, the human rights group Amnesty International reported Tuesday. Protesters demand democracy for Myanmar at a demonstration in New Delhi, India earlier this month. Among those released was Ma Khin Khin Leh, who was serving a life sentence because her husband, a student activist, had helped plan a protest demonstration in Bago in July 1999, according to Amnesty International USA's Web blog . Authorities prevented the demonstration from taking place, but took the woman and her three-year-old daughter into custody after failing to find her husband, Amnesty International said. The child was released after five days but her mom, a 33-year-old school teacher, was sentenced to life in prison. \"Even by the normally harsh standards of 'justice' meted out by Myanmar's military government, the life sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme,\" the human rights organization said. She was designated one of Amnesty International USA's priority cases. She was released with 18 others \"widely considered to be political prisoners,\" Amnesty International said. Myanmar's military rulers have been widely condemned for their alleged human rights abuses. Pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been confined in her home for 12 of the past 18 years. Her last house arrest began in 2003 and has been periodically renewed. In October 2007, clashes erupted between pro-democracy demonstrators and government security forces. As many as 110 people are believed to have been killed in that crackdown, including 40 Buddhist monks. The protests were sparked by a huge fuel price increase imposed by the military government, and quickly escalated. Myanmar's military junta said in mid-October that it had detained more than 2,900 people amid the clashes. In September 2008, Amnesty International reported that Myanmar, also called Burma, had released seven dissidents, among them U Win Tin, a journalist and senior official in the opposition National League for Democracy who had been imprisoned for 19 years.","highlights":"School teacher among 19 political prisoners freed in Myanmar, Amnesty says .\nMa Khin Khin Leh sentenced to life in 1999 after her husband planned a protest .\nMyanmar's military rulers are widely condemned for alleged human rights abuses .\nPro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi still confined to home ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton met privately Thursday night at the Washington home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a key supporter of Clinton's presidential campaign, Feinstein said Friday. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak Wednesday at the AIPAC meeting. She left them in her living room with nothing other than water and comfortable chairs for what she called a positive meeting. No one else was in the room, and no one is giving details of what was discussed. \"They talked. I went upstairs and did my work,\" Feinstein said Friday. \"They called me when it was over. I came down and said, 'Good night, everybody; I hope you had a good meeting.' \"They were laughing, and that was it.\" The meeting began at 9 p.m. and lasted about an hour, Feinstein said. \"I think the opportunity to sit down, just the two of them, was positive,\" she said. It was the two Democratic candidates' first meeting since Obama became the party's presumptive nominee Tuesday. \"They talked about how to come together and how to unify this party and move forward because what we have at stake in November is so important,\" Robert Gibbs, the Obama campaign's communication director, said Friday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Watch Gibbs explain the secret meeting \u00bb . \"And what unites us as a party far exceeds what might divide either of these two candidates.\" A joint statement from the candidates said only, \"Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama met tonight and had a productive discussion about the important work that needs to be done to succeed in November.\" Gibbs would not say whether the senators discussed the possibility of Clinton becoming Obama's running mate.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democratic superdelegate from Nevada, said Friday that he told Clinton he intended to support Obama. But he didn't shed any light on whether Clinton would have a place on the ticket. \"Hillary is going to endorse Barack [on Saturday],\" Reid said on \"American Morning.\" \"She's a very good woman. She's been a great senator. And she's going to be a great help to us in this [election], no matter what role she has in the campaign.\" On Thursday, reporters on Obama's press plane learned that the candidate was not aboard when it departed Virginia, where he had been campaigning. Aides said staff members had \"scheduled him some meetings\" in Washington. The meeting originally was believed to be at Clinton's Washington home. \"It wasn't at her house, and it was not at Dick Cheney's undisclosed location,\" Gibbs said jokingly. Also Thursday, Clinton thanked supporters in an e-mail and pledged to help Obama capture the White House after eight years of Republican control. Clinton also plans to thank supporters Saturday at a Washington event. \"I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Sen. Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise,\" the e-mail read. \"This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Sen. Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Sen. [John] McCain and the Republicans.\" Read Clinton's message to supporters (PDF) Clinton plans to suspend her campaign within days, her campaign said. By suspending instead of dropping out, Clinton technically would remain a candidate, entitled to keep statewide pledged delegates and district-level delegates. Democrats nationwide have coalesced around Obama since he received enough delegates to win the nomination Tuesday evening. The New York Democratic congressional delegation embraced Obama's candidacy Thursday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. iReport.com: Should Obama pick Clinton? On Friday, Democratic leaders in New York, including state legislators and City Council members, endorsed Obama at New York's City Hall, sources said. Obama earned enough delegates Tuesday to clinch the nomination, but Clinton did not concede defeat that night. Instead, she asked supporters to visit her Web site and give her advice on how to proceed. Obama has named Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, and former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to a vice presidential selection team led by former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson. CNN's Ted Barrett and Candy Crowley contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Talks end with laughter, host Sen. Dianne Feinstein says .\nNEW: Aide to Sen. Barack Obama calls private meeting \"cordial\"\nNEW: Sen. Hillary Clinton to endorse Obama on Saturday, top Senate Democrat says ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama showed Thursday night that they have more common ground than differences when it comes to making national service a priority in their presidential administrations. The presidential canidates put aside partisan politics as the nation remembers the terrorist attacks. The candidates took the stage separately in a forum sponsored by TIME at Columbia University in New York. A coin toss determined who took questions first from moderators TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel and PBS's Judy Woodruff. Asked why it seems the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, are \"fading\" in the minds of many Americans, McCain said: . \"We needed at that time [September 11, 2001] to take advantage of the unity in the United States of America.\" McCain criticized the Bush administration for not taking advantage of that sense of unity and instead imploring the American public to live their lives as usual and \"go shopping.\" \"I would have called them to serve,\" said McCain. The GOP candidate said he suspects people feel uninspired by leaders in Washington and that Americans want \"change\" in federal government. \"They understand the challenges that we have in this world. They see the Russian invasion of the little country called Georgia. They see the problems in Afghanistan growing larger. They see a whole lot of things happening in the world that's going to require us to serve, and that opportunity has to be provided to them.\" Watch McCain talk about service \u00bb . McCain praised the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, saying they and similar organizations don't receive \"sufficient recognition\" from Washington. But McCain was careful to say government should limit its involvement. Asked about compensation for service McCain said: . \"I'd be glad to reward [volunteers] them as much as possible. But you want to be careful that the reason is not the reward of financial or other reasons, but the reward is the satisfaction of serving a cause greater than yourself. ... Finding new ways to serve. That's what this next few years should be all about.\" McCain also fielded a question about his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissive comments about Sen. Barack Obama's community service in Illinois. \"Look, Gov. Palin was responding to the criticism of her inexperience and her job as a mayor in a small town. That's what she was responding to. Of course I respect community organizers. Of course I respect people who serve their community. And Sen. Obama's record there is outstanding.\" McCain also said that politics is \"tough business,\" and that Obama set the tone of the whole campaign when he refused to take part in town hall meetings with McCain across America. Obama said his views don't necessarily differ from McCain's on national service. He said creating opportunities for national service would be a priority for his administration as well. \"Part of what makes America work is the fact that we believe in individual responsibility and self-reliance, but we also believe in mutual responsibility, in neighborliness, in a sense that we are committed to something larger than ourselves.\" Obama cited a plan to provide college tuition aid in return for student community service. \"One of my central platforms in this campaign is we're going to provide a $4,000 tuition credit every student, every year, but in exchange for giving something back. And so, young people of modest means, who are interested in going to college, this gives them an opportunity to serve and at the same time, pay for their college education. I think there are a lot of creative ways where we can provide opportunities than exist right now.\" Obama also said he wants to attract more young people into civil service careers. \"The fact is that we have to have government. When a hurricane strikes, as it did with Katrina, we have to have a FEMA that works, which by the way, means that we should be encouraging young people, the best and the brightest, to get involved as civil servants, to pursue careers of public service so we've got people who are trained in federal emergency management who are able to take on the job.\" Watch Obama talk about service \u00bb . \"Now, that does not crowd out the Red Cross. That doesn't crowd out the thousands of church groups that went down there. What it means is that each area has a role to play.\" The forum is part of a two-day summit meant to promote national service. Nearly 500 leaders from business, foundations, universities and politics are meeting to \"celebrate the power and potential of citizen service\" and lay out a plan to address \"America's greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service,\" according to the organizers' Web site. Each presidential candidate has served his nation in different ways. McCain was a Navy officer for over two decades and often encourages Americans to serve a \"cause greater than oneself.\" Obama served as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago after he graduated from college. In a speech in December, the Illinois Democrat said he would ask Americans to serve if he becomes president. \"This will be the cause of my presidency,\" he said. Today's joint appearance came amid recent sniping between the campaigns. McCain's campaign recently attacked Obama for \"lipstick\" remarks made during a campaign stop in Virginia on Tuesday. \"John McCain says he's about change too, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out George Bush -- except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics -- we're really going to shake things up in Washington,' \" he said. \"That's not change. That's just calling ... the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing.\" Watch how tensions are rising on the trail \u00bb . The crowd erupted in applause when Obama delivered the line. McCain's campaign said Obama's remarks were offensive and a slap at vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, despite the fact that the Arizona senator himself used the phrase last year to describe a policy proposal of Hillary Clinton's. Obama shot back Wednesday and accused the McCain campaign of engaging in \"lies\" and \"swift boat politics.\" \"I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics,\" he said in Norfolk, Virginia. \"Enough is enough.\" Watch Obama deliver his harsh words \u00bb . The phrase \"swift boat\" comes from the 2004 presidential election, when the group \"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth\" launched an attack ad campaign against Democratic candidate John Kerry that was said by some to be false. But the two presidential candidates agreed to put aside partisan politics on Thursday. They appeared together in New York to lay a wreath at ground zero, where the World Trade Center towers collapsed after two airliners hijacked by al Qaeda operatives plowed into them on September 11, 2001. The two met with families of victims as well as state and local officials. Earlier in the day, McCain attended a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to remember those who lost their lives when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field there on September 11, 2001. Many believe that the hijackers intended to crash Flight 93 into the U.S. Capitol in Washington. \"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people at work in that building, when that fateful moment occurred, could have been destroyed along with a beautiful symbol of our freedom,\" McCain said. \"They -- and possibly I -- owe our lives to the passengers who summoned the courage and love necessary to deprive our depraved and hateful enemies their terrible triumph. \"I've had the great honor and privilege to witness great courage and sacrifice for America's sake,\" he said. The Obama campaign released a statement earlier Thursday for its candidate in which he said, \"We will never forget those who died. \"On 9\/11, Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country,\" Obama said. \"Let us renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose.\" Meanwhile, a CNN poll out Thursday suggests that voters view McCain as the better presidential candidate to handle terrorism but do not consider terrorism their primary concern in voting. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed, 62 percent, believe that the Republican presidential nominee would be the better candidate to handle the issue of terrorism, compared with 34 percent who believe that his Democratic rival, Obama, would be better on the issue. The poll's margin of error is plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Opinion Research Corp. conducted telephone interviews with 1,022 adults from September 5-7 for the poll. Time's Michael Duffy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sens. McCain and Obama met at a forum on national service in NYC Thursday night .\nTwo candidates appearing together at 9\/11 remembrance in NYC .\nNew poll: Respondents view McCain as better in handling terrorism ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- People who go to Daytona Beach, Florida, by car this weekend will probably wish they hadn't -- they'll definitely stand out in a crowd. Bobby Mitchell, left, and Sheila Justin enjoy Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida. The city is being taken over by half a million motorcycle enthusiasts enjoying Bike Week, which began Friday and will end Sunday. The economy may be in a recession, but bikers aren't passing up the chance to soak up some sun and rev up their engines for a few days in Florida for the biggest motorcycle event in the country. \"Every indication we've had so far is that this year's going to be a good one,\" said Kevin Kilian, senior vice president of the Daytona Beach\/Halifax Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is the managing arm of the city's involvement in Bike Week, a 10-day event that Kilian said takes an entire year to prepare for. Events like Bike Week and its little brother, Biketoberfest, are what keep Daytona Beach running, Kilian said. With 8.5 million visitors each year, special events bring in about $1.3 billion. The two biker events alone generate $650 million of that, he said. The festival didn't always pack in a half-million people, though. In 1988, said Paul Crow, the Daytona Beach police chief at the time, the event had morphed into something very different from what it was when it started. He said he had to battle what he called \"the 1 percent problem\" -- the small group of gangs whose viciousness and threats against outsiders had allowed them to take over Bike Week. He decided he wouldn't have any more of their troublemaking, Crow said, so he created a task force that evolved into the office of special investigations for the Daytona Beach Police. Its specific purpose was to deal with the problem. Today, Bike Week has been restored as family-friendly event. The event has even drawn in other nearby Central Florida communities -- including Ormond Beach in the north and Port Orange and New Smyrna in the south -- giving bikers more events to attend and places to go. Bike Week caters to a wide demographic of people. \"These are people with a lot of disposable income,\" Kilian said. \"They can afford a $30,000 toy.\" Factors like the economy and this year's long hard winter probably got people more excited about Bike Week because it's a chance to get away, he said. \"Everybody needs a break.\" Ken Logan, 50, a radio producer from Orlando, Florida, has been going to Bike Week for four years. He said he goes to \"keep updated on motorcycle stuff as far as styles, what's done to them, meet people who enjoy bikes, to get patches and all the toy stuff, so to speak, and enjoy other people who enjoy the same thing.\" The ride from Orlando is only 35 minutes, and he said that's half the fun. \"Everybody should go -- whether you have a bike or not -- at least once, just to take it in and see what it's about,\" Logan said. Bobby Mitchell, 52, also a radio producer in Orlando, grew up in Daytona Beach and has been going to Bike Week his entire life. He said it's been more fun in recent years, though. \"It's more fun when you actually have a motorcycle,\" he said. \"You get out there and ride alongside people. You're part of the roar, the noise.\" Not only is Bike Week becoming more family-friendly, but it's more diverse as well, with more women participants, said Kathleen Tolleson, president and CEO of Roar Motorcycles. There's even a \"sisterhood bikeride\" in which 35 to 50 women ride together. Daytona Beach-based Roar Motorcycles specifically markets accessories and motorcycles for women. This year, Tolleson said, the company is unveiling a new motorcycle designed by women and made specifically for women and their needs. \"It's becoming more culturally acceptable, so more and more women are riding.\" she said. The bike has a lower seat so that a woman can use her legs and hips when picking the bike off the stand, and can put her feet firmly on the ground when stopped. Most bikes are designed for men, who have more upper body strength and longer limbs. \"Women,\" she said, \"need a lower center of gravity.\" The company is taking orders now, and the bikes will be available in six to nine months.","highlights":"Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida, began Friday and ends Sunday .\nBike Week caters to a wide demographic of people .\nBike Week and Biketoberfest generate $650 million, official says ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite a hardline U.S. policy, there is no reason why federal officials can't negotiate directly with pirates who are holding a U.S. captain hostage off Somalia, a counterterrorism expert said Thursday. Pirates have been plaguing commercial shipping vessels in the waters off the coast of east Africa. Nor is there anything to stop an independent party from paying for his release, said Juan Carlos Zarate, who served as deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism under former President George W. Bush. \"The U.S. has a very clear policy of no concessions; that's different than no negotiations,\" said Zarate, now is a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The U.S. policy against concessions translates into a policy against paying for the release of hostages, he said. \"That means no ransoms, nothing of value in return for the safe release of hostages,\" he said. But, he added, \"It's also important to note that there's nothing in U.S. policy that restricts family members or private companies -- like a shipping company -- to actually pay a ransom. There's nothing that the U.S. government can do other than potentially to prosecute if that money is going to a known terrorist organization, which is a fine line.\" Nevertheless, he said it is U.S. government policy to discourage private companies from making payments to hostage takers. \"The U.S. has a very clear sense that, if you start to pay ransoms, you in essence create an industry for kidnapping,\" he said. \"And, frankly, it's why you see an uptick in the piracy problem in East Africa. It's a for-profit venture. It's very lucrative at low cost for the pirates and it's, in part, fueled by the fact that shipping companies in other countries have been paying ransoms for the release of ships, cargo and personnel.\" Zarate predicted the standoff off Somalia will not be resolved soon. \"I don't see or forecast the use of massive force inadvertently because of the potential for hurting our citizen,\" he said, referring to Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama who was taken hostage after four gunmen boarded it on Wednesday. \"And so I think this is going to take a while, and it may involve some third-party negotiations.\" Though he approves of the government's handling of the situation so far, Zarate said the situation not an easy one. \"This, to a certain extent, is the U.S. government's nightmare scenario,\" said Zarate, who oversaw the U.S. government's counterterrorism strategy from 2005 to 2009. \"We had always planned for, but hoped that this kind of situation wouldn't happen -- where a U.S. vessel was taken or a U.S. citizen was taken in those waters,\" he said. He called the standoff \"a classic hostage situation, which is difficult to resolve. It is certainly difficult to resolve on the high seas where we have limited levers to play.\" iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? Zarate said the hostage holders appear to be in the stronger position, though at first glance -- four men holding a fifth aboard a 28-foot powerless lifeboat in the ocean hundreds of miles from shore -- that may not appear to be the case. \"I think they have the upper hand, in part, because we value the life of our citizens,\" he said. \"They may not value their lives as much, and they may not be using the same rational calculus that we would in this situation.\" But, he said, the pirates may not be able to turn that advantage into victory. \"I think the good guys will win,\" he said. iReport.com: 'Stop the pirates, Obama!' \"I think we'll find a way out of this. I think the FBI hostage negotiators, the naval personnel on scene and others will find a way of negotiating their way out of this. They're professionals; they know how to do that. But it's difficult.\" CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this story.","highlights":"Paying ransom encourages more kidnappings for money, Juan Carlos Zarate says .\nStandoff in high seas difficult because \"we have limited levers to play,\" he says .\nAttempts to free American captain off Somalia \"going to take a while,\" he says .\n\"The good guys will win... but it's difficult,\" former Bush security adviser says ."} -{"article":"Bakersfield, California (CNN) -- When Vincent Barrett died alone in July at age 72, the coroner's office could not find any next of kin. Similarly, Ronald Axtell was listed as indigent -- no survivors and no funds for a funeral -- when he died at age 69. And yet a small army of men and women gathered to pay their respects to the two men, both Air Force veterans, as they were buried at Bakersfield National Cemetery in September. Marsha Dickey, who works in the Kern County coroner's office, was instrumental in making sure the men got the honors they deserved. \"She worked very hard to see that they were veterans ... and without that ... we probably would not be here today to honor them,\" said Lynn Sprayberry, founder and chairwoman of Friends of Fallen Heroes, a local organization that makes sure veterans receive a respectful service at Bakersfield National Cemetery. The coroner's office also discovered that Barrett, a former staff sergeant, had been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in Korea. Axtell was a former airman second class. \"Without [Dickey's] persistence, these two individuals would be placed in a county-owned site,\" said Wesley Jones, director of the Bakersfield National Cemetery. \"Nobody would have known. ... Nobody would have any concept of who these individuals were.\" Leon Thomas, who served in the U.S. Army in Korea in 1951 and was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star medal for bravery, helped spread the word about the double funeral. \"The folks at the coroner's office are patriotic Americans,\" Thomas said. \"We got on the phone and on the Internet and invited our friends.\" News of the funeral even made the local paper. \"I really didn't know there would be this many people to come out,\" Sprayberry said. And come they did, civilians and veterans. An awning built to shade mourners from the hot San Joaquin Valley sun was not big enough to cover everyone. A few brought umbrellas for shade. Many held American flags, some small and some very large and carried on poles. Some brought flowers; one vet held a few yellow roses; another left a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers with a simple message printed on a white ribbon: \"Thank you.\" When the honor guard approached with Barrett's flag-draped casket, civilians put their hands over their hearts. The veterans -- some wearing motorcycle leather and bandanas, some sport shirts and slacks, others donning the suit jackets and pea caps favored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- stood at attention and snapped crisp salutes. They saluted again when the honor guard fired three volleys of seven shots and when the lone bugler played taps. As the guard tightly folded the flag that draped Barrett's casket, a woman in her 20s took cell phone video with one hand and wiped tears with the other. Barrett's ceremony was brief, not much longer than 10 minutes. Axtell's ceremony started shortly after, his ashes carried by the honor guard in a small wooden box. It lasted about as long as the first, with the same volley of shots, taps and salutes. The sergeant of the guard gave Barrett's folded flag to Sprayberry. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who also serves as the county coroner, received Axtell's flag. In the minutes between services, cemetery director Jones asked the crowd whether there were \"any family representatives here for Mr. Axtell?\" No one came forward. \"There were 125, give or take, people here who had no idea who ... Barrett or Axtell were,\" Jones said. \"They didn't know if they were African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian. They didn't even know they were in the Air Force. But they were here.\" \"They're patriotic Americans, and they showed up,\" Thomas added. \"I knew their names and their rank, and that's all I knew,\" Sprayberry said. \"And yet, I was here, and I was very proud to be here, and spend a little time saying goodbye. ... Nobody deserves to be laid to rest alone, especially for fighting for their country, and ... they deserve the respect.\" Bakersfield National Cemetery is far different than any county facility where the indigent would be interred. In the arid foothills of California, their upright headstones will stand in a field of decomposed granite instead of grass, joining about 250 others in an orderly formation. The granite is raked daily, giving the new cemetery a Zen garden look amid the rolling hills and century-old oak trees. Axtell and Barrett's cases should not be unusual, Jones said. \"They're veterans. And because they are veterans, they're entitled to be here, and we honor them the very best way we can.\" \"I think we're going to see more ... people identified as veterans from the ranks of the indigent,\" Thomas said. \"They should be honored in a fitting way, like we honored these two today.\" Between Barrett and Axtell's services, Youngblood addressed the crowd: \"Because you may be indigent, it doesn't make you inconsequential. They served our country, and you're paying them a great tribute by being here.\"","highlights":"Two Air Force veterans died in California without any next of kin .\nLocal coroner's official helped make sure the men got military burials .\nWithout her efforts, they would have been interred in a county-owned facility .\nSmall army of men and women turned out to pay their respects ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Helicopters were bringing 2,000 Mexican troops into the U.S.-Mexican border city of Juarez on Friday to quell a wave of drug-related violence blamed for 200 deaths since January, the city's mayor said. Mexico has ordered troops to move near Juarez, shown here with El Paso, Texas, in the distance. \"Two rival drug cartels tried to push each other out of the city,\" Jose Reyes Ferriz told CNN. Among those killed were about 20 police officers representing the state, the military and the federal and city governments, he said. \"Many [people] say the drug cartels targeted specifically the heads of the police departments,\" he said. \"The violence got extremely bad in the city.\" He said no uninvolved civilians have been injured. \"The two rival drug cartels in Mexico, one's from the Gulf, one's from the Pacific -- and Juarez being right down the middle, they tried to push the other one out of the area,\" he said. Watch police clash with suspected drug smugglers \u00bb . Juarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The majority of the troops will be based in the city. Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan said Thursday 2,026 soldiers, 180 military tactical vehicles, three airplanes and more than a dozen drug detection devices would be used in the military operation. Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora stressed that the violence that goes along with drug trafficking is \"not in any way a sign of strength, but a sign of weakness, deterioration and decomposition.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ariel Crespo contributed to this report.","highlights":"The majority of the troops will be based in Juarez, Mexico .\nJuarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas .\nDrug-related violence has claimed some 200 lives since the beginning of the year .\nMayor: Two rival drug cartels tried to push each other out of the city ."} -{"article":"IP-455 Press Release 8 February 2008 The findings of a Scotland Yard inquiry into how Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died after being attacked during a political rally in Rawalpindi were presented to the Government of Pakistan today. The bomb explodes near Bhutto's vehicle following a political rally in Rawalpindi. The conclusions of the inquiry were outlined in a detailed report handed over to interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz by Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne, accompanied by a senior official from the British High Commission, during a meeting in Islamabad. The text of the executive summary of the report is as follows: . On the 27th December 2007, Mohtarma Benazir BHUTTO, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), died as a result of being attacked in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Following discussions between the Prime Minister and President Musharraf, it was agreed that officers from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) should support the investigation into Ms Bhutto's death. The primary focus of the Scotland Yard team was to assist the Pakistani authorities in establishing the cause and circumstances of Ms Bhutto's death. The wider investigation to establish culpability has remained entirely a matter for the Pakistani authorities. The SO15 team was led by a Detective Superintendent Senior Investigating Officer, and comprised two forensic experts, an expert in analysing and assessing video media and an experienced investigating officer. The team arrived in Pakistan on 4th January 2008 and spent two and a half weeks conducting extensive enquiries. During the course of their work, the team were joined by other specialists from the United Kingdom. The UK team were given extensive support and co-operation by the Pakistani authorities, Ms Bhutto's family, and senior officials from Ms Bhutto's party. The task of establishing exactly what happened was complicated by the lack of an extended and detailed search of the crime scene, the absence of an autopsy, and the absence of recognised body recovery and victim identification processes. Nevertheless, the evidence that is available is sufficient for reliable conclusions to be drawn. Within the overall objective, a particular focus has been placed on establishing the actual cause of death, and whether there were one or more attackers in the immediate vicinity of Ms Bhutto. The cause of death . Considerable reliance has been placed upon the X-rays taken at Rawalpindi General Hospital following Ms Bhutto's death. Given their importance, the x-rays have been independently verified as being of Ms Bhutto by comparison with her dental x-rays. Additionally, a valuable insight was gained from the accounts given by the medical staff involved in her treatment, and from those members of Ms Bhutto's family who washed her body before burial. Ms Bhutto's only apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head. The UK experts all exclude this injury being an entry or exit wound as a result of gunshot. The only X-ray records, taken after her death, were of Ms Bhutto's head. However, the possibility of a bullet wound to her mid or lower trunk can reasonably be excluded. This is based upon the protection afforded by the armoured vehicle in which she was travelling at the time of the attack, and the accounts of her family and hospital staff who examined her. The limited X-ray material, the absence of a full post mortem examination and CT scan, have meant that the UK Home Office pathologist, Dr Nathaniel Cary, who has been consulted in this case, is unable categorically to exclude the possibility of there being a gunshot wound to the upper trunk or neck. However when his findings are put alongside the accounts of those who had close contact with Ms Bhutto's body, the available evidence suggests that there was no gunshot injury. Importantly, Dr Cary excludes the possibility of a bullet to the neck or upper trunk as being a relevant factor in the actual cause of death, when set against the nature and extent of her head injury. In his report Dr Cary states: . \u2022 \"the only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb-blast.\" \u2022 \"in my opinion Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb-blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle.\" Given the severity of the injury to Ms Bhutto's head, the prospect that she inadvertently hit her head whilst ducking down into the vehicle can be excluded as a reasonable possibility. High explosives of the type typically used in this sort of device, detonate at a velocity between 6000 and 9000 metres per second. This means that when considering the explosive quantities and distances involved, such an explosion would generate significantly more force than would be necessary to provoke the consequences as occurred in this case. It is also important to comment upon the construction of the vehicle. It was fitted with B6 grade armour and designed to withstand gunfire and bomb-blast. It is an unfortunate and misleading aspect of this case that the roof escape hatch has frequently been referred to as a sunroof. It is not. It is designed and intended to be used solely as a means of escape. It has a solid lip with a depth of 9cm. Ms Bhutto's injury is entirely consistent with her head impacting upon the lip of the escape hatch. Detailed analysis of the media footage provides supporting evidence. Ms Bhutto's head did not completely disappear from view until 0.6 seconds before the blast. She can be seen moving forward and to the right as she ducked down into the vehicle. Whilst her exact head position at the time of the detonation can never be ascertained, the overwhelming conclusion must be that she did not succeed in getting her head entirely below the lip of the escape hatch when the explosion occurred. How many people were involved in the immediate attack? There has been speculation that two individuals were directly involved in the attack. The suggestion has been that one suspect fired shots, and a second detonated the bomb. All the available evidence points toward the person who fired shots and the person who detonated the explosives being one and the same person. \u2022 Body parts from only one individual remain unidentified. Expert opinion provides strong evidence that they originate from the suicide bomber. \u2022 Analysis of the media footage places the gunman at the rear of the vehicle and looking down immediately before the explosion. The footage does not show the presence of any other potential bomber. \u2022 This footage when considered alongside the findings of the forensic explosive expert, that the bombing suspect was within 1 to 2 metres of the vehicle towards it rear and with no person or other obstruction between him and the vehicle, strongly suggests that the bomber and gunman were at the same position. It is virtually inconceivable that anyone who was where the gunman can clearly be seen on the media footage, could have survived the blast and escaped. The inevitable conclusion is that there was one attacker in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle in which Ms Bhutto was travelling. In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device. At the time of the attack this person was standing close to the rear of Ms Bhutto's vehicle. The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury. John MacBrayne QPM Detective Superintendent Counter Terrorism Command 1st February 2008 E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Scotland Yard releases report into assassination of Benazir Bhutto .\nOnly apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head .\nUK experts all exclude the injury being a wound as a result of gunshot .\nInjury consistent with her head impacting upon the lip of vehicle escape hatch ."} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A 92-year-old woman with cocaine strapped to her body flew all the way from Brazil to Spain before police arrested her, in a wheelchair, at Madrid's airport. A Civil Guard spokeswoman says the 92-year old was apprehended at Madrid's Barajas Airport. They found 4.3 kilos, or nearly 9.5 pounds, of cocaine packets strapped to her legs and torso, and also arrested a 44-year-old female companion, who tried to escape on another plane, a Civil Guard spokeswoman told CNN Tuesday. The two women, both from Uruguay, were arrested Friday after arriving in Madrid on a flight from Sao Paolo, Brazil. But officials did not release details about the case until this week, after a judge had arraigned the two on drug trafficking charges. The judge ordered the younger woman to prison but sent the 92-year-old to a senior citizens' home in Madrid. Due to her advanced age, \"it's practically impossible\" that she would be tried or face jail time, said the Civil Guard spokeswoman, who by custom is not identified. Police did not identify the two women. Civil Guards became suspicious when the younger woman repeatedly told the older woman -- who had asked for an airport wheelchair in Madrid to traverse the terminal -- that if they rushed, they would make their connecting flight to Spain's Canary Islands. The Civil Guards, who run customs controls at the airport, stopped the woman in the wheelchair. The younger woman immediately fled, first trying to make the connecting flight, which by then had closed its doors, and then attempting to leave the airport terminal for the street. But she was stuck in the \"satellite,\" or second building, of Terminal 4, which is connected to the main building and the street by an underground train. Police caught up with her before she left the satellite terminal. The two would-be smugglers probably expected a cash payment and return flight tickets to Brazil from their drug trafficking contacts, the Civil Guard spokeswoman said.","highlights":"Two women, both from Uruguay, arrested after arriving in Madrid on flight from Brazil .\nJudge arraigns two women, one a 92-year old wheelchair user, on drug charges .\nSpokeswoman: \"It's practically impossible\" wheelchair user would be tried ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roger Federer has been hit with a $1,500 fine for swearing at the umpire during his shock U.S. Open final defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro. Federer argues with umpire Jake Garner during his five-set defeat to Del Potro. The world number one became embroiled in an argument with Jake Garner at the end of the second set after complaining Del Potro was taking too long to decide whether or not to make challenges. The Argentine successfully overturned an \"out\" call shortly before Federer's outburst, a point that led to him breaking serve and eventually taking the set. During the exchange Federer was picked up on microphones telling Garner: \"Don't tell me when to be quiet, okay? When I want to talk, I'll talk.\" Del Potro went on to claim his first grand slam, ending Federer's five-year unbeaten run at Flushing Meadows and denying the Swiss maestro a 16th grand slam title. Federer's fine pales in comparison to the one meted out to Serena Williams, who was docked $10,000 for an altercation with a line judge at the climax of her semifinal with eventual winner Kim Clijsters. Williams reacted angrily after being called for a foot fault, and unleashed a torrent of abuse at the official, who reported the exchange to umpire Louise Engzell. The resulting penalty point for a code violation handed the match to Clijsters. Williams later apologized for the incident. She was also fined $500 for racket abuse in the same encounter. Over $31,000 in fines were handed out in the final grand slam of the season with Daniel Nestor, from Canada, forced to pay $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct towards a fan he confronted. Vera Zvonareva of Russia and Austria's Daniel Koellerer were also fined $1,500 for audible obscenities. Federer will get an early chance to put his U.S. Open disappointment behind him when he plays for Switzerland in a World Group playoff tie against Italy this weekend in Genoa.","highlights":"Roger Federer fined $1,500 for his argument with umpire in U.S. Open final .\nFederer confronted Jake Garner in row over challenges by Juan Martin Del Potro .\nDel Potro went on to win his first grand slam in five-set thriller in New York ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A massive blast targeting the Danish Embassy in Pakistan Monday killed at least six people and wounded as many as 18, authorities said. The scene of devastation in Islamabad Monday after a suicide car bomb attack near the Danish Embassy. The blast left a four-foot deep crater in the road. Confusion lingered about the attack in the capital city of Islamabad and the number of casualties. Police at the scene said a suicide car bomber pulled up next to the embassy at about 1 p.m. and detonated explosives. But Senior Superintendent of Police Ahmad Latif told CNN that authorities could not immediately label it a suicide attack. Likewise, a medical worker told CNN the explosion killed eight people, including a young child and at least one foreign national. But Latif put the number of fatalities at six and said none of the dead were foreigners. Among the wounded, he said, was a Brazilian citizen of Pakistani descent. Watch Pakistan's foreign minister respond \u00bb . Authorities differed on the number of wounded as well, with figures ranging from five to 18. No embassy official was seriously hurt, Latif said. It is not uncommon for preliminary casualty figures to vary: police cautioned that the numbers could rise. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller condemned the act. \"My immediate reaction is that you can only condemn this,\" said Stig Moeller. \"It is terrible that terrorists do this. The embassy is there to have a cooperation between the Pakistani population and Denmark, and that means they are destroying that. They're destroying the Pakistanis' ability to connect with Denmark. It is completely unacceptable.\" Watch the aftermath of the deadly attack \u00bb . The blast, heard more than two miles away, sheared off the embassy's front wall and kicked in its metal front gate. The impact blew out the building's windows and also damaged the offices of a non-profit organization. The Danish and the EU flag, knocked off their staff, hung limply from a spot on the embassy balcony. Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told reporters at the scene that police are beefing up security at embassies and foreign missions throughout the city. \"I just want to assure everybody that the government will do everything to protect the diplomatic missions and also the security and safety of the citizens of Pakistan,\" he said. The explosion was the first deadly attack in Islamabad since a bomb was hurled over a wall surrounding an Italian restaurant on March 15. That explosion killed a Turkish woman and wounded 12 people, including four U.S. FBI agents. After Monday's attack, dozens of cars -- blanketed with dirt kicked up by the blast -- littered the street, their windows knocked out. Rescue workers carried away a bloodied person, covering his body with a blanket. Pieces of shoes and tattered clothing lay amid the rubble. Police said the attack targeted the embassy. Danish embassies in predominantly Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, have been the scene of protests since Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons that Muslims say insult their prophet. In February, several newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial cartoons of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, after Danish authorities arrested several people who allegedly were plotting a \"terror-related assassination\" of the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard's cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse. He said he wanted his drawing to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist. Islam generally forbids any depiction of the prophet -- even favorable ones -- fearing that it may lead to idolatry. Two years ago, demonstrations erupted across the world after some newspapers printed the same cartoons. Some protests turned deadly. The protests prompted Danish officials to temporarily close the embassy in Islamabad. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Monday's blast. In the past, authorities have blamed Islamic militants for carrying out attacks inside Pakistani cities. The country experienced a month-long lull in attacks after a new government took office in March and set on a course to negotiate with militants. But since then, attacks have picked up again. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suicide car bomber targeted Danish embassy in capital, Islamabad .\nDiffering accounts put death toll at between eight and six people .\nMedical worker says a child and at least one foreign national died in blast .\nDanish embassy scene of protests last year over Muhammed cartoons row ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Bank cut China's economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent Wednesday, down a full percentage point from November's projection. Workers assemble toys on a production line at a factory in Shantou, in China's Guangdong province. Despite the downgrade, \"China is a relative bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global economy,\" said the World Bank's David Dollar. Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated projections that the nation's economy will grow by 8 percent in 2009, despite doubts expressed by domestic and international economic analysts. Some have forecast growth as low as 5 percent. \"I will admit it will be a difficult job [to reach 8 percent]. This being said, I also believe with considerable efforts it's possible for us to obtain this goal,\" Wen said at a news conference following the annual session of the country's rubber-stamp legislature. China has seen a sharp decline in demand for its exports since November as other major economies have struggled. In February, Chinese exports plunged 25.7 percent compared with the previous year's, Beijing reported last week. Even with the slowdown, China's economy -- the third largest in the world -- has gone from white-hot to merely robust. In 2007, China's gross domestic product grew at 13 percent. The two largest economies -- the United States and Japan -- are in recession. \"So a lot of things will go down in 2009 globally,\" Dollar said. \"But we see China's contribution as being very positive in keeping many markets from going down as far as they would otherwise.\" The World Bank expects China's economy to outgrow most others in 2009. In November, China announced plans to inject $586 billion (4 trillion yuan) into its economy to offset declines in industrial and export growth. That economic stimulus plan included the loosening of credit restrictions, tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending.","highlights":"World Bank cuts China's economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent .\nReduction is down a full percentage point from November's projection .\nLast week, Chinese Premier projected nation's economy would grow by 8% in 2009 .\nChina has seen a sharp decline in demand for its exports since November ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The murder of rapper Dolla reverberated throughout the music industry on Tuesday as police sought a motive for the brazen killing. Rap artist Dolla was known as a nice guy who survived a rough childhood. The aspiring Southern hip-hop artist, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was gunned down in the busy parking lot of the upscale Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, California, on Monday afternoon. Police later arrested Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, at Los Angeles International Airport, a Los Angeles Police statement said. No other details were given about Berry. The 21-year-old rapper was based in Atlanta, Georgia. He was in Los Angeles to work on his debut album. Those who knew him said that despite coming from a rough background, Burton was extremely gracious and polite. \"Everything with Dolla was 'please' and 'thank you,' \" said Ant Rich, manager of A&R for Jive Records, who discovered the rapper for the label when Burton was 17 and helped sign him a year later. \"The streets did not define him at all. He was bigger than that.\" Dolla was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of singer Akon, who collaborated with him on his first single, \"Who the F--- is That?\" which also featured another high-profile artist, T-Pain. Another Dolla song, \"Feelin' Myself,\" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie \"Step Up.\" According to his official MySpace page, Dolla was born in Chicago, Illinois, and his family relocated to Los Angeles soon after. He was 5 years old when he and his older sister, Divinity, witnessed their father committing suicide. After that incident, their mother moved the family to Atlanta, according to his biography. The Burton family released the following statement on Tuesday: . \"First and foremost we, the family, would like to thank everyone for all their kind thoughts and prayers. Furthermore, the family would like to note that rumored details of the shooting on popular Web\/blog sites are false. \"Due to the circumstances of the situation, no other information will be released at this time. We are grateful for your continuous support and would be very appreciative if we could mourn this loss in private. \"Additionally, information released before and after this official statement are not confirmed nor should they be considered accurate.\" Rich said Dolla, who also did some modeling for P. Diddy's Sean John label, loved his family deeply. He was the guy with the great smile who would do things like offer to pick up the bill after a meeting with music executives, Rich said. \"You would tell him 'Look Dolla, you don't have to do that because we get reimbursed for this' and he would say 'No, no you got it last time, let me,' \" Rich said. \"The world lost a really good kid and he had the biggest heart.\" DeAngelo Jones books talent for BET and got to know Dolla after he performed at the network's \"Spring Bling\" event last year. He said the artist was humbled and grateful for the success he was starting to find in the industry. \"That energy was what drew me to him,\" said Jones, who stayed in touch with Dolla after the show and often ran into him at other events. \"A lot of times there are negative associations that go along with being a rapper, but he was not at all what the image of a rapper is portrayed to be.\" Jones said he was at the Beverly Center only a short time before the shooting occurred. Jones said it was unfortunate that Dolla's slaying is yet another incident that will link hip-hop with violence. \"Hip-hop gets such a bad rap, ever since the deaths of Biggie and Tupac,\" Jones said. \"[Dolla] just wanted to be successful, help other people and do the right thing. What's so hard for me is to see where his life was heading, because he was definitely on the right course.\" Jerry Barrow, senior editor for The Urban Daily, a publication devoted to African-Americans in pop culture, noted that it was unfortunate that Dolla is finding mainstream recognition posthumously. \"With his modeling and his music, he did more before the age of 20 than many people do,\" Barrow said. \"It's a shame that this is how many people are now discovering him and his music.\" Rashan Ali, a disc jockey with Atlanta's Hot 107.9 radio station, said the city has a thriving hip-hop community. Her station, which plays hip-hop, often has its lobby filled with aspiring artists trying to get their music heard. With the success of Atlanta-based artists like rappers T.I., Outkast, and Young Jeezy, more and more young people are drawn to the area to try and make the connections that will find them fame, Ali said. That Dolla was killed while pursuing his craft is especially sad, she said. \"[Dolla] was minding his business, in Los Angeles trying to record his music and this happens,\" Ali said. \"It's horrific and now a mother has to bury her child. It's senseless.\"","highlights":"Those who knew rapper Dolla mourn his loss .\nThe Atlanta-based rapper was killed at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles .\nFamily releases a statement asking for privacy to mourn .\nDolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was 21 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A polar bear falls through thin Arctic ice while searching for food for his family. A humpback whale guides her calf on a perilous 4,000-mile journey. A herd of African elephants in search of water battles a sandstorm in the Kalahari Desert. \"Earth,\" a documentary in theaters Wednesday, follows families of polar bears and other animals. These dramatic scenes await viewers in \"Earth,\" a feature-length documentary hitting theaters Wednesday for Earth Day. For British filmmakers Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, surveying the whole planet for Earth's most exotic species and magnificent landscapes was a daunting task. \"We wanted to tell an epic story about the whole planet,\" co-director Fothergill told CNN in an interview. \"We spent a record 2,000 days in the field. We filmed in 46 countries worldwide, on every continent.\" Fothergill and Linfield shot the footage for the film while making \"Planet Earth,\" the Emmy-award-winning nature series that aired on the BBC and the Discovery Channel in 2007. See photos from \"Planet Earth\" \u00bb . But the filmmakers say \"Earth\" is not just a remix of the previous project. \"The movie has over 40 percent original footage. It has a very distinctly different story line than the TV series,\" said Fothergill, who believes small TV screens don't do justice to the images he and Linfield captured. Watch directors give behind-the-scenes look at 'Earth' \u00bb . \"It's very hard [on TV] to give people a true sense of what it's like to be there,\" he said. \"What we think is very special about the movie is its surround sound. When the lions roar, you get a real feeling for being there.\" \"Earth\" is the first of a series of movies set to be released under the newly branded Disneynature label -- a spin-off of \"True-Life Adventure,\" Disney's first nature documentary series of the '40s and '50s. Nature movies have made a big impression on national and international audiences in recent years. The 2005 documentary \"March of the Penguins\" cost roughly $3 million to make and sold over $127.4 million in tickets worldwide. Disney plans to release one feature-length film a year. The next one is \"Oceans\" in 2010 followed by \"Big Cats\" and \"Chimpanzees.\" In honor of Earth Day 2009, Disney promised to plant a tree for each person who goes to see the movie on its opening weekend. \"Earth\" examines the resilience of life in the face of ever-present danger through three stories of mothers and their young: polar bears in the Arctic, elephants in Africa's Kalahari Desert and humpback whales in the tropical oceans. Thirty-nine other exotic species from all corners of the world get supporting roles. The film is narrated by James Earl Jones, and George Fenton composed the score, which is performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. iReport.com: Tell us about nature and environmental issues near you . Over the course of five years, the filmmakers collected video footage from some of the most remote places on the planet, including the Aurora Australis in Antarctica, the peaks of the Himalayas, and the tropical birds of Papua New Guinea, to reveal the earth's intrinsic beauty and harsh realities. Central to the movie's storyline is the constant tug-of-war between the animal \"actors\" and their ever-changing environment. See iReporters' photos and video of local ecological issues \u00bb . \"Although the elephants and the humpback whales and polar bears are the animal stars, the other big star of the movie is the earth -- the planet itself,\" said Fothergill. \"Really the one thing that unites all of our planet and all the animals that live on it is the seasonality of it.\" Without the earth's 23.5-degree tilt to the sun there would be no seasons, no variation in daylight and darkness, said Fothergill. Fothergill and Linfield used state-of-the-art camera technology to capture nature's predator-prey interplay from great distances without disrupting the hunt. Aerial shots of the elephant herd, for example, were shot using a gyro-stabilized Cineflex aerial camera system mounted to the bottom of a helicopter. \"A lot of the breathtaking cinematography in the movie was only achieved through this special camera system,\" Fothergill said. \"We were ... almost a mile away from our action and we could still get all the close-ups we needed.\" The filmmakers used this technology to film a sequence of a wolf chasing a herd of caribou. \"Wolves are very shy animals and they run very fast. If you are on the ground, you can never keep up with the action. We filmed the whole hunt from our helicopters and because we were flying so high, the wolves could hardly hear us,\" added Fothergill. The filmmakers also used infrared cameras to film a dramatic nighttime sequence of 30 lions in Botswana joining forces to attack an elephant. Fothergill and Linfield couldn't use lights or normal cameras because they would have frightened away the animals. \"Probably the most dangerous single situation was filming the lions at night attacking the elephant,\" Fothergill said. \"Apart from the woman who was looking through an infrared sensitive camera, nobody else could see anything. We were right in the middle of the action and there was a constant concern that the elephants would come charging through our vehicle. That was pretty hairy.\" Another high-speed, high-definition camera, originally developed to film car crash tests, was used to capture an eye-popping scene of a Great White shark leaping out of the water to devour a seal in midair. The camera was able to film shots at 1,000 frames per second, slowing shots by as much as 40 times their original speed. The images were captured directly onto a computer allowing for an endless stream of video while maintaining the detail and clarity of the shot. \"In normal speeds it's gone in seconds, but in slow motion, when you see it lasting 40 seconds to a minute, you get a real sense of the beauty, the scale and the size and power of that shot which is exactly what we wanted,\" Fothergill said. Not a single image in the film was computer generated, Fothergill said. Time-lapse camera technology allowed the filmmakers to condense a year's worth of seasonal changes into a seamless 30-second shot. Fothergill says his formula for movie-making success is simple: \"A lot of waiting around, a lot of patience and a lot of failure.\" The filmmaker believes those failures -- missed opportunities, days of waiting for animals to appear -- paid off in the end. He hopes audiences will be entertained while escaping into the wonders of a world they don't often see. \"We wanted to give people this wonderful journey and say, 'Look, it's a really beautiful planet and it's still ... worth preserving.\"","highlights":"\"Earth,\" a movie about animals and their dramatic journeys, hits theaters Earth Day .\nThe documentary was shot by the same filmmakers who made \"Planet Earth\"\nThe movie is the first released under Disney's newly branded Disneynature label .\nDisney vowed to plant a tree for everyone who sees the film opening week ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Adventurer and TV show host Bear Grylls injured his shoulder in Antarctica during an expedition to raise money for an international charity, the Discovery Channel said Sunday. Bear Grylls, host of \"Man vs. Wild,\" was injured in Antarctica during an expedition to raise money for charity. Grylls was injured Friday night after falling during the expedition, which was not for the Discovery Channel, according to the network's statement. The statement said that Grylls is returning to the UK to receive medical attention. \"Once he sees a doctor, we will have a better sense of the level of seriousness of his shoulder injury and the recovery time needed to get him back to his full physical activity,\" according to the statement. Grylls, 34, is the host of Discovery's \"Man vs. Wild\" in which he demonstrates extreme measures -- including eating snakes and insects -- used to survive in harsh environmental conditions. In his blog, Grylls said the aim of his expedition in Antarctica -- sponsored by Ethanol Venture -- is \"to promote alternative energies and their potential.\" \"We will be using lots of different forms of alternative power, including wind-powered kite-skiing, part bio-ethanol powered jetskis and inflatable boats, electric-powered paragliders, solar- and wind-powered base camps -- and good old foot work,\" Grylls wrote in a November 14 entry. Grylls is a former member of the British Special Forces and has broken his back in several places during his service. In his blog, he said he and his wife Shara are expecting their third child in January.","highlights":"Adventurer and TV show host Bear Grylls injured his shoulder .\nGrylls was in Antarctica on an expedition for charity .\nHost going to UK for treatment, Discovery Channel says ."} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Four armed robbers -- two of them men disguised as women -- walked into a luxury jewelry store in Paris and swiped an estimated \u20ac80 million (U.S. $101 million) in jewels, the Paris prosecutor's office said. Robbers dressed in drag stole more than $100M worth of jewelry from a Harry Winston store in Paris. The incident, which lasted about 15 minutes, took place Thursday around 5:30 p.m. at the Harry Winston store near the famed Avenue des Champs-Elysees, around the corner from a police station. The case has been turned over to the unit in charge of handling organized crime cases, said Isabelle Montagne, assistant to Paris prosecutor Jean Claude Marin. No shots were fired and no one was wounded, she said. Watch more on the heist \u00bb . After they entered the store, the four thieves pulled out their weapons, forced the customers and employees -- about 15 people in all -- into a corner, and grabbed jewels out of display cases and safes, the prosecutor's office said. The robbers seemed to know the locations of secret hiding places for jewels and called some employees by their first names, it said. The group then fled the store, which is located on a wide street near subways and other public transportation. French state radio reported that it was not immediately clear how the robbers left the area. Investigators believe it was the work of a highly professional group, and that the culprits were French or from elsewhere in Europe, state radio reported. In a written statement, the Harry Winston company said, \"We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation. Our first concern is the well-being of our employees.\" The same shop was robbed of millions of euros worth of jewelry just 14 months ago, in October 2007. -- CNN's Jim Bittermann and Niki Cook contributed to this report.","highlights":"Robbers -- some in drag -- steal estimated $102m in loot from Paris jewelry store .\nThieves swiped rings, necklaces and luxury watches from display cases .\nHarry Winston store is near the Champs-Elysees ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Netherlands has rejected an asylum plea by a gay Iranian teenager trying to escape possible persecution in his homeland. Mehdi Kazemi believes he will face persecution if he is made to return to Iran. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, had originally sought asylum in Britain, where he was taking classes on a student visa, because, he said, his boyfriend had been executed in Iran after saying he and Kazemi had been in a gay relationship. Britain's Home Office rejected his request, prompting Kazemi to flee to Netherlands. Tuesday's decision by the Council of State -- the highest administrative court in the Netherlands --means Kazemi could face deportation to Britain, which he fears will send him back to Iran. Council spokeswoman Daniela Tempelman said the council decided it must comply with the Dublin Regulation and return Kazemi to Britain. Watch how teenager has lost his right to remain. \u00bb . Under the Dublin Regulation, European Union member nations agree that an application for asylum submitted in any EU country would be handled by that country alone. The regulation seeks to ensures that an asylum seeker is not redirected from nation to nation simply because none will take responsibility. Kazemi's initial appeal for asylum in the Netherlands, made in October, was rejected. He then appealed unsuccessfully to a regional court in December. His last appeal was to the Council of State in January. Tempelman said that in order for the Dutch court to consider Kazemi's asylum application, he needed to prove that Britain did not handle his asylum application properly, but he wasn't able to prove any wrongdoing on the part of the British government. Kazemi now has exhausted his chances for appeal in the Netherlands and, according to Tempelman, could be returned to Britain on a short notice. The British government about six months ago accepted the Dutch request to take him back. Kazemi's lawyer will have the option of taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights to request an \"interim measure\" that could allow Kazemi to stay in Europe until further notice. \"If anybody signs his deportation papers and says, look, he's got to be deported to Iran, that means they have signed his death sentence,\" said Kazemi's uncle Saeed, who asked CNN to withhold his last name over safety concerns. Gay rights activists in Europe and Iran are also researching Kazemi's case. \"When Britain is prepared to send a young man back to possible execution, that is inhumanity on a monumental scale,\" said Peter Tatchell, an activist for gay campaign group OutRage. \"And I hang my head in shame, as a British citizen.\" In a written statement, Britain's Home Office said that even though homosexuality is illegal in Iran and homosexuals do experience discrimination, it does not believe that homosexuals are routinely persecuted purely on the basis of their sexuality. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iranian teenager loses appeal to remain in the Netherlands .\n19-year-old had sought asylum in UK but is to be sent home .\nMehdi Kazemi says he will face persecution in his homeland ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a race to beat the flu season, medical institutes across the United States will begin human trials for a new H1N1 flu vaccine starting in early August, the National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday. Concern about the H1N1 virus grew after it spread quickly around the globe earlier this year. In the hope of getting the vaccine to those who will need it most by October, the clinical trials will enroll as many as 1,000 adults and children at 10 centers nationwide, said officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the NIH, which will lead the effort. The trials will measure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. The research is a first step toward U.S. health officials' goal of developing a safe and effective vaccine against H1N1, also known as swine flu, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization . The time frame for developing a vaccine is a tight one. \"It's going to be close,\" said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. \"I believe it can be [ready by October] if things run smoothly. We hope they will, but you never can tell when you're dealing with biological phenomena like making vaccines and administering them.\" The announcement of the U.S. trials followed the announcement earlier this week, by an Australian company, CSL Ltd., of the first human trials of a swine flu vaccine. Concern about the H1N1 virus grew after it spread quickly around the globe earlier this year. \"This virus has the potential to cause significant illness with hospitalizations and deaths during the U.S. flu season this fall and winter,\" said Dr. Karen Kotloff, professor of pediatrics and lead investigator and researcher at Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development. \"Vaccines have always been a vital tool for controlling influenza. The results of these studies will help to guide the optimal use of the H1N1 vaccines in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.\" After careful screening, volunteers will be inoculated and then asked to keep a diary on how they feel. After eight days their blood will be checked and after 21 days they will receive another dose, followed again by diary logs and blood tests. Patients will be monitored two months for safety issues, followed by a four-month and six-month checkup. \"The purpose of these trials is always to make sure they are safe,\" Kotloff said. \"But even after six weeks, if things look good, we're pretty sure the vaccine will work.\" She noted the response to the vaccine may vary in different age groups. \"This is because young people have not seen a flu virus like this one before,\" she noted. \"Older adults might have some immunity to the new H1N1 virus as a result of being exposed to similar flu viruses in the past. As a result, older adults might need fewer doses or a lower strength of the vaccine than younger individuals.\" The vaccine at this point has been tested only in animals, where it has shown to be effective. Further trials will examine questions such as how the vaccine works in combination with the seasonal flu vaccine and whether including an adjutant, a substance that boosts the immune response to vaccines, can make it work better at lower doses. Other trial sites along with the University of Maryland Medical Center are Baylor College of Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Emory University, Saint Louis University, Seattle Group Health Cooperative, the University of Iowa, and Vanderbilt University. They will be joined by Children's Mercy Hospital and Duke University Medical Center. CNN's Valerie Willingham and Matt Cherry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Human trials for H1N1 flu vaccine start August, says University of Maryland .\nConcern about H1N1 grew after it spread around the globe earlier this year .\nPatients will be monitored two months for safety issues, followed by checkups .\nVaccine so far tested only in animals, where it has shown to be effective ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A prisoner killed in a Maryland county jail on Sunday was a victim of \"vigilante justice,\" Prince George's County Chief Executive Jack Johnson said. Ronnie White, 19, died of strangulation and asphyxiation and had two broken bones in his neck, an autopsy showed. An attorney for White's family said that because White was being held in solitary confinement at the Prince George's County Correctional Center, a corrections officer would have had to let whoever killed the prisoner into his cell. His death came two days after his arrest in connection with the death of Prince George's County police Cpl. Richard Findley, who died Friday after being struck by a truck. Authorities believe that White was driving the truck, which was thought to be stolen. Police were attempting to flag it down when Findley was struck. \"The killing of the officer is absolutely abhorrent, but also, Mr. White was presumed innocent and deserved his day in court just like any other citizens,\" Johnson said Monday night. \"We live in a constitutional democracy, and no one has the right to be judge and jury.\" The FBI's Baltimore field office said it has opened a civil rights investigation into White's death. The Justice Department said Tuesday that federal prosecutors have been in contact with the state police and FBI as well as county prosecutors and the department's own Civil Rights Division. \"In support of the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office, which intends to retain lead responsibility for the criminal investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office will provide guidance and legal advice to the officials looking into the death and seeking to develop evidence of criminal violations,\" the department said in a written statement. Johnson said Monday that he had requested that the Maryland State Police conduct an independent investigation into White's death. White family attorney Bobby Henry said there are only two ways someone could get into solitary confinement. Watch why death has outraged family \u00bb . \"You either have to be buzzed in from the booth -- I believe it's called the control booth -- you need a key from there, or you have to get a key from one of two officers who were assigned to his unit on that day,\" Henry said. The attorney said a \"yet to be identified person or persons took it upon themselves to be the judge, jury and executioner for Mr. White.\" \"The family of Ronnie White is absolutely, unequivocally outraged, incensed and deeply saddened that the life of their loved one could be taken so cold[ly], so callously,\" Henry said Tuesday. \"Something is dreadfully wrong with the system.\" County authorities have said that police are not suspects and that seven corrections officials and an unspecified number of supervisors were the only ones authorized to be in White's cell. None has been suspended or removed. There were no surveillance cameras in the area of the jail where White was being held. White had not had the opportunity to meet with an attorney, Henry said. A physical conducted when White was processed revealed no health issues, according to Johnson. He was checked regularly in his cell and appeared fine when corrections officers saw him at 10:15 a.m. Sunday. When officers brought him lunch 20 minutes later, he was unconscious and without a pulse, Johnson said. Henry said White's family was not notified of his death until several hours after it occurred. They were told to go to Prince George's Hospital to identify the body, he said, but upon arrival were told the state medical examiner's office had taken custody of the body and it had been taken to Baltimore. \"At this very moment, the family has not even seen the body of their loved one,\" Henry said. \"They have been denied the opportunity to start the grieving process which naturally must occur.\" He said White's family is calling upon the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Maryland State Police and county officials \"to conduct a thorough and exhaustive investigation into all of these tragic events, beginning with the events of Friday, June 27, and continuing up until this time.\" Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey said a grand jury will be convened in the case. He said his office, which will handle any prosecutions that might result, is keeping an open mind. \"We'll follow the evidence wherever it leads,\" he said. He added that he's \"never seen one like this. We've had deaths in custody, but this could be a unique one.\" CNN's Jeanne Meserve and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FBI opens civil rights investigation .\n19-year-old held in connection with death of police officer .\nRonnie White died of strangulation .\nWhite was in solitary confinement at Prince George's County Corrections Center ."} -{"article":"DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) -- Eric Mace says he thought he was giving his daughter good advice by asking her to sit up front in class. Ryanne Mace was 19 when she was killed last year in a shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University. \"I'd like you to sit in the front row of every class that you're in and constantly drag information out of these people, and if you don't understand what they're talking about, raise your hand and say, 'I don't get it' until you get it,\" Mace recalled telling her. His daughter, 19-year-old Ryanne, took that advice. Now, he wishes she would have sat somewhere else. Mace believes that Ryanne was probably one of the first to be killed in the Northern Illinois University shootings a year ago, because she was in the front row in the lecture at Cole Hall. \"She was, from what I understand, in the front row of that room and was probably the first one that had shots fired at her after the gentleman that was on stage,\" Mace said. \"It's not an easy thing to carry, but I shouldn't have to carry it, either.\" Ryanne was Eric and Mary Kay Mace's only child. She was one of five NIU students killed on Valentine's Day last year by Steven Kazmierczak, a former NIU student who was attending graduate school at the University of Illinois in Champaign. \"It's difficult. There's always an ache, loneliness and a longing. We're going to miss her every day for the rest of our lives,\" Mary Kay Mace said. Her husband added, \"I go to bed thinking about her. I wake up in the morning thinking about her. Any time that I've a free moment, it will pop up.\" The Maces said they would like to know more about the police investigation into the shooting and Kazmierczak's history of mental illness. Police records provided to CNN indicate that he had a long history of mental problems, including several suicide attempts. The parents also are angry that he was able to buy guns. Because Kazmierczak had not been in a mental facility for more than five years, he was legally able to purchase those weapons in Illinois -- and on the firearms application form Kazmierczak filled out, he stated that he had never been adjudicated \"mentally defective\" and had never been \"committed to a mental institution.\" See some of Kazmierczak's mental health records \u00bb . \"I don't know if they don't report it if he's a juvenile with the mental illness on his record or what. But somewhere along the line, the pertinent information didn't get into the right database, and he could waltz out of a store with a legally purchased weapon,\" Mary Kay Mace said. \"And I don't get that. That is what makes me angry.\" Now, the Maces have started a scholarship foundation for psychology majors in honor of their daughter. And they hope that what happened a year ago is never forgotten. \"I don't want them to forget a single detail about it, because the details aren't going to change just by forgetting about them,\" Eric Mace said.","highlights":"Steven Kazmierczak carried out shooting spree at Northern Illinois February 14, 2008 .\nFather of Ryanne Mace told his daughter to always sit on the front row of class .\n\"There's always an ache, loneliness and a longing,\" says Ryanne Mace's mother .\nParents want to know more details about the shooting and the killer ."} -{"article":"AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) -- Investigators are trying to determine what caused the crash of an airplane with a good safety record, flown by a well-respected airline, at one of the world's most modern airports. One of the casualties is taken from the crash site. At least nine people were killed and 55 injured when the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed Wednesday in a field near Amsterdam's main airport, splitting into three parts, officials said. It is too early to determine the cause of the crash but the flight data and voice recorders have been recovered, said Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer municipality, which is home to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. He said investigators still need to determine what, if anything, the pilots said in the moments before the crash. The injured included both crew and passengers, he said. The names of the dead and injured will not be released before Thursday, Bezuijen said. \"It will take more time. Probably tomorrow afternoon we can tell you about the identity of the victims, including the fatalities,\" he said. Another official said earlier that both pilots and an apprentice pilot are among the dead. \"There are still three crew members in the cabin,\" said Bob Steensma of the Dutch Justice Department. \"I'm sorry to say they are dead. We leave them there because we have to investigate the cockpit before we take the cockpit apart.\" Turkish Airlines said earlier the plane was carrying 134 people -- 127 passengers and seven crew members. Six people were critically injured, Ineke Van Der Zande of Amsterdam Emergency Services told reporters at a briefing. Watch aerials from the crash site \u00bb . Twenty-five passengers were severely injured, she said, and 24 were lightly injured. Some 60 ambulances transported 84 people to 11 hospitals throughout the region, she said. There was no word on injuries to the others who were transported. Witnesses said they saw the nose of the plane pitch up suddenly before the crash, according to RTL journalist Greg Crouch. The plane broken into three pieces. One break was in front of the wing, splitting the \"Turkish\" logo in two, and a larger break was farther back along the fuselage. Most of the injured were seated toward the back of the plane, which sustained the most damage, a passenger on the plane told Turkish station NTV. Many of the passengers simply walked off the plane through the cracks in the fuselage, witnesses said. A passenger on the plane who spoke to Turkish network DHA said he saw injured people trapped and squeezed between the seats when he walked out. iReport: Send your videos, stories . Flight 1951 was arriving at Schiphol from Istanbul, Turkey, when it went down around 10:40 a.m. (4:40 a.m. ET). It came to rest in a farmer's field about 500 yards short of the runway, near the major A9 highway. Crouch said the weather at the time was partly sunny with no wind or rain. No fire broke out after the crash, Bezuijen said. Watch how Twitter was first to report the crash \u00bb . A bank manager who was a passenger on the plane told NTV that there were no emergency announcements. The crew's last word to the cabin was an announcement to fasten their seat belts and prepare for landing, the bank manager said. He said he felt the pilot giving more power to the engines before feeling \"turbulence,\" then a sudden drop. He described the crash as similar to a sudden impact that was over in a matter of seconds. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to Amsterdam to assist in the crash investigation. The Boeing 737-800 is a reliable aircraft that has been successful and safe in service, said aviation expert Kieran Daly of Air Transport Intelligence. \"They really are pretty much state-of-the-art airlines with every imaginable technical benefit the industry has come up with over the years,\" Daly told CNN. \"You would be optimistic that they would be quite survivable in an accident.\" Daly said Turkish Airlines, a national carrier, has a \"very good record.\" Turkish Airlines said it has 52 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet. They can carry as many as 165 passengers each, it said. Before Wednesday, the airline's last accident was of a small commuter jet in 2003, Daly said. It was a fatal crash that happened at a remote airfield in southeastern Turkey, he said. \"Their mainline operation is safe,\" Daly said. \"Their pilots are well thought of.\" Worldwide, there have been two fatal commercial airline crashes this year. The last previous fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed as it tried to return to Schiphol shortly after takeoff. Three of the 24 passengers and crew members on board were killed. CNN's Ivan Watson in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Mayor says too early to determine cause of Wednesday's plane crash .\nInvestigators find data and voice recorders from Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 .\nAt least nine of the 134 people on board died; 55 wounded; six critical .\nAccident involved respected airline and modern airport in good weather ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flash floods have inundated refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka, endangering more than 16,000 Tamil refugees who only months ago survived cross-fire in the country's two-decade civil war, the United Nations says. In this file photo Tamil civilians are seen at Menik Farm refugee camp on the outskirts of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Three days of heavy rains have damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 shelters housing the refugees in the Vavuniya District and in Menik Farm, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An internal U.N. memo obtained by CNN painted a dismal picture for the refugees, who have been caught in mud flows and the runoff from flooded latrines. \"Due to heavy showers on 14 August 09 ... many tents and toilets were submerged\/badly damaged,\" the memo said. \"Reportedly more than 300 families gathered together and marched towards the main access gate of the Zone to protest,\" the memo continued. \"Though ... not violent, they seemed disgruntled and agitated due to the sufferings and expressed their resentment by hooting and making noises.\" The camps spread across northern Sri Lanka are home to about 280,000 people, who were displaced in the final months of the nation's civil war. The flooding came ahead of Sri Lanka's monsoon season, which typically brings heavy rains to the country's northeast from October till January. \"If the rain continues, which is very likely, then the overall situation may go out of control of the management and lead to serious security threat,\" the memo warned, saying contingency plans are being \"discussed and worked out.\" Human Rights Watch has called for the immediate release of Tamil civilians living in the camps, which are surrounded by barbed wire, saying they are being confined against their will, like criminals. \"Those are not detention camps,\" Lakshman Hulugalle, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said in late July. \"They are relief villages. All the basic facilities are being given to the people.\" Hulugalle said that barbed wire is commonly used to define barriers in Sri Lanka and that military guards were being used out of security concerns. The government fears that rebels are hiding in the camps and is screening people living in them. Sri Lanka declared victory in May in its 25-year battle with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but concerns remain about how the island nation can heal its deep war wounds. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- had waged war for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. As many as 70,000 people were killed in the conflict. Last month the government said it had a 18-day plan to resettle most of the refugees, but added that a lot of work remains to be done to infrastructure and basic services destroyed in the fighting. Human rights activists say, however, that the government is not working fast enough. Human Rights Watch said Sri Lanka's goal now was to resettle only 60 percent of the refugees by year's end.","highlights":"Refugees caught in mud flows, runoff from flooded latrines, internal U.N. memo says .\nMore than 300 families protest conditions, memo says .\nFlooding comes ahead of Sri Lanka's monsoon season .\nHuman Rights Watch has called for immediate release of Tamil civilians at camps ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Famed for keeping people slim, healthy and living longer, the Mediterranean diet has followers all over the world. Cultural treat? Moves are underway to get the Mediterranean diet on UNESCO's world heritage list. However, the diet is being increasingly shunned by people who live in the Med as the convenience of fast food gains popularity. The renowned low-fat, high-fiber diet has \"decayed into a moribund state\" in its traditional regions, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). So sharp is the decline that governments from the region are scrambling to protect their traditional fare from becoming an \"endangered\" species. Populations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, such as Greece, Spain and Italy, tend to eat these foods, and governments there have joined forces to apply for their diet to be placed on the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Heritage list. Those lobbying for UNESCO protection have argued that its inclusion would ''fend off the watered-down clones assailing its integrity worldwide in this age of killer fast food.'' The UNESCO list is famous for including historic and cultural sites but in recent years the UN body has opened its register to include ''intangible heritage,\" such as endangered languages or vanishing traditions. \"The Mediterranean diet is a heritage that should be protected and shared,\" Paolo de Castro, a former Italian Agriculture minister, said earlier this year. \"Science has long recognized the unusual health properties of the diet, which has strengthened and accompanied the common cultural identity of Mediterranean countries,\" he said, according to Italian news agency ANSA. \"The diet is an integral part of the historical and cultural identity of the Mediterranean, and an opportunity for growth for the countries in the area.\" Originally considered the diet of the poor, who didn't have much money to buy meat, the \"Mediterranean diet\" is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals, whole grains, fish and olive oil. Numerous studies have associated it with long life-spans and low rates of cancer, heart disease and other ailments. See a comparison of the old and new diets in Mediterranean countries \u00bb . However, some fear that it has become supplanted by supermarket ready-made foods and fast food as people have become more cash-rich and time-poor. \"The European diet has become too fat, too salty and too sweet,\" senior FAO economist Josef Schmidhuber concluded in the group's report on the European Union diet. The FAO's 2008 report ranks Spain as the country with the biggest leap in fat consumption in Europe -- from 25 percent of the diet 40 years ago to 40 percent now. EU and Mediterranean countries with the worst dietary changes are Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, where calorie intake has increased by 30 percent in the last few decades. Three-quarters of the population of Greece is overweight or obese, while in Spain and Italy the number is more than 50 percent. In the U.S., 66 percent of the population fits into this category. Alarmed by the growing health problems associated with obesity, Spain's Health Ministry has launched a series of initiatives to combat obesity. In 2007, it ordered fast-food chain Burger King to remove ads for its Big King XXL, which contains 1,000 calories, and which were aimed at teenagers and young people. A 2001 report by Foodservice Intelligence, a London-based market research firm, found that traditional-style restaurants in Italy and Spain were outnumbered two-to-one by their fast-food counterparts. UNESCO will decide whether to include the Mediterranean diet in its Heritage list late next year. Until then, Spain and other countries in the region undoubtedly will hope they can retain their reputation as a rewarding destination for the gourmet traveler.","highlights":"Mediterranean diet has declined into a \"moribund state\" according to the U.N.\nFat consumption has increased markedly in Mediterranean countries .\nItaly, Spain, Greece and Morocco want Med diet to gain UNESCO status ."} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Mauro Camoranesi scored with 13 minutes left to earn Juventus a 1-1 home draw with Serie A leaders Inter Milan on Sunday. Julio Cruz is mobbed by team-mates after giving Inter the lead in their 1-1 draw at Juventus. Camoranesi picked up a headed knock-down from substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta before seeing his shot deflect off defender Walter Samuel to leave goalkeeper Julio Cesar helpless. Inter took a first-half lead when Argentine striker Julio Cruz broke Juve's offside trap and latched onto Brazilian midfielder Cesar's through ball before firing past Gianluigi Buffon. The result means Inter retain their unbeaten record this season, despite injury problems that saw the likes of Patrick Vieira, Francesco Toldo, Marco Materazzi and Dejan Stankovic ruled out. The defending champions are now two points clear of Fiorentina at the top of the table, with Roma a point further behind and Juventus in fourth place. Earlier in the day, Roma missed out on the chance to close the gap on Inter when a late collapse saw them throw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Empoli. First half goals from French winger Ludovic Giuly and Matteo Brighi had put the visiting Romans in charge and for more than an hour they looked set to cruise to victory. But with 23 minutes remaining Ighli Vannucchi reduced the deficit and Sebastian Giovinco snatched an injury time equaliser to deny Luciano Spaletti's injury-depleted team. Siena snatched a share of the spoils from Parma in a 2-2 draw as Daniele Galloppa scored in the last minute while Napoli needed an injury time goal from striker Ezequiel Lavezzi to deny rock-bottom Reggina their first win of the season, forcing them to settle for a 1-1 draw in the south. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A Mauro Camoranesi goal earns Juventus a 1-1 draw with leaders Inter Milan .\nArgentine striker Julio Cruz had given injury-hit Inter the lead in the first half .\nThe result maintains Inter's unbeaten record and moves them two points clear ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The September issue of Essence magazine features an interview with Sen. Barack Obama and his family inside their Chicago home. Angela Burt-Murray is editor-in-chief of Essence magazine. Essence editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray said it took a year for the magazine to gain access to the Obama's Illinois home for an intimate interview with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia. Burt-Murray talked Thursday with CNN \"American Morning\" anchor Kiran Chetry about the interview and the Obama family. Chetry: You are the first African-American media outlet to get this inside look. Did your team get a chance to see the real Obamas? Burt-Murray: I think we did. We went to their home on the South Side of Chicago and it was wonderful to see them as a family interacting with each other, and see the girls skipping around the house, just acting like it's a normal, everyday occurrence to have a camera crew in their home and Secret Service at different points throughout the house and around the yard. But it didn't really seem to impact the girls in any way. Watch what Essence found inside the Obamas' home \u00bb . Chetry: Much was made of an earlier televised interview they with their daughters and they said, looking back, they probably shouldn't have done that. There is so much interest about their family, and yet they want to protect their girls. How do they balance that? Burt-Murray: They try to take a look at who is around the family and make sure they try to keep things as structured as possible. But also, you have instances where magazines like Essence show up to take photographs, but the girls are very relaxed because they're in their home environment. And I think that's the difference between our photo shoot and what you saw on television. Taking the girls outside of their home and putting them in the spotlight is probably a bit more challenging for them as parents. Chetry: They have to deal with completing stereotypes, if you will: They were parodied as these angry black radicals and as these Ivy League elitists. In the magazine, Gwen Ifill wrote, \"The Obamas pride themselves on creating a family picture that is authentically black with shades of Norman Rockwell.\" Explain that. How are they getting that image out. Burt-Murray: I think it's the idea that they're just an average American family. They have strong family values, they're deeply rooted in their community and they want to show their girls a great example of achievement. But they also want to be a model for the rest of their community. The Obamas talk about in our story how important it is for them to continue to live in their South Side Chicago neighborhood because it's a neighborhood in transition. So you have children who have the opportunity to see an African-American man run for the highest office in the nation right in their neighborhood. So they're modeling not only for their children but also for the larger community. Chetry: They do live in a gated community, a $1.6 million home, so it's out of reach for a lot of people. Burt-Murray: But it's so accessible. While we were there photographing them for Essence, you could see the cars going by and stopping and people getting out to take photographs. The girls were on the porch and people could see them. There is some normalcy there, but it's also obviously something very special and different. Chetry: They said race had been prominent on the campaign trail. Barack Obama told Gwen Ifill that he thinks race is a national obsession. He thinks the racial divide is not as big an issue in this country as it's made out to be. Burt-Murray: As evidenced by the success that he's had with his campaign, you can certainly see that attitudes are shifting. But there are still challenges, obviously, that need to be addressed. And it keeps coming up throughout the campaign. So it will be interesting to see what happens when the country goes to the polls in November.","highlights":"Essence magazine interviews senator, wife and children in Chicago home .\nEditor says candidate, Michelle Obama try to keep daughters' life normal .\nObamas have strong family values, roots in community, Angela Burt-Murray says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sonia, a single mother with HIV in Brazil, travels four hours to reach a government-run health facility that provides her with free drug treatment. Brazil's response to the HIV\/AIDS fight has been widely praised and adopted as a model around the world. The journey is long, she told CNN, but it's a small price to pay for the government-provided drugs that have helped keep her out of the hospital for the past 11 years. Sonia is just one of the many Brazilians who have benefited from the country's novel approach to fighting the HIV\/AIDS epidemic. Brazil jolted the global health community in 1996 when it began guaranteeing free anti-retroviral treatment to HIV\/AIDS patients. For Sonia, government-funded treatment comes in the form of 20 pills. Taken daily, the anti-retroviral medicine has helped keep her HIV at bay. Coupled with government-supported prevention efforts and aggressive public awareness campaigns, the so-called Brazilian response has been hailed as a model for developing countries. Watch a report on Brazil's pioneering response to HIV\/AIDS \u00bb . Prevention campaigns, which often take the forms of candid public awareness ads with slogans like \"Be good in bed, use a condom,\" have resulted in widespread knowledge of HIV. According to a recent study conducted by the country's Ministry of Health, Brazil boasts one of the highest rates of knowledge globally when it comes to HIV avoidance and transmittal. Brazil was \"the first country to realize there is no separation between prevention and treatment,\" Mauro Schechter, professor of infectious diseases at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told CNN. Schechter, who has studied the HIV\/AIDS epidemic since 1989, said it took the rest of the global health community some 15 years to realize that the two go hand-in-hand. Other countries that have adopted the Brazilian model \u00bb . The comprehensive response has extended the lives of tens of thousands of Brazilians and saved the government billions, researchers estimate. A recent study published by researchers from Brown University and the Harvard School of Public Health said that Brazil has saved $1 billion alone by producing its own generic versions of HIV\/AIDS medicines and negotiating discounts for imported drugs. Those drug savings come on top of the estimated $2 billion the program has saved Brazil in hospital costs between 1996 and 2004. Brazil's efforts to reverse the tide of the AIDS epidemic have become the object of admiration in the global health community, but the trailblazer is encountering new challenges. When Brazil decided to guarantee free anti-retrovirals, there were 10,000 people being treated and it was organized as a program to treat a small amount of people for a limited amount of time, according to Schechter. Patients are living longer and oftentimes able to get their disease under control, thanks to combination therapies, better known as drug cocktails. But that means they also require drug treatment for a longer period of time. Furthermore, as HIV has evolved from an acute illness into a chronic disease, patients have also become vulnerable to other health risks and medical conditions. Valdileia Veloso is the director of the Institute of Clinical Research at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a public health research institution in Rio de Janeiro. She told CNN patients are presenting with complications of chronic HIV and AIDS, which requires new treatment. \"It's a new challenge for us,\" she said. Heart disease is one of the big problems that doctors are encountering. While there's a system in place to prevent people from dying from HIV, preventable causes like heart conditions are causing deaths. \"These people are dying from preventable causes,\" Schechter told CNN. While Brazil has shown that providing universal access to treatment can be achieved, it needs to modify its approach to treat the evolving disease, he said. \"If the epidemic changes face, you need to adapt.\"","highlights":"Brazil has been hailed as a leader in the fight against the HIV\/AIDS epidemic .\nGovernment started offering free anti-retroviral treatment to its citizens in 1996 .\nAs more people live longer with HIV\/AIDS, Brazil faces new challenges .\nPatients of the chronic illness susceptible to new health risks, doctors say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are detailing their plans for solving the country's energy crisis and criticizing each other's proposals this week as they campaign in battleground states. Here's a look at the candidates' energy proposals: . Overall strategy . McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has proposed a national energy strategy that would rely on the technological prowess of American industry and science. McCain has said he would work to reduce carbon emissions 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. He has said he would commit $2 billion annually for 15 years to advance clean coal technology. He also has pledged to oppose a windfall profits tax on oil companies that, according to his campaign Web site, \"will ultimately result in increasing our dependence on foreign oil and hinder investment in domestic exploration.\" McCain also believes the U.S. needs to deploy SmartMeter technologies, which collect real-time data on the electricity use of individual homes and businesses. Meanwhile, Obama laid out his comprehensive energy plan Monday in Lansing, Michigan. \"If I am president, I will immediately direct the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a single, overarching goal -- in 10 years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela,\" the presumptive Democratic nominee told a crowd. Obama's plan also would invest $150 billion over the next 10 years and leverage billions more in private capital to build a new energy economy that he said would harness American energy and create 5 million new jobs. He also called on businesses, government and the American people to meet the goal of reducing U.S. demand for electricity by 15 percent by the end of the next decade and said he would modernize the national utility grid. Another prominent feature in the plan: Immediately give every working family in America a $1,000 energy rebate and pay for it from oil company profits. Offshore drilling . McCain: Proposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling as part of his plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help combat rising gas prices. Would let individual states decide whether to explore drilling possibilities. Opposes drilling in some wilderness areas -- including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and said those places must be left undisturbed. Obama: Opposed new offshore drilling, but later shifted to say that he would consider it if it were part of a larger strategy to lower energy costs. Supports bipartisan energy plan from the Senate that combines alternative energy innovation, financial, nuclear energy and drilling proposals. Effort by five Democrats and five Republicans to break Congress' energy impasse would allow expanded offshore oil exploration and embrace ambitious energy efficiency and efforts to develop alternative fuels. Believes oil companies should drill on the 68 million acres they have access to but haven't used and would require oil companies that will not drill to give up their leases. Strategic oil reserves . McCain advocates suspending the purchase of foreign oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during periods of high prices to reduce demand. Obama called for tapping into strategic oil reserves as part of his plan to provide relief from high gas prices. (He previously said he was opposed to using the strategic reserves, but on Monday he proposed selling 70 million barrels of oil from the reserves to lower gas prices). Cars and driving . McCain: Proposed a $300 million award for \"the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.\" Called for the suspension of the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4-cent-a-gallon diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Says the lost revenue would be paid for by money from the general fund. Obama: Would provide $4 billion in loans and tax credits to American auto plants and manufacturers so that they can retool factories and build fuel-efficient cars; would put 1 million 150-mpg, plug-in hybrids on U.S. roads within six years and would give consumers a $7,000 tax credit to buy fuel-efficient cars. Nuclear energy . McCain: Calls for building new nuclear reactors, saying barriers to nuclear energy are political, not technological. Would put a plan in place to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 -- with the ultimate goal of 100 new plants. Would provide for safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and give host states or localities a proprietary interest so when advanced recycling technologies turn used fuel into a valuable commodity, the public would share in the economic benefits. Obama: Says he'll find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste. In Democratic debate earlier this year, he said, \"We should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix.\" Renewable energy . McCain: Would commit $2 billion annually to advance clean coal technologies. Calls for a permanent tax credit, which he says will \"simplify the tax code, reward activity in the U.S., and make us more competitive with other countries,\" according to his campaign Web site. Encourages development of low-carbon fuels -- wind, hydro and solar power. Obama: Would require 10 percent of U.S. energy come from renewable sources by the end of his first presidential term. The plan would extend the Production Tax Credit for five years to encourage the production of renewable energy. Create five first-of-a-kind, coal-fired demonstration plants that would capture and store carbon dioxide emissions and invest in technology that will allow for more coal use. Climate change . McCain: Proposes a bipartisan plan to address the problem of climate change and stimulate the development and use of advanced technologies. It is a market-based approach that would set caps on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and provide industries with tradable credits. Obama: Calls for a reduction of carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 by using a market-based cap-and-trade system. Would create what his campaign calls a \"Global Energy Forum\" and re-engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. CNN's Ed Hornick, Kerith McFadden and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Barack Obama lays out comprehensive energy plan this week .\nObama vows to eliminate the need for Mideastern, Venezuelan oil in 10 years .\nSen. John McCain proposes an energy strategy relying on technology and science .\nMcCain says the federal government should lift restrictions on offshore drilling ."} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Tibet's exile government said the death toll from protests in the Himalayan region over the past two weeks has reached about 140, but Chinese government restrictions have made it difficult confirm the number killed. People walk past burnt-out buildings in Lhasa on 16 March, 2008, after violent protests broke out. Chinese authorities have issued a much lower death toll and said most of those killed were \"innocent\" ethnic Han Chinese targeted by rampaging Tibetans. The Tibetan exiles published a list of 40 Tibetans they said are confirmed dead. Meanwhile, Tibetan exiles and monks protested for a second day outside of China's embassy visa office in Kathmandu, Nepal on Tuesday, resulting in 73 protesters arrested, Nepalese police said. Although police said they did not use force, protest organizers said as many as 12 people were hurt when police charged them with bamboo sticks. Watch demonstrator in tears as monks arrested \u00bb. Protests involving Tibet also dogged the Olympic flame, which was lit in a ceremony Monday in Olympia, Greece. The torch is scheduled to be carried to sites around the world on its way to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, and Tibetan activist say they plan anti-Chinese protests along the way. Another group of about 50 Tibetan exiles in India began their own torch relay Tuesday with a symbolic \"Olympic\" flame that will end in Tibet on the day of the Summer Games' opening ceremonies in Beijing, The Associated Press reported. On Monday, Greek police arrested some of the protesters along the first miles of the torch relay, but the demonstrations were peaceful and police reported no injuries or scuffles. At one point, a Tibetan woman covered herself with red paint and lay on the ground, forcing the torchbearer to weave around her as other protesters shouted \"Flame of shame.\" Students for a Free Tibet, a Tibetan exile group, said its protesters would challenge police as the flame moves through 23 cities on five continents before passing throughout China. Tibetan activists will follow it through \"London, Paris and everywhere else China's stained Olympic Torch goes,\" the group said. The group said the Chinese government \"will pressure other governments to silence peaceful protesters who expose the truth behind China's Olympics propaganda campaign.\" \"The Chinese government's long arm has already extended to San Francisco, where Tibetans are being told they cannot protest along the Torch Relay route,\" the group said in a news release. Also Monday, five Tibetans were arrested for deadly arson attacks stemming from the anti-China riots that erupted this month, China's government announced. A Chinese Ministry of public security official said the suspects have confessed to two arson incidents that killed 10 people in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua. Ministry spokesman Shan Huimin said three female suspects were detained for a March 14 fire at a shop, in which five female sales assistants were burned to death, Xinhua reported. In the second case, two males were detained for setting fire to a motorcycle shop on March 15, which resulted in five deaths -- including an 8-month-old boy and his parents, according to Xinhua. Shan said the violence in Lhasa between March 14 and 15 also injured 242 police officers, according to Xinhua. However, Shan added, peace has been restored to the area. Clashes between anti-Chinese protesters in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and other cities broke out earlier this month, and Chinese officials blamed the Dalai Lama's followers for the violence. The Tibetan government in exile said at least 80 people were killed by police, but Chinese officials put the death toll at 13. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Manesh Shrestha in Nepal contributed to this report .","highlights":"Tibet exile government claims death toll from unrest now 140 .\nChinese authorities say toll much lower, says victims are \"innocent\" Chinese .\nChinese restrictions mean it is difficult to confirm the figures ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Argentine coach Diego Maradona has urged Carlos Tevez to quit Manchester United at the end of the season and head for Italy. Tevez has been advised by Argentine coach Maradona to leave Old Trafford at the end of the season. Maradona watched United trounce Chelsea 3-0 last weekend at Old Trafford where striker Tevez remained on the bench despite a rousing reception when he went on a touchline warm-up during the game. \"I saw the Manchester United match. They won, but did so without Tevez. This situation is not good for him. For sure, certain things are happening which mean his departure is nearing,\" Maradona told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport. \"Italy, and Inter (Milan) in particular, would be great for him. Among other things, the fact that his contract is soon to expire facilitates a change of shirt.\" Weekend reports claimed that United manager Alex Ferguson has already pinpointed Lyon's French international striker Karim Benzema as his chief summer target. Benzema, whose contract runs until 2013, made his mark against United in a Champions League tie last season when he scored in a first leg tie. He hit the target 20 times as Lyon secured a seventh straining French League title and he has netted five times in this season's Champions League. Lyon are said to be willing to cash in at the right price with Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid also monitoring the situation. Media reports said Lyon would want around \u00a340 million (45 million euros) for Benzema while the asking price for Tevez -- he joined United on a two-year loan -- is likely to be around \u00a332 million. Tevez, who hit the headlines during two seasons in Brazil with Corinthians, has struggled to retain a starting place at Old Trafford following his controversial stay at West Ham. He has indicated he would respond positively to any approach from Real Madrid, but is sure to take on board the advice of Maradona who twice led Napoli to the Serie A title after joining the Italian club from Barcelona. Meanwhile, West Ham face a fresh inquiry after the FA and Premier League launched an investigation relating to dealings with Tevez's representatives after the club had initially been fined \u00a35.5m for breaching league rules over third-party agreements. It follows the findings of an arbitration tribunal in favour of Sheffield United and against West Ham last year which decided Tevez should not have been able to play for the Hammers at the end of the 2006-07 season. Premier League West Ham insist that they have nothing to hide.","highlights":"Diego Maradona urges Carlos Tevez to quit Manchester Utd at end of season .\nArgentine coach believes striker would be better off joining Italy's Inter Milan .\nTevez on bench when Maradona watched United beat Chelsea at the weekend ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six years ago Thursday, then-President George W. Bush appeared on television screens across America and somberly addressed the nation. An Iraqi crowd pulls down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in April 2003. \"My fellow citizens,\" he began his four-minute speech, \"at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.\" Six years later, the conflict in Iraq drags on -- with war-fatigued Americans shoving the military operation to the deep recesses of their psyches as they grapple with an economic crisis at home. Only 10 percent of voters questioned in exit polls during the November presidential elections picked the war as their top issue. Sixty-two percent said the economy was. \"This is already one of the longest wars in American history. There's nothing new in Iraq,\" said Steven Roberts, a professor of media studies at the George Washington University. \"We've read the stories of instability in the government a hundred times. Every single possible story has been told, and so there is enormous fatigue about Iraq.\" Against that backdrop, the United States has accomplished much of what it set out to do when it invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was deposed, captured, tried and hanged for a brutal and deadly crackdown against his opponents during his regime. The rate of U.S. troop deaths has slowed. A surge of 30,000 additional troops in 2007 is credited for security gains the country has made. iReport.com: Share your salute to troops . And a fledgling democracy is taking hold, as President Obama announced that all U.S troops will be withdrawn by the end of 2011. But America has had to pay a steep price -- literally and figuratively -- to achieve its aims, analysts say. Taking into account operations for fiscal 2010, the conflict has racked up an $800 billion price tag since it began, the Congressional Budget Office said. By Wednesday, 4,261 Americans had been killed in the war, according to CNN's tally. The Iraqi casualty count, while harder to ascertain because of the lack of formal record-keeping, has reached at least 128,000, by CNN's tally. And leaked images of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison and America's programs of detention and torture have tarred the United States' image internationally. \"From the first step until now, they destroyed our country,\" said Sheikh Moffaq Qaraghuli, a Baghdad resident. \"Smashed. Not destroyed. Smashed.\" As the battles rage on, researchers are still trying to gauge the damage the war has done to troops. \"I still have the nightmares and wake up and find myself downstairs and I don't know how I got there,\" said Chris Tucker, who did three tours of duty in Iraq. \"Faces. Kids' faces. People that you have engaged or you have had contact with. ... You see your colleagues blown up. Things like that.\" \"I thought we would get there quick and handle our business and we'd be out,\" he said. \"At least that's what we were told anyway.\" Tucker received a medical discharge from the army last year and is now a police officer in Savannah, Georgia. Many in Iraq also are trying to move on, amid the constant fear of suicide attacks in their ruined cities. The Shahbander cafe, one of Baghdad's oldest, is a favorite haunt of the city's intellectuals. Inside, photographs of five young men hang on the wall. Watch Shahbander Cafe patrons talk about the war \u00bb . All were sons of the cafe owner, Mohammed al-Khishali -- killed in a car bombing that ripped apart the cafe in 2007. A month later, al-Khishali lost his grief-stricken wife. For almost two years, he could not bear to reopen the cafe, he said. \"I remember the tragedies every day,\" he said, as his eyes welled with tears. \"But then I decided to take a hard decision to reopen this cafe for the sake of my people, my culture.\" Many of the customers who gather there are critical of the U.S. invasion but are equally concerned about a potential withdrawal. \"Iran has ambitions toward Iraq,\" said Amer Naji, a cafe regular and a former Iraqi diplomat. \"With the Americans, they are afraid to do something aggressive against Iraq. But ... when you withdraw, that will be very dangerous.\" Iraq and Iran fought a war in the 1980s that spanned eight years and killed at least a half-million people, by some estimates. The U.S. and Iraqi governments think Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard has been training militias and providing weapons, such as roadside bombs, to insurgents operating in Iraq. So, though many Iraqis agree that 2009 is better than 2008, they worry about 2011 when the United States pulls out. \"We are hopeless,\" Qaraghuli said. \"We are hopeless.\" CNN's Nic Robertson, John King, Ed Hornick and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began on March 19, 2003 .\nSix years later, fledgling democracy taking hold, security situation improving .\nBut U.S. lost more than 4,000 troops; at least 128,000 Iraqis have died .\nPolls show many Americans more focused on economy than lingering Iraq war ."} -{"article":"ST. POELTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A verdict in the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, could come as early as Thursday, a court official told reporters Monday. Josef Fritzl expects to spend the rest of his life in prison, his attorney has said. As his trial began behind closed doors Monday Fritzl pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but denied charges of murder and enslavement -- the most serious charges against him. He pleaded \"Partly guilty\" to multiple charges of rape, but did not elaborate. \"Partly guilty\" is a plea option in Austrian courts. Franz Cutka, a spokesman for the Landesgericht St. Poelten court, said the \"partly guilty\" plea might mean that Fritzl contends he is not guilty of all the individual rape charges or that the violence used was not as severe as rape. Cutka was not in court for the plea and does not speak for the defendant. Fritzl's attorney was not immediately available to explain what he meant. Fritzl arrived at the courthouse in St. Poelten covering his face with a blue binder to shield himself from reporters, television cameras and photographers and escorted by a phalanx of police officers. Watch Fritzl arrive in court \u00bb . Fritzl faces six charges at a closed-door trial in St. Poelten, 45 miles (70 km) east of Amstetten, where Fritzl lived. Cameras were removed from the court . The trial is scheduled to last five days, but his attorney Rudolph Mayer said it could be shorter. Fritzl was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, over a 24-year period. But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care. In an opening statement, prosecuting attorney Christiane Burkheiser handed damp-smelling items from the cellar where Elisabeth and her children had lived to jurors to give them an idea of the conditions in which they were allegedly locked up. In all, Fritzl is charged with: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of murder. Mayer said Sunday that Fritzl expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. \"This man obviously led a double life for 24 years. He had a wife and had seven kids with her. And then he had another family with his daughter, fathered another seven children with her,\" said Franz Polzer, a police officer in Amstetten, the town where Fritzl lived, at the time of his arrest. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions. Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin, then 19, to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, she told police, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room. Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the girl, who was then 18, had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write. Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending the missing Elisabeth had dropped them off. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are: . \u2022 Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. \u2022 Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison. \u2022 Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl \"regularly sexually abused Elisabeth,\" according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison. \u2022 Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year. \u2022 Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years. \u2022 Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"Friztl pleads guilty to imprisonment, incest denies murder, enslavement .\nFritzl answers \"partly guilty\" when asked his response to rape charge .\nAustrian accused of keeping daughter in cellar for decades, fathering her 7 children .\nVerdict could come as early as Thursday, court official says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States and other Western powers have \"exacerbated Somalia's downward spiral\" and must revise their policies in the east African country, a Human Rights Watch report has warned. Recent image of Islamist fighters at a camp in the northern outskirts of Mogadishu . The report, released Monday, blames the policies under President George W. Bush for \"breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat.\" \"The new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama should urgently review U.S. policy in Somalia and the broader Horn of Africa and break with the failed approach of his predecessor,\" the report said. It also cites key European governments for failing \"to address the human rights dimensions of the crisis, with many officials hoping that somehow unfettered support to abusive TFG (Somali transitional government) forces will improve stability.\" Somalia's weak transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces, continues to battle Islamic militias with the fighting concentrated in the capital, Mogadishu. Ethiopian forces have not withdrawn from the country, as required under a recent cease-fire agreement. Ethiopia invaded Somalia two years ago and successfully routed the Islamic militia that seized control of the capital. The HRW report states that the United States \"directly backed Ethiopia's intervention.\" Since the 2006 overthrow of the Islamic Courts Union, Somalia has suffered from \"unconstrained warfare and violent rights abuses\" by all warring parties. \"All sides have used indiscriminate force as a matter of routine, and in 2008 violence has taken on a new dimension with the targeted murders of aid workers and civil society activists,\" the report states. \"The human rights and humanitarian catastrophe facing Somalia today threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis on a scale not witnessed since the early 1990s.\" Heavy fighting in Mogadishu and across Somalia has driven more than a million people from their homes. The lawlessness has also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms. Human Rights Watch offers specific recommendations to the Somali and Ethiopian governments, the main militias, and the international community to address the human rights abuses. It calls on the West to \"insist upon an end to the impunity that has fueled the worst abuses - and the right place to start is by moving the U.N. Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to document abuses and lay the groundwork for accountability.\" Journalist Abdinasir Mohamed Guled contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bush policies blamed for \"breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat\"\nReport: European govts failed to address \"human rights dimensions of the crisis\"\nSomalia's Ethiopian-backed transitional government battling Islamic militias .\nFighting has driven more than a million people from their homes ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Transportation investigators Wednesday discovered \"anomalies\" in an essential control circuit of a track where a fatal crash between two Washington subway trains killed nine people. Investigators work Tuesday at the site of the Metro train crash in Washington. Each section of the transit system's track contains a circuit that transmits and receives signals that generate speed commands for trains, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board. She said the circuits are \"vital providing information to the operators and the train itself when on automatic.\" Investigators found no problems in five of the six circuits on the stretch of track in the crash area. But they found \"anomalies\" with the sixth circuit, Hersman said. She would not say what those anomalies were but said simulated crash tests would be conducted to try and determine what caused the deadly accident. The findings could mean that the striking train, which was on automatic, did not know to slow down because another train was stopped on the track ahead. Hersman said investigators walked the tracks Wednesday, finding markings on the track that indicated emergency braking had taken place. Investigators hoped Thursday to interview the operator of the struck train, who was released from a hospital Wednesday. The driver of the striking train was killed. The crash, the worst in the history of Washington's transit system, known as the Metro, occurred along the congested Red Line just before 5 p.m. Monday on an above-ground track section near Takoma Park, Maryland. Both cars were on the same track, traveling in the same direction -- southward from Fort Totten Metrorail station to the Shady Grove station. The struck train had stopped behind another train undergoing service and was awaiting directions to move ahead. The striking train was pulling some of the oldest cars in the fleet of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he plans to seek $3 billion for Metro transit capital improvements, some of which would likely be spent to replace some those old Series 1000 cars, purchased between 1974 and 1978. Upon impact, the train pulling those Series 1000 cars jumped on top of the other train. All the fatalities were on the striking train, Train 112, Metro transit spokeswoman Angela Gates told CNN on Wednesday. In the collision, the front car of the striking train was severely damaged, leaving minimal space for survivability, said Hersman. According to one report, 50 feet of the 75-foot length of that lead car were lost to the accident, leaving only one-third of the space after the crushing impact. Watch Hersman talk about previous warnings \u00bb . The NTSB recommended in 2006 that Metro transit replace or retrofit all of its Series 1000 trains, to bring them up to current safety standards. Metro transit responded that because it was constrained by tax-advantage leases, it intended to keep the 1000 Series until the end of 2014. \"Our recommendation was not addressed, so it [the case] has been closed in an unacceptable status,\" Hersman said. The NTSB has no regulatory powers and can't force implementation. Watch Hersman talk about the computer systems \u00bb . \"The safety of our citizens is our highest priority and we must take every precaution that this loss of life does not occur again,\" said Hoyer, a Democratic congressman from Maryland. He said he would soon introduce a final measure to authorize dedicated federal and local funding for Metro. The Series 1000 cars comprise a quarter of Metro transit's 1,126 cars, or nearly 300 cars, Gates said. At $3 million per car, the agency can't afford to replace them all at once, Gates said. Each car has a 40-year life and can last until fiscal year 2015, she added. \"So we've taken steps to keep them in good condition.\" She said they have been phasing out the outdated cars as new cars are bought, she said. That plan hasn't gone as quickly as anticipated, however, because of an increase in ridership, Gates added. The lead train in Monday's crash contained newer 5000-Series and 3000-Series cars. These have data recorders, which will aid the investigation a great deal if they aren't damaged, Hersman said. The recorders provide information on such things as speed, braking and emergency applications. She said there were no recorders on the rear train. The rear train was being operated in automatic mode, which is the normal operating procedure during rush hour. Washington transit trains are being operated manually until the cause of the crash is determined, Hersman said. She said there is no indication that any of the brakes on the rear train failed before it rear-ended the other train. \"Our investigators on scene yesterday did find some evidence of emergency brake application. They found the emergency mushroom, which is a button that was depressed in the control cab, and they also examined the wheels and the brakes, and they found that the rotors showed some bluing,\" Hersman said. \"That bluing is consistent with an emergency brake application,\" she said. Bluing indicates the rotors have been subjected to extremely high temperatures, and this can be caused by hard stops.","highlights":"House majority leader to push for $3 billion in Metro transit funding .\nThe transit authority wants to replace its aging Series 1000 cars .\nA train of Series 1000 cars rear-ended another train Monday, killing nine .\nInvestigators question why computerized emergency system failed ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The bay pilot who steered a container ship into the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, causing a massive oil spill, pleaded guilty Friday to violating misdemeanor pollution laws and faces up to 10 months in prison, federal prosecutors said. The Korean-flagged Cosco Busan rammed into San Francisco's Bay Bridge on November 7, 2007. Prosecutors dropped felony charges against him. John Joseph Cota, 61, pleaded guilty to violating the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a law enacted in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Cota gave orders to officers controlling the Korean-flagged Cosco Busan as the ship was leaving fog-shrouded San Francisco Bay, California, on November 7, 2007. The 901-foot ship struck fenders around the base of a bridge support tower, rupturing two of the ship's fuel tanks and spilling about 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay. At least 2,000 migratory birds were killed. At the time, officials estimated clean-up costs at $60 million. \"Today's guilty plea is a reminder that the Cosco Busan crash was not just an accident, but a criminal act,\" said John C. Cruden, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. \"John Cota was an experienced ship pilot that was handsomely compensated for his special knowledge of ships and expertise in local waters. His failure to act prudently under the circumstances caused a major environmental disaster that could have been far worse,\" said Joseph Russoniello, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. Cota has piloted about 4,000 ships in the bay during his 27-year career, said his attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein. Bonstein said Cota is remorseful and accepts responsibility for his part in the accident. But Bornstein also criticized the accident investigation. He said it was unfair and protected others who also bear responsibility. \"Captain Cota has been vilified by the media, lost his job, will now go to jail for at least 60 days, and still suffers under the weight of crushing civil lawsuits,\" Bornstein said. \"He understands and accepts responsibility for his part in the accident and hopes that others will step forward and accept their roles and responsibilities as well.\" Cota will be sentenced to 2 to 10 months in prison and be fined between $3,000 and $30,000, if the plea terms are accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston. Sentencing is scheduled for June 19. Prosecutors said the plea included factual admissions by Cota, including an acknowledgment his negligence \"was a proximate cause of the [oil] discharge.\" Cota also admitted that he failed to discuss the planned route with the ship's master or crew as required, or to use the ship's radar in the final approach to the bridge. He also failed to recognize two red triangles on the ship's electronic chart system that marked bridge tower buoys. Attorney Bornstein said the ship's master told Cota the red triangles represented the lights on the bridge, \"which in Capt. Cota's knowledge were at the center of the span. He had no reason to think that the master didn't know what he was talking about.\" See the path . As part of the plea agreement with Cota, the government agreed to dismiss false statement charges pending against him. Those charges alleged that Cota failed to disclose his medications on required Coast Guard forms. The court ruled those charges would be tried separately. But Cota admitted in the plea papers filed Friday his 2006 physical exam form failed to disclose some of the medications he was prescribed. Among them were two pain medications, three different drugs prescribed as sleeping aids and an antidepressant prescribed for an off-brand purpose. Bornstein said there is no evidence that medication played any role in the accident. At Friday's hearing, Illston set trial for the remaining defendant in the case, the ship's manager, Fleet Management Ltd. (Hong Kong), for Sept. 14. The charges include acting negligently, killing protected migratory birds, obstructing justice and making false statements by falsifying ship records after the incident.","highlights":"John Joseph Cota pleads guilty to violating misdemeanor pollution laws .\nThe pilot faces up to 10 months in prison, federal prosecutors say .\nContainer ship Cosco Busan slammed into San Francisco's Bay Bridge in 2007 .\nMassive oil spill killed more than 2,000 birds and cost $60 million to clean up ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Western cinema's relationship with martial arts has been a rocky one. Like many genres, kung fu has drifted in and out of fashion, but it has never regained the same popularity as its glorious heyday in the early 1970s. There's nothing funny about either Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris. And they've got the fists to prove it. After breaking into the United States and Britain with TV hardmen like The Saint and The Green Hornet duffing up the occasional bad guy, the revolution really kicked in at the cinema. When Bruce Lee -- who had already made waves in America as the Green Hornet's karate chopping sidekick, Kato -- appeared in the Chinese-made \"Jing wu men,\" or \"Fist of Fury,\" he established himself as the genre's poster boy. Lee found initial success in his native China, but with his next movies, \"Meng long guo jiang\" (\"The Way of the Dragon\"), which pitted him against U.S. karate champion Chuck Norris, and the classic \"Enter the Dragon,\" he became an international star. The plots of his films all followed a set structure: our gifted hero pursues a path of revenge or tough justice, accompanied by a stiff dose of morality. In this way his characters became representatives and protectors of the less powerful who have been unjustly treated. At the same time, the U.S. TV show \"Kung Fu,\" which started in 1972, raised the profile of martial arts, and, through the lead character Caine, built an image of the patient, wise man, who uses his skills in combat as a last resort when reasoning fails, and again, is motivated entirely by his unshakeable morals. The reluctant hero isn't a new concept: he's shared by the Far East and Wild West. The lone gunman in a western, too, tends to be loath to kill, and acts as the moral enforcer in a lawless place. But while the gunman in an isolated western town still commands the same respect from movie audiences as he lays down the law, our wise eastern mystic has almost entirely disappeared from Hollywood. The biggest martial arts stars today -- with the notable exception of Jet Li, who continues to take on a mix of serious art movies in China and gang-war films set on the streets of urban America -- are either laughed at or laughed with by western audiences. Kung fu superstar Jackie Chan has the impressive reputation of being almost indestructible. He does his own stunts and puts himself in some incredibly dangerous situations. But Chan is essentially a comedian. His stunts are used, in a very similar way to Chan's cinematic hero Harold Lloyd, to amaze and amuse an audience. We are shocked that someone could do the things he does, hanging off moving buses with a walking stick, leaping across buildings. He is almost superhuman, but it's done mainly for laughs. The other major kung fu stars have become figures of mockery. The Internet was awash with Chuck Norris gags pointing out just how strong he is (\"Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.\") while Steven Seagal has done himself no favors by appearing in some of the worst films ever made. Hollywood doesn't take them seriously -- and nor do we. Directors have also mocked the 70s obsession with kung fu that gripped the western world, with heroes from films such as \"Boogie Nights,\" \"Austin Powers\" and \"Starsky and Hutch\" fighting with cod seriousness while displaying laughable skills. So what has changed? Kung fu is not inherently funny. No matter how many times you watch \"Enter the Dragon,\" it never ceases to be awe-inspiring. Perhaps the answer is simple: we Hollywood film junkies have grown cynical. There is no room in our modern world for an unexplained, almost supernatural power against pointlessly evil adversaries. Have we have lost our ability to suspend our disbelief? So what can a real fan do? Are we condemned to trawling the movies of the 1970s in order to get our kung fu hit, harking back to a time when Chuck Norris really was feared and respected everywhere he went? The answer is no. While Hollywood seems to have dumped its one-time darling, kung fu is alive and flourishing in Asia, where it all started. Jet Li puts out some great offerings in China, and there is a rising star in the form of Tony Jaa, a Thai actor with amazing technical skill, whose films like \"Ong Bak\" have wowed audiences across the world. While Hollywood misses a trick and spends all its time laughing at its most skillful martial artists, the industry in Asia is doing what it has always done: bringing us all the high kicks, karate chops and spinning nunchucks we could ever want. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kung fu has never regained its 1970s popularity in the West .\nThe genre has been mocked in movies like \"Austin Powers,\" \"Starsky and Hutch\"\nBut fans know the genre is alive and flourishing in Asia ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard says he contemplated suicide after his relationship with a male escort was revealed in 2006, resulting in his being fired from the influential megachurch that he founded two decades ago. Rev. Ted Haggard tells Oprah Winfrey he still struggles with homosexual urges but says he is not gay. Haggard told talk show host Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday that the scandal forced him to work through his \"issues\" with homosexuality. \"I was dying. I had settled in my mind exactly how I was going to commit suicide,\" Haggard told Winfrey. \"I was preparing, and in my life, Jesus came to me and he said, 'Now, now I can save you.' \" The interview also addressed the latest scandal involving the embattled pastor. In a statement from Haggard that Winfrey read at the end of the program, Haggard denied having \"physical contact\" with a second man whose allegations of an inappropriate relationship with Haggard surfaced recently. Watch Haggard's accuser speak out \u00bb . Haggard, who appeared in the prerecorded interview segment with his wife and two of his three children, said he continues to struggle with homosexual urges but insisted he is not gay. Haggard continues to have \"sexual thoughts about men, but they're not compulsive any more, and I do have temptations, but they're not compulsive,\" he told Winfrey. He said one therapist described him as a \"heterosexual with homosexual attachments,\" and he admitted to struggling with homosexual urges all his life. \"I do believe I don't fit into the normal boxes,\" Haggard said. \"I do think there are complexities associated with some people's sexuality, but it just wasn't as simple as I wanted it to be, because I was so deeply in love with my life.\" But, he added, \"I had this other thing going on inside of me too.\" Haggard founded the Colorado-based New Life Church in his basement in 1984 and oversaw its growth to a megachurch with some 15,000 members. After the scandal, he was fired from the church in 2006 and also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals -- a group that says it represents millions of people in 45,000 evangelical church congregations nationwide. His fall followed allegations from male escort Mike Jones about a sex-for-money relationship that involved drugs. \"When it first started to happen, I lied about it because I was so ashamed, and it was the first time that that dark area of my life that I had worked so hard to keep secret and fight against was coming to the surface,\" he told Winfrey. \"I thank God, though, that in this process, I am where I am now and that accusation and the scandal had a lot to do with that,\" he said. The interview aired as Haggard tries to combat the latest allegations. A senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said Monday that the church agreed to pay the second man -- a 20-year-old church volunteer -- in exchange for his pledge not to talk publicly about the relationship with Haggard. After the taped segment, Winfrey read a statement from Haggard about those new allegations. \"Even though there was never any physical contact, I have regretted my irresponsible behavior,\" Haggard said, referring to allegations from a man he identified as Grant. \"I apologized to Grant, my family and the church two years ago. I now ask him again for his forgiveness as well as the people of the church,\" Haggard said. In the past three weeks, the man told New Life Senior Pastor Brady Boyd that he was considering going public with his story because Haggard was portraying himself as a victim in an upcoming HBO documentary called \"The Trial of Ted Haggard,\" which is scheduled to air Thursday.","highlights":"Haggard: \"I had settled in my mind exactly how I was going to commit suicide\"\nHaggard founded New Life Church, was fired after male prostitute scandal .\nHaggard says he still has homosexual temptations, but they are not compulsive .\nHaggard denies physical contact, apologizes to man involved in new allegations ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted sanctions placed on the Navy over its underwater sonar testing, a setback for environmental groups that claimed the warfare technology was harming whales and other marine mammals. An endangered blue whale surfaces off the coast of Southern California in July. At issue in the 5-4 ruling was whether the Navy's need to conduct exercises to protect the country from enemy submarines outweighed concerns raised by environmental groups. The case focused on whether the president had the power to issue executive waivers allowing such tests and whether federal judges can issue preliminary injunctions blocking them. The high court ultimately sided with claims of national security over environmental concerns. Those environmental interests, said Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority, \"are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines.\" Roberts said a lower federal court \"abused its discretion\" by imposing a 2,200-yard perimeter for testing and ordering a shutdown of sonar use during surfacing exercises. But in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned that the ecological damage was significant. \"This likely harm cannot be lightly dismissed,\" she said, \"even in the face of an alleged risk to the effectiveness of the Navy's 14 training exercises.\" Justices David Souter, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens also questioned the Navy's arguments. The exercises have continued while the case was under appeal. Environmentalists had sued the Pentagon over the practice, and a federal judge ordered major changes to the Navy's annual offshore training exercises in March. President Bush had issued an emergency waiver to allow the exercises to go on without the filing of an environmental impact study, but the lower court ruling blocked the use of sonar. That federal judge, in ruling against the government last March, said it was \"constitutionally suspect\" for Bush to issue the national security exemption to allow skipping the impact study. Military officials argued that the restrictions could hamper readiness in time of war, because new sonar technology is needed to detect increasingly sophisticated enemy submarines. \"This case was vital to our Navy and nation's security, and we are pleased with the Supreme Court's decision in this matter,\" Navy Secretary Donald Winter said. \"We can now continue to train our sailors effectively, under realistic combat conditions.\" One of the environmental organizations that sued the Defense Department told the justices that the exercises had been planned in advance and that the Navy was required under law to conduct more extensive environmental tests than it had. The waters of southern California are home to dozens of species of whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, nine of them federally listed as endangered or threatened. Federal courts have cited scientific studies and the Navy's own conclusions that high levels of sonar can cause hearing loss and disorientation in the animals. In February, the U.S. Navy demonstrated for CNN its onboard procedures for turning down mid-frequency sonar when whales come within 1,000 meters and shutting it off completely when they approach 200 meters. The sonar sounds like a \"ping, ping\" noise, and it can be reduced as necessary, officers said. But environmentalists say that the sonar can hurt whales much farther than 1,000 meters away and that the noise created by the sonar \"was like having a jet engine in the Supreme Court multiplied 2,000 times, compensating for water,\" attorney Richard Kendall told the justices. Reacting to the ruling, Kendall said, \"It is gratifying that the court did not accept the Navy's expansive claims of executive power and that two-thirds of the injunction remain in place.\" In 2000, 16 whales beached themselves in the Bahamas, and the Navy concluded that too many sonar ships had been operating in a narrow underwater channel. The service says it is funding $16 million in independent research to minimize sonar's effect on marine mammals.","highlights":"NEW: Navy secretary says ruling allows sailors to train under \"realistic\" conditions .\nBy 5-4 vote, Supreme Court allows Navy exercises in whale habitat .\nSound waves can permanently harm sea mammals, environmentalists argue .\nFleet's safety and need to train trump concern for whales, chief justice writes ."} -{"article":"COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford left the Governor's Mansion on Friday to visit with his family in Florida, his office said. South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford says her husband, Mark, must rebuild trust with his family and with the state. Sanford departed the mansion, where he has spent much of the last 48 hours, in the passenger seat of a state vehicle. The Republican governor will spend the Fourth of July holiday weekend with his wife and their four boys. \"The Sanford family asks members of the media to respect their privacy while they are together this weekend,\" his spokesman said in a statement Thursday. \"The Sanfords also hope to take a longer family vacation toward the end of July.\" After disappearing for nearly a week, Sanford admitted last week that he'd been in Argentina with his mistress. His admission followed days of confusion over his whereabouts. His staff had said the governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail, and his wife had told reporters she did not know where he was. He later revealed to The Associated Press that he'd seen his mistress several times in the past year and that he'd also \"crossed lines\" with other women. Jenny Sanford released a statement Thursday calling Sanford's actions \"inexcusable,\" but she left the door open to reconciling with her husband. She said that although she is willing to forgive her husband, \"it is up to the people and elected officials of South Carolina to decide whether they will give Mark another chance as well.\" \"Actions have consequences, and he will be dealing with those consequences for a long while. Trust has been broken and will need to be rebuilt. Mark will need to earn back that trust, first and foremost with his family, and also with the people of South Carolina,\" she said in a statement. \"The real issue now is one of forgiveness. I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions. We have been deeply disappointed in and even angry at Mark.\" Her statement came shortly after it was announced that a review of the governor's travel records showed no misuse of public funds in his travels. Sanford already paid back the state for the Argentina leg of a state-funded missions trip last year because he saw the woman he had an affair with on that trip. \"Mark showed a lack of judgment in his recent actions as governor. However, his far more egregious offenses were committed against God, the institutions of marriage and family, our boys and me. Mark has stated that his intent and determination is to save our marriage and to make amends to the people of South Carolina,\" Jenny Sanford said. In the week after Mark Sanford admitted to his affair, nearly half of South Carolina's 27 Republican state senators called on him to step down. Despite the growing chorus, Sanford has no plans to step aside, his office said Thursday. \"He remains committed and determined to repair the damage he has done in his marriage and to building back the trust of the people of South Carolina,\" his office said. Republican strategist and CNN contributor Bill Bennett said that politically Sanford, once a rising star for the GOP, is \"a dead man walking.\" Bennett joins calls for Sanford's ouster . \"He is embarrassing himself. There is the old notion of indecent exposure -- usually that refers to somebody showing some skin they shouldn't -- and there's another form of indecent exposure: He is telling us way too much,\" he said. Watch Bennett discuss the political drama \u00bb . Bennett also suggested that the GOP can easily fill the gap Sanford would leave. \"We have other people,\" he said. \"We have other people who are not only fiscally interesting and sound but also can keep their lives together.\" CNN's Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford leaves for trip to Florida .\nJenny Sanford says she is willing to forgive her husband and reconcile .\nMark Sanford isn't resigning, his office says .\nNearly half of South Carolina's 27 GOP state senators call on Sanford to resign ."} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- France lock Sebastien Chabal has been cited for a dangerous tackle on England's Simon Shaw during Saturday's World Cup semifinal in Paris. Simon Shaw offloads despite being tackled by Raphael Ibanez, left, and Sebastien Chabal. The Sale Sharks forward will face a disciplinary hearing on Monday after his tackle on opposite second-rower Shaw was noted by citing commissioner Dennis Wheelahan. Chabal started the match on the substitutes' bench, but was brought on in the 26th minute to replace the injured Fabien Pelous during hosts France's 14-9 defeat. If he is suspended, then Chabal will miss Friday's third and fourth-place play-off match at the Parc des Princes. Meanwhile, France coach Bernard Laporte said that the defeat was tougher to take than England's 24-7 win in the 2003 semifinals. \"In 2003, they were better then us. In fact they were better than everyone,\" said Laporte, who is leaving his role to take up the post of junior sports minister in the French government. \"They were like the New Zealand of this tournament - the favorite, except they went all the way. This time it's harder because yesterday it was 50-50.\" Meanwhile, England -- seeking to become the first nation to defend the World Cup title -- revealed that star kicker Jonny Wilkinson again had problems with the match balls during the semifinal. The fly-half, who voiced his concerns after struggling with the boot against Australia, rejected a ball before kicking a vital three-pointer against France. \"We didn't say it last week but a non-match ball got onto the field in Marseille which Jonny kicked,\" director of rugby Rob Andrew said. \"He didn't think about it while he was kicking it. \"The match balls are marked, numbered one to six. Last night they had 'World Cup semi-final England vs France' written on them. On match night, Jonny was vigilant when kicking for goal that they were actually match balls he was kicking. \"The practice balls lose pressure and shape. The whole issue last week, the organizers accepted all six match balls should be used by both sides on the Thursday before game.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"France lock Sebastien Chabal cited for a dangerous tackle on Simon Shaw .\nChabal faces disciplinary hearing on Monday after incident against England .\nSale forward will miss the third and fourth-place play-off is he is suspended ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Solid support from registered Democrats and women in New Hampshire were crucial Tuesday as Sen. Hillary Clinton rebounded from her third-place finish in last week's Iowa caucuses. Sen. Hillary Clinton has spent the past few days saying she has the experience to change Washington. She narrowly defeated Sen. Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary, with 39 percent of the vote to Obama's 37. \"Last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice,\" the New York senator said after her victory. \"Now let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me.\" Forty-three percent of self-styled independents said they voted for Obama, and 31 percent said they backed Clinton. Independents made up 43 percent of all voters polled. Addressing his roaring supporters after the race was called, Obama congratulated Clinton. But he was a candidate determined to draw a distinction between Clinton and himself. \"But the reason our campaign has always been different, the reason we began this improbable journey almost a year ago, is because it's not just about what I will do as president,\" he said. \"It is also about what you, the people who love this country, the citizens of the United States of America, can do to change it. That's what this election is all about.\" But Clinton was ahead of Obama 45 percent to 34 percent among those who said they were registered Democrats. Those voters made up a majority -- 54 percent -- of all respondents. Clinton also claimed the majority of women's votes, according to the polling. That's in contrast to last week's Iowa caucuses, in which Obama surprised observers by stealing the female vote from Clinton. Analysts say that shift among female voters was crucial to the Clinton turnaround. \"If I had a single word, the word would be 'women,' \" said CNN political analyst Bill Schneider. \"She got the women back.\" And Schneider said the support of union voters that put Clinton over the top. \"Union voters have her a 10 point lead,\" he said. CNN projected former Sen. John Edwards to finish third. College graduates, who made up 29 percent of the electorate, opted narrowly for Clinton -- 38 percent to Obama's 37 percent, according to the polling. Those polled who called themselves very liberal, and moderate, went with Clinton over Obama -- although by less than 2 percentage points in each -- and those who said they are somewhat liberal were evenly split. Pundits also were citing the role of former President Bill Clinton in helping his wife recover from what pre-primary polls were suggesting was a deficit of 9 percentage points to Obama in New Hampshire. The former president spent Tuesday in Hanover -- home to Dartmouth College -- where Obama had been expected to win handily. \"They dispatched him to the area that Obama was surging,\" said CNN analyst Donna Brazille, who managed former Vice President Al Gore's campaign in 2000. \"I think it had the effect of tamping down Obama support and giving Senator Clinton a real reason to come back in this race.\" New Hampshire was considered crucial to Clinton's campaign. If Obama had been able to sweep Iowa and New Hampshire -- after months of Clinton being considered the front-runner among Democrats -- it could have given him powerful momentum going into future primaries. \"Age is also playing a big factor -- older voters are overwhelmingly outnumbering younger voters -- a proportion that is clearly benefiting Clinton,\" Schneider said. \"Sixty-seven percent of Democratic primary voters are over the age of 40, and they are breaking heavily for Clinton over Obama.\" Over the past several days, Clinton has trumpeted her experience, saying that she has delivered change as both first lady and as a senator. After losing to Obama in last week's Iowa caucuses, it was unclear whether she could overcome what appeared to be Obama's ability to electrify American voters who had previously taken a sour and skeptical view of politicians and the political process. The duel between the Obama and Clinton campaigns grew especially testy Monday and Tuesday. She said she had more experience than he, and was therefore more qualified. He accused her of representing the status quo of Washington. And on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton criticized the media for not pressing Obama more fully on Iraq, and accused the Illinois senator of shifting his position to reflect changing attitudes about the war in Iraq. Then, there was an issue unto itself -- Hillary Clinton's almost-tears. Clinton's eyes welled up this week while responding to a voter's question about her health and appearance. Pundits and voters alike questioned whether Clinton's emotions were sincere or faked as part of some strategy to diminish criticism that she is too steely, too cold. In front of the crowd of mostly female New Hampshire voters, an admittedly fatigued Clinton responded to a question by saying: \"This is very personal for me, it's not just political, it's [that] I see what's happening, we have to reverse it.\" Her voice broke, and she was then applauded by the crowd. Polls indicated the show of emotions fared well with male voters, according to CNN's John King, but turned off some female voters. Edwards was followed in votes by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sen. Barack Obama has electrified younger voters .\nSen. Hillary Clinton has maintained favor with voters older than 40 .\nCNN has projected Sen. John Edwards will finish in third place ."} -{"article":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Search operations resumed Monday for six U.S. citizens missing since their small plane crashed Sunday evening off the north coast of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Coast Guard found debris late Sunday night in the area where the single-engine Cessna 206 went down, half a nautical mile from the shoreline of the city of Quebradillas. But despite five searches Sunday and two others throughout the night, rescue crews were not able to find the pilot or the five passengers from the plane, the Coast Guard said Monday. Three searches are planned for Monday, said Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad. The private plane, chartered by Tropical Aviation Corp., took off from the Dominican Republic and was on its way to an airport in Puerto Rico when it went down Sunday evening, officials said. Three male and two female passengers were returning to Puerto Rico after spending the weekend in the Dominican Republic, said Noemi Corporan, service manager for Tropical Aviation Corp. The passengers were San Juan residents and had flown to the Dominican Republic on Friday, she said. Four HH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen and the Coast Guard Cutter Matinicus are taking part in the search, said spokesman Castrodad. The airplane took off from Casa de Campo International Airport in the Dominican Republic and was supposed to land at the Luis Mu\u00f1oz Marin International Airport in Carolina to clear U.S. Customs before going on to the Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, the Coast Guard said. A 911 emergency operator notified the Coast Guard at 6:51 p.m. Sunday that an aircraft had crashed into the waters off Quebradillas. The debris field was found around 10:30 p.m.","highlights":"NEW: Three searches are planned for Monday, according to Coast Guard .\nCoast Guard found debris that might come from downed Cessna .\nRescue crews have yet to find Americans despite seven searches .\nThe pilot and five passengers took off from the Dominican Republic ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A court has lifted a ban on identifying a man charged with one of a number of deadly wildfires that scorched southeastern Australia this month. A dirt track runs through the burnt out forest in the Kinglake region of Victoria state. The man, 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk, did not appear in Monday's hearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court, the Australian Associated Press reported. An order banning the publishing of Sokaluk's street address or his image remains in place. Public passions are running high in the aftermath of the fires that have killed scores of people. One T-shirt says, \"The bastards who lit Victoria's fires should: Burn in hell.\" Sokaluk is suspected of lighting a fire on February 7. He was charged with arson causing death, intentionally or recklessly lighting a bush fire, and possessing child pornography, Victoria state police said last week. The fire Sokaluk is accused of setting killed at least 21 people in Gippsland. See map of fire-hit areas \u00bb . Sokaluk's identity had already been revealed on social networking sites before the court lifted the suppression order on his name. There were 12 Facebook groups carrying details about Sokaluk, with one attracting more than 3,600 members. Watch more on arrest \u00bb . Robbie Shenton, who has joined one such group, told CNN: \"The judicial system had no right to suppress his name or photograph.\" Melbourne's Age newspaper reported Police had contacted Facebook seeking removal of Sokaluk's details. The death toll in a string of fires across Victoria climbed to 189 on Monday, police reported. The number of fires burning had dropped to six, from about a peak of about three dozen, the Country Fire Authority said. Watch a survivor tell his story \u00bb . Meanwhile, more than 150 detectives were working on the arson investigation, authorities said. The fires have destroyed more than 1,800 homes and displaced about 7,000 people. Priyanka Deladia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Court lifts ban on identifying man charged with starting deadly wildfire .\nBrendan Sokaluk, 39, did not appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court .\nOrder banning publishing of Sokaluk's address or image remains in place ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate approved a controversial nuclear deal with India on Wednesday, clearing the way for the United States to export nuclear know-how to India after a ban lasting decades. President Bush, who supports the deal, meets with India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week. Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the deal would not only \"set the stage for a stronger U.S.-India relationship,\" but also would promote stability in India's troubled neighborhood. \"This agreement is indicative of a new era in Indian foreign policy, an era in which India will see all the world's powers as potential partners in efforts to address its own needs and the needs of others,\" Dodd said. \"I believe that this new era will bring increased stability and progress in South Asia.\" India and Pakistan have fought several wars since they became independent in 1947, and both countries have tested nuclear weapons. Wednesday's vote was 86-13. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, spoke against what he called flawed legislation before the vote. \"If we pass this legislation, we will reward India for flouting the most important arms control agreement in history, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and we will gravely undermine our case against hostile nations that seek to do the same,\" Harkin said. Before he voted against the bill, he said Congress had not debated the legislation properly. \"It was hustled through [the House of Representatives] without any hearings and without a vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee,\" he said. \"Here in the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee held just one hearing with just one witness who spoke in support of the agreement.\" Presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain voted for the bill. President Bush urged the Senate to pass the bill in a statement released before the vote. The bill \"represents a major milestone in the transformation of our nation's important relationship with India,\" the statement said. One senator had anonymously been using parliamentary rules to prevent the bill from coming to a vote, but the leaders of the Senate announced Tuesday night the vote would go ahead. The House of Representatives passed the bill without debate on Saturday. The next step is for Bush to sign it into law. The Indian nuclear market is a rich prize, and the agreement could open the way for U.S. companies to earn billions of dollars building nuclear power plants in India. The French government clinched its own nuclear trade deal with India on Wednesday when President Nicolas Sarkozy signed an agreement in Paris. That puts French companies in the running for some of the same contracts U.S. companies want. In exchange for access to U.S. nuclear technology, India would allow international inspections of its civilian -- but not military -- nuclear power plants. It would also promise not to resume testing of nuclear weapons. The United States banned nuclear trade with India after India exploded a nuclear device in 1974 and refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In an informal agreement between the two nations, the United States said it would halt any nuclear cooperation should India resume testing.","highlights":"Deal could let U.S. businesses earn billions building plants in India .\nPresident Bush backs the deal; he's expected to sign it into law .\nU.S. banned nuclear trade with India in 1974 .\nSen. Harkin, bill opponent: We're rewarding India for flouting nonproliferation pact ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A crude bomb made from a water bottle was used in an explosion that damaged a Starbucks coffee shop on New York's posh Upper East Side, New York police said. Monday's explosion shattered glass at the Manhattan Starbucks coffee shop. No one was injured. The Memorial Day explosion damaged the shop, but no one was injured and no motive has been identified for the bombing. \"We believe it to be ... a six- to 10-ounce water bottle that was wrapped in black tape,\" New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN on Wednesday. He said the bomb's powder may have come from fireworks components, including a fuse. The powder was placed inside the bottle in a way that made it \"more powerful,\" Kelly said. He said a forensics unit is working on finding fingerprints. The homemade bomb, which went off around 3:30 a.m., shattered glass, but no one was injured. The store was not open. Police have said the device was planted under a wooden bench outside the coffee shop. \"We have a witness who believes he saw two young people he describes as teenagers, both white males,\" the commissioner said. One is described as blond, wearing a red shirt, and the other had brown hair and wore a gray shirt. Kelly said the witness saw the two approach the Starbucks, then looked away. After the witness heard the blast, he said he saw the two young people run away from the building. Kelly said that for now, it's impossible to say whether the bombing was politically motivated. \"We don't know if they were a corporate target or somebody had a problem [with] what was going on on that corner, in general ... we're not ruling anything out.\" In 1999, a Starbucks in Seattle, Washington, was vandalized during a world trade conference. In February 2008, a Vancouver Starbucks and another restaurant were damaged by an overnight explosion. New York police say they're aware of both incidents, but Kelly says it is too early to draw any conclusions. \"In the past, they [Starbucks] sort have been identified with the globalization movement. ... We're not saying that this is the case in this matter.\"","highlights":"New York police say the bomb outside a Starbucks was made from a water bottle .\nThe Memorial Day explosion damaged store but injured no one .\nThe blast happened about 3:30 a.m. on the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan .\nSuspects and motive -- including possibility of political motivation -- still being sought ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan government said Thursday it has made more inroads into the remaining territory held by ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels after troops seized their command center in the north of the country. Sri Lankan workers bury the bodies of some 38 suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed in recent fighting. The defense ministry's announcement, also reported by the country's Lankapuvath national news agency, could not be independently verified. Military jets pounded the rebel's \"transit camp\" in the district of Mullaittivu Wednesday evening, the agency said. The defense ministry said rebels were firing at and killing civilians who were trying to flee the fighting. \"In the face of humiliating defeat, LTTE terrorists are tailoring a civilian tragedy,\" it said on its Web site. The LTTE, or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. They have fought for an independent homeland for the country's Tamil minority since 1983 in a civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. In recent days, the military has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The re-capture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea.","highlights":"Sri Lanka news agency says government jets bombarded rebel transit camp .\nDefense ministry says rebels killing civilians .\nReported capture is latest in a series of claimed government successes ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Every weekend for more than four years, Fred Murray has walked the road where his daughter, Maura, vanished. Family, friends and volunteers help him look in the woods and mountains near Haverhill, New Hampshire, for clues to what happened to her. Maura Murray, 21, disappeared while driving in the New Hampshire woods on a snowy night in 2004. Maura Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, disappeared on a cold and snowy night in February 2004. She was last known to be driving from Massachusetts through New Hampshire. It is still unclear where she was heading in her black 1996 Saturn. The car was found abandoned, its front end crashed against a tree. It apparently had skidded off a road at a sharp curve. Shortly after the accident, a passing bus driver stopped and asked Murray if she needed help. She said no. Ten minutes later, police arrived. Inside the crumpled Saturn, they found some of Murray's belongings -- school books, running gear, snack foods and alcohol -- police won't say what kind. But Murray was gone, along with her car keys and a backpack she always carried. There was nothing to hint she'd be motivated to run away, according to her fianc\u00e9, William Rausch, and her father, Fred Murray. Watch why this cold case is a true mystery \u00bb . Maura Murray had just gotten engaged to Rausch, her college sweetheart and an Army lieutenant stationed in Oklahoma. They planned to marry after she graduated from nursing school in June 2005. She'd found a summer nursing job in Oklahoma. She had everything to look forward to. \"She was in good spirits and had no worries or reason to run away from her life,\" Fred Murray said. Investigators initially operated under the theory that the dean's list student was troubled and had decided to escape from the demands of her life for a while. As a result, they did not immediately begin to look for her. The search did not begin until 39 hours after her crashed car was found. When it finally got under way, helicopters, search dogs and ground teams covered the area near where Murray's car was found. The dogs picked up her scent for about 100 yards, leading investigators along the road to an area between two homes. There, the dogs lost the trail. Murray's credit cards and cell phone have not registered any activity since the night she disappeared, February 9, 2004. Tom Shamshak, a private investigator hired by the Murray family to continue the search, said police and volunteers looked for her for two days. \"No footprints were even found in the snow,\" he said. \"Luckily there hadn't been any fresh snowfall in those two days.\" Shamshak has concluded that only two scenarios could explain what happened to Murray. Either she was picked up by someone driving on the road, or she walked to a nearby house to ask for help. Police say they did not treat Murray's case as an abduction because they saw no signs of a struggle at the scene. Before she left campus, police learned, Murray had e-mailed her professors and informed them she'd be absent for a few days because of a death in the family. Murray's family and friends said no one in the family had died. Police also noted that Murray had enough food and other items in her car to suggest she might be taking a short getaway vacation. Murray is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 120 pounds, with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She was last seen wearing a dark coat and jeans and carrying a black backpack and Samsung cell phone. A $40,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to her whereabouts or the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance. The tip line is 603-271-2663, New Hampshire State Police.","highlights":"Maura Murray told her professors there had been a death in the family .\nThere was no death, relatives say .\nCar was found crashed into a tree along snowy New Hampshire roadway .\nA $40,000 reward is offered. Tips? Call 603-271-2663 ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Members of an Iranian group say Iraqi forces have beaten and abused them as Iraqis move to expel the Iranians from a camp on Iraqi land. About 3,500 people live at Camp Ashraf, where members of the People's Mujahedin have lived for 24 years. The Iranian group -- designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Iran -- has asked the United States to intervene on their behalf. About 3,500 people live at Camp Ashraf, most of them members of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran who have lived at the camp for 24 years after fleeing Iran. Iran, Iraq, Canada and the United States consider the People's Mujahedin, which opposes the government in Tehran, a terrorist organization, although the European Union removed the group from its terrorist list in January. The United Kingdom did so last year. The People's Mujahedin accused the Iraqi military of entering the camp north of Baghdad on Friday and forcibly evacuating a building that served mostly as a women's dormitory. Ashraf residents rallied Monday against the military, chanting for Imam Hussein -- the Prophet Mohammed's grandson and a holy figure for Shiite Muslims -- to save them from the abuse of the Iraqi soldiers. Statements from the National Council of Resistance to Iran, an umbrella group of Iranian opposition organizations -- the largest of which is the People's Mujahedin -- accuse Iraq's Shiite-dominated government of doing the bidding of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also a Shiite. \"The Iranian Resistance calls for urgent intervention of the U.S. government and competent international bodies to neutralize plots by the clerical regime and prevent a human catastrophe in Camp Ashraf,\" said a statement dated Sunday. Iraq's government denied that it was acting on Khamenei's behalf. \"The Iraqi government's position is clear and there is no retreat from its decision to close Camp Ashraf,\" said a statement from the office of National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie. \"The national security adviser is only implementing the decision and the policy of the Iraqi government.\" The National Council also accused the Iraqis of barring delivery of all supplies to the camp except for food, banning Iraqi workers from entering the camp and blocking families from visiting relatives inside the camp. The Iraqi government statement denied keeping supplies from Camp Ashraf. \"The Iraqi government continues to facilitate all humanitarian materials entering Camp Ashraf,\" the Iraqi statement said. \" ... We welcome any visit by any international organization.\" A People's Mujahedin spokesman in Camp Ashraf called the statement false and asked international groups \"to visit Ashraf and observe the facts and realities of the present situation by themselves.\" Camp Ashraf, which has housed Iranians since the mid-1980s, was under U.S. protection until January 1, when it was handed over to the Iraqis. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council and the long-time leader of People's Mujahedin, sent a letter to President Obama asking for help against \"a conspiracy hatched by the religious dictatorship ruling Iran against the lives of 3,500 residents of Camp Ashraf.\" Rajavi cited comments by Khamenei during a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talibani last month calling for the expulsion of the People's Mujahedin from Iraq and later comments by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during a trip to Baghdad calling for Camp Ashraf's closure. After those remarks, the National Council said, al-Rubaie declared that the Iranians at Camp Ashraf had no right to refugee status or to political asylum and would be expelled either back to Iran or to a third country. Rajavi, in her letter to Obama, asked the president to \"issue an order so that the arrangements for the protection of Ashraf are reinstated to that which was in place before January 2009, i.e., the U.S. forces be tasked with the protection of Ashraf.\" The U.S. military in Iraq had no comment on the matter, referring queries to the State Department, which did not have an immediate comment. Also known as Mujahedin-e-Khalq, People's Mujahedin was initially formed to oppose the shah of Iran, but fell out of favor with the Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after 1979. People's Mujahedin, which promotes a secular, Marxist government for Iran, waged a violent campaign against the fundamentalist Islamic Tehran government -- including bombings that killed politicians, judges and Cabinet members -- for years. The group allied with Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the mid-1980s and fought with the Iraqis against Iran in the latter years of the Iran-Iraq war. People's Mujahedin renounced violence in 2001, but a group of 12 former members told Human Rights Watch in 2005 that they were subject to physical and psychological abuse when they made it known they wanted to leave the organization. The group is also said to have provided Western governments with information about Iran's nuclear program. The National Council accused al-Rubaie in particular of \"clearly implementing the dictates of Khamenei\" and said he should \"be prosecuted by international forces.\"","highlights":"People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran have lived at camp for 24 years .\nGroup is considered terrorist organization by United States, others .\nIraqi government has decided to close the camp .\nGroup says Iraq is doing bidding of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who group opposes ."} -{"article":"ARNOLD, Missouri (CNN) -- On his 100th day in office, President Obama said Wednesday that he was \"pleased with the progress we've made but not satisfied.\" Obama marked his 100th day in office Wednesday with a town hall meeting and later a news conference. \"I've come back to report to you, the American people, that we have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, and we've begun the work of remaking America,\" the president said at a town hall meeting in a high school gymnasium in Arnold, a St. Louis suburb. \"I'm confident in the future, but not I'm not content with the present,\" he said. \"You know the progress comes from hard choices and hard work, not miracles. I'm not a miracle worker,\" he said. Obama acknowledged challenges of \"unprecedented size and scope,\" including the recession. These challenges, he said, could not be met with \"half measures.\" \"They demand action that is bold and sustained. They call on us to clear away the wreckage of a painful recession, But also, at the same time, lay the building blocks for a new prosperity. And that's the work that we've begun over these first 100 days,\" he said. He responded to critics who say he is trying to do too much as he works to address the recession as well as health care, energy and education. \"There's no mystery to what we've done; the priorities that we've acted upon were the things that we said we'd do during the campaign,\" he said, prompting loud applause. The president made an opening statement that lasted about 20 minutes before taking questions from the audience. The last question was from a fourth-grade girl who asked about the administration's environmental policies. Later Wednesday, Obama will hold a prime-time news conference in the East Room of the White House. Leading up to the date, White House aides had labeled the 100th day as a \"Hallmark\" holiday. \"They don't mean anything,\" quipped one aide, \"but you have to observe them.\" More than six in 10 Americans approve of the job Obama is doing as president, a recent poll of polls shows. According to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled early Wednesday, 63 percent say they approve of how Obama is handling his duties. CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"We've begun the work of remaking America,\" he says in Missouri .\nObama warns that progress comes from \"hard work, not miracles\"\nHe will hold a prime-time news conference later Wednesday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Los Angeles-area man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife while on a cruise along the Mexican coast, an FBI spokesman told CNN sister network HLN. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead on Tuesday in her cabin on the Carnival Elation. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said. Robert McGill, who is in his mid-50s, is charged with murder on the high seas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter told HLN. The FBI and the Carnival cruise line said that a domestic dispute Tuesday night resulted in the woman's death, but did not elaborate on how she was killed. The FBI said the cause of death would be determined through autopsy. Another passenger became suspicious that foul play had taken place \"for a variety of possible reasons,\" Slotter said, and notified ship security. When security checked the couple's room, Shirley McGill was found dead inside, he said. Authorities believe she had been dead for no more than a couple of hours. Watch Slotter describe how the body was found \u00bb . Robert McGill was arrested on board the ship and was kept in its brig for the remainder of the cruise, the FBI said. After the ship docked, he was taken into federal custody, as crimes on the high seas fall under federal jurisdiction. FBI agents boarded the ship to start the investigation as the vessel neared San Diego, with the Coast Guard transporting the agents about 10 miles offshore. Agents were completing their work on the ship Thursday, having interviewed about 50 passengers and processed the crime scene, Slotter said. He would not elaborate on the domestic dispute, saying authorities are still trying to piece together what happened. The 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation had departed on the cruise July 11. CNN's Scott Thompson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday .\nHusband Robert McGill, in mid-50s, charged with murder on the high seas, FBI says .\nFBI and Carnival cruise line said domestic dispute Tuesday night led to death ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six Uyghurs who were imprisoned in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were transferred Saturday to the South Pacific island nation of Palau, the Justice Department said. Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori were resettled in Palau, the Justice Department said in a statement Saturday. Seven Uyghurs are still at Guantanamo Bay, where 215 prisoners remain. Uyghur is an ethnic group from western China. Since January, 25 detainees have been transferred to other countries. The United States has coordinated with Palau \"to ensure that the transfers take place under appropriate security measures and will continue to consult with the Republic of Palau regarding the individuals,\" the Justice Department said. The 13 Uyghurs were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan. Some of them have been cleared for release since 2003, and other Uyghurs have been released to other countries. The United States said it would not send them back to their homeland because of concern they would be tortured by Chinese authorities. The Chinese government has said no returned Uyghurs would be mistreated and has repeatedly warned other countries against taking the men. Beijing officials this summer again urged the United States to hand over all remaining Uyghurs instead of sending them elsewhere. China alleges the men are part of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization, that operates in the Xinjiang region. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang. On October 20, the Supreme Court tentatively agreed to accept an appeal from the 13 Uyghurs to be released into the United States from American military custody. CNN's Carol Cratty and Bill Mears contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Uyghurs -- Muslims from Southern China -- went to South Pacific island nation Saturday .\n7 Uyghurs still at Guantanamo Bay; U.S. won't send them back to China, citing torture concerns .\nThe 13 Uyghurs were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan .\nChina says returning Uyghurs won't be mistreated, warns other countries not to take them ."} -{"article":"JACKSON, Tennessee (CNN) -- Tornadoes and storms in the mid-South have killed 55 people since Tuesday evening in the deadliest tornado outbreak in the United States in more than 20 years. A police officer walks past destroyed cars on the Union University campus in Jackson, Tennessee, Wednesday. The storms ripped apart homes and trapped residents of university dorms and a retirement home in debris. The trail of death stretched across four states, with four people killed in Alabama, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and 31 in Tennessee. In some cases, there was almost no warning before the severe weather hit. James Baskin of Jackson, Tennessee, was driving a car when a twister \"just picked us up and threw us,\" he said. Everyone in the car was injured, including his daughter's friend, who suffered a broken collarbone. \"We'll get through it. Nobody's dead. That's the biggest thing,\" Baskin said. The storm system was becoming less intense as it moved east Wednesday, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said, but the National Weather Service issued tornado and severe storm warnings and said extreme weather still was possible. President Bush said Wednesday he had called the governors of the affected states to offer help and to tell them that \"the American people hold those who suffered up in prayer.\" The Federal Emergency Management Agency was deploying teams to the area, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. \"We're going to keep watching this,\" he said. See map of where storms hit \u00bb . In Sumner County, Tennessee, two victims were found outside a house that had been blown away by the storm, said Jay Austin, the county's primary death investigator. Elsewhere in the area, a mother was found dead in a creek bed about 50 yards from where her house stood. Her baby was found alive 250 yards away. The child was taken to a local hospital, Austin said. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Highway Patrol reported looting in hard-hit Macon County, CNN affiliate WSMV reported. Macon County Mayor Shelvy Linville told CNN Thursday that the death toll in the county had risen to 13. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who flew over the disaster area Wednesday, said he was stunned by the storm's power. Watch Bredesen describe a 'nightmare' \u00bb . \"I don't think that I have seen, since I've been governor, a tornado where the combination of the intensity of it and the length of the track was as large as this one,\" Bredesen said. \"That track had to be 25 miles long. [The twister] didn't skip like a lot of them do. ... It's just 25 miles of a tornado sitting on the ground.\" In Jackson, Tennessee, a tornado trapped Union University students and retirees in collapsed buildings, said Julie Oaks, a spokeswoman for the state's Emergency Management Agency. Watch how the tornado devastated the campus \u00bb . \"It looks like a war zone,\" said university President David Dockery. \"Cars and trucks thrown from one side of the campus to the other.\" Dockery said the women's dorms were destroyed, along with two academic buildings. Many other school buildings received lesser damage. See photos of chaos left by storm \u00bb . Classes were canceled at least until February 18, he said. Nine students were hospitalized overnight, but there were no life-threatening injuries, according to university spokesman Tim Elsworth. To the west, a tornado swept through the southeastern section of Memphis in Shelby County. The storms yanked the roof off a hangar at Memphis International Airport, the National Weather Service said. Oaks said one person was killed at the Hickory Ridge Mall in Shelby County. Company officials believe a tornado hit a compressor station for the Columbia Gulf Transmission company in Hartsville, Tennessee, about 40 miles northeast of Nashville, setting off a spectacular natural gas fire. Watch flames leap hundreds of feet \u00bb . The blaze could be seen in the night sky for miles around, with flames shooting \"400, 500 feet in the air,\" said Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Donnie Smith. The station was damaged significantly, but there were no reports of injuries or fatalities, said Columbia spokesman Kelly Merritt. \"We would not have had any employees there [overnight].\" The blaze was put out early Wednesday morning, he said. The tornado cut a wide swath near the facility, flattening the home of Dara Reasonover. \"It just took the house and everything and my horses and my dog,\" a shaken Reasonover said, as the glow of the fire lit the sky behind her. \"I don't know if they're alive or dead, but we'll make it.\" In Arkansas, the storm killed 13 people in six counties, the state Emergency Management Agency said. In the city of Atkins, a man, woman and child in the same family were killed, county Judge Jim Ed Gibson told CNN. The storms overturned trucks and other vehicles along Interstate 40, closing the highway briefly, he said. Storms also ripped through Kentucky, killing at least seven people. A state of emergency was declared in Muhlenberg County, and Kentucky National Guard troops were deployed, state emergency spokesman Buddy Rogers said. In Alabama, the storms killed four people, three in Lawrence County and one in Jackson County, officials said. Resident Roger Riddle said that when he heard the tornado siren, he rounded up his children and took them to a community storm shelter. When he emerged, he saw the twister traveling away from them and \"total destruction.\" \"We've got things tore up, and the house across the road from us is completely gone,\" Riddle said. In Mississippi, the director of the state's Emergency Management Agency, Mike Womack, estimated that 20 to 30 tornadoes pounded the state in areas above the state capital of Jackson. \"We have no reported fatalities, and that is extremely fortunate,\" he said, given the havoc the storm caused elsewhere. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed, Mark Bixler and Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll rises to 55 with report of a 13th death in Macon County, Tennessee .\nTornado outbreak was deadliest in the U.S. in more than 20 years .\n31 people killed in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, 7 in Kentucky, 4 in Alabama ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With his hands and feet shackled and his face obscured by his long hair, Chester Arthur Stiles made his initial court appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday morning on charges stemming from the videotaped rape of a 2-year-old girl. Chester Stiles appears Wednesday in a Las Vegas, Nevada, courtroom. Stiles, 37, was taken into custody Monday night after a Henderson, Nevada, police officer pulled over the white Buick Century he was driving. Prosecutors added a couple more charges before Wednesday's hearing, bringing the total to 23 felony counts, including a charge of lewdness with a minor, sexual assault and the use of a child in the production of pornography, according to a statement issued by the Clark County, Nevada, court. One of the lewdness charges stems from a 2004 incident, while the others are related to the videotape, the court said. Judge Deborah Lippis set November 19 as the date for the preliminary hearing. After the hearing, Stiles' court-appointed attorney said his client was overwhelmed by the public opinion in the case. \"I think he's a little out of it,\" public defender Jeff Banks said. Jerry T. Donohue, the attorney for the girl's mother, told CNN that the child on the videotape was younger than 3 when the abuse occurred. The girl, who is now 7, was found last month after a nationwide search. The girl's mother said on \"The Dr. Phil Show\" Wednesday that she was \"relieved\" about Stiles' arrest, although it would have been \"better if they found him dead.\" The woman said she will testify against Stiles if the case goes to court. She told Phil McGraw that her daughter remembers nothing about the videotaped assault and that she recently had a conversation with the girl about inappropriate touching. She said her daughter told her that if someone touched her inappropriately, the girl would scream and tell her mother. But, she told McGraw, \"I don't trust anybody now.\" Although she is in a relationship with a man her daughter calls \"Dad,\" she said, \"I don't feel comfortable leaving her with him, nor with anybody else. ... I just cry and blame it on myself.\" Eight-and-a-half months pregnant, she said the incident has placed a lot of strain on her. Asked if she would rather not have known about the assault, she said, \"Yes, I could have lived without knowing it.\" A former girlfriend of Stiles' said that, before the arrest, she lived in fear after going to police to identify the suspect after seeing enhanced photos from the videotape on the local news. \"I've had my share of nightmares,\" Elaine Thomas told CNN's Nancy Grace. Thomas said she screamed when she recognized the photos on television and had no choice but to contact police about the man she had thought was a \"weapons enthusiast\" with only a minor criminal record. Watch Thomas say how she felt when she saw the photos \u00bb . \"How could I not tell them who that man was? That little girl suffered unimaginable things, and I knew for a fact it was him,\" Thomas said. Another former girlfriend of Stiles', Tina Allen, said this month she thinks she is the reason Stiles came in contact with the girl and is \"mortified\" by the allegations against him. \"He said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,\" Allen said. Allen said she took Stiles to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her daughter, the alleged assault victim. Todd Allen, Tina Allen's son, said he recognized his old apartment from scenes in the video. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Payne and Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Accused pedophile Chester Arthur Stiles gets additional charges .\nNEW: \"I think he's a little out of it,\" his attorney says .\nSuspect's ex-girlfriend: \"I've had my share of nightmares\"\nStiles, 37, arrested following a routine traffic stop ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Artist Robert West is proud of his connection to the Pullman Company. His grandfather, Allen Parrish, was a Pullman Porter and helped inspire some of his train paintings. Robert West paints his latest project in his Atlanta, Georgia, studio. \"When I was growing up, we would often take grandfather to work at the train station. I became impressed and mesmerized with trains through this experience. This passion ultimately led me to become a full-time railroad illustrator,\" West said. The Pullman Company was one of the largest employers of African-Americans in the 1920s and '30s. It hired them as porters in railroad sleeping cars to assist railroad passengers and make up beds. These jobs were once highly regarded in the black community because they offered the opportunity to travel and better pay and security than most jobs open to blacks at the time. West says trains have an important place in African-American history -- from symbolism in Negro spirituals to a real conveyance for the mass migration of blacks moving to the North in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. \"Trains have so long symbolized hope, freedom and power -- what better metaphor could there be to represent our struggle and our assimilation into mainstream American life,\" West said. Many of West's paintings depict historical scenes with the now defunct Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, because that's where his grandfather worked for many years. Watch award-winning artist on trains and history \u00bb . West paints other trains, including the Steam, Gas turbine, Electric, as well as first through sixth Generation Diesel Electric Locomotives. He wears a conductor's hat as he works. \"I think it's important that all the cultures in the United States look back at our history by way of the railroads,\" West said. \"It was through our contributions to the railroads, that also pushed us forward as a nation and as a human race.\" West has been drawing and painting trains since the age of 2. In 1973, he decided to make railroad illustrating a profession. Through the years his work has won several awards in shows of national and regional scope. \"I'm probably more of a visual historian more than anything else, because I conduct weeks, months, sometimes years of research prior to doing a painting,\" he said. West has painted more than 500 original works, which have sold across the United States and around the world. Train enthusiasts are his largest market. \"When one looks at my paintings, I like for them to not only feel a sense of joy, but to feel good about times when times were happier, kinder, and gentler,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Robert West was inspired by family history to paint trains .\nArtist's grandfather was a Pullman train porter .\n\"Visual historian\" does a lot of research before painting ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of Africa's brightest young writers, 31-year-old Chimamanda Adichie has already been recognised for her talent; her debut novel was shortlisted for the Orange Fiction Prize in 2004. The Nigerian novelist talks to CNN about her craft, her country and identity.","highlights":"31-year-old novelist grew up in Nigeria and studied in U.S.\nFirst novel was shortlisted for Orange Fiction prize; has won other literary awards .\nLatest work is collection of short stories about the Nigerian immigrant experience ."} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea fired several short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan on Saturday, an act that the U.S. watched closely and South Korea called provocative. N. Korean army soldiers, back, look at a S. Korean soldier, center, in the demilitarized zone in June. Pyongyang fired six short-range missiles in less than seven hours, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said. The missiles were apparently Scud-type, estimated to have a range of about 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. South Korean intelligence estimates that North Korea has about 700 such missiles in its arsenal. Pyongyang test-fired four such missiles off the east coast Thursday, Yonhap reported. South Korea called the launches a provocative act, according to a government statement. North Korea had issued a warning to mariners to avoid an area in the Sea of Japan at certain times between June 24 and July 9 because of a \"military firing exercise,\" according to a U.S. military communication about the warning provided to CNN. The recent firings come amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea conducted a nuclear test in May, fired test rockets and threatened U.S. and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. Watch S. Korea confirm firing of missiles \u00bb . The first two missiles were fired about 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., Yonhap reported. Another missile was launched about 10:45 a.m., the agency reported. A fourth one came some time after that. The U.S. Navy and other U.S. officials said they are ready to track any missiles. \"The United States is aware of possible missile launches by North Korea. We are closely monitoring North Korea's activities and intentions,\" a U.S. official said. \"This type of North Korea behavior is not helpful. What North Korea needs to do is fulfill its international obligations and commitments.\" Earlier this week analyst Daniel Pinkston said the reported test might be training for a future test but it could also just be a routine military exercise. \"It is worrisome to some degree, but it is different from a ballistic missile launch,\" said Pinkston, of the International Crisis Group in Seoul, South Korea. \"It's part of military training, but there seem to be no movements of troops or anything that would suggest preparations for military operations. \"So yes, people are watching it, the military is watching it here, but I don't think it's related to any plans or operations to attack anyone.\" CNN's Sohn Jie-Ah in Seoul, Korea, and Charley Keyes in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report .","highlights":"North Korea five Scud-type missiles Saturday that can reach 400 to 500 km .\nSouth Korea has called the launches \"a provocative act\"\nU.S. diplomat: \"This type of North Korea behavior is not helpful\"\nPyongyang test-fired four such missiles off the east coast Thursday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. serviceman was among six victims of an early morning shooting at a Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, strip club Wednesday, officials said. Unidentified gunmen entered the Amadeus club in the border city across from El Paso, Texas, just after midnight and fatally shot six men, Chihuahua state attorney general's office spokesman Arturo Sandoval said. An additional person was injured, he said. Two of the victims were identified as employees of the strip club, a waiter and a security guard, the spokesman said. Another was identified as an American citizen and member of the U.S. Air Force, Sandoval said. A statement from Holloman Air Force Base, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, confirmed that the airman was based there, and identified him as Staff Sgt. David Booher, 26. The gunmen appeared to have targeted the victims, Sandoval said. \"Everything indicates that these people were looking for these men,\" he said. Investigators recovered more than 30 shells from the scene. Because of drug-related violence, particularly in border cities, Juarez is considered off-limits for the U.S. military. At Fort Bliss in El Paso, for instance, a memorandum prohibits its soldiers from traveling into the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located. More than 2,000 killings have been recorded in Juarez this year. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario, Mike Mount, Dave Alsup and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Air Force Staff Sgt. David Booher shot with 5 others in Ciudad Juarez .\nGunmen appeared to have targeted the victims, Mexican spokesman says .\nJuarez is considered off-limits for the U.S. military because of drug violence ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Going into the eighth season finale of \"American Idol,\" Adam Lambert looks like the favorite against competitor Kris Allen. But should Lambert even be on the show, since he has performed professionally in the national Broadway tour of \"Wicked\"? Former 'American Idol' runner-up Diana DeGarmo says it's getting harder for the average person to get on the show. Diana DeGarmo, runner-up in the third season of \"American Idol,\" spoke with HLN's Mike Galanos on Prime News about whether or not an amateur stands a chance on the show. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Mike Galanos: What were the stipulations as to your past history before you joined \"American Idol\"? How much could you do before they'd say, \"You aren't an amateur anymore. You're more of a professional\"? Diana DeGarmo: Each contract for each show has gotten a little stronger and a little stronger. Prior to me doing \"American Idol,\" I had done things like theater, but at that point nowhere near on a professional level. The cool thing is they keep it fair by having little things in the contract about how you can't release a record nationally with a record label -- things like that. But people who have been signed prior can, of course, be on the show. Galanos: Do you think the \"rags-to-riches\" story is lost and we are going to get more and more people who have more and more experience? DeGarmo: I think people now realize that \"American Idol\" is such a launching spot for anyone's career. People that maybe would have not done it a few years ago, saying, \"Oh, I'm too professional,\" maybe take a little bit of a second glance at the show because they realize it's such a launching pad. But I do think it's a little harder for the everyday Joe to get in it. Galanos: Do you think Adam has an unfair advantage since he was an understudy for the Broadway tour of \"Wicked\"? DeGarmo: Not really, because it's all about performing. So it's just about what you are doing at that exact moment up there on the \"American Idol\" stage. I think Kris and Adam are just two totally different performers, but I think they are pretty even when it comes down to the end of the day.","highlights":"DeGarmo: It's harder for the \"everyday Joe\" to get on \"American Idol\"\nIt's more about what you're doing on the 'Idol' stage, she says .\nKris Allen and Adam Lambert compete in the season finale ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Intensifying violence, food shortages and widespread drought are driving an increasing number of Somalis to seek asylum in Yemen, the United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday. A man brandishes a knife while others carry old notes during a demonstration against record-high inflation. More than 15,000 refugees have arrived in the Yemeni port city of Aden since January, compared with 7,166 people in the first four months of 2007, according to a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Many of those seeking asylum brave treacherous boat trips across the Gulf of Aden. Consequently, the number of boats landing in Aden has jumped from 60 to 361 since January while the number of fatalities has remained constant, according to UNHCR. The agency attributed the surge to strife in Somalia, where riots continued in the capital city of Mogadishu for the second day Tuesday. According to news reports, Somali soldiers killed at least two people Monday during the protests over rising food prices. Watch protesters take to the streets \u00bb . Somali refugees pay as much as $150 to cross the Gulf of Aden in search of asylum. Because of its proximity to the war-torn country, Yemen is a common destination for Somalis fleeing economic hardship, famine and war. Yemen is also an attractive location because Somalis receive automatic refugee status in the fellow Muslim country. New smuggling routes across the Red Sea have also led to increased numbers of refugees in Yemen, according to the UNHCR. Refugees often die before reaching Yemen because of dangerous sea conditions and overcrowded vessels. Others die at the hands of their smugglers, who order the passengers to jump overboard when the Yemeni coast guard approaches the vessel. Yemen's coast guard stepped up patrols of its coastline this year in an attempt to deter smugglers, according to the UNHCR, which operates shelters and reception centers for refugees in Yemen. The coast guard has also seized boats and given them Somali fishermen affected by the 2004 tsunami.","highlights":"Agency attributes surging number of refugees in Yemen to unrest in Somalia .\nMore than 15,000 refugees have come to port city of Aden since January .\nNew routes across the Red Sea to Yemen also contributing to increase ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's been a homicidal singing barber in \"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street\" and a drunken swashbuckler in \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.\" Depp is back as bank robber John Dillinger, revered in the Depression as a modern-day Robin Hood. Now, Hollywood shape-shifter Johnny Depp is back as another unexpectedly charismatic outlaw: Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger, a character he says he's been drawn to since he was a boy. \"I sort of had a fascination with John Dillinger when I was about 10, 11 years old, for some reason,\" Depp told CNN. \"I always kind of admired him, oddly.\" Oddly, perhaps, because for a short but intense period between September 1933 and July 1934 Dillinger and his gang rampaged through the American Midwest, staging jail breaks, robbing banks, and killing 10 men and wounding seven along the way. Dillinger's violent spree is the focus of gangster drama \"Public Enemies,\" the latest offering from director Michael Mann, and also starring Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. Mann is known for his sympathetic portrayal of criminals, and Dillinger -- whose acts on the wrong side of the law led him to become one of America's first celebrities -- is the quintessential good hood. In the 1930s, the United States was in the grips of the worst financial disaster in history -- a time when many Americans watched their life savings disappear and became jobless and hungry. Members of the public blamed banks for losing their money and politicians for failing to stop them. For many, Dillinger's exploits represented sticking it to the fat cats, and he was idolized as a modern-day Robin Hood. J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director at the time, may have made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy No. 1, but the bandit was careful not to alienate the public. There is a memorable moment where he drapes a coat over a female bank hostage during a raid to keep her warm. Also, it's said he never swore in front of women. He was always courteous even as he tried to meet his target of robbing banks in under two minutes. Crucially, he never robbed the average guy, telling him to put his money away during robberies. It is this Dillinger that Depp captures: a captivating revolutionary with the gift of gab who lit the public's imagination, causing people to flock to cinemas to watch his exploits in weekly newsreels. Review: Depp is great in 'Public Enemies' Of course, the dark, violent side of Dillinger's psyche is unavoidable. Depp plumbed the depths of his own character to come up with those murkier elements. That was something that took courage, according to Mann: \"He had Dillinger in him; that's something I sensed. Deep in the core of Johnny there's a toughness.\" Depp gained recognition throughout the 1990s for immersing himself in characters. He shook off an early reputation as a teen pin-up in movies like Tim Burton's 1991 Gothic tale \"Edward Scissorhands.\" He went on to cement his reputation for unusual film choices and quirky performances in films like \"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\" (2005) and \"Finding Neverland\" (2004). In pictures: Johnny Depp's iconic roles \u00bb . The 46-year-old actor says he felt a close affinity to Dillinger: \"I related to John Dillinger like he was a relative. I felt he was of the same blood. He reminded me of my stepdad and very much of my grandfather. \"He seemed to be one of those guys with absolutely no bull whatsoever, who lived at a time when a man was a man.\" \"Public Enemies\" was adapted by Mann from a nonfiction book of the same name by Bryan Burrough. Is it sozzled Captain. Jack Sparrow or smooth Donnie Brasco? Tell us your favorite Johnny Depp character in the SoundOff box below. The \"Last of the Mohicans\" director is known for fastidious research and attention to detail, which in this case included collaborating closely with the FBI to check facts -- although Mann subsequently chose to gloss over some elements for the sake of the story. Mann filmed in many of the locations where Dillinger's story took place almost 80 years ago, including the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, where the bandit was finally shot dead by FBI agents as he came out of a Clark Gable movie. They also shot at Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters in the far north of Wisconsin, the site of one of Dillinger's most famous showdowns with the FBI. Dillinger was hiding out there after a botched robbery. When the feds finally caught up with him, two men were killed in the vicious gunfight. \"We were able to shoot not just in the actual place where this happened, but in his actual room,\" says Mann. \"There's a certain kind of magic for Johnny Depp to be lying in the bed that John Dillinger was actually in.\" A lot of Dillinger's success was down to superior guns and getaway cars. Depp, who has experience shooting guns from previous productions, had to learn a completely different technique for the heavy guns of the time. Depp says shooting the Thompson submachine gun was one of the highlights of the production: \"When you've got a beast like that strapped to you and you're emptying magazines, a 50-round drum, it's a good feeling.\" The ride may have been thrilling for Depp but he also recognizes that the Depression-era setting has some extra significance these tight-belted times. \"You know,\" says Depp, \"We're in the middle of a recession, teetering on a depression. It's time to view the banks and grown-ups for what they are.\"","highlights":"Johnny Depp plays charismatic bank robber John Dillinger in \"Public Enemies\"\nDepression-era tale of first Public Enemy No. 1, idolized as modern-day Robin Hood .\nDillinger's gang killed 10 men, wounded seven during a spree of less than one year .\nDepp on Dillinger: \"I always kind of admired him, oddly\""} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations is calling on NATO to do more to stop the Afghan opium trade after a new survey showed how the drug dominates Afghanistan's economy. Afghan villagers tend to opium poppies in Taliban-controlled Helmand province in April 2007. The report from the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime shows the export value of this year's poppy harvest stood at around $4 billion, a 29 per cent increase over 2006. Despite Afghan security forces' efforts to curb the trade, 660 tons of heroin and morphine were trafficked out of the country in 2007, the report said. Opium is derived from poppies, and the data on cultivation was collected by examining satellite images and by assessments on the ground. The report said opium has accounted for more than half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2007. InvestorWords.com defines GDP as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, usually a calendar year. According to the U.N. survey, about a quarter of the earnings from opium go to farmers. The rest goes to district officials who collect taxes on the crop, to drug traffickers and to the insurgents and warlords who control the trade. Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, urged NATO to take a more active role in countering the spread of the drug trade, which has increased dramatically since the American-led invasion to remove the hard-line Islamist government of the Taliban in October 2001. \"Since drugs are funding the insurgency, NATO has a self-interest in supporting Afghan forces in destroying drug labs, markets and convoys,\" Costa said in a written statement to coincide with the release of the survey. \"Destroy the drug trade and you cut off the Taliban's main funding source.\" James Appathurai, a NATO spokesman, said coalition forces were equally concerned by the rapid growth in the narcotics trade. \"We share the U.N.'s concerns,\" Appathurai told CNN. \"Drugs not only poison people, but they poison economies and governments, and it is in everyone's interest to stop this proliferation.\" He said NATO forces were providing assistance to Afghan police through training and transport but he said there were no plans to deploy coalition troops to intervene directly. \"The issue of whether we can do more is certainly a live discussion for NATO, but at the moment this is a matter for the Afghan government,\" Appathurai said. Farming of opium poppies has been almost eradicated in the north and west of the country, Appathurai said. However, he said, in the lawless southern provinces and especially in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand, poppy production was going on largely unchecked. According to the report, U.N. observers have noticed a proliferation of heroin labs in neighboring countries and along trafficking routes. Costa said the labs are dependent on precursor chemicals, like acetic anhydride, that must be smuggled into the region. He called for tighter controls in chemical-producing countries and stronger intelligence-sharing between Afghanistan and its neighbors. \"Drug trafficking is a transnational threat, and therefore national initiatives have their limitations,\" the U.N. drug chief said. Appathurai said the most effective way to curb the drug trade was tackling the insurgency head-on. He also said it was important to provide alternative work for poor Afghan farmers to encourage them to give up opium production. \"You cannot have eradication in isolation. If we don't give them the support to produce alternative crops, then by wiping out their opium fields, you are only creating enemies for the future,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Study finds opium makes up half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product .\nAgency pushes NATO forces to attack skyrocketing problem aggressively .\nDrugs funds insurgency; poppy trade unchecked in Taliban strongholds .\nU.N. drug chief advocates providing income alternative for poppy farmers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Roberts, the embattled president of Oral Roberts University and the son of its namesake evangelist founder, stepped down Friday, according to the school's Board of Regents. Richard Roberts and wife Lindsay appear on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" in October. \"I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration, and I want to see God's best for them,\" Roberts wrote in his resignation letter. Roberts' decision was effective immediately and came as the school fought a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by three professors who accused him and his wife of misconduct. John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker said they lost their jobs after reporting information indicating that Roberts and his family lavishly spent school money for personal expenses. Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, have denied the allegations. The suit also claimed Oral Roberts University gave a \"convicted sexual deviant unrestricted access to students\" and evidence in the case had been shredded -- charges the university has denied. In addition, the suit alleged Lindsay Roberts repeatedly spent time with an \"underage male\" in various situations. She denied any improper behavior, insisting in a statement that she had \"never, ever engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of my marriage.\" The Board of Regents, which voted to hire an auditor to look into the claims, will meet early next week to discuss a search process for a new president, according to Friday's statement from Chairman George Pearsons. Roberts announced last month he would step aside temporarily as president, saying he and his family had suffered \"heavy damage.\" The controversy has drawn international attention to the private Christian university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"I love ORU with all my heart,\" Richard Roberts writes in his resignation letter .\nThree professors allege they were fired for revealing misspending .\nRoberts and wife deny spending university funds improperly .\nRoberts announced last month he was stepping aside temporarily as president ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Once upon a time, the iconic lead singer of Led Zeppelin and the golden girl of bluegrass would never have been mentioned in the same sentence. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's \"Raising Sand\" was an unlikely collaboration that won five Grammys. But since they won five Grammy awards -- including album of the year for their surprising collaboration, \"Raising Sand\" -- their names have been inextricably linked: RobertPlantandAlisonKrauss. If they were 20 years old and ran in Hollywood circles, tabloids might be calling them Robekrauss or Aliplant. Plant, however, is 60 -- in fantastic shape, and with a full head of the golden ringlets that became his trademark during the 1970s. At 37, Krauss is elegant and ethereal. And while both are dead serious when talking about their craft, the rest of the time, they're like two silly junior high kids -- he, the charming prankster with a secret crush, and she, the beautiful prom queen who pretends not to be amused. Clearly, they're both having the time of their lives, and are excited about their current musical journey -- which pushes each out of their respective comfort zones and into new territory. Now, he's a little bit country and she's a little bit rock 'n' roll. Watch Plant and Krauss rib each other \u00bb . I compliment Krauss on her hair as a stylist touches her up. \"It's not mine,\" she whispers. Two feet away, Plant clears his throat loudly and points to his own golden locks. \"Why, your hair looks lovely, too, Robert,\" I say. \"Well, you know who I am,\" he replies. We are in Coldplay's vacated dressing room, two nights before Plant and Krauss swept the evening at the 51st annual Grammy Awards. This is an excerpt from our conversation in the basement of Staples Center in Los Angeles the night of their rehearsal. CNN: First of all, this is the screwiest collaboration I had ever heard of. How did this happen? Robert Plant: It's just sheer luck, really. I never sang with anybody before, you know -- only once ever in my life, on \"Led Zep IV\" with Sandy Denny [the late English folk singer, in 1971]. So this is a whole new thing. I've also been coming to the United States for 40 years -- you wouldn't believe it looking at me -- and I've never worked with Americans! This is all brand new for me. Alison Krauss: Were we both nervous? We both were. We thought, \"What are we going to do in there?\" We went into the studio originally saying, \"We'll give it three days and see what it's like.\" Plant: Alison's reputation is 24 karat, and I'm an old rock 'n' roll singer. Even the band was kind of going, \"Oh wow, how is this going to work?\" It was great when we kicked in together, and I could just feel the room -- I don't want to say it, but the room lifted! CNN: Musically, you're polar opposites. How did you blend your different perspectives? Plant: As we got started, it was Alison's world. She knew how she wanted to proceed, and we exchanged a lot of ideas musically. And then we both agreed that because we both produced records ourselves, that we needed an intermediary to guide -- somebody to separate us, or to make the journey more clear. And Alison knew T Bone Burnett from \"O Brother, Where Art Thou,\" and he kindly enlisted for the gig, and he brought a lot of great songs to the show. CNN: You challenged one another to sing in different ways than you're used to. Plant: When she goes up for these wailing notes on stage, that's where I want her to go with this new project -- occasionally visit these places where she lets rip, and just lets it really come out. Krauss (melodramatically): It's just reckless abandon! It's just crazy! Plant: I don't know why I'm being so serious. She just kicks ass and nobody knew it! CNN: Now this is all making sense. With Alison, it's letting go, and with you, Robert, it's kind of containing things. Plant: I'm being bullied, basically. Pushed around. CNN: But you like it. Admit it, you love it. Plant: Oh, I do! I haven't even gotten off to being bullied enough yet. CNN: Did you have this much fun working with Zeppelin? Plant: I can't remember. Honestly, I haven't got a clue. I was a totally different guy then. It was 28 years ago. I didn't look as good as I do now, and I didn't share the couch with another Leo. CNN: Alison, did you listen to Led Zeppelin growing up? Krauss: We all have, yeah. (Plant is shaking his head and mouthing the word \"No.\") My brother was and is such a huge fan of the band, and I remember growing up and he would be in his bedroom yelling about the records and how great they were. CNN: Robert, were you familiar with Alison's work? Plant: Yeah, to some degree, but not as intensely as I became. And also, I didn't understand the history of where Alison's from [bluegrass], and has been since she was a child. In fact, both of us can sit there talking about music, and neither of us can recognize the artists we're referring to. It's amazing. I mean, all the rock 'n' roll, and black Mississippi and Chicago stuff that I go raving on about, she's going, \"Hmm.\" Krauss: I didn't grow up on that, yeah. CNN: Has he made you listen to his music collection? Plant: We share. Krauss: I bring bluegrass. It's the same people. Same blue-collar people. Just one was south of the Delta, and one was Virginia and Tennessee and North Carolina. So we've got lots in common -- but it's the presentation and the whole musicality of it that's different. CNN: Your collaboration has worked out so well that you're back in the studio in Nashville, working on a second album together. Plant: We'd like to keep it going. CNN: Do you think there's going to be an album No. 3, and an album No. 4? Plant: I'd have to move to Nashville, wouldn't I? CNN: Or she moves to England. Plant (to Krauss): Could you stand the climate? Krauss: I'll get a heating pad. Plant: And a season ticket for Wolverhampton Wanderers football club. That's important. CNN: You gained a lot of fans with this project, but there are those Led Zeppelin diehards who've been holding their breath for a reunion tour -- especially since you reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert at Wembley in 2007. Plant: Well, we had a really good night, and we had great rehearsals, and it was very emotional -- and if you like, quite elevating. But it was the right thing to do to do it that way. There's no bandwagon. We've already been around the world, and did what we did when we were young men. CNN: That sounds like a man who's looking forward, and not back. Plant: Only last week, I was being grilled again by Alison to get into shape and get it right. And that's fantastic! I really want that. I don't want to go around, everybody thinking, \"That's what he did.\" Because this is what I do, and every day, it should be more interesting. CNN: And in the meantime, you've been recognized by the Grammys. Plant: We've already won by doing this. We've brought our gifts, and we've shared them, and the whole surrounding musically is so beautiful, that that's our reward. The fact that it worked. The fact that it wasn't some embarrassing moment of two people trying something out, and saying goodbye, and then meeting at a party years later and saying, \"Oh, Christ, there's Alison Krauss! Oh, no!\"","highlights":"Robert Plant, Alison Krauss collaborated on \"Raising Sand\"\nDuo confesses they were nervous working together, but it worked .\nAlbum won album of the year at Grammys .\nPlant on Led Zeppelin reunion: 2007 show was \"emotional,\" but that's probably it ."} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanon's prime minister condemned the firing of rockets into northern Israel after an attack wounded two Israelis on Thursday. He said his government is trying to determine who was responsible. U.N. soldiers on Thursday inspect the site in Lebanon thought to be the source of rockets fired into Israel. Israel's military warned Israeli civilians to stick close to shelters after police said at least four rockets hit near the city of Nahariya, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the Lebanese border. The Israeli military said it returned fire across the border with mortars. Schools and kindergartens were closed in Nahariya and the nearby town of Shlomi, the Israel Defense Forces reported. \"What happened in the south [of Lebanon] is a violation of Resolution 1701 and is rejected by Lebanon,\" Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said, referring to the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. In a statement issued by his office, Siniora said he has asked Lebanese authorities to investigate the attack alongside troops from the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed along the border. He also condemned the Israeli retaliatory strikes, which the Lebanese military said inflicted no casualties. Watch CNN's Christiane Amanpour discuss rocket attack \u00bb . There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, to the south, entered a 13th day. The Israeli campaign in Gaza is aimed at halting rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory. Israel fought a similar battle against the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah in 2006, during which Hezbollah rained rockets on cities in Israeli's north for a month before a cease-fire was reached. But Hezbollah has kept a tight rein on its forces in southern Lebanon since the cease-fire, and a number of Palestinian factions operate in southern Lebanon as well. Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said the rockets appear to have been fired from a point about 4.5 miles east of Naqoura, where the peacekeepers are headquartered. \"We've been intensifying our patrols on the ground in order to prevent any further incident,\" Tenenti said. He said UNIFIL's commander, Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, is in \"constant and close contact\" with both sides \"and has urged maximum restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation.\" CNN's Michal Zippori in Jerusalem and Cal Perry and Nada Husseini in Beirut contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora calls attack a violation of U.N. resolution .\nNEW: Lebanese government, United Nations investigating, Siniora says .\nFour Lebanon-based rockets strike northern Israel, authorities say .\nIsraeli military returns fire toward source of rocket attack ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Meat is murder? Well, perhaps not for much longer. Artist Banksy has satirized modern farming and meat production; could in-vitro meat be a better option? A pioneering group of scientists are working to grow real animal protein in the laboratory, which they not only claim is better for animal welfare, but actually healthier, both for people and the planet. It may sound like science fiction, but this technology to create in-vitro meat could be changing global diets within ten years. \"Cultured meat would have a lot of advantages,\" said Jason Matheny of research group New Harvest. \"We could precisely control the amount of fat in meat. We could make ground beef with an ideal fatty acid ratio -- a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them.\" But it isn't just the possibility of creating designer ground beef with the fat profile of salmon that drives Matheny's work. Meat and livestock farming is also the source of many human diseases, which he claims would be far less common when the product is raised in laboratory conditions. \"We could reduce the risks of diseases like swine flu, avian flu, 'mad cow disease', or contamination from Salmonella,\" he told CNN. \"We could produce meat in sterile conditions that are impossible in conventional animal farms and slaughterhouses. And when we grow only the meat we can eat, it's more efficient. There's no need to grow the whole animal and lose 75 to 95 percent of what we feed it.\" Conventional meat production is also hard on the environment. The contribution of livestock to climate change was recently highlighted by the United Nations' report, \"Livestock's Long Shadow\", while groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have demonstrated how soy farming for animal feed contributes to the destruction of the Amazon. In this context Matheny believes his project could significantly cut the environmental impact of meat production -- using much less water and producing far fewer greenhouse gases. \"We could reduce the environmental footprint of meat, which currently contributes more to global warming than the entire transportation sector,\" says Matheny. Preliminary results from a study by Hanna Tuomisto, at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, suggest that cultured meat would reduce the carbon emissions of meat production by more than 80 percent. Making cultured meat . In-vitro meat is made from samples of animals conventionally slaughtered. For example, \"pork\" is made from pig ovaries retrieved from slaughterhouses, which are fertilized with pig semen, transforming them into embryos. They are then placed in a nutrient solution, where they grow and develop. It's a long way from the popular image of animals wandering round the farmyard in the sunshine, but then so is modern intensive farming. The factor that could take the research from the lab to the store and into refrigerators around the world is its remarkable commercial potential. According to New Harvest, meat is already estimated to be a $1 trillion global market, and demand is expected to double by 2050. With concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment growing the appeal of in vitro meat is obvious. Matheny told CNN that venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have shown an interest in his technology, while Stegman, a sausage subsidiary of food giant Sara Lee, is a partner. The Netherlands' Government has also invested around $4 million in Dutch research into in-vitro meat production. But it isn't just the suits who are circling with their checkbooks out -- campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have announced a $1 million prize for the first commercially viable in vitro chicken product. The Humane Society of the United States has also been supportive. \"We think that a technology to produce cultured ground meats -- burgers, sausages, nuggets, and so forth -- could be commercialized within ten years,\" said Matheny. \"As with most technologies, successive generations should improve in price, quality, and acceptance. We don't think that matching the taste and texture of ground meats will be very difficult. Both conventional and cultured meat is made of muscle tissue. And conventional ground meat is typically highly processed. Chicken nuggets for instance, are made of something called 'meat slurry' -- it would be hard not to do better!\" Public attitude . But the public doesn't always blindly buy what companies believe they should, and acceptance of what is a very radical proposition certainly isn't a foregone conclusion. There are bound to be claims of \"Frankenfoods,\" and reaction against the work. \"Social acceptance isn't guaranteed, but we all want meat that's safer and healthier,\" he said. \"If cultured meat looks, tastes, and costs the same as regular meat, then I think acceptance will be high. The more we learn about the health and environmental impact of conventional meat, the more cultured meat looks like a good alternative.\" One obvious touchstone for how in-vitro-meat will be received by the public is perhaps the way GM crops were -- or were not - accepted around the world, something that Matheny draws encouragement from. \"What's interesting about the GM issue is that it has been controversial in some places, but is a non-issue for most consumers,\" he said. \"Most Americans are regularly eating GM foods. In any case, it's not necessarily the case that cultured meat would involve GM foods. \"We all want meat that's safer and healthier. If cultured meat looks, tastes, and costs the same as regular meat, then do we care that it's produced in a steel tank, rather than in an animal farm? \"Take hydroponic vegetables. We like the idea that they're produced in sterile water instead of dirt and manure. It's true that in-vitro meat isn't natural. Nor for that matter are hydroponic vegetables, or bread, or cheese, or wine. Raising 10,000 chickens indoors and pumping them full of drugs isn't natural, either, and it isn't healthy or safe. The more we learn about how meat is produced now, the more in-vitro meat looks like a better alternative.\" Lab-produced meat also raises some ethical considerations. Kate McMahon, Friends of the Earth Energy and Transport campaigner, believes more attention should be paid to improving livestock conditions rather than developing in-vitro meat. \"At a time when hundreds of small-scale, sustainable farming operations are filing for bankruptcy every day, it is unethical to consider purchasing petri dish meat. Rather, we should be making it easier and more affordable to raise livestock in a safe, humane and ecologically sensitive manner,\" she told CNN. Gillian Madill, Genetics Technologies spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, thinks that clear parameters for in-vitro development need to put in place: \"If we can successfully develop these products, what is the defining line between lab-grown meat and natural animals?\" she told CNN. \"That is an especially important question since a high level of differentiation and tissue complexity is required to replicate muscle tissue that we use as meat. We need to draw clear lines in order to prevent the commodification of all life.\" Ultimately the success of in-vitro meat may be less about consumer sensibilities and more about the hard realities of feeding a growing global population in a finite world. \"With India and China doubling their meat consumption every decade, there's no sustainable way to satisfy the growing global appetite for meat without a significant improvement in technology,\" said Matheny. \"Cultured meat offers one solution. Improved plant-based meat substitutes offer another. I expect both will be needed.\" Test tube burgers? It seems you could be eating them sooner than you might expect. What do you think of in-vitro meat? Do you think it could be a solution to the problems connected to meat production and climate change? Let us know in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Ongoing research into in-vitro meat; grown in a lab using animal samples .\nAdvocates say in-vitro meat is better for health of humans and environment .\nLab-made meat could be served in a decade, says research scientist Jason Matheny ."} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Senior Pakistani and Indian military officials met Tuesday to discuss a border clash in Kashmir, the first major skirmish between South Asia's nuclear rivals since a 2003 cease-fire. Indian army soldiers on the outskirts of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN that Pakistan \"made our point clear\" regarding the firefight, which he said began after Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control that separates Kashmir between India and Pakistan. But an Indian military spokeswoman, Capt. Neha Goyal, told CNN Pakistani troops crossed the Line of Control and \"started firing on our patrol,\" killing an Indian soldier. \"Our troops also retaliated and the Pakistan army troopers ran back,\" she said. Abbas said \"further action should be taken\" following Tuesday's \"flag meeting,\" but did not elaborate. The meeting took place along the Line of Control. Reports in India's media said four Pakistani soldiers were killed, but Pakistan's military \"strongly denied the report of any (casualties) on the Pakistani side.\" Pakistan's military also denied its forces crossed the Line of Control, saying the skirmish started when Indian soldiers tried to establish a forward post on Pakistan's side of the line. \"On Pakistan's' objection, Indian troops opened indiscriminate and unprovoked fire,\" a Pakistan military news release, posted on Monday, stated. \"The Indian fire was immediately responded to. The firing continued -- intermittently during the whole night.\" Pakistan said the Indian soldiers \"were forced to flee from the area leaving behind their weapons\" after the firefight. Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged periodic gunfire since May, but Monday's clashes appear to be a serious setback to the ongoing peace process between the two nations. India and Pakistan had announced a bilateral cease-fire all along their borders in November 2003 and the cease-fire had been holding on the borders until recently. Kashmir has been at the root of two wars between India and Pakistan, both of which tested nuclear weapons in 1998. An 18-year separatist campaign in the Indian-controlled portion of the largely Muslim territory has claimed more than 43,000 lives, according to government officials, although human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations put the toll at twice that number. India has long accused Pakistan of supporting the separatists in Kashmir, a charge Pakistan denies. India blamed militants from Pakistan for a suicide car bombing outside its embassy in Afghanistan that killed 58 people on July 7. A December 2001 attack on India's parliament that India blamed on the militants brought the two nations to the brink of another war, but they have expanded economic and cultural ties since the November 2003 cease-fire agreement. -- CNN's Aliza Kassim in Atlanta and Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan: Fighting began after Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control .\nIndia accused Pakistan of attacking one of its patrols, killing a soldier .\nFirefight took place across the Line of Control border in disputed Kashmir region ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Over-the-counter cold and cough medicines don't work for children under age 6, and giving the common medicine to young children cannot be recommended, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee said in October. An FDA panel has called for more studies on how cold medicines affect children. The panel of health experts, which looked at how safe and effective antihistamines, decongestants, antitussins and expectorants are in children, said it is not appropriate to take data from adults and apply it to children under 12. After a two-day hearing, the panel called for more studies about how the medicines affect children. Although the panel's recommendation is nonbinding, it could lead to changes in how cough and cold medicines are used. The votes are to be taken into consideration by FDA regulators, who might take action against the products at a later time. Dr. Jeff Jenkins, of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said it could take a year or even years for the agency to make a final decision on the recommendations. During the panel's meeting, the experts looked at a number of proposals, including whether multiple-symptom over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold medicines should be banned for children under 6 years old. FDA experts voted 13-9 that certain cold medicines with certain ingredients should not be used by young children. The committee said medicines with the same ingredients could be used by children ages 6 to 12. The experts voted unanimously to require that standardized dosing devices accompany all liquid medicines, in an effort to reduce the likelihood of excessive or unintentional overdosing. Separately, the committee voted to allow marketing of multiple-symptom products to children between the ages of 2 and 12 if new research showed the products to be safe and effective. Combination products can be particularly susceptible to problems with overdosing because parents sometimes don't realize they are duplicating ingredients. Committee members also emphasized the importance of proper and easy-to-read labels. Dr. Daniel Rausch, director of the pediatric hospital program for New York University, said that cold medicine is effective only at doses that are too strong for young children. Rausch recommends a more traditional treatment where dosing isn't a problem: chicken soup. \"A cold does not kill, so people should just relax,\" Rausch said. \"Kids get sick and there's nothing that people can do about it, but they will get better.\" About 800 pediatric cough and cold products are sold in the United States, many using multiple ingredients that have been marketed for use in children for some 30 years. Earlier this year, the FDA completed a review that found that between 1969 and the fall of 2006, there were 54 reported child deaths from decongestants and 69 from antihistamines. Watch one family's tragic ending \u00bb . Most of the deaths occurred in children under 2. In August, federal health officials recommended the \"consult your physician\" advice to parents on the labels of cold and cough medicines aimed at young children be replaced by a warning not to use the medications in children under 2 unless directed to do so by a health care provider. Before the FDA hearings, some of the leading manufacturers of cold and cough medicines announced a voluntary recall of more than a dozen cold medicines for infants. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association said the products were being pulled \"out of an abundance of caution.\" Potential misuse of the medications, not product safety, is driving the voluntary withdrawal, the group said. The American Academy of Pediatrics applauded last week's decision to pull those products, saying, \"These medicines are ineffective and can have serious side effects. There are other ways to treat cold symptoms.\" The AAP suggests: . When the drug industry voluntarily withdrew products last week, it insisted that when used as directed, the drugs are safe, and they work. \"Parents can continue to trust over-the-counter cough and cold remedies for their children,\" said Linda A. Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. \"We strongly encourage parents to adhere to the recommended dosing instructions for all medicines, recognizing that the vast majority of adverse events associated with their use are due to inadvertent overdosing and misuse.\" Suydam said CHPA will be launching a major educational campaign for parents and caregivers in coming months. Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein headed the push that led to the FDA hearing. He became alarmed when four Baltimore children died after their parents gave them excessive doses of cold medicines. Until those deaths, he did not realize that a dose of cold medicine could turn into a life-and-death issue among young children, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Panel: No evidence that the over-the-counter medicines help young children .\nMore study sought about how cough, cold medicines work in children .\nAbout 800 pediatric cough and cold products are sold in the United States .\nPediatrics group suggests \"other ways to treat cold symptoms\""} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- They have come to glimpse the miracle. They have come to witness the revolution. They have come for \"Watchmen\" -- the allegedly unfilmable superhero movie, the long-awaited adaptation of the comic book that changed the face of comic books forever. Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan, a powerful superhero in \"Watchmen.\" On this warm July morning, over 5,000 fans attending the annual geek pop summit known as Comic-Con have assembled inside the San Diego Convention Center for a first look. Many spent the night on the sidewalk. Some have come in costumes. Behind the stage, indie-movie icon Kevin Smith parks himself in front of a closed-circuit TV, a happy grin on his bearded mug. \"You have to understand, I've been waiting for this moment for years,\" says Smith. \"This is it, man. This is the pinnacle.\" All this, for a violent, ironic superhero epic that doesn't like superheroes in the first place. Directed by \"300's\" Zack Snyder, \"Watchmen\" presents a set of familiar superhero archetypes -- and then subverts them completely. Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) is like the Spirit ... except he's a joyless, hard-line misanthrope. The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is like Captain America ... but loyal only to sadistic thrills and a corrupt worldview. Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) is part Batman, part Iron Man ... except he's also a schlubby, impotent coward. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) is the resident genius ... who's built an empire on superhero toys. (You see what we mean by irony.) Says Billy Crudup, whose blue, naked Dr. Manhattan is an almighty Superman dangerously detached from his own humanity: \" 'Watchmen' is a kind of thrilling thought experiment. What would people who dress up in costumes to fight crime actually be like? Well, they'd probably be fetishists who lived on the fringes of society. They'd all be a bunch of freaking lunatics.\" Yet for all its self-awareness and cynicism, \"Watchmen\" isn't some cheap-and-silly \"Scary Movie\" parody. Adapted faithfully, if not completely, from the celebrated 1986 comic-book series, Snyder's film is visually and intellectually ambitious, filled with heady ruminations about savior figures, pop culture, and the politics of fear. At a time when superhero stories are commonplace and our shaken country is pinning its recovery on an idealistic new president, \"Watchmen's\" director believes his movie can serve as a bracing blast of healthy skepticism. \"Someone asked me if I thought that because Barack Obama had been elected president, the movie was no longer relevant. I said, 'Wow, that's a very optimistic view of the future!' \" says Snyder. \"The movie, like the comic, says, 'These superhero stories you've been feasting on? What if we took them seriously?' ... That's the fun.\" But fun for whom? When \"Watchmen\" hits theaters on March 6, the comic-book cognoscenti will be there in droves -- although some are already sweating the heresy of dramatic changes. EW: What didn't make it? And, for mainstream moviegoers, such talk of \"subverting superhero archetypes\" is liable to elicit a great big \"Huh?\" EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . \"Watchmen's\" financial backers are clearly hoping the success of \"The Dark Knight\" has primed the market for sophisticated superhero films -- especially one that's two hours and 41 minutes long. But where \"The Dark Knight\" transcended genre conventions, \"Watchmen\" wallows in them. Violently. Created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, \"Watchmen\" is most often praised as the comic book that brought respect and maturity to a medium long dismissed as juvenile. It was the fanboys' \"Catcher in the Rye\" -- and maybe their first Playboy, too. \"I was 13 when I read 'Watchmen,' and it came to represent my coming of age,\" says \"Lost\" co-creator Damon Lindelof. \"I felt like 'Watchmen' was this very, very bad thing that I shouldn't be reading, and if my mom caught me with it I'd be f---ing doomed.\" Hollywood was similarly struck by \"Watchmen,\" but has been much less successful at avoiding the doom. In 1986, Twentieth Century Fox acquired the comic's rights for producer Larry Gordon, but could never get an adaptation rolling. Over the next decade, \"Watchmen\" bounced among many studios and between many before finding what appeared to be a happy ending at Paramount. But in 2005, with helmer Paul Greengrass deep into preproduction, a Paramount regime change killed the project. Certainly, it's a hard project to get your head around. \"Watchmen\" is set in the year 1985. The U.S. and the Soviet Union are on the brink of nuclear war, and the president is Richard Nixon, whose success at ending the Vietnam War (he asked Dr. Manhattan to blow up the Vietcong) has earned him five terms of office from a grateful nation. Conservative politics are popular, as are Indian fast food and pirate comics. But costumed heroes, once all the rage, are now outlawed. When the Comedian gets murdered, Rorschach tries to round up his old allies to investigate. They eventually uncover an insidious conspiracy hatched by an unlikely villain, one whose grand ambition isn't world domination but something else altogether. iReport.com: Will you watch 'Watchmen'? And that's only half the comic. Hence, \"Watchmen's\" rep as the Unfilmable Graphic Novel. But tides changed in late 2005 when Warner Bros. acquired the property from Paramount (or at least they thought they did) with the hope of rolling on \"Watchmen\" ASAP. (Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN and Entertainment Weekly.) The studio turned to Snyder. At that point, the director had only done stylish TV commercials and the 2003 zombie remake \"Dawn of the Dead.\" But he was also deep in the middle of shooting the studio's action epic \"300,\" another adaptation of a brilliantly brutal comic, and the execs liked what they were seeing. Snyder's approach was simple: He would remain religiously faithful to the comic. \"We treated that thing like a freakin' illuminated text,\" says the director, who embraced all the peculiar idiosyncrasies, from the Nixonian alternative America to the deep-dive digressions into character origin stories. (None of this faithfulness can please Moore, who feels that no adaptation can do his work justice and has taken his name off the film.) The director also believed that an \"adult\" superhero epic needed to be explicit about its \"adult\" content. He wanted to hear the characters' philosophical musings. He wanted to see the blood spurt. And instead of the chaste kisses of most superhero movie romances, he wanted to see some naked getting-it-on. \"I wanted to make sure everyone understood: This is not a kid movie,\" says Snyder. \"Violence has consequences. And doing that with a PG-13 just dilutes that message.\" And then there was the worry that all that effort was all for naught. Last February, Twentieth Century Fox sought to stop Warner Bros. from moving forward with \"Watchmen's\" release, claiming via lawsuit that Warner Bros. had not properly acquired the distribution rights. The dispute exploded in the media last August when a judge declared that Fox's lawsuit had merit. \"How do you not know whether or not you have the right to make a movie?\" says Crudup. \"Hilarious.\" But after months of intense press coverage that put \"Watchmen\" in the mainstream eye, the two studios reached a settlement. (Warner Bros. and Fox both declined to comment. As for producer Gordon: \"It was unfortunate,\" he says simply.) Now Team \"Watchmen\" waits to see if any of that notoriety can help make them some money. With a $100 million-plus budget and a running time of 161 minutes, \"Watchmen\" will need to launch with a big opening weekend and strong reviews. So, will geek love -- and geek dollars -- be enough? Snyder hopes so. He says he made the film for that crowd. \"I don't think there ever has been a movie more custom-made for them. Not at this scale,\" he says. \"And now they have an opportunity to really influence pop culture in a serious way, just as the comic influenced comics. They can say: 'These stories can be used to say something about the world. Give us more of them.' \" This is an edited version of Entertainment Weekly's cover story on \"Watchmen.\" For the complete story, click here. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" movie, after years in the works, finally coming out March 6 .\nFilm based on classic graphic novel that influenced many .\nFilm does not shy away from controversial themes, violence in novel ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tenants of apartments in Pacifica, California, were under evacuation Thursday after erosion threatened the cliff on which their building sits, a city official said. Authorities have been watching the seaside building for years and were waiting for the erosion to reach a 12-foot safety zone behind it, said Doug Rider, a building official for Pacifica. The problem has reached that zone, he said, so officials notified the building's management and tenants began evacuating. The building is stable, so tenants are able to remove belongings from the apartments, Rider said. Police, fire and other local authorities are assisting residents, along with the city's Building Department, he said. All residents of the 12-unit building must be out by 5 p.m. PT Thursday, he told CNN affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco, California. KGO reported a large chunk of land fell from the cliff into the Pacific Ocean about 5:30 a.m. PT Thursday. Two nearby buildings also face questions about their structural reliability but are not being evacuated, the station reported. Pacifica is about 15 miles southwest of San Francisco. CNN's Sara Pratley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Residents of 12-unit building must be out by Thursday afternoon, CNN affiliate reports .\nChunk of land fell from cliff into Pacific Ocean earlier, TV station says .\nBuilding is on seaside cliff in Pacifica, California, near San Francisco ."} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Stockholm has a reputation for being one of Europe's most expensive cities. T+L hits the streets of the fashionable capital and proves otherwise. Stockholm's Strommen River . 9:00 a.m. I plot my day over a complimentary breakfast of homemade yogurt and kn\u00e4ckebr\u00f6d (crispy bread) at Hotel Anno 1647 (3 Mariagr\u00e4nd; 46-8\/442-1680), housed in a former tobacco and clothing factory in the hip island neighborhood of S\u00f6dermalm. My room ($170), No. 21, is small and peaceful, with rustic pine floors, an antique crystal chandelier, and, thankfully, blackout drapes -- essential in a city that gets 18 hours of sunlight a day in the summer. 10:00 a.m. The hotel is around the corner from G\u00f6tgatan, one of Stockholm's most seductive shopping strips. Though it feels a little early to start spending, I can't resist a jar of cloudberry honey ($6) from Iris Hantverk (37 G\u00f6tgatan; 46-8\/641-9190), a store that specializes in handmade items by visually impaired artisans. I crave almost everything I see in DesignTorget (31 G\u00f6tgatan, 46-8\/462-3520), which carries an eclectic range of accessories by Swedish designers, including hand-printed dish towels and colorful kids' toys. But I force myself to move along. 12:00 p.m. For lunch, I circle back to busy Slussen square -- Stockholm's answer to Grand Central. The main attraction here (besides a major subway stop) is the humble Nystekt Str\u00f6mming (fried herring) wagon, encircled by picnic tables crowded with locals on their lunch breaks. I sidle up and order the signature dish ($6.25) topped with a dollop of cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche. From my bench, I can see the silhouette of Gamla Stan, the old section of the city just across the bridge. 1:00 p.m. Down along the harbor, a freckled blond girl at a candy cart snips off a sample of her salt licorice (free), a delicious flavor called H\u00e4xvr\u00e5l -- \"scream of the witch,\" she translates. After a short stroll past the steamboats and Baroque mansions of \u00d6stermalm, I arrive at the Vasamuseet (14 Gal\u00e4rvarvsv\u00e4gen; 46-8\/5195-4800), a maritime museum built around a meticulously reconstructed boat that was shipwrecked in the 17th century. I buy a ticket ($15) and explore the gigantic ship, feeling a little like an extra on the set of \"Pirates of the Caribbean.\" 3:30 p.m. Risking museum burnout, I head to the galleries ($12.50 admission) of the Moderna Museet (Skeppsholmen; 46-8\/5195-5200), designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, to see its collection of 20th-century European and American art. Here, I discover the contemporary Swedish painter Karin Mamma Andersson, whose lush, layered paintings look like dreamscapes. I also find one of the city's best photo ops -- the panoramic view of the port from the glass-walled museum caf\u00e9. 5:00 p.m. I forgo a pricey taxi ride across the city in favor of an infinitely more charming and scenic walk toward Gamla Stan, which is touristy but irresistible once I'm weaving through a knot of cobblestoned streets and storybook 17th-century houses. My reward is a hot chocolate ($4.70) at Kaffekoppen (18-20 Stortorget; 46-8\/203-170), a candlelit cellar with tea-stained walls and low vaulted ceilings. 7:00 p.m. While wandering the alleys of Gamla Stan, I stumble upon what may be the city's top bargain: a classical music concert ($11) at Storkyrkan, Stockholm's central cathedral (1 Trangsund, Gamla Stan; 46-8\/723-3016). I take a seat in a wooden pew as a local pianist fills the space with the music of Chopin. Dusky evening light filters in through leaded glass windows and shimmers off the golden angels on the high brick ceiling. Divine. 9:30 p.m. The lingering sunlight has affected my eating schedule, but I'm finally hungry again. On the patio of Babylon (4 Bj\u00f6rns Tr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdsgr\u00e4nd; 46-8\/640-8083), surrounded by chattering clusters of young fashion plates and artist types, I wrap myself in one of the restaurant's green fleece blankets and gobble down a late dinner of potatoes and r\u00f6ding ($25.80), a local fish. From my barstool, I watch skinny blond skateboarders dip and sail around a cement half-pipe in the adjacent park, and revel in a priceless travel high: the giddy feeling of having discovered the coolest place in town. TOTAL SPENT: . $251.25 E-mail to a friend . Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Hotel Anno is located in the hip island neighborhood of S\u00f6dermalm .\nLocals crowd around the fried herring wagon in Slussen square .\nModerna Museet features a collection of 20th-century European and American art ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon will wake up a lame duck Monday. How lame will depend largely on nationwide midterm elections Sunday. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has three years left in his six-year term. On the ballot will be 500 federal legislators, six governors and mayors and local legislators in 11 states. Although Calderon has three years left in his six-year term and is not on Sunday's ballot, many analysts see the election as a referendum on his performance and his party's nine-year reign on the presidency. By most accounts, Calderon's party will fare well. \"He's going to get a positive vote,\" said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. \"The nation feels he is doing a better job than they imagined he would.\" Low expectations may be understandable, given the circumstances under which Calderon came to power. After a bitterly fought race that polls indicated was too close to call, the nation went to the polls July 2, 2006, to pick a successor to President Vicente Fox. The race was so close that the results were not verified until a controversial decision two months later. Calderon's margin of victory was less than 1 percent. Losing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to accept the results and announced himself the winner. Fistfights broke out in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. The first three years of Calderon's tenure have not been much smoother. Perhaps most famously, the president declared war on the drug cartels that have taken hold of Mexico, spreading corruption, fear and violence to all corners of the nation. The war's outcome remains uncertain, but there's no doubt about the human cost: About 10,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon took office in December 2006. The political fallout also has been costly. One U.S. politician said Mexico was undergoing a civil war. A Pentagon report said the nation was in danger of becoming a failed state. Calderon's job got tougher when the bottom fell out of the global economy late last year and the H1N1 flu outbreak drew the world's attention to Mexico this year. But Calderon's actions in the face of such adversity have helped his standing, some analysts say. \"Calderon has become increasingly popular in the country because he did project a certain amount of strength in the anti-drug war,\" Birns said. \"He did stand up to the United States on certain things, like swine flu.\" Calderon's aggressive management of the swine flu crisis -- in which he shut down schools, businesses and all public gatherings for more than a week to stop spread of the disease -- has given him higher credibility, said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. But Calderon's personal popularity may not help his party in the legislative elections. \"The question is whether Calderon has coattails,\" said Ana Maria Salazar, a Mexico City columnist and political talk show host. Calderon is head of the National Action Party, known as PAN. The other two main parties are the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election, and the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), which had a stranglehold on the presidency from 1929 until the 2000. PAN candidate Fox -- Calderon's predecessor -- broke that hold nine years ago. The PAN has the most seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies but does not have a majority in either. The party could lose seats after Sunday, as most polls show the PRI holding a slight lead. \"We will see the resurgence of the PRI,\" said Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for President Carter in the late 1970s. The PRD, he said, has largely discredited itself through internal division. \"And the PAN has been overseeing a government that has shunted from one crisis to another,\" Pastor said. Still, some observers say PRI inroads may not make much difference. \"It will not change the balance of power much in Mexico,\" said Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. \"Felipe Calderon will still have to negotiate with one of the two opposition parties to get legislation passed.\" Hakim said, \"It's not going to be as critical election as everyone was predicting.\" But as Calderon moves into the last half of his presidency and other politicians start jockeying to succeed him, he probably will find it increasingly difficult to get his legislative agenda accomplished. \"Felipe Calderon will have a small window of opportunity to get in additional reforms,\" Salazar said. \"And all of this is happening amidst a terrible economic crisis, a terrible security crisis.\" And then there's the issue of what many see as increasing voter distaste for the electoral process. \"There's a general disenchantment about the PAN administration for the past nine years,\" said John Mill Ackerman, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. \"They're linked to the economic crisis, the health crisis, the security crisis.\" But the PRI, he said, doesn't offer much of a choice. \"The problem here is that the PRI is not a new PRI,\" Ackerman said. \"They're not necessarily going to imply much change or difference.\" Nor is the PRI united, Salazar said. \"Everybody assumes that the PRI gets along. That's not true,\" Salazar said, noting that the party is riven with \"fractionalism.\" Most voters will just stay home. Election officials predict a 30 percent turnout. Others will annul their vote: They will turn in blank ballots, so officials will see that they voted but not for anyone. \"There's a lack of hope of making a difference with a vote,\" Ackerman said. Perhaps no one will be more interested in the results than the drug cartels. Numerous news reports have detailed how narcotraffickers fund some candidates, intimidate others to stay out of races and bribe politicians after they have been elected. \"The narcos definitely have taken this as another way in which they can expand their power,\" Ackerman said. Federal authorities have arrested more than 100 local officials in recent weeks on accusations that they have been taking money from drug cartels. The \"narco-politicians\" included mayors and a judge. Jose Vazquez, the former mayor of a town in Michoacan state, told a major newspaper two years ago how he had to go see the local drug boss when he decided to run. After he won, Vazquez said, he was constantly pressured to appoint officials the drug gangs wanted. \"If you don't do it, they kill you, and that's that,\" Vazquez was quoted as telling the Excelsior newspaper. \"All candidates have to suit them, whether they belong to the PRI, the PAN or the PRD. The drug gangs give their approval to candidates.\" Vazquez apparently fell out of favor. A group of armed men killed him in November. More recently, armed men opened fire last week in Sonora state on a PAN candidate for the lower house. He escaped, but two aides were killed. After all this, how the election and vote-counting is carried out Sunday looms as a major worry. No one wants to see a repeat of 2006. \"This is a referendum on democracy,\" Ackerman said. \"[Mexicans] may be convinced on democracy. The question is whether they're convinced that voting will lead to anything.\"","highlights":"President is not on ballot, but many see vote as comment on his performance .\nParty is expected to do well despite years of troubles .\nCalderon has stood strong in face of adversity, analysts say .\nMany see increasing voter distaste with electoral process ."} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The bodies of three American contractors who died in a plane crash in Afghanistan earlier this month have been recovered, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Tuesday. The C-12 plane went down in the mountains of Nuristan province October 13, but the military withheld information about it until the recovery operation was complete, ISAF said in a statement. The crew were subcontractors working for Lockheed Martin, the company confirmed. A spokesman named two of them as Jeff Lehner, a former Air Force member working for Sierra Nevada, and Randolph Bergquist, a former Marine working for Avenge. They are not releasing the third name at the family's request. Thomas Casey of Lockheed Martin confirmed the third victim was the co-pilot and also worked for Avenge. The cause of the crash that killed them is not yet clear, but it is not thought to be enemy action, ISAF said. A helicopter sent to recover the remains October 17 itself made \"a hard landing\" that required the crew to be rescued, ISAF said. The helicopter was stripped of sensitive parts Wednesday and destroyed in place Sunday, ISAF said.","highlights":"3 contractors killed when plane went down in mountains of Nuristan province .\nPlane, a C-12, crashed October 13; crew worked for Lockheed Martin .\nCause of crash not yet clear, but it is not thought to be enemy action .\nCrew of copter sent to recover remains had to be rescued after hard landing ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has long been the final destination for terminally ill patients who want to end their lives, offering what many consider to be a dignified way out of their suffering. But now, Switzerland is proposing legislation that would limit the practice of assisted suicide to people who are terminally ill -- or ban it altogether. If either proposal is adopted, people suffering from a chronic illness or who have a mental illness could no longer legally take advantage of assisted suicide. The Swiss Federal Council says it doesn't necessarily want to end the country's liberal laws, which allow someone to assist a suicide as long as they are not motivated by their own interests. But the council says organizations that provide assisted suicide in Switzerland -- such as the well known Dignitas clinic -- are increasingly testing the boundaries of the law, requiring the government to lay out specific guidelines and restrictions. Recent cases have drawn more attention to \"suicide tourism,\" in which people who can't legally seek assisted suicide in their home countries travel to Switzerland, where it is allowed. Dan James, a 23-year-old British rugby player, ended his life at a Swiss assisted suicide clinic last year. He had been paralyzed from the neck down in a rugby accident. His illness was chronic but not terminal. James' case drew headlines when his parents, who accompanied their son to Switzerland, returned home to questions from police. In the end, the Jameses were not prosecuted. Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy won a high-profile battle in June to have Britain's law on assisted suicide clarified. Purdy, who has said she wants the option of assisted suicide if her condition deteriorates, wanted to know at what point her husband might be prosecuted if he accompanied her to an assisted suicide clinic. Purdy's case went all the way to the Law Lords, Britain's highest court, who ordered the director of public prosecutions to issue a new policy on assisted suicide. He did so last month. Multiple sclerosis is chronic disease and some times can be terminal, leaving open the question whether Purdy might qualify if the new Swiss proposals are approved. At least 117 Britons have traveled abroad for an assisted suicide since 2002, at an average of two a month, according to Dignity in Dying, which advocates giving terminally ill adults the option of assisted suicide. Switzerland's Parliament is now considering two proposals from the federal council, the seven-member cabinet that heads the government. Consultations on the proposals will last until March. The first option would ensure that the person committing suicide is doing it of their own free will, and that the person assisting them is not driven by personal gain. It would also make assisted suicide an option only for those suffering from a terminal illness -- not for those suffering from a chronic or mental illness. The suicidal person would have to declare that he has given \"long and proper consideration\" to his decision,\" according to the council. That is intended to prevent spur-of-the-moment decisions that have not been thought through, the council says. Patients must also present two different doctor's certificates from two different doctors, one stating that they have the legal capacity to decide their options for themselves, and the other stating that they suffer from an incurable physical illness that will result in death within a short period. For those with chronic or mental illnesses, the council said it supports \"comprehensive treatment, care and support, in the sense of palliative medicine\" rather than suicide. Those assisting with suicide face criminal charges if they don't make sure of these steps, the council says. They must also discuss alternatives to suicide with the patient, and must not accept payment for their services that would exceed the costs and expenses of the suicide. \"This provision ensures that those assisting a suicide are not driven by personal gain, and that their prime motivation is to help the person who wishes to die,\" the council says. \"The Federal Council firmly believes that, by determining these duties of care, the negative aspects and abuse of organized assisted suicide can be prevented, and 'suicide tourism' can be reduced.\" The council says it prefers stricter legislation for assisted suicide, but it is also giving Parliament a second option for a complete ban on organized assisted suicide. \"This option rests on the belief that individuals working in assisted suicide organizations are never actually motivated by purely altruistic reasons, and may develop a close relationship with the suicidal person,\" the council says. Dignity in Dying said it welcomes the first option, restricting assisted suicide to terminally ill, mentally competent people. \"Individual patient autonomy has to be balanced against the need to protect potentially vulnerable people,\" the group said in a statement Thursday. \"This proposal seeks to address this balance.\"","highlights":"Switzerland has reputation for lax laws on assisted suicide .\nAuthorities proposing regulations that would put limits on the the practise .\nRecent cases have drawn attention to \"suicide tourism\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Search crews have recovered the bodies of the flight captain and a steward from the Air France flight that crashed off the coast of Brazil. A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 earlier this month. The search for more debris continues. The two flight members are among the victims that have been identified, Air France said in a statement Thursday. About a dozen victims have been identified among roughly 50 bodies recovered from the crash of Flight 447, which killed 228 people on June 1, authorities in Brazil said this week. Crews continue to search for bodies, wreckage and flight-data recorders that apparently rest deep on the ocean floor. Data from the recorders may be crucial in helping investigators determine what caused the plane to crash. Watch more wreckage recovered from crash \u00bb . Autopsies conducted on some of the 50 bodies found so far show they suffered broken bones, including arms, legs and hips, Brazilian authorities have told French investigators, according to Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French accident investigation board. Such injuries suggest that the plane broke apart in midair, experts have said. Asked about that theory, Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told France's RTL radio this week that he would not go that far. \"What I know is that the investigators would like to know the causes of death,\" Gourgeon said. \"That knowledge of causes of death will better clarify what exactly happened. Were the victims killed before the impact, or during impact?\" Searchers have found dozens of pieces of debris in the water and think they know the general location of the wreck, but Arslanian said this week that there is a chance the entire aircraft may never be found. Air France plans to pay relatives of the victims an initial compensation equivalent to about $24,500, or 17,500 euros, for each victim, Gourgeon has said. The airliner said this week that it has been in touch with about 1,800 relatives of the people who died when the Airbus A330 crashed, but that it has been difficult tracing the relatives of all 228 victims. \"The modern world is different and we often have only a cell phone, and as you can imagine, this cell phone is unfortunately in the aircraft,\" Gourgeon said. \"So we probably (will put in) more hours to access all the relatives.\" The company is also providing families with counseling, he said. The were 32 different nationalities present on Flight 447.","highlights":"Search crews recover bodies of flight captain and steward from crash .\nAll 228 people onboard flight 447 from Brazil to France were killed .\nNone of names of bodies recovered have been released at request of families ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A habitually violent young man was convicted Wednesday of the murder of teenage actor Rob Knox, who had starred in the latest \"Harry Potter\" film. The father, brother and mother of Rob Knox pose together after the death of the young actor. Karl Bishop, 22, attacked Knox and four friends with two kitchen knives outside a bar in Sidcup, south east London, last May. He stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the Old Bailey court in central London heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. Bystanders said Bishop's face was \"screwed up in rage\" as he lashed out with the two knives, the Press Association reported. Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court that the young actor's promising life was ended by a \"habitual knife carrier\" who believed stabbing people was an \"occupational hazard\" and had previous convictions for knife crime. Bishop is due to be sentenced on Thursday. Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"","highlights":"Man convicted of murder of teenage actor who starred in new \"Harry Potter\" film .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No one expected them to live long. A glass tree at the University of Miami commemorates those who died from complications of HIV\/AIDS. Many of their peers succumbed to unusual infections by their first or second birthdays. They were living on borrowed time, it seemed. While their friends' parents visited schools, these kids visited their parents' graves. When their classmates planned for the future, they often thought about death. But those babies who were born with HIV\/AIDS in the 1980s have defied initial expectations. With advances in medicine, the babies born with what was once thought of as a sure-fatal virus have danced at their high school proms, walked on stage to receive their diplomas and even experienced the birth of their children. \"It's a battle -- not because the HIV is going to defeat us,\" said Quintara Lane, a 22-year-old student with long braids. \"It's more of what we have to go through to take care of ourselves.\" Lane is part of a generation that was born with the virus. Since the mid-1990s in developed countries, antiretroviral drugs have largely prevented mothers from transmitting HIV\/AIDS to their babies. A new kind of family . On a warm Florida Friday, boys in high-tops and loose jeans hanging from their thighs greet one another with a nod and then a slap on the hand. They tease relentlessly. Others pay little attention, listening to music blasting through their earbuds or texting so quickly that their thumbs appear a blur on pink, sparkly phones. See more photos. \u00bb . Nearly 30 young adults and teenagers who were born with HIV\/AIDS meet every week at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. \"The teens are teenagers,\" said Ana Garcia, an adjunct assistant professor in pediatric infectious disease and immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who helped form the group. \"They just happen to have HIV. It's about fitting in, being normal, and having goals and living long enough to meet them.\" The group of HIV-positive teens, which calls itself the Kool Kids, formed in 1995. The youth who grew up with HIV\/AIDS describe the usual complications of adolescence -- dating, high school drama and rumors. But they also experienced broken families, medical complications and fights for acceptance. As their parents and family members died, the peer group here became a new family, Garcia said. Over an hour of joking, merciless teasing and eating Chinese food, the teens scarcely mention HIV\/AIDS. It's a fellowship that silently understands one another's struggles. \"We don't want to talk about HIV every day,\" said Eric Koumbou, 19. \"If you talk about HIV and you don't have it and I do, sometimes it makes me angry or makes me sad.\" Even if they don't talk about it, it helps a young person with HIV who may think, \"This is the end of my life. I don't know what to do,\" said Lane, who joined when she was 11. The older teens support the younger ones and show that HIV\/AIDS doesn't consume one's life. Quintara Lane . Lane was raised by her grandmother after her mother left her at the hospital. More than two decades ago, \"The families frequently lacked hope,\" said Dr. Gwendolyn Scott, director of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who treated the newborns. \"Many times, the parents died when children were at a young age.\" As a child, Lane understood she had to take \"vitamins\" -- two dozen antiretroviral pills chopped into pieces and taken with orange juice every day. The pills made her nauseated and gave her headaches and skin rashes. Side effects of taking the medications can include gastrointestinal problems, weight gain, neuropathy and other symptoms. \"I didn't want to take the medicine,\" Lane recalled. She lied to her grandmother about taking them for nearly two years. \"I could say I took 'em when I didn't. Being around friends, I didn't want to take them and I didn't want them to ask questions.\" After fainting from a decimated immune system at the age of 12, Lane started to understand the gravity of her situation. But questions and the anger occasionally surfaced. \"Why did I get it?\" Lane would ask. \"All these questions of why, why, why -- all that anger makes this worse. Dealing with school, relationships, dealing with life -- it could be overwhelming. But I try to look at the best of everything and not dwell so much on myself.\" Lane counsels other young adults who have new HIV diagnoses, answering questions about how HIV\/AIDS affects dating and how to handle the medications. Young patients with HIV\/AIDS often get pill fatigue, Garcia said. \"It makes me different. I feel sick. I'm allergic to them,\" they tell her. Some of her young patients died because they stopped taking the pills. \"There are kids who are set with, 'I don't want to be in this world. I want to be with my mother or I want to be with my father,' or they don't care,\" she said. \"It doesn't matter what you offer them. So it's very complicated to move through that -- sometimes you run out of time.\" The next generation . Over the years, the number of pills required to treat HIV\/AIDS has dwindled significantly. But, it's not the physical side effects that bother patients. \"I'm only reminded of it when I have to take medication,\" said a 28-year-old with HIV who asked to be identified only as \"Mike.\" \"That's what we do. That's our lives.\" Mike contracted HIV after receiving a contaminated blood transfusion as a newborn. \"I wasn't promised to live on Earth long enough,\" he said. \"At times, I'd think about suicide and think 'Why me? Why would the doctor give me dirty blood?' I come to realize that it's no one's fault.\" He joined the HIV support group as a teenager. There, he met his wife, who had contracted the virus from her mother. Their primary focus now is raising their 5-year-old daughter, a petite, shy girl with wavy brown curls. This newest generation of children born to HIV-positive parents has a different fate. \"My wife took her medicine to reduce chances of our daughter being infected with the virus,\" Mike said. \"By the grace of God and praying, my daughter is HIV-negative.\"","highlights":"Babies born with HIV\/AIDs in the 1980s defy expectations .\nHIV\/AIDs transmission through pregnancy has been curbed through medicine .\nTeens living with virus have unique camaraderie ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jennifer Schuett's search for the man who snatched her from her bed when she was 8, sexually assaulted her and left her for dead on top of an ant hill ended Tuesday with the arrest of a suspect. Jennifer Schuett, 27, was abducted and left for dead at age 8. A suspect was arrested Tuesday. Now begins another chapter in Schuett's 19-year quest for justice. Standing in front of the television cameras, Jennifer Schuett blinked back tears. \"This is a huge day for me,\" she later told CNN over the phone. \"And I want to see this through the end. The rest will come out during the trial.\" Schuett, 27, joined a multi-agency team of investigators in her hometown of Dickinson, Texas, as they announced the arrest earlier in the day of Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The arrest came after new DNA testing and other evidence made it possible to identify Bradford as the suspect. Schuett's boyfriend and two police investigators who kept the case alive stood beside her. Fighting tears, she thanked them for their support. \"Throughout this journey, I've had two main goals,\" she said. \"And they were to find the man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and attempted to murder me 19 years ago so that he could not hurt anyone else. And to use my voice in telling my story to as many people as I possibly could over the years in hopes that I may encourage other victims of violent crimes to stand up and speak out against criminals.\" Watch Schuett explain why she's speaking out \u00bb . She continued, \"Today, I can say very proudly that I have accomplished both of these goals.\" Schuett spoke with CNN two weeks ago about her 1990 ordeal. CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett decided to go public with her story and her name to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker. Schuett was in her bed when a man crept in through a window on August 10, 1990. She remembers waking up in a stranger's arms as he carried her across a dark parking lot. She said he told her he was an undercover cop and knew her family. He drove her through the streets of Dickinson, pulling into an overgrown field where, she said, he sexually assaulted her. She passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was lying on top of an ant hill with her throat slashed and her voice box torn. She spent about 14 hours in the field before she was found and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. \"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description. The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong,\" Schuett said. She believes she got her voice back so she could tell her story. At the news conference, a driver's license photo of the suspect was shown next to the 1990 sketch based on her description. There was a clear resemblance. Watch the sketch artist's memories of Schuett \u00bb . Shauna Dunlap, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Houston office, said Bradford lived in North Little Rock, with his wife and two children -- a boy, 12, and a girl, 15. He also has three adult stepchildren. Bradford worked as a welder for United Fence in North Little Rock. A company representative said Bradford had been working there for 10 years and was a \"good guy\" who had mended \"his old ways\" and \"changed his life.\" He wouldn't go into specifics about what those \"old ways\" were. Court documents give some indication. In 1996, Bradford was accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and cutting the throat of a female victim. He was initially charged with attempt to commit first-degree murder, but prosecutors amended the charges to rape and kidnapping. A Garland County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of kidnapping but was not able reach a verdict on the rape charges. Arkansas corrections officials said he entered prison in March 1997, facing a 12-year-sentence, and was paroled in February 2000. Investigators also found Bradford lived slightly more than two miles from Schuett's residence and just a mile and a half from where she was found, according to an affidavit released Tuesday. \"It's truly a rare occasion when we have the opportunity to prosecute a case like this,\" said Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk. His office is charging Bradford with attempted capital murder. \"Jennifer has been a tremendous asset to this investigation from the beginning, an inspiration to all of us, and we are going to be very proud to have Jennifer by our side as we continue with our efforts to seek justice for you in the courtroom,\" said Sistrunk. The break in the case came after FBI agent Richard Rennison and Dickinson police Detective Tim Cromie persuaded the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team to get involved. \"The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive,\" Rennison said. \"In cases of child abduction, it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently, you recover a body. And most times, you never find them.\" In March 2008, the investigators found evidence collected 19 years ago -- the underwear and pajamas Schuett was wearing, as well as a man's underwear and T-shirt, which were found in the field where Schuett was left for dead. The clothes had been tested in 1990, but the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But newer techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell. The FBI lab recently informed Rennison that the DNA in the man's underwear matched Bradford's DNA profile. He was entered into the database after the 1997 kidnapping conviction in Arkansas. Bradford was arrested on Tuesday morning on his way to work. He awaits extradition to Texas. CNN's Mallory Simon contributed to this story .","highlights":"Jennifer Schuett waited 19 years for arrest of man who allegedly attacked her .\nWelder Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, arrested Tuesday in Arkansas .\nSchuett was grabbed from her bedroom and left for dead at age 8 .\nAdvanced DNA tests provided a break in the case; DNA was in clothing ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The declaration of a state of emergency in Thailand following violent clashes between anti-government and security forces marks the latest escalation in a long-running political crisis which has plunged the southeast Asian country into frequent bouts of disorder and instability. The scene from the streets of Bangkok on Monday showed widespread protests against the government. This weekend's protests, which included forcing the postponement of a summit of Asian leaders in the southern coastal city of Pattaya and demonstrations on the streets of Bangkok, were orchestrated by red-shirted supporters of the controversial and corruption-tainted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin -- a multibillionaire media tycoon elected in 2001 on a populist platform that promised universal healthcare and cash handouts to poor villagers -- was ousted from power in a bloodless army coup in 2006 and has been in exile abroad since being sentenced last October to two years in prison after being convicted of a corruption charge by Thailand's Supreme Court. But Thaksin remains a polarizing figure in Thailand, commanding substantial support in the countryside. Until last year, Thaksin's allies had remained in power with the government headed by the exiled prime minister's brother-in law, Somchai Wongsawat, despite disruptive protests by the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose supporters dressed in yellow and represented Thailand's traditional ruling class, suspicious of Thaksin's populist model of democracy. But the PAD achieved its goal of ousting Somchai in December after a week-long occupation of the prime ministerial Government House offices and blockading Bangkok's main airports, stranding thousands of tourists. Thailand's Constitutional Court subsequently disbanded Somchai's People Power Party for electoral fraud and barred Somchai from office for five years, paving the way for Thai lawmakers to elect opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister. iReport.com: \"Red shirts\" take to streets . But Thaksin's supporters insist that Abhisit was not democratically elected and have vowed to protest until fresh elections are held. On Sunday, Thaksin told protesters via a video link from an unknown location that he would return home to lead them in a march on the capital if necessary. \"Now that they have tanks on the street and the soldiers are coming out, so it is time for the people to come out for a revolution,\" Thaksin said. Writing in a blog, CNN's Bangkok Correspondent Dan Rivers said he saw five possible scenarios emerging from the current crisis. Firstly, Abhisit could call a snap election, which he would be unlikely to win because Thaksin's allies continue to lead polls. Secondly, he could resign, resulting in the creation of another coalition which would struggle to unify the rival factions, leaving open the likelihood of further protests from one side or the other. Thirdly, Thaksin could return from exile to lead a red-shirted uprising; a scenario which Rivers describes as \"messy and bloody.\" iReport.com: \"Numerous buses set ablaze\" Fourthly, the army could again intervene, as it has done in the past, although Rivers says that would do little to heal the deep divisions between both sides. Finally, Rivers said, Abhisit could choose to ride out the protests or \"get tough.\" But both strategies would likely damage his standing. \"Trying to ignore the protests will leave him looking even weaker; ordering a violent crack-down may simply harden the resolve of the red shirts and provide fodder to their questionable claims that Abhisit has dictatorial tendencies,\" Rivers said.","highlights":"Thai state of emergency is latest episode in ongoing political crisis .\nThailand has been unstable since former PM Thaksin ousted in coup in 2006 .\nThaksin's supporters insist current government is illegitimate, want new elections .\nThaksin: \"It is time for the people to come out for a revolution\""} -{"article":"DORCHESTER, England (CNN) -- Englishman John Webber thought nothing of the small, shiny cup, passed down from his junk dealer grandfather and stashed under a bed for years, until appraisers said it was an ancient Persian artifact. The ancient Persian gold cup, thought to date from the third or fourth century B.C., fetched $100,000 at auction. The 5\u00bd-inch gold cup, which experts have dated to the third or fourth century B.C., fetched $100,000 at an auction in Dorchester, southern England, Thursday. The identity of the winning bidder wasn't immediately known. The relic features the double faced ancient Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors who always looked to both the future and past and is often associated with beginnings and endings. The cup has two faces with braided hair and entwined snake ornaments at the forehead. Webber's grandfather, William Sparks, was a rag and bone man, the British term for a junk dealer, Duke's said, who established the iron merchants Sparks and Son in Taunton, Somerset, in southwestern England, in the 1930s. Sparks acquired the cup along with two other pieces, also up for auction, in the 1930s or 1940s, the spokeswoman said. Watch CNN report on the auction \u00bb . Before he died, Sparks gave the items to Webber, who didn't realize their value, the spokeswoman said. \"Because he mainly dealt in brass and bronze, I thought that was what it was made from,\" Webber told the Bournemouth News and Picture Service. \"I put it in a box and forgot about it. Then last year I moved house and took it out to have a look, and I realized it wasn't bronze or brass. \"I sent it to the British Museum, and the experts there hadn't seen anything like it before and recommended I had it tested at a laboratory. So I paid quite a bit of money for it to be examined by a lab the museum recommended. And they found the gold dated from the third of fourth century B.C.\" Webber, who is in his 70s, said he remembers the cup from when he was a small boy. \"It's been quite exciting finding out what it was,\" he told the agency. Webber brought the items to Duke's at the start of the year for potential sale, because he wanted to \"realize some money,\" the auction house spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Duke's Auction House, which is selling the cup, said the cup is believed to be from the Archaemenid empire in ancient Persia. The other two items are a second century B.C. round gold mount with a figure, probably of ancient Greek hero Ajax, who besieged Troy, and a decorated gold spoon with an image of a Roman emperor. \"He had a good eye for quality over the years,\" said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, \"and anything interesting he'd put aside.\" Scientists analyzed trace elements of a gold sample taken from the cup to determine its age, and analysts from Oxford University concluded that they are consistent with Archaemenid gold and goldsmithing, Duke's said.","highlights":"Gold cup stashed under bed for years is $100,000 ancient Persian artifact .\nSmall urn went under the hammer at auction in southern England Thursday .\nArtifact acquired by junk dealer, grandfather of current owner, in the 1930s or 1940s .\nExperts say it is believed to date from the third or fourth century B.C."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian authorities on Thursday ruled the death of former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti a suicide, according to local media reports. Arturo Gatti was found dead on July 11 in a rented condo in Brazil, where his family was vacationing. Gatti's death initially had been investigated as a murder. The boxer's widow, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, who had been arrested as a suspect, was released from jail Thursday, the newspaper O Diario de Pernambuco reported. Her lawyer, Celio Avelino, argued that it \"would have been impossible for her to suspend and hang a man of that size\". Gatti was found dead on July 11 in a rented condo in Brazil, where he was taking a vacation with Rodrigues and their young child. Police found strangulation marks on Gatti's neck and a blood-stained purse strap at the scene. The public safety ministry of the northeastern Pernambuco state said investigators determined that Gatti hanged himself in a stairwell, the newspaper O Globo reported. Police official Paulo Alberes said Gatti used the purse strap to end his life, O Diario de Pernambuco reported. The 37-year-old Canadian, who was born in Italy and made his name as a fighter based in New Jersey, was staying in the northeast seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas. Gatti made his reputation in his renowned trilogy of fights against \"Irish\" Micky Ward, losing the first but triumphing in the other two. He was a former International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-featherweight champion and World Boxing Council (WBC) light-welterweight champ. Gatti retired in 2007 after suffering a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez, ending with a record of 40 wins and nine losses, 31 by knockout. He grew up in Montreal, Canada, after leaving Italy at an early age, and returned to the city after his retirement. Gatti's suicide came less than two weeks after another world champion boxer took his own life. On July 1, three-time world boxing champion Alexis Arguello, who was the mayor of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, was found dead in his home from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was 57. A third boxer, former welterweight champion Vernon Forrest, died last week after being shot multiple times in a neighborhood southwest of downtown Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"Gatti's death initially investigated as a murder .\nHis wife, arrested as suspect, freed on Thursday, newspaper says .\nGatti was a junior lightweight champ and a junior welterweight champ ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- I once told my mother about a girl I had a crush on. At the time, I think I was about 16, and I had so much acne that if I fell asleep at a library, when I woke up, a blind guy would be trying to read my face. \"Just go for her,\" my mother said. \"It's not that simple,\" I said, while filling out my order form for 25 crates of Noxzema. \"She's got a boyfriend.\" \"Well, don't do anything differently. Act like she doesn't. That's how I got your father.\" She then walked out of the room, leaving my pasty teenage complexion an extra shade of white as I actually contemplated my mother dating. I've since related this story as an example of how hitting on someone with a significant other isn't always a terrible thing. Hey, if they're not married or serious, go for it. However, if you're considering trying to get a guy who has a girlfriend, there are a few things you should know. The Frisky: The Top 5 online dating do's and don'ts for guys . First, I'll admit guys will hit on anything. I once observed one of my friends hitting on a street sign. Granted, he was drunk, but it did not matter to him that he was hitting on an inanimate object, or that the street sign was a little out of his league. Men do have standards, but when they're single, they'll hit on a woman with a boyfriend. They'll hit on nuns. Very occasionally, they'll hit on nuns with boyfriends. I'm not going to defame my own kind, but women can be better at subtlety, and you should use this to your advantage. The Frisky: Is cheating worse when you're married? I'm a big anti-cheating guy, so if a woman hit on me while I had a girlfriend, I'd be flattered. If she offered to go home with me or tried to kiss me or something like that, milk would shoot out of my nose and I'd run for the hills. (I have an odd fight-or-flight mechanism.) Subtlety is your friend. We'll pick up on the signals. If a guy is interested, wait for him to honorably break up with his girlfriend before the two of you start dating. Frankly, this is just good manners. The Frisky: To tell or not to tell on a cheater? It should go without saying that it's bad form to hit on a guy while his girlfriend is actually there, or even if she's in the same town. Men have a well-honed sense of panic that kicks in when someone's hitting on them while their girlfriends are in the same ZIP code. We know that women can read us, so unless you're hitting on a really shady guy, you'll scare him off as he runs home to call his girl and tell the story of the Evil Homewrecking Woman. The Frisky: Can couples get past infidelity? One last thing: If you do snag a guy away from his girlfriend, be wary. The good news is that, despite the popular perception, most of us men tend to be loyal once we're in a committed relationship. But know that if it happened once, it can happen again. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Writer: Some guys will hit on anything -- even inanimate objects .\nWriter: Hitting on a man when his girlfriend is nearby could make you \"Evil Homewrecking Woman\"\nIf you snag him away from someone, be wary: It could happen again, writer says ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- After heated arguments, the Iraqi parliament turned down the first draft of a bill Saturday that would have allowed foreign troops, including British forces, to remain in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires on December 31. A British soldier attends an Iraqi army training session Thursday in Iraq's Basra province. Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman said the measure was sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking before resubmitting it to lawmakers. There is no parliamentary deadline for the measure to pass. The bill does not apply to U.S. troops because the United States last month reached a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government that calls for American troops to leave Iraqi cities by June 2009, and to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. But after December 31 other foreign troops would not be authorized to remain in Iraq. This could cause a problem for Britain, which has the second-largest number of troops in Iraq after the United States. Britain was the leading U.S. ally during the invasion of Iraq and still has about 4,000 troops based outside the southern city of Basra. Five other nations -- Albania, Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania -- have a total of fewer than 2,000 troops Iraq, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq Web site. British troops will begin leaving Iraq in May 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a joint statement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a visit to Iraq on Wednesday. Watch the planning to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq \u00bb . Othman said some legislators argued that the bill had not been assigned to committees, as is the custom before a measure's first reading. The session became so contentious that the speaker threatened to resign, lawmakers said. Lawmakers will take a holiday break for Christmas and New Year but could be called back into session by the parliament speaker, Othman said. Watch Britain's PM talk on withdrawing UK troops \u00bb . Wrangling over the bill on non-U.S. troops began Wednesday when the first reading took place. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Measure sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking, lawmaker says .\nIt would have allowed foreign troops to remain in Iraq after December 31 .\nBill doesn't apply to U.S. troops, who are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011 .\nLawmakers questioned legitimacy of legislation's first reading or raised other issues ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former first lady Nancy Reagan has been released from a hospital after fracturing her pelvis during a fall at home last week, a spokeswoman said Friday. Former first lady Nancy Reagan is shown at an event in the nation's capital in September. Reagan, 87, returned to her Bel Air, California, home, spokeswoman Joanne Drake said. Doctors expect a full recovery, prescribing a regimen of daily physical therapy and a reduced public schedule, Drake said in a written release. The former first lady admitted herself to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday after experiencing what Drake described as \"persistent pain.\" Tests revealed a fractured pelvis and sacrum, the triangular bone within the pelvis. She also was hospitalized for two days in February after a fall. President Reagan died in June 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Since his death, Nancy Reagan has remained involved with the national Alzheimer's Association and its affiliate, the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute in Chicago, Illinois. However, she has appeared in public only rarely in recent years. Reagan expressed her thanks in the release Friday to all those who prayed for her and sent cards, flowers, phone calls and e-mails.","highlights":"Nancy Reagan admitted herself to a hospital with a fractured pelvis Tuesday .\nReagan, 87, returned to her Bel Air, California, home Friday .\nShe previously was hospitalized for two days in February after a fall ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- It was a glass half-full, glass half-empty kind of weekend at the box office for \"Funny People,\" writer-director Judd Apatow's comedic meditation on fame, humor, life, and death. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star in \"Funny People,\" which took the No. 1 slot at the box office this weekend. According to figures from Hollywood.com Box Office, it opened at the top spot with an estimated $23.4 million, better than Apatow's The 40 Year-Old Virgin ($21.4 million) -- hence, the glass is half full. But that figure is far lower than the debut for Apatow's \"Knocked Up\" ($30.7 million), and it's the worst opening for a comedy for star Adam Sander since his 2000 turkey \"Little Nicky\" -- hence, the glass is half empty. Of course, \"Funny People\" was billed more as a thoughtful dramedy than a balls-out Sandler laugh-fest, and when matched against the opening frames for Sandler's serious efforts \"Reign Over Me,\" \"Spanglish,\" and \"Punch-Drunk Love,\" Funny People is far and away the winner -- and the glass is half full again. But whether it's a comedy, drama, or dramedy, \"Funny People's\" $75 million budget is quite the handful of pretty pennies, and with a shaky \"B-\" Cinemascore, the film is going to have a hard time overcoming tepid word-of-mouth -- and we're back to the half-empty glass. So let's just move on, shall we? The cup of a certain adolescent wizard, meanwhile, definitely runneth over. Thanks to its debut on IMAX (and the premium ticket prices that come with it), \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" came in second with $17.7 million, a soft 40 percent drop from last weekend for $255.5 million total. At this rate, the film is well on its way to the upper ranks of the 'Potter' franchise. The guinea pigs of \"G-Force\" were right on its heels at third place, nibbling up $17.1 million, a decent 46 percent drop for a two-week cume of $66.5 million. And Katherine Heigl's romcom \"The Ugly Truth\" took in an additional $13 million, a 53 percent drop for fourth place and $54.5 million total. Of the two other wide releases this weekend, at least the sci-fi family comedy \"Aliens in the Attic\" -- which grossed a meager $7.8 million for fifth place -- broke into the top 10. The torture porn flick \"The Collector\" collected a grisly $3.6 million and plopped dead at 11th place. Box office on a whole was down a massive 22 percent from last year, when The \"Dark Knight\" and \"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor\" both took in over $40 million, but the specialty market showed some vibrant signs of life. Bone fide indie hit \"(500) Days of Summer\" expanded to 266 theaters for $2.7 million, a $10,338 per theater average. And three widely disparate films opened in four theaters each to healthy per theater averages: The quirky romantic comedy \"Adam\" ($16,566 per theater), the stylish vampire film \"Thirst\" ($13,793 per theater), and the eco-thriller-cum-documentary \"The Cove\" ($13,600 per theater). Finally, a true milestone was reached this weekend by \"The Hangover.\" With $5.1 million this weekend for a running total of $255.8 million, the summer's biggest die hard blockbuster has passed \"Star Trek\" and (for a brief moment) \"Harry Potter 6\" as the third highest grossing movie of the year. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Funny People\" is No. 1 at box office with an estimated $23.4 million .\n\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" came in second with $17.7 million .\nThe guinea pigs of \"G-Force\" were right on Potter's heels at third place .\nSee what other flicks made this week's top 10 box office chart ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Kellogg Co. announced Wednesday it is recommending that consumers not eat its peanut butter crackers because they may be tainted with salmonella. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The products affected are Austin- and Keebler-branded: . -- Toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers. -- Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. The Michigan-based maker of cereals and snacks posted the recommendation in a statement on its Web site. Peanut butter produced by Peanut Corporation of America, one of several peanut butter suppliers to the company, has been linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that has affected at least 434 people in 43 states, federal health officials said Wednesday. \"Kellogg Company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the company received any consumer illness complaints about these products,\" the Kellogg statement said. \"Nonetheless, Kellogg Company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of PCA and Kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue.\" All of the company's peanut-butter crackers are made at its bakery in Cary, North Carolina, said spokeswoman Kris Charles. Though consumers are urged \"to hold the product until we have more information,\" Charles recommended anyone seeking a refund call 888.314.2060 for details about how to get one.","highlights":"Some types of Austin- and Keebler-branded sandwich crackers affected .\nOne of its peanut butter suppliers has been linked to outbreak of salmonella .\nKellogg says warning is strictly precautionary; no incidents of illness reported .\nOutbreak of salmonella poisoning has affected at least 434 people in 43 states ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the black market of prison life, cell phones have become perhaps the hottest commodity. Now, Texas is among a growing number of state governments going after them. Hundreds of contraband cell phones were found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008. Tiny, easy to hide and an unmonitored link for convicts to the outside world, cell phones are valuable contraband, fetching a greater asking price from convicts than some shipments of illegal drugs. John Moriarty, inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that one phone can fetch as much as $2,000. \"It takes one crooked prison worker to populate a whole prison unit with them,\" he said. More than 1,200 wireless phones sit in law enforcement evidence rooms, all found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008. Moriarty is the investigator and bloodhound the state of Texas uses to trail the illegal traffic. \"These are not stupid people,\" he said of the coordinated efforts to slip phones into the prison and hide them. \"There are a lot of hands in between and they all want a piece of the action.\" Accomplices on the outside vary from family members, to friends to fellow criminals who buy or steal the phones and charge them with minutes. The contraband is then moved through an elaborate series of drop points and usually ferried into the walls of a prison by a guard or trustee -- an escape engineered in reverse. Finding the dirty prison employee is often the key. \"Some of these guys make next to nothing, so you can see how easy it could be to corrupt them,\" Moriarty said. State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and the chair of the state senate's Criminal Justice Committee, became an ally of Moriarty's after one phone call in October. He picked up a phone slip from his secretary and called the number on it -- only to realize he had returned a call to a death row inmate's cell phone. The inmate, he said, was Richard Tabler -- a convicted double murderer who was sharing a wireless phone with nine other inmates. \"At first I thought it was a hoax,\" said Whitmire, who said he called the state justice board and \"read them the riot act.\" Whitmire is one of the sponsors of a bill in the Texas Legislature that would crack down on convicts caught with phones and allow prison systems to monitor and detect cell signals. It's en route to Gov. Rick Perry's desk after clearing both houses of the legislature this week. Other efforts are under way at both the state and federal level. In January, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, introduced legislation that would let prisons jam cell-phone signals within their walls. Last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked the federal government for permission to do so in his state. Prison officials in Arizona are training dogs to sniff out cell phones.","highlights":"Texas is among a growing number of states going after contraband cell phones .\nSavvy inmates, outside accomplices, corrupt guards make problem a thorny one .\nBill cracking down on contraband phones clears Texas Legislature .\nOther states training dogs to sniff out phones, seeking feds' help in jamming signals ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Quentin Tarantino's new movie \"Inglourious Basterds\" comes with a film inside the film, a Nazi propaganda movie promoting the glory of Germany's Third Reich. Eli Roth and Brad Pitt star in \"Inglourious Basterds.\" Roth also directed a short film within the film. Tarantino said he's not worried people might be offended by the short film, which is being promoted by a trailer that is now a viral video on the Internet. \"You would have to have absolutely, positively no sense of humor at all not to get it,\" Tarantino said. \"Stolz der Nation\" -- which translates into English as \"Nation's Pride\" -- was produced true to the style of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister, but by Eli Roth, the director-actor who also plays one of Tarantino's \"Basterds\" known as the \"Bear Jew.\" \"There was something that we enjoyed immensely about the idea of a Jew making a Nazi propaganda movie,\" Tarantino said. Watch Tarantino talk about how \"Nation's Pride\" was made \u00bb . Roth, well known for his R-rated horror flicks such as \"Hostel,\" said while growing up as a Jewish boy in Boston, Massachusetts, he never dreamed he would make a Nazi propaganda film. \"After 'Hostel 2,' I thought 'God, what can I make that's more offensive and upsetting than this film,' but somehow I did it with 'Nation's Pride,'\" Roth said. Roth viewed the black-and-white film as a character in \"Inglourious Basterds,\" a World War II fairy tale about a squad of Jewish-American soldiers who infiltrate behind enemy lines to terrorize the German army. Their plot to assassinate Hitler focuses on a small Paris, France, theater where Germany's leadership is gathered for the premiere of Goebbels' movie. The black-and-white film glorifies a fictional war hero played by Daniel Bruhl \"and the glory of the swastika and the power of Germany,\" Roth said. \"His courage was bound by duty. His legend was baptized in blood. His name will be crowned in glory,\" the trailer's narrator says as Pvt. Fredrick Zoller picks off dozens of American soldiers from a sniper's nest. \"Being Jewish, I wanted to make it a real propaganda film,\" Roth said. \"I was, like, I want to show what these movies are like. I don't want to do a sanitized version.\" Using just 20 extras and five stuntmen, Roth shot the five-and-a-half-minute film in three days in Gorlitz, Germany, the same town where \"The Reader\" was filmed a year earlier, he said. \"The whole time we were shooting, we were, like, not only does this have to impress Quentin, this has got to impress the Fuhrer,\" he said. \"Hitler has to see this and go 'This is your finest work.'\" \"The German crew were going 'God, normally, we can't do this. This is so illegal.' And I was, like, 'this is what they did,'\" he said. \"This is what Joseph Goebbels would have done, and this has got to be honest and accurate.\" While only parts of \"Nation's Pride\" are seen in \"Inglourious Basterds,\" Roth said Tarantino will likely include the complete film as a bonus on the DVD. \"Inglourious Basterds,\" starring Brad Pitt, opens across the United States on August 21.","highlights":"\"Inglourious Basterds\" features Nazi propaganda film .\nFilm was made by Jewish director Eli Roth, who also stars in \"Basterds\"\n\"Basterds,\" the latest from Quentin Tarantino, opens August 21 ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I was 14 at the time. Lebanon's civil war was in full flood. One afternoon the shells began raining down on our neighborhood in Beirut. A Lebanese woman and her son run through west Beirut in 1989 during fighting between rival forces. We ran from school screaming. Forget the book bags, classmates, homework. Just run. Out of breath, my knees giving way, it seemed to take forever to reach our local shelter -- a dark humid room at the back of our apartment block. The memory of that terrifying afternoon receded -- until recently. After more than a decade of relative peace and reconstruction, the bombings and assassinations have returned to Beirut. Every time I hear of a new explosion, I think of a frightened child sitting in darkness. In 1988, I watched the last throes of Lebanon's civil war firsthand -- and like millions of Lebanese, sad, frustrated and often fearful. See a timeline of Lebanon's recent history \u00bb . Now I watch from another continent, but I find those same emotions resurfacing. The conspiracies, the car bombs, the threatening rhetoric and political deadlock are eerily familiar. The actors are like shadows from a long gone past. They are grayer perhaps -- those who have avoided assassination. But the cast in Lebanon's tragedy has changed little in two decades. Then, as now, a presidential election is the setting, and the struggle where religion and clan play the main roles threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years. See bios of Lebanon's major players \u00bb . In 1988, the president's term was coming to an end and the warring factions were unable to agree on a new candidate. Militias prevented parliament members from reaching the assembly building. Compromise was nowhere in sight. The West had abandoned Lebanon to the manipulation of its neighbors. Syria had its choice for president; Israel had its own allies -- a foil for growing Muslim radicalism. The country was awash with weapons. In his last act as president, Amin Gemayel named fellow Christian and Army Chief Michel Aoun as prime minister. At a stroke, he shattered the convention that a Muslim hold that position. Muslims refused to serve in the Cabinet and the country ended up with two governments. Aoun famously declared: \"I am prime minister and six ministers in one.\" Aoun's \"War of Liberation\" against Syria turned into defeat. Then, he turned on fellow Christians of the Lebanese Forces in the \"War of Elimination.\" When that failed, the Syrians drove Aoun to take refuge at the French Embassy. In August 1990, I came to CNN as a World Report panelist. I tried to explain Lebanon's chaos, the bewildering array of factions and the horrors of civil war for ordinary civilians. I had seen people killed in front of me; children orphaned in seconds, parents burying their infants in oversize white coffins. So when I was offered the opportunity to stay at CNN, I gratefully accepted the chance to escape the anarchy. But almost as I left, the civil war was being laid to rest. The various factions had fought each other to a standstill; Arab governments, supported by the West, helped negotiate a new constitutional framework overseen by Syrian influence. Peace came to Lebanon, but it would be five years before I returned. In 1995, I went back and was stunned. I kept looking around for checkpoints manned by militants. I couldn't believe that I could go anywhere without being harassed or kidnapped by one faction or another. No longer did identity -- Christian, Muslim or Druze -- define where Lebanese could go. People mixed freely in chic coffee shops and smoked the hubble-bubble, laughing at the same jokes. It was as if Lebanon's divisions had been wiped away by some magic eraser. Downtown Beirut, once rocked by explosions and pitted with bullet holes, was rocking to Lebanese pop music. The dusty sandbags had given way to boutiques carrying the latest European fashions and deluxe hotels. Lovers had returned to Beirut's Corniche, overlooking the Mediterranean, for romantic strolls at sunset. But the agreement that ended the civil war was more a truce than a real settlement -- and was overseen by a \"pax Syriana.\" As anti-Syrian sentiment grew, so did political tensions. On Valentine's Day 2005, the Corniche was once again rocked by an explosion. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed. The symbolism left me speechless. On the day of love, Lebanon was thrown back into its most hateful history. It had been widely expected that Hariri would run for office again and demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Suspicion fell on Damascus, which vehemently denied involvement. On March 14, Martyrs' Square became a human sea of demonstrators: Muslims, Druze and Christians alike, demanding the \"truth.\" But Hariri's death also exposed the fault lines that had broken Lebanon a generation previously. Even after it withdrew its troops, Syria still had allies in Lebanon. One was Hezbollah, accused of the suicide attacks that had killed scores of U.S. Marines in Beirut more than 20 years previously. Another was Gen. Michel Aoun; now back from exile, the same Michel Aoun who had defied Syria in 1989, but who now made common cause with Hezbollah against his fellow Christians. Earlier this year I visited Martyrs' Square. The spirit of the Cedar Revolution had evaporated. The place looked like a morgue. Anti-government Hezbollah squatters had brought life there to a standstill. As I passed through, business owners stood silent in the sun and shook their heads at me in despair. I wondered if they sensed my disappointment, my pain at watching Beirut bleed again. Lebanon's political actors now find themselves re-enacting scenes from the final act of the civil war 19 years ago. Once again, the term of the president is approaching its end; there is no agreement on his successor. Suspicion and fear are the political currency of the day. And the questions haunts me: Will the country's brief renaissance that so amazed me in 1995 be snuffed out by the old curse of sectarian rivalries? E-mail to a friend . CNN's Joe Sterling, David Ariosto, Saad Abedine and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN's Octavia Nasr: Will Lebanon's brief renaissance be snuffed out?\nNasr says Lebanon's key power players haven't changed since 1980s .\nNasr: Current struggle threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A military offensive to rid Pakistan's northwest of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters has killed more than 1,000 militants since it began in full force earlier this month, the country's interior ministry said Sunday. A Pakistani girl displaced by the offensive against the Taliban rests at a camp Saturday north of Islamabad. Officials also said that only 2 percent of the North West Frontier Province remains under Taliban control as a result of the operation. Both claims were difficult to verify independently. The government did not say whether the operation resulted in civilian casualties, or how many people it displaced. The United Nations said Saturday that more than a million people have been displaced as a result of the two-week-old offensive. The U.S-led coalition and NATO -- based in Afghanistan -- have long said Pakistan is not being proactive enough in battling militants who are launching attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. Pakistan has denied the claim. But the country's military launched an intense operation to rout out militants from the area after Taliban fighters took control of a district just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. The control of the Buner district brought the Taliban closer to the capital of the nuclear-armed country than it had been since it mounted its insurgency. Watch car bomb, drone attack in Pakistan \u00bb .","highlights":"Pakistani troops fighting to oust Taliban militants from volatile province .\nU.S-led coalition and NATO, based in Afghanistan, have long criticized Pakistan .\nIslamabad, coalition says, not effective in halting border attacks from inside Pakistan .\nPakistan has denied the claims, has launched operations to rout out militants ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A snowstorm that could last up to 18 hours was on its way to southern New England, and Boston, Massachusetts, could be snowed under with up to 15 inches, the National Weather Service said Sunday afternoon. A snowstorm is threatening parts of the Northeast with as much as 15 inches of snowfall. Monday's commuters in the region could face a nightmare with blowing and drifting snow, freezing temperatures, gusty winds and periods of sleet. Flight delays and cancellations were likely, the weather service said. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a snow emergency starting 10 p.m. Sunday in anticipation of the storm, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. Boston public schools will be canceled on Monday. At 2:15 a.m. Monday, light snow was starting to fall, WCVB reported. Winter storm warnings straddled Interstate 95 from Maine to the Carolinas, and they also were issued in parts of Georgia and Alabama. Delta Air Lines canceled 300 flights, most of them to or from Atlanta, because of snowy weather, spokesman Brian Kruse said Sunday. It was snowing in Atlanta, where Delta is based, and 2 to 4 inches was expected. David Spear, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, expected traffic chaos. \"People tend to get a little animated out here at the sight of snow,\" he told CNN. \"Our concern is going to be -- as we move into the evening hours and the temperature drops -- that that slush becomes ice and then we have a real situation for our morning commute tomorrow.\" He said about 200 DOT trucks were deployed to help make roads safe for motorists. In northern Connecticut, southern New Hampshire and most of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a winter storm warning was to be in effect from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Monday, the weather service said. Such a warning is issued when winter weather conditions are expected to make travel dangerous. As the storm continued its northward trek late Sunday, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina was closed at 9 p.m. for snow removal from runways, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Farther north, Richmond International Airport in Virginia was closed at 10:45 p.m. for the same reason, the FAA said. Both airports were expected to reopen before midnight. The heaviest snow, up to 15 inches, was forecast for the heavily populated I-95 corridor between Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, northeast Connecticut and north into the Merrimack Valley in northeast Massachusetts, the weather service said. As much as 3 inches per hour could fall between 10 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Monday. In Washington, Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency Sunday afternoon, meaning any street designated as \"snow emergency route\" by signs would be cleared of any parked vehicles, towed if necessary, so snow plows could work unimpeded. Watch report on the storm system \u00bb . \"It is important that our crews have access to the roads from curb-to-curb in order to plow the snow,\" said Fenty, whose city was expected to get up to 8 inches of accumulation Sunday night and early Monday with accumulations up to 10 inches by Monday night. \"This is one of the first plow events we have had this season, and we want to ensure we are able to maintain clear and safe roadways as we move into Monday morning,\" Fenty said. Forecasters said as many as 14 inches of snow could pile up in Philadelphia and New York City, starting Sunday night. Lesser amounts of snow were reported as far south as Alabama, although Charlotte, North Carolina, could see up to 8 inches. Watch snowfall in Georgia \u00bb . In Memphis, Tennessee, CNN iReporter George Brown said Sunday that forecasters had predicted \"Teflon snow,\" which wouldn't stick to the ground. But the snow that fell was much heavier, he said. iReport.com: Share photos of icy, snowy weather in your town . \"We were getting an inch or more an hour,\" he said. \"Some roads are impassable because the folks here aren't use to dealing with slick streets. Many cars are off the interstate, and hotels are packed,\" Brown said. Watch winter storm cause accidents \u00bb . Snow in Germantown, Tennessee, was more than 5 inches deep by Sunday afternoon, forecasters said. \"I talked with our maintenance director, Bill Hazlerig, who tells me he hasn't seen snow like this in West Tennessee in many years,\" Julie Oaks from the Tennessee Department of Transportation told CNN. Watch the situation in Tennessee \u00bb . Tennessee called in 260 employees in the western portion of the state alone to salt and plow roadways through the night, she said. By Sunday afternoon, about 45 cars and semi-trailers had pulled over on the shoulder of Interstate 40, Oaks said. Watch the snow come down in Memphis \u00bb . Rebecca Horsley, an iReporter from Pelham, Alabama, near Birmingham, said snow began falling there Sunday at 6 a.m., interfering with her planned birthday celebration. \"It looks like we may have to reschedule,\" she said. CNN's Sean Morris, Lee Garen and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Winter storm warnings issued from New England south to Georgia, Alabama .\nWashington declares snow emergency, could get 10 inches by Monday night .\nHeavy snow could make for nightmarish Monday commute in parts of New England .\nSnow falls in South; Georgia-based Delta Airlines cancels 300 flights ."} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- An agreement aimed at ending violence and bloodshed that has erupted in Bolivian provinces has been reached between President Evo Morales and provincial governors, officials announced Tuesday. Leopoldo Fernandez Ferreira, governor of Pando province, talks to reporters a day before his arrest. The announcement on Bolivian television came just hours after the military arrested the governor of one of five provinces where violent clashes have occurred in the past three weeks, saying he had committed genocide in the deaths of 30 peasants. Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez Ferreira of Pando province was picked up at his office in Cobija and placed on a military plane for La Paz, the Bolivian capital. He did not resist. Groups in Pando and four other Bolivian provinces, backed by the local governors, have demanded greater autonomy and clashed with supporters of the federal government. Federal authorities say the 30 people who were killed Friday were federal supporters. Bolivian President Evo Morales said the arrest was legal and constitutional. \"This arrest is within the framework of the state where it happened, within the constitutional framework and no one can oppose it,\" Morales said at a news conference at the presidential palace. Officials said more arrests are possible. \"We will work day and night to avoid any more deaths or terrorist acts,\" presidential minister Juan Ramon Quintana said in another news conference. \"We will do everything we can to arrest those who have committed terrorist acts.\" As news of Fernandez's arrest spread across the country, many citizens talked about who else could be on the government's \"black list,\" as they were calling it. Besides demanding greater autonomy, opposition leaders in the five provinces want the cancellation of a constitutional referendum that would give the president more power. The opposition also is angry over tax money that Morales is diverting from the provinces to fund programs for the elderly. Learn more about the Republic of Bolivia \u00bb . Morales has said the opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. \"This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces,\" Morales previously said. Opposition leaders say they merely want their demands met. On Tuesday, they warned that Fernandez's arrest could destroy a shaky truce with the government. The arrest came hours after Morales returned Monday night from a quick trip to Chile, where presidents of the 12-nation Union of South American Countries met to discuss the Bolivian crisis. Watch leaders meet to discuss Bolivia \u00bb . Confronting its first crisis, the four-month-old UNASUR voted to create a commission to support Morales' democratically elected government, said Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet. She read a nine-point statement on Chilean TV that calls for the support of human rights and democracy and the preservation of Bolivia's territorial integrity. The statement condemns any attempts to overthrow the government. It also said the new commission will investigate the peasants' deaths. UNASUR is modeled on the European Union and aims to politically and economically integrate South American countries. On Tuesday, the United States announced it is organizing emergency evacuation flights for Americans in Bolivia and urged them to leave if the situation permits. A statement from the U.S. Embassy in La Paz said U.S. citizens need to sign an agreement to pay later for the cost of the flight. The embassy said some commercial flights are still available, although American Airlines suspended some flights until Sunday. The United States also continued to urge Americans to delay traveling to Bolivia. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador last week, accusing the American government of inciting the violence. The expelled ambassador, Philip Goldberg, called the charges \"false and baseless\" and said Bolivia was making a \"grave mistake.\" On Monday, the Peace Corps temporarily suspended operations in Bolivia because of \"growing instability\" there. All Peace Corps volunteers in the country have been moved to Peru. \"Our first priority is the safety and security of our volunteers,\" Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter said in a written statement. Protests started 21 days ago in Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz, Tarija and Chuquisaca provinces. The opposition groups have blockaded major roads and threaten to disrupt the nation's natural gas shipments, particularly to Brazil and Argentina. Anti-government protesters also have clashed with police and taken over offices and buildings in the five provinces. Much of the violence has taken place in Pando, where Morales declared martial law Friday. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, was elected in December 2005.","highlights":"NEW: Deal aimed at ending weeks of violence .\nBolivian military accuses governor of genocide .\n30 peasants killed Friday in clashes in Pando province .\nU.S. urges its citizens to leave Bolivia, announces emergency evacuation flights ."} -{"article":"SHERMAN, Texas (CNN) -- A seventeenth person has died from injuries suffered in Friday's bus crash in northern Texas, a hospital spokeswoman said Sunday. The damaged bus is hauled from the crash scene on a flatbed truck Friday in Sherman, Texas. The driver of the bus, which was carrying dozens of Vietnamese people on a church trip, apparently lost control on northbound U.S. 75 early Friday. The bus smashed into a guardrail before rolling on its side and sliding into a gully. The accident happened near the Texas-Oklahoma state line. Twelve people were declared dead at the scene, and four others died at hospitals, officials said. Police estimated that, in addition to the deaths, 33 to 39 of the 54 passengers and the driver suffered mild to serious injuries. Watch what investigators are learning about the accident \u00bb . The bus was operating illegally, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun investigating the crash. On Friday, NTSB member Debbie Hersman told reporters that the right front tire of the bus had been retreaded, in violation of safety rules. The blown tire was the only one that was recapped, and it was the only one whose tread separated, she said. Asked what caused the Goodyear tire to lose its air, she said, \"we don't know the answer to that question; that's why we're here.\" The bus itself was made in 2002 by Motor Coach Industries. The trip to Carthage, Missouri, had been scheduled by the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church in Houston, though some of the passengers may have belonged to other churches, Hersman said. The 52-year-old driver had his commercial driver's license, but his medical certificate had expired, she said. Late Friday, police were assisting NTSB investigators with gathering evidence and mapping the scene, documenting the location of witness marks and scars on the highway and bridge rail over an overpass, she said. Preliminary evidence suggests that the bus hit a rail on the right side of the bridge and then traveled 1,809 feet before coming to a stop on its right side in the earthen median between the highway and a frontage road, Hersman said. \"As it dropped off the bridge rail, the bus rolled to the right ... where it came to rest.\" Watch as the fire chief describes the crash scene \u00bb . She noted that the bus was not equipped with seat belts, which are not required on motor coaches. In a written statement, motor carrier agency Administrator John H. Hill said investigators noted \"certain irregularities ... about whether the bus was operating under the name Angel Tours or Iguala Busmex. It is important to note that neither of these domestic entities is authorized to operate as a U.S. passenger carrier in interstate commerce at this time.\" He added that the agency identified Angel Tours \"as being a high-risk carrier due to safety violations detected during roadside safety inspections and was subjected to an FMCSA compliance review in May 2008.\" \"This review resulted in FMCSA placing Angel Tours' operations out of service,\" Hill said. \"To date, Angel Tours has not provided the agency with evidence of satisfactory corrective actions to the problems discovered and remains out of service.\" In addition, \"FMCSA has not granted Iguala Busmex authority to transport passengers because it has failed to fully comply with federal safety requirements.\" He said police have been asked to stop any of the companies' buses. Both companies are owned by Angel de la Torre. A man who answered the phone at Angel Tours office said the owner was meeting with his lawyers and was unavailable. Massage therapist Leha Nguyen, 45, was a passenger. She was traveling by herself on the bus when she departed Houston at 8:30 p.m. Thursday for what was to have been her fourth trip to Carthage, Missouri. After sandwiches were passed around, the group said prayers, and Nguyen began to drift off to sleep in her window seat next to an older woman, four rows behind the driver, she said. iReport.com: Were you there? Send photos, video . About 11:45 p.m., the bus passed Dallas, \"and as soon as we passed Dallas we were on the two-way freeway and I feel the bus ride a little bit fast and I have a feeling, not a safe feeling,\" she said. She added, \"I feel a little bit shaky, but I just let myself at peace and then go to sleep.\" Her sleep didn't last long. \"As I opened my eyes, I see the chair falling off and I was sitting right below the TV and I felt that somebody was laying on my leg and then right next to me there was a lady, she got her arm really crushed up and on top of her there was another lady, she cannot move.\" Although her head hurt, Nguyen -- who left Vietnam in 1975 as a refugee -- was in better shape than many of her fellow riders. She accepted an ambulance ride to the hospital, where she learned that her seatmate had died. Once her scalp was sewn up, she aided in translating for other Vietnamese patients whose English was not as good. CNN's Susan Roesgen contributed to this story from Sherman, Texas.","highlights":"NEW: Another passenger from bus crash in northern Texas dies of injuries Bus had a recapped tire on the right front, a federal investigator says .\nThe bus was operating illegally, federal agency says .\nSurvivor describes chaos during and after accident ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A nonprofit consumer group said Thursday that it will sue Bayer HealthCare, alleging \"deceptive and irresponsible\" advertising that contends selenium in two of its multivitamins may reduce men's risk of prostate cancer. One A Day Men's 50+ Advantage ads say selenium may cut men's risk of prostate cancer, a consumer group says. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said it informed the multinational company of its intent Thursday. David Schardt, the center's senior nutritionist, told reporters during a teleconference that the center already has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. \"We are standing behind all the claims we make in support of the products,\" Trish McKernan, Bayer's global spokeswoman, told CNN. \"The selenium claims are made by a [Food and Drug Administration]-approved qualified health claim. We regularly review the evidence, and we change our claims if necessitated. The emerging science hasn't compelled us to change our claims, and the FDA claim is intact.\" Bayer's HealthCare division, based in Leverkusen, Germany, researches, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products. Bayer promotes One A Day Men's 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men's Health Formula multivitamins on package labels, TV and radio ads and on its Web site. In its promotions, the company says \"emerging research\" suggests that selenium might reduce the risk of prostate cancer, the center said. \"Did you know that there are more new cases of prostate cancer each year than any other cancer?\" according to one radio ad. \"Now there is something you can do.\" Both dietary supplements contain 105 micrograms of the trace mineral selenium per daily dose, or about twice the Recommended Daily Allowance, which is 55 micrograms a day for adults, according to the center. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for better living . \"It's astounding that a company such as Bayer ... would make such deceptive claims,\" the center's litigation director, Steve Gardner, told reporters during the same teleconference. Supporting the center in its letter of complaint to the FTC are nine researchers, who wrote a separate letter to Mary Engle, associate director of advertising practices. Among the signees are medical professionals from the Harvard School of Public Health, American Cancer Society and University of Illinois at Chicago Division of Pathology Research. All agree there is scant evidence to support Bayer's claim. A seven-year, $118 million study funded by the National Institutes of Health found last year that selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in healthy men, the center said. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial involving 35,000 U.S. and Canadian men was halted in October when researchers determined that selenium was not protecting the men from prostate cancer and may have been causing diabetes in some of them. According to the researchers in their letter supporting the FTC's complaint, \"the federally financed study was the largest individually, randomized cancer prevention trial ever conducted, and, given its high rates of adherence and its statistical power, it is unlikely to have missed detecting a benefit of even a very modest size.\" \"Bayer Healthcare is doing a disservice to men by misleading them about a protective role for selenium in prostate cancer,\" they added. CNN's Ann Curley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Center for Science in the Public Interest plans to sue Bayer HealthCare .\nGroup says claims that ingredient in men's vitamins may cut cancer risk are false .\nBayer spokeswoman: \"We are standing behind all the claims\"\nNIH: Selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in healthy men ."} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- It was supposed to be just another day at work. Job losses suffered by Linda and Chris Metzger have had a ripple effect on other businesses in their community . In early March 2008, 31-year-old Linda Metzger went to the New York office where she had worked as an assistant vice president in the marketing department at Lehman Brothers for about a year. Only 15 minutes into her work day, Metzger was called into her manager's office, where a representative from human resources was waiting. \"They told me that the company was having economic difficulties and that they had to make budget cuts,\" Metzger said. \"They were afraid that they were going to have to let me go and that it was not due to performance.\" Metzger says that would be her last day at Lehman Brothers. She was given some time to collect her composure, gather her belongings and head home. She was out of a $90,000-a-year job and was getting married in three months. Metzger says it was a chance for her and her fianc\u00e9 to refocus, relocate and start a new life. Within a few weeks, they both found jobs near Phoenix, Arizona, earning close to what they were making in New York. They bought a home and two new cars and got married. But the good feelings suddenly and dramatically ended in October when Metzger, who was four months pregnant, showed up to work at Lumension, where she was a marketing manager. Metzger says she was called into the office, and it happened again. She was laid off from her second job in less than a year. Watch Linda talk about getting laid off \u00bb . \"I was so overwhelmed and so shocked that I just immediately burst into tears.\" She thought about how she and her new husband, who had just moved across the country, were going to be able to afford their new life and all the bills that came with it. A week later, Chris Metzger was called into his manager's office at the job placement agency where he worked. He was told that because of the economy, his office was closing, and he was out of a job. Now he had to break the news to his wife. \"I just came home, and she was upstairs,\" Chris Metzger said. He tried to find the best way to tell his wife that they no longer had an income. \"I walked upstairs, I gave her a hug, and I said, 'I lost my job today.' \" \"I immediately fell to the floor and just started crying,\" Linda said. Within 10 days, Chris was able to find a new job, but Linda had no such luck. The economy was taking its toll, and very few companies were hiring. They looked at their budget and started to eliminate all the extras, including dining out and gym memberships. Vacations were put on hold; furniture purchases had to wait; fine meals out were now home-cooked meals. The Metzgers' story is playing out all across America as businesses and communities feel the ripple effect of the recession . \"When jobs get lost, demand falls for a whole bunch of businesses. You're not going to buy new shoes; you're going to put new soles on them,\" said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, an independent group that studies recessions. Restaurants where the Metzgers used to dine are now closed. The furniture store where they hoped to fill their home is having a liquidation sale and is closing in three weeks. \"You've pulled back from all your spending except paying your mortgage and putting food on the table,\" Achuthan said. It's a sign of the times. A drive down the Phoenix streets and strip malls are filled with vacant office space . Chris and Linda Metzger are expecting their first child in April. This month, they had to decide between making an expensive COBRA insurance payment or the mortgage payment, and they may have to start asking family for help. Despite her education and work experience, Linda Metzger says she is hoping she can start a genealogy business. She just doesn't feel good about jumping back into the work force after her baby is born. \"I am feeling a little burnt -- sorry, very burnt by corporate America.\"","highlights":"Phoenix, Arizona, couple lost three jobs in one year .\nRestaurants, stores where they spent money are closing .\nEconomist says when a job is lost, demand falls for many businesses ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's address to Congress was full of lofty promises to make unprecedented investments in government programs, even as he aims to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. President Obama on Tuesday outlined an ambitious agenda to help revive the economy. But it takes more than a proposal to bring about real change. Will Obama be able to meet his goals? CNN political analyst David Gergen says the answer will be \"one of the greatest political dramas of our time.\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the budget Obama sends to Capitol Hill Thursday will help show how the president plans to tackle his ambitious agenda. Here's a look at some of Obama's goals, and what experts are saying about them. Economy . Promise: \"To ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system.\" Promise: \"I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.\" Promise: \"My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time, but we have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.\" Analysis: Democratic strategist Lisa Caputo said so far, Obama is taking the right steps to revive the economy, but the country needs to see his plans put into action. He's already passed a massive stimulus bill, and he has a housing bill and a banking regulatory reform bill in the works. \"He's doing all the right things. Hopefully he'll come forth with a balanced budget. ... He's saying all of the right things. He's got to do them,\" she said. Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins pointed out that what Obama did was put forth proposals, not an action plan. \"This was a speech about aspirations. There was not a strategy or the details. They may come later, but it's an overly ambitious program, and if he can accomplish just the financial part of it, he'll move the country forward,\" he said. The success of Obama's budget goals will fall heavily on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Rollins said. \"Can she control her members? The last two years the Congress has controlled the spending, it's been a Democrat Congress. It's still a Democrat Congress and will be for the foreseeable future. There's a lot of pet projects these people want, there's a lot of entitlements that people aren't willing to cut,\" he said. Larry Winget, a personal finance expert, said he agrees with everything that Obama said needs to be done, but said he doesn't agree that the country can borrow or spend its way out of debt. \"If you came to me and said, 'I'm in a financial crisis, I've screwed up everything based on all of my bad decisions, what should I do?' the last thing in the world I would tell you is to go borrow more money or go try to spend something that -- money you don't have on something you don't need,\" he said. Winget said instead, the country should work its way out of debt. \"The practical thing would be to put more money in the hands of people, which would always go back to, we need to give bigger ... tax cuts,\" he said. Education . Promise: \"By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. That is a goal we can meet.\" Promise: \"It will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. That is a promise we have to make to the children of America.\" Analysis: Rollins pointed out that this is the first time the federal government is taking a such a major role in education. \"We have $59 billion in this year's education budget. We added another $100 billion to build schools and do those things. That's never been the role of the federal government. So it's a whole new way to go, and obviously if it works, it may benefit the country,\" he said. CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley said Obama's proposals are just the start of a new direction. \"It is the beginning of shaping the country differently when it comes to a lot of these programs. And the different shape, again, is a more liberal shape of the country, than really the conservative country it has been since Ronald Reagan,\" she said. Energy . Promise: \"We will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.\" Promise: \"Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years.\" Watch Obama say, 'It begins with energy' \u00bb . Analysis: Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, said Obama laid out a \"tall order\" of what needs to be done, and tried to show how everything is connected. \"So he showed, here's the short term, which is stimulus, banking, housing. Here's the longer term: If we want to own the century, we have to deal with energy, education, health, for example, and connecting those things,\" he said. \"And one of the critical things is that it's not clear -- you know, the stimulus is great, we passed it, but it doesn't work unless the banks lend. The banks won't lend unless the housing sector stabilizes. So, it's -- this is much tougher than chewing gum and walking at the same time,\" he said. Health care . Promise: \"[The recovery plan] makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that's one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.\" Promise: \"To preserve our long-term fiscal health, we must also address the growing cost in Medicare and Social Security. Comprehensive health care reform is the best way to strengthen Medicare for years to come, and we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans.\" Watch Obama explain his plans for health care reform \u00bb . Analysis: Larry Elder, a libertarian commentator, thought that Obama gave a \"great political speech\" but Elder questioned the president's economics. \"I just wish he was a limited-government, personal-responsibility, hard-core-fiscal-responsibility Republican, which, of course, he isn't. Look, he's got a faith in government that I don't share,\" he said. \"Whenever I hear somebody talk about investing in health care, investing in education, investing in energy, I put my hand on my wallet and I say, 'These guys are not good stewards of your money the way you are of your own money.' \" Pamela Gentry, a senior political analyst with BET, said Obama's big promises will keep people watching because they play to the drama of this presidency. Health care, she said, will be the issue to watch. \"Health care has got to be one of the toughest ones. I mean, Medicare is the second largest budget after defense. So, if he can pull this off, it would be remarkable,\" she said. Gibbs said Wednesday that the president is well aware of the difficulty of reforming health care. \"But he understands the only way to do that is bring together the stakeholders on both sides of the aisle, business and labor, doctors, providers. That process will begin next week here to discuss health care reform,\" he said. But, Gibbs said, the president doesn't plan on setting any \"artificial deadlines\" to pass health care reform. Military . Promise: \"To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.\" Analysis: Patricia Murphy, editor of Citizen Jane Politics, said she thought Obama's speech was strong, but she didn't follow Obama's math. Watch: How to cut defense spending \u00bb . \"The problem in this speech, I think, is his promise to cut the deficit in half and layering on program after program after program, saying we'll pull the troops out of Iraq, but we'll increase the size of the military. Those numbers don't add up,\" she said. CNN contributor Roland Martin on Tuesday compared Obama to rapper Kanye West. Martin: Obama's ambitious agenda is a good thing . All of the president's promises -- fixing health care, fixing the economy, halving the deficit, boosting funds to troops, curing cancer, achieving energy independence and solving Pakistan's problems, to name a few -- are just the markers in terms of his presidency, Martin said. \"Sort of when like Kanye West had his new album, and he said, 'I want to make it as bad as Stevie Wonder's [Songs in the Key of Life].' ... He said, 'If it doesn't get to that, it's still a great album.' \"[Obama] is a guy who is saying, a president who's saying, 'Look, I want to raise the stakes.' And, so, isn't it amazing that we're sitting here, saying, 'Wow, an ambitious president'? Well, shouldn't we have an ambitious president? Shouldn't we have a president saying, 'We can do more'?\"","highlights":"President Obama promises to halve deficit by 2013 .\nExperts support Obama's proposals, but want details on the action plan .\nObama sets high goals for economy, energy, education, health care .\nCNN contributor Roland Martin likens Obama to Kanye West ."} -{"article":"(Southern Living) -- Mount Vernon is undergoing a renaissance. Today the site's annual attendance matches its highest since 1976. Why? Visitors used to spend only an hour or so at his house, then leave still thinking of George Washington as that grim, old man on the dollar bill. Now, visitors meet him face-to-face in three life-sized statues, and they can't get enough of America's first action hero. At the museum at Mount Vernon, the 45-year-old future president is depicted riding in Valley Forge. \"He's tall! He's strong! He's handsome!\" they may exclaim when seeing him for the first time. Today's first President is a well-rounded figure at the expanded visitors center, museum, and education facility at Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens in Virginia. A new face for George . Washington now startles visitors. As they walk through the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, one of three life-size models depicts him at age 19, standing 6'2\", with his auburn hair pulled back in a queue. He's lean and lanky like an athlete, with muscular hips and thighs -- the marks of a man comfortable in the saddle. SouthernLiving.com: D.C. Travel Planner . \"He was the best horseman in America,\" James C. Rees, executive director of Mount Vernon, remarks. \"He was a great architect and landscape designer, and a terrific ball room dancer.\" Washington seems alive, except for breath itself. Step around another museum corner and he appears at 45 astride his horse in the snow at Valley Forge. Down another corridor he takes the oath of office at 57. More than mere mannequins, these figures are based on forensic research. To piece the elements together, scientists sized Washington up with measurements of his breeches and waistcoat. They determined the jut of his jaw from his dentures. They analyzed locks of his hair to determine its color at various ages. Getting to know the man . Admirers esteem his intellect, compassion, and self-restraint. (He was the only Founding Father to free his slaves.) After winning the Revolutionary War, Washington could have crowned himself king. Instead of reigning, however, he resigned and went home. Visitors tour the home, stopping to marvel at the stately main hall and gliding their hands along the same banister that supported the likes of the Marquis de Lafayette. They crowd into upstairs halls to see bedrooms that hosted more than 700 guests each year in George and Martha's time. SouthernLiving.com: Come Home to Virginia . Then they explore the estate with its 18th-century sights, sounds, and scents. The distillery and gristmill are now open, and a reconstructed slave structure tells the African American story. There's more to come. This spring, bellows will breathe fire to life in the new blacksmith shop. Meanwhile, the orientation center and museum are close at hand yet hidden, tucked into the earth so they don't interfere with the historic landscape. He who would not be king . It's working. Washington is undergoing a renaissance. \"King George III told an associate that if Washington gave up all his power and went back to his farm, he would be the greatest man in the world,\" James remarks. \"That's like the Dallas Cowboys coach saying something nice about the Redskins.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2009 Southern Living magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Today Mount Vernon's annual attendance matches its highest since 1976 .\nThree new life-size models depict George Washington at different ages .\nVisitors can explore the distillery, gristmill and a reconstructed slave structure ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- They were crimes born of the Internet age -- romantic solicitations on popular Web site Craigslist that police say led to the fatal shooting of one woman and the robbery of another in Boston hotels this past spring. Internet forensic expert Mark Rasch used high-tech sleuthing to help police in Boston's Craigslist crimes. And it was high-tech, 21st-century sleuthing, along with some old-fashioned gumshoe detective work, that put police on the trail toward a suspect and eventually an arrest. On CNN's \"AC 360\" Randi Kaye recently took a behind-the-scenes look at how technology was used to lead police to 23-year-old medical student Philip Markoff, who has been indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Julissa Brisman, a model from New York who advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, was shot three times at close range and suffered blunt head trauma at the Marriott Copley Place hotel on April 14. And a 29-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada, woman was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards at the Westin Copley Place hotel, police reports said. Read the AC360 blog post . Investigators knew they had crimes born of the Internet on their hands, but how were they able to use that same technology to help them find a suspect who went to great lengths to hide his tracks? \"The figures involved communicated with each other [via] text and e-mail, and they only met at the very last minute,\" said special correspondent Maureen Orth, who investigated the story for Vanity Fair magazine. \"And then the way the police were able to solve the crime was going back, using the clicks and the Internet addresses.\" In Brisman's case, police knew she had communicated on Craigslist with a person calling himself \"Andy.\" Mark Rasch once headed the computer crimes unit at the U.S. Department of Justice. Now an Internet forensic expert, he helped Boston police track the alleged killer. \"The first thing you start with was the e-mail address. In this case, it's an e-mail address from Live.com, which is Microsoft,\" Rasch explained to CNN's Kaye. Watch Randi Kaye's full report \u00bb . Rasch showed Kaye the tracer program he used to help follow the e-mails from \"Andy.\" \"Trace Back does what it says -- traces the route that the e-mail took on its way from its origin to the destination,\" Rasch said. Rasch says police got the Internet protocol address for the e-mailer's computer. From there, investigators tracked down the company providing Internet service to the suspect, which told them that the subscriber lived in a Quincy apartment building, outside Boston. Even though police had what they believed was the killer's real name and home address, that still was not enough, Kaye reports. \"They have to validate and actually get this guy's fingers on the keyboard,\" Rasch said. \"So in the end, they reverted to the old gumshoe thing of a stakeout.\" Police zeroed in on Markoff. They'd seen a tall, blond male they believed was the killer on the hotel surveillance cameras. And they did what many people do on a daily basis -- they Googled him. Police learned their prime suspect was a medical student at Boston University. He was engaged to be married. Again, the Internet helped. They got a better look at him through pictures with his fiancee online. It's a piece of a digital trail criminals rarely think about, Kaye reported. \"As one of the law enforcement people told me, if you can see it, they can see it,\" Orth said. Markoff's cyber footprint was growing more clear to authorities every day. On April 20, six days after Brisman's slaying, detectives arrested him. They said he was carrying on him a New York driver's license with a photo of someone named Andrew or Andy Miller. Police say Markoff used that driver's license to purchase the gun that killed Brisman and that his fingerprints were on the paperwork. In June, Markoff pleaded not guilty to Brisman's death and the other charges against him. He remains in jail. CNN's Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Internet expert: Craigslist slaying suspect left a trail of clues behind in cyberspace .\nMark Rasch says he used a tracer program on e-mail sent to slaying victim .\nBoston investigators even used a Google search to help track down suspect .\nPhilip Markoff, a medical student, pleaded not guilty in death of Julissa Brisman ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Joseph Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, a nonprofit organization that makes grants to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and the author of \"Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons.\" He formerly was a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that describes itself as \"progressive,\" and was on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee. Joseph Cirincione says Clinton's trip was the culmination of diplomacy his adminstration began 15 years ago. (CNN) -- President Clinton did more than free two unjustly jailed journalists. He jump-started the successful diplomacy he had begun 15 years earlier. In October 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang. During Bill Clinton's presidency, the administration had locked down North Korea's plutonium production program, which had created enough deadly material for two bombs during the Reagan years. They had stopped all missile tests. They were a few details away from concluding a deal to end these programs completely. But Clinton ran out of time. Enmeshed in Middle East peace talks, Clinton could not get assurances that a presidential visit to North Korea would seal the deal. He passed off the almost completed process to the incoming George W. Bush administration. On March 6, 2001, new Secretary of State Colin Powell said, \"We do plan to engage with North Korea to pick up where President Clinton and his administration left off.\" But Bush had different ideas. On March 7, Bush kneecapped Powell. With South Korean President Kim Dae-jung sitting next to him in embarrassed silence, Bush said, \"We look forward to, at some point in the future, having a dialogue with the North Koreans, but any negotiation would require complete verification of the terms of a potential agreement.\" The conservative ideologues in the administration froze all discussions with North Korea for an 18-month review. Clinton's hard-earned diplomatic wins were replaced by the Bush Doctrine, summed up by Vice President Dick Cheney: \"We don't negotiate with evil; we defeat it.\" The United States would instead overthrow difficult regimes. Serious options for diplomacy with North Korea were set aside. Negotiations were appeasement, the new administration believed, not a tool to advance American security. Then-Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in 2002 and repeats to this day, \"We're not going to reward their bad behavior.\" The strategy backfired. North Korea expanded plutonium production, exploded nuclear bombs, tested new missiles and traded nuclear technology to Syria and possibly Burma. North Korea's nuclear and missile programs advanced more in the George W. Bush administration then they had in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations combined. Whether by accident or design, the Obama administration reset the diplomatic stage. Administration officials largely ignored North Korea for their first eight months in office. Kim Jong Il responded with provocative statements and actions. It almost spiraled out of control. But the Obama administration's patience -- or just policy drift, we may never know -- paid off. Kim Jong Il's regime got weaker and more isolated. North Korea's main partners, China and Russia, turned against it, the U.N. Security Council imposed tough new sanctions, and Kim's own health deteriorated. Now in a weaker position than at any time in his regime, Kim Jong Il has been on his best behavior for the past few months. This was the time for a power play, and Obama executed perfectly. He chose as his special envoy the most prestigious political figure in America outside the administration. It is a move that was sure to please the North Koreans, showing them the respect they crave, without costing America anything. To capitalize on this breakthrough, the Obama administration must now continue to play large. It should show North Korea what good relations with the United States can lead to. Clinton's 20 hours in Pyongyang could pave the way for renewed diplomatic efforts, including direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea, the re-freezing of North Korea's nuclear program and even North Korea's return to the six-party talks. However, in dealing with the North, actions are more important than words. The Obama administration must seize this moment as an opportunity not only to articulate a plan for North Korean nuclear disarmament but to take concrete steps towards a secure and stable Korean Peninsula. The president should use the momentum Clinton's trip has generated to unfold a comprehensive, consistent regional security strategy. With this success, Bill Clinton has demonstrated what effective diplomacy looks like. He has shown the former Bush officials what they should have done years ago. He may have convinced senior White House strategists that diplomacy is a political winner, paying dividends across issue areas. Two power players, Obama and Clinton, have together taken a giant step forward, advancing the agenda Clinton began 15 years ago. America is the better for it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joseph Cirincione.","highlights":"Joseph Cirincione: Clinton administration started outreach to North Korea .\nHe says Bush administration cut it off, saying U.S. doesn't negotiate with 'evil'\nHe says Clinton's successful trip shows effectiveness of diplomacy .\nCirincione: Obama administration must seize moment for further progress ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Typhoon Morakot dumped heavy rain on Taiwan early Saturday and threatened to further soak the recently drought-stricken island. A man fights against strong winds in Hsintien, Taipei county, Taiwan, on Friday. As of 3 a.m. local time, the storm's eye was over the northern part of the island, CNN forecaster Kevin Corriveau reported, although he noted that slow-moving Morakot is so large it encompassed the entire island. Journalist Andrew Lee in Taipei, citing local media, said the storm had blown off roofs and washed out some bridges. Corriveau said the island has received more than 39 inches (99 centimeters) of rain from the storm, which he said was expected to dump another 39 to 47 inches (99 to 119 centimeters) of rain on Taiwan. The storm made landfall carrying winds of up to 92 mph (148 km\/h), with gusts up to 115 mph (185 km\/h), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. iReport.com: See balcony view of heavy rains . Corriveau said the storm was expected to linger over the island for several more hours, and the southern portion of Morakot would likely be passing over Taiwan for hours after that. The storm's impact had already been felt by Friday morning, with mudslides and landslides occurring on the island. The area has been severely affected by drought in recent months, leaving the ground so hard that it does not absorb the rainfall, Corriveau said. Taiwan's Central News Agency, acknowledging the drought, cited the Water Resources Agency as saying that the storm had replenished the island's reservoirs and would put an end to water rationing in several areas. Watch more about the typhoon's impact \u00bb . The storm prompted airlines to cancel flights. Schools and government offices were closed ahead of Morakot's arrival, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. Trading at the Taiwan Stock Exchange was also postponed until Monday, the news agency reported. In China, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that governments in coastal provinces were readying themselves for the storm and had ordered fishing boats to seek shelter before Thursday night. In Fujian province, about 8.4 million text messages had been sent to citizens warning them to prepare for the typhoon, Xinhua reported. More than 900 people, including Chinese and foreign tourists, have been evacuated from the resort of Nanji Island off east China, the news agency reported. CNN's Brandon Miller contributed to this report.","highlights":"Island gets more than 39 inches of rain; 47 inches more possible .\nAirlines cancel flights; schools, government offices, stock exchange closed .\nMore than 900 people evacuated from resort of Nanji Island off east China ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British mother of a child who died after being brutally abused has been jailed indefinitely. A police computer image of some of the facial injuries suffered by baby Peter. The child's -- originally known as Baby P --horrifying death caused a furor in Britain, with the media, public and politicians united in demanding to know how his terrible injuries were missed by social workers, police and medical staff. Judge Stephen Kramer also Friday jailed the 27-year-old mum's boyfriend for life with a minimum of 12 years and their lodger, Jason Owen, 37, indefinitely but with a minimum of three years, the British Press Association reported. The boyfriend, 32, was also convicted of raping a two-year-old girl. Baby P's mum has to serve a minimum of five years. She and her boyfriend cannot be named. Baby P -- he could not be known by his first name, Peter, until the recent lifting of a court order -- was only 17 months old when he was found dead in his blood-spattered cot in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including a broken back and fractured ribs, despite being on London's Haringey council's at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over eight months. The resulting public outrage saw the government's child secretary, Ed Balls, step in to demand the removal of the council's head of children's services, Sharon Shoesmith, with two other leading officials also stepping down. Shoesmith had to be placed under police guard after death threats were made. Judge Kramer told Peter's mother that she was \"a manipulative and self-centered person, with a calculating side as well as a temper.\" Watch more on the case \u00bb . \"Your conduct over the months prevented Peter from being seen by social services. You actively deceived the authorities... you acted selfishly because your priority was your relationship,\" he told the court, PA reported. Judge Kramer's comments echoed the country's response to the case. \"Any decent person who heard the catalogue of medical conditions and non-accidental injuries suffered by Peter cannot fail to have been appalled.\" A second serious review of the case commissioned by Balls and released Friday, also reiterated that Peter's death \"could and should have been prevented.\" Graham Badman, the chairman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, which conducted the review said: \"I believe the most important lesson arising from this case is that professionals charged with ensuring child safety must be deeply skeptical of any explanations, justifications or excuses they may hear in connection with the apparent maltreatment of children. \"If they have any doubt about the cause of physical injuries or what appears to be maltreatment, they should act swiftly and decisively. Badman said the review found that if \"doctors, lawyers, police officers and social workers had adopted a more urgent, thorough and challenging approach, the case would have been stopped in its tracks at the first serious incident.\" \"Baby Peter deserved better from the services that were supposed to protect him,\" Badman said.","highlights":"British mother of child who died after brutal abuse has been jailed indefinitely .\nHer boyfriend and lodger are also sent to jail over Baby P's horrific injuries .\nCase caused an outrage in Britain after raft of people missed chance to stop abuse ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The legal battle between Miss California USA pageant officials and former beauty queen Carrie Prejean ended Tuesday with an agreement to drop their claims, according to a pageant spokesman. The pageant has dropped its lawsuit filed last month demanding Prejean repay $5,200 given her for breast implants, publicist Kenn Henman said. Prejean, in exchange, withdrew her suit accusing the pageant of violating her privacy by confirming to reporters that her breasts were fake, he said. Details of the agreement were not immediately available, he said Tuesday afternoon. \"We are moving forward from the past and looking towards the crowning of two winners and the new look of the upcoming Miss California USA pageant,\" pageant Executive Director Keith Lewis said in a written statement. The public fight began last April when Prejean, 22, stepped into controversy by declaring her opposition to same-sex marriage while answering a judge's question at the Miss USA pageant. Prejean finished as first runner-up. While state and national pageant officials publicly supported her initially, their opinions eventually changed after she continued to make public statements about same-sex marriage. She held onto her crown through May -- despite a series of questionable photos that emerged on gossip Web sites. She was dethroned in June by Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump amid growing complaints by state officials that she was uncooperative and not meeting her contractual obligations. Prejean filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in August, claiming that her firing was religious discrimination because of her stand against same-sex marriage. The pageant's countercomplaint said Prejean's belligerent behavior, lack of cooperation and contract breaches caused her firing, not her opposition to same-sex marriage. Prejean also claimed pageant officials violated her privacy by acknowledging to reporters that her breasts were fake. The truth about Prejean's breasts \"ceased being private during the swimsuit competition of the nationally televised Miss USA pageant, in which Ms. Prejean walked the stage in a bikini,\" pageant lawyers said in their countersuit filed in October. State pageant officials say they loaned the money for the breast surgery under an oral agreement with Prejean and she never repaid them. The group also asked a judge to give them any profits from Prejean's tell-all book due out this month, which they claim was written in violation of her pageant contract. One thing they all agreed on was that Prejean needed bigger breasts if she was to be competitive in the national pageant in April, the pageant's filing said. \"Ms. Prejean disclosed that she had been thinking about and wanting to have breast augmentation surgery for some time, but did not have the money to pay for it,\" the filing said. \"She felt that if she had the surgery, in her opinion, she would be more competitive for the Miss USA pageant.\" After pageant officials agreed to loan her the money, Prejean underwent breast augmentation in January, the pageant filing said. The court documents gave an inside look at the hostile relationship between Prejean, California pageant officials and Trump. After the Miss USA pageant, \"With her new-found notoriety, an inflated sense of self, and the lure of financial gain available to her, Ms. Prejean turned even further against the Miss California USA organization, abandoned her obligations as the Miss California USA titleholder, and violated multiple provisions of the contract which governed her reign,\" the pageant filing said.","highlights":"Pageant dropped lawsuit demanding Carrie Prejean repay $5,200 for her breast implants .\nPrejean, in exchange, withdrew suit accusing pageant of violating her privacy .\nSuit had said Pageant confirmed to reporters that Prejean's breasts were fake ."} -{"article":"BINGHAMTON, New York (CNN) -- Authorities defended the timeliness of police response to Friday's massacre at an upstate New York immigration services center as funerals were set to begin Sunday for two of the 13 slain. Jiverly Wong, 41, has been identified by police as the gunman in the Binghamton, New York, rampage. \"No decisions by the police had any bearing on who died,\" Broome County District Attorney Jerry Mollen told reporters Sunday. The first officers arrived at the American Civic Association about three minutes after the first emergency calls were made Friday, according to a timeline by the Binghamton Police Department. Officers did not enter the building for about 40 minutes, police said. \"No one was shot after police arrival, and none of the people who had been shot could have been saved, even if the police had walked in the door within [the] first minute,\" Mollen said. \"The injuries were that severe.\" Police said Jiverly Wong, a 41-year-old Vietnamese immigrant from an ethnic Chinese family, fatally shot his victims and then turned his gun on himself. City officials on Sunday released a list of all the victims. A receptionist at the American Civic Association called 911 at 10:31 a.m. Friday while she hid under her desk, said Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski. She was shot in the stomach and pretended to be dead before crawling under the desk, he said. Watch Zikuski give a timeline of the shooting \u00bb . Four people, including the receptionist, remained in serious condition in local hospitals but were expected to survive, the chief said. Wong had been taking English classes at the association and was upset about recently losing a job, police said. But officials on Sunday were still trying to determine a motive. Zikuski said the first 911 calls were in \"broken English,\" and dispatchers \"could not determine what was the problem.\" But two minutes after the first calls, officers were being dispatched to the civic association, and the first units arrived one minute later, the chief said. He said in these types of situations officers have orders to enter a building if shooting is still happening inside, but in this case the shooting had stopped. At 10:38 a.m., one of the wounded called with a description of the gunman. The department's tactical squad did not move in until 11:13 a.m., Zikuski said. Mollen said the issue of the police response was \"an obvious question\" that will be investigated, but \"now's not the time.\" \"We need a lot more information before any reasoned, intelligent response can be given to you,\" he said. Those who knew Wong said they were not surprised by his actions, Zikuski said Saturday. \"Some of this behavior on his [Wong's] part wasn't a total shock,\" the chief said. \"Apparently people were making fun of him. He felt he was being degraded because of his inability to speak English, and he was upset about that,\" Zikuski said. Wong came to the United States in the late 1980s and lived in Binghamton before moving to California in the early 1990s, police said. He returned to Binghamton in July 2007, Zikuski said. Wong became a U.S. citizen in 1995 and married and divorced while living in California, where he had been convicted on a misdemeanor charge of writing bad checks, according to Zikuski. Police found at the center two semi-automatic handguns, a .45-caliber and a 9 mm, licensed to Wong. The guns were purchased locally, and Wong made trips to a firing range \"at least once a week, sometimes more than that,\" Zikuski said. Wong had attempted to purchase \"a number of firearms,\" the chief said. Purchasing a gun in New York takes about two weeks, Zikuski said, and Wong would return to a store during that period, \"cancel that order and purchase another one.\" Wong was wearing body armor during the shooting. Investigators are \"looking into that\" because New York limits body armor purchases to law enforcement, Zikuski said. Funerals for two victims were held Sunday afternoon at a local mosque. An interfaith memorial service for all the victims was held Sunday evening, and hundreds of people took part in a candlelight vigil afterward. Watch relatives remember one of the victims, Roberta \"Bobby\" King \u00bb . \"In a strange way, this tragedy has brought everyone together,\" Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan said. \"We are a good community, a nonviolent community,\" Ryan said earlier of the city of about 50,000 people about 140 miles northwest of New York City. \"And we are going to spread the word that this is a community that will come together and heal.\" More details emerged over the weekend about the shooting. Wong used his car to barricade the center's back door and entered through the front of the building, authorities said. Ryan said the car belonged to Wong's father. Wong lived with his parents in Johnson City, near Binghamton, the site of a law enforcement search Friday. \"They took a computer hard drive -- they took an empty long gun case and some other bags,\" the mayor said. Wong was known to practice target shooting there, acquaintances told state police. Angela Leach, a representative of the American Civic Association, read a statement through tears at a news conference Saturday. View photos from the scene in Binghamton \u00bb . \"Whatever drove this individual to do what he did I cannot possibly fathom,\" Leach said. \"But we will come out of our grief and sadness more resolute in our mission and more dedicated than ever to help people realize the dream of American citizenship.\" One of the victims was Omri Yigal's wife, Dolores, Yigal told CNN. A native of the Philippines, she was taking English classes at the center to better herself. Yigal said he had no anger for the shooter. \"My thoughts are on my wife. I don't have time for that now,\" he said. Yigal said he felt \"grief for my wife and that's it.\" \"She's come so far,\" he said haltingly. He crossed his arms and his eyes to the ground. \"So much,\" he said. CNN's Allan Chernoff and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities defend police response; two funerals held Sunday .\nGuns found at scene registered to suspected shooter, authorities say .\nSuspect was taking English classes, also upset at losing job, police say .\nGunman kills 13 people, then self at Binghamton, New York, immigration center ."} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli troops Thursday killed a Palestinian militant trying to cross into Israel from Gaza and wounded another, according to Palestinian security sources. Israeli soldiers stand in front of the Kerem Shalom crossing Thursday on the Israel-Gaza border. Three armed militants tried to infiltrate into Israel near the Kerem Shalom crossing along the southern Gaza border, according to the Israeli military. Israel Defense Forces said it fired at the militants, hitting two of them. It was unclear what happened to the third. In a separate operation, Israeli forces killed another Palestinian militant Thursday near Jabalya in northern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said. The militant was part of a group trying to launch a mortar shell, sources said. On April 9, Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel through the Nahal Oz border crossing in northern Gaza and fired on the fuel terminal there, killing two Israeli civilian workers. In response, Israel halted already reduced fuel shipments to Gaza. It restarted some shipments on Wednesday but shut down the terminal again Thursday because of Palestinian sniper fire, according to the Israeli military. During the brief time the terminal was open, Israel sent 437,000 liters of diesel fuel and 93 tons of gas to Gaza via Nahal Oz, the only transit route for delivering fuel supplies to Gaza. Israeli forces also clashed early Thursday with Palestinian militants in the West Bank village of Qabatiya, killing the local Islamic Jihad leader and his deputy, the Israeli military said. Bilal Hamuda Machmud Zaalah and his deputy, Adin Machmud Hasani Avidot, were hiding in a vehicle when Israeli soldiers and security forces spotted them and surrounded the vehicle, the military said. \"After confirming that the two men were armed, forces fired at the wanted men, killing both,\" according to an IDF statement. Israel blames Zaalah for attacks against Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Jenin as well as other planned strikes inside Israel. But Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said Israeli forces surrounded a house around 3 a.m., ordering the two members of Islamic Jihad to surrender. The militants wouldn't come out, the sources said, and they died in an exchange of fire with the soldiers. The violence came a day after Israeli airstrikes and ground battles with Palestinian militants in Gaza left 21 dead -- 18 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers -- according to Palestinian security sources. A Reuters cameraman and two bystanders were killed in an apparent airstrike near El Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Hamas security sources and Palestinian medical sources. Other civilians and Palestinian militants also were killed in an Israeli strike on El Bureij. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement through his spokesman, said he's \"gravely concerned at the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel\" on Wednesday. \"He condemns the reported civilian casualties among Palestinians, including children, during Israeli military operations, and calls on Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law,\" the statement said. \"The secretary-general also reiterates his condemnation of rocket fire against Israeli civilian targets. He urges all parties to exercise restraint.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Israel closes fuel terminal on Gaza border after sniper fire, military says .\nIsrael says its troops fired on militants from Gaza trying to infiltrate border .\nOne killed, one wounded, Palestinian security sources say .\nIn separate incident, Israel says two Islamic Jihad militants killed in West Bank ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Caring for a car has you a befuddled. The honeymoon's over, and bureaucratic tasks are beating out bliss. You're meeting with a prospective babysitter or housekeeper, a stranger you'll entrust with much of your life. Rory Tahari, with son Jeremey, hopes to make life's to-do's more manageable with a new book and iPhone app. How do you know what to do? Where should you go and when? What should you ask these people? You need a list! If figuring out the answers to these kinds of questions leaves you loopy, Rory Tahari has a new book that may have your name on it. \"Lists for Life: The Essential Guide to Getting Organized and Tackling Tough To-Dos\" is just what it says it is: a compilation of lists to help readers navigate everything they might need for weddings and funerals, household maintenance and vacations, divorces and diaper bags. Watch Tahari discuss the book \u00bb . Along the same lines, she's behind a new iPhone application -- a travel packing list, available through the iTunes store -- that she said has been downloaded in about a dozen countries. \"It's just how my brain is wired. It's part of my DNA,\" said Tahari, vice chairwoman and creative director of Elie Tahari, the fashion design house bearing her husband's name. \"I don't know how to operate other than to make a list.\" CNN sat down with Tahari to discuss when her list-making started, what she's passed on to her children (son Jeremey, 8, weighs in) and how being stuck in a snowstorm inspired her. Here are excerpts from that interview. CNN: You've earned the nickname \"The List Mistress,\" but when did this, dare I say, obsession start? Tahari: From a very young age, I was a compulsive list-maker. I was always organizing something or doing some kind of list. The first list I really remember making was taking an inventory of every piece of clothing in my closet and seeing how many different outfits I could make. I think I came up with 112 combinations. CNN: The book covers such a wide range of topics: weddings, the home, pregnancy, travel, medical, emergencies, divorce and more. How many of these lists are or were based on your own organizational needs? Tahari: Ninety percent of the book came from actual experiences I've lived through myself. The other 10 percent, I basically did the research. [She has a degree in journalism and is a former TV producer.] . I fell off a horse two years ago, and I broke my back. I'd never been hospitalized before, so I never knew what it was like to be hospitalized. If you have a friend or family member who's in the hospital, bring them a blanket. They're always going to be cold, and the blankets they give you in the hospital don't cut it. And the nurses? You need them; they don't need you. A little batch of cookies or brownies goes a long way with the nurses. And you know what? You'll have a lot better hospital stay. CNN: Some of these to-do lists seem more fitting and standard than others. How did you decide what would go in the book? Tahari: People say, \"Why the emergency chapter? If you're in the middle of an emergency, you're not going to grab the book.\" Obviously, you're not going to have the book with you in the middle of the emergency. ... But I lived through at least three tornados in Atlanta [Georgia], one terrorist attack in New York and one blackout in New York. And after the blackout, I realized my family doesn't have a plan. I wanted to at least stimulate the idea of having a plan. CNN: Can you give me an example of a topic you had to research? Tahari: Cars. I had to have help with cars. Although, in fourth or fifth grade, there was some crazy snowstorm in Atlanta [where she grew up]. I was stuck in carpool on the way home from school with eight people for eight hours. I had one Tootsie Roll in my backpack, and let me tell you, a Tootsie Roll between eight people did not go far. So I decided in the car section that I wanted to have an emergency road list, a check list of things to have in the car. I was stuck in the car for eight hours, starving to death. CNN: You've used list making to help friends figure out practical things they need to do, but do the lists you've made over the years ever venture into the emotional or psychological -- say, for example, pro-con lists for staying in a relationship? Tahari: This book is not an advice guide. It's a to-do list. There's not a lot of prose in the book. I just want to be told what to do. I don't really want to hear advice. I don't need to hear the story. Just tell me what to do. CNN: So, Jeremey, how organized are you? Jeremey: In school, I don't have such an organized desk because I'm always busy and don't have time to clean up. But I do make some kinds of lists. I sort of have a list in my head. I memorize it. CNN: How about when you go on a trip, Jeremey? Are you a good packer or unpacker? Jeremey: I would write down stuff on paper and then stick it on the drawers in the hotel [so he knows where everything is]. My dad, when he's packing, he just takes all the clothes and goes like this [imitating his dad's voice], \"Jeremey, help me throw in the clothes.\" I try to fold them up and put them in. I'm like, \"Dad, you're not supposed to do that.\" Tahari: I definitely think he is taking after me.","highlights":"Figuring out to-do lists of life made easier with new book and iPhone app .\nRory Tahari, wife of fashion designer Elie Tahari, has kept lists since childhood .\n\"It's just how my brain is wired. It's part of my DNA,\" she says ."} -{"article":"WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- Kansas prosecutors have brought murder and assault charges against the man suspected of killing Wichita physician George Tiller, whose women's clinic was a frequent target of protests against abortion. Scott Roeder, 51, is being held on a first-degree murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault. Scott Roeder, 51, is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from Tiller's shooting death Sunday morning, Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess said. Burgess set a preliminary hearing in the case for June 16. Police have not disclosed a possible motive in Tiller's killing, but associates said Roeder was a regular among the anti-abortion protesters who routinely gathered at his Wichita clinic, Women's Health Care Services. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions, and he had survived one attempt on his life before being gunned down in his church Sunday morning. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty \"under the facts and circumstances that are known at this time,\" District Attorney Nola Foulston said. Watch the district attorney explain the charges \u00bb . Kansas state law allows the death penalty only in certain circumstances, such as multiple killings, contract killings, the deaths of police officers or jailers, or a slaying that takes place during a sexual assault. Roeder was in the county jail during his brief initial court appearance and appeared in court via video. He requested a court-appointed lawyer during the hearing, during which he was dressed in maroon jail coveralls and appeared to fidget. Watch scenes from court Tuesday \u00bb . Burgess ordered Roeder to have no contact with witnesses or Tiller's family. Since Tiller's death, supporters have left a few bouquets of flowers outside his clinic. The architecture of the low-slung, windowless concrete building -- which is fenced off, monitored by cameras and separated from buildings behind it by a moat-like ditch -- reflected the threats he faced for nearly two decades. In a statement issued Tuesday, Tiller's family said they hope his \"valuable work\" will go on, \"but there have been no final decisions made about the long-term plans for the medical practice.\" \"There is currently no plan to immediately reopen the clinic and no patients are being scheduled at this time. The Tiller family's focus, of course, is to determine what is in the best interests of the employees and the patients,\" the statement read. Dr. Leroy Carhart, a Nebraska physician who also practices at Tiller's clinic, said at his suburban Omaha office that he left a Monday meeting in Wichita with the belief that the practice would reopen \"in the very near future.\" But he said, \"At the present time, there's no known future.\" Carhart was the plaintiff who challenged a federal ban on a type of late-term procedure that opponents labeled \"partial-birth\" abortion. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2006. Tiller practiced medicine for nearly 40 years. Most of his patients were grappling with pregnancies that were \"fatally or catastrophically complicated by medical problems,\" Dr. Warren Hern, a Colorado physician and a friend, said on CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360.\" \"The many women who come for late abortions, in fact, have desperate circumstances with a desired pregnancy,\" he said. \"They want to have a baby, not an abortion.\" But Tiller's practice made Wichita a flashpoint in the controversy over abortion, which opponents routinely decry as the killing of unborn children. Most anti-abortion leaders quickly condemned Tiller's killing and disavowed Roeder. The National Right to Life Committee, the largest anti-abortion organization in the United States, said it \"unequivocally condemns\" violence. And Wichita-based Operation Rescue said Roeder never was \"a member, contributor, or volunteer.\" \"Operation Rescue has diligently and successfully worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see to it that abortionists around the nation are brought to justice. Without due process, there can be no justice,\" it said. But Hern called those disavowals \"hypocritical nonsense.\" \"This is the result of 35 years of anti-abortion harassment and terrorism and hate speech and rhetoric and harsh names and exploitation of the abortion issue as a political issue to get power,\" said Hern, who runs an abortion clinic in Boulder, outside Denver. \"And this is the inevitable result of this kind of hateful behavior by the anti-abortion movement.\" Carhart blasted abortion opponents who resort to violence \"and those who support and incite these violent acts.\" He declined to name names but urged the estimated 46 million women who have received abortions and their supporters to demand that government officials \"enforce the laws on the books that protect us from hate crimes.\" \"And if these officials don't openly respect your right to choose abortion, you have the power to vote them out of office,\" he said. CNN's Ed Lavandera, Gary Tuchman and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Physician says future of slain doctor's clinic is unknown .\nScott Roeder, 51, charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault .\nHe is accused of killing Wichita doctor George Tiller on Sunday .\nPreliminary hearing is set for June 16 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man in northern Idaho says he has seen a massive hand of God in his life, and he is willing to share it with the highest bidder. Paul Grayhek says the \"Hand of God\" appeared in his backyard in March. Paul Grayhek, 52, listed the rock formation he dubbed the \"Hand of God Rock Wall\" on the online auction Web site eBay. The highest bid was $250 early Sunday, with three days left to go in the auction. The hand-like formation, approximately 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide, appeared in Grayhek's backyard after a rockfall during Lent on March 8, he said. The Coeur d'Alene resident said he faced tough times after losing his job, and believed the rock was a sign. \"I prayed between licking my wounds and looking for a job,\" he said. \"We rarely get rockfalls and this formation is 20 feet from my house. It's definitely a symbol of the hand of God in my life.\" However, the winning bidder on eBay should not start clearing out his backyard. Grayhek is not planning to part with the formation. The buyer will \"basically be buying the rights, complete and exclusive rights\" to the rock, including literary and movie rights, according to Grayhek. Grayhek said he plans to use the money from the sale to pursue an unpaid internship in counseling when he graduates with a master's degree in social work in two years. \"People think I'm some holier-than-thou person trying to get rich. I'm not,\" Grayhek said. \"The purpose is to spread the story of God and eBay is just a vehicle.\"","highlights":"Idaho man places \"Hand of God\" rock for sale on eBay .\nPaul Grayhek says hand-like formation appeared in his backyard during Lent .\nWinning bidder on eBay would get \"exclusive rights\" to rock ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia -- Going back to work after my wife had our first child was an emotional roller coaster. The author says that being \"Mr. Mom\" is appealing, but putting the idea into practice is harder than it looks. I forced myself out of bed, shaved my beard and got dressed on the morning of my return. I performed these work week rituals while cursing the fact that I matched only one number on my last lottery ticket, so I had to show up that day. After being out of the office for a little more than two weeks on paternity leave, I knew the transition back to work would be tough. I coped with this fact, like any rational new parent would, by increasing the number of lottery tickets that I purchased. Saying goodbye took a while. I made several trips up and down the stairs to get one more glimpse of my daughter before succumbing to the inevitable: my commute, fighting traffic and reintegrating to cubicle culture. I arrived at the office still thinking of my family at home without me. I found myself misty-eyed at the water cooler while I waited for Outlook to load several hundred unread e-mails. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be at home with my daughter. The idea of being a stay-at-home dad, like Michael Keaton in \"Mr. Mom,\" always appealed to me. For the uninitiated, the 1983 comedy is about an out-of-work father faced with domestic challenges while his wife gets a job. A memorable scene has the title character, Jack Butler, trying to sound like he knows what he's talking about to his wife's new boss. He tells him that he plans to wire a new wing of his house in \"220, 221, whatever it takes.\" I identify with the latter part of his character's claim. It's not like me to pretend to know anything about home improvement, but when it comes to caring for my family while balancing my responsibilities at work, I plan on doing whatever it takes. In 2007, 37 percent of working dads admitted that they would leave their jobs if their family could afford it, according to CareerBuilder.com. The \"if\" in that statistic is a big one. Unlike the characters in \"Mr. Mom,\" my wife and I both need to work. A good sequel to this film may have explored the hijinks that ensued from an overwhelmed parent caring for a newborn while working from home. Nowadays, there's support for all of the Jack Butlers out there. Web sites such as AtHomeDad.org and Rebeldad.com have established online communities dedicated to providing tips and resources for fatherhood. These forums represent a growing fellowship where those with experience can help new dads. Personally, I haven't utilized them much yet because of that old Groucho Marx joke about not wanting to be a member of a club that would have a person like me as a member. Available resources and social acceptance for stay-at-home dads have come a long way since \"Mr. Mom's\" portrayal of them. In fact, Salary.com calculated that a stay-at-home dad was worth $125,340 a year for the dad portion of his work in 2006. This analysis took into account tasks that range from cooking and cleaning to teaching and serving as a child psychologist. Since I can't convince anyone to pay me my estimated worth as an at-home dad -- and living on one salary isn't an option for my family -- I've considered working from home a couple of hours a week when necessary. Flexible work schedules make sense because they benefit a company by allowing employees to be more productive on their terms. Nevertheless, working from home may not be for everyone. I work for a news Web site, facilitating advertisement opportunities. A lot of my job's communication occurs via e-mail, which is something I can do at home. I'd worked from home before, but not with a newborn in the house. My first test was only for a couple of hours when the baby was about 3 weeks old. My wife had an early appointment, and I was going to watch the baby sleep, hopefully, and then go into the office after she got home. I had e-mail to check and two conference calls scheduled back-to-back during that time. I didn't expect this to be too difficult. I caught up on the e-mail much earlier than if I had gone into the office that morning. Unfettered from the restriction of the morning rituals, my productivity was already soaring and I was ahead of schedule. Then disaster struck. As I called into my first meeting, the baby started to stir, squirm and make her signature sounds (a primal series of grunts, snorts and whimpers). She was telling me that her diaper needed to be changed and that she was probably hungry, too. So I did what any multi-tasker would do: I put the phone under my ear, stuck her bottle under the tap, muted the phone, ran up the stairs with her in a tucked football position, unmuted the phone, answered a question, muted again, changed her diaper and ran down the stairs to get the bottle. My wife called while I was juggling the baby, diaper, bottle and meeting to let me know that she was running late. I screamed to myself, \"I need help NOW!\" Allowing the nervous breakdown to run its course, I continued to pace across my living room floor -- regretting that I hadn't chosen decaf that morning. A few minutes later, I jumped out of the first meeting to call into the second. I said, \"Hello, this is Josh, I'm here on mute, OK, thanks.\" As I listened in on mute, I shushed my baby to calm her -- to no avail. Her cries became increasingly louder. My boss asked, \"Josh, are you there?\" I unmuted my phone and right on cue, my daughter screamed at the top of her little lungs. The conference room on the other end of the phone erupted with laughter, and I told them that I'd have to get back to them. My wife arrived home shortly after the conference-call debacle. I told her that I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to work from home anymore. I realize that the ability to work and be a nanny simultaneously is a skill requiring practice. One trial run as a telecommuter with a newborn has caused me to question the feasibility of being able to do it on a regular basis. Perhaps it's time for me to forget about that old Groucho Marx joke and accept some help. Wait, the baby's crying, sorry, gotta go.","highlights":"Poll: 37 percent of working dads would quit jobs if their families could afford it .\nStay-at-home dad's work worth $125,340 a year, according to Salary.com .\nAuthor talks about caring for infant daughter during work conference call .\n\"Mr Mom\" line, \"220, 221, whatever it takes\" inspires work-from-home dad ."} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian newspaper and magazine published excerpts of what they said were audio recordings of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi talking with an escort at the center of a corruption probe. Veronica Lario, the wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, pictured, filed for divorce in May. The daily La Repubblica and its sister magazine L'Espresso said the recordings posted on their Web sites Monday were of Berlusconi and Patrizia D'Addario. She has said that an Italian businessman hired her and other women to attend parties at Berlusconi's homes. In June, D'Addario told CNN that she had turned the tapes over to a prosecutor in Bari, southern Italy. Through her attorney, she refused to comment on the authenticity of the excerpts released Monday. But in a statement carried by the Italian news agency ANSA, Berlusconi lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said the prime minister is challenging the \"truthfulness and legality\" of the recordings. \"We can only regard the material as worthless, completely false and the result of invention,\" Ghedini said. \"In any case, the act of its publication is an illegal act in itself, which will need to be pursued, and all legal actions will be taken against any body who publishes such material.\" Berlusconi, the 72-year-old media mogul-turned-prime minister, has denied the allegations. According to La Repubblica, the conversation between D'Addario and Berlusconi took place in October and November at the prime minister's house in Rome. It also published an excerpt of what it said was a conversation between D'Addario and Gianpaulo Tarantini, the businessman accused of hiring D'Addario and other escorts. Prosecutors in Bari, in southern Italy, are investigating allegations that Tarantini bribed health officials to buy prosthetics and other medical supplies from a company he and his brother own. Tarantini has denied any wrongdoing and says he brought women to the parties to make a \"beautiful impression.\" \"I have never paid money to those who accompanied me except for refunding their trip expenses,\" he said in a statement issued last month. \"I exclude that the premier could have been aware of these reimbursements and I want to ask forgiveness for having involuntarily damaged him.\" Berlusconi's private life has been in the spotlight since his wife of 19 years, Veronica Lario, filed for divorce in May. The split followed reports that Berlusconi went to the birthday party in Naples of an 18-year-old girl, with whom Berlusconi has denied having an inappropriate relationship. And the Spanish newspaper El Pais has published what it said were photos of racy parties at Berlusconi's villa on the island of Sardinia, including one picture that showed scantily clad women. But despite the swirl of scandal, Berlusconi remains popular, consistently scoring approval ratings well over 50 percent. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"D'Addario refuses to comment on authenticity of excerpts released Thursday .\nBerlusconi attorney calls act of publication \"an illegal act\"\nLa Repubblica: Conversation between D'Addario, Berlusconi took place at his home .\nLa Repubblica publishes alleged conversation between D'Addario, businessman ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo's sixth-minute strike saw holders Manchester United become the first English team to win in Porto, reaching the semifinals of the Champions League 3-2 on aggregate in the process. Ronaldo scores in spectacular style as Manchester United reached the Champions League semis. The European Player of the Year fired a spectacular 35-yard strike into the top corner as United remained on course to become the first team to retain the Champions League -- and will now face Premier League rivals Arsenal for a place in the final in Rome. The stunning goal was Ronaldo's 20th of the season but only his second in the Champions League since scoring the opener in last year's final in Moscow. After drawing the first leg 2-2 at Old Trafford, Porto only needed a low-scoring draw to reach the last four, but in truth they never looked threatening against a United defense superbly marshalled by Nemanja Vidic and the returning Rio Ferdinand. In fact, had Vidic been able to keep his close-range effort under the crossbar after John O'Shea had got the faintest of touches to a Ryan Giggs corner just before the interval, United would surely have completed their task in the first 45 minutes. \"We were very solid at the back tonight and that stability helped us,\" United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. \"The return of Rio Ferdinand alongside Vidic was a major boost and scoring an early goal helped settle us. It was a great strike by Cristiano and although we didn't score a second goal, I thought we never looked in danger of conceding,\" he added. The result puts Ferguson head-to-head with his old foe, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, for a place in the final against either Chelsea or Barcelona. It also keeps alive United's dreams of claiming an astonishing five trophies this season after also winning the English League Cup and the Club World Cup.","highlights":"Manchester United beat Porto 1-0 to reach the Champions League semifinals .\nCristiano Ronaldo scores a sixth-minute stunner to put holders into last four .\nUnited become first English team to win in Porto and now face rivals Arsenal ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Be bold! Think big! Barack Obama wants to do just that. An $800 billion economic stimulus plan. Three million jobs. Health care reform. A restructured automobile industry. Obama's popularity with voters will win him influence with political opponents. Obama won the biggest Democratic majority for president in 44 years. His party made big gains in Congress. Democrats now have a majority of nearly 60 percent in both the House and Senate. President Obama's got a mandate. And a majority. What's to stop him? Just this: the U.S. system of government. It is set up to make it difficult to get things done. The Constitution was written 222 years ago by men who didn't trust government. They had just waged a revolution against a king. To the founders of the American republic, strong government meant despotism. So they set up a system with an elaborate separation of powers. The idea was to ensure weak government. The dirty little secret of American government is that it was designed not to work very well. As president after president has discovered, there are innumerable ways opponents can stop measures from getting passed, even if the president's party holds a majority in Congress. The Senate has its own rule that's not in the Constitution requiring a super-majority of 60 Senate votes to control the agenda. A minority of 41 senators can \"filibuster'' a measure and prevent it from coming up for a vote. How many votes will Republicans have in the Senate? 41 or 42, depending on the outcome in Minnesota where ballots are still being counted. Presidents often have problems holding their own party together. That's because members of Congress are elected by local constituencies and they are expected to represent local interests. American politicians are independent political entrepreneurs. They are not foot-soldiers of a party. When Bill Clinton first became president, he had a solid Democratic majority in Congress. But he could not get his health care reform plan passed. After an intense advertising campaign by opponents, many Americans were worried that the Clintons were planning a government takeover of the health care system. The Clinton plan failed, and within two years, Democrats lost their majority in Congress. One-party control didn't work any better for George W. Bush. Bush had trouble getting what he wanted -- notably, immigration reform -- from a Republican Congress. Republicans lost their majority in Congress in 2006. But here's another dirty little secret of American government: it often does work. Very well in fact. Under the right conditions, barriers fall away and things get done, sometimes with amazing speed and efficiency. What are the right conditions? An overwhelming sense of public urgency. That sense of urgency certainly existed after 9\/11, when Congress quickly passed the Patriot Act. Getting anything big done in American government requires a sense of crisis. That's why politicians in the U.S. are always declaring crises -- a drug crisis, an education crisis, an environmental crisis. Or they're trying to rally the country to fight a war on something -- a war on poverty, a war on crime. If the public urgency is not authentic, however, opponents won't have much trouble stopping things from happening. Obama certainly takes office at a time of crisis, just as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt did. Like them, he has the opportunity to transform American government. Members of Congress who try to block President Obama's program may find themselves in political trouble. Because there is yet another dirty little secret of American government: the United States is the most populist democracy in the world. Here, the people rule. When the people want something, they will get it, whether it's the death penalty or gun rights or lower taxes. Why doesn't the United States have a metric system or dollar coins like other countries? Because the people won't use them. Obama's popularity is soaring right now. When a president is popular, he has clout. Everyone wants to be on his side, even members of the opposition party. They're in business for themselves, and supporting a popular president is good for business. Standing in his way could drive them out of business. American government is not an efficient, well-oiled machine. It was never designed to be. It has to be lubricated by public pressure. If the people are shouting \"Do something!'' -- as they are right now -- then something will happen. Even if it means a lot more spending and a lot more government. The people reserve one key right: they will let the government know, rather quickly, whether or not it's working.","highlights":"Three secrets behind the way U.S. government works .\nIt was designed to ensure weak government .\nIn times of crisis usual barriers fall away .\nIf voters want something done, it will get done somehow ."} -{"article":"KANDARA, Kenya (CNN) -- Daniel Mungai's family keeps him locked in a room in a wooden shack that is just big enough to fit a bed, a cupboard, Daniel and his wheel-chair. His clothes and bed are soaked with his own waste -- and he's been living like this for 15 years. Daniel Mungai is kept locked away in a small wooden shack and has been for 15 years. Daniel, 35, started having seizures at a young age. He is sometimes given medicine for epilepsy and spent time at a mental hospital but his parents say they simply cannot afford to maintain proper care -- they are struggling to cope. Both his parents are also now too old to help him properly. They live in the same compound in Kandara, Kenya, but in a different building. His father, Ndung'u Joroge, said: \"We don't lock him out of bad will. We lock him up because people have become very bad. He may come out here and then he is caught by young men, that is why we lock him in the house.\" The desperate measures Daniel's family has resorted to are not rare. African health services are often underfunded and overwhelmed -- no more so in the field of mental health. Watch more about the story \u00bb . CNN visited rural Kenya -- a country where less than one percent of the health budget is allotted to mental health -- to investigate the extent of the problems. Edah Maina, who runs the Kenya Society for the Mentally Handicapped, says the mentally disabled in Kenya have few options for long-term care and support. \"The entire family is affected and especially when the mother sort of loses hope and resorts to locking up the child because they have to go out and earn a living or they have to chain them up because they might hurt themselves,\" said Maina. Social workers in Kenya searching for those in desperate need found a mother and child on the floor of a squalid kitchen hut. John is 17 and severely handicapped. He cannot speak and cannot properly hold his head up. He has been living like this his whole life. When CNN met with him, he and his mother were lying on a thin, filthy blanket. His mother, Jane, is mildly mentally disabled. She does what she can for her son, but John spends so much time on his side that he suffers from severe bedsores. They depend on help from their impoverished family and they haven't eaten for days. Maina said: \"I think that some of these social needs are beyond the family capacity to handle the normal day to day life needs, and as you can see the burden of disability increased for this particular family when the son to this girl with mental disabilities was also born with mental disability and then the severity of mental disability of the son became more severe because the mother ... is herself with mental disability.\" She added: \"First and foremost, nobody would want to live like this, it's inhumane, it is not what we want to see people live, it is not the lifestyle that anybody would want. What I am saying is that this home is suffering.\" Maina said that even with years of experience working with the vulnerable, the cases still shock her. Her poorly funded charity does what it can, sometimes acting on the tips of neighbors. The Director of Mental Health in Kenya told CNN that they were trying their best to help the mentally disabled and mentally ill, but that the needs were 'enormous' -- and the funding was far too little. Dr. David Kiima told CNN there are only 50 active psychiatrists in the country to serve a population of more than 30 million. It is hard to believe that 15-year-old Joseph could hurt himself or anyone else. But he is on powerful anti-psychotic drugs and his mother and grandmother struggle to handle him. Grandmother Prisca Njeri said: \"When the drugs finish he beats himself and he bites himself when the drugs finish.\" She does not know what they will do when Joseph gets bigger and they have no access to proper care. When his family leaves to work on their small patch of land, they lock Joseph up in a dark room. Here, too, the place reeks. They are a loving family and are conflicted about what they have to do. \"He is afraid of entering that room. We put him in when we want to leave to go to the farm because he will get lost if we leave him outside,\" Njeri said. Like so many families with limited means in Kenya, they feel compelled to make this awful decision: locking their loved ones away from society just to keep them safe from themselves and those who would do them harm.","highlights":"Mental health patients in Kenya find themselves locked in shacks by their families .\nRelatives struggle to cope and get little government assistance .\nLess than one percent of Kenya's health budget is allotted to mental health .\nSenior health official says there's only 50 active psychiatrists in the country ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least six people were killed Thursday when a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Honduras, President Jose Manuel Zelaya told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol Thursday. Thursday's quake leaves part of a bridge damaged over the Ulua River in El Progreso, Honduras. Another 17 people were injured, said Jose Reyes, a spokesman for COPECO, the Honduran government agency that responds to natural disasters. Two of the victims -- a 15-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl from Morazan -- died after a wall collapsed on them, Reyes said, adding that trauma was blamed for most of the fatalities. A 9-year-old boy died, and a heart attack proved fatal to a man from Tela, Honduras, the agency said. A woman suffered cardiac arrest. The 15-year-old boy's brother suffered minor injuries, said Dilcia Fernandez, mayor of La Lima, where the boy died. La Lima is about 120 miles (200 km) north of the capital, Tegucigalpa. Eighty homes were destroyed and another 175 damaged, including 16 schools, nine churches, eight public buildings, seven factories, three bridges, two hotels, a hospital, an airport and a potable water system, Reyes said. Watch how the quake damaged a bridge \u00bb . The 7.1-magnitude quake, which struck at 3:24 a.m. and was centered about 200 miles (320 km) north of the capital, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Half an hour later, a 4.8-magnitude aftershock hit about 155 miles (250 km) north of Tegucigalpa. Zelaya said the June 2-3 meeting of the Organization of American States will be held as planned in nearby San Pedro Sula, where he said one building had been damaged by the quake. The earthquake was centered, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 27 miles (43 km) from Roatan, the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands and a popular destination for scuba diving and snorkeling. The area -- known for its white-sand beaches, clear waters and rich ocean reef -- is popular among budget-conscious travelers. \"People were startled. They started walking, running, doing everything they could to get to higher ground about two miles away,\" said Ron Cummins, who owns a resort there. \"I have been on the island for 14 years, this is the worst I have seen.\"iReport.com: Did you feel the quake? Share photos, video . Ressie Bodden Saphrey said she was sleeping when her house started shaking. \"There was dark everywhere,\" said Saphrey, who works at a hotel in Roatan. Dishes and bottles crashed to the floor, she said. She and her 19-year-old daughter packed their passports, medicine, bottled water, canned food and a flashlight in case they were told to evacuate. They stayed inside their concrete three-story house, though many people in Roatan wandered the streets in the darkness, she said. A television station in Honduras, Channel 8, reported damage to several buildings. The Honduras disaster-response agency urged people to safeguard any important documents, and store food and water they could take in a hurry, according to Channel 8. Carol Frazier, who was vacationing in Roatan, said the quake knocked out power in her condominium and spilled water from the swimming pool. \"Everything was moving. The TV fell on the ground,\" she said. \"The difficulty was we couldn't even move. \"I really thought it was a tsunami or something. That was really our first concern,\" she said. \"We ran out.\" Ron Bobbette, who manages a hotel in West End Roatan, said power had been restored in most places and panic was subsiding. \"Everything is back to normal,\" Bobbette said. \"I just finished walking around the hotel and there is no visible structural damage.\" CNN's Mark Bixler, Faith Karimi and Tom Watkins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eighty homes destroyed, another 175 damaged, official says .\nOriginal quake centered about 200 miles (320 km) north of the capital, USGS says .\nQuake centered 27 miles (43 km) from Roatan, popular scuba diving destination ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States and Britain said Wednesday they are committed to remaining in Afghanistan, despite increased military casualties and declining public support for the war effort. U.S. Marines partrol part of the Gharmsir district in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Wednesday. \"We went into this together, and we will work it through together because we are stronger together,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after a half day of talks at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton praised Miliband's approach on Afghanistan, including the call for the government to reconcile with moderate elements of the Taliban. \"His analysis of the way forward is very much consistent with ours, and we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder in pursuit of our common objectives,\" Clinton said of her counterpart. In a speech at NATO headquarters on Monday, Miliband called for rank-and-file Taliban to be given the chance to reconcile with the Afghan government, even as the campaign continues against Taliban commanders who are waging jihad. He also urged greater burden sharing not only among NATO allies in Afghanistan but by the Afghan government. \"There is a lot of talk, rightly, about burden sharing within the coalition, but the greatest burden sharing must be between the international community and the government of Afghanistan, which increasingly needs to take the lead -- the security lead, as well as the political lead -- in shaping the future of that country,\" he said. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters that boosting the training of Afghan forces would be a big focus after the country's August 20 election. When asked whether the election would be fair, Holbrooke, who just returned from the region, said he had heard complaints from all sides but was not \"unduly upset.\" \"It's an extraordinary thing to hold an election in the middle of a war, and this is the first contested election in Afghanistan in history,\" Holbrooke said, adding the United States has no favorite candidate but only wants \"an election whose outcome is accepted as legitimate by the Afghan people and the world, which reflects the desires of those who vote.\" July has been the deadliest month for U.S. and British forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, with 39 U.S. troops and 22 British troops killed. Miliband said the effort was going through a \"tough phase,\" but added that the British people understood the \"vital nature\" of the mission to stabilize Afghanistan. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been under under enormous pressure from his opposition, which charges that British troops don't have proper resources to fight the war, including helicopters. But he was sanguine. \"I think the British people will stay with this mission, because there is a clear strategy and a clear determination on behalf of the United States and other coalition members to see this through,\" he said, adding that the British people understood the mission's \"vital nature.\" Americans, too, have questioned whether the war in Afghanistan is winnable and worth the effort. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and members of Congress, including Democrats, have predicted that President Obama has a year to show progress in Afghanistan before public support for the war further erodes. Clinton said Britain and the United States \"have made significant gains in the recent operations\" against the Taliban, but \"there remains much work to be done.\" \"We know that this is a challenge that is not going to be easily resolved in a short period of time,\" she said, adding \"both of our countries are still threatened by the same enemy, an enemy that has attacked London, New York and Washington.\" \"We know they've attacked us in the past, and, unfortunately, we know that they plot against us even today,\" she said.","highlights":"July deadliest month for U.S., British forces in Afghanistan since '01 invasion .\n\"We will work it through together,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says .\nMiliband calls for Afghan government to reconcile with moderate Taliban elements .\nU.S. official: Boosting the training of Afghan forces will be a big focus ."} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Typhoon Melor roared into central Japan on Thursday, leaving two people dead and lashing the region with heavy rain and gusty winds. Utility poles lie buckled in the wake of Typhoon Melor. The storm stayed west of Tokyo, but still caused enough trouble to shut down trains for a time and snarl commuter traffic. Numerous flights were canceled and delayed at the city's two major airports. In western and northern Japan, Melor tore roofs off homes, downed power lines and flooded roads. The storm contributed to the deaths of a 54-year-old newspaper delivery man in Wakayama, who ran into a fallen tree, and a 69-year-old man from Saitama, who was crushed by a tree. By late Thursday, Melor had weakened to a tropical storm and was heading out to sea. -- CNN's Kyung Lah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Typhoon Melor roars into central Japan leaving two people dead .\nStorm avoided Tokyo but caused major disruption to transport networks .\nStorm's victims were killed by falling trees ."} -{"article":"LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Toiling in what is the opium capital of the world, farmers in southern Afghanistan are swapping out their poppy plants for wheat crops. A farmer harvests wheat in a field on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, last summer. The farmers are participating in programs sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is offering seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation to the region in an effort to stop poppy crops and, ultimately, the production of opium and heroin. Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year. Opium cultivation in the country, which has 34 provinces, dropped by about 20 percent in a year, the U.N. reported in August. \"It's a challenge to deliver assistance in a war zone -- you can hear fighter jets flying above us right now,\" said Rory Donohoe, a USAID development officer. \"At the end of the day, what we found is successful is that we work in areas that we can work,\" he told CNN in a recent interview in Helmand province. \"We come to places like this demonstration farm where Afghans can come here to a safe environment, get training, pick up seeds and fertilizer, then go back to districts of their own.\" Watch Afghans speak about the change in their farming practices \u00bb . Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals. Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID. Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan. \"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away,\" said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah. \"The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear.\"","highlights":"USAID offering seeds, other help to encourage Afghan farmers to grow wheat .\nAgency trying to wean Afghan farmers from poppy production .\nPoppy plants used to produce opium and heroin .\nOpium, heroin has been a major source of revenue for the Taliban ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" hit thousands of theater screens across the country at midnight Wednesday. Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter develop a romance in \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.\" Since then, fans have been buzzing about some of the film's most impressive scenes -- including one called \"I killed Sirius Black.\" In the scene, Potter is confronted by Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, who is creating mischief for both the boy wizard and his latest crush, Ginny Weasley. (Death Eaters are followers of the series villain, Voldemort.) Exhilarating for some, but frustrating for others, this particular scene from the franchise's sixth installment is a cinematic creation, as it never occurs in the J.K. Rowling novel. Watch the excitement of \"Potter's\" scene \u00bb . That aside, it includes pyrotechnic explosions, blazing fires, a massive chase sequence and the use of dark arts -- the Harry Potter version of black magic. In this week's \"The Scene,\" actors Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter; Bonnie Wright, who stars as Ginny Weasley; and director David Yates comment on the action.","highlights":"\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" came out Wednesday .\nFilm has key scene involving Harry and Bellatrix Lestrange .\nScene is not in J.K. Rowling's book, but a cinematic creation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just days before he was sworn in, President Obama was giving his daughters a tour of the Lincoln Memorial when one of them pointed to a copy of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address carved into the wall. President Obama strides into history as the nation's first black president. Obama's 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, told her father that Lincoln's speech was really long. Would he have to give a speech as long? Obama's answer was completed by his older daughter, 10-year-old Malia. \"I said, 'Actually, that one is pretty short. Mine may even be a little longer,' \" Obama told CNN recently. \"At which point, Malia turns to me and says, 'First African-American president, better be good.' \" The story is light-hearted, but it touches on a delicate question: Will people hold Obama to a different standard because he is the first African-American president? Americans appear split by race on that answer. According to a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 53 percent of blacks say the American public will hold Obama to a higher standard than past presidents because he is black. Most whites -- 61 percent -- say Obama's race will not matter in how he will be judged. The question divided several people who were racial pioneers themselves. Alexander Jefferson was one of the first blacks allowed to become a fighter pilot. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who escorted bombers in World War II. \"We had to be twice as good to be average,\" he says. Obama won't face the same pressures he did because his presidential predecessor was so inept, Jefferson says. \"No, the world is ready for him,\" he says. \"The [George W.] Bush debacle was so depressing.\" Jefferson was shot down by ground fire on his 19th mission and spent a year in German prison camps. He wrote about his POW experiences in \"Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW.\" Jefferson says he dealt with the pressures of being a racial pioneer by drawing on the strength of black leaders who opened doors for him. \"I sit on the backs of everyone who came before me,\" says Jefferson, who attended Obama's inauguration with other Tuskegee Airmen. Jefferson says he would have emotionally imploded if he'd thought too much about the pressures of representing all blacks and dealing with the racism he encountered when he returned home to a segregated America after the war. \"I did what I had to do so I didn't go stark-raving mad,\" he says. \"There wasn't all this self-analysis and back and forth. I was too damn busy with a wife, a child and a mortgage.\" Michele Andrea Bowen couldn't avoid a bout of constant self-analysis. She was one of the first African-American students admitted to a doctorate program in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. \"I know Obama is going to be held to a different standard,\" says Bowen, author of \"Up at the College\" and books such as \"Holy Ghost Corner,\" which celebrate black faith and culture. Bowen says she faced relentless scrutiny, and so will Obama. \"You know that it was hard for you to get in it, and you know they're watching you,\" Bowen says. \"And you know that they're judging you by a critical standard that's sometimes not fair.\" Bowen says a white classmate, her partner in dissertation, once confided to her that he received the same grades as she did, even though he knew his work was inferior. \"It toughened me up,\" Bowen says. \"It can give you headaches and stomachaches. I learned you have to be thankful that God blessed you with that opportunity. At some point, you stop worrying, and you trust God.\" 'Would Bush have been president if he were black?' Perhaps Obama will avoid those stomachaches because of the massive good will his election has generated. But that could change quickly if Obama makes a controversial decision or a mistake, says Andrew Rojecki, co-author of \"The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America.\" Rojecki says people who say Obama isn't going to be held to a different standard because of his skin color didn't pay attention to his campaign. He says Obama had to deal with challenges that other candidates didn't have to face. Obama's run for office was almost ended by his association with his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary sermons shocked many. But Republican presidential nominee John McCain's relationship with the Rev. John Hagee, who was accused of anti-Semitism, never threatened to end his campaign, Rojecki says. \"Obama was held responsible for what his minister said, and McCain was associated with Hagee, but somehow that didn't stick,\" says Rojecki, a communication professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Even people who regard themselves as the most progressive, open-minded supporters may subconsciously hold Obama to a different standard, Rojecki says. He says several academic studies show that it often takes people longer to associate good qualities to blacks when different faces are flashed across a screen. \"They have these stereotypes buried in their subconscious,\" he says. \"That's why people cross the street when they see a young black man. They'd rather not take a chance.\" Obama virtually had to be perfect to overcome those stereotypes, Rojecki says. He was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, he has an Ivy League-educated wife and adorable daughters, and he ran a great campaign. \"He's the perfect symbol of achievement,\" Rojecki says. White candidates for office don't have to have an uninterrupted life of achievement to be considered for the Oval Office, Rojecki says. \"If George W. Bush were black, do you think he would be president?\" Rojecki says. Jefferson, the Tuskegee Airman, says Obama should have at least one consolation. The problems he confronts now are so immense that anyone, even someone who was considered by many to be perfect, would not be able to escape withering judgment. \"If the president was Jesus Christ, '' Jefferson says, \"they would still debate if he's qualified.\"","highlights":"Racial pioneers say they felt pressure to be extraordinary .\nPoll shows Americans split by race over how Obama will be judged .\nRacial pioneer says pressure can make person \"stark-raving mad\""} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nearly a year after surviving a plane crash in South Carolina, disc jockey Adam \"DJ AM\" Goldstein was found dead in his New York apartment Friday afternoon, his publicist said. He was 36. Adam \"DJ AM\" Goldstein was one of two people who survived a 2008 plane crash in South Carolina. \"The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear,\" his publicist, Jenni Weinman, said in a statement confirming the performer's death. \"Out of respect for his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time.\" Goldstein was found unconscious and unresponsive in his lower Manhattan apartment Friday afternoon, New York police said. The cause of death would be determined by medical examiners, but \"there is no criminality suspected at this time,\" a police statement reported. Goldstein and Travis Barker, the drummer for rock band Blink-182, were the only survivors of a September plane crash in South Carolina that left both critically injured. Four others aboard the plane were killed when the Learjet skidded off a runway during takeoff from Columbia. Watch more about his career \u00bb . \"Daily I live with the guilt and grief of what happened that night, what I saw, who was lost and why I was spared,\" he wrote in a December post on his Web site. \"I have no words to express the pain that comes with knowing four people died, while I lived.\" In addition to spinning beats at clubs and festivals, Goldstein was known for dating reality-TV star Nicole Richie and singer-actress Mandy Moore. \"I am absolutely heartbroken,\" Moore said in a statement. \"For those of us lucky enough to have known him, Adam radiated a contagious exuberance for life and also personified the very definition of a true friend. To say that he will be missed beyond words is an understatement. My heart goes out to his loved ones.\" iReport.com: DJ AM \"bridged communities\" At the time of his death, he had been working on an MTV show about drug addiction that had been scheduled to debut in October. Goldstein himself had been a crack cocaine addict who said he wanted the show to help others recover. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adam \"DJ AM\" Goldstein was found unconscious in his apartment .\nThere is no criminality suspected at this time,\" police say in statement .\n\"The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear,\" Goldstein's publicist says .\nHe was one of two survivors of a September plane crash in South Carolina ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Drugmaking giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to buy independent U.S. skincare specialist Stiefel Laboratories for up to $3.6 billion. The new business will operate under the Stiefel identity within the GSK Group. In a statement Monday, the two companies said the deal would create a new world-leading specialist dermatology business with combined revenues of $1.5 billion. Under the terms of the agreement GSK will acquire the total share capital of Stiefel for $2.9 billion. GSK also expects to assume $400 million of net debt upon closing. A further $300 million cash payment will be made depending on future performance. GSK's existing prescription dermatological products will be combined with Stiefel's and the new specialist global business will operate under the Stiefel identity within the GSK Group. The new business will have a broad portfolio of dermatology products including Stiefel's leading brands: Duac, for acne, Olux E for dermatitis and Soriatane for the treatment of severe psoriasis. GSK's key dermatology brands include: Bactroban, Cutivate and the recently launched Altabax. Stiefel, part-owned by buyout firm Blackstone Group, is the world's largest independent dermatology company, with a range of prescription and over-the-counter products. According to Reuters.com it was put up for sale a month ago and attracted interest from a number of large pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis and Johnson & Johnson. Following the announcement, GSK Chief Executive Andrew Witty said: \"As part of our strategy to grow and diversify GSK's business, we are continuing to make new investments through targeted acquisitions. This transaction will create a new world-leading, specialist dermatology business and re-energize our existing dermatology products. \"The addition of Stiefel's broad portfolio will provide immediate new revenue flows to GSK with significant opportunities to enhance growth through leveraging our existing global commercial infrastructure and manufacturing capability. We look forward to working with Stiefel to develop this exciting opportunity.\"","highlights":"GSK is the world's second-largest drugmaker .\nU.S.-based Stiefel is world's largest independent dermatology company .\nGSK will acquire total share capital of Stiefel for $2.9 billion .\nGlobal business will operate under Stiefel identity within GSK Group ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- France has awarded its highest decoration to veteran CNN correspondent Jim Bittermann. CNN's Jim Bittermann at the special ceremony in Paris where he was made a chevalier. At a special ceremony presided over by the Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Paris Tuesday, Bittermann was presented with the \"chevalier\" (knight) of the National Order of the Legion of Honor. Bittermann, CNN's senior European correspondent based in Paris, said: \"For the past 30 years, I've been explaining France and the French to the rest of the world.\" During his career with CNN in Paris Bittermann has covered the death of Princess Diana, the last days of Yasser Arafat, the French triumph at the 1998 World Cup and the Concorde air disaster. He joined CNN from ABC News, where he was a Paris news correspondent from 1990-1996; before that Bittermann was a European correspondent for NBC News. He began his career in broadcast journalism in 1970 in Milwaukee. Founded in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize outstanding accomplishment, the chevalier is given annually to around 3,500 Frenchmen and women -- but few non-nationals. Of the 13 honorees this year from outside France, two are American. Previous non-French recipients include former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, fillm legends Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles and Norman Schwarzkopf, who led allied forces against Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. Apart from his work for CNN, in recent years Bittermann has been a featured speaker at journalism events such as the International Diplomacy Institute, as well as lecturing and moderating panels at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 1999 Bittermann was appointed a professor at the American University of Paris, teaching courses broadcast news, writing and production and politics and media among others.","highlights":"Only two Americans are set to be award the rank of chevalier this year .\nJim Bittermann, a journalist for nearly 40 years, joined CNN in 1996 .\nFirst awarded by Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize outstanding accomplishment ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singapore's Gross Domestic Product is expected to shrink as much as 5 percent in 2009, far more than the 1 to 2 percent contraction predicted earlier this month, the government said. People walk out for their lunch break in the financial district of Singapore on Wednesday. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said it expected a GDP reduction of between 2 and 5 percent this year. Singapore's economy grew by 1.2 percent in 2008, the government said, far lower than its 7.7 percent growth in 2007. Slowdowns in manufacturing, trade, transport and storage, information and communications and the financial services sectors contributed to the decline, the government said. The global financial crisis led to a \"significant decline in fund management and stock broking activities in the second half of 2008,\" and a sharper downturn was expected in 2009, the ministry said. The ministry cited data on retail sales and unemployment in the United States, industrial production in Europe and on Asian exports for the weaker outlook. Inflation was expected to ease slightly, however. The finance minister is expected to deliver the 2009 budget statement on Thursday.","highlights":"Gross Domestic Product reduction between 2 and 5 percent expected .\nMinistry cites data on U.S. retail sales and unemployment, Asian exports .\nFinance minister expected to deliver the 2009 budget statement Thursday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican authorities on Saturday arrested four men in connection with last week's shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in San Diego County, California, Mexico's state-run news agency Notimex reported. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas was fatally shot Thursday night in California, U.S. authorities said. Mexican federal police identified the men as human smugglers, and said they were in the act of transporting 21 immigrants when they were detained in the northwest state of Baja California, Notimex said. At a news conference, federal police identified two of the suspects as brothers Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, 49, and Jose Evodio Quintero Ruiz, 43. The other two arrestees were taxi drivers Antonio Badallares Zepeda, 57 and Jose Alfredo Camacho Penuela, 34, Notimex reported. Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas was shot and killed Thursday night while responding to a potential incursion into the United States in the Campo area in San Diego County, U.S. authorities said. The Mexican federal police did not offer specific evidence of the suspects' role in the killing, but said intelligence reports indicated the group was responsible for kidnappings, rapes and murders of several people who tried to cross to the United States, Notimex said. The men were wanted by American authorities, police said. Notimex said that during his interrogation, Jose Eugenio Quintero told investigators the shooter was Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, a man arrested the day before by local police in Tecate, Mexico. Rosas, who is survived by his wife and two young children, had been a border agent for three years. Rosas was the ninth Border Patrol agent to be killed while on duty since 2006, according to the agency's Web site. Two agents died in a vehicle wreck in 2006, and four died in 2007, including two who died in vehicle wrecks, a third who drowned and a fourth who suffered a heart attack while pursuing undocumented immigrants. Two agents died on duty last year, the Border Patrol said. One died in a single-vehicle wreck; another was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by a suspected smuggler, according to the agency's Web site.","highlights":"Mexican news agency: Four arrested in connection with U.S. agent's death .\nU.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas gunned down Thursday in California .\nMexican police say suspects are smugglers of humans .\nNews agency: Suspect says fifth man -- arrested earlier -- was shooter ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A mother and her teenage son are kidnapped. The kidnappers place a cell phone in the car of the boy's father so they can communicate their ransom demands. The son is burned with a blowtorch. The mother implores the father to pay the ransom. A terrifying scenario, but one that the FBI and police say was all orchestrated by the mother to get some fast cash from her ex-husband. The mother, Alejandra Arriaza, her boyfriend, Angel Ponce, and his nephew, Joel Boza, were charged Tuesday with federal kidnapping counts. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison. According to an FBI affidavit, all three have admitted their roles in the phony kidnapping. \"We took it very seriously and believed a couple of lives were at risk,\" said Jim Leljedal of the Broward County, Florida, sheriff's office. \"And then to find out that one of the victims was involved in the plot was pretty surprising.\" The three suspects will have a detention hearing Wednesday in a federal court in Miami, Florida. The U.S. attorney's office would not comment on the case. According to the FBI affidavit, written by special agent Scott Wilson, the plot was Arriaza's idea. It began, court papers say, when she and her boyfriend found out her ex-husband had recently come into some money from the sale of a business, and that he kept a large amount of cash in his home. The father and son are not named in the affidavit, which refers to the father as \"H.P.\" and to his 17-year-old son as \"N.P.\" The affidavit says that the plot began Thursday when Arriaza told her son she wanted to take him to Wal-Mart to purchase an Apple iPhone. When they got back to their car, a masked intruder appeared from the back seat, pointed a gun at the son's back and told him and his mother that they were being kidnapped, according to the affidavit. The kidnapper placed thick tape over the son's eyes and instructed his mother to drive to a mobile home in southwest Miami, where a second person, who introduced himself as \"El Negro,\" was waiting. The affidavit says the men forced N.P. to sit in a chair, where they bound his hands. His torso was bound to the back of the chair with shrink wrap, and his legs were bound with tape. The boy's head was wrapped in thick tape from the top to the tip of his nose, and he was put in a closet, where he spent the night. The next day, according to the FBI affidavit, the kidnappers called the boy's father on a cell phone they had placed in his car. The father then called authorities, who began to record the phone calls. At one point during the abduction, the son told the kidnappers that his father had about $50,000 in a bank, the affidavit says. When the kidnappers felt that the father was not complying with their demands, they threatened to burn his son, and at one point, according to the affidavit, \"the kidnappers put a lit blowtorch close to the phone, so he could hear it.\" During another phone call, Arriaza, who is the father's ex-wife, told him that kidnappers were burning their son's feet. She implored him to pay the kidnappers their ransom, the affidavit says. At one point, Wilson wrote, the kidnappers held the blowtorch so close to N.P. \"that it burnt the hair off his leg.\" \"I think they wanted to impress him with the seriousness so that he would relay ... to his father to come up with some money,\" Leljedal said. Under the FBI's guidance, the father arranged to pay the ransom. But late in the evening of April 10, before the ransom was paid, law enforcement located the mobile home and rescued the son, who immediately identified his mother's boyfriend, Angel Ponce, as one of the men inside the unit where he was being held. A search of the home turned up a fake gun, a blowtorch, tape and three cell phones. According to the affidavit, Ponce said Arriaza came up with the idea to have herself kidnapped, along with her son, to get money from her ex-husband. Arriaza later admitted her involvement in the kidnapping and said her son had no involvement in the ruse, according to the FBI. \"We don't think she meant to harm to her son. She just wanted to collect from her ex,\" Leljedal said. In the end, he said, it was all about one thing: \"The basic motive of greed.\"","highlights":"Woman, boyfriend, third man charged in bizarre fake kidnapping .\nFeds say abduction was staged to collect $50,000 from woman's ex-husband .\nThey said kidnappers bound teen with tape, burned him with blowtorch .\nDetention hearing set for Wednesday in Miami federal court ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When then-President-elect Barack Obama first asked Hillary Clinton to be his top diplomat, she turned him down and recommended others for the job, the secretary of state said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Hillary Clinton meets with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Friday to discuss North Korea. Speaking to ABC's \"This Week,\" Clinton also said the president has answered the central question she raised about him when she was his chief rival for the Democratic nomination last year. In her famous \"3 a.m.\" ad, she questioned whether Obama was the right candidate to handle a middle-of-the-night international crisis. \"Has the president answered it for you?\" host George Stephanopoulos asked. \"Absolutely,\" Clinton replied. \"And, you know, the president, in his public actions and demeanor, and certainly in private with me and with the national security team, has been strong, thoughtful, decisive, I think he is doing a terrific job. And it's an honor to serve with him.\" The former senator from New York and former first lady revealed details of how she came to accept the role. Watch analysts dissect the Clinton-Obama relationship \u00bb . \"I never had any dream, let alone inkling, that I would end up in President Obama's cabinet,\" she said. \"When I left the presidential race after getting some sleep and taking some deep breaths, I immediately went to work for him in the general election. ... And I was looking forward to going back to the Senate and, frankly, going back to my life and representing New York, which I love. And I had no idea that he had a different plan in mind.\" When her name was mentioned in the media as a possible member of Obama's cabinet, Clinton said, she found the idea \"absurd.\" \"And then when he called and asked me to come see him, and we had our first conversation, I said, 'You know, I really don't think I'm the person to do this, I want to go back to my life. I really feel like I owe it to the people of New York.' And I gave him a bunch of other names of people who I thought would be great secretaries of state.\" But Obama \"was quite persistent and very persuasive,\" Clinton said. She added, \"Ultimately, it came down to my feeling that, number one, when your president asks you to do something for your country, you really need a good reason not to do it. Number two, if I had won and I had asked him to please help me serve our country, I would have hoped he would say yes. And finally, I looked around our world and I thought, you know, we are in just so many deep holes that everybody had better grab a shovel and start digging out.\" Some analysts have raised questions about how much power Clinton actually has in the administration, given that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have done a great deal of international outreach themselves. The president has also appointed special envoys to focus on several key regions. But Clinton said she wanted the envoys appointed \"because we were inheriting so many hot spot problems that I knew you could never have one person possibly address all of that.\" One of the biggest is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Clinton and the president have called on Israel to halt construction at settlements in the West Bank. Asked whether there is any room for compromise on that issue, Clinton said the administration would not \"prejudge the effort.\" She said the administration is committed to Israel's security. \"We see historical, demographic, political, technological trends that are very troubling as to Israel's future. At the same time, there is a legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people that needs to be addressed.\" On the nuclear standoff with Iran, Clinton said a diplomatic process in which U.S. representatives sit down with Iran's authorized representatives would give \"us information and insight that we don't have. ... We don't have any really clear sense as to what it is they are seeking.\" Clinton also addressed the growing tensions surrounding North Korea, and what she called its \"very provocative and belligerent behavior\" with recent tests of missile and nuclear technology. \"One of the positive developments,\" she said, is that \"it has actually brought the [other] members of [the] six-party process -- Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, the United States -- much closer together\" in how they view the challenge. She said there may be additional U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Several lawmakers have asked the president to put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. \"We're going to look at it,\" Clinton said. \"There's a process for it. Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism.\" She emphasized that North Korea's detention of two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, is separate from the political issues. \"It is a humanitarian issue and the girls should be let go,\" Clinton said.","highlights":"Clinton says she was looking forward to going back to Senate after the election .\nShe suggested to President Obama a list of other people for top diplomat post .\nClinton reconsidered when Obama was \"quite persistent and very persuasive\"\nClinton was recently in South Korea for discussions on North Korea ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his work on the economics of information and was on the climate change panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Stiglitz, a supporter of Barack Obama, was a member and later chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration before joining the World Bank as chief economist and senior vice president. He is the co-author with Linda Bilmes of the \"Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.\" Economist Joseph Stiglitz says federal regulators and executives helped create the Wall Street crisis. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Many seem taken aback by the depth and severity of the current financial turmoil. I was among several economists who saw it coming and warned about the risks. There is ample blame to be shared; but the purpose of parsing out blame is to figure out how to make a recurrence less likely. President Bush famously said, a little while ago, that the problem is simple: Too many houses were built. Yes, but the answer is too simplistic: Why did that happen? One can say the Fed failed twice, both as a regulator and in the conduct of monetary policy. Its flood of liquidity (money made available to borrow at low interest rates) and lax regulations led to a housing bubble. When the bubble broke, the excessively leveraged loans made on the basis of overvalued assets went sour. For all the new-fangled financial instruments, this was just another one of those financial crises based on excess leverage, or borrowing, and a pyramid scheme. The new \"innovations\" simply hid the extent of systemic leverage and made the risks less transparent; it is these innovations that have made this collapse so much more dramatic than earlier financial crises. But one needs to push further: Why did the Fed fail? First, key regulators like Alan Greenspan didn't really believe in regulation; when the excesses of the financial system were noted, they called for self-regulation -- an oxymoron. Second, the macro-economy was in bad shape with the collapse of the tech bubble. The tax cut of 2001 was not designed to stimulate the economy but to give a largesse to the wealthy -- the group that had been doing so well over the last quarter-century. The coup d'grace was the Iraq War, which contributed to soaring oil prices. Money that used to be spent on American goods now got diverted abroad. The Fed took seriously its responsibility to keep the economy going. It did this by replacing the tech bubble with a new bubble, a housing bubble. Household savings plummeted to zero, to the lowest level since the Great Depression. It managed to sustain the economy, but the way it did it was shortsighted: America was living on borrowed money and borrowed time. Finally, at the center of blame must be the financial institutions themselves. They -- and even more their executives -- had incentives that were not well aligned with the needs of our economy and our society. They were amply rewarded, presumably for managing risk and allocating capital, which was supposed to improve the efficiency of the economy so much that it justified their generous compensation. But they misallocated capital; they mismanaged risk -- they created risk. They did what their incentive structures were designed to do: focusing on short-term profits and encouraging excessive risk-taking. This is not the first crisis in our financial system, not the first time that those who believe in free and unregulated markets have come running to the government for bail-outs. There is a pattern here, one that suggests deep systemic problems -- and a variety of solutions: . 1. We need first to correct incentives for executives, reducing the scope for conflicts of interest and improving shareholder information about dilution in share value as a result of stock options. We should mitigate the incentives for excessive risk-taking and the short-term focus that has so long prevailed, for instance, by requiring bonuses to be paid on the basis of, say, five-year returns, rather than annual returns. 2. Secondly, we need to create a financial product safety commission, to make sure that products bought and sold by banks, pension funds, etc. are safe for \"human consumption.\" Consenting adults should be given great freedom to do whatever they want, but that does not mean they should gamble with other people's money. Some may worry that this may stifle innovation. But that may be a good thing considering the kind of innovation we had -- attempting to subvert accounting and regulations. What we need is more innovation addressing the needs of ordinary Americans, so they can stay in their homes when economic conditions change. 3. We need to create a financial systems stability commission to take an overview of the entire financial system, recognizing the interrelations among the various parts, and to prevent the excessive systemic leveraging that we have just experienced. 4. We need to impose other regulations to improve the safety and soundness of our financial system, such as \"speed bumps\" to limit borrowing. Historically, rapid expansion of lending has been responsible for a large fraction of crises and this crisis is no exception. 5. We need better consumer protection laws, including laws that prevent predatory lending. 6. We need better competition laws. The financial institutions have been able to prey on consumers through credit cards partly because of the absence of competition. But even more importantly, we should not be in situations where a firm is \"too big to fail.\" If it is that big, it should be broken up. These reforms will not guarantee that we will not have another crisis. The ingenuity of those in the financial markets is impressive. Eventually, they will figure out how to circumvent whatever regulations are imposed. But these reforms will make another crisis of this kind less likely, and, should it occur, make it less severe than it otherwise would be. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Joseph Stiglitz: Fed pumped too much money, aiding housing bubble .\nNew-fangled instruments hid overuse of borrowing, Stiglitz says .\nExecutives followed short-term interests and magnified risks, he says .\nStiglitz: Widespread changes needed to prevent future crises ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: The Rev. Robert Barron is Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary and author of several books, including \"Eucharist,\" \"Word on Fire: Proclaiming the Power of Christ\" and \"The Priority of Christ: Toward a Post-Liberal Catholicism.\" Barron is the director of WordOnFire.org, a global media ministry based in Chicago, Illinois. For another view on this topic, read here. The Rev. Robert Barron says celibacy sets the priest apart as a symbol of the world to come. (CNN) -- The scandal surrounding the Rev. Alberto Cutie has raised questions in the minds of many concerning the Catholic Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. Why does the church continue to defend a practice that seems so unnatural and so unnecessary? There is a very bad argument for celibacy, which has appeared throughout the tradition and which is, even today, defended by some. It goes something like this: Married life is spiritually suspect; priests, as religious leaders, should be spiritual athletes above reproach; therefore, priests shouldn't be married . This approach to the question is, in my judgment, not just stupid but dangerous, for it rests on presumptions that are repugnant to solid Christian doctrine. The biblical teaching on creation implies the essential integrity of the world and everything in it. Genesis tells us that God found each thing he had made good and that he found the ensemble of creatures very good. Catholic theology, at its best, has always been resolutely, anti-dualist -- and this means that matter, the body, marriage and sexual activity are never, in themselves, to be despised. But there is more to the doctrine of creation than an affirmation of the goodness of the world. To say that the finite realm in its entirety is created is to imply that nothing in the universe is God. All aspects of created reality reflect God and bear traces of the divine goodness -- just as every detail of a building gives evidence of the mind of the architect -- but no creature and no collectivity of creatures is divine, just as no part of a structure is the architect. This distinction between God and the world is the ground for the anti-idolatry principle that is reiterated from the beginning to the end of the Bible: Do not turn something less than God into God. Isaiah the prophet put it thus: \"As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways, says the Lord.\" And it is at the heart of the First Commandment: \"I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods besides me.\" The Bible thus holds off all the attempts of human beings to divinize or render ultimate some worldly reality. The doctrine of creation, in a word, involves both a great \"yes\" and a great \"no\" to the universe. Now there is a behavioral concomitant to the anti-idolatry principle, and it is called detachment. Detachment is the refusal to make anything less than God the organizing principle or center of one's life. Anthony de Mello looked at it from the other side and said \"an attachment is anything in this world -- including your own life -- that you are convinced you cannot live without.\" Even as we reverence everything that God has made, we must let go of everything that God has made, precisely for the sake of God. This is why, as G.K. Chesterton noted, there is a tension to Christian life. In accord with its affirmation of the world, the Church loves color, pageantry, music and rich decoration (as in the liturgy and papal ceremonials), even as, in accord with its detachment from the world, it loves the poverty of St. Francis and the simplicity of Mother Teresa. The same tension governs its attitude toward sex and family. Again, in Chesterton's language, the Church is \"fiercely for having children\" (through marriage) even as it remains \"fiercely against having them\" (in religious celibacy). Everything in this world -- including sex and intimate friendship -- is good, but impermanently so; all finite reality is beautiful, but its beauty, if I can put it in explicitly Catholic terms, is sacramental, not ultimate. In the biblical narratives, when God wanted to make a certain truth vividly known to his people, he would, from time to time, choose a prophet and command him to act out that truth, to embody it concretely. For example, he told Hosea to marry the unfaithful Gomer in order to sacramentalize God's fidelity to wavering Israel. Thus, the truth of the non-ultimacy of sex, family and worldly relationship can and should be proclaimed through words, but it will be believed only when people can see it. This is why, the Church is convinced, God chooses certain people to be celibate. Their mission is to witness to a transcendent form of love, the way that we will love in heaven. In God's realm, we will experience a communion (bodily as well as spiritual) compared to which even the most intense forms of communion here below pale into insignificance, and celibates make this truth viscerally real for us now. Though one can present practical reasons for it, I believe that celibacy only finally makes sense in this eschatological context. For years, the Rev. Andrew Greeley argued -- quite rightly in my view -- that the priest is fascinating and that a large part of the fascination comes from celibacy. The compelling quality of the priest is not a matter of superficial celebrity or charm. It is something much stranger, deeper, more mystical. It is the fascination for another world. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the Rev. Robert Barron.","highlights":"The Rev. Robert Barron: Why does Church back practice that seems unnecessary?\nHe says he rejects the \"marriage is spiritually suspect\" defense of celibacy .\nBut celibacy sets the priest apart as a symbol of another world, he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It doesn't matter that they can be feverishly hot. Or that crowds make for long food lines or the tickets may be hard to come by. Bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding performed at this year's New Orleans Jazz Fest. Music festivals worldwide attract thousands of fans wanting to hear their favorite artists live or discover under-the-radar musicians. Each major festival has its own special twist, specific to the event and city that hosts it. From the notorious mud baths at Glastonbury, England, to the breath-taking mountains surrounding Fuji Rock in Naeba, Japan, these are events that festival-goers wait for all year. Experience the New Orleans Jazz Fest \u00bb . Our guide prepares music fans worldwide for the best festivals this summer and later in the year. GLASTONBURY, Somerset, England June 24-28 ($255) Glastonbury has been around since dairy farmer Michael Eavis first held a free two-day festival on his farm in 1970, and it's long been the festival in England for seeing the biggest and best bands in the world. It also may be the muddiest -- heavy rain in several years, most notably 1997, turned Glastonbury into a muddy bog. Everyone from Radiohead to Jay-Z has headlined the festival, and with more than 700 acts each year, there is something for everybody. Some of the proceeds from the festival go to Oxfam and Greenpeace. This year's headliners include Franz Ferdinand, Blur, and Bruce Springsteen. ROCK AL PARQUE, Bogota, Colombia June 27-29 (free) The Rock al Parque festival, launched in 1995, has become South America's biggest rockfest in recent years -- some 320,000 people traveled to Simon Bolivar Park in 2006 for a weekend of Colombia's top rock bands and renowned international headliners. Funded by Colombia's culture secretary, the free festival has included some of rock's biggest names, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Manu Chao, and Bloc Party. In the days leading up to Rock al Parque, the festival organizers host a series of panel discussions on music production, management, and the recording industry. ROSKILDE, Denmark July 2-5 ($220) Since 1971, the rock festival in Roskilde has hosted the top names in music, from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan. It is the biggest summer festival in northern Europe, and the \"Arena\" stage boasts a 17,000-capacity tent, the largest in Europe. The festival has a daily newspaper and a 24-hour live radio station and is also home to the annual \"Naked Run,\" where the first naked person to cross the finish line receives a free ticket for next year's festival. Some 80,000 will travel to Roskilde to see headliners including Coldplay, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails. EXIT, Novi Sad, Serbia July 9-12 ($105) Created in 2000 by three university students as a protest against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, the electro-focused festival in the heart of Serbia was named Europe's best festival in 2007 by fans voting in the UK Festival Awards. Over 200,000 people attended Exit last year, dancing at all-night raves in the gorgeous surroundings of Petrovaradin Fortress, an 18th-century castle near the Danube River. Some of techno's biggest names will be on hand to celebrate Exit's 10-year anniversary, including Moby, Kraftwerk, and The Prodigy. THISDAY, Abuja\/Lagos, Nigeria Dates tba . The THISDAY festival in Nigeria -- launched in 2006 by the editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery -- is the biggest music and fashion festival in Africa. According to Obaigbena, the festival is meant to highlight the positive progress being made in Africa, and find sustainable solutions for the continent's problems. The theme of last year's festival was \"Africa Rising,\" and it showcased some of the world's best-known artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Usher. Stay tuned for this year's lineup. FUJI ROCK, Naeba, Japan July 24-26 ($410) Japan's biggest outdoor festival takes its name from Mt. Fuji, the site of the first festival in 1997. Fuji Rock has been set amongst the cool forested mountains of the Naeba ski resort for the past ten years -- gondolas and hilly trails transport people from stage to stage, and the streams and forests between them are the reason why Fuji Rock has been called the most beautiful festival in the world. It's not just about the scenery, though -- over 100,000 people will trek through the mountains to see headliners Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Weezer. LOLLAPALOOZA, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. August 7-9 ($190) Rocker Perry Farrell began Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for his band, Jane's Addiction. The biggest grunge rock festival during the '90s disappeared for awhile around the turn of the century, but it was revived in 2005 as a more traditional \"big weekend\" destination festival in Chicago. The past few years at Grant Park have been marked by hot summers, huge crowds, and even bigger bands. The anticipated crowd of nearly 200,000 is staggering, as are this year's headliners: Kings of Leon, Tool, Depeche Mode, and Beastie Boys, just to name a few. BESTIVAL, Isle of Wight, England September 11-13 ($205) The trendy Bestival, the original boutique weekend festival on the Isle of Wight, is the best way to end the summer festival season in Europe. Bestival boasts a yearly fancy dress competition -- last year's was \"30,000 freaks under the sea,\" and 2009 is the year of \"Outer Space,\" so make sure to dress accordingly. Thousands of Bestival-goers will witness an eclectic lineup including Lily Allen, Massive Attack, and MGMT in the picturesque surroundings of Robin Hill Park. For family fun, look no further than Camp Bestival, a three-day family festival at a castle by the sea in July. PARKLIFE, Australia Late September-Early October . The Parklife series of one-day music festivals kicks off the summer festival season across Australia. The dance-focused fests have featured heavyweights Justice, MIA, and Muscles over the past two years. The day-long festivals are followed by an official \"After Life\" party that runs until the early hours of the morning, so be prepared for a long one if you're one of the estimated 100,000 people attending a Parklife gig in one of several cities across Australia at the end of September. WOODSTOCK, Johannesburg, South Africa November 27-30 When people think of Woodstock, South Africa isn't necessarily what comes to mind. But for the past decade, the festival has been the biggest youth music event in that country, hosting a variety of both well-known and upcoming mainstream and hip-hop acts -- not to mention a variety of extreme sports stunt acts, paintballing, and flea-market stalls. Woodstock may not have the star power of the legendary American festival -- but with the wide range of music and outdoor activities it presents, its promoters aren't lying when they say that boredom simply isn't an option. SUNBURN, Goa, India December . Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as South Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John 00 Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in \"Goa Trance,\" a type of pulsing, transcendental electro music that became popular in the early 1990s. Sunburn again treated more than 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. The festival's founder has said Sunburn will always be free to attend, and it is not to be missed if you happen to be in India in December.","highlights":"CNN has put together a list of some of the best upcoming music festivals .\nYou can dress to kill at England's Bestival's fancy dress competition .\nEnjoy the music, comedians and silent disco at Bonnaroo in Tennessee .\nDance all weekend in the shadows of a 300-year-old Serbian castle ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force is grounding more than 100 planes used to support ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because of fatigue cracks in the wings, Air Force officials said Friday. Aircraft like this A-10 Warthog provide close support to ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The officials said 127 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, including some used in the United States, will be grounded until they are each inspected for the cracks. \"The inspections are a necessary step in addressing the risk associated with A-10 wing cracking, specifically with thin-skin wings. This risk is of great concern to the Air Force and is representative of a systemic problem for our aging Air Force fleet,\" the Air Force said. The A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed the \"Warthog\" because of its unique un-aerodynamic look, is one of the Air Force's older aircraft, having first been delivered to the service in 1975. The average age of the A-10 fleet is now 28 years, but the entire Air Force fleet has an average age of 25 years, according to Air Force statistics. The Air Force has more than 400 A-10s in its fleet. The cracks in the older A-10 A-models and A-10 C-models were discovered at Hill Air Force Base in Utah during routine maintenance. No A-10 has had an accident because of the cracks just discovered, according to Air Force officials. The inspection of the 127 planes will give priority to the planes in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of battle, officials said. The plane was designed as a tank killer, with a front-mounted Gatling gun that fires 30-mm armor-piercing ammunition capable of destroying a tank. The planes are now primarily used in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect ground troops in close combat situations, flying low and slow and with the ability to target individuals hidden on mountainsides or rooftops. Last year, the Air Force grounded hundreds of F-15 fighter jets after one fell apart during a training mission. The culprit was a fatigued longeron, a part that holds the fuselage together. Numerous F-15s flying in Iraq and Afghanistan also were grounded until they were inspected, forcing the service to fly other aircraft in their place. The Navy was also asked to help cover the F-15 missions during the weeks they were grounded.","highlights":"127 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs will be grounded because of fatigue cracks in wings .\nA-10s first delivered to Air Force in 1975; average age is 28 years .\nNone of the cracks has been attributed to accidents .\nPlanes used in Iraq, Afghanistan to protect ground troops in close combat situations ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- When we requested an interview with members of the Communist Youth League, I expected an army of suits with well-rehearsed answers. Instead, we met three students casually dressed in jeans, just 18 to 23 years old. Christina Zhang wants to be a linguistics teacher or professor. She plans to attend graduate school. The interview was arranged by the State Council Information Office, in advance of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Unlike many government-sanctioned shoots, it was not carefully choreographed or closely monitored. The students did arrive with a \"minder\" of sorts, but he was no older than them and didn't interrupt the conversation. We sat down for tea at Ritan Park in downtown Beijing. My questions seemed to be more sensitive than they expected, but the students remained poised and answered every one. All of the students are members of the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Youth League, the same organization that launched the successful careers of Chinese President Hu Jintao and many of China's other top leaders. \"I think Communism is an ideal state of society that everyone should pursue,\" said Natalie Chen, an 18-year-old freshman and finance major at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. \"In the Communist society, everything is fair in economics, in politics, in education. Everybody has equal opportunity and that's a great society.\" \"Do you think everything is fair in China?\" I asked Natalie. \"At present I have to say no,\" she said. \"But, we are of course making progress towards it.\" Watch Chang's interview with the students \u00bb . Young students like Chen are the future of the Chinese Communist Party, which now is the largest political party in the world with 75 million members. It has come a long way. In 1949, the Communist Party was a group of mostly revolutionary farmers, who came to power on the heels of civil war. See how China has changed over 60 years \u00bb . \"The party was a rag tag organization you might say,\" said David Shambaugh, a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and political science professor at George Washington University. \"They had no experience in ruling, but a lot of experience in fighting and they were faced with a number of problems of how to set up a government and run the country.\" The first three decades of Communist rule were tumultuous, marred by backward isolation and a destructive Cultural Revolution. However, the next 30 years transformed China from the inside out, with the implementation of new economic goals and gradual openness to the outside world. The Communist Party now is largely credited with delivering the country from isolation to economic prosperity. Despite this achievement, perhaps the party's most astounding achievement in 60 years is, quite simply, surviving as the one and only political party in a massive country. \"To be adaptable and flexible is a path to survival,\" said Shambaugh. \"So this has been a very adaptable, and I would argue, eclectic party, borrowing bits and pieces from different political systems all around the world and studying other political systems.\" Yet, in being so adaptable, analysts say the party has run the risk of having a lot of slogans and little substance. Slogans such as \"the scientific mode of development,\" \"socialism with Chinese characteristics,\" and \"harmonious society\" often cannot be explained by the average Chinese citizen. \"These are all current slogans, but people are not really sure what they mean,\" Shambaugh said. Indeed some of the party's youngest members provided vague answers when asked for what exactly the Communist Party stands. \"I think we have a goal,\" said 23-year-old Christina Zhang, an undergraduate in linguistics at Beijing Normal University. \"That is to reach a harmonious society. That is our dream ... I believe we are sure to realize our dream.\" \"We discuss science, we discuss thought, we discuss everything,\" added Lin De-yuan, a 23-year-old first-year graduate student in Marxist studies at the Chinese Youth University of Political Sciences. He also suggested I read \"the book by Karl Marx,\" referring to the Communist Manifesto. China's younger generation has been criticized for caring too much about securing good jobs instead of about policy and politics. These days, it is widely regarded that many young people join the party, not because they share Communist ideals, but because it looks good on their resumes. Chen, Zhang and Lin denied joining the party for personal gain. Chen plans to become a banker or a politician, Zhang aspires to be a teacher and Lin dreams of becoming an NBA referee. However, they do acknowledge joining the party may have some benefits and some members actively use their party credentials to achieve certain career goals. \"Admittedly, some people join the party with their own purpose of getting a good job, or getting a promotion,\" Chen said. \"But that's why we are still having a fierce battle with corruption in the party.\" In fact, corruption is one of the biggest challenges the Communist Party will face in the years ahead. Young Communists like Chen, Zhang and Lin will be responsible for rising to these types of challenges and shaping the party's future. Their generation may determine whether the Communist Party is still China's one and only ruling party 60 years from now.","highlights":"Unlike many government-sanctioned shoots, this one was not closely monitored .\nYoung students are the future of the Chinese Communist Party .\nYouth have been criticized for caring too much about securing good jobs .\nAnalysts say the party runs the risk of having many slogans but little substance ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On a videotape released Sunday, American al Qaeda member Adam Yahiye Gadahn renounces his U.S. citizenship, destroys his passport and cites U.S. President Bush's upcoming trip to the Middle East. \"American jihadist\" Adam Gadahn, originally from California, in a video released in September 2006. The 50-minute tape -- titled \"An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance\" -- was released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's video production wing and was provided to CNN by www.LauraMansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism. In it, Gadahn renounces his citizenship to protest the imprisonment of Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, a blind Egyptian Muslim leader serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; and John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, and others. Gadahn displays his passport to the camera, rips it in half and says, \"Don't get too excited -- I don't need it to travel anyway.\" Though Gadahn speaks mostly in English, he references Bush -- who is to travel this week to the Middle East -- only in Arabic. \"We raise an urgent appeal to our mujahedin brothers in the Muslim Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula in particular, and the region in general, to be prepared to receive the crusader butcher Bush on his visit to Muslim Palestine and the occupied peninsula at the beginning of January,\" he said. \"They should receive him not with roses and applause, but with bombs and booby-traps.\" The video also refers to the Annapolis Conference, indicating it was produced after last November 27, when the conference was held. National Security Council Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the U.S. president would not be deterred. \"His comments are indicative of an al Qaeda ideology that offers nothing but death and violence,\" Johndroe told CNN in a written statement. \"President Bush will travel to the region to stand with the mainstream governments who want liberty and justice for their people.\" The self-proclaimed American jihadist, also known as Azzam the American, is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, with a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to his capture. Gadahn was indicted in 2006 on charges of treason and offering material support for terrorism, the first American charged with treason since World War II. Gadahn, who grew up in rural California, embraced Islam in the mid-1990s and moved to Pakistan. Since October 2004 he has appeared in at least eight al Qaeda videos in which he speaks in English and praises the terrorist network. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Adam Gadahn in videotape tears up U.S. passport, speaks in Arabic and English .\nTape was released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's video production wing .\nOriginally from California, Gadahn talks about Bush's upcoming trip to Middle East .\nGadahn is on the FBI's Most Wanted List with $1 million reward for information ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A $15.5 million payout made by oil giant Shell to settle a lawsuit brought against it by relations of executed Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists will allow the families of the victims to move on with their lives, Saro-Wiwa's son has told CNN. Saro-Wiwa said the settlement would allow the families of the victims to draw a line under the past. The New York lawsuit -- brought to court by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Saro-Wiwa's family and others in 1996 -- accused Shell's Nigerian subsidiary of complicity in the writer's 1995 hanging and the killings or persecution of other environmental activists in the Niger Delta. Nigeria's Ogoni people have complained for years that Shell was allowed to pollute its land without consequences. Saro-Wiwa's death sparked a worldwide outcry, and his movement ultimately forced Shell out of the oil- and gas-rich Ogoniland region. \"It enables us to draw a line under the past and actually face the future with something tangible, some hope that this is the beginning of a better engagement between all the stakeholders in this issue,\" Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. told CNN. Shell said it \"had no part in the violence that took place\" but called the settlement \"a humanitarian gesture to set up a trust fund to benefit the Ogoni people.\" Shell fought the lawsuit until last week, when a federal appellate court ruled that the plaintiffs could sue the company's Nigerian subsidiary in American courts, overturning a March decision in the company's favor. Saro-Wiwa said the case set a precedent for oil companies operating in regions such as West Africa by demonstrating that they could \"be brought to trial in America for human rights violations in Africa.\" Watch Saro-Wiwa discuss how he hopes the case will set a precedent \u00bb . \"Justice is always hard won... It took 13 years to go through the legal process but clearly before we started this corporations throught they could almost operate with impunity but now the legal landscape has changed,\" he said. Roughly half of the settlement will go into a trust fund to help the people of Nigeria's Ogoni region, according to court papers.","highlights":"Ken Saro-Wiwa's son says Shell payout will let families move on with lives .\nExecuted environmental activist's family sued oil company .\nAbout half of settlement will go to help people of Ogoni region .\nResidents have long complained that Shell was polluting land ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The daughter of a man who died after falling four stories at Shea Stadium said her father was not sliding down the escalator when the accident happened, as police reported. A statement from the New York Police Department on Tuesday said witnesses saw 36-year-old Antonio Nararainsami of Brooklyn sitting on the banister of the escalator when he lost his balance and fell. Nararainsami's daughter, Emily, told CNN affiliate WABC on Tuesday that her father was walking down the escalator, not sliding on its banister, as fans left the stadium after the New York Mets-Washington Nationals game. She said she and another relative saw what happened. \"He wasn't moving or nothing; he was just walking down. I guess he tried to say something to us or something, and I guess he just lost his balance and flipped over,\" she said. Nararainsami died at Booth Memorial Hospital about 25 minutes after the 10 p.m. incident. Police are investigating the death as an accident. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police said man lost his balance on an escalator as fans left the stadium .\nHe died about 25 minutes later at Booth Memorial Hospital .\nPolice are investigating the death as an accident ."} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Haitian police shot and killed a man they suspected of stealing rice in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince on Thursday, leaving his body on the sidewalk for hours as his family mourned. The dead man's mother identified him as Gentile Cherie, a 20-year-old carpenter. A companion with him was wounded, and a third man nearby was hit by what he said was a stray bullet. Witnesses said no one was looting at the time. Josef Josnain, the owner of a shop near the city's airport, said the five bags of rice the men were found with fell from a truck and passers-by picked them up. And Cherie's wounded companion, who did not give his name, said a truck driver gave them the rice. \"A truck stopped and we jumped on, and the driver gave us the rice as a gift,\" he said. \"But the cops shot us.\" A CNN crew spotted police stopping the two men Thursday afternoon. They stopped to film the arrests, but while they were getting out of the car, they heard four gunshots and saw the men on the ground. Both had been shot in the back. A third man, Auxilus Maxo, was wounded by a stray bullet near the scene. He told CNN he was hit in the side while waiting for a bus -- after applying for a job as a police officer. Marc Justin, a senior police officer in the area, said he would investigate the killing and said there was no shoot-to-kill order for suspected looters. \"Nobody can do this in any country,\" Justin said. \"Even if somebody was stealing a bag of rice, nobody has a right to do this.\" Justin said he had called for an ambulance for the wounded man, but none appeared. Instead, the man was picked up by members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH who happened on the scene after the shooting. Shopkeepers retrieved the rice left behind. CNN sought comment from the Haitian government about Thursday's incident. There was no immediate response. Twitter updates l Full coverage . Sporadic looting has broken out in Port-au-Prince, where relief workers have struggled to get food, water and medical aid into the hands of survivors of last week's magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Reports of police firing on looters have surfaced as well, but CNN has been unable to independently confirm them. The Haitian National Police have been criticized for alleged abuses for years. A 2009 report by Human Rights Watch criticized its officers for the use of \"excessive and indiscriminate force,\" including involvement in kidnappings, torture and arbitrary arrests. Meanwhile, the force \"is largely ineffective in preventing and investigating crime,\" it found. List of missing, found in Haiti . Reforming the national police is one of the major goals of the U.N. mission dispatched to Haiti after the 2004 revolt that forced then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office. But a 2009 report for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded, \"The relationship between the population and the Haitian National Police is still characterized by suspicion, accusations of brutality, human rights violations and complicity with criminal and corrupt elements.\" Are you there? l Impact Your World . An Amnesty International report last year found the number of reported abuses appeared to be on the decline -- but at least two people died in police custody, and reports of excessive force, fatal shootings and warrantless arrests continued. Two-and-a-half hours after the shooting Thursday, Cherie's body remained on the sidewalk.","highlights":"Dead man's mother identified him as Gentile Cherie, a 20-year-old carpenter .\nCompanion with him was wounded, and third man nearby says hit by stray bullet .\nA CNN crew spotted police stopping the two men Thursday afternoon .\nCNN crew heard 4 gunshots while getting out of the car, saw 2 men on ground, shot in back ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two tainted lots of a generic version of a drug reportedly taken by Michael Jackson have been recalled by the drug maker. However, no link has been established between the drug -- a powerful sedative and anesthetic called propofol -- and the singer's death. \"I have no way of knowing anything related to this specific product -- if it might have played a role or not played a role,\" said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, the chief investigator on the recall for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency is not involved in the investigation into Jackson's death, he said. The CDC issued a health advisory Monday, saying two lots of a generic version of the drug had tested positive for endotoxin, a contaminant. The drug maker, Teva Pharmaceuticals, voluntarily recalled the lots. Srinivasan said the agency received 40 reports of patients around the country developing high fevers and muscle aches after being injected with the drug. \"All of the cases had high fevers, some muscle aches, headaches, but no issues with heart problems that we were told of,\" he said. Jackson died June 25 of cardiac arrest. The exact cause of death is pending toxicology results. All of the people who had taken propofol recovered; only one was hospitalized and that patient was quickly discharged, he said. But, he added, \"at high doses, endotoxin can absolutely cause lowered blood pressure and much more serious reactions.\" \"It can cause decreases in blood pressure, which could precipitate problems with your heart.\" The manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceuticals, is working with the Food and Drug Administration to determine how the contamination occurred and is voluntarily recalling the affected lots, he said. A spokeswoman for Teva said about 57,000 vials were included in the recall of the drug, and said the company had been contacted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. \"I can say the DEA did contact us about a specific lot number, and that lot number is not from the two we are recalling,\" said spokeswoman Denise Bradley. She would not say whether the contact was related to the Jackson investigation. A DEA spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified sources, have reported that police found the drug Diprivan, a brand-name version of propofol, among Jackson's medicines. A source involved with the probe into Jackson's death told CNN that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in his $100,000-a-month rented mansion in Holmby Hills, California. ProPublica, an online news organization, first reported a possible link between Jackson's death and the drug recall on Tuesday. But an FDA spokeswoman denied there could have been a link. \"This is fever, chills,\" said Karen Riley. \"Does that sound like heart failure?\" She said at least three companies make the generic version of the drug and only one of them -- AstraZeneca -- makes Diprivan, the brand-name version. \"We don't know what was at Michael Jackson's house, but I'm guessing it was Diprivan because that's what the reporting has been,\" Riley said. \"This [the propofol recall] was endotoxin in the drug. It would not cause heart failure. ... It's unrelated.\" Authorities have said the cause of Jackson's heart failure will not be determined officially until toxicology tests are complete.","highlights":"NEW: DEA inquired about lot number not included in recall, spokesman says .\nCDC says two lots of Diprivan's generic version tested positive for contaminant .\n40 patients reported high fevers, muscle aches after taking generic version of drug .\nFDA disputes online reports that recall and Michael Jackson's death could be related ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hondurans divided over an ongoing political crisis agree on one thing -- they don't think very highly of their leaders, according to a new survey. Almost half of Hondurans polled -- 48 percent -- said they disapproved of the job President Jose Manuel Zelaya was doing before he was ousted in a coup on June 28, said the 2009 Latinobarometro survey. The man who assumed power after the coup, de facto President Roberto Micheletti, received a disapproval rating of 65 percent for how he has handled the crisis, according to the survey. The annual Latinobarometro survey, named after the Chile-based non-profit company of the same name, is among the most highly regarded polls in the region. This year, the poll asked a number of questions that shed light on how Hondurans and other Latin Americans viewed the political crisis in Honduras. A new Honduran president, Pepe Lobo Sosa, was elected last month, though the international community is split on whether to recognize him because the vote took place under the rule of the de facto government. An agreement between negotiators for Zelaya and Micheletti had been reached earlier, but lost much credibility when its implementation didn't go as planned. Zelaya, who remains holed up inside the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital ever since covertly sneaking back into his country in September, has called the plan dead. Several attempts to find a resolution failed, despite strong international criticism of the coup. \"It can be said that the force of rejection of all the international organizations, which were raised in a singular voice against the coup and in favor of the restitution of the constitutionally elected president, were ineffective against the local political forces that had expelled Zelaya in an ignominious manner,\" the survey said. The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution to allow longer terms for the president. The country's congress had outlawed the vote, and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. Micheletti and his supporters say Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup. According to Latinobarometro, 58 percent of Hondurans disapproved of the coup, while another 28 percent said they approved of Zelaya's ouster. Those more heavily in favor of the coup included those with a higher education and the elderly, the survey found. Of those with university degrees, 40 percent approved of the coup, compared with 27 percent approval among those with only a basic education, the survey said. Zelaya faced long odds of returning to the presidency because the supreme court and congress, including lawmakers from his own party, were against his calls for the referendum that led to his ouster. These political power brokers, and in general, the Honduran elite that backed Micheletti, likely account for the discrepancy between education level and views of the coup. In Honduras, the elite are more likely to have completed university than others. The low approval ratings for Zelaya point to his thin election victory in 2005, according to Latinobarometro. The leftist Zelaya was elected with just under 50 percent of the vote. That margin hardly gave him a mandate to push the sweeping constitutional reforms he wanted, the survey said. \"Manuel Zelaya wanted to implement reforms that were beyond what the majority supported,\" the report said. Outside of Honduras, 24 percent of respondents in the other Latin American countries approved of the coup, the Latinobarometro survey found. Asked to rate Honduran democracy on a scale of 1 to 10, those outside of the country said the Central American nation merited a 5.2, the survey said. It was the first time that the firm asked for people to give their perception of democracy in a country that was not their own. Latinobarometro also asked respondents in the region whether they believed a coup was possible in their own country. The highest affirmative responses came from countries that have left-leaning presidents. Ecuadorians (36 percent), Brazilians (34 percent) and Venezuelans (30 percent) said a coup was possible in their country.","highlights":"The annual Latinobarometro survey is a highly regarded poll .\nThis year's poll focuses on Honduras political crisis .\nPoll: 48 percent of respondents disapprove of Zelaya .\nDe facto president gets disapproval rating of 65 percent ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland S. Martin says Sasha Obama is from a generation raised in a diverse world and open to possibility. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There are so many things that we could take away and remember forever regarding the inauguration of the first African-American president in the history of the United States, but I'll always remember the laughter of a little girl. Shortly after President-elect Barack Obama finished the oath and became President Barack Obama, he joined hands with his family and waved to the cheering voices of 1.8 million people packed from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. People cried, others hugged, celebrities and everyday folks snapped photos to capture the moment. There really was an amazing energy that permeated the crowd as we all witnessed a barrier come tumbling down before our eyes. But what stood out for me was a moment when President Obama looked down at his 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, and she said something to him, and then let out this huge laugh. I don't know whether it was her statement or his response, but the bubbly child was having the time of her life. The sheer joy that was on her face as she grinned from ear to ear caused me to just start laughing as I watched her reaction. I was shooting photos from the CNN platform just across from where he spoke, and one of the many images was of a beaming Sasha alongside her mom and 10-year-old sister, Malia. Can you imagine what was going through this young girl's mind, to see her father stand there and take the oath of office? As I saw her that day, and later bouncing along a sidewalk as she walked with her father, my niece Anastacia came to mind. Their smiles and bouncy walk are so much alike, and both are the same age. These young girls, and countless other black children, among others, will grow up in an America where what they can imagine is backed up by what they see. Despite the reality that racism hasn't left us, these children have the advantage of not being burdened with being separated by race. So much has been written about today's generation living in a world where hip-hop music brought them all together in one room, coupled with the diverse images on television and movies. Their reality is not the reality of their parents, and we will see that play out a lot in the future. What also is most compelling about this age of Obama is how he has been received thus far internationally. Many political experts are simply stunned that a man who has only been on the national stage for five years would have so much good will across the pond. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that President George W. Bush and his team were seen as running roughshod over their international partners, praising them when they needed something, and savaging them when they disagreed with the U.S. position. Yet what we also can't ignore is that Obama's skin tone also plays a central role. Americans may be shocked to find out that people of color make up two-thirds of the world population. They know all too well about America's pathetic and violent history of enslaving and later oppressing African-Americans, and it was always seen as ridiculous for U.S. officials to condemn human rights abuses abroad while racial and other forms of discrimination existed in their own backyard. Obama's election sends a powerful signal to the world that Americans are backing up their rhetoric and ideals with action, and Obama serves as that powerful symbol. Barack Hussein Obama now has the opportunity to show those who voted for him -- and those who didn't -- that the change he often spoke about can come to pass. If he is able to fulfill many of the promises he made during the campaign, he will go down as one of America's most successful presidents, looked at fondly by the American people. And if he does, maybe we'll end up having the same smile he received courtesy of Sasha. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland Martin.","highlights":"Roland Martin: Sasha Obama laughed joyously after her father took the oath .\nHe says her generation won't have the same racial burden as its parents .\nMartin: Sasha is growing up in a world of diversity, with great possibilities .\nMartin: In a diverse world, Obama's skin tone strengthens America ."} -{"article":"GEROLSTEIN, Germany -- Mineral water company Gerolsteiner have decided to drop their sponsorship of the German ProTour cycling team, which expires at the end of the 2008 season. German rider Stefan Schumacher is a member of the Gerolsteiner team. Gerolsteiner, who have been team sponsors since 1998, said there was a change in marketing strategy. Gerolsteiner has invested around $12 million annually in the team, which includes riders Stefan Schumacher, Fabian Wegmann, Markus Fothen and Robert Foerster. Gerolsteiner said on Tuesday they were no longer reaching their targeted audience through cycling because it was changing from being solely a producer of mineral water to a supplier of nonalcoholic drinks. Gerolsteiner team chief Hans-Michael Holczer was deeply upset by the news. \"There were tears in my eyes,\" said Holczer. The German Cycling Federation (BDR) said they would help the team to find a new sponsor. \"It is not an entirely unexpected decision. After such a long collaboration, you notice changes in your partner,\" said Holczer, who will begin the hunt for a new sponsor. \"We have one of the best teams on the market with a national and international reputation.\" The T-Mobile cycling team has fired rider Lorenzo Bernucci after his positive doping test at the Tour of Germany last month. Bernucci violated the team's code of conduct and was removed from T-Mobile's roster at the Spanish Vuelta, the team said on Tuesday. He tested positive for a non-amphetamine appetite suppressant. Bernucci is licensed by the Monaco cycling federation, which will be responsible for further investigation and possible additional sanctions, T-Mobile said. He tested positive on August 15 for the substance sibutramine, an appetite suppressant sold under various brand names, such as Reductil and Ectiva. The world governing body of cycling, UCI, informed T-Mobile of Bernucci's positive test. Bernucci told team management that he had been using Ectiva for four years and had purchased it over the counter at a pharmacy in Italy, not knowing it been added to the list of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency, T-Mobile said. According to UCI rules, a first violation for sibutramine -- if it is determined that it was not intended as a performance enhancer -- can result in anything between a warning and a one-year suspension. \"We do not know if this was an attempt at performance enhancement or just poor judgment,\" T-Mobile team chief Bob Stapleton said. \"But we know it is unacceptable that riders take any medication without the approval of the team doctor. It's a clear violation of our code of conduct and we act now on that basis.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The Gerolsteiner company is ending its sponsorship of the Pro Tour team .\nThey have been team sponsors since 1998 and their contract ends next year .\nStefan Schumacher and Davide Rebellin are leading team members .\nT-Mobile have fired Lorenzo Bernucci after a positive dope test ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German sailors foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, the German Defense Ministry said. Pirates like these threaten the Somalian coast. The German navy frigate Karlsruhe responded to an emergency call from the Wabi Al Arab Thursday morning, sending helicopters to the stricken vessel. When the helicopters arrived, the pirates broke off the attack, the ministry said. A crew member on the Wabi Al Arab was wounded when the pirates attempted to board the vessel. He was flown by helicopter for treatment aboard the Karlsruhe, the ministry said. The German sailors captured the pirates and disarmed them, destroying the weapons, the ministry said. The German government in Berlin later ordered the Somali pirates released because they were not caught while harassing German interests, according to BBC. The Karlsruhe joined the fight against the pirates on Tuesday from Djibouti, the defense ministry said. On Wednesday a top Japanese official said the country was considering sending vessels to join U.S., Russian, NATO and Indian vessels in the waters off Somalia, a key shipping route that sees around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels each year. China said Tuesday that two destroyers and a supply ship from its navy would set sail for the region on Friday to protect Chinese merchant ships. Watch why China's dispatch of forces is significant \u00bb . The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last week aimed at combating piracy along the Horn of Africa by allowing military forces to chase pirate onto land in cases of \"hot pursuit.\" The Security Council resolution, which passed unanimously, expands upon existing counter-piracy tools, including a stipulation that would allow for national and regional military forces to chase pirates onto land -- specifically into Somalia, where many of the pirates have their bases. Over 124 incidents -- attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful hijackings -- have been recorded to date this year, according to Kenyan Seafarers Association.","highlights":"German government later ordered pirates released, according to BBC report .\nJapan was considering sending vessels, a top official said Wednesday .\nWaters off Somalia is a key shipping route that sees 20,000 vessels each year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 12-year-old boy should get a say in whether he gets circumcised, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled. The court sent the parental custody dispute back to the trial court \"to resolve the factual issue whether M agrees or objects to the circumcision.\" \"M\" is the child at the center of a long-running custody dispute between James and Lia Boldt, who divorced in 1999. Soon after, the father began studying Judaism and later converted. He also started teaching his son about the faith. By then, James had parental custody and told his ex-wife the boy would convert as well, and that to do so, he would have to have the circumcision procedure. The mother objected, saying the child had been raised in the Russian Orthodox faith while the couple was married. Because the two sides disagreed, and were living in neighboring states, the conflict dissolved into ongoing personal and constitutional dispute. James Boldt said that as a Jew and the primary caregiver, he has a First Amendment right to practice his faith as he sees fit for his child. Lia Boldt countered her son does not want to go through with the circumcision, and that it is an invasive, irreversible, and potentially dangerous medical procedure. The state high court seemed especially reluctant to address the issue, saying normally such disputes \"are considered private family matters.\" But the justices noted \"these parties cannot or will not resolve this matter without resort to the courts.\" So rather than offer a definitive ruling, the justices ordered both sides to go to the actual source of the conflict. \"In our view, at age 12, M's attitude regarding circumcision, though not conclusive of the custody issue presented here, is a fact necessary to the determination\" of whether the mother can press her objections to the procedure, wrote Chief Justice Paul De Muniz for the six-member panel. \"Forcing M at age 12 to undergo circumcision against his will could seriously affect the relationship between M and his father, and could have a pronounced effect on father's capability to properly care for M.\" There was no initial reaction to the decision from the parents or their attorneys. The case is James Boldt v. Lia Boldt (S054714). E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Case part of parental custody dispute .\nFather converted to Judaism after splitting with wife .\nFather wanted son to convert after getting custody .\nRussian Orthodox mother says son doesn't want procedure ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Typhoon Morakot bore down on Taiwan Friday, packing 89 mph (143 kph) winds and threatening to soak the entire island when it makes landfall Saturday morning, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. A man fights against strong winds in Hsintien, Taipei county, Taiwan, on Friday. As of 10 a.m. Friday (2 a.m. GMT), wind gusts were reaching 112 mph, and Morakot, a medium-strength typhoon, was moving west-northwest at 14 mph en route to landfall, the agency said. Already, mudslides and landslides were occurring on the land, as airlines canceled flights, and government offices, schools and the Taiwan Stock Exchange closed for the day, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. The storm was centered about 124 miles (200 km) southeast of Taipei and could wind up directly over the capital, said CNN meteorologist Kevin Corriveau. He predicted its impact would be massive. \"This storm has already dumped about 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain in the central and southern part of the island, and they're still expecting another 500 (20 inches) to 800 millimeters (32 inches) of rain over the next 24 to 48 hours,\" he said. Watch how the storm is affecting life on the island \u00bb . Drought in recent months has severely affected the area, leaving the ground so hard that it cannot absorb the rainfall, Corriveau said. However, the island tends to prepare well for typhoons, Corriveau added. \"They take it very seriously,\" Corriveau said. \"Just like Cuba is very good at handling hurricanes, Taiwan is very good at handling typhoons.\" On Thursday, Taiwanese Premier Liu Chao-shiuan examined the island's emergency operation center and asked all personnel to stay on high alert over the next day, with the typhoon forecast to \"affect all regions of Taiwan,\" according to CNA. Taiwan and eastern China are particularly vulnerable to flash flooding and mudslides because of the proximity of the mountains to the sea. Once it hits land, Morakot is expected to weaken to tropical storm strength, the Central Weather Bureau reported.","highlights":"NEW: Storm about 200 km (124 miles) southeast of Taipei, CNN meteorologist says .\nNEW: Mudslides and landslides occur already Friday morning .\nNEW: Airlines cancel flights; schools, government offices, stock exchange closed .\nTaiwan is vulnerable to flash flooding, mudslides because mountains are near sea ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven states and two organizations have sued the Bush administration in an attempt to block a federal regulation that would further protect health care workers who refuse to perform abortions or other medical procedures because of religious or moral reasons. A rule protecting the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures is under fire. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of his state, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. Blumenthal said the regulation would put women's health care at risk and would undercut state contraception laws. \"On its way out, the Bush administration has left a ticking legal time bomb set to explode literally the day of the inaugural and blow apart vital constitutional rights and women's health care,\" Blumenthal said in a statement. \"Women's health may be endangered -- needlessly and unlawfully -- if this rule is allowed to stand.\" He said the regulation \"intentionally shrouds\" abortion in \"new and unnecessary ambiguity,\" encouraging individuals to define it and to \"deny virtually all forms of contraceptions, even emergency contraception to rape victims.\" The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and American Civil Liberties Union, which was acting on behalf of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, also filed separate suits Thursday. The Department of Health and Human Services said the regulation would allow the federal government to withhold federal funds for state and local governments, health plans and health care facilities that do not follow existing federal laws that ban discrimination against doctors and other health workers who refuse to participate in procedures such as sterilizations or abortions or to make referrals for such procedures. \"We have not had an opportunity to review the lawsuits and we will respond to the court on any pending litigation,\" department spokeswoman Rebecca Ayers said in an e-mail. \"The department followed appropriate procedures to put the regulation in place and the regulation is fully supported by law.\" The department promulgated the rule last month. \"Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,\" Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement then. \"This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience.\" The department has said that it believes the public and health care providers are unaware of the federal anti-discrimination laws. \"Many health care providers routinely face pressure to change their medical practice -- often in direct opposition to their personal convictions,\" said the department's assistant secretary of health, Adm. Joxel Garcia, in a statement in December. \"During my practice as an OB-GYN, I witnessed this firsthand. Health care providers shouldn't have to check their consciences at the hospital door. Fortunately, Congress enacted several laws to that end, but too many are unaware these protections exist.\"","highlights":"Connecticut attorney general: Regulation would put women's health care at risk .\nRule further protects health workers who refuse procedures on moral grounds .\nDepartment of Health and Human Services promulgated the rule last month .\nHHS: Rule protects workers' right to care for patients in accord with their conscience ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nasser al Ansari is the CEO of Qatari Diar, a state-owned real estate investment company. Famous for its purchase of London's Chelsea Barracks, Qatari Diar was established in 2004 by the Qatar Investment Authority, to support Qatar's growing economy and to co-ordinate the country's real estate development priorities. It is now valued at $1 billion with 18 projects underway. Al Ansari is a graduate from the University of Miami and was responsible for high profile projects such as New Doha International Airport and the promotion of private sector investment through public sector privatization. Before being appointed as CEO of Qatari Diar, Al Ansari was at the office of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs as technical advisor. He joins us on MME to talk about the vision for Qatar, how Qatari Diar fits into it and its investments outside Gulf in Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Egypt and Europe. With oil prices hitting $88 this week, John Defterios begins by asking Nasser al Ansari about the differences he sees now compared to the 1970s when oil prices were also high. Any lessons learned? Nasser al Ansari: I believe so. In the 1970s, local government here did not deal in a very sophisticated way with this wealth. But now we are fortunate with a high level of education and the reformations in government policies in this region. We now understand how to utilize this wealth and economical growth. JD: I don't think most people know that you sit on one of the largest natural gas fields in the world and will likely be the largest exporter by 2010. This must give you great cushion to expand the Qatari Diar model. NA: Although we have this and we are fortunate with this, Qatar has adopted a policy to diversify its portfolio from its natural resources to other investment opportunities and one of them is Qatari Diar. We are investing a lot in real estate, not just in Qatar but worldwide. JD: In fact very close in the neighborhood as well. It's almost foreign policy strategy to invest in the poorer countries in the region. Is this to help the neighborhood develop alongside Qatar? NA: I think with the knowledge and know-how that we have gained in this area of expertise, we would like to export it to other countries to help their economical reformations; to try to create business opportunities for their local businessmen and to create job opportunities for the people in that particular country. JD: It's quite a radical departure say from the International Monetary Fund or World Bank giving loans or grants for development. This is turning the world upside down in your region, it is not? NA: Yes, I would like to assure you at Qatari Diar we are not in the business of lending. JD: You want a hard return. NA: We want return but we always think of the people when we are investing in these countries. I mean we want to make sure that the investment we are making is there for the long-term. Qatari Diar has a policy: it's a long-term policy not short-term. JD: Give me some insight on why Qatari Diar feels as comfortable in London with Chelsea Barracks as in Cuba, for example, with some of the projects you're undertaking. What makes you think you can pull that off? NA: I think with the expertise that we have and with the strength that we have, we would like to showcase the strength of the people of Qatar and we want to pull the flag of the state of Qatar even across the Atlantic and we are determined to do so. We are a small country but with big ideas. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nasser al Ansari is CEO of Qatari Diar, Qatar's state-owned investment group .\nIts global projects are part of nation's attempt to diversify investment portfolio .\nInvestment also aims to bring expertise and jobs to neighboring countries ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Caroline Kennedy, who spent most of her life looking to steer clear of the spotlight, is capping off a year of unusually public -- and political -- activity with interest in the Senate seat that would be vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton. Caroline Kennedy could join her uncle Edward in the U.S. Senate. And her interest in that seat could mean the continuation of a Kennedy legacy in the Senate that began 56 years ago with the election of her father, John F. Kennedy, as the junior senator from Massachusetts. Her uncle Edward has represented Massachusetts in the Senate for more than four decades. Her uncle Robert served as junior senator from New York from 1965 until he was assassinated in 1968. \"Remember, [Clinton's] seat in the Senate was once held by Robert Kennedy,\" CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider said Saturday. \"Her other uncle, Ted Kennedy, is ill right now. If [New York Gov. David] Paterson appoints Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, it means there could be a Kennedy staying in the Senate for quite a long time.\" Paterson confirmed to CNN Saturday that Caroline Kennedy called and \"asked a few questions\" but did not express interest in the seat. \"I am sure if she's interested, she'll call back, but I'm not going to rate any of the candidates or talk about prospective candidates. It just adds speculation to the speculation,\" Paterson said. But one Democratic source close to the Kennedy family said Caroline Kennedy \"is interested to say the least\" about discussing the Senate vacancy. The source said Kennedy has asked a tight circle of family friends and political advisers for advice. A second source, who has knowledge of Kennedy's conversation with Paterson, tells CNN that Kennedy reached out to inquire about the responsibilities and impact such a move would have if she were selected by the governor to fill the position. A Senate appointment for Caroline Kennedy would mark a change for the woman who has rarely run into the glare of political attention. \"Apparently, she has acquired a taste for politics, having endorsed Barack Obama early this year,\" Schneider said. \"She wants to be part of this new regime in America, clearly playing a key role in the Senate if she gets that appointment.\" Watch CNN's Bill Schneider discuss Caroline Kennedy's prospects \u00bb . Widely described as extraordinarily shy, self-deprecating and down-to-earth, Kennedy has tended to limit her forays into the public sphere to nonpartisan activity, penning books on civil liberties and serving as the de facto guardian of her father's legacy. But in January, she backed a political candidate for the first time, announcing her endorsement of Obama during the Democratic primary season with an opinion piece in the New York Times that drew days of the kind of media attention she has spent her life avoiding. \"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,\" she wrote. \"But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.\" Kennedy willingly lingered in the spotlight, serving on Obama's vice presidential search team, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and stumping for him through the primary and general election seasons. In a campaign ad that featured video images of her father followed by images of Obama, Kennedy said, \"People always tell me how my father inspired them. I feel that same excitement now.\" There are a slew of high-profile candidates for Clinton's Senate seat -- including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose last name carries some star power of its own in the Empire State -- but their odds grew just a bit steeper when stacked against the wattage of a storied Democratic dynasty. Robert Kennedy was elected to the Senate with few ties to his adopted home state, but his niece's New York roots run deep. Jacqueline Kennedy relocated to New York City after her husband's assassination in 1963, with children Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. Caroline Kennedy has spent most of her life in the city, working there after graduating from Harvard, meeting her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, on the job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending Columbia Law School there. Her most prominent public roles to date involved overseeing her father's presidential library and presenting the annual Profiles in Courage Award. She's also edited several books, from a volume of children's poetry and an updated edition of her father's book \"Profiles in Courage\" to a collection of patriotic verse (\"A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.\") Most of her leadership positions have been based in the arts: hosting the annual nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors in Washington and serving as the honorary chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre, as her mother had. Still, in late spring and early summer, she was whispered as a possible vice presidential candidate -- and more recently as a contender for secretary of education in an Obama Cabinet -- but elected office would mark a major shift for Kennedy. Her history of avoiding partisan efforts, her limited policy track record and the lingering legacy of her father's presidency translated into a far less brutal Republican criticism than that experienced by the other members of Obama's vice presidential search committee, and there was a widespread continuing sense that she would not want to put herself in line for the tough criticism aimed at elected officials. \"I don't think she'd go that far,\" Kennedy White House speechwriter Theodore Sorenson told USA Today this summer after being asked whether he thought Kennedy wanted to hold office herself. In his memoir, \"Counselor,\" he quoted Jacqueline Kennedy saying her daughter had \"gotten her horror of the press from me\" and said the younger Caroline Kennedy used to hide her face when she spotted a cameraman. But in a 2002 Time magazine interview promoting the updated \"Profiles in Courage,\" Kennedy would not rule out the possibility of a run for public office. \"I don't have any plans to do that right now,\" she said. \"I don't plan ahead. My kids are young, and I'm really happy to be able to be around. But I do care about issues, and I'm interested in them. So I don't see that now, but you know, I have a long life ahead of me.\" The 51-year-old mother of three has still not spoken publicly about her interest in the job -- or whether, after months of campaign-trail conditioning, she might be comfortable with the idea of seeking election in her own right when Clinton's term ends. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Monte Plott contributed to this story.","highlights":"Late president's daughter has expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's office .\nMove would put Kennedy in seat once filled by her uncle Robert .\nKennedy has a history of avoiding partisanship and spotlight .\nShe said this year she was inspired by Barack Obama ."} -{"article":"JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Christina Laurean has told authorities she was attending a Christmas party on the night her husband allegedly killed pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, according to police. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, wanted for murder, may have fled to his native Mexico. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean is charged with first-degree murder. He remains at large, and authorities say he may have fled to Mexico. Also, an affidavit obtained Thursday by CNN states that Christina Laurean knew about the death one day before reporting it to authorities. The Marines were assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing December 19. Authorities say she was killed four days earlier. A warrant allowed authorities to search Western Union records. Authorities said in the accompanying affidavit that Cesar Laurean and his wife received a transfer of money between December 10 and January 12. The affidavit provided no other details. Authorities requested the search warrant and all accompanying documents be sealed. The FBI says Laurean may have fled to his native country of Mexico. Cesar Laurean, 21, is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He mailed at least one letter from Houston, Texas, since his disappearance, CNN affiliate KPRC in Houston reported Thursday. According to the affidavit, Christina Laurean, 25 -- who also is a Marine -- went with her husband to a Jacksonville attorney on January 10, and the lawyer told Cesar Laurean he could face the death penalty. The next day, Christina Laurean reported Lauterbach's death to the Onslow County Sheriff's Office, where she appeared with an attorney and a sergeant from her former chain of command. She turned over to deputies several notes from her husband that she said she found at their home. In the notes, Cesar Laurean said Lauterbach committed suicide and he buried her. Lauterbach, 20, had accused Cesar Laurean of raping her and was to testify at a military hearing not long after her disappearance. According to a co-worker, she feared Cesar Laurean, although the military said she told prosecutors she did not. Lauterbach's allegations involved two encounters -- one on or about March 26 and one approximately two weeks later, the Marines told CNN. Lauterbach received two protective orders, one of which was in effect when she died. Christina Laurean on January 11 told authorities her husband had denied the rape allegations and said he was not the baby's father, according to the affidavit. In the document she says her husband told her: . Dubois contends the facts show probable cause exists to show that Cesar Laurean \"committed murder.\" The detective said he doesn't believe Lauterbach committed suicide, especially because she had told people she wanted the child. Christina Laurean told police she was at a Christmas party for her husband's Marine unit during the late afternoon and evening of December 15, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told CNN. Her husband did not attend the party, she told authorities. Lauterbach's charred remains and those believed to be of her unborn child were found in a fire pit in the Laureans' backyard. Police have said blood spatters were found throughout the Laurean home on walls and ceilings, and evidence showed someone tried to clean them up and paint over them. DNA testing is being conducted to see if Lauterbach's unborn baby was fathered by Cesar Laurean, Brown said, adding there was no rush on the part of detectives to get those results. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Cesar Laurean's arrest. Anyone in Mexico with information is asked to contact the legal attache at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Meanwhile, authorities have discovered the weapon likely used to kill Lauterbach, a spokesman for the Onslow County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Authorities have said the woman died of blunt force trauma to the head. A man who had rented a room to Lauterbach, Sgt. Daniel Durham, told investigators he found a note from her December 14 -- the day she was last seen -- saying she was tired of the Marine Corps life and was leaving. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Woman says husband didn't show up at a party on suspected date of killing .\nNEW: DNA testing under way to see if Cesar Laurean fathered the victim's child .\nAccused Marine and his wife spoke to lawyer after pregnant Marine slain .\nMarine fled the next day, is believed to have headed to native Mexico ."} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Investigators believe the suspected gunman in last week's massacre at Fort Hood acted alone, but his communications had been flagged by U.S. intelligence agencies in late 2008, the FBI said Monday. The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. In a statement issued Monday night, the FBI said its investigation so far \"indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.\" Thursday's shooting left 13 dead, 12 of them U.S. soldiers, and 42 wounded. Read more about the victims . Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He was promoted to major in May and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan sometime soon, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military. A Muslim, he had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In August, he reported to police that his car was keyed and a bumper sticker that read \"Allah is Love\" was torn off. A neighbor was charged with criminal mischief after that complaint. But the FBI disclosed that Hasan came to its attention as part of an unrelated terrorism probe in December 2008, when agents reviewed \"certain communications between Maj. Hasan and the subject of that investigation.\" The intercepts \"raised no red flags,\" with no mention of threats or violence that would have triggered a U.S. terrorism investigation, senior investigative officials said Monday. Hasan, 39, was wounded several times during the attack. Though still in intensive care, his ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterwards, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. Federal agents attempted to interview Hasan on Sunday, but he refused to cooperate and asked for an attorney, the investigative officials said. U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb. Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged. Military officials told CNN on Monday that intelligence agencies intercepted communications from Hasan to al-Awlaki and shared them with other U.S. government agencies. But federal authorities dropped the inquiry into Hasan's communications after deciding that the messages warranted no further action, one of the officials said. According to the FBI, investigators from one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces determined \"that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center [in Washington].\" Hasan was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed before moving to Fort Hood. \"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Maj. Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning,\" it said. FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered a review of the matter, the FBI said. The independent commission that investigated the 9\/11 attacks found al-Awlaki was a \"spiritual adviser\" to two of the hijackers in that plot, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, while al-Awlaki was at the Virginia mosque and earlier, in San Diego. The commission report said it was not clear whether the imam knew al-Hazmi and al-Midhar were involved in the hijacking plot, but security experts have described him as a radical Islamic fundamentalist who was \"very supportive of terrorists in the past,\" former White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend told CNN. An online post attributed to al-Awlaki praised Hasan as a hero for the Fort Hood attack, saying he \"could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.\" But the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque denounced al-Awlaki's remarks, and its current imam said he was stunned to hear Hasan was the suspect in the rampage. \"The quiet, very peaceful person coming in and out of the mosque, I couldn't believe he could have done this,\" Sheikh Shaker Elsayed told CNN. Three senior investigative officials, who insisted they not be identified by name because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing federal investigation, told reporters in Washington that Hasan was never nominated to be on a watch list. He was able to purchase weapons legally and had done nothing to justify even a preliminary investigation, they said. In addition, Hasan had a security clearance at the \"secret\" level and received good performance reviews, they said. Nonetheless, they continued to examine his communications with the cleric in Yemen for several months as a precaution. Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack. But at Fort Hood the post commander told reporters he has ordered his officers to \"immediately take a hard look and make sure if there's anybody out there struggling.\" \"Hasan was a soldier and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has,\" Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said. \"We have to look across our entire formation, not just in a medical community but really look hard to our right and left. That's the responsibility for everybody from the top to the bottom to make sure we're taking care of our own.\" Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about Hasan's motive, warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers. But several witnesses, like Pvt. Robert Foster, who was wounded in the hip during the attack, reported Hasan shouted \"Allahu Akbar\" -- Arabic for \"God is great\" -- which Islamic terrorists have used as a battle cry. \"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allah Akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire,\" Foster, 21, said Monday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" The Army leadership at Fort Hood will \"take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this,\" Cone said Monday. \"I think what we're looking for are sort of people with overwhelming personal problems and patterns of behavior that are not at all related to religion,\" Cone said. No charges have been filed against Hasan. The investigative officials who briefed reporters said he was likely to be charged in the military court system. President Obama will speak at Tuesday's memorial service for the shooting victims at Fort Hood, and will meet with victims' families, his spokesman said. \"The president will meet with families of those that lost a loved one last week, as well as speak to the larger memorial that will take place at the base,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his daily briefing Monday. First lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president on the trip, Gibbs said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will also participate in the memorial service, but he will not speak, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. CNN's Brian Todd, Pam Benson, Mike Mount and David Mattingly contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FBI: Probe so far shows Fort Hood attack wasn't part of a broader terrorist plot .\nInvestigators check link between suspect, ex-cleric at Virginia mosque .\nOnline post attributed to cleric praised Hasan as a hero for the Fort Hood attack .\nMaj. Nidal Malik Hasan awake, says spokesman at hospital where he's being treated ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English Premier League side Chelsea have said they will mount the \"strongest appeal possible\" following the transfer ban placed on the club by world football's governing body FIFA. English Premier League side Chelsea have been banned by FIFA from signing any new players until 2011 . The punishment, which would prevent any new member joining the squad until 2011, was dished out after the club were found to have \"induced\" Gael Kukuta to breach his contract in a transfer from French league side Lens in 2007. In a statement on their official Web site, Chelsea announced their plan to: \"Mount the strongest appeal possible following the decision of FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber over Ga\u00ebl Kakuta. \"The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed. We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision,\" the statement concluded. The ruling came after Lens complained to FIFA that Chelsea had acted improperly over the transfer of 18-year-old left-winger Kakuta two years ago. The complaint was referred to the body's Disciplinary Resolution Chamber (DRC) who decided to impose a ban on any further player recruitment by last season's Champions League semifinalists. Have FIFA made the right decision? Sound Off below. A statement on FIFA's official Web site read: \"The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. \"Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such a breach. As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of \u20ac780,000 ($1.1 million), for which the club, Chelsea, are jointly and severally liable, and sporting sanctions were imposed on both the player and Chelsea in accordance with art. 17 par. 3 and 4 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.\" Kakuta, who was voted the side's academy player of the year in his first 12 months with Chelsea, received a personal suspension of four months as a result of the ruling. \"Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision.\" The first football transfer window in Europe runs from January 1-31 in 2010; the second from the end of the current season until August 31 in Europe, and September 1 in Britain next year. Chelsea were also ordered to pay Lens \"training compensation\" of \u20ac130,000 ($185,000), in a decision the club could appeal at the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Football governing bodies have intervened on two previous occasions in recent times regarding the acquisition of new players by Chelsea. In 2005, Nigeria midfielder Jon Mikel Obi was ordered by FIFA to return to Norwegian club Lyn Oslo to see out his contract before eventually joining Chelsea, after protracted transfer negotiations had led to disagreement with Manchester United who also claimed they had signed the player. Chelsea were also fined \u00a3300,000 ($490,000) by the English Premier League over the capture of England defender Ashley Cole from Arsenal in 2005. The club were found guilty of breaking rule K3, which forbade them approaching Cole, who still had two years left on his Arsenal deal, \"by any means while under contract.\" Watch a former Chelsea manager discuss the ban \u00bb . The Blues were also warned they could face being docked points if a similar offence occurred during the 2005\/2006 season. It is the second time FIFA have handed out a transfer ban on a club. The transfers of Switzerland's FC Sion were frozen until the end of the 2010 season after they attempted to sign Egypt's Essam El Hadary before the goalkeeper's contract with Al-Ahly had expired.","highlights":"Chelsea to mount the \"strongest appeal possible\" following the club's ban .\nChelsea prevented by FIFA from signing any new players until 2011 .\nClub found to have \"induced\" Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with Lens .\nHave FIFA made the right decision? Sound Off below ."} -{"article":"HAMILTON, Bermuda (CNN) -- Two of four Uyghurs relocated to Bermuda after seven years of detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied Friday that they had ever been terrorists and expressed gratitude toward U.S. President Barack Obama for working to free them. Salahidin Abdalahut and Kheleel Mamut were two of four Uyghurs released from Gitmo. Thirteen remain there. Asked what he would say to someone who accused him of being a terrorist, one of the men, Kheleel Mamut, told CNN's Don Lemon, \"I am no terrorist; I have not been terrorist. I will never be terrorist. I am a peaceful person.\" Speaking through an interpreter who is herself a Uyghur who said she was sympathetic toward the men, the other man -- Salahidin Abdalahut -- described the past seven years as \"difficult times for me ... I feel bad that it took so long for me to be free.\" The two Chinese Muslims were among four relocated from Guantanamo to Bermuda; another 13 remain in detention on the island. He said he had traveled to Afghanistan not to attend any terrorist training camps but because -- as a Uyghur -- he had been oppressed by the Chinese government. \"We had to leave the country to look for a better life, a peaceful life, and Afghanistan is a neighboring country to our country, and it's easy to go,\" he said. \"It is difficult to obtain a visa to go to any other places, so it was really easy for us to just travel to Afghanistan.\" Asked what he hoped to do next, he said, \"I want to forget about the past and move on to a peaceful life in the future.\" In addition to the four relocated from Guantanamo to Bermuda, another 13 Uyghurs remain in detention on the island. The four were flown by private plane Wednesday night from Cuba to Bermuda, and were accompanied by U.S. and Bermudian representatives as well as their attorneys, according to Susan Baker Manning, part of the men's legal team. The men, who are staying in an apartment, are free to roam about the island. Mamut accused the Bush administration of having held them without cause, and lauded Obama for having \"tried really hard to bring justice and he has been trying very hard to find other countries to resettle us and finally he freed us.\" He appealed to Obama to carry out his promise to shut Guantanamo Bay within a year. \"I would like President Obama to honor that word and to free my 13 brothers who were left behind and all of the rest of the people who deserve to be free,\" Mamut said. Asked how he had been treated in Guantanamo Bay, Mamut said, \"It is a jail, so there will be difficulties in the jail that we have faced and now, since I am a free man today, I would like to forget about all that. I really don't want to think about those days.\" He cited a proverb from his homeland that means, \"What is done cannot be undone.\" Asked if he had anything to say to anyone watching, he said, \"Thank you very much for those people who helped me to gain freedom.\" He said he had spoken earlier in the day with his family. \"They told me, \"My boy, my son, congratulations on your freedom.' \" The move has had international repercussions, including causing a rift between the United States and Britain. A British official familiar with the agreement but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told CNN the United States had informed London of the agreement \"shortly before the deal was concluded.\" A U.S. official, speaking on background, said the British feel blindsided. Bermuda is a British \"overseas territory.\" The four were twice cleared for release -- once by the Bush administration and again this year, according to a Justice Department statement. The issue of where they go is controversial because of China's opposition to the Uyghurs' being sent to any country but China. Uyghurs are a Muslim minority from the Xinjiang province of far west China. The 17 Uyghurs had left China and made their way to Afghanistan, where they settled in a camp with other Uyghurs opposed to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said in its statement. They left Afghanistan after U.S. bombings began in the area in October 2001 and were apprehended in Pakistan, the statement said. \"According to available information, these individuals did not travel to Afghanistan with the intent to take any hostile action against the United States,\" the statement said. However, China alleges that the men are part of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement -- a group the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization -- that operates in the Xinjiang region. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang. China on Thursday urged the United States to hand over all 17 of the Uyghurs instead of sending them elsewhere. The United States will not send Uyghur detainees cleared for release back to China out of concern that they would be tortured by Chinese authorities. China has said no returned Uyghurs would be tortured. A senior U.S. administration official told CNN that the State Department is working on a final agreement with Palau to settle the 13 remaining Uyghur detainees. CNN's Don Lemon and Brian Vitagliano in Hamilton, Bermuda, and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two Uyghurs relocated from Guantanamo spoke Friday with CNN's Don Lemon .\nBoth denied having been terrorists and expressed gratitude toward U.S. president .\nFour of the Chinese Muslims were relocated to Bermuda; 13 remain at Gitmo .\nIncident has had international repercussions centering on where to relocate men ."} -{"article":"Reuters is a global information company providing material tailored for professionals in the financial services, media and corporate markets. Its information is trusted and drives decision making across the globe. In October 1851 Paul Julius Reuter, a German-born immigrant, opened an office in the City of London which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. 18 months earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. In 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln's assassination in the United States. As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874. In 1883 Reuters began to use a \"column printer\" to transmit messages electrically to London newspapers and in 1923 pioneered the use of radio to transmit news internationally. In 1927 it brought in the teleprinter to distribute news to London newspapers. Today Reuters has over 16,900 staff in over 94 countries across the globe, and is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, with 196 bureaux serving approximately 131 countries. In 2006 Reuters filed over two and a half million news items, including 656,500 alerts, from 209 countries around the world, published in 18 languages. Although Reuters is best known as the world's largest international multimedia news agency, more than 90% of its revenue derives from its financial services business. Some 370,000 financial market professionals working in the equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, money, commodities and energy markets around the world use Reuters products. The company supplies news -- text, graphics, video and pictures -- to media organizations across the globe. It also provides news to businesses outside the financial services sector, as well as direct to consumers. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Reuters was founded in 1851 by Julius Reuter, transmitting market quotations .\nThe company was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln's assassination .\nToday Reuters has 196 bureaux serving approximately 131 countries."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On the last episode of reality ... \"Guiding Light,\" a mainstay of CBS' daytime schedule for decades, airs its final episode Friday. Jon left Kate and his eight children and took up with the party girl Hailey. Audrina got a restraining order against an alleged stalker. NeNe got into an argument with Kim during a photo shoot. And Rachel was attacked -- yet again -- by one of the city tabloids. With plot points like this, who needs soap operas? Certainly not most of America. In the past decade, the audience for soap operas has dwindled, as has the number of what broadcasters call \"daytime dramas.\" Younger viewers, in particular, have gravitated toward reality shows, which feature the melodrama and outsized characters of soaps; it's perhaps no coincidence that the co-creator of MTV's \"The Real World\" and several other reality shows, Mary-Ellis Bunim, started as a soap writer and producer. The latest soap victim, CBS' \"Guiding Light\" -- a show that began on NBC Radio in 1937 -- went out Friday after 72 years on the air. Watch how \"Guiding Light\" became an institution \u00bb . On the final episode, long-entwined characters Reva Shayne and Josh Lewis decided to \"go on an adventure\" together, in Lewis' words. Other characters also received their moments. Fans have lamented the passing of the show, which has followed the Springfield clans of the Bauers, Spauldings, Coopers and Lewises for decades. \"I've been watching 'Guiding Light' for the past 20 years,\" says Ashley Dos Santos, an account executive and pop culture expert with the Washington-based public relations firm Crosby-Volmer. \"I think it's really, really sad.\" Gallery: Stars who started on soaps \u00bb . But, as a (well) realist, she adds, \"not surprising.\" She knows the trends, and the trend for soap operas is going in the wrong direction. Read a short history of soap operas . \"It's very difficult to see how it could have survived,\" she says, noting that even she's ceased to follow \"GL\" in the past few years. With the multichannel universe, particularly the alternatives of talk shows, judge shows and reality shows, \"I feel that a lot people, if they have to make a choice, they'd rather see 'Ellen.' \" Michael Sands, a Southern California-based media consultant, is blunter. \"Soaps are passe ... old-fashioned,\" he says. \"They're boring and stale. The public thrives on real-life drama. I'm surprised soaps lasted this long.\" Not so long ago, such a dismissal would have been unfathomable. In the three-network arrangement that dominated for decades, soaps ruled daytime -- there were 19 in 1969-70 -- and even spawned prime-time variations, such as \"Peyton Place\" and \"Dallas.\" \"The 1960s and '70s were an unmatched era for soaps, with women at home and just three or four [network] choices,\" says Sam Ford, an analyst with the communications firm Peppercom. He has a book on the genre due out next year. Soaps developed a formula: slow-moving, multiple plotlines; multigenerational casts, gathered in seaside towns or local hospitals. Some even broke ground, airing taboo subjects -- abortions, homosexuality, marital rape -- before prime-time shows. But events have conspired to kill off daytime dramas. With more women in the workplace, there are fewer at home to watch the soaps. The genre was slow to adjust to new technologies; even now, with the SoapNet cable channel and Internet streaming, effective promotion is lacking, says Dos Santos, who observes that soaps fly under the radar compared to reality shows. \"The networks aren't trying hard enough to make [soaps] relevant,\" she says. There's also the loss of family watching, a handoff from mother to daughter to granddaughter, that used to assure a continuity of viewers. Dos Santos watched with her mother; Ford's mother and grandmother were fans. But the fall-off in soaps tends to boil down to two limited resources: time and money. \"We don't have the time to invest in soaps as they exist now,\" says Mimi Torchin, a TV columnist and the founding editor of Soap Opera Weekly. \"Even with alternatives to TV viewing ... it's still five hours a week. In the old days, you could miss two or three days and it was easy to catch up. They don't do that anymore.\" Moreover, a soap opera is a big investment, like any scripted show. Bob Boden, now the vice president of programming for the Fox Reality Channel, was at CBS' daytime division in the '80s and '90s. \"The decline of the soap opera as is much a factor of the business model as it is of the creative,\" he says. \"It was designed to be 52 weeks a year of original product, no repeats. In today's business model for network television, that's not an efficient model anymore.\" To begin a soap, a producer has to put together performers, a writing staff, a bible of characters and plots -- and has to plan things out for months or years, as opposed to a handful of weeks. \"That's not really the mentality of network programming anymore,\" Boden says. \"I think a lot of it is about quick fixes, and about maintaining an ever-shrinking audience, and giving them something unique, and attracting a younger demo[graphic].\" Increasingly, the \"quick fix\" -- particularly for cable channels looking to hook viewers -- comes in the form of reality programming. There are a number of similarities in the forms: melodrama, over-the-top characters, extreme situations. But reality shows can have a limited run -- soaps are open-ended by design -- and offer a voyeuristic thrill soaps can't provide, creating new celebrities in the process, something the news media has seized upon eagerly. \"People like to emulate people on TV,\" says Sands, who has advised some reality stars. And, he adds, \"people get to feel superior\" to misbehaving reality show stars. Torchin, however, can't stand reality shows. \"They're voyeurism of the lowest order,\" she says. Soaps, she believes, offer some of the art that writing and acting can provide: \"They have adventure and heart,\" she says, singling out \"GL's\" \"compelling characters.\" \"They're more real than what reality shows can do.\" She's aware that soaps have been criticized for far-out plot devices, such as evil twins, long-lost children and bizarre coincidences. On \"Guiding Light,\" a character drove her car off a bridge; a few years later, she turned up alive, little worse for the wear. \"Some of those outlandish things hurt the genre,\" she says, noting that bringing back characters was a way to placate upset audience members, who were known to fire off angry letters to networks and sponsors. \"I always felt that convention [of restoring \"dead\" characters] always hurt soaps, because you were never invested in an event that should have been of great poignancy.\" Soaps aren't dead, of course. Even with \"GL's\" demise, there are still seven soaps on the air, each with passionate fans. Also, the elements of the genre are plainly visible in prime-time dramas such as \"Grey's Anatomy\" and \"Desperate Housewives.\" \"Everything is a soap now,\" says Torchin. \"The secret of a show that works is that you're involved with the characters, you're in their lives. Everything else is just diversion.\" Dos Santos believes that shrewder marketing -- helped by new media -- can help the genre make a comeback. And, indeed, Torchin observes that a \"GL\" star, Crystal Chappell, is launching a Web soap, \"Venice,\" in November. The Internet program is an outgrowth of the popularity of a \"GL\" storyline featuring Chappell's character in a lesbian relationship -- a relationship that many fans felt was handled poorly by the broadcasters. Watch Chappell go over her plans \u00bb . \"I think the ratings will be better than cable,\" says Torchin. Is she correct? Will soaps live to rise again? Will reality shows conquer daytime and nighttime? Tune in tomorrow.","highlights":"\"Guiding Light\" goes off the air Friday after 72 years on radio and TV .\nSoaps in general are declining; other genres, such as reality shows, have taken over .\nSome observers hopeful soaps will cross to the Web and have success ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Students, we know you may not be all that ecstatic about seeing your teachers -- and the homework they assign -- as the school year starts up. Pay attention in class, though; you never know what hidden talents your teachers might have. Just look at all of these famous former teachers: . After teaching and performing music, Gene Simmons is now starring in his own reality show, \"Family Jewels.\" Gene Simmons: The tongue-flicking bassist of Kiss taught sixth grade in Harlem before he became the world's most famous bass-playing demon. Simmons later revealed in interviews that his superiors canned him for replacing the works of Shakespeare with Spiderman comics, which he thought the students were more likely to actually read. Alexander Graham Bell: The telephone pioneer got his start teaching Visible Speech at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. He developed a bond with a student named Mabel Hubbard, and when she was 19 the two married. Sting: Before he became a star with The Police, Sting taught English, music, and soccer at St. Catherine's Convent School. Sting later said of working at a convent school, \"I was the only man on the faculty. In fact, I was the only teacher not in a habit.\" Mental Floss: How 10 celebrities picked their stage names . Robert Frost: Like King, Frost worked as a teacher to supplement the income from his fledgling literary career. Frost worked as both a farmer and teacher at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire. His students called him \"the Hen Man\" because the poet was afraid of chickens, and Frost allegedly had trouble remembering to milk the school's cows on time. Lyndon Johnson: The future president got his start as a principal at the Mexican-American Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. He later finished his teaching degree and landed gigs teaching public speaking at Pearsall High School in Pearsall Texas and Sam Houston High in Houston. The debate team he coached at Sam Houston lost the Texas state championship by a single point; Johnson supposedly had to vomit backstage before he could bring himself to congratulate the winners. Art Garfunkel: We can't speak for Paul Simon, but at least half of Simon and Garfunkel was really, really good at math. Garfunkel nearly earned a doctorate in the subject and was teaching math at the Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut when \"Bridge Over Troubled Water\" soared to the top of the charts. John Adams: The second president of the United States spent a few years working as a schoolteacher in Worcester, Massachusetts. Teaching didn't suit Adams, who thought his students were nothing more than a \"large number of little runtlings, just capable of lisping A, B, C, and troubling the master.\" He eventually gave up the job to go to law school. Mr. T: It was hard for Chicago students to be fools when it came to gym class in the mid-1970s. You'd pay attention if Mr. T told you to do jumping jacks, wouldn't you? Sylvester Stallone: Did you know you were watching a matchup of tough-guy teachers when Stallone and Mr. T battled in \"Rocky III?\" When Sly was attending the American College in Switzerland during the 1960s, he worked as a gym teacher to earn extra spending money. Mental Floss: Sly Stallone pudding and other unique celebrity products . J.K. Rowling: The Harry Potter author worked as an English teacher in Portugal as she plotted out the early adventures of her young wizards. Andy Griffith: Before he was a sheriff, before he was Matlock, Andy Griffith was a teacher. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Griffith taught English at Goldsboro High School. Billy Crystal: The comedian worked as a junior high substitute teacher on Long Island while he waited for his career to take off. Among the classes he subbed for: girls' gym, which must have been a great source of material. Kris Kristofferson: The country star was a Rhodes Scholar who studied literature at Oxford before joining the Army and rising to the rank of captain. Towards the end of his tour of duty, Kristofferson took a job as an English teacher at West Point, but he decided against the professorship at the last minute. Instead of heading to New York, he resigned his commission and moved to Nashville in 1965. Stephen King: Although he initially had to work in an industrial laundry after his college graduation, the horror master eventually found a teaching job that paid a cool $6400 a year at the Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. King wrote \"Salem's Lot\" while living in a trailer and working this job during the day. Mental Floss: Mojave Desert's airplane graveyard . Sir William Golding: The author's experiences as a teacher helped inform the novel that made his career. He once allowed a class of boys to debate with complete freedom, and the classroom quickly devolved into such disorder that it inspired Golding to write \"Lord of the Flies.\" For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some people who became famous, tried their hand at teaching first .\nPresident Lyndon Johnson taught public speaking, coached debate team .\nArt Garfunkel was teaching math when \"Bridge Over Troubled Water\" became a hit .\nAuthors Stephen King and J.K. Rowling and singer Sting all taught English ."} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- A U.N. report says hunger is on the rise globally and blames higher food prices. Populations within conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo are particularly vulnerable. The Food and Agriculture Organization has issued preliminary estimates classifying 963 million people as undernourished -- an increase of 40 million people over the past year. \"One out of seven people -- about 15 percent -- suffer chronically of not having enough to eat,\" said Mark Smulders, an FAO economist. The hunger report -- titled \"The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008\" -- said the world's financial and economic problems could throw more people into poverty. The number of hungry had been increasing over the years before the rise in food prices, with warfare and political instability continuing to be among the factors causing poverty. The preliminary estimates lack a firm country breakdown, but last year's figures are an accurate measure of where the problems are. About 907 out of 923 million undernourished people in 2007, or 65 percent of the hungry, live in India, China, the war-wracked Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Smulders said about 27 percent of the world's hungry live in India and 15 percent in China. The other countries each represent 4 to 5 percent of the world's total. There has been progress in fighting hunger in the Asian nations of Thailand and Vietnam, and in the sub-Saharan African nations of Ghana, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Mozambique and Malawi, the report said. Food prices have declined from their peak earlier in the year, but they are staying high compared to other years, the agency said. The Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index was 28 percent higher in October than it was two years before. \"Prices of major cereals have fallen by over 50 percent from their peaks earlier in 2008 but they remain high compared to previous years,\" the FAO said. The agency said the \"rural and urban poor, landless farmers and female-headed households are the worst hit by high food prices.\" -- CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. agency says food prices are to blame for an increase in hunger .\nFood and Agriculture Organization issues estimates 963 million undernourished .\nIt is an increase of 40 million people over the past year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal regulators announced $7.1 million in fines against American Airlines on Thursday over maintenance issues and problems with its drug- and alcohol-testing programs. American Airlines was fined for allowing aircrafts to fly while they knew they needed repairs. \"The FAA believes the large total amount of the fine for these violations is appropriate because American Airlines was aware that appropriate repairs were needed, and instead deferred maintenance,\" the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement announcing the decision. \"In intentionally continuing to fly the aircraft, the carrier did not follow important safety regulations intended to protect passengers and crew.\" American can still appeal the fines, the FAA said. The FAA also found the airline maintained inadequate drug- and alcohol-testing programs and failed to inspect safety lighting on a \"timely\" basis. The Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier said Thursday evening that it disagreed with the findings and called the penalties \"excessive.\" \"In accordance with FAA procedures for handling these matters, we have requested to meet with the FAA after we have had time to thoroughly review their findings, so that we may discuss the issues,\" the airline said in a written statement. \"Since these matters are ongoing with the FAA, we will not have any further comment at this time.\" Nearly $4.5 million of the proposed fines stem from American's continued operation of two MD-83 jetliners in December 2007 after pilots reported problems with the autopilot systems, the FAA said. The two planes were flown a combined 58 times before the problems were corrected -- and one flew 10 times after an FAA inspector notified the airline that it had wrongly deferred needed repairs. In one incident, the autopilot disconnected during a landing on December 21, the FAA said. \"American technicians did not check for the actual problem, and instead deferred maintenance using an inappropriate MEL (minimum equipment list) item. The plane flew another 36 passenger-carrying flights during December 21-31.\" The problem was later traced to a piece of radio gear separate from the autopilot, the FAA said. Meanwhile, a different MD-83 flew four flights without a fully functioning autopilot after American mechanics put off repairs. Regulators also accuse American of operating planes without timely inspections of their emergency lighting systems. In April, American canceled more than 3,000 flights to conduct inspections of wiring bundles in wheel wells of its 300 MD-80 jets, snarling air traffic for five days. The FAA ordered American and several other airlines to examine the wiring, which had the potential to start fires or cause landing gear to malfunction.","highlights":"NEW: American asks to meet with FAA, calls fines \"excessive\"\nAirline accused of not having timely inspections of emergency lighting systems .\nTwo planes flew combined 58 times before problems corrected .\nAirline also fined for \"past deficiencies\" regarding drug and alcohol testing."} -{"article":"PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- The United States no longer supports a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the country's main opposition because a viable unity government is not possible with Mugabe in power, a top U.S. diplomat said Sunday. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, in a speech to supporters Saturday, refused calls to step down. The statement from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer follows recent calls from President Bush and other world leaders for Mugabe to abandon power amid a growing cholera epidemic that the United Nations says has killed more than 1,000 people in recent months. Frazer visited southern Africa to articulate the change in U.S. policy toward Mugabe at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She made the comments Sunday during a roundtable discussion with journalists in Pretoria, South Africa, before her expected return to the United States later in the day. She called for a new vote in Zimbabwe. \"Fresh elections are necessary but not possible under the current environment,\" Frazer told reporters. Zimbabwe has had no Cabinet since the March presidential election, during which no candidate won enough votes to avoid a runoff, according to the government. After opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from a June runoff, saying Mugabe's supporters had waged a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, Tsvangirai and Mugabe reached a power-sharing agreement that has yet to be implemented. The political impasse has aggravated the country's humanitarian and economic crisis, including a cholera outbreak that began in August. Frazer said that during her trip, she consulted with the leaders of Zimbabwe's neighbors who are stuck between their concerns about Mugabe's grip on power and their support of the power-sharing agreement, which they still think is the best way to deal with the crisis without creating a backlash. Frazer said she believes it could be weeks before African leaders put pressure on Mugabe to step down, which she said could be achieved by simply telling him with one voice that he should go. She said the U.N. Security Council will deal with the issue of Zimbabwe next month. This time, she said, South Africa will not be able to block resolutions calling for more sanctions because South Africa will no longer hold a seat on the council in 2009. Watch what options the international community has in Zimbabwe . \"The South African government will be held responsible for what is happening in Zimbabwe because they are the country with the most influence in Zimbabwe than any other in the world,\" Frazer said. The Security Council's recent failure to impose sanctions on Mugabe's regime drew scoffs from the 84-year-old Mugabe, who has accused Britain -- Zimbabwe's former colonizer -- of trying to take over the country to get its resources. Tsvangirai said Friday that his party will withdraw from efforts to form a unity government unless 42 party members who have been kidnapped are either released or brought to court to face formal charges by New Year's Day. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai, have failed to implement the September 15 power-sharing deal because they cannot agree on who should control key ministries. Under the deal, brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe would remain president while Tsvangirai would become Zimbabwe's prime minister. There had been hope that a unity government would reverse Mugabe's policies, which are widely blamed for the country's economic crisis. Mugabe blames economic sanctions imposed by Western nations for Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, is now a net importer of food and facing acute shortages of most essentials such as fuel, electricity and medical drugs. Its inflation rate -- the highest in the world -- is officially at 231 million percent. Last week, Zimbabwe's central bank introduced a $10 billion note worth less than 20 U.S. dollars. Mugabe has repeatedly refused calls from Western leaders to step down, most recently telling his supporters late Saturday that he would not follow the U.S. president to his \"political death.\" \"They now want to topple the Mugabe government. Mugabe must go because Bush is going,\" he said in his address Saturday to his party's 10th annual conference outside Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. \"Zimbabweans will refuse that one of their sons must accompany Bush to his political death,\" Mugabe said. \"Is it a ritual now that Bush with his political death must be accompanied by some African from Zimbabwe, and that African must be the leader himself, and that leader is Mugabe?\" Mugabe did not mention the cholera epidemic, which his government has said is under control despite the United Nations' assessment that half the country's population may be at risk. There are more than 20,000 suspected cases of the water-borne disease in Zimbabwe, and the U.N. said it fears that number will triple by the time the rainy season ends in April. In addition to Bush, the leaders of Britain, France and several African countries have called on Mugabe to abandon power and let a national unity government take over to help prevent the cholera epidemic from spilling across Zimbabwe's borders.","highlights":"U.S. diplomat: Zimbabwe power-share deal can't work with President Robert Mugabe .\nPower-share deal is stalled because of dispute over control of ministries .\nZimbabwe faces cholera epidemic, economic crisis .\nMugabe has resisted international calls for him to step down ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drinks group, has bought a minority stake in Innocent, the British fruit drink and \"smoothie\" maker that boasts of its ethical stance. Coca-Cola faces allegations about labor abuses as well as health and environmental concerns. Innocent said on its Web site the U.S. firm had paid \u00a330 million ($44 million) for a stake of \"between 10 and 20 percent\" to fund plans to expand in Europe. Innocent employs 275 people, has a turnover of more than \u00a3100 million and sells about two million smoothies each week. Its three founders, who set up the company 10 years by selling smoothies at a London music festival, insisted its ethical stance would not be compromised and they would continue to run and manage the business. Are ethics and business compatible? Tell us what you think . \"Every promise that Innocent has made -- about making only natural healthy products, pioneering the use of better, socially and environmentally aware ingredients, packaging and production techniques, donating money to charity and having a point of view on the world -- will remain,\" co-founder Richard Reed said. \"We'll just get to do them even more.\" Coca-Cola \"has been in business for over 120 years, so there will be things we can learn from them. And in some small ways we may be able to influence their thinking too.\" James Quincey, group business unit president for Coca-Cola Europe, said: \"We are delighted to have the opportunity to invest in Innocent's future. We have long admired their brand, their products and their unique approach to business.\" But the investment is sure to open up Innocent to charges that its ideals are being diluted. Coca-Cola has been criticized over negative health effects resulting from consumption of its products. It has also faced allegations about labor abuses in Colombia and environmental concerns in India, among other places. Sales of Coke are holding up well amid the global economic crisis thanks to strong growth in China and India. In February the company reported a 4 percent rise in sales volumes in the last three months of 2008 and a 10 percent increase in comparable earnings.","highlights":"Coca-Cola buys a minority stake in Innocent, the British fruit drink maker .\nInnocent said Coke paid \u00a330 million for stake of between 10 and 20 percent .\nCompany insists its ethical stance will not be compromised .\nCoca-Cola faces allegations about labor abuses and environmental concerns ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached an important milestone Wednesday in her quest to pay the debt from her failed 2008 presidential bid: For the first time in eight months, her campaign committee reported having more money in the bank than it owes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign committee reported owing $2.3 million in debt at the end of March. On a day most Americans were preoccupied with filing their federal income taxes, Clinton's campaign committee filed finance documents with the Federal Election Commission, reporting a total of $2.3 million in debts at the end of March, compared with $2.6 million in the bank. The nation's top diplomat has been steadily chipping away at unpaid campaign bills since suspending her White House bid in June 2008, when her debt peaked at $25.2 million. That amount covered $12 million owed to vendors, as well as the $13.2 million she loaned her campaign from personal funds. Clinton's campaign was unable to repay that personal loan by the time the Democratic National Convention convened in Denver, Colorado, last August, the deadline mandated by the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The former New York senator was forced to forgive the entire loan amount. Her campaign owed $6.4 million to 16 creditors at the end of November; $5.9 million to five creditors at the end of December; and the current $2.3 million owed to just one creditor at the end of March. That creditor is Penn, Schoen & Berland, a political consulting and polling firm that advised Clinton during her presidential bid. The firm's president, Mark Penn, was Clinton's senior campaign strategist until he stepped down last April amid revelations that he had lobbied on behalf of Colombia for a U.S.-Colombia trade deal that Clinton opposed. Penn remained involved with the campaign. Earlier this year, Clinton and her supporters raced to pay as much of the debt as possible by the time she was confirmed and sworn in as the nation's 67th secretary of state on January 21. As of that date, Clinton became subject to a federal law known as the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from personally soliciting or accepting political contributions. The Hatch Act allows others to keep raising money on Clinton's behalf, without her direct involvement. This week, longtime Clinton ally James Carville, a CNN contributor, sent a fundraising e-mail to Democrats on behalf of Clinton's campaign, requesting contributions of as little as $5 in exchange for a chance to win one of several prizes, including spending a day with former President Bill Clinton. \"I won't spend a lot of time trying to convince you to help Hillary,\" Carville e-mailed. \"I know what she means to you, and I'm sure you know how important it is for her to have her campaign pay off all its obligations.\" It's unclear whether the campaign will use the $2.6 million in the bank to clear its $2.3 million in debts in the short term. Continued fundraising indicates that it will not. Additional operating expenses and other outlays could emerge. Any extra money from the campaign could be donated to political causes or returned to donors. Clinton's campaign reported raising $938,000 in contributions in the first three months of 2009. In addition to tapping traditional fundraising, the campaign also generated money by selling or renting various campaign assets to other organizations. It received $2.6 million from Clinton's \"Friends of Hillary\" U.S. Senate campaign committee for the sale of unspecified assets and an additional $2.2 million from renting out its lists of campaign supporters. Organizations that have rented Clinton's lists include the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the inaugural committee of then-President-elect Barack Obama, and the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Those organizations each paid $274,297. Clinton's political action committee, HillPAC, rented the lists for $822,492. Among the Democratic candidates who have rented Clinton's campaign lists are Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln; Virginia gubernatorial candidate and former Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to fill Clinton's seat; and New York congressional candidate Scott Murphy, who hopes to succeed Gillibrand in the U.S. House.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton owes $2.3 million in campaign debt from failed 2008 presidential bid .\nHer campaign committee reported having $2.6 million in bank at end of March .\nClinton ally James Carville recently sent fundraising e-mail to Democrats ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspect in the killing of Yale pharmacology graduate student Annie Le appeared in court in New Haven, Connecticut, Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, his attorney told CNN. Raymond J. Clark III appears in court Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut, where he is charged with murder. Raymond Clark III, 24, a lab technician at Yale, is charged with murder in Le's death. Tuesday's scheduled hearing was continued until October 20. It is standard procedure for defendants in murder cases not to enter a plea until a later stage in the case, public defender Beth Merkin told CNN. Clark eventually will plead not guilty, she said. Clark, of Branford, Connecticut, is being held in lieu of $3 million bail. The body of Le, 24, was found inside a wall of a Yale lab building on September 12 -- the day she was to be married. She had been strangled, the Connecticut medical examiner's office determined. Clark is not a Yale student, but has worked as a lab technician at the university since 2004. He lived with his girlfriend, who also is a Yale lab technician, according to New Haven police. Follow a timeline of the case \u00bb . A Yale faculty member described Clark's job as maintaining colonies for animals used in research. The lab is in the basement of the building where Le's body was found. A motive in Le's killing was unclear, but police said they were treating the case as workplace violence. Yale has announced a memorial service for Le on October 12. The university is also establishing a scholarship in her memory. Le was buried in California on September 26. \"You were born in my loving embrace,\" said Le's mother, Vivian Van Le, reading a poem she'd written in Vietnamese to those gathered for the funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills. Her son and Annie Le's brother, Chris Le, provided a translation. \"The most wonderful gift that God had sent to me. ... You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things. All the dreams and hopes of your future gone with you to your resting place,\" Vivian Van Le said, according to her son.","highlights":"NEW: Yale employee Raymond Clark defers plea, attorney says .\nNEW: Deferring plea is common practice in similar cases, lawyer says .\nClark and victim Annie Le were co-workers at university laboratory .\nLe's body was found in wall of lab building on day she was to be married ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Ohio death row inmate who says he is too overweight to be executed took his plea to the Supreme Court on Friday. Richard Cooey, 41, and an accomplice were convicted of the 1986 murders of two college students. Richard Cooey is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday and has exhausted most of his state and federal appeals. Gov. Ted Strickland earlier Friday denied the 41-year-old prisoner's clemency petition. Cooey murdered two college students in 1986. The justices were expected to decide whether he should receive a stay of execution, and whether to address the larger constitutional claims over when a convicted person is medically unfit for capital punishment. His lawyers have argued that the inmate-- at 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds -- is \"morbidly obese,\" and has gained about 70 pounds since his incarceration at age 19. Prison food and confinement in his cell for 23 hours a day, limiting his opportunities for exercise, contributed to his weight problem, his legal team said in recent court filings. Cooey also says regular medication he takes for migraines will weaken the effectiveness of an anesthetic used in the a three-drug cocktail administered during execution. He says his veins are weakened because of his health issues, and the lethal drugs would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. In 2003, one day before Cooey was scheduled to die, a judge stopped his execution on issues unrelated to his health claims. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Cooey waited too long to raise the medical issues, saying he \"knew of and could have filed suit over vein access prior to July 2005.\" Cooey and a then-17-year-old accomplice were convicted of the brutal murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery, students at the University of Akron. The men had been tossing concrete slabs onto Interstate 77, and one of them struck Offredo's car. Pretending to rescue the women, Cooey and Clinton Dickens took them to a remote field, according to prosecutors. There, the students were subjected to 3\u00bd hours of rape, torture, stabbings and fatal bludgeonings. Cooey had carved an \"X\" into the stomachs of both women, prosecutors said. Each man blamed the other for delivering the fatal blows, but both were convicted of murder. Dickens received a life sentence because of his age. Cooey tried to escape from death row in 2005, when corrections officials said he constructed a ladder from magazines and bedsheets in an effort to scale the barrier around an outdoor recreation area. At an August clemency hearing, Jon Offredo, brother of one of the victims, said, \"Our family has never gotten an apology from Richard Cooey. We've gotten blatant lies and excuses. Is an apology too much to ask? How could he commit such a heinous act and not feel regret?\" But Cooey's lawyer, Dana Cole, said his client is sorry for his crimes. The high court has not offered clear guidelines on what medical standards need to be met before an inmate is eligible for death. But in a case five years ago, the justices allowed inmates to at least make a claim that their specific physical or medical issues could be cause to block an execution. The high court had sided with a convicted Alabama killer who claimed his veins were so damaged from years of drug abuse that executioners might have to cut deeply into his flesh to administer the deadly drugs. Writing for the unanimous court, then-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court was not going to \"open the floodgates to all manner of method-of-execution challenges,\" as Alabama feared. \"Our holding is extremely limited.\" That inmate is still on death row. Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a data-resource group that opposes capital punishment, said the Supreme Court indicated that \"how you're going to be executed is a civil rights matter, the same as if you were discriminated [against] on the basis of race or gender or something like that.\" A Washington state killer was given a reprieve in 1994 after claiming he was too obese to hang. Mitchell Rupe at one time was more than 425 pounds, but weight-loss surgery in prison had reduced that to 275 pounds over the years. Subsequent legal efforts to execute him failed. He died in prison two years ago from a long illness. The Ohio case is Cooey v. Strickland.","highlights":"Richard Cooey, set to die Tuesday, has exhausted most state, federal appeals .\nJustices are expected to decide whether he should receive stay of execution .\nThey could also address constitutional claims about medical fitness for execution .\nCooey: Drug interaction, weakened veins would make punishment cruel, unusual ."} -{"article":"ADELAIDE, Australia -- World record-breaking wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist has announced he will retire from cricket at the end of the Australian summer. Adam Gilchrist takes a spectacular catch off Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the third Test against India. The 36-year-old chose Australia Day to make his decision public, coming at the end of the third day of the fourth and final Test against India in Adelaide. Gilchrist said he would retire from Tests at the end of the current match, and then hang up his gloves in one-day internationals after the upcoming tri-series with Sri Lanka and India. \"It is with great pride and happiness that I make the decision to retire from Tests and one-day internationals,\" he said in a statement on Saturday. \"I've come to the decision after much thought and discussion with those most important to me. \"My family and I have been fortunate to have had an amazing journey full of rich experiences throughout my career and are sincerely grateful to all who have helped make this stage of our lives so fulfilling. \"I am now ready and excited to move into the next phase of my life which will, of paramount importance, include much more time with my family.\" Gilchrist broke the world record for the most wicketkeeping dismissals in Tests with 414 on Friday, overtaking South Africa's Mark Boucher in his 96th outing in the five-day game. Boucher, by comparison, played in 109 Tests. Gilchrist took over the gloves from Ian Healy -- third on the list with 395 dismissals from 119 Tests -- in November 1999, and went on to establish himself both as a wicketkeeper and as a batsman of brutal hitting capabilities. He has scored 5,556 runs to date, at an average of 47.89, with a highest score of 204 not out and having made 17 centuries. He has been similarly prolific in 277 one-dayers, scoring 9,297 runs at an average of 36 and reaching three figures 15 times. Gilchrist's revelation came as Australia put themselves in a strong position to win the series against the touring Indians, reaching 322-3 at stumps. Captain Ricky Ponting, whose team lead 2-1, was unbeaten on 79 after adding an unbroken 81 for the fourth wicket with Michael Clarke (37). Resuming the day on 62-0 in reply to India's imposing first innings of 526, Matthew Hayden and Phil Jaques took their opening stand to 159. Jaques was the first to fall, bowled by India captain Anil Kumble for a patient 60 off 159 deliveries. Hayden, on his return after missing the defeat in Perth due to a hamstring injury, reached his 30th Test century before being bowled by 19-year-old seamer Ishant Sharma for 103 off 200 balls. Ponting, who came in at first drop, added another 55 with Mike Hussey before the left-hander was also castled by fast bowler Irfan Pathan for 22 to leave the home side teetering a little at 241-3. But Ponting, who has struggled for form so far in the series, ground out his 40th half-century in Tests and Clarke provided able support to take Australia through to the close of play with no further loss of wickets. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Adam Gilchrist to retire from cricket at end of this Australian summer .\nThe wicketkeeper set new world record of 414 Test dismissals on Friday .\nHe has played 96 Tests for Australia and 277 one-day internationals .\nAustralia reached 322-3 on third day of final Test against India, Gilchrist's last ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The latest 3-D animated movie involves the possible extinction of the human race and features a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach, a prehistoric half-ape\/half-fish, a 50-foot-tall woman (OK, 49-foot-11), and a blue brainless blob named B.O.B. The Missing Link, Ginormica, the blue blob B.O.B. and Insectosaurus dominate \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" And they're the good guys. Reese Witherspoon leads the cast of \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" providing the voice of Susan, who is hit by a glowing meteorite on her wedding day. Before long she's grown into the biggest thing around. The short-statured Oscar winner relished the chance to play not only a giant, but also a role model. \"I was walking with my son and my daughter the other day, and I was like 'Who's your favorite superhero?' \" Witherspoon said. \"And my son was like ... 'Batman, Superman, Spiderman,' and he could name 20 guy superheroes. \"And so I said to my daughter, 'Who's your favorite superhero?' And she goes 'I don't know, the girl in the back of the Justice League? I can't remember her name.' \" So the idea of showcasing a female superhero, Witherspoon said, has the actress \"really excited.\" Kiefer Sutherland, who plays General W.R. Monger, sees the film as helping kids embrace their diversity. \"I love the idea that they were gonna make a film that was going to tell young people that it's all right to be different,\" Sutherland said. His military veteran character captures Susan, renames her \"Ginormica,\" and locks her up with the other \"monsters\" he's collected over half a century. \"And not only is it all right to be different, that one thing that may make you feel awkward about being different might be your greatest asset.\" Those assets become apparent when an alien invader (voiced by Rainn Wilson of \"The Office\") decides he wants Earth, and the monsters -- Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach (\"House\" star Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will Arnett), and the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) -- are called upon to save the planet. The film, which also features the voices of Stephen Colbert and Paul Rudd, opens Friday. Most of the cast had previous experience in animation voiceover -- last year, Rogen was featured in \"Kung Fu Panda,\" and he and Arnett were heard in \"Horton Hears A Who!\" -- but it was the first time for Wilson. \"They called me and they said 'They're interested in you for this, playing an evil alien warlord,' and I was like 'Where do I sign?' \" he said with a chuckle. It was a welcome change of pace for Sutherland, who recorded his voice tracks for \"Monsters\" while he was filming the uber-intense \"24.\" \"So, for five days a week I'm very serious in the '24' world, and then for five hours on the weekend I got to be 5 years old and just play a cartoon character\" -- a character he says he saw as a combination of R. Lee Ermey's intense gunnery sergeant in \"Full Metal Jacket\" and that 'toon terror, Yosemite Sam. \"We combined these voices and the producers laughed, which is generally a pretty good sign,\" Sutherland said. Sutherland may have been inspired by the classics, but the 3-D aspect of \"Monsters\" is as modern as movie technology gets. Under the command of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg (whom Witherspoon and Sutherland respectfully called \"Mr. Katzenberg\"), the film was conceived from the beginning as a 3-D project. One early scene uses the process to bounce a paddleball out at the audience, but for the most part, the effect is used immersively, to bring viewers into the \"Monsters\" world. \"You really feel like you're there, like you're a part of this thing,\" said Arnett, \"not in a way that's gratuitous and to just sort of show off, but really so that the viewer can be an active participant in the movie.\" While film technology continues to advance, some things never change. As Susan is still trying to get used to her new size and powers, she finds herself simultaneously battling an alien robot and trying to save dozens of people trapped in their cars on the Golden Gate Bridge while her male cohorts mostly just stand around. One tries to encourage her by calling \"You're doing it!\" to which Susan snaps back, \"I'm doing everything!\" \"The quintessential cry!\" Witherspoon said. \"The female war cry! That's one of my favorite lines.\" iReport.com: Does 3-D make you more likely to see a movie? Of course, it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that -- eventually -- Susan not only bonds with the rest of her motley crew, but also gains the self-confidence to see the positives in her accidental enormousness. As Wilson, the film's villain, noted, \"It's a coming-of-age tale -- for the monster inside of each one of us.\" And, perhaps, it will give some little girls a superhero to look up to.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is about motley group of misfits who team up to defeat alien .\nMonsters are led by almost 50-foot woman, voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\nWitherspoon says she hopes character can be role model for girls .\nOther actors lending talents: Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Winter travelers trek thousands of miles to the frozen north each year seeking the sky's \"dancing lights,\" which provoke awe, excitement and, some say, sex. CNN iReporter Bruce Barrett shot this rare red aurora in Canada's Whitehorse, Yukon. Scientists call the natural phenomenon aurora borealis: cascading beams of greens, yellows, blues, purples or reds -- which paint a breathtaking backdrop across the wilderness and attract thousands of tourists annually. \"Usually it starts slowly as kind of a hazy greenish color -- like a mist -- building up in frequency dancing across the sky ... and to me that's religion,\" said photographer Dave Brosha of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, who's seen more than 100 Canadian auroras. \"It's just one of the most incredible feelings a person can have -- sitting there watching that.\" To the west in Canada's Yukon province, tour operator Torsten Eder likes to tell a story about a marriage that was forged under the glowing curtains of light. See spectacular photos of auroras \u00bb . \"I had one guy from Mexico, and he wanted to surprise his girlfriend by proposing marriage with a ring under the northern lights,\" said Eder from his office in Whitehorse. \"We got lucky and the lights were visible ... so our guest went down on his knee and proposed to his girlfriend and she was totally blown away. The funny thing was -- she wouldn't wear gloves for the first three days -- so she could show the ring off.\" The otherworldly lights also have provided inspiration for almost sacred pilgrimages, Eder said. Guests who said they were going blind or battling cancer told him they wanted to view the auroras at least once in their lives. \"It puts enormous pressure on us,\" said Eder. \"You can't guarantee that the lights will be visible because it's a natural phenomenon.\" The display is generally visible at least every three days, he said. Scientists say the northern lights are created by the sun's super hot atmosphere, which blasts particles into the protective magnetic field surrounding the Earth. The magnetic field forces the particles toward the north and south poles. About 60 to 200 miles overhead, the particles bump into the Earth's atmosphere and become electrically \"excited\" -- throwing off light of various colors, said Prof. Dirk Lummerzheim of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. \"The forecast for this winter is a continued quiet sun, in general,\" he said. The sun is on the upswing of an 11-year cycle. \"Maybe we will have a few periods once a month where the aurora can get a little bit more active.\" Although the phenomenon occurs around the clock, the lights are only visible at night. The best time of year to see them is during winter, when darkness in the upper latitudes stretches up to 24 hours. See map where northern lights can be seen \u00bb . Eder's Northern Tales tour company picks up guests at their hotels about 10 p.m. and takes them to an area about 20 minutes outside Whitehorse's city lights. There, travelers can enjoy nature's colorful show from a heated, walled tent until around 2 a.m. \"We almost take it for granted sometimes,\" said Brosha. \"No matter how many times you've seen the aurora borealis -- when they really dance, when you get some really unique colors -- you just kind of say, 'Wow, I'm so lucky to see that.' \" A warmer way to enjoy the northern lights is a shallow, natural rock lake at Chena Hot Springs outside Fairbanks, Alaska, which allows bikini-clad guests to enjoy the lights in temperatures of 106 degrees Fahrenheit. \"I mean, honestly, it's the best way to see them,\" said spokeswoman Denise Ferree. \"Because you're warm and toasty and you're watching the northern lights above.\" Chena's owner, Bernie Karl -- who's often as colorful as the lights themselves -- said the auroras sometimes spark the libido. \"Having sex under the northern lights -- it's an awesome experience,\" Karl said. \"Have you ever been out in nature at 35 below zero with northern lights bouncing over your head and your bare ass? Well, you need to try it.\" If the hot springs aren't for you, Chena also takes guests up a nearby mountain to observe the auroras from heated Mongolian-style tents called yurts. The resort prides itself on its environmental initiative, which has led to the generation of clean electricity from geothermal heat produced by the hot spring. \"Iceland is probably one of the best places to see the northern lights,\" said Reykjavik tour guide Arni Magnusson of AM Tours. That's especially true as the U.S. dollar gains value against the Icelandic krona -- offering some attractive hotel and shopping opportunities. Guests are picked up at their hotel for a 20-minute drive outside the city to view the lights from higher elevations. \"People say they feel closer to Earth and to the forces of nature,\" said Magnusson. \"The lights totally overwhelm them.\" Dan Hershman's life changed dramatically after he photographed a spectacular aurora in Washington state in 2000, which was a peak year in the solar cycle. \"These things are just dynamic and they seem just alive and organic,\" said Hershman, who at the time was a high school music teacher. The photo was unique enough to attract the attention of NASA, which ran the image on its Web site, Hershman said. This spurred his interest in photography and soon, as Hershman put it, \"my hobby became my profession and my profession became my hobby.\" Now Hershman performs as principal bassoonist in local orchestras as a hobby -- and he teaches high school photography in Federal Way, Washington, as his profession. The trick to photographing the auroras, Hershman said, is choosing to take the picture when the lights aren't moving as much. \"Otherwise it looks like nothing but a big blob,\" he said. IF YOU GO . WHITEHORSE . Activities . Yukon Brewing Company offers tours of this award-winning brewery, the home of such libations as Espresso Stout, made with local espresso from Midnight Sun Coffee Roaster. Mac's Fireweed, an independent bookstore and a Whitehorse institution, offers a nice selection of magazines and a huge catalogue of book titles. Northern Tales tour company picks up guests at their hotels and takes them a short distance outside Whitehorse to view the auroras from heated, walled tents. Stay: . Just north of Whitehorse, see the northern lights from Takhini Hot Springs, which offers cabins and camping facilities. Two bed and breakfasts come recommended by Whitehorse residents: Casey's and Hawkins House, at 867-668-7638. YELLOWKNIFE . Activities . Enjoy warm tepees as well as food and drinks while viewing the northern lights at Aurora Village, which gets up to 20 hours of darkness in the winter months. FAIRBANKS . Stay: . Chena Hot Springs resort offers accommodations and viewing tours of the northern lights. Locals also recommend Mount Aurora Fairbanks Creek lodge for those seeking views of the spectacular lights. ALASKA WILDERNESS . Stay: . If you're looking for a trip deeper into the wilderness, Tolovana Hot Springs offers views of the auroras about 45 miles from Fairbanks -- accessible by trail or plane only. Northern lights tours: . Travel to the Brooks mountain range above the Arctic Circle can be arranged with Out in Alaska at 877-374-9958. Northern Alaska Tour Co. offers wilderness tours to see the auroras in Coldfoot. ICELAND . Northern lights tours: . Visitors interested in guided views of the northern lights can contact AM Tours at 011-354-898-6581. Activities: . Enjoy the hot springs and spa facilities at the famous Blue Lagoon. Find general information on touring Iceland at Iceland Travel.","highlights":"Sex under northern lights is an awesome experience, says resort owner .\nPeople diagnosed with terminal or blinding diseases seek out aurora borealis .\nBrilliant green, blue \"dancing lights\" inspire marriage proposals, says guide .\nSpectacular phenomenon occurs when solar particles hit near Earth's poles ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Boeing 777 is the mainstay of many airlines' long-haul fleets and has never been involved in a fatal accident during its service history. British Airways aircrew fly the Royal Standard from the flight deck of the Boeing 777 aircraft. The aircraft first entered service on June 7, 1995, with more than 900 suppliers from 17 countries coming together to provide the more than three million parts needed in its construction, according to the Boeing Web site. Since its inaugural flight, Boeing has extended the 777 family to five commercial passenger models and a freighter version, collectively making more than two million flights. The aircraft seats between 301 and 368 passengers in a three-class configuration and can fly distances up to 17,500 kilometers. The 777 has also won a number of design awards, as well as setting a number of records and firsts. On November 9 and 10, 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner set a new world record for distance traveled non-stop by a commercial jetliner. The 777-200LR set a record distance of 21,601 km on a route traveling eastbound from Hong Kong to London Heathrow. The flight lasted 22 hours and 42 minutes. The achievements was recognized by the U.S. National Aeronautics Association, The Federation Aeronautique Internationale and the Guinness Book of Records. The Federation e\u00e9ronautique Internationale recognized the Boeing 777 in April 1997 for achieving a speed and distance record for airplanes in its size and class. The Boeing Web site claims the 777 set the \"Great Circle Distance Without Landing\" record, traveling 20,044 km, and it set the record for \"Speed Around the World, Eastbound,\" traveling at an average speed of 889 km per hour. According to Boeing the aircraft reached 500 deliveries by 2005 -- faster than any other twin-aisle commercial airplane in history. Boeing prides itself on the 777's landing gear, which it claims is the largest ever incorporated into a commercial aircraft. Each main landing gear is fitted with six wheels, while the nose gear has two. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The Boeing 777 aircraft first entered service on June 7, 1995 .\nFirst airplane U.S. (FAA) approved for extended-range twin-engine operations .\nEngineers designed, electronically pre-assembled the 777 using computers .\nIn 2005, a Boeing 777 set a new world record for distance traveled non-stop ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide because she wanted her family to donate her liver to her cancer-stricken father, state media reported Thursday. The girl, Chen Jin, swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills after she discovered a medical note in her mother's purse that said her father was dying of liver cancer and had three months left to live, the news agency Xinhua said. Jin's mother returned home after visiting her husband in the hospital to find the front door locked. The mother climbed in through a back window and found two empty bottles of sleeping pills. \"Mom, I'm sorry I couldn't stay with you any longer,\" read a note that the teen had left next to her. \"Please give my liver to dad and save him after my death.\" The incident occurred January 24 in Jiangsu province in east China. The teen was taken to the same hospital as her father, where she remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness, Xinhua said. Doctors say that even if she pulls through, she will need surgery for burns she suffered from an electric blanket on her bed when she lost consciousness, the China Daily newspaper said. According to Chinese media reports, the family -- whose monthly income is about 1,000 yuan ($146) -- has already spent nearly 100,000 yuan ($14,600) in medical expenses since the father was diagnosed with cancer more than a month ago. The mother, who is also in poor health, retired early more than eight years ago. The woman told China Daily she is now trying to keep her husband from learning of their daughter's desperate act of love.","highlights":"A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide to save her cancer-stricken father .\nGirl swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills when she learned of father's liver cancer .\nThe teen remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness ."} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- From barefoot tomboy to fashion supernova, fearless pop renegade Rihanna lives to bust all the rules. \"I love the heavy chain over this pretty dress -- it's exactly the way I would do it,\" says Rihanna. What are some rules you'd like to crush? The idea of not wearing brown and black together seems so dated. The other day I wore a black T-shirt, black Nobody jeans, a brown leopard-print belt by Dolce & Gabbana, and brown Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, and it looked awesome. Also the rule about not matching your makeup to your outfit. I do that onstage, matching red lipstick to a bright red jacket or neon-pink eye shadow to a pink jumpsuit. And I also love to mix prints. We've had the Meg, the Jennifer, and now people ask for the Rihanna at salons. Will you be switching it up again? The first time I heard people were asking for the Rihanna, it was really flattering and maybe a little strange. It caught me by surprise, but now I feel it's a very cool thing. I don't feel the pressure to change it up again at all. I like it, as they like it. Can you talk about your style obsessions and how your look has evolved over the years? It has evolved without my even noticing it. Lately I'm obsessed with Thierry Mugler... Grace Jones inspires me. She is the most iconic woman ever, in my eyes. She has extraordinary style and she's fearless. I love designer Martin Margiela; Kanye West told me about him. I also like Dsquared, Chlo\u00e9, Zac Posen... But you weren't always a fashion maven? Growing up in Barbados, you were a tomboy. I wore my brother's clothes, dresses with sneakers, or no shoes at all. I would always get into trouble with my mom. She would say things to scare me like, \"You're going to get cut!\" But I couldn't help it. I would climb trees, steal mangoes, catch birds--silly things that were fun to us at the time. My cousin and I were the only girls in the group. We would have to stand up for ourselves because the guys didn't want us around. You stood out in Barbados because of your light complexion. Do you remember having trouble fitting in at school? Definitely. It made me angry... For the first six years of school, I would go home traumatized. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school. High school was better. I read that your mom owns a boutique and your dad works at a garment factory -- it seems you have the Rihanna fashion line already partly sewn up. [Giggles] Well I am working on that right now. It takes a lot of effort, and I want to be involved with every step of the process. What do you do for kicks in L.A.? I don't go out much. I'm moving into a new four-bedroom home in Los Feliz that I'm excited about. Parts of it will be inspired by India. I love things like canopy beds, printed fabrics and Spanish touches. Then I can stay at home and cook West Indian dishes like callaloo [stewed greens]. But I do want a sports car--as soon as I get my license. Who knew you were so domestic. Wait a minute. You're such a rebel. In the video for \"Take a Bow,\" you drive a car. I have my Barbadian license, just not my American one. How will you celebrate your 21st birthday? Don't scare me! I have till February. I feel like I have so much more to accomplish before I'm 21. No party plans yet. Many showbiz types say, \"Don't ever read your own press,\" but you do, even the online stuff. What's the kookiest thing you've read about yourself? The Grammy thing -- that I brought Jay-Z on stage and Beyonc\u00e9 was upset, which is so ridiculous. Or the idea that I've had breast implants -- I don't even have much cleavage. It was just the dress! So yes, I read about myself and about everybody else in the gossip pages. It's comedy to me; I laugh about it. The tattoo behind your ear is a Pisces symbol -- two fish swimming head to tail in a circle--which represents life after death. If possible, what would you be reincarnated as? If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog, DJ. He gets the best treatment, all the attention in the world, and he's so adorable. Plus, he goes everywhere I can take him. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Rihanna wants to crush the idea of not wearing brown and black together .\nHer light complexion gave her trouble fitting in at school in Barbados .\nSinger's new four-bedroom home decor in Los Feliz to be inspired by India .\n\"If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog,\" Rihanna says ."} -{"article":"JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi King Abdullah confirmed Sunday that his country will increase daily oil production from 9 million barrels to 9.7 million in the near future to counter the sharp rise in international oil prices. Saudi Arabia has announced an increase in oil production in a bid to ease the pressure on oil prices. The Saudi petroleum minister, Ali I. Al-Naimi, said the country will reach the 9.7 million level by July. The announcement comes after Saudi officials announced modest increases. It would be Saudi Arabia's highest production rate since 1981. White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto praised the step, saying, \"Any increase in production in today's oil market is welcome. It is important that we also take steps to increase domestic production and our refining capacity.\" Meanwhile, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. rose nearly 10 cents in the past two weeks to almost $4.10 a gallon for self-serve regular, according to a national survey released Sunday. The survey showed the national average was just a fraction of a cent under $4.10 a gallon, said survey publisher Trilby Lundberg. That is up 9.7 cents a gallon from the same survey two weeks ago, Lundberg said. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, downplayed the Saudi increase. \"Nice try, but no cigar. When gas is at $4 per gallon, demand increases almost daily, and the Saudis have millions of barrels per day more in spare capacity,\" he said. \"This isn't nearly good enough.\" Al-Naimi, the petroleum minister, also said the Saudi government will invest in oil projects that would allow Saudi Arabia to have the capacity to produce 12.5 million barrels per day by the end of next year. King Abdullah's announcement came at the end of the Jeddah energy summit, where he also called for OPEC to set aside $1 billion for a strategy to ease the oil price crisis. He said $500 million should be given to developing nations to help them get the energy they need. King Abdullah said there are \"many factors that made oil prices high.\" Along with increased demand, he also cited oil speculators and an increase in taxes in consumer nations. \"Now we see a lot of people point the finger at OPEC as it is solely responsible for this,\" he said. The king's statement came a day after U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, attending the summit, blamed the record oil prices on lack of production. \"All nations must be better at conservation, and the U.S. is at the top of that list,\" said Bodman, who met with journalists ahead of the international meeting of oil producing and consuming nations focusing on high oil prices. Some observers have blamed speculators for driving up oil prices. A key adviser to Saudi Arabia's oil minister said Friday that a number of factors, including speculators and currency fluctuations, are to blame for rising oil prices. \"We need stability,\" Dr. Ibrahim al Muhanna said, adding that Saudi Arabia would like to see producers, consumers and distributors cooperate. But Bodman said he did not believe that they are the cause. Since 2003, he said, global demand for oil has increased because of industry in China, India and the Middle East. But from 2005 to 2007, there was very little increase in supply. Nations need an additional supply of energy to market, whether that energy is nuclear, coal, fossil fuels, solar or wind power, Bodman said. \"We spent 30 years digging ourselves into this hole,\" he said. \"It won't be solved soon.\" On Wednesday, President Bush asked Congress to permit drilling for oil in deep water off the U.S. coast to combat rising oil prices. He also renewed his demand that Congress allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, clear the way for more refineries and encourage efforts to recover oil from shale in areas like the Green River Basin, which encompasses parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. \"In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home,\" Bush said in a Rose Garden statement.","highlights":"Saudis will increase daily oil production from 9 million barrels to 9.7 million .\nIncrease from July, boosting production to highest level since 1981 .\nAnnouncement at Jeddah energy summit to help ease pain of oil price hike .\nSaudis: OPEC should give $1B for strategy, $500M of which for developing nations ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- It's the oldest trick in the political playbook: Call together a \"summit\" of fancy people so you'll appear to be focused on work that must get done. Thursday, the White House convened CEOs from companies such as Boeing, AT&T, Comcast and Dow Corning, top leaders of the United Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers, American Federation of Teachers unions, Ivy League academics and a few small-business representatives to brainstorm how the country might generate much-needed jobs. A schmooze-fest is nice, but the hard work of putting America back to work will be done by entrepreneurs, not the leaders of the biggest companies in the nation and the heads of big unions. The mom-and-pop shops, garage start-ups and small businesses across the country will put Americans back on the payroll. According to the Census Bureau, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. since 1980 has been generated by firms operating less than five years. This means that our job generators are likely not on the White House guest list. They are home working long hours to meet payrolls on tight deadlines and scraping by with limited resources. While others can advocate for the merits of entrepreneurship, and will hopefully do so, our job creators are strangely left out. Innovators from Oregon to Tennessee are the ones who will generate new jobs. Commerce Department data show that small companies represent 99.1 percent of all employer firms (a firm is an aggregation of all establishments owned by a parent company, even in multiple locations.). They pay nearly 45 percent of U.S. private payroll and have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade. A few start-ups from the last century may be familiar: Disney, Burger King, Fed-Ex, CNN and Microsoft all started during a period of economic downturn. Today, each of these companies employs thousands of people in the U.S. and abroad. Recent research shows that more than half of the 2009 Fortune 500 companies were launched during a recession or bear market. In 2002, when the tech bubble burst, I graduated from business school just a few miles from Google. The start-up was a mysterious algorithm-based business, little known and lesser understood. Today, Google employs 20,000 people worldwide. So the question is how can we foster the next Google? Policy-makers can't predict breakthrough technologies, but they can create an environment that will encourage innovation. How to start? First, provide further access to capital. Last week, two Small Business Administration stimulus provisions that helped to get millions of dollars to small-business owners ran out of funding. The provisions, passed as part of the Recovery Act, raised the maximum guarantee on SBA loans to 90 percent and reduced or eliminated fees associated with the loans, making it more attractive for banks to lend during the downturn. Access to capital is the lifeblood of small businesses. We must renew these provisions and provide even greater access to credit. Helping fledgling companies grow fuels the economy from the bottom up. Second, welcome immigrants who are job generators. We are a country of immigrants, and yet in recent years, we have made it incredibly difficult for immigrants to launch companies in the U.S. Why not create a new visa for entrepreneurs? Increasingly venture capitalists, angel investors and innovators are advocating a \"start-up visa\" offered to immigrant entrepreneurs who want to start a company in the United States. In 2008, nearly 40 percent of technology company founders were foreign-born; 52 percent of Silicon Valley company founders were foreign-born, including the founders of Google, Yahoo, eBay and Intel, to name a few. Why chase these innovators away when we need jobs and should be hanging an \"innovators wanted\" sign on our front door? Third, match funds for early investors. Early investors need incentives to put money behind companies that will create U.S. jobs. We have channeled billions of dollars to preserve \"too big to fail\" institutions. Why not make federal matching dollars available to catalyze smart investment in next generation businesses? Investors could keep their normal returns and a share of returns on federal matching funds could go back to the government to further revitalize our weakened economy. Instead of preserving outdated jobs, we need to fuel the creation of future employment prospects. Early-stage investors with a track record of success can help make this happen. Obama came into office on an entrepreneurial platform. His campaign catalyzed involvement at the grassroots level. Tapping into new technologies such as YouTube, Facebook and other social networks, our president benefited from entrepreneurial advances. It is time for the White House to return to its campaign roots. Since Obama's inauguration, our unemployment rate has risen from 7.6 percent to 10.2 percent. It is time to stop propping up outmoded and overleveraged institutions and start betting on the new men and women who offer hope for greater prosperity. Supporting entrepreneurs is change we can believe in. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Amy M. Wilkinson.","highlights":"Amy M. Wilkinson says Obama's summit had mostly CEOs, union reps, academics .\nBut, she says, most job creation in the U.S. since 1980 has been from start-up firms .\nWilkinson: Government funds and policies should target entrepreneurs ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Joan Baez is in a celebratory mood. And rightly so: She's survived 50 years in show business. Joan Baez says that her new Steve Earle-produced album was meant to sound like a throwback to the folk era. The legendary singer, who rose to fame during the folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s, is marking the occasion with a new album called \"Day After Tomorrow.\" Produced by Steve Earle (whom Baez likes to call \"Mister Gruff\"), it's a collection of bluegrass-tinged songs reminiscent of her early repertoire. \"We were looking for songs that feel like now but sound like back then,\" she said. Earle penned one of the album's standout tracks, \"God Is God,\" which he describes as \"recovery speak.\" Baez also covers \"Scarlet Tide,\" a song written by Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett for the 2003 film \"Cold Mountain.\" At 67, Baez finds her voice may not have the sheer power it did in her 20s, but her political spirit is intact. She passionately expressed her support for Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, the first time the self-described pacifist has taken sides in party politics. \"I haven't heard an orator like that since King,\" she said. Baez knew the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and famously sang the protest song \"We Shall Overcome\" to a massive crowd at the Lincoln Memorial during King's 1963 March on Washington. Baez spoke to CNN about sustaining her voice and finding happiness in her 60s. The following is an edited version of that interview, which was conducted before Tuesday's election. CNN: What did Steve Earle bring to the table with your new album? Joan Baez: Oh, everything but the voice. Spirit, some songs. His gruffness to my non-gruffness. He worked fast, really fast, and I like that. And he brought the musicians. I don't know who to choose for musicians. We were a good match. CNN: Is there a song on the album that speaks to you more than others? Baez: I guess the ones I go back listening to are \"God Is God\" and \"Rose of Sharon.\" \"Rose of Sharon\" sounds exactly like an old folk song. I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that it's contemporary. CNN: How does it feel to be embarking on a new tour at such a politically charged time? Baez: I've never seen this country this politically charged. I realized something this morning. I was watching Obama on TV and I thought, \"I really love this guy.\" I love what he's capable of, I love that he's genuine. He's a statesman, and he's brilliant. People say do you think he can change America? He already has. ... And I know most of the things he'll have to do I would battle him to the death. He's going to be commander in chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and I'm a pacifist [laughs]. CNN: So you would almost prefer that he didn't run for president, that his talents could be applied in other ways? Baez: Yeah. I've thought that, yeah. Part of me wishes very strongly that Obama would be outside the system and his hands would be less tied. CNN: In the '50s and '60s, you lived and breathed the causes you rallied behind. When you look at young musicians today, do you feel they're attaching themselves to charities or causes because it's hip, rather than meaningful? Baez: I think it's probably a combination of things. I think people are afraid of risk so they'll [only] go so far. But I don't think people have felt the urgency that we felt in the '60s. But it's there. The urgency is there. There's a need for community, but we don't feel it. CNN: Why is that? Baez: That we don't feel it? Because we live more and more separately. Kids are walking down the street plugged in [to personal electronics]. The only place there's community really is in the ghetto, where they need each other and they know it. We need each other, and we don't know it. CNN: You look back at all the causes you've rallied behind, and there have been so many. ... Baez: It makes me dizzy. CNN: [Do] you feel emotionally wrung out? Baez: No. It's the opposite. What happens is it starts generating energy for myself. There's some part of me that's wiped out. I feel that sometimes. CNN: Do you find you have to work harder to keep your voice in shape? Baez: Oh God, yeah. It was very humiliating to find out that I was like everybody else in the world and that I had to get coaching. And now it's a real issue. I have to do [vocal exercises] every day, especially on tour. It's pretty exhausting. CNN: Would you say that life in your 60s is easier than life in your 20s and 30s? Baez: Oh God, yes. ... I was a highly neurotic kid, not particularly happy, which probably accounts for all those beautiful songs, those beautiful sad ballads. I found my home there. And as the years went by and as the therapy went on I was holding together. And then at around 50, I decided to fall apart and find the pieces and put them back where they should've been. And I did. And I did what I thought was impossible, which was really drag the stuff up, look at it, go through all that and then each time I did that ... it became a daily thing with the therapist ... to find out something huge. Go through the terror, go through all of it and then by the end of the week something had changed a little bit. This went on for a number of years. So I am now in a stage nothing like where I was before then. There's no stage fright now. Just the joy of singing. CNN: You're happy being single, aren't you? Baez: Yeah. After all I've been through, I don't want to risk [pats her heart]. I mean I feel so extraordinary, so much better. And you know if something walked into my life that feels right ... the question is, am I ready to see it or not? I'm sure it's wandered by me a few times. But at some point maybe I'll be ready to see that in which case it would be a good thing. ... [In] Buddhism there's no real happiness without the struggle. But the struggle has to defeat you in a way [before] you get to be like the Dalai Lama. You know those monks all giggle? All the time! They've got it figured out. Because things are what they are on Earth, and you be as good as you can, and you die, it's the next life. So what's the big f****** deal?","highlights":"Joan Baez has new album, \"Day After Tomorrow,\" produced by Steve Earle .\nBaez says causes generate energy, don't leave her wrung out .\nSinger says she was unhappy in 20s and 30s, only recently has no stage fright ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The young man's call echoed throughout the remote village in northern Nigeria -- the marriage ceremony was about to begin. Umar Ahmed and his wife wait for anti-HIV drugs at a hospital in Nigeria. Under the dusty sun, the fathers of the bride and groom agreed to the marriage and this ancient Muslim tradition proceeded as it has for hundreds of years. But unknown to the gathered villagers, the couple is hiding a modern secret. Both bride and groom are HIV-positive and marrying with the support of a local government program that encourages such \"HIV-marriages\" in the hope of preventing the virus from spreading. After the ceremony and away from the village, the husband agreed to speak with CNN as long as he was not identified. \"The woman I marry loves me -- I love her,\" he said. \"And we promised that we can keep ourselves healthy and clean.\" According to the United Nations, Nigeria has the third-largest HIV population in the world, with about 3.1 percent of its 148 million people infected. Officials working for the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, known as BACATMA, hope to put a dent in those numbers -- not just by treating HIV-positive people with free antiretroviral drugs but, they say, by helping more than 100 HIV-positive couples marry. The agency offers to pay for the dowry, provide counseling and even employment within the agency. BACATMA officials hope that, by keeping HIV-positive couples together, they will keep AIDS from spreading to anyone not infected. \"If someone having HIV marries another HIV-AIDS person, that means there will be no HIV transmission to another negative person,\" said Rilwanu Mohammed, the BACATMA chairman. However, UNAIDS, the UN agency tackling HIV and AIDS, has its doubts, arguing such marriages do not prevent the spread of AIDS. \"There are better methods to address the prevention of HIV and AIDS rather than encouraging that kind of union,\" said Warren Naamara, the UNAIDS Nigeria coordinator. \"We have made it very clear from UNAIDS that the best way to address HIV infection is universal access to prevention, treatment and care.\" There is no evidence that such marriages stop the spread of AIDS. However, for many of the couples, the marriages support their personal fight against AIDS and the stigmatization it often brings from society, friends and family. That stigmatization can lead HIV-positive people to become outcasts, discriminated against and sometimes physically abused. Queuing for their antiretroviral drugs at a local hospital, Umar Ahmed and his wife said they married last year and have since had a child. \"Before, I was lonely,\" Umar said. \"Being with my wife, I feel great -- because we stay together, we discuss different issues together.\" For those couples who decide to have children, BACATMA tries to reduce the odds that the child will be born infected with HIV by ensuring that the parents have antiretroviral agents and medical advice. Still, the decision to have a child is a controversial one when the parents who decide to do so are sick and unlikely to be able to raise the child.","highlights":"Local agency will pay dowry, offer counseling, to get HIV-positive couples to wed .\nThe goal is to keep HIV from spreading to people not already infected .\nUN agency says marriage doesn't stop AIDS, prevention and treatment needed .\nFor some couples, the marriages reduce stigma of being HIV-positive ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A suspect in police custody calls himself a \"stewmaker\" for a Mexican drug lord, saying he disposed of about 300 bodies by dissolving them in acid. Santiago Meza Lopez has asked for forgiveness from the families of those he says he targeted. Santiago Meza Lopez was arrested Thursday in Ensenada, Baja California, but it took police 24 hours to identify him. He says he works for drug lord Teodoro Garcia Simental, also known as \"el Teo,\" a powerful drug trafficker. Meza, who is shown handcuffed and flanked by guards in video released by the government, calls himself \"Teo's stewmaker\" and says he was paid $600 a week for his macabre duties. The victims, he said, were men who owed Garcia something or had betrayed him. A native of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Meza was arrested along with three other people, including a minor female who said she was contracted for a social event. Other people sought by police were in the area at the time but were able to escape, officials said. Now, Meza is asking for forgiveness. \"To the families, please forgive me,\" he said in the video. Mexican police have not specifically said whether they believe that all elements of Meza's story are credible. He has told police where he buried some of the bodies. Now authorities, along with citizens groups and the families of the disappeared, are searching for them. They hope Meza could have information about the location of their friends and relatives. Authorities say Garcia formed part of the Arellano Felix cartel but is currently said by intelligence sources to be operating with the Sinaloa cartel. Officials say seven brothers and four sisters of the Arellano-Felix family inherited the Tijuana, Mexico-based drug cartel from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo in 1989, after his arrest for drug trafficking. Today, the notorious cartel is split into two factions that have engaged in brutal fighting that has accounted for nearly all the violence in Tijuana, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 400 people were killed last year in drug-related violence. Eduardo Arellano-Felix, who police said was the last remaining brother to have an active role in the cartel, was arrested in October. CNN's Carolina Sanchez and CNN en Espanol's Krupskaia Alis in Mexico City contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspect says he worked for powerful Mexican drug trafficker .\nHe says he got $600 a week to deal with those who owed drug lord .\nPolice have not said whether they find man's story credible .\nFamilies hope he could have information on their missing loved ones ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Alicia A.S. Duque knew she had some pounds to lose, but she had no idea how much being overweight affected her until the television cameras started rolling. Alicia Duque performs with her partner on Oxygen's new hit \"Dance Your Ass Off.\" \"Going into it, I knew it was a TV show, I knew it was a weight-loss show and I knew it was a dance show, but I didn't think I was going to learn so much about myself through the process,\" said the 23-year-old Duque, a contestant on the new show \"Dance Your Ass Off.\" \"I didn't know how many issues and problems I had with my weight until I faced it on the show.\" Duque's struggle with weight loss is one of many on television that is resonating with those tuning into programming aimed at and featuring the plus-sized. Style Network's \"Ruby,\" NBC's \"The Biggest Loser,\" Lifetime's \"Drop Dead Diva\" and Fox's forthcoming dating show \"More to Love\" all center on the overweight and are tapping into an audience that can relate to the desire to shed a few pounds. Obesity has risen dramatically in the United States during the past 20 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this year television has seen an increase in shows featuring participants and stars who look more like the viewing public. Oxygen Channel's \"Dance Your Ass Off\" combines elements of ABC's \"Dancing With The Stars\" and NBC's \"The Biggest Loser.\" Contestants learn dance routines for which they are judged before weighing in to determine how much they have lost. Amy Introcaso-Davis, senior vice president of original programming and development at Oxygen, said dance and diet are two areas of interest for younger viewers of the channel, so combining the two made sense. The 12 contestants, from the smallest to the largest, have struck a chord with viewers, she said. \"People find the contestants so relatable,\" she said. \"We cast very purposely across the board in terms of how many pounds people needed to lose -- we had anywhere from people who needed to lose 40 [pounds] to over 150.\" The premier of \"Dance\" rated highly for Oxygen, with more than 1 million viewers tuning in. Oxygen also found success earlier with \"Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance,\" a plus-size pageant where women of substance strutted their stuff to be crowned \"Miss Fabulous And Thick.\" For a nation grappling with obesity, Introcaso-Davis said, there is a hunger for such shows. \"If you have five pounds to lose or you have 150 pounds to lose, it's something you think about all day long,\" she said. \"You take a bite of cheesecake and you think 'Should I be doing this?' \" Esther Rothblum, a professor of women's studies at San Diego State University and co-editor of the forthcoming anthology \"The Fat Studies Reader,\" said she wonders if part of the appeal of plus-sized shows stems from the overweight being held up for public ridicule. The subject of her book is an emerging field that has been defined as \"confronting and critiquing cultural constraints\" against notions of \"fatness\" and \"the fat body.\" \"Most people feel too fat in this country and are made to feel very unhappy with their bodies,\" she said. \"So by portraying somebody who weighs so much more than they do, it's almost a way to make the audience feel like 'I could look worse' or 'At least I'm not them.' \" Ruby Gettinger said she supports any show that does not mock the overweight. Her hit show \"Ruby\" started out as a documentary and has transformed Gettinger into a reality star who has lost more than 100 pounds and appeared on \"Oprah.\" \"We are really all on this journey together, and I tell [viewers] that all of the time,\" said Gettinger, who at her heaviest weighed 716 pounds. \"There are a lot of shows out there and I think people are trying to find a way to beat it and lose weight.\" Gettinger, who is traveling around the country walking in various cities to inspire fans to become more active, said shows featuring the obese can really touch the audience if they are authentic. \"[My show] is the truth, not to say that the others aren't,\" she said. \"When I started out on this journey and met with Style [Network, which airs the show] I said 'I have to keep my truth because this is about my journey and addiction and I want to deal with that because too many people are struggling.' \" Her show portrays her grappling with everything from temptation to embarrassment at having to visit the gynecologist, but Gettinger said it's all worth it if it inspires others. Actress Marissa Jaret Winokur, who starred in the Broadway musical \"Hairspray,\" said she agreed to host \"Dance Your Ass Off\" because she saw the potential for inspiration in viewers witnessing overweight people being active and feeling confident and sexy -- even in skimpy dance outfits. Reality television has become so popular because viewers are attracted to watching real people, and there is a craving for viewers to see folks like themselves, she said. \"It became that so many people on reality shows were only beautiful skinny people, and I think a lot of people got sick of that,\" said Winokur, who has been blogging about her own struggles with weight for People magazine. \"Really, who's home watching TV is the everyday person who is not a TV model. I think there is much more interest in watching people like yourself.\"","highlights":"Shows about and featuring the overweight are flourishing .\n\"Dance Your Ass Off\" drew more than a million viewers for its premier .\nStar of show says programs resonate because of truth .\nProfessor wonders if shows inspire ridicule of the overweight ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A young Iranian woman named Neda is gunned down in one of the most iconic images of the last week. Another walks down the street, defiantly showing off her hair and body in a revealing dress. And still another woman says she's not scared of paramilitary forces -- no matter how many times she gets beaten. Women have taken to the streets of Tehran. \"This shows the new face of Iran,\" one expert says. \"When they want to hit me, I say hit. I have been hit so many times and this time it doesn't matter. I just want to help my brothers and sisters,\" says the 19-year-old woman whose identity is being withheld by CNN for her safety. Amid the clashes and chaos, there has been a recurring scene on the streets of Tehran: Women, in their scarves and traditional clothing, at the heart of the struggle. Some are seen collecting rocks for ammunition against security forces, while video showed one woman trying to protect a fallen pro-government militiaman wounded in the government crackdown. At Shiraz University, riot police clubbed women dressed in black robes. \"Don't beat them, you bastards,\" one man yells. When security forces come to attack, the 19-year-old woman protester says she looks them in the eye and asks: \"Why do you kill your brother? Why do you hit your mother, your sisters?\" \"We all tell them, if you're Iranian, you shouldn't do that to your people, to your own country's people,\" she told CNN by phone. Watch woman stand up in defiance to power \u00bb . But it's the woman known as Neda who has become the symbol of women on the front line that has galvanized opponents of the Iranian regime. In a widely circulated video, Neda is seen in the middle of protests over the weekend. She is shot and drops to the ground. Blood runs from the side of her mouth as a few people, including her music professor traveling with her, press on her chest and shout her name. One pleads, \"Do not be afraid.\" The camera closes in on her face as her eyes roll back and are still. Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the image of Neda and other women at the protests showed the difference from the 1979 revolution. \"The iconic pictures from the revolution 30 years ago were bearded men. This shows the new face of Iran -- the young women who are the vanguards of Iran.\" See images of protests \u00bb . Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, agreed that Neda was becoming a symbol for all the women who have become involved in the turmoil that has followed the disputed election. \"She will become the image of this brutality and the role -- the truly significant role -- that women have played in fighting this regime. I think that women are the unsung heroes of the last few years. They are the ones who began chipping away the absolute authority of the mullahs.\" The protests haven't just been confined to Iran's everyday women. The daughter of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was arrested over the weekend while taking part in a protest. She was later released. In addition, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose apparent defeat in Iran's presidential election has sparked the unprecedented demonstrations, campaigned for her husband, an unusual step in politics in Iran. Her public support of his candidacy underscored his professed support for women's rights. Learn more about the timeline of events \u00bb . And in another act of defiance, apparently from after the election, a woman who appears to be in her 20s or 30s walks down a street in Tehran, showing off her body in a revealing dress and displaying her long, curly hair. In Iran, women are forbidden to show their hair, and they must keep their bodies covered. \"Lady, is it a revolution already?\" one female driver says as she passes by. The 19-year-old demonstrator, who spoke by phone with CNN, says women are out in the streets in much larger numbers than men. She provided CNN with images of paramilitary forces on Saturday confronting protests, just before she was beaten. She says she was beaten again during protests Monday. \"The women are all together and they say, 'We're going to stay here.' There are so more [women] than men,\" she said, referring to the number of women protesters. \"Until now, the women didn't have a chance to express themselves, to say that we are important in our country's future. But now, they can play an important role in our freedom. It's a good chance for us.\" Is she optimistic? \"I'm absolutely optimistic, because history has taught me that all the revolutions start like this,\" she said. \"Every revolution has violence and some people die, but nothing stays like this forever.\" CNN's Ivan Watson and Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Recurring theme of Iranian protests: Women defiantly standing up against authority .\n19-year-old woman says, \"When they want to hit me, I say hit.\"\nA young woman named Neda has become the rallying cry of protesters .\n\"This shows the new face of Iran -- the young women who are the vanguards of Iran\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Polish court has ordered the detention of a man accused of holding his daughter captive for six years and repeatedly raping her, ultimately fathering two children with her. The accusations recall the case of Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter captive for 24 years and fathered seven children. The man, whose name was not released, was arrested Monday, Polish national police said in a statement. The court on Tuesday ordered him jailed for three months pending a trial. The charges against him were not immediately known. Police said they arrested the man at the train station in Siedlce, a town between Warsaw and the border with Belarus. Police said they believed he was trying to escape abroad. The investigation began last week when the man's 21-year-old daughter approached police in Siemiatycze, in eastern Poland, accompanied by her mother, police said. The daughter spent several hours talking with a policewoman, detailing her alleged ordeal over the past six years, police said. She described living through a \"hell\" that involved rape, beatings, and being kept as a slave, police said. In 2005, the woman said, she gave birth to a boy at a hospital in Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland, police said. Two years later, in 2007, she gave birth to a boy at a hospital in Siemiatycze, in eastern Poland, also near the border with Belarus, police said. Both times, the woman told police, she left the baby in the hospital, a common practice in Poland when the mother wants to give her children up for adoption, police said. Police did not say how the daughter managed to escape her alleged ordeal or whether the mother was aware of what had gone on. Police themselves acknowledged many facts were still unclear. \"There are still a lot of questions to which answers have to be found,\" the statement from the national police said. The case has drawn comparisons to the shocking incest case in Austria in which Josef Fritzl is accused of holding his daughter captive in an underground network of tiny rooms for 24 years. Fritzl repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, and fathered seven children with her, six of whom survived. All of the children were born in captivity. That case became public when Elisabeth's oldest child, 19-year-old Kerstin, became ill and fell unconscious in April. Elisabeth persuaded her father to let her bring Kerstin to a hospital, where staff grew suspicious and called police, who opened an investigation and uncovered the abuse. Kerstin and her family are now recovering and slowly adapting to modern life, Austrian authorities have said. CNN's Diana Magnay in Berlin and Antonia Mortensen in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"Daughter accuses Polish man of holding her captive 6 years, fathering 2 sons .\nPolice detained 45-year-old man in eastern city of Siedlce .\nOfficers to conduct tests on boys to determine if the man is their father .\nRecalls case of Austria's Josef Fritzl, accused of holding daughter for 24 years ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy research foundation, and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was special assistant\/adviser to the Multi-National Force-Iraq and practiced law at Patton Boggs LLP and Cleary Gottlieb LLP. Earlier, Shapiro clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ilya Shapiro says the Sotomayor appointment is a case of identity politics rather than a choice on the merits. (CNN) -- In picking Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit. While Judge Sotomayor exemplifies the American Dream, she would not have even been on the short list if she were not Hispanic. She is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary, and far less qualified for a seat on the Supreme Court than Judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland or Solicitor General Elena Kagan. To be sure, Sotomayor has a compelling story: a daughter of working-class Puerto Ricans raised in Bronx public housing projects, diagnosed with diabetes at 8, losing her father at 9, accolades at Princeton and Yale Law, ending up on the federal bench. Still, in over 10 years on the Second Circuit, she has not issued any important decisions or made a name for herself as a legal scholar or particularly respected jurist. In picking a case to highlight during his introduction of the nominee, President Obama had to go back to her days as a trial judge and a technical ruling that ended the 1994-95 baseball strike. Moreover, Sotomayor has a mixed reputation among lawyers who have practiced before her, some questioning her abilities as a judicial craftsman, others her erratic temperament, according to a piece by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic, which itself has come in for criticism. Such anecdotal criticism is to be taken with a grain of salt -- while Justice Antonin Scalia's bench-side manner is more vinegar than honey, even his detractors recognize his brilliance -- but it does need to be investigated. So, too, do certain statements she made in presentations at Berkeley and Duke, respectively, the former arguing that a Latina necessarily sees the law differently than a white man, the latter suggesting that, at least to some degree, judges make rather than interpret law. Again, this does not mean that Sotomayor is unqualified to be a judge -- or less qualified to be a Supreme Court justice than, say, Harriet Miers. It also does not detract from the history she would make as the first Hispanic Supreme Court nominee -- if you don't count Benjamin Cardozo, a descendant of Portuguese Jews. But a Supreme Court nomination is not a lifetime achievement award, and should not be treated as an opportunity to practice affirmative action. Ironically, it is race-based employment practices of another kind that will likely get this nomination in hottest water. Sotomayor was on a panel that summarily affirmed the dismissal of claims brought by firefighters, including one Hispanic, whose promotions were denied because they would be based on a (race-neutral) exam whose results didn't yield the \"right\" racial mix. Curiously, the Ricci v. DeStefano appellate panel issued a cursory \"unpublished\" opinion that failed to grapple with the complex legal issues presented in the case. Sotomayor's colleague Jos\u00e9 Cabranes, a liberal Democrat, excoriated the panel, without expressing a view on the merits of the case. Cabranes' dissent from the Second Circuit's decision not to rehear the case caught the Supreme Court's attention and, based on the oral argument, the court will probably reverse Sotomayor's panel when it rules on the case next month. iReport.com: Sotomayor 'the new face of America' We are thus likely to have the unusual scenario of a Supreme Court decision having a direct personal effect on a nominee's confirmation process, which will not only force Sotomayor onto the defensive but cost the president significant political capital. It will also show that Obama's calls for \"empathy,\" echoed by Sotomayor's citing her personal experiences as a Latina, ring hollow. If Frank Ricci, a dyslexic fireman who sacrificed significant time and money and was denied promotion solely for his skin color, is not an empathetic figure, I'm not sure who is. And that is the larger point: A jurisprudence of empathy is the antithesis of the rule of law. As then-Judge John Roberts said at his confirmation hearing: \"If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, then the little guy's going to win in the court before me. But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well then the big guy's going to win, because my obligation is to the Constitution.\" In any event, Senate Republicans will now have to decide what posture to take: combative or deferential, political or analytical. With the president still at the height of his popularity and solid Democratic control of the Senate (even without Arlen Specter and Al Franken), the GOP is unlikely to sustain a filibuster or even, unless outrage over the Ricci case grows, vote Sotomayor down. iReport.com: Sotomayor pick a 'gimmick' What they should do instead is force a full public debate about constitutional interpretation, probing Sotomayor's judicial philosophy and refusing to accept nonresponsive answers that mouth platitudes or avoid taking firm legal positions. Now is the time to show the American people the stark differences between the two parties on one of the few issues on which the stated Republican view continues to command strong and steady support. If the party is serious about constitutionalism and the rule of law, it should use this opportunity for education, not grandstanding. And if Democrats insist on playing identity politics, I suggest a two-word response: Miguel Estrada, the Honduran immigrant with his own rags-to-riches story whose nomination to the D.C. Circuit Democrats successfully filibustered, effectively preventing George W. Bush from naming the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ilya Shapiro.","highlights":"Ilya Shapiro: Choice of Sotomayor is based on identity politics, not merit .\nHe says her life story is compelling but she should be thoroughly vetted .\nShapiro: Sotomayor may suffer from failure to deal with issues in New Haven case .\nHe says Republicans should educate public about differences over the law ."} -{"article":"Editor's Note: CNNU is following two student teams from the University of Southern California as they work to improve the quality of life in India. The student teams will be writing about their experiences for CNNU throughout the summer. Check back regularly for updates on their work. CNNU first introduced the Oral Cancer Awareness Team. It now introduces the Water and Health Team. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CNN or its affiliates. Students visited slums to obtain data on the history of health and access to water in each household. (CNN) -- The World Health Organization reports that 88 percent of the 1.8 million deaths resulting from diarrhea can be attributed to unsafe water or inadequate hygiene or sanitation. Unfortunately, a significant population in the city of Hubli, India, fall victim to these causes, and they are not even aware of the cause. The University of Southern California Hubli Water and Health Team is spending this summer implementing a project model that will improve these statistics in the community. The team of six students, visiting from the University of Southern California, will guide a pilot project in the under-served community of S.M. Krishna Nagar. Over the course of the next year, the Team will employ local college students to maintain the program and monitor the efficiency of the water purification technology. And by subsidizing the cost for those living within S.M Krishna Nagar, the Team will be providing state-of-the-art purification systems at affordable prices, creating an important sense of ownership and empowerment for the people. The team also plans to build awareness within the local community about the need to drink purified water. While the source of water currently received by the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation is filtered, sewage leakage and the poor management of waste often contaminates drinking water on its way into the homes. This means that while the water from these pipes or the bore wells may look clean, it can be hazardous to drink. To compound the issue, even water contained in holding tanks on vehicles that visit the community is by no means guaranteed to be of sufficient, purified quality. The tanks carrying the water are rarely cleaned and the taps through which the water is dispersed may easily be contaminated. Families must be aware that the water they are provided is harmful to their health and provides a catalyst for breeding mosquitoes carrying malaria and other transferable diseases. Local reports have proven this, and communities in the past have fallen victim to water-related illnesses as a result of their consumption of unclean water. The USC Hubli Water and Health Team team hopes to shed light on this threatening issue, as confronting the challenge of dirty drinking water is a \"gateway\" step towards achieving measured, sustainable improvements in a wide array of serious health related issues. Through education at key points of community influence and the measured introduction of new technologies that encourage responsibility over simply charity, the Team will use its time in Hubli to affect change that is both scalable and sustainable.","highlights":"Students from University of Southern California go to India to improve quality of life .\nTeam provides innovative water treatment measures to stop disease .\nOther team teaches how to prevent oral cancer, one of top 3 cancers in India .\nStudents employ locals to maintain program and monitor efficiency over next year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two snowmobilers died Wednesday in an avalanche on Logan Peak north of Salt Lake City, Utah, a sheriff's department official said. Two people died after being trapped on Utah's Logan Peak during an avalanche. Lt. Matt Bilodeau of the Cache County Sheriff's Office told CNN that someone using a satellite phone called at 10:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) and told authorities about the incident. \"Two people were trapped,\" he said. \"They have both been recovered.\" The body of only one of them, a male, had been taken down the mountain, he said. Logan Peak's summit is at an altitude of 9,710 feet. Though the area is not off limits to snowmobilers, they had been warned of the danger after a recent snowstorm. \"The media's been putting that in the paper, on the radio and on TV,\" Bilodeau said. \"We are still in extreme avalanche danger,\" he said, and he urged snowmobilers to \"take into account they need to stay in probably the areas that have less of a slope to them.\" CNN's Scott Spoerry, who grew up in the area, said a recent avalanche knocked out the water supply for the city of Logan's 47,000 residents. \"Every year, there's a few avalanches,\" he said. The area is also popular during the summer, when hang gliders launch themselves from the peak.","highlights":"Sheriff's Office says two people had been trapped in avalanche .\nCall about avalanche came in at 12:30 p.m. ET .\nSheriff's Office says people had been warned of danger after recent storm .\nBody of one victim has been brought down from Logan Peak ."} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Two U.S. filmmakers were injured Saturday when their small plane crashed into a three-story residential building in downtown Nairobi. People gather around the wreckage of a plane that struck a building in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Saturday. Dan Parris, 25, and Rob Lehr, 26, both from St. Louis, Missouri, were shooting an independent documentary on poverty in Africa. Both men were hospitalized and expected to survive, according to David Peterka, who was part of the film crew, but was not aboard the plane. He said that all four aboard the plane were Americans. A flight engineer, whose name was not released, was critically injured and was in a coma, Peterka said. The pilot, whose name has not yet been released, was killed in the crash. The crew had been in the east African nation for four days and was shooting video of Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. The plane was headed to nearby Wilson Airport, where most light aircraft land in the Kenyan capital. \"The pilot had warned that he was going to hover and go slow,\" Peterka said. \"They were surprised when they went to about 50 feet off the ground --- and then they hit electrical lines and the plane flipped into the building.\" Just before the plane crashed, the listening devices went off and they could not communicate with the pilot, Peterka said. Peterka said Lehr, who was ejected because the doors were open for filming, ran back in to rescue the others. Parris crawled out and Lehr, with the help of bystanders, pulled the pilot and the engineer out as the plane burst into flames, Peterka said. \"Local residents were using water, dirt to put the fire out\" before the fire department arrived, Peterka said. \"Before the plane crashed, witnesses said it was flying unusually low,\" said Francis Mwaka, a Kenyan federal communications official. The four-seater plane was owned by African Inland Missions company. No one on the ground was injured, Mwaka said. The crash is under investigation. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pilot killed, three passengers injured when plane crashes into building .\nTwo victims were U.S. filmmakers shooting documentary on African poverty .\nDan Parris, Rob Lehr were taken to hospital, expected to survive .\nWitnesses say plane was \"flying unusually low\" before crash ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With their nation under high security alert, South Koreans mourned a former leader at a funeral ceremony Friday morning. The hearse carrying Roh Moo-Hyun's coffin heads for Seoul at Roh's hometown village of Bonghwa in Gimhae. Officials and dignitaries gathered in Seoul's Kyungbok Palace to honor former President Roh Moo-Hyun, who committed suicide last week. South Koreans poured into the streets to catch a glimpse of the black Cadillac making a five-and-a-half hour journey from Roh's home in the village of Bongha to the capital. Some bowed their heads or wept openly. Others, still stunned from the loss, stood quietly in black as the hearse drove by. Scores of Roh's supporters handed out yellow balloons, the color associated with Roh's political campaign. Other supporters had posters of Roh's image that read, \"President in my heart\" and \"You are my president.\" A person who walked by Roh's memorial site said, \"Roh understood the difficulties of normal people. We feel he acted like a shield for people with no power. He was the people's president.\" One woman on her way to work in Seoul said: \"He was the first president South Koreans picked with their own hands.\" She was referring to the fact that Roh didn't have a big political machine behind him. He won the election in 2002 by razor thin margin and his appeal was that he related to the common person. This week has been marred by grief and tension for South Koreans as they grappled with Roh's sudden death and renewed threats from North Korea. Following the official ceremony, Roh's body will be taken to the plaza in front of Seoul's city hall, where large crowds are expected to say goodbye to a beloved leader. He will be cremated later Friday and the remains carried back by hearse to Bongha. Roh, who served between 2003 and 2008, jumped from a hill behind his house last Saturday, government officials said. His death came amid an investigation into a bribery scandal that had tarnished his reputation. However, tens of thousands of people have visited memorial shrines for Roh, laying white chrysanthemums in a traditional show of grief and leaving cigarettes on the altars to remember a man who was reported to have taken up smoking during the investigation. In a suicide note given to the media by his lawyer, Roh wrote: \"I am in debt to too many people. Too many people have suffered because of me. And I cannot imagine the suffering they will go through in the future.\" Prosecutors were investigating the former president for allegedly receiving $6 million in bribes from a South Korean businessman while in office. Roh's wife was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors Saturday, and Roh was planning to answer a second round of questions next week. Why some South Koreans are angry about Roh's death \u00bb . The investigation has now been suspended. The debate over Roh's suicide has occupied as much column space in South Korea's press as the recent aggressive behavior shown by the North. On Tuesday, the conservative Chosun Ilbo urged South Koreans to remember the words of the former president's suicide note. \"Roh's abrupt death brings home how vain the rise and fall of power is and how futile it is to nurse hatred and conflict in pursuit of them. Roh himself said in his will, 'Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't blame anybody.' He would not have wished his own death to cause more political confusion and social conflict,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. It also criticized prosecutors who \"seem to have worried about public consensus rather than focusing on principles.\" The left-leaning Hankoryeh called Roh's death \"political murder,\" echoing the widespread feeling that the former president paid too high a price for his alleged crime. \"The case of late President Roh was the most unfortunate in South Korean history, brought about by the Lee Myung-bak administration, which despised the person more than the crime,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. The mood on South Korea's influential blogs and message boards was somber and split between messages of comfort, dismay at Roh's decision to end his life and angry accusations against prosecutors and the government. \"President Roh's perseverance to provide Korea with a true democracy has come to a sudden end. We saw the grief of his demise in the eyes of millions of Koreans,\" read a message posted on the popular Daum Agora Web portal. \"Prosecutors and the police! Are you the people of the Republic of Korea?,\" asked another. Just before he left the presidency, Roh became the first South Korean leader to cross the demilitarized zone and meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. He believed in the \"sunshine policy\" of his predecessor, Kim Dae-Jung, that sought to engage the north, and Roh also promised aid. CNN's Pauline Chiou and freelance journalist Nicolai Hartvig contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Motorcade accompanying Roh's body on way to the capital, Seoul .\nNEW: Grief-stricken S. Koreans pour out onto the streets to pay final respects .\nRoh Moo-Hyun took his own life amid an ongoing corruption investigation .\nRoh was in office between 2003 and 2008 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Marine convicted for his role in the death of an Iraqi civilian was sentenced Friday to a reduction in rank and will be discharged. Cpl. Trent D. Thomas was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit several offenses -- including murder, larceny, housebreaking, kidnapping, and making false official statements -- for his involvement in the April 2006 death in Hamdaniya, Iraq. Thomas will be demoted to the rank of entry-level private and will receive a bad-conduct discharge. The 25-year-old was among seven Marines and a Navy medic who were charged in connection with the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52. The Marines accused in the case were members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. They reported at the time that Awad planned to detonate a roadside bomb targeting their patrol. But several residents of Hamdaniya, including relatives of the victim, gave a different account, prompting a criminal investigation. Prosecutors accuse the group's squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, of dragging Awad from his home, shooting him in the street and then making it look like he had planned to ambush American troops. Hutchins has pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy and other charges in the case. He faces a sentence of life in prison if convicted. Thomas changed his plea from guilty to not guilty in February, arguing that he had merely followed orders. He told his attorneys that after reviewing the evidence against him, he realized \"that what happened overseas happened as a result of obedience to orders, and he hasn't done anything wrong,\" defense attorney Victor Kelley said. Thomas said in January, shortly after entering his guilty plea, that he was \"truly sorry\" for his role in the killing. He could have been sentenced to life in prison under his original plea. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Cpl. Trent D. Thomas found guilty this week of conspiracy to commit murder .\nMarine gets rank of private, will be discharged for role in death of Iraqi civilian .\nGroup's leader awaits trial on murder and conspiracy charges ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials warned Wednesday that the bridge linking the California cities of San Francisco and Oakland will likely remain closed Thursday morning, promising more delays for Bay Area commuters. That work is intended to dampen vibration on the structure. Vibration may have played a role in causing pieces of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to fall Tuesday night from the span onto the roadway, resulting in its closure. The 73-year-old bridge spans the San Francisco Bay and carries an average 280,000 vehicles daily, according to the state's Transportation Department. \"Right now, we do not have a time when the bridge will potentially open,\" said Bart Ney, a spokesman for California Department of Transportation. \"The work has to be completed first.\" Once the new steel is in place and the rods have been made tense, at least three hours of testing will be carried out before the bridge will reopen to vehicular traffic, Ney said, refusing to speculate on when that might occur. \"The first thing that I would say to motorists is that you need to be at this point planning other routes over the next day or so,\" he said. The Federal Highway Administration and the Seismic Peer Review Board are scrutinizing the repair plans, he said. Wednesday's commute was a horror show for many. \"My wife actually drives over to the peninsula; she says it's taken her two hours to get to work so far and she's not there yet,\" commuter Seth Carp told CNN affiliate KTVU as he prepared to board a Bay Area Rapid Transit train. \"I tried to take the Golden Gate Bridge,\" said a woman who identified herself only as Yemi. \"It was a big mistake.\" She gave up and wound up taking BART. \"It was back-to-back bumper, there were rows of cars everywhere,\" said Christina Chou, who lives in Foster City near the San Mateo Bridge, which served as an alternate route for many. \"It was just horrible.\" Ridership increased on ferries, too, with some people finding a silver lining to the snafu. \"I have been looking for an opportunity to go across the bay in the ferry,\" said Jack Pierce of Oakland. \"I'm sorry the cable parted, but I am glad to get the opportunity.\" Ney said wind gusts of up to 50 mph slowed repair efforts on Tuesday, but the winds had diminished by Wednesday evening. Winds increased vibration by the rods that were fatigued and ultimately failed, he said. \"It was a contributing factor, but not necessarily the only factor, and we are analyzing what the factors are right now,\" he said. Travelers flocked to BART, which ran longer trains and extra trains. The rail line was on track to exceed its peak ridership of 405,000 in a single day, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. Were you there? Send photos and video . \"We have called in extra personnel to help us make sure we operate with every available train car we have in order to provide as much capacity as possible,\" said BART's assistant general manager of operations, Paul Oversier. Amtrak was running a shuttle between the San Francisco and Martinez stations for Coast Starlight and California Zephyr passengers. The pieces that fell -- a cross beam and tie rods -- came from the same section that was repaired in September over Labor Day weekend, when crews worked almost around the clock to fix a crack in the span. A 50-foot section of the bridge collapsed in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, killing one person and prompting efforts to make it quake-tolerant. The whole Bay Bridge is slated to be replaced in 2013, said Patrick Siegman, a transportation planner at Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates, a national transportation planning firm based in San Francisco. The bridge is \"really showing its age,\" he said. \"It's kind of a race against time to finish the new bridge before the next quake hits.\"","highlights":"San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge closes after parts of it fall to roadway .\nRepair work ongoing, but there's no word when bridge will reopen .\nTravelers flock to public transit, including trains and ferries .\nRepairs aim to stop vibration, which may have caused the problem ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- TV talk show host Jay Leno fell ill and checked himself into a Los Angeles, California, hospital on Thursday, his representative said. NBC cancels tapings of \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" on Thursday and Friday after Leno became ill. Tracy St. Pierre would not disclose the nature of Leno's illness. Leno will be 59 on Tuesday. NBC canceled tapings of \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" scheduled for Thursday and Friday, she said. The network will rerun the March 26 show on Thursday, which features a musical performance by Prince and interviews with actors Paul Giamatti and Emma Roberts, according to the show's Web site. Actor Ryan Reynolds, animal trainer Jules Sylvester and swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy had been booked for Thursday's show. CNN's Anderson Cooper, anchor of \"Anderson Cooper 360,\" was scheduled to appear on Friday's show. The network did not announce which show would be broadcast on Friday. CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jay Leno's representative, Tracy St. Pierre, would not disclose illness .\nNetwork cancels tapings of Thursday and Friday night shows .\nLeno will be 59 years old on Tuesday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Ashley Judd says a wolf management program backed by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is \"incredibly savage ... it's not right, it's not appropriate, it makes no sense on any level.\" Ashley Judd is criticizing the aerial hunting of wolves, a program supported by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Appearing on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" Judd repeated her criticism of a program that allows hunters firing from aircraft to shoot wolves to thin the numbers of the animals. Judd recently appeared in a video for the Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which also opposes the Palin-backed aerial hunting program. Referring to the former Republican vice presidential candidate by name in the video, Judd says that Palin is \"championing the slaughter of wildlife.\" \"When Sarah Palin came on the national scene last summer, few knew that she promotes the brutal aerial killing of wolves,\" Judd says in the video, adding, \"It is time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery.\" Palin responded on Tuesday, releasing a statement calling Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund an \"extreme fringe group,\" and saying, \"It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money.\" Watch why Judd, Palin are trading barbs \u00bb . Judd said Alaska's program is a \"distortion\" of wildlife hunting under normal circumstances, and that the program attracts \"urban hunters, trophy hunters from out of state.\" Palin did not appear on \"Larry King Live,\" but Rod Arno, executive director of the Alaska Outdoor Council, told King by telephone that only Alaska residents can participate in the aerial wolf-hunting program, and then they must obtain a state permit. The purpose of the program is to facilitate control of Alaska's wolf population, which preys on moose and caribou, Arno said. \"The only criticism is from people who aren't up here participating in a predator-prey scheme,\" he said. Judd was accompanied by Rodger Schlickeisen, CEO of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, and he said \"hundreds\" of scientists have criticized the aerial hunting program. Schlickeisen suggested that Palin's government allow television crews to videotape the hunting process \"and you could put this out for all the people in American to see and she (Palin) could proudly stand up for it.\"","highlights":"Ashley Judd criticizes Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for supporting aerial wolf hunting .\nIn video, Judd says Palin is \"championing the slaughter of wildlife\"\nSupporters say hunting program is used to control Alaska's wolf population ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I was 14 at the time. Lebanon's civil war was in full flood. One afternoon the shells began raining down on our neighborhood in Beirut. A Lebanese woman and her son run through west Beirut in 1989 during fighting between rival forces. We ran from school screaming. Forget the book bags, classmates, homework. Just run. Out of breath, my knees giving way, it seemed to take forever to reach our local shelter -- a dark humid room at the back of our apartment block. The memory of that terrifying afternoon receded -- until recently. After more than a decade of relative peace and reconstruction, the bombings and assassinations have returned to Beirut. Every time I hear of a new explosion, I think of a frightened child sitting in darkness. In 1988, I watched the last throes of Lebanon's civil war firsthand -- and like millions of Lebanese, sad, frustrated and often fearful. See a timeline of Lebanon's recent history \u00bb . Now I watch from another continent, but I find those same emotions resurfacing. The conspiracies, the car bombs, the threatening rhetoric and political deadlock are eerily familiar. The actors are like shadows from a long gone past. They are grayer perhaps -- those who have avoided assassination. But the cast in Lebanon's tragedy has changed little in two decades. Then, as now, a presidential election is the setting, and the struggle where religion and clan play the main roles threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years. See bios of Lebanon's major players \u00bb . In 1988, the president's term was coming to an end and the warring factions were unable to agree on a new candidate. Militias prevented parliament members from reaching the assembly building. Compromise was nowhere in sight. The West had abandoned Lebanon to the manipulation of its neighbors. Syria had its choice for president; Israel had its own allies -- a foil for growing Muslim radicalism. The country was awash with weapons. In his last act as president, Amin Gemayel named fellow Christian and Army Chief Michel Aoun as prime minister. At a stroke, he shattered the convention that a Muslim hold that position. Muslims refused to serve in the Cabinet and the country ended up with two governments. Aoun famously declared: \"I am prime minister and six ministers in one.\" Aoun's \"War of Liberation\" against Syria turned into defeat. Then, he turned on fellow Christians of the Lebanese Forces in the \"War of Elimination.\" When that failed, the Syrians drove Aoun to take refuge at the French Embassy. In August 1990, I came to CNN as a World Report panelist. I tried to explain Lebanon's chaos, the bewildering array of factions and the horrors of civil war for ordinary civilians. I had seen people killed in front of me; children orphaned in seconds, parents burying their infants in oversize white coffins. So when I was offered the opportunity to stay at CNN, I gratefully accepted the chance to escape the anarchy. But almost as I left, the civil war was being laid to rest. The various factions had fought each other to a standstill; Arab governments, supported by the West, helped negotiate a new constitutional framework overseen by Syrian influence. Peace came to Lebanon, but it would be five years before I returned. In 1995, I went back and was stunned. I kept looking around for checkpoints manned by militants. I couldn't believe that I could go anywhere without being harassed or kidnapped by one faction or another. No longer did identity -- Christian, Muslim or Druze -- define where Lebanese could go. People mixed freely in chic coffee shops and smoked the hubble-bubble, laughing at the same jokes. It was as if Lebanon's divisions had been wiped away by some magic eraser. Downtown Beirut, once rocked by explosions and pitted with bullet holes, was rocking to Lebanese pop music. The dusty sandbags had given way to boutiques carrying the latest European fashions and deluxe hotels. Lovers had returned to Beirut's Corniche, overlooking the Mediterranean, for romantic strolls at sunset. But the agreement that ended the civil war was more a truce than a real settlement -- and was overseen by a \"pax Syriana.\" As anti-Syrian sentiment grew, so did political tensions. On Valentine's Day 2005, the Corniche was once again rocked by an explosion. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed. The symbolism left me speechless. On the day of love, Lebanon was thrown back into its most hateful history. It had been widely expected that Hariri would run for office again and demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Suspicion fell on Damascus, which vehemently denied involvement. On March 14, Martyrs' Square became a human sea of demonstrators: Muslims, Druze and Christians alike, demanding the \"truth.\" But Hariri's death also exposed the fault lines that had broken Lebanon a generation previously. Even after it withdrew its troops, Syria still had allies in Lebanon. One was Hezbollah, accused of the suicide attacks that had killed scores of U.S. Marines in Beirut more than 20 years previously. Another was Gen. Michel Aoun; now back from exile, the same Michel Aoun who had defied Syria in 1989, but who now made common cause with Hezbollah against his fellow Christians. Earlier this year I visited Martyrs' Square. The spirit of the Cedar Revolution had evaporated. The place looked like a morgue. Anti-government Hezbollah squatters had brought life there to a standstill. As I passed through, business owners stood silent in the sun and shook their heads at me in despair. I wondered if they sensed my disappointment, my pain at watching Beirut bleed again. Lebanon's political actors now find themselves re-enacting scenes from the final act of the civil war 19 years ago. Once again, the term of the president is approaching its end; there is no agreement on his successor. Suspicion and fear are the political currency of the day. And the questions haunts me: Will the country's brief renaissance that so amazed me in 1995 be snuffed out by the old curse of sectarian rivalries? E-mail to a friend . CNN's Joe Sterling, David Ariosto, Saad Abedine and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN's Octavia Nasr: Will Lebanon's brief renaissance be snuffed out?\nNasr says Lebanon's key power players haven't changed since 1980s .\nNasr: Current struggle threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 24 people have been killed and hundreds rendered homeless in the worst floods to hit land-locked Mongolia in 40 years, emergency officials said Tuesday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was working with local authorities to distribute emergency goods to the flood-ravaged victims. Workers fear that without adequate food and shelter, the situation would worsen when winter arrives in three months, said Francis Markus of the Red Cross. The floods struck last week in the Asian nation's capital, Ulaanbaatar, and a province in the west. It was the worst to hit the country since 1966, Markus said. See images of flood victims \u00bb . The government issued televised broadcasts ahead of the rainstorms but many children and elderly could not be evacuated in time, Markus said.","highlights":"Red Cross working with local authorities to distribute aid to flood victims .\nRelief workers say winter poses major threat unless food and shelter in place .\nGovernment warned of floods but many people could not be evacuated in time ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Utah man with chronic health problems died Wednesday from complications associated with swine flu, a local health official said. If confirmed, it would be the ninth U.S. fatality associated with the flu outbreak. Memorials appeared at the door of I.S. 238 in Queens, New York, this week after the death of an administrator. The man, who was from around Salt Lake City, was between 18 and 25 years old and \"had chronic medical conditions that may have contributed to severe complications from influenza,\" said Gary Edwards, executive director of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department. Also on Wednesday, health and education officials in New York announced that 21 of the city's public schools had been closed after an increase of reports of students with flu-like symptoms. A school administrator in Queens died after being hospitalized with the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu. Nineteen of the schools closed at the recommendation of the Health Department are public and two are private, the city's Education Department announced in a news release. In addition, two private schools in Manhattan -- St. Davis Academy and Horace Mann -- have decided on their own to close after a number of students exhibited flu-like symptoms, according the schools' Web sites. In the city's news release, city Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden repeated what has become a familiar refrain: \"We continue to see a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City. As the virus spreads, we will look to slow transmission within individual school communities by closing individual schools.\" Late last week the city closed 11 schools in Queens and one in Brooklyn after confirming cases of the virus at Intermediate School 238 in Queens and unusually high levels of flu-like symptoms in the others. Mitchell Wiener, an assistant principal at I.S. 238 who died Sunday after being hospitalized with the disease, had an underlying condition, according to Frieden. The death in Utah was the first associated with the swine flu, or H1N1, virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked eight U.S. deaths to the flu outbreak, but had not confirmed a link to H1N1 in the Utah death as of Wednesday evening. The outbreak has sickened at least 10,176 people and caused at least 80 deaths -- mostly in Mexico, according to the World Health Organization. The actual number of people affected may be higher, as it takes time for national governments to confirm cases and report them to the global body. In the United States, at least 5,710 cases of swine flu have been reported, according to recent figures from the CDC. Utah officials echoed national agencies in saying that the swine flu has largely behaved like typical seasonal influenza, which usually is fatal only among the very old, the very young or people with other health problems. In New York, 19 of the schools closed at the recommendation of the Health Department are public and two are private, it and the city's Education Department announced in a news release. In addition, two private schools in Manhattan -- St. Davis Academy and Horace Mann -- have decided on their own to close after a number of students exhibited flu-like symptoms, according the schools' Web sites. In the city's news release, city Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden repeated what has become a familiar refrain: \"We continue to see a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City. As the virus spreads, we will look to slow transmission within individual school communities by closing individual schools.\" Late last week the city closed 11 schools in Queens and one in Brooklyn after confirming cases of the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu, at Intermediate School 238 in Queens and unusually high levels of flu-like symptoms in the others. An assistant principal of Intermediate School 238 died Sunday after being hospitalized with H1N1. Frieden has said the administrator, Mitchell Wiener, had an underlying condition. CNN's Deb Brunswick contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: New York City has closed 21 schools since virus confirmed, health officials say .\nUtah reports first death associated with swine flu, or H1N1, virus .\nIf confirmed by the CDC, it would be the ninth U.S. death linked to the outbreak .\nWHO: At least 10,176 people have been sickened and 80 have died worldwide ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton had $6.4 million in presidential campaign debt at the end of November, according to a report filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. Hillary Clinton says she hopes to have her campaign debt paid before her possible confirmation as secretary of state. The amount, though still significant, represents the lowest level of debt the New York senator's failed presidential campaign has reported this year. Clinton's campaign debt reached its peak, $12 million, at the end of June and has gradually fallen since then. Clinton said she hopes to pay off her debt before her possible confirmation as secretary of state. Clinton has also officially forgiven the $13.2 million she personally loaned her campaign. Under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, presidential candidates who loan their campaigns money from personal funds may only be paid back if they do so by the national party convention -- in this case, the Democratic National Convention held last August in Denver. Clinton began November with $985,000 in her campaign account and raised nearly $290,000 by the end of the month. Her campaign paid out $1.2 million, mainly to unpaid vendors, ending the month with $188,000 in the bank. The $6.4 million in remaining debt is owed to a total of 16 creditors. The largest unpaid amount is owed to Penn, Schoen & Berland, a political consulting and polling firm that advised Clinton during her presidential bid. The firm's president, Mark Penn, served as chief strategist to Clinton for most of her campaign until he was forced out of his position in April after revelations that he lobbied for a U.S.-Colombia trade deal on behalf of the Colombian government despite Clinton's opposition to the measure. However, he never left the campaign entirely.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton still owes more than $6 million in presidential campaign debt .\nClinton has officially forgiven the $13.2 million personal loan to her campaign .\nShe hopes to have debt paid before her possible confirmation as secretary of state ."} -{"article":"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- A bat that apparently had trouble flying instead tried to hitch a ride on the space shuttle Discovery, NASA officials said. The free tail bat was last seen clinging to the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank just before launch. The animal was last seen clinging on the foam of the external tank of the space shuttle moments before the Discovery launched, officials said. NASA officials had hoped the bat would fly away on its own, but admitted the bat probably died quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit. Discovery's seven-member crew, which lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, is on a 14-day mission to deliver supplies needed to expand the International Space Station. NASA officials noticed the bat before shuttle's liftoff and brought in a wildlife expert to look at video images of it. The expert said it appeared to be a free-tailed bat that probably had a broken left wing and an injured right shoulder or wrist. The launch pads at the space center are near the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, so NASA has sirens to scare away animals that get near the shuttles. The bat isn't the first to try hitching a ride into space. NASA officials said they noticed one of the creatures on a tank of a shuttle in 1998. That bat flew away as the shuttle's massive engines ignited. The crew of the Discovery safely docked at the International Space Station on Tuesday. It was unclear whether its stowaway was still clinging to the shuttle.","highlights":"NASA: Bat was last seen clinging on space shuttle Discovery before launch .\nWildlife expert says bat appeared to have broken wing or injured shoulder .\nDiscovery is on 14-day mission to deliver supplies to International Space Station ."} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Lawmakers in Nepal will vote Saturday to pick the country's first president since it became a republic. Nepal became a republic after the deposal of King Gyanendra Shah earlier this year. The country's newly elected Constituent Assembly abolished a 239-year monarchy following elections in April. But with no one party winning a majority of the seats, it is unclear who may become president. The position is largely ceremonial. But a president will swear in whoever is picked as the new prime minister. The three main political parties continued to negotiate over whom to name president. The Nepali Congress wants outgoing prime minister and party president Girija Prasad Koirala for the position. The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) wants its leader. But the Maoists -- which won the largest number of seats but fell short of a majority -- do not favor either of the two men. They want a non-political figure as president. Journalist Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lawmakers in Nepal to to pick the country's first president since it became a republic .\nUnclear who may become president as no party had a majority in recent elections .\nMaoists, who won most seats, want a non-political figure as president ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Don't you just hate the type of person who smugly informs you, \"I don't watch TV,\" like that's something to be proud of? They think they're so great with all their fancy book learning. What they don't realize is that TV isn't for dummies -- there's tons of educational programming available -- you just need to know what to watch. I mean, you can learn your ABCs with \"Sesame Street's\" Grover, how to make gnocchi with Mario Batali, and the ins and outs of prettying up your home with any number of programs on HGTV. Television is also a great romance resource. Think of all the great TV twosomes we've seen over the years -- Lucy & Ricky Ricardo, Judy & George Jetson, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag ... but not all TV personalities set such a sincerely loving example. It's also a good place to learn which type of guy you should avoid. Here are a few examples: . Chuck Bass (\"Gossip Girl\"): Few men can pull off lavender argyle, but Chuck Bass is definitely one of them. Moody and sinister, when Chuck Bass Types (CBTs) like you, it's as though you've been inducted into a secret society of two. It's you against the world and the CBT will bring out a dark side you might not have even realized you possessed. Whip smart with a caustic wit, he'll charm you all the while tucking away your secrets for use at a later date. And use them he will. Because when a CBT tires of you, he won't just say \"see ya,\" he'll decimate you. Hank Moody (\"Californication\"): Some boys take longer than usual to grow out of their Charles Bukowski-wannabe phase. Exhibit A is Hank Moody. Actor David Duchovny, playing what the tabloids would have you believe is an autobiographical role, has managed to hang onto his Bukowski-phase well into his forties. Drinking, partying, and resisting monogamy, Hank still manages to attract more ladies than hotter men half his age. Of course the only women drawn to Hank are either damaged girls with daddy issues or the type of dame who doesn't feel complete unless she has some mess to clean up after. If you see yourself dating a Hank Moody type, do not walk -- run -- to your nearest mental health professional. Vince Chase (\"Entourage\"): Those big blue eyes and that floppy mop o' hair... you can forgive him for making a stinker like \"Medellin,\" can't you? Sure, but do you really want to deal with someone who lives in a dude cocoon? Not only does he live with his brother and two best friends, he can't make any decisions without polling the group. On the upside, he's rich! On the downside, he's famous, which means other women are throwing themselves at him constantly. Vince might be fun for a fling, but forget about bringing him home to mama. Don Draper (\"Mad Men\"): Why is it when unattractive people are quiet we just assume they're stupid and\/or boring, but verbally challenged hot people get pegged as mysterious and smoldering? Mad Men's smokin' hot Don Draper actually is mysterious (and smoldering!), so I don't know what point I was trying to make (because I'm all distracted from the photos on his IMDB page)... oh, wait! The point I'm trying to make is that while Draper is indeed mysterious, he's also a liar, a cheat and a cad. So if a DDT tries to slip you his number, just say no and send it to me. What? Strictly for research purposes. TM & \u00a9 2008 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Learn about men NOT to date by studying male characters on TV shows .\n\"Gossip Girls\" Chuck Bass is charming type who decimates women .\n\"Mad Men\" Don Draper is a smoldering liar and cheat Aging party boy Hank Moody of \"Californication\" attracts damaged women ."} -{"article":"MARANA, Arizona (CNN) -- I've been privileged in the past to witness Tiger Woods out on a golf course. And I can tell you, it's a painful, frustrating process. Golf fans flocked to Arizona to see Tiger make his long-awaited return to the tee. Not because the golf he produces isn't spectacular and at times utterly dazzling but it's the sheer volume of people he attracts that help convince me each and every time golf has to be one of the worst \"out on the course\" spectator sports going. That's just my opinion though. Try telling that to the legions who got themselves to Arizona this week once they heard the world's top player was making his return to the game after more than eight months. Woods' first competitive slice of action in the best part of a year wasn't due to get under way until around lunchtime here though judging by the fans already out on the course you'd have thought his tee-time was more like 7am. Even those jostling for position to catch a glimpse of him on the range or putting green were taking no chances and ensuring they arrived in plenty of time. Remember all of this was before he even teed off! The scene on that first hole was as expected bustling to say the least. The small gantries were packed anyway due to the whole array of talent on show through this week, but it got even more frenzied when the Woods-Jones match- up was announced. Mayhem to say the least! Those seated in the stands were the lucky ones, it was the unfortunate spectators trying to stand and strain every sinew to catch a glance of that first shot from the world number one I felt for. Even us media suffered! With seconds to go before the American struck his drive, one television camera crew, which really should have known better, blatantly blocked us from getting that prized shot. Only quick last-gasp thinking from our cameraman John saved the day. In case you were wondering that Woods drive was just majestic and he would go on to win the first two holes in fine style. When he strode off down the first fairway, there was a stampede with those looking to brave the soaring temperatures here in Arizona and follow him every step of the way. The Woods 'wow factor' is still very much alive and kicking. The question is will the so-called bionic knee hold up in the weeks and months to come?","highlights":"Fans jostle for a view of their hero on Tiger's return to competitive golf .\nWoods has been out of the game for eight months after a knee injury .\nSnell: \"The Woods 'wow factor' is still very much alive and kicking\""} -{"article":"WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- An anti-abortion activist suspected in the death of Kansas doctor George Tiller told CNN on Tuesday the closing of Tiller's women's clinic is \"a victory for all the unborn children.\" Scott Roeder, charged in the death of Dr. George Tiller, spoke to CNN on Tuesday. Scott Roeder, 51, would not admit to CNN's Ted Rowlands that he killed Tiller, who was gunned down at his church May 31. But he said if he is convicted in Tiller's slaying, \"the entire motive was the defense of the unborn.\" Tiller's family said Tuesday the clinic he headed will permanently close, effective immediately, and they would issue no more statements. At the time Roeder was interviewed Tuesday, word of the permanent closure had not come out -- but when told the clinic had been shuttered since Tiller's death, he said, \"Good.\" Roeder said the closure would mean \"no more slicing and dicing of the unborn child in the mother's womb and no more needles of poison into the baby's heart to stop the heart from beating, and no more partial-birth abortions.\" Watch Rowlands describe Roeder's mood during interview \u00bb . Dan Monnat, Tiller's attorney, declined to respond to Roeder's comments on the family's behalf. But in an e-mail, he added, \"Speaking for myself ... I am reluctant to in any way legitimize Mr. Roeder, or anything he stands for, by directly responding to his statements. \"I am content to let law enforcement determine whether anything he says merits attention. I do not encourage anyone else to give Mr. Roeder or his extremist views any additional attention as he awaits trial,\" Monnat wrote. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. He had already survived one attempt on his life before he was slain, and the announcement by Tiller's family dismayed supporters of abortion rights. Nancy Keenan, the president of Washington-based NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Tiller's killing \"part of an ongoing pattern of extreme anti-choice violence and intimidation\" aimed at depriving women of a legal medical option. \"It is a sad day for our country when family members who stood by their husband and father as he endured countless anti-choice attacks are forced as a result of his murder to make a decision like this one,\" Keenan said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, expressed hope that other doctors \"will be brave enough to come forward and continue Dr. Tiller's critical work of providing services to women.\" \"It is unacceptable that anti-abortion intimidation and violence has led to the closing of Dr. Tiller's clinic. It illustrates the ongoing harassment endured by abortion providers and the resulting disservice to women across this country,\" Northup said. Roeder is jailed on first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in Tiller's death. A Kansas judge earlier this month set his bail at $5 million. Tiller's family said Tuesday it is \"proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father,\" and that it would honor his memory \"through private charitable activities.\" The statement promised his patients \"that the privacy of their medical histories and patient records will remain as fiercely protected now and in the future as they were during Dr. Tiller's lifetime.\" Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said he and his staff \"fully respect and understand\" the family's decision. \"Their loss is immense -- they have lost a husband, father, grandfather and hero,\" Brownlie said in a statement. But the closure of Tiller's clinic \"creates a significant gap in access for women and families in Kansas,\" he continued. \"No one is providing that service between Kansas City and Denver.\" Most of the leading U.S. anti-abortion groups have condemned Tiller's killing and disavowed Roeder, saying they wanted Tiller's clinic shut down, but through peaceful means. Troy Newman, the president of one of those organizations, Operation Rescue, said in a statement on the group's Web site Tuesday that his group is \"thankful that Tiller's clinic will not reopen and thankful that Wichita is now abortion-free.\" But he added, \"This is a bittersweet moment for us at Operation Rescue. We have worked very hard for this day, but we wish it would have come through the peaceful, legal channels we were pursuing.\" Operation Rescue and other Kansas anti-abortion activists had supported a criminal investigation by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, a petition drive to empanel a special grand jury to investigate the practice and efforts to get his medical license revoked. On its Web site, the group referred to Tiller as a \"monster\" who had \"been able to get away with murder.\" But in a New York Times interview last week, Newman said closing the clinic because of the shooting would be cause for concern. \"Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason,\" he said. \"Every kook in the world will get some notion.\" Roeder met with Rowlands for a half-hour Tuesday, talking on a phone through security glass at the Sedgwick County jail where he is being held. He initially was reluctant to talk, as he said he had been misquoted in another interview. But he gradually opened up, noting that he was giving the interview against the advice of his defense attorney. Roeder told CNN he is \"feeling good,\" and getting encouraging letters from people around the country, many of whom he does not know. But he complained about conditions in the jail, saying he doesn't like being in solitary confinement and that the jail is \"freezing.\" Associates have told CNN that Roeder was a regular among the protesters who routinely gathered at Tiller's clinic. Roeder's former roommate, Eddie Ebecher, has told CNN Roeder was \"obsessed\" with Tiller and in the past had debated whether to kill him. Relatives said Roeder had suffered from mental illness over the years and had refused treatment at times. He served prison time in Kansas in the late 1990s after being arrested with explosives in his car, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. But Roeder said Tuesday that reports he has mental illness or schizophrenia are \"totally wrong.\" He acknowledged having a drug problem at one point, but said he has been off drugs since he was 28 years old and has no mental illness. Rowlands said he attempted to discuss Tiller's death with Roeder, pointing out that there were witnesses to the shooting and its aftermath who claim they saw Roeder leaving the scene and got a license plate from the car. Roeder nodded, Rowlands said, but still would not admit any culpability. But \"He didn't say, 'I didn't do it,' \" Rowlands said. \"He didn't say, 'Get me out of here, I'm the wrong guy.' \" Federal civil rights prosecutors have launched an investigation into Tiller's slaying, the Justice Department has said. The inquiry will focus on violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and other applicable federal laws. Roeder was concerned about the possibility of federal charges, saying his lawyer has warned him that he will be facing them if he doesn't stop talking. CNN's Michael Cary contributed to this report.","highlights":"In jail interview with CNN, suspect Scott Roeder admits no guilt in Tiller slaying .\nBut Roeder says if he's convicted, \"motive was the defense of the unborn\"\nRoeder is charged in death of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions .\nFamily is shutting Tiller's clinic permanently, lawyer says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eight-year-old Sandra Cantu came home from school, kissed her mother, and left to color and play with a friend who lived a couple of houses down. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared on Friday, according to police in Tracy, California. That was at 3 p.m. Friday. By Tuesday -- despite an intense search by hundreds of search-and-rescue personnel and volunteers over three days -- the little girl in the pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings had yet to be found. The mysterious disappearance of Sandra from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy, California -- about 60 miles east of San Francisco -- has baffled law enforcement officials. A dozen different agencies are looking for her. Watch Nancy Grace on the case \u00bb . \"The entire weekend was filled with just a massive search effort -- a manhunt involving multiple freeways, agents checking cars, volunteers going door-to-door,\" said Sebastian Kunz, a reporter with KNEW-AM radio in San Francisco, who is covering the case. \"A lot of people are pulling for this little girl.\" On Monday night, Tracy police and FBI agents searched six locations, some in the mobile home park and some in Tracy, and all of them connected to two men. Authorities did not call the men suspects, and did not name them publicly. They said both live in the mobile home park but did not say how or if they are related to Sandra. \"We're looking for evidence that will lead to the discovery of Sandra's whereabouts,\" Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters Monday night. \"We operate on the assumption she is alive and well.\" Sandra came home from school about 3 p.m. Friday. She asked to go play with a friend who lived a few houses down in the same mobile home park. \"I told her it was OK,\" Sandra's mother, Maria Chavez, told CNN's Nancy Grace, dabbing tears. \"And that was the last time I saw her.\" Surveillance camera footage recorded the girl playing in the park. But her parents reported her missing about 8 p.m. Friday, when she was supposed to be visiting a second friend. \"We just know that she had gone to the first house, and played for just a very short time. And then she was on her way to another friend's house,\" said Lisa Encarnacion, the spokeswoman for Sandra's family. \"And we don't know, we can't confirm that she was there or she was not.\" The mobile home park has less than 100 units. There are about 80 registered sex offenders living in a five-mile radius around it. The family has not looked at the list of offenders to see if they may know any of them, Encarnacion told Nancy Grace. And so the search continues. A reward fund set up for information leading to Sandra's return grew to $7,000 Monday. More than 150 tips poured in, police said. But, at least for now, none has yielded information on the 4-foot-tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl.","highlights":"Tracy, California, police, FBI, volunteers search for girl missing since Friday .\nSome search sites are linked to two men who have not been named as suspects .\nSandra Cantu played with one friend on Friday, left for a second friend's house .\nIt's not clear whether she ever got to the second house, distraught family says ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British new wave ska legends The Specials rounded off the Brixton leg of their 30th anniversary tour with an electric performance that threatened to bring the crumbling south London venue crashing to the ground. The frenzied crowd at London's Brixton Academy . The six-piece 2-tone outfit originally from the English Midlands played a total of five dates at what is now the O2 Academy, such was the phenomenal demand for tickets. It's no surprise really. From the rarefied perspective of the VIP bar, the sea of bobbing heads and mobile phone displays (which seem to have replaced cigarette lighters) created a fantastic spectacle. But down among the rude boys and rude girls the carnival atmosphere seemed to ratchet up a notch with each song. Balding, sweaty 40-something men in Fred Perry polo shirts were transported back to the late 1970s as they bounced around unselfconsciously, while post-Margaret Thatcher indie kids sloshed their pints in the air and enjoyed this unique experience for the first time. No one was standing with their arms folded here. Despite songwriter Jerry Dammers' continued absence and Lynval Golding's lost voice, the band was as tight as it ever was, both musically and personally. As soon as the curtain rose the band wasted little time plugging into the hysteria that greeted them. If \"Do The Dog\" appeared to hit the spot, then tracks such as \"Too Much Too Young,\" and \"Gangsters\" literally had the earth moving in this imposing old theatre. Terry Hall, showing no sign of fatigue after a recent throat infection and the band's homecoming gig in Coventry the previous night, was in a chirpy mood. The Manchester United fan enjoyed reminding the London audience about his team's league success that afternoon. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Neville Staple seemed to galvanize the rest of the band with his seemingly limitless energy -- he must have spent the entire gig running on the spot. The dapper singer has aged well and was clearly reveling in the band's return to the spotlight. Despite only reforming recently, The Specials have rediscovered their mojo. They possess the kind of stage presence reserved for the truly great acts, while their lyrics still resonate today. \"Ghost Town\" encapsulated the gritty reality of Britain's urban landscape in 1981, and few in the audience would have argued that it remains a relevant portrait in today's troubled economic times.","highlights":"The Specials reformed for a 30th anniversary tour .\nThe six-piece 2-tone outfit are originally from the English Midlands .\nSongwriter Jerry Dammers chose not to take part in the tour .\nBand played hits including \"Too Much Too Young,\" \"Gangsters\" and \"Ghost Town\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rick Perlstein could have called his book \"Paranoia.\" Richard Nixon was \"the guy who exploited these tensions to create a new kind of politics,\" says Rick Perlstein. If Perlstein's history of the 1960s and early '70s in America has a throughline, it's mistrust. Parents don't trust their children. Enlisted men don't trust their officers. Blacks don't trust whites, Southerners don't trust Northerners, the Silent Majority doesn't trust the Intellectual Establishment, and -- soon enough -- nobody trusts the government. And in the midst of it all was Richard Nixon: Red-baiter, former vice president, failed gubernatorial nominee, punch line, political strategist and president, a master at playing both sides to maintain his hold on power. In doing so, he provided a roadmap for his successors. Hence Perlstein's actual title: \"Nixonland\" (Scribner). \"I'm fascinated with how Americans fight with each other,\" says Perlstein, 39, who was born the year Nixon took office. \"And the '60s is the best, the most -- besides the Civil War, I can't think of a more dramatic canvas. And Nixon fits in as the guy who exploited these tensions to create a new kind of politics that we're still living with now.\" Slideshow: What made the '60s the '60s \u00bb . Perlstein's book has earned rave reviews. In The Atlantic magazine, conservative writer Ross Douthat praised the author for \"the rare gift of being able to weave social, political, and cultural history into a single seamless narrative.\" Newsweek's Evan Thomas called it \"the best book written about the 1960s\" in more than a quarter-century. Perlstein says he's long had an obsession with the '60s -- which, in \"Nixonland,\" start with the Democratic landslide of 1964 and end with the Nixon landslide of 1972. The author, now a senior fellow at the left-leaning Campaign for America's Future in Chicago, considers the book a sequel to his earlier work, a biography of Barry Goldwater and the rise of the conservative movement. But \"Nixonland\" is as much a cultural history as a political chronicle; indeed, in the '60s the two were tightly enmeshed. The decade saw the full flower of youth culture, which was intertwined with Vietnam War protests, increasing drug use and distinctive music. It also saw the rise of what Nixon, in a major 1969 speech, termed the \"Silent Majority\" -- older, more conservative Americans buffeted on all sides by change, taking refuge in the familiar. Both groups had their pop culture heroes and touchstones, Perlstein observes. \"The generational divide went so deep as to form a fundamental argument about what was moral and what was immoral,\" Perlstein says. \"This was how people lived in the world -- through popular culture and through politics. The two feed off each other.\" Though the era is now remembered through the rosy lenses of the baby boomers, their parents -- the heart of the \"Silent Majority\" -- didn't look upon the culture so fondly. Many disdained the era's pop music, the most obvious expression of youth. Moreover, some of the highest-rated TV specials of 1969 and 1970 were Bob Hope programs, Perlstein writes, and when a movie such as 1970's \"Joe\" came out -- about a hardhat who loathes the hippies -- many in the audience came to cheer for the hardhat. Movies may have been the most revealing mirror of society. The rise of the youth culture coincided with the death of the studio system. Some of what emerged were films willing to show the grit and ugliness of the cities (\"the cities\" being a common euphemism for civic decline). \"Midnight Cowboy\" and \"The French Connection,\" the Academy Awards' best pictures of 1969 and 1971 respectively, show a weary, cold New York crumbling under its residents' feet. Television tiptoed more gingerly into the new age, Perlstein says. With just three networks catering to the entire country, \"everything had to have this lowest-common-denominator mass appeal,\" he says. \"You could watch TV in 1966 and it's really not any different from what it looked like in 1956. \"When you did get interesting shows, it was often an accident -- a midseason replacement,\" he adds. \" 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' was supposed to be a typical variety show. [CBS] never would have signed it up had they known that they were going to start talking about how much they hated the Vietnam War and started putting on Pete Seeger and making jokes about Richard Nixon. It was an accident.\" An underlying theme of \"Nixonland\" is how the various cultural and political movements eventually borrow from each other, with varying results. The mass gatherings of youth -- \"be-in,\" \"sit-in\" -- became \"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in,\" a colorful comedy show hosted by two nightclub comics, with a writing staff that included an old Nixon hand, Paul Keyes. The nightly arguments between parents and children became the sitcom \"All in the Family,\" a show whose central figure -- the bigoted construction worker Archie Bunker -- became a cultural hero. And then there was Nixon, a controlling man who, in trying to stay at least one move ahead of everyone else, ends up consumed by his own power. The result is Watergate, which is just being uncovered as \"Nixonland\" ends. Could it have been different? Countless commentators have tried to replay history from the hinge year of 1968, wondering if a surviving Robert Kennedy could have beaten Nixon and salved an angry culture. Perlstein, whose next book will chronicle the '70s, will have none of it. \"I don't like that magic thinking. I'm very suspicious of it,\" he says. \"Martyrs seem to get 100 extra bonus points in the annals of history, and that's a bias. By the same token, nostalgia systematically cheats the past. \"I think that it pulls around to one of the huge themes of my book and my work, which is that we really want to believe that somehow magically we can transcend our differences in American and as Americans without working hard at it. \"If only this person had lived; if only this event hadn't gone the way it did. But the fact of the matter is, we are a deeply divided nation, and transcending those differences isn't the work of an afternoon or a single person. It's something we all have to fight for.\"","highlights":"\"Nixonland\" is Rick Perlstein's history of the '60s and early '70s .\nCentral character is Richard Nixon, who exploited era's tensions for his ends .\nBook shows how politics and pop culture intertwined -- and created gaps .\nEnd result? We're still living in Nixonland, author says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Irish bishop resigned Wednesday following a government report into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy -- the second to do so. Bishop Jim Moriarty was not directly criticized in the Murphy Report, but was a member of the Dublin archdiocese leadership for more than a decade before it put proper protections for children in place, he said. Moriarty said he \"should have challenged the prevailing culture\" of protecting the church rather than children when he was an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1991 to 2002. \"I know that any action now on my part does not take away the suffering that people have endured,\" he said in a written statement. \"I again apologize to all the survivors and their families. I have today offered my resignation as bishop of Kildare & Leighlin to the Holy Father. I hope it honors the truth that the survivors have so bravely uncovered and opens the way to a better future for all concerned.\" The Vatican had no immediate comment on the resignation. Moriarty has been a priest for 48 years, he said in the statement. \"I fully accept the overall conclusion ... that the attempts by church authorities to 'protect the church' and to 'avoid scandal' had the most dreadful consequences for children and were deeply wrong,\" Moriarty said after the government report came out last month. Bishop Donal Murray, the bishop of Limerick, resigned on December 17. Murray was named in the 720-page report that found the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Catholic Church authorities in Ireland covered up clerical child abuse from 1975 to 2004. Child sexual abuse was \"widespread\" then, the report found. The report by the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, which was set up in March 2006 to look into the abuse allegations, did not say Murray was guilty of abuse but that he failed to report it. Murray was \"aware for many years of complaints and\/or suspicions of clerical child sexual abuse in the archdiocese,\" the report found. It said he dealt \"badly\" with a number of complaints and suspicions of abuse, and that his failings in at least one instance were \"inexcusable.\" Murray resigned under a canon law that requires bishops who have become unsuited for the fulfillment of their office to resign, the Vatican said. Pope Benedict XVI met with senior Irish bishops at the Vatican a week before Murray's resignation and said he was \"deeply disturbed and distressed\" by the report's findings. He promised that the Catholic Church would try to develop strategies to make sure the abuses don't happen again. CNN's Hada Messia in Rome, Italy, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Irish bishop resigns after government report on sex abuse of children by Catholic clergy .\nBishop Jim Moriarty was not directly criticized in the Murphy Report .\nHe was a member of Dublin archdiocese leadership before it put proper protections in place .\nDonal Murray, Limerick bishop, resigned in December after being named in abuse cover up ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Imagine the entire population of Kentucky forced out of their homes in the past 25 years, with many of the residents moving to a neighboring country. Displaced children at a camp in El Barrancon, Colombia, earlier this year. That's what has happened in Colombia, a country of 45 million where up to 4 million people -- roughly the population of Kentucky -- have been forced to flee fighting between government forces and an entrenched Marxist rebel group. So many Colombians have taken flight to escape violence that the nation has the second largest number of internally displaced people in the world -- surpassed only by Sudan in Africa. Oftentimes, the violence is not incidental. \"Violence against civilians is a strategy of war for all the parties involved in the warfare,\" said Ellen Beattie, who worked for relief agencies in Colombia for 15 years. \"That's the problem. They do it on purpose. They use it as a strategy. Vicious.\" Exact figures are hard to come by. Reliefweb, a United Nations Web site that provides information to humanitarian relief organizations, says nearly 400,000 Colombians were displaced last year. The Colombian government puts the number of displaced at 255,000 for 2008. Likewise, the Colombian government says nearly 3 million citizens have been displaced inside the country in the past few decades. But the non-governmental Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacements, known in Colombia as CODHES, estimates more than 4 million people have had to leave their homes since the 1980s. Mauricio de Vengoechea, a political analyst with the Newlink Group consulting firm, says about 200,000 Colombians have ended up in Ecuador, which has granted 5,500 residency permits in the past eight weeks. At the heart of the violence lies a guerrilla war with the Colombian government and paramilitary groups on one side and the FARC, which is the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, on the other. The FARC has been waging war against the government since the 1960s and has major strongholds in the jungles of southwest Colombia, near the 366-mile (590-kilometer) border with Ecuador. Narcotraffickers also have strongholds in the area and are often allied with the FARC, who provide security and intelligence. Many times the rebels and the narcotraffickers are one and the same. The guerrillas use drug money to buy weapons. \"There are large parts of Colombia where the state has no presence, no police, no army, nothing,\" said Myles Frechette, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia from 1994 to 1997. \"That's where the narcotraffickers hang out.\" That makes it valuable territory for the guerrillas and narcos, said Beattie, executive director of the International Rescue Committee office in Atlanta, Georgia. \"They're more willing to fight over land that is strategic,\" she said. \"You've poured gasoline on the fire with that.\" As the army, paramilitaries and the guerrillas fight for territory -- often retaking land one side or the other had held before -- the civilian population gets caught in the middle. When one side comes in, Beattie said, everyone living in the area is suspected of having collaborated with the enemy. That sometimes leads to massacres, or at least kidnappings and death threats. \"The majority of displacements in Colombia are not because of combat, but because people are directly threatened,\" said Gustavo Valdivieso, spokesman in Colombia for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. \"They are told, 'Leave or be killed.'\" Many times, indigenous populations in far-flung places suffer the most. That's what happened earlier this year to the Awa tribe in southwest Colombia. The FARC admitted in an Internet statement that guerrillas \"executed\" eight people February 6 in the town of Rio Bravo because the rebels believed the Indians were gathering information to give to the Colombian military. The Human Rights Watch organization said the guerrillas tortured some of the Awa before killing them with knives. Luis Evelis Andrade of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia said the FARC had targeted the Awa because the Indians don't want to get involved in the armed struggle and refuse to reveal information on government troop actions. He said the FARC had abducted 120 Awa in February and killed 44. \"We are very worried about the Awa community,\" said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. \"It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups.\" The Colombian government has issued a \"risk report\" warning that civilians in the region are in danger, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees proclaimed an alert this week about threats against human rights workers. A U.N. report notes that displacement disproportionately affects Colombia's poorest citizens, and their lives get worse after they are forced to flee. One of every two displaced Colombians is unemployed and a similar number live in makeshift homes made of cloth, cardboard or wood, says the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. More than three-fourths of children who leave school after being displaced never return. Then there's the issue of forced conscription. According to Reliefweb, between 12,000 and 14,000 minors have been forced to join armed groups. Valdivieso, the U.N. spokesman in Colombia, notes that displaced residents have lost about 15 million acres (6 million hectares). That's an area about the size of West Virginia. \"You have displaced people living in hunger in the cities of Colombia while they still have property,\" Valdivieso said. Displacement occurs when people move within a country. When they leave the country, they become refugees. The problem occurs among all segments of Colombian society. The political class is often hit hard. Ramiro Echeverri was among 12 regional lawmakers the FARC kidnapped on April 11, 2002, in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city. The rebels killed him and 10 others on June 18, 2007, when a Colombian army patrol came upon the camp in which the hostages were being held. When the bodies were recovered three months later, autopsies showed most had been shot several times in the back. Echeverri's son, also named Ramiro, was a doctor in Cali at the time. \"We buried him and the next day we left the country,\" he said. He, his wife and younger sister first went to Ecuador, where they lived for two months before securing passage to Atlanta, where he works as a neurological researcher for the Emory University School of Medicine. His mother stayed behind but visits often, especially after the birth of her granddaughter, Rafaela, four months ago. Echeverri, 28, has been in the United States for 16 months but still harbors hopes to return. \"Of course,\" he said. \"It is a very good country. I believe there will be a solution. Once there is, I will go back.\" Atlanta resident Ibonne Pinilla Martinez, 25, tells a similar story. Her father was a politician in Palmira, in southwest Colombia about 17 miles east of Cali. He started receiving threats and some colleagues were kidnapped. They first moved around inside Colombia, living in three cities over a two-year period. She, her parents and a younger sister then lived in Costa Rica for five years before moving to Atlanta two years ago, the soft-spoken Pinilla said. \"There is always fear when someone makes threats,\" she said. She, too, holds expectations of returning some day. \"We will wait for the right time and for all that to end,\" Pinilla said. Many refugees end up in Ecuador because it's the nearest country to the killing fields of southwestern Colombia. Some are forced there by the fighting. \"Over the course of the past five years, the FARC has been pushed back into Colombia's less densely populated jungle regions and across the Ecuadorian border,\" said Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm. \"More and more citizens in southern Colombia have been forced out and had nowhere else to go but Ecuador.\" Beattie, the aid agency official, has noticed the same phenomena. \"The Colombians go across where the violence pushes them that way,\" she said. \"Often, that's the only direction they can go.\" Ecuador has started incorporating the displaced Colombians, giving residency status to 5,500 in the past few weeks. That may seem surprising, given the poor standing between the countries. Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Colombia in March 2008 and amassed troops along the border after a Colombian military attack against a FARC camp inside Ecuador. The attack killed 25 people, including rebel leader Raul Reyes, four Mexicans and an Ecuadorian. No country in the area is afraid of Ecuador, says Frechette, the former U.S. ambassador. Neither is the FARC. \"Ecuador is a very weak state. It's lost 60 percent of its territory since its independence (in 1822),\" he said. \"Ecuador is a little guy who gets pushed around by everybody.\" Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa used the tension to forge national unity when he successfully ran for re-election in April 2009, said Vengoechea. \"It was more convenient for President Correa to be an enemy of Colombia than a friend of Colombia,\" Vengoechea said. \"Now both sides have been trying to find common points to restore diplomatic relationships,\" Esteruelas said. The issue of residency visas, he said, \"is one such point.\" Ecuador also may have felt the need to do something about the FARC. \"Ecuadorians are also under a lot of pressure since allegations that the FARC was coming across the border and Ecuador has been looking the other way,\" said Esteruelas. \"Ecuador is under pressure to register all Colombian immigrants coming in to prevent Colombian rebels from coming into Ecuador unregistered and unnoticed.\"","highlights":"Colombian civilians caught in cross fire between rebels, government forces .\n\"Violence against civilians is a strategy of war,\" relief worker says .\nMany civilians flee homes as a result of direct threats .\nEcuador is country closest to Colombia's killing fields, many flee there ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson hailed his side's rollercoaster 4-3 victory over neighbors Manchester City at Old Trafford as the \"best derby of all time.\" Ferguson and substitute Gary Neville celebrate Owen's late winner. Ferguson made the claim while ruing his side's sloppy defensive play which allowed City to claim three equalizing goals before Michael Owen's clinical winner deep into injury time on Sunday. \"It could have been an embarrassment, 6-0 or 7-0, if we defended our proper way,\" claimed the legendary Scot. \"We could have won by a big score but by making mistakes, which was the essence of the game, we probably were in the best derby game of all time. \"What do you choose? Win the best derby game of all time or win 6-0? I'd probably pick 6-0.\" Was this the greatest derby ever? The build-up to the match had been marked by a war of words between Ferguson and City manager Mark Hughes, who has been handed a massive transfer budget by his side's Abu Dhabi owners. Ferguson had branded them \"cocky\" and did little to dampen down the rivalry with his post match comments. Blog:Should referees also keep time? \"Sometimes you have a noisy neighbor. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy,\" he said. \"You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder. \"Today the players showed their form. That is the best answer of all.\" By contrast, City manager Mark Hughes was furious with referee Martin Atkinson for the amount of added time played, with Owen scoring in the 96th minute. \"We need an explanation because I don't know why the referee has added that amount of time on,\" said Hughes. \"We just feel a little bit aggrieved that they were given that time.\" It was a heartbreaking finale for his team with Bellamy's magnificent second goal after a mistake by Rio Ferdinand appearing to give his up and coming side a share of the spoils. \"We're disappointed, we put in a hell of a shift today,\" said Hughes. \"Craig Bellamy scored two magnificent goals. He didn't deserve to be on the losing side,\" added Hughes. Ferguson, who has used free transfer signing Owen sparingly this season, said the England striker showed his true quality. \"His positional play, first touch and finish were absolutely superb. World class.\" The victory took United to second place in the English Premier League behind pacesetting Chelsea with City suffering their first defeat of the season.","highlights":"Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson hails 'best derby of all time'\nUnited beat rivals Manchester City 4-2 with Michael Owen injury time winner .\nCity manager Mark Hughes furious about amount of extra time added ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The battle raging over President Obama's health care plan has spread from across the aisles in Congress to across the country. A Tampa, Florida, health care reform meeting sparks noisy exchanges between attendees. Senators this week joined their colleagues from the House at town hall meetings as they spent their August recess in their home districts. But disruptive protests are turning town hall meetings into shouting matches and drowning out discussion over what is and isn't in health care plans in the House and Senate. Videos of the protests have been circulating on the Internet, showing raucous crowds heckling their congressmen, and carrying posters with devil horns drawn on lawmakers' heads, swastikas or Obama with Adolf Hitler's mustache. Read more about the proposed plans \u00bb . Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, who had a town hall meeting disrupted by angry protesters earlier this month, said he had never experienced such emotion in his 15 years of holding such forums. Democratic Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina even had a death threat phoned into his office. A caller said that if Miller supported Obama's plan, it could cost him his life, Miller told CNN. \"Of course we want a full debate. Of course we want people who have dissenting views from the administration and Congress to have a full hearing. But that's not what this is about. That's not the intent of most of these people. It's not the way the press is covering it,\" Mark Halperin, editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME magazine, said on CNN's \"Reliable Sources.\" The protesters' gimmicks, Halperin said, are grabbing the public and media's attention, and valid arguments over the cost and content of the proposals are being put on the back burner. \"There needs to be a debate in America on whether we should have universal health care. There needs to be a debate on the president's ideas. If these protesters have ideas, great. Let's hear them. But if they're just stunts to cause a disruption that gets the media tripped in every time, again, I think it's bad for the country whether you want the president's plan or not,\" he said. Watch what Halperin says about the town hall turmoil \u00bb . Obama's health care battle has been compared to former President Bill Clinton's failed effort more than 15 years ago, but CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said the climate toward health care reform was actually more negative back then. Clinton's plan had less public support than Obama's, and Clinton himself was less popular than Obama, Schneider said. Clinton's plan also barely got off the ground when it went to Congress, and Obama's proposals have already been through a few congressional committees. So why didn't lawmakers experience the same backlash during the Clinton years? \"Three reasons,\" Schneider said. First of all, \"the calendar.\" Clinton proposed his plan in September 1993, and by the time Congress went on recess in August of the following year, the plan was dead. Learn more about global health care systems \u00bb . Secondly, people didn't use the Internet the way they use it today, \"so you didn't have the viral communications that rally people to attend town halls.\" And finally, experience. \"Conservatives are emboldened by what happened to the Clinton plan. They want to relive 1994,\" Schneider said. Democrats have accused conservative groups of manufacturing the outrage, while others say the uproar is a reflection of the opposition to Obama's plans. \"These are average Americans that are concerned about this long litany of borrowing and spending and bailouts and government takeover of one industry after another. And this government takeover of health care is just the last straw for many Americans,\" Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, told \"Fox News\" on Monday. As the emotion has intensified, misinformation has spread about what is and isn't in current health care proposals. \"People are just getting information that's flat wrong,\" Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, told CNN on Monday as a town hall meeting she held came to an end. One of the allegations that picked up traction in recent days is that Obama's plan encourages euthanasia. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fueled the charge on her Facebook page Friday, writing that \"the sick, the elderly, and the disabled\" would suffer as doctors have to \"ration care.\" In her post, the former Republican vice presidential candidate said Obama's health care plan would create a \"death panel\" that would weigh whether her parents or son Trig were \"worthy of health care.\" Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told CNN on Sunday that Palin had deliberately fabricated the charges. \"About euthanasia, they're just totally erroneous. She just made that up,\" he said. \"Just like the 'Bridge to Nowhere' that she supposedly didn't support. \"There's nothing like euthanasia in the bill. I practiced medicine for a long time, and of course you have to have end-of-life discussions -- the patients want that. ... Euthanasia's not in this bill.\" McCaskill said she hoped Monday that she was able to correct some of false information out there. \"The notion that I would ever, or that our government would ever do anything to cut short or dismiss the quality of life for our seniors is so offensive to me as an American. ... There's no rationing of health care that's being proposed for our elderly,\" she said. \"Hopefully, I was able to reassure people that -- not in America. That's not going to happen.\" In his weekend radio address, Obama sought to dispel what he called \"the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care. That's simply not true.\" The White House on Monday launched what it calls a Health Insurance Reform Reality Check Web site designed to combat what the administration considers misinformation about the issue. The Web page features Obama aides discussing various aspects of health care reform.","highlights":"Town hall meetings across the country have turned into shouting matches .\n\"Stunts\" are taking the focus off the real debate, Mark Halperin says .\n\"People are just getting information that's flat wrong,\" Sen. McCaskill says .\nOthers defend outbursts as indication of opposition to Obama's plan ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A New York Times reporter who was kidnapped last week was freed Wednesday in a pre-dawn military raid in Afghanistan that left a British commando, an Afghan journalist and several others dead. New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was abducted Saturday while covering a NATO airstrike in Afghanistan. Stephen Farrell was rescued by NATO's International Security Assistance Force, known as the ISAF, the British Foreign Office said. A British commando died in the operation, the country's Ministry of Defense said without offering further details. Sultan Munad, an Afghan journalist accompanying Farrell, also was killed in the raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. Crossfire during the raid also killed a woman and a child, said Abdel Wahid Omar Khil, governor of Kunduz district, in Kunduz province, where the rescue took place. Armed gunmen kidnapped the journalists Saturday while they were covering a NATO airstrike on Taliban forces the day before that killed at least 90 people in the northern Kunduz province. Neither CNN nor the Times had reported Farrell's kidnapping for security reasons. \"We feared that media attention would raise the temperature and increase the risk to the captives,\" the paper quoted Executive Editor Bill Keller as saying Wednesday. Farrell called the newspaper's foreign editor before dawn and said he was \"extracted\" in a commando raid after a fierce firefight, according to a report on the Times Web site. \"There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices,\" Farrell, a 46-year-old dual Irish-British citizen, told the paper. Farrell and Munadi ran outside during the firefight. At the end of a wall, Munadi went forward, shouting: \"Journalist! Journalist!\" but dropped in a hail of bullets, Farrell said. He didn't know whether the shots came from allied or militant fire. \"I saw him go down in front of me. He did not move. He's dead,\" Farrell told the paper. \"He was so close, he was just 2 feet in front of me when he dropped.\" Farrell's citizenship played a role in the British decision to stage the rescue, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. Watch a former British commander on the difficulty in rescuing hostages \u00bb . \"The obvious link for us is that Farrell is a British national. We want to safeguard the life of one of our citizens,\" the spokesman said, declining to discuss operational details of the rescue mission. \"We don't comment about the actions of British Special Ops forces.\" Local Afghans provided information and helped the commandos locate where Farrell was being held, said another British official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. He said the judgment to proceed with such an operation \"is always a difficult one, but we think it represented the best chance to save his life.\" Brown offered condolences to the families of Munadi and the British commando. Of the commando, Brown said, \"His bravery will not be forgotten.\" The operation to rescue the hostages happened after extensive planning and consideration, Brown said. \"Those involved knew the high risks they were running. That they undertook it in such circumstances showed breathtaking heroism,\" Brown said. \"Hostage-taking is never justified, and the U.K. does not make substantive concessions, including paying ransoms. But whenever British nationals are kidnapped, we and our allies will do everything in our power to free them.\" Ten weeks earlier, another Times reporter escaped after months in Taliban captivity. David Rohde, a local reporter and a driver were kidnapped November 10 outside Kabul. The two reporters escaped on June 19 by climbing over a wall in the compound where they were held for seven months in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. The driver did not escape, the newspaper said. The death toll in the Kunduz airstrike, which Farrell was covering when he was kidnapped, has varied, depending on the source, but local Afghan officials have said at least half of those killed were civilians. The NATO commander in the area called in the strike Friday as Afghans tried to siphon fuel from two tankers hijacked by the Taliban a day earlier. The Taliban allowed villagers to drain the tankers carrying fuel earmarked for the NATO-led force after they became stuck in the mud when the militants tried to drive them through the Kunduz River. The military thought there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack, the ISAF's Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said. Farrell, who joined The New York Times two years ago, also was briefly kidnapped in April 2004 in Falluja, Iraq. At the time, he was on assignment for The Times of London. In a separate incident Wednesday, a suicide attack killed at least two civilians and injured several others, including NATO personnel, near the main British military base in southern Afghanistan, the ISAF said. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest near a crowd of civilian truck drivers near the entrance of Camp Bastion in volatile Helmand province, the ISAF said. The injured civilians and ISAF personnel were treated at Camp Bastion, which is in Washir District. The casualty count is unclear as an investigation continues. CNN's Ingrid Formanek and Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Local Afghans helped British locate abducted journalist, official says .\nNew York Times reporter Stephen Farrell freed in commando raid .\nAfghan journalist killed in raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says .\nBritish commando also killed during raid; woman, child die in crossfire ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Filmmaker Michael Moore, whose new documentary \"Sicko\" takes on America's health care system, faced off Tuesday with CNN chief medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Michael Moore and CNN's Sanjay Gupta argued Tuesday about Gupta's report on Moore's film \"Sicko\" Moore criticized a report Gupta did on CNN Monday on \"Sicko.\" \"He said the facts were fudged,\" Moore said, referring to Gupta, on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"That's a lie. None of the facts are fudged.\" Moore and Gupta shouted and argued over data Gupta used and data Moore used. Moore said his staffers backed up the film's facts to Gupta before the report aired and that Gupta aired it knowing his facts were wrong. Gupta disputed that. Watch Moore, Gupta make their points \u00bb . \"We try and look for some of the best sources we can possibly find,\" he said. \"Michael has a lot of different numbers. ... You're sort of cherry-picking data from different reports.\" Both agreed, however, on the basic premise of \"Sicko\": Problems abound in America's health-care system and need to be fixed. \"I thought it was a good movie, and I wanted to say that,\" Gupta said. \"I think it strikes at the irrefutable fact -- it's broken. We get it.\" He praised Moore for raising awareness of the issue. However, Gupta said he was concerned that the movie -- which notes that other developed nations such as France and Canada have universal health care --suggests that health care in those countries is free. While patients may not pay for services at the doctor's office, they do pay high taxes to fund such a system, something Gupta said he was concerned that \"Sicko\" audiences might not realize. Moore responded by saying Americans pay more in copays, deductibles and insurance premiums. \"We [America] have a system built on profit,\" the moviemaker said. He asked Gupta if the current system, which requires him to receive approval from an insurance company before performing some procedures, is cumbersome to him. \"It's a shameful system, especially when I'm dealing with some of my patients,\" Gupta said. But he questioned Moore's apparent solution -- putting health care in the hands of the Bush administration, which Moore fiercely criticized in the past, particularly in his film \"Fahrenheit 9\/11.\" \"The government actually used to do things right,\" Moore said in response. \"The problem is who we put in power.\" Moore has adamantly opposed the war in Iraq and said the government should reprioritize -- a position he took many years before skepticism of the war's success abounded in Washington. \"I am sorry we've taken so much time trying to correct [Gupta's] facts here tonight instead of talking about the real issue\" -- the ailing health care system, Moore said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Moore criticized a report Gupta did on CNN Monday on \"Sicko\"\nGupta's report questions some of the movie's numbers and solutions .\nGupta: \"I thought it was a good movie, and I wanted to say that\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- This month on the Screening Room we're turning to the wonderful world of animated films. \"Shrek the Third,\" the latest in Dreamworks' inverted-fairytale franchise . Blockbusters like \"Finding Nemo\" and Dreamworks' franchise \"Shrek\" have turned animation into a multi-billion-dollar industry, and a market once dominated by Disney is becoming crowded with competition. This year, Pixar celebrates its 20th anniversary. From \"Toy Story\" to \"Ratatouille,\" the company has transformed expectations about what's possible with animated film. Pixar's position as a world leader in animated film is largely down to John Lasseter - considered by some to be the Walt Disney for a new generation. From \"Toy Story\" and \"A Bug's Life\" to \"Monsters, Inc.\" and \"Cars,\" the Pixar back-catalogue is a testament to his creative genius. And when Pixar merged with Disney he became one of the most powerful players in the movie business. The first Pixar production released since the merger is \"Ratatouille,\" the story of an unlikely alliance between a blundering trainee chef and a gourmet-loving rat. \"Ratatouille\" director Brad Bird's credits for Pixar include the Oscar-winning feature \"The Incredibles,\" which won critical plaudits for its ground-breaking animation. He told CNN, \"I think that one of the nice things about Pixar is that they don't feel like they have discovered the secret formula to making a good movie. They just keep focused on trying to make a movie that they would want to see. We are challenged and surprised every time they work out.\" But while Pixar and Disney may be the giants of animation they face formidable competition from another box-office monster -- Shrek. The adventures of the world's favorite ogre have generated a total of two billion dollars in takings. Actor Mike Myers, who voices Shrek, told CNN that he thinks the movies' appeal is their unlikely hero. He said, \"With 'Shrek,' they took fairytales and turned them on their heads. Everything is inverted. Traditional villains are heroes, traditional heroes are villains. The whole team decided, we're going to look at somebody who has been told he was a villain and we're going to make him a hero. That's when I knew they were on to something.\" The success of the Shrek franchise, supported by other big budget features such as \"Madagascar,\" has cemented Dreamworks' position as a major force in the animated world. Another successful franchise -- \"Ice Age\" -- has been a hot seller for 20th Century Fox. And the polar climate has also been kind to Warner Brothers with last year's Oscar-winning \"Happy Feet\" charming audiences around the world with a tale of dancing penguins, while the Tom Hanks-voiced \"The Polar Express\" also scored well on its way to becoming a seasonal stocking-filler on DVD. The life-like motion-capture technique used in \"The Polar Express\" will also feature in Warner's forthcoming release, \"Beowulf\" featuring Angelina Jolie. But in a market dominated by 3-D CGI animations, one of the big three summer blockbusters this year belongs to a more traditional form of the art. \"The Simpsons Movie\" is the world's longest-running animated television series, and fans have eagerly awaited its move to the big screen. Creator Matt Groening told the Screening Room, \"We've had fans clamoring for a movie for the past 18 years. We've had kids, they've grown up, they've become adults, they've become writers for the Simpsons, so we had to do a movie after all this time.\" So, will Springfield's most famous inhabitants break all former animation records? Groening and co. will certainly be hoping that the movie gets a box-office \"Woo hoo!\" from its fans. \"Happy Feet\" is a Warner Bros. film; Warner Bros., like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Animation is now a multi-billion-dollar industry .\nMovie franchises like Shrek, Toy Story boost appeal to both adults and kids .\nDreamworks, Warner Bros target slice of Disney Pixar's success ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In India he's an icon and to the rest of the cricketing world he's simply known as one of the greatest ever batsmen. One the game's greats, Sachin Tendulkar is more than just a player in India, he's an icon. Sachin Tendulkar picked up a bat at the age of 4 in Mumbai and from that day on fell in love with the game. \"The only thing that was on my mind was, 'I want to play for India one day,' and I was pretty sure and confident that one day I will,\" he told CNN in Mumbai. In fact he made his Test debut for India at the age of 16 facing Pakistan's fearsome bowling attack, just two years after making his first-class debut for Mumbai. Despite a baptism of fire in that first international match and getting hit on the mouth by a ball from Waquar Younis, he took his own game forward and has become known for the positivity of his play and the compact efficiency and brilliance of his shot-making. Making his first Test hundred at the age of 17 against England he has racked up the records in a 19-year career. In 2000 he became the first batsman to score 50 international hundreds, and is the highest scorer in One Day internationals. He joined an elite group in 2007 when he became only the third player to pass 11,000 runs in Test cricket. Nicknames in cricket are common, but only if you're a really exceptional player do you get one that's complementary. Tendulkar has joined that elite as the \"Little Master\" which sits nicely next to other great batsmen, Viv \"Master Blaster\" Richards and Brian \"The Prince\" Lara. But perhaps no higher praise came from Australian cricketing legend Donald Bradman who once said that Tendulkar was the only player that reminded him of himself. Like all sportsmen he's suffered from injury, and now 35-years-old, many are wondering if his best days are behind him. Playing for India against England and Australia last summer and at the beginning of 2008, many commentators thought that his normal aggression and daring were missing from his game. His form was also heavily criticized after the 2007 World Cup, and injury forced him out of the international series against South Africa. But for the man used to batting away tricky deliveries, this criticism gets a typical positive response: \"I'm not one to dwell on the past. I like to move forward and these challenges, these hurdles in between, they bring the best out of me. They motivate me even more.\" He's currently facing the challenges of the rapid-fire version of the game in the Indian Premier League (IPL), masterminded by Lalit Modi, that despite it's glitz and hype has been criticized for losing some of the finer points of the sport. \"It's so full of excitement. I personally don't feel that it's dumbing-down the game. It's just another version of cricket. If the game is going to be globalized in the form of IPL, then why not? It's better for cricket,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"India's best known cricketer is one of the games best-ever batsmen .\nStarted his international career when just 16-years-old .\nLeading run-scorer in One Day Internationals and holder of many other records ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For actress Jane Alexander, the criticism of a $50 million boost in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts is a sequel. Tony-award winning actress Jane Alexander says giving money to the arts will save and create jobs. She was chairman of the agency from 1993 through 1997 when arts funding was cut sharply by the Republican-led Congress, which questioned whether it was an appropriate way to use government money. Now the issue is whether giving money to the arts should have been part of the economic stimulus program. Among those who have criticized the new spending this year is Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama's message to Congress Tuesday. On Monday's \"Larry King Live,\" Jindal said, \"Fundamentally, I don't think $30 million for the federal government to buy new cars, $1 billion for the Census, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts is going to get the economy moving again as quickly as allowing the private sector to create jobs.\" It's no surprise that Alexander disagrees and argues that arts spending can give a vital boost to the economy. The actress, who will appear later this month in a new comedy at the New York theater company Primary Stages called \"Chasing Manet,\" won a Tony Award for her role in the \"The Great White Hope.\" She has been nominated eight times for an Emmy and four times for an Oscar for films including, \"All the President's Men\" and \"Kramer vs. Kramer.\" Alexander spoke to CNN.com last week. CNN: What do you think of the controversy over the $50 million in increased government spending for the arts? Alexander: I think it's long overdue and I was very, very happy to see it. Since 1995-96 we had an incredibly decreased budget for the NEA. Finally we're getting back to where it was when I came in [as chairman]. It's all vitally needed. In fact, the endowment has not kept pace with inflation as other agencies have. ... This $50 million will certainly help a great deal. What people forget is that there are over 2 million people in the United States of America who are professional artists. Those are jobs like any other jobs. The artists have families, they have people for whom they're responsible and they give to their communities. We all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The life part would be health and housing. The liberty part would be our civil rights. And the pursuit of happiness, the arts would come under that. And it's as vital a part of well-being in the United States as anything else. CNN: When you say 2 million artists, could you define artist? Alexander: Well they include everything from writers, painters, all the visual arts spectrum and that's pretty large, including graphic arts. Theater and so on, music, ceramicists, costume designers, makeup artists, filmmakers, it's a huge panoply. CNN: How far can $50 million go? Alexander: Well for the endowment which has had a budget of around $144 million currently, it can go quite a way. When I came in it was about $175 million and then it was cut under my aegis by Congress down to $99 million. CNN: Some people will say that while the NEA may consider this a victory, it's really a pittance, a drop in the bucket, so little money given the challenges many arts organizations are facing today. Alexander. It will help, it will help enormously, because every single NEA grant that goes out is a challenge to the community to come up with the same amount of money, or a 3 to 1. ... By the way, the public should know that within this coming year, we're going to see an awful lot of arts organizations closing. I just came from working at a theater in Pittsburgh, [Pennsylvania] and the International Poetry Forum, which has been going for 43 years, will close its doors this year. The Milwaukee Shakespeare Festival has already closed. The LA [Los Angeles] Opera has laid off 17 percent of its staff. CNN: So this isn't going to be enough to reverse those kinds of things? Alexander: No, but it will challenge the community to understand what the imperiled status of their arts organizations are. It will only help. It will help an enormous amount, and for some organizations, it will make all the difference in their staying alive. Now the NEA this fall gave out 884 grants, totaling $20 million and that was 38 percent of the project cost of the applicants. So 38 percent is a nice healthy piece of change for the cost of a project. CNN: How did you personally get involved in this cause? Alexander: As an actress who spent most of my career in nonprofit theaters, They began with the seed of an NEA grant back in the late 60s, most of them. Today we have about 450 nonprofit theaters across the United States. Back in 1965, when the NEA was founded, there were only about 23 of them. CNN: Your forthcoming play -- is that being done for a nonprofit theater? Alexander: Yes. It's another nonprofit called Primary Stages in New York City, a small theater. What people don't quite understand about theaters is that they never increase their size. They're bound by the number of seats within a given theater, and meanwhile there's inflation and the costs rise. So currently most theaters can never make more than 50 percent of their income from ticket sales. The rest has to be raised. CNN: How's the company doing? Alexander: It had a good play last year, \"Dividing the Estate,\" by Horton Foote, which got a lot of attention but I don't think it made back its nut on Broadway. It transferred from the nonprofit to a commercial venue on Broadway. ... In the film business, independent films are considered nonprofit in many instances. It's interesting to see that an independent won the Academy Award. Of course it was distributed by a major studio. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" started off as an independent. It did extraordinarily well. ... Many of the commercial arts are fed by the nonprofit arts. And that's another thing most people don't fully understand. Where do you think the Tom Hanks, the Cate Blanchetts of the world come from? They come from small venues that are independent and are nonprofit usually and then they move into the mainstream. CNN: What's your attitude about the future, under the Obama administration. Do you think there's reason for hope about the arts, or despair? Alexander: I think there's reason for great hope. President Obama has said repeatedly and he's said it for a couple of years now, that he thinks arts education is vital for children of all ages, starting right away. We have the arts in nursery school anyway, but he believes in institutionalizing the arts so it's part of the curriculum for every child in America. ... Everybody in all walks of life know people who are out of work presently or are about to be out of work. And the same is true for artists. I know so many artists -- for example visual artists, the gallery has closed or it's cut back. Theaters that are no longer going to do productions with more than five actors. And so on. So I know a lot of people out of work: costume designers, makeup people. And let's not forget all the ancillary jobs from having an arts organization in your neighborhood. That includes restaurants, taxicabs, whatever. CNN: Gov. Jindal said he didn't think the arts money should be part of the economic stimulus plan. Alexander: Well what he doesn't understand is that $50 million goes directly ... as a grant to organizations which employ people. It's quick and it's a system that works beautifully and it's done within a year.","highlights":"Jane Alexander: Increasing funds for the arts is a good way to boost economy .\nShe chaired the NEA when Republican-led Congress sharply cut its budget .\nShe says about 2 million Americans are employed as artists of all kinds .\nAlexander: Injecting funds into the arts will quickly support jobs ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 6-foot-4 football player is more than a million times the size of a typical Staphylococcus bacterium. But under the right conditions, that athlete could find himself defenseless against the microscopic bug. Kellen Winslow recently had a second staph infection and has accused his team of covering it up. The problem came to the forefront last week with Cleveland Browns player Kellen Winslow, who recently had his second staph infection. He is reportedly the sixth player to acquire staph among the Browns in five years. Winslow recently said the Browns treated him like a \"piece of meat\" when he was hospitalized for the condition, and he claimed they covered up the cause of his illness. After Winslow spoke out, the organization suspended him for one game, then rescinded the suspension after a settlement with Winslow over the weekend. The Browns said in a statement Saturday that the team and Winslow had worked through their differences, and that the team looked forward to his return. Winslow joined the team again Monday. Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts was revealed to have a staph infection, the Indianapolis Star reported Friday. University of North Carolina-Asheville fans also recently learned that Kenny George, the 7-foot-7 center on the basketball team, had a staph infection complication that led to part of his foot being amputated. It's unclear how these high-profile athletes acquired their infections, but locker rooms have been found to habor staph bacteria in previous outbreaks. The topic is generating buzz throughout the sports world as more players' staph cases are revealed. Hospitals have long been known to be hot spots for transmitting staph, but recently cases have cropped up in other community settings. Regardless of where these players got their infections, the close quarters of a locker room raise questions about overall risks. About 30 percent of people carry staph in their noses without exhibiting symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts say Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a form of staph resistant to common antibiotics, has become a more prevalent problem in settings such as contact sports that involve skin-to-skin touching. Most MRSA infections acquired in community settings present themselves as sores or boils and often appear red, swollen, painful or with drainage such as pus, the CDC says. Infections often occur in cuts and abrasions but also on body parts covered in hair, such as the back of the neck, armpit or groin. Schools, prisons and other crowded environments are particularly known for transmitting MRSA, said. Elaine Larson, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. MRSA may spread particularly easily among athletes because they have repeated skin-to-skin contact, share items and surfaces that touch skin and have a hard time staying clean, the CDC says. Athletes often get cuts and abrasions; MRSA can enter uncovered skin breaks and cause infection. Dr. James Steinberg, medical director at Emory University's Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, said that environment plays a role in the spread of MRSA but that it's less a factor than coming into contact with a person's skin. \"If you have somebody who has an infection -- he has a draining infection -- and he gets some of his pus on a bench, that staph's going to be there for hours or days before it dries out,\" he said. \"But the higher concentration is going to be on that person's skin.\" A second infection in the same person could result from re-exposure or from treatment that didn't get rid of the bacteria colonization, he said. MRSA has been around in hospital settings since the 1970s, but community-associated MRSA was born in the late 1990s, and is now widespread in the community, said CDC spokesperson Nicole Coffin. A report from the CDC said that the deaths of four children from MRSA in North Dakota and Minnesota during the late 1990s \"demonstrate the potential severity of community-acquired MRSA infections.\" A study on the St. Louis Rams published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that during the 2003 football season, there were eight MRSA infections among five of the 58 Rams players. To protect against MRSA, the CDC recommends practicing good personal hygiene and taking care of your skin, which includes wearing protective clothing and covering cuts and abrasions with clean, dry bandages. Also, do not share items that come into contact with your skin, such as towels, razors and ointments. Put something between your skin and shared equipment -- for example, sit on a towel on a bench. Larson said she is not directly familiar with Winslow's situation but understands the dilemma that a team would face if a player contracted a staph infection. There could be economic and psychosocial repercussions -- for example, another team might not want to play against that one, she said. But in general, other team members should be made aware of the situation so they do not share towels or engage in other behaviors that might transmit the infection. Still, there is a danger of overreaction, she said. In some instances when a child in a public school has died, the whole school panicked and fumigated the facility, she said. \"It's a good idea to avoid that level of fear, because it's costly and it scares people unnecessarily,\" she said. On Thursday, the Brown's General Manager Phil Savage said the team did not alert players to Winslow's staph infection partly because of the health privacy laws and partly because the team was in \"game mode\" when Winslow had a confirmed diagnosis. \"To come out and talk about that just was going to be another distraction,\" Savage said on his regular weekly appearance on WTAM radio in Cleveland, Ohio. \"That's our job, is to limit distractions as much as we can.\" Winslow said in a statement released through his publicist, Denise White of EAG Sports Management, that he had been discouraged from making the issue public. \"This has nothing to do with football, and this has nothing to with my current contract situation,\" he said. \"This is a health concern.\" A spokesperson for the Browns did not return a request for comment. An NFL representative said the league has no statement on the issue.","highlights":"Several professional athletes have recently had staph infections .\nExperts say it is a growing problem in settings that involve skin-to-skin touching .\nCDC: Don't share towels; put something between your skin and the bench .\nCleveland Browns' Kellen Winslow brought issue to forefront ."} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- After his father was diagnosed with dementia in 1996, Anthony Lazzara Jr. faced a difficult decision: He and his wife, Gail, either could place his father, Anthony Lazzara Sr., in a facility, or they could care for him themselves. Anthony Lazzara Jr. (right) and his wife, Gail (left), cared for Anthony Lazzara Sr. at home for eight years. Unable to afford a care facility, the Lazzaras brought him home. So began eight long years of caring for the World War II veteran and onetime truck driver as he slowly declined -- a burden borne largely by Gail, 56. She fed him, bathed him and changed his diapers on a daily basis while her husband, a truck driver, was on the road. Slowly, she says, her marriage began to crumble. \"I couldn't take my frustration out on my father-in-law,\" she says. Instead, she took it out on her husband. \"We almost ended up divorcing over the whole deal,\" says Anthony Jr., 56. Gail concedes she considered leaving, \"but I couldn't walk away from my father-in-law.\" Two years ago, the Lazzaras finally threw in the towel. A bed became available at a local Veterans Affairs facility, and the elder Lazzara was admitted. He remained there until April 2008, when he died at age 95. A difficult labor of love . As the Lazzaras can attest, the stress of caring for an elderly parent can overwhelm a relationship. Chauffeuring loved ones to appointments, handling their shopping, assuming their financial burden, even just living under the same roof can test even the most committed couples. In 2004, the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP reported that over 44 million Americans care for an adult family member or friend. Almost 80 percent of these are caring for someone older than 50. Although caring for a parent in their twilight years can be rewarding, it can also be a trial, says Beth Witrogen, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of \"Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal.\" \"Caregiving brings out the best and worst in us all,\" she says. Al Levi, 39, a Brooklyn, New York, occupational therapist, has experienced that kind of strain in his marriage. Levi says he has been at odds with his wife since his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago. \"I felt like my wife wasn't taking this seriously enough, and that if it would have been her parents, it would have been more important,\" he says. For a while, the Levis cared for Al's father at home, but eventually it got to be more than they could handle. Levi placed his father in a nursing home this past summer. But he says the ordeal has continued to strain his marriage. \"It's complicated,\" he says. 'Your best is good enough' Often, couples will harbor unreasonable expectations of what they can or should do -- together or individually -- to care for an aging parent. \"You have to accept that your best is good enough,\" Witrogen says. \"It may not be pretty, but you will get the job done.\" It's also crucial that couples communicate clearly and effectively, Witrogen says. Too often, one partner will fixate on solving the problem while neglecting to listen to the other's needs. In the Lazzaras' case, Anthony Jr. says he would search for care facilities for his father from time to time, but Gail was still left to shoulder most of the daily duties of care -- something her husband still feels guilty about. With their three children grown, \"it was her time to have and here she was taking care of my dad,\" Anthony Jr. laments. It wasn't until the Lazzaras finally found room for Anthony Sr. at the VA facility that they finally found some relief. \"We knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel,\" Anthony Jr. says. Balancing your needs . Although finding a balance between caring for an aging parent and maintaining a healthy marriage can be tremendously challenging, it can be done, experts say. Part of that solution is ensuring the aging parent gets proper care, says Leah Siskin, senior psychologist at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York. \"When the psychological needs of the care recipient are addressed, this can no doubt have a positive effect on the marital relationship of the caregivers,\" she says. It's also important that couples care for one another. Giuseppe Manca, a 58-year-old holistic healer in Manhattan, grew frustrated that he couldn't take a vacation with his wife for fear of leaving his live-in mother-in-law alone, even though she was in good health. So the couple decided to take weekend trips, making sure neighbors and loved ones were on standby in case of an emergency. The Lazzaras didn't have the luxury of traveling while Anthony Sr. was still alive. Although they say their marriage has stabilized since his passing -- Gail has been able to devote more time to her job coordinating a local volleyball league -- they admit that it could have crumbled. \"We nearly crashed and burned,\" Anthony Jr. says. How to cope . Author Witrogen offers the following tips for coping when a couple's \"for better or worse\" turns to the latter in caring for an elderly parent: . \u2022 Talk it out. Bring in a third party such as an attorney to provide objective perspective. Those short on money can invite clergy or a neighbor. \u2022 Make time for yourself -- and each other. It takes willingness, intention and time management, Witrogen says. \"Get out your day planners and schedule the time in. I suggest that couples schedule 'play dates,' even if for an hour.\" \u2022 Don't neglect your health. Sleeping enough, eating right and exercising displaces stress from your partner. \u2022 Set caregiving goals. \"Write down objectively what needs to be done,\" Witrogen says. Divide the duties equitably. LifeWire provides original and syndicated content to Web publishers. Ron Dicker, a Brooklyn-based journalist, frequently writes about relationship topics. He previously covered sports for the New York Times.","highlights":"The stress of caring for an elderly parent can overwhelm a relationship .\nCouples may have unreasonable expectations of what they can or should do .\nMore than 44 million Americans care for an adult family member or friend .\nAlmost 80 percent of these are caring for someone older than 50 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Will Smith's Hancock wasn't the first superhero with bad habits and a bad attitude. Hellboy, the protagonist of \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army,\" has a bit of the devil in him: His skin is red; he has two shorn-off horns on his head, a gargantuan club fist and a long, slippery tail. Ron Perlman returns in the title role in \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army.\" He also has a down-to-earth side: a fondness for Cuban cigars, Mexican beer, TV and candy. He has a short fuse and he'd like a little appreciation for his efforts, please. He deserves it, too. This rank outsider isn't a billionaire like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark. He's not even a scientist like Bruce Banner. He's more of a working stiff, a slugger with a gruff manner and a stogie in the side of his mouth -- but he wants to bat for the right team. (According to writer-artist Mike Mignola, the character was inspired by his father, a cabinetmaker.) Hellboy -- or \"Red\" to his friends -- has switched studios since his 2004 big-screen debut, from Columbia to Universal. Not that it shows. Writer-director Guillermo del Toro is still pulling the strings, and the key creative personnel are all back, including Ron Perlman in the title role, Selma Blair as the pyrokinetic Liz (now Mrs. Hellboy), Doug Jones as the piscine Abe Sapien (the brains to Red's brawn), and -- behind the scenes -- cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, and art whizzes Stephen Scott and Peter Francis. Between them, they conjure up one hell of a creature feature. \"Hellboy II\" boasts a dazzling multitude of imaginary beings: the deceptively delicate tooth fairies (so called because they eat bone, with a fondness for teeth in particular); the elfin king whose antlers grow out of his head to form a crown; the plantlike forest god that collapses into a strangely beautiful floral mulch right under the Brooklyn Bridge; the magnificent Angel of Death, an old crone who unfurls her wings to reveal a sparkling set of eyes (an avian variation on the creepiest creation in the acclaimed \"Pan's Labyrinth,\" del Toro's last movie). Then there's the redoubtable Johann Kraus, an officious but in many ways admirable German who only exists as a vapor trail -- except when he's bottled up in an ingeniously modified, but still splendidly archaic, deep-sea diving suit. When a filmmaker can invest even a puff of smoke with so much chutzpah you know he's on to something. It's wonderful to see del Toro let his imagination run rampant like this. iReport.com: Did you see \"Hellboy II\"? Share your review . The plot concerns an ancient race that's determined to wage war on humanity, but it's secondary to del Toro's amazing characters. The Mexican director's first Hollywood movies (\"Mimic\" and \"Blade II\") were far less distinctive than his Spanish-language films: \"Cronos,\" \"The Devil's Backbone\" and \"Pan's Labyrinth.\" You couldn't really call \"Hellboy II\" an advance on the latter -- \"Pan's\" was nominated for six Oscars and won three -- but it's obvious he relishes this material. It's pulpy and hammy and unashamedly lowbrow, and del Toro has the confidence and power to make it his own. The film feels very free, loose and (unusually for a special-effects picture) improvisational. An outsize personality such as Perlman is in his element here. Even when the wisecracks fall short -- there are an awful lot of \"ass\" gags -- they are closer to the grubby, subversive impulses of the comic books than the over-hyped, market-tested, industrial-strength blockbuster adaptations Hollywood churns out. It's not for nothing that the central tension running through this movie is Red's anarchic streak, his sometimes irresponsible need to be his own man in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the \"X-Men\"-like institution where he works) and in his marriage. Scratch the surface, and this is a film about love and loyalty, figuring out where your deepest bonds lie. Highbrows may damn \"Hellboy II\" as a \"comic book movie,\" though even they would have to grant that its wonderful idiosyncrasies indicate brilliance. But it's more than that. Hellboy does so much growing up over the course of these 110 minutes, we may have to call him \"Hellman\" from now on. Let's hope Universal stays the course and gives us that opportunity. People as creative as del Toro and his gang need all the support we can give them. \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army\" is rated PG-13 and runs 110 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"CNN.com's Tom Charity: \"Hellboy II\" shows more Guillermo del Toro brilliance .\nRon Perlman is back as the cigar-chomping title character .\nPlot is secondary to amazing characters, including a vaporous mass ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The presidents of Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression agreement late Thursday, aiming to halt cross-border hostilities between the two African nations. Chad President Idriss Deby, right, and Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, left, shake hands after signing the pact. The signing came after nearly two full days of talks in Dakar, Senegal, between Sudan President Omar al-Beshir and Idriss Deby, the president of Chad. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade facilitated the talks, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with officials from both nations and witnessed the signing of the agreement at about 10 p.m. \"The idea is to get the governments of Sudan and Chad to normalize their relations with each other and to halt any action that would allow for the cross-border movement of rebel factions or armed factions of either side that could hurt the other country,\" said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq. Each country accuses the other of supporting armed rebel groups that cross the border to attempt to destabilize the government. The rival nations' armies have skirmished several times. The United Nations says refugees and armed groups have been regularly crossing the border between the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and Chad. They allegedly include many of the rebels that attacked N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, in early February. As recently as Thursday, just hours before the agreement was signed, Chad issued a communique saying rebels from Sudan had crossed the border. Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow Deby's regime. The United Nations says the swelling number of Darfur refugees and other displaced people living in eastern Chad is causing serious strain on the region. Kingsley Amaning, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Chad, said more than 10,000 people from Darfur, in Sudan, have fled into 12 official refugee camps in eastern Chad. They join some 240,000 Darfurians who have lived in Chad since 2004 because of fighting in their homeland and an estimated 180,000 displaced Chadians also living there. The number of displaced Chadians is growing because of the recent fighting there, Kingsley said. Haq said the United Nations, which has peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region, will work to assure Sudan and Chad carry out the terms of Thursday's deal. The countries have signed several peace agreements in the past, only to see renewed violence flare up. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sudan, Chad presidents sign agreement aiming to halt cross-border hostilities .\nSigning came after nearly two days of talks between presidents of Sudan and Chad .\nEach accuses other of supporting rebels that attempt to destabilize the government .\nJust hours before agreement, Chad claimed rebels from Sudan had crossed border ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Monstrosities, eyesores, nightmares of architecture -- call them what you like, ugly buildings are sadly all around us. Worst in Britain: The Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham was voted as the country's ugliest building. And you cannot simply define one category of hideous architecture. There is ugly, and then there is Ugly. The latter often open in controversial circumstances: There may be protests from local residents, and there can even be calls to knock them down. Yes, these are the world's ugliest buildings. From the divisive Millennium Dome (02 Arena) in London, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and the incomplete Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea -- we have compiled a gallery of ten of the world's ugliest buildings for your viewing displeasure. Although the buildings shown are scattered across the globe, they share several things in common. All of them had big budgets, most were attempts at creating contemporary or futuristic styling, and they have all divided opinion among local residents, architects, and the general public. \u2022 Click here to see photos of the world's ugliest buildings \u00bb . And these largely unpleasant buildings should not be treated as a joke. Sometimes the architecture can have a grave impact on the perception of a city or region. Birmingham, in the Midlands of the United Kingdom, for example, was recently voted the ugliest city in the country through a national poll. This came after the city's Bullring Shopping Centre and the Birmingham Central Library were named as the number one and two ugliest buildings in the country. And far from it being a case of the rest of the country bashing the area, in a local poll some 40 percent of local residents agreed that their city was home to the single ugliest building in the country. Do you have any ugly buildings you would like to name and shame? Let us know what you think of the buildings in our photo gallery and tell us some others that could make it by posting a comment in the Sound Off box below. We'll publish the best.","highlights":"The 02 Arena in London was the world's ugliest building on the Forbes list .\nBirmingham's Bullring shopping Center was voted as Britain's ugliest building .\nNorth Korea's Ryugyong Hotel has been criticized by many people ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Episcopal Church has moved decisively closer to full acceptance of gay men and lesbians, taking steps toward recognizing same-sex marriage and gay bishops. Gene Robinson is the Episcopal Church's first -- and so far only -- openly gay bishop. A key committee voted overwhelmingly Monday to start putting together blessings to be used in same-sex marriages, the church's official newspaper reported. Separately, the House of Bishops voted by a wide margin to allow gays and lesbians to become bishops, Episcopal Life reported. Both measures must be approved by the church's General Convention before taking effect, but expert Mark Silk said there is \"little reason\" to think the changes will not \"sail through.\" \"They basically decided to move forward on all fronts with regularizing the status of gays and lesbians within the church,\" said Silk, director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Connecticut. A leading campaigner for gay rights within the Episcopal Church welcomed the vote on bishops. \"There is no question that today's vote in the House of Bishops was an historic move forward and a great day for all who support the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ,\" said Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA. The vote shows the Episcopal Church \"striving to actually become the church former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning called us to be nearly 20 years ago now ... a church where there are no outcasts,\" she said in a statement on the group's Web site. The Episcopal Church created controversy in 2003 with its decision to ordain Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as a bishop. The move raised the possibility of a split within the worldwide Anglican Church, the third-largest Christian denomination, with about 70 million members around the world. The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, has not ordained another openly gay bishop since Robinson. \"The decision has been to kind of chill out on a bunch of things,\" Silk said. But Monday's vote ends what had been, in effect, a moratorium, he said. It was the Episcopal Church saying that \"this wasn't an anomaly when we elected Gene Robinson. We affirm that partnered gay people do have callings [to be clergy], and we have to recognize them.\" \"It is bringing the church's position in line with the civil society's,\" Silk said. The head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, declined Tuesday through a spokesman to comment on Monday's moves. But on Monday, he expressed \"regret\" at the vote on gay and lesbian bishops, according to Episcopal Life. \"I regret the fact that the will to observe a moratorium is not the will of such a significant part of the church in North America,\" the paper quoted him as saying. A number of Episcopal dioceses have broken with the official church structure over gay and lesbian issues, forming the breakaway Anglican Church in North America. They say the mainstream Episcopal Church and the aligned Anglican Church in Canada \"have increasingly accommodated and incorporated un-Biblical, un-Anglican practices and teaching.\"","highlights":"U.S. denomination takes steps to bless same-sex unions, accept gay clergy .\nChanges must be approved by church's General Convention .\nChurch sparked controversy in 2003 by ordaining a gay man as a bishop .\nArchbishop of Canterbury expresses regret over decision on clergy ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese leaders Monday mourned the death of Zhuo Lin, wife of former national leader Deng Xiaoping. Zhuo Lin, center, mourns at husband Deng Xiaoping's funeral in 1997. Zhuo, a former consultant of the Central Military Commission General Office, died July 29 at age 93 and was cremated Monday, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. She was \"an excellent Communist Party of China member and time-honored loyal communist fighter,\" the party said in a written statement. Zhuo stood by Deng through decades of what CNN once described as \"amazing comebacks\" from \"political purges.\" Though a committed Communist revolutionary, Deng also was a chief architect of some key reforms that reshaped China's economy. Zhuo met Deng in 1939 when they were young revolutionaries. She became his third wife and mother of his two sons and three daughters. When Deng rose to prominence as the most powerful leader of China, the family became China's \"first family.\" Zhuo and Deng remained together until his death in 1997. Part of their story includes time spent together in exile. In 1966, Deng proposed major reforms including free markets for farmers and incentive bonuses. He was quickly denounced as a \"capitalist roader,\" a Maoist term used for people embracing capitalist ideals. He was under house arrest for two years, paraded in a dunce cap through the streets of Beijing and forced to wait tables at a Communist Party school. In 1969, Deng, Zhuo and several of their children were exiled to Jiangxi province in southeastern China. Deng later said only a personal security team supplied by Chinese leader Mao Zedong protected him from being killed. As Xinhua reported, Zhuo was Deng's companion \"through thick and thin.\" When he ascended to power in 1978, Deng argued that \"poverty is not socialism\" and encouraged the creation of a market economy and capitalist-like enterprises. By the early 1990s his reforms had helped lift an estimated 170 million peasants out of extreme poverty. But he refused to abolish the power of the Communist Party over the lives of China's citizens. And he apparently approved the brutal suppression of unarmed demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. The remarkable ups and downs of Deng Xiaoping's long political career took a dramatic toll on Deng and Zhuo's children, CNN reported in 1999, \"leaving one son crippled from an attack during the Cultural Revolution but, in more recent years, enabling all five Deng heirs to succeed in business, government or the arts.\" The Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao in 1966 to purge reformists and return the country to his style of communism. Zhuo took on various roles in the Chinese government. In 1978, she was appointed a consultant of the Central Military Commission General Office, Xinhua reported. \"She served as a deputy to the fourth and fifth National People's Congress and was awarded the Independence Merit Medal from the People's Liberation Army in 1988,\" the news agency said. \"My father and mother did not just share a family, they shared political ideals and life pursuits,\" said Deng Rong, in a Xinhua report. According to Xinhua, several leaders and former statesmen attended Zhuo's cremation ceremony, including President Hu Jintao, former President Jiang Zemin, legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao. \"To complete the last trip with her beloved husband, Zhuo chose to have her ashes scattered at sea as her husband's were,\" Xinhua reported.","highlights":"Chinese Community Party calls her \"time-honored loyal communist fighter\"\nZhuo Lin, wife of Deng Xiaoping, died July 29 at the age of 93 .\nChild says mother, father \"shared political ideals and life pursuits\"\nNews agency: Zhuo wanted her ashes spread at sea, just as Deng's were ."} -{"article":"BAUCHI, Nigeria (CNN) -- The truck driver kept his hand on the horn, but resorted to shifting into first gear and used the full weight of his container truck to force his way through the over-crowded and narrow market street. In Nigeria, men burn broken computer equipment to collect reusable metals like copper. But the truck's rattling bulk, over-charged exhaust, and zealous horn only added extra rhythm to the cacophony of hawkers, hagglers, trucks and generators. This was just one of the many deliveries this morning for the big importers of Lagos's second-hand electronics Alaba market. \"A lot of people are interested in buying computer -- just to know what is going on in the world,\" explained Gabriel Okonkwo, as he watched his latest shipment arrive. The doors of his container were thrown open to reveal an Aladdin's cave of second-hand treasures -- computers, stereos, printers and televisions. All were quickly passed down to a mob of eager hands, where they are quickly sold to the local electronic stores. Nigeria is desperate for cheap electronic goods to try and bridge the digital divide with the West. Watch a report showing piles of e-waste in Nigeria \u00bb . It is estimated five hundred containers of second-hand electronics are imported to Nigeria every month. It is also estimated that three-quarters of these imported products are broken beyond repair. The figures come from a US-based Environmental group -- BASEL Action Network -- who warns that the broken electronics discarded at local dumpsites are a mounting environmental disaster. At one of the local dumpsites, young boys sift through the electronic waste looking for anything of worth. Cables and wires are burnt to get at re-usable metals like copper wire, a practice which releases toxic metals and chemicals harmful to the local population. \"If you don't control it, there will be serious contamination and exposure of large populations to heavy metals from e-waste. Because it's a huge volume of waste we're talking about. And it's spreading,\" explains Oladele Osibanjo, the director for BASEL Nigeria. The irony is that many of these electronics were discarded by their original owners in the West for recycling. But not all second-hand computers shipped to Nigeria end up on the dumpsites. Traveling to northern Nigeria, we visited the Iya Abubakar Resource Center's IT training course -- attended by students, businessmen, and women. The Centre imports computers, but from charities like Computer Aid in the UK, to ensure they are reliable. For Aisha Hussain, the Center's director, it would be a waste not to use the business and education opportunities provided by the second-hand computers. \"Once you empower someone you do not consider it as waste,\" she explained. \"You empower the person socially, financially -- that shouldn't be referred to as waste because you've given that person a life.\" The Nigerian government has ordered a crackdown on the importation of harmful and waste electronics, and is supporting plans to build a recycling plant in the region. Over-seeing the re-sale of his small mountain of televisions and computers, Gabriel Okonkwo is aware of the environmental problems but insists business must be taken into account. \"Both of them have to come hand-in-hand so we can live. If I don't do business I will die, and if the environment is bad I can die,\" he explained. \"So I have to do business in a way that will not affect the environment.\" CNN Business Traveller airs from Wednesday, April 8 at the times below: (ALL TIMES GMT) Wednesday, April 8: 0830, 1730 Saturday, April 10: 0730, 1800 Sunday, April 11: 0430, 1730 Monday, April 12: 0300 .","highlights":"E-waste imported from the West is sold in local electronics stores in Nigeria .\nMost of the imported hardware doesn't work and is abandoned at dumpsites .\nLocals endanger their health by burning cables, dismantling old equipment .\nComputer Aid distributes working computers to local villagers, businesses ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A thin girl with caramel skin and a yellow silk blouse walks alone through a barren landscape of rubble. Nway prepares for her new job, selling vegetables from her aunt's garden. Her legs are marked by cuts. Her face is smeared with white streaks of powder. And her eyes are blank as she sifts through the debris of what used to be her home before Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar one night and swept her parents away. Her name is Nway, and that's how she looked when aid workers found her after Nargis destroyed her isolated village. She refused to talk about the cyclone, pretending it never took place. She became, according to a CNN story, the \"girl who refuses to remember.\" A year later, an aid worker returned to the village to see how Nway was doing. She found Nway living in a tidy, bamboo house flanked by palm trees. The 8-year-old greeted her visitor with a big smile. Then she asked whether she could play with her visitor's hair. Pam Sitko, the aid worker, said Nway -- like thousands of people in Myanmar -- is slowly recovering one year after Nargis demolished their country. \"After all of her pain and loss, she really is a spunky girl,\" said Sitko, who works with World Vision International, a humanitarian group. \"She wasn't shy about reaching out to touch my blonde hair.\" The night everything changed . Nway's resilience is shared by many in Myanmar, aid workers say. Last year's cyclone was catastrophic. It killed at least 140,000 people and left at least 2 million people without homes, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. The brunt of the storm hit Myanmar's delta region, the country's bread basket. It wiped out crops, shrimp farms and fish ponds. A year later, many fields remain unplanted; supplies are short, and the lack of drinking water complicates recovery efforts, World Food Programme officials say. Yet some sense of normal life is returning, said Mia Marina, a program support manager for World Vision's Nargis response efforts. World Vision is building cyclone-resistant schools and providing supplies to cyclone survivors. \"Most of the people are going back to their livelihoods,\" Marina said. \"Kids are going to school. The markets are open.\" The people of Myanmar are also buying planting tools and seed in preparation for the monsoon rains that typically come in May, Sitko said. \"Everyone is hoping that this is the moment that it turns around,\" Sitko said. \"It's an exciting time, a time of hope.\" That hope appears to have spread to Nway. She is fortunate to be alive. The cyclone killed her mother and father. The winds were so powerful that they blew away the village buffalo. In Nway's village, 120 people out of a population of 430 people lost their lives. Nway survived because she was staying with her aunt. The pair joined a group squeezed in to the village headman's house to survive, Sitko said. Nway wouldn't talk about the cyclone after aid workers found her a month later. She would walk away whenever she was asked about that night. Now, according to Sitko, who wrote about her meeting for World Vision, Nway can talk a little about her loss. Sitko said Nway shared one memory from the morning after the cyclone while sitting in her aunt's house: . \"When I walked to my aunt's house that day, my legs were scratched, and I passed lots of dead bodies,\" Nway said. \"I wanted to help, because everyone was working, but I was too scared, so I only helped clean up my auntie's yard.\" Nway dreams of her future . Nway prefers to talk about other subjects. One is her new job. She helps her aunt sell vegetables from their garden. On most mornings, she smears white powder made from tree bark on her cheeks (it's used as a skin beautifier by women and children in Myanmar). Then she balances a tray of vegetables on her head and walks to a village road to call out to potential customers. Nway told Sitko that she's made \"four new best friends.\" They like to memorize new words and play hide and seek after school. \"I'm always the fastest runner,\" she told Sitko. Nway is starting to become aware of life outside her village. \"She was very proud,\" Sitko said. \"She explained that she had recently taken a trip to another village with her aunties, and she wasn't afraid.\" Nway doesn't know, though, where she would attend school as she gets older, Sitko said. She'll have to pay to attend school away from her village one day, but her aunt and uncle can't afford the costs. \"She wanted to study and said that she was smart,\" Sitko said. \"She said she would be willing to travel to a school outside of her village if she had to.\" Nway has already taken a more difficult journey. The shocked girl who aid workers met a year ago has changed, Sitko said. Now Nway can remember -- and smile again. \"I was expecting a very different girl,\" Sitko said. \"The little girl I met was very confident. I think she's been really transformed by our experience.\"","highlights":"Girl who survives Myanmar cyclone pretends it never happened .\nCyclone survivor becomes known as 'the girl who refuses to remember'\nAid worker returns to Myanmar a year later to see the girl .\n\"I was expecting a very different girl,\" worker says ."} -{"article":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York (CNN) -- Two years ago, Dawn Warfield was drowning in debt. Dawn Warfield sold one of her two video stores to help reduce her debts. The average American household has $8,329 in credit card debt, according to the Nilson Report, a credit industry newsletter. Warfield had nearly 10 times that amount. At its worst point, her debt totalled nearly $80,000. She had 17 credit cards and admits that living beyond her means was part of the problem. \"I'll own up to that,\" she said. \"There is always unforeseen expenses, and when you are making the minimum payments on these credit cards, when you think you can't afford to make more than that, they don't go down.\" But Warfield's spending was not the only factor working against her. Watch Warfield describe how the debt piled up, and how she started paying it off \u00bb . She was in the middle of an expensive divorce and had been charging business expenses to her personal credit cards when she opened a second location of her video store. \"Every month I was writing out 17 checks,\" she said. \"And the interest rates ranged from like 6 percent to 33 percent. So it was impossible. \"I was transferring balances from one card to another, and every time I got a card to a decent interest rate, I felt like one of the cards would come off the promotional interest rate, and I was just never catching up.\" So Warfield took matters into her own hands. She sold the second location of her video store, stopped using her credit cards and decided it was time to get help. \"I sat down one day and I called each credit card one by one, and I asked each one to work with me ... to lower my interest rate.\" The credit card companies did not respond to her plea. Instead, she was directed to the debt management program of the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service, part of Money Management International. Counselor Eric Jackson helped Warfield analyze her bills and expenses and created a plan to help her get lower interest rates. Now she makes a single monthly payment. \"I don't even have to think about it, which makes it a lot easier for me, because when you have a lot of debt, it's not just financial, but it's emotional, you know, even physical,\" Warfield said. \"You think about it all the time.\" Adds Jackson: \"She's making her payments on time, they're posting to her creditor accounts, she has very low interest rates -- that was one of the benefits -- and she's definitely doing well. \"She is on track to get all her debts paid off in full within the five years.\" Today, Warfield is less than $40,000 in debt. \"I'm about halfway,\" she said. \"It hasn't been easy, but we're getting there.\" Are you fighting the recession, using innovative techniques to stay ahead in this economy or overcoming financial adversity? Share your story with us by sending an e-mail to realstories@cnnmoney.com , and you could be profiled in an upcoming segment on CNN.","highlights":"Two years ago, Dawn Warfield had $80,000 in debt on 17 credit cards .\nThe video store owner was facing a divorce and expanding her business .\nShe also admits that living beyond her means was part of the problem .\nNonprofit counseling service is helping her get lower rates and pay off her debts ."} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- Great things to do and see, and memories (you can still make) of summer at the lake. With clear blue water and picturesque boulders, Sand Harbor is the place to swim in Lake Tahoe. The scene . Families dot the beaches, and boaters dominate the lake; traffic slows on State 89, and the Truckee River overflows with inner-tubers. Still, from North Lake to Emerald Bay, and South Lake to Incline Village, you'll find plenty of peace, quiet, and to-die-for beauty. Cruise the lake . Skip the stern-wheeler paddleboats packed with tourists for a wine-and-cheese sunset sail on the Tahoe Cruz. Departs daily from Tahoe City Marina in Tahoe City, California; $60; reservations required; tahoesail.com or 530\/583-6200. Walk on water . Stand-up paddleboarding is the latest craze. Give it a shot, or go for a sit-on-top kayak from Tahoe Paddle & Oar (paddleboard or kayak rental from $20 per hour; 8299 N. Lake Blvd.\/State 28, Kings Beach, California; tahoepaddle.com or 530\/581-3029). Sunset.com: Lake Tahoe landmarks . Jump in . Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park's Sand Harbor area is popular for its gentle turquoise coves and fine white sand. Get there before 10 a.m. to avoid the crowds. $8 per vehicle; on State 28, 3 miles south of Incline Village, NV; parks.nv.gov or 775\/831-0494. Skinny-dip . For a quiet swim, hike 0.5 mile to Secret Cove and Chimney Beach, where those who hate tan lines like to hang out. Trailhead is off State 28, 2 1\/2 miles south of Sand Harbor; 530\/543-2600. Wine and dine . Christy Hill serves a killer chile relleno with an equally killer lake view. (Closed Mon; 115 Grove St., Tahoe City, California; average entr\u00e9e price around $30; 530\/583-8551). The deck at Sunnyside Resort has a party scene and the best Hula Pie this side of Hawaii. (Most entr\u00e9es between $20 and $30; 1850 W. Lake Blvd.\/State 89, 2 miles south of Tahoe City, California; 530\/583-7200). Sunset.com: Make your own lake dinner menu . Hang with the locals . Built in 1859, Chambers Landing Bar and Restaurant is set at the end of a pier. Arrive by boat or car, but if you're the designated driver, steer clear of the Chambers Punch. Most entr\u00e9es $12 or less; 6400 W. Lake Blvd.\/State 89, Homewood, California; 530\/525-9190. Stay in a cabin . Carved wooden bears are everywhere at the woodsy Cottage Inn. From $158, including breakfast; just south of Tahoe City, California; 800\/581-4073. Sunset.com: The West's best national parks . Splurge on a room . Book a suite at the West Shore Cafe & Inn, then wait for a bald eagle to fly past your window. Rooms from $350; Homewood, California; 530\/525-5200. Pitch a tent . Easy swimming access and hot showers make for blissful family camping at D.L. Bliss State Park (from $25; reserveamerica.com or 800\/444-7275). For views, the best sites are 148, 149, 151, 153, and 156. If Bliss is full, try Nevada Beach Campground, on the east side (from $28; recreation.gov or 877\/444-6777). Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2009 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Consider a wine-and-cheese sunset sail on the Tahoe Cruz .\nTake a dip at Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park's Sand Harbor .\nTry the best Hula Pie this side of Hawaii at Sunnyside Resort ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush had a \"relaxed\" and \"friendly\" meeting with President-elect Barack Obama after he and first lady Laura Bush welcomed their successors to their future home Monday, a White House spokesman said. President Bush and Laura Bush welcome Barack and Michelle Obama to the White House on Monday. \"The president and the president-elect had a long meeting, described by the president as good, constructive, relaxed and friendly,\" White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. \"The president enjoyed his visit with the president-elect, and he again pledged a smooth transition to the next administration.\" Perino said the two discussed national and international issues but did not provide specifics of the conversation. Bush also gave Obama a tour of the White House's living quarters, including the Lincoln bedroom. Bush and Obama held a private meeting in the Oval Office, while the first lady gave incoming first lady Michelle Obama a tour of the residence. The president and president-elect walked together along the Colonnade by the Rose Garden before entering the Oval Office together. They briefly waved to reporters along the way. Obama and Bush were not expected to speak on camera after their meeting. The two met in the Oval Office for just over an hour. When President George H.W. Bush hosted President-elect Bill Clinton after the 1992 election, the two talked for nearly two hours. Monday's meeting was a historic formality, but it was also a time for serious talks. It marked the first time Obama has visited the Oval Office. Watch Bush welcome Obama to the White House \u00bb . Bush and Obama \"had a broad discussion about the importance of working together throughout the transition of government in light of the nation's many critical economic and security challenges,\" said Stephanie Cutter, spokeswoman for Obama's transition team. \"President-elect Obama thanked President Bush for his commitment to a smooth transition, and for his and first lady Laura Bush's gracious hospitality in welcoming the Obamas to the White House,\" Cutter said. A day earlier, a leader of Obama's transition team said the president and president-elect were expected to discuss \"a broad range of issues,\" focusing on the economy. \"It's clear that we need to stabilize the economy, to deal with the financial meltdown that's now spreading across the rest of the economy. The auto industry is really, really back on its heels,\" transition team leader John Podesta told CNN's \"Late Edition\" on Sunday. Podesta said Obama will push Congress to enact \"at least part\" of an economic package before he takes office in January, but said the problems Americans face need short- and long-term approaches. The president and president-elect also were expected to talk about national security and the war in Iraq. Go inside the Oval Office . Despite the negative tone of the campaign season -- in which Obama frequently campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\" -- Bush has pledged to do everything he can to make sure they have a smooth transition. iReport.com: What's your message for Obama? \"When I called President-elect Obama to congratulate him on his historic victory, I told him that he can count on my complete cooperation as he makes his transition to the White House. Ensuring that this transition is seamless is a top priority for the rest of my time in office,\" Bush said in his radio address this weekend. Podesta said cooperation with Bush administration officials has been \"excellent\" since Tuesday's election. Watch more on the transition to power \u00bb . Obama said he was \"gratified by the invitation\" to meet with the president and his wife. \"I'm sure that, in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there's going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president,\" he said at a news conference Friday. \"I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done,\" he said. Given their drastically different views on foreign policy, Mark Preston, CNN's deputy political editor, predicted an \"uncomfortable meeting at best.\" Watch CNN's Mark Preston talk about the meeting \u00bb . \"Let's not forget that Barack Obama ran against President Bush every day when he was taking on John McCain. While they will be cordial, I bet you it will be uncomfortable,\" Preston said. As the president and president-elect met in the Oval Office, Perino gave Robert Gibbs a tour of the White House press office. Gibbs was the communications director for Obama's presidential campaign. He has not officially been named the incoming press secretary, but he is widely considered the top contender for the position. Cutter said that after Laura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour of the residence, the first lady and her successor discussed raising daughters in the White House. \"Mrs. Obama was honored to finally meet the first lady, who was a gracious hostess,\" Cutter said.","highlights":"NEW: President Bush calls meeting with President-elect Obama \"constructive\"\nLaura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour while president, Obama met .\nBush and president-elect were expected to discuss \"broad range of issues\"\nObama campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\""} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani troops have been moved to the Indian border amid fears of an Indian ground incursion, two Pakistani military officials told CNN on Friday. File image of a Pakistani soldier . The troops were deployed from Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, where forces have been battling Taliban and al Qaeda militants in North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Pakistan's armed forces have been on high alert in anticipation of a possible conflict with India following last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which killed 160 people. India believes the 10 men who carried out the attacks were trained at a terrorist camp in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. A senior official said the troops had been moved from areas where there are no active military operations, and emphasized that troop levels have not been depleted in areas where soldiers are battling militants, such as the Swat Valley and near Peshawar, capital of the North West region. In addition to the move, leave for all military personnel has been restricted and all troops were called back to active duty, the senior official said. Asked for a reaction to the development, Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the United States, said, \"Pakistan does not seek war, but we need to be vigilant against threats of war emanating from the other side of our eastern border.\" He said Pakistan's conduct since the Mumbai attack \"has been consistent with international expectations. There is no justification for threats against Pakistan.\" \"Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and will continue to act against terrorists,\" he added. \"We are a country of rule of law and need evidence to prosecute anyone for the crime of terrorism.\" U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States has been \"in close contact\" with India and Pakistan in probing the Mumbai attack and fighting terror. He is hoping that \"both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times.\" In London, England, Pakistani envoy to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan countered the report, noting that winter redeployments are normal and that only police and not the army had their vacation canceled. While he criticized India's \"coercive diplomacy\" and regretted India's \"war hysteria,\" he underscored the fact that the two countries don't want to go to war. Tensions increased between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan following the November 26 attacks in Mumbai, where militants launched a coordinated strike against luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other targets. India has criticized Islamabad for not doing enough to counter terrorism, and it has accused elements within the Pakistan government and military of complicity in fueling terrorism in the region. On Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned India to refrain from launching any strikes against Pakistan, according to a report in The Nation newspaper. Another unnamed Pakistani military official told CNN that the Pakistani military has been taking precautionary measures to safeguard borders in the face of mounting military threats from India over the Mumbai attacks. \"Naturally, you have to take certain steps to stem that expected tide of Indian operations,\" he said, \"You can't fight on both fronts so we have redeployed certain military elements from the western border to the northern border to meet Indian operations.\" The official said that while Pakistan has tolerated U.S. missile strikes from Afghanistan into Pakistan, he believes the government and public would not stand for an Indian incursion. In the Indian capital of New Delhi on Friday, three military chiefs briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the security situation. An Indian officer said Indian soldiers have spotted Pakistani troop movements along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The Line of Control divides the disputed region between the area controlled by India and the area administered by Pakistan. Indian defense spokesman Sitanshu Kar said India isn't carrying out a troop buildup along its western borders but \"is monitoring the situation closely.\" He also said he is \"not aware\" of military reports about Pakistani troop mobilization along the Indian border. \"But we are keeping a vigil,\" Kar said. Since the division of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- now wracked by an 18-year, bloody separatist campaign that authorities say has left at least 43,000 dead. There also was a limited border conflict in 1999 between the countries in Kashmir. CNN's Sara Sidner, Mukhtar Ahmad, Nic Robertson and Harmeet Singh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan has moved troops to border with India amid rising tensions, officials say .\nPakistan forces on high alert after terror attacks last month in Mumbai .\nIndian defense spokesman: India \"is monitoring the situation closely\"\nThe two countries have fought three wars since 1947 ."} -{"article":"People with a gene variant that sharply increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease in old age may show memory impairment earlier than thought -- sometimes well before their 60th birthday, according to new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. A variant of the APOE gene indicates whether a person has a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Between 20 and 35 percent of Americans have one or two copies of this gene variant, inherited from one or both parents. People with one copy of the variant, called apolipoprotein E-e4 (APOE e4), have a 29 percent lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, while people who don't have it have a 9 percent risk. People with two copies of APOE e4 have an even higher Alzheimer's risk, but it's hard to define the exact percentage as only 2 percent of the population falls into this category. Despite the gene-related health problems, another study in the same issue of the journal suggests that people who learn they do have APOE e4 seem to handle the information pretty well. But the researchers excluded people with anxiety or depression, and they followed people for just a year. Therefore, the results don't tell the whole story about what it would be like for most people to find out whether they carried the APOE e4 gene. Nevertheless, the findings are an important first step, said Dr. Kenneth Kosik, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California Santa Barbara and the codirector of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute. \"I think it opens the door to ask the deeper questions,\" said Kosik, referring to the possible consequences for individuals and society if widespread APOE testing were introduced. (Kosik was not involved with either study.) If people do find out they have the APOE e4 gene, Kosik added, the new memory study could make the news harder to bear. Dr. Richard J. Caselli, of the Mayo Clinic Arizona, in Scottsdale, and his colleagues followed 815 people ages 21 to 97 with normal mental function, including 317 who had at least one copy of the APOE e4 gene. On one test of a person's ability to learn and remember (the Auditory-Verbal Learning Test) gene carriers showed declines in their scores beginning in their 50s. For people without the APOE e4 gene, this decline started in their 70s. \"We're not talking anymore about a retired population; we're talking about people who will be in the midst of their career,\" Caselli said. He added that many would be in positions of responsibility in which they need to have all their wits about them -- and they may not. Health.com: Eat smarter in your 30s, 40s, and 50s . \"[The study] forces us to really think about the brave new world of genetics,\" and how this information might be used, Kosik said. Although there had been a \"clear line\" between having the APOE e4 gene but being dementia-free and having Alzheimer's disease, that distinction isn't as clear anymore, he explained. For someone who discovers he or she has the APOE e4 gene, Caselli said, \"The only advice I have is, 'Don't panic.'\" Right now, APOE gene testing is only recommended for people with mild problems with mental function or dementia; for people with no symptoms, it should only be done in a research setting, experts said. Nevertheless, labs have sprung up that will offer the \"worried well\" an APOE gene test for a fee. Having APOE testing without adequate medical, psychological, or genetic counseling is \"inappropriate,\" said Dr. Hyman Schipper, a professor of neurology and medicine at McGill University, and the director of the Centre for Neurotranslational Research at SMBD--Jewish General Hospital, both in Montreal. In these situations, Schipper explained people may not interpret the results correctly, and could run the risk of psychological harm. For example, people who find out they carry the gene for Huntington's disease -- which means they have a 100 percent chance of developing a devastating neurodegenerative condition if they live long enough -- do indeed experience anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts, Schipper noted. Health.com: Fight aging -- the real secrets to staying young . In the second study, Dr. Robert C. Green of the Boston University School of Medicine, and his colleagues in the REVEAL Study Group set out to look at whether something similar would happen to people who found out they carried the Alzheimer's gene. They assigned 162 symptom-free people at random to a group who would receive their APOE genotyping results and a group who would not be told their results, and then checked their level of anxiety and depression -- as well as stress related to the gene test -- six weeks, six months, and one year after they got the news (or didn't). All of the study participants had a parent with Alzheimer's disease, but none of them had any signs of mental impairment or dementia. People who found out they didn't carry the gene variant were less stressed about the test than those who found out they did carry the gene. Green and his team also found that the higher a person scored on initial tests of anxiety and depression symptoms, the more likely he or she was to be anxious or depressed after finding out about the gene, although the researchers had excluded people with severe anxiety or depression from the study. However, there were no differences between the groups that were told the news and those who were not. The fact that people in the study agreed to be randomly assigned to get their APOE results suggests they \"are not representative of those who have a strong perceived need to know or need not to know,\" Rosalie A. Kane and Dr. Robert L. Kane of the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, wrote in an editorial published with the studies. The study also considered only the psychological impact of the news, they say. Some people might make major life decisions based on the news, such as deciding to hoard their money or spend it all. In addition, employers and health insurers are banned from discriminating against someone based on their genes, but companies offering long-term-care insurance, disability insurance, and life insurance are allowed to take this information into account. Health.com: How to get your way with body language . One major reason why learning APOE e4 status could be so stressful is that there's no clear way to reduce Alzheimer's risk. But there could be soon, some experts say. \"We don't know yet how by doing interventions whether or not we can beat the APOE gene or at least diminish its effects,\" said Kosik. \"We do know that the likelihood of getting Alzheimer's disease is very much affected by people's exercise level, their blood pressure, their cholesterol levels, perhaps their diet, and the degree to which they engage in cognitive challenges. All of those things have data, some stronger than others, that you can have some effect on your likelihood of getting Alzheimer's.\" But, Caselli points out that trying to encourage people to exercise in order to prevent heart disease, for example, has been far from successful, and getting people to be active to ward off Alzheimer's may be equally difficult. Health.com: Heartburn or heart attack? How to tell the difference . Maybe, however, the thought of losing our minds is a bit more motivating than the idea of heart disease. \"There is some recent evidence to suggest, in fact, that personal knowledge of APOE status and general AD risk profile may spur healthy midlife adults to adopt or modify behaviors that might protect against the disease,\" Schipper said. Health.com: 10 Risk factors for heart disease . Apolipoprotein is a cholesterol-carrying molecule, and the gene that makes the protein comes in three slightly different versions -- e2, e3, and e4 (there's no e1). In addition to increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease, APOE e4 is also associated with a greater risk of heart disease. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Having one copy of gene variant, APOE e4, means 29 percent risk of Alzheimer's .\nPeople with APOE e4 gene variant showed declines beginning in their 50s .\nAPOE gene testing is only recommended for people with mild mental functions ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who faked his drowning death nearly 20 years ago off a Florida beach was found out by North Carolina police who stopped him for a traffic violation, authorities said Thursday. Bennie Wint told police he faked his drowning death in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1989. Bennie Wint left behind a grieving fiancee and a daughter from a previous marriage. Over the past two decades, he acquired a common-law wife and another child in Marshall, North Carolina. Wint told police he faked his death in Daytona Beach, Florida, because he was \"paranoid\" about his narcotics-related activity at the time, Weaverville, North Carolina, police Sgt. Stacy Wyatt told CNN. When pulled over in Weaverville on Saturday because of malfunctioning lights on his license plate, the man said his name was James Sweet, Wyatt said. But when Wyatt ran the name through official databases, he was unable to find any information. \"I found it suspicious and believed it to be a false name,\" Wyatt said. He arrested the man on suspicion of driving without a license and giving false information, both misdemeanor offenses, and booked him under the name \"John Doe.\" But \"John Doe\" finally opened up to Wyatt, admitting he was really Bennie Wint and had been on the run since 1989. Watch how reports of his death were premature \u00bb . Wint returned a call Thursday from CNN and asked what an interview with him would be \"worth to you.\" Told that CNN does not pay for interviews, he responded, \"Unless you want to pay for it, don't come up here. You are wasting your time. There are 'no trespassing' signs on my property.\" He then hung up. According to police reports, Wint was on a trip to Daytona Beach with his then-fiancee, Patricia Hollingsworth. She told police they were engaged and had discussed getting married while on the trip. But it was not to be. On September 25, 1989, Hollingsworth told beach patrol officials that Wint disappeared while swimming. \"We spent a bunch of time looking for him,\" said Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn, who was on the beach patrol at the time, although he did not respond to the call. \"We used helicopters, boats and boatloads of lifeguards.\" Hollingsworth, then 37, told officials Wint entered the ocean about 4 p.m. and swam past the breakers before she lost sight of him, according to the incident report. The report notes Hollingsworth was \"very upset\" and that after contacting officials, she \"began to run north and south in the area,\" looking for Wint. Members of the beach patrol, however, thought the supposed drowning was suspicious. \"It is very rare to drown offshore and not wash back in onto the shore,\" Petersohn said. In addition, he said, the lifeguard on the beach told officials he did not see anyone swimming in the area. Wyatt submitted Wint's fingerprints to the FBI for identification and, while waiting for the results, searched the Internet for information on a Bennie Wint. \"I found a daughter that was looking for him,\" Wyatt said. The woman posted information about her father in 2007, saying he went missing under suspicious circumstances. Wyatt contacted the now-23-year-old woman, who said she was 4 when her father disappeared. Wint has been released from jail and has not been charged in relation to the 1989 incident. It was not known whether he contacted his daughter. Wyatt said Wint now has a common-law wife, a child and a business selling NASCAR items. The night he was arrested, Wyatt said, his wife was \"distraught\" upon learning his true identity. Wyatt said Wint told him he was involved in narcotics in the 1970s and '80s, and \"he ran out of paranoia, thinking people were out to get him.\" He said he went from Daytona Beach to Ozark, Alabama. CNN's attempts to contact Hollingsworth were unsuccessful, and it was unclear whether she knows Wint is alive. Petersohn said he is attempting to find the lifeguard on duty at Daytona Beach the day Wint disappeared to tell him the truth about the supposed drowning. \"For 20 years, that man that works for us thinks he might have missed something in the ocean,\" Petersohn said. \"I'm glad the guy's alive. I really am. ... It's unfortunate the way it went down at the time, people looking for a body that wasn't out there.\"","highlights":"North Carolina officer didn't believe man's story during traffic stop .\nHe couldn't find name man that gave in police database .\nEventually, \"James Sweet\" confessed he was Bennie Wint .\nWint was reported missing off Daytona Beach, Florida, in September 1989 ."} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Toss that basic black and indulge in a fashion fantasy this year. We asked the four gorgeous stars of ABC's new TV show \"Cashmere Mafia\" to take part in a little experiment: If you could slip into a different guise for a day, what would it be? Frances O'Connor in Zac Posen silk gown, Jos\u00e9 and Mar\u00eda Barrera rhodium-plated earrings with Austrian crystals. Frances O'Connor glams it up . Understated when it comes to her own style and buttoned up in banker stripes as Zoe on Cashmere Mafia, Frances O'Connor, 40, has been hankering for an infusion of pure glamour. \"I love the idea of wearing a dress that's a work of art in itself,\" says the actress, who slipped easily into a red-carpet fantasy with a mouthwatering cherry-hued gown by Zac Posen. O'Connor's \"safety first\" approach to fashion means living mostly in simple Marc Jacobs pieces, but it's a sensibility that doesn't offer much in the way of frippery -- which suits her just fine. \"I don't like to stand out too much,\" says the willowy Anglo-Aussie beauty. Still, Posen's fluttering cascades of silk offer both a role reversal and a respite. \"A fantasy has to move you to feel like a different person,\" she says. \"That's fun for a day. Then I like to put my jeans back on and go home.\" Lucy Liu relives the forties . Few decades enthrall Lucy Liu like the 1940s. \"I like the idea of updating a traditional silhouette from that era in a fresh way,\" says Liu, whose character, Mia, reigns over a New York publishing fiefdom in power looks by Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Rachel Roy. Despite its abstract floral print, the ruffled organza dress by Christian Lacroix would seem right at home on the cover of a World War II-period glossy, yet Liu imbues it with a distinctly modern verve. \"There was something really elegant and erotic about women back then, with their girdles and cinched-in waists,\" she says. On the set the 39-year-old star relishes watching costume designer Patricia Field work her sartorial sorcery with a swirl of offbeat textures and trimmings. \"The other day my character was wearing a gold lam\u00e9 striped dress with a coffee-hued belt, black leggings and green earrings. It's contagious,\" says Liu, who finds herself mixing -- and not matching -- more freely these days. Miranda Otto indulges in gems . Famous for playing a Middle Earth maiden in the Lord of the Rings movies, Aussie actress Miranda Otto found herself dressing a little like one offscreen too, in muted, ethereal garb. But her arctic complexion and fiery tresses are the perfect canvas on which to throw splashes of drama. \"Shooting Cashmere Mafia [the 40-year-old beauty plays steely hotelier Juliet] has made me lust for accessories,\" she says. Presto: Otto is resplendent in scads of jewelry. \"Wearing stacks of the stuff makes it more interesting,\" she adds. There's just one catch to donning such beguiling accents: \"My 2-year-old daughter, Darcey, wants everything.\" Bonnie Somerville goes for fifties bombshell . Bonnie Somerville longs for the bygone days when women were perennially polished. \"In the fifties you'd never leave the house without your hair done, your face on, and a nice dress. Me, I have my staple uniform of jeans, tank tops and flats.\" To resolve her clothing ennui, the actress chose a dazzling yellow Lela Rose number that is equal parts Bond Girl and Palm Beach socialite. \"It's something I never thought I could wear for daytime,\" says the Brooklyn, New York-bred singer and actress who plays Cashmere's trendy cosmetics exec, Caitlin. A skinny metallic belt gives the look more of a now vibe. \"On the show, with everything we wear, Patricia Field says, 'Put a belt on it!'\" says Somerville, 33. \"Now I'm buying belts in my real life, which I never did before.\" E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Each actress in \"Cashmere Mafia\" has own style .\nLucy Liu likes 1940's silhouettes .\nMiranda Otto wears scads of jewelry .\nBonnie Somerville is wearing belts on and off screen ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- New Haven, Connecticut, firefighter Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in perhaps the most controversial case involving Judge Sonia Sotomayor, said Thursday that Sotomayor's rejection of his reverse discrimination claim had undermined the concept of a merit-based civil service system. New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci sued after the city threw out results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam. Ricci was one of a group of 20 mostly white firefighters who sued the city of New Haven after it threw out the results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, including Sotomayor, backed the city in the 2008 case Ricci v. DeStefano. The ruling of the Circuit Court was overturned in June by a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The \"belief that citizens should be reduced to racial statistics is flawed,\" Ricci told the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. \"It only divides people who don't wish to be divided along racial lines. The very reason we have civil service rules is to root out politics, discrimination and nepotism. Our case demonstrates that these ills will exist if the rules of merit and the law are not followed.\" Watch firefighters testify \u00bb . Ricci also criticized Sotomayor's 2nd Circuit for disposing of the case in an \"unsigned, unpublished summary order that consisted of a single paragraph.\" Sotomayor was not present when Ricci spoke. She left the session after concluding her remarks earlier Thursday. Sotomayor argued before committee members Tuesday that her ruling in the Ricci case was decided on the basis of \"a very thorough, 78-page decision by the district court\" and followed an established precedent. \"This was not a quota case or (an) affirmative action case,\" she said. The case was a challenge to a firefighter test that had a wide range of difference between the pass and failure rate of different groups. The city of New Haven, she noted, was at risk of being sued by employees who could show they were \"disparately impacted\" by the test. New Haven city officials, after a number of days of hearings, decided they wouldn't certify the test but would instead attempt to develop a test of equal value in measuring a candidate's qualifications without having a disparate impact, she said. The question before the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor said, was whether the city's decision was based on race or its understanding of what the law required it to do. The Circuit Court ruled that it was based on the latter. Based on established legal precedent, the 2nd Circuit decided that the city's decision was proper under established law. The Supreme Court, however, applied a new standard, she said, based on a different area of law. If she were ruling on that case today, she said, she would be bound by the new standards set by the Supreme Court. Ricci was one of several witnesses who testified both for and against Sotomayor. Linda Chavez, head of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, which opposes affirmative action, argued that \"it is clear\" from Sotomayor's record \"that she has drunk deep from the well of identity politics.\" It is impossible for Sotomayor to be a fair judge when she has \"shown a willingness to let her policy preferences guide her,\" Chavez said. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel testified on Sotomayor's behalf, arguing that her opinion in the Ricci case was, in fact, an example of judicial restraint. It followed a string of legal precedents dating back almost three decades, he said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also testified in favor of Sotomayor, telling committee members that she is an \"independent jurist\" with a \"sharp and agile mind\" who would bring \"a wealth of unique experience\" to the high court.","highlights":"Frank Ricci one of 20 firefighters who claimed reverse discrimination in promotions .\nPlaintiff: Decision undermined concept of a merit-based civil service system .\nSotomayor: Ruling was based on \"a very thorough\" decision by the district court .\nNew York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, others spoke in favor of judge's confirmation ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country. Be warned, this mission includes very real dangers such as hardening arteries and skyrocketing cholesterol. We've compiled a list to get you started. 1. If you're at Starbucks and in need of just a little caffeine, don't worry -- there's a tiny option for you. It's the Short size, and they don't advertise it. It's like a little baby cup of coffee. It also comes in handy when you're scrounging for change and don't have enough for a tall (not that that has ever happened to me). 2. It's a good thing we don't have Jamba Juice here in Iowa, because I would be all over candy-based smoothies. Because it's considered a health-food chain, Jamba Juice doesn't officially list these on their in-store menus, but the Web site Mighty Foods assures us that the secret flavors exist. The ones they confirmed with the company's headquarters include Strawberry Shortcake, White Gummy Bear, PB&J, Various flavors of Starbursts, Fruity Pebbles, Push-Up Pops, and Skittles. Other tantalizing flavors that are rumored to exist: Chocolate Gummi Bear, Apple Pie, Sourpatch Kid, Tootsie Roll, and Now and Later. 3. This one might be my favorite. At Fatburger, you can order a Hypocrite -- a veggie burger topped with crispy strips of bacon. 4. Chipotle has a whole secret menu that is limited only by your imagination -- they have a store policy that says that if they have the item available, they will make it for you. Things that have been tested include nachos, quesadillas, taco salads and single tacos. Some stores are testing out quesadillas as a regular menu item, however, so maybe someday soon you won't need a super-secret handshake to order one. Mental Floss: 7 food promotions gone horribly wrong . 5. If you're at Wendy's and you're really hungry -- like, three-patties-just-won't-cut-it hungry -- go ahead and order the Grand Slam, which is four patties stacked on a bun. This option is only available at select Wendy's, and it's also known as the Meat Cube. 6. Several places, including McDonald's and In-N-Out, will serve you the Neapolitan milkshake. It's just what it sounds like -- chocolate, vanilla and strawberry shakes layered in a cup. 7. In-N-Out Burger's \"secret menu\" isn't so secret these days -- in fact, they've posted it on their Web site. But in case you're not in the habit of surfing fast food Web sites, here's the skinny on their rather un-skinny items: ordering something \"Animal Style\" at In-N-Out means you're going to get it with lettuce, tomato, a mustard-cooked beef patty, pickles, extra spread (it's sort of Thousand-Islandy) and grilled onions. You can even get your fries Animal Style. Mental Floss: Why is it called \"Thousand Island\" dressing? \"Protein Style\" is a burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun. A Grilled Cheese is two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato and spread on a bun (grilled onions if you so choose). And you can get just about any combo of meat and cheese that you want if you order it like you're ordering lumber: 3\u00d73 gets you three beef patties and three slices of cheese, 4\u00d74 gets you four of each, and so on. According to photos posted at SuperSizedMeals.com, one gluttonous patron requested and received a 100x100 at a Las Vegas store a few years ago. One item not listed on the Web site secret menu: the Flying Dutchman, which is two slices of cheese sandwiched between two patties, hold the bun. 8. Feeling a little health-conscious at Popeye's? If you are, you really should have gone somewhere else. But there's a little hope for you -- ordering \"naked chicken\" will get you breading-free poultry. The word is that this is on the menu at some Popeye's, but not all of them, although it is an option at all of them. 9. Like Chipotle, Taco Bell will make you just about anything within reason as long as they have the ingredients for it. Since most of the food at Taco Bell is made out of the same basic items, that means you can probably ask for most discontinued items and get them. One \"secret,\" though, is that they have a not-advertised green chili sauce at most locations, and apparently it's excellent. 10. Some Subways will still make you the popular pizza sub from the 1990s. Once the chain decided to make their focus healthy eating, the pizza sub disappeared from the menu in most places (the word is that Canadian and Mexican Subways still offer them on a regular basis). But if you ask, lots of places will still make it for you. Be warned, though -- Jared would not approve of the nine slices of pepperoni and copious amounts of cheese slathered in marinara sauce. Mental Floss: Brief history of dubious dieting . For more mental_floss articles, visit MENTALFLOSS.COM . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some fast food outlets have not-on-menu items you can get if you ask for them .\nFatburger's Hypocrite is bacon-topped veggie burger; Popeye's offers naked chicken .\nSome Subways will still make the popular pizza sub from the 1990s .\nWendy's offers the Meat Cube; McDonald's has a Neapolitan milkshake ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The woman allegedly assaulted by singer Chris Brown in Hollywood early Sunday was his girlfriend, singer Rihanna, according to sources close to the couple. Chris Brown attends a party saluting music producer Clive Davis in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday. While Los Angeles Police have a policy against identifying alleged domestic violence victims, two people who know both Brown and Rihanna confirmed she was the woman police said had \"suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker.\" Brown, 19, turned himself in to police Sunday night after police said they were looking for him. He was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. Brown was later released on a $50,000 bond and given a March 5 court date. \"Detectives investigating the alleged domestic violence felony battery booked him for criminal threats,\" a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department said. \"At the time the case is presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, additional charges may be filed.\" Brown, nominated for two Grammy Awards, was scheduled to perform at the show. His girlfriend, singer Rihanna, abruptly canceled her planned Grammys performance, but neither her spokesman nor the show organizers gave a reason. \"Rihanna is well,\" her spokesman said in a written statement. \"Thank you for concern and support.\" Watch the latest developments in the case \u00bb . Brown, 19, and Rihanna, 20, were seen together Saturday night at a pre-Grammys dinner at the Beverly Hills Hilton, about five miles from where police said the alleged incident happened at 12:30 a.m. Sunday. The police statement said Brown and a woman were in a vehicle near Hollywood's Hancock Park when \"they became involved in an argument.\" \"After stopping his car, Brown and the woman got out and the argument escalated,\" police said. After receiving a 911 call at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found the woman at the scene of the alleged fight, but Brown had left, the department said. Investigators were treating the incident as a possible felony battery case, police said. Executives with Brown's record label at the Grammy Awards told CNN they knew nothing about the incident and declined further comment. Brown was nominated for two Grammys this year, including in the best male R&B vocal performance category for his song \"Take You Down.\" He also shares a best pop collaboration with vocals nomination with Jordin Sparks for \"No Air.\" The introduction to the CBS broadcast of the Grammys, apparently pretaped, listed both Brown and Rihanna as performers.","highlights":"Brown has been arrested in connection with a domestic violence incident .\nPolice: Brown turned himself in after woman accused him of attacking her .\nBrown a no-show at Grammy Awards, where he was to perform Sunday .\nPolice haven't named woman; Brown's girlfriend, Rihanna, cancels performance ."} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- United Nations-backed nuclear inspectors on Sunday visited a newly disclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Qom, Iranian media has reported. \"IAEA inspectors today visited the... nuclear installation,\" the semi-official Mehr news agency said, referring to International Atomic Energy Agency staff. \"The IAEA inspectors arrived Saturday night and are scheduled to inspect the... site several times. The inspectors will leave Tehran Tuesday.\" Tehran sent shock waves through the international community in September by revealing the existence of the previously secret nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. The IAEA announced Saturday its inspectors were leaving for the much-anticipated inspection. The agency declined to give more details on Sunday. \"It is our policy not to comment on the itinerary of our inspectors,\" a spokesman for the U.N. nuclear watchdog told CNN. The inspectors will visit the installation to make sure it is being used for peaceful purposes, said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The inspection comes after Iran said Friday that it needs more time to decide whether to sign onto a deal that could help end the international showdown over its nuclear activities. That proposal calls for low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to be sent abroad for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is \"considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs until the middle of next week to provide a response,\" according to an IAEA statement. Delegations from Iran, France, Russia, the United States and the IAEA met in Vienna this week to work out details of the tentative deal reached in early October. France, Russia and the United States have indicated their approval of the arrangement. \"The Director General hopes that Iran's response will equally be positive, since approval of this agreement will signal a new era of cooperation,\" the IAEA statement said. After the current inspection, but before the end of the month, Iranian officials are expected to meet with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany to further discuss Tehran's nuclear program. Iran's leaders maintain that their nation's nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes, but many in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities. Low-enriched nuclear fuel can be further enriched into weapons-grade material. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"The IAEA announced Saturday its inspectors were leaving for the inspection .\nIran said Friday it needs more time to decide whether to sign onto a nuclear deal .\nIran says its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes .\nMany in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jordan Lorence is senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization of Christian attorneys. He has litigated religious liberty and free speech cases since 1984, including the Southworth case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999, involving mandatory student fees at public universities, and a 2004 case that resulted in a California Supreme Court ruling that marriage licenses issued by San Francisco to same-sex couples were invalid. Jordan Lorence says Rick Warren's views on marriage shouldn't bar him from Barack Obama's inauguration. SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (CNN) -- Proponents of redefining marriage couldn't wait for the new president to be sworn in before demanding that he erase from the inauguration ceremony a prominent American who disagrees with them. The target of their rhetorical bombardment is Rick Warren, the popular Christian pastor from Southern California. President-elect Barack Obama has asked Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. Not so fast, cries Kathryn Kolbert, head of People for the American Way, an organization that claims to advance equality and freedom of speech and religion (but not for Rick Warren and those who agree with his marriage views) in a piece published on CNN.com. Warren's grave sin? Along with 52 percent of California voters, he supported California's Proposition 8, which affirmed the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. What a radical! Though Warren will only be praying for the country's future (not giving a speech about marriage), Kolbert and others are pressuring Obama to set a precedent for his administration of publicly shunning someone who supports the traditional definition of marriage. They want people like Warren silenced and ostracized for their \"hate speech,\" defined today as disagreeing with their agenda to impose a redefinition of marriage on an unwilling America. Obama, to his credit, has resisted their strident demands. The attacks on Warren are the latest in a series of coercive, intimidating attacks on supporters of traditional marriage. Now, activists have ramped up their strong-arm tactics by pushing the president-elect to ban Warren from appearing at the inauguration. This is amazingly audacious, in light of the fact that on marriage, the overwhelming majority of Americans and, indeed, humanity, agrees with Warren. Americans have voted to preserve marriage in all 30 states where it has been on the ballot by an average vote of more than 65 percent. The collective experience and wisdom of every major civilization from the dawn of time agrees that societies function best and children are best protected when marriage is defined as between one man and one woman. Warren and those who agree with him want all nations to experience these benefits of marriage when it is rightly defined and consistently practiced. Ironically, Obama has repeatedly stated that he agrees \"that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.\" Does Kolbert question his fitness to serve as president in light of his allegedly \"bigoted\" views on marriage? Kolbert brazenly denies that she and other activists desire to silence pastors like Warren because of their marriage views. She is indignant that Warren and others spread the \"big lie\" that redefining marriage would threaten the freedom of speech and religious liberties of those who hold the view shared by the vast majority of Americans. Her argument is disarming in its pure duplicity. Part of Kolbert's case against Warren, who she thinks should not be speaking at such an important public ceremony, is that he believes that folks like her are working to ban people like him from speaking at public ceremonies. Thus, the \"big lie\" becomes an obvious truth. This is really all about ideological purity -- and purging. Are the activists proposing that no one should be permitted to speak at the inauguration if they hold beliefs on marriage contrary to hers and her ideological bedfellows? How can publicly snubbing the influential and respected Warren advance what Kolbert calls \"the values of unity and respect ... on which President-elect Obama campaigned?\" It won't. But it will surely send a message to those who believe in marriage, that they will be viciously attacked for expressing, or merely believing, that marriage is defined as between one man and one woman. Ms. Kolbert provides just the latest example of how the forces of \"tolerance\" and \"diversity\" quickly abandon their principles of \"live and let live\" when somebody disagrees with them. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jordan Lorence.","highlights":"Jordan Lorence: Barack Obama has asked Rick Warren to give the invocation .\nHe says activists are seeking to ban Warren from speaking because of his views .\nLorence says Warren's view on marriage is the majority position in the U.S.\nHe says Obama also believes marriage is between a man and a woman ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In November we step inside the world of design as show host Becky Anderson searches for the Spirit of Architecture. The \"Gherkin\" designed by Norman Foster is one of the most familiar features on London's skyline. In late October, Barcelona hosts the World Architecture Festival during which the great and good will attempt to choose the best building in the world. CNN will get exclusive access to the event, the nominations, and the jury which includes some of the world's greatest architects. The program will start with an explanation of Barcelona's unique architectural heritage. It will then feature short pieces on six of the architects and the buildings that have been nominated for awards. These profiles have been filmed in Mumbai, Tokyo, Pretoria, Munich, London and Maryland. The program will also feature interviews with some of the world's leading architects including Lord Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Wolf D Prix. Foster is the founder of the London-based Foster and Partners architecture company which has recently won a competition to build Virgin Galactic's New Mexico Spaceport Authority Building for space tourism. In September 2007, Foster was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, for his efforts on the Petronas University of Technology, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia. Hadid meanwhile has won numerous international architecture awards and is currently involved in the construction of a 17,500-seat aquatics centre for London -- one of the venues being built for the 2012 Olympics. Finally, the Austrian-born Prix, who founded top company Coop Himmelb(l)au is a legend of the architecture world. Prix has scooped many of the top international architectural awards over the last quarter century, and today continues his active involvement in the world of design. Once we have taken you through the festival highlights, at the end of the program the best building in the world will be chosen and we will interview the winning architect.","highlights":"November's show comes from the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona .\nInterviewees include Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Wolf D Prix .\nThe best building in the world will be chosen at the end of the show ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The leading champion of democracy in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, emerged from house arrest Wednesday to meet with political supporters, a diplomatic source told CNN. Activists display a portrait of detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar. Military leaders in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, let Suu Kyi leave her house to meet with senior leaders of the National League for Democracy, the source said. The meeting comes after the U.S. State Department criticized Myanmar for arresting 10 democracy activists. \"The United States condemns the regime's decision to press criminal charges against ten Burmese pro-democracy activists ... for the peaceful expression of their political beliefs,\" the department said in a statement Tuesday. The department noted that the 10 were charged with crimes that can carry lengthy sentences. \"If the regime were serious about engaging in a peaceful transition to democracy, it would stop arresting and prosecuting Burma's democratic leaders, and instead engage them in a genuine dialogue.\" The military government in Myanmar held Suu Kyi under house arrest from 1989 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2002. It restricted her travel afterward and put her back under house arrest in 2003. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The regime in Myanmar used force to suppress a pro-democracy movement a few months ago. The government admitted that its crackdown killed at least 10 people, but human rights groups said they suspect the number is much higher. The government also acknowledged arresting several hundred people after democracy protests led by Buddhist monks. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report .","highlights":"Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from house arrest to meet with political supporters .\nJunta allowed her to meet senior leaders of the National League for Democracy .\nMeeting comes after the U.S. criticized Myanmar for arresting 10 democracy activists ."} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Barack Obama did more than thump John McCain in the Electoral College tally; he also handily won the popular vote and redrew the great divide between red states and blue states. Barack Obama addresses a crowd of more than 200,000 at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. Riding a Democratic tide that bolstered the party's presence in both houses of Congress, Obama snared about 63 million votes to McCain's 55.8 million, according to totals early Wednesday. According to exit polls, Obama crushed McCain among women voters (56 percent to 43 percent); voters under 30 (66 percent to 32 percent); African-American voters (95 percent to 4 percent); Latino voters (66 percent to 32 percent); first-time voters (68 percent to 31 percent); and voters making less than $100,000 a year (55 percent to 43 percent). \"I think this is the passing of an old order,\" CNN senior political analyst David Gergen said as the results rolled in Tuesday night and the outcome became increasingly evident. Read what analysts had to say about the victory \u00bb . \"I think what we see ... is a new coalition, a new order emerging. It isn't quite there, but with Barack Obama, for the first time, it's won. It is the Latino vote we just heard about. It is the bigger black vote that came out. Very importantly, it's the youth vote, the 18-to-29-year-old,\" said the Harvard University professor and former presidential adviser. Watch Obama pay tribute to McCain \u00bb . Early voting totals in the East suggested things would go traditionally, with McCain taking most of the Southeast, Obama most of the Northeast. But then things quickly changed, as the senator from Illinois struck -- first in Pennsylvania and then in the Midwest state of Ohio, states McCain had to win in his bid for the Oval Office. Obama then delivered an uppercut in Virginia, a state that had not voted for a Democratic president since 1964. See your state's county-by-county totals . As polls closed from East to West, Obama kept hammering McCain, as he snatched away Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada -- states that had been in President Bush's column in 2004. And Wednesday morning, Obama added Indiana to the list of states he'd turned from red to blue. Indiana hadn't voted for a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. (Missouri and North Carolina were still counting votes Wednesday, but it appeared one or two of them could become blue-state converts as well.) With McCain on the ropes, an Obama victory in Florida sounded the death knell. What's next for Illinois and Delaware? \u00bb . When Indiana fell into Obama's column Wednesday morning, he had a 349-163 lead over his rival in electoral votes, with only 26 undecided. As he claimed victory Tuesday night, Obama told supporters, \"change has come to America.\" \"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there,\" Obama said in Chicago before an estimated crowd of up to 240,000 people. With Obama's win, he becomes the first African-American to win the White House. McCain pledged Tuesday night to help Obama lead. Watch more on the balance of power \u00bb . \"Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much, and tonight, I remain her servant,\" McCain said. The senator from Arizona called Obama to congratulate him, and Obama told him that he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together. Obama will also be working with a heavily Democratic Congress. Democrats picked up Senate seats in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, among others. Read about the Senate races . But Obama pledged to work across party lines and listen to the 46 percent of voters who chose McCain. \"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress,\" Obama said. \"To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too,\" he said. Watch Obama tell voters \"all things are possible\" \u00bb . And he recited the words of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican in White House, to call for unity. \"As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies, but friends ... though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection,'\" Obama said. Watch a discussion of what Obama should do first \u00bb . Supporters in Chicago cheering, \"Yes, we can,\" were met with cries of \"Yes, we did.\" Bush also called Obama to offer his congratulations. The president told Obama he was about to begin one of the great journeys of his life, and invited him to the White House as soon as it could be arranged, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. More than 1,000 people gathered outside the White House, chanting \"Obama, Obama!\" Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's former rival for the Democratic nomination, said in a statement that \"we are celebrating an historic victory for the American people.\" iReport.com: Share your Election Day reaction with CNN . \"This was a long and hard fought campaign, but the result was well worth the wait. Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world.\" Sen. Edward Kennedy said Americans \"spoke loud and clear\" in electing Obama. \"They understood his vision of a fairer and more just America and embraced it. They heard his call for a new generation of Americans to participate in government and were inspired. They believed that change is possible and voted to be part of America's future,\" the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement. Voters expressed excitement and pride in their country after casting their ballots in the historic election. Poll workers reported high turnout across many parts of the country, and some voters waited hours to cast their ballots. Read about election problems . Tuesday marked the end of the longest presidential campaign season in U.S. history -- 21 months. Obama, 47, will begin his transition to the White House. He will be sworn in as the 44th president on January 20.","highlights":"NEW: Obama claims Indiana, 349-163 electoral vote advantage .\nBarack Obama scores wins with women, African-Americans, young voters .\nObama to voters: \"Change has come to America\"\nObama will be working with heavily Democratic Congress ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The chief financial officer of India's Satyam Computer Services Ltd. was arrested Saturday, the third person taken into custody in a scandal that began when the company's chairman admitted inflating profits with \"fictitious\" assets and non-existent cash. Satyam founder B. Ramalinga Raju is shown Saturday being sent to prison in Hyderabad. Vadlamani Srinivas will appear Sunday before a special court, said A. Sivanarayana, additional director general of police in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, told CNN. Company founder B. Ramalinga Raju and his brother, Rama Raju, Satyam's managing director, were arrested Friday in connection with the scandal. In a letter written to investigators, B. Ramalinga Raju admitted that he and his brother were responsible for cooking the books at Satyam, according to CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN. Satyam, India's fourth-largest software-services provider, serves almost 700 companies, including 185 Fortune 500 companies, and generates more than half its revenues from the United States. It employs some 53,000 people and operates in 65 countries. B. Ramalinga Raju resigned Wednesday and confessed to padding company balance sheets. The practice began several years ago to close \"a marginal gap\" between actual operating profit and one reflected in the company's accounting books, he said, but continued for several years. \"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,\" B. Ramalinga Raju said in a letter to the company's board of directors. He said no board member was aware of what he was doing and he did not profit from the inflated accounts. The deception came to light after he tried to plug the hole by getting Satyam to buy his son's construction companies. The acquisition was \"the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones,\" he wrote in his letter. The deal would have cost Satyam $1.6 billion -- but the company's board vetoed it. Stocks fell following the botched deal. Soon afterward, B. Ramalinga Raju came clean, saying he was doing so \"with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience.\" After his confession, stocks of the Hyderabad-based company fell more than 70 percent, causing India's major stock index, the BSE SENSEX, to fall 7.3 percent Wednesday. The BSE SENSEX on Thursday deleted Satyam Computer Services from its indices. The company's interim chief executive officer said Thursday the company's immediate goal is to continue its operations uninterrupted. CNN's Bharati Naik and Harmeet Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Satyam's chief financial officer arrested in profit-fraud scandal .\nComputer giant employs 53,000 people and operates in 65 countries .\nChairman B. Ramalinga Raju said balance-sheet padding began years ago ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Indian city of Mumbai exploded into chaos early Thursday morning as gunmen launched a series of attacks across the country's commercial capital, killing scores of people and taking hostages in two luxury hotels frequented by Westerners. CNN's Christiane Amanpour says India and Pakistan might be warming toward each other. Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour spoke about the situation. CNN: An attack this large, this sophisticated, and carried out with no warning could have come from inside India, maybe, maybe outside, maybe a neighboring state could be involved. We turn to Christiane Amanpour. What do you hear? Christiane Amanpour: Well, Tom, Islamic militants have been stepping up their assaults on Mumbai, which is not just the center of its filmmaking, but the economic and financial hub of India. They have often blamed terror attacks on Islamic militants based in Pakistan. Some, they say, are concerned about, for instance, Indian rule over Kashmir. Al Qaeda also has threatened to attack India in revenge for its policies. Very, very interestingly, this comes at a time when the new president of Pakistan has, in fact, gone further than any previous Pakistani leader in saying they want to improve relations with India, in saying they want to jointly combat terrorism together. The Pakistani president even went so far as saying he would consider renouncing a nuclear strike on India. This is a very confused situation. Although some group has claimed responsibility, nobody knows the motive yet. ... CNN: Talk to me about why it would be in the interest of these people to sever this tie between Pakistan and India. Do they believe India would join in the effort to squeeze them out? Amanpour: This is the ongoing situation. Certainly, Kashmir is a flashpoint for India and Pakistan, and really back in 2006, there were Islamic militants blamed for recent attacks. About 180 people were killed there. The one that came closest to pitting India against Pakistan was in 2001, when Islamic militants attacked the Parliament. Only 12 people were killed, but not compared to what's happened now, and that almost led to a war between India and Pakistan. Whatever happens in this region is so, so difficult and dangerous because of the flash point it centers on. As I say, though it has come at a time right in the aftermath of the warmest outreach by Pakistan to India in decades. ... CNN: What is, in all of this world picture, Christiane, what is the significance of this? Amanpour: Well, this is deeply significant, obviously, because it is such a complex and coordinated attack on multitudinous targets, multitudinous locations. Obviously, a large number of militants or terrorists who have taken part in this, and they have engaged the Indian forces, the police and security forces. It's not like they just put bombs somewhere and allowed them to go off, and either they were suicide attackers who got killed or they were able to remotely detonate their bombs. What they've done is not just attack, take hostages, but engage also with the security forces. So this really ratchets it up a very significant level. And it's been coming for about 20 years, these attacks. Small in the last couple of decades, but in the last 10 years or so, particularly since 9\/11, there have been a number of very significant attacks blamed by the Indian forces on Islamic militants. ... This is very, very dangerous in this part of the world. Mumbai is India's not just gateway to the nation; it's its economic and financial hub, and it's its cultural hub as well, having the Bollywood and the other film production studios there. Nobody quite knows who it is and why they have done it. This is the thing that is very difficult and dangerous at the moment. This little-known group, if it's true that they exist, have claimed responsibility, although that has not been confirmed, so-called Deccan Mujahedeen, and what is the motive? There has obviously for many, many years been a type of feelings by India that, say, 150 or so million Muslims who are in the minority are feeling sort of hard done by in terms of the Hindu majority. There are also complaints by Indian Muslims about the way Kashmir is progressing, that enclave, and that is a huge, huge flashpoint. But what's really amazing is that often, it's blamed on tensions with Pakistan. And yet, this comes at a time where the president of Pakistan has -- the new president -- has really made an unprecedented overture to India in terms of trying to warm up relations, trying to secure a lasting peace. And just today, Indian and Pakistani officials were having meetings, and they ended it with a joint declaration that they wanted to cooperate on ending terrorism and combating terrorism. CNN: Christiane, do you see any connection with the recent American elections and this? Amanpour: Well, it's hard to tell. People would say that it takes a lot longer than a few weeks to plan something like this. It's difficult to tell. I'm sure there will be a huge amount of analysis in the upcoming days and weeks. What is going to be vital is whatever information the Indian security forces can get from some of these terrorists, militants, who've apparently some may have been captured alive. Obviously, there apparently have been some who have been killed as well. All of this will provide some of those missing pieces of the puzzle. Who are these people? What is their motive? Just today, there is an interview with the U.S. Marine Corps commandant as basically saying that al Qaeda's focus now is Pakistan. There had been some thought that maybe al Qaeda was in the past trying to launch its attacks also in India, but the Indian secret services and the security services say that they don't have a presence there. But Pakistan is a very, very big worry. It's a failing state. Afghanistan is practically a failed state right now, even after the U.S. in 2001 sent al Qaeda and the Taliban packing. There's a very difficult and dangerous situation on this subcontinent that really has been the focus of a lot of attention right now, and indeed, the incoming president has said that he wants to step up the number of U.S. forces. U.S. commanders want more forces in that region as well, not just Afghanistan, but to cope with Pakistan as well. CNN: As you said, there have been a lot of incidents since the year 2000 in India. Why is this one getting so much particular attention? There was one with over 200 deaths. Amanpour: Well, about 180 in 2006. But those were sort of multiple bombings in trains and railway stations. But this is one night with, so far, according to our sources, at least 87 people killed, and it's a brazen attack on the most visible elements and symbols and structures of the economic, the cultural, the tourist, the international hub, as I said, the gateway to India -- which is the world's largest democracy -- which is not a failed state by any stretch of the imagination. Which has a unified political structure, which has an army and security forces. India is not Pakistan or Afghanistan, and yet this has been able to happen here. And why is it getting so much attention? Because so many more people than ever before have been killed in one fell swoop, and it's ongoing, and these people launched pitched battles with the security forces, and they still have hostages, and it appears they deliberately targeted Westerners.","highlights":"Pakistani leader has gone far in reaching out to India, Amanpour says .\nNations may even join together to fight terrorism, correspondent says .\nRegion of Kashmir has been flashpoint for neighboring nations ."} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Alfred Liggins is chief executive officer of Radio One Inc. and chairman of TV One LLC. The companies are aimed at an audience of African-American and urban consumers, and they own 53 radio stations in 16 cities, a cable network and a variety of Web sites. Liggins personally has contributed to Barack Obama's campaign. Alfred Liggins says the black population in America has grown increasingly diverse. (CNN) -- If you think African-Americans will come out in greater numbers than ever before to vote for Barack Obama, you're probably right. If you think you know how they'll vote in the almost 500 House, Senate and gubernatorial races, you could be in for a surprise. Although politicians and their advertising gurus often speak to Black America as a collective, homogeneous group, the black population is anything but a monolith. In the past decade, the more than 40 million strong black population in America has become increasingly diverse: economically, socially, technologically and even philosophically. In the final push toward Election Day, as politicians and political hopefuls seek to penetrate this community, they may no longer understand to whom they are speaking. Are they addressing blacks or African-Americans? Is racial prejudice as important an issue today as affording a college education for their kids or taking care of an aging parent? iReport.com: Black college cancels class to vote . Radio One, the country's largest broadcasting company primarily targeting African-Americans, recently commissioned a study to uncover Black America today. How do they identify themselves? What do they care about? How are they influenced? What is most important to them? Interestingly, the study found that 42 percent of those polled actually prefer to be called black (these are more likely to be more affluent) compared with 44 percent who choose to be described as African-American. And yes, it would be misguided to assume that dropping a Martin Luther King Jr. quote into a speech and focusing on America's history of racial inequality is the sure way to sway black voters when one-third of blacks, particularly younger people, believe that there is actually too much focus on past oppression. And as insulting as it is to assume that all women vote for female candidates, it is equally inaccurate and offensive to say that blacks simply cast their ballots for people of color. Like all Americans, black folks vote on the issues they care about, and today those issues are less likely to be linked to race than they are to the economy, health care, education and a whole spectrum of social issues. As Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson recently said, \"black people don't vote for candidates just because they are black. If Clarence Thomas ran for president, he would get five black votes.\" Given Black America's extreme diversity today (the study identified 11 specific groups) it is easy to misunderstand who they are and how they can be reached. Yes, discrimination and racial issues are still incredibly important, particularly to middle-age and older blacks. But the younger populations are more concerned about starting their own businesses, paying for their education, taking care of their children and creating a better work\/life balance. So how do politicians penetrate the multiple segments of Black America? In 1992, when Bill Clinton wooed African-Americans in church, he understood how to effectively reach that population. But that was before social networking sites attracted millions of teenage and young black adults. Now that the digital divide has faded, with roughly the same percentage of blacks online as the general population, ignoring black Web sites and social networking sites would be a big mistake. Although the history of black oppression in America is not the radioactive issue it once was, trust in the community -- whom blacks trust -- is still paramount. Of all institutions, they are least likely to trust credit card companies but also remain seriously wary of the mainstream media and tend to trust black media more than traditional media outlets. It has been almost a century and a half since blacks in America won the right to vote. It makes all the sense in the world that the black community has evolved and diversified over the years, but too often politicians make the mistake of assuming that blacks are still a monolithic group fixated on all of the same issues. Though Barack Obama will be able to count on a massive percentage of the black vote on Election Day, the rest of the ticket will need to dig deeper than the canned speeches dealing with racial injustice of the past to satisfy today's black voters. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Alfred Liggins.","highlights":"Alfred Liggins: America's black population has become more diverse .\n40 million population represents many different social, economic viewpoints, he says .\nLiggins: Discrimination still key issue, but other concerns have emerged .\nLiggins says politicians need to know that past appeals to race are outdated ."} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared victory Thursday in an election to lead the ruling Kadima Party, putting her on a path that could make her Israel's first female prime minister in 34 years. Kadima candidate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is the chief Israeli negotiator with the Palestinian Authority. Livni won with 43.1 percent of the vote, claiming a 431-vote margin of victory over Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, the Kadima Party said. Mofaz announced Thursday he will take a \"time out\" from politics and will resign his seat in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. But he indicated he does not intend his departure from front-line politics to be permanent. Livni's election marks a stunning rise for the 50-year-old, who entered the Knesset less than 10 years ago. \"It's a leap of faith for the people,\" analyst Avi Shavit said. \"They decided to trust a candidate they don't know much about.\" She may owe her victory over Mofaz, a former general, to her reputation for clean hands in a party losing its leader to allegations of graft. \"Kadima members are more concerned about the corruption threat inside Israel than the security threat from Hamas and Iran,\" Israeli columnist Gil Hoffman said. As new leader of the ruling party, Livni will try to form a coalition government and become prime minister after the departure of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been dogged by allegations of corruption. Olmert plans to inform the Cabinet on Sunday that he will resign, said Mark Regev, his spokesman. He has congratulated Livni and pledged to help make a smooth transition, according to Regev. Livni told reporters Thursday that she intends \"to bring together Kadima factions and to go on this new path together.\" Watch Livni at the ballot box \u00bb . Her slim margin of victory stood in contrast to exit polls that had shown her with a commanding lead over Mofaz and other rivals. Mofaz telephoned Livni to congratulate her on the victory, according to Israel Radio. Livni said she hoped to ensure stability in Israel's government. \"We need to face complicated threats. We need to face security threats. We need to move forward, and there is economic instability,\" she said. Livni has about 42 days to form a coalition government. If she fails, there could be early elections that could see another party leader elected as Olmert's successor to the prime minister post. There are many possible scenarios that could take place in the following months. Ehud Barak -- leader of the Labor Party, which holds the most parliamentary seats among Kadima's coalition partners -- could pull out of the coalition. That could force early elections, or force the government to take on new coalition partners who could restrict Livni's ability to negotiate with the Palestinians. If elections are called, Barak, a former prime minister, could vie for the top spot -- but polls show he may not have enough support. Some observers think that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud Party, could steal the show in the end. Whoever succeeds Olmert as prime minister will be handed a set of daunting challenges, including determining the fate of Israel's talks with the Palestinians, its fledgling indirect talks with Syria and its tough talk on Iran's nuclear aspirations. Livni, who is more widely known outside Israel than her main challenger, is the chief Israeli negotiator with the Palestinian Authority as the two sides work toward a peace deal. She refuses to be tied to the Bush administration's vision of a peace deal by the end of this year. \"We want to reach an agreement which at the end of the agreement we can find the words 'end of conflict,'\" she said. \"And in doing so, it takes time.\" To her supporters, she is squeaky-clean and a welcome change to Olmert, whose resignation comes amid mounting corruption charges. \"She's very honest, very sincere and I hope she's going to do whatever she says,\" one of her supporters said. \"We have to give her a chance and I'm willing to do it.\" CNN's Paula Hancocks and Michal Zippori contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Runner-up, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, resigning from Knesset .\nLivni claims victory in vote for leadership of ruling Kadima party .\nWin could make her Israel's first female prime minister in 34 years .\nLivni beat Mofaz by a narrow margin ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition troops killed the al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the February 2006 attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque and set off continuing violence and reprisal killings between Sunnis and Shiites, the U.S. military said Sunday. The attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque set off violence between Sunnis and Shiites. Haitham Sabah al-Badri, the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra, was killed by an airstrike Thursday east of Samarra, said Rear Adm. Mark Fox during a news conference. \"Eliminating al-Badri is another step in breaking the cycle of violence instigated by the attack on the holy shrine in Samarra,\" Fox said. \"We will continue to hunt down the brutal terrorists who are intent on creating a Taliban-like state in Iraq.\" Coalition forces Thursday raided four buildings outside Samarra that were associated with al-Badri, according to a U.S. military news release. During the raid, at least four armed men were seen leaving the buildings and setting up tactical fighting positions in an effort to ambush coalition forces, the release said. The coalition forces called in close air support, killing al-Badri and the three others, the release said. One of those killed was identified as a foreigner; al-Badri was identified by his close associates and relatives, the military said. El-Badri's death was first reported Saturday by a high-ranking Iraqi Interior Ministry official. No one was injured in the attack on the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite sites, but thousands have been killed by the death squads and reprisal bombings that have ravaged Iraq in the 17\u00bd months since the attack. In addition to the February attack that collapsed the mosque's dome, another bombing in June destroyed the shrine's two remaining minarets. Al-Badri is believed to have been involved in other attacks, including two last year, Fox said -- the June 23 bombing of a Kirkuk courthouse that left 20 Iraqis dead and the August 28 attack at a Samarra checkpoint that killed 29 Iraqi soldiers. Samarra is in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad. Mortar attacks kill 11 . Two mortar rounds struck a gas station in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 15 others, a spokesman with Iraq's Interior Ministry said. The attack in the Afdhailiya neighborhood happened about 8 a.m. (12 a.m. ET), the spokesman said. Suicide bombers attacked two gas stations Wednesday, killing 70 people, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, coalition forces said Saturday they killed four suspected militants and detained 18 thought to have helped make or plant roadside bombs, the U.S. military said. The militants were suspected of coordinating logistical support from Iran for elements of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and other Shiite militias operating in Iraq, the military said. Iraqi family upset with U.S. soldier's sentence . A U.S. soldier has been sentenced to 110 years in confinement for participating in the rape of a 14-year-old girl and the killings of her and her family in Iraq, an Army spokeswoman said. The girl's family told Reuters on Sunday they were dismayed by the punishment and would have preferred to see the death penalty handed down in the case. Pfc. Jesse Spielman was convicted Friday of rape, conspiracy to commit rape, housebreaking with the intent to commit rape and four counts of felony murder. The girl, her parents and younger sister were shot dead in March 2006 in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. \"We were expecting the death penalty against those criminals and the place to carry out the sentence is where the incident happened,\" the girl's cousin, Abu Ammar, told Reuters. Her uncle, Hadi Abdullah, told the wire agency that family members wished there was a way to appeal the sentence so the death penalty could be imposed. Three soldiers have previously pleaded guilty in the case and were given sentences ranging from five to 100 years. The accused ringleader, former Pvt. Steven Green, was discharged from the Army and awaits trial in a civilian court. Other developments . CNN's Pierre Bairin and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Haitham Sabah al-Badri was the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra .\nU.S. military says al-Badri suspected in two other attacks that killed 49 .\nFamily of slain girl upset soldier wasn't sentenced to death, Reuters says .\nAt least 11 people killed in mortar attacks in Baghdad, Interior Ministry says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Kellogg's dumped its endorsement of Michael Phelps after a photograph surfaced of the Olympic gold medalist using a bong, the company was stuck with thousands of boxes of cereal featuring the swimmer's image. Kellogg's ended its Michael Phelps endorsement, so it sent two tons of cereal with his face on it to a food bank. No problem. The company, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, made short order of the already-printed and filled boxes, donating two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank late last month. With food banks across the country reporting shortages of food, the donation was a welcome one, said the food bank's director of development, Christopher Wiley. It took only two weeks for about 3,000 boxes to move through warehouse. \"Thousands of families benefited from the donation\" Wiley said. \"It was a surprise to us. We were lacking a lot of cereal. It is a great product many low-income families really need.\" \"The real story for us was not the box but what's inside the box. The food is so valuable for the community. It's making good from bad,\" Wiley said. The food bank has seen a 6 percent increase in its customer base since the beginning of the year, he said. Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He admitted \"regrettable behavior\" after a British newspaper published the controversial photograph in early February. The tabloid News of the World showed Phelps using the bong during what it said was a November party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. A bong is a device commonly used to smoke marijuana. The Phelps box attracted considerable attention to the food bank. Administrators received several calls from people wanting to get the box as a novelty item. But, said Wiley, all the cereal went to food bank customers. Kellogg's was the only one of Phelps sponsors to drop the athlete, although U.S.A. Swimming, the nation's governing body for competitive swimming, suspended him for three months, withdrew financial support and barred him from competition during the period of his \"reprimand.\" CNN's Jackie Castillo and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kellogg's donated two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank .\nCompany dumped the cereal boxes with Michael Phelps' face after bong incident .\nFood bank director: Helpful donation is \"making good from bad\"\nMore than 3,000 boxes of cereal went to help those who were hungry ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Madame Tussauds unveiled a wax figure of Michael Jackson on Thursday, showing the late entertainer in a pose from the concerts he had planned to hold this month. The new waxwork of Michael Jackson -- only Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more times by Madame Tussauds. Sculptors at the wax museum started working on the figure four months ago. They had intended to display it this month, to coincide with the start of Jackson's \"This is It\" comeback tour in London. The new figure is modeled on a Jackson pose from the concert poster, the museum said. It shows him \"arms outstretched, pelvis thrusting and tip-toed, with his trademark trilby angled forward,\" the museum said. It is the 13th Jackson waxwork by Madame Tussauds, the museum said. Only Britain's Queen Elizabeth II -- who has been on the throne for almost 60 years -- has been portrayed more often. \"It is extremely unusual for a personality to have been portrayed so many times,\" said Madame Tussauds spokeswoman Liz Edwards. \"But Michael Jackson was totally unique and his iconic status made him one of the most popular stars here.\" The London museum has two other Jackson waxworks -- one in a pose from \"Thriller\" and another from his \"Dangerous\" album. The other 10 Jackson waxworks are in other Madame Tussauds museums around the world. The museum said it decided to proceed with the figure after Jackson's death last month \"as a tribute to one of the greatest musicians of all time and to celebrate his amazing 40-year career.\"","highlights":"Waxwork is the 13th of Jackson unveiled by the London tourist attraction .\nModel had been commissioned before singer's death to coincide with London concerts .\nOnly Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more often by the museum ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- An explosion killed at least 22 people and wounded 60 others Tuesday in the central Pakistani city of Dera Ghazi Khan, said a rescue service official. The dead included two children, three women and 17 men, said, Mubarak Ali Athar, the regional police chief in Dera Ghazi Khan. Three people were critically injured, he said. The blast ripped through a market located near the house of a senior adviser to the chief minister of Punjab province, said the official, Mohammed Hasnain. The adviser, Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa, is a former provincial governor and a senior opposition party politician. He said he was the target of the attack, though police initially said he was not the intended target. Khosa told CNN that none of his family members were in the house when the attack occurred. He also said that he had never before received any threats against his life. The attacker detonated his car in front of the main gate at Khosa's house, said Hassan Iqbal, a senior government official. About 20 shops in the market were left in heaps of rubble. Journalist Umar Aziz Khan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attack on market in Dera Ghazi Khan leaves 22 dead, 60 wounded .\nAttacker detonated car in front of Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa's home .\nFormer provincial governor claims he was intended target of attack ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The head of Iran's soccer federation issued a public apology and a member of his staff resigned after the federation mistakenly sent a New Year's greeting to its counterpart in Israel, Iranian officials announced Sunday. \"It was a big mistake sending an e-mail to Israel's football federation,\" Ali Kaffashian, president of the Iran Football Federation, said in a statement carried by the semi-official Mehrs News Agency. \"However, I am sure the director of the foreign relations office didn't do it on purpose.\" Kaffashian said Iran's soccer league routinely sends New Year's greetings to all members of FIFA, the sport's global federation, except for Israel. Iran does not recognize Israel, which it dismisses as the \"Zionist entity,\" and the two countries' teams do not meet in international competitions. Mohammad-Mansour Azimzadeh Ardebili, the head of the league's foreign relations office, resigned over the matter, Kaffashian said.","highlights":"New Year's e-mail to Israel was a mistake, Iranian officials say .\nIran doesn't recognize Israel .\nIran's soccer federation usually sends greetings to all FIFA members except Israel .\nHead of the Iranian federation's foreign relations office resigns ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former high school cheerleader who sued over injuries caused when a teammate failed to catch her during a routine, lost her appeal before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday a cheerleader couldn't sue her teammate. The seven state justices unanimously concluded cheerleading is a \"contact\" sport, and therefore neither the male student cited nor the school district was liable for damages. The opinion also said the stunt in question did not create a \"compelling danger\" to students. It is the first legal decision of its kind, according to the National Cheer Safety Foundation, a group founded by parents. The case was closely watched by school districts and parents around the country concerned about whether they would have immunity from lawsuits involving unintentional injuries from certain extracurricular activities. Brittany Noffke was a varsity cheerleader at Holmen High School, about 14 miles from La Crosse, in western Wisconsin. Her team was practicing a \"post to hands\" stunt before a basketball game in 2004, and after being lifted up to stand on the shoulders of a fellow student, Noffke fell backward, striking her head on the floor. The 16-year-old male cheerleader who lifted her, and then was supposed to be a spotter, failed to catch her. The girl's family sued the boy and the school district, claiming the coach was negligent by not having a second spotter and not providing safety mats. State law does not specifically spell out which high school activities involve \"contact,\" but they typically involve sports such as football or lacrosse in which opposing teams compete against each other. But the Wisconsin high court concluded that \"cheerleading involves a significant amount of physical contact between cheerleaders that at times results in a forceful interaction between the participants.\" Justice Annette Ziegler cited the \"spirit rules\" of the National Federation of State High School Association's handbook, which contained pictures illustrating various cheerleading stunts. She said all but one photo showed at least two cheerleaders in contact with one another. Because the male cheerleader just made a mistake by being out of place when Noffke fell, the court found he did not act \"recklessly,\" the only legal standard that would have permitted a lawsuit to proceed. Although it is not considered a sport at many high schools and colleges, cheerleading has grown increasingly popular over the years, and the stunts have become more complex and dangerous, sports injury experts say. A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill study found cheerleading accounted for about two-thirds of some 93 \"catastrophic\" sports injuries -- including head and neck damage -- among high school girls in the past 26 years. But the study noted that other sports such as football produce far more devastating injuries, though fewer in number. Cheerleading advocates say the activity has become much safer in the past 15 years, following greater awareness of the risks and better coordination among state and national groups. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators estimates about 4 million people are involved in the activity.","highlights":"Justices rule cheerleading is \"contact\" sport, therefore teammates, school not liable .\nBrittany Noffke sued claiming negligence after she fell during a stunt .\nOpinion said stunt in question did not create a \"compelling danger\"\nCheerleading group calls ruling the first legal decision of its kind ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman in rural Papua New Guinea was bound and gagged, tied to a log and set ablaze on a pile of tires this week, possibly because villagers suspected her of being a witch, police said Thursday. Her death adds to a growing list of men and women who have been accused of sorcery and then tortured or killed in the South Pacific island nation, where traditional beliefs hold sway in many regions. The victims are often scapegoats for someone else's unexplained death, and bands of tribesmen collude to mete out justice to them for their supposed magical powers, police said. \"We have had difficulties in a number of previous incidents convincing people to come forward with information,\" said Simon Kauba, assistant commissioner of police and commander of the Highlands region, where the killing occurred. \"We are trying to persuade them to help. Somebody lost their mother or daughter or sister Tuesday morning.\" Early Tuesday, a group of people dragged the woman, believed to be in her late teens to early 20s, to a dumping ground outside the city of Mount Hagen. They stripped her naked, bound her hands and legs, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, tied her to a log and set her on fire, Kauba said. \"When the people living nearby went to the dump site to investigate what caused the fire, they found a human being burning in the flames,\" he said. \"It was ugly.\" The country's Post-Courier newspaper reported Thursday that more than 50 people were killed in two Highlands provinces last year for allegedly practicing sorcery. In a well-publicized case last year, a pregnant woman gave birth to a baby girl while struggling to free herself from a tree. Villagers had dragged the woman from her house and hung her from the tree, accusing her of sorcery after her neighbor suddenly died. She and the baby survived, according to media reports. The killing of witches, or sangumas, is not a new phenomenon in rural areas of the country. Emory University anthropology professor Bruce Knauft, who lived in a village in the western province of Papua New Guinea in the early 1980s, traced family histories for 42 years and found that one in three adult deaths were homicides -- \"the bulk of these being collective killings of suspected sorcerers,\" he wrote in his book, \"From Primitive to Postcolonial in Melanesia and Anthropology.\" In recent years, as AIDS has taken a toll in the nation of 6.7 million people, villagers have blamed suspected witches -- and not the virus -- for the deaths. According to the United Nations, Papua New Guinea accounts for 90 percent of the Pacific region's HIV cases and is one of four Asia-Pacific countries with an epidemic. \"We've had a number of cases where people were killed because they were accused of spreading HIV or AIDS,\" Kauba said. While there is plenty of speculation why Tuesday's victim was killed, police said they are focused more on who committed the crime. \"If it is phobias about alleged HIV\/AIDS or claims of a sexual affair, we must urge the police and judiciary to throw the book at the offenders,\" the Post-Courier wrote in an editorial. \"There are remedies far, far better than to torture and immolate a young woman before she can be judged by a lawful system.\"","highlights":"Woman suspected to be witch in Papua New Guinea burned alive .\nDeath adds to growing list of people accused of sorcery tortured or killed .\nVictims are often scapegoats for someone else's unexplained death ."} -{"article":"Editor's Note: For more than two decades, world-renowned photojournalist Peter Turnley has covered nearly every significant news event and world conflict in Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya, Haiti, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq. His photographs have graced the covers of Newsweek, National Geographic, Le Monde, Le Figaro and The London Sunday Times. Peter Turnley took this photo of an Obama supporter on Inauguration Day. NEW YORK (CNN) -- On Sunday morning, I boarded a bus in Brooklyn with a group of approximately 40 citizens from New York, all African-American, each of whom would not have missed for almost anything the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I have been a photojournalist for the past 25 years and have had the incredible opportunity to witness many of modern history's defining moments: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, the end of apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela walking out of prison in 1991, and most of the world's conflicts of the past three decades. This moment means 'everything is possible' \u00bb . When our bus pulled into Maryland on the eve of the inauguration, I knew after hearing the words of my fellow passengers, in some sense fellow pilgrims, that I was in the midst of a moment of history like maybe no other I had ever witnessed -- certainly in terms of its historic magnitude, and certainly not in America. It is the words of these passengers, and those of many others that I have met in the past two days, that are representative to some degree of what this moment means. Read more on the AC360 blog.","highlights":"Photographer Peter Turnley covered President Barack Obama's inauguration .\nHe traveled by bus with 40 African-Americans from Brooklyn, New York .\nMoment was like no other \"in terms of its historic magnitude,\" Turnley says ."} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Any attempt to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- once Russia's richest man, now its most famous inmate -- must follow standard procedure, including an admission of guilt, the nation's president said Sunday. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is imprisoned in a work camp 4,000 miles from Moscow. \"Concerning the possibility of a pardon for someone, Khodorkovsky or anyone else, the procedure has to be carried out in accordance with our country's rules,\" President Dmitry Medvedev said in a transcript on his Web site. \"In other words, a person must appeal to the president, plead guilty to having committed a crime and seek the appropriate resolution.\" The president dismissed talks of a pardon, saying, \"at this point, there is nothing to discuss.\" Khodorkovsky once headed the Yukos oil company, once Russia's largest oil producer. He is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. Medvedev described corruption as a \"very serious Russian disease\" and emphasized the need to fight it. \"To this end, we have enacted a number of measures, including new legislation on corruption and special arrangements relating to government officials, their disclosures, declarations of income and so on,\" he said. \"We are determined to continue this work, because we believe it is extremely important.\" The former oil magnate is incarcerated in a work camp near the town of Krasnokamensk, 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) from his native Moscow. He has been imprisoned since his arrest in 2003. Khodorkovsky had expressed a desire to run for office at the time and funded opposition political parties. He said the trial was part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy him and take the company he built from privatization deals of the 1990s. The Kremlin denied any role in his downfall. Yukos, which has since been crushed by a $27.5 billion back-tax bill, has been the object of a lengthy campaign by prosecutors and tax authorities. The court also ordered Khodorkovsky and his partner to pay about $600 million in back taxes.","highlights":"There will be no favoritism for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian leader says .\nFormer head of Yukos oil company serving nine years for fraud, tax evasion .\nPresident says talks of a pardon are premature ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Described as the largest single gathering of displaced residents in the world today, tens of thousands of civilians are seeking shelter along the Afgooye corridor outside Mogadishu, according to the United Nations. Members of the U.S. Navy take a young Somali boy to safety after rescuing him and 51 others adrift in a skiff. Fighting between government forces and Islamist militias has triggered the flight of more than 67,000 Somalis in and around Mogadishu since May 8, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. Most of them are heading to the Afgooye corridor, a 30-kilometer (19-mile) stretch of ramshackle housing described by the United Nations' World Food Program as \"a nightmare.\" The corridor between Mogadishu and the town of Afgooye is already home to 400,000 displaced Somalis, some of them living in huts made of twigs and branches. The clinics are already overwhelmed with malnourished and sick children. This week, Somalia's transitional president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, asked the international community \"to help Somalia defend against foreign militants who have invaded the country.\" Ahmed told local journalists Monday that he feared these foreign fighters would turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces are fighting Islamic extremist groups. The fighting has cut supplies of \"desperately needed humanitarian aid\" to the displaced Somalis near the capital city, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. \"We are starting today the distribution of aid for some 50,000 people in Afgooye corridor through our local partners in Somalia,\" the refugee office said Tuesday. \"Today's distribution will include cooking sets, plastic sheeting, blankets and mats.\" The number of Somali refugees fleeing to nearby countries also continues to rise, with some 500,000 already in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea and Tanzania. Many Somalis have also made the dangerous journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. On Saturday, a U.S. guided missile destroyer rescued a group of 52 Somali men women and children -- including a woman who was eight months pregnant -- who had been stranded aboard a small skiff for nearly a week off Somalia's coast, the U.S. Navy said. See photos of the rescue \u00bb . A helicopter based on the USS Lake Champlain happened to spot the stranded mariners, according to the vessel's commanding officer. \"It's fortunate that our helicopter was flying over the right place at the right time,\" Capt. Kevin P. Campbell said in a U.S. Navy news release. \"I'm glad we were able to be of assistance and rescue these men, women and children. Our chief hospital corpsman stated that had we not found them at the time we did, the pregnant woman may not have survived.\" USS Lake Champlain has been deployed as part of the U.S. 5th Fleet's mission to patrol the Gulf of Aden region, which has been plagued by pirate attacks off Somalia's coast. \"We were very fortunate to have come across these people in the state they were in,\" said the ship's chaplain, Lt. j.g. Jarrod Johnson. \"Seeing their condition really makes your heart go out to them. You can see the relief and hope in their eyes, and hear it in their conversation.\"","highlights":"Fighting has triggered flight of more than 67,000 Somalis since May 8 .\nMost heading to Afgooye corridor, a 30-kilometer stretch of ramshackle housing .\nPresident Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed speaking at a conference in Mogadishu .\nAhmed fears foreign fighters will turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan ."} -{"article":"CNN -- Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries. Tobacco use is one of the largest causes of cancer in the world. In 2008 a report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer revealed that, until recently, cancer was considered a disease of westernized, industrialized countries. Today the situation has changed dramatically, with the majority of the global cancer cases now found in the developing world. However, myths and misconceptions about cancer still abound. Below CNN's Vital Signs has compiled facts from the World Health Organization about this killer disease. -- There are more than 100 types of cancers; any part of the body can be affected. -- Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide: In 2007, it accounted for 7.9 million deaths (around 13 per cent of all deaths) in 2007. -- The five most common types of cancer that kill men worldwide are (in order of frequency): lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and esophagus. -- While for women worldwide the five most common types of cancer are: breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. -- About 72 per cent of all cancer deaths in 2007 occurred in low- and middle-income countries. -- Deaths from cancer worldwide are projected to continue rising, with an estimated 12 million deaths in 2030. -- The WHO estimates that 30 per cent of cancers can be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet and being physically active. -- Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world. -- A third of cancers could be cured if detected early and treated adequately. -- A fifth of all cancers in the world are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer. Source: The World Health Organization .","highlights":"The majority of cancer cases are now found in developing countries .\n72 per cent of all cancer deaths in 2007 occurred in poorer countries .\nBy 2030, WHO estimates there will be 12 million cancer related deaths worldwide .\nA third of cancers can be cured if detected early and treated adequately ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One man's trash is another man's mystery. Nick DiMola holds what he believes are about 60 artifacts and pieces of artifacts from Mexico. Five years ago, Nick DiMola's rubbish removal company was hired to clean out a Manhattan apartment following the death of the owner, abstract artist Clinton Hill. The contents of a barrel that DiMola salvaged from the trash then has today raised a series of questions. What DiMola holds are about 60 artifacts and pieces of artifacts that he thinks are from Mexico, dating to between 300 B.C. and 500 A.D. The mystery, which the Mexican Consulate in New York is trying to solve, is twofold: How much are the artifacts worth? And, if authentic, whom do they belong to? DiMola first saw the collection of pottery and figurines while cleaning Hill's apartment in 2004. He stored the barrel in his warehouse instead of disposing of it, then promptly forgot about it. Last week, DiMola rediscovered the pieces, only this time he told the New York Daily News about what he had found, announcing that he would sell them. That caught the attention of the Mexican government, which is studying the origins of the items and has claimed them. Now, DiMola wants to donate his find, but not necessarily to Mexico, he told CNN. The Queens native was excited about his discovery when he allowed representatives from the Mexican Cultural Institute to examine and photograph nearly all the pieces, DiMola said. His curiosity about them was growing, and he was expecting an appraisal from the government officials. What he got instead was a heads-up about a possible petition to return the entire collection to Mexico. \"My reaction is that that is not very diplomatic,\" DiMola said. \"It's a blow to the jaw.\" Ruben Beltran, Mexico's consul general in New York, was not available for comment Tuesday. However in an interview with the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo, he said that if the pieces are part of Mexican culture, the government will try to get them back. But as of now, no one is certain what the pieces are. Howard Nowes, an ancient art dealer who does appraisals, examined a handful of the pieces that DiMola holds. Nowes told CNN he saw a mix of authentic and non-authentic pre-Columbian pieces, which he valued at $3,000. The pieces were broken and weren't very artistic, he said, adding \"from what I can see, it was mostly junk.\" Unfazed, DiMola thinks all the pieces probably are worth more than $16,000 total, he said. \"Something like this, you can't put a price on, because I may have a figure that no one has seen before,\" DiMola said. \"There's a big value in these pieces.\" The Mexican government isn't taking any chances, and is conducting its own research into the authenticity and significance of the pieces. Museums in Houston, Texas; San Francisco, California and Washington, D.C., have expressed interest in the pieces as well, DiMola said. He said he'd like to donate the artifacts to museums across the country, and some to the Mexican Cultural Institute at the Mexican Consulate in New York City, but that could change if Mexico uses international law to claim the items. The foundation that hired DiMola to clean the house is unlikely to try to reclaim the pieces, said John Koegel, the attorney who handled Hill's estate. When Hill died, he left all his possessions to his lifelong partner, Allen Tran, Koegel told CNN. In turn, Tran bequeathed all of Hill's possessions to a foundation \"to carry out his artistic legacy,\" he said. Hill had some pieces from Mexico in his apartment that were cataloged, but the artist had no strong connection to the country, Koegel said. For DiMola, all the fuss stems from a simple truth. \"Sometimes you find things that are good and salvageable in the trash,\" he said.","highlights":"Nick DiMola finds Mexican artifacts worth thousands in trash barrel .\nBarrel belonged to deceased abstract artist Clinton Hill .\nMexican government claims it owns artifacts, seeks their return .\nDiMola says he wants to donate artifacts to museums across U.S."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For those of us who remember a time when many families didn't have color TV, a remote control or even video games, hearing the theme song from \"The Patty Duke Show\" -- \"They're cousins \/ Identical cousins, all the way\" -- takes us back to black-and-white television sets and split-screen special effects. Patty Duke says she has many fond memories of working on \"The Patty Duke Show.\" \"Back then it was very crude, how we did split-screen,\" star Patty Duke said of playing the dual roles of Patty and Cathy Lane in the show, which was developed specifically for her. \"Now with all-digital applications, it looks antique. But the show's values are still what we want to impart on our children.\" The first complete season of \"The Patty Duke Show,\" from 1963 to 1964, is now out on DVD. Duke told CNN that she's excited her five granddaughters will finally be able to see what \"Nana did when she was a teenager.\" \"I am tickled, just tickled,\" she said. In the sitcom, which ran for three seasons on ABC, Patty was a rambunctious teenager who always managed to find herself in some kind of trouble; cousin Cathy was a demure, worldly Scottish teenager who came to New York to live with the Lane family to finish her schooling. Duke, who was not quite 17 when the series began, says it took a lot of energy to play two different characters. She preferred the quieter Cathy, \"because I thought she was dignified and gentle and rational. When it was time to be Patty, I would have to deal with my embarrassment of her stupidity.\" Duke was already a successful actor by the time the sitcom debuted, winning an Oscar for 1962's \"The Miracle Worker\" just months before the show premiered. But she describes herself as sheltered. \"I was a very isolated teenager. When it came time to do some of the school dances [on the show], they had to bring in real teenagers to teach me how,\" she says. \"I didn't know the dances, didn't know the music.\" She says, however, the show was a relief during what were troubled times for her. She wrote about her tormented childhood in her autobiography, \"Call Me Anna,\" discussing her struggles with mental abuse at the hands of her managers, which she says led to alcohol and drug addiction. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she now helps others who have the disease. \"I believe that show [gave me] the tools that helped me survive through my youth until I got my diagnosis,\" Duke said. \"I think 'tormenting' is one of the most perfect words for what you feel [with bipolar disorder], because you have no control over it. I did occasionally, very occasionally, hear voices, but mostly my instincts were messed up: If it was dangerous, then I should do it.\" The show, she said, \"was where I went for safety.\" \"It was a troubled time on the personal level, but the show was never troubled,\" she said. She speaks fondly of her co-stars, especially William Schallert, who played her father, Martin Lane. \"He has always been able to make me laugh until I had to spit up,\" she said of the now 87-year-old actor. \"He was also a solid, solid figure to me and still is. To this day, the relationship has grown, and he is always there for me.\" She remains close to the other surviving members of the cast, including Paul O'Keefe, who played her brother. Jean Byron, who played mother Natalie Lane, died three years ago. Duke was able to transition from child star to adult actor of stage and screen, and she even had a hit single, 1965's \"Don't Just Stand There.\" After \"The Patty Duke Show,\" she played a drug-addicted alcoholic singer in \"Valley of the Dolls\" and won an Emmy for the TV movie \"My Sweet Charlie.\" To date, Duke has won one Academy Award, three Emmys and two Golden Globes. Duke is also acting onstage in the musical \"Wicked\" in San Francisco, California. She plays the witch Madame Morrible, and though she finds the energy for eight shows a week a challenge, she loves the theater. \"To me, it is almost a religious experience, the exchange between those strangers out there in the dark and us,\" she said. \"To me, that's communication at its best, and that's really what I enjoy.\" Duke says she lets little faze her. \"I've gotten to the age where I'm comfortable with just about everything -- except getting old!\" she said. Even there, she's willing to look at the situation without blinking. She teamed up with the Social Security Administration to do public service announcements encouraging seniors to sign up online -- using her old \"Patty Duke Show\" characters. \"On a positive side, I know about acceptance,\" she says. \"What's negative for me is all very superficial. The incredible lines in my face.\" But she says the wisdom that comes with aging -- and, of course, maintaining a sense of humor -- helps her deal with that. \"Without a sense of humor,\" she said, \"I would have been gone a long time ago.\" Patty Lane works for CNN Radio -- and yes, that is her real name.","highlights":"First season of \"The Patty Duke Show\" out on DVD .\nIn program, Duke played identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane .\nDuke remembers show as haven during tough times as teenager .\nActress later was diagnosed as bipolar; she now helps people who have disease ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A pair of tornadoes struck suburban Washington on Sunday, mangling trees and stripping siding off several homes, the National Weather Service confirmed. No injuries were immediately reported. The first tornado hit St. Charles, Maryland -- about 30 miles south of Washington -- just after 2 p.m. It uprooted several trees, many of which fell onto cars and homes. The strongest wind from that touchdown was 80 mph -- enough force to blow out windows. A second tornado followed about 30 minutes later outside Hyattsville, Maryland -- about 10 miles northeast of the capital. The high-speed winds, peaking at 100 mph, hit the George E. Peters Adventist School especially hard, tearing off a portion of the roof and flinging it and mounds of debris into the parking lot. A nearby construction trailer was also knocked over. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"First tornado hit St. Charles, Maryland, about 30 miles south of Washington .\nSecond tornado struck 30 minutes later outside Hyattsville, Maryland .\nNo injuries were immediately reported ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States successfully tested a sea-based component of its missile defense shield Thursday evening, intercepting a ballistic missile with a dummy warhead over the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said. A dummy missile is launched from a ship during a 2008 test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The exercise was the 19th successful test in 23 attempts of the system -- known as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program -- since 2002. A target missile was fired from Hawaii about 5:40 p.m. (11:40 p.m. ET) and was tracked by Navy ships hundreds of miles away. The USS Hopper, one of three Navy ships tracking the launch, fired an interceptor missile, which struck the target about 100 miles above the Earth. The process -- from launch to shoot-down -- took less than five minutes, according to the U.S. military. The United States plans to use the sea-based system on Navy Aegis-class ships to protect against incoming short- to medium-range missiles fired from hostile countries. Eighty-six of the ships eventually will have the capability. Another part of the missile defense protection -- ground-based midcourse defense -- is designed to strike at long-range missiles. Both the sea-based and ground-based systems are part of the Pentagon's \"layered\" missile defense plan. Much of the missile defense program is still under development, including lasers fired from a plane that the military hopes would destroy an enemy missile during launch. Other parts of the missile defense would fire short-range missiles at incoming warheads that are close to hitting their targets. Over the past seven years, the U.S. military has spent billions of dollars on the missile defense program. Pentagon officials have said that each missile defense test costs about $85 million.","highlights":"Ship-based system shoots down dummy missile from hundreds of miles away .\nAegis Ballistic Missile Defense has 19 successful tests in 23 tries, agency says .\nMore than 80 U.S. Navy ships eventually will be equipped with system ."} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Interpol is chasing more than 200 leads on the potential identity of a pedophile suspected of molesting young boys, just one day after launching a global manhunt. Interpol has launched a global appeal to find this man, accused of abusing young boys. The organization, which facilitates global cooperation among police agencies, said its Web site logged 30 times more visitors than in an average day after it made its plea for the public's help Tuesday. Interpol is trying to locate a man who is pictured sexually abusing young boys in hundreds of images on the Internet. \"'The public's response has been very positive,\" said Kristin Kvigne, assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings unit, in a news release. \"The smallest piece of information from anywhere in the world could be crucial in identifying this man.\" The man is featured in 100 photographs sexually abusing at least three boys between the ages of six and 10, Interpol said. The organization posted six pictures of the suspect on its Web site. The pictures came to light in 2006, when Norwegian authorities discovered them in the possession of a man they arrested. Watch a report on Interpol's man-hunt \u00bb . \"While these images were only discovered two years ago, we believe the photographs were taken between April 2000 and May 2001, so clearly this man will be older than he appears in the pictures,\" said Kvigne. Last October, Interpol disseminated pictures of another man whose face appeared in more than 200 images of sex acts with children. It dubbed its operation Vico, because the images were thought to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ten days later, Christopher Paul Neil -- a 32-year-old Canadian man who had been working as an English-language teacher in South Korea -- was arrested in Thailand and charged with child abuse. Following the success of that operation, the organization's general assembly approved a resolution allowing Interpol to seek public help in child sex abuse investigations.","highlights":"NEW: Interpol chasing 200 new leads in global manhunt for serial pedophile .\nInterpol Web site logged 30 times more visitors than in an average day .\n100 photographs show man sexually abusing at least three boys aged 6 to 10 .\nInterpol issued appeal for first time in October, arrest made after 10 days ."} -{"article":"WESTERPLATTE, Poland (CNN) -- On a sand swept stretch of Afghanistan, a high-ranking Polish general put his country's mission there into perspective. The repurcussions of World War II lasted decades for Poland. He explained to a NATO delegation that Polish troops remind Afghan locals of two things about the mission: They are not Soviets and they know how difficult it is to live under foreign occupation. It is hard to ignore the incomparable price Poland paid during World War II. It was attacked by Germany, invaded by the Soviets, and became home to the notorious Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. After six brutal years, Poles were the victors in war but losers in peace, living for four decades under Soviet repression. Many here will tell you they still have not come to terms with their fate after the war. Seven decades after the start of World War II, the conflict still defines Polish identity and history. September 1, 2009 in Westerplatte, Poland turned out to be a blue sky day even as dignitaries and notably the leaders of Poland, Russia and Germany turned out to remember the dark horrors that so changed their histories. The leaders laid wreaths to honor the 'Defenders of Westerplatte', the men who died in the battle that started it all. It was here at this strategic port on the Baltic Sea, Danzig, now Gdansk, that Nazi Germany's surprise attack on Poland triggered six years of bloodletting, a savage Holocaust and the death of more than 50 million people. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called it a war against humanity itself. Tusk also answered critics who felt his country and the world should now move on from World War II. He warned that if anniversaries are not marked and ceremonies not planned, there may be nothing to shield us from the brutality of future wars. But still today the events of the last 70 years have left their mark and fueled some modern day controversies. Send us your war stories . Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tried to appeal directly to the people of Poland in an open letter. He reminded them that at least 27 million Russians died in the conflict but also warned against equating the Soviet Union's role in World War II with the menace of Hitler's Nazism. \"..exploiting memory, anatomizing history and seeking pretexts for mutual complaints and resentment causes a lot of harm. \" wrote Putin. He backed that up with public comments saying, \"If we talk about an objective assessment of history, we should understand that it had no one color. It was varied and there were huge number of mistakes committed by many sides. All these actions, in one way or another, created conditions for the beginning of a large-scale aggression by Nazi Germany.\" Putin was at the heart of a tug-of-war over the war. Some Poles say Stalin was as evil and complicit as Hitler during the war. Russians say that callously overlooks the sacrifice of Russians in defeating Nazism and liberating Europe. In fact, it took German Chancellor Angela Merkel to put their achievement in perspective. She said that a unified, peaceful Europe was a blessing and indeed a miracle.","highlights":"Poland helped win the war but lost the peace .\nIt was invaded by Germany but put under Soviet influence after the war .\n70 years from the start of WWII, the war still defines Polish identity and history .\nPolish military says its history helps its work in Afghanistan ."} -{"article":"Alexandria, Virginia (CNN) -- Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on 11 counts of corruption. Jefferson was also ordered to forfeit more than $470,000 after his conviction for using his office to solicit bribes. He will also have to pay $1,100 in special assessments. The case against the former nine-term Louisiana Democrat included allegations of influence-peddling and the discovery of $90,000 in cash in his freezer. Judge T.S. Ellis will determine at a hearing next Wednesday whether Jefferson will remain free pending appeal. Until then, he is free. \"The court's sentence today reaffirms the principle that all people -- no matter what their title or position -- are equal before the law,\" said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman in a statement. \"In a stunning betrayal of the public's trust, former Congressman Jefferson repeatedly used his public office for private gain. The lengthy prison sentence imposed on Mr. Jefferson today is a stark reminder to all public officials that the consequences of accepting bribes can and will be severe.\" Jefferson's family was in the courtroom when District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. He had faced up to 150 years in prison. \"This sentence should be a clear signal that our society will not tolerate bribery,\" U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in a written statement. \"It's not just another cost of doing business in government. \"Mr. Jefferson's repeated attempts to sell his office caused significant damage to the public's trust in our elected leaders. This sentence will begin to repair that damage and to restore that trust. \"Mr. Jefferson is well-known for the $90,000 found in his freezer. It is our hope that he will now be well-known for the tough sentence handed down today, showing that no one -- including our elected officials -- are above the law.\" Jefferson, of New Orleans, still faces the forfeiture of nearly $500,000 -- money a jury said is linked to criminal activity for which he has been convicted. On August 5, a jury found Jefferson guilty on four bribery counts, three counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering. He was acquitted on five other counts, including wire fraud and obstruction of justice. He had remained free prior to Friday's sentencing. Jefferson was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 4, 2007, about two years after federal agents said they found the money in his freezer. Authorities said the cash was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on video. The trial was delayed while it was resolved whether an FBI search of Jefferson's congressional office was constitutional. Defense attorney Robert Trout had asked the judge for leniency, citing Jefferson's personal history of humble beginnings and long-standing public service. Prosecutors, in turn, filed a response saying Jefferson deserved no preferential treatment since he \"still chose to cheat, steal and lie.\" \"Congressman Jefferson has still not accepted responsibility for his own criminal conduct,\" prosecutors wrote. He \"still rationalizes his own unethical, illegal and immoral conduct.\" CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Jefferson remains free at least until Wednesday hearing .\nEx-Rep. William Jefferson gets 13 years in prison, 3 years' supervised release .\nThe former Louisiana Democratic congressman faced up to a 150-year sentence .\nIn August, Jefferson found guilty of bribery, money laundering, wire fraud, racketeering ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Renee Pernice, a 35-year-old mother of two young children, vanished from her home in Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after New Year's this year. She hasn't been heard from since. Renee Pernice is pictured here with her two sons and husband, Shon. Police believe foul play is involved, yet they have not found her body. No one has been arrested in the case. Police have not named her husband, Shon Pernice, as a person of interest or a suspect in the case. However, \"he's the last known person to see her alive,\" said Doug Niemeier, a sergeant with the Kansas City Police Department. Six months after Renee Pernice disappeared, police say they still have questions about her husband in the days after her disappearance, including why he allegedly accessed a local fire department's hazardous materials building around 4:30 a.m. January 3. \"It should be noted that multiple types of cleaners, solvents and cleaning supplies are stored at Station #5,\" a police affidavit says. Attorneys for Shon Pernice declined to comment for this story. Police and family say Renee was pursuing a divorce around the time she disappeared. A local firefighter, Shon Pernice has said he was not involved in her disappearance. He told a local activist in March that \"I didn't harm my wife one bit. Not at all.\" In that interview, one of the few in which he's referenced his wife's disappearance, he added, \"It's gut-wrenching thinking that either she's got a rich-ass doctor boyfriend somewhere and she's happy, or she's dead.\" Since his wife disappeared, Shon Pernice has been arrested twice on unrelated charges: once for allegedly stealing a neighbor's gun and another time for disturbing the peace in an incident with that same neighbor this past July Fourth weekend. \"As everybody knows, my wife has been missing since January 2,\" he told CNN affiliate KCTV5. \"This is what it stems from. Basically what the media ... has portrayed of me -- of the whole situation. There's a lot of people that don't like me.\" The couple's two sons, ages 6 and 9, remain in the care of the father, although Renee Pernice's mother has sought custody of them. \"There is a lot that just isn't right,\" said Rick Pretz, the missing woman's father. \"It's not a stable environment for the children.\" Renee Pernice was known for being a caring mother, a talented nurse at St. Luke's Hospital and a gentle animal lover always surrounded by dogs. Neighbors say they last saw her in her backyard with her dogs the morning of Friday, January 2, 2009. When police searched the home, they say they found her purse, coat and other items still in the house. Her car was in the garage. Police say her cell phone was missing from the house. A homeless man found the phone in grass about 15 miles from her home, in an area Renee Pernice was not known to frequent, police say. It was found around midnight January 3, the affidavit says. Since then, police and volunteer teams have searched the area extensively, but they have found nothing. \"Family members and common friends of both Shon and Renee told police that Renee was not the kind of mother who would separate herself from her children for any reason,\" the affidavit says. \"Family members advised that finding Renee's purse at the residence was highly unusual as she never went anywhere without her purse.\" According to the affidavit, investigators watched Shon Pernice drive away from the home with his wife's dog and drop it off at a park a few days after he reported his wife missing. The affidavit also alleges that a drop of blood was found in the garage. However, authorities have not released whether it matched Renee Pernice or her husband. According to Renee Pernice's family, she was not the kind of person to take off on her own without letting her family know where she was. \"I spoke to her just the night before at 7 p.m. on the phone,\" her father told CNN. \"She would never leave her two sons like this.\" The family is offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the whereabouts of Renee Pernice. A white truck that could be related to her disappearance was captured on a surveillance tape in the area where her cell phone was found, and police have released a photo of it. Anyone who may have lent such a truck at the time the surveillance image was taken is being asked to come forward. Renee Pernice is white, stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall, and has brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information is urged to call the Kansas City Police Department at 1-816-474-TIPS. CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Renee Pernice disappeared from her home shortly after New Year's this year .\nPolice believe foul play is involved, although they have not found a body .\nPolice say her husband accessed a HazMat building shortly after she disappeared .\nAttorneys for husband, Shon Pernice, declined comment for this report ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- There is an old adage which goes something like this: \"The cheap man always pays more in the long run.\" Consumer Reports analyzed the cost of ownership across the 300 models in their database. Consumer Reports magazine recently reached a similar conclusion when it announced the results of a study that compared the cost of ownership of more than 300 cars. Consumer Reports noted that a car with a cheaper sticker price can often cost consumers more in the long run when compared to a higher-priced alternative. The report, which appeared in Consumer Reports' Annual April Auto Issue, was based on a comparison of the 300 models in the Consumer Reports database. In short, the report concluded that a car's sticker price is one of many factors that should be taken into account when trying to decide between two cars in the same class. For example, at about $17,500, a Mitsubishi Lancer is priced $5,000 less than a Mini Cooper. But when factoring in the total costs of ownership for each vehicle, the Lancer could cost drivers about $3,000 more to own over the first five years, according to the study. And the purchase price of a Toyota Highlander is about $3,000 more than a V6 Ford Explorer -- but the Explorer's total cost of ownership is an extra $6,500 over those five years. The study took into account such factors as depreciation, fuel costs, interest paid on the car loan, insurance, maintenance, repair costs and sales tax. Online subscribers to www.ConsumerReports.org can compare the costs for one, three, five and eight years of ownership. \"We think this information is valuable for consumers who have shopped around, and settled on a couple of different cars they like, and then have to decide on one or the other,\" noted Cliff Weathers, Consumer Reports' deputy editor, autos. \"We're giving this information to the consumer to use as a tool to help them make that decision, a tie-breaker, if you will. \"If they're trying to decide between a Pontiac Solstice and Mazda Miata, for example, they can go to our Web site and find out which one will cost less to own over that five-year period. And in this particular case, the answer would be the Miata -- which was one of the least expensive cars to own of all the cars evaluated in our survey.\" Depreciation was factored into the estimates based on the assumption that the vehicle will eventually be traded in when buyers make their next car purchase. \"Depreciation is the factor that accounts for the highest cost of ownership,\" Weathers explained. \"Depreciation accounts for 48 percent of the cost of ownership over the first five years.\" Different models depreciate faster, and more significantly, than others. In order to calculate depreciation for this owner-cost comparison, Consumer Reports started with the price that a typically-equipped model generally sells for. If a particular model often sells at a largely-discounted price that was also factored in. Consumer Reports then deducted the wholesale trade-in value of the car at the end of the period, based on data from their Used Car Price Service, Weathers explained. In those cases when Consumer Reports didn't have depreciation data for a new model, it used estimates based on comparable vehicles. The Fuel Factor . The second-biggest factor in cost-of-ownership, after depreciation, is fuel costs, which account for 21 percent of the total ownership costs. \"Fuel economy can really make a big difference,\" Weathers said. \"If you have a car that gets 25 miles per gallon, and another car that gets 19 miles per gallon, that's a potential difference of thousands of dollars over five years, if you're driving 12,000 miles a year.\" Consumer Reports calculated fuel costs by assuming that the vehicles would be driven 12,000 miles a year -- the average annual mileage reported by those who responded to Consumer Reports' annual reader survey. Consumer Reports then applied the national average price of regular gas as of December 2007 or, if applicable, the price of premium or diesel fuel. Fuel costs were an especially big factor with SUVs, the comparison revealed. Drivers who buy a Dodge Nitro could pay more than $10,000 to fill up the tank over a five-year period, for example. But the fuel costs for a similar-sized, more fuel-efficient Toyota RAV4 V6 would be $2,000 less during that period. Consumer Reports' comparison also concluded that interest paid on car loans accounts for about 12 percent of five-year ownership costs. That figure is based on a five-year loan, with a 15 percent down payment, using the average interest rate of 6.86 percent reported by Bankrate.com in December 2007. Auto insurance accounts for about 11 percent of total ownership costs over five years, according to the Consumer Reports comparison. Car insurance costs can vary depending on several factors such as the driver's age, location, and driving record. Auto insurance costs, in some cases, dramatically boosted the ownership costs of models that otherwise boasted reasonable ownership costs. As an example, Weathers compared the difference in auto insurance rates for Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and a similarly-priced Acura TL. \"Insurance for the Lancer can cost you $2,500 a year or more, based our 2007 figures,\" notes Weathers. \"Meanwhile, the annual car insurance rates for the Acura TL can cost as little as $900.\" Maintenance & Repairs . Surprisingly, maintenance and car repairs account for only four percent of the cost of ownership, Weathers said. The maintenance and repair cost figures used in Consumer Reports' cost of ownership comparison were based on information gleaned from more than a million respondents in its annual Car Reliability Survey. One notable conclusion reached in the Consumer Reports study is that Lexus models have relatively high maintenance and repair costs -- primarily due to maintenance alone, even though Lexus owners reported excellent reliability. The Lexus ES350 racks up an average of $2,300 in maintenance and repair in the first five years. Meanwhile, owners of a comparable Lincoln MKZ can expect to pay only half that much. Another interesting tidbit discovered in the comparison is that the Range Rover is the most expensive vehicle on average for five and eight years when it comes to maintenance and repairs, costing about $2,000 in the fifth year alone. Meanwhile, the comparable Toyota Land Cruiser costs only $600 in that year to maintain and repair. Some might be surprised to hear that the sales tax on the purchase price of the vehicle accounts for as much of the cost of ownership as maintenance and repairs. For its study, Consumer Reports used the national average of 4.83 percent in 2007. With hybrid cars being a hot topic in the auto industry, Consumer Reports was also interested in the cost of owning one of those fuel-sipping vehicles. The report concluded that Toyota Prius hybrid actually costs less to own than similar conventional models. Specifically, the sale price of a Prius is about $7,500 higher than a similarly-sized Chevrolet Cobalt, but the total cost of ownership over five years is almost $2,000 less - due primarily to its much lower fuel costs, although the amount of depreciation was a factor as well. Weathers pointed to another interesting finding: \"There are some vehicles, namely BMW, that are very inexpensive to own over first five years, because all of the maintenance is paid for during that period, under the warranty,\" he says. \"But if we take it forward, the cost of maintenance and repairs over the next three years after that is going to be more expensive.\" For more information on this study, visit www.ConsumerReports.org. To compare vehicle prices and specs for yourself, check out the AOL Autos Compare Cars tool. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A car with a cheaper sticker price can often cost consumers more in the long run .\nReport based on comparison of the 300 models in Consumer Reports database .\nSecond-biggest factor in cost-of-ownership, after depreciation, is fuel costs .\nMaintenance and car repairs account for only four percent of the cost of ownership ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When iReporter Carlos Ortega evacuated Galveston's West End last week, there was a road, a row of houses and about 150 feet of sand between his house and the water. Now the surf laps about 30 feet from his door. iReporter Carlos Ortega says there's \"not an inch that isn't damaged\" in his Galveston, Texas, neighborhood. Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas city over the weekend, and Gov. Rick Perry said it could be weeks before residents could return. \"There's substantial structural damage, obviously ... (no) electrical power,\" he said. \"It's going to be a while.\" Ortega, a professor at the University of Houston, and his partner walked about six miles down the beach on Sunday and said there's \"not an inch that isn't damaged.\" iReport.com: See Ortega's home before and after Ike . He said one beachfront house was knocked off its stilts and was lying on the ground like an amusement park funhouse. A dead cow washed in front of another home. \"It was pretty depressing and devastating to see how everything was just torn up,\" he said. \"People's lives and houses were just torn up.\" All but two of the houses on the \"front row,\" nearest the beach, in their Bermuda Beach subdivision were destroyed, he said. \"You wouldn't know there was a house there.\" \"The house across the street from us is completely gone, and there's no trace of it,\" he said. The first floor of their house is covered with 3 to 4 feet of sand and debris, including huge chunks of asphalt from the road that ran in front of the house. \"We don't keep anything of value down there,\" he said, because people expect to get high water occasionally. There were some windows out on the second level, but they did not have much water damage. Ortega said the storm washed a Jet Ski out of the garage and dumped it about five blocks away. iReport.com: Have you been home after Ike? Share your story . It still worked, Ortega said, but was stuck in the sand. Ortega rode out the storm at his house in Houston, which also suffered some damage. \"The expectation was that it was going to be like three years ago when the last storm (Rita) came through, and it was so much worse,\" he said. iReporter Matteu Erchull stayed on Galveston Island during the storm. \"I think everybody downplayed the severity of the storm, including myself,\" he said, adding that he didn't regret staying. iReport.com: Ike passes over Galveston iReporter . After the storm, he put on his fishing waders and helped rescue some of his neighbors. \"Some people literally hid in their attics. Right after the storm, you go into these areas, and they were just helpless,\" the former Eagle Scout said. \"They were just waiting.\" Nearly 2,000 people who did not evacuate have been rescued along the southeastern Texas coast, said Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Office of Homeland Security. On Sunday, a Galveston County sheriff's official said three bodies were pulled from storm wreckage in Port Bolivar, bringing to 10 the number of reported deaths in Texas linked to Ike. Erchull said he got through the storm OK, but most of his stuff was ruined. \"I lost everything. Water rose up to about 10 feet. Got into everything and flooded everything I had,\" he said. He said he tried to wash his clothes, but he just couldn't get the smell out. \"The smell was just this really musky moldy wet smell, it's really hard to explain. Imagine leaving your clothes accidentally in the washer for 10 days, it's just disgusting,\" he said. Erchull said there's no power on the island, and the National Guard was going door-to-door asking people to leave. He went to Dallas, where he was up all night telling his friends what had happened and what to expect when they get back. \"It's hard to tell people that there's not much to go back to,\" he said.","highlights":"Galveston residents may not be able to come home for weeks .\niReporter Carlos Ortega says beachfront houses are gone in his neighborhood .\niReporter Matteu Erchull rode out storm and lost everything .\nAre you cleaning up after Ike? Share photos, videos ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A Boston police officer is suing the city after he was suspended for referring to a black Harvard professor as a \"banana-eating jungle monkey\" in an e-mail. Boston police Officer Justin Barrett apologized for his e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. \"If I'm charged with a crime I want a chance to answer. I want the chance for a fair hearing,\" Officer Justin Barrett told CNN on Tuesday. Barrett has apologized and denied he is a racist. His lawsuit claims his civil rights have been violated; Barrett's lawyer said the words referring to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were misinterpreted. \"The choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize professor Gates as a banana-eating jungle monkey,\" attorney Peter Marano said. \"They were meant in a response to behavior and characterizing the behavior. Not the person as a whole.\" Marano said the city had effectively fired Barrett, though he is officially suspended with pay. He said it was fair to hold Barrett to a higher standard than the general public because he is a police officer, but that he was still entitled to express his opinions. \"Being held to a higher standard shouldn't eradicate his right under the First Amendment for free speech. That is part and parcel of the lawsuit,\" the lawyer said. Gates was arrested at his house last month when a neighbor called police after she thought she saw a man trying to break into Gates' home. The man turned out to be Gates himself, who was attempting to free a jammed door. The incident sparked a national debate about race and policing, drawing in President Obama himself. Obama, who is a friend of Gates, said the officer who arrested the professor \"acted stupidly,\" but then withdrew the comment, saying he did not know all the facts when he spoke. He hosted Gates and Sgt. James Crowley for a beer at the White House to calm the tensions. Barrett later sent a mass e-mail about the encounter to other officers and to the Boston Globe newspaper. Barrett was suspended from his military duties as captain in the Army National Guard and placed on administrative leave from the Boston Police Department pending the outcome of a termination hearing. Barrett said he was moved to write the note because he believed a Boston Globe column about Gates' arrest \"seemed like it was biased.\" \"It did not show the roles and duties of a police officer and how dangerous it already is without having a debate about people getting in a police officer's face, which should never happen at all.\" Asked what led him to choose to use such language, he said, \"I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I have no idea.\" He added, in response to a question, that he had never used such language before. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis denounced the e-mail. Barrett used the \"jungle monkey\" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once to the Boston Globe column. He also declared that he was \"not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] toward people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers.\" According to a statement from Boston police, Davis took action immediately on learning of Barrett's remarks, stripping the officer of his gun and his badge. Barrett's arrests and investigations will be reviewed for indications of racial bias, Davis said. The department will also look closely at the officers who received or viewed the e-mail.","highlights":"Officer suspended for referring to black prof as a \"banana-eating jungle monkey\"\nJustin Barrett wrote e-mail talking about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates .\nBarrett is suing city of Boston, saying suspension violates his civil rights .\nGates was arrested at his house after police thought he was breaking in ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He felt lonely, said he hadn't had a girlfriend since 1984. He said his father didn't love him. And he detailed plans to kill young women. The gunman, George Sodini, apparently left behind an online diary that detailed his loneliness. George Sodini, the 48-year-old man police blame for killing three women and wounding 10 others in a suburban Pittsburgh gym, left behind an online diary that is as shocking in places as it is profane in others. It offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a suspected killer who police say walked into an aerobics class, turned off the lights and fired more than 50 rounds from multiple handguns. \"Why do this?? To young girls? Just read below. I kept a running log that includes my thoughts and actions after I saw this project was going to drag on,\" the diary begins. Watch how Sodini may have targeted a woman \u00bb . It seems almost formatted, like a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, with Sodini's date of birth and date of death. The date of death is listed as Tuesday, the day of the shootings at an LA Fitness center outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Read an edited version of the diary (PDF) A law enforcement source who identified the shooter said Sodini was a member of the gym. The source provided a month and year of the suspect's birth that matches the month and year listed for Sodini in the online diary. The Web site where the diary appears is registered to George Sodini of Pittsburgh. It lists an address in or near Scott Township; the law enforcement source said Sodini lived in Scott Township. Throughout the log, Sodini refers to a shooting that he is planning as an \"exit plan.\" His first entry is November 5, 2008. \"Planned to do this in the summer but figure to stick around to see the election outcome,\" it says. The December 22 entry says: \"Time is moving along. Planned to have this done already. I will just keep a running log here as time passes. Many of the young girls here look so beautiful as to not be human, very edible. After joining this gym, started lifting weights and like it.\" Two days later came an entry about loneliness. \"Moving into Christmas again. No girlfriend since 1984, last Christmas with Pam was in 1983. Who knows why. I am not ugly or too weird. No sex since July 1990 either (I was 29).\" By December 26, the writer seems to have picked a date. \"I will shoot for Tuesday, January 6, 2009, at maybe 8:15. I have list of to-do items to make.\" In an entry dated January 5, he laments, \"Every evening I am alone, and then go to bed alone. ... Why should I continue another 20+ years alone? I will just work, come home, eat, maybe do something, then go to bed (alone) for the next day of the same thing. This is the Auschwitz Syndrome, to be in serious pain for so long one thinks it is normal. I cannot wait for tomorrow!\" Then he loses his nerve. \"It is 8:45PM,\" reads an entry dated January 6. \"I chickened out! [Expletive] I brought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!\" A May 5 entry outlines a technique. \"To pull the exit plan off, it popped into my mind to just use some booze,\" the entry reads. \"After the gym, I stopped at Shop N Save and got a fifth of vodka and a small bottle of Jack Daniels.\" The diary recounts a failure with women and a growing anger. \"There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one,\" a May 18 entry reads. \"Not one of them finds me attractive. These problems have gotten worse over a 30-year period. I need to expect nothing from me or other people.\" The entry from Monday recounts practice for a shooting. \"I took off today, Monday, and tomorrow to practice my routine and make sure it is well polished. I need to work out every detail, there is only one shot. Also I need to be completely immersed into something before I can be successful.\" The next day, around 8 p.m., a gunman with a gym bag strode into the LA Fitness gym, turned off the lights and started shooting without saying a word, police said. Investigators found his body lying atop one of his guns, about 7 feet from a woman he shot.","highlights":"George Sodini, 48, is accused of killing three women, himself at gym .\nOnline journal called \"a running log that includes my thoughts and actions\"\nDiary says of January attempt to pull off \"exit plan\": \"I chickened out!\"\nJack Daniels, vodka purchased in May to pull off plan, journal says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One week in Darfur, the next week at the White House. That's the role of a peace activist -- one that actor George Clooney embraces. Actor George Clooney met with Vice President Joe Biden on Monday to discuss bringing peace to Darfur. His battle to bring peace to Darfur brought him to the White House on Monday, where he met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. The actor appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" later on Monday to discuss his activism. \"I actually met with the president in the Oval Office for about 15 minutes,\" Clooney told King, adding that they'd worked together on Darfur three years ago, holding a news conference on the issue when Obama was a U.S. senator. The actor met separately with Biden on Monday. \"They've been very involved\" in Darfur, Clooney said. \"Vice President Biden has been incredibly vocal on the issue.\" Clooney, a longtime Darfur activist and a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations, was in Darfur last week with journalists Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and Ann Curry of NBC. \"I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth,\" Clooney told King of his visit. The government of Darfur has waged a brutal counter-insurgency against militias for the past six years, a war that some international critics have characterized as genocide. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the United Nations. An additional 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and the allied Janjaweed militias. Clooney said of his conversations with Obama and Biden: \"Basically, we were just talking about coming back from Chad and right on the border of Darfur. And we were talking about there's a moment coming up relatively soon -- probably by the middle of next week -- where the International Criminal Court is going to indict the president of Sudan for war crimes, which has never happened before -- a sitting president.\" Last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court for the government's campaign of violence in Darfur. The violence erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Khartoum government. Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. Under pressure to end the fighting, Al-Bashir in November agreed to an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Darfur. \"This isn't about needing American dollars,\" Clooney said of the push for peace in Darfur. \"I understand that it's a very difficult time. It's not about needing American troops. It's about needing what we do best -- what we have done best since the start of this country -- which is good, robust diplomacy all across the world.\" The priorities, as Clooney advocated to Obama and Biden: . -- An envoy working full time on bringing peace to Darfur -- someone \"getting up every morning with their sole job to find peace in the area,\" he said. -- Persuading China to leverage its investment muscle in Darfur to push for peace. -- Pressing Egypt, the African Union and Europe to strengthen diplomatic efforts in the region. \"Diplomacy has to start and it has to be aggressive and it has to start soon. We have an opportunity here,\" Clooney said.","highlights":"\"This isn't about needing American dollars,\" Clooney says of helping Darfur .\nActor calls for full-time envoy to bring peace for refugees 'hanging on by a thread'\nOf Darfur, Clooney tells Obama and Biden \"we have an opportunity here\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Charles Wolf watched President Obama's speech on Afghanistan, he nearly broke down in tears. He doesn't have a son or daughter headed off to war. But to him, his wife of 12 years was a war casualty: She was killed on September 11. When Obama described the attacks \"and he described how the whole world was with us, it emotionally took me right back to that moment,\" Wolf said. \"It was all I could do to keep from totally losing it.\" Wolf's wife, Katherine, worked as an executive assistant for Marsh & McLennan on the 97th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. She sent an e-mail just two minutes before the first plane hit. \"Her office took a direct hit by the plane, and she was vaporized. There was nothing ever found of her,\" Wolf said. It's been eight years since the attacks of September 11 killed 2,976 people. A lot of memories have faded, Wolf said, but he still thinks of the little things: \"holding her hand, falling asleep next to her, waking up next to her, the companionship, the partnership.\" \"She was great.\" And so Wolf was glued to his television Tuesday for Obama's speech. He wanted to hear from the president how the nation is going to finish the job in what Wolf calls \"the womb of 9\/11.\" \"To address these issues,\" Obama said, \"it is important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. \"They struck at our military and economic nerve centers. They took the lives of innocent men, women and children without regard to their faith or race or station. Were it not for the heroic actions of the passengers on board one of those flights, they could have also struck at one of the great symbols of our democracy in Washington and killed many more.\" Those words brought it all home: the memories of his wife with the beautiful smile and short-cropped red hair. \"I was biting my lip,\" he said. That said, Wolf is critical of the president's strategy, mostly his announcement to begin withdrawing the American contingent in July 2011. \"That is a tactical and strategic mistake,\" he said. \"If you're playing chess, do you tell your opponent your next move? \"To broadcast that for the sake of politics, to me, that is very wrong.\" And so he was divided: pleased about the renewed commitment to the Afghanistan war but upset by the planned pullout date. iReport: Share your views on Afghanistan . Veteran New York firefighter Lee Ielpi lost his son, Jonathan, a fellow firefighter, on September 11. \"I support President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan and the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban,\" he said. A combat veteran of Vietnam, Ielpi added, \"The president and Congress need to ensure America has a clear strategy for our military in order to not repeat the strategic mistakes of Vietnam. I also strongly believe our country needs to do more to support returning veterans.\" The office of Joe Daniels overlooks ground zero, an every-day reminder of what happened on September 11, 2001. He was standing outside the Twin Towers when they were hit. Daniels is now the president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, charged with the monumental task of building a living tribute to those who perished that day. \"In the aftermath of 9\/11, there were a lot of citizens who signed up to do what they felt was a patriotic duty to respond to what happened, and many of them went to Afghanistan,\" Daniels said. \"So I think it's important that we don't forget that the history of 9\/11 is still being written. There are still a lot of important things that have to be done in Afghanistan.\" He added, \"After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, we lapsed into complacency. And to have a focus on finishing what needs to be done, I think, is important. We can't fall back into that sense of isolation and complacency.\" Wolf agreed. By returning in force to Afghanistan, he said, \"We are going in now to keep ourselves from being attacked again. \"This is not a war of choice,\" Wolf said. \"This is a war of necessity.\" He hopes the American people understand that. It's why he can hardly speak when he sees U.S. soldiers in uniform. \"I am so grateful of the fact that they will lay their lives on the line for us,\" he said. For military families who will soon send their loved ones off to Afghanistan, Wolf said, \"Thank you. It's all you can say. Thank you for making the decision to do it. Thank you for loving your country.\" \"I just ask every person out there if it was your wife who went to work one day and never came home,\" he said, \"would you do anything to make sure it doesn't happen again?\" Wolf paused at the end of the conversation and said simply: \"We have to remember 9\/11.\"","highlights":"Time to go after \"womb of 9\/11,\" says man who lost his wife .\nCharles Wolf says he's pleased by Afghan focus, upset by withdrawal plan .\nFirefighter who lost son on 9\/11: Nation must not repeat Vietnam .\nHead of 9\/11 memorial says nation can't fall back into isolation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas grand jury indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on sexual assault charges, and five of his followers also face a variety of charges, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said. Members of the polygamous FLDS revere jailed leader Warren Jeffs as their prophet. Jeffs was charged in the Tuesday indictment with sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony. A conviction on the charge could mean a maximum penalty of five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of $10,000, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the attorney general. Jeffs, 52, is the so-called leader and \"prophet\" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which broke off from mainstream Mormonism in the 1890s over the practice of polygamy. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at its Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Texas, and in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line: Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Jeffs is accused in the indictment of assaulting a child \"younger than 17 years of age and not legally married to the defendant\" in January 2005. The alleged victim, whose name is redacted on the document, \"was a person who the defendant was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom the defendant was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married\" under Texas law. The indictments, which were handed down by a grand jury in San Angelo, Texas, also charge four of Jeffs' followers with single counts of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 17. One of the four also faces a count of bigamy. A fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse. The Texas attorney general's office was cooperating with other agencies to ensure the five others would be taken into custody, Fillpot said. Their names have not been made public, and only Jeffs' indictment has been released. Jeffs has been in custody since August 2006, when he was arrested during a routine traffic stop after spending several months on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list. Jeffs is serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison on accomplice to rape charges in Utah for his role in the marriage of a sect member to his 14-year-old cousin. He is being held Arizona while he awaits trial on similar charges. It was not immediately clear when Jeffs would be brought to Texas. Authorities seized more than 400 children in April during a raid on the Texas ranch. The children were returned to their families after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove the children and lacked evidence to show they faced imminent danger of abuse. In May, DNA samples were taken from Jeffs as part of a criminal investigation into allegations that he \"spiritually\" married four girls ranging in age from 12 to 15, authorities said. A search warrant seeking the DNA samples said marital records -- known as bishop's records -- from the ranch show that Jeffs married a 14-year-old girl on January 18, 2004, in Utah. The records showed that Jeffs \"married\" two 12-year-olds and a 14-year-old at the YFZ Ranch, according to the search warrant. One of the 12-year-olds, believed to have married Jeffs on July 27, 2006, was sexually assaulted by Jeffs later that day, the search warrant said. The warrant made reference to pictures of Jeffs with his alleged underage brides. In one photograph, the warrant states, he is kissing one of the 12-year-olds. In another, he is shown with a 15-year-old wife at the birth of their child in October 2004. Authorities had said the DNA samples would determine whether he is the father of the children born to underage mothers. FLDS spokesman Rod Parker, who is vacationing in Colorado this week, had no immediate comment on the indictment Tuesday. \"As far as an indictment of Warren Jeffs, I'd want to know a little more before I start talking about it,\" he said. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on polygamy and the need for a \"coordinated state and federal response,\" according to an agenda. Carolyn Jessop, a former FLDS member who recently wrote a book about leaving her marriage and the sect, is scheduled to testify, along with federal prosecutors, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and the attorneys general of Texas and Arizona.","highlights":"NEW: Jeffs faces anywhere from five years to life on new charge in Texas .\nJeffs charged with the sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony .\nFive of his followers face charges ranging from assault to failing to report child abuse .\nProsecutors say Jeffs married underage girls, had intimate relations with them ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities on Saturday released the names of three more victims found last week in or around the home of a registered sex offender in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office identified the bodies of Amelda Hunter, 47; Crystal Dozier, 38; and Michelle Mason, 45, all of Cleveland. Anthony Sowell, who served 15 years after pleading guilty to attempted rape in a 1989 case, was arrested last week, two days after police discovered the first bodies at his home. He faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping, police said, and was denied bond at a hearing Wednesday. Police have discovered the bodies of 10 people and skull of an 11th victim at or near Sowell's home. Authorities have identified seven of the victims. Remains of six victims were found inside the home. police said, and five outside. The skull was wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement, police said. Hunter was not reported as a missing person at the time of the discovery of the victim's bodies at Sowell's residence, according to the Cleveland Police Department. Her family reported her missing on November 3, telling police that she was last seen on or about April 18. Dozier also was never reported missing to police. She was reportedly last seen in October 2007, police said. Mason was reported missing on October 12, 2008. She was last seen earlier that month, according to police. At the time, it was reported that Mason suffered from bipolar disorder and was not taking her prescribed medications, police said. Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after a grand jury files an indictment, she said. Sowell is being held in a solitary cell in the Cuyahoga County jail, wearing a white paper gown, County Jail Warden Kevin McDonough told CNN. Every 10 minutes, a guard checks on him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. Occasionally, Sowell is allowed out of his cell under escort to shower and use a dayroom with books and magazines, but no television, McDonough said. He gets three meals a day. Lights are out at 10 p.m. \"He's been quiet and compliant,\" McDonough said. \"He understands what incarceration is like.\" Sowell was released from jail in 2005. According to court documents, Sowell completed several programs while in jail, including \"Living Without Violence,\" \"Positive Personal Change\" and \"Cage your Rage.\" In another court document filed shortly before his release and obtained by CNN, handwritten notes state Sowell \"would be likely to re-offend because he still denies the rape.\" Previously, the coroner's office said it had identified the bodies of Nancy Cobbs, 43; Tonia Carmichael, 52; Telacia Fortson, 31; and Tishana Culver, 31. Police initially went to Sowell's home last week to follow up on a rape accusation. Last month, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor, but no charges were filed. Neighbors called 911 after the October 20 incident. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. The woman told officers that she was at the home and \"partying,\" when she fell off the roof. \"They were doing coke, drugs, getting high,\" Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said. A man described as her boyfriend -- Sowell -- told police the same story. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police have discovered 10 bodies and a skull at home of sex offender Anthony Sowell .\nAuthorities identify Amelda Hunter, 47, Crystal Dozier, 38, Michelle Mason, 45 on Saturday .\nTwo of the three women had not been reported missing before bodies discovered .\nSowell is on suicide watch in jail after being denied bond on charges of murder, rape, assault ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi Security Forces captured 66 people believed to be connected to al Qaeda in Iraq terror cells, the U.S. military said Thursday. Members of the Iraqi Security Forces are working in Iraq to capture terrorists and insurgents. The suspects were captured during separate operations in northern Iraq this week, according to a military news release. The suspects included 45 men from al Qaeda in Iraq and 21 suspected terrorists from an umbrella group of al Qaeda in Iraq known as The Islamic State of Iraq, the statement said. The suspects are believed to be part of terror cells responsible for bombings, torturing of civilians, conducting attacks and warning insurgents about upcoming Iraqi and U.S. military operations, the military said. One of the suspects is believed to have conducted more than 12 attacks since July. \"These operations show the ability of Iraqi Security Forces to repeatedly capture criminals who undermine the security of Iraq,\" said Lt. Col. Neil Harper, a U.S. military spokesman.","highlights":"Suspects blamed for bombings, civilian torture, warning insurgents about operations .\nSuspects include 45 men from al Qaeda in Iraq, 21 from the Islamic State of Iraq .\nOne of the suspects is believed to have conducted more than 12 attacks since July ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military is promising action to address conditions in a barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a soldier's father posted images on YouTube showing a building that he said \"should be condemned.\" A soldier battles overflowing sewage in the Fort Bragg barracks shortly after coming home from Afghanistan. \"This is embarrassing. It's disgusting. It makes me mad as hell,\" Ed Frawley said of the building where his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, had to live upon his return this month from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan. Frawley said Monday that Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody called him to say he shares Frawley's anger and that \"there's no excuse.\" Cody said he would not want his own sons or any troops to return to such conditions, Frawley said. Frawley's 10-minute video shows still photos from throughout the building, which appears to be falling apart and filled with mold and rust. Paint -- which Frawley said is lead-based -- is chipping. Ceiling tiles are missing. A broken drain pipe allows sewer gas into the building, while another one has tissues stuffed into it in an apparent effort to stop the gas from coming in. Photos from the communal bathroom show some of the most disgusting images. In one, a soldier stands in a sink to avoid what Frawley describes as 3 inches of sewage water that filled the floor when toilets overflowed. Watch the run-down conditions that soldiers have been living in \u00bb . At times, \"sewage water backs up into the sinks in the lower floors of these barracks,\" Frawley said in his narration. \"The soldiers have to tell one another who's taking a shower when they turn the sinks on, or the person taking the shower gets scalded with hot water.\" Frawley said the Army promised to have new barracks ready when his son's unit, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, returned. \"The conditions depicted in Mr. Frawley's video are appalling and unacceptable, and we are addressing the concerns he expressed,\" said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, in a written statement. \"Our paratroopers are our most valuable resource, and our commitment is to their well-being. Our actions now must represent the best we can do for our soldiers.\" \"Fundamentally, we acknowledge these conditions are not adequate by today's standards,\" he added. \"The images in Mr. Frawley's video are alarming, and our soldiers deserve the best conditions we can provide as an institution.\" Watch an interview with Frawley \u00bb . Officials at the base invited the media into the barracks and acknowledged that there are serious problems. Earnhardt said the building had been mostly unused during the 15 months Frawley and his unit were away. Fort Bragg has a massive construction project under way to create housing, but it is behind schedule, Earnhardt said. The buildings used by the 82nd Airborne are about 50 years old, he said. Earnhardt said the incident with the overflowing toilet took place the first day after the unit's return and has been addressed. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is among government officials who have responded to the video. In a written statement, she called living conditions in the barracks \"unacceptable\" and said the situation \"must be immediately corrected.\" Ed Frawley said he is \"hoping no one gets fired. I just want to see it get fixed.\" \"They have the slowest contractors in the world,\" he said, adding that people in jail live \"in better conditions.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike Phelan, Sarah Carden and Mary Lynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video shows moldy, rusty building with paint chipping; broken drain pipe .\nPicture: Soldier in a sink to prevent 3 inches of sewage water from overflowing .\n\"This is embarrassing. It's disgusting,\" soldier's father says .\nArmy Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody: \"There's no excuse\" for conditions ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former England cricket star Chris Lewis was remanded in custody by a British court Tuesday, charged with attempting to smuggle drugs through an airport. Chris Lewis joined Surrey to play in Twenty20 matches for the 2008 season. The 40-year-old all-rounder, who played 32 Tests and 53 one-day internationals for England in the 1990s, was arrested Monday when border officials at London's Gatwick Airport found cocaine hidden in luggage that had arrived on a flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Four kilograms of cocaine with a street value of around $350,000 was seized by the UK Border Agency, the UK's Press Association said. The drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins, officials said. Lewis and basketball player Chad Kirnon, 26, both from London, were held and questioned by Customs officials and later charged. British Revenue & Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger told PA: \"This was an excellent detection by UK Border Agency officers. \"HMRC, together with UKBA, play a vital role in the fight to prevent illegal drugs from entering the UK and in protecting our communities from the violence and corruption that always accompany this hideous trade.\" The two men made a brief appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court in West Sussex on Tuesday afternoon, where Lewis had a bail application refused, PA reported. They were remanded in custody to appear via video link in court next Wednesday.","highlights":"Four kilos of cocaine worth $350,000 seized at Gatwick Airport .\nOfficials: Drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins in luggage .\nChris Lewis played cricket for England during the 1990s ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has blocked further consideration of a federal law designed to keep sexual material from underage users of the Web. The justices without comment Wednesday rejected an appeal from the federal government to reinstate the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), passed by Congress in 1998. The high court and subsequent federal courts said the law -- which has never taken effect -- had serious free speech problems. The Bush administration was a strong supporter of the law and the Justice Department led the fight in court to revive it. The justices issued their ruling a day after all nine were on hand for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor also attended the ceremony. The case tested the free speech rights of adults against the power of Congress to control Internet commerce. The Supreme Court twice ruled against COPA, arguing that it represented government censorship rather than lawful regulation of adult-themed pornography businesses. The law would have prevented private businesses from creating and distributing \"harmful\" content that minors could access on the Internet. Free speech advocates said adults would be barred access to otherwise legal material and that parental-control devices and various filtering technology are less intrusive ways to protect children. The high court in 2004 upheld a preliminary injunction against the law and sent the case back to lower courts for consideration of the arguments. In their opinion at the time, the 5-4 majority concluded COPA \"likely violates the First Amendment.\" \"The government has not shown that the less restrictive alternatives proposed ... should be disregarded,\" Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 2004 decision. \"Those alternatives, indeed, may be more effective\" than the law passed by Congress. \"Filters are less restrictive\" he said, and thus pose less risk of muzzling free speech. \"They impose selective restrictions on speech at the receiving end, not universal restrictions at the source.\" He added, \"There is a potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech\" if the law takes effect.\" In reconsidering the law, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, again ruled the law unconstitutional.","highlights":"Justices reject appeal to reinstate the Child Online Protection Act .\nCOPA violates the First Amendment right to free speech, justices say .\nCOPA would have kept businesses from distributing \"harmful\" content to minors .\nIn 2004 ruling, justice said parental filters are less restrictive on free speech ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Everyone knows Boston is a city steeped in history, but on a steamy hot summer day, one of the best places to experience the city is from the ocean or the harbor. Codzilla boats zip passengers around Boston's inner harbor. A new high-speed thrill ride called Codzilla -- a 70-foot turbocharged boat that makes 180-degree turns at close to 40 knots (43 mph) -- takes passengers out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic. White-knuckled riders are tied down with seat belts but still hold on to the railings with one hand and cling to their belongings with the other so they don't fly overboard. Teenage boys like Ben Whatley from Michigan think Codzilla is \"pretty cool.\" Younger brother Jeremy agrees while huddling with his grandmother. If you want both history and a boat ride, take one of Boston's famous Duck Tours. Operated on amphibious vehicles from World War II, the tours take you through downtown historic Boston. Then the bus becomes a sea-going vessel, settling into the harbor for a short cruise. It's a great way to see both sides of the city. When you get back on land, the New England Aquarium awaits with a \"Sharks and Rays\" exhibit that wraps up September 1. It includes a large touch tank where visitors can pet stingrays and small sharks. Megan Moore, a visitor program specialist at the aquarium, is excited to teach people that most sharks are not scary. Out of the 900 different species of sharks and rays, Moore says, only 10 to 15 have ever been known to attack a human, mostly because they confuse people with food. Sea dragons, jellyfish and harbor seals are among the other sea creatures on display at the aquarium. If you'd rather see animals in their own habitat, you can board a whale watch tour at the harbor just outside the aquarium. Tours take about three hours on a high-speed catamaran to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. It's been a protected area since 1992 and is a rich feeding ground for all kinds of marine life. Tour operators guarantee whale sightings on every excursion. Visitors this year are seeing large numbers of humpback, fin and even endangered right whales. There are also lots of dolphins, seals and sea birds. Finally, to experience Boston in a historic way, head to the Public Garden and take a peaceful 20-minute glide in a Swan Boat. The boats have been an important part of the garden every spring and summer since 1877. Operator and owner Lyn Paget's great-grandfather got the idea for the first boat from the opera Lohengrin, in which a prince rescues his princess in a boat drawn by a swan. Paget calls the experience \"magical\" because the world speeds ahead but the Swan Boats never change. \"We have generations of people that have passed through here. When you come down with a friend, or child or a grandchild, their experience is going to be the same that it was for you, and there aren't too many places where you can do that anymore,\" Paget said. Fran Fifis is a senior producer who has worked in CNN's Boston bureau since it opened in 1998.","highlights":"Boston's harbor and ocean attractions are great choices for summer visitors .\nCodzilla turbo boat rides take passengers out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic .\nSwan Boats have been operating in Boston Public Garden since 1877 ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A former engineer for Rockwell International and Boeing was convicted Thursday of economic espionage and acting as an agent of China, authorities said. A Delta IV rocket launches on March 10, 2003 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Dongfan \"Greg\" Chung, 73, was accused of stealing restricted technology and Boeing trade secrets, including information related to the space shuttle program and the Delta IV rocket. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney convicted him on charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage; six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country; one count of acting as an agent of the People's Republic of China; and one count of making false statements to the FBI, according to a statement from federal prosecutors. Carney presided over Chung's three-week bench trial last month. In a bench trial, there is no jury and the judge decides whether to convict a defendant after hearing testimony. Chung was free on bond after his arrest by FBI agents and NASA investigators in February 2008. He was taken into custody after Carney's ruling was read. Chung, a native of China who is a naturalized United States citizen, was employed by Rockwell International from 1973 until Boeing acquired its defense and space unit in 1996, and by Boeing thereafter. He retired from Boeing in 2002, but returned as a contractor, a position he held until September 2006, prosecutors said. Chung held a \"secret\" security clearance, authorities said. \"For years, Mr. Chung stole critical trade secrets from Boeing relating to the space shuttle and the Delta IV rocket -- all for the benefit of the government of China,\" said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, in the prosecutors' statement. \"Today's verdict should serve as a warning to others willing to compromise America's economic and national security to assist foreign governments.\" The case against Chung resulted from an investigation into another engineer who obtained information for China. That engineer, Chi Mak, and several of his relatives were convicted of providing defense articles to the PRC, authorities said. Mak was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison last year. According to evidence presented at trial, individuals in the Chinese aviation industry began sending tasks to Chung via letter as early as 1979, federal prosecutors said. Over the years, the letters directed Chung to collect data related to the space shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft. In his letters back to China, Chung referenced materials he had already sent, including 24 manuals relating to the B-1 bomber, which Rockwell had forbidden for distribution outside the company and federal agencies. In addition, between 1985 and 2003, Chung traveled to China several times and met with government officials. His contacts in China discussed these trips in letters and recommended methods of passing information, authorities said. In a 2006 search of Chung's home, FBI and NASA agents found more than 250,000 pages of documents from Boeing, Rockwell and other defense contractors in the house and in its crawl space, prosecutors said. They included \"scores of binders containing decades' worth of stress analysis reports, test results and design information for the space shuttle.\" Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, authorities said. The charge of acting as an agent for a foreign government carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and making false statements to federal investigators each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Chung is set for sentencing November 9.","highlights":"Dongfan Chung, 73, convicted of economic espionage; acting as agent of china .\nAccused of stealing restricted technology, Boeing trade secrets .\nTechnology included information on space shuttle; Delta IV rocket .\nChung is a native of China who is a naturalized United States citizen ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Arkansas man suspected in a shooting that killed one soldier and wounded another at a Little Rock military recruiting center was angry over the treatment of Muslims, authorities said Tuesday. Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, was killed in Monday's attack. Abdulhakim Bledsoe, 23, of Little Rock, also told police he recently watched a video \"pertaining to subversive activities which spurred him to commit this act,\" according to court documents. Bledsoe pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. He faces one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act, said Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas. The terrorist counts stem from the shots fired at an occupied building. Watch scenes from Tuesday in court \u00bb . Before the not guilty plea, authorities said Bledsoe waived his Miranda rights after the shooting Monday and gave a video statement indicating that \"political and religious\" motives were involved. He \"stated that he was a practicing Muslim ... that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,\" homicide detective Tommy Hudson said in a police report. Bledsoe told police \"he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them,\" according to Hudson's report. The suspect is a Muslim convert who has also gone by the names Carlos Bledsoe and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. He changed his name from the latter April 23, citing religious reasons, court records show. A leader of the Muslim community in Little Rock said he did not know Bledsoe. The suspect had been under investigation after visiting Yemen, a federal law enforcement official said. The official declined to provide further information. Police believe the shooter acted alone \"with the specific purpose of targeting military personnel,\" Thomas said. Kent Krause, Bledsoe's public defender, said a formal hearing would be held for his client, but no date has been set. Residents left flowers and miniature American flags outside the recruiting center after the shooting. A lone candle burned on the sidewalk next to bouquets of white and red roses. A note that said \"Thank you for your service\" was attached to the flowers. The shooting Monday killed Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, who were outside the military recruiting center. Bledsoe told police he was driving around and saw Long and Ezeagwula smoking outside the building, according to Hudson's report. He said he pulled into the parking lot and shot the two soldiers and added that \"he would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot,\" according to the report. Ezeagwula was in stable condition Tuesday, the police chief said. The soldiers were part of a recruiting program called \"hometown recruiting assistance,\" said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis, commander of the Oklahoma recruiting battalion that oversees the Little Rock Army-Navy recruiting center. Under the program, soldiers tell their stories to potential recruits. It's a volunteer position taken while soldiers are visiting or based back in their home region, Artis said. \"I'm relieved there's a suspect in custody,\" said Capt. Matthew Feehan, commander of the recruiting center. He said several people were in the building at the time of the shooting, but nobody else was injured. Bledsoe was arrested after officers on Interstate 630 pulled over his car, which matched witnesses' description of a black Ford sport utility vehicle seen leaving the scene of the shooting. Police recovered three guns from the suspect's vehicle -- an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a .380-caliber automatic pistol, Thomas said. The victims were shot with an SKS rifle, according to the police report. Police also seized from Bledsoe's vehicle and apartment several rounds of ammunition, two homemade silencers, handwritten notes in Arabic, CDs with handwritten Arabic labels, a computer and cell phones, according to court documents. Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tennessee, was listed on the police report as Bledsoe's father. He declined to comment, referring questions to Little Rock police.","highlights":"Police say \"political and religious motives\" were indicated .\nConvert said he was angry over military's treatment of Muslims, police say .\nOne soldier killed, one wounded in Monday's shootings ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian authorities Tuesday filed a police complaint against Continental Airlines for frisking a former president of the country as he was to travel to New York in April. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials said. Civil aviation officials in New Delhi accused Continental of gross violation of Indian security rules that prohibit pre-embarkation body checks on certain dignitaries like a former president. The police complaint followed a probe that had established that APJ Abdul Kalam was subject to frisking before he boarded a flight from New Delhi to New York on April 21, the Indian civil aviation ministry said in a statement. The ministry also alleged the airline did not respond to its show-cause notice in connection with Kalam's body checks. In its police complaint, Indian civil aviation authorities accused the airline staff of \"willful violation\" of their directions on exemptions from pre-embarkation frisking. Continental, however, insisted it followed standard American air-safety procedures. \"TSA (Transportation Security Administration) requirements impose a final security check in the aerobridge just before boarding the aircraft. \"This procedure is followed by all carriers flying to the U.S. from most of the countries in the world and there is no exemption to this rule,\" it said in a statement.","highlights":"Indian authorities file complaint against Continental for frisking former president .\nFormer president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials say .\nContinental, however, insists it followed standard U.S. air-safety procedures ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 5,000 patients of a South Dakota urology clinic may have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV when the facility reused single-use medical products, state health officials said Friday. Clinic workers told inspectors they've been reusing products since the clinic opened its doors in 2002. The Siouxland Urology Center in Dakota Dunes has been ordered to contact nearly 5,700 former patients treated there since 2002. A routine inspection found the facility was reusing sterile saline bags, tubing and other medical supplies from cystoscopies -- a diagnostic procedure that looks at the lower urinary tract. \"We witnessed the practice while we were in the facility,\" during a January inspection, said Barb Buhler of the South Dakota Health Department. Siouxland Urology has since been put under a provisional license and has been very cooperative, according to state officials. \"Siouxland Urology Center informed certain of its patients by U.S. mail that a prior cystoscopy procedure could have potentially exposed them to an infectious disease,\" the facility's Web site said. It added that \"the risk of infection from our past procedure is very minimal and we are unaware of any blood infections in our patients caused by the cystoscopy practice.\" The clinic, which primarily serves clients from South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, is offering free blood tests to those possibly affected to rule out the presence of viruses .Watch more on the possible exposure of urology patients \u00bb . On January 21, South Dakota Department of Health inspectors entered an examining room where a cystoscopy was about to take place, and noticed that a saline bag, which was hanging on a pole, was dated January 19, said Bob Stahl, of the South Dakota Department of Health. The inspectors, who are registered nurses, questioned the clinic staff. The clinic staff said they routinely reused saline bags and tubing, although both are clearly marked \"for single use only,\" Stahl said. \"They used the bags and tubing on multiple patients,\" Stahl said. He said the workers at the clinic told the inspectors they'd been reusing bags and tubing since the clinic opened in 2002. They said they didn't see anything wrong with the practice, Stahl said. \"It was their standard operating procedure,\" Stahl said. \"They told the inspectors that this was a common practice all over the country. We disagreed and told them this was not a common practice.\" He said that the clinic had been inspected seven times since it opened, and no one had noticed that the clinic was reusing equipment. \"It was just by chance that this saline bag was hanging there. We run across these things by luck at times,\" Stahl said. \"We're fortunate that the team was able to identify this.\" Fluids from patients can retreat into saline bags and tubing while the equipment is used, and reusing the tubing or saline bags could put patients at risk for contacting diseases from previous patients. A 1-liter bag of saline and tubing costs about $4, according to Mary Jo Lallis, account manager for PSS World Medical, Inc., a medical supply company. CNN's Greg Morrison and Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands of patients of a urology clinic possibly exposed to hepatitis and HIV .\nClinic routinely reused single-use saline bags and tubing .\nStaff told inspectors it was \"common practice\" everywhere; inspectors disagreed .\nNearly 5,700 former patients will be contacted, offered free blood tests ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian authorities detained the wife of former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti as a suspect in his killing, according to local reports. Arturo Gatti pictured during the final fight of his career, a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez in 2007. Gatti was found dead Saturday in a hotel in Brazil, where he was taking a vacation with his wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, and their young child. The 37-year-old Canadian, who was born in Italy and made his name as a fighter based in New Jersey, was staying in the northeast seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas. Rodrigues, 23, was being held in a police station in the city of Recife in connection with the killing, a police official in Porto de Galihnas told CNN. Police official Osmar Silva Santiago confirmed local reports that Gatti's body was found Saturday morning in his hotel room with strangulation marks. \"This crime is being investigated by our homicide experts and we hope to have more answers tomorrow,\" Santiago said. Police recovered a blood-stained purse strap from the scene, according to media reports. Rodrigues became a suspect because of inconsistencies during her interrogation, local reports quoted homicide task force chief Josedith Ferreira as saying. Gatti made his name in a series of three fights against \"Irish\" Micky Ward, losing the first but triumphing in the other two. He held the IBF super-featherweight and WBC light-welterweight titles, and he also won the WBC junior welterweight belt but lost it to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2005. Gatti retired in 2007 after suffering a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez in his comeback, ending with a record of 40 wins and nine losses. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec, after leaving Italy at an early age, and returned to the city following his retirement. According to Gatti's official Web site, the Italian-born pugilist won \"Fight of the Year\" for three consecutive years. CNN's Helena de Moura contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, detained at Recife police station .\nNEW: Rodrigues' answers to interrogation reportedly had inconsistencies .\nNEW: Gatti's body was found Saturday in hotel room with strangulation marks .\nThe former world boxing champion was vacationing with his 23-year-old wife ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on issues affecting communities across the country. Pope McLean Jr. tells CNN's John King that a lot of farms are hurting because of the global recession. LEXINGTON, Kentucky (CNN) -- Crestwood Farm is tucked into the rolling hillsides of Kentucky's legendary bluegrass country. Kipling and Unbridled Energy are among the stallions critical to the reputation -- and the bottom line -- of the McLean family business. And just how do the stallions prove their value? \"When their progeny does well on the race track,\" Pope McLean Jr. said. \"Can't bluff that. That's when they prove what they are worth.\" Pope McLean Sr. got into the horse business in college and took over Crestwood Farm in 1970. His son worked on the farm while growing up. After college he took a job in the financial sector, but in 1991 he returned to Crestwood. His brother Marc returned a few years later, and their younger sister Grandison joined after she graduated from college. \"It's been pretty much a family business since that point,\" Pope McLean Jr. said during a tour of the 1,000 acre property. Kentucky is to horse racing what Michigan is to the domestic auto industry. Racing and breeding thoroughbreds is a multibillion-dollar business in the state and the source of some 100,000 jobs. But \"The Sport of Kings\" is hardly exempt from these painful economic times, and in fact is taking a severe blow in the global recession. \"It's truly an international industry, so we have people, a lot of buyers, from Europe come in. And they have dialed back,\" McLean said. \"Domestic buyers have dialed back their participation, as well. The good horses are still bringing decent money, but everyone has to lower their expectations.\" At this year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, which McLean calls the horse industry's version of the NBA draft, the gross was down more than 41 percent from last year, the largest year-to-year drop in the 66-year history of the auction. \"The prices are down, and our production costs increased with commodity prices going up and so forth, so it definitely puts a squeeze on commercial breeding operations,\" McLean said. \"A lot of farms are hurting. And then you have the credit squeeze that has hurt a lot of farms, too.\" McLean sees another lean year next year, and then hopes for a rebound because of an odd twist to the laws of supply and demand. In 2008, when the stock market was plummeting, 30 percent fewer mares were bred, so the supply of horses available at auction the year after next will be smaller. \"I think people just decided to pull back,\" McLean said. \"So the supply of horses available at auction will be reduced and that should start to help market conditions.\" At Crestwood, McLean predicts an \"about even\" year. \"We're down at bit,\" at the moment, he says. \"I feel pretty sure there will be quite a few farms that will go out of business.\" Out of business is an all too common theme in Hazard, a coal country town in Eastern Kentucky's Appalachia region about 120 miles away from Lexington and horse country. Statewide, the unemployment rate in Kentucky is 11.1 percent. Hazard is the county seat in Perry County, where the jobless rate has been on a steady climb and is 12.7 percent. On Main Street, a clothing and novelty store is closing down, along with an adjacent print and copying shop. Fallout, locals say, from the closing of a uniform plant that had employed more than 140 people, and then a Weyerhaeuser lumber facility that employed 180. Joanne Caron knew there were problems when Weyerhaeuser canceled weekend shifts, \"but we didn't think it would be that drastic.\" The bad news came suddenly in March when workers were told their jobs were being eliminated immediately. \"They called us in the conference room and said due to market conditions, you know, they had to shut us down.\" Caron has been looking for work for seven months. Nothing. Her unemployment check is $746 every two weeks. She cashed in her Weyerhaeuser 401(k) and, despite the long-term risks, allows herself a small slice of that money every month, as well. \"My daughter likes to eat, and she likes clothes,\" Caron said with a shrug. \"And we like heat and air conditioning. That's the choices we have to make.\" Her 19-year-old is enrolled at the local community college, where Joanne also plans to take classes in hopes of improving her job prospects. Two older daughters completed college over the past two years, one in Florida and other here in Kentucky, but neither has been able to find work. \"So everything I told them as they were growing up: go to college, get a degree so you can get a good job, it's just not working out that way.\" Caron tries to keep her spirits up, dryly joking that \"you get to see everybody during the day because nobody's at work.\" But the long search can be demoralizing. \"I worked all my life and now I'm collecting an unemployment check. I feel real uncomfortable about that, but there's no jobs available.\" When Caron returned to the Weyerhaeuser plant for the first time, it made her feel sad. \"The last shift I worked was 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Twelve hour shifts,\" she said as she looked through the fence, chained and padlocked shut. \"Sad to see it like this,\" Caron said. \"I made a lot of good friends working there. We had good times working in there. It wasn't a glamorous job, but we had fun and we got along, and I miss seeing those people every day.\"","highlights":"Horse racing industry is the source of some 100,000 jobs in Kentucky .\nDomestic and international buyers have dialed back participation, horse farmer says .\nUnemployment rate in Kentucky is 11.1 percent .\nKentucky resident jokes, \"You get to see everybody ... because nobody's at work\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Clashes between Somalia's transitional government and the Al-Shabab militia left 103 people dead and 420 others wounded, Somali officials said Friday. The fighting in Mogadishu between the rebel group and the government has raged for nine days. The fighting in Mogadishu between the rebel group and the government has raged for nine days, said Farhan Ali Mohamud, information minister of the Somali government. Human rights groups deplored the high number of casualties, urging both sides to comply with international law in respect to the civilian population. Thousands of families have fled the capital, Mogadishu, seeking a safer environment in camps south of the city. \"The people of Somalia have once again been subjected to unbearable violence,\" said Pascal Mauchle, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Somalia. \"The daily struggle for survival is exhausting their capacity to cope.\" Humanitarian groups expressed concern, too, that Somalis will not have access to medical care. The international medical agency Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to close an outpatient clinic in Mogadishu to ensure safety for its staff. \"With so few medical facilities available in Somalia, it is crucial that people are able to access those that are still functioning,\" said Alfonso Laguna, head of the agency in the region. The new round of fighting stems from an interpretation of sharia law, or Islamic law, the spokesman said. Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has recently approved implementing sharia law, but the rebel group wants the country to institute a stricter form. A spokesman for the rebel group said it has recruited many fighters for the battle against the government. \"It is not only Somali jihadists that are fighting in Mogadishu against the government. There are also foreign Muslim jihadist brothers who are fighting side by side with us,\" said Sheikh Hassan Ya'qub, a spokesman for al-Shabaab. Abdiraman Abdi Shakur Warsame, minister of international cooperation for Somalia's transitional government, issued a stern warning to the rebels in an address to a young audience celebrating Somali youth day at the capital. \"The government is determined to defend itself from these religious gangs who are covering in the name of Islam and I assure you that in the course of coming days, we will eliminate these elements and some of them will be forced out of the country,\" Warsame said. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya released a statement about the fighting. \"The extremists who are instigating these attacks have no regard for the well-being of Somalis and are undermining the peaceful efforts of the legitimate government to further national reconciliation,\" the statement said. \"The United States is particularly disturbed at reports that foreign fighters and those who rejected dialogue in 2006 are participating in this effort to forcibly remove a legitimate Somali government from power.\" Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government forces are fighting a rebel group in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu .\nSomali officials say 103 people have been killed, hundreds more wounded .\nRebel fighters want a stricter form of sharia law introduced in Somalia .\nFighting started in early May, rebels say they're recruiting more supporters ."} -{"article":"Paris, France (CNN) -- French investigators said they are looking into problems encountered by an Air France jet last month in nearly the same spot over the Atlantic where another Air France jet mysteriously crashed in June. Air France flight 445 was flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, the night of Nov. 29 when it encountered the problems, the French accident investigation agency, BEA, said in a news release this week. It is the same route taken by Air France flight 447 when it went down in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather June 1, killing all 228 people aboard. The investigation agency has not established the cause of the crash, and large parts of the plane -- including both flight recorders -- have never been found. \"The analysis of what happened could lead to complementary explanations about the accident of flight AF 447,\" the investigation agency said. Flight 445 encountered \"severe turbulence\" about four hours after takeoff on Nov. 29, forcing the pilots to descend, Air France said in a statement after the flight. The crew sent out an emergency radio message to indicate it had left its flight level, Air France said. The flight, with 215 people aboard, \"continued normally\" after half an hour of moderate to severe turbulence, the airline said. Air France declined to comment on the investigation agency's statement this week. The BEA said the November flight was an Airbus A330-203, the same model involved in the June crash, but Air France said the November incident involved an Airbus A330-200. While French authorities have not yet determined what caused the June crash, tests have brought into question the performance of pitot tubes, which are used to measure the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed. Flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages before it crashed that suggested the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through the thunderstorms, officials have said. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a directive in late August requiring airlines to replace pitot tubes manufactured by Thales Avionics on Airbus A330s and A340s. It said airlines should replace them with other Thales tubes and those manufactured by Goodrich. -- CNN's Luc Lacroix contributed to this report .","highlights":"Air France jet encountered problems near where Airbus jet crashed earlier this year .\nFlight 445 encountered \"severe turbulence\" about 4 hours after takeoff on Nov. 29 .\nFlight 447 went down in the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing 228 people ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Heavy rains and flooding have forced hundreds of thousands of people from homes in southern Mexico's state of Tabasco over the past four days, with nearly as many trapped by the rising waters, state officials said Thursday. Officials say about 300,000 people are still trapped by the worst flooding in the region for 50 years. The Grijalva River pushed over its banks through the state capital of Villahermosa on Thursday, forcing government workers to evacuate and leaving up to 80 percent of the city flooded, Gov. Andres Granier's office told CNN. About 700,000 people have seen their homes flooded, with about 300,000 of those still trapped there, Granier's office reported. One death had been blamed on the floods, which followed weeks of heavy rain in the largely swampy state. Tabasco borders Guatemala to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the north. The Associated Press reported that thousands of people clung to rooftops, huddled inside waterlogged homes or hunkered down in shelters in an attempt to survive the worst flooding the region has seen in 50 years. Weather forecasters predicted more rain in the coming days. The flooding was not related to Tropical Storm Noel, which was pounding the Caribbean. The Grijalva River, one of two large waterways ringing Villahermosa, has risen 6.5 feet (2 meters) above its \"critical\" level and gushed into the city's center, according to AP. Authorities said some of the rivers were continuing to rise. President Felipe Calderon visited the area on Wednesday and promised the federal government's full support. Non-governmental organizations throughout the country asked people to donate non-perishable goods or cash, AP said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"One dead as hundreds of thousands flee rising floodwaters .\nAbout 80 percent of the city of Villahermosa is under water .\nTabasco and Chiapas states hardest hit .\nAuthorities say 700,000 affected and 300,000 still trapped by flooding ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Luke Russert, son of journalist Tim Russert, was part of a panel Wednesday that discussed youth voting on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Luke Russert says dinner table political discussions were part of his upbringing. Besides the youth vote, Russert discussed his father's death, his upbringing and his own future in journalism and political commentary. Tim Russert, 58, was the host of NBC's \"Meet the Press\" and one of America's leading political journalists. He died of a heart attack after collapsing at the network's Washington bureau on June 13. The following is an edited version of the show's transcript. Watch video of the discussion \u00bb . Larry King: How did you learn of your dad's passing? Luke Russert: I was in Florence, and I was at an Italian sports bar watching the Italy versus Romania game, and I got a call from my dad's secretary that said he had fainted, and could I get in touch with my mother. Luckily, I was right across the street from the hotel where my mom was. I ran up to her room and said, \"Dad has fainted.\" And we kind of learned in increments of what exactly happened. So it was basically about a half-hour after first hearing that he fainted that we actually knew he collapsed and had a heart attack. And at first, I was upset that I was so far away and removed. And I really wanted to be there. But in reality, it was really a blessing to be an ocean away, because it allowed my mother and me to have some real private time to collect our thoughts, to grieve in private, and not be inundated with all the media coverage and all the phone calls. So, you know, it was something that -- it was difficult, but to have that little cocoon, I think my mother and I really used it to our benefit. King: Must have been a long flight back. Russert: It was. It was a long nine-hour flight. But my mother has been so strong through this. And my family has been there for me every step of the way. My girlfriend has been wonderful. So I can't thank everybody enough. And obviously this happened, but it has made it a lot easier to have such good friends at NBC and all through Washington and my family personally. King: Were you brought up talking politics? Russert: I was. It was always something that was always talked around the dinner table with my father and my mother from a very young age. One of my earliest memories is being a young toddler and remembering Ronald Reagan's face on television. My dad was watching a press conference, most likely at that time on CNN. And it was just something that I always grew up around. And we also talked a lot of sports. We talked a lot of culture. But politics was something that I guess has been engrained in me at a very, very young age. King: Did he pick the brains of you and your friends? Russert: He did. We would actually have some fun discussions where I would assume the role of who his guest would be on Sunday and try to answer the questions that he threw at me. And sometimes, if I could answer a question pretty well, he'd say, \"That question's too easy, I've got to get rid of it.\" So sometimes, I was a guinea pig for politicians. But it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed doing it. And he would also pick the brains of some of my friends. Some did pretty well, and some didn't. But he was always kind to all of us. King: When did you first vote? Russert: I first voted when I was 18, which would have been 2004. And I registered at the same time I registered for the Selective Service, which I think they do here in the District of Columbia. So I've been a registered voter since 2004, and that's the first time I cast an official ballot. King: How did it feel to vote? Russert: It felt great. It kind of felt like you became a man or at least an adult in some capacity. That your decision -- your decision -- became part of the country and its leadership. And I'll never forget the way I voted was I was in college my freshman year, 2004, so I had to go by absentee ballot. And I was going to meet my father in South Bend, Indiana, for the Notre Dame\/Boston College game. And I said, \"Dad, I'd rather you bring the ballot personally so it doesn't have to go through the mail, send it up to me in Boston.\" So he brought the ballot, and I filled out my absentee ballot in a South Bend, Indiana, hotel room, and he brought it back and put it right in the FedEx for me. King: We have an e-mail question for you from David in Cary, North Carolina. \"Luke, my condolences,\" it said. \"You've shown great strength and character in recent days. Any chance we'll see you reporting or doing commentary about the 2008 election?\" Russert: Oh yes, you just might. It's something that I'm definitely interested in. I think that I will probably be part of the peacock network. But you never know. I still have the sports show on XM Radio and Carville, and I kind of go into politics. But I wouldn't mind. King: What if CNN made a bid for you? Russert: I'd be your assistant, Larry? King: You got it. You could come to work for us. I think I can speak for management. In fact, they'll probably talk to you tomorrow based on just how well you're handling yourself tonight. Russert: Well, I appreciate it. Everyone has been so kind. I'd love to have the opportunity to come out here and talk about something that is important to me. And it was important to my father, which was young people getting involved. That really is the important issue tonight. Not me. That's important.","highlights":"Luke Russert says he learned of his father's death while he was in Italy .\nHe thanks family, friends for helping him get through trying times .\nPolitics \"was just something that I always grew up around,\" he says .\nHe says it \"felt great\" to vote for the first time, urges young people to get involved ."} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- More than a dozen uncontained wildfires raged Monday across Southern California, threatening thousands of structures and forcing people to flee homes from San Diego to Malibu to Lake Arrowhead. This photo taken from space Monday afternoon shows smoke rising from the wildfires in Southern California. Fire officials said more than 265,000 people have been evacuated and nearly 4,900 firefighters are battling the fast-moving blazes, which began over the weekend. By Monday afternoon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention had reported 13 active wildfires have consumed more than 98,000 acres and destroyed or damaged at least 50 homes and businesses across six counties. The winds driving the flames are expected to stay strong, coming out of the northeast, at least through Tuesday, according to CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. \"It's a tragic time for California,\" California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said earlier Monday. He declared a state of emergency in seven counties and asked the National Guard to pull 800 soldiers from patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border to help battle the wildfires. Monday evening, Schwarzenegger asked U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to order delivery of all available Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) to help fight the fires. Watch fires devour homes and land \u00bb . Citing the proliferation in the number of fires, Schwarzenegger wrote, \"Your immediate assistance is necessary to deploy Department of Defense aircraft located in Wyoming, North Carolina and Colorado to assist California in our firefighting effort.\" According to the White House, the federal Agriculture Department will provide fire crews, air tankers and helicopters to fight the fires, and the state will receive assistance grants to help pay firefighting costs. See where fires burn across Southern California \u00bb . Hardest hit was San Diego County, where 250,000 people have fled from five fires. One person was killed and 18 were reported injured in the county, including five firefighters. Local officials said the fire situation had worsened throughout the day, prompting new evacuations. \"We have a very dangerous, unpredictable situation,\" said Ron Roberts, chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. \"We have some of the highest temperatures, some of the driest landscape conditions and some of the most powerful winds -- all the ingredients for a perfect firestorm.\" On one cul-de-sac in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, five of six homes burned to the ground, leaving flames from gas lines flickering amid the ruins, according to a KGTV report. See photos of the fires \u00bb . Officials turned Qualcomm Stadium, home of the NFL's San Diego Chargers, into an evacuation center. Residents of four housing areas at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in northern San Diego County were put on notice for possible evacuations and told to pack personal belongings as a precautionary measure. Earlier Monday, fixed-wing firefighting aircraft were grounded by the strong winds, officials said, making the jobs of fire crews on the ground even harder. Fires threatened the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park on Monday, causing the park to close. Some of the animals, such as endangered condors, are being moved to a safer location, according to zoo spokeswoman Yadira Galindo. Authorities are asking people to hold off on 911 calls unless there is a real emergency, saying clogged cell phone lines are hurting rescue efforts. The largest of the wildfires was the Buckweed blaze north of Los Angeles, which has consumed 27,500 acres and forced the evacuation of 15,000 residents from Santa Clarita and nearby communities, according to the state forestry department. About 4,000 structures were threatened, and the fire was moving toward the Magic Mountain amusement park. Two fires that erupted Monday morning in San Bernardino County near Lake Arrowhead have destroyed at least 123 structures and charred 1,800 acres, said Loretta Benavidez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest. Several communities in the area, including Green Valley Lake, Arrowbear and Running Springs, were evacuated. And in Malibu Canyon, south of the Pacific Coast Highway, nearly 1,450 firefighters were battling a blaze that began Sunday afternoon and still threatened 900 structures in the area, which is home to many Hollywood luminaries, the state forestry department said. The Canyon fire is only 10 percent contained, an official said. The Pacific Coast Highway remains shut down in Malibu. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 123 structures destroyed by wildfires in Lake Arrowhead .\nNEW: White House: Federal Agriculture Department will provide fire crews .\nFires threaten San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park; animals evacuated .\nMalibu Canyon fire is 10 percent contained, officials say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say. MIT researcher Pablo Valdivia Alvarado works in his lab on a robotic fish he co-created. MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish. And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school. \"Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance,\" Alvarado said. \"Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds -- 200, 500 -- and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements.\" MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation -- modeled after bass and trout -- cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in Robotuna. At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans. \"Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside,\" said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. \"We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply.\" The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level. The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish. MIT's mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander. CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Engineers at MIT have created a new generation of robotic fish .\n'Robofish' could be used to map the ocean floor, inspect submerged boats or pipes .\nMIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994 .\nNew robofish are modeled after bass and trout and cost only a few hundred dollars ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It takes a savvy film star to invest in the only business that's keeping audiences away from cinemas. In the case of India's biggest Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan that's cricket. Photographers mob Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri as they arrive for the inaugural Indian Premier League players' auction, February 20, 2008. Over 45 days from April to June, India's newest big money cricket competition -- the DLF Indian Premier League -- infected the country with the kind of excitement usually reserved for the item number in the latest Bollywood blockbuster. Off the pitch, among the cheerleaders and dancing girls, was actor Shah Rukh Khan, the proud new co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, a cricket team whose name was said to be inspired by David Hasselhoff's 1980s television hit. The team, captained by Indian cricketing hero Sourav Ganguly, took to the field in black and gold uniforms created by Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra; black for the color of goddess Kali and gold, because as Khan said, \"We aim for gold.\" In fact, the Knight Riders were knocked out of the competition before the semi-finals, with Khan announcing to fans via SMS:\"Al of us have become part of a failed script, a bad IPL script. Let's try and keep our chin up.\" Shah Rukh Khan, one of the few people in the world also known by his initials, has every reason to keep his own chin up. Twenty years after his first onscreen role in the Indian television series \"Fauji,\" SRK -- the man and the brand -- is more popular than ever. On Sunday night, he won the Best Actor award in Bollywood's version of the Oscars -- the International Indian Film Academy Awards -- for his role as coach of the Indian national women's field hockey team in \"Chak De! India.\" The film took nine awards in all, including Best Film and Best Director. Shah Rukh Khan's previous box-office outing, \"Om Shanti Om,\" scooped five awards, adding icing to its title of Bollywood's highest-ever grossing film. In India, you don't have to go to the cinema to see Shah Rukh Khan. He has returned to the small screen, this time as a television quizmaster. After fronting the Indian version of \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,\" he's back with a new series, the local take on the U.S. hit \"Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.\" If there's any proof of Shah Rukh Khan's global appeal, it comes in the form of 15 year old Shabana Shaheen who lives in Virginia in the U.S. The high school student created her own Shah Rukh Khan Fansite last year -- www.freewebs.com\/srkplace. All that and she's never been to India. \"The thing he's like a normal person. He's down to earth and humble,\" she says. \"He values his family -- his parents who have passed away, his wife and children. He's so normal; he just behaves like a normal human being.\" Shabana inherited her love of Shah Rukh Khan from her mother who moved to the U.S. from Pakistan. In Virginia, it's not hard to keep up with the latest Bollywood action. A cinema close to Shabana's home shows the most popular productions. And then there's the internet. Shabana's website gets as many as 1000 hits a day, mainly from fans in the United Kingdom and India. \"It's amazing -- so many people are crazy about him, even in Germany,\" she says. \"A lot of people in Mexico are also apparently very big fans of his films.\" In part, Shah Rukh Khan's fame can be put down to expert merchandising. He's the consummate salesman, charming and keenly aware there's a huge market for his product. The Kolkata Knight Riders may be one of the newest sporting teams in the world, but within months, Khan and Co. has turned them into a lucrative brand. While they didn't win the IPL on-pitch title, they took away the prize as the team who made the most money. Jerseys, t-shirts, sneakers, caps, key chains, coasters, mugs, bandanas, sippers and posters all came with KKR branding through a merchandising deal with Reebok and Indian music group Planet M. Fans could even buy the CD, featuring the KKR theme song, 'Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo,' which means \"We will do it, fight it and win it.\" Shah Rukh Khan made the most of his iconic status by writing a blog on the team website under the title of \"12th man\". Fans were encouraged to become a 12th man as well. So far there are more than 46,000. Another wave of SRK mania is set to sweep through cinemas in December 2008 with the release of \"Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,\" translated as \"A Couple Made by God.\" It's a love story directed by Aditya Chopra, the man behind Shah Rukh Khan's enduring hit, \"Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.\" DDLJ, as it's known, has been playing to packed cinemas for the past 13 years. With Shah Rukh Khan topping the bill, it's likely to be there a lot longer.","highlights":"Bollywood superstar makes sporting debut as owner of Kolkata Knight Riders .\nShah Rukh Khan still wildly popular 20 years after his television debut .\nNow presents India's version of \"Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader\"\nFilming \"Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,\" a Bollywood love story to be released late 2008 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The recession means competition in pro football this year isn't restricted to the gridiron. The National Football League and its 32 teams also are battling for the consumer's discretionary spending dollars. Less-established NFL teams, such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, face special challenges in the recession. And just like on the playing field, some teams are having an easier time scoring an economic touchdown than others. \"Overall ticket sales are very positive but difficult in these challenging times,\" NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement. He did not provide overall ticket sales numbers for the current season. The league is coming off a year that saw overall attendance drop slightly, 0.7 percent, from 2007 amid the start of the economic slowdown. Bill Prescott, a Jacksonville Jaguars vice president and the team's chief financial officer, said the team started to see the impact of the recession last year, when single-game ticket sales and concession revenue dropped as the season progressed. Heading into this season, he said, sales are off even more than the team expected -- new ticket sales are down 75 percent from last year and season ticket renewals are down 10 percent. No Jaguar games are sold out, despite a recent survey by The Media Audit that found 76 percent of adults in Jacksonville, Florida, regularly follow the Jaguars -- the fifth-best percentage of any NFL market. \"The economy is having that impact on us,\" Prescott said. \"As a very small market, I think we're feeling it more than some of the other teams in the league.\" The Minnesota Vikings also have yet to sell out any of their games, though the team expects that could change with the recent high-profile signing of quarterback Brett Favre. Within a day of Favre's signing, the Vikings had sold an additional 3,000 season tickets and 10,000 single-game tickets. \"The economy's affecting all professional sports teams,\" said Steve LaCroix, the Vikings' vice president of sales and marketing. \"We're not only competing for people's time and money, but trying to keep the fans in the stadium on game day as opposed to watching on TV.\" LaCroix said there weren't a large number of cancellations in season ticket holder accounts. However, some fans did trim down the number of seats in their respective accounts. LaCroix added some are coming back on board as the season approaches. The Cincinnati Bengals are getting nationwide exposure through the HBO reality series \"Hard Knocks,\" which chronicles the team's training camp and preparation for the upcoming season. However, the Bengals' streak of 44 straight sellouts, a franchise record, is at risk, according to spokesman Jim Brennan. The Bengals' September 13 home opener against Denver is not sold out yet. Some teams, however, are more than holding their own as far as ticket sales go despite the nation's fiscal woes. The Denver Broncos are sold out for the 40th straight year -- dating back to the first game of the 1970 season, according to spokesman Jim Saccomano. And Chicago Bears spokesman Scott Hagel says the team is sold out for the 25th straight season. He adds the season ticket renewal rate is well over 90 percent, on par with the prior decade. According to league spokesman McCarthy, 24 of the NFL's 32 teams did not raise ticket prices from last year. One of the teams that did is the Indianapolis Colts, which bumped up the cost of 10 percent of its season ticket holder seats, according to team spokesman Craig Kelley. All games are sold out. Two factors working in the Colts' favor -- they have a new stadium that opened last season and the team has been a perennial contender for the past decade. In order to try and offset the impact the economy has on the game, McCarthy said teams have created more options and flexibility for fans in order to help them afford tickets. Among those options are half-season ticket plans, such as the ones offered by the Jaguars and the New York Jets. \"We knew some season ticket holders because of the economy wouldn't be able to afford to come to all 10 games (including the preseason),\" said the Jaguars' Prescott. The half-season plan has been very popular, he said. \"We wanted to make as many products available to them whether they could come to one game, two games or with the half package we've bundled five games in each package so they can come for half a season.\" Prescott said the team is also considering introducing a package where fans can purchase tickets for a few games of their choice. David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute, thinks the best way for teams to limit the recession's impact on ticket sales is to offer exemplary customer service. \"These fans need to feel as though they're having a great time and they're getting value for their money,\" said Carter. \"If they're able to do that, they will justify continuing to spend on the NFL, because every game matters. They want to be part of the continuity of the NFL season.\" Carter believes the league has to fight the recession on two fronts. He says the first is the pricing of seats to everyday fans -- especially those in markets where the demand isn't as keen as the NFL would like. The second challenge is corporate resistance. \"You have those that have traditionally purchased seats or acquired sponsorships taking a long look at whether they want to be involved this year or not, and a lot of corporate budgets are already in bed for the rest of the year,\" explained Carter. Still, Carter believes the NFL may be well-equipped to weather the economic storm, thanks in large part to timing. \"There's a general feel that things are picking up in the economy, and I think that's going to bode well for them over time. They may have survived this downturn a little better than the other leagues.\" Matt Gonter has been a Washington Redskins season ticket holder for the past five years. He said he briefly considered whether to cancel his subscription heading into this year but decided against it -- citing the team's long waiting list to get season tickets. \"I swore to myself if I ever got Redskins season tickets, I'd do everything in my power to keep them,\" Gonter said. However, he did turn down an option to upgrade to different seats and a parking pass, saying he would have considered it in years past but not under the current economic climate. He also might sell his tickets for certain games online. \"I'm thinking of going on StubHub and selling a couple of tickets. I eat so much of the cost for the preseason tickets, because you have to pay full price for those,\" Gonter said. One ticket for an NFL game this year on the secondary ticket seller goes for an average of $151, compared with $156 at this time a year ago. Four-year Cleveland Browns season ticket holder Zeke Paster held on to his subscription and plans to make cutbacks instead when it comes to concessions and tailgating costs. However, he may get rid of some of his tickets before the season is over. \"If they're not doing well, I would maybe try to sell the tickets for some of the cold weather games,\" Paster said. Paster and Gonter admit surrendering their season ticket packages for good would be a painful decision. \"The atmosphere is unmatched,\" Paster said. \"There's nothing like being in the stadium or in the parking lot when the Browns are doing well.\" Gonter says the camaraderie is worth the cost. \"I just like the experience of sitting in the parking lot under a tent, tailgating, drinking beer and then going to the game and having a good time watching the Redskins.\"","highlights":"For Jacksonville Jaguars, ticket sales off more than expected .\nCincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings also looking to score more sales .\nDenver Broncos and Chicago Bears holding the line despite recession .\nSports expert says NFL's best weapon would be exemplary customer service ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Oguchi Onyewu, who made his AC Milan debut in a 2-1 friendly defeat to Mexico's Club America, is the first player from the United States to be signed by the Serie A giants and is a rising talent in world football. Oguchi Onyewu has cut a commanding figure at the center of defense for the U.S. national team. The \"Rossoneri\" have put their faith in a 27-year-old defender, who has become a lynchpin of his national team in recent times -- but how did the stopper climb the ladder of success? The imposing Onweyu, who stands 1.93 meters tall and tips the scales at 95 kilograms, was born in Washington D.C., one of a family of five to Nigerian-born parents. While at high school in Maryland, he showed immediate promise and was selected for a soccer academy run by International Management Group (IMG). After graduation, Onyewu spent two years in collegiate soccer at Clemson University before taking his chance in Europe. CNN's Patrick Snell interviews Onyewu. \u00bb . He was originally at Metz in France before being loaned out to La Louviere in the Belgium league and finally to Standard Liege where he has spent the majority of his professional career. Because of his strong performances with Standard, Onyewu was constantly linked with a number of leading European clubs, but finally had his chance when sent out on loan to Newcastle United in the English Premier League. Joining for the back end of the 2006-07 season, he formed an uncertain partnership with Titus Bramble in the center of defense, which, combined with the arrival of new manager Sam Allardyce, was to cost him his place. Newcastle decided not to make his loan move permanent and Onyewu returned to Standard to help them win successive Belgian league titles. He was involved in a controversial incident at the end of the current season during the championship playoff against Anderlecht. Onyewu claimed Anderlecht defender Jelle Van Damme called him a \"dirty ape\" and persisted despite being reported to the referee. The Times of London reported on June 2 that Onyewu had taken legal action in a Brussels court over the alleged slur, hoping it will help eradicate such incidents in the future. His lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont said Onyewu felt compelled to take it further. \"He was convinced it was his duty to lodge the complaint,\" Dupont said. \"It is not a question whether Van Damme is racist. The issue is that these slurs are still used on the pitch, and are being used because they know it hurts.\" Onyewu made his debut for the U.S. national team in 2004 and played all three games for the side before their exit from the 2006 World Cup. But it was his performances in the recent Confederations Cup in South Africa which showed his qualities to the full. After the U.S. beat Egypt 3-0 to reach the semifinals, Onyewu was outstanding again in the shock 2-0 defeat of world number one-rated Spain to reach the final. The U.S. went on to lose the final 3-2 to Brazil, but Onyewu had again sparked renewed interest, including Milan, who had tracked him since 2004. He signed a three-year deal earlier this month with the seven-time European champions, who are in a rebuilding process after the retirement of club legend Paulo Maldini and departure of Kaka to Real Madrid. Onyewu is the second U.S. international to play in Serie A. Former national captain Alexi Lalas played for Padova in the 1990s.","highlights":"Oguchi Onyewu is the first U.S.-born player to be signed by AC Milan .\nOnweyu was a star performer for the U.S. team in 2009 Confederations Cup .\nThe 27-year-old has Nigerian parents and went to Clemson University ."} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A magnitude 4.2 earthquake shook the San Francisco area Friday at 4:42 a.m. PT (7:42 a.m. ET), the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The quake left about 2,000 customers without power, said David Eisenhower, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Light. Under the USGS classification, a magnitude 4.2 earthquake is considered \"light,\" which it says usually causes minimal damage. \"We had quite a spike in calls, mostly calls of inquiry, none of any injury, none of any damage that was reported,\" said Capt. Al Casciato of the San Francisco police. \"It was fairly mild.\" Watch police describe concerned calls immediately after the quake \u00bb . The quake was centered about two miles east-northeast of Oakland, at a depth of 3.6 miles, the USGS said. Oakland is just east of San Francisco, across San Francisco Bay. An Oakland police dispatcher told CNN the quake set off alarms at people's homes. The shaking lasted about 50 seconds, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. According to the USGS, magnitude 4.2 quakes are felt indoors and may break dishes and windows and overturn unstable objects. Pendulum clocks may stop. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"2,000 customers without electricity, power company says .\nMagnitude 4.2 quake set off home alarms, says Oakland police dispatcher .\n\"It was fairly mild,\" police say, no immediate reports of injuries, damage .\nIt was centered two miles east-northeast of Oakland, about 3.6 miles deep ."} -{"article":"CRANWELL, England (CNN) -- Britain's oldest man and the oldest living veteran of World War I was celebrating his 112th birthday Friday with a party and a fly-past at an air force base. Henry Allingham at a 90th anniversary celebration of the Royal Air Force this year. Henry Allingham is the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service, which he joined in 1915. He saw action at the Battle of Jutland off Denmark the following year, according to the Ministry of Defense. Allingham is also the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force, which was created in 1918, nine months before the end of the war. He left the service a year later, the defense ministry said. Friday's events were happening at the Royal Air Force base in Cranwell, England, about 120 miles north of London. Friends of his at the base said Allingham, who arrived in a wheelchair, was looking \"fresh.\" After a birthday lunch, aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, an aerial display team, planned to fly overhead, the base said. Members of the Falcons Parachute Display Team then planned to drop in and present Allingham with a birthday card from the chief of Britain's air staff. Allingham is Britain's oldest man and the oldest surviving member of the armed forces, according to Guinness World Records. The former aircraft engineer still travels and makes public appearances at military events and commemorations. In July, Allingham had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth and attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace. In November, he laid a wreath in St. Omer, France -- where he was stationed during the war -- to celebrate Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Allingham said last year that he remains active to emphasize the importance of remembering the conflict. \"I don't do these things because I enjoy doing them but to keep the memory alive of all my comrades who fought and died in the First World War,\" he told the Ministry of Defense.","highlights":"Britain's oldest man, oldest veteran from World War I, celebrates his 112th birthday .\nHenry Allingham last founding member of the Royal Air Force, formed in 1918 .\nEx-aircraft engineer still travels, makes public appearances at military events ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The police chief in Canc\u00fan has been relieved of his duties and placed under house arrest while he is investigated in the killing of a retired Mexican general who had been the area's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours, Mexican media are reporting. A Mexican soldier guards the entrance at a Canc\u00fan police station where the military is investigating a murder. Francisco Velasco Delgado was detained by military officials early Monday and flown to Mexico City, where he was placed under 45 days of house arrest, according to the media reports. With Delgado's removal, the military has taken over the Canc\u00fan police force, several newspapers reported. Canc\u00fan Mayor Gregorio Sanchez Martinez said the move was made \"to facilitate all types of investigations into the triple murder that happened last week,\" the Diario de Yucatan newspaper said. Salvador Rocha Vargas, the secretary for public security for the state of Quintana Roo, will lead the police force. He said he will take all the pertinent measures \"to clean up the Canc\u00fan police,\" the Excelsior newspaper reported Tuesday. Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quinonez's bullet-riddled body was found a week ago on a road outside Canc\u00fan. Authorities said he had been tortured before being shot 11 times. His aide and a driver also were tortured and killed. Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo said last week there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime. \"The general was the most mistreated,\" Rodriguez y Carrillo said at a news conference. \"He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken.\" An autopsy revealed he also had broken knees. Tello had been appointed less than 24 hours earlier as a special drug-fighting consultant for Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, the mayor of the Benito Juarez municipality, which includes the city of Canc\u00fan. Tello, who retired from the army in January at the mandatory age of 63, had moved to the resort area three weeks ago. Mexico is undergoing an unprecedented wave of violence that some have likened to a civil war. The government is battling drug cartels as the traffickers fight each other for control of the lucrative illicit market. Tello was the second high-ranking army officer to be killed in the area in the past few years. Lt. Col. Wilfrido Flores Saucedo and his aide were gunned down on a Canc\u00fan street in 2006. That crime remains unsolved. The latest killings come as Mexico grapples with the highest violent-death rate in its history. Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora reported in December there had been around 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 tallied in 2007. There already have been more than 400 drug-related killings this year, according to some news accounts.","highlights":"Mexican media says local chief put under house arrest for 45 days .\nWith Francisco Velasco Delgado's removal, military takes control of police .\nMayor: Delgado's detainment to \"facilitate all types of investigations\" into murder .\nRetired general killed after being area's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Briton bested competitors from 51 other countries to win the recent World Barista Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. The World Barista Championship poured into Atlanta, Georgia, this year after serving Denmark last year. Winner Gwilym Davies said the caffeinated competition was more difficult than other events he has participated in. \"In sports, I was able to run harder, or tackle harder ... but this, I still have to keep composed, and watch the shots,\" the pushcart owner told CNN on Sunday. \"I found it tougher.\" Each competitor served four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks. Despite incurring a penalty for running 17 seconds over the 15-minute limit, Davies' prowess steamed him to the fore of the competition. Watch contestants battle for title \u00bb . \"It brings together a group of people from all around the world and we currently have a structure of 61 nations that are part of the family,\" said Cindy Chang, executive director of the World Barista Championship. The competition was held during the annual meeting of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, which attracted thousands of participants from around the world. In addition to winning an espresso machine, Davies will travel extensively this year representing the specialty coffee community. In what some view as a strange twist, none of the champions over the past decade has come from a country that grows coffee. \"It does seem kind of perplexing, because what we look for in this competition is for the baristas to tell a story, show that they have a broad coffee knowledge,\" said Chang. \"And the baristas from coffee-producing countries seem to have an easy access to this.\" Davies said he owes his success to his willingness to improvise. \"There were 256 different drinks that we could have made,\" he said. \"We tried a few and added the ingredients. But it was still a bit risky ... and we got away with it!\" The next world championship is to be held next year in London, England. CNN's Felipe Bernal contributed to this story.","highlights":"Gwilym Davies wins this week's World Barista Championship in Atlanta .\nEach competitor served 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 signature drinks .\nStrange twist: None of past decade's winners hail from a coffee-growing country ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chiquita Brands International faces a $7.86 billion lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of nearly 400 Colombian families who say the company should be held responsible for the \"torture and murder\" of their loved ones. With a map of alleged victims, Jonathan Reiter makes his case Wednesday at a New York news conference. Attorney Jonathan Reiter said his clients are seeking \"damages for terrorism, war crimes ... and wrongful death.\" The plaintiffs are asking for $10 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages for each of the 393 victims named in the suit. Earlier this year, Chiquita, as part of a plea agreement, admitted that what it called protection payments had been given to Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC. AUC was named a terrorist organization by the United States in 2002, making it a crime to give them money. The lawsuit alleges Chiquita's interaction with the paramilitary group went further than the payments -- it accuses the company of facilitating shipments of arms to the group. \"They conspired with the AUC, aided and abetted them in a far-reaching conspiracy and plan to control every aspect of banana growing, distribution and sale,\" Reiter said. The attorney said one couple refused to sell their banana farm \"for pennies\" and were killed by AUC in 2001, and other murder victims had been directed to \"sell their bananas only to Chiquita.\" The families filing the suit will remain anonymous because of fear of reprisals in their home country, he said. \"The principle upon which this lawsuit is brought is that when you put money into the hands of terrorists, when you put guns into the hands of terrorists, then you are legally responsible for the atrocities, the murders and the tortures that those terrorists commit,\" Reiter said. Responding to the allegations Wednesday afternoon, the company said, \"Chiquita Brands International categorically denies the allegations made by these attorneys. We reiterate that Chiquita and its employees were victims and that the actions taken by the company were always motivated to protect the lives of our employees and their families.\" Chiquita's director of communications, Michael Mitchell, went on to say, \"Our company had been forced to make protection payments to safeguard our workforce. It is absolutely untrue for anyone to suggest that these payments were made for any other purpose.\" Mitchell said the company will fight the allegations. \"Chiquita has already been the victim of extortion in Colombia. We will not allow ourselves to become extortion victims in the United States.\" In the March plea agreement, Chiquita Brands International agreed to pay a $25 million fine for the payments made by the company's former banana-producing subsidiary in Colombia. During a government investigation, the company admitted to making payments to AUC even after outside counsel told the company those payments were illegal and should stop immediately. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Attorney: Clients allege terrorism, war crimes, wrongful death, seek $7.86 billion .\nPlaintiffs want $20 million in damages for each of 393 victims named in suit .\nChiquita admits paying a group that the U.S. labeled a terrorist organization .\nCompany \"categorically denies\" attorneys' allegations, says it will fight them ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It's no secret that \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell often shows no mercy toward aspiring singers. Quirky, tattooed contestant Megan Joy Corkrey discovered that Wednesday night during the elimination round on the popular singing competition. Megan Joy said she and Simon Cowell remain on good terms. Megan Joy, who dropped her last name, told Cowell that she \"didn't really care\" about his criticisms of her Tuesday night performance of Bob Marley's \"Turn The Lights Down Low,\" which he described as \"boring, indulgent and monotonous.\" Those comments sealed the 23-year-old single mother's fate. Host Ryan Seacrest asked Cowell if he would be using the \"save\" rule in Megan's case. Cowell demurred: \"Megan, with the greatest respect, when you said that you don't care -- nor do we. So I'm not going to pretend that we're even going to contemplate saving you,\" replied Cowell. \"I don't care that Simon didn't like that song,\" Joy said in an interview with CNN on Friday. \"I truly didn't and I still don't. I still loved it, I sang it the way I wanted to.\" Watch what CNN's Michelle Wright said about Megan Joy \u00bb . Despite all the bickering, Joy says that she and Cowell remain on good terms. After Wednesday's program, she says they both laughed and he told her that he enjoyed watching her. Watch what CNN's Lisa Respers France thought of performance \u00bb . Furthermore, the self-described \"dork\" says her \"American Idol\" experience has opened new doors to her future. \"Before all this competition, I thought I was just going to be a stay-at-home mom,\" Joy said. \"Now, I am interested to see all sorts of different things I could possibly try and dabble. ... I'm excited to just see what's out there.\" And those bizarre moments onstage Wednesday when she flapped her arms and squawked like a bird? Joy says that's just her personality. \"I do a lot of sound effects all the time, bird noises, animal noises,\" she said. \"Wednesday, I kind of had a feeling it was going to be me ... so I decided that I'm just going to be myself and be silly out there.\"","highlights":"Megan Joy dropped from \"American Idol\" on Wednesday night .\nShe had dismissed judge Simon Cowell's criticism; Cowell dismissed her .\nJoy says \"Idol\" has opened up new worlds for her ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shahid Afridi claimed six victims to pave the way for Pakistan to claim victory by four wickets in their opening one-day international against Australia in Dubai. Career-best figures from Shahid Afridi helped steer Pakistan to victory in the first one-dayer against Australia. The all-rounder secured career-best figures of six for 38 as Australia could only manage a paltry 168 in an innings that lasted just 38.5 overs. The world champions again lost their way in the middle overs, losing eight for 27 at one stage as they wilted against Afridi's spin. It could have been worse for the Australians who relied on a last-wicket stand of 46 runs between James Hopes (48 not out) and Ben Hilfenhaus (four) to give their score some respectability. Pakistan's reply always looked on track with Kamran Akmal hitting 48 at the top of the order before Misbah-ul-Haq anchored the innings with an unbeaten 30 from 68 balls. A near-capacity crowd filled the Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium as the venue hosted international cricket for the first time. The postponed series, which was originally due to be played last year, had been moved from Pakistan to neutral turf because of security concerns. Meanwhile, a superb half-century from Adam Gilchrist set Deccan Chargers on their way to a 24-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League in Cape Town. The Australian smashed a quickfire 71 and Rohit Sharma contributed 52 as Deccan reached 184 for six from their 20 overs. Bangalore's reply never really got going with captain Kevin Pietersen managing just 11 before he fell to a teasing delivery from Pragyan Ojha and a smart stumping from Gilchrist. Rahul Dravid gave them hope with a thumping 48 before holing out, and Virat Kohli posted 50, but with precious little support from their team-mates their efforts proved in vain.","highlights":"Shahid Afridi claims six victims to pave the way for Pakistan to beat Australia .\nPakistan reach required target to win first one-dayer in Dubai by four wickets .\nAdam Gilchrist half-century helps Deccan Chargers beat Bangalore in the IPL ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With a chance of winning an Oscar on Sunday, the director of \"The Final Inch\" says she hopes her documentary will shed light on the often over-looked issue of polio eradication. The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio. \"I felt like I was looking at something that no one in the world talks about,\" Irene Taylor Brodsky, who also helped produce the film, said in a recent interview. Filming the short documentary was an \"eye-opening experience,\" she said, particularly for one of her co-producers who had to wear a bulletproof vest during filming in Afghanistan. \"The Final Inch\" is a testament of the health workers around the world laboring to make polio the second globally eliminated disease behind small pox, Brodsky said. The 37-minute film, which is scheduled to air on HBO on April 1, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the best documentary short subject category. The awards ceremony is Sunday night. The film focuses on \"the final stages of a 20 year initiative\" to eradicate polio around the world, Brodsky said. Polio is a highly infectious disease which lingers in the poor water systems of India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio. \"The Final Inch\" focuses on the polio vaccine efforts in India and Pakistan. Brodsky said she hoped to include Afghanistan, but that became impossible because of the threat of violence and social barriers. Producer Tom Grant had to wear a bulletproof vest while filming in the war-torn country. He was unable to capture compelling footage because of familial protocol that forbids a man from entering a home full of women while no husband is present. Thus, Grant was often denied access, Brodsky said. In many countries, people are hesitant to vaccinate their children against polio because of a distrust of the government. Some civilians believe the vaccination to be \"something more sinister like a sterilizing drug\" produced to curtail their population, Brodsky explained. She said she often ran into \"the skepticism that some communities have against our government in cooperation with their own government.\" \"It never occurred to me that U.S. foreign policies could affect young children living in the most densely populated areas,\" she said. Although it has been 50 years since the United States developed a vaccination for polio, millions of children abroad remain unprotected. \"Ordinary American people have forgotten polio,\" Brodsky said. And, although the number of polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent, the highly infectious disease is still very real. \"It really limits the opportunities a child might have as an adult,\" said Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative. As part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 20 million volunteers deliver vaccinations to schools, bus stops and rail stations across the world on a daily basis. Only four countries had recorded cases of polio in 2008, down from 125 countries 10 years ago, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This year, there have been 26 recorded cases of polio around the world, compared with 46 people who were infected with polio last year. \"But we're only in mid-February. That doesn't say much,\" Rosenbauer said. He said that he is most concerned that a child suffering from polio will have a difficult time integrating into society, building friendships and finding a job. \"So it's much more than just the fact that this child will be physically disabled for the rest of his or her life,\" he added. \"It is the opportunity that is lost from the life they might have led.\" CNN and HBO are both part of Time Warner.","highlights":"'The Final Inch' focuses on the polio vaccine efforts in India and Pakistan .\nMillions of children abroad remain unprotected from polio .\nThis year, there have been 26 recorded cases of polio around the world ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Staff Sgt. Cody Reeves has survived harrowing conditions and stared down enemies on the battlefield during two tours in the military hotspots of Iraq. Staff. Sgt. Cody Reeves works out with his fellow Old Guard soldiers. Now he is stationed near Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, trained to carry the remains of fellow soldiers who perished in that same conflict. Before,\"it was all about catching the bad guy,\" Reeves said. \"When you come here, it's all about honoring your brothers who are fallen for catching the bad guys, for their service.\" Reeves serves in the Army's Old Guard, a tight-knit group of soldiers of similar height and size who physically bear the weight of the Army's fallen veterans. The Old Guard conducts a 15-minute ceremony called a dignified transfer. A recent decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates gives families the choice to allow media to film the solemn event. It's the first time in 20 years the ceremony has been open to the press. Watch members of the Old Guard in action \u00bb . Every detail of the transfer is precise. When an American soldier dies overseas, the Old Guard is called into action. They travel from their base to Dover, where they meet the aircraft carrying the soldier's body. The six men receive the flag-draped casket, which can weigh 500 pounds, and carry the soldier's body to a waiting vehicle. Women serve as officers in charge on the Army transfer teams, but do not carry the caskets. For Air Force transfers, which use eight people, women help carry the coffin. Despite the cold or the heat, the late hour when the planes often arrive and the physical and emotional strain of their job, the soldiers keep their faces blank. \"There's definitely times where your mind goes off, even in the ceremony,\" said Spc. Wilbert Steinborn, another member of the Old Guard. \"You say, 'This guy might have a wife or kids or mother or father who's never going to see him again.' \"You can't let it show. Inside you might feel it, and definitely a human's going to feel that -- they're going to feel that emotion. But you can't show that on the outside,\" Steinborn said. The men stifle sneezes, learn to yawn through their noses and betray no sign of the burden they carry. And -- what they say makes keeping their composure even more important -- the team performs its duties in front of the soldiers' families. \"We're soldiers too. We're infantrymen. We could easily be in their place,\" Steinborn said. \"It's hard because you honestly think you see your wife or your girlfriend sitting where the next-of-kin is. You can imagine yourself being there.... So I think that's why we try to be as precise and exact, and look as good, and make them look as good as possible.\" Some of the Old Guard choose to learn about the lives of the soldiers they've carried. Reeves asks for information about the fallen after having participated in the ceremonies, but never before he greets the soldier's body. \"It's 'take care of business' and then afterwards I like to know a little bit about the soldier,\" he said. \"That way you can keep emotions at bay and you're just focused on doing the soldier part.\" Strikingly, the men, who head to their barracks' gym for intense weight training twice a day and take five-mile runs as a team, seem to be able to communicate without speaking. After drilling for countless hours on the base's grounds, they can feel if another man is even minutely out of step in the ceremony. Sometimes they'll whisper corrections so discreetly no onlooker would ever notice. The nature of their job means the men also share a tighter, unspoken bond. \"When I was walking through the aircraft and saw the transfer case with the American flag draped over it, it was -- it was very emotional,\" Steinborn said. \"I don't know if it sadness or pride or what, but -- it was honestly the most difficult and touching thing that I have ever done.\"","highlights":"\"It's all about honoring your brothers who are fallen,\" Reeves says .\nArmy's Old Guard transfers remains of soldiers who died in conflict .\nThe team performs duties in front of the soldiers' families .\nThe nature of their job means the men share a tight, unspoken bond ."} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- It takes a truly adventurous actress to pull off a razored Mohawk, a platinum pixie and a Louise Brooks bob, but we'd expect nothing less from the ever provocative Selma Blair, who experimented with all three looks in under a year. Selma Blair says she works with hairstylists and makeup artists who \"have a vision.\" \"I have no fears when it comes to my hair or clothes,\" proclaims the 36-year-old star of NBC's upcoming mom-and-daughter sitcom \"Kath and Kim\" and July's action flick \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army.\" Makeup, however, is an entirely different matter for the self-declared \"poor applier,\" who sticks with basics like nude lipstick and pink blush, and ducks whenever she sees a liquid liner. \"I avoid anything difficult,\" she says. Blair's signature look: \"A rosy cheek, a smudgy eye, a lot of mascara--I look like a doll that has too much makeup on, and I love it!\" Have you always been a beauty chameleon? In high school I would mess with my hair and makeup all the time. I used to wear a shirt that said \"Ms. Clairol\" because I changed my hair color so much. I was blond for a long time, then what my mom called \"barnyard red.\" Do you still dye it yourself? Only when I have to cover up stray grays. And I'll just use whatever color I find in the grocery store that looks good on the box, like Preference by L'Or\u00e9al--because I'm worth it [laughs]. But for my platinum hair, I went to Sheri at Rom\u00e1n Salon in L.A. She was a saint. I had just dyed my hair dark brown, so she had to very slowly strip out all the color so that my hair wouldn't burn off. And the cut--are you keeping it short? I tend to like my hair whatever way it's not, so now I miss it being long. I think I'm more approachable with long hair. When it's short, I come across as being artsy and weird. What's your typical makeup look? I used to wear a lot of red lipstick, and when I got a pimple, I'd cover it up with eyeliner to turn it into a beauty mark. But everything has changed since I hit 35. I'm at an age where any makeup that's meant to look \"slept in\" really looks like I slept in it. That's for youngsters! Now less is more. I don't like to wear concealer or anything. I'd rather have uneven skin than feel like my face is cracking from too much foundation. Then you must be serious about your skin care. I go to a spa in L.A. called Kinara for its Skin Care BootCamp. You go once a week for 12 sessions and they'll look at your skin and tell you how to get it in better condition. They really helped me a lot. I also stay out of the sun. Any thoughts on Botox or plastic surgery? I wanted to get Botox once to make me feel younger. But I don't really have [enough wrinkles] to justify it yet. As for going under the knife, I can't say I wouldn't, but I haven't thought too much about it. Best beauty product? Egyptian Magic cream is my saving grace for everything. It works for my friend's baby's bottom, and I can also use it instead of Chapstick. So what's next? I'm really excited about having a perma-tan and wearing long highlighted hair extensions for my role on \"Kath and Kim.\" And I've been gaining weight for the part by eating a little bit more of what I want and not moving around as much. I've already put on 15 pounds, and I'll probably gain another 10. It'll be a whole new me! Will this be your most drastic transformation? Actually I wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie. They were glued on every day by a really handsome guy, but ripping them off every night was definitely outside my realm of comfort. After those bosoms, I didn't mind being flat-chested anymore! Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Actress Selma Blair wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie .\nShe's gained at least 15 pounds for her role on \"Kath and Kim\"\nShe considered Botox but says she doesn't have enough wrinkles for it yet .\nBlair experimented with three completely different looks in less than a year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former England cricket star Chris Lewis was remanded in custody by a British court Tuesday, charged with attempting to smuggle drugs through an airport. Chris Lewis joined Surrey to play in Twenty20 matches for the 2008 season. The 40-year-old all-rounder, who played 32 Tests and 53 one-day internationals for England in the 1990s, was arrested Monday when border officials at London's Gatwick Airport found cocaine hidden in luggage that had arrived on a flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Four kilograms of cocaine with a street value of around $350,000 was seized by the UK Border Agency, the UK's Press Association said. The drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins, officials said. Lewis and basketball player Chad Kirnon, 26, both from London, were held and questioned by Customs officials and later charged. British Revenue & Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger told PA: \"This was an excellent detection by UK Border Agency officers. \"HMRC, together with UKBA, play a vital role in the fight to prevent illegal drugs from entering the UK and in protecting our communities from the violence and corruption that always accompany this hideous trade.\" The two men made a brief appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court in West Sussex on Tuesday afternoon, where Lewis had a bail application refused, PA reported. They were remanded in custody to appear via video link in court next Wednesday.","highlights":"Four kilos of cocaine worth $350,000 seized at Gatwick Airport .\nOfficials: Drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins in luggage .\nChris Lewis played cricket for England during the 1990s ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fires in central and southern California raged Saturday as triple-digit temperatures mixed with dry conditions continued to fuel the flames, torching thousands of acres and threatening scores of homes. Firefighters look on as fire rages near Ocean View Drive in Los Angeles on Saturday. Authorities confirmed three civilian injuries from a growing blaze known as the Station fire burning through the Angeles National Forest-La Canada Flintridge. The blaze nearly quadrupled in size from 5,500 acres Friday to more than 20,000 acres, officials said. The blaze, which grew to more than 20,100 acres, was 5 percent contained early Sunday, officials said. It was upgraded to type 1 brush fire -- the most severe classification. \"Today what happened is what I called a perfect storm of fuels, weather and topography coming together ... essentially the fire burned at will,\" Mike Dietrich of the U.S. Forest Service said Saturday. Authorities consider the Station fire an anomaly, as it is not driven by strong winds as most California wildfires. Watch CNN's Reynolds Wolf explain what's driving the fire \u00bb . \"The fire has been very active on all fronts,\" U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Randi Jorgensen said. The fire threatened about 10,000 homes in Los Angeles County and 900 homes were evacuated, she said. Watch close-up views of the fast-moving fire \u00bb . \"Basically, all the homes that back up to the National Forest in the La Canada-Flintridge are in danger from the fire,\" Jorgensen said, adding that fire officials have told residents to be prepared for possible evacuation orders. The Station fire disrupted power to 750 homes. More than 750 workers have been dispatched to control the blaze, which started Wednesday afternoon. Watch iReport images and descriptions of the fire \u00bb . Jorgensen confirmed one injury involving heat exhaustion. A wildfire also hit San Bernardino National Forest, burning 2,200 acres, fire officials said. The blaze, called the Cottonwood fire, started Thursday afternoon about 10 miles from the southern California city of Hemet, officials reported. That blaze was about 10 percent contained Friday evening. Hemet is about 85 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Firefighters fully contained another fire that torched 230 acres about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles on Friday. The blaze, called the Palos Verdes fire, forced 1,200 people to evacuate and destroyed five homes and two other buildings. Another fire in the Angeles National Forest had burned more than 2,100 acres. The blaze, called the Morris fire, started Tuesday. That fire was about 85 percent contained Friday evening, officials said.","highlights":"The Station fire \"very active on all fronts,\" U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said .\nThe Cottonwood, Palos Verdes and Morris fires were all ablaze late Friday .\nHomes in the Angeles National Forest-La Canada Flintridge area in danger ."} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- President Obama misinterpreted Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro's offer to start talks with the United States, Castro's brother Fidel said Wednesday, appearing to dismiss the U.S. leader's call for Cuba to release political prisoners. Fidel Castro appears with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, left, and brother Ra\u00fal Castro in a photo released in June. In an essay published in state-run newspapers Wednesday, the ailing revolutionary leader said the people Washington calls political prisoners are \"in the service of a foreign power that threatens and blockades our homeland.\" Fidel Castro's comments come after signs of a thaw in the decades-old impasse between the United States and the communist-ruled island to its south. Obama lifted all restrictions on visits and money transfers between American citizens and relatives in Cuba this month, while Ra\u00fal Castro said Cuba is prepared to talk with the United States about \"everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners.\" Speaking at a conference of inter-American and Caribbean leaders Sunday, Obama said the Cuban leader's declaration was \"a sign of progress.\" He added that the Cuban government could send a much clearer, more positive signal by releasing political prisoners or reducing fees charged on remittances Americans send to relatives in the country. But Fidel Castro wrote Wednesday, \"There is no doubt that the president misinterpreted Ra\u00fal's statements.\" \"When the president of Cuba said he was ready to discuss any topic with the U.S. president, he meant he was not afraid of addressing any issue,\" Castro wrote. \"That shows his courage and confidence on the principles of the revolution.\" He said Cuba would be willing to release prisoners held since a 2003 crackdown on dissidents if the United States would release five Cubans convicted of spying in 2001. And he criticized Obama for not doing more to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba, imposed in 1962. \"Should we wait for so many years before his blockade is lifted?\" Castro asked. \"He did not invent it, but he embraced it just as much as the previous 10 U.S. presidents did.\" Castro ceded power to his brother in 2006 before undergoing surgery for a still-undisclosed intestinal condition. But he remains head of the Communist Party, and his essay raises the question of who would be calling the shots in any talks with Washington. \"Who's in charge?\" one Havana man asked Wednesday. \"Raul -- ah, Fidel -- ah, Ra\u00fal.\" But a woman who spoke to CNN said, \"The president is Ra\u00fal. He's the one you have to listen to now.\"","highlights":"Fidel Castro essay seems to dismiss U.S. leader's call for Cuba to free dissidents .\nRa\u00fal Castro has said Cuba is prepared to talk with U.S. about \"everything\"\nPresident Obama responds by saying Cuba should send signal and free prisoners .\nFidel Castro also criticizes Obama for not doing more to lift U.S. embargo on Cuba ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton will stop telling an emotional story about a uninsured pregnant woman who died after being denied medical care, Clinton's campaign said. Sen. Hillary Clinton was repeating a story she heard from someone on the campaign trail. A hospital has raised questions over the accuracy of the story, and Clinton's campaign has said although they had no reason to doubt the story, they were unable to confirm the details. In the story, Clinton describes a woman from rural Ohio who was making minimum wage at a local pizza shop. The woman, who was uninsured, became pregnant. Clinton said the woman ran into trouble and went to a hospital in a nearby county but was denied treatment because she couldn't afford a $100 payment. In her speeches, Clinton said the woman later was taken to the hospital by ambulance and lost the baby. The young woman was then taken by helicopter to a Columbus hospital where she died of complications. Watch why the story is raising questions \u00bb . The New York senator heard the story during a campaign visit to a family's living room in Pomeroy, Ohio, in late February. Bryan Holman was hosting the candidate and told Clinton the story. She has repeated it frequently since then. As recently as Friday night in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Clinton said she was \"just aching inside\" as she was listening to the story. \"It is so wrong, in this good, great and rich country, that a young woman and her baby would die because she didn't have health insurance or a hundred dollars to get examined,\" she said. While Clinton never named the hospital in her speech, the woman she was referring to was treated at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. The hospital said the woman did indeed have insurance, and, at least at their hospital, she was never turned away. Hospital Chief Executive Officer Rick Castrop in a statement said, \"we reviewed the medical and patient accounts of the patient\" after she was named in a newspaper story about Clinton's stump speech. \"There is no indication that she was ever denied medical care at any time, for any reason. We clearly reject any perception that we ever denied any care to this woman.\" A hospital spokesperson confirmed to CNN the woman had insurance. She said the hospital decided to come forward after people in the community began to question if they had denied her care. Clinton's speech accurately reflects what she was told that day, but the campaign admits they were not able to confirm the account. Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said, \"She had no reason to doubt his word.\" \"Candidates are told stories by people all the time, and it's common for candidates to retell those stories. It's not always possible to fully vet them, but we try. For example, medical records are confidential. In this case, we tried but weren't able to fully vet the story,\" he said. Elleithee added, \"If the hospital claims it didn't happen that way, we certainly respect that, and she won't repeat the story.\" \"She never mentions the hospital by name and isn't trying to cast blame. She tells this story because it illustrates the point that we have a very serious health care problem in America. That's a point very few people will dispute.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Clinton had been repeating a story she heard about an uninsured pregnant woman .\nIn the story, the woman was denied treatment, later died from complications .\nHospital says woman had insurance, was never denied care .\nClinton campaign says they had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the story ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A habitually violent young man was convicted Wednesday of the murder of teenage actor Rob Knox, who had starred in the latest \"Harry Potter\" film. The father, brother and mother of Rob Knox pose together after the death of the young actor. Karl Bishop, 22, attacked Knox and four friends with two kitchen knives outside a bar in Sidcup, south east London, last May. He stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the Old Bailey court in central London heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. Bystanders said Bishop's face was \"screwed up in rage\" as he lashed out with the two knives, the Press Association reported. Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court that the young actor's promising life was ended by a \"habitual knife carrier\" who believed stabbing people was an \"occupational hazard\" and had previous convictions for knife crime. Bishop is due to be sentenced on Thursday. Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"","highlights":"Man convicted of murder of teenage actor who starred in new \"Harry Potter\" film .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Oasis front man Noel Gallagher has quit the rock group after a fallout with his bandmate brother, he announced late Friday. \"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight,\" Noel Gallagher said in a brief statement on the band's Web site. \"People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.\" Noel Gallagher is the band's lead guitarist and songwriter, and Liam Gallagher is the lead singer. The band is currently on a European tour for its album, \"Dig Out Your Soul.\" Noel Gallagher apologized to fans who had bought tickets for upcoming gigs in France, Germany and Italy. Oasis had to cancel its headlining performance at the V Festival in Britain over the weekend because Liam Gallagher said he was sick and couldn't sing. He later apologized for the cancellation and quashed rumors that it was the band's last-ever British gig. Disputes between the brothers have been in the public eye in the past, but never before has one of the brothers gone so far as to leave the band. Oasis shot to stardom with its 1994 album, \"Definitely Maybe,\" which contained the band's first major hit, \"Supersonic.\" The follow-up, \"(What's the Story) Morning Glory?\" produced one of group's most famous tracks, \"Wonderwall.\" The Manchester band was one of the pioneers of the Britpop movement of the early '90s, along with British band Blur.","highlights":"Never before has one of the brothers gone so far as to leave the band .\nOasis shot to stardom with its 1994 album, \"Definitely Maybe\"\nThe band was one of the pioneers of Britpop, along with Blur ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A magazine photo spread of Taliban fighters posing in the uniforms of 10 French soldiers killed last month has sparked an angry response. One of the pictures in the French magazine Paris Match that has stirred controversy. The latest edition of Paris Match includes photos of the Taliban fighters and their commander, \"Farouki,\" wearing French uniforms, helmets and using French assault rifles and walkie-talkies. Farouki, aged 30-35, claims in the accompanying story to have led his group in the August 18 ambush which killed 10 French troops and injured a further 21 in the Sarobi District, 40 miles east of Kabul. It was the French army's single highest death toll in 25 years. He said the area was \"our territory\" and the attack was a \"legitimate\" part of its defense. Farouki said it did not need a lot of planning, with the French soldiers only spotted a short time before the assault. He said the soldiers had died for \"[George W.] Bush's\" cause and that if France did not return the rest of its troops home they would all be killed. Farouki said they would continue fighting till the last man. See more on Paris Match's Web site . French Defense Minister Herve Morin accused the magazine of helping the Taliban. \"Should we be doing the Taliban's promotion for them?\" he asked in the French daily newspaper Liberation. Joel Le Pahun, father of one of the killed soldiers, told the newspaper the pictures were \"despicable.\" Green MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit called them \"voyeurism.\" However, Paris Match editor Laurent Valdiguie defended the publication, saying it was \"legitimate\" given the importance of the story. The story's author, Eric de Lavar\u00e8ne, said only he and photographer V\u00e9ronique de Viguerie met the group and he asked his questions via their \"fixer.\"","highlights":"Photos of Taliban in the uniforms of dead French soldiers provokes outrage .\nMagazine Paris Match features photos of Taliban and their commander .\n10 French troops were killed and a further 21 injured in an ambush ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Since it was founded in 1994, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been instrumental in encouraging innovative research that will combat the biggest health issues affecting the developing world. One Gates Foundation grant aims to help reduce malaria among Nigeria's nomads. The foundation has pledged $100 million in grants to get new scientific research off the ground, as part of Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE). On Tuesday, GCE launched its latest round of grant applications, open to anyone with a unique approach to solving problems in the developing world. The idea is to develop creative thinking from people who may not have traditionally taken part in health research. Begun in 2008, current projects receiving GCE funding include work in Hong Kong to develop flu-resistant chickens and efforts to prevent the transmission of HIV through breast milk. To speed up the grant allocation process, applicants only need to fill in a two-page form and submit it online. Successful applicants get a $100,000 grant and the chance to receive more than $1 million in future grants. The latest round of GCE grants invites applicants to focus on four areas: new technologies for contraception, new ways to induce and measure mucosal immunity, low-cost diagnostics for priority global health conditions, and new ways to protect against infectious disease. Click on the \"Explainer\" tab above to take a look at some of the groundbreaking research being funded by GEC.","highlights":"The Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million towards health research .\nThe latest round of research grant applications has just been opened .\nOne project receiving funding is working to develop flu-resistant chickens ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- And now, the rejects. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft . Three months after the White House released a single photograph taken during a photo op of \"Air Force One\" flying over New York -- a flight that caused panic on the streets below -- the U.S. Air Force on Friday released the remaining 145 photos taken during the flight. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 -- a military version of a 747 -- making three passes by the Statue of Liberty, at one point accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet and at another point making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft. That latter move may have contributed to the chaos below. The photographs and several lengthy government e-mail chains were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by CNN and other news organizations. The e-mail chains show that the flight's government organizers were aware of many New Yorkers' fears of low-flying aircraft before the April 27 flight, and show a flurry of second-guessing, finger-pointing, damage control and occasional expressions of regret in the hours immediately after the flight. Watch a compilation of still images of the flyover \u00bb . \"Thanks for the heads up on sensitivities in the New York area,\" an Air Force colonel wrote in an e-mail two days before the flight. \"This is an issue that PAG [the Presidential Airlift Group] has also been concerned with. As a result, their coordination has been substantial.\" But while the White House, the military and numerous federal and local government agencies coordinated the flight, the federal government demanded secrecy, preparing a news release that was to be distributed only if there were media inquiries. Those inquiries came during the morning flight, triggering a quick chain of e-mails among government officials. \"We...need to construct some sort of timeline on when folks became aware of it if that is possible,\" one Air Force official wrote, responding to the public interest. \"I agree we... need to accomplish damage control, but we aren't the POC [point of contact],\" the response reads. \"Nor do I want to become a belly button for NORAD to push on this one.\" Wrote one top Pentagon spokeswoman: \"Nothing like having everyone point the finger at someone else so we ALL look like a big bunch of buffoons... can you say Moe, Larry & Curly!??!?!\" In addition to the informal e-mail banter, the documents show the regimented system the Pentagon uses to monitor and respond to breaking news stories. A U.S. Northern Command document offers this \"assessment\" of the story: \"Last 4 hours: Story reported quickly. Covered by AP, CNN, FOX major news outlets. Local reporting very critical, highlighting 'scare' factor. Local populace very critical of event, due to 9-11 sensitivities.\" It continues: \"Web site blog comments 'furious' at best. Twitter search reveals 'tweets' regarding two F-16's chasing commercial airliner. Rate of 1 tweet per minute and growing.\" \"No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake,\" it concludes. In another e-mail, USAF Col. Scott M. Turner, commander of the Presidential Airlift Group, was doing just that. \"Again, my apologies sir. Real intent here was to honor NYC, not cause mass chaos,\" it reads. The next day, the Northern Command's internal memo included depictions of New York's three major tabloids featuring the headlines, \"Scare Force One,\" \"Just Plane Stupid!\" and \"How Dumb Was This!\" The photographs released Friday, meanwhile, show the presidential aircraft making a steep bank, seemingly well beyond the 30-degree maximum for Boeing 747s carrying passengers, according to one airline pilot consulted by CNN. That may have contributed to the anxiety on the ground. The Pentagon estimated the cost of the flight at $328,835, which includes the Boeing aircraft and the two fighter jets that accompanied it. But, they said, \"the hours would have been flown regardless, and the expenses would have been accrued on a different mission.\" The VC-25 aircraft is designated \"Air Force One\" only when the president is aboard. President Obama was not on the plane during the photo op. After the incident, Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office responsible for the flyover, resigned. \"I have concluded that the controversy surrounding the Presidential Airlift Group's aerial photo shoot over New York City has made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office,\" Caldera said in a letter to Obama. \"Moreover, it has become a distraction to the important work you are doing as president. After much reflection, I believe it is incumbent on me to tender my resignation and step down as director of the White House Military Office.\"","highlights":"Presidential plane's flight over New York led to panic on ground .\nAir Force releases 145 new photos of flight; 1 had been released previously .\nGovernment e-mail chains from day of flight also released .\n\"No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake,\" says one ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A judge has ordered mediation in the case of a teen girl who says her family threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rifqa Bary, 17, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July. She claims her father threatened to kill her. The 17-year-old girl, Rifqa Bary, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July and took refuge in the home of the Rev. Blake Lorenz with the Global Revolution Church in Orlando, Florida. Bary's parents want her back home. At a court hearing Thursday in Orlando, the girl's parents denied all the allegations against them. Also at the hearing, Judge Daniel Dawson of the Orange County Juvenile Court ordered the girl and her parents to seek the mediation within 30 days. The judge had previously ruled that the girl will remain in Florida foster care until the allegations are resolved. The parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, could not attend the hearing in person but listened through a telephone conference as their lawyer spoke for them. They denied they ever threatened to kill their daughter because she converted to Christianity. Mohamed Bary told CNN he believes a lot of false information has been circulated about the case. \"We wouldn't do her harm,\" the father said, adding that he knew his daughter was involved with Christian organizations. \"I have no problem with her practicing any faith,\" he said. But Bary conceded he would have preferred that his daughter practice the Muslim faith first. The teen had heard of pastor Lorenz and his church through a prayer group on Facebook. The girl's parents reported her missing to Columbus police, who found her two weeks later in Florida through cell phone records. The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to \"deal with the situation.\" In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, \"If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!\" The teenager claims her father added, \"I will kill you!\" Watch the teen talk about her fears \u00bb . Also at Thursday's hearing, the judge sealed a report on the girl from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and issued a gag order for attorneys in the case. At one point during the hearing, the girl's court-appointed guardian, Krista Bartholomew, told the court: \"This is not a holy war but a case about a broken family.\" Outside the courthouse after the hearing, a Muslim activist and several Christian activists exchanged words over the case. Watch the heated exchanges \u00bb . Another hearing is scheduled for September 29 if the family is not able to resolve the conflict through mediation.","highlights":"Teenager claims father threatened to kill her because she converted to Christianity .\nParents of teen have denied all allegations against them .\nRifqa Bary, 17, ran away from Ohio home; took refuge in home of Christian pastor .\nJudge orders teen and her family to seek mediation within 30 days ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rob Thomas is a busy guy -- so busy, he apparently hasn't had much time to check in with his Matchbox Twenty bandmates. Rob Thomas prefers to focus on the \"musician\" side of his career, rather than \"celebrity.\" We only know this because we ran into guitarist Paul Doucette at the BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills several weeks ago, where he was picking up a plaque for songwriter of the year. \"We're interviewing Rob about his solo album,\" I told him. \"Hey,\" Doucette exclaimed. \"Tell that guy to call me, would you? I didn't even know he was in L.A.!\" By the time we met up with Thomas the next day, he and Doucette had already connected over drinks somewhere between midnight and the morning -- musician's hours. Thomas recently released \"Cradlesong,\" his second solo CD. Even though he's clearly excited about it, he spends as much time talking about Matchbox Twenty as he does the solo album he's in town to promote. For the 37-year-old singer-songwriter, it's all interconnected. One has fed into the other since he gained household name status a decade ago, after scoring a massive, Grammy-winning hit with Carlos Santana on \"Smooth.\" Watch Thomas describe the difference between being a celebrity and a musician \u00bb . The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Who has given you the best piece of advice? Rob Thomas: Carlos [Santana] will constantly send you messages out of nowhere. Carlos will call me at 10 at night and be like, \"Listen, I had a dream about you, and so much good is happening, but there's dark forces at work, and when you get out of here, I have this woman who wants to cleanse you.\" I think Carlos' most important piece of advice ever was that he taught me the difference between being a celebrity and being a famous musician. CNN: But some artists don't have that kind of success, and they try for celebrity instead. Thomas: Sure, and sometimes that works -- but none of my favorites have done that. I remember when Matchbox Twenty started years ago, and we had a lot of success, but nobody knew who we were. The first time we did an interview with MTV, it was about how no one knew who we were. We had sold 8 million records. I don't know if we were being naive at the time, but we thought we'd won because our songs were more famous than we were. I'm much more known for the music that I make than what I do with my life. It's never, \"Oh yeah, I've been seeing you in [the New York Post gossip column] Page Six at these clubs that you go to\" or \"I know who you're sleeping with.\" CNN: When you became famous for being Rob Thomas the solo artist, did that cause problems within the band? Thomas: No. I think the guys would rather it be me than them. None of them want the job, and they realize that it's working now. They have a singer. I can go out and do it [publicity] for them, and they're fine with it. They can stay home. I think there's nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity. If I'm not out supporting my work, I really don't want people to see me. I go to movie premieres -- my wife and I -- all the time, and nine out of 10 of those movie premieres, much to my publicist's dismay, I get there, but I sneak around the pictures and get into the party [using the back entrance]. If I have a record coming out, I'll go in front of the cameras, and I'll say, \"Hi! Hey, I'm at this movie premiere.\" I liken it to being a switch that I can move on and off. CNN: What has doing a solo project enabled you to do that you can't do with a band? Thomas: I get to pick my own schedule, and that's nice. Matchbox Twenty -- it's four lead singers, there's four front men, and everybody's tastes, everybody's schedule, everybody's personal life comes into account when you're doing something like that. We all live [in four different cities] ... so we literally have to pull ourselves up from all over the country and go somewhere, just to get us into a room to write. And you have to not think you're so great so you don't get upset when somebody doesn't like your stuff. Like \"Her Diamonds\" -- one of the singles on this solo album -- is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written, and the guys loved the song, but didn't want to play it. [They said,] \"When you do a new solo record, you should put it on there. It doesn't sound like a song we would do right now.\" And they were right. When we put together the last Matchbox record, it was much more of a rock record. CNN: What's the most surprising thing on your iPod? Thomas: Britney Spears. Come on! \"Toxic,\" man, is just one of the baddest tracks ever! I remember the first time we listened to \"... Baby One More Time.\" ... We were like, \"Oh, let's go play Britney Spears on the piano!\" And we all come over drinking, and after a couple of minutes, we're like, \"This Britney Spears is a lot harder than we thought!\" CNN: Whose career would you like to emulate? Thomas: Tom Petty is a famous musician. He's not a music celebrity. When Tom Petty walks down the street, you know that it's Tom Petty, but it would be like, \"Oh my gosh, it's Tom Petty! I love Tom Petty, right on!\" It would never be like, \"Aaaaaaaah!\" -- and 3 million teenage girls follow him down the street.","highlights":"Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty has new album out, \"Cradlesong\"\nThomas says Matchbox Twenty is still very much together .\nSinger: \"Nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have raised the alert status at Mount Redoubt, a volcano in southern Alaska, after another increase in seismic activity. Seismic activity at Alaska's Mount Redoubt again has scientists watching for an eruption. \"Shallow earthquake activity under the volcano has been as high as 26 events per 10-minute period,\" officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Sunday in a statement announcing that the alert level was raised to \"watch\" status. Although no eruption has occurred, the scientists said the increase in seismic activity \"likely represents either the upward movement of magma or pressurization of the system.\" \"It is possible for unrest at the volcano to change rapidly, and seismic activity or other signs of unrest could escalate culminating in an eruption within days to weeks,\" the statement concluded. An increase in seismic activity at the same volcano prompted a \"watch\" level last Monday. In the U.S. Geological Survey's color-coded alert levels, the orange \"watch\" level means the volcano \"is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption\" or that \"eruption is underway with no or minor volcanic-ash emissions.\" The next level is red, meaning an eruption is imminent or underway. Bill Burton, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said since January there have been increases in seismic activity at Mount Redoubt followed by periods of quiet. The 10,197-foot peak is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the most populous city in Alaska. Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago, in December 1989. That eruption lasted until April 1990.","highlights":"Increase in seismic activity noted at Mount Redoubt in southern Alaska .\nAlert level raised; \"eruption within days to weeks\" is possible, officials say .\nVolcano last erupted in December 1989 and last for months .\nMount Redoubt is about 100 southwest of Anchorage, Alaska ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I think it's fair to say that most of us have been absolutely horrified by the plight of tens of thousands of Haitians this month. A massive earthquake is always devastating, but for such carnage and misery to be wrought upon a people who already had nothing seems especially cruel. It was 0100 GMT when I went on air, the aftershocks were both frequent and significant, and from the Tweets I read there was a sense of utter panic and fear on the streets. The pictures have been absolutely heartbreaking, and the stories our crews have reported from all over the country have been terribly moving. I wanted to do something to help. For some reason I was especially moved when Anderson Cooper dragged that bleeding boy out of the street - a young boy who was stunned and panicked and terribly vulnerable - and I realized that I had something I could contribute. Click here to place a bid on the Open flag . (Item number: 250569560734) Years ago, when I was the Living Golf anchor, I was looking to collect something unusual for a charity auction. As it happens, the auction was cancelled and since then I had largely forgotten that I had something of value and unique at the back of my wardrobe. The British Open, one of golf's most illustrious competitions, is never more special than when held at St Andrews, the so-called \"home of golf.\" Every professional wants to be \"Open Champion\" and of the last seven tournaments to be played up there, many of the champions have been legends of the sport. Jack Nicklaus won it twice, as did Tiger Woods. Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo complete the roll-call of champions who have already made it into the pantheon of greats. It struck me that to get all four to autograph a replica flag from the 2005 Open would be pretty special. Seve (1984 winner) obliged me in Tenerife later that year, with a signature as flamboyant as many of his shots. Tiger (2000 and 2005 winner) added his name when we met in Dubai the next year. Faldo (1990 winner) and I live in the same town but our paths never seemed to cross when they needed to and so I posted the flag to his management company and from somewhere on his global travels he obliged. My colleague Justin Armsden interviewed Nicklaus (1970 and 1978 winner) at The Old Course and, though Jack hadn't bargained on signing any autographs that day, Justin's producer Andrea Mortensen bagged the all important tag. So, just to recap, some of the greatest names in golf have signed this unique memento. Also up for auction are the Xeroxed scorecards of all four players when they last all played the St Andrews Open in 2000. They are perfectly reproduced. You'll see Tiger's winning round, counter-signed by another Open Champion David Duval and another card is counter-signed by a man who wasn't yet a major winner, Angel Cabrera. You'll note the meticulous nature of Faldo's game, every hole is neatly ticked off and appropriately, there's even a squiggle and a correction on the card of American John Daly, the only Open champion at St Andrews since 1970 that I was unable to persuade to sign the flag. But maybe his autograph absence and messy scorecard are in keeping with the erratic character we have come to know and love! This year just so happens to be the 150th anniversary of The Open at St Andrews and so it's appropriate to auction the flag and the cards in 2010. But Haiti is the true motivation for the sale. It is right because they desperately need help. All proceeds of the sale will go to a charity called Plan International, who have been working in Haiti for over thirty years. The donation will support their emergency relief and recovery work there with children and their communities; helping the most vulnerable and the very people who are the country's future. I hope you will bid on the flag, and if not please help spread the word of the sale so that we can get a really good price for it. It deserves a good home, and the auction will help ensure a brighter future for many children in their darkest hour.","highlights":"CNN's Don Riddell persuaded the greats of golf to sign a replica flag from the St. Andrews British Open of 2005 .\nThe flag, signed by Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo, is to be auctioned on eBay .\nRegister your bid to help raise money for those in need in earthquake-hit Haiti ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A salty soup of seawater, microscopic pieces of plastic and marine debris. Those are the ingredients in the North Pacific Gyre, an ocean vortex estimated by Greenpeace to be the size of Texas, contaminated with the floating detritus of our modern lives. The sheer size of the ocean area affected has been enough to catch public attention, but a number of concerned groups are aiming to capture more than that. Project Kaisei plans to find a way to scoop up the plastic waste and devise a way to turn it into a future fuel source. It's a huge task, but led by innovator and environmentalist Doug Woodring, Project Kaisei has already embarked on a mission to the gyre. An August voyage onboard the New Horizon and Kaisei sailing ships was in partnership with Scripps Research Institute. The crews returned with samples of the water from various locations in the gyre and the most immediate discovery was the pervasiveness of plastic material found at regular points over 3,500 miles. The most heavily polluted areas of surface water in the gyre contained six times more plastic than plankton biomass. Derelict, or \"ghost\" nets, plastic crates and even toys were found by the crew. Some items like plastic bottles had become impromptu homes to varieties of marine mollusc. As well as posing hazards to the oceans through toxic contamination and to sealife through ingestion or being trapped in nets, unnatural transport systems could allow invasive species to be introduced to different areas and upset delicate ecosystems. The project now counts scientists, innovators, sailors and environmentalists among its ranks, galvanized around a desire to clean up the Pacific's plastic vortex. A further voyage next year hopes to gather more data and move closer to a practical solution to the ever increasing problem.","highlights":"Voyage to the North Pacific Gyre found plastic in the ocean over 3,500 miles .\nPlastic vortex has large pieces of plastic and microscopic fragments .\nAim of voyage was to learn how to collect the waste and turn into fuel .\nProject Kaisei will embark on another mission next year ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in the Northern California town of Tracy are pursuing hundreds of possible leads in the disappearance of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared on Friday, according to police in Tracy, California. Police have received 477 tips since she disappeared Friday, 100 of them on Tuesday alone, Lt. Jeremy Watney of the Tracy Police Department told reporters. \"We're following up on all of them,\" he said. \"It's extremely frustrating. We want her back safe. That's the bottom line. \"At this point, everything is still open.\" Authorities Tuesday afternoon impounded and searched a car -- the fourth one to be seized -- that was parked near the mobile home park where Sandra lives and was last seen. On Monday night, Tracy police and FBI agents searched six locations, some in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park and some in Tracy. All of the places were connected to two men who live in the mobile home park, officials said. Watch CNN report on Sandra's disappearance \u00bb . Authorities have not called the men suspects and have not named them publicly. They did not say how or if they might be related to the case. On Friday afternoon, Sandra came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives a couple of homes away. A short time later she left that home to go to another friend's home, a spokeswoman for her family said Tuesday. The girl, who was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, has not been seen since, said the spokeswoman, Lisa Encarnacion. Her parents reported her missing about 8 p.m. Friday. Officials said surveillance camera footage recorded the girl playing in the park. A dozen agencies are involved in the search. The number of searchers swelled over the weekend, and a similar effort is likely Saturday and Sunday, Watney said. Police have said they doubt she ran away. The mobile home park has fewer than 100 units. There are about 80 registered sex offenders living in a five-mile radius around it. Tracy is about 60 miles east of San Francisco, California.","highlights":"NEW: Police say they've received 477 tips -- 100 on Tuesday .\nA fourth car near mobile home park is searched for clues .\nSandra Cantu played with one friend on Friday, left for a second friend's house .\nIt's not clear whether she ever got to the second house, family says ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's parliament speaker has criticized U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for saying that Iran's development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has outlined where he thinks U.S. policy needs to change. Ali Larijani said Saturday that Obama should apply his campaign message of change to U.S. dealings with Iran. \"Obama must know that the change that he talks about is not simply a superficial changing of colors or tactics,\" Larijani said in comments carried by the semi-official Mehr News Agency. \"What is expected is a change in strategy, not the repetition of objections to Iran's nuclear program, which will be taking a step in the wrong direction.\" In his first post-election news conference Friday afternoon, Obama reiterated that he believes a nuclear-armed Iran would be \"unacceptable.\" He also said he would help mount an international effort to prevent it from happening. Larijani said that U.S. behavior toward Iran \"will not change so simply\" but that Obama's election showed internal conditions in the United States have shifted. He added that Iran does not mind if the United States provides other Persian Gulf countries with nuclear technology, but \"you should know that you cannot prevent the Islamic Republic [from reaching its goals in the nuclear field],\" according to the news agency. Obama cautioned Friday that it had only been a few days since the election and that he was not in office. \"Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through,\" Obama said. \"But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president, and I won't be until January 20th.\" Larijani was speaking two days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Obama, the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. One analyst said the welcome was a gesture from the hard-line president that he is open to a more conciliatory relationship with the United States. Ahmadinejad said Tehran \"welcomes basic and fair changes in U.S. policies and conducts,\" according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Thursday. Relations between the United States and Iran have historically been chilly and have been further strained in recent years over Iran's nuclear program. Tehran insists that the program exists for peaceful purposes, but the United States and other Western nations are concerned by Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment activities. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iran criticizes Obama for saying nuclear weapon development unacceptable .\nParliamentary speaker says Obama should apply campaign message of change .\nU.S.-Iran tensions high over Tehran's nuclear ambitions ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A crew member aboard a U.S. Navy ship accidentally fired a machine gun into the Polish port city of Gdynia on Wednesday while cleaning the weapon, Navy officials said Friday. Three rounds were fired from an M240 machine gun into the town but no injuries or damage were reported, officials said. The gun, aboard the USS Ramage, a Navy destroyer, is used to defend the ship in close combat. Navy officials said a crew member was cleaning the weapon when it accidentally discharged. The incident happened as the ship was in port after returning from an international exercise in the Baltic Sea. It was preparing to leave later that day, the Navy said. Polish military police boarded the ship to investigate, and Navy officials said the crew of the Ramage fully cooperated. No U.S. sailors were taken into custody by Polish authorities, Navy officials said. There was no immediate word of a U.S. Navy investigation into the incident.","highlights":"Crew member cleaning a machine gun that fires into city of Gdynia .\nNo injuries or damage reported, officials say .\nGun is used to defend ship, USS Ramage, in close combat ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fashion photographer Rankin took time out from his career to take powerful pictures of people from Congo. One of Rankin's images. He visited a refugee camp with the charity Oxfam and his work is now being exhibited in London. The photos are posed like a fashion shoot and different to the regular images coming out of conflict zones. \"I wanted to make the people who saw the photos look at the people and see them as people, not see them as victims,\" Rankin told CNN. Oxfam says 10 million people have died in the last 10 years in the Democratic Republic Of Congo. In the last few weeks, a fragile cease-fire has broken down. The conflict is complicated by outside forces and a variety of armed groups fighting both the government and each other. Rankin said the people he photographed just \"wanted the thing to stop.\"","highlights":"Fashion photographer exhibits shots of refugees in DR Congo .\nRankin says \"I want people to see them as people, not victims ."} -{"article":"MANCHESTER, England -- Owen Hargreaves curled in a superb free-kick, 18 minutes from time, to give Manchester United a 2-1 Premier League victory over Arsenal at Old Trafford. Hargreaves curls his match-winning free-kick over the Arsenal wall and past Lehmann. The win lifted United six points clear of Chelsea, who meet Wigan on Monday, and effectively ended Arsenal's fading title bid. The Gunners trail United by nine points with four matches left to play. Emmanuel Adebayor gave Arsenal a 48th minute lead but Cristiano Ronaldo equalized from the penalty spot minutes later with his 38th goal of the season. The loss dooms Arsene Wenger's side to their third season without a trophy and ends a black week which also included a Champions League quarterfinal defeat to English rivals Liverpool. England midfielder Hargreaves, best known for his determined defending, Scored United's 100th goal in 50 games this campaign when his curled free-kick from the edge of the box over the wall left goalkeeper Jens Lehmann standing. Adebayor headed Arsenal in front three minutes into the second period when he met Robin van Persie's cross and profited from confusion between United keeper Edwin van der Sar and center-back Rio Ferdinand. There were no complaints from United about the goal but tv replays suggested Adebayor may have handled the ball rather than knocked it in with his head, even though he was just a few yards away from goal. Six minutes later Arsenal defender William Gallas clearly handled inside his own area and referee Howard Webb pointed to the spot. Ronaldo netted but Webb ordered the penalty to be re-taken because of encroachment by other players. Lehmann, only playing because of a wrist injury to first-choice keeper Manuel Almunia, was then booked for delaying the second kick. Ronaldo, making light of the pressure of the situation, stuck with his stuttering run-up and struck the ball low and hard past the German international's right-hand. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scored and created a goal for Fernando Torres in a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at Anfield. Spain striker Torres now has 30 goals this season and midfielder Gerrard 21 .Substitute Andriy Voronin added a third in the 90th minute. This win left Liverpool five points clear of city rivals Everton in the race for the final Champions League qualifying spot. Sunday's match, played out against a backdrop of ongoing boardroom rows at Anfield, was all square for an hour until England midfielder Gerrard beat several Rovers players on the edge of the box before sliding the ball past goalkeeper Brad Friedel. Torres then became the first Liverpool player to score in seven consecutive top-flight games at Anfield when he headed in Gerrard's cross eight minutes from time. Voronin then got on the end of a John Arne Riise cross to make it 3-0 before Roque Santa Cruz pulled a goal back for Rovers in stoppage time. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Manchester Utd beat Arsenal 2-1 in the Premier League game at Old Trafford .\nUnited go six points clear of Chelsea, who play Wigan on Monday .\nArsenal are nine points adrift of the leaders with four games to play ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials warned Wednesday that the bridge linking the California cities of San Francisco and Oakland will likely remain closed Thursday morning, promising more delays for Bay Area commuters. That work is intended to dampen vibration on the structure. Vibration may have played a role in causing pieces of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to fall Tuesday night from the span onto the roadway, resulting in its closure. The 73-year-old bridge spans the San Francisco Bay and carries an average 280,000 vehicles daily, according to the state's Transportation Department. \"Right now, we do not have a time when the bridge will potentially open,\" said Bart Ney, a spokesman for California Department of Transportation. \"The work has to be completed first.\" Once the new steel is in place and the rods have been made tense, at least three hours of testing will be carried out before the bridge will reopen to vehicular traffic, Ney said, refusing to speculate on when that might occur. \"The first thing that I would say to motorists is that you need to be at this point planning other routes over the next day or so,\" he said. The Federal Highway Administration and the Seismic Peer Review Board are scrutinizing the repair plans, he said. Wednesday's commute was a horror show for many. \"My wife actually drives over to the peninsula; she says it's taken her two hours to get to work so far and she's not there yet,\" commuter Seth Carp told CNN affiliate KTVU as he prepared to board a Bay Area Rapid Transit train. \"I tried to take the Golden Gate Bridge,\" said a woman who identified herself only as Yemi. \"It was a big mistake.\" She gave up and wound up taking BART. \"It was back-to-back bumper, there were rows of cars everywhere,\" said Christina Chou, who lives in Foster City near the San Mateo Bridge, which served as an alternate route for many. \"It was just horrible.\" Ridership increased on ferries, too, with some people finding a silver lining to the snafu. \"I have been looking for an opportunity to go across the bay in the ferry,\" said Jack Pierce of Oakland. \"I'm sorry the cable parted, but I am glad to get the opportunity.\" Ney said wind gusts of up to 50 mph slowed repair efforts on Tuesday, but the winds had diminished by Wednesday evening. Winds increased vibration by the rods that were fatigued and ultimately failed, he said. \"It was a contributing factor, but not necessarily the only factor, and we are analyzing what the factors are right now,\" he said. Travelers flocked to BART, which ran longer trains and extra trains. The rail line was on track to exceed its peak ridership of 405,000 in a single day, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. Were you there? Send photos and video . \"We have called in extra personnel to help us make sure we operate with every available train car we have in order to provide as much capacity as possible,\" said BART's assistant general manager of operations, Paul Oversier. Amtrak was running a shuttle between the San Francisco and Martinez stations for Coast Starlight and California Zephyr passengers. The pieces that fell -- a cross beam and tie rods -- came from the same section that was repaired in September over Labor Day weekend, when crews worked almost around the clock to fix a crack in the span. A 50-foot section of the bridge collapsed in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, killing one person and prompting efforts to make it quake-tolerant. The whole Bay Bridge is slated to be replaced in 2013, said Patrick Siegman, a transportation planner at Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates, a national transportation planning firm based in San Francisco. The bridge is \"really showing its age,\" he said. \"It's kind of a race against time to finish the new bridge before the next quake hits.\"","highlights":"San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge closes after parts of it fall to roadway .\nRepair work ongoing, but there's no word when bridge will reopen .\nTravelers flock to public transit, including trains and ferries .\nRepairs aim to stop vibration, which may have caused the problem ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I have vivid memories of childhood. The 5-year-old girl with endless questions; she wanted to discover the secrets of the entire world within minutes. She dreamed of being a doctor once, an engineer another time, and a mother of lovely kids. A dreamer, this is how I would describe the little girl Reem. Reem is a 22-year-old student living in Gaza City. Days passed fast. Reem couldn't remember a lot of them, but she had some moments left in her memory -- usually the happy moments of her life -- and those memories were the basis for today's Reem, the 22-year-old girl who is ME. I remember how happy I was when my teacher announced to the school that I was first in my class. I remember my mother's voice singing to me before I fell asleep; I remember my father running behind my kite when I lost it in the air, and I remember me asking my parents for a real monkey as a pet. I can't forget the day I finished high school; I felt so grown up. I remember the day when the school announced the exam results and the tears of happiness my mother shed when I received a grade of excellent, and then I decided to enroll in the college of Business Administration. I can call Gaza City the city of qualifications, where a lot of youth are qualified for good jobs. I am one of those youth who is volunteering in organizations, participating in community service activities, getting trained in various skills and getting more qualified day by day. But many young people like me cannot find jobs. See perspectives from Palestinian youth \u00bb . Sometimes, I feel disconnected from Gaza, but whenever I see the photos of Jaffa, I realize that it's where I and a thousand refugees belong. I find myself crying, missing a place I have never been to, but it's where my parents and my grandparents lived. I remember all those bedtime stories my grandmother used to tell me about the land, the fence of roses they had, and her climbing trees and cutting fruits. How I miss that place. But life must go on. My day starts with the smile of optimism and the plan of my day. Waking up early to go to my university; I have to attend all of my lectures even though some are boring. My friends are a big part of my day. We start with our updates and then go to courses where we can develop our skills. When I arrive home, I feel so exhausted, but still I continue working and studying hard. I am always looking for chances for personal development, whether through volunteer work or at school. I was offered a great opportunity to volunteer with the aid organization Mercy Corps as a founding member of the Why Not? youth program, and then I had the pleasure of seeing this program blossom into the Global Citizen Corps, or GCC, a cultural exchange between Palestinian and American students. I believe this program is deeply important because it changes the negative impression of Palestinian youth that is too often spread by media. All my friends and 1,000 others are engaged in this program, which develops our personalities, our skills and serves the community. We use digital media as a tool to express what we feel and what we do. We make changes in ourselves, in our community, and we pave the way for global change. We are thinking globally and acting locally. My ambition is to be a researcher in business studies all over the world. I finished my B.A. and a diploma of business studies, and I hope to obtain a scholarship to do graduate work in media and development. I am also interested in the field of project management and human interaction management. I know it is a good ambition to be Ph.D. holder and a worldwide researcher, but as Palestinian girl, I have fewer opportunities, not because I am not qualified or hard-working enough but because I am Palestinian. Usually Palestinian students have fewer opportunities than others to get scholarships, because it's hard for them to leave the Gaza Strip, as all of the borders are closed. But I have not lost hope, and I will not. I will keep trying to pursue my dream of being the researcher I want to be. It's true that I am a girl, and girls face some challenges in our society. For example, I can't stay a late hour at work. But I am so happy and honored to be a Muslim; putting the scarf on my head is something that I love. To many foreigners, it might seem to be against women's freedom, but I can tell that when a lady is convinced of it, it becomes part of her self-esteem, her self-confidence and her protection each day. I feel sad when the world gets angry at Muslim girls while they are peaceful and happy, enjoying their choices and freedom. I found that I'm not that different from Catherine, who lives in the United States and whom I contact through the Global Citizen Corps. I have realized how similar Palestinian youth are to youth all over the world. Catherine likes some of the food I like, and she loves swimming just like I do. There are also lovely differences between us: I tried to cook what she taught me once, and she is learning Arabic now. Maybe our lifestyle is different. I focus on my own development; I spend most of my time working to become a more qualified person with more knowledge and skills. I do not work hard because I am super girl or I aspire to be one but because I always want to be ready for the worst situation. In Palestine where I live, surprises can happen at any time, and I don't want to be caught off guard. I want to make my future secure by being a really good person. I deserve to live. I enjoy my life as it is now, but I hope that when I find a scholarship and live in the West, I will not be obliged to take off my scarf and won't hear negative comments about me because I am Muslim. I consider religion a personal freedom that is related to your beliefs and what you feel in your heart. I love letting others live in peace. ... Why can't we enjoy peace, too? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Reem calls Gaza City the city of qualifications, but many can't find jobs .\nShe describes her day filled with school work, friends, studying and volunteering .\nShe says she realizes Palestinian youth are similiar to youth all over the world .\nFor more, go to In Depth: Generation Islam ."} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- The leader of Nepal's former communist rebels was named as the country's new prime minister Friday. Prachanda is still the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, was elected four months after elections in which his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party in the 601-member constituent assembly. Prachanda received 464 votes of the 577 votes cast, while his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress party received 113 votes. Most of the parties in the assembly voted for the Maoist candidate. A simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister. Prachanda's victory became certain on Thursday when the third and fourth biggest parties in Nepal's assembly decided to back him. He will now lead a coalition government, although talks are ongoing on about the allocation of ministerial portfolios. The Maoists signed a peace deal with the government in November 2006, joined an interim parliament and government in 2007 and fought multi-party elections in April this year. The Communist Party of Nepal unexpectedly became the largest party in the elections, winning 220 of the 575 elected seats in the assembly. The assembly declared Nepal a republic in May and in July elected Nepal's first president, physician Ram Baran Yadav. Prachanda, 54, entered politics when he was 17 but went underground in 1981, making his first public appearance after 25 years in 2006. The Maoists launched an insurgency to abolish the monarchy in 1996 and the ten-year conflict claimed more than 13,000 lives. According to the peace deal agreed in 2008, the estimated 19,602 Maoist combatants would be integrated into the country's security structure, the process of which is yet to be worked out. Prachanda remains the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Besides completing the peace process, the new government has to face many challenges including inflation, lawlessness, impunity and ethnic aspirations.","highlights":"Prachanda, Communist Party of Nepal chairman, won 464 out of 577 votes .\nA simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister .\nAssembly declared Nepal a republic in May and July elected first president .\nThe post of president is largely ceremonial. PM has executive powers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Sen. John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, announced that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant, the news prompted a big response from the iReport.com community. iReporter Darla Jones, who had a child at a young age, said she sympathizes with the Palin family. Palin revealed Monday that her daughter Bristol is pregnant and plans to marry the father. The announcement followed Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby was actually Bristol's. iReport.com users posted dozens of stories and hundreds of comments in response to the news. Many iReporters said that the issue is a personal matter, while others believed that the pregnancy deserves public attention. Republican presidential candidate McCain was aware of Bristol's pregnancy before he chose Palin as his running mate, a top adviser to the Arizona senator said. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama said that families should be off-limits in presidential campaigns after learning of the news. \"Let me be as clear as possible,\" Obama said. \"I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits.\" iReporter Darla Jones of Roseburg, Oregon, who supports McCain, agrees that the media and public should leave Bristol and the Palin family alone. iReport.com: Were you married at a young age? \"I had a daughter very young,\" Jones wrote on iReport.com, explaining that being a young mother made it difficult to get jobs and complete her education. \"This should not affect the presidency in any way.\" Sabrina Lee also had a child at a young age, but believes that the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy merits attention. \"Personally, I have a right to know anything and everything about the next president and vice president,\" she wrote on iReport.com. \"I want to know the truth,\" Lee said. \"I feel as a voter I have the right to know everything about each nominee. This is just my opinion, but it's also my vote and it's precious.\" The Laveen, Arizona, resident said that she plans to vote for Obama. Although Lee said she was previously undecided, she decided to vote for Obama after McCain announced his running mate. \"Family values are a Republican platform,\" she said, describing the news of Bristol's pregnancy as \"a travesty.\" Alicia Summers of El Mirage, Arizona, agrees that the vice presidential candidate and her family deserve scrutiny. \"Did Palin really think she could come into a race at the 23rd hour and not be subjected to questions?\" she asked. iReport.com: See, share your thoughts on Sarah Palin . Summers, an Obama supporter, noted, \"the press only has two months to find out info about you that they took years to get on everyone else.\" She suggested that Palin drop out of the race out of respect for the privacy of her family. Graduate student Kristine Phillips also believes that Palin should withdraw. \"An unmarried 17-year-old pregnant daughter is not consistent with conservative principles,\" she wrote on iReport.com. Phillips, who describes herself as politically moderate, said conservatives' support of Palin is \"absolutely hypocritical.\" \"While I understand that Palin's role as a mother may or may not be debated here for the political sphere, this situation does call into question some of her policies during her role as governor and her character as a person,\" Phillips said. iReport.com: Read more from Phillips . Mark Swiger of Jonesboro, Georgia, urged iReporters to \"be professional and ethical by not bringing Sarah Palin's teenage daughter into politics.\" Swiger cited Obama and senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, who both asked the media and public to leave politicians' children out of the spotlight. Swiger, who is leaning toward McCain, said he usually votes based on moral issues. He believes that Bristol's pregnancy should have no bearing on her mother's political career. \"This is a moral line of decency that must not be crossed by Democrats, Republicans or human beings,\" he said.","highlights":"iReporters react to news that Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant .\nSabrina Lee questions McCain's judgment in picking Palin .\nDarla Jones sympathizes with the Palin family .\niReport.com: Share your thoughts on McCain's running mate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iceland is losing its only three McDonald's restaurants as a result of the poor economic situation in the country. Businessman Magnus Ogmundsson, who owns the only McDonald's franchise in Iceland, said it had become too expensive to operate the restaurants after Iceland's currency, the krona, plunged in value. \"The krona is quite weak and we are buying everything in euros, and we have very high tariffs on imported agricultural products,\" he told CNN on Tuesday. In January 2008, it cost more than 95 Icelandic krona to buy one euro, according to the Central Bank of Iceland. Tuesday, that price had shot up to more than 186 krona. That means the currency is worth half as much today as it was in January 2008 -- and things priced in euros now cost twice as much to buy. Ogmundsson said the McDonald's Corporation worked with him to find a solution, but in the end he had no choice but to close. There was \"good cooperation\" with McDonald's, Ogmundsson told CNN. \"No hard feelings.\" McDonald's said it had become financially prohibitive to continue operating in Iceland because of \"the unique operational complexity of doing business in Iceland combined with the very challenging economic climate in the country.\" It said there are no plans to seek a new franchise partner in that country. The three stores will close at midnight Saturday, but they will reopen as an independent chain called Metro, with more domestic ingredients and fewer imported products. \"We believe we can be more successful with our own brand,\" Ogmundsson said. A McDonald's Big Mac hamburger currently sells for the equivalent of $5.29, making Iceland one of the most expensive places in the world to buy the sandwich. Only Norway and Switzerland charge more, according to the countries listed on the Economist magazine's Big Mac Index, published in February. A Big Mac costs about $3.54 in the United States, $2.19 in Australia, $5.07 in Denmark, $1.66 in South Africa, and $1.52 in Malaysia.","highlights":"Iceland is losing its only three McDonald's restaurants after economic collapse .\nFranchise owner said restaurants now too expensive to run after Iceland's currency plunged in value .\nKrona worth half as much now as it was in January 2008 -- and imports are priced in euros ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tensions eased in the northern Indian state of Punjab on Tuesday, following widespread violence across the region after a Sikh guru was shot to death and another was wounded at an Indian temple in Vienna, Austria. Sikh demonstrators brandish sticks as they shout slogans during a protest in Amritsar. The situation was tense, but under control, Punjab's inspector general of police said Tuesday morning. The army and federal security forces were called in to restore order, added inspector general Parag Jain. Thousands took part in demonstrations across the Doaba region, where protesters attacked public transportation, knocking out train service in some areas. They also blocked a national highway to Jammu, CNN sister network CNN-IBN reported. A number of businesses were ransacked as well. Police reported one death. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, appealed for calm, in a statement. \"There is no place for violence in a secular society like India's and certainly no excuse whatsoever for the violation of the sacred premises of a (Sikh temple) for narrow sectarian or other purposes,\" India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Killed in Sunday's attack in Vienna was 57-year-old Sant Rama Nand. A second guru, Sant Niranjan Dass, 68, was seriously injured. His health has improved noticeably, according to the Indian Embassy, the Austria News Agency reported. Fifteen others were also wounded. \"Sant Niranjan Dass is doing well,\" the embassy said. \"He could soon be released from the hospital.\" Six people were arrested in connection with the attack, which occurred Sunday afternoon in Vienna's 15th district, police spokesman Schwaig Hofar told CNN. One suspect shot the two gurus, and five other attackers wielding knives assaulted people in the congregation during prayer, Hofar said. Four of the wounded were suspects, two of them in serious condition, he said. About 150 people were in the room when the violence took place, he said. Authorities are investigating what triggered the attacks, but Austrian Interior Minister Maria Fekter said Sikhs have lived \"exceptionally peacefully\" in Austria. CNN's Ben Brumfeld and Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tensions ease in Punjab after widespread violence over Sikh guru's death .\nSant Rama Nand shot dead in temple in Vienna, Austria; another guru wounded .\nSituation remains tense in Punjab, police say; also unrest in Doaba region .\nSeveral businesses ransacked, one person reported dead, according to police ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people and injured 70 -- many of them women -- during a Shia pilgrimage in northwestern Baghdad Sunday, Iraqi officials told CNN. Pilgrims, pictured above, have gathered to celebrate the Shia holy period of Ashura. The dead included at least 16 Iranians who had come to mark the Shia holy period of Ashura, which commemorates a central event in the history of the movement. At least 32 Iranians were among the wounded. The other casualties were Iraqi, an Interior Ministry official said. The bomber was a woman wearing an abaya, a robe-like dress, said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, military spokesman for Fardh al-Qanoon, an interagency domestic security body. She seems to have been targeting women, Atta and an interior ministry source said. The Interior Ministry official declined to be identified. The attack appears to be the single deadliest suicide bombing in Iraq since a bomber killed 47 people in Kirkuk in December 11. It took place in Baghdad's Kadhimiya neighborhood, not far from the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim holy shrine. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected in Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Karbala for Ashura, which falls on January 7 this year. Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He was killed in battle in Karbala in 680, one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suicide bomber kills at least 40 people and injures 70 in Baghdad .\nDead included many Iranians who were marking Shia holy period of Ashura .\nThe bomber was a woman wearing an abaya, a robe-like dress, official says ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- No charges will be brought against a 10-year-old boy accused of accidentally starting an October wildfire that scorched more than 38,000 acres north of Los Angeles, California, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Firefighters battle the Buckweed Fire October 22, 2007. \"There is no evidence of intent on the part of the minor,\" the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a written statement issued Tuesday afternoon. \"The district attorney's office is referring the matter to the Department of Children and Family Services for evaluation of the minor's situation to determine if other intervention is necessary.\" The boy had faced possible charges in juvenile court after admitting to sheriff's deputies that he had started the Buckweed fire by playing with matches, investigators said. The blaze eventually destroyed 21 homes and 42 other structures. The fire started October 21 in the Agua Dulce community north of Los Angeles. It was one of nearly two dozen wind-whipped wildfires that swept across southern California in late October, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from homes near Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino and leaving 14 people dead. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"There is no evidence that the boy intended to set the fire, prosecutors say .\nHe had faced possible charges in juvenile court after admitting to setting blaze .\nThe boy was playing with matches; the blaze destroyed 21 homes .\nThe Buckweed fire started October 21 north of Los Angeles ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has been nearly 20 years since Poland's Solidarity movement defeated the Communist Party in an historic election that prompted the fall of communism across central and eastern Europe. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa takes the oath in front of Poland's National Assembly on December 22, 1990. CNN International marks this significant anniversary with \"The New Poland,\" a week of programming examining the transformation of Poland from 1989 to where it sits today on the world stage. The combination of daily live programming and special reports from CNN correspondents in cities across Poland culminates June 4 with \"Autumn of Change, an in-depth documentary that takes a retrospective look at the events leading up to the election exactly 20 years ago. Reflecting the tumultuous year of 1989, which changed Europe forever, \"Autumn of Change\" will mix live programming and documentary programming, unforgettable historical images with interviews past and present, and a huge online audience initiative through Poland, Hungary, Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, in a comprehensive narrative of events that have helped to shape the Europe of today. \"CNN's combination of historic footage, comprehensive reporting and access to Poland's key figures puts us in an unparalleled position to set the scene for how Poland was the catalyst for the Europe of today,\" said Mike McCarthy, vice president of coverage and feature programming for CNN International. \"In step with the anniversaries of the events themselves, CNN will invite viewers to take part in our ambitious account of how Europe has changed over the last 20 years and what the future may hold.\" About the programming: . Just eight months after reporting from Poland for the week-long \"Eye on Poland\" special, Fionnuala Sweeney returns to the country to anchor the network's live coverage for \"The New Poland.\" She will report on the various commemoration and celebration ceremonies throughout the week from cities across Poland including Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk. In addition to Sweeney's live reports, CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen will take viewers inside the Poland of today looking at the political, cultural, social and economic changes that have taken place in the past 20 years. The programs include: . -- Gdansk Today: CNN explores the city of Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement. We visit the main shipyard and spend the day with a foreman who has been working there for more than 30 years. He talks about the transformation since Solidarity was born and the challenges the shipyards face three decades on. Finally, CNN heads out to sea with a polish yacht maker and finds out how they are dealing with the economic crisis. -- Catholicism in Poland: CNN looks at the Catholic Church in Poland and the challenges it faces. We visit Religia TV, a new project that aims to attract Catholics as well as viewers from other religions. -- Business in Poland: Solidarity transformed Poland from a communist state into a capitalist economy eventually capable of becoming a democratic member of the EU. During the last 20 years, its economy developed at a thriving pace, but even today there are remnants of the old system. CNN speaks to a family-run business on the local economy. We also visit Poland's biggest copper mining and refining company. We find out how the global market place is impacting the global economy and Polish business. -- Polish Cuisine: CNN speaks to Krakow's top celebrity chef and historian Robert Maklowicz about Polish cuisine and the recent trend to return to its roots. -- Poland's Film School: CNN visits Poland's largest film production Centrex, the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz, and finds out what makes this school so unique. About the documentary: By combining narratives from key players within the Solidarity movement, the Communist leadership, CNN reporters who covered the events and Polish civilians who lived through it all, Autumn of Change charts the individuals, relationships and astonishing chain of events that shook eastern Europe to its foundations. About the online coverage: CNN's television coverage will be complemented by a full interactive companion site. This special site will feature a number of pieces that reflect the cultural influence of this movement as well as narratives from some of the major figures involved in the process. Via iReport.com, CNN will also encourage viewers and users from Poland and elsewhere to submit content -- photos, videos and comments -- to illustrate personal experiences. Whether a part of this revolutionary period or not, CNN wants to know how these pivotal events affected them.","highlights":"20 years since Poland's Solidarity movement defeated the Communist Party .\nThe New Poland is a week of programming examining the transformation of Poland .\nCulminates in Autumn of Change, a look at the events that led to the election .\nFionnuala Sweeney will anchor CNN's live coverage from Poland ."} -{"article":"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) -- President Bush told the 2008 graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Wednesday that the \"only way America could lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves.\" President Bush and Air Force Academy graduate Michael Riddick of Aiken, South Carolina, celebrate graduation. Speaking on a cloudy day at Falcon Stadium, the president compared the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to America's earlier conflicts, particularly World War II. \"Our nation is once again contending with an ideology that seeks to sow anger, hatred and despair: the ideology of Islamic extremism,\" he said. \"In today's struggle, we are once again facing evil men who despise freedom and despise America and aim to subject millions to their violent rule. \"We assumed this obligation before,\" he said, referring to the rebuilding of Germany and Japan after World War II, a conflict that saw the loss of more than 400,000 American lives. Watch more of Bush's speech \u00bb . \"Germany and Japan, once mortal enemies, are now allies of the United States. And people across the world have reaped the benefits from that alliance,\" he said. \"Today, we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq. ... We'll lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.\" But today's wars differ from those of the past, Bush acknowledged, and not only because of modern technology that allows \"greater precision\" in warfare. \"One challenge is that in the past, in Germany and Japan, the work of rebuilding took place in relative quiet,\" he said. \"Today, we're helping emerging democracies rebuild under fire from terrorist networks and state sponsors of terror. This is a difficult and unprecedented task -- and we're learning as we go.\" The measure of success in war has changed, he said. \"In the past ... there were public surrenders, a signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship, victory parades in American cities. Today, when the war continues after the regime has fallen, the definition of success is more complicated.\" Nonetheless, he said, in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a clear definition of success: when those countries are rid of al Qaeda, when they are economically viable, when they are democracies that can govern effectively and when they are strong allies on the war on terror. \"These successes will come,\" he told the class. \"And when they do, our nation will have achieved victory, and the American people will be more secure. \"","highlights":"President Bush speaks at U.S. Air Force Academy graduation Wednesday .\nBush: \"Only way America could lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves\"\nHe compares the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to America's earlier conflicts .\nSuccesses in Iraq and Afghanistan \"will come,\" he told the class ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Claudette was gaining strength Sunday as it churned in the Gulf of Mexico toward the Florida Panhandle, the National Hurricane Center said. A satellite image from 2 p.m. ET Sunday shows a tropical storm nearing the Florida Panhandle. At 2 p.m. ET, Claudette's winds had picked up to near 50 mph, based on observations by an Air Force reconnaissance plane. The center of the storm was about 40 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida, and about 160 miles from Pensacola, the center said. It was moving at about 14 mph, putting it on course to hit land by Sunday evening. A tropical storm warning was in effect from the Alabama-Florida border east to the Suwannee River. A tropical storm warning means that weather conditions will likely deteriorate in the next 24 hours. The storm could bring 3 to 5 inches of rain, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches, and storm surges across portions of North Florida. Meanwhile, two other tropical storms were in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. Tropical Storm Ana was moving west but losing strength, forecasters said, while Tropical Storm Bill was gaining strength as it followed behind Ana. Ana was about 240 miles (385 kilometers) east of Dominica at 2 p.m. ET Sunday. It was expected to arrive at the Leeward Islands by late Sunday or early Monday, the center said. It was moving about 25 mph, and its maximum sustained winds were close to 40 mph, the center said. Tropical storm watches were in effect for Dominica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemey. Tropical Storm Bill -- which could become a hurricane on Monday -- should be watched closely as it heads west-northwest in the Atlantic, possibly toward Florida, CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said. The storm was 1,555 miles east of the Lesser Antilles at 11 a.m. ET Sunday. Bill may reach Category 3 status as it bears down on the Leeward Islands Wednesday or Thursday, he said.","highlights":"Tropical Storm Claudette's winds pick up to 50 mph .\nThe storm, which formed overnight, is expected to hit land by Sunday evening .\nTropical Storm Bill is could become a hurricane by Monday ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former middle-school student who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain medication won a partial victory of her Supreme Court appeal Thursday in a case testing the discretion of officials to ensure classroom safety. Savana Redding leaves the U.S Supreme Court in April. She was 13 when she was strip-searched. Savana Redding was 13 when administrators suspected that she was carrying banned drugs. No medication was found, and she later sued. The justices concluded that the search was unreasonable but that individual school administrators could not be sued. The larger issue of whether a campus setting traditionally gives schools greater authority over students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed was not addressed fully by the divided court. \"Savana's subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening and humiliating,\" wrote Justice David Souter for the majority, likely his last opinion before he steps down from the bench next week. But reflecting the divisiveness over the issue, Souter said, \"We think these differences of opinion from our own are substantial enough to require immunity for the school officials in this case.\" Whether the school district would be liable was not an issue before the high court. \"I'm pretty excited that they agreed with me, they see that it was wrong for the school to do that,\" Redding said from her Hobbs, New Mexico, home after the ruling was announced. \"I'm pretty certain that it's so far less likely to happen again\" to other students. Redding was an eighth-grade honor student in 2003, with no history of disciplinary problems at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. During an investigation into pills found at the school, a student told the vice principal that Redding had given her prescription-strength 400-milligram ibuprofen pills. The school had a near-zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission. Redding was pulled from class by Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. The girl denied the accusations. A search of Redding's backpack found nothing. A strip search was conducted by Wilson's assistant and a school nurse, both females. Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear and to pull on the elastic of the underwear, so any hidden pills might fall out, according to court records. No drugs were found. \"The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had,\" Redding said in an affidavit. \"I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.\" Souter said Wilson initially had \"sufficient suspicion\" to justify searching the girl's backpack and outer clothing. But when no contraband was found, the officials went too far by continuing the search of her underwear. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Redding and her family sued, and a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled against the school, calling the search \"traumatizing\" and illegal. That court said the school went too far in its effort to create a drug- and crime-free classroom. The Supreme Court found little agreement on key issues. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed that the search was illegal but would have also made individual officials liable for damages by Redding. \"Wilson's treatment of Redding was abusive, and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it,\" said Ginsburg, who was especially forceful during oral arguments in April, criticizing the school's actions. But Justice Clarence Thomas took the opposite view: that administrators deserved immunity and that the search was permissible. \"Preservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution,\" he said. \"And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative.\" In 1985, the high court allowed the search of a student's purse after she was suspected of hiding cigarettes. Such a search was permitted if there were \"reasonable\" grounds for believing that it would turn up evidence and when the search was not \"excessively intrusive.\" Opinions in 1995 and 2001 allowed schools to conduct random drug testing of high school athletes and those participating in other extracurricular activities. The court was being asked to clarify the extent of student rights involving searches and the discretion of officials regarding those they have responsibility over. Adam Wolf, an ACLU attorney who represented Redding, applauded the decision. \"When parents send their kids to school, they can now breathe a sigh of relief they will not end up naked before school officials,\" Wolf said . But school administrators said the ruling does not make their jobs any easier. \"The home medicine cabinet now poses a serious threat to students, who may take those medications for abusive purposes,\" said Francisco Negron, general counsel for the National School Boards Association. \"That's a problem schools are trying to stem.\" \"How they determine now whether the drug is dangerous, whether it's not dangerous -- that kind of clarity and that kind of guidance, the court did not give us.\" Redding, now 19, said she has never gotten over her experience. \"Before it happened, I loved school, loved everything about it. You know, I had a 4.0 GPA, honor roll, and now, well, afterwards I never wanted to go to school again.\" She is attending college. The case is Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding (08-479).","highlights":"Savana Redding was 13 when administrators suspected she was carrying drugs .\nNo medication was found, and she later sued .\nJustices: Search was unreasonable, but individual school officials can't be sued .\nRedding, now 19, has said she has never gotten over her experience ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- There are two good ways to buy your new car or truck at a reasonable low price and avoid all of the negotiating games and hassles: . 1. Buy through the Internet . Buying your new or used car or truck through the Internet is the easiest and most hassle-free way to make the purchase. All you have to do is choose the vehicle brand and model you wish to purchase as well as provide some basic contact information such as your name and e-mail address. In return, you'll receive - via e-mail - low bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area for the exact vehicle you want to buy. Compare the various selling prices and find the lowest one. Then, simply go direct to that dealership's Internet Department, sign the papers and drive your new car home - no negotiating, no hassles. To begin the process, get your free price quotes from AOL Autos. It only takes a few minutes. This service is totally free and you are under no obligation or pressure to buy. AOL, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner. Within 24 hours, you'll receive your bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area. Once you've compared the various prices and found the lowest one, you then have four good options: . \u2022 You can go to the dealership that gave you the lowest price, sign the papers and drive your new car home -- no hassles, no negotiating. AOL Autos: Best deals of the month . \u2022 You can try to negotiate the lowest price with the dealership in order to get the price even lower. There's nothing that says you can't. AOL Autos: Aggressive car buying tactics . \u2022 You can shop the lowest price around to other dealerships to see if any of them are willing to beat it. AOL Autos: Which dealers treat you best? \u2022 You can do nothing. If you feel unsure or uncertain, then set it aside for a while. You are not obligated to buy anything you don't want. By getting these low bottom-line selling prices via the Internet, you're avoiding the car salesman's entire negotiating game altogether. And you're buying your car at about the same price you would expect after lengthy negotiations. It's certainly the fastest and easiest way to beat the car salesman. AOL Autos: New rules to car buying . 2. Buy through the dealership's Fleet Department . Almost every dealership has a division called the \"Fleet Department.\" It usually consists of only a handful of salespeople who specialize in selling fleets of cars -- large orders of several vehicles direct to businesses. This department is authorized by the dealership to sell their cars at bottom-line non-negotiable prices. The prices they offer are about the same as you would expect from an online price quote or after lengthy negotiations. A secret of the car business is that many dealerships' Fleet Departments also sell direct to the public. By the rules of the game, however, they can't advertise to the public since they don't want to compete with the dealership's retail sales team. So to buy from the Fleet Department, you have to specifically ask. To buy your vehicle direct from the dealership's Fleet Department, simply call the dealership and ask to speak with the Fleet Manager. When you get him on the line, explain to him that you're ready to buy a car and you'd like to buy it from him. If he asks you what business you are associated with, tell him where you work. He'll probably be happy to set up an appointment with you. When you arrive at the dealership, the Fleet Manager will show you the vehicle, allow you to test drive it, and then bring you to the office to discuss price. With absolutely no negotiations, he'll offer you a reasonable bottom-line non-negotiable selling price for the vehicle. If the price he gives you falls within the pre-set limits of your buying goal and you're satisfied with the deal, then you can buy the car. No pressure, no games, no hassles. If for some reason, you don't want to buy the vehicle, you are under no obligation. Simply thank the salesman for his time and leave on good terms. Then, if you'd like, you can visit (or call) the Fleet Departments of other dealerships to compare prices. The selling prices offered by the various Fleet Departments can vary depending upon their inventories. AOL Autos: Have a car shopping game plan . Michael Royce is a consumer advocate and former car salesman. For more car-buying tips and advice, visit his Beat the Car Salesman Web site.","highlights":"You can solicit best price quotes from car dealers over the Internet .\nYou can shop the lowest price to other dealers to see if they will match or beat it .\nIndividuals can also buy car from dealer's Fleet Department ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military says a recent raid uncovered a detailed letter from an al Qaeda in Iraq militant to the group's leader about how the insurgent network should continue to generate economic chaos and \"psychological conflict\" and must bear down against American-backed Sunni militias. An Iraqi mother and daughter are helped Tuesday after a car bombing in Baquba blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq. Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday about a letter to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, from a militant named Abu Safyan. The document was posted on the Multi-National Forces-Iraq Web site. The sentiments reflect the tenacity of and continuing challenges posed by the predominantly Sunni militant network believed to be responsible for bombings that erupted across Iraq on Tuesday. Bergner said it \"provides further evidence about the strategy and tactics of violence\" the group is pursuing. Bergner said a March 5 raid northwest of Baghdad resulted in three insurgents killed, including Abu Safyan, and three others captured. Troops seized a suicide vest, computer material and a stack of documents, including the document from Abu Safyan -- who was believed to be from Diyala province. Abu Safyan lays out a variety of tactics that militants should pursue. \"We must always leave the enemy in psychological conflict\" so that \"they can never have stability,\" according to the document. With such instability, they \"will not all unite against us,\" it adds. Bergner said that while authorities are investigating Tuesday's bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi, Mosul, and Baquba that killed 60 people and wounded more than 100 others, the strikes have the \"hallmark\" of being perpetuated by al Qaeda in Iraq. The group has been considered the coalition's top foe in Iraq, even though troops have been distracted in recent weeks by fighting rogue Shiite militias. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been described by military officials as having a largely foreign leadership but made up of Iraqis. It is distinct from al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it is not clear how closely both the Iraqi and the South Asian al Qaeda groups cooperate. The letter details the need for fostering \"security chaos\" among the anti-al Qaeda in Iraq and mostly Sunni awakening groups, Shiites and Kurds, the coalition forces, and the government. \"This will lead to weaken them, particularly the Maliki Shia government, by wisely, intelligently and cautiously spreading sedition among them,\" the letter said, referring to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. In the letter, Abu Safyan considers awakening groups a top threat to al Qaeda in Iraq and proposes a media campaign that would discredit the awakening forces by passing along false information about them. The jihadi says al Qaeda in Iraq militants should consider infiltrating the government and security forces to foster trust. That atmosphere would enable militants to conduct attacks, including strikes against Shiites. \"We will work against them and attack them as they fight among themselves,\" Abu Safyan is quoted as saying. Abu Safyan also calls for the disrupting the economy by attacking gas and oil fields, pipelines, tankers, electric stations and power lines. He suggests contaminating water lines and lakes. Such sabotage would serve to \"halt payment of the military and police salaries and the awakening movement associated with the occupier and Maliki's malignant government. Even the American Army will weaken since it depends on the Iraqi oil and gas wealth. The enemy will gradually drown step by step.\" Abu Safyan talks about the need to \"bring many brothers who have sharia knowledge and abide by the teachings of Islam from the outside of Iraq.\" \"They will explain to the people why we are fighting and whom we are fighting with, we must explain to them whom the mujahideen are and who are the people we're fighting.\" The militant also called for good protection of communities under their control. \"We must dig trenches around the villages and cities to prevent the enemy from entering our areas,\" the document said. Abu Safyan also called for organizing fighting groups by having an emir as commander with sniper, assassination and martyrs' groups. It also cautions vigilance against allowing the \"enemy\" to infiltrate its apparatus and exhorts its fighters to keep silent about operations. Sometimes, \"they speak of our operations and area's secrets among their families and their wives in their houses, which unfortunately lead to the spread of our secrets.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Letter from al Qaeda in Iraq militant found after he was slain, U.S. says .\nLetter urges al Qaeda in Iraq to fight against American-backed Sunni militias .\nDocument also cautions vigilance against infiltrators ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police have arrested a 33-year-old man accused of killing his brother and five other people, including two children, at a Memphis, Tennessee, home. Jessie L. Dotson, who was recently released after serving 14 years in prison for murder, was captured Friday night. He faces six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cecil Dotson, his 30-year-old brother; Hollis Seals, 33; Shindri Roberson, 20; Marissa Rene Williams, 26; and two children, said Memphis Director of Police Larry A. Godwin at a news conference Saturday. Dotson will also be charged with the attempted murder of three other children -- ages 7, 4 and 10 months -- who received stab wounds and blunt force trauma, Godwin said. Dotson's brother Cecil was the father of all the children, The Associated Press reported. Those who survived the attack were under police custody at a hospital, according to the AP. The March 2 killings followed an argument between Jessie and Cecil Dotson, Godwin said. Jessie Dotson shot his brother dead and went on to kill the others to try to cover up the crime, he said. \"[Dotson] thought everyone in the home was dead,\" Godwin said. \"But as we all know, by the grace of God, three children had survived.\" Prosecutors said they are considering seeking the death penalty against Dotson. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jessie L. Dotson was recently released after serving 14 years in prison for murder .\nHe was captured Friday night and faces six counts of first-degree murder .\nFour adults and two children were found dead; three children survived .\nProsecutors say they are considering seeking the death penalty ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ken Ballen is president of Terror Free Tomorrow: the Center for Public Opinion, a nonprofit institute that researches attitudes toward extremism. Amjad Atallah co-directs the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, a think tank that promotes ideas across the ideological spectrum. Kenneth Ballen says Iranians overwhelmingly favor better relations with the United States. (CNN) -- In a new public opinion poll before Iran's critical June 12 presidential election, by large margins, most Iranians said they support an American-Iranian rapprochement for bringing a new era of peace to the Middle East. Surveyed on a wide range of issues, Iranians overwhelmingly favor better relations with the United States and greater democracy for Iran. The poll shows that the Iranian public remains far removed from the stereotypes of apocalyptic fanatics commonly asserted in some circles in the United States. The survey suggests that Iranians instead are a people with self-confidence and hope in a more democratic future. It also reveals a population with a strong awareness that the United States is as much a potential ally as it is now seen as a current threat. This holds much promise for U.S. national security interests in the region. These are some of the many findings from a new nationwide public opinion survey of Iran, to be released Monday. Independent and uncensored nationwide surveys of Iran are rare. Typically, pre-elections polls in Iran are either conducted or monitored by the Iranian government and other affiliated interest groups. Consequently, they are notoriously untrustworthy. By contrast, our poll -- the third in a series over the past two years -- was conducted by telephone from a neighboring country, uncensored, with time-tested methodology. Funding for the survey was provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The poll was led by Terror Free Tomorrow: the Center for Public Opinion and the New America Foundation, with fieldwork by KA Europe SPRL. The full results and methodology are available at terrorfreetomorrow.org. The survey was conducted from May 11 to 20, with 1,001 random interviews proportionally distributed covering all 30 provinces of Iran, and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Though our poll results show President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the lead, it appears that that none of the presidential candidates will pass the 50 percent threshold needed to automatically win; a second-round runoff between the two highest finishers -- as things stand, Ahmadinejad and Mir Hussein Moussavi -- is likely. Regardless of whom they may vote for, the No. 1 priority Iranians have for their government is improving the Iranian economy, very closely followed by ensuring free elections, a free press and better trade and relations with the West. It is in this context that the Iranian people strongly support a fundamental change in American-Iranian relations. Right now, Iranians consider the United States and Israel as the greatest -- and only -- threats to Iran. As a result, more than six out of every 10 Iranians oppose any peace deal with Israel and are in favor of the government of Iran providing military and financial assistance to Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as providing military and financial assistance to Iraqi Shiite militias. A majority of Iranians also favor Iran developing nuclear weapons. These \"hard-line\" attitudes dramatically change, however, as part of a potential deal with the United States. More than 70 percent of Iranians favor providing full access to inspectors and a guarantee not to develop or possess nuclear weapons, in return for outside aid and investment. In another consistent trend over the past two years, 77 percent of Iranians also back normal relations and trade with the United States. Indeed, as part of a deal with the United States, 54 percent of Iranians would endorse the Iranian government ending support for Iraqi militias instead of providing military assistance. Rather than supporting the destruction of the state of Israel, as they do now, as part of a deal with the United States, a majority of Iranians would even favor recognizing the state of Israel. Greater democracy, economic progress and good relations with the United States are the ultimate goals for most Iranians. In another indication of the public's strong support for a more open and fully democratic system of government, 77 percent said they support a political system where the supreme leader, along with all leaders, can be chosen and replaced by a free and direct vote of the people. The vision of the Iranian people for a more democratic future, with normal trade and relations between Iran and the United States, remains the consensus over our three nationwide surveys. Iranians also view their support for Ahmadinejad -- or whoever might be elected the next president of Iran -- as consistent with those goals. The Iranian people are apparently looking to their next president, whether or not it's Ahmadinejad, to be a Persian Nixon going to China. They want a tough negotiator to bring home a deal for Iran. His mandate is not to continue current hard-line polices with the United States but to change -- if the United States, in turn, is willing to recognize the Islamic Republic and end its policy seeking regime change in Tehran. For Washington, this means that the Iranian people are not an obstacle and that a real bargain can be struck that would find popular support. But the Iranian people are endorsing a negotiating position that leaves little time and much room for miscalculation. President Obama needs to integrate this reality into his strategy for the greater Middle East and, once the elections are complete, engage Iran on the potential of a new strategic relationship. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ken Ballen and Amjad Atallah.","highlights":"Ballen, Atallah: Most Iranians are not extremists; they favor peace with U.S.\nThey say poll shows overwhelming support for negotiations .\nPoll finds Iranian support for a deal regardless of whether Ahmadinejad is re-elected ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Roberto Lee Jr, 35, is the President of Fresh Bread & Company in Shanghai. He has an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business and an Executive MBA (EMBA) from INSEAD and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Roberto Lee: \"I don't think I'd be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA.\" Roberto tells CNN how his EMBA has helped his career. CNN: Tell us about your current role. Roberto Lee Jr: I'm president of Fresh Bread & Company, in Shanghai, which I started in 2004. We supply finished products like sandwiches, cakes and desserts for Starbucks, Walmart, Metro AG, Tesco, and a number of franchised restaurants. We also have a more upscale chain with bakeries, coffee shops and the biggest bread chain in the Shanghai subway system. We currently have 620 employees, 32 shops in Shanghai, and we hope to expand into Eastern China next year. CNN: You already had an MBA, what made you decide to do an EMBA? RL: We are hoping to expand Fresh internationally, at least in Asia, and it could become an international company. The Tsinghua\/INSEAD EMBA is a really global MBA. We had classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Fontainebleau (in France) so it gave a very international focus. In each city INSEAD arranged for guest speakers from very large companies to tell us about the business environment in each country. It gave me much more of an international focus. CNN: How has that global focus helped you with your business? RL: In my class I had senior people from 17 countries. We became like a family and we are still in touch. I've been in different countries the last few years and my classmates have entertained me and showed me around in each of the countries. Down the road, if we decide to go into some of these countries, I have contacts and I've learned from my classmates, from their past experiences and the experiences they're going through. CNN: What was the biggest difference between the MBA and the EMBA? RL: A key difference is seniority. The average age on the MBA was 28 and on the EMBA it was 37. On an MBA people are getting ready to move into senior management, whereas much more senior management things being discussed on the EMBA. The other difference is that for the MBA you take off two years of your life. With the EMBA you still work, so every five to six weeks you meet for a week or two and you go to classes. With the EMBA you don't get spend as much time on the books, so an MBA is more theoretical and with the EMBA you learn a lot more from your classmates. I had numerous high-level people in my class and they shared how they've done things in the past. Read more business related features . CNN: So because you're working at the same time, can you put what you've learned into practice? RL: That's what was really cool -- all my classmates did it, taking stuff from class and applying it. I was able to get help from my finance professor about international standards for how some things are done on the books. The professors all have working experience -- they're not just people with PhDs who teach -- so you can ask for advice and even now I can email them and ask their advice. CNN: Can you think of any example where you've directly applied something you learned from the EMBA to your business? RL: We learned about how one company got all its senior managers together and went out for a weekend brainstorm to set out their strategy for the next year. That's something we did this past year at Fresh, and we set out a really clear path and goals. So far we've met all our goals this year, so it was a really great way of doing it. CNN: Would you have got where you are today without the EMBA? RL: It helped me out a lot -- I don't think I'd be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA. It's given me a broader perspective for being a manager for all departments. My strong point has always been sales and when the company started that was the area I pushed the hardest, but now I'm diving more into finance, accounting, marketing and HR. After the EMBA I have a much clearer idea what's going on in my company within all the different departments -- that's where it's really been a huge help for me. CNN: What would you say to people put off by the expense of an MBA? RL: If you're going to do an EMBA program, do a good one. Tuition plus time and expense will usually run into six figures in U.S. dollars, but if you get into a good program it's very worth it.","highlights":"Roberto Lee Jr is President of Fresh Bread & Company, based in Shanghai .\nHe has an MBA from USC and EMBA from INSEAD and Tsinghua University .\n\"I've learned from my classmates and their past experiences,\" says Lee .\nHe says the EMBA course helped him become a more complete manager ."} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Lined up next to Pittsburgh police officers protecting a downtown office building Thursday morning were officers who traveled a little farther to get to work. Police officers from Tucson, Arizona, left, talk with a Pittsburgh officer Thursday outside the G-20 summit. About 2,000 miles farther. Thirty-six officers from the Tucson, Arizona, Police Department are in Pittsburgh as part of the G-20 security force. They were asked to assist by Pittsburgh officials as part of a Department of Homeland Security rapid response team. Officers from departments in several cities, including Cleveland, Ohio; Miami Metro Dade, Florida; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chicago, Illinois, were sworn in as part of the massive security effort, but Tucson wins the prize for the greatest distance traveled. Watch how Pittsburgh has prepared for protests \u00bb . \"There's a standardization in training,\" Tucson Lt. Paul Sayre said. Departments brought in to assist have undergone similar preparations in techniques and crowd control. The Arizona officers were asked to come to Pittsburgh after taking part in the protection effort at the Republican National Convention in 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The downtown Pittsburgh street on a morning with temperatures in the 50s was nothing like a typical day for the officers. \"It's a different environment,\" Sayre said -- but the job was the same. \"We're excited to be here. It's a lot of fun.\" \"Our role is to support Pittsburgh,\" said Capt. Perry Tarrant, commanding the Tucson team. The additional help protecting downtown locations \"gives Pittsburgh the flexibility to send its officers where needed,\" Sayre said.","highlights":"Police officers from around country join G-20 security effort in Pittsburgh .\nDepartments involved include Miami, Florida, and Baltimore, Maryland .\nCops from Tucson, Arizona, find chilly temps a change, but say \"It's a lot of fun\""} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military said Tuesday that its forces have taken over a Taliban stronghold during the ongoing ground offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan. Pakistani security forces have secured Sararogha and have started to clear the town of weapons and ammunition, the military said. It comes a day after its forces gained control of Kaniguram, another key Taliban stronghold, which the military says its forces have now completely secured. According to the military, 21 militants and one Pakistani soldier died in the past 24 hours of fighting -- most of them in the raid on Sararogha. The military is trying to rout Taliban insurgents operating along the Pakistan-Afghan border. The restive and largely ungoverned region of South Waziristan is the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan's military suspects its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is still in the region backed by up to 8,000 militant fighters. Pakistan's army has launched three similar offensives in Kaniguram and Sararogha since 2004 without success, sometimes agreeing to peace deals that eventually fall apart. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas recently told CNN that this time a peace deal is not an option. \"Certainly there is no scope of a peace deal,\" Abbas told CNN. \"It is a fight to the finish.\" The military began its ground offensive in South Waziristan three weeks ago, however the region has been affected by a broader anti-Taliban offensive that has uprooted more than 180,000 people this year, according to the United Nations. Many of those people -- more than 94,000 -- have fled South Waziristan since June, the U.N. said last week. In recent weeks, Pakistan has been relentlessly rocked by a wave of attacks as Islamic militants retaliate against the military campaign. On Monday, the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi were hit by separate suicide bombings. A suicide attacker believed to be on a motorcycle targeted people outside a bank in Rawalpindi who were lined up to pick up their monthly checks, police said. That attack killed 30 people, police said on Tuesday. The attack happened in the Cannt area of Rawalpindi, close to Pakistan's military headquarters where the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was meeting with Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday. It was unclear if he was there at the time of the attack. Hours later, two suicide bombers detonated their explosives at a police checkpoint in Lahore, injuring 17 police and civilians. CNN's Samson Desta and Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistani forces secure Sararogha, clearing the town of weapons and ammunition .\nPakistan: 21 militants and one Pakistani soldier die in the past 24 hours of fighting .\nRestive and largely ungoverned region of South Waziristan is headquarters of Pakistani Taliban .\nPakistan's army has launched three similar offensives in Kaniguram and Sararogha since 2004 without success ."} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A man \"angered\" by Manchester United's defeat to Barcelona in the final of the Champions League killed four people when he drove a minibus into a crowd celebrating the Spanish side's victory, police in Nigeria have told CNN. Barcelona fans celebrate in the city's Las Ramblas thoroughfare early Thursday morning. Ten people were also injured in the incident in the town of Ogbo, where the driver was subsequently arrested, a Port Harcourt Police spokesperson said. \"He was displaying his anger at his team losing the match. The driver had passed the crowd then made a U-turn and ran into them,\" spokesperson Rita Inomey-Abbey said. Both Manchester United and Barcelona have a large fan base across the African continent, with millions tuning in to watch European football on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, more than 100 people were arrested in Barcelona city center in the early hours of Thursday morning following the Catalan team's 2-0 victory in Rome in the final of Europe's top club competition. Police arrested 119 young people after violence flared at a special celebration party in Place de Catalunya near the Las Ramblas thoroughfare, while 238 people suffered minor injuries. City officials estimated the damage at up to 100,000 euros ($140,000) as the youths attacked police with bottles and damaged shops, parks and public utilities such as lamp-posts. The trouble took some of the gloss off the achievement of Barcelona, who became the first team to win the Champions League, Spanish League and Spanish Cup titles in one season. Manager Josep Guardiola led the club to glory in his first season in charge, ending a period of three years without a trophy.","highlights":"Man drives minibus into a crowd celebrating Barcelona's Champions League win .\nThe Manchester United supporter was angry after his team's defeat in final .\nNigerian police confirm that 10 people were also injured in the attack .\nMan was arrested after incident that took place in the town of Ogbo ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Chevron Corp. CEO David O'Reilly says Big Oil is not to blame for skyrocketing gas prices. Chevron Corp. CEO David O'Reilly says world demand for crude oil has been growing, which is affecting gas prices. In an interview Tuesday with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's \"The Situation Room,\" O'Reilly said high demand and a short supply of crude oil were key factors causing gas prices to spike. Despite reports of record profits among major oil companies, O'Reilly downplayed a recent poll in which Americans said corporate avarice played a role. O'Reilly also discussed President Bush's and GOP presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's proposal to lift the ban on new offshore drilling as well as presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama's call for taxing companies' windfall profits. The following is an edited version of the show's transcript: . Blitzer: You know you have -- you and ExxonMobil, the Big Oil companies --have a huge public relations problem. In all the recent polls, when the American public is asked, who do you blame for these huge gas prices at the pump, they -- more than any other single source -- they blame Big Oil. They blame you. What's going on? Watch Blitzer grill O'Reilly \u00bb . O'Reilly: Well, I don't think they blame us as much as you think. It looks to me like there's a lot of blame to go around. Blitzer: There's other blame, but more than any other single source, they blame Big Oil. O'Reilly: It depends on the poll you look at. Blitzer: The recent Gallup Poll. O'Reilly: Let me point out what we're trying to do about this because I think the issue here is one of supply. And prices are high today, but it's fundamentally a concern about oil supplies -- 75 percent of the price of gasoline is related to crude oil. We're very dependent on crude oil imports. The total world demand for crude oil has been growing steadily over the last decade. And that is affecting everybody's price. So it is a concern, but we need to work on the supply side, as well as the demand side, to bring change. Blitzer: Because you have had record profits, right? O'Reilly: We're investing those record profits. Blitzer: But billions and billions of dollars in profits, more than ever before. O'Reilly: Yes, but it's a big business. And on a return-on-sales business, we're right in there with the average of American business today. What we're doing is investing that money. For example, last year, we did make a lot of money, $18.7 billion. This year, our capital investment in new supplies is $22.9 billion, almost $23 billion. Blitzer: You know that Barack Obama says if he's president, he wants a windfall profits tax. He wants to take a chunk of your profits right now and give it back to the American people. John McCain opposes that, as you know. So I assume you would like to see John McCain elected president? Watch McCain explain his stance \u00bb . O'Reilly: Well, I would like to see no windfall profit tax. And I will tell you why. First of all, we are already heavily taxed as an industry. Our tax rates last year were at 45 percent, compared with in the 30s for the average of all industry. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, we're investing the money. If you take the money away, it will reduce investment, reduce supply and have exactly the opposite effect of helping the problem that you have referred to. And, thirdly, we have done it before. We have had windfall profit taxes. Congress has studied them about 30 years ago. And what happened under those circumstances is supplies dropped domestically, and we became even more dependent on imported oil. You don't want to do that today. Blitzer: Here's how Sen. Obama put it. Listen to this. Obama (in a video clip): Sen. McCain wants to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to Big Oil and opposes a windfall profits tax on oil companies like Exxon to help families struggling with high energy costs. I think that is exactly why we need to change Washington. Blitzer: So, I guess, given the stark difference when it comes to Big Oil between Obama and McCain -- let me rephrase the question -- do you want McCain to be elected? O'Reilly: I want someone to be elected who will help resolve our energy crisis. And I don't know enough about Sen. Obama's position or Sen. McCain's position to pass judgment on either one of them. What I do know, though, is that if we want to solve this problem of high energy prices, we're going to have to work not only in the demand side, as Congress has done with [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards and alternatives, but we're going to have to work on the supply as well. Blitzer: Do you want offshore drilling to be approved on both coasts and in the Gulf, which Sen. McCain now says is a good idea? O'Reilly: I do think that's a good idea. Today, our shores, except for the gulf off Texas and Mississippi and so forth, are off-limits today. So, look, Europeans who are very environmentally conscious -- the British, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch -- they can allow sensible offshore production from their oceans. Why can't we? See where drilling is allowed, banned \u00bb . Since we have -- over the last 20 years, domestic production has steadily declined -- and we have been more and more dependent on imports. We definitely need to do something about it. We don't know yet how much oil is under there, but we should at least be given the opportunity to look. Blitzer: We invited our viewers to ask you a question, and some of the I-Reports came in. iReport.com: See what iReporters are saying about gas prices . Unidentified male (in a video clip): If you would had told me a year ago that gas prices were going to reach about $4 a gallon, I wouldn't have doubted you. And if you had told me the year before that that they would reach $3 a gallon, I still wouldn't have doubted you. So what should Americans expect in terms of pricing of gas in the future? Blitzer: What do you think? O'Reilly: Very good question. I mean, $4 gasoline is a reality today because ... Blitzer: In some parts of the country, it's approaching $5. O'Reilly: Well, 75 percent of that is the price of crude oil. And that is the crude oil that we have been talking about here that's driving the current crude oil -- energy market. Blitzer: So, how high is it going to go? O'Reilly: Well, if crude oil prices come down, I think those prices could moderate. But it's a big if. Crude oil prices have to come down. We need to send a very strong signal to the market that we're serious about increasing supplies in this country. Blitzer: Do you think manipulators, stock manipulators, are paying -- are doing things to cause this spiral? O'Reilly: I don't know enough about the financial markets. We're a physical player. But I think most of the price that we see today is because of concern about physical long-term supply. Blitzer: Just because of the huge demand in India and China, also? O'Reilly: Huge demand around the globe, including here in the United States. Blitzer: Here's another question. Unidentified male (in a video clip): Have we reached peak oil supply? And, if not, when do you expect that we will? And, once we do, when do you expect that the prices of gas will go down to a reasonable level? O'Reilly: You know, peak oil is a big question today, and it's a very good question. One of the issues that we face has been addressed -- around people -- has been addressed to the National Petroleum Council study, which was issued last year by the secretary of energy. It is a very important study. What it really says is, there's enough oil and gas in the ground, but the access is what's impeding production. So, we could have a squeeze in the years ahead if we don't get after increasing our supplies, not only here in the U.S., but creating a global environment which permits access around the globe and free trade around the globe as far as oil is concerned.","highlights":"Chevron CEO says his company is investing windfall profits in supplies .\nDavid O'Reilly says he is opposed to windfall profits tax, favors offshore drilling .\n\"I want someone to be elected who will help resolve our energy crisis,\" O'Reilly says .\nCiting report, O'Reilly says plenty of oil is in ground but access is the problem ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China has refused nine U.S. Navy ships and one Air Force jet entry to Hong Kong in the past month, U.S. military officials said Friday. China has refused the USS Reuben James, seen in a 1989 photo, a Christmas port call in Hong Kong. Senior Navy officials said that Beijing denied permission for the USS Reuben James, a Navy frigate, to make a holiday port call for sailors at the end of December. The rejection occurred last week, at the same time China refused to allow the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group into Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday port call. A U.S. Air Force C-17 flight that had been scheduled for a routine resupply of the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong also was denied permission to enter, Navy officials said. The Kitty Hawk battle group was eventually granted permission to enter, but by then the ships were well on their way to port in Japan. Days earlier, China refused to give two U.S. Navy minesweepers safe harbor in Hong Kong during a storm on the high seas. The United States has filed a formal protest with China over the decisions. U.S. officials are baffled about the reason or reasons for the port call refusals. China recently has expressed concerns about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and President Bush's October presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Watch China put the blame on the U.S. \u00bb . There is speculation that the Chinese may have been conducting military exercises that they didn't want the U.S. Navy to see. Others think the refusals may have been the result of a misunderstanding. Officials could not explain why the rejection of the Reuben James had not been disclosed before, even though reporters had repeatedly asked if there were any other pending port calls. One senior Navy official expressed dismay that the information had not been made public by the Pentagon. White House deputy spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters the White House is \"aware\" of the latest refusals and referred reporters to the Pentagon. Stanzel said a \"clarification\" on the matter was being sought from Beijing. White House and other Bush administration officials have sought to defuse tensions with China, saying the United States wants to move ahead on broader issues of military cooperation. Navy officials, meanwhile, say Japan is tightening approvals for Chinese navy visits into its ports. Crew members from a Chinese ship making a port call in Japan may not be allowed to tour a Japanese Aegis warship. The U.S.-designed Aegis weapons system enables coordinated operations against threats from aircraft and missiles, surface ships and submarines. It is not clear if the Japanese decision was made at the request of the United States. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: China wouldn't let U.S. Air Force jet land to resupply Hong Kong consulate .\nFrigate USS Reuben James not allowed to enter Hong Kong for port call .\nChina last week refused port call for USS Kitty Hawk battle group .\nTwo U.S. minesweepers denied safe harbor during storm ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The price of big screen televisions has been coming down, but this was ridiculous. Best Buy's Web site offered a 52-inch TV for less than $10, but the deal was too good to be true. Early Wednesday morning, BestBuy.com listed a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for $9.99 -- a savings of more than $1600. As customers jumped on the Web site trying to take advantage of the offer, Best Buy announced it was a \"pricing error\" and was no longer available. A recorded message on Best Buy's customer service line told customers \"we will not be placing any more orders for this unit,\" and messages were sent on Twitter apologizing \"for any disappointment.\" Customers who placed orders early Wednesday were left wondering if they got away with the bargain. Eric VanBergen of Grand Rapids, Michigan, told CNN he snapped one up for $84.79 -- including $70 shipping and taxes -- at 5:30 a.m. Then, he ordered a second. Dozens of customers were posting to Twitter and Bestbuy.com, saying they also placed often multiple orders. It appears they are out of luck. In a statement, Best Buy apologized for the mistake but said it would \"not be honoring the incorrect price.\" Company representatives posted online messages telling customers \"All current and previous orders made for the TV at this price on BestBuy.com will be cancelled, and customers will be refunded in full for the purchase.\" The company's Web site states Best Buy reserves the right to \"revoke offers or correct errors\" even if a credit card has already been charged. The price mix-up gave way to customer frustration as people lost out on the deal of the year. \".bestbuy dang you!!!!\" was how VanBergen reacted on Twitter after learning that his two confirmation e-mails from Best Buy were meaningless. But it appears there is little else they can do. A spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission that investigates consumer complaints told CNN \"The FTC act bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices.\" Those would be cases of phony offers or sweepstakes, rather than a mistake, she said.","highlights":"Best Buy's Web site offers 52-inch HDTV on Web site for less than $10 .\nCustomers get on Web site to take advantage of bargain .\nBest Buy officials admit \"pricing error\", says it will not honor TV purchases ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Comic book fans have been waiting for years for a film to be made of \"Watchmen,\" the famed graphic novel about a group of misfit crimefighters battling a plot to eliminate their members while the world awaits nuclear war. Malin Akerman, who plays the second Silk Spectre, says \"Watchmen\" will make fans proud. Now that the film is complete and set for release Friday, the cast of the adaptation is confident the movie will meet fans' high expectations. \"We've heard a few comments from diehard fans where they're just saying, 'Wow, we're really impressed,' \" said Malin Akerman, who plays Laurie Jupiter\/Silk Spectre II in the movie. Praising director Zack Snyder, whose resume includes the highly successful \"300\" and \"Dawn of the Dead,\" Akerman said the film will make fans proud. \"This is just sort of a huge feat for Zack to take on. But him being a true fan, he came in with the mind of these fanboys and really kept that in mind and I think that he did a great job,\" she said. \"Watchmen\" had a long road to the screen. The original comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons came out in 1986 and 1987 and was compiled into a book. Since then it has been considered both brilliant -- it made Time magazine's list of the 20th century's greatest novels -- and unfilmable. Watch \"Watchmen\" stars talk about the film at its premiere \u00bb . Rights passed from studio to studio, with any number of directors attached (including Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass), before ending up with Warner Bros. (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) and Snyder. A longtime fan himself, Snyder said he was determined to remain true to the book. \"Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source material as possible,\" said Snyder's wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . Jackie Earle Haley, who stars in the film as Rorschach, said Snyder's passion for the film will lead to its success among dedicated fans. \"I think the film does to the comic book film genre what ['Watchmen'] the comic book does to the comic book genre,\" Haley said. \"I think Zack captured it ... and it's just an in-your-face, kick-butt comic book film, but it's got that extra depth, it's a little smarter.\" Fans of the comic book have been scrutinizing the film \"every step of the way,\" said Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But, he added, \"It's going to blow people away even with these high frigging expectations that everybody has.\" Indeed, there have been any number of challenges. The comic book is set in an alternative 1985 in which the United States and Soviet Union are on the verge of nuclear war, so there were period details to attend to. There are some superhero accessories, such as a flying machine nicknamed Archie, as well as the character Dr. Manhattan, a blue, extremely powerful and often naked Superman type. Carla Gugino lost herself in the part of Sally Jupiter, an early female crimefighter who is the mother of Akerman's character. That immersion -- which included age makeup for scenes in which Sally is in her 60s -- made the film easier to watch, she said. \"I look at it and don't feel like I'm watching myself, which then liberates you, because I am my own worst, harshest critic,\" she said. \"There was something about watching Sally older and I was like, 'Oh, that seems like a different woman ...' and I can sort of see her for what she is.\" iReport.com: Are you excited for \"Watchmen\"? Billy Crudup, who plays Dr. Manhattan, said seeing himself transformed with the effects of computer-generated imaging was astonishing. \"I was totally flabbergasted by the level of detail and sophistication that went into making Dr. Manhattan real,\" he said. In some cases, the actors were as excited as they expect fans to be. Morgan enjoyed delving deep into the character of Edward Blake, or The Comedian, and said the role allowed him to live his childhood dream. \"We got to play superheroes. We got to do something that I used to do when I was 12 years old,\" he said. \"This is always the guy that I wanted to be when I was 12 and I get to do it at 40 years old.\" CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" film has been anticipated since comic books in mid-'80s .\nFilm to be released Friday; stars are proud of finished product .\nActor Jeffrey Dean Morgan: \"We got to play superheroes\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a new anti-Israel, anti-U.S. video, an American al Qaeda member makes reference to his Jewish ancestry for the first time in an official al Qaeda message. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, is seen in an earlier al Qaeda video. In the video, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza that started in late December 2008 and continued into January. \"Let me here tell you something about myself and my biography, in which there is a benefit and a lesson,\" Gadahn says, as he elicits support from his fellow Muslims for \"our weapons, funds and Jihad against the Jews and their allies everywhere.\" \"Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather,\" he says. Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan and has appeared in al Qaeda videos before. He was indicted in the United States in 2006 on charges of treason and material support to al Qaeda, according to the FBI. Gadahn is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, with a reward of up to $1 million leading to his capture. FBI records show Gadahn's date of birth as September 1, 1978. The video -- in which Gadahn speaks Arabic, with English subtitles -- surfaced on Saturday. This account is based on an English transcript provided by As-Sahab Media, the media production company used by al Qaeda. Gadahn's Jewish ancestry has been reported in the news media. But terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield says it is the first time Gadahn acknowledged his Jewish ancestry in an official al Qaeda message. Gadahn says his grandfather was a \"Zionist\" and \"a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations.\" \"He used to repeat to me what he claimed are the virtues of this entity and encouraged me to visit it, specifically the city of Tel Aviv, where relatives of ours live,\" says Gadahn, referring to Israel. He says his grandfather gave him a book by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called \"A Place Among the Nations\" -- in which the \"rabid Zionist\" sets out \"feeble arguments and unmasked lies to justify the Jews' rape of Muslim Palestine.\" But Gadahn says that despite his youth at the time, he didn't heed his grandfather's words. \"How can a person with an ounce of self-respect possibly stand in the ranks of criminals and killers who have no morals, no mercy, no humanity and indeed, no honor?\" he says in reference to Zionists and Israel. \"Isn't it shameful enough for a person to carry the citizenship of America, the symbol of oppression and tyranny and advocate of terror in the world?\" Mansfield thinks the video may have been made between late April and mid-May, before President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt, addressing U.S. relations with Muslims. Gadahn notes Obama's inauguration, Netanyahu's election in February, and Obama's speech in Turkey in April. Specifically mentioning the Gaza offensive and citing other hot spots such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Somalia, where the \"Zio-Crusader alliance\" is fighting his \"brothers,\" he says \"this open-faced aggression\" comes as Obama has risen to power. He scorns Obama's statements in his inaugural address and in Turkey that America isn't and won't be at war with Islam, and \"other deceptive, false and sugarcoated words of endearment and respect.\" He says Obama's language is similar to words Netanyahu uttered in the Knesset in 1996. Gadahn also backs the idea of targeting \"Zio-Crusader\" interests anywhere in the world, not just \"within Palestine.\"","highlights":"Californian convert to Islam castigates U.S., Israel in al Qaeda video .\nAdam Yahiye Gadahn says grandfather was a member of \"Zionist hate organizations\"\nGadahn criticizes Obama's \"deceptive, false and sugarcoated words\"\nSpeaker refers to his American citizenship as \"shameful\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Albert Budacz was young, he prided himself on having good eyesight; he never wore glasses. But as he eased into his late 40s, he couldn't see as well. \"I noticed a change in my vision,\" he explained. \"Primarily in church when I would open a Bible, or something like that, I had to position myself under a light to see it.\" Ophthalmologist Dr. Sharon Solomon examined Albert Budacz and found age-related macular degeneration. Concerned that he was beginning to lose his sight, Budacz went to his ophthalmologist, Dr. Sharon Solomon with the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. He was found to have the beginnings macular degeneration, an eye condition that occurs when the central portion of the retina -- called the macula -- begins to deteriorate. Until recently, people with age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of severe vision loss in Americans older than 60, had few treatment options. But now, thanks to new research and advancing technology, there are more vision-saving choices. Early signs of macular degeneration-related vision loss include shadowy areas or fuzzy distortion in a person's central vision. \"A patient told me recently that he noticed when he was driving that the streetlights were slanted; the poles themselves were slanted,\" Solomon said. \"That's a classic sign of the beginning of this disease.\" Although obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and certain drugs can cause it, age is the primary risk factor. \"As people approach their 50s and later, they may have little yellow deposits that develop underneath the retina, and that's called drusen,\" Solomon explained. \"Those deposits are the hallmark of what we call early age-related macular degeneration.\" There are two forms of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD: the dry form, known as non-neovascular, and the wet form, called neovascular. The dry form, which Budacz has, is more common. According to the National Eye Institute, about 85 to 90 percent of patients with advanced macular degeneration have the dry form. Dry macular degeneration is caused when drusen begin to accumulate in and around the macula. Drusen, those yellowish deposits, are debris from deteriorating tissue. With dry AMD, there is usually a gradual loss of central vision. Over a period of years, dry AMD can progress to a gradual deterioration of retinal cells, which can result in severe vision loss or lead to the wet version of AMD. As of now, there is no FDA-approved treatment for dry macular degeneration, although a few drugs and devices are in clinical trials. Health Minute: Watch more on new therapies for macular degeneration \u00bb . However, studies have shown that supplements and a healthy diet can slow the progression of dry macular degeneration. A recent National Eye Institute study found that certain nutrients such as beta carotene (vitamin A) and vitamins C and E may reduce the risk of progression of early-stage AMD by 25 percent. Solomon says these antioxidants have a positive effect. \"They're known as 'preservision,' \" she said, noting that they are commonly given to certain patient groups to slow their progression to advanced macular degeneration. Other research has shown that B6, B12 and folic acid may help prevent age-related macular degeneration. In a study of more than 5,000 women, researchers noted those who took a combination of B6 and B12 vitamins along with a folic acid supplement had a 34 percent lower risk of developing AMD then those taking a placebo. Although the studies showed strong results, the American Academy of Ophthalmology cautions patients to talk to their eye doctors about which supplements are best for their condition before they start popping vitamins. In the wet version of macular degeneration, abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the retina and leak blood and fluid. This leakage causes permanent damage to light-sensitive retinal cells, which die off and create blind spots in central vision. Doctors say it's the body's misguided way of attempting to supply the retina with more nutrients and oxygen. Instead, the attempt creates scarring, leading to severe central vision loss. Up until recently, there's been very little doctors could do for the wet form of macular degeneration. But over the past decade, there have been a few treatments developed to slow its progression. Cold lasers are now used to freeze the abnormal blood vessels responsible for destroying the macula; they have a 60 percent success rate. And within the past three years, researchers pinpointed a protein in the eye, called vascular endothelial growth factor, that stimulates the development of blood vessels. Injectable drugs that inhibit VEGF are now FDA-approved and available; without VEGF, there is little to encourage the growth of blood vessels in the retina. \"They actually have a 90 percent chance of stabilizing vision and a 30 to 40 percent chance of improving vision,\" Solomon said. \"This is the first therapy that we've had that can actually [reverse] vision loss.\" Most ophthalmologists prefer an ounce of prevention to a pound of cure. They promote yearly eye exams as the easiest way to keep macular degeneration in check -- and warn against waiting for a crisis to schedule a checkup. \"We typically pick up a patient when, all of a sudden, they've had an acute, abrupt loss of vision or change in the quality of their vision,\" Solomon said. \"And sometimes it's too late.\" Albert Budacz was lucky. He caught his macular degeneration in time. He's stopped smoking and takes antioxidants to slow the progression of the disease. And although he may not have the eyesight he had as a young man, he can still see pretty well with or without glasses. And to him, that's all that matters.","highlights":"Age-related macular degeneration causes central vision loss .\nAge is primary risk factor; other factors: obesity, smoking, high blood pressure .\nTwo forms of AMD: wet and dry; until recently few treatments were available .\nInjections containing anti-growth factor can slow progress of wet AMD ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A national poll of people who watched the vice presidential debate Thursday night suggests that Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won, but also says Republican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeded expectations. Poll respondents give Sen. Joe Biden the edge over Gov. Sarah Palin in ability to express views. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. said 51 percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job. But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54 percent to Biden's 36 percent. Seventy percent said Biden was more of a typical politician. Both candidates exceeded expectations -- 84 percent of the people polled said Palin did a better job than they expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations. How Palin would perform had been a major issue for the Alaska governor, who had some well-publicized fumbles during interviews with CBS' Katie Couric leading up to the debate. Respondents thought Biden was better at expressing his views, giving him 52 percent to Palin's 36 percent.iReport.com: Tell us who you think did best . On the question of the candidates' qualifications to assume the presidency, 87 percent of those polled said Biden is qualified and 42 percent said Palin is qualified. The candidates sparred over which team would be the better agent of change, and Biden came out on top of that debate, with 53 percent of those polled giving the nod to the Delaware senator while 42 percent said Palin was more likely to bring change. Respondents overwhelmingly said moderator Gwen Ifill was fair during the vice presidential debate, repudiating critics who said that Ifill, of PBS, would be biased because she is writing a book that includes Biden's running mate, Sen. Barack Obama. Ninety-five percent of those polled said Ifill was fair. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Obama was selected as a winner over Republican Sen. John McCain in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll on the September 26 presidential debate.","highlights":"51 percent say Democratic Sen. Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate .\nRepublican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeds expectations, 84 percent say .\nPalin beats Biden on likability, 54-36 .\n87 percent say Biden is qualified for job, 42 percent say Palin is ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani forces in the last month foiled a planned attack on the parliament building, the intelligence agency and other federal institutions, the country's interior minister told CNN Sunday. Pakistan's parliament building was one target of a planned attack, an official says. In the last four weeks, authorities arrested three men with suicide vests who were plotting to carry out the attacks, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Malik would not say exactly when the men were caught. Pakistan is in the midst of an intense military offensive against Taliban militants. The militants are suspected of launching attacks inside Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan from their haven in the mountainous tribal region along the northwestern border. On Sunday, a suicide bomber in volatile northwestern Pakistan killed at three people and wounded 15 others, police said. The bombing rocked the Pakistani city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. The incident took place when police approached a man acting suspiciously. The man ran away, police chased him and a gunfight ensued. The man ran out of bullets and blew himself up. Two women and seven children were among the injured. Remains of the alleged attacker were found, police said. Five houses were destroyed. The incident follows a car bombing on Saturday in Peshawar that killed two people, including the spokesman for an extremist group called Ansar ul Islam. Two suspects are in custody. Malik said Sunday the government's anti-Taliban operations will continue during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month considered to be a time of peace. Militants in North Waziristan, part of the tribal region, have said they will observe a unilateral ceasefire throughout the month. \"There will not be a ceasefire during Ramadan. We are not interested in a ceasefire,\" Malik said. \"They haven't kept their commitment in the past. We will continue targeted actions against the Taliban.\" Malik also said the Taliban killed the father-in-law of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and several other relatives, accusing them of leaking information about his whereabouts. Pakistan and U.S. officials contend Mehsud was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan at his father-in-law's house. The Taliban claims Mehsud is alive but ill.","highlights":"NEW: Suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan kills at least three, authorities say .\nNEW: Suspect blew himself up after running out of bullets in gunfight, police say .\nPakistani authorities say they stopped plot on government buildings .\nThree men plotted to carry out attacks, says Interior Minister Rehman Malik ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chronic seizures can present a risk for adolescents, whose bodies and metabolism are changing. Jett Travolta was the elder of John Travolta and Kelly Preston's two children. A seizure disorder caused the death of Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, a source at a Bahamas funeral home told CNN. \"Literally dozens of different disorders can cause seizures: genetics, stroke, brain tumor, lack of oxygen, low blood sugar, drugs, even certain medications,\" said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. Another expert said the teen years bring risks for those with seizures. \"Adolescence is a time, even if you don't talk about children with any seizure disorder, where things change in a child,\" said Dr. Shlomo Shinnar of Montefiore Medical Center in New York. There are effective drugs to treat seizures. As children grow, their bodies and metabolism change, perhaps causing a need to adjust their dosage, said Shinnar, a professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Management Center at Montefiore. \"Seizures during adolescence can get better or worse or stay the same,\" he said. And the risk of seizures is higher for children with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy, Shinnar said. Jett Travolta had a developmental disability that his parents have linked to Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory disorder of the artery walls that most commonly occurs in young children. An autopsy of the actors' son was completed Monday, and the body was cremated that evening, the funeral home source said. Jett was found unconscious in the bathroom Friday while on vacation with his family. Michael Ossi, an attorney for Travolta, told CNN last week that Jett had a seizure that morning at the family's home in a resort area. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital and pronounced dead on arrival, according to local police. People.com reported that Travolta, Preston and their 8-year-old daughter Ella Blue arrived in Florida on Monday night with Jett's ashes. The reports that a seizure disorder caused Jett's death were preliminary, Gupta said. \"It tells us more about what did not happen than the ultimate cause of death. It rules out brain injury, bleeding on brain, skull fractures, rules out heart problems due to Kawasaki disease, which is the disease the Travoltas say their son suffered,\" he said. Kawasaki disease, believed to be caused by an infection, inflames the heart muscles. In 2001, Travolta told CNN's Larry King that his son had a near brush with death related to the condition. \"I was obsessive about cleaning -- his space being clean, so we constantly had the carpets cleaned. And I think, between him, the fumes and walking around, maybe picking up pieces or something, he got what is rarely a thing to deal with, but it's Kawasaki syndrome,\" Travolta said of his then-2-year-old son. Dr. Cam Patterson, general cardiologist at the University of North Carolina and a genetics expert who follows Kawasaki disease, told CNN, \"There is no real good link at all between Kawasaki disease and cleaning products. \"Kawasaki disease is due to an abnormal immunnologic response, probably to an infectious agent or infection we don't yet understand,\" Patterson said. \"There is nothing that links environmental toxins to this problem.\" Someone with Kawasaki could have seizures for one of two reasons, but they would be rare, he said. \"One, sometime in the past one of the arteries in the brain ruptured and caused stroke,\" he said. \"Two, if the artery had enlarged enough, it could be pressing on parts of brain and that could cause seizure. Both possibilities are unusual for Kawasaki disease.\" A very small study released in 1991 found an association between cases of Kawasaki disease in homes where carpet had been cleaned in the past 30 days. \"It's very easy to find correlations, but doesn't mean causative,\" Patterson said. The next step would have been to conduct more tests, by taking toxicological tests and brain examinations to see what could have caused the seizure. \"Even with physical evidence and a deeper look by neuropathologists, we still may never have an answer,\" Gupta said on CNN's American Morning. CNN's Stephanie Smith and Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seizures in teenagers can be caused by dozens of disorders, genetics .\nSeizure said to have caused the death of Jett Travolta, 16 .\nFamily has linked seizures to Kawasaki disease; experts say it's unlikely ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Cheryl Reed's morning routine starts like that of millions of other mothers around the country. She makes breakfast for her 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, piles them into a minivan and drops them off at school. Cheryl Reed has a rare form of breast cancer that mostly affects young African-American women. It's the next stop that sets Reed apart from other women. Three weeks a month, she heads to the infusion center at the Emory Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, for chemotherapy treatments. Reed, 40, has breast cancer; not just any form of the disease, but a rare, aggressive and difficult to treat version called triple negative. Of the estimated 180,000 women who learn they have invasive breast cancer this year in the United States, about 15 percent will have triple negative. Like Reed, the majority of triple negative patients will be young African-American women. \"It never occurred to me that I'm going to die from this,\" Reed said. \"I was like, 'I've got breast cancer, let's take care of it.' \" Reed did take care of it. For eight months during 2006, she endured chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She thought the cancer was in remission, but it returned last November. This time, it had spread to her liver, lungs and chest wall. \"Triple negative cancers do tend to be aggressive in their natural histories, so they have a very high rate of recurrence or relapsing,\" explained Dr. Ruth O'Regan, Reed's oncologist at the Winship Institute. She's one of several breast cancer experts around the country who are trying to learn more about what causes triple negative and how to treat it more effectively. Dr. Funmi Olopade, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, was at the forefront of identifying triple negative and the trend among African-American women. She said what makes it different from other types of breast cancer is that women with the disease lack three hormone receptors known to fuel most breast cancer tumors: estrogen, progesterone and HER2. Health Minute: More on triple negative breast cancer \u00bb . \"When you have triple negative, it means that we cannot use hormone therapy. ... The only way we can treat that type of breast cancer is to use chemotherapy,\" Olopade said. Tamoxifen and Herceptin, two of the most effective medications for treating breast cancer, don't work for triple negative breast cancer patients. But if a patient responds well to chemotherapy, Olopade said, there's a very good chance of curing the disease. \"The challenge we have is when the cancer comes back,\" she added. \"Right now, we don't have any effective way to treat it, and that's why when it comes back, it tends to be deadly.\" Reed is enrolled in a clinical trial at the Winship center where she's receiving chemotherapy along with a drug called Avastin, which cuts the blood supply to cancer cells. Olopade is hoping better drugs will be available in the next two to five years that will help eradicate triple negative cancer cells. In the meantime, she stressed, early detection is the key to recovery, especially for women at highest risk. \"In this country, what we have found was young African-American women have a rate that is higher than young white women, and we don't know if that is because of a gene or other risk factors,\" Olopade said. \"We know that women with a family history of breast cancer who have a BRCA1 mutation are most at risk,\" she said. BRCA1 is a major breast cancer-causing gene that was identified 14 years ago. Olopade said women born with the defective gene have a higher chance of getting breast cancer and at a younger age. Olopade also wants to explore further whether triple negative rates are higher among women who do not breastfeed their children. \"It's that first pregnancy and first breastfeeding that really allows the breast to become fully mature,\" she said. She worried that in general, \"African-Americans are not likely to breastfeed, as they are getting in the work force and returning to work soon after childbirth.\" Even with several clues, Olopade acknowledged that researchers still don't know a lot about triple negative breast cancer and more study is needed. She encouraged all young women, no matter what their race, to talk to their doctor about doing a risk assessment for the BRCA1 gene. If there is a family history of the gene mutation, some physicians may tell a woman not wait until she turns 40 to get her first mammogram. \"We begin screening as early at 25,\" Olopade said. \"Many of the women are surviving. They are beating the odds of dying because they know they can do preventive approaches to reduce their risk of dying.\" Reed is trying to increase her chances of survival by getting experimental treatment in the clinical trial. She seems to be responding well, but she's realistic. \"There's always the possibility that once this is done, it could be two years and I'm back in treatment again,\" she said. \"It really is a part of my life now. ... I'm a survivor.\" CNN's Sabriya Rice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Triple negative breast cancer is rare, aggressive and difficult to treat .\nMost triple negative patients are young African-American women .\nEarly detection is the key to recovery, says Dr. Funmi Olopade ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A boy playing with matches started a Southern California wildfire that scorched more than 38,000 acres, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. A firefighter talks on a radio while battling the Buckweed blaze on October 22. The Buckweed Fire, which destroyed 21 homes on its rampage, began October 21 in the Agua Dulce community. \"Our arson explosive detectives, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Fire Department investigators, immediately began their investigation, and during the course of the investigation, it led to a juvenile suspect,\" Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Tony Moore told CNN's \"American Morning\" Wednesday. \"After talking with that juvenile, he admitted to playing with matches, and accidentally starting the fire in that area,\" he said. Watch what's next for young suspect \u00bb . The boy, whose name and age were not given, is home with his parents, police said. The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney for possible charges. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Buckweed Fire burned 38,526 acres. Sixty-three structures, 21 of them homes, were destroyed, and three civilians and two firefighters were injured. The sheriff's department said the fire forced the evacuation of about 15,000 people. As of Tuesday, 18 of 23 wildfires in Southern California were completely under control, and the remainder were at least 70 percent contained, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fires are blamed for 14 deaths and charred more than 508,000 acres, destroying about 1,600 homes. Five people were arrested in arson probes last week, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday vowed to \"hunt down\" people responsible for setting wildfires. Authorities said Saturday they were following 1,700 tips about a white Ford F-150 pickup seen near the origin of the sprawling Santiago Fire in Orange County. Witnesses reported seeing the 1998-2004 model truck with chrome tubular running boards on Santiago Canyon Road on October 21 at about the time the Santiago Fire started. Authorities said last week they had found evidence at the scene, although they declined to describe it. \"If I were one of the people who started the fires, I would not sleep soundly right now, because we're right behind you,\" Schwarzenegger said, urging the culprits to turn themselves in. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"He admitted playing with matches and starting the fire,\" says police report .\nBoy, whose name and age were not given, is home with his parents .\nBuckweed Fire burned 38,000 acres, destroyed 63 structures, 21 of them homes ."} -{"article":"WINNENDEN, Germany (CNN) -- Students jumped out of windows and locked themselves in classrooms as a former pupil rampaged through a German school with a gun, killing at least a dozen people there Wednesday, a student at the school told CNN. People lay flowers at the school Wednesday. \"Suddenly there were police standing in front of me and told us to run outside quickly,\" Luisa Santonastaso, 16, said. \"At first we didn't know what to do. So first we went to the class and picked up some of our classmates and ran out. \"Then we heard that someone was inside shooting. Then we also saw a teacher who had blood on his hands because he wanted to help a female teacher who sacrificed herself for a student -- she stood in front of a student to protect her,\" the girl told CNN by phone from Germany. \"The guy just entered the classroom and started shooting and a friend of mine was panicking so much that she jumped out of a window. I think she broke her arm. She's in hospital now.\" Santonastaso's friend was not the only one who jumped, she said. Dressed in military gear, the gunman -- identified by police as Tim Kretschmer, 17 -- killed a total of 15 people in two different towns before he died. Watch more about the shootings \u00bb . Initial indications are that he shot himself, but police are continuing to investigate, said Erwin Hetger, the regional chief of police. The rampage in Winnenden, a small town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Stuttgart, and spread to neighboring Wendlingen. As people at Albertville-Realschule Winnenden school -- where Kretschmer used to be a student -- realized what was happening, many burst into tears, Santonastaso said. \"Everybody was crying because nobody could really imagine what had just happened. They brought us to the swimming pool hall in Winnenden for security reasons,\" she said. \"Then all our parents were called because no child was allowed to leave without parents,\" she continued. At least one parent got awful news when she arrived. \"One mother came and the teachers had to tell her that her child had been injured or shot dead, and then she cried really hard and fainted,\" Santonastaso said. iReport.com: Town in shock over shooting . Santonastaso's own parents were more fortunate. \"When I first called to tell them what had happened they wanted to come right away, but I told them that wasn't possible because we were being brought to somewhere safe,\" she said. Later, she said: \"My parents and my friend came and we went out with them. Out there it got a bit better.\" CNN's Marco Woldt and Lianne Turner contributed to this report .","highlights":"Student tells how classes turned to horror at hands of rampaging gunman .\nShe says one teacher shot when she put herself between the gunman and a student .\nStudents jumped from windows to escape killer .\nGunman killed 15 people in two German towns near Stuttgart ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's memorial service will take place Tuesday morning in the Staples Center, the 20,000-seat coliseum in downtown Los Angeles where Jackson rehearsed his show the night before he died, according to a person who has been briefed by a representative of the family. Michael Jackson was rehearsing at Los Angeles' Staples Center. His memorial will now be there. No other details about the service, set to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, have been revealed. Thursday, CNN learned the family trust created by Jackson to receive all of his assets includes his mother, his children and a list of charities, according to a person with direct knowledge to the contents of the trust. Katherine Jackson's 40 percent share would go to Michael Jackson's three children after her death, the source said. The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- will also share 40 percent of the estate's assets and the remaining 20 percent will benefits charities designated by the executors of the will, the source said. Jackson's will did not specify where he wished to be buried. Many of his fans had hoped they'd get a chance to pay last respects at Neverland Ranch, which Jackson purchased in 1987, filled with animals and amusement rides, and named after the fictional world in J.M. Barrie's \"Peter Pan.\" Planning had been under way for a motorcade to carry Jackson's body from Los Angeles to the ranch in Santa Barbara County, California, which state and local officials suggested would be difficult and costly. A public viewing at the ranch on Friday also had been under consideration, law enforcement sources said. Gregory Son, a 31-year-old musician, was among many fans who had planned to ride to the ranch to say goodbye to Jackson. \"I think he was a modern-day prophet,\" Son said outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. \"We kind of lost our father.\" DEA joins investigation . On Wednesday night, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday night that the Drug Enforcement Administration had joined Jackson's death investigation, once again fanning speculation that drugs may have been involved in the pop icon's passing. Two law enforcement officials separately confirmed the DEA probe, saying agents would look at various doctors involved with Jackson, their practices and their possible sources of medicine supply. Neither official wanted to be identified because they could not comment publicly on the matter. Officially, a DEA spokeswoman referred questions to the Los Angeles, California, police department -- which would not confirm the involvement. \"We routinely offer assistance to any agency regarding the Federal Controlled Substance Act,\" said Sarah Pullen of the DEA. \"However, at this time, we have nothing further to comment about the death of Michael Jackson.\" Speculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died on June 25 at his rented estate in Holmby Hills. The cause of his death, at age 50, was pending toxicology results. On Wednesday, police released a car belonging to Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. They had impounded the vehicle Friday, saying it might contain evidence -- possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Murray's lawyers issued a statement, asking the public to reserve judgment about the cause of death until the coroner's tests are complete. \"Based on our agreement with Los Angeles investigators, we are waiting on real information to come from viable sources like the Los Angeles medical examiner's office about the death of Michael Jackson,\" the statement said. \"We will not be responding to rumors and innuendo.\" The comments were in reaction to a claim by a nutritionist who said Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and pleaded for the powerful sedative, Propofol, despite knowing its harmful effects. \"I told him this medication is not safe,\" said Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse. \"He said, 'I just want to get some sleep. You don't understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.' \" Will nominates Jackson's mother as kids' guardian . Meanwhile, details of Jackson's will -- written on July 7, 2002 -- showed that the singer estimated his estate to be worth at least $500 million. In it, he nominated his mother, Katherine Jackson, as the guardian of his three children. If his 79-year-old mother is not living, \"I nominate Diana Ross as guardian,\" Jackson stated. Singer Ross, 65, is a lifelong friend of Jackson's. The will said Jackson \"intentionally omitted\" his former wife and the mother of his two oldest children, Debbie Rowe. It will be up to a court to decide who gets custody of the children, ages 7, 11 and 12. Rowe has not publicly indicated whether she will challenge the Jacksons for custody. The two men whom the will named as executors immediately filed a request to take control of the estate. One is John Branca, who represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. The other is music industry executive John McClain, a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. The men said in their filing in Los Angeles Superior Court that control of the estate would allow them to tend to Jackson's numerous outstanding debts, legal cases and business obligations. Judge Mitchell Beckloff held an emergency hearing Wednesday morning and decided there was no urgency to replace Katherine Jackson -- whom he appointed temporary administrator earlier this week. Another hearing has been set for Monday. -- CNN's Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston, Michael Carey, Paul Vercammen, Carol Cratty and Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Michael Jackson trust includes mother, children, charities .\nMichael Jackson memorial to be Tuesday at L.A.'s Staples Center .\nThe Drug Enforcement Administration has joined Jackson's death investigation .\nSpeculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The owner of a North Carolina beach house where seven college students died in a weekend fire said Monday that his family's \"lives were just changed forever\" by the tragedy. Chip Auman said his 18-year-old daughter survived the fire but was hospitalized and in stable condition because of complications from smoke inhalation. \"The thought of losing a child is unimaginable to me, and as a father my heart goes out to the families that lost a loved one in this situation,\" he said. Auman said the situation was \"hard to fathom.\" \"There's just no words to describe what we've been going through,\" he said, asking for prayers for survivors and the families of those who died. \"We're numb, we're confused, we're heartbroken.\" Two college campuses mourned Monday. Six University of South Carolina students and a Clemson University student died in the fire early Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Six other South Carolina students were able to get out of the house in time. The six were treated and released from nearby Brunswick Community Hospital, but Auman's daughter was hospitalized again in Hartsville, South Carolina. Authorities from the state Bureau of Investigation and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire. Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith said the house was \"engulfed\" in flames when the fire department arrived on the scene, about five minutes after being notified. The flames shot into the sky and ultimately left little more than portions of the framing. Fire officials do not believe foul play was involved. Watch a neighbor's video, fears of fast-burning fire \u00bb . Dennis A. Pruitt, the vice president for student affairs for the University of South Carolina, said investigators have said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before the identities of the victims are confirmed publicly. It could be as much as a month until investigators know the cause of the fire, Pruitt said. The university did not cancel classes on Monday, but Pruitt said arrangements had been made for those who need to go home or stay out of class at the 28,000-student campus. Pruitt said meetings had been held Sunday with members of Delta Delta Delta sorority and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The South Carolina students were affiliated with those houses, he said, although he stressed that the weekend was not an official Greek function. He also said counselors and ministers were available to help students deal with the loss of their classmates. The university president, Dr. Andrew Sorenson, contacted the families of those who died in the fire to express the condolences and support of the university community. Jay Laura, student president of the USC chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said the campus would pull together after the tragedy. \"If any place can come together to help in the healing process and the aftermath of an event like this, it is South Carolina,\" Laura said at a Monday afternoon press conference. Fire survivor Tripp Wylie, a 20-year-old South Carolina sophomore, said he jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape the flames and was unable to get back in to help his friends. \"I could see a buddy of mine off to the left who had gotten out. He was just yelling at me to jump and stuff,\" Wylie told CNN affiliate WYFF. \"The smoke was pouring out, couldn't really breathe, so I had to make a quick decision. [I] just kind of leaned out the window and luckily I jumped far enough to make it into the canal.\" Neighbors flocked to see the fire as firefighters battled and ultimately got the blaze under control. See the scenes of devastation \u00bb . George Smith, who lives across the street from the house, said he heard sirens between 6:30 and 7 a.m. and went outside to see \"the whole sky lit up.\" \"The whole house was completely engulfed in flames, up to about 20 feet,\" he said. \"I have never seen [a fire] move so fast.\" George Smith said the house's occupants were \"partying in there yesterday and into the night.\" After about 10:30 p.m. Saturday they quieted down, he said. Linda Sing said she was walking her dog when she saw the fiery destruction. She noted that firefighters had saved an adjacent house by spraying it down with water. \"We knew there were people in there, but we hoped and prayed they'd gotten out,\" Sing said. \"This is the worst thing I've ever seen. We've had hurricanes, but this is worse.\" Ocean Isle Beach is a popular resort destination along North Carolina's southern coast. The year-round population of the 7-mile-long island is about 425, but it swells to about 25,000 during the summer season, according to the town's Web site. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Heartbroken\" house owner's daughter among six survivors hospitalized .\nOne survivor jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape .\nUniversity of South Carolina mourns deaths of six students ."} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Got a few grand to spare for a $3,000 phone? Yeah, we didn't think so. Nobody does -- and that's a problem for the makers of luxury phones, such as Motorola, Bang & Olufson, LG and Vertu. Vertu makes phones starting at $6,000 and going up in price. After years of chasing the ultra-wealthy with exclusive devices that carry designer logos and promise craftsmanship from materials such as sapphire and stainless steel, luxury phone makers are now pulling back. \"The culture has shifted away from conspicuous consumption, so if you are going to have a super expensive product this may not be the time for it,\" says Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis. Motorola has already gotten the memo. Earlier this week, the company reportedly canceled the Ivory E18, a device tentatively priced around $3,000. The phone had met with lack of interest from telecom carriers. Motorola declined to comment. If that sounds like an obvious outcome, perhaps it shouldn't. In the last few years, luxury phones had turned into an attractive new business, as designer houses rushed to get a foothold in the tech sector. Prada collaborated with LG to launch two LG Prada phones in Europe and Asia. Last September, Samsung launched the M75500 Night Effect phone, which carried the Emporio Armani insignia. A month later, Motorola offered a $2,000 phone, called the Aura, which was fashioned out of stainless steel and sported a 62-carat sapphire crystal lens. And then there's Vertu, a company that makes true luxury phones, the cheapest of which costs about $6,000. The recession put a spoke in those plans. And it's not just the 401Ks of middle-class Americans that have been in peril. In Russia, many newly-minted billionaires saw their fortunes slip away with falling oil prices. By the first quarter this year, the U.S. economy had shrunk 5.5 percent. Even 50 Cent has complained about losing more than a few Benjamins on the stock market. And just like that, the crystal dominoes started to fall. Last October, Bang & Olufsen, whose phones retailed in Europe for more than $1,500, shuttered its cellphone business as it decided to trim its costs and get out of non-profitable ventures. Motorola is the latest to pull back its luxury line. Luxury phones have never been a big phenomenon in North America, says Greengart. Their manufacturers have had better luck in emerging markets. But now even in those countries, where once 8 percent GDP growth seemed conservative, wealthy consumers are feeling the pinch. \"Super expensive, bling bling phones are big in markets where conspicuous consumption is a way to tell your countrymen you have arrived,\" says Greengart. \"But now, it's a very different economy for everyone.\" Many of the troubles that the uber-expensive phones face are because they are created by companies whose main expertise is in targeting a mass market, says Frank Nuovo, former chief of design for Nokia and current head of Vertu. \"I didn't start this business to soak the phones in diamonds and jewels,\" says Nuovo. \"The concept is same as a fine watch or a fabulous car. To be a true luxury product, you have to look at making something that doesn't have an 18-month shelf life.\" True luxury, as Nuovo defines it, doesn't apply to a mere $2,000 phone: A Vertu device, soaked in platinum, can run up to $70,000. The company's one-off phones, designed in collaboration with luxury jewels house Boucheron, cost even more. Nuovo may have inadvertently hit on the real problem with luxury phones: Phones are still a very feature-driven products. They are products where the rapid advances in technology can rend older models obsolete very quickly. \"Phones aren't like a handbag where the fundamental utility remains the same and the design changes all the time,\" says Greengart. But Nuovo isn't convinced. \"Take watches and cars,\" he says. \"They all run the same but everyone has a unique way of delivering them stylistically. We can do the same with phones.\" Despite the bumps on the road now, Nuovo says the luxury phones will bounce back and find an audience. \"It is no different than a fine watch or a car,\" he says. \"If you take people who value something that is made extraordinarily well there will always be a group interested in it.\" Vertu is determined to prove that. It will launch its latest handset the Carbon Fibre Ascent Ti in August. The phone is made of high-gloss carbon fiber and has a sandblasted titanium surface. The price tag? $9,800. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"The luxury phone market is in decline because of the recession .\nUber-high-end phones are more popular outside the U.S.\nVertu makes luxury phones that start at $6,000 and go up in price .\nSome phones pair with designer brands or are made from rare materials ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has warned against outside influences in next month's run-off election, likening one American diplomat to a \"prostitute\" and threatening to oust another from his country. Robert Mugabe tries to stir voters with a blistering speech criticizing the U.S. and Britain. \"Zimbabwe cannot be British, it cannot be American. Yes, it is African,\" said Mugabe, whose speech Sunday was quoted Monday in The Herald, the state-run newspaper. \"You saw the joy that the British had, that the Americans had, and saw them here through their representatives celebrating and acting as if we Zimbabwe are either an extension of Britain or ... America. You saw that little American girl [U. S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer] trotting around the globe like a prostitute...\" Mugabe went on to say that U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee would be expelled from the country if he \"persisted in meddling in Zimbabwe's electoral process,\" the newspaper reported. The fallout from Zimbabwe's stalled election has brought international criticism, with Frazer taking the most emphatic stance. In April, Frazer accused Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades, of \"trying to steal the election\" and \"intimidating the population and election officials as well.\" The first election was March 29. An announcement of the winner of the presidential election was delayed for weeks as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed he had won. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, after a long delay, ruled that neither candidate had won the required majority of votes, and scheduled a runoff election for June 27. Since the March balloting, there have been numerous reports from Tsvangirai's party and church groups about kidnappings, torture and other violence, including the deaths of opposition party members. They say the violence targets opponents of Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. At about the same time Sunday that Mugabe was giving his campaign speech, Tsvangirai was speaking at a funeral. Tsvangirai spoke harshly as he stood near the casket of a man he claimed was killed by Mugabe's supporters. Watch Tsvangirai address mourners \u00bb . \"This is a clear testimony of the callousness of this regime,\" said Tsvangirai to a funeral procession of hundreds gathered outside the capital city of Harare. \"They can kill us. They can maim us. But we are going on the 27th of June, our hearts dripping with blood, to vote him out of office.\" Mugabe denies his supporters were responsible for election-related violence.","highlights":"Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe likens U.S. diplomat to prostitute .\nMugabe warns U.S. and Britain to keep out of Zimbabwe .\nMorgan Tsvangirai attends funeral and accuses Mugabe supporters of murder ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Former world number one, Pete Sampras, has described recently crowned French Open champion Roger Federer as the best player in history. Roger Federer after equalling Pete Sampras's record of winning 14 men's singles titles. The 37-year-old American, nicknamed 'Pistol Pete' for his bullet-like serves, won a record 14 grand slam men's singles titles over a 15-year career, though never captured the trophy at Roland Garros. In beating Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6, 6-4 to take the French title on Sunday, Federer equaled Sampras's record and became only the sixth man in history to win each of the four majors. Debate: Is Federer the greatest player ever? The feat marks the 27-year-old Swiss out as the finest player to ever grace the game according to Sampras: \"What he's done over the past five years has never, ever been done -- and probably will never, ever happen again. \"Regardless if he won there or not, he goes down as the greatest ever. This just confirms it,\" Sampras told the Guardian newspaper. \"I'm obviously happy for Roger. If there's anyone that deserves it, it's Roger. He's come so close (previously),\" Sampras said of the new champion and world number two, who lost the last three consecutive French Open finals to Spain's Rafael Nadal. Federer spoke exclusively to CNN after his win and said he was relieved to have bounced back after relinquishing the world number one slot and the Australian and Wimbledon titles to Nadal in 2008. \"It's been a fantastic day - to get the elusive French title in the end was unbelievable. I always believed I was good enough to get it - but holding the trophy, after all I've been through was just unbelievable. I'm so proud right now you can't believe it. \"For me there was never a question whether I was going to retire. I worked extremely hard in the off season. Losing semifinals and finals all of a sudden wasn't good enough for people anymore. But this victory is timely because I've proved many people wrong.\" The historic nature of the victory was also not lost on Federer: \"The records mean a lot to me especially after the last few years when I realized that I was (up there) with the greatest players of all time. Of course I like to break records - because I look up to people like Sampras, Agassi, Connors and McEnrore, it's so great to be up there with those players.\" However, in an ominous warning to his rivals, the champion already said he had eyes on his next conquest: \"I still feel like I have much more left in me - I'm only 27 years-old and I'd like to play for many more years to come and I hope I reach many more titles.\" Federer's vanquished opponent in the final, Soderling also praised his conquerer: \"For me he is the best ever and I should know as I've player him many times,\" the world-ranked number 12 told CNN. Next up for Federer is the third grand slam of 2009, Wimbledon, where he will aim to go one better than Bjorn Borg by winning the tournament six times when the event starts on June 22. Federer's historic weekend win was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge who also tagged the Swiss simply the best that tennis has seen. \"Today I wrote to Roger Federer to congratulate him on this unique success because I consider him to be the best player of all time,\" Rogge told a media briefing in Brussels on Monday. The IOC supremo revealed that in the letter he had expressed the hope that Federer would take part in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Federer added an Olympic gold to his collection of tennis accolades by winning the men's doubles with compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka in Beijing last year.","highlights":"Former world number one Pete Sampras says Federer is the 'greatest'\nBoth men share the record for winning 14 men's singles titles .\nFederer says he feels there are \"more titles to come\"\nThe Swiss eyes a new record of six tournament wins at Wimbledon ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They left home with hope in their hearts, thousands of fans true to the Liverpool anthem, dreaming of reaching another Wembley FA Cup Final. The disaster at Hillsborough football stadium in 1989 resulted in the deaths of 96 football supporters. But what began as a day out in the spring sunshine 20 years ago ended as the darkest hour in the history of British football. I had settled into Row B Seat 2 of the press box in the south stand at Hillsborough, home to Sheffield Wednesday and neutral venue for the game. From there I would have had an uninterrupted view of the semifinal showdown between Liverpool and Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. Clough, one of the legends of the British game, had been denied an FA Cup Final with Forest a year earlier, when his side lost to Liverpool at the same stage of the competition and at the same venue. The atmosphere in the ground for the 1989 semifinal exploded as the teams emerged onto the pitch. But none of us was prepared for what was to follow. The match action lasted less than six minutes. I can't remember a single kick. What I do recall quite vividly are the scenes of distress, desperation and death at the Liverpool end that destroyed so many families and shocked the world. Looking to my left and behind Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar's goal, I was drawn to a huge mushroom-like effect among the crowd in the central standing enclosures around kick-off time. See Liverpool players and fans paying tribute to victims of Hillsborough disaster \u00bb . The match had not long started when the first signs of a major problem surfaced. Fans began frantically attempting to climb over the perimeter fence to escape the crush at the Leppings Lane end of the ground. I didn't know it at the time, but the swell was the exit point of a tunnel that ran under the stand. Through it hundreds of Liverpool fans had attempted to make their way without realizing the two caged pens it led to were already overcrowded. Many had the life squeezed out of them in that tunnel. Others were trampled or crushed to death on the terraces. The lucky ones clambered to safety, many collapsing on the pitch. Some fans were hoisted up into the stand above by fellow supporters, but the main escape route was over the high perimeter fence and later through a small gate that was forced open as police -- who initially thought they were dealing with a pitch invasion -- recognized the true scale of the problem. Advertising boards were used as makeshift stretchers and some of those being carried away had their heads covered by coats. The Sheffield Wednesday gymnasium became a mortuary. The Liverpool end of the pitch resembled a casualty station with frantic efforts being made to treat the injured and save lives while others wandered aimlessly around the pitch in a daze. I will always remember the bid to revive one young fan in front of the main stand. Those efforts seemed to go on forever before finally hundreds of spectators let out a huge cheer as the lad at last showed some sign of life. I still wonder to this day whether or not he made it. Meanwhile I had an open phoneline to a copytaker at The Press Association and described those shocking events unfolding in front of me, including news of the first fatalities. For the second time in four years I had gone to cover a football match and ended up filing a disaster report. In 1985 I had been in Brussels with Liverpool to cover their European Cup final against Juventus, when 39 fans, mainly Italian, were killed at the Heysel stadium as a wall collapsed after trouble on the terraces. That match eventually went ahead after a delay of 85 minutes. Within hhours of returning from Belgium, I was among a small group of football writers summoned to No. 10 Downing Street for a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher planned draconian measures to combat what became known as the English disease, but it was the appalling events at Sheffield that finally became the catalyst for change. The Hillsborough tragedy was played out in full view of 53,000 spectators and TV cameras. People who came to watch a football match went home haunted by scenes of carnage and chaos that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Later, in an area beneath the empty south stand, FA chief executive Graham Kelly faced media at an impromptu press conference and expressed his shock, sadness and sorrow. Understandably, he didn't have all the answers as questions were fired his way. What led to the disaster is well documented. Lord Justice Taylor, a High Court judge commissioned by the government to produce a report, concluded that police operational errors were largely to blame for allowing the gates to be opened to relieve congestion outside the ground. Many questioned why the kickoff to the game had not been delayed. English football was quick to react with perimeter fences pulled, followed by the phased-in arrival of all-seater stadia. In the aftermath grieving fans turned Liverpool's Kop stand and the Anfield pitch into a shrine draped with thousands of scarves, flags and flowers. A permanent memorial to the victims was later erected adjacent to the Shankly Gates -- named after the club's most famous manager -- and which bear the title of the Reds' anthem: You'll Never Walk Alone. The oldest victim at Hillsborough was 67, the youngest 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley, a cousin of current Liverpool captain and England international Steven Gerrard. Gerrard was six weeks away from his ninth birthday at the time of tragedy. There is nothing Liverpool would want more than to mark the 20th anniversary season with at least one gleaming trophy. They did it in 1989, beating Forest when the semifinal was later replayed, then going on to defeat city rivals Everton after extra time at Wembley. On that occasion they returned home with hope in their hearts.","highlights":"96 Liverpool fans died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster on April 15, 1989 .\nFans were crushed against stadium fencing during an FA Cup semifinal .\nLiverpool fans say there are still unanswered questions regarding the disaster .\nCurrent Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard lost a family member in the tragedy ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan has been forced from their home after a poisonous spider hitched a ride back with him and apparently killed their pet dog. The camel spider's bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals. Lorraine Griffiths and her three children, aged 18, 16, and 4, moved out of their house in Colchester, southeast England, and are refusing to return until the spider is apprehended, the UK Press Association reported. Griffiths told the East Anglian Daily Times that the spider appeared after her husband, Rodney, returned from a four-month tour of duty in Helmand province, the arid southern Afghan frontline in the fight against Taliban extremists. \"My son Ricky was in my bedroom looking for his underwear, and he went into the drawer under my bed, and something crawled across his hand,\" she told the paper. She said their pet dog Cassie confronted the creature, which they identified on the Internet as a camel spider, but ran out whimpering when it hissed at her. Watch the family that has been terrorized by the spider \u00bb . \"It seems too much of a coincidence that she died at the same time that we saw the spider,\" she said. The desert-dwelling camel spider, actually an insect rather than an arachnid, can run up to 25 kilometers (15 miles) an hour and reach 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. Its bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.","highlights":"UK family forced from home as poisonous insect hitches in from Afghanistan .\nCamel spider believed to have stowed away in soldier's luggage .\nFamily blames creature for death of pet dog Cassie ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Insurgents locked in a standoff with U.S. Marines tricked them by dressing up as women to escape, a task force spokesman said Monday. U.S. Marines scan the site of a blast that hit a U.S. vehicle in southern Afghanistan. Women and children had been caught in the standoff between the armed groups, but some of the women were not what they seemed, according to task force spokesman Capt. William Pelletier. After the Marines began taking fire from insurgents in the town of Khan Neshin, in south Afghanistan near the Helmand River, the militants ran into a multiple-room compound, the U.S. military said. Unsure of whether civilians were inside the compound, the Marines had an interpreter talk to the insurgents, said an official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly. After some time, a number of women and children left the compound, the military official said. The released hostages told the Marines that there were no more civilians inside the compound, Pelletier said. But the Marines held their fire anyway, the official said. About 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. ET), in the midst of the standoff, another group of women and children emerged from the compound, the official said. The Marines continued to hold their fire and wait out the insurgents, the official said. Finally, a screaming woman emerged from the compound with a bullet wound to her hand, Pelletier said. Then, another group of women came out, covered from head to toe according to custom, he said, with a couple of children in tow. The Marines attended to the wounded woman while the others walked away. When the Marines went into the compound, they discovered that it empty, Pelletier said. That's when they realized the fighters had dressed up as women to escape, he said. \"Apparently these were tall, rather broad-shouldered women with hairy feet,\" Pelletier said. The Marines' restrained approach differs from previous hits on compounds when airstrikes were readily called in, the official said. Under a new tactical directive for forces in Afghanistan, some of which was unclassified Monday, forces must protect civilians soldiers and must be sensitive to Afghan cultural norms regarding women. Pelletier said that during the standoff, \"the Marines didn't have any female forces to do any searches, and they weren't going to violate cultural norms by patting down these women.\" The standoff in the town of Khan Neshin was especially significant because it has been a Taliban stronghold for several years, and the U.S. military reported that the Afghan government regained control of the town Monday. Coalition forces began talks with local leaders several days ago and have moved about 500 Marines into Khan Neshin, a U.S. military news release said. The government takeover of Khan Neshin marks the first time coalition forces have had a sustained presence so far south in the Helmand River valley, the release said. The mission to secure Khan Neshin coincides with \"establishing secure conditions\" for August elections in Afghanistan, according to the release. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a six U.S. soldiers were killed Monday by two roadside bombs, a representative for NATO forces said. Four were killed in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Two soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Forces said. CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. Marines faced off against insurgents in southern town of Khan Neshin .\nMarines surround compound, held fire because of civilians .\n6 U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan .\nTaliban claim responsibility for attack on U.S. military vehicle ."} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Prosecutors dropped corruption charges Monday against South Africa's ruling party president Jacob Zuma, who is expected to win the presidential race later this month. Jacob Zuma is expected to win the country's upcoming presidential election. The leader of the African National Congress had been charged with more than 700 counts of corruption and fraud. The charges, which were linked to a multibillion dollar arms deal in the country, were dropped after eight years of investigations. Zuma, who was named one of Time's Most Influential People in 2008, is favored to win the country's next presidential elections scheduled for April 22. He served as deputy president of South Africa from 1999 until he was fired in 2005 by President Thabo Mbeki over his alleged involvement in a bribery scandal. Opposition parties are accusing prosecutors of buckling under pressure from the ruling party. Mokotedi Mpshe, head of the National Prosecuting Authority, disagreed. \"An intolerable abuse has occurred,\" Mpshe said after reading transcripts of telephone conversations between two prosecution chiefs who appear to be planning to charge Zuma before ANC party elections. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report .","highlights":"Jacob Zuma is president of the ANC, the most powerful party in South Africa .\nHe is widely predicted to win the presidential vote, expected to take place in April .\nZuma has denied claims of accepting bribes, money laundering, among others .\nOpposition parties accuse prosecutors of buckling under pressure ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia man who spent a year in jail for nonpayment of child support -- despite the fact he has no children -- has been cleared of the debt, his attorney said Tuesday. Frank Hatley was ordered to make back payments even after he learned a teenager wasn't his son. Frank Hatley, 50, spent 13 months in jail for being a deadbeat dad before his release last month. A judge ordered him jailed in June 2008 for failing to support his \"son\" -- a child who DNA tests proved was not fathered by Hatley. Last week, Cook County Superior Court Judge Dane Perkins signed an order stating, \"defendant is no longer responsible for paying any amount of child support.\" The order permits the state's Office of Child Support Services to close its file on Hatley. \"We're satisfied with the result for Mr. Hatley, but still troubled by the state's monumental lapse of judgment in this case,\" attorney Sarah Geraghty with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights told CNN in a written statement. Hatley did not immediately return a call from CNN Tuesday. His story dates back to 1986, when Hatley had a relationship with Essie Lee Morrison, who gave birth to a son. According to court documents, Morrison told Hatley the child was his, but the two ended their relationship shortly after the child was born. The couple never married and never lived together, the documents said. When the child turned 2, Morrison applied for public support for the child. Under Georgia law, the state, can recoup the cost of the assistance from a child's non-custodial parent. For 13 years, Hatley made payments to the state until learning in 2000 that the boy might not be his. A DNA test that year confirmed the child was not fathered by Hatley, court documents said. He returned to court and was relieved of any future child support payments, but was ordered to pay more than $16,000 he owed the state before the ruling. Since 2000, Hatley paid that debt down to about $10,000, Geraghty said. Court documents showed he was jailed for six months in 2006 for falling behind on payments during a period of unemployment, but afterward he resumed making payments, continuing to do so even after he lost another job and became homeless in 2008. But last year he became unable to make the payments and was jailed. The argument for keeping Hatley liable for the back payments, according to the attorney who represented him in 2000, was that he signed a consent agreement with the Office of Child Support Services. The court agreed that Hatley had to comply with the consent agreement for the period he believed the child was his son, said attorney Latesha Bradley. But many, including Cook County Sheriff Johnny Daughtrey, didn't think Hatley's incarceration was fair, given that the child was not his. \"I knew the gentleman's plight and didn't know how to help him,\" Daughtrey told CNN last month. When the Southern Center for Human Rights visited the jail earlier this year, Daughtrey told them about Hatley's case. Hatley was released from jail last month after Perkins ruled he was indigent and should not be jailed for failing to make the payments. The Georgia Department of Human Services, which includes the Office of Child Support Services, plans to propose legislation in the next session of the state Legislature that would prevent similar situations in the future, said agency spokeswoman Dena Smith. Two things still remain to be cleared up for Hatley, Geraghty said -- lifting the child-support holds on his driver's license and his income tax. It remains unclear whether he will be reimbursed for the $6,000 in payments he made since 2000, she said -- so far, he has not been. Cook County, Georgia, is in the south-central part of the state, about 200 miles south of Atlanta.","highlights":"Frank Hatley was jailed last year for falling behind on child support payments .\nHatley had paid for 13 years until he learned boy might not have been his .\nDNA test proved child wasn't Hatley's, but court still ordered back payment .\nThe south Georgia man is cleared from his debt, his attorney announces ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The remnants of Tropical Storm Erin turned central Oklahoma into a wash basin Sunday, with rescuers on helicopters plucking people from flood waters and rooftops and ferrying them to safety. A flood victim hangs precariously during a rescue flight Sunday. Two people died and at least two others were hurt, said Michelann Ooten, a spokesman for the state's emergency operations center in Oklahoma City. A middle-aged man who had stopped to help another person wound up drowning in his vehicle near Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and an elderly woman in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, who had sought protection in her storm cellar drowned there, Ooten said. The injuries occurred when either straight-line winds or a tornado destroyed a house in Watonga, she said. \"I'm certain there are many more injured,\" she said. \"This is all courtesy Erin, the new four-letter word,\" she said. Officials were searching for three other people who had been traveling together near Carnegie, Oklahoma, and were reported missing, she said. In Kingfisher, Oklahoma, the storm dropped five to 11 inches of rain in a short period of time, causing Kingfisher Creek to rise 25 feet and overflow its banks, said Capt. Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. \"It's the highest it's ever been,\" West said. \"There's about 200 to 300 people that are displaced out of their homes.\" By 6 p.m. floodwaters in Kingfisher had begun to subside, but the storm system had not yet exited the state, Ooten said. Flood warnings were issued until midnight for parts of eastern Oklahoma, she said. The helicopter rescue operation got under way Sunday morning, after authorities got a call alerting them that a pickup truck containing two passengers had been swept from a bridge over Kingfisher Creek, West said. First, a helicopter dropped life vests to the couple, whose pickup truck was nearly obscured by the water. Soon afterward, their truck was simply swept away, and the pair were left to fend for themselves in the water until the rescue helicopter approached. First, a rescuer grabbed the woman and pulled her toward the skid on which he was positioned. For a few seconds, she held on as the helicopter rose, but lost her grip and fell back into the water. The helicopter circled back for a second effort, which this time proved successful. The drama from the town of about 14,000 residents 35 miles northwest of Oklahoma City unfolded live on national television. \"When the lady fell, I was kind of surprised, I hated to see that,\" said West, who watched the rescue on television. \"We were able to get back around, get her picked up.\" Like his partner, the man also fell, was picked up again and taken to safety. The rescue work then focused on removing people stranded atop the roofs of vehicles and buildings. Time and again, the pilots positioned their helicopters inches above choppy water as rescuers helped men and women grab the skids. Residents of nearby Apache, Oklahoma, faced similar floods, which caught most people off guard, said Lt. Bobby Claborne of the Apache Fire Department. \"We never thought we'd have a tropical storm in our area,\" he said. No evacuation plans were initiated until early Sunday, \"but it was a little late\" by then, he said. For several hours, thousands of people were without power in El Reno, which had been inundated by more than six inches of rain in just a few hours. And some vehicles were trapped on Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma, said Capt. Ken Brown, the state police operations commander in El Reno. \"Two different semis were overcome by water and required fire rescue to get the drivers from their vehicles,\" he said. Boats and other watercraft were enlisted in the rescue effort. West said the flooded areas have sustained extensive damage -- \"not only to homes and businesses and automobiles, but to these agricultural areas.\" \"We have a lot of roadways that will be damaged from this,\" he said. \"There's going to be a lot of debris that floated in. And you know, road crews are going to have to get out and clear those.\" Meanwhile, floods around the upper Midwest washed away roads and bridges, killing four people,The Associated Press reported. Floods killed two in Minnesota when their car drove off the road and they could not escape their vehicle. In Vernon County, Wisconsin, a mudslide was triggered by a foot of rain, the AP said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rains destroying homes and stranding people in Oklahoma .\nDramatic helicopter rescues caught on tape .\nOfficials were searching for three other people who are missing .\nErin is \"the new four-letter word\" in Oklahoma, said emergency official ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Handsome, articulate and lightning fast -- McLaren's Lewis Hamilton can now add two more words to his list of qualities: very rich. Lewis Hamilton will be able to afford a lot more champagne in the future. The Briton is set to become one of the most marketable sport stars in the world -- perhaps second only to Tiger Woods -- and earn more than a billion dollars if he can maintain the buzz created by his first season in Formula One, experts say. On Sunday he started his second season in perfect fashion, easily winning the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The 23-year-old signed a five-year contract with McLaren worth an estimated $140m in January. It leaves him lagging along way behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who is paid an estimated $50m a year for driving, but it is through endorsements that he stands to reap a greater windfall. Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre for Brand Analysis and UK Superbrands and CoolBrands Councils' chairman, said Hamilton was the most marketable driver because he was a breath of fresh air. He had helped drive up race attendance and television fewer figures dramatically in his first season. \"He is young, mixing with the right people everyday -- rappers, film stars -- and a lot more articulate than Kimi Raikkonen,\" Cheliotis said. \"He is also the first black driver and it does have a bearing, much like Tiger Woods in golf. He is also the most marketable because he is going to be the best, much like Michael Schumacher.\" Pippa Collett, Sponsorship Consulting's managing director, said Hamilton was certainly the most marketable driver in the short term. His performance meant he was the dominant member of a group of \"young turks\" -- Nelson Piquet Jr, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen -- who had great potential. Collett said in terms of the media Hamilton's performance, friendliness, English speaking background and professionalism were key assets. If he could maintain these he would earn more than Schumacher -- the sport's first billionaire driver. Indeed, Schumacher set an example which Hamilton would be wise to follow. He was the first driver to win personal sponsors after Ferrari allowed him to sign a $10m annual deal with a German bank to place its logo on his cap. The German also actively pursued the development of his own retail range, which included caps -- he sold hundreds of thousands at $30 a pop -- and even a branded vacuum cleaner. Collett said Schumacher's manager, Willi Weber, was very good. \"Schumacher was a nice guy but not very charming. However, he was very professional and you knew he would turn up,\" Collett said. Cheliotis agreed Hamilton would earn considerably more than Schumacher, and that there would be a big gap between his earnings and that of the other drivers. However, there were pitfalls. Lewis had already made the mistake of saying he was moving to Switzerland to avoid the limelight when it was all about avoiding tax, Cheliotis said. \"He said that and then turned up at every awards night for a month.\" Cheliotis said appearing arrogant, being caught out by the tabloid press, endorsing a brand and then using another and over selling himself could also damage his value. \"The big danger with someone like Hamilton is that he is so in demand and that he has so many sponsors it leads to brand confusion. There is a danger of being one of 50 sponsors and not getting any value.\" Collett said Hamilton needed to develop his \"life-time brand\". While Raikkonen may not be a media darling he had developed an \"Iceman\" image, which was just as important in the long term. English footballer David Beckham, whose performance had dropped off, had successfully developed a life-time brand that would out last his playing career. Collett said Hamilton's one weakness may be his father, Anthony. \"His dad is his manager. Your brand positioning is as an individual... having your dad around too much could affect your brand.\" Collett said Hamilton would have to be wary of bad press, but a little bit of young turk behaviour could enhance his image as long as he continued to excel. \"I think that is part of the glamour... some of that and continued brilliant performances will make his life very easy.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Experts say Lewis Hamilton is set to earn more than Michael Schumacher .\nDavid Beckham's \"life-time brand\" provides valuable lessons .\nA little bit of scandal is good for the bank balance .\nRaikkonen's \"Iceman\" persona allows sponsors to find perfect match ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iggy Pop invented punk rock. That's how cool he is. His songs have been covered by the likes of Guns N' Roses, REM, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Sex Pistols. Iggy Pop: The wildest man in rock music. He is the wildest wild man of rock and his four-decade career has been marked by drug addiction, self mutilation and onstage nudity -- and at 61 years old he is showing no signs of growing old gracefully. Born on April 21, 1947, in Muskegon, Michigan, James Newell Osterberg grew up in a trailer park. When he began learning the drums as a teenager his parents gave up their bedroom to house his drum kit. It wasn't long before he took his talent out of the bedroom, playing with high-school band The Iguanas, from which he later took his stage name. After graduating from high school in 1965, Iggy formed a blues band called the Prime Movers. Following a brief stint at the University of Michigan he moved to Chicago, playing drums with local bluesmen, before returning to Michigan with his sights set on fronting a rock band. Watch Iggy Pop show CNN around Miami \u00bb . In 1967, he recruited guitarist Ron Asheton, his drummer brother Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander and formed The Psychedelic Stooges. It was after seeing the Doors in concert, and inspired by Jim Morrison's confrontational stage persona, that James Osterberg reinvented himself as Iggy Pop, a drug-fueled, crazed whirling dervish of a front man, who would strut semi-naked around the stage, roll around in broken glass and dive headlong into the audience. The band shortened its name to The Stooges and released its eponymous debut in 1969. Right from the start there was clearly something different about Iggy Pop. At the height of flower power, when The Stooges' contemporaries were singing about peace and love, Iggy was singing \"No Fun\" and \"I Wanna Be Your Dog.\" See photos of Iggy in action. \u00bb . The album was a brilliant mess of raw, blues-influenced garage rock, but it sold poorly, as did the 1970 follow up \"Fun House,\" later described by Jack White of the White Stripes as \"the definitive rock album of America.\" Watch Iggy Pop show CNN around Miami . By this time, Iggy had begun the Heroin use that would plague his career and in 1971, The Stooges split up after being dropped by their record label. That same year, Iggy met David Bowie, who took him to England, re-united The Stooges and produced 1973's \"Raw Power.\" With \"Raw Power,\" Iggy and the Stooges created the blueprint for punk rock and made an album that would one day be regarded as a landmark in rock music, an album that Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain listed as his favorite of all time. Nonetheless, it was another commercial failure and in 1974, The Stooges split again. By this time, Heroin had taken over Iggy's life and in 1975 he checked himself into a Los Angeles mental institution in an effort to kick the habit. Bowie visited him there and took Iggy along on his 1976 tour, before the pair moved to West Berlin in an effort to get away from the temptation of drugs. It was there that Bowie produced and co-wrote Iggy's 1977 solo albums, \"The Idiot\" and \"Lust for Life.\" The latter included the songs \"The Passenger\" and \"Lust for Life,\" which have since become staples of TV ads and movie soundtracks, spawning countless cover versions. More commercial than The Stooges' records, Iggy's solo albums were met with critical acclaim and better sales, but never breakthrough into the mainstream. Songs that Bowie wrote with Iggy during this period were later included on Bowie albums, with \"China Girl\" becoming a hit single for Bowie. Iggy carried on touring and releasing albums throughout the 80s, without much commercial success, although the single \"Real Wild Child\" was a hit in the U.S. and UK. But by the end of the decade, Iggy was beginning to be recognized as \"the Godfather of Punk,\" with a new generation of bands citing him as an influence. Members of Guns N' Roses and the B52s appeared on his 1990 album \"Brick by Brick,\" which sold more than 500,000 copies, and his 2003 album \"Skull Ring\" featured the likes of Green Day, Sum 41 and Peaches. But what really made \"Skull Ring\" special was that it re-united Iggy with Ron and Scott Asheton of The Stooges. After years on the periphery, Iggy was suddenly fashionable, with the reformed Stooges appearing at festivals all over the world. The band recorded the album \"The Weirdness\" in 2007, but it was their astonishingly powerful live performances that showed why they were still such a big deal 40 years after they started out. Any hopes Iggy may have had for a peaceful retirement in Miami have been dashed. At 61 years old he is still performing with the same energy and abandon as when The Stooges first formed, with only marginally less stage diving and nudity. It seems that the world has finally caught up with Iggy Pop, the most exciting, unpredictable and entertaining man in rock.","highlights":"Iggy Pop and The Stooges produced three classic albums in the 60s and 70s .\nIn 1975, Iggy checked himself into a mental institution in a bid to get off Heroin .\nDavid Bowie co-wrote and produced Iggy's The Idiot and Lust for Life albums .\nThe Stooges re-united in 2003 and have since played all over the world ."} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- The British government has apologized and offered compensation to hundreds of people who suffered the effects of thalidomide, a drug once prescribed to pregnant women that later was linked to major birth defects. Thalidomide sufferers and campaigners hailed the move and said it was long overdue. British doctors prescribed thalidomide for expectant mothers from 1958 to 1962 to control the symptoms of morning sickness. The drug, developed by a German firm, was used internationally as a sedative and hailed because overdose simply caused prolonged sleep, not death. Thalidomide also was combined with other drugs to create medications for asthma, hypertension, and migraine, according to the Thalidomide Trust, which supports victims. Doctors and scientists began to notice gross limb malformations in infants starting in 1960, and scientists linked it to thalidomide the next year. By then, it had affected babies from Kenya to Peru to Japan, though most of the cases were in Germany, where the drug had been available over the counter. There are currently 466 people in the United Kingdom whose mothers took the drug when they were in the womb. Most of them have two or four limbs missing, and some also can't see or hear, according to the trust. One of them is Louise Medus-Mansell, who was born in 1962 with no arms or legs. \"It is a bonus, something that we didn't think would ever happen,\" she told CNN about the government's apology. \"There's a lot of people today that have been waiting for this apology from the government that have had partners die.\" Medus-Mansell, who recently had a kidney transplant, published an autobiography this year titled \"No Hand to Hold and No Legs to Dance On.\" Health Minister Mike O'Brien said the British government is creating a \u00a320 million ($32.5 million) fund over three years to meet the health needs of Thalidomide victims, who are between 45 and 51 years old. The money will be distributed by the Thalidomide Trust, he said, and will help reduce further degeneration of their health as the victims grow older. \"The government wishes to express its sincere regret and deep sympathy for the injury and suffering endured by all those affected when expectant mothers took the drug thalidomide between 1958 and 1961,\" O'Brien said in the House of Commons. \"We acknowledge both the physical hardship and the emotional difficulties that have faced both the children affected and their families as a result of this drug, and the challenges that many continue to endure, often on a daily basis.\" The problems caused by the drug led the British government to review the marketing, testing, and regulation of drugs, O'Brien said. That included the enactment of the Medicines Act 1968, which introduced more testing for medicines prior to licensing to make sure they meet safety standards. The Thalidomide Society, which was created in 1962 by the parents of thalidomide victims, said it welcomed the government's apology. \"I think it obviously makes a great deal of difference (to the children), but I think also for the parents who had dreadful, dreadful trouble in the very early years to convince people that something had happened and it wasn't their fault,\" said society secretary Vivien Kerr. \"For them, I think, it's something to be very grateful for and it's welcome.\" CNN's Phil Black and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"There are currently 466 people in the UK whose expectant mothers took the drug .\nDrug, prescribed from 1958 to 1962 for morning sickness, linked to birth defects .\nAlso affected babies from Kenya to Peru to Japan, most of the cases in Germany .\nHealth minister: UK government creating a $32.5M fund to meet health needs ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Like the David Letterman Debacle wasn't bad enough, now we have the story of Steve Phillips, the ESPN analyst, who had an affair with a 22-year-old coworker. Unfortunately for the 46-year-old sports dude and married father of four, his latest dalliance (and apparently there've been others before her) turned bunny boiler when he broke it off with her. Brooke Hundley, the jilted junior, allegedly went ballistic; repeatedly emailing and calling Phillips' long-suffering wife, tricking their 16-year-old son into an online flirtation, and then finally showing up at the family home, scaring the crap out of everyone. Lucky for Hundley, the Phillips's declined to press charges, but her reputation, both professionally and personally, is shot. (His too. He's since been fired from ESPN and has entered a treatment facility.) Obviously, being some cad's side action is always a sucker's game, but if you're going to do it, do it right. The Frisky: If he's not on the market, shop elsewhere! Choose carefully . It's bad enough that you're \"dating\" a married guy, but when you start sleeping with someone who's in a position of authority over you, you're screwing yourself twice. Every good grade will be chalked up to your romance with the professor and every promotion, credited to time served on your back. Don't kid yourself that nobody in your class or office knows, because people aren't blind and you're not that slick. Don't go home with him . Maybe he's too cheap to pay for a hotel room, could be he secretly wants to get caught . . . then again, maybe he's just a sociopath, but I can't even tell you how many times I've heard about a marriage dude bringing his girlfriend back to the house he shares with his wife and kids -- usually when everyone's out of town, but not always. Letterman even took his mistress on vacation with his family! Whatever his motivation, resist. You're already hurting this woman by having sex with her husband; at least have the decency to stay out of the bed they share. The Frisky: Can couples get past infidelity? Accept that you're No. 2 . Married guys will tell you a lot of things in their quest to bed you. That they haven't slept with their [insert bitchy descriptor here] wives for [insert insanely long period of time here] and that they're only staying together for the [kids\/finances\/etc.]. You need to know going in that you will always come second. (Or third. Or fourth.) Sure, you might get expensive gifts, but you'll also be spending nearly every holiday by your lonesome, you'll never meet his friends, and plans will be canceled on a moment's notice if something more important (i.e., anything) comes up. The Frisky: How to handle being the other woman . You're not his first . . . When an acquaintance of mine started an affair with a married coworker, she was furious when I suggested this might not be the first time he'd strayed during his very long marriage. She screamed that I was a cynic and that their love was a special flower they alone shared. (On the conference room floor.) Okay, she didn't use the term \"special flower,\" but that was the gist. A week later I got an embarrassed call back reporting that, contrary to what he'd told her, he'd been straying since his wedding day. A cheat and a liar -- who would've guessed?! The Frisky: 10 ways to punish a cheater . ...And probably won't be his last . Most guys don't leave their wives for the women they're seeing on the side. Yes, I know -- your grand passion is \"different.\" Snort. But what if he actually does splinter the family into bits and make a (semi) honest woman out of you? According to the Web site, \"Beyond Affairs,\" only 3 percent of men marry their affair partner and out of those, only 3 percent of those marriages last. And why would they? You're committing to a relationship that was built on lies and deceit. On second thought, maybe you want to rethink this whole \"other woman\" thing. The Frisky: How do you define cheating? TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Woman rarely come out ahead after having affair with married men, columnist says .\nESPN fired Steve Phillips and Brooke Hundley's reputation is shot after affair .\nWriter says women should realize men rarely cheat just once .\nQuotes Web site saying 3 percent of cheaters wed, 3 percent of those marriages survive ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A Scottish fish and chip shop visited by Prince William, Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks has been crowned the best place in Britain to eat the national dish. Robert and Alison Smith, the owners of the Anstrhuther Fishbar in Fife, celebrate their success. The UK is in recession, but the nation's traditional takeaway dish is showing no sign of a downturn. Sales rose at 9,500 chippies in Britain by 1.7 percent last year, according to Seafish, a seafood industry group. The Anstrhuther Fishbar in Fife, Scotland was crowned the best chippy of 2008 following a rigorous selection procedure that included a customer vote, taste tests and two intense rounds of shop inspections. \"Fish and chip shops are well-placed to prosper in the current economic climate as they offer value for money and a quality product with a feel-good factor,\" competition judge Andy Gray said. \"Despite the credit crunch, people still want to enjoy small luxuries. Fish and chips are a national institution which have survived the test of time and will be around for many years to come.\" Fishbar owner Robert Smith said that the start of 2009 had been the busiest January since the harbor front shop opened in 2003. Smith, who also owns a fish processing business, said dedication was the key to the shop's success. \"We are passionate about our business and we just do it right,\" he said. Fish and chips is the most popular hot takeaway in Britain, with 276 million meals eaten every year, according to Seafish figures.","highlights":"Scottish fish and chip shop visited by Prince William named best in UK .\nSales of UK's national dish up despite country slipping into recession .\n276 million meals eaten every year in UK, according to industry figures ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When pitcher Josh Faiola walks out of the dugout on opening day with the Lake Erie Crushers, he'll already have a large group of fans in the stands -- his new roommates at the Belvedere of Westlake assisted living facility. Pitcher Josh Failoa stands as residents and friends of The Belvedere of Westlake welcome him Tuesday. The 25-year-old, who was drafted in 2006 by the Baltimore Orioles and is trying to work his way to the majors, admits he was caught a little off guard when he was told about his new housing situation. \"At first I was like, 'OK, that's a little different,' \" he said. \"I was taken aback at first.\" And he was also the butt of a couple jokes from his teammates. \"They were saying things like 'So what's the deal? Do you have to go to bed early?' \" Faiola said. But then he told them about his room -- a large suite, with his own kitchenette, washer and dryer, furniture and a TV. \"Then they changed their tune,\" he said. \"They were like 'That's awesome. Are they any other vacancies?' \" Like many of the players in the independent Frontier League who don't rake in the big bucks, Faiola is living with a host family. But his host family is a little different. Most of the players live with families with younger children. But in his case, Faiola is the young one -- about 55 years younger than the rest of his \"roommates.\" Eighty-four-year-old Meda Dennis, who has been living in the center for four years, said Faiola's arrival is the most exciting thing to happen since a good Elvis impersonator showed up. \"It's been quite exciting because he's young and new and interesting and we're old,\" she joked. Faiola made his way to the assisted living center in Westlake, Ohio, near Cleveland, with the help of Cindy Griffiths-Novak. She heard the new local baseball team was looking for host families for the players. But because she has a 3- and 4-year-old at home, she turned to her family's assisted living center as an option for Faiola. Griffiths-Novak went to the residents with the idea and they unanimously voted for Faiola to live there. But his new housing situation is about more than just a place to crash after the game. \"It certainly is great for the residents because now we get a lot of energy and youth and excitement,\" Griffiths-Novak said. It has turned into an exciting time for the residents, who jumped at the chance to decorate the entire facility before the pitcher's arrival. \"You should see the decorations,\" Griffiths-Novak said. \"The residents all signed motivational good luck pennants for him, there's a 40-foot banner, we have a whole thing dedicated to Josh. I'm sure he is so embarrassed with all of the baseball cards with their face on it.\" They've made signs telling him he's in a league of his own, but they've also set their expectations high for him. \"Some of the pendants say things like 'Don't get cut, move your butt,' \" Griffiths-Novak said. \"He's certainly going to be under the microscope! We'll be watching and keeping track of all of his stats.\" Faiola was awestruck when he walked in and saw all of the decorations. The activity director has been doing craft activities with the residents -- making visors with baseball logos and Crushers necklaces in anticipation of the game. Dennis is looking forward to watching their new ace pitcher hit the mound even though she hasn't seen a baseball game live in a while. \"Anything's better than the Indians right now,\" Dennis joked. \"We'll definitely be cheering for him, though, and if he happens to have a bad game, he'll have a lot of shoulders to cry on. But I don't think he'll need them.\" Norma J. Lane, 85, said even though she's more of a football fan, she's looking forward to following Faiola and baseball more closely. \"We are just wishing him well because it's such a great experience for all of us,\" Lane said. \"We're looking forward to having him around.\" Faiola said he is excited to help bring some fun to the residents, some of whom are already considering him to be like a grandson. \"I always loved spending time with my grandparents and one of my great-grandparents was in an assisted living home and I remember how excited she was to see us when we went to visit her,\" he said. \"And they are being so nice to open up this place to me, so hopefully I can bring a little bit of joy.\" Faiola, who had surgery two years ago and was dropped from the Orioles during spring training, is hoping his stint with the Crushers can help get him picked up by a Major League team. Regardless of what happens, he knows he has the support of his new roommates. \"They've all really come out and supported me, they even bring me food and give me snacks,\" he said. \"I couldn't ask for anything better. And with all of them watching so closely, I'll have to keep my game up. They've definitely set a high bar for me.\"","highlights":"Because of little pay in independent league, players stay with host families .\nPitcher Josh Faiola staying at Belvedere of Westlake facility near Cleveland, Ohio .\nFaiola says teammates joked first, but he's thrilled to bring energy to residents .\nResidents decorated facility, will be watching pitcher's every throw ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday morning that child rapists cannot be given the death penalty, effectively reserving the punishment only for murderers. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin said the court's ruling falls in line with other decisions on the death penalty. The 5-4 decision stems from a Louisiana case in which Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to die in 2003 for the sexual assault of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Proponents of Louisiana's law, which allowed child rapists to be eligible for the death penalty, say that besides murder, no crime is more deserving of the death penalty than child rape. Kennedy would have been the first rapist in 44 years to be executed for a crime in which the victim was not killed. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said \"evolving standards of decency\" forbid capital punishment for any crime other than murder. CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, spoke with CNN's Heidi Collins outside the Supreme Court about the impact of the ruling. Collins: This is a huge decision here. What do you make of it? Toobin: It was just high drama in the court today. It's always dramatic at the end of the Supreme Court term. Here it was literally life and death, one of the big open questions in constitutional law about the death penalty: Can you execute someone for a crime other than murder? Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on so many cases, decided this case, it was 5-4. ... He didn't diminish the seriousness of the crime, but he said the risks of expanding the death penalty are simply too great. He pointed out that there are more than 5,000 child rapes every year in the United States. All of them would raise the possibility of the death penalty. There are only a handful of states -- I think it was six -- that allow the death penalty for child rape. Forty-four states and the federal government say no. He said there is a national consensus that this is not an appropriate punishment. So, this really rules out not just the death penalty for child rape, but any crime other than murder. So it's a major, major decision. See more about the reach of the decision \u00bb . Collins: A national consensus except those six states. It's interesting when you look at the court of public opinion. How do you think this decision is going to go down in public? Toobin: Well, I think it's a tough call because support for the death penalty nationwide in the past 10 years has actually been going down. But child rape is such a horrendous crime and all of us have such a natural revulsion towards it that you're never going to get a lot of support for any sort of reduction in sentence. But I think, given the fact that this is a Supreme Court that said no death penalty for murderers under 18, no death penalty for the mentally retarded, this decision is consistent with a certain restriction on the death penalty, which is reflected in the court but also in a kind of national change that's going on. Collins: And in Sean Callebs' piece that we had, I don't know if you heard it. Toobin: I saw it, yeah. Collins: One woman, who actually brought up a very interesting point, when you think about all of this and when you think about the child, the victim, she said, you know, if they know they're going to die for this crime, why would they leave a living witness? Toobin: Justice Kennedy made precisely that point in the opinion. He said, allowing the death penalty here would create a perverse incentive for child rapists to murder their victims. He also pointed out what a difficult moral choice it would put child victims in testifying, giving children literally the power of life and death in their testimony over their attackers. That is something that he wanted to relieve children of -- that burden. Collins: Will they always have to testify? Toobin: Yeah, pretty much. There have been rare examples ... if a child, for example, is simply too young to testify. There are horrible cases of rapes of babies and things like that. But by and large there has to be some sort of testimony from a child. It can be in a noncourtroom setting. It can be sort of in a deposition, not in front of the jury. But you do have to have the child testify. Collins: It's just such a tough decision all around. 5-4 on that one, very interesting.","highlights":"Toobin: Ruling falls in line with recent court decisions on death penalty .\nJustice Kennedy, in decision, said it would not be fair to place burden on child victim .\nPublic support for executions down in recent years, Toobin said ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is planning to issue three executive orders Thursday, including one demanding the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year, according to a senior administration official and a congressional aide. A guard keeps watch from a tower at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A second executive order will formally ban torture by requiring the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods. A third executive order, according to the officials, will order a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases. The officials said new White House Counsel Greg Craig was briefing congressional Republicans Wednesday afternoon about the three executive orders. \"We've always said the process would include consultation,\" the senior administration official said of the closed-door meeting informing Republicans of the moves. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay became a lightning rod for critics who charged that the Bush administration had used torture on terror detainees. President George W. Bush and other senior officials repeatedly denied that the U.S. government had used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects. Obama's move will set off a fierce legal struggle over where the prison's detainees will go next. Watch experts debate the Gitmo dilemma \u00bb . \"The key question is where do you put these terrorists,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement issued Wednesday. \"Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you release them back into the battlefield?\" The meeting with Craig did not address how the administration plans to handle Guantanamo detainees, said Rep. Bill Young of Florida, the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations Committee. The executive orders \"will leave some wiggle room for the administration,\" he said. Young said he has \"quite a bit of anxiety\" about transferring detainees to United States facilities. \"Number one, they're dangerous,\" he said. \"Secondly, once they become present in the United States, what is their legal status? What is their constitutional status? I worry about that, because I don't want them to have the same constitutional rights that you and I have. They're our enemy.\" Watch what may happen to Gitmo's inmates \u00bb . He said he asked Craig what the government plans to do with two recently built facilities at Guantanamo, which he said cost $500 million. He said Craig had no answer, but pledged to discuss the issue further. Young said he suggested reopening Alcatraz, the closed federal prison on an island outside San Francisco, California -- in Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district. \"Put them in Alcatraz, where supposedly they can't escape from,\" Young said, but added the suggestion \"didn't go over well.\" The revelation coincided with a judge's decision on Wednesday to halt the September 11 terrorism cases at the behest of President Obama. On Tuesday, he directed Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ask prosecutors to seek stays for 120 days so terrorism cases at the facility can be reviewed, according to a military official close to the proceedings. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Laurie Ure contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama to issue 3 orders Thursday that break from Bush administration .\nNEW: Order 2 will ban torture by requiring use of Army field manual for interrogations .\nNEW: 3rd order will mandate review of detention policies and procedures .\nMilitary judge grants Obama's request to stay cases for 120 days ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She added smart to sexy as a Bond girl opposite Pierce Brosnan's 007, and proved her dramatic and action credentials in \"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,\" but for actress Michelle Yeoh, life and acting are both all about balance. Michelle Yeoh: \"There are reasons why you do movies. It's for the love of it.\" \"I think it's very boring for my audience, just to see me in the regular roles. I love my action films. And I think right now, I have a nice balance,\" she told CNN's Talk Asia. Poise and balance are something that Yeoh is naturally blessed with. Her childhood dream of becoming a professional ballerina was dashed when she sustained an injury while training at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. However, she continued to study completing a degree in dance and a minor in drama, before serving as Miss Malaysia at the age of 21, which was more of an ambassadorial role for the country's tourism industry than bikini modeling. Making her film debut in an action movie in 1984, she made further appearances in Hong Kong action films doing her own stunts, until she married millionaire Hong Kong businessman Dickson Poon in 1988 and put her career on hold. On giving up acting for the sake of her married life she said: \"At that time, it's very difficult to try and juggle a normal life, be where your husband is, try to start a family life, and filming months on end in another country. So I weighed my options. I am a person that believes, you have to give your all. There's no half measure in doing things. You do it well or at least you've got to give it your best shot.\" The couple divorced three years later and Yeoh resumed her film career in 1992 in the Jackie Chan smash-hit \"Police Story 3.\" While she continued to use her athleticism in her roles and do her own stunts, in the pursuit of playing good characters and that all-important balance, she credits the directors she has chosen to work with. \"I look at the scripts and you can understand where the story is going ... but it's a director with a vision that brings it to life,\" she said. \"There are reasons why you do movies. It's for the love of it or you're thinking of your paycheck. And you have to find your own balance.\" When it came to doing \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,\" Ang Lee was the essential ingredient. \"I did it really because I adore Ang Lee. That's a true film maker, where they move you, they bring you to places where you can't imagine but want to be.\" But being an all-or-nothing person has taken its toll when it has come to the stunts she has performed. Yeoh tore her anterior cruciate ligament after the first sequence she performed for \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,\" which meant that only the dramatic scenes in the film could be shot until she had recovered. Yeoh has turned her attention to producing as well as acting and found it a challenging experience. \"As an actor you would be judged on how your performance is and so that's where your focus is. It's a very selfish environment and that sense, because as you know, you can't make excuses afterwards. But as a producer, you have to make sure everyone is well protected and everyone is safe. And if anything goes wrong, it's all on your shoulders,\" she told CNN. The films she produced, 2002's \"The Touch\" and \"Sliver Hawk\" from 2004 were panned by critics, but she makes no excuses: \"That's the nature of the business. You should never take these things personally when it works or doesn't work.\" And when it comes to passing on what she's learned to young Asian actors, her advice is typically practical. \"For any Asian face, or any Asian girls that have dreams, aspirations or doing crossover work in Hollywood, you must have the language. These are your tools. And then afterwards, the right face, the right demeanor, and the right chemistry.\"","highlights":"Trained dancer turned to acting after injury at college .\nPerforms her own stunts and has pioneered stronger female roles in Asian films .\nInternational recognition came as a Bond girl and \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon\""} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia expressed interest in using Cuban airfields during patrol missions of its strategic bombers, Russia's Interfax news agency reported . \"There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,\" Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev told Interfax. Zhikharev, who is the chief of staff of the Russian Air Force's long-range aviation, said, \"If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.\" Zhikharev also told Interfax that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered a military airfield on La Orchila island as a temporary base for Russian strategic bombers. \"If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible,\" he said, according to Interfax. Zhikharev said he visited La Orchila in 2008 and can confirm that with minor reconstruction, the airfield owned by a local naval base can accept fully-loaded Russian strategic bombers.","highlights":"\"We are ready to fly there,\" Russian Air Force official says .\nCuba has four or five fields that suit Russia, military official says .\nVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez also has offered a military airfield ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton said Thursday he thinks that Barack Obama will win big in the upcoming presidential election. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama chat at Clinton's Harlem office. \"I predict that Sen. Obama will win and win handily,\" Clinton said when asked his opinion on the state of the race. Obama smiled at Clinton's prediction, saying, \"There you go, you can take it from the president of the United States. He knows a little something about politics.\" The two men chatted with reporters in a photo-op at Clinton's Harlem office before sitting down for a private lunch. According to CNN's average of national polls, John McCain currently holds a 1-point lead over Obama, 46-45 percent. iReport.com: Still undecided? The poll of polls, released Thursday afternoon, is composed of the following five national general election surveys: Fox News\/Opinion Dynamics (September 8-9), NBC\/Wall Street Journal (September 6-8), American Research Group (September 6-8), Gallup (September 8-10), and Diageo\/Hotline (September 8-10). It does not have a sampling error. Clinton is scheduled to campaign for Obama in Florida once he wraps up some business with his Clinton Global Initiative. According to aides, the former president will do a mix of fundraisers and public appearances on behalf of the Democratic ticket throughout the fall. \"We're putting him to work,\" said Obama. \"I've agreed to do a substantial number of things, whatever I'm asked to do,\" Clinton said. Watch Clinton make his prediction \u00bb . The image of the two men meeting comes as a relief to many Democrats who have been hoping to put to rest the \"Clinton-Obama rift\" storyline. Both sides agreed a face-to-face meeting with the former president would go a long way toward putting the contentious primary season behind them. Hillary Clinton campaigned for Obama earlier in the week in Florida and will campaign in Ohio this weekend. Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, spoke Thursday with first responders in Parma, Ohio. He opened up the event by telling everyone he did not plan to talk politics. \"Let's pull together, let's say together. This is nothing to do with Democrats, Republicans -- it's about Americans,\" he said. Obama and McCain also put aside politics Thursday to commemorate the September 11 terrorist attacks. The two appeared together at ground zero in New York City to lay roses at the 9\/11 memorial and speak with first responders and family members of victims. They were joined by Cindy McCain and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. iReport.com: See photos from the scene . Later Thursday, Obama and McCain will share the stage briefly as they appear back-to-back at the ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum at Columbia University in New York. Meanwhile, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin headed home to Alaska after spending the week campaigning with McCain. The pair drew a crowd of more than 20,000 in the sturdily Democratic county of Fairfax, Virginia, on Wednesday. That was their largest crowd to date. After that event, Palin returned home so she could attend her son's deployment ceremony on Thursday. Track Palin enlisted in the U.S. army exactly one year ago. His brigade is going to Iraq. Watch more on Palin's return to Alaska \u00bb . Later Thursday, Palin will give her first television interview with a national media outlet since being named as McCain's running mate. The Alaska governor will spend two days with ABC's Charlie Gibson. The interview will be part sit-down, part walk-and-talk at various locations in Alaska. So far, Palin has taken no questions from reporters traveling with her on the campaign trail. An issue that could come up in the interview is the controversy that emerged this week over her per diem charges as governor. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Palin had billed the state a per diem for 312 days she spent at home, and requested reimbursement for plane rides and hotel rooms for her husband and children, including a $707 room when her daughter accompanied her on a trip to New York to attend a Newsweek forum. The paper noted that officials said the claims were justified under existing state regulations. The McCain campaign said that Palin had reduced yearly travel expenses by roughly 80 percent of the amount spent by predecessor Frank Murkowski. Palin's spokeswoman Maria Comella said the governor's top priority was \"creating accountability and transparency in government to root out waste and corruption.\" \"Gov. Palin is obviously expected to travel frequently around the state for community events and to meet with Alaskans. This is part of her job, and it's reasonable that her travel expenses, which were reduced dramatically from the previous administration, would be covered,\" Comella said in a statement. Palin is expected to rejoin McCain on the trail early next week. CNN's Sasha Johnson, Dana Bash and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Barack Obama, John McCain lay roses at ground zero .\nNew polls show both candidates with slim leads in key battleground states .\nBiden speaks with first responders in Parma, Ohio .\nSarah Palin back in Alaska for son's deployment ceremony ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cairo native and jewelry designer to the stars, Azza Fahmy, reveals her favorite sights, restaurants and activities in the Egyptian capital. Designer Azza Fahmy scours Cairo's souks, mosques and streets to find inspiration for her jewels. MUST SEE PLACES: . Sultan Hassan Mosque -- Considered one of the masterpieces of Mamluk architecture. The building was commissioned by Sultan Hassan bin Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun in 1356 AD as a mosque and religious school for all four branches of Sunni Islam. The mosque is featured on the Egyptian one-hundred pound note. Address: Al-Qal'a street, Islamic Cairo . Islamic Museum -- Established in 1881, the museum displays 10,200 pieces from Egypt's different Islamic eras, including the Fatimid, Ottoman and Persian periods. Address: Bab El Khalq Square in the Egyptian library. Take Port Saed Square to reach the intersection with Muhammad Ali St. in Ahmad Maher Square. Opening Hours: Saturday through Thursday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m..; Fridays: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Coptic Museum -- Recently reopened after renovations, the museum showcases the largest collection of Egyptian Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Christianity in Egypt from its beginnings to the present day. It also includes a beautiful garden -- a wonderful place to relax. Address: Religious Compound, Precinct of the old Roman Babylon Fort, Old Cairo. Across the street from the Mar Girgis Metro station. Phone Number: +20.2.362.8766 and +20.2.363.9742 . Beit El Seheimy -- A historic Ottoman restored house. It is one of the best examples of a rich private house dating back to 17th century Egypt. Address: El Moez Street, Fatimid Area close to Khan al Khalili. Beit El Keretleya -- Another authentic Ottoman House in Old Cairo. ACTIVITIES . Felucca ride -- Feluccas are the traditional Egyptian sailboats of the Nile. Perfect for catching the breeze on a hot summer night, for brisker sails the rest of the year, and catching the sunset anytime. Feluccas are usually furnished with cushions around the circumference and a table fixed in the middle, where one can enjoy picnic-style lunches or dinners while enjoying a different view of the metropolis. Address: They are usually parked on the side of the Nile in unique spots, including along the Corniche across the street from the Four Seasons on the Nile in the Garden City area of Cairo. Horseback riding aside the pyramids -- Pick up horses at an area called \"Nazlet el seman\" close to the pyramids. Camel ride -- At the pyramids . Hantour ride -- A horse carriage that goes around certain streets of Cairo, usually by the Corniche. Walk around -- Downtown streets, particularly Wist el Balad. PLACES TO EAT: . Abu El Sid -- Famous, though pricey, restaurant featuring Egyptian cuisine. Also a night spot. The mezzes are delicious, as are the mulukheya served with chicken or pigeon. Address: 157, 26th of July street, Zamalek. Phone: +20.2.749.7326 . Felfela -- Authentic Egyptian fast food chain. The nicest outlets are in downtown Cairo or Haram\/Pyramids Street (all you need to tell a cab is felfela Wist el balad or Haram street). Best for breakfast. Felfela is a good place to taste such Egyptian staples as shorbat ads (lentil soup), tasty with a squeeze of lemon; taamiya (the local version of falafel); and ful (stewed fava beans served in a variety of ways). Address: 15 Shara Hoda Sharaawi, Downtown Cairo. Phone: +20.2.392.2833 . Abu Shakra -- Moderately priced Egyptian cuisine. Known for its grilled meats and the Egyptian delicacy, stuffed pigeon. Branches in Maadi, Heliopolis, Downtown, & Mohandeseen. Address: Heliopolis 82 Marghani Street Cairo. Phone number: +20.2.418.9888 . El Omda -- Try the local specialty -- Kushari, a base of rice, lentils, chick peas, macaroni, with a topping of Egyptian garlic, vinegar and spicy tomato sauce. Inexpensive. They also serve Egyptian dishes such as kofta, grilled chicken and a selection of salads. Address: 6 El-Gazayer St., Mohandesseen area behind the Atlas Hotel off Gameat El Dowal Street in Cairo, Egypt. Phone: +20.2.346.2701. Opening Hours: noon until 2:00 am. Andrea -- Located near the Pyramids, this large restaurant features a spacious air-conditioned dining room with a fireplace for winter and a much-lauded garden terrace for summer. Soft lighting, pleasant views and the sizzle of the outdoor grill create a relaxed ambience. Roasted chicken is the house speciality. Kebabs, kofte and quails are also prepared on patio grills. Portions are generous, local beer and wine are served. No desserts. Address: 59 Teraat el-Maryotteya St. Cairo. Phone: +20.2.383.1133 . Opening Hours: Noon-midnight daily.","highlights":"Must see the Sultan Hassan Mosque .\nTake a ride on a felucca on the Nile .\nEat on Andrea's garden terrace in the summer .\nRide a camel or a horse at the Pyramids ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Somali suspect in the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama has been charged with piracy, a count that carries a minimum life sentence. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse arrives in the United States on Monday. He was charged with piracy Tuesday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse also has been charged with conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking and two firearm charges, according to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of New York. Muse \"conducted himself as the leader\" of the pirates who allegedly took over the Maersk Alabama, according to the criminal complaint. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Muse could be tried as an adult. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck had ordered the media and public out of the courtroom earlier while he evaluated Muse's age. Muse's father in Somalia told defense attorneys the young man was born on November 20, 1993 -- making him 15, the defense attorneys said. However, the prosecution argued otherwise, saying Muse made statements that suggest he is older. Before Peck closed the courtroom, Muse wiped his hand over his face at one point, and it appeared he was crying. He had worn a broad smile late Monday when he arrived in New York escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers. See timeline of events that led to piracy case \u00bb . Muse was arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship that pirates attacked on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . Peck read the young man his rights and said attorneys had been appointed to represent him because the suspect did not have the resources to hire representation himself. Muse said through an interpreter that he understood and said, \"I don't have any money.\" Pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship, on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. According to the criminal complaint, two of the 20 crew members -- all Americans -- saw lights heading toward the Maersk Alabama around 4:30 a.m. on April 8, while the ship was in the Indian Ocean. After a \"brief time,\" the lights disappeared, the complaint said, but about two hours later, the same crew members saw a small boat approaching and later heard \"what sounded like\" gunshots, the complaint said. Crew Member 1 then heard the ship's captain -- later identified as Capt. Richard Phillips -- on the radio saying that two pirates were on the ship's bridge. A third crew member, Crew Member 3, also heard the radio message and began shutting down the ship's power, the complaint said. The complaint said Muse, who was carrying a gun, was the first alleged pirate on the ship, and said the attackers used a portable ladder to climb on board. According to the complaint, Muse had fired his gun at Phillips, the captain said, and then took $30,000 from the ship's safe after he forced Phillips to open it. Watch Muse being hauled into court \u00bb . Muse demanded that the Maersk Alabama be stopped and that the crew give him the number of the ship's owner, the complaint said. The captain then ordered the crew to the bridge after Muse ordered him to do so, the complaint said, citing Crew Member 2. Muse then began canvassing the dark ship with Crew Member 2 as a guide, the complaint said. While they were going through the ship, Crew Member 3, who had not come to the bridge, tackled Muse to the ground, the complaint said. Crew Member 2 helped subdue Muse, and the two tied the young man's hands with wire and took him to the ship's safe room, where several crew members were hiding. After several hours, the remaining pirates said they would leave the ship if Muse was returned to them, and if a lifeboat was given to them. Phillips boarded the lifeboat with them and the ship's crew freed Muse, who then boarded the lifeboat, according to the criminal complaint. The boat floated a short distance from the Maersk, even as the Navy's USS Bainbridge arrived the next day. Over the next three days, officers on the Bainbridge communicated with the pirates by radio. \"In those communications, the pirates threatened to kill the captain if they were not provided with safe passage away from the scene,\" the complaint said. At one point, Phillips tried to escape and the pirates shot at him, the complaint said. On April 12, Muse boarded the USS Bainbridge and demanded safe passage for himself and the other pirates in exchange for Phillips' release. Muse also received medical treatment while he was on the warship, the complaint said. While Muse was away from the lifeboat, Navy SEALs shot and killed the three remaining pirates. The U.S. Navy recovered two loaded AK-47 assault rifles; two gunstraps, each containing three AK-47 magazines; one handgun magazine; and multiple cell phones and handheld radios from the lifeboat, according to the complaint. CNN's Deb Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Criminal complaint says pirate suspect \"conducted himself as the leader\"\nJudge rules piracy suspect will be tried as an adult .\nAbduwali Abdukhadir Muse also faces conspiracy charges .\nSuspect's father says he's 15; prosecution says boy indicated he's older ."} -{"article":"ORME, Tennessee (CNN) -- The drought in the Southeastern United States means more than just brown lawns to the folks in Orme, Tennessee. Water flows from their taps for just three hours each evening. A 1961 firetruck loads up with water from a hydrant in Alabama to haul back to Orme, Tennessee. The mountain spring that supplies water to the town usually dries up at the end of summer, but just for a few days. This year it dried up early, on August 1, and hasn't revived, leaving the town's 145 residents high and dry and relying on water trucked in from the next state. Every day at 6 p.m., Orme Mayor Tony Reames turns a big valve to release water from the town's tank. When he turns the crank again at 9 p.m., taps in the town run dry. \"When they cut it back on we jump for joy,\" Orme resident Debbie Cash said. \"And then you only have it for three hours.\" Three hours to do all the laundry, bathing, dishwashing and animal watering that has to be done. Watch how Cash copes \u00bb . The old mining town could be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the region. Just 150 miles to the southeast, the 4.5 million people who live in and around Atlanta, Georgia, are nervously watching water levels go down at their major reservoir. The drought has highlighted an ongoing struggle between Georgia, Alabama and Florida over rights to water from the Chattahoochee River. \"All of these people that are on the river systems better take note, because once your streams and tributaries to the river start drying up, the river isn't far behind,\" Reames said. See photos of a Atlanta's shrinking Lake Lanier reservoir \u00bb . Volunteers take turns three days a week driving a tanker truck or Orme's diesel-belching 1961 fire truck to a hydrant near Bridgeport, Alabama, 2\u00bd miles down the road. Making several round trips, they haul about 25,000 gallons of water back to Orme each day. Bridgeport, which gets its water from the Tennessee River, doesn't charge its neighbor. Stevenson and New Hope, Alabama, also help out, occasionally bringing trucks full of water to the hydrant, where it's transferred to the Orme trucks. See where Orme has to go for water \u00bb . But things are looking up in Orme. A pipeline from Bridgeport is nearly complete, built with the help of a $378,000 grant from the federal government. \"With this new water coming in, then we'll have it made,\" Cash said. \"Now we won't have to worry about it no more.\" In addition, an Austin, Texas, company called H2O Guard is planning to donate water-saving sink aerators, shower heads and toilet valves to everyone in Orme on November 17, company spokesman Robert Easter said. \"We think we're going to get another 90 gallons' savings per day per household,\" Easter said. \"That'll make that little water tower in that town go from three hours to four hours without any change in anyone's habits.\" Reames said residents have found creative ways to conserve, flushing toilets with condensation water from air conditioners and undrinkable water from swimming pools that were filled early in the summer. It's a lesson for everyone. \"Cherish the water you got and be kind of careful with it,\" Cash said, \"because you never know if you will be out of water.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Orme, Tennessee, has running water from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.\nTown's spring ran dry in midst of Southeast drought .\nDonated water is trucked in from Alabama .\nCompletion of pipeline will solve problem for good ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Shoes tell a lot about a person. If you stumbled into my closet, you would probably think I was a security guard, a construction worker or a Nurse Ratched wannabe. My taste in shoes tends to be boxy, low-heeled and sturdy. If the equipment isn't cleaned properly, you could be at risk for infection when you get a pedicure. So it probably doesn't surprise you to learn that when it comes to pedicures, I am hardly a nail salon enabler. Unfortunately, in some sort of twisted cosmic comedy, both my teen and my tween daughters are pedicure addicts. To pedicure addicts, there is nothing better than being seated in those massive padded massage chairs, chin deep in fashion magazines, while some woman bathes, chisels, files and paints their toes. And up until now, the only thing I worried about was how much the extra flower motif on her big toe was going to cost me. Now, I have plenty of other stuff to worry about. Dr. Dina Tsentserensky, a podiatrist in New York, made it clear. \"I definitely see patients that have had problems as a result of getting a pedicure,\" she said. \"I guess the most common is fungal nails.\" Fungal nails!!! I really don't want to pay for that. The National Institutes of Health, unfortunately, describes fungal nail in less-than-clear terms: Fungal nail infection is an infection of the nails by a fungus. Prescription treatments are only about 50 percent effective, and most of these infections usually require the loss of the infected nail itself, the NIH Web site says. Cuts, scrapes and some other infections are also common results of seemingly soothing foot romps. Tsentserensky thinks it's nothing new. \"I think it's a chronic problem that has been going on for a while,\" she said. \"People just maybe chose to ignore it or don't pay attention as much as they should.\" Anyone who did pay attention could have known about some of those risks eight years ago. That's when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported finding a nasty infection that hit more than 100 pedicure patients. The culprit: a less-than-sterile footbath screen. The result: an infection called mycobacterium fortuitum. That mouthful of a malady left these customers, most of them women, with prolonged boils on their lower legs and some long-term scars. Although that report prompted nail salons to clean the screens on those foot baths more often, it doesn't mean that in the land of pedicure pampering, you can just relax and enjoy the polishing. Tsentserensky's chief advice is to be on high cleanliness alert. \"I tell patients to make sure that the bathtubs are being cleaned properly, that they are using enough time in between so the disinfectant has time to work,\" she said. And the magic timeframe, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is about 10 minutes between clients. The EPA also stresses that to ensure the safest conditions, the tubs need to be cleaned with an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant, which means the bottle itself will have a EPA registration number listed somewhere on the label. But it's not just the tubs that need to be clean. So do those instruments. \"Make sure that instruments are getting sterilized properly,\" Tsentserensky cautions, \"that they are using a sterilizer or an autoclave to properly sanitize the instruments or using the liquids for the proper periods of time.\" Timing is also important, but that's a condition that's on your side. Don't get a pedicure right after you've shaved your legs, had laser hair removal or have any cuts or bites on your legs. Any opening in the skin is an invitation that you might not want to be extending. And finally, make sure you can communicate with your nail technician to ensure he or she is taking the proper precautions to make your pedicure a stress-free experience and, more important, to ensure that the only thing you're taking with you when you leave that salon is the pretty polish.","highlights":"Some people get fungal nails or infections from pedicures .\nMake sure that instruments are getting sterilized properly .\nTubs need to be cleaned with an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama on Monday strongly praised a decision by the nation's pharmaceutical industry to agree to a deal cutting drug costs for elderly Americans, calling it an example of the kind of compromise required for successful national health care reform. President Obama says the pharmaceutical industry announcement \"marks a major step forward.\" The agreement discounts medications for Medicare beneficiaries facing high out-of-pocket expenses when their benefits reach a gap in coverage. \"This is a significant breakthrough on the road to health care reform, one that will make the difference in the lives of many older Americans,\" Obama said at the White House. \"Today marks a major step forward, but it will only be meaningful if we complete the journey. ... I have to repeat and revive an old saying we had from the campaign: Yes, we can. We are going to get this done.\" The nation's top drug manufacturers agreed over the weekend to at least a 50 percent discount for most beneficiaries for brand-name medicines purchased in the so-called \"doughnut hole\" gap in coverage, Obama noted. The gap involves medication costs of senior citizens between roughly $2,700 and $6,100 a year that are not covered by the Medicare part D plan. The deal will be part of an $80 billion reduction in Medicare drug costs for senior citizens over the next 10 years, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, who helped negotiate the agreement. Part of that $80 billion will go to closing the Medicare prescription drug \"doughnut hole.\" Congressional staffers did not have precise estimates, but Finance Committee spokesman Erin Shields said they expect the $80 billion commitment to both cover the Medicare drug gap and leave additional money for other, still unannounced, programs. The American Association of Retired People, the nation's largest organization of senior citizens, has praised the pharmaceutical industry agreement as a step toward health care reform. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs noted Monday that AARP was opposed to health care reform during the first term of former President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s. \"You've got the pharmaceutical industry and the largest group representing seniors in this country, who 16 years ago weren't at the table but were on the other side of the political debate,\" Gibbs said of groups expressing support Monday for health care reform. \"I think that represents progress and important steps towards real reform.\" Overhauling health care is a top priority of Obama's administration, but the initial proposals to reach Congress last week received a rocky reception. The Congressional Budget Office determined that either of two similar bills written by Senate Democrats would cost more than $1 trillion, which was higher than expected. Republican opponents immediately slammed the measures, and the Senate Finance Committee delayed scheduled hearings on one of the bills. Hearings by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the other measure began amid intense partisan bickering, with hundreds of amendments proposed by Republican opponents. At least two more bills are expected from the House of Representatives, and a bipartisan group led by former Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle, Howard Baker and Bob Dole also has offered guidelines for a proposal. At issue is how best to reduce the cost and increase the reach of the current health care system, which officials say is increasingly draining personal, corporate and government budgets while leaving 46 million Americans without health insurance. Obama has warned that a failure to act soon will bring far worse economic difficulties than the costs of plans under discussion. Both parties in Congress agree on the need to slow the increase in health care costs while ensuring that all Americans can get health insurance, but they differ sharply on how to proceed. Democrats generally favor a government-funded \"public option\" to compete with private insurers. Republicans have said such a step would lead to a government takeover of health care, which they oppose. Republicans also accuse Obama and Democrats of trying to rush through what they say is flawed legislation in 2009 before the politics of midterm elections in 2010 and the 2012 presidential race. The parties do appear to agree on several broad principles, however, including an emphasis on preventive care, cost-cutting measures in the existing Medicare and Medicaid programs, and a halt to denials of coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions. CNN's Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Deal discounts drugs for some on Medicare when benefits reach gap in coverage .\nDeal part of $80 billion reduction in Medicare drug costs for senior citizens .\nHealth care overhaul a priority for President Obama; early plans have had hang-ups ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two pirates in Somalia vowed revenge Monday, after the U.S. military killed three pirates and freed a U.S. ship captain who had been held hostage for several days. Crew members of the Maersk Alabama celebrate after hearing the Navy had rescued their captain from pirates. The pirates told a Somali journalist that they were angered by the U.S. action, as well as a French raid Friday that killed two pirates and one hostage and freed four hostages. \"We have decided to kill U.S. and French sailors if they happen to be among our future hostages,\" said Abdullahi Ahmed, a member of a pirate group based at Harardhere, a coastal town in central Somalia. President Obama said Monday the United States will confront pirates and hold them \"accountable for their crimes.\" Obama added that he is proud of the military's actions in rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips from his pirate captors. Members of the U.S. Navy shot and killed three pirates who had been holding Phillips hostage in a lifeboat on Sunday evening, a military official said. The pirates seized Phillips after a failed attempt to hijack his ship, the Maersk Alabama. For five days the pirates held Phillips in the lifeboat as U.S. Navy ships closed in and lingered nearby. On Sunday, U.S. Navy snipers opened fire on the lifeboat after seeing one pirate point an AK-47 at the captain's back, the U.S. military said. The shootings occurred as one pirate was aboard the USS Bainbridge negotiating over Phillips' fate. Watch how SEALs shot three pirates \u00bb . Three pirates in the lifeboat were killed. Phillips was not hurt. He was taken to another U.S. Navy vessel, the U.S. military said, where he received a medical checkup and spoke by phone with his wife in the United States. Watch admiral tell how rescue went down \u00bb . Pirates in Somalia identified the slain men as Mohamed Ahmed Adawe, Nur Dalabey and Khalif Guled. Two of them -- Dalabey and Guled -- were among the \"most experienced men\" in a group that has hijacked seagoing vessels for money, Ahmed said. They were killed two days after the French military freed four hostages, including a child, who had been held by pirates for nearly a week on the yacht, Tanit, off Somalia's coast. In that operation, a hostage and two pirates were killed, the French Defense Ministry said, while three pirates were captured. Watch how pirates roam a vast area of ocean \u00bb . The military actions angered Ali Nur, a pirate who is based in Gara'ad, a coastal village in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, in northern Somalia. \"From now on, after the killings by the U.S. and France, we will add some harsher steps in our dealings with hostages, particularly American and French hostages,\" Nur told a journalist. The U.S. military acknowledged Sunday that its actions to rescue Phillips could increase the risk of violence. \"This could escalate violence in this part of the world. No question about it,\" U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters. Nur issued a warning to the United States. \"The killing of our boys was aggression, and the U.S. will see what they get from their operation,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Obama promises U.S. will confront piracy .\nPirates vow to kill U.S., French mariners if they become hostages .\nU.S. Navy killed three pirates in rescue of cargo ship captain .\nFrench forces killed two pirates in rescue raid Friday ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York appeals court Thursday overturned terrorism convictions for a Yemeni cleric and his personal assistant, saying they did not receive a fair trial. Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Moayad and Mohammed Mohsen Zayed, were sentenced in 2005 to 75 and 45 years in prison, respectively, after being convicted of conspiring to provide material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations. They now can have new trials under a different judge. The lawyer for al-Moayad, Robert Boyle, said, \"I'm extremely gratified at the court's decision. I believe it is legally and factually correct. I hope my client, who is elderly and not in good health, will be given the opportunity to return to his family in Yemen.\" The three-judge panel was unanimous in its decision, citing evidentiary errors that likely influenced the outcome of the trial. The judges found that certain pieces of evidence presented by prosecutors were prejudicial and had the effect of denying al-Moayad and Zayed a fair trial. Zayed and al-Moayad were arrested in 2003 in a sting operation that culminated in Germany. The government's case relied largely on secretly videotaped conversations between the defendants and a pair of undercover FBI informants at a Frankfurt hotel in 2003. One of the informants, Mohamed Alanssi, testified that al-Moayad boasted about giving money, weapons and recruits to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The charges were brought in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly collected terrorist funds at the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn. Now that the appeals court has vacated the convictions, prosecutors have the option of appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court if they feel there is a constitutional issue. They can retry the case or move to dismiss. Al-Moayad, who is in his 60s, is incarcerated at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, as is Zayed. Boyle said he had called the prison and as of 4 p.m. Thursday was still waiting to speak to his client. CNN's Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mohammed Ali al-Moayad, aide were convicted of supporting terrorism .\nCourt says prejudicial evidence denied pair a fair trial .\nAl-Moayad, Zayed may be retried or cases may be dismissed .\nWitness said al-Moayad boasted about giving money to Osama bin Laden ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A rare and original manuscript of one of America's most patriotic songs has been discovered in a flea market bargain. The manuscript of the song could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. A shopper browsing through the market in New York bought a framed picture of a flower for $10 and found handwritten manuscript of \"America\" (My Country 'tis of Thee) tucked behind the picture, the manuscript's owner said Thursday. The manuscript of the song whose lyrics were written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 could be worth tens of thousands of dollars, said the owner, art collector Keya Morgan. He said he bought it from the flea market shopper, who has asked not to be identified. The song was intended to be played in schools to inspire and teach children and was first played in public on July 4, 1831, in the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, Morgan said. The song is written to the tune of \"God Save the Queen,\" the national anthem of the United Kingdom. Take a look at the manuscript \u00bb . The authenticity of the document was confirmed by Morgan, a handwriting expert who has been authenticating historical documents for nearly a decade, and Diana Yount, an archival specialist at Andover Newton Theological School. Yount reached her conclusion after comparing the handwriting with that in a hymn written by Smith. Morgan, whose collection includes artifacts from Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant, was ecstatic. \"It's the biggest high I could get,\" said Morgan. \"It shaped the nation and reminds us that this nation is just a baby.\"","highlights":"\"America\" (My Country 'tis of Thee) found tucked behind a picture .\nPicture sells for $10 at flea market; manuscript reportedly worth thousands .\n\"America\" first played in public on July 4, 1831 ."} -{"article":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed victory in Puerto Rico on Sunday and insisted that she is leading Sen. Barack Obama in the popular vote. Clinton won 68 percent of the vote compared with Obama's 32 percent. Her vote tally was 263,120; his was 121,458. The win gives Clinton the larger share of Puerto Rico's 55 delegates. The Democratic primary season ends Tuesday when Montana and South Dakota cast their votes. \"When the voting concludes on Tuesday, neither Sen. Obama nor I will have the number of delegates to be the nominee,\" she said in San Juan, Puerto Rico. \"I will lead the popular vote; he will maintain a slight lead in the delegate count,\" she said. Obama leads in the overall delegate count -- 2,070 to Clinton's 1,915. CNN analysts weigh in on Clinton's next steps \u00bb . A candidate needs 2,118 to claim the Democratic nomination. The Clinton campaign has been focusing on the popular vote as it tries to convince superdelegates to pick her instead of Obama. The superdelegates are a group of about 800 party leaders and officials who vote at the convention for the candidate of their choice. But the popular vote count is debatable. If all the primary results including Florida and Michigan are counted, but not the caucus votes, Clinton leads in the popular vote 17,461,845 to Obama's 17,244,762, according to CNN estimates. That number includes giving Obama all the \"uncommitted\" votes from Michigan. Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early. Clinton won both states, but Obama's name was not even on the ballot in Michigan. The Democratic National Committee decided Saturday to reinstate all of Florida and Michigan's delegates to the national convention, with each delegate getting a half-vote to penalize the two states for holding their primaries earlier than party rules allowed. The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee's move gave Clinton 87 delegates and Obama 63. In a second scenario, which adds in CNN's estimate of the caucus-goers, Obama leads Clinton 17,928,000 to 17,843,000. And in a third scenario, which includes all of the caucuses but does not give Obama Michigan's \"uncommitted\" vote, Clinton leads 17,873,000 to 17,703,000. Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed confidence that Obama would clinch the nomination in the coming days. \"If not Tuesday, I think it will be fairly soon,\" he said Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"We hope this week, absolutely,\" he added. At a campaign stop in Mitchell, South Dakota, Obama congratulated Clinton for her win Sunday and praised her for being an \"outstanding public servant.\" \"She is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans,\" he said. Watch Obama rally in South Dakota \u00bb . As Clinton tries to win over the undecided superdelegates, she argued Sunday that she would be the stronger candidate to face Republican John McCain in the fall. \"In the final assessment, I ask you to consider these questions: Which candidate best represents the will of the people who voted in this historic primary? Which candidate is best able to lead us to victory in November? And which candidate is best able to lead our nation as our president in the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad?\" In the Puerto Rico primary, Clinton swept Obama in every major demographic group, including groups Obama generally wins, such as younger voters and higher-income voters, according to CNN's exit polls. CNN estimated turnout to be between 325,000 and 425,000. \"Most people in Puerto Rico, I would venture to guess, they are not even aware that there's a primary going on,\" said Luis Pab\u00f3n-Roca, a local political analyst. Part of the reason for the lack of interest, he said, is because voters feel the primary isn't meaningful since Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the general election. The Democratic and Republican parties run the primaries and caucuses, and they allow U.S. territories, such as the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to take part in the process. But only the 50 states and the District of Columbia vote in the general election. CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez, Willie Lora, Bill Schneider, Xuan Thai and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton claims she'd be the stronger candidate to face McCain .\nElections officials report low turnout .\nObama campaign spokesman: Obama could clinch nomination soon .\nMontana, South Dakota hold final two contests Tuesday ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama should reach out to Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi as tensions in Iran over the disputed presidential elections continue to heighten, a former Bush administration official told CNN Sunday. Paul Wolfowitz was the deputy defense secretary in the Bush administration. \"I would certainly find out if he (Moussavi) wants a conversation,\" former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. \"If he doesn't, I certainly wouldn't push it. But I would make it clear that the phone is an open line.\" Obama on Saturday issued a written statement on the bloodshed across the streets of Tehran as demonstrators protest the election outcome, saying, \"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. \"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.\" However, Obama has been criticized by some lawmakers and analysts who say he should vocalize a stronger stance on the clashes. Watch the latest videos being leaked out of Iran \u00bb . \"I understand the concern about meddling in a way that seems to label the opposition as American tools, but the opposition made it very clear they want support from the world,\" said Wolfowitz, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen added that, \"It would be useful for the president to show more forceful leadership internationally on this issue.\" He noted the graphic images emerging from Iran, including the fatal shooting of a young female protester identified as Neda, saying the violence calls for \"some kind of humanity from the West.\" Gergen and Wolfowitz said the United States should rally with other Western nations and even countries in the region -- including Afghanistan and Turkey, which have recognized incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the June 12 election -- to support the Iranian people. Ahmadinejad's victory was declared by Iran's election authority, the Guardian Council, spurring massive protests last week, with many demonstrators proclaiming their support for Moussavi. Moussavi and candidate Mehdi Karrubi have rejected the election as fraudulent and demanded a new one. Wolfowitz called Moussavi a \"very brave man,\" saying, \"He is resisting. He is putting his life at risk.\"","highlights":"\"Opposition made it very clear they want support,\" Paul Wolfowitz tells CNN .\nFormer deputy defense secretary also says he wouldn't push unwanted relationship .\nCNN analyst David Gergen says Obama should show more forceful leadership .\nWolfowitz calls opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi \"a very brave man\""} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Rebel forces have declared a cease-fire after four days of fighting in the North Kivu province of eastern Congo, the French ambassador to the United Nations said after Security Council talks on the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Congolese soldiers and displaced civilians move into Goma on Wednesday, fleeing advancing rebels. Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese Tutsi general who leads troops of the National Congress for the Defense of the People, ordered the cease-fire, Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters. \"We hope that it will stand, and we hope that tomorrow Mr. Nkunda will announce that he stops his offensive,\" Ripert said, adding that he expected the the council would condemn the military operation. He called the humanitarian situation \"very alarming,\" said more than 50,000 people \"are on the road,\" and expressed hope that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would send a high-level envoy to the region for talks \"as soon as possible.\" Representatives of European countries \"are talking together\" about how best to ease the situation, Ripert said. \"We are looking into the most effective and fastest way of helping MONUC,\" he said, using the French acronym for the U.N. mission in Congo. Nkunda has accused the Congolese government of failing to protect the Tutsi tribe from Rwandan Hutu militia in Congo. Ripert cited reports of fighting at the DRC's border with Rwanda and called on neighboring countries \"to use restraint and not to interfere.\" News of the cease-fire was embraced by Samuel Nagbe, a representative of the relief agency Oxfam, in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. \"We are very happy that, at least, the fighting is going to stop,\" he told CNN. He called for the factions to meet \"to find a lasting situation to the crisis.\" Nkuda's troops were advancing after fighting between the rebels and government forces led thousands of people to flee south toward Goma, capital of North Kivu province in eastern Congo. Conditions in the region were \"continuing to deteriorate rapidly,\" the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said in a statement posted on its Web site. Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, said government troops were leaving the city, which wasn't on the front lines. He said he didn't know where the soldiers were going, but suspected they were headed to areas of heavy fighting. Ban said at midday he was \"alarmed at the escalation of violence\" over the prior 24 hours and warned of a \"humanitarian crisis.\" In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the agency was sending Assistant Secretary Jendayi Frazer to the region as an envoy. \"We're working as best we can to minimize or defuse the situation, get more troops in there,\" McCormack said. Attacks by CNDP rebels have uprooted hundreds of thousands of displaced people from camps run by the United Nations and other organizations. \"The humanitarian situation is quite dire,\" Mounoubai told CNN by phone from Kinshasa, Congo's capital. \"We have internally displaced people streaming out of camps. Both parties are blocking the U.N. from reaching desperately needy people to evacuate,\" he added. \"I cannot emphasize how desperate the situation on the ground is.\" The region's instability endangers aid workers, some of whom have joined the exodus. Michael Arunga, a spokesman for World Vision, told CNN the organization's workers had fled to the Rwandan border, where they were assessing the situation and caring for civilians crossing into the area. Arunga said he himself had fled from Goma, where he could hear shootings at night. \"For agencies to operate on the ground, we need a peaceful environment,\" he said. Doctors Without Borders said that on Sunday, medical teams in Rutshuru treated 70 wounded, and had been working round the clock since. Some of the people who sought help had been on the run for weeks, said the group, which described the situation as \"extremely volatile.\" Doctors have been working mostly in towns and camps in and around Kitchanga, Masisi, Mweso, Nyanzale and Kayna. DWB says it is the only international organization still providing medical and humanitarian assistance in Kitchanga, Masisi, Mweso and Rutshuru.","highlights":"NEW: U.N. says rebel troops to adhere to cease-fire .\n45,000 flee refugee camp in matter of hours .\nU.N. says its peacekeepers still in charge of Goma .\nCongo says Rwandan forces join fight with minority Tutsi rebels ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pulitzer Prize-winning author, radio host and activist Studs Terkel died in his Chicago, Illinois, home Friday at the age of 96. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel died at his home Friday at the age of 96. Terkel had grown frail since the publication last year of his memoir, \"Touch and Go,\" said Gordon Mayer, vice president of the Community Media Workshop, which Terkel had supported. \"I'm still in touch, but I'm ready to go,\" he said last year at his last public appearance with the workshop, a nonprofit that recognizes Chicago reporters who take risks in covering the city. \"My dad led a long, full, eventful -- sometimes tempestuous -- satisfying life,\" his son Dan said in a statement. \"The last time I saw him, he was up, about, and mad as hell about the Cubs,\" workshop President Thom Clark said in the statement. Terkel, known for his portrayal of ordinary people young and old, rich and poor, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for his remembrances of World War II, \"The Good War.\" iReport.com: Remebering the legacy of Studs Terkel . Terkel was born in New York but moved to Chicago, where his parents ran a small hotel. Terkel would sit in the hotel lobby watching droves of people arguing, fighting, ranting and telling stories. \"That hotel was far more of an education to me than the University of Chicago was,\" Studs told CNN in 2000. It seems that beginning would pave the way for Terkel's love of passing on people's oral histories. He could often be found behind a tape recorder talking to the people who would eventually become the basis for his books. Terkel became famous, if not synonymous with oral histories, for his ability to cast a light on the working class. \"Oral history preceded the written word,\" Terkel told CNN in 2000. \"Oral history is having people tell their own stories and bringing it forth. \"That's what history's about: the oral history of the unknowns that make the wheel go 'round. And that's what I'm interested in.\" In an interview with Lou Waters on CNN in 1995, Terkel spoke about his book \"Coming of Age,\" which explored the lives of people who have been \"scrappers\" all of their lives. Inside the book are the stories of people between the ages of 70 and 95, a group he called \"the truth tellers.\" \"Who are the best historians? Who are the storytellers?\" Terkel asked. \"Who lived through the Great Depression of the '30s, World War II that changed the whole psyche and map of the world, a Cold War, Joe McCarthy, Vietnam, the '60s, that's so often put down today and I think was an exhilarating and hopeful period, and, of course, the computer and technology. Who are the best ones to tell the story? Those who've borne witness to it. And they're our storytellers.\" After Terkel's wife died in 1999, he began working on a book about death, eventually called \"Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith.\" \"It's about life,\" Terkel said in 2000 when asked about the project. \"How can one talk about life without saying sometime it's going to end? It makes the value of life all the more precious.\"","highlights":"Terkel won Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for book about World War II, \"The Good War\"\nSon: \"My dad led a long, full, eventful -- sometimes tempestuous -- satisfying life\"\nTerkel once said death \"makes the value of life all the more precious\"\nAuthor believed elderly, those \"who've borne witness\" to life are best storytellers ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the days after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, it will be tempting to reach two hasty conclusions: that she was Pakistan's last great hope and that her geo-politically crucial country has revealed itself to be inherently hopeless. Irshad Manji is a controversial Muslim feminist and activist from Toronto, Canada. On each front, I take a different view. While far more liberal and democratic than Gen. Musharraf, Bhutto disappointed moderate, modern Pakistanis with her adherence to feudal politics. Writing to me through my Web site, American feminists say they are \"aching\" over the loss of \"our dear, sweet, brave Benazir.\" I understand the sentiment. But \"brave\" is not the word used by Pakistani women from whom I've also heard. They're hurting more over Bhutto's \"self-imposed\" conformity. \"She never realized her potential,\" a woman from Karachi tells me. \"And not because she was killed but because when she had the chance, she did not effectively challenge the backward mindset that has now led to her demise.\" For example, during Bhutto's time in office, Pakistan didn't defy the anti-female rape and adultery laws. Those notorious ordinances, known as Hudood, took their inspiration from tribal politics masquerading as Islam. Watch Manji argue on CNN why Bhutto's legacy is mixed \u00bb . Imagine the opportunity: Bhutto could have championed a purer faith by tackling corrupt cultural practices. In so doing, she might have created allies among conservatives, who can be persuaded that although Islam is God-given, culture is man-made. Last year, a media campaign to strike down the Hudood Ordinances achieved this fine balance. But not because of her. And that, say many progressive Pakistanis, amputates Bhutto's legacy. The fact that cruel laws against women can be publicly debated at all should suggest that Pakistan has hope anyway. An exceptional leader can tap into it. History tells us so. There was a time when Pakistan's democratic politicians stuck it to the feudal fanatics. Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was once heckled by a religious fundamentalist. \"You drink alcohol!\" shouted the critic. \"Yes,\" retorted the elder Bhutto, \"but I don't drink the blood of the people!\" His response captured the spirit of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder. In 1947, Jinnah exuded high hopes for his people: \"You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques, or to any other place of worship in the State of Pakistan. \"You may belong to any religion or caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the state. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens of one state... You will find that in due course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense ... but in the political sense as citizens of the state.\" Jinnah meant every word of his unconventional vision because he, himself, lived as a maverick. He adored his non-Muslim wife, and his sister often appeared with him on the campaign trail. Her visibility attested to Islam's embrace of women as partners of men. In the months ahead, the people of Pakistan will need to recall Jinnah's vision. It may be of comfort know that they're not alone. Countless Americans are now asking about their founders' intentions, desperate to re-discover the better angels of their country after eight years of George W. Bush. Still, Pakistan must avoid America's enduring mistake. The United States lapsed into profound divisiveness following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Many would argue that today's politics of polarization can be traced to the unresolved trauma of the King-Kennedy murders. For Pakistan, it's high time to transcend both trauma and tribalism. I pray that in death, Benazir Bhutto will be the catalyst for a deeper democracy than she ever advocated in life. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Manji says Bhutto disappointed some because she adhered to feudal politics .\nDuring Bhutto's time in office, writer says, she did not defy anti-rape laws .\nPakistan must \"transcend both trauma and tribalism,\" Manji says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Big Ben, arguably the world's most famous clock, celebrates on Sunday 150 years of keeping London on time. The British landmark has lived through war, bad weather and disasters. Big Ben's distinctive bongs have been a part of the London scene for 150 years. Big Ben is the 14-ton bell inside the world's largest four-faced chiming clock, although most people use the name to describe the tower that houses it. The clock is perched on a 96-meter (310-foot) elegant tower at the Westminster Bridge end of the Palace of Westminster. The Victorian masterpiece, which provides distinctive chimes known as bongs, was voted Britain's favorite monument in 2008. It has been featured in films such as \"101 Dalmatians\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.\" Big Ben has been disrupted a few times over the years for various reasons, including weather and breakages. Its bongs went silent for about two months in August 2007 to allow a crew to repair its mechanism system. During that time, the rest of the clock was running on an electric system. It was fully restarted again October 1. The clock pays tribute to Britain's royal history: It has a Latin inscription of the phrase: \"O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First.\" The ornate masterpiece has some quirky features. The hour hand, which weighs 300 kilograms (661 pounds), is made of gun metal while the minute hands are made of copper sheet. The minute hands would not work when they were first made of cast iron because they were too heavy. The clock started working on May 31, 1859, after the lighter copper hands were installed. The origins of the landmark's name are obscure. Some say it was named after the 1850s heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt while others suggest it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a former member of parliament. Hall, the commissioner of works in 1859, was responsible for ordering the bell. Alan Hughes, the director of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made the bell, prefers the latter. \"I suppose I like it chiefly because it was a nickname of a man who was big and loud and pompous, and never used one word if 27 would do,\" he said in a 2008 interview. Hughes' company also made America's Liberty Bell and a number of others for cathedrals and churches around the world.","highlights":"London's Big Ben turns 150 years old on Sunday .\nLast year, Victorian masterpiece was voted Britain's favorite monument .\nNo one is quite sure where the clock's moniker came from ."} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Omar bin Laden has a message for his father, Osama: \"Find another way.\" Omar bin Laden says he last saw his father in 2000 when the son decided to leave al Qaeda. The son of the most-wanted man in the world spoke Sunday to CNN in a quiet, middle-class suburb about an hour outside Cairo, Egypt. Omar bin Laden, who works as a contractor, said he is talking publicly because he wants an end to the violence his father has inspired -- violence that has killed innocent civilians in a spate of attacks around the world, including those of September 11, 2001. \"I try and say to my father: 'Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it's not good to use it for anybody,' \" he said in English learned in recent months from his British wife. He said that's not just his own message, but one that a friend of his father's and other Muslims have expressed to him. \"They too say ... my father should change [his] way,\" he said. Watch whether Omar bin Laden thinks his father will ever be caught \u00bb . He said he hasn't spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with his father's blessings. He said he has no idea where his father is, but is confident he will never be caught because locals support him. Asked if his father might be living along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he said, \"Maybe, maybe not.\" \"Either way, the people there are different,\" he said. \"They don't care about the government.\" Now, he and his wife are preparing to launch a movement far different from the one his father, Osama bin Laden, launched. They are pursuing a movement for peace. At first glance, Omar bin Laden appears to have little in common with the man who has eluded international efforts to find him. The 26-year-old's hair is bound in neat braids, he drives a Jeep and is married to a British national twice his age. But the physical resemblance quickly sinks in, even without the long beard his father favors. It is a resemblance he doesn't avoid. \"Being Osama's son, I don't hide it. I don't hide my name,\" he said. \"I am proud by my name, but if you have a name like mine you will find people run away from you, are afraid of you.\" He said he doesn't consider his father to be a terrorist. When his father was fighting the Soviets, Washington considered him a hero, he said. \"Before they call it war; now they call it terrorism,\" he said. He said his father believes his duty is to protect Muslims from attack. \"He believes this is his job -- to help the people,\" he said. \"I don't think my father is a terrorist because history tells you he's not.\" However, Omar bin Laden -- who was 14 when he began training in al Qaeda camps -- said he differs greatly with his father over the killing of civilians. Was 9\/11 a just attack? \"I don't think 9\/11 was right personally, but it happened,\" he said. \"I don't think ... [the war] in Vietnam was right. I don't think what's going on in Palestine is right. I don't think what's going on in Iraq is right. \"If we make what is right and not right, we will make a very big list,\" he said. He said he left al Qaeda because he did not want to be associated with killing civilians. He said his father did not try to dissuade him from leaving al Qaeda. \"I told him I was going, and wanted to try life and see what it was like outside because, from a young age I was with my father, and I only saw and heard my father and his friends. My father told me, 'If this is what your choice -- your decision -- is, what can I tell you? I like you to be with me, but this is your decision.' \" So father and son went their separate ways. But there has been no running from the bin Laden name, not after the events of September 11. On that day, Omar bin Laden was in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers were from. Asked if, upon learning of the news, he knew his father had been behind it, he replied, \"Yeah, maybe.\" He said he felt sadness for those killed. \"I don't think 9\/11 was right personally,\" he said. \"I don't agree with 9\/11 or with any war where only civilians are dying.\" Asked why he did not protest more strongly his father's role in the killing of civilians, he said it is up to the religious clerics close to his father to tell Osama bin Laden to change tactics in the name of Islam. And even if that most unlikely scenario were to occur, he said, al Qaeda would not stop. \"My father doesn't have the power to stop the movement at this moment.\" Sitting by his side throughout the hour-and-a-half interview was his wife, Zaina. The two are organizing a multi-month horserace through North Africa in the name of peace, set to kick off this year. But getting sponsors to line up behind the name bin Laden has been difficult. \"It would probably have been easier to do a race without having Omar's name, but then the race would just be a race, it wouldn't be a race for peace,\" his wife said. Omar bin Laden said his relationship with his father was limited. He is the fourth of 11 children born to his father's first wife, and he is one of 19 children Osama bin Laden has fathered. \"Most of the time he busy, so busy, all the day he's busy [with] his friends. He was working a lot.\" Omar bin Laden is now undertaking perhaps an impossible task: trying to rebrand the name they share. But he said he is not looking for approval from his father. \"My life, I take care of my life,\" he said. \"My father he take care of his life.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bin Laden's son, Omar, says his father should change his ways .\nOmar bin Laden split with his father in 2000; says he hasn't heard from him since .\nOmar bin Laden says he doesn't believe his dad is a terrorist .\n\"I don't think 9\/11 was right personally,\" the son said ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's often said that a real Southerner can \"claim kin\" with anyone. Tony Rand and his son Ripley learned last year that some of their relatives were African-American. Tony Rand realized the same could be true for him. Rand, whose family can trace its roots back to the 1700s, is a Democratic state senator in North Carolina. Until he watched the 2008 CNN documentary \"Black in America,\" he had no idea that some of his relatives were black. Although firmly anchored in the South, the Rands are spread across the country. What connects them is their link to a common ancestor -- the family patriarch William Harrison Rand. \"Hal\" Rand, as he was known to most, was a white farmer and slave owner. In 1842, Hal married Sarah Ann Mullens and they had seven children. Hal also fathered seven children with his mistress, Ann Albrooks Rand, a black woman. Every other year, hundreds of African-American descendants of Hal Rand get together at a different location for a massive family reunion. It's a time to catch up and share stories, eat barbecue and have a good time. The 2007 Rand family reunion, held in Atlanta, Georgia, was featured in \"Black in America.\" After the program aired, dozens of viewers across the country had the same revelation -- they, too, were related to the Rands. \"I was sitting there, that Saturday night, just up reading the week's papers and watching the program,\" says Rand with a hearty Southern accent. The Rand family's missing link \u00bb . \"Then I hear, 'We are the Rands. The mighty, mighty Rands,\" he recalls, referring to the words sung by family members as they embarked on their bi-annual pilgrimage. \"And then I said to myself, 'What?'\" Tony Rand listened as the family historian, Martha Rand Hix, described the family's patriarch. \"When they were talking about William Harrison Rand, I knew that was the William Harrison Rand in our family,\" he said. \"Then they started talking about North Carolina, and I said, 'Well, God oh mighty,' ... it was just amazing.\" The next day, he telephoned his 41-year old son, Ripley Rand, and asked him to contact their black relatives. Soon, Tony and Ripley Rand were invited to attend the next Rand family reunion in July in Sacramento, California. See photos of the Rand family members \u00bb But, what Tony Rand didn't know was that his son, a North Carolina Superior Court judge, had already been diligently working on the family genealogy. Ripley Rand had begun typing out a hand-bound version of a 100-page manuscript compiled by his great-uncle, Oscar Ripley Rand III, and started to create a digital version. Oscar Ripley Rand III was a Rhodes Scholar and retired Army colonel who spent years researching the family's history, according to Ripley Rand. Although Oscar Ripley Rand III had scoured the National Archives and spent years collecting information about the family, his memoirs contained no mention of William Harrison Rand's relationship and children with Ann Albrooks Rand. \"My whole life I have heard about the history of our family and we had no idea about [the African-American side of the family],\" Ripley Rand said. \"The most surprising thing about it,\" he added, was that his great-uncle \"probably never heard anything about it.\" Ripley Rand said he plans to attend the Rand family reunion this summer with his father and has updated his great uncle's research to include the story of the black side of the family. Both he and his father say they're looking forward to meeting their cousins. \"I think it will be fun to see what the connections are,\" Ripley Rand said. \"There's a whole group of family members who we did not know existed until last year.\" The revelation has inspired a few jokes among the senator's family and friends. \"I always knew you were one of us,\" an African-American friend told the senator with a nudge and wink. Tony Rand is also quick to crack a joke about anything from sports and politics to food. Namely chitterlings -- a traditionally Southern delicacy made from pig intestines -- and barbecue pork. A few of the things a \"Yankee\" might not know much about. \"There's an old joke in the South,\" he explained. \"If somebody was cooking chitlins and collards at the same time -- the smell was so strong that the fire would try to break out of the house.\" A proud member of the Wake County Chitlin Club, a group of politically active men who gather every year at the annual Chitlin Dinner, Tony Rand is proud of his Southern heritage. Calling North Carolina barbecue \"good\" won't do for the senator, who insists his state has the best \"pig pickin.\" \"North Carolina is a great place, we've got the mountains, we've got good college basketball and we've got good barbecue,\" he said. \"What more could a good person aspire to?\" Given that barbecue is also a tradition at the Rand family reunion, there's already some common ground for the lawmaker and his kin. Even though he's \"expecting to meet some interesting people\" at this year's reunion, he's not expecting much in the way of barbecue \"given that it's in California and all.\"","highlights":"North Carolina Sen. Tony Rand had no idea some of his relatives were black .\nFamily patriarch \"Hal\" Rand fathered children with his white wife, black mistress .\nTony Rand and his son, Ripley, plan to attend the 2009 Rand family reunion ."} -{"article":"MIAMI BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- On the grainy, silent black and white video, it's hard to tell exactly what happened the night of June 14 in Miami Beach. But one thing is certain: A tourist, Husien Shehada, can be seen falling to the ground, shot by a police officer. Shehada, 29, later died. Husien Shehada, at left with his brother, Samer, was shot dead by Miami Beach police on June 14. Four nights later, again in Miami Beach, Lawrence McCoy allegedly pistol-whipped a cab driver and led police on a chase. Police say shots were exchanged. McCoy, also 29, was killed. Officer Adam Tavss, a 34-year-old former history teacher with three years on the force, was involved in both police shootings, the first in Miami Beach since 2003. Although it is not yet clear whether Tavss fired one of the shots that killed McCoy, questions are being raised as to whether the officer was cleared for patrol duty too soon after the first shooting. Police and the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office are investigating the shootings. The inquiry is expected to last several more months. All the records and reports have been sealed. Watch surveillance video of the first shooting \u00bb . The families of Shehada and McCoy are asking the Justice Department to investigate. Tavss, who is now assigned to desk duty, declined through his attorney to speak with CNN, citing the ongoing investigation. Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega has defended both shootings. \"It is important to note that the subjects in both cases had exhibited aggressive, violent, non-compliant and criminal behavior,\" the chief said in a statement to the media. Noriega added that officers \"are required to make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors and cannot afford to hesitate or be wrong.\" The Miami Beach department's standard operating procedure for use of force, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, states that any officer involved in a fatal shooting must be assigned to administrative duties for at least 72 hours. The department also mandates psychological support. Tavss was removed from duty for 72 hours, evaluated and then cleared by Noriega to return to patrol, which is departmental policy. On his first day back out on the street, Tavss was involved in the second shooting. Each of the nation's 20,000 police departments sets its own policy for police involved in shootings and fatalities. Some departments keep the officers off the streets for a week or longer. In virtually all cases, psychological evaluation and counseling are mandatory. Watch CNN's report on the shootings \u00bb . Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and an expert on police use of force and stress management, said she had never heard of an officer being involved in two shootings within four days. \"I think it's a gross error of judgment for any police department to maintain a rule that allows an officer who was involved in a fatal shooting to be back on the streets four days after the incident,\" Haberfeld said. A study by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice found that officers involved in fatal shootings can be affected for months afterward. \"In the days, weeks and months that follow a shooting, officers may suffer adverse reactions such as sleep interruption, anxiety and depression,\" a report on the study said. Officers \"experienced a range of psychological, emotional and physiological reactions that distorted time, distance, sight and sound,\" the study concluded. In some cases, the study found, officers could not recall firing their weapons. But even experts are undecided on just how much time off the street is enough, because every incident and every police officer is different. \"It's hard for me to estimate whether it's weeks or a little bit more, but certainly not days; certainly not hours. It's just too irresponsible toward the officer and toward the society the officer needs to serve,\" Haberfeld said. Police officers across the country train on how to make difficult split-second decisions on the use of deadly force. The sheriff in neighboring Broward County uses an interactive video screen that places officers into scenarios they might face while on patrol. \"In less than half a second, your pulse may go from 60 to 160, 170, and your heart's beating out of your chest, and you have to make a split-second decision,\" Broward Sheriff's Sgt. Bill Pennypacker said. Witnesses, police and surveillance video obtained by CNN provide the following, sometimes conflicting, accounts of what happened during the two Miami Beach shootings: . Husien Shehada and his brother, Samer, had come from Virginia to spend a long weekend with their girlfriends in Miami Beach. Early on Sunday, June 14, they got into a scuffle with another group of men, who intervened after Samer Shehada allegedly assaulted his girlfriend. Investigators said they believe that the two brothers were looking for revenge against those men when somebody called 911, reporting that two men were walking down the street and that one of them might be carrying a machine gun. The callers said they could see the outline of a large gun underneath his white shirt, and he was carrying it in his left hand. In a color security camera tape released by the Miami Beach Police Department, it appears that one of the brothers was carrying something under his shirt, holding it with his left hand. Tavss and other officers approached the brothers in front of Twist, a popular South Beach nightclub. A grainy black and white videotape shows the brothers together and Husien Shehada falling to the ground. A police officer can then be seen approaching. Samer Shehada said he and his brother were cooperating. \"His hands were up for a good two seconds, three seconds,\" Samer Shehada said. \"He wasn't in the process of raising his hands. His hands were up.\" One witness told CNN that when Tavss approached the brothers with his gun drawn, the brothers were belligerent. The witness, Derek Reynolds, was working security at the club that night. He said the two men cursed at police and wouldn't put their hands up. \"It got intense. ... They weren't cooperating,\" he said. \"One guy reached behind him, and he got shot.\" Law enforcement sources say a coat hanger and a bottle were found at the scene, but no gun was found. Samer Shehada said that neither he nor his brother was carrying a coat hanger, much less a gun. After the shooting, Tavss was relieved of duty for 72 hours, per department policy. When he returned to street patrol, he was one of several officers who responded to a 911 call reporting that that a taxi driver had been pistol-whipped and his cab stolen. Police confronted Lawrence McCoy on a Miami Beach causeway. According to police, McCoy ran and fired at the officers. McCoy was shot dead by police. It is not yet known whether Tavss fired any shots. John Contini, an attorney representing the families of both men shot by police, said McCoy was shot nine to 11 times. No weapon was found on McCoy. Police found a gun several days later in Biscayne Bay, but they say they don't know if it belonged to McCoy. Lawrence McCoy Sr. said his son's civil rights were violated. \"Michael Vick was convicted and put in jail for two years for killing dogs -- for killing dogs. I want justice for my son,\" he said. Contini said Tavss should be in jail. He also questioned the policy that allowed him back on the street so quickly. \"In fairness to the officer, you don't put him on the street, with a gun and a badge, to be in this situation without allowing for a period of decompression -- for the officer's sake, to get some help,\" Contini said.","highlights":"Miami Beach police officer Adam Tavss is involved in two police shootings .\nSecond shooting happened on his first day back on street .\nQuestions are being raised as to whether he was cleared for duty too soon .\nMiami Beach police chief decides when an officer is ready to return ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chris Helmbrecht is a 37-year-old German who lived in New York and Spain before moving to Moscow nearly six years ago. He runs an advertising agency and also writes Moscow Blog, a lifestyle blog about the city. Chris Helmbrecht: \"Not many places have as much energy as Moscow.\" CNN: You've traveled around a lot -- what makes Moscow unique? Chris Helmbrecht: Not many places have so much energy and so many things going on. It can be very nerve wracking and exhausting, but on the other hand it's very exciting. New York is one of those places, Tokyo too, but there are only a handful of cities in the world that have that kind of energy. CNN: You used to be a DJ -- what's your opinion of Moscow's nightlife? CH: For some people the nightlife is the best in the world, but for me it's very commercial and posh. You can sum it up in one sentence, which is a general thing about Moscow: people here live \"Sex and the City.\" They just want to go out and spend money and pretend they're rich and successful and live this dream. I recently had a conversation with the club editor of Timeout Moscow and I asked her if she thought the clubs were suffering right now with the economy. She said that in the modern \"New Russian\" culture people would rather sell their Mercedes than not go out and spend anywhere between $4,000 and $6,000 on a table in a club and admit that they're not rich anymore. Moscow is dominated by posh parties, but it's no different at a subculture place like a techno club -- you're always judged by the labels you wear, the car you drive and the music you identify yourself with. CNN: Where do you like to go in the city? CH: Novodevichy Monastery is a really beautiful old monastery. Stalin demolished a lot of churches and monasteries but this one was spared. There's a pond below it that you can walk around, and all the Russian Orthodox popes are buried in he cemetery. It's a very nice place. Another place is would be Vorobyovy Gory (Sparrow Hills), where you can look out over Moscow. It's pretty industrial looking but it has good views. I also enjoy the center of Moscow. I like hanging out on the roof bar of a hotel, having a drink, looking out over Red Square. It makes you feel like you're away from the noise of the city. What makes Moscow special to you? Let us know. CNN: What do Muscovites do at the weekend? CH: It depends on the time of year, but in the summer they take every opportunity to get out of the city. Everyone has a little weekend house called a \"dacha\" and every Friday night after work people leave the city. From 4pm in the afternoon to 10pm at night you have long traffic jams on all the roads out of the city. People will spend three or four hours in traffic jams just to travel 60km -- and on the way back on Sunday and Monday mornings it's the same. Some \"dachas\" are really basic wooden houses and some are palaces but every family has one, or even two or three. People go out to the woods or lakes and they have barbeques, they drink and they do some gardening. They value this \"dacha\" life so much that they're willing to spend 6 hours in traffic to spend 1 \u00bd days in the woods. CNN: So is Moscow is deserted in the summertime? CH: Moscow is very quiet in the summertime -- it's my favorite time. You can already notice that there are less people in the clubs and less people in the streets at the weekend. Towards the end of June, Moscow is really empty. You really notice it from the middle of July until September, when it's school vacations. CNN: Has Moscow change a lot since you moved there? CH: Yes -- you can see it renewing itself. I know how it went with Berlin -- in 10 years you won't recognize Moscow anymore. Streets have changed so much in the last five years, in a good way and a bad way. A lot of cool-looking brick buildings were torn down to create business centers, but on the other hand you have great new modern buildings and hotels -- the Ritz Carlton for example. There are lots of new museums popping up, art centers, alternative art, new shops and cafes. It's so different to when I came here five years ago and to be honest, I never would have expected it. CNN: What do you miss about Moscow when you're away? CH: I miss the excitement. There's something going on all the time. There's so much choice in terms of theater, classical ballet, the nightlife, the galleries. You have that in Berlin but it's harder to find and not as exciting, and New York has lost a lot of its flavor, glamour and energy at the moment. CNN: If Moscow were a person, what would he or she be like? CH: An ugly princess who wears a lot of makeup and tries to be pretty! She would probably seem pretty rude, but inside she's a good person.","highlights":"Chris Helmbrecht is a 37-year-old German who now lives in Moscow .\nHe says Moscow's energy makes it exciting, but it can be exhausting .\nMuscovites love to get out of the city at the weekend, says Chris .\n\"Moscow is renewing itself. In 10 years you won't recognize it,\" he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Generations of standup comedians never saw this coming. John Heffron is one of an increasing number of comedians joining Twitter. To succeed in the industry these days, you don't just need to be good on stage and screen. You also have to nail the art of sending out mini-messages to Twitter \"followers.\" But if your humor is based on storytelling, persona and, you know, the way you say stuff, how can you get hilarious in 140 characters or less? For the pros, it's a challenge and an opportunity. CNN's Josh Levs spoke with two successful standup comics who are diving into the Twitterverse. John Heffron is a winner of \"Last Comic Standing.\" Craig Shoemaker won the award for funniest comedy routine on XM Satellite Radio. Watch Heffron and Shoemaker mix it up \u00bb . And we want to hear from you. Send the funniest tweets you've ever seen to Levs via Twitter (@joshlevscnn) or post them on Facebook. The following is an edited version of the interview. Craig Shoemaker: I'm on the information super-cul-de-sac. I mean, I'm not so great at this; I'm learning. And I have no friends. I had more friends at my house yesterday for dinner than I have on Twitter. And (Heffron) is the king. CNN: How did you build up your fan base, John? How did you build up this number of followers on Twitter? John Heffron: I try to be funny; I try to be entertaining; I try to do stuff that hopefully gets re-twitted. Is that the word? Sure. CNN: All right, let's take a look at some of your popular tweets here. You have a section called the original last tweets. And you have one here: \"Guy who always gets killed on Star Trek. Last tweet: 'Got my uniform. The rest of the landing party wearing a different color. Weird!' \" And then my favorite one: \"Married man's last tweet: 'About to go into the champagne room, wish me luck.' \" Heffron: Those are the things that end up, people start passing around and then that's what gets people to go, \"Who is this guy?\" CNN: And Craig, is this what you're chasing? The same idea, those one-liners that get tossed out? Shoemaker: Yeah, I'm a storyteller, so it's not so great for me. I'm still working on this under-140 characters thing. CNN: I did pull out one of yours that I liked too. You wrote, \"Up late in my Pittsburgh hotel, just read a USA today article about how Twitter is no good for intimacy. No worries. I'm alone.\" Shoemaker: I don't know if anybody's laughing at the jokes. I tweeted that last night. We'll see how that goes. CNN: Is that part of what's hard about Twitter? When you're doing this, you don't have that kind of instant feedback. You know, if you're doing standup somewhere, you've got the laughter. How do you know? It's like doing this in an echo chamber. Shoemaker: It's the replies. To me, I judge by the replies. Heffron: I've had zero replies. So apparently, I got to work on my tweeting. The whole thing is, when you write, though, it's different. It doesn't have the nuance or things like that. Like I put something about my ex-wife that I got divorced and \"tonight's show is a benefit show and all proceeds go to my ex-wife.\" And people are writing back, \"Oh, I feel so sorry for you,\" and I go, \"No, it's a joke.\" Shoemaker: Yeah. Criss Angel was on my flight, so I tweeted \"Criss Angel is on our flight. We will not have to use fuel. He will use his superpowers to get us home.\" And the replies were, I spelled Criss Angel's name wrong. It's like, come on, people! How am I supposed? You know, that's not the point! CNN: The previous generations never had this problem. No one's never, until really the last few years, no one's ever dealt with the opportunities and the challenges that you guys have. Is Twitter the new standup? Shoemaker: You know, as a comedian, it's funny now it seems like you have to be funny and be this crazy Internet marketer. How can I let somebody know that I'm coming into whatever city, and Twitter and Facebook and all those things are the best way to do it. Heffron: I hate to see, though, that we're on stage at the Punchline in Atlanta actually tweeting the crowd from the stage. I'm doing my act with my thumbs on my BlackBerry. Hold on for a second; I have a new joke I'd like to try on you. Turn on your texts. Want to follow John and Craig? Heffron is @johnheffron; Shoemaker is @thelovemaster.","highlights":"A number of comedians joining Twitter, sending out jokes .\nJohn Heffron: I try to be funny and entertaining .\nHeffron, Craig Shoemaker note that nuances are lost in translation ."} -{"article":"LAFAYETTE, Tennessee (CNN) -- James Kruger was watching election results Tuesday night in Lafayette, Tennessee, when a warning appeared on his TV screen: A tornado was headed straight toward his town. Then the lights went out. James Kruger survived after Tuesday night's storm blew his house away above him in Lafayette, Tennessee. He put on sweat pants, grabbed a flashlight, drank a shot of whiskey, \"and then I heard this noise,\" Kruger said Thursday. He headed for a door, \"and all of a sudden I heard the glass breaking and it was sucking,\" he said. \"When I tried to shut the door, [it] seemed like the door was lifting up. So I just dove and I lay flat on the floor.\" Lying there, everything in the house flew over him, scraping and banging his back, Kruger said. Then the chaos stopped. \"I was laying in the dirt. There was no floor. No nothing.\" Watch Kruger tell his story \u00bb . The house was gone, but Kruger says he believes there's reason why he survived. \"I think God was holding my leg, beating my ass, teaching me that I hadn't been doing everything he wanted me to do,\" he said. Pam Whitaker was volunteering at a hospital in Lafayette that night as dozens came in with injuries from the tornadoes and storms that raked across the South. Whitaker was cleaning one man's feet to check for cuts when the patient told her the address of a house that had been destroyed. \"I just went white. I said, 'That's my house!'\" Whitaker recalled Thursday. \"And he said, 'Hon, you don't even have a toothpick or splinter left.' \" Watch Whitaker describe her frightening night \u00bb . Kruger, Whitaker and others across the region tried Thursday to put their lives back together in a swath of the South where tornadoes killed at least 56 people. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak in the United States in more than 20 years. The storms ripped apart houses and trapped residents of university dorms and a retirement home in debris. The trail of death stretched across four states, with four fatalities in Alabama, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and 32 in Tennessee. Macon County, Tennessee, which includes Lafayette, was one of the worst-hit areas, with 14 deaths and overwhelming damage. Whitaker lost her home and everything in it, including the money from cashing her disability check. She had 15 cents left, she said Thursday, and was staying at a National Guard shelter. \"We don't have a home to go to,\" Whitaker said. \"I don't know where we're going to end up.\" In some cases, there was almost no warning before the severe weather hit. James Baskin of Jackson, Tennessee, said he was driving when a twister \"just picked us up and threw us.\" Everyone in the car was injured, including his daughter's friend, who suffered a broken collarbone. \"We'll get through it. Nobody's dead. That's the biggest thing,\" Baskin said. Watch tornado survivors' stories \u00bb . President Bush said Wednesday he had called the governors of the affected states to offer help and to tell them that \"the American people hold those who suffered up in prayer.\" The Federal Emergency Management Agency was deploying teams to the area, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. \"We're going to keep watching this,\" he said. See a map of where the storms hit \u00bb . In Sumner County, Tennessee, two victims were found outside a house the storm had blown away, said Jay Austin, the county's primary death investigator. Elsewhere in the area, a mother was found dead in a creek bed about 50 yards from where her house stood. Her baby was discovered alive 250 yards away. The child was taken to a local hospital, Austin said. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said the storm's power had left him stunned. \"I don't think that I have seen, since I've been governor, a tornado where the combination of the intensity of it and the length of the track was as large as this one,\" said Bredesen, who flew over the disaster area Wednesday. \"That track had to be 25 miles long. [The twister] didn't skip like a lot of them do. ... It's just 25 miles of a tornado sitting on the ground.\" Also in Jackson, a tornado trapped Union University students and retirees in collapsed buildings, said Julie Oaks, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. \"It looks like a war zone,\" said university President David Dockery. \"Cars and trucks [were] thrown from one side of the campus to the other.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed, Mark Bixler, David Mattingly and Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Tennessee man describes diving to the floor as his house blows away .\nThe tornado death toll in the South stands at 56 .\nTornado outbreak was deadliest in the U.S. in more than 20 years .\nDeaths include 32 in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky, four in Alabama ."} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- The chairman of the Samsung Group plans to resign, according to a report published Tuesday by Yonhap, the South Korean news agency. Chairman of the Samsung Group Lee Kun-hee has been indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust. The decision of Lee Kun-hee to step down comes a few days after his indictment amid an investigation into corruption allegations. Lee was indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust. Samsung is South Korea's largest conglomerate. It has annual sales of nearly $160 billion and accounts for 18 percent of South Korea's economic output. The company's exports -- valued at about $70 billion -- account for a fifth of all South Korean exports. Lee was indicted for breach of trust in connection with a plan to transfer control of the company to his son, a prosecutor said. He was also indicted for tax evasion. Investigators started looking into Samsung in January, after a former company lawyer said the company created slush funds worth $200 million. Last week, however, a prosecutor said an investigation found no evidence supporting an allegation that the company bribed government officials and prosecutors. Samsung has apologized for \"causing concerns\" and said it would outline plans for reform this week. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Samsung Group chairman, Lee Kun-hee, plans to resign, Yonhap reports .\nLee's decision comes a few days after his indictment amid corruption investigation .\nLee was indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust .\nProsecutors say indictment relates to a plan to transfer control of the firm to his son ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portugal have confirmed that captain Cristiano Ronaldo will not be fit for the World Cup playoffs against Bosnia-Herzegovina, thus ending a growing club-versus-country row. The Portuguese Football Federation had insisted that the world's most expensive player travel home to be assessed, despite his Spanish club Real Madrid insisting that he could not play due to his ongoing ankle problems. Coach Carlos Queiroz had selected the forward in his squad for Saturday's match in Lisbon and the return leg in Zenica four days later despite the objections of the Spanish club. Real at first refused to release the 24-year-old, having sent him to see Dutch specialist Niek van Dijk, but relented on Tuesday to allow the Portuguese medics to make their own verdict. \"After clinical evaluation and imaging, it was concluded that the player is not physically able to integrate the preparation stage of the national team for these games,\" read a statement on the Portuguese FF's Web site on Tuesday night. \"The Portuguese Football Federation wish the player a good and quick recovery.\" Ronaldo has been sidelined since October 10, when he aggravated an ankle problem playing for Portugal in a qualifier that he had suffered on club duty the previous month. Real do not expect him to be fit for at least another two weeks, but Portugal had hoped he could help them qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Queiroz defended his decision to make Ronaldo travel home to be assessed. \"Based on the rules and principles governing clubs and associations, we have put Cristiano in the squad,\" he said. \"I was coach of Real. The club deserves respect. I know the medical team, president and CE,. I have every respect for that club. This fact cannot compel me to put any club below or above the others. All clubs and players deserve equal treatment.\"","highlights":"Real Madrid's injured star forward Cristiano Ronaldo will not be fit for World Cup playoffs .\nThe 24-year-old was named in Portugal squad for matches against Bosnia-Herzegovina .\nCoach Carlos Queiroz selected him despite Real's objections due to his ankle problems .\nReal let Ronaldo travel to Portugal for tests, where it was confirmed that he could not play ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Captain Graeme Smith ground out a potentially match-winning century to put South Africa on top in the third cricket Test against England at Newlands on Tuesday. The left-hander was unbeaten on 162 at stumps on the third day, having added a record 230 for the second wicket with Hashim Amla (95) as the home side reached 312-2 in Cape Town's intense heat. England struggled from the outset, losing two wickets in the day's opening over and added just 32 runs to their overnight total of 241-7. That gave the Proteas a first-innings lead of 18 runs, and it looked like the home side might also find batting difficult when makeshift opener Ashwell Prince continued his miserable series, falling leg before wicket to spinner Graeme Swann for 15. But Smith and Amla set about the English attack, who gained no profit from a controversial incident when seamer Chris Broad stood on the ball with his studded boots before lunch when it was still relatively new. Smith survived a series of close calls and decision referrals as the duo set a new Test highest mark for the second wicket at the venue. The opener thought he was out soon after reaching his 19th century in the five-day format, but England wicketkeeper Matt Prior admitted that the edge off seamer Graham Onions had not carried. Amla finally fell to a bat-pad catch by Alistair Cook off Swann, falling five runs short of his eighth Test ton as he hit 14 boundaries off 156 deliveries. First-innings centurion Jacques Kallis was unbeaten on 20 at stumps, with Smith having plundered 22 boundaries in his 243 balls at the crease. Earlier, Morne Morkel (5-75) took two wickets in two balls to put England on the back foot, with Swann caught at slip by Smith for five from a fierce rising delivery and James Anderson following in identical fashion. Prior, who was 52 overnight, hit out to get England close to parity before dragging a short ball from Dale Steyn (4-74) onto his wicket to be last out for 76. England coach Andy Flower said Wednesday's morning session would prove vital for his side, who lead 1-0 after winning the second Test. \"We have got to attack with the new ball. We have seen wickets fall early on all the days so far. We have definitely got to attack early,\" the former Zimbabwe international player said. \"The first two days produced very difficult batting conditions, today was easier. We don't know what sort of conditions are going to arrive tomorrow. If it plays as easy as it has today, we have got a chance.\"","highlights":"South Africa captain Graeme Smith scores potentially match-winning unbeaten 162 .\nHosts reach 312-2 at stumps on third day of third Test against England at Newlands .\nSmith adds 230 for second wicket with Hashim Amla (95), a record for the Cape Town venue .\nEngland were earlier bowled out for 273, a first-innings deficit of 18 runs ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The relationship between China and the United States is \"the most important\" bilateral relationship in the world, a former Chinese foreign ministry official said Monday. Victor Zhikai Gao, now the director of the Beijing Private Equity Association, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the United States should deal with Beijing \"with respect\" and not be \"too abrasive.\" \"That's the minimum thing we can ask for, I believe,\" he said on the eve of talks between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Gao pointed out that China is now the United States' largest creditor nation, holding foreign reserves of more than $2 trillion, about two-thirds of which are assets that are denominated in U.S. dollars. \"China-U.S. relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world,\" Gao said. Obama appears keen to put past U.S.-Chinese disagreements behind him as he seeks Chinese cooperation on a host of issues from the global economy and climate change to nuclear proliferation. He's also looking to China for leadership on how to deal with repressive regimes such as Myanmar and Sudan, both of which are friends of Beijing and major energy suppliers to China. Critics of the U.S. president say he is downplaying what was once a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy, the promotion of human rights and democracy, in order to persuade China to help the United States achieve its foreign policy goals. But Obama insists America \"will never waver in speaking up for the fundamental values that we hold dear.\" Gao acknowledged global concern about China's human rights record, admitting the situation is not perfect. \"But if you look at today's human rights issues, and comparing that with what we had 30 years ago, 20 years ago, or 10 years ago, then China has made great improvements,\" he said. Gao said China and the Chinese people are great admirers of America. But he said, \"China's foreign policy is underlined by the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs. If it is only up to the United States to discuss human rights issues in China, this is unbalanced.\" He also tried to reassure critics in the United States, some of whom have accused China of manipulating its currency to keep the cost of Chinese goods artificially low, about the impact of China's rapidly expanding economic power. By some estimates, China's economy will be the same size as the U.S. economy by 2025, though there will still be a huge gap in economic output per person. \"Let me make the record straight. Over the past few months since the outbreak of the financial crisis, China has continued to purchase Treasury bonds issued by the U.S. government, rather than reducing them in any way,\" he said. \"So I think the American people need to realize that China has applied a very steady hand and very responsible hand in dealing with issues involving the dollar.\" Gao said China has no desire to be an enemy of the United States. \"Both China and the United States need to give each other due respect and need to incentivize each other. And then we can work together towards a better peace and better world.\"","highlights":"Victor Zhikai Gao is now the director of the Beijing Private Equity Association .\nGao says the United States should deal with Beijing \"with respect\"\nGao says China has no desire to be an enemy of the United States ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 14-year-old girl stoops and screams above the body of a Kent State University student killed in 1970 by an Ohio National Guardsman. John Filo's 1970 photo at Kent State University became a symbol of the anti-war movement at the time. A police chief aims his gun at a Vietcong prisoner's head in 1968, while executing him on a Saigon, Vietnam, street. And in 1989, an unarmed man in Beijing, China, stands defiantly in front of a column of tanks as they rolled into Tiananmen Square. These are iconic images, the kinds of shots that changed the way people viewed history as it unfolded. They put human faces on conflicts and became rallying cries for movements, inspiring those who demanded change. But while these photographs -- chronicling a single, silent moment -- were taken by seasoned photographers, two of whom won Pulitzer Prizes, this time amateur cell phone video is grabbing worldwide attention. It captures the death of a young woman named Neda Agha-Soltan, galvanizing protesters in Iran and shaping perceptions of a land and people few Westerners know. See how images have inspired change \u00bb . \"Every revolution needs icons and symbols -- an image that embodies a sense of universality of blight and at the same time innocence,\" said Roya Hakakian of Connecticut, a writer, poet and journalist who was born and raised in Iran. \"The image of Neda does both.\" The graphic video of Neda's death, caused by a gunshot fired during a protest in Tehran, Iran, records her final moments: Her eyes turn toward the camera, people scream and struggle to revive her while blood streams across her face. Watch how Neda's proven to be a tipping point \u00bb . Having gone viral with the help of social networking sites such as Twitter, the video of Neda's death has earned her the highly revered status of martyr. The woman who by all counts was an innocent bystander is now known as the \"Angel of Iran\" and is inspiring poetry. She is mourned publicly despite Revolutionary Guard threats, and her likeness graces posters. For Hakakian, who left Iran about 25 years ago, the significance of Neda's image runs deep. She said it's part of a larger picture of current protests being propelled by women, and a reflection of the Iran and the Iranians she knows. What outsiders have seen over the past three decades, she said, are fist-pumping men decrying America, images of hostages and \"the burning of Uncle Sam effigies.\" Americans, she continued, have gotten to know little beyond the talk of Hezbollah and Hamas support, discussions of nuclear bombs and the rants of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling for, among other things, the destruction of Israel. \"We come from different corners of the world, but we see the same thing,\" Hakakian said of the video of Neda's death. \"You don't need to be Iranian. You don't need to be her neighbor. You don't need to know her name. ... Anyone can watch this and come away with the sense of injustice and what's taking place, and I think that's why it's catching on.\" Graphic images have long played a role in driving social awareness and change, said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The skeletal figures of concentration camp victims drove home the horrors of the Holocaust. And the brutalized body of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy killed in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman, was shown at the insistence of his mother at his funeral, galvanizing the civil rights movement, Shapiro said. In more recent years, amateur video was credited with capturing the 1991 beating by Los Angeles police of Rodney King. And the first images out of Virginia Tech during the 2007 campus shooting were taken by students before professionals could hit the scene, added Nora Paul, founding director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota. The challenge today, in a time when anyone can post images, is making sure graphic photos or videos are put in context and used by news organizations in a way that moves stories forward, both Paul and Shapiro agreed. While news outlets may blur faces, offer warnings to viewers or not even use some images, the vastness of the Internet means that once they are out there -- no matter how horrifying or inappropriate for viewers -- it's next to impossible to stop them from being circulated. \"Even if you try to control access, the dam is already broken,\" Paul said. As for the impact on viewers, the effect of disturbing and violent images is hard to measure, said Elana Newman, who teaches psychology at the University of Tulsa and is a specialist in psychological trauma. An image often can communicate \"the depths of pain\" in a way that words alone cannot, Newman said. But she added scholars often debate whether such images turn people away from news, desensitize them or bolster a story's credibility. And there is also the challenge to consider of \"balancing the privacy of the victim with the importance of telling the story.\" Her own opinion? \"These images are helpful when these events are far away,\" she said, because they can bring home a story. They, however, are \"not helpful to people when they're in their own backyard.\" And the impact on the person who captures the image is often untold. John Filo was a senior photography student at Kent State when he snapped the photo that became a symbol of the shootings on campus and helped propel the anti-war movement at the time. He doesn't remember going through six rolls of film that day, but he remembers being shot at and is all too aware that a mere feet -- even inches -- separated him from life or death. In 13 seconds, four students were killed and nine were wounded. It took \"a good nine years\" for him to sort through the experience, he told CNN. His relationships suffered, as did his confidence as a photographer. He grappled with survivor's guilt, the images he saw but didn't share and the anxiety about how his work affected other people's lives. \"Everyone that was there that day was affected,\" said Filo, now director of photography for CBS media relations. \"At least I had something to do that day. There were people who felt totally helpless -- people who tried to hide behind a four-inch street curb.\" When no one could believe what was happening around them, he had the power to show it. \"You sit there as a journalist and say, 'If it was my brother or my mother, would I have taken this picture?' \" he reflected out loud. It's \"your purpose of being there. So yes, if it was my brother, if it was my mother, I'd still shoot the picture.\"","highlights":"Photos from Vietnam, Tiananmen Square and Kent State galvanized movements .\nCell phone video of death of Neda Agha-Soltan, at a protest in Iran, goes viral .\n\"Every revolution needs icons and symbols,\" Iranian-born writer says .\nAmateur videos and photos powerful but need context, experts say ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has granted a condemned Georgia inmate's request that his execution be delayed as he attempts to prove his innocence. Troy Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. The inmate, Troy Davis, has gained international support for his long-standing claim that he did not murder a Savannah police officer nearly two decades ago. Justice John Paul Stevens on Monday ordered a federal judge to \"receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at trial clearly establishes petitioner's innocence.\" Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer supported the decision. Sonia Sotomayor, who was sworn in August 8 as the newest member of the high court, did not take part in the petition. Davis' case has had a dramatic series of ups and downs in the past year. He was granted a stay of execution by the Supreme Court two hours before he was to be put to death last fall. A month later, the justices reversed course and allowed the execution to proceed, but a federal appeals court then issued another stay. The high court's latest ruling means Davis will continue to sit on death row. Stevens said the risk of putting a potentially innocent man to death \"provides adequate justification\" for another evidentiary hearing. His supporters in June delivered petitions bearing about 60,000 signatures to Chatham County, Georgia, District Attorney Larry Chisolm, calling for a new trial. Chisolm is the county's first African-American district attorney. Davis is also African-American. Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. Witnesses said Davis, then 19, and two others were harassing a homeless man in a Burger King restaurant parking lot when the off-duty officer arrived to help the man. Witnesses testified at trial that Davis then shot MacPhail twice and fled. But since his 1991 conviction, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the policeman. The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board last year held closed-door hearings and reinterviewed the witnesses and Davis himself. The panel decided against clemency. MacPhail's mother, Annaliese, told CNN at the time, \"This is what we were hoping for, and I hope pretty soon that we will have some peace and start our life, especially my grandchildren -- my grandson and granddaughter. It has overshadowed their lives.\" After the justices in October refused to grant a stay of execution, Davis' sister, Martina Correia, told CNN she was \"disgusted\" by the decision. \"It doesn't make any sense,\" she said. \"We are praying for a miracle or some kind of intervention. We will regroup and fight. We will never stop fighting. We just can't be discouraged. The fight is not over till it's over.\" Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas objected to the court's decision Monday, calling it a \"fool's errand.\" \"Petitioner's claim is a sure loser,\" wrote Scalia. \"Transferring his petition to the [federal] District Court is a confusing exercise that can serve no purpose except to delay the state's execution of its lawful criminal judgment.\" Ten days after the high court refused last October to intervene, a federal appeals court in Georgia granted a temporary stay of execution. Since then, further appeals by Davis' legal team have dragged on for nearly a year. Prominent figures ranging from the pope to the musical group Indigo Girls have asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial. Other supporters include celebrities Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; world leaders such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and former and current U.S. lawmakers Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Braun and John Lewis.","highlights":"Supreme Court's latest ruling means Troy Davis will continue to sit on death row .\nDavis was convicted in 1991 of murdering a Savannah, Georgia, police officer .\nSince his conviction, 7 of 9 witnesses against him have recanted their testimony .\nJustices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas objected to the court's decision ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- If there were any justice, the divas who've been trading off the No. 1 slot -- Mariah, Madonna, and newcomer Leona Lewis -- would also be slugging it out with a platinum-blond dark horse from Scandinavia. Swedish singer Robyn performs in London on April 19. Enter Sweden's Robyn, who arrives Stateside with \"Robyn,\" an album that's a veritable parade of Songs of the Summer. After landing a few mediocre teen-pop hits in the '90s (namely \"Show Me Love\"), she's forsaken her white-soul dullness for hooky dance-pop greatness with help from electro-favoring fellow Swedes like the Teddybears and the Knife. From the girly hip-hop of ''Konichiwa Bitches'' to the Eurodisco defiance of ''With Every Heartbeat,'' she's developed a real backbone to go with that asymmetrical 'do. Not since Pink's \"M!ssundaztood\" has an easily dismissed young thrush made so unexpected a leap to career artist. That comparison starts with Robyn's first single, ''Handle Me'' -- a less nasty but even hookier version of Pink's lounge-lizard-repelling \"U + Ur Hand.\" But she hardly sticks to playing a tough cookie: The next song, \"Bum Like You,\" offers an amusing, knowing lesson in How to Fall for a Jerk 101. Meanwhile, in the pensive, timbales-'n'-synths-driven \"Who's That Girl,\" Robyn decries her guy's impossible standards. \"Good girls are pretty, like, all the time,\" she sings. \"I'm just pretty some of the time.\" Her album, however? Fantastic all of the time. EW Grade: A E-mail to a friend . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"EW: Singer achieves hooky dance-pop greatness .\nRobyn had early success in the 1990s with hits such as \"Show Me Love\"\nHer look and style has been compared to singer Pink ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Battling blustery weather, a Lufthansa Airlines flight scraped its wing on the ground during a landing attempt in Hamburg, Germany, over the weekend. Internet footage of the Lufthansa A320 as it attempts a landing Saturday at Hamburg, Germany. The plane recovered and landed safely the second time around, the spokesman said. Dramatic amateur video of the incident that appeared on the Internet showed the Airbus A320 teetering as it tried to land during the brutal winter storm on Saturday. As it nears the tarmac, one wing visible scrapes the ground. Watch the plane try to land as a passenger describes experience \u00bb . \"As we were about to touch down, a gust of wind pressed the left wing towards the ground,\" a Lufthansa pilot identified only as Oliver A. said in a statement. \"We pulled up immediately. A maneuver we practice in training very often.\" The airline said the pilot has been flying for Lufthansa for 17 years. Watch as plane avoids crash \u00bb Airline spokesman Wolfgang Weber said the left winglet, a fin at the end of the wing scraped the ground after a gust of wind tipped the plane. Damage to the plane was minimal and not structural. He said the plane is already back in service. \u2022 Were you on board? Send us an iReport E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Amateur video of the moment the Lufthansa flight scraped its wing .\nStrong winds blamed for the near miss at Hamburg airport .\nThe plane recovered and landed safely the second time around ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jon Hamm has a confession to make: He hates his hair. Jon Hamm poses with his partner, Jennifer Westfeldt, at the premiere of \"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\" That may come as a surprise to fans of the actor, whose slick-backed hair is part of his signature look on \"Mad Men\" -- the show that just earned him another Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a TV drama. In the new movie \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" Hamm sports a slightly different 'do, with his bangs combed rakishly over one eye. It was in the context of promoting the sci-fi remake that Hamm revealed his tonsorial frustration. \"It's the bane of my existence. Goofy hair,\" he said in a self-deprecating interview with CNN. \"It never looks good ... It's a pain.\" Hamm says he's always worn his hair long, but had to cut it for AMC's TV series, in which he plays a 1960s Madison Avenue ad executive. He says stylists on the show, armed with hair spray and blow dryers, mold his coiffure into a hard shell. Helmet hair has come in handy at work. \"I've had a piece of the set fall on my head and my hair didn't move,\" he said. \"I had seven stitches in my head and my hair didn't move. That's impressive.\" Whether it's his hair, good looks, acting chops or a combination thereof, Hamm's star is on the rise in Hollywood. Apart from his co-starring role in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" Hamm recently completed work on the murder mystery \"The Boy in the Box.\" He hosted \"Saturday Night Live\" this fall, he's due to play Tina Fey's love interest on \"30 Rock\" and he continues to receive accolades for his work on \"Mad Men\" (nominations for an Emmy and a Golden Globe so far). How does that make Hamm feel? \"Exciting is the right way to say it. It's been a good year. It's very exciting,\" he said. \"I get to read a lot more scripts. I get to meet interesting people. I get to work with interesting people ... It's fun to be sort of invited to the party.\"","highlights":"\"Mad Men\" star Jon Hamm earned another Golden Globe nomination .\nHamm says hair is a pain -- especially short and lacquered for \"Mad Men\"\nActor currently appearing in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A suspected arms dealer accused of conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian guerrillas was extradited Friday from Spain to the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said. Kassar is accused of conspiring to sell weapons to FARC rebels. Monzer al Kassar had been wanted for decades before he was arrested in an undercover operation in Spain last year. Justice Department officials say he has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed combatants since the 1970s. He left Spain aboard a private plane accompanied by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents and arrived in New York at 11:30 a.m. local time Friday (1530 GMT), a DEA spokesman said. He is expected to appear before a federal magistrate in Manhattan before the end of the day. Kasser was arrested in Madrid a year ago by Spanish police working with undercover DEA officers posing as members of the FARC. The U.S. accuses Kassar and two other men of conspiring to sell millions of dollars' worth of weapons to FARC, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization. The weapons included surface-to-air missile systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of machine guns, and millions of rounds of ammunition, according to a federal indictment. A Spanish court last week approved his extradition on four counts, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals. The two co-defendants, Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, were both previously extradited to New York from Romania to face the same terrorism charges. All three could face life in prison. Kassar had told journalists before he was arrested that he had retired from arms dealing, but the U.S. says he had been involved since the 1970s, providing weapons and military equipment to armed factions in Nicaragua, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere. CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report .","highlights":"U.S. Justice Department says accused arms dealer extradited to the U.S.\nMonzer al Kassar was arrested in Spain last year .\nU.S. accuses him of trying to sell millions of dollars of weapons to guerrillas .\nHe is also accused of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals ."} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Like that other famous environmentalist, Thomas Friedman began his talk at the Asia Society in Hong Kong on December 16 with a simple PowerPoint slide. But that's where the similarities between Al Gore and The New York Times columnist end. Thomas L. Friedman has taken on a green hue with his latest book, \"Hot, Flat and Crowded\". Unlike Gore, Friedman is a distinctly different shade of green, a deeply pragmatic green that believes economic forces can usher in a revolution in environmental policy. He argues that systemic change simply requires showing the world that it needs green technology and letting pure economics do the rest. As a journalist, Friedman makes no claims to having scientific expertise in climate change. He is approaching it from a philosophical standpoint. Green capital . Friedman's new book \"Hot, Flat and Crowded\" is not a major departure from his previous books. Whether he's discussing globalization or green industry, he is writing from his deep-seated belief in the markets. He is an unabashed capitalist. For Friedman, the system works but it's not immune to bad decision-making. Green industry like globalization will come of age if given the right market environment. His faith in capitalism is equal to that in green technology -- for him, these are two things that are clearly reconcilable. So how do we do this? America as the bastion for innovation, Friedman argues, should play a big role. In fact, he confesses it really isn't a book about the environment and energy, its a book about America. For Friedman, America is slipping down the ranks of hegemonic power and climate change is its big chance to reposition itself as a global leader. The environment is merely an allegory for how the U.S. will achieve this revival. As an extension of that argument, all countries need to do the same. Right now, no country has really taken the lead in environmental technology, so what we have at the moment is an all out race to the top. Indeed Friedman's book was written before the financial meltdown but recent events have furthered his argument that environmental technology is the solution of all solutions. It's a sentiment I also came across at the recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting. Green Dream Team . Friedman seemed cautiously optimistic about Obama's ability to lead the green revolution. Given the disarray of many of America's financial institutions, it's unclear whether this new green message will get through. A glimmer of hope however is Obama's newly appointed energy secretary Steven Chu. There's been extensive chatter about him on environmental blogs in recent days with the media calling Chu the head of Obama's \"Green Dream Team.\" Friedman made a ringing endorsement of Chu as did many in the audience that day. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and the head of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, is seen as a promising choice for many environmentalists, one perhaps that proves Obama's intention to fulfill a key campaign promise on energy policy. Chu himself underwent an interesting move from physics to environmental technology. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 but left the world of Quantum Physics to study the science of global warming. As head of Berkeley National Lab, he led projects to the tune of $650 million channeling much of it towards green technology to develop advanced biofuels and solar power. Watch a video of Steven Chu from Berkeley University . Changing light bulbs and leaders . The audience listening to Friedman that day was clearly appreciative of his no-nonsense approach to the green issue. As Friedman puts it, \"it's not about changing light bulbs, it's about changing leaders.\" He confessed to having attended too many Earth Day concerts in the past and that no matter how many celebrities you get to show up or how you offset the event, it won't be enough to set off this green revolution. So as I sat there wondering whether the fish the guests had been eating for lunch was sustainable, for Friedman, it didn't really matter. For his revolution, he had bigger fish to fry.","highlights":"Journalist and author of \"Hot, Flat and Crowded\" spoke at Hong Kong event .\nPragmatic approach to environmentalism also a means to transform U.S. economy .\nFor Friedman, innovation in energy technology is solution of all solutions ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The aging veterans gingerly walk from the plane in the nation's capital. Some get pushed in wheelchairs. A brass band strikes up World War II era tunes. Strangers rise to their feet and clap their hands. \"Why are they doing this?\" says Frank Bales, 86, a co-pilot on a B-24 during World War II. \"I feel as humbled as a mouse.\" Walter Victor was overwhelmed as he made his way through the crowd. \"The chills came over me. Very seldom do you see something like that,\" says the 92-year-old army veteran. These World War II veterans have traveled here to visit the National World War II Memorial, which honors the 16 million U.S. armed forces who served and the more than 400,000 who died in battle. The vets made the trip thanks to a former employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A physician's assistant at the VA in Springfield, Ohio, Earl Morse was struck by the WWII vets he treated and how few made the journey to see the memorial that honors them. \"They dedicated the WWII memorial in May of 2004, 60 years after the war had ended. That was a cause of celebration in my clinic. All of the veterans wanted to see it but they were in poor health or didn't have the means to visit it.\" \"Reality set in,\" Morse says, \"they were never going to see their memorial.\" Morse was determined to change that, because he so admired the quiet grit and heroism of the unassuming men he treated every day. He took his cause to a local air club. \"I stood before 150 pilots and told them I was going to start flying WWII veterans to Washington. I said if you want to help me, the WWII veteran doesn't pay a penny. You'll have to rent an airplane and cover all the travel costs.\" \"Honor Flight\" took to the skies in May of 2005. Six planes flew 12 veterans. The next month, eight planes flew 16 veterans. Today, it operates like a volunteer airline, with 86 hubs in 33 states. Instead of renting small planes, they charter Boeing jets, thanks to donations that keep the planes in the sky. So far, more than 30,000 veterans have experienced a visit to the memorial, courtesy of Honor Flight. \"Witnessing their emotions is what fuels our cause. When you see WWII veterans break down in tears because they had no idea how much this nation reveres, cherishes and loves them for what they've done, it really overwhelms them,\" Morse says. In the days and weeks before each Honor Flight, an army of ground volunteers coordinates every detail of each trip -- from the buses that pick them up to the meals they eat. Shortly after Bales and his group arrived in Washington this day, they were taken by bus to the memorial. Many said they were stunned by its size and scope. Inscriptions carved in granite recognize specific battles that were fought in Europe and across the Pacific. A wall of stars marks the high price of freedom. They paused to remember the 448,000 who died in the war -- and their fellow survivors who didn't live to see this moment. \"Each of those stars represents 100 men and women who died in WWII, and I realized that my division has almost 39 stars on that wall,\" said Tom Rone, 85, who stormed the bullet-ridden beaches on Guadalcanal as a platoon sergeant with the Marines. Morse says the trip often provides closure for the vets who visit. Many veterans open up at the memorial and speak in detail for the first time about what they went through. \"I've had exchanges with veterans that are jaw dropping,\" Morse says. \"You can't fathom what it's like to have experienced what they went through fighting for their lives.\" The same \"Honor Flight\" that transported the veterans to Washington returns them back home, landing just 12 hours after it took off. The elderly warriors seem renewed rather than exhausted by their whirlwind trip. \"I will never forget this,\" say 86-year-old Marcus Lee Long, who served in the Pacific on the USS Ellet. \"Everybody is so happy and treating us so nice.\" Allen Pittard, 88, added, \"I feel so fortunate to be here. So many didn't make it.\" For Morse, the founder of Honor Flight, the end of each flight is a bittersweet experience. His mission continues with an air of urgency, because less than 10 percent of the Americans who served in World War II are still alive. An estimated 1,200 WWII veterans die every day. \"In another five to seven years, our efforts will be a moot point because they will be gone or too infirm to participate in a mission like this,\" he says.","highlights":"Program called Honor Flight takes WWII vets to see memorial in Washington .\nHonor Flight has taken 30,000 vets to D.C. since it began in 2005 .\n\"I've had exchanges with veterans that are jaw dropping,\" founder says .\nWW II vet on the trip: \"I feel as humbled as a mouse\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rape has turned into a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the number of attacks on women having grown threefold over the past few years, human rights activists said Friday. A Congolese rape victim, left, at the Heal Africa clinic in Goma on August 8, 2009. Anneke van Woudenberg, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Christiane Amanpour that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Eastern Congo since 1998, and the condition of women has become more dire as the Congolese army has pressed a military campaign against armed groups in the countryside. \"Rape is being used as a weapon of war in eastern Congo. So we notice and we have documented that when armed groups walk into town, they will rape the women and girls, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, in order to punish the local population,\" she said. \"It's the easiest way to terrorize a community.\" Congo has witnessed one of the worst humanitarian crises since World War II, with a death toll estimated at more than 5 million. Most of the dead have come not from direct violence, but the consequences of the fighting: disease and starvation. While the war formally ended six years ago, fighting persists in eastern Congo, and women are paying a high price. CNN visits a devastated community \u00bb . \"One of the other sad realities is that the majority of those who are raped are adolescent girls, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds. Their lives are often ruined by this. And I think we've got to take more seriously -- protection of civilians is not just protecting them from death. It's protecting them from rape,\" van Woudenberg said. Listen to more from van Woudenberg . There have also been reports of members of the Congolese army, particularly high ranking officers, attacking women. In May, the United Nations handed over the names of five top military officers accused of rape. Two of the senior officers are being detained in the capital of Kinshasa and the three others must report to authorities under close observation. They are awaiting trial. Still more must be done, aid groups say, starting with the establishment of a special court made up of Congolese and international judges and prosecutors to investigate rape allegations. \"I think they've got to start holding to account the generals and colonels who are either themselves responsible or who allow their troops to rape. And so far, those are the guys that have been untouchable,\" said van Woudenberg. \"No general has yet been held to account in Congo for rape, and it's high time that that changes.\" Congo has taken some measures to try to curb the sexual violence. In 2006, its parliament passed a law criminalizing rape, with penalties ranging from five to 20 years. Penalties are doubled under certain circumstances, including gang-rape and if the perpetrator is a public official. Kabila's wife, Olive Lemba Kabila, has launched a public campaign speaking out against rapes of the nation's women and girls. The army has also started a zero-tolerance campaign in which commanders have emphasized to troops that they must respect human rights and protect civilians from harm, according to the U.N. The United Nations maintains in Congo its largest peacekeeping force anywhere in the world. But the forces have been ineffective at stopping rape. Jean-Marie Guehenno, the former head of U.N. peacekeeping, told Amanpour that the international forces face a serious problem: Too few troops assigned to the vast inaccessible reaches of eastern Congo. \"In the Kivu provinces, there are 10 million people,\" Guehenno said. \"If one applied the counterinsurgency ratios that the U.S. Army thinks of -- say, 20 per 1,000 -- that would mean 200,000 troops in Congo -- 200,000 accountable troops.\" \"The U.N. is in a tough spot, to be frank, because if it did not give any support to the Congolese army, probably the Congolese army might prey even more on the population,\" Guehenno said. Part of the problem stems from the tactic applied by the Congolese government to quell previous armed rebellions against Kinshasa by incorporating insurgents into the ranks of the national army, leading to a military that paid scant attention to human rights, and the rights of women in particular. \"What needs to be done is to have a state in Congo that can control its territory and that has the confidence of the people,\" Guehenno said. \"The violence in the Kivu, the violence in Ituri, it is the result of a vacuum, the fact that there is no administration, there is no credible state, there is no justice. And so that vacuum is being occupied by various militias. \"And, unfortunately, when the Congolese army integrates a militia without sorting between the killers and those who could be integrated, it just adds to the problem.\" Van Woudenberg called for international pressure to force the Congolese army to bring abusers to justice. \"My worst fear is that we're going to continue to see those individuals responsible for rape being promoted. My hope is that the women and girls of -- of eastern Congo in particular -- will continue to speak out. I think we've seen immense courage from those women and girls to say, 'No, we've had enough.'\"","highlights":"Human Rights Watch: 200,000 women, girls raped in Eastern Congo since 1998 .\nCondition of women more dire as the army fights armed groups in the country .\nMore than 5 million die in Congo from disease, hunger resulting from fighting .\nCongo has taken some measures to try to curb the sexual violence ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A top official in Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley was kidnapped Sunday -- a day after a cease-fire between the government and Taliban militants was supposed to go into effect. Girls study this week in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where education fhas been an issue in peace talks. Kushal Khan was on his way to take up his new post as the District Coordination Officer when unknown gunmen kidnapped him and six members of his security guards near Mingora, the valley's main city, officials said. Khan was nabbed a day after the provincial government declared a permanent cease-fire agreement with Taliban militants in the valley. Yet, hours after the announcement, Maulana Fazlullah -- the Taliban commander in the area -- was playing down the agreement with aggressive rhetoric in a radio broadcast. Fazlullah said militants will continue their fight to impose Islamic law, or sharia, in the region. Watch cease-fire deal with Taliban \u00bb . Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. It is situated near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 km) from the capital city of Islamabad . Watch what sharia law requires . The valley boasted the country's only ski resort until it was shut down after militants overran the area. The area was also a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts and visitors to the ancient Buddhist ruins in the area. In recent months, however, militants have unleashed a wave of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives across the North West Frontier Province. The militants want to require veils for women, beards for men and ban music and television. The fighting has displaced nearly half of Swat's population, officials said. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants. As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly bombings, beheadings and kidnappings -- and said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out. On Saturday, the government of the province said it had reached a deal with the Taliban for a permanent cease-fire. It marked a major concession by the Pakistani government in its attempt to hold off Taliban militants. The agreement means boys' schools will reopen on Monday and camps will be set up for Swat residents who have fled the fighting or whose homes had been destroyed. Watch what sharia law requires \u00bb . CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report .","highlights":"Provincial govt. struck permanent cease-fire with Taliban in Swat Valley Saturday .\nEstablishment of strict Islamic law in the region is key to the agreement .\nSwat Valley was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations .\nCentral govt. launched an intense military offensive against militants in late July ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Sri Lankan court sentenced a journalist Monday to serve 20 years in prison for articles that criticized the military, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam is led from court after being sentenced. \"The AHRC is not surprised by this judgment because at the very inception of this case, the AHRC pointed out that this is purely a political case,\" the commission said in a statement. J.S. Tissainayagam, the editor of a monthly magazine, was arrested in March 2008 for printing articles critical of the Sri Lankan military's treatment of civilians during the country's war on the Tamil Tiger rebel group, according to several human rights groups. The Tamil journalist was held without charge for several months, prompting outrage from human rights and press freedom organizations. He was later charged under the country's controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act. His case has drawn international attention to the plight of press freedom in Sri Lanka, which ended its decades-long war against the Tamil rebels earlier this year. The country's military has been accused of numerous atrocities against civilians during the final months of the 26-year conflict. Sri Lanka has denied the accusations, and routinely rejects calls by human rights groups for independent investigations into its campaign against the Tigers. U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned Tissainayagam in his May 1 statement on World Press Freedom Day: . \"In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed: from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, Burma to Uzbekistan, Cuba to Eritrea. Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures like J.S. Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka, or Shi Tao and Hu Jia in China.\" The Asian Human Rights Commission condemned Monday's sentence as \"the most glaring proof of the absence of freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.\" It called on Sri Lanka and the international community \"to condemn the judgment and the sentence in Tissainayagam's case and to call for his unconditional release.\"","highlights":"J.S. Tissainayagam, editor of a monthly magazine, arrested in March 2008 .\nPrinting articles critical of Sri Lankan military's treatment of civilians during civil war .\nTamil journalist was held without charge for several months .\nCase drawn international attention to the plight of press freedom in Sri Lanka ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives passed a $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010 Thursday night, capping off weeks of acrimonious partisan debate and a long day of voting marked by the defeat of several alternative plans. The U.S. House passed a $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010 Thursday night. The House version of the budget passed by a margin of 233-196 in a virtual party-line vote. All but 20 House Democrats supported it; no House Republican voted in favor. In London, England, where he has been attending the Group of 20 summit, President Obama lauded the House vote. \"Tonight, the House of Representatives took another step toward rebuilding our struggling economy,\" he said in a statement. \"And by making hard choices and challenging the old ways of doing business, we will cut in half the budget deficit we inherited within four years. With this vote comes an obligation to pursue our efforts to go through the budget line-by-line, searching for additional savings. Like the families we serve, we must cut the things we don't need to invest in those we do.\" The Senate plans a vote on its $3.53 trillion version of the budget later Thursday night. That vote, too, is expected to fall on party lines. Moderate GOP Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, who voted in favor of Obama's stimulus bill last month, intend to vote against what is essentially the blueprint of Obama's economic policies going forward. The House budget largely tracks Obama's initial proposed spending plan, with the exception of a decision to drop his $250 billion request for potential future bailouts of struggling financial institutions. Watch more on Obama's budget details \u00bb . Fiscally conservative House Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, also negotiated with House Democratic leaders to cut $7 billion from the president's $540 billion request for nondefense discretionary spending. Under the House Democrats' plan, the federal government will run an anticipated deficit of $1.2 trillion in the next fiscal year. Their plan promises to cut the deficit by more than half by 2013. House Democrats agreed to extend the middle class tax cut that was included in the recently passed economic stimulus plan, but failed to specify how the cut would be paid for after 2010. They also included language that allows for the controversial procedure called \"budget reconciliation\" for health care, a tool that would limit debate on major policy legislation. Senate Democrats did not include reconciliation in their version of the budget. The matter is guaranteed to be a major partisan sticking point when the two chambers meet to hammer out a final version of next year's spending plan. If it passes, it would allow the Senate to pass Obama's proposed health-care reform without the threat of a Republican-led Senate filibuster. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, speaking for most of his GOP Senate colleagues, warned Tuesday that if a health-care \"reconciliation winds up in the budget bill, it'll be like a declaration of war. ... I hope that that wedge doesn't get thrown in there.\" Both the House and the Senate version of the budget allow former President George W. Bush's tax cuts for couples who make more than $250,000 to expire in 2010, and both plans let Obama's signature tax cuts -- $400 for individuals and $800 for couples -- expire as well, unless the White House finds a way to pay for them. Under the House plan, the cuts would expire in 2010; in the Senate plan, they would expire in 2012. Key differences between House and Senate include deficits and nonmilitary discretionary spending. The House budget would reduce the deficit from $1.7 trillion in 2009 to $598 billion in 2014, House Democrats said, while the Senate Democrats say their plan would bring the deficit down an additional $80 billion. The House rejected an alternative proposal put forward by the GOP leadership, which called for $4.8 trillion less in overall spending over the next decade, in part through a five-year freeze in most non-defense discretionary spending. \"House Republicans were united in the desire to find reasonable solutions for middle-class families, focused directly on creating jobs, tax relief and empowering small businesses to survive and grow,\" said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. \"The Republican budget was crafted to help those Americans worried about their jobs, their health care, their financial security, and their real fears that Washington is spending and borrowing money that America does not have. Republicans offered a comprehensive budget that provides the American people with the ideas, energy and common-sense solutions they are looking for.\" Among other things, the House GOP's version of the budget would have repealed the entire $787 billion economic stimulus package except for an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It also would have rolled back a recently passed 8 percent spending boost in the budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Watch more on the GOP budget alternative \u00bb . Thirty-eight Republicans voted against their own leadership's bill in that vote, while two Democrats voted in favor of it. The final vote was 293-137 against the GOP proposal. Overall, the Republican version of the budget called for $3.6 trillion less in borrowing over the next 10 years. CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: In England, President Obama praises House vote .\nBudget passes 233-196 in party-line vote; no House Republican voted in favor .\nBudget drops Obama's $250 billion request for potential financial institution bailouts .\nSenate plans vote on its $3.53 trillion version of budget later Thursday night ."} -{"article":"Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- To most people these days, an \"app\" is something you download on your smartphone to help you do a specific task -- say, find a good nearby restaurant. But big tech companies, seeing how applications have boosted the appeal of gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, are starting to view apps as low-cost enhancements for a broader range of products, from netbooks to TVs and beyond. At the International Consumer Electronics Show here this week, microchip maker Intel launched an app store geared towards netbook computers. Not to be outdone, Samsung announced it will open its own app store for HDTVs, Blu-ray players and mobile phones. Even unlikely players such as Ford Motor Co. are getting in on the app act. Ford announced Thursday that several applications, including one that will read aloud Twitter tweets while you're driving, will be available on many of its vehicles later this year. What's driving this sudden app movement? \"Mobile computer chips have gotten so powerful and affordable, and it's so easy to get on the Internet, that it doesn't make much sense to ship a gadget with dedicated, stagnant functionality,\" said Brian X. Chen, who covers technology for Wired.com. \"Add an Internet connection and a software platform open for third-party programmers to develop for -- i.e., open an app store -- and you can enhance the capabilities of a gadget, thus future-proofing it, at no cost.\" Sales of the apps, which typically cost a few dollars apiece, also create a new source of revenue for the device's manufacturer, Chen said. And consumers win, too: They get more value out of their product without having to keep buying new hardware. Software applications have been around for decades, but it took the recent success of the iPhone and Apple's App Store -- with their can-do slogan, \"there's an app for that\" -- to make apps sexy on the consumer level. Developers have created more than 100,000 apps for the store -- at no cost to Apple, which takes a cut of revenues. Less than 18 months after the store launched in 2008, owners of the iPhone and iPod Touch have downloaded more than 3 billion applications. Rival smartphone makers such as Palm and Research in Motion soon followed with app stores of their own. It's now standard for Web properties such as Facebook, Google and eBay to have mobile apps that let users share updates or make purchases on the go. The number of people who use Internet-enabled mobile devices is expected to pass 1 billion by 2013, according to industry analysts, meaning that demand for apps will only grow. And as more people grow accustomed to using apps to quickly check the weather or send a tweet on Twitter, more manufacturers will develop apps-ready products, experts say. On Thursday Intel launched a beta version of its app store, called the Intel AppUp center, for netbooks, the smaller, simpler cousins of laptops. About 100 apps, in such categories as entertainment, games, health, social networking, are now available for download at www.intelappup.com. The beta store will host apps for both Microsoft Windows and the open-source Moblin operating system, which target the popular netbook computer category powered by Intel's Atom processor. \"Apps have been defined in people's minds as these little things that run on the iPhone. Our focus is on getting lots of smart people to think of the netbook as a device they can target [for developing apps],\" said Peter Biddle, who run's Intel's Atom software program. Eventually, Intel and its partners expect to expand the store to include applications for smartphones, TVs and even consumer electronic appliances. Meanwhile, Samsung is betting that as television merges with the Internet, more channel-surfers will enjoy being able to order a movie from Netflix or scroll through photos on Picasa without having to leave their couch. Samsung is calling Samsung Apps \"the world's first HDTV-based application store,\" although it's not expected to launch until later this year. Samsung has opened the store to third-party developers and hopes to have more than 150 apps available for download by the end of 2010. Many content partners have already signed up. \"There's going to be an application for everything,\" said Samsung product training manager Jermain Anderson, who envisions guys sitting around a living room, playing Texas hold 'em poker on a big-screen TV while holding their virtual cards on their smartphones. Suddenly, a TV becomes more than a TV -- it's also a computer screen and a gaming console. \"The idea is to make everyone's life more convenient without them having to go to more than one place to do it,\" Anderson said. \"Down the road, the app store will bring a lot of different Samsung products together.\" Soon, apps will even be coming to the highway. Ford has signed agreements with three partners: the Pandora music service, Stitcher Internet radio and OpenBeak, which helps users send and receive messages via Twitter. Drivers will not be able to read the tweets on the dashboard -- instead, a computer voice will say them aloud. The three apps would live on users' smartphones but would be controlled in the vehicle through Ford's SYNC system, which allows motorists to operate mobile devices through voice commands or steering-wheel controls. The apps will be available later this year for any Ford vehicle with a SYNC system. \"When we saw the apps craze ... [we realized] there's a consumer demand there,\" said Alan Hall, a technology communications manager at Ford. Hall was quick to say that Ford would not approve apps -- such as video games -- that might distract the driver. \"Apps are becoming the norm for how people quickly and easily access the information they want,\" Hall added. \"People are used to getting information on demand. They have a digital life outside the car -- they should have a digital life inside the car.\"","highlights":"Companies are opening app stores and bringing applications to TVs, netbooks and even cars .\nIntel launched an app store for netbooks at the Consumer Electronics Show this week .\nSamsung will launch an app store later this year for HDTVs and Blu-ray players .\nFord Motor Co. will make select apps available for new vehicles later in 2010 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Baltimore, Maryland, police officers were shot Saturday after a gunman's domestic dispute led to shootings at two locations, a police spokesman told CNN. Crime scene tape cordons off a squad car involved in a chase and shootings Saturday in Baltimore. The rampage began at the home of the suspect's ex-girlfriend, who has a restraining order against him, police spokesman Don Moses said. The suspect, 34, forced his way into her home and they argued, Moses said. In an apparent rage, the man fired a round from a 9 mm Ruger, Moses said. The ex-girlfriend called police about 10:30 a.m. Moses described to CNN what unfolded next. Police have not released the names of anyone involved. Police received a call from the suspect's current girlfriend just before 11 a.m. She told them the suspect came to her home and assaulted her, and she suffered minor injuries. While a 42-year-old policeman was at her home tending to her report, the suspect called her. The officer talked to the suspect on the phone and convinced him to return to west Baltimore, where the girlfriend lived. When the suspect pulled up in a car, the officer approached him and was fired upon, suffering a gunshot wound to the buttocks. The wounded officer got into his patrol car and chased the suspect. An officer providing backup at the first shooting scene spotted the suspect's vehicle parked three blocks away. As the policeman observed the vehicle from inside his patrol car, the suspect appeared on the driver's side and fired at the officer. The backup officer, 44, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, was shot in the chest and arm but managed to return fire, hitting the suspect three times. He was in stable condition after surgery and was expected to survive. The suspect is in custody and expected to live, Moses said. The officer shot in the buttocks was treated and released from the hospital Saturday.","highlights":"Police spokesman: Rampage began at the home of the suspect's ex-girlfriend .\nWoman told police the suspect came to her home and assaulted her, CNN told .\nOne officer received minor wound, and a second was stable after surgery .\nSecond officer shot returned fire, wounding suspect, who is expected to survive ."} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia's president launched a verbal volley at Georgia's leaders on Monday, as Georgia hit back with renewed accusations that the Russian invasion was premeditated. Russian soliders on patrol outside the Georgian city of Gori on Monday. President Dmitry Medvedev said: \"The world has seen that even today, there are political morons who are ready to kill innocent and defenseless people in order to satisfy their self-serving interests, while compensating for their own inability to resolve complicated issues by using the most terrible solution -- by exterminating an entire people. \"I think that there should be no mercy for that. We will do our best not to let this crime go unpunished.\" He was speaking at a visit to the military headquarters at Vladikavkaz, near the Russian-Georgian border. Each side accuses the other of \"ethnic cleansing\" during the conflict over South Ossetia, which erupted August 7. In Washington, Georgia's ambassador to the United States said the Russian push into Georgia the following day had been long planned. \"You just don't move more than 1,200 tanks and 15,000 soldiers into a country within 12 hours without previous planning,\" Ambassador Vasil Sikharulidze said. The conflict began more than a week ago when Georgian troops entered the breakaway territory of South Ossetia to attack pro-Moscow separatists. Russia responded by invading the country on August 8, prompting heavy fighting with Georgian forces that spread to another breakaway territory, Abkhazia. The Georgian troops withdrew and Russian forces took control of several areas -- prompting an international outcry. After diplomatic efforts led by France on behalf of the European Union, Georgia and Russian signed a cease-fire. France is the rotating EU head. Russia's military says its withdrawal from Georgia has begun, but a senior Pentagon official told reporters Monday evening that there has been little evidence of Russian troops pulling out. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Watch more on Russian withdrawal \u00bb . \"We're talking about pulling our troops away to the borders of South Ossetia. They will not be on Georgia territory,\" Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces deputy chief of staff, said Monday. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Russia needs to start pulling back \"without delay,\" saying the \"Russians have committed to withdrawing, and they need to withdraw. And so that is what we are looking for.\" A Georgian Interior Ministry official said there have been \"no signs\" of a Russian troop withdrawal despite Russia's pledge to start moving back on Monday. News footage showed Russian tanks pushing away Georgian police cars about 20 miles (32 km) south of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Watch tanks deal with the police car \u00bb . Witnesses said Georgian police cars had been blocking the road and the police told Russian tank commanders that they were carrying out orders. The tanks proceeded to plow ahead, damaging the police cars in the process. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said a Russian armored column had been seen moving a bit deeper into Georgian territory, traveling south from Kashuri to Borjomi. Kashuri is about 10 miles (16 km) south of South Ossetia. Another column was moving north from the Kashuri area to Sachkhere. Nogovitsyn told reporters Russian troops were leaving Gori on Monday, the Interfax news agency said. He did not say how many troops were withdrawing or how many would return to South Ossetia or Russia. However, CNN journalists in Gori, near South Ossetia, said it was still under Russian control and there was no evidence the Russians were pulling out. Also, Russian tank and artillery positions were seen extending nine miles (15 km) south of Gori. Nogovitsyn said Russia was not yet moving vessels in the Black Sea from their positions near Georgia, but they would return to Sevastopol after the settlement of the conflict. He said Russia's deputy foreign minister had presented the U.S. ambassador to the country with a timetable of the events that led to Russia's actions and clearly indicated Georgia's responsibility. He said a prisoner exchange involving the transfer of 12 Russians and 15 Georgians had been set up. \"We were all set and then the Georgians came up with a bunch of new requirements with no time for us to act so the time to exchange prisoners was interrupted,\" Nogovitsyn said. Georgia said Russia was spreading \"false\" accusations and that it was ready to pursue an exchange. The six-point deal gives no timetable for a Russian withdrawal, nor any other specifics, according to a copy of the agreement provided by Georgia's government. A U.S. defense official told CNN about evidence of Russian SS-21 missiles and launchers in South Ossetia. Lt. Gen. Nikolai Uvarov, a Russia Defense Ministry spokesman, disputed that, telling CNN that \"no, they are not present.\" The U.S. official said while \"Russian forces continue to consolidate their enclaves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,\" they \"are expected to slowly remove forces from Georgia.\" Diplomatic discussions continued Monday. Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, representing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was in Brussels, Belgium, to meet with representatives from the European Union, NATO, and the United Nations. The OSCE is working on a plan to increase its observers in the region to 100 people. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said there was \"mounting evidence that Russian and Georgian military used armed force unlawfully during the South Ossetian conflict\" and it emphasized that this \"highlights the need for international fact-finding missions in Georgia.\" \"This conflict has been a disaster for civilians,\" said Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia deputy director. The conflict has devastated parts of Georgia and South Ossetia, with many casualties reported. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 158,000 people had been displaced by fighting in Georgia, mostly from districts outside the breakaway territories where the fighting began. CNN's Bruce Conover, Jill Dougherty and Max Tkachenko in Moscow, Fred Pleitgen in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tommy Evans and Michael Ware in Gori, Georgia, and Barbara Starr at the Pentagon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pentagon official: Little evidence that Russian troops leaving Georgia .\nRussia begins Georgia troop \"pullback,\" military chief says .\nRussian tanks pushed through a Georgian police road block, witnesses say .\nHuman Rights Watch: This conflict has been a disaster for civilians ."} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- September 23, 2009 . Quick Guide . Leaders Talk Climate Change - Discover some of the topics addressed by the U.N. General Assembly. Southeast Flooding - Witness the impact of severe flooding across the southeastern U.S. Troops in Afghanistan - Consider different opinions on how to fight the war in Afghanistan. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: The U.N. General Assembly is in session, and so is this edition of CNN Student News. Bringing you today's commercial-free headlines, I'm Carl Azuz. First Up: Leaders Talk Climate Change . AZUZ: First up, representatives from nearly 200 countries come together in New York to talk about global issues. This is called the United Nations General Assembly, and the decisions and resolutions that it makes set the agenda for a lot of what the U.N. works on throughout the year. One of the biggest focuses for this gathering is climate change. Secretary General Ban ki Moon calls it one of the most important issues of the 21st century. He's hoping that countries will work on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists believe contribute to climate change. During speeches yesterday, President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who lead the countries that give off the most greenhouse gases, pledged to try to reduce them. Neither leader offered a specific timeframe for this, but both said they plan to cut greenhouse gases and increase the use of clean energy sources. President Obama also touched on another controversial issue yesterday: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Peace talks between the two groups have fizzled out recently, but Obama is urging both sides to come back to the negotiating table and work on a permanent solution. He met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday in an effort to restart discussions between these two. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Despite all the mistrust, we have to find a way forward. We have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering. Spoken Word . SONNY PERDUE, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA: This has been a 48-hour ordeal that people had been, stayed here and to care for the safety of people. I just want to thank them. I want to thank those firefighters and first responders all across Georgia, from the east and Stevens county, to the west in Paulding and Carroll and Douglas, and in Cherokee in northwest Georgia. This has been a huge effort. Southeast Flooding . AZUZ: Okay, that was Georgia's Gov. Sonny Perdue there, talking about severe flooding that has led to at least eight deaths. Noting that nearly all of those were from drivers and passengers who were swept away by floodwaters, Gov. Perdue pleaded with residents to stay off the roads until the waters recede. Yesterday, he planned to ask President Obama to declare a federal emergency in order to free up money that would help with the relief efforts. With flash flood watches stretching across parts of the southeastern U.S., Rob Marciano examines the impact of this severe weather. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's a cruel irony. After months of drought, heavy rains spawning deadly floods. Across much of the southeast, streets are covered. Homes are destroyed. Tranquil creeks now on a rampage. In some places near Atlanta, nearly two feet of rain fell. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the highest water that I've seen, and I've been living around here all my life. MARCIANO: This couple was rescued by boat in the pitch black. They had to use flashlights to see. And the only thing they could bring with them: their dog and a few family treasures. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are my wedding pictures. MARCIANO: But they were luckier than others, others who lost something so much more dear. In Georgia, right now, 17 counties under a state of emergency. Officials say they're in rescue and recovery mode, but those rescues, especially around Atlanta, have been slow and difficult. Pictures showing just how crippled some areas of the city are. In the western suburb of Powder Springs, a house is left to burn. Next to it, a fire truck stranded, helpless in the rising floodwaters. These two men had to get around on inflatable mattresses, and so many people are stunned by what they're seeing. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, shock. I don't think it's really set in that this is real. This is, we're flooded out. We don't have a home. MARCIANO: Rob Marciano, CNN, Austell, Georgia. (END VIDEO CLIP) AZUZ: For another perspective, look at this! This is the amusement park, Six Flags over Georgia and under water. It's located west of Atlanta, and what you're seeing here is a coaster called the Scream Machine. I think I've ridden this thing every time I've been to Six Flags. From the looks of it, I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Amazing pictures. Impact Your World . AZUZ: Obviously, the relief efforts are going to be going on for a while. Several organizations are already at work. To find out how you can take part, head to the Spotlight section on our home page and click on the \"Impact Your World\" link. I.D. Me . MICHELLE WRIGHT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm a Central American nation located between Guatemala and Nicaragua. I gained my independence from Spain in 1821. My capital city is Tegucigalpa. I'm Honduras, and I'm home to about 7.8 million people. Ousted President . AZUZ: Political turmoil has led to clashes in that capital city, all based around Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya. He was actually removed from office back in June and faces charges of violating the country's constitution. Zelaya, who's in the white hat in the middle of your screen here, returned to Honduras Monday. He took up refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. If he leaves, the Honduran government says it will arrest him. The Brazilian embassy isn't considered part of Honduras, so Zelaya can't be arrested as long as he stays inside. Police and soldiers positioned outside the embassy clashed with Zelaya's supporters before clearing the area yesterday. The situation has led the U.S. to close its embassy in the Honduran capital. Troops in Afghanistan . AZUZ: Meantime, the president of Afghanistan says he supports a top U.S. commander's call to increase the number of U.S. troops in the Asian country. President Hamid Karzai called it \"the right approach.\" But it's certainly not the only one. As Barbara Starr explains, there are several ideas on how to fight the war in Afghanistan, and who that war should be against. (BEGIN VIDEO) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As violence increases daily in Afghanistan, some are calling for a major troop build-up. The president signaling when he ordered a review of the Afghan war, he wasn't anxious to quickly send tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency. OBAMA: Let's do a soup-to-nuts re-evaluation, focusing on what our original goal was, which was to get al Qaeda, the people who killed 3,000 Americans. STARR: Attacking al Qaeda is fundamentally a counter-terrorism strategy, requiring a limited number of new troops. It's the \"Plan B\" advocated by some in the White House, according to a senior Pentagon official. But Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander, is still calling for a counterinsurgency strategy to strengthen Afghanistan to the point the Taliban have no safe haven there. That could take tens of thousands of more troops beyond the 68,000 now planned. Retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs says it's a must. GEN. MONTGOMERY MEIGS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: If you're going to get the tribes over on your side and the side of government, you have to have enough people there to make things happen for them, economically, socially and in terms of security. STARR: Could the Pentagon put U.S. firepower, such as fighter jets and drones, in neighboring countries to reduce the U.S. presence inside Afghanistan? MEIGS: My point is, if you don't have the kind of intelligence you need to make those systems effective, you are going to swing and miss a lot. STARR: The powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Service committee says more U.S. troops right away are not the answer for another reason. SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I've been recommending to the president that, first of all, before any consideration is made of additional combat forces, that we get the Afghan army bigger, better equipped. STARR: The new bottom line? Support for the war in Afghanistan is declining, and the president and his commanders will have to make the case for whatever comes next. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: Afghanistan, Honduras, the southeastern U.S.: Today's show is all over the map. But we've got a way to help students pinpoint locations that are in the news: our downloadable maps! These geographic guides offer some perspective on exactly where these headlines are happening. You'll find the free resources every day at CNNStudentNews.com. Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, we've got a tale of true sportsmanship. At the end of a recent high school game in Missouri, Matt Ziesel took a handoff and hightailed it all the way to the end zone, scoring his team's only touchdown of the day. So, why is this noteworthy? Well, Matt has Down Syndrome, a genetic disorder. He's always dreamed of scoring a TD. So, with the clock winding down and his team down 46-0, Matt's coach wanted to give him that chance. He talked to the other team's coach, who agreed to give up the shutout and let Matt score. Goodbye . AZUZ: Great story. We'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Would you give up a shutout to help someone out? Would you have done it for Matt Ziesel? Head to our blog at CNNStudentnews.com and share your opinions. We'll look forward to reading them, and we'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow for more CNN Student News.","highlights":"Discover some of the topics addressed by the U.N. General Assembly .\nWitness the impact of severe flooding across the southeastern U.S.\nConsider different opinions on how to fight the war in Afghanistan ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States will provide $73 million in aid to Zimbabwe, President Obama announced Friday after meeting with Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House. President Obama (right) praised Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House on Friday. \"I obviously have extraordinary admiration for the courage and tenacity that the prime minister has shown in navigating through some very difficult political times in Zimbabwe,\" Obama said. \"There was a time when Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa, and [it] continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult time politically.\" Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe \"has not acted oftentimes in the best interest of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the democratic changes that need to take place,\" Obama said. \"We now have a power-sharing agreement that shows promise, and we want to do everything we can to encourage the kinds of improvement not only on human rights and rule of law, freedom of the press and democracy that is so necessary, but also on the economic front.\" The U.S. aid will not be going to the government directly \"because we continue to be concerned about consolidating democracy, human rights and rule of law,\" Obama said. \"But it will be going directly to the people in Zimbabwe.\" In a CNN interview following his meeting with Obama, Tsvangirai said he is grateful for the generosity. \"Whether it is humanitarian aid or transitional support, it adds up to the relief that Zimbabwe is seeking,\" he said. Watch Tsvangirai discuss importance of aid to Zimbabwe \u00bb . Tsvangirai said he told Obama he would like the United States to use its global influence to assist Zimbabwe in dealing with the challenges it faces. Tsvangirai said he understood other nations' reluctance to support the Zimbabwean government, given Mugabe's controversial history. \"I think it's fair,\" he said. \"I understand it, given our history, and I'm not going to defend President Mugabe.\" But, he noted, the two have agreed to work together and help Zimbabwe progress as a nation. In remarks with Obama, Tsvangirai said progress has been made by the transitional government, but much remains to be done. \"It is the problems of implementation,\" he said. \"... even by the standard of our own benchmarks, there are gaps that still exist.\" He said he would continue to strive to meet those benchmarks, not for the international community, but because \"it gives [the] people of Zimbabwe freedom and opportunity to grow.\" The power-sharing arrangement between Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and Mugabe came after contested elections last year. \"Of course we cannot brush away that history, that sad history,\" Tsvangirai told CNN. But he said he is hoping the country will heal and move forward, and wants even those skeptical of Mugabe to appreciate the transition process. Asked whether he believes Mugabe should retire, Tsvangirai said \"at the age of 85, I think one needs to retire.\" But, he said, for his own legacy, it's important for him to be thinking about a \"dignified exit.\" \"I think that [the power-sharing government] provides him with this opportunity,\" Tsvangirai said. Asked about his relationship with Mugabe, he said, \"We don't have to fall in love to work together. But we have accepted that we have made an agreement to have a workable relationship between the two political parties.\" He said there had been acrimony between the two, but they realized it was not helping the Zimbabwean people. \"We are inspired by people like Nelson Mandela, who had to go for 27 years in jail but still come out and say, 'Let's forget about the past' ...\" he said. He and Mugabe have chosen the process of dialogue rather than violence, Tsvangirai said. \"Let history judge whether this historic experiment was the right course of action.\" CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama praises Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai, offers $73 million in aid .\nTsvangirai in power-sharing agreement with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe .\nTsvangirai on Mugabe relationship: \"We don't have to fall in love to work together\""} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Two men who worked as security contractors for the company formerly known as Blackwater have been charged with murder in the killings of two Afghan men, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Christopher Drotleff and Justin Cannon are charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder each in connection with the May shootings in Kabul. The 12-count, 19-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia also includes weapons charges against the two men. The indictment was returned Wednesday but unsealed Thursday. Both men were in Afghanistan working for the security company Paravant, a subsidiary of Xe, the military contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide. FBI agents have arrested both men, the Justice Department announced. Drotleff, Cannon and two other contractors, Steven McClain and Armando Hamid, were involved in the May 5, 2009, shooting that left two Afghan civilians dead and another wounded. The men had been hired by Paravant to help the U.S. Army train Afghan troops. The contractors said they were driving their interpreters on a busy Kabul street called Jalalabad Road at around 9 p.m. when a car slammed into one of their two cars. \"I immediately thought we were under attack,\" McClain said in May. The contractors got out to help their colleagues, and the vehicle that had struck the car did a U-turn and headed back at them, the men said. The contractors fired at the oncoming vehicle. \"The car was coming at us,\" Cannon said in May. \"At that point we attempted to stop and immobilize the vehicle and we engaged it in small arms fire. And the car didn't stop, it just kept going.\" The incident spotlights the issue of the role and conduct of U.S. security contractors in Afghanistan. A similar issue arose in Iraq after a September 2007 confrontation involving then-Blackwater contractors that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. Blackwater lost its contract there after Iraq's government refused to renew its operating license. The company then changed its name to Xe, and it continues to receive multimillion-dollar contracts in Afghanistan. In the wake of the shooting, all four men lost their jobs with Paravant for violating the company's alcohol policy. The contractors said they had not been drinking and had not had a drink since their arrival in November. \"We feel that Blackwater wanted to shift the blame from Blackwater itself to these men as if they were acting on a lark,\" attorney Daniel J. Callahan said in May. \"Off duty, with weapons, weapons of their own, and while drinking. And I think the intent is to use these men as scapegoats.\" Callahan, who has advised the men but has not been formally retained by any of them, did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment on the charges. In a written statement Thursday, Xe said it had \"immediately and fully cooperated with the government's investigation of this tragic incident and terminated the individuals involved for violating company policy.\" Also Thursday, Xe announced it has settled seven lawsuits that accused it of crimes in cases not related to the Afghanistan shooting. The lawsuits accused Blackwater security guards of widespread illegal activity, including fostering \"a culture of lawlessness\" among its guards. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Susan Burke, said neither she nor anyone else involved in the settlement was allowed to discuss it publicly. It was not clear how much the settlement was for. One lawsuit, filed by Burke in 2007 on behalf of families of several Iraqis killed or wounded in the September 2007 shooting in Baghdad, Iraq, said that a quarter of Blackwater security guards in Iraq use steroids and other \"judgment-altering substances.\" The lawsuit also accused the company of war crimes, wrongful death, assault, negligent hiring and emotional distress. The plaintiffs included two wounded survivors of the Baghdad shooting and the families of five people killed in the incident. Blackwater denied the accusations. Last week, a federal judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater security guards involved in the killings, finding that prosecutors wrongly used the men's own statements against them.","highlights":"Christopher Drotleff, Justin Cannon charged with murder, attempted murder .\nCharges relate to two shooting deaths in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May .\nDrotleff, Cannon were security contractors for company formerly known as Blackwater .\nMay 5 incident began with auto collision; men say vehicle then aimed for them ."} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Friday that would have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, and 11 senior members of his government. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe meets this week with Arthur Mutambara, an opposition leader. According to a draft of the resolution, the measure would have instituted a travel ban on Mugabe and others in his government, frozen many of their assets and imposed an international arms embargo on the regime. The measure received nine votes -- the minimum for it to pass. However, two of the five negative votes were from Russia and China, who as permanent members of the Security Council have veto power. One Security Council member abstained. The resolution was pushed by the United States after Mugabe ignored the Security Council's appeal to postpone the June 27 presidential runoff election. The vote initially was intended to be a runoff between Mugabe and opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. But Tsvangirai withdrew days before, saying Mugabe's supporters had orchestrated a campaign of beatings, intimidation and murders against his supporters. With their votes, ambassadors for China and Russia said they wanted to give the rival political parties a chance to resolve the election matter on their own terms without undue interference from the Security Council. Representatives from Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), have been meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change this week. Tsvangirai said Wednesday the talks, which are being mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, are focusing on \"how to move forward.\" Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said his nation believes the international community should allow the talks in South Africa on the Zimbabwe situation a chance to progress before imposing sanctions. Wang said the adoption of the resolution would \"unavoidably interfere with the negotiation process and lead to the further deterioration of the situation.\" \"Many countries, including China, repeatedly called upon the Security Council to respect the position of the African countries on this question and give more time,\" Wang said. \"China has always maintained the best approach to solve a problem is negotiation and dialogue,\" Wang said. \"To use or threaten to use sanctions lightly is not conducive to solving the problem.\" Wang's comments echoed those of Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who said the Security Council would have overstepped its responsibilities had it approved the resolution. \"Recently, in the positions of a number of council member states, we have seen an ever-more-obvious attempt to take the council beyond its chartered prerogatives and beyond maintaining international peace and security,\" Churkin said. \"We believe such practices to be illegitimate and dangerous, leading to a realignment of the entire U.N. system.\" Churkin also noted that, had the resolution been approved, council members would have ignored appeals from the African Union to let the South African talks take place. He also accused the council of missing an opportunity to coordinate a response that would have \"promoted the success of the political dialogue\" in Zimbabwe. Speaking before the vote, Zimbabwean Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku said his nation has been a victim of \"incessant meddling\" from the international community. Chidyausiku blamed sanctions already imposed on Zimbabwe for its underperforming economy and the suffering of its people. South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo also urged the Security Council to give the South African talks a chance to bring about a resolution. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States was disappointed at the veto. \"China and Russia have stood with Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe ... for reasons that we think are not borne out by the facts on the ground,\" he said. \"The U-turn on the Russian position is particularly surprising and disturbing,\" he said, noting that a few days ago, the Russian Federation was supportive of a statement adopted at the Group of Eight meeting in Japan expressing \"grave concern\" about the situation in Zimbabwe. \"The Russian performance here today raises questions about its reliability as a G-8 partner,\" Khalilzad said. The draft resolution expressed \"deep concern at the gross irregularities\" during the presidential election, saying violence and intimidation before the runoff prevented \"free and fair elections,\" creating \"an environment that did not permit international election observers to operate freely before the June 27 vote.\" The United Kingdom, which has been highly critical of Mugabe, was a chief supporter of the United States push for sanctions. France also supported the resolution. \"The Security Council has failed to shoulder its responsibility to do what it can to prevent a national tragedy deepening and spreading its effects across southern Africa,\" British Ambassador John Sawers said after the vote. Watch the British Ambassador to the U.N. speaks about the failed resolution \u00bb . Sawers also questioned Mbeki's efficacy as a mediator in Zimbabwe's affairs. \"We have to be realistic. Those efforts have so far come to naught. The only one who has benefited to date is Mr. Mugabe,\" he said. After the vote, Chidyausiku thanked the council for heeding his call. \"Today we have seen reason,\" he said. \"I want to express our gratitude to the people in the Security Council who managed to see reason and refused to be intimidated or cowed into following the national interests of the U.S. and UK.\" The Zimbabwean people, he said, are \"committed to resolve their differences.\" CNN's Richard Roth and Terence Burke contributed to this report.","highlights":"China, Russia veto resolution that would have meant sanctions for Mugabe regime .\nUnited States pushed for measure after Mugabe refused to postpone runoff elections .\nSanctions would have meant travel bans, frozen assets for Mugabe and others .\nProposed sanctions also would have imposed an international arms embargo ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Yorkers feasted on the stories when the news broke in 2006: Brooke Astor, a socialite and megaphilanthropist with Alzheimer's, had allegedly been swindled of millions and mistreated by her own son. Brooke Astor and grandson Philip Marshall outside her New York country estate, Holly Hill, in 2001 or 2002. Anthony \"Tony\" Marshall, her only child, was indicted on criminal charges including grand larceny, possession of stolen property, forgery and conspiracy. Jury selection for the criminal trial was scheduled to begin Monday. But co-defendant Francis Morrissey's attorney filed an 11th-hour motion to sever his client's trial from Marshall's. The motion was denied late Friday, and a new trial date has been set for March 2. Morrissey, Marshall's former lawyer, faces charges including forgery and scheming to defraud. A lawyer representing Marshall, Fred Hafetz, would say only that there would be \"no plea\" and that he hopes his client will \"be vindicated.\" Watch author Meryl Gordon discuss the case \u00bb . The trial is likely to resuscitate the tabloid feeding frenzy, which has fostered headlines such as \"Bad heir day,\" \"Mrs. Astor's disaster\" and \"DA's kick in the Astor.\" It's not the way those closest to Astor want to remember her. And the disclosures expected to spill forth from the witness stand aren't the type that Astor, who died in August 2007 at 105, would want shared in public. \"She would have been mortified,\" said Vartan Gregorian, a longtime friend and president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. \"She was very private.\" Through her late husband's Vincent Astor Foundation, Astor was credited with giving New York, where the Astors made their fortune, about $200 million. And although she felt it was expected of her to be proper and elegant, Gregorian said, her wealth didn't define her. Talk of money, real estate and other people's misfortunes were off-limits at her dinner parties, he said. \"She was not ostentatious. ... She was very funny, very witty and very caring.\" When a would-be robber accosted her, she foiled the holdup attempt with this response: \" 'Excuse me. My name is Mrs. Astor. I don't think we've been properly introduced,' \" Gregorian remembered with a laugh. For 23 years, Linda Gillies directed the Astor Foundation and witnessed her hands-on approach to doing good -- not just for her \"crown jewels,\" which included the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library, but also for lower-profile programs. Astor was often quoted as saying, \"Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around.\" But for her, again, it wasn't just about the money. Betty Cooper Wallerstein, a community organizer who benefited from Astor's help in saving 2,500 low-income apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side, described Astor as being equally comfortable mingling with tenants as she was in high society. She remembered attending Astor's 90th birthday party and being struck by the diversity of the crowd waiting to get inside. Around her were elected officials, the social elite, big names such as Henry Kissinger as well as Astor's staff members and activists such as herself. \"She was as lovely to me as she was to the dignitaries who were there,\" Wallerstein said. \"It was such a beautiful and democratic line.\" Many close friends and staff members would not speak to CNN, as they will be testifying in the trial or will be involved in a later suit to contest Astor's will, which her son is said to have changed. But those who did speak were quick to share memories they'll always hold dear. The tears came quickly when Carmine Fasciani, 73, remembered Astor. The one-time police detective sergeant, whom Astor always called Sergeant, said he handled security and later served as the full-time head of staff at Holly Hill, Astor's New York country estate. He was employed by her for three decades, up until he had a stroke eight years ago. But his status as employee hardly described their relationship. \"She was my friend. She was a good lady,\" he said, his voice cracking and his words slightly slurred because of the stroke. \"She said, 'I love you' ... and I loved her.\" He built the gazebo where Astor watched sunsets and brought her the pink roses she loved. She took him to see a house that she knew he'd fall for and helped secure a good price. When Astor lost part of a finger breaking up a dog fight, she called on Fasciani to fly in to be by her side. And two years after his stroke, he sought Astor's approval, which she gave with a wink and a nod, before marrying his wife, Marilyn, who helped speak for Fasciani by phone from Florida. But working for Astor had its distractions, said Alicia Johnson, who was head of staff at her Maine estate, Cove End, for about 12 years. \"We had the Irish maid fighting with the French maid, the English butler fighting with the cook from Jamaica,\" Johnson said, laughing at the memories. \"Mrs. Astor was a peach. The problem was everyone else.\" In Johnson's Maine closet, there are still items Astor insisted she take, including a dress Astor \"hauled out\" for her to wear when she announced that she was getting married in 2000. \"It was a size two, and I was a size 12,\" she said. Employees stayed with Astor for years, until her son reportedly fired most all of them. But the loyalty of Steve Hamor and his two sons stands out. Hamor, 65, was her groundskeeper in Maine for 42 years. Hamor's son Scott, who with his brother also would grow up to work on the grounds, spent his childhood running around the estate as if it was his own playground. As a teen, he remembered \"Mrs. A\" beckoning him from mowing a lawn to say hello and introduce him to Barbara Walters. Astor wanted to send him and his brother to university. They refused. But when Scott found himself in his mid-20s, going through a divorce and with custody of two boys, he accepted her assistance -- and insistence -- in helping him settle into a new apartment. \"She was always wanting to know how you were doing and what she could do for you,\" said Scott, 42, who now works on Maine property owned by David Rockefeller. Concern that not enough was being done for her is what drove Philip Marshall, defendant Tony Marshall's son, to file a petition for guardianship for his grandmother in 2006, alleging, in the words of his lawyer, \"elder abuse\" by his father. The intention was nothing more than to ensure that she was cared for, removing control by his father and transferring care to Astor's dear friend Annette de la Renta. Though he wouldn't discuss the details that prompted his actions -- \"I won't survive this conversation if I do,\" he said -- the successful petition mentioned her sleeping in torn nightgowns on a urine-stained couch and eating bland leftovers. \"To the rest of the world, she was Brooke Astor. To us, she was our grandmother,\" said Marshall, 55, who grew up in Vermont with his twin brother, Alec, and was not \"of the New York world.\" The practicing Tibetan Buddhist, who is a professor of historic preservation at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, never anticipated the findings that led to his father's indictment and said he merely wanted to \"provide my grandmother with the care, comfort and dignity she deserved.\"","highlights":"Criminal trial of late socialite Brooke Astor's son begins soon .\nTony Marshall is accused of swindling millions while mom had Alzheimer's .\nFormer staff members, friends and grandson remember who she was to them .\nAstor, New York legend whose foundation gave $200 million to city, died at 105 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 40,000 Somalis have returned to the abandoned neighborhoods of Mogadishu in the past six weeks, despite some of the heaviest fighting in months, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday. Violence continued this week in Mogadishu between Somali Islamist fighters and African Union soldiers. They are part of more than a million residents who have been displaced by fighting, including 100,000 who fled to neighboring countries last year, according to the United Nations. Most of those returning are families from Somalia's southern and central regions, areas that are suffering from drought and renewed fighting, according to UNHCR. They are now living in neighborhoods in northern Mogadishu that had been abandoned over the past two years of conflict, the U.N. agency said. Part of the reason displaced Somalis may be braving the violence and returning to the war-torn capital city is because of the recent pullout of Ethiopian troops, who were blamed for indiscriminately killing civilians in Mogadishu, a Somali journalist said. \"The AU [African Union] and [Somali] government forces only defend in their positions, they don't move around,\" according to Mohammed Amiin Adow. \"This may reduce the fear of the civilians that their homes may be raided. \"During the Ethiopian presence, it was different: When their bases were attacked, they used to come and carry out search operations in which civilians may be detained, killed or wounded.\" Adow also said another reason refugees may be returning is the bad conditions at the camps for internally displaced Somalis. \"People had been living in very poor conditions in the makeshift camps on the road between Mogadishu and Afgooye for the last two years,\" Adow said. \"So that is I think why people are returning.\" Those returning to Mogadishu will have limited access to basic necessities, a problem that is compounded by the scarcity of international aid agencies, who have fled Somalia because of the violence, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said Friday. \"UNHCR is not encouraging returns to Mogadishu at this juncture, as the security situation is volatile and the conditions are certainly not conducive,\" he said. \"Nevertheless, we are preparing to help returnees or those who wish to return in the near future, in the hope that the security situation will improve.\"","highlights":"Most of those returning are fleeing drought, fighting in central and southern Somalia .\nOthers may be returning because of conditions at displacement camps .\nMore than a million Somalis have been displaced throughout country, abroad .\nSupplies in the capital city are scarce due to exodus of aid groups fleeing violence ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistan cricket is embroiled in a new controversy after the national team were accused of deliberately losing two games at the Champions Trophy by a government official. Younis Khan's future as Pakistan captain is in doubt following accusations of match-fixing. The chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on sports claimed in a television interview that Pakistan lost to Australia to knock traditional rivals India out of the limited-overs tournament in South Africa. Australia won by two wickets by running a bye on the final ball of the closing Group A tie on September 30, which ensured they reached the semifinals and ended India's hopes. Captain Younis Khan then dropped a simple catch as his side lost to New Zealand by five wickets in Saturday's semifinal. \"We went with a pre-determined mind to lose the match against Australia,\" Jamshed Ahmed Dasti told Pakistan TV channel Geo TV on Tuesday. \"Our intention was to keep India out. It was a deliberate decision to lose the match against India.\" Dasti said that the team also intentionally lost the match to New Zealand, who were beaten in Monday's final by defending champions Australia. \"That's why the NA Standing Committee on Sports has called in captain Younis Khan, coach Intikhab Alam and [Pakistan Cricket Board] chairman Ijaz Butt for investigations,\" he said. One report in Pakistan claimed that Younis and Intikhab had already been sacked by the PCB, but others said that Pakistan cricket's ruling body was happy with the team's performance. \"The team played well and tried hard. It is unfortunate they couldn't qualify for the final, which every player wanted to do, but they had one bad day against New Zealand,\" PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar told the Express Cricket Web site. \"As far as we are concerned, the team did well in the Champions Trophy and their performance was satisfactory.\" Former captain Rashid Latif criticized Dasti for making serious allegations without backing them up with proof. \"I was one of those who first raised the issue of match fixing in international cricket, so I know what I am talking about. I can say the team did its best and played hard in the tournament -- a few mistakes cost them a place in the final,\" Latif told Express Cricket. \"I think parliamentarians should first look at the corruption in the government before talking about cricket. It is unfortunate that when the team needs backing, a parliamentarian should make such allegations.\" The accusations are another blow for Pakistan's cricketing fortunes. The sub-continent nation lost the rights to host the Champions Trophy due to security issues -- it was postponed last year and switched to South Africa -- and was then ruled out of staging the 2011 World Cup. Earlier this year, veteran fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar missed the Twenty20 World Cup after needing treatment for genital warts. Akhtar, once Pakistan's most feared weapon, has constantly clashed with the PCB, which banned him for hitting a teammate with a bat in 2007 and threatened him with court action following a public feud which ended with a five-year suspension that he successfully appealed. The PCB also punished him for testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug nandrolone in 2006, while fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif was arrested in Dubai for possession of illegal drugs last year.","highlights":"Pakistan's cricket team has been accused of deliberately losing two games .\nGovernment official alleges Pakistan lost to Australia to knock out rivals India .\nPakistan progressed to Champions Trophy semifinals after last-ball defeat .\nJamshed Ahmed Dasti also claims Pakistan lost semi to NZ on purpose ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jose Mourinho has extended his contract at Serie A champions Inter Milan by 12 months until June 2012, killing off speculation that he could be on his way to Real Madrid. Coach Mourinho has signed an extended deal ending fears he could wave goodbye to Inter Milan. Former Chelsea supremo Mourinho took charge at Italian giants Inter a year ago following the departure of Roberto Mancini and has just guided the club to their fourth straight scudetto. They also won the Italian Super Cup, but were eliminated by defending champions Manchester United in the first knockout round of the Champions League. A statement on the Inter Web site read: \"In response to the wish of the coach to continue the project started together a year ago, a wish welcomed with pleasure by the club as a sign of attachment and winning spirit, FC Internazionale announces the extension of Jose Mourinho's contract until 30 June 2012.\" Mourinho had promised the fans more titles would be on the after lifting his first Italian title, but the eal issue refused to go away until Monday's statement. When asked about the chance he could leave Inter, Mourinho had earlier told the club Web site: \"There is still a 0.01% (chance). But for me this is not an important number, it just means that I am closer to Inter than to Real. \"I am satisfied with the relationship with the fans and with my players. I repeat, I am closer to staying at Inter than going elsewhere.\" Those comments failed to impress Inter president Massimo Moratti, but the extended contract has settled any differences. Mourinho made his mark at Porto in 2004 when he led the Portuguese team to the Champions League title, beating Monaco 3-0 in the final, before moving to Chelsea. At Stamford Bridge he claimed the Premier League title in each of his first two seasons and the FA Cup the following campaign, but left the club in September 2007. Not all Inter fans have warmed to the Portuguese since his arrival in Milan last summer. He has been involved in several disagreements with the Italian media and his style of play has has not endeared him to parts of the Nerazzurri faithful.","highlights":"Jose Mourinho has extended his contract with Serie A champions Inter Milan .\nThe decision kills off speculation that he could be on his way to Real Madrid .\nFormer Chelsea supremo now contracted with Italian club until 30 June 2012 ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Described as \"an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane,\" Hurricane Bill was churning closer to the Atlantic island of Bermuda on Wednesday, forecasters said. Most forecast maps show Hurricane Bill passing to the west of Bermuda. Although Bill is not expected to make a direct hit on the island, forecasters cautioned that the storm is large and will generate large swells on Bermuda as well as the islands of the northeast Caribbean Sea over the next day or two. Swells may also affect the eastern United States on Friday and Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said. CNN meteorologists said Bill could cause cause dangerous rip tides and some coastal flooding in the northeast United States and could move very close to or make landfall in Newfoundland, Canada, early next week. In addition, Bill may strengthen further over the next couple of days, forecasters said. As of 5 p.m. ET, Bill's center was about 335 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands and about 970 miles south-southeast of Bermuda, the hurricane center said. \"It's a little too early to evaluate what kind of direct impact Bill may have,\" said Jack Bevin, a senior hurricane specialist. \"Most of the computer guidance has the storm passing between Bermuda and the U.S. coastline, then turning northeastward.\" Other models show Bill turning more sharply out to sea and not affecting any areas, he said. Bill's maximum sustained winds were at 135 mph Wednesday afternoon. It was moving northwest at near 20 mph and was expected to continue that motion over the next day or so, turning north-northwest by late Friday. Five-day forecast maps show Bill passing to the west of Bermuda before turning to the northwest. \"Bill is a large tropical cyclone,\" the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 85 miles from its center, with tropical storm-force winds extending up to 230 miles out. CNN Radio's Andrew Spencer and Lee Garen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Storm is not expected to make a direct hit on Bermuda .\nBut island, eastern United States could see large swells .\nCategory 4 hurricane's maximum sustained winds are at 135 mph ."} -{"article":"SANTIAGO, Chile (CNN) -- Arrest warrants for more than 120 former soldiers and agents of Chile's National Intelligence Directorate were issued Tuesday for alleged human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, CNN Chile reported. Nearly 2,300 people disappeared during the rule of Augusto Pinochet, 1973-1990, say government reports. The scale of the order by Judge Victor Montiglio makes this the largest human rights prosecution case in Chile's history. The Pinochet dictatorship ruled from 1973-1990, after which Chile returned to civilian rule under a democratically elected government. Government investigations conducted after Pinochet left power say nearly 2,300 people disappeared during the dictatorship and another 30,000 were tortured. At least 51 of the warrants were in connection with a disinformation campaign in the 1970s known as Operation Colombo that historians say was aimed at hiding human rights abuses. Other warrants were linked to Operation Condor, which involved a network of secret police agencies in the region that targeted political opponents in the mid- and late-1970s, and a plot against communist leaders known as the Calle Conferencia case. About half of those named in the warrants were facing charges related to the Pinochet regime for the first time. The warrants included former military and police officers who were members of Pinochet's feared intelligence service, known as DINA.","highlights":"Arrest warrants for more than 120 former soldiers and agents issued Tuesday .\nWarrants for alleged human rights violations during rule of Augusto Pinochet .\nPinochet dictatorship ruled from 1973-1990 .\n2,300 people disappeared during Pinochet's rule, say government reports ."} -{"article":"MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Some of the people hit hardest by this bad economy are the youngest. Almost 2 million children nationwide have had or will have their lives disrupted by home foreclosures, according to one study. There are more empty desks in Suzell Tougas's fourth grade classroom after 10 students have stopped coming. These are the children whose families have had to move, sometimes more than once. The youngsters are pulled out of school, often leaving their friends behind without even saying goodbye. Nine-year-old Kenia, who is in the fourth grade at Fairview Elementary School in Modesto, California, said that is what happened to her. She is new to the school, having moved to the area just a few months ago. She said it is really hard and she misses her friends. Her classmate Bethany said her best friend since kindergarten just left without saying goodbye. Heather Sharp, the principal at Fairview, said her school has been the one most affected by the bad economy in the Modesto City School system. \"We have, over the last couple of months, 50 students coming new to the school and 50 students leaving,\" Sharp said. It was so bad that the school conducted a door-to-door search for missing students, she said. \"We had our community aide going out to houses. And they were boarded up, windows boarded, yard brown. She had to go to neighbors to find out where the kids were.\" In terms of raw numbers, California had the most foreclosures of any state from 2007 through January 2009. More than 57,000 homes entered foreclosure. Many of those were in Stanislaus County, where home prices have declined 65 percent since December 2005, according to the Modesto Bee. Fourth-grade teacher Suzell Tougas said she has lost 10 kids from her class so far this year and is braced to lose more. She usually has a room full of children with every desk occupied. Now, it \"looks empty ... it's like a \"ghost town\". She said constant moving is hard on kids. \"Just having to start over and start over is really hard on a child,\" Tougas said. \"It takes six weeks for a child to adjust ... at least.\" While children are in that period of adjustment, she said, they aren't learning and their studies suffer. \"The biggest issue is that when [children have to move] when there are other stressors going on, we know it puts these kids at greater risk for being behind in their academics,\" said Pat Popp, a past president of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. That is borne out in a recent study by a nonpartisan group in Washington called First Focus. It said that children who move twice in one year are only half as likely as others to be able to read proficiently, and may have a greater chance of being held back. It also found that moving a lot reduces the student's chance of graduating from high school by half. Read the report here . The report, published in May, estimated that 1.95 million children will be affected by foreclosure over the next two years. The number of homeless students is increasing dramatically. A study by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children reported that more than 450 school districts across the nation had an increase of at least 25 percent in the number of identified homeless students between the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years. Read the report here (pdf) A student who moves \"may hear the same information again that you learned in your previous classroom or miss information that has already been covered in your class but wasn't taught in your previous school,\" Popp said. The fallout from the rash of foreclosures likely will have a long-term impact on education, especially in California. Schools get much of their funding from property tax revenues. Real estate values are spiraling downward and so is the revenue. At Fairview Elementary, Principal Sharp worries about students like 9-year-old Eunice, who has moved twice in the last year. Her parents told her that after they pay their mortgage this month, they won't have any money for a week. But, Sharp said, children are resilient. \"We don't give them credit for what they can handle but, at the same time, the flip side is it's sad -- they shouldn't have to handle it. They should be able to know they can go to school and focus on reading and math and recess.\"","highlights":"California hit hard by foreclosures, falling home values, families moving .\nModesto 4th graders say they miss friends, some of whom left without goodbyes .\nStudy: Children who move twice in year are half as likely to be able to read proficiently .\nChildren are resilient, teacher says, but have hard time focusing on their studies ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From Yellowstone National Park to the Everglades, America's 391 national parks are in need of repair -- and thanks to the economic stimulus signed into law, help is now underway. President Obama and his family visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona, a national park. President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed in February and designated $750 million dollars to the national parks. But not all of the stimulus money is being used -- and the parks are facing a $9 billion backlog in maintenance projects. So far, nearly 10 percent is in the pipeline. \"We are picking away at it as much as we can and we've been fortunate to have the recovery act money,\" said Jeffrey Olson of the National Park Service. Olson said half of the $9 billion is slated to go for road repairs. \"Half of that [$9 billion] is roads and about $2 billion of that are the most pressing needs -- those we get some help from the stimulus. The president's budget proposal is calling for more maintenance and construction money,\" Olsen said. Dan Wenk, the acting director of the National Park Service says most of those pressing needs include, \"camp grounds, camp sites, it's amphitheaters for evening programs. It's the bathrooms. It's literally everything we have to make our visits enjoyable.\" And those needs, Ranger Rocky Schroeder hopes, will be fulfilled soon. Watch more on the national parks facelift \u00bb . Schroeder patrols Prince William Park, about 35 miles outside the nation's capital. It has more than a dozen historic cabins slated for repair and is just one of the 250 national parks getting a face lift because of the stimulus package. \"The stimulus will help keep our visitors here, keep them happy and keep them coming back,\" Schroeder added. And the numbers are good for national parks. As of the end of July, attendance at the parks is up roughly 3 percent from the same time last year, according to the parks service. In 2008, nearly 275 million people visited the national parks compared to 272 million in 2006. At Prince William Forest park, officials are hoping to start putting the money to use next month -- and said they've had overwhelming interest. For these stimulus projects, they need to hire six additional people. So far, they've received nearly 200 applications. The Interior Department estimates the stimulus allocation will create around 8,000 jobs over two years -- though many will be temporary. \"It's stimulus because we are putting people to work ... but it's also stimulus because we're creating a better place ... increasing the visitor experience,\" Wenk said. Some Republicans, however, are skeptical. \"Clearly we need to improve our national parks ... but nobody should confuse that with economic stimulus. I mean frankly that's just false advertising,\" Rep. Jeb Hensarlin, R-Texas, says. For Ron Tipton of the National Parks Conservation Association, the funding is vital. \"We must ensure our national parks are well funded to address the parks' crumbling historic buildings and trails, enhance the Park Service's ability to protect wildlife, and provide needed public education and services,\" he said on the association's Web site. Olson believes that when economic times are tough -- especially during the current recession -- parks are an economically friendly alternative to more expensive getaways. \"We rise above other things like theme parks,\" he says. \"When times are tough economically, people turn inward and ask some really basic questions and there is nothing like being in a national park to ask those questions.\" Olson adds that 147 parks in the United States and in the nation's territories have an entry fee, which ranges from $5 to $25; 244 do not have an entry fee. But when it comes to this money, the key question being asked: How is the stimulus money being used? Nearly $56 million is for Washington landmarks, which some say are in dire need of repair. More than $14.5 million is going to Mesa Verde National Park and nearly $11 million has been allocated for the Grand Canyon. Schroeder said he is confident the infusion of stimulus dollars is a worthwhile investment. \"The national parks are our past, our history.\"","highlights":"Obama plan designated $750M stimulus dollars to the national parks .\nThere are 391 national parks across the country and in U.S. territories .\nPark Service is dealing with a $9 billion backlog of maintenance needs .\nAn official says the popularity of parks is high because of hard economic times ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It carries the nickname \"America's Finest City,\" and right now it appears San Diego is living up to the hype. Growing on the water: San Diego is becoming an increasingly popular super-yacht destination. Though the international financial crisis has precipitated economic woe across the United States, developments in San Diego's super-yacht industry don't appear to be slowing. Fifth Avenue Landing, a stylish new facility promising the ultimate docking experience for super-yachts up to 300 feet long, has just opened in city's downtown area. The marina, which is close to local attractions and top hotels, boasts 12 high-quality berths, each offering a concierge service. This impressive project is just the latest step in a significant development program for the west coast city, which is which is now beginning to compete with its northern neighbor, Los Angeles, as a destination for super-yacht owners. In 2005, Forbes rated San Diego as the fifth wealthiest city in the U.S. and in the years since, for the super-yacht industry particularly, the region has continued to develop rapidly. Today, the city is buzzing with super-yacht designers, builders, and brokers, and it now has plenty of facilities to accommodate the industry. There's also the annual \"YachtFest\" show, which will be going ahead in September this year and is expected to attract interest from super-yacht makers and owners around the world. Numerous marinas have sprung up amid the increasing interest in the city, with Kona Kai Marina, Shelter Island Marina, and The Wharf, among some of the most notable developments. Outside of the private super-yacht industry, San Diego is also home to the largest shipyard on the west coast of the U.S. -- General Dynamics' National Steel and Shipbuilding Company. Many cruise lines pass through the port and there are plans for a new cruise ship terminal to open in 2010. Much of the success in attracting super-yachts has been credited to the San Diego Super-yacht Association (SDSA) -- a collective of local super-yacht designers, builders, brokers and other interested parties that was formed in 2006. Super-yacht director of Marine Group Boat Works and founding member of the SDSA, Fred Larsson, told CNN that the key to San Diego's recent profile boost was realizing the economic needs of the industry. \"San Diego had the basic requirements of super-yachts covered already with the natural deep water harbor, year round superb weather, geographic location as the gateway to the Pacific and a wonderful youthful city. Then when you add the super-yacht facility upgrades it's a no brainer. San Diego has it all,\" he said. Larsson said the SDSA had been instrumental in developments as the combination of shipyards, marinas and suppliers working together means they have a good all-round knowledge of what super-yacht owners want when they come to port. The combination of major refit facility improvements, new marinas, marina expansions and an effective marketing campaign are behind the success, he added. Despite the international financial crisis, which threatens to hurt the super-yacht industry around the world, Larsson said that San Diego should not suffer too much as interest from owners is still growing. \"Due to the sheer size of the city and nearby cities there is so much for owners and crew to do here on their time off, the beaches are fabulous, Vegas is an hour away, there are 100 golf courses in and around San Diego. \"It's a metropolitan feel with small town charm. That's what makes us different,\" he said.","highlights":"A new super-yacht docking facility has recently opened in San Diego .\nThe city has its own super-yacht association, and annual show .\nSan Diego is becoming a rival to Los Angeles as a boating destination ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday for their World Cup qualifier against Cyprus next week, despite being under the cloud of a drug test controversy. Fabioo Cannavaro's proudest moment came in 2006 when he led Italy to World Cup glory. It was revealed on Thursday that the 36-year-old Juventus defender recently failed a drug test after taking a medicine that contained the banned substance cortisone. Cannavaro was interviewed by the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri on Thursday night in Turin but national coach Marcello Lippi does not expect his star to be absent from the squad. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" Lippi told reporters. \"Will he be here with us on Sunday? Of course he will. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" added national team doctor Enrico Castellacci. \"But he is calm and serene. This is just a bureaucratic case.\" Juventus claimed the defender needed cortisone treatment for an insect sting in August. The player requested an exemption from taking drugs tests on the grounds of having taken a medication in an emergency situation but his request did not include a document necessary to complete the application. While awaiting a decision, Cannavaro took an anti-doping test after a Serie A game at Roma which returned a positive result. \"When he came to the national team, after the Roma game, he told us what had happened and he told us that without the medicine that contained cortisone he would have had a reaction, an anaphylactic shock,\" Castellacci said. \"We asked Juventus for all the necessary documents regarding the medicine taken by Cannavaro and all the communication is in our possession.\" Cannavaro will not travel to Dublin for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Ireland as he serves a one-match ban, but is expected to lead the Azzurri in Wednesday's qualifier against Cyprus in Parma.","highlights":"Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday to face Cyprus .\nCannavaro tested positive for cortisone after having treatment for an insect bite .\nThe 36-year-old Juve defender has an allergy to insect bites which can be fatal .\nDefender was interviewed by Italian Olympic Committee anti-doping prosecutor ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York Times endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination over Rudy Giuliani and the rest of the GOP field, strongly criticizing the former mayor of its home city. Sens. John McCain, left, and Rudy Giuliani took part in a debate in Florida on Thursday. In endorsements posted on its Web site for Friday's editions, the Times also endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. \"Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe,\" the paper's editorial board wrote. \"With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.\" The endorsement anticipated readers asking how the New York paper could reject Giuliani, a man it endorsed for re-election in 1997 and praised for his work cleaning up crime in the city and during the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. \"That man is not running for president,\" the paper wrote. \"The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9\/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city's and the country's nightmare to promote his presidential campaign,\" the paper writes, describing Giuliani as \"a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man.\" Giuliani played down the harsh words, suggesting that the Times has a liberal editorial staff that often disapproved of him. \"I probably never did anything the New York Times suggested I do in eight years as mayor of New York City, and if I did, I wouldn't be considered a conservative Republican,\" Giuliani said during a Republican debate Thursday night hosted by MSNBC in Boca Raton, Florida. \"I changed welfare, I changed quality of life, I took on homelessness -- I did all the things that they think makes you mean and I believe show true compassion and true love for people.\" His wasn't the only Republican campaign taking that tack. An e-mail from the campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sarcastically noted that McCain had been endorsed by \"[t]hat bastion of conservative advocacy.\" The editorial was hardly full of praise for McCain, despite calling him a \"genuine war hero\" and a \"staunch advocate of campaign finance reform.\" \"Mr. McCain was one of the first prominent Republicans to point out how badly the war in Iraq was being managed. We wish he could now see as clearly past the temporary victories produced by Mr. Bush's unsustainable escalation, which have not led to any change in Iraq's murderous political calculus,\" it reads. \"At the least, he owes Americans a real idea of how he would win this war, which he says he can do.\" The paper praised Clinton's chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, but called Clinton more qualified for the job. \"It is unfair, especially after seven years of Mr. Bush's inept leadership, but any Democrat will face tougher questioning about his or her fitness to be commander in chief,\" it reads. \"Mrs. Clinton has more than cleared that bar, using her years in the Senate well to immerse herself in national security issues, and has won the respect of world leaders and many in the American military.\" The Democratic editorial contrasts Clinton and Obama -- calling her \"the brilliant if at times harsh-sounding senator from New York\" and him \"the incandescent if still undefined senator from Illinois.\" The paper says Clinton \"sometimes overstates the importance of [her] resume,\" but that upon hearing \"her policies and answers for America's big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience.\" New York is one of a host of states that will vote during the February 5 Super Tuesday primaries. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Paper rips Rudy Giuliani as \"a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man\"\nGiuliani responds: I wouldn't be a conservative Republican if I did what paper wanted .\nOpinion piece says McCain will \"end the George Bush style of governing\"\nPaper praises Barack Obama but calls Hillary Clinton more qualified for the job ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans of Usher Raymond IV view him as a singing, dancing and acting superstar. Superstar performer Usher Raymond IV at the closing ceremony for Usher's Camp New Look. But to a special group of young people, he is a mentor and a friend. \"He leads by example,\" said Arnold \"Supa\" LaFrance, a \"Mogul in Training\" at Usher's Camp New Look. \"Usher's all about peace and love and giving back to the community, and it's genuine. He does it when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off.\" Now in its fifth year, the camp is a passion for the Grammy Award-winning artist, who each year gives more than a hundred teens from underserved communities across the country the opportunity to learn about the entertainment and sports industries. Thomas Springer, a 17-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, resident, has participated in the camp for four years and said he wants to use his talent in filmmaking and what he has learned at Camp New Look to help his community. \"Before I came to camp, I didn't think I had a voice in my community and that I could do anything based on my age,\" Springer said. \"The camp let me know that no matter what your age, no matter what you do, you can make an impact on your community.\" Usher came to fame as a teen and has sold millions of records, including the hit singles \"Yeah\" and \"Confessions II.\" His success has allowed him to become part owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and to launch his own line of fragrances for men and women. The camp, the singer said, teaches participants the business aspects of the entertainment and sports industries and imparts the importance of being service-oriented. A selection committee selects campers that are nominated by partner organizations in various cities across the country. Now the father of two young boys, Usher said he is also enriched by the camp's experience. \"It makes me a better man. It makes me a better individual,\" he said. \"There's a difference between hard work and heart work, and this would represent heart work.\" Watch Usher talk about his camp \u00bb . As a youngster, Usher participated in the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and he said it helped shape his ideas about mentoring. \"I think that the Boys & Girls Club is a very positive environment for kids,\" he said. \"It's another place that allows you to be a product of your experience. I encountered a lot of people who became mentors for me there.\" At this year's closing ceremony for Usher's Camp New Look, held at the Alliance Theater at Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, the energy level was high as campers and their family members walked a red carpet alongside some of Usher's celebrity friends, including NBA star Alonzo Mourning and San Francisco 49er Allen Rossum. The free, residential camp held for two weeks every summer in Atlanta is an outgrowth of Usher's New Look Foundation, which he established to empower at-risk youth by giving them the skills necessary to enter careers in the sports and entertainment industries and working with them to provide employment opportunities. Mourning said Usher is one who understands that \"to whom much is given, much is required.\" \"The service that Usher is providing for these kids with these educational opportunities and expanding their lives to a whole new level, it's important that we all rally around these particular causes and support these initiatives,\" Mourning said. Gabrielle Brou, 16, a first-year camper from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who aspires to be an actress, said there were countless opportunities at camp to network with successful people who are living the lives she hopes to achieve. \"Once I found out that there were ways I could better myself in acting, learn the business and also give back ... I decided that this camp would be really great for me,\" she said. \"I would love to do it again next year.\" Having a day set aside for the campers and their families to revel in all that they have achieved and their future possibilities left Usher with a huge smile on his face. \"It's really good to see them be able to live out their dreams,\" he said.","highlights":"Usher's Camp New Look helps kids from underserved communities .\nCampers learn business behind entertainment and sports industries .\nSinger serves as mentor to more than 100 participants .\nUsher, who was mentored, said camp represents his \"heart work\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For astronaut Jose Hernandez, his first space flight, scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery, marks a remarkable journey from the farm fields of California to the skies. Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico. Hernandez, an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico, is getting plenty of attention at home and abroad for his journey from working the fields to operating some of the most advanced mechanics on the space shuttle. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the 47-year-old astronaut over the weekend to congratulate him. A transcript of the entire conversation was promptly posted online by the Mexican government. Hernandez is also reaching out to fans through Twitter, where he posts updates under the name \"@Astro--Jose.\" \"I come from a very humble family and what I would call a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said in a NASA interview. As a child, Hernandez's family split their time between Mexico and California, where they worked as migrant farm workers. During the school year his parents emphasized his education, but on the weekends Hernandez would help the family, he said in the interview, posted on the NASA Web site. Growing up in Stockton, California, it was Hernandez's job as the youngest child to hold up the rabbit ear antennas on the family's television set in order to get the best reception while everyone watched the Apollo missions. \"Now I kid around with my family saying that, you know, it was through osmosis that I became an astronaut because I was closest to the whole situation,\" Hernandez told NASA. The real catalyst for his dream to become an astronaut, however, came when Franklin Chang-Diaz, became the first Latin American astronaut in 1981. \"There was a lot of parallels and that's when I challenged myself. I said, \"Hey, if Franklin can do it, why can't I do it?\" Hernandez said in the interview. Hernandez earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering, and before joining NASA worked on a number of high-tech projects, including an X-ray laser to be deployed in space, a digital mammography system and the disposal of excess nuclear material in Russia, his official biography states. According to NASA, there are nine Hispanics currently in the astronaut program, and 13 total in the program's history. Astronaut Danny Olivas, also of Mexican descent, will also fly on Discovery's upcoming 13-day mission. The scheduled launch of Discovery on Tuesday was scrubbed twice, once because of weather and then hours later because of of mechanical issues involving a drain valve. NASA did not announce a new launch schedule.","highlights":"Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of Mexican immigrants .\nJose Hernandez scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery .\n\"I come from ... a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said .\nMexican President called the 47-year-old astronaut to congratulate him ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The concept may be radical, but it might just have to be if the worst predictions of climate change are realized. The Lilypad as imagined by architect Vincent Callebaut moored off the coast of Monaco. The Lilypad, a floating ecopolis for climatic refugees, is the creation of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. \"It is\" he says, \"a true amphibian, half aquatic and half terrestrial city, able to accommodate 50,000 inhabitants and inviting biodiversity\". Callebaut imagines his structure at 250 times the scale of a lilypad, with a skin made of polyester fibres coated in titanium dioxide which would react with ultraviolet light and absorb atmospheric pollution. The Lilypad comprises of three marinas and three mountain regions with streets and structures strewn with foliage. \"The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature,\" said Callebaut. With a central fresh water lagoon acting as ballast, the whole construction would be carbon neutral utilizing solar, thermal, wind, hydraulic, tidal and osmotic energies. With high density populations living in low-lying areas -- The Netherlands, Polynesia, Bangladesh -- the ecopolis, its creator believes, could be the answer to mass human displacement that global warming is predicted to cause. In its most recent 2007 report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted sea levels will rise by 60-90 cm during this century. Some climate scientists like James Hansen think that if greenhouse gas emissions aren't checked then those figures might be much, much worse. In practice, Callebaut envisages the Lilypad sailing the seas, following currents like a futuristic cruise ship. He also thinks that it could \"widen sustainability in offshore territories of the most developed countries such as Monaco\". You can't help thinking that the well-heeled residents of the Principality might have a thing or two to say about 50,000 climatic refugees bobbing around in the harbour, but you cannot fault Callebaut's ambition. His previous creations -- showcased on his website -- reveal an imagination working at full throttle with sustainable design lying at its heart. Anti-Smog -- a prototype of depolluting architecture and Ecomic -- an ecotower rising up from the foundations of Aztec ruins are two further examples of his eco design credentials. The Perfumed Jungle, Fields in Fields and The Fractured Monolith may sound like titles for various genres of novel but are, in fact, names for sustainable projects in Callebaut's growing portfolio. Now all he needs is to find someone brave enough to build on the vision he has created.","highlights":"Belgian architect imagines climate refugees living on a futuristic Lilypad ecopolis .\nThe structure would support 50,000 inhabitants in a zero carbon environment .\nThe goal is to \"create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature\""} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Donating to charity itself is a relatively new phenomenon in a society that traditionally values family units. President Lee Myung-Bak is criticized by opposition parties who say he supports policies that favor the rich. So the announcement that South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak will be donating $26 million, the bulk of his wealth, to charity, is considered highly unusual. The president's office said the money will be used to set up a new youth scholarship program. \"My fortune, which I accumulated through hard work during my life, is very precious to me,\" said Lee in a statement. \"I have long thought that it would be good if my wealth was spent for society in a valuable way.\" Lee, who came to office last February, promised to donate his personal wealth to society in late 2007 when he was accused of amassing his fortune through illegal means. He was since been cleared of all charges. But he is now facing criticism from opposition parties who say he supports policies that favor the rich. Lee is a former CEO of Hyundai Construction and the Seoul mayor. But he emphasizes his impoverished beginnings, as a poor young man who had to earn his college tuition cleaning streets. \"Looking back, I realize that all of those who helped me were poor,\" said Lee in the statement. \"I know that the best way for me to pay back such kindness is to give back to society what I earned.\" Analysts say this move will hopefully encourage many others to follow.","highlights":"President Lee Myung-Bak to donate $26 million, the bulk of his wealth, to charity .\nPresident's office says money will be used to set up youth scholarship program .\nLee promised to donate wealth in 2007 when accused of illegally amassing fortune .\nHe was since been cleared of all charges ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Irrawaddy, one of the world's rarest species of freshwater dolphins, have been found in surprisingly large numbers deep in the waterlogged jungles of Bangladesh. The Irrawaddy is considered to be one of the world's rarest species of freshwater dolphin. Conservationists thought the Irrawaddy had dwindled in number to just a few hundred, but they have now counted almost 6,000 of them in the Sundarban mangrove forests and the adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal. The forests of the Sundarban -- Bengali for \"beautiful forest\" -- lie at the delta of the Ganges and two other rivers on the Bay of Bengal. Until now, little mammal research had taken place in the area. \"Every time we had done a study to look into the population (elsewhere), they came out critically endangered,\" said Brian Smith of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, who led the study. \"It was a very pleasant surprise and a shock to find that Bangladesh supports such a large number (of dolphins).\" The discovery is noteworthy because scientists do not know how many Irrawaddy dolphins remain. The next step, they say, is to ensure the mammal's survival. One rare dolphin species -- the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji -- is extinct. Another, the Ganges River dolphin, is critically endangered. Some of the threats affecting the Irrawaddy are man-made. The construction of dams has reduced the flow of fresh water in many parts of Bangladesh. And the population is dwindling because the dolphins sometimes get caught in fishermen's nets. The dolphin, which has a large, rounded head, can grow up to 8 feet in length and is related to the orca, or killer whale. It is found in large rivers, estuaries and freshwater lagoons in south and southeast Asia. In Myanmar, the dolphins help herd schools of fish toward fishermen's boats and nets. In Bangladesh, fishermen hold them in high regard, Smith said. \"There is no market for dolphin products,\" he said. \"In a country like Bangladesh, with protein deficiency and where food is scarce, there is a real cultural prohibition against harming them. It gives us hope because it means fishermen are very receptive to working with us.\" The results of the study were shared Wednesday at a conference for marine mammal protected areas in Hawaii, and published in the winter issue of the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. Conservationists are now working with the Bangladesh government to establish a protected area for the dolphins. \"There are so many bad news (stories) coming out of the conservation community that this is a real sort of positive story,\" Smith said.","highlights":"Rare species of freshwater dolphins found in Bangladesh's waterlogged jungles .\nFears Irrawaddy had dwindled in number to just a few hundred .\nHowever, researchers have now counted almost 6,000 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Utah is the nation's fastest growing state, increasing 2.5 percent from July 2007 to July 2008, according to new population estimates from the Census Bureau. Barack Obama greets one of the newest members of the U.S. population this year on the campaign trail. The main reason for Utah's growth is a \"natural increase\" -- births minus deaths -- said Census Bureau demographer Greg Harper. \"Utah has a strong rate of natural increase and domestic migration, where more people move into the state and [are] not moving out,\" he said. \"Second is Arizona,\" Harper said. \"It grew by 2.3 percent, and the increase is due to domestic migration, meaning more people are moving into the state than moving out. Also, it's a natural increase, more people were born there than died.\" Arizona is followed by Texas, North Carolina and Colorado, each with a 2.0 percent growth rate. Texas added more people than any other state -- about 500,000 -- making it the third-fastest growing state. Because it has a larger population size, its percentage growth was less than Utah. \"Nevada was last year's fastest-growing state, but it fell to eighth,\" said Harper. \"Overall, that state had been among the four fastest-growing states each of the past 23 years.\" Only two states lost population: Michigan and Rhode Island, losing 0.5 and 0.2 percent respectively. Overall, Northeastern states are not growing as fast as other parts of the country, but they have been on the increase since 2005. The South added the most people during the period, 1.4 million. But Western states, with a 1.4 percent increase, saw the fastest growth rate. One state that has reversed its course of growth is Florida. A few years ago more than 250,000 people per year were moving there. But for 2007-2008, the state's 0.7 percent increase was below the nation's 0.9 percent overall increase. According to the estimates, the United States had a net gain of just over 2.7 million people from July 2007 to July 2008.","highlights":"Utah population grows 2.5 percent by \"natural increase,\" Census Bureau says .\nTexas adds more people than any other state -- about 500,000 .\nTwo states lose population: Michigan and Rhode Island .\nFigures are Census estimates for growth from July 2007 to July 2008 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fewer Americans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, but those who are taking to the roads and skies may still face congestion. Travelers gather their luggage before checking in for a flight at San Francisco International Airport Tuesday. About 41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home around the holiday, according to AAA auto club. That figure is down 1.4 percent from last year, meaning 600,000 fewer travelers. The dip represents the first decline in travelers since 2002. \"I think with the economy going downward, people are holding off on traveling,\" AAA spokeswoman Christie Hyde said, noting that the largest drop this Thanksgiving is in flying. The Air Transport Association of American is projecting a 10 percent decrease in the number of air passengers flying over a 12-day period around the holiday, but airline capacity cuts prompted by record-high fuel prices over the summer mean planes will remain crowded. Travel in the skies appeared to be off to a good start Wednesday afternoon. Only a few major airports were experiencing delays by mid-afternoon, and most delays were well under an hour. The ATA expects planes to be close to 90 percent full, on average, on the busiest travel days. \"You'll see plenty of people on airplanes that are full,\" ATA spokesman David Castelveter said. He urges air travelers to arrive at the airport early, be prepared to go through security checkpoints and travel light, as space in overhead compartments and underneath seats will be limited. iReport: Share your travel experiences . Ball State University student Katie Dorsey, 21, planned to fly out of Indianapolis' new airport for the first time. She usually makes the trip to Orlando, Florida, to visit her father a couple times a year. \"I know they have more TSA checkpoint lanes, so it should be faster getting through security, but I'm not sure as far as lines,\" Dorsey said of the new airport. \"I'm going to try to get there at least two hours before my flight this time.\" Last week the TSA expanded its family lane program to every security checkpoint. Families, individuals who are unfamiliar with security procedures, travelers with special needs and those carrying medically necessary liquids in amounts exceeding the TSA's allowances can use these lanes to get through security at their own pace. Dorsey planned to check a bag on her AirTran flight because her travel dates dodge the carrier's fee for a first checked bag, going into effect December 5. Many major carriers have instituted fees on passengers' first checked bags, with higher fees for additional bags. In addition to mounting airline fees, Thanksgiving holiday travelers are paying on average 8 percent more for tickets this year, according to AAA's Leisure Travel Index. iReporter Bart Wible, 28, couldn't afford to pay the fares he found to fly from West Palm Beach, Florida, with his son and fiancee to visit family in Indiana. He looked for tickets online four or five times a week for several months, but the lowest fare he could find was $348 per ticket. Wible said he drives to Indiana when he has time to make the 16\u00bd-hour trip. \"Lately, it's turned into a trip that I have to drive. Even whenever gas prices were at almost $4 a gallon, I had to drive it, because it's still less expensive than flying when you look at three people traveling,\" Wible said. Driving isn't an option for the long weekend, he said, even with average gas prices dipping below $1.90 a gallon. Wible won't be among the 33.2 million Americans AAA expects to travel by car this year. The projected number of holiday drivers is down 1.2 percent from last year's 33.6 million drivers. AAA expects to assist five million stranded motorists during the holiday season. AAA's Hyde urges motorists to get their vehicles checked out before hitting the road. \"Even though people might be trying to tighten their purse strings right now, it's not the time to let your maintenance lapse on your car, especially if you live in a cold-weather environment,\" Hyde said. Have your antifreeze checked, check your windshield cleaning fluid, replace your wiper blades and monitor your tire pressure, she advised. As with any travel, the weather will be a big factor in how smoothly drivers are able to get to their destinations. To ease congestion in the sky that may be compounded by weather, President Bush has authorized the use of military airspace for Thanksgiving \"express lanes.\" Corridors along the East Coast, in the Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast will be opened to commercial airliners. \"Every little bit helps, no question about that,\" said the ATA's Castelveter. \"When we run into congestion in the airspace, having those extra lanes is a benefit. It's not a solution to delays. It's one of a number of solutions to reducing delays.\"","highlights":"41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving .\nA slight dip in the number of travelers is the first decline since 2002 .\nThe largest predicted decline is among air travelers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least nine people were killed in Somalia's war-torn capital Mogadishu when mortars slammed into a home for disabled veterans, according to journalists and witnesses. Al Shabaab fighters display two bodies of Somali police officers during a battle August 12 in Mogadishu. At least 27 people were wounded in the Friday night incident, when Muslim militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port and struck a residential area. The mortars hit a home for former national army officers who were disabled in a late-1970s war with Ethiopia, the sources said. Insurgents from the Al-Shabaab militant group have been fighting to topple Somalia's government. Its fighters have frequently shelled the city's airport and seaport, which are controlled by the African Union and government forces. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al Shabaab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year.","highlights":"Sources: Militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port, struck residential area .\nMortars hit home for disabled national army officers .\nAt least 9 dead, 27 wounded in attack in war-torn capital ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World leaders rushed to congratulate President-elect Barack Obama as incumbent George W. Bush called his win \"a testament to hard work, optimism and faith in the enduring promise of our nation.\" Kenya declared a national holiday for Obama's White House victory. Speaking from the White House, Bush said the people had chosen a president \"whose journey represents a triumph of the American story.\" He said: \"It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle and their beautiful girls step through the doors of the White House. \"I know millions of Americans will be overcome with pride at this inspiring moment that so many have waited for for so long.\" Watch the speech from President Bush \u00bb . Across the globe, people in city squares and villages, living rooms and shacks cheered his success, boosting hopes that America's first black commander-in-chief might herald a more conciliatory approach to the rest of the world. Leading the congratulations by world leaders, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was excited about the prospect of working with the new U.S. president. \"I know Barack Obama and we share many values,\" he said. \"And I look forward to working extremely closely with him in the coming months and years.\" Watch as Brown hails 'friend of Britain' \u00bb . German Chancellor Angela Merkel also offered her congratulations and said she would work with Obama to deal with the challenges facing the world. \"I'm convinced that through a close and trusting cooperation between the United States and Europe we will be able to confront new risks and challenges in a decisive manner and will be able to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that are opening up in our world,\" Merkel said. Obama met both Brown and Merkel over the summer while on an international trip through Europe and the Middle East and held a huge rally in Berlin that revived memories of President John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered similar congratulations, urging Obama to join China in shouldering \"important common responsibilities.\" \"I look forward to endeavor together with you,\" he said. \"To push the Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relations to a new level, in order to better benefit our two peoples and the peoples of the world.\" In Kenya, Obama's extended family danced in his ancestral village of Kogelo, chanting, \"Barack Obama, Barack Obama is going to the White House.\" Obama's grandmother, half-brother and relatives eagerly watched the election results, while in the capital Nairobi, revelers marched and danced through the streets to sirens and whistles, singing Obama's name and carrying and waving American flags. Blog from Kogelo, Kenya . Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called Obama's election \"a momentous day not only in the history of the United States of America, but also for us in Kenya. The victory of Senator Obama is our own victory because of his roots here in Kenya. As a country, we are full of pride for his success.\" Watch celebrations in Kenya \u00bb . U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: \"On a personal note, as an African-American, I am especially proud because this is a country that's been through long journey in overcoming wounds, and making race not the factor in our lives.\" Her predecessor, another African-American, Colin Powell said he wept as he watched Obama deliver his victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park. Powell, in an interview with CNN in Hong Kong, said he believed Obama had the potential to be a great president and asked Americans -- including Republicans -- to get behind Obama. Watch as Powell describes his reaction \u00bb . Powell, a retired U.S. general and a Republican, was once seen as a possible presidential candidate himself but endorsed Obama towards the end of the campaign. \"Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well,\" Powell said Wednesday. In Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama lived with his mother and stepfather in the late 1960s, hundreds of students at his old elementary school poured into the playground and danced in the rain, some chanting \"Obama! Obama!\" The Associated Press reported. In a Japanese town bearing Obama's name, jubilation took a few minutes to translate from the group of American teachers to the local crowd, which also cheered \"O-ba-ma!\" CNN's Kyung Lah reported. Watch reaction in Japan and China \u00bb . Financial markets in Asia closed higher Wednesday as traders were hopeful that Obama could successfully tackle the global economic crisis. But in Europe the major markets closed down about 2 percent and U.S. markets closed about 4.5 percent down. Read what Obama must do to tackle crisis . Amid unprecedented turmoil in the financial markets, Wall Street is desperate for an end to the uncertainty that has built up over the two-year campaign. At an election party in Paris, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde highlighted the financial crisis as Obama's priority when he takes office. She told CNN's Jim Bittermann she expected the president-elect to be \"clearly involved\" in the upcoming financial summit being hosted by Bush. Watch Lagarde discuss priorities for the U.S. president-elect \u00bb . In an open letter to Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Obama's election raised in France, in Europe and around the world \"an immense hope\" and that the American people \"had expressed with force their faith in progress and the future.\" Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the American people have taken \"themselves ... and the rest of the world into a new era, the era where race, color and ethnicity ... will also disappear as a factor in politics in the rest of the world.\" Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said: \"We look forward to relations between our two countries that witness, during your rule, further consolidation and development in all different fields, based on a firm contractual ground, common interests and similar values.\" Watch reaction from Iraq, Afghanistan \u00bb . In addition to the global financial crisis, Obama's challenges include Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with Syria -- challenges the Middle Eastern media have dubbed \"the hot files.\" Iran's Deputy Parliament Speaker Mohammad Hossein Abutorabifard offered a mild note of optimism to traditionally thorny relations between his country and Washington. Watch as Iran awaits Obama \u00bb . \"If the United States takes into consideration the realities of the world and chooses suitable policies, America can play its (proper) role in the relations between the United States and the countries of the region and the world of Islam,\" he said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: \"We have no doubt that that the special relations between the two nations will continue and strengthen during the Obama administration.\" Russian President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Obama on his victory and said he was hoping for constructive dialogue with the incoming U.S. president but also highlighted differences between the two countries, including the missile defense plan. Russia expresses hope for a new relationship \u00bb . In Russia, Pravda newspaper was ecstatic, announcing that \"Eight years of hell are over.\" It criticized the cost of the \"grand American soap opera\" during a time of economic crisis. Watch how world's media covered the election \u00bb . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Bush: Obama victory represents a triumph of the American story .\nWorld leaders congratulate Barack Obama on winning U.S. presidential election .\nMost stocks rise in Asia as Obama win seen positively; markets fall in Europe .\nKenyan President Kibaki calls Obama victory \"our own victory\""} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- When Anna Elisa Fattori arrives at work the first thing she does is to take off her clothes. All of them. For Fattori is a professional nude model working at Rome's art academy. Anna Elisa Fattori: \"You are trying to give inspiration to the students.\" \"It is a tough job!\" she tells me just before beginning to pose for a group of students, eager to paint her gracious figure. There is something striking about her bright green eyes and wavy red hair. \"It doesn't seem to be hard, but you know, try it! Put yourself in front of the mirror and then stay for a long time in a pose. You start: 'Oh my back, oh something is strange here...'\" she says, mimicking pain on her lower back. Fattori is one of about 300 people in Italy who do this job, but only about 50 of them have full-time contracts. She makes the equivalent of about $1,500 each month, but only works three months per year. And that is why she and others recently went on strike, demanding a full-time wage for work they say not everyone can do. \"It is not easy because you are naked, so you have to be very comfortable with your body and have a nice relationship with everybody,\" she says as the students look on, \"but not too open and not too close. You are trying to give inspiration to the students. If we lose these artistic roots that are very important to Italy then we lose a big part of our identity.\" Italian Renaissance art is filled with naked men and women: Think of Michelangelo's David or Botticelli's Venus. But back then artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models and muses, often with the complicity of priests who wanted the walls of their churches painted by famous names. \"Priests allowed prostitutes to use churches,\" explains Enrico Bruschini, one of Rome's best known art historians. \"Officially it was to convert them, but the practical reason was to have the artist at the church.\" Bruschini says that the Saint Augustine church, a stone's throw from Piazza Navona, was a famous gathering point in Rome for Renaissance artists looking for \"inspiration.\" Back then though professional modeling did not exist, and most would agree that the art didn't really suffer from its absence. So if Botticelli and Raphael could do without professional models, what is the big deal now? \"It all started with the rise of art schools in the 19th and 20th centuries\" says Fattori. \"During the Renaissance you just thought that a prostitute can be a model or even a lover. But now we are here, so we need to move ahead.\" Art students hoping to become the next Michelangelo agree. \"I think a person should have talent,\" argues Anastasia Kurakina, a first year student from Russia. \"Because you, for example, you couldn't [model]... I don't know you, but Anna Elisa has talent.\" Anastasia is right, I certainly couldn't do it -- but unbeknownst to me she used me as a model while I was interviewing Fattori. Thankfully I was fully dressed, so all she drew was my head. And she didn't to a bad job at that. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Italy's art models have gone on strike, demanding they get a full-time wage .\nAround 300 people do the job, but only about 50 of them are full-time .\nDuring the Italian Renaissance artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models .\nPriests let prostitutes use churches so it was possible to attract, employ name artists ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four crew members died and one was missing in the frigid waters off Alaska's Aleutian Islands after their fishing vessel sank Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. A crew member of the Alaska Ranger is taken on board the Coast Guard Cutter Munro. The Seattle, Washington-based Alaska Ranger was in 10-foot seas and winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour when it reported water was leaking into its steering gear compartment about 2:50 a.m. Sunday. The trawler had 47 people on board, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane, a Coast Guard spokesman. Four of those had been confirmed dead by late morning, Lane said. One person is still unaccounted for, said another Coast Guard spokesman, Lt. Eric Eggen. Watch a report from Lt. Eggen \u00bb . The 180-foot processing trawler was about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, in the remote Aleutian Islands, when the crew reported being \"overwhelmed by water\" and abandoned ship, Eggen said. Most of the crew had survival suits to protect them from water that was near-freezing, said Cmdr. Todd Trimpert, a Coast Guard spokesman. No cause of death was immediately known for the four crew members who died, but \"certainly, they were in the water a long time,\" Trimpert said. \"Without a survival suit, generally your survival time is less than 30 minutes,\" he said. The company that owned the ship, The Fishing Company of Alaska Inc., identified the four who did not survive as Captain Eric Peter Jacobsen, Chief Engineer Daniel Cook, Mate David Silveira and Crewman Byron Carrillo. \"They were incredibly brave, hard-working men,\" the company said. \"Our hearts are broken.\" A nearby ship, the Alaska Warrior, rescued 25 crew members while the Coast Guard retrieved the rest of the crew, the company said. \"We do not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered,\" the company said. \"We will do everything possible to find out what occurred with the hope that something can be learned that will be of value to the fishing community.\" Amy Roman, a niece of Daniel Cook, told CNN affiliate KING-TV that her uncle \"died how he wanted to. \"If you're a fisherman, you want to die out at sea,\" she said. \"If you're a true fisherman, this is how you want to go.\" Survivors were being taken aboard the Coast Guard cutter Munro. A helicopter and a C-130 transport plane were also taking part in the effort, the Coast Guard reported. The sinking left an unknown amount of diesel fuel on the surface of the Bering Sea, Lane said. The fishing industry is perennially among the most deadly in the United States. In 2005, 48 fishermen died, up from 38 the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That made it the nation's most dangerous occupation for the year, with a fatality rate of 118.4 per 100,000 -- nearly 30 times higher than the rate of the average worker. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Four crew members of Seattle-based Alaska Ranger died, Coast Guard says .\nOthers were rescued, but one person is still unaccounted for, spokesman says .\nBoat was about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor in remote Aleutian Islands ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a time of economic turmoil, most Americans are being frugal with their money, but one freshman congressman is taking cost-cutting to a new level. Rep. Jason Chaffetz unfolds the cot that fits into a closet in his office. Newly elected Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, opted out of renting an apartment in Washington, instead deciding on a cot in his office every night. \"I will save $1,500 a month doing this,\" Chaffetz said. \"I get paid a very handsome salary, no doubt about it, but you know, I've got expenses and a future for my kids and my family, too. \" In a stroke of luck, Chaffetz was one of the few freshmen members of Congress to have the chance at an office with a window when he drew number six out of 55 in the office lottery. His office in the Longworth House Building comes with a half-bathroom, a closet that fits a cot, and what he calls his \"breakfast nook\" where he stores Fig Newtons, granola bars and mixed nuts. Watch more on the thrifty congressman \u00bb . The building also has a gym with a shower room, where Chaffetz starts his day about 5:45 each morning. \"My home is in Utah. My wife and kids are there,\" he said. \"I'm here to work.\" Cutting out travel to and from the office allows Chaffetz more time to serve his constituents and return more of their e-mail and phone calls, he said. The savings are certainly a plus for the congressman, who has three children to provide for, car payments and a mortgage to pay. But Chaffetz said his decision had a larger meaning. \"We are now $10 trillion in debt. $10 trillion. Those are expenses that have to be paid at some point,\" he said. If he can tighten his belt in these tough economic times, Chaffetz said, Congress should be able to as well. \"Our country has to learn to do more with less,\" he added. Although he is a relatively unknown freshman in the House, word of Chaffetz's sleeping arrangement is spreading. Republican Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois, whose office is adjacent to Chaffetz's, said he isn't the first to sleep in his office, and he won't be the last. \"This is a job that you have to have, really, two homes. One in your district where you're there on the weekends and then one here during the week, and it's expensive,\" Rep. Biggert said. \"I'm really glad we have a neighbor here to make sure that the neighborhood is safe at night when we're not here,\" she joked, adding that Chaffetz is actually projecting the right image of the Republican Party by being a \"fiscal conservative.\" Chaffetz said he is finally getting used to sleeping on his not-so-comfortable cot, but that doesn't mean he rests easy at night. \"My biggest challenge is what goes on in the hallway at night,\" Chaffetz said. \"There's this cleaning machine that comes down the hall at night. And it's got that obnoxious beep, beep, beep.\" Despite the din, Chaffetz has no plans to search for another form of housing -- unless his back gives out. \"I've got to keep my back in check, but so far, so good,\" Chaffetz joked. \"But look, our troops are sleeping on a lot worse than this.\"","highlights":"Jason Chaffetz says he'll save $1,500 a month by choosing cot over apartment .\nIf he is tightening his belt, Congress should also be able to, he says .\nChaffetz, R-Utah, is a freshman congressman .\nChaffetz says noises in the hallway can make it difficult to sleep at night ."} -{"article":"ROOSEVELT, New York (CNN) -- When Lisa Brown moved into her rental house on Long Island last summer with her three daughters, she says, it felt like a new beginning. Lisa Brown has to move out of her rental house because it is facing foreclosure . After living in apartments, the spacious house got her attention immediately. \"It was bigger than what I had lived in,\" she says. Brown was also won over by the neighborhood with its tidy homes and good school district. \"I wanted to come here, and I wanted to see my kids graduate from this school district.\" But they hardly had a chance. Instead, fighting back tears, she says, \"I have to get out.\" Brown and her family are being evicted not because of anything they did, but because her landlord defaulted on the mortgage and the house fell into foreclosure. The house was recently sold at auction. The bad news came just seven months after Brown had moved in. A real estate broker came to the door and handed her an eviction notice, telling her she had 30 days to vacate. \"I was hysterical, I was like, what do you mean?\" Watch Lisa Brown's talk about why she has to move \u00bb The broker explained that the landlord no longer owns the property and that the lease was no longer valid. Brown had no idea the house was in foreclosure. As a tenant, she always paid her rent on time, and she assumed the rent was going toward the mortgage. \"I didn't see there was a problem,\" she said. \"You know, I'm paying rent, and she's putting it toward her mortgage, I didn't see the problem.\" Unfortunately, Brown is not the only tenant caught off guard. According to the Center for Housing Policy, nearly 20 percent of all foreclosures are on rental properties, and tenants' rights in such situations are minimal. In most states, when a bank forecloses on a landlord, the tenant has no guarantee of being allowed to stay in the property, and neither the bank nor the landlord has a legal obligation to tell the tenant about the foreclosure. So while the owners know what's going on, renters are usually kept in the dark. New York State Sen. Jeff Klein is aware that renters can run into problems. \"In many instances, they're actually paying their rent on time, and the owner of the property who is in foreclosure is pocketing the money,\" he says. Klein says rental properties are involved in 50 percent of all foreclosures in New York, and he is working on a law to warn renters of foreclosure proceedings ahead of time and to keep them from losing their security deposit and being evicted with nowhere to go. Similar laws are already in place in Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, Rhode Island, Michigan and California. \"What we're facing here\", Klein says, \"is sort of the new homeless population unless we do something about it.\" Brown was astonished to learn that her landlord rented her the house when she knew she was losing it. \"She knew that this house was foreclosing on her. She did nothing about it. Nothing, except take my money.\" Brown was paying $1,900 a month in rent. She had also paid $5,700 for a security deposit and broker fees to secure the house. She says that money is gone. \"She will not give me my deposit back. Nothing.\" CNN tried to reach the owner, who lives upstairs, for comment, but her phone was disconnected, and no one answered the door. The broker who rented her the house and who was paid $1,900 says he did not know the house was in foreclosure. He also says the brokerage fee will not be returned. \"It took everything I had to move in,\" Brown says, \"to give my kids a better environment.\" And now, \"I'm left out with nothing.\" Because eviction papers trump the lease, Brown has no legal right to stay. The bank that foreclosed on the house, and now owns it, offered her $1,000 to get out, but she says she's lost close to $6,000 and has nowhere to go. \"If it was me, yeah I could move out and go on my own. But it's my family you're talking about, my children, my three daughters and my pets, that I brought in here thinking that we were going to stay and be happy.\" Brown is considering suing the owner in small-claims court to get her money back and cover moving expenses. For now, though, she says she will adjust her dreams and find another place for her family to live.","highlights":"Mortgage meltdown affects renter Lisa Brown after landlord is foreclosed upon .\nBrown evicted because landlord defaulted on mortgage, house fell into foreclosure.\nBrown wanted a better life for her three daughters; now she must find a new home .\nNew York state senator working on law to warn renters of foreclosure early ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Those who knew Canadian folk musician Taylor Mitchell say her passion for her craft was matched by her affinity for nature. Fresh out of high school, she embarked upon a three-week tour of Eastern Canada earlier this month full of hope over her blossoming career and excited to explore the region with a new car and driver's license. The 19-year-old rising star was in between gigs when, according to a Nova Scotia Cape Breton Highlands National Park official, she was killed by coyotes during a hike on Tuesday afternoon. \"If there can be any comfort at all, it is knowing that Taylor was doing two of the things she loved most, sharing story and song on the road and spending time in nature's fold,\" her manager, Lisa Weitz said in an e-mail. \"She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity.\" Mitchell was a \"seasoned naturalist\" well versed in wilderness camping who wouldn't want the coyotes responsible for her death to be killed, her mother said Thursday. \"When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'please don't, this is their space.' She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own. She was passionate about animals, was an environmentalist and was also planning to volunteer at the Toronto Wildlife Centre in the coming months,\" Emily Mitchell said in a statement Thursday. \"Tragically, it was her time to be taken from us so soon,\" the mother said. When she was 15, Mitchell began vocal lessons with her future producer, Michael Johnston. \"Taylor inspired and impressed everyone from her musical peers to members of the Canadian roots-music community who were two and three times her age,\" he said in a statement. \"They saw in her the rarest of the gifts -- an ability to sing not only from the heart, but in a way that transcended her age and experience and became something universal.\" The Toronto-based musician's career began to take off earlier this year after the April release of her debut album, \"For Your Consideration.\" She was nominated for Young Performer of the Year honors by the Canadian Folk Music Awards, which will be awarded in November. On her Facebook page, she detailed her busy summer performance schedule, describing it as her \"craziest summer yet.\" In July, she said she took a Greyhound bus to perform in the Young Performers Program at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, her first show west of Ontario, which featured acts including Arlo Guthrie, Neko Case and Elvis Costello. She played more shows in the Toronto area, relishing the airplay her album was receiving, and worked on songs for her next album, Weitz said. Yet she managed to return to nature with her aunt, mother and best friend at the family cottage in Owen Sound, Ontario, delighting in its simple joys. \"Our cottage is on the shores of Georgian bay. It's 125 years old with three bedrooms that sleep two and one bedroom that sleeps four, plus a bunkhouse. It's old and creaky and absolutely beautiful. As I sit on my couch in my apartment, I'm homesick for the precariously slanted stairs, tennis courts, lake and wonderful memories,\" Mitchell said on her Facebook page. Before she set out eastward for her tour of the Maritimes, she shared her works in progress at the Ontario Council of Folk Music conference in Ottawa, impressing all those in attendance, Weitz said. \"Taylor Mitchell's vocal style and consummate songwriting craft belied her vernal years. Indeed, her songs told the tales of a seeker, a sojourner with a sage wisdom atypical of most, let alone one of such tender years,\" Weitz said. On her Facebook page, she had begun counting down the days to her East Coast tour in September, saying in a September 18 status update that she was \"feeling the pull of the road.\" In her last post on the site, she described playing a show in someone's home, calling it \"a welcome dose of normality after a whirlwind weekend\" at the Ontario Council of Folk Music. Those closest to her said they'll derive inspiration from her passion for life. \"Taylor was my shining light, my baby, my confidante and best friend,\" her mother said. \"I don't know how to move forward from here but I know that she would want that for me, and I will try to do that in her memory and celebrate her life in the way she lived it -- with passion, commitment and an unbridled loving heart.\"","highlights":"Taylor Mitchell was a \"seasoned naturalist\" versed in wilderness camping, mother says .\nShe wouldn't want coyotes responsible for her death to be killed, Emily Mitchell says .\nMitchell earned respect of folk music community for talent that belied her age, producer says .\nThe Toronto-based musician was touring Eastern Canada when she died in coyote attack ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the most unexpected controversies of the Obama administration came to a head Tuesday as the president delivered a hotly debated back-to-school speech to students across the country. President Obama speaks to students Tuesday at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Many conservatives expressed fear over the past week that the president's address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. Obama, however, avoided any mention of political initiatives. He repeatedly urged students to work hard and stay in school. \"There is no excuse for not trying,\" he told students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Watch Obama speak to the students \u00bb . \"This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.\" Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf) Several Cabinet officials are slated to deliver similar messages at various schools across the country throughout the day. In the past week, news of Obama's speech had upset some parents. \"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me,\" suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH last week, before the text of the speech was released. \"I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.\" But Amy Veasley, a parent from the Dallas, Texas, area, said Monday that she was surprised by the controversy. \"The president of our country wants to call our students to action. I'm not sure why parents wouldn't want their students to hear out the leader of our country,\" she said. A Baltimore, Maryland, teacher who asked not to be identified bemoaned the fact that the country has \"become so polarized that we believe that our president is an enemy and not our leader.\" During George W. Bush's presidency, she said, \"whether I disagreed or not, I still saw him as a leader.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's speech . White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that \"it's a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an 'Animal House' food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school.\" Some school administrators had decided to show the president's speech, but others decided against it. And others were leaving the decision in the hands of individual teachers. One school district in Toronto, Ohio, decided to air the speech live for students in the third grade and up but not show it to younger children, according to CNN affiliate WTOV. Nine out of 550 students attending the Toronto schools showing the speech chose not to watch it, WTOV noted. Toronto Superintendent Fred Burns said the parents of the nine children were concerned that the speech was too political. Watch students respond to Obama's speech \u00bb . \"It's a very charismatic speech,\" Burns told WTOV. \"It's very much a speech to help kids get involved in education and finish school.\" Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Sunday that Obama's speech could disrupt an already-hectic first day of school for many students. \"I think there's concerns about the disruption,\" he said on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" calling the scheduling of the speech a \"little ham-fisted\" by the White House. Watch CNN's Ed Henry talk about school speech uproar \u00bb . Education Secretary Arne Duncan, however, noted that Obama's speech was not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students from a Washington school in fall 1991, encouraging them to say no to drugs and work hard. In November 1988, President Reagan delivered more politically charged remarks that were made available to students nationwide. Among other things, Reagan called taxes \"such a penalty on people that there's no incentive for them to prosper ... because they have to give so much to the government.\" Some of the controversy over Obama's speech involved a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing \"what they can do to help the president.\" The letters \"would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals,\" the plan stated. After pressure from conservatives, the White House distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can \"achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.\" Duncan said Sunday that the passage was poorly worded. Some politically conservative figures said they had no problem with Obama speaking to students about education. \"I think there is a place for the president ... to talk to schoolchildren and encourage\" them, former first lady Laura Bush told CNN Monday. Parents should follow Obama's example and \"encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the dream that they have,\" she added. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on \"Fox News Sunday\" that Obama's speech was a good idea if the message is a positive one about completing school. \"It is good to have the president of the United States say to young people across America, 'Stay in school, study, and do your homework,' \" Gingrich said. Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer accused Obama last week of trying to \"indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.\" \"Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything,\" he said Monday. After reading the text, he said, \"My kids will be watching the president's speech, as I hope all kids will.\"","highlights":"President Obama speaks to students about education's importance .\n\"There is no excuse for not trying,\" Obama says .\nSecretary of Education Arne Duncan says speech not unprecedented .\nSome school administrators did not show speech; others let teachers decide ."} -{"article":"PHUKET, Thailand (CNN) -- Relatives of the 89 people killed in Sunday's plane crash in Phuket continued to arrive in the Thai resort town on Tuesday to try to identify their loved ones' remains. A Buddhist monk blesses the wreckage of One-Two-Go airline's MD-82 jet at Phuket airport on Tuesday. Most of those killed were foreign nationals, and about 36 of the bodies still have yet to be identified, according to Thailand's state-run Thai News Agency (TNA). All of the unidentified victims were foreign nationals, it reported. The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said that five Americans were among those killed when the One-Two-Go jet crashed in bad weather as it landed at Phuket's airport on Sunday. U.S. officials had previously confirmed that four Americans died in the crash, and one survived. Eight British nationals are believed to have died, according to Foreign Secretary David Miliband. He said three were still in hospital, with one in a critical condition. Thailand's Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said that of the 41 survivors who remain hospitalized, 38 were in stable condition and three in critical condition, according to TNA. Flight 269 was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members when it left Bangkok for Phuket on Sunday afternoon. Nationalities of the survivors include British, American, Swedish, Iranian, Austrian, Australian, Thai, German, Irish, Italian, Israeli and Dutch, authorities said. Watch a survivor recall the fiery horror \u00bb . One man who arrived in Phuket on Tuesday from Paris described a frustrating process of trying to communicate with Thai officials in his effort to locate the remains of his brother. For some families, DNA testing may be the only way to positively identify their relatives. Meanwhile, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders gathered outside Phuket's airport on Tuesday to remember those killed. The investigation into what caused the crash continues, but the strong winds and rain are a suspected factor. U.S. officials are aiding in the investigation because the aircraft -- a Boeing MD-82 -- was manufactured in the United States. One air traffic controller at Phuket airport said pilots were warned of possible wind shear, which is dramatic changes in wind speed and direction. Airport officials said that the wind at the time of the crash was 17 kilometers an hour (11 miles an hour) with stronger gusts, but no planes were delayed or diverted because of the weather conditions. The decision to land was the pilot's alone, according to Phuket's airport manager. \"Air traffic control would give weather information to pilot and warning information but the final decision is dependent on the pilot,\" Pornchai Eua-Aree said. One-Two-Go officials would not speculate on what may have happened, saying they will wait for the findings of the investigation. But they did say their aircraft were regularly checked and maintained, and denied some media reports that questioned whether the discount airline employed more inexperienced pilots for lower salaries. One-Two-Go is one of about 40 low-cost airlines operating in Asia, and the industry will be watching closely for the results of the investigation into the crash. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Andrew Stevens contributed to this report .","highlights":"Relatives of the 89 people killed in Thai air crash are still arriving in Phuket .\nAbout 36 of the bodies have yet to be identified, according to Thai authorities .\nU.S. Embassy in Bangkok confirms that five Americans were among the dead .\nThe investigation into what caused Sunday's crash is still continuing ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Glenn Beck is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and also is host of a conservative national radio talk show. Glenn Beck says the decisions Washington makes today could have fateful consequences for the future. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Dear America: . Happy 300th Birthday! It's 2076 and we've just invented the time-fax machine. (Actually, \"we\" didn't invent the time-fax machine, the State did -- they pretty much control everything now.) I'm faxing this back to you in 2008 because that seems to be the year we had the best chance to reverse our course and get back to the vision laid out by our founding fathers -- a vision that didn't include the government being in the insurance business. I don't have a lot of time (the State only gives us one 30-minute break per day) so let me give you some advice: Stop worrying so much about who runs the country and start worrying about who runs your towns, your states, and your Congress. I know you're all distracted by the presidential election, but for all the money and time poured into it, the truth is that you're choosing between two roads that will lead you to the same destination. Sure, one may be the Autobahn and the other a two-lane highway, but you'll end up at the same place either way. Decades of Republicans and Democrats alike have all chipped in to lead you to where you are today. Believing that one person, from either party, can change that by themselves is a big mistake. Presidents are like captains of a large ship: They can map out a course and shout out orders, but without the trust and hard work of the people who actually move the rudders, their commands mean nothing. In retrospect, the lack of trust and confidence you now have in your leaders was really the root cause of everything that's happened since. While our founding fathers designed a brilliant system of checks and balances, separation of powers and democratic elections, trust was the one thing they couldn't mandate in the Constitution. Unfortunately, it's also the foundation upon which everything else is built and once it began to erode, our whole house inevitably began to crumble. Looking back now, it's pretty obvious that our trust in government declined at about the same rate as our partisanship increased. People became so concerned about getting their party into power at any cost that the truth didn't even seem to matter anymore. That's probably one of the reasons why George Washington hated the idea of political parties so much. Here's what he said about them in his 1796 farewell speech: . \"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.\" I know that George had a habit for using big words, so allow me to translate into 2008 English: Political parties that put their own success over that of the country's will be the death of America. If you don't believe him yet, just wait a few more years...you're about to see firsthand how right he was. After all, if power corrupts, then the kind of absolute power gained by political parties (and feared by Washington) corrupts absolutely. The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking in terms of left and right and start thinking in terms of right and wrong. Demand the best leaders possible, and then demand the best out of them. Believe me, when you see what's coming your way, you'll realize how little the donkey and the elephant really ever mattered. Oh and while we're on politics, one quick thing that I'm sure you're curious about: Yes, Robert Byrd is still in the Senate. He's 159, but doesn't look a day over 91. Now, let's talk about the economy. Let me see if I have this right: Money and power made people greedy, so you decided to hand over a bunch of money and power to greedy politicians instead. Smart! After using that money to nationalize a bunch of banks, mortgage companies and insurance companies, they moved on to bigger things. The airlines came first -- we just couldn't live without them. Then it was the automakers (Detroit would've died), health care (they said they could manage it better), and eventually, the oil companies (I'm not sure where all of those \"windfall profits\" have gone). The idea behind it all (an idea that was eventually turned into law with the passage of the Securities Exchange Act of 2011) was to \"socialize losses\" by spreading them out among all taxpayers. The pain, our leaders argued, would be minimal that way. They were right. At least until the bills came due. See, we didn't actually have any of the money we were promising everyone; we were borrowing it. It didn't take long before so many of our tax dollars were going toward interest payments that we couldn't fund even the most basic of government programs without massive tax increases on everyone. People now work most of the year just to pay Uncle Sam (or, as we now call him, \"Comrade Sam\"). I hear the State censors coming, so let me leave you with a few other quick things: . \u2022 Good call on not worrying about protecting our borders. That works out really well for you in 2019. \u2022 You might want to spend a little less time worrying about carbon and a little more time worrying about Iran. We're now in a new mini-Ice Age but, believe me, Iran isn't using their nukes to warm any homes. (PS The International Atomic Energy Agency just revealed to you that Iran appears to be refitting their long-range missiles to carry nuclear payloads. Did you think they were joking or were you just too busy with lipsticks and pigs to notice?) \u2022 The currency of the future is energy. Those who have it are thriving and those who don't -- well, let's just leave it at that. Drill for all the oil you can, but you also better start seriously looking for some other options. In closing, remember this golden rule and you should be fine: Your Constitution will never fail you, but your leaders will. Be wary of anyone who tries to convince you that it's the other way around. Best wishes (you're going to need them), . Worker 2744A . PS It's not all socialist doom and gloom here in the future. We just thawed Ted Williams' cryogenically frozen body and he hit 87 home runs for the North Team! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Glenn Beck: America in 2076 could be a very scary place .\nBeck imagines a country that is controlled by an all-powerful state .\nPeople lost trust in government because of uncontrolled partisanship, he says .\nBeck: Bailing out industries amounts to socializing their losses ."} -{"article":"YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Montana (CNN) -- The gray wolf was officially removed from the Endangered Species Act's \"threatened\" list Friday after three decades -- a decision that has stoked controversy among environmentalists and ranchers. Federal officials estimate there are 1,500 gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park. It means the wolves can be shot and killed once they step out of Yellowstone National Park as soon as the affected states establish a hunting season. However, state Fish and Wildlife officials can shoot the animals whenever they deem the wolves to be a problem. The government delisted the wolves -- which were eliminated from Yellowstone decades ago before being reintroduced in the 1990s -- because they are now thriving in the park that is dominated by bison, elk and bighorn sheep. \"They're back here in the Northern Rockies; they're back here in Yellowstone,\" said Doug Smith, a biologist for the National Park Service in Yellowstone. \"That's something to celebrate given their history of human hatred.\" But not everyone is happy about the animal being removed from the endangered list. Conservationists believe hundreds of gray wolves straying from Yellowstone in search of prey could soon be killed by hunters and ranchers. Watch rancher say no wolf is \"sacred\" \u00bb . \"We're not ready to pop the champagne corks and have a party,\" said Doug Honnold, the managing attorney for Earthjustice, a non-profit environmental law firm based in Oakland, California, that has threatened to sue the government. \"My biggest fear is we're going to go backwards instead of forwards.\" It wouldn't be the first time. In the early 20th century, wolves were the targets of a massive government extermination campaign. \"It's harder to find an animal more persecuted than wolves. ... We did wolf extermination with a vengeance,\" said Smith. But attitudes began to change in the 1980s. Elk and bison populations increased dramatically because there was no natural predator to keep their numbers in check. In 1995, Smith led a team to bring wolves back to the Rocky Mountain landscape. They transplanted dozens of wolves to Yellowstone from Canada. See photos of Yellowstone's animals \u00bb . The project has been regarded as an overwhelming success. There are now more than 1,500 wolves across Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, according to the government. That number convinced federal wildlife officials to remove them from the endangered species list. Federal officials require each of the three states to maintain a population of 100 wolves, meaning a total of 300 wolves across all three states. The states have actually pledged to keep the population higher than that, at a rate of 150 wolves per state. \"We did a thorough analysis,\" said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. \"The consensus [for recovery] is a population of 300 wolves and 30 breeding pairs.\" He added, \"The wolf population is fully recovered. We have more wolves than we ever predicted and we have fewer problems than we ever predicted.\" Earthjustice says that's not nearly enough to ensure a viable population and they want to stop the delisting. \"We're going to have hundreds of wolves die needlessly,\" said Honnold. But many ranchers in the region just don't understand the fuss about the animals. They have complained for years that the wolves eat their livestock. \"There's nothing about a wolf that's sacred,\" said Bruce Malcolm, a cattle rancher and Republican member of Montana's House of Representatives. He said he's lost nearly two dozen cows to the wolves in recent years. \"I would have preferred that they never came here,\" he said. If there's a winner with the controversy, it's Yellowstone. The wolves have pushed up attendance by more than a 100,000 visitors per year, according to a park study. Smith, who has dedicated his life to the wolves, is philosophical about the debate. \"No one says living with wolves is easy,\" said Smith. \"Living with wolves is a compromise.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Gray wolves officially no longer considered endangered .\nEnvironmentalists fear hundreds of wolves could soon be killed by ranchers .\nRancher tells CNN the animals threaten his way of life .\nFederal Wildlife official: \"The wolf population is fully recovered\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton received the most votes in two pivotal Democratic primary contests Tuesday, scoring wins in Texas and Ohio that were considered critical to keeping alive her White House hopes. Sen. Hillary Clinton is the winner in Ohio and Texas primaries, but trails in the Texas caucuses. With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Ohio, Clinton had 54 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for Sen. Barack Obama. The race was closer in Texas where, with 99 percent of precincts in, Clinton had 51 percent to Obama's 48 percent. A complicated formula in Texas that weighs delegates more heavily in highly populated areas and includes a caucus that was still being tallied Wednesday afternoon meant the delegate count there remained unclear. Obama was leading Clinton in the caucus vote 56 percent to 44 percent with 38 percent of the state counted, party officials said. The party will split 67 delegates between the candidates in proportion to the final caucus results. Watch an I-Report video from a Democratic caucus \u00bb . A final tally was not expected until Thursday afternoon, officials said. Regardless, the two wins were crucial for Clinton, who would have found it difficult to continue the race if Obama won big Tuesday. \"For everyone across America who has been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you,\" Clinton said to a cheering crowd in Columbus, Ohio. Watch Clinton thank backers \u00bb . After a month of losses to Obama, Clinton had been expected to do well in Ohio -- where the blue-collar workers who have consistently supported her throughout the campaign make up a large chunk of the Democratic base. But with polls showing the Ohio contest neck-and-neck in the days leading up to the primary, Clinton got a boost from female voters and those who only recently made up their minds. According to CNN exit polling, 59 percent of the voters in the state's Democratic primary were women. Those female voters favored Clinton over Obama, 58 percent to 40 percent. In the past week, Clinton sharpened her attacks on Obama -- questioning whether he has enough experience to lead the nation and attempting to cast doubt on his opposition to international trade agreements that many in Ohio feel have led to job losses. Poll results suggest it may have worked. Among those polled, 64 percent of those who decided their vote in the last three days chose Clinton. Clinton was believed to need strong performances in Tuesday's contests in Ohio and Texas to halt Obama's momentum in the race and stay alive in the hunt for the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination. As early returns were counted Tuesday, Obama ran a string of consecutive victories to 12 with a lopsided win in Vermont. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he led Clinton 59 percent to 39 percent. But Clinton snapped that streak in Rhode Island. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had taken 58 percent of the vote to Obama's 40 percent. Speaking in San Antonio, Texas, Obama told supporters he expected to hold a similar delegate lead over Clinton after Tuesday's races to the one he held before. \"We know this -- no matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead we had this morning and we are on the way to winning this nomination,\" he said to cheers and chants of his trademark phrase, \"Yes we can.\" Watch an excerpt of Obama's speech to supporters \u00bb . With Texas' delegates still to be awarded, Clinton had picked up 22 delegates after results in Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont were tallied. Obama entered the day holding a lead of just over 100 delegates, with 1,369 pledged delegates and superdelegates to Clinton's 1,267, according to CNN estimates. In Ohio, harsh weather and balloting problems stretched the polling well into the evening. With polls slated to close at 7:30 p.m., state elections officials decided to extend voting until 9 p.m. in northern Ohio's Sandusky County. The area was hit by freezing rain for much of the day, and ballot shortages were reported in the Cleveland and Columbus areas -- also causing the polls to be open until 9 p.m. Texas, with its 193 Democratic delegates, and Ohio, with 141, were the biggest prizes in Tuesday's contests. There were 15 Democratic delegates at stake in Vermont and 21 in Rhode Island. 'Texas two-step' Texas' results may not be as easy to measure as counting votes. In what pundits have been calling the \"Texas two-step,\" the state's Democratic Party held a primary election, in which 126 delegates were awarded, and a post-election caucus in which another 67 are at stake. It's possible for the loser of the primary to win more delegates with a strong showing in the caucuses. Texas' method of awarding delegates in the primary -- with more delegates coming from large population centers like Houston, Dallas and Austin -- further complicates the matter. As polling places closed Tuesday, Texans reportedly lined up in bigger-than-expected numbers for the caucuses -- in some places lining up in parking lots and overflowing buildings where caucuses were held. Party officials Wednesday said 1.1 million voters participated in the caucuses. A CNN I-Reporter in Houston said there were hundreds of people at his polling place -- he said he waited more than an hour just to sign in. At an Austin caucus, about 800 people showed up -- far outstripping expectations and causing organizers to stand on tables and yell to organize caucus-goers, one voter said. Clinton supporters had said a strong performance would keep her campaign alive. Weeks ago, former President Clinton predicted his wife would need wins in Texas and Ohio to stay in the race. \"If Hillary Clinton gets out a small win in Ohio and Texas, it will be like Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow,\" said political adviser and Clinton supporter Paul Begala, referring to the six more weeks of winter the groundhog is said to predict. The Obama campaign, however, said the arithmetic of the delegate count will make it difficult for Clinton to overcome Obama's lead. \"They've had a really bad run and they have to rationalize continuing,\" said Obama spokesman David Axelrod. \"We've won more popular votes and more delegates, and they have to give some rationale for staying in this race.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Obama leads Clinton 56 percent to 44 percent in tally of Texas caucuses .\nClinton wins Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island primaries .\nObama wins Vermont, leads race in total delegate count ."} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Steroid test results and notes and calendars from his then-trainer are among the evidence federal prosecutors have amassed in their perjury case against baseball home-run king Barry Bonds, according to documents unsealed Wednesday. Barry Bonds, shown at his most recent court appearance, is accused of lying to a grand jury. The 223-page stack of documents unsealed by a federal judge represents much of the government's case against Bonds, who is accused of obstructing justice and lying to a grand jury investigating the use of steroids in professional sports. Prosecutors say the test results show Bonds was using performance-enhancing substances -- including a then-undetectable designer drug -- at a time he denied knowingly using any. Bonds' attorneys are seeking to keep much of that evidence out of court. The 44-year-old former San Francisco Giants slugger holds Major League Baseball's single-season and all-time home-run titles, but his achievements have been shadowed by allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds pleaded not guilty to the perjury and obstruction of justice charges and has been free on $500,000 bond. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday. The charges stem from his 2003 appearance before a federal grand jury probing the distribution of steroids by the San Francisco-area Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO. Bonds told the grand jury that his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, gave him a cream that he said was flaxseed oil to use on his arm in 2003. Anderson spent three months in prison after admitting distributing steroids and was later jailed for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors. The case against Bonds will include calendars kept by Anderson that prosecutors say were used to keep Bonds and other athletes on a doping regimen -- an assertion expected to be bolstered by the testimony of other athletes, they said. Evidence will include a recording of a phone conversation with an associate in which Anderson \"describes injecting the defendant, having the ability to obtain and utilize inside information about MLB's random drug testing to the defendant's benefit and the undetectable nature of what Anderson had been doing,\" according to documents. Bonds won seven National League MVP titles during his 22-year career, 15 years of which was spent with the Giants. The team released him after the 2007 season, just weeks after he broke Hank Aaron's career home-run record.","highlights":"NEW: Bonds' attorneys are seeking to keep many of the documents out of court .\nNEW: Evidence will include phone conversation about \"injecting the defendant\"\nNEW: Hearing in the perjury case is scheduled for Thursday .\nSteroid test results and notes from ex-trainer among documents unsealed ."} -{"article":"(Oprah.com) -- On any given day here at \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 69 very talented, extremely detail oriented, high-energy, hardworking women and men all doing their jobs and doing them well. I love a few of them, I like a lot of them, I despise one of them. She is the Magneto to my Wolverine, the Saruman to my Frodo, the Dr. Octopus to my Spiderman. I call her The Tinkler. It's a typical Tuesday; the office is humming along. I'm answering e-mails, writing cover lines, scheduling a dental appointment here, partial highlights there, kicking myself for not getting sushi at lunch. The sun is shining, the color printer is working -- my life is good. I mosey into the ladies' room, glance at the mirror, remind myself that fluorescent lights make everyone look as if they're in the final stages of tuberculosis, and head for a stall. And then I see it: The seat, even the floor, is covered in little yellow droplets. The Tinkler strikes again. To date, I have been able to deduce only four things about her: . 1. She is female. 2. She attacks between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. 3. She works alone. 4. She was raised in a barn. I've been her victim more times than I can count, and it has turned me from a happy-go-lucky columnist into a bitter, paranoid germaphobe. She has become the bane of my existence. We live in a world where our soldiers lack sufficient body armor, where Rupert Murdoch is blurring the line intended to keep the business and political interests of media owners from influencing the presentation of news, where the White House still refuses to respond to questions they promised to answer as soon as the Scooter Libby case was closed, where studies indicate that worrying you're going to get sick will actually get you sick -- and yet I am devoting an entire column to The Tinkler. Any shrink worth his or her salt will tell you that it is a mistake to think of your colleagues as family. But what is a family if not a group of people who care about you and irritate you and show up for cake on your birthday and look at pictures of your kid even when they don't feel like it and think it wouldn't kill you to put on a little makeup and a pair of heels once in a while? I've been earning a paycheck for 30 years. Whether rinsing conditioner off a Lhasa apso during my stint as shampoo girl at Mr. Whiskers Pet Boutique or breathing on the chicken breast I was about to serve a rude diner during my waitressing days, I've always found that the people I work with matter to me. Their moods, their opinions, their style influence my life. They've appreciated me, humiliated me, surprised me, and antagonized me. I've gotten flowers and I've gotten fired (and I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to deserve either), but I've never experienced anything like The Tinkler. \"Dammit!\" I say upon encountering her latest Jackson Pollock imitation. Pat, Suzan, and Valerie each come out of their stalls to see what's wrong. I point in horror. Pat groans, Suzan moans, Val throws up her hands in disgust, and we fall into silence. Then I rally, \"At least we know it's not one of us.\" But everybody else is a suspect. \"It can't be Sudie,\" Suzan volunteers. My eyes narrow. \"What are you basing this on?\" I ask. \"I've seen her,\" she answers, \"she always heads straight for the paper seat protector.\" \"And,\" Valerie adds, \"we can cross Mamie off the list -- it happened twice while she was in Sweden.\" Sixty seconds ago, the four of us were editors; now we are FBI profilers. \"She probably likes to burrow into small spaces,\" Pat conjectures. \"This never happens in the big, wheelchair-accessible stall ...\" \"It's very primitive, as if she's marking her territory. This is clearly a hostile gesture,\" Suzan declares with authority. We're finally getting somewhere. \"So, really,\" I say, \"we just need to be on the lookout for an aggressively mean-spirited, mole-like cavewoman who is not confined to a wheelchair .. is that right?\" Val is the first to realize that we're losing our minds. \"I'm out of here,\" she says, and exits the ladies' room. Later, I complain to J.J., poor, naive little J.J .. She tells me that it can't be any of us, that the toilet is somehow to blame. I leave J.J. in her special world -- a place where troubles melt like lemon drops and Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone -- and resume writing my column. Gina drops by and reads over my shoulder. Suddenly she has an epiphany: \"It's you!\" she announces, pointing at me like she's Javert accusing Jean Valjean of stealing silver candlesticks. \"Think about it,\" she says. \"What better way to cover your tracks than writing an outraged piece on the subject?\" I kind of like that Gina believes I am an evil genius, and I don't have the heart to tell her that I once refused to sit my daughter on the lap of a department store Santa Claus because I had no idea who else had been sitting there. Another day, another bathroom break. \"Steer clear of the third stall,\" Yeun warns as she dries her hands and heads for a meeting. Jennifer emerges from door number four to see what exactly's going on behind door number three. She is appalled yet philosophical. \"Believe it or not, every place I've ever worked has had a Tinkler -- maybe sharing a ladies' room just sends certain people into a passive-aggressive snit. It's the dark side of office life.\" Lately, my daydreams bear a striking resemblance to one of those black-and-white Sherlock Holmes movies: The entire team sits, sipping brandy in an ornate drawing room. \"I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you here today,\" I begin in an inexplicable British accent. \"Well, my friends, one of you is The Tinkler.\" The research department averts their eyes. The art department fidgets nervously. An intern gasps. \"And,\" I go on, \"nobody is leaving this room until I reveal the person who refuses to work and play well with others.\" My assistant, Polly, looks up. \"You mean you've figured out the identity of The Tinkler?\" she asks, filled with an admiration for my powers of reasoning that she has never once expressed in real life. \"It was elementary, dear Watson. I merely -- \" but before I can unmask The Tinkler or explain why I refer to Polly as dear Watson, the lights suddenly go out ... I could go on, but I'm bored silly whenever someone feels compelled to relay every nanosecond of a dream. Suffice it to say that I usually wind up in the arms of Tyrone Power. As for The Tinkler? She's still on the lam. There are lots of days when I find myself wishing life were closer to a gorgeous movie from the '40s -- women wore fabulous hats and pearl chokers, and I don't think they actually went to the bathroom back then. They were too busy dancing with Fred Astaire and smoking unfiltered cigarettes to schlep to an office every day. Now, some of us are running the offices, but it seems we've brought a few low-grade lunatics along for the ride -- and they're wreaking havoc in the ladies' room. Where have you gone, Edith Wharton? I'm not asking for cloth napkins and classical music. I don't need a mint on my pillow. I just want a bit of common courtesy, a modicum of civility, a touch of class, or, failing all that, a good supply of Lysol. By Lisa Kogan from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" April 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2008 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Women's bathroom is defiled by The Tinkler .\nColumnist tries to figure out who's guilty of peeing on seat .\nDecides she is \"aggressively mean-spirited, mole-like cavewoman\"\nWriter yearns for modicum of civility, a touch of class, or supply of Lysol ."} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- The TV no longer sits on a moving box, but she's still using filing cabinets as end tables. Desiree Jacobsen graduated from college years ago, so why does her apartment resemble a dorm room? It's hard to save for the finer things when you've had to shell out money to be in five weddings in one year, three times as maid of honor. Some maids of honor have gone deep into debt rather than disappoint a friend who expects a lot. \"I shop at the Salvation Army quite a bit to save money,\" says Jacobsen, 26, a medical editor in Dallas. Being a bride's maid or matron of honor is a distinction many women cherish. But it doesn't come cheap. It can easily cost a woman $1,000 or more for the honor of standing beside the bride on her big day, according to TheKnot.com, the leading wedding Web site. On top of the traditional expenses of wedding attire, transportation and chipping in for a gift from the bridesmaids, maids of honor can wind up hosting bridal showers, bachelorette parties and even the co-ed Jack and Jill party -- often footing the bill entirely. Expectations are reaching bridezilla proportions, a trend Anna Post, spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute and great-great-granddaughter of the etiquette authority, attributes in part to the extensive coverage of celebrity weddings on television and in style magazines. Watch etiquette tips on attending wedding events \u00bb . Many bridesmaids are left torn between maintaining a friendship and breaking the bank. Tough to say no . When Sarah de Maintenon, a 33-year-old real estate agent in Syracuse, New York, agreed to be her best friend's maid of honor two years ago, the economy was good and houses were selling like hot cakes. But the currently slow real-estate market means that money has become tight as the big day -- scheduled for October -- slowly approaches. \"I seriously just didn't know. I thought it was just a bachelorette party,\" says de Maintenon of the events she was expected to throw and attend. Her distress over the destination wedding sent her seeking advice online. The advice she received was simple, but effective: Talk to her friend and be honest about her situation. \"I contemplated telling her I couldn't do it, but I couldn't break her heart,\" she says. \"I was afraid it would cause an argument ... I didn't want to ruin her wedding day.\" Jacobsen hasn't skipped a wedding, but she did once skip the pre-wedding bridal portrait, which she would have had to travel out of town to participate in, because she was short on money and vacation time. \"She was upset with me for a little while, but it quickly blew over because I started planning for her bachelorette party.\" When feelings get hurt, Jacobsen says, she tries not to take it personally. \"It's usually because of the stress of the wedding.\" Etiquette rules vs. reality . Is all this necessary? Are brides asking too much of their friends? Post says that contrary to popular belief, the bridal shower isn't the maid of honor's obligation. Traditionally, a close friend would throw a bridal shower for the bride, and sometimes that person is also the maid of honor. But expenses can be agreed upon in advance and shared by the entire wedding party. And though there may be multiple parties thrown for the happy couple, Post says, the maid of honor is not required to go. \"That's not true,\" claims Kim Bohnert, a 32-year-old teacher in San Francisco. She's served nine stints as maid of honor and considers herself an expert bridesmaid. She insists that the entire bridal party -- especially the maid of honor -- is expected to attend all parties and shell out for a gift each time. \"It definitely adds up,\" says Melissa Bauer, spokesperson for TheKnot.com. Bauer ticks off some of the major expenses: about $300 for a dress, $50 to $200 for shoes, $40 to $60 for accessories, $50 for a shower gift and another $100 for a wedding gift. Then there are the parties. \"The big thing now is destination bachelorette parties,\" Bauer says. \"Some people might do it local, but regardless, you're [often] footing the cost for the bride [to attend].\" The cost of traveling to an out-of-town party can add several hundred dollars to the tab, Bauer notes -- to say nothing of the cost of traveling to the wedding itself. Going for broke . Whether popular wisdom requires such a commitment or not, there's a very real limit to what women can afford. Bohnert agreed to be her cousin's maid of honor, even though she was maxed out on her credit cards, and the many expenses included a $500 Sae Young Vu dress. \"I'm still in debt because of it,\" she says. Ma'ayan Geller, a part-time student and assistant physical therapist in San Francisco, was glad to hear her friend wanted to be sensitive to the financial constraints of her wedding party. But when Geller, one of the bridesmaids, suggested a cheap Las Vegas package for the bachelorette party, the bride gave her the boot, saying she wasn't being serious enough about her commitment to the wedding. \"I had already bought the dress -- close to $300 -- which was a lot for me at the time,\" Geller, 23, remembers. \"I think it could have been done in a better way.\" Geller still attended the wedding, partially because all her friends were there and also because she wanted to support the bride, \"although the friendship kind of ended after that.\" Making it work . In Post's experience, a wedding is a collaboration, and the wedding party often tries to find a solution that works for everyone. \"When something difficult arises, I've seen brides put on the brakes rather than force something on someone,\" she says. Jeri Kadison, a bridal coach in New York, says communication is key: Detail expectations early, and if something sounds too expensive, compromise and brainstorm other ideas, she advises. \"It's the bride's responsibility to be compassionate and considerate,\" she says. That strategy worked for de Maintenon. She and her bride talk almost every day. Instead of renting a restaurant, they're having a barbeque. Instead of renting a beach house, they're all staying with a girlfriend. It's also OK to say no, Post says. \"You can decline. Just do it early.\" De Maintenon recently declined when one of her best friends asked her to be the maid of honor, and her friend wasn't upset. \"She knows that I'll do anything else to help out in any way.\" LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Liane Yvkoff is a freelance writer in San Francisco .","highlights":"As economy gets tough, more women may reconsider being maid of honor .\nBridezilla expects bridal showers, bachelorette parties, co-ed Jack and Jill party .\nBridal coach: Detail expectations early and if concerns rise, compromise ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Among the entertainers who have donated their energies to the USO in recent years are Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, Kid Rock, Queensryche, Toby Keith, Lewis Black and Robin Williams. Stephen Colbert's trip to Iraq, facilitated by the USO, was six months in the planning. But when the USO conducts a public opinion survey asking people who they think of when the military service organization is mentioned, one name always comes up. \"The first thing out of their mouths is 'Bob Hope,' \" said Mark Phillips, the USO's vice president for communications, with an audible shrug. \"And if they're not part of the military, the list stops there.\" As the country celebrates Independence Day and pays tribute to the men and women who serve in its armed forces, the USO is trying to change that mindset. The organization, which was founded in 1941 to bring comfort and entertainment to America's men and women in uniform, has been focusing its support on American troops stationed around the world, particularly those in the military theaters of Iraq and Afghanistan, said Phillips. As part of that initiative, it's paying a great deal of attention to the troops' desires, whether they be for high technology -- the USO recently brought video game\/HDTV entertainment centers and satellite-based telephone systems to some areas -- or a diversity of entertainers, including rappers and NFL players. The Colbert trip was a meeting of the minds between the Comedy Central star and the military, said Rachel Tischler, the USO's vice president for entertainment operations. The \"Colbert Report\" host, who has attested to his interest in Iraq in such venues as Newsweek magazine (he was a guest editor last month), expressed interest in going, a request that made its way up the chain of command to Gen. David Petraeus, the former leader of coalition forces in Iraq. Petraeus liked the idea, said Tischler, and the principals were put in touch with the USO. Colbert's excursion, which the comedian called \"Operation Iraqi Stephen,\" was unusual for the USO, she added. \"We try to keep our footprint small,\" she said, noting that the organization is reliant on the military to feed and house its guests. In \"Colbert's\" case, the footprint was considerably larger: Colbert's staff and several USO employees -- not to mention 150 volunteers. The trip required six months of planning. But the broadcasts went well, with Colbert paying tribute to the military and the USO's volunteers (as well as his own staff) on the \"Report.\" He also put in a plug for USO donations: \"The USO does more than bring my show to Baghdad,\" Colbert said on the show. \"They also deliver much-needed care packages to the troops.\" (Whereupon, in a care-package primer, Colbert and Tom Hanks filled a box with shaving gel, Tang and a demolished ice sculpture.) The group remains greatly dependent on the kindness of strangers, said Phillips. \"We're primarily a volunteer organization,\" he said, noting the USO has fewer than 400 paid employees and 25,000 volunteers. Though the USO does receive a small congressional appropriation -- $20 million in 2008 -- much of its funding comes from individuals, corporations and in the form of in-kind services. Jamie Masada, the owner of Los Angeles' Laugh Factory comedy club, said the organization is close to his heart. He followed a tour of Laugh Factory comedians with an invitation to service members to visit his club. \"What we try to do is give the soldiers -- the people that are out there putting their lives on the line for our country ... we try to say, one day if you come to Los Angeles, if you want to be a comedian, our door is open to you. We want you to send us some material, some jokes,\" he said. At a recent USO fundraiser, five service members were given the opportunity to compete for the title of \"funniest service member.\" The group was given advice from several notable comedians, including Tom Dreesen and Paul Rodriguez, and the winner received cash, gift certificates and a performance at the club, complete with name on the marquee. A number of performers return again and again. Toby Keith has gone on at least seven USO tours; \"He insists on going to the smallest, most remote places,\" said Phillips. Actor Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band are also frequent participants. \"There aren't enough words to describe just how grateful I am to our nation's troops,\" said Keith in a press release before this year's tour. \"I've participated in several USO tours over the years and I've seen firsthand their sacrifice. And I will not stop doing all I can to show my support and lift their spirits.\" Many entertainers shy away from publicity, particularly on the home front. \"We have celebrities come to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed ... and they almost always insist we don't talk about [the visits],\" said Tischler. At its core, Phillips said, the USO remains dedicated to the needs of U.S. service members. \"Service members in Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently at small, remote bases,\" said Phillips. \"There's little in the way of creature comforts. Those are the things we try to deliver.\"","highlights":"USO often brings thoughts of Bob Hope, but organization well beyond that .\nGroup offers technology, entertainment to troops overseas .\nUSO played key role in arranging \"Colbert Report\" from Iraq ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 23-year-old beauty queen and seven men arrested in vehicles loaded with weapons and cash near the central Mexico city of Guadalajara have been transferred to Mexico City, the state news agency said Wednesday. Laura Zuniga and seven men were found in vehicles with guns and $50,000, Mexican police say. Laura Zuniga and the men were traveling Monday night in two vehicles that contained AR-15 assault rifles, 38-caliber specials, 9 mm handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash, said Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez de Velazco, secretary of public security for the state of Jalisco. Police, who had received a tip that armed men were in a home, detected the vehicles in the city of Zapopan as authorities were en route to investigate the call, Najera said Tuesday. Inside one of the vehicles, authorities found Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, 29, who is Zuniga's boyfriend and the brother of \"one of the greatest capos [bosses] of narcotraffic,\" Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, a member of the Juarez cartel already in police custody, Najera said. All eight were filed before the news media Tuesday. Zuniga, wearing blue jeans and a gray sweater, raised her handcuffed wrists to cover her face in a police picture. Watch footage of the eight arrested and weapons seized \u00bb . They were transported in a heavily armed 30-vehicle convoy late Tuesday to Guadalajara International Airport and flown to Mexico City, the official Notimex news agency reported. The federal organized crime team in Mexico City will investigate, and the suspects will face arms charges, Najera said. Zuniga is from Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, a center of drug activity. In July, she won the title Our Sinaloa Beauty. That gave her the right to compete two months later in the national Our Mexico Beauty in Monterrey, where she won \"The Election of the Queens,\" one of five special recognitions, and came in third overall. In October, she won the title \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Mexican newscasts referred to her Wednesday as \"Miss Pistols\" and likened her situation to \"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.\" According to the Nuestra Belleza Mexico Web site, she is to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest. A statement issued Wednesday by Lupita Jones, director of Our Mexico Beauty, said the organization will wait to see what happens in the legal system. \"In order to determine the situation with Miss Laura Zuniga, Our Mexico Beauty will be watching the case and will take appropriate action once the results of the authorities' investigation are known,\" said the statement, published on the Web site for CNN affiliate Televisa Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Mexican newcasts refer to arrested beauty queen as \"Miss Pistols\"\nMexican police: Laura Zuniga, seven men face arms charges, federal probe .\nZuniga, men found in vehicles with weapons, $50,000, police say .\nZuniga set to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The global economic crisis has caused a spike in world hunger that has left more than a billion undernourished, United Nations agencies said in a new report. The report says the stabilization of financial markets has meant less investment in agriculture, food distribution. \"It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry,\" said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme. \"At a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory.\" The report by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization was released Wednesday, ahead of World Food Day on Friday. Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries, according to the report. An estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific. An additional 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa while 95 million come from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Near East and North Africa. The final 15 million live in developed nations. Should developed economies be doing more to eradicate hunger, poverty? The number of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold and governments pumped resources into stabilizing financial markets. The move meant smaller investments in agriculture and food distribution. \"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis, and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty,\" said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO. \"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable.\" The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises. \"We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs -- we just need the resources and the international commitment to do the job,\" Sheeran said.","highlights":"World Food Programme: One in six of world's population is now going hungry .\nNearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries .\nNumber of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold, report says .\nCalls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger ."} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Al Vivian is president & CEO of BASIC Diversity, Inc., a 35-year-old consultancy that specializes in diminishing cross-cultural biases that has worked with clients such as Coca-Cola, Ford, Kroger, McDonald's, the National Security Agency and CNN. He is also an adviser to the United States Army for diversity and cultural affairs. Al Vivian says Eric Holder was right to urge Americans to confront diversity issues now. FAYETTEVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- Privilege can be a dangerous thing. It releases you from the task of thinking about things that others must. I am an African-American male and I am privileged. Not on race; but on gender, education, religion, income and many other areas. As a man, my authority and intellect are not second-guessed. As a Christian, my moral code is not questioned, nor am I subject to post-September 11 profiling. I have privilege in these areas, and I realize that this privilege creates blind spots. An advantage to any group creates a corresponding disadvantage to all others . Recently Attorney General Eric Holder made some statements concerning America's need to confront its racial history, and the need for Americans to engage in cross-racial dialogue. Holder's comments offended some and motivated others, not uncommon when dealing with the touchy issue of race. On confronting our history he said: . \"To get to the heart of this country, one must examine its racial soul. ... in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. \" Concerning cross-racial dialogue he opined: \"If we are to make progress in this area, we must ... have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.\" In a recent interview, President Obama responded by saying, America has made \"enormous progress, and we shouldn't lose sight of that ... I think it's fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language.\" The president went on to say, \"I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure people have health care, ensuring that every kid is learning out here.\" They were both right; but they were addressing two different things. Obama was talking about fixing the economy to ease racial tensions. Holder was talking about overcoming our fears to dialogue and confronting racial privilege so that we can eliminate inequities that cause the racial tensions. Additionally, Holder was not saying that progress had not been made. He was saying that there is much yet to be done in order to fully engage and leverage the abilities of all of the nation's human capital. Elaborating on history, we must acknowledge that whites have been the benefactors of centuries of history that included half-truths that socially affirmed them to the detriment of all others. Addressing this privilege will take extreme courage, for there will be many loud dissenting voices. For example, there has never been a discussion in America about whether we should or should not celebrate a White History Month. That would be an irrelevant waste of time, because white history has been the basis of practically all that we have been taught. Being able to sit in a classroom and open history books that positively portray a plethora of people that resemble you has been, and continues to be, the exclusive historical privilege of whites. This privilege psychologically and economically benefits every member at every level of the advantaged category so profoundly that its members never have to question their place in society. And that place is on top: the expected and accepted norm. If you are white, consider how different life might be for you now if you had grown up from meager beginnings, while simultaneously being denigrated by a society that had denied equal access to you, your parents and every member of your race during every prior generation. This is the history of black America that Holder is saying we must understand to truly know the heart of America. History is history, and these are the facts. When we choose to exclude vital portions of history, we are no longer teaching history; we're teaching ideology. And if you're a person of color, you're excluded. The classroom experience for those who are not white tends to fit the following quote by poet Adrienne Rich: \"When someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world -- and you are not in it -- there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.\" It's impossible to grasp the true significance of any groups' contributions when they are taken out of context, and told as a separate story during some isolated month. It's like reading a great novel and leaving out chapters. What's missing is what the late Paul Harvey would have called \"the rest of the story.\" George Washington Carver, a black man, had many breakthrough inventions utilizing the peanut. His contributions could sound insignificant until put into context. The south, as a region, made its money through agriculture, primarily cotton. Poor crop management practices eventually damaged the soil throughout the south until it was almost impossible to successfully grow cotton anywhere in the region. The south needed a new cash crop -- then came the peanut. George Washington Carver revitalized the agricultural south; thus the financial south. He saved the south. But because we tell his story out of context, no one understands the significance of his contributions. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, which was a tremendous invention. However its paper filament was only operable for short periods of time, until a black man named Lewis Latimer contributed his invention, the carbon filament, to the project, making possible the widespread use of electric light. Had there been no Latimer, there would not have been a successful Edison. But most history books have no mention of Latimer. Textbooks currently teach that our great nation became a democracy in 1776. Great nation, strong republic, yes! Democracy, no. The very foundation upon which democracy was built demanded that the political leadership be selected for the people, by a vote of the people. To deny this right to millions of our citizenry for no legitimate reason was to abort democracy before it was born. The uncomfortable and blunt truth is, the United States did not legitimately become a democracy until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it law that no citizen could be denied the right to vote based on their race. Until we as Americans change course, grow a spine, teach true history that is inclusive of all races and replace these fallacies and half-truths with reputably documented facts, our citizenry will continue to be relegated to racially segmented ideology instead of history. We are a great democracy, and thus ready for honest dialogue. The time is now, and this discussion must go beyond black and white. It must be inclusive of Arabs, Asians, Latinos and others. It must also go both ways. People of color cannot only talk. We must also listen. All parties must be willing to be critiqued as well as offer criticism. As Holder said, this will be uncomfortable, but \"this way we can hasten the day when we would truly become one America.\" It's unusual when someone who is out of the norm makes his or her way into the seat of privilege, because those with whom you now share this privilege do not expect you to speak for those who do not. Welcome to your seat Mr. Holder, it fits you well. And thank you for not taking the coward's route. By the way, mission accomplished. We're talking. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Al Vivian.","highlights":"Al Vivian: Privilege creates blind spots that conceal the harm they do .\nHe says whites have had a longstanding racial privilege in the U.S.\nVivian: History has largely been written from perspective of white Americans .\nHolder was right to make his \"nation of cowards\" speech and urge dialogue ."} -{"article":"FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (CNN) -- Michelle Mack has turned medical thinking upside down. The right side of Michelle Mack's brain rewired itself to take over functions controlled by the left. Born with only half a brain, Mack can speak normally, graduated from high school and has an uncanny knack for dates. At 27, doctors determined that the right side of her brain had essentially rewired itself to make up for function that was likely lost during a pre-birth stroke. But her childhood and young adult years were fraught with frustration. \"It was very hard for me,\" Mack said. \"It was very hard for me growing up. No one knew the truth about my brain.\" Mack's parents, Carol and Wally, realized shortly after her birth that something was wrong. \"There wasn't a group to turn to,\" said Carol Mack. \"Michelle didn't have cerebral palsy, I knew that. She didn't have Down's syndrome, I knew that. I had no place to turn.\" Ten years ago, Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institutes of Health, finally diagnosed the problem. Watch how Mack's brain healed itself \u00bb . An MRI scan revealed she was missing nearly all the left side of her brain. While it was clear Mack has some problems, Grafman said he and the family were shocked by the extent of the damage. \"We were surprised to see the extent of the lesion in her brain, which basically took away the left side of her brain,\" said Grafman. \"There's some very deep structures remaining, but the surface of her brain, the cortex is 95 percent gone and some of the deeper structures, structures that control movement, are missing. These are all structures that are important for movement, behavior, cognition.\" The only answer, Grafman said, was that Mack's brain has rewired itself. The remaining half took over some of the essential functions that are normally done by the left, such as speaking and reading. That rewiring, however, came at a cost. \"Michelle has fairly normal language abilities, certainly basic language abilities, she can construct a sentence, she can understand instructions, she can find words when she's talking, but actually she has some trouble in some aspects of visual-spatial processing,\" said Grafman. \"It's quite possible that in her learning, in her development, when the right hemisphere either took over or developed some of the language abilities that it cost her in some of the skills that are normally mediated by the right side of the brain,\" added Grafman. In the 10 years since Grafman first diagnosed Mack, she has seen some intellectual functions improve, the doctor said. Recovery has not been perfect, however. Mack still struggles with abstract concepts and becomes easily lost in unfamiliar surroundings. The diagnosis explained why Mack had experienced a lifetime of difficulty controlling her emotions. \"He's helped us understand the reason why I tend to throw fits, temper tantrums,\" she said. \"It was because I was missing half my brain.\" Mack will always have some problems, but dad Wally Mack said that Grafman's diagnosis and treatment answered a lot of questions and gave him hope. \"Dr. Grafman explained that the right hemisphere is taking over, and it might take her a little while longer to get there with all the rewiring that has to take place,\" he said. \"But that told us all these bad days are behind us and there are nothing but good days ahead.\" Michelle Mack is now 37 and lives with her mother and father. She works from home doing data entry for her church. She is fairly independent, pays rent and can do most household chores. She realizes she'll need help for the rest of her life but wanted to tell her story to make it clear that she is not helpless. \"I wanted to do this so people like producers, photographers and security guards and police officers learn about people like me,\" she said, \"that I'm normal but have special needs, and that there are a lot people like me, so that they could be more understanding.\" CNN's Campbell Brown contributed to this report.","highlights":"Doctor: Lesion \"basically took away the left side\" of Michelle Mack's brain .\nRight side of her brain essentially rewired itself to take over left-side functions .\nShe lost some language ability, emotional control because of the rewiring .\nMack's message to the world: \"I'm normal but have special needs\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Tiffany Wilson noticed a small growth on her left hip, she didn't think much of it. Tiffany Wilson, 41, found a bump on her hip that she thought was a pimple. It turned out to be skin cancer. \"It was bizarre,\" recalled the 41-year-old salon owner from Minneapolis, Minnesota. \"I just thought it was a pimple.\" Wilson, who is African-American, can't say exactly what prompted her to point out the bump to her physician, but she said she remembered thinking the diagnosis wouldn't be anything serious. \"It never occurred to me that it was skin cancer,\" she said. But it was. She had basal cell carcinoma, the most common skin cancer. Wilson spent long hours as a child in the summer sun at Lake Nokomis in Minnesota and went to the tanning bed before visiting relatives in the Caribbean, she said. She also said she never wore sunscreen. \"Back then, I just don't think people were aware of the effects [of the sun],\" she said. Those may seem like obvious red flags to people who are sun-conscious, but they were foreign concepts to Wilson, which is why her diagnosis came as a shock. \"I just assumed, 'I'm a person of color, I'll be OK,' \" she said. Dermatologists say they are concerned because skin cancer rates are increasing among minority groups in the United States. Like Wilson, many people of color often mistakenly believe skin cancer is not something they should be worried about. Pigmentation is no 'free pass' The reasoning is not completely far-fetched: Darker-skinned people do benefit from the protective effects of skin pigmentation. In fact, some studies suggest that for the darkest skin tones, pigmentation cells provide a natural sun protection factor, or SPF, of about 13. The problem is many dark-skinned people believe that means they are born with a natural immunity to skin cancer. \"Pigmentation doesn't give you a free pass,\" said Dr. Charles E. Crutchfield III, a dermatologist specializing in ethnic skin and the doctor who treated Tiffany Wilson. \"It doesn't matter what color your skin is, everyone can get skin cancer.\" Bob Marley, for example, died of malignant melanoma, the most lethal type of skin cancer, that spread to his lungs and brain. All types of skin cancer are increasing among blacks and Hispanics, and their melanomas are more often fatal because they are usually caught later, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Crutchfield pointed out that pigmentation may have sun-protective qualities but even for the darkest skin it falls short of the AAD's recommendation of a daily SPF of at least 15 for everyone. Crutchfield feels many ethnic groups are missing that key part of the message, if they are getting the message at all. Blog: How to pick the right sunscreen . Researchers acknowledge that many of the messages regarding skin cancer prevention have traditionally targeted fair-skinned people, a group 10 times more likely to develop melanoma. Now, dermatologists say, more needs to be done to encourage all groups to take precautions against sun damage. A Consumer Reports survey found only 27 percent of people with self-described darker skin applied sunscreen when they were in the sun for four hours or more, compared with 64 percent of people with self-described light skin. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009 there will be more than 1 million unreported cases of basal cell and squamous cell skin cancer -- most of them curable -- and that more than 68,000 cases of melanoma will be diagnosed. For melanoma, the key to a cure is early detection. That's why dermatologists caution everyone to be vigilant and learn the risks for their skin type. \"Race is very important because not all skin is the same,\" said Dr. Susan Taylor of The Skin of Color Center, a dermatology group focusing on the needs of patients of color. According to Taylor, people with darker skin often get diagnosed at later stages because the cancers often appear in atypical locations. Melanomas in African-Americans and darker-skinned Hispanics and Asians develop more commonly on the palms, soles of the feet, toenails, fingernails and in mucus membranes like around the mouth and genitals, she said. In Caucasian and lighter-skinned Hispanics, melanomas more frequently appear on the back in men and on the legs in women. Also, the signs of melanoma may vary depending on skin tone. \"Skin hue can affect the way lesions look,\" Crutchfield said. \"Things that appear red in white skin often look completely different in skin of color.\" Historically, research and teaching was done on fairer-skinned people, making it more challenging for physicians to recognize suspicious moles on darker skin. While these differences present challenges, they are certainly not barriers. Experts say, the best thing to do is keep it simple. \"If you have any lesion or mole change at all, or if you have a spot that bleeds and doesn't heal in three weeks, see a physician or a dermatologist,\" Dr. Crutchfield recommended. \"That's something everyone can do.\" Visit the American Academy of Dermatology Web site to find free screening locations in your state . Another piece of simple advice: \"All racial groups need to use sunscreens,\" Taylor stresses. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using a broad-spectrum sunscreen that protects against both deep-penetrating UVA rays and burn-causing UVB rays. Not all sunscreens protect against both. Visit the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep cosmetic safety database . Tiffany Wilson is heeding that advice. She said she's learned that when it comes to prevention, the worst thing you can possibly do is nothing. \"I use extreme caution in the sun and make certain that I use a sunscreen, even on a cloudy day,\" she said. \"You shouldn't underestimate the rays of the sun. \"","highlights":"Dermatologists report increased incidence of skin cancer among people of color .\nMinorities often believe pigmentation makes them immune to skin cancer .\nMore than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are estimated in 2009 .\nEvery 62 minutes, one American dies of melanoma ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean wants to set the record straight. Carrie Prejean says pageant officials wanted her to make appearances for Playboy and a gay movie premiere. Prejean garnered widespread criticism when she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question posed to her during the Miss USA pageant. Prejean was allowed to keep her Miss California USA crown in May, despite a controversy over topless photos and missed appearances. However, state pageant Executive Director Keith Lewis took her crown on Wednesday, saying it was a business decision based solely on \"contract violations.\" Prejean offered her side of the story when she spoke with CNN's Larry King on Friday. She also discussed whether she would sue to reclaim her title and her future plans. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: You've had a couple of days now, Carrie, to think it all over and it's sunk in. What are your feelings today? Carrie Prejean: I'm definitely a little bit surprised just by the way that I found out about this. You know, I was called by the media to inform me that I was fired. King: Are you saying the pageant didn't call you? Prejean: No. I haven't received any phone calls. In fact, my lawyer found out from the media, as well, before we received any contact. I still have not, to this day, received any contact from Mr. Lewis. King: Now, since they were so supportive of you at the time and after the Trump announcement, what do you make of the fact that they didn't call you? Prejean: Well, I think Mr. Trump was definitely in the middle. And I think that, you know, he has only heard one side. Ultimately, at the end of the day, you have to think about, Are you going to release Mr. Keith Lewis or are you going to release Carrie Prejean? I think that they had to release the beauty queen at the end of the day. King: How do you respond to (charges from Lewis)? Prejean: Well, Larry, all I can tell you was this basically comes down to the answer that I gave the night of the pageant. As you can see, Mr. Lewis does not agree with the stance that I took. I think he's very angry. I think he's hurt. He said in a previous statement that he's deeply saddened and hurt that -- what Carrie Prejean believes in -- a marriage is between a man and a woman. Politics and religion have no play in the Miss California family. My question is, then why was the question asked at the pageant in the first place? If politics has no role in the pageant, why was I given this question? It was a hidden personal agenda that judge No. 8 asked, and I think that they were not ready for my answer that I gave. King: Let's say they were upset by your remarks. They didn't like your answer. Why didn't they just tell Donald Trump, we're unhappy and let's pick the runner-up or whatever? Prejean: He absolutely did. I mean Keith Lewis held a press conference in Los Angeles and didn't invite me to the press conference and, you know, awarded the first runner up as the new ambassador of California. That is just undermining me and undermining his own titleholder from day one. Watch how e-mails between Prejean, Lewis may have contributed to firing \u00bb . As far as the other appearances, I've had some inappropriate appearances that Keith Lewis has asked me to do. And I'm sure you're aware of them already -- one of them being Playboy; another one being a reality show which is being filmed in Costa Rica. So had I said yes to these, I mean, I would have been out of the country. Again, Playboy, I couldn't believe. I was completely shocked that he would even pass this along to me. Another one was a gay movie premiere that he wanted me to attend incognito. He actually said he wanted me to wear a hat and go in disguise and attend this movie premiere promoting gay marriage and then come out with a statement the next day saying that Carrie Prejean attended a gay movie premiere. It just doesn't seem right, Larry, does it? King: Are you now sorry you even entered. Or, in retrospect, has this been a boom for you publicity-wise? Prejean: You know, this isn't something that I signed up for, Larry. I simply entered in a pageant, the Miss California USA contest, and I gave an answer that a lot of people weren't expecting. The bottom line, I took a stand, and I think I am now being punished for the answer that I gave. This isn't about contracts. This isn't about me missing out on appearances. If you want to ask Keith Lewis any appearances that I have made prior to the Miss California U.S. pageant, I will guarantee you, Larry, he will not even -- he can't even tell you an appearance that he -- he scheduled for me. This isn't about appearances. This isn't about a breach of contract. This is about Keith Lewis not agreeing with the stance that I took on saving traditional marriage. And from day one, he wanted me out. King: Well, are you going to sue, Carrie? Prejean: That's -- you know, that's something that is not something that I want to -- I want to do. I think that what's going on is wrong. And I think that there is definitely some information that is missing. And I know that sooner or later, the truth will come out and people will recognize here who's right and who's wrong. King: What are your lawyers telling you to do or advising you to do? Prejean: You know, that's up to my lawyers to determine whether or not they think that there will be a lawsuit involved. But that's not up to me, at this point. King: What are you going to do right now, career-wise? Prejean: Well, first of all, I want to thank the millions of viewers. I know you have so many viewers on your show, Larry. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you to all the Californians who have supported me, who backed me, who sent me thousands of letters and e-mails. I just want to thank you so much for your prayers, for your support. And I know that when God is for you, no one can be against you. So thank you. King: Can you tell us what you're going to do, though? Prejean: I'm not sure. Definitely some -- a lot of offers -- opportunities have come my way, a lot of offers. I'm just really excited. I feel relieved. I feel just so blessed and so honored to have represented the state of California. And I'm ready to move on with my life and just be where God leads me.","highlights":"Carrie Prejean says she learned she lost Miss California USA crown from media .\nPrejean: Pageant director asked me to make \"inappropriate appearances\"\nPageant officials say Prejean's firing due to \"contract violations\"\nPrejean's response to question on same-sex marriage raised eyebrows ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The latest 3-D animated movie involves the possible extinction of the human race and features a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach, a prehistoric half-ape\/half-fish, a 50-foot-tall woman (OK, 49-foot-11), and a blue brainless blob named B.O.B. The Missing Link, Ginormica, the blue blob B.O.B. and Insectosaurus dominate \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" And they're the good guys. Reese Witherspoon leads the cast of \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" providing the voice of Susan, who is hit by a glowing meteorite on her wedding day. Before long she's grown into the biggest thing around. The short-statured Oscar winner relished the chance to play not only a giant, but also a role model. \"I was walking with my son and my daughter the other day, and I was like 'Who's your favorite superhero?' \" Witherspoon said. \"And my son was like ... 'Batman, Superman, Spiderman,' and he could name 20 guy superheroes. \"And so I said to my daughter, 'Who's your favorite superhero?' And she goes 'I don't know, the girl in the back of the Justice League? I can't remember her name.' \" So the idea of showcasing a female superhero, Witherspoon said, has the actress \"really excited.\" Kiefer Sutherland, who plays General W.R. Monger, sees the film as helping kids embrace their diversity. \"I love the idea that they were gonna make a film that was going to tell young people that it's all right to be different,\" Sutherland said. His military veteran character captures Susan, renames her \"Ginormica,\" and locks her up with the other \"monsters\" he's collected over half a century. \"And not only is it all right to be different, that one thing that may make you feel awkward about being different might be your greatest asset.\" Those assets become apparent when an alien invader (voiced by Rainn Wilson of \"The Office\") decides he wants Earth, and the monsters -- Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach (\"House\" star Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will Arnett), and the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) -- are called upon to save the planet. The film, which also features the voices of Stephen Colbert and Paul Rudd, opens Friday. Most of the cast had previous experience in animation voiceover -- last year, Rogen was featured in \"Kung Fu Panda,\" and he and Arnett were heard in \"Horton Hears A Who!\" -- but it was the first time for Wilson. \"They called me and they said 'They're interested in you for this, playing an evil alien warlord,' and I was like 'Where do I sign?' \" he said with a chuckle. It was a welcome change of pace for Sutherland, who recorded his voice tracks for \"Monsters\" while he was filming the uber-intense \"24.\" \"So, for five days a week I'm very serious in the '24' world, and then for five hours on the weekend I got to be 5 years old and just play a cartoon character\" -- a character he says he saw as a combination of R. Lee Ermey's intense gunnery sergeant in \"Full Metal Jacket\" and that 'toon terror, Yosemite Sam. \"We combined these voices and the producers laughed, which is generally a pretty good sign,\" Sutherland said. Sutherland may have been inspired by the classics, but the 3-D aspect of \"Monsters\" is as modern as movie technology gets. Under the command of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg (whom Witherspoon and Sutherland respectfully called \"Mr. Katzenberg\"), the film was conceived from the beginning as a 3-D project. One early scene uses the process to bounce a paddleball out at the audience, but for the most part, the effect is used immersively, to bring viewers into the \"Monsters\" world. \"You really feel like you're there, like you're a part of this thing,\" said Arnett, \"not in a way that's gratuitous and to just sort of show off, but really so that the viewer can be an active participant in the movie.\" While film technology continues to advance, some things never change. As Susan is still trying to get used to her new size and powers, she finds herself simultaneously battling an alien robot and trying to save dozens of people trapped in their cars on the Golden Gate Bridge while her male cohorts mostly just stand around. One tries to encourage her by calling \"You're doing it!\" to which Susan snaps back, \"I'm doing everything!\" \"The quintessential cry!\" Witherspoon said. \"The female war cry! That's one of my favorite lines.\" iReport.com: Does 3-D make you more likely to see a movie? Of course, it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that -- eventually -- Susan not only bonds with the rest of her motley crew, but also gains the self-confidence to see the positives in her accidental enormousness. As Wilson, the film's villain, noted, \"It's a coming-of-age tale -- for the monster inside of each one of us.\" And, perhaps, it will give some little girls a superhero to look up to.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is about motley group of misfits who team up to defeat alien .\nMonsters are led by almost 50-foot woman, voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\nWitherspoon says she hopes character can be role model for girls .\nOther actors lending talents: Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett ."} -{"article":"LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (CNN) -- A vast underground vault storing millions of seeds from around the world took delivery of its first shipment Tuesday. The inside of one of the vaults at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean. Dubbed the \"Doomsday Vault,\" the seed bank on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean is considered the ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections, protecting them from a wide range of threats including war, natural disasters, lack of funding or simply poor agricultural management. Norwegian musicians performed Tuesday as part of an elaborate opening ceremony marking the opening of the vault, located 130 meters (427 feet) inside a frozen mountain. Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, placed the first seeds inside the vault, followed by other dignitaries. The inaugural shipment represent 268,000 distinct samples of seeds, with each sample containing a hundred-plus seeds and originating from a different farm or field around the world. In all, the shipment of seeds secured in the vault Tuesday weighed approximately 10 tons, filling 676 boxes. The shipment amounts to a 100 million seeds in total, ranging from major African and Asian food staples like maize, rice, and wheat to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is paying to collect and maintain the seeds. Watch as \"Doomsday\" seed vault opens \u00bb Eventually the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, as it is officially known, will hold as many as 4.5 million distinct samples of seeds -- or some 2 billion seeds in total -- encompassing almost every variety of most important food crops in the world, the Global Crop Diversity Trust said. The Norwegian government paid to build the vault in a mountainside near Longyearbyen, in the remote Svalbard islands between Norway and the North Pole. Building began last year. The United Nations founded the trust in 2004 to support the long-term conservation of crop diversity, and countries and foundations provide the funding. \"The seed vault is the perfect place for keeping seeds safe for centuries,\" said Cary Fowler, executive director of the trust. \"At these temperatures, seeds for important crops like wheat, barley and peas can last for up to 10,000 years.\" The vault's location deep inside a mountain in the frozen north ensures the seeds can be stored safely no matter what happens outside. \"We believe the design of the facility will ensure that the seeds will stay well-preserved even if such forces as global warming raise temperatures outside the facility,\" said Magnus Bredeli Tveiten, project manager for the Norwegian government. The vault sits at the end of a 120-meter (131-yard) tunnel blasted inside the mountain. Workers used a refrigeration system to bring the vault to -18 degrees Celsius (just below 0 degrees Fahrenheit), and a smaller refrigeration system plus the area's natural permafrost and the mountain's thick rock will keep the vault at at least -4 C (25 F). The vault at Svalbard is similar to an existing seed bank in Sussex, England, about an hour outside London. The British vault, called the Millennium Seed Bank, is part of an scientific project that works with wild plants, as opposed to the seeds of crops. Paul Smith, the leader of the Millennium Seed Bank project, said preserving the seeds of wild plants is just as important as preserving the seeds of vital crops. \"We must give ourselves every option in the future to use the whole array of plant diversity that is available to us,\" Smith told CNN. The idea for the Arctic seed bank dates to the 1980s but only became a possibility after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources came into force in 2004, the Norwegian government said. The treaty provided an international framework for conserving and accessing crop diversity. Svalbard is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections around the world. The Norwegian government says it has paid 50 million Norwegian Kroner ($9.4 million) to build the seed vault. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Becky Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections has opened in Norway .\nThe vault received inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds .\nNorwegian govt. built vault in glacial mountain between Norway and North Pole ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial proceedings got under way Monday, the embattled Illinois governor hit the media circuit, answering questions about Oprah, foul language and why he isn't resigning. Gov. Blagojevich appeared on CNN's Larry King Live Monday night. Blagojevich appeared Monday on ABC's \"Good Morning America\" and \"The View,\" and gave his first live prime-time interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"I'm not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing,\" Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell President Obama's former Senate seat, told King. \"I'm entitled to a presumption of innocence.\" Blagojevich also further explained comments that he channeled major political figures who overcame adversity as he was being arrested. \"I've been criticized for this, but I'm not comparing myself to Dr. King or Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, but I tried to reach in to history and imagine some inspiring figures that would have gone through something like I was going through for sustenance and inspiration.\" Blagojevich also said that he looks forward to the day when he can tell his story in full, rather than people judging him by snippets of conversation released to the media. Watch Blagojevich tell Larry King he's done nothing wrong \u00bb . The governor said he is the victim of political enemies who want to raise taxes in Illinois. \"Snippets of conversations out of full context is unfair,\" Blagojevich told CNN. \"If the full context, all of the tapes are heard, you hear the story of someone trying to make decisions and maneuver for the best intentions of the people of Illinois.\" However, Blagojevich said he has not listened to the tapes in their entirety. He addressed the news that his lead attorney, Ed Jenson, is leaving his defense team. \"Look, I think lawyers like that want you to simply say nothing, and I'm champing at the bit, dying to show my innocence.\" Blagojevich said his legal fees will be paid through campaign funds. Blagojevich did say he looked forward to calling witnesses -- including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois; and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- who had conversations with him about who should replace Barack Obama as the junior senator from Illinois. Blagojevich maintained the goal of the conversations was to get the best senator for the people of Illinois. \"There was a lot of exchanging of ideas, asking questions, exploring options -- including Oprah Winfrey -- but never, not ever did I have any intention of violating any criminal law,\" Blagojevich said. \"Never was this about selling any Senate seat for any kind of personal gain.\" On both of his ABC appearances and on CNN, Blagojevich explained why talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was a contender to fill Barack Obama's former Senate seat. \"I was trying to think outside of the box. The idea came to me from a friend who suggested Oprah -- it wasn't my idea,\" Blagojevich told CNN. \"I threw it around in conversation with senior staff and political advisers, who were all involved in this whole adventure we're on. \"And among the things we talked about was the, you know, the unlikelihood she would be interested in it, because she has a bully pulpit that's worldwide and more influence that U.S. senators combined -- all 100 of them.\" Winfrey said that she had no idea she was under consideration. She said she found out from best friend Gayle King, who called to tell her on Monday morning. Watch Oprah's reaction \u00bb . Winfrey said she was \"amused by the whole thing\" but would have turned down the proposal had it been made. Blagojevich also said he was worried about how to present the offer to Winfrey without it looking like a gimmick. The governor said the talks never got to that point \"partly because I was interrupted on December 9.\" Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested then on federal corruption charges, including allegations that the governor tried to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Obama was elected president. Blagojevich ended up picking former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace Obama. iReport.com: Share your questions for Blagojevich . The governor's impeachment trial began Monday in the Illinois Senate. The Illinois House of Representatives impeached him earlier this month. Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing. A 76-page criminal complaint against Blagojevich includes snippets of intercepted phone calls involving the governor's alleged efforts to benefit from the Senate vacancy. Those conversations are laced with expletives. Asked on \"Larry King Live\" about his foul mouth, Blagojevich said, \"Had I known someone was listening, I wouldn't have used language like that. For those who might have been offended, I apologize. Again, I didn't know you were listening.\" He also defended his wife, Patti, saying he takes responsibility for any recordings of her using foul language because he may have rubbed off on her. \"I was raised in a big city in a tough neighborhood, and when you're a kid growing up in a neighborhood like that, you would never say words like that in front of your mother. But when you're out there at the schoolyard ... it's just sort of the thing you do,\" he said. \"Unfortunately, you try to get rid of some of those habits; you may have left the neighborhood, but part of that neighborhood never left you.\" In each of his media appearances Monday, Blagojevich maintained his innocence. He said the impeachment proceedings are unfair because he is unable to call witnesses. The governor said he is the victim of political enemies who want to raise taxes in Illinois. Asked by \"The View's\" Barbara Walters why he doesn't step down for the sake of his state and his dignity, Blagojevich said resigning would be \"the worst thing I could do.\" \"I'm an innocent man who has not done anything wrong. And when you're wrongfully accused and you're not given the chance to properly defend yourself ... for me to resign would be to admit that I did something wrong, which I did not do.\" Blagojevich said resigning also would be a way for him to \"disgrace\" his children. iReport: Your questions for the governor . \"So I'm going to fight to the finish because there's a bigger principle here and it's this: Can a legislature take out a governor elected by the people two times without giving that governor a chance to confront witnesses, bring witnesses in and prove his innocence? That's what they are doing in Illinois, and that's why I'm here in New York -- because this is much bigger than me or Illinois.\"","highlights":"NEW: Governor says taking \"snippets of conversations out of full context is unfair\"\nBlagojevich says he channeled MLK, Gandhi, Mandela during arrest .\nGovernor says he considered Oprah Winfrey to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat .\nBlagojevich says resigning would be \"worst thing I could do\""} -{"article":"QINGDAO, China (CNN) -- Another round of toasts and exclamations of \"hajiu\" sounded out around me. I took a sip and set down my small glass of Tsingtao beer as my new friends downed theirs and refilled. Our seafood dinner, perched on the single cluttered table of a tiny antique shop, was punctuated regularly by such moments. A worker operates the giant fermentation units at the Qingdao Brewery plant in Qingdao. I joined in happily, although somewhat bemused, at each increasingly beery celebration of our host, the worldly Captain Jau. My company, a gathering from four regions of China, was engaging me in Chinese drinking etiquette, in the city of Qingdao. A few drinks in the People's Republic of China led me to discover European delights and other unexpected finds in this modest city. You'd be forgiven for not knowing where Qingdao (pronounced Chingdao) is. The Chinese city in Shandong province doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as Beijing, Shanghai, or even Xi'an. The 2008 Olympics gave it a place on the map as China's sailing hub; no longer a secret that holiday-making officials could keep for themselves. But my American spell-check doesn't recognize it (which says more about my spell-check), and you can still find pre-Cultural Revolution manhole covers. So what is it about this city that seduces the unassuming traveler? Nestled on the coast of Shandong province, almost exactly halfway between its big sisters, Beijing and Shanghai, Qingdao features as a handy pit-stop on East coast itineraries. It boasts great infrastructure, a charming climate, alfresco eateries, good coffee, sandy beaches, German history, international hotels, a brand new airport and even a famous brewery. Qingdao could pass itself off as a miniature Seattle if it weren't for the fact that pretty much no one outside of the five-star hotels speaks English, and that communism still articulates itself through the tourist beaches, stoically named Number One to Number Six. \"In mainland China, Qingdao's history is uniquely international; in fact, more of the city's cultural identity is wrapped up in its German colonial past than even its prominent role in the emergence of Daoism\" said Eric Blocher, editor of the English-language magazine Red Star. \"The local culture bureau once joked to us that Qingdao is a 'cultural desert', because it doesn't have the dynastic lineage of Nanjing or Xi'an, or opera for that matter,\" Blocher said. \"But that's not what makes a city livable, or even fun -- if your office is in downtown, you're never more than five minutes from a protected beach; there's always excellent seafood close at hand; you can buy China's best beer fresh, for 10 cents a pound, and walk around drinking it out of a plastic bag.\" Following this key advice, I visited Qingdao during the International Beer Festival in late August, an event aimed largely at a domestic Chinese market. The West knows beer. China does not. The annual Beer Festival aims to change this. While the bright lights and myriad beers flowed, one thing was obvious: this was for the tourists. True Qingdaonese people are fiercely proud of Tsingtao beer, produced just down the road on Beer Street, and little else is drunk here in homes or bars. Pijiu, beer in Mandarin, is hajiu in Qingdaonese, the regional dialect. When in doubt, this does as well for a toast as anything else. Indeed, there is no better way of celebrating an occasion than by toasting the guest of honor with a bag of fresh beer. If I was the guest of honor at Captain Jau's table, I certainly wasn't living up to expectations. Particularly not for my self-appointed etiquette guardian and \"pure Qingdao boy,\" Loukas. As I raised my glass for a sip and Loukas jumped to toast the good weather for the nth time, it all became clear. In Qingdao, a beer glass is never raised without a toast. This serves three (frankly ingenious) purposes; beer is drunk in unison; beer isn't consumed too rapidly, since constant toasting would ruin conversation; and everyone finds ways to honor each other for the purposes of toasting. Captain Jau was particularly in favor of the latter as our eccentric host was made subject of most cheers, likewise teaching us the salutations he had learned from the many foreign guests he had cooked for. From the French \"salut!\" to the German \"prost!\" to the Turkish \"serefe!\" Most popular of all was homegrown \"hajiu!\" Alcohol is enjoyed throughout China. Microbreweries are yet to catch on here like they have in Japan and Singapore. For now Tsingtao holds the monopoly, and Qingdao's people aren't complaining. The Tsingtao Brewery, founded in 1903 by German settlers, confiscated by the Japanese in 1915, turned over to state ownership in 1949 and finally privatized in the early 1990s, has witnessed a colorful history. The largest stakeholder, Anheuser-Busch, recently sold majority ownership to Japanese Asahi Breweries. Residents are the first to introduce you to their biggest export. Outside every shop is a barrel or two of Tsingtao, with a ream of clean plastic bags ready to be filled with cheap 3.5 percent beer. Tsingtao beer tastes crisp and sweet (most likely from rice mixed in to cut down on the cost of barley. It is bought by the pound and weighed to prevent gaseous volume manipulation. A pint, when sold in this method, costs around 1.5 renminbi, or 22 U.S. cents. Beer is a way of life here and has been ever since the Germans arrived and erected tree-lined avenues, red-roofed houses and a brewery. The Germans are gone but the beer stayed. And with it, three hajiu-loving generations tell you about their happy memories. \"When I was little, buying beer was one special job I did for my dad every summer day,\" explained Irene Cheung over a fresh bag of beer. \"I was the little girl proudly and carefully carrying the plastic bag home.\" It is easier to identify Qingdao by what it is not -- smoggy, crowded Beijing, or nightlife hub Shanghai -- than what it is or hopes to be. This may be the very reason why Qingdao remains largely unvisited by the West. And while there may not be much more than good weather, food and beer to keep you content, that may just be enough to hop on the three-hour flight from Hong Kong, or the one hour 20 minute-journey from Beijing or Shanghai. Following Olympic-based investment, more than 3,000 factories have sprung up in the airport suburbs. You can source anything from shoes to jewels to Durex condoms among the largely Korean-owned industries. If these things aren't up your street, head elsewhere; like functionally named Beer Street, Bar Street, or my personal favorite, Coffee and Tea Craft Street. \"We used to have to put on parties so that there would be material to justify an English-oriented lifestyle magazine,\" editor Blocher said. \"Now we have trouble keeping track!\" Check out English-language newspaper Red Star, for informative listings and an insight into the growing English-speaking population that has stumbled upon and stayed in Qingdao.","highlights":"Qingdao is located in northeast China, north of Shanghai .\nThe city hosts a beer festival and is home to distinctive European architecture .\nThe Tsingtao Brewery was founded in 1903 by German settlers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two senior Indian officials met with the Sri Lankan president Friday in Colombo to address the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn island nation. A Sri Lanka army photo of what it says are refugees fleeing a rebel area. Shiv Shankar Menon, the Indian foreign secretary and M.K. Narayanan, the national security adviser, met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, according to A.M.J. Sadiq, a foreign ministry official in Sri Lanka. He did not provide further details. \"The Indian message was just short of reading the riot act,\" a source told CNN. Significant numbers of people have been killed or wounded in a Sri Lankan offensive against the faltering Tamil Tiger rebel movement, and thousands are trapped by the fighting, the United Nations said Wednesday. \"Given that the area has shrunk even further, the potential for further significant casualties still remains,\" the U.N. said in a statement. The Sri Lankan army launched an operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in the country's northern area Monday, and a deadline for the rebels to surrender passed Tuesday. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but tens of thousands more remain wedged on the island's northeastern coast. The area remains controlled by the rebels, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union. Thousands of civilians remained threatened, Pranab Mukherjee, India's foreign affairs minister, said in a statement Thursday. He called for an end to hostilities in the area. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it is helping the government in the regions of Vavuniya and Jaffna, with emergency shelters and distribution of aid. There are about 38 internally displaced persons sites and authorities are working to come up with more land and buildings for more displaced people. \"UNHCR remains deeply concerned about the estimated 50,000 people who are still trapped inside the conflict zone where fighting is intensifying,\" the organization said. \"We urge the government to exercise extreme caution in its military actions and calls upon the LTTE to allow displaced people to leave the area immediately,\" the UNHCR said.","highlights":"Senior Indian officials meet with the Sri Lankan president .\nU.N. says \"significant number\" of dead and wounded in Sri Lanka offensive .\nHumanitarian agency says aid cut off to more than 80,000 ."} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Demonstrators entered their third day of a building takeover at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday in protest of a tuition increase, an undertaking that a school spokesman called futile. The occupation of Kerr Hall is just one of several demonstrations across University of California campuses this week after the regent's board approved a 32 percent increase in tuition Thursday. University officials said the $505 million to be raised by the tuition increases is needed to prevent even deeper cuts than those already made due to California's persistent financial crisis. Protesting students said the increase will hurt working and middle-class students who benefit from state-funded education. On the Santa Cruz campus, where building occupations began last week with a library sit-in, about 100 students staged a sit-in in the second-floor lobby of Kerr Hall soon after hearing that the tuition increase had been approved, according to UC Santa Cruz Provost David Kliger. The students made a list of 20 \"demands\" detailing how they want the administration to increase funding, spokesman Barry Shiller said. But the school has no plans to negotiate the demands with the student body, he said. The school just doesn't have the money, he added. School officials hope the students realize that their demonstration is \"not accomplishing anything\" and is \"just a disruption\" to administrative duties on campus, he said. The administration will continue to wait out the takeover, but Shiller said he is unsure of how long it will last. The school hopes the students will leave voluntarily, he said. Are you there? Share your story, video . Meanwhile, uprisings on other campuses have quieted since earlier mass demonstrations. At UC Berkeley on Friday night, 41 protesters occupying a building were arrested. Authorities decided to cite them for trespassing and release them rather than take them to jail, per an agreement with student leaders, school spokeswoman Claire Holmes said. Three students were arrested there Friday morning. Fifty-two students were arrested at UC Davis late Thursday after they refused to vacate the school's administration building. And UCLA's Campbell Hall was occupied for several hours Thursday evening. The angry students are condemning a nearly $2,000 tuition increase. The first change, which takes effect in January, will raise undergraduate tuition to $8,373. The second increase kicks in next fall, raising tuition to $10,302, university spokeswoman Leslie Sepuka said. Students who live on campus could pay an estimated $17,200 in additional fees that include the annual cost of books and housing, according to the system's July 2008 finance guide. The January increase of about 15 percent is more than double the average public university tuition increase last year. On average, tuition and fees at four-year public universities nationwide increased 6.5 percent, or to $7,020, since the previous school year, according to data from College Board. Students eligible for financial aid and whose families make less than $70,000 will have their tuition covered, the university said.","highlights":"Students continue to occupy UC-Santa Cruz hall in protest of fee increases .\nUniversity officials say they need to raise $505 million to avoid further cuts .\nStudents issue demands to administration; official says there will be no negotiations ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended two air traffic controllers over last week's collision of two aircraft over the Hudson River that killed nine people, a spokeswoman said. The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted this week from the Hudson River. A controller at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport handling the flight of a Piper airplane carrying three people \"was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident,\" FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said in a statement Thursday. A source with knowledge of the investigation said the controller was on the phone with his girlfriend \"after he cleared the pilot for takeoff; he was still on the phone at the time of the crash.\" In addition, \"the supervisor was not present in the building as required,\" Brown said. \"While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident, this kind of conduct is unacceptable, and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings,\" she said. Watch amateur video of the moment of impact \u00bb . \"These are serious violations of the FAA regulations,\" said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the Transportation Department. The union for air traffic controllers urged caution. \"We support that any such allegation is fully investigated before there is a rush to judgment about the behavior of any controller,\" said a statement from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The National Transportation Safety Board is working with the FAA in investigating Saturday's collision of the Piper, which had taken off from Teterboro, with a sightseeing helicopter that was carrying five Italian tourists and a pilot. No one aboard either aircraft survived the crash. The NTSB has said the pilot of the small plane was cleared electronically and handed off to Newark, New Jersey, air traffic controllers, a standard procedure. However, Newark's control tower never got a verbal response from the pilot of the small plane. The controller put on leave was described as a longtime employee, the source said. He and the supervisor face disciplinary action that could include their firing. Also Thursday, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the agency may reissue advisories to pilots using the busy airspace over the Hudson. Pilots are urged to use a radio frequency dedicated to traffic in that corridor, fly no faster than 140 knots and turn on their lights as they enter that airspace. Babbitt made the comments at an event at the agency's research facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Spokeswoman: Controller was talking to girlfriend on phone during accident .\nController's supervisor also not present in building as required, spokeswoman says .\nController was handling plane carrying three people that collided with helicopter .\nNine people died in collision of tourist helicopter and plane over Hudson River ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has arrested a suspected al Qaeda militant who intelligence officials say is tied to the London subway bombings in 2005, authorities there said Thursday. The double-decker bus damaged by a bomb in central London on July 7, 2005. Zabih al-Taifi was arrested in a village near Peshawar on Wednesday as part of ongoing security operations in the area, police and intelligence officials told CNN. Six others, both Afghans and Pakistanis, were also arrested. The Metropolitan Police Service in London, also known as Scotland Yard, issued a statement refusing to comment on the arrest. \"Speculation around this reported arrest with alleged links to an ongoing terrorist trial is unhelpful and may be prejudicial to current criminal proceedings,\" it said. The London blasts killed 52 people and wounded at least 900 others when bombs went off on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005. Security analysts say the village where al-Taifi was arrested in the North West Frontier Province has been the site of recent clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials say arrested al Qaeda militant has ties to 2005 London subway bombings .\n52 killed, 900 wounded from bombs on 3 subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005 .\nZabih al-Taifi arrested in village near Peshawar in ongoing security operations ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal judge whose husband and mother were slain in their family home in Chicago, Illinois, four years ago was honored Monday by U.S. marshals charged with combating a growing number of threats to the judiciary. Judge Joan Lefkow has advocated improving judicial security since her husband and mother were killed. Judge Joan Lefkow, who eventually returned to the bench, credited the marshals who protect federal judges at work and at home with major improvements in judicial security in the years since her family tragedy. \"It's now four years later, and I do see dawn has broken,\" Lefkow told a crowd of friends and federal officials gathered at the Marshals Service headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington. The improved security -- including home intrusion security systems and coordinated intelligence and threat analysis -- was badly needed, according to both judges and the Marshals Service. The number of threats has increased each year, and is expected to exceed 1,500 this year, up from 1,278 last year. \"We've already had 600 inappropriate communications reported in the first months of this year,\" said Marshals Service spokesman Dave Turner. Whether real threats or hoaxes, every e-mail, phone call, written note and letter -- including some with white powder -- is investigated. The scope and seriousness of the protective effort increased sharply after the Lefkow tragedy. On Tuesday, the Marshals Service dedicated the \"Joan Lefkow Conference Room\" in the new Threat Management Center to the memory of her slain husband, Michael Lefkow, and mother, Donna Humphrey. Judge Lefkow returned home on February 28, 2005, to find them shot to death. The man authorities said was their killer committed suicide 10 days later when he was stopped by police in Wisconsin. The killer was angry that Judge Lefkow had dismissed his medical malpractice case and he sought revenge, police concluded. U.S. Marshals Director John Clark credits Lefkow's advocacy for better security as the catalyst for dramatic changes. \"Because of her courage to speak out and her advocacy for reform in the protection of judges, things started to happen,\" Clark said. He cited congressional funding for home-intrusion alarms in every judge's residence and a sharp increase in funding to hire more threat investigators, protections specialists, analysts and trainers. The threat management center has been open for more than a year. Deputy marshals in the judicial protection effort attribute a growing number of the threats to disgruntled members of what is known as the sovereign citizenship movement. The movement is a loosely organized network of individuals and groups claiming not to be accountable to the federal government. The movement includes tax protesters, white separatists, zealots of fringe religious groups and desperate individuals lashing out at bankruptcy courts or judges who had wronged them. As a result, some judges have been given around-the-clock protective details by deputy marshals. \"While steady progress has been made, we must be ever vigilant and progressive in order to ensure we are providing the best possible protection to our nation's judiciary,\" Clark said.","highlights":"U.S. Marshals honor federal judge whose husband and mother were killed .\nFamily killed by man angry at judge's decision to dismiss malpractice case .\nJudge Joan Lefkow, marshals have worked to help increase security for judges .\nLefkow: \"It's now four years later, and I do see dawn has broken\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jacmel was the artsy town Kathryn Bolles would travel to on weekends, a respite from the bustle of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. But when a colleague with the Save the Children organization returned from once-scenic Jacmel on Friday, Bolles said he was traumatized. \"He said it's horrible what's happened there,\" said Bolles, the emergency health and nutrition director for Save the Children in Haiti. \"People are lost, dead, missing. Houses are down and facilities are down. It sounded similar to what we're seeing here in Port-au-Prince.\" Attention has focused on Port-au-Prince since Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, as it is the country's most populous city -- at more than 1.2 million people -- and has suffered tremendous devastation. Thousands of homeless victims have taken to sleeping in the streets, without food, water and medical attention. Others are buried beneath the rubble, and rescuers have miraculously pulled out survivors who were entombed by the debris. Elsewhere, though, preliminary reports are telling of how the crisis has gripped residents beyond the capital. \"What we're hearing from text messages, from e-mails is that all along the coast going west and then down south, towns are absolutely destroyed,\" said Bolles, who has worked in Haiti since 1999 and spoke to CNN from Port-au-Prince. She learned of the extent of the damage from colleagues, people on the street and other aid groups. Just to the west of Port-au-Prince is Carrefour, a city of 442,000 that felt violent shaking during the quake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Damage there is expected to be heavy -- reports have yet to come in, the agency said. West of that is Leogane, a city, like Carrefour, that is passed on the road to Jacmel. More than 30 miles further west of the capital is Petit-Goave -- all towns, Bolles said that are reeling from the quake. Leogane's main hospital was flattened, as were numerous other buildings, Bolles said. She said she heard the \"whole town had collapsed.\" Among the other areas, she said she was told an orphanage full of 1,500 children collapsed, and many people were dead or missing. CNN has yet to independently verify damage or casualties outside the capital, but reports continue to build in bits and pieces. About a three-hour drive south of the capital in Jacmel, there were reports of an orphanage that toppled, and of a hospital for women that collapsed, said Alana Salcer, spokeswoman for Cine Institute, a film school in Jacmel. Staff at the school and students there have written Salcer about the dire situation in that city, and even shot footage of buildings ripped open and survivors lying in streets. To keep the lights on and communication open, the school has had to rely on a generator after power lines went down. The home of the school's editing teacher, Andrew Bigosinski, fell down a hill when the earth violently shook, and many others lost their homes, Salcer said. Just east of Port-au-Prince, makeshift camps have been erected in the public squares of the densely populated area of Delmas, Cine Institute founder David Belle told Salcer in an e-mail shared with CNN. Belle described a harrowing scene on the road to Port-au-Prince: . \"Moving into the city ... the destruction gets worse and worse and the street is lined with piles of swollen, rotting bodies. ...Periodic road blocks have been set up by residents, protesting the lack of any aid presence and angry at stench and indecency. Huge tractors and dump trucks were just beginning to arrive and load bodies as we passed thru.\" American Red Cross logistics expert and relief worker Colin Chaperone said the biggest obstacle outside the capital was getting medical treatment to the injured. Chaperone arrived in the capital Wednesday and had driven east toward the border with the Dominican Republic to escort an American Red Cross Emergency Response Unit into Haiti, said Red Cross spokesman Jonathan Aiken. Chaperone told Aiken that about 30 minutes out of Port-au-Prince, he was still seeing significant and widespread damage. Medical care was limited, as local clinics were overwhelmed by demand, he said. Makeshift treatment facilities were established for those who fled the capital, many of whom had broken bones and other serious injuries, Chaperone said. Exacerbating the dangerous situation was the reality that medical supplies were running out. Roads are slowly becoming easier to navigate, but aid is still slow to get outside the capital. Bolles said that her team plans to travel as far as they can to assess the situation and offer help. \"There really needs to be a humanitarian response and it needs to be immediate,\" she said. \"Outside of Port-au-Prince there really hasn't been anything.\"","highlights":"Jacmel, Leogane, Carrefour and Petit-Goave are towns that are reeling from earthquake .\nEast of Port-au-Prince, makeshift camps have been erected in public squares .\nHumanitarian response \"needs to be immediate,\" says Kathryn Bolles of Save the Children ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British police were told in March this year that missing girl Madeleine McCann may have been kidnapped by a pedophile ring which followed her three days before her abduction, according to reports. Madeleine McCann went missing in May 2007 after being left at a holiday apartment in the Algarve region. Britain's Daily Telegraph and The Sun newspapers both reported Thursday that an email released this week as part of the documents compiled by the Portuguese investigators probing Madeleine's disappearance revealed the connection to the ring. Madeleine was 3 when she disappeared May 3, 2007, while she was on holiday with her family at the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Her disappearance prompted headlines worldwide. According to the newspapers, the email was sent on March 4 by a London-based Metropolitan Police intelligence officer to Leicestershire police -- Madeleine's home county -- who then forwarded it on to investigators in Portugal more than a month later. In the email, which both newspapers printed a copy of, the officer writes that \"intelligence suggests that a pedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken. \"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken,\" the officer wrote. The Daily Telegraph reported the Portuguese police then asked Interpol to investigate. However, nothing appears to have come of the lead. Watch how Madeleine McCann may have been abducted to order \u00bb . Belgium has already featured in the case, with a reported sighting on the Dutch\/Belgian border last August already discounted. The case files, released by the Portuguese investigators this week after they shelved the investigation for lack of evidence last month, have provided a raft of leads for the media to report. On Tuesday, the documents revealed a previously undisclosed sighting of Madeleine in the Netherlands shortly after her disappearance. The possible sighting of Madeleine in May 2007 stemmed from a report by a Dutch shopkeeper, who told authorities she encountered a little girl in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She said the child identified herself as Maddie and said she was taken from her mother while on holiday. \"I start to ask where her mommy was,\" Anna Stam said. \"She couldn't tell me that. I wanted to give her a balloon, but she didn't want that. She only wants her mommy, she said. And she said that these people took her from her mommy.\" At one point, authorities had named the girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, as \"arguidos,\" or suspects, along with a British man living in Portugal, Robert Murat. But a spokesman for the Portuguese public prosecutor's office said authorities found no evidence of involvement by any of the three and were no longer considering them \"arguidos.\" After closing the case, police turned their case file -- containing up to 30,000 pages -- over to attorneys and private investigators working for the McCanns. The McCanns have vowed to keep searching for their daughter. .","highlights":"Portuguese police case file reveal more leads in Madeleine McCann disappearance .\nEmail from British police suggests Madeleine taken by pedophile ring .\nRing followed three-year-old girl before snatching her, reports claim ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Internet-based rip-offs jumped 33 percent last year over the previous year, according to a report from a complaint center set up to monitor such crimes. The report said that about 77.4 percent of perpetrators of Internet fraud were men. The total dollar loss from those crimes was $265 million. That's $26 million more than the price tag in 2007, the National Internet Crime Center said. For individual victims, the average amount lost was $931. \"This report illustrates that sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish as financial data migrates to the Internet,\" said Shawn Henry, the FBI's assistant director of the Cyber Division. Americans filed 275,284 reports claiming to be ripped off on the Internet, the highest number reported since the center began keeping statistics in 2000. The dollar loss has been on a steady increase since 2004, while the number of cases referred to law enforcement has decreased steadily since that same year. Complaints to the center have resulted in several arrests, the center said, although information comes only from agencies that voluntarily provide the results of investigations. Henry said the figures show the need for computer users, in businesses and in homes, to be wary and use sound security practices while using the Internet. The center said the top three most frequent complaints were about merchandise that wasn't delivered or payment that wasn't received, Internet auction fraud and credit\/debit card fraud. Other scams include confidence frauds such as Ponzi schemes, check fraud, the Nigerian letter fraud and identity fraud. One popular identity fraud scam used during 2008 involved sending e-mails crafted to appear as if they'd been sent by the FBI. Sometimes the scammers went so far as to say the mailings were from FBI Director Robert Mueller himself, according to the center. The e-mails would ask the recipient for personal information, such as a bank account numbers, claiming the FBI wanted the information to look into an impending financial transaction. One variation of the scheme, according to the center, was to send an e-mail saying the recipient is entitled to lottery money or an inheritance and the funds can be moved as soon as bank account information is supplied. The FBI has issued warnings about such scams in the past, and Monday's report included a new one: \"The FBI does not contact U.S. citizens regarding personal financial matters through unsolicited e-mails.\" The report said that about 77.4 percent of perpetrators of Internet fraud were men, and about half lived in either California, New York, Florida, Washington, Texas or the District of Columbia. More than 55 percent of those who filed complaints were men. But the report noted that anyone who uses the Internet can be a victim, and that the ages of victims have ranged from 10 to 100. Internet crime offers unique challenges to investigators. The report said the offender and victim often live in different states and sometimes different countries, requiring multiple law enforcement agencies to cooperate and conquer any issues of jurisdiction. Another big problem is the anonymity of using the Internet. In most instances, a victim never meets the criminal. The Internet Crime Complaint Center is a partnership of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.","highlights":"Internet users said they were scammed out of a total of $265 million last year .\nFBI: Report shows \"sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish\"\nAmericans filed record 275,284 reports claiming to be ripped off .\nReport said that about 77.4 percent of perpetrators of Internet fraud were men ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Timothy Connick was in agony for six years. In bed at night, it felt as if a pair of scissors was sticking out of his foot. \"I turn over, and it's just like they're getting jammed in more.\" Timothy Connick got relief from chronic pain through a peripheral nerve stimulator implanted above his hip. Connick, 52 from Lynn, Massachusetts, injured his foot falling from a loading dock at work 11 years ago. \"I fell about seven feet onto the concrete and smashed my heel. It started hurting that moment and kept hurting for six years after that.\" Connick is among millions. As many as one in three American adults suffer from chronic pain, according to the American Chronic Pain Association. The organization defines chronic pain as \"pain that continues a month or more beyond the usual recovery period for an injury or illness or that goes on for months or years because of a chronic condition.\" It's usually not constant, the group says, but can disrupt the sufferer's life. Over the years, Connick consulted multiple doctors and tried two dozen medications for pain management, but nothing eased the pain and the resulting depression. \"It was pretty much a no-win situation as long as that pain was going to be there,\" he recalls. He was eventually referred to neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander, director of the nerve injury unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. \"Pain is the No. 1 reason why patients seek medical care, but until recently it hasn't been part of the medical school curriculum,\" she says. \"Many physicians and nurses feel uncomfortable and unqualified to treat these patients.\" Oaklander sees many patients whom she describes as \"bouncing around the health care system\" for years with no firm diagnosis. She divides chronic pain sufferers into two groups. \"One is the group that has an ongoing cause of their pain,\" she says. \"The classic example of that is patients with arthritis. They have pain in their joints every day.\" Much more difficult, she says, is the second group: \"Patients who have chronic pain without an obvious cause of tissue injury.\" Connick falls in the second category, Oaklander says, noting that X-rays show broken bones, but not nerve damage. \"It was only many years later when he was examined by a neurologist that his underlying nerve injury was identified and able to be treated,\" she said. Health Minute: The struggle of managing chronic pain \u00bb . Oaklander says pain medications can help most patients, but there are other options. For instance, she says, if the pain is related to an orthopedic problem, physical therapy may be the best choice. In Connick's case, relief came through surgery to implant a peripheral nerve stimulator above his hip. Based on pacemaker technology, the stimulator is placed under the skin and works by giving off benign pulses that override pain signals to the brain, Oaklander explains. She cautions that minor surgery is involved, and the device works in only about half the patients who get it. For Connick, it made all the difference. \"The day they put it in and I turned it on, I was up seven flights of stairs before they stopped me. Everything that I hadn't been able to do and everything that made me happy was back available to me again and I knew it right away.\" These days, Connick is back at work loading trucks. He's on his feet all day and doesn't complain about any pain. Oaklander concludes: \"If you have chronic pain, don't take no for an answer....I think it's important for chronic pain patients to keep a sense of purpose, optimism and hope despite the indignities that many are subjected to.\" E-mail to a friend . Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News. Linda Ciampa of Accent Health contributed to this report.","highlights":"As many as one in three American adults suffer from chronic pain .\nChronic pain continues a month or more beyond usual recovery period .\nExpert: Pain is the top reason patients seek medical care ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police arrested a man near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday after he drove up to one of the building's barricades with a rifle in his vehicle and told officers that he had a delivery for President Obama, a Senate spokesman said. A man drove to the Capitol with a rifle and said he had a delivery for President Obama, police said. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider identified the man as Alfred Brock, 64, of Winnfield, Louisiana. She said Brock was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition. Brock drove up to the north barricade at the Capitol late Tuesday afternoon, saying he had a delivery for the president, Schneider said. After further questioning, he admitted he had a rifle in his truck. He was arrested and taken to police headquarters for processing, she said. A search of his truck turned up several rounds of ammunition, Schneider said. Police also checked the area around the barricade, but found nothing hazardous. Threats against Obama have led to arrests in previous cases. In one, federal prosecutors concluded that three people arrested with drugs and weapons in a suburban Denver, Colorado, motel posed a \"true threat\" to Obama during the Democratic National Convention. In the second, a Florida man was charged with threatening bodily harm against the then-candidate in August. He has pleaded not guilty.","highlights":"NEW: Alfred Brock, 64 drove up to Capitol barricade with a rifle in his vehicle .\nNEW: Brock charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, ammunition .\nPolice say he told them he had a delivery for President Obama .\nMan was arrested, transported to Capitol Hill police headquarters for processing ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government said Friday it has arrested members of a cell believed responsible for Wednesday's truck bombings in which more than 100 people were killed. Workers clear the site outside the ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs in Baghdad. Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, appeared on Iraqi state television Friday night to announce the arrests, which he said were made within two hours of the bombings in the capital city. Those arrested include people believed to have planned and executed the attacks, Atta said. It was not immediately clear how many people were arrested. Initial investigations show a link between the cell and the ousted Baath regime of Saddam Hussein, Atta said. Authorities are also seeking people thought to have provided cell members with logistical support and identification, he said. Iraq Security Forces recovered a truck Friday with five tons of C-4 explosives in the Abu Ghraib area, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, Atta said Friday night. More than 500 people were wounded Wednesday in the six explosions in Baghdad. In one attack, a truck bomb exploded outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The blast blew through the front of the building, sending some vehicles flying and leaving others in mangled twists of metal in the area, which is just outside the restricted International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Another truck bomb went off outside the Ministry of Finance building. Authorities said Thursday that 11 high-ranking security officials from the Iraqi army and police were detained for investigation. The Iraqi government in the past has made claims of arrests that did not hold up. In April, it said it had captured Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq's umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq denied it, and the capture was never confirmed by the U.S. military. The explosions made Wednesday the country's deadliest day since the United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns nearly two months ago and left security in the hands of the Iraqis. The U.S. military remains in a training and advisory capacity in those areas and continues to conduct combat operations outside cities and towns. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered increased security measures, including more checkpoints and more stringent vehicle searches across the capital, government officials said on Thursday. The Iraqi government has been trying to restore what it described as normalcy to the streets of the capital in recent weeks. Al-Maliki ordered his government to take down within 40 days the concrete blast walls that line Baghdad's streets and protected neighborhoods at the height of the war. Many Iraqis have criticized the move as premature.","highlights":"Wednesday bombings of Finance, Foreign Affairs ministries killed more than 100 .\nIraqi official says suspects were arrested two hours after attacks .\n11 high-ranking security officials from the Iraqi army and police detained, he says ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- About a year ago, a group of my closest friends got together in a basement apartment in Queens. It was a Saturday night in the dead of winter, and most of us were broke (the economy was crashing) and lazy (we didn't feel like trekking to a bar in the city). As we cracked open a bottle of wine and ate fresh-baked zucchini muffins, one of my friends decided to play us some records on the record player he had recently inherited from his parents. It turned out to be one of the best nights of our lives. In sharing great music, great food and great fun, a tradition was born: Record Party. The New York Times is finally catching on to something my friends and I discovered that night; vinyl is back in a major way. The stats say that CDs are becoming just about as obsolete as cassettes and 8-tracks. Sure, iPods are fun if you're on the go, but really the only way to devour your favorite music (other than to hear it live) is to listen to it on vinyl. It's like hearing the music again for the first time -- rich and layered. Mike Jbara, a bigwig at Warner Music Group, said, \"It is absolutely easy to say vinyl doesn't make sense when you look at convenience, portability, all those things. But all the really great stuff in our lives comes from a root of passion or love.\" [New York Times] . That's what Record Party is really all about. But don't take my word for it. Here are five tips for throwing your own rocking Record Party. \u2022 Yes, you need a record player. I know you're thinking, \"Where on earth do I get a record player? The antique shop?\" Try eBay or Craigslist. There are so many used record players that need a good home. From bottom of the line models to high-end turntables, you wouldn't believe how many people have record players. If you're an electronics idiot like me, you may want to consult a knowledgeable person. I always ask my super-geeky musician friends about makes, models and features. If you don't have a music nerd in your life, do a little research online or find a specialty store in your area. Also, don't forget to get some great speakers so you can hear all the natural flava of your records. \u2022 Starting a record collection isn't as hard or as expensive as you think. It's always fun to go to a local record store and pick out some delicious vinyl. Many record stores have used records, which can save you some money. Take the record out and make sure that it's the right record -- one time I got \"A Chorus Line\" record in a \"Stevie Nicks\" jacket. Also, make sure that the record is not terribly scratched. If you're a bargain hunter like me, go to your local thrift store and pick through. You may have to search for a while, but it's not uncommon to find some $1 gems. Also, flea markets are a great place to find some hot, cheap vinyl. \u2022 Keep the guest list small. The best thing about Record Party is reveling in your favorite music and breaking out your finest dance moves. This is always most fun with close friends who have similar tastes in music. But part of the fun is also learning about new music, so you may want to require guests to bring some records of their own. \u2022 Food and drinks are a must. It's hard to throw a great record party without food and beverage. Have everyone contribute. Snacks and drinks will be much appreciated when guests step off the makeshift dance floor. \u2022 Establish some rules and traditions. At our Record Party, we've established a couple of rules in order to keep the good times rolling: 1. Everyone must write all requests down on our request list. 2. No more than two songs played at one time per person. After everyone has put in a request, the cycle starts over. 3. Everyone gets one \"Yoinx\" per night. A \"Yoinx\" is when you have a great song that you feel like you need to push to the top of the list. Develop your own rules and traditions to ensure that everyone is able to share in the music. Enjoy. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Record Parties are a great way to get together with friends .\nInstead of an iPod, get better sound with a record player, available on eBay or Craigslist .\nRecords can be inexpensive: $1 gems aren't too rare to stumble upon .\nBring snacks and a playlist ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A birthday \"cake\" made of ice, beets, apples and pears? It might not sound appetizing, but it was a special treat Thursday for Tai Shan, the Smithsonian National Zoo's giant panda. Giant panda Tai Shan digs into his special birthday cake of ice, beets, apples and pears. A huge group of fans watched as the popular panda celebrated his fourth birthday with the three-tier cake. They cheered him on as he inched closer to the treat, and one woman yelled \"Atta boy Tai Shan!\" when he finally started eating the apple pieces on the cake's lowest tier. She cheered the panda on for eating his \"cake\" the same way a mom might cheer on her son at a soccer game or dad might cheer his daughter playing basketball. Zoo curator Lisa Stevens said people react that way because of how pandas resemble children. \"They share many features of infants and toddlers. They have high foreheads, big eye spots, and they can sit up straight and grip and eat their food,\" Stevens said. Pandas are also known to give hope to the downtrodden, according to one loyal Tai Shan fan who called herself \"Sandy.\" During her battle against a medical condition that caused her to be unable to walk, she said that frequent visits to the zoo to see Tai Shan gave her the strength she needed to persevere through the pain. \"I could barely stand an hour to see him, now I could stand all day to watch him. I pushed myself for him ... he's done so much for me and for people all over the world,\" she said. Tai Shan was born at the zoo and has had his entire life documented on a Web cam for the whole world to see. Fans may have little time left to enjoy Tai Shan, as the zoo's contract with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to keep him is set to expire later this year. The zoo is negotiating with the conservation association to keep Tai Shan a few months longer.","highlights":"Tai Shan was born at the Smithsonian National Zoo .\nBirthday boy gets a special cake made of ice, beets, apples and pears .\nZoo curator says pandas are popular because they resemble young children .\nThough born in U.S., Tai Shan due to be sent to China later this year ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Serious Fraud Office and London police are investigating an alleged $81 million (\u00a356 million) fraud on the corporate banking department of Allied Irish Banks (AIB). Allied Irish Banks has allegedly been the subject of a $81 million fraud. The SFO said it had searched a business and two residential addresses in London and believed AIB was not the only financial institution deceived by the suspects. It said that between 2003 and 2007 AIB, Ireland's largest bank by market value, loaned money for the purchase of UK investment properties to companies controlled by an individual who was now the main suspect. The SFO said the main suspect operated with the assistance of others. However, in 2008 AIB identified problems with one element of its security interests over the investment properties. \"Following an internal review it became apparent that the guarantees of certain lease payments on these properties by an investment grade counterparty (a blue chip property company) were fraudulent,\" the SFO said. AIB referred the matter to the authorities and also took control of and sold the relevant properties, which resulted in a write down of the outstanding loan balances by \u00a356m, the SFO said. The office said the alleged fraud involved the borrowing companies creating \"overriding\" leases. \"These leases were generally for longer periods and at higher rents than the existing occupational tenants' leases. \"The apparent existence of these additional leases increased the values of the properties, with lease payments being a direct obligation of the investment grade counterparty,\" the SFO said. AIB is considering legal action over the $81 million loss.","highlights":"British authorities probing alleged $81 million fraud involving Irish bank .\nThey say more firms are likely to have been deceived by scam .\nIt involved manipulation of leases on properties in the UK ."} -{"article":"GREENVILLE, Ohio (CNN) -- The parishioners heard the sirens during Sunday morning services in Greenville, Ohio. A few blocks from St. Paul's Lutheran Church, a home was burning and five people were dead. Police tape wards off the curious from the duplex where a woman and four children died in a fire September 16. Shock followed sadness with news that a 10-year-old boy was being charged with arson and murder, more heartbreak for a town in tough times -- but heartbreak that shook people into action. The St. Paul's parishioners reacted quickly that morning, said Shirley DiRocco, a volunteer at the church. Just passing the collection plate once around the church, she said, \"We came up with $300.\" The money went to buy clothes for the fire's survivors and food for the emergency crew who responded, she said. Helping out is nothing new for the church -- but a boy being accused of killing his mother, half-sister and three other children in a fire has been unheard of till now. There's a lot of introspection going on in Greenville, a small town of 13,000 where the good-paying jobs are getting scarce and the problems of big-city poverty are creeping in. Residents are divided on whether the boy is responsible, but they say his plight compels them to look at themselves and face their deepening problems. \"He's a young kid. There's something got to be wrong for him to come up with that,\" said Angie Hughes, manager of a downtown Greenville hair salon. \"It has brought to the surface the fact that in this area ... we do have a lot of folks who are the have-nots in the world ... the vast numbers of people in our community who are really deep in poverty,\" said Peter B. Menke, pastor of St. Paul's. Watch Menke talk about how the tragedy has galvanized Greenville \u00bb . St. Paul's sees firsthand the poverty that led to the boy having to sleep on the sofa, because he had no bed in the half of the duplex he shared with nine other people. Christy Winans managed to escape the fire with her boyfriend, but her three children -- Kayla Winans, 6; Je'Shawn Davis, 5; and Jasmine Davis, 3 -- died along with their playmate Kaysha Palmer, 8, who was the boy's half-sister. The boy's mother, Chanan Palmer, was also killed. On Monday, as the 10-year-old appeared in court on murder charges, St. Paul's expanded its lunchtime soup kitchen service to run two days a week. Twenty-two people turned up for the meal that first day. The church had fed 70 people, including parents and children, one day this summer. Menke said the tragedy of September 16 \"has galvanized ... particularly the religious community to action. We not just saying 'Yes, we have a problem,' but we are looking at ways to genuinely address those issues and do something about it.\" Federal statistics show unemployment is hurting Greenville and surrounding Darke County. Employment in private businesses fell by 7 percent from 2000 to 2005. Manufacturing companies left town and big employers downsized, like Fram oil filter maker, or closed down completely, like Corning's fiber-optics plant. Alicia Sommer, who's lived in Greenville for 37 years and taught in the local schools, says job losses have changed the town. \"On the surface it looks like the ideal hometown,\" she said. \"Everyone wants to raise their kids here, but they can't afford it. They have to go where the jobs are,\" she says, leaning on the counter of the downtown coffee shop where she works part time. Walking through the five blocks of downtown Greenville, you see why it looks ideal. Mom-and-pop coffee shops stand in for Starbucks, locals chat on a bench outside a music store, a small cinema offers \"Mr. Bean's Holiday\" and an Asian monster flick about battling dragons. But St. Paul's offers the soup kitchen only a block off the Broadway main drag, and the tumbledown housing on Montgomery Street, including the burned duplex, is just a two-minute walk away. Fixing Greenville may be a slow process, and it's unclear if the continuing case against the 10-year-old will slow it further or provide impetus to the effort. The boy is staying with his maternal grandmother, Tammy Reed, whose daughter died in the fire. The child lost his stepfather to AIDS in July. \"He's doing really good,\" Reed said of the boy Tuesday morning. No matter how the case turns out, the boy will bear scars forever, his attorney, David Rohrer, said last week. The boy will always know he was charged with killing his mother. \"He'll never be able to escape that,\" Rohrer said. In downtown Greenville, salons offered $5 haircuts Tuesday to raise money for the fire victims. The community wanted to help in any way it could, salon manager Hughes said. Whether that community can also bring Greenville out of its slump may depend on people like Sondra Jackson. Jackson, a letter carrier, walked her new route Monday down Montgomery Street. It was only her second day of work, she said, and she had no idea of the tragedy that unfolded in the burned duplex two weeks before. Jackson said she had just moved to Greenville from Palm Springs, California, where she was born and raised. \"The school system is better in this area, and it's just a better place to raise kids,\" she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Fire killed five people, a 10-year-old boy faces murder and arson charges .\nGreenville, Ohio, facing realities of poverty as jobs leave .\nResidents divided whether boy did it; but united in desire to help town ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday. File image of the Nautica in Sydney Harbor . The Nautica was in an area patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces when two small skiffs appeared to try to intercept it, Oceania spokesman Tim Rubacky said. The ship took evasive maneuvers and accelerated to its full speed of 23 knots or 27 mph. One of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots at the cruise ship, he said, but the ship was able to pull away. It was the first report of a pirate attack on a passenger ship of its size this year, said Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau, which runs a piracy reporting center. \"There have been a couple of passenger yachts hijacked, but they were much smaller,\" he said. It is \"quite common\" for pirates to target ships the size of the Nautica and even larger, he said, but they tend to be cargo ships, not passenger vessels. Map of pirate activity in the area \u00bb . The Nautica escaped without damage or injury to its 684 passengers and 400 crew, and arrived safely on schedule in Salalah, Oman early on Monday morning, Rubacky said. He emphasized that the ship was not off the coast of Somalia, which has become a base for pirates, but off the coast of Yemen. The International Maritime Bureau has issued piracy warnings for both areas. The Nautica was in a Maritime Safety Protection Area which is patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces, Rubacky underlined. But the International Maritime Bureau's Mody warned that there was only so much navies could do even in that zone. \"The zone has been created to enable navies to patrol and concentrate on a much smaller area than the entire Gulf,\" he said. \"But, saying that, it is still a large area. Vessels do not automatically get guaranteed safe passage even if they use it.\" The Nautica left Rome November 18 on a 32-day cruise to Singapore. It was the first time one of the company's cruise ships had encountered possible pirates, Rubacky added. He said the company did not plan to change routes to avoid the area, which has seen increasingly audacious piracy in recent months. \"We're not considering re-routing as the Gulf of Aden is the most viable gateway from the Med to Asia,\" he said. On Sunday, an official from the Kenya Seafarers Association said pirates have reached a deal with the owners of a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms that was seized more than two months ago. \"A deal has been reached to free the MV Faina. Talks on how to deliver the ransom money are ongoing,\" Andrew Mwangura of the association told CNN. It is not clear how long those talks will take, but the ship could be freed as soon as an agreement has been reached. The ship, which is laden with Soviet-era tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms, was seized on September 25. It was heading for Kenya, whose government had bought the weapons from Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The pirates originally asked for a $35 million ransom, but lowered their demand to $20 million, he said. The Faina is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, and its crew includes citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, the Navy said.","highlights":"Nautica was in area patrolled by international anti-piracy task force .\nTwo small skiffs appeared and tried to intercept it, spokesman said .\nOne of the boats closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots .\nReport: Deal reached Sunday over hijacked Ukrainian arms ship ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two customers are suing Wal-Mart for negligence after being injured in a mad rush for post-Thanksgiving bargains that left one store employee dead, the men's attorney said Tuesday. A temporary worker at this Wal-Mart was crushed to death when shoppers rushed into the store last week. Temporary Wal-Mart worker Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed to death as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a store on Long Island at 5 a.m. Friday. Attorney Kenneth Mollins said Fritz Mesadieu and Jonathan Mesadieu were \"literally carried from their position outside the store\" and are now \"suffering from pain in their neck and their back from being caught in that surge of people\" that rushed into the Wal-Mart. New York Newsday reported that the Mesadieus are father and son, ages 51 and 19. The lawsuit alleges that the Mesadieus' injuries were a result of \"carelessness, recklessness, negligence.\" In a claim against the Nassau County police department, the men also contend that they \"sustained monetary losses as a result of health care and legal expenses ... in the sum of $2 million.\" \"This is a tragic situation that could have and should have been avoided with the exercise of reasonable care. There are very simple measures that could have been put in place to avoid this, such as barriers along the line to spread people out, extra security and a better police presence,\" Mollins said. He said his clients and others who were at the scene contend that the police \"were there ... saw what was happening, and they left.\" Calls seeking comment from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were not immediately returned. Lt. Kevin Smith of the Nassau County Police Department said, \"it's our policy that we don't comment on open litigations\" and would not respond directly to Mollins and his clients' claim that officers left the scene. He said it is \"incumbent upon the store to provide security\" but noted that there was no security force present when officers responded to an initial phone call after 3 a.m. Friday for an unknown disturbance at the site. Smith said the officers noticed a lack of order with the crowd and began to organize them into a line, remaining on site for about 30 minutes until the crowd had become orderly. Throughout the morning, officers went back to check on the crowd and continued to notice no disturbance, Smith said. He said that there were no additional calls for assistance until about 5 a.m., when people began rushing the doors of the store and trampled Damour. An autopsy showed that Damour died of asphyxiation after being trampled, Nassau County officials have said. Video showed that as many as a dozen people were knocked to the floor in the stampede of people trying to get into the store. The employee was \"stepped on by hundreds of people\" as other workers attempted to fight their way through the crowd, said Nassau County Police Detective Lt. Michael Fleming. CNN's Kristen Hamill contributed to this report .","highlights":"Men suffered injuries after being carried along in rush for bargains, suit claims .\nCustomers also filed claim against police, say they didn't maintain order .\nOne store employee killed in post-Thanksgiving rush for bargains ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Ohio sheriff had harsh words for ice fishermen who had to be rescued Saturday after high winds and rising temperatures caused an ice floe to break away and strand about 150 of them on Lake Erie. People were stuck when an 8-mile-long chunk of Lake Erie ice broke away near Toledo, Ohio. The incident, in which one person was pronounced dead after being transported to the hospital, came after the National Weather Service issued a warning that ice floes could break away from the main ice area in the western section of the lake. At least some of those rescued were fishermen. \"This just cost the taxpayers a ton of money,\" Ottawa County, Ohio, Sheriff Bob Bratton said. \"We lost a life out there today. ... I'm sorry a man lost his life out there today. These people should have known better.\" Bratton said those rescued should never have been on Lake Erie in the first place because weather conditions made it risky, and \"if there was a section in the code about common sense, we would have had 150 arrests out there today.\" Watch sheriff express frustration \u00bb . A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard said the person who died fell in the water when the ice floe broke away from land. View ice safety tips \u00bb . \"We have rescued more than 150 people, and unfortunately there were two people in the water,\" Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier said. \"One of the people was recovered and brought to shore,\" but the other man was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. \"This was wrong. These people endangered the life of volunteer firemen, [and] the United States Coast Guard,\" Bratton said, estimating the cost of the sheriff's office response at $25,000. \"I'm sure that's going to climb.\" Bratton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the fishermen displayed poor judgment in building a makeshift bridge to get from one section of the ice to the other. \"I have no problem with people ice fishing, but these idiots should realize that when you see open water, you should not build a bridge and cross it,\" he said. \"It's a shame you can't arrest people for stupidity.\" Among the hundreds of people who went fishing Saturday were Gary and David Vaughn of Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania. They told the Plain Dealer that they set up a shanty about 7 a.m. and didn't come back out until 11 a.m., when they saw a crowd gathered at the edge of the ice. It was then that they knew they were in trouble. \"When we were over there waiting to be rescued, we feared the ice would just break up under us,\" Gary Vaughn, 47, told the newspaper. \"I feared for my life.\" The sheriff told the Toledo Blade that the people who went out on the ice did not take proper precautions. \"Where is the common sense when they know the ice is broken?\" Bratton said. \"The experienced fishermen, I guarantee, are not out there,\" he told the newspaper. \"They're not reading the weather. If the ice is broke, you don't build a little bridge to get from here to there.\" \"Ice fishing and recreation on the ice is a culture in the Great Lakes. It's something we've become used to,\" Lanier said. iReport.com: Were you there? Share your photos, story . The sheriff said there were a host of factors that the fishermen should have been aware of, which caused them to risk their lives unnecessarily. \"The weather changed; the temperature went up; the wind was coming out of the south. These are all things that are indicators [that an ice floe break could occur].\" Asked whether there are signs or other notification systems to discourage fishermen from going out on the ice under risky conditions, Bratton said there are only Web sites fishermen can check. \"We will go back and look at that,\" he said. \"We can't develop the attitude, 'Go out on the ice. If you get caught, we'll be there to get you. We'll bring you in.' You've got to have common sense.\" Watch lake officials describe rescue efforts \u00bb . Unprecedented numbers of fishermen have taken to the ice this winter because thicker ice allowed them to go farther out onto the lake, according to the Plain Dealer. But Saturday's unseasonably high temperatures apparently melted chunks of the ice. The ice floe, 8 miles long, was created when a large piece of ice broke off from land near Locust Point, Ohio, east of Toledo, Lanier said earlier. View a map of the area \u00bb . Numerous helicopters participated in the rescue, Lanier said, including those from the Canadian Coast Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, Ohio State University and Monroe County. State hovercraft were on the scene as well, and airboats were sent, he said. Those rescued were brought to a staging area at a park, Lanier said.","highlights":"NEW: Frustrated sheriff asks, \"Where is the common sense?\"\nOne person dead, 150 people rescued after ice floe breaks away .\nNational Weather Service warned that floes could separate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Natasha Richardson died of injuries caused by blunt impact to the head, the New York City Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Thursday. Natasha Richardson fell on a beginners' ski slope in Canada. The death was ruled an accident, the office said. Paramedics dispatched to help Richardson minutes after she fell on a Canadian ski slope Monday were turned away and did not have a chance to check her injury, the ambulance service director told a Toronto, Canada, newspaper. Richardson -- a film star, Tony-winning stage actress and member of the famed Redgrave acting family -- died two days later in a New York hospital from a head injury suffered at a Quebec resort about 80 miles northwest of Montreal. Yves Coderre, operations director for Ambulances Radisson, told Toronto's The Globe and Mail newspaper on Wednesday that his company sent an ambulance to the slopes at Mont Tremblant Ski Resort after a call from the ski patrol. \"They never saw the patient,\" Coderre said. \"So they turned around.\" Watch how brain injuries can be hidden \u00bb . Coderre did not say who sent the ambulance away. Efforts by CNN to reach Coderre have been unsuccessful. A resort spokeswoman said a statement was being prepared in response to the latest report. An earlier statement from the resort said a paramedic from its ski patrol \"arrived on the scene within minutes\" after Richardson, 45, fell during a lesson on a beginners' trail. The ski patrol paramedic \"did not find any visible sign of injury,\" it said. \"As standard protocol, the ski patrol insisted Ms. Richardson be transported to the base of the hill in a rescue toboggan,\" it said. \"Once at the base of the hill, Ms. Richardson was advised by staff to consider seeking additional medical attention which was declined.\" The resort's statement said Richardson, accompanied by her instructor, returned to her hotel but about an hour after the fall was \"not feeling good,\" the statement said. Another ambulance was later called to the hotel, where paramedics found her conscious, but she \"wasn't in good shape,\" Coderre said. Richardson was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. From there she was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. She and her husband, actor Liam Neeson, have two children, Michael and Daniel. Her family issued a short statement Wednesday night acknowledging her death. \"Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.\" Richardson is a member of acting royalty. Her grandfather, Sir Michael Redgrave, was a famed British actor. Her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, is an Oscar-winning actress, and her father, late director Tony Richardson, helmed such films as \"Look Back in Anger,\" \"The Entertainer\" and the Oscar-winning \"Tom Jones.\" Watch a review of her career \u00bb . Richardson's uncle Corin Redgrave, aunt Lynn Redgrave and sister Joely Richardson are also noted performers. Natasha Richardson won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of \"Cabaret\" and earned raves for her Blanche DuBois in a 2005 production of \"A Streetcar Named Desire.\" She was scheduled to perform in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's \"A Little Night Music\" this year, after a January benefit performance of the show. Broadway dimmed its lights Thursday evening in tribute to Richardson.","highlights":"NEW: Medical examiner rules Natasha Richardson's death an accident .\nAmbulance crew was turned away, company official tells newspaper .\nRichardson died two days after falling on ski slope .\nRichardson initially showed no sign of injury, resort statement says ."} -{"article":"CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN) -- Floodwaters inundated Iowa City and the University of Iowa arts campus on Sunday despite what one official called a \"Herculean effort\" to hold back the water with sandbags. Residents surround Lt. Tobey Harrison at a Cedar Rapids checkpoint as they wait to see their homes Sunday. \"We've had the [National Guard] working next to prisoner inmates, sandbagging,\" said David Jackson, the university's facilities manager. \"Students, faculty and staff, leaders of the university, the president of the university -- out sandbagging.\" Some 500 to 600 homes were ordered to evacuate and others faced a voluntary evacuation order through the morning, said Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey. The Iowa River in Iowa City crested at 31.5 feet and was expected to remain at that level until Monday, city and state officials said Sunday. Classes at the university have been suspended until next Sunday, according to its Web site. \"All of our theaters, our music building, Clapp Recital Hall, our fine arts building [the] new Art Building West designed by Stephen Holl, has taken on significant water as well,\" said Sally Mason, president of the university. \"Fortunately we were able to save all the art,\" she said. The art was placed in crates shipped out of state last week. \"We anticipated the worst a week ago.\" At least 8 feet of water rushed through the campus, officials said. Among the school's 30,000 students, Ann Barber told CNN she has been sandbagging for nearly seven days. \"It's very hard to watch the devastation of our university,\" she said. This month's severe weather has trampled towns from North Dakota to Indiana. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says more than 11 million Midwesterners will be affected by flooding and tornadoes. Meanwhile, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, some of nearly 20,000 displaced residents began to return home Sunday as water there receded. People lined up for about a block in one part of the city waiting for a special wristband to allow them access to their homes. The flooding there caught many people by surprise. \"We didn't think it would get this high,\" said Tina Fleischacker, whose Cedar Rapids home was soaked. \"We moved everything upstairs and it's gone. It's gone. We left with the clothes on our backs.\" About 36,000 Iowans, most in Cedar Rapids, evacuated their homes due to the state-wide flooding. At least 472 people spent Saturday night in 18 shelters set up across the state, according to Dave Miller, the administrator of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. In Iowa City, the water is expected to drop no more than 3 feet by Saturday, said John Benson, spokesman for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. \"There's that moment of 'phew,' but then there's that realization that the water will be going down very slowly,\" Bailey told reporters. She urged residents to be careful when returning to their homes and businesses, and asked them to abide by a 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. \"Water flows are still dangerous,\" she said. \"We need people to be patient. We will get them into those homes and businesses as soon as possible.\" Iowa has been inundated with heavy rains in recent weeks that have caused several major rivers that feed into the Mississippi -- including the Cedar, Des Moines and Iowa Rivers -- to flood their banks. The flooding in the Midwest is \"some of the worst\" to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina inundated the Gulf Coast nearly three years ago, FEMA administrator David Paulison said Sunday on CNN. The scenarios are much different, but \"the aftermath is similar,\" he said. \"The fact [is] that we have a lot of people whose homes have been destroyed.\" The agency has received more than 12,000 disaster assistance applications from the hardest-hit states -- Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin. Starting Tuesday, the American Red Cross will set up kitchens in Iowa to serve up about 100,000 meals to residents each day. The agency, which is housing 720 flood victims in 30 shelters, plans to spend about $15 million on Midwest relief efforts. Iowans are very concerned about how they will afford to rebuild. \"Most of the people here ... do not have flood insurance,\" said Steve Doser, director of a shelter in Cedar Rapids. \"A couple people told us ... that they were told they didn't need flood insurance, 'Don't worry about it, you're in a 500-year [plain],' \" he said. \"Now they don't have anything.\" Iowa Gov. Chet Culver estimates agricultural damage could reach $1 billion, exceeding the costs of the big flood in 1993. He praised the strength and resilience of the people of Iowa and vowed to rebuild the state, noting that \"will take a long time.\" There have been 16 storm-related deaths since May 25 in Iowa, 12 of them from recent tornadoes, Culver said Sunday. Four Boy Scouts were killed last week when a twister touched down at a camp in Iowa. Culver has declared 83 of the state's 99 counties disaster areas. More than 3,300 Iowa National Guard troops have been deployed to help primarily with sandbagging and staging resources, Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis of the Iowa National Guard said Sunday. That number is expected to rise to 4,000 by Monday, he said. Of those troops, 750 are stationed in Des Moines helping to shore up levees with sandbags along the Des Moines River amid fears that the historic flooding that has hit other parts of the state could soon take its toll on the Iowa capital. Early Saturday, rising waters breached a levee on the Des Moines River, prompting emergency officials to evacuate 270 homes in Des Moines' Birdland Park neighborhood, a state emergency official said. A high school in the neighborhood was also flooded. CNN's Jim Acosta and Julian Cummings contributed to this report.","highlights":"About 500-600 homes evacuated in Iowa City on Sunday .\nSome 36,000 Iowans, most in Cedar Rapids, have been evacuated .\nAgricultural damage estimated at $1 billion or more ."} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian authorities are investigating the recent killing of a model-turned-bodyguard. Anna Loginova in a photo shoot for the Russian edition of Maxim magazine. Anna Loginova, a 29-year-old former successful model, ran a private security firm of female bodyguards, highly trained in martial arts, demanding high prices to protect Russian billionaires. One notable client was Russian boxer Kostya Tszyu. A carjacker pulled Loginova out of her Porsche Cayenne Sunday in Moscow. Loginova grabbed onto the door handle as the car picked up speed and she was dragged along the street before letting go as the car sped away. \"An intruder just threw her out of the car\" Russian police stated, \"She grabbed the door handle, but when the car picked up speed, she let go.\" Her fearlessness proved fatal. Loginova died on the scene from serious cranial injuries. The vehicle was later found abandoned in southern Moscow. Luxury car theft is common in Moscow. Loginova told Maxim magazine in a recently taped interview that she fought off a car thief just four months ago. \"I stepped out of my car and closed the door when I suddenly saw a young man near me. He grabbed me by the arm in which I was holding the car keys,\" she was quoted as saying. \"By reflex, I used a jiu-jitsu technique. I twisted his arm and hit him on the face with my elbow. The guy obviously was not expecting such a reaction. He fell down on the rear windshield, which gave me enough time to grab my gun. He immediately jumped into his Honda and drove away,\" Those who knew her said she was never deterred by danger. For many Russians she was a feminine icon, bridging the glamorous world of modeling and the rough underbelly of Russian crime. \"I think she was kind and sweet, not like a terminator, not like Sigourney Weaver in 'Aliens'\" said Igor Cherski from Maxim magazine \"but I feel that she was not afraid of anything, there was no fear in her eyes.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Russian model-turned-bodyguard Anna Loginova killed in Moscow during carjacking .\nLoginova recently told a magazine that she fought off a car thief four months ago .\nFor many Russians she was a feminine icon, bridging glamorous and crime world ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Wednesday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says Flynt and Francis have brought some absurdity to the financial news. (CNN) -- I have to mention tonight the headline that caught my eye on the CNN Ticker earlier today: \"Porn Industry Seeks Federal Bailout.\" Yeah, you heard me. The porn industry wants a bailout. Leave it to Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and \"Girls Gone Wild\" CEO Joe Francis to take the absurdity of what is going on now with our federal bailout program to a whole new level. According to their press release, the adult entertainment industry needs $5 billion of your tax money because it, too, has been hit by the economic downturn. They concede the $13 billion industry is in no fear of collapse, but say in this environment, why take chances? I don't really think this requires commentary or condemnation, just thought you would enjoy it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Hustler, \"Girls Gone Wild\" owners seek $5 billion bailout .\nLarry Flynt and Joe Francis say porn industry isn't suffering, but why take chances?\nBrown says this doesn't require commentary or condemnation ."} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Guerrillas in Colombia tortured and killed 17 Indians who they believed were helping the government, a governor and two human rights organizations said Wednesday. Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, swept into a village in southwest Colombia last week and abducted an undetermined number of Awa Indians, Human Rights Watch said. The guerrillas tortured and killed 17 Awas, including at least two minors, the human rights group said. Another human rights group, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, or ONIC, also reported the allegations. Navarro Wolff, the governor of Narino province, where the Awas live, decried the reported killings. \"The guerrillas took several families, recriminating them for their supposed collaboration with the army,\" Wolff told El Pais newspaper. \"A young man was able to escape and told how he had been tied. Later, they tortured him, they beat him and they killed eight with with a knife.\" Nine other villagers also were executed, unconfirmed reports said. The allegations are based partly on the information provided by the young man who said he escaped. Human Rights Watch also said it received reports from \"reliable sources,\" whom the organization did not name. \"These cruel killings violate the most basic principles of human decency and dignity,\" said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch. \"There is no possible excuse or justification for these horrific actions.\" The remote village is a 12-hour trip away from the nearest large town, and no independent verification has been obtained. Besides the unforgiving terrain, the presence of land mines and the existence of numerous armed groups virtually prevent outsiders from visiting the area. Monsignor Ruben Salazar Gomez, the president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, joined the chorus of criticism, alleging a \"crime the whole country should condemn.\" Another religious leader said the Awa need protection. \"We are very worried about the Awa community,\" said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. \"It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups.\" The prelate said that although there were indications that the FARC was behind the killings, \"we are not certain of that,\" El Pais said. The Awas, he said, \"are pacifist, want respect of their organization and want to regain their traditions. We have been accompanying them in this process, and that's why this hurts so much.\" New York-based Human Rights Watch said group members have made numerous visits to Narino, which is one of Colombia's 32 departments, or states. Narino is in southwest Colombia, on the Pacific Ocean and the border with Ecuador. The area has a heavy presence of various armed groups and Colombian military forces, and has among the worst human rights conditions in Colombia, the human rights group said. The Awa territories have been particularly affected. The Colombian government has issued a \"risk report,\" warning authorities that civilians in the region are at risk. The FARC is said to have \"confined\" some villages, cutting them off from the outside world and not allowing anyone to enter or leave. In another report Wednesday, ONIC, the indigenous human rights group in Colombia, said the FARC has abducted 120 Awas since February 4. ONIC said the FARC kidnapped 20 Awa men, women and children February 4 from the Barbacoas area in Narino. The rebels returned the next day and grabbed children who had remained behind, ONIC said, according to Caracol Radio. ONIC also reported that a number of Awa had been knifed to death. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts say the FARC has 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings, bombings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador.","highlights":"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia accused of torture, slayings .\nFARC guerillas killed the Indians for helping the Army, governor reportedly said .\nAllegations are based in part on information from man who said he escaped .\nHuman rights group in Colombia says FARC has abducted 120 Awas since February ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ventures lead guitarist Bob Bogle, whose fretwork on such instrumental hits such as \"Walk -- Don't Run\" and \"Hawaii Five-O\" influenced countless bands, died Sunday in Vancouver, Washington. Bob Bogle (second from left) co-founded the Ventures, the highly influential instrumental band. He was 75. The cause was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to Don Wilson, who co-founded the Ventures with Bogle in the 1950s. \"He had a special sound that nobody could ever re-create. He was totally unique as a guitar player,\" Wilson told CNNRadio. Wilson and Bogle learned how to play guitar while working as construction workers in the 1950s in their native Tacoma, Washington. The pair formed the Ventures in 1958. \"We had a lot of time on our hands after work, so we'd get together and play,\" Wilson recalled. \"A year and a half later, we had a number two hit called 'Walk -- Don't Run.' \" The group first heard the song on a Chet Atkins record. Several other hits followed, including \"Perfidia,\" \"Walk Don't Run '64\" and \"Diamond Head.\" The group took the theme of the TV show \"Hawaii Five-O\" into the Top Ten in 1969 and later supplied background music for the series. But the band, which played almost solely instrumentals, was perhaps more influential for its albums. Thirty-eight of the band's long-players hit Billboard's Top 200 chart, including albums that covered country songs, dance tunes and Christmas melodies. One of the band's albums was titled \"Play Guitar with the Ventures,\" and countless did. \"I can't think of a better contribution for instrumental music on his style than 'Walk -- Don't Run,' \" Wilson said. \"A lot of good would-be guitar players and garage bands would go out and buy guitars just to learn that song.\" The Ventures were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. At the induction ceremony, Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty praised the group: \"It's enough to say, the Ventures are the most popular instrumental band of all time,\" he said. Bogle fought his illness with dignity, Wilson said. \"His doctors gave him 10 years to live, and he lived 12. The last two years were really tough. At least he lived to know the Ventures had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\" Bogle is survived by his wife, Yumi. CNNRadio's Ninette Sosa and Matt Cherry contributed to this story.","highlights":"Bob Bogle, Ventures' lead guitarist, dead at 75 .\nVentures and Bogle influenced countless bands with guitar sound .\nHits included \"Walk -- Don't Run,\" \"Hawaii Five-O\""} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Oprah Winfrey often says that moms have the hardest job in the world, but plenty of fathers carry the burden of raising a child all by themselves. In fact, 2.5 million single fathers in the United State are doing it all-- juggling schedules, putting food on the table and going to school plays or soccer games -- single-handedly. Larry Shine and his expanded family visited Oprah Winfrey on her show. Larry Shine and his wife, Kate, had their first son, Henry, 19 years ago. When Kate died of cancer only two-and-a-half years later, Larry says he was overwhelmed with grief. \"The year after she died, I was just so immersed in the tragedy of her death,\" he says. \"Then I thought: 'I can't live like this anymore. I can't have this be our life.'\" He decided it was time for Henry to have a sibling. At the time, it was almost impossible for a single male to adopt in the United States, so Larry applied for both international adoption and surrogacy. Surprisingly, both applications went through, and soon Larry became a father of three. Still, he says he was ready for more. Today, Larry is raising nine children on his own! \"I never thought I'd be a father of nine. Actually, I never imagined I'd be a father,\" he says. \"Maybe this all happened for a purpose. Because if Kate hadn't died, I never would have done what I did and these kids wouldn't have had a home.\" Oprah.com: 8 things never to say to an adopted child . When it comes to raising nine kids (Henry, 19; Ari, 16; Halle, 15; Eli, 13; Lili, 12; Sofia, 10; Genevieve, 8; Simone, 5; and Lucia, 3), Larry says there is never a dull moment. His schedule is jam-packed, and it starts at 3 a.m. As if being a single dad isn't enough work, Larry also works full time as a corporate attorney. \"When the second bus picks up the younger kids at quarter of nine, I leave and drop Lucia off at daycare. Then I go to work all day and come back and pick her up when daycare closes at 6 o'clock and then head home,\" he says. \"[I work at] a very warm and family-oriented firm, so they're very supportive.\" Though Larry's big family is thriving, he says there were a few small bumps along the way. Eli's arm broke when he was an infant and hadn't healed properly before he joined the Shine family, but Larry says extensive orthopedic surgery fixed the problem. Lili had failure to thrive syndrome, which caused her to have trouble connecting with others -- though Larry says she opened up after three months in his busy house and is doing great. And, Simone's speech was delayed, he says. \"She had therapy for about six months, and now sometimes I wish I hadn't given her speech therapy,\" he jokes. Is there room for any more kids in the Shine family? Depends on whom you ask! \"I thought five was it, and I thought six was it,\" Larry says. \"My sense is that nine is probably it ... because international adoption's a lot more difficult, and I'm older. ... [But] I've been given a lot of opportunities, and if it happened again, I'd have a hard time saying no.\" Henry, who is a sophomore at Notre Dame, says the family is at capacity. \"We're at a pretty full limit right now,\" he says. \"Now that I'm in school, I'd like to be around if there's going to be another sibling.\" Though he's rooting for Lucia to be his youngest sibling, Henry says he's incredibly proud of his dad. \"Just how selfless he is,\" he says. \"I don't know of anybody else who puts people before themselves like he does.\" Though Larry didn't plan on being the single dad of such a huge family, he says it came naturally to him. \"I'm more comfortable doing something for somebody else than myself,\" he says. \"Particularly with adopting the kids overseas, when I went to Paraguay for the first time to adopt Ari and saw all the kids who didn't have a home and or a place to go at night, I just thought, 'This isn't right.'\" It may have been an unexpected path for Larry, but he says its one he's grateful for. \"I love parenting,\" he says. \"I just felt, 'This is what I want to do.'\" Oprah.com: Talks every parent should have . Matt's blog . On March 25, 2008, Matt Logelin woke up to what should have been a perfect day. He and his wife, Liz, were proud new parents -- their daughter Madeline had been born the day before. But that afternoon, Liz died of a blood clot that no one knew she had. With a newborn in his care, Matt had no time for mourning. \"Right after Liz died, I had to go straight in and I had to feed her (Madeline). I mean, she had to eat. I had to change her diapers. Life didn't stop when Liz died,\" he says. \"I didn't know what I was going to do. I literally didn't know if I was going to live through this.\" Matt and Maddy survived the tragedy, and Matt used the blog he'd created to document Liz's pregnancy as an outlet for his grief. \"If I write it, I can get it off my chest,\" he says. After Liz's death, tens of thousand of people started reading Matt's blog. The outpouring of support -- including notes, money and toys -- from the online community shocked him. \"To have total strangers giving us stuff and wanting to make sure we're okay all the time was just incredible,\" he says. Matt says he's determined to give back as much as he's been given. \"We've donated all of the clothes that no longer fit and the toys that we couldn't use,\" he says. \"We've been given a lot of money as well, and we've tried to give that away as much as we can.\" Matt has also established the Liz Logelin Foundation, which helps widows and widowers with children. A year after Maddy was born, Matt's still adjusting to life as a single parent. He's even joined the neighborhood new moms group. \"They sort of adopted me,\" he says. \"They took me in and made sure I wasn't screwing things up too terribly.\" Matt says one of the scariest things about Liz's death is that she took all her parenting knowledge with her. \"Liz had read all the books. She had done everything that we needed to do to make sure that this baby was taken care of properly,\" he says. \"It's not something I ever anticipated doing on my own.\" Matt says he'd planned to be the free-spirited parent, while Liz would be the rigid one. Given the circumstance, Matt has struck a balance. \"I've had to be a little more strict in the way that I do things, but I still let her eat sticks and leaves from time to time.\" Oprah.com: Meet more unforgettable fathers! From The Oprah Winfrey Show \u00a9 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"One man added eight kids to family after his wife died of cancer .\nLarry Shine started adopting so his son could have a sibling .\nHe kept adopting because he couldn't say no to kids in need .\nAnother dad sets up blog, foundation to help widows, widowers raising kids ."} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- The governments of Armenia and Turkey will sign a peace agreement in Zurich on Saturday that would normalize relations after nearly a century of animosity between the neighboring nations, the Swiss government said Friday. The Swiss-mediated peace deal would also open the border between the countries, which has been shut since 1993. The signing ceremony comes more than a month after Armenia and Turkey announced they had agreed to start six weeks of \"internal political consultations\" on two protocols aimed at establishing diplomatic and bilateral relations. The Swiss-mediated peace deal would also open the border between the countries, which has been shut since 1993. The border was closed after Turkey objected to Armenia's war with Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabagh. Neither country has an embassy in the other's capital. Turkish-Armenian relations have often been overshadowed by the dispute over the massacre of ethnic Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, more than 90 years ago. Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing genocide, killing more then a million Armenians starting in 1915. Modern-day Turkey vehemently rejects the allegations. The proposed protocols for normalizing relations call for creating a committee of international experts to research archives and \"restore mutual confidence between the two nations.\" There is no mention of the disputed territory of Karabagh, which Armenian troops have controlled since the 1993 Armenian-Azerbaijan war. But the success of the protocols is still uncertain, as the parliaments of both countries still must ratify the agreement. A senior U.S. State Department official -- authorized to brief reporters without attribution because of diplomatic sensitivities -- said the situation remains \"difficult.\" \"There's opposition both in Turkey and in Armenia,\" the senior official said Thursday, \"but both governments realize ultimately it's in their interest to have normalized relations and an open border after years of tension and the economic isolation, particularly of Armenia.\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the signing, along with dignitaries from several other countries, including the European Union, according to the Swiss government.","highlights":"Swiss-mediated deal would normalize relations between rival nations .\nAccord also open the border, which has been closed since 1993 .\nAnimosity dates back to Ottoman Empire and massacre of ethnic Armenians .\nBoth countries still must ratify the protocols, and difficulties remain ."} -{"article":"SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (CNN) -- The official count of confirmed deaths grew to 15 Friday afternoon, one day after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook north central Costa Rica, a government emergency official said. iReporter Leonardo Diaz photographed the damage in Plaza Mayor Shopping Center in San Jose. Reinaldo Carballo, a spokesman for the federal Commission for National Emergencies, said the updated death toll came from information given to the agency by Costa Rica Vice President Rodrigo Arias. In addition, Carballo said, rescuers were trying to reach 300 tourists stranded in a hotel in Varablanca. Carballo said he did not know the tourists' nationalities or the name of the hotel. There were conflicting reports on the number of dead from Thursday's earthquake. The Commission for National Emergencies had issued a news release earlier Friday saying the quake had killed four people. Also earlier Friday, Red Cross official Milton Chaverri told CNN there were 14 dead and 22 missing. Red Cross spokeswoman Fiorella Vilca said Friday afternoon there were nine dead and 42 missing. The discrepancy may result from the fact that the Commission for National Emergencies reports only deaths it has confirmed, Carballo said. About 32 people were injured, he said. On Friday, the U.S. government dispatched a team of 34 U.S. military personnel and four helicopters from Honduras-based Joint Task Force-Bravo to Costa Rica to assist. Survivors described the suddenness and brutality of the quake. Landslides, tumbling rocks and collapsed buildings caused widespread devastation and death. \"I saw how the earth moved and how it took my family -- my aunt, my cousin and her babies,\" Miguel Angel Marin told CNN affiliate Teletica TV. \"It was very hard because I wanted to save them, but I couldn't.\" A sobbing Vilma Cambronero was asked what happened to her family. \"Some are well,\" she said. \"Others are buried.\" An unidentified woman told Teletica, \"Everything started to move and everything fell on top of us. It was a miracle we got out.\" More than 1,200 people were stranded, without a way to get out of towns or homes, Chaverri said. Another 1,000 people were living in shelters, he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . \"Many people were injured, many buildings were damaged and landslides blocked roads in the area,\" the U.S. Geological Survey said. The dead included three young girls, officials said Friday. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez was scheduled to tour the affected area Friday. On Thursday, he appealed for calm. The remote area near Alajuela, where the quake hit strongest, is difficult to reach, and officials said they were having to rely on helicopters for medical evacuations and to airlift supplies. Randall Picado, a government rescue official, said many residents were without water and other necessities. About 400 volunteers and Red Cross personnel were giving aid in 15 communities, Chaverri said. The temblor was felt throughout Costa Rica and in southern and central Nicaragua, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site. \"I felt the earthquake,\" Costa Rican office worker Erick Solorzano told CNN in an iReport message. \"I work in a sixth floor, and it was very strong. We felt the building was going to collapse.\" About 2,000 aftershocks have been felt in San Jose, the capital, and other cities throughout the nation, Red Cross spokeswoman Vilca said. The Geological Survey placed the earthquake's epicenter at 20 miles (32 kilometers) north-northwest of San Jose at a depth of 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers).","highlights":"NEW: Rescuers trying to reach 300 tourists stranded in hotel .\nNEW: \"I saw how the earth moved and how it took my family,\" survivor says .\nReports on number of people killed in quake conflict; up to 42 may be missing .\nMore than 1,200 stranded, 1,000 more in shelters, Red Cross official says ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- If your neighbor mentions their green roof you might think they have a moss problem. Maybe they are simply referring to the color. But you're unlikely to think that they have just had a mini ecosystem installed. Majora Carter says green roofs can help alleviate the problems caused by storm water . Simply put, green roofs are gardens on your roof. They come in all shapes and sizes and range from a simple layer of turf to bite-sized hanging gardens of Babylon. But green roofs are not just aesthetic. They have important environmental benefits: they absorb storm water, reduce noise pollution, absorb heat (thus lessening the urban heat-island effect) and add an extra layer of insulation to buildings. That's why they are increasingly being used on new builds as the construction industry looks to make use of greener technologies.. The concept of a green roof goes back centuries: The turf roofed dwellings of the Vikings are early examples, but the modern green roof we know today was developed in Germany 50 years ago. Since then, they have become increasingly popular, yet the industry still struggles against skeptics, who believe green roofs to be expensive and liable to leaking. The exception to the rule has been Germany, where the industry is now annually worth $77 million. Even by the end of the 1990s, 50 million square meters of German roofs, the equivalent of 10 percent of flat roofs, were recorded to be green. The industry is not faring so well in other parts of the world. While the UK has seen a steady increase in interest since the 1960s, a lack of input from the industry and policy-makers has left Britain far behind Germany's booming market. In North America, green roofs have taken even longer to catch on. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a Canadian non-profit industry association, conducted a survey in 2005 which indicated that only 233,000 square meters of green roofs existed in North America. But this was up 80 percent from the previous year, and the market continues to grow. Majora Carter, who set up Sustainable South Bronx to help lift the area out of poverty by creating green-collar jobs, is frustrated by this difference between the European and American industries. \"In Germany they are down to $20 per square meter, which is way cheaper than a regular roof here,\" she told CNN. \"There are mandates over there because of the storm water they retain,\" she continued, \"Which is a huge drain on their resources, as it is on ours. What we are trying to do is champion the policies behind storm water.\" Storm water is a growing problem in cities. The lack of permeable surfaces are loading drainage systems and increasing the risk of flooding. It's green roofs' ability to retain high levels of precipitation that are seen as way to control and slow the water run-off. The mandates Carter refers to are part of Germany's Green Area and Biotope Area Federal Law. They are not a legal requirement, but through incentives set up at a city level, the mandates have helped to encourage cheaper prices. Dusty Gedge, co-founder of Livingroof.org, a UK Web site promoting the green roof industry, believes it is the government's responsibility to help the industry grow. \"We need government bodies to accept certain civil engineering benefits, such as storm water amelioration, like the Germans, Austrians and Swiss do,\" he told CNN. \"This will encourage uptake.\" In many countries, the green roof industry is vulnerable to non-acceptance and a lack of understanding. Gedge says, \"There are problems with the construction industry viewing vegetation as a problem and not a benefit.\" Green roofs also struggle against better-known technologies such as solar panels, but Gedge points out, \"Solar panels can work better on green roofs than on gray roofs.\" Despite this lack of support, the green roof industry is growing. In London alone, there are approximately 1 million square meters of green roofs planned, with about 200,000 square meters already installed. And as climate change stays in the headlines, the popularity of green roofs is growing. According to Gedge, \"Over the last eight years, green roofs [in the UK] have gone from being a very marginal approach to a mainstream approach. Cities such as London and Sheffield are now asking for them as part of planning applications.\" But Gedge also believes that support from local government, as opposed to a centrally driven policy, is key to the industry's growth. \"In Switzerland, green roofs are federal law, but again this is interpreted at a cantonal and city level,\" he told CNN. \"This is a much better approach than driven by the center.\" Managing the industry through federal laws offers a general framework which can then be interpreted as needed. In an industry that varies from project to project, this flexibility is a valuable asset. So the green roof industry continues to grow -- but there's a feeling that government support could be better. With a little more encouragement, what once was an eccentric way to roof your home could soon become the universal standard, turning our cities into lush, green metropolises. But then, it's not easy being green. ................................... Would you put a green roof on your home? Do green roofs really help the environment -- or are they an expensive indulgence? Share your views in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Green roofs date back to before the time of the Vikings .\nNot just aesthetic, they help fight against climate change, especially in cities .\nGermany's green roof market is the biggest, making up 10 percent of all flat roofs .\nSupporters say government support is need to spur growth elsewhere ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- She is one of the world's most likeable and photogenic leaders, has her own YouTube channel, and is determined to change the face of learning in the Middle East. Queen Rania's down-to-earth personality has won hearts and minds all over the world. She is also, according to you, the most inspirational leader featured on CNN's \"The Spirit of...\" in 2008. Thousands of CNN Web site users voted to award her the honor for her matchless energy working with Jordan's young people, ahead of luminaries such as peace advocate Kofi Annan, activist Wangari Maathai and environmentalist James Lovelock. This is Queen Rania's second award in as many months. In November, she was presented with the first ever YouTube Visionary Award for her bold use of the video-sharing network to discuss stereotypes about Islam and the Arab world. The channel fielded questions from young people about all aspects of Islamic culture. She could not be present to personally receive the honour at YouTube's Live event in San Francisco, but her pop-culture-savvy pre-recorded acceptance speech showed her to be possibly the coolest queen alive. She delighted viewers with a lighthearted top-ten list of reasons for registering her own YouTube channel, which included, \"Because I didn't have enough friends on Facebook,\" and \"Because anything Queen Elizabeth can do I can do better.\" The experimental venture gained her a faithful online following, and since then the channel has become a platform for entertaining, non-hostile debate. It is exactly this willingness to set aside her royal image and interact with the public that her fans say has shown Queen Rania's dedication to bringing about change. She first entered the international spotlight 15 years ago after marrying Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, the then future king of Jordan. In 1999, she was proclaimed Queen, the world's youngest at age 28. She wasted little time in applying herself to various causes, and soon made her name as an engaging advocate for women's rights and moderate Islam, and as a heavy investor in youth. The 38-year-old mother of four has said that she cares about her people as if they were her own children, and wants to ensure as many of them as possible get the most out of school. Queen Rania may be light-hearted in some of her approaches, but she is very serious when it comes to revitalizing education in the Middle East. She has made closing the Middle East's \"knowledge divide\" -- the gap in knowledge that has grown as a result of people in richer countries having more access to computers, the Internet and education than those in poorer countries -- a top priority over the next few years in the hope that it will unlock the economic potential of the region's population. Queen Rania certainly has a challenge on her hands. Earlier this year, the Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organisation revealed that nearly one in three between the ages of 15 and 45 is illiterate. Alongside promoting equal rights for men and women and the importance of literacy, Queen Rania has strived to convince both the education and private sectors that existing education systems need reinvigoration. She has repeatedly called for creative instruction and explorative learning to be embraced in the classroom. In April of this year, Queen Rania launched the Madrasati (\"My School\") project, which encourages Jordanians to get their neediest schools back on their feet. Under the program, communities are working with the public and private sectors to raise funds and recruit volunteers to renovate school facilities and provide school supplies and equipment. This is expected to improve the learning environment for children, and ultimately have a ripple effect on the neighborhoods where the schools are located. Queen Rania's campaigns in various areas have helped to inspire other Middle Eastern policy-makers to see globalization in a more positive light -- a truly inspiring leader.","highlights":"Queen Rania voted \"The Spirit of...\" most inspirational leader of 2008 .\nOnline readers acknowledge her work with education, women's rights and Islam .\nQueen Rania personally encourages open dialogue through her YouTube channel ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A judge Wednesday approved Katherine Jackson's request that Michael Jackson's estate get the bill for the cost of this week's burial of her son. A private funeral for Michael Jackson, here in 2002, will be held Thursday in Glendale, California, his family says. More than two months after his death, the pop singer will be interred in a private ceremony Thursday evening at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, the Jackson family said. A short hearing was held Wednesday morning before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff to consider Katherine Jackson's petition. The special administrators of his estate -- in control of the purse strings until the will is probated -- did not object to the Jackson family's request. The cost of the burial is a secret -- kept under court seal by Beckloff's order -- but it is believed to include paying Glendale police to handle traffic and security around the cemetery. The ceremony, which will be closed to the public and news media, is set for 7 p.m. at the cemetery's Holly Terrace in the Great Mausoleum, a family spokesman said. On July 7, Jackson's family and friends gathered at Forest Lawn's Hollywood Hills cemetery for a short service just before a public tribute to the singer in downtown Los Angeles. There has been widespread speculation about the whereabouts of Jackson's body. It has remained a closely guarded secret. The pop star's siblings and parents have been divided over where to bury him, several family members have said. Older brother Jermaine Jackson has said he wanted the singer to be buried at his former Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County, California, while others have objected. The burial comes less than a week after the Los Angeles County coroner made public his conclusion that Jackson's June 25 death was a homicide. The coroner ruled that the anesthetic drug propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the primary drugs responsible for the death. Los Angeles police detectives have not concluded their criminal investigation into the singer's death. No one has been charged.","highlights":"Michael Jackson will be interred in private cermony Thursday night, family says .\nCost of burial in Glendale, California, cemetery kept under court seal by judge's order .\nJudge approves family's request for Jackson's estate to pay for funeral .\nPublic tribute to pop singer held July 7 in Los Angeles; he died June 25 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The driver of a charter bus that overturned on a Minnesota freeway, killing two women, may have had a medical emergency, a spokesman for the State Patrol said Thursday. \"One factor being considered is whether the driver suffered a medical episode while behind the wheel,\" Patrol Capt. Matt Langer said. The driver, 52-year-old Edwin Erickson of Elgin, was hospitalized in serious condition, authorities said. Langer said he had a valid driver's license. The women who died, both from Minnesota, were identified Thursday as Rhonda Hill, 52, of Plainview and Pamela Holmquist, 56, of Kasson. The accident happened Wednesday after the bus left a casino in Rochester, Minnesota, headed for Northwood, Iowa, Langer said. Watch video of tour bus crash site . Erickson and 21 passengers were injured when the bus went out of control outside Austin, Minnesota, authorities said. They said two people were in critical condition, and one person was unhurt. Andy Skoogman, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said the bus was eastbound on Interstate 90 when it veered across a median and westbound lanes before overturning and landing in a ditch on the side of the road. The wreck happened three miles west of Austin. No other vehicles were involved. Authorities said weather conditions didn't appear to be a factor in the accident.","highlights":"Charter bus overturned on Minnesota freeway, killing two women .\nDriver hospitalized in serious condition; officials looking into possibility of \"medical episode\"\n22 people were aboard bus en route to Iowa casino; only one unhurt ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In anticipation of more flooding next week, residents of Fargo, North Dakota, began stacking sandbags Wednesday for the second time in just over two weeks along the banks of the Red River. A trucker relaxes April 1 on sandbag pallets in Fargo, North Dakota, which is preparing for more flooding. They hoped to fill 1 million, said Fargo spokeswoman Karena Lunday. \"If we get a million, that will be a total of 4 million we've made since the flood started,\" she said. The first sandbag effort began about March 23. The Red River crested at nearly 41 feet at Fargo on March 28, breaking a record that had held since 1897, when the Red River reached 40.1 feet. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Tuesday, predicting that melting snow -- and possibly rain -- will start to raise river levels on the Red River south of Oslo, Minnesota, this week. Lunday said forecasters expected the river to crest there between April 16-18, possibly reaching 35 feet on April 14. \"I don't think people are as worried as they were the last time, but the possibility of getting up to 40 feet is a concern,\" Lunday told CNN. The Red River meanders along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, so many other cities also were bracing for flooding.","highlights":"Fargo spokeswoman says city has goal of filling 1 million more sandbags .\n\"I don't think people are as worried\" as they were in late March, she says .\nNational Weather Service issued flood warning due to precipitation forecast ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Of all things, it was surfing that first led Sandow Birk to Islam. Illustration of Sura (chapter) 57 of the Quran is described by Sandow Birk as a triptych. The southern California artist rode the waves in Indonesia, India and Morocco, and on dry land, his curiosity piqued about the religion practiced there. He visited mosques and eventually, acquired a translated copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book. Then came the chilling attacks of September 11, 2001, and Birk realized that Americans knew very little about the teachings of the Quran. He embarked on a project to paint all 114 suras (chapters) -- but in a way that no one had done before. The 46-year-old painter re-imagined God's 7th-century revelation to the Prophet Mohammed in contemporary American context. Birk began transcribing the chapters, relating each to the things he knew best. So far, he has completed 60 chapters. \"American Quran\" is currently on display in two California galleries. \"The simple goal was to take text and make it more familiar,\" he said. So, the Quran's opening chapter, seven verses asking for God's guidance, often found displayed in Muslim homes, is bordered with arabesqing shapes that on closer inspection reveal objects essential to American home life -- spatulas, forks, toothbrushes, glasses, ladders, egg beaters, flip-flops. To illustrate a verse that speaks metaphorically about the thundering hooves of camels, Birk painted a stock-car race. How would Americans, after all, relate to camels? The red, white and blue hues of a political convention accompany verses on hypocrisy. Other scenes unfold in offices, suburban lawns and sushi bars. They show funerals, weddings and holidays. And then there is sura 44, called ad-dukhan (smoke). \"Therefore, watch for the day when the sky brings a profound smoke. It will envelope the people; this is a painful retribution,\" chapter 44 says. Birk pushes buttons with his interpretation: a diptych of a Manhattan street scene, smoke billowing from the World Trade Center. \"I knew I would have to bring up the Trade Center. Otherwise this project would have been disingenuous,\" Birk said. \"It was the crux of understanding of Islam for Americans.\" And the impetus for Birk's undertaking. San Francisco gallery owner Catharine Clark knew the Sura 44 panel had the greatest potential to offend. She said she worried about reaction to the piece, but said there was nothing malicious about Birk's intent. \"It was a tough piece,\" she said. \"But he's not intending to upset anyone.\" Birk says he is not a deeply religious person. He has, however, established a reputation for tackling projects of epic proportions, including work that explored the Iraq war and Dante's \"Divine Comedy.\" Clark said some Christian blogs have accused the artist of being an apologist for Islam. And Muslim reaction to his latest work has been mixed. Half of \"American Quran\" is at Clark's gallery. The other 30 chapters are on display at the Koplin del Rio gallery in Culver City. But four miles down Washington Boulevard, the reviews are not good. Usman Madha, a spokesman for the King Fahad Mosque, the largest in Los Angeles County, said he had no plans to see Birk's work. Madha could not even get past the title. \"American Quran is very misleading,\" Madha said. \"There is no such thing as an American Quran just as there is no European Quran or Asian Quran or Middle Eastern Quran. There is only one Quran. \"I am disheartened,\" he continued. \"It gives a wrong impression.\" Madha has heard about Birk's vivid imagery. He said he understood the artist had good intentions and he respected freedom of expression. But he could not accept the idea of an illustrated Quran. That, he said, goes against the grain of of his religion. \"In Islam, we don't have pictures. That becomes idolizing. And that is what we avoid,\" Madha said. Birk, however, does not plan to abandon his personal Quran project. He hopes to complete all 114 chapters by 2011, painstakingly transcribing by hand each chapter taken from a 1861 English translation of the Quran and painting with gouache on 16-by-24-inch paper. He said his panels are not literal illustrations but highly personal meditations on the messages in the Quran. It was important to him that Americans recognized that Islamic scripture was no more strange, poetic, violent or beautiful than any other religious text; that it was telling similar stories that are in the Bible. That's a message people expect from scholars, peacemakers, even theologians but not necessarily from a California surfer dude.","highlights":"Surfing waves in Indonesia, India, Morocco inspired Sandow Birk's interest in Islam .\n9\/11 attacks led Birk to realize Americans knew very little about the Quran .\nHe embarked on a project to paint all 114 suras (chapters)\nSo far, he has completed 60 chapters of \"American Quran\""} -{"article":"PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) -- The first school assembly since the earthquake was charged with emotion and grief. Students gather for the emotional assembly at their school in Padang, Indonesia. Students at SMA1 High School in Padang have been arriving amid the ruins of their classrooms hoping life will get back to normal quickly. They still don't know how many pupils were victims of the earthquake. Only half the 800 students turned up Monday. But there was a gasp of shock as the vice principal informed them that one member of staff had been killed in the quake. As prayers and a lament were sung in the yard, the emotion was too much for one teacher who fainted and was carried away. Many students have stories of narrow escapes and cheating death by seconds. Haria Fitri told me she was taking a shower when suddenly the bathroom started shaking violently. She grabbed a towel and ran downstairs and jumped out of a window, just as her house collapsed behind her. Many are clearly traumatized by what happened, mentioning how scared they are that another quake will again turn their world upside down. The teachers too seem stunned by what's happened. Most of the classrooms here are full of rubble and lessons are now being conducted in a tent outside, provided by United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF. 17-year-old student Harris Putrareza, said: \"When I see my school, very big destruction, I get a little sad, but I am very happy to be back to my school.\" The school's English teacher, a warm, animated woman called Gustina said: \"They feel very sad, they can't control their emotions, what pity our school is broken.\" In some ways the very spirit of the school has been damaged. It was built in 1917 during the Dutch colonial period and has survived numerous earthquakes down the years. But this one ripped the place apart, leaving mountains of red bricks lying on the desks and huge gaping holes in the ceiling. One building is simply too dangerous to enter and may have to be torn down. Everywhere there are little reminders of the day the earth shook so violently: the trophy cabinet full of toppled sports awards, the covered walkways choked with smashed stone pillars. The senior students are already wondering how they will cope when it comes to their important mid-term exams next week. The principal has announced a postponement, while they find a suitable room. Slowly the students at this highly-acclaimed school will refocus on their studies, but no one will forget that day at the end of September when everything changed in Padang.","highlights":"Death toll from two powerful earthquakes that struck Indonesia has risen to 608 .\n343 are still missing officially, although the number could be closer to 1000 .\nStudents at SMA1 High School in Padang said prayers for dead and missing .\nMany students have stories of narrow escapes and cheating death by seconds ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They scream germs: Used gum. A flock of pigeons. A tomb covered with kisses. The Blarney Stone in Ireland received more than 400,000 visitors in 2008, many who kissed the lucky stone. These bacteria-infested attractions have topped an unusual list compiled by editors at TripAdvisor.com, a travel advice Web site. This summer, editors at the site named the five \"germiest\" tourist spots in the world. Despite the H1N1 scare that went global this spring, tourists haven't stopped spitting out their gum and sticking it onto a wall already saturated with millions of gooey pieces, editors say. Nor do germ fears stop travelers from journeying to the pigeon-infested St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, where the birds often bestow droppings. \"These places are great attractions regardless of the fact that they are 'germy',\" said Brooke Ferencsik, a travel expert at TripAdvisor. \"Venice is lovely, and it's a great spot, but with all the pigeons, I'd bring an umbrella just in case the birds drop some gifts from above.\" Though it is unlikely to get sick from visiting one of these places, health experts say germs are always a gamble. The more people who touch and visit a spot, the more germs there are in the mix, they say. Their traveling advice? Travelers should load up on hand sanitizers and wash their hands often on their trips. Blarney Stone in Blarney, Ireland . Where the Blarney Stone came from and how it got to Ireland is a matter of debate. One old tale goes: Once upon a time, the king of Ireland saved a woman drowning in Blarney Lake. The woman told the king that if he kissed the stone, he would receive the gift of eloquence. Thus, the tradition of kissing the Blarney stone was born. Watch where you can find germ hotspots \u00bb . Last year, about 400,000 people kissed the stone, says a spokesman for Blarney Castle & Gardens. To do so, the person must be hung upside down to kiss the rock. Some people prefer watching to smooching. Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, visited the Blarney Stone in Ireland last year and refused to kiss the same spot where millions of tourists had put their lips. \"My wife did it,\" he added. \"And I wiped her lips before I kissed her.\" Market Theater Gum Wall in Seattle, Washington . There is a distinct fruity aroma that welcomes visitors when they pass the giant wall of gum housing millions of chewed pieces in Seattle. The gum -- pink, blue, yellow and green -- is piled several inches thick, spanning an area 15 feet high and 50 feet wide. Watch the wall of gum \u00bb . The Gum Wall, also dubbed the Wall of Gum, is one of the strangest attractions in Pike Place Market, where visitors can go to watch fish throwers and see the original Starbucks. \"People will do artwork with the gum,\" said Jay Hitt, the marketing director of the Market Theater. \"They write words on the wall, stick posters and business cards.\" The gum-sticking tradition began by accident in 1993 when patrons, mostly college students waiting in line for a show, would stick gum to the wall. Theater company workers say they scraped the gum routinely, but eventually gave up. Slowly the gum amassed. Today, there aren't any rules at the Gum Wall. Visitors from all over the world snap photos next to it and leave as many pieces of their own gum as they want. St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy . In the heart of Venice, Italy, lies St. Mark's Square, also known as Piazza San Marco, where both tourists and pigeons flock. Each year, more than 2 million visitors venture to St. Mark's Square to see the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica. Thousands of the dirty birds crowd the square sometimes leaving their droppings or attacking visitors. Some fearless visitors who aren't worried about germs snap pictures with the birds. But health experts warn that birds are notorious for carrying dangerous germs and viruses. If you want to see the famous pigeons, go soon. In 2007, city officials have worked hard to remove the pigeons from the square. They have banned people from feeding them and have even started trapping the birds in nets, significantly reducing the pigeon population. Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California . What do George Clooney, Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe have in common? All three of them are celebrated stars with their hand prints molded into the concrete of the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre for millions of people to touch. The sidewalk is littered with 246 celebrity hand and footprints that draw in 4.5 million visitors a year, many of whom put their own hands and feet on them. The site began as an accident in 1927 when Norma Talmadge, a famous actress in the 1920s, stepped into wet cement. Creator and owner of the theater, Sid Grauman, decided to make the hand and footprints a tradition. \"The stars are selected based on the longevity of their career,\" said Levi Tinker, a tour guide at the Grauman Theatre. \"Stars who will be around 10 to 20 years from now are picked so people know who they are.\" For germ-conscious travelers, Tinker says the concrete is mopped daily and pressure washed once a week. Oscar Wilde's Tomb in Paris, France . It's an unusual site in the P\u00e8re Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Author and playwright Oscar Wilde's body rests in a tomb speckled with lipstick marks from visitors from all over the world showing their literary appreciation. Wilde, who died in 1900 from cerebral meningitis, continues to be a celebrated literary figure today famous for his tabooed sexuality at the time and his novels such as \"The Picture of Dorian Gray.\" The kisses display a rainbow of colors -- so much so that travel experts say Oscar Wilde's name on the tomb can be hard to discern sometimes. One TripAdvisor traveler wrote after visiting the grave, \"The tombstone of Oscar Wilde is ... well, wild, excuse the pun.\"","highlights":"More than 400,000 visitors kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland in 2008 .\nTourists will try to make artwork with their chewed gum on Seattle's Gum Wall .\nOscar Wilde's tomb in Paris, France is covered with an array of lipstick kisses .\nThe Grauman Chinese Theatre that houses celebrity hand prints is washed daily ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Deitsch struggled through several days of denial before facing the fact that he was thousands of miles from home and he had no idea where his passport was. It's most important to make copies of your passport, say experts. Web sites offer easy-access digital storage. The Sports Illustrated reporter was covering the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, where he should have been having the time of his life. But his emotions were all over the place -- and none of them were good. His passport, he assumed, had fallen out of his backpack. \"When I realized it was missing, I went through a number of stages -- panic, fear, anger, and finally, acceptance,\" he wrote while enjoying a recent vacation in Russia. \"I looked for three days in every possible spot before I finally admitted to myself it was gone.\" Deitsch's bureaucratic nightmare reached a low point when he found himself inside a police station telling his story to five police officials who spoke no English. \"I was a wreck,\" he wrote later in a Sports Illustrated piece. He had brought his own translator, an SI China reporter whom Deitsch credited with negotiating through the red tape and eventually saving his entire assignment. Fortunately for Deitsch, he had prepared well for such an emergency. The best thing Deitsch did, said travel experts, was to make several copies of his passport and work visa before departing for China. As a result, he had a replacement passport in his hands within a few days after he reported it missing. Experts seem to come from two schools of thought on how to protect a passport. Some prefer to lock the document away once they arrive in a destination, while others say keeping the passport with you is the best way to safeguard it. Whatever option you choose, the bottom line is, if you lose your passport you must be able to prove your identity and citizenship to the U.S. government. The best way to do it is to have a copy of your passport handy. Deitsch's experience has prompted him to become \"hyper-vigilant\" about his passport, he wrote. He usually chooses to lock the document in a safe during his travels, rarely carrying his passport on him. \"And when I do, I find myself grabbing the front of my pants-pocket every couple of minutes to make sure that it remains where it should,\" he wrote. Once it's clear your passport is lost, bring your passport copy and any other traveling or ID-related paperwork to the nearest embassy or consulate during business hours. Be prepared to spend at least four hours waiting in line, filling out forms and answering questions from officials. If you didn't bring extra ID photos with you on your trip, have some taken before heading to the embassy or consulate. Make sure the photos are cropped to the correct size for your country's passport. If you have no paperwork, take someone in your traveling party with you. They will have to vouch for you. U.S. citizens who are traveling alone and have no other way to prove their identification will be allowed to call \"family, friends or associates\" in the United States to confirm their identity, according to the U.S. State Department Web site. Laura Kidder, editorial director of Fodor's travel guides, suggested making color copies of the passport's data page and sticking them inside your luggage; you can scan them into a computer and e-mail them to yourself; or you can use an online document storage company. \"There's one [online company] that is particularly geared for passport and travel documents,\" Kidder said. She recommends the Australian Web site www.passportsupport.com, which costs about $15 Australian per year. \"This is the safest way to do it, which is more secure than you e-mailing it to yourself,\" said Kidder. Storing your passport data on a server offers higher security, she said, because the data is encrypted. In addition to passport documents, such services also will safely store data for tickets, drivers licenses, medical papers and lists of critical contacts. Passportsupport.com users are asked to scan their documents in jpg files. Users can then upload these files to the passportsupport.com server with the Web site's interface. Kidder said she keeps copies of her documents in her luggage when traveling, and her passport secure in the hotel -- either in a self-service safe in the hotel room or a safe operated by the front desk. Rather than safes, Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, said he prefers to hold his passport himself. Siciliano said he always carries his passport (and other valuables) on him, even when he heads down to a beach to relax with his laptop. He says if you plan to go in the water, know that someone is waiting to steal your stuff. Invest in portable alarms and don't lose sight of your possessions. Siciliano said locking passports in a room safe leaves you open to the possibility of a forgotten combination. In those cases, a hotel will send someone to the room who can unlock the safe. Devices that unlock room safes can easily be bought online, Siciliano said. It's a good example of how many people can access your room and safe if they want to go through your stuff. \"There are people out there that are focusing on you not paying attention, on you being trusting, you being naive,\" he says. \"You're putting your faith and trust in someone who might have problems. People are flawed.\" The best way to protect yourself is to buy a passport holder for $10-$20 and always keep it on you, Siciliano said. Wear it under a shirt and pull it out only if needed. Never put it in a backpack or a purse. Experts said preparation is most important; you need to do your research and have multiple copies of everything. \"I always have backup for my backup,\" Siciliano said.","highlights":"American who lost passport in China: 'I was a wreck\"\nMost important: Always bring backup proof of identity; keep it safe .\nConsider uploading copies of documents to secure Web site ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy released nine of the 16 suspected pirates it was holding on a ship for the last few weeks, according to defense officials. The U.S. Navy apprehends suspected pirates February 12 in the Gulf of Arden. The pirates were released because the Navy did not have enough evidence to hand them over to Kenya for prosecution in court, in accordance with a recent agreement between the United States and Kenya, the officials explained. The nine were brought into Somali waters and then handed over to the Puntland coast guard. Puntland is the self-proclaimed Somali state that includes the point of the horn of Africa. The suspected pirates were detained by the Navy after the captain of the Indian-flagged ship Premdivya broadcast a distress call to all ships in the area that it had come under attack by a small boat. The Navy saw a small boat meeting the description given by the Premdivya, and the occupants were detained and moved to the nearby USS Vella Gulf, where they were held.","highlights":"Navy didn't have evidence to hand suspected pirates to Kenya for prosecution .\nNine people were brought into Somali waters, handed to coast guard .\nSuspected pirates were detained after a captain broadcast a distress call .\nCaptain said he was under attack by pirates in small boat ."} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy. A shopper displays a $500 million Zimbabwean bank note. The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday. As high as they are, though, the bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges. The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar. Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980, with the official inflation rate now at 2.2 million percent. Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the new notes are for \"the convenience of the banking public and corporate sector\" in light of price hikes. \"The RBZ has noted with concern the unjustifiable and incessant general increases in prices of goods and services. It is therefore appealing to the business community to follow ethical business practices as well as take an interest in the plight of the general public,\" Gono said in a statement dated Friday. Zimbabwe started issuing large bank notes in December, starting with denominations of $250,000. In January, the government issued bills in denominations of $1 million, $5 million, and $10 million -- and in May, it issued bills from $25 million and $50 million up to $25 billion and $50 billion. The new bills are actually bearer checks and have an expiration date of December 31. Zimbabwe has not had formal currency since the introduction of bearer checks as a temporary measure in 2003. \"The RBZ is fighting a losing battle,\" economist John Robertson said in Harare. \"As long as the inflation remains high, cash shortages will persist. There is need to address the inflation by increasing production so that too goods do not [cost] a lot of money.\"","highlights":"New bills officially come into circulation Monday .\nBills aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can only buy four oranges .\nGideon Gono: Notes for \"convenience of the banking public and corporate sector\"\nThe new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In focus: OPEC quota cuts . OPEC, which pumps 40 percent of the world oil, is set to announce this week plans to cut its output when it meets in Oran, Algeria. CEO Naguib Sawiris is expanding his mobile phone services into North Korea, an area where few businessmen venture. The cut in crude is hoped to stabilize prices and will be the third cut in quotas since September. So what's behind the supply cuts? Is it just a matter of price stability? Or is OPEC trying to protect the cost of future investments? Facetime with Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom . Amidst the economic downturn, one company is venturing into markets where others fear to tread. Orascom launches its mobile phone services in North Korea this week. CEO Naguib Sawiris tells MME about the company's ambitious expansion plans and the effects of the international financial crisis. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: . Friday: 0915, 1945 Saturday: 0645 Sunday: 0815 .","highlights":"OPEC, which supplies 40 percent of world oil plans on cutting more output .\nThis is the third cut since the fall and is supposed to stabilize prices-will it?\nOr is OPEC just looking out for its own interests?\nPlus, CEO Naguib Sawiris talks about his North Korea expansion plans ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from last weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne after presenting \"misleading\" evidence to stewards. Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP after presenting \"misleading\" evidence to stewards. The McLaren driver and Toyota's Jarno Trulli were called to an FIA hearing in Malaysia -- the site of this weekend's grand prix -- on Thursday to discuss an incident during Sunday's race. Trulli finished third at Melbourne's Albert Park, only to later be handed a 25-second penalty by race stewards which relegated him to 12th position and saw Hamilton lifted into third. However, following Thursday's hearing, Trulli has been reinstated in third position. McLaren had complained that veteran Italian Trulli had illegally passed Hamilton under yellow flags following an accident late on involving Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber -- who were running second and third at the time. Trulli had decided not to appeal the original decision but the FIA, the sport's governing body, said it had received new information and pressed ahead with a second hearing. \"The stewards, having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, consider that Lewis Hamilton, and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009,\" the FIA said in a statement. It said Hamilton and McLaren had violated its rules and retrospectively disqualified him from the race. Meanwhile, Trulli believes justice has been served after Thursday's decision. \"I am happy because I wanted some justice and I got it,\" he told PA Sport. \"I am happy for myself and the team and I have to thank the FIA because it does not happen very often they reconsider something. \"It must have been really hard for them, but they had common sense to really try and understand what was going on. I have always been honest and it has paid off.\"","highlights":"World champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP .\nStewards say Hamilton and McLaren team presented \"misleading\" evidence .\nHamilton was involved in incident with Toyota driver Jarno Trulli in Melbourne ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If your organization has the right stuff, it could display one of the U.S. shuttles that NASA plans to retire from service in 2010. Space Shuttle Endeavour comes in for a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California last month. The space agency sent a notice this week to museums, schools and similar institutions to gauge their interest and qualifications for properly housing Discovery, Atlantis or Endeavour. The shuttles are to be retired by September 30, 2010, but they won't be available until about a year later, NASA spokesman Michael Curie said Thursday. \"These are national assets, national treasures and something that NASA feels the public would want to see displayed publicly for years to come,\" Curie said. Space shuttle Discovery already has been offered to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. \"We have the information, and of course, we're thrilled to be considered for this artifact,\" said Claire Brown, director of communications for the museum. But no action has been taken at this point, and the institution doesn't have a plan for incurring the cost, she added. The privilege of showing off a shuttle won't be cheap -- about $42 million. This figure will include $28.2 million for the removal of hazardous chemicals -- such as ammonia, used as a coolant, and nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine, used as fuel; $5.8 million for moving the shuttle via a carrier aircraft to its new location; and $8 million for preparing the shuttle for display, Curie said. A carrier aircraft will be the only way to deliver a shuttle to a landlocked location, and such aircraft will no longer be in NASA's budget once the shuttle program ends. After chemicals are drained from the shuttle, its estimated weight will be about 170,000 pounds, Curie said. Whatever facility receives a shuttle must have experience in displaying space hardware and major historical artifacts, NASA said. The shuttles will be released without their engines, which, along with other components, will be offered separately. The deadline for responding to NASA is March 17. NASA emphasizes that it will pay special attention to ensuring that the shuttles will retire to \"appropriate places.\" The agency wants them to remain in the United States, and private collectors likely would not meet NASA's goal to have the orbiters and engines displayed publicly, Curie said. \"We really feel that these are artifacts that are important to the history of the country and that as many people as possible should have the opportunity to see them if they can,\" Curie said. Asked whether NASA had considered trying to sell the shuttles on eBay, he laughed: \"No, that probably wouldn't be the prudent thing to do with something paid for by taxpayers' money.\" In January 2004, President Bush called for an eventual shift in focus from the space shuttle program to the new Vision for Space Exploration program, which NASA describes as \"a sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system.\" Bush has said he wants astronauts to return to the moon by 2020. However, President-elect Barack Obama has a team reviewing options for the direction of space exploration. CNN's A. Pawlowski contributed to this report.","highlights":"NASA gauges interest of museums and schools for properly housing shuttles .\nDiscovery, Atlantis and Endeavour will be retired by 2010 .\nDiscovery has been offered to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum .\nThe privilege of showing off a shuttle won't be cheap -- about $42 million ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Health Organization cautioned that the swine flu outbreak could gain momentum in the months ahead, despite claims by the health secretary of Mexico -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- that the virus \"is in its declining phase.\" The number of confimed cases of the H1N1 virus continue to multiply. As of early Monday, Mexican health officials reported 568 cases and 22 fatalities linked to the flu. WHO says it has confirmed 506 cases and 19 deaths in Mexico. The world has 985 confirmed cases of the virus, known to scientists H1N1 virus, in a total of 20 countries, WHO said Monday. The United States has reported 226 confirmed cases in 30 states. The U.S. cases include one death -- a Mexican toddler visiting relatives in the United States. According to WHO, Canada has 85 confirmed cases; Spain has 40; the United Kingdom has 15; Germany has 8; New Zealand has 4; Israel has 3; El Salvador has 2; France has 2; and Austria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, South Korea and Switzerland each have one. The outbreak is only about 10 days old, and even if the illness is declining, it could return, said Gregory Hartl, the WHO spokesman for epidemic and pandemic diseases, at a briefing Sunday. \"I ... would like to remind people that in 1918 the Spanish flu showed a surge in the spring, and then disappeared in the summer months, only to return in the autumn of 1918 with a vengeance,\" Hartl said. \"And we know that that eventually killed 40 million to 50 million people.\" Mexican authorities believe the most active period of the virus in Mexico was between April 23 and April 28, and Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova described the outbreak as being in decline in his country. In China, officials have quarantined 68 people, including 13 crew members, who were passengers of a Mexico City to Shanghai flight, which carried a passenger who tested positive for the virus, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. None of the other passengers has exhibited any flu-like symptoms, one health official said. About another 110 people who were on the Aeromexico plane went on to other destinations, and may face quarantines elsewhere, the news agency said. Fifteen have been quarantined at a Beijing hotel. Shanghai's airport is now barring other Aeromexico planes from landing there, a representative of the airline told CNN. Aeromexico is suspending flights to Shanghai until May 15, the representative said. The airline does not fly to Hong Kong or Beijing. In the United States, New York has the most confirmed cases, with 63, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texas has 40; California has 26; Arizona 18; South Carolina 15; Delaware 10; Massachusetts and New Jersey each have seven; Colorado has four; Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin each have three; Connecticut, Kansas and Michigan each have two; Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah each have one. California officials suspended visitation and other \"nonessential activities\" at Centinela State Prison in Imperial County after an inmate was suspected of having swine flu. The case has yet to be confirmed with lab testing. On Sunday, health officials in North Carolina and Pennsylvania announced the first confirmed cases in those states, and Louisiana's governor said his state had seven confirmed cases. The cases from those three states were not immediately included in the CDC tally. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius, appearing on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" warned that even if the flu outbreak wanes, \"it could come back with greater force in the winter and fall, when we get into flu season.\" \"So, this is no time for complacency,\" she said. \"We want to stay out ahead of this.\" Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for public health, told reporters Sunday that she was \"heartened\" by Mexican authorities' reports but still is \"very cautious.\" \"I know that influenza can be surprising, and the time course here in the United States is later. We believe we're just on the upswing here, and in several parts of Mexico, cases began quite a while ago,\" Schuchat said. \"From what I know about influenza, I do expect more cases, more severe cases and I do expect more deaths,\" she added. \"And I'm particularly concerned about what will happen in the fall.\" Acting CDC Director Richard Besser, also speaking on \"State of the Union,\" said U.S. health officials are examining whether people who received flu shots for the swine flu in 1976 may have some level of protection from the current swine flu. \"That's going to play in very, very big as we move forward with our plans around vaccines, because that may help guide some of the issues around who is most at risk at getting this in the future,\" Besser said. Offering a general picture of the state of U.S. efforts to combat the virus, Besser said \"there are encouraging signs.\" \"We're not out of the woods yet,\" he said. \"But what we've learned about the virus itself -- it doesn't contain the factors that we know are seen in much more severe flu strains.\" While the new virus strain in the recent outbreak has affected humans, Canadian officials said it has shown up at a pig farm in Alberta, Canada. Officials said the pigs may have been infected by a Canadian farmer who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak. The pigs have since been quarantined. \"We have determined that the virus H1N1, found in these pigs, is the virus which is being tracked in the human population,\" said Dr. Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. iReport.com: How should H1N1 be handled? Evans and other officials said it is not uncommon for flu viruses to jump from humans to animals, and that it does not pose a risk for consuming pork. The number of pigs infected was not disclosed. The infected farmer had flu-like symptoms, but he is recovering, Evans said. Learn about the virus \u00bb .","highlights":"WHO has confirmed 985 cases of H1N1 virus worldwide .\nMexico says illness declining there; WHO warns it could return .\nMexico has largest number of confirmed cases, followed by U.S., WHO says .\nCanadian officials claim pigs at farm have been affected by virus ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95. Norman Borlaug received a Congressional Gold Medal from then President George W. Bush on July 17, 2007. Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said. A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university. Borlaug started at Texas A&M in 1984, after working as a scientist in a program that introduced scientific techniques for preventing famine in Mexico, according to the university. Until recently, he traveled worldwide working for improvements in agricultural science and food policy, said Kathleen Phillips, a university spokeswoman. Borlaug was known as a champion of high-yield crop varieties, and other science and agricultural innovations to help fight hunger in developing nations. iReport.com: Tour Borlaug's boyhood farm . \"We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted,\" Borlaug said recently in an interview posted on the university's Web site. \"There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is a commonplace, and famine appears all too often.\" He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, according to the university's Web site. The agriculture institute at the university was named after him in 2006. Borlaug also created the World Food Prize, which recognized the work of scientists and humanitarians who have helped fight world hunger through advanced agriculture, the university said. A memorial service will be held at the university at a later date.","highlights":"Borlaug died at the age of 95 from complications caused by cancer .\nIn 1970, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to science .\nHelped develop disease-resistant wheat, worked to ease world food shortages .\nBorlaug: \"There has been great progress.. but famine appears all too often\""} -{"article":"Leogane, Haiti (CNN) -- More than three weeks after Haiti's devastating earthquake, many of the makeshift camps housing thousands are starting to function as mini cities. Small markets have blossomed. Some camps have even designated mayors and security personnel. But in others, life still looks as it did days after the January 12 quake. People have only what they dug out of the rubble with their bare hands or acquired somehow else for survival. Recently seen along a row of tents in a camp in Leogane was this hodgepodge of life before and after: . Turquoise hand-crocheted lace . Mazola oil . Ceramic jar that says: \"Fresh Cookies\" Propane stove . Barbie doll . A black rhinestone Bebe T-shirt . Boxes of \"Gourmet\" spaghetti . Bicycle chain . John McCain bumper sticker . NFL towel . Teddy bear . Set of disposable stacked plastic bowls . Amplifiers and scavenging pigs . Box of dog biscuits . Aluminum cooking utensil set . 32-ounce cans of tomato sauce . Cotton squares . Peppermint green . Clarins makeup bag . Plastic baby bottle . Jeans turned inside out to dry . Yellow flip flops . Pen and ink drawing of a woman . USAID bag of rice . Evaporated milk . Red roll-aboard luggage . Blanket . Wood-framed photograph . Bausch and Lomb soft contact lens case . Compaq computer monitor . Frayed Haitian flag . Crayolas . Travel-size SPF 30 sunblock . Pillows . One dust-laden Converse hightop -- hard to tell what color .","highlights":"Haiti makeshift camps are starting to function like mini cities .\nCitizens are digging out their belongings and what they need out of the rubble .\nEverything from turquoise hand-crocheted lace to Mazola oil seen recently at camp ."} -{"article":"BARCELONA, Spain -- Barcelona are ready for twice world player of the year Ronaldinho to move on, said club president Joan Laporta. Ronaldinho is expected to leave Barcelona this summer after struggling for form last season. Laporta told the Catalan TV3 station that the Brazilian midfielder, who struggled with injuries and poor form last season, needed new challenges in his career. \"When the wheel turns, it's normal that the key figures leave,\" Laporta said. \"I would like Ronaldinho to be given a great send-off so that he is remembered for all he has given us and that if he didn't do any more it was because the circumstances wouldn't allow it. \"Last year, we thought that it might be the year to sell him, but given his enthusiasm and the appreciation that a club like Barcelona needs to have, we decided to let him stay on. Things haven't turned out the way he wanted them to.\" Laporta recognized that it might not be easy to sell Ronaldinho, who suffered a series of injury and fitness problems this season and made the starting line-up in only 13 of 38 league matches. Ronaldinho last played for Barcelona in the 2-1 loss at home to Villarreal on March 9, has suffered muscle pain in his right leg been out of action ever since. AC Milan showed an interest in signing him and his brother Robert De Assis said personal terms had been agreed. But the clubs failed to reach agreement over a transfer fee. After a second successive season without a trophy Barcelona announced on May 7 that Rijkaard would leave at the end of the season and be replaced by former player Josep Guardiola. \"We decided that if Frank did not continue then we would choose Guardiola because Pep possessed the necessary humility,\" said Laporta. \"We didn't think about coaches like Mourinho or (Rafa) Benitez, who are both great coaches, but aren't right for Barcelona. So we told Rijkaard that when he left Guardiola would take his place.\" Barca's arch-rivals Real Madrid, who lifted another Spanish title this season, have signed their first newcomer for the next campaign by paying a reported 10 million euros ($15.5 million) for Argentine defender Ezequiel Garay from Racing Santander. Marca newspaper said the 21-year-old Argentine had signed a six-year contract. Meanwhile, reports that Real could be making a move for Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo were dismissed by coach Bernd Schuster. \"I prefer to spend my time talking about things that have some bearing to reality,\" he told a press conference. Marca had reported that Real were still interested in buying Ronaldo who has put off all talk of his future until after the Champions League final.","highlights":"Barcelona are ready to let Brazilian international Ronaldinho leave the club .\nClub president Joan Laporta says that Ronaldinho needs new challenges .\nBarcelona have already replaced coach Frank Rijkaard with Pep Guardiola ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Phil Donahue has rarely shied away from controversy. On his long-running syndicated talk show, he debated issues including abortion and the death penalty, and his MSNBC show was canceled in 2003, he maintained, because of his antiwar stand. Phil Donahue, right, made \"Body of War\" about disabled veteran Tomas Young, seated. Now the former talk show host has co-directed and co-produced an independent film, \"Body of War,\" about a disabled Iraq war veteran, Tomas Young, who questions the conflict's rationale. Young joined the military after the September 11 attacks and was sent to Iraq. After less than a week there, he was shot in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. \"Body of War\" is the story of his coming home and adjusting to his new reality. The film has earned excellent reviews and was named best documentary of 2007 by the National Board of Review. It airs on The Sundance Channel on Tuesday night. Watch Donahue talk about politics and war \u00bb . Donahue talked about \"Body of War\" and the recent presidential election on \"American Morning\" with CNN's Carol Costello. CNN: What did you hope to prove by [making \"Body of War\"]? Phil Donahue: Well, this work by ... Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue is our attempt to show the harm in harm's way. In the middle of the most sanitized war of my lifetime, nobody sees this pain. These people are all below the radar. What you see in our film is a drama taking place behind the closed doors of thousands of homes in this country. I'm telling you, less than 5 percent of us have sacrificed, and the American people are not seeing this. I think this is a shame. CNN: Well, let's see some of that. We're going to show a clip right now. (Begin video clip) Tomas Young: When I made the phone call on September 13, it was because I saw the pictures of [President Bush] standing on top of the pile, saying that we were going to smoke the evildoers out that did this to us. All that had to happen so I could fly 10,000 miles away to not shoot around, because all I saw were women and children running away from gunfire, before I took a bullet myself. (End video clip) CNN: Got a lot of wonderful reviews already. I just want to ask you what your hope is for when Barack Obama takes office for veterans of the Iraq war. Donahue: Well, he will stop the pretense. He will stop it immediately. Oh, the troops, the troops, we love the troops ... [but] the troops come home and the V[eterans] A[dministration] doesn't call them back. We have to stop all this. We think if we say it, it's true. So, I see Barack Obama as -- first of all, the smile alone is going to restore this nation to the world's family of nations. ... They're going to be fascinated with the guy, and he is going to exploit this special attention to the benefit of this nation. I am pumped. CNN: The bar is high for him. Donahue: Yes. CNN: He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Phil Donahue, thank you for joining us. Donahue: Thank you, Carol.","highlights":"Phil Donahue co-directed, co-produced \"Body of War\"\nFilm concerns Tomas Young, Iraq war veteran paralyzed by bullet to spine .\nDonahue: \"Nobody sees this pain. These people are all below the radar\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At one point in Jared Hutchins' young life, the Beatles were a big problem. The rallies, which draw mostly teens, are one part concert, one part Christian revival. \"I had to stop listening to them for a while,\" said Hutchins, who lives in Cumming, Georgia, and plays the piano, guitar and harmonica. He said the group's world view \"had a negative effect on me,\" and made him irritable and angry. \"God owns my life, not the Beatles,\" he said simply. Although Hutchins said he enjoys a wide range of music -- from Pink Floyd and Arcade Fire to Christian bands such as Hillsong United -- he said he has to be careful of what music he listens to, for the same reason he temporarily turned off the Beatles. Hutchins, a 16-year-old graced with poise and thoughtfulness, is one of many teenagers who say that some part of popular culture, with its ubiquitous references to sex, drugs and violence, has harmed him. Last year, Hutchins and his Christian youth group attended an Acquire the Fire rally in Atlanta, Georgia, he said. Acquire the Fire -- regional rallies held across the country -- and BattleCry -- the larger rallies held this year in only three cities -- are the products of the evangelical Christian organization Teen Mania. Go behind-the-scenes with CNN's Christiane Amanpour at a BattleCry event \u00bb . One part concert, one part Christian revival, the rallies seek to \"stage a reverse revolution\" against secular popular culture. They have the pull of headlining rock concerts, drawing thousands of people regardless of the region of the country, the month of year or the day of the week. The audiences are nearly always predominantly teenagers and young adults. From 2006 to 2007, a total of 127,830 people attended the 34 Acquire the Fire rallies, and 71,414 people attended the three BattleCry events held in San Francisco, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Bristow, Virginia, according to Teen Mania. Watch flags, fireworks and teens at rally . For Hutchins, who said he struggled in his early adolescence to fit in and be cool before having a personal experience with God about four years ago, the organization's message is exactly right. \"We don't have to be branded by the culture, we are branded by God,\" he said. \"Be who God created you to be.\" But the glossy, glamorous appeal of popular culture too often obscures that path to God, Teen Mania followers say. And so, Ron Luce, the 46-year-old founder of the organization, has waged a modern-day crusade against \"purveyors of popular culture,\" whom he has condemned as \"the enemy.\" More than two decades old, Teen Mania estimates it has reached more than 2 million teens with its message \"of living completely for Christ.\" The organization is sprawling. In addition to its live stadium rallies, there are BattleCry shirts and hats, mobile screen savers, books and a television program. There are international mission trips -- Hutchins attended one in Tijuana, Mexico, this summer. There is even a Teen Mania internship, a one-year program called the Honor Academy, based in Lindale, Texas. In the live events, Luce couples the earnest appeal of a young father with a preacher's ability to mobilize a crowd. He weaves disturbing statistics about teenagers amid his gospel. Today's teenagers are in crisis, he says. \"We're fighting for those who don't know they have a voice, that are being manipulated by our pop culture indulging in things that, really, they're not mature enough to be thinking about yet,\" Luce told CNN. \"Kids are hurting,\" he said. And of those who he feels inflict these moral wounds, Luce said, \"We call them terrorists, virtue terrorists, that are destroying our kids.\" \"They're raping virgin teenage America on the sidewalk, and everybody's walking by and acting like everything's OK. And it's just not OK.\" To some, Luce's rhetoric is off-putting, hateful and divisive. Opponents point to his views on homosexuality -- not \"in God's plan\" -- and abortion -- the \"ending of a precious life\" -- and say Luce is imposing conservative values on vulnerable teenagers. Explore Americans' views on religion . It is this criticism that Luce and his followers confronted head-on in March at BattleCry San Francisco. There, in arguably the most liberal city in the United States, protesters, armed with megaphones and poster board signs, rallied against BattleCry on the steps of City Hall as the Christian teenagers circled and prayed in a demonstration of their own. \"Ron Luce is a liar!\" one protester shouted. \"Let me hear you say Christian fascist,\" another yelled. Luce and the youths, some as young as 11, also raised their voices. \"God, I ask that as we do this BattleCry, Lord, that you would reveal yourself to the teenagers, God, here, God,\" Mindy Peterson, shouted. Peterson is a member of Teen Mania's Honor Academy. Afterward, Peterson railed against what she said was the protesters' mischaracterization of BattleCry. \"These people think that our war is against other people. They think that our war is against man. And our war isn't. Our war's against ... the pain in teenagers' hearts, like depression, alcoholism. Those things that -- that are, like, tearing our teenagers apart,\" she said. While much milder in his terms, Hutchins agrees. \"We're a generation that is kind of troubled,\" he said. Luce wants to \"rescue the hearts of our generation,\" he added. And of the critics' contention that the rallies, the organization, the message is neo-conservatism wrapped in Biblical verse? Hutchins smiles, nods patiently. \"I don't go because I have a political agenda,\" he said, adding that his friends don't, either. \"Mostly, what we're concerned with is Jesus.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Julie O'Neill and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands of teens attend Christian rallies each year .\nMany of the rallies attempt to offer an alternative to secular popular culture .\nOpponents say these impose conservative values on vulnerable teenagers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just as there are many choices of drivers, putters, balls, and other equipment, there are just as many choices of golf instructors. The process of how you choose your golf instructor is as unique as your finger prints. However, just like there are certain things you want to know before choosing your doctor, there are certain items you should inquire of your instructor. Compatibility - It is your responsibility to insure that there is a fit between you and your instructor on all levels, personality type, mutual goals, similar outlooks on the game, and your instructor's ability to relate to your individual needs. Before throwing a dart in the phone book under \"golf instruction\", research the professionals in your area. One way is to ask friends and playing partners for referrals of good instructors in your area. Ask them about pricing, reputation, location, and their improvement under the instructor's tutelage. If you get along with your playing partners and the instructor does too, odds are you have found a fit. Then, call the instructor and ask if they have time to talk to you about your game and improvement goals. A good instructor will be happy to talk to you about your game, and get to know you as an individual, prior to helping you with your golf game. Accreditation and Experience - Does your golf instructor have the education and experience to take your game to any level you desire? Many individuals claim to be golf instructors. Many of these individuals are self-proclaimed \"experts,\" or had enough money to take a one to two week course on how to teach golf and make more money. In seeking a golf professional to help you with your game, insure that the individual has an active accreditation with the PGA or LPGA, or, has demonstrated an inarguable ability to help players of many levels improve through many years of practice. Other associations claim they produce golf instructors. However, these organizations have one focus, to make money, not to produce solid golf instructors. Inquire of your instructor their accreditation, as well as their education both on and off the golf course. Check with the LPGA or PGA websites to confirm your potential golf instructor's accreditation with that organization, and, how much experience the instructor possesses. Inquire of the instructor's philosophy and past success stories. If needed, ask for references of students from all skill levels that you can contact. Video - Video swing analysis has become a staple for all golf instruction. It is no longer an option. If you are paying for instruction that does not include video review of your game, you should reconsider why you are paying for golf instruction. Video, when used correctly, is a third pair of eyes (you and your instructor are first and second). This is similar to a doctor using an X-Ray or M.R.I, to diagnosis a health issue. Your golf instructor should be using video in the same manner. Video should confirm the diagnosis to you, not the instructor. A good golf instructor has the ability to see the flaw first, and use his or her knowledge of that flaw to diagnose a cure or drill for you to practice to realize improvement. If your golf instructor is relying solely on video to tell what is happening in your swing, you will eventually lose trust in the instructor's ability to help you. You would second guess a doctor's ability to help you if he or she did not use their ability first and confirm their thoughts with tests. Then why would you rely on an instructor who is not \"practicing\" golf instruction in the same manner? Follow-up Communication - Your golf instructor should have a program available for you to utilize to ask questions, give feedback, receive follow-up instructions, schedule lessons, or make other inquiries after your lesson. Some instructors offer their phone numbers after hours. Others utilize the internet for follow-up and communication purposes. Regardless of what form of communication is available to you after the lesson, your instructor should be available, at no extra charge, within a reasonable amount of time, to answer your questions and take interest in your concerns.","highlights":"Handy hints from the PGA to help secure the right golf coach for your game .\nPersonality type and mutual goals are crucial to get the best from a coach .\nCheck your instructor has the education and experience to improve your game .\nYour instructor should be available, at no extra charge, to answer concerns ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ricin, a poison thought to have been found in a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel room Thursday, can be made from the waste left after processing castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ricin is made from castor beans. The toxin comes in the form of a mist or pellet and can be dissolved in water or weak acid, according to the CDC. It works by getting inside the cells of the body and preventing them from making the proteins they need. As little as 500 micrograms -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. Here are some ricin cases: . \u2022 September 1978, London, England: Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is killed by a ricin-filled poison dart fired from an umbrella. Markov, a communist defector working for the BBC World Service, was waiting at a bus stop when he was killed. \u2022 2002, Iraq: A primitive testing facility run by members of Ansar al Islam, a Kurdish Sunni Islamist group, is discovered. Authorities say ricin had been tested on barnyard animals there. \u2022 January 2003, United Kingdom: Scotland Yard arrests seven terror suspects from Algeria after traces of ricin are discovered at their homes. A U.S. official later connects the men to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who led al Qaeda in Iraq until his death in 2006. Four of the men were charged with terrorism offenses under Britain's Terrorist Act 2000 and with \"being concerned in the development or production of chemical weapons\" under the Chemical Weapons Act of 1996. \u2022 March 2003, France: Small bottles containing traces of ricin are found in a Paris train station, according to French police. \u2022 October 2003, United States: Ricin is found in a sealed envelope in a postal handling facility in Greenville, South Carolina. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain the potency of ricin \u00bb . \u2022 November 2003, United States: The Secret Service intercepts a letter addressed to the White House that contains a vial of ricin. The letter, signed by \"Fallen Angel,\" complained about trucking regulations, and was nearly identical to one discovered October 15 in South Carolina. \u2022 February 2004, United States: Ricin is found in the mailroom of the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington D.C. The mailroom handled correspondence addressed to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and others. Frist said no one became sick. \u2022 January 2005, United States: An Ocala, Florida, man with no known ties to terrorists or extremists is arrested by the FBI after agents found ricin in the home he shares with his mother. Steven Michael Ekberg pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of a biological weapon. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ricin found in four U.S. cases since 2003 .\nBulgarian dissident killed by dart containing ricin in 1978 .\n500 micrograms of ricin, size of a pinhead, can kill an adult ."} -{"article":"BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- One person credits bad weather and the other a long line. An investigator works the scene of the plane crash Friday outside Buffalo, New York. Those are the reasons two would-be passengers did not fly on Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed Thursday outside Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground. \"It could have been me,\" David Becony said from his home in Springville, New York, as he watched television reports on the crash and its fiery aftermath. \"My wife would have been with all those families\" who had loved ones on the plane. Becony missed the flight from Newark-Liberty International Airport to Buffalo Niagara International Airport because bad weather had delayed his earlier flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Newark. Unable to get another flight and unable to find a hotel room near the airport, the supervisor for a demolition company decided to camp out on a seat in the terminal. Watch how airlines have reacted to crash \u00bb . When he found out the plane he was to have taken had crashed, he called his wife, Marti, at their home outside Buffalo. \"He broke down, and I broke down,\" she said. \"We just couldn't believe it.\" Becony spent a sleepless night in Newark and then returned Friday morning to Buffalo -- on another Continental Connection flight. It wasn't a smooth ride, Becony said of his Friday flight. \"It was weird, shaky, knowing it was the same type of aircraft.\" That type of aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air for Continental Connection's regional service. \"I'm still in shock, really,\" said 49-year-old Becony, a Catholic. \"God was looking over me.\" Becony is keeping his unused ticket for Flight 3407 as a reminder of how close he came. His wife said friends and family called all morning to check on his safety. \"It is wow,\" she said. \"It's been unbelievable. We're happy. We're sad for everybody else.\" Asked how her husband's close call would affect the family, which includes two children and two grandchildren, she said, \"I think we'll probably appreciate each other a lot more.\" Susan Reinhardt, 49, a marketer for Verizon, had a confirmed seat on a 4:30 p.m. flight from Newark to Buffalo, but it was delayed for four hours because of bad weather, and she was looking for alternatives. Using her Blackberry to search Continental's Web site, she noted that the 7 p.m. flight was delayed by only about 20 minutes, so she asked the gate agent whether she could get on the standby list for that flight. \"He said, 'It's pretty open ... easy eight standby seats. You won't have a problem getting on it,' she said . \"I said, 'Can you put me on standby?' He said, 'No, you've got to go on the customer service line.' \" But that line \"was a gazillion deep because of all the delays,\" enough to dissuade her from making the switch. \"I said, ehhh.\" When she heard about the crash, Reinhardt was happy for her good fortune but shaken nevertheless. \"The heart-wrenching piece for me was, I was at the gate talking to this gate agent, and a young woman came up and she wanted to know: Should she stay on the 7 o'clock flight because of all the delays? Did the gate agent think the 4:30 was going to get out before the 7? \"He said, 'No, you will still get in before the 4:30,' and she said, 'OK, I'm going to stay on the 7 o'clock; I'm calling my boyfriend.' And she did.\" For a while, the two women stood together at the gate, both of them using their Blackberries to study the flight information. Then, they went their separate ways. \"I said, 'Good for you. Have a nice trip.' That's the killer for me.\" Reinhardt said her flight was uneventful. She and the other passengers landed at the airport in Buffalo shortly before 11 p.m., oblivious to what had happened just minutes before and a few miles away. \"I walked out, and I saw all these people standing there, and I'm thinking, 'It's Thursday at 11 at night. Why are all these people in Buffalo? Who are they waiting for?' Watch witnesses describe fiery crash \u00bb . \"They were waiting for that plane that didn't come in. Of course, I didn't know that until I got to my car, and then my phone starts ringing.\" Reinhardt said the close call has made her \"a little more philosophical where, if it wasn't my time, OK, it wasn't my time. What is the meaning of my life now? What am I supposed to do because it wasn't my time? I've had several people say, you know, sometimes you can't ask why. It just is the way it is.\" Reinhardt said she plans to go to one of the memorial services. \"I think I need to do that for some kind of closure.\" CNN's Tom Watkins contributed to this report.","highlights":"David Becony misses flight due to bad weather that delayed previous flight .\nSusan Reinhardt says line to switch flights was \"a gazillion deep\"\nClose call has made both of them more reflective, they say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three former guerrilla leaders -- who helped command what one activist called \"one of the most brutal rebel movements in modern days\" -- were sentenced Wednesday in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for crimes against humanity. Amputee victims of Sierra Leone's civil war take part in football training at a beach in Freetown. The U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone found the men guilty in February of crimes that included murder, rape, sexual slavery and forced marriages stemming from a civil war that lasted from March 1991 to January 2002. They were arrested in March 2003, said Peter Anderson, spokesman for the U.N. court. The rebels -- former leaders in the Revolutionary United Front guerrilla movement -- were known for hacking off civilians' hands and feet during the war, which stood out for its viciousness even on a a continent that has suffered many horrific conflicts. Presiding Judge Pierre Boutet of Canada read the sentences. Former Revolutionary United Front \"interim leader\" Issa Hassan Sesay was sentenced to 52 years in prison, former commander Morris Kallon to 40 years, and former chief of security Augustine Gbao to 25 years. Sesay and Kallon had been found guilty on 16 counts, and Gbao was found guilty on 14. The former rebels received credit for the six years each already has served in prison, Anderson told CNN. He said they will be imprisoned in another country, maybe Rwanda, because the prisons in Sierra Leone do not meet the standards of the U.N. court. Kallon was the only one of the three to express sorrow at his sentencing, Anderson said. \"He really had made a genuine expression of remorse,\" which is considered a stronger statement than regret, the court spokesman added. The court noted several mitigating factors at the sentencing, but \"in view of the gravity of the crimes, their impact was limited,\" a statement from the court said. The court noted that the crimes \"were committed upon a massive scale across several districts of Sierra Leone\" and that \"the impact of all these crimes upon the Sierra Leonean society has been enormous.\" \"The Chamber concluded that the inherent gravity of the criminal acts for which Sesay, Kallon and Gbao have been convicted is exceptionally high,\" the statement said. Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa division, had called the verdict \"very significant.\" \"The RUF were renowned for leading one of the most brutal rebel movements in modern days. Everyone knows about the signature atrocity of limb amputation, but there was also horrific sexual violence, abductions, use of child soldiers and forced marriages,\" she told CNN by phone from Senegal in West Africa. Eight people have been convicted of war crimes connected with the conflict -- some on the rebels' side and some on the government's. The U.N. Special Court's mandate is to try only \"those who bear greatest responsibility for atrocities committed in Sierra Leone.\" The trial of Sesay, Kallon and Gbao lasted nearly five years. The three had pleaded not guilty on all counts. The Special Court cannot impose the death penalty. The Revolutionary United Front seized most of Sierra Leone from the government and fought international and African peacekeepers. International forces retook the capital, Freetown, in 2000. The trial of the three former leaders was the last of three to be held at the Special Court. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is on trial separately at an international court in The Hague, Netherlands, for his role in the conflict. The prosecution rested in the Taylor case in January after a year of presenting its arguments. Sierra Leone is known for its diamond wealth, but 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The Special Court is an independent tribunal established jointly by the United Nations and the Sierra Leone government. It is mandated to bring to justice those most responsible for atrocities committed in Sierra Leone after November 30, 1996.","highlights":"Three rebels in Sierra Leone sentenced for crimes against humanity .\nU.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone found the men guilty in February .\nMen convicted of crimes such as murder, rape, sexual slavery, forced marriages .\nCharges stem from civil war that lasted from March 1991 to January 2002 ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels to \"release\" civilians, who it said numbered about 70,000 in Sri Lanka's war zone. A Sri Lankan soldier poses in front of a Tamil Tigers emblem in the rebel group's former military headquarters. India is ready to help evacuate them, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Indian parliament. \"Estimates on the number of civilians trapped vary, but 70,000 or so are estimated to be there now. The LTTE were reportedly using them as human shields,\" he said, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers. \"As the conflict enters what may be the final phase of military operations, the LTTE would best serve the interest of the Tamils by immediately releasing all civilians and laying down arms,\" Mukherjee added. He noted that some civilians had either been caught in cross-fire or \"stopped and even killed\" by Tamil rebels as they tried to escape. Government troops and the Tamil Tigers are locked in a battle over the rebels' remaining territory in northern Sri Lanka's Vanni region. The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. Tens of thousands of people have fled the region as government forces have advanced and rebels have been pushed into a smaller and smaller patch of land. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"India urges Tamil Tiger rebels to allow civilians to leave Sri Lankan war zone .\nSri Lankan troops, Tamil fighters locked in battle for control of rebels' territory .\nIndia estimates up to 70,000 are trapped in the region by the conflict .\nTamil Tigers have been fighting for independent homeland since 1983 ."} -{"article":"Like nearly everything else Clinton-related this week, Hillary Clinton's convention speech remained a question mark until the last minute. The overriding goal for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night was to redirect her supporters toward Barack Obama. Its content was a mystery to even some of her closest advisers, who told CNN hours before the speech they weren't sure it was finished quite yet. It was a work in progress until the very end -- and one of its strongest rallying cries appeared nowhere in the prepared text. \"That is our mission, Democrats -- Let us elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden,\" the New York senator told a capacity crowd waving signs that said \"unity\" on one side and bore either Clinton's or Obama's name on the other. So far, the Democratic convention has been dominated by news of the Clintons. What would Hillary Clinton say Tuesday night? And what would her husband, former President Bill Clinton, say Wednesday night? Would daughter Chelsea introduce her mother onstage, fueling visions of another Democratic dynasty? And what will happen Wednesday, when the convention roll call will either provide the \"catharsis\" Clinton predicted it might -- or reopen primary season wounds? Watch Clinton's entire speech \u00bb . The overriding goal for Clinton Tuesday night was to redirect the energy and emotion of her strongest supporters to the presumptive nominee's campaign -- if not for his political future, for her own. If the rank-and-file believe a schism in the party generated by her supporters cost Democrats the election, it could sabotage any potential White House plans for her. She pushed for her loyalists to back her primary season rival with language that echoed her stump speech about forgotten Americans: . \"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?\" she asked. \"Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?\" Read what analysts say about Clinton's speech . She gave Obama the seal of approval on health care, an issue that made for some of her toughest language on the trail. \"I can't wait to watch Barack Obama sign a health care plan into law that covers every single American,\" she said. There were a few notable gaps. There was little on foreign policy. There was no unequivocal statement that Barack Obama is qualified to be commander in chief and ready to lead from Day One. McCain advisers noted soon after the speech, there was no mention of the candidates' differing stands on abortion -- one issue which might have been expected to resonate with those women who supported Clinton and have been slow to warm to Obama. But Clinton's language about what was at stake this November could have been lifted from a speech by any of the most passionate Obama supporters. \"Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance,\" she told the crowd. \"I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come Election Day. And think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that had such a big impact on your life and on the life of our nation.\" Clinton has not addressed whether another presidential campaign is possible anytime in her future, but some of her senior advisers have been less reticent. There's no way to tell whether their predictions come from inside knowledge or wishful thinking, but senior Clinton aides like former campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe and former campaign communications director Howard Wolfson have told reporters this week that they expect her to make another run for the White House in eight years -- after a two-term Obama presidency. If that happens, Tuesday night may have marked the first speech of her 2016 campaign.","highlights":"Crowley: Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered with her speech at the Democratic convention .\nGergen: This was \"perhaps her finest hour in politics\"\nCastellanos: Call it the \"lesser of two evils\" speech ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A group claiming to be the Indonesian arm of the al Qaeda terrorist network is purportedly taking responsibility for a pair of deadly bombs that exploded within minutes of each other at two luxury hotels in Jakarta. The JW Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was bombed July 17, is guarded Wednesday. The July 17 blasts at Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people, including at least two presumed suicide bombers, and wounded more than 50. On Wednesday, Noordin M. Top -- the suspected leader of a small splinter group of the militant Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to al Qaeda -- purportedly issued statements claiming responsibility for the attacks on behalf of \"al Qaeda in Indonesia.\" Top purportedly signed the statements posted on radical Islamist Web sites as the head of al Qaeda in Indonesia. CNN could not independently authenticate the statements. One of the statements says the Ritz-Carlton attack was carried out by \"one of our mujahedeen warriors against the American lackeys and stooges visiting the hotel.\" \"God has given us a blessing for us to find a way to attack the biggest hotel that America owns in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta -- the Ritz-Carlton, where security was very tight making it very difficult to initiate the attack that we did,\" the statement says. The statement mentions members of Britain's Manchester United soccer team, which had been scheduled to check into the Ritz-Carlton on July 19 but canceled its trip after the bombing. \"Those players are Christians and therefore do not deserve Muslims' money and respect,\" the statement says. The other statement addressed the Marriott attack. It claims that the target in that bombing was Americans with ties to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, known as Kadin. Police say a third bomb had been planted in an 18th floor room of the Marriott two days before the other two bombs exploded. The unexploded bomb -- which was timed to detonate on the upper floor before the first blast tore through the Marriott's lobby area at 7:47 a.m. -- was found and defused, police said.","highlights":"Group claiming to be \"al Qaeda in Indonesia\" purportedly claims responsibility .\nBombs at two Jakarta hotels killed nine people, including two presumed bombers .\n\"American lackeys and stooges\" were targets, statement says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anita Dunham's first heart attack started with a mysterious pain in her arm -- and, suddenly, the 34-year-old felt as if she couldn't breathe. After she got dressed, she could barely speak because the pain was so great in her arms and chest. Jolen Johnson took this photo of co-workers wearing red Friday in Cedar Park, Texas. Dunham, who had a second heart attack in 2002, wore red Friday to spread awareness about heart disease. Now 64 years old, she said she wants women everywhere to know that heart disease, the No. 1 killer for women, can affect women in all walks of life. She and others shared their stories with CNN's iReport.com. Read more about Dunham . The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, promoted the red clothing day to spread the message that \"Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear -- It's the #1 Killer of Women,\" according to its Web site. Others who wore red have family members who succumbed to heart disease. Robin Savage, 42, of San Juan Capistrano, California, said her grandfather, father and mother all had heart disease. Besides wearing red herself, she goes to heart events and takes pictures of them for a local Web site. See more from iReporters on National Wear Red Day \u00bb . Savage has to take beta blockers because her heart sometimes races when she eats certain things, particularly foods containing the preservative MSG. She watches her diet closely and exercises 30 minutes a day to keep herself healthy. iReport.com: Heart Disease runs in my family . For her sons, 9 and 12, she monitors their diet closely, but fears that she will die while they are young. \"It's such a huge void in your life, especially when you have your own kids and you don't have your mom around to, say, ask questions,\" she said. \"I was completely lost when I had kids.\" Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection to better living . Peggy Roesch, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Cincinnati, Ohio, said her grandfather had a heart attack five years ago. She was recently inspired by her mother, who runs marathons, to start running more herself. iReport.com: Seeing red . Eileen Velez from West Palm Beach, Florida, has been organizing her co-workers to wear red to show heart awareness every year since 2007. \"If everyone is wearing red at the same time, somebody is going to notice,\" she said. iReport.com: Kimley-Horn and Associates . Despite the nationwide movement, Dunham said she hadn't noticed anyone else in her town of Earlimart, California, wearing red on Friday. Her message to others at risk for heart disease is to watch their weight. \"I tell [my daughter] every day, 'You know you need to start watching your diet or you're going to be in the hospital with a heart attack,'\" she said. CNN's Cristina Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NIH promotes National Wear Red Day on February 6 .\nThe event is intended to spread awareness of heart disease, especially for women .\niReport.com: Share your National Wear Red Day experience ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Meeting planner Gail Murphy heard about the travel warning to Mexico too late in the day on Monday to do anything about her plans to head to Cancun the following day. Alberto Morales wore a mask on his flight from Mexico City to Denver, Colorado, on Monday. \"I'm in good health,\" said Murphy, who is heading to the Eighth Annual Mexico Showcase and Travel Expo from her home in Shelburne, Vermont. \"I'm a risk taker, so I'll go anyway.\" In light of the swine flu, the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning against any non-essential travel to Mexico. The move could potentially devastate an already struggling tourism industry in the country. The World Health Organization urged countries not to restrict international travel or close borders, as such measures would not in themselves stem the outbreak. Efforts to contain the outbreak by restricting travel would be unlikely to work without \"draconian measures,\" said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency's assistant director-general. But he said people who are ill should put off trips abroad, and people who fall ill after a trip should see a doctor. Mexico is the epicenter for the swine influenza virus outbreak. More than 100 deaths in Mexico are being investigated as possibly tied to the outbreak. The WHO confirmed 73 cases of swine flu Monday, but health officials in Scotland, California and Texas confirmed nine more, bringing the worldwide total to 82. Reports of the illness in Mexico couldn't have come at a worse time for the country's tourism industry, which is already grappling with negative publicity about drug-cartel fueled violence. \"They were having a terrible time anyway with all of the problems on the border and now to be hit with this, too,\" said Barbara Nassau, owner of New York-based In House Travel Solutions. She added that the outbreak has the potential to hamper travel similar to the way it was affected when bird flu hit China. iReporter Dyana Pari Nafissi works in international business development in Mexico City and said tourism in the country had already been dealt a blow by fears of violence. iReport.com: Watch Dyana discuss what's happening in Mexico . \"We've been on a steady decline since the first U.S. travel warning about the drug cartels,\" she said. \"When you look at the kids that braved [that travel warning], and now they are back [in the U.S.] and they are sick. It's devastating to the economy here.\" Some of the confirmed cases in the United States were high school students who recently returned from a trip to Mexico. News of the outbreak didn't seem to overly concern travelers arriving Monday at Denver International Airport on a Mexicana flight from Mexico City. Two Mexicana crew members who didn't want to be named said about 60 percent of the passengers wore masks during the flight. Ernesto Vargas, a Mexican businessman, didn't wear a mask. \"I thought about carrying one with me, but the crew wasn't wearing a mask. So we asked them, and it seemed quite safe.\" Alberto Morales, another businessman, said he wore a mask in the Mexico City airport and on the plane. \"Yes. I have a mask, and we are using the mask.\" Is he concerned? \"Don't worry, I am OK,\" he said with a laugh. \"People are afraid about the flu, but we have many precautions and the government has a good sense for this trouble,\" Morales said. Ian Jeffries, a spokesman for Expedia.com, said the company had no data as of Monday on cancellations or changes caused by fear of swine flu, but added that it was prepared to aid any of its customers that had concerns. \"Expedia is currently offering to waive Expedia-imposed change and cancel fees for hotel and air reservations originally booked to Mexico,\" he said. \"We will continue to monitor the situation and modify our policy accordingly.\" Several major U.S. airlines also are waiving fees for those who want to change their travel plans to Mexico. Jeffery Brown arrived at the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday after spending five days in Cancun with his wife. They saw people in surgical masks but didn't notice any widespread concern. \"My wife and I were a little concerned, but you know we haven't seen anybody sick in our resort, and we haven't seen anybody sick at the airport,\" he said. \"Nobody said a word about it [at the resort].\" Mexico isn't the only country that potentially has a tourism headache on its hands. Cases of swine flu have also popped up in Canada and Spain as well as the United States and Scotland. Watch how businesses might be affected by swine flu \u00bb . Steve Weakland, border security coordinator for the United States Customs and Border Protection Atlanta field office, said all of his personnel have received illness recognition training. If a traveler exhibits symptoms of the disease, CBP employees have been trained to inform the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further investigate. \"Our guys are more the recognition aspect of it,\" Weakland said. \"We wouldn't make any diagnosis or anything along those lines.\" Teresa Roberts planned to take her mom to Akumal, Mexico, for Mother's Day and said she was more worried about traveling to New York for business than she is about contracting swine flu south of the border. \"Just because of the number of different travelers that go through the airports in New York from all around the world,\" said Roberts who flies about two or three weeks a month from her home in Atlanta, Georgia. \"I'm not nervous about going to Mexico at all.\" Many in the tourism industry appeared to be taking a wait-and-see approach. Disney Cruise Lines, which does not sail into Mexico, said it is closely monitoring the situation, as did officials for theme parks including Universal and Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Meg Barton travels several times a year to Mexico from her home in Round Rock, Texas, and also isn't overly worried. Because of her father's recent heart surgery, she is already an avid hand washer and is always cautious about germs when abroad. \"I don't drink a lot of water in Mexico ever, and I am really more concerned about the drug issues in Mexico than I am the swine flue,\" Barton said. \"We take antibiotics and Pepto with us when we travel.\" Eric Meyer of Lafayette, Colorado, flew in to Minneapolis-St. Paul with his wife and baby to visit family in Minnesota and lamented that \"It's out there, but what can you do?\" \"Wash your hands maybe and call it good,\" he added. \"Put a mask on? [I'm] not gonna go that far and be that guy yet.\" Rochelle Yates said a client of her New York City-based Yates Travel is planning to take plenty of antiseptic products on an upcoming trip to Cancun. Most seasoned travelers know to guard against infectious disease ordinarily, Yates said. \"My clients are people who travel all over the world, and they know that you have to take precautions regardless,\" Yates said. \"You have to wash your hands no matter where you are, if you are on a cruise ship, in a hotel or even in your own house.\" CNN's Chris Welch, Jim Spellman and Amy Zerba contributed to this story.","highlights":"U.S. issues an advisory against non-essential travel to Mexico .\nTourism industry waiting to see effects of swine flu .\nMexico tourism already dealing with reports of violence .\nTheme parks, cruise lines and others monitoring situation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Justine Henin booked her place in the third round of the Australian Open after she claimed a 7-5 7-6 (8-6) victory over fifth seed Elena Dementieva in Melbourne on Wednesday. The Belgian, who won the tournament in 2004, came through an enthralling clash which lasted two hours 50 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena. Henin, who is playing in her first Grand Slam event since she ended her 20-month retirement from tennis, took the first set but Russian Dementieva hit back in an enthralling second set to take a 4-2 advantage. Wildcard Henin then broke back to take the next three games and the match went to tie-break but Dementieva was unable to take the match into a third set as Henin clinched victory with a fierce volley. After the match Henin admitted it was exactly the kind of match which vindicated her decision to return to competitive tennis. \"It's great feeling. It's magical to win this kind of match in this kind of atmosphere,\" Henin told reporters in the post-match press conference. \"It was a great match. It was very emotional for me on the court at the end because there was so much intensity. To play this kind of match in the second round, for me, after two years off in a Grand Slam, it's just the kind of situation that I needed, . \"The crowd gave me so much. So respectful at the end. It was a special night tonight. That's why I probably came back on the tour, was to live this kind of matches.\" Blog: Belgians lead the way in Melbourne . Henin will now play another Russian in 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova with a potential quarterfinal on the horizon against compatriot Kim Clijsters who came through in straight sets - 6-3, 6-3 - against Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn. Fellow Belgian Wickmayer continued her recent good form by knocking out Italian 12th seed Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7-2) 6-1. Elsewhere, third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova recorded a 6-2 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova while Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki overcome a nervy first set against Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak to win 6-4 6-2. Seventh seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus cruised to a routine 6-2 6-0 victory over France's Stephanie Cohen-Aloro while Russian Vera Zvonareva eased past Slovakian Kristina Kucova by the same margin.","highlights":"Justine Henin booked her place in the third round of the Australian Open after she claimed a 7-5 7-6 (8-6) victory over fifth seed Elena Dementieva.\nFellow Belgian Kim Clijsters came through in straight sets - 6-3, 6-3 - in her clash with Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn.\nThird seed Svetlana Kuznetsova recorded a 6-2 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tennis officials reacted with disappointment on Wednesday to Andre Agassi's revelation that he had used a banned drug and then lied about it to avoid a ban. Agassi's admission that he took the stimulant crystal meth in 1997 will come in a soon to be published autobiography which is being serialized by The Times of London. He avoided a three-month suspension by claiming in a letter to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) that he failed a doping test because a drink had been 'spiked' with the crystal meth. Under today's anti-doping rules, the American legend could have faced a two-year ban from the circuit. The ATP issued a statement Wednesday in which it said that an independent panel would make the final decision on a doping violation. \"The ATP has always followed this rule, and no executive at the ATP has therefore had the authority or ability to decide the outcome of an anti-doping matter,\" the statement read. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey said they could not take retrospective action against the eight-time grand slam winner because of its eight-year statute of limitations, but demanded the ATP investigate fully. \"WADA would, however, expect the ATP, which administered its own anti-doping program at that time, to shed light on this allegation,\" Fahey said in a statement. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) took over responsibility for the ATP's doping program in 2006 and its president Francesco Ricci Bitti said that Agassi's revelations showed that a tough anti-doping program was needed. Agassi did find strong support from Nicolas Hayek, chairman of Swatch Group, for whom Agassi acts as an ambassador. He told CNN that his company would stick with the 39-year-old Agassi in his current role. \"He's admitted a mistake and it's fine with us,\" he said.","highlights":"Tennis governing bodies to consider Andre Agassi's doping revelations .\nATP say an independent panel would consider the issue .\nWADA cannot take action under eight-year statute of limitations ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Around 200 new species of frogs have been found in Madagascar, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. A study has found nearly 200 new species of frogs in Madagascar. A study identified between 129 and 221 new species of frogs on the island. The Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), who carried out the study, believe the find could practically double the number of amphibians known in the world if the results are extrapolated at a global scale. The study, published in the journal \"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA,\" suggests that the number of amphibian species in Madagascar has been significantly underestimated. \"The diversity of species in Madagascar is far from being known and there is still a lot of scientific research to be done. Our data suggest that the number of new species of amphibians not only has been underestimated but it is spatially widespread, even in well studied areas,\" said Professor David R. Vieites, CSIC researcher to the press at the Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum in Madrid. \"For example, two of the most visited and studied national parks, Ranomafana and Mantad\u00eda\/Analamazaotra, harbor 31 and 10 new species respectively.\" Dr. Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Zoologische Staatssammlung from Munich was part of the research team: \"During the past 15 years, we discovered and described over 100 new frog species from Madagascar, which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete. But as our new surveys show, there are many more species than we suspected,\" he said in a press statement. The paper suggests that the total biodiversity on the island could be much higher in other species as well, so the actual destruction of natural habitats may be affecting more animals than previously thought. This has important consequences for conservation planning, as the rate of destruction of rainforests in Madagascar has been one of the highest in the planet, with more than 80 percent of the historic surface of rainforest already lost, according to the study's authors. Almost a quarter of the new species discovered have not been found yet in protected areas, but the unstable political situation in Madagascar has also been cited as hampering conservation efforts. \"Although a lot of reserves and national parks have been created in Madagascar during the last decade, the actual situation of politic instability is allowing the cut of the forest within national parks, generating a lot of uncertainty about the future of the planned network of protected areas\", said Vieites. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and one of the most biodiverse areas globally, with a high degree of endemic species. \"To get an idea of its biodiversity --while in the Iberian Peninsula [there] are about 30 species of amphibians and in Germany about 20, in a single locality in Madagascar we can find around 100 species of frogs,\" said Vieites. Dr. Miguel Vences, professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, who was also part of the study team, and believes that a century of new species discovery is just beginning: \"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet. But the majority of life forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition.\"","highlights":"Nearly 200 new species of amphibians found on biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar .\nStudy found many outside of the island's conservation areas .\nPolitical instability in the country makes conservation efforts extra difficult ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The modern and dysfunctional man, who struggles to find his footing in relationships, career and, in fact, the world, has in many ways been the bread and butter of best-selling British author Nick Hornby's career. Best-selling British author Nick Hornby releases his latest novel, \"Juliet, Naked.\" Best known for his novels \"High Fidelity\" and \"About a Boy,\" both of which were turned into movies (as was his memoir, \"Fever Pitch\"), Hornby's latest novel, \"Juliet, Naked,\" released in the United Kingdom on September 1, has just been released in the United States. It focuses on an American singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe, who still rests on the success he saw with one album in the 1980s, an obsessed English fan, Duncan, and his exasperated girlfriend, Annie. Hornby's love for music has inspired more than plotlines. It has fueled a partnership with the rock band Marah and other projects, which recently included penning the lyrics for Ben Folds' \"Levi Johnston's Blues.\" Meanwhile, Hornby is also the force behind the screenplay of the critically acclaimed film-festival darling, \"An Education,\" which will be released in New York and Los Angeles on October 9. CNN spoke with Hornby about how he develops the characters for his books, the challenges of writing in a woman's voice and his own prowess in relationships. CNN: Your newest novel, \"Juliet, Naked,\" seems to revisit the kind of character that anchored \"High Fidelity,\" the obsessive, somewhat dysfunctional music fan. What is it about this type that had you coming back, and how have the years changed this character? Hornby: Well, I conceived them as being different. Rob in \"High Fidelity,\" he wasn't the obsessive. It was the people around him. This one [Duncan] is one of three characters; he's the nerdy obsessive. ... The Internet's changed everything. There are no record stores to hang out in anymore. Ten or 15 years ago, he [Duncan] wouldn't have found anyone to talk to. And nobody's career [character Tucker Crowe's included] is allowed to die. Way back, obsessives had to admit other interests into their lives. These people don't have to really do anything like that. Watch the author talk about music, comedy and relationships \u00bb . CNN: Your books, and now your screenplay, are so rich in complicated and incredibly flawed characters who, in turn, have complicated and flawed relationships. How much of what they struggle with is autobiographical? Are there aspects to these characters that are reflections of you? Hornby: I think sometimes there are. I have three kids by two moms. Tucker has five kids by four women. But my experience is relatively ordinary. My relationships are fairly stable. A lot of this is trying to write comedy, and complicated relationships are funnier than straightforward ones. CNN: At times, for instance in your book \"How to Be Good,\" you've narrated as a woman. What are the challenges of taking on a woman's voice? Hornby: Anytime the narrator is someone who is not you, the challenge is equal. The challenge is to make people laugh. My last book, \"Slam,\" was for young adults, and I had to write as a 16-year-old boy. Of course, it makes me more nervous writing as a woman. I just made sure every woman I knew read the narrative as soon as I finished. But no woman speaks for all women. CNN: You've been open about having a son, now 16, who is autistic. How much, if at all, has that informed your writing when it comes to getting into the heads of kids and adolescents in, for example, \"About a Boy?\" Hornby: It hasn't. Not yet. The experience of fathering a child like that is so different, but I think you have to be very careful about how you use it and how it affects other people. CNN: Your screenplay for \"An Education,\" which is based on an autobiographical essay by British journalist Lynn Barber, was first recognized at the Sundance Film Festival in January and continues to get critical acclaim. How has this creative journey differed from the one you're used to traveling in the book publishing world? Hornby: The process is incredibly different. With movies, it always feels like such a long shot getting it made. With books, you write and talk about it with your editor. With movies, you need the money, the cast, the director -- I felt much more confused by the the movie-making process. CNN: But with movies, the insecurities you might have about your own work as an artist, as a writer, are helped by others. It's not all on you, right? Hornby: Yes. I can look at the film and take pride in other people's work.","highlights":"Nick Hornby, author of \"High Fidelity\" and \"About a Boy\" releases new book Tuesday .\n\"Juliet, Naked,\" revisits the dysfunctional male, music fan kind of character .\nInternet has changed how the obsessive type lives and thrives, Hornby says .\n\"An Education,\" for which he wrote screenplay, gets critical acclaim, festival attention ."} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Now that stereo Bluetooth has become a common feature in a lot of music phones, it's no surprise that stereo Bluetooth headsets have become quite popular as well. Stereo Bluetooth headsets come in many shapes and sizes, from the behind-the-ear style of the Motorola Rokr S9 to the over-the-head style of the Jabra BT8030. The Jabra BT3030 is in the style of a pendant, or as its design suggests, more of a dog tag. It's been available for a while now, but we think it's still worth it. The Jabra BT3030 can be purchased for around $39.99. Of course like any stereo Bluetooth headset, the Jabra BT3030 requires a cell phone with the A2DP or stereo Bluetooth profile. The Jabra BT3030 consists primarily of a small remote control unit housed in a dog-tag style pendant. Measuring 2.1-inches long by 1.6-inch wide by 0.38-inch thick, the pendant is slim and compact with a metal finish and a rubberized border all around it. All of the controls are laid out right on the front face in a straightforward grid. They are the Play\/Pause key, the track shuffle keys, the volume controls, plus the multifunction Call key. The keys are all made of rubber, and are raised above the surface for a nice tactile feel. The 3.5mm headset jack is on the right spine, while the charger jack is on the bottom. On the top is an opening for an optional lanyard. Also on the top is a tiny microphone. Getting the headset set up is pretty simple. Just power it on via the multifunction Call button, and turn on the Bluetooth pairing mode on your cell phone. We managed to pair the Jabra BT3030 with the LG Chocolate 3 without a problem. From there, we could play\/pause tracks, skip songs, and adjust the volume, all from the Jabra BT3030. The Jabra BT3030 comes with nice pair of ear buds that sit comfortably in the ear, but since it has a 3.5mm headset jack, you can use any headphones of your choosing. Aside from using the Jabra BT3030 for music, you can also use the it to make calls via the last number redial or voice command. When there's an incoming call during music playback, the music will pause and you will hear a ringing tone. You can then hit the Call button to answer the call. After you hang up, the music will resume from the paused point. Other features include call-waiting support, the ability to reject calls, plus the ability to transfer calls from the headset to the phone, and vice versa. Sound quality was quite good, and comparable to most MP3 players on the market. The bass was a little weak, but the overall quality was decent. Call quality was mixed. While we heard our callers just fine, we did have to bring the pendant close to our mouths for callers to hear us. They reported a little bit of static and echo from us as well. This seemed to vary from caller to caller, however, so we urge you to give it a trial run before you settle for it. The Jabra BT3030 also comes with an optional clothing clip accessory, plus an AC adapter. It has a rated battery life of 8 hours talk time, 7 hours music streaming, and 9.58 days standby time. \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"The Jabra BT3030 is a great, affordable option for a stereo Bluetooth headset .\nDevice is slim and lightweight, plus it has tactile and easy-to-use controls .\nIt comes with a 3.5-mm headset jack so you can use it with any headphones .\nIts music quality is decent, although the call quality could be improved ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a field largely still in its infancy, scientists are making headway toward using stem cells to treat heart ailments. The FDA regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials. The major focus of stem cell research in cardiology is promoting regeneration of the heart or preventing scar formation, said Jeffrey Karp, who runs a stem cell biology lab at Harvard University. One study reporting successful results in humans involves harvesting patients' own stem cells, purifying them, and injecting them directly into the heart muscle. The stem cells have a surface marker called CD34, which means they are capable of growing new blood vessels. The study, sponsored by Baxter Inc., is the largest adult stem cell study for heart disease in the U.S., said Dr. Douglas Losordo, cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, who is leading the trial. The researchers will present their one-year findings from Phase II of the trial in September, Losordo said. \"It's important to point out that this is a use of a patient's own body's repair capabilities,\" Losordo said. If everything goes well, it's conceivable this treatment could be widely available in a little over four years, he said. The target patient population, consisting of end-stage cardiac patients who have tried all other available therapies, is about 300,000 to 900,000 people, he said. So far, researchers have not found side effects from this method, Losordo said. However, because it is an invasive surgical procedure in which stem cells are delivered through a catheter, there is a risk of perforation of about 1 percent, he said. There is also a small risk of blood clotting from the drug, GCSF, which mobilizes stem cells. Injecting stem cells into the heart muscle carries the risk of arrhythmia, said Techung Lee, associate professor of biochemistry at the State University New York at Buffalo. But Losordo said this risk is theoretical in his trial, and is believed to be very low with CD34 cells in general. Lee and colleagues are working on a less-invasive technique. In a study in mice, they injected stem cells from bone marrow into skeletal muscles of limbs. They found that the stem cells produced growth factors that traveled to the heart, in addition to stimulating the muscle itself to make growth factors that also improved cardiac function. The challenge for translating this method to humans would be that, while each mouse needed only a few million stem cells, each human patient would need close to a billion stem cells for the therapy -- which would be far too expensive and logistically difficult. \"This is a problem that's been experienced by everyone in the field,\" Lee said. He estimates that his method could be available clinically in five years, after researchers find ways to reduce the required number of cells by a factor of 10 or even 100. Another therapeutic possibility is giving a patient an IV of stem cells, which would come from a stem cell bank or a company. The challenge is that the cells may not have the right homing receptors to land in the heart, Karp said. Karp's group is working on an approach to chemically modify the surface of cells to enhance their targeting to specific sites. Results from animal models have shown promising results for targeting sites of inflammation, he said. \"Essentially we know the ZIP code of vessels within a certain tissue, we can program the address on the surface of the cell,\" he said. Lee's and Karp's teams use adult mesenchymal stem cells, which may develop into connective tissue, lymphatic tissue, and blood vessels. These stem cells are largely interchangeable between patients and don't require matching, as organ transplants do. However, as more becomes known about the relatively new field of stem cell therapy, a more specific matching system may be required, said Dr. Joon Lee, cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Some stem cell therapies for the heart are being tested in human clinical trials. Osiris Therapeutics Inc. is enrolling patients in a phase II trial for Prochymal, which contains mesenchymal stem cells. The company intends to use this drug, which gets injected into the vein, to repair heart damage in patients who have just experienced their first heart attack. More than 90 percent of research on using stem cells to repair the human heart involves adult stem cells, Lee said. That means the controversy about using stem cells derived from human embryos is largely absent from this line of research. For developing treatments that involve transplanting stem cells from adults, there is no ethical concern about the use of embryos, Lee said. Embryonic stem cells are advantageous in research because they can be grown more easily than adult stem cells in a culture, and are pluripotent, meaning they can develop into any of the various cell types of the body, according to the National Institutes of Health. But it is not yet known whether tissues derived from embryonic stem cells would cause transplant rejection, whereas this does not seem to be a problem with adult stem cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials and sets the requirements for more routine use. Whether the FDA will become more or less lenient in these respects is unclear, Lee said. It's not unfathomable that within the next two to five years, some FDA-approved stem cell treatments will be available for cardiovascular disease, Lee said. Karp has a longer view -- five to 10 years before stem cell treatments become widely available for heart problems, he said. The biology of stem cell treatments for the heart is not well understood, said Dr. Ronald Crystal, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital\/Weill Cornell Medical Center. One of the challenges is that once a stem cell gets put into a person's body, no one can get it out, Crystal said. This is the opposite of other kinds of medications -- for instance, a person may get sick from taking too many aspirin, but eventually the drug leaves the system. Not so with stem cells, he said. Crystal expressed general caution about the future of stem cell research, which is still experimental, for heart patients. \"This is a good idea, but patients and families should not expect immediate results,\" he said.","highlights":"Most stem cell research targeted at the heart uses adult stem cells .\nThe FDA regulates adult stem cell techniques that are allowed to go into clinical trials .\nUnlike organ transplants, adult stem cells generally can be given to any patient .\nTherapies be available in a little over four years, although some say five to 10 ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Ramin Ostadhosseini needed to vent, and this gathering seemed the place to do it. Teens at Camp Ayandeh learn how to blend their parents' history and culture with their contemporary lifestyles. \"I get Raymond, Roman and sometimes Ramen noodles,\" he told the circle, describing how non-Iranians butcher his name. This group felt his pain. Here, sprawled out on a manicured lawn at Emory University were dozens of youths attending a weeklong summer camp designed to generate discussion on what it means to be Iranian-American. Like many attending Camp Ayandeh -- or \"future\" in Farsi -- Ramin has parents who were born in Tehran and immigrated to the United States after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, six years after the revolution, Ramin grew up with two distinct and, at times conflicting, influences: the American side that met him at school and the Iranian one that greeted him at home. It's a first-generation story as old as the United States. It's so common that Ayandeh counselors said the camp was created three years ago to address both Iranian and American parts of a new generation of Iranian-American youth -- a community they define as being \"hyphenated.\" Watch campers learn how to accept their backgrounds \u00bb . \"We're really becoming mindful of how we define things,\" said Natasha Sallahi, a first-time counselor and aspiring filmmaker. \"We realize that sometimes one word doesn't cover it all. So we're trying to create better definitions ... by putting two things [Iranian-American] together.\" Camp Ayandeh is sponsored annually by Iranian Alliances Across Borders, a largely volunteer organization funded by individual donors and PARSA, a California-based philanthropic organization. First established on Thompson Island off eastern Massachusetts, Ayandeh began its gradual migration south the second year -- setting up at a campgrounds near Fairfax, Virginia. Iranian-American teens from high schools across the nation now flock to the new Georgia address to learn about their heritage and ask questions that range from relationships and college admissions to sexual orientation and discrimination -- issues that can come with distinctly different social parameters than their parents were once accustomed to in Iran. Camp counselor Siavash Samei remembers such angst all too well. \"There was not a single person that I could look at and say, 'He is me,' \" Samei said, describing an absence of elder Iranian-American role models. \" 'He is what I can do. He can snap and he can dance. And at the same time, he can talk English without an accent.' \" After two years as a camper, Samei returned this summer as counselor to help answer many of the same questions that plagued him a few years earlier. The typical adolescent anxieties and struggles were mixed with another layer of cultural confusion. \"As a high school student, I had a horrible time,\" he said. \"One day I would come into school very dressed up thinking, 'I'm looking Iranian.' One day I would be wearing the baggy pants and dressed completely American. And I had no clue which one was right.\" According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 400,000 Iranian-Americans live in the United States. The largest wave of Iranian immigrants came to the U.S. immediately following the ouster of the Shah of Iran and the Islamic-led revolution in 1979. Nearly three decades later, a new generation of Iranian-American youths are struggling to define themselves in these \"hyphenated\" communities. Bobak Moazami, a 17-year-old kid from Manhattan's Upper West Side, said he likes to think of himself equally as part of both communities. \"I eat American food for lunch,\" he said. \"Every day at school I have a grilled chicken sandwich. Then I come home and have chelo kabob or qormeh-sabzi.\" For many of these students, traditional Iranian dishes such as qormeh-sabzi -- a stew of herbs and beef or lamb -- are a part of a heritage that at one time could only be preserved by their families. But with campers rediscovering pride in their cultural heritage, these teens are learning how to blend their parents' history and culture with their contemporary lifestyles. Put simply, why not appreciate the old-world beats of the tonbak alongside the edgy lyrics of Kanye West? At Camp Ayandeh, games of \"vasati,\" or Iranian dodgeball, and Iranian dancing sessions are scheduled next to public speaking and college prep workshops. And the campers bring their bicultural experiences back home. \"I read about American literature in the morning [at school],\" Moazami said. \"We talk about great English poets like Shakespeare and Lord Byron, and then I come home and experience another set of great [Iranian] poets such as Hafez and Saadi.\" Nava Behnam, a 17-year-old who's attended the camp twice, has a story that started out slightly different from most of those at Ayandeh. Unlike many of the American-born campers, Behnam immigrated to the United States at 5 after being born in Tehran. She has experienced little in the way of Iranian culture and tradition outside her home in Rockville, Maryland. \"I was never really surrounded by it too much,\" she said. \"Or if I was, it was Persian gatherings with my parents where I'd sit in the back and be bored and have nothing to do.\" Twelve years after arriving in the U.S., Behnam is part of a loyal following that returns to Camp Ayandeh each year. \"I come here to find my roots and to come to terms with where I belong and where I come from,\" she said. After going to Camp Ayandeh, Behnam said she now has \"an appreciation for Persian culture and our customs,\" even though she still describes herself as \"just another teenage girl going to high school in America.\"","highlights":"Camp Ayandeh helps Iranian-American youth come to terms with both cultures .\nIranian Alliances Across Borders sponsors summer camp .\nNearly 400,000 Iranian-Americans live in the U.S., Census Bureau says .\nTeen at camp says she has learned \"an appreciation for Persian culture\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Water pressure is restored and it is now safe to drink in a Baltimore suburb where a huge water main burst, sending torrents of muddy water coursing over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. Muddy water envelops the community of Dundalk, Maryland, on Friday. Many were left without power. \"A bad situation is well in hand,\" Baltimore County chief executive Jim Smith said during a press conference Saturday morning. Crews were still at work inspecting homes and clearing water from flooded basements, he said, \"but the danger is over, the crisis is over.\" A prestressed concrete water pipe burst late Friday afternoon under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk. The 72-inch-wide main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Smith said. No injuries were reported, Smith said, and knee-high to chest-high water had been reduced to 4 inches. Resident David Johnson said he felt helpless as he stood outside his house and watched the dirty brown water creep up his lawn and approach his front door. It stopped, inches away, and his basement stayed dry. The worst part now is the sewage smell, he said. Local public works officials said at least 39 basements in the area were flooded. See water main break damage \u00bb . Shannon Woerner was at home in nearby Essex, Maryland, when he heard the news about the water main break and the call for boats. He loaded his kayak in his truck and headed to the scene. \"I just wanted to see if I could help,\" he said. Woerner said he delivered car keys and other items across flooded streets to people who couldn't get to their homes. Mike Pell, 34, watched the water slowly recede after the main was shut. Water covered the wheels of his pickup. \"My basement's done,\" he said, pointing to his shoulder to show the height of the water inside. He and his fiancee had a bedroom in the basement. \"All of our clothes are ruined,\" he said. He managed to get his two children, ages 2 and 3, to a dry area on the first floor of the house. \"Now I wonder who's gonna pay for this. We don't have flood insurance; this area doesn't flood,\" Pell said, shaking his head. Samantha Hansley, 21, could only watch from a dry hill and wonder if her truck would survive the flood. It sat in 2 feet of water a block away. Hansley and her boyfriend had been driving out of the floodwaters when they stopped to try to help some stranded drivers. \"Our truck just died,\" she said. A manager at the Box and Save grocery store about a block away from the break said the entire parking lot was flooded. Cathy Geisler said customers were still in the store Friday afternoon when police arrived to tell everyone except for essential personnel to evacuate. \"We were still doing business, then the electricity went out and we escorted everyone out of the store,\" Geisler said. Aerial video from CNN affiliates WMAR and WBAL showed a collapsed roadway covered by torrents of water. Entire neighborhoods had flooded streets, and some residents were evacuated, authorities said. Eric Braughman, who lives on one of the flooded streets, said he had \"thought something was up\" with the water Thursday when his faucets discharged orange-brown water. \"My wife didn't give the baby a bath because it didn't look safe,\" Braughman said. Nearly 1,000 customers were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s Web site. The main break is part of a larger issue with failing infrastructure in many U.S. cities, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's Department of Public Works. Kocher cited two other huge main breaks in the Maryland and Washington area that were started from the same type of pipe that burst in Friday's incident. \"This is a national infrastructure crisis,\" Kocher said. CNN's Alec Miran in Dundalk, Maryland, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Water is safe to drink; pressure has been restored .\nResidents say water damaged vehicles, homes and left sewage smell .\n72-inch main shut down after about two hours, county official says .\nNearly 1,000 were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Editor's note: Watch Tarantino talking about the making of \"Pulp Fiction\" on The Screening Room podcast. To receive regular movie podcasts subscribe here. Quentin Tarantino's first trip to Sundance wasn't exactly a success. Tarantino's hyper-violent, super cool debut feature \"Reservoir Dogs\" scorched audiences and critics alike when it came out in 1992. \"If you do this in real life, they're going to fire your ass,\" scolded cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, veteran of films like \"Lethal Weapon\" and \"Charlie Wilson's War.\" The novice filmmaker was participating in a directors' workshop at the Sundance Institute -- the film trust founded by Robert Redford which also runs the Sundance Film Festival. Unfortunately, Tarantino's mentors were just not feeling his experimental approach. The following week, a new group of mentors arrived, including ex-Monty Python member and filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Tarantino and his editor steeled themselves for the inevitable disapproval: \"Then Terry Gilliam comes in and goes 'Oh, your scene. Just great!'\" recalls the director. He is talking at the Cannes Film Festival Cinema Masterclass, following in the illustrious footsteps of directors like Wong Kar Wai, Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese. \"It was just like, you know what, that's gonna be my career. People are gonna either really like me or they're really not and just get f***ing used to it 'cause this is the deal,\" Tarantino says. A second visit to Sundance in 1992 proved more fruitful. His debut feature, \"Reservoir Dogs,\" a sassy, hyper-violent gangster movie, was the hit of the year. French film critic and regular on the European film festival circuit, Michel Ciment still remembers the effect it had on him when it showed at Cannes later that year: \"It was a big shock. I remember it was the most striking new American film since 'Mean Streets' 30 years before.\" Despite the impact of his droll, assured debut, Tarantino recalls being convinced he was going to get fired in the first two weeks of production. \"I just thought it was too good to be true. I couldn't help but think something like 'they don't let people like me make movies,'\" he says, laughing. Follow-up movie \"Pulp Fiction\" was awarded the coveted Palm D'Or at Cannes two years later, cementing his reputation as a movie-maker to be reckoned with. It was filled with the dark humor and bloody violence that would become known as Tarantino trademarks. The B-movie-obsessed director admits to getting a kick out of creating humor in inappropriate situations. \"I'm trying to get you to laugh at things you've never laughed at before,\" he explains. He cites his \"bigtime\" influences as movie brats like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma, as well as Sergio Leone and Howard Hawks. In person, he is a great raconteur and his expletive-littered speech is not a million miles away from the dialogue that's so central to his movies. \"I tend to think of myself as more of a novelist who makes movies than a director per se,\" he declares. But he dismisses his apparent love of language as a product of writing for acting classes: \"I started writing as an actor and it was all about dialogue and writing scenes to do.\" Before moving into directing, Tarantino studied acting for six years and says learning to act for the camera gave him an insight into how directors put a movie together -- frame by frame. That was what really taught him how to write for the movies. \"All of a sudden I started seeing [film] in a whole different way. When you start doing that, then it's only a few short steps until you start composing shots of your own,\" he explains. Tarantino has shown himself to be one of the most music-savvy directors of this generation with his use of songs like \"Little Green Bag\" by the George Baker Selection in the opening sequence of \"Reservoir Dogs\" and Nancy Sinatra's \"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)\" in \"Kill Bill Vol. 1.\" He, not immodestly, puts that skill down to his great music collection. \"The thing is, I have one of the best soundtrack collections in America,\" he boasts. That probably accounts for his scathing determination never to use film composers: \"I don't trust any composers to do it. I would just never give anybody that kind of responsibility,\" he says, \"Who the f*** is this guy coming in here, throwing their s*** all over my movie?\" And he admits that his inner film buff enjoys the cornerstones of action cinema that some of his later movies have explored. \"I love action scenes, but they are hard, and in a way that's what's fun about them. These cool little puzzles. To me, action scenes are some of the most cinematic moments that you can do in film,\" he says. \"Kill Bill Vol. One\" and \"Kill Bill Vol. Two,\" starring Tarantino muse and Hollywood A-lister Uma Thurman, are his movie-geek nod to the kung fu genre. When he started filming \"Vol. One,\" Tarantino hadn't made a film for six years and with typical chutzpah challenged himself to choreograph astonishingly intricate fight scenes. \"If I throw my hat in the ring with the greatest action directors who ever lived ... I wanna be as good as them,\" he asserts. He continues to work his way through his action movie checklist. In his latest movie, \"Death Proof,\" a homage to sleazy 70s B-movies that stars Kurt Russell as a murderous stuntman, he puts his own spin on another of action film's fundamentals -- the car chase. Tarantino is critical of CGI being used so much in film today. All the seat-grippingly tense stunts in \"Death Proof\" are real and he specifically cast a stuntwoman, Zoe Bell, in one of the leading roles to achieve this. It may have been ambitious, but \"Death Proof,\" which is one half of \"Grindhouse,\" a B-movie-referencing double bill he made with fellow director Robert Rodriguez, got a critical mauling and didn't fare much better at the box office. But then Tarantino has long been resigned to people either loving or hating his movies.","highlights":"\"Reservoir Dogs\" and \"Kill Bill\" director Quentin Tarantino talks about his films .\nTarantino realised early in his career audiences would either love or hate his films .\nThe movie geek's second film \"Pulp Fiction\" won the Palm D'Or at Cannes .\nOn his style: \"I'm trying to get you to laugh at things you've never laughed at before\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of Opel workers went on strike in Germany on Thursday in protest at the decision by U.S. parent General Motors to abandon the sale of the automaker. GM shocked German public officials when it announced earlier this week its decision to keep its European Opel and Vauxhall units and cancel a planned sale to Canadian firm Magna. If Magna had bought GM's European operations thousands would have lost their jobs in Spain and at Vauxhall plants in Britain. After the announcement there were celebrations in Britain but fury in Germany, where thousands of workers fear they will face the axe. \"We want Opel to continue to exist,\" Hesse state Premier Roland Koch -- one of the biggest lobbyists for a sale to Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank -- told rallying workers at Opel headquarters in Ruesselsheim on Thursday, according to Reuters.com. \"We will have to fight again with the goal of saving jobs.\" GM announced a restructuring plan for Opel that would include cuts of as many as 10,000 jobs at the European subsidiary. About half of Opel's 50,000 workers are based in Germany. The U.S. car giant confirmed in a statement to CNN that its revised viability plan for Opel \"will likely include cuts in that range.\" J\u00fcrgen R\u00fcttgers, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where GM proposes closing a factory, told the Financial Times: \"General Motors' behaviour shows the ugly face of turbo-capitalism. That is completely unacceptable.\" German Opel workers reject GM's restructuring plan for the company, which they believe will see a drain of vehicle development from Germany to the United States, Lorenz said. Employees in Germany are not only unwilling to accept pay cuts moving forward, but they will also demand to be paid for concessions they have made, like giving up a scheduled pay rise in May, their 2008 Christmas bonus, and vacation pay for 2009, Lorenz said. GM promised to work with all the European labor unions on a plan for Opel's restructuring. The GM board of directors said an improving business environment over the past few months and the importance of Opel and its British brand, Vauxhall, to GM's global strategy were reasons to retain Opel. The board said it would begin restructuring its European operations \"in earnest\" instead, according to a news release issued late Tuesday. GM's decision is a setback for Magna, which agreed to purchase Opel and Vauxhall in September in a deal brokered by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. General Motors said in March that it wanted to sell Opel after it reported an annual loss of $30.9 billion for 2008. Opel, together with Vauxhaull, is the fourth-largest car brand in Europe after Volkswagen, Ford, and Renault. It is also GM's largest-selling brand in Europe by far, representing more than 70 percent of GM's European sales. While GM's decision may still mean layoffs as it restructures its European businesses, it may safeguard jobs in the short-term. Employees at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, England, welcomed the news. \"I think it's a good idea, really, because a lot of people will have jobs,\" one employee told Sky News. \"We've had a three-day week now for ages,\" said another man. \"We've lost money, so now we're going to start getting some back.\" The head of the Unite union, which represents Vauxhall workers, said he was \"absolutely delighted\" that GM will retain ownership of the brand. \"GM was once the biggest company in the world and we have no reason to believe that it cannot restructure itself to address its present difficulties,\" Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley said. \"My worry is that they would be forced to spin off their UK business to Magna, which simply does not have the expertise to run a global car company.\" CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Berlin, Germany, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Opel workers in Germany strike Thursday over GM's decision to abandon sale of automaker .\nGM's Opel restructuring plan could eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs .\nU.S. parent company says improving business environment behind its decision not to sell Opel .\nGM said in March it wanted to sell Opel after reporting losses of $30.9 billion ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Tim Roth is in an abandoned building near downtown Los Angeles, and he's about to mix things up. British actor Tim Roth plays a human lie detector on the hit series \"Lie to Me.\" \"This is a scene where the FBI is interrogating a suspect,\" Roth said. \"I'm breaking into the interrogation to get information out of him using the sort of techniques that my character espouses as opposed to pressuring him.\" Roth, who plays Dr. Cal Lightman on the hit Fox series \"Lie to Me,\" is shooting scenes for the season finale, which will air May 13. His character is an expert on body language and the detection of deception. \"Our series is based on the idea that we can read what's going on across your face and if it's contradicting what you're actually saying,\" Roth said. Lightman and his colleague, Dr. Gillian Foster -- played by Kelli Williams -- run \"The Lightman Group.\" They observe body language and interpret what it means in order to help law enforcement agencies see through the bull. His character is based on Dr. Paul Ekman, a specialist who reads clues embedded in the human face, body and voice to expose the truth in criminal investigations. Ekman, who in 2001 was named as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century by the American Psychological Association, is a scientific consultant for the show. Roth says Ekman can be intimidating. \"He makes me very, very nervous, Paul, you know,\" he said. \"I mean, he's the sweetest man, as sweet as can be, but when he's around, you feel like your acting is really being judged.\" Roth is perhaps best known for his outings with famed director Quentin Tarantino. The British actor pulled off a convincing American accent in the cult classics \"Reservoir Dogs\" and \"Pulp Fiction.\" He uses his true-Brit accent in \"Lie to Me,\" which debuted in January and is one of the season's few successful new dramas. In a review for Entertainment Weekly, critic-at-large Ken Tucker wrote that \"Like 'Monk' and 'Psych' and 'The Mentalist,' 'Lie' offers us an eccentric who's brought in by law enforcement to solve crimes.\" Though he gave the show a B-minus, Tucker praised Roth for \"resist[ing] the cuddly\/cranky.\" The show has quickly found its fan base, though ratings have declined slightly since the show was put in its 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot, ahead of \"American Idol.\" (The first five episodes aired after \"Idol.\") \"I got stopped because one of my lights was out and I was coming back from work and the guy, the cop that stopped me said 'Oh, we watch your show' and they seemed to enjoy it,\" said Roth. \"ER\" alum Mekhi Phifer is set to join the cast as an FBI agent for two episodes this season, starting Thursday. \"I'm here to kick ass and take names, you know. So it's kind of different,\" Phifer said. \"It's fun, you know. Obviously, I carry a gun and I'm in law enforcement rather than being a doctor.\" Phifer particularly likes acting in intense scenes with Roth. \"I have my own way of doing it,\" he said. \"It's a little different than the way Tim does it. It's a lot of fun, and we're having a great time.\" And will time spent on the show help Phifer better detect when people are lying to him in real life? \"It's going to take a few more episodes, but I'm pretty perceptive,\" he said. Roth, however, makes no claims of special powers -- at least when he's away from the set. \"I try not to know too much, because it actually is quite extraordinary,\" he says. \"When you watch politicians on TV, you can use the stuff that Paul does to see if they're lying or not. I try not to take it home.\"","highlights":"British actor Tim Roth stars in the hit Fox series \"Lie to Me\"\nActor best known for his appearances in Quentin Tarantino films .\nRoth plays a body language expert who can detect liars .\n\"ER\" alum Mekhi Phifer is set to join the cast ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An audio message attributed to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the highest ranking former member of Saddam Hussein's regime still at large, salutes the \"People of Palestine\" and calls on them to fight back against Israel in Gaza. A 1999 file image of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who served under Saddam Hussien's regime and who is still at large. \"We say to the people of Gaza, give more resistance and we will be with you in the field, and know that our victory in kicking out the invaders is your victory as well, because the main assailant on the nation and on Palestine is the American imperialism,\" the recording said. \"A salute to the martyrs of the massacre, and our condolences to their families.\" Al-Douri's recording follows reports of a similarly defiant message from al Qaeda's deputy chief a day earlier. Ayman al-Zawahiri reportedly vowed revenge for Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza and called Israel's actions against Hamas militants \"a gift\" from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. Israel is in the 12th day of a military operation against Hamas militants, who have been firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Al-Douri's 30-minute recorded message was broadcast Wednesday on al-Raei Iraqi satellite television over an old picture of al-Douri, wearing his Iraqi military uniform. CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the voice on the tape. This is not al-Douri's first purported audio message. There have been at least four others over the past three years in addition to a statement attributed to him. Al-Douri, 66, served as vice-chairman of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council. He remains at large nearly six years after the war in Iraq began. He has previously been reported killed and captured, although those reports later turned out to be erroneous. He was the King of Clubs (No. 6) on the U.S. military's card deck of most wanted regime officials. The U.S. military says he has helped finance the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq with Iraqi funds he transferred to Syria before Hussein's government collapsed in April 2002. But it says his influence has waned while he has been in hiding. U.S. officials say al-Douri played key roles in the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 and in putting down Kurdish and Shiite revolts after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.","highlights":"Al-Douri was vice-chairman of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council .\n30-minute recorded message broadcast on al-Raei Iraqi satellite television .\nCNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the voice .\nU.S. says he has helped finance the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The operation on Ronaldo's injured left knee \"went well\" but the Brazilian striker faces a lengthy rehabilitation as he bids to save his football career. Ronaldo leaves the field in agony after suffering his latest injury blow against Livorno. Ronaldo had surgery in Paris on Thursday, the two-hour operation perfomed by Dr. Eric Rolland with Dr. Gerard Saillant, who carried out a similar repair to his right knee in 2000, in attendance. \"The operation went well,\" said Saillant. \"The intervention was of the same type as the one in 2000. The healing period should last nine months,\" he said in sports paper L'Equipe. Ronaldo was injured playing for AC Milan in a 1-1 draw with Liverno on Wednesday night and teammate Clarence Seedorf gave CNN a graphic description of the incident. \"It was like a film I already saw,\" said the Dutch star who was on the pitch when Ronaldo suffered his previous serious injury. \"I saw his reaction, I was frozen by the reality, a bad, bad thing. My heart went out to him because it was his second injury. I hope he has the will to come back,\" added Seedorf. Ater the two-hour operation at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, the three-time FIFA World Player of the Year is likely to need about 10 days of physical therapy, L'Equipe said. Ronaldo, 31, has battled serious injuries throughout his career, and has played sparingly since joining Milan from Real Madrid in January 2007. Wednesday's match was only his fifth in Serie A this season after injuring his thigh during preseason training on July 31. He returned in November, but has been in and out of the team due to a series of recurring problems. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ronaldo recovers in Paris following surgery on his ruptured left knee tendons .\nThe surgeon who performed the two-hour operation said it went \"very well\"\nRonaldo sustained injury playing for AC Milan against Livorno on Wednesday ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers launched assaults across Iraq over the past 24 hours, killing 11 police recruits and six civilians, including a 7-year-old. Iraqi and U.S. troops conduct a joint patrol Monday in the northern city of Mosul during a push against insurgents. Also, the U.S. military said it killed an al Qaeda in Iraq leader in northern Iraq. The violence erupted as a peace agreement was taking hold in Baghdad's Sadr City, for weeks the scene of battles between Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias. A suicide bomber exploded his vest outside the house of an Awakening Council leader, Sheikh Mutleb al-Nadawi, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Baquba in Diyala province, the military command in Diyala said. Al-Nadawi was in the house and escaped injury, but a 7-year-old was killed and two of al-Nadawi's bodyguards were wounded. Awakening Councils are the U.S.-backed Sunni groups that oppose al Qaeda in Iraq. A mortar round landed on a busy outdoor market in Balad Ruz, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Baquba. Three civilians were killed, and nine were wounded. A bomb exploded Tuesday inside a minibus in southeastern Baghdad's Rustumiya district, killing two passengers and wounding five, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Insurgents also attacked a minibus filled with police recruits Monday in Baaj, a Nineveh province town near the Syrian border, killing 11 people, according to Mosul police. Iraqi security forces arrested 15 people in connection with the attack. Backed by U.S. soldiers, Iraqi forces have been conducting an offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul and the rest of Nineveh province. American-led coalition troops killed a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader east of Samarra in northern Iraq on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. Meanwhile, the agreement forged to end the weeks of fighting in the capital's Sadr City is taking hold, government officials and witnesses said. Thousands of soldiers and police officers have moved deep inside the restive neighborhood without resistance from Shiite militia members who have been fighting Iraqi and U.S. troops. The troops have been clearing mines and soon will begin the process of confiscating weapons, officials said. No violence has been reported in the area since Monday. Much of the earlier fighting involved the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and security forces dominated by a rival political party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The latter is the leading party in the government's United Iraqi Alliance bloc. The agreement, hammered out between the United Iraqi Alliance and the Sadrists, is intended to clear the neighborhood of weaponry and outlaws and restore stability to the area. Tahseen al-Sheikhly, civilian spokesman for Baghdad's security plan, said there has been great cooperation among residents, Sadrist supporters and government forces. Gen. Qassim Atta, the military spokesman of Baghdad's security plan, said Tuesday that checkpoints and patrols have been established and coalition forces are ready to help Iraqi troops, but they have not entered Sadr City. Elsewhere in Baghdad, the trial of Saddam Hussein-era officials Tariq Aziz, Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- also known as Chemical Ali -- and six others resumed Tuesday. They are facing charges in connection with the executions of 42 Iraqi merchants in 1992. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attack on Awakening Council official leaves 7-year-old dead .\nAl Qaeda in Iraq leader is killed, U.S. military says .\nMinibuses attacked in Baghdad, Nineveh province .\nTrial of Saddam Hussein-era officials resumes ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There are several definitions of where the Northwest Passage begins and ends, but using the Arctic Circle is certainly the most encompassing, so we've been holding our breath until we crossed this line. The crew has negotiated some stunning and treacherous waters to sail the Northwest Passage. The Arctic Circle (66 30N) marks the lowest latitude at which the midnight sun is ever seen. We've had some stormy weather along the Baffin Island coast. We had waves up to 8m high and winds over 40 knots. Silent Sound was being tossed around a lot, and I was thrown clear across the cabin on one occasion, suffering a minor concussion that kept me in my bunk for several days. Now that we're out of the Arctic Archipelago and into the open sea, we are seeing more icebergs, instead of ice floes. Ice floes are frozen seawater while icebergs are chunks of ice broken off glaciers in the High Arctic. Bergs begin as snow falling on land, which is then compressed into ice. Even though the icebergs we see are easily 20 or 30 meters high, most of their volume is below water. Only about one third of their entire volume is visible above water. This means you have to stay well clear of them because they may spread out under water, like an upside down mushroom. We've also started thinking about what we've experienced and learned this summer. By far the most impressive feature of the Arctic has been its people. In every town we visited we met complete strangers who offered us help, welcomed us into their homes and provided us with hot showers and food. So many people showed genuine interest in our journey and generously told us about their lives, and we left nearly every town with a few fish or other wild game in our fridge. Our mission when we left Victoria, British Columbia in June was to find out how climate change is impacting Arctic communities. We saw and heard about the impacts, from slumping land due to the melting of permafrost to hunter stories about the northward migration of species and the challenge that early ice break up poses for transportation. But more importantly, I'm leaving the Arctic with a sense that its communities are at a crossroads. They underwent a rapid change in the 1950s and 60s when people moved off the land and into settlements. Now, those settlements are bracing themselves for unprecedented change due to resource exploration, economic development, political wrangling and an influx of new wealth, people and social forces. They're all tied to climate change in one way or another, and they leave Arctic community leaders with a big job ahead of them. Climate change is turning the spotlight on the Arctic, and hopefully that will mean federal government help where it is needed to aid the Inuit in making wise choices for their future. I've been struck by how although the Arctic is very different place than the urban habitat most of us occupy, it is not in a different time. To maintain a romantic notion of the Arctic as a place time has forgotten where life is simple and basic would be an insult to the people that call it home and be a mistake. Many of the challenges brought to the Arctic by climate change and economic development are the same as those faced around the world. It's just a little colder, and a little more remote. While we've begun mulling over our experiences this summer, it's too soon for the crew of Silent Sound to relax. We are still about three weeks from our final port. And the sailing is getting cold and tiring. The nights are very dark at sea, and temperatures are hovering just above zero degrees Celsius. On many days we are sailing in snow, rain and sleet. Our onboard heater has broken down, so we have to wear extra layers in our sleeping bags to keep warm. This also means that the condensation builds up in the boat and it gets pretty damp, making it hard to dry our socks and gloves. But Halifax is in sight, and we can get some comfort from our accomplishment of completing the Northwest Passage.","highlights":"Crew of Silent Sound complete the Northwest Passage, heading for Halifax .\nCrew have faced dangerous ice bergs and waves up to 8 meters high .\nArctic communities at a crossroads, directly and indirectly from climate change ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Facebook's user base is nearly as large as the U.S. population and, for the first time, the site has turned a profit. Facebook now has 300 million users -- almost as many as the population of the United States. That was the double-barreled announcement Tuesday from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who thanked the site's users for helping its online community cross the 300 million threshold. There are about 307 million people living in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. \"We're just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone,\" Zuckerberg wrote on the company's blog. \"Because we want to make it as easy and fast as possible for the world to connect, one of the things we think a lot about is how to make Facebook perform even faster and more efficiently as we grow,\" he wrote. \"We face a lot of fun and important challenges that require rethinking the current systems for enabling information flow across the Web.\" The social networking site, while popular with its exploding user base, has struggled to turn a profit. But Zuckerberg said the company became profitable last quarter, beating its goal of getting out of the red by the end of 2010. \"This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term,\" he wrote. In July, the California startup company announced it had hit the 250 million-user mark, which indicates it has grown by 50 million users in two months. That's more than 800,000 new users per day. About 70 percent of Facebook's users are outside the U.S., according to statistics posted by the company. The site started out as a portal for college students but has attracted the attention of baby boomers and older generations in recent years. Facebook says its fastest-growing demographic is people older than 35. Watch Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook's marketing team talk about the milestone \u00bb . Over the past year, the social network has seen a challenge from Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site. Many bloggers see recent updates to Facebook's interface as copied from Twitter's stripped-down design. As Facebook has grown, it also has drawn criticism from privacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which says people on Facebook unwillingly give up personal information to advertisers and Facebook application developers. In a video interview with Fortune, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook gives its users robust privacy controls. She also told Fortune that a new approach to online advertising has helped Facebook's revenue grow throughout the recession. \"Our advertisements are very much part of the user experience,\" she said. \"So the same way you can RSVP for an event on Facebook -- you know, a party your friend might throw -- you can RSVP for a movie premiere. And that's really a movie advertisement saying, 'Our movie is opening this weekend. Do you want to go?' \" After Zuckerberg's blog post went up Tuesday, more than 500 Facebook users commented, largely cheering him on. \"i [heart] facebook. mark, you are my hero!\" one user wrote. \"Today the Internet, tomorrow the world,\" said another. Technology blogs jumped on the news from Facebook, which was posted about 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. MG Siegler at the blog TechCrunch wrote that it was inevitable that Facebook would pass the 300 million mark but that its finance news was more significant. New technologies probably are helping Facebook keep its computer server costs down, which is important because Facebook stores a lot of data, he wrote. The site is effectively the largest photo-sharing site online, he said. John Paczkowski, a writer for the Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD blog, said Facebook's financial announcement indicates the startup isn't thinking about selling out. \"It would seem then that Facebook has no interest whatsoever in selling itself off to Google or anyone else,\" he wrote. \"It would much rather go public.\"","highlights":"Facebook announces it has 300 million users and has turned a profit .\nThat makes the social network roughly the size of the U.S. in population .\nCEO writes Facebook will be a \"strong independent service for the long term\""} -{"article":"Editor's note: Eric Cantor, a Republican serving his fifth term representing the 7th District of Virginia, was elected last month as the Republican Whip, the party's second-highest position in the House of Representatives. He also serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Eric Cantor says Republicans want to make sure the massive economic stimulus plan is used wisely. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bolstered by wide Democratic margins in both chambers of Congress, the new administration assumes power Tuesday with a broad public mandate to repair the feeble economy. But with such a free hand over current stimulus efforts comes great danger. Costing at the very least a hefty $825 billion, the plan's potential for taxpayer waste and special-interest-driven giveaways is enormous. We Republicans believe we can help mitigate those risks if we are given a meaningful place at the table. President-elect Barack Obama was correct to point out recently that no one party has a monopoly over sound ideas. Rather than presenting an obstacle, House Republicans intend to use the full force of our ideas to help Democrats produce a better package to help pull the country back from the economic abyss. Specifically, we want to keep the stimulus bill -- as well as all other future economic \"rescue\" measures -- limited in scope and transparent. Our country has no other choice. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a sobering report that this year's deficit will likely climb to over 8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, or $1.2 trillion. That's higher than at any point since World War II -- and those figures don't even account for the forthcoming stimulus. Such heavy borrowing runs the risk down the line of rampant inflation, which scares away foreign capital while making the purchasing power of the dollar weaker for American consumers. While deflation may be the more immediate threat that the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are correctly focused on, uncontrolled spending and borrowing could easily necessitate much higher Treasury interest rates to keep foreigners financing our mounting debt. Especially given the looming entitlement crisis, this poses heavy danger for businesses and families alike. Let's not lay the groundwork for future financial catastrophe. Let's lay it for future growth. The stimulus can do that by focusing exclusively on strengthening businesses, boosting job creation and lifting consumer confidence. Our preferred strategy is to provide meaningful tax relief directly to middle-class taxpayers and the small businesses that they operate or work for. Particularly in down times, tax cuts can lift an economy by encouraging work, investment and business expansion. That should be the aim of the $300 billion in tax cuts the president-elect has pledged -- an apparent recognition, however overdue, that tax cuts are in fact stimulative for the economy. But we also accept that these are dizzyingly uncertain economic days for our country. The Democrats have proposed additional spending for infrastructure and the like, ostensibly to compensate for stagnation in the private sector. Like bears sniffing out food at a campfire pit, those looking for a piece of the multi-billion dollar pie have flooded Washington with a cascade of requests, some capable of spurring immediate and lasting growth, others falling hopelessly short. In order for the public to know that money is not wasted, two things are needed. First, we need to reconcile the American people's demands for swift action with the fact that a good bill requires time -- time to hold hearings, read the bill in painstaking detail, and root out waste. Second, Democrats have to live up to President-elect Obama's vow for \"unprecedented transparency.\" The GOP welcomes and strongly encourages the president-elect's idea to post all contents of the bill online for the American people to judge. Lastly, any new spending must be introduced with the clear understanding that it is temporary rather than permanent. It is not always easy to terminate spending programs once they have been funded, but our bleak long-term budget outlook requires significant sacrifices over the coming years. We trust the Democrats' assurances that the economic stimulus will not be turned into a grab bag for favored interests. Serving as the honest and fair check on majority power, we will work to ensure they keep their word. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eric Cantor.","highlights":"Rep. Eric Cantor: Obama has a mandate for plan to spark the economy .\nPlan's potential for waste and special-interest giveaways is enormous, he says .\nCantor: We support Obama's idea of making the plan transparent .\nHe says best strategy is to provide tax relief to middle class, small business ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The wounds of partition festered again this week in India, resulting in the banning of a book and the expulsion of a respected politician. Protesters burn an effigy of Jaswant Singh over his book; the former foreign minister was ousted from his party. The home state of the father of Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi, forbade the sale and circulation of a new book it says spews revisionist history about the birth of secular but predominantly Hindu India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Written by Jaswant Singh, a former federal minister and senior member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the book calls Mohammed Ali Jinnah, considered by Indians the architect of the partition, a great man who is wrongly demonized. Jinnah went on to become the first governor general of Pakistan. In \"Jinnah: India, Partition and Independence,\" Singh absolves the Pakistani leader as the man responsible for dividing the subcontinent, suggesting instead that it was another beloved independence leader, Sardar Patel, who played a major role. \"The book wrongfully portrays the fateful partition of our nation,\" the Gujarat state government said in a statement. \" Such a brainchild has no historic background at all. In the larger interest of society, the state government has decided to impose a ban on the book.\" The BJP accused Singh of deviating from the party's \"core ideology\". \"We always respect freedom of expression but can never compromise our ideology,\" Sidharth Nath Singh, a party spokesman, told CNN. \"You just can't eulogize Jinnah and accuse Sardar Patel instead.\" Singh, a widely respected politician known for his moderate views within the ranks of a conservative party, found it appalling that freedom of expression was threatened in the world's largest democracy. \"The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking,\" Singh told reporters. He defended his work and said he did not understand the objection to his writings about Patel, who, as India's first home minister, banned the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mother organization of the BJP, after the assassination of Gandhi in 1948. \"I don't know which part of the core belief I have demolished,\" Singh said. Nearly 350 years of British rule ended in 1947 when an agreement for independence was reached to give Muslims their own homeland. Indians think of Jinnah as the man who pushed a two-state notion based on religion as a prerequisite for freedom. In the days that followed, an estimated 1 million people died in a border-crossing exodus. Muslims fled from India into Pakistan while Hindus clamored to find new homes in India. The animosities fueled by that bloody birth -- including three wars fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- continue to haunt Indians, said journalist and author Tarun Tejpal. \"This flashpoint played out in public is a reminder of those wounds,\" Tejpal said of the book dispute. As a book of history written by a politician, it might have been inconsequential, Tejpal said. But as a book about the partition, it was incendiary. \"What happened 62 years ago continues to haunt us in a very bitter way,\" Tejpal said. \"We can't seem to leave our baggage in the past.\" This isn't the first time that Pakistan's founder has caused trouble for a Hindu nationalist. BJP President Lal Krishna Advani was forced to temporarily step down in 2005 for praising Jinnah's secularism during a trip to Pakistan. Political observers say the Singh controversy reflects a battle for the soul of the BJP, beleaguered by electoral defeats and vicious infighting. Many in India view the BJP as a divisive force attempting to gain power by exploiting Hindu-Muslim tensions. Advani was charged in the 1992 demolition of the 16th-century Babri mosque in the central Indian city of Ayodhya, though he was later acquitted in that case. Journalist K.G. Suresh, a longtime observer of conservative politics in India, said the BJP is struggling to figure out how to stay electable, whether to move right or stay closer to the center. \"Jaswant Singh's book is a manifestation of that clash,\" Suresh said. Singh's political climb is likely over, but what of younger Indians, now generations removed from those who remember independence? Tejpal for one, senses the wounds could keep reopening. And that, he said, \"doesn't bode well.\"","highlights":"Home state of Mahatma Gandhi bans revisionist history of India-Pakistan partition .\nBook suggests independence leader Sardar Patel was the architect of the division .\nAnimosities over the partition continue to impact India and Pakistan ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- People have been eating pickles ever since the Mesopotamians started making them way back in 2400 B.C.E. Here are some even more important things you should know about them. Pickles have gotten credit for health and beauty and winning football games. 1. In the Pacific Islands, natives pickle their foods in holes in the ground lined with banana leaves, and use them as food reserves in case of storms. The pickles are so valuable that they've become part of the courting process, helping a man prove he'll be able to provide for a woman. In Fiji, guys can't get a girl without first showing her parents his pickle pits. 2. Cleopatra claimed pickles made her beautiful. (We guess it had more to do with her genes.) 3. The majority of pickle factories in America ferment their pickles in outdoor vats without lids (leaving them subject to insects and bird droppings). But there's a reason. According to food scientists, the sun's direct rays prevent yeast and mold from growing in the brine. Mental Floss: 8 disastrous product names . 4. In the Delta region of Mississippi, Kool-Aid pickles have become ridiculously popular with kids. The recipe's simple: take some dill pickles, cut them in half, and then soak them in super strong Kool-Aid for more than a week. According to the New York Times, the sweet vinegar snacks are known to sell out at fairs and delicatessens, and generally go for $.50 to a $1. 5. Not everyone loves a sweet pickle. In America, dill pickles are twice as popular as the sweet variety. 6. The Department of Agriculture estimates that the average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year. 7. When the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Dallas Cowboys in sweltering heat in September 2000, many of the players attributed their win to one thing: guzzling down immense quantities of ice-cold pickle juice. Mental Floss: 31 unbelievable high school mascots . 8. If it weren't for pickles, Christopher Columbus might never have \"discovered\" America. In his famous 1492 voyage, Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors to keep them from getting scurvy. He even grew cucumbers during a pit stop in Haiti to restock for the rest of the voyage. 9. Speaking of people who get credit for discovering America, when he wasn't drawing maps and trying to steal Columbus' thunder, Amerigo Vespucci was a well-known pickle-merchant. 10. Napoleon was also a big fan of pickle power. In fact, he put up the equivalent of $250,000 as a prize to whoever could figure out the best way to pickle and preserve foods for his troops. 11. During the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, H. J. Heinz used pick-shaped pins to lure customers to his out of the way booth. By the end of the fair, he'd given out lots of free food, and over 1,000,000 pickle pins. 12. Berrien Springs, Michigan, has dubbed itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World. In early December, they host a parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister, who tosses out fresh pickles to parade watchers. Mental Floss: Curious, bizarre and storied state symbols . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year, according to Dept. of Agriculture .\nSouthern state treat: Dill pickles soaked for week in Kool-Aid .\nPhilly Eagles players said pickle juice helped them beat Dallas Cowboys in 2000 .\nChristopher Columbus and Napoleon were fans of pickle power ."} -{"article":"PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- The sole survivor of a plane crash that killed two Americans and a Panamanian pilot was awake and talking Wednesday, a doctor said. Francesca Lewis, 13, apparently fell out of the plane or was ejected on impact, her mother, Valerie Lewis, told CNN on Wednesday. The girl endured two days in the rugged mountains of Panama, in frigid temperatures and heavy rain, before rescuers stumbled upon her in the wreckage on Christmas Day. \"She's doing all right,\" Valerie Lewis said. \"She is having tests done at the hospital right now, and so far things seem good -- kind of miraculous. \"The fact that she so far doesn't seem to have any major damage seems incredible.\" Dr. Alexander Quidano at the Mae Lewis Medical Center in Boquete, Panama, said Francesca was in stable condition, awake and speaking. She was being treated for a fractured arm and several cuts, but tests, including a CAT scan, were under way to make sure nothing else was wrong, Quidano said. Francesca apparently was disoriented when her rescuers saw her under a wing of the wrecked plane, her mother said. She thought she was at home and wondered why an airplane wing was in her house, her mother said. Rescuers carried the girl on a stretcher for three and a half hours in torrential rain over rugged terrain to a helicopter. \"We're so relieved to have her with us,\" her mother said. The small plane disappeared Sunday in a mountainous area of Panama. Authorities found the bodies of pilot Edwin Lasso, American businessman Michael Klein and Klein's 13-year-old daughter, Talia, about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to a statement posted on the Web site of Panama's civil protection agency. Francesca and Talia were friends. Watch latest from school the girls attended \u00bb . Rescuers planned to retrieve the three bodies Wednesday, said Thomas Mesa, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Panama City. Klein, a 37-year-old hedge fund manager, was vacationing with the two girls when they took the flight Sunday to photograph a volcano in Chiriqui province, about 285 miles west of Panama City. Authorities think the small single-engine Cessna ran into bad weather. Radio contact with the flight was lost about noon Sunday. Authorities and hundreds of volunteers spent the last two days searching the dense jungles and mountainous terrain, but heavy rain in the area had hampered recovery efforts. \"I just want to thank all of the people that cared so much about trying to help us,\" Valerie Lewis said. \"So many people tried to help, and at great effort and sacrifice, and through the Christmas holiday. \"I mean, the most important family holiday, people were giving up that to go and trudge through the mud. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. We really appreciate everything that was done.\" Klein was president and CEO of eGroups Inc. in 1999 and 2000, when Yahoo! acquired the company, merging it with its own e-mail services and changing its name to Yahoo! Groups, which now serves more than 100 million users worldwide. \"My heart goes out to everyone,\" Valerie Lewis said. \"We all have been through a tremendous trauma together.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Girl, 13, was disoriented when found under wing, mother says .\nNEW: Lack of major injuries \"seems incredible,\" mother says .\nNEW: Rescuers carried girl 3.5 hours over mountains in heavy rain .\nGirl was only survivor in Panama crash that killed three ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The much-maligned symbol of motoring in Communist East Germany, the Trabant, is set to make an unlikely comeback as a concept car at this year's International Motor Show in Frankfurt. The old-style Trabi is a common sight in Germany where tourist operators use the car for local tours. Designers have replaced the car's smoke-belching two-stroke engine with electric fuel cells and solar-powered air-conditioning. This, they promise, is not the four-wheeled object of ridicule that rolled off production lines in East Germany from 1957 until 1991. This is the new Trabant, or Trabi as they're known, an energy-efficient city car for modern drivers. \"I think the market will be people who say the old Trabant was a cool car, and people who want to have a stylish car, and want to have a green car,\" Daniel Stiegler, of Herpa Miniaturemodelle, told CNN. Herpa is not a carmaker, at least not in the traditional sense. It makes model cars and airplanes, of the type that sit in display cabinets, not garages. Two years ago, a member of its management team, Klaus Schindler, decided it was time to make a miniature model of the Trabant. Herpa took it to the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 2007 and were stunned by the response. \"We had a special folder where people at the fair could fill out and give it back to use. We had about 14,000 reactions on that, and most of them, 90 percent, said 'Yes, the Trabant is a really cool car, let's bring it back,'\" Stiegler said. Herpa teamed up with German auto parts maker IndiKar, which has designed a prototype to be unveiled at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in September. They hope to attract enough interest to put the car back into production. The early response of Trabi enthusiasts to an electric version of their much-loved cars has been encouraging. \"This will be an ideal vehicle to try it on,\" Geoff Armitage, who had been the president or chairman of the Wartburg Trabant IFA Club UK on and off for some 18 years. \"If they go for the same type of cladding of duroplast, or western-style glass fibre, you have a light body which obviously will be an advantage for an electric car.\" The original exterior of the cars was made from duroplast, a blend of cast-off cotton fibers from Russia mixed with glue. Armitage bought his first Trabant in the Netherlands in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Over the years, he's owned around 20 of the German cars, adding \"we have several restoration projects in the yard at the moment.\" Like many admirers, he appreciates the Trabi's simplicity. \"They are basic technology. There is absolutely nothing that we can't repair ourselves. If we can't get the parts we can usually make them,\" he laughed. \"If they can do the electrical conversion, for want of a better term, in a relatively low-tech way so they keep it simple I think it could be a success,\" he said. German filmmaker Maximilian Spohr spent four years making a documentary about the Trabant. He became fascinated about the car's origins as a child growing up in the East where residents faced up to a fourteen-year wait for delivery of their vehicles. \"There was only a certain contingent, a certain amount, allowed every year, because they didn't have enough screws, they didn't have enough parts,\" he said. For his documentary, \"A Car For A Dollar,\" he interviewed former Trabant engineers and owners and found an abundance of nostalgia for the old-style vehicles, despite their association with Communist repression. \"People remember it as their only partner in crime,\" Spohr said. \"It was the one and only thing that brought them around the country. They weren't allowed to go far. This was the only vehicle they could use and it was always reliable, most times.\" Many of the cars were dumped by their owners as soon as they'd driven them to freedom over the border from East to West. Spohr said it didn't take long for nostalgia to kick in and the first Trabi appreciation meeting was held in 1990, just one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of plans for a new, eco-friendly Trabi, Spohr says, \"\"I think it's great. People would probably love it, I think it will sell. Big time.\" If the modern Trabant fails to materialize, there's always the option to step back in time in the original version. Trabis can still be seen slowly weaving through traffic, particularly in Berlin and Dresden, where Trabi-Safari leads tourists in a procession of up to six cars to local points of interest.","highlights":"Relic of Communist East Germany to be revived as eco-friendly city car .\nNew electric Trabant to be unveiled at International Motor Show in Frankfurt .\nCar was once the only vehicle available in East before fall of Berlin Wall .\nTrabi enthusiasts admire the car's simplicity, ability to make running repairs ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three attacks were made on Royal Dutch Shell oil facilities in Nigeria on Sunday, according to a company spokesman who said details were not immediately available. Investigating the attacks will be difficult because they happened in remote areas, Royal Dutch Shell says. The attacks were against pipelines in the eastern part of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, said the spokesman, Rainer Winzenried. \"Shell is investigating the impact on facilities, the environment and the production capabilities,\" he said. The attacks happened in remote areas, making investigations difficult, he said, adding that the company would not send in investigators until it was certain the area was secure. It was not known whether there were any casualties, he said. The pipelines are part of a Shell joint venture that provides oil to several companies, Winzenried said. Shell runs the venture, and Nigeria is the operator. Winzenried refused to speculate on who was behind the attacks, but Nigeria's main militant group -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND -- said it had attacked an offshore facility earlier Sunday and that \"the structure is ... engulfed in fire.\" Winzenried had no information about that claim. MEND, which demands a fairer distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth, claimed Friday that it destroyed a pipeline owned and operated by the Italian gas company Agip, but Agip has not confirmed that report. Earlier in the week, MEND claimed to have destroyed Royal Dutch Shell's main trunk line in Bayelsa state and a Chevron oil station in the delta region. Shell confirmed an attack on that pipeline and said it had shut it down to avoid an environmental impact. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it was investigating. Last month, the militant group declared an \"all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be invested in the region instead of enriching those whom the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent.","highlights":"Royal Dutch Shell: Pipelines attacked in eastern part of Nigeria's Niger Delta .\nFew details available; company says remote area will make investigation hard .\nCompany won't speculate on who was behind attacks .\nMilitant group MEND claimed it attacked an offshore facility earlier Sunday ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Miami police issued a plea for information Saturday after at least one person with an assault rifle opened fire on a crowd of people on a streetcorner Friday night, killing two teens and wounding seven other people. Evidence markers dot the Miami street where nine people were gunned down with an AK-47 Friday night. \"We need the community to come together, someone come forward and give us a tip,\" Miami Police Officer Kenia Alfonso told CNN. \"There are a lot of people in that area. Someone must have seen something, someone must know who could've done this horrific crime.\" Alfonso said two teens, ages 16 and 18, died in the attack, which broke up a game of craps in front of a grocery store about 9:50 p.m. Friday in the city's Liberty City neighborhood. Five of the shooting victims were still in the hospital Saturday night, according to CNN affiliate WSVN. Others told WSVN that a masked man with an AK-47 burst onto the scene and ordered everyone to the ground. \"Boy came round the corner; he was like, 'Get down,' and he just started shooting,\" 16-year-old victim Andrew Jackson told WSVN. Watch as resident describes scene as \"war zone\" \u00bb . Six of the nine shot were current or former Northwestern Senior High School students, Alfonso said. \"It was like a war zone,\" resident Joan Rutherford told WSVN. \"I witnessed this guy laying there with his face, looked like it was completely tore off. His eyes was all I could see, and he had a grip on some money and gasping and trying to lift his head up to say something.\" Police Chief John Timoney said that at least one man with an AK-47 \"discharged numerous rounds, then ran around the corner. There were some more rounds discharged there from an AK-47 and another weapon.\" One of those wounded was in critical condition Saturday and undergoing surgery, Timoney said. \"We are convinced that because of the amount of people out here last night that there is somebody that knows the individuals or individual involved, and we need them to come forward,\" Timoney said, according to WSVN. \"These are weapons of war, and they don't belong on the streets of Miami or any other street in America,\" Mayor Manuel Diaz said. Watch Miami residents call for stricter laws \u00bb . Alfonso said police did not know the motive for the shooting and had no suspects. CNN's Patty Lane contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Teen tells WSVN that masked gunman ordered victims to ground, opened fire .\n\"Someone must know who could've done this horrific crime,\" officer says .\nSix victims are students, graduates of Northwestern Senior High School .\nCrowd of people standing at streetcorner was fired upon Friday night, police say ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Automotive expert Tom Torbjornsen answers a question about how to diagnose an exhaust problem and what to do about it. Dear Tom, Smoke is coming out of the tailpipe of my 2002 Chrysler Sebring with 90,000 miles. Is this a big problem? I have to put a quart of oil a week in the engine. What should I do? -- Sally, New York . Sally, Generally, engines burn oil due to a few reasons: bad valve seals, worn valve guides, pressurized crankcase (oil pan) due to a clogged PCV valve or breather system, and blow-by from worn piston rings. Bad valve seals: The valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. Oil is pumped at 40 to 80 PSI (pounds\/square inch) of pressure into the top of the head, lubricating the valve-train. The valves have seals to stop the flow of oil down into the engine when the valve is open. If the seals fail then oil is allowed to flow down into the combustion chamber and is burned. Worn valve guides: A small cylindrical chamber called a valve guide does just what its name says ... it guides the valves. These guides wear out over time causing eccentricity (slop). The excess gap that forms allows oil to flow down the valve stem into the combustion chamber to be burned. Normally the valve seal stops this flow. However, in this case the gap is too great for the seal to work. AOL Autos: Should you use synthetic motor oil? Pressurized crankcase due to clogged PCV or breather system: Your car's engine is a giant air pump, consequently it must breathe. The PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) system allows the engine to exhaust the excess pressure buildup (which is a natural phenomenon of the internal combustion engine). Carbon is a by-product of an engine and can build up in the PCV system, clogging the breathing passages. This in turn pressurizes the oil pan and pushes oil up into the fuel delivery system where it is fed into the engine and burned. AOL Autos: Do I need to replace my air filter? Blow-by from worn piston rings: The pistons in your car's engine have seals around them in the form of rings. These rings have two functions: (1) they seal the combustion chamber so that the power developed from the firing of the cylinder is not lost. (2) They provide vital lubrication to the cylinder walls. When the rings wear out, the pressure from combustion reverses down into the oil pan, pressurizing it, and forcing oil into the valve covers. From there it goes through the breather system, back into the fuel delivery system, and into the engine to be burned. I have to put a quart of oil a week in the engine. Is this a big problem? It's hard to say without performing some diagnostics on the engine. A quart of oil a week is excessive. It could be due to a plugged PCV or excessive internal engine wear. Take the car into the shop for engine diagnostics. My guess is that the tech will perform a compression test along with a cylinder leak down test after he\/she determines if the PCV system is open. During these tests the tech tries to determine if there is loss of engine compression, blow-by, or excessive oil consumption due to ring wear. If excessive ring wear is discovered then further engine teardown will be necessary to determine if the engine needs to be rebuilt or replaced. AOL Autos: How often should you change your oil . What is the difference between blue and white smoke? The engine can emit different colors of smoke: . Blue smoke: Blue typically means that engine oil is being burned in the combustion chamber. In rare cases, when a vehicle is equipped with a transmission that uses a device called a vacuum modulator valve (to soften shifts between gears according to engine vacuum) the diaphragm can break inside the valve and cause transmission fluid to be sucked into the engine via the vacuum line feeding the valve and burn. AOL Autos: Fluid leaks: unsafe and expensive . White smoke: White can mean one of two things. (1) Water condensation from a blown and leaking head gasket: This gasket is the seal between the cylinder head and engine block. Water runs through channels called water jackets that line the cylinder walls and thus carry away heat. When the head gasket blows, the seal between the cylinder head and engine block breaks and water is allowed to enter the combustion chamber. This water is emitted from the engine in the form of water vapor or steam and it is white in color. (2) Excessive gas: Fuel delivery systems sometimes falter and dump excessive amounts of raw fuel into the intake plenum. When this happens, the amount of fuel is too much for the engine to process. Hence, it exits the engine and tailpipe in the form of pure white fuel vapor. It stinks like raw gas and can be dangerous if it ignites in the hot muffler and catalytic converter. I have witnessed exhaust systems literally blown off the vehicle from the explosion that ensued from ignition of a gas-filled catalytic converter. This condition must be fixed immediately to prevent internal engine damage or worse yet, a serious fire. Can I add oil or coolant and keep driving the vehicle until I can afford to fix it? Yes. However, be advised that such maladies never get better by themselves; and they always get worse with time. There is a real possibility that you will get caught on the road driving at highway speeds (thinking you added enough oil, transmission fluid or engine coolant) and the oil runs out, causing a catastrophic failure. In general, when it comes to a need for auto repair, conditions never improve on their own. You must maintain your vehicle if you want to get the maximum life out of it and, in the long run, spend the least amount of money. AOL Autos: How to avoid common car problems .","highlights":"An oil-thirsty engine and smoke coming from car's tailpipe are signs of trouble .\nBad valve seals or worn guides, clogged PCV valve, worn piston rings among causes .\nWhite smoke: Water condensation from blown head gasket, too much gas .\nBlue smoke: Engine oil is being burned in the combustion chamber ."} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Former South Korean President and Nobel Laureate Kim Dae-jung, who struggled for democracy for decades and prodded communist North Korea toward rapprochement, died of heart failure on Tuesday, hospital officials said. As president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung helped bridge differences with North Korea. He was either 83 or 85, according to conflicting sources. The Nobel Prize Web site indicates he was born on December 3, 1925. The Kim presidential library lists his birth date as January 5, 1924. He served as president from 1998 to 2003, and in 2000, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea. Kim was admitted to Seoul's Severance Hospital more than a month ago for pneumonia. Before winning the presidency, Kim struggled for decades as an opposition leader. A former political prisoner, he endured a suspected assassination attempt, a kidnapping, repeated arrests, beatings, exile and a death sentence. Shortly after taking office, Kim vigorously met political leaders of Western countries in a bid to gain support for his \"Sunshine Policy\" to establish relations with the North. Kim's policy of detente culminated when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in June 2000, becoming the first South Korean leader to do so since the Korean War unofficially ended in 1953. But Kim left a mixed legacy as president. Although he helped pull South Korea out of a financial downward spiral, many of his promised economic reforms failed to materialize. A series of corruption scandals, including the imprisonment of two sons on graft charges, also tainted his tenure. \"Broadly speaking, his place in history is going to be a positive one,\" said Brian Bridges, a political science professor at Hong Kong's Lingnan University who specializes in politics and foreign policies of the two Koreas. \"While it is true that his presidency ended in a cloud of controversy ... he did have a very significant impact in two ways: He took over at a time when South Korea was on its knees and pulled it out from a tremendous economic downturn. And he helped in significantly changing public opinion and popular thinking of South Koreans toward North Korea.\" Kim was born to middle-class farmers on Ha Enido, a small island in South Cholla province, but the family moved to the nearby port of Mokpo so Kim could complete high school. He began dabbling in anti-establishment politics while working in the shipping industry. After his fifth try for political office, Kim was elected to the National Assembly in 1961. One month later, Gen. Park Chung-hee seized control of the government in a military coup, launching Kim's career as a key opposition figure. The tough, authoritarian Park proved the perfect foil for the fiery oratory of the charismatic Kim. The more Park persecuted Kim, the more Kim's popularity grew. During the height of the Vietnam War in 1971, Kim proclaimed his liberal views on the reunification of North and South Korea. The government branded him a communist, but in his first presidential race he won 46 percent of the vote against Park. Kim was headed to a rally in Seoul a month after the election when a truck turned directly into the path of his car, forcing him off the road. The truck hit another vehicle, killing two people. Kim was left with a permanent limp from the incident, which was widely considered an assassination attempt. Park tightened his hold in 1972, scrapping the constitution and doing away with any pretense of democratic rule. Kim traveled to Japan for medical treatment and continued his anti-Park campaign. In August 1973, South Korean agents kidnapped Kim from a Tokyo hotel and took him out to sea in a small boat, on which he spent several harrowing days. When then-U.S. Ambassador Philip Habib was informed of the abduction, he warned Park that he would face severe repercussions from the United States if Kim were killed. Kim was returned to his Seoul home, battered but alive, and spent the next nine years under house arrest, in jail or in exile. In 1979 Park was assassinated by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Another general, Chun Doo-hwan, imposed martial law as he moved to take over the presidency. Kim and other leading opposition figures were arrested as tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Kwangju, in South Cholla province. Troops used force to quell the demonstrations, killing at least 200 people, by some estimates. Kim was charged with sedition and nearly executed, but again the United States intervened. Under a deal with then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration, Kim boarded a plane to the United States in 1982. When he returned to his homeland a few years later, however, the United States could not help him. As soon as he stepped off the plane in Seoul, Kim was knocked down by Korean security officers and dragged back into house arrest. Kim made two more failed bids for president -- in 1987 and 1992 -- before declaring that he was quitting politics. His retirement did not last long and he was elected president in 1997, at the height of the Asian economic crisis. His inauguration marked the first peaceful transfer of power between rival parties in 50 years. At the time of his inauguration, Korea was plunging headlong into a financial crisis. He told CNN then that he felt as though he was handed an empty vault. Kim called on global investors to have faith in his country's future -- and on his people to forge their own recovery. Thousands answered, trading in gold rings for cash as a symbol of their desire to revive their country. The watershed moment of Kim's presidency came in June 2000 when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, grasping hands and beaming. But rapprochement talks between the countries hit a wall after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008, with a tougher stance toward the North than Kim and his successor, Roh Moo-hyun. In an interview with CNN in 2006, Kim looked back on his long political life, secure in the belief that -- despite setbacks -- his convictions were worth fighting for. \"After I was sentenced to death, people from the military regime came up to me and said, 'If you cooperate with us, we will let you live. If you don't cooperate, you will die.' \"I said, 'If I compromise with you, I'll live temporarily, but I will die forever. If I do not cooperate with you, my body will be dead, but I will live in my people's heart and history forever. I rather choose to live in history forever.'\" CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kim's \"Sunshine Policy\" with North culminated in 2000 meeting with Kim Jong Il .\nKim was president from 1998 to 2003 .\nHe was hospitalized more than a month ago for pneumonia .\nDespite Nobel Peace Prize, he failed to achieve economic reforms that he promised ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- In the words of Vice President John Nance Garner, the vice presidency \"isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss.\" Vice President Aaron Burr is best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. That may be true, but the characters who've held the job are definitely worth a few good pages of trivia. Join mental_floss in toasting seven backup plans that made this country great. 1. Chester Arthur: James Garfield's V.P. Chester Arthur took office under the thickest cloud of suspicion. As a lieutenant in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political machine, Arthur held one of the most lucrative positions in government: collector for the port of New York. For seven years, Arthur raked in approximately $40,000 annually (about $700,000 today), running a corrupt spoils system for thousands of payroll employees. With so much money and power, Arthur developed an affinity for fancy clothes and earned the nickname \"the Gentleman Boss.\" But his luck didn't last. President Rutherford Hayes eventually stepped in and fired him from the post. Even with the kickback scandal and claims that he'd been born in Canada (which should've disqualified him for the vice presidency), Arthur still managed to get elected on James Garfield's 1880 ticket. After Garfield passed away 199 days into his presidency, Arthur didn't hesitate to sign the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. Much to the chagrin of Conkling, the Act revamped civil service by effectively killing the same patronage system that made Arthur very, very rich. In cleaning up civil service, Arthur also cleaned up his reputation, and he exited the White House a hero. 2. Henry Wallace: Franklin Roosevelt's second V.P. Henry Wallace was a dedicated devotee of Eastern mysticism. While serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1930s, he allegedly sent his guru to Mongolia under the pretense of collecting grasses that could withstand drought. In reality, Wallace was diverting funds to help his guru hunt for evidence that Christ had visited Asia. But it wasn't Wallace's spiritual beliefs that landed him America's No. 2 job. Wallace was a big Franklin Roosevelt fan and supported his entire platform, which is why Roosevelt handpicked him as his third-term running mate in 1940. Wallace wasn't popular with the Democratic Party, but when Roosevelt made it clear he wouldn't run without him, the party acquiesced. As vice president, Wallace made many international goodwill trips. Most famously, he traveled to the Soviet Union, where he experienced a political transformation that resulted in him becoming an avowed Soviet apologist. His communist leanings did nothing for his image, especially once he became secretary of commerce under President Truman. In 1948, Wallace unsuccessfully ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket, espousing views that sounded shockingly Marxist. He even described corporations as \"midget Hitlers\" attempting to crush the labor class. But nobody can say Wallace didn't know how to own up to his mistakes. In 1952, he recanted his support of the Soviet Union in a magazine article called \"Where I was Wrong.\" By then, however, his political career was over. Wallace spent the rest of his life conducting agricultural experiments on his farm in New York. 3. William Rufus de Vane King: Franklin Pierce's V.P. William R. King was sworn into office in Cuba, becoming the only executive officer to take the oath on foreign soil. King had gone to Cuba to recuperate from tuberculosis and severe alcoholism, but it didn't work. He died in 1853 after being vice president for just 25 days. That might not be the most memorable thing about King, though. It's widely rumored that the former V.P. was homosexual. Further still, he's suspected of being James Buchanan's lover. Neither King nor Buchanan ever married, and they lived together in Washington for 15 years before Buchanan became president. Of course, King's predilection for wearing scarves and wigs only fanned the rumors. President Andrew Jackson used to call him \"Miss Nancy,\" and Aaron Brown, a fellow Southern Democrat, dubbed him \"Aunt Fancy.\" 4. Richard M. Johnson: Martin Van Buren's V.P. Despite his credentials as a war hero and a Kentucky senator, Vice President Richard M. Johnson was never accepted in Washington. Perhaps that's because he dressed like a farmhand, cursed like a sailor, and made no secret of his three black mistresses, who were also his slaves. The first mistress bore him two daughters before she passed away; the second tried to run off with a Native American chief, but Johnson captured and resold her; and the third was the second one's sister. Johnson attempted to introduce this third mistress into polite society, but the couple wasn't well-received. With the support of Andrew Jackson, Johnson landed the vice presidency under Martin Van Buren in 1836. After four years of public relations disasters, Jackson withdrew his support. Nonetheless, Van Buren kept Johnson on his ticket, and the two lost their re-election bid in 1840. 5. Aaron Burr: Thomas Jefferson's V.P. No story on vice presidents would be complete without Aaron Burr -- best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. After the incident, Burr went back to presiding over the Senate. From there, he plotted a treasonous conspiracy to become emperor of the western United States and Mexico. The plan could have worked, but one of Burr's co-conspirators ratted him out. He was tried in 1807 before the Supreme Court, which found him not guilty, mainly because he hadn't actually committed the treason yet. A free man, Burr turned his sights on Florida. He went to France and tried to convince Napoleon Bonaparte to help him conquer the swampland, but that plan foundered, too. Although his political high jinks often failed, Burr consistently found success with the ladies. After his wife died in 1794, Burr remained a bachelor for 40 years, making the acquaintance of several eligible socialites. He enjoyed flirtations with Philadelphia debutantes, as well as a widow named Dolley Payne Todd -- later known as Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison. At age 76, Burr married a wealthy widow of ill-repute and plundered her fortune. Citing numerous infidelities on his part, she filed for divorce and was actually granted it. Unfortunately for her, it came through on the day Burr died. 6. Andrew Johnson: Abraham Lincoln's 4th V.P. Andrew Johnson took his 1865 vice-presidential oath drunk as a skunk and belligerent as hell. Having grown up dirt poor, Johnson felt the aristocracy in Washington had abused his kinfolk. Glassy-eyed and smelling of whiskey, he reminded Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and pretty much everyone within hearing distance that they owed their positions to \"plebeians\" such as himself, then kissed the Bible and staggered away. Needless to say, his address was poorly received. The New York World opined, \"To think that one frail life stands between this insolent, clownish creature and the presidency! May God bless and spare Abraham Lincoln!\" Unfortunately, God didn't. The South surrendered six days before Lincoln's assassination, leaving Johnson to handle Reconstruction -- a job he bungled so completely that Congress moved to impeach him. Incredibly, Johnson avoided being booted out of office by just one vote. 7. John Cabell Breckenridge: James Buchanan's V.P. By all accounts, John C. Breckenridge was a Kentucky gentleman in the grandest sense. He had an impressive career as a lawyer and a representative in the Kentucky House. More notably, at age 36, he became the youngest vice president in history. But, like Aaron Burr, things took a turn for Breckenridge when he was charged with treason. In September 1861, only a few months after his vice presidential term had ended, Union and Confederate forces invaded his home state of Kentucky. Breckenridge cast his lot with the Confederates, and the federal government promptly indicted him. Breckenridge headed south and became Jefferson Davis' secretary of war. But when the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, Breckenridge was forced to go on the lam. He hid for the next two months in Georgia and Florida before escaping to Cuba. Breckinridge, his wife, and their children spent the next four years in exile, wandering through Canada, England, Europe, and the Middle East, until President Andrew Johnson issued a General Amnesty Proclamation on Christmas in 1868. The following March, Breckenridge returned to the country with his family, but his name wasn't officially cleared until 1958, when a Kentucky circuit court judge dismissed his indictment. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Chester Arthur maintained lucrative employment as the collector for port of NY .\nAndrew Johnson took his 1865 vice-presidential oath drunk and belligerent as hell .\nAaron Burr tried to conspire with Napoleon to conquer Florida, but failed .\nBoth Aaron Burr and John Breckenridge were charged with treason ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Sandra Bullock will surely be popping open the champagne as her new romantic comedy, \"The Proposal,\" accepted the top spot at the box office this weekend by grossing $34.1 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock have reason to celebrate after \"The Proposal\" takes top box office spot. Not only did \"The Proposal\" win the weekend, but it was by far the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling the opening of her previous best, \"Premonition,\" which debuted to $17.6 million in 2007. While \"The Proposal's\" success was fueled mostly by women (73 percent of the audience was female), both women and men gave it a healthy \"A-\" CinemaScore rating, so expect the movie to hold up fairly well during the next few weeks. The weekend's other big release, the prehistoric buddy comedy \"Year One,\" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million -- an okay debut for the $60 million movie. However, all indicators point to a quick descent for the Jack Black\/Michael Cera flick. \"Year One\" dropped 24 percent from Friday to Saturday (never a reassuring sign), and the movie received an unimpressive \"B-\" rating from CinemaScore. \"Year One\" is all but certain to join \"Land of the Lost\" as another box-office disappointment for high-concept comedies. On the other hand, \"The Hangover\" (No. 2 with $26.9 million) and \"Up\" (No. 3 with $21.3 million) continued to show off their box-office stamina, dropping only 18 percent and 31 percent, respectively, from the prior weekend. \"Up\" now stands at $224 million, and may levitate past \"Star Trek\" (currently at $239 million) to become the year's highest-grossing film. Finishing off the top five was \"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,\" which fell an alarming 52 percent for an $11.3 million weekend stash. Also opening this weekend was Woody Allen's \"Whatever Works,\" starring Larry David. The New York-based comedy laughed up $281,000 from just nine theaters for a weekend-leading $31,000 gross per theater. The film will expand to more than 300 theaters on July 3. Overall, the box office was up 3 percent compared to last year's Father's Day weekend, when \"Get Smart\" debuted to a surprisingly sharp $38.7 million. Hope you all are having a splendid Father's Day! I know I will -- I'm taking my pop to see \"Up.\" CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"The Proposal,\" accepted the top spot at box office by grossing $34.1 million .\nThis is the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling her previous best .\nJack Black's comedy \"Year One\" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million .\nCheck out the rest of the top 10 movies at this weekend's box office ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Most of the Supreme Court justices piled up a lot frequent flyer miles in 2007, jetting to such exotic locales as Austria, India and Hawaii, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court justices at a shoot for their 2006 \"class photo.\" And they generally have a good bit of spending money for their travels, based on reported investment income. The records, which were released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, confirm what has been known for some time: that most of the justices are relatively well-off financially. The eight associate justices make $208,100 in annual wages plus income from a variety of resources. Federal judges are not required to publicly release exact income figures, just a general range. The wealthiest justice may be David Souter, with a wise investment he made years ago in a Vermont bank paying off handsomely. His assets in Chittenden Corp. are valued from $5 million to $25 million. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's asset totals are boosted by the fact that her husband, Martin, is a respected private tax attorney in Washington. Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia are also millionaires. Justice Samuel Alito, the newest member of the high court, also reported income ranging from $700,000 to $2 million. In the area of reported gifts, Alito cited about $500 in \"Italian food and wine\" given to him by a friend, about whom the justice helpfully noted it \"is not likely that he will appear before this court.\" The latest financial records continue to show Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas reporting assets under $1 million, not including homes and judicial salaries. Thomas received a one-time boost to his income when his best-selling memoir was released in October. He received the remaining half of a reported million-dollar book advance and traveled extensively on a book promotion and signing tour. Scalia also received an advance for his book on how to be a better appellate lawyer. The amount was relatively paltry compared to his colleague's: $33,000. The annual records show that Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy and Scalia were the busiest travelers. Each made multiple visits overseas to teach, give speeches or attend judicial seminars. Airfare, lodging and meals were generally paid for by the organizations that invited the justices, but under federal law, they must report it. Europe was a favorite destination for several justices. Breyer reported 21 out-of-town trips for which he was reimbursed, including to Paris, France; Rome, Italy; New Delhi, India; and Palm Springs, California. Ginsburg went overseas to France, Belgium, Ireland and Canada and made at least nine other domestic trips. In the same week in July, Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts were in France and Austria, respectively. But the Most Traveled Award goes to Scalia, who made 33 expense-paid trips, including eight overseas, and visited at least 17 states. Only Souter and Stevens reported no trips for which they were reimbursed by sponsoring groups. Souter also reported no outside teaching gigs, trustee or board memberships, or any gifts received. The 68-year-old bachelor generally spends his extended time away from the high court at his isolated farm in rural New Hampshire. Chief Justice John Roberts may have the most diverse investment portfolio. He recorded 63 investments and trusts, including stock in Time Warner (parent company of CNN), Citicorp, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. The estimated value is from about $2.4 million to more than $6 million. Before becoming a federal judge, Roberts was a high-paid Washington lawyer. His judicial salary is $217,400. Roberts, 53, continued to sell off small amounts of common stock, including in Cisco and Citigroup. When he took over as chief justice in 2005, he was forced to sell stock in several companies. A bill passed two years ago in Congress allows federal judges to defer paying capital gains taxes on securities they sell to avoid conflicts of interest. High-level executive branch employees had enjoyed that privilege for years. The issue of judges holding such diverse investment portfolios has resulted in several conflicts of interest, prompting calls for reform. The high court last month refused to accept an appeal from a group of South Africans seeking to sue U.S. and foreign firms for allegedly helping keep the white-led apartheid government of their country in power for decades. Four members of the high court were forced to remove themselves from consideration of the cases. No reason was given for their recusal, but financial disclosure reports showed that Roberts, along with Breyer and Alito, owns stock in several of the companies being sued. Kennedy's son Gregory is a top manager in one, investment bank Credit Suisse. Under federal rules, at least six justices must hear a case that is accepted for review. With four of the nine recused, the high court had no choice but to uphold the lower court ruling, tossing out the lawsuit. Some reform advocates say that judges should be allowed to own only mutual funds instead of individual stocks. Mutual funds involve a range of investments whose identities are disclosed to the fund's shareholders several times each year. Federal law allows judges to own mutual funds without having to recuse themselves from a particular appeal.","highlights":"Reports show David Souter may be the wealthiest member of Supreme Court .\nSamuel Alito, the busiest traveler, made 33 expense-paid trips in 2007 .\nChief Justice John Roberts recorded 63 investments and trusts ."} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- She refuses to dwell on the past and accepts that she can't control the future. Reese Witherspoon juggles her career, family and love life, yet still is able find time for herself . For Reese Witherspoon, it's all about living in the moment. And with a thriving career, two children, and a handsome boyfriend -- Jake Gyllenhaal -- who can blame her? On her divorce from Ryan Phillippe ... You have to keep it together for your kids and for yourself too. I'm trying to learn from the things that have happened in my life, live more in the moment, and have more fun. Someone told me recently to live in the present but make plans and take pictures. And I am. I'm writing more, I'm reading more. Going to more concerts. Jake and I went to Coachella this year. On being confident ... As you get older, you know what you like and what you don't like, and you're not apologetic about it... I used to judge myself so harshly. I think women in their 20s do. You're hard on your body, you're hard on yourself. But you start to realize that none of it is really all that important. As long as you're comfortable, the best parts of yourself come through no matter what. Your mother can tell you that a million times, but you don't understand it until you live it! On if she likes to cook ... I do. And Jake is a great cook, he does a lot. We spend the weekends outside L.A, in Ojai, where I have a farmhouse. We have chickens and we grow cucumbers and tomatoes. I love it. It reminds me of where I grew up in Tennessee. On working out ... I try to exercise every day. I like to run for about an hour, and I'm big into working out with girlfriends. It's an acquired skill, being able to discuss your love life, children and friends, all while you're running! But we have mastered it. On her new perfume ... I have a lot of favorite smells from growing up in the South that I wanted to capture in this scent. As a kid, I was always outside. There was a magnolia tree in the front yard that I think I spent most of first, second and third grade in. And there was the smell of honeysuckle from the creek that ran down by our house. Gardenias were important too, because every Mother's Day or on my birthday my father would buy small bouquets or corsages for my mother and me. While we were working on the perfume, Avon asked me if I could explore other notes, but I kept going back to white flowers! The packaging reminds me of my grandma's bureau, where she'd have little perfume bottles out. I love it. On her girlfriends ... There are three of us who wear pretty much the same size, so we'll get together on a Friday night and I'll bring clothes I want to trade and they'll bring theirs. We swap shoes and purses a lot. I wore my girlfriend's dress to a wedding recently. It's fun. On raising her kids, Ava and Deacon, far from home ... Sometimes it's really difficult for me, being far away from home. L.A. is where my job is and I have to be close, but I never imagined that my children wouldn't grow up next door to my brother's children. Or my mom and dad wouldn't constantly be around. You know, I had dinner every night with my grandparents as a kid, so I think missing out on that is a hard compromise. At least I have a lot of Southern friends in L.A. I gravitate toward them. I think of those people as a part of my family: They take care of me and I take care of them. On being a mom and a career woman ... I love my life without work and I love my life with work. My mom, who's a nurse, called me the other day when I was really stressed out from working a 15-hour day. And she was like, \"Yeah, but think of it as a part-time job.\" And I thought, that's actually right, it puts it in perspective. I work incredibly hard for three months, but then I get a break. It's about really enjoying my time off. Where do I relax the most? Where are my children happiest? My ideal scenario is to do one movie a year. But as an actor, I don't think you can do an awful lot of planning. In fact, my new philosophy in life is I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, as if I could magically predict it if I planned it enough. And then I realized, I can't. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Reese Witherspoon on divorce: \"You have to keep it together for your kids\"\nActress says she exercises for an hour a day .\nShe and boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal cook and grow cucumbers and tomatoes ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four survivors of the US Airways Flight 1549 that went down in the Hudson River appeared on \"Larry King Live\" Thursday to discuss a recording of the pilot calmly telling an air traffic controller the plane would ditch. Carl Bazarian, clockwise from left, Vince Spera, Alberto Panero and Brad Wentzell appeared on \"Larry King Live.\" \"We're gonna be in the Hudson,\" pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger radioed on January 15, about three and a half minutes after the Airbus A320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration released the recording on Thursday, a day after the National Transportation Safety Board said both the plane's engines contained the remains of birds. Larry King: Carl, what goes through you when you hear the recording, especially the calmness? Carl Bazarian, survivor: You know, to me -- my son played it for me this morning. I found it incredibly stressful and sobering that we were so close to death. And that's the bad side. And I'm really not keen on hearing it too many more times. But on the other side, it's exhilarating. Again, we were blessed with the best feat in aviation, with the best pilot and co-pilot. That's all I can say. King: Vince, what goes through your mind? Vince Spera, survivor: Larry, the entire conversation that you hear going back and forth is just indicative of how the entire cabin was. It was calm, controlled, but tense. That's really what that conversation started to sound like to me. Listen to pilot's communication with flight controller \u00bb . King: Alberto? Alberto Panero, survivor: It's filling in pieces to the puzzle. While everything was going on in the plane, we didn't have much information of what was going on actually. So hearing this now kind of fits into the puzzle, where we see where I was at the point when everything was happening in the plane. King: Brad? Brad Wentzell, survivor: It's an amazing thing to hear, not only from our perspective, when we were basically going for a ride, but to hear from the man who -- just him and the Good Lord had our lives in his hand. King: How do you feel, Carl -- you'll see the whole crew with us Tuesday night -- when you hear the captain talk? Bazarian: First thing, he's very honest about it. But I don't know how -- we all had disbelief. It was all surreal. How then he was so energized to exhibit the highest professionalism. I think it's an incredible aviation feat. And my fellow friends, they will comment. But how did he get that composure? Watch survivors react to hearing the tape \u00bb . We were all panicky. Not panicky, I think Vince is right. We were kind of cool, but concerned, overly concerned. How did he regain himself and do what he did? I don't know how he did it. King: Vince, were there a lot of moments, Vince, when you thought you bought it? Spera: Actually, no. There was never a point in time when I thought I was going to die. Obviously, I think the way the people in the cabin behaved contributed to my feeling that way. It was just a lot of control. We felt like the pilot was in control. Obviously, it all worked out. At no point did I feel like I was going to die. I'm very happy to hear the captain truly didn't feel that way either. King: Alberto, how about when it hit the water? Did you think you were going to go under? Panero: No. I think as soon as we hit the water, we realized that the worst was over and the most important thing was to get out as soon as possible, making sure that the doors got open quickly and that everybody stayed calm and tried to exit as calmly as possible, because at first people were trying to get out quick and trying to push a little bit. But I think everybody realized that the more organized that we did it, the faster we would get out. I think that helped out a lot. King: Brad, the last few weeks, have you had flashbacks? Do you think about it a lot? Wentzell: I've had a few flashbacks. For me the most real thing that I keep playing back in my head is saying goodbye to my family in prayer and saying goodbye to my little daughter, my loved ones, my wife, and waiting to die. It's a very real feeling. I wasn't as optimistic. No one ever knows when they're going to die. I felt that was my time. Apparently, the Good Lord still has a few things for me to do on this Earth. King: Carl, you're looking out the window here, I guess. Bazarian: Yes, I was. King: What are you thinking? Bazarian: The first reality when we hit, I thought, initially, the landing was so good I thought we were back on the tarmac. That was my immediate reaction. But then the water -- immediately, we saw the water out the window. Again, like Vince said, when we saw that daylight of the door opening, it wasn't a herd of people trying to rush out. It was pretty good composure. I guess Vince is right. We picked up on the courage of the crew and the flight attendants. King: Vince, there was one passenger who thought he landed. Spera: Yes. I heard several stories about reactions of different people. Honestly, most of the people knew exactly what was going on and they really just wanted to get out and get to safety. But I did hear somebody attempting to pick up their bag and do some other things like that. Fortunately, most of those people were on the right side of the plane. I got to get out the left. King: Alberto, have you flown since? Panero: Actually, I have. The next day I took a plane home. I figured that was going to be the easiest way to just get over any kind of possible trauma, just get back on the plane. And I just kept focused on seeing my family and friends and that got me through the flight pretty well. And also the lady that was sitting next to me was very nice and just happened to make friendly conversation. So it worked out pretty good. Panero: Brad, have you met the captain? Wentzell: I did meet the captain. That was very real thing. He's just as cool and calm in person as you would expect, for someone who was able to do, from what I believe, no one else on the planet could do. He was very humble. I think we all have been humbled from this experience.","highlights":"Four survivors of Flight 1549 react to recording of pilot dealing with emergency .\n\"I'm really not keen on hearing it too many more times,\" one survivor says .\n\"How did [the pilot] get that composure?\" another survivor asks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This month on Art of Life we feel the need for speed. From the world's first road-legal grand prix bike to a rock legend with a passion for aviation. Monita Rajpal samples the finest in Italian motorbikes . Monita Rajpal meets the boys behind Ducati's motorbikes, Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson explains why flying is his new source of adrenaline, and trance legend Paul Van Dyk takes us round his favorite haunt in the former East Berlin. Ducati: Riding in Style . Ducati has long-been the ultimate name in luxury motorbikes, but just like its racers, the company has had to compete fiercely to defend its title. As a small Italian manufacturer, up against Japanese mega-plants, employing thousands of workers, Ducati's comparatively small family is driven by pride. CNN's Monita Rajpal visits the Bologna factory floor and talks to some of the men behind the company, meets Ducati's Moto GP champion Casey Stoner and takes a test drive of Ducati's Desmosedici racing replica, the world's first road-legal grand prix bike. Watch Monita's trip to the Ducati factory . Bruce Dickinson: Rock star in the sky . A leather-clad, long-haired pilot, donning a t-shirt with blood-spewing skeletons would be a nightmare for many uneasy flyers. Fortunately for passengers on Bruce Dickinson's plane, the lead singer of Iron Maiden has gotten a new wardrobe and a new day job. Art of Life meets up with the rock legend to find out why he has chosen to take to the skies and become a commercial airline pilot. Watch Dickinson take to the skies . Paul Van Dyk: Guides us through Germany . Paul Van Dyk, the legendary trance musician, DJ and producer has made his name well-known, even though his genre of music is typically associated with young ravers and more urban listeners. Watch as Van Dyk takes Art of Life on a tour of his hometown, the former East Berlin, and shows how he has drawn from the city's war-weathered rhythms to gain inspiration for his songs. Watch Van Dyk tour Berlin E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"This month Art of Life looks at motorbike, planes, DJs and Rock idols .\nMonita visits the Ducati factory in Bologna, meets Moto champ Casey Stoner .\nIron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson talks about his passion for flying .\nDJ Paul Van Dyk takes us on a tour of his favorite parts of Berlin ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Oooooooshie the clown knows the instant effect he has on patients. The Lev Leytzan clowns perform for children and patients in hospitals to spread laughter and joy. \"When you walk out of a room hearing people laugh and smile, you hear them talking about it,\" said the clown, whose real name is Asher Mechanic. He entertains children and patients as part of a clown troupe in New York called Compassionate Clown Alley, bringing laughter to those in hospitals. \"It's the spreading of giving from one person to another, like a chain reaction,\" Mechanic said. The clown organization is also known as Lev Leytzan, a name derived from the program's roots working with Jewish youth. In Hebrew, lev means heart, and leytzan is a clown, so the translation is \"The Heart of the Clown.\" Watch the clowns talk about their work. \u00bb . \"Lev Leytzan allows me to take [something] scary and mundane for the patient and into something exciting beautiful and playful,\" said the group's founder, Dr. Neal Goldberg, a Woodmere, New York-based clinical psychologist. For the last two and half years, the clowns have been bringing cheer to the patients at the South Nassau Communities Hospital. \"The patients get satisfaction from having some sunshine coming to them in the hospital,\" said Phyllis Citera, director of volunteer services at the hospital. \"Sundays at the hospital are typically quiet, especially for those patients who don't have visitors stopping by. The clowns especially cheer them up.\" A positive approach empowers people who are ill, said Goldberg, who works with children, teenagers and young adults. Six years ago, while working on a bereavement project, he realized he was making a clown of himself and others in an effort to help people cope with pain. He wondered what would distract the patients from their pain and bring joy. Inspired by the work of Dr. Patch Adams, who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1998 film \"Patch Adams,\" Goldberg thought of running a similar program in which he and others could bring joy to people in orphanages, hospitals and retirement homes using the same whimsical approach. Goldberg researched the subject before putting on a red nose and trying out therapeutic clowning for himself. \"I found it powerful in terms of my own growth and freedom of expression and creativity, and thought it would be something wonderful and powerful to bring back to the community, to teens in particular,\" he said. Goldberg's clowns range from 13 to 22 years old and say they find it both empowering and humbling. \"As a clown, you get more than you give,\" said Dassy Newman, a former clown. \"You can't hold back, you have to give it all. You have to give your heart, your soul, your energy, everything. It's the most exhausting thing you've ever done, but at the same time it's the most exhilarating.\" Dr. Carolyn Fein-Levy, a pediatric oncologist at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York, said Goldberg's clowns provide relief to the patients. \"Whenever the clowns are around, the children are happier,\" Fein-Levy said. \"When they are happier, their parents enjoy watching them. They recapture their childhoods lost as a result of being sick. Clowns are a good distraction and it helps them feel normal. Nothing is more important for them than feeling normal, because their lives are not normal while going through therapy.\" She also teaches an oncology class to the Lev Leytzan clowns. \"It adds another dimension to their training and gives them an overview and an understanding to know what it's like to be a kid with cancer,\" she said. Fein-Levy also draws from her own experience, having survived ovarian cancer as a child after a year of chemotherapy. \"I teach in the clown school but I'm not worried about patients being harmed,\" she said. \"I'm more worried about harm for clowns because it's hard to see sick children. Some of the clowns have never really seen illness, and they can be afraid, and that's OK.\" Clowning might be assumed to be all fun and games, but Goldberg takes the work very seriously. \"Some of the kids may have told you there's intense amounts of hours of training and rehearsals with doctors and clowns and debriefings,\" he said. Ultimately, Goldberg said, the goal of Lev Leytzan is to \"change people's worlds, create worlds for people that need it, and to help people play.\" He does it all under the mantra of \"serious clowning, a story behind every smile.\"","highlights":"Clown group Lev Leytzan gets name from working with Jewish youth.\nFounder says he was inspired by Dr. Patch Adams to bring joy to patients .\nClowns who perform for patients say experience is humbling .\nMantra of group is \"serious clowning, a story behind every smile\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- After a six-year hiatus in which many bands have emerged, such as the Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs, copying their blend of melodic, intelligent songs and cheeky blokeishness, Blur return to show them who is best. Blur frontman Damon Albarn still exudes the matey bonhomie that made him one of the best-known British pop stars of the 90s. Much has changed since the mid-1990s when the Essex boys fought Oasis in the hyped Battle of Britpop. Singer Damon Albarn has pursued successful side projects such as Gorillaz and the Chinese opera Monkey, guitarist Graham Coxon went solo after being axed acrimoniously during the troubled recording of the \"Think Tank\" album, bassist Alex James makes cheese on his farm while drummer Dave Rowntree plans to stand for the UK parliament at the next election. Happily for fans, the band's two dominant personalities in Albarn and Coxon are now reconciled and, in the year's most anticipated reunion along with The Specials' comeback gigs, Blur on Thursday played the first of two outdoor concerts in London's Hyde Park. Before a massive crowd and a setting sun, Blur kick off with their first single, a feedback-drenched \"She's So High\" before going straight into \"Girls and Boys,\" the disco-inspired anthem to hedonism that propelled them into the big time in 1994. Albarn exudes matey bonhomie, asking, \"Was that adequate?\" The crowd roars its reply in the affirmative. The good-natured banter continues throughout the concert; he pays tribute to Hyde Park's \"lakes, Speaker's Corner ... other stuff\" and more thoughtfully, reminds the crowd that a million people marched there in 2003 in an unsuccessfully effort to prevent the Iraq war. Coxon seems happy just to be back in the band, doing the job he does best. There is a poignant moment when he takes the lead vocals in \"Coffee and TV\" while Albarn watches his songwriting partner admiringly. And as with all the greatest concerts, the hits the crowd has paid to hear keep coming: \"There's No Other Way,\" a raucous and bouncy \"Country House\" and \"Parklife\" on which actor Phil Daniels takes the jokey vocals. The audience responds to all the songs perfectly, even forcing the band into an extended singalong version of \"Tender.\" The only disappointment on that song is that the gospel backing singers are drowned out in the mix. As the light fades, a superb light show suits the mood of the songs perfectly. And despite this being a huge concert, there is room for more subtle songs like \"Out of Time,\" a nostalgic \"End of the Century\" and \"This is a Low.\" Blur finish with \"For Tomorrow\" and \"The Universal,\" ending what, for this reporter, will be remembered as one of the most amazing concerts. What Blur fans hope for now is some new material to match the classics they are evidently so proud of.","highlights":"Iconic 'Britpop' band Blur play comeback gig in London after six-year hiatus .\nGuitarist Graham Coxon returns to band after he was axed .\nGig is most anticipated comeback of year along with The Specials' reunion ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities said they were searching the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, on Saturday morning after killing several militants, and other standoffs across the city appeared to have ended by Friday. An Indian police officer takes position during an operation at the Chabad House Jewish center Friday. Officials said that at least 160 people have been killed in the violence and more than 300 injured. But even with most of the fighting quelled after more than two days of gun battles, many questions remain. The following is what is known about the attacks: . \u2022 Gunmen arrived by boats at the Mumbai waterfront near the Gateway of India monument on Wednesday night, police said. The gunmen hijacked cars, including a police van, and split into at least three groups to carry out the attacks, according to police. Watch a timeline of the attacks \u00bb . \u2022 One group headed toward the Cafe Leopold, a popular hangout for Western tourists, firing indiscriminately at passers-by on the street. The group then opened fire and lobbed grenades at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, authorities said. Watch theories on who attackers might be \u00bb . \u2022 As police rushed to the scene of the attacks, gunmen attacked the Cama Hospital for women and infants. Several people were killed at the hospital, and a standoff there lasted until Thursday morning. \u2022 Two other groups attacked the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels, taking hostages there, police said. \u2022 Gunmen took hostages at the Chabad House, where several Jewish families live, police said. \u2022 Police said gunmen fired indiscriminately from the Chabad House. Stray bullets killed a couple in their home and a 16-year-old boy who stepped outside, police said. \u2022 The Chabad-Lubavitch International group said Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, made a phone call to the Israeli Consulate to report gunmen in the house. \"In the middle of the conversation, the line went dead,\" the organization said. \u2022 Authorities raided the Chabad house Friday morning. Two gunmen died after the assault was launched, CNN-IBN reported. Authorities said five hostages -- including Holtzberg, who was an American, and his Israeli wife, Rivka, 28 -- were found dead. One of the three others was a second American rabbi, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office said. \u2022 At the hotels, hostages or people who were trapped exited at various times Thursday and Friday. Commandos entered both hotels, trying to flush out militants and rescue others. \u2022 Fire brigades battled blazes at both hotels. By early Friday, it appeared that what had been a major fire at the Oberoi had been extinguished. \u2022 Police were reporting Friday that the standoff at the Oberoi was over. Two gunmen were killed as authorities cleared the hotel, said J.K. Dutt, the National Security Guard's director-general. Thirty-six people were found dead there, according to Bhushan Gagrani, a Maharashtra state official. \u2022 At various times Saturday morning, gunfire and explosions could be heard as security forces worked to clear the Taj of at least one remaining gunman. \u2022 Shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday local time, Dutt said that three militants had been killed but that security personnel still needed to search the hotel for civilians and any possible remaining gunmen. His comments came shortly after Mumbai Police Chief Hussain Gafoor told CNN-IBN that the last militants at the Taj had been killed. The statements coincided with an apparent end of gunfire at the hotel. \u2022 By Friday night, 160 had been killed in the Mumbai attacks, including at least 15 foreign nationals, authorities said. These included five Americans, three Germans, an Italian, an Australian and one Chinese. \u2022 The official death toll did not include attackers who were killed by security forces. R.R. Patel, the Maharashtra home minister, said Friday that nine attackers had been killed. \u2022 More than 300 people were wounded, including seven Britons, three Americans and two Australians. \u2022 Two of the killed Americans were identified as Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, both of Virginia. The two, who were visiting India with a meditation group, died at the Oberoi. \u2022 Also among the dead were 16 police officers, two commandos and the chief of the Mumbai police anti-terror squad. \u2022 CNN-IBN quoted police sources as saying there were about 26 gunmen. \u2022 Authorities found 8 kilograms (17 pounds) of RDX, one of the most powerful kinds of military explosives, at a restaurant near the Taj. \u2022 The Indian navy, stepping up patrols on the country's western coast after the attack, was questioning the crew of the MV Alpha, a ship detained with the help of the Indian coast guard, British authorities said. The authorities said that they think the attackers' boats came from this ship and that they think the ship is from Karachi, Pakistan. \u2022 Several Indian news outlets reported that a group called the Deccan Mujahideen e-mailed them to claim responsibility for the attacks. Intelligence officials say little is known about the group. U.S. officials and security analysts say the sophistication of the attacks may indicate that a more-established group is involved. \u2022 State media Press Trust of India, citing Union Cabinet Minister Kapil Sibal, reported the gunmen had worked for months to prepare, even setting up \"control rooms\" in the two luxury hotels that were targeted.","highlights":"NEW: Three militants killed at Taj Mahal hotel; authorities continue search .\nTwo gunmen, five hostages dead at Chabad House .\nSecurity forces clear Oberoi hotel, where 36 people found dead .\nBritish authorities: Indian navy looking into ship where boats may have originated ."} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- A major donors conference to raise funds for the Palestinians has gone beyond expectations, with donors pledging $7.4 billion to help build a Palestinian state, organizers said Monday. France's Nicolas Sarkoxy, left, welcomes Tony Blair and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. Other delegations at the Paris meeting are offering aid in kind, such as the International Monetary Fund, which said it would provide monitoring of the Palestinians' promised reforms to reassure donors that their money would be used efficiently. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called the pledge of money a \"vote of confidence\" in the Palestinians. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the support of donors needed to be repaid in the coming months with steps to create a lasting settlement. \"Over the next few months, we have to show people our capability of making the difference on the ground,\" said Blair, who co-hosted the conference in his new role as envoy for the so-called Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. The Paris conference focuses on short-term priorities for the Palestinians, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said those include providing immediate support for the Palestinian people -- particularly those living in Gaza -- and stabilizing the Palestinian economy. Watch CNN's Jim Bittermann explain the conference's aims \u00bb . It follows on the heels of last month's peace talks in the U.S. in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowed to negotiate a final-status agreement by the end of 2008. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would donate $300 million, and the United States was expected to pledge more than $500 million. Central to the Palestinians' request for aid is a three-year reform plan that the Palestinians prepared for the conference. The plan, which covers 2008 to 2010, centers on economic development and government reform. The World Bank praised the plan, calling it a \"promising effort\" to link policy-making, planning and budgeting. But in a report released Monday, the World Bank pointed out the reforms would succeed in helping Palestinians only if they were accompanied by both donor aid and Israeli actions. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke of taking such actions, saying Israel is committed to meeting its responsibilities under the Middle East road map, especially regarding the contentious issue of settlements. Livni said an agreement had been reached with the European Union to provide training for Palestinian police. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians didn't lack will or determination but resources. He promised donors that Palestinians would work hard to create a modern country in control of its security. \"We are at a historic stage today, and the destiny of our region and peace depends on this,\" said Abbas, who requested the conference be held. Abbas earlier had requested $5.6 billion in aid over the next three years. Sarkozy repeatedly told the conference he is a \"friend of Israel,\" but he urged the Israeli government to withdraw troops from the West Bank, freeze settlements, reopen institutions in East Jerusalem and help the isolated population of Gaza. The World Bank's report detailed the challenges facing attempts to revive the Palestinian economy, which has become almost totally dependent on foreign aid. The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer for its people, as private-sector jobs dry up. The World Bank said wages for public sector employees account for almost half of the government's expenditures. With public investment having nearly ceased, the World Bank said, almost all government funds in the past two years have been used to pay salaries and cover operating costs. Staffing also has gone up in the health and education sectors, the World Bank said, leaving little money for pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, teaching and learning materials, and overall maintenance. The World Bank said the reforms would only succeed if they include Gaza, where 40 percent of the Palestinian population lives. Gaza has been subject to a wide-ranging crackdown since Hamas took power in June; its borders are closed, fuel imports are restricted, and there are strict limits on all imported goods. \"The continued entry of humanitarian goods has mitigated the impact of the closures on Gaza's population, but has not been sufficient to offset the collapse of the private sector there,\" the World Bank report said. Unemployment across the Palestinian territories stands at nearly 23 percent, the World Bank said, but in Gaza, 33 percent of the population is out of a job. It predicted the figures would rise if the restrictions continue. A report Monday from the U.N. Development Program spotlighted the pressures on private Palestinian businesses, especially in Gaza, where it said the private sector \"is on the verge of collapse with no scope for recovery\" unless Israeli restrictions are lifted. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Donors pledge $7.4 billion to help build a Palestinian state .\nNEW: IMF offers to monitor Palestinians' promised reforms .\nPalestinian aid conference organizers hail event as a new beginning .\nTony Blair says donors need to be repaid with steps to create a lasting settlement ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, formed Saturday near the coast of Belize, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Tropical Storm Arthur could make its way across the Yucatan and re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm made its way over land and was expected to weaken, but the center said the storm could re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico and regain intensity Sunday. At 11 p.m., the center of Arthur was over the southern Yucatan Peninsula, about 80 miles (125 km) west of Chetumal, Mexico, and about 120 miles (195 km) south-southeast of Campeche, Mexico. It was moving west at about 7 miles (11 km) per hour. The storm's maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph (65 km\/hr), with higher gusts, mainly over water east of its center. Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 260 miles (415 km) from the center of the storm, forecasters said. The government of Belize issued a tropical storm warning for the nation's coast, and the government of Mexico issued a tropical storm warning from Cabo Catoche south to the border with Belize. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area -- in this case, within the next six to 12 hours. The storm was forecast to dump up to 10 inches of rain over Belize, up to 15 inches in isolated areas, the hurricane center said. The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season begins Sunday. On Thursday, Tropical Storm Alma, the first one of the year in the eastern Pacific, formed near the west coast of Central America, according to the National Weather Service. The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression and dissipated over the high terrain of Central America. The federal government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted this month that the Atlantic season would be more active than normal, with up to 16 named storms and up to five major hurricanes of Category 3 or above. The noted Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team predicted this year that there would be 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes. The team calculated a 69 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coast. A survey released this week found that 50 percent of 1,100 adults surveyed in Atlantic and U.S. Gulf Coast states did not have disaster plans or survival kits. \"Nearly one in three said they would not prepare their home until a storm is within 24 hours of landfall,\" Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center, said Thursday. \"Now is the time to buy all that stuff,\" he said upon the release of the survey by polling firm Mason-Dixon.","highlights":"NEW: Storm could re-emerge into Gulf of Mexico and regain intensity .\nStorm's maximum sustained winds near 40 mph .\nStorm forecast to dump up to 10 to 15 inches of rain over Belize .\n2008 hurricane season begins Sunday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just like some U.S. officials looking into the mystery, the man who captured video of an apparent fireball plunging from the sky over Texas on Sunday is perplexed about what it was. Video captured in Austin, Texas, shows a meteor-like object in the sky Sunday morning. \"I don't know what I saw in the sky. It was something burning and falling really fast,\" Eddie Garcia, a videographer for News 8 Austin, told CNN Monday. \"I'm looking in the viewfinder and I see, just, something flying through the sky. And it kind of looks like it could be dust, it could be something, and then I look up and, no, it was something burning in the sky,\" he said. \"And you know, this is something that you see at night clearly during a meteor shower or something like that, but you don't see something like that during the day.\" Authorities in Texas said there were reports of sonic booms in the area Sunday as well. Watch video of meteor-like fireball \u00bb . Early speculation was that it might have been debris from two satellites -- one American, one Russian -- that rammed into each other in space a week ago. But the U.S. Strategic Command, which tracks satellite debris, said it was not. \"There is no correlation between those reports and any of that debris from the collision,\" command spokeswoman Maj. Regina Winchester told CNN Monday. So what was it? \"I don't know,\" she responded. \"It's possible it was some kind of natural phenomenon, maybe a meteor.\" Meteor fireballs bright enough to be seen in the daytime are rare but not unheard of. Two of the most recent fell in October in the Alice Springs region of Australia and last June just west of Salt Lake City, Utah. The one over Australia was unique because the asteroid that caused it was discovered and tracked before it reached Earth's atmosphere, according to the Sydney Observatory's Web site. It says the asteroid was about 6.5 feet wide. A sonic boom also was heard in connection with that event, the Australian observatory says. On Friday, the National Weather Service reported that its office in Jackson, Kentucky, had received calls about \"possible explosions\" or \"earthquakes\" in that area. \"The Federal Aviation Administration has reported to local law enforcement that these events are being caused by falling satellite debris,\" the service said Friday. \"These pieces of debris have been causing sonic booms, resulting in the vibrations being felt by some residents, as well as flashes of light across the sky. The cloud of debris is likely the result of the recent in-orbit collision of two satellites on Tuesday February 10, when Kosmos 2251 crashed into Iridium 33.\" CNN's call Monday to NASA to get its take on the fireball over Texas was not immediately returned. Garcia said he had been told NASA may have called him. The FAA had asked pilots Saturday to keep an eye out for \"falling space debris,\" warning that \"a potential hazard may occur due to re-entry of satellite debris into the Earth's atmosphere.\" FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said Sunday there had been no reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft in flight. He said the FAA had received no reports from pilots in the air of any sightings, but had gotten \"numerous\" calls from people on the ground in Texas, from Dallas south to Austin. As of Monday morning, Herwig said his agency had no information about what the fireball was. iReport.com: Did you see the fireball? Send photos, video . He also said the FAA had rescinded its warning to pilots to look out for space debris. Garcia, the videographer, was out covering a marathon race Sunday morning when he caught a glimpse of the blaze. In the video, it appear as a meteor-like white fireball blazing across the clear sky. \"I remember shooting it and wondering what I shot, and then looking around and seeing if anyone saw it with me, and everyone was just focused on that marathon that we were shooting at the time,\" he told CNN Newsroom. Whatever it was, Garcia said he's \"just grateful I got a shot of it. And, hopefully, that'll help\" people figure out what it was.","highlights":"Video shot in Austin, Texas, shows meteor-like object in sky Sunday morning .\nFireball sightings, reports of sonic booms come days after satellite collision in space .\nFAA told U.S. pilots to watch for \"falling space debris\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Of all of the calculations Zainab Ibrahim made during her accounting career in Baghdad, this one was a snap. Iraqi refugee Zainab Ibrahim lives in a modest, sparsely furnished apartment outside Atlanta, Georgia. After a bullet whizzed by her head and death threats showed up at her doorstep, it was time, she figured, to leave. She went to Jordan four years ago and arrived last June at her ultimate destination -- the United States. Once a target of insurgents because her job at the Iraqi Finance Ministry involved working with the U.S. military, Ibrahim is now trying to avoid another pitfall -- falling through the cracks of America's recession. She and thousands of refugees across America who fled war and persecution just can't seem to find full-time jobs in a weak economy. And that just doesn't add up for Ibrahim, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from Baghdad University and risked her life for the U.S. government. \"It's everybody's dream being in the United States. I thought I would get the opportunity I always dreamed about,\" she said in fluent English in her sparsely furnished apartment outside Atlanta, Georgia. \"I'm really shocked. I found out everything is slow.\" View video highlights from her interview \u00bb . The recession has made life tough nationwide for refugees. \"It's the most challenging time I've seen and I've been doing this work for 25 years,\" said Robert J. Carey, vice president of resettlement and migration policy at the International Rescue Committee, one of several nonprofit organizations that the U.S. government pays to resettle refugees. Lavinia Limon, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, says, \"it's a significant problem.\" \"All refugees are required to become self-sufficient in a very fast time period. Our program is designed with that in mind. There isn't a long-term basis of support,\" said Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops. \"What we have right now is a situation where it's becoming more and more difficult to find employment in a very short time period.\" The U.S. government resettles a limited number of refugees each year. They have full legal rights to live and work in the United States and can apply to become U.S. citizens after five years. Both the U.S. State and the Health and Human Services departments pay for limited refugee services. The State Department allocation for living expenses per refugee on arrival to the country is $450, a sum the department calls \"modest.\" Individual refugees also are eligible to get eight months of cash assistance and medical assistance under the HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement. Depending on states' eligibility requirements, refugee families could be eligible for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Medicaid. State governments stipulate welfare benefit cash levels. There are five years' worth of social services, such as English language instruction. Refugee agencies across America pursue various state and federal programs that can help newcomers stay afloat, but they say they rely more and more on private donations to help provide food, clothing, money and furniture. That increasing reliance on community support shows that the U.S. program for resettling refugees needs reform, resettlement agencies argue. Three agencies -- Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service -- said in a recent statement that \"the recession is making it harder for refugee newcomers to find jobs within 180 days of arrival as the program prescribes.\" They said the government's \"one-size-fits-all\" approach -- the $450 per refugee and eight months of limited cash assistance plus food stamps and Medicaid -- \"reflects neither what resettlement actually costs nor the importance the U.S. refugee program holds in U.S. foreign policy,\" they said. The public-private partnership that has been the \"genius\" of the U.S. program has \"fallen out of balance,\" with the private sector is bearing much of the cost, these agencies say. More than 60,000 refugees were admitted to the United States during the fiscal year 2008, according to figures from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The largest number was from Burma, with 18,139. There were 13,823 from Iraq. Traditionally, refugees -- no matter their skill level -- have had a better chance of landing menial jobs, in places like hotels or restaurants or in plants with low-paying and arduous jobs. Now refugees are competing with Americans for low-paying jobs. Many are having a hard time finding the non-skilled positions. Refugee support agencies are scouring the job market, exploring job opportunities on farms as well as work in other sectors of the economy, said Carey, the International Rescue Committee senior vice president. He's also chairman of the Refugee Council USA, a coalition of non-government organizations helping refugees. \"For the first time I'm aware of,\" he said, \"large numbers of refugees are receiving eviction notices.\" It's even hard for those refugees who go places where they have friends, relatives or members of their same faith. In San Diego, California, Iraqi Chaldean Christian refugees are facing strains despite having access to an established Chaldean community, said Michael McKay, refugees services department director of Catholic Charities in San Diego. There's \"great competition\" for jobs, from menial to highly skilled. Several Iraqis in San Diego have even talked about returning to Iraq. Yet some communities still have those one or two big employers with jobs well-suited to newcomers. In Bowling Green, Kentucky, refugees from Burma, Burundi, Iraq, Cuba and Bhutan have over the years found low-paying factory jobs that Americans shun, such as work at a Perdue Farms chicken processing plant, said James Robinson, executive director of The Bowling Green International Center. How long will that last? \"We're good now,\" said Robinson. \"But you never know what tomorrow will bring.\" Back in Atlanta, Zainab Ibrahim makes no bones about how she feels: She wants work in her field, as an accountant, not just any job. But she knows she has to recalibrate her goals. She worked from September to November as a foreign language specialist with the U.S. Army in Mississippi, working with soldiers before they deployed to Iraq. During tax season this year, she worked another temporary job, as an assistant office manager and tax preparer for the Tax Service of America Inc.. Yet to her dismay, she has been unable to find what she covets -- a full-time job. She has produced a resume, gone to job fairs, and applied for clerical and administrative full-time jobs at places like hotels. She mines the job sites on the Web every day, using a computer at the public library because she can't afford Internet or cable service at home. David Oliver, the IRC job developer who works with her, said \"the recession is a big factor\" in her predicament. She is competing with other Americans for jobs and, he said, \"I think employers prefer to take somebody whose work experience is recognizable.\" Along with refugee cash assistance and food stamps, Ibrahim saved money from her part-time jobs, and her family in the Middle East is ready to help her as they did when she lived in Jordan. Living frugally, she has been able to pay $600 a month to rent her sparsely furnished apartment. She has a $60 a month phone bill and a fluctuating power bill that once reached $240 a month. There's $50 to $60 a week in food and then gas for her car. Ibrahim's money is running out, and she wonders whether she will be able to pay her next month's rent. Oliver says there's help, such as IRC emergency funds and local rent assistance, but Ibrahim yearns to support herself, to pay her own way. Her struggles disappoint Louis Culpepper, president and chief executive officer of Culpepper & Associates Security Services in Atlanta. Ibrahim worked for his firm in Baghdad, and Culpepper called her a \"real go-getter.\" \"I really feel bad about it that someone who put her life on the line can't get a job,\" he said. Ibrahim exudes optimism and determination despite her frustrations. She reminds herself that she survived the war and is still living a dream in America. And she applied for a job not long ago. \"Keep your fingers crossed,\" she said.","highlights":"More than 60,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S. in FY 2008 .\nFinding jobs proves difficult as U.S. economy in downturn .\nState Department allocation for living expenses per refugee on arrival is $450 .\nCharities, churches can take up the slack but they are feeling the recession pinch ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For someone who claims to be incredibly laid back, Jason Mraz is certainly piling up the accomplishments. Jason Mraz was recently honored with a songwriting award for his work, which includes the hit \"I'm Yours.\" The singer-songwriter was the recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award at last week's Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee ceremony in New York. The honor typically goes to newcomers striking a chord in the music industry. Or, as Mraz puts it, \"I hope it has something to do with their savvy freshness.\" Mraz, who turned 32 this week and took his parents to the celebratory dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square June 18, says he feels great about the honor. \"I never thought my songs would escape my bedroom,\" he said. \"To have the music shared all around the world, and to be acknowledged by communities like this ... it's inspiring.\" Mraz's 2008 album \"We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things\" has been a runaway success, with more than 2.5 million copies sold worldwide. It also led to three Grammy nominations, including song of the year and best male pop vocal performance for the reggae-inflected hit \"I'm Yours.\" Mraz (whose name reflects his family's Czech heritage) hits the festival circuit overseas before kicking off his stateside \"Gratitude Caf\u00e9 Tour\" July 25. The tour's quirky title was inspired by a wholesome San Francisco, California, restaurant Mraz loves. A fan of maintaining a diet of predominantly raw foods, Mraz is also a farmer of sorts: He owns an avocado farm in his home city of San Diego, California. He's also a juggler, a skill Mraz taught himself during the downtime that comes with touring. Watch the multitalented Mraz perform \u00bb . Mraz shared tales of his avocado farm, as well as what it's like to get the cold shoulder from Simon Cowell, when he sat down with CNN recently. CNN: So, you live on an avocado farm. What's that like? Jason Mraz: It's fantastic. Anytime you're harvesting something in your yard -- whether you have a small herb garden or I've got avocados, and now we have a solar system so we're also harvesting sun energy, which is great -- for me that's when I became an environmentalist. I was like, \"Wait a second. This is my environment. This is my piece of the Earth that I'm responsible for.\" Yes, the trees give me avocado and fruit that we sell and we eat tons of, but I feel like I have a role to play back to that, too. So it's cool. CNN: So if you're at home, daily how many avocados would you eat? Mraz: At least two. Sometimes three or four. CNN: So you must have very nice oily skin. Mraz: I do, thank you. It's the avocado. I just lather it on. CNN: Do you really? Mraz: I do. Yeah, why not? I've got tons of them! CNN: Do you cook? Mraz: I prepare. There's not much cooking in our household. We do a lot of raw food so it's more about putting the right ingredients together to create something scrumptious. See Mraz's chocomole recipe . CNN: When eating healthy is so important to you, how difficult is that to maintain when you're traveling around the world so much? Mraz: Well, I bring tons of backup supplies with me. CNN: How did you like performing on the \"American Idol\" final? (Mraz performed \"I'm Yours\" with contestants Anoop Desai and Alexis Grace.) Mraz: I loved it. It was such a great event. And I have compassion for every one of those kids that dares audition. I wasn't a contestant. I was just there to sing, and when I saw Simon at the end of that panel I freaked out. I was like, \"What does he think?\" And then I had to stop myself and say \"Dude, you're not a contestant.\" He's aloof. But I watched during the rest of the night and he did it to all the acts. That's just his way. CNN: Do you think you could hack it as an \"American Idol\" contestant? Mraz: It is really tough. I watch what those guys do backstage between songs and their weekly schedule is super intense -- to learn new songs, to shoot videos, to learn dance moves and all this. They actually go through a pretty amazing transformation during the course of that show. I just don't know that I could commit myself to something like that. I'm a little more laid back. And some days if I can't show up to work, I don't show up to work. And I love that (laughs). CNN: Were you surprised by the success of \"I'm Yours\"? Mraz: Very surprised. There's something simple about it ... like a nursery rhyme. I thought it was so playful. I never expected the world to really grab it and run with it the way they have. CNN: Can you talk me through how you went about writing that song? Where were you? What were you doing? Mraz: I was at home. It was a sunny afternoon. And just as any afternoon where I play music, I was playing on an electric guitar, just chugging around, feeling a little reggae in me you know, and the melody and the words just started to pop out rather quickly and so I recorded it rather quickly. And the whole process only took about a half an hour. CNN: You're about to go overseas to play various festivals. Is there anywhere you'll be going for the first time? Mraz: This year we're going to explore South America, which I've visited as a tourist, but I've never taken my music down there. I hear the crowds turn up in masses, so I really want to see what that's like. I love getting to bounce around and explore so much. I love Scandinavia. I love Spain. It's so mystical and romantic, yet it's gritty. CNN: Do you speak Spanish? Mraz: No, but I have the Rosetta Stone. I have begun my level one training.","highlights":"Jason Mraz recently honored with songwriters award .\n\"I'm Yours\" artist amazed at where music has brought him .\nMraz intimidated by appearance on \"American Idol\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Musician Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy performed at a concert sponsored by Rock the Vote on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Before Monday night's show in Denver, Colorado, Wentz answered five questions for CNN.com. Pete Wentz says it's great to see his young fans get energized about the election when they can't even vote. CNN.com: What have you been doing in Denver? Have you been having any fun? Wentz: I have had a little bit of fun, but I only came in yesterday so we've only been around a little bit. I think we'll go out a little bit tonight, but then I think we go back to California. Then we're going to watch most of the speeches and whatnot on TV and the computer. CNN.com: So what do the Democrats need to do to win the White House, do you think? Wentz: I actually learned this from the person I got tennis lessons from that Democrats or the Republicans need not only to win the White House but you need to maintain the majority in the government in general in order to get things moving. CNN.com: As you're meeting your fans, does it seem like people are pretty energized about this election? Wentz: Yeah ... people are pretty excited about it. ... I think [even] people that aren't even old enough to vote, which is what's pretty exciting. A lot of the times we're like, \"Well, some of the fans are really young, they can't even vote,\" but it's like they're gonna be voting in the next election. I'm personally excited when I see people who are so excited about it. iReport.com: Are you at the DNC? Share sights and sounds . CNN.com: Illinois -- home base for the band. What's the vibe that you're getting there in Illinois? Wentz: Well, Illinois's definitely pulling for Obama. I think that that is because of Chicago as a populace and also by virtue of Obama being from Illinois. And you know, hometown crowd's the best, you know what I'm saying? CNN.com: And who are you voting for? And Ashlee [Simpson]? Wentz: Well, probably the last thing my wife would do -- ever -- is tell me who she's voting for, to be honest with you. But my guess would be that she votes pretty similarly to me.","highlights":"Pete Wentz says band's home base of Illinois rooting for Sen. Barack Obama .\nRocker: \"I'm personally excited when I see people who are so excited about it\"\nWentz says wife Ashlee Simpson not likely to tell him who she's voting for ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- He is the international superstar responsible for breathing life into the iconic comic book hero Wolverine. Her movies have earned more than $2 billion worldwide, including the entire \"X-Men\" franchise. Hugh Jackman emerges as Wolverine in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine,\" which opened Friday. Actor Hugh Jackman and film producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently sat down for a candid conversation about their new film, \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" Specifically, the pair talked about the scene in which Jackman's character is transformed from a simple mutant with bony claws that periodically protrude from the back of his hands to an invincible mutant filled with an indestructible metal called adamantium. This scene represents the ultimate birth of a comic legend as the character is transformed from Logan to Wolverine. Watch the scene in which Wolverine is unleashed \u00bb . Hugh Jackman: I knew this was the birth of the character; this is where we see him in full flight. It's called in the comic book \"berserker rage.\" It's not really in the English language, but it may be now! But, this idea that this complete animal [has been] unleashed, which is obviously the entire story -- this battle between the animal and human is something we all relate to. Lauren Shuler Donner: There were many things he had to do in the tank, you know. One of them was he had to be lowered, and then the needles had to come towards him. Now, most of those were CGI, so he had to look in certain places where the needles were. But, he couldn't hear [director] Gavin [Hood]. So they ... tried all kinds of sounds, speakers, everything. ... They finally devised this toe method where, if Gavin pulled on Hugh's big toe, it meant the things are coming, the second toe is this, the last toe is rise up, very sophisticated. (laughter) Jackman: I had in my head that I've got to be in much better shape -- not better shape, different shape, kind of ridiculous shape because I wanted it to be uncomfortable. I wanted it to feel like I felt when I saw Robert De Niro in \"Cape Fear,\" that -- whoa, this guy is dangerous, he's powerful, he's dangerous, and he can snap at any point. Donner: There's an iconic drawing of Wolverine coming out of the tank in the comics with the things popping out of him and his hair all over him in a rage, and we wanted to be that image. That's the image we wanted for the fans. Jackman: I was a little frightened when I watched it, like, \"Is that me?\" [My wife] Deb was like, \"Hugh, this is ridiculous. I don't even know who that is.\"","highlights":"Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\"\nTo create the character, Jackman wanted to be in \"ridiculous shape\"\nHow to contact Jackman underwater? Director used a \"toe method\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit near the Greek island of Crete on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It struck at 12:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. ET), the USGS said. It was centered about 80 miles (130 kilometers) off the city of Iraklion on Crete, the USGS said. An earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude is capable of causing significant damage, especially in areas of poor construction. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. A staff member at Iraklion Airport told CNN they didn't feel the earthquake. Similar reports came from staff members at hotels just outside Iraklion and in western Crete. A spokesman at the Greek Ministry of Health in Athens, 450 kilometers (280 miles) from the epicenter, also said he didn't feel the quake. David Booth, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, explained that the earthquake happened deep below the sea, leading to little risk of tsunami and reducing the likelihood that people would feel tremors. -- CNN's Claudia Rebaza and Krsna Harilela in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hits near the Greek island of Crete .\n6.7 quake can cause major damage, especially in areas of poor construction .\nNo immediate word on casualties or damage ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Senior North Korean officials say the communist regime has \"weaponized\" its stockpile of plutonium, according to a U.S. scholar, in a move suggesting that North Korea may have significantly hardened its stance on nuclear negotiations. Selig Harrison said North Korean officials claimed to have enough plutonium for four or five warheads. Selig Harrison, one of the few U.S. scholars granted access to senior North Korean officials, said at a news conference in Beijing that the officials told him they had weaponized 30.8 kilograms of plutonium, enough for four or five warheads. The director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, who just returned from a five-day visit to Pyongyang, said senior North Korean officials told him the warheads will not be open for inspection. If it is true, the news portends a gloomy outlook for the future of the six-party talks that began in 2003 with the goal of getting North Korea to end its nuclear program. \"It does change the game,\" Harrison said. South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia are participating in the talks. A 2007 agreement calls for scrapping nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula in return for energy aid to the North, normalized relations between the North and the United States and Japan, and a formal peace pact. Watch a report on North Korea's nuclear negotiations \u00bb . The North Koreans told Harrison they want the rest of the fuel aid that Japan has promised them. North Korea had agreed to disable the reactor that had produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. But the United States and its allies have asked it to give up the plutonium it already has, an estimated 30 kilograms, as well as details of any other bomb-producing programs. Harrison said one possible reason for Pyongyang's tough new stance could be the declining health of leader Kim Jong Il, who reportedly suffered a stroke last year and may no longer be involved in day-to-day decisions. \"People I talked to have many indications that some important things are submitted to him, but he is not working in the way he used to,\" Harrison said. He said military hard-liners have taken the lead in demanding from the United States a full declaration and verification of all nuclear weapons sent to South Korea between 1957 and 1991. The hard-liners also seek full normalization of relations with Washington before more talks about scrapping their nuclear arsenal. On Tuesday, during her Senate confirmation hearing for the secretary of state position, Sen. Hillary Clinton made it clear: de-nuclearization first, then diplomatic normalization. President-elect Barack Obama has stated his willingness to talk to the North Korean leader. Harrison also said the North demanded the completion of the light-water reactors as compensation for the dismantling of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. The light-water reactor, which is not capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, was promised to North Korea in the early 1990s for the North giving up its nuclear weapons. Its construction has been suspended. North Korea has long considered its nuclear program integral to its national security. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. In June, it acknowledged producing about 40 kilograms of enriched plutonium. CNN's John Vause contributed to this report.","highlights":"News may bode ill for future of talks to end North Korean nuclear program .\nNorth Korean officials tell U.S. scholar they want rest of promised fuel aid .\nOne possible reason for tough stance could be declining health of leader Kim Jung Il .\nMilitary hard-liners seek normalization of relations with Washington before more talks ."} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in east Jerusalem stretched into Sunday evening after a visit by a Jewish group to one of the city's holiest sites. Israeli border police charge towards Palestinian protesters during clashes in Jerusalem's Old City. Street battles began in the Old City on Sunday morning, when Palestinians praying at the site -- known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or \"Noble Sanctuary,\" and to Jews as Temple Mount -- began to throw rocks at the visiting Jews, said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Police responded with stun grenades and arrested eight demonstrators, he said. Rosenfeld also said two Palestinians and two police officers were wounded in the melee, but Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, a former grand mufti of Jerusalem, said nine Palestinians were hurt. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat called the visit a deliberate provocation by hardliners opposed to a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and criticized the police response to the protests. Erakat compared the visit to the 2000 trip by Ariel Sharon -- before he was elected prime minister -- to the al-Aqsa mosque that Palestinians blame for touching off three years of violence. \"We've seen this before, and we know what the consequences are,\" Erakat said in a statement issued Sunday evening. He said the visit was \"deliberately timed\" on the eve of the anniversary of Sharon's September 28, 2000 visit. There was no immediate response from the Israeli government to Erakat's statement. The demonstration was broken up about 1:30 p.m., but Palestinians continued battling police with rocks and Molotov cocktails for several hours in other parts of east Jerusalem. Erakat said Israel was \"deliberately escalating tensions\" in Jerusalem at the same time that U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to coax the two sides into restarting talks aimed a permanent settlement of the decades-old conflict. \"Providing a police escort for settlers who are against peace at all costs, and whose presence is deliberately designed to provoke a reaction, are not the actions of someone who is committed to peace, but of someone who will go to extraordinary lengths to scuttle all hopes of peace,\" Erakat said. CNN's Shira Medding contributed to this report .","highlights":"Street battles began in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday morning .\nPolice: Clashes begin when Palestinians praying there start to throw rocks at visitors .\nPolice says 2 Palestinians, police officer hurt; former mufti says 9 Palestinians hurt .\nChief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat calls the visit a deliberate provocation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal striker Eduardo has been ruled out for two weeks with a hamstring injury just days after returning from a broken leg. Eduardo sinks to his knees after opening the scoring on his Arsenal first team comeback on Monday. The Croatian international only made his comeback after a year out in Monday's FA Cup fourth-round victory against Cardiff. The 25-year-old marked his return with two goals in the 4-0 success at the Emirates Stadium, but his latest setback is not described as serious. Manager Arsene Wenger told Arsenal TV Online: \"Eduardo is out for two weeks. He picked up a hamstring injury two minutes before I took him off. What a nightmare. \"Nobody knows how it happened but I knew straight away after the game it would be a two-week job. It is nothing like he had before but I do know that little setbacks like this are part of being nine months out. \"After that long out nobody plays six months on the trot. It is impossible. But at the same time it is a blow because, of course, he can score goals. He had shown that on Monday night.\"","highlights":"Arsenal striker Eduardo is ruled out for two weeks due to a hamstring problem .\nThe Croatian was hurt on Monday in his first game back after a year's absence .\nEduardo scored twice against Cardiff on his return to action from a broken leg ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi court that sentenced a journalist to 60 lashes for her work on a controversial television show has summoned a second woman affiliated with the TV station. The Saudi information ministry said Sunday that a Jeddah court has asked the second journalist to appear because of her work as a coordinator with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. The woman was set to appear on Monday, but the hearing has been postponed because she is ill, said a ministry official, who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The show in question, \"A Thick Red Line,\" explores social taboos. In one episode, a Saudi man, Mazen Abdul Jawad, bragged about his sex life. Saudi authorities put him on trial and sentenced him to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Soon afterward, the court sentenced journalist Rosanna Al-Yami who worked as a coordinator and guest-booker for the show. In addition to the 60 lashes, Al-Yami is banned for two years from traveling outside Saudi Arabia. While the charges against her include involvement in preparing the program, she was not involved in setting up the episode in which Abdul Jawad appeared, said his lawyer Suleiman Al-Jumeii. Al-Jumeii said that Al-Yami has opted not to appeal the court's verdict. Al-Jumeii doesn't represent the journalist, but said he is keeping tabs on cases dealing with \"A Thick Red Line.\" The lawyer is attempting to pursue an appeal for his client and get his case heard in a special court that only deals with media matters. CNN has attempted to get comments from Al-Yami and her attorney. Abdul Jawad, 32, an airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly on the show about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14. That episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle. Saudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after the interview aired a few months ago. Abdul Jawad was arrested shortly after the program aired and charged with violating Saudi Arabia's crime of publicizing vice.","highlights":"Second journalist summoned over controverial Saudi television show .\nSaudi court sentenced journalist another woman, Rosanna Al-Yami, to 60 lashes for her role .\nMan's sexual boasts on show led to five-year prison sentence .\nSaudi authorities shut down network's offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after interview aired ."} -{"article":"GLASGOW, Scotland -- Jean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo both scored twice to fire leaders Rangers to a 4-0 win at Hearts, their 10th consecutive Scottish Premier League victory. Jean-Claude Darcheville scored two first-half goals as Rangers cruised to a 4-0 victory at Hearts. Hearts found themselves ripped apart by a rampant Rangers side, who sent out a clear message to rivals Celtic by maintaining their four-point advantage at the summit. Darcheville claimed the opener after 25 minutes, cutting inside from the left and squeezing his shot inside the far post from a tight angle. The same player added a second two minutes before the break, scoring from close range after a Barry Ferguson corner was not cleared. Darcheville was withdrawn for Novo at the interval, but if Hearts thought the departure of the Frenchman meant some much-needed respite, they were sadly mistaken. Novo was on the pitch for seven minutes when he helped himself to a goal of his own. Charlie Adam set up the shot with a low ball across goal and all that was required from the striker was to bundle home from close range. The same two players combined again to supply Rangers with their fourth goal with 69 minutes gone. Adam was again the provider and this time Novo produced a cheeky back-heel finish from five meters. Meanwhile, goals by Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras gave Celtic a hard-fought 2-1 win at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Australian international McDonald's 25th goal of the season right on the interval gave the champions the lead and his Greek team-mate bulleted an Aiden McGeady cross past goalkeeper Michael Fraser on the hour mark. But the final minutes were needlessly fraught for Celtic after Caley striker Marius Niculae took advantage of Scott Brown's misplaced pass to pull a goal back in the 70th minute. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rangers remain four points clear in Scotland after a superb 4-0 win at Hearts .\nJean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo both net twice for the league leaders .\nCeltic remain second in the table following 2-1 victory against Inverness Caley ."} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- For Pittsburgh International Airport, the Group of 20 summit is like the Sunday after Thanksgiving: the busiest flying day of the year, with world leaders instead of holiday travelers. Officials greet Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, left, on Wednesday at Pittsburgh International Airport. After weeks of logistics and planning, the airport and the adjacent Air Force Reserve Base will see 23 heads of state arrive in the space of a few hours. President Obama is hosting the G-20 summit -- a two-day meeting of representatives of the world's largest economies -- Thursday and Friday in Pittsburgh. \"This is unprecedented,\" Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said. \"We've never seen anything like it.\" The county runs the airport and coordinated the arrivals along with the White House, U.S. State Department and law enforcement officials. The arrivals will take place away from the commercial passenger terminals on the huge airport property. With different areas being used, some of the presidents and prime ministers will show up at the same time. Watch Pittsburgh's security preparations for protesters \u00bb . \"It is all scheduled. No one will be sitting out\" on the tarmac waiting, Onorato said. There are no welcoming ceremonies planned at the airport. The leaders quickly will get into separate motorcades and be whisked to downtown Pittsburgh. A formal greeting will take place Thursday evening at a conservatory in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. The heads of state invited to Pittsburgh include the leader of the European Union and the prime ministers of the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Many leaders are bringing hundreds of delegates and support staff with them as well. At least two countries are bringing jumbo jets into the airport. Members of Saudi Arabia's delegation landed Wednesday evening. The leaders are arriving from New York, where they attended the U.N. General Assembly. Airport officials say the VIP landings will not mean delays for passengers, though they warn trips to and from the airport could take extra time because of road closings for motorcades. It's Obama's second trip to Pittsburgh in nine days. He addressed the AFL-CIO Convention on September 15 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where the G-20 summit also is being held. This time, Air Force One will have plenty of company.","highlights":"Representatives of world's largest economies meeting for two days in Pittsburgh .\nTwenty-three heads of state arriving in the space of a few hours at airport .\nLeaders' arrivals will take place away from commercial passenger terminals .\nDelegates and support staff also on hand; airport says there won't be any delays ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Afghanistan last month that killed seven CIA employees and contractors and a Jordanian military officer, according to a statement posted on Islamist Web sites. Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's commander of operations in Afghanistan and its No. 3 man, said the attack avenged the death of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Taliban in Pakistan who was killed in a missile strike last August, and al Qaeda operatives Saleh al-Somali and Abdullah al-Libi. The December 30 blast at a U.S. base in Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan, killed seven CIA operatives including two from private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater. The eighth victim was Jordanian Army Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a cousin of Jordan's King Abdullah II. A former U.S. intelligence official identified the suicide bomber as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor who acted as a double agent. He was recruited as a counterterrorism intelligence source, according to a senior Jordanian official. U.S. sources said bin Zeid was the Jordanian operative working closely with al-Balawi, who was from the same hometown as the onetime leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Jordanian and U.S. intelligence agencies apparently believed that al-Balawi had been rehabilitated from his extremist views and were using him to hunt Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 figure, the former intelligence official said. The al Qaeda statement posted Wednesday identified al-Balawi as Hamam Khalil Mohammed Abu Malal, who used the name Abu Dujana Khorasani. It said Abu Dujana was a well-known Islamist author and a preacher on jihadi Web sites, an immigrant for his faith and a fighter who sacrificed himself and his money for his God and belief. \"May God accept him as a martyr who was able to infiltrate the Americans' forts,\" the statement said. \"We ask God to bless the people who follow your path, Abu Dujana,\" it said. \"Let them know that your brothers are following your path and they will not have peace of mind until they slaughter the Americans and let the Islamic nation be proud for having men like you among its sons.\" Several groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the worst blows ever to America's intelligence community. Some analysts said that militant groups may be competing for credit to spread the word and attract fresh donations and recruits. In a posting on its Web site last week, the Taliban in Afghanistan claimed that the bomber was an Afghan National Army soldier. On Sunday, however, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud said in an e-mail that his arm of the Islamic movement carried out the attack, also citing the reason as revenge for Baitullah Mehsud's killing.","highlights":"Al Qaeda claims responsibility for last month's Afghanistan bombing, say Islamist Web sites .\nSuicide bombing killed seven CIA employees and contractors and a Jordanian military officer .\nAl Qaeda says attack avenged deaths of leader of the Taliban in Pakistan and operatives .\nSeveral groups have claimed responsibility for the attack ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The director of Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday defended giving away an estimated $85 million in hurricane relief supplies, blaming Louisiana officials for turning down the stockpiles. A New Orleans charity keeps goods in trash bags in an empty church. FEMA never told it about the free items. \"We still have quite a few left if Louisiana needs those,\" David Paulison said. \"But we did find out, we did ask Louisiana, 'Do you want these?' They said, 'No, we don't need them.' So we offered them to the other states.\" A CNN investigation revealed last week that FEMA gave away 121 truckloads of material the agency amassed after 2005's Hurricane Katrina. The material was declared surplus property and offered to federal and state agencies -- including Louisiana, where groups working to resettle hurricane victims say the supplies are still needed. Paulison told CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" his agency distributed more than 90,000 \"living kits\" to people in Louisiana whose homes were destroyed or damaged by Katrina. The kits included cleaning supplies, mops, brooms, pots and pans. After CNN reported on the giveaway, Louisiana officials asked that the supplies be redirected to the state, which originally passed on them. John Medica, director of the Louisiana's Federal Property Assistance Agency, told CNN he was unaware Katrina victims still needed the items because no agency had contacted his office. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, an outspoken critic of FEMA's response to the hurricane, told CNN the supply giveaway was \"just a shame.\" \"It's just another example of the failings of the federal bureaucracy,\" said Landrieu, who wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week to request an explanation. \"We're still trying to fix it. It's going to take a lot more work.\" Paulison said much of the stockpile included \"things we don't normally store -- refrigerators, stoves, coolers, diapers, things like that.\" States, meanwhile, were requesting those items, he said. \"It didn't make any sense for FEMA to sit on this much stuff and supplies we normally don't even keep. We have plenty of supplies in place if we have another disaster. We can duplicate that type of commodities and get them for people in need,\" he said. The agency's chief spokesman, James McIntyre, had declined a request for an on-camera interview and told CNN the giveaway was \"not news.\" Paulison said the story \"just really missed the mark\" -- that the supplies given away were not exclusively for Katrina victims, but were \"donated from disasters all around the entire country.\" But e-mails from McIntyre and from the General Services Administration, which manages federal property, contradict Paulison's account. In an e-mail sent in April, McIntyre told CNN \"in many cases, items were purchased in the field by FEMA.\" And in a phone interview with CNN, McIntyre said, \"That is property that was purchased in response to Katrina. We purchased most of that equipment because of the catastrophic nature of that disaster.\" General Services Administration spokeswoman Viki Reath wrote the supplies given away were \"surplus from the Katrina and [hurricane] Rita disasters... some purchased by FEMA, some donated by foreign countries and federal government agencies.\" McIntyre said FEMA's storage costs were running more than $1 million a year, and that GSA officials wanted to tear down the Fort Worth, Texas, warehouses in which the stockpiles were being kept. CNN's Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FEMA chief: Louisiana said it didn't want the supplies .\nCNN story revealed last week that FEMA gave away 121 truckloads of supplies .\nKatrina supplies were declared surplus property, offered to federal, state agencies ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- -- Federal officials have fined Exxon Mobil more than $6 million after it violated a three-year-old agreement to decrease air pollution at four of its refineries. Exxon Mobil's refinery in Baytown, Texas, is one of four that the EPA said had high sulfur emissions. The Justice Department announced Wednesday that the oil giant agreed to pay $6.1 million after Environmental Protection Agency officials determined the company had not sufficiently reduced sulfur emissions in its refineries in Baytown and Beaumont, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Torrance, California. Exxon Mobil had paid a $7.7 million fine in its original 2005 agreement with the government and promised to install new emissions controls at the refineries. The petroleum company said after the latest settlement its refineries now meet the required EPA standards on sulfur emissions. The company's role in environmental pollution has been in the spotlight ever since the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the company to pay $507 million in punitive damages from the incident, down from an original $2.5 billion judgment.","highlights":"EPA says company had not sufficiently reduced sulfur emissions at four refineries .\nThe facilities in question are in Texas, Louisiana and California .\nExxon Mobil says refineries now meet EPA standards on sulfur emissions ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Japan's defense minister has ordered two destroyers to help fight piracy in the waters off Somalia, officials with the defense ministry told CNN. Pirates are caught on camera off the Somalian coast. The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers will be dispatched Saturday, the defense ministry said. The order, which the Cabinet approved earlier Friday, marks the first policing action for the MSDF, whose major missions overseas have focused on background support such as transport and refueling, Japan's Kyodo news agency said. A bill approved on the same day allows the MSDF to be deployed in piracy-infested waters as needed. The move comes after Somali pirates released a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in November, according to a non-governmental group that monitors piracy. The ship was released last month. The 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew members were reportedly unharmed. It was unclear whether the pirates were paid a ransom to release the ship. Japan Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the provision would be used on an interim basis, the news agency reported. Two destroyers with about 400 personnel and eight coast guard officers will be aboard the ships, whose escort mission will start in early April after about three weeks of sailing toward Somalia, according to the news agency.","highlights":"The order marks the first policing action for the MSDF .\nMission will start in early April after about three weeks of sailing .\nMove comes after Somali pirates hijacked Japan-owned vessel in November ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a tourist was found off the coast of Thailand Tuesday, but six others remain missing after a ferry sank over the weekend near a popular diving destination, authorities said. Survivors of the ferry sinking disembark the Thai police boat that rescued them. The body is believed to be that of Austrian tourist Gabrielle Jetzinger, the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office told the Thai News Agency. A Thai naval helicopter spotted the body floating face down about 12 nautical miles from Phuket's Promthep cape, and a Thai navy patrol retrieved the floating corpse. The body has been sent to a government hospital for an autopsy, the agency reported. Authorities are still searching for the five tourists and one crew member who remain missing. They are thought to be German, Austrian, Japanese, Swiss and one Thai crew member, the news agency said. The tourist boat, the Choke Somboon 19, was taking passengers from the Similan Islands to Phuket -- an area popular with tourists from around the world. It capsized during a heavy storm Sunday night, said Lt. Sattawat Srirattanapong with the Phuket City police. Survivors included 15 international tourists and eight Thais, who were picked up by a rescue boat Monday morning. Phuket and the Similan Islands are famous for their diving spots, attracting international tourists each year from November to May.","highlights":"Body thought to be of Austrian tourist found off Thai coast .\nFive tourists, one crew member still missing after ferry sank at the weekend .\nBody was spotted by Thai rescue helicopter near Phuket's Promthep cape .\nThe ferry sank during heavy storm about 12 miles from shore ."} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- If the location is anything to go by, then the omens are promising. Denmark's capital city, Copenhagen -- host to the U.N. climate summit which starts today -- is already one of the greenest cities in Europe. With over 300 kilometers of cycle lanes it is estimated that around 40 percent of the 1.2 population travel to work on a bicycle. And visitors to the city are encouraged to join in by making use of the network of city bikes for a deposit of just 20 DKK ($4). The influence of two wheels has extended into Yuletide this year, as cyclists in City Hall Square are generating the electricity powering the lights on the Christmas tree. It's just one of hundreds of activities and events which Copenhageners have organized to coincide with the 11-day U.N. summit taking place at the Bella Center in the Orestad district in the southeast of the city. The opening of the summit marks the end of an exhaustive planning period by the city. Preparations at the Bella Center began two years ago. The finishing touches began eight weeks ago. \"It is, by far, the largest conference we have ever held and the largest political conference in Europe,\" the Bella Center press manager, Lars Lemche told CNN. \"If numbers continue to grow, it will be the biggest political meeting the U.N. has ever held,\" he said. The center has hosted big events before -- a European Union summit in 2002 and the 2006 MTV European Music Awards -- but the U.N. summit makes them look like a tea party. \"A conference is 36 hours. This is 11 days,\" Lemche said. The Bella Center has had to extend its floor space to 77,000 square meters -- the size of 11 football pitches -- to accommodate all delegates and 1000 staff will be on hand throughout. Numbers are expected to peak at around 18,000 in the second week when 100 heads of state arrive for the high-level political negotiations. This Herculean effort of planning is being backed up by a raft of green initiatives. Outside the conference center solar-powered streetlights are helping light the car parks. A wind turbine is helping power the lights indoors. Inside the conference center delegates will eat from a menu that is 65 percent organic and drink water that has come out of a tap rather than a bottle. Pens provided will be made from recycled plastic, and even the carpets are biodegradable. In a bid to offset the considerable carbon dioxide emissions - estimated to be 40,000 tons -- generated by the summit, organizers are funding the replacement of polluting brick factories in Dhaka, Bangladesh with 20 new efficient ones. Despite the disruption, Copenhageners have gone about their daily business as usual. Jason Heppenstall, Editor of The Copenhagen Post, a weekly English language newspaper told CNN: \"There hasn't been much of a build up until the last few days. Until about two weeks ago it's not been talked about a lot in the press and maybe a month ago half the people in Denmark didn't know there was going to be a conference,\" he told CNN. People are starting to notice changes now, and the mood among Copenhageners is positive, apart from the locals living near the Bella Center and whose lives have been disrupted by all the security arrangements, Heppenstall said. The concrete barriers and the perimeter fence erected to protect the Bella Center have been one of the more obvious signs of security in the city. And now that the conference has started, 6000 officers will be on duty during the conference. Niels-Otto Fisker, communications advisor to the Danish national police commissioner, told CNN: \"It is the single greatest operation that the Danish police have undertaken. Police are being drafted in from all over the country, and shifts are being extended from eight to 12-16 hours.\" In all, the security operations are costing the Danish government an estimated $122 million. Last week, police unveiled a 22-ton vehicle armed with a water canon which will be used if trouble flares during the conference. The only confrontations in the buildup to the conference have been between Copenhagen's female mayor, Ritt Bjerregaard, and the city's prostitutes. A row started after city leaders requested hotels display postcards saying: \"Be sustainable: Don't buy sex.\" The prostitutes -- whose are free to work under Danish law -- have responded by offering their services free of charge. \"Our office is based in the red-light district. There are prostitutes here, but it's not like Amsterdam,\" Heppenstall explained. \"I think some people coming to the conference think it might be. So the city council have been trying to pre-empt it by sending postcards saying please refrain from going to these areas. The sex workers have responded by saying that's ridiculous. They see this as their big moment.\" As Copenhagen hands over to the U.N. for two weeks, the world's eyes are now turning to negotiations which precede the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama and company. Earlier this year, Copenhagen announced the aim of being carbon neutral by 2025. Perhaps the U.N. could take a leaf out of their host's book.","highlights":"Danish capital, Copenhagen, one of the greenest cities in Europe .\nU.N. climate summit is biggest political event Denmark has hosted .\nCopenhagen aims to be carbon neutral by 2025 ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terror attacks have spiked dramatically in Afghanistan and Pakistan as extremists in both countries strengthen their power and expand operations, according to a State Department report released Thursday. The number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, like this bombing in April, has more than quadrupled from 2006 to 2008. But the State Department annual terrorism report notes an overall decline in attacks worldwide and fewer attacks in Iraq. The attacks worldwide have decreased by 20 percent, with 30 percent fewer fatalities, said Russell Travers of the National Counterterrorism Center. The report says al Qaeda and its extremist supporters have moved across the Afghan border \"to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier, where they have used this terrain as a safe haven to hide, train terrorists, communicate with the followers, plot attacks and send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan.\" In Pakistan alone, the report says, attacks more than quadrupled between 2006 and 2008, with a sharp increase in their \"coordination, sophistication and frequency.\" Last year there were 1,839 terrorist \"incidents,\" compared with 890 in 2007, Travers said. The rise in violence has complicated the Obama administration's effort to implement its strategy of boosting military and civilian programs in both countries. The report says the largest number of attacks occurred in Pakistani provinces near the Afghan border, including Balochistan, the North West Frontier and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where extremists have sought to challenge the government and extend Islamic law. It also notes the government's inability to get a handle on the extremists. Despite having 80,000 to 100,000 troops in those provinces, it says, \"the government of Pakistan's authority in the area continued to be challenged.\" Ronald Schlicher, the State Department's acting coordinator of counterterrorism, told reporters the Obama administration has \"real concerns\" that al Qaeda's senior leadership may be operating from those areas and could be plotting attacks against the United States. \"We have a real sense that it's happening, but we have imperfect knowledge of what they're doing,\" he said. Pakistan's military in the past week launched an assault on militants in Taliban-held areas after they seized territory in violation of an agreement signed this year by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The deal, criticized by the United States, allowed the Taliban to implement Islamic law, or sharia, in the region in exchange for an end to fighting. The recent operations are part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan. The strikes have rankled relations between the two countries. Pakistan has asked the United States to supply its forces with helicopters, communication equipment and night-vision technology as part of a U.S. plan to beef up the country's counterterrorism efforts. President Obama told reporters Wednesday night that he is \"gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan.\" Speaking at a news conference capping his 100th day in office, Obama said the United States has \"huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable\" and doesn't end up a \"nuclear-armed militant state.\" After making two visits to Pakistan in less than three weeks, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is \"very alarmed by the growing extremist threat in Pakistan and remains frustrated particularly by the political leaderships' inability to confront that threat,\" according to his chief spokesman. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have called Taliban gains in Pakistan an \"existential threat\" to the country. The State Department report notes the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in November, attributing them to the Pakistan-based Kashmir terrorist group Laskhar-e-Tayyiba and to its fundraising subsidiary, amaat ud-Dawa. Although Pakistan has cracked down on some of the groups' camps and made several arrests, the report warned of continuing tension between India and Pakistan. The report says Afghanistan is plagued by \"an insurgency that more and more relied on vicious and increasingly sophisticated terrorist attacks,\" despite the efforts of NATO forces and the Afghan government. \"The anti-government insurgency remained a capable, determined and resilient threat to stability and to the expansion of government authority,\" the report warns. Although the Taliban continued to suffer heavy combat loses, the report says its ability to leverage support from al Qaeda and recruit soldiers \"remained undiminished.\" \"Taliban information operations were increasingly aggressive and sophisticated,\" it says. \"Streams of Taliban financing from across the border in Pakistan, along with funds gained from narcotics trafficking, have allowed the insurgency to strengthen its military and technical capabilities.\" Iran is also a source of training to the Taliban \"on small-unit tactics, small arms, explosives and indirect-fire weapons,\" the report says. \"Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107 mm rockets and plastic explosives to select Taliban members,\" it says. While terrorists in Iraq still launched attacks last year, \"there was a notable reduction in the number of security incidents throughout much of the country, including a decrease in civilian casualties, enemy attacks, and improvised explosive device attacks in the last quarter of the year,\" the report says. There were 3,258 terrorist incidents in 2008, down almost half from the 6,210 attacks in 2007, Travers said. He added there was a decrease during the first quarter of 2009, although there has a been a spike in terrorist attacks in April. Although the threat from al Qaeda in Iraq \"continued to diminish\" due to significant defections and a loss of both territory and funding, al Qaeda continued to benefit from safe haven in Somalia and has strengthened its North African operations, the report says. It notes a sharp increase in attacks by al Qaeda affiliates in North Africa. In Algeria, many of the attacks were blamed on al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, whose tactics \"appeared to be influenced by [al Qaeda's] experience in Iraq.\" The report also warns \"the security situation in Yemen continued to deteriorate during 2008 and was marked by a series of attacks against both Western and Yemeni interests,\" culminating in the September 17 suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa that killed 18. \"Recruitment for al Qaeda in Yemen (AQY) remained strong, and the use of vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) and suicide vests indicated a high level of training, coordination, and sophistication by Yemen's terrorist leadership,\" the report says. The report calls the government's response to the terrorist threat \"intermittent and its ability to pursue and prosecute suspected terrorists remained weak due to a number of shortcomings, including stalled draft counterterrorism legislation.\" Although a raid in August on an al Qaeda in Yemen cell in the country uncovered large number of weapons, the report warns the action \"did little to deter or disrupt other AQY cells.\" It was a month later that at least seven assailants dressed in Yemeni security-service uniforms attacked the U.S. Embassy with explosives and suicide vests, launching what the report calls a \"sophisticated and well-coordinated\" attack. The report says Iran \"remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism,\" including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, all of which opposed the Middle East peace process, as well as Iraq-based militants and the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. It cites the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as the regime's \"primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad.\" \"Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy,\" the report says. Schlicher also said that the United States is \"troubled by indications that the Iranians may be seeking to extend their influence into other parts of the world and expand its military ties into Latin America.\" The Obama administration has adopted a policy of engagement with Iran in an effort to curb its nuclear ambitions.","highlights":"Attacks in Pakistan have more than quadrupled between 2006 and 2008, report says .\nReport: Al Qaeda, extremist supporters moving across Afghan border into Pakistan .\nReport notes an overall decline in attacks worldwide and fewer attacks in Iraq .\nIran \"remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism,\" report says ."} -{"article":"If home is where the heart is, a new survey suggests that most people aren't sure exactly where they live. More than half of people cannot pinpoint the exact location of the human heart on a diagram, and nearly 70 percent can't correctly identify the shape of the lungs, according to the survey. This lack of knowledge isn't just embarrassing -- it could lead to a poorer quality of health care, some experts say. In the study, published in the journal BMC Family Practice, a research team surveyed 722 Britons -- 589 hospital outpatients and 133 people in the general population. They gave the volunteers four diagrams of human figures and asked them to choose the one that showed the correct size and location of a specific organ. (For example, the heart diagrams showed various size organs on the far left side of the chest, directly in the center, anchored on the center\/left chest, and on the right side of the chest.) Overall, people knew less basic anatomy than the researchers expected -- even those patients being treated for a specific condition involving that organ. Participants generally answered half the questions correctly, including 46.5 percent who knew which drawing represented their heart. In all, 31.4 percent correctly identified the lungs, 38.4 percent the stomach, 41.8 percent the thyroid, and 42.5 percent the kidneys. The intestines and bladder were the most easily identified, with 85.9 percent and 80.7 percent, respectively, answering the question correctly. Health.com: Are you cholesterol smart? Take this quiz . There was little to no improvement compared with a similar study conducted in 1970, says lead author John Weinman, Ph.D., of King's College London. In that study, subjects correctly identified eight major body parts about half of the time. (The researchers used the same body parts from the 1970 study and added three more: the pancreas, gallbladder, and ovaries.) Given the accessibility of the Internet and the prominence of health stories in the news media today, Weinman's team expected that people would now know more about their body. Weinman says he wouldn't be surprised if a study based in the United States produced similar results -- or worse. \"I imagine they would be similar, but there could well be regional variation, depending on which part of the U.S. the participants were from,\" he says. \"Actually, I asked one of my colleagues, who is from the U.S., and she felt that Americans might be worse because, to quote her, 'Very many Americans don't even know where New Jersey is, so how would they know where their pancreas is?'\" Health.com: Eat Smarter in your 30s, 40s, and 50s . That may sound harsh, but time and again, U.S. studies have shown that doctors overestimate how much their patients understand about their conditions and treatment. Adam Kelly, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas, conducted a 2007 study, that showed that doctors overestimate patient literacy and that a lack of patient knowledge leads to poorer care. Kelly believes the problem could be \"even more profound\" in the United States, although a similar study has not been conducted in America. Still, anatomy may not be the best measure of health literacy, says Sandeep Jauhar, M.D., the director of the heart failure program at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and the author of \"Intern: A Doctor's Initiation.\" Health.com: Computer games that boost your memory . \"They would like us to draw the conclusion that because the patients can't identify these organs anatomically that that is an indication of low health-care literacy -- and that may or may not be true,\" he says. \"I work with heart failure patients, and whether they can identify where their heart is is not so important to me as long as they know which medicines to take and when.\" Many patients with heart failure, unfortunately, don't know which medicines to take, can't identify their symptoms, and don't follow up with their doctors, Jauhar says. \"So health illiteracy is definitely a big problem,\" he adds. \"I just don't know that this is the best study to show that Americans or Europeans are illiterate when it comes to their health care.\" The study suggests that patients with liver disease and diabetes may be the most health-literate: They were the only two groups to do better than the general population when identifying their affected organ. Overall, 75.3 percent of those with liver disease could find the liver (versus 45.9 percent in the general population) and 53.7 percent of diabetics could locate the pancreas (versus 30.8 percent). Health.com: How I survived a heart attack at 43 . \"It is possible that patient-education material for people with diabetes may help to increase their knowledge [of the pancreas], but it is still only at the 50 percent level,\" Weinman says. \"The same explanation may also be true for liver disease, but it may be a chance finding due to the sampling of patients for this study, and it really needs replicating in other larger studies to be certain it is a robust finding and to search for possible reasons for it.\" Weinman says there's a mountain of evidence to prove that effective communication from doctors increases patient satisfaction and understanding, leading to better clinical outcomes and improved adherence to treatment. Health.com: I lost my insurance, stopped my diabetes medication, and had a heart attack . Jauhar agrees that health literacy improves not only the quality of health care, but also life expectancy. \"Health literacy is clearly very important, and how well patients are versed in their own health care is probably just as important a factor in determining longevity as genes or socioeconomic status,\" he says. \"These are important factors in how long someone lives.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"More than half in British survey couldn't identify heart's location .\nU.S. results could be similar or worse, some experts speculate .\nHealth literacy contributes to better care received, better patient outcomes ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lighthouse keeper J.A. Eckerman was the last person to see World War II Soviet submarine S-2 before it sank in January 1940 between Sweden and Finland. A team of Swedish and Finnish divers had been searching for the Soviet submarine S-2 since 1999. As the submarine dove near the island of Market, northwest of Aland, Eckerman heard a loud explosion and saw smoke rise from the water. The long-lost wreck was missing for 69 years until a team of Swedish and Finnish divers -- including Eckerman's grandson Ingvald -- discovered it this year. What remains of the sub was found between the Swedish coast and the Finnish island of Aland, northeast of Stockholm, in late February, the divers announced Tuesday. The submarine was very badly damaged by the explosion, said Marten Zetterstrom, one of the divers. The front gun is still there, and a torpedo is still in one of the tubes, but about 20 meters (about 65 feet) of the vessel is missing. The search had been going on for nearly 10 years, the divers said in a news release. The sub had a crew of 46 and four passengers when it sank. Sweden and Finland claim credit for sinking the submarine with mines. Russia has contacted Swedish and Finnish authorities to clarify what caused the submarine to sink, the divers said. Finland was at war with the Soviet Union at the time the sub sank. A deal between Germany and the Soviets had put the Nordic nation within the Soviet \"sphere of influence,\" and Soviet troops had invaded Finland late in 1939. The fighting was mostly confined to Finland's eastern border. Just two months after the submarine's sinking, a temporary peace agreement was reached. Sweden remained neutral in World War II. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lighthouse watchman last saw it 69 years ago before it sank near island of Market .\nThe Soviet submarine S-2 had a crew of 46 and four passengers when it sank .\nRemains found between Swedish coast and Finnish island of Aland in February .\nSweden and Finland claim credit for sinking the submarine with mines ."} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- After 17 hours, Kerri Gannon and her husband were still stranded in an airport in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, trying to find a way home to the United States after the facility was occupied by crowds of protesters and closed. Anti-government protesters gather in front of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport early Wednesday. The newly married husband and wife, in Thailand for their honeymoon, were struggling to find a way home to California after explosions at two Bangkok airports wounded four people and both airports were shut down. The day before, thousands of anti-government protesters stormed the airports to protest the return of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from an economic summit in Peru. \"The upper level outside is really crowded with protesters and for the most part they're kind of quiet and polite,\" Gannon said from the airport. \"They're roaming the airport, they're cheering and clapping and walking around, but it's clearly their domain.\" Watch protesters clash \u00bb . It was not clear which of the two occupied airports she was speaking from, but tourists were stranded in both. The People's Alliance for Democracy , which is leading the protests, said it will not end its occupation of the airports until the prime minister resigns. They accuse his government of being a front for ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Ongoing protests caused authorities to cancel all incoming and outgoing flights at the main hub, Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which handles 60,000 incoming passengers daily, an assistant to airport director Serirat Prasutanond told CNN. Pro- and anti-government protesters also exchanged gunfire Tuesday, a Thai police official said. Protesters with golf clubs and long wooden sticks clashed with airport taxi drivers, with each side throwing objects at the other. Watch what's causing the protests \u00bb . Protesters blockaded people trying to get to one of the airports. They directed travelers to exit onto the access roads. See more photos \u00bb . \"I'm trying to get out of this place, but I'm stuck,\" iReporter Arjan Sing, who was on a two-week vacation to India and stopped in Bangkok to visit a friend's family. \"When we took the exit there were lots of tourists standing around wondering what they were going to do.\" Gannon said the situation started off fairly relaxed, but tensions were escalating. \"As more and more tourists leave [the airport], the fact that we don't have any information and there's no one to give us information, now we feel stranded here and we don't know where to go,\" Gannon said. \"It seems a little bit more hostile than it was earlier.\" Gannon said she's heard nothing from airport personnel and her quest for answers is hurt even more by the fact that many people in the airport speak no English. \"I don't know what happened to my flight,\" one woman waiting in an airport told CNN. \"They won't talk to us and I'm angry and sad because I have two small children and they're sick so we want to go home.\" The airlines have also been mum on the situation, Gannon said, making it difficult for them to decide whether to wait it out at the airport or try to find a hotel. \"We've had absolutely no contact from our air carrier,\" Gannon said. \"But that seems to be universal across the board.\" One traveler said the wait was frustrating. \"They've started coming through and telling us that we possibly might be out of here in the morning,\" he told CNN. \"But either way, there's no problem. We just sit here and relax and enjoy the ride.\" Gannon said she and her new spouse just hope to get home sometime in the near future. \"We've been gone for 17 days and [the honeymoon] was good -- until now,\" she said. \"We are just trying to go home, get back to work and Thanksgiving.\"","highlights":"Airports closed after blasts, and thousands of protesters taking over .\nKerri Gannon, husband, on honeymoon in Thailand, stuck for 17 hours .\nProtesters swarmed the airports, said they won't leave until prime minister resigns .\nContinuing protests; travelers have no information about what's going on ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The gunman who opened fire at Washington's U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum this week is no better than a suicide bomber, a survivor of the Holocaust said. Sel Hubert, seen here with his wife, says education is the best weapon against bigotry. Sel Hubert, 83, of Rye Brook, New York, said he also fears that through the shooter's \"ultimate act of Holocaust denial,\" he has invigorated others who embrace hate and who might wish to exact violence against others. \"By doing this, he gives worldwide notoriety to himself and his ideals of hatred,\" said Hubert, who at 13 escaped Germany on a transport to England just weeks before World War II erupted. \"He chooses martyrdom to glorify his hatred similar to a suicide bomber.\" Authorities have charged James von Brunn with murdering Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, a security officer who opened a museum door Wednesday for the 88-year-old reputed white supremacist. Watch more on who von Brunn is \u00bb . Authorities say von Brunn acted alone, but Hubert says he represents all those who share his views. \"This empowers these people to think that this is how you get to be famous, gain notoriety, and they hope other people will mimic him -- and that's scary,\" he said. Eva Rich Blumberg, 85, of Rockville, Maryland, also worries that the shooting may have emboldened others to attack Jews and symbols of Jewish culture, she said. Blumberg, whose father was killed by Nazis and who spent about a year at Majdanek concentration camp in Poland in 1942, was scheduled to speak Sunday at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, but is now having second thoughts. Watch author discuss importance of combating Holocaust denial \u00bb . \"I lost everyone in the Holocaust. This incident just shook me up so that I don't know what to say,\" she said. Anytime a group asks Blumberg to speak about the Holocaust, she obliges, she said, out of a sense of duty to educate people so that the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany are never repeated. However, she said Thursday, the shooting at the museum leaves her wrestling with the decision on whether to deliver her speech this weekend. \"I'm frightened. I don't know what to do,\" she said. \"I couldn't sleep all night because things keep coming back.\" Regina Spiegel, 83, also of Rockville, believes education is one of the best weapons against bigotry. She volunteers at the museum on Wednesdays and was there when von Brunn allegedly opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle. See photos from the museum \u00bb . Fortunately, Spiegel was downstairs and didn't hear the shots, but that did not dampen her anger and disgust over the incident. Spiegel, who met her husband of more than 60 years, Samuel, at a slave labor camp in Auschwitz, teaches children to shun hate in hopes they will blossom into productive adults unfettered by ignorance and prejudices -- \"just the opposite of what he is,\" she said, referring to the museum shooter. \"We don't teach hate,\" she said firmly. \"This guy, every time I think about it, it makes me sick that there are such people around.\" Hubert, who is a board member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, said the Holocaust museum stands as an important educational tool, particularly to young Americans, for providing lessons on the follies of hatred and genocide. Map of museum \u00bb . \"It's an ultimate act of Holocaust denial and I and all Jews -- especially survivors -- feel violated all over again,\" he said. \"To attack that symbol is striking at the very heart of what the museum is trying to do, what America stands for -- the fight against bigotry and hatred.\" The Southern Poverty Law Center has described von Brunn as a \"hardcore neo-Nazi\" and Internet postings attributed to von Brunn allege that the Holocaust and Christianity are hoaxes. The postings further state that President Obama is a tool of \"Jew owners\" and that Adolf Hitler's worst mistake was \"he didn't gas the Jews.\" Watch debate on free speech, hate crimes \u00bb . Hubert and Blumberg both expressed concern that von Brunn was able to express his hateful views on Jews and minorities via the Internet. Neither is impressed with the freedom-of-speech defense. \"Hitler's Germany, they had freedom of speech and look what happened,\" Blumberg said. \"Freedom of speech has to be controlled.\" Added Hubert, \"It's the uncontrolled Internet which provides the tools and means for this scourge to spread, and it's a very dangerous thing that's happening.\" While Hubert believes the United States should strengthen its laws to prevent these types of incidents from occurring again, he also concurs with Blumberg and Spiegel that the best way to counter bigotry is \"by placing greater emphasis on prejudice and hatred for next generation,\" he said. \"The lesson is we need to be vigilant and proactive in combating hatred,\" Hubert said.","highlights":"Holocaust survivors fear museum shooting emboldens others who embrace hatred .\nShooting leaves Eva Rich Blumberg pondering whether to deliver speech Sunday .\nBlumberg: \"I couldn't sleep all night because things keep coming back\"\nShooting highlights importance of \"placing greater emphasis on prejudice, hatred\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Wu-Tang Clan -- the New York hip-hop supergroup that spawned millions of album sales, nine solo acts and a few acting careers -- almost never was. If RZA, left, had been jailed or Method Man killed, Wu-Tang may have never formed, RZA says. Method Man, the group's most recognizable voice, was nearly killed before the band formed, Wu-Tang's chief producer, RZA, writes in his forthcoming memoir. Meth was walking to buy marijuana at 160 Park Hill Avenue in Staten Island -- the house in Wu-Tang's \"Protect Ya Neck\" video -- when RZA saw him across the street, he writes in the book. \"Come over here, yo!\" RZA beckoned, according to \"The Tao of Wu\" (Riverhead). \"He stopped and came running over. A few seconds later -- pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! -- a guy started shooting up the front of 160. A buddy of ours, Poppy, an innocent, school-going, nice guy -- he was shot and killed right there.\" Interactive: Where's the Wu been? \u00bb . It wasn't the only close call RZA said could have snuffed the band that rewrote the rule book for hip-hop acts. The year before the group formed in 1993, RZA was acquitted on an attempted murder charge that could have put him behind bars for eight years, he writes in \"The Tao of Wu,\" out Thursday. Expanding on the book's anecdotes in an interview with CNN, RZA explained that if he had been imprisoned or if Method Man, aka Clifford Smith, had been killed, the band never would have come to fruition. RZA, whose real name is Robert Diggs and whose stage name is pronounced \"Rizza,\" also talked about his role in the death of his cousin, Russell Jones, better known as Ol' Dirty Bastard or ODB. Two days before his 36th birthday in 2004, ODB died in a New York recording studio from an overdose of cocaine and painkillers. RZA writes in the book that he once witnessed ODB force his own son to watch him do drugs. RZA tried to leave, he writes, but ODB wouldn't let him. Now, RZA told CNN, he wishes he would've been tougher with ODB about his drug problem. Following are excerpts from the interview, which has been edited for language, flow and length: . CNN: Could your imprisonment or Method Man's death have derailed Wu-Tang's formation? RZA: Either one of those incidents could definitely have derailed it. Of course, myself being the abbot, the one who came with the idea, if I wouldn't have made it out of that tumultuous time -- it seemed like I wasn't going to make it out of it; there was a lot of odds against me -- but we stood strong, and self-defense made sense to the jury. We beat that ... It was the victory over that incident that made me change my whole direction. In a way, it's double-edged in that incident. One, if I would've lost that, yeah, Wu-Tang wouldn't have happened, but also it's the victory of it that inspired me and gave me the drive also to go and really get serious about Wu-Tang and the things I was dealing with. Same thing with Meth, he always brings it up ... that that day saved his life. He actually said, if it was anybody else calling him, he wouldn't have came. CNN: In the book, you cite lessons from Eastern religions, Christianity, Islam, [Nation of Islam offshoot] Five Percent, numerology, comic books, kung fu, chess. What would you say to someone who says it's difficult to reconcile these dogmas? RZA: Like it says in the Bible, \"In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh\" -- if we go to the root of the word, we will find that, yeah, everything is similar. Everything is teaching us all the same path. It's just that one religion was good for these people because of their living conditions. In the Quran, they mention paradise being filled with wells, wells of water, and if you're in the desert and you've got a chance to get water and gardens -- as they describe paradise in the holy Quran -- if you're going to get gardens, that's the paradise that fits your situation. ... Everything they're saying relates to the people they're talking to. ... You remove the messenger and take the message. CNN: You say in the book that your penchant for violent lyrics in your younger years \"was a product of my history and environment\" and that it no longer represents you. But you also say you won't repudiate violence. Why not? RZA: One reason I haven't repudiated it is because when it's necessary, it's necessary. [The Bible's] Ecclesiastes tell us there's a time for everything -- a time for war, a time for peace -- so in times for war, there's time for violence. Then in [the Hindu scripture] Bhagavad Gita, it says Arjuna was talking, Arjuna didn't want to commit violent acts against an army that was attacking him. He couldn't find it in his heart to do it. It was people he loved. He didn't want to get into violence, but Krishna had to point out to him, \"Your duty is your duty.\" ... So, to me, violence in the light of justice is still violent, but I don't see it the same. It's because of justice that I don't repudiate violence because justice must be served somehow. CNN: ODB was a product of his environment as well. To what degree were you and other Wu-Tang members responsible for his death? RZA: The guys would say it's more me than them because they say that's my cousin and I was right there. If you let a man that you love or anybody -- man, woman or child that you love -- sit there and destroy themselves in front of you, you're neglecting them ... Everybody let him do what he wanted to do. ... There were times when I took his drugs and threw them down the toilet. When I do that, he would get so pissed off I don't see him for weeks after that. ... So it got to a point, I was like, \"[expletive] it, let him do his drugs\" just to have him around me, just to keep him there. ... But it's still neglect, yo. CNN: You say you ran Wu-Tang like a dictatorship in its first five years. I know you and Raekwon have had creative differences and Ghostface Killah is suing you over royalties. Ever regret the dictatorship approach? RZA: I don't regret it because it got us to the power we are. ... To me, in the beginning, the dictatorship led us to such a strong foundation that even though Wu-Tang seemed to be crumbling, it didn't fall because of the root foundation of one man's idea. But now as it's coming back together -- we're living in the twilight age of it right now -- it's still surviving because of the democracy of it. CNN: Wu-Tang is still around, but nothing like the heyday of the 1990s. Will we ever see a renaissance? RZA: Well, to me, Wu-Tang is beyond Wu-Tang Clan. ... It's just like hip-hop is beyond Grandmaster Flash, but Grandmaster Flash was one of the first guys to hit those turntables like that. ... The same thing with Wu-Tang. You'll see the difference in hip-hop from the moment we came in to before we came in. We changed it. We changed the whole structure. CNN: Have you accomplished everything you've set out to accomplish? RZA: I'm me and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing. I'm grateful for what I've accomplished. I'm grateful for anyone who thinks I accomplished something and says, \"Well he did this; he did that.\" I'm proud to be accepted, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface for some weird reason. CNN's Kyle Almond contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wu-Tang producer: Attempted murder conviction also could have derailed band .\nRapper\/producer\/actor RZA talks of forming Wu-Tang Clan in upcoming memoir .\nRZA: Ol' Dirty Bastard made son watch him do drugs before 2004 fatal overdose .\nBook cites lessons from Christianity, Islam, numerology, kung fu, chess ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. troops routinely face the threat of roadside bombs while fighting insurgencies in Afghanistan. They need the most protective clothing the market can bear, and they're getting it -- for now. North Carolina State University College of Textiles tests the flammability of different materials at this facility. Back home, a battle is brewing in Congress over the next lucrative contract for military uniforms. The issue boils down to the raw fiber used in their construction. Current uniforms are made in the United States, in Georgia, using a fabric called Defender M made by the TenCate company. It is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties. But the fabric is made with a type of rayon imported from Austria, which normally would violate the military's buy-American requirement. This specific rayon cannot be produced in the United States for environmental reasons, so Congress passed an amendment allowing it to be temporarily imported. The extension expires, or \"sunsets,\" in 2013, but that year's defense budget is being determined now. The idea of the sunset is to give U.S. manufacturers time to come up with a comparable product. At stake: a defense contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. American competitors have submitted alternatives, but after independent testing at North Carolina State University College of Textiles, the Defense Department concluded that TenCate's Defender M -- with its foreign-made fibers -- is the most flame-resistant. Dr. Roger Barker, who specializes in clothing flammability at the College of Textiles, conducted a demonstration for CNN. Based on his testing, the Army says Defender M resists fire the longest of other fabrics. \"What the new heat-resistant materials are able to do is add seconds of protection, so that seconds of protection can be the difference between a severe burn or a survival burn,\" Barker said. \"Life and death,\" echoes Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, regarding those extra seconds of fire protection. He asked the Senate to extend the waiver. \"So long as it's the best available in the world to protect our soldiers, we absolutely ought to maximize the use,\" Isakson told CNN. \"There is no American competitor that can meet or exceed it,\" Isakson said on the Senate floor. \"Obviously if there were, then that waiver would go away.\" The U.S. Army's uniform procurer says soldiers prefer TenCate's product. \"They have consistently exceeded our expectations. This has proven to be a valuable fabric and well-received by our soldiers,\" Jeff Myhre told CNN. In a letter to CNN, a top military official said the ability to procure the foreign rayon \"a valuable authority.\" \"Our periodic review of rayon requirements within the Military Services and testing of alternative items that are available domestically continue to support the determination that satisfactory quality and sufficient quantity of rayon yarn conforming to the domestic source requirements cannot be procured as needed,\" wrote Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology & logistics. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, opposed Isakson's amendment, debating on the Senate floor that it \"permanently extends this waiver and will end all efforts to produce a domestic material to make military uniforms.\" Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, agrees with Graham that U.S. companies won't have an incentive to invest in research and development. He says the exception was supposed to be temporary, and \"favors foreign suppliers of rayon over our own American companies.\" He argued on the Senate floor that in due time, U.S. companies would be able to demonstrate an ability to manufacture materials that meet Army requirements. He's also worried about jobs. \"Some companies, like DuPont, for example, have already lost hundreds of jobs owing to their inability to compete for Army contracts,\" he said. The Senate voted, and the nays had it. No extension, no more imports of this fabric as of 2013. What next? The House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill when members return from the August recess. Isakson is confident his argument will prevail. \"Facts are stubborn things. I think when the facts get out they'll understand it's the right thing to do. Our armed forces want it and it's the best thing for our soldiers,\" he said. Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"Uniforms made in Georgia by TenCate company, using a fabric called Defender M .\nIt is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties .\nFabric uses rayon from Austria, which normally violates buy-American requirement .\nAmendment at issue would continue to allow special rayon to be imported ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators are searching property that once belonged to one of five members of a Missouri family arrested on multiple child sexual abuse charges for \"a body or bodies,\" the Lafayette County sheriff said Wednesday. Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said his department and other law enforcement agencies investigating the case are seeking witnesses and more possible victims. \"I believe that there is, and I believe every investigator here, after seeing the evidence, believes there's more victims,\" Alumbaugh said. \"Pedophiles don't stop at one.\" Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, and his sons Burrell Edward Mohler Jr., 53; David A. Mohler, 52; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; and Roland Neil Mohler, 47, are being held in the Lafayette County Jail with bails ranging from $30,000 to $75,000. Six children, who are siblings, came to law enforcement authorities with stories of sexual performances, mock weddings, rape with various objects, and a forced abortion, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB in Kansas City. The documents provide graphic details of the alleged abuse, provided by one of the children, whose names are being withheld. All of the charges stem from those documents, Alumbaugh said, adding that he expected additional charges based on other victim statements. Read story from CNN affiliate KMBC . Alumbaugh said investigators were also searching several properties for glass jars that some of the victims may have buried containing notes detailing the alleged abuse. Read story from CNN affiliate KCTV . The alleged abuse took place from the mid-1980s until 1995 and possibly beyond, the sheriff said. Additionally, he said, investigators are following other leads as well. Read story from CNN affiliate Fox4KC.com . \"There has been indications there are a body or bodies in various locations,\" Alumbaugh said. Investigators have been working the case since August, he said, when the first of the now-grown children came forward.","highlights":"Investigators search property linked to Missouri family arrested in child sex abuse case .\nOfficials searching for \"a body or bodies,\" sheriff said Wednesday .\nAlleged abuse started in mid-1980s, continued at least into '90s, the sheriff said ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A top Baha'i official has criticized Iran's claim that the six imprisoned leaders of the religious minority were held for security reasons and not because of their faith. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has been accused of trying to eliminate the Baha'i community. Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, called Iran's assertion \"utterly baseless.\" \"The allegations are not new, and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue,\" Dugal said on Wednesday, quoted in a news release issued by the Baha'i movement. \"The documented plan of the Iranian government has always been to destroy the Baha'i community, and these latest arrests represent an intensification of this plan.\" Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the people were detained for \"security issues\" and not their faith, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency said. Elham said on Tuesday that the Baha'is were members of a group working together \"against national interest.\" \"The group is an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular,\" he said. The arrests of the six last week and another Baha'i leader in March sparked sharp condemnation by the Baha'is, the United States, Canada, the European Union and humanitarian groups. The Baha'is say the latest arrests are part of a pattern of religious persecution since 1979, when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and an Islamic republic was created in the predominantly Shiite nation. The Baha'is say they have been killed, jailed and \"otherwise oppressed\" only because of their religion. \"The best proof of this is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam, an option few have taken,\" Dugal said. Dugal said Iran's practice of connecting the group to Zionism, the underlying political philosophy of the Jewish state, was a \"distortion\" and an attempt to \"stir animosity\" among the Iranian public. The Baha'i World Center, which the movement refers to as its \"spiritual and administrative heart,\" is in the Acre\/Haifa area in northern Israel -- a location that predates the founding of the state of Israel since it was formed during the Ottoman Empire's rule of Palestine. The Baha'is explain that their founder, Baha'u'llah, \"after a series of successive banishments from his native Persia, was exiled, with members of his family and a small band of his followers, to the Turkish penal colony of Acre in 1868.\" Dugal said the Iranian actions were the \"most recent iteration in a long history of attempts to foment hatred by casting the Baha'is as agents of foreign powers, whether of Russia, the United Kingdom, or the United States and now Israel all of which are completely baseless.\" Dugal said the government's philosophies are based largely on the idea that there can be \"no prophet following Mohammed\" and that the faith \"poses a theological challenge to this belief.\" They say Baha'u'llah is regarded by Baha'is as \"the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Mohammed.\" The Baha'is-- regarded as the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran -- say they have 5 million members across the globe, and about 300,000 in Iran.","highlights":"Baha'i official denies Iran claim that six of its leaders held for security reasons .\nThe religious minority's leaders were arrested at their homes last week .\nBaha'i representative to U.N. says Iran's claim is \"utterly baseless\"\nBani Dugal says Muslim-run government is trying to destroy Baha'i community ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has been ruled out for a minimum of three weeks after suffering a foot injury during the 3-0 Premier League win over title rivals Chelsea. France defender Patrice Evra will be out for a minimum of three weeks after hurting ankle ligaments. It was Evra's first game back after a four-match suspension imposed by the Football Association for his involvement in a post-match fracas involving groundstaff at Stamford Bridge last season. The French left-back was hurt after firing over a cross for Wayne Rooney's goal and now faces another spell on the sidelines as United chase trophies on four fronts. Evra suffered ligament damage and manager Alex Ferguson said: \"He will be out for three weeks minimum and maybe four. It shouldn't be any more than that. \"He just went over on his foot and has done the little ligament in his foot, so we need to get the swelling down and that will take about 7-10 days.\" Evra sits out Wednesday's Premier League clash with Wigan, the trip to Bolton three days later and next week's League Cup semifinal return at home to Derby when United will be expecting to overturn a 1-0 deficit. Central defender Rio Ferdinand remains on the sidelines for at least another week although a scan on his back problem confirmed there is no long-term damage. Ferdinand, out for a month, needs more rest and Jonny Evans will continue in central defense with Wes Brown still two weeks away from a comeback after ankle surgery. Ferguson hopes Ferdinand will be back for the televised FA Cup fourth round home clash against Tottenham on Saturday January 24.","highlights":"Manchester Utd defender Patrice Evra sidelined for minimum of three weeks .\nFrenchman hurt ankle ligaments during 3-0 Premier League win over Chelsea .\nEngland defender Rio Ferdinand is out for another week with a back problem ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Wolverine.\" \"Star Trek.\" \"Angels & Demons.\" \"Terminator: Salvation.\" The summer movies roll out, one weekend after another, like dreadnoughts leaving port to bombard a battle-scarred ocean. Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody star as \"The Brothers Bloom,\" a pair of successful con artists. So won't a little film about a pair of con-artist brothers, with nary an indestructible alloy in sight, get overrun by these blockbusters? Rian Johnson, the 35-year-old director of the charming \"The Brothers Bloom,\" doesn't see it that way. \"I actually kind of like it,\" he says of the strategy of premiering his film during summer movie season. (\"Bloom\" opens Friday in limited release and expands nationwide May 29.) \"I feel like we're scampering in between the feet of these giants.\" Make no mistake, adds Johnson: \"I love the big summer movies.\" But, he says, audiences will see the big movie of the week \"and then want something different. That's the advantage coming out in this season has.\" \"Bloom\" has already proved itself nimble. Watch the stars talk about \"Bloom\" \u00bb . The film started earning buzz at the Toronto Film Festival last September, and its distributor, Summit Entertainment, launched a shrewd marketing campaign by putting the first seven minutes on the Internet earlier this year. Johnson, who directed the critically acclaimed \"Brick\" -- a film noir set in a high school -- has been praised for another inventive mix of genres, combining the con-man film with a touch of screwball comedy, some international intrigue and more than a little whimsy. Mark Ruffalo, who stars as Stephen Bloom, the mastermind of the duo, describes \"Brothers Bloom\" as \"its own world.\" \"What I loved about it was its tonal shifts,\" he says. \"It goes from broad, almost slapstick stuff to the brother story and a love story. It's not traditional in that sense.\" The film follows Stephen Bloom and his brother, played by Adrien Brody, as they embark on one last con: an attempt to swindle a wealthy shut-in, Penelope Stamp, played by Rachel Weisz. Instead of being upset, Penelope is tickled by the new world before her and the opportunities for freedom, even as the younger Bloom (simply called \"Bloom\") wants to move on to something else. Johnson is nothing if not a student of film, and \"Bloom\" features references to other con-man works. \"Paper Moon,\" with its examination of character, was a favorite, says Johnson. There are also nods to \"The Sting,\" David Mamet's works, and even Agatha Christie. But, as Ruffalo says, \"Bloom\" exists in its own world. Though the film is set in the present day, the Blooms wear suits and hats as if they walked out of 1910. Much of the film was shot in the sunny byways of coastal Eastern Europe, with its weathered 19th-century resorts and glamorous Old World style. (The backdrop made the story \"much more real for all of us,\" says Johnson.) Add Johnson's invocations of Fellini's \"8\u00bd,\" Marcello Mastroianni and (of all things) the Band documentary \"The Last Waltz\" to his cast, and Ruffalo says it was easy to find the film's personality. \"That was the starting point -- a threadbare elegance,\" he says. \"There's an appreciation of eccentricity,\" agrees Johnson. Whimsy can be hard to maintain, he says, but \"the heightened style comes from a story-based place.\" (Johnson wrote the film's script.) That can be a lot for the moviegoing public of today -- weaned on CGI, armored rogues and thin romantic comedies -- to take in. But Johnson says he has faith \"The Brothers Bloom\" will find an audience. \"I'm pretty optimistic that with ... the ease with which media is now archived and made available to the public, I'm hoping that actually opens the doors for people to have more access to this stuff,\" he says. The director maintains a message board at rcjohnso.com, where young filmmakers \"constantly talk about older films,\" he says. In the film, Stephen Bloom says the perfect con is one in which \"everyone gets what they want.\" Johnson (and his studio) hopes for a financial success, of course, but he couldn't be happier with the way \"The Brothers Bloom\" turned out. \"I learned so much doing this film,\" he says. \"It's like I got paid to go to grad school.\"","highlights":"\"The Brothers Bloom\" about a pair of con artists and woman they snooker .\nFilm being released into teeth of summer movie season; no problem, says director .\nStar Mark Ruffalo: Film is \"its own world\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What on Earth would drive a man to swim in Arctic waters wearing nothing but Speedos, goggles and a cap? Lewis Pugh braves the icy water off the arctic archipelogo of Svalbard. For Lewis Pugh, it was a love of the environment and a passionate desire to save the Arctic from global warming. His 1 km swim (0.62 of a mile) in 2007 made him the first person to complete a long-distance swim at the North Pole -- the purpose, to highlight the fact that it was possible to swim for a kilometer in a place that should be solid ice. Pugh, now aged 39, is a former maritime lawyer who abandoned his practice six years ago to become a full-time environmentalist and adventurer. Since then he has become the first person to complete long-distance swims in all five of the world's oceans and has become the world's leading cold water swimmer. Born in England and brought up in South Africa, Pugh sees himself in the mould of pioneering British adventurers like Sir Edmund Hillary, fearlessly braving waters no one else would dare swim. But rather than just aiming for a place in the history books, his motivation is to publicize the environmental damage he has witnessed on his swims. In 2006, to raise awareness about global warming and that year's drought in England, Pugh swam the entire length of the River Thames -- all except the first 26 miles, which had already dried up. He took a break from the 200-mile journey to call in at No. 10 Downing Street, where he discussed climate change with Tony Blair. The next year, Pugh became the first person to swim the 87 mile-width of the Maldives. The 10-day swim was Pugh's way of raising awareness of how climate change is threatening to submerge low-lying islands. But he is best known for his North Pole adventure. His Arctic swim lasted 19 minutes in temperatures of around minus 2 degrees Celsius. Were any normal person to fall into waters that cold they would be in serious trouble. Pugh's long-time coach Professor Tim Noakes told CNN, \"People usually drown very quickly on exposure to cold water because they start to hyperventilate and when you hyperventilate you can't coordinate. They inhale water and they can't coordinate their swimming. Most people can't even go 20 meters if they are exposed to ice-cold water.\" But Pugh has developed a unique mechanism for overcoming freezing conditions. He is apparently able to increase his body temperature by will power alone. In a process that Noakes has dubbed \"anticipatory thermogenesis\", Pugh can raise his body temperature to a feverish 38.4 C, some 1.5 degrees above normal body temperature. Noakes first noted this extraordinary ability during a training session. Before entering the water, Pugh cast his mind back to a traumatic parachuting accident he witnessed when he was a soldier in the British army, reliving the event in detail. Noakes recorded an increase in Pugh's body temperature and over the next fortnight, as Pugh was exposed to more cold-water swims, he was able to increase his temperature even further, peaking at 38.4 C. These days, before Pugh braves sub-zero waters he listens to U.S.rapper Eminem, gets himself into an aggressive state of mind and drives up his internal temperature. Once he hits the water, it's all about mental strength. Noakes told CNN \"The moment you dive into cold water your temperature drops and the brain sends a message to get out of the water. The first thing Pugh has to do is control that response. What happens is that I become his brain, so he says 'fine, as long as Dr Noakes allows me to swim, it's safe and I must just ignore what my brain is telling me.'\" Achieving that level of willpower doesn't come easily. While Pugh does an hour of cold-water swimming a day, he devotes four hours a day to mind training. His technique is to visualize his swim from beginning to end. \"I can taste salt water in my mouth. I can hear the sounds of the engines, of Tim Noakes screaming at me. I can feel ice burning my skin, I can smell the sea air. I absolutely live that moment. I have swum the North Pole hundreds of times in my mind,\" he told CNN. If the Arctic swim was intended to highlight shrinking polar ice caps, Pugh acknowledges that there's still plenty of work to do on that front and he now speaks on environmental issues all over the world. In 2008 Pugh founded the Polar Defense Project with the aim of protecting the Arctic and of encouraging world leaders to take action to stop climate change. As well the risk of polar melting, Pugh sees an Arctic treaty as essential to prevent the exploitation of the North Pole for oil and gas. As Pugh put it after completing his Arctic swim, \"I'm relieved that it's over. Now the real work begins.\"","highlights":"Lewis Pugh was the first man to complete a long-distance swim in the Arctic .\n\"Most people can't go 20 meters in ice-cold water,\" says his coach .\nPugh is able to increase his body temperature using will power alone .\nHis extreme swims are intended to publicize the effects of global warming ."} -{"article":"LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Doctors in Peru started a 48-hour strike Tuesday over pay and other benefits they say the government agreed to last year but has not delivered. The Medical Federation of Peru's Julio Vargas says, \"The stoppage ... will require the cooperation of all doctors.\" The doctors' union, the Medical Federation of Peru, called the strike after meeting Monday with Prime Minister Yehude Simon, news sources reported. \"The stoppage that we will implement ... will require the cooperation of all doctors and that they suspend their external consults, although we will reinforce intensive and emergency care,\" union President Julio Vargas was quoted as saying in El Comercio newspaper. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said the government has complied with all the agreements reached last year and the doctors have no reason to strike, RPP radio reported. Ugarte also warned doctors they will not be paid while on strike, the Andina news agency and El Comercio said. \"You can't stop working and later come and say, 'Pay me,' \" Ugarte said in El Comercio. \"That is immoral and does not conform with professional ethics.\" At issue are pay for special work and more equal pay among state doctors, the news reports said. Salaries for doctors in Peru have decreased to one-fourth of 1976 levels, The Lancet professional medical journal reported in May 2008. As a result, physicians often hold two or more jobs to make ends meet. An average doctor's salary in Lima, the capital, is the equivalent of $670 a year, The Lancet said. A 2007 survey of 202 interns in Lima showed that 38 percent were thinking about migrating to a developed country to practice medicine, the publication said. Salary was one of the main reasons given.","highlights":"Doctors' union calls for 48-hour strike after meeting with Peru's prime minister .\nDoctors say government has failed to deliver on agreements last year .\nHealth minister says doctors have no reason to go on strike .\nMedical journal: Salaries for doctors have decreased to one-fourth of 1976 levels ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German zookeepers in Nuremberg will bottle-feed a four-week-old polar bear and rear it away from its mother after concerns the mother would eat her cub, officials said Thursday. Zookeepers fear the unnamed polar bear cub could be at risk of being eaten. The cub, which doesn't yet have a name, was being cared for at Nuremberg City Zoo, where it was resting under heat lamps and is drinking formula. \"It's gaining weight, it's very hungry, it drinks a lot of milk,\" said Alexandra Foghammar, a spokeswoman for the city. The zoo announced Thursday that the cub is female. Wednesday, the zoo said keepers decided to take the cub away from its mother, Vera, because the mother was showing signs of being upset and confused, taking her baby in and out of the animals' enclosure. \"We were 100 percent sure that the baby was going to die if we didn't take it away from her,\" Nuremberg zoo director Dag Encke told Time magazine. \"This would have been a death verdict for the cub.\" The zoo confirmed earlier this week that its other female polar bear, Vilma, had eaten her two offspring. The zoo said it feared Vera would do the same, so it took her cub away as a precaution. Since then, the cub is thriving in the care of humans, but Vera seems to miss her cub, Foghammar said. Watch how zoo has faced criticism over polar bears. \u00bb . \"The mother is a little bit nervous,\" she said. \"She walks around and is searching for the baby, but the responsible persons for the zoo say this is normal. It will continue for three or four days. It's a normal situation.\" The zookeepers are pondering whether to bring another adult bear, possibly the cub's father, Felix, to the zoo to help Vera overcome her loss, and are seeking another small bear to serve as a companion for the rescued cub, Time reported. The zoo said a keeper entered Vilma's enclosure Monday and noticed that her two cubs were nowhere to be found. The zoo said it assumes Vilma ate her young because she believed the cubs were sick, though zookeepers say the cubs were last seen on Sunday and appeared in good health. But Foghammar told Time that the separation of the bears was bad for the \"principle of wildlife conservation\" at the zoo: \"Now the cub will not grow up to act in a natural way, just as the mother lacked the experience to bring up a cub.\" The plight of the cub follows the case last year of Knut, a cub rejected by its mother at Berlin Zoo who became the focus of a media frenzy after animal rights campaigners called for it to be killed, claiming it had become too dependent on humans. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Four-week-old polar bear separated from mother amid fears she would eat it .\nNuremberg City Zoo's other polar bear ate its own two offspring earlier this week .\nMother was showing signs of being upset and confused, zookeepers said ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Human error and system lapses, rather than deliberate concealing of information, allowed a terror suspect with explosives to board a U.S.-bound airplane on Christmas Day, President Obama's terrorism czar said Sunday. John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said on CNN's \"State of the Union\" that the security breakdown in the failed bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight was different from the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. \"It's not like 9\/11,\" Brennan said, adding that the \"system didn't work as it should have\" due to \"lapses\" and \"human error.\" \"There wasn't an effort to try to conceal information,\" he said, referring to the well-chronicled competition and turf wars among security agencies prior to the 2001 attacks, which was later blamed for the failure to prevent them. \"There is no smoking gun piece of intelligence out there,\" Brennan said of the failed Christmas bombing, allegedly planned by a Nigerian man who boarded the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, with explosives in his underwear. Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration announced Sunday new security measures to be implemented by domestic and international air carriers on flights bound for the United States, effective Monday. The suspect's father, a leading banker in Nigeria, warned U.S. authorities before the attack that his son might be involved with Islamic extremists. Brennan said the father's information was part of \"bits and pieces\" of information that were never connected by intelligence officials to properly target the suspect. \"That was certainly an alert that came to our attention,\" Brennan said of the father's warnings. \"He said, 'He's consorting with extremists in Yemen.'\" However, Brennan rejected another potential warning sign -- that the suspect purchased the airline ticket with cash in Ghana before traveling to Nigeria for the first leg of his journey. \"A lot of people buy their tickets in Africa with cash. That is the way, in fact, things are done, because there's so much fraud there. So that wasn't a necessary [warning] bell,\" Brennan said. \"People in the Amsterdam airport didn't even know that he had bought the ticket for cash. He did bring on carry-on luggage. So there were a lot of things that were out there.\" At the same time, Brennan conceded \"there was information that was in the system that should have allowed us to stop it.\" \"A number of pieces were out there that weren't brought together,\" Brennan said. On the same program, however, the Republican chairman of the 9\/11 commission said Brennan was \"wrong when he says this wasn't like 9\/11.\" Thomas Kean, a former governor of New Jersey, said both events occurred because the U.S. intelligence community failed to piece together various bits of information it already possessed in the weeks and months prior to the attacks. If the information had been properly shared and analyzed, \"then this guy would've never have gotten on a plane\" on Christmas Day, Kean said. In announcing the new security measures Sunday, the TSA stressed in a statement that \"effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders.\" As a result, any individual flying into the United States who is \"traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening,\" the statement said. \"The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on U.S. bound international flights.\"","highlights":"John Brennan: \"System didn't work as it should have\" due to \"lapses\" and \"human error\"\nSuspect's cash payment for airfare \"wasn't a necessary [warning] bell,\" says Brennan .\nThomas Kean of 9\/11 panel says Brennan \"wrong when he says this wasn't like 9\/11\"\nCNN iReport: Tell us about your airport security experiences ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran on Sunday released on bail four journalists and a retired professor whom it had held for two months, the semiofficial Iran Labour News Agency reported. The five prisoners had been held since they were arrested during a December 27 protest, according to ILNA. The journalists are Abdolreza Tajik, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Behrang Tonkaboni and Mohammad Javad Mozafar, who is also a prisoners' rights activist, ILNA said. The news agency reported that the retired professor is Mohammad Sadeq Rabani. Separately, ILNA reported that Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said Sunday that \"detainees of recent unrest will be released due to the upcoming Iranian new year,\" which falls on March 21. At the same time, ILNA quoted Doulatabadi as saying that those arrested on the Muslim holy day of Ashura, when the five prisoners freed on bail Sunday were rounded up, could face stiff penalties later. \"The judiciary will imply more strict policies, and those who were arrested on Ashura Day will be confronted heavily by the judiciary,\" he said. Mozafar and Tajik were released on $100,000 bail, according to Parleman News, the Web site of the minority reformists of the parliament. It did not mention the bail amount for the other two journalists. CNN was not immediately able to independently verify the bail amount. The protests around Ashura were Iran's deadliest clashes since protests broke out last summer after incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed more than 62 percent of the vote in national elections. At least seven people were killed and hundreds were arrested on Ashura, witnesses said. The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone, blaming reformists for the violence. Doulatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, said Sunday that the judiciary and police forces will be on high alert near the Iranian new year. The judiciary and police will \"confront those who disturb the norms of society with high explosives,\" he said. The five prisoners were released Sunday from Tehran's Evin prison. ILNA did not release the professional affiliations of the journalists, but they were listed on opposition Web sites. According to some main opposition Web sites, Tajik is an editor for Farheekhtegan, a weekly magazine, and a freelance journalist. Shamsolvaezin has edited many of post-revolutionary Iran's first independent newspapers, including Kayhan, Jame'eh, Neshat and Asr-e Azadegan, according to opposition sites. Many of those have been closed down. Tonkaboni is the editor of the magazine Farhang va Ahang, or Culture and Music, according to opposition sites. Javad Mozafar is publishing director of Kavir, a publishing house, and vice president of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, according to opposition sites. Sadegh Rabbani is a retired science professor at the University of Tehran, according to opposition sites.","highlights":"Four journalists, professor released on bail, Iran Labour News Agency reports .\nFive held since arrests during a December 27 protest, ILNA reported .\nReport: Prosecutor suggests detainees of 'recent unrest' will be released ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Ohio distributor is recalling about 6 million Chinese-made tire valve stems after concluding that some of them were improperly made and could increase the risk of accidents. An Ohio distributor is recalling 6 million Chinese-made car tire valve stems. Tech International, the part's Johnstown, Ohio-based distributor, estimates that just 8,600 of roughly 6 million of those valves are defective. The valve is a replacement snap-in tire valve -- Model No. TR413 -- manufactured between July and November 2006. It was imported by Tech International from manufacturer Shanghai Baolong Industries Co. in Shanghai, China, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the recall, the rubber part of the valve may crack after being in use for about six months, causing a gradual loss of tire pressure. Continuing to drive on underinflated tires can cause them to burst, possibly leading to crashes. Tech International told the NHTSA that the company doesn't have records of the final purchasers of the valve stems. According to the company, the defect was identified after \"a small number\" of the valves were reported by customers and one distributor to have failed. The samples were shipped to China, and, in March, Baolong concluded that some valves could be defective. \"The cause of the defect is likely improper mixing of the rubber compound in the manufacturer's facility,\" Tech International wrote in a letter to the transportation safety authority.","highlights":"Ohio-based distributor says valves aren't working properly, could cause accidents .\nTech International estimates that just 8,600 of 6 million are defective .\nSnap-in tire valve, Model TR413, was made between July and November 2006 .\nContinuing to drive on underinflated tires can cause them to burst ."} -{"article":"DURBAN, South Africa -- India's Yuvraj Singh smashed six sixes in one over as England crashed out of cricket's World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa on Wednesday. Yuvraj Singh smashes his sixth successive six off England fast bowler Stuart Broad . Paul Collingwood's side were eliminated at the Super Eights stage after South Africa earlier beat New Zealand by six wickets in Durban. England then lost by 18 runs to the Singh-inspired Indians, who kept their semifinal hopes alive ahead of Thursday's must-win clash with the hosts. Singh reached the fastest 50 in Twenty20 history, needing just 12 deliveries, as India made 218-4. The left-hander's six consecutive sixes in the 19th over bowled by Stuart Broad made him the first player to do so in Twenty20 matches and just the fourth in all senior cricket. South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs performed the feat at the 50-over World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year, while Sir Garfield Sobers and Ravi Shastri achieved it in first-class matches. Singh's innings ended on 58 -- from 16 balls -- when he hit a full-toss from Andrew Flintoff to captain Collingwood at long-on from the penultimate delivery of the final over, in which he also cleared the boundary ropes once. Virender Sehwag top-scored with 68 off 52 balls, putting on 136 for the first wicket with Gautam Gambhir, who hit 58 off 41 deliveries. Broad ended with the embarrassing figures of 0-60 off his four overs, while fellow seamer Chris Tremlett took 2-45. In reply, England battled gamely but could only post 200-6 in their 20 overs. Opener Vikram Solanki top-scored with 43 off 31 balls, and Kevin Pietersen hit 39 off 23 deliveries, but no-one could match the fireworks provided by Singh. Left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan claimed figures of 3-37 off four overs, while Rudra Pratap Singh took 2-28. If India can beat South Africa, it would create a three-way tie and require net run-rates to decide the two teams going through. The Proteas have two wins from two Group E outings after beating New Zealand, who have completed their Super Eights fixtures with two victories and a defeat. South Africa restricted the Black Caps to 153-8 from their 20 overs on Wednesday, then reached the target with five deliveries to spare as Justin Kemp made an unbeaten 89. Kemp was named man of the match after smashing a six off the otherwise economical Mark Gillespie for the winning runs. He belted six sixes and six fours in his 56-ball innings, having come to the crease in the fourth over with South Africa reeling at 17-2. Kemp added 28 in four overs with Gibbs (19) before putting on another 65 in eight overs with Mark Boucher. Boucher departed for 23, caught by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum off Gillespie, who ended with figures of 2-11 off 3.1 overs. The experienced Shaun Pollock then joined Kemp, and struck one six in his unbeaten 16 off 11 deliveries to help guide the Proteas to their second victory. The in-form Craig McMillan top-scored for the Kiwis, hitting an unbeaten 48 off only 25 balls to follow up his blistering 57 in Tuesday's five-run win against England. McCullum had put on 68 for the first wicket with Lou Vincent, scoring 38 before becoming the first of Morne Morkel's four victims. Morkel, who ended with figures of 4-17 off four overs, then removed Ross Taylor (1) two runs later and later bowled the dangerous Jacob Oram for a quickfire 15. He had Shane Bond caught by Boucher, and then almost became the first Twenty20 bowler to claim five wickets when his penultimate delivery -- which clean bowled Gillespie -- was declared a no-ball by umpire Billy Doctrove. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Yuvraj Singh becomes first player to hit six sixes in an over in Twenty20 game .\nSingh hits 58 in 16 deliveries as India beat England by 18 runs in Durban .\nEngland already eliminated from World Twenty20 after South Africa beat NZ ."} -{"article":"(CNET) -- A post on the Facebook developer blog announces the big application program interface (API) update from the social network that was first reported on Sunday night, which it's calling the Open Stream API. The \"Open Stream API\" was front-and-center with Facebook's controversial redesign earlier this year. It's the first major implementation of an emerging (read: brand new) open standard called Activity Streams, on which Facebook has been collaborating with developers for the past few months. Basically, what it means is that third-party developers will have access to a feed of all content posted to news feeds--notes, photos, videos, links, \"likes\" and comments, and activity from other applications built on the social network's platform. \"We've officially moved away from the Web of just blog posts, which a lot of these formats were originally designed for,\" said open-source developer and advocate Chris Messina, who has been spearheading the development of Activity Streams for about a year now. \"Over time, what I think will happen is (that) you'll see something toward the type of cleverness and ingenuity that has surfaced around the Twitter community, but in a way that is even more expressive and rich,\" Messina said. \"In the case of Twitter, you're just talking about status updates; in the case of Facebook you're talking about a lot of different activities.\" Previously, only status updates--the most Twitter-like part of Facebook--were accessible to developers. That's why this announcement likely makes the biggest difference to the creators of social feed aggregation applications like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop. But because Activity Streams is an open standard, other social-networking and media-sharing applications will be able to use it too. This means that there could be, say, an Adobe Air-based desktop application that brings in updates across photo-sharing applications like Facebook, Flickr, and Photobucket. Facebook is also targeting different types of developers -- specifically mobile and desktop -- rather than strictly the Web app developers whose creations made Facebook's platform such a wild success when it debuted two years ago. \"One of the most important stories to tell here is this is the first time that we've ever opened the core Facebook product experience, which was previously called the 'feed' and which we're now calling the 'stream,'\" Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin explained to CNET News. \"We're especially excited to see the types of desktop applications and the types of mobile applications which developer are going to build for the stream. We've sort of never really allowed this before, so we're pretty excited to see what developers come up with.\" Facebook will be holding an event on Monday afternoon in Palo Alto, California, to introduce developers to the new API. Presenting at the event will be representatives from Adobe, which is building a Facebook application in its Air runtime environment, and Microsoft, which is doing the same in Silverlight; contact management system Plaxo and third-party app Seesmic Desktop (which already has unveiled its support for the Open Stream) are also presenting. The \"stream\" took front-and-center with Facebook's controversial redesign earlier this year. Inspired by the likes of Twitter, the revamped design marked a shift in strategy for Facebook from static profiles to a real-time flow of information. At the same time, it proved unpopular among some users. But Facebook isn't the only big social-networking player to be implementing Activity Streams. The emerging standard was behind the upgrades to MySpace's MySpaceID product that the News Corp.-owned service launched in March at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. \"It was sort of one of the earlier opportunities we had to take a nascent spec and see it all the way through to launch,\" MySpaceID product lead Max Engel told CNET News, adding that his team first started working on Activity Streams last September. It's what powers a new MySpace \"gadget\" for Google as well as its feeds' presence on the upcoming Yahoo homepage redesign. \"It's getting where we need it to be, which is like e-mail: where you can write a POP client and know (that) it works,\" Engel said. \"It's not even a full standard yet, so it's sort of exciting to see so many people get behind something so quickly, and it's definitely indicative of the general momentum of people who are saying we'd rather work open than work closed.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"A post on the Facebook developer blog announces the Open Stream API .\nThird-party developers will have access to feed of all news feed content .\nPreviously, only status updates were accessible to developers .\nBlog: API users will be able to use applications to interact with their stream ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An SUV carrying almost two dozen undocumented immigrants crashed in Arizona over the weekend, killing 10 people and injuring several others, state police reported Sunday. This Ford Excursion was packed with 22 passengers inside when it crashed in Arizona late Saturday night. The Ford Excursion crashed at about 11:55 p.m. Saturday in a remote area about 30 miles north of the Mexican border, ejecting almost all the 22 passengers inside, police said in a statement. In addition to the dead, 12 people were hospitalized. The identity of the driver, passengers and owner of the Excursion were not released.","highlights":"SUV is packed with almost two dozen undocumented immigrants .\nFord Excursion crashes about 30 miles north of Mexican border in remote area .\nAlmost all of the 22 people jammed inside are ejected from vehicle .\nIn addition to 10 dead, 12 people are hospitalized ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Evangelist Tony Alamo is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after an Arkansas judge sentenced him to 175 years Friday on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex, according to prosecutors. A jury convicted Alamo in July on 10 federal counts covering offenses that spanned 11 years and dated back to 1994, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Alamo, the 75-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, will serve the sentences on each count consecutively, for a total of 175 years in prison, prosecutors said. In addition to his sentence, Alamo was fined $250,000, court documents showed. His lawyer filed an appeal Friday. Christopher Plumlee, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, welcomed the sentence. \"Given the number of victims and the difficult type of testimony they had to provide in order to get to trial, it's gratifying for them to see him get this sentence,\" he said. \"Not only did they entrust their lives to him, he did it in the name of God. And he betrayed their trust.\" Authorities in September 2008 arrested Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas. An indictment released in November 2008 accused Alamo of transporting five girls across state lines for sex. The criminal complaint included accounts from three girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was released last year, and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them. In a phone interview last year with CNN, Alamo called the accusations a hoax. \"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will.\"","highlights":"Charges included taking minors across state lines for sex .\nAlamo, 75, is founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries .\nCharges stem from 2008 raided of 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nothing says true love like releasing a caged butterfly, don't you think? Wayne Rooney and Coleen McLoughlin are to be paid $5 million for the picture rights to their wedding. The butterflies are reported to be the piece-de-resistance of England's most anticipated celebrity wedding of the year. Wayne Rooney, the best English footballer of his generation, and Coleen McLoughlin, his High School sweetheart, were to marry in an estimated $10 million ceremony in Italy Thursday. As they kiss, guests are apparently meant to open boxes and release the butterflies. The moment has been pilloried widely in the British media, tacky and over the top they all think, but is it just sour grapes? It has been a long and, at times, bumpy road for the couple to the altar. One littered with fierce criticism from the British press, which has enjoyed nothing more than lampooning Rooney and McLoughlin for being 'common.' The Daily Mail once even asked: \"Is this Britain's ghastliest couple?\" Rooney has been dubbed \"Shrek\" and \"Mr Potato Head\" due to his looks and his background as the son of a school dinner lady who grew up on a council estate is often referred to in a disparaging way. McLoughlin, meanwhile, has been subjected to page upon page of bitter stories about her weight, shopping sprees and her lack of closeness to Victoria Beckham. There has also been fierce criticism over the fact she has managed to become a millionaire in her own right. It's all down to Rooney apparently, and nothing to do with her appearing to be quite a decent person, who did well at school and has cleverly managed to parlay some of her fame into various media and advertising projects. Anyone who has seen her television show -- Coleen's Real Women -- can see she is a decent, bubbly person, who is very good at putting people at ease. Much to the media's fury, the couple have sold the rights to cover the wedding to OK magazine for a record $5 million. However they're not pocketing all the cash themselves, with an undisclosed sum from the fee to be donated to the Claire House children's hospice in Cheshire -- where McLoughlin's disabled foster sister Rosie is cared for. The queen's grandson, Peter Phillips and his bride Autumn Kelly, recently received $1m from Hello magazine to cover their wedding but they didn't receive an eighth of the opprobrium now directed at the more generous, but lower class, Rooney and McLoughlin. Moreover, in lieu of presents, Rooney and McLoughlin have also asked guests to donate money to the Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool. The wedding might be over the top, with a private yacht and luxury jet for guests (they are covering the guests' costs), expensive plonk and a $200,000 wedding dress, but at least the couple have worked hard for what they have. Their success despite a working-class background appears to be the greatest source of frustration for critics. It's just not on that someone who wasn't born into privilege and didn't go to a posh school can enjoy their wealth. That would be ugly. If anything, the couple's relationship and success is a triumph over adversity. They have known each other since McLoughlin was 12, but she spent two years fending off Rooney's entreaties to go out on a date. He finally got his chance when he saw her struggling to fix a broken bicycle chain. He rode over to help, popped the question again and got a yes. Surely they should be congratulated for creating their own modern fairytale complete with butterflies? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"English football star Wayne Rooney and sweetheart marry in lavish ceremony .\nGlen Scanlon says media have launched bitter attacks on the couple .\nWorking-class background appears to be critics' greatest annoyance, he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An outspoken Saudi human rights advocate who was imprisoned without charge for nearly eight months was freed this weekend, according to a fellow human rights activist. Matrook al-Faleh, shown in 2004, was seized after he criticized prison conditions, says Human Rights Watch. Matrook al-Faleh \"is doing very well\" after leaving Al-Hayer maximum security prison near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, late Saturday, said colleague Mohammed al-Qahtani, who visited al-Faleh on Sunday. \"He is very healthy and his morale is quite high -- surprisingly after eight months,\" said al-Qahtani. Both men are Saudi college professors. It's unclear why al-Faleh was arrested. A Human Rights Watch report condemning the arrest and urging al-Faleh's release said his detention came two days after he publicly criticized conditions in a prison where two other Saudi human rights activists are imprisoned. It was also unclear why he was held for so long. According to al-Qahtani, Saudi law mandates that no one can be held for more than six months without charge. \"The criminal code says you charge him or release him, but sometimes they do not respect the law they issued,\" al-Qahtani said. An official at the Saudi Interior Ministry said he had no details about al-Faleh's case. Jamila al-Uqla, al-Faleh's wife, spoke to CNN in May, shortly after her husband was detained. She described how her husband had been arrested without charge and interrogated repeatedly. Al-Faleh had decided to go on a hunger strike to demand that he be told why he was being held, she said. His wife stressed that she and al-Faleh are patriotic Saudis. \"My husband is transparent and doesn't hide anything,\" said al-Uqla. \"He says whatever he sees. He has loyalty to his country and the interests of his country.\" It was not Al-Faleh's first brush with the Saudi legal system. Al-Faleh, Abdullah al-Hamid and Ali al-Dumaini, who runs a Saudi discussion Web site, were arrested in 2004 for circulating a petition meant for then-Crown Prince Abdullah which called for a constitution guaranteeing basic human rights. A court sentenced al-Faleh, Abdullah al-Hamid and Ali al-Dumaini, to six, seven and nine years respectively. But King Abdullah pardoned them in August 2005, Human Rights Watch said.","highlights":"Saudi professor Matrook al-Faleh imprisoned for eight months without charge .\nHe was released from a prison near Riyadh late Saturday, fellow activist says .\nRights group: Al-Faleh's detention came after he criticized prison conditions ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An oil painting was returned Tuesday to the estate of a Jewish art dealer who was forced to consign the painting and other artwork under Nazi Germany before fleeing the country. \"Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe\" was done in 1632 by an unknown artist. The painting, \"Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe,\" was done in 1632 by an unknown painter from the Northern Netherlandish school, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in southern New York. It was owned by Max Stern, an art dealer who had a gallery in Dusseldorf, Germany, until 1937, when the Nazis' Reich Chamber for Fine Arts ordered him to liquidate the gallery and its inventory, the statement said. Stern, who died in 1987, left no heirs. He and his wife had founded the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, which directly benefits Concordia University and McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to a statement from U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The painting was returned Tuesday -- Holocaust Remembrance Day -- to Clarence Epstein of Concordia University on behalf of the executors of the estate, said Lou Martinez of the immigration agency. It was returned in a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, he said. The painting had been owned by Philip Mould Ltd., a London, England, gallery, when Lawrence Steigrad, a New York art dealer, bought it in 2008, the New York attorney's office said. Neither had any idea of the painting's past. Philip Mould Ltd. had purchased the painting the year before from Lempertz Auction House. The same auction house sold the painting in 1937 after Stern was forced to liquidate, without receiving any proceeds from the sale, the New York attorney's office said. Immigration agents used information from a Holocaust claims office in the New York state Banking Department to look into Steigrad's gallery. The art dealer \"confirmed the painting was in his possession.\" and he eventually allowed agents to seize the painting, the attorney's office said.","highlights":"Art dealer Max Stern was forced to liquidate his gallery in 1937 .\nStern died in 1987 with no heirs .\nHis art restoration project benefits three universities .\n\"Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe\" was returned Tuesday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- By most accounts, the showdown was pretty brutal. Many declared Jon Stewart, right, the victor in his face-to-face with Jim Cramer on \"The Daily Show.\" Many watching Thursday night's \"Daily Show\" on Comedy Central felt that comedian-turned-media-critic Jon Stewart held bombastic financial guru and CNBC \"Mad Money\" host Jim Cramer's feet to the fire. And Cramer flinched. Stewart, known for his zany, satirical take on the news, was serious as he took Cramer's network to task for what Stewart viewed as their \"cheerleading\" of corporations at the heart of the nation's current economic crisis. And despite the title of his financial show, Cramer came off as less mad and more apologetic. Watch Stewart vs. Cramer \u00bb . \"If it was a prize fight, they would have stopped it,\" said Howard Kurtz, the \"Washington Post\" media critic and host of CNN's \"Reliable Sources.\" \"I was stunned that Jim Cramer kind of did a rope-a-dope strategy and didn't really defend himself against Jon Stewart's assault.\" Kurtz is very familiar with the style of both men. He has appeared on \"The Daily Show\" and is the author of \"The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation,\" in which Cramer is featured. Kurtz said Stewart \"made clear at the outset that he wasn't going for laughs\" and displayed very much the same passion for holding the media accountable as he did when he appeared on, and denounced, CNN's \"Crossfire.\" Watch the debate on \"Reliable Sources\" \"When I went on [Stewart's] show last year, he was so wound up in ripping the media that he went on for another 10 minutes, knowing full well that we were out of time,\" Kurtz said. \"Stewart, as funny as he can be, is a very trenchant media critic who cares passionately about this stuff, and we saw that Thursday night.\" iReporter David Seaman of New York said he was surprised at the vigor with which Stewart \"attacked Cramer's credibility.\" Check out David's iReport . The public wants answers as to how the country got into such financial distress, and viewers really want someone to answer for the mess, Seaman said. \"People want to see a lot of the financial gurus on a shish kabob, being skewered,\" Seaman said. \"It's really important to hold people accountable, and as we saw last night, Jon Stewart is a bit of a wild card, so if you aren't living up to expectations, he may call you out.\" David Brancaccio, host and senior editor of \"Now on PBS,\" commended Cramer for his bravery in going on the show, though he said he was surprised that the brilliant founder of TheStreet.com seemed ill-prepared for Stewart's very thoughtful questioning. Brancaccio, the former host of American Public Media's \"Marketplace\" radio program, echoed the comments of many in that he found the exchange visibly uncomfortable for the usually showman-like Cramer. \"You have the comedian as journalist, and you have the financial journalist as clown, in that on his show, Cramer's goofing around and plays the clown,\" Brancaccio said. \"What a role reversal.\" Brancaccio said Stewart's show has emerged as an important vehicle for media criticism. Thursday night's show marked an important moment in journalism, especially financial reporting, Brancaccio said. \"It's really important that tough questions are asked, because when tough questions aren't asked, we end up with Enron,\" he said. \"It's interesting that the tough questions came from Jon Stewart, brilliant comedian that he is.\" Brancaccio thinks the episode may serve as a cautionary tale for those in the media who don't do their due diligence. White House approves of smackdown . \"I don't think any financial journalist wants to be in Cramer's position,\" Brancaccio said. \"I think [journalists] may redouble their efforts to be dispassionate reporters asking the tough questions.\" Steve Krakauer is associate editor of TVNewser.com, one of the leading blogs about the television news industry, and said comments at his site have been mixed about the show. Although some thought it was one of the best interviews they had ever seen, others found Stewart arrogant and said his outrage might have been a bit staged. Krakauer said the question now is where Cramer -- who has said he plans to make some changes to his show -- goes from here. Krakauer said he doubts that there will be a complete overhaul of \"Mad Money.\" \"I can't see things drastically changing,\" Krakauer said. \" 'Mad Money' is one of the most successful shows on CNBC. Despite what has been written about Jim Cramer, the things he's gotten incorrect and the calls he has made, he's still popular and one of the most entertaining for people who are interested in that type of financial news.\" If anything, Cramer's appearance on \"The Daily Show\" may have just stoked the flames. Comedy Central's Web site played it up with clips from the show that it called \"an historic moment in basic cable.\" The topic is such a hot one that Kurtz will lead \"Reliable Sources\" with it Sunday, with journalist Tucker Carlson, radio show host Stephanie Miller and \"Baltimore Sun\" television critic David Zurawik as guests. \"Beyond the entertainment value, and we are not above that, this is a really important moment for holding financial journalists accountable,\" Kurtz said. \"It may have taken Jon Stewart to blow the whistle on some of the hype and shortsightedness at America's top business news channel, but those failings were repeated throughout the business press, which stumbled badly in reporting on what turned into a huge financial meltdown.\"","highlights":"Critics and viewers see Stewart as victor after interview with \"Mad Money\" host .\nPair squared off in an uncomfortable debate on \"The Daily Show\"\niReporter: Surprised at how Stewart \"attacked Cramer's credibility\"\nHoward Kurtz: \"Important moment for holding financial journalists accountable\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British solo round-the-world sailor Dee Caffari happily admits that you need to be a little bit 'mad' to take on long-distance sailing. Dee Caffari celebrates completing the solo Vendee Globe race earlier this year. And she should know: Caffari became the first woman to sail single-handedly around the world in both directions after completing the solo round-the-world race, Vendee Globe, earlier this year. \"People say you must be mad -- and there probably is an element of truth in that,\" the 36 year-old told CNN. Growing up on the south coast of England, Caffari was bitten by the sailing bug early and her passion for the sport led her to enter the Vendee Globe, considered by some to be the most punishing sporting event on the planet. Caffari spent 99 days at sea completely alone and says preparation is the key to success in long-distance voyages at sea. That, and the desire and self-belief to make it to the finish. \"You have to have this desire to see how far you can push yourself. It's having the willingness to put yourself in that uncomfortable position -- and belief that you have the strength to get through it. \"It's a perceived risk and you go out there knowing that you have done all you can to deal with all scenarios. You don't just go out there on a whim -- we are well trained,\" she said. Coping day-to-day during the journey is a whole new challenge: solo sailors must battle perilous conditions, changes to sleep patterns and, inevitably, loneliness. Would you survive a round the world voyage? Take our personality test and find out! Caffari says she found being separated from family and friends was the hardest aspect of sailing round-the-world the first time. \"The toughest thing about my first journey was not seeing people for six months. You can communicate very well now, perhaps too well, but it still doesn't allow you to have face-to-face contact with people.\" Modern-day communications allow sailors to keep in touch via satellite phones and also keep in Internet contact. Sailors are tracked by global positioning systems (GPS) and also receive regular weather information. \"Transition\" periods at the start or just after the end of voyages -- when sailors are adjusting to boat routines or getting reacquainting with daily life -- are also very challenging. Exhaustion while getting used to different sleep patterns was particularly difficult: On board, Caffari would generally sleep in short bursts of two or three hours depending on conditions. The amount of sleep could vary greatly from day-to-day. \"The transitions are difficult. Life on board is very disciplined. Your adjustment with new sleeping patterns takes about two to three weeks. If it's changeable weather when you're out there, you don't stand a hope of getting sleep. \"It's a major shock to the body when you get back too. Suddenly you are supposed to get all your sleep at once -- and you actually have a night and a day,\" she said. Food is also an issue for sailors spending a long time at sea. It needs to keep for a long time and take up minimal space, which means meals can be monotonous -- freeze-dried pasta or rice-based dishes made by adding hot water. Cravings are not unusual, according to Caffari. \"Thankfully the product has improved. I just get bored of eating the same type of food. You are aware you haven't had fresh produce in a long time and you start to crave it.\" Despite the hardships, Caffari says there are numerous benefits. \"It's an amazing environment. Every time you go out you are going to see something different -- but you can't always prepare for how hostile the environment may be. \"I'm not a gadget person, so I quite enjoy the basics of life. I really value my time now. And in a team scenario it can be particularly rewarding, as the ability to not only push one's own limits but also to push other people's limits is important,\" she said. The intrepid Caffari is ready to push her limits once again -- this time sailing around Britain and Ireland. To find out more about Dee Caffari's voyage around Britain and Ireland go to her Web site: www.deecaffari.co.uk .","highlights":"CNN's MainSail speaks with British round-the-world sailor Dee Caffari .\nCaffari is the only woman to have sailed around the globe in both directions .\nLack of sleep and loneliness are the main challenges, according to Caffari .\nDesire, preparation and self-belief are the keys to success, Caffari says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Guitarist Carlos Santana signed on as the first rock 'n' roll resident artist at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's new concert hall, The Joint. Santana will not play any other shows west of the Mississippi River over the next two years. The two-year deal calls for Santana to play 36 shows a year, starting May 27, the hotel said. The Joint, which holds 4,000, opens next month with Paul McCartney in a show that sold out earlier this month in just seven seconds. Santana said his show -- \"Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits\" -- will \"mix up a little practical spirituality with a rebel-from-the-street vibe, and with lots of incredible music.\" \"My wish is for it to be a night that will move you to dance, to cry, to laugh and to feel the totality and fullness of being alive,\" Santana said. Santana, who has sold 90 million records over the past 40 years, is credited with blending American rock with Latin jazz. Santana's deal is exclusive, meaning he will play no other shows west of the Mississippi River over the next two years, according to the news release announcing it. Santana's residency is produced by AEG Live, the same company that brought Celine Dion, Elton John, Bette Midler and Cher to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. \"Now we are setting the standard for rock 'n' roll residencies with this new deal,\" said John Meglen, AEG Live president.","highlights":"Guitar player Santana to play 36 shows a year, starting May 27 .\nLas Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's new concert hall holds 4,000 seats .\nAEG Live president: \"Now we are setting the standard for rock 'n' roll residencies\""} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Washington manicurist Lidia Schaefer returned to her native village in Ethiopia, she was troubled by what she saw: children walking three hours each way to attend classes held not in a school, but under a tree. Lidia Schaefer sold her house and car and set aside tips and part of her salary to raise money for the school. When she learned in 1998 that one of the girls she'd met -- Medhine -- had been attacked and killed by a hyena after falling behind other children during the long trek home from school, Schaefer knew she had to act. She began setting aside a third of her salary and all of her tips, and later sold her house and car, to raise enough money to build a school for the village. \"She's definitely not your average manicurist,\" says Denise Abrahams, a longtime client. \"This is the kind of thing that you hear about Oprah Winfrey doing.\" Do you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes . For Schaefer, it was simply a matter of doing what felt right. \"I don't work with my head,\" she says. \"I really work with my heart.\" Watch Schaefer's clients and colleagues discuss her efforts \u00bb . Born in Feres Mai, a large village in northern Ethiopia, Schaefer moved to the United States in the mid-1970s when civil war broke out at home. During her troubling visit back home in the '90s, she recalls, \"I promised the children I was going to open a school for them.\" But she had no idea how to tackle such a big project, especially while raising her own two children and working 12-hour days, six days a week. Watch Schaefer speak with CNN's Larry King \u00bb . The motivation to fulfill her promise came with the news of Medhine's death. \"That really pushed me to do it,\" she says, \"to build a school so that wouldn't happen again.\" Schaefer lobbied the Ethiopian government to donate land in a central location so the school could serve children from several nearby villages. The decision was made to build a secondary school, since the nearest one was more than 18 miles away. Back in Washington, Schaefer began setting aside money for construction of the school. \"I was working two days for the school, four days for me,\" she recalls. Her clients and co-workers rallied to help, holding raffles and making contributions. Several clients bought individual doors or windows for the school. Watch Schaefer talk about the school \u00bb . But Schaefer realized it wouldn't be enough. To finish the school, she needed to do something drastic. In 2002, she gave up her symbols of the American dream, selling her home and car. It's a sacrifice that still stuns her colleagues and friends. \"I couldn't believe it,\" remembers salon manager Patty Gonzalez. But Schaefer saw nothing remarkable about her decision. \"I don't feel like I [gave] up a lot,\" she says. \"I want [the children] to learn, to get something out of their life.\" Schaefer ultimately raised more than $250,000 for the school, which was completed in 2006. When she went back for the dedication, Schaefer was honored with an elaborate procession through the village. For her, it was gratifying to see what she'd accomplished. \"I was so happy, I can't even describe it,\" she recalls. Today, nearly 1,500 students are educated in the school, which boasts an eight-building campus with 16 classrooms, a science lab and library. \"It's simple, but it's nice,\" Schaefer says. Though she'd hoped to name the school in memory of Medhine, the government -- which runs the school -- instead named it the Lidia Secondary School, telling Schaefer, \"We want it to be your name so that more people [will] be like you.\" Schaefer has indeed inspired many others to follow her example. When Ethiopian communities around the United States heard about what she'd been able to achieve, they launched an effort to build more schools in her region of northern Ethiopia. So far, they've raised enough money to build 12 schools, due to be completed by July 2009. Schaefer still sets aside her tips and wages to support her school and has kept up her fundraising efforts to buy supplies. A colleague at the salon designed T-shirts to raise money for desks for the students. Schaefer's next goal is to equip the school with computers. \"They need computers so they can talk to the whole world,\" she says. Her colleagues and clients say Schaefer serves as an important reminder that people don't need money or power to make a difference. \"She's very inspiring to me,\" says Gonzalez. \"I've learned from Lidia that even if the project is big, if your heart is in it, you can do it.\" Want to get involved? Check out Lidia Schaefer's Web site and see how to help.","highlights":"D.C. manicurist raised more than $250,000 to build school in native Ethiopia .\nInspiration came after seeing children walk three hours to classes held under tree .\nGirl killed by hyena while walking home motivated Lidia Schaefer to fulfill promise .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Three leading Iranian reformists who have rejected the results of last month's election questioned the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government Wednesday. Mehdi Karrubi is vowing to \"stand by the people and the revolution, until the end of my life.\" This comes as Ahmadinejad is set to take office at the end of the month. Presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi wrote a letter in his party's newspaper, saying he would not recognize the government and vowing to \"stand by the people and the revolution, until the end of my life.\" His statement prompted Iran's government to block publication of the newspaper. Read Karrubi's letter PDF . Ahmadinejad's main political rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, also released a statement Wednesday criticizing the government and its crackdown on the media, which he said has created a \"bitter, coup d'etat atmosphere\" in Iran. \"We will stand firmly in order to preserve this valuable accomplishment [revolution],\" Moussavi said. \"Unless we succeed in this, this government will not have legitimacy. The system and the heritage of the Islamic revolution are the fruits of our 200-year-old struggle against oppression.\"Read Moussavi's statement PDF . Iran's former reformist President Mohammad Khatami called on Iranians to keep up the struggle, noting that \"all doors are not yet closed.\" Read Khatami's letter PDF . \"We must not lose our social capital this easily,\" Khatami told progressive Iranian newspaper Tahlile Rooz. \"I know Moussavi as one of the faithful, original and valuable capitals of our revolution, and considered his return to the political scene as a great chance.\" In a separate posting on his Web site, Khatami accused the government of having restricted communications in the country. \"The state-owned media outlet shows the same scenes over and over again, in order to provoke people's feelings,\" he said. \"Where was this media outlet when tens of people were killed and hundreds of people beaten?\" In his statement, Moussavi called for the release of jailed reformists and said he will participate in the creation of a \"legal organization\" that will release proof of fraud in the June 12 presidential election and take its case to the courts. He said the current political issue is a \"family dispute\" and cautioned against asking for outside help, warning, \"We will regret it.\" \"Many\" have asked Moussavi to end his struggle and \"close my eyes,\" but he warned, \"If we do not stand our grounds now, then we will have no guarantees that we won't be at this exact point in the future, face to face with the bitter events of this election.\" Karrubi called the actions of the government before and after the controversial June 12 voting \"the foundation for the annulment of the elections,\" according to a copy of his letter on the party newspaper's Web site. \"I will not recognize the legitimacy of the government which has resulted from this process,\" Karrubi said in the letter. The 72-year-old cleric also said he \"will not participate in any of its processes, in any way\" and said he is \"ready to cooperate with pro-change people and groups.\" Karrubi's party, Etemed Melli, said Iran's Ministry of Culture and its attorney general prevented the publication of its newspaper because it carried the letter. He and Moussavi have questioned the legitimacy of the vote count of the presidential election that gave Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory. That outrage sparked bloody street protests and a clampdown on international media coverage, as well as access to certain Web sites. At least 20 protesters were killed in the chaos and more than 1,000 were detained in Tehran, the head of Iranian internal security forces Brig. Esmaeil Ahmadi said, according to Iranian state-run media reports on Wednesday. The actual death toll may be higher, but restrictions on media have made it difficult to verify. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Iran to release prominent Iranian reformist Saeed Hajjarian, who has been imprisoned since June 15. He is one of several jailed reformists accused of orchestrating the post-election violence in Iran. Hajjarian, 55, was severely disabled after he was shot in the head in a 2000 assassination attempt that left him confined to a wheelchair with severe brain and spinal cord injuries. His wife, Vajiheh Marsoussi, is a physician and has visited Hajjarian in Tehran's Evin prison. She told Human Rights Watch that his medical condition was \"deteriorating severely.\" Meanwhile, questions surrounded an announcement in government-run Iranian media that Ahmadinejad canceled his trip to Libya on Wednesday. The trip, which had not been finalized, was canceled because of the president's \"huge workload\" at home and \"other priorities,\" Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency. Four days after the controversial election, Ahmadinejad went to Russia to meet with leaders there, where he was welcomed as the \"newly re-elected president of Iran\" despite the ongoing street protests. He returned to Iran that same day. Ahmadinejad will be sworn in before parliament Sunday, July 26, according to Iranian media reports. He will participate in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a couple of days later, and then his second term will officially begin.","highlights":"NEW: Former President Khatami accuses government of restricting communications .\nMehdi Karrubi says he will not recognize government .\nMir Hossein Moussavi criticizes government's crackdown ."} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested in December on charges of conspiracy and fraud, was indicted Thursday on 16 felony counts by a federal grand jury, the U.S. attorney's office said. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is facing such charges as racketeering, conspiracy and wire fraud. The 19-count indictment charges Blagojevich and some of his closest aides and advisers with a wide-ranging \"scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government,\" according to a statement by the attorney's office. Blagojevich, 52, faces charges including racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud and making false statements to investigators, according to the release. Three counts in the indictment are against the aides and advisers. In a written statement, Blagojevich maintained his innocence -- as he has done throughout a political soap opera that captivated the nation. \"I'm saddened and hurt but I am not surprised by the indictment,\" he said. \"I am innocent. I now will fight in the courts to clear my name.\" Blagojevich was vacationing with his family in Florida on Thursday. In video shot at a Disney resort outside Orlando, Florida, by CNN affiliate WESH-TV, he declined to comment on his legal situation. He was filmed shortly before the indictments were handed down. In the WESH video, the ex-governor was sitting near a pool at the resort. \"I'm enjoying Disney World with my kids and I don't think you're supposed to be here,\" said Blagojevich, after his wife attempted to shield him from the camera. \"I'm happy to talk to you at the appropriate time.\" A man who identified himself only as \"someone who knows who he is\" then blocked the camera. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said he hoped the former governor wouldn't use the announcement as a reason to hit the media circuit again. \"We can only hope the former governor will not view this indictment as a green light for another publicity tour,\" he said. \"Rod Blagojevich deserves his day in court, but the people of Illinois deserve a break.\" Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested in December on federal corruption charges alleging that, among other things, they conspired to sell President Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. Harris and Blagojevich's brother, Robert Blagojevich, were among the others indicted on Thursday. In early January, federal Judge James Holderman gave the attorney's office three additional months to decide whether to indict Blagojevich, who was impeached by the state legislature and resigned from office. That deadline ends Tuesday. On Thursday, current Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn called the charges a reminder for political leaders in the state to help stamp out corruption, and he pledged to \"work night and day to clean up our government.\" \"Today, more than ever, I'm committed to making sure our government has fundamental reform from top to bottom,\" said Quinn, also a Democrat and the former lieutenant governor who was appointed governor in January. \"We need to overhaul Illinois government to make sure everything is done right for the people.\" The charges are part of what investigators have dubbed \"Operation Board Games,\" an ongoing investigation into political corruption in the state. Among the specific claims in the 75-page indictment are that Blagojevich schemed with others in 2002, even before he took office, to use his position to make money, which they would split after he left office. Blagojevich is accused of denying state business to companies that would not hire his wife, extorting campaign contributions from a children's hospital that was set to get state money and pressuring a racetrack executive to give political contributions before the governor signed a gambling bill. The indictment said that after Obama was elected president, Blagojevich began meeting with others to figure out a way he could make money from his position to appoint a replacement senator. It said Blagojevich asked others, including state employees, to contact people who may be interested in the seat, and that he believed an associate of someone referred to in the indictment as \"Senate Candidate A\" had offered $1.5 million in campaign contributions in exchange for the appointment. He had asked his brother to meet with an associate of \"Senate Candidate A\" and say that some of those contributions needed to come through before he made the appointment, but the meeting was canceled after a newspaper article reported that Blagojevich had been recorded talking about selling the seat. A lengthy FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps trying to profit from the Senate vacancy. The indictment said that Blagojevich communicated \"directly and with the assistance of others\" with people he believed were in contact with Obama, trying to gain political favor by possibly appointing someone the president-elect supported. He ultimately appointed a former state comptroller and attorney general, Roland Burris, who was seated in the Senate despite protests from the chamber's Democratic leaders. Those leaders said a special election should be called because of the controversy over the appointment. \"The U.S. Attorney's indictment serves to confirm the public's long-standing distrust of former Gov. Blagojevich and his administration, and it underscores the culture of corruption that has afflicted our state for far too long,\" state Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a written statement. \"While this is a terrible day in Illinois history, it is also a moment in which we can recognize an opportunity for real reform.\" Thursday's charges supersede the ones filed in December. The Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in January to impeach Blagojevich, accusing him of abusing his gubernatorial power. Blagojevich faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the 15 most serious charges in the indictment, and five years on a single indictment of making false statements. The government also charges that Blagojevich has bought property with money he got illegally, and is going after homes he owns in Chicago and Washington. \"I would ask the good people of Illinois to wait for the trial and afford me the presumption of innocence that they would give to all their friends and neighbors,\" Blagojevich, who was vacationing with his family, said in the statement. In addition to the Blagojevich brothers and Harris, also charged in the indictments were businessman and fundraiser Christopher Kelly, 50; lobbyist and longtime Blagojevich associate Alonzo Monk, 50; and William F. Cellini Sr., 74, another businessman who raised money for Blagojevich.","highlights":"NEW: Blagojevich declines comment, says \"I'm enjoying Disney World with my kids\"\nBlagojevich faces up to 20 years in prison for each of 15 most serious charges .\nOfficials going after his home, saying he bought it with illegally-earned money .\nCharges against him include wire fraud, making false statements ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 24-year-old teacher from Holyoke, Massachusetts, is in custody after allegedly leaving town with a 15-year-old student, city officials said Tuesday. Lisa Lavoie, a 24-year-old teacher, is charged with enticement of a child. Lisa Lavoie and the male student were found in Morgantown, West Virginia, Monday night after apparently being together for a week, Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan said. Investigators have charged Lavoie with enticement of a child. On February 13, the student's parents informed school officials of a possible relationship between the teacher and their son. That was late on a Friday afternoon, and when officials went to the school to question Lavoie, she was gone for the day. The next week was a vacation week for the school. The student was reported missing on February 16, at the start of the vacation week. Lavoie wasn't reported missing until she didn't show up for school Monday. Officials said the pair were in Vermont on Thursday before showing up in West Virginia on Monday. No details were provided on how their alleged movements were traced. Officials couldn't take the pair into custody until after gathering enough evidence to obtain a warrant from the district attorney's office, said Holyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott. They got the warrant Monday and asked police in Morgantown to arrest Lavoie. She has been placed on administrative leave pending conclusion of the investigation, Sullivan said. If convicted, Lavoie could lose her teaching license in Massachusetts, the mayor said. She has been with the school only five months and her job is not protected under contract, he said.","highlights":"A missing teacher and her 15-year-old student were found in West Virginia Monday .\nPolice say the two were together during a weeklong vacation .\nThe teacher, 24-year-old Lisa Lavoie, has been suspended pending an investigation .\nInvestigators have charged Lavoie, of Massachusetts, with enticement of a child ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the Bush administration's economic record, the invasion of Iraq and the treatment of suspected terrorists, warning that reversing its anti-terrorism policies endangers Americans. \"We've accomplished nearly everything we set out to do,\" ex-Vice President Dick Cheney says Sunday about Iraq. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's \"State of the Union,\" Cheney said the harsh interrogations of suspects and the use of warrantless electronic surveillance were \"absolutely essential\" to get information to prevent more attacks like the 2001 suicide hijackings that targeted New York and Washington. \"President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,\" he said. Critics said the Bush administration's \"alternative\" interrogation techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody, while the administration's warrantless surveillance program violated federal laws enacted after the Watergate scandal. Since taking office in January, Obama has announced plans to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to halt the military trials of suspected terrorists there, and to make CIA officers follow the Army field manual's rules on interrogations. Cheney said the administration appears to be returning to the pre-2001 model of treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue, rather than a military problem. \"When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they're doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth ... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks,\" he said. But Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, said the Bush administration's policies undercut \"what is actually the source of America's greatness -- our principles.\" \"How can we say that keeping a man in a black hole forever -- perpetually in a black hole -- and saying, 'Let's torture when we decide to,' is what America stands for?\" asked Sestak, a former admiral who led the Navy's anti-terrorism efforts. The Bush administration took office at the end of an economic boom and left in the middle of a deep recession, with a budget surplus in 2001 becoming a $1 trillion-plus deficit by 2009. But Cheney said he and Bush had to spend money to deal with the September 11, 2001 attacks, the resulting war in Afghanistan, the disaster of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and the costly and unpopular war in Iraq, now nearly six years old. \"All of these things required us to spend money that we had not originally planned to spend, or weren't originally part of the budget,\" Cheney said. \"Stuff happens. And the administration has to be able to respond to that, and we did.\" Obama has begun to wind down the war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4,200 American lives and nearly $700 billion in direct costs. But Cheney said the United States has \"accomplished nearly everything we set out to do\" in Iraq, including establishing a democratic government in the Middle East. Cheney was one of the administration's leading advocates of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, pressing the Bush administration's argument that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction and could provide those weapons to terrorists. None of those weapons were found after the invasion, but Cheney said, \"We've eliminated that possibility.\" In 2005, Cheney said the raging insurgency against U.S. troops was in its \"last throes.\" Nearly two years later, a commitment of more than 30,000 additional American troops and a widespread effort to pay former insurgents to turn against Islamic militants helped quell the worst of the violence. \"I don't hear much talk about that, but the fact is, the violence level is down 90 percent,\" Cheney said. \"The number of casualties [among] Iraqis and Americans is significantly diminished. There's been elections, a constitution. They're about to have another presidential election here in the near future. We have succeeded in creating in the heart of the Middle East a democratically governed Iraq, and that is a big deal, and it is, in fact, what we set out to do.\" But Sestak said the administration was too slow to react to the problems it faced in Iraq and let the conflict overshadow the \"whole fabric\" of U.S. national security. \"The cost of this war is something that I strongly believe has far, far hurt us,\" he said. \"We're going to recover, because we're Americans. But Iraq was just one piece of our security, and this administration failed to realize that.\" Though considered one of the administration's most influential figures, Cheney said President Bush rebuffed his advice on at least two issues. Watch Cheney tout Bush administration \u00bb . He said Bush left former Cheney aide Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby \"sort of hanging in the wind\" by refusing to issue Libby a pardon before leaving office. Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal agents investigating the leak of a former CIA officer's identity. \"I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that,\" Cheney said. He would disclose no details of his efforts to lobby the president on Libby's behalf, saying they would be \"best left to history.\" And Cheney said he argued against the administration's policy on North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. The Bush administration reached a still-incomplete disarmament deal with the isolated Stalinist state in 2007 and removed it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as part of the deal. \"I had my say,\" Cheney told CNN. \"I got my chance to voice my views and my objections. I didn't think the North Koreans were going to keep their end of the bargain in terms of what they agreed to, and they didn't.\" The Obama administration has nominated Christopher Hill, the State Department official who was the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea, to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Cheney said Hill lacks the Middle East experience that his predecessors have, and \"I did not support the work that Chris Hill did with respect to North Korea.\" \"I think it's a choice that I wouldn't have made,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Cheney: Harsh interrogations, warrantless eavesdropping \"essential\"\nNEW: Former vice president says Bush rebuffed his advice on two big issues .\n\"An administration has to be able to respond to [crises] and we did,\" Cheney said .\nCheney cites costs of dealing with 9\/11 attacks, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The two men running Michael Jackson's estate gained new powers and an extension of their authority until the end of the year in a court hearing Friday. An investigator's report said Michael Jackson's children are doing well with Katherine Jackson as their guardian. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff also accepted an investigator's report that said Jackson's three children are adjusting well under the guardianship of Katherine Jackson. \"It looks like the children are really doing wonderfully with their grandmother guardian,\" Beckloff said. Joe Jackson sat in the courtroom for the hearing on estate and custody matters. It was the first time Michael Jackson's father has attended the hearings since his son's June 25 death. John Branca and John McClain, named as executors of Jackson's 2002 will, have been handling the estate's business as temporary special administrators since July while the will probate process is completed. Branca was a longtime attorney for Michael Jackson, who was rehired by the pop star just a week before his death, according to estate lawyer Howard Weitzman. McClain is a former music industry executive who worked with Jackson for years. Katherine Jackson's challenge of Branca and McClain appears headed for a trial in December, unless an agreement is reached between them. Her lawyers have not publicly given their objections to the two men, but have suggested the trial would explore possible conflicts of interest that would prevent them from running the estate. Jackson's lawyers have also said a Jackson family member should be included as an executor. While Joe Jackson did not speak to reporters after the hearing, a Jackson family friend, Majestik Magnificent, talked about the special administrators. \"Why are they even here? Why are they even involved in this? This is a family affair,\" he said. Until now, the administrators had to ask for court approval for every agreement they made for the estate, including a deal for a movie that will hit theaters at the end of October. \"Things went well for the estate, because the estate can now continue to do it's business,\" Weitzman said after the hearing. Beckloff said that while the case is fascinating, his calendar is too full for him to be involved in all of the estate's business. With their new powers, the special administrators only have to notify the court and the Jacksons about deals. Michael Jackson's mother and three children, along with unnamed charities, are the beneficiaries of the estate, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. An odd moment came in the hearing when a woman who has previously filed a papers claiming to be the mother of Michael Jackson's youngest child, Prince Michael II, spoke up to remind the judge she was there. She says her name is Billie Jean Jackson. At the end of the hearing, Joe Jackson approached her, but she frowned at him and walked away. Majestik Magnificent later wondered aloud why reporters even give any attention to \"crazy\" people surrounding the case.","highlights":"Judge extends Michael Jackson administrators' powers until the end of the year .\nAdministrators of estate don't need to have court approval for every decision .\nJoe Jackson attends court hearing for the first time since son's death ."} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Every holiday season we are cursed with the same challenge: to articulate exactly how fond we are of our friends and family in the language of purchasable objects. Appreciate specific virtues of the people you're buying for and connect those qualities to fabulous presents. This begs a couple of questions, like, \"How do I shop for gifts that please both my brother and his wife without offending my own soul?\" Even if you love your brother dearly, you might spend way too much and give him a French designer tablecloth covered with a really terrific artichoke print, which would prompt his cute but rigidly uptight wife to say something like \"Artichokes? Wow. Ha ha; only you would give us something like that! No, really, it's great!\" And another deep and philosophical question: \"How the hell am I supposed to express fondness for my extremely fancy friends when I have only $40?\" Deciding I needed a psychic obstacle course that would train me to emerge victorious in this upcoming battle, I arrived at a strategy: I would theoretically buy gifts for people who were absolutely impossible to shop for. Oprah.com: Free (or really cheap!) gift ideas . If I could climb these holiday Matterhorns, I could find presents for anyone. I asked myself: \"Who in the world would best represent my worst nightmares in the area of budget holiday shopping?\" And I came up with a holy celebrity trinity: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (the mind-bogglingly fashionable, ex-supermodel wife of the president of France), Brad Pitt (the half-Brangelinian father of six, at last count), and ultracouple Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 (who I technically counted as one since I wanted to get something they'd both like). My budget for each: around $40. Obviously, this mission was going to require an insane level of creativity -- especially in a city like New York, where everything is so monstrously expensive. So I called women's clothing designer Gary Graham at his new boutique inside ABC Carpet & Home, a posh yet quirky department store filled with enormous golden Buddhas and strange chandeliers, and asked him to accompany me. \"We should get my friend Charlie to take us to Flatbush,\" he offered. I knew immediately what Gary was getting at. The Flatbush section of Brooklyn is a fertile mix of Caribbean families, art school hipsters, neighborhood discount stores, and specialty shops crammed to the ceiling with exotic imports. Charlie -- writer and artist Charles Beyer -- met us at Phat Albert, a legendary discount store that sells everything from leather baby pants to Lucite shower fixtures. We agreed that when shopping on a budget for people rich enough to buy their own islands, the goal was to find objects that would underline qualities we liked about them, and let them know we understood their particular needs. \"I think Brad Pitt would appreciate something that helps him control his children,\" I suggested. \"I mean, he has so many of them. We need to find him a six-headed lollipop, or something that can keep the kids consolidated in space for a few minutes so he can rest.\" Oprah.com: The secrets of thrifty shoppers . We found a gift that, with just a little bit of creative doctoring, might do the trick: an XXX-large T-shirt featuring the late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. \"We could cut five more neck holes in it and call it a six-pac,\" said Charlie. It was tempting. This masterpiece of modern babysitting cost only $8.99, which would enable us to buy more child management aids. But I wasn't satisfied that Brad would be as thrilled with it as I wanted him to be. \"Hey, check this out,\" said Charlie, having already moved on to Carla. \"It's a camouflage duffel bag featuring a fake McDonald's logo.\" Even more beguiling was a secret pocket outside the bag, the fabric of which was printed with the image of a cheerful, anthropomorphic French fry. The price: only $4. Oprah.com: Gifts that give back . True, Madame Sarkozy might love it. She is, after all, a tastemaker. Still, we wanted to see what they had at a few smaller shops. Hmmm. A bobble-headed decoy owl? Perhaps Carla could use it to keep pigeons off statues of her husband? No... Then we came upon the Goodwill Gospel Store, which promised that we'd be able to \"Give a Gift with Spiritual Importance.\" \"Look, hanging in the window!\" I screamed. \"It's the gift that perfectly reconciles Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's rock 'n' roll, freewheeling past, her new diplomatic role as a high-profile political wife, and her much-maligned singing career!\" It was perfect: a tambourine in the shape of a peace dove. It really said it all, and for the low, low price of $21.99. Score! With that, we turned to the grueling task of shopping for Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9. Since they are quintessential show people and are no doubt on the road a great deal of the time, living out of Louis Vuitton steamer trunks in six-star hotels with SWAT teams of hair and makeup artists, we wanted to find them something that would strike the right balance of sophisticated flair and down-home comfort. We came upon a $14 pair of boxer shorts covered with bags of money hanging on a rack in front of a clothing store (unlike Phat Albert, many of the smaller places have no visible names), which we thought Mr. Z might appreciate. Another nameless discount store had a fantastic 3-D chart for identifying the different hair bun attachments it sold. Perhaps, we agreed, we could buy Beyonc\u00e9 half a dozen of the various $7 \"donut buns\" and throw them into a Krispy Kreme box for extra whimsy! But neither of these options was really singing to us, maybe because they didn't speak to the couple's celebrated togetherness, which was the original sentiment behind buying them one gift. \"Oh, stop -- these are it,\" Charlie suddenly enthused as we passed a small, anonymous shoe store. \"These bandanna slippers are absolutely Runway Collection 2009!\" \"Actually,\" said Gary, \"they are really nice.\" The price: $19.99. We decided to buy red slippers for Beyonc\u00e9 and blue for Jay-Z. Besides satisfying our criteria (snazzy yet relaxing), since Mr. and Mrs. Z \"tied the knot,\" this matching-scarf footwear could serve as a lasting symbol of a peaceful Hollywood marriage. I was very pleased so far ... but I didn't feel we'd completely succeeded with Brad, so we wandered into a store called Gran Bwa that featured items of a West Indian nature. \"Hey, these could be great for Brad,\" said Gary. The air in the room started shimmering, because he had, indeed, found some divine objects: a stack of six child-size straw porkpie hats. They were utterly hip, as if designed for miniature jazz musicians. We figured if Brad could manage to get all of his adorable children to wear the hats at the same time, like a global version of the Partridge Family, he could sell the photo to a tabloid for more than $4 million and donate the proceeds to the charity of his choice. At $10 each, the hats were a tad beyond our price range. But we decided we'd splash out and spend the extra $20, since eventually they could end up housing, say, 30,000 displaced persons. We'd put Angelina on the gift card, too, and then we wouldn't have to buy her anything at the last minute. We were suffused with the joy of giving. Mission accomplished, we found ourselves considering the plight of the Three Kings. Even with an unlimited royal budget, it still must have been difficult to shop for a newborn Messiah. But they looked around their respective kingdoms and gathered up the swankiest stuff they could find. In the earliest example of holiday gift giving, it was the thought and the effort that counted. All in all, I came away with one really valuable lesson. You can learn a lot by shopping outside your ordinary consumer comfort zone. And during our practice pilgrimage, Gary, Charlie, and I remembered what's important about the whole insane gift hunt: appreciating specific virtues of the people we're buying for, and connecting these qualities, with love, to fabulous presents. And you gotta figure your brother's wife is going to hate everything you give her anyway, so you may as well save a few bucks, right? 'Tis the season! By Cintra Wilson from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" December 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Author decides to buy three gifts under $40 for have-it-all people .\nShe picks Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Brad Pitt and ultracouple Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 .\nAuthor and friends buy six child-size straw porkpie hats for Pitt .\nThey also buy Jay-Z and Beyonce matching slippers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A head-banging parrot who became a YouTube sensation has demonstrated that an ability to appreciate music and keep a rhythm is not unique to humans, scientists say. Alex, an African grey parrot, was one of 14 birds which displayed an ability to keep time with a tune. Snowball the cockatoo, who appears to bop his head, tap his claws and squawk enthusiastically to the Back Street Boys' \"Everybody\" is one of several birds apparently capable of dancing to a beat, according to two studies published in the latest edition of the journal Current Biology. In a study lead by Adena Schachner of Harvard University, researchers examined more than 1,000 YouTube videos of dancing animals and found 14 types of parrot species and one elephant genuinely capable of keeping time. The video of Snowball has been viewed more than two million times since it was posted in 2007. Another video of Snowball shows him dancing to Queen's \"Another One Bites the Dust.\" Watch Snowball the dancing parrot \u00bb . Schachner analyzed the videos frame-by-frame, comparing the animals' movements with the speed of the music and the alignment of individual beats. The group also studied another bird, Alex, an African grey parrot, which had exhibited similar abilities to Snowball, nodding its head appreciatively to a series of drum tracks. \"Our analyses showed that these birds' movements were more lined up with the musical beat than we'd expect by chance,\" says Schachner. \"We found strong evidence that they were synchronizing with the beat, something that has not been seen before in other species.\" Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, who led another study of Snowball's performance, said that the bird had demonstrated an ability to adjust the tempo of his dancing to stay synchronized to the beat. Scientists had previously thought that \"moving to a musical beat might be a uniquely human ability because animals are not commonly seen moving rhythmically in the wild,\" Patel said. Schachner said there was no evidence to suggest that animals such as apes, dogs or cats could recognize music, despite their extensive experience of humans. That leads researchers to believe that an ability to process musical sounds may be linked to an ability to mimic sounds -- something that each of the parrots studied by researchers was able to do excellently, she said. Other \"vocal-learning species\" include dolphins, elephants, seals and walruses. \"A natural question about these results is whether they generalize to other parrots, or more broadly, to other vocal-learning species,\" Schachner said. Researchers believe a possible link between vocal mimicry and an ability to hear music may explain the development of music in human societies. \"The question of why music is found in every known human culture is a longstanding puzzle. Many argue that it is an adaptive behaviour that helped our species to evolve. But equally plausible is the possibility that it emerged as a by-product of other abilities -- such as vocal learning,\" music psychologist Lauren Stewart of Goldsmiths, University of London told CNN. \"Parrots and humans both have the ability to imitate sounds that they hear, unlike our closer simian relatives. Once a species has the neural machinery in place for coupling the perception and production of vocal sounds, it may be only a small step to use the same circuits for synchronizing movements to a beat.\"","highlights":"Scientists: Dancing parrots prove ability to recognize music not unique to humans .\nYouTube hit Snowball the cockatoo dances to Back Street Boys, Queen .\nAbility to keep time apparently linked to vocal mimicry, scientists believe .\nOther animals capable of mimicry include dolphins, elephants, seals, walruses ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venice has suffered its worst flooding in 22 years, leaving some parts of the historic Italian city neck-deep in water, reports said Monday. A woman wades through high waters in Venice's Piazza San Marco. Water burst the banks of the coastal city's famed canals, leaving the landmark Piazza San Marco -- St Mark's Square -- under almost a meter of water at one point, news agency ANSA reported. Strong winds pushed waters to a high of 1.56 meters (5 feet 2 inches) at 10:45 a.m. local time, prompting the city government to issue warnings to the public, the agency said. The flood level began to drop soon afterwards, prompted by a change in the direction of the wind. Previous highs include 1.58 meters in 1986 and 1.66 meters in 1979, the news agency said. Watch more about the flooding \u00bb . Photographs showed people wading through inundated piazzas and waves lapping over waterside cafe tables. Venice, built around a network of canals and small islands, has for years been trying to tackle the problem of floods that have regularly blighted the city. In 2007, the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO warned Venice -- a designated World Heritage Site -- is under threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. See pictures of Venetians wading through flood waters. \u00bb . It said that unless the problem is tackled, Venice could be flooded daily and water levels would permanently rise by 54 centimeters in the city by the year 2100.","highlights":"Venice reportedly suffering one of its worst floods in 22 years .\nLandmark Piazza San Marco under almost a meter of water at one point .\nUNESCO has warned Venice at risk of high waters caused by climate change ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN\/IN Session) -- A German man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and passed himself off for years as a member of the moneyed clan was sentenced Friday to four to five years in prison for kidnapping his daughter. The man who said he was Clark Rockefeller actually is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Earlier in the day, a jury of eight women and four men found Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter, 48, guilty of the kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Judge Frank M. Gaziano noted that Gerhartsreiter showed little regard for the impact his actions had on his former wife and daughter. He said he also considered the defendant's long history of deceptive and manipulative behavior, including the use of multiple aliases. Gerhartsreiter already has spent a year in jail, meaning that with credit for good behavior he could spend just another year or two in prison. Gerhartstreiter, who was born in Germany and is in the U.S. illegally, faces removal by immigration authorities when he completes his sentence. In addition, his lawyer said, authorities in Los Angeles, California, have convened a grand jury to investigate his possible role in the 1985 deaths of a couple who rented a carriage house to him. The defendant stared straight ahead as the judge announced the sentence. He was equally impassive when the jury returned its verdicts. Watch the verdict \u00bb . The jury rejected Gerhartsreiter's insanity defense, but found him not guilty of two lesser charges after deliberating for 26\u00bd hours over five days. He faces up to 15 years in prison. A sentencing hearing was set to begin at 2 p.m. ET. \"Today the victims in this case have some sense of justice, I hope,\" said Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley \"We are very happy with today's verdict. We're very happy with the jury.\" After announcing the verdict, all 12 jurors returned to the courtroom and delivered a prepared statement. \"This was a complicated case, and not as clear-cut as it might have seemed to those who followed it in the media,\" the jurors' statement said . \"We are confident that our verdict is fair and just, and based only on the information we were legally allowed to consider,\" it continued. \"Our verdict is a unanimous one, as the law requires, and all of us stand by the verdict completely. \" The jurors said the terse statement was their final word on the case. They did not take questions. The case has attracted international attention because of the defendant's bogus claim to be related to the Rockefellers, one of America's wealthiest families. He fooled even his wife of 12 years, who said on the witness stand that she had \"a blind spot\" for a man who charmed her, then controlled her and bullied her. Prosecutors said Gerhartsreiter came to the United States from Germany in 1978 as a student. They said he is a con man who has been telling fanciful tales and misrepresenting himself ever since. The defense said he has long suffered from mental illness that boiled over into insanity when he abducted his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, last summer. The jury heard closing arguments and legal instructions before retiring for deliberation Monday. \"This is not a man playing with a full deck,\" said Jeffrey Denner, one of two lawyers who gave closing arguments for the defense. According to testimony from defense experts, Gerhartsreiter believed his daughter was in danger. He also believed they could communicate telepathically and shared a secret language. \"You see him descending into madness,\" Denner said. \"You see completely irrational action that other people are buying because of the name Rockefeller and the appearance, the veneer, of respectability with a powerful wife.\" The defense called two experts who, he said, spent 28 hours with the defendant before diagnosing him as having a narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions. Prosecutor David Deakin called the insanity diagnosis \"preposterous.\" He argued, \"This is not a case about madness. It's a case about manipulation.\" He described Gerhartsreiter as a controlling man who was angry that his former wife, Sandra Boss, had moved with their daughter to London in December 2007. According to testimony, Boss, a Harvard business school graduate and senior partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting company, took full custody of the child, giving her ex-husband $800,000, two cars, her engagement ring and a dress he had bought her. She said she believed the fanciful stories her husband wove around his image as Clark Rockefeller and never saw any sign of mental illness. Denner asked how a successful businesswoman who was educated at Stanford and Harvard universities and made $1 million a year could fall for an impostor. \"There's a big difference between intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence,\" Boss explained. \"I'm not saying I made a very good choice of a husband. It's obvious I had a pretty big blind spot.\" \"He told compelling stories,\" she said. \"It seems stupid in hindsight, and it really was, but that is how it was. ... I lived with a person who told me a set of internally consistent things.\" \"I was completely traumatized,\" Boss said of the abduction. \"I was hysterical.\"","highlights":"Jury deliberated for 26\u00bd hours over five days returning guilty verdicts .\nEight women, four men on jury reject insanity defense .\nMan who said he was a Rockefeller faces 15 years in prison .\nEx-wife, Sandra Boss, testified for the prosecution ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistan cricketers have been told they will not be allowed to appear in the highly-lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) this coming season because of fears over security. Danish Kaneria, in action against India last December, was hoping to play in the Indian Premier League. Stars from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and, for the first time, England will be competing in the action that starts on April 10. Several Pakistan stars had also signed for IPL franchises while another five, including leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, were scheduled to appear at a players' auction to be held in Goa, India, on Thursday. However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said players would not be allowed to play in the IPL this coming season on government advice. \"We have informed the IPL and Indian board that our players can't take part in the IPL this year,\" PCB chief operating officer Saleem Altaf told Reuters.com. The decision follows concerns for players' safety because of the tense relations between Pakistan and India after the Mumbai militant attacks in November. Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik, who plays for Delhi, said the players would abide by the directives of the government and PCB. Meanwhile, another former captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq is among several top Pakistan players who have successfully challenged a domestic ban imposed following appearances in the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL). Provincial Sindh High Court on Monday suspended the 2007 action taken by the PCB which must appear in court later this month to explain their action. Players affected by the 2007 ruling also include Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami and Azhar Mahmood who along with Inzamam, played for Lahore Badshahs. Last year, the Badshahs named after a Pakistani city and with a number of Pakistani players won the ICL 20s Indian championship. \"The honorable court has suspended this relevant clause of the PCB rules and allowed the players to appear in domestic cricket with immediate effect,\" Zahid Fakhruddin Ibrahim, the legal counsel for the players, told Reuters.com. Lahore coach Moin Khan, a former Pakistan captain, said the suspension of the ban was good for Pakistani cricket. \"Some of the ICL players can still play for Pakistan and when they play in domestic cricket, youngsters will learn from them,\" Khan commented. \"The ban had hurt the players financially as well as cricket-wise, so it's a great decision.\"","highlights":"Pakistan cricketers miss IPL season over security fears .\nPakistan players not competing on government advice .\nEngland stars making debuts in the league starting in April ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actor Michael Jai White thinks the negative connotation surrounding the term \"blaxploitation film\" is a bunch of jive. Michael Jai White stars in the new spoof \"Black Dynamite.\" \"The problem I have with the word is that it seems to encompass movies that don't fall under that category,\" White said. \"As soon as you hear the title 'Shaft' people think 'blaxploitation' and that is absolutely unfair because that film was made before the term even existed.\" White, the star and co-writer of the new movie \"Black Dynamite,\" would rather people focus on what he views as the positives of the genre of 1970s urban action films starring African-American actors. His new movie, which opened in limited release last weekend and will start going wider, follows the exploits of Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent who takes to the streets after his brother is killed by the mafia, orphanages are flooded with drugs and some bad malt liquor finds its way into the 'hood. It is both a spoof of, and homage to, the genre whose films like \"Black Caesar,\" \"The Mac,\" \"Foxy Brown,\" and \"Superfly\" have developed a cult following over the years. \"Black Dynamite\" caught the eye of Sony Pictures at the Sundance Film Festival and the studio acquired the rights to distribute the film. A viral marketing campaign helped whip up anticipation for the movie, which also features former late-night talk show host Arsenio Hall and \"In Living Color\" cast member Tommy Davidson as pimps. Director Scott Sanders said he has always been fascinated by the fact that while blaxploitation really only grabbed hold of the industry for about five years during the early 1970s, it was so influential. \"It was such an extreme genre with the look and the music and there were really no boundaries or rules,\" he said. \"It's always been a fascination for me given how much it influenced hip-hop, black culture and culture as a whole, given the brevity.\" White, best known for his roles in the films \"Spawn\" and Tyler Perry's \"Why Did I Get Married,\" said he is a huge fan of blaxploitation films and views his movie as a loving send-up. While he is aware that some of the films were unintentionally funny with their low-budget gaffes -- such as the appearance of mic booms in some scenes -- and their stereotypes, White said the genre is a valued part of the movie industry's history. \"These movies really saved Hollywood because the studio system was in trouble and they learned that they had a cash cow with these films,\" he said. \"Later they exploited it by making any movie and throwing the term 'black' in front of it and that's what made it exploitive.\" They also gave African-American actors a chance to work and reflected a people's pride following the gains of the civil rights era. Laurence Washington, managing editor and co-publisher of Blackflix.com, said the movies helped young, black fans like him realize that \"when we grow up we don't have to be train porters, busboys and waiters.\" The films instead portrayed handsome, brave and suave black heroes who always got the girl, Washington said. \"When the blaxploitation films came out in the '70s, black audiences had never had action film heroes they could identify with,\" he said. \"[The movies] also opened the door for today's black actors and directors to enter the mainstream.\" Darius James, author of \"That's Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury),\" said blaxploitation films were like any other film that appeal to a specific audience, such as the indie movies of Roger Corman and Russ Meyer. James said he grew up seeing civil rights workers beaten and hosed on television and the movies came out time when there was a sense of defiance and resistance against the marginalization of African-Americans. \"These films, black exploitation films, reflected that spirit,\" James said. White said he wishes there were more action films starring black actors these days. The films of the past were fearless and about true emotion, he said. \"The 'black is beautiful' movement had taken off and there was so much pride,\" White said. \"When they called each other 'brother' they meant it.\" \"The heroes were strong, sexy and they kicked ass.\" \"I ask 'Where is that now?' I would like people to look at our film and say: 'Where are the black actors like that now?' \" Jay Potts, the cartoonist behind World of Hurt -- which bills itself as \"The Internet's #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic\" -- said he hopes \"Black Dynamite\" furthers interest in the genre. And while \"blaxploitation\" is a convenient moniker to lump in films that may not have always had the best production value, Potts said they were a testament to an era. \"The films came out at a time when black people were learning about themselves and flexing their creative muscles,\" Potts said. \"To me, there was a lot of fun, had a lot of energy and while it always wasn't perfect by any means there was so much life in it that I hope people take another look.\"","highlights":"\"Black Dynamite\" spoofs the blaxploitation genre .\nFilm stars Michael Jai White, who says he is a fan of the movies .\nDirector Scott Sanders says genre greatly influenced the culture .\nAuthor says films reflected a post civil rights era spirit ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- It's Nobel Prize announcement week, and if you had Carol W. Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn, or Jack Szostak in your office pool, you're off to a good start (the trio will share this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine). As we await news of the rest of the winners, here are some stories about past Nobel laureates. Nobel Prize winners receive a medal and a cash award. 1. Robert Lucas, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the theory of \"rational expectations,\" split his $1 million prize with his ex-wife. If there were a Nobel Prize for Foresight or Timing, she should be nominated, based on a clause in their divorce settlement from seven years earlier: \"Wife shall receive 50 percent of any Nobel Prize.\" The clause expired on October 31, 1995. Had Lucas won any year after, he would have kept the whole million. 2. Physicist Lise Meitner, whose work helped lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times without ever winning (though nominations are kept secret, so we don't know for sure). This makes her the Dynasty of the Nobel Prize scene -- that show was nominated for 24 Emmy Awards but never won. Other analogies we'd accept: The Color Purple (11 Oscar nominations in 1985, no wins), the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings (4 Super Bowl losses each without a victory) and William Jennings Bryan (three-time Democratic nominee for President, losing twice to McKinley and once to Taft.) 3. People who refused the prize: . \u2022 Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Henry Kissinger for their roles in brokering a Vietnam cease fire at the Paris Peace Accords. Citing the absence of actual peace in Vietnam, Tho declined to accept. \u2022 Jean Paul Sartre waved off the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. His explanation: \"It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.\" \u2022 Afraid of Soviet retribution if he traveled to Stockholm to claim his prize, Boris Pasternak declined to accept the 1958 Prize in Literature, which he'd earned for Doctor Zhivago. The Academy refused his refusal. \"This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place.\" Yevgeny Pasternak accepted the prize on behalf of his deceased father in 1989. \u2022 Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt won for Literature in 1918. He did not accept because he was Secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize. He was given the award posthumously in 1931. This was allowed because the nomination was made before Karlfeldt died -- no candidate may be proposed after death. Mental Floss: 10 technologies we stole from the animal kingdom . 4. In 2007, 90-year-old professor Leonid Hurwicz became the oldest person to ever win (one-third of the Prize in Economics); at 87, writer Doris Lessing became the oldest woman (Literature). 5. DNA expert Kary Mullis -- 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- was scheduled to be a defense witness in O.J. Simpson's murder trial. However, Simpson's lawyer Barry Scheck felt the prosecution's DNA case was already essentially destroyed, and he didn't want Mullis' personal life to distract jurors (he'd expressed an affinity for LSD.) 6. Nobel Laureates you must know: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Jimmy Carter, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Pierre & Marie Curie, Max Planck and Albert Einstein. 7. Big names who never won: Dmitri Mendeleev, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, Henrik Ibsen, Joan Robinson, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Jules-Henri Poincar\u00e9, Raymond Damadian and Mahatma Gandhi. Mental Floss: 6 people who accidentally found a fortune . 8. Winners without the greatest reputations: . \u2022 Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who won in 1976 for his research in human slow-virus infections, spent 19 months in jail after pleading guilty in 1997 to charges of child molestation. \u2022 Johannes Fibiger won in 1926 after discovering parasitic worms cause cancer -- a breakthrough that turned out to not be true. \u2022 Yasser Arafat shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. This decision caused Nobel Committee member Kare Kristiansen to resign. \"What consequences will result,\" he asked at the time, \"when a terrorist with such a background is awarded the world's most prestigious prize?\" \u2022 William Shockley won for Physics in 1956 for his role in the invention of the semiconductor, but his support of the eugenics movement alienated the scientific community. Shockley also donated sperm to the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank developed to spread humanity's best genes. 9. As part of his divorce settlement, Einstein's Nobel Prize money went to his ex-wife, Mileva Maric. 10. The Curie family is a Nobel Prize machine, winning five: Pierre and Marie for Physics in 1901; Marie solo for Chemistry in 1911; daughter Irene and her husband Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Joliot-Curie for Chemistry in 1935; and Henry Labouisse, who was married to Pierre and Marie's daughter Eve, accepted on behalf of UNICEF in 1965. 11. Marie Curie's second prize was marred by scandal. Then a widow, Curie had an affair with a married scientist, Paul Langevin -- a former pupil of Pierre Curie. Love letters were involved, eventually leading to a duel between Langevin and the editor of the newspaper that had printed them (no shots were actually fired.) According to NobelPrize.org, when it was suggested that Curie not accept the prize, she wrote a shrewd letter, \"which pointed out that she had been awarded the Prize for her discovery of radium and polonium, and that she could not accept the principle that appreciation of the value of scientific work should be influenced by slander concerning a researcher's private life.\" 12. Singing support --While there's no evidence the Nobel judges can be swayed by theme songs, that hasn't stopped Loriana Lana from composing one for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. \"Peace Can\" includes the lyrics, \"Silvio forever will be \/ Silvio is reality \/ Silvio forever! \/Silvio gives us trust.\" 13. Alfred Nobel -- inventor of dynamite -- may have been inspired to create the Nobel Prize after a premature obituary in a French newspaper called him a \"merchant of death.\" 14. Nobel died on December 10, 1896. The formal awards ceremony is held in Stockholm each year on the anniversary of his death. The first awards show took place on December 10, 1901. (These things take time to plan.) And in case you were wondering just how much of a say Alfred Nobel had in the prize, here's what he wrote in his will: . \"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: . \"The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. \"The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.\" Mental Floss: 13 bizarre stipulations in wills . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"More than one Nobel winner had to share or give prize money to ex-wife .\nMarie Curie was urged not to collect her second Nobel because of affair .\nThree U.S. presidents have won the Nobel prize .\nLise Meitner was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times, but never won ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of Egyptians took part Monday in the funeral of Marwa Sherbini, an Egyptian woman who was stabbed to death last week in the German city of Dresden in a crime believed to be racially motivated. Egyptians take part in the funeral of Marwa Sherbini, who was murdered in Germany last week. Sherbini, 33, was stabbed to death Wednesday in a courtroom as she prepared to give testimony against a German man of Russian descent whom she had sued for insult and abuse. The man, identified in German media as Alex A., 28, was convicted of calling Sherbini, who wore a headscarf, \"terrorist,\" \"bitch\" and \"Islamist\" when she asked him him to leave a swing for her 3-year-old son Mustafa during an August 2008 visit to a children's park. He was fined and appealed the ruling. The two were in court Wednesday for that appeal when Alex A. attacked, pulling out a knife and stabbing Sherbini 18 times. He also stabbed her husband three times and attacked another person. According to Arab media, police officers tried to intervene to end the fight, and a number of shots were fired. One hit the husband, who fell unconscious and is currently in intensive care in the hospital of Dresden University. Sherbini was three months pregnant at the time of her death. Hundreds attended Sherbini's funeral in Alexandria, Egypt, her hometown, among them government officials, including Egyptian Manpower Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi and Telecommunications Minister Tariq Kamel, Egyptian media reported. Many shouted hostile slogans against Germany and called for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to take a firm stand on the incident. Egypt's grand mufti, Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, demanded the severest punishment to be issued against Alex A. Berlin witnessed angry protests on Saturday, when hundreds of Arabs and Muslims demonstrated after a funeral prayer that called her killing an outrageous racist murder against Muslims. In a phone call with Al Arabiya, Marwa's brother, Tariq Sherbini, said, \"Extremism has no religion. My sister was killed simply because she wore the veil. This incident clearly shows that extremism is not limited to one religion or another and it is not exclusively carried out by Muslims.\" \"We are only asking for a fair punishment,\" he said, adding that his sister was not a radical. \"She was a religious woman who prayed and wore her headscarf, but she was killed because of her belief.\" Anger about Sherbini's death smoldered online, as Twitterers and bloggers pushed the cause. \"She is a victim of hatred and racism,\" tweeted Ghada Essawy, among many other Arab twitters and bloggers. Essawy called Sherbini \"the martyr of the veil.\" Various videos circulated on YouTube calling on Egypt to take action and urging Germany to address what their makers saw as a new wave of hatred against Arabs and Muslims in its community. One video showed various pictures of a young happy Marwa saying that \"The woman stood up for her rights and she was killed. May God bless her.\" The English font in the video presentation asked \"when will Egypt cares for its citizens' rights inside Egypt and abroad.\" Sherbini and her husband moved to Dresden in 2003, after the husband received a grant to study genetic engineering in the renowned Max Planck Institute. He was scheduled to present his Ph.D. thesis in the coming days. CNN's Saad Abedine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sherbini killed in courtroom as she prepared to give testimony against man .\nThe man was convicted of calling Sherbini a \"terrorist,\" \"bitch\" and \"Islamist\"\nMany Egyptians shout hostile slogans against Germany during her funeral ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A huge water main burst under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk, Maryland, Friday, sending muddy water erupting over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. Muddy water envelops the community of Dundalk, Maryland, on Friday. Many were left without power. The 72-inch main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Baltimore County Chief Executive Jim Smith told CNN. No injuries were reported, Smith said, but he urged residents to \"shelter in place\" and not to go into the knee- to chest-high water under any circumstances. \"This is not a game,\" Smith warned. Authorities set up a command center near the site of the break and swift-water boat rescue teams were standing by, he added. See water main break damage \u00bb . Resident David Johnson said he felt helpless as he stood outside his house and watched the dirty brown water creep up his lawn and approach his front door. It stopped inches away and his basement stayed dry. The worst part now, Johnson said, is the smell. \"Like sewage,\" he said. Shannon Woerner was at home in nearby Essex, Maryland, when he heard the news about the water main break -- and the call for boats. He loaded his kayak in his truck and headed to the scene. \"I just wanted to see if I could help,\" he said. Woerner said he assisted by ferrying car keys and other items across flooded streets to people who were cut off from their homes by the water. Standing at the corner of Court and McShane streets, Mike Pell, 34, watched the water slowly recede after the main was shut. Water covered the wheels of his pickup truck. \"My basement's done,\" he said, pointing to his shoulder to show the height of the water inside, where he and his fianc\u00e9e had their bedroom. \"All of our clothes are ruined,\" he said. He managed to get his two children, ages 2 and 3, to a dry area on the first floor of the house. \"Now I wonder who's going to pay for this. We don't have flood insurance -- this area doesn't flood,\" Pell said, shaking his head. Samantha Hansley, 21, could only watch from a dry hill and wonder if her truck would survive the deluge. It sat a block away in 2 feet of water. Hansley and her boyfriend had been driving out of the floodwaters when they stopped to try to help some stranded drivers. \"Our truck just died,\" she said. A manager at the Box and Save grocery store not far from the break site said the entire parking lot was flooded. Cathy Geisler said customers were still in the store Friday afternoon when police came to tell everyone to evacuate, except for essential personnel. \"We had customers, we were still doing business, then the electricity went out and we escorted everyone out of the store,\" Geisler said. She and another manager stayed behind in a building with no power. As she spoke on the phone with CNN, Geisler said police had come back to tell them to leave immediately and she abruptly hung up the phone. Aerial video from CNN affiliates WMAR and WBAL showed a collapsed roadway with massive amounts of water exploding over the area. Entire neighborhoods had flooded streets, and many residents were evacuated, authorities said. Eric Braughman, who lives on one of the flooded streets, told CNN he had \"thought something was up\" with the water Thursday when his faucets discharged brownish-orange water. \"My wife didn't give the baby a bath because it didn't look safe,\" Braughman said. Nearly 1,000 customers were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Company's Web site. The main break is part of a larger issue with failing infrastructure in many U.S. cities, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's Department of Public Works. Kocher cited two other huge main breaks in the Maryland and Washington D.C. area that were started from the same type of pipe that burst in Friday's incident. \"This is a national infrastructure crisis,\" Kocher said. CNN's Alec Miran in Dundalk, Maryland, contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Residents say water has damaged vehicles, homes and left sewage smell .\n72-inch main shut down after about two hours, county official says .\nCNN affiliate video shows collapsed roadway, massive amounts of water .\nNearly 1,000 were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Civilian deaths in Afghanistan have risen sharply in the past year, largely due to more Taliban attacks and roadside bombings, U.N. officials said Sunday. NATO soldiers sit in their vehicle in an Afghan province freed from Taliban forces. Afghan civilian deaths jumped from 430 in the first six months of 2007 to 698 so far this year, an increase of 60 percent, said John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. \"It is clear that the international military forces are making every effort to minimize civilian casualties,\" Holmes said. \"Nevertheless, these problems are still there, and we need to deal with them and make sure that the safety of civilians comes first and international humanitarian law is respected,\" he said. Taliban insurgents forces have shifted from direct attacks on international troops toward the use of \"civilian-blind\" measures such as roadside bombings and suicide attacks, said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. At the same time, he said, civilian deaths blamed on government forces and U.S. and NATO troops has declined in the first six months of 2008, largely due to pressure from Afghan President Hamid Karzai. About 60 percent of civilian deaths in 2008 are blamed on anti-government forces, up from less than half in 2007. Increased Taliban attacks on aid projects also have left 78 of Afghanistan's 398 districts off-limits to relief workers, Siddique said. \"Increasingly, we're seeing targets of schools, of radio stations, of health clinics -- all in an effort to halt progress and keep people in fear,\" he said. A total of 565 aid convoys came under attack in 2007, with hundreds of tons of food hijacked. As recently as Sunday, a convoy of 100 tons of food aid came under attack outside Kandahar, with several trucks burned and looted, he said. \"Thankfully, we're not getting any report of death or injuries,\" he said. Afghanistan is the original front in the \"war on terrorism,\" which was launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. A U.S.-led invasion after the attacks pushed out the Taliban, which had allowed al Qaeda to operate from its territory, but the Islamic fundamentalist militia has regrouped along and across the mountainous border with Pakistan. Coinciding with the rise in civilian deaths in 2008 is an increase in attacks on American and allied forces, which are up 40 percent since last year . The death toll of U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan in June also climbed to more than 40, making it the deadliest month since the war began. An explosion in southern Afghanistan killed a British soldier serving with NATO on Saturday, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday. The soldier died when he was struck by a mine in Lashkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand province, the ministry said. He and his unit were investigating a report of a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a civilian aircraft at a nearby airfield, it said. \"When investigating this, they dismounted their vehicles and what is believed to have been a legacy anti-Personnel mine detonated, killing the soldier instantly,\" the ministry statement said. Most of the soldiers serving in Helmand are British. Helmand province is Afghanistan's top poppy-producing region and a major front in the war against the Taliban. Provincial authorities there have blamed militants for a spate of recent deadly attacks. NATO and Afghan force operations kept the insurgency down in 2007 by killing or capturing key leaders and clearing out Taliban safe havens, but a Pentagon report issued last week predicted the Taliban would be back in 2008.","highlights":"NEW: Afghan civilian deaths up 60 percent from last year, U.N. says .\nNEW: Increase attributed to intensifying Taliban attacks, roadside bombs .\nTroop deaths also up from 2007 as June marks deadliest month since war began .\nBritish NATO soldier dies in mine explosion in Helmand province ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York suspended all construction crane activity in the city Friday after a crane collapse on the Upper East Side killed two construction workers. Crane wreckage lies on Manhattan's Upper East Side on Friday in a photo by iReporter Michael Schuman. Acting Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri announced the suspension, in effect until Monday, and unveiled a $4 million plan to assess high-risk construction activities, including crane operations, and make recommendations to improve safety. \"This year we have seen an increase in accidents and injuries related to high-risk construction activities,\" LiMandri said. \"We must make sure that as construction activity in the city continues to increase, the department's ability to hold the construction industry to higher safety standards keeps pace.\" Friday's accident was the second deadly crane collapse in the city in less than three months. Seven people were killed and 24 were injured in March when a construction crane toppled, plowing through several residential buildings. Crane operator Donald Leo, 30, died in the initial collpase Friday morning. Construction worker Ramadan Kurtij, 37, died Friday afternoon of cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital. Another construction worker remained critically injured, a city official said. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the cranes in the two incidents were different types. \"Two crane collapses in a short period of time look like a pattern, but there's no reason to think that there's any real connection,\" he said. On a radio program Friday, Bloomberg vowed that an investigation would be conducted and changes would be made if necessary. \"I don't need any developer or union leader or anybody else telling me about the consequences of slowing things down,\" he said. \"Nobody wants this economy to grow more than me. But we're not going to kill people.\" The accident happened shortly after 8 a.m. Bridget Barrett, who lives two buildings away, said she was just leaving for work. \"We heard a loud crash as I was walking down my stairwell. I went to the front door of the building, and it was all white smoke everywhere,\" she said. \"The crane had fallen in the middle of the street and was on fire. There was water spewing out of the apartment building all over the place. And I dialed 911.\" See photos from the scene of the collapse \u00bb . Witnesses said the cab and the arm of the crane crashed more than 20 stories to the ground, smashing the penthouse on a building across the street and gouging chunks out of balconies all the way to the ground. \"It sounded like a large metal structure slowly falling on itself, sounded like a prolonged car accident,\" said iReport contributor Daniel Miranda, who lives a block away. \"Construction workers were peering over the edge. Some of them were crying out in grief.\" A pedestrian had minor injuries, Bloomberg said at a news conference, adding that nearby buildings with about 160 apartments were evacuated \"strictly as a precaution.\" Watch how latest crane collapse raises questions \u00bb . The collapse occurred a day after a building inspector rescinded a partial stop-work order that had been issued April 24. The order was issued after an inspection found that employees had been working without a permit and operating a crane in an \"unsafe manner,\" according to the city's Building Department. No other details were available. The collapse left a pile of wreckage at the foot of the Azure, an apartment building under construction at the northwest corner of East 91st Street and First Avenue, a mainly residential area on the city's Upper East Side. The falling crane also damaged the Electra, a 20-plus-story building on the southwest corner. See where the crane fell \u00bb . Michael Schuman, another iReporter, said he heard a loud crash, grabbed his camera and went to the scene, about five buildings away. \"I got there before the emergency vehicles. It looked like the crane had broken into three or four large pieces. I saw water pouring out of one of the apartments,\" Schuman said. Florence Diamond, a bus driver who was approaching the corner when the accident happened, said the crane's operator appeared to have been in the cab when the rig fell. Watch as Diamond describes what she saw \u00bb . \"I just saw all the crane come down in the middle of the street. It was like something out of a movie,\" Diamond said. \"I couldn't believe the crane had fell, and I also saw the guy that was operating the crane go down with it. It was just one guy.\" Appearing at news briefing with Bloomberg, New York Gov. David Paterson said that \"we're going to have to take a look at all these crane accidents.\" \"There's no need to speculate now on how this happened. That will all be investigated,\" he said. \"But certainly, these types of accidents are all too frequent.\" Barrett said she had worried about construction sites since the March crane disaster. \"It's just kind of baffling that this happened again,\" she said. \"I've seen that crane for the past couple months, and of course I thought about, 'What if it fell on my building or buildings around me?' I just kind of dismissed it because [I thought] there's no way that could happen after it had already happened once,\" she said. A construction worker at the site identifying himself only as Anthony said he didn't know what happened Friday, but he called it \"a scary thing.\" \"Everything goes through your head when you start seeing things like that happen,\" the worker said. \"You think about your family, your wife, your kids. Just, thank God, you know, whoever is alive is alive.\" CNN's Amy Sahba and Laura Batchelor contributed to the this report.","highlights":"NEW: City suspends all construction crane activity, unveils assessment plan .\nDeath toll rises after second construction worker dies of cardiac arrest .\nOne person remains critically injured in Manhattan crane disaster .\nCollapse comes less than three months after seven killed in similar accident ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles fire officials say they're worried that nighttime winds could push two major wildfires, which already are blamed in two deaths, closer to pricey neighborhoods on the Pacific coast. Fire draws near homes in the Los Angeles-area community of Porter Ranch, California, on Monday. \"We are concerned about what will happen tonight when the winds pick up,\" Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas Barry said Monday. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday declared a state of emergency Monday in Los Angeles and Ventura counties because of the fires. Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, whose district covers the area where the fire is burning, called on President Bush to issue a federal disaster declaration for the area. At least two people have died because of the blazes, which have burned 8,000 acres in the hills and mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, fire and police officials said. One was identified as a man who died in a makeshift wood-and-cardboard shelter and appeared to be homeless. A dog's body also was found. The other victim was killed in a collision of motorists who were trying to exit a freeway that was closed because of one of the wildfires, a fire official said. No identity or age was available for either victim. \"Winds are causing fire conditions to change by the hour,\" Schwarzenegger said in a statement released Monday. \"Several thousand acres have already burned with minimal containment and more acres are threatened.\" iReport.com: Are wildfires affecting you? Residents downwind were warned to remain alert into the night. \"It can go from here to the ocean in a matter of two to three hours,\" said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, The Associated Press reported. Barry said investigators have not determined a cause for either blaze. Fire officials warned that strong winds, predicted to reach more than 60 mph after 11 p.m., could send fire roaring south down the Pacific coast near Highway 101. Officials have shut two freeways north of Los Angeles and authorities dispatched water-dropping helicopters and more than 200 fire engines as the blaze \"started to push toward the city,\" said John Tripp of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. About 350 police officers are on the scene, patrolling evacuated neighborhoods and warning residents ahead of the flames. Officials shut down part of Interstate 210, also known as the Foothill Freeway, and any residents north of the freeway were under a mandatory evacuation order. The fire jumped the interstate in one spot and headed toward the Lake View Terrace area. A portion of State Route 118, known as the Ronald Reagan Freeway, also was closed. The larger of the two fires has charred more than 3,500 acres in the Angeles National Forest, officials said. See video of the Angeles National Forest fire \u00bb . That fire destroyed several structures, including about 30 mobile homes in the Lopez Canyon area, said Los Angeles County fire inspector Sam Padilla. The mobile homes had been evacuated Sunday. The other fire, burning nearby, is expected to expand as the winds push the flames away from the center. In San Diego County, a wildfire that began on an explosives training range at Camp Pendleton had grown to more than 1,500 acres by nightfall and forced the evacuation of 1,400 homes, The AP reported. In northern California, a wildfire that started Sunday on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay had spread across 250 acres as of Monday morning but hadn't damaged any buildings in the historic state park, a Marin County fire official said. See video of the Angel Island fire \u00bb .","highlights":"NEW: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday declares a state of emergency .\nNEW: Officials warn fire could possibly reach ocean in matter of hours .\nWinds could push fires to pricey neighborhoods near coast, officials say .\nTwo deaths are connected to fires in Los Angeles, Ventura counties, officials say ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's long simmering battle against corruption has come to a boil, this time in Chongqing, the largest megalopolis in the world. A massive crackdown has implicated millionaires, gangsters, and even police officers. Known as \"dahei\" (combat triads), the campaign has put the spotlight on organized crime and how it has infested local bureaucracy and businesses through bribery, extortion, blackmail and violence. The anti-triad campaign in Chongqing is being led by Bo Xilai, the city's party chief. Criminal trials are underway following months of police investigation. Details of murky cases are trickling out. Among those on the dock is Xie Caiping, a portly woman believed be the \"mama san\" of one of Chongqing's notorious triads. Xie is accused of operating gambling dens, drug trafficking, giving and collecting bribes and terrorizing people, including policemen who had tried to investigate her illicit activities. More trials are expected as the city fights at least 14 mafia-style gangs. Given China's opaque political world, it is notable that the ongoing trial is extensively covered by the Chinese media. For years after the Cultural Revolution, Chongqing languished as a decrepit mountain-city in Sichuan province, better known for its spicy food and poor farmers carrying goods on bamboo poles. It became the world's largest city in 1997 when the central government, by administrative edict, incorporated a huge area adjacent to the city into what is now the Chongqing municipality. China's goal was to build up Chongqing into a modern mega-city that will later serve as the new economic engine in central China. Over the years, thanks of the influx of corporate investments and central government funding in infrastructure projects, the city of 31 million has become a center of an economic boom. But the economic boom has also led to the resurgence of local gangs engaged in human and drug trafficking, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion and protection rackets. Gangsters were blamed for heinous crimes of murder and kidnapping. Local officials were accused of \"economic crimes\"-- bribery, profiteering and malversation involving public funds and property. Such abuses have prompted popular anger and social unrest. Communist Party officials are under pressure to clean up or perish. \"The life or death of the party depends on whether or not we have a strong will to punish and prevent corruption,\" Chinese President Hu Jintao told a meeting of the party elite last September. Party leaders pledged to attack the \"acute problems\" of corruption, the gap between the rich and the poor, and the lack of democracy within the party's own ranks. At the meeting, they outlined an anti-corruption directive that would compel officials and their families to disclose their property holdings and investments. \"The new transparency rules are meant to curb abuse of power,\" says political analyst Wenran Jiang. \"It's also aimed at appeasing public discontent over corruption.\" In Chongqing, police operations started in June, leading to the arrest of over 4,800 suspected gangsters and the confiscation of 1,700 illegal firearms. Investigations led to many city officials, including police officers. They include Wen Qiang, Xie Caiping's brother-in-law, who is now accused of colluding with gangsters. Highly regarded as an ace investigator, Wen was the deputy police commissioner and head of the city's justice bureau. Last August, he was stripped of his posts, detained and charged of accepting over 100 million yuan in bribes in exchange for giving gangs a \"protective umbrella\". Local media reports say Chongqing residents celebrated Wen's arrest by setting off firecrackers. The \"dahei\" campaign is led by Bo Xilai. 60, the city's party chief who also sits on China's ruling politburo. Son of a revolutionary veteran, Bo had served as Dalian city mayor, Liaoning provincial governor and China's minister of commerce. An outsider in Chongqing, Bo has had to bring in his trusted prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Wang Lijun, to replace Wen Qiang as chief of police and clean up the city. Wang made his name as a tough, upright police commissioner in Liaoning province, Bo's former turf. In response, the gangs have reportedly put a 12 million yuan bounty on Wang's head. \"It not us who took the initiative to fight the underworld,\" Bo Xilai told the Chongqing media. \"It's the underworld who has compelled us to do so. The public has been gathering at the gate of our government building, holding blood-stained pictures, deeply distressed. The underworld has killed innocent people with machetes, like butchers killing pigs -- too horrible to see.\" Bo said the campaign is aimed at restoring economic order and winning people's trust. Bo's get-tough stance has earned him praises, especially among the Netizens. \"Chongqing's experience should be popularized nationwide,\" wrote a Netizen from the eastern province of Zhejiang. \"Bo should be China's leader in the new era,\" wrote another. Some political observers think success in Chongqing could catapult him as a \"dark horse\" in the next round of political transition, when the next generation of leaders take over in 2012. \"Whatever his motives, the impact is not local but national,\" says Wenran Jiang. \"Clearly, there is public support for such bold actions.\" Jiang, who was Bo's college classmate at Peking University in the late 1970s, remembers Bo as \"a smart student of Chinese and world history who always want to do the right thing.\" It remains unclear if the current house-cleaning in Chongqing will spread nationwide. Cynics doubt if the Communist Party leaders have the stomach to genuinely root out the evil of corruption wherever investigations find them. \"These crackdowns are like swatting flies while ignoring tigers,\" shrugs a white-collar worker in Beijing. Some see progress. \"At least they realize that the problem is very acute,\" says a government functionary [who asked to remain anonymous]. \"We cannot speak of a harmonious society unless the people are treated equally before the law.\"","highlights":"Anti-corruption drive in Chongqing implicates millionaires, gangsters, police .\nCampaign has spotlighted organized crime, how it has infested local bureaucracy .\nCity's economic boom has led to the resurgence of local gangs .\nCriminal trials are underway as the city fights at least 14 mafia-style gangs ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The chairman of India's UB Group, which includes Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, made the winning $1.8 million bid on a number of Mahatma Gandhi's personal items on auction. Mahatma Gandhi was known for his peaceful opposition to tyranny, which led to India's independence. Vijay Mallya was expected to return the items to the Indian government, according to CNN-IBN, CNN's sister station in India. Controversy surrounded the sale Thursday of Gandhi's items -- among them his metal-rimmed glasses, pocket watch, sandals, bowl and plate -- prompting the seller, James Otis, to ask that the items be withdrawn from the auction. India voiced strong objections to the auction. Its Ministry of External Affairs said the bidding would \"commercialize and thereby demean the memory of the Father of the Nation and everything that he stood for in his life, beliefs and actions.\" On Tuesday, a New Delhi court issued an injunction to stop the sale. Watch the auction stoke high interest \u00bb . But the Antiquorum auction house in Manhattan went ahead with the auction as scheduled. The Indian government had rejected an offer from Otis, who had asked the Indian government to expand its spending on the poor in exchange for the items. India's government already spends a large amount of money on the country's disadvantaged sectors, India's culture minister Ambika Soni told reporters Thursday. Still, the government had hoped Otis would not allow the public to bid on the items. Soni, the culture minister, said that India's government exercised several options to stop the auction at the Antiquorum in New York. Gandhi, who waged a long struggle against British rule in India, was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic on January 30, 1948. He is still widely revered for his insistence on non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress. Many Indians believe selling Gandhi's items for profit is outrageous. \"I feel very sad about it because Gandhi himself never believed in private possessions,\" said Varsha Das, director of India's National Gandhi Museum, using a term of endearment for Gandhi. \"He gave away everything. He did not even have a home to live in.\" CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mallya expected to return items to Indian government, CNN-IBN reports .\nIndia's Ministry of External Affairs: Bidding would \"commercialize\" Gandhi's memory .\nControversy prompted seller James Otis to ask that items be withdrawn from auction ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Would you still watch your favorite television program if you had to cycle for an hour before you could view it? A computer-generated image of Club Watt, Rotterdam's human-powered club. Couch potatoes will be horrified, but fresh advances in human-powered technology -- where users power appliances through their own motion -- could one day see a 'workout-to-watch' scenario become reality. Human power is rapidly gaining in popularity worldwide as businesses seek 'greener' methods of operating. The profile of the technology is set to receive a further boost this month when a human-powered gym opens in Portland, Oregon, and again in September when the human-powered 'sustainable dance club', Club Watt, opens its doors in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Human power is already being used to run the 'California Fitness' gym in Hong Kong, and to power the recently opened 'Club Surya' in London. iReport.com: Can you predict what the future will be like? Beyond all of this, further concepts have been developed for human-powered 'river gyms' for the waterways of New York. But, how does your sweat and strain turn into power for lights, music and machines? The general concept is known as energy harvesting, which simply refers to the gathering of energy from one source and applying it to power an object. Italian inventor Lucien Gambarota, who designed California Fitness's method of storing energy and using it to power lights and music in the gym, told CNN the concept is straightforward. \"One of the oldest types of energy used by people is muscular energy -- so this is nothing new.\" Gambarota said machines such as exercycles created a load, used as a counter-force by means of a resistor. \"I disconnected the resistor and started storing the energy into a battery... that is then used as power. It was a way to show there can be very simple solutions. It doesn't always have to be high-tech,\" he said. Portland's 'green' gym will have spinning bikes connected to wind-generator motors. The users should generate enough electricity to power the gym's music system or run personal DVD players on the machines, the gym's manager Adam Boesel predicts. While harnessing the energy from people working out at a gym seems logical, utilising the movement of clubbers at dance clubs is a little more complex. Two methods have developed -- the first of which is piezoelectricity, used by Club Surya, where crystals in blocks under the dance-floor rub together with the assistance of dancers on the floor. This generates an electrical charge which is then fed into batteries. A second method using wheels to generate energy under a slightly moving floor will be used at the soon-to-be-opened Club Watt. This model involves coils and magnets which move under the dance-floor to create a charge. Vera Verkooijen, spokeswoman for Sustainable Dance Club, the company which is behind the floor for Club Watt and produces smaller, portable floors, said the human power would be enough to power about 30 percent of the club's requirements. Verkooijen admitted the first floors were not very efficient, and said the designers were already working on new models to improve the amount of energy captured. \"This is just the first version. We are willing to take it further,\" she said. At Club Surya the power shortfall is made up by solar panels and a wind turbine. Putting the current buzz aside, how far could this human-powered technology develop? And how widely can it be applied? Verkooijen told CNN she already had some indications of where the technology was heading. \"We receive a lot of requests from other companies for people who want to use the floors. We get many of these for bus and train stations -- places where there are lots of people.\" Lights and display boards at those spaces could be powered applying the same concept as that being used in Club Watt, she said. Evert Raaijen, technical director of energy conversion company Exendis, felt the technology could have a number of different applications. From pedal-powered computers on bicycles, to self-powered soldiers in militaries, Raaijen predicted human power would be developed widely in coming years. \"I think it's a science field which will be one of the future,\" he said. Gambarota believed there were ways human power could be brought into practical use in the home. He had generated an idea of using human-powered batteries for television or portable video game consoles. \"With so many kids not exercising enough, a battery could be created for these devices so they had to create the energy to use them. The same could be done for television sets. \"We could get the situation where people have to cycle so they can use it,\" Gambarota said. Despite these potential developments, human-power is attracting its share of criticism. Although he shows enthusiasm for the battery project, Gambarota, who now spends much of his time developing micro wind turbines, is sceptical about the future of human-power on a mass-scale. He raises doubts about the efficiency of human power and questioned its economic viability. The average amount of power one person could produce going about normal activities on any given day was about one kilowatt-hour (kWh), which only amounted to about \u20ac 0.10 worth of electricity, Gambarota said. \"It's a very good marketing tool for businesses, but in terms of economics it does not make sense at all.\" The main reason it was being used was because companies wanted to \"look green, taste green and smell green\", he said. Raaijen, who was consulted on the Sustainable Dance Floor project, agreed that opting for human-powered technology at present was not a financially-based decision. \"The project (dance floor) in itself doesn't save a lot of energy. It's more of a statement than anything.\" Observing recent trends, the sustained drive for 'green energy' should continue to push human-powered technology forward, and despite the limitations to development, human-powered gyms, dance clubs, and maybe even video game consoles are likely to feature strongly in our immediate future.","highlights":"A Hong Kong gym and London dance club are part powered by human power .\nItalian inventor Lucien Gambarota says human power is simple to use .\nThe concept could be taken to busy places like train stations or into homes .\nThere are some questions about the economic sense of human power ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The world's wildlife has declined by 27 percent since 1970 because of the human impact on the environment, the World Wildlife Fund said Friday. These two adult frilled-neck lizards are threatened species and are bred in captivity in Australia. The WWF's latest Living Planet Index shows terrestrial, freshwater and marine species all suffered declines in their populations between 1970 and 2005, with freshwater species experiencing the biggest drop. The index is included in a report called \"2010 and Beyond: Rising to the Biodiversity Challenge,\" which the WWF prepared for an international biodiversity conference in Germany later this month. \"No one can escape the impact of biodiversity loss because reduced global diversity translates quite clearly into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters, and greater effects from global warming,\" said James Leape, director-general of WWF International. The Living Planet Index measured 4,000 populations of 1,477 vertebrate species, which the WWF says is a good indicator of overall biodiversity trends. Terrestrial species in both temperate and tropical areas fell by an average of 25 percent during the 35-year period, the WWF said. Marine species fell by 28 percent in the same period, with a dramatic decline between 1995 and 2005, the WWF said. \"Many marine ecosystems are changing rapidly under human influence, and one recent study estimates that more than 40 percent of the world's ocean area is strongly affected by human activities while few areas remain untouched,\" the WWF report said. Freshwater species in both temperate and tropical regions fell by 29 percent between 1970 and 2003. The WWF said that is especially significant because despite covering only about 1 percent of the total land surface of the planet, inland waters are home to more than 40,000 vertebrate species. In tropical regions, freshwater species were especially hard-hit; the index shows they suffered a 35-percent drop between 1970 and 2000. The WWF said it had insufficient data to chart tropical freshwater species beyond 2000 and temperate freshwater species beyond 2003. The causes of the declines are varied but ultimately stem from human demands on the biosphere, such as consumption of natural resources or the displacement of ecosystems, the WWF said. The dominant threat to marine life is overexploitation -- harvesting or killing animals or plants beyond the species' capacity to replace itself, the WWF said. Overfishing is one example. Overexploitation is also a threat to terrestrial species, according to the report, which cites the hunting of tropical forest mammals. Overharvesting of timber is also a major factor, it said. Invasive species, whether introduced deliberately or not, are another threat, especially in freshwater ecosystems, where they are thought to be the main cause of extinction among endemic species, the WWF said. Pollution and overall climate change are other factors causing a loss of biodiversity, it said. The WWF called on governments attending this month's conference to take urgent action to reduce the rate of loss by 2010. It wants governments to establish protected areas, particularly those areas important for food security, water supply, medicine, and disaster mitigation, and to commit to zero deforestation by 2020.","highlights":"The world's wildlife has declined by 27 percent since 1970 because of humans .\nWWF: Terrestrial, freshwater, marine species all under threat .\nPollution and overall climate change are other factors causing loss of wildlife ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- We're in the throes of summer vacation season, but at least one American is still on the job. While it's rumored that President Obama will follow in the footsteps of President Clinton and vacation on Martha's Vineyard, he hasn't had a chance to break out his Bermuda shorts just yet. When Obama does take off, though, he'll join in the grand tradition of presidential vacations, like these notable ones: . President Bush (R) and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ride bikes in Crawford, Texas, in 2008. 1. Abe Lincoln doesn't go too far . Far-flung vacations are nice, but President Lincoln preferred to stay a bit closer to home. When Lincoln needed a getaway from the heat and political turmoil of Civil War-era Washington, D.C., he headed to...a different part of Washington, D.C. From 1862 to 1864 Lincoln spent June through November living in a cottage atop a hill at the Soldiers' Home a few miles from the White House. Lincoln apparently loved the slight change of scenery, which meant slightly cooler temperatures and a chance to ride his horse each morning. If you're considering a stay-cation this year, consider this Honest Abe's endorsement. 2. Movie cowboy does real ranching . Think George W. Bush was the first president to sneak away from the White House to spend time on his ranch? Not quite. At the end of his second term as Governor of California in 1974, Ronald Reagan paid just over half a million dollars to acquire Rancho del Cielo in California's Santa Ynez Mountains. The 688-acre ranch, complete with stables and a 1500-square-foot adobe house, was Reagan's go-to vacation destination while he was in office, and he entertained some big names there, including Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mikhail Gorbachev, who gamely wore a cowboy hat during his visit. 3. LBJ does some ranching, too . Texan Lyndon Johnson was very involved in the everyday operations of his ranch. Johnson, who had gotten into ranching in 1951, grew his LBJ Ranch into a 2,700-acre spread populated by 400 head of Hereford cattle. Johnson was no absentee owner when he was in Washington, either. Johnson frequently headed back on vacations and supposedly drove his foreman crazy by calling every day to talk about the weather on the ranch or how the pastures looked. Today, the National Park Service maintains LBJ's spread as a working ranch, complete with a herd of cattle descended from the Herefords Johnson bred. 4. George W. Bush initiates a war on brush . George W. Bush followed in LBJ's footsteps and went to his own Texas ranch when he needed a getaway. Prairie Chapel Ranch, a 1,583-acre spread Bush owns near Crawford, Texas, served as the secondary White House throughout Bush's presidency, and he was often shown clearing brush during vacations. Bush wasn't just doing farm work, though. He exhorted visitors to join the \"President's 100-Degrees Club\" by running three miles or biking 10 after the mercury hit 100 degrees. Anyone who could pull of the feat got a specialized Under Armour shirt as recognition. We can only hope one of the many foreign dignitaries Bush entertained at the ranch -- including Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, Ariel Sharon, and Saudi King Abdullah -- managed to get one of the coveted shirts into their suitcases. Mental Floss: Iraq, Afghanistan and other extreme vacation spots . 5. FDR heats up Georgia . Some presidents choose to head to their hometowns or a beach side resort for their vacations, but Franklin Roosevelt preferred to travel to western Georgia. Warm Springs, Georgia, is the home of (you guessed it!) warm springs that supposedly had therapeutic value for polio sufferers. FDR, who had contracted his own paralytic illness in 1921, started visiting Warm Springs in 1924 in the hope that exercising in the springs' warm waters would cure him. Although the springs didn't reverse his illness, FDR felt like his time at the resort alleviated his symptoms somewhat. In 1927 he bought the resort he'd been staying at, and in 1932 he ordered a six-room Georgia pine house to be built on the property. This house was FDR's retreat throughout his presidency and became known as the Little White House. FDR was sitting for a portrait at the Little White House when he died of a stroke in April 1945. Today, the house is part of Georgia's state park system and is open to visitors; it's been preserved to look almost exactly as it did the day FDR died. 6. Nixon gets the right ice cubes . When Richard Nixon wanted a break from Washington, he headed to a modest ranch home he owned on Key Biscayne off Miami. Nixon's \"Florida White House,\" which he visited 50-plus times during his tenure in office, eventually swelled to include three houses and a floating helipad, which the Department of Defense installed at a taxpayer expense of $400,000. (There was plenty of room for taxpayer outrage at the $625,000 total the government spent sprucing up the Florida White House; one itemized expense was $621 for a replacement icemaker because \"the President does not like ice with holes in it.\") Given that this house was Nixon's retreat, it's no surprise that some shady dealings transpired on the premises. Nixon allegedly discussed plans for the Watergate break-in at the house, and he holed up there when the coverup came to light. The house fell into disrepair after Nixon sold it, and in 2004 it was razed to make room for a new building. The Florida White House wasn't Nixon's only retreat, though. He bought a mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Clemente, California, shortly after taking office in 1969. Nixon dubbed his new digs \"La Casa Pacifica,\" but the press quickly started referring to the spread as \"the Western White House.\" This house wasn't cheap for taxpayers, either; the government dropped over a million dollars improving this home with temporary office quarters for staffers, helipads, and an upgraded heating system. Mental Floss: Donald Nixon and other memorable presidential siblings . 7. Teddy Roosevelt goes bear hunting . Lounging on the beach is great, but do you really think Teddy Roosevelt would miss the opportunity to do something manly? Roosevelt's vacation in 1905 took him to the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he stayed for three weeks while bear hunting. 8. FDR's successor gets his own little White House . Harry Truman may have been from Missouri, but he headed south when he needed some R&R. Truman started suffering from exhaustion in late 1946, and his physicians recommended a warm weather vacation to revitalize the President. Truman took his vacation in a converted duplex in Key West that already held some history. The house, which was originally built in 1890 for the commandant and paymaster of Key West's naval base, had already hosted William Howard Taft while he was in office in 1912. When Thomas Edison developed 41 new weapons to aid in the American efforts in World War I, he spent six months living in the house. Once Truman visited the house, though, it quickly became known as Truman's Little White House. He ended up spending 175 days in Key West over the course of his two terms in office. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy later used the house while they were in office, and it's now open as a tourist attraction. Mental Floss: Early summer jobs of Truman, LBJ and more . 9. Kennedy retreats to his compound . Starting in 1926, Joseph P. Kennedy began taking his family to Hyannisport, Massachusetts, on vacation each summer. His son John liked the area so much that in 1956 he bought a cottage of his own near his parents' digs, and the family soon purchased a third cottage in the area, giving rise to the name \"the Kennedy Compound.\" JFK used his cottage as a base of operations for his presidential campaign and later vacationed there each summer he was in office. 10. George H.W. Bush prefers not to ranch . Not to be outdone by the Kennedys, the Bush family has an even older compound of their own in Kennebunkport, Maine. In 1903 George H. Walker, the grandfather of George H.W. Bush, built a great mansion on his oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport, and the property has remained in the family ever since. George H.W. Bush used the Kennebunkport compound as his vacation home during his presidency, and George W. Bush made a few getaways to the house as well. Between father and son, they've entertained some pretty big names at their summer house, including Yitzhak Rabin, Vladimir Putin, and Nicolas Sarkozy. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"U.S. presidents leave the White House to relax on vacations .\nPresidents Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush visited their ranches .\nTaxpayers spent $625,000 sprucing up President Nixon's Florida home .\nPres. Lincoln spent four months at the slightly cooler Soldiers' Home ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, the single mother of newborn octuplets, is using the Internet to help support her family of 14 children. She's started a Web site seeking donations. Nadya Suleman, a single mother of 14 children, has set up a Web site asking for donations. The Web site features pictures of a rainbow, child's blocks and all eight of Suleman's newborns. Also prominently displayed on the Web site is a prompt for visitors to make a donation, noting that the \"proud mother of 14\" accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and PayPal. Suleman, 33, had the octuplets through fertility treatments, despite already having six young children and no clear source of income. In recent television interviews, Suleman has rejected suggestions that she might not be able to care adequately for all 14 of her children. \"I'm providing myself to my children,\" Nadya Suleman told NBC in her first interview. \"I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally, everything I do. I'll stop my life for them and be present with them and hold them and be with them. And how many parents do that?\" Watch report on who is paying the bills for the octuplets \u00bb . Suleman said she plans to go back to college to pursue a degree in counseling, NBC reported. She also said all 14 children have the same biological father, a sperm donor whom she described as a friend. Joann Killeen, a spokeswoman for Suleman, has told CNN that she is being deluged with media offers, but disputed any suggestions that Suleman may have had a monetary incentive for having so many children. Killeen, told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that Suleman \"has no plans on being a welfare mom and really wants to look at every opportunity that she can to make sure she can provide financially for the 14 children she's responsible for now.\" Suleman's publicist did say that Suleman gets $490 every month in food stamps.","highlights":"Nadya Suleman has created Web site to solicit donations to help support 14 kids .\nSuleman, a mother of six, recently had octuplets .\nSuleman has rejected notions that she would not be able to care for children ."} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Ten South African ministers and the deputy president have resigned as President Thabo Mbeki prepares to leave office. South African President Thabo Mbeki announced his resignation in a televised address Sunday. His replacement, African National Congress Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, will be sworn in as South Africa's president Thursday. Mbeki announced he was resigning on Sunday, prompting threats from several Cabinet members to follow suit -- but the outgoing president urged them to stay in office, government sources said. The resignations, which include Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, will take effect Thursday when Mbeki steps down, a government statement said. \"All the ministers have expressed their availability to assist the incoming administration in the hand-over process and any other assistance that might be sought from them,\" the statement said. The finance minister's assistant told CNN that Manuel is willing to serve in the new government, if needed. Three deputy ministers have also tendered their resignations, a government statement said. A spokesman for South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, confirmed that it has named Motlanthe as its choice to succeed Mbeki. Motlanthe will stay in office until elections in the spring of next year, which ANC President Jacob Zuma is widely expected to win. Earlier this month, the ANC asked Mbeki to step down after a judge threw out the corruption, fraud and racketeering case against Zuma -- Mbeki's political arch rival. The judge called the case invalid and accused Mbeki's government of political interference. Mbeki -- who has been South Africa's president for nearly 10 years -- spoke of some of his achievements when he formally announced his resignation on Sunday during a televised address. Watch the significance of Mbeki \"falling on the sword\" \u00bb . \"I depart this office knowing that many men and woman in South Africa have worked to achieve better lives for all,\" Mbeki said. Under his leadership the country has had the longest period of sustained economic growth in the South Africa's history and has reached out to indigent people in an unprecedented way, Mbeki said. Mbeki said the country still has economic, corruption and crime challenges to face in the future. And he gave his vote of confidence to the country's next leader without naming who that leader would be. Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the African National Congress, announced Saturday that the party -- which Mbeki has been involved with since his teens -- had asked him to leave before his term was up. Mbeki agreed to do so, he said. Mantashe said the ANC made the decision \"for the citizens of South Africa, so there could be stability within the country\" and so the ANC movement could remain \"stable and unified.\" The case against Zuma -- who replaced Mbeki as ANC president last year -- was thrown out in September 2006, but the National Prosecuting Authority recharged him. Judge Chris Nicholson made no ruling on Zuma's guilt or innocence, and he could be recharged. Political observers doubted that would happen because of Zuma's popularity, particularly with the Communist Party and trade unions. Zuma has denied the charges. He said the case was politically motivated, and harmed his chances to become the ANC's presidential nominee. He could have faced at least 15 years in jail if convicted of accepting bribes from a company that got a contract in a multibillion-dollar arms deal. He also faced charges of having a corrupt relationship with his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for soliciting bribes for Zuma and using Zuma's political influence to benefit his businesses. Mbeki, 66, succeeded Nelson Mandela as South Africa's president in June 1999. Critics alleged he pushed for the corruption charges against Zuma. Mbeki recently brokered a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe's political rivals, who signed the agreement on Monday in an effort to put aside the violent past and end the crisis that has paralyzed Zimbabwe since disputed national elections in March. Under it, longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe remains president, while his perennial rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, has become prime minister and the coordinator of government affairs.","highlights":"10 S. African ministers, deputy president resign with President Thabo Mbeki .\nReplacement, ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, sworn in Thursday .\nMbeki quit after court case collapsed against longtime rival Jacob Zuma ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Since 2\u00bd-year-old Ava Zinna ended up in the emergency room this summer after an allergic reaction to peanuts, her mother, Tara, has worried about her daughter's food whenever they eat out. But when the family went to Blue Smoke restaurant Sunday afternoon in New York, someone had already asked to hold the peanuts. Ava Zinna ate an allergen-free meal at the Worry Free Dinners event on Sunday. The Zinnas took part in Worry Free Dinners, a series of monthly meals for people with food allergies. Sunday's 16-person barbecue -- complete with ribs, chicken, burgers and brownies -- was the first event aimed directly at parents and children affected by food allergies. \"When you're going into a restaurant environment, you're putting your child's safety and livelihood into other hands,\" Tara Zinna said. At the Worry Free Dinners event, \"not only was the food phenomenal, but it's wonderful to have an opportunity to interact with other families who are dealing with similar issues.\" The recent \"worry free\" meal event took place just days before the Food and Drug Administration's September 16 public hearing on food ingredient labels. Since 2006, food manufacturers have been required to clearly label products that contain any of the most common allergens -- milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat and soy -- but some allergy experts say the labels should be more explicit. Restaurant dining can be a terrifying experience for people with severe food allergies. When the meal arrives, there's often no way of knowing every single ingredient that went into it, or what else touched the plate and utensils used to serve it. You also have to pester the restaurant staff with special requests. But with Worry Free Dinners, everyone has some kind of experience with all of that, which helps build camaraderie, said Sloane Miller, who started organizing the events in April. Read more tips on how to manage food allergies \u00bb . \"People sit down and start chatting immediately like they're old friends,\" said Miller, known in the blogosphere as \"Allergic Girl.\" \"It's so nice to be with people that you don't have to explain [to] why you want something on the side.\" So far, Worry Free Dinners has catered to food allergy sufferers in New York -- there are about 12 million in America, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) -- but Miller is looking to take the concept to other cities. A common but mysterious condition . One out of every 17 children under 3 years old in America has a food allergy, and some will outgrow their sensitivities, said Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of FAAN. But allergies to peanuts, nuts, shellfish and fish tend to be lifelong, she said. As far as she knows, Worry Free Dinners is the first event series of its kind. Experts agree that allergies in general -- both food and inhalant -- are on the rise, but no one is sure why. Research on food allergies has been slow because \"for a long time, people thought this was a small problem,\" Munoz-Furlong said. The largest group of studies on the subject are in progress, including immunotherapy for people with peanut and milk allergies, she said. The majority of food allergy cases -- about 80 percent -- are \"cyclic,\" with mild symptoms that resemble those of pollen or dust allergies: sneezing, itchy eyes, and nasal congestion, said Dr. Alpen Patel, assistant professor of otolaryngology at Emory University. Other people experience nausea, vomiting and diarrhea consistently in response to certain foods. But for some people, ingesting something that even accidentally touched tree nuts or peanuts could result in anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that can lead to blocked airways, cardiovascular collapse, and even death. This is called a \"fixed food allergy,\" he said. After one severe reaction, he said, most people consistently avoid the offending food and do not experience another severe attack. But they also always carry a shot of epinephrine to self-administer immediately in case they experience signs of anaphylaxis. Enjoying food in spite of allergies . Miller has made a career of helping people with food allergies and other special dietary needs navigate their meals, whether at Thanksgiving or on a date, without feeling sick. She runs her own coaching practice, blogs and organizes Worry Free Dinners events under her umbrella organization Allergic Girl Resources Inc. She herself has dealt with allergies all her life -- as a baby she developed a rash when her mother switched from breast milk to cow's milk, and at age 2 she had a reaction to tree nuts. She has since learned that she also has some form of allergy to salmon, lemon grass, eggplant, some types of melons and most tropical fruits. But Miller, now 36, did not want her food allergies to prevent her from sampling the cornucopia of New York City restaurants. She developed relationships with restaurants that would accommodate her needs, and began organizing dinners for people who have similar allergy problems. \"It is both worry-free for the diner and worry-free for the restaurant,\" she said. \"Restaurants appreciate that I'm looking out for them as well ... I want to make it as easy as possible for them to have people like me come in all the time.\" Where everybody knows your name . So how does someone like Miller, who lives with food allergies plus a \"wheat\/gluten-free, processed sugar-free, lactose-free, soy-free, low processed food-free lifestyle,\" safely enjoy eating out? Miller calls it the \"Cheers\" experience. The first time she goes to a restaurant, she always calls ahead and talks with the restaurant management to make sure they can accommodate her before making a reservation. Once at the restaurant, she'll meet the manager and give him or her a card with a run-down of her special dietary needs. Often a chef will join Miller and the manager to discuss the menu. By this point, Miller says, everyone has been introduced by name. After the meal, Miller thanks the server, chef and manager, and tips the server generously. She'll often call the next day and thank the manager for helping her eat safely. On her blog, allergicgirl.blogspot.com, Miller finds no shortage of restaurant meals to recommend and photograph. She'll find creative alternatives to traditionally prepared foods that look no less appetizing than more familiar versions -- for instance, she recently had fish-free sushi made of potato tempura, sticky rice, avocado and sesame seeds. Not every restaurant will accommodate Miller's special needs -- she has been refused service at some restaurants. But in general, she's found that restaurants have become far more understanding than five years ago, if only because staff members have children with food allergies. \"That changes how they run their kitchen,\" she said. \"More and more people are touched by this, and do get it.\"","highlights":"Woman organizes dinners at restaurants for people with food allergies .\nIf you have a food allergy, call ahead and tell the restaurant management, she says .\n12 million Americans have food allergies, though some kids outgrow them .\nFood allergies are on the rise, but no one is sure why ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A few months ago, it seemed liked nothing could stop Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussain from representing her country in the upcoming Summer Olympics. Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussain was devastated to learn she could not participate in the Beijing Summer Olympics. Then, the International Olympic Committee banned Iraq from competing because of what it says is the government's political interference in sports. Hussain cried for hours after hearing the news, which arrived in the form of a letter to Iraqi officials. \"She hasn't stopped. It's like finding out that a close relative has died,\" said her coach, Yousif Abdul Rahman. Abdul Rahman attempted to console Hussain by assuring her that she could compete in the 2012 Olympics. Watch Hussain react to the news \u00bb . \"In this horrible situation,\" she said, \"who can say I'll even be alive in 2012?\" CNN received a copy of the letter sent to Jassim Mohammed Jaffer, Iraqi minister of youth and sports, and Ali Mohsen Ismail, acting secretary general of the Iraqi general secretariat of the Council of Ministers. \"We deeply regret this outcome, which severely harms the Iraqi Olympic and Sports Movement and the Iraqi athletes, but which is unfortunately imposed by the circumstances,\" said the letter, signed by two IOC officials. Watch an official explain the decision \u00bb . The move stems from an Iraqi government decision in May to suspend the nation's Olympic Committee and form a temporary committee to handle its duties. The Iraqi government thought the committee had not been operating properly and as a result undermined the sporting movement there. The government said the original committee held meetings without quorums and had officials serving in one-year posts for more than five years. Many of the officials also lived outside Iraq, the government said. iReport.com: See a cartoonist's take on the decision . Emmanuelle Moreau, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said it suspended Iraq's national Olympic Committee in June after the government removed elected officials and put in people the IOC didn't recognize. She said the IOC proposed to the Iraqi government that officials come to the organization's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, \"to discuss possible solutions.\" But she said they didn't respond. \"We're extremely disappointed with the situation. The athletes have been ill-served by the government in Iraq,\" she said. Moreau said Iraq missed a Wednesday deadline for the entry of athletes to compete in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. Watch a historian discuss the Olympics in Iraq under Saddam Hussein \u00bb . She said there is a chance that track and field athletes could compete if the original committee is reinstated. The deadline for the track team to register is at the end of the month. The Games begin August 8. A former official from the disbanded Iraq Olympic Committee said the IOC's decision was justified because the government interfered with the national committee by suspending it. The former official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. He said he believed that the government suspended the committee out of \"jealousy.\" The national committee was making great strides, and the government, namely the Ministry of Youth and Sports, wanted control of it, he said. The seven Iraqi athletes who were to travel to China for the Games' start in August are disappointed by the decision, officials said. They include an archer, a weightlifter, a judoka, two rowers and two sprinters, one of whom is Dana Hussain. Her coach called the decision unfair and said he blames \"everyone\": the Iraqi government and the Iraqi and International Olympic committees. In the end, Abdul Rahman said, the athletes are paying the price. \"It's a shame after all the efforts, ambitions, risks and dangers,\" he said. \"I wish from the bottom of my heart they would reconsider this unjust decision for the sake of the athletes.\" CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Iraqi government interference in Olympic committee attributed to \"jealousy\"\nInternational Olympic Committee accuses Iraqi government of interference in sports .\nIraqi government suspended nation's Olympic Committee in May .\nSeven Iraqi athletes were to compete in Beijing, China ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA's Kepler space telescope has already made a discovery, and its science operations aren't even officially under way yet. The planet used in the test is a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter that orbits a star called HAT P-7. NASA scientists who put the telescope through a 10-day test after its March 6 launch said this week that Kepler is working well. Its ability to detect minute changes in light has enabled scientists to determine that a planet orbiting a distant star has an atmosphere, shows only one side to its sun and is so hot it glows. Kepler's ability to take measurements that precise at such a great distance \"proves we can find Earth-size planets,\" William Borucki, Kepler's principal science investigator told reporters at a recent briefing. The powerful scope is looking at thousands of stars in its vision field in the Milky Way on a 3\u00bd-year mission to find planets the size of Earth and to determine how common these planets are. The planet used in the test, a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter, orbits a star called HAT P-7 in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun, according to NASA. It is called an exoplanet because it orbits a star outside the solar system. Kepler detected the planet's atmosphere, demonstrating the telescope's capabilities and giving astronomers what NASA says is \"only a taste of things to come.\" \"It learned that this planet is like 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is so hot. And it's 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit just on one side only. The other side would be closer to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, \" said Sara Seager, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Kepler science team member. \"This particular planet showed an unusual change in brightness,\" she said. \"As the planet is orbiting the star, it goes through phases just as the moon goes through phases as seen from Earth.\" \"Kepler learned something new about an old planet,\" she said. \"The new discovery was that planet is extremely hot, very, very hot. And it's very, very hot on one side, compared to the other.\" Borucki compared it to \"an element in your toaster or stove.\"","highlights":"Kepler orbiting observatory beginning mission to find planets the size of Earth .\nIt has found that a planet orbiting a distant star shows only one side to the star .\n\"Kepler learned something new about an old planet,\" says team member ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter whose absurdist and realistic works displayed a despair and defiance about the human condition, has died, according to British media reports. He was 78. The much-honored Harold Pinter received the French Legion d'honneur in 2007. Pinter's wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, confirmed his death. Pinter, who had been suffering from cancer, died on Christmas Eve, according to the reports. Fraser told the Guardian newspaper: \"He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten.\" Pinter was known for such plays as \"The Birthday Party\" (1957), \"The Homecoming\" (1964), \"No Man's Land\" (1974), \"Mountain Language\" (1988), and \"Celebration\" (2000). The works caught a linguistic rhythm -- the legendary \"Pinter pause\" -- and an air of social unease that resonated throughout the English-speaking world and in myriad translations. His movie credits, like his plays, span the decades and include \"The Quiller Memorandum\" (1965) and \"The French Lieutenant's Woman\" (1981). Pinter also wrote the screenplay for his 1978 play \"Betrayal,\" the story of a doomed love affair told backward, which was made into a 1983 film with Ben Kingsley, Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge. He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005. Pinter's later plays were more overtly political, with works such as \"One for the Road\" (1984) and \"The New World Order\" (1991) focusing on state torture. In commentaries, he became a blistering critic of the United States, writing in his Nobel lecture that the country \"quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.\" But Pinter could also be a man of great humor. In 2006, he recounted a story about a fall that had landed him in the hospital a year earlier. \"Two days later, I woke up to find that I'd been given the Nobel Prize in literature,\" he said. \"So life is really full of ups and downs, you see.\" Harold Pinter was born in London on October 10, 1930. He was the son of Jewish immigrants, his father a dressmaker, his mother \"a wonderful cook,\" he once recalled. In 1948 he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, then as now one of Great Britain's most renowned drama schools. But the RADA didn't take; Pinter hated the school and dropped out after two terms. He became an actor and turned to playwriting with his first work, \"The Room,\" in 1957. Later that year he wrote \"The Birthday Party,\" a \"comedy of menace,\" in the words of one critic, that helped make Pinter's reputation -- though, in an irony he could appreciate, after it closed in London due to scathing notices. Ensuing Pinter plays, including \"The Dumb Waiter\" (1957) and \"The Homecoming,\" made him Britain's most famous playwright, as influential to \"late 20th-century British theater [as] Tennessee Williams is to mid-century American stages,\" CNN.com's Porter Anderson wrote in 2006. \"What's generally meant as a 'Pinter play' in the purest sense usually revolves around one or more characters who are imposing on themselves a constricted, even deprived existence in order to hold off a presumed but uncertain threat,\" Anderson wrote. Pinter's plays featured sparse dialogue, often spiced with paranoia or simple befuddlement. In \"The Birthday Party,\" a boardinghouse resident is accosted by two malevolent visitors who insist it's his birthday; in \"The Homecoming\" -- which won the Tony Award for best play when it premiered on Broadway in 1967 -- a professor and his wife return to his working-class British family, where the wife becomes the center of attention. Pinter credited Samuel Beckett, among others, as an influence. (He starred in a production of Beckett's \"Krapp's Last Tape\" in 2006.) In turn, writers such as David Mamet and Sam Shepard followed Pinter's elliptical lead. \"One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness,\" Pinter once said. He was married first to the actress Vivien Merchant. Following a 1980 divorce, Pinter married writer-historian Lady Antonia Fraser.","highlights":"Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve, his wife tells British media .\nPinter, 78, had been suffering from cancer .\nHe won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iran may be holding a former FBI agent in a bid to exchange him for Iranians seized by U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007, a U.S. senator suggested Tuesday. Christine Levinson, wife of Robert Levinson, went to Tehran in 2007 to try to learn her husband's fate. Robert Levinson disappeared from Iran's Kish Island in March 2007. Iranian authorities have repeatedly said they don't have any information on him, but that is widely doubted in the United States. \"On several diplomatic occasions when Bob Levinson's name has been brought up to Iranian officials, the standard answer is, 'We don't know anything about that.' But the next thing out of the Iranian officials' mouths are to discuss the matter of the Iranians held by the Americans in Irbil, Iraq,\" Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, told reporters. \"You can draw your own conclusions.\" U.S. troops arrested five Iranians accused of being members of an elite Iranian military unit during a January 2007 raid in the Kurdish city of Irbil. They were accused of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq, but Iran said they were diplomats and accused the United States of violating international law by raiding a consulate. The United States said the men were taken at a liaison office that lacks diplomatic status. Two were released the next November. Nelson and Florida Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler, whose district includes Levinson's Coral Springs home, are trying to jump-start efforts to find the missing man. Wexler said Iranian authorities have not assisted the Levinsons, saying they have \"zero knowledge\" of his whereabouts and are stonewalling \"any effort to gain pertinent information.\" Levinson's wife, Christine, said her husband was working as a private investigator on a cigarette smuggling case when he disappeared. \"It's been extremely difficult for my family,\" she said. \"We hope to resolve this as soon as possible.\" Wexler and Nelson said they plan to introduce legislation in their respective houses calling on Iran to cooperate with the United States and come up with information about Levinson. Nelson said Iran could use Levinson's case as a show of good will toward the incoming Obama administration, which has said it wants to engage Iran after three decades without diplomatic relations. \"We hope that Iran will take this moment in time to show a change in the relationship with the United States by doing this humanitarian gesture for this family,\" he said. In a January 22 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wexler asked that the case be raised \"at the highest levels.\" Nelson raised Levinson's status during Clinton's confirmation hearing. Nelson said the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations has discussed Levinson's case with him under the \"fiction\" that he represents the people of Florida, not the U.S. government. But he said the Iranians have never acknowledged holding the former federal agent. Levinson had been working as a private investigator in Dubai and was last heard from on March 8, 2007. His family said he checked into a hotel on Kish Island and then checked out the next day to go back to the United States, but he never boarded his flight. Levinson family members have met with local Iranian officials and have traveled to Iran to retrace his steps. Christine Levinson also flew to the United Nations in September to ask questions about her husband, whom she says suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. The family has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to his safe return. The State Department and FBI have consistently denied Levinson was working for the government and have demanded Iran free Levinson -- if it is holding him. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the U.S. government has called on Iran to provide more information about the matter \"for some time.\" \"His family's extremely concerned, as you can understand, that no information has been forthcoming,\" Wood said. \"So, again, we call on the Iranians to provide whatever information they have on Mr. Levinson so that we can hopefully return this gentleman to his family.\"","highlights":"Robert Levinson disappeared almost two years ago from Iranian island .\nFlorida congressman, senator seek new attention from Obama administration .\nSenator says Iranians caught in Iraq always mentioned in conjunction with Levinson .\nIranians say they have \"zero knowledge\" of missing man's whereabouts ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chris Cornell has taken to Twitter like Tweety Bird took to making mischief. Chris Cornell's new solo album, \"Scream,\" was produced by Timbaland. He acknowledges it's an odd mix. Not to suggest he's using the popular social networking service to cause trouble. Hardly. The 44-year-old rock musician said he enjoys the open stream of chit-chat with his fans. \"It's actually created an environment where I can answer simple questions that someone's probably had forever,\" said Cornell. \"And I don't mind answering them. And I can actually have conversations with fans that are quick, but still more meaningful than the typical situations you're put into. I've really liked it.\" His more than 200,000 followers can revel in bite-size musings about life on the road (\"crowd was amazing last night\") or sweet tweets to his wife, Vicky (\"hi baby! i miss you!\"). Watch Cornell talk about his Twitter fascination \u00bb . The former front man of Soundgarden and Audioslave -- who is also known for singing the James Bond theme \"Casino Royale\" -- is the first to admit he's a fan of experimenting. His new solo album, \"Scream,\" has him meshing his rock vibe with dance-floor beats by the much sought-after producer Timbaland. The collaboration has left some people scratching their heads. Nine Inch Nails lead singer Trent Reznor took a swipe by twittering: \"You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell's record?\" Ouch. The album debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, but it took a substantial tumble the second week. But Cornell -- who said he's never met Reznor nor read or responded to his tweet -- was more than ready for criticism. \"You could kind of see it coming,\" he said. \"Some of it is a script that was written just by putting [me and Timbaland] together. And most of the negative responses fit that script perfectly: 'You can't put these two things together. We don't like it! We're not going to let you! So we're gonna say bad stuff.' \" For Cornell, working with Timbaland required him to \"rinse away everything that I knew about songwriting and recording.\" He said the biggest challenge was in having to relearn how to sing to a different rhythm, his raspy voice needing to match up with slick studio beats rather than sliding loosely around the live, loud accompaniment he's so used to. \"To me it seemed like an exciting thing to just go and do,\" he said. \"I think this is as good as any album I've ever made, and I listen to it probably more than any other record I've ever made.\" Cornell spoke to CNN about Timbaland, Twitter and throwing stuff out windows. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Some people have said that you've lost your musical identity in this album. Chris Cornell: I don't have one, really. I don't want to have one. If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving. CNN: So you would be happy to be experimental on your next album? Cornell: Absolutely. CNN: So what was it like working with Timbaland? Cornell: He didn't really have a particular direction in mind in terms of what he wanted me to do. He did what Timbaland does, and I did what I do. We just wrote songs, which is really the best thing that came out of it. ... It doesn't sound like anybody else's record. It doesn't sound like music I've ever heard. It defies genre, and yet it's very much a song-oriented album as well as an album-oriented album. ... The music never stops. I've performed it that way. It's almost like a movie soundtrack. CNN: How often do you Twitter? Cornell: It depends. When I'm out on the road, depending on the day, a couple times a day I'll spend a half-hour or an hour or so. I've found that doing vocal warm-ups and Twitter at the same time, cause I'm a multitasker. I can watch CNN -- because I do -- and then I can be online and do vocal warm-ups all at the same time. And only one of those things is way too boring. CNN: I read a couple of your tweets, and you said that you were having trouble sleeping. Is that an occupational hazard? Cornell: Probably, yeah. I think everybody has a hard time when you play ... [a] show and then you're finished at 1:30 in the morning. It takes me an hour and a half to be able to eat after that and then to be able to sleep after that. It's hard. CNN: What is the biggest misconception about being a rock musician? Cornell: My first answer would be that it's just all a big party. But then I've been in that situation or seen bands like that where it is all a big party. I think overall there's this idea that it isn't work, that it isn't something that you have to put pretty much 100 percent of your focus and your being into, that it's like winning the lottery in a sense. And I think if you're a musician that's had any kind of success there is a component to that. There's some aspect to timing and luck, there's talent obviously as well. But it's a lot of traveling. It's a lot of waiting, it's a lot of leaving one city going into another city only to see the venue you're going to play in when you arrive, playing for the audience and then leaving and going to the next city. CNN: Have you ever thrown a really big object through a window? Cornell: Yeah. I threw an amplifier, a small one, through a window only because me and a few friends of mine that were out on tour together just made the observation [that] our generation just doesn't do stuff like that. So we sort of did it as kind of a ritualistic, \"OK, let's participate in the real thing.\" There was a piece of duct tape on the amplifier that had my name on it. So I had to run down to the alley and take that tape off so that they wouldn't know who threw it off to the street.","highlights":"Chris Cornell's new album is \"Scream\"\nFormer Soundgarden, Audioslave front man working with producer Timbaland .\nRock star life takes work, Cornell says .\nSinger once threw amplifier out window to sample old-school rock star activity ."} -{"article":"URUMQI, China (CNN) -- Reports of alleged syringe stabbings in a restive western Chinese city are generating a bit of panic, but doctors say some people have incorrectly concluded they were attacked with needles. People's Armed Police units equipped with armored personnel carriers take positions in Urumqi on Saturday. \"In the patients we have seen in the last couple of days, there are many which we believe were not actually punctured with needles,\" Wang Hanbin, a Peoples' Liberation Army doctor examining people in Urumqi, told reporters on Saturday at a briefing. Wang said about 20 cases are being investigated closely and samples were being taken to laboratories in Beijing for more testing. But, he said, \"many of the patients we have seen were mainly influenced by psychological factors.\" Wang, a member of a six-person military medical panel reviewing the syringe-stabbing claims, attributes the false reports to widespread fear and lack of medical knowledge. \"Many of the patients did not actually see their attacker or the act of others attacking them with needles. Some patients who had needle puncture wounds experienced some discomfort in the area of the wound, and showed some symptoms, but couldn't give an accurate account of what they perceived to have been a needle attack.\" This is the latest crisis plaguing Xinjiang province and its capital city of Urumqi, where tensions have boiled over between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. The Han Chinese are the country's dominant ethnic group, and the Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority who consider Xinjiang their homeland. Ethnic Uyghurs have been blamed for the alleged syringe stabbings, and demonstrators clashed with police in Urumqi for two days this week over the issue. Protesters were demanding better police protection and a crackdown on the Uyghurs. The latest unrest left five people dead and 14 injured, according to Urumqi's deputy mayor, and the Communist party chief in the city has been dismissed from his job amid the crisis, according to state-run media reported. Watch report on unrest in Urumqi from CNN's John Vause \u00bb . The Urumqi Public Prosecutors Office on Saturday said four ethnic Uyghurs were arrested in connection with three syringe-wielding incidents. At the press conference held by military medical personnel, the doctors said puncture wounds could not be found \"in a large percentage of the patients.\" \"Some could have been bitten by insects such as mosquitoes, and in other cases there were moles, or skin pigmentation, and we couldn't find a needle puncture wound,\" said Wang, speaking at the news conference. \"Maybe they heard something from someone, then they discovered that they had a growth on their body. So, then they suspect that they may have been attacked with a needle and came to seek treatment. Some patients who came to seek treatment had some red marks or rash on their skin, but we didn't find any needle puncture wounds.\" Wang urged people not to panic and urged them to immediately seek medical treatment if they think they were stabbed. He also said people need to educate themselves about medical care. Rumors have abounded in Urumqi of recent syringe stabbers trying to spread AIDS and other diseases. But another doctor, Duan Qing, explained at the briefing that would be impossible for there to be any such cases of AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or syphilis because there is a lengthy incubation period. \"Even if there are cases of such illnesses, they are unrelated to incidents. This is basic medical knowledge,\" she said. The three incidents that led to the arrests occurred in late August. A man admitted stabbing a female shopper with a pin on August 28. Authorities said a man and woman on August 29 stole money from a taxi driver after threatening him with a syringe. And in the third incident, a man resisting arrest stabbed a police officer with a syringe on August 31.","highlights":"NEW: Many \"we believe were not actually punctured with needles,\" army doctor says .\nNEW: About 20 cases are being investigated closely, including testing, doctor says .\nFive killed in riots between predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese .\nCommunist Party chief for Urumqi dismissed after deadly unrest ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's energetic response to Monday's earthquake has been generally praised despite his comparison of the ordeal of survivors staying in emergency tents to a camping weekend. An elderly local resident bursts into tears during a visit by Silvio Berlusconi, wearing a fireman's helmet. Berlusconi has visited the town of L'Aquila, the epicenter of the 6.3-magnitude quake, every day this week, talking to survivors and pledging government help to rebuild houses. He scrapped a visit to Russia that was planned for this week. The PM has even been greeted with applause on occasions, according to CNN correspondent Paula Newton, who interviewed him on Wednesday. \"He was very tired when I saw him, you could tell he hadn't had much sleep,\" Newton said. \"In general he thrives on these events and politically it will probably give him a boost, if only temporarily.\" However, she added that his visit to a dormitory where students were buried under rubble had upset some of the parents and relatives. \"They were kept well back and he did not meet with them,\" she said. Watch Berlusconi talk about the disaster \u00bb (Italian version) \u00bb . \"One relative, in obvious anger, asked another 'why is he here?' and another replied \"he's taking care of elections, of course.\" And true to form Berlusconi has been unable to avoid putting his foot in it. During a visit to one tent village where thousands who had lost their houses were staying, Berlusconi told German television \"they should see it like a weekend of camping.\" The trademark gaffe sparked predictable outrage. \"He is a completely insensitive man who thinks wisecracks can solve every problem,\" Rina Gagliardi, a former senator of the Refoundation Communist Party, told Agence France-Presse. \"He can never be negative, but an earthquake disorients him because he can't blame the left for causing it, so his response is extreme optimism,\" she said. Berlusconi is of course renowned for such off-the-cuff remarks. In November he described Obama as \"handsome and suntanned.\" He was also forced to issue an apology to his wife, Veronica Lario, in 2007 after she read reports of him approaching several women at an awards dinner and declaring: \"If I wasn't married, I would marry you straight away.\" Lario received the apology after sending a letter criticizing her husband to a newspaper in which she said his behavior was \"unacceptable\" and \"damaging to my dignity.\" Despite the most recent criticism, Berlusconi has won praise from the media for his limelight-hogging visits to the region. People in the temporary camps also say they are being well looked after by the authorities although they are desperate to collect their own things from their homes. In his interview with CNN on Wednesday Berlusconi said every effort was being made to assess which houses were safe to enter. \"This is an aerial view of Onno, and you can see, unfortunately, how the town has been totally destroyed,\" the prime minister told CNN. \"Here, we can go into greater detail and concentrate on individual houses. This helps us to assess the damage right away and tells us how much it will cost to rebuild.\" The Italian government has said it will cost 1.3 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars) to repair or rebuild about 10,000 buildings damaged in the quake. \"We have the plans for reconstruction and intend to start immediately with the building projects,\" Berlusconi told CNN. \"We will build a new town near the capital, L'Aquila, and keep the possibility open for many families to stay, for the time being, in hotels along the coast, less than a hour away, in pleasant and comfortable circumstances.\" Berlusconi said the plan for the new town would involve low-rate mortgages. \"This is not an alternative to the reconstruction,\" he said Wednesday. \"These are additional houses.\"","highlights":"Italy PM's response to Monday's earthquake has been generally praised .\nBerlusconi has compared ordeal of survivors in tents to camping weekend .\nPM has visited town of L'Aquila every day this week, assessing damage ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Former Culture Club singer Boy George has been convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort. The judge told Boy George he faced jail. Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, said the frontman with the 1980s band beat him with a metal chain as he tried to flee his London flat after a naked photo shoot. A jury at a London court found on Friday that the case was proven against the 46-year-old musician -- tried under his real name of George O'Dowd. The singer declined to give evidence during the trial but the jury heard he told police he handcuffed Carlsen to his bed while he investigated alleged tampering with his computer. Carlsen told the court O'Dowd invented the story about computer tampering so he could punish him for not having sex at a previous meeting. He said: \"I think he couldn't handle the refusal -- me not having sex with him.\" O'Dowd looked grim as the verdict was delivered, according to the Press Association. The singer was bailed until sentencing on January 16. Judge David Radford warned him that he was likely to face jail. \"The fact that your bail is being continued does not imply that this will be dealt with by a non-custodial sentence. I don't want any false expectations created,\" he said.","highlights":"Boy George convicted by jury in London of falsely imprisoning male escort .\nNorwegian Audun Carlsen said star beat him with metal chain after photo shoot .\nSinger told police he handcuffed Carlsen while he investigated tampered computer ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Barack Obama was elected U.S. president he probably did not realize it would give him a chance to pick up tips on his backswing from the world's elite golfers. U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden make use of the White House putting green. Obama is the honorary chairman for the 2009 Presidents Cup which will be contested at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco this week where the top U.S. golfers take on the best players from around the world outside of Europe. As a golf enthusiast, and keen amateur player, the president will get the chance to pick the brains of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh on how to improve his game. But he is not the first to take to the greens while occupying the Oval Office with 15 of the last 18 U.S. presidents said to have played the sport while in power. Living Golf's gallery of presidential putters. \u00bb . Dwight Eisenhower is recognized as probably the most dedicated to the sport, and was often criticized by Democrats for spending too much time on the golf course. Eisenhower's solution? In 1954 he had a putting green installed at the White House a short stroll from the Oval Office to enable him to practice while at work which was regularly used by subsequent presidents and still exists to this day. The former five-star general was also a member at the Augusta National Golf Club where a overhanging tree on the 17th hole proved such an obstacle to the leader that it was dubbed the \"Eisenhower Tree.\" There is little doubt though that John F. Kennedy was the most talented presidential golfer, although he was reluctant to associate with the game. During his run for president in 1960, Kennedy did everything possible to keep his fellow Americans from discovering that he not only loved the game but was nearly as good as a club professional and was said to have had a beautiful natural swing. Throughout Eisenhower's two terms Kennedy had portrayed him as someone who cared more about lowering his handicap than improving the lives of ordinary Americans, so information about his passion for the links only really came out later. Lyndon Johnson is at the opposite end of the spectrum on the talent stakes and is reported to have taken up to 400 swings to get round an 18-hole course while Gerald Ford, who served as honorary chairman for the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, had a reputation for accidentally hitting the ball at spectators. In terms of sheer number of matches though even Eisenhower could not match Woodrow Wilson who was said to have played almost every day, apart from on Sundays, and even had golf balls painted red so he could play in the snow. Ronald Reagan was only an occasional player but Bill Clinton was renowned for an entourage featuring Secret Service agents, a police sniper, a man carrying U.S. nuclear codes, various aides and someone with a secure telephone so he could speak to world leaders on a typical round. George W. Bush still plays regularly with his father, and fellow former president, but Bush junior's contribution to golf will forever be immortalized in a short press briefing he gave from the course after being questioned on violence in the Middle East. \"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you.\" Bush said before he paused and told reporters: \"Now watch this drive!\" Obama therefore follows a healthy tradition of golfing presidents and he can relax safe in the knowledge that even if he cannot solve the world's problems while in the White House at least he can improve his short game.","highlights":"President Barack Obama is honorary chairman for the 2009 Presidents Cup .\nObama follows a tradition of recent U.S. presidents who are keen golfers .\nDwight Eisenhower had a putting green installed at the White House in 1954 .\nGeorge W. Bush and his father George H.W. are both enthusiastic golfers ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A B-2 stealth bomber crashed early Saturday morning local time in Guam, according to the Air Force. A B-2 stealth bomber taxis at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in a 2005 photo. Two pilots who were aboard during the crash, at Andersen Air Force Base, ejected from the bomber and were in good condition afterward, according to an Air Force statement. The pilots were from the 509th Bomb Wing. The military didn't release their names. Emergency responders were on the scene of the crash. A board of officers will investigate its cause. The crash is the second in three days of an Air Force craft. Watch smoke rise from crash site . An Air Force fighter pilot was killed Wednesday after two F-15C jets collided during a training exercise over the Gulf of Mexico. The planes were from the 33rd Fighter Wing, a combat-flying unit out of Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Air Force says 2 pilots in good condition after ejecting from plane .\nEmergency responders on scene of crash at Andersen Air Force Base .\nCrash is the second in three days involving an Air Force craft ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Members of the nation's oldest black sorority have accused the organization's president of using her sorority credit card for personal items and its board of directors of spending too much on her. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority President Barbara McKinzie denies the claims in the lawsuit against her. The suit alleges that the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's board of directors signed off on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on President Barbara McKinzie and commissioned an expensive wax figure of her. McKinzie denied the allegations, saying they are \"without merit.\" The most \"outlandish representation\" in the lawsuit, she said, is the allegation that the sorority spent $900,000 on a wax figure of her. Two wax figures -- one of McKinzie and one of the sorority's first president, the late Nellie Quander -- were purchased by the hostess chapters of the sorority's centennial convention last year, not the national AKA organization, for a total of $45,000, McKinzie said. The lawsuit says the sorority's board of directors approved the use of $900,000 for the wax likeness of McKinzie ahead of the centennial celebration. Edward W. Gray Jr., an attorney representing the plaintiffs, acknowledged that the sorority disputes the lawsuit's account of the statue's price tag. However, he said, \"we have no way of knowing what the actual number was. We hope that it was as little as they say.\" He added that $45,000 is still a large amount of money, although, \"certainly, it's a lot better than $900,000.\" He called the alleged conduct \"shocking and bordering on illegal.\" The wax figures are to appear in the National Great Blacks in Wax museum in Baltimore, Maryland, according to AKA. The museum said they are on a traveling exhibit. The lawsuit, filed last month in a Washington superior court, also accuses McKinzie of using her sorority credit card for \"designer clothing, lingerie, jewelry, gifts and other excessive and inappropriate expenses of a personal nature.\" It demands that the sorority fire McKinzie and the board of directors and that the alleged damages be repaid. The lawsuit says that by using her credit card for personal purchases, as well as for \"properly reimbursed expenditures,\" McKinzie amassed American Express points, which she then redeemed for a 46-inch television and gym equipment. It also says that the sorority's board of directors had agreed on compensation for McKinzie without the approval of the sorority's policy-making body. The compensation, it says, included a $4,000-a-month stipend that McKinzie is to receive for four years after she leaves office. The board of directors also voted to buy a $1 million life insurance policy for McKinzie, a purchase that was also not approved by the policy-making body, the lawsuit says. McKinzie denied the accusations. \"Allegations about personal use of AKA funds are false and unsupported by the organization's audited books,\" she said. The \"malicious allegations leveled against AKA by former leaders are based on mischaracterizations and fabrications not befitting our ideals of sisterhood, ethics and service.\" The lawsuit also blames McKinzie and Betty James, the executive director for the organization's corporate office, for financial decisions they made for the sorority. The sorority's claimed deductions on its federal tax returns in 2006 and 2007 were \"unreasonably large and inappropriate, thus exposing the sorority to potential IRS claims and obligations,\" the suit says. Furthermore, the sorority's policy-making body has not approved McKinzie's investment philosophy, which \"has caused the shifting of several million dollars of the sorority and foundation funds from cash and cash equivalents to stock and bond investments.\" McKinzie said in her statement that under her leadership, \"accounting and budgetary practices have been tightened, erasing past IRS liabilities and cost overruns.\" In addition to McKinzie, James and the sorority, the lawsuit names other members of the board of directors and the AKA Educational Advancement Foundation Inc. as defendants. AKA was founded in 1908 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alpha Kappa Alpha members say board OK'd $900,000 for wax figure of president .\nShe is accused of using sorority credit card for \"inappropriate expenses\"\nPresident of U.S.'s oldest black sorority denies \"malicious allegations\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican authorities have arrested a reputed senior member of a major Tijuana-based drug cartel after a shootout, U.S. authorities confirmed Sunday. Eduardo Arellano-Felix was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday. Eduardo Arellano-Felix was arrested at a Tijuana, Mexico, residence Saturday, said Special Agent Eileen Zeidler of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego, California. She said federal authorities received a tip on the whereabouts of Arellano-Felix and provided the information to Mexican authorities. No other details were immediately available. Arellano-Felix was one of the last wanted members of the powerful and brutal trafficking organization bearing his family name, authorities say. His brother, reputed Mexican drug lord Javier Arellano-Felix, was captured by U.S. authorities in August 2006 off the shore of southern Baja California. The brothers were on the top of the DEA's Most Wanted List, carrying rewards of $5 million dollars for their capture. Officials say seven brothers and four sisters of the Arellano-Felix family inherited the Tijuana cartel from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo in 1989 after his arrest for drug trafficking. Eduardo was the last remaining brother who had an active role in the cartel. Today, the notorious cartel is split into two factions -- one headed by Eduardo Garcia Simental and another headed by Eduardo Arellano-Felix's nephew, Fernando Sanchez Arellano. The two sides have engaged in brutal fighting, accounting for nearly all the violence in Tijuana, according to the DEA. More than 400 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Tijuana this year. While Eduardo Arellano-Felix was not the boss of the cartel, DEA officials said his nephew sought his advice on decisions. Zeidler said the arrest of Arellano-Felix was a significant step in potentially dismantling the cartel. \"You pull the foundation out of the house and the house is going to come down,\" she said. \"[Arellano-Felix] was the foundation.\"","highlights":"Eduardo Arellano-Felix was arrested at a Tijuana residence Saturday .\nHe was on the DEA's Most Wanted List .\nArrest could help dismantling the family's drug cartel, DEA agent says ."} -{"article":"Prague, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Fireworks and rock 'n' roll echoed across central Prague on Tuesday as thousands of marchers commemorated the 20th anniversary of the \"Velvet Revolution\" that toppled Communist rule. The peaceful 1989 uprising began with a student march to mark a 1939 clampdown on opposition in what was then Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. It drew 15,000 people -- students as well as teachers, professors and ordinary Czechs who had grown weary of state control. Ivan Pilip, one of the students who took part, said the march \"was very different\" from previous demonstrations he had joined. \"There was a different group of people,\" he said. \"We feel that people that participated in such events before had come, and they're ready to do something. And it was more and more visible every minute.\" The protest was held a week after the opening of the Berlin Wall, as pressure was building on the Communist governments of Eastern Europe. When the demonstrators tried to divert the march to central Prague's Wenceslas Square, they were attacked by police -- a response that led tens of thousands more people to join mass demonstrations that lasted another 10 days. \"My kids cannot understand today what was moving our minds and hearts that day 20 years ago,\" Pilip's wife, Lucie, said Tuesday. \"We watched television today to show them what we had come through these 20 years, and I think it's an enormous success.\" The protests led to talks between government officials and the Civic Forum, a group of dissidents led by playwright Vaclav Havel. The Communist Party ceded power in December, and Havel became president. \"Many of our citizens who took part in the democratic changes died already with a feeling that they contributed to something that meant a lot,\" Havel said Tuesday. \"In our ordinary, daily lives, we tend to forget our friends of that time -- our comrades, free-thinking individuals.\" The anniversary march was capped by a concert that featured dissident musicians of the day, along with American folk singer Joan Baez. Havel himself appeared onstage with a guitar, but told the crowd, \"Don't worry, the guitar doesn't mean I'm going to play today.\" Musicians, actors and other artists played major roles in the protests. Michael Kocab, now the Czech Republic government's human rights minister, was a rock singer who became the revolutionaries' key negotiator. \"In the beginning there was many times this idea, 'What am I doing here,'\" Kocab told CNN recently. \"I knew in the future I'd get used to it. And five or 10 days later, I forgot I was a musician and I submerged myself in political negotiations. And I liked it.\" The celebration was organized by Opona, a nonprofit group established to observe the milestone anniversary of the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. \"Our inspiration to do this was from our memories -- we still remember the times that preceded the events,\" said David Gaydecka, one of the organizers. \"We believe that the changes in those 20 years have been positive despite all those maladies which came along with the freedom.\" -- CNN's Phil Black and Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Czech students take to the streets to mark 20th anniversary of fall of communist rule .\nStudent clashes with police in 1989 triggered events that rid then-Czechoslovakia of totalitarianism .\nThe march in 1989 was in memory of the students who perished under the Nazis ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- State officials said Monday that they suspect a drug reaction or toxins killed 21 horses as they were prepared to compete in a Sunday polo match in Wellington, Florida. Blue tarps obstruct the view of horses that died at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Florida. State officials and local law enforcement also announced Monday that they are launching investigations into the deaths as scientists work to pinpoint what exactly killed the horses. Officials believe that the \"very rapid onset of sickness and death\" points to toxins or a drug reaction and also allows them to rule out other possibilities. \"At this time, there is no evidence that these horses were affected with an infectious or contagious disease, as there are no other horses affected at this time,\" according to Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services spokesman Terence McElroy. Officials are continuing to conduct tests, and Florida agriculture scientists are performing necropsies on the animals. \"We'll be testing blood and tissue to see what the common denominator was here: Was it something injected? Was it bad water? And so forth,\" McElroy said. John Walsh, the Lechuza Caracas polo club president, said he was told that there was no contagious virus airborne or disease and that the incident was an \"isolated\" one. Watch Walsh talk about the devastating deaths \u00bb . \"This was a mistake of a combination of something, and whether the mistake was at the barn, whether the mistake was at the feed company, whether the mistake was at the vitamin company,\" Scott Swerdlin of the Palm Beach Equine Clinic, who treated some of the horses, told CNN affiliate WPTV. \"We don't know, but we're going to find out.\" James Belden, a veterinarian at the Left Bank Equine Clinic who also treated some of the horses, told WPTV that he and others don't suspect foul play. \"I think this is an accident,\" he told WPTV. \"A terrible accident.\" McElroy said that despite the early indications, he does not want to jump to conclusions about what happened. \"Obviously, this is a tragic situation, and we are working hard to determine what happened,\" he said. \"But it would be irresponsible to speculate on what may have killed the horses. We will wait until the facts are in before making any specific comments on the case.\" Officials in the state Agriculture and Consumer Services Department will investigate the case with the help of the department's Division of Animal Industry, the department's Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies. The horses were part of the Venezuela-based Lechuza Caracas team and were being kept at the team's trailers on the grounds of the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Fifteen horses that seemed disoriented died before Sunday's match, said McElroy, and their bodies were sent to the state-run Kissimmee Diagnostic Laboratories near Orlando, Florida. Luis Escobar, a player on the opposing Team Blackwatch, was on the grounds when the horses began to fall ill. \"I thought it was something temporary, and I saw a veterinarian and thought maybe it was one or two horses, and the vet was going to give something to help them out, and it was going to be done,\" he said. \"But it wasn't.\" Two horses initially collapsed, and as veterinarians and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the polo club, said Sunday. Watch as vets search for clues \u00bb . Escobar said soon things got worse, and other horses started to get sick. Peter Rizzo, executive director of the United States Polo Association, was at the match and saw the horses drop. \"It was surreal,\" he said, calling the deaths \"unprecedented.\" \"It is a horrible tragedy,\" he said. Some of the 15 horses died immediately, but some lingered for about 45 minutes, Swerdlin said Sunday, according to a report in the Sun-Sentinel newspaper. The clinic is the International Polo Club's consulting veterinarian group, the newspaper said. Six of the 21 horses were kept overnight in the same trailer in Wellington, said McElroy, and died sometime between Sunday and Monday. Their bodies have not been taken to the Kissimmee lab. Escobar said he's never seen anything like the scenario that unfolded Sunday night. He says the players and trainers do \"everything possible\" to keep the horses in optimum condition, saying \"they are babied every single day, all day long.\" The U.S. Polo Association, the sport's governing body, is opening their own investigation. Celeste Kunz, chief examining veterinarian at the New York Racing Association and a 19-year veterinarian, said Monday that she suspected a tainted substance was injected into the horses. \"[It was] something that was administered for it to work in a short amount of time and have an animal succumb that quickly,\" Kunz said. \"My thought is that something was injected, because it would have to affect the central nervous system.\" Escobar, from his experience with the animals, agreed. \"When something like this happens, if there was disease or illness or virus, other horses would already be coming out,\" he said. \"Anything that would come whether it's something like this or a small stomachache, we see it, because we are there with them all the time.\" Anabolic steroids are not likely to have caused the deaths, either, Kunz said. \"It takes at least five days for [anabolic steroids] to really work, and the effects aren't real obvious at first,\" she said. \"Most of the time, [anabolic steroids] are used to build up their muscularity.\" Each team brings between 40 to 60 horses for matches. The ponies are continuously switched out throughout a match to keep them from overexerting themselves, O'Connor said. The horses were between 10 and 11 years old and were valued at about $100,000 each, club spokesman O'Connor said, according to the Sun-Sentinel. CNN's Kimberly Segal and John Zarrella contributed to this report.","highlights":"21 thoroughbred horses died at International Polo Club Palm Beach .\nOfficials say they have ruled out infectious or contagious disease .\nVeterinarians say a mistake was made; they don't suspect foul play .\nState and local officials are investigating ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Italians, a Dane, a German, a Frenchman and a Brit walk into a space station... or will, in 2013, if all goes according to European Space Agency plans. Europe's six new astronauts hope to join their American counterparts on the Internation Space Station. The six new astronauts named Wednesday were chosen from more than 8,400 candidates, and are the first new ESA astronauts since 1992, the space agency said in a statement. They include two military test pilots, one fighter pilot and one commercial pilot, plus an engineer and a physicist. \"This is a very important day for human spaceflight in Europe,\" said Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of Human Spaceflight at ESA. \"These young men and women are the next generation of European space explorers. They have a fantastic career ahead, which will put them right on top of one of the ultimate challenges of our time: going back to the Moon and beyond as part of the global exploration effort.\" Humans have not walked on the moon since 1972, just over three years after the first manned mission to Earth's nearest neighbor. The six will begin space training in Germany, with an eye to being ready for future missions to the International Space Station and beyond in four years. They are: Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, a fighter pilot with degrees in engineering and aeronautical sciences; Alexander Gerst, a German researcher with degrees in physics and earth science; Andreas Mogensen, a Danish engineer with the private space firm HE Space Operations; Luca Parmitano of Italy, an Air Force pilot with a degree in aeronautical sciences; Timothy Peake, an English test pilot with the British military; and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, an Air France pilot who previously worked as an engineer at the French space agency.","highlights":"2 Italians, a Dane, a German, a Frenchman and Briton make astronaut list .\nSix new astronauts named Wednesday chosen from 8,400 candidates .\nGroup will undergo four years of training in Germany ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Her powerful voice resonates through the music hall, delivering an unlikely message of hope. All eight Liyana band members met at the King George VI school for disabled children in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The Afro-fusion melody comes from an unlikely source -- the small, wheelchair-ridden body of Prudence Mabhena, a woman from Zimbabwe who has overcome her physical disabilities and the hurdles of daily life in her home country. \"Some people don't even get you and take you as a person,\" Mabhena said. \"And with us singing right now, we're not giving up -- we're pushing up.\" Mabhena is the lead singer of Liyana, a group of eight musicians who are all physically disabled and from Zimbabwe. Their message of hope has been drowned out in their home country, which is suffering from an economic collapse, a cholera outbreak, and a political power struggle that has erupted into violence. Watch the band performing \u00bb . Mabhena was born with arthrogryphosis, a muscle and joint disorder, and had to have parts of her arms and legs amputated as a result. She said her mother was told to kill her rather than have her face life as a physically disabled woman in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was once a center for disability rights after it gained independence in 1980, according to recent report on Public Radio International. It was one of the first countries to recognize the rights of the disabled, who are sometimes shunned by communities in rural Africa who fear they are touched by witchcraft. But the gains for the disabled in Zimbabwe have been erased by the country's current crisis, according to Dr. Raymond Lang of the London-based Cheshire Center for Conflict Recovery who spoke to PRI's Lonny Shavelson. Mabhena said the group is apprehensive about returning to Zimbabwe after its U.S. tour, which wrapped up this month. But none of the members of Liyana dwell on the despair. \"'Never give up' -- it's one of our biggest and strongest mottos,\" said singer Tapiwa Nyenger, explaining one of the band's song titles. \"We have the capability to go on stage and at the end of the day make people smile. It's a good feeling.\" All eight band members, who are between the ages of 17 and 23, met at the King George VI school for disabled children in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The band describes their music as a fusion between \"myriad geographic, cultural, and musical genres including gospel, reggae, and traditional Zimbabwean Shona music.\" Liyana means \"rain\" -- a Shona term for good luck. \"Music makes you think of something positive,\" Nyenger said. \"For me, music is rehabilitation.\" Mabhena has said her voice is a gift from god. They had long dreamed of performing in the United States, and their multi-city tour included more than 20 performances in California and the New York metro area, including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. \"We have been received in an overwhelming, heart-filling way,\" Nyenger said. \"Everywhere we go, every place we go, we [see] new things, we meet new people, we learn new stuff.\" The band's U.S. tour coincided with President Barack Obama's inauguration, which has also been a source of inspiration for a new song, \"Obama.\" \"When we heard Obama was going to be the American president, the first black American president, we were so excited,\" Mabhena said. \"Through that joy that we had, there came a song.\" Liyana is also the subject of a new documentary, iTemba -- My Hope -- which is scheduled to be released worldwide later this year. The band's singers perform in seven languages -- Shona, Ndebele, English, Dutch, German, Hebrew, and Spanish -- allowing them to reach a wider audience. \"We want to leave a message to everyone in the world that no matter what circumstance you are in, you can make it,\" singer Marvelous Meulo said.","highlights":"Liyana are a group of eight physically disabled musicians from Zimbabwe .\nTheir multi-city tour of the U.S. has included more than 20 performances .\nThe message of their songs is you can make it, whatever the circumstances .\nTheir message of hope has been drowned out in Zimbabwe, which is in crisis ."} -{"article":"(Health.com) -- An analysis of the sickest swine flu patients in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand suggests that relatively healthy adolescents and young adults are among the most likely to get very sick after an H1N1 infection, a pattern similar to that seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic. The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, Dr. Neil Schachter said. Almost all critically ill patients in the studies were sick for only a few days before rapidly progressing to more severe symptoms and respiratory failure, which required treatment with a breathing machine, according to three studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent, depending on the country. The findings may help shine some light on what the 2009 H1N1 flu season may bring, and who may be hit the hardest by the swine flu during the next few months. \"These studies are telling us that young people are at risk for bad complications of H1N1 and under usual circumstances, [seasonal] flu does not cause acute respiratory failure in younger people,\" says Dr. Neil Schachter, the medical director of the respiratory care department at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York City, and the author of The Good Doctor's Guide to Colds and Flu. The analysis of cases in Australia and New Zealand looked at people who developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (a condition in which the lungs fill with fluid) and were put on a life-support system known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This artificial heart and lung machine system, which puts oxygen into the blood and then carries this blood to the body tissues, is considered risky and expensive; as a result, it is not readily available in every hospital. The mortality rate was 21 percent for these patients, although it may have been higher without this treatment, the authors say. Health.com: 8 ways swine flu is changing society . \"These studies provide important signals about what clinicians and hospitals may confront in the coming months,\" Dr. Douglas B. White, and Dr. Derek C. Angus, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, write in an editorial accompanying the new studies. In young, healthy patients, H1N1 can quickly cause respiratory failure that can't necessarily be reversed with mechanical ventilation, although such patients are not currently a priority group for H1N1 vaccination, they note. In the Canadian study, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the patients had lung disease, were obese, or had high blood pressure, a history of smoking, or diabetes. Overall, 14.3 percent of 168 critically ill people with confirmed or suspected H1N1 died within 28 days. The mortality rate in the Mexican study was strikingly higher. In Mexico City, where the H1N1 pandemic was first reported, 41.4 percent of 58 critically ill people died within 60 days of developing the flu. Health.com: 10 best big cities for people with asthma . Those people who died from H1N1 got sicker earlier in the course of their illness, had extremely low levels of oxygen in their blood, and had multiple organ failure. Their average age was 44 years old, and 54 of 58 patients needed mechanical ventilation. Other signs of more severe H1N1 included fever and severe trouble breathing. Health.com: 10 ways you put yourself at risk for swine flu (without realizing it!) In the Canadian study (in which the average age was 21.4), the critically ill tended to be hospitalized within four days of developing flu symptoms, and there was about a one-day lapse between hospital admission to intensive care unit (ICU) admission. As in the Mexico City study, younger patients with low blood oxygen and multisystem organ failure were hardest hit. What's more, the critically ill tended to require mechanical ventilation and rescue therapies to aid in breathing. Health.com: 8 causes of chronic cough . In both countries, the H1N1 outbreak lasted about three months. \"It is not clear of hospitals' need to invest in this ECMO technology because this has not proven very successful in other respiratory illnesses,\" says Schachter. \"We do know that treating H1N1 with antivirals such as Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) did help improve mortality.\" The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, which is safe, he says. \"The technology for making swine flu vaccine is no different than that used to make the regular flu vaccine, so in principle, there should be no differences in terms of safety,\" he explains. \"Recent surveys have shown that Americans are iffy about whether they will let their children receive this novel vaccine.\" Dr. James B. McAuley, the director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago, Illinois, notes that the studies focused on the sickest of the sick patients. Health.com: 7 surprising triggers of lung trouble . \"The mortality rate can be high for a small subset of people, but the overall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003,\" he says. \"This is a serious flu and there is mortality, but it is about the same as with the seasonal flu -- maybe a little worse.\" As to why younger people seem to be hit hardest, the current school of thought is that perhaps a similar virus circulated 50 or 60 years ago, so older people could have immunity to H1N1. McAuley's advice? \"Definitely get the vaccine,\" he says. (He says his own children have already received the H1N1 vaccination.) The editorialists write that the burden is on the public health system to heed the warnings in the new studies and prepare for the coming flu season: \"Any deaths from 2009 influenza A(H1N1) will be regrettable, but those that result from insufficient planning and inadequate preparation will be especially tragic.\" Such planning should include widespread availability of antivirals, antibiotics, and mechanical ventilation systems. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"In sickest H1N1 patients, mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent .\nOverall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than SARS, doctor says .\nOlder people could have immunity to H1N1 because of virus 50 to 60 years ago .\nDoctor: \"Definitely get the vaccine\""} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Passengers on Monday vented their fury at Eurostar management as train services between England and France were canceled for a third day, leaving thousands stranded. The cross-Channel operator said a partial train service would resume Tuesday but that was little comfort to many. \"It's shameful, they gave you 36,000 incorrect pieces of information to get us to leave,\" one passenger named Catherine told Agence France-Presse. \"Each time you speak to someone from Eurostar, they tell you something different.\" Catherine was one of roughly 75,000 passengers stranded on either side of the English Channel on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. \"We have to do everything ourselves, we have to pay for everything and hope we will be reimbursed, but some could not get the money together,\" 27-year-old Deborah told AFP. Tell us about wintry weather near you . Government officials in both France and the United Kingdom also criticized Eurostar. British transport minister Sadiq Khan called the experience terrible for thousands of passengers. \"I am angry that passengers have still not been told what is going on and I have told Eurostar this morning that they must tell the public immediately what their plans are,\" Khan said. \"This has been a terrible experience for thousands of passengers, both those stranded on the trains and at the stations.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the disruptions \"unacceptable.\" There was some good news though for stranded passengers, as Eurostar said they would resume a partial service Tuesday. \"We're planning on running at two-thirds our normal service tomorrow and we'll take it from there,\" a Eurostar spokesman told CNN. Eurostar runs the high-speed rail service directly linking London to Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. A later statement from Eurostar said tests on winter weather devices on trains had been successful and that if further trials went well Monday the operator hoped to have 26,000 seats available. However, Nicolas Petrovic, Eurostar chief operation officer said a full service would not resume until after Christmas, according to AFP. Eurostar rail services remained suspended for a third day on Monday as the operator worked to fix a fault that caused a series of breakdowns blamed on winter weather. Following a series of test runs on Sunday, the company said work was under way to \"enhance the snow screens and snow shields in the power cars of the trains.\" \"We now understand the cause of the disruption over the weekend and have identified the modifications that are required. As we suspected, the acute weather conditions in northern France have caused the disruption,\" Eurostar said. \"We sincerely regret having to take this decision and we understand how frustrated and disappointed travelers will be, particularly those who have been waiting to travel for the last two days,\" Eurostar said. Five trains with about 2,000 passengers stopped running Friday night inside the tunnel. A sixth train broke down Saturday in Kent, southern England, with about 700 people aboard. \"We were prisoners in this train for like 18 hours,\" one passenger told CNN. The trains that broke down in the tunnel malfunctioned because the air inside was warmer than that outside the tunnel entrance in France, Eurostar spokeswoman Amelle Mouhaddib said. \"It's a bit like taking a bottle of beer out of the fridge into a warm room -- within minutes it's covered in condensation,\" said Eurostar CEO Richard Brown. \"We think that was the principle cause of the electrical failures on the trains.\" Brown called the number of breakdowns \"completely unprecedented.\" Passengers affected by the breakdowns are being offered a full refund, another return ticket and \u00a3150 in compensation. The company is not taking any new bookings until after Christmas. The Channel Tunnel is two tunnels separated by a third and smaller service tunnel, so the trains that remained stuck inside did not mean the entire tunnel was blocked. It is 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) long, 38 kilometers (23 miles) of which are underwater. CNN's Paula Newton, Melissa Gray and Phil Han contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers angry as train services between England and France canceled for third day .\nThousands stranded in England and France after services under English Channel suspended since breakdowns Friday .\nCompany hopes to resume two-thirds service Tuesday .\nWork under way to \"enhance snow screens, snow shields in power cars\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"The LHC is back,\" the European Organization for Nuclear Research announced triumphantly Friday, as the world's largest particle accelerator resumed operation more than a year after an electrical failure shut it down. Restarting the Large Hadron Collider -- the $10 billion research tool's full name -- has been \"a herculean effort,\" CERN's director for accelerators, Steve Myers, said in a statement announcing the success. Update: First collisions at the LHC on Monday . Experiments at the LHC may help answer fundamental questions such as why Albert Einstein's theory of relativity -- which describes the world on a large scale -- doesn't jibe with quantum mechanics, which deals with matter far too small to see. Physicists established a circulating proton beam in the LHC's 17-mile tunnel at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) Friday, CERN said, a critical step towards getting results from the accelerator. \"It's great to see beam circulating in the LHC again,\" said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. \"We've still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we're well on the way.\" Located underground on the border of Switzerland and France, the LHC has been inching towards operation since the summer. It reached its operating temperature -- 271 degrees below zero Celsius -- on October 8 and particles were injected on October 23. Now that a beam is circulating, the next step is low-energy collisions, which should begin in about a week, CERN said. High-energy collisions will follow next year. The collider has been dogged by problems. It made headlines early this month when a bird apparently dropped a \"bit of baguette\" into the accelerator, making the machine shut down. The incident was similar in effect to a standard power cut, said spokeswoman Katie Yurkewicz. Had the machine been going, there would have been no damage, but beams would have been stopped until the machine could be cooled back down to operating temperatures, she said. The collider achieved its first full-circle beam last year on September 10 amid much celebration. But just nine days later, the operation was set back when one of the 25,000 joints that connect magnets in the LHC came loose and the resulting current melted or burned some important components of the machine, Myers said. The faulty joint has a cross-section of a mere two-thirds of an inch by two-thirds of an inch. \"There was certainly frustration and almost sorrow when we had the accident,\" he said. Now, \"people are feeling a lot better because we know we've done so much work in the last year.\" Mark Wise, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, said he's just as excited about the results that will come out of the LHC as he was last year and views the September 2008 accident as a delay rather than a devastating event. Wise noted that Tevatron, the collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, has also had its share of failures but is generally considered to work just fine. \"It's a horribly complicated piece of equipment, it's not like there's not going to be problems along the way,\" he said. \"They will surmount those problems.\" The LHC will probably be in operation more than 20 years, Myers said. But it won't be that long before scientists could potentially discover new properties of nature. The as-yet theoretical Higgs boson, also called \"the God particle\" in popular parlance, could emerge within two or three years, Myers said. Evidence of supersymmetry -- the idea that every particle has a \"super partner\" with similar properties in a quantum dimension (according to some physics theories, there are hidden dimensions in the universe) -- could crop up as early as 2010. For some theoretical physicists such as Wise, finding the Higgs boson and verifying every prediction of the Standard Model of physics would be the worst outcome. He wants the LHC to deliver surprises, even if that means no Higgs. \"When push comes to shove, the name of the game is 'what is nature,' and we're not going to know until our experimental colleagues tell us,\" Wise said. ATLAS and CMS are the general-purpose experiments designed to find the Higgs boson and other rare particles that have never been detected before. ALICE, another experiment, will explore the matter that existed some 10 microseconds after the Big Bang, said John Harris, professor of physics at Yale University and national coordinator of ALICE-USA. At that time, there was a \"hot soup\" of particles called quarks and gluons at a temperature of around 2 trillion degrees above absolute zero, he said. Although they have never been directly seen, these particles are theoretically the building blocks of the bigger particles -- protons, neutrons and electrons -- that form the universe as we know it. CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this report.","highlights":"LHC restarted more than a year after being shut down by electrical fault .\nThe full scientific program for the LHC wil probably last more than 20 years .\nThe LHC will look for the Higgs boson, quarks, gluons and other small particles .\nRestarting $10B research tool described as \"herculean effort\""} -{"article":"Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court convicted 11 Islamic militants Monday of membership in a terrorist group, but acquitted them of a \"specific\" conspiracy to carry out an attack on Barcelona's metro subway system, as prosecutors alleged. The court instead said there was a more general decision by the group, linked to al Qaeda, to use explosives against Barcelona's metro, but that a specific date and place had not been determined, nor had a sufficient amount of explosives been assembled, according to a copy of the sentence viewed by CNN. The judges ruled the alleged Barcelona plot had \"not advanced sufficiently\" to constitute a crime of conspiracy under Spanish law. The alleged plot in January 2008 had raised alarm bells in Europe because Spanish authorities said there were to be a series of attacks, starting with suicide bombings on the Barcelona metro, and then other attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and Great Britain, if successive demands from a Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda were not met. The trial against 10 Pakistani men and an Indian national was held last month. All proclaimed their innocence and many refused to answer prosecutors questions. The three-judge panel at the National Court ruled on Monday that all 11 belonged to a terrorist group. Two of the 11 also were convicted of possession of explosives, but nine others were acquitted on that charge. The 11 face prison terms of eight to 14 years. But Jose Maria Fuster-Fabra, a private prosecutor representing victims in the case, told CNN the sentence sets a precedent in Spain because the 11 defendants were convicted for terrorist group membership almost solely on the basis of a key police informant, known as F1 to protect his identity. F1 testified he was selected by the group's leader to be a suicide bomber, and that he quickly made a secretive call from a bathroom at a Barcelona mosque to warn a friend in France about an impending terrorist attack. Hours later, police swooped to make arrests in January 2008 in Barcelona. The protected witness denied on the stand that he worked for French or any other secret service. Defense lawyer Jacobo Teijelo, on the team representing all 11 defendants, said the sentence lacked judicial merit and he vowed to appeal to Spain's Supreme Court. About 30 members of Barcelona's large Pakistani community watched the trial almost daily in a bulletproof basement courtroom at the high-security National Court in central Madrid. A community leader told CNN the defendants were innocent and that the Pakistani community in Barcelona was hardworking and law-abiding. More than 300 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in Spain since the Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 on March 11, 2004, Spain's interior minister has said.","highlights":"Court convicts 11 Islamic militants of belonging to terrorist group, but acquits them of conspiring to attack Barcelona's metro .\nJudges ruled alleged Barcelona plot not advanced to constitute crime of conspiracy .\nAlleged plot in January 2008 raised alarm bells with Spanish authorities fearing series of attacks across Europe ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thanks to dedicated people like Bob and Katherine Rude, many homeless animals in Maryland will have a warm home this winter. Bob and Katherine Rude run an animal shelter out of their home in Harwood, Maryland. The Maryland couple currently cares for 116 cats and six dogs at Rude Ranch Animal Rescue, which they run out of their home in Harwood. \"We take in a lot of abused and neglected animals; animals that for whatever reason find themselves down on their luck,\" Katherine said. It all started a decade ago when the couple found a group of cats in an alley behind a restaurant. They began working with other organizations to help place the cats, but quickly realized that they could do more. See how 100 cats live in one house \u00bb . \"The more we got involved, and the more we found out about the world of animal rescue, the more we found out there was a lot more need. ...We felt we could fill a void,\" Katherine said. A few years later, they bought a ranch house in Harwood and converted it into a shelter. Eventually, Bob and Katherine left their government jobs to work at the shelter full time. They now work seven days a week, morning through night, caring for their cats and dogs. \"Now we're doing adoptions, we're doing search and rescue, we're helping people out with spay and neuters, and we're helping out other animal controls with animals that they can't place, but think deserve a shot at a life,\" Katherine said. The Rudes originally planned on keeping the shelter on one floor, and living in the rest of the house. But they quickly found that many of the cats required full-time care, so they expanded the shelter throughout their home. \"We still have a bedroom that's sort of ours, but we share it with a bunch of special-needs animals. We have anywhere from two or three dogs and 10 to 12 cats that share a bed with us,\" Bob says. The extra space has allowed the Rudes to take in cats that most shelters cannot. Cats that require special attention or medical care -- those that have been abused or are suffering from feline immunodeficiency virus, for example -- all have a place at the ranch. Katherine says this was one reason they started their own shelter. \"It was for ... the ones that maybe don't have an alternative, don't have somewhere else to go. We figured they had as much of a chance at a life as someone else,\" she said. Working with the animals is incredibly rewarding, Bob says, but expanding the shelter has also increased the number of mouths to feed. \"For the evening meal, we go through about 25 cans of cat food. For the whole day, we go through about 40-50. ...We go through about 100 pounds of dry food a week for the cats, [and] 10,000 pounds of cat litter a year,\" Bob said. Even buying in bulk hasn't helped the Rudes escape the financial woes that have begun to plague most business owners. Katherine says that so far, they have been able to support themselves but are concerned about rising costs and falling donations. At the same time, demand for the Rudes' help is increasing. Higher costs of food and supplies, as well as the foreclosure crisis, have affected people's ability to care for their pets, Katherine says. \"[Pet] adoptions have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth right now, but people are calling more and more to turn animals in,\" Bob said. And as more people turn to them to care for their pets, the Rudes have no plans to change their tune. Since 1997, they have helped rescue or place more than 3,000 cats. Katherine estimates that they have helped make 2,500 to 2,700 adoptions to families or individuals. \"They're getting a home, they're going to have individual people doting on them, and that's what we want for all of the residents here,\" Katherine says.","highlights":"Maryland couple operates Rude Ranch Animal Rescue out of their home .\nBob and Katherine Rude currently care for 116 cats and six dogs .\nThe pair is concerned about rising costs, falling donations and more pets in need ."} -{"article":"Researchers may be getting closer to an effective way of preventing age-related macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of vision loss among older Americans. A new study found that vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid may help prevent age-related macular degeneration. A new study finds that women who took a combination of B6 and B12 vitamins along with a folic acid supplement had lower risks of developing age-related macular degeneration. The women who got the supplements, compared with those taking a placebo, had a 34 percent lower risk of developing any form of AMD, and a 41 percent lower risk of more severe forms of AMD. Epidemiologist and study author William G. Christen, Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, expects that if these findings are successfully replicated in future studies, \"the combination of these vitamins might become the first prevention method of early stages of age-related macular degeneration other than avoiding cigarette smoking.\" Christen also noted that although the study was conducted among women age 40 and older, there is no particular reason to believe the same results would not hold true in a similar group of men. Christen and his colleagues examined the role of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid in AMD partly because previous studies have shown these vitamins are known to lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid found in the blood that when elevated has been associated with higher risks of AMD. The 5,442 women who participated in the randomized, double-blind clinical trial already had heart disease or at least three risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The majority of them did not have AMD at the start of the study, which lasted more than 7 years. Christen explains that the underlying mechanism of AMD likely involves the vascular system, and researchers widely believe that cardiovascular disease and AMD share common risk factors. Age-related macular degeneration is a vision disease common among people older than 60, involving the deterioration of tissues in the macula, the central part of the retina. The condition impedes the performance of critical everyday functions such as reading and driving because it affects the ability to see items that a person is looking at directly, as opposed to items even a few degrees off to either side of the direct line of vision. \"If you affect that central part of your vision, no one goes blind from it but it really interferes with your quality of life,\" explains Dr. Roy Rubinfeld, ophthalmologist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. There are two types of macular degeneration: wet and dry. Wet forms of AMD are caused by abnormal blood vessels growing beneath the macula, which can rupture and bleed. The dry form is generally caused by cells in the macula degenerating over time and thus losing function. While some treatments do exist for the wet form of the disease (including laser surgery, photodynamic therapy and injections into the eye), there is currently not much in the way of treatments for the more common dry form. When asked if the study results mean that people at high risk for AMD should begin taking a vitamin supplement that provides vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid, retina specialist Dr. Robert Frank of the American Academy of Ophthalmology suggests probably not yet. \"If you do anything, I would take a supplement of antioxidant vitamins containing high doses of vitamins A, E, C and zinc,\" suggests Frank, who has no financial interest in the vitamin supplement industry. These antioxidant vitamins were found to prevent the progression of age-related macular degeneration in the 10-year Age-Related Eye Disease Study conducted by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health. However, Frank does say that while it still remains to be seen whether people currently taking a multivitamin containing the B vitamins and folic acid will be able to prevent early AMD from developing -- answers which will probably not be found for several years, after a large-scale clinical trial is begun -- there is little risk for most people in taking a daily multivitamin.","highlights":"Study: B vitamins may help prevent age-related macular degeneration .\nWomen taking B6, B12, folic acid had 34 percent lower risk of getting AMD .\nStudy findings need to be replicated .\nOnly prevention now is avoiding smoking; antioxidant vitamins prevent progression ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection was under way Thursday in the case of a man accused of sexually assaulting a toddler and capturing it on videotape years ago, a crime that triggered a nationwide manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007. Chester Arthur Stiles faces life imprisonment if convicted of videtaping a sexual assault on a child. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces 22 felony counts in connection with the videotape, including lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor and attempted sexual assault with a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Thursday is the third day of jury selection, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some 200 potential jurors were called, according to CNN affiliate KVBC. As of Thursday morning, only seven jurors had passed on to the next stage of selection, Sommermeyer said. Prosecutors hope to seat 15 jurors eventually, Sommermeyer told CNN, meaning they'll want a pool of about 35 to pick from in the final stage. Picking a jury in the case is challenging, according to KVBC, not only because of the media attention the case has drawn, but because of the crimes Stiles is accused of. A questionnaire given to potential jurors has one question addressing the videotape: \"As a juror, despite the graphic nature of the videotape, can you promise to remain fair and impartial and objectively evaluate all evidence for returning a verdict?\" \"One, you let them know what the case involves and they've heard it on the news, it's a little difficult to get over any preconceived notions that they had about the case,\" defense attorney Stacey Roundtree told KVBC. \"However, we do have faith in this community that they want to do the right thing,\" she said. \"Most of the jury trials I've had, the jurors go out of their way to make the right decision. They go out of their way to follow the judge's rules, and we're confident we can have that happen in this case.\" The tape was given to authorities in September 2007 by a man who said he had found it in the desert five months before. On it, police found images of the small girl being sexually assaulted. After attempting unsuccessfully to find out the girl's identity, authorities turned to the media for help and released a picture of the girl, and the case drew nationwide attention. She was found in October 2007. An attorney for her mother said she was 7 years old and safe and healthy. The rape occurred before the girl's third birthday while she was in the care of a baby sitter her mother had hired, he said. The mother did not know the girl had been victimized. After the girl was found, authorities asked CNN and other news organizations to stop showing her picture. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was arrested in a traffic stop in October 2007. Police said at the time they pulled Stiles' car over because it had no license plate and became suspicious when the driver displayed an expired California license with a photo that did not match his appearance. \"He finally told us, 'Hey, I'm Chester Stiles,'\" said Henderson, Nevada, police Officer Mike Dye. \"'I'm the guy you're looking for.\" Stiles told police he was \"sick of running,\" Dye said. The mother of the girl shown on the tape, meanwhile, went on \"The Dr. Phil Show\" after Stiles' arrest, saying that while she was \"relieved,\" it would have been \"better if they found him dead.\" She said her daughter remembers nothing about the alleged assault. \"Nothing that I have seen in my career comes close to what this girl has gone through,\" Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff Tony DeMeo said during the manhunt for Stiles. The man who turned the tape over to authorities, Darrin Tuck, faced criminal charges because of the delay in turning it over, during which authorities alleged he showed it to others. A judge gave Tuck a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation in April after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He initially had faced a felony count of possession of child pornography.","highlights":"Chester Arthur Stiles faces 22 felony counts in connection with sex tape .\nTape showed girl younger than 3 being sexually assaulted .\nTape surfaced years after alleged assault .\nPotential jurors know about case, have strong feelings about it ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Wednesday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says The Huffington Post has audio of an executive talking about the \"awards.\" (CNN) -- And timing is everything when it comes to cashing in during the bailout. The soon-to-be-combined Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney will be doling out bonuses to its financial advisers, even as both firms take $60 billion of your bailout dollars. And it gets better. The bonuses, which could total $3 billion, will be based on the companies' 2008 numbers, which, while bad, will almost certainly be better than this year. How do we all know this? Someone gave The Huffington Post Web site audio from a conference call where, by the way, a Morgan Stanley executive told them not to use the \"b\" word. Conference audio: \"There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus. It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration.\" Sounds like a bonus to us. The dictionary describes a bonus as a sum of money granted to an employee on top of their regular pay, usually in appreciation for work done, length of service, or accumulated favors. Semantics aside, the companies have good reason to want to hide the truth. But in the middle of a bailout, we have good reason to call this bonus -- bogus. Jim Wiggins, spokesman for Morgan Stanley, would not confirm the authenticity of the tape, but he did defend their practice of so-called retention programs. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Brown: Banks reportedly giving \"retention awards\" to employees .\nShe says awards are bonuses, given by firms accepting bailout money .\nBrown says that's wrong, to the tune of up to $3 billion in bonuses ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Lonely Planet author says he plagiarized or made up portions of the popular travel guidebooks and dealt drugs to supplement poor pay, an Australian newspaper reported Sunday. Lonely Planet publishes more than 500 titles and employs 300 authors, according to its Web site. Thomas Kohnstamm, who has written a book on his misadventures, also said he didn't travel to Colombia to write the guidebook on the country because \"they didn't pay me enough,\" The Daily Telegraph reported. \"I wrote the book in San Francisco [California],\" he is quoted as saying in the Telegraph. \"I got the information from a chick I was dating -- an intern in the Colombian Consulate.\" The 32-year-old Seattle, Washington, native also claims he accepted free travel, which is a violation of the company's policy. Kohnstamm has worked on more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, including its titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Chile and South America. An e-mail from Lonely Planet said Kohnstamm's book were being reviewed, the newspaper reported. \"If we find that the content has been compromised, we'll take urgent steps to fix it. Once we've got things right for travelers as quickly as we can, we'll look at what we do and how we do it to ensure as best we can that this type of thing never happens again,\" the e-mail said, according to the newspaper. The book's publisher, Piers Pickard, told the paper that an \"urgent\" review of Kohnstamm's books did not reveal any inaccuracies. The Lonely Planet series publishes 500 titles, updated every two to four years, and employs 300 authors, according to the company's Web site. It sells more than 6 million guides a year, the newspaper reported. Kohnstamm's book, \"Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics and Professional Hedonism,\" is set for release next week. On his MySpace page, Kohnstamm says the book \"is about the decision to abandon Manhattan to try to make it as a travel writer and the good, the bad and the really surreal that I experienced on the road.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Author tells paper he got data for Colombia guidebook \"from a chick I was dating\"\nAuthor's works include guides on Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, paper reports .\nLonely Planet tells paper it wants to ensure \"this type of thing never happens again\"\n\"Urgent\" review of author's books reveals no inaccuracies, publisher tells paper ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea is to blow up a key part of its controversial Yongbyon nuclear reactor on Friday. Hyun Hak-Bong (right), North Korea's deputy negotiator to six-party talks, crosses the border into South Korea on June 5. The destruction of the plant's cooling tower is part of an agreement with the United States aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula in exchange for loosening some restrictions on the highly secretive Communist country. The North Korean government has invited news organizations, including CNN, to witness the event. Earlier this year, Pyongyang agreed to disable its nuclear reactor and provide a full accounting of its plutonium stockpile, \"acknowledge\" concerns about its proliferation activities and its uranium enrichment activity, and agree to continue cooperation with a verification process to ensure no further activities are taking place. North Korea has been taking Yongbyon's main reactor apart, but imploding the cooling tower is an exceptionally important psychological step given that the highly recognizable shape of the structure is synonymous with nuclear power plants. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says it would take a year to rebuild if North Korea decided to go back on its agreement, and that the construction could not be done in secret. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended U.S. diplomacy toward North Korea last week, saying the deal with Pyongyang made Asia and the U.S. safer. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, Rice said that \"North Korea will soon give its declaration of nuclear programs to China.\" China is the host of the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, along with Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States. Rice spoke in advance of her upcoming trip to Asia where she will be attending a meeting of G8 foreign ministers and meeting with her Asian counterparts. Rice said once North Korea submits its declaration, President Bush will notify Congress he intends to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and scrap some sanctions levied against North Korea because of nuclear concerns. But she noted that there would be no practical effect to loosening the restrictions because North Korea still was under the same sanctions because of other areas of U.S. law. Rice said a 45-day review would then begin to see if North Korea is telling the truth and living up to its end of the deal struck in the six-party talks. \"Before those actions go into effect, we would continue to assess the level of North Korean cooperation in helping to verify the accuracy and completeness of its declaration,\" she said. \"And if that cooperation is insufficient, we will respond accordingly.\" The United States softened its demand that North Korea publicly admit to having a highly enriched uranium program and to providing Syria with nuclear technology, key unanswered questions that have left negotiations stalled for months. North Korea has already handed over about 18,000 documents on its nuclear past to the U.S., which the U.S. says are critical to verify North Korea's claims. Rice said that the deal with North Korea wasn't perfect but offered the U.S. the best chance to learn about North Korea's nuclear history. \"We must keep the broader goal in mind: the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons and programs, all of them,\" she said. \"North Korea has said that it is committed to this goal. We'll see.\" Rice said that \"no final agreement can be concluded\" unless the U.S. verifies North Korea's claims. CNN State Department Correspondent Elise Labott contributed to this report .","highlights":"North Korea plans to destroy nuclear plant's cooling tower .\nImplosion is part of an agreement with the United States .\nU.N. says the cooling tower would take a year to rebuild .\nLong-term aim is to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As many of the world's industries struggle in the face of global economic hardship, the inaugural Abu Dhabi Yacht Show went ahead earlier this month. On show: The recent Abu Dhabi Yacht Show attracted some of the world's biggest super-yachts. Showcasing some of the top super-yachts in existence, the show symbolizes a luxury industry which is still thriving in the area. At the show, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, said the United Arab Emirates is becoming one of the world's greatest super-yacht hubs. \"This show demonstrates Abu Dhabi's commitment to be recognized as a global super-yacht player at the same level as leading centers in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean,\" he said. Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority chairman, Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, hailed the event as proof that the region was still growing and performing well economically. \"It is a clear indication of continuing international confidence in this emirate's robust and resilient economy.\" Evidence of positive developments in the region's luxury yacht industry is written all over the emirate. In addition to the yachting infrastructure already complete in Abu Dhabi, a marina is planned on Saadiyat Island, in the historic marine district of Al Bateen. Another marina is planned on Yas Island, where there will be a dedicated mega-yacht marina. In total, 16 new marinas are planned in Abu Dhabi in the next decade. The inaugural Abu Dhabi show also attracted 20 of the world's top super-yachts with a combined value of more than $500 million. Most of the globe's top brokers were also in attendance. Senior yacht broker at Burgess Yachts, Rupert Nelson, told CNN that Abu Dhabi is committing to the industry -- a move which should help the emirate stay one step ahead of other destinations. \"Across the globe this year there has been a huge slow down, but in the Gulf they don't seem to be too worried about it.\" Burgess Yachts recently sold a Dubai-built super-yacht called Al Hanem for just under $20 million, he added. Although the industry faces a number of challenges in the Gulf region, Nelson said the growth of marinas, yacht-builders, brokers and other related business should help to create jobs. \"The size of boats there is growing, the number of yachts there is growing ... and it seems they want to continue,\" he told CNN. The question on many lips is whether this growing industry could help the United Arab Emirates, and the wider Gulf region, survive the worst of the wider economic downturn. Probably not, is the answer from regional business experts. But it may ease some of the pain . Middle East business expert and author of \"Dubai & Co: Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States,\" Aamir A. Rehman, told CNN there are reasons for both optimism and pessimism in the Gulf luxury sector. Earlier this year Rolls Royce reported Abu Dhabi and Dubai had become the biggest and second-biggest markets for their cars after a 48 percent jump in sales during 2008 compared with 2007. Rehman said Rolls Royce's results of were promising for the wider luxury industry -- and could also indicate potential growth for the super-yacht industry. \"Transportation and the entire infrastructure around transport are important to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). There's significant investment being made in transportation, suggesting potential for growth in related industries.\" However, despite the high-profile nature of the luxury yacht industry, Rehman feels there are still limitations. \"The Gulf is a relatively small market overall and the number of high-end buyers, while substantial, may be limited compared to regions with larger population bases.\" Liz Martins, head of Middle East and North Africa in the Country Risk department at Business Monitor International, told CNN the current economic climate would have a lasting impact on the luxury sector. \"I think it's an area where people will cut back. There's still a lot of wealth out there but some of these people have lost a lot of money.\" Martins said the boom period of the last decade had reached unsustainable levels of growth and, although the Gulf region doesn't have a \"saving culture\" she predicted some changes. \"We're not forecasting recession for many Gulf states ... but the last few years have been debt-fueled boom and I just don't see things getting back to what they have been.\" Subscribe to SuperYachtWorld . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2009 IPC MEDIA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"The inaugural Abu Dhabi Yacht Show was held this month .\nSuper-yachts are growing in popularity in the Gulf region .\nAbu Dhabi wants to become world's top super yacht destination .\nExperts say it is unlikely luxury yacht industry will have big impact on the economy ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama received key endorsements Friday from a top former Clinton administration official and two former Democratic senators. Robert Reich, a former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, endorsed Sen. Obama Friday. Robert Reich, a former Clinton cabinet member and longtime friend of the former president, formally endorsed Obama's White House bid, saying that \"my conscience won't let me be silent any longer.\" \"Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama's strike me as even more so,\" Reich wrote on his blog. He served as the Secretary of Labor from 1993-1997 and is currently a professor at Brandeis University. \"His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding,\" Reich continued. \"His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers ... He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming.\" Reich, whose relationship with the Clintons dates back to their law school days at Yale, has long been a critic of the New York senator's White House bid. Shortly before the Iowa caucuses in January, he wrote that voters would have a choice \"between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who's walked the walk.\" \"I don't get it,\" he wrote then. \"If there's anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it's Barack Obama. HRC's [Hillary Rodham Clinton's] campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything.\" Reich also criticized Bill Clinton earlier in the year over the former president's sharp attacks on Obama in South Carolina. \"Bill Clinton's ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former president, his legacy, or his wife's campaign,\" he wrote in January. \"Nor are they helping the Democratic Party.\" Asked to respond to Reich's endorsement, Clinton spokesman Mo Eleithee said, \"Didn't he endorse him last year?\" Reich is the latest former Clinton administration official to announce his support for Obama. Last month, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who held several positions under Bill Clinton, also came out in support of the Illinois senator. Clinton supporter and CNN political analyst James Carville later called that an \"act of betrayal.\" Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced that former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and David Boren of Oklahoma endorsed the Illinois senator, and agreed to serve on the campaign's national security policy team. Nunn served 25 years in the Senate and was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1987 to 1995. He said Obama is \"our best choice to lead the nation.\" \"I believe that he will bring to the White House, high principles, clear vision and sound judgment,\" he added. Boren -- who served in the Senate from 1979 to 1994 and is the longest-serving Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence -- was one of Bill Clinton's top choices to replace Les Aspes in 1994 as U.S. Secretary of Defense. He said Obama is a person of \"sound and good judgement.\" Obama responded to the endorsements in a statement, saying the two \"will be important sources of advice and counsel for our campaign in the months ahead.\" Watch more from the campaign trail \u00bb . The endorsements come just four days before Pennsylvania's April 22 primary. At stake: 158 delegates. Also on Friday, Clinton accused Obama of \"complaining\" about Wednesday night's debate in Pennsylvania and hinted her rival might not be equipped to handle the rigors of the Oval Office. Watch more from Wednesday's debate \u00bb . Obama said Thursday that Clinton was \"in her element\" at the debate, telling a North Carolina crowd she \"took every opportunity to get a dig in.\" \"That's her right to kind of twist the knife in a little bit,\" he said, before adding that he understands why she's using what he calls the tactics of the GOP. Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . Clinton told an interviewer Friday morning on WTXF in Philadelphia that \"being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House.\" \"When the going gets tough you can't run away,\" she said of Obama. Meanwhile, Obama faced more criticism Friday -- this time from Sen. John McCain. McCain's campaign is crying foul over what it characterizes as repeated distortions from Obama. The most recent dustup comes after Obama criticized McCain earlier Friday for comments the Arizona senator made in an interview on Bloomberg Television. \"John McCain went on television and said that there has been quote 'great progress economically over the last seven and a half years,' \" Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd. \"John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush. Now, how could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, Pennsylvania, say we've made great progress?\" The McCain campaign immediately took issue with the comment, noting the Arizona senator also said he knows families are facing \"tremendous economic challenges.\" \"American families are hurting and Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest,\" McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. The McCain campaign has long argued Obama has a habit of twisting McCain's words. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Alexander Mooney, Rebecca Sinderbrand, Ed Hornick, Peter Hamby and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Obama receives endorsement of former Clinton official Robert Reich .\nReich: \"My conscience won't let me be silent any longer\"\nEx-Sens. Sam Nunn and David Boren also endorse the Illinois senator .\nClinton lashes out at Obama; McCain campaign calls Obama \"recklessly dishonest\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A wildfire in Yellowstone National Park has grown to 9,300 acres and closed a section of the main road through the park, but Yellowstone is still open and National Park Service officials said Monday there was no danger to travelers. Lightning started the fire on September 13. Snow could fall this week at Yellowstone, which sprawls across parts of three states, and end the park's fire season, officials said. National Park Service officials said the lightning-sparked wildfire started on September 13, but wasn't noticed until 10 days later in the Arnica Creek area east of Old Faithful, the geyser that is the park's main attraction. Last week the fire increased in size and by this weekend had charred 6,500 acres. National Park Service spokeswoman Linda Miller said there was no danger for guests. \"We don't anticipate it affecting any buildings,\" she said. Miller said Monday that 90 percent of the fire was in Wyoming, with the remainder in park areas in Idaho and Montana. Facilities at Yellowstone were open Monday, and Miller said visitors were still welcome. \"But there's going to be smoke,\" she said. \"Where there's smoke, there's fire. The vistas won't be as clear as even just a week ago.\" Still, she said, \"We don't want to scare people into not coming.\" Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Yellowstone National Park Lodges, said the fire was causing cancellations at the parks. But he said \"some tourists already in the park are are just changing their plans and working around it.\" He said the fire is more of an inconvenience than a danger. \"It's a natural part of this environment. It's part of the ecology and it's a natural attraction for some people,\" Hoeninghausen said. The Arnica fire has closed Grand Loop Road, the main road through Yellowstone. Visitors wanting to get from one end of the wilderness area to the other will have to take a 280-mile detour. Yellowstone National Park has nine lodges and about 2,200 hotel rooms. At least two of those facilities close each year after Labor Day. Hoeninghausen said the fire \"may be a little disconcerting for East Coasters not used to wildfires, but travelers and tourists can call the park and check the Web sites for updates on the fires.\" A Park Service press release cautioned that \"the smokey conditions are affecting air quality in the park.\" \"People with weakened immune systems and those with heart and lung conditions may have trouble breathing,\" the press release said. The Arnica fire was becoming more active Monday as gustier winds and low humidity fueled the flames, said Tom Kempton, fire information officer for the park service. The National Weather Service in Wyoming predicted snow would fall by Wednesday morning. Kempton said 230 firefighters, 15 fire engines and five helicopters were helping keep flames away from any historic structures at Yellowstone. Lightning starts an average of 22 fires every year in Yellowstone, according to the park service. Most of the naturally started fires in the 2.2 million-acre park extinguish on their own. Yellowstone is a fire-adapted ecosystem, and fire plays a major role in maintaining the health of the area's wildlife and vegetation by clearing old underbrush and allowing for new growth.","highlights":"NEW: Fire no danger to visitors, but they'll notice smoke, park service says .\nThe Arnica fire started September 13, wasn't noticed until 10 days later .\nFire has prompted closure of main road through park .\nLightning sparked fire, officials say ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nearly 1,300 computers in more than 100 countries have been attacked and have become part of a computer espionage network apparently based in China, security experts alleged in two reports Sunday. The network was discovered after computers at the Dalai Lama's office were hacked, researchers say. Computers -- including machines at NATO, governments and embassies -- are infected with software that lets attackers gain complete control of them, according to the reports. One was issued by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies in conjunction with the Ottawa, Canada-based think tank The SecDev Group; the second came from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Researchers have dubbed the network GhostNet. The network can not only search a computer but see and hear the people using it, according to the Canadian report. \"GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras,\" the report says. The discovery of GhostNet grew out of suspicions that the office of the Dalai Lama had been hacked. His staff sent a foreign diplomat an e-mail invitation to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader, but before the Dalai Lama's people could follow up with a phone call, \"the diplomat's office was contacted by the Chinese government and warned not to go ahead with the meeting,\" according to the Cambridge report. Watch CNN's John Vause report on the network \u00bb . An investigation resulted in both reports. Both found links to computers in China, but the researchers did not conclude who they thought was behind the \"malware,\" or malicious software. \"Chinese cyber espionage is a major global concern ... [b]ut attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or targeted intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading,\" according to the Canadian report titled, \"Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.\" \"The sheer number of young digital natives online can more than account for the increase in Chinese malware,\" it adds. But the report also points out that China is among a handful of countries, including the United States, Israel and United Kingdom, that are \"assumed\" to have considerable computer espionage capabilities. Attempts by CNN to contact the Chinese government in Beijing and its American embassy and consulate offices were unsuccessful on Sunday, as the offices were closed. However, a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in New York dismissed the idea China was involved when speaking to The New York Times. \"These are old stories and they are nonsense,\" Wenqi Gao told the Times. \"The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cyber crime.\" Hackers gained access to computers in the Dalai Lama's office by tricking computer users into downloading e-mail attachments that had been carefully engineered to appear safe, according to the authors of the Cambridge report, titled, \"The Snooping Dragon: Social-malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement.\" \"The attackers took the trouble to write e-mails that appeared to come from fellow Tibetans and indeed from co-workers,\" according to the report, authored by Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson. Once the attackers gained an initial foothold, \"they also stole mail in transit and replaced the attachments with toxic ones,\" the report adds. The Dalai Lama investigation led to the discovery of hundreds more infected machines in locations from The Associated Press in Britain and Deloitte and Touche in New York, to the ministries of foreign affairs in Indonesia, Iran and the Philippines. The office of the prime minister of Laos was also snared, as was a single non-secure computer at NATO, according to the Canadian report. Infected computers \"checked in\" with control servers as early as May 2007 and as recently as March 12 of this year, the report adds. Attempts by CNN to verify the reports' allegations with NATO, the Laotian government and the Dalai Lama's organization in India were not immediately successful on Sunday. The attack has broader implications, Nagaraja and Anderson warn, since a single person could carry out a similar one. \"Even a capable motivated individual could have carried out the attacks we describe here,\" they say. The computer systems of businesses are almost certain to be hacked by similar means, if they have not been already, the experts claim. \"Social malware will be used for fraud, and the typical company really has no defense against it,\" since it is so expensive and inconvenient, for example, to keep sensitive information or processes on computers with no Internet access. \"We expect that many crooks will get rich before effective countermeasures are widely deployed.\" The Information Warfare Monitor Web site, where the Canadian report was released, was down Sunday afternoon. GhostNet is not affiliated with GhostNet Inc., a business technology company.","highlights":"Researchers: Dalai Lama's office, NATO, governments among targets .\nNetwork, dubbed \"GhostNet,\" can take control of computers, search files .\nResearchers link network to China, but don't conclude who is responsible .\nInvestigation finds hundreds of infected machines in more than 100 countries ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The photograph is a jarring image that shows Nazi Party members, shovels in hand, digging up graves of American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II. Members of the Nazi Party are forced to dig up mass graves of U.S. soldiers while American GIs look on. While the men dig up the site, U.S. soldiers investigating war crimes stand over them. Two crosses with helmets placed atop them -- the sign of a fallen soldier -- are visible. Two Germans are knee deep in mud. Another, with a handlebar mustache, has the look of a defeated man. The bodies of 22 American soldiers were found in at least seven graves, according to the photographer. On the back of the photo is written, \"Nazi Party members digging up American bodies at Berga.\" Berga an der Elster was a slave labor camp where 350 U.S. soldiers were beaten, starved, and forced to work in tunnels for the German government. The soldiers were singled out for \"looking like Jews\" or \"sounding like Jews,\" or dubbed as undesirables, according to survivors. More than 100 soldiers perished at the camp or on a forced death march. It was on this day six decades ago, April 23, 1945, when most of the slave labor camp soldiers were liberated by advancing U.S. troops. The emaciated soldiers, many weighing just 80 pounds, had been forced by Nazi commanders to march more than 150 miles before their rescue. Watch survivor break down in tears over liberation \u00bb . The new photograph was likely taken in May or June 1945 when U.S. war crimes investigators combed Berga. It was donated earlier this month to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by Jim Martin and his family, whose father, Elmore \"Bud\" Martin, is believed to have snapped the picture as part of the war crimes investigation team. The photo and dozens of others sat for years in Jim Martin's closet. Some of the photos, including graphic images of American corpses, were placed on record at the National Archives years ago. See shocking photos of the slave camp \u00bb . But the image of Nazi Party members digging up graves doesn't appear to be part of that collection. Martin said he was proud to hand over the photos. \"People have to see these. This is something that's history and it belongs with something that's historical to tell that story. It doesn't belong in my closet.\" \"To be honest, I'm kind of sorry I haven't done it sooner. We didn't realize what it was.\" Elmore Martin, who won a Silver Star for his valor in capturing images during the war, was 28 when he shot the photographs. Before the war, he worked as a photographer for the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. Martin's son said his dad, who died several years ago, struggled to keep a job when he returned home. \"I now see where it all started,\" he said. What Elmore Martin and the war crimes soldiers seen in the photo couldn't have known that day was how the case would evolve. The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging. But the U.S. government commuted their death sentences in 1948, and both men were eventually released in the 1950s. One other Berga commander, Lt. Willy Hack, was executed, but not by the United States. He died by hanging, justice carried out by the Soviets. Jim Martin said his father would have been upset at the freeing of the Berga commanders after the atrocities he documented. \"He knew it happened and to see that these people were released would be pretty devastating.\" Efraim Zuroff, who has spent nearly 30 years hunting Nazis responsible for the Holocaust, said the U.S. government commuted the sentences and freed hundreds of war criminals like those at Berga after the war, as the Cold War began to intensify. \"They were more concerned about keeping out Communists than admitting victims of the Nazis,\" he said. \"The realities out there were very conducive of letting these people off the hook.\" How should Americans feel six decades later that the government freed the Nazi commanders responsible for atrocities against U.S. soldiers? \"We're supposed to feel very pissed off about that, to be perfectly honest, and that feeling is very justified,\" Zuroff said. The German government has since made reparations to the soldiers held at Berga. Zuroff said now it's time for the U.S. government to do \"the right thing.\" \"To apologize,\" he said. The Army said it is trying to figure out the best way to honor the Berga soldiers. There are about 20 known survivors still living. \"The U.S. Army honors the service and sacrifice of all veterans who have fought our nation's wars. The Army is working to identify the most dignified and personal way to honor the soldiers held at the Nazi slave camp, known as Berga,\" Army spokesman Lt. Col. Willie Harris said in a written statement. The Army refused to answer further questions about the Berga case. Listen in as an elderly man learns about his brother's death at the camp \u00bb . Survivors have long wanted to know why the sentences of the commanders were commuted. In a letter dated June 11, 1948, to an attorney whose nephew died at Berga, the U.S. War Department said the sentences of Metz and Merz were commuted because they were \"underlings.\" The letter goes on to say that Metz \"though guilty of a generally cruel course of conduct toward prisoners was not directly responsible for the death of any prisoners, except one who was killed during the course of an attempt to escape.\" That soldier was Morton Goldstein. Survivors say Goldstein tried to escape but was captured. They say Metz stood him against a wall, walked up to him and shot him, execution-style, through the head. As his body lay on the ground, guards riddled him with bullets, according to survivors. The soldiers who survived were not called to testify at the war crimes trial against Metz and Merz, instead prosecutors relied on about a dozen soldiers' statements gathered through the course of the investigation. At the trial, Metz blamed any deaths at the camp on U.S. medics. \"They bore the sole responsibility for the medical care,\" Metz told the court, according to the book \"Given Up for Dead,\" by Flint Whitlock, citing trial transcripts. \"I ask you: Who must bear the responsibility? The answer is obvious: The U.S. medics.\" Those comments don't sit well with Berga survivors. \"He was terrible, absolutely terrible. He lied,\" said Tony Acevedo, a U.S. medic who catalogued the deaths in a diary at the camp. \"Everybody hated his guts.\" \"Even the German guards were scared of him.\" Flip through Acevedo's diary from the slave camp \u00bb . Berga survivors say they await any recognition from the Army that may come, especially after all these years. Morton Brooks, 83, said he constantly thinks about the day he was liberated. He was rail thin and had walked by political prisoners shot in the head during the forced death march. In the final hours before his rescue, his attitude was, \"Let them kill us,\" he said. \"I think all the time that I'm a survivor of this and I'm still around,\" said Brooks. \"To me, it just amazes me. I don't know how I got through.\" Jim Martin said he's still trying to process his father's role as a forgotten American war hero, armed not with a gun, but a camera. \"The worst part is I'm just finding it out,\" he said.","highlights":"New photo surfaces of Nazi slave labor camp where U.S. soldiers held during WWII .\nPhoto donated to U.S. Holocaust museum by family of U.S. war crimes photographer .\n\"People have to see these. This is something that's history,\" Jim Martin says .\nToday marks the anniversary of the liberation of the soldiers held at the camp ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Police in Connecticut say they have arrested a woman suspected of robbing at least six banks in the past week. Police released photos of a suspect in the robberies of six New England banks. Detectives from the Major Crimes division of the Connecticut State Police took Heather Brown into custody at about 3:15 p.m. The 34-year-old resident of Norwich, Connecticut, will be formally charged with robbery in the first degree, police said. Investigators believe Brown robbed the banks, often while claiming to have a bomb. \"When she goes into the banks, she gives the teller information through a note or verbally that she has a bomb,\" said Sgt. Jim Keeney of the Connecticut State Police. \"However, there haven't been any reports of an actual bomb.\" Authorities say they believe the woman has held up banks in the Connecticut towns of Middletown, Montville, East Hartford and Windsor, as well as banks in West Springfield, Massachusetts and Westerly, Rhode Island. Women commit 6.2 percent of bank robberies nationwide, up from 4.9 percent in 2002, according to recent FBI figures. The one-woman crime wave in New England apparently began September 21 at the Citizens Bank in Montville, Connecticut. State police said \"a lone white female ... entered the bank with a bag in her possession. The suspect approached the teller indicated she was in possession of a bomb and demanded cash.\" The woman left the bag on a counter and bolted, police said. Four days later, a woman entered a branch of the New Alliance Bank in East Hartford, Connecticut. Investigators with the East Hartford Police Department said she \"left a note indicating that she had a bomb and demanded $1,000. She fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of money.\" Police suspect she struck again the next day in Windsor, Connecticut.","highlights":"Police say they have Heather Brown, 34, in custody .\nInvestigators say she held up at least six banks in the past week .\nShe informs teller she has a bomb, but no actual bomb has been seen, police say .\nPolice: Suspect lives in Norwich, Connecticut, has served time for bank robbery ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The alleged leader of a firearms trafficking network believed to be smuggling guns into Mexico -- where police say they are used against law enforcement officers by members of Mexican drug cartels -- was arrested Thursday in Arizona, authorities said. Victor Varela was arrested by the ATF as part of the agency's ongoing Project Gunrunner. Victor Varela was arrested by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as part of the agency's ongoing Project Gunrunner, according to an ATF release. He was in the custody of the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff. \"Law enforcement officers disrupted a group of gun traffickers and recovered several weapons, including .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles and several handguns, allegedly intended to supply drug traffic organization members of the Juarez Cartel in Palomas, Mexico,\" the statement said. In state charges, prosecutors allege Varela and his co-defendants bought a number of guns in Arizona intending to supply the Mexican cartel members. The group allegedly transported the illegally purchased guns to New Mexico, and then into Mexico. A .50-caliber weapon is the largest that can legally be bought in the United States, and is illegal in Mexico. Authorities believe a .50-caliber weapon was used in recent months to kill Francisco Ledesma Salazar, a police commander in Juarez, Mexico. He is among five high-ranking Mexican police officials killed this year in what Mexico authorities describe as an escalating war between police and drug cartels. Last week, 2,000 troops were sent to Juarez by the Mexican government in an effort to quell the violence there, which has claimed some 200 lives since January. Guns are difficult to buy legally in Mexico, but can be obtained just north of the border at gun shows and gun shops. Project Gunrunner was launched as an effort to help Mexican police by cracking down on illegal smuggling of guns and ammunition, and has led to several arrests and seizures. Watch how the weapons fuel a little-known war \u00bb . \"This case was made one of our highest priorities because of the nature of the crime alleged to be committed by Varela,\" U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said in the ATF release. Guns featured in a CNN Special Investigations Unit report last week, confiscated by Juarez police, are believed to have been smuggled into Mexico by Varela, according to an ATF spokesman. Authorities said one recent discovery, in a storage locker in Yuma, Arizona, yielded 42 weapons and hundreds of rounds of .50-caliber bullets already belted to be fed into a machine gun-style weapon, as well as Fabrique Nationale pistols, semiautomatic handguns that fire a 5.7-by-28-millimeter round. \"What's interesting about this gun, why it's in high demand, is the nickname that it has in Mexico,\" said William Newell, ATF special agent in charge, about the Fabrique National pistol. \"It's called 'mata policias,' or 'cop killer.' \" Charging documents allege that Varela was attempting to buy a fully automatic M-60 machine gun for a drug cartel associate in Palomas, authorities said. \"Additionally, a number of firearms recovered by Mexico law enforcement ... allegedly were trafficked by Varela's gun smuggling network,\" the ATF statement said. U.S. authorities are sharing intelligence with their Mexican counterparts to assist in ongoing investigations, the ATF said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's John Murgatroyd and Drew Griffin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspect is alleged leader network believed to be smuggling guns into Mexico .\nLast week, 2,000 Mexican troops were sent to Juarez, Mexico, to quell violence .\nMexican drug cartels blamed for killings of police officers .\nATF: U.S. authorities sharing intelligence with their Mexican counterparts ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Expanded testing across India in the past three years shows a 2,000 percent jump in the number of HIV cases among children, the country's health minister announced Wednesday. An HIV-positive Indian child at a government treatment center. More than 14,000 children get free care. In November 2006, health authorities counted 2,253 children in India with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Ghulam Nabi Azad told parliament. The number went up to a \"cumulative total\" of 52,973 in May this year, he said. The huge increase in the number of confirmed cases may be due to the expanded testing for the virus. India, home to more than a billion people, currently has 217 facilities for HIV\/AIDS treatment and 5,155 counseling and testing centers. The minister insisted that overall, HIV prevalence had decreased in India from 0.45 percent in 2002 to 0.34 percent in 2007. At present, 758,698 HIV-positive patients are being treated under the country's AIDS control program, Azad said. More than 232,908 AIDS patients, including 14,474 children, are receiving free treatment at the designated facilities, he added. Authorities say mother-to-child transmission is a major source of infection among children. Last year, 19,986 pregnant women among more than 4 million tested were found to be HIV-positive, said Azad. Of them, 10,179 received treatment to prevent transmission to their babies.","highlights":"Expanded testing across India shows 2,000 percent jump in child HIV cases .\nIncrease in confirmed cases may be due to the expanded testing .\nNumber up from 2,253 in 2006 to 52,973, according to statistics ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Democrats unveiled their revised version of health care reform Tuesday, offering a proposal that includes a government-funded health insurance option, requires both individuals and employers to participate, and taxes the wealthy to help cover costs. President Obama has urged Congress to work quickly on creating a health care reform bill. Democratic House leaders said the measure, titled \"America's Affordable Health Choices Act,\" met the requirements set by President Obama for health care reform by lowering costs to consumers and businesses, letting people keep their current plan if desired, and preventing denial of coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions. \"The House proposal will begin the process of fixing what's broken about our health care system, reducing costs for all, building on what works, and covering an estimated 97 percent of all Americans,\" Obama said in a written statement. \"And by emphasizing prevention and wellness, it will also help improve the quality of health care for every American.\" Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said the bill is intended to repair a \"dysfunctional\" health care system that is draining the U.S. economy while leaving 46 million Americans without health insurance. \"We are going to accomplish what many people felt wouldn't happen in our lifetime,\" he said. But House Republicans slammed the Democrats' bill and pledged to try to amend it as three House committees begin considering the legislation later this week. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said the bill \"without any question will kill jobs, will limit access to health care, will raise taxes and will lead to a government takeover of health care.\" Blunt said he will offer an amendment requiring all elected federal officials, including Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, to enroll in the new public insurance option. Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats also question the cost of health care reform. An earlier draft of the House Democrats' bill carried a price tag of $1 trillion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office said the revised house bill also would cost $1 trillion. However, a senior Democratic House committee staffer said the CBO analysis only covered costs without factoring in cost-saving measures worth $500 billion over 10 years or the revenue from tax surcharges on wealthy Americans, estimated to raise more than $500 billion over a decade. According to the CBO, the bill would cover 97 percent of Americans by 2015. The bill includes tax surcharges on Americans in the top 1.2 percent of income. It proposes a 5.4 percent surtax on couples earning more than $1 million, a 1.5 percent surtax on couples with income between $500,000 and $1 million, and a 1 percent surtax on joint incomes over $350,000 or individual income over $280,000. Anticipating Republican complaints that the tax surcharges would harm small business owners who report their income as personal, Democratic sponsors said the measure would affect less than 5 percent of all small business owners. Specific provisions of the bill include: . -- A Health Insurance Exchange providing individuals and small business with choices for coverage, including a government-funded public option. -- No more coverage exclusion for pre-existing conditions. -- Affordability credits for low- and moderate-income individuals and families, available to those with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $43,000 for individuals and $88,000 for a family of four. -- Limits on annual out-of-pocket spending. -- Expanded Medicaid coverage to individuals and families with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. -- Required participation by individuals, with a penalty of 2.5 percent of adjusted gross income for non-compliance. -- Requirement that businesses with payrolls exceeding $250,000 provide their employees with health coverage or contribute up to 8 percent of their payroll on their behalf. -- A series of measures intended to reduce costs of Medicaid, Medicare and other existing systems. A statement Tuesday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups opposed some of the bill's proposals, calling for market forces and employer autonomy instead of mandated participation by businesses. \"Exempting some micro-businesses will not prevent this provision from killing many jobs,\" the statement said. The House bill now goes to three committees for debate and revision before consideration by the full chamber. The Senate also is considering health reform measures that contain some of the House bill provisions. Obama has said he wants both chambers to pass their respective proposals before Congress goes on its August recess as part of a timetable to get a final bill to his desk by the end of the year. House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia argued that the current economic conditions mean Congress should take its time on a major overhaul of the health care system. \"There's no need for us to be rushing into passing legislation before the end of this month at the potential cost of, really, millions of jobs,\" Cantor said Tuesday. A CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey released July 1 found that a slim majority -- 51 percent -- support Obama's health care plans, but most worry that their costs would go up, and only one in five think their families would be better off. CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this story .","highlights":"It offers government-funded health insurance option and taxes wealthy .\nLeaders say it meets Obama's requirements on health care reform .\nGOP, some fiscally conservative Democrats oppose components ."} -{"article":"ARBIL, Iraq (CNN) -- Two United Arab Emirates based companies announced on Tuesday that they will be investing in the Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan. Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, called the project \"a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy.\" Four hundred and sixty one million square feet have been officially assigned to \"Gas Cities LLC,\" a joint venture between Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, both Sharjah-based companies, to establish a new venture: \"Kurdistan Gas City.\" Kurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings in an integrated city. The expected initial investment in basic infrastructure is estimated at $3 billion, with further foreign direct investment exceeding $40 billion during the operations phase. Work will start on the project, which is designed to promote private sector investment in a variety of gas-related industries, on September 21. Gas City is structured to hold over 20 varieties of world scale petrochemical and heavy manufacturing plants, and hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), served by state-of-the-art facilities. Mr Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said: \"Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have made a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy through their work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq thus far, we are making significant progress in spurring on economic growth and creating opportunity for our people.\" Hamid Jafar, Executive Chairman of Dana Gas, explained the importance of this achievement saying: \"The Kurdistan Gas City is an enormous step forward in Dana Gas' strategy across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.\" The Kurdistan Gas City is projected to generate job opportunities for nearly 200,000 Iraqi citizens in infrastructure, industrial projects, support services and other business activities. This is not the first project for Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, the two companies are committed to a service agreement signed in April 2007 with the Kurdistan Regional Government to build 180 kilometers of natural gas pipeline and two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plants, which are 80 percent complete. The project is on track and will start pumping 150 million cubic feet of gas per day in the coming weeks, rising to 300 million cubic feet by early 2009. Other companies from the UAE showed similar interest in Kurdistan Region \"Damac Properties\" one of the major private developers in the regions revealed on June 3 plans for a $16 billion residential, commercial and recreational project.","highlights":"Emirati companies making significant investments in Kurdistan .\nKurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings .\nWork will start on the project on September 21 ."} -{"article":"LOCKERBIE, Scotland (CNN) -- Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's fate hangs in the balance. The Libyan man convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombings has terminal prostate cancer and, according to his lawyers, just weeks to live. Mourners at the 20th anniversary memorial service for the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. Scotland's Justice Minister Frank MacAskill is weighing up whether to release him on compassionate grounds so he can die at home; to transfer him to a Libyan jail under a prisoner transfer agreement drawn up between Libya and the UK; or whether to keep him in a Scottish jail for the rest of his days. That is certainly the preferred option of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who last week wrote to Mr MacAskill urging him not to send Al Megrahi home. In Lockerbie itself, matters of politics seem far removed. George Stobbs was one of the first policemen on the scene when the Boeing 747 crashed into Sherwood Crescent. \"I've never talked about the politics of the thing because I had no interest,\" he says. \"People here aren't interested in the politics, they just want to carry on with their lives.\" Stobbs has vivid memories of the night of December 21, 1988 -- the \"shortest and darkest night of the year,\" he says. \"The houses were just slowly burning and more houses were catching fire. The windows were popping, the gutters were burning, everything was burning. It was like hell. I remember seeing a wrought iron gate in the distance and I remember it was dripping like molten butter, drip drip dripping away.\" At first Stobbs thought it was a military aircraft which had crashed into the town. Then he heard that the nose cone of a 747 had landed in a field three miles from Lockerbie and he knew that he was dealing with far greater numbers of dead. \"We were told about the 747,\" he says, \"and we realized we weren't looking for twenty people but for 300. But where were they?\" There is a small memorial room beside the little church of Tundergarth, across the road from where the nose cone landed. Inside are inscriptions from visitors commemorating the huge loss of life and photographs of each of the 270 people who died in the Lockerbie bombing. \"Gentle Lockerbie\" reads one of the inscriptions from a family member who lost a loved one. \"Some say the land there is now tainted, I say it is blessed.\" In the field itself there are no marks to suggest where the nose cone landed. The local farmer points to the horizon across the rolling Scottish hills. \"Between here and the top of the hill, here on my father's farm, we found 120 bodies,\" he says. The force of the explosion and the wind that night blew bits of the plane, personal possessions and body parts across a vast area. Stobbs, and hundreds of policemen and other volunteers combed 845 square meters of land looking for clues as to what brought the plane down. Documents from the plane were even discovered in the North Sea, 60 miles away. The crucial piece of evidence that implicated Al Megrahi was a scrap of clothing wrapped around a part of the device used to detonate the suitcase bomb. It was traced back to a Maltese boutique whose shop-owner recognized Al Megrahi. Lockerbie local John Gair said he was never entirely convinced of Al Megrahi's guilt. \"I did feel that some of the evidence was circumstantial,\" he says. \"I think partly out of compassion and partly out of a possible element of doubt, he should be allowed out.\" As he looks down Sherwood Crescent at the neat rows of houses, not yet twenty years old, he says: \"Life goes on and once a tragedy like this is over people pick up the threads of their lives. And they don't forget but they don't dwell on it. Because there's no earthly point in dwelling on any of this.\" 270 people from 21 nations lost their lives in the beautiful hills around Lockerbie. Some of them had been so badly incinerated no trace of them was ever found, just their personal belongings and the Pan Am passenger list which proved they'd been on board. Twenty years later in the town of Lockerbie, the streets have been rebuilt, the past buried, but not forgotten.","highlights":"CNN's Diana Magnay travels to Lockerbie, Scotland 20 years on from the air tragedy .\nRetired police inspector George Stobbs recalls the scene of devastation .\nHundreds of policemen and other volunteers combed 845 square meters of land .\nLockerbie local John Gair said he was never entirely convinced of Al Megrahi's guilt ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Sesame Street\" may not be a real place, but tell that to some of the people Michael Davis met when researching and talking about his new book, \"Street Gang.\" Bert, left, and Ernie have been mainstays of \"Sesame Street\" since the beginning. \"I met a lot of people who I worked with in New York or got to know in New York -- transplants -- who said to me, 'When I first arrived here in New York, I had this strange desire to find Sesame Street,' \" he said. Well, to paraphrase the famous theme song, who wouldn't want to get to \"Sesame Street\"? For two generations, the fictional block of brownstones inhabited by curious children, friendly adults and some odd-looking Muppets has helped shape childhood education by offering exercises, games and life lessons all wrapped up in a television-friendly format. It's a model that's proved durable and influential, says Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson. \"If I were to make a list of the top 10 most significant American TV shows ... I'd put 'Sesame Street' on the list. The fact that it's still on the air attests to its [significance],\" he said. See \"Sesame Street\" in pictures \u00bb . \"The idea they came up with was kind of radical: If you can sell kids sugared cereal and toys using Madison Avenue techniques, why couldn't you use the same techniques for teaching counting, the alphabet and basic social skills? And it works.\" Indeed, as Davis notes in \"Street Gang\" (Viking), the genesis of \"Sesame Street\" was when the 3-year-old daughter of a Carnegie foundation executive was fascinated by television, waking up to watch the broadcast day begin and memorizing commercial jingles. He talked about his daughter with a friend, producer Joan Ganz Cooney. In the liberal ferment of the mid-'60s, both wondered whether educational TV could go beyond the staid classroom shows of the era. Cooney became the driving force of \"Sesame Street.\" She put together the plan, helped recruit talent, located financing and oversaw production. \"Sesame Street\" became the foundation for the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), which created other educational shows such as \"The Electric Company\" and \"3-2-1 Contact.\" \"She is just such an impressive woman,\" said Davis, adding that Cooney gave her blessing to his book project without any requirements but one: that he \"get it right.\" \"She's just one of those extraordinary public figures.\" Cooney didn't hold much back in telling her story to Davis, and neither did others. From its debut on November 10, 1969, the show was a hit -- within a year, it was on the cover of Time magazine -- but it was not without its personality clashes. The original Gordon, Matt Robinson, was a producer uncomfortable in the spotlight. Northern Calloway, who played David, struggled with mental illness. The show's primary songwriters, Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss, were constantly in competition; Raposo \"fairly seethed with envy\" when Moss' \"Rubber Duckie\" hit the Top 20, Davis writes. The book provides balanced biographies of a number of principals, including producer Jon Stone, whom Davis calls \"the heart of the book.\" \"I wanted people to say, 'Wow, this guy Jon Stone, he really was the Orson Welles of \"Sesame Street.\" ' Without him, the show wouldn't have been what it became,\" Davis said. But for all the backstage machinations that affect any creative enterprise, \"Sesame Street\" stayed true to education, in all its forms. One show matter-of-factly included a breast-feeding Buffy Sainte-Marie; others featured a boy with Down syndrome, Jason Kingsley. EW: Stars who dropped by \"Sesame Street\" Jim Henson, who was famous as creator of the Muppets when \"Sesame Street\" began, invented a world of (literally) colorful characters -- Oscar, Big Bird, the Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie -- and, with his puppeteering crew, gave them soul. And when Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) died, the show dealt with his passing honestly. Over the years, the show has taken its knocks. Critics from the left have complained about its merchandising; critics from the right disliked its avowed commitment to diversity. In the '90s, \"Barney\" stole its thunder, and cable drained its audience. As \"Sesame Street\" comes up on its 40th birthday, some critics wonder whether it's still necessary. But for all that, says Thompson, the show remains important, both in its pioneering educational style and in its clever business model. And it takes its charges seriously, he points out. \"One thing I still like about 'Sesame Street' is that it's not artsy,\" he said. For Davis' part, doing the book -- which succeeded a TV Guide article he did on the show's 35th anniversary -- gave him renewed respect for its creators' achievements. And he's found out through his Web site, http:\/\/www.streetgangbook.com\/, that \"Sesame Street\" still has the magic to move children -- mothers of autistic children credit the show with helping the kids' development -- and adults. \"Somebody said, 'I was OK when my mom explained to me there was no Santa Claus,' \" he recounts. \" 'But I cried my eyes out the day I realized Kermit was a puppet.' Isn't that great?\"","highlights":"\"Street Gang\" is a new book that chronicles the history of \"Sesame Street\"\nShow was unique when it went on air in 1969, using TV techniques for education .\nMuch behind-the-scenes activities, but show has stayed true to goals .\nAuthor Michael Davis has heard countless stories about \"Street's\" benefits ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The drama of the action in-and-around the golf course has enraptured fans of the game through the generations and around the world. But the same drama that pulls in the crowds has also provided rich material for filmmakers too. Stars of the screen including Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy have all starred in club-themed movies, as have more contemporary celebrities like Adam Sandler, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Will Smith. Though the stories committed to celluloid vary in their approach - from The Stooges comedic farce entitled \"Three Little Beers,\" to the Ben Hogan biopic \"Follow the Sun,\" - the central attraction of golf remains at all the film's core. Here is CNN's best ten golf movies ever made - do you agree with our selection? If there is another film you feel should be included then add your comments to the Sound Off below.","highlights":"The drama and comedy of golf has provided great material for film makers .\nFunny films Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore lead the list .\nDean Martin, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn all starred down the years .\nSOUND OFF - Do you agree with the ten movies CNN has picked?"} -{"article":"Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- The niece of the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, once lived with murder suspect Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender charged with murder after the remains of 11 victims were found at his home, a spokeswoman for the mayor said Monday. Lori Frazier, niece of Mayor Frank Jackson, had a relationship with Sowell that ended two years ago, said Andrea Taylor, a spokeswoman for Jackson's office. Taylor said it is unclear whether the relationship was romantic. \"I just want to know why, why he would do this,\" Frazier told CNN affiliate WOIO on Friday. \"He took care of me, good care of me. I never would have thought there were some bodies in the house.\" \"I lived with him from 2005 to 2007 and he didn't kill me, but he killed all these girls,\" she said. Sowell, 50, is facing five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths. All the victims were African-American women. All that remains of one of them is a skull, wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement. Sowell served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 1989. He was released in 2005. So far, nine of the 11 victims found at Sowell's home have been identified. The latest two were identified Monday by the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, police said. They are Janice Webb, 49, and Kim Yvette Smith, who was 43 when last seen. Both women were from Cleveland. Webb was last seen on June 3 and was reported missing on August 2, police said. Smith was last seen January 1, but was not reported missing until November 2. A grand jury on Monday returned an indictment against Sowell in connection with an alleged assault and rape of a 36-year-old woman September 22, Cuyahoga County prosecutors said in a news release. The investigation into that incident was what led police, armed with a search warrant, to Sowell's home, where they discovered the bodies late last month. The alleged victim encountered Sowell while walking in the neighborhood, and he took her back to his home, where he became violent and raped her, prosecutors said. \"While raping her, he strangled her with a cord until she lost consciousness,\" the statement said. \"When she regained consciousness, he led her out of the house.\" Sowell faces a charge of attempted murder in the incident, along with two counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of felonious assault, authorities said. Sowell will be arraigned on the new charges Friday, authorities said. The charges are first-degree felonies except for the assault charges, which are second-degree felonies, prosecutors said. If convicted, he would face a sentence of up to life in prison. The investigation into the homicides continues, prosecutor Bill Mason said in the news release. \"Upon completion of the investigation, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office working with the Cleveland Police Department will present evidence to the grand jury seeking the death penalty for these heinous murders committed by Sowell.\" Residents of the area near the home said they had noted a smell in the neighborhood, but assumed it was from nearby Ray's Sausage Company. Asked whether she had noticed a foul odor, Frazier told WOIO, \"Yeah, I smelled stuff, but he always told me that -- at first he said it was his stepmother downstairs. And then I guess after she left, he told me that it was Ray's Sausage.\" Frazier said Sowell brought other women to the home when she was not there. \"I love my niece very much and while she has made some decisions that have not been in her best interest, she has my full support,\" Jackson said in a written statement. \"As a family, we are extremely fortunate that she was not a victim in this case as she did have a prior relationship with the suspect that ended approximately two years ago. My focus continues to be on making sure the loved ones of the victims get the attention, closure and justice they deserve and it is my hope that everyone remains committed to that goal.\" Hundreds of Cleveland residents gathered outside the house Sunday night to remember the victims. \"It's hard, because I want to burn it down,\" said Inez Fortson, whose daughter Telacia, 31 and a mother of three children, is among the dead. Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to Sowell's public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after the case goes before a grand jury, the next expected step. Police recovered the first bodies after they went to Sowell's home to follow up on a rape accusation. In a separate incident, neighbors on October 20 reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. But the woman told officers that she was at the home \"partying,\" when she fell off the roof, and no charges were filed. Agents from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit are assisting Cleveland police, Cleveland FBI spokesman Scott Wilson has said. The agents are preparing a profile of Sowell for police, tracing his life and habits, and his DNA will be entered into a national database to see whether it can be linked to any unsolved crimes. \"Our experts tell us it's likely he's done this before,\" said Frank Figliuzzi, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office. \"He's probably done it elsewhere, and so we need to determine whether or not he's responsible for other unsolved murders and rapes around the country.\" In addition, the FBI is investigating whether Sowell might be linked to crimes abroad, Figliuzzi said. \"We know, for example, he was a Marine, he was assigned to California, he served in Okinawa, Japan, and we'll be matching all the facts from these crimes here in Cleveland with the crimes that remain unsolved in our database, and we'll specifically be looking at those locations where he's previously lived.\" Allen Sowell, the suspect's half-brother, told CNN he last saw his brother more than 20 years ago. Their stepmother, who lived in the house after Anthony Sowell got out of prison, said she knew of nothing odd going on at the time, Allen Sowell said. The stepmother tried to get Anthony Sowell evicted from the house in 2007 because he wasn't paying rent, Allen Sowell said. Anthony Sowell said he shouldn't have to pay rent on a house that belonged to his father, who died in 2004. Anthony Sowell remained in the house when his stepmother had to be hospitalized in 2007, his half-brother said. Allen Sowell said he was aware of his half-brother's prison record, but \"just couldn't fathom\" the accusations now facing him. \"I didn't think he was in that bad of a mental state,\" Allen Sowell said. \"You never think it would happen to your family. It's a horrible feeling.\" At 66, Allen Sowell is 16 years older than his half-brother, and the two didn't meet until Anthony Sowell was 9. He added, \"He deserves whatever he gets from the justice system.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti, Edmund Demarche and Ross Levitt and CNN Radio's Brendan Gage contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mayor Frank Jackson: \"I love my niece very much ... she has my full support\"\nNEW: FBI says it's likely suspect has \"done this before;\" looking at places he lived in past .\nLori Frazier, mayor's niece, says she lived with Anthony Sowell from 2005 to 2007 .\nSowell charged with murder, rape, other crimes after 11 bodies found at home ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yemenia Airways is canceling all its flights between Yemen and the Comoros Islands after this week's crash on the same route, the airline said Saturday. Bahia Bakari holds her father's hand as she lies on a stretcher in a plane after landing in France. One more flight between Sanaa and Moroni is scheduled for Sunday, but all flights on the route are canceled after that, Yemenia said. A Yemenia Airways Airbus 310 went down early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Comoros' capital, Moroni. One person, 13-year-old French girl Bahia Basari, survived for hours in the Indian Ocean clinging to the debris of the downed plane. She arrived home in France on Thursday, where she was reunited with her father. Watch teen survivor from crash \u00bb . She is the only known survivor from the crash, which killed her mother. The Airbus 310 plane tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar. French and U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies. The French military has detected a rescue beacon, but rescue workers say the wreckage is difficult to reach in deep waters. The plane's data recorders have yet to be found, said Capt. Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Qadir, a spokesman for Yemen's civil aviation department.","highlights":"Teenage girl only person to survive plane crash off Comoros islands .\nFrench, U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies from the plane .\nThe plane's data recorders have yet to be found, Yemeni authorities say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Residents living in single-family homes in some parts of coastal Texas face \"certain death\" if they do not heed orders to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike's arrival, the National Weather Service said Thursday night. Texans sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic Thursday on a highway from Galveston County into Houston. The unusually strong wording came in a weather advisory regarding storm surge along the shoreline of Galveston Bay, which could see maximum water levels of 15 to 22 feet, the agency said. \"All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide,\" the advisory said. \"Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death.\" The maximum water level forecasts in nearby areas, including the shoreline of Matagorda Bay and the Gulf-facing coastline from Sargent to High Island, ranged from 5 to 8 feet. But authorities warned that tide levels could begin rising Friday morning along the upper Texas coast and along the shorelines of the bays. The advisory summoned memories of the language used to describe 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. \"Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks ... if not longer,\" an advisory issued at the time said. \"The vast majority of native trees will be snapped or uprooted. Only the heartiest will remain standing.\" The Ike advisory follows comes on the heels of similarly urgent messages earlier Thursday from federal authorities, who warned of a \"massive storm\" that could affect roughly 40 percent of the U.S. Gulf Coast. \"Do not take this storm lightly,\" Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday afternoon. \"This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large; it is powerful; it carries a lot of water.\" Chertoff and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said their efforts were focused on evacuations as Ike moved northwest at 12 mph across the central Gulf of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph. Track the storm \u00bb . Chertoff also urged people not to succumb to \"hurricane fatigue,\" referring to concerns that authorities were overestimating Ike's potential impact. \"Unless you're fatigued with living, I suggest you want to take seriously a storm of this size and scale,\" he said Thursday. Houston Mayor Bill White said he's heard that people who live in areas under a mandatory evacuation order say they plan to stay in their homes. He strongly urged against it. \"If you think you want to ride something out, and people are talking about a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, then you better think again,\" White said. At 5 p.m. Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said a hurricane warning was in effect between Morgan City, Louisiana, and Baffin Bay, Texas. A warning means hurricane conditions are likely within 24 hours. Ike's forecast track was through Galveston and the Houston metro area as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. Currently a Category 2 storm about 700 miles across, Ike could make landfall near Galveston Island as early as Saturday morning. Watch CNN meteorologists track Hurricane Ike \u00bb . At 11 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 115 miles from Ike's center, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 275 miles. The storm was centered 445 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, and about 340 miles east-southeast of Galveston, and was moving west-northwest at near 10 mph. Watch: National Hurricane center predicts Ike's path \u00bb . Roughly 3.5 million people live in the hurricane's potential impact zone, FEMA Administrator David Paulison said Thursday. In Galveston, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas told the island's 60,000 people that they should leave. By 7:30 ET, the city had finished evacuating to Austin thousands of residents who needed assistance leaving because of age, disability or lack of reliable transportation. Mandatory evacuations remained in effect for low-lying coastal areas northeast and southwest of Galveston, in Chambers, Matagorda and Brazoria counties. Some Brazoria County residents said they didn't want to leave but realized it was in their best interest to do so. \"You don't have a choice when you have kids,\" Deborah Davis of Freeport told CNN affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston. Farther inland, about 100,000 residents in low-lying areas surrounding Houston began evacuating Thursday afternoon as Ike headed for the Texas coast, officials said. Watch Gov. Rick Perry warn residents of Ike's potential \u00bb . But the remaining 4 million residents were told they could stay home, even as government offices and schools prepared to close Friday in Houston in anticipation of the hurricane. \"We are only evacuating areas subject to a storm surge,\" said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the county's chief executive officer. \"Yes, we know you will lose electricity. But you're not in danger of losing your life, so stay put.\" Ships in port were told to leave, said Port of Houston spokeswoman Linda Whitlock. The area's two major airports, George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby, also halted all commercial flights. More than 1,300 inmates from the Texas Correctional Institutions Division's Stevenson Unit in Cuero were being evacuated to facilities in Beeville and Kenedy, Perry's office said, and 597 were transferred from the substance abuse Glossbrenner Unit in San Diego, in south Texas, to Dilley. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"Life-threatening floods expected in parts of coastal Texas, agency says .\nHurricane Ike could make landfall near Galveston Island as early as Saturday .\nAbout 100,000 evacuated from Houston; 4 million more told to stay .\nAll of Galveston Island ordered to evacuate; special needs evacuations completed ."} -{"article":"GUDDA, India (CNN) -- In Gudda, a village with very little, residents are literally beaming. Just two years ago, villagers had never seen light after dark, unless it came from the moon. Then, solar light arrived and changed everything. Children in Gudda stand on rooftops near a solar panel. Solar power first arrived two years ago. \"When the lanterns first arrived, the villagers asked, 'What is this?' \" says Hanuman Ram, the local solar engineer. \"I explained to them how it worked. Then slowly, as people saw it, they said, 'Wow, what a thing this is!' \" There are no real roads that lead to the tiny village in the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India, home to about 100 families. There are only thin strips of tar dotted with massive potholes that force vehicles into thick brush. Other times, cars have to maneuver over just dirt. There is no electricity -- power lines don't extend out here. Water is scarce, too. At the village well, women balance jugs of water on their heads, deftly evading the livestock that saunters along. Visit the sites of Gudda with CNN's Arwa Damon \u00bb . It's a simple lifestyle of farming, tending to goats, caring for children and carrying out household chores -- a daily routine that hasn't changed much over the centuries. That's why light transformed Gudda. Villagers could play music at night. Children could study well past sundown. Watch villagers smile as they light their solar lamps \u00bb . As Yamouna Groomis kneads dough for her family's evening meal, she blows through a pipe every once in a while to keep a flame burning in an outdoor clay pit. Her days used to end when the sun went down. She smiles as she proudly flicks on a solar lamp. \"When I saw this light coming on for the first time, I was very happy,\" she says. The light is powered by a solar panel on her roof that charges a battery. Panels can be seen on almost every rooftop in Gudda. See where Gudda is located \u00bb . Ram, the man credited with the transformation, doesn't have a high school degree. But he did attend an institution about an hour away called Barefoot College, established 35 years ago with an emphasis on helping India's rural population find solutions for their problems among themselves. The college, in part funded by the Indian government, trains villagers all over India who have little or no education, giving them a range of skills to change their lives. The entire campus, which has amenities such as a library, meeting halls, open-air theater and labs, uses solar power. On a recent visit to the main college campus, a group of village women were hard at work making solar cookers, which can boil a liter of water in eight minutes. They are part of the \"Women Barefoot Solar Cooker Engineers Society\" -- six women who came together and started their own business. Barefoot College serves an outlying community of 125,000 people. In a nearby village, women flock to a water desalinization and purification plant set up by the college and maintained by Barefoot graduates. The station, powered by solar panels, provides the area with a rare commodity: clean drinking water. At the local store in Gudda, owner Ram Swarup puts his solar panels to maximum use. He says the solar lights have allowed him to increase his business by a third. The panels also have powered up the only DVD player and television in the village. Partly paralyzed by polio, Swarup never dreamed that he would have so much in life. He says it took courage -- and light. The villagers say that they now feel empowered -- less reliant on a far-off government. Even the village's engineer is amazed. At Ram's house, the solar lamps flicker to life. He smiles as he says that before, he didn't even know what artificial light was, and now, he's a solar power expert. \"I never saw light before,\" he says. \"How could I think that I could bring light here?\" Like most of the Barefoot graduates, he was selected to attend the college by his village elders. Now, every night when the lights flicker on, he says, he feels great. With the extra earnings he's made as a solar engineer, he's made another of his childhood dreams come true. He purchased his favorite instrument, a harmonium, and now the family can gather around every night and listen to his music. He says he hopes his daughter, now 14 years old, will follow in his footsteps and become a solar engineer. Ram's 80-year-old mother, meanwhile, beams with pride about her son's accomplishments: \"I just wanted him to do something good for the village.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Residents had never had light after dark until two years ago .\nWhen villagers saw solar lights in action, their reaction was \"Wow\"\nNearby college helps India's poorest of the poor solve problems .\nVillager describes seeing light for first time: \"I was very happy\""} -{"article":"PAU, France (CNN) -- Take a pen, start with the nib at the bottom left corner of the page. Gently drag the pen diagonally from bottom left to top right and you have a quick and easy graphic representation of the price differential between the standard BMW 3-series and its haba\u00f1ero cousin the M3 coupe over the last four generations (and 20 years). Quad exhaust pipes and M-badging distinguish the M3 from standard 3-series coupes . The car in my hands is, supposedly, a 3-series. You know the 3-series. You may well own one. You almost certainly know someone who owns one. It is the ubiquity of the 3-series that has seen BMW become a more mainstream player (without making an obvious lurch down-market) while the mainstream has made an obvious lurch up-market to plug the gap. Ford's new Mondeo couldn't be clearer in its 3-series aspiration. But this latest M3 has substantially less in common with the vanilla 3-series than I have with a gorilla (98.4 per cent shared DNA). Eighty per cent of the M3's body panels are brand new, from the aluminum hood to the composite fenders and carbon-fiber reinforced plastic roof. And let's get back to that graph. This UK-specification car costs \u00a350,000 (\u20ac74,000). With the options as tested (including the gorgeous 19\" alloy wheels, one of which I pranged on a curb while rectifying a going-the-wrong-way-down-a-one-way-street maneuver -- I'm blaming the co-driver for this navigational error, and so should you) we're talking close to \u00a355,000 (\u20ac81,000). It looks good. It looks purposeful and aggressive and more -- what's the word -- obvious than its M3 predecessors, with the engorged dome on the hood to accommodate the 4-liter V8 and the Aston-like side air-intakes with integrated side-light repeaters and M3 badging. But it still looks like a pumped-up family car rather than a purpose-built sports car (though it sits between Porsche's Cayman S and 911 Carrera in price). It may just be possible to buy one and pretend to one's spouse that it's a sensible family car -- providing, that is, that the 22.8 mpg (12.4 liters per 100 km) combined fuel economy (and the regularity of trips to the gas station this necessitates) doesn't give the game away. Inside it's typical BMW -- leather seats that adjust to accommodate any driver (including those such as me who are short of body but long of leg) and a chunky leather steering wheel stitched with the cyan, blue and scarlet colors of BMW's M division. On the road the M3 is -- simply -- lovely. Over 20 years BMW's M cars have evolved from homologation specials (road car versions of track racers) to sedate luxury saloons that can transfer themselves into sporting monsters. Some earlier enthusiastic driving from my co-driver made it necessary to drive slowly, in sixth gear, behind the slipstream of a motor home to conserve fuel while on a desperate hunt for a gas station. In some sports cars this would require skill and dedication. Not so in the M3, it drives however you want to drive. It can pootle as competently as it can hustle. And boy can it hustle. When questioned later that day, a BMW spokesman denied any knowledge of the cars having had their limiters disabled. But I can state that I was passenger in a car that supposedly tops out at 155 mph (200 km\/h) at a staggering 176 mph (283 km\/h). The question of whether this delimited limiter is an \"undocumented feature\" or a manufacturer's attempt to woo motoring journalists with a set-up that isn't representative of the sale car, will only be resolved once the first customers take delivery of their new M3s. There is, of course, more to the M3 than flat-out speed on the straight. It's a car that allows drivers a turn of speed on twisty roads with confidence and sure-footedness. You can take corners faster, without fear of picking gorse from your teeth. Take a corner a little over enthusiastically and there's a comforting orange light on the dash to tell you that the DSC (dynamic stability control) has kicked in. When the DSC is engaged flatters the abilities of average drivers. Disengaged it allows skillful drivers an awful lot of wheel-spinning sideways action, as I discovered while given a few hectic laps of the Pau-Arnos circuit in the hands of a pro. What's wrong with it? In common with the M5 and M6 there's the frustrating short indicator stalk that ALWAYS clicks three times, even if you try and cancel it (and in an effort of trying to switch the right indicator off you inevitably find yourself signaling left and vice versa). There seems to be no substantial difference between fifth and six gears. You engage the clutch, throw the lever and -- well, nothing much. But then you really start struggling to find fault. The cup holders don't have an elegant glide and the driver's one isn't as accessible as it could be. While the electric thingum that extends telescopically to hand you the seat belt looks cheap. Harsh criticism. Cup holder aficionados and those who demand milled-aluminum electric hand-me-my-belt thingums may have to look elsewhere. Incidentally, BMW do have a name for the electric thingums. I prefer my own. Just as I prefer the term \"paddle shifts\" to \"SMG\" -- another minor grumble -- paddles shifts would be a welcome option, and one that BMW assured the assembled press would be added as an option in the future. BMW estimates that M3 buyers will be predominantly male and aged 31-50. They will own a number of high performance cars but use the M3 as their everyday conveyance. In the light of this market research, the most obvious criticism of the new M3 -- its price -- is something of an irrelevance. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Fourth generation BMW M3 coupe .\nPower from 420bhp V8 engine .\nTarget market 31-50 year old males in multi-automobile households ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Karma caught up with former Culture Club singer Boy George on Friday when a court sentenced the star to 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort, a court spokeswoman said. George O'Dowd, also known as Boy George, arrives at Snaresbrook Crown Court, in east London. Full details of the sentence weren't immediately clear. A jury unanimously found the pop star and DJ, whose real name is George O'Dowd, guilty of the charge last month after a seven-day trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in northeast London. The jury determined O'Dowd, 47, had chained male escort Audun Carlsen to a wall at his apartment in London's hip Shoreditch neighborhood. Carlsen had also said the singer beat him with a metal chain. Watch as Boy George arrives at court \u00bb . O'Dowd, who maintained his innocence, came to court Friday sporting a multicolored tattoo on his bald head, none of his trademark makeup, and a black winter coat. The star quit Culture Club in 1987 after a string of hits with the group, including \"Karma Chameleon,\" \"Do you really want to hurt me?\" and \"Church of the Poison Mind.\" He has since become a DJ and revived his singing career, releasing a single last year called \"Yes we can,\" inspired by Barack Obama and featuring clips of the U.S. president-elect. O'Dowd is no stranger to the law. In August 2006, he spent five days cleaning the streets of Manhattan as part of a community service sentence for falsely reporting a break-in at his New York City home. He has also publicly battled drug addiction.","highlights":"Former Culture Club singer jailed for falsely imprisoning a male escort .\nThe victim, Audun Carlsen, claimed he was also beaten with a chain .\nBoy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, has battled drug addiction .\nHe spent 5 days cleaning the streets of Manhattan in 2006 on community order ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Chinese government increased its harassment of religious minorities before the Olympic Games, according to a U.S. State Department report released Friday. A Tibetan Buddhist monk in southwest China's Sichuan province. The State Department's Annual Report on Religious Freedom singled out China, Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan to \"blacklist\" because they are \"countries of particular concern\" when it comes to religious oppression. Over the past year, \"repression of religious freedom intensified in some areas\" in China, including in the Tibetan region and in Xinjiang province, where the Uighur Muslims live. As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approached, some unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing reported intensified harassment from government authorities and said the government cracked down on home churches, the report says. The State Department found that over the past year, Chinese officials also detained and interrogated several foreigners about their religious activities, alleged that the foreigners had engaged in \"illegal religious activities\" and canceled their visas. The government also undertook a \"patriotic education campaign,\" which required monks and nuns to sign statements personally denouncing the Dalai Lama. As a result, the reports says, protests led to violence in Lhasa, Tibet, in March, and the government detained an unknown number of monks and nuns or expelled them from monasteries. In addition to its continued crackdown on groups such as the Falun Gong, which China considers a \"cult,\" the government harassed Uighur Muslims and confiscated some of their passports to prevent their taking part in the hajj, the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Once again, the U.S. criticized the government of Myanmar, saying its \"repressive, authoritarian military regime\" had \"imposed restrictions on certain religious activities and frequently committed abuses of the right to freedom of religion.\" Most followers of registered religions were permitted to worship as they chose, but the government infiltrated and monitored activities of virtually all organizations, including religious ones. The report says that although the North Korean constitution provides for religious freedom, \"genuine religious freedom does not exist, and there was no change in the extremely poor level of respect for religious freedom\" over the past year. In Iran, the report says, \"continued deterioration of the poor status of respect for religious freedom\" last year. \"Government actions and rhetoric created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all non-Shia religious groups, most notably for Baha'is, as well as Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, and members of the Jewish community,\" the report says. \"Government-controlled media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Baha'is. Reports of imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs continued.\" The State Department found some progress in Saudi Arabia. \"While overall government policies continue to place severe restrictions on religious freedom, there were incremental improvements in specific areas,\" the report says. However, the report goes on to note that \"Non-Muslims and Muslims who do not adhere to the government's interpretation of Islam continued to face significant political, economic, legal, social, and religious discrimination.\" It also criticizes U.S. allies in Pakistan and Jordan for aggressiveness toward religious minorities. The governments of Iraq and Afghanistan were praised for endorsing religious freedom, but the State Department found that the war-torn countries have problems. In Afghanistan, \"the residual effects of years of Taliban rule, popular suspicion regarding outside influence of foreigners, and weak democratic institutions hinder the respect for religious freedom.\" In Iraq, \"violence conducted by terrorists, extremists, and criminal gangs restricted the free exercise of religion and posed a significant threat to the country's vulnerable religious minorities.\" In releasing the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is \"concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept,\" which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations. She was referring to the Organization of Islamic Conference, a grouping of 57 Muslim states that does not recognize the right of individuals to freely change their religion and has prevented consensus on resolutions at the United Nations that would prohibit defamation of all religions, not just Islam. \"Despite a pretense of protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, the flawed concept attempts to limit freedom of religion and restrict the rights of all individuals to disagree with or criticize religion, in particular Islam,\" the report says. \"Instead of protecting religion practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech, and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom,\" Rice said.","highlights":"Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan \"blacklisted\"\nTibetan region and in Xinjiang province in China stepped up oppression of Muslims .\nState Department: China detained foreigners for their religion ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sailors aboard a U.S. ocean surveillance ship reacted with a mix of bemusement and profanity to what they said was harassment by Chinese ships earlier this month, according to video released Friday by the Pentagon. The Navy says this shows a trawler crew member using a hook to try to snag the Impeccable's towed acoustic array. \"Chinese aggression, from aboard the USNS Impeccable,\" one member of the American ship's crew is heard narrating. \"Details at 11.\" The Pentagon has raised concerns about a March 8 incident in which \"increasingly aggressive\" Chinese ships harassed the Impeccable, an unarmed survey ship with a mostly civilian crew. China's government accused the ship of violating Chinese and international laws during its patrols, which took place more than 100 miles off the Chinese coast. \"The U.S. claims are gravely in contravention of the facts and confuse black and white and they are totally unacceptable to China,\" Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said after news of the incident emerged. Five Chinese vessels shadowed the Impeccable, with two of them closing to within 25 feet while their crews waved Chinese flags and stripped down to their underwear in a sign of disrespect. The Impeccable also turned fire hoses on one of the ships \"in order to protect itself,\" the Pentagon said. The Pentagon said the Chinese also attempted to snag the sonar equipment that the ship was towing behind it, leaving crew members discussing possible orders to destroy the equipment at one point. \"Lou and Wilson man the hoses while the Chinese irritate us to tears,\" the video's narrator reports. \"Here he comes for another swipe at the array cable.\" Watch Pentagon video of Impeccable incident \u00bb . The 281.5-foot Impeccable is one of six surveillance ships that perform military survey operations, according to the Navy. It is an oceanographic ship that gathers underwater acoustic data, using sonar. It has a maximum speed of 13 knots -- or about 15 mph -- but it travels 3 knots, or 3.5 mph, when towing its array of monitoring equipment. It carries a crew of 20 mariners, five technicians and as many as 20 Navy personnel. The Chinese ships involved included a navy intelligence collection ship, a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries patrol vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers, the statement said.","highlights":"Irritation shows in video taken during harassment of U.S. ship by Chinese vessels .\nChina says Navy surveillance vessel was violating Chinese and international law .\nUSS Impeccable turned fire hoses on vessel that came close in March 8 incident .\nCrew discussed possibly destroying sonar equipment Impeccable was towing ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama huddled with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top military advisers at the White House on Friday as the administration continued its sweeping review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Each branch of the armed services was given a direct opportunity to tell Obama the effect on the military if a large number of additional forces are sent to Afghanistan, two military sources told CNN's Barbara Starr. The meeting was the seventh in a series of high-level discussions being held in part to forge a consensus on how best to confront Taliban and al Qaeda militants threatening the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. \"The president wants to get input from different services,\" White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said earlier this week. \"It's a chance to consult with uniformed military leadership as a part of his [Afghanistan-Pakistan] review.\" The potential for a major expansion of the number of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan comes with some misgivings from the military chiefs. The Army and Marine Corps have expressed concerns that it could make it tougher to give troops promised time at home with their families between overseas tours. The White House strategy review is being conducted against a backdrop of rising U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and increased Taliban violence. October has already become the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war began in late 2001, with the deaths of 56 American troops. Taliban militants have become increasingly bold. This week, they attacked a U.N. guesthouse in central Kabul, killing five U.N. staff members. There also is political turmoil surrounding a planned November 7 Afghan presidential election runoff. On Friday, a source close to the Afghan leadership told CNN that President Hamid Karzai's runoff opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, would withdraw from the race. The presidential campaign has become increasingly contentious as Abdullah demanded the removal of the country's election chief and 200 other staffers of the election commission to ensure a fair runoff. Abdullah and others have charged that massive fraud occurred in the first round of voting on August 20. The initial results gave Karzai the win, but a subsequent review by a U.N.-backed panel of election monitors threw out nearly one-third of Karzai's votes because of \"clear and convincing evidence of fraud.\" The result left Karzai short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. After a flurry of meetings with U.S. and U.N. officials, the Afghan president agreed to the runoff.","highlights":"Obama meets with national security advisers on Afghanistan .\nObama weighing whether to send additional troops to war zone .\nArmy, Marine Corps say increase will affect promised time off for troops .\nMeeting comes amid rise in U.S. troop casualties, political turmoil ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A well-known Iranian filmmaker has written an open letter calling for the release of journalist Roxana Saberi. In a letter, Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi blames himself for urging Roxana Saberi to stay in Iran. Bahman Ghobadi said he kept quiet about the arrest and conviction of the Iranian-American journalist at the request of her family. After Saberi was convicted last weekend and sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence, he said he felt he had to do something. He told CNN that Saberi, whom he described as his fiancee, is caught in a \"game of politics.\" In his letter, which has been posted by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Ghobadi blames himself for urging Saberi to stay in Iran despite her desire to leave. Also, he writes, \"My letter is a desperate call to all statesmen ... and to all those who can do something to help.\" \"From the other side of the ocean, the Americans have protested against her imprisonment, because she is an American citizen,\" he writes. \"But I say no, she is Iranian, and she loves Iran. I beg you, let her go! I beg you not to throw her in the midst of your political games! She is too weak and too pure to take part in your games. Let me be present at her trial, sit next to her wise father and gentle mother, and testify she is without guilt or reproach.\" The 40-year-old filmmaker said that Saberi was planning to leave the country, but he kept her from leaving until his latest film -- which will be shown at this year's Cannes film festival -- was completed. Ghobadi won the 2000 Golden Camera award at the Cannes festival for his feature film, \"A Time for Drunken Horses.\" Saberi, 31, was sentenced Saturday to eight years in prison after a one-day trial that was closed to the public. The decision prompted sharp denunciations from President Barack Obama, as well as other U.S. and international officials. Iranian officials initially said Saberi was held for buying a bottle of wine. The Foreign Ministry later said she was detained for reporting without proper accreditation. On April 9, word emerged that Saberi had been charged with espionage. Saberi's lawyer has said he will appeal the verdict. Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi has ordered the head of Tehran's Justice Department to make sure the appeals process is quick and fair. Ghobadi wrote that he is \"optimistic about her release, and I firmly hope the verdict will be canceled in the next stage of the trial.\" \"My Iranian girl with Japanese eyes and an American ID, is in jail. Shame on me! Shame on us!\" CNN's Igor Krotov and Shirzad Bozorghmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi writes letter calling for release of jailed journalist .\nFilmmaker says fiancee Roxana Saberi is caught in a \"game of politics\"\nJournalist \"is without guilt or reproach,\" filmmaker's letter says .\n\"Shame on me! Shame on us!\" the letter concludes ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Spike Lee's last film, the gratifyingly tense and tricky \"Inside Man,\" was celebrated -- rightly -- for the way that Lee finally jumped, feet first, into the studio-genre-movie game. Director Spike Lee poses for a shot during the filming of \"Miracle at St. Anna\" in Rome, Italy. He cooked up a gourmet-popcorn heist thriller and stamped every moment with his personality. Lee, until now, has never made a movie -- good or bad -- that wasn't unmistakably his. His latest, \"Miracle at St. Anna,\" is the first Hollywood feature to tell the story of the African-American soldiers who fought in the U.S. armed forces during World War II , and as such it's a movie with a monumental mission. Unfortunately, that's more or less the only monumental thing about it. \"Miracle\" isn't powerful, it's muddled and diffuse, and the disappointment of the film begins with what a hard time I had finding Spike Lee in it. Based on a 2002 novel by James McBride, who also wrote the screenplay, the movie has a drifting, scattershot structure and no real organizing tone or style (if you wondered what Lee's frozen-figure-on-receding-background shots might look like in a wartime setting, then keep wondering). The bizarrely contrived framing device is set in the 1980s, when a postal worker named Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) mutters in anger at an old John Wayne war flick on TV, then shoots and kills a man who shows up to buy stamps. (He surely has his reasons, but does he really get away with stashing a loaded Luger under his post-office window each day?) Watch Spike Lee talk about the film \u00bb . After his arrest, Hector won't talk, but a reporter finds a clue in the form of a priceless artifact hidden in his apartment: the head of a statue that once adorned a bridge in Florence that was wrecked by bombs during World War II. From this labored and gimmicky setup, the film flashes back to the itch and fear of battle, as Hector, along with other members of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division and its ''Buffalo Soldiers,'' stalks the Tuscan countryside. It's September 1944, and as they try to cross the Serchio River, the men are ambushed. The sequence has thunderous explosions, jittery editing, blown-up bodies -- everything but the virtuosity of staging that might have made the chaos and carnage revelatory instead of just a Saving Private Ryan rehash. Four members of the division end up stranded behind enemy lines, all but abandoned by a racist commander. In addition to Negron, there's Staff Sgt. Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), a college-educated stoic devoted to his service; Sgt. Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), furious at the world and a loose cannon, with no loyalty to the country he's fighting for; and Pvt. Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller), a starry-eyed oversize simpleton who rescues, and befriends, an Italian urchin (Matteo Sciabordi). The dramatic focal point, if you can call it that, is the war of wills between Stamps and Cummings. These two play out a version of the assimilate-versus-agitate debate that has echoed through many decades of African- American life, though this one would be more convincing if Ealy, a dynamic actor, had been asked to project his anger more in period, with a little less proto-gangsta recklessness. The men arrive at a picturesque village, where they mingle with the locals and Stamps and Cummings stoke their rivalry over Renata (Valentina Cervi), a married woman who is lovely in a saintly way. The film then veers into an endless, murky subplot about the Italian resistance from which it never recovers. \"Miracle at St. Anna\" wants to do too many things at once to do any of them with much verve. It aspires to be a war epic, but it's dominated less by combat than by flat, meandering talk. It wants to salute the flesh-and-blood valor of the Buffalo Soldiers, but these unsung heroes are treated as such impersonally symbolic and stiff-jointed types that their heroism shines only faintly. The movie tries to be raw and real, yet it isn't above trotting out a tyke who might have stepped out of Cinema Paradiso II to tag along with the soldiers as a mascot of sentiment. There are vile Nazis on hand -- and also a nice Nazi who does a really good deed. \"Miracle at St. Anna\" winds up as a pastiche of racial-historical correction, showboat atrocity, murder mystery, love story, and windy meditation. Is it any wonder that it's less than the sum of its ambitious parts? As odd as it may sound to say about a war film, though, the real trouble with \"Miracle\" is that Lee's filmmaking is joyless. EW Grade: C- . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Spike Lee's film tells story of African-American soldiers during World War II .\n\"Miracle\" isn't powerful but muddled and diffuse, reviewer writes .\nMovie based on a 2002 novel by James McBride who also wrote screenplay .\nReviewer: \"Real trouble with 'Miracle' is that Lee's filmmaking is joyless\""} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Actress Cameron Diaz talks candidly about love, guys, friends, family and charting her own course. Sunny days and a smiling Diaz, here shot near the Malibu shore. \"I'm mostly a jeans girl,\" she says . Casual style . Diaz doesn't strive to be taken seriously. Her style is relaxed, never more evident than with her wardrobe. \"I don't like overdone or being too put-together,\" she explains. \"I like casual chic. Eclectic style. I want to feel like I can go anywhere, whatever I'm wearing.\" Today is no exception. She's half glam, half laid-back. Her casualness comes courtesy of frayed jeans that show off her lightly tanned legs. \"I found these jeans today and was, like, 'Well hello, Abercrombie jeans!' They're really old, and I love them. I don't care that they've got holes in them.\" Watch thoughts on friends and sexy poll results \u00bb . She has paired them with a simple black sweater and added a dash of glitz with a crystal-and-gold cocktail ring from Barneys. \"I'm Cuban, so I'm drawn to things that sparkle. I like to use accessories to give things a bit of my own flavor.\" Men . So, is Diaz dating? \"I'm a woman,\" she says, like, Duh! \"Of course I'm dating. And is that so surprising? Oh my god, she's dating!\" So when you make a reported $15 million per movie, how do you make the call that someone is boyfriend material? \"I trust my judgment,\" she says. And though she won't divulge whom she's spending time with, she's clear on what she's looking for. \"My list is all about balance. You can have smart but not funny. You can have funny but not very smart. You can have intellectual but not social. But ... I want it all!\" Not that her life has gone exactly as planned. \"I thought I'd be married and have kids by the time I was 22. But when I got to 22, I realized that wasn't what I wanted, which was a huge lesson for me,\" she says. \"Am I going to have a baby? Who knows? I don't. I'm not going to live my life looking just for that. How can I know what my future holds?\" She pauses, then offers an answer: \"How about this -- I am happy right now. Does that count for anything?\" Family . Diaz lives 45 minutes from her family and has always spent a great deal of time with them. She raves about her parents, crediting them with fostering her sense of humor. \"They just celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary. They're just really good, cool people.\" This is one woman with a well populated inner circle. Says Diaz: \"I know I'll never be in a situation where I can't get to somebody for support.\" That support will never be more important. Sadly, after this interview was conducted, her father, Emilio Diaz, passed away unexpectedly. In the following days, the actress released a statement on behalf of her sister and mother: \"My dad was so loved by so many people, and his humor and spirit will always live in our hearts.\" Two of her father's favorite groups were the ocean conservation organizations Reef Check and Surfrider. To honor her father, she has asked that donations be made to those organizations in his name. In her interview, Diaz remembered how her dad taught a then scrawny young girl how to fight bullies in school. \"He said he'd always back me up if I got in trouble. He is a good man, stand up and loyal.\" Looks like that runs in the family.","highlights":"Actress Cameron Diaz likes \"casual chic, eclectic style\"\nSays she trust her judgment when it comes to dating .\nHer father taught her how to fight bullies in school ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day after publishing a cartoon that drew fire from critics who said it evoked historically racist images, the New York Post apologized in a statement on its Web site -- even as it defended its action and blasted some detractors. A New York Post cartoon has sparked a debate over race and cartooning this week. Many of those critical of the cartoon said it appeared to compare President Obama to a chimpanzee in a commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package. \"Wednesday's Page Six cartoon -- caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut -- has created considerable controversy,\" the paper said about the drawing, which shows two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot. The drawing is a reference to the mauling of a woman by a pet chimpanzee, which was then killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, \"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.\" The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an \"ineptly written\" stimulus bill. \"But it has been taken as something else -- as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism,\" reads the statement. \"This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.\" Watch reaction to Post's apology \u00bb . But the statement immediately swerves to fire back at some of the image's critics. \"However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past -- and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback,\" the statement says. \"To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon -- even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.\" Several African-American leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, attacked the image, which was drawn by artist Sean Delonas. Sharpton said Thursday he and the leaders of \"various groups\" would respond at 5 p.m. Friday outside The Post's offices in midtown Manhattan. \"Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended,\" the statement appeared to blame those who raised the issue \"rather than take responsibility for what they did,\" Sharpton said. He accused the newspaper of having \"belatedly come with a conditional statement after people began mobilizing and preparing to challenge the waiver of News Corp in the city where they own several television stations and newspapers.\" Delonas has made Sharpton the butt of previous cartoons in The Post. In a brief phone interview with CNN, Delonas called the controversy \"absolutely friggin' ridiculous.\" \"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon,\" Delonas told CNN. \"It's about the economic stimulus bill,\" he added. Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, said Wednesday that the cartoon \"is a clear parody of a current news event.\" \"It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist,\" Allan said in a written statement. But Sharpton was not alone in his criticism. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said The Post showed a \"serious lapse in judgment\" by running the cartoon. \"To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence,\" Ciara said in a written statement. \"Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst.\" iReport.com: Share your reaction to the N.Y. Post cartoon . \"Comparing President Obama and his effort to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable,\" said National Urban League President Marc Morial in a statement issued Wednesday. The nearly $800 billion stimulus package was the top priority for Obama, the first black U.S. president, who signed it Tuesday. In an open letter to The Post, musician John Legend criticized the newspaper and called on New Yorkers not to buy it, or talk to its reporters or buy its advertising space. Addressing the newspaper's editors, Legend wrote, \"Did it occur to you that our president has been receiving death threats since early in his candidacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have historically been compared to various apes as a way of racist insult and mockery? Did you intend to invoke these painful themes when you printed the cartoon? \"If that's not what you intended, then it was stupid and willfully ignorant of you not to connect these easily connectable dots. If it is what you intended, then you obviously wanted to be grossly provocative, racist and offensive.\" Either way, Legend said, the fact that the cartoon was printed \"is truly reprehensible.\"","highlights":"Sharpton: \"Various groups\" would respond at 5 p.m. at Post headquarters .\nNew York Post apologizes on Web site; blasts some \"opportunist\" detractors .\nPaper said cartoon was meant to mock what an \"ineptly written\" stimulus bill .\nPaper also said \"no apology is due\" to those who want payback for the past ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- After all the anticipation and hubbub, the weekend is coming to an end and the box office results are here: \"Watchmen\" (No. 1) grossed $55.7 million during its first frame, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers. \"Watchmen\" led the weekend box office, grossing $55.7 million during its first weekend. That's a solid sum, to be sure, although it's certainly on the low end of most projections. \"Watchmen\" premiered in more theaters (3,611) than any other R-rated movie in history, and it averaged an impressive $15,413 per venue, despite a potentially problematic long running time. It also scored the biggest debut of 2009 so far. Nonetheless, the movie's $55.7 million take (including $5.5 million from 124 IMAX screens) is substantially smaller than the $70.9 million that 300, the last R-rated graphic-novel movie from director Zack Snyder, earned on its opening weekend two years ago. And aside from that theater-count statistic (which almost any film could break at any time, really), there will be no major records to report on this weekend (for example, \"Watchmen's\" debut was just the fifth-best opening ever for an R-rated movie). I'd argue, in fact, that this opening is a bit soft, considering the great expectations that came with Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's landmark comic book -- not to mention \"Watchmen's\" hefty grosses from screenings at midnight on Friday and throughout its first day. After attracting some major initial interest, banking $25.1 million on Friday, the film's audience dropped off dramatically during the weekend: It grossed $19 million on Saturday and is expected to bring in just $11.5 million on Sunday. These are all big numbers, don't get me wrong, but, when combined with the fact that the film got a lukewarm CinemaScore grade of B from an audience that was largely comprised of older men, it all points to a rapid downward trend that may be difficult to reverse in the weeks to come. Elsewhere -- yes, there were other movies playing at the multiplex this weekend! -- a number of films continued to do what \"Watchmen\" must now aspire to, perhaps in vain: They stayed strong deep into their long runs. Tyler Perry's \"Madea Goes to Jail\" (No. 2) grossed $8.8 million on its third weekend; the film, Perry's biggest yet at the box office, has banked $76.5 million to date. \"Taken\" (No. 3) also moved along like the unstoppable force it has been for more than a month now, earning $7.5 million and bringing its six-week sum to $118 million. Best Picture winner \"Slumdog Millionaire\" (No. 4) was next with $6.9 million, which boosted its domestic haul to $125.4 million. And \"Paul Blart: Mall Cop\" (No. 5) took its eight-week total to $133.6 million thanks to another $4.2 million gross. iReport.com: What did you think of 'Watchmen'? Meanwhile, \"Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience\" (No. 9) completely fell off the map, dropping a staggering 78 percent to gross just $2.8 million. According to Box Office Mojo, that's the 15th biggest second-weekend decline of all time. Overall, the cumulative box office was up nearly 8 percent over the same frame a year ago, when 10,000 B.C. opened big, making this the fifth consecutive \"up\" weekend at the multiplex. So, all in all, I'd say today's was a good report, indeed. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" premiered in more theaters than any other R-rated movie in history .\nTyler Perry's \"Madea Goes to Jail\" (No. 2) grossed another $8.8 million .\nBest Picture winner \"Slumdog Millionaire\" took the No. 4 slot with $6.9 million ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five years from now, there's an excellent chance you won't have the same health insurance you have (or don't have) right now. That's because members of Congress are gearing up to reform the U.S. health care system, and unlike in 1993 when then-first lady Hillary Clinton tried her hand at changing the medical system, this time the important players -- doctors, insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers -- seem to be on board. You heard a lot about health care reform this week, and you'll be hearing even more in the months to come. It's an incredibly confusing, complex issue, so in this week's Empowered Patient, we break it down for you with 10 frequently asked questions about health care reform. Overhauling health care is key to U.S. economic stability, President Obama tells doctors Monday. 1. Why is health care reform such a hot issue right now? Fewer and fewer Americans have health insurance, and therefore cannot afford good medical care. Nearly 46 million Americans have no insurance, and 25 million more are underinsured. One major reason for this crisis is that many employers have stopped offering insurance to employees because of the high cost. In the United States, total health care spending was $2.4 trillion in 2007 -- or $7,900 per person -- according to an analysis published in the journal Health Affairs. The United States spends 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation, Norway, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. There's little debate that health care reform is necessary -- President Obama, Republican and Democratic members of Congress, the American Medical Association and America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents the insurance industry, all have agreed the system needs to be changed, although they disagree on how to do it. 2. So let's start with Obama. What are his plans for revamping the system? A central point of the president's plan is to create a government-sponsored health insurance program that would be an option for all Americans, similar to how Medicare is now an option for Americans over age 65. He has also said he'd \"like to see\" prohibitions against insurers discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, and incentives for people to use preventive services and wellness plans. Obama outlined this plan last week at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and on his Web site. 3. How does the president plan to pay for this? Obama said he's already identified \"hundreds of billions of dollars\" worth of savings in the federal budget that could help finance health care reform, such as rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. He's also proposed reducing tax deductions for high-income Americans. 4. What do the Republicans think of Obama's plan? In particular, they don't like the idea of having a government-sponsored health insurance program for all Americans. They fear employers would opt for the government-run insurance over private insurance because the government option would most likely be less expensive, but Republicans say it would also be lower quality. For information, see House Minority Leader John Boehner's Web site. 5. Since they don't like Obama's ideas, how would Republicans like to reform health care? Republicans think Obama's plan is costly and will make health insurance more expensive, not less. In a plan outlined this week, House Republicans proposed individual tax breaks for buying health insurance and \"pools\" of states and small business to get lower-cost health care plans. They also proposed increasing incentives for people to build health savings accounts, allowing dependent children to stay on parents' policies until age 25 and encouraging employers to reward employees for improved health. 6. I'm happy with the insurance I receive from my employer. What would health care reform mean for me? If you receive high-quality health insurance from your employer, Obama said, his plan won't change that, and you can still keep your insurance and your doctors. Republicans, however, said that if Obama gets his way, there's a good chance your employer will stop buying the private insurance you have now and instead opt for the less-expensive government plan. 7. I have a pre-existing condition and can't get health insurance. Will health care reform help me? You have a terrible problem and you're in good company. Millions of people who don't get insurance through their employer try to get insurance on their own and are turned down because they have a pre-existing condition. Obama said at the Green Bay town hall meeting that under his reforms, no insurance plan \"would be able to deny coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions,\" but he didn't explain how he would force insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing health problems. Similarly, Boehner wrote on his blog that \"quality health coverage must exist for every American, regardless of pre-existing health conditions,\" but did not explain how he would pay to insure people with pre-existing conditions. 8. How do doctors feel about health care reform? The American Medical Association said while it believes in health care reform, \"the AMA does not believe that creating a public health insurance option ... is the best way to expand health insurance coverage.\" The AMA has told members of Congress that doctors fear a new government-sponsored health insurance program would reimburse them at Medicare rates. \"Medicare reimbursement rates have not kept pace with the cost of practice,\" AMA President Dr. Nancy Nielsen told CNN earlier this week. \"Our Medicare rates are back at 2001 rates, and the reality is, that's not where our rent is, that's not where the electricity is. The system for paying doctors is a broken system, and everybody acknowledges it.\" Other doctors' groups, however, support the idea. The American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Physicians Alliance and other groups put out a statement of support this week for Obama's plan. \"Having the choice of a public health insurance plan will help make health care more affordable for patients, foster greater competition in the insurance market and guarantee that quality, affordable coverage will be there for our patients no matter what happens,\" they wrote in a joint statement.. 9. Obama has mentioned high health care costs in McAllen, Texas, several times. What's up with that? According to research conducted at the Dartmouth Institute, the average per person health costs for McAllen are sky-high compared with costs in other cities. In McAllen, the average Medicare beneficiary spends $15,758 per year, while the average Medicare patient in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, spends $6,412 per year. Another comparison: The cost in Miami, Florida, is $18,170, compared with $7,478 in Portland, Oregon. Dartmouth researchers believe doctors in high-priced cities tend to refer to specialists more and are more likely to put patients in the hospital rather than handling their problems on an outpatient basis. 10. How do health care costs in the U.S. compare with costs in other countries? In the United States, every person spends on average $6,714 for health care. That's significantly higher than in the United Kingdom, where $2,760 per person is spent; or in France, where the cost is $3,449 per person; or in Canada, where medical costs are $3,678 per person, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. While some would argue that medical care is better in the United States than in these other countries, others would say the opposite is true. For example, the United States ranks 50th in life expectancy, and 180th infant mortality (meaning 179 countries have higher infant mortality rates such as Angola and Turkey and 43 countries have lower infant mortality rates such as France and Sweden) according to the CIA World Factbook. For more on international price comparisons, see this segment \u00bb on CNN Newsroom. CNN's Jennifer Pifer Bixler, Marcy Heard and Sabriya Rice contributed to this report .","highlights":"President Obama says health care reform is a priority; other stakeholders on board .\nU.S. spends 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation .\nObama wants government-sponsored health insurance program .\nRepublicans think plan is costly, will make health insurance more expensive ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rudy Ruiz founded RedBrownandBlue.com, a site featuring multicultural political commentary, hosts a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show; and wrote a guide to success for immigrants (\"\u00a1Adelante!\" published by Random House). He is co-founder and president of Interlex, an advocacy marketing agency based in San Antonio, Texas. Rudy Ruiz says people hold on to their views despite the evidence for fear of being labeled a flip-flopper. SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- As people shout over each other and tune out diverging views in town hall meetings, the health care debate is proving to be symptomatic of a major ailment threatening our nation: . A contagious culture of closed-mindedness threatens to suffocate our progress as a society. Why has it become so difficult to even consider changing our minds about important issues? Here's my diagnosis. Increasingly, the willingness to change one's position on political issues has been misread as a mark of weakness rather than a product of attentive listening and careful deliberation. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, the successful branding of John Kerry as a flip-flopper doomed his bid. Fear of \"flip-flopper syndrome\" is apparently catching like the flu, because today politicians are not alone in their determination to adhere to partisan positions despite the changing needs of our nation. Nearly everyone's so reluctant to appear wishy-washy that they stand firm even when the evidence is against their views. Three factors exacerbate this paralysis by lack of analysis: labels, lifestyles and listening. First, the labels ascribed to many potential policy tools render sensible options taboo, loading what could be rational, economic or social measures with moral baggage. This narrows our choices, hemming in policy makers. Any proposal including the words \"government-run\" elicits cries of \"socialism\" and \"communism.\" Any argument invoking the words \"God\" or \"moral\" sparks accusations of \"right-wing extremism,\" \"fascism,\" or \"Bible-thumping.\" Instead of listening to each other's ideas, we spot the warning label and run the other way. Second, our lifestyles favor knee-jerk reactions. The way we think, work and live in the Digital Age demands we quickly categorize information without investing time into rich interaction, research and understanding. We're hesitant to ask questions because we don't have time to listen to the long, complicated answers that might follow. And we lack the time to fact-check competing claims. In our haste, it's easier to echo our party's position than drill down, questioning whether party leaders are motivated by our best interests or the best interests of their biggest contributors. Third, we tend to listen only to like-minded opinions as media fragmentation encourages us to filter out varying perspectives. If you're a liberal, you avoid FOX News. If you're a conservative you revile MSNBC. The dynamic is even more pronounced online, where a niche media source can be found for any outlook. This silences the opportunity for meaningful dialogue and deliberation that might lead to reformulating positions, forging sustainable compromises, and developing consensus crucial to moving our nation forward on complex issues. So how can we overcome this challenge, starting with the health care debate? How do we open our minds to the possibility that we could actually learn from somebody else? Here's my prescription. For starters, we should eschew the notion that changing our minds is a character flaw. To the contrary, experts believe it's a manifestation of higher intelligence. Renowned psychologist Stuart Sutherland wrote in \"Irrationality,\" his seminal 1992 book: \"The willingness to change one's mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness.\" To further free our minds, we should aggressively treat the three Ls: . Let's lose the labels: from \"flip-flopper\" to \"commie,\" from \"fear-monger\" to \"right-wing nut job.\" Trash the diatribe; mull the ideas. Let's engage in some constructive lifestyle management, slowing down to ponder -- and make independent decisions -- as enlightened people. We cannot allow the technological evolution to rob us of the intellectual strides of the American Revolution. We must value the art of listening, reflection, comparative analysis, and civil discourse if we're to make the most of our democracy. In the process, we should signal to leaders that we're willing to expand our horizons beyond party lines. Maybe they'll get in front of our parade, collaborating for a change. Let's request a second opinion and listen to each other. Switch channels. Visit different Web sites. Read a newspaper, while we can still find one. How about stepping into a town hall with an open mind, prepared to converse with people hailing from diverse circumstances? A range of perspectives enriches our viewpoint, empowering us to craft nuanced responses to complex situations. Ultimately, we must stop thinking that the only thing to think is what we've thought all along. As we learn more about multifaceted matters, our positions should evolve accordingly. Let's accept that it's OK to change your minds. In the end, opening our minds can only enhance the prognosis for our most cherished patient: America. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz.","highlights":"Rudy Ruiz: It's become unfashionable to have an open mind about issues .\nHe says labels like \"socialism\" and \"fascism\" obscure the real choices .\nHe says it's a sign of rationality to be open to the evidence .\nRuiz: Let's listen to each other and take into consideration wider range of viewpoints ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- They've been teasing and tantalizing female readers with images of muscular men oozing sensuality and the pretty women they are destined to save and then fall in love with. The \"beefcakes and bodices\" book covers have helped Harlequin sell their romance novels for more than half a century. Powerful men and demure women were stock in trade in early Harlequin novels. \"It's always great to feel like you're the girl in the book and the handsome guy is coming to rescue you,\" said Liz Lenz, 25, who has been reading Harlequin novels since she was a teen. \"It's always fun for the reader.\" Those covers also seduced Winnipeg, Canada, teacher Louann Bergen. \"There's usually good-looking males on the covers or something intriguing to make you want to read more,\" she said. \"I guess they change with the times, but they still have that same allure and that same passion behind them.\" As sort of a 60th anniversary gift to its faithful readers, Harlequin is displaying original artwork for its covers in an New York exhibit called \"The Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009.\" And before you sniff disdainfully at romance novel art, be reminded: That artwork sells a lot of books. Romance fiction is responsible for $1.375 billion in book sales every year, according to Romance Writers of America. The organization says more than a quarter of all books sold are romance novels, satisfying 51 million readers every year. The Harlequin exhibit comes from boxes and boxes of old novels that employees discovered at the company's headquarters in Toronto, Canada. \"I pawed through literally thousands of paintings,\" curator Elizabeth Semmelhack said, adding that she saw apparent shifts in women's historical desires began to emerge. Watch the curator discuss some favorites \u00bb . \"Rather than being retardataire [outdated], many of these images are extremely cutting edge,\" she said. \"There are images of women doctors before women were really embraced by the workplace. There are women who are adventuring around the world before independence is really part of women's culture.\" Many early Harlequin covers, like that of Elizabeth Houghton's \"Island Hospital,\" in which a man, woman and grizzly bear stand poised in confrontation, depict more than one (fully clothed) character in the crux of a suspenseful moment. \"You don't know, is the couple going to get together? Is the hero going to save the heroine? The happy ending is not on the cover,\" Semmelhack explained. The illustrations have changed their tone over the years. Where cover art used to hint at psychological intrigue, it's grown to instead promise a passionate physical conclusion. \"From the earliest covers, there's sort of an implied sexual tension, but there isn't much direct imaging of passion. That doesn't happen until the late '70s and into the '80s,\" she said. \"By the time you hit the sexual revolution and passion becomes of primary importance on these covers, then that lover's embrace in many ways signals the happy ending right there on the front of the book.\" And in recent decades, the once revolutionary depictions of the lovers' raw embrace have been reduced further. \"Today, covers might just be the undressed male body. He might even be headless. He's so truncated that all you're doing is looking at the object of desire, his masculinity.\" Although Harlequin romances are predominantly written for and read by women, according to Semmelhack, the majority of the publisher's cover illustration artists have been male. \"It is interesting that you have men imaging female desire,\" she said. \"It seems to work; the books certainly sell.\" This year, Harlequin books, which publishes 1,200 new titles annually, reported first quarter earnings up more than 13 percent. Debbie Macomber, who has published 153 books since 1983 -- and is most recently author of a May New York Times Harlequin best-seller, \"Summer on Blossom Street.\" -- visited the \"Heart of a Woman\" exhibit on opening night. \"There were some that really made me laugh out loud,\" Macomber said. \"It was amazing to see the role and the progression of the women's movement in the cover art itself. I get letters from 13-year-old girls and women who are in their 90s, and that's one of my goals as a writer: to write books that are relevant to my readers.\"","highlights":"Decades of busting bodices, bulging biceps, intrigue and glamour in exhibition .\nHarlequin displays half a century of romance book covers in New York .\nCurator: Covers go from psychological intrigue to passionate physical conclusion .\nReader says books \"still have that same allure and that same passion\""} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A distraught, sobbing Afghan Taliban member begged the court for mercy, but got none as an unmoved federal judge here Monday handed down maximum life sentences for convictions on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. A guard watches over a pile of burning drugs in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 25, 2008. Khan Mohammed, 38, of Nangarhar Province became the first person convicted and sentenced in the United States under a 2006 law that increased the penalty for a defendant found to be involved with terrorism and distributing illegal drugs. Mohammed, who had been extradited from Afghanistan, was convicted by a jury in May of plotting a rocket attack on U.S. military forces and Afghan civilians at Jalalabad Airfield. He also was found guilty of distributing between $1 million and $3 million worth of heroin into the United States \"to kill Americans as part of a jihad.\" Mohammed's court-appointed lawyer, conceding that \"what he did was wrong,\" urged U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to be lenient and sentence his client to only 20 years in prison. Then the full-bearded Mohammed, dressed in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit, addressed the judge. With tears streaming down his face, and choking back his words, he begged for only one or two years. \"I have little children and a woman. They depend on me,\" Mohammed began. \"I'm so worried about them.\" His lengthy emotional appeal went on to include his reason for selling opium. \"In my village that's how you have to make a living. There is no house there without opium,\" he said. Justice Department prosecutor Matthew Stiglitz, however, urged the court to \"send a message of deterrence,\" and warned against \"the confluence of drug trafficking and terrorism.\" \"No, he's not the Osama bin Laden of terrorism. No, he's not the Pablo Escobar of the drug world,\" Stiglitz told the judge. \"But this is where the rubber meets the road.\" Bin Laden is the head of al Qaeda, while Escobar, who died in 1993, was the most powerful of Colombian drug lords. \"Afghanistan is ground zero for opium, and an almost limitless source of funds to the Taliban,\" he argued. Kollar-Kotelly agreed fully with the prosecutors, and strongly admonished the Taliban defendant. \"You were convicted 99 percent by your own words,\" the judge declared, as she recalled how a \"courageous\" Afghan police chief wore an undercover wire to record Mohammed's plotting. \"The fact that no one died is only because you didn't get the missiles you wanted,\" she said. \"In 2006, you celebrated the Americans' use of the opium. It was a jihad. You knew the damage it could cause,\" the judge continued. \"Because of your undiluted hatred for the United States, you might well have launched other attacks had you not been arrested.\" She added, \"Terrorists stand unique among criminals. Deterrence is very important here.\" Then, concluding dramatically, the judge turned directly to the defendant. \"I heard your concerns for your family but no acceptance of responsibility for your action,\" the judge said. \"Defendants often express worry for their families, but if they considered the consequences of their actions beforehand, maybe they would have acted differently.\"","highlights":"Khan Mohammed convicted of plotting rocket attack, selling heroin .\nMohammed the first convicted under law increasing penalties for \"narco-terrorists\"\nCiting his family, Mohammed cries and pleads with judge to have mercy .\nJudge says Mohammed had \"undiluted hatred for the United States\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman who was beheaded near Buffalo, New York -- allegedly by her husband -- may have been on the phone with her sister when she was killed. Muzzammil Hassan has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. Asma Firfirey of suburban Cape Town, South Africa, told the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger that she was on the phone with her sister, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, last week when she heard Hassan tell her husband to calm down. She said she heard Hassan say the two could talk about their impending divorce the following day. Then she heard something that sounded like her sister struggling to breathe, she said. \"I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died,\" Firfirey said in the interview, reported in English by South Africa's News 24. Police have charged Hassan's husband, Muzzammil Hassan, with second-degree, or intentional, murder in the death of his wife, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. Her decapitated body was found at the offices of Bridges TV, the television network where Muzzammil Hassan was chief executive officer and Aasiya Hassan was general manager. Hassan told Orchard Park police his wife was dead, led officers to her body and was arrested Thursday, said Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz on Tuesday contradicted a CNN report that quoted him as saying Hassan confessed to the crime. A Buffalo attorney told CNN on Tuesday that he expects to represent Hassan but declined further comment, saying details had not yet been worked out. Hassan came to America from Pakistan 25 years ago and became a successful banker, but he and his wife were troubled by the negative perception of Muslims, Voice of America reported in 2004. Speaking in December 2004, Hassan said his wife, then pregnant, was worried about that perception and \"felt there should be an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling really strong about their identity as an American Muslim.\" \"So she came up with the idea and turned to me and said, 'Why don't you do it?' \" he said. \"And I was like, I have no clue about television. I'm a banker. ... And her comment was, 'You have an MBA. Why don't you write a business plan?' \" Bridges TV began as a television network for Muslim-Americans, aimed at overcoming the negative stereotypes associated with the religion. \"There should be a Muslim media,\" Muzzammil Hassan told VOA, \"so that Muslim children growing up in America grow up with the self-confidence and high self-esteem about their identity both as Americans and as Muslims.\" In the past few years, according to a former employee who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, Bridges TV transformed itself into more of a cross-cultural network seeking to bridge the gap between all cultures. Most of their employees were not Muslim, the former employee said, and Muzzammil Hassan himself was not devout. Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce February 6, police said, and Muzzammil Hassan was served with divorce papers at the station. That night, he showed up at the couple's home, she notified authorities and he was served with a restraining order. Police are not commenting on details of the crime, except to say the woman's body did not appear to have been moved. They also would not divulge what Muzzammil Hassan told police or the suspected motive. The law firm representing Aasiya Hassan refused to comment, only confirming that she had filed for divorce. Benz told CNN on Tuesday that police had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's address, but no one was arrested. Firfirey, as well as a Pakistani woman identifying herself as another of Aasiya Hassan's sisters, characterized her as living in fear. Firfirey said the last time she saw her sister was in May 2008, when she visited South Africa. When she arrived, she was badly injured, and Firfirey's family paid the equivalent of about $3,000 for her to be treated, she said. Aasiya Hassan returned to America, she said, because she wanted to complete her MBA degree and \"didn't want to leave her children with that monster.\" She said she calls Muzzammil Hassan \"the fat man with evil eyes.\" Aasiya Hassan would have graduated March 6, Firfirey said. A woman in Pakistan using the name Salma Zubair posted on a blog that she is the sister of \"this brutally murdered woman.\" \"She lived her 8 years of married life with fear in heart,\" Zubair wrote. \"He had already frightened her enough that she couldn't muster up her guts and leave him, and when she finally did gather that much strength he killed her so brutally. She lived to protect her children from this man and his family and she died doing so.\" She said Aasiya Hassan \"had always been a very loving person, not even one person in this world can say a small wrong word about her ... she had always dreamed a life of a happily married family, which she did her best to achieve.\" Both women said they were worried about the couple's children, ages 4 and 6. Firfirey said they were being cared for by a colleague of the couple. Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children from a previous marriage. Members of Muzzammil Hassan's family did not return calls from CNN on Monday. The former employee told CNN that Aasiya Hassan was popular at the station and was very kind. Muzzammil Hassan was known among employees for having a temper -- he sometimes would yell at and demean his wife, but at other times appeared to be a loving husband and father, the former employee said. Bridges TV released a statement Monday saying its staff was \"deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya Hassan and the subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the families of the victim.\" Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, said Aasiya Hassan's death serves \"as a wake-up call to call of us, that violence against women is real and cannot be ignored ... the Muslim community is not exempt from this issue. We, the Muslim community, need to take a strong stand against domestic violence.\" CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"New York man charged with second-degree murder after wife found beheaded .\nPolice: Woman's decapitated body found at TV station where she, husband worked .\nReport: Sister says she may have been on phone with victim when she was killed .\nAasiya Zubair Hassan had filed for divorce from Muzzammil Hassan days earlier ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day. Suha, 37, is a mother of three. She says her husband thinks she is cleaning houses when she leaves home. \"People shouldn't criticize women, or talk badly about them,\" says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. \"They all say we have lost our way, but they never ask why we had to take this path.\" A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her. \"I don't have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother,\" she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself. Anger and frustration rise in her voice as she speaks. \"No matter what else I may be, no matter how off the path I may be, I am a mother!\" Watch a woman describe turning to prostitution to \"save my child\" \u00bb . Her clasped hands clench and unclench nervously. Suha's husband thinks that she is cleaning houses when she goes away. So does Karima's family. \"At the start I was cleaning homes, but I wasn't making much. No matter how hard I worked it just wasn't enough,\" she says. Karima, clad in all black, adds, \"My husband died of lung cancer nine months ago and left me with nothing.\" She has five children, ages 8 to 17. Her eldest son could work, but she's too afraid for his life to let him go into the streets, preferring to sacrifice herself than risk her child. She was solicited the first time when she was cleaning an office. \"They took advantage of me,\" she says softly. \"At first I rejected it, but then I realized I have to do it.\" Both Suha and Karima have clients that call them a couple times a week. Other women resort to trips to the market to find potential clients. Or they flag down vehicles. Prostitution is a choice more and more Iraqi women are making just to survive. \"It's increasing,\" Suha says. \"I found this 'thing' through my friend, and I have another friend in the same predicament as mine. Because of the circumstance, she is forced to do such things.\" Violence, increased cost of living, and lack of any sort of government aid leave women like these with few other options, according to humanitarian workers. \"At this point there is a population of women who have to sell their bodies in order to keep their children alive,\" says Yanar Mohammed, head and founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. \"It's a taboo that no one is speaking about.\" She adds, \"There is a huge population of women who were the victims of war who had to sell their bodies, their souls and they lost it all. It crushes us to see them, but we have to work on it and that's why we started our team of women activists.\" Her team pounds the streets of Baghdad looking for these victims often too humiliated to come forward. \"Most of the women that we find at hospitals [who] have tried to commit suicide\" have been involved in prostitution, said Basma Rahim, a member of Mohammed's team. The team's aim is to compile information on specific cases and present it to Iraq's political parties -- to have them, as Mohammed puts it, \"come tell us what [they] are ... going to do about this.\" Rahim tells the heartbreaking story of one woman they found who lives in a room with three of her children: \"She has sex while her three children are in the room, but she makes them stand in separate corners.\" According to Rahim and Mohammed, most of the women they encounter say they are driven to prostitution by a desperate desire for survival in the dangerously violent and unforgiving circumstances in Iraq. \"They took this path but they are not pleased,\" Rahim says. Karima says when she sees her children with food on the table, she is able to convince herself that it's worth it. \"Everything is for the children. They are the beauty in life and, without them, we cannot live.\" But she says, \"I would never allow my daughter to do this. I would rather marry her off at 13 than have her go through this.\" Karima's last happy memory is of her late husband, when they were a family and able to shoulder the hardships of life in today's Iraq together. Suha says as a young girl she dreamed of being a doctor, with her mom boasting about her potential in that career. Life couldn't have taken her further from that dream. \"It's not like we were born into this, nor was it ever in my blood,\" she says. What she does for her family to survive now eats away at her. \"I lay on my pillow and my brain is spinning, and it all comes back to me as if I am watching a movie.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Aid workers: Violence, increased cost of living drive women to prostitution .\nGroup is working to raise awareness of the problem with Iraq's political leaders .\nTwo Iraqi mothers tell CNN they turned to prostitution to help feed their children .\n\"Everything is for the children,\" one woman says ."} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A restaurateur has gone to great lengths to tackle the spread of the H1N1 virus in his eatery, including taking staff's temperatures before they start work and preventing them from touching plates directly. Kitchen staff at Silk and Soya restaurant in Spain wear face masks and gloves while preparing food. Silk and Soya, a Thai-themed restaurant in Madrid, Spain, implemented the measures to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, in the upscale locale. \"We implemented these measures so that our employees would serve only food, not a virus,\" restaurant owner Cipri Quintas told CNN. As well as employees having their temperatures taken before starting their shifts, windows are opened to aerate the restaurant before meals. Each table is set at least one meter -- 3.2 feet -- from any other table. Any member of the kitchen staff involved in food preparation must wear a mask and gloves, and waiters are required to hold napkins when carrying plates to avoid touching them directly with their hands. Upon entering the elevators leading to the top-floor restaurant, customers find an automatic disinfectant gel dispenser. At each table, diners find a packet of gel next to their silverware. The restaurant's restroom doors are propped open, the lights turn on automatically and the faucets are hands-free -- measures intended to keep customers from having to touch surfaces after they've washed their hands. Similar initiatives are under way around the world. Last spring, during the peak of the scare in Mexico City, restaurants were closed for 12 days. When the restaurants reopened, the government ordered owners to put extra space between the tables and not to allow more than half of seats to be filled at any given time; cooks and waiters were mandated to wear surgical masks. The World Health Organization's Web site states that hand-washing is one of the best ways to prevent infection and provides instructions with drawings that can be printed and posted in public places, such as restaurants. Silk and Soya's Quintas started his anti-H1N1 measures in August and has already proved popular with some customers. Simona Savin, who was having lunch, told CNN, \"These are measures you don't see everywhere. Here you have everything. They are great because there's a need for hygiene.\" Another diner, swimming coach Fernando Barea, said, \"We came to the restaurant because we heard good things about it and I wanted to see these measures against the H1N1 flu. These measures should be used by other restaurants.\" Quintas predicted they soon will be. \"People from other businesses like hotels and theaters have called us asking, 'What have you done? Can we come see your setup?' There's been a big response,\" said Quintas. He insisted that his goal is not solely to garner publicity, but to protect his customers and staff -- a responsibility, he said, that the business community at large should undertake. One expert on the disease applauded the efforts and recommended they be broadened. \"They should implement them every winter against all respiratory diseases,\" said Dr. Tom Jefferson, a medical epidemiologist with the Cochrane Collaboration. The international organization reviews health care interventions and \"promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions,\" according to its Web site. As of September 13, the WHO had tallied more than 296,000 cases worldwide, 3,486 of them fatal.","highlights":"Thai-themed restaurant in Madrid implements anti H1N1 flu measures .\nEmployees have their temperatures taken, windows are opened, gel provided .\nRestaurant owner says there is \"a big response\" from other owners ."} -{"article":"DULUTH, Georgia (CNN) -- Neither the on-the-field fame nor the off-the-field notoriety of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was enough to spark a bidding war for his suburban Atlanta mansion Tuesday. No one submitted the minimum $3.2 million bid for former Falcon Michael Vick's Atlanta-area mansion. The multimillion-dollar home in Duluth was on the auction block Tuesday, but just three real estate agents showed up -- and one of them, Lance Hempen of Funari Realty, was a listing agent who had no clients interested in the property. No one offered a bid, so the auction ended before it began. The auction required a minimum bid of $3.2 million, with a deposit of $160,000. Vick, 28, is serving a 23-month sentence after pleading guilty in August 2007 to a federal conspiracy charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He is expected to be released early, possibly in May, and to serve the final two months or so of his sentence under home confinement, most likely in Virginia. No dogfights occurred in Duluth, 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. The home, in the upscale Sugarloaf Country Club community, has been on the market for more than a year. It has eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a four-car garage and a movie theater, among other deluxe features. Narender Reddy of Metro Brokers\/GMAC Real Estate said his client offered $3.2 million for the home two months ago, but the auction organizers said they wanted to see whether someone would offer more. Reddy said his client withdrew the bid but remains interested. \"Why would I let them use my offer as a benchmark?\" Reddy asked. \"I wanted to see who was going to bid and what were they going to offer.\" He will advise his client to offer less money now, Reddy said. Seema Jain of Virtual Properties Realty also was on hand. She said that she has interested buyers but that they didn't want to bid if there was no competition. The next step is to be determined by the bankruptcy judge in Virginia who ordered the sale. Reddy said the price is too high for today's economy. \"It is the economy that is dictating the price of the houses, and I'm sure most of the people still think $3.2 million ... is higher than what the market can fetch,\" he said. Jain said no one seems turned off by Vick's reputation. \"Nobody cares about who owns it. It's just the product and the location,\" she said. Reddy said the home is \"well-built, has a lake view and an excellent floor plan.\" CNN's Amanda Moyer and Deb Krajnak contributed to this report.","highlights":"No one submitted minimum $3.2 million bid for Michael Vick's mansion .\nVick, former quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, is in prison .\nHe was convicted last year in connection with dogfighting operation .\nMansion in Duluth, Georgia, has eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"American Idol\" viewers had a clear choice when it came down to the final decision: the low-key but sincere Kris Allen or the flamboyant and powerful Adam Lambert. \"American Idol\" winner Kris Allen, left, and runner-up Adam Lambert say they're good friends. The vote went for Allen, and Lambert told Ryan Seacrest on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that the outcome didn't surprise him. There are no hard feelings, though. Allen, Lambert, Danny Gokey and the other seven finalists spoke of their friendship and camaraderie on \"Larry King Live.\" Here is an edited transcript of the interview. Ryan Seacrest: I think the first thing you said [after being announced as the winner] was \"Adam's great.\" Actually on the air, you were complimenting him at the moment you should be complimenting yourself. Kris Allen: I think that's kind of how I am. Seriously, we're really good friends and he's amazing. He's been probably the most consistent performer this year, and just overall probably one of the best performers that's ever been on the \"Idol\" stage. Watch Kris Allen heap praise on Adam Lambert \u00bb . Seacrest: So aside from getting more votes, why do you think you won? Allen: I don't know. I think it was a combination of a lot of stuff. It was maybe, probably, a little bit of personality, a little bit of -- hopefully it was about the music, as well. I know that's not always the case on \"American Idol.\" That's what I care about the most: the music and how I portray it. Seacrest: It's no secret that you're a man of faith, that you referred to the \"Christian thing,\" as it were. You didn't rely on the Christian vote. Do you think that played a part in your win, though? Allen: I hope it didn't. Because I guess me and Adam were doing an interview before the show: \"Kris, do you think you're going to get the Christian vote now that Danny's gone?\" And that was rough, that was kind of upsetting, because the show's not about religion. We're not running for president. We are there to do music and there to sing, and hopefully people vote on that. Seacrest: I've seen the show 300-plus episodes, and I know that you have to develop some sort of strategy. So what was yours? Allen: I think my strategy throughout the whole thing was, 'don't steer away from what you know how to do.' And that's just go out there and be yourself. I went out there and I played my type of music. And I really wanted to change stuff up a little bit and be kind of bold in my music choices, and just do what I believed in. Seacrest: You guys have been through it. The question everyone wants an answer to, finally I get to ask you. What kind of guy-liner do you wear? Adam Lambert: I don't know, whatever the make-up artist puts on me, you know. Seacrest: In that beat before I [announced the winner], what were you thinking? Lambert: I kind of figured, OK, it's anyone's game at this point. I knew it was going to be a close race. And actually in my head, believe it or not, I went, that's so Kris, it's so going to be Kris. I felt it. Seacrest: You're human, so you had to be let down a little bit. Lambert: You know what? I honestly mentally prepared myself for any possibility. And we kind of kept telling each other, you know, it's such an honor to be here. We had so much fun last night. And tonight we got to sing with Queen. The point is not a title. The point is the opportunity. And I feel like we got that opportunity. Watch the shock over the \"Idol\" finale \u00bb . Seacrest: So what do you think happened with the voting? The judges called you the darling throughout the course of the season. And then you didn't get the first-place votes. What happened? Lambert: Well, I'm sure that when Danny was out of the competition, I think his fans probably would be more apt to go for Kris' style. Allen: I think a lot of people thought that too. Lambert: I wasn't worried. I just assumed that would be the case. Seacrest: Why? Lambert: Kris' appeal is more like Danny's appeal than mine. I just kind of figured. Seacrest: Does the fact that the judges pick you out early in the season hurt in the long run? Lambert: I kind of think it helped me because I think that because I'm something a little bit different, it allowed people at home to feel it was OK to root for me. Seacrest: Kris, how did you size up the rest of the competition? Allen: Well, I think Adam and Danny were, I mean, very -- I think they were the front-runners for a long time. And they're amazing. So kudos to them. I think they deserved it completely. But I never went out there to beat anyone. We talk about that a lot. Seacrest: I can't believe that totally. You never went out there to beat anyone ever? Allen: No. How do you compare me or Adam or me or Danny or me or Matt or me or Allison? Seacrest: I've done the show for eight seasons and we've never seen anyone quite like Adam. That's great. That's the beauty I think in the show. It can continue to reinvent itself with the contestants. Lambert: That's why I felt it wasn't a competition thing. I knew it was apples and oranges. The people are like, I like that guy, I like that guy, or I like that girl. To me, it was like, go out there and do your best. That was the goal for me every week. Do something new, do something new to get people talking. Watch the \"Idol\" finalists and Paula Abdul dish \u00bb . Seacrest: Kris, how did you feel about the love Adam was getting from the judges during the season? Allen: I thought he deserved it. I think he's amazing. I think he was probably one of the most original and one of the most -- seriously, one of the best singers that's been on \"American Idol\". Lambert: This is why we're friends. It's real. Seacrest: Let me ask you this: The speculation about your sexuality, do you think that had anything to do with coming in second place? Lambert: No, I think if anything, I think it -- I think my lifestyle is just I'm different. I'm a little bit -- I'm not your typical guy next door. The guy next door versus the guyliner. Sexuality aside, I think it more had to do with maybe my appearance and what songs I gravitated toward and my performance style. I think that had more to do with it. Seacrest: Kris, when I asked the question, you were nodding your head, why? Allen: Because I agree with him. It's not about who he is or who I am. It's about -- what we want, we want it to be about the music, you know?","highlights":"Winner Kris Allen calls runner-up one of the best performers ever on show .\nFinalist Adam Lambert says he had a feeling Allen was going to win .\nAllen says he hopes fan support was because of his music, not his faith .\nLambert says questions about his sexuality may have helped him stand out ."} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Saana Nyassi considers himself lucky. Saana Nyassi is a player for the Seattle Sounders soccer team. He is also a malaria survivor. He is fortunate not just because he has a natural talent for soccer and the dedication to rise through the ranks in his native Gambia and eventually go to the United States to play for the Seattle Sounders. Before leaving the tiny West African nation for America, Nyassi contracted malaria. \"It's a killer disease,\" the midfielder, 20, says. \"You lose appetite. You are throwing up all the time. Your body gets warm. It's very serious.\" Nyassi recovered. But nearly a million people -- mostly young children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa -- do not survive the disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. On Saturday, before their game against the San Jose Earthquakes, Nyassi and his teammates will mark World Malaria Day by giving a check for $20,000 they raised for Nothing But Nets, a U.N. Foundation-sponsored campaign to supply anti-malarial bed nets to some of the poorest parts of the world. Watch how researchers are fighting malaria \u00bb . Nothing But Nets buys and delivers each bed net for about $10. The nets prevent mosquitoes from biting people while they sleep and passing on the parasite that causes malaria. Even though malaria was been wiped out in the United States, it still rages in countries in Africa, Asia and other developing parts of the world. \"The challenge is enormous because of the size,\" says Dr. Regina Rabinovich, director of Infectious Diseases Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which so far has dedicated over $1 billion to fighting and preventing malaria. Rabinovich, who also contracted malaria during a visit to Gambia, says the Gates Foundation is waging a war against the disease on several fronts. \"Keeping people from getting bitten by a mosquito, that's what a bed net does,\" she says. \"Not having the mosquito thrive, that's what insecticide does. By treating them, you keep someone else from being infected by another mosquito bite.\" While malaria can be treated, getting that treatment to people suffering from the disease who are often in remote places and with little access to health care is not always easy. There is no vaccine to prevent malaria. But Rabinovich argues that cases of malaria can be greatly reduced even before a vaccine is discovered. \"The really interesting thing about malaria is that they haven't depended on a magic silver bullet,\" she explains. \"Bed nets protect you about half the time, spraying protects you. It's been the combination of prevention and treatment that's effective. When we have a malaria vaccine it will join that toolbox.\" That malaria vaccine could potentially come from a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault nicknamed \"the swamp\" at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. There, larvae imported from India are carefully hatched into mosquitoes. Using funds from the Gates Foundation, Dr. Stefan Kappe is trying to genetically engineer the parasite that causes malaria and create a vaccine from it. With the vaccine that Kappe is working on, the malaria parasite would be unable to pass from the liver, where the parasites multiply, into the blood. \"We call this the 'you-can-check-in-but-cannot-check-out' approach,\" Kappe says. \"The immune system learns [and] is trained to recognize it -- and when the real parasite comes in, the one that can infect you, your immune system is very quickly able to eliminate it.\" If it is successful, the vaccine that Kappe is formulating will aim to prevent malaria every time it is administered -- a crucial element to fighting a disease that is passed from person to person by mosquito bites. \"You need to break transmission, you need to break the ability of the parasite to move to the mosquito and from the mosquito back to humans,\" he says. \"This liver infection is a great place to attack. If you prevent infection right there, then humans don't become infected, the mosquito that bites them the next time can also not become infected and cannot bring the disease to another person.\" The vaccine has already been proven effective 100 percent of the time in studies with mice, Kappe says. Now the researcher will begin human trials of a potential vaccine. Or, as he calls it, taking the difficult leap \"from mice to men.\" Until there is a vaccine, prevention and remedies as simple as bed nets will be crucial. Success playing soccer means Sanna Nyassi no longer needs to be wary of malaria, but that hasn't made him forget those that do. \"I was born poor,\" Nyassi says. \"But things are getting better for me. I have to look back at the other ones.\"","highlights":"Professional soccer player is also survivor of malaria .\nSaana Nyassi and Seattle Sounders teammates raise funds to fight malaria .\nResearcher looks for vaccine that can break malaria's transmission cycle .\n\"I have to look back at the other ones\" who are born poor, soccer player says ."} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 400 people have been killed in a spate of violence in northern Nigeria, the president of a human rights group said Tuesday. More than 150 alleged militants were arrested by Nigerian police after clashes. The violence has pitted Islamic militants against government police and troops in the north-central part of the nation, officials said. Attacks continued Tuesday in the suburbs of the northern city of Maiduguri, said Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organization based in northern Nigeria. People there are seeking refuge in police and military barracks and in hospitals, he said. Police and troops were dispatched to the militants' hideouts after they began attacks on government establishments Sunday, said police spokesman Moses Anegbode. As authorities exchanged fire with the militants, 41 people, including a soldier and a policeman, were killed, Anegbode said Monday. In addition, some 176 people were arrested in Bauchi, he said. Besides Bauchi, militants also staged attacks on the nearby states of Yobe and Borno on Sunday and Monday, said Emmanuel Ojukwu, spokesman for the national police. Yobe's police commissioner, Alhaji Muhammed Abbas, said that 23 suspected militants were arrested in connection with a bomb attack at a police station in Potiskum that killed a policeman and a civilian and wounded seven people. The official News Agency of Nigeria reported that as many as 100 members of a religious sect led by Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf may have been killed in a confrontation with police. In Borno, police spokesman Isa Azare said that two policemen were killed in an attack on police headquarters late Monday. \"The religious fanatics took the police unawares,\" Azare told the government-affiliated New Nigerian newspaper. \"That was why they succeeded in killing all the officers on night duty.\" Panicked residents stayed inside in all three states, and businesses shut down, even though officials said the situation was under control. The militants used guns, bows and arrows and machetes in the attacks, officials said. The militants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam in the region, maintaining that the government allows itself to be influenced by Western values, and have been attacking government offices and Islamic clergy. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001. The human rights organization alleged last week that police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year. Most of the victims were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report. More than 700 people died in the violence, the organization said, citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"As many as 400 people killed in Nigerian violence, group says .\nMilitants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam .\n176 people also arrested, according to police ."} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- AC Milan's Brazilian midfielder Kaka has been named European player of the year, lifting France Football's Ballon d'Or award. Kaka has already claimed all of the game's major prizes. His success comes two years after his fellow countryman, Barcelona's Ronaldinho, claimed the award . The 25-year-old Kaka was a major factor in AC Milan's triumphant Champions League campaign. The runner-up was Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo with Barcelona's Argentinian midfielder Lionel Messi finishing third. \"This is very special for me - it culminates an astonishing year for me,\" Kaka said. \"It's the top prize around and the only way to win something like this is to play for a team like AC Milan. It's great to be part of a team that wins.\" At 25 years old, he has already won all the game's major prizes, individually and collectively. He was part of Brazil's 2002 World Cup winning squad, although he was limited to just 19 minutes as a substitute against Costa Rica. He was top scorer in last season's Champions League, helping Milan to avenge their loss to Liverpool in the 2005 final. He won the Italian domestic title in his first season at Milan having joined from Brazilians Sao Paulo for$ 8.5 million, a sum that Milan president Silvio Berlusconi then described as peanuts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Brazilian Kaka is named European player of the year .\nThe AC Milan player is chosen ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester Utd .\nArgentine Lionel Messi of Barcelona finishes third ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chief executive of American Airlines, which has grounded almost 2,500 flights over the past three days, accepted \"full responsibility\" Thursday for failing to meet government inspection standards. \"I am profoundly sorry that we've gotten ourselves into this situation, and I thank our customers for their patience under very difficult circumstances,\" American CEO Gerard Arpey said Thursday afternoon. The airline canceled 933 flights on MD-80 jets Thursday and announced 570 would be scrapped Friday. Potential wiring hazards in wheel wells that could cause fires or problems with landing gear prompted the action. American canceled several hundred flights for the same reason about two weeks ago. Earlier Thursday, American said it expected all of its MD-80 jets to be flight-worthy by Saturday night. The airline has offered to make amends to travelers with refunds, vouchers and compensation for overnight stays. The cancellations have delayed and stranded more than 140,000 passengers. Roger Frizzell, an airline spokesman, said the inspections involve technical compliance as opposed to flight safety. Watch how air travelers deal with disruptions \u00bb . Although American was most affected by the inspections, the Federal Aviation Administration's orders for safety checks have also affected Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines and Midwest Airlines, which was the latest airline to ground planes: 13 on Thursday. The FAA launched its inspection campaign in March, after CNN obtained documents given to congressional investigators that showed more than 100 Southwest aircraft had not had mandatory safety inspections. At a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration's safety division, Nicholas Sabatini, was told that his agency's performance was woeful. \"I think [it's] approaching losing the confidence of the American people and the Congress,\" said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia. Lawmakers said the agency has become too close to the airline industry. Sabatini defended the FAA's record but said any lapse was cause for concern. \"We found we had achieved 99 percent safety compliance,\" he told lawmakers. But, he added, \"It's the other 1 percent that keeps me up at night.\" Passengers scheduled to fly on an American Airlines MD-80 between Tuesday and Friday can receive a full refund or apply the value of their ticket to a future flight, the airline said. People who stayed overnight as a result of a canceled flight can go to the company's Web site to inquire about receiving compensation. Arpey said that the MD-80 has been a great plane for American Airlines and that the inspection problems should have \"no impact on our long-term fleet plan.\" \"The FAA is stepping up their surveillance and doing their job,\" Arpey said. \"In this case, we failed to get it right, and we're trying very hard to get it right.\" He said American plans to hire an independent consultant to examine the company's inspection system. Meanwhile, airports are doing their best to keep frustrated travelers happy. \"Getting stuck at the airport is not like a day at the beach, but we sure are trying to make passengers as comfortable as possible,\" said Ken Capps, vice president of public affairs for Dallas\/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas. Eateries were staying open all night, some provided free pastries and coffee, and some even handed out diapers. The situation at American's hub at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, \"was what you might see on a normal Thursday morning,\" CNN's Susan Roesgen reported. American employees handing out free coffee and granola bars found few takers. Watch a report from O'Hare \u00bb . At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, American passengers reported frustration but complimented the carrier's efforts to get them to their destinations. \"We were rerouted,\" said Chad Duncan of San Angelo, Texas, who was in Georgia to watch practice rounds of the Masters golf tournament. \"They were very helpful and everything, but it's frustrating. Instead of having one stopover, we now have three.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: American Airlines says 570 flights will be canceled Friday .\n\"I am profoundly sorry,\" chief executive of American Airlines says .\nAmerican expects all of its MD-80 jets to be flight-worthy by Saturday night .\nAlaska Airlines, Midwest Airlines cancel flights Thursday for safety checks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has been accused of \"physical and verbal aggression\" towards a journalist after Sunday's 1-1 Serie A draw at Atalanta. The Italian Sport Union of Journalists (USSI) condemned Mourinho's alleged actions against Corriere dello Sport's Andrea Ramazzotti. A statement from the USSI urged Inter president Massimo Moratti, and the country's governing sporting bodies to investigate. It read: \"The physical and verbal aggression of Inter coach Jose Mourinho towards our colleague Andrea Ramazzotti marks one of the lowest and alarming moments in the relations between football and sporting press. \"Mourinho was already cited, prior to the Champions League game with Rubin Kazan, for his uneducated and disrespectful tone that he used towards certain colleagues. \"This aggression marks an irresponsible and unacceptable escalation. USSI expresses not only its indignation, but a strong concern for gestures and the unspeakable behavior that only increases tensions and controversies. \"It asks president Moratti to intervene energetically so that a member of his club (Mourinho) adapts to the great tradition of civility of the club and of the Moratti family. \"It asks as well of the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) that the sporting justice panel intervenes to examine the behavior of Mourinho for eventual sanctions.\" Mourinho watched Sunday's game from the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban. Reports in Italy have claimed a heated argument took place between Mourinho and Ramazzotti outside the team bus. Mourinho has not commented on the incident but Moratti told the club's official Web site: \"For the moment I don't want to comment as I still don't have all the facts, but I'm sorry. \"I will talk to the head of the union to find out what he means by energetic action.\"","highlights":"Inter coach Jose Mourinho accused of \"physical and verbal aggression\" towards a journalist .\nThe alleged confrontation happened following the 1-1 Serie A draw at Atalanta on Sunday .\nThe Italian Sport Union of Journalists (USSI) have condemned Mourinho's alleged actions ."} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- At a debate in front of thousands of labor union activists Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic presidential rivals blasted him for his remarks about Pakistan. Last Wednesday, the Illinois senator said that if it were necessary to root out terrorists, he would send U.S. forces into Pakistan without the country's approval. \"You can think big, but remember, you shouldn't always say everything you think if you're running for president, because it has consequences around the world,\" Sen. Hillary Clinton said during a 90-minute Democratic presidential forum in Chicago sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Chicago is Obama's hometown, and Clinton's statement drew boos. The New York senator responded, \"We don't need that right now.\" Despite the frosty reception, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd joined Clinton in criticizing Obama. He said Obama's stance could undermine Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler, who has been a U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda. \"While General Musharraf is no Thomas Jefferson, he may be the only thing that stands between us and having an Islamic fundamentalist state in that country,\" Dodd said. \"So while I would like to see him change, the reality is, if we lose him, then what we face is an alternative that could be a lot worse for our country.\" Obama jumped into the fray. \"I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism,\" he said. \"If we have actionable intelligence on al Qaeda operatives, including [Osama] bin Laden, and President Musharraf cannot act, then we should,\" Obama said. \"That's just common sense.\" He also said Americans had the right to participate in the debate over such a key aspect of American foreign policy. But Clinton countered by saying that while U.S. forces might have to pursue action inside Pakistan \"on the basis of actionable intelligence,\" it was \"a very big mistake to telegraph that and to destabilize the Musharraf regime, which is fighting for its life against the Islamist extremists who are in bed with al Qaeda and the Taliban.\" \"Remember, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. The last thing we want is to have al Qaeda-like followers in charge of Pakistan and having access to nuclear weapons.\" Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware responded later in the debate, noting that the strategy Obama outlined was already U.S. policy. \"Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts,\" Biden said. \"It's already the policy of the United States -- has been for four years -- that there's actionable intelligence, we would go into Pakistan.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sen. Hillary Clinton booed when she criticizes Sen. Barack Obama at debate .\nClinton, Sen. Chris Dodd slam Obama's stance on Pakistan .\nObama: U.S. should go into Pakistan if intelligence warrants it .\nDebate sponsored by AFL-CIO drew thousands of labor activists ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two photographs of Madonna set to appear in a Christie's auction next month will probably sell for at least $10,000 each, according to estimates posted on the company's Web site. Christie's will auction a nude photo of Madonna (partially shown above) taken by Lee Friedlander. One, a full-frontal nude black-and-white photograph of the singer, was taken in 1979 by celebrated American photographer Lee Friedlander for a series of nudes he was working on, said Milena Sales, a spokeswoman for the auction house. Madonna was about 20 when the photograph, one of several, was taken. A handful from the shoot appeared in Playboy magazine in 1985, Sales said. Christie's put price estimates for the photograph at $10,000 to $15,000. The second photograph of Madonna was taken in the 1980s by Helmut Newton. In the Newton photograph, which is in color, Madonna is wearing a short dress and black stockings with garters. The circumstances behind the photo shoot were not immediately clear. The auction will take place in New York on February 12.","highlights":"Christie's to auction Madonna photos .\nOne is full-frontal nude shot taken by Lee Friedlander .\nNude photo expected to sell for $10,000 to $15,000 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to U.S. cycling legend Lance Armstrong was stolen from a team truck in California just hours after he rode it Saturday on the first day of a nine-day race. Lance Armstrong is racing in the California Amgen Tour as he attempts a comeback after retiring in 2005. Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong is racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week as he continues his latest comeback after retiring from the sport in 2005. Armstrong's first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. Armstrong announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. \"There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered,\" the Texan wrote before going out and finishing fifth in Sunday's testing first stage won by Spain's Francisco Mancebo. Swiss Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who started the day in the yellow jersey after winning Saturday's time-trial prologue, pulled out midway through the stage feeling unwell. Armstrong improved from 10th to fifth overall, one minute five seconds adrift, with Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, the two-time defending champion, in second place behind Mancebo. \"Holy hell. That was terrible,\" commented Armstrong who had a puncture. \"Maybe one of the toughest days I've had on a bike, purely based on the conditions. I'm still freezing.\" The bicycle that was stolen is not the one that Armstrong rides every day during the race. The stolen bike is used only for time trials, a race in which cyclists ride individually at staggered intervals over a set distance and try to get the best time. The thieves took four bikes from a truck Armstrong's Astana team had parked behind a hotel in Sacramento. The other three bicycles belonged to team members Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych, Astana said. Armstrong, 37, won the Tour de France, considered the premiere bicycle race in the world, a record seven times from 1999-2005. The 750-mile Amgen Tour of California ends Sunday. It is the second major race in which Armstrong has participated since announcing his comeback in September. He raced last month in the Tour Down Under in Australia, finishing 29th. Armstrong said he is aiming for another Tour de France victory this summer and was not expected to contend in the Australian race, which he used to gauge his fitness level after more than three years out of the saddle.","highlights":"Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind bicycle stolen from team truck in California .\nFour bicycles stolen from truck Armstrong's Astana team parked behind hotel .\nCancer survivor Armstrong is currently fifth overall in Amgen Tour of California .\nArmstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times from 1999-2005 ."} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Iason Athanasiadis' ordeal began at the airport, shortly after he checked in for his flight to leave Tehran. Iason Athanasiadis said he endured hours of questioning over several weeks in sound-proofed rooms by interrogators he could not see. \"I was heading to the gate,\" the Greek-British journalist said. \"This guy materialized on my right. He said 'are you Iason Fowden?' [Athanasiadis' passport name]. I said 'yeah that's me.' He said 'please step to the side ... you're not going to be flying tonight.'\" It was an ominous introduction to Iran's security apparatus. Athanasiadis spent the next 21 harrowing days in Iranian prisons, accused of espionage, subjected to interrogations and, on several occasions, beatings. The journalist, a freelance writer and gifted photographer who had been on assignment for the Washington Times newspaper at the time of his arrest, spoke to CNN by phone from his parents' home in Athens Thursday, several days after an extraordinary international lobbying effort helped secure his release. Athanasiadis has extensive experience reporting in Iran. He also did graduate level academic work in Iran in 2004, as part of a program sponsored in part by Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The young freelance reporter realized he was in serious danger at the airport in Tehran on June 19, when a half dozen plain-clothed security officers arrived and began leading him out of the building. The reporter resisted, and began yelling to crowds of nearby passengers that he was a journalist. \"I got kind of pulled kicking and screaming and getting punched behind an escalator,\" Athanasiadis recounted. While being dragged outside to an unmarked car, the journalist said he managed to get the attention of a Western-looking woman waiting in the airport. To this day, Athanasiadis says he does not know the woman's name. But he believes she was instrumental in helping spread the word of his detention. \"She was the best thing that happened to me that day,\" Athanasiadis said. \"I just said 'I'm a Greek reporter for the Washington Times. Please contact the Greek Embassy.' And she ran after me with a note pad and pen and asked me to spell my name.\" International human rights organizations estimate thousands of Iranians have gone missing, since the Iranian government launched its crackdown on opposition activists and journalists following the disputed June 12 presidential elections. Eyewitnesses in Tehran say many families are still struggling to determine the whereabouts and official status of their detained relatives. But in Athanasiadis' case, the Greek Foreign Ministry announced it was working for the journalist's release just days after his arrest. That night, Athanasiadis says security officers forced him to ride into Tehran from the airport, with his head buried in his lap. Later, when he tried to make a phone call from a police station in Tehran, Athanasiadis said security forces tackled him, threw him to the ground, beat him with a club and pepper-sprayed him. Eventually, they transferred him to Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where he witnessed new Iranian prisoners being delivered by the busload to the prison gates. That is where the interrogation began. Dressed in a prison-issue uniform, Athanasiadis endured hours of questioning over the next several weeks in sound-proofed rooms where he was never allowed to see his interrogator. \"I just sat in one of these school desk situations, a chair with a desk extension,\" he explained. \"I was told to face the wall ... and they sat behind me and they crooned into my ear.\" On the second day of his incarceration, a prosecuting judge told Athanasiadis, a fluent Farsi speaker, that he was facing charges of espionage. Since incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the June 12 election, opposition candidates and their supporters have accused the Iranian government of falsifying election results. In response, the Iranian government has accused Western governments, particularly Britain, of organizing large protests in the streets of Tehran and other cities. \"The lesson I take from this is that the Iranians,\" Athanasiadis said, \"have decided to start arresting foreigners.\" Last May, an Iranian-American freelance journalist named Roxana Saberi, was released after being detained for four months on charges of espionage. This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded the release of 23-year old Clotilde Reiss, a French academic reportedly arrested last week on charges of spying. Meanwhile Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian who freelanced for Newsweek, is another prominent intellectual now sitting in an Iranian prison. According to the New York-based organization Committee to Protest Journalists, Iran is now the \"world's top jailer of journalists,\" with at least 30 reporters and bloggers in prison. Unfortunately, few of these prisoners enjoyed the international support that was rallied on behalf of Athanasiadis, said Michalis Kosmides, a Greek journalist and vice president of the Foreign Press Association in London. After learning of his colleague's arrest, Kosmides launched a Facebook page titled \"Free Iason.\" Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, also intervened. He sent a high-ranking cleric and a letter to the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul, to plead for Athanasiadis' release \"on humanitarian grounds,\" said Father John Chryssavgis, an adviser to the patriarch. \"Iran has separate nodes of power,\" Kosmides said. \"The patriarch's statement appealed to one node with religious sentiments.\" Athanasiadis says the lowest point came 19 days after his arrest, when it appeared he would be released. \"They took me to the airport, the Greek ambassador met me with a ticket. We started heading towards the gates, then we suddenly veered off to the escalator,\" the 30-year old journalist said. \"I promptly got re-arrested and spent this very strange night in a windowless room listening to bags thumping through the chutes and listening to departure announcements ... it was the most scary time.\" It took another 24 hours of intense diplomacy led by Greek ambassador Nikolaos Garilidis before Athanasiadis finally flew safely out of Tehran. Throughout his ordeal and the countless accusations of spying, Athanasiadis said he realized one thing about his captors: they had never bothered to read any of the articles he has published over the years about Iran. \"I was shocked that they would arrest someone who had lived in Iran and had such a record of trying to introduce Iranian society to an outside audience.\"","highlights":"Iason Athanasiadis arrested at Tehran airport on June 19 .\nJournalist had been on assignment for the Washington Times .\nSpent the next 21 harrowing days in Iranian prisons accused of espionage .\nReleased after intense diplomatic effort by Greek government ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Who was the first person you called the day your ex dumped you? Or that time you found a weird bump? Or the day you stumbled across that pair of barely worn Christian Louboutins at the Goodwill? You need to break connections with \"friends\" who only bring negative things into your life. If you're like me, you called a girlfriend. While I love my man, and adore my cats to what some might consider a scary degree, the relationships I have with my girls is on an entirely different plane. They're the funniest, smartest, weirdest (in a good way!) gaggle of broads I've ever met and I feel lucky every day to have them around. It wasn't always this way. I've had to prune my posse (please note that I've also been kicked out of people's lives as well) and have discovered some types to avoid. Drama queen . The Drama Queen isn't happy (and \"happy\" is a relative term here) unless she's freaking out. Little things us boring normals would shrug off -- like a missed bus or parking ticket -- become monumental shriekfests. She doesn't get the flu, she gets oh-my-god-I-think-it's-cancer! Everything is a crisis, and she demands constant handholding and attention. The Frisky: 13 signs she's a loser . Luckily, these types can't help but reveal their true colors pretty quickly and unless you're content to be cast as an extra in your own life, you'll banish her from the set. Nurse Betty . There is nothing that makes this one as happy as a friend in need. This may seem like a good quality (and often is -- for a while), but once you've got your butt back in gear, she either loses interest or, worse, reminds you constantly of how bad things once were, in the hopes that you'll fall back into feeling like crap so she can \"save\" you again. The Frisky: Is it evil to talk a friend out of getting married? You have two choices with this type -- either arrange it so you're constantly in crisis, or pretend you're problem-free so she gets bored. Better yet, introduce her to the drama queen --they'll be very happy together. Lady-hater . \"I don't have female friends because all the women I meet are jealous of me.\" Yes, someone actually said this to me. Instead, this person prefers her friends to be of the male variety -- ideally hopelessly in love with her and willing to do her bidding. The Frisky: How do grown women make friends? You don't really have to worry about ditching this snot because she doesn't want anything to do with you in the first place. The critic . Also known as the frenemy, the critic is chockfull of helpful suggestions. For instance, you know your favorite dress? Well, it makes you look kind of fat. No offense. Speaking of which -- have you gained a little weight? Or are you pregnant? Are you sure? Well, never mind, you can have some of her old \"fat\" clothes since she has no use for them anymore. Understandably, Critics have a fairly high turnover rate in the friend department. I unfriended one such mean girl only to have her show up at a mutual friend's birthday party -- for the sole purpose of telling the birthday girl exactly what was wrong with her! \u00a1Feliz Cumplea\u00f1os! The leg humper . Do you know what it's like to walk into a bar and find one of your closest friends making out with the guy you've had a crush on for an entire year? I do! Granted, that's nowhere near as bad as my friend Melissa who discovered her husband was schtupping her BFF, but still. It stung. And sure, nobody forced Melissa's husband to be a cheating jerk, but a good girlfriend never would've gone there with him. The Frisky: Why you should not pursue a taken man . You'll know when you're in the presence of one of these bottom-feeders by the way you become invisible the second there's a guy in the vicinity. So yeah, I had to learn the hard way. But having been put through the wringer by these types of lady-scoundrels makes me doubly appreciate the awesome dames I still have in my life. The Frisky: When good friends go bad . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Your friends are people you want with you in good times and bad .\nThe critic and nurse Betty friends will like you when you feel bad .\nThe drama queen and lady-hater will never let you have center stage ."} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine accused of raping a 19-year-old Japanese woman last year was found guilty Thursday of \"committing wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts,\" the U.S. military said, but he was acquitted of rape. The sentencing hearing for Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean, 20, is scheduled to begin on Friday. Dean is among four Marines under court-martial in the case. The others are Sgt. Lanaeus J. Braswell, 25; Gunnery Sgt. Carl M. Anderson, 39; and Gunnery Sgt. Jarvis D. Raynor, 34, the military said. Local media reported that the four men met the woman in a restaurant in Hiroshima on October 14, 2007, then allegedly attacked and raped her in a car in nearby parking lot. Japanese authorities investigated but decided in November not to file charges. Dean also was found guilty of conspiracy to commit indecent acts and two minor charges. He was acquitted of conspiracy to kidnap or rape. The case is similar to a recent alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl involving a U.S. Marine on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. That case sparked outrage and stirred memories of an earlier rape committed by U.S. servicemen. Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, was charged last month with the rape of a child under 16, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping, the military said. In February, Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl dropped the allegations, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation to see if Hadnott violated codes of military justice. The military is holding him at a Marine facility. More than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, most of them on Okinawa, which accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's total area. The U.S. military presence has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiment boiled over in 1995, after three American servicemen were convicted in the kidnapping and gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women.","highlights":"Sentencing to begin Friday for Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean .\nDean is among four U.S. Marines charged in alleged gang assault of teenager .\nCharged Marines range in age from 20 to 39 .\nU.S. military has bred resentment among locals ."} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Kevin Garibo hasn't known life outside a hospital. Born three months ago with respiratory issues, he needed a procedure to breathe on his own. Nurses prod at him, medical machines hum around him and tubes are more present than teddy bears. But in the arms of Chris Haack, who strokes his cheek and speaks in a soft whisper while rocking him in a chair, little Kevin is one blissed-out baby. Haack, a retired nurse from Roswell, Georgia, is a trained volunteer with \"Baby Buddies,\" a program in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. As nurses race around administering medical care, she can comfort the tiny patients and stand in for parents who can't be there all the time to give the positive attention -- not the attention associated with pain or discomfort -- that is key to a baby's development and integral in forming trust. \"They need to be touched, they need to be loved, and that face -- that's why I do it,\" Haack says, peering down with a smile at Kevin, whose eyes are locked on hers. \"I get more out of it than I probably give.\" Studies show that giving, which extends beyond packages wrapped in ribbons, does a person good. In this holiday season, CNN introduces with this story a special series we're calling \"Giving in Focus: The 12 Days of Goodness,\" in which we'll highlight acts of kindness and generosity that we hope will inspire. Has someone done a good deed for you? Share your story . One person who can attest to the power of giving is Cami Walker, a 36-year-old woman who received a prescription to give when her multiple sclerosis, a diagnosis she got at age 33, left her a physical and emotional wreck. She could barely get out of bed, and yet Mbali Creazzo, a friend and spiritual mentor, single-handedly killed Walker's pity party. She said, \"'Cami, you really need to stop thinking about yourself. ... You're feeding this disease,'\" Walker remembers. \"She said, 'I have a prescription for you. Give away 29 gifts in 29 days.' \" Creazzo, a South African born medicine woman who lives in Oakland, California, explained that the idea, rooted in indigenous practices, was taught to her, although the number of days prescribed may have been different. \"Altruism has been going on for thousands of years,\" said Creazzo, 58. \"Why it's so powerful at this moment is because of what's happening in the world today. People are looking for that place inside of them where they are of some use.\" Walker, who lives in Hollywood, California, dismissed Creazzo's suggestion at first but came back to it when she realized she had nothing to lose by trying. What followed made her a convert to the idea. Whether she simply called a friend to offer support or bought iced-tea for a homeless guy on a hot day, the simple actions made a difference. She said her mood lifted, her ability to get around improved and the progression of the disease stopped. \"I don't see it as a cure. I still have MS,\" said Walker, who went on to write the best-seller \"29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life\" and create an online community at 29gifts.org, where Creazzo is also involved. \"I really don't think about the limitations of my disease. I wake up more focused on what I'm capable of.\" A long list of scientific and widely accepted studies point to the benefits a giver gets, said Stephen Post, author of \"Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.\" One study looked at preteens who'd first been surveyed in the 1920s in Berkeley, California. Those who displayed generosity and a giving attitude grew up to have lower rates of heart disease and depression, said Post, a professor of preventive medicine and director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University in New York. A study done at Harvard showed the strength of immune systems grew among students who watched a film about Mother Theresa, he said, and stayed high among those who were asked to continue thinking about giving. MRI devices have illustrated that the part of the brain that releases \"feel-good chemicals,\" he said, lights up when giving's on the mind. Post, who's also the president of The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, said hormone levels tied to serenity, trust and compassion rise when people exhibit generous behaviors. Those same feelings, he added, have long been known to help wounds heal more quickly. Another study, one he's involved with now, has shown that people who go through Alcoholics Anonymous and then help other alcoholics have a 40 percent rate of recovery, while those who don't help other alcoholics recover at a rate of 22 percent, he said. \"Kitchen table wisdom says it's good to be good,\" and giving is \"part of every moral and spiritual tradition,\" said Post, whose own mother used to tell him to \"go out and do something for someone\" whenever he got pouty. \"It turned out there actually is pretty good science about this.\" For Azim Jamal, a motivational speaker and co-author of the best-seller \"The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All,\" the excitement about this topic is rooted in the possibilities of what might be -- the ripple effect. If everyone gave time, money, talents or passion, what could that mean for individuals, communities, even the world? \"The power of giving is instantaneous, continuous and eternal,\" he said. \"When you die, you don't take what you have. You take what you gave.\"","highlights":"Nurturing hospitalized babies serves patients as well as volunteers .\nAuthor says 29 days of giving changed her life, made MS more bearable .\nScientific studies show physical and mental benefits of giving attitudes .\nRipple effect of giving can affect individuals, communities and world ."} -{"article":"PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- If you're out of work like Steve Lippe, who was laid off from his job as a salesman in January, you know you already have problems. But looking at the fine print that came with his new unemployment debit card, he became livid. A brochure that goes out to Pennsylvanians seeking unemployment via debit card lists a number of fees. \"A $1.50 [fee] here, a $1.50 there,\" he said. \"Forty cents for a balance inquiry. Fifty cents to have your card denied. Thirty-five cents to have your account accessed by telephone.\" He was quoting fees listed in a brochure that goes out to every unemployed person in Pennsylvania who chooses to receive benefits via debit card. He was given the option when he filed for jobless payments: Wait 10 days for a check or get the card immediately. Like most of the 925,000 state residents who received unemployment benefits in February in Pennsylvania, he chose the debit card and only then, he says, did he learn about the fees. \"I was outraged by it,\" he told CNN. \"I was very noisy about it. I just couldn't believe it. An outrage is just too weak a word. It's obscene.\" According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 30 states offer direct deposit cards to the unemployed. Many of the nation's biggest banks have contracts with the individual states. JP Morgan Chase, for instance, has contracts with seven states and has pending deals with two others, according to Chase spokesman John T. Murray. About 10 states, the Labor Department says, pay by check only. The National Consumer Law Center says fees range from 40 cents to a high of $3 per transaction, if the debit card is used at an out-of-network ATM. Most banks give jobless debit card users one free withdrawal per deposit period, which averages every other week in most states. But consumer advocates, including the Law Center, say the unemployed \"should be able to obtain cash and perform basic functions with no fees.\" A key Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees bank regulation and theTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), told CNN she agrees wholeheartedly. \"Fees should not be attached to unemployment benefits that the taxpayers are paying to help Americans,\" Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, told CNN. \"Particularly, these fees should not be attached by banks that are getting TARP money and are being supported by taxpayer dollars.\" CNN asked some of the major banks involved in the debit card program for a response. Spokesmen for JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all directed us to the individual state governments for comment. The acting secretary of labor and industry for Pennsylvania is Sandi Vito. Via e-mail, her staff invited CNN reporters to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she was taking part at a public meeting at an elementary school. Afterward, she said, she would answer questions about the debit card fees. But when the meeting ended, her staff said she was too busy to talk. Watch Vito leave meeting in a hurry \u00bb . Her spokesman, Troy A. Thompson, spoke with CNN after Vito left. \"The distribution system for people getting their benefits has been improved by the use of debit cards, way above and beyond the distribution by check,\" he said. The U.S. Department of Labor provided what it called \"talking points\" to CNN when asked for comment on the fee structure. \"States can do a better job negotiating fees with banks,\" the department said. \"Many states have obtained terms far more favorable to claimants than those described in media reports.\" In addition, according to the talking points, the Labor Department said it was aware states are offering unemployment debit cards for good reasons: . \u2022 It is less expensive for claimants without bank accounts because they don't need to pay check cashing fees. \u2022 Claimants can use the card free at merchants and therefore don't need to carry excess cash. \u2022 Generally, these cards are safer and more secure than checks. \"We will be working with states as they gain experience with debit cards to resolve these problems related to fees,\" the Labor Department said.","highlights":"Pennsylvania one of several states offering debit cards in lieu of checks for jobless .\nSome who opted to go with debit cards outraged to get fees without notice .\nState labor official says debit cards have greatly improved distribution system .\nU.S. Department of Labor: States can do better in negotiating fees with banks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Emma Watson may have wanted to just blend in when she started her freshman year recently at Brown University, but it seems not everyone has the same idea. \"Harry Potter\" actress Emma Watson is an incoming freshman at Brown University in Rhode Island. The actress, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the \"Harry Potter\" films, showed up last week at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, where new students were treated to orientation activities before the official start of classes on Wednesday. Watson was photographed looking very relaxed in jean shorts and a white T-shirt, but reports are that her introduction to academia has been less than low-key, with much excitement being stirred by her presence. The blog Just Jared reported that while the British actress visited the campus on Friday with her mother and her boyfriend, Jay Barrymore, Twitter user @cupcakenar sent out the following tweet: \"My dad made Emma Watson mad by taking a photo of her going inside the Financial Aid office at Brown. She was with her mom & boyfriend.\" Celebrities furthering their education are not new, but with the advent of social networking sites, stars' every move can be tracked and reported. When actor James Franco apparently fell asleep during a lecture at Columbia University in New York City earlier this year, a photo snapped by a classmate made the rounds online and prompted many a tweet. Franco, who has appeared in films such as \"Spiderman\" and the critically acclaimed \"Milk,\" was reported to be taking classes at Columbia and New York University while also writing a book. Paparazzi were on high alert when Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen began attending classes at NYU in 2004. Photos appeared constantly of the tiny twosome -- often with bodyguards in tow -- on their way to and from class after they moved from Los Angeles to New York City for school. Stars such as Julia Stiles, who enrolled in Columbia, and Natalie Portman, who attended Harvard, have tried to be as under the radar as possible while pursuing their education. According to a 2003 article about Portman in the university's Harvard Crimson newspaper, the \"Star Wars\" actress lived on campus her freshman and sophomore years while pursuing a degree in psychology. Portman told the college publication that she was able to enjoy her time as a student, despite her celebrity status. \"At the beginning of college I was talking to people who were actors who had gone to college, and I heard awful stories about people getting 200 visitors a year knocking on their dorm room, or having awful stalker issues,\" Portman said. \"But I've not been bothered once, and that's also thanks to the police here, who have been really wonderful.\" Watson also has been quoted as saying she just wants to be treated as a regular student. \"I do hope that it will be only a short time before I am known as Emma Watson the student from the UK, rather than Emma Watson who starred in the 'Harry Potter' films,\" Watson said. The \"Harry Potter\" actress isn't the only famous student taking her seat at an Ivy League school this year. The Boston Globe reported that actress Ashley Judd has enrolled in Harvard's Kennedy School's Mid-Career Master in Public Administration program and asked officials to take additional measures to ensure her privacy. The paper reported that school officials complied, including having the registrar put a privacy block on Judd's file to prevent information about the actress from being made public and arranging to have Harvard police present during the program's coffee breaks. In speaking with the Boston Globe, Brown University's director of communications Mark Nickel declined to confirm that Watson was a student there, but he did say the school might take extra precautions to protect a young wizard. ''We do whatever we need to do to ensure safety and privacy, and that applies pretty much to all students,\" Nickel said.","highlights":"British actress Emma Watson participated in freshman orientation at Brown .\nThe \"Harry Potter\" actress' enrollment at the university has sparked interest .\nStars such as James Franco and Natalie Portman have also gone Ivy League .\nBoston Globe reports actress Ashley Judd asked Harvard to protect her privacy ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha told CNN Sunday. The Dalai Lama with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on a recent visit to France. The check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours, but the Dalai Lama will not be admitted to the hospital, the spokesman said. The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the north Indian hill town of Dharamsala, will travel to the Indian capital on Monday. The 73-year-old Tibetan leader was hospitalized in Mumbai in August for abdominal discomfort. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday.","highlights":"Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a medical exam this week .\nDalai Lama was recently admitted for tests after suffering abdominal discomfort .\nThe check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours ."} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- From the custom-made, hand-beaded white dress to silver-studded high-heeled shoes, diamond jewelry and tiara, Jenny Ferro is preparing for a day she's dreamed about since she was 3 years old. \"I'm really excited,\" says Jenny, eagerly nodding her head. \"Really, really, a lot!\" She isn't getting married. The 15-year-old is preparing for her quincea\u00f1era, a coming-of-age ritual in Latin culture, marking a young girl's entrance into womanhood. The centuries-old tradition began as a ceremony to introduce girls to society on their 15th birthday and signified that they were ready for marriage. Today, many quincea\u00f1eras have become much more elaborate. Jenny and her mother, Marlene Ferro, have worked out every detail of the party well in advance, from the rehearsal to the reception to the flower girl and the music. The theme of the party is bedazzled. First, there is the dress, which Marlene had designed specially for her daughter. It cost about $800. Then there are the shoes, high-heeled and silver to match the dress. During the party, the high heels will be ceremoniously slipped onto her feet to replace her flat shoes -- a symbolic transition of her journey from childhood to womanhood. \"It makes her look like a princess,\" gushes Marlene Ferro. Quincea\u00f1eras are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. One reason for their popularity is a greater acceptance of Latin culture in America, according to Michele Salcedo, author of \"Quincea\u00f1era!\" a comprehensive guide to the celebration. \"The 15th birthday, culturally, is a milestone. It doesn't have to be celebrated with a party at all, but it is generally marked by something quite special,\" Salcedo says. Experts believe the quincea\u00f1era is rooted in Mayan, Aztec and European traditions. Today, many coming-of-age ceremonies resemble lavish \"Sweet 16\" celebrations. Beyond the elaborate apparel, food and festivities, modern quincea\u00f1eras often feature a court of 15 people, typically consisting of family and friends. As the event continues to grow in popularity, the makeup of the court has also changed. \"It has gone beyond Latinos, so that a lot of Latino girls will have not only family members in court but they will reach out to non-Latino friends,\" says Salcedo. \"So it's a way of reaching out and extending social ties and bringing people in who might not otherwise have an opportunity to know a Latino family and to know the culture.\" Family plays the largest role in the quincea\u00f1era, leading up to and during the party. Mothers, fathers, grandparents and godparents can spend years preparing a night to remember for the young girl. The tradition is just as important to the family as it is to the young woman. The large, extravagant celebrations often symbolize a family's hard work and success. How has America changed Latinos? Marlene Ferro, who emigrated from Cuba as a child with her parents, says Jenny's quincea\u00f1era was a gift to both of them. The 43-year-old, single mother of three, saved for years and estimates that she spent at least $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era. \"I was able to accomplish something that I had been looking forward to for 15 years,\" says Marlene Ferro. The parties can be as big and expensive as a family can imagine and costs can escalate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Salcedo. She recommends that families manage expectations before the party planning even begins. iReporter Alexis Fernandez's quincea\u00f1era was a big event in Alaska . \"Sometimes people go way overboard and [spend] much more on the celebration than they can afford and that's the downside of the quincea\u00f1era,\" says Salcedo. \"Because when it's done right it can be a beautiful family celebration and a celebration of a milestone that a young girl goes through.\" Quincea\u00f1eras have changed over the years. Even though her tiara was taller than her daughter's, Marlene says her quincea\u00f1era was simple. It was a small gathering at her sister's apartment with family and friends. She wore borrowed jewelry from a family member, had a homemade cake and danced with her father. Marlene Ferro's 15th birthday present was a telephone in her bedroom. \"I didn't have a big quince party. I chose to have a small party with my friends,\" she remembers. \"My dress was really easy ... I didn't have an option. It was this one or that one. Now, we give our kids the option.\" iReporter Diamond Ramirez's mother, grandmother never had quincea\u00f1eras . There's a spiritual element to these celebrations as well, says Salcedo. The church plays a role in helping to prepare teenage girls for this transition to womanhood. Ceremonies and classes before the coming-of-age celebration teach the young women that with adulthood come certain responsibilities, both physical and spiritual. \"When it's done in the spirit that it probably should be, the girl has certain responsibilities and by the end of the process, she's met them and she has showed her mother that she can, in fact, be responsible and she does acquire ... a bit more maturity then she [had] before,\" says Salcedo. As the celebrations become more popular in the United States, they also offer an opportunity for more Americans to participate. \"It's a way to push back a lot of the negativity that a lot of Latinos feel is directed at Latinos,\" says Salcedo. \"It is a way for people who have recently arrived, or maybe not so recently arrived, to say 'I have done well here' ... I'm throwing this party for my daughter and I'm inviting all of you to partake of my generosity so that you can see exactly how well we've done.\"","highlights":"Quincea\u00f1eras, or 15th birthday celebrations, mark a girl's transition to womanhood .\nJenny Ferro, 15, has been preparing for her celebration since she was 3 years old .\nMarlene Ferro estimates she spent $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era .\nExpert: The elaborate parties are a way for Latinos to say 'I have done well here'"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose new book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says discussion of ballplayer Ted Williams' corpse is a shameful way to remember the superstar. (CNN) -- \"I was scared,\" Ted Williams said. He was talking about his lifelong fear of not being good enough -- of coming up short. \"I was always afraid I might fail,\" he said. \"I was pictured as being so cocky -- I might have been cocky to some people, but not in my heart. All the time, I was just hoping to make whatever league I was in.\" I am thinking about a long conversation I had with Williams toward the end of his life. I'm thinking about it because of the unconscionable thing that is being done to him now that he is gone, now that he is without any defenses. You may have heard about a new book that makes some cruel and repugnant allegations about the mistreatment of his remains. What has been done to Williams' good name since his death at age 83 in 2002 is heartbreaking. First there was the very public battle within his family about what to do with his body; when it was entrusted to a facility that specializes in cryonics -- freezing -- there were tasteless gags all over television. Now there is the nauseating voyeurism surrounding these new allegations. They are unspeakable, and I will not repeat them here. He has been made a joke. It is as if there has been a conscious effort to rob him of his humanity. As if he is a punch line, as if he was never a person with thoughts and feelings. No one deserves this, and certainly not Ted Williams. A magnificent 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox; twice the winner of baseball's triple crown; the last ballplayer to hit .400 in a season; two tours of duty in the military in World War II and the Korean War ... This is the man whose right to rest in respectful peace is being stripped from him. It is a crime. And because he can no longer speak for himself, I will share with you his voice from a time when he could. \"I can't believe how well people have treated me, how nicely,\" he told me. He had suffered a series of strokes; he knew there wasn't much time left. I was writing a monthly column for Life magazine, and he had agreed to talk with me. I told him that there was something striking about his voice: He sounded just like John Wayne. \"John Wayne sounded like me,\" he said, not kidding. When he told me about his fear of failure, it was in the context of always being fixated on his own shortcomings. \"The only time I could savor an evening is if I had done something well,\" he said. \"My most disappointing things all my life were always related to baseball. I didn't feel good because I did something successfully; I felt bad if I failed to do something that I was expected to do.\" As a young ballplayer, he supposedly said, \"All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street, people will say, 'There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.' \" It happened. That was what people said about him. Did it satisfy him? \"I would slide down in my seat a little bit when I heard someone say that,\" he told me. \"Because I wanted people to believe it, but I didn't believe it myself. I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now. Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron -- they were so good. When I would be at a dinner and someone would say I was the best, I would want to hide out of sight and sink into the floor.\" At the height of his talent, he stepped away from baseball to fly Panther fighter jets in Korea. He was a United States Marine pilot; often he would go out on two-plane missions flying side-by-side with a young Marine hotshot by the name of John Glenn. Talk about two Americans you can count on in a pinch.... I asked Glenn about Williams once. \"He was just great,\" Glenn said. \"The same skills that made him the best baseball hitter ever -- the eye, the coordination, the discipline -- are what he used to make himself an excellent combat pilot.\" This is the man who is being degraded today. This is the man who is being treated, in death, as if he is in a carnival sideshow. As I spoke with Williams, with his eyesight failing and his body inexorably shutting down, I asked him: If he could change one thing in his life, what would it be? He said that this, more than anything else, is what he wished for: the ability to \"run like a deer.\" I thought he was talking about wishing he could have his youth back -- wishing, in his old age, that he could stand up and run again. But that wasn't it. He said he wished that, back when he was a player, he was just a little faster. \"I would run to first,\" he recalled of his years with the Red Sox, \"and there would be that boom-boom.\" The sound of being called out at first base, the ball hitting the fielder's glove just before Williams's foot hit the bag. \"If I could have run a little faster ... how many at-bats did I have?\" he asked me. \"Seven thousand?\" I told him it was 7,706. With 2,654 hits. \"If I could have run just a little faster, I bet you I could have had 50 more hits,\" he said. He paused. There was wistfulness in his voice. \"Maybe a hundred,\" he said. A man seeing death just up the road, still dreaming of excellence. That is the man whose dignity we have treated with such awful indifference. Shame on us. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Discussion about Ted Williams' remains is distasteful .\nHe recalls superstar player as a man who always strove to do his best .\nWilliams was baseball's last .400 hitter and a veteran of two wars ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Photographer David DeJonge plans to capture a vanishing bit of history Tuesday on a trip to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. Antonio Pierro, 110, of Massachusetts served with the U.S. military in World War I and died in 2007. There, he hopes to photograph 107-year-old Frank Buckles, one of the few men still alive who fought in World War I. Buckles will lay a wreath at the grave of Gen. John J. \"Black Jack\" Pershing, who led U.S. forces in Europe in World War I. The visit comes 90 years to the day after the end of World War I, an occasion that led to Veterans Day in the United States and Armistice Day in other nations. For DeJonge, it's a poignant reminder that time is running out in his quest to find and photograph the few surviving veterans of the war, which raged from 1914 to 1918. \"In my view, America has missed the boat in documenting this part of history,\" said DeJonge, a portrait photographer from Zeeland, Michigan. \"It was such a pivotal moment in global history.\" He has raced the clock for the past two years to photograph the dwindling number of surviving World War I veterans, a mission he embraces with a keen appreciation for the ticking clock: Eight of 12 veterans he has photographed in the past two years are now dead. \"It's a tragic loss: a tragic loss for the project and for global history,\" he said. \"These are the last breaths of the last souls who witnessed one of the most horrific wars this world has ever seen.\" Watch photo sessions with remaining veterans \u00bb . DeJonge knows of only 10 living veterans worldwide who fought during World War I. Four live in Britain, two in Australia, two in France and two in the United States: Buckles and 108-year-old John Babcock of Spokane, Washington, who served with Canadian forces during World War I, DeJonge said. Each week or month that passes, it seems, brings news of an aging veteran succumbing before DeJonge can find the time and money to photograph him. Not long ago, he said, two Jamaicans who fought with the British during World War I died. The last known German, French and Austro-Hungarian veterans died in the last year as well. \"These are the last of the last,\" he said. DeJonge said he became interested in photographing war veterans in 1996, when he worked on a project to chronicle U.S. veterans of several wars. The subjects included two men who served during World War I. He tried to interest a photography organization in a national project to document the remaining U.S. World War I veterans -- about 600 were alive in the mid-1990s, DeJonge said -- but that didn't happen. So he set out two years ago to try to do it on his own. DeJonge has received some financial help here and there, he said, but has paid most costs himself. \"I have paid about $100,000 of my own money,\" he said. He spends about half his time at home in Michigan, taking photographs to earn his living. He spends the other half conducting research, traveling to points distant or photographing aging vets. \"I have an incredibly supportive wife,\" he said. He is trying to find money and time to take pictures of two vets in Australia and two in France, he said. And he would love to check out unconfirmed reports of an elderly man in the Ukraine who says he served with the Russian military during what also is known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars. In March, he donated nine portraits of World War I veterans that the Pentagon plans to display permanently. He traveled to Washington that month with Buckles, who drove an ambulance in Britain and France during the war as a corporal in the U.S. Army. In a White House ceremony in March, President Bush paid tribute to Buckles, who said he lied about his age and enlisted at age 15. \"Mr. Buckles has a vivid recollection of historic times, and one way for me to honor the service of those who wore the uniform in the past and those who wear it today is to herald you, sir, and to thank you very much for your patriotism and your love for America,\" he said during the March ceremony. DeJonge and Buckles plan to drive Tuesday from Buckles' cattle farm in Charles Town, West Virginia, to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. The photographer said he feels \"just an unbelievable respect\" for men and women who served their country. And he savors the living history lessons they provide. \"It really is like stepping back in time,\" he said.","highlights":"David DeJonge photographs the surviving veterans of WWI, which ended in 1918 .\nDeJonge knows of only 10 living veterans worldwide who fought during World War I .\nNine portraits of World War I vets have been donated to the Pentagon ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III -- one of dozens of politicians and rabbis arrested last week in a corruption scandal -- has resigned, the city attorney said Friday. Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III is accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes. Steve Kleinman said City Council President Dawn Zimmer will be sworn in immediately as acting mayor. He said Cammarano's letter of resignation, delivered to the city clerk at 9:15 a.m., said his resignation would be effective at noon Friday. The Democratic Hoboken mayor was one of 44 people arrested in last week's federal corruption probe. In his letter to the city clerk, Cammarano, 32, denied all criminal wrongdoing, but said the charges have disrupted the city government and his ability to perform mayoral duties. \"It had been my hope and expectation that I could remain in office and perform my official duties until I had the opportunity to resolve the legal charges against me in court,\" he wrote. \"Regrettably, it has turned out that the controversy surrounding the charges against me has become a distraction to me and an impediment to functioning of Hoboken government.\" He apologized to Hoboken residents for the \"disruption and disappointment\" the case has caused, but said, \"I am innocent of any criminal charges and I intend to fight the allegations against me.\" Authorities said that 29 public officials and associates took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, and that 15 people -- including five rabbis -- engaged in money laundering. Read about some linked to investigation \u00bb . One of the federal complaints alleges that Cammarano took about $25,000 in bribes from a government witness posing as a real estate developer. Dennis Elwell, 64, the Democratic mayor of Secaucus, in northern New Jersey, resigned Tuesday after being charged with accepting $10,000 from a confidential informant. Elwell's attorney, Thomas Cammarata, said the mayor had decided that resigning was in the best interest of his family and the people of Secaucus, but was not an admission of guilt. \"Dennis pleaded not guilty to the charges, is presumed innocent and will vigorously defend the unproven allegations made against him,\" the attorney said. Other city leaders arrested include Anthony Suarez, 42, the Democratic mayor of Ridgefield, New Jersey, and Leona Beldini, 74, the Democratic deputy mayor of Jersey City, prosecutors said. Earlier this week, Democrats L. Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt -- two members of the New Jersey State Assembly who were among the officials arrested in the probe -- were stripped of their legislative pay and benefits, Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. announced. When the arrests were announced July 23, prosecutors said investigators had searched about 20 locations in New Jersey and New York to recover \"large sums of cash and other evidence of criminal conduct,\" and executed 28 seizure warrants against bank accounts that they believe were involved in laundering money.","highlights":"Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III steps down in wake of scandal .\nCammarano, one of 44 arrested in corruption probe, accused of taking bribes .\nSecaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell resigned earlier after being linked to investigation .\nBoth maintain their innocence, saying stepping down is not admission of guilt ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite crushing defeats in the last two elections, Senate Republicans have new \"energy and enthusiasm\" for winning back the majority, according to their leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. A top GOP leader says George W. Bush, politically, was a \"millstone\" around the GOP's neck. \"President Bush had become extremely unpopular, and politically he was sort of a millstone around our necks in both '06 and '08,\" McConnell told reporters Friday. \"We now have the opportunity to be on offense, offer our own ideas and we will win some.\" Many of those ideas get presented as amendments to Democratic bills, and even though they're usually defeated, they can draw attention to GOP policy alternatives and force Democrats to take difficult votes. \"They become the way you chart the course for a comeback, which, in this country, always happens at some point,\" McConnell said. \"The pendulum swings.\" McConnell said many of the ideas for amendments come from conservative think tanks and other Republican thinkers off Capitol Hill. \"Newt Gingrich, for example, has an idea a minute. Many of those are quite good. Many of those become amendments,\" he said. McConnell also said he doesn't mind the \"party of no\" label Congressional Democrats and the White House give Republicans. \"I don't feel anyone should be apologetic for opposing a bad idea,\" McConnell said. \"I'm not fearful of an effort to demonize dissent.\" After being labeled by Democrats the \"party of no\" for criticizing the budget without offering solutions, House Republicans said Thursday that they have come up with a plan B -- though were later criticized for a lack of details. \"Two nights ago, the president said, 'We haven't seen a budget yet out of Republicans.' Well, it's just not true, because here it is, Mr. President,\" House Minority leader Rep. John Boehner said Wednesday as he held up a booklet that he said was a \"blueprint for where we're going.\" Watch GOP leaders unveil their 'leaner' budget \u00bb . The details of the GOP budget will be presented on the House floor next week, said Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin. \"We're going to show a leaner budget, a budget with lower taxes, lower spending and lower borrowing,\" Ryan said. The blueprint includes familiar Republican proposals to limit \"wasteful\" government spending, cut the size of government and provide incentives to private entities to expand access to health care. It also includes a major overhaul of the tax code, proposing a marginal tax rate of 10 percent for income up to $100,000 and 25 percent for any income above that level. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs laughed off the Republicans' proposal Thursday, joking that their blueprint has more pictures of windmills than charts. \"It's interesting to have a budget that doesn't contain any numbers. I think the 'party of no' has become the 'party of no new ideas,' \" he said at the daily briefing. CNN contributor Paul Begala says that Republicans are simply out of ideas -- and have no one to blame but themselves. \"The Republicans are like an arsonist who complains that the fire department is wasting water. Obama is trying to handle an immediate crisis while also laying the foundation for long-term growth. The Republicans are doing neither,\" Begala said. \"They have no plan to stop the loss of jobs or to get capital markets functioning properly -- and they certainly have no plans for health care, education or energy, which are the keys to both long-term economic growth and long-term deficit reduction.\" Begala added: \"If this were 'Sesame Street,' the announcer would be saying, 'This program brought to you by the letters G, O and P ... None of the crises the president is addressing were of his creation. All of them were created or worsened by the Republicans who ran the House of Representatives, Senate and White House for years.\" CNN's Ed Hornick and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"Top Senate Republican says the party is plotting a \"comeback\"\nSen. Mitch McConnell says Bush was 'a millstone around our necks'\nMcConnell: No need to apologize \"for opposing a bad idea\""} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Poet and punk rocker Jim Carroll has died at age 60. Funeral arrangements are pending. Poet, punk rocker and author Jim Carroll performs at a 2002 benefit in New York. A respected poet and musician, Carroll also was the author of \"The Basketball Diaries,\" which was adapted into a 1995 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Carroll died Friday at his home in Manhattan after suffering a heart attack, said his former wife, Rosemary Carroll. In 1980, he released the popular album \"Catholic Boy,\" which, according to his fan Web site, expressed the \"[b]omb-fear anticipation, the optimistic nihilism and glittering darkness of the 1980s.\" The track \"People Who Died\" was one of the most-requested songs on FM radio at the time, and as Newsweek's Barbara Graustark noted then, \"it propelled [Carroll] from underground status to national attention as a contender for the title of rock's new poet laureate.\" The release of the song coincided with the death of John Lennon. The success of the album was attributed to the powerful combination of pure rock 'n' roll with Carroll's poetic sensibility and ability to write from his own experience. The fan Web site Catholicboy.com sums up Carroll's approach to music by quoting him as saying, \"There ain't much time left, you're born out of this insane abyss and you're going to fall back into it, so while you're alive you might as well show your bare ass.\" In addition to two follow-up albums, Carroll was a best-selling author of six books. \"He was a sweet, sweet man, and I'm going to really miss him,\" said Cassie Carter, a close friend for more than 20 years who operates Catholicboy.com. Carroll was born in New York in 1949 and spent his childhood living on the city's Lower East Side, attending Catholic schools, said Rosemary Carroll, whom he met in 1973. At 12, he began keeping a journal that eventually was published as \"The Basketball Diaries\" in 1978. In it, he recorded the highs and lows of his youth. He first experimented with drugs at 12 and soon was addicted to heroin, but he was able to kick that habit in the 1970s, his former wife said. He had just completed a novel, tentatively titled \"The Petting Zoo,\" which is about a young painter who experiences spiritual crises. The date of its release has not been set. Carroll is survived by a brother, according to his ex-wife.","highlights":"Poet and punk rocker Jim Carroll dies after heart attack at 60, ex-wife says .\nDrug addiction as teen chronicled in \"The Basketball Diaries\"\nBook made into 1995 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio .\nCarroll's 1980 album \"Catholic Boy\" featured popular \"People Who Died\" track ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andre Berto claimed the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight title when he halted Miguel Rodriguez in the seventh round in Memphis. Berto took the WBC belt vacated when Floyd Mayweather retired. Berto (22-0, 19 KOs) picked up the WBC belt that became vacant when Floyd Mayweather retired. Rodriguez's record dropped to 29-3 with 23 KOs. Berto floored Rodriguez with an uppercut in the seventh round and when Rodriquez went down a second time referee Lawrance Cole intervened at 2:13. Dane Mikkel Kessler knocked out Dimitri Sartison in the 12th round in Copenhagen, to become World Boxing Association supermiddle champion . Kessler (40-1) dominated throughout in front of an enthusiastic home crowd at the Brondby Hall. Sartison, who was born in Kazhakstan but grew up in Germany, suffered his first loss after a 22-0 start in his pro career. Kessler won the WBA title in November 2004 by stopping Manny Siaca of Puerto Rico. He also lifted the the WBC super middleweight crown two years later when he knocked out Markus Beyer of Germany in the third round. But he surrendered both belts when Joe Calzaghe of Wales ended his unbeaten run in Cardiff last November. Britain's Amir Khan was floored before successfully defending his Commonwealth lightweight title with a fifth round stoppage of Michael Gomez in Birmingham. Khan, who has won all 18 of his fights since turning professional after winning a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, knocked Gomez down in the first round but found himself on the canvas in the second in a brief but rugged contest. Khan said: \"This was one of my toughest fights but I learned from my mistakes. I will watch the video and work on them and continue my journey to the world title.\" Khan was on target with a powerful right uppercut in the first round and a combination of punches floored Gomez, who retaliated in the second round. A left hook over the top of a jab put Khan down and he had to take a standing count and looked unsteady on his legs for several seconds afterwards. Gomez landed a damaging hook to the ribs in the fourth but early in the fifth Khan put his opponent down again with a powerful body shot. Gomez began to take a lot of punishment and referee John Keane stopped the contest. Gomez looked disappointed but appeared to be all but out on his feet.","highlights":"Andre Berto wins the vacant WBC welterweight title .\nHe halts Miguel Rodriguez in seven rounds .\nMikkel Kessler becomes WBA super-middleweight champion .\nAmir Khan successfully defends the Commonwealth lightweight title ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She said she was a scapegoat. She said she was just following orders. She said she was demoted unfairly. Retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski was one of two officers punished over Abu Ghraib. Now, retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski can say: I told you so. Karpinski was one of two officers punished over the aggressive interrogations at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Pictures of detainees caused outrage around the world when they were leaked to the news media in May 2004. The photos showed naked prisoners stacked on top of each other or being threatened by dogs or hooded and wired up as if for electrocution. Throughout the ordeal, Karpinski maintained that she and her troops were following interrogation guidelines approved by top brass. Today, Karpinski has found validation in a few Bush-era memos released last week by the Obama administration. \"The outrage was over the photographs, because the photographs were living color of what those top-secret memorandums authorized,\" Karpinski said in an interview Wednesday. \"So, it is unfair ... the soldiers may have moved through [the military justice] system, but they never had a fair court-martial. Not any one of them, because they were condemned as one of the 'bad apples.' \" Karpinski, then a brigadier general and commander of Abu Ghraib, was demoted to colonel because of the scandal. A second officer, Col. Thomas Pappas, the commander of the military intelligence unit assigned to Abu Ghraib when the offenses occurred, was relieved of duty and fined in May 2005. Seven low-ranking guards and two military intelligence soldiers -- described by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz as \"bad apples\" -- were disciplined. The memo, by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven G. Bradbury, allowed the use of such tactics as keeping a detainee naked and in some cases in a diaper, and putting detainees on a liquid diet. One memo said aggressive techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture absent the intent to cause severe pain. \"I will tell you that when I read those memorandums, when they were first released a few days ago, I did -- I did feel this sense of being able to exhale after five years,\" Karpinski said. \"That is what we have been saying from the very beginning, that, wait a minute, why are you inside pointing the finger at me, why are you pointing the fingers at the soldiers here? There's a bigger story here.\" The Senate Armed Forces Committee released a report Tuesday, five days after the memos were released, stating that senior Bush administration officials authorized aggressive interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, despite concerns from military psychologists and attorneys. The report points to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's approval of such techniques -- including stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of dogs), and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli -- in December 2002 for detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His OK prompted interrogators in Afghanistan and Iraq to adopt the aggressive techniques. The guidance was delivered to Abu Ghraib by then-Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was summoned to Baghdad from Guantanamo to evaluate the prison system. \"We had a myriad of problems in our -- in the prison system, not with detainees who were undergoing interrogations, but with Iraqi criminal prisoners,\" Karpinski said. \"And instead of coming to give us support, he was sent specifically to work with the military intelligence interrogators to teach them the harsher techniques that were being used down in Guantanamo.\" Shortly before he left office in late 2006, Rumsfeld said the day the Abu Ghraib scandal broke was the worst in his tenure as defense secretary. \"Clearly the worst day was Abu Ghraib, and seeing what went on there and feeling so deeply sorry that that happened,\" he said at the time. \"I remember being stunned by the news of the abuse.\" But Karpinski said the condition of detainees at the prison should have come as no surprise for the Bush administration. \"I think it was torture, absolutely. You know, I was never inside an interrogation room where they were conducting interrogations, but I read the memorandums many times over,\" she said. \"Waterboarding is torture.\" Karpinski said that while she was the commander of Abu Ghraib, she didn't personally witness any of the interrogation techniques. \"The first time I saw the photographs was at the end of January [2004],\" she said. Karpinski said she was ordered by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the U.S. commander of operations in Iraq at the time, not to discuss the photographs or the investigation with anybody. Now, despite any relief felt by the release of the memos and the Senate report, Karpinski said she will have a hard time shaking off the humiliation and disgrace brought on by the Abu Ghraib scandal. \"I think that, you know, you cannot dismiss five years of having to live under these accusations,\" she said, \"and people associating my name and these soldiers' names with what they were so unfairly accused of.\" CNN's Rick Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski was punished over Abu Ghraib interrogations .\nAbu Ghraib photos showed naked prisoners and prisoners with dogs .\nMemos from Bush administration reccommended such tactics .\nKarpinski says she and other disciplined soldiers were treated unfairly ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States on Tuesday imposed financial sanctions on an Iran-based company that it said is a cover for North Korea's missile proliferation network, the Department of the Treasury announced. Hong Kong Electronics in Kish Island, Iran, was added to the list of \"designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters\" for working with two others already on the list: North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank and the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. (KOMID), according to a Treasury news release. The designation under Executive Order 13382 freezes any U.S. assets of Hong Kong Electronics and prohibits any transactions with the company by U.S. individuals, companies or financial institutions, the statement said. \"North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions,\" said Stuart Levey, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury. \"Today's action is a part of our overall effort to prevent North Korea from misusing the international financial system to advance its nuclear and missile programs and to sell dangerous technology around the world.\" The Treasury statement alleged that Hong Kong Electronics has transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds on behalf of Tanchon and KOMID since 2007. It also accused Hong Kong Electronics of facilitating the movement of money from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID. Tanchon, a commercial bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea, is the financial arm for KOMID, which the Treasury statement described as North Korea's premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. Both Tanchon and KOMID were previously subjected to sanctions under Executive Order 13382 and sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, according to the Treasury statement. It said both also had ties with other sanctioned entities, including Iran's Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which it called the Iranian organization responsible for developing liquid-fueled missiles.","highlights":"Hong Kong Electronics called a cover for North Korea's missile proliferation network .\nU.S. Treasury says company's U.S. assets frozen, transactions in U.S. prohibited .\nIt says company worked with bank, arms dealer tied to other sanctioned entities .\nGoal is to stop misuse of financial system to advance arms programs, Treasury says ."} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 200 people have died of meningitis in the past week alone in Niger and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. A health care worker vaccinates a child during an earlier outbreak of meningitis in Niger. The disease is an epidemic in 76 areas of the two countries, the health agency reported Wednesday. A spokesman for W.H.O. in Nigeria, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, said Saturday that the outbreak is bigger than usual and stretches across the African meningitis belt from east- to west-sub-Saharan Africa. The outbreak began around the start of the year, Soyinka told CNN. It usually peaks in the dry season because of dust, winds and cold nights, before dipping around May when the rains come, he said. A shortage of vaccines means officials are relying on \"effective prevention,\" in which they watch for outbreaks and then vaccinate people in the epicenter and surrounding areas, Soyinka told CNN. There have been nearly 25,000 suspected cases and more than 1,500 deaths in the meningitis belt in the first 11 weeks of the year, W.H.O. reported. More than 85 percent of those cases happened in northern Nigeria and Niger. Nigeria's Ministry of Health has reported 17,462 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 960 deaths, the world health agency said. In the past week, it reported 4,164 suspected cases with 171 deaths. Sixty-six local government areas in Nigeria have crossed the epidemic threshold. Epidemic thresholds are a way the W.H.O. confirms the emergence of an epidemic so it can step up vaccinations and other management measures. Niger's Ministry of Health has reported 4,513 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 169 deaths, since the start of the year. In the past week, 1,071 suspected cases and 30 deaths have been reported, the W.H.O. said. Ten of Niger's 42 districts have crossed the epidemic threshold. By comparison, other countries are reporting fewer than 50 cases a week. Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. Several different bacteria can cause meningitis but Neisseria meningitidis -- which is to blame for this outbreak -- is one of the most significant because of its potential to cause epidemics. Health authorities have released 2.3 million doses of vaccine to Nigeria and 1.9 million doses to Niger, the W.H.O. said. CNN's Christian Purefoy in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.","highlights":"W.H.O.: Meningitis killed more than 200 people in the past week in Niger and Nigeria .\nOutbreak stretches across African \"meningitis belt,\" at epidemic levels in 76 areas .\nVaccine shortage forces an \"effective prevention\" approach .\n25,000 suspected cases, 1,500 deaths in the belt in the first 11 weeks of 2009 ."} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made a U-turn Saturday -- first declaring that the military offensive against Islamic militants in South Waziristan had ended, then saying there is no timeframe for its completion. The Pakistani army is conducting an intense operation to rout militants from their haven along the country's border with Afghanistan. The militants, in turn, have launched a series of deadly attacks in retaliation. Answering a question from a reporter who asked whether the government will engage in dialogue with the Taliban in South Waziristan, Gilani said the operation was over. \"There was talk of dialogue even during the Malakand Operation. But now, the operation in South Waziristan is over. In fact, at the moment, there is talk of an operation in Orakzai Agency,\" he said. Malakand is another operation that the military is conducting in another region. Orakzai is one of seven districts that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Like South Waziristan, it is also considered rife with militants. Gilani's comments, made in the eastern city of Lahore, were aired on national television. But hours later, he backtracked. \"It could have been in a different context,\" he told reporters in Karachi. These remarks were also aired on television. Gilani also declined to say when the offensive might end. \"We will take military action wherever we get information about the presence of militants,\" he said. When reached for clarification, the prime minister's office pointed CNN to the second statement. The army did not comment on Gilani's remarks. A release it sends out daily made no mention of an end to the offensive on Saturday. Instead, Saturday's release provided the usual breakdown of operations in various parts of the country, including South Waziristan. CNN's Samson Desta and journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani tells reporter operation against Taliban is over .\nHours later he backtracks on national television and declines to say when operation may end .\nPakistani army conducting an intense operation to rout militants along Afghan border ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged pirate apprehended by the U.S. Navy after the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama is en route to New York, according to defense officials. The USS Bainbridge tows the lifeboat in which Capt. Robert Phillips was held for days. He was handed over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, the officials said. The suspected pirate, known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant,\" was brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship that was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of the failed hijacking that turned into a hostage ordeal 350 miles off the Somalian coast. Three pirates who were holding the Maersk Alabama's captain in the ship's lifeboat were killed by Navy SEALs. The survivor had surrendered and was aboard the Bainbridge when the captain, Richard Phillips, was rescued, officials said. From the Bainbridge, he was transferred to the USS Boxer for medical treatment. He was wounded when crew members of the Maersk Alabama took him hostage in the early hours of the pirate attack on the cargo ship, according to the military. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . The crew members had hoped to exchange him for their captain, but the pirates did not release Phillips when the crew returned their captive. \"I'm mad because, you know, I could have been dead right now,\" Ken Quinn, the Maersk Alabama's navigation officer, told CNN Radio Monday. \"But at the same time he's just a little skinny guy, you know, from Somalia where they're all starving and stuff.\" Quinn said he wasn't angry at the single alleged pirate, noting piracy in the region is fueled by the desire to survive hardship and poverty. He said the suspect told him he wanted to go the United States, and asked whether Quinn could help him get there. \"I said, 'Yeah, you're probably going to go anyway -- I don't think you're going to need my help,' \" Quinn said. \"If he goes to jail here, it will be a whole lot better than living in Somalia.\" CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum in New York contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged pirate known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant\"\nAlleged pirate brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship .\nHanded over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, officials said .\nDiehl was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of a failed hijacking ."} -{"article":"COVINGTON, Louisiana (CNN) -- A woman recruited over the Internet and shot to death during a Ku Klux Klan group's initiation rite felt a need to be wanted and was eager to be part of a group, authorities say family members told them. Relatives describe Cynthia Lynch as having a deep need to feel wanted and eager to join groups. Her relatives told investigators that Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, had never been outside her home state, said Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Department. But she recently took a bus to Slidell, Louisiana, where she was met by two Klan members and taken to a campsite in the woods near Sun, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of New Orleans. Bonnett and Sheriff Jack Strain gave CNN this account of what happened: . During the initiation rite, members of the Klan group, which calls itself the Sons of Dixie, shaved Lynch's head. After 24 hours of drills, including chanting and running with torches, she asked to be taken to town. An argument began and the group's leader, Chuck Foster, allegedly pushed her to the ground and shot her to death without warning. Lynch wanted to leave the campsite because she was homesick, investigators concluded after talking to Lynch's family in Tulsa. Watch how an initiation rite went wrong \u00bb . Strain told CNN that Foster used a knife to remove the bullet. Other members of the Sons of Dixie helped cover up the slaying for Foster, their leader or \"Grand Lordship,\" Strain added. The attempt to conceal the killing included burning the woman's personal items, Strain said. The new details emerged Thursday as the FBI announced it was assisting local authorities. The FBI's top agent in New Orleans, Louisiana, said the agency usually doesn't monitor specific groups, but will look into whether any federal laws were violated. \"The FBI is working closely with local law enforcement authorities investigating this recent incident,\" said Special Agent in Charge David W. Welker. He added that the FBI would \"aggressively investigate\" any leads and urged anyone with information to call the FBI at 504-816-3000 . Sheriff's investigators said they received the intitial tip about the killing from a convenience store clerk. Two of the group members went into the store and asked the clerk if he knew how to get bloodstains out of their clothes, Strain said. The clerk told them no, and called the sheriff after they left. Officials tracked down those two members and arrested them. Authorities established telephone contact with other members of the group who were still at the campsite and let them know law enforcement officials were on their way. They surrendered without incident. Foster was elsewhere in the woods, but he also surrendered, the sheriff said. Watch report on Klan initiation gone awry \u00bb . The woman's body was found under loose brush along a road several miles from the campsite. At the campsite, investigators found Confederate flags, KKK banners, five Klan robes and an Imperial Wizard robe. Foster, 44, is charged with second-degree murder. He remained Thursday at the St. Tammany Parish jail with no bail set, authorities said. Seven other suspects also remained in jail Thursday, charged with obstruction of justice. Bail for each was set at $500,000. On Wednesday, sheriff's investigators searched a house Foster had rented for the past five years in Bogalusa. They found Klan paraphernalia, documents and computer files. Among the seized documents were membership applications, titles and a chain of command for group members . \"We recovered various documents out of that home that are giving us an indication of the organizational structure and the organizational guidelines of the group,\" Bonnett said. Fred Oswold, chief of criminal investigations for the sheriff's office, said the Sons of Dixie Klan group is small and that most of its members already had been arrested. \"So far we have learned that they were a small group, but they were fairly organized,\" said Oswold, who said his agency is working with the FBI to learn more about the group. CNN's Katie Ross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Louisiana Klan group called itself the \"Sons of Dixie\"\nFBI says it is working with local police .\nChuck Foster, 44, charged with second-degree murder in death of Cynthia Lynch .\nOthers involved in initiation are accused of trying to conceal the killing ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three people were arrested Saturday after chaos broke out at an \"America's Next Top Model\" audition at a New York hotel, police said. A large crowd at the Park Central New York hotel got unruly Saturday during a \"Top Model\" audition. Six people were injured, and two of them sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said. Police said they didn't know what provoked the bedlam. Three people were charged with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot in connection with the incident at the Park Central New York hotel in Manhattan. The audition was shut down after the incident, authorities said. Calls to Park Central management were not immediately returned on Saturday. The \"Top Model\" competition, hosted and produced by supermodel Tyra Banks and aired by the CW network, is in its 12th cycle.","highlights":"Police: 3 people were arrested Saturday after chaos broke out at a TV show audition .\n\"America's Next Top Model\" audition was being held at a New York hotel, police said .\nTwo people sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said .\n\"Top Model\" competition is hosted by Tyra Banks and airs on CW network ."} -{"article":"Forget about 20\/20. \"Perfect\" vision could be redefined by gadgets that give you the eyes of a cyborg. The surface of the eye can be used to measure much of the same data you would get from blood tests. The tech industry calls the digital enrichment of the physical world \"augmented reality.\" Such technology is already appearing in smartphones and toys, and enthusiasts dream of a pair of glasses we could don to enhance our everyday perception. But why stop there? Scientists, eye surgeons, professors and students at the University of Washington have been developing a contact lens containing one built-in LED, powered wirelessly with radio frequency waves. Eventually, more advanced versions of the lens could be used to provide a wealth of information, such as virtual captions scrolling beneath every person or object you see. Significantly, it could also be used to monitor your own vital signs, such as body temperature and blood glucose level. Why a contact lens? The surface of the eye contains enough data about the body to perform personal health monitoring, according to Babak Parvis, a University of Washington professor of bionanotechnology, who is working on the project. \"The eye is our little door into the body,\" Parvis told Wired.com. With gadgets becoming increasingly mobile and powerful, the technology industry is seeing a steady stream of applications devoted to health. A few examples include a cellphone microscope used to diagnose malaria, surgeons honing their skills with the Nintendo Wiimote, and an iPhone app made for diabetes patients to track their glucose levels. A contact lens with augmented-reality powers would take personal health monitoring several steps further, Parvis said, because the surface of the eye can be used to measure much of the data you would read from your blood tests, including cholesterol, sodium, potassium and glucose levels. And that's just the beginning. Because this sort of real-time health monitoring has been impossible in the past, there's likely more about the human eye we haven't yet discovered, Parvis said. And beyond personal health monitoring, this finger-tip sized gadget could one day create a new interface for gaming, social networking and, well, interacting with reality in general. Parvis and his colleagues have been working on their multipurpose lens since 2004. They integrated miniature antennas, control circuits, an LED and radio chips into the lens using optoelectronic components they built from scratch. They hope these components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs to display images in front of the eye. Think words, charts and even photographs. Sounds neat, doesn't it? But the group faces a number of challenges before achieving true augmented eye vision. First and foremost, safety is a prime concern with a device that comes in contact with the eye. To ensure the lens is safe to wear, the group has been testing prototypes on live rabbits, who have successfully worn the lenses for 20 minutes at a time with no adverse effects. However, the lens must undergo much more testing before gaining approval from the Food and Drug Administration. A fundamental challenge this contact lens will face is the task of tracking the human eye, said Blair MacIntyre, an associate professor and director of the augmented environments lab at Georgia Tech College of Computing. MacIntyre is not involved in the contact lens product, but he helped develop an augmented-reality zombie shooter game. \"These developments are obviously very far from being usable, but very exciting,\" MacIntyre said. \"Using them for AR will be very hard. You need to know exactly where the user is looking if you want to render graphics that line up with the world, especially when their eyes saccade (jump around), which our eyes do at a very high rate.\" Given that obstacle, we're more likely to see wearable augmented-reality eyeware in the form of glasses before a contact lens, MacIntyre said. With glasses, we'll only need to track where the glasses are and where the eyes are relative to them as opposed to where the eyes are actually looking. And with a contact lens, it will be difficult to cram heavy computational power into such a small device, even with today's state-of-the-art technologies, Parvis admits. There are many advanced sensors that would amplify the lens' abilities, but the difficulty lies in integrating them, which is why Parvis and his colleagues have had to engineer their own components. And when the contact lens evolves from personal health monitoring into more processor-intense augmented-reality applications, it's more likely it will have to draw its powers from a companion device such as a smartphone, he said. Layar, an Amsterdam-based startup focusing on augmented reality, shares University of Washington's vision of an augmented-reality contact lens. However, Raimo van der Klein, CEO of Layar, said such a device's vision would be limited if it did not work with an open platform supporting every type of data available via the web, such as mapping information, restaurant reviews or even Twitter feeds. Hence, his company has taken a first step by releasing an augmented-reality browser for Google Android smartphones, for which software developers can provide \"layers\" of data for various web services. Van der Klein believes a consumer-oriented, multipurpose lens is just one example of where augmented-reality technology will take form in the near future. He said to expect these applications to move beyond augmenting vision and expand to other parts of the body. \"Imagine audio cues through an earpiece or sneakers vibrating wherever your friends are,\" van der Klein said. \"We need to keep an open eye for future possibilities, and I think a contact lens is just part of it.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Scientists developing contact lens with built-in LED, powered by radio waves .\nMore advanced lens could provide scrolling captions beneath what you see .\nSurface of the eye contains enough data to perform personal health monitoring .\nLens must undergo more testing before gaining approval from FDA ."} -{"article":"PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- Detectives are questioning two people in connection with the killing of a Gulf Coast couple known for adopting special-needs children, the Escambia County sheriff said Saturday. Police were questioning two people Saturday, one of them the owner of a red van seen driving from the home. Investigators have found a red Dodge van recorded on surveillance cameras leaving the Beulah, Florida, home of Byrd and Melanie Billings, who were found dead in their home Thursday, Sheriff David Morgan said. \"Interviews with associated neighbors, friends and family\" led to a relative of the van's owner and another person, who were being questioned Saturday evening, the sheriff said. No arrests have been made, and Morgan would not discuss whether the \"persons of interest\" had any connection to the Billings family. But the sheriff said investigators can tie the pair \"to enough significant events and instances in this case that would lead a reasonable person to believe that they have an association with these murders.\" A third person sought for questioning had not been found, Morgan said. The Billingses died in what police are calling a home invasion, but investigators have not said whether the couple was robbed. Eight children found at the home after the shootings are being cared for at an undisclosed location, Morgan said. The children, ranging in age from infant to about 11 years old, were not injured, police said. Twelve of the Billingses' 16 children were adopted, some of them with special needs, the Pensacola News Journal reported. Emergency personnel and police went to the home after receiving a call just before 8 p.m. Thursday about shots being fired, said Escambia County Police spokesman Sgt. Ted Roy. An employee of the couple found their bodies, Roy said. Beulah is west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two people are being questioned and a third is being sought .\nRed van, caught on surveillance cameras leaving the home, has been found .\nByrd and Melanie Billings were found dead in their home Thursday .\nEight children found in the home are being taken care of in undisclosed location ."} -{"article":"ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (CNN) -- Standing slightly more than 4 feet tall, 9-year-old Tuguldur proudly stated the greatest challenge he faced in a horse race across the Mongolian plains in the country's annual Naadam Festival was serenading his horse. Young wrestlers cheer on teammates during the opening round at the Naadam Festival. \"The hardest part of the race was singing to my horse while riding,\" said Tuguldur, wiping perspiration from the July sun off his face. The long-distance horse race is exclusively for children, ranging in ages from 6 to 12. Riding up to 30 kilometers (19 miles), these children maneuver their galloping steeds on a thin saddle pad that often does not have stirrups. \"Mongolians believe they can communicate with their horses through singing, and their horse will go faster,\" said Tamir, a senior at Mongolian University. \"This is why the kids must keep singing during the race.\" Singing to racing horses is just one part of Mongolia's Naadam Festival, an annual event believed to have existed for centuries, and rivaling the Olympics as the premier sporting event in the central Asian nation. \"For us Mongolians, the Naadam Festival is what we look forward to all year,\" said Dashtsogtsol Erdenetuya, who has competed in the Naadam Festival for the past 22 years. \"It is our tradition and a reminder of an ancient way of life. Getting gold in this festival brings as much honor as any Olympic medal.\" Held every July, the Naadam Festival was possibly founded as long ago as 800 years ago by Genghis Khan. The festival is believed to have started as a way for Mongols to train for military and hunting expeditions. Today, it formally commemorates the 1921 revolution when Mongolia declared itself a free country. Many of Naadam's customs, which include wearing traditional clothes and singing hymns once sung in battle, are still followed, a sign of the importance of the festival. \"In the Naadam Festival, everyone knows who you are; many companies will sponsor you, and if you win, you can become the face of the country,\" said Nasanbat Oyunbat, director of the Mongolian Olympic National Team. \"The Olympics are only now becoming popular in Mongolia and were televised for the first time in the 2004 Games in Athens.\" \"The horses in the Naadam Festival have higher endurance than the horses that will compete in the Olympic Equestrian events in August,\" bragged Edward Rochette, an American lawyer who married a Mongolian woman and is living in Ulaanbaatar. \"Most thoroughbreds would die if you ran them for 30 km. The Mongolian horses have been running across these plains for hundreds of years and have developed the correct body type for this kind of sport.\" Rochette's wife's family lives in a yurt (round animal skin tent), owns more than 1,500 and entered 20 horses in the three-day race competition this year, which was visited by thousands of tourists. \"I was overwhelmed watching the clouds of dust rise across the prairie as the horses galloped to the finish line,\" explained Miep Thulijls, a tourist from Holland. \"I could not believe these tiny kids could ride for so long and was terrified when I saw one of the children fall off his horse like a rag doll.\" The age limit was raised from 4 to 6 after a child was killed in a race a few years ago. Only small children are allowed to compete in this event because they are particularly light. The kids are generally rewarded with warm mare's milk and candy while the horse owners get money and sometimes even cars. Wrestling without weight limits . Mongolian wrestling has no weight divisions; a time limit was only introduced after a match went on for more than four hours. Wrestlers compete in single elimination events and are weeded down from 512 participants during nine rounds of competition. \"It is more difficult to wrestle the little guys because they are so quick,\" complained Gantogtokh, who at 130 kilos (286 pounds) is an eighth-generation wrestler. His father placed second in Judo in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. Dressed in tight blue shorts and a half shirt, which is usually red or blue, the wrestlers dance around the judges in slow graceful sways and then pay homage to the nine flags dating back to Genghis Khan before and after each match. It is rumored that the dress code, which requires wrestlers to compete without shirts was imposed after a female participated in the event disguised as a man. Many of the male athletes who compete in the free style wrestling and judo events in the Olympic Games were once Naadam Festival winners. But, the Olympic gold medal hopeful this year is a female Judo wrestler. \"Each generation of wrestlers gets stronger as they have more opportunities to work out,\" Gantogtokh said. \"I hope this year we will bring home a gold in Judo and wrestling. But, the competition is going to be tough.\" Arrows to anklebones . Other athletes participated in archery and anklebone shooting. \"This has always been my dream,\" beamed Dashtsogtsol Erdenetuya, 36, who has competed in the Naadam Festival for the past 22 years. \"I placed second the past three years and finally came in first this time. My mother was a champion in 1969 and 1975 and taught me everything I know about archery.\" Archery is usually the only event in which women compete. Men shoot from 75 meters and women from 65 meters. Mongolians sing to the archers and stand on either side of the targets. The singers, dressed in elaborate decor, sing three different types of songs, including an invitational song and songs that recognize a good or bad shot. Famous for his ability to shoot backward on horseback, Genghis Khan created the sport of anklebone shooting to strengthen the middle finger of his soldiers, so they would be better skilled in archery. Anklebone shooting is the newest event in the Naadam Festival, only becoming an official sport in 2000. \"The game is becoming more modern now,\" explained Khatanbator, 56, an anklebone participant.\" Competitors now use pieces of deer antler instead of anklebones. It is easier on the wrist to flick than anklebones. But, everyone still refers to the sport as anklebone shooting because it has been this way for hundreds of years.\" The competitors are divided into teams of eight who compete against each other. The first to knock all the deer chips down wins. \"People cheer for the other competitor like fans would in a soccer game,\" explained Berkfat Tumenjin, a Mongolian tour guide. \"While the singing in other events is used to encourage competitors, the singing in this event is used to distract them.\"","highlights":"Naadam Festival is held every July in Mongolia .\nCompetition's events have origins in military, hunting training .\nNaadam in the most widely watched festival in Mongolia ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Indian batsman Virender Sehwag admitted he was not too disappointed after he fell seven agonising runs short of a world record third triple-century in the third Test against Sri Lanka. The 31-year-old opener had moved from his overnight score of 284 to 293 before he chipped a flighted delivery from Muttiah Muralitharan back to the bowler who claimed the catch at the second attempt. \"I am very happy I got at least 293 runs -- I am proud of what I have achieved,\" Sehwag told reporters at the close of the third day's play. \"Not many people have got two triple centuries and followed that with 293. So there is nothing to be disappointed about. \"I tried to take my time, but maybe the ball was not there to be hit. I misjudged the length and the ball went straight into Murali's hands. \"I always tell myself to bat the full day, and if there is a ball to be hit, just hit it. If I'm able to bat the whole day we will be in a good position.\" The innings, which lasted 254 balls and included 40 boundaries and seven sixes, was the backbone of India's highest-ever total of 726-9 declared in reply to Sri Lanka's 393. India skipper Mahendra Dhoni hit an unbeaten century before he opted to declare with a lead of 333 before Sri Lanka saw off a difficult few overs in their second innings to close on 11 without loss. Elsewhere, England claimed a 2-1 series victory over South Africa in Durban after the fifth one-day international was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Andrew Strauss' side became only the third team to beat the Proteas in a home one-day series after the umpires called the match off with the onset of another heavy downpour. Meanwhile, a century from Dwayne Bravo was the highlight of a competitive opening day of the second Test between Australia and the West Indies at the Adelaide Oval. The West Indies won the toss, elected to bat and finished the final session with momentum to be 336 for six at stumps.","highlights":"Indian batsman Virender Sehwag fell seven agonising runs short of a world record third triple-century.\nSehwag made 293 before he chipped the ball back to Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.\nIndia closed the third day of the third Test with their highest-ever total of 726-9 declared in reply to Sri Lanka's 393."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp died Saturday at age 73 after a battle with cancer, his family announced. Jack Kemp, a former congressman from New York, was the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 1996. A onetime professional football player, Kemp served nine terms in Congress as a representative from New York and was former Sen. Bob Dole's running mate in 1996. He was a leading advocate of \"supply-side\" tax cuts, advancing the argument that cutting taxes would boost economic growth and yield more revenue for the federal government. \"The only way to oppose a bad idea is to replace it with a good idea, and I like to think that I have spent my life trying to promote good ideas,\" he told CNN in a 1996 interview. Kemp \"passed peacefully into the presence of the Lord\" Sunday evening, a family statement said. He disclosed his illness in January. Watch . \"During the treatment of his cancer, Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends, a gratitude which the Kemp family shares,\" the family said. Watch how Jack Kemp made transition from football to politics \u00bb . Kemp quarterbacked the Buffalo Bills to back-to-back American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965, before the merger that created the modern NFL. When he retired in 1970 after 13 seasons, the California native ran for Congress and represented the Buffalo area for 18 years in the House of Representatives. View photos of Jack Kemp's life \u00bb . \"He championed free-market principles that improved the lives of millions of Americans and helped unleash an entrepreneurial spirit that all of us still benefit from today,\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement issued late Saturday. The 1981 tax cuts signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which cut marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 50 percent, bore Kemp's name as a co-sponsor. Critics mocked the policy as \"trickle-down\" economics and pointed to the decade's growing budget deficits as evidence that supply-side theories didn't work, but it has been GOP orthodoxy ever since. Kemp mounted an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988, losing the Republican primaries to George H.W. Bush. But once in office, Bush made Kemp his secretary of housing and urban development -- a post Kemp used to promote what he called an \"empowerment\" agenda of tax breaks for urban businesses and expanded home ownership. iReport.com: Share your memories of Kemp . Unlike many of the other conservatives of his era, Kemp actively courted African-American support. In 1992, he told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that the GOP \"could be a Lincoln party in terms of attracting black and brown and men and women of color and low-income status and immigrant status who want a shot at the American dream for their children.\" CNN Political Director Sam Feist contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jack Kemp, former congressman and vice presidential candidate, dies at 73 .\nKemp announced in January he was battling cancer .\nBefore politics, Kemp was a professional football quarterback .\nKemp also served as secretary of housing and urban development (1989-1993)"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The Arab world is among the worldwide audience that has been closely watching as events in Iran have unfolded over the past week. Protesters fight running battles with motorcycle-mounted militia members Saturday in Tehran. \"In all honesty, I am amazed by these Iranians,\" Egyptian human rights activist and blogger Walid Abbas posted on his Twitter page. \"I have no green t-shirt\" Abbas tweeted Saturday. He was referring to the color worn by many supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose supposed failure to win last week's election sparked the wave of unrest that has gripped the nation. Watching the events unfolding in Iran on Twitter, Youtube and other social networks, the Egyptian activist said he is learning from the Iranian activists. He said he does not support Moussavi because he is part of the Mullah system. \"We are not with Moussavi,\" Abbas tweeted, \"We are with the Iranian people and their demands.\" Taghlob Salah, a 24-year-old Iraqi student at Baghdad Law College, told CNN that the Iranian youths who make up most of the protesters can be inspiring to Iraqis, despite cultural differences. See images of the clashes Saturday \u00bb . \"Despite the difference that we have with Iran and the fact that many Iraqis don't trust their Persian neighbor, we are still Muslims and at the end of the day that matters a lot,\" he said. \"We will look at this phase in Iranian history and learn, for sure and I can say that we will learn from them, 100 percent.\" Iraq and Iran are culturally linked because their populations are predominantly Shiite Muslims, as opposed to Sunni Muslims who make up the majority of most Arab countries. Salah credited the Internet for giving everyone involved a chance to have their voices heard. \"There are so many Iraqi groups all over Facebook,\" he said. \"The world is evolving; we are developing our approach to our surroundings.\" Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, expressed dismay over the continued protests. He called on Moussavi to be \"responsible enough to protect his people and avoid bloodshed, instability and confrontation in his country that may rupture the Iranian internal unity spreading chaos throughout the region.\" Atwan said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made it clear in his speech during Friday prayers that his patience had run out and he praised the supreme leader for having displayed \"leniency\" in his dealings with the protesters, but predicted that that leniency would not continue. iReport.com: Share images from Iran . Abd Rahman Rashed, editor of the Saudi-owned, London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, expressed a different point of view. In an editorial published Saturday, Rashed directed comments to Arab supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose landslide victory in last week's election is being challenged by Moussavi and his supporters. \"No matter what happens, Iran did technically change and will shift its course in a great way,\" Rashed wrote. \"It is over,\" he said. \"Iran the one system, the street and the agenda is over.\" They may not understand Farsi or why some Iranians voted for Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but Arabs can surely relate to the passionate shouts of \"God is Great!\" And \"Down with the dictator\" in defiance of Iran's theocracy. Relations between Iran and Arab states have always been tense: through its proxies, Iran sometimes accuses some of the leading Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, of being subject to the whims of Western imperialism and of failing to confront America and its ally, Israel, in the region. Rashed credited Iranians for speaking with courage against their government's funding of controversial organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas and anti-government groups in Yemen and elsewhere. He said Iranians voted against the current system because they don't want the government to dedicate the country's budget to ally itself to such organizations instead of focusing on the average citizen. Some Arab states look to Iran as a regional superpower that can support them financially, militarily and politically in their confrontation with the international community. Those states include Syria and Sudan, which support organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah -- deemed terrorist organizations by the United States -- that are used as a proxy to challenge America and Israel in the region. Some Arab states have long warned that Shiite Iran wants to spread its power across the Sunni-dominated Arab world, causing more mistrust and friction between the Persian nation and the Arab world. Recently, Egypt and Morocco accused Iran of attempting to spread the Shiite faith among its Sunni population and creating Shiite converts and activists in their communities and in the rest of the Arab world -- a charge that Iran has denied.","highlights":"Arab world has closely watched as events in Iran have unfolded over past week .\nRelations between Iran and Arab states have always been tense .\nEgypt, Morocco accuse Iran of trying to spread Shiite faith among its Sunni population .\nSome Arab states look to Iran as a regional superpower that can support them ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- July is on track to be the deadliest month yet for British troops supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup says the sacrifices of British forces are worth it. So far, 15 British servicemen have died in Afghanistan this month, mostly in connection with Operation Panther's Claw, the British-led offensive in Helmand province that is mirroring a similar operation by U.S. Marines in the same area. Britain's deadliest month in Afghanistan so far has been September 2006, when 19 died -- 14 in a single incident, the crash of a Royal Air Force plane near Kandahar. The sudden spike in British deaths has triggered an outcry in the United Kingdom over the mission there and whether it will be successful. \"Every casualty is sad, every casualty is deeply felt by us in the military. I mean, they are part of our military family. The losses, of course, are felt most by the real families of those involved and the bereavement is terrible,\" Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup, the chief of defense staff for Great Britain, told CNN in an exclusive interview. But earlier, he pointed out, at the same time the 15 British troops had been killed, at least 197 Taliban forces had been confirmed killed in fighting. Watch questions being asked about the sacrifices \u00bb . \"These casualties are pretty one-sided. Sad though our losses are, they are very small compared to the losses that the enemy is taking,\" he said in an interview at the British Embassy. Stirrup, whose position is equivalent to Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the government wants people to know that the sacrifices are worth it. \"This is a military operation and on military operations, you engage in fighting. That's why we have militaries and, sadly, you take casualties. The real issue is, first of all, are we getting something of sufficient strategic benefit to justify the price that our people are paying?\" he said. \"Secondly, are we doing everything we can to ensure that we achieve that strategic benefit with the minimum possible number of casualties? And those, I think, are the key arguments in which we have to engage.\" The British military has been criticized for using vehicles that cannot withstand the blast of a roadside bomb. Stirrup told CNN that the British troops are conducting missions that forces them out of protective vehicles. \"You can't engage with the population of Helmand from inside several inches of steel. You have actually to get out on the ground,\" Stirrup said. \"Our people have to get out there, they have to engage with the population and close with the enemy and that, alas, exposes them to risks and sometimes those risks materialize. Have we got the right equipment? Well, we have excellent equipment on the ground and our troops will tell you that.\" But Stirrup admits that while the United Kingdom is constantly updating the equipment sent to Afghanistan, the results are delayed. \"It takes time for industry to produce the new equipment. It's ordered, it's being delivered, but it's delivered over time, so it's always that gap, if you like, between identifying that change requirement and being able to deliver it on the ground,\" Stirrup said. He said there is one British serviceman who won't have to worry about the dangers of Afghanistan: Prince William. \"Prince William is second in line to the throne. That produces certain difficulties to his employment in a combat environment,\" he said. \"I'm not going to say one way or the other what we will do for the future. What I will say is that he is training at the moment to be a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, which is a tremendously demanding occupation. It's professionally demanding. It also is at times pretty hazardous, and I think he is going to find that challenge enough and reward enough in the short term.\" The prince's younger brother, Prince Harry, served in Afghanistan for about 10 weeks until news of his deployment was leaked by a U.S. Web site. He was then pulled out to keep his unit from being targeted specifically aimed at him.","highlights":"15 servicemen have died this month, compared with 19 in September 2006 .\nMost deaths attributed to Operation Panther's Claw in Helmand province .\nAir Chief Marshall says numbers pale in comparison to 197 Taliban deaths .\nSudden spike triggers outcry in UK, criticism of vehicles used in operations ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Teratomas of the brain are very rare and comprise less than 1 per cent of all brain tumors. Teratomas have been the subject of intense fascination among scientists because of their sometimes strange qualities -- some have been reported to contain hair, teeth, bone and, very rarely, more complex organs such as eyeballs. Thoughts about the origin of these tumors have attracted much debate. CNN spoke with Dr. Thomas L. Ellis, senior neurosurgeon at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in North Carolina, United States, about the tumors sometimes known as \"the monsters\". He explained some quick facts: . \u2022 \"Teratoma\" comes from the Greek word \"teraton,\" meaning \"monster\". \u2022 Teratomas are seen most commonly in children and young adults. \u2022 Teratomas are made up of tissue from all three germ layers -- mesoderm, ectoderm, and endoderm -- that occur during the formation of an embryo. \u2022 Although teratomas can occur during embryonic development, most arise much later in life. \u2022 Teratomas occur most often in the midline of the brain, therefore often obstructing and putting pressure on critical areas of the brain. This can lead to loss of basic functions, but this loss can be temporary -- until the tumor is removed or reduced in size. \u2022 Teratomas are commonly very solid and rubbery making them resistant to dissection with standard instruments.","highlights":"Teratomas of the brain are very rare tumors -- less than 1% of all brain tumors .\n\"Mature\" teratomas sometimes contain highly developed tissues like teeth and hair .\n\"Teratoma\" comes from the Greek word \"teraton,\" meaning \"monster\"."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mauricio Funes, a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago, claimed the presidency of El Salvador on Sunday night. FMLN's Mauricio Funes shows his ballot before voting Sunday in Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. \"This is the happiest night of my life,\" Funes told a jubilant crowd at his election headquarters. \"It's also the night of greatest hope for El Salvador.\" With 90.68 percent of the votes counted, the FMLN party's Funes had 51.27 percent, while the ARENA party's Rodrigo Avila had 48.73 percent, the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. The final tally will be certified within 48 hours, the electoral council's Walter Araujo said in a nationally televised news conference. Funes' victory ended a 20-year hold on the presidency by the right-leaning ARENA. \"Now the ARENA party passes into opposition,\" Funes said. \"ARENA ... can be assured that it will be listened to and respected.\" Although polls had indicated the race had tightened considerably in the past few weeks, most analysts had predicted that Funes would win. \"It's a sign that there's democracy in that country, which is something the United States tried to foster,\" said Bernard Aronson, who as President George H.W. Bush's assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs from 1989-93 was heavily involved in ending El Salvador's 12-year civil war. The FMLN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, was formed in late 1980 as an umbrella group for five leftist guerilla organizations fighting a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The guerrillas and the government signed a peace pact in 1992 and the FMLN became a legitimate political party. By some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the war. The new president will find \"a country that still retains a lot of bitterness, a lot of division,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. \"This country is completely divided,\" ARENA party official Adolfo Torres said on CNN affiliate TCS TV station Sunday night. The election, Hakim said, was \"an important test of how far El Salvador has come.\" The result also will be an important test of how far El Salvador will go. With an economy in deep trouble and neither party having enough seats to control the national Legislative Assembly, much will depend on the party that lost. \"Conflict occurs when one person wants to force a conflict,\" Hakim said. \"Compromise requires both sides.\" No one is certain how ARENA will handle the loss. \"That's a big unknown,\" said Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the consulting firm Eurasia Group. \"I still think they'll play ball. They have an incentive to get along with the new administration. They certainly don't want to be shut out of the process.\" Otto Reich, who served in high-level Latin American posts for Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, sees the possibility of a spirited fight from ARENA. \"If I had to guess, I'd say ARENA will try to put democratic obstacles in the way of an FMLN consolidation of power,\" Reich said. Although ARENA, which are the Spanish initials for the Nationalist Republican Alliance, has come back from a 14-point deficit in some polls two months ago, Reich said winning a fifth consecutive term was \"swimming against the tide.\" \"People in El Salvador are weighing risks and opportunities,\" Reich said. \"They have an opportunity to replace a party with which they have gotten tired.\" Hakim also saw voter fatigue with ARENA, saying, \"One party has managed the country forever and ever.\" Many of the 2.4 million Salvadorans who voted weighed competing doubts. \"The uncertainty is that the FMLN has never been in power,\" Berkman said. But voters also asked themselves, she said, whether they were \"better off than they were five years ago, 10 years ago.\" Avila, she said, could not run on a message of change. Funes' message of change and putting new people in power was more effective. Since the war ended, Salvadorans have mostly supported ARENA because of concerns over the FMLN's left-wing agenda and the group's guerrilla background. There also have been outside influences. \"The country has been afraid to vote for the left because of fears from Washington,\" Larry Birns, director of the nonprofit Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said recently. With the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, Salvadorans may expect a different attitude from Washington. El Salvador, Colombia and Peru have been the United States' closest allies in Latin America. Birns calls the three nations \"Washington's street-corner guys.\" With an FMLN victory, El Salvador joins other Latin American countries that have elected leftist leaders in recent years -- Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. But Berkman and others warn that the United States must not lump everyone together. \"People tend to look at the left in Latin America and oversimplify it,\" Berkman said. \"There's the good left and the bad left.\" Or as Aronson put it, \"There's leftists, and there's leftists.\" Aronson sees two types of leftist governments in Latin America: \"institutional\" governments like Brazil's that \"have made peace with the free market\" while still championing social programs, and populist, more-radical governments like Venezuela's. Analysts are not sure what to make of Funes, a former freelance journalist for CNN en Espa\u00f1ol who is projecting a moderate image. \"The FMLN did something very clever,\" Reich said. \"They put somebody at the head of the party who is not a guerrilla, not a terrorist.\" Even the FMLN may not know what to expect from Funes. Berkman calls it \"an issue of uncertainty\" between the former journalist and the former guerrilla group. \"There's a lot of unknowns about how the relationship between Funes and the FMLN will proceed,\" she said, adding that she will watch his Cabinet picks and whether he brings in people from other parties. Funes' victory was a defining moment for the FMLN. \"It's an important transformation,\" Hakim said. \"The ex-guerrillas have to make a decision: Are they going to try to bring about revolutionary, radical change or manage the whole country and have step-by-step reform?\" Aronson sees it as \"a test of whether they will be pragmatic or ideological.\" The FMLN may not have a choice but to be pragmatic. The party holds 35 seats in the 84-member National Assembly. ARENA has 32 seats. Forty-three votes are needed to pass most legislation and some measures require \"supermajority\" approval of 56 votes. That means that, if ARENA and the FMLN cannot agree on a measure, they have to look to one of the minor parties for support. The PCN, which is the National Conciliation Party, has 11 seats and could emerge as a power broker. Two others parties hold six seats. \"It is in the PCN's interest to play ball as well,\" Berkman said. \"The PCN will act as a moderating force.\" Berkman also said the FMLN will likely take a moderate approach because the nation relies too much on outside investments and remittances from Salvadorans living abroad for the former guerrillas to adopt too much of a radical approach. But Hakim worries about something else. \"I think ARENA may be prepared for this [loss],\" he said. \"I'm concerned that the FMLN may not be prepared to govern.\"","highlights":"NEW: FMLN's Funes had 51.27 percent of the vote, with 84 percent of ballots counted .\nA Funes victory would end 20-year hold by the right-leaning ARENA .\nBy some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the civil war ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The remains of two U.S. contractors who were kidnapped in Iraq have been found, FBI officials said Monday. The bureau identified the two as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, abducted on January 5, 2007, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Missouri, who was captured on November 16, 2006. Withrow worked for Las Vegas, Nevada-based JPI Worldwide Inc., and Young worked for Crescent Security Group. The FBI said it had notified the families of the contractors. Meanwhile, four U.S. soldiers died Sunday night in a roadside bombing in Iraq, military officials reported, bringing the American toll in the 5-year-old war to 4,000 deaths. The four were killed when a homemade bomb hit their vehicle as they patrolled in a southern Baghdad neighborhood, the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq said. A fifth soldier was wounded. The grim milestone comes less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the start of the war. \"No casualty is more or less significant than another; each soldier, Marine, airman and sailor is equally precious and their loss equally tragic,\" said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the U.S. military's chief spokesman in Iraq. \"Every single loss of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is keenly felt by military commanders, families and friends both in theater and at home.\" Of the 4,000 U.S. military personnel killed in the war, 3,263 have died in attacks and fighting and 737 in nonhostile incidents, such as traffic accidents and suicides. Eight of those killed were civilians working for the Pentagon. The numbers are based on Pentagon data counted by CNN. Check out a company that makes headstones for fallen U.S. troops \u00bb . President Bush made remarks about lives lost in Iraq at the State Department on Monday. \"One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come,' \" he said. \"I have vowed in the past and I will vow so long as I'm president to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain; that, in fact, there's an outcome that will merit the sacrifice that civilian and military alike have made.\" Also Sunday, at least 35 Iraqis died as the result of suicide bombings, mortar fire and the work of gunmen in cars who opened fire on a crowded outdoor market. Nearly 100 were wounded in the violence. Estimates of the Iraqi death toll since the war began range from about 80,000 to the hundreds of thousands. Watch an Iraqi family talk about faith in a war zone \u00bb . Another 2 million Iraqis have been forced to leave the country, and 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes within Iraq, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Many of the Iraqis and U.S. troops killed over the years, like the four soldiers slain Sunday in Baghdad, have been targeted by improvised explosive devices -- the roadside bombs that have come to symbolize Iraq's tenacious insurgency. Watch how the bombs have become a deadly staple \u00bb . The Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization has been developed to counter the threat of roadside bombs in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. The group calls such bombs the \"weapon of choice for adaptive and resilient networks of insurgents and terrorists.\" Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee. Senior U.S. military officials are preparing to recommend to Bush a four- to six-week pause in additional troop withdrawals from Iraq after the last of the so-called surge brigades leaves in July, CNN learned last week from U.S. military officials familiar with the recommendations but not authorized to talk about them. The return of all five brigades added to the Iraq contingent last year could reduce troop levels by up to 30,000 but still leave about 130,000 or more troops in Iraq. Also Monday, the U.S. military said six people killed in a weekend attack were \"terrorists\" and not members of an American-backed militia, as initially reported. Those first reports suggested the area of Saturday's helicopter strike may have been a Sons of Iraq checkpoint. Such groups are generically referred to as Awakening Councils -- largely Sunni security forces that the U.S. military have recruited. A police official in the north-central city of Samarra said the helicopter mistakenly hit a Sons of Iraq checkpoint, killing the six. But the U.S. military said that it believes those killed were not part of the Sons of Iraq. \"I can tell you that two of these individuals were fiddling with something on the side of the road and trying to hide themselves under a blanket when they heard the helicopter,\" said Maj. Bradford Leighton. \"The location of the checkpoint was not at or near any known Sons of Iraq checkpoint.\" A joint Iraqi-U.S.-led coalition force is investigating the deaths. Other developments . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Remains found of two U.S. contractors who were abducted in Iraq, FBI says .\nU.S. death toll at 4,000 after four soldiers die when roadside bomb hits vehicle .\nAt least 35 Iraqis killed in attacks Sunday .\nPeople killed in U.S. weekend strike were \"terrorists,\" not allies, U.S. says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi, and his wife were arrested Wednesday on charges they defrauded the federal government and an insurance company of more than $220,000 in claims related to Hurricane Katrina, authorities said. Gulfport Mayor Gregory Brent Warr, shown in 2005, says the charges \"will not change my commitment\" to the city. Gregory Brent Warr and Laura Jean Warr were named in a 16-count federal indictment handed up last week by a grand jury, the Department of Justice said in a news release. They are accused of conspiracy, Federal Emergency Management Agency fraud, Department of Housing and Urban Development home grant fraud and insurance fraud, all arising from claims after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. If convicted on each count, the couple would face up to 210 years in prison and up to $4 million in fines, prosecutors said. \"Understand that what has been alleged toward my wife and me has no connection to me as mayor,\" Brent Warr said in a statement issued Wednesday. \"This has not and will not change my commitment to the progress and recovery of our city.\" He said he pleaded not guilty, but said he will not speak further about the case. \"I am the mayor of Gulfport, and I will continue working to rebuild our city,\" Warr said. \"We have hundreds of dedicated employees, department heads and directors, and everything we have achieved thus far is a result of their hard work and love for this city. \"For Laura and me, personally, this is a difficult time, but I will continue the work as mayor.\" According to the indictment, the Warrs in 2005 applied for FEMA assistance regarding a Gulfport home, telling officials that home was their primary residence when it was not. In 2006, the indictment says, the couple applied to the Mississippi Development Authority for a Homeowner's Assistance Grant funded by HUD, again claiming they lived at the address. The indictment also alleges the Warrs made misrepresentations to Lexington Insurance Company regarding personal property in the insured home, payment of rent for alternative living after Katrina and the extent of damage to the home. The Warrs received a total of $222,798 \"as a result of the said offenses, for which the defendants are liable,\" the indictment says. The couple was released on bond and ordered to appear for trial April 6, the Justice Department said. In his statement, Warr said the inquiry \"has been going on for more than a year now, and we hope and pray for a much faster resolution.\" City spokesman Ryan LaFontaine issued a statement saying that while he was not in a position \"to speculate what is happening in the mayor's personal life ... I can tell you that as for the city, we are continuing to carry out the people's business. \"The mayor has indicated that he has every intention of coming to work tomorrow, and every day after that, as the mayor of Gulfport,\" LaFontaine said. \"In the nearly four years that he has been here, Mayor Warr has created a framework and an agenda for the recovery of Gulfport. And he has assembled a very talented team of directors and employees that understand the enormity of the recovery challenges that lie ahead. \"Under his continued leadership, I'm very confident that this city will continue to move along the path that he has set,\" LaFontaine said. \"The people of Gulfport don't care about the mayor's personal issues. They only care about what he's doing to fix their issues.\"","highlights":"Gulfport, Mississippi, mayor \"will continue working to rebuild our city\"\nMayor Gregory Brent Warr, says he pleaded not guilty .\nIndictment: Couple received $222,798 \"for which the defendants are liable\"\nCouple, released on bond and ordered to court April 6, face up to 210 years ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A motorized parachute crashed into a crowd at a Labor Day festival in Hooper, Utah, injuring at least six people, including children, authorities said. Spectators scatter as a motorized parachute plummets Monday in Hooper, Utah. The parachute was operated by a man and his son who were on the aircraft, but neither was injured when it dropped to the ground amid spectators. Scores of people had gathered Monday for what was to have been a candy drop from the motorized parachute, according to Lt. Lonnie Eskelson of the Weber County, Utah, Sheriff's Department. Video from the incident showed the small craft in the air, approaching the crowd, when it quickly lost altitude and came down as spectators ran for safety. Spectator Damon Martin said the crowd was waiting for the scheduled candy drop when the wind picked up. Watch vehicle slam into crowd \u00bb . The motorized parachute \"gets just over the field, they start dropping the candy and all of a sudden he starts to descend real quick. He guns it to get it back up and goes straight down into the crowd,\" said Martin, who shot video of the incident. The crowd parted \"like the Red Sea, but they just couldn't move fast enough,\" he said. Six people were taken to area hospitals, including two sisters, 4 and 5 years old, authorities said. The 5-year-old was being treated Monday night at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a leg fracture, Eskelson said, while her sister was treated and released. A 3-year-old also was being treated at the center Monday night. The other injured spectators were treated and released, Eskelson said. CNN's Amanda O'Donnell contributed to this report.","highlights":"Crowd gathers at Labor Day festival in Hooper, Utah, awaiting candy drop .\nMan and his son operating motorized parachute lose control of aircraft .\nThey descend rapidly toward crowd, which parts \"like the Red Sea\"\nOperators of parachute not hurt; 6 on ground, including children, are injured ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It doesn't matter that they can be feverishly hot. Or that crowds make for long food lines or the tickets may be hard to come by. Bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding performed at this year's New Orleans Jazz Fest. Music festivals worldwide attract thousands of fans wanting to hear their favorite artists live or discover under-the-radar musicians. Each major festival has its own special twist, specific to the event and city that hosts it. From the notorious mud baths at Glastonbury, England, to the breath-taking mountains surrounding Fuji Rock in Naeba, Japan, these are events that festival-goers wait for all year. Experience the New Orleans Jazz Fest \u00bb . Our guide prepares music fans worldwide for the best festivals this summer and later in the year. GLASTONBURY, Somerset, England June 24-28 ($255) Glastonbury has been around since dairy farmer Michael Eavis first held a free two-day festival on his farm in 1970, and it's long been the festival in England for seeing the biggest and best bands in the world. It also may be the muddiest -- heavy rain in several years, most notably 1997, turned Glastonbury into a muddy bog. Everyone from Radiohead to Jay-Z has headlined the festival, and with more than 700 acts each year, there is something for everybody. Some of the proceeds from the festival go to Oxfam and Greenpeace. This year's headliners include Franz Ferdinand, Blur, and Bruce Springsteen. ROCK AL PARQUE, Bogota, Colombia June 27-29 (free) The Rock al Parque festival, launched in 1995, has become South America's biggest rockfest in recent years -- some 320,000 people traveled to Simon Bolivar Park in 2006 for a weekend of Colombia's top rock bands and renowned international headliners. Funded by Colombia's culture secretary, the free festival has included some of rock's biggest names, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Manu Chao, and Bloc Party. In the days leading up to Rock al Parque, the festival organizers host a series of panel discussions on music production, management, and the recording industry. ROSKILDE, Denmark July 2-5 ($220) Since 1971, the rock festival in Roskilde has hosted the top names in music, from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan. It is the biggest summer festival in northern Europe, and the \"Arena\" stage boasts a 17,000-capacity tent, the largest in Europe. The festival has a daily newspaper and a 24-hour live radio station and is also home to the annual \"Naked Run,\" where the first naked person to cross the finish line receives a free ticket for next year's festival. Some 80,000 will travel to Roskilde to see headliners including Coldplay, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails. EXIT, Novi Sad, Serbia July 9-12 ($105) Created in 2000 by three university students as a protest against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, the electro-focused festival in the heart of Serbia was named Europe's best festival in 2007 by fans voting in the UK Festival Awards. Over 200,000 people attended Exit last year, dancing at all-night raves in the gorgeous surroundings of Petrovaradin Fortress, an 18th-century castle near the Danube River. Some of techno's biggest names will be on hand to celebrate Exit's 10-year anniversary, including Moby, Kraftwerk, and The Prodigy. THISDAY, Abuja\/Lagos, Nigeria Dates tba . The THISDAY festival in Nigeria -- launched in 2006 by the editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery -- is the biggest music and fashion festival in Africa. According to Obaigbena, the festival is meant to highlight the positive progress being made in Africa, and find sustainable solutions for the continent's problems. The theme of last year's festival was \"Africa Rising,\" and it showcased some of the world's best-known artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Usher. Stay tuned for this year's lineup. FUJI ROCK, Naeba, Japan July 24-26 ($410) Japan's biggest outdoor festival takes its name from Mt. Fuji, the site of the first festival in 1997. Fuji Rock has been set amongst the cool forested mountains of the Naeba ski resort for the past ten years -- gondolas and hilly trails transport people from stage to stage, and the streams and forests between them are the reason why Fuji Rock has been called the most beautiful festival in the world. It's not just about the scenery, though -- over 100,000 people will trek through the mountains to see headliners Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Weezer. LOLLAPALOOZA, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. August 7-9 ($190) Rocker Perry Farrell began Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for his band, Jane's Addiction. The biggest grunge rock festival during the '90s disappeared for awhile around the turn of the century, but it was revived in 2005 as a more traditional \"big weekend\" destination festival in Chicago. The past few years at Grant Park have been marked by hot summers, huge crowds, and even bigger bands. The anticipated crowd of nearly 200,000 is staggering, as are this year's headliners: Kings of Leon, Tool, Depeche Mode, and Beastie Boys, just to name a few. BESTIVAL, Isle of Wight, England September 11-13 ($205) The trendy Bestival, the original boutique weekend festival on the Isle of Wight, is the best way to end the summer festival season in Europe. Bestival boasts a yearly fancy dress competition -- last year's was \"30,000 freaks under the sea,\" and 2009 is the year of \"Outer Space,\" so make sure to dress accordingly. Thousands of Bestival-goers will witness an eclectic lineup including Lily Allen, Massive Attack, and MGMT in the picturesque surroundings of Robin Hill Park. For family fun, look no further than Camp Bestival, a three-day family festival at a castle by the sea in July. PARKLIFE, Australia Late September-Early October . The Parklife series of one-day music festivals kicks off the summer festival season across Australia. The dance-focused fests have featured heavyweights Justice, MIA, and Muscles over the past two years. The day-long festivals are followed by an official \"After Life\" party that runs until the early hours of the morning, so be prepared for a long one if you're one of the estimated 100,000 people attending a Parklife gig in one of several cities across Australia at the end of September. WOODSTOCK, Johannesburg, South Africa November 27-30 When people think of Woodstock, South Africa isn't necessarily what comes to mind. But for the past decade, the festival has been the biggest youth music event in that country, hosting a variety of both well-known and upcoming mainstream and hip-hop acts -- not to mention a variety of extreme sports stunt acts, paintballing, and flea-market stalls. Woodstock may not have the star power of the legendary American festival -- but with the wide range of music and outdoor activities it presents, its promoters aren't lying when they say that boredom simply isn't an option. SUNBURN, Goa, India December . Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as South Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John 00 Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in \"Goa Trance,\" a type of pulsing, transcendental electro music that became popular in the early 1990s. Sunburn again treated more than 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. The festival's founder has said Sunburn will always be free to attend, and it is not to be missed if you happen to be in India in December.","highlights":"CNN has put together a list of some of the best upcoming music festivals .\nYou can dress to kill at England's Bestival's fancy dress competition .\nEnjoy the music, comedians and silent disco at Bonnaroo in Tennessee .\nDance all weekend in the shadows of a 300-year-old Serbian castle ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea accused the United States and South Korea of sending spy planes on about 200 missions near the isolated communist nation ahead of a North Korea rocket launch scheduled for early April. Pyongyang claims reconnaissance aircraft, including the high-altitude U-2 spy plane, have flown spy missions. \"The U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet military warmongers perpetrated intensive aerial espionage against the DPRK (North Korea) in March by massively mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with various missions,\" a military source said, according to a report from North Korea's state-run news service, KCNA, on Tuesday. Pyongyang said the United States committed 110 cases of \"aerial espionage and the South Korean puppet forces at least 80 cases,\" during March, KCNA reported. The source said the missions utilized six types of reconnaissance aircraft, including the high-altitude U-2 spy plane. \"The U.S. imperialist warmongers had better bear in mind that ... spy planes perpetrating espionage against the DPRK are within the range of its strikes.\" The Pentagon was not immediately available to comment on the story. The North Korean government says it will launch a commercial satellite atop a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. Satellite imagery taken on Sunday appears to show a rocket at the Musudan-ri launch site in northeastern North Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday there is little doubt that the planned rocket launch is designed to bolster North Korea's military capability. He also indicated that the U.S. military could be prepared to shoot down a North Korean missile if the rogue regime develops the capability to reach Hawaii or the western continental United States in a future launch. Watch analysis of Pyongyang's planned rocket launch \u00bb . Both the United States and Japan have mobilized missile defense systems ahead of the launch. North Korea has threatened to start a war if Japan were to shoot down its rocket. Tokyo said the move is aimed at shooting down any debris from the launch that might fall into Japanese territory. U.S. Navy ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles have been moved to the Sea of Japan, a Navy spokesman said. The United States generally has a number of ships equipped with powerful Aegis radar in the Sea of Japan because of North Korean threats to launch rockets. The ships are designed to track and, if needed, shoot down ballistic missiles. The United States has no plans to shoot down the North Korean rocket, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week, but will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang carries out a launch.","highlights":"North Korea claims it detected about 200 spy plane missions near it .\nClaim comes ahead of North Korea's launch of a rocket scheduled for early April .\nPyongyang warned that spy planes are within the range of its strikes .\nU.S. has little doubt rocket launch is designed to bolster N. Korea's military capability ."} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa's police chief said Monday that violence directed at foreign nationals had killed 22 people over the past week. Police carry an unidentified Malawi national on an improvised stretcher after he was badly beaten in Reiger Park township. The attacks have been concentrated in Johannesburg's poorest areas, and many of the victims were Zimbabweans who have fled repression and dire economic circumstances. The Nelson Mandela Foundation issued a statement condemning the \"senseless violence\" that police say was sparked a week ago in Johannesburg's Alexandra Township. \"We join the rest of South Africa in deploring this violence,\" said Achmat Dangor, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, according to a statement released on Monday. \"Whatever the underlying causes they have to be addressed, but this senseless violence is not a solution.\" Police said those behind the attacks accused the foreigners of stealing jobs, carrying out criminal activities and benefiting from social services -- such as free housing -- meant to benefit South Africans. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . Police arrested more than 200 people during the violence for offenses including rape, murder, robbery and theft. Police said at least one foreigner was burned alive over the weekend, while others had their houses torched, their shops looted and their possessions stolen. Many have sought refuge at police stations. Some women have told police they were raped as part of an effort to drive the immigrants out. South Africa's police director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said 22 people had been killed in the past week. The Red Cross estimates some 3,000 more were displaced. The attacks were concentrated in some of the poorest parts of South Africa where locals are jobless, hungry and in need of basic services such as clean water, sanitation and housing. South African President Thabo Mbeki called for an investigation into the violence. He has been reluctant to describe it as xenophobic because many South Africans have criticized his government for not doing enough to deal with the crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic collapse, with nearly 80 percent unemployment and inflation estimated to be at 160,000 percent. In addition, it is also in a state of political limbo. A presidential runoff between long-time leader President Robert Mugabe and his opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai is scheduled for June 27 -- three months after the initial vote. Opposition leaders have accused the government of carrying out a campaign of political intimidation ahead of the runoff. The economic and political situation has seen an influx of Zimbabweans to South Africa, seeking a better life. Archbishop Desmond Tutu also condemned the violence and urged South Africans to remember the help that he and other anti-apartheid leaders received from neighboring countries. \"Although they were poor, they welcomed us South Africans as refugees, and allowed our liberation movements to have bases in their territory even if it meant those countries were going to be attacked by the SADF (South African Defense Forces),\" Tutu said. \"Please stop the violence now. This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop.\" A South African military veterans' group plans to mobilize soldiers who fought against the country's former system of legalized racial separation \"to help educate the people ... about the role played by other African countries in securing South Africa's freedom.\" \"Many brave comrades paid the ultimate price on African soil, but never at the hands of the people of those countries,\" according to a statement from the Military Veterans' Association in the Western Cape province. \"In the light of these facts, the xenophobic attacks witnessed in Gauteng (Province) over the past week -- and previously, against refugee traders in Cape Town -- are totally repugnant.\"","highlights":"At least 22 people killed by mobs targeting foreigners in Johannesburg .\nPolice arrest more than 200 people for offenses including rape and murder .\nZimbabweans who have fled their own country are driven from squatter camps .\nSouth Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu condemns the attacks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have produced aerial photos of jungle dwellers who they say are among the few remaining peoples on Earth who have had no contact with the outside world. Indigenous Brazilians are photographed during an overflight in May, reacting to the sights over their camp. Taken from a small airplane, the photos show men outside thatched communal huts, necks craned upward, pointing bows toward the air in a remote corner of the Amazonian rainforest. The National Indian Foundation, a government agency in Brazil, published the photos Thursday on its Web site. It tracks \"uncontacted tribes\" -- indigenous groups that are thought to have had no contact with outsiders -- and seeks to protect them from encroachment. More than 100 uncontacted tribes remain worldwide, and about half live in the remote reaches of the Amazonian rainforest in Peru or Brazil, near the recently photographed tribe, according to Survival International, a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of indigenous people. \"All are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed or decimated by new diseases,\" the organization said Thursday. Illegal logging in Peru is threatening several uncontacted groups, pushing them over the border with Brazil and toward potential conflicts with about 500 uncontacted Indians living on the Brazilian side, Survival International said. Its director, Stephen Cory, said the new photographs highlight the need to protect uncontacted people from intrusion by the outside world. \"These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist,\" Cory said in a statement. \"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.\" The photos released Thursday show men who look strong and healthy, the Brazilian government said. They and their relatives apparently live in six communal shelters known as malocas, according to the government, which has tracked at least four uncontacted groups in the region for the past 20 years. Watch a report on the tribe \u00bb . The photos were taken during 20 hours of flights conducted between April 28 and May 2.","highlights":"The photos are published on the National Indian Foundation's Web site .\nGovernment: Men appear strong and healthy, live in communal shelters .\n\"Uncontacted tribes\" are thought to have had no contact with outsiders ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith is confirming the latest buzz: She's been laid off from the New York Post. Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith, 86, has been a fixture of New York tabloids for more than three decades. Confronted with \"economic gales,\" New York Post Editor Col Allan said in a letter sent to Smith that the newspaper would not renew her contract, which expires at the end of the month. \"The Post is grateful to have been able to publish Liz Smith's legendary column for so many years. We wish her the very best for the future,\" Allan said in a statement Tuesday. In an interview with CNN affiliate WABC-TV in New York, Smith noted that Friday \"will be the first time in 33 years that there hasn't been a Liz Smith column in a New York paper.\" \"That hurts my heart. I would hate to see another newspaper fail. ... When I came to New York, there were nine newspapers. I've worked for seven of them. They just disappear out from under you,\" she added. Often referred to as the \"Diva of Dish,\" the 86-year-old Smith has been a presence in New York tabloids for more than three decades. She's written for the New York Post, New York Daily News and Newsday. Smith was also a fixture on local television, appearing on WNBC-TV for more than 10 years. In 2000, she published a memoir, \"Natural Blonde,\" and wrote a nonfiction work in 2005 combining food and gossip, \"Dishing.\" Though her titillating and often penetrating look at the New York social scene may be gone from tabloid pages, Smith will continue to publish, writing five times a week for wowOwow.com, an online community created and run by women for women. In an online statement, WowOwow.com co-founder Joni Evans said that Smith will begin posting next week.","highlights":"For first time in 33 years on Friday, Liz Smith column won't be in a New York paper .\nLetter cites \"economic gales\" in decision not to renew contract .\n\"We wish her the very best for the future,\" says New York Post Editor Col Allan .\nSmith will write five times a week for Web site wowOwow.com ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Skywatchers are gathering from parking lots in western India to music festivals on remote Japanese islands to witness what NASA describes as an \"exceptionally long\" total solar eclipse that will cross half the planet on Wednesday. People try out \"solar view goggles\" ahead of the eclipse on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India. \"This eclipse has the potential to be observed by more people than any eclipse in all of history,\" said MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, who will be in Shanghai leading an expedition of observers and a group of eclipse chasers. \"Essentially, every inhabitant of all of India and China will be able to see at least part of the sun covered throughout the day,\" he said. The path of the total eclipse will stretch across the heart of Asia -- from India's Bay of Cambay, over the Himalayas and across China and the southern islands of Japan. The eclipse is expected to reach its peak over India at around 12:40 a.m. GMT Wednesday (8:40 p.m. ET Tuesday). Though the duration of greatest eclipse will occur over the Pacific Ocean at six minutes, 39 seconds, people in some areas of China and Japan will experience up to more than six minutes of darkness, according to predictions by Fred Espenak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and J. Anderson of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Watch as eclipse-watchers head to China \u00bb . The 15,150-kilometer (9,415-mile) journey of the moon's shadow across the Earth will last nearly three-and-a-half hours and be \"one of the longest eclipses, if not the longest eclipse, in this century,\" Binzel said. Forecasters predict stormy weather for Wednesday morning in Shanghai, but this prognosis has not deterred astronomers and tourists from flooding the city. Send us your photos of the eclipse . Professor Zhao Junliang of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory said the weather could be unpredictable but staying away from such an historic event would be a mistake. \"In 1987, I chased a total solar eclipse in (the western region of) Xinjiang. At the time, the sun was entirely blocked by stormy clouds. Two minutes before the eclipse began, the clouds suddenly cleared,\" Zhao said. \"You just never know, so you have to go.\" Read blog on how eclipse-chasers are gambling on weather . Rick Gille and his wife flew in from Atlanta, Georgia, to catch the eclipse in Shanghai. They were heading to what is known as the \"centerline\" -- where the eclipse will last nearly six minutes. They are armed with high resolution digital cameras and telescopes. \"You'll know us when you see us,\" said Gille, who travels the world chasing solar eclipses. \"We're all wearing beige t-shirts which read 'Eclipse 2009.'\" Total eclipses happen about once a year or a little less often somewhere on the Earth's surface and are visible in a narrow band, Benzil said. \"This band starts at sunrise in India and ends at sunset over the Pacific, just east of Hawaii about four hours later. The shadow path of the moon is sweeping across the surface of the Earth at about 3,000 kilometers per hour,\" he said. \"The partial eclipse is also visible throughout Thailand and Vietnam, as far south at the top tip of Australia and as far north as Siberia.\" In some cultures, legends and folklore surrounds eclipses. In India, an eclipse is considered inauspicious. Women forbid pregnant daughters-in-law from going outside out of the belief that their children could be born with marks. Some temples won't offer any prayers on the day of an eclipse -- such as the one next to the planetarium in Mumbai, which said it won't even light a stick of incense. In Chinese tradition, there is a story about a heavenly dog eating the sun. As the story goes, people would make noise to scare off the dog and rescue the sun, said Bill Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society. \"In ancient China, we shared the same impression with our Indian friends that a solar eclipse was not a good thing,\" he told CNN. Some of the more unusual ways to see Wednesday's eclipse include a cruise ship that will travel along the centerline off Japan and from aboard a 737-700 chartered plane in India. \"The aircraft will be intercepting the middle of the eclipse shadow at 0626 IST (Indian Standard Time) at a height of 41,000 feet,\" travel company Cox and Kings India Ltd, which is organizing the flight in association with Space technology and education Ltd, said in a statement. \"Eclipse chasers sitting along the Sun Side seats of the aircraft will be able to photograph the eclipse; while the chasers sitting along the Earth Side seats will be able to photograph the Lunar Shadow moving over the Earth cloud top,\" the company said. More conventional viewing parties in Shanghai have been planned along the beach, in a park and in skyscrapers. A music festival has been organized in Japan's Amami island, with more than 6,000 people expected, and Japanese television has shown rows of tents set up on Akusekijima island. The witnesses of the eclipse will range \"from the farmer who only knows legends of eclipses and may not know this is happening at all to the world's experts who have come specifically to the Shanghai region to make the most detailed scientific analysis possible,\" added Binzel, the MIT astronomer. For James and Kathy Scheffler of Kokomo, Indiana, solar eclipses are not to be missed. They have seen six eclipses, including in Aruba, the Black Sea, Madagascar and the Egyptian-Libyan border, and are now making their way to Shanghai. \"When it happens, there is this dissonance that is set up between what your body knows is supposed to be light and what your eyes are seeing -- it's suddenly gotten dark. It's a very, very strange feeling that some people have likened to a religious experience, and you get kind of addicted to that,\" said James Scheffler, a cardiologist. \"It's a very interesting emotional experience as well as the beauty of the event.\" Kathy Scheffler added: \"It's an experience that, first of all very few people in the world will see it, and second of all, it's a once in a lifetime -- ever -- experience that you can't ever duplicate because they are all so different.\" CNN's John Vause, Nishi Kumar, Yoko Wakatsuki, Stephanie Akiko Haschke and Mallika Kapur contributed to this report.","highlights":"NASA says it will be \"exceptionally long\" total solar eclipse; will cross half the planet .\nMIT astronomer says it could be seen by more people than any other eclipse .\nThe path of the total eclipse will stretch across the heart of Asia .\nSome watching events include a cruise, plane trip and a music festival ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Aruban authorities questioned Joran van der Sloot in the Netherlands about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the Aruban prosecutor's office said Friday. Joran van der Sloot awaits transfer from the Netherlands to Aruba in November. He later was released. It happened less than a week after a Dutch television program aired video footage showing the young man saying he was with the missing Alabama teenager when she died. During the two-hour interview with Aruban investigators, van der Sloot again denied any role in Holloway's vanishing, the prosecutor's office said in a written statement. Van der Sloot said that he was under the influence of marijuana when he was secretly videotaped saying that he was with Holloway when she died, and that he arranged for a friend to dump her body in the ocean, the statement said. On the video, which aired Sunday, van der Sloot also says that he wasn't sure Holloway was dead before a friend disposed of her body. Patrick van der Eem, a man who feigned friendliness toward van der Sloot, recorded the conversations on hidden cameras installed in the Range Rover he was driving, according to the report that aired Sunday. Watch how the video has renewed interest in the case \u00bb . Shortly after the video was made public, an investigative judge said that enough evidence exists to reopen the inquiry against the Dutch college student, but denied a prosecution's request that van der Sloot be detained. Hans Mos, the Aruban prosecutor, is appealing that decision, and a three-judge panel will rule on it \"after this weekend,\" Mos said. Watch Holloway's father say van der Sloot should 'come clean' \u00bb . Earlier this week, Dutch authorities executed several search warrants at van der Sloot's current and former residences, a source close to the investigation said. They took a hard drive and a laptop computer, the source said. Van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, told CNN that the video did not show a \"confession\" and said that van der Sloot is innocent. The college student is willing to answer \"any questions\" investigators ask, Tacopina said. Earlier this week, he told ABC that much of what was on the video is \"easily disprovable based on corroborative evidence. ... The fact of the matter is he still is not responsible. The evidence -- not Joran, the evidence -- says he's not responsible for Natalee's death.\" Holloway, 18, was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving an Oranjestad, Aruba, nightclub with van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and his brother, Satish. Mos dropped charges against the three men in December, saying he couldn't be sure of a conviction. See a timeline of the case \u00bb . Holloway was visiting Aruba with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama. Holloway failed to show up for her flight home the following day, and her packed bags were found in her hotel room. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"The two-hour interview takes place in the Netherlands .\nJoran van der Sloot again denies any role in Natalee Holloway's disappearance .\nSays he was under the influence of marijuana when he was secretly videotaped .\nFootage shows van der Sloot saying he was with Holloway when she died ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A long-hidden message has been discovered inside Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch, the Smithsonian's Museum of American History announced Tuesday. The message in the watch differs slightly from what the watchmaker later said he wrote. Watchmaker Jonathan Dillon was repairing Lincoln's watch in April 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and wrote a short message on the metal inside the watch, the Smithsonian said. There it remained, unseen for almost 150 years, it said. In a 1906 interview with The New York Times, Dillon reported that as soon as he heard the news about the first shots of the Civil War, he unscrewed the dial of the watch and wrote on the metal, \"The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.\" The actual message that the museum found differs from the watchmaker's recollection. It says, \"Jonathan Dillon, April 13-1861, Fort Sumpter [sic] was attacked by the rebels on the above date J Dillon, April 13-1861, Washington, thank God we have a government, Jonth Dillon.\" According to the Smithsonian, it was not unusual for professional watchmakers to record their work inside a watch. \"Lincoln never knew of the message he carried in his pocket,\" said Brent D. Glass, director of the National Museum of American History. The museum decided to open the watch after being contacted by the watchmaker's great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles, who had heard about the message Dillon said he had inscribed and wanted to see if it was really there.","highlights":"Watchmaker left message during repairs, Smithsonian says .\nMessage comments on attack on Fort Sumter, which began Civil War .\nLincoln never knew about message, historian says ."} -{"article":"BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- Dr. Carnell Cooper, a Baltimore surgeon, is saving lives inside and outside the operating room. Dr. Carnell Cooper's Violence Intervention Program provides training and support to trauma victims. Since becoming a trauma surgeon 16 years ago, he has dedicated himself to treating the many young African-American men who've been shot, stabbed or beaten, only to see them return to the ER with another severe injury just months later. But when one of his patients was readmitted with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in 1996, it changed Cooper's life. \"The night that we pronounced that young man dead and my colleagues said there's really nothing we can do in these situations. ... I just didn't believe that,\" said Cooper, 54. \"From that day forward, I said, 'Let's see what we can do.' \" Cooper created the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) at the Shock Trauma Unit of the University of Maryland Medical Center, the state's busiest hospital for violent injuries. It became one of the country's first hospital-based anti-violence programs. \"We approached this problem like any public health crisis, like heart disease or smoking,\" he said. \"We tried to work on the root causes.\" Since 1998, VIP has provided substance abuse counseling, job skills training and other support services to nearly 500 trauma victims. \"Using that scalpel blade to save their life is the first step,\" Cooper said. \"The next step is to try to keep them from coming back.\" A 2006 study by Cooper and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Trauma, showed that people in the program were six times less likely to be readmitted with a violent injury and three times less likely to be arrested for a violent crime. The issue hits close to home for Cooper. Born to unwed teenagers in Dillon, South Carolina, he grew up in a neighborhood where violent crime was commonplace; he had friends and relatives who ended up dead or in jail. But his grandparents made sure he stayed on the right path. As a straight-A student, he attended a prestigious high school in Massachusetts, then Yale University and Duke University School of Medicine. But while Cooper rose above his circumstances, he felt sympathy for the young men who rotated in and out of his operating room. \"They could be my friends, my family,\" he said. Cooper's program attempts to help patients from the moment they arrive because victims of violence face a greater risk of receiving another violent injury. Everyone treated for violent wounds at the hospital is seen by a VIP case worker, often at bedside. For Cooper, approaching patients at this early stage is crucial. \"We may get them in a moment when they are thinking, 'I just almost died,' \" he said. \"We say, 'We're going help you find a way to get out of the game.' \" Watch Cooper talk to a victim of violence at his bedside \u00bb . VIP helps connect its members with additional support services, such as GED classes, conflict resolution, mentoring and parenting skills. A peer support group also meets at the hospital once a week. The success of Cooper's program has made it a model for others around the country and inspired the doctor to develop a larger initiative, the Violence Prevention Program, which includes other hospital-based efforts targeting young people in at-risk communities. Howard McCray, 29, turned his life around with help from VIP. He joined the program in 2001 after he was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the arm. Nicknamed \"Pooh\" for his resemblance to Winnie the Pooh, McCray's demeanor and lifestyle were once vastly different from the storybook bear's. \"Before, I was into shooting people, robbing [them],\" he recalled. \"I've been in many gunbattles and been through the ER many times.\" Through VIP, McCray earned his GED and received job training and a driver's license. The program also helped him learn about budgeting money and paying child support. Today, McCray is an outreach worker for VIP, visiting patients at their bedsides and encouraging them to join the program. \"I'm a changed man,\" McCray said proudly. \"Dr. Cooper ... he saved me.\" Watch McCray describe how Cooper's program changed his life \u00bb . Helping people like McCray inspires Cooper to continue his work. \"There are some individuals who we are not going to save, who are just immersed in the culture, but that's not the majority of folks,\" he said. \"The majority of folks deserve a chance.\" Cooper believes it is all part of his responsibility as a doctor. \"Every physician's goal is to save lives,\" he said. \"This is another step in that process. In my mind, it's just what I should be doing.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Violence Intervention Program and see how to help.","highlights":"Dr. Carnell Cooper's Violence Intervention Program helps trauma victims .\nThe program aims to break the cycle of violence by targeting its root causes .\nStudy: Participants are three times less likely to be arrested for a violent crime .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes ."} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Drawing on 2006 remarks in which he compared former U.S. President George Bush to the devil, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the United Nations Thursday, said, \"It doesn't smell like sulfur anymore.\" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke highly of President Obama at the United Nations on Thursday. In a rambling speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Chavez spoke highly of current President Obama, saying he is an \"intelligent man\" and comparing him to President John F. Kennedy. \"I hope God will protect Obama from the bullets that killed Kennedy,\" he said. \"I hope Obama will be able to look and see, genuinely see, what has to be seen and bring about a change.\" Three years ago, Chavez spoke at the gathering the day after Bush spoke, and said the lectern \"still smells of sulfur.\" But on Thursday he looked around the podium and said, \"It doesn't smell of sulfur. It's gone. No, it smells of something else. It smells of hope.\" He did, however, criticize some U.S. policies, questioning whether there are \"two Obamas.\" Watch Chavez speak at the U.N. General Assembly \u00bb . Chavez accused the Pentagon of being behind the ousting of Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya in a military-backed coup in June. \"American soldiers knew about the coup and supported it,\" he said. \"Hence the contradiction that Obama has to face. Are there two Obamas? Obama spoke here yesterday. Does he have a double? ... Let's hope the one we heard yesterday will prevail. Let us hope. That's what the world needs.\" The United States and Brazil have said they support dialogue between Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti, centered on the San Jose Accord brought about through the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the Organization of American States mission. That deal calls for Zelaya to be restored to office. \"The U.S. government, and this is strange, has not recognized the fact that a military coup d'etat has occurred,\" Chavez said. \"There is some friction between the State Department and the Pentagon.\" He said the coup was engineered by the Honduran bourgeoisie, \"four or five wealthy, powerful families.\" Chavez also called for the United States to lift what he called the \"savage, murderous blockade\" on Cuba, and was critical of plans to open U.S. military bases in Colombia, saying what the nation needs instead is aid to lift itself out of its civil war. In addition, Chavez criticized capitalism and extolled the virtues of socialism, saying it is \"the road to salvation for this planet.\" He spoke for almost exactly an hour, less than the hour and 36 minutes Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi used on Wednesday. The Venezuelan president joked that he would not speak as long as Gadhafi, but said he planned to speak as long as Obama. Asked to expand on his \"two Obamas\" comment at a news conference after his speech, Chavez said, \"I think that one of the serious failures of the United States has been that, for a long time, it has underestimated and undervalued Latin America and the Caribbean. ... I hope that Obama turns around the vision of the White House and the Department of State of Latin America. They cannot continue to mistreat us.\" He said one Obama spoke about peace in addressing the General Assembly, yet has seven U.S. military bases in Colombia. \"There's a double somewhere,\" he said. Asked by a reporter about the closures of television stations in Venezuela, Chavez said it was \"a big lie\" and asked her to provide an example. She asked about RCT, or Radio Caracas Television. Chavez told her the station broadcasts every day, but that a contract, or concession, had expired for its \"open signal\" and was not renewed. \"Never in Venezuela do we have as much freedom of expression as we do now,\" he said. But, he asked, \"What would happen here in the United States if CNN and other stations supported a coup? Not only would they be shut down, but their owners would have been taken to the electric chair.\"","highlights":"Three years ago, Chavez said it \"still smells of sulfur,\" referring to President Bush .\nChavez spoke highly Obama, saying he is an \"intelligent man\"\nChavez said Pentagon behind ousting of Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya .\nChavez called for U.S. to lift \"savage, murderous blockade\" on Cuba ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Efraim Diveroli's father hoped his son would become a doctor or lawyer. Efraim Diveroli, 22, is doing his \"patriotic\" duty as an arms dealer, his grandfather says. What he got instead is a 22-year-old international arms dealer who faces a congressional inquiry for allegedly selling old Chinese ammunition to the U.S. military to equip allies in Afghanistan. Diveroli is president of AEY Inc., a South Florida company which, according to U.S. government documents, has done more than $10 million of business with the U.S. government since 2004. The papers also reveal the company struck it big in 2007 with contracts totaling more than $200 million to supply ammunition, assault rifles and other weapons to the Afghan National Army and police. The company's contract said it would get the ammunition from Hungary. But Army investigators found what the Afghan military got included corroded ammunition made in China as long as 46 years ago. The New York Times reported Thursday that AEY shopped stockpiles and ammo dumps in old Soviet bloc allies, from Albania to Kazakhstan. Albania was a big customer for Chinese armaments in the 1960s and '70s, the Times reported. Angelo Diveroli, Efraim's grandfather, told CNN affiliate WPLG-TV that his grandson is being targeted by \"jealous competitors\" in the international arms market. Since he was a boy, the grandfather said, Efraim Diveroli has known his way around weapons. Read the WPLG story . \"He's a genius about anything to do with weapons,\" the 72-year-old says. \"Ever since he was a little boy, I would take him to gun shows and he could identify every model of guns. People would ask: How can he do that so young? He has a gift, I would tell them.'' Michael Diveroli, Efraim's father, told CNN affiliate WFOR-TV that he wished his son had turned his intellect elsewhere. He said Efraim was \"a boy genius\" who is \"hard to control.\" Read the WFOR story . \"I would prefer he became a nice Jewish doctor or lawyer rather than an arms dealer,\" WFOR quoted Michael Diveroli as saying. Watch how father says son runs his own show \u00bb . But his son seem to have a good idea of the circles he was running in. \"What goes on in the Albanian Defense Ministry,\" the New York Times quoted him as saying. \"Who's clean? Who's dirty? Don't want to know about it.\" On a MySpace page Efraim Diveroli last updated in 2005, he says \"I probably grew up way to (sic) fast.\" But in a hint of where the then-19-year-old's future was heading, he wrote, \"I definately (sic) have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up alot (sic) of my time.\" The MySpace page also hints of his need for thrills. \"I'm one of those guys who needs to be entertained and having lots of fun all the time so if your (sic) also an undiagnosed case of ADD look me up,\" it says. He lists the weapon-heavy films \"Heat\" and \"Scarface\" among his favorites. A CNN search of Diveroli's Florida criminal record shows arrests, but no convictions, on offenses from misdemeanor battery to felony possession of stolen property. He has yet to appear in court on a March 3 arrest for driving under the influence. For now, relatives say Efraim Diveroli is out of the country. CNN attempts to contact him have not been successful. His grandfather told WPLG that Diveroli is now in Turkey or Albania doing his \"patriotic\" duty. \"He's all over the world getting what the military needs,\" Angelo Diveroli says. But in a MySpace message exchange with Radar magazine, a person thought to be David Packouz, a 25-year-old who was AEY's vice president, refers to Efraim Diveroli as \"my former scumbag partner\" and says he is motivated by money. \"Efraim Diveroli has a serious psychological illness called 'extreme greed,' \" Radar quotes him as writing in a report on its Web site. Packouz would not discuss AEY with CNN on Friday, saying he had no comment \"because of the ongoing investigation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"22-year-old arms dealer faces congressional inquiry .\nCompany supplied ammunition made in China decades ago .\nCompany's contract called for bullets made in Hungary .\nGrandfather says dealer, 22, had \"gift\" for weaponry ."} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Shweta Gupta knows exactly what kind of groom she wants: he should be educated, well settled and live in a good location --- one that must be in India. Indian brides and grooms from the Adivasi tribe take part in a mass marriage ceremony. Love may be recession proof in India, but arranged marriages are not. One of the casualties of the global economic slowdown is the Non Resident Indian (NRI) groom. They were once considered premium marriage material. After all, these were the men who had typically studied hard, gotten top jobs in the West, earned big bucks and could whisk their wives away to better opportunities in the West. Not anymore. \"Yeah, I hate to say it but the NRI man seems to be out of favor with the Indian woman,\" said Gaurav Rakshit of Shaadi.com, a matrimonial search engine used by 14 million people globally. He has seen demand for NRI grooms drop by around 20 to 30 percent since the recession hit. Why? Shweta Gupta, a 23-year-old student, has an answer. \"Many Indians working abroad have come back due to recession hitting foreign countries and I don't think recession has affected India that much,\" said said. She believes there is greater job security in India, so would prefer her husband to be based here. Her mother, who is involved in finding a suitable man for her daughter, agreed. \"Suppose there is no job security, then again he would have to come to India, then again he would have to find a job for himself, so I would prefer both of them to be here. Plus, I want my daughter to be close to me,\" said Shraddha Gupta. Arranged marriages are still the norm in India and parents play an active role in choosing a life partner for their children. Traditionally, parents will let friends know that they are on the lookout for a partner for their child. Sometimes, they go to a marriage broker -- a middleman who keeps a stash of resumes and photos of eligible men and women whose families have registered with them. As Indians get more tech savvy, more people are taking their search for partners online. Matrimonial Web sites are popular since they offer a much bigger pool of potential life partners. Shweta Gupta is currently pursuing an MBA in Mumbai and is confident of getting good job offers in India --- another reason she would not want to risk that by going abroad. \"As the woman finds her voice in Indian society, a part of the trend is defined by her unwillingness to compromise on where she grew up, the kind of person she wants to be with, the value system she wants to associate with,\" Rakshit said. Women in India are comfortable with the opportunities they have at home and don't feel they need to go abroad to have a better life. As a result, NRI men are out. So, who is in? Well, government employees, who are typically thought to hold more stable jobs. Shaadi.com said demand was up around 45 percent since last year for men with these jobs. Also in favor now: working wives --- a departure from the tradition of Indian men choosing only homemakers. Anish Sapra, 27, has been looking for a bride for around ten months --- and he wants a working woman. \"It will be a help -- more than a help -- to have a working partner,\" he said. \"Not just for financial reasons,\" he added noting that he believes he would have more in common with such a wife. A wife with a job could help pay off some of the wedding bills, too. Indian marriages are typically large and flamboyant affairs, though the slowdown means they are somewhat subdued these days. That is one tradition Shweta Gupta won't give up. She is holding out for a grand wedding with lots of singing and dancing -- she just has to find Mr. Right. \"My marriage should be fun, it should be remembered by all people,\" she said.","highlights":"Arranged marriages are still the norm in India .\nTypically families sought Indians working overseas as good marriage material .\nWith recession hitting the West hard, Indians are looking inward for suitors .\nWomen in India are more comfortable today with the opportunities they have at home ."} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The United Arab Emirates has refused to grant a visa to a female Israeli tennis player, preventing her from competing in the Sony Ericsson World Tennis Association Tour in Dubai, the WTA said in a statement Sunday. The UAE has refused to grant a visa allowing Shahar Peer to compete in Dubai. Shahar Peer would have been the first Israeli athlete to participate in a professional sporting event in the UAE, CNN Sports correspondent Pedro Pinto said. The UAE has no diplomatic ties with Israel. Peer told CNN on Sunday evening she was \"very, very disappointed\" to be denied access to the tournament. \"Any player that qualifies should attend, and I was prevented,\" she said from Israel. \"I'm glad the WTA support me. A red line was crossed for every athlete in the world -- politics should be kept separate from sports.\" The governing body of women's tennis said it was \"deeply disappointed\" that Peer was being denied entry to the country hosting the tournament, but it did not cancel the competition, which began Sunday. The move runs counter to WTA policy, which says no player should be barred from competing in a tournament for which she has qualified. Dubai could lose its membership in the WTA tour next year over the ban on Peer, according to WTA rules. That would mean professional players could compete only in exhibition matches in Dubai, the results of which would not count in pro rankings. Government officials in Dubai have not responded to CNN's request to comment over their refusal to allow Peer to compete in the event. \"Ms. Peer has earned the right to play in the tournament, and it is regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right,\" said Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the tour. Watch Scott express disappointment \u00bb . \"Following various consultations, the tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the tour's board of directors.\" The patron of the Dubai Tennis Championships is Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum. Two million dollars in prize money is on the line. Al-Makhtoum told CNN in 2004 that Dubai would accept Israeli students to a school dedicated to students from the Middle East who are talented at sports. In 2003, Dubai hosted World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, which Israeli government officials attended. The Israeli flag -- among other member states' flags -- is still part of a globe monument in Dubai. Peer, 21, is ranked 48th in the world among female tennis players. She was allowed to compete at the Doha tournament in Qatar last year, where she received a warm welcome, according to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. Qatar, another Gulf Arab state, froze diplomatic ties with Israel after Israel's military offensive in Gaza last month. Peer downplayed the political undertones of her participation in last year's Doha tournament, telling Haaretz that she didn't come to Qatar \"to help the politics of course.\" But she added that if her playing in the tournament \"can help for peace or anything, I'd be really happy.\" Scott said the tour will \"review appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer\" as well as \"appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament.\" Peer was advised Saturday by tournament and WTA officials of the denial of her visa while she was participating in a tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, according to a WTA statement. The Dubai Tennis Championships runs through February 28.","highlights":"NEW: Shahar Peer, female Israeli tennis player, says she's \"very, very disappointed\"\nUnited Arab Emirates refuses to grant a visa to Peer .\nPeer needed the visa to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships .\nWorld Tennis Association unhappy, says move runs counter to its policy ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts \"Fareed Zakaria: GPS\" on CNN at 1 and 6 p.m. ET Sundays. \"Banks are still reporting large losses, credit remains tight, home prices continue to fall,\" notes Fareed Zakaria. NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Barack Obama offered more detail on his plan to restore economic growth Friday, saying the economic stimulus program being debated in Congress is just one of at least three parts to his recovery plan. In a meeting to discuss the stimulus proposal with Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic and Republican congressional leadership, Obama said America also needs an improved financial system stability program as well as an overhaul of financial market regulation. CNN talked to world affairs expert and author Fareed Zakaria to get his thoughts about the most pressing issues facing the new president. CNN: What should be President Obama's first order of business? Zakaria: Oh, without question, the economy. This is a problem that isn't going away. Banks are still reporting large losses, credit remains tight, home prices continue to fall. It's difficult to tell whether the measures enacted have not had time to work, or that they are not working. But the basic reality remains -- the financial system is in crisis, and as a result, the American economy is in a dangerous paralysis. President Obama needs to focus like a laser beam on this issue above and beyond everything else. CNN: Does that mean foreign policy takes a back seat? Zakaria: Not a back seat, but if I were advising him, I would suggest that he save his presidential time, energy and political capital for the economy. He will probably need to go to Congress soon and ask for more money and more authority. Now, having said all this, the trouble with foreign policy is that it doesn't wait around for you until the time is convenient. Things happen and you have to react to them -- like the violence in Gaza. That's probably why the president called the foreign leaders he did on his first day -- [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, [Saudi] King Abdullah and [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak. He had to make sure that the situation didn't spiral downward. CNN: What's the first major foreign policy problem President Obama should address? Zakaria: Afghanistan. This is his war; the one he said was the right war. And it isn't going well. The Taliban is gaining strength and the central government is losing power and legitimacy. CNN: The Taliban is back? I thought we defeated them. Zakaria: The Taliban was not defeated: They retreated. They retreated into the rural areas of Pakistan. If you remember, the Taliban was born in Pakistan and supported by the Pakistani military as a tool to destabilize Soviet-controlled Afghanistan and India. Since they retreated, they have been able to slowly reassert their influence. Rory Stewart, who was just in Afghanistan, is on our show this week and he mentions that in the past, the Taliban only had a presence in southern Afghanistan. But they now can be found in Kabul. The fact they have such a presence in the capital, an area we considered secure, is very troubling. CNN: Why are they experiencing this support within the country? Zakaria: There are many reasons. But you have to remember, this is still a very poor country that is very fragmented. Security and the rule of law are missing and the Taliban provides it. Barney Rubin remarked that the first thing the Taliban creates when they go into an area is courts. It may not be the type of justice we would like; but for the Afghans it's better than the corrupt system that exists. Also, we shouldn't assume our image of the Taliban is correct. It is a very dynamic organization and changes. We may need to find a way to negotiate with them. CNN: Negotiate with the group that harbored al Qaeda? Zakaria: It may be a political necessity. Rory Stewart said, \"It's not 'what ought we do,' but 'what can we do.'\" He argues that at some point, the reality of troops and money will force us to revaluate our goals and we should start that process now. And there are many other crises America must deal with -- Iraq, Pakistan, sub-Saharan Africa, Iran -- so we can't be obsessed with Afghanistan. Barney Rubin added: The question is, whether we can separate the terrorist al Qaeda connections from the political issues of the Taliban. If that can occur, then it may be possible to find a solution in Afghanistan as [Gen. David] Petraeus helped broker in Iraq. We'll have to wait and see what Gen. Petraeus advises the president and what he decides to do. Done in [the president's] spare time, when he's not handling the economy. [Barnett Rubin is one of the nation's foremost experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan and the author of eight books. Rory Stewart, who lives in Kabul, has traveled extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq and written books about his experiences.] .","highlights":"Fareed Zakaria: Obama should save presidential time, energy for the economy .\nU.S. economy is in dangerous paralysis, says Zakaria .\nZakaria: War in Afghanistan is top foreign policy problem Obama should address ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Fueled by a hefty dose of tweener love, Zac Efron's \"17 Again\" won this weekend's box office sweepstakes without breaking a sweat. Zac Efron stars in \"17 Again,\" which debuted in the No. 1 slot at the box office. The high school time-warp comedy, which costars Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann, earned $24.1 million, according to studio estimates from the box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI. The film's haul marked another No. 1 debut for Efron, who helped boost ticket sales with an appearance this weekend on Saturday Night Live. In 2007, the musical \"Hairspray,\" which co-starred Efron, opened first at $27.5 million. Last year, Efron's \"High School Musical 3: Senior Year\" bowed with $42 million, and while \"17 Again\" may have fallen short of that mark, it still represents an auspicious maiden voyage for Efron's post-Disney career. Despite the raft of critics who pooh-poohed the film, which received a 61 percent fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com, audiences were more favorably inclined, giving it a strong A- CinemaScore. Landing at No. 2, the Russell Crowe-Ben Affleck thriller \"State of Play\" pulled in $14.1 million. The film, which garnered generally positive reviews, is the latest of a string of adult-oriented dramas to lag at the box office, although its final tally actually came in somewhat higher than anticipated and was an improvement over the $12.9 million opening for Crowe's last outing, last fall's \"Body of Lies.\" While \"17 Again\" mopped up moviegoers on the younger end of the age spectrum, a whopping 75 percent of \"State of Play's\" audience was over 35. Holding steady at No. 3 for the second week in a row, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" took in another $12.9 million. The film's impressive performance in its fourth weekend brings the grand total for the animated kiddie flick to $162 million the highest this year by a wide margin. \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" dropped 61 percent from its opening last weekend, but the Miley Cyrus starrer still proved strong enough for the No. 4 spot with $12.7 million, boosting its cumulative gross to $56.2 million. Rounding out the top five, \"Fast & Furious\" still had plenty of gas in the tank, earning $12.3 million in its third weekend for an overall cume of $136.7 million. The same, however, can't be said for the Jason Statham action flick \"Crank High Voltage,\" which sputtered into a distant sixth place with a decidedly low-voltage $6.5 million. Overall box office was up for the fourth straight weekend, surging 21 percent over this same weekend last year. Recession? What recession? CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"17 Again\" debuted at No. 1 at the box office, pulling in an estimated $24.1 million .\nThe Russell Crowe-Ben Affleck thriller \"State of Play\" was No. 2 with $14.1 million .\nOverall box office earnings were up for the fourth straight weekend ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- His shooting spree left at least 10 dead and millions terrified of bullets coming from an unseen sniper. But Mildred Muhammad believes she was the ultimate target of her ex-husband, John Allan Muhammad, the man dubbed the \"D.C. Sniper.\" And for some time, Muhammad said she felt extreme guilt for the victims that were gunned down in grocery store parking lots and gas stations. The youngest was a 13-year-old boy who was shot while walking to his Maryland school. Muhammad spoke about the guilt she felt after the killing spree on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Monday night, the day before her ex-husband was scheduled to be executed. Muhammad said she has gradually gotten over her guilty feelings and focused on her three children. \"I felt that way initially because I had done everything I knew how to do to bring attention to how dangerous he was to me,\" Muhammad said. \"I had no idea his anger would extend beyond me, to include all people in his killings.\" John Muhammad, the mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at a state prison near Jarratt, Virginia. During two lengthy trials -- including one featuring testimony from young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo -- and in several years of legal appeals, John Muhammad has continued to profess his innocence. Prosecutors say John Muhammad intended the killings to provide a smokescreen to cover up his real goal -- killing his ex-wife Mildred and gaining custody of his three children. Muhammad said she divorced John Muhammad because of abuse and has not visited him since he was in prison. \"I feel that all of my efforts, all of my energy is to help my children through this emotional turmoil that they are going through,\" said Muhammad. \"I don't have an emotional attachment to John.\" John Muhammad's other ex-wife, Carol Williams, also talked to King Monday. Williams, John Muhammad's first wife, said she plans to visit him in prison with their son Tuesday before the execution. Williams also brought letters that John Muhammad wrote her from prison. \"Carol, I have missed my family for the past eight years. I don't want to be missed the day that these devils murder my innocent black (expletive),\" John Muhammad wrote in one of the letters. Williams said she was not surprised that John Muhammad still believed he was innocent. \"I'm praying for myself, for my son, and also for the families of the victims,\" Williams said.","highlights":"John Muhammad's second ex-wife, Mildred, believes she was ultimate target of sniper spree .\nMuhammad: For long time, I felt extreme guilt for victims that were gunned down .\nCarol Williams, his first ex-wife, plans to visit Muhammad before execution and bring son .\nMuhammad has maintained his innocence in the deaths of at least 10 people in 2002 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ever find yourself struggling to craft the perfect sentence for a loved one who's, um, serving a sentence? Now, you have a friend in the greeting card business. Terrye Cheathem has created a line of greeting cards geared toward prison inmates. A Los Angeles, California, lawyer has come up with a series of cards geared toward prison inmates, a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population. Some express simple good wishes: \"We are all praying for you while you do your time.\" Others celebrate holidays: \"You had the choice to be 'naughty or nice.' And you chose ... Now you have to do your time. But, Christmas won't be the same without you here.\" Others dole out tough love: \"When you called last time, I was not very sympathetic. I guess that I have heard your promises to change too many times. Please - stop promising to change. Just do it.\" Creator Terrye Cheathem said the cards let family members say \"Look, things need to be different when you get out.\" She came up with the idea a few years ago while looking -- without success -- for a birthday card to send her brother-in-law, who was serving an 11-month sentence. \"There are so many people who have mixed feelings about communicating with their loved ones in prison,\" Cheathem said Thursday. \"They are unhappy, oftentimes profoundly embarrassed. People don't know what to say.\" So she created Three Squares Greetings to capture the sentiments for a captive audience -- one that seems to be getting larger each year. More than 2.3 million people were in jails or prisons in the United States at the beginning of 2008, according to a study released last month by the Pew Center on the States. The center is a private organization that advocates for alternative programs to alleviate prison populations. For the first time in the nation's history, the center says, more than one in 100 Americans are behind bars, a higher proportion than any other country. Cheathem is selling her cards online and through stores. She also wants jails and prisons to carry cards designed for inmates to send their relatives. \"They're 'Thank You' cards,\" she said. \" 'Thank you for visiting,' 'Thank you for bringing the kids,' 'Thank you for coming to court.' \" Like many, bookstore owner James Fugate was at first reluctant to carry the line in his Los Angeles shop, Esowon Books. \"I have some issues of being nice to criminals,\" Fugate said. \"And in my 20 years in business, I've seen some relatives who don't seem to realize the gravity of what (their family members) have done.\" Fugate said he changed his mind when he realized that most of the cards carried messages asking inmates to turn their lives around. Cheathem understands the hesitation of shoppers and sellers. \"I can't think of any other product that anyone wants to receive and certainly no one wants to be in the position to buy one,\" she said. \"But there is a need for this.\" Cheathem points to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, Michigan. He was charged this week with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct of office. He was released on a $75,000 bond. \"I have a card that says, 'I'm sorry to hear about your arrest,' \" she said. \"Right now , there are probably 50 people or more who would send it to him.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New series of greeting cards is geared toward prison inmates .\nStudy shows the U.S. prison and jail population is rapidly growing .\nCard creator is selling her cards online and through stores ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scotland's Susan Boyle gives new meaning to the term \"overnight sensation.\" The \"Britain's Got Talent\" contestant was expected to be something of a joke when she first sauntered on stage, but she absolutely wowed the audience, the judges -- and then the world via the Internet -- with her stunning rendition of \"I Dreamed a Dream.\" Along with Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden is a judge on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" But like others who stumble upon sudden fame, she found the pressure and scrutiny to be overwhelming. \"Talent\" judge Amanda Holden and Dr. Drew Pinsky of VH1's \"Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew\" joined CNN's Larry King Tuesday night to discuss Boyle's hospitalization for stress and the toll the spotlight and media criticism might have taken on her mental health. They also discussed whether Boyle will develop the emotional stamina for a high-pressure singing career. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: What do we know right now? Amanda Holden: Basically, we've spoken to Susan's brother. He, in fact, spoke on [CBS' \"The Early Show\"] this morning to say that his sister was very keen to come home as soon as she possibly could and that she was resting up in a clinic in London and that she was very much looking forward to coming out and seeing what was available to her when she felt better. King: Is the show, Amanda, paying for the hospital bills and are they taking care of her? Holden: I have no idea if they're paying the hospital bills. I would imagine that they are. We're a very loyal show. We love Susan very much. In fact, all the contestants that appear on our show are extraordinarily well looked after. King: Your fellow judge, Piers Morgan, has said that there was talk of taking her off the show because of all the pressures on her. Were you involved? Were there any discussions like that? Holden: I wasn't involved in any discussions like that. And I think Piers has a slightly closer relationship with her. ... The only thing I'm worried about with Susan Boyle is that she seems to have a crush on Piers Morgan. ... I think that Piers kind of reassured her during the final that she was doing well and that she mustn't pay any kind of attention to the press and all the other stuff that was going . King: Despite all the tumult, there's no disputing that Susan sang her heart out during the finale of the competition. I know the dance troupe [Diversity] was terrific. But, frankly, why didn't she win? Holden: Honestly, I can't criticize the decision because it was the British public that voted in the end. I have no real idea, to be honest. I wonder whether it could be that Diversity was utterly fantastic on the show that night. They decimated the show. They really, really were amazing. And I just wonder whether maybe younger people voted and were quicker on the texts than the kind of people that were voting for Susan. But as I keep saying, if Susan is a loser, then surely she is the biggest and best loser that we have in the world. And coming second is no bad thing. Watch Amanda Holden discuss Susan Boyle \u00bb . King: She came in, though, [as] a small-town amateur singer, [with] learning disabilities due to suffering oxygen deprivation at birth. Some say the program exploited her and her vulnerabilities. Do you agree? Holden: I couldn't disagree more. You know, she's a grown woman who applied to come on a talent show. She enjoyed every second of every moment that I met her or saw her behind the scenes. She was very excited. She was very proud to be taking part in the show. I think the downturn in press in our country [Britain], I think, maybe stressed her out a little bit. And I think she was just quite upset about all the exaggerated stories and the kind of falsehoods that were being written about her. I think that everybody gets upset about bad press when you're in this business. And she's somebody that's gone from anonymity to [an] absolute worldwide phenomenon. King: Yes. Holden: So how is she expected to handle that? Nobody can handle that with the best will in the world. I've been in the business 15 years, and I'm still not media savvy. [Dr. Drew Pinsky joins the show] . King: What do you make of this Susan Boyle thing? Pinsky: The problem here is that here's a woman that's suddenly under the scrutiny of the spotlight who maybe has some developmental issues, who is under tremendous stress and [now] is in a psychiatric hospital. The question is, did the show harm her? King: Did it? Pinsky: It's hard to say. This is the first time these kind of experiences have really been undertaken by people. People that come out of nowhere all of a sudden are international superstars. King: Should we be, Amanda, concerned about that? Holden: First of all, I just want to say that Susan's brother said on British television this morning that, yes, Susan has experienced learning difficulties. But in actual fact, when she was at school, she did as well as any of her other siblings. But throughout her childhood, always before an exam or anything else, she always got quite anxious. [Before the show], she was feeling nervous. But she went out there and she nailed it. You know, she did the best performance that we've seen. And let's not forget, this is actually only the second or third time we've heard her sing. ... She is in a place where celebrities go when they are burnt out. Now, I am obviously not a doctor. I have no factual information to give to you. I can only say to you her brother ... has said she wants to come home within a matter of days, rather than weeks. Pinsky: That's excellent. King: Would you guess, Dr. Drew, that she still has a career in front of her? Wouldn't you bet she does? Pinsky: Oh, I bet she does, absolutely. And she will learn to become accustomed to this kind of stress, I am sure. But let's make sure she has the care she needs. And let's be sure that ... everybody that goes on shows like this has access to things that help them deal with the stress of these kinds of environments.","highlights":"Amanda Holden: Boyle is \"a grown woman who applied to come on a talent show\"\nHolden believes negative press coverage stressed out the overnight sensation .\nThough Boyle was exceedingly nervous before finale, Holden says she \"nailed it\"\nDr. Drew Pinsky: Contestants on high-pressure shows should get help with stress ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Verified Identity Pass Inc.'s Clear security system -- the program that expedited airport security line waits for paying customers -- ended operation Monday night because the company couldn't reach a consensus with its senior creditors, according to its Web site. Clear promised to help passengers avoid security lines like this one at San Francisco International Airport. The New York-based company founded by entrepreneur Stephen Brill targeted business flyers, promising passengers that they would whisk through tedious airport security lanes more rapidly by being placed in private lines. Verified Identity Pass officials couldn't be reached for comment. Clear's fast-lane program began at Orlando (Florida) International Airport in 2005. By the time the company shut down, it was operating in more than 18 locations, including major airports in Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; and Washington. USA Today reported that the company had about 250,000 members. With nearly 700 million passengers traveling domestically in 2006, Clear company officials touted their program as a way to help avoid bottlenecks and, in some instances, reduce the wait time in security lines to as little as five minutes. Passengers using the Clear program doled out more than $200 a year. After announcing the shutdown, the company released no information on whether customers would receive refunds. John Harrington, a freelance photographer in Washington, renewed his Clear membership for the next two years about a month ago. He said he was disappointed to receive an e-mail from Clear officials saying the program had been terminated. Harrington relied on the quicker lanes when he traveled for assignments out of Reagan National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. \"With Clear, I could get into my gate in less than 15 to 20 minutes,\" said Harrington, who is flying to San Francisco next week and will now have to arrive at the airport an hour earlier. \"Try that with regular airport security. It's going to cost me time.\" The Clear program required applicants like Harrington to provide information such as a Social Security number and previous address for a background check. The applicant's fingerprints and iris were scanned. The information was placed into a credit-card-size pass and for scanning at an airport Clear booth. After checking in at the Clear booth, customers were shuttled into a separate line overseen by the Transportation Security Administration. In some airports, Clear members were taken to security lanes reserved for them. In other airports, they used employee security lanes. Clear members went through the same security procedures; they had to take off their shoes and take out laptops. Clear arrived at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the United States, last fall, officials said. At the same time, the airport added 12 security lanes, cutting the average security wait time to 10 minutes, airport spokeswoman Katena Carvajales said. \"Clear shutting down is not impacting our passengers at this airport,\" Carvajales said, adding that customer service officials are stationed near the Clear booths to instruct members on where to go. Some critics argued that the Clear lines were no faster than regular security lines. The Air Transport Association, the industry representing the major U.S. airlines, said the program didn't enhance security. Spokesman David A. Castelveter said airlines already offered frequent travelers and elite members separate lines with no charge. In 2008, the TSA also began expanding its free Black Diamond Self-Select Lanes program to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, Orlando and Spokane (Washington) International Airport. The program features a series of lanes broken down into categories for expert business travelers who fly frequently, casual travelers who don't fly as often, and skiers or families with strollers who need special assistance. The program has helped decrease wait times at pilot locations in Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to a TSA statement. \"Clear was a personal decision by travelers,\" Castelveter said. \"If they could afford it, then they could buy it, but it didn't offer anything that wasn't already there.\" Seven years ago, Congress approved the creation of a speedier airport clearance system that would make the skies safer after September 11 rattled the travel industry. Government officials wanted to vet passengers and put those with a clean history into a separate, quicker line. But government officials worried that potential terrorists could sneak onto the approved list. The government program was handed off to private companies, like Verified Identity Pass, that saw the convenience factor as something they could sell.","highlights":"Clear security system allowed passengers to use different security lines .\nClear was operating in 18 airports and served 250,000 passengers .\nAir Transport Association said the program offered few benefits to travelers .\n\"It's going to cost me time,\" says one traveler who relied on the Clear program ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Kentucky Chihuahua is expected to make a full recovery after a freak accident that left a large barbecue fork lodged in his head for days, according to the animal hospital where he was treated. During a family gathering two weeks ago, 12-week-old Smokey was waiting to be fed as his owner used the fork to shoo another dog away from Smokey's food, Su Smith, vice president of Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital in London, Kentucky, wrote in an article on the hospital's Web site. As owner Vickie Brumley of Manchester, Kentucky, waved the fork, the handle broke off and the fork end was flung through the air, embedding itself several inches into Smokey's head. Smokey immediately ran into the woods, Smith wrote. For two days, his owner's family searched for him despite bad weather and finally came to the conclusion that he had either died of his injury or been killed by wildlife. Brumley's brother, Hughie Wagers, was visiting his sister and sitting on the porch when Smokey came up the driveway with the fork still sticking out of his head, Smith wrote. He rushed him to the animal hospital. \"They arrived at 6:59 p.m., right as we were about to lock up,\" hospital staffer Michelle Duncum told CNN. \"Mr. Wagers walked into the hospital and asked if we could please help him.\" Staffers were shocked when they saw Smokey, she said. \"We had never dealt with anything like this before.\" Veterinarian Keaton Smith knew Smokey's treatment might be expensive and spoke with Wagers about options, Smith wrote. Keaton Smith offered to treat Smokey at the hospital's expense if Wagers allowed the hospital to call media outlets about the Chihuahua's story. However, staffers wanted to make sure Smokey would live through the night first before calling anyone, Su Smith said. It only took the veterinarian about 30 seconds to remove the fork from Smokey's head, Duncum said. And when the veterinarian arrived at the hospital the next morning, July 8, he found Smokey \"recovering much better than expected,\" Su Smith wrote. Smokey has been advised to take it easy for a few weeks, but is expected to fully recover, Duncum said. The Chihuahua's owner did not immediately return a call seeking comment from CNN. \"Dr. Smith asks everyone who believes this is a cruelty case to 'please back off' and stop jumping to unfounded conclusions,\" Su Smith wrote. \"If you have never had an accident of any kind, you may cast the first stone, but there will be no criminal charges filed in this case.\"","highlights":"Broken fork accidentally gets stuck in Chihuahua's head .\nSmokey ran into the woods, owners couldn't find him for two days .\nPet is \"recovering much better than expected,\" vet says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Health officials say the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, is likely to cause more illnesses and deaths in the United States, even though much of the initial anxiety has eased. A researcher investigates swine flu at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported higher levels of flu activity than the average for mid-May and an unusual number of outbreaks in schools. Some clinics reported high numbers of respiratory diseases more commonly seen during the peak of flu season. \"We do think that the way the virus is spreading in the U.S., we are not out of the woods, and the disease is continuing,\" said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health program at the CDC in a news conference this week. In the United States, six deaths have been linked to the swine flu, although it's unclear whether these were caused by the virus or pre-existing conditions. Nationwide, at least 5,123 cases of H1N1 flu have been reported, although the actual number of people affected may be higher. New data released by the CDC Tuesday showed that the majority of the 30 patients who were hospitalized with H1N1 in California had other medical conditions, such as chronic heart and lung disease, suppressed immune system, diabetes, and obesity. None of the patients died. They had fevers, coughs, vomiting and shortness of breath, according to the CDC report that examined the patients. Six of them were admitted to the intensive care unit and four required mechanical ventilation. See an explanation of H1N1 flu \u00bb . Five of them were pregnant -- two of the fetuses did not survive. Earlier this month, Judy Dominguez Trunnell became the first U.S. resident to die from complications of the H1N1 flu. Her daughter was delivered via emergency Caesarean section. Dominguez Trunnell felt body aches and numbing in the left side of her face and went to the hospital, her husband, Steven Trunnell, told CNN's Larry King. Watch the interview. \u00bb . Trunnell has filed a wrongful death claim against Smithfield Foods, a pork and meat producer, alleging that the company's actions may have contributed to the virus' creation. \"She was a healthy, pregnant woman who was eight months pregnant until she contracted the virus,\" he said. \"She became acutely ill, but she was never diagnosed with any major medical complications of any kind.\" Health officials have said repeatedly since the outbreak's beginning that the virus cannot be contracted from eating pork. Pregnancy increases the risk of certain medical problems and creating complications from the flu, Schuchat said. \"There is some immunosuppression that occurs during pregnancy,\" she said. \"There maybe also a role of the mechanical effect of pregnancy in decreasing the lung capacity that maybe you're not easily able to handle lung infection or respiratory problems.\" Early steps toward an H1N1 vaccine are being taken. The process could take between five and six months from the time the virus appeared to when the vaccine would be available to the public, officials have said. Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, said the agency has sent H1N1 strains to roughly seven labs around the world to use in the first steps of vaccine development. The CDC expects to get the viruses back from the institutions by the end of the month and \"if we do go in the direction of producing a vaccine, we could see the production of pilot lots, and clinical trials, beginning as soon as late June.\" Though the initial surveillance of the California cases indicates that most healthy patients recovered and were discharged after short hospital stays, those with other medical conditions had greater complications. \"Our best estimate right now is that the fatality [with the H1N1] is likely a little bit higher than seasonal influenza, but not necessarily substantially higher,\" Schuchat said. The seasonal flu kills 36,000 people every year. While people of all ages get the seasonal flu, its complications more severely affect older people or those with weakened immune systems. About 95 percent of people who die from the seasonal flu are 65 years old and above, according to the World Health Organization. Many of the confirmed and probable cases for the H1N1 virus have been younger people between the ages of 5 and 24. \"The hospitalizations that we're tracking have this disproportionate occurrence among younger persons,\" Schuchat said. \"That's very unusual to have so many people under 20 requiring hospitalization and in some of those intensive care units.\" While there have been no deaths in that age group in the United States, Schuchat said: \"We would not be surprised to see serious hospitalizations and deaths occurring in people in this age group and I think we need to be prepared for that.\" \"It's important to dispel the idea that we're out of the woods, or that this was a problem that really didn't merit response,\" she said. \"Influenza is unpredictable, and we really need to stay attuned to that, to be prepared for surprises in the days and weeks ahead.\" And the flu viruses can mutate. Dr. Dan Jernigan, deputy director for the CDC's influenza division said last week, \"We're not seeing significant evidence of any mutation towards more virulence in the U.S.\" H1N1 flu activity has been confirmed in 22 states and appears to be most active in the Southwest. In April, concerns about the H1N1 virus prompted travel warnings, airport checks and school closures. The outbreak has sickened 9,830 people worldwide and caused at least 79 deaths -- mostly in Mexico, according to the WHO. Last month, U.S. officials discouraged all nonessential travel to Mexico after the flu strain killed dozens of people there. On Friday, the CDC downgraded its warning and advised people with medical complications, advanced age or pregnancy to check with a doctor before going on a trip to Mexico. CNN medical senior producers Saundra Young and Shahreen Abedin contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC reported higher levels of flu activity than the average for mid-May .\nHealth officials warn disease is likely to continue and contribute to more deaths .\nInitial data shows hospitalized patients had underlying medical conditions ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billy Ray Cyrus may be a country boy at heart, but he is also pretty savvy when it comes to navigating Hollywood. Billy Ray Cyrus has a full plate with acting, touring, composing and being a dad. When others wrote him off as a novelty act after the 1992 hit \"Achy Breaky Heart,\" Cyrus kept making music and eventually turned to acting. It was a decision he said came after some well-timed fatherly advice. \"In the mid-'90s, my dad said to me 'Son, you've got all of your eggs in one basket and you are living and dying by music,' \" Cyrus recalled. \"He said 'I want you to have a career like Kenny Rogers.' \" Cyrus said his dad suggested he branch out into acting. Cyrus eventually auditioned for and won a role in what appeared to be an unlikely vehicle -- David Lynch's 2001 film \"Mulholland Drive.\" After Lynch, known for such works as \"Blue Velvet\" and \"Twin Peaks,\" suggested that Cyrus should continue to pursue the craft, he went on to star in the television drama \"Doc,\" which also helped spur the career of Cyrus' greatest production -- \"Hannah Montana\" star, and Cyrus' daughter, Miley Cyrus. Now, with the release of \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" on Blu-ray and DVD, a music tour and an upcoming role in a film featuring comedian George Lopez and martial arts expert Jackie Chan, Cyrus is staying busy. He recently took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk to CNN about how he keeps it all together, how he manages raising a family full of performers (son Trace is a member of the band Metro Station, daughter Brandi performs with the band Frank and Derol and also acts, as do younger children Braison and Noah) and what makes him a good fit for Hollywood. CNN: What do you like about \"Hannah Montana: The Movie?\" Billy Ray Cyrus: I think it's got a certain amount of realism to it with art imitating life imitating art. It certainly parallels a lot of things in mine and Miley's real world and real lives. I wrote the song \"Back to Tennessee\" and as I read the script for the movie, \"Back to Tennessee\" became a cornerstone of the film and the title track off the album. The realism of the film translates into the music, and I think vice versa. CNN: The film speaks to never losing touch with your roots. How important is that to you? Cyrus: Extremely. My dad told me as a kid to always be aware of where you are, always have a vision for your future, but never forget where you came from. CNN: You've had careers in both music and acting. Do you still feel a bit like a fish out of water dealing with Hollywood? Cyrus: I love Hollywood as far as being an actor. Getting to work with Jackie Chan and George Lopez in this new film we have coming out in January [\"The Spy Next Door\"], working with Heather Locklear and Patricia Neal in the Lifetime movie \"Flying By\" and Brooke Shields, who has appeared as my deceased wife on \"Hannah Montana.\" I look back at it now and think that I may fit in more to the film community than I do Nashville, to tell you the truth. I love what I do. CNN: Do you have a preference, then, for acting over music? Cyrus: My preference is to find projects that can combine the two. I also love to write scores. I wrote a lot of the scores for \"Doc\" and I love to write scores for other projects. CNN: How do you balance being a star with being a dad? Cyrus: The very best I can. I just take it one step at a time and do the best I can. My dad was to me what I try to be to Miley, which is somewhat of a best friend. I try my best to be a good daddy and if she wants to talk about business or music I try my best to be a good manager. I try to be all of those things because that's what my dad was to me. Unfortunately, my dad passed away four years ago from mesothelioma, but I feel like in some ways my dad is looking down on me and smiling. His name was Ronald Ray Cyrus and a lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces. CNN: So will Miley ever remake \"Achy Breaky Heart\"? Cyrus: I doubt it, but anything is a possibility. In 1991 I recorded \"Achy Breaky Heart\" and we are not too terribly far away from the 20-year anniversary, and there are some major stars who want to re-do that song. I'm flirting with the idea. There's one cat in particular that if I told you who it was, it would blow your mind. But I've got to keep it under my hat right now.","highlights":"Billy Ray Cyrus has worked steadily since 1992's \"Achy Breaky Heart\"\nSinger turned to acting on advice of father and director David Lynch .\nSays he prefers working on projects that combine acting and music .\nHe won't reveal the big-name artists he says want to remake his hit ."} -{"article":"SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- What does it really take to dress someone as fashion-forward and in the spotlight as Michelle Obama? Designer Yigal Azrou\u00ebl talks with students at the Savannah College of Art and Design. \"Bravery,\" says Isabel Toledo, designer of the first lady's attention-grabbing lemongrass yellow wool and lace ensemble that she wore for the inauguration of her husband President Obama. But along with bravery about their fashion sense, new graduates at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) will need courage in the face of the current recession. \"Fashion is being hit particularly hard in the new job market. Fashion as a whole is feeling a greater level of lost revenues and in turn has lost opportunities for sustaining volume and even more so for growth,\" said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst and expert fashion analyst for the NPD market research group. \"The ironic thing is that new ideas and creations are just what the industry needs but is too cautious to react to it,\" he added. Full of new ideas, student designers say they are aware of the challenges as they head out into the work force, but they're optimistic they can make it in these tough times. \"After I graduate, I'm going to New York, I have an internship lined up with a trend forecasting company, Promostyl,\" said Shelby Simon whose designs made it into SCAD's annual fashion show. See the runway fashions \u00bb . \"Everyone needs an assistant so hopefully I'll be able to find something pretty easily,\" said Caitlin Clarke. She would like to land an internship in New York and has interviewed with New York & Co. and applied for positions at Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein and Zac Posen. Toledo, a world-renown designer, knows it can be tough to make it in fashion. She and her fashion illustrator husband Ruben Toledo didn't have much money when they arrived from Cuba in the late 60s as political refugees. She says she found inspiration in the little things. Experts' advice on getting to top of fashion business \u00bb . \"Go out there and look at things, look at things well. Study them; the smallest things can inspire you. That will make you able to do what you want on any level. Many times kids think you have to have all this backing coming into a big industry. I didn't do that, I started from the bottom and as a matter of fact you can only go up,\" said Isabel Toledo. Toledo was at the school last weekend to accept the 2009 Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. But for six months, two other top designers, Yigal Azrou\u00ebl and Lars Nilsson, have been mentoring and critiquing 23 students to help them develop their designs for the runway. Azrou\u00ebl, a self-taught designer, says it's a tough industry and students have to pay their dues. \"It's not what people think it is or what it looks like from the outside. If you want to be a fashion designer you have to carry fabric on your back, you need to learn how to cut and sew. The fame is going to come later.\" More known for his expert draping techniques, Yigal Azrou\u00ebl taught students more than how to incorporate intricate folds and pleats in their designs. \"If you love something, go ahead and do it, but, be very consistent with it,\" advised Azrou\u00ebl. SCAD senior Caitlin Clarke says working with Nilsson really helped her create new silhouettes and structured angles with interesting seams. \"Lars was so helpful. I remember this one time when he came in and said 'Ah, there's something not right with this dress' and then he helped me cut it up and fix it,\" said Clarke. Nilsson enjoyed the process. \"I really tried to spend a lot of time seeing what they [the students] had to say, giving them advice and push them forward to express themselves,\" said Nilsson. \"It's been a great collaboration, and I must say that I've learned a lot myself, too.\" The visiting designers give the students an edge in their job search, says SCAD president Paula Wallace. \"It's very important to bring in the top professionals because they inspire the students and they provide contacts and networking for the students after they graduate.\" Students are also using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to reach out to their peers and other industry professionals. In order to succeed you have to have innovative approaches to market, sell and sustain your product lines, said retail analyst Hitha Prabhakar. Right now retailers are in \"survival of the fittest\" mode and a handful of designers including Mui Mui, Allessandro Del Acqua, Allegra Hicks and Krizia have had to shut their store doors on Madison Avenue, she said. SCAD senior Shelby Simon feels some students went into fashion because they like to shop, but she warns there is so much more to learn about the craft.. \"The truth is hard work, nose to the grind stone and learning. All the people I know who became great designers didn't do it over night,\" said Vogue magazine's editor-at-large Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley, who has been involved with SCAD students over the years. \"Jason Wu, a wonderful designer, a young designer, was making doll clothes for years. He was saving his money then opened his own company and look where he is today, dressing Michelle Obama.\"","highlights":"Fashion industry job market is being hit very hard, analyst says .\nStudents at Savannah College of Art and Design get advice from designers .\nVogue's Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley says Jason Wu made doll clothing for years .\nDesigner Isabel Toledo says when you start at bottom, you can only go up ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Americans rescued last week from captivity in the Colombian jungle left a medical center for their homes Saturday, hoping for some time out of the spotlight as they reconnect with loved ones. Left to right, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves address reporters before flying home Saturday. Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for more than five years -- left the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. \"There's family members that are waiting for us, and just imagine if you hadn't seen your family in 5\u00bd years,\" Stansell said, asking the media to allow the former captives some space. \"Let us go home and be family men again.\" \"We're going to come out and we're going to talk, but right now, what we want to do is rest,\" Gonsalves said. All three were headed home to Florida, and Stansell and Howes flashed their new Florida driver's licenses before they boarded a plane. The three men had been undergoing a reintegration process at the medical center. FARC had held the three U.S. government contractors since February 2003 after their plane went down in a remote region of the South American country. They and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt were among 15 hostages rescued on July 2 in a Colombian military operation. The three Americans arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center later that day. The three Americans urged the media not to forget the hundreds of other hostages still held by FARC. \"Don't forget the people that are still there,\" Stansell said. \"There are fellow hostages that are still there. Some have 10 years [as a hostage],\" he said. \"Right this minute, they're in chains, looking for food, and they're on the run. And their families haven't seen them in 10 years.\" It is estimated that FARC holds some 750 hostages. The leftist rebel group took up arms in 1964 and grew from a rag-tag band of 48 fighters to a self-styled \"people's army\" of more than 21,000 combatants in 2001, according to Colombian government figures. The government now estimates the FARC fighting force has dwindled to around 8,000 after a wave of desertions. On Saturday, the rescued Americans talked of looking forward to spending time with their relatives. \"We're going to go home now. We're going to rest, we're going to unwind for about a month and a half,\" Gonsalves said.","highlights":"Ex-FARC hostages leave Texas medical center 10 days after rescue .\nFreed men ask for privacy, saying they want to spend time with relatives .\nMen ask media to not forget about hostages who still held in Colombia ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swiss police were scrambling Monday in search of three masked men who stole four Impressionist paintings worth about $163 million (180 million Swiss francs) Sunday in a heist police characterized as \"spectacular.\" Claude Monet's \"Poppies near Vetheuil\" was one of the famous paintings stolen by the armed robbers. The three men entered the E.G. Buehrle Collection -- among the finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world -- in Zurich, Switzerland, at around 4:30 p.m. CET (8:30 a.m. ET), police said. One of the men threatened personnel at the museum's front door with a pistol and forced them to the ground, police said, while the other two men went into an exhibition room and stole four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. Afterward, the three men loaded the paintings -- Monet's \"Poppies near Vetheuil,\" Degas' \"Count Lepic and his Daughters,\" Van Gogh's \"Blossoming Chestnut Branches\" and Cezanne's \"Boy in a Red Vest\" -- into a white car parked in front of the museum and then drove off, police said. Police said the men were wearing dark clothes and hoods, and one of them spoke German with a Slavic accent. They were all of average height, police said. There is a reward of $91,000 (100,00 Swiss francs) for information leading to the return of the paintings, police said. The Swiss art heist follows the recent theft in Switzerland of two paintings by Pablo Picasso, Bjoern Quellenberg, a spokesman for the Kunsthaus, a major art museum in Zurich, said. The 'dumbest' form of art crime \u00bb . The director of the Kunsthaus serves on the E.G. Buhrle private art foundation's council, Quellenberg said. In that theft, thieves stole the paintings, the 1962 \"Tete de Cheval\" (\"Horse's Head\") and the 1944 \"Verre et Pichet\" (\"Glass and Pitcher\") by Picasso. They were on loan from a German museum and valued at $4.5 million when they were stolen February 6, according to news reports. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Artworks worth $163M stolen in Zurich art heist .\nHaul includes pieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas and Monet .\nHeist follows recent thefts in Switzerland of artworks by Picasso ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama's daughters are moving into a house with a swimming pool, a bowling alley and its own movie theater. Sasha Obama, left, and Malia Obama will make the White House home come January 20. When their father is inaugurated on January 20, Malia Obama, 10, and Sasha Obama, 7, will also be moving into a place where they'll not only be under the watchful eye of the Secret Service but also under the eye of the media. \"One of the negatives of the White House is that its very much a fishbowl,\" presidential historian Doug Wead said. \"There's something that Sasha or Malia will say or do and they'll be remembered for it for the rest of their lives,\" said Wead, who wrote \"All the Presidents' Children,\" a book on the lives of kids at the White House. Watch what life's like for White House kids \u00bb . Theodore Roosevelt's children used to like to drop water balloons on foreign dignitaries, Wead said. They also let their pet snake slither around the White House dining room. John F. Kennedy Jr. was known for hiding under his father's Oval Office desk. His older sister, Caroline, had a pony who romped untethered around the White House grounds. President Abraham Lincoln's youngest son, Thomas, used to startle everyone in the building by making all the White House bells ring at one time. But with the mischief and pranks comes a lifetime of pressure, said Noah McCollough, who wrote the book \"First Kids.\" \"John Quincy Adams' kids went through alcoholism and addiction because they couldn't live up to their parents expectation\" in their later years, McCollough said. Read up on the blessed and star-crossed lives of some other White House kids \u00bb . Much of Malia and Sasha's White House experience will be monitored by their mother, Michelle Obama, who seems determined to be active in their lives. Even as her husband campaigned for the presidency, Michelle Obama was a soccer mom, cheering from the sidelines of her daughters' games. \"I'm a mother first. And I'm going to be at parent-teacher conferences, and ... I'm going to be at the things that they want me to attend. I'm not going to miss a ballet recital,\" Michelle Obama said. Together with the president-elect, she'll have to decide where the girls will attend school. \"If they send their child to a private school they'll be called elitist for betraying the public school system,\" Wead said. Jacqueline Kennedy, not wanting Caroline being hounded by the media as she went to school, set up a first-grade classroom on the third floor of the White House. Ten of Caroline's friends also attended, each bringing their own lunch pail. President Jimmy Carter sent daughter Amy, age 9 when she moved to Washington, to the public Hardy Middle School. President Bill Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, attended the private Sidwell Friends School. No matter the choice, even their grades will come under public scrutiny. \"If you flunk that huge math test, it's on the front page of the newspaper the next day,\" McCollough said. But assuming no one gets grounded for bad grades, imagine the possibilities for sleepovers or parties. President Gerald Ford's daughter Susan, for example, held her senior prom at the White House. Whatever the educational choice, the Obamas have made clear their kids won't be an afterthought now that Barack Obama is about to become the world's most powerful person. On Friday morning, before the president-elect met with his advisers on the troubled economy and before his first news conference since the election scheduled for the afternoon, Barack and Michelle Obama went to a parent-teacher conference at the University of Chicago Lab School. And the girls will have company at the house on Pennsylvania Avenue. \"You have earned that puppy that is coming with us to the White House,\" their father told them in his acceptance speech.","highlights":"Malia Obama, 10, Sasha Obama, 7, will be in the public eye .\nHistorian: Kids will do something that they'll be forever remembered for .\nFlunk a test and make headlines, historian said .\nPranks and mischief: Teddy Roosevelt's kids dropped water balloons on people ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- When I asked an old friend why she hadn't just broken up with her live-in boyfriend instead of beginning a messy affair with a married neighbor, she snapped, \"Don't be stupid -- nobody leaves a relationship without having another one in place.\" Overlappers refuse to end one relationship until they have another one in progress. Oh, please, I corrected her. Of course they do. People fall out of love or get angry and leave without a safety net all the time. But as I thought back, I realized that for as long as I knew her, she never had. Even when she pretty much hated the one she was with, she stuck it out until she'd lined up his replacement. I could never understand why. My friend is beautiful, successful and very smart; surely being single for a little while wouldn't end her world. Women aren't the only ones guilty of this. I know -- and have unfortunately dated -- plenty of men who careen from one girlfriend directly into another, often with a big fat overlap; connecting the two relationships like a murky Venn diagram. I understand that being single can be annoying and lonely sometimes, but there are plenty of good reasons not to be -- or date! -- an Overlapper. 1. Karma! While overlapping is definitely cheating, the difference is these types go into it with the sole purpose of transitioning into another relationship. But however you word it, Overlappers deceive one or both parties in order to get what they want. When you begin a relationship dishonestly, it usually comes back to bite you in the butt. At the very least, you will never be fully able to trust an Overlapper. Because -- as yet another cliche based in truth goes -- if he does it with you, he'll do it to you. 2. Drama! Breakups are never fun, however splits caused by infidelity are hands down the most explosive. If you're like my friend and her man (who, against all odds, actually left his wife), this means that instead of talking about hearts, flowers, and butterflies -- like other new couples -- you spend your nights plotting how to hide assets and whether or not your overpaid lawyer is enough of a shark. How romantic! 3. The Pressure! Though they may appear independent, people who can't be alone are that way because they need to see themselves reflected in someone else's adoring eyes. But when their mirror (aka, partner) develops a flaw (weight gain, job loss, etc.), their image of themselves reflects that. Being a narcissist, nothing less than perfection is acceptable, so they start looking for the next mirror. Got that, fatty? You'd better stay at the top of your game if you want to hang onto an Overlapper. 4. Not cute! \"I met my boyfriend when his puppy peed on my foot\" is the perfect example of a meet-cute story. It has all the key elements -- chance, humor, and, best of all, a cuddly puppy! \"I met my boyfriend because I was his kids' nanny and then his wife found out, which is how I got this black eye,\" is definitely not a tale you're going to want to share at parties. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Some people afraid to be alone are guilty of dating overlapping .\nThey cheat on both partners while transitioning between relationships .\nOverlappers can't be trusted -- they might do it to you .\nBecause they're narcissistic, they'll trade you in for better model ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A military junta that toppled Guinea's government announced its new leader Wednesday in a nationwide radio address. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara wrapped in the Guinean flag Wednesday. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara declared himself president of the National Council for Democracy, which he called a transitional body that will oversee the country's return to democracy. In effect, that would make Camara president of Guinea, which was thrown into turmoil Monday after the death of President Lansana Conte. Camara also declared a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. local time. Guinea's parliament is holding negotiations with the military, Africa News reporter Mamdou Dian Donghol Diallo told CNN. \"For the time being the situation is calm and negotiations are under way,\" Diallo said. \"There is no traffic. Everyone is staying inside their homes.\" Camara, previously the spokesman for the National Council for Democracy, suspended the government, constitution, political parties and trade unions, Diallo said from Conakry. The newly formed government, made up of 26 military personnel and six civilians, is negotiating a power-sharing deal that would reflect its ethnic make-up, Diallo said. But some in the military may not support the new leadership, he said. International institutions, including the African Union, have condemned the coup. Guinea, in western Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, has had two presidents since gaining independence from France in 1958. Conte came to power in 1984, when the military seized control of the government after the death of the first president, Sekou Toure. The country did not hold democratic elections until 1993, when Conte was elected president. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2003 amid allegations of electoral irregularities. Worsening economic conditions and dissatisfaction with corruption and bad governance prompted two massive strikes in 2006, the CIA World Factbook says. A third nationwide strike in early 2007 sparked violent protests that resulted in two weeks of martial law. To appease the unions and end the unrest, the Factbook says, Conte named a new prime minister in March 2007. Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its mineral wealth, according to the British charity Plan UK. The country hosts large refugee populations from neighboring Liberia and Ivory Coast.","highlights":"NEW: Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara named de facto president of Guinea .\nCoup leaders impose overnight curfew; government, constitution suspended .\nPresident Lansana Conte died Monday after near 25-year rule .\nCoup condemned by African Union ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- This month the U.S. government has introduced major changes that will affect millions of travelers to the U.S. who do not need a visa. Instead of filling in the green visa waiver form en route, short-term visitors must register their details online at least three days before they depart. The measure is designed tighten security and make it harder for terrorists who are citizens of the participating countries to easily obtain entry to the U.S. The new system, known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), does not become compulsory until January 12, 2009. But travelers are urged to prepare for the new rules in advance. ESTA applies to citizens from the 27 Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries that includes most of western Europe in addition to New Zealand, Japan, Brunei and Australia. Visitors are recommended to submit applications no later than 72 hours before departure in case further inquiry is necessary. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has assured travelers that the system can handle last-minute and emergency requests. Applications can be made at any time, even if travelers have no specific travel plans. And if itineraries change, information can be easily updated on the ESTA Web site. Once travelers are authorized, they can travel for up to two years or until their passport expires, whichever comes first. From mid-January, travelers who have not received approval may be denied boarding, delayed processing, or denied admission at a U.S. port of entry. Passengers must submit the same information that is currently required in the I-94 immigration form. This includes biographical data, travel information as well as questions regarding communicable diseases, arrests and convictions. Registration is possible through the U.S. government ESTA Web site. In most cases, eligibility for travel will be approved immediately. Applicants who receive an \"Authorization Pending\" response will need to check the Web site for updates. Applicants whose ESTA applications are denied will be referred to Travel.State.Gov for information on how to apply for a visa. ESTA does not change the rules for citizens from countries that require visas. But the U.S. is due to extend the visa waiver program and has signed agreements with eight countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea. Travelers are advised that ESTA does not guarantee entry into the United States. The final decision rests with the immigration official at the port of entry.","highlights":"New rules require visa-free visitors to the U.S. to register details before departure .\nThe process could take 72 hours but last-minute applications are possible .\nThe system, introduced this month, will become compulsory next January .\nOnce authorized, travelers can travel for up to two years or until their passport expires ."} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- The teen who mysteriously turned up in New York with apparent amnesia emptied her bank account and left behind \"everything\" before she left her home in Washington, police told CNN. The woman, now identified as Kacie Aleece Peterson, 18, of Hansville, Washington, withdrew about $400 from her Bank of America account, said Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office in Washington. But Peterson \"left everything,\" including her wallet, identification, cell phone, clothes and even her bike, which was secured outside a Wal-Mart, Wilson said. Police still do not know how Peterson traveled cross-country to New York City. The woman mysteriously turned up in Manhattan two weeks ago, claiming to have no memory of her family, her home -- or even her own name. There's no indication that she's feigning her memory loss, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department. At the same time, because Peterson is an adult, authorities have not ruled out the theory that she left home to re-establish herself elsewhere, Wilson said. The teen's father, Henry Peterson of Colville, Washington, told Kitsap County authorities his daughter had occasional memory lapses, Wilson said. In May, Kacie Peterson was found lying on the ground next to a creek at the family farm, Wilson said. She had blacked out and did not remember who she was, he said. Kacie Peterson was briefly hospitalized after the incident, he said. Her father also told investigators that in another incident his daughter was found unconscious on her bedroom floor, Wilson said. Henry Peterson reported his daughter missing on October 2, Wilson said, after the family friend she lived with told him that the last time she saw Kacie Peterson was September 30. Kacie Peterson moved in June from eastern Washington with her father to western Washington to live with a friend of her mother, who died when she was 7, Wilson said. Henry Peterson told police he agreed to the transition, Wilson said. The teen's father described their relationship as \"difficult\" and \"that he had put too much pressure on his daughter to do well and get good grades,\" Wilson said. Kacie Peterson, a high school senior, started anew at Kingston High School in Kingston, Washington, but only attended for three weeks, said Chris Case, director of community relations for North Kitsap school district. Enrolled in the Running Start program there, Kacie Peterson had two advanced placement classes at the school and also classes at Olympic College in Poulsbo, about 10 miles away, Case said. Kingston high school officials said Kacie Peterson was quiet, shy and that \"she had no friends,\" Wilson said. The last time she showed up for class was on September 29, Case said. The next time some employees of the school saw the student she was sporting a new look. \"The school here is telling me she had long hair past her shoulders,\" Case said. In the photo New York police showed of the teen during their investigation to identify her, Kacie Peterson had hair that looked only about a couple of inches long on top and tapered low on the sides. Police asked for help identifying the teen after she was found in midtown Manhattan around 12:30 a.m. on October 9 outside the Covenant House youth shelter. The organization had said she was not a resident at the time and did not appear as if she intended to seek refuge at the facility. A security guard for the shelter noticed her walking around on the sidewalk near Covenant House and approached her. Finding her unresponsive, he called police. Officers interviewed her, but it became clear that she couldn't provide authorities with any information about herself. A photo of the then-unidentified woman aired on CNN, and a viewer in Maryland who was familiar with Kacie Peterson alerted authorities. Police established a positive identification. Police say they do not know how she lost her memory. She is still in New York and receiving care from the city agency, Browne said. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Khadijah Rentas, Erica Hill and Melanie Whitley contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Jane Doe\" identified as Kacie Aleece Peterson, 18, of Hansville, Washington .\nPolice tell CNN she got $400 from bank, but left wallet, ID, cell phone, clothes .\nPolice still do not know how Peterson traveled cross-country to New York City .\nHer father says Kacie has suffered from memory problems before ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A pair of Georgia men faced more than a half-hour of skeptical questions from reporters Friday as they defended their claim that they stumbled upon the body of Bigfoot while hiking in a remote North Georgia forest. The thawed body of a creature reputed to be Bigfoot reportedly weighs more than 500 pounds. Introduced by a publicist and beside a man who promoted what turned out to be a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer repeatedly said that their claim is not a hoax and that scientific analysis will prove it. \"We were not looking for Bigfoot. ... We wouldn't know what we were doing if we did,\" said Whitton, a police officer on leave after being shot in the hand while making an arrest. \"I didn't believe in Bigfoot at the time. ... But you've got to come to terms with it and realize you've got something special. And that's what it was.\" The men say they were hiking in early June when they discovered the body of a 7-foot-7, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature near a stream. They also claim to have spotted about three similar living creatures -- and showed reporters video stills of what they say is one of those creatures shadowing them through the woods. Watch report of scientist skeptical of Bigfoot claim \u00bb . The announcement, which the men first made on the Internet radio show \"Squatch Detective\" several weeks ago, has been greeted with healthy skepticism, even among some Bigfoot enthusiasts. Scientists, including the head of North Georgia College and State University's biology department, have said it's unlikely a tribe of 7-foot-tall creatures would have avoided discovery in a region popular among hikers, hunters and vacationers. Several Web sites have popped up questioning the claim and comparing a photo that the men say is the creature's body inside a freezer to a widely available Bigfoot costume. On Friday, Whitton acknowledged creating a pair of videos posted on the Internet video site YouTube, one in which his brother poses as a scientist and another in which Whitton briefly seems to admit that the body is a fake. \"It seems that the stalkers have busted us in a hoax,\" he says in the video. But then adds, \"we still have a corpse. We just wanted to give you something to do for the weekend.\" At Friday's news conference, Whitton first said that no video existed in which he calls the discovery a hoax. But after speaking to Tom Biscardi, the self-described \"Real Bigfoot Hunter\" who has been searching for the creature of legend since 1971, he said the video was made \"to have a little fun with it\" and was originally intended to throw off the \"psychos\" who had stalked him and his family since the men first made their claim. iReport.com: Have you seen 'Bigfoot'? The two also promoted a Web site registered to Whitton on June 16 and said they plan to write a book about their experience. Friday's news conference was held in Palo Alto, California, near the home of Biscardi. About 100 reporters and onlookers attended the event, in a hotel banquet room, including a man who shouted questions while wearing a gorilla suit. Dyer and Whitton said they were carrying a video camera during their hike to film wildlife. They said they handed the body over to Biscardi, who is keeping it at an undisclosed location until a team of scientists can examine it. One of the two photographs the men gave to reporters Friday showed what appears to be the creature's mouth, an effort to disprove allegations that what's in the photo is a costume. \"I want to get to the bottom of it,\" Biscardi said. \"I'll tell you what I've seen and what I've touched and what I've felt, what I've prodded was not a mask sewed onto a bear hide, OK?\" Biscardi acknowledged that he promoted a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, saying the woman who claimed to have the body convinced his staff members before he visited her and discovered that she was mentally ill. Alleged Bigfoot sightings have surfaced from time to time for years, dating to at least the 1800s. The most famous was the so-called Patterson film from 1967, which is purported to show a tall, furry, apelike creature walking along, at one point looking over its shoulder at the videographer. Most scientists who have studied the film say there's no way to authenticate it, and many say the creature appears to be a man in a costume. CNN's Doug Gross and Chuck Afflerback contributed to this report.","highlights":"North Georgia men say they stumbled upon body while hiking in forest .\nThey also claim to have spotted three similar living creatures .\nThe body of the furry half man-half ape is 7 feet, 7 inches tall, they say .\nMen won't reveal Bigfoot den's location because they don't want others disturbed ."} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- A hit TV show. An Emmy. A summer blockbuster. A new company. A wedding! Katherine Heigl has every reason to smile for our camera. A star -- and a trio of gorgeous looks -- is born. The Ing\u00e9nue: \"This is my favorite look of the three just because it's sexy but not overtly so,\" Heigl says. \"I like simple hair and makeup.\" There has been a self-tanning mishap . As Katherine Heigl crosses the parking lot of the sandwich shop at the Roosevelt Golf Course at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, she walks stiffly, holding her arms away from her like a paper doll and apologizing profusely for running 10 minutes late. Earlier, she'd sprayed her entire body with self-tanner, which refused to dry. She resorted to having her fianc\u00e9, musician Josh Kelley, take a blow-dryer to her (didn't work). So here she is, in a strapless, ankle-length Juicy Couture sundress (donned to accommodate the residual stickiness), fanning herself and wondering how mottled the tan will be when (or if) the lotion ever sets. Not that one bum experience could turn her off beauty products. \"I love everything new,\" says Heigl, 28, who, in addition to being nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actress on \"Grey's Anatomy,\" just started a production company at Fox. \"When I was in Rhode Island filming this summer, I went to Sephora for the first time. It was like my holy mecca.\" She recently had her bathroom vanity renovated with a high counter to make more room for the large drawers below that hold her well-organized loot. Then there's her deal with Coty to be the face of Nautica's new women's fragrance in January. Considering this fondness for all things beauty -- as well as Heigl's impressive acting range -- she plays TV dramedy as deftly as cinematic romantic comedy, as in the mega-hit \"Knocked Up\" and next year's 27 Dresses -- it seems natural for her to be In Style's first ever triple-cover girl. These three looks take her from girl-next-door to red-carpet knockout to pixie-coiffed vamp. The star, whom pals call Katie (and Hollywood calls the Next Big Thing), popped out her retainer to talk about makeup, breakouts and what boys like. KATHERINE HEIGL: I'm so sorry, I have to take out my Invisalign before I eat. IN STYLE: Who knew you wore them? I guess that's the point of Invisalign. KH: I got them because of this wonky tooth. I was like, OK, I can't take it. It's awesome because every two weeks you switch to a new retainer. Pretty much the perfect way to describe Invisalign is Netflix for your teeth. IS: Right -- the things we do for beauty. So, how did you like being transformed into three such different looks? KH: It was fun. I was working with such great hair and makeup people. And to have these professionals turning you into someone else is pretty neat. IS: Do you ever go without makeup? KH: There was a time when I would. Now that I get followed by photographers, I'm really paranoid about it. I do not want to be the \"Look What This Celebrity Looks Like Without Makeup\" picture. I'm clearly vain, and I don't need that. Plus, I like products. IS: How often do you go through your drawers and purge? KH: Often, because people send me a lot of stuff now, which is exciting. I love getting those boxes. [Into the tape recorder:] Send me a box of makeup, Stila! When that happens, I feel like I have to clean out and give stuff to my sister, mom and friends because there comes a point of gluttony that I can't accept. IS: How do you think you express your personality through style? KH: I'm a big hair-up person. Last night at work they put my hair in two French braids to keep it flat under the scrub cap. I thought it looked cute and that I could pull it off after I'd slept on it. And ... no. So I thought I could recreate it myself ... no again. As far as clothing style goes, I fluctuate almost as much as I do with beauty products. I like to shop for sweaters -- maybe it's the New Englander in me. I'm building a house in the mountains in Utah, so I tell myself I'm \"preparing\" for that. I like sweaters -- they're like scrubs -- you don't have to suck it in or worry about the bloat. IS: Do you know how you want your hair and makeup at your wedding? KH: I have an idea, but it's so dependent on the dress, and I haven't gotten there yet. My sister is getting married too, so we looked for dresses together. After about five stores I was like, \"I'm done.\" Everyone says, \"You just know when you put that dress on.\" My sister found the right dress just like that. So I know it can happen. But it's grueling. IS: Wait, so your mom has two daughters getting married within months? KH: My poor mother is probably like, \"Why, God? Why?\" But I hired a planner. I want the day to be spectacular, but mostly I want it to be fun. And I don't want to freak out or stress. IS: Does your fianc\u00e9 have any particular opinions about your look? KH: Josh wouldn't mind if my hair was brown, if it was still long -- that's such a boy thing. IS: Would you ever wear a wig out? KH: I'd contemplate it, but I don't know if I actually have the courage to pull it off. I once wore a long hair-extension ponytail, and someone asked me if it was real, like I was one of those dolls when we were little, and the hair just cranks out. IS: How would you describe your skin? KH: My skin is sensitive, so everything bothers it. And I'm the jerk who keeps switching products and making it worse. IS: How do you treat a breakout? KH: I got a great product at Ona Spa called Sebuspot. I've tried so many that were disappointments, but maybe I stand too close to the mirror examining my pores. If I backed up, things might look fine. IS: What do you always carry in your bag? KH: Powder, because I get shiny. And lip balm, either the Smith's Rosebud Salve or C.O. Bigelow's Mentha Lip Shine in Black Cherry Soda from Bath & Body Works. It's shiny with a little shimmer and tastes so good. IS: An In Style.com reader wants to know how you maintain a healthy body image in Hollywood. KH: I train with Harley Pasternak. I love him with my whole soul and follow his 5-Factor diet. I first said, \"I'm never going to be -- nor do I want to be -- an uber-athletic girl.\" It's just not me and I don't have that kind of discipline. He said, \"I just want you to be healthy.\" A lot of what we focus on is posture. I slump into myself when I get stressed. If I were going to play an action hero, I'd have to get that look. But I'd never maintain it. For me it's never about achieving a look that's impossible. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Grey's Anatomy\" actress Katherine Heigl has own production company .\nStar of hit movie Knocked Up\" is getting married .\nDoesn't go without makeup for fear of ugly photographs .\nSays shopping for wedding dress is \"grueling\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California corrections officials released a startling new prison mug shot of Grammy-winning music legend Phil Spector, convicted last month of second-degree murder and serving 19 years to life in prison. Phil Spector's prison mug shot, taken June 5, shows him without a hairpiece. Spector, 69, is being held at North Kern State Prison, where he is being evaluated before receiving a permanent prison assignment, corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle said. The process could take up to 70 days. The mug shot, which shows a bald-pated Spector, was taken on June 5 as part of the routine intake process. California prison inmates are not permitted to wear wigs under Title 15, Article 5, Section 3062 of the state's prison regulations, which addresses inmate hygiene. Corrections officials also are concerned that wigs can be used to hide contraband. A judge in Los Angeles sentenced Spector last month to the maximum sentence for second-degree murder in the February 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector, 69, won't be eligible for parole until he is 88 years old. Clarkson, 40, was found dead, slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector's Alhambra mansion with a gunshot wound through the roof of her mouth. View a timeline of the case \u00bb . Spector's retrial began in October and ended in April. It took jurors 30 hours to convict him. His first murder trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial when the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction after 15 days of deliberations. Clarkson starred in the 1985 B-movie \"Barbarian Queen\" and appeared in many other films, including \"Deathstalker,\" \"Blind Date,\" \"Scarface,\" \"Fast Times at Ridgemont High\" and the spoof \"Amazon Women on the Moon.\" She was working as a VIP hostess at Hollywood's House of Blues at the time of her death. At both trials, Spector's attorneys argued Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup and her flagging Hollywood career. They said she grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and killed herself while at Spector's home. But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace. Five women took the stand and testified he threatened them with firearms. His driver testified he heard a loud noise and saw Spector leave the home, pistol in hand, saying, \"I think I killed somebody.\" Spector's professional trademark was the \"Wall of Sound,\" the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label, named for Spector and his business partner, Lester Sill, in the early 1960s. CNN's Alan Duke contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Newly released photo taken at state prison intake center on June 5 .\nMusic producer serving 19 years to life for 2003 slaying of Lana Clarkson .\nActress was found shot dead in foyer of Spector's California mansion .\nJury deadlocked at first trial, Spector convicted of second-degree murder at retrial ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Neil Armstrong took one small step onto the moon in 1969, it seemed only a matter of time before the advent of thriving space colonies and summer vacations on distant planets. But after an initial flurry of moon landings, manned lunar expeditions dwindled: the last time an astronaut left his footprints on the moon was in 1972. Plants such as lettuce, peppers and tomatoes will be on the menu at Moon Base One. Then, in January 2004, President Bush announced NASA's intention to return humans to the moon by 2020, and in 2006, NASA announced plans to set up a manned lunar outpost by 2024, with the European and Russian Space Agencies now planning bases of their own. After years in limbo, the dream of living in space is alive once more. Sustaining long-term space habitation presents space agencies with a whole new set of technological and logistical challenges. Currently, the International Space Station supports three astronauts in a low Earth orbit, with food supplied periodically by space shuttle. But, just as home cooking is cheaper than getting takeout, when it comes to more permanent settlements, this kind of supply voyages would be prohibitively expensive: we will need to grow our own food in space. Raymond Wheeler, a plant physiologist at Kennedy Space Center, explained to CNN, \"In the near term it's not needed, for example on the space station and initial short sorties to the moon, but as you go further and stay longer, regenerative systems become much more cost effective.\" Wheeler sees this development of space farming as a gradual process in which space outposts become increasingly self-sufficient. \"It would probably be evolutionary,\" he said. \"The first human missions to Mars might set out with everything stowed, but they might set up the beginnings of an in-situ production system -- maybe a plant chamber -- that you could use to grow perishable foods. You wouldn't be providing everything, but in subsequent missions if you returned there you could expand the infrastructure.\" Of course, this means growing plants in conditions very different from those on Earth. Yet research has shown that plants are surprisingly adaptable. For example, while plants normally use gravity to direct the growth of their stems and roots, in low gravity conditions they can use light to orient themselves. And research suggests that plants can grow well even at very low atmospheric pressures. That reduces the leakage of oxygen and carbon dioxide from their growth chamber out into space, but crucially, it also reduces the structural requirements of a \"space greenhouse,\" meaning less construction material needs to be shipped into orbit. Nor is the absence of soil a problem. Many supermarket vegetables are already grown hydroponically in nutrient-enriched water, and research indicates this technique could work well in space. Some have even suggested the loose rock regolith on the surface of the moon or Mars as a growing medium, although additional minerals would need to be brought from Earth. So what's on the menu at Moon Base One? Well, initial crops would need to be small in stature and grow well in controlled environments with artificial light. Plants such as peppers and tomatoes are already extensively grown hydroponically, while lettuce, with its short lifecycle, would yield fast returns for pioneering space colonists. But again, Wheeler sees the choice of crops as part of an evolutionary process. He tells CNN, \"The first things you might grow would be perishable foods -- maybe vegetables or fruits -- things that don't keep very well if you're on a journey to Mars. Even though you're not providing a lot of calories, these things could have a strong impact in terms of adding color, flavor and texture to the diet.\" \"The other reason for considering freshly consumed foods on early missions is that they don't require any processing,\" he continued. \"If you were to grow grains, like wheat, you'd have to thresh the seed out of the head, then clean it and mill it to make flour. Staple crops like wheat, soy bean, rice and potato -- things that would provide carbohydrates, protein and fat -- they're the final end point.\" Crops need a sheltered environment, protected from the extreme temperatures and frightening levels of radiation found on the moon's surface, with water, carbon dioxide and light. Researchers at the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC), in collaboration with Sadler Machine Company (SMC), have come up with one solution: to house plants and astronauts in an inflatable habitat. They are working on a full-scale prototype Mars Inflatable Greenhouse. Space-worthy inflatable structures have been around since the 1960s and are lightweight, compact in transit and easy to assemble on landing. But what's novel about the CEAC design is that it incorporates a bio-regenerative life-support system -- the kind of technology that could one day not only feed an outpost on the moon or Mars, but also provide it with oxygen and recycle its water. Gene Giacomelli, Director of CEAC, told CNN, \"If people get to Mars we want to be able to feed them, but maybe even more importantly revitalize the atmosphere -- allow the plants to consume the carbon dioxide as they do so well here on Earth, and provide oxygen.\" In the prototype designed by Phil Sadler (SMC) and evaluated by Giacomelli and graduate student Lane Patterson, plants are grown hydroponically. As water evaporates from their leaves, air moisture is condensed and re-used for irrigation. The inedible bits of plants, the stems and leaves, are fed into a composter that breaks down the biomass, releasing carbon dioxide that can be re-used by growing plants. In a working moon base, waste water from the astronauts' showers and laundry could also go into the composter, where it would be cleaned by microbes and then used in the plants' hydroponic system, before being condensed and re-used by the astronauts once again. The CEAC team intends to test the finished prototype in Antarctica, a harsh and remote environment that provides a realistic analog of conditions on the moon. The team has already provided a food growth chamber for the Amundsen-Scott South-Pole Station and the time Sadler and Patterson have spent there has provided a unique insight into some of the other benefits that bio-regenerative life support might provide for inhabitants of a space base. \"It's not just oxygen, fresh water and food that it provides, but it's also the green, living plants that psychologically become so important to people living and working in a confined, harsh, black and white space at the South Pole or in a moon or Mars base,\" says Giacomelli. Patterson adds, \"Bright lights, high humidity, green plants and the fragrance as well -- these are things that are missing in that environment. Those things shouldn't be underestimated.\" The CEAC project offers a tantalizing glimpse of the kind of habitat that may house settlers in the space colonies of the future. And perhaps one day, as you relax in your inflatable villa by the Sea of Tranquility, plants will provide much more than just your dinner. ................................................................................................................... Do you think farming on the moon will be a reality by 2024? Should man be developing stations on the moon? Send us your thoughts by using the \"Sound Off\" below.","highlights":"NASA plans lunar outpost by 2024 .\nLong-term space habitation will require space farming .\nCEAC and SMC working on prototype Mars Inflatable Greenhouse .\nGreenhouse could provide food, oxygen and recycle water ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Lorna Irungu sits on a hospital bed looking extremely frail. She has lupus and her kidneys continue to fail. Lorna Irungu, 35, had to travel from Kenya to India to receive her third kidney transplant. \"At some point I just wanted it to be over,\" said Irungu, 35. \"I was just tired. I was really, really tired of the fighting, of the struggling, of being sick.\" But Irungu did decide to fight, with the help of a very giving family. Three times she has needed a kidney transplant, and three times her family members insisted on donating. First her father donated, then her sister, and then her brother. Irungu says what she couldn't find was a doctor who would do the tricky third transplant in her own country of Kenya. When she checked in neighboring countries, the cost was impossibly high. Irungu, who's single and has no children, has no insurance. So the former television host was paying for the surgery and medicines out of her own pocket. \"When we looked at the price of getting things done in South Africa. I'm like, 'We're never gonna get there.' It's $45,000. Where do I even begin?\" The cost of a kidney transplant in the United States can be $25,000 to $150,000, also out of Irungu's price range. Watch more on Lorna Irungu's odyssey \u00bb . So she began looking elsewhere, sending out e-mails and making phone calls to hospitals in other countries. Doctors at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, India, were the only ones who responded to her somewhat complicated case. Dr. Vijay Kher, the hospital's director of nephrology, first talked to Irungu by phone. \"When she called me from Kenya, she was very sick,\" Kher said. \"She had uncontrolled blood pressures, and she was having fever. She had been in ICU for about three weeks.\" But Irungu made it to India. Once her condition was stabilized, doctors performed the third transplant, which is a rare operation in India. Of the 1,500 kidney transplants performed at Fortis Hospital, doctors remember having done only two in which the patient was having a third transplant. Doctors had to remove one of the previously transplanted kidneys to make room for the new kidney, Kher said. Doctors said it was unnecessary to remove the three other kidneys because they were not causing harm and they didn't want to subject her to more surgery than was necessary. Even with the complications that can arise during a third transplant, the cost of it and the weeklong hospital stay in India came to about $8,000. It's a fraction of the price she was quoted elsewhere, as is the cost of the post-transplant medication. \"This last surgery, I keep saying, has been remarkable.\" Irungu said. \"I haven't felt as good post transplant as I did this time around.\" After three months in India, Irungu is leaving with four kidneys inside her. Irungu says for now the newly transplanted kidney seems to be working great. \"From my experience, the cost here and the quality of care is worth it,\" Irungu said. \"It's worth it because instead of you sitting wherever you are, thinking, 'This is the end for me,' or just getting depressed or getting into this struggle, (you can) just pack up and go.\"","highlights":"Woman travels from Kenya to India for a tricky third kidney transplant .\nLorna Irungu suffers from lupus and already has received two previous transplants .\nOne kidney was removed during the surgery to make room for the new kidney .\nIrungu now has four kidneys, but only one works properly ."} -{"article":"GENEVA, Alabama (CNN) -- The gunman who authorities said launched a shooting rampage over three south Alabama towns, slaying 10 people in his path before killing himself, was once a police officer in Samson, the small town hit hardest by the deadliest crime in the state's history. Authorities identified the shooter, seen in a yearbook photo, as Michael McLendon, 28, of Kinston, Alabama. Authorities identified the shooter as Michael McLendon, 28, of Kinston, Alabama, in Coffee County. Speaking at several news conferences on Wednesday, authorities also released a detailed timeline of the rampage -- which lasted less than an hour -- and identified the victims. Investigators late Wednesday said they were closer to finding a motive behind why McLendon would fatally shoot his mother in his hometown of Kinston before moving on to open fire in Samson and then Geneva. \"Evidence collected does indicate his reasons -- what the reason are I can't get into right now,\" said Lt. Barry Tucker of the Alabama Bureau of Investigations. \"He was somewhat depressed about job issues, but the information we have does not specify [the motive] was job-related.\" Coffee County District Attorney Gary McAliley told the newspaper in nearby Dothan that McLendon likely planned the rampage for a while. He said investigators have found dozens of ammunition boxes, military and survival gear and medical supplies at McLendon's Kinston home. The Alabama Bureau of Investigation said authorities recovered a phone list and a notebook from the home, \"but there is no evidence that indicates a hit list of any kind.\" Tucker said the notebook contained, \"a couple of pages of notes, people he worked with, places he worked -- it was over a year old.\" Asked whether the notes expressed grievances against others, Tucker said no. The assault Tuesday ended at the Reliable Metal Products plant in Geneva, 24 miles from Kinston. Police said McLendon engaged in a shootout before killing himself inside the building. McLendon shot and killed at least 10 people, including two children, and wounded at least four others, officials said. McLendon, who had no known criminal record before carrying out the rampage, worked briefly as a police officer in Samson, but failed to complete the \"required training\" at the police academy in Montgomery in 2003, according to Alabama State Trooper Capt. Marc McHenry. He \"didn't last a week and a half\" at the academy and received no firearms training there, Murphy said. \"We believe he fired in excess of 200 rounds during the assaults,\" Alabama State Police Cpl. Steve Jarrett said. See photos of the shooting scenes \u00bb . The rampage began Tuesday afternoon when McLendon shot and killed his mother before setting fire to the home he shared with her in Kinston, near the Alabama-Florida state line. He then headed to Samson, where he opened fire on his uncle's front porch as his uncle and other relatives stood outside with the neighbors from across the street. Mayor: \"Shock and disbelief\" \u00bb . Those neighbors happened to be the family of Geneva County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers, who was later involved in a shoot-out with the gunman, unaware that McLendon had shot and killed his wife and young daughter and critically injured his nearly 4-month-old baby, Ella Kay. A family friend found the couple's 4-year-old son hiding in the Myers' home after the shooting. Five people, including Myers' wife, Andrea, and their 1\u00bd-year-old daughter, Corinne Gracy, were killed on the porch. McLendon then opened fire on his grandmother, who was standing in the doorway of her home next door. Watch deputy ask for prayers for wounded daughter \u00bb . Alina Knowles was in her home in Samson when she heard the gunman fire on the porch so many times that it sounded like a horror film. After the shooting stopped, Knowles saw the gunman flee the area and drive around the block. Watch the aftermath of the shooting spree \u00bb . Knowles, a certified nurse assistant, looked around for survivors. She saw members of Myers' family dead on the porch, but nobody's chest was moving to signal they were alive. Then she heard Myers' baby girl, Ella Kay, crying. \"[I] picked her up, came between the two vehicles,\" she said. \"Saw him coming up the road, ducked so he wouldn't see me, as he was coming up this way I ducked, was still ducking and moving around their van trying to keep him from seeing me with that baby.\" Knowles said she knew if she wasn't careful, the gunman would target her. \"I would have been dead,\" she said. \"I would have been on that ground there.\" Knowles was able to get the deputy's child and herself to safety. But the horror of the events sticks with her. \"I was scared,\" she said. \"The scene I saw, there was no words for it. None at all. There is no describing what I saw.\" McLendon then shot and killed two bystanders in Samson before heading to Reliable Metal Products. There, he exchanged fire with Myers and another officer in the parking lot before entering the building, where he shot and killed himself. \"We truly are shocked at this,\" said Col. Christopher Murphy, the director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety. \"This event formed the single deadliest crime recorded in Alabama.\" Watch a timeline of the shootings \u00bb . Samson Mayor Clay King said he knew McLendon and all of the victims in the small southern Alabama town. Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper talk about the investigation \u00bb . \"I coached him in both T-ball and Little League baseball along with my two sons,\" he said of McLendon. McLendon worked nearly two years at food manufacturer and distributor Kelley Foods in Elba, about 25 miles north of Samson. He quit his job last week, the company said. The company didn't specify what his position was, but said he was a \"reliable team leader\" who was well-liked. \"I can't describe what happened, why it happened,\" Geneva County Sheriff Greg Ward told CNN affiliate WTVY. \"It's just a sad day for Geneva County.\" Watch Sheriff Ward talk about the shootings \u00bb . \"He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business,\" said Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith. Smith represents Geneva County, where all but one of the victims were killed. Smith said she had been briefed about the incident by state and local law enforcement. Watch CNN's Sean Callebs say who was shot first \u00bb . Another mass killing occurred in southern Alabama in 2002, when Westley Devon Harris gunned down six members of his 16-year-old girlfriend's family at their farm in Luverne. Harris was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty in 2005. CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Officials say suspect was depressed about job issues .\nPolice say gunman \"fired in excess of 200 rounds\" during the assaults .\nShooter trained briefly at state police academy but \"didn't last,\" officials say .\nPolice say Michael McLendon killed his mom, grandparents, aunt, uncle ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Alternative treatments are as varied as the regions of the world they come from. And while they attract skepticism from some Western medical practitioners, they are an undeniable part of global health. Shark cartilage is a popular dish in Japan where it is regarded as having health benefits. In parts of Asia and Africa, 80 percent of the population depend on these treatments as their primary form of healthcare. Shark fin has long been used in traditional Asian medicine. Shark fin soup is regarded as a tonic that promotes general well-being, and shark fin has even been claimed to have anti-cancer properties. Shark fins are mainly composed of cartilage, a type of connective tissue found in the skeletal systems of many animals. In Japan, they are sold by herbalists as a powder, in tablet form or as whole fins. While shark fin has been used for centuries in Asia, in recent years it has become more popular in the West. A book called \"Sharks Don't Get Cancer,\" published in 1992, popularized the idea of shark fin as an alternative cancer treatment in the West, and powdered shark fin is now sold as dietary supplement. But scientific evidence doesn't support the idea. A 2000 report by researchers at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington D.C. said more than 40 tumors had been documented in sharks, skates and rays. Clinical studies on cancer patients, including a 1998 study by the Independent Cancer Treatment Research Foundation in Illinois, haven't shown cartilage powders to have any anti-cancer benefits. Cancer Research UK, an independent cancer-research organization, states \"We don't recommend alternative therapies such as shark cartilage, as there is no scientific or medical evidence to back up the claims made for these 'treatments'.\" The use of shark fins has also been criticized by environmentalists who say the practice is threatening shark populations. In addition, environmental groups say that fins are often cut off live sharks at sea, with the bodies thrown back in the sea to drown, a controversial practiced know as \"finning.\" The ancient art of herbal healing also remains highly popular in Africa. In South Africa, the name given to the practice is muti. In Johannesburg's Faraday market muti practitioners sell wares that are popular with locals and tourists alike. Illnesses are diagnosed by \"sangomas,\" who employ techniques including communicating with the spirits of ancestors. \"Sangomas\" then refer their patients to \"inyangas,\" who supply muti treatments. \"Inyangas\" make use of South Africa's diverse flora and fauna, selling treatments made from herbs and animal parts. Roots, bark and leaves are all used to prepare infusions that are said to cure ailments ranging from headaches to skin rashes. Other muti medicines deal with psychological conditions, curing nightmares, bringing good luck and warding off evil spells. Acupuncture is one of the most widespread of all traditional treatments. An ancient Chinese healing technique thought to date back at least 2,000 years, acupuncture is now widely practiced alongside modern medicine in the East and West alike. Traditional acupuncture works on the idea that energy, known as \"qi,\" flows along pathways in the body, called meridians. According to acupuncture theory, if these meridians become blocked, \"qi\" cannot flow freely and illness can result. Diagnosis of ailments is carried out by, among other things, feeling a patient's pulse and inspecting their tongue. Marian Rose of the British Acupuncture Council told CNN that an important part of the diagnosis process involves asking patients a range of questions about their well-being, including their digestion, sleep patterns, and health history. Treatment involves inserting fine acupuncture needles at critical points in the body in order to stimulate the flow of \"qi,\" described by Rose as \"the body's motivating energy.\" Traditionally, acupuncture can be used to treat headaches, chronic pain, asthma, depression, addiction, and problems with the digestive system. Acupuncture has been the subject of extensive research and in the West the practice has been studied in terms of modern medical knowledge. Dr Mike Cummings is the medical director of the British Medical Acupuncture Association, which promotes Western medical acupuncture. He told CNN that research has shown acupuncture to be effective at treating pain in particular. Cummings says that it is believed that when an acupuncture needle is inserted into a muscle, it stimulates nerves. That affects the spinal gate, where sensory input is modulated, reducing activity in pain pathways. Whether backed by medical science or simply by years of use, traditional treatments remain popular and as more research is carried out, some may even come to complement modern medicine.","highlights":"Even in the era of modern medicine, traditional treatments are still widespread .\nIn Japan, shark fin is sold by herbalists, and is believed to promote well-being .\nMuti practitioners sell their wares in Johannesburg's Faraday market .\nAcupuncture has spread all over the world from its roots in ancient China ."} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- A 17-year-old said Tuesday he is \"blessed\" that prosecutors dropped a murder charge against him in the beating death last month of a Chicago honors student. Derrion Albert, 16, was beaten to death September 24. His death was captured on video. \"I'm just happy to be out,\" Eugene Bailey said, a day after authorities announced they were dismissing the charge against him in the September 24 death of Derrion Albert. Police said Albert, a 16-year-old honors student, was an innocent bystander who ended up in the middle of a street fight between two factions of students from Christian Fenger Academy High School. His beating death was captured on video, which shows him being hit by a person wielding a piece of a railroad tie. Bailey said he considered Albert a \"good friend\" and approached police offering to help in their investigation. When police told him he appeared on the video, he said, he told them, \"No, that can't be me.\" Authorities searched his mother's home and found he did not own clothing and shoes like that seen on the participant thought to be him, he said. \"I'm just blessed to have my freedom,\" he said, adding that what happened to Albert \"shouldn't happen to anyone.\" Cook County prosecutors issued a statement Monday saying, \"While the charge against Bailey was brought in good faith based on witness accounts and identifications, additional information has developed during the ongoing investigation that warranted dismissal of the murder charge against Bailey at this time.\" \"I was kind of overwhelmed,\" said Bailey's mother, Ava Greyer. \"They wouldn't listen to me.\" She said she received an eviction notice after her son's arrest, but has since received a letter of apology. She said she didn't think that was right, however: \"You are innocent until proven guilty.\" \"I didn't raise no murderer,\" she said. \"He didn't murder nobody.\" \"We all talk about what is what out here and point fingers at one another. ... These kids need something to do,\" Greyer said. \"It's not gang-related. They get out of school -- once they're in school it's cool. Once they get out of school, the school says 'Forget 'em.' That's wrong. Get them some after-schooling programs, some recreation centers 20 hours a week.\" She said, \"That was sad, that was wrong what happened to Derrion. I wish that upon no one. But at the same time, we need to sweep around our doorsteps and see what we can do as a community to keep this from happening to somebody else's child.\" Prosecutors said that when school let out on September 24, Albert was on his way to a bus stop when two groups of students converged on the street and began fighting. Albert was approached by two members of one faction and struck in the head with a long piece of a wooden railroad tie, and then punched in the face, Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutors, has said. After being knocked out for a brief period, Albert regained consciousness and tried to move from the fight, but was then attacked by members of the opposing faction, Simonton said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Albert's death remains under investigation, prosecutors said Monday. Three other individuals still face murder charges: Silvanus Shannon, 19, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Riley, 18. All three appeared in court for a preliminary hearing Monday, but their cases were continued to Friday. Albert's death prompted President Obama, a former Chicago resident and Illinois senator, to send Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder to Chicago earlier this month. The two met with the city's mayor and community leaders to discuss possible remedies for violent youth crime. Albert's death was not an isolated incident: More than 30 youths suffered violent deaths in Chicago last year. \"We shouldn't have to worry about walking down the streets,\" Bailey said. \"We all live amongst each other.\"","highlights":"Eugene Bailey, 17, freed of charge in Derrion Albert's beating death .\nBailey says he was Albert's friend, approached police with offer of help .\nPolice say Albert was bystander who was caught in middle of gang fight .\nBeating was videotaped and police thought Bailey was in video ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The global economic crisis has caused a spike in world hunger that has left more than a billion undernourished, United Nations agencies said in a new report. The report says the stabilization of financial markets has meant less investment in agriculture, food distribution. \"It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry,\" said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme. \"At a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory.\" The report by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization was released Wednesday, ahead of World Food Day on Friday. Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries, according to the report. An estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific. An additional 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa while 95 million come from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Near East and North Africa. The final 15 million live in developed nations. Should developed economies be doing more to eradicate hunger, poverty? The number of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold and governments pumped resources into stabilizing financial markets. The move meant smaller investments in agriculture and food distribution. \"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis, and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty,\" said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO. \"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable.\" The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises. \"We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs -- we just need the resources and the international commitment to do the job,\" Sheeran said.","highlights":"World Food Programme: One in six of world's population is now going hungry .\nNearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries .\nNumber of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold, report says .\nCalls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The most eagerly anticipated animated film this year hits big screens this weekend, as \"The Simpsons Movie\" opens worldwide. The Screening Room spoke to creator Matt Groening and writer Al Jean in London about everyone's favorite two-dimensional yellow family. Simpsons supremo Matt Groening with his creations at the film's premiere in Springfield, Vermont . Matt Groening told the Screening Room that fans had driven the demand for the movie. \"We've had fans clamoring for a movie for the past 18 years,\" he said. The film has taken four years to come to fruition, as writer Al Jean explained. \"What really held us up for a long time was to have enough people to do the show and the movie,\" he said. \"We talked for a while about doing the movie after the show is done, but the show is never done! So it really started in earnest in 2003, when we started working on this story that became the movie.\" Technology has also played its part. Jean continued, \"The technology to do this film really wasn't even around five years ago. For example, there was this joke I once pitched and David Silverman, the director, started drawing and as I was pitching it, it went into the film and it was cut a day later. To go from pitch to cut in two days is pretty impressive.\" Its creators hope that \"The Simpsons Movie\" will both satisfy long-term fans and bring Homer and Marge's family to a new audience. Groening told the Screening Room, \"This movie is designed to both honor the people who have loved the show all this time, so there's lots of little details for them in the movie, little characters and stuff who they know and love, but we also want people who don't know the family to not be completely confused. It is a complete movie experience, but again, we have a lot of little details that only the really, true die-hard fans are going to get.\" And fans can expect to be entertained by plenty of cartoon mishaps. Groening said, \"When you see somebody fall off the roof in a live-action film, it's funny -- we all love it. But it's not as funny as when Homer falls off the roof. I don't know what that says about humanity, but we do like to see cartoon characters hurt themselves and there's quite a bit of that.\" But how have Springfield's finest led the field for so long? Groening believes that a large part of the Simpsons' success is down to the traditional animated techniques used to create it -- and that its hand-drawn charm puts the movie ahead of its CGI rivals. He told CNN, \"The difference between our film and these other films is that we have no penguins, okay? So that's the big difference. (Although we do have one penguin.) \"But the other thing is, our film is done the old fashioned way. It's got a lot of errors and flaws in it. These computer-animated films -- and I love them -- are perfect. They're spooky, they're so good. Ours is a way for us to honor the art of traditional animation.\" Al Jean thinks that the series' success is also down to its wide appeal. He says, \"I have a two year old and she loves the Simpsons already, just because of the way it looks and the family. And then on the other hand, we do satirical references that only an adult would get.\" A large part of the appeal of \"The Simpsons\" comes from its ability to portray the more touching moments in family life, like Jean's favorite moment in the movie. \"It's a scene where Bart is really mad at his father,\" he told CNN. \"He's sitting in a tree outside the Simpson house at night. He looks over and sees the Flanders house and thinks how wonderful it would be if he lived there. It's just really sweet: there's something really warm about that scene.\" Groening, who has been meeting fans worldwide while promoting the movie, said that the Simpsons phenomenon has excelled his wildest dreams. \"It's not just the numbers,\" he told CNN. \"The numbers are good, but it's the intensity and the tattoos. The tattoos are freaky. You know? And it's not all just Bart and Homer. You'd think it would be just Homer. I talked to this one guy and he had Millhouse, and I said, 'Oh my god, Millhouse!' and he said, 'Yeah, everybody gets Bart.'\" While Groening never expected the series to run for so long, he told the Screening Room he has no plans to quit while it's ahead. \"The answer is, 'No end in sight! No end in sight!'\" he said. \"We're having fun, we hope the audience has fun, and as long as that's true, we'll continue doing the show.\" Jean believes the show has proved it has longevity. \"I'm sure [it], like Mickey Mouse, will live on and on,\" he said. And he also hopes the Simpsons' success will continue. \"In terms of new episodes, we're doing another season after the movie comes out for sure, and then the casts' contracts expire, but I'd love to get another three seasons and maybe another movie,\" he said. But what is the legacy of this much-loved yellow family? Matt Groening sees the film as the culmination of two decades of hard graft. He says, \"I want to make sure that everyone who's ever worked on this show is proud of their work on this movie, so this rewards the writers, the animators, the actors. It's basically a celebration of twenty years of The Simpsons.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Simpsons creator Matt Groening: Movie is culmination of 20 years' hard work .\nWriter Al Jean says success is down to show's universal appeal .\nMovie uses traditional hand-drawn animation techniques ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Flowers arrived at Capt. Marissa Alexander's office at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on June 3, 2005. Arlington's Section 60 is the final resting place for many casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her husband, Staff Sgt. Leroy Alexander, was half a world away fighting with the Special Forces in Afghanistan, but he had found a way to send a floral arrangement to his wife, who was five months pregnant with twins. \"He called me and asked me what building I worked in. He said he had to update some records,\" Alexander said. The flowers lifted her spirits. But a few hours later, her emotions would be thrown into a tailspin. Alexander saw two Army officers in dress uniforms knock on her front door. One of the officers started to talk: \"We regret to inform you...\" If he said any more, Alexander doesn't remember. \"The next memory I have is in my kitchen, banging on the floor. I just couldn't believe it,\" she said. The good feelings from flowers delivered a few hours before were gone, replaced by shock, pain and mourning. A roadside bomb had made her a widow. Staff Sgt. Alexander now lies in Arlington National Cemetery's Section 60, where 500 soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. For years Section 60 has been the one of busiest parts of the cemetery. Every day new burials bring precision marches, the somber tones of taps and the nerve-rattling three-gun salutes. Watch how widows connect at Section 60 \u00bb . Then there are family and friends who come to the graves to make an emotional connection to their lost loved ones. Memorial Day weekend brings even more activity and more visitors. Adults, even some uniformed generals, walk slowly between the rows and rows of headstones, looking for a familiar name. But small children often seem to find the cemetery a place to explore, even play. Their smiles and curiosity remind grown-ups that even in a place synonymous with death, life goes on. A sense of community has emerged in Section 60. \"I've come here at times and I've met people who were paying remembrances to their loved ones. You become friendly,\" Capt. Alexander said. \"You see each other sometimes and you make a friendship because you know that your loved ones died for the same cause.\" Angie Capra's husband is buried a few yards from Leroy Alexander. Air Force Tech Sgt. Anthony Capra was an explosive ordnance disposal expert, killed trying disarm a bomb in Iraq. \"Other widows will come by and put something on there for me if they don't see me. They'll put down flowers. It's kind of a community,\" Capra said. More than flowers adorn the graves in Section 60. Visitors of all faiths have picked up the ancient Jewish tradition of leaving a small stone on the headstones to show that a visitor had been to the grave. In most cases these are pebbles found near the grave. But some people have taken to leaving colored glass beads or elaborately painted stones with shamrocks or words like \"hero.\" View images from Section 60 \u00bb . Capra recently found a small Yoda figure on her husband's grave. She doesn't know who left it, but it must have been a friend, because her husband loved \"Star Wars.\" \"We never know who puts stuff\" on the headstone, she said. Some mementos leave one to wonder about the story behind them. Like the headstone topped by a tiny bottle of Tabasco hot sauce. Or a set of dog tags with a name that didn't match the name on the headstone. Watch how friends say goodbye to a fallen soldier \u00bb . There is another topped by a small Lego toy, perhaps left by a child whose father died in a far-off land before they even knew each other. Or the grave adorned with an empty bottle of Bud Light, a rubber duck and a candle. Nearby an empty Wild Turkey bottle is the lone addition to the grave of a soldier who died in a country where drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden. Capra has found a variety of items on Tony's headstone. \"Coins, lots of rocks, candy. My husband was a candy freak,\" Capra said. \"There was a cross. A little necklace, Mardi Gras beads during Mardi Gras season. Anything they have they'll put on top to show that they are thinking about them at the time.\" Alexander seems to draw strength from the items she finds. \"Someone came and did a picture of Lee, and it was a hand-drawn picture. I thought that was very interesting,\" she said. \"People who haven't been seen in years will leave a note of some sort. It's nice to know that you've been remembered after all of this time. To know that we have friends who still love and support us, that is just wonderful.\" Section 60 has been called the \"saddest acre in America,\" and without a doubt sadness abounds. But so do comfort, support and even an occasional smile.","highlights":"National cemetery's Section 60 holds dead from Iraq, Afghanistan wars .\nVisitors take up Jewish tradition of leaving stones on grave markers .\nSome mourners leave tokens such as toys, empty liquor bottles .\nFamilies of fallen service members meet at cemetery, form bonds ."} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A black politician campaigning in eastern Germany has become the victim of a racist campaign by a far-right party. Zeca Schall says he is not thinking of leaving Germany despite the threats. The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) says it is trying to persuade Zeca Schall, a German citizen who came from Angola 21 years ago, to leave the country. Schall is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, the party led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and has been named as a CDU expert for the integration of minorities. The NPD's Web site calls Schall the CDU's \"quota negro\" and urges him to leave the country. \"The CDU seems to be realizing that even after years of re-education, negroes cannot be accepted as permanent guests in our state,\" said the NPD, which goes by its German initials. Watch more about the campaign against Schall \u00bb . Schall told CNN he had never before been subjected to such a level of racial hatred. \"I am shocked,\" he said Thursday at a campaign event in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. \"I simply cannot believe that people would do this to fellow humans.\" Schall, who appears on a CDU election poster, said he is scared. \"I have police patrolling at my house day and night, and some officers stay in my house overnight,\" he said. But Schall said he is not thinking of leaving Germany and the CDU said he has the party's full support. Schall and the CDU said they have filed a lawsuit against the NPD. The situation escalated Wednesday when the NPD's national leadership held a rally in Schall's adopted hometown of Hildburghausen. Party Chairman Udo Voigt tried to speak with Schall \"and persuade Mr. Schall that he is needed more in Angola than in Germany,\" the NPD said in a news release. Police sent to protect Schall stopped the NPD's representatives from accessing Schall's premises. He is campaigning for the CDU for a state election in Thuringia, which is in the former communist East Germany. Right-wing extremism is generally a bigger problem in eastern Germany than in the west of the country, and citizens of Hildburghausen told CNN that, though most people support the politician, fascism is a problem in the area. \"Of course we have a base of right-wingers here,\" a passer-by said at the market in the town's center. But most of those questioned by CNN denounced the campaign against Schall and said he is a respected member of the community. \"I am not only a member of the CDU, I am also a voluntary firefighter at the local department,\" Schall said. Frank Schwerdt, the NPD's leader in Erfurt, tried to downplay the events. \"This is not a personal campaign against Mr. Schall,\" Schwerdt said. \"We simply feel that many citizens don't want foreigners to have a say in our politics.\" The NPD has been under surveillance by Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution for alleged contacts with illegal neo-Nazi groups. However, past efforts to ban the party have failed on technical grounds. The NPD denies ties to illegal groups. But members of the Christian Democratic Union told CNN that, since the racist campaign started against Schall, he has received several death threats and the party will no longer allow him to do media interviews because of the risks. At Thursday's campaign event in central Erfurt, increased police presence was noticeable and CDU members said plainclothes officers had been dispatched among the crowd.","highlights":"National Democratic Party of Germany trying to persuade Zeca Schall to leave country .\nSchall is a German citizen who came from Angola 21 years ago .\nSchall is a member of the ruling Christian Democratic Union .\nHas received death threats and his party will no longer allow him to do interviews ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With outrage mounting over AIG's $165 million in bonuses to executives, the president's chief economic adviser offered a new line of defense for the White House in an exclusive interview with CNN. Larry Summers said an AIG meltdown was too risky for the economy to push too hard on executive bonuses. Larry Summers suggested that if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had pushed the insurance giant too hard on the bonuses, AIG could have collapsed just like Lehman Brothers and sparked an even bigger crisis. \"Secretary Geithner has used all the legal authorities that are open to him to contain and limit the payment of bonuses,\" said Summers, chairman of the National Economic Council. \"What he did not do, and what would have been irresponsible to do, as outrageous as these payments are, would have been to put at risk the stability of the financial system. \"To have courted the kind of disaster that followed the decision to let Lehman Brothers simply collapse might have felt good briefly, but it would have touched the lives of a huge number of Americans who would have unnecessarily become unemployed or seen destruction of their lifetime savings.\" The collapse of the 158-year-old investment bank in September turned the U.S. crisis, based on the subprime loan debacle, into a global one, leading to credit freezes and plummeting markets nearly everywhere. Summers said Geithner was notified about the AIG bonuses last week. The secretary tried to stop them, Summers said, but ran up against a legal contract. \"Secretary Geithner courageously has gone after these bonuses and will continue to go after these bonuses in a very aggressive way, but we can't suspend the rule of law and we can't put the whole economy at risk,\" said Summers. Asked whether AIG could get more bailout funds down the road, Summers suggested the door is open to more taxpayer money, despite the bonus controversy. Watch senators' plan to retrieve money \u00bb . \"It is wrong to govern out of anger,\" said Summers. \"We have to recognize what we are angry about, do something about it. That's why we are focused on a new resolution regime as part of a sweeping overhaul of the financial system. \" ... But we can't let anger stop us from taking the steps that are necessary to maintain the stability of the financial system, keep credit flowing.\" Watch tempers rise over bonuses \u00bb . Summers said President Obama's entire economic team is working hard to mitigate the problems caused by bank failures, bailouts and credit freezes and boost the country's economy. \"There's one lesson of the history of financial crisis that no one can argue with, and that is that they all end, and this one will, too,\" he said. \"And if we are able to maintain the right policies, we'll bring forward the day when it ends, and -- probably even more important -- we'll have a sounder stronger economic expansion at the end of it.\" The former treasury secretary is not quite as bullish about a turnaround, however, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who predicted the recession may be over by the end of 2009. Asked about Bernanke's prediction, Summers said he was upbeat about some aspects of the economy -- such as a 22 percent spike in housing starts and recent upticks in the stock market -- but said he was cautious about making any grand pronouncements. Summers told CNN that while he's confident of a turnaround, \"just what day the turn will come isn't something that I would dare to forecast.\" \"Something that the president has made clear to us is his approach and the approach he wants us to take is a recognition that we don't panic when there's a bad number, bad day on the markets, and we don't become euphoric when there's a good day in the markets, or a good number,\" Summers said. Asked specifically about Bernanke's prediction on CBS' \"60 Minutes\" about the recession ending this year and 2010 potentially being a year of recovery, Summers demurred. \"We always are at pains to recognize when we talk to the president that economic forecasting is the most imperfect of sciences,\" said Summers. \"Many people would say it wasn't a science at all. We stress the uncertainties in this situation.\"","highlights":"Larry Summers is President Obama's chief economic adviser .\nHe says contracts legally tied hands of Treasury secretary to deal with AIG bonuses .\nSummers: Pushing AIG too hard could have led to Lehman Brothers-style collapse .\n\"We can't put the whole economy at risk\" because we're angry, he cautions ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson knew \"exactly how his fate would be played out\" and feared his death would echo that of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley wrote in an online blog posted Friday morning. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley in 1994. Presley says, \"I loved him very much\" and believes he loved her. Presley -- the daughter of Elvis, the \"King of Rock,\" and the ex-wife of Jackson, the \"King of Pop\" -- wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted \"to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.\" Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog. She said her short marriage to Jackson -- from May 1994 until January 1996 -- \"was not 'a sham' as is being reported in the press,\" but she divorced him because she was \"in over my head in trying\" to save Jackson \"from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" Jackson talked with her about his death during \"a deep conversation\" 14 years ago about \"the circumstances of my father's death.\" Watch more from Presley on Jackson \u00bb . \"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,' \" Presley wrote. \"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.\" That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson's death Thursday, she said. \"I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,\" she wrote. \"A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.\" Elvis Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem. \"As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977, happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted,\" she wrote. \"I wanted to 'save him',\" she wrote. \"I wanted to save him from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" \"The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow,\" Presley wrote. Their marriage, which some suggested was only to help Jackson's image, was real, she said. \"It was an unusual relationship, yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a 'normal life' found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part,\" she wrote. \"Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.\" Presley called Jackson \"an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.\" \"When he used it for something good, it was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad,\" she wrote. Presley's blog entry ended with a thank you to those who would read it. \"I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.\" Presley's blog can be found online at http:\/\/bit.ly\/5wR7p .","highlights":"Lisa-Marie Presley, Jackson were married from 1994 to 1996 .\nShe says Jackson feared he would die like her father, Elvis Presley .\nPresley says their marriage was not \"a sham\" as press has said .\n\"I wanted to save him from the inevitable,\" she says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedy is hard; dying is easy. Any stand-up will tell you that. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen play comedians in \"Funny People.\" Let's have a hand, then, for Judd Apatow. Hollywood's most successful contemporary comedy producer isn't resting on his laurels but continues to push toward risky subject matter: male sexual insecurity in \"The 40-Year-Old Virgin,\" unwanted pregnancy in \"Knocked Up\" -- and now the big C. No, not cancer -- though Adam Sandler's superstar comedian George Simmons is stricken with an appropriately eccentric form of leukemia. No, this latest film's true subject is Celebrity and the funny things it does to people. Apatow's most personal (and also most self-indulgent) film, \"Funny People,\" shuffles between three competitive Angelino roommates scrambling to grasp a rung on the showbiz ladder (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman), Simmons' multimillion-dollar Malibu mansion and the L.A. comedy clubs that sometimes bridge the gap between anonymity and fame. Apatow and Sandler know these worlds well enough. The movie begins, in fact, with old home video footage of young Adam goofing off, making prank phone calls while his roommate Judd sniggers behind the camera. It's one of the few times we see Sandler really having fun and cutting loose. This is mostly a restrained, subdued and admirably unsentimental performance. It feels natural that Simmons -- faced with his dire prognosis -- should return to the comedy circuit to wrestle with his imminent extinction before a roomful of strangers, even as he decides to keep his condition a secret from everyone around him. It's actually not so hard in his case because he doesn't have any real friends, only \"showbiz friends.\" The exception is Ira Wright (Rogen), a struggling young comic who lucks into a job as his hero's joke writer slash personal assistant. Simmons is by turns demanding, generous, friendly and abusive, and Ira couldn't be happier. The cross-currents are intriguing: He's getting his first taste of the high life, just as George is trying to savor his last days by reliving his first steps on the circuit. True to form, Apatow negotiates the perilous terrain of existential doubt with his fall-back weapon of choice, the penis joke. Some of these are choice (Ira's real last name is \"Wiener,\" pronounced \"Whiner\"), but many, many more feel flabby and redundant. There's even an Andy Dick joke, in the form of Andy Dick himself -- one of several celebrity cameos, the oddest of which is surely Eminem, wondering aloud if George wouldn't be better off dead. We must be approaching the 80-minute mark by then, about the time many comedies start wrapping things up. But it's a question that doesn't seem to have occurred to Simmons or the filmmakers before, and it spurs Apatow on to develop another hour of additional material in which George, miraculously recovered, pursues the love of his life (Leslie Mann), Ira in tow, without much consideration for her two daughters or her husband (Eric Bana). It's as if the movie bred its own sequel. There's plenty of funny stuff here. Bana has a ball as the obtuse Aussie, but despite all the blue jokes, this is a more modulated, pensive effort than Apatow's previous hits. He's improved, a little, as a director (perhaps the credit belongs to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who ensures that for once it doesn't all look like a sitcom), but Apatow is still in dire need of a good editor. His instincts are generous. He wants to give us the six-course meal, and to go around the table, give everybody the chance to tell us a funny story. As a result \"Funny People\" is consistently entertaining but also rather grueling -- as if we're watching two or three different movies at the same time. At least one of these -- the tribulations of the young roomies -- we've seen before, and amusing as these guys are, they properly belong in the deleted scenes category. But Apatow isn't one to kill his babies, that's for sure. He's more likely to write them an additional scene or three. (Mann is Mrs. Apatow, and their two daughters also figure large.) Still, if you're not averse to too much of a good-ish thing, and can stomach another of those terminal Hollywood illnesses that leaves the patient with no discernible ill-effects, \"Funny People\" is a fairly shrewd and nonjudgmental dissection of how celebrity skews and contaminates even the most intimate relationships. The rich and famous aren't the only narcissists in this game, it seems. We're all a bit funny that way. \"Funny People\" is rated R and runs 146 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Funny People\" has some funny -- and insightful -- stuff to say about comics .\nJudd Apatow film stars Adam Sandler as ailing comedian .\nMovie's main drawback is it's too long, but material makes up for it, says Tom Charity ."} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Leaders representing 90 percent of the world's economic output were gathering Thursday in a U.S. city that has reinvented itself, hoping to bolster the global economy. Police boats pass under Greenpeace activists as they hang from a bridge near the G-20 summit. The Group of 20 will meet for two days to focus on the worldwide financial crisis, and plot how to avoid a repeat in the future. The White House is using the economic summit to showcase Pittsburgh -- a city that President Obama says has exhibited an innovative 21st-century recovery after a well-publicized downfall following the shuttering of much of the city's steel industry. Pittsburgh \"has transformed itself from the city of steel to a center for high-tech innovation -- including green technology, education and training, and research and development,\" the president said. Watch what summit means for Pittsburgh \u00bb . Most of the world leaders have come from New York, where they attended the start of the U.N. General Assembly. The G-20 gathering is Obama's first time hosting a major international summit. \"As the leaders of the world's largest economies, we have a responsibility to work together on behalf of sustained growth, while putting in place the rules of the road that can prevent this kind of crisis from happening again,\" the president said in a statement ahead of the gathering. The tightening of global financial regulations is expected to top the summit's agenda and comes as some major economies are beginning to recover. Germany, France and Japan have announced that they have emerged from recession, prompting hopes that the worst of the financial crisis may have passed. Watch city's preparations for protesters \u00bb . G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed at a meeting this month not to start cutting back just yet on stimulus efforts. They fear it would put economies at risk for plunging back into recession. However, the economic outlook has improved enough that countries are being encouraged to start working on exit strategies, which will vary by nation. The ministers also have proposed a change in how bankers' bonuses are awarded. They said financial rewards should be based on long-term merit, instead of short-term risk-taking. Because of that, ministers oppose paying large bonuses upfront. A proposed bonus control mechanism would pay for results over a longer window for measuring profits. Bonuses would be forfeited if initial success doesn't hold up. The economic summit will be the third time in a year that the world's top industrial powers have gathered. They met in November in Washington and followed up with an April session in London. As the leaders headed to Pittsburgh, four people attached to a massive banner dangled from a Pittsburgh bridge Wednesday to protest the global economic meeting. iReport.com: Pittsburgh braces for protests . The banner hung from the West End Bridge over the Ohio River and read like a road sign: \"Danger: Climate Destruction Ahead. Reduce CO2 Emissions Now.\" Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, claimed responsibility for the stunt. On its Web site, the group said it wanted to send a message to G-20 leaders with the nearly 80-by-30-foot sign, calling for more attention to the issue of global climate change.","highlights":"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, plays host this week to G-20 summit .\nPresident Obama says city is example of how to weather recession .\nPittsburgh has reinvented itself from steel plant roots to new focus on green jobs ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fire on the back porch of a home in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was the town's 18th arson fire of the year, authorities determined Wednesday morning. The latest in a string of arson fires was quickly extinguished on a back porch of this Coatesville house. John Hageman from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the small fire broke out about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday in the eastern Pennsylvania town. Four other fires were deliberately set Saturday in neighboring communities in surrounding Chester County, according to the ATF. They were ignited on the front and side porches of homes, officials said. None of the homes was completely lost, Hageman said. The Coatesville arsons have received national attention. At least 30 fires have been deliberately set in Coatesville in 2008 and 2009. Of those, more than half have occurred in the past four weeks. The string of arson fires has rattled residents, who have demanded action from City Hall and fire officials. A county task force is investigating the arsons and looking into other fires near Coatesville, which is about 40 miles west of Philadelphia. Fire swept through 15 homes in the town during the weekend of January 24 and 25, authorities said. Coatesville has a population of about 11,000.","highlights":"Back porch fire is ruled an arson in Coatesville, Pennsylvania .\nThe town, population 11,000, has had 18 arsons so far this year .\nAt least 30 fires were deliberately set in the town in 2008 and 2009 .\nFire swept through 15 Coatesville homes the weekend of January 24-25 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman Loera, a 54-year-old drug cartel leader whose nickname means \"Shorty,\" is the most wanted man in Mexico. He's also one of the most wanted men in the United States. Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman Loera leads the Sinaloa cartel, which is battling for turf along the border. For five years, the State Department has kept a $5 million bounty on his head, calling Guzman a threat to U.S. security. Guzman, who leads the Sinaloa cartel, is a key player in the bloody turf battles being fought along the border. He recently upped the stakes, ordering his associates to use lethal force to protect their loads in contested drug trafficking corridors, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cartel's tentacles and those of its chief rival, the Gulf cartel, already reach across the border and into metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charlotte, North Carolina, Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Arabit told a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in March. \"No other country in the world has a greater impact on the drug situation in the United States than Mexico does,\" said Arabit, who heads the DEA's office in this year's border hot spot, El Paso, Texas. See where Mexican cartels are in the U.S. A December 2008 report by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center revealed that Mexican drug traffickers can be found in more than 230 U.S. cities. So far, the U.S. has largely been spared the violence seen in Mexico, where the cartels' running gunbattles with police, the military and each other claimed about 6,500 lives last year. It was a sharp spike from the 2,600 deaths attributed to cartel violence in 2007. Once again, drug war casualties are mounting on the Mexican side at a record pace in 2009 -- more than 1,000 during the first three months of the year, Arabit said. See who the key players are \u00bb . The violence that has spilled over into the U.S. has been restricted to the players in the drug trade -- trafficker-on-trafficker, DEA agents say. But law enforcement officials and analysts who spoke with CNN agree that it is only a matter of time before innocent people on the U.S. side get caught in the cartel crossfire. \"It's coming. I guarantee, it's coming,\" said Michael Sanders, a DEA spokesman in Washington. Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman's shoot-to-kill instructions aren't limited to Mexican authorities and cartel rivals; they also include U.S. law enforcement officials, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources and intelligence memos. The move is seen as dangerously brazen, the newspaper reported. In the past, the cartels have tried to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. law enforcement. U.S. officials are trying to stop the violence from crossing the border. The Obama administration committed to spending an additional $700 million to help Mexico fight the cartels and agreed to double the number of U.S. agents working the border. But $700 million pales in comparison with the wealth amassed by just one target. Guzman, who started in collections and rose to lead his own cartel, is said to be worth $1 billion after more than two decades in the drug trade. He made this year's Forbes list of the richest of the rich, landing between a Swiss tycoon and an heir to the Campbell's Soup fortune. Popular Mexican songs, called narcocorridos, embellish the myth of the poorly educated but charismatic cartel leader. \"Shorty is the Pablo Escobar of Mexico,\" said security consultant Scott Stewart, invoking the memory of the colorful Medellin cartel leader who also landed on the Forbes list and thumbed his nose at Colombian authorities until he died in a shower of police bullets in December 1993. Stewart, a former agent for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, gathers intelligence on the cartels for Stratfor, a Texas-based security consulting firm that helped document Guzman's worth. Just a decade ago, Mexican smugglers worked as mules for Colombians, moving their cocaine by land across the U.S. border when the heat was on in the Caribbean. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's campaign of arrests and extraditions made ghosts of the Medellin and Cali cartels. The mules stepped into the power vacuum and never looked back. Now they buy cocaine from the Colombians and take their own profits. Mexican cartels now bring in about 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, according to the DEA. Mexico also is the top foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine. Marijuana became the cartels' biggest revenue source for the first time in 2007, bringing in $8.5 billion. Cocaine came in second, at $3.9 billion, and methamphetamine earned $1 billion, a top U.S. drug policymaker told a group of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials last year. Watch how marijuana became the cartels' top cash crop \u00bb . The Mexican government recognizes seven cartels, but the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are the major players along the U.S. border, according to the DEA agents, local police officials and security analysts who spoke with CNN. The cartels' enforcers -- Los Negros for Sinaloa, Los Zetas for Gulf -- are believed to be responsible for most of the violence. The status and alliances of the players continue to shift. Although the DEA and some analysts disagree, others say the Zetas, a paramilitary group of turncoat soldiers and anti-narcotics police, are now running the Gulf cartel. \"From what we've seen, the Zetas have taken over the Gulf cartel,\" analyst Stewart said. \"In violent times, soldiers tend to rise to the top.\" These soldiers are incredibly well-armed, police learned after a November raid that resulted in the arrest of top Zeta lieutenant Jaime \"Hummer\" Gonzalez Duran. It was the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history -- 540 rifles, including AK-47s; 287 grenades; two rocket launchers; and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. At the very least, the Zeta enforcers now have a seat at the table. The DEA's Arabit testified that the Gulf cartel is now run by a triumvirate. Included is Los Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, a former military man who is also known as \"El Lazco,\" or \"The Executioner.\" The past year witnessed unprecedented bloodshed as the two cartels battled for control of the border's lucrative drug-trafficking corridors. The cartels are fighting over control of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas; Sonora Nogales, across from Nogales, Arizona; and Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California. Two years ago, the turf battle was over Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. It's all about the highways that help move the drugs. Nuevo Laredo is close to the Interstate 35 corridor, and Juarez has easy access to I-10, a major east-west interstate, and I-25, which runs north to Denver, Colorado. Tijuana is also conveniently near I-10 and I-5, which heads north all the way to the Canadian border. Some of the battles are internal, Arabit said. Some are with other cartels. And some, he said, can be attributed to the cartels' \"desperate\" attempt to resist Mexican President Felipe Calderon's unprecedented attack on drug traffickers. As soon as he took office in January 2007, Calderon called out the cartels. He has deployed about 30,000 troops to back up and, in some cases, do the job of local police. Mexico also has extradited about 190 cartel suspects to the United States since Calderon took office. The violence involves beheadings, running gunbattles and discoveries of mass graves and huge arms caches. Police and public officials have been gunned down in broad daylight. The cartels' enforcers boldly display recruitment banners in the streets. \"The beheadings started at the same time the beheading videos started coming out of Iraq,\" analyst Stewart said. \"It was simple machismo. The Sinaloa guys started putting up videos on YouTube of them torturing Zetas.\" When Mexicans first stepped into the role of Colombians in the mid-1990s, the Juarez and Tijuana cartels were dominant, beneficiaries of their location. Today, they are shadows of their former selves, weakened by the deaths and arrests of their leaders. Juarez cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes died of complications from plastic surgery in 1997. Known as \"The King of the Skies\" for his fleet of cocaine-carrying planes, he was said to be undergoing liposuction and other appearance-altering procedures to avoid arrest. Three of his doctors were charged with killing the cartel leader with an overdose of anesthetic during his surgery. Two of them later were killed. His death, along with the 2003 arrest of Gulf cartel founder Osiel Cardenas Guillen, set the stage for the ongoing turf battle. When Cardenas was extradited in 2007, Guzman set his sights on controlling Juarez as well as Nogales. Cardenas is awaiting trial in October in federal court in Houston, Texas, where he is accused of drug trafficking and attempting to kill two federal agents and an informant on the streets of Matamoros, Mexico. Arrests and extraditions crippled the Arellano-Felix Organization in Tijuana, and last year, Guzman made a move on that plaza as well. \"Right now, they are fighting to survive much like Pablo Escobar,\" said the DEA's Elizabeth Kempshall, who heads the agency's office in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix has become the nation's kidnapping capital, largely because of the cartels' increasing presence. Kempshall said that cartel leaders fear nothing more than extradition: \"That is the worst thing for any cartel leader, to face justice in the United States.\" CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this story .","highlights":"Sinaloa, Gulf cartels battle for control of drug routes across U.S. border .\nThe turf war has spurred record death tolls with gunbattles, beheadings .\nU.S. is doubling number of agents at border, spending $700 million .\nAgents, analysts compare situation to '90s battle against Colombian cartels ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening \"a new chapter\" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station. The discovery was announced by project scientist Anthony Colaprete at a midday news conference. \"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount\" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers. The find is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole. After the satellite struck, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water and providing a host of other data, Colaprete said. The project team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the best information about the presence of water, Colaprete said. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb. Although the goal of the $79 million mission was to determine whether there is water on the moon, discoveries in other areas are expected as studies progress, Colaprete and other scientists said at the briefing at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California. \"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,\" the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began. Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system. He listed several options as sources for the water, including solar winds, comets, giant molecular clouds or even the moon itself through some kind of internal activity. The Earth also may have a role, Wargo said. \"If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data,\" NASA said in its statement. \"In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.\"","highlights":"NASA: Discovery could allow for development of lunar space station .\nInformation comes from satellite mission to moon last month .\nSpokesman: \"Indeed, yes, we found water\"\nDiscovery \"opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,\" agency says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The orgy of violence that has greeted Kenya's disputed election result has led to hundreds of deaths and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. But away from the tragic human cost, the unrest has also provoked concerns about the stability of the east African country's economy, until now seen as a model for the region. Businesses have been destroyed and looted and supply routes disrupted after the opposition accused incumbent president Mwai Kibaki of election fraud after he was declared winner Sunday. Investors are watching events closely in the country, fearful of how it could affect one of Africa's few economic success stories. And the early signs have been worrying. The equity market on the Nairobi Stock Exchange lost 40 billion Kenyan Shillings ($591 million) in value on its first day of New Year trading Wednesday, the Kenyan financial newspaper Business Daily Africa reported. And business leaders said that the government was losing around 2 billion Shillings ($29.5 million) a day in lost revenue as a result of the political violence, the paper reported. \"We do seem to be in a new place, there's a lot of uncertainty about where we go from here. And a lot depends crucially on how long-lasting this is,\" said Razia Kahn, an analyst specializing in Africa at Standard Chartered bank. Kenya has attracted a large number of multi-nationals and is home to one of the world's fastest growing stock exchanges. Its relative economic success has been helped in part by its thriving tourist sector, with visitors attracted by its abundant wildlife and pristine beaches. Provisional figures for 2006 from the Kenya's tourist board said the country had received 1.5 million visitors for the year, a growth of 5.2 per cent. However, fears that the tourist industry could take a heavy hit from the unrest grew with the British Federation of Tour Operators announcing Thursday it was suspending all holidays to the country departing up to and including this Saturday. Watch an aid worker describe fears that crisis may resemble Rwanda's \u00bb . British tourists already in the country have been advised by the British Foreign Office to stay indoors and to stay away from the major cities. There are also worries about the knock-on effect for the region, since around 40 percent of Kenya's exports go to other African nations, Kahn said. Of even greater concern is the effect on Kenya's lucrative agriculture industry. Exports of tea, coffee, vegetables and flowers are big earners for the country, with agriculture making up about a fifth of the total economy. There have been media reports of tea and coffee auctions being halted by the violence as well as widespread disruption to transport routes as rioters blockade major roads across the country. Arun Shah, who runs a coffee import business based in London, told CNN his livelihood depended on a stable Kenya. \"We have had absolutely reliable supply,\" he said. \"We have had reliable quality and the quantities that we need for our trade.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Boulden in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Kenya's once-stable economy faltering due to violence following disputed election .\nEquity market on Nairobi Stock Exchange lost $591 million on first day of 2008 .\nBusiness leaders say the government losing $29.5 million a day in revenues .\nThriving tourist industry also hit, with British tour operators calling off flights ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Coordinated attacks in at least eight Mexican cities killed three federal police officers and two soldiers Saturday in what officials are calling an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs. Attacks occurred after arrest of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana. Another 18 federal officers were wounded, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing federal police official Rodolfo Cruz Lopez. The attacks were in retribution for the capture early Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacan Family), Notimex reported. Rueda is considered second in command to the group's two top leaders, Nazario \"El Chayo\" Moreno Gonz\u00e1lez and Jos\u00e9 \" El Chango\" de Jes\u00fas M\u00e9ndez Vargas, acting as a \"right arm\" to Moreno, the secretary of public security said Saturday in a statement. Among other allegations, he was arrested for his role in designing the hierarchy of the organization, the production of synthetic drugs and movement of marijuana and cocaine to the United States, said Mexico's secretary of public security. Rueda was arrested along with a 17-year-old male who worked for him. Following his arrest Saturday morning in Morelia, Michoacan, men armed with high-powered rifles and grenades attacked the police station where he was being held, the Secretary of Public Security said. After failing to win his freedom, members of the group launched attacks in the cities of Morelia, Zitacuaro, Zamora, Lazaro Cardenas, Apatzingan, La Piedad and Huetamo in Michoacan state, Notimex news said, citing federal police. The three officers were killed in Zitacuaro, police official Eduardo Moran told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol, while six police officers were reported wounded in Morelia. Two soldiers were killed in Zamora, shot by men in a passing car as they walked to their headquarters. The Secretary of Public Security told the newspaper Cambio de Michoacan that 25 spent shells from an R-15 rifle and 17 from an AK-47 were found at the scene. Michoacan is in west-central Mexico, on the Pacific coast. Another rifle and grenade attack took place near Acapulco in Guerrero state, which borders Michoacan, but no one was injured. Saturday's attacks came just days after a drug gang in Tijuana declared they were at war with police, threatening to kill five officers every week until Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns. The threat was made in a note found on the windshield of a slain officer's car, news reports said. At least three Tijuana officers have been killed since Monday, reports said. Leyzaola, a former army colonel, replaced a police chief removed from office in December after receiving numerous threats. \"Leyzaola has become the poster boy for honest police work, which has put the drug gangs on notice,\" Vicente Calderon, a reporter for the Tijuana Press news agency, told CNN affiliate KUSI. \"They believe he is serious, that he means business and is trying to re-establish the rule of law that has been affecting the city and whole state for many years since organized crime established themselves in Baja [California].\" Tijuana, the westernmost city in Mexico, is across the border from San Diego, California. Sixteen police officers have died there in 2009, and officers are now patrolling the city in groups of six, KUSI reported. CNN's Emanuella Grinberg and Monica Trevino contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gang targets police station where Arnoldo Rueda Medina was being held .\nAttacks were reprisals for capture of member of La Familia gang .\nSeries of coordinated attacks in at least eight cities kills 3 federal officers, 2 soldiers .\nOfficials call the coordinated attacks an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will reunite on stage next month to raise money to teach transcendental meditation to children around the world to \"help provide them a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world,\" McCartney said. Paul McCartney (above) and Ringo Starr are teaming up for a fund-raising concert. The star-studded list of performers who will join them include two musicians who were with the Beatles when they journeyed to India's Himalayan foothills in 1968 to learn transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. \"In moments of madness, it has helped me find moments of serenity,\" McCartney said in the concert announcement. Profits from the April 4 show at New York's Radio City Music Hall will fund the David Lynch Foundation's program, which has already taught 60,000 children around the world how to meditate, foundation spokesman Steve Yellin said. The goal of the project -- which is called \"Change Begins Within\" -- is to teach the meditation technique to a million at-risk children so they have \"life-long tools to overcome stress and violence and promote peace and success in their lives,\" Yellin said. Schools across the United States have asked the group to bring the classes to their students, he said. \"I would like to think that it would help provide them a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world,\" McCartney said. Singer-songwriter Donovan and musician Paul Horn, who studied at the Maharishi's ashram with the four Beatles, will also perform in the show. \"How great to be playing with Paul, Ringo, and Paul Horn again -- as we did in India in 1968,\" Donovan said. \"It's a real reunion after 40 years of Donovan, Paul Horn, Ringo and Paul McCartney,\" Yellin said. \"It's quite an interesting thing that they are still talking about transcendental meditation.\" Ringo left the ashram after just 10 days -- explaining the food was too spicy for his taste -- and McCartney stayed for six weeks, according to journalist Lewis Lapham in his book \"With the Beatles.\" McCartney and John Lennon wrote many of the songs for the Beatles' White Album while there, but the group disbanded within two years. The list of performers also includes Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Bettye LaVette and Jim James. Tickets go on sale Monday, March 9, through Ticketmaster.","highlights":"Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr participating in fund-raising concert .\nShow to benefit David Lynch Foundation program teaching meditation to kids .\nAlso on the bill: Donovan, Paul Horn, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder ."} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- \"Always you have to run for your life,\" says Boo Htoo, who grew up in a refugee camp in Thailand just across the border from Myanmar. Boo Htoo and his family lived at the Maela Refugee Camp before being resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. Ethnic minorities still flee the repressive military regime in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Some 111,000 Myanmar refugees live in nine camps in Thailand, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Htoo, now 29, recalls making the long trek with his parents to cross the border when he was about 5. \"[It's] a very long way,\" he says. \"We don't have a car, a plane. We don't have a bicycle to ride. My parents just take what they can carry, and then we started walking across the jungle, sleeping in the jungle.\" Htoo and his family are now resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks to Carolyn Manning and her Welcome to America Project, they got a warm welcome to the big city, complete with furnishings and household items for their first apartment and toys for his two young children. \"That day that I have a lot of American friends in my apartment,\" recalls Htoo, \"this is the day that I feel very happy.\" For Htoo, it was a remarkable transition from \"a really hard life in the refugee camp.\" \"They have a wire fence around the camp; they put soldiers around the fence,\" Htoo says. \"You are not allowed to go outside to work. You don't have a chance to go to university even if you are willing to go. I cannot express the feeling of how difficult it is.\" Watch Htoo tell his story \u00bb . According to the International Rescue Committee, about 2.7 million refugees have been resettled in the United States since 1975, and 52,000 of those have been relocated to Arizona. Through her Welcome to America Project, Manning helps legal refugees being resettled to Phoenix by the United Nations. Since 2001, she and volunteers have provided furniture, clothing and support to more than 550 refugee families. Nominate your Hero at CNN.com\/Heroes . The first family Manning welcomed came to her attention in a local newspaper. Manning's brother-in-law Terence had died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York. The family in the newspaper was from Afghanistan and had lost a relative to the Taliban. Manning immediately saw a parallel. \"Knowing that Terence was killed innocently and then seeing the Afghan family who had someone killed in their family, I started to make a connection between myself and that family,\" Manning recalls. \"We lost a family member, too. The difference was we had a safe place that we lived -- and they had to flee their country.\" At a time when many Americans were putting up walls and shunning foreigners, Manning reached out to them. She and her family took up a collection of furniture for them -- and The Welcome to America Project was born. \"They've been invited here,\" says Manning. \"Everybody has a right to find a place where they belong. I want the refugees to feel that this is their home.\" The families assisted by The Welcome to America Project typically have languished in refugee camps for 10-12 years, says Manning, and come from countries including Iraq, Myanmar, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Bhutan -- places where they were often persecuted because of their race, religion or political views. \"There are a number of different things they have to learn how to do when they first arrive,\" Manning says. \"They've never seen buildings built like ours. They've lived in huts literally made out of bamboo, with leaves on top. There's a lot of transition for them.\" Watch Manning describe the refugees' strikingly different backgrounds \u00bb . Over the last seven years, Manning says, she's learned a lot from the refugees and finds herself looking at American customs from a new perspective. \"We brought a toaster into a family from Africa and they didn't know what it was,\" recalls Manning. \"The woman was very dutiful in watching [when] we tried to show them how to toast bread. But then through a translator her response was, 'Why would you want to ruin bread?'\" Manning says the refugees are resourceful and eager to start a new life, developing strong ties to their new communities, making active contributions, working hard and paying taxes. \"It's not an 'us and them,'\" she says. \"We're all part of one humanity. And we're trying to do what's right, and what is fair.\" Watch The Welcome to America Project in action \u00bb . As word continues to spread -- the project is currently bigger than ever, says Manning -- The Welcome to America Project is nearing its 600th family donation. Manning says she isn't surprised the project has taken off. \"That's how Terrance's life was,\" she says. \"Every time he had an idea it was big and bold. He was a very, very generous person. I guess that's the legacy we're passing on with the project.\" Want to get involved? Check out The Welcome to America Project and see how to help.","highlights":"Welcome to America Project helps refugees being resettled in Phoenix, Arizona .\nCarolyn Manning founded the group after relative died in September 11 attacks .\nMyanmar refugee Boo Htoo among 550-plus families the project has helped .\nNominate your Hero at CNN.com\/Heroes ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama affirmed his support for a woman's \"right to choose\" on Thursday, the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that led to the legalization of abortion, as thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on the National Mall to challenge his position. President Obama issued a statement defending Roe v. Wade for protecting \"women's health and reproductive freedom.\" Roe v. Wade \"not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters,\" Obama said in a statement. The landmark 1973 decision held that a woman's right to abortion was protected by the right to privacy under the Constitution's 14th Amendment, voiding most state laws against abortion at the time. Nellie Gray, who helped organize the anti-abortion March for Life on the Mall, invited Obama to speak at the rally. \"America needs your strong leadership as president of all the people to stop the intentional killing of an estimated 3,000 pre-born boys and girls each day and the brutalizing of mind, heart and body of pregnant mothers.\" Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said she believes that while abortion should remain an option, increasing the availability and affordability of birth control and reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies is the real solution. \"I think what everyone ought to be interested in doing, whether they are or not, is reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies,\" Gandy told CNN. \"Because if we reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, it will by definition reduce the number of abortions and reduce a lot of the pain and despair that has befallen women in these economic times, who cannot afford to enlarge their families when they don't have a job and they don't have a way to put food on the table for the kids that they have now. \"If we could all work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, it would dramatically change the debate on this issue.\" Obama has so far not struck down rules reinstated by the Bush administration eight years ago, prohibiting U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services. The \"Mexico City policy\" was initially put in place by President Ronald Reagan and suspended during Bill Clinton's presidency. Its opponents refer to it as the \"global gag order.\" About 20 anti-abortion rights lawmakers spoke at the rally Thursday, pushing for a renewed effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. \"At what instant does life begin?\" asked Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, focusing on younger crowd members who answered, \"Conception!\" \"And the next question is, \" he continued, \"President Obama, when did your life begin?\" Other legislators detailed their plans to keep the issue on the table in Congress and on the minds of voters. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, told the crowd she plans to introduce what she calls the \"Juno Bill,\" referencing the hit 2008 film of the same title in which a high school teenager gives her baby up for adoption. \"It will provide a tax credit to those women, just as we allow abortions to be tax deductible, it will provide a tax credit so that they can carry out their pregnancy, give that baby to a loving arm and not have to worry about the consequences or the costs involved,\" she said. Throughout the rally, speakers urged bold action for their cause. Gandy said the fight will also continue on the pro-abortion rights side. \"There's no question we have a pro-choice president now, but he can't do it alone,\" she said. \"He can't pass legislation. He can't stop what's going on at the state and local level and so the battle rages on ... at the congressional level, at the state and local level and certainly at the Supreme Court.\" She said the number of unwanted pregnancies is rising, as congressional action has increased the cost of contraception for college students and low-income women, \"something we hope this administration will reverse.\" Two pieces of federal legislation are pending, she said. The first will expand accessibility and availability of birth control, and the second, the Freedom of Choice Act, is a codification of Roe v. Wade. NOW will continue pursuing both at the congressional level, she said, but noted that even though Congress has a Democratic majority, it does not have a pro-abortion rights majority. \"So that will continue to be an uphill battle,\" she said . CNN's Paul Courson and Mary Grace Lucas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama: \"Government should not intrude on our most private family matters\"\nObama released statement on Roe anniversary while protesters descended on Mall .\nRally organizer to Obama: Stop intentional killing\" of unborn babies .\nFormer President Bush typically spoke by phone to rally each year ."} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Police found three men dead in a car parked outside a spa Monday morning -- the latest in a string of suicides involving detergent, officials said. According to local media reports, more than 60 people have committed suicide across Japan in the last month by mixing detergent and other chemicals, and inhaling the hydrogen sulfide gas that results. A passerby discovered the bodies of the three men in Tamioka, north of Tokyo, police said. In western Japan, police found a 21-year-old man with a plastic bag over his head Monday. A police officer in Suma, where the body was found, said authorities found detergent containers by the foot of the man. They suspect the man may have inhaled the toxic gas after mixing them in the bag. Earlier this month, police in Japan had asked Internet service providers to take down the recipe for the detergent mix. Even before the spate of recent suicides, Japan had one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. In early May, police evacuated about 350 people from their homes on the island of Hokkaido after a neighbor mixed detergent and chemicals to kill himself. The two most recent cases did not require the evacuation of the neighborhoods where they occurred. In some cases, officials had to order residents to leave because the resulting gas from the detergent mix can sicken people. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police found three men dead in a car parked outside a spa Monday morning .\nMore than 60 people have committed suicide across Japan in the last month .\nPolice say string of 'detergent suicides' encouraged by Internet sites .\nJapan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- With the explosive growth of the light truck segment as well as the impending onslaught of winter, I thought it would be fitting to write about four-wheel drive systems. There are a few different types available; and there are special maintenance practices that might cause some confusion. So let's get enlightened! Four-wheel drive systems can make driving safer on wet road conditions. 4WD systems can be classified as Part Time 4WD, Full Time 4WD, and Permanent 4WD. Part Time 4WD is the most basic of all 4WD systems. It gives the driver the choice of driving in two-wheel drive or 4WD. That sounds pretty good! However, the downside is that you shouldn't engage the 4WD on pavement unless it's very slippery. That's because, with this system, when you engage 4WD you lock the front and rear wheels together through the transmission and transfer gearbox. This is great for straight-ahead traction and very slippery surfaces. However, on dry pavement it makes for odd cornering, and handling characteristics. Also you can harm the drive train components by driving in 4WD for extended periods of time on dry pavement. Consequently, you may find yourself having to stop the vehicle to engage or disengage, depending on the road conditions. AOL Autos: Top 5 SUVs . So why choose this type of system? Two good reasons: . \u2022 It's less costly to build and therefore to buy . \u2022 It's very durable under heavy stress (generally more durable than the other 4WD systems, since it has fewer components) Full Time 4WD is the most commonly used system on the market. Full Time 4WD offers both two-wheel drive mode and 4WD, depending on road conditions (driver must engage and disengage the 4WD). In addition, the 4WD mode offers both a high and low mode for when the going really gets tough (driver shifts to high or low). AOL Autos: Top 5 crossover vehicles . Besides a transmission and transfer gearbox, a center differential couples the front and rear wheels. This differential allows the front and rear wheels to turn at different speeds as needed (unlike Part-Time 4WD system) for better handling. When the wheels start to spin due to slippery road conditions, the system reacts to wheel spin by progressively locking the front and rear wheels together to optimize traction. Although Full-Time 4WD requires the driver to engage it, once engaged it offers more \"control\" through the high and low mode selection (based on road conditions) and better cornering and handling on varying road conditions due to the differential. AOL Autos: Best luxury wagons . Permanent 4WD is similar to Full-Time 4WD but it has no two-wheel drive mode. The vehicle is always in 4WD, so you don't have to determine whether conditions are right to engage it. AOL Autos: Cars with best Blue Book values . We still have transmission, transfer gearbox and center differential coupling the front and rear wheels. The only difference is that torque (or power) is constantly being applied to all the wheels, giving maximum traction in all weather and road conditions. Current systems have high and low modes for when the going gets tough; however, most importantly, the system does the thinking for you ... it automatically applies as much lock up (to all the wheels) as necessary for maximum traction. AOL Autos: Best-selling trucks and SUVs . Next, a few definitions of common 4WD-drive terms that you may have heard of: . Locking Differential - locks both wheels on the axle, forcing them to turn together to allow maximum traction . Limited-Slip Differential - detects slippage in one wheel and sends torque to the other wheel that is not spinning. It operates is automatically. On-The-Fly-Shifting - allows the 4WD to be engaged while driving the vehicle (many systems require that you stop the vehicle in order to engage the 4WD). Manual Hubs - In order for 4WD to work, you must have a means of engaging the front wheel drive mechanism. This is done through the front hubs. On vehicles equipped with manual hubs, the operator must manually \"lock in\" the front wheels by turning a mechanical switch. Automatic Hubs - Instead of manually \"locking in\" the front wheels in order to drive in 4WD, automatic hubs \"lock in\" the front wheels by a simple flip of an electrical switch in the comfort of your warm, cushy, SUV or pickup. Transfer Gearbox - an auxiliary gearbox attached to the transmission, which allows you to shift into a high and low range of 4WD for serious pulling or hauling. 4WD Maintenance Tips . 4X4s have a transfer case, locking hubs, and front and rear differentials (some have an additional center-coupling differential). The maintenance of the transfer case is the same as on a standard transmission. Therefore, when checking the fluid, you are checking for (1) proper level, (2) the presence of moisture, (3) the presence of wear particles... either in the form of metal or friction material. A small amount of wear material is acceptable. However, excessive wear material can be an indication of a problem. One of three types of lubricants is used, depending on the carmaker. These lubricants are: ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid), 30W motor oil, or 90W-gear oil. The maintenance interval (which involves changing the lubricant) for transfer cases that use ATF and 30W motor oil is every 50,000 miles. For 90W gear oil the recommended interval is 80,000 miles. In regards to the locking hubs, maintenance is extremely critical. Locking hubs come in two forms: automatic and manual. Regardless of which one you have, they must be disassembled, cleaned and lubricated every two years or 24,000 miles. Snow, ice, water, salt, and mud usually find their way into these mechanized units, rendering them useless and costing the owner big bucks! By keeping up the maintenance on them you minimize expense and downtime. With respect to differential maintenance, there's not a whole lot to do except check the fluid level every oil change and visually inspect for any leakage. The technician should check the gear lubricant for proper level, color, and consistency. Low lubricant level indicates a leak; a milky color indicates moisture in the lubricant; and the presence of metal in the lubricant indicates mechanical wear. Check your owner's manual for the recommended fluid change intervals. And check your owner's manual for specific operating instructions of your 4X4 system because the various systems function differently. There you have it, four wheeling made easy. Now go out and climb a mountain! Tom Torbjornsen is a veteran of 37 years in the auto service industry, an automotive journalist registered with IMPA.","highlights":"Vehicles can have Part Time 4WD, Full Time 4WD or Permanent 4WD .\nPart Time 4WD: Don't drive for extended time on dry pavement with 4WD engaged .\nFull Time 4WD offers both two-wheel drive mode and 4WD .\nMaintenance is extremely critical for locking hubs on 4WD vehicles ."} -{"article":"Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned participants in the climate change conference in Copenhagen that they are \"running out of time\" to reach an agreement on what to do about global warming. Critics say those attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which began December 7, have made little or no headway toward developing a plan. U.S. officials in Copenhagen and at the White House confirmed that talks broke down Wednesday after the Chinese rejected American demands that they commit to transparency regarding their emissions reductions. Without mentioning China by name, Clinton said their continued refusal would be \"kind of a deal breaker for us.\" The uncertainty over whether a deal could be reached before talks end Friday led to speculation that President Barack Obama might not travel to Copenhagen as planned, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters he would leave Thursday evening. \"We all know there are real challenges that remain in the hours left to these negotiations,\" Clinton said. \"And it is no secret that we have lost precious time in these past days. In the time we have left here, it can no longer be about us versus them. \"We all face the same challenge together,\" she added. \"We're running out of time. It's unfortunate that there have been problems with the process, difficulties with certain parties being willing to come to the table, all kinds of discussions and disagreements, sometimes about the past rather than about the future.\" Without mentioning China by name, Clinton said that nation's continued refusal to come to the table would be \"kind of a deal breaker for us.\" Gibbs said the Chinese \"balked\" at the \"strong transparency requirement,\" and he \"hoped they would reconsider.\" \"The president is going to travel in hopes of making progress for a strong operational agreement,\" Gibbs said. \"There are no changes in the president's plans.\" The agreement Obama is hoping for out of Copenhagen would not be a treaty, nor would it be legally binding. Gibbs acknowledged it would be \"a political agreement that would lead to a treaty\" later. The last time the president traveled to Copenhagen -- in October to try to win the 2012 Olympic bid for Chicago -- he came back empty-handed. \"Coming back with an empty agreement would far worse,\" Gibbs said Thursday. Clinton said the United States is concerned about the ability of needy nations to do their part. The United States is willing to work with other countries to raise $100 billion by 2020 to address the climate-change needs of developing nations, she said. She told delegates that the United States already has joined an effort to provide more immediate funding that would reach $10 billion in 2012. \"After a year of diplomacy, we have come to Copenhagen ready to take the steps necessary to achieve a comprehensive and operational new agreement that will provide a foundation for long-term, sustainable economic growth,\" Clinton said. \"We have now reached the critical juncture in these negotiations. I understand that the talks have been difficult. I know that our team, along with many others, are working hard and around the clock to forge a deal,\" she said. \"But the time is at hand for all countries to reach for common ground and take an historic step that we can all be proud of.\" Clinton's announcement was \"enormously encouraging,\" Tim Flannery, an internationally known zoologist, conservationist and explorer, said on CNN's \"Amanpour.\" Clinton proposed several core elements that should be included in any plan: decisive national actions; an operational accord \"that internationalizes those actions\"; technical and other assistance for needy nations that are \"the most vulnerable and least prepared to meet the effects of climate change; and standards of transparency that provide credibility to the entire process.\" \"The world community should accept no less,\" she added. Kandeh Yumkella, director-general of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, said on \"Amanpour\" he is optimistic that leaders can strike a deal before the conference ends. \"Compared to yesterday, what we have now is that the negotiators have hunkered down,\" he said. \"They're actually in drafting committees.\" Flannery agreed. \"If the U.S. can commit to another couple of percent in terms of cuts (in emissions), if the Chinese can increase their efficiency gains by 5 percent, that'll probably be enough to bring the Europeans on board for a 30 percent target, and then we'll be there.\" Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who suggested the initial estimate of about $100 billion a year by 2020 to reduce emissions, urged leaders Thursday to reach an agreement that would limit \"long-term, global temperature increases\" to no more than 2 degrees. According to the 10 Downing Street Web site, Brown told the conference that wealthier countries must commit to provide immediate funding for developing countries to reach such a goal. He recommended that financing start in January, with nations providing $10 billion a year by 2012. He called on developing countries to commit to ambitious mitigation actions to handle climate change. \"To the developed world I say: Environmental action is the most powerful engine of job creation in an economy urgently in need of millions of new jobs. \"To the developing world I say: The technology now exists to gain the dividends of a high-growth economy without incurring the damage of a high-carbon economy. \"And to all nations I say: It is not enough for us to do the least we can get away with when history asks that we demand the most of ourselves.\"","highlights":"U.S. joins an effort to mobilize \"fast-start\" funding for developing counties.\nTalks intended to agree a global limits on carbon emissions to replace Kyoto .\nU.S. President Barack Obama is expected to join the talks Friday .\nJapan, EU pledge more than $20 billion in climate aid to developing nations ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- As Ryan O'Neal walked the red carpet at the premiere of \"Farrah's Story,\" he stopped every few feet to answer reporters' questions about Farrah Fawcett's battle with cancer. Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. 'Farrah's Story,' a documentary on her battle, will air Friday. CNN's Douglas Hyde was at the end of the line and the last to interview the actor, who was almost in tears after a string of intense explanations about his longtime companion's condition. \"She was OK in the first interview, but now I'm worried,\" O'Neal said, visibly drained after focusing on Fawcett's battle. The documentary, which airs Friday night on NBC, is not a celebration of Fawcett's career, but an intimate look at her life since being diagnosed with anal cancer three years ago. \"Basically, it's a gonzo trip,\" O'Neal said. It was shot by Fawcett's close friend, Alana Stewart. \"It shows you every detail, how she found out and how she dealt with it,\" O'Neal said. Early in 2007, Fawcett said she was told her cancer had gone into remission. Her official Web site has posts from February 2007 celebrating the news. But the cancer returned later that year. Anal cancer affects more women than men, and the illness is usually found in people who are in their early 60s. The American Cancer Society estimates that 5,000 new cases of anal cancer are diagnosed each year and about 680 people die from it annually. While cancer keeps Farrah in her bed, a legal fight has begun over the documentary. Producer Craig Nevius filed a lawsuit this week against O'Neal and Stewart, claiming they stole creative control of the film from him. Nevius told CNN he was kicked off the project more than two months ago. \"I have been banned from talking to or seeing Farrah for about ten weeks, which is highly unusual, considering that healthy or sick, I spoke to this woman at least twice a day from the time of her diagnosis on,\" Nevius said. Nevius said his goal was to do the film \"based on Farrah's artistic visions that are a reflection of her and while at the same time maintaining and protecting her privacy to the extent that she wants it maintained and protected.\" \"I take no joy in this,\" Nevius said. \"I tried to avoid this, but I am doing it for Farrah.\" A spokesman for O'Neal called it \"horrific\" that Nevius would file the lawsuit. \"We hope and we pray that Farrah Fawcett does not find out about this lawsuit, because we know it would impact her health even more so,\" said O'Neal spokesman Paul Bloch. CNN's Douglas Hyde and Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Documentary \"Farrah's Story\" is a \"gonzo trip,\" Ryan O'Neal says .\nProducer claims he was robbed of creative control .\nCraig Nevius: \"I have been banned from talking to or seeing Farrah\"\nO'Neal spokesman: \"We hope and we pray\" Fawcett does not learn about lawsuit ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The romantic comedy \"New In Town\" puts co-stars Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. at odds through most of the film. But behind the camera, the story was completely different, the pair told CNN. Harry Connick Jr. and Renee Zellweger enjoyed working with one another on the set of \"New In Town.\" \"I had a great time. [Connick is] such a nice guy. He shows up on set and makes everyone laugh, and it's just a nice day at work,\" Zellweger said. Connick agreed, saying the off-camera friendship with his co-star made the on-camera experience an enjoyable one. \"Renee is the type of person that I got to know quickly. Well, I became friends with her quickly. She's a very mysterious, wonderful young lady,\" Connick said. Directed by Jonas Elmer, the film follows Zellweger as Lucy Hill, a Miami, Florida-based corporate shark who travels to a small Minnesota town to oversee the closing of a small factory. Upon arrival, Lucy clashes with the factory's union representative, Ted Mitchell, played by Connick. As the two begin to understand one another, their icy relationship soon melts into romance. But the romance between Lucy and Ted is only one side of the story. Zellweger said she was instantly drawn to the role for its humor. \"I loved the physical comedy part of Lucy Hill's experience. I laughed out loud when I imagined the scenarios, and I could not wait to go and play around with that,\" she said, \"I wanted to go to work every day and laugh, and I did.\" Famous for her roles in such comedies as \"Nurse Betty\" and \"Bridget Jones's Diary,\" Zellweger is no stranger to the comedic scene. With \"New In Town,\" the actress was eager to once again play a part that would make audiences laugh. \"I think the laughter, that's therapeutic,\" she said. At a time when the country is struggling through a financial recession, Connick said, \"New In Town\" provides that necessary therapy. While the film centers on the troubles of one rural American town, it showcases a dilemma familiar to the entire country. \"I think there's a good balance of what people are really feeling right now, and you walk away from this movie with a real feeling of hope and like, 'We're going to be all right,'\" he said. \"New In Town\" opens in theaters everywhere this Friday. CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this story.","highlights":"Zellweger and Connick became friends quickly on the \"New In Town\" set .\n\"I wanted to go to work every day and laugh, and I did,\" Zellweger says .\nThe film offers hope during the country's hard times, Connick says .\n\"New In Town\" opens in theaters everywhere this Friday ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Members of Iran's national soccer team wore green arm and wrist bands Wednesday during their World Cup qualifying match against South Korea. Members of Iran's National Soccer Team sport green bands in their game against South Korea on Wednesday. The team does not normally wear green bands. Many Iranians are viewing the team's bands as a sign of support for Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, although that has not been confirmed. Green is the campaign color of Moussavi and has been widely worn by his supporters who have staged massive rallies in Tehran before and after last week's presidential election. Moussavi is disputing the results of the vote that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term and is calling for a new election. The players took the wrist bands off when the team came out for the second half of the game that was taking place in Seoul, South Korea. It is unclear whether the players were asked to remove the wrist bands. The match ended 1-1.","highlights":"Many Iranians viewing team's bands as a sign of support for opposition leader .\nGreen is the campaign color of Mir Hossein Moussavi .\nIranian national team was playing a World Cup qualifier in Seoul, South Korea ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Profits at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's British restaurants plunged by nearly 90 percent in the last 12 months. Gordon Ramsay has become as successful on television as he has been off-screen. Run by the Scottish-born chef and his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, Gordon Ramsay Holdings reported a drop in annual turnover from \u00a341.6 million ($68 million) to \u00a335 million ($57 million) in the year to August 2008, Britain's Press Association reported Friday. Pre-tax profits plummeted by over \u00a33 million ($4.9 million) to \u00a3383,325 ($627,000), while net debt in the group, which includes London restaurants such as Claridges, Maze and the flagship Royal Hospital Road, soared to almost \u00a39.5 million ($15.5 million). With spiraling debts and crippling tax bills, the star of TV shows such as \"Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares\" and \"Hell's Kitchen\" was forced to pump huge amounts of his own money into the business, even selling his prized Ferrari to raise funds, The Guardian newspaper said. Ramsay has attributed his business problems to over-ambitious expansion plans, in addition to the closure of two of his 11 London eateries. The Michelin-starred chef opened ten restaurants between 2007 and 2008, while The Savoy Grill was forced to close as the Savoy hotel was refurbished, and the lease at the Connaught expired. The 42-year old was also forced to review his company's international operations, closing restaurants in Paris, Los Angeles and Prague, The Times newspaper reported. \"Ambition overtook me. We thought we could do anything, that we couldn't fail,\" PA quoted Ramsay as saying recently. A full review of the group's operations was instigated in December as part of a refinancing deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland and to help the business get through the troubled economic times. \"2008 brought its own challenges, not just for our group, but for the industry as a whole and the broader economy,\" Hutcheson told PA. \"Whilst the restructuring has benefited the group, the significant contribution and commitment of all 750 staff to the business has been integral to moving us to a position of strength.\" Ramsay has endured a difficult time recently. Last month he was criticized by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after reportedly comparing television star Tracy Grimshaw to a pig during a live cooking show in Melbourne. His trademark colorful language also came under fire last year by another Australian lawmaker. However Ramsay told the country's Channel Nine Network, which broadcasts Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen, that the shows emphasize the \"pressures of working in a restaurant kitchen.\"","highlights":"Turnover by Gordon Ramsay Holdings drops from $68M to $57M .\nPre-tax profits plummet by over $4.9M to $627,000 .\nOver-ambitious expansion plans, restaurant closures blamed .\nRamsay currently owns nine restaurants in London ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The South Carolina Ethics Commission has charged Gov. Mark Sanford with 37 counts of violating state ethics laws, according to a complaint released by the commission on Monday. The complaint follows a three-month investigation into Sanford's use of taxpayer money. Sanford is accused of using tax money to buy business-class airfare on domestic and international flights, flying on a state-owned aircraft to political gatherings or events \"which involved no official business,\" and spending campaign funds for personal use such as buying a ticket to attend President Obama's inauguration in January. South Carolina law requires state officials to buy the lowest fares available for flights, and bars the use of state aircraft for personal use. Sanford's office did not respond to requests for comment about the charges. The governor, once a rising star in the Republican Party before he revealed an extramarital affair in June, faces a hearing along with his legal team before a three-member ethics panel. Cathy Hazelwood, general counsel to the state Ethics Commission, said no date has been set for the hearing. After arguments are presented, the panel will determine if Sanford broke any state laws. The ethics case involves civil charges that are punishable by fines, and Sanford can appeal decisions up to the state Supreme Court. Only the state attorney general, Henry McMaster, can decide to pursue criminal charges against the governor. McMaster is reviewing the allegations to determine if any laws were broken. The new charges compound Sanford's political problems, which have been simmering for months as investigators scrutinized his finances. State legislators already have filed an impeachment resolution against the governor for leaving the state this summer to visit his Argentine mistress without installing a proper chain of command or informing his staff. A special House subcommittee will meet in Columbia on Tuesday to formally consider the resolution for the first time. State Rep. Greg Delleney, a Republican and one of the sponsors of the impeachment resolution, said he expects the subcommittee to look over the ethics commission results during the Thanksgiving holiday and decide whether to adjust the measure to include material from the ethics complaint. Delleney said he thinks Monday's report will give new momentum to the impeachment push. \"The sheer volume of the violations might be useful in bringing some more representatives over to the side of impeachment,\" Delleney said. If the special subcommittee decides to move forward with impeachment, the resolution will be passed onto the Judiciary Committee, which will then vote on whether to bring it to the floor of the legislature when lawmakers return to the state capital of Columbia in January. For Sanford to be forcibly removed from office, two-thirds of the South Carolina House and and two-thirds of the state Senate must vote to impeach him.","highlights":"Sanford is accused of using tax money for personal travel .\nSanford announced affair with Argentine woman in June .\nEthics case involves civil charges that are punishable by fines .\nLegislators already have filed an impeachment resolution against Sanford ."} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has been hospitalized with fever and fatigue, the royal palace said Sunday. King Bhumibol Adulyadej attends a celebration of his 81st birthday in Bangkok on December 2, 2008. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, was admitted to a Bangkok hospital on Saturday night. Doctors are monitoring his condition while administering antibiotics and intravenous fluid, the statement from the Royal Household Bureau said. The statement was carried by Thai News Agency and other local media. The king was formally crowned on May 5, 1950. Watch why king's health is big issue \u00bb . Thailand abolished absolute monarchy in the 1930s, so the king wields little power although he last month appealed for unity amid Thailand's four-year-long political crisis. He remains a deeply revered figure and enjoys immense popularity. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters on Sunday that the king visited hospital on doctors' advice. \"There is no problem with His Majesty's conditions. From my chats with doctors, there is nothing to be concerned about,\" Abhisit said after signing a visitors' log book at the hospital, according to Reuters.com.","highlights":"Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej is hospitalized with fever and fatigue .\nKing Bhumibol Adulyadej is world's longest-reigning monarch .\nKing wields little power but is deeply revered and enjoys immense popularity ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tip from a television viewer led to the arrest of a Florida man accused of killing four of his family members on Thanksgiving Day, authorities said early Sunday. Paul M. Merhige is accused of fatally shooting his twin sisters, a 6-year-old cousin and a 79-year-old aunt at a family home in Jupiter, Florida, on November 26. One of his sisters was pregnant. Authorities say Merhige also wounded two other family members. A viewer of \"America's Most Wanted\" recognized descriptions of Merhige and his car, authorities said at a news conference early Sunday. Officers immediately responded to the tip late Saturday, surrounding a small motel in the Middle Keys, part of the Florida Keys. Merhige, who had apparently been at the Monroe County motel since December 2, did not resist apprehension by U.S. marshals, authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether he was armed when marshals burst into his motel room, more than 200 miles from Jupiter. Merhige made a first appearance in a West Palm Beach, Florida, court later Sunday morning in a hearing that lasted only minutes, according to CNN affiliate WPTV. He is charged with four counts of premeditated murder and attempted first-degree murder. Asked by the judge if he had anything to say, Merhige declined comment, WPTV said. His next court appearance is scheduled for February 1. He will be held without bond at the Palm Beach County jail. Jim Sitton, father of 6-year-old Makayla, who was killed, told CNN affiliate WPTV late Saturday that he would \"sleep a little better tonight.\" \"I won't be patrolling my house with a shotgun, looking for the monster. ... I've been in protective mode,\" he said. \"This doesn't bring Makayla back. I'm not jumping for joy. Her room is still empty. But the monster is in a cage now.\" The \"America's Most Wanted\" tipster told authorities that Merhige had checked into the Edgewater Lodge motel under the name John Baca and provided an address in Homestead, Florida, according to a news release from police in Jupiter, Florida. No one at the motel was immediately available for comment, but its Web site included photos of waterfront rooms, efficiencies and townhouses starting at $89 a night. Merhige had paid cash at least two weeks in advance, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release. He was on a computer when marshals burst into his second-story room. Merhige had tried to disguise his 2007 Blue Toyota Camry with a car cover and had switched its vehicle tag with one from another car he'd owned, the statement said. He also had shaved his head in an attempt to disguise his identity, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said. Last month, the marshals added Merhige to their list of the Top 15 most-wanted fugitives. A total of $100,000 was offered as a reward for information leading to Merhige's arrest, the sheriff's office said, and the tipster may be entitled to it. The agency also released some distinguishing characteristics about Merhige, saying he was known to either fake or display symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, such as frequent bathing and shaving, and difficulty making decisions. He also had faked or displayed symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, and taken several prescription drugs for the ailments, the agency said.","highlights":"Viewer tip led to arrest of man suspected of fatally shooting four relatives on Thanksgiving .\nPaul Michael Merhige arrested late Saturday at Florida motel .\nTipster told authorities Merhige had checked into motel under assumed name ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Janelle Monae is a girl from another planet, and she's invading your world. Janelle Monae creates \"cool, futuristic soul with a real '80s quality,\" says a DJ. Sightings of the singer-songwriter will include this week's \"American Idol\" finale, the Hollywood Bowl and concert stages across America this summer and TV's Sci Fi Channel this fall. Monae insists that her real identity is Cindi Mayweather, an android traveling through space and time to escape destruction ordered because she fell in love with a human, a fatal infraction of robots' rules. Along the way, she's making music that moves into the future while drawing from decades past. \"It is cool, futuristic soul with a real '80s quality,\" said Garth Trinidad, a disc jockey at Los Angeles, California, radio station KCRW. Trinidad spotted Monae three years ago, and he's been watching her like an astronomer tracking the approach of a distant comet destined to light Earth's sky. \"I believe she's going to be a household name in the next year or two,\" said Trinidad, a self-described \"champion of the underdog\" who is credited with giving Jill Scott and Gnarls Barkley early radio airplay. Monae -- the human -- is a striking combination of voice, style, imagination and fearlessness that defies conventional description, making it easier to buy into the fantasy of Mayweather the android. When her song \"Many Moons\" was nominated for a Grammy in December, it was in the urban\/alternative category. If Monae is an android from the future, her musical programming included the past. Trinidad compared her \"very fluid, very pleasing\" voice to Donna Summer, circa 1976. At a Los Angeles show this month, she mixed 20th-century classics with her own futuristic songs. Monae delivered a sweet version of Nat King Cole's \"Smile\" while standing atop a barstool. Senior citizens danced the \"Twist\" when her band broke out into the Beatles' 1964 hit \"I Saw Her Standing There.\" She loves timeless music, Monae said after her show. \"We look to a lot of people whose bodies are dead and gone, but their spirit is still with us,\" Monae said. Her choreography borrows from James Brown, Michael Jackson and Devo, with dance moves from the future. Monae -- or Mayweather -- thinks she can fly. She jumped head-first into the audience, \"crowd surfing\" the unlikely mosh pit in UCLA's Royce Hall. Search Monae's name on YouTube and you'll see her jumping into swimming pools to end her shows. She climbed a tree in New York -- after her swim. Unlike some performers, her talent matches Monae's onstage antics, Trinidad said. \"It's one thing for her to perform a certain way, but she backs with it up with talent,\" he said. Monae's android-on-the-run theme, reminiscent of the 1982 movie \"Blade Runner,\" reminds Trinidad \"of all the great albums from the past that had a story and concept attached.\" \"She was just kind of like bored with everything else going on, and she wanted to transcend it and tell a story,\" he said. Monae said she is not following a formula, that she is \"being led by my maker.\" \"I'm very similar to a terminal,\" she said. Monae will inevitably capture the world's attention because she is \"outshining a lot of what's happening in the mainstream,\" Trinidad said. That time may be near. Sean \"Diddy\" Combs signed her to his Bad Boy Records, giving her music distribution. Coca-Cola hired Monae to sing on its \"Open Happiness\" ad campaign. It airs on this week's \"American Idol\" finale. Her tour stops next month include at least six shows in the northeastern United States, opening for Gwen Stefani's reunited rock group No Doubt. Monae then plays the Hollywood Bowl with the legendary jazz singer Etta James. She plays herself in two episodes of the Sci Fi Channel's \"Stargate Universe\" this fall.","highlights":"Janelle Monae popping up on commercial, on tour, on TV .\nSinger has alter ego: Cindi Mayweather, futuristic android on the run .\nObservers praise talent: \"I believe she's going to be a household name,\" says DJ ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From baby deliveries to unexpected deaths, Mike Bowes, a 911 dispatcher from Quincy, Massachusetts, has handled a wide range of emergency calls. Emergency dispatcher Mike Bowes received a call that his home was in flames Monday night. But Monday night, the 44-year-old received an unexpected call from his neighbor: His own house was on fire. The 911 call came in about 10:45 p.m. Monday, a little more than an hour before Mike Bowes' shift ended. My neighbor's house just blew up, the caller said. \"What's the address?\" Mike Bowes asked patiently, just as he did with every emergency call for the past 11 years with the Quincy Police Department. The caller frantically relayed the address, Bowes' home address for 20 years. \"It was shocking,\" Mike Bowes said. \"I thought she was kidding. It's a long shot. I mean, what's the chances it will be your house?\" Out of 90,000 people who reside in Quincy, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, Mike Bowes' was the home in flames, and he had answered the emergency call. Thoughts raced through his mind: Are my parents OK? Are the neighbors safe? What about my stuff? Following procedure, Mike Bowes transferred the call to the fire department. Soon, dozens of calls about the fire from other neighbors began to pour into the control room. Watch Mike Bowes talk about the fire \u00bb . One of the callers was his mother, Elizabeth Bowes, 68. She and her husband, Donald Bowes, 72, had escaped unharmed. About 10:45 p.m., Elizabeth Bowes was reading a novel in the kitchen when she heard the explosion and saw flames shoot through the kitchen window. She ran to wake her husband in a first-floor bedroom. There was also a landlord living in upstairs. Firefighters arrived within minutes and helped her to safety. Within five minutes of receiving the call, police escorted Mike Bowes to his home. He could see the fire light up the dark sky from afar. Anxious neighbors gathered in the park nearby. He was relieved to find his parents together on the sidewalk. \"My parents are alive; my neighbors are alive,\" he said. \"It's an inconvenience, but we'll get through it.\" In another coincidence, one of the first firefighters to arrive on scene was Mike Bowes' cousin, Tom Bowes. Tom Bowes, a firefighter for the past eight years, scrambled into the house to salvage old albums with wedding and baby photos amid the flames. But everything else -- the clothes, electronics and furniture -- were destroyed. No one was injured in the fire, and firefighters have yet to determine what caused the blaze. They say it started in the garage, about 15 feet from the home. Mike Bowes says his job prepared him to deal with the challenging circumstances. Bowes and his family are living in a hotel, and local police officers and firefighters have donated clothes and money. \"A lot of people think dispatchers are strange because I've been joking about what happened,\" he said. \"I say, 'If I'm not laughing, I'll start crying.' This is what I have to do.\"","highlights":"Massachusetts dispatcher answered neighbor's call about burning home .\nThree other people in home escaped uninjured .\nHe says his dispatch experience with crises helps him cope with losing a home ."} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan electoral officials Monday declared incumbent President Hamid Karzai the winner of another term in office, after canceling this weekend's second round of voting. U.S. President Barack Obama called Monday for a \"new chapter\" of improved governance in Afghanistan now that Karzai's re-election as president is complete. Observers say Karzai's real test will be whether he can form a government that is seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people and the international community. Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission announced Karzai's victory Monday after it canceled Saturday's presidential runoff because of the withdrawal of candidate Abdullah Abdullah. A runoff could have been held with just one candidate, but commission president Azizullah Lodin said electoral officials decided to cancel the second round of voting for several reasons, including security and money. The decision was made just a couple of hours before the announcement, according to commission deputy Zakria Barakzai. Afghans went to the polls on August 20, in a vote marred by widespread fraud. Karzai had initially claimed victory, but two months after the vote, a U.N.-backed panel of election monitors threw out nearly a third of his votes, citing fraud. That left Karzai short of a majority, and he eventually agreed to the runoff. Abdullah had called for the resignations of top election officials and politicians to avert electoral fraud in the runoff. He argued that the commissioners, who are hired by Karzai, cannot be impartial. But that request was not met, Abdullah said Sunday, and he did not believe a transparent election was possible. \"I want this to be an example for the future so that no one again tries to use fraud to abuse the rights of the Afghan people,\" Abdullah told reporters. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Kabul on Monday hours before the commission's announcement. He issued a statement welcoming the decision, congratulating Karzai, and restating the U.N.'s commitment to supporting the new government. \"This has been a difficult election process for Afghanistan and lessons must be learned,\" Ban said in the statement. \"Afghanistan now faces significant challenges and the new president must move swiftly to form a government that is able to command the support of both the Afghan people and the international community.\" On Monday, Ban met with both Karzai and Abdullah, as well as U.N. officials, including Kai Eide, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also issued a statement Monday welcoming the commission's decision and congratulating Karzai. In Washington, President Barack Obama told reporters in the White House that he had congratulated Karzai in a telephone conversation. \"Although the process was messy, I'm pleased to say that the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law,\" Obama said. He said he told Karzai \"that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption, joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces so that the Afghan people can provide for their own security.\" Obama added that Karzai assured him he understands the importance of the moment, \"but as I indicated to him, the proof is not going to be in words, it's going to be in deeds.\" Despite the resolved election issue, Gibbs refused to put a firm timetable on when Obama would announce whether he would increase troop levels Afghanistan. Instead, Gibbs repeated past language that the decision would be made within weeks. \"Now begin the hard conversations about ensuring credibility and ensuring improving governance, addressing corruption\" in Afghanistan, Gibbs said. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican defeated by Obama in last year's presidential race, said Monday that Karzai's re-election should encourage Obama to fulfill Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for up to 40,000 more troops. \"The most urgent priority now is to support our Afghan partners in reversing what General McChrystal has rightly called the 'deteriorating' security situation,\" McCain said in a statement. \"This requires a properly-resourced counterinsurgency strategy, and I urge President Obama to provide our civilian and military leaders with the resources they need to succeed.\" The cancellation of the runoff \"puts the election issue behind us,\" but Karzai has yet to achieve a true victory, according to the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. \"Now the key issue is how the Afghan people will react to this, what kind of government will President Karzai put together, and how the international community will react,\" Khalilzad said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"We're in a new stage now in Afghanistan.\" Khalilzad had predicted last week that Abdullah would quit the race, in an interview for CNN's \"Amanpour.\" \"First, he doesn't have much money left,\" he said in the interview, which aired Sunday. \"Second, I think that he thinks that given the situation, he's likely to lose, and maybe he'll get less votes than he did in the first round, so that would be embarrassing.\" Speaking to CNN following his withdrawal, Abdullah said his decision does not mean he has given up public life. \"I will be available to serve this country,\" he said. \"At this stage, I am in consultation with my followers, with my supporters and a movement for change will be there and I will lead that movement. There is no doubt about it.\" Karzai served as acting president following the U.S. ouster of Taliban rulers in 2001, then secured a victory in the 2004 elections. He begins his second term in office amid a resurgence of the Taliban. The militants claimed responsibility for a Wednesday attack that killed five United Nations workers -- two of whom were helping with the vote. Nine others were wounded in the attack, on a guest house in Kabul. In response, the United Nations ordered nonessential personnel out of the country. International troop levels increased this year to provide security for the Afghan election in August. Attacks against U.S. and NATO forces have also spiked: 59 American troops died in Afghanistan in October, the highest U.S. monthly toll since the war began eight years ago. CNN's Jonathan Wald in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama called for \"new chapter\" of improved governance in Afghanistan .\nKarzai made president following withdrawal of opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah .\nAbdullah withdrew Sunday, saying he believed the second round would be as fraudulent .\nHamid Karzai has been president of Afghanistan since December 2004 ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- World War II didn't just divide the world. It also divided four brothers. Ken (left) and Harry Akune served in the U.S. military during World War II. Not long after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Harry and Ken Akune were sent to live in an internment camp in Amache, Colorado. When the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service came to their camp to recruit Japanese-speaking volunteers as interpreters, they joined so they could prove their loyalty to their country. Across the world in Japan, their father Ichiro was raising the rest of his large family -- which had returned to his home country after the death of his wife -- in a fishing village, Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu. The youngest brothers, Saburo and Shiro, were just teenagers when they were drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy. The brothers, four of the Akunes' nine children, had all been born or raised in the United States; Ichiro Akune owned a grocery business before moving back to Japan. Harry and Ken had been sent back to America to work and earn money for the family. Watch how brother fought brother during the war \u00bb . Harry and Ken graduated from language school in 1942 and were dispatched to the Pacific Theater. Ken served in Burma at the Office of War Information. His job was trying to create propaganda to persuade the Japanese to surrender rather than sacrifice their lives on the battlefield. Harry served in New Guinea and the Philippines. His ethnicity didn't endear him to some of his colleagues. \"I had an intelligence officer who disliked me,\" Harry recalled. Before a parachute jump onto the island of Corregidor with the 503rd Paratroopers late in the war, the officer stripped Harry of all of his gear, including his weapon. \"I got onto the airplane with only my parachute. A soldier took pity on me and helped find a rifle and one clip,\" he said. He survived, but many of his fellow soldiers did not. Twenty percent of them lost their lives just on the jump because of the jagged terrain and enemy fire. iReport.com: What did you do in the war? His work was heroic. Harry's interrogation of prisoners and translation of captured documents revealed a Japanese occupation force of over 5,000, which vastly outnumbered the American forces. \"My information helped reduce casualties,\" he said. Most of the Japanese soldiers chose death over what they perceived as dishonor. Harry says only 22 were captured, with the rest dying in combat or suicide attacks -- and they often weren't satisfied with dying alone. At one point, with Harry's back turned, a prisoner jumped him and tried to kill him. Harry recalls the incident vividly. \"My guard beat him with his gun. It seemed like this prisoner was clinging to me for dear life,\" he said. \"That feeling I have never lost. Even though he was the enemy, to see him die the way he did, affected me.\" The Japan-based Akune brothers saw death from the other perspective, as part of the war effort. Saburo became a spotter for kamikazes, known for their suicide dive-bomb missions on Allied ships. Shiro, just 15, served at Sasebo, a naval base, helping to orient new recruits. He remembers American Grumman torpedo planes flying into the harbor. \"Bap, bap, bap ... ships going down ... we just watching! We cannot do anything!\" he remembered. After the war, the Akune brothers discovered they served against each other, leading to ill feelings on both sides. Harry and Ken, now in Japan as members of the Allied Prisoner of War Recovery Team, joined Saburo and Shiro at a family reunion in Kagoshima. \"When we first met, the topic of the war came up. Both sides were saying their side was right,\" Ken said. \"Saburo and Shiro got really hot and stood up, they wanted to fight us.\" \"The propaganda situation in Japan was very extreme,\" Shiro said. \"The elders told you what you should do is revere the emperor like a god, and if you didn't abide by it, you were physically harmed.\" It took the intercession of their father to stop the familial battle. \"Shut up,\" the elder Akune said. \"The war is over.\" All four brothers ended up in the United States, with Shiro -- ironically -- serving as an American GI in Korea. Saburo died several years ago, but Shiro, Harry and Ken continue to live in Southern California. Ken still volunteers full time with the \"Go For Broke\" National Education Center, which preserves the memory of Japanese-American soldiers who served the United States in World War II. Harry says his military service helped him identify as an American. \"The benefit of going to war for the United States helped me manage myself not as a Japanese-American, but more like an American. I feel very happy I was able to do that,\" he said. But he holds nothing against the two brothers who fought for the other side. \"They were in Japan, educated there. It's only right to be loyal to the Japanese force,\" he said. \"I feel like they were like any other Japanese and we were like any other American. Two sides had their ideas, and there was a clash,\" he said. \"Everything worked out. All four of us were able to survive without having to be casualties of the war.\"","highlights":"Two Akune brothers fought for U.S., two for Japan in World War II .\nU.S. brothers had been in internment camp; served as interpreters .\nJapanese brothers drafted as teens; one was spotter for kamikaze pilots .\nBrothers reunited after end of war; all ended up living in U.S."} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- It may run contrary to the conventional image of a sport obsessed with the latest technological improvement but, from Stockholm to Shanghai, players are turning back the clock to take part in the latest craze -- hickory golf. The game, which involves using 19th century wooden-shafted clubs, has proved a hit as national championships in the United States, Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Sweden and Finland have blossomed. Companies too have been attracted to the format as a way of motivating staff. \"Golfers love a challenge,\" says Gavin Bottrell, who runs hickory golf days in Britain. \"There's a saying about modern golf clubs that you can buy any shot out of the shop. Playing with hickory makes people think more about their swing and be clever about their shots.\" Hickory clubs were used widely until the 1930s, when manufacturers turned to more modern materials for construction. However, despite their lesser performance, the attraction of dressing up in old-fashioned golfing garb and hacking around 18 holes with mashies, niblicks and cleeks -- the evocative names given to the clubs used by Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Henry Cotton -- has endured. The format has a huge following in the U.S. where devotees gather at historic courses to play an \"authentic\" round of golf. Hampton Munsey, who organizes the U.S. Hickory Open in Morganton, North Carolina, says the size of the field has almost doubled since the event was first held in 2008. This year's tournament already has entrants from Sweden and Germany, with players' ages ranging from 20 to 70. \"The camaraderie is almost as important as the game itself,\" says Munsey, a member of the Society of Hickory Golfers. \"People feel a certain level of pride at being able to play with the old clubs and do well with them.\" Bottrell, a university researcher, has been buying and selling hickory clubs since 1995. He now has 60 full sets, which he rents out to companies as a package for $934. Recently, he has noticed an increase in interest from abroad, with amateur golfers from Germany, South Korea and Australia all wanting their own slice of hickory history. But Bottrell's profit margins are nothing compared to one Scottish collector. In April last year, Edinburgh antiques dealer John Dixon sold 7,000 clubs to a Chinese entrepreneur for $193,500. The load has since been shipped to China in bundles of 20. \"I think he is tapping into a growing market over there. New golf courses are opening in China all the time,\" says Dixon. \"If they are building so many courses they need the merchandise and the memorabilia to go with it.\" At Bottrell's hickory golf days, participants try to enter the spirit of the era by dressing up in knickerbockers, neckties, flat caps and braces. \"They usually raid local charity shops and come up with some kind of outfit,\" he said. \"They sometimes look like they've stepped out of a pantomime. There's quite a lot of confusion as to what golfers were wearing in the early 1900s.\"","highlights":"Hickory golf is enjoying a revival in all corners of the world .\nCompanies in the UK are paying up to $934 to hire hickory clubs for corporate team-building days .\nThe U.S. Hickory Open draws entrants from Europe and Asia with ages ranging from 20 to 70 .\nLast year, a Chinese businessman paid $193,500 for 7,000 hickory clubs ."} -{"article":"CNN's Susan Lisovicz sat down with her uncle Lenny Lisovicz, a decorated D-Day veteran, to talk about his experiences at war. CNN's Susan Lisovicz spoke to her Uncle Lenny about his D-Day and war experiences. HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Decorated D-Day veteran Lenny Lisovicz says the whispers are true. For 65 years my family had heard whispers that he and 220 men stormed Omaha Beach and that he and his captain later went AWOL in Paris, France. They heard he returned to combat and fought all the way to Germany and his courage was rewarded with the prestigious Silver Star. Then -- after that sacrifice and loss -- he was committed to a hospital. On the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Uncle Lenny finally talked at length about everything he had seen and done. And he said it was all true. Nowadays, Uncle Lenny lives a tranquil life. At 91, he is proud of his garden, where he grows corn, tomatoes and grapefruit. He takes in stray cats, attends Mass and sends money regularly to Catholic missionaries. But his thoughts are never far away from a sliver of sand thousands of miles away. He turned down my offer to visit Normandy. \"I don't want to see it. I try to rub that out of my mind. It won't go away,\" he said. But now, he finally agreed to share his memories. Watch Uncle Lenny describe storming the beach \u00bb . It began with The Longest Day: June 6, 1944. My uncle was a 26-year-old lieutenant with the Army 1st Infantry Division, the famed \"Big Red One.\" They had been training in England for something big for months. Then, over the loudspeakers in the barracks came the famous declaration from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: \"You are about to embark on the Great Crusade.\" The Germans were taken by surprise in one of the greatest amphibious invasions of all time, which would mark a turning point of the war in Europe. \"I just imagined what that enemy observer felt when he looked through that concrete bunker and looked out at that ocean and all he could see was boats, warships,\" Lisovicz said. But the Nazis had a superior position. \"They had you pinpointed. It was just like shootin' ducks on a pond. Your comrades would get artillery busted. A hand flying here, a leg there, guts laying out on the ground, asking for help and you couldn't help them. You had to move. You just had to push them aside,\" he recalled. But the Allies couldn't push their way onto the cliffs until a massive air assault began. \"At times there were so many planes in the sky you couldn't see the sky... ,\" Lisovicz said. \"You could see them forming from all directions coming into one pattern. And that's how we got off the beach, darlin'.\" Their orders were to meet up with the paratroopers, who landed behind enemy lines. My uncle said they found them by smell, because they were all dead. \"They backed them in a corner and machine gunned them down and didn't have enough decency to cover them,\" he said. That was when an unwritten order came down: \"No prisoners. And we didn't take any.\" It was shortly after this that he decided he had enough. He and the captain went AWOL in Paris. To add insult to injury, they stole the major's jeep. Their freedom lasted only about a week. \"The MP told us he was going to shoot us for going AWOL. But who cares? You didn't care anymore,\" Lisovicz said. \"You were just fed up with war, fed up with killing, just absolutely fed up.\" But they weren't shot -- not by Americans, anyway. My uncle and the captain went back into combat. The captain was killed by a camouflaged tank. My uncle was now the commanding officer. And the fighting was ferocious as he battled his way into Germany. He set trip wires for flares in one pivotal battle. At about 3 a.m., the flares went off. The Germans had overrun the outer defenses of the platoon. It was chaos. The Silver Star says that he \"skillfully deployed men and weapons into strategic positions and with accurately directed fire, held the foe at bay until supporting troops arrived and repulsed the attack.\" But there was more. \"When I looked up I seen a man walking up with two of my comrades. It was a German. So I went after him. And got him and brought my men back,\" he said. The Silver Star described it as \"extraordinary gallantry and aggressive leadership.\" Only 22 of the 220 men that stormed the beach with him came home alive. That was the last time my uncle saw combat. He had been hit. He learned about his Silver Star in the hospital. He wanted to return, but he was shell-shocked. \"It took them a year and a half of my life for them to straighten me out and get back to civilian life,\" he said.","highlights":"Sixty-five years after D-Day, CNN correspondent's uncle talks about experience .\nLenny Lisovicz describes day he and his unit stormed Omaha Beach .\nHe says the Nazis \"had you pinpointed. It was just like shootin' ducks on a pond\"\nLisovicz was one of 22, out of 220 men in his group, to return home alive ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- You don't want to monkey around on a blind date, especially if your friends are also taking an interest in the same dark, handsome stranger. Jookie, as she is known, studies a poster of French gorilla Yeboah, who is heading for London Zoo. So when three female gorillas at London Zoo heard that they would soon be visited by a brooding French hunk -- well, they went a bit bananas. The latest development in Anglo-French relations sees Yeboah, a 20-stone 12-year-old, leave his current home at La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, Pays de la Loire, northwest France and head for the British capital by the end of the year. There he will be greeted by gorilla trio Zaire, Effie and Mjukuu, who were given posters of their prospective boyfriend for the first time Thursday. One female gorilla shrieked in delight, while another wedged the poster in a tree to stare at it. A third, clearly overcome by emotion, held the photo close to her chest -- then ate it. Their reception was somewhat unsurprising. The zoo has been without a male gorilla since the demise of Bobby, a silverback, in December. Tracey Lee, team leader at London Zoo, put in a good word for the hirsute lothario on the London Zoo Web site, saying Yeboah is \"a very charming, fun loving and intelligent gorilla.\" But whom will Yeboah choose to charm first? Zaire, at 34, is the oldest female gorilla and has been at London Zoo since 1984. The zoo says she's \"happiest when she's taking down and rebuilding her nest in various spots around the island. She loves to play with fabric and often drags it around with her all day. \" Then there's Effie, 16, who \"enjoys seeing toddlers and often makes her way over to the glass when they come to see her,\" according to the zoo Web site. Finally there's 10-year-old Mjukuu, or \"Jookie.\" Dan Simmonds, a keeper at the zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, says she \"has this 'butter wouldn't melt look' to her, and she gets away with murder.\" \"The other two females get along with her very well; she seems to have them all wrapped around her little finger.\" Bridget Fallon contributed to this story.","highlights":"London Zoo has been without a male gorilla since December .\nFrench gorilla Yeboah is being sent from La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, NW France .\nFemale gorillas at London have been shown posters of their new guest ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Korean Air was established as a private airline in March 1969. In nearly 35 years, it has grown 150 times and is poised to continue that growth into the next millennium. With a fleet of 124 aircraft, Korean Air is one of the world's top 20 airlines, and operates almost 400 passenger flights per day to 115 cities in 37 countries. Korean Air was named the Best First\/Business Class Airline and the Best Frequent Flyer Program in TIME Readers' Travel Choice Awards 2006. In April and July 2007 respectively, the carrier was named the Best Economy Class in the OAG Airline of the Year Awards and the Skytrax 2006\/7 World Airline Awards. It is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global airlines alliance partnering Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM and Northwest Airlines. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Korean Air was established as a private airline in March 1969 .\nIt has a fleet of 124 planes and operates almost 400 passenger flights per day .\nIt is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global airlines alliance ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Australia's new prime minister assured Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday that his country's troops intend to be in Afghanistan \"for the long haul.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, shakes hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Kevin Rudd and French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew into the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday to meet with Karzai and visit their respective country's troops participating in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. In a morning meeting, Sarkozy \"assured President Karzai of his government's long term political and military support with the people of Afghanistan,\" according to a statement from the Afghan president's office. Rudd, who was elected in a landslide victory Nov. 24, appeared with Karzai at a news conference, where he repeatedly said that the Australian commitment to Afghanistan is strong. \"We will be, as I said before, in this country, Afghanistan, for the long haul. It's important for us to be here in partnership with NATO countries,\" Rudd said. \"On the question of the broader security policy challenges faced within Afghanistan, of course they are significant, they are real. But we are confident that in partnership with our friends in the Afghan government and with our other allies, particularly in NATO, that we can continue to achieve real progress in the long-term security of this country,\" he added. Australia's new defense minister, however, warned U.S. and NATO allies recently that they risk losing the war in Afghanistan without a sharp shift in military and reconstruction efforts there. Joel Fitzgibbon, who took office with Rudd allies during a conference in Scotland earlier this month, said that more work needs to be done to win the \"hearts and minds\" of the people of Afghanistan in the 6-year-old war against the country's former Taliban rulers and their al Qaeda allies. Karzai wished those at the news conference a merry Christmas, then thanked Australia, France and other countries for their help and support. More than 1,900 French troops are in Afghanistan, serving both the ISAF and the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Australia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the war in Afghanistan, with nearly 1,000 troops stationed mostly in the southern province of Oruzgan. Sarkozy, elected to lead France last May, told the U.S. Congress during a visit last month that France would stand \"shoulder to shoulder\" with the United States on the war in Afghanistan. \"Let me tell you solemnly today: France will remain engaged in Afghanistan as long as it takes, because what's at stake in that country is the future of our values and that of the Atlantic Alliance,\" he said. Rudd made a surprise visit Friday to Iraq, where he promised continued Australian aid, despite a decision to withdraw all 550 Australian troops in Iraq by mid-2008 -- an effort his predecessor, John Howard, staunchly opposed. Rudd had said he would start a phased withdrawal of Australian forces from Iraq if his Labor Party won the vote. E-mail to a friend . Journalist Farhad Peikar in Kabul contributed to this report.","highlights":"French and Australian leaders arrive in Afghanistan .\nBoth leaders expected to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai .\nBoth will visit with their respective country's troops ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: John Feehery worked as a staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients including the News Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. John Feehery says Al Franken's victory gives liberal Democrats a dominant position in Washington . (CNN) -- The metric system is the kind of thing that you can expect from the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority Democrats now have in the United States Senate. After the Watergate scandal in 1974, Democrats trounced Republicans in the mid-term elections, getting 61 seats in the Senate and 291 in the House. In the Senate, they adjusted the rules to make it harder for Republicans to filibuster (reducing the magic number from 67 to 60 to invoke cloture, which ends debate). In the House, they passed all kinds of reforms to take power away from senior members and give it to junior members. And Congress mandated that the American people embrace the metric system. The metric system idea never really caught on, and although the pain of Watergate afflicted Republicans for another two elections, they eventually pulled themselves out of their deep hole, with some good ideas and a charismatic leader, who promised to restore America to greatness. Democrats have once again reached the magic number of 60, as Norm Coleman finally threw in the towel against the one-time joke writer for Saturday Night Live, Al Franken. Republicans have little reason to laugh, though, as they look at their diminished ranks and wonder how they have put themselves in such a weakened position. It was only four-and-a-half years ago that the GOP was on the top of the world, and some of their more smug strategists were confidently predicting a permanent Republican majority. This is a good time for such self-reflection. Republicans lost three top-notch senators in the last election -- Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith and John Sununu -- who lost not because they were bad senators, or because they had scandals, or because they had lost touch with constituents. All three lost because they were Republicans. In other words, the brand killed them. And if you look at the latest polls, the GOP brand hasn't gotten any better in the last six months. In fact, according to Gallup, even 38 percent of Republicans have a negative view of the Republican Party. But let's not throw in the towel yet, my Republican friends. Just as in the mid-1970s, when Democratic overreach led to a Republican resurgence, the house that Franken has built will inevitably collapse on its own leftward-self. A new Gallup poll shows that the American people are starting to catch on that Democrats are pushing the country to a place that it doesn't want to go. The poll \"finds a statistically significant increase since last year in the percentage of Americans who describe the Democratic Party's views as being \"too liberal,\" from 39 percent to 46 percent. This is the largest percentage saying so since November 1994, after the party's losses in that year's midterm elections.\" It is no surprise that Americans would have that impression of Democrats in the White House and in Congress. When they passed a so-called stimulus bill that Republicans branded as pork-filled, they lost their credibility on fiscal responsibility. When the president assumed control over General Motors, dictated terms to Chrysler, and then refused to allow some banks to pay back their TARP loans, independent voters grew nervous about the government's stepped-up intervention in the private sector. And last week, when Democrats passed a climate change bill that Republicans insist will sharply raise energy prices for middle-class families, moderate Democrats started to jump ship. In fact, 44 Democrats defied intense pressure from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and voted no. Democrats are now making plans to intervene in the health care marketplace, with some liberals insisting on a government-run \"public option\" health insurer. In any event, many won't be satisfied until the government basically sets prices for health insurance and prescription drugs. The arrival of the man from Minnesota will make the Democrats move even more to the left. He will not only be one more vote for the left, but one more loud voice for liberal policies. Because of his celebrity status, he will attract media attention, and because of his philosophy, he will use that attention to move Democrats further left. When Franken first started in politics, he did so as the liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh. Imagine if Rush were the 60th vote for Republicans, with George Bush as president. Now, think how Franken will act as the 60th vote for President Obama. Yes, Democrats will move left by more than a few kilometers, but they will do so at their own peril. Another poll showed that while 40 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative, only 21 percent think of themselves as liberal. The American people voted for change. They didn't vote for a liberal orthodoxy that promises more government, higher taxes, slower growth, more pork and a liberal social agenda. In 1975, the newly dominant Democratic Congress sent President Gerald Ford a bill that declared that America was going to be metric, which he signed. When Jimmy Carter became president two years later, he signed a law that told Americans that they couldn't drive faster than 55 mph. These measures made perfect sense to the liberal sensibilities of the time. But they didn't make sense to the American people, and are symbols of a philosophy that was out of touch with the people in the 1970s and is still out of touch with the lives of most Americans today. Most Americans still don't use the metric system, and most certainly don't stick to the 55 mile an hour speed limit on the highways of America. And while they may still like Barack Obama and still laugh at jokes written by Al Franken, they will eventually grow weary of the newly dominant liberals who now run Washington. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Feehery.","highlights":"Feehery: With Franken as 60th vote in Senate, liberals dominant in D.C.\nHe says liberal control in 1970s led to bill to convert U.S. to metric system .\nFeehery says Democrats are overreaching and will lose public's support .\nHe says voters wanted change but not bigger government ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Steve Perry is the founder and principal of the Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, and author of \"Man Up!: Nobody is Coming to Save Us,\" which offers solutions to problems in the black community. Steve Perry says a question from a parent started his journey to creating a top-performing school. HARTFORD, Connecticut (CNN) -- \"Why do only rich kids get good schools?\" I was the founder and director of a part-time out-of-school college preparatory program. The questioner was a parent; herself a victim of a dulled urban education. The statement was more of an indictment than question, and I had no answer. \"Well, why can't this program be a school,\" she offered. The program sent 100 percent of our graduates to college. We served poor students who were the first generation in their families to attend college. We provided college preparation through a six-week summer program, after-school tutoring and in-school academic advising. That single mother's question came at the end of the summer program. This was always a tough time. As the kids said goodbye to their friends and the program's high expectations, we all looked at the school year with great trepidation. We knew that the students were returning to failed schools with very low expectations -- and results to match. Like that mom, I too wondered why wealth and whiteness are too often linked to quality education. Her question connected to a discussion that I'd been having with some colleagues during the summer program. All of the teachers in that program worked in failed urban schools. Many had tried to reform traditional urban schools. They'd started formal and informal programs, identified groups of kids and connected to parents. Each had had some success with some kids, but the conditions that led to the need to do something went unchanged. The question was raised at the end of our 2002 summer program. My first instinct was to begin down the path of opening an all-male minority charter school. In Connecticut, charter schools are publicly funded and privately run, with no teachers' unions, no school board influence and no centralized curriculum. These were the pluses. There was only one minus: There was no money. The charter idea was dead as soon as it began. I assembled an all -black team. My plan was to put black educators together, and we would show 'em. Brothers and sisters were gonna open a successful charter school. Black educators serving black kids. This was my first major mistake. Talent and commitment have no color. Kids don't care what color their teachers are, and I shouldn't have either. After almost a year of stops and starts with a team that was not effectively assembled, I realized that I failed in my judgment because I did not keep my eye on the goal, which was to build a school that sent kids to college regardless of their hue or economic status. I have never made that mistake again. I doubled back and went into the schools and found the teachers who stayed the latest and arrived the earliest. I looked for the most ambitious teachers who had a reputation of being the most talented, and we started a second team. I am a social worker. I knew that I could run an organization, but wasn't sure about developing curriculum. When I created Team 2, my first pick was the best teacher I could find. Rich Beganski is the perfect complement, or opposite, of who I am. He's meticulous and lives and breathes curriculum. He is an operations genius. He was a longtime assistant coach who never wanted to be coach. I've never been an assistant and don't want to be one. Our team was composed of a white guy, a Latina, a black woman and a black man bound by a single commitment: to send kids to college. In 2003-04, Connecticut was settling a desegregation case. A component of the agreement was to open eight magnet schools in Hartford in two years. Magnet schools are publicly funded and publicly run theme-based schools, complete with unions and subordinate to the local school board. The part-time college preparatory program was hosted in a community college. The college's president was an impulsive visionary. On a Friday afternoon elevator ride from the 10th to the seventh floor, he said, \"Steve, we're gonna start a high school, you should run it.\" I told him I would and got off on the seventh floor. First thing that following Monday, I was in his office with the dead charter school application. Over the next few months, we tweaked it until it became a magnet application. With the help of some of the program's parents, we submitted it to Hartford's mayor, superintendent, and then the board. The process was anything but smooth. The district could not conceptualize what Capital Prep would become. A year-round college-preparatory uniform school for grades six to 12 was the absolute antithesis of the district's offerings. Hartford was either the worst or second-worst school system in Connecticut, with a high dropout rate and three failed traditional high schools. At first, Capital Prep was a poorly received idea. It became real, in large part, because of the state's settlement and our team's determination to answer the question. After receiving school board and state approval in December 2004, we were expected to open for August 2005. The problem was that while we had a \"team,\" Capital Prep didn't have a single employee. Since we were becoming Hartford Board of Education employees, we all had to apply for our jobs. My hire was relatively painless. Beganski, the team's operations genius, was turned away as an \"internal\" candidate. After two years of working 30 hours a week to turn an idea into a reality, he became our first central office\/union casualty. I promised to resign if he wasn't hired. Finally, the district relented and gave him the job that he had designed. This was to become an ongoing theme in the school's first few years: ridiculous actions focused on maintaining the failed status quo. We worked through the summer with the rest of the team. The district stumbled and stalled until, with less than two weeks before our first day of school, Capital Prep only had two staff members: Beganski and me. We were not allowed to hire a single teacher. Even though we had had a team that had worked for years researching and designing the school for no money, we were told that none of them could be hired because union rules dictated who and when we could hire. This meant that our last employee for year one was hired 14 hours before the first day of school. In the years that have followed, the struggles with the union and central office's narrow, regressive policies have tested our commitment to answer that mother's simple question. The complexity of the answer is rooted in Capital Prep's relationship to the failed policies of the once highly centralized district and educators' union. In recent years, a new superintendent has come on board -- the third in our first three years. His approach has been absolutely aligned with what we need to exist. He leaves us alone as long as we get results. He can't shield us from the unions, but he has supported our creativity and commitment to our kids. He lets me run the school, and our teachers teach what works. That's all we've ever sought. Answering the question of \"why only the rich kids get good schools\" has set our team on an odyssey. Seven years later, we have an answer that we are proud of. Rich kids are not the only kids who have good schools, because Capital Prep's 80 percent black\/Latino, 60 percent poor students attend one of America's top high schools, according to US News & World Report. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Steve Perry.","highlights":"Steve Perry: A parent asked why only rich kids get good schools .\nHe says question started process of building a quality school .\nPerry says his team fought bureaucracy, union to try something new .\nHe says his school is highly rated and sends all graduates to college ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- France coach Raymond Domenech has again omitted striker David Trezeguet from his squad for this month's friendly against Morocco and the Euro 2008 qualifier against the Ukraine. Happier times: David Trezeguet celebrates after scoring for Juventus against Torino. Trezeguet has scored scored 10 goals in 11 Serie A matches for Juventus this season -- including two hat-tricks -- but has failed to win his way back into the 24-man party. The 29-year-old, who last played for France in the 1-0 home defeat by Scotland in September, was furious after being dropped for the games against Lithuania and the Faroe Islands. He played no part as Domenech's team overtook the Scots at the top of Group B with comfortable victories last month. The coach said: \"David is having a great start to the season with Juventus, but he's in competition for a place. If we qualify, the Euro 2008 will be in eight months. A lot of things can happen in between. \"I hope David will help Juventus win the Italian league title and that he will be at the Euro 2008 with us, and that he will find his form again for France.\" Domenech has again included young Lyon forward Hatem Ben Arfa, who made his debut as a substitute against the Faroes and scored the final goal in a 6-0 victory. Ben Arfa is joined in the squad by club-mate Karim Benzema, while Bolton's Nicholas Anelka is also among the forwards named despite still recovering from an injury. Captain Patrick Vieira is ruled out due to injury, but the Inter Milan midfielder will join up with the squad anyway. \"A player of Patrick's dimension is going to be missed, but we just have to accept it and get on with it. Pat should be coming to see us because he's a leader, and he's the captain,\" Domenech added. France face the Moroccans on November 16 and then travel to the Ukraine on November 21. Domenech's team will qualify for the finals if Italy beat Scotland at Hampden on November 17. If the Glasgow game ends in a draw, France will need at least a point in Kiev to book their ticket. France squad: Goalkeepers: M Landreau (Paris St Germain), S Frey (Fiorentina), U Rame (Bordeaux). Defenders: E Abidal (Barcelona, P Evra (Manchester United), W Gallas (Arsenal), B Sagna (Arsenal), L Thuram (Barcelona), S Squillaci (Lyon), F Clerc (Lyon). Midfielders: A Diarra (Bordeaux), L Diarra (Arsenal), M Flamini (Arsenal), C Makelele (Chelsea), J Rothen (PSG), J Toulalan (Lyon), S Nasri (Marseille). Strikers: N Anelka (Bolton), H Ben Arfa (Lyon), K Benzema (Lyon), S Govou (Lyon), T Henry (Barcelona), F Malouda (Chelsea), F Ribery (Bayern Munich). E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"David Trezeguet omitted from France squad to play Morocco and the Ukraine .\nThe Juventus striker last played for his country in the 1-0 defeat by Scotland .\nHe was dropped for the wins against Lithuania and the Faroe Islands ."} -{"article":"NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- The accused came from all walks of life: Retirees, dads and twentysomethings. An engineer, a business owner and an auto worker. A man in a wheelchair. Men in need of Spanish or Farsi translators. Brett Beasley, with Nashville's Health Department, educates men arrested for trying to buy sex about STDs. About 40 men somberly entered a classroom on a recent Saturday morning. About half of them wore shiny wedding bands. All had tried to buy a prostitute's services and were caught by police. It was their first offense, and a county court referred them to a one-day program called the John School. It's a program run by volunteers and city officials in conjunction with Magdalene House, a nonprofit that works to get prostitutes off the streets. \"Prostitution doesn't discriminate,\" said Kenny Baker, a cognitive behavioral therapist who is the program's director. \"Most of these men don't have a prior criminal history, so our goal is to help these folks understand why they put themselves in a bad position, to prevent it from happening again.\" Set in a church in Nashville, Tennessee, the John School is led by former prostitutes, health experts, psychologists and law enforcement officers who talk to -- and at times berate -- the men about the risks of hiring a prostitute. Prostitution is based on the law of supply and demand. The thinking is: Women won't stop selling sex until men stop buying. So Nashville and a growing number of cities are shifting their focus from locking up suppliers to educating buyers. Across the country, about 50 communities are using John Schools. Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, are among dozens more cities that plan to launch similar programs by the end of the year. See where the John Schools are \u00bb . \"It will make them [offenders] see that this is not a victimless crime, and they are contributing to the exploitation of women,\" said Stephanie Davis, policy adviser on women's issues at the mayor's office in Atlanta. \"It's hurting them, the man, and it's hurting their families and its hurting the community.\" No comprehensive effort has been made to track the numbers, but experts estimate 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States. The FBI's 2007 Uniform Crime Report lists about 78,000 arrests for prostitution and commercialized vice, but experts say those numbers are extremely conservative because many sex workers and johns aren't caught. Experts add that easy accessibility to prostitutes and pornography on the Internet are feeding the problem. In most communities, prostitution has been a one-sided battle focused on the women who offer sex. Their customers, when they are arrested, are usually cited for a misdemeanor and fined. By comparison, prostitutes are often charged with more severe sentences and jailed for months, depending on the offense. But in Nashville, the johns' faces are shown on a police Web site. For decades, Nashville battled prostitution by arresting women on the streets and through stings. Still, the problem persisted, irritating business owners and residents. In the early 1990s, Nashville's mayor helped launch the John School with the help of the Magdalene House, public defenders, prosecutors and police officers. Nashville became one of the first major cities in the U.S. to focus on the customers, predominantly men. Only first-time offenders who solicit an adult are eligible for John School. Johns who pick up minors are not eligible and face much tougher sentences. \"If you get caught again and you get me, I will guarantee to put you in jail,\" warned Antoinette Welch, a local prosecutor, in speaking to the men in the class. \"I've had men cry to me that they will lose their jobs or their wives, but you're all grown up and you make your own decisions.\" The men listened carefully as Welch talked about their records; many had not yet told their wives or significant others about their arrest. If the john pleads guilty, pays a $250 fee and completes the course without re-offending, the charge can be dismissed after a year. The money paid by the john goes to Magdalene House; the program doesn't cost taxpayers any money. John School models in other communities may differ. A woman who called herself Alexis, a 35-year-old former prostitute with dark hair and bright blue eyes, spoke to the men as the class came to an end. Four years ago, she left the streets and now works at a factory. By the age of 10, Alexis had learned to barter with sex with her stepfather. In her 20s, she found herself hooked on drugs and selling her body. She was arrested more than 80 times. She was hospitalized after someone shot her on the job. As she told her story, the men were silent. A few blushed, while others stared at the floor. \"These gentlemen are no different than I was on the streets,\" she said. \"I think everyone has to look at the void they are trying to fill.\" One john, a father of two with salt-and-pepper hair, found himself near tears after Alexis spoke. In July, he tried to pick up a prostitute through Craigslist. He said he was depressed and having problems with his wife. \"I'm so embarrassed,\" he said. \"These girls are somebody's daughters. I have a daughter.\" Some evidence suggests that John Schools are working. A study released in 2008 by Abt Associates Inc. for the federal government looked at the John School program in San Francisco, California. It's one of the largest programs in the country; more than 7,000 johns have attended since 1995. According to the study, the re-arrest rate fell sharply after the school was launched, and stayed more than 30 percent lower for 10 years afterward. But critics call John School a slap on the wrist. On Saturday, one john abandoned the classroom. Carol Leigh, a member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, a group that promotes decriminalizing prostitution in California, said she doesn't believe the program is an effective deterrent. \"John School doesn't do that much,\" said Leigh, who has worked as a prostitute. \"The reality is they aren't spending that much time on the johns and they will just go to other venues. This also doesn't target the violent offenders who are the real problem.\" Melissa Farley, head of the nonprofit group Prostitution Research and Education in San Fransisco, believes johns deserve stronger punishment like longer prison sentences. A recent study by the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation conducted among johns in Chicago, Illinois, found that 41 percent of them said John School would deter them from buying sex, compared with 92 percent who said being placed on a sex offender registry would scare them from re-offending. Nashville officials said they haven't tracked recidivism rates in their city, but the school's program director said it's probably deterring a third of the offenders in each class. At least one college educated, 47-year-old john's attitude appeared to change on a recent Saturday. After class he wrote, \"There is no good part. I would rather be with my wife. This was quick but it wasn't worth it.\"","highlights":"Experts say about 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States .\nAbout 50 communities have programs that focus on deterring johns .\nNashville's program includes a speech from a former prostitute .\nThe Internet is making it easier for people to buy prostitutes, experts say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Game show host and comedian Howie Mandel's irregular heartbeat scare is over, his publicist said Tuesday. Howie Mandel had an irregular heartbeat, but he did not have a heart attack, his publicist said. \"Howie has been released from the hospital and will be back at work tomorrow,\" said Lewis Kay. \"He appreciates everyone's concern.\" Mandel, 53, checked into a Toronto hospital Monday so doctors could monitor his condition, Kay said. He was in Toronto, filming segments for a new show \"Howie Do It.\" The hour-long prank show debuted on NBC Friday. Mandel is the host of the American version of the game show \"Deal or No Deal,\" which has brought huge ratings for NBC.","highlights":"NEW: Howie Mandel released from Toronto hospital .\nHost of \"Deal or No Deal\" had been admitted with irregular heartbeat .\nComedian was in Toronto, Canada, filming segments for a new show, \"Howie Do It\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A legally insane killer who escaped in Washington state during a field trip to a fair was recaptured Sunday, the Spokane County Sheriff's Department said. Authorities combed Washington state for Phillip Paul, a killer who escaped Thursday during a field trip. Phillip Paul, who was on the run for three days, had been planning the break for \"at least the last several months,\" Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said at a news conference. Paul was recaptured at about 4 p.m. PT in Goldendale, Washington, sheriff's Sgt. Dave Reagan said. Goldendale is about 250 miles from the site of Paul's escape from a county fair in Spokane County, Washington. Police received a tip Saturday afternoon that Paul was dropped off by a person he managed to dupe into giving him a ride to Goldendale, Knezovich said. Police spotted him hiding in a wooded area about 100 yards from the drop-off point Sunday and eventually arrested him while he was trying to hitch another ride, Knezovich said. Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer. That same officer was involved in arresting Paul on Sunday, Reagan said. Paul, 47, escaped at around noon Thursday. Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to go on the trip to the county fair. Paul had packed all his personal belongings in a large backpack before leaving on the trip, which the sheriff said should have been a sign that Paul was \"about ready to do something this drastic.\" Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head. He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according to the documents. Paul's escape Thursday prompted a massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials and police. \"There was an extreme amount of anger throughout the law enforcement community that this event even took place,\" Knezovich said. \"This is a situation, in my opinion, that should have never happened.\" Knezovich also complained that hospital officials had not reported Paul's escape for two hours, which he said also hindered the investigation. A review of the policy that allows patients to take trips has been launched, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the Washington's Department of Social and Health Services. Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.","highlights":"Phillip Paul recaptured Sunday in Goldendale, Washington, authorities say .\nPaul duped someone into driving him 250 miles from escape site .\nPaul planned escape for at least several months, police say .\nLegally insane killer escaped Thursday during hospital field trip to fair ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the hero pilot who safely landed a full passenger jet in the Hudson River, was once again honored with cheers and applause Tuesday during a ceremony for him hosted by the governor of his home state. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gives hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger a flag and license plate. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, first lady Maria Shriver and other dignitaries greeted Sullenberger at the state Capitol rotunda in Sacramento. Taking a break from difficult negotiations over a troubled state budget, the governor presented Sullenberger with a jacket with the state seal, a California state flag that had flown over the state Capitol, a proclamation and a \"California Hero\" license plate. \"Today is a very important day,\" Schwarzenegger said. \"There are legislators upstairs that are negotiating and working on a budget -- [we] need a great hero in a state capitol.\" The Sullenberger family lives in Danville, California. Sullenberger's response was understated -- as it has been at other ceremonies, including a New York City Hall event when he was given the key to the city by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. \"On behalf of the other four crew members of Flight 1549 and also on behalf of the many thousands of aviation professionals whose daily devotion to duty keeps air travel safe, I gratefully accept this recognition,\" he said. Sullenberger and his crew safely landed the damaged airplane, believed to have hit a flock of birds, in the Hudson on January 15. All 155 passengers aboard the US Airways flight survived. CNN's Scott Thompson contributed to this report.","highlights":"California governor honors U.S. Airways pilot Capt. Chesley Sullenberger .\nSchwarzenegger: \"We need a great hero\" in state legislature like Sullenberger .\nSullenberger safely landed flight 1549 in the Hudson River in New York .\nSullenberger accepts recognition on behalf of crew members, others ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen married National Football League star Tom Brady Thursday in an \"intimate\" sunset ceremony, US Weekly magazine reported on its Web site. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen attend a Metropolitan Museum of Art gala May 5, 2008, in New York City. The couple wed at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, in front of mostly immediate family members, the entertainment magazine reported. The two had dated since 2006. The bride wore a Dolce & Gabbana gown. Her three dogs, which attended the ceremony, wore matching Dolce & Gabbana floral lace collars, the Web site said. Bundchen, 28, is the highest-paid model in the world, the business Web site Forbes.com reported last year. New England Patriots quarterback Brady has gone to the Super Bowl four times, winning three of those games.","highlights":"Couple weds at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, US Weekly reports .\nBride wears a Dolce & Gabbana gown; her three dogs attend the ceremony .\nShe's world's highest-paid model; he's gone to the Super Bowl four times ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Even in the midst of the Civil War, there was still one thing the North and South shared -- a serious addiction to caffeine. Confederate troops were less likely to get a cup of coffee. In that respect, the Union clearly had an advantage. Not only did the North have more than two-thirds of the population and control most of the heavy industry, railroads, and financial reserves in the country, it hoarded supplies of the highly addictive little bean, leaving the Confederacy to wage its own war against java deprivation. Coffee: It's what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner . Throughout the Civil War, coffee was as prevalent on the battlefields as it is in offices today. In fact, the Union army was fueled by the stuff to the point that, if there was no time to boil water, the Boys in Blue would chew on whole beans as they marched. And at night, Union campsites were dotted with tiny fires, each boiling a pot of coffee like a million miniature Starbucks. Beyond caffeine cravings, Union troops loved their coffee because it was, literally, the best thing on the menu. Before the advent of helpful (and tasty!) artificial preservatives, a marching soldier's rations were neither varied nor particularly appetizing. Typically, they consisted of salted meat, unleavened bread (accurately christened \"hardtack\"), and a little sugar and salt. It didn't help that Union supply chains were riddled with corrupt food contractors who charged the government top dollar for rotten, stale, and insect-ridden foodstuffs. Coffee, however, was almost always fresh because it was delivered in whole-bean form -- making it difficult for even the most dishonest supplier to skimp on quality. Not that they didn't try, of course. In fact, officials began requesting coffee as whole beans after some crooked contractors tried to up their per-pound profits by slipping sand and dirt into packages of ground coffee. In 1861, hoping to cut down on the time soldiers spent roasting and grinding beans, the army switched to a concentrated proto-instant coffee. The new concoction, called \"essence of coffee,\" was made by boiling prepared coffee, milk, and sugar into a thick gloop, which soldiers then reconstituted by mixing it with water. The product reportedly tasted every bit as bad as you'd imagine, and thanks to the corrupt dairymen who sold the army spoiled milk, it also tended to cause diarrhea. Needless to say, the Union army was soon back on the bean. Southern discomfort . Noxious as essence of coffee was, Confederate soldiers would have gladly downed a cup or two. But, because of a Union naval blockade, coffee (along with weapons, machinery, medicine, and other vital materials) was in short supply in the South. Before the war, a pound of beans would have set you back around 20 cents in Yankee dough. Once pre-war stockpiles ran out, however, the same amount was running as high as $60 in Confederate money. (Despite the undervalued currency, that was still a lot.) There was some coffee that made it into the Confederacy -- usually carried by steam-powered blockade-runner ships. But, for the most part, Southerners had to rely on coffee substitutes, including various forms of roasted corn, rye, okra seeds, sweet potatoes, acorns, and peanuts. Unfortunately, all these imitations lacked potency, tasted awful, and upset the bowels. The only slightly better alternative was tea made from the leaves of the native yaupon shrub. The good news was that it contained caffeine; the bad news was that it was incredibly difficult to digest. Luckily, there was one surefire way for Southern folk to get their coffee -- by making peace with the Union. Soldiers on the front lines often called informal truces so Rebels could swap tobacco for Yankee coffee and then dash back to their camps before they were reported missing. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Coffee was a hot commodity in the Civil War .\nUnion troops had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner .\nSuppliers sometime ground dirt into beans .\nBlockade kept coffee had to get for Confederate troops ."} -{"article":"ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- A wanted University of Georgia professor killed himself with a single gunshot to the head after he dug his own grave and covered it with brush, police said Tuesday. George Zinkhan, a professor at the University of Georgia, disappeared after the slayings of his wife and two others. The manhunt for George Zinkhan ended Saturday when cadaver dogs discovered his body in Georgia's Clarke County, about a mile from where his red Jeep Liberty was found more than a week earlier, police said. \"Zinkhan's body was found in a small dugout area in the ground, covered with leaves and debris, and it was apparent that he took significant steps to try to conceal his body from being located,\" a statement from Athens police said. Law enforcement officials determined that Zinkhan, 57, committed suicide after killing his wife, Marie Bruce, 47, Thomas Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63, outside a theater in Athens on April 25. Another University of Georgia professor, Barbara Carroll, believes that she was also targeted by Zinkhan but escaped because she was at a movie theater the day of the slayings. In an e-mail obtained by CNN, Carroll had warned her colleagues at the university's Terry College of Business that Zinkhan, a marketing professor, was \"dangerous.\" The e-mail was sent after the shootings but before Zinkhan's body was found. Carroll could not be reached Tuesday, but in her e-mail she said that law enforcement officials surrounded her house early on the morning of May 1 after authorities found MapQuest directions to her house, printed on April 24, in Zinkhan's Jeep. She said she was advised to go into hiding. \"I do not believe Zinkhan had a map to my house for any reason other than he planned to kill me as well on April 25,\" Carroll wrote. \"This also suggests premeditation for the three murders he did commit. By the grace of God, I was at the movies all Saturday afternoon after being at school in my office (like a sitting duck) all that morning.\" All three of Zinkhan's victims were associated with the Town and Gown Players theater group, which was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings. Police did not give any motive for the slayings but said in a statement that Zinkhan and his wife were having marital problems. Zinkhan targeted Tanner and shot him first, the statement added. Authorities said Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way and got into a disagreement with Bruce. Police believe that he left, went to his car -- where the couple's children apparently were waiting -- and returned with two handguns. In addition to the three deaths, two people were wounded, police said. After the shootings, Zinkhan, a marketing professor at the Terry College of Business, drove to his hometown of Bogart, Georgia, and left his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- with a neighbor. Authorities put out bulletins across the nation for Zinkhan after the shootings and revealed that he had purchased an airline ticket in March for a May 2 flight to the Netherlands, where he owned a house. But Zinkhan never showed up at the airport.","highlights":"NEW: Co-worker says she was also targeted .\nAuthorities say University of Georgia professor dug his own grave .\nCadaver dogs searching for George Zinkhan found body in woods, police say .\nZinkhan suspected of killing his wife, two other people ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Faith Hill will sing \"America the Beautiful\" during the pregame show at the Super Bowl next month, according to the National Football League. Faith Hill is a Grammy Award-winning artist and the voice of \"Sunday Night Football's\" theme song. The NFL announced Wednesday that singer-actress Jennifer Hudson will deliver the national anthem before the start of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1. The NFL already had announced that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would perform at halftime at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Hill, a Grammy Award-winning artist and the voice of the theme song for NBC's \"Sunday Night Football,\" delivered the national anthem before Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000. The only other artists who have sung \"America the Beautiful\" before a Super Bowl are Vikki Carr (Super Bowl XI), Ray Charles (Super Bowl XXXV) and Alicia Keys (Super Bowl XXXIX). The 2009 Super Bowl will be broadcast in 230 countries and territories, the NFL said. More than 148 million American viewers watched the 2008 game, it said.","highlights":"Faith Hill is the voice of theme song of NBC's \"Sunday Night Football\"\nJennifer Hudson will deliver national anthem before the start of Super Bowl .\nBruce Springsteen and the E Street Band also will perform at halftime .\nThe Super Bowl will be broadcast February 1 ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain on Thursday accused Sen. Barack Obama of breaking a promise when the Democrat decided to forgo public financing in this fall's campaign. Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly broke campaign fundraising records during the Democratic primary season. Obama told supporters in an e-mail message Thursday that he would not accept about $85 million in public funds when he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. In the e-mail, Obama said the public campaign financing system allowed \"special interests [to] drown out the voices of the American people\" and asked his supporters to \"declare our independence from a broken system.\" McCain said that Obama's move to drop out of the system \"should be disturbing to all Americans\" and that he may decide to opt out, too. \"Sen. Obama's reversal on public financing is one of a number of reversals ... that he has taken,\" McCain said while touring flood-damaged parts of Iowa. \"This election is about a lot of things, but it's also about trust. It's also about whether you can take people's word. ... He said he would stick to his agreement. He didn't.\" Watch McCain's attack on Obama \u00bb . He said his campaign will reconsider whether to opt out as well. \"We''l have to reevaluate in light of his decision,\" he said. But he said he leans toward taking public money. But Rep. Rahm Emanuel, an Obama supporter, argued that the Democrat had \"more than realized the objective of public financing\" by setting up a system to accept small donations over the Internet. \"It has given the American people a voice in our political process and has forever changed politics in this country by inspiring record numbers of Americans to participate in bringing change to Washington,\" Emanuel said. Despite the heated back-and-forth, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said it is unlikely the controversy will influence voters. \"I'm not sure it's a big deal for most voters. There's not a lot of support for the public financing system.\" Schneider said. \"About a year ago, the polls asked people if they supported the idea that candidates and campaigns should be financed by taxpayer money ... and most persons said no. \"They like the idea of financing campaigns through small contributions from a lot of individual contributors, which is what Obama has done,\" he said. Obama would be the first major presidential candidate to drop out of the modern campaign financing system for the general election since its creation in 1976 in the post-Watergate era. Under this system, candidates agree to spend only the public funds and cannot raise or spend money directly obtained from individuals. Because he has decided not participate in the system, Obama will be able to spend an unlimited amount of money during the general election. The two camps also bickered Thursday over whether they had held negotiations on public financing before Obama's move to drop out. Obama counsel Bob Bauer said he discussed the public funding issue for 45 minutes with Trevor Potter, his McCain counterpart, on June 6 when they met to talk about a possible town-hall appearance between the candidates. Potter said the two \"spoke in general terms about the public financing system, with Bob outlining reasons it could be considered 'broken' or irrelevant in 2008, and I explaining why Sen. McCain remained committed to it and thought it was good for the country.\" Given his record-breaking ability to raise donations over the Internet, the Illinois Democrat probably will be able to raise more than and outspend the presumptive GOP nominee. Watch CNN's Candy Crowley explain the significance of Obama's decision \u00bb . Since January 2007, Obama has raised more than $272 million, including nearly $31 million in April. During that time period, McCain has raised less than half that amount, roughly $100 million. In April, the Arizona Republican brought in about $18 million. The FEC ruled unanimously in March 2007 that presidential candidates could accept general election public financing, provided that they return any money raised for the general election while following certain guidelines. At the time, Obama's actions appeared to be a desire on his part to preserve the public financing option while enabling him to raise general election money. After that ruling, spokesman Bill Burton said, \"Sen. Obama is pleased the FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Sen. Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.\" McCain is embroiled in controversy over his attempt to withdraw from the primary public financing system. He entered the program last year when his campaign was strapped for cash, and took a loan using future fundraising -- or the matching funds from the public financing system -- as collateral. But after his primary victories on Super Tuesday, McCain wrote to the Federal Elections Commission announcing his intent to withdraw from the program. But the FEC has four vacancies -- and no quorum -- to vote on whether to allow McCain's withdrawal. And federal election rules say that a candidate who uses the matching funds as collateral cannot withdraw from the system. The Democratic National Committee has filed a complaint with the FEC, but the lack of a quorum has stalled assessment of the complaint. Obama, meanwhile, asked supporters Thursday to \"declare our independence from a broken system, and run the type of campaign that reflects the grass-roots values that have already changed our politics and brought us this far.\" The Democrat also attacked McCain and Republicans for taking money from lobbyists and political action committees, and he faulted McCain for not checking the campaign spending of conservative groups independent from his campaign. \"We've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,\" the e-mail said, referring to independent political advocacy groups that often purchase issue ads independent of the presidential campaigns. These groups operate under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service tax code. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Dana Bash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. John McCain says decision \"should be disturbing to all Americans\"\nAnalyst says voters favor the way Obama has raised campaign cash .\nSen. Barack Obama calls public finance system \"broken\"\nMove will allow Obama to spend unlimited amount of money ."} -{"article":"San Francisco, California (CNN) -- Repair work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will continue nonstop into the weekend and the bridge may reopen Monday, but officials were making no promises Friday. \"Commuters are going to need to check back with us over the weekend,\" said Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. \"We're going to do everything we can to get the bridge open for the Monday morning commute, but safety is the priority for us right now.\" Repair work has not stopped since it began Tuesday night when two steel rods and a steel crossbeam plummeted from the bridge, landing on the roadway and forcing the span's closure. The same section had been the site of repairs over Labor Day weekend, when crews fixed a crack. On Friday, workers were grinding the areas where there was the potential for steel-on-steel connection, Ney said. \"We want them to be very smooth.\" The rods' alignment has not been completed to the point where workers could begin stressing them, he said. Once that work is complete, a third-party group will look at how the system handles vibrations, he said, adding, \"There is still a lot of work to be done.\" Transportation officials had said Thursday night that repairs of the bridge, which carried about 280,000 vehicles per day, would be complete by late Friday morning, but Ney said contractors were still working on custom-fitting steel for the structure. Crews worked Friday to replace four steel rods. One of those had failed and caused the problems, Dale Bonner, California's secretary of business, transportation and housing told reporters Thursday. Engineers also will make sure the rods are centered and will strengthen the welds to ensure stability, Bonner said. Vibrations in the rods, affected by strong winds, caused the break, officials said. In the wake of the bridge's closing, commuters flocked to the Bay Area's rail system. On Thursday, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) said, the system carried the most passengers ever, breaking a record set the day before. About 442,000 people took BART, 24 percent more than on an average Thursday, the agency said in a news release.","highlights":"NEW: \"We're going to do everything we can to get the bridge open\" Monday .\nPieces of steel from bridge fell onto roadway on Tuesday, forcing closure .\n73-year-old bridge spans San Francisco Bay, carries about 280,000 vehicles daily .\nBART has been swamped with riders since Bay Bridge closed ."} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A huge mural greets visitors to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston. It's a memorial to the building's namesake, who died unexpectedly in 1993. Hundreds of tiles are used to create the \"magic\" mural at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston. A young Reggie Lewis, wearing his No. 35 Boston Celtics jersey, dominates the middle of the 11-foot-by-14-foot artwork. At the bottom left is a picture of him and his wife. To his right, the face of legendary Celtic Larry Bird. But as young men in sweats and sneakers make their way into the gym, something strange happens. The mural comes alive. The photo of a beaming Lewis in formal attire transforms into Lewis the basketball player, streaking down the court. Larry Bird's picture morphs into that of another famous player, Robert Parrish. With each step, the mural transforms, representing the many scenes in one man's life. Artist Rufus B. Seder calls these \"movies for a wall\" Lifetiles. The Massachusetts artist invented the Lifetiles medium and is the only artist in the world using it. He has more than 30 Lifetiles installations around the globe. Watch a magic mural in action \u00bb . At the Taiwan Aquarium, dolphins swim on the wall alongside awestruck children. Bucking broncos line the halls of the the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. Dancers spin and twirl along with passengers on luxury cruise ships in the south of France. And Seder calls the the South San Francisco, California, BART station his \"own personal gallery,\" with more than 16 installations. Lifetiles don't use electricity, moving parts or tricky lighting -- just an elaborate and painstaking process done out of Seder's Eye Think Inc. studio near Boston. \"What I'm after is trying to create an experience which totally takes you by surprise,\" he said. Scanimation on the shelf . If the technology you see in Lifetiles looks familiar, you might have caught something similar at a local bookstore. The popular children's books \"Gallop!\" and \"Swing!\" were also written and illustrated by Seder. With a technique he calls scanimation, pictures in the books come alive as you flip the page. It's a kids' favorite that quite a few parents enjoy, too, based on sales numbers. \"Swing!\" and \"Gallop!\" are currently on The New York Times bestseller list. Seder originally used scanimation in greeting cards he sold at trade shows around the country. Then Workman Publishing came calling, asking Seder to develop a book based on the eye-catching technique. That's when Seder caught lightning in a bottle. After several decades as a somewhat unknown artist, he found himself flying to China to teach the scanimation technique to book makers. Just a few years later, there are over 2 million copies of \"Gallop!\" in print in more than 13 languages. Still awed by their popularity, Seder said, \"I would've been satisfied if a limited edition sold well. It totally blew my mind what happened.\" Although his books' success have gained Seder some newfound publicity, the Lifetiles are truly his life's work. The relatively unknown and seemingly modern form of art isn't new at all. Seder's been working on Lifetiles for more than 20 years, inspired by toys from the 1850s called zoetropes and an active imagination as a youngster. \"I started making movies when I was 12 years old,\" he said, \"so I was always into motion pictures and especially into optical tricks and techniques that trick the eye.\" How does it work? As a viewer, you don't have to learn how to see a Lifetile. It's intuitive, and one immediately understands the concept. As you walk past the mural, it begins to move along with you. But the question that immediately comes to mind -- and the one Seder gets the most -- is, \"How does it work?\" \"The short answer is, it's magic,\" Seder said. \"The longer answer is, it's like a flipbook. I've taken all the pages from a flipbook and scrambled them all together, and I've put them up on the wall and made them animate.\" The lengthy process also requires attention to detail. Much like an animator, he creates a series of drawings on his computer. He then strips down each image into what becomes an indistinguishable picture made up of a series of vertical lines. This squiggly-lined image becomes the equivalent of a photo negative. The negative gets sandblasted onto a hand-cast glass tile made in Seder's studio. The heavy, 8-inch-square glass tiles get painted, scraped, fired in a kiln and finally added piece by piece to a Lifetiles mural. Hundreds of these tiles work in harmony to create a huge moving image when displayed on a wall. Seder patented the painstaking technique but thinks most other artists wouldn't have his patience, even if they had his know-how. \"It's not that I've been playing my cards close to my vest,\" he said. \"It's just very difficult to do.\" A Lifetiles installation, from conception to completion, can take up to a year to complete. It's a labor of love he shares with others who walk by his \"magic\" walls. \"I love to watch people react to the work. They don't expect a wall to move,\" he said. \"They'll be walking down the hallway in a museum and walking outdoors through a zoo ... and suddenly they realize, 'Those dolphins are starting to move next to me! How is that possible?' \"","highlights":"Lifetiles are murals, created without electricity or moving parts, that appear to move .\nRufus Seder is the inventor of Lifetiles and the only artist in the world using them .\nHis eye-catching Lifetiles installations can take over a year to make .\nSeder also is the author of two bestselling books using similar technology ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Game show host and comedian Howie Mandel's irregular heartbeat scare is over, his publicist said Tuesday. Howie Mandel had an irregular heartbeat, but he did not have a heart attack, his publicist said. \"Howie has been released from the hospital and will be back at work tomorrow,\" said Lewis Kay. \"He appreciates everyone's concern.\" Mandel, 53, checked into a Toronto hospital Monday so doctors could monitor his condition, Kay said. He was in Toronto, filming segments for a new show \"Howie Do It.\" The hour-long prank show debuted on NBC Friday. Mandel is the host of the American version of the game show \"Deal or No Deal,\" which has brought huge ratings for NBC.","highlights":"NEW: Howie Mandel released from Toronto hospital .\nHost of \"Deal or No Deal\" had been admitted with irregular heartbeat .\nComedian was in Toronto, Canada, filming segments for a new show, \"Howie Do It\""} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- California corrections officials released an updated prison photograph of Charles Manson on Wednesday, showing the balding and graying 74-year-old, complete with his iconic forehead swastika. A new photo of Charles Manson shows his graying beard and his legendary swastika tattooed into his forehead. The picture was taken as part of a regular update of inmate images at the California State Prison in Corcoran, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, where Manson is serving a life term. The release of the picture comes ahead of the 40th anniversary of the \"Manson family\" killings in August 1969. Manson and four others -- Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Charles \"Tex\" Watson and Leslie Van Houten -- were convicted of murder and other charges in connection with a two-night rampage that left pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven others dead. Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the killings, was convicted in the murders of Leno LaBianca, a wealthy grocery store owner, and his wife, Rosemary. Van Houten was accused of stabbing Rosemary LaBianca 14 to 16 times in the back. Van Houten was also convicted of conspiracy in Tate's death and four others at the actress' Beverly Hills home. Tate was 8\u00bd months pregnant, and the baby also died in the attack. Manson, Atkins and Krenwinkel were convicted for those murders. All members of the \"Manson family\" have been up for parole multiple times over the past four decades, but it has never been granted. Atkins, who has been declared terminally ill, was denied a compassionate release from prison in July 2008. Atkins has told police she was one of the people who stabbed Tate and scrawled the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with director Roman Polanski. In May 2008, authorities dug for bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police learned that testing had indicated human remains might be buried there. According to authorities, nothing was found.","highlights":"Prison officials release updated photo of convicted murderer Charles Manson .\nPhoto shows Manson with receding hairline, gray hair and forehead swastika .\nManson, four others were convicted in series of murders over two-day period in 1969 ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN executive producer Suzanne Simons is the author of \"Master of War: Blackwater's Erik Prince and the Global Business of War.\" Private contractor Xe flies military personnel in Afghanistan and helps train Afghan border police. The company formerly known as Blackwater, now called Xe much to its chagrin, has been at the center of the contractor debate for years. From the time four of its men were ambushed and murdered in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, to a shooting involving a team of its men in a Baghdad neighborhood in which at least 14 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2007, the company has drawn unwanted headlines. Blackwater owner Erik Prince downsized the company earlier this year when business failed to keep pace with investment. He changed the company's name after the Iraqi government banned it from doing business there. But those who thought contractors were going away under President Obama's administration couldn't be more wrong. According to the Department of Defense, there are some 68,000 contractors in Afghanistan today and more than 132,000 in Iraq. But those numbers aren't an accurate reflection of the total number of contractors because they don't include those working for other government agencies such as the Department of State. Many of those tens of thousands are third-country nationals, meaning they were hired from a third country to go to Iraq. Many earn between $400 and $700 a month; while Americans, particularly those performing dangerous security duties, can earn as much in a day. Despite being kicked out of Iraq, Xe still does a healthy business in Afghanistan, flying military personnel from one location to another and helping train Afghan border police charged with making the country's massive, porous borders more secure. It's one of the many jobs that the U.S. military just isn't staffed to tackle on its own. In fact, the U.S. military today is beefed up by a force of nearly a quarter million private contractors. There are even cases where contractors oversee the contractors. And that's the problem. The U.S. has come to rely on them so heavily, in such a short period of time, that the government has come under fire for not managing them adequately. Even among the eight-member team that makes up the Wartime Contracting Commission, a congressionally mandated effort to review the contracting process in Iraq and Afghanistan, the question of whether the United States needs the contractors isn't even an issue. The issue, rather, is how well the government is managing this massive support force called up in the immediate aftermath of the war in Iraq. In its interim report released this month, the Commission found that \"neither the military nor the federal civilian acquisition workforces have expanded to keep pace with recent years' enormous growth in the number and value of contingency contracts.\" The report also said, \"the government still lacks clear standards and policy on inherently governmental functions. The decision has immediate salience given the decisions to use contractors in armed-security and life-support tasks for military units.\" One of the biggest nightmares for legislators is that the force that has grown into such a critical modern-day military support structure was for a long time operating in a legal gray zone with no clear avenue of justice should something unsavory occur. That has led to some tough work for both prosecutors and the FBI, as they take on the task of investigating allegations of wrongdoing by contractors overseas. Doug Brooks, head of the IPOA, an industry-friendly voluntary organization made up of 62 companies, spends much of his time doing outreach and making sure member companies measure up to the internal standards. \"We have the power to kick people out of the association,\" Brooks said, but that's about where it ends. They can't prosecute anyone. But to say that there has been no progress on the legal front wouldn't be fair. Legislation has been passed that essentially holds contractors accountable for their actions under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, but with everything in this business, there was a hang-up with that, too. The legislation was written to cover contractors working in support of the Department of Defense, but there are even more contractors working in support of the State Department and other U.S. agencies. The Special Inspector General for Iraq, Stuart W. Bowen Jr. produced a report in February titled Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. He then testified before Congress that \"the United States government was unprepared and ill-equipped to mount a major contingency relief and reconstruction program in Iraq in 2003. For the last six years we have been on a steep learning curve.\" He also told members of Congress that the United States relies too heavily on the hired help, testifying that \"outsourcing management to contractors should be limited because it complicates lines of authority in contingency reconstruction operations.\" Something that retired Lt. Gen. Richard Sanchez would undoubtedly agree with. Sanchez, who led the U.S. military operation in the early days of the Iraq war, has launched an information campaign aimed at bringing more accountability to the debate. He's even called for a truth commission to investigate policies regarding the interrogation of detainees. Guess what. Contractors were involved in that scandal, too. As for Blackwater, scandal, or the suspicion of it, played a significant role in its downturn. Plagued by lawsuits and federal investigations, the company now called Xe is a shell of what Blackwater was five years ago. Most of Prince's top executives are gone, budgets have been dramatically curtailed and the company has largely returned to its roots, as a training facility for law enforcement and special forces. Is Blackwater's fate a sign that things are sour in the industry? Hardly. As IPOA's Brooks puts it, they're here to stay, its about time we made it work. \"I think the other conclusion that companies have come to is that we're going to be working with the private sector. Nobody wants soldiers to go back to flipping eggs, guarding gates, that kind of thing.\"","highlights":"Blackwater, now Xe, has garnered unwanted attention over the past few years .\nThough kicked out of Iraq, Xe does a great deal of business in Afghanistan .\nBottom line: U.S. relies heavily on private military contractors .\nThe issue is how well U.S. government manages this support force ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1,100 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it emerged in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. A young girl wears a mask at a hospital in Hanoi. Vietnam reported its first death from swine flu this week. As of July 31, the total number of victims killed by the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, stood at 1,154 -- an increase of 338 since WHO's previous update on July 27. The virus has spread around the world with unprecedented speed, spreading as widely in six weeks as common influenza viruses spread in the six months, according to WHO. WHO data showed the total number of laboratory confirmed cases at 162,380, but the number could be higher since individual cases no longer have to be tested or reported. The total number of countries and territories reporting at least one case of infection now stands at 168, with new cases reported in Azerbaijan, Gabon, Grenada, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Monaco, Nauru, Swaziland and Suriname. In the United States, federal health officials are worried about the upcoming flu season. They say nearly 160 million Americans may need to be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, but it won't be as simple as a single shot. In a background briefing with reporters on Tuesday, two senior administration officials said the vaccine, which is still in clinical trials, would require two shots. The first shot would be followed by a second shot three weeks later. Immunity to the virus would finally kick in two weeks after that. That means someone who is vaccinated by the time the program is expected to launch in late October won't get protection until late fall. On Tuesday, British-based pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline announced it had signed contracts with nine governments to provide 96 million doses of a H1N1 vaccine and was in ongoing discussions with governments to provide further supplies. GlaxoSmithKline has already signed deals worth $250 million in total to provide 195 million doses and plans to donate 50 million doses to the World Health Organization. \"First supplies of the vaccine will be available to governments from September onwards, with shipments expected in the second half of 2009 and early 2010,\" GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement. \"The exact pace of delivery will be dependent on capacity and the yield of the influenza strain.\" Details of the immunization program were revealed as part of the government's overall plan to deal with what is expected to be a difficult flu season. The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last week issued sweeping guidelines for a vaccination campaign against the swine flu strain, identifying more than half the population as targets for the first round of vaccinations. The priority groups include pregnant women, health care and emergency services personnel, children, adolescents and young adults from six months to 24 years of age, household and caregiver contacts of children younger than six months and healthy adults with certain medical conditions. The symptoms of swine flu are similar to that of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, aches and runny nose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A significant number of infected people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting.","highlights":"WHO: Swine flu deaths up 338 in recent days to 1,154 in total worldwide .\nWHO: Virus spreads in 6 weeks as far as most viruses spread in 6 months .\nU.S. plans to vaccinate nearly 160M Americans ahead of winter \"flu season\"\nGlaxoSmithKline has signed deals to provide 291 million doses of vaccine this year ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama's plans for a similar system in the United States were branded \"evil\" by Republicans. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a heartfelt message of support for the NHS via Twitter. Tens of thousands of people have joined a Twitter group expressing pride in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), which offers free taxpayer-funded medical care to all British residents, while leading politicians have spoken out in support. Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this week condemned Obama's plans to introduce a public heath insurance scheme as an \"evil\" move that would result in \"death panels\" deciding who would live or die. Her criticism has been echoed by fellow Republicans in direct attacks on Britain's NHS. In an article, Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said British healthcare was run by \"Orwellian\" bureaucrats who put a price tag on life. Sound off: What do you think of the British healthcare model? The comments caused a storm of protest in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister Brown wading into the argument via micro-blogging site Twitter, where a conversation chain, \"#welovetheNHS\", is generating huge online traffic. Britons react to the U.S. healthcare debate \u00bb . A posting on the 10 Downing Street Twitter site on Wednesday read: \"PM: NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.\" The message was followed by another, from Brown's wife Sarah, adding: \"#welovetheNHS -- more than words can say.\" Professor Stephen Hawking, author of \"A Brief History of Time\", also spoke out in favor of the British system, telling the Guardian newspaper that he owes his life to NHS treatment for the neuro-muscular dystrophy he has suffered from for 40 years. \"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,\" he said. \"I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.\" Despite the support, the 51-year-old NHS is regularly the target of criticism at home, with opposition politicians accusing Brown's government of mismanagement resulting in long waiting lists and a \"lottery\" in deciding who gets life-saving drugs and surgery. Nevertheless, opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron also added his voice to the defense campaign with a posting on his party's Web site. \" Millions of people are grateful for the care they have received from the NHS -- including my own family. \"One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill -- no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got -- you know that the NHS will look after you.\" His statement followed comments from one of his own party members backing the Republican criticism of the NHS. Dan Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament reportedly said in an interview that \"he wouldn't wish it on anyone.\"","highlights":"Britons leap to defend National Health Service after U.S. criticism .\nPrime Minister Gordon Brown among those expressing pride in system .\nNHS offers free health care to all UK residents ."} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Alexandra Seldin prepays for a rental car through Alamo's Web site. But when her flight is canceled, and she arrives a day late, the company charges her three times more than it originally said it would. Is it allowed to do that? And is there any hope for a refund? A customer's late arrival cost her an additional $1,116 for her car rental. Q: My car rental company has more than tripled the rate it charged me, and I don't know what to do. I had prepaid $390 for the car through Alamo's Web site. When my flight was canceled, I called Alamo to tell it I could not get the car until the next day. I was told that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. I picked up the car the next day and returned it on time. When I dropped off the rental, a representative said the computer system was down. But when I got my bill the next month, there was an additional $1,116 charge because of the late pick up. I believe this additional charge to be unfair and am requesting a refund. I believe Alamo should honor its promise of the prepaid amount as well as the representation that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. Can you help? -- Alexandra Seldin, San Diego, California . A: So Alamo is charging you another $1,116 even though you rented one of its cars for one day less. Where's the logic in that? The answer: It's airline logic. Air carriers have figured out a way to quadruple the price of a ticket depending on the time you bought it. So a \"walk-up\" fare purchased at the last minute can be hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars more expensive than an advance-purchase fare. But you're getting the same seat. You prepaid for your rental weeks in advance -- kind of like an advance-purchase ticket. But when you didn't show up as expected, the system reset your rate, charging you the more expensive \"walk-up\" rate. The computer problems should have been a showstopper. When a representative says the system is down, you need to get a receipt, even if it's handwritten. That way, if the company tries to double-dip, you can dispute the charge using the invoice as evidence that your bill was paid. Even if you have assurances that you won't be billed again, it's important to monitor your credit card. A car rental company isn't going to send you an e-mail letting you know that you're being charged more. It's just going to quietly take it off your credit card. As soon as you see a questionable charge on your card, mention it to the company or dispute it with your credit card company. I think you would have won a credit card dispute, by the way. You would have needed to show the prepaid voucher as proof that you had already paid for the rental, and the credit card company should have sided with you. I suggested you write a brief, polite e-mail to Alamo, asking it to reverse the charges. The response? A snippy note that said, \"Any changes to the basis of the reservation makes the rate subject to change,\" and adding, \"We are disappointed that this policy is a source of dissatisfaction for you.\" Alamo denied your request. Like you, I was unhappy with the denials by phone and e-mail. So I contacted Alamo for you. It promptly refunded the $1,116 it should have never charged you in the first place. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"A customer's flight was canceled, and she arrived a day late for her car rental .\nShe called to let Alamo know and it said her reservation would be held .\nShe was charged an additional $1,116 for the rental because of the late pick up .\nAfter declining a refund, Alamo was persuaded to reverse the charges ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court says he has evidence to prove Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is guilty of genocide, even though he is not charged with the crime. Omar al-Bashir remains president and has traveled to several countries since warrant was issued. Luis Moreno-Ocampo spoke to CNN on Wednesday, two days after he appealed to the court to add genocide to the existing arrest warrant for al-Bashir. The court issued the warrant in March on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to his five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan's Darfur region. \"The evidence shows it is genocide,\" Moreno-Ocampo said. The warrant was the first one ever issued for a sitting head of state by the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, based at The Hague in the Netherlands. It includes five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. It also includes two charges of war crimes for intentionally directing attacks against civilians and for pillaging. Al-Bashir remains president and has traveled to several countries since the warrant was issued, even though any country that is party to the ICC has an obligation to hand him over to The Hague, the court says. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Sudan denies the death toll is that high. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. In his appeal to the court Monday, Moreno-Ocampo complained that the judges' standard for adding the genocide charge to the warrant is too high. The judges want him to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that al-Bashir committed genocide, but that level of proof is not required for a warrant, which only requires a reasonable inference of guilt, he said. \"They are requesting a level of evidence that is the level of evidence required at the trial stage, not at the beginning of the process,\" Moreno-Ocampo said. Part of the reason that prosecutors cannot provide more evidence at this stage is because al-Bashir is attacking witnesses who are willing to provide information to prosecutors, Moreno-Ocampo said. Presenting more evidence could endanger the victims, he said. \"It's a legal issue,\" he said. \"The judgment by itself is very important, but in addition I cannot accept this wrong legal standard.\" The judges believe the crimes that Moreno-Ocampo classifies as genocide instead fall under the category of crimes against humanity, he said. Even if Moreno-Ocampo were successful in adding genocide to the warrant, he would still face a difficult task in proving the charges at trial, said Mark Ellis, the executive director of the International Bar Association. \"Genocide is a much more complicated legal position to meet (than war crimes and crimes against humanity) because you have to show in proving genocide that there was an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a group based on -- in this case -- ethnicity or race,\" Ellis told CNN. \"Obviously the prosecutor believes he would be able to prove this intent and so he wants the opportunity to prove that in trial.\" But if Moreno-Ocampo loses the appeal, Ellis said, it would not minimize the seriousness of the case. \"The charges that have been (alleged) on war crimes and crimes against humanity are still very serious charges and they are egregious acts,\" he said. A ruling on the appeal is likely within six months, Moreno-Ocampo told CNN.","highlights":"Luis Moreno-Ocampo calls for genocide to be added to al-Bashir's charges .\nSudan leader already charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity .\nRelates to five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan's Darfur region .\nU.N. estimates 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Azerbaijan recently uncovered a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Baku, prompting the facility to close its doors to the public Monday, Azerbaijan and U.S. officials told CNN. The Bibi Heybat Mosque, just outside the capital Baku. As a precaution, Britain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday \"following security concerns nearby,\" Britain's Foreign Office said. The terror plot was unraveled after a weekend raid outside Baku that netted several suspected members of the radical group, two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified and a spokesman for Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry told CNN. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that the details \"are still unfolding,\" and the threat \"may or may not be\" linked to the Saturday raid. \"There were some specific and credible threat information concerning the embassy and plans by militants to in some way do harm to individuals in and around the U.S. Embassy there,\" McCormack said, noting that no specific individuals were targeted. Several days ago, an Azerbaijani army officer who had connections to a radical Islamic group seized four assault rifles, a machine gun and 20 hand grenades from his military unit and hid them in the outskirts of Baku, the ministry spokesman and U.S. officials said. Government security forces tracked down the group and arrested several members during a sweep on Saturday in the village of Mastaga, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Baku, the spokesman said. One suspected member of the militant group resisted arrest and was killed in the sweep, the spokesman said. Several others are still at large, he added. He said the terror plot also targeted Azerbaijani government buildings. The U.S. Embassy in Baku issued a warden message warning Americans in Azerbaijan to take precautions. \"While there is no information at this time that other American or Western interests in Azerbaijan are being targeted, the U.S. Embassy encourages Americans to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security,\" it said. Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic that borders the Caspian Sea, and lies just north of Iran. McCormack said U.S. authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Baku and will determine when normal embassy operations will resume. He said he expects the embassy to limit its operations on Tuesday, as well. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Igor Malakhov in Moscow, Zain Verjee in Washington and Roger Clark in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Authorities uncover a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. embassy in Baku .\nThe United States has reduced its embassy's operations .\nBritain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Although most Swedes would be too modest to say so themselves, Stockholm can stake a decent claim to being the capital of Scandinavia. Built on 14 islands, Stockholm seems to float on water. Built on 14 islands where Lake M\u00e4laren meets the Baltic Sea, Stockholm is a soft-hued vision of light and water, the bewitching start to an archipelago of some 24,000 islands and islets. Sweden's neutrality during World War II means Stockholm was spared the bombing inflicted on most European capitals; the result is the unspoiled old town of Gamla Stan, with its winding, cobbled streets. Despite a post-war building blitz that saw the construction of some particularly uninspiring modernist architecture, it is a city where gray concrete facades are largely eschewed in favor of a smorgasbord of pastel colors, rusty reds and glowing ochres. For a capital city it's unusually green -- not just leafy and dotted with verdant parks, but environmentally sound. Stockholm proper has a population of just 800,000, avoiding the congestion and pollution that plague larger cities -- so much so that you can fish from, and swim in, the waters surrounding the city center. Cold and sometimes bleak during its long, dark winters, Stockholm comes alive during the summer, when the Scandinavian sun barely sets. As temperatures rise the city's cafe culture blossoms, only for Stockholm to become a ghost town during July, when the locals make the most of their generous holiday entitlement and slip off to holiday cottages in the archipelago. But beyond its historic heart Stockholm is a progressive, evolving city. Its financial fortunes grew with the mid '90s IT boom and shrank when the dotcom bubble burst, but it remains a hotbed of technology and communications companies. Watch ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus take CNN on a tour of Stockholm \u00bb . Around 20 percent of the residents of greater Stockholm are of foreign descent, giving a sense of cultural diversity -- not to mention some welcome variety to the city's thriving restaurant scene. Despite Sweden's largely anti-EU stance, Stockholm is cosmopolitan and outward looking, with a keen eye for the latest international trends. Its shops are filled with the latest in functional, minimalist Swedish design and there are enough boutiques boasting hip New York brands and cool Swedish labels to indulge Stockholmers' obsession with style. It's also the city where Swedish global exports H&M and IKEA have their flagship stores. For all its picture-postcard pleasantness and progressive civic planning, Stockholm can seem a little sterile. It's not the kind of place likely to be described as \"edgy.\" Stockholmers themselves can come across as standoffish, but that's not say that they are unfriendly -- just politely reserved. Small talk is regarded with a certain suspicion meaning the locals can be hard to get to know, but it's amazing what a difference a couple of glasses of akvavit can make. Puritan legal regulations mean that high-alcohol drinks (that's anything with more than 3.5 percent alcohol) are heavily taxed and can only be bought in bars and government-run \"Systembolaget\" shops. The result is that a night on the town is expensive enough to make anyone teetotal, with Stockholmers often avoiding midweek drinking, saving their krona for weekend partying. But what Stockholm lacks in grit it more than makes up for in style. From its artfully designed coffee shops to the classic contours of its baroque and rococo buildings, this island city is endlessly pleasing to behold, especially when viewed from the water that flows like blood through its veins.","highlights":"From artfully designed cafes to baroque buildings, Stockholm exudes cool .\nThe island city has dubbed itself the capital city of Scandinavia .\nCity blossoms in the summer when temperatures rise and sun barely sets .\nInflux of immigrants has added new dimension to city's gastronomic scene ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police seized approximately 150 birds and arrested 19 people in a Connecticut home Sunday in an investigation of alleged finch and canary fighting, the Shelton Police Department said. Police seized cash, canaries, finches and bird cages from a home in Shelton, Connecticut. In addition to the 150 birds -- mainly saffron finches -- police seized their cages and $8,000 in cash from a home in Shelton, said police Sgt. Robert Kozlowsky. The 19 people, all originally from Brazil, are being charged with animal cruelty and illegal gambling, Kozlowsky said. The homeowner, Jurames Goulart, 42, was additionally charged with interfering with officers. Shelton Police say they've never seen or heard of this kind of bird fighting before. \"This is new to us,\" Kozlowsky told CNN. \"Finches are much easier to keep under the radar than roosters because they make less noise and they wouldn't arouse suspicions if someone had a lot of them.\" Watch police haul away the birds \u00bb . Kozlowsky said police obtained a search warrant after a monthlong investigation and raided the home after receiving tips that an illegal fight was scheduled to take place. Wayne Kasacek of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, which helped remove the birds, said that at least four of the finches have eye injuries. Saffron finches are canary-size birds native to South America.","highlights":"19 people arrested, $8,000 in cash seized at a Connecticut home .\nAll arrested, originally from Brazil, being charged with animal cruelty, illegal gambling .\nPolice call such fighting unusual, say it's easier to conceal than rooster fighting .\nPolice say that raid came after tips and that some of the birds have eye injuries ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- With hundreds of protesters gathering and riot police out in force on the streets of Tehran, hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the oath of office Wednesday, beginning a second term in a bitterly divided Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in Wednesday as Iran's president. He begins his second term. Ahmadinejad, 52, was formally sworn in before Iran's parliament, known as the Majlis, as security forces guarded the building and nearby streets in anticipation of protests. Witnesses reported a heavy police presence -- including members of the pro-government Basij militia -- and several choppers hovering overhead. Some reported protesters, many of them women, sitting in front of the parliament building's entrance. As discontent surfaced yet again, Ahmadinejad vowed to take Iran forward and flung sharp words at those who questioned the validity of the June 12 elections, in which he was declared the winner with almost two-thirds of the vote. He took particular aim at the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Germany, which have not sent formal letters of congratulations to Ahmadinejad. \"They said they would recognize the election, but will not congratulate,\" Ahmadinejad said in his inaugural speech. \"This means they only want democracy at the service of their interests and don't respect the people's vote and rights. \"Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations,\" he said. What's next for Iran? \u00bb . Asked Tuesday whether the White House recognizes Ahmadinejad as the rightful leader of Iran, press secretary Robert Gibbs said, \"He's the elected leader.\" Gibbs expanded on that comment Wednesday, telling reporters \"It's not for me or for us to denote his legitimacy, except to acknowledge the fact.\" \"Whether any election was fair, obviously the Iranian people still have questions about that, and we'll let them decide that,\" Gibbs said. \"But I would simply say he's been inaugurated, and we know that is simply a fact.\" The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since 1980. Britain has maintained ties, but has criticized the Iranian crackdown on protests that followed the disputed election and has not issued a statement of congratulation to Ahmadinejad. However, the British ambassador to Tehran did attend the ceremony, and the Foreign Office in London said the international community still needs to engage Iran on \"serious issues,\" such as its nuclear program. \"While we need to engage with Iran's government, today's ceremony does not change our position on Iran's elections,\" the Foreign Office said. Among others attending Wednesday's ceremony were Iran's top lawmakers, the heads of the three branches of government, the secretary of the Guardian Council and foreign diplomats. But as the camera of the semi-official Press TV panned the hall, an unprecedented number of empty seats were visible. It was unclear whether opposition leaders were boycotting the inauguration. Ahmadinejad struck a note of unity in his attempt to move Iran forward, saying \"Who has voted for whom -- this is not the question. Today we need a national resolve. Today we need to join forces.\" He vowed to promote religion and morality, and support righteousness and spread justice. \"I will guard the power that the people have entrusted in me as the sacred trust,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"I will safeguard it like an honest and faithful trustee.\" Ahmadinejad, however, starts another four years in office with many Iranians questioning his legitimacy. The results of the June 12 election were widely disputed; Ahmadinejad's chief rival, reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi called the elections a \"fraud.\" Since the vote, Iran has seen turmoil not witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution as thousands have taken to the streets to protest and security forces have brutally cracked down. Analyst Amir Taheri told CNN Wednesday that Ahmadinejad's second term will be closely watched around the world. Taheri said the freshly inaugurated president faces myriad challenges in his second term, among them a faltering economy and a burgeoning popular movement favoring reform. \"He has to worry a lot about the opposition,\" Taheri said. Iran says about 30 people have been killed in the post-election violence. Among those who were arrested, 110 are facing trial, according to Iranian media reports. Under Iran's constitution, the incoming president must receive the supreme leader's approval before being sworn into office. On Monday, after Ayatollah Ali Khameini gave that endorsement to Ahmadinejad, hundreds of Iranians again demonstrated in the Iranian capital. Witnesses and sources said the crowds marched on the sidewalks around Vannak Square and Vali Asr Avenue, under the watchful eye of hundreds of Iranian security forces. Some chanted \"Death to the dictator,\" while others said \"God is great.\" International media outlets, including CNN, have been restricted in their coverage of Iran in the aftermath of the elections.","highlights":"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins a second term as Iran's president .\nThe results of the June 12 election were widely disputed, sparking violent protests .\nSince the vote, Iran has seen turmoil not witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 11:10 a.m. ET Thursday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago-based radio host, Martin has said he will vote for Barack Obama in November. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland Martin says Gov. Sarah Palin talks tough but ducks a lot of difficult questions. (CNN) -- Do you know what was so great about Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan? They were three of the biggest trash talkers in the history of the NBA, but they had the game to back it up. Somebody should tell that to Gov. Sarah Palin. Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate has been running around the country, firing up her -- yes, her, and not necessarily McCain's -- loyal supporters by blasting Sen. Barack Obama for \"palling around with terrorists\" and demanding that the American people know exactly when he learned of the past of 1960s radical William Ayers. She has stoked the crowds by saying, \"This is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America.\" We all know what that is designed to do: Portray Obama as a foreigner who isn't as American as she. Or you. Or Joe Six-pack, the hockey mom, soccer mom, Wal-Mart mom, NASCAR dad and the other coded words she uses regularly. But what is truly pathetic is that Palin talks tough, but is really scared of facing her own issues. Since she is good at proclaiming that the American people need to know who Barack Obama is -- an attempt to paint him as a shady figure who might occupy the White House -- the American people deserve to hear Palin answer if her husband, Todd, a former member of the Alaska Independence Party, agreed with its founder, who wanted to secede from the union. Is there anything more anti-American than wanting to sever ties with the country? Send Roland Martin your questions and listen to his program on CNNRadio and CNN.com Live, Thursday at noon ET. It's critical that Palin answer questions about whether she disagrees with John McCain's criticism of the Bush administration's decision to remove North Korea from the terrorist nation list. She spoke in favor of it. McCain didn't. Are they on the same page or not? The American people deserve to hear from Palin as to why she didn't say a word to rebuke the hateful, pathetic and degrading comments made at rallies featuring her, such as when someone in the crowd called Obama a terrorist, someone else shouted, \"Off with his head\" and others suggested he is a traitor. Lastly, don't you think the self-described maverick needs to own up to what really happened with the firing of the commissioner in Alaska? She was declared by a special investigator to have been within her rights in firing the commissioner, but she was blasted for abuse of power and violating the state's ethics act. So what did she say in a conference call with Alaska reporters -- who were not allowed by the McCain camp to ask follow-up questions? That she was cleared of all wrongdoing, legally and ethically. That's right. She repeated over and over and over an absolute lie, and we are supposed to say, \"Hey, it's all fine. She winks at us. We love her hockey mom schtick. Don't worry about that abuse of power thing.\" Well, after having to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney being accused of beating the drum for war by berating and pushing our intelligence apparatus to match his political views on Iraq, don't you think we should really care about someone who has been accused in a report, authorized by Democrats and Republicans, of using their power and influence to get their way? Sure, her supporters will say she's talked to the \"media.\" She was questioned by Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and that self-described journalist -- yes, he really called himself that -- Fox's Sean Hannity. Palin has done interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, and local TV folks. But why is she so scared of NBC's Brian Williams? And why is she so fearful of CNN? Does she somehow think that our big guns like Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown are just too tough in asking questions? My goodness, Tina Fey has actually done more interviews about playing Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin has done about being Sarah Palin! Hmmm. McCain, Sen. Joe Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Cindy McCain and even McCain's 95-year-old momma and Palin's daddy have all done interviews with CNN, sharing their thoughts on the campaign. But Palin? Not a whisper. It's clear that Palin really isn't a true frontier woman. See, when you tote a gun, carry a big stick and spit fire, you aren't afraid to take on all comers. So, Sarah, if you want to talk big on the campaign trail to those audiences that don't talk back, go right ahead. But if you truly are the maverick politician you say you are, come on and talk to us soft, coddled, elitist journalists. Surely we aren't as tough as the moose you like to take down with your Second Amendment-protected hunting rifle. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Roland Martin: Gov. Palin talks tough on the campaign trail .\nMartin: Palin has ducked questions about many difficult issues .\nPalin has given only a limited number of interviews, Martin says .\nPalin hasn't been forthcoming on the Alaska ethics investigation, he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What does it take to become the CEO of India's biggest biotech company and the richest woman in India? Mazumdar Shaw with Shah Rukh Khan. India's richest woman is ready to answer your questions. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of biotech pharaceutical company Biotech answers your questions, below. Yours is a very inspiring story. Could you tell us more about what challenges you had to overcome to bring Biocon to a global level? Vishala Vasandani . Mazumdar Shaw: My journey started 30 years ago at a time when I had to face credibility challenges that pertained to my gender, my inexperience as a business entrepreneur and my unfamiliar biotechnology-based business model. My business evolved in tandem with challenges. Once I overcame these credibility challenges, I faced technological challenges of trying to build a Biotech business in a country that had infrastructure that was too primitive to support a high tech industry that demanded uninterrupted power supply, high quality water, sterile labs, imported research equipment, advanced scientific skills etc. Over the next 10 years, we systematically addressed these challenges and built a self contained enterprise that had captive power and water supply, state of the art labs and facilities and a team of highly experienced scientists and engineers capable of delivering world class research and technologies. Today, our challenges address those posed by new medical wisdom: addressing unmet medical needs, researching new drugs, new drug delivery systems and new therapies. Overcoming each of these phases has been a rich learning experience that has helped us to develop world class expertise in biotechnology. Innovation and quality have been integral to our business ethos. Can Biocon's oral insulin IN-105 replace traditional and painful needle based insulin delivery system for type1 diabetics? Can a diabetic who is taking insulin by needle based delivery system hope for change in near future? Ajay Kumar Singh . Mazumdar-Shaw: Oral Insulin is not just about delivering Insulin in a tablet. It is about delivering Insulin very rapidly to the liver (hepato-delivery) which is the main organ responsible for glycemic control in our body. Injectable Insulin takes approximately 30 minutes to act. Oral Insulin takes approximately 5 minutes to act which mimics how non-diabetics respond to glucose uptake when food is consumed. This will help both Type I and Type II diabetics to manage their diabetes better. We hope that early intervention with Oral Insulin will help to manage Diabetes especially in Type II diabetics much more effectively than is being done by oral diabetic agents like Metformin, Sulphonyl Ureas and Glitazones which stimulate the pancreas to produce Insulin. This is unlike oral Insulin which will allow a poorly functioning pancreas to rest and hopefully help to revive Insulin secreting beta cells. Should our Oral Insulin program succeed, this will revolutionize Diabetes therapy in the future. If you had to do the IPO again what would you do differently and when can we see Biocon listed in NASDAQ? Harish Swaminathan . Mazumdar-Shaw: I don't believe so. I think we got the valuation we were expecting through an Indian listing. A NASDAQ listing is only something we will address when one of our branded drugs are close to commercialization in either the U.S. or European markets. Today NASDAQ is risk averse and not valuing biotech companies any better than the BSE or NSE. I am so humbled by your story. What does it take as a woman to get to where you are today? What obstacles did you have to overcome, especially in an industry that is deemed to be a \"man's world\"? Would women setting up business in India today find it easier than you did? Irene Gonza, Uganda . Mazumdar-Shaw: I believe that women need to believe in themselves. I set up Biocon with a spirit of challenge and a deep sense of purpose. The challenge was to break the gender bias in the business world. My sense of purpose was to create a Biotech business in a country like India which had a very poor research culture with limited opportunities for scientists and engineers to pursue a career. It was about stopping the \"brain drain\" from India. It was about providing exciting career opportunities to young scientists and engineers. It was about encouraging young women to pursue careers. When one is passionate about a mission that is about change, it enables you to persevere and endure. I do believe that if I could achieve success, any woman can overcome obstacles with a sense of determination! When you set up Biocon did you aim to make it one of the biggest and most successful in the world? Do you need ambition like that be a success in any kind of business or does it take luck, too? David James, London . Mazumdar-Shaw: When I set up Biocon, I certainly did not have such a big ambition! I basically wanted to run a successful and profitable business to start with. Ambition is evolutionary and one does not see the big picture until you reach a certain critical mass. It was only a few years ago that we developed a global ambition and built global scale in our operations. Whilst luck can be described as \"being at the right place at the right time\" or \"being prepared to address an opportunity,\" I personally believe that it is about being able to seize opportunities by leveraging existing capabilities to reach new levels. In our case, we leveraged our enzyme capabilities to pursue bio-pharmaceuticals; it was also about picking the right products (statins & Insulin) that had large markets. We chose to partner with innovative companies and in-license innovative technologies which spearheaded our new drug development programs. We have always chosen to differentiate ourselves from the market and this has allowed us to \"think out of the box\" and stand apart. How do you think the global economic downturn will affect Biocon and Indian companies in general? Alicia van Waveren, The Hague . Mazumdar-Shaw: The economic meltdown will certainly bring tremendous pricing pressure and we expect to see our margins shrink. We also expect payment terms that involve extended credits. However, we also see a silver lining amidst this gloomy scenario as R&D and manufacturing are likely to shift to countries like India in order to bring down costs. We have two subsidiaries that offer research and clinical services, Syngene and Clinigene that are likely to see their businesses increase. We also expect generic drugs to become a larger part of healthcare budgets in western economies. Finally, new drug development costs are under tremendous pressure both in terms of funding and development. India and companies like Biocon provide very effective co-development partnership opportunities to bring these costs down. The differences between wealth and poverty in India are starker than anywhere else in the world. Do you think the poverty gap will ever be closed? Richard Ng, Hong Kong . Mazumdar-Shaw: Poverty poses a huge challenge. Education and employment are the only answers. India is striving to address these two areas through various education and vocational training initiatives. What we also need is employment generation through a myriad of projects that span infrastructure development, co-operative agriculture to entrepreneurship. India needs to provide rural connectivity both in terms of roads and tale\/IT connectivity. This will unleash inclusive growth in a huge way. Today we are caught between a political ethos that finds it convenient to keep its vote bank ignorant and unemployed and a civic India that wants to educate and harness the potential of its human capital. It seems that Indian biotech and pharmaceutical industry is relying more on being the outsourced resource of the U.S. and EU companies rather than creating their own intellectual property.Do you think this a culture in India to not be active in creating IP or is it related to the inadequacies in the patent law? Dipanjan Nag . Mazumdar-Shaw: A very correct observation. The risks associated with proprietary products are high and Indian businesses and more importantly Indian investors and banks are extremely risk averse. Hopefully, the rapid commoditization of generics and services will force companies to differentiate on the basis of IP. At Biocon we strongly believe that our proprietary programs will help us sustain growth in the future. It is a challenge to convince our investors of this but we think they will understand this in the near future. In hindsight, what is the one piece of advice you wish you'd been given when you were starting out in business? Karl Malone, Winchester . Risk is not about taking but about managing. I took a huge risk when I started a Biotech company in 1978 and I soon realized that I had to manage the risk by addressing very serious challenges of a very primitive infrastructure at the time. It took me a lot longer than I thought to build the company but in hindsight it was still worth the effort! What drives you to achieve what you have and to keep going when times are tough? Melinda Cook, Melbourne . The belief that we can deliver the world's first Oral Insulin and other life saving drugs for cancer and auto-immune diseases. I am driven by my desire to see novel drugs being developed by Biocon for global markets with a \"Made in India\" label. I am determined to see India earn a strong reputation in innovation. At a time when most Biotech companies in the western world are challenged with funding, I believe we can forge ahead and succeed. About Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw . Mazumdar-Shaw is founder of Biocon, the biotech and pharmaceutical company that made her India's richest self-made businesswoman. She was named as one of Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in 2007 and was instrumental in forging India's biotechnology industry. Living and working in Bangalore, she set up Biocon in 1978 and has developed it into a global biopharmaceutical player with highly developed research and development facilities focusing on cancer and diabetes treatments. Biocon was bought first by Unilever in 1989 and then sold to ICI in 1997, but Mazumdar-Shaw remains the company's Chair and Managing Director and has been part of the Indian government's Council on Trade & Industry.","highlights":"India's richest woman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is founder and CEO of Biocon .\nEmail her your questions on business and secrets of her success .\nHer answers will appear here on Friday, November 28 ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new policy sets guidelines for how long U.S. border officials can hold computers and downloaded information seized at checkpoints, and with whom they can share that information. New rules announced Thursday specify border searches to be conducted \"as expeditiously as possible.\" The policy, announced Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, continues to give border officials the authority to search files in travelers' laptop computers, mobile phones, Blackberrys and similar devices with or without suspicion that a crime has occurred. That is in keeping with long-standing court rulings that say the federal government's powers of search and seizure are greatest at the border to protect the country. But the new policy also attempts to address complaints from travelers that border officials are needlessly perusing confidential information, downloading it and keeping devices and information indefinitely without any explanation. The policy gives travelers the right to be \"present in the room\" during searches, although they are \"not necessarily ... permitted to witness the search itself.\" It says searches should be conducted \"as expeditiously as possible.\" And Customs and Border Protection officers should keep devices no longer than five days unless there are \"extenuating circumstances.\" Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the investigative branch of the Homeland Security Department, can keep devices up to 30 days. It also requires border officers to document searches and conduct them in the presence of a supervisor. And it says they should take steps to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information and share it only with federal agencies \"that have mechanisms in place to protect\" the data. Border officers have long had to deal with issues pitting privacy versus security. But with the proliferation of laptop computers, travelers increasingly are traveling with sensitive information, including confidential legal documents, medical records, credit card and bank information and trade secrets. \"Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States,\" Napolitano said in a written statement. \"The new directives ... strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders.\" The American Civil Liberties Union said the new rules are a \"welcome first step,\" but said they do not go far enough. \"There are two key aspects of this new policy worth applauding -- the limitations on the time that electronic devices can be held by customs officers and requirements that information from electronic devices only be retained if there is probable cause that a crime has been committed,\" said ACLU attorney Christopher Calabrese. \"These procedural safeguards recognize that the old system was invasive and harmed many innocent travelers.\" \"But unless and until the government requires agents to have individualized suspicion before reviewing such sensitive information as medical records, legal papers and financial information, even the most elaborate procedural safeguards will be insufficient,\" he said. The ACLU this week filed suit seeking records about the Customs and Border Protection's policy of searching travelers' laptops. The Homeland Security Department's statement said its new policies \"enhance transparency, accountability and oversight of electronic media searches at U.S. ports of entry.\" \"Searches of electronic media ... are vital to detecting information that poses serious harm to the United States, including terrorist plans, or constitutes criminal activity -- such as possession of child pornography and trademark or copyright infringement,\" the statement said. The department said it searches electronic media \"on a small percentage of international travelers.\" The border protection agency said that between October 1, 2008, and August 11, it conducted about 1,000 laptop searches while processing more than 221 million travelers at U.S. ports of entry. Just 46 searches were in depth, it said.","highlights":"New policy attempts to address travelers' complaints about privacy at borders .\nTravelers given right to be \"present in room,\" but not necessarily view searches .\nHomeland Security: New rules \"enhance transparency, accountability\""} -{"article":"This week in iReport we're celebrating a couple anniversaries. It's been 20 years since the world watched the Berlin Wall fall. And, that children's television favorite \"Sesame Street\" turned the big 4-0. Meanwhile, Hurricane Ida stormed ashore, slamming the Gulf Coast. We've got all this and more in this week's video wrap-up. Berlin Wall anniversary -- Twenty years ago this week, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in a decisive moment in a revolution that ultimately ended decades of Communist rule and signaled the end of the Cold War. For many iReporters, the fall of the wall holds personal significance. They dug into their photo albums to share memories of this historic event. Bracing for Ida -- iReporters updated on preparations and conditions as Hurricane Ida approached the Gulf Coast. Two iReporters shared several photos of preparations in Pensacola Beach, Florida, including closed roads, sandbags and high tides, saying it \"packed a pretty good punch.\" Another in New Orleans compared the rising waters from Ida with those of Gustav last year. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? -- The classic children's television show 'Sesame Street' turned 40 this week. CNN producers collaborated with iReporters to create a fun video alphabet that would make Jim Henson proud. iReporters of all ages also shared their memories of \"Sesame Street\" and how the show made an impact on their lives.","highlights":"iReporters remember the fall of the Berlin Wall, 20 years later .\nThe Gulf Coast braces for Hurricane Ida .\n'Sesame Street' celebrates 40 years .\nTell your stories at CNN iReport ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States needs a new law requiring that the president consult with Congress before going to war, a blue-ribbon panel led by two former secretaries of state said Tuesday. James Baker, left, and Warren Christopher led a panel that recommended a new War Powers Act. The current War Powers Resolution is \"ineffective, and it should be repealed and it should be replaced,\" James Baker said in a joint appearance with Warren Christopher, announcing the results of the study they led. The recommendation follows failed efforts by Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the war in Iraq or to put conditions on President Bush's conduct of it. Congress passed a joint resolution to authorize armed force against Iraq in 2002, but some Bush opponents say it should not have been interpreted as a blank check for the United States to invade and occupy the Persian Gulf nation. Baker, who served in George H.W. Bush's administration, and Christopher, who served under President Bill Clinton, said their project was not prompted by any specific war, with Christopher adding that the commission had \"tried very hard not to call balls and strikes on past history here.\" \"We didn't direct this report at any particular conflict,\" Baker added. The existing law, the War Powers Resolution of 1973, has been regarded as unconstitutional by every president since it was passed as a response to the Vietnam War, Baker and Christopher said. It requires presidents to report regularly to Congress about ongoing conflicts, but the provision has been flouted. \"No president has ever made a submission to Congress pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since 1973,\" former Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican member of the committee, said Tuesday. The panel, formally called the National War Powers Commission, said a new law should be created requiring the president to consult with key members of Congress before sending troops into combat expected to last more than a week, or within three days of doing so in the case of operations that need to be kept secret. It should also make clear exactly who the president needed to consult. The panel suggests that the president talk to \"a joint Congressional committee made up of the leaders of the House and the Senate as well as the chairmen and ranking members of key committees.\" The new committee would have a permanent professional staff with access to intelligence information, Baker and Christopher said. Congress, in turn, would have to declare war or vote on a \"resolution of approval\" within 30 days, they said. If a resolution of approval failed, any member of Congress could introduce a \"resolution of disapproval,\" but it was not clear that such an act would stop a war in progress. Christopher was unable to say in the news conference what practical effect congressional disapproval would have. Baker said the commission had been in touch with the presidential campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as well as leaders of Congress. He declined to reveal what they thought of the proposal, but said: \"We haven't gotten a negative reaction.\" Congress has not officially declared war since 1942, when the United States entered formal hostilities with the Axis powers in World War II. But since then, presidents have sent troops into countries including Korea, Vietnam, Grenada and Iraq. The Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces, but gives Congress the power to declare war and approve military budgets. Baker and Christopher's group included both Republicans and Democrats and held seven meetings over 14 months.","highlights":"War Powers Act is \"ineffective\" and should be repealed, blue-ribbon panel says .\nFormer secretaries of state James Baker and Warren Christopher led the study .\nThey say the project was not prompted by any specific war .\nPanel proposes new law requiring president to consult with Congress ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan's president signed a bill Friday to close an air base that the U.S. military uses as a route for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan, the president announced on his Web site. Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan serves as a U.S. supply route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. The news came as two other central Asian nations -- Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- reportedly agreed to let U.S. cargo pass through their countries on the way to Afghanistan. Such deals, if confirmed, could help fill the void left by the closing of the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz order became effective on Friday when President Kurmanbek Bakiyev reportedly signed legislation that the parliament in Bishkek backed on Thursday, the Pentagon said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry on Friday officially notified the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek that a 180-day withdrawal process is under way. Embassy spokeswoman Michelle Yerkin told CNN the United States hopes to retain the base. Officials in Washington and Bishkek signed a deal three years ago allowing the United States to renew the arrangement annually through July 2011. \"We do remain in contact with the government of Kyrgyzstan,\" Yerkin said. \"The Manas Air Base continues to operate under existing agreements, as per the coalition's efforts in Afghanistan.\" U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday the United States will continue to work with Kyrgyzstan on keeping the base open. Watch why Kyrgyzstan wants to close the base \u00bb . \"I continue to believe that this is not a closed issue and that there remains the potential at least to reopen this issue with the Kyrgyz and perhaps reach a new agreement,\" Gates said at a NATO meeting in Krakow, Poland. \"If we are unable to do that on reasonable terms then, as I have suggested, we are developing alternative methods to get resupply and people into Afghanistan.\" The Manas Air Base outside Bishkek is the only U.S. base in Central Asia and is a major resupply hub for the war in Afghanistan. Its closing could deal a significant blow to the U.S. military effort there, especially following President Barack Obama's announcement of additional troops to halt a resurgence of the country's former Taliban rulers. The United States pays $17.4 million a year to use Manas, a major logistical and refueling center that supports troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said. About 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo reportedly move through Manas monthly, it said. The air base currently employs more than 1,000 servicemen, 95 percent of whom are Americans, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. \"This is an important facility, it has been an important facility, but it's not irreplaceable and, if necessary, we will find other options,\" Whitman said. How far is Manas from Afghanistan? View our map \u00bb . Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two other Central Asian nations that border Afghanistan, have agreed to allow U.S. cargo to be transported to Afghanistan through their countries, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Friday. The agency said Rear Adm. Mark Harnitchek, U.S. transportation command director for strategy, policy, programs and logistics, held a meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Kharokhon Zarifi, after which he said he had also secured Uzbekistan's consent. A Tajik government statement said only that the two sides discussed the issue, but a spokesman for the Tajik foreign ministry told CNN that \"practically all issues\" to allow U.S. cargo transit through the country have been resolved. If confirmed, success would still depend on how much access the United States would have to those countries for flights and cargo, and even then, it may not totally replace the capacity lost in Kyrgyzstan. U.S. General David Petraeus, who oversees the war in Afghanistan, was in Uzbekistan this week for talks on Afghanistan and other regional issues. A Pentagon spokesman told CNN that his discussions included the regional supply network into Afghanistan. The U.S. military leased a base in Uzbekistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But after Uzbek troops were accused of killing at least 150 people during a demonstration in 2005, the autocratic government of President Islam Karimov came under criticism from Washington and severed most of its military ties with the United States.","highlights":"Tajikistan, Uzbekistan may allow U.S. military supplies heading to Afhanistan .\nKyrgyzstan president completes next step towards closure of U.S. base .\nThe U.S. says it's still working with the country to keep the operation open .\nThe Manas base is used to transport key supplies and troops into Afghanistan ."} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Students will investigate the contributions of Hispanic Americans to U.S. culture, and what it means to be an Hispanic in America today. Procedure . Point out to students that Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) celebrates the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, \"September 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.\" In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, send student groups on a multimedia scavenger hunt to investigate how Hispanic Americans have contributed to U.S. culture, and the opportunities and challenges that exist for Hispanics in America today. Pose the following questions to guide students' research: . 1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, what is the estimated Hispanic population of the United States? What percent of the total U.S. population does this number represent? 2. What aspects of Hispanic culture can be found in the U.S? 3. Who are some Hispanic Americans who have had an impact in U.S. politics and government? 4. Who are some famous Hispanic-American musicians, artists, writers and actors? How have they impacted U.S. culture? 5. What Hispanic businesses exist in your community and other parts of the U.S.? How have these businesses contributed to the U.S. economy? 6. What issues have you seen or heard about in recent news that are of interest to the Hispanic community? Have groups share and discuss their findings with the class. Extension . Instruct each student to interview several Hispanic-American teens and adults to get their responses to the following question: What would you like other Americans to know about what it means to be Hispanic in America today? Have students summarize the interviewees' responses and share them with the class. Correlated Standards . Social Studies . I. Culture . Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity. V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions . Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/ are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org).","highlights":"Students will investigate how Hispanic Americans have contributed to U.S. culture .\nStudents will identify opportunities and challenges that exist for Hispanics in America ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The separatist group behind a series of bombings on a Spanish vacation island marks the 50 year anniversary of its struggle this year, a milestone that sees it no closer to achieving its goal. Police cordon off the route leading to the location of the latest blasts in Palma de Mallorca. ETA, which is fighting for the independence of Spain's northern Basque region, was said to be behind three bombs that detonated on the island of Mallorca on Sunday without hurting anyone. The latest incident appears to be part of a new wave of attacks, including another in Mallorca which killed two Civil Guard officers in July, which have left a 2006 cease-fire a distant memory. The violent resurgence also defies Spanish government claims that the group's operational capabilities have been broken by a series of high profile arrests in Spain and France. ETA, blamed for more than 800 deaths and listed as a terrorist group by Spain the European Union and the United States, began campaigning for Basque independence in 1959. The group, whose full name Euskadi Ta Askatasuna means \"Basque Homeland and Freedom\" in the Basque language, killed what some say was its first victim in 1968. Since then it waged a campaign of violence against the Spanish state, targeting politicians, policemen, judges and soldiers, often clocking up numerous civilian casualties with deadly car bombs. In 1980 alone ETA was blamed for 118 deaths, and in 1995 it nearly succeeded in assassinating Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the opposition and later Spain's prime minister. On September 16, 1998, the organization declared a \"unilateral and indefinite\" cease-fire, raising hopes that its campaign was at an end. ETA called off the cease-fire in November 1999, however, and 2000 saw a sharp escalation in violence. Another unilateral cease-fire was declared in March 2005, with ETA raising hopes for a lasting peace by declaring it \"permanent.\" It was called off by ETA in June 2006 following numerous more ETA attacks. At the center of the struggle is a region know as Euskal Herria in Basque. The area straddles the western end of the Pyrenees, covering 20,664 square kilometers in northern Spain and southern France. See map of territory claimed by Basque separatists . Spain officially recognizes three Basque provinces, Alava, Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya. A fourth neighboring province, Navarra, is of Basque heritage. Separatists consider these four provinces plus three in France -- Basse Navarre, Labourd and Soule -- as the Basque country, with a population approaching 3 million. The area has always possessed a fiercely independent instinct. The Basque people are the oldest indigenous ethnic group in Europe and have lived uninterrupted in the same region since the beginning of recorded history. Their language, Euskera, which is spoken regularly by about 40 percent of Basque inhabitants, bears no relation to any other Indo-European tongue and dates back to before the Romans arrived in Spain. For many centuries the Basques of Spain enjoyed a strong degree of autonomy. The Basque region's hilly landscape helped keep its people isolated from outside influences. In the Spanish Civil War, two Basque provinces -- Guipuzcoa and Viscaya -- fought against Gen. Francisco Franco, while the provinces of Alava and Navarra fought for Franco. Under Franco's dictatorship (1939-75), most of the Basque region had its remaining autonomy rescinded. Its culture, people and language were suppressed. ETA and its demands for an independent Basque state arose in 1959 in the midst of this suppression. ETA has focused its activities on the Spanish side of the border. For many years France provided a safe haven for ETA members, a situation that began to change in the mid-1980s. The organization has financed its campaign through kidnapping, bank robbery and a so-called \"revolutionary tax\" on Basque businesses -- a payment widely regarded as plain extortion. According to the counter-terrorism office of the U.S. State Department, ETA members received training in Libya, Lebanon and Nicaragua, while the group also enjoyed close links with the Irish Republican Army. The Good Friday peace accord influenced ETA to call its cease-fire in 1998.","highlights":"Basque separatist group ETA formed in 1959 began violent campaign in 1968 .\nMost recent cease-fire collapsed in 2007 despite pledges of permanence .\nGroup blamed for more than 800 deaths, including many civilians ."} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The five Americans arrested in Pakistan amid suspicion that they were plotting terrorist attacks were transferred on Saturday from the small town where they were seized to a more secure location in a larger city, police said. The U.S. citizens were taken from the town of Sargodha, where they were arrested at a home on Wednesday, to Lahore. A police interrogation report dated Thursday focused on one of the suspects, identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni, a 20-year-old born in Virginia. The report said he regularly goes online to watch attacks on the U.S. military in Afghanistan and that he left comments praising the actions. That caught the attention of militants, and he was eventually contacted by a person named Saifullah, the report said. After contact had been made, a Yahoo! e-mail account was set up so the men and militants could communicate, the report says. E-mails were never sent from the account, but people would leave messages in the draft sections of the e-mail account and delete them after reading them, the Pakistani police report said. \"This mode of communication enabled them to pass on messages without fear of interception by the FBI,\" the report said. It said the suspects made a plan with Saifullah to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan. They gathered in Karachi and left for Hyderabad on December 1. They tried to hook up with two militant groups -- Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa -- but neither of them showed interest. The FBI said Pakistani authorities detained the men -- four of whom it said were found to have American passports. Along with Minni, there were snapshots and brief profiles of only four others -- Umar Farooq, Aman Hassan Yemer, Waqar Hussain Khan, and Ramy Zamzam -- all from the Washington D.C. area. The five had been formally arrested. A sixth man -- Khalid Farouk, father of Umar -- had been taken into custody by police in Sargodha and was being questioned at a safe location. Authorities have said Khalid Farouk has not been considered a suspect. CNN's Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspected terrorist plotters were moved to a more secure location in Lahore, police said .\nThe 5 U.S. citizens were arrested Wednesday in the town of Sargodha .\nInterrogation report focused on online postings and contacts of Virginia-born suspect .\nAccording to report, suspects planned with a contact to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government announced Friday that more than 4,000 former Gurkha soldiers are entitled to settle in Britain, but Gurkha supporters quickly denounced the measure as meaningless. Former Gurkha solider Tulbahadur Pun was awarded Britain's highest honor for bravery, the Victoria Cross. Supporters have fought for years for more rights for the Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers who have been part of the British Army for nearly 200 years. Gurkhas have fought alongside the British Armed Forces in every conflict in that period, including both world wars, and are known for their ferocity and pride. Despite their centuries of service, Gurkhas were not given the right to settle in the United Kingdom until 2004. And even then the order applied only to those discharged after the British handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, when the Gurkhas Brigade moved from Hong Kong to Britain. The government's announcement Friday applies to all Gurkhas, including those who left the army before 1997, if they meet one of five criteria. It also says around 6,000 of the Gurkhas' dependents may be able to apply for settlement in Britain as well. \"The guidance honors the service, commitment, and gallantry of those who served with the Gurkhas Brigade,\" Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said in a written statement. The Gurkha Justice Campaign, however, said the government's criteria for the Gurkhas' resettlement are unrealistic and too difficult for many of the soldiers to meet. \"Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy,\" the campaign said. \"The campaign for full Gurkha justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.\" The High Court ruled last September that the 1997 cut-off date was fair, but added that caseworkers needed revised guidance on deciding the cases of Gurkhas discharged before that date. Under the guidance, Gurkhas discharged before 1997 must meet one of five criteria to be considered for resettlement in Britain: . \u2022 Have three years' continuous residence in Britain, before or after service; \u2022 Have close family settled in the United Kingdom; \u2022 Have an award for gallantry, leadership, or bravery while in the brigade; \u2022 Have a chronic medical condition attributable to or made worse by army service; \u2022 Have served for 20 or more years. Actress Joanna Lumley, whose father served in the Gurkhas while she was a girl, has been an outspoken campaigner for their rights. She said the new criteria are harsher than she expected. \"They've given five bullet points which virtually cannot be met by the ordinary Gurkha soldier,\" Lumley told reporters Friday. \"This one page of criteria has taken the government four months to come up with. It has made me ashamed of our administration.\" She said most Gurkhas are allowed to stay in the United Kingdom for only two years, so three years of continuous residence is not possible. Most Gurkhas, she said, also have not been allowed to settle in Britain with their families. The requirement for having won an award discriminates against the ordinary soldier who has no award, she said. \"This sends out not only to the Gurkha soldiers, but to our own men fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the most appalling message: that unless you have been awarded a medal for gallantry, you're not a real soldier,\" Lumley said. Only officers are allowed to serve 20 or more years, she said, so most riflemen will not qualify for the service requirement. And proving that an injury is related to army service will be nearly impossible for most, she said. \"How on earth are men who were injured in the 1940s, '50s, '60s going to be able to prove that their long-term chronic illness is attributable to injures received during their service?\" she said. A Home Office spokesman said the government believes hundreds of Gurkhas will still be eligible to settle in Britain. \"We would not accept that,\" the spokesman said of Lumley's criticisms. \"We would say that the criteria as we see it is fair and balanced.\" The Gurkha brigade originated in the 19th century with Nepalese soldiers who impressed British imperial troops with their ferocity and military ability. The first Gurkha units were formed in 1815. They saw action in both world wars and were fundamental to the British military maintaining control of India in the 1800s. Today there are 3,400 troops in the Gurkha brigade, operating from bases in Great Britain. Most recently, Gurkha troops were used in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkan conflicts.","highlights":"British government unveils moves to let more former Gurkha troops live in the UK .\nGurkhas are part of British armed forces made up of Nepalese fighters .\nCampaigners say qualifying criteria mean most will not be able to settle in UK .\nFirst Gurkha units formed in 1815 and they fought in every campaign since ."} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's prime minister said Monday he will resign to save what he called the country's \"infant democracy.\" Pushpa Kamal Dahal cited a serious political crisis caused by the president's \"unconstitutional\" order. It is the latest fallout over the status of Nepal's army chief, Gen. Rookmangud Katawal. The Maoist government sacked Katawal on Sunday. Hours later, President Ram Baran Yadav reinstated him. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known as Prachanda, resigned on Monday, citing a serious political crisis caused by the president's \"unconstitutional\" order. \"The dual powers that have been unconstitutionally established in the country must end under any circumstance,\" Prachanda said in a televised address announcing he would resign from the country's Cabinet. Prachanda is the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which had been the largest party in Nepal's coalition government until it recently withdrew. The former guerilla leader headed a decade-long bloody Maoist insurgency to abolish the country's monarchy before being sworn in as prime minister in August. In his address on Monday, Prachanda blamed certain political parties and \"power centers\" for \"striking at our democracy, constitution and the peace process by putting the president in the forefront of the controversy over the chief of army staff.\" \"This has raised concerns over our infant democracy and the peace process,\" he said. \"I appeal to the people, civil society and political powers to be committed to the struggle for establishing a democratic Nepal.\" Nepal's interim constitution gives the president powers as supreme commander of the army and guardian of the constitution. Yadav's spokesman said the president had the support of 18 parties in parliament when he reinstated the army chief. The decision to fire Katawal touched off protests. Supporters of both sides in the dispute took to the streets on Sunday. Despite sporadic clashes between the two factions, there were no serious injuries reported. The Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required. The Maoists laid down their arms and won power in 2008 elections after an agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency. Under the deal, more than 19,000 former insurgents were to be integrated into the country's security forces. Journalist Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government calls president's order to keep army chief in office \"unconstitutional\"\nPrime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigns over order .\nMaoist government ordered army chief of staff to be fired after recruitment issue .\nMilitary refused to stop recruiting soldiers while it hasn't accepted ex-Maoist rebels ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan's decision to close a key U.S. military base is \"regrettable,\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, but it won't affect the U.S. military effort in nearby Afghanistan. Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan serves as a U.S. supply route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. On Friday, Russia announced it would assist the U.S. in transporting nonmilitary cargo to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The United States uses Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan as a route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced Tuesday that \"all due procedures\" were being initiated to close the base. \"It's regrettable that this is under consideration by the government of Kyrgyzstan, and we hope to have further discussions with them,\" Clinton told reporters Thursday after a meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. \"But we will proceed in a very effective manner no matter what the outcome of the Kyrgyzstan government's deliberations might be.\" Bakiyev made his announcement at a news conference in Moscow, Russia, following news reports of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia to Kyrgyzstan. Lavrov said on Russian television that his country intends to help get vital cargo -- but no weapons or troops -- to NATO troops in Afghanistan. The United States asked to transport the cargo through Russian territory to Afghanistan, Lavrov said. The U.S. military is planning to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to halt a resurgence of the Taliban. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, described Manas as having \"an important role in the deployment of these forces\" and in refueling aircraft. Senior State Department officials said the State and Defense departments are working with Kyrgyzstan to keep the lease to the base. The officials said the Kyrgyzstan government has not yet responded to an offer to renew the lease. Discussions are being conducted through the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan and relevant State Department and Pentagon bureaus, the officials said. One official said the United States has almost 18 months to renegotiate the lease before it expires and hopes Kyrgyzstan will reconsider their position. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell called Manas \"a hugely important air base.\" \"It provides us with launching point to provide supplies in Afghanistan. We very much appreciate [Kyrgyz] support in using that base, and we hope to continue,\" he said at a daily news briefing earlier this week. Clinton said the Defense Department \"is conducting an examination as to how else we would proceed that will not affect whatever decisions we make.\" Petraeus was in Kyrgyzstan last month, partly to lobby the government to allow the United States to keep using the base. He said he and Kyrgyz leaders did not discuss at all the possible closure of the base and said local officials told him there was \"no foundation\" for news reports about the issue. The mountainous former Soviet republic is Central Asia's second poorest country. The United States pays about $63 million a year for use of the base and employs more than 320 Kyrgyz citizens there, Petraeus said. The base has been in operation since December 2001 under U.N. mandate. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Tuesday that Russia would offer Kyrgyzstan a $300 million, 40-year loan at an annual interest rate of 0.75 percent, and write off $180 million in Kyrgyz debt. Kyrgyzstan also is home to a Russian military base, at Kant, that officially opened in 2003. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov told Russian news agency Interfax it was coincidence that talk of the base closure comes at the same time as the loan. \"The Russian decision to grant a major loan has nothing to do with the pullout of the U.S. air base from the Kyrgyz territory,\" Chudinov said. The relationship between the United States and Kyrgyzstan was damaged when a U.S. airman killed a Kyrgyz citizen in December 2006. The airman was transferred out of Kyrgyzstan, and the dead man's family was offered compensation. Petraeus said in January an investigation into the death was being reopened. In announcing the base closure, Bakiyev said he was not satisfied with the inquiry and that his government's \"inability to provide security to its citizens\" was proving a serious concern. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Russia says it will help transport U.S. nonmilitary cargo to Afghanistan .\nUnited States uses Kyrgyz base as a route for troops and supplies in Afghanistan .\nKyrgyz president says procedures had been initiated to close base .\nMove follows news of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John Ensign of Nevada admitted Tuesday to an extramarital affair with a woman who had worked for him. Sen. John Ensign of Nevada is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. Ensign, 51, would not identify the woman but said she and her husband had been \"close friends.\" Her husband, he said, also worked for him. \"Last year, I had an affair,\" the Republican senator said outside his office in Las Vegas. \"I violated the vows of marriage. It's absolutely the worst thing I've done in my life. \"I take full responsibility for my actions. I know I have deeply hurt and disappointed my wife, Darlene, my children, my family, friends, my staff and those who believed in me. And to all of them, especially my wife, I'm truly sorry,\" he said. The senator's office also released a statement from Ensign's wife, saying, \"Since we found out last year, we have worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation. This has been difficult on both families. With the help of our family and close friends, our marriage has become stronger. I love my husband.\" Ensign's spokesman, Tory Mazzola, said Ensign and a campaign staff member carried on the affair from December 2007 through August 2008. Her husband was an official Senate staff member for the senator. Neither remained in Ensign's employ as of May 2008. Ensign, a veterinarian, is considered a rising star within the Republican Party. A member of the party's Senate leadership, Ensign last year took over as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. He was elected to the Senate in 2000 and comfortably won re-election in the midterm elections of 2006, when Democrats won back Congress. He is up for re-election in 2012. This month, Ensign spoke to a conservative group in Iowa, stoking speculation that he might have interest in running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ensign doesn't name woman but says she and her husband worked for him .\n\"I take full responsibility for my actions,\" he says .\nStatement from senator's wife says couple have come to a reconciliation .\nSenator has sparked speculation about 2012 presidential race ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man at the center of a mysterious case of exposure to the deadly biological agent ricin has been arrested, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Wednesday. Ricin was found in a room in this Las Vegas, Nevada, extended-stay hotel in February, police say. Roger Bergendorff was taken into custody Wednesday morning in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kolko said. Bergendorff, 57, was hospitalized with what was diagnosed as ricin exposure after the agent was discovered in his hotel room off the Las Vegas Strip. Tests conducted by the FBI determined that the substance contained 2.9 percent active ricin. Its preparation was characterized as \"crude,\" according to the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas. According to a press release from the Department of Justice office, a search of Bergendorff's hotel room turned up \"an 'Anarchist's Cookbook,' a collection of instructions on poisons and other dangerous recipes, including instructions on the preparation of ricin,\" two semiautomatic pistols, a rifle and a pistol with a silencer. \"FBI searches of Salt Lake City [Utah] storage units rented by Von Bergendorff resulted in the discovery of castor beans, various chemicals used in the production of ricin, a respirator, filters, painter's mask, laboratory glassware, syringes and a notebook on ricin production,\" the Justice Department release said. Bergendorff is charged with possession of a biological toxin, possession of unregistered firearms and possession of firearms not identified by serial number, according to the U.S. attorney's office. If convicted of all charges, he would face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of $750,000. Bergendorff is scheduled for an initial court appearance at 3 p.m. Wednesday. It is illegal under federal law to possess a biological agent and toxin unless it is used for bona fide research or other peaceful purpose, U.S. Attorney Gregory Bower said in a written statement. Bergendorff's cousin, Thomas Tholen of Riverton, Utah, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City this month, accused of failing to report production and possession of ricin. Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste of castor bean processing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can come in the form of a mist or pellet and can be dissolved in water or weak acid, the agency said. Bergendorff was hospitalized February 14 in Las Vegas after he complained of difficulty breathing. He slipped into a coma and awoke March 14. Bergendorff, 57, is an artist who neighbors said had lived in his cousin's basement before moving to Las Vegas. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kevin Bohn, Karan Olson and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Roger Bergendorff is charged with possession of toxin, firearms .\nHe was hospitalized for ricin exposure after it was found in hotel room .\nHis cousin is charged with failing to report production and possession ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John McCain's fight for the White House was a microcosm of his political career and broader life -- full of near-death experiences, stunning comebacks and close calls. Sen. John McCain gestures as he delivers his concession speech Tuesday night. The former Navy fighter pilot, who'd been shot down over North Vietnam and held as a POW, had been able to battle back every time until Tuesday night. He regained respect in the Senate after being accused of improperly helping fraudster savings and loan chief Charles Keating in the 1980s; he got back on speaking terms with the Republican Party base after his primary defeat against George W. Bush in 2000; and he revitalized his campaign after its near-death last summer from lack of cash and power struggles to capture the nomination. What would have been his greatest political comeback -- to seize the White House -- proved to be too difficult. A Republican win in what is being seen as a \"Democratic year\" was always a long shot. Whoever was the GOP nominee was going to have to fight against the legacy of the previous eight years of a Republican president who became highly unpopular because of the Iraq war, administration gaffes such as the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and what turned from a credit crunch into a global economic crisis. The Arizona senator even managed to make the race appear competitive, soaring in the polls on the back of a polished convention and popular VP pick, Gov. Sarah Palin. But he made mistakes, too. Combined with the electorate's disenchantment with his party, it ensured defeat. Turning points . New Hampshire: McCain's great high point came in January, amid the snows of New Hampshire, when primary voters boosted him from long shot to top-tier candidate, just as they had eight years earlier. He stunned a crowded GOP field -- including Mitt Romney, the well-funded former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee -- and proved himself a force to be reckoned with. Not Hillary: Democrats weren't the only ones who expected Hillary Clinton to put a quick end to the primary season -- the Republican machine had spent years honing plans to fight the New York senator in a general election. Not only were those plans ruined, but suddenly the challenger was a fresh face with little baggage who captured the public's imagination. And as the epic Democratic primary season gave many headlines to Barack Obama, it also helped him develop networks of supporters in traditionally red states. And millions of new Obama supporters also became donors, financing a record-breaking fundraising effort. George W. Bush: McCain may never have been a great friend of the president, but he could hardly turn down an endorsement from him at the White House. It was a photo-op that launched a thousand attack ads. Even if the unpopular president was a virtual no-show on the campaign trail, it was easy for the Democrats to remind voters who McCain's party colleague was. Straight talk: One of McCain's strengths had been his relationship with news groups, gaining appreciation by answering reporters' questions until there were none left. But when asked whether he agreed with campaign supporter Carly Fiorina that health insurance plans that covered Viagra should cover birth control as well, he had no answer. Cameras rolled on his Straight Talk Express campaign bus as he sat silently, looking awkward -- long moments of video that would be replayed again and again. Virtually overnight, news conferences disappeared from McCain's agenda as advisers who believed that an open-door media policy did not help persuaded their man they were right. McCain was left to repeat the rehearsed lines of his stump speech, losing the opportunity to impress in candid moments and his likability numbers began to slip. VP pick: McCain made his \"Hail Mary\" pick -- privately acknowledged by some advisers as his only shot of winning -- with the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. For a few weeks, it looked like that game-winning touchdown could happen as the base-rousing running mate burst onto the national scene with such power that the GOP ticket took the lead in major opinion polls. But inconvenient investigations, unfortunate interview performances and questions about qualifications soon hit Palin's approval ratings. McCain's own reputation was tarnished as revelations about hasty vetting raised questions in voters' minds about his judgment. And by then, his central argument against Obama -- that experience was critical -- was essentially off the table given Palin's relatively thin resume. Meltdown response: Ask Republican insiders when they knew the fight was lost, and most will point to McCain's decision to halt campaigning as the depth of the financial crisis became apparent. The rise of the economy from a key election issue to the only issue was never going to help the candidate who'd said earlier it was not his strong suit. But his bid to get in front with a dramatic departure from the campaign trail backfired. He became a bit player at best, again raising the question of leadership ability and judgment and coming up wanting against his opponent. John McCain was never assured victory. But nor was defeat guaranteed. Some of his toughest breaks were outside of his control; other wounds were self-inflicted. Maybe -- given personality, politics and circumstance -- he could not have made decisions other than the ones he chose. But those choices helped seal his loss. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand, Richard Allen Greene and Laura Haring contributed to this report.","highlights":"Arizona senator had tough fight in a \"Democratic year\"\nIn career of stunning comebacks, win eludes him this time .\nMissteps and circumstances sullied voters' opinions of him ."} -{"article":"GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- A radical Muslim sheikh's call for the creation of an Islamic emirate in Gaza sparked clashes with Hamas forces that left 21 people dead and injured at least 121 others. Members of Jund Ansar Allah surround Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi in Rafah on Friday. Hamas forces blew up the home of Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi, leader of the radical group Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Partisans of God, Hamas sources said. Al-Maqdessi, also known as Abdel Latif Musa, was among the 21 dead, a hospital spokesman told CNN. Friday's clashes were the latest between Gaza's Hamas rulers, who have said they are moderate Muslims pledged to the Palestinian cause, and more extremist Islamic groups. Jund Ansar Allah is part of the radical Islamist movement that follows the doctrines of the \"Salaf,\" or the predecessors -- referring to the early generations of Muslims. They reject all modern influences such as politics and government. In a televised statement, Hamas ministry spokesman Taher Nunu called al-Maqdessi's group \"outlaws\" and said they have been \"terrorizing the country and attacking civilians.\" \"We hold the group and its leader fully responsible for what is happening in Gaza and we offer our condolences to everyone who was killed during the clashes,\" Nunu said. \"No one is above the law and we urge everyone who is a member of this group to surrender himself to the authorities or they will be accountable for all of their actions.\" The gunfight erupted near a mosque in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the cleric delivered his sermon, the sources said. Hamas militants raided the mosque and seized control of it. Later, the fighting spread to al-Maqdessi's home, the sources said. Al-Maqdessi also called for a public meeting at the mosque, posting on the Jund Ansar Allah's Web site an invitation dubbed \"the golden advice to the government of (Hamas leader) Ismail Haniya.\" The group posted a statement on the Web site announcing the establishment of the Islamic emirate in Gaza and proclaiming al-Maqdessi \"the commander of the faithful.\" The statement declared that armed forces in Gaza should unite under him. It urged Muslims everywhere to support the \"young emirate\" by providing money, weapons and men because \"this is the hope of the Muslim nation in raising the banner of monotheism in Palestine and to liberate all the lands and purify Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the damned Jews.\" Al-Aqsa mosque is in Jerusalem. The group accused Hamas of not being Islamic enough, saying they care more about pleasing \"tyrants\" than \"obeying God.\" But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri dismissed statements about the establishment of an Islamic emirate as \"theoretical.\" \"It is not permitted to any party or individual to enforce their own laws because this is the responsibility of the security forces,\" he said. CNN's Talal Abu-Rahman in Gaza City, Gaza, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi killed in battle with Hamas forces, officials say .\nAl-Maqdessi was leader of Islamist movement that rejects politics, government .\nAl-Maqdessi had sought creation of Islamic emirate in Gaza ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jen Bucala has a lot of faith in her family's \"lucky\" numbers. \"I've been playing, or around playing, the lotto all my life,\" she says. She rattles off her numbers, citing family birthdays, and recounting numerical coincidences. \"Me, my husband, my father-in-law ... all our birthdays are in November. Just a week apart from each other,\" says Bucala, 31. One number that did surprise her was $10,000. After some quick figuring, Bucala estimates she has spent that amount on scratch off games and Megamillions since she started playing a decade ago. For Bucala, a Lindenhurst, New York, resident who works three jobs -- as a sales associate, an Avon Rep and a bridal consultant -- that is a lot of money. \"That ten grand could have gone toward a million and one bills I have -- my mortgage, car payments,\" Bucala says. \"We spend thousands of dollars every month on bills. I don't have kids either. That [lotto] money could have been a whole month for me for bills,\" she says. But like a lot of people, Bucala thinks $1 is a small price to pay for a dream. \"You gotta play in order to win. That's part of lotto. You never know,\" says Bucala. One of the seductive features of the lotto is the low entry fee says Frank Farley, a psychology professor at Temple University. \"It can be exciting, checking those winning numbers,\" says Farley. \"Maybe something big might happen. There's not a whole lot of other things in your life where you put a small amount of money in and maybe something big will happen. It gives you a sliver of hope that you could turn your life around.\" And sometimes there are winners. Mineola Oaks, is retired and living in Washington Heights, New York. She has played lotto every day, spending $3-$5 a day (and more on Tuesday) for over 20 years. (Just $4 a day for 20 years adds up to almost $30,000.) Two years ago she won $100,000. And with that money she paid off her bills and did some remodeling on her second home in Virginia. Oaks still buys lotto tickets, but she cautions that there's always something else you can put the money towards. \"I take care of things first,\" she says. \"Food, rent -- Then you can go out and spend a dollar on the lotto.\" Just don't expect to win. Let's take Powerball for example. Your chances of winning the jackpot is one in 195,249,054 says Michael Orkin, a statistician and dean of business, math and science at Laney College in Oakland, California. Let's say you buy 50 Powerball tickets a week, you'll win the jackpot about once every 75,000 years, he says. Cold, hard numbers aside, the lotto is entertainment. \"Almost everyone spends money on entertainment,\" says Stephen Brobeck of the Consumer Federation of America. \"People spend hundreds of dollars going to a sports event. Others spend a thousand dollars a year on premium cable channels. Purchasing a lotto ticket -- it's excitement and there's always the possibility, however slim, that they will strike it rich and win,\" he says. Cost of fleeting excitement adds up . Sodanys Paulino, 21, of Washington Heights, stood outside a lottery terminal one rainy Friday night. She bought two scratch off tickets and a mega millions ticket. When asked what else she could be doing with that money, she laughs. \"Two dollars? You can't buy anything for two dollars,\" she says. But $2 a week is about $100 a year. And $100 can buy you something. The problem is opportunity costs, says Farley. \"What opportunities are lost because you are putting discretionary income into the lottery when you could be putting it into something else?\" he asks. \"A small amount of money can be spent on dental floss,\" he says. The lotto sends the wrong message, says Farley. \"It's hard work versus chance. The lotto says success can be built on chance.\" A 2005 study by the Consumer Federation of America says 38 percent of people with incomes below $25,000 think that winning the lottery represents the most practical way for them to accumulate several hundred thousand dollars. \"Lower income people think their chances of winning are slim. And they think that the probability [for them to win] is greater than being able to accumulate savings over time. The lotto advantage . Peter Tufano, a Professor at Harvard Business School, harnessed this idea that people would rather have a small probability of a large payout when he came up with the \"Save to Win\" idea. It's part savings, part raffle ticket. And it's had major success in Detroit, Michigan, where eight credit unions have been offering it since January. Here's how it works. You open up a one-year certificate of deposit and for every $25 you save, you get the chance to win a $100,000 prize. Hank Hubbard, the director of Communicating Arts Credit Union in Detroit, Michigan, says when his credit union offered a 10 percent interest rate on a one-year CD, no one signed on, but with Save to Win, 14 percent of their membership signed up. \"I am surprised at the extent of the success. We really are showing people that they can afford to save,\" he says. And in the very worst case even though someone may not win the grand prize, at least they've already accumulated some savings. But when it comes to playing the real thing -- old habits die hard. \"I'm still going to buy my scratchoffs,\" says Bucala. \"I'm not going to go cold turkey,\" she says. \"No way! It's too exciting ... knowing you have the chance to win.\"","highlights":"Jen Bucala likes to buy lottery tickets; an estimated $10,000 in 10 years .\nPsychology professor: Low entry fee is part of lottery's seduction .\nStudy: 38 percent of poor think lottery best way for them to get hundreds of thousands .\nStatistician: Chances of winning Powerball is 1 in 195,249,054 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They kept their bodies alive with rationed crackers, bubble gum, beer and three gallons of water. But spiritually, the three men lost at sea for eight days had something else to keep them going. The family of the missing boaters put these photos on flyers shortly after they went missing. \"We just kept praying, and we kept hope alive,\" rescued boater Tressel Hawkins told CNN on Monday. \"Even though hope had managed to thread down to a little bitty string, I mean, that little bitty string could be just as strong as the rope you hung on to the first time you got started.\" What was supposed to be a fishing expedition to catch swordfish and marlin became instead a test of survival. Hawkins, 43, and his fellow boaters, Curtis Hall, 28, and James Phillips, 30, set out on August 21 from Matagorda Bay in Texas and went about 100 miles south. Their first night in the Gulf of Mexico almost proved fatal. While Hawkins was sleeping, he said, he felt the bean bag he was resting on floating. He awoke to find water in the 23-foot catamaran knee-high. The water extractor had malfunctioned. He woke up Hall and Phillips and they tried to stop the flooding but it was too late, Hawkins said. Watch CNN's Fredricka Whitfield talk to Hawkins \u00bb . As Hall had the radio in his hand to call for help, the boat capsized, Phillips told CNN affiliate KHOU-TV. They were \"shocked,\" Phillips said. Hall was responsible for rationing the food they had on board and the fresh water that sat in a tank on the boat, Hawkins said. They didn't like it, but they had to follow his rules to survive, he said. \"And being that you don't really know when you're going to get rescued, you have to ration it down to the bare essentials, and he stuck to his guns on that,\" Hawkins said. And with only those bare essentials, they waited and they prayed but they didn't give up. The three had lifejackets, flares and handmade flags. They used T-shirts and railing they ripped off the boat to create the flags, Hawkins said. They waved at boats and helicopters they saw, but the pilots didn't see them, Hall said. Watch two other fishermen describe ordeal \u00bb . \"We tried flaggin' everybody we could, but I guess it was not our time to go home yet. They'd come straight at us, we'd be like 'Hey,' and there they'd go,\" Hall told KHOU. \"I was like, well, you know the good man above, either he's teaching us a lesson or showing us something. And finally, when that boat came, it was just ... I don't know.\" \"It was a miracle,\" Phillips said, finishing Hall's sentence. One day after the Coast Guard called off a weeklong search for the men, the trio spotted a private vessel in the distance. They waved their flags and this time they were seen, Hawkins said. The Coast Guard said it combed more than 86,000 square miles looking for the men . When the crew of the private boat found the three sitting on top of their capsized catamaran, they were about 180 miles from Port Aransas, Texas, which is at the entrance to Corpus Christi Bay. None of the men suffered serious injuries despite all they had endured. In fact, Hawkins said he wouldn't be against going fishing again very soon. \"I would love to do it this weekend, but we made a pact when we made it back to the house that we're going to put the poles down for the rest of the year and try to do something else, maybe go deer hunting or something like that.\"","highlights":"Three fishermen spent week on on capsized boat in Gulf of Mexico .\nMen rationed water, crackers, beer to live .\nBoater spotted fishermen about 180 miles from coast of Port Aransas, Texas .\nCoast Guard had called off search for men on Friday ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Carlos del Rio, MD, is the Hubert Professor and chair in the global health department at the Rollins School of Public Health and professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Emory University's School of Medicine. Del Rio is a native of Mexico and was executive director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico from 1992 through 1996. Dr. Carlos del Rio says U.S. and Mexican authorities deserve credit for their responses to the swine flu outbreak. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The swine flu outbreak that started less than a month ago has caused more than 150 deaths in Mexico and more than 60 confirmed cases across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with suspected cases in France, Spain, Israel and New Zealand. It is clear that a new virus has emerged that is different enough that the population's previous exposure to influenza viruses and vaccines do not provide immunity. So far, public health authorities are meeting this challenge with strength and preparedness. The Mexican and American federal governments deserve credit for their thorough responses. The major control strategy that has been implemented in Mexico is social-distancing, a range of nonquarantine measures that attempt to reduce contact between persons, such as closing schools, canceling cultural and sports events, and closing museums and parks. In addition, countries are strengthening surveillance, releasing antiviral stockpiles and issuing travel advisories. In the United States, federal officials are working closely with and providing guidance to state and local public health authorities, who have to make decisions about whether to close schools or prevent other large-scale gatherings. The cross-border nature of this outbreak is a strong argument for why the United States should cooperate with and support competent institutions of government in other countries, even during a period of economic uncertainty. The first case of swine flu in the United States during the current outbreak was identified in San Diego County by part of a surveillance program connected with the Naval Health Research Center there, which only began monitoring influenza in 2005. In this program, physicians collect nasal swabs from patients at community clinics on both sides of the border. Only when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists sent a suspect sample to the mass spectrometer did they discover the new variety of swine flu, according to an article describing the techniques in Science magazine. Two critical questions remain. Why have mortality rates been higher in Mexico? And how should preparations for the regular flu season later this year be modified? Reports from Mexico that the virus has primarily struck otherwise healthy young adults are alarming because seasonal influenza typically affects the very young and very old. Still, preliminary genetic analysis shows that the virus strains isolated from patients in California are identical to those seen in severely ill Mexican patients. It is possible that some of the patients in Mexico, many of whom are dying of pneumonia, are succumbing to secondary infections. Medical historians believe that a large proportion of those who died of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 were not killed by the flu virus, but by secondary bacterial pneumonia, which was difficult to treat before the introduction of antibiotics. Thus, enhancing vaccination against pneumonia may prove to be a critical strategy in decreasing influenza mortality during future outbreaks. Additional investigation of those who have died is however, urgently needed to determine the best response strategy. An issue that keeps coming up is the idea of closing the U.S.-Mexico border. Already at various border crossing points, customs authorities are having people who appear sick taken to a secondary inspection area for further evaluation. More systematic monitoring at border crossing and airports such as mouth swabs has been proposed. Is that a good strategy? I would argue that it is not. The U.S.-Mexico border is one of the busiest in the world with millions of people and goods crossing each day. Many items that we routinely use in the United States are produced in Mexico and closing the border would have a crippling effect to the United States. For example, in the event of a serious flu outbreak in this country there would be a need for mechanical ventilator deployments to hospitals. The national stockpile has sufficient ventilators, but the necessary circuits that are needed to operate them are not produced in the United States but in Mexico, so having them come across to this country is critical for taking care of critically ill patients in the United States. The second issue is how to prepare for the coming flu season. During the flu pandemic of 1918, cases began in the spring and then faded away during the summer, only to come back with a vengeance in the fall and winter. Thus, we need to be prepared for an even worse outbreak of swine flu this winter and should not declare victory too soon. Considerable evidence has accumulated that the practice of producing seasonal vaccines in chicken eggs is cumbersome and sometimes ineffective. There is an urgent need for the development of more modern techniques of vaccine production. The National Institutes of Health has been putting its research resources into the fight. In 2007, the NIH created six Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, located at Emory University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, UCLA, University of Minnesota and University of Rochester. Sunday's emergency declaration signaled for these centers to devote their resources to monitoring and responding to the swine flu outbreak. Researchers at these centers have developed alternatives to chicken eggs and new delivery methods. Now is the time to put these alternatives to the test, so that countries around the world are fully prepared for the coming flu season and future outbreaks. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Carlos del Rio.","highlights":"Dr. Carlos del Rio: U.S. and Mexico have responded well to swine flu outbreak .\nHe says cross-border cooperation is crucial to successful battle against flu .\nKey question is why Mexico's illnesses have been more deadly, he says .\nDel Rio: One factor may be presence of pneumonia in those who died ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan government should immediately release more than 280,000 displaced Tamil civilians living in detention camps, a leading human rights group said Wednesday. Tamil civilians are at Menik Farm refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern town of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Human Rights Watch said the displaced Sri Lankans were already victims of a protracted and bloody civil war. Now they are victims again, confined against their will, like criminals, the global watchdog group said. \"Keeping several hundred thousand civilians who had been caught in the middle of a war penned in these camps is outrageous,\" said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Right Watch. \"Haven't they been through enough?\" But a Sri Lankan Defense Ministry spokesman said the Human Rights Watch report is overstated, and he defended the government's handling of the displaced. \"Those are not detention camps,\" said the spokesman, Lakshman Hulugalle. \"They are relief villages. All the basic facilities are being given to the people.\" Sri Lanka declared victory in May in its 25-year battle with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but concerns remain about how the island nation can heal visceral war wounds. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- waged war for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. As many as 70,000 people were killed in the conflict. With the cease-fire, the question of how to resettle Tamil refugees, many of whom were living among the rebels, has wrought intense criticism of the government from international humanitarian agencies. The United Nations reported that as of July 19, Sri Lanka was detaining 281,621 people in 30 military guarded camps in the four northern districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and Trincomalee. Human Rights Watch said humanitarian workers are prohibited from discussing abuses or the final months of the ethnic conflict and that camp residents are allowed to leave only for emergency medical care, often only with military escort. In some camps, people have to register with the military twice a day, the rights group said. If they fail, they are subject to punitive measures such as being forced to stand still under the sun for extended periods of time. The group reported health problems created by inconsistent water supply and a shortage of bathroom facilities. But Hulugalle, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said barbed wire around the compounds is a common way to define barriers in Sri Lanka and that military guards were being utilized out of security concerns. The government fears that rebels are hiding in the camps and screening people living in them. \"These are people who were kept for months in LTTE clutches,\" Hulugalle said, referring to the displaced civilians. He said the government has a 180-day plan to resettle most people but that a lot of work was needed in the northern districts as far as rebuilding infrastructure and basic services destroyed in the fighting. The human rights activists say, however, that the government is not working fast enough. Human Right Watch said Sri Lanka's goal now is only to resettle 60 percent of the refugees by the end of the year. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz visited a camp this week in Vavuniya, after which he announced an additional $8 million in humanitarian aid for the northern districts. But even in handing out dollars, Schwartz was critical of Sri Lanka's handling of the displaced. In a statement, he acknowledged that providing food, shelter and medical care for the displaced people was a \"formidable task.\" But Schwartz said the United States remains \"deeply concerned\" about the confinement of people to camps and the hardships they endure within those camps. He also criticized the restrictions placed on humanitarian workers visiting the camps. \"The government of the United States believes the focus now must be on the prompt return of the displaced in safety and dignity, and we want to accelerate this process,\" Schwartz said. In addition to global humanitarian aid, the International Monetary Fund has approved a $2.6 billion loan to Sri Lanka to mend the country. Adams of Human Rights Watch said Sri Lanka, in need of global sympathy in its efforts to rebuild, could very well go the opposite way if the Tamil people, once subjugated by the rebels, keep waking up as prisoners of their own state.","highlights":"Group: More than 280,000 displaced Tamil civilians living in detention camps .\nSri Lanka says the Human Rights Watch report is overstated .\nHuman Rights Watch says aid workers are prohibited from discussing abuses .\nGroup reported health problems created by inconsistent water supply ."} -{"article":"TRION, Georgia (CNN) -- The Dodge Neon sped down Interstate 40 in eastern Oklahoma, its occupants heading to Phoenix, Arizona, to buy a load of dope. It was May 2005. The couple brought along methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana to help pass the time on the long journey. Paul Faulkner, 83, and his son, Michael Smith, were convicted in a drug smuggling ring in north Georgia. At that moment, Detective Rob Rumble had no clue that the traffic stop he was about to make would launch a years-long drug investigation stretching more than 2,000 miles, from the remote mountains of northwest Georgia all the way down to Mexico. The investigation showed how an 83-year-old grandfather adapted to the times, morphing from old school bootlegging to dealing Mexican dope. His son acted as the ringleader of the operation. His grandson was tied in too, authorities say. \"I've seen it all. Nothing surprises me,\" said Rumble, a drug investigator for the district attorney's office in east-central Oklahoma. After making that traffic stop, Rumble persuaded the nervous, lanky driver from Georgia to work with authorities and tell everything he knew. Investigators were led to a sleepy pocket of Georgia with scenic mountain views where people wave to strangers from their cars and where some homes still fly the Confederate flag. Watch moonshine, marijuana and a family feud \u00bb . It's the last place one might expect drugs from Mexico. But the demand for drugs is reaching even the most remote corners of America. Their story has all the intrigue of a classic Southern novel -- three generations of a family business on the wrong side of the law, complete with an old fashioned family feud. \"When they're in that type of business, there's a reckoning day -- and apparently this is it,\" said Benny Perry, the 78-year-old mayor of Trion, Georgia, one of the towns where the family was operating. Perry is a barrel-chested man and speaks in a welcoming Southern accent. \"I'll say this, I was completely surprised,\" he said. \"I felt like we had a problem here, but I wouldn't have thought it was originating in Mexico and coming here.\" The drugs, mostly marijuana, were trucked from Mexico through California and Arizona and then distributed across five counties in Georgia and one in Tennessee, authorities say. They were hidden in just about anything -- furniture, roofs of big-rigs and tire wells. Once the shipments arrived, the dope was put in 50-caliber ammunition cans and buried in the woods, where buyers would pick up the stash and leave behind thousands in cash, authorities say. See where the family operated \u00bb . At the heart of the operation was 46-year-old Michael Leon Smith, who authorities say became one of the richest men in Chattooga County, population 25,000, as he laundered his drug money by buying up dozens of pieces of property. One tract of land sits on Old Justice Road, an ironic name considering the law finally caught up with him. Smith's 83-year-old father, Paul Leon Faulkner, was also busted. Eight others, including Faulkner's grandson (Smith's nephew), pleaded guilty to an array of charges related to the drug ring. The drugs mostly involved marijuana, but methamphetamine and cocaine were also part of the smuggling operation, authorities say. \"We love it when somebody says they can't be caught,\" said Del Thomasson, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who worked the case. Faulkner, who is suffering from cancer, was handed a 20-year sentence last month and is to head to prison in August. \"Twenty years, that is a death sentence,\" said Giles Jones, Faulkner's attorney, adding that he has appealed the sentence. He said Faulkner was a \"full-time mountain shiner\" who could talk moonshine until he was \"blue in the face,\" but knew little about the Mexican marijuana operation. Jones said the old man's son \"threw his ass under the bus\" to save himself. \"It's a situation where I guess you're just looking out for yourself. It's every day as every day, man,\" said Jones. Not so fast, said Cathy Alterman, the defense attorney for Smith, Faulkner's son. \"Michael didn't throw his father under the bus. His father threw Michael down the drain when he was 16 years old,\" Alterman said. \"If the father got a longer sentence, it's because he's a lousy father. ... He was never there for his son, except to be a bad example.\" Smith is serving a nine-year sentence in federal prison in Montgomery, Alabama. Faulkner's grandson is also serving a nine-year sentence. There is no parole in the federal system. Alterman said the sentences are excessive for people involved in dealing marijuana, a substance she says should be legalized. iReport.com: Time to legalize pot? \"Michael's a wonderful family man, a Christian -- which means a lot to him, a very religious man. And I point out that in the Bible, God gave us every seed-bearing plant, and I think Michael looked at it that way. And, unfortunately, our government since 1937 has not seen it as a God-given right.\" Alterman is a defense attorney in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. She says about 90 percent of her clients are accused drug dealers, \"most of them out of Mexico.\" Asked if Smith was dealing with people tied to Mexico's ruthless cartels, Alterman said, \"Yes.\" Learn more about Mexican cartels \u00bb . \"When you're selling in quantity -- all right, and Michael was selling in quantity -- you need someone who is able to give you a regular supply at a reasonable price, and so eventually Michael did end up buying from people who were from Mexico.\" The cartels are so organized, the money so great, that when an operation like this family's is taken down, it doesn't take long for others to move in. \"Within 24 hours, if someone's arrested, someone else here already in the United States in the trade will take their place,\" Alterman said. \"America does not know that the fingers of the cartels are basically around the throat of America,\" she added, \"and it has spread out to rural America just as much as the inner city of Detroit.\" Authorities agree. Nearly every rural community is facing a similar battle, with drug dealers taking up shop in small towns where law enforcement has less of a presence and where the nation's highways make for easy transport. \"I think people should care about what happens in a rural area, because let's face it, there are more rural areas than there are cities. Our community is not the only one affected,\" said GBI agent Thomasson. A Justice Department study released last year showed Mexican cartels had a presence in 230 U.S. cities, stretching from the U.S.-Mexican border to the Southeast and as far north as Alaska. The nation's rural communities are increasingly affected. See the cartels' urban hubs . \"Historically, rural America uses more alcohol and less drugs. That is changing,\" said Dr. H. Westley Clark, the director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. There have been few comprehensive studies over the last decade looking at the problem of drugs in rural America. According to a 2006 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the use of illicit drugs in America is nearly the same in cities and rural areas, 8.7 percent compared to 7.8 percent respectively. Another report, in 2000 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, found that eighth-graders living in rural America were 34 percent more likely to smoke marijuana than in urban centers and 83 percent more likely to use crack cocaine. In Trion, a town of about 2,000 people, a sign sits at the edge of the community in support of the local K-12 school. It reads, \"Trion Bulldogs deserve a drug free community to live and grow!!\" The words \"drug free\" are underlined. Many here are shocked to hear drugs from Mexico are coming through. Most don't like to talk on the record about the case because the family was well-known, even well-liked. \"You got a guy who's a drug dealer, but you have good people in a community. I mean, they don't have a clue what's going on,\" Thomasson said. The town's mayor, Perry, said it's difficult to reconcile a \"cordial\" local family with the serious drug convictions. \"You could talk to [them] ... and they would speak back,\" he said of Faulkner and Smith. \"That's a big thing up here in a small town. If you speak to somebody and they don't speak back, you think, 'Well, something's wrong here.' \" Perry said local authorities are trying \"to stamp out the local demand,\" adding, \"As long as we've got a market for it, they're gonna bring it up here.\" Alterman, the defense attorney, agrees. \"Americans are screaming for drugs\" and there's millions to be made, she said. \"There's too much money involved.\"","highlights":"10 people, including grandpa, son and grandson, convicted on serious drug charges .\n83-year-old former moonshiner gets 20 years; son who led operation gets 9 years .\nAttorney: \"If the father got a longer sentence, it's because he's a lousy father\"\nAuthorities say case is a microcosm of what's happening across rural America ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The great paddlewheel turned the Ohio River water to a froth as the Delta Queen steamboat, a floating National Historic Landmark, departed Cincinnati, Ohio, on its final scheduled voyage this week. The Delta Queen is the last running steam-driven, paddlewheeled overnight passenger boat. The boat is a throwback to the 1800s and the era of Mark Twain, when thousands of steam-driven paddlewheelers plied the Mississippi River system. The Delta Queen is the last of those operating as overnight passenger boats on U.S. waterways, giving riders a 19th-century experience on cruises complete with the carnival-like sounds of the steam-whistle calliope. But it will dock permanently if Congress doesn't grant a safety exemption. It left Cincinnati on Tuesday on a 10-day cruise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Memphis, Tennessee, where it will unload what could be its final passengers. \"There are so few really authentic things left. Everything is a re-creation or a tied up old dusty museum,\" said Vicki Webster, leader of the grassroots Save the Delta Queen Campaign. \"The Delta Queen is a breathing part of history and we have to keep as many of those as we can.\" The frequent riders and steamboat aficionados are being punished, Webster insists. Sherrin Kraus, 66, admires the Delta Queen as it passes by her home in Hanover, Indiana, each year. \"I've been in love with this boat since I was 5 years old,\" Kraus told CNN affiliate WLWT-TV when the ship arrived in Cincinnati. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos and memories of the Delta Queen . Kraus and her husband Ken boarded the Delta Queen's possible final voyage to celebrate their 45th anniversary. They told WLWT they decided to celebrate the occasion early out of concern the ship would not get another exemption. \"This was our 45th anniversary trip because we don't know what the future's going to bring, but we're worried,\" Kraus said. \"If she doesn't survive this last onslaught, it's the end of an era.\" The Delta Queen will go out of service if Congress does not grant the ship another exemption from a 1960s federal law, the Safety at Seas Act, which bans boats made largely out of wood because of fire hazards. The current exemption, which expires at the end of October, has been given to the ship nine times over 40 years. See the Delta Queen's life in photos \u00bb . Supporters of the boat, which has roamed the nation's waterways since 1927 and helped the Navy ferry survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor to San Francisco hospitals in 1941, are hopeful the ship will not play its famed calliope for the last time. iReport.com: Watch the ship depart as a calliope concert plays . The grassroots campaign is gaining traction and the support of high ranking politicians. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement he would work with Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, to try to get an exemption granted if the House returns for a lame duck session to address economic issues following the election. Supporters, including several mayors, agree with Webster that granting an exemption to the Delta Queen would be a way to help stimulate the economy without it costing taxpayers a dime. Lee Powell, director of the Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus said the boat provides economic opportunities. By docking and unloading nearly 200 passengers up to a dozen times a year, the Delta Queen helps to pump money into small cities along the heartland's rivers that are not normally tourist destinations. Helena, Arkansas, which Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi \"occupies one of the prettiest situations on the river,\" could suffer if the boat ceases operation. \"There are places in Helena that are essentially at virtually the levels of a third world country,\" Powell said. \"They were impoverished before and now with the economic suffering, to choke off one of the good things they have is ridiculous.\" The fight ahead is not uncharted territory for the Delta Queen, which fought down to the wire in 1970 to be given the exemption. Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who heads up the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has refused to support the exemption, claiming the boat, with a steel hull but largely wooden superstructure, is a fire hazard. Webster, who says she is \"seething with anger\" about the complaint, said the ship is outfitted with state-of-the-art fire safety equipment and a full fire crew on board. \"The heat detectors are so sensitive in the rooms if you take a shower and forget to close your bathroom door, the heat detectors go off,\" Webster said. \"It's ridiculous. You literally could not have a fire on the boat because it would be put out in seconds.\" Webster says the fight with Oberstar amounts to a labor dispute and that Oberstar is bowing to the Seafarers International Union which represented the boat's employees before it was bought by Majestic America Line. Oberstar and the union have both denied those accusations, but Webster insists simple politics are getting in the way of saving a national treasure. \"They're holding her hostage,\" Webster said. \"That's like punishing a child because his parents are bickering or tearing down the Statute of Liberty because of a dispute between the owners of the land and the snack shop.\"","highlights":"Delta Queen paddlewheeler has been in service since 1927 .\nBoat is last steam-powered paddlewheeler providing overnight passenger cruises .\nVessel needs new exemption from 1960s federal law .\nSafety of Seas Act bars largely wooden ships from overnight cruises ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama said Tuesday that the country already is \"seeing shovels hit the ground\" on the first infrastructure repair project funded through the Transportation Department's share of the $787 billion stimulus bill. Workers mark where repairs are needed on Maryland Route 650. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, \"The work begins today in Montgomery County, Maryland, where a work crew is starting on a project to resurface Maryland State Highway 650 -- a very busy road that has not been fully repaired in 17 years.\" The resurfacing contract is going to a Pennsylvania-based family-owned company, American Infrastructure, LaHood said. He said the project will support 60 jobs. \"And that's how we're going to get the country back on its feet,\" LaHood added. Mark Compton, director of government affairs for American Infrastructure, said his company received $2.1 million in federal funds, by way of the Maryland State Highway Administration. The money will be used to repave and add safety features to a stretch of the highway. Compton said the cash infusion is the \"catalyst\" to create 60 jobs, including bringing back some laid-off employees. He said he hopes the workers can be retained beyond this six-month project. \"We'll continue to bid, so the goal is to get more projects to keep those guys working, so they can roll off that project onto another,\" Compton said. CNNMoney: Stimulus funds hit the street . Obama and LaHood on Tuesday announced the release of $27 billion in funds from the stimulus package \"to help states create a 21st-century infrastructure.\" The president said it is part of the \"largest new investment in America's infrastructure since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.\" Obama said another 200 construction projects would be launched over the next few weeks, \"fueling growth in an industry that's been hard hit by our economic crisis.\" Two weeks ago, Obama signed into law his stimulus plan, known as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The president has said the plan will create or save up to 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Four-hundred thousand of those will be infrastructure jobs that include rebuilding roads, bridges and schools. LaHood has asked the nation's governors to certify projects and provide assurances that funds from the act will be spent for appropriate infrastructure projects. Obama said transportation projects would be stamped with a special emblem so people can see where their tax dollars are going. Obama said the investments in highways would create or save 150,000 jobs by the end of 2010. The number of jobs being created or saved in one year is more than the number of jobs the Big Three automakers have lost in manufacturing over the past three years, Obama said. By investing in roads \"that should have been rebuilt long ago,\" Obama said, \"we can save some 14,000 men and women who lose their lives each year due to bad roads and driving conditions.\" \"Poor roads are a public hazard, and we have a responsibility to fix them,\" he said. Watch Obama explain how the roads will save lives \u00bb . Obama also announced Tuesday that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve were launching the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative. When fully implemented, Obama said, the initiative \"will generate up to a trillion dollars in new lending for the American people, and this will help unlock our frozen credit markets, which is absolutely essential for economic recovery.\" CNNMoney's Aaron Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"New highway resurfacing project in Maryland is expected to support 60 jobs .\nPresident Obama: Highway spending will create or save 150,000 jobs by end of 2010 .\nAnother 200 construction projects to be launched in next few weeks .\nInvesting in roads will save lives, Obama says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Democratic and Republican presidential candidates scour the country for votes during the 2008 campaign, they'll inevitably court the Hispanic community, a voting group growing rapidly in number and diversity. Some Democratic presidential candidates pose before a debate sponsored by Univision. The Republican debate was postponed after only one candidate agreed to attend, a development which troubled some party leaders. The Hispanic vote is neither homogenous nor loyal to one party. Though the current political moment seems to favor the Democratic Party, experts say that affinity should not be taken for granted. The Hispanic community is the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, according to the U.S. census. But its percentage of the electorate is lower than its numbers as a whole because of lower citizenship rates, less voter participation and a youthful demographic. Of the nation's more than 44 million people of Hispanic origin, about a third are too young to vote. But all that's changing. Before the midterm elections in 2006, the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated more than 17 million Hispanics would be eligible to vote in that election. The number represented a 7 percent increase from 2004. The Hispanic share of the U.S. electorate increased from 8.2 percent to 8.6 percent during the same period, Pew estimated. That percentage may grow even more by 2008 as a result of citizenship drives, get-out-the-vote campaigns and the natural growth of the community. Univision, the Spanish-language broadcast giant, has thrown its considerable weight behind a citizenship drive this year. \"We feel that empowering our audience is good for Hispanics and the country,\" Univision President Ray Rodriguez told the Wall Street Journal in May 2007, adding that it was \"a totally nonpartisan effort.\" Organizations such as the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, or NALEO, are also mobilizing the vote. \"We have spearheaded a massive naturalization campaign and close to, I think, a million applications will have been submitted this fiscal year,\" said NALEO's executive director, Arturo Vargas. The change in the electorate could play a significant role in possible swing states like Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida during the 2008 election. There's a reason the Democratic Party decided to hold its presidential convention in Denver, experts said. \"I don't think it's really registered with people just how influential the Latino vote can be in some of these state primaries,\" Vargas said. The Hispanic vote has historically been aligned with the Democratic Party, an allegiance established during the administrations of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, said Harry Pachon of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. That political alignment was further cemented when Proposition 187 -- designed to deny health care, education and welfare benefits to illegal immigrants -- was pushed by Republicans and passed in California in 1994. But the Republican Party, intent on gaining more Hispanic voters, made inroads during the early parts of this decade, culminating in the 2004 presidential campaign by President Bush. Exit polls showed he carried 40 to 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. \"There are a lot of issues that Latinos agree with Republican philosophy,\" Pachon said, pointing to the GOP stances on entrepreneurship, fiscal policies, its appeal to Hispanic evangelicals and its policies toward Cuba. But the heated immigration debate, when many congressional Republicans disagreed with President Bush over granting a path toward citizenship for many illegal immigrants, may erode those gains. \"The Republicans are really caught between a rock and a hard place,\" Pachon said. They must balance the interests of a segment of their constituency that is very anti-immigrant with the interests of a \"Latino voter that is affluent and middle class, who can theoretically be reached by Republican Party principles,\" he said. It is little wonder then, that among Republican presidential candidates, only Arizona Sen. John McCain agreed to appear at an Univision debate scheduled for mid-September. The debate didn't happen. All but one of the Democratic contenders appeared for their debate. Some Republican leaders said last week not participating in such debates could harm the party's standing with minority groups for the 2008 election and beyond. \"What are we going to do -- meet in a country club in the suburbs one day?\" former congressman and GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp told The Washington Post. \"If we're going to be competitive with people of color, we've got to ask them for their vote.\" \"This [political environment] gives Democrats a huge advantage,\" Adam J. Segal, who heads the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins University, said in an e-mail. He also runs the 2050 Group, a multicultural public relations firm based in Washington. \"They are likely to draw far more Hispanic votes than in 2004 and would gain at least a half-million vote advantage\" under one of his group's more conservative scenarios, Segal said. But the Hispanic community is diverse and voting interests are not homogenous, which imperils such predictions. Hispanic immigrants originate from more than a dozen different countries, arrived in the U.S. through numerous immigration waves and have different perceptions of communal identity, Segal said. For example, a Cuban-American may vote Republican because of the GOP's long-standing policies toward Cuba, whereas a Puerto Rican voter in New York City or a voter in a border state may be driven by different motives. The culture of a state can also affect a Hispanic voter's behavior. A voter in Texas may be more conservative, whereas a voter with a similar background in California may be more liberal, Pachon said. There may also be generational cleavages, Pachon said. A study he conducted with a colleague on the impact of religion on the Latino vote revealed differences between first-, second- and third-generation Hispanics. The first and third generations said religion was more important to them when compared to the second generation. Additionally, despite the furor over immigration, that issue might not be the most important to Hispanic voters, NALEO's Vargas said. \"If the election were held today, I think immigration would be a significant factor, but we're more than a year away from the election,\" he said. Based on a series of town hall meetings conducted in 2004 and conversations throughout this year, Vargas said education, the Iraq war, the economy and health care may take precedence over immigration. \"We need to distinguish issues that matter to the Latino community versus the issues that matter to Latino voters,\" he said. \"Those are not the same.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Political observers: Hispanic voters as diverse as wider community .\nGrassroots efforts under way to increase Hispanic citizenship .\nHispanic vote could play significant role in 2008 swing states ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nicole Nagy had gone back to school hoping that a new career would lead to a better job. When she was turned down for financial aid, Nagy was told she could, as a song goes, \"sing for the money.\" She was directed to a contest called Careereoki. Nicole Nagy enlisted the help of her children and her husband to make her videotape. Anyone brave enough to videotape themselves singing -- and sometimes dancing -- about their dream career karaoke-style was qualified to enter the competition. More than 60 videos were submitted, from which five finalists were chosen to compete for online votes that will determine the winner. Most contestants were from Central Florida, likely because the grand prize includes tuition for a certificate program at an Orange County technical school. Nagy, a mother of three, was laid off in 2007. When she couldn't find a job, her husband supported her decision to enroll in nursing school. But tuition and books are costly, and the Nagys are a month behind on the mortgage payment. So risking embarrassment, Nagy decided a better future might lie in her music video. \"I can't sing to save my life, but I will go ahead and try this because I am willing to do anything to get school paid for,\" Nagy said. Her husband, obviously a good sport, appears in the video along with her children. Watch the contestants' videos \u00bb . Dressed in a bathrobe, she sits on the couch with her kids as her husband starts the video with the bad news, \"OK guys, I have to go to work. Sorry we can't send you to nursing school, Mom. We just don't have the money.\" Nagy replies, \"Ahh man.\" Addressing her children, she says, \"know what we can do instead, we can sing about it.\" Nagy takes off the robe, revealing a nursing uniform and the stethoscope which acts as her microphone. Nagy then dances around her living room, belting out her tune, \"Doctor, doctor give me the news; I got a bad case of nursing blues.\" She sings her original lyrics to Robert Palmer's \"Bad Case of Loving You\" as her young, obedient children wait for the song to end. Nagy's video was good enough to gain her a spot as a Careereoki finalist. But winning the contest won't be as easy as making it to the finals. The Careereoki competition is stiff. American Idol judging it was not for this first-time contest. To choose the final five videos, judges considered three categories. Points were awarded based 50 percent on the contestant's originality, 25 percent on creativity and 25 percent on the video's humor. Whether Nagy's performance will be good enough to win will depend on how many people vote for her on local radio station WPYO's Web site where the videos are posted. Fans of the musical Grease may feel inclined to vote for Julia Langston of Lake Mary, Florida. Langston does a nice job singing what is supposed to be a duet, \"Summer Nights.\" She creatively sings, \"Unemployment happened so fast, never thought this recession would last.\" Langston was laid off a few months ago after working for 15 years as an office manager. As with her fellow contestants, the grand prize would be a huge help for her. She is living off the money she had set aside to remodel her kitchen. Finalist Jennifer Faulk of Deltona, Florida, sums up the recurring theme of the five still standing: \"The day does not go by that I don't go online and look for something and there's just nothing out there.\" The Careereoki contest was sponsored by the Orange County School Board; Workforce Central Florida, an Orlando-area job placement organization; and a local advertising agency. Workforce Vice President Kimberly Cornett said her organization's participation in the singing contest helped spread the word on their \"no-cost services\" to the community. \"It was a way to connect to job seekers, and also for job seekers to take a little break from the stress of unemployment,\" Cornett said. She said she sees that stress first hand; the Orlando organization she works for offers job placement. Unemployment in Central Florida is the highest it has been in 16 years, according to Cornett. The grand prize is worth $8,000 and includes a career training scholarship, personal and resume makeovers and a $100 gas card. Two first-place winners will also get tuition help, resume makeovers and $50 gas cards. The finalists are keeping their fingers crossed that the song in their heart doesn't end up a song sung blue. The winner will be announced on Monday.","highlights":"People invited to sing for job help in \"Careereoki\" contest .\nBest videotape of singing contestant will earn prize worth $8,000 .\nCentral Florida contest sponsored by school board, job-placement agency ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- One of Iraq's top Shiite leaders died Wednesday after a lengthy battle with lung cancer, a senior official with his office told CNN. Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, seen in a 2007 photo, was an ally of both the U.S. and Iran. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who was born in 1950, died in Tehran, Iran, where he had been receiving treatment for more than two years, according to his adviser Haitham al-Husseini. Al-Hakim had recently suffered a medical setback, according to his party, which asked people to pray for him in a statement released on Sunday. His body will be sent to Iraq and he will be buried in his hometown of Najaf, one of the holiest cities for Shiite Muslims, al-Husseini said. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, issued a joint statement expressing sadness over al-Hakim's death and describing him as \"a national leader.\" \"Throughout his life, His Eminence demonstrated courage and fortitude, contributing to the building of a new Iraq,\" the statement said. \"We offer our sincere condolences to his family and colleagues.\" Watch how al-Hakim helped shape Iraq's future \u00bb . Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also offered his condolences, saying al-Hakim was \"like an old brother.\" Al-Maliki credited him for being a \"strong supporter during the phase of fighting the ousted regime and a key figure in the process of building the new Iraq.\" \"His death at this critical stage that we are passing through is a great loss for Iraq,\" al-Maliki said in the statement. Al-Hakim ended his more than 20-year exile in Iran in 2003, when he returned to Iraq after U.S.-led forces toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his regime. \"It was very emotional for me to meet with my people after Saddam fell,\" al-Hakim said in a 2006 interview. \"I was longing to see them. My goal in this life is to serve those great people and I am very proud to be a part of them.\" Iraqi Shiites were suppressed under the Hussein regime, which favored the country's minority Sunni Muslims. Al-Hakim played a central role in shaping Iraq's future following his return. During his exile, which began in the early 1980s, al-Hakim commanded the Badr Brigades, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. SCIRI -- a religious movement that opposed the Hussein regime -- was led by al-Hakim's brother until he was assassinated in August 2003. Al-Hakim himself was also the target of numerous assassination attempts. He took over as the head of SCIRI and began his ascent to power as the Badr Brigades became the bulk of the Iraqi security forces in Iraq's predominantly Shiite south. SCIRI changed its name to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq in 2007 to remove the word \"revolution,\" in an effort to reflect the current situation in Iraq. Al-Hakim had always propagated a message of peace, calling on Iraqis to stop taking part in the bitter sectarian conflict that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein. But despite his desire for a secular democracy in Iraq, he wanted a country that recognized the importance of religion, religious institutions and its authorities. Al-Hakim successfully harnessed the fervor generated from emotional religious rituals like Ashura and turned it into a powerful political platform. That ability led some to consider him Iraq's most powerful man. His political bloc won the most seats in the Iraqi parliament in 2005. And although al-Hakim never held a government position, he commanded respect from those who did. Government ministers would meet with him at his office, not theirs, and he was often seen in the company of former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. And when talks on Iraq's constitution stalled, then-President George W. Bush called al-Hakim, not the Iraqi prime minister or president. Al-Hakim visited the United States three times during the Bush administration to address the situation in Iraq. But he remained artfully vague about Iran's influence in Iraq, saying its role was a positive one -- in direct contradiction to the U.S. government, which raised concerns about what it called Iran's \"meddling.\" He cited the two predominantly Shiite Muslim countries' shared border, historical and cultural relations, and emphasized the desire for strong ties. Al-Hakim's death comes at a time of violent political turmoil in Iraq. The power of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq party he leaves behind is just as uncertain as the nation he so proudly wanted to serve. Al-Hakim was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, and was first treated in the United States, then later in Iran. When he returned to Iraq later that year, he told CNN that he felt good. But it was around that time that it became apparent he was grooming his son, Ammar al-Hakim, to take over as head of ISCI. It was once Iraq's most powerful Shiite political party, but ISCI lost much of its influence following elections in January, when politicians allied with al-Maliki won control of most of Iraq's provincial councils. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. officials, Iraqi PM offer condolences, praise for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim .\nAl-Hakim headed Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, helped shape Iraq's future .\nHe never held public office, but was one of Iraq's most powerful, respected leaders .\nAl-Hakim was in neighboring Iran being treated for lung cancer ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An earthquake shook southern Iceland on Thursday, reportedly causing injuries and damaging roads and buildings. A seismograph at the Institute of the Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, shows earthquake activity. The 6.1 magnitude temblor struck about 3:46 p.m. (11:46 a.m. ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was about 50 km (31 miles) east-southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, and was about 10 km (6.2 miles) below the Earth's surface. It was unclear exactly how many people were injured or the severity of their injuries, Olli Tynes, a journalist with Reykjavik's Channel 2, told CNN. A hospital in a town near the epicenter was also reported damaged, and some wings have had to be evacuated, he said. There were no reports of fatalities, but \"great material damage,\" Tynes said. Roads and bridges in the area have been closed. The Associated Press, quoting civil defense authorities, reported 15 to 20 people from Selfoss, near the epicenter, were taken for medical treatment. Iceland's emergency management agency has swung into action, and rescue crews were headed to the area most affected by the quake. Tynes said he has been speaking to residents of the towns closest to the epicenter. \"They said they thought the world was coming to an end,\" he said. \"They thought they were going to die.\" There have been no reports of homes collapsing, as most homes in Iceland are built to withstand earthquakes, he said. Alti Mar Gylfason said he had received reports of damage to the road that rings the island nation. The quake was felt nationwide, he said. \"It was a little bit like you're sleeping in a waterbed, you know ... everything floats around,\" he said, adding that people poured out of buildings into the street. \"This is not something we experience on a normal basis.\" Although Iceland is seismically active, its last major quakes were on June 17 and June 21, 2000, with quakes of 6.5 and 6.4, respectively. The temblors damaged homes and buildings, but caused no serious injuries.","highlights":"Strong earthquake shakes southern Iceland on Thursday afternoon .\nU.S. Geological Survey says quake was 6.1 magnitude .\nEpicenter 50 kilometers (30 miles) east, south-east of the capital Reykjavik .\nResidents near epicenter told to check on relatives ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. fans of Michael Jackson are pouring out their grief through music and dance, impromptu shrines at symbolic locations and heartfelt remembrances online. Valerie Rojas Pruitt, 12, lights a candle Friday at Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was surrounded hours before dawn Friday by candles, flowers, posters and balloons. As the sun rose, a man crouched on the sidewalk and painted a portrait of the pop star, who died suddenly on Thursday. \"This is a very sad day here in Hollywood, California,\" sobbed Melissa Fazli, a CNN iReporter. \"This is very, very sad. I can't believe it.\" The star emblem had been covered until almost 3 a.m. by a red carpet for the premiere of the Sasha Baron Cohen film \"Bruno\" at Grauman's Chinese Theater, but fans started leaving mementos as soon as the carpet was removed. The film's producers reportedly cut a scene referencing Jackson, at least for the premiere. Watch the Walk of Fame shrine grow \u00bb . \"He was an innovator,\" a fan named Delores said outside the theater. \"He's basically an icon in his own time -- legendary. It's going to take years [to sink in] that he's gone, because he's always with me. ... I'm just trying to assess it all right now. I'm still mourning, and at the same time missing him. It's a little bit much to bear.\" See what celebrities had to say \u00bb . Fans gathered near the gates of the Los Angeles home where the King of Pop collapsed Thursday, and hundreds more assembled outside the UCLA Medical Center, where Jackson was pronounced dead. The U.S. fans' reaction was part of a worldwide outpouring of grief over Jackson's death and celebration of his life and art. See how people reacted in other countries . People stopped in their tracks Thursday in New York's Times Square, staring up at the giant TV screens bearing news of Jackson's death. Some people set up lawn chairs in the evening. Watch the reaction on Times Square \u00bb . Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Motown Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan, a two-story house where the Jackson 5's recording career began in 1969, according to CNN affiliate WDIV-TV. Fans built a makeshift shrine to Jackson, whose hits could be heard booming from passing cars, the station reported. View a timeline of Jackson's career \u00bb . Fans frequently broke into song and dance around Jackson's childhood home on Jackson Street, renamed in honor of the family, in Gary, Indiana, CNN affiliate WRTV-TV reported. Watch fans gather at the home \u00bb . \"I knew Michael. I only lived three blocks from him myself,\" Gary resident John Moore told WRTV-TV. \"It's a really sad day. I'm very hurt and disappointed right now. He was a great guy.\" CNN iReporter Egberto Willies of Kingwood, Texas, summed up the conflicting feelings Jackson engendered among his admirers: . \"I grew up on Michael Jackson,\" Willies said in a video post on iReport.com. \"I loved Michael Jackson. I hated Michael Jackson. I admired Michael Jackson. I was ashamed of Michael Jackson. I was sorry for Michael Jackson. I was proud of Michael Jackson. iReport: Share your thoughts about Michael Jackson . \"Michael Jackson was a complicated human being who was [denied] a childhood in order to provide us with great musical and dancing entertainment,\" Willies went on. \"But with all his wealth and success he never seemed happy with himself. He never viewed himself as we viewed him: simply the best entertainer alive. May he rest in peace, his demons left behind.\" CNN's Kara Finnstrom and Dan Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Admirers gather at symbolic locations to salute the late \"King of Pop\"\nCandles, flowers, posters, balloons surround star on Hollywood Walk of Fame .\nFans sing and dance outside Detroit house where Jackson 5 first recorded .\nNeighbors remember Jackson at childhood home in Gary, Indiana ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five days of gunbattles between the Indian army and separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir have left at least 25 dead -- eight Indian army troopers, including one officer, and 17 militants, the Indian military said Tuesday. An Indian army soldier lays a wreath during the funeral of a slain soldier, northeast of Srinagar on Tuesday. Defense Minister A.K. Antony, meeting with India's military chiefs in Delhi, reviewed the situation in the Himalayan region and told the Army to deal with the situation in the Himalayan region with \"utmost firmness.\" Kashmir has been in the throes of a violent separatist campaign for nearly two decades during which authorities say 43,000 people have been killed. However, various NGOs and rights groups put the number of dead at twice the official count. In Srinigar, Kashmir, Army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar told CNN the Army was moving against the militants \"based on sound intelligence inputs as well as human intelligence provided by our own sources.\" The battles in the Shamsbhari forests of north Kashmir Kupwara district have caused \"minimum collateral damage to property,\" Brar said. The spokesman denied media reports that helicopter gunships and heavy weapons had been used by the army during these operations against the militants. This month's encounter between the Indian Army and the militants is the second longest in Kashmir this year. In January, a fierce encounter raged for seven days in the Poonch district of Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir. Two soldiers, a policeman and four militants were killed in that encounter. Kashmir has been the source of bitter dispute and two wars between India and neighboring Pakistan. Both control parts of the region which is predominantly Muslim.","highlights":"NEW: 25 dead in Kashmir gunfights between Indian troops, separatist militants .\nIncident comes after India accuses Pakistani troops of firing on Indian troops .\nKashmir has been in throes of separatist campaign for 20 years ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson had a level of hero worship on a par with Elvis Presley or the Beatles but he was the first black star to inspire such a massive following around the world. Michael Jackson, the ultimate showman, craved attention and was rarely disappointed. Total worldwide sales of more than 350 million records over his 40-year career give just a hint of the adoration there was for the \"King of Pop.\" The fact that his death came on the eve of a comeback tour in London will leave his devotees feeling even more bereft. While his career -- and wealth -- had waned greatly in recent years, there was still enough support for the concerts to sell out at a rate of nearly 40,000 an hour. Fans from as far afield as Japan, Germany and Dubai queued to buy their tickets. Steve Greenberg, founder and CEO of S-Curve Records, was a disc jockey in Tel Aviv, Israel, when \"Thriller\" first dropped and witnessed first-hand how Jackson became an international icon. His was a global appeal, Greenberg said, among fans and artists worldwide. \"He was as big in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as he was in America and Europe,\" Greenberg said. \"He had that universality that not many people had. The Beatles had it, Muhammad Ali had it, but not many other people have had it.\" Jackson was known for far more than his music though. Speaking after his death in Los Angeles was announced, U.S. civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton paid tribute to the work of a \"trailblazer\" in helping people around the world through his charities. How will you remember Michael Jackson? Sharpton added that the song Jackson co-wrote with Lionel Richie, \"We Are the World,\" a 1985 charity single that raised an estimated $50 million for famine relief in Africa, ushered in Live Aid and the era of celebrity philanthropy. Jackson was the supreme showman who had an unrivalled knack of grabbing headlines. From his precocious abilities as the 11-year-old singer in the Jackson 5 to his legendary \"moon-walk\" dance, the star craved attention, and was rarely disappointed. Jackson \"as big as it gets\" \u00bb . But in the years after his colossal 1982 hit album \"Thriller\" and its 1987 follow-up \"Bad,\" much of the focus did not cast him in a good light. In 1996 the lead singer of Pulp, Jarvis Cocker, caused a furor at the Brit Awards in London when he invaded the stage during Jackson's performance of \"Earth Song\" in protest \"at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing.\" Jackson failed to see the humor in Cocker's mockery, responding that he was \"sickened, saddened, shocked, upset, cheated, angry\" by the protest. He also alleged that Cocker had attacked children on stage, something that the Pulp singer denied. But many in the music industry backed Cocker, who was arrested but later released without charge. The theme of children was one that continued to haunt Jackson. In 2002 he caused a public outcry by dangling his baby son Prince Michael II from a third-floor hotel balcony in Germany before the world's press. He later said he regretted the incident. Watch video of the incident \u00bb . And in a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir that was supposed to repair his image around the world, the singer revived allegations of child abuse when he said of sharing a bed with a young boy: \"It's a beautiful thing. It's very right, it's very loving. Because what's wrong with sharing a love?\" A warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of sexually molesting 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo. Jackson surrendered himself to police amid a media furor. In the 2005 trial conducted in the glare of the world's media spotlight, Jackson was cleared of child molestation charges. Following the trial, Jackson's finances took a hit and he was forced to sell his Neverland ranch in California. He later kept a low profile in the United States and spent time in Britain, where his friends included psychic spoonbender Uri Geller and Harrod's owner Mohamed Al Fayed, and also in Bahrain. But in November last year, Jackson was sued by an Arab sheikh at the High Court in London for $7.7 million. They parted \"amicably\" after agreeing a settlement. Jackson had been invited with his children and entourage to Bahrain by the king's son, Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who lavished money on Jackson and built a recording studio, which he believed would be used to record albums by Jackson using material the sheikh had helped to write. But Jackson insisted there was no valid agreement and that the sheikh's case was based on \"mistake, misrepresentation and undue influence.\" He said sums of money paid out by the sheikh were \"gifts.\" As fans around the world mourn it is likely Michael Jackson will be remembered as a musical hero -- but also a man with human flaws.","highlights":"Michael Jackson was adored by fans around the world .\nTotal sales exceeding 700 million records over his 40-year career .\nU.S. civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton paid tribute to his charity work ."} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is \"urgently dispatching\" a special envoy to Myanmar, a statement from his office said Wednesday, following reports of violent clashes in that country between security forces and protesters. Protests at the crackdown have taken place overseas, including one outside the Myanmar embassy, London. \"He calls on the senior leadership of the country to cooperate fully with this mission in order to take advantage of the willingness of the United Nations to assist in the process of a national reconciliation through dialogue,\" said a U.N. statement. The envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, is scheduled to lead a briefing on the situation in Myanmar for the U.N. Security Council Wednesday afternoon. \"Noting reports of the use of force and of arrests and beatings, the secretary-general calls again on authorities to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar,\" Ban's statement said. There's been no official word yet if the military junta ruling Myanmar will accept the offer from the U.N. secretary-general. Speaking at the Labour Party conference Wednesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown underscored that any trampling on human rights would not be accepted. \"The whole world is now watching Burma and this illegal and oppressive regime should know that the whole world will hold it to account,\" he said. U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly's annual session Tuesday before the crackdown, said his administration would impose stiffer sanctions against the country's military regime. \"The United States will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers. We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights, as well as their family members,\" he said. \"We will continue to support the efforts of humanitarian groups working to alleviate suffering in Burma (the country's traditional name) and urge the United Nations and all nations to use their diplomatic and economic leverage to help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom.\" His comments were echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, also at the U.N. General Assembly. \"I'm deeply concerned about the situation in Burma and Myanmar, and I would like to appeal for the peaceful, spontaneous demonstrations which are expressing just political and social concerns that they not be repressed by force in any way,\" Sarkozy said. Soe Aung, National Council of the Union of Burma spokesman, called for the world to take action. \"There should be some action -- decisive action -- taken by the international community. At least there should be an urgent meeting of the Security Council level,\" he said. Aung also commented that the demonstrators do not seem content to back down. \"The monks are very determined that they are going to go ahead with the demonstrations unless their demands are met,\" he said. Such demands include an apology from ministry authorities for the mistreatment of monks in central Myanmar, a reduction in the price of gasoline -- which originally sparked protests in late August -- and the release of protesters detained since demonstrations began, Aung said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad. \"We are concerned about the situation, particularly now, because we see a worsening of the political situation and that is affecting the well-being of the people of Burma. \"We have urged Mr. Gambari and he plans to visit Burma as soon as possible,\" Khalilzad said, referring to Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. special envoy to Burma. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.N. to send special envoy to Myanmar amid reports of crackdown .\nWorld leaders condemn events in Myanmar, call on regime to desist from force .\nUK PM Brown underscores that any trampling on human rights not acceptable .\nPres. Bush says Tuesday that the U.S. will increase sanctions ."} -{"article":"COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- South Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd seemed to suggest Wednesday that the time had come for GOP Gov. Mark Sanford to consider resigning from office. Gov. Mark Sanford has said it's better for him to keep his governorship to \"learn lessons.\" \"For the past two days, I have been speaking with Republican leaders across South Carolina,\" she said in a statement. \"There is clearly a growing view that the time may have come for Governor Sanford to remove himself and his family from the limelight, so that he can devote his efforts full-time to repairing the damage in his personal life.\" The statement comes on the same day as a growing number of GOP state senators called for Sanford to step down. CNN has learned that GOP Sens. Daniel Verdin, Shane Martin, Ronnie Cromer and Wes Hayes joined the anti-Sanford chorus Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of Republican senators calling for the governor's resignation to 13. There are 27 Republicans in the state Senate. Another state senator stopped just short of calling for Sanford to step down Wednesday. Glenn McConnell, Senate president pro tempore, didn't explicitly ask Sanford to resign, but he did ask him \"to do the right thing for himself, his family and our state.\" Sanford and his staff have said repeatedly this week that he will not resign. He wrote in a message to his political action committee e-mail list Monday that while he considered resigning, \"I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.\" After returning last week from a secret trip to Argentina that his staff and wife didn't know about, Sanford admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman identified as Maria Belen Chapur. Sanford also told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's \"crossed lines\" with other women, although Chapur was the only one he had sex with. Watch a report on Sanford's situation \u00bb . Sanford's support among legislators and grassroots leaders in the state eroded considerably Tuesday after Sanford told The Associated Press he had met with his mistress more times than he had previously disclosed. He also admitted to dalliances with other women. At least four county GOP chairmen have also called for Sanford to go. Glenn McCall, the York County Republican Party chairman who has been leading a grassroots effort against the governor, said Wednesday that he and other conservative activists are postponing a rally at the State House next week because legislators are starting to come out strongly against Sanford. The rally had been scheduled to pressure Senate and House leaders to call for Sanford's resignation and start an investigation into his activities. But now that officials are publicly coming out against the governor and Attorney General Henry McMaster has begun investigating Sanford's travel records, McCall said the rally may not be necessary. \"We are hoping that legislators can quietly, in private talks with the governor, ask him if he would please step down,\" McCall said. A top South Carolina Democrat also called for Sanford's resignation Wednesday. \"While I believe an investigation should still be done to determine the full extent of Mark Sanford's abuse of power, [through] his long stream of confessions he has already revealed enough immoral and reprehensible behavior to justify asking him to step [down],\" state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said in a statement. \"State officials seem unable to do anything except worry and talk about Governor Sanford's extramarital affair, which we learn more about every few hours. \"... South Carolina can't afford to be at a standstill for the next 18 months with a governor who ignores his job responsibilities while pursuing personal interests,\" the statement said. \"Any other worker in South Carolina would be fired for not showing up at work with no notice.\" Late Tuesday, seven GOP senators, including Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, jointly issued a letter demanding that the governor step down because he has lost the trust of South Carolinians. \"The bottom line is that the Governor's private matters should remain private, but his deception and negligence make it impossible for us to trust him, and for him to govern in the future,\" they wrote. Peeler told CNN that Sanford \"has lost his ability to lead, and I'm afraid he has lost his ability to function as a man.\" \"He is sitting all alone in that big governor's mansion, totally alone,\" Peeler said. \"It's about leadership and moving forward and it's time for him to resign.\" Peeler issued the statement along with Sens. Hugh Leatherman, Paul Campbell, Thomas Alexander, Jake Knotts, Larry Martin and William O'Dell. Earlier Tuesday, two of Sanford's top conservative allies in the senate -- Larry Grooms and Kevin Bryant -- also said Sanford must go. The Greenville News, one of the largest papers in South Carolina, also issued a sharply worded editorial Wednesday telling Sanford to go. It wrote that Sanford has \"acted like a heart-sick school boy, and he's revealed facts that clearly demonstrate he is capable of exceptional deception, arrogance and narcissism.\" The State, of Columbia, South Carolina's largest paper, editorialized earlier that he should remain in office. Watch a reporter from The State comment on the situation \u00bb . The attorney general of South Carolina asked the State Law Enforcement Division to review Sanford's travel records after the governor admitted Tuesday to more visits with his mistress than previously disclosed. The review by law enforcement officials would be the first formal investigation into whether Sanford abused his power while carrying on his affair. State Law Enforcement Division Chief Reggie Lloyd said he would not characterize the review as a criminal investigation. He told reporters on a conference call that law enforcement officials are reviewing documents from the governor's office going back to 2003, when Sanford came to power. He said the review should be concluded by the end of the week. Attorney General Henry McMaster, a Republican, had been reluctant to move forward with calls for an investigation into Sanford, saying he is wary of mixing legal matters with political score-settling from longtime Sanford opponents. However, an aide to McMaster told CNN on Tuesday that \"that all changed this morning when the governor disclosed additional trips that were not disclosed last week.\" Sanford said in a statement Tuesday that he's \"pleased that [the State Law Enforcement Division] will look into this matter.\" \"There's been a lot of speculation and innuendo on whether or not public moneys were used to advance my admitted unfaithfulness. To be very clear: no public money was ever used in connection with this.\"","highlights":"GOP chairwoman suggests Sanford may have to step down .\n13 of South Carolina's 27 GOP state senators now calling on Sanford to resign .\nSouth Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman calls for Sanford's resignation .\nCounty GOP Party chair cancels anti-Sanford rally, says it may not be needed ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Grammy Award winners Alicia Keys and John Legend will perform at \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,\" airing on Thanksgiving on CNN. John Legend will sing \"If You're Out There\" from his just-released album \"Evolver.\" Hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper, the program honors the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. The show will be broadcast globally on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol at 9 p.m. ET\/PT November 27 (0200 GMT November 28). Each of this year's top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored in a documentary tribute and introduced by a celebrity presenter. Actors Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, Forest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, Terrence Howard, Lucy Liu, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and Selena Gomez are among the stars participating in the event. See photos of the presenters \u00bb . In addition, actor Hugh Jackman will present People magazine's 2008 Heroes Among Us award to six recipients honored by the magazine this year. People is partnering with CNN for this portion of the telecast. Keys will perform \"Superwoman\" from her hit album \"As I Am.\" Legend, backed by the Los Angeles-based Agape Choir, will sing \"If You're Out There\" from his just-released album \"Evolver.\" The evening will culminate with the announcement of the CNN Hero of the Year, chosen through a six-week online poll that generated more than 1 million votes. Viewers were asked to select the CNN Hero who inspired them the most from among the top 10 CNN Heroes selected by a blue-ribbon panel. The Hero of the Year will be awarded $100,000 in addition to the $25,000 that each of the top 10 CNN Heroes receives. Voting for the CNN Hero of the Year has now closed. Watch a close-up look at the CNN Hero Award \u00bb . Award-winning producer-director Joel Gallen returns to executive produce this year's program. Among his credits, Gallen produced telethon events supporting victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, winning an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for \"America: A Tribute to Heroes.\" Kodak Theatre is a 3,400-seat venue that opened in November 2001 and is best known as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards.","highlights":"Grammy winners to perform at CNN Heroes event .\nThe show will honor the top 10 CNN Heroes, as selected by a distinguished panel .\nIt airs globally at 9 p.m. ET November 27 (0200 GMT November 28)\nThe program culminates with the announcement of the CNN Hero of the Year ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The \"vast right-wing conspiracy\" that attacked him during his presidency has been weakened, but continues to operate against President Obama, former President Clinton said Sunday. Former President Clinton said Republicans won't see a 1994-like surge at the polls in 2010. On NBC's \"Meet the Press,\" Clinton was asked about the term his wife Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state, famously coined. \"Is it still there?\" host David Gregory asked. \"Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was,\" the former president replied. \"I mean, they're saying things about him [Obama] -- you know, it's like when they accused me of murder and all that stuff they did,\" Clinton said, in an apparent reference to conspiracy theories surrounding the suicide of White House deputy counsel Vince Foster. \"It's not really good for the Republicans and the country, what's going on now,\" Clinton said. \"I mean, they may be hurting President Obama. They can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up. But fundamentally, he and his team have a positive agenda for America.\" The nation needs \"a credible debate about what's the right balance between continuing to expand the economy through stimulus and beginning to move back to fiscal balance,\" Clinton said. \"We need a credible debate about what's the best way to get to universal [health care] coverage.\" Clinton was asked whether he is concerned that the 2010 midterm elections could resemble those of 1994, when Republicans took control of the House and Senate two years into his first term. \"There's no way\" that could happen, Clinton said, adding that \"the country is more diverse and more interested in positive action.\" Also, he said, Republicans had control of Congress for several years under President George W. Bush, \"and they know the results were bad.\" And, he said, \"the Democrats haven't taken on the gun lobby like I did.\" \"Whatever happens, it'll be manageable for our president,\" Clinton said.","highlights":"Clinton: Right-wing \"conspiracy\" not as strong as it once was, but is as virulent .\nObama's popularity may take hit, but attacks not good for country, Clinton says .\nClinton: \"No way\" that Republicans will enjoy 1994-level success in 2010 elections ."} -{"article":"CARDIFF, Wales -- Former Wales and British Lions center Ray Gravell has died of a suspected heart attack aged 56, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has announced. Gravell won 23 caps for Wales and played on the Lions tour of South Africa in 1980. Gravell had been on holiday with his family in the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca at the time. A WRU statement praised Gravell as being \"a man who epitomized the passion, flair and dignity of his beloved Welsh nation.\" Gravell made his debut for Wales against France in 1975, three years after helping his club side Llanelli to their famous win over the touring All Blacks. In all he made 23 appearances for what was then a dominant Wales side, winning Grand Slams in 1976 and 1978, and played all four Tests on the Lions' tour of South Africa in 1980. After retiring as a player in 1985, Gravell became president of Llanelli RFC and the Llanelli Scarlets. He also pursued a career as an actor and a respected rugby broadcaster. Earlier this year, Gravell had his right leg amputated below the knee following complications linked with his diabetes but he had been recovering well. WRU chief executive Roger Lewis said: \"We are all in total shock because Ray was so full of life even through the difficult health problems he suffered recently. \"He was a wonderful ambassador for rugby and for Wales and a great example of how the game can bring out the best in a man. \"As a player, he always gave a huge amount of respect to his opponents but never gave an inch of ground to anyone he faced on the field of play. \"It is a measure of the man that he forged rugby friendships which lasted long after his playing days up until the present day.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Former Wales and British Lions center Ray Gravell has died aged 56 .\nHe was on holiday with his family in Mallorca .\nAfter retiring he worked as an actor and broadcaster ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station early Wednesday, completing a three-day orbital chase. \"Capture confirmed,\" the Johnson Space Center in Houston said at 12:06 a.m. ET. The delicate docking maneuver took place while both spacecraft were circling the globe at about 17,500 mph (28,165 km\/h). Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center early Monday. During the two-week mission, the six-member crew will deliver an Italian-built Tranquility node and a seven-windowed cupola to the station, which will be used as a control room for robotics. The mission also will include three spacewalks. The space station will be about 90 percent complete once the node and cupola are added, NASA said.","highlights":"Shuttle docked at 12:06 a.m. ET, according to the Johnson Space Center in Houston .\nEndeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center early Monday .\nThe two-week mission will include three spacewalks ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The New Zealand All Blacks secured a narrow 14-10 victory over France in Wellington on Saturday to square their rugby Test series at 1-1, but France still secured the Dave Gallaher Cup for the first time since it was introduced in 2000 by virtue of their five-point victory in Dunedin last week. Ma'a Nonu goes over for New Zealand's only try in their narrow victory over France in Wellington. Having been out-muscled and out-played 27-22 in the opening Test, the New Zealanders played with far greater intensity, physicality and urgency at a cold, wet and windy Westpac Stadium. A Ma'a Nonu try midway through the first half opened the scoring for the host nation before Stephen Donald slotted home a penalty for an 8-0 advantage at the break. The French reply was swift after the restart, with wing Cedric Heymans crossing the line with a superb solo effort and then Julien Dupuy's conversion getting them back into the game. But another Donald penalty and one from substitute Luke McAlister edged the All Blacks further ahead before a late three-pointer from Dimitri Yachvili kept things interesting. Meanwhile, a much-changed Australia side comfortably accounted for Italy 34-12 in Melbourne on Saturday. Man-of-the-match Adam Ashley-Cooper, who started on the bench, finished with two tries, one in each half, after coming on initially when Peter Hynes was blood-binned, then as a replacement for James O'Connor at full-back. Three first-half tries gave the Wallabies a 20-6 lead at the break and that was a fair reflection of the difference between the teams, but the hosts were held at bay for much of the second half before late tries by Lachie Turner and Ashley-Cooper. Australian-born full-back Luke McLean landed four penalties for Italy for whom fellow-Aussie Craig Gower was effective and creative in his second start at fly-half.","highlights":"The New Zealand All Blacks defeat France 14-10 in Wellington to level series .\nTourists France won the opening Test match 27-22 in Dunedin last weekend .\nA much-changed Australian side defeats Italy 34-12 in Melbourne on Saturday ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A recall has been issued for enoki mushrooms produced by Phillips Mushroom Farms in Pennsylvania. The recall covers 3.5-ounce packages of enoki mushrooms bearing UPC 33383 67540. The mushrooms were packed in clear plastic bags with blue or green graphics and sold from January 13 to 30. Enokis are long, thin white mushrooms, often used in Asian cuisines. Preliminary test results showed potential listeria contamination, but no illnesses have been reported, according to Phillips Mushroom Farms. Listeria can cause flu-like symptoms, including fever and muscle aches, and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It affects primarily the elderly, pregnant women, newborns and people with weakened immune systems. Retailers are asked to remove the mushrooms from their shelves, pending further instructions. Consumers are asked to return the mushrooms to the place of purchase for a full refund. Visit http:\/\/www.phillipsmushroomfarms.com\/ or call 800-722-8818 for more information.","highlights":"Recall covers 3.5-ounce packages of enoki mushrooms bearing UPC 33383 67540 .\nMushrooms in clear bags with blue or green graphics; sold from January 13 to 30 .\nEarly test results show potential listeria contamination; no illnesses reported .\nListeria can cause flu-like symptoms and sometimes nausea or diarrhea ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Contrary to a report in a British newspaper, Michael Jackson does not have skin cancer, says Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, the promoter of the King of Pop's upcoming concerts at London's 02 Arena. Michael Jackson gestures to the crowd at the March announcement for his series of London concerts. \"He's as healthy as he can be -- no health problems whatsoever,\" the executive told CNN. Phillips said he asked Jackson point-blank about the skin cancer rumor yesterday, and the entertainer just brushed it off and laughed. \"He's used to rumors like this. He's been famous ever since he was 5. He doesn't read the newspapers or watch news reports,\" Phillips explained. He also had an answer for an item in the British tabloid The Sun that said Jackson had been \"making regular trips to a dermatologist in Beverly Hills wearing a mask and surgical cap.\" \"Michael is very close friends with his dermatologist. It's as simple as that,\" said Phillips. According to Phillips, the 50-year-old pop star had passed a stringent physical exam before he and AEG inked their deal for Jackson to headline a 50-show residency at 02 beginning July 8. \"And he'll have to take another before the shows start,\" he offered. Phillips also told CNN a tour with sister Janet Jackson and other performing members of the Jackson family was \"never in the works, at least from Michael Jackson's side.\" He added, \"Never say never, but right now, he's focusing on his own show. It's not about his family.\" \"He's working out every day with his choreographers and his dancers. He's in better shape at 50 than I was at 30,\" Phillips laughed. Phillips took the opportunity to knock down a couple of other rumors. \"For now, he has no plans for his kids to be in the show. And there are no elephants. No elephants in the show, and he's not dying of cancer.\" Phillips said the London shows were the first step in a multi-phase package with Jackson that he called \"more than a 360-degree deal.\" He said there are also plans for recorded music and movies, including a 3-D live concert film and a 3-D movie based on Jackson's 1983 \"Thriller\" music video. Phillips didn't rule out a tour or a concert residency in another city, stating it would most likely start in Europe, then roll out to Asia, North America and South America.","highlights":"U.K. tabloid reported that Michael Jackson has skin cancer .\nJackson has \"no health problems whatsoever,\" says concert promoter .\nJackson is scheduled to perform 50 shows at London arena starting July 8 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Americans and an Israeli were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for painstakingly mapping out the thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome -- work that paves the way for new antibiotics. U.S. researcher Thomas Steitz is one of three scientists sharing the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Inside all animals, plants and bacteria are DNA molecules that contain the blueprint for life. Ribosomes are an organism's protein factories. They use the information in the DNA to make the tens of thousands of proteins that enable the organism to function properly. These proteins include hormones, enzymes and hemoglobin, which transports oxygen. From a medicinal standpoint, the ribosome is important because it is what antibiotics target. In a bacterial strain, antibiotics bind to the ribosomes, preventing them from making the proteins the bacteria need to survive. Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath shared the $1.4 million prize for mapping the position of the thousands and thousands of atoms that make up ribosomes. Their three-dimensional models showed how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. \"These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering,\" said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize. Ramakrishnan, a U.S. citizen who was born in India, is a senior scientist and group leader at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, according to the Nobel Prize Web site. Steitz is a professor at Yale University and an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Yale, the site said. Yonath is a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and director of the Helen & Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure & Assembly at the Weizmann Institute, the Nobel site said. The Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week and next. The medicine award was handed out on Monday and the one for physics on Tuesday. The prize for literature will be awarded Thursday; the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be named on Friday, and the award in economics will be issued on Monday.","highlights":"Two Americans, one Israeli to share $1.4 million prize for work on ribosomes .\nRibosomes in every organism use info from DNA to make proteins needed for life .\nAntibiotics work by binding to ribosomes of bacteria so they can't make proteins .\nNobel winners' mapping of ribosomes helps in development of new antibiotics ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As Zimbabwe battles a cholera epidemic that has already killed hundreds, one company thinks it may have found a potential solution to the world water crisis. A shortage of clean drinking water has unleashed a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Element Four, a small Canadian firm, has applied its water technology to create the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that draws moisture from the air and purifies it into clean drinkable water. The compact WaterMill, which goes on sale in the spring, is designed for household use. More crucially for countries such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Element Four is also working on another device, the WaterWall, which could potentially supply an entire village in the developing world. The team at Element Four shares an ambitious goal: to quench the world's growing thirst for water. Now the 10-person company is taking on a challenge that global multinationals have struggled to meet. Rick Howard, the CEO of the company, says it was at a U.N. conference on water in New York last summer that he realized just how revolutionary Element Four's technology might be. \"There we were on the same stage as GE, Dow Chemical and Siemens, and it was a complete shock to us when we heard the solutions they were offering. We realized we had something that could effect change,\" Howard tells CNN. The WaterMill draws in air through a filter and then cools it into water droplets. This water then passes through a special filter and is exposed to ultraviolet light, which rids it of bacteria. The product Element Four is designing for the developing world is called the WaterWall and is constructed by taking several of the water-making cells of the consumer appliance and hooking them up in series on a wall. The U.N., which has declared 2005-2015 the International Decade for Water, expects 1.8 billion people to live in regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025. It's no wonder then that Element Four is being closely watched by the tech world. The WaterMill is being displayed at the Wired Store in New York, a temporary store the magazine opens every holiday season that showcases the future of technology. About one in five people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, and shortages pose serious health problems for much of the developing world. Lack of clean water, coupled with poor sanitation practices, can lead to outbreaks of water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, which in turn, can cause life-threatening forms of diarrhea. More than 500 people have died in Zimbabwe. Diarrheal disease is the third leading cause of death from infectious diseases, and the majority of those deaths are among children under the age of 5, according to the WHO and UNICEF. Most of those deaths could be prevented if improvements to sanitation and drinking water were made. But can an invention like the WaterWall really help ease the world's water shortage and help prevent health disasters like the outbreak in Zimbabwe from occurring in the future? \"There are some brilliant inventions out there, but they are expensive and difficult to get hold of,\" says Paul Jawor, an emergency water and sanitation consultant with international aid organization Doctors Without Borders. The WaterMill retails for about $1,300, but Howard estimates that a pared down version -- without the bells and whistle -- for use in places like Africa would cost about $300. The biggest challenge of a product like the WaterWall, Howard says, is the power consumed by the water-making cells. To counter that, the product is designed to turn on in stages so it doesn't overload fragile power grids. In comparison to solutions like desalination, which can cost billions of dollars to develop, that's cheap. \"For about $300 we can start saving lives. Ours is a very scalable product,\" Howard says. But there are skeptics. Frank Lawson, an engineering adviser at international charity WaterAid, said the solution Element Four is devising wouldn't be appropriate for the charity's projects. For one, the technology doesn't work in very dry climates. The machine only functions at or above about 35 percent relative humidity levels. Furthermore, it requires an energy source. \"Our technologies have to be within the capacity of the benefiting community -- both technically and financially,\" Lawson says. WaterAid uses a number of low-cost and sustainable solutions, such as rainwater harvesting and hand-dug wells, to help communities in more than 17 countries access water. But those solutions depend upon the availability of water in the area, and fresh water supplies worldwide are feeling the squeeze from population growth, pollution and climate change. Howard admits the company needs to focus on growing its business first, so it may be some time before the Element Four's products make their way to the developing world. \"We quickly came to realize that if we didn't first build a business to perfect the product and application, then we weren't going to be able to get to a point where we could have a significant humanitarian impact,\" he says. But Howard and partner Jonathan Ritchey are in various stages of discussions with several humanitarian groups in the field. Howard declined to name the organizations. It's early, but the company's core principle is \"to do good as we do well,\" he says. \"That's part of truly what drives us -- knowing that at some point we will be able to do some significant good.\"","highlights":"Element Four has developed a machine that creates clean water out of air .\nGrowth of water use has been outpacing the rate of population increase .\nShortages of clean water pose health challenges in the developing world .\nZimbabwe's water crisis has unleashed a devastating cholera epidemic ."} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The search is back on for words to the Spanish national anthem. Spain's basketball team: Able to hum the national anthem, but not sing words. The lack of lyrics in Spain's anthem has long created awkward moments for winning Spanish athletes at the Olympics. They stand on the podium silently or hum along while winning athletes from other nations sing when their anthem is played during their moment of triumph. With the summer Olympic Games fast-approaching, the Spanish Olympic Committee stirred the lyric-writing impulses of Spaniards by sponsoring a competition to provide words for the anthem. The contest drew 7,000 entries, and an expert panel selected a winner. The committee announced plans for renowned Spanish tenor Placido Domingo to sing the lyrics on Monday. Then, suddenly, the committee discarded the winning lyrics. \"Once Spaniards heard these lyrics, they sparked a lot of controversy, even rejection,\" Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, told a packed news conference this week. The now-discarded winning lyrics had begun with, \"Viva Espana,\" or \"long-live Spain,\" and critics complained that phrase harkened back to the right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who led a military uprising in 1936 against the elected government and won a Civil War, ruling Spain until his death in 1975. \"You have to consider that many Spaniards don't consider the national anthem as their own. It was played a lot under Franco,\" said Margarita Saenz-Diez, a journalist. Spain is now a democracy, but many still bristle at the military march that's served for more than two centuries as the national anthem. Spain is made up of many different peoples, and five languages are spoken across the country. The Catalans in the northeast and the Basques in the north already have their own national songs with lyrics. Getting agreement on any lyrics to the national anthem is no easy task and would ultimately have to be approved by Parliament. The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee conceded he doesn't know when there will be lyrics for the anthem, and many here say there isn't enough time to get lyrics approved before the Aug. 8 start of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Yet the search goes on. \"We will continue with the idea of an anthem with lyrics,\" Blanco said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Al Goodman contributed to this report .","highlights":"Approaching Olympic Games creates impetus to find words for Spain's anthem .\nPanel rejects winning song because of controversial lyrics .\n7,000 Spaniards competed to find words for anthem ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- What recession? Christie's, the famed auction house, this week sold a nearly 36-carat diamond for $24.3 million, which it said was the highest price for a diamond sold at auction. The 35.56-carat diamond dates back to the 17th century. The previous record was a mere $16.5 million for a 100-carat diamond in 1995, Christie's said. \"In the midst of these challenging times, we were thrilled to achieve an historic price for an historic diamond,\" said Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie's Europe and auctioneer for Wednesday's sale. The 35.56-carat Wittelsbach blue diamond, dating to the 17th century, was purchased by international jeweler Laurence Graff, the auction house said in a release. Graff was bidding against Aleks Paul of Essex Global Trading, a professional of Russian origin based in New York, Christie's said. \"Known as 'Der Blaue Wittelsbacher' since 1722, it is one of very few diamonds which can claim 17th century heritage, incredible rarity and exceptional beauty.\" The diamond, mined in India nearly 400 years ago, has been privately owned since 1964. Until 1723, Christie's said, all diamonds worn by European royalty came from India. The diamond has a royal lineage. Christie's traces it thus: King Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) selected the diamond in 1664 as part of a dowry for his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa (1651-1673). She had become engaged to Leopold I of Austria (1640-1705), who later became Holy Roman Emperor. When she died in 1673, her husband retained the diamond, which was passed on to his heirs. In 1722, the diamond entered the Wittelsbach family when the Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1701-1756) married the Bavarian Crown Prince, Charles Albert (1697-1745). It was worn by successive rulers until the abdication of King Ludwig III (1845-1921) in 1918. The world's largest deep blue diamond is the \"Hope Diamond,\" a 45.52-carat stone housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Diamonds apparently are recession-proof. Christie's reported jewelry sales of $226 million for the first half of 2008, calling it \"the best jewelry season ever seen at auction.\" Sales for the first six months of this year marked a 32 percent increase over the same period in 2007, Christie's said. According to Christie's, key diamonds the company sold in the first half of 2008 included a 13.39-carat fancy intense blue diamond that fetched $8.9 million in Geneva on May 14 and the pear-shaped potentially flawless 38-carat Onassis diamond, which sold for $7.1 million on June 11 in London.","highlights":"Christie's sells nearly 36-carat diamond for $24.3 million .\nAmount said to be highest price for a diamond sold at auction .\nJewel was mined in India nearly 400 years ago ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured, according to medical examinations detailed in a report released Wednesday by a human rights group. A U.S. serviceman with his dog watches a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003. The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan. The detainees were never charged with crimes. \"We found clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering,\" said Dr. Allen Keller, a medical evaluator for the study. In a 121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses. The report is prefaced by retired U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in 2003. Watch why a rights group says there's evidence of torture \u00bb . \"There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes,\" Taguba says. \"The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account.\" Over the years, reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo prompted the Bush administration to deny that the U.S. military tortures detainees. Since only 11 detainees were examined \"the findings of this assessment cannot be generalized to the treatment of all detainees in U.S. custody,\" the report says. However, the incidents documented are consistent with findings of other investigations into government treatment, \"making it reasonable to conclude that these detainees were not the only ones abused, but are representative of a much larger number of detainees subjected to torture and ill treatment while in U.S. custody.\" Four of the men evaluated were arrested in or taken to Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003 and later were sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for an average of three years before being released without charge, the report says. The other seven were detained in Iraq in 2003 and released within a year, the report says. All the subjects told examiners that they were subjected to multiple forms of torture or ill treatment that \"often occurred in combination over a long period of time,\" the report says. While the report presents synopses of the detainees' backgrounds based on interviews with them, the authors did not have access to the detainees' medical histories. Therefore, there's no way to know whether any of the inmates may have had medical or mental problems before being detained. Among the ex-detainees was an Iraqi in his mid-40s, identified only as Laith, whom U.S. soldiers took into custody in October 2003 and who was released from Abu Ghraib in June 2004. According to the report, Laith was subjected to sleep deprivation, electric shocks and threats of sexual abuse to himself and his family. \"They took off even my underwear. They asked me to do some movements that make me look in a very bad way so they can take photographs. ... They were trying to make me look like an animal,\" Laith told examiners, according to the report. According to the report, Laith said the most \"painful\" experiences involved threats to his family: \"And they asked me, 'Have you ever heard voices of women in this prison?' I answered, 'Yes.' They were saying, 'Then you will hear your mothers and sisters when we are raping them.' \" The examiners concluded in the report that \"Laith appears to have suffered severe and lasting physical and psychological injuries as a result of his arrest and incarceration at Abu Ghraib prison.\" Another detainee, Youssef, was detained by U.S. soldiers nearly seven years ago when he tried to enter Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan without a passport, the report says. He initially was held in an Afghan prison, where he describes \"being stripped naked, being intimidated by dogs, being hooded and being thrown against the wall on repeated occasions,\" the report says. A few months later, he was taken to the Guantanamo Bay facility, where he was subjected to interrogators who would enter his cell and force him to lie on the floor with his hands tied behind his back to his feet, the report says. Youssef said the interrogators wanted him to confess of involvement with the Taliban, the report says. Based on its investigation, the report calls on the U.S. government to issue a formal apology to detainees subject to torture and ill treatment by the military since fall 2001 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. The rights group also demands that the Bush administration: . \u2022 \"Repudiate all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment\"; . \u2022 Establish an independent commission to investigate and report publicly the circumstances of detention and interrogation at U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay; . \u2022 Hold individuals involved in torturing detainees accountable through criminal and civil processes; and . \u2022 Monitor thoroughly the conditions at U.S.-run prisons all over the world. CNN Radio contributed to this report.","highlights":"Report reveals medical evidence of torture, including beatings and electric shock .\nStudy calls on U.S. government to issue a formal apology to tortured detainees .\nRights group gives list of demands to Bush administration ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It took about 110 years and some delicate surgery on his most private parts, but Henry -- a lizard-like creature from New Zealand -- is now a dad. Henry, the oldest tuatara to mate at Southland Museum, enjoys a cold shower in his home in New Zealand. Henry, a tuatara who, as far as curators at Southland Museum in New Zealand know, had never mated before, hooked up with Mildred, a younger woman of about 80, in March. In July she laid 11 healthy eggs and, this week, all 11 of them hatched -- the last one on Wednesday. \"Eleven out of eleven,\" curator Lindsay Hazley said Friday morning. \"Bloody brilliant. We had a champagne breakfast to celebrate.\" Henry was the oldest tuatara ever to mate at the museum, on New Zealand's South Island, Hazley said. Tuataras are the only living descendants of an order, related to dinosaurs, that flourished 200 million years ago. They're endangered, only living on a handful of islands in New Zealand, which makes Henry's happy news all the more important to supporters of the species. But it didn't come easy. Until about six years ago, Henry was a nasty, irritable fellow who showed no interest in mating and would attack females when they were introduced. Hazley, who has been breeding tuataras for the past 35 years, eventually had to put him in \"solitary confinement.\" But in 2002, veterinarians discovered that a lump in Henry's nether regions was a cancerous tumor. They removed it and, over the next few years, his mood -- and interest in the ladies -- improved. Now, Henry lives peacefully with Mildred and two other females. Breeders are hoping he'll show interest in Lucy, who is about the same age as Mildred, later this year. Female tuataras only lay eggs every two or three years, so Mildred likely won't be interested. Watch a curator take care of the reproducing dinosaur kin \u00bb . Henry's newfound libido does have some limits, however. Hazley said Juliet, a youthful 22 year old, appears to be too hot to handle for the centenarian -- who could live to be 200 years old if he stays healthy. \"I think he's a bit shy to mate with such a young woman,\" Hazley said. \"After a bit of experience with Mildred and Lucy, maybe he'll be interested in Juliet next year.\" Maxing out at about two-and-a-half feet long, tuataras are much smaller than their ancestors. The word \"tuatara\" is derived from a Maori word meaning \"spiny back.\" In Maori legend, they are messengers of Whiro, the god of death and disaster, and they were featured on one side of a New Zealand five-cent coin that was phased out in 2006. It's been a baby boom at Southland Museum lately. Hazley said another 10 babies were born to another couple recently -- swelling the ranks of the 50 or so tuataras that were already there. Friday morning, Hazley was working to install a camera so Henry's international fan base can watch him and other tuataras on the Internet. But they shouldn't expect any images of the proud dad playing with his batch of hatchlings. \"If it's small and it moves, it's food,\" Hazley said. \"He'd have them for lunch.\"","highlights":"110-year-old endangered male tuatara dinosaur descendant produces offspring .\nHenry and his near 80-year-old mate Mildred produced 11 eggs -- all hatched .\nHenry, disinterested in sex for four decades, lashed out at females .\nBut his reptile dysfunction changed when a cancerous lump was removed ."} -{"article":"(Parenting.com) -- A dad looks at how long it really takes a kid to sleep alone: . Getting the baby to sleep is a challenge for many parents. 1:28 a.m. Every couple of hours, Jack (2 weeks) cries. My wife feeds him, then hands him to me to change his diaper. It's an equitable division of labor, but I wish I could sleep. 2:15 a.m. Jack (1 month) is sleeping between me and my wife because this way she can nurse while she dozes. I'm happy, but so tired. He's on his back, and there are no pillows or blankets around him, but I'm wide-awake, thinking about SIDS. He's like a little hot-water bottle. His breath is sweet and milky against my face. 10 p.m. I'm lying on a tiny crib mattress on the floor next to the crib. We're trying to get Jack (9 months) to sleep through the night. His mother and I take turns lying next to him on the floor and holding his hand through the slats. I miss my wife. 1:36 a.m. Jack (12 months) is sleeping in between us, again. Lying next to his crib didn't work -- Jack kept crying, waking both of us. This way, we all get some sleep. Parenting.com: Dad's in charge? Uh oh. 4:27 a.m. I'm wide-awake because Jack (15 months) kicked me in the groin. I have to get up to drive my wife to New York, then turn around and drive back home with Jack, all on about three hours of sleep. I decide that while his mother is gone, I will Ferberize him. Parenting.com: Ferberizing is not what you think it is . 9:13 p.m. Jack (15 months and a day) is in his crib, crying, crying, crying. 10:11 p.m. Jack (15 months and a week) is in his crib, alone and asleep. Ferberizing worked. Suddenly I have a great idea -- let's have another baby! But this would require that my wife and I stay awake for longer than ten seconds once our heads hit the pillows. 12:02 a.m. In bed with my wife, I'm feeling romantic, but then Jack (18 months) cries out. He has a fever. We give him kids' Motrin and bring him back into bed with us. He's burning up. 11:21 p.m. Jack (18 months and a week) is no longer sick, but now he's back in our bed, every night. It's once again the only way he'll go down. 7 a.m. I realize that for the first time, Jack (22 months) has finally slept through the night. Now we have to get him out of diapers and back in his own room. 11:41 p.m. We are lying in an H formation. Jack (2 years) is nestled into his mother's chest, perpendicular to us, with his feet lodged against my throat, trying to push me off the bed. Freud was right about Oedipus. Parenting.com: Why good dads make moms jealous . 4:25 a.m. Jack (3 years) has kicked the covers off me again and I wake up, shivering. I pull the covers up. He kicks them off. I pull them up. He kicks them off. I go downstairs, turn on the TV, and fall asleep on the couch. 2:15 p.m. I'm sound asleep, dreaming. Unfortunately, I'm at work. Tomorrow is Jack's fourth birthday. Last night in bed, he said, \"Hey, why do I have to sleep in the middle?\" 7:30 p.m. I am lying in the new twin bed we bought Jack (4 1\/4 years), to show him how it works. We made a big deal of it, his very own Big Boy Bed, and we let him pick out the dinosaur sheets and the dinosaur comforter. All is ready. 12:05 a.m. I'm in this big empty bed, alone. We told Jack that on his fifth birthday he'd have to sleep in his own bed, because that's what big boys do, and he agreed. He wants very much to be a big boy. On his birthday, my wife lay down with him at 8:30 and fell sound asleep. 5:02 a.m. I get up and peek in on Jack (5 1\/2). He's been sleeping alone in his room for almost a month now. I get back into bed with my wife and snuggle up next to her. At least I think it's her -- it's been a while. She feels good against my skin, but now I miss Jack. I miss getting kicked in the throat. I miss getting the covers pulled off of me. Where's my little boy? How did he grow up so fast? 9:42 p.m. Hearing a noise, my wife and I go upstairs to check on Jack (6). He says he was having a bad dream. We lie down with him, three of us in a twin bed. It's crowded, but if we brought him into our bed again, we'd never get him out. His breath is still sweet and milky on my cheek. How could this not be okay? This is my family. Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"Dad recalls stages of son's sleep -- and his own not sleeping .\nInfant son's crying or dad's fear of smothering kept him awake .\nChild has fever, parents put him in their bed. Child refuses to sleep in crib .\nDad misses boy who now sleeps alone in his big boy bed ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Asashoryu stands at the pinnacle of sumo wrestling like a colossus. Asashoryu is one of sumo's most successful, and most controversial, wrestlers. But the 330-lbs Mongolian, sumo's most successful ever grand champion, has not been able to rise above the scandals and tragedies that have beset Japan's national sport in recent years. Asashoryu, whose real name is Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj, grew up in Mongolia, where both his elder brothers and father were successful wrestlers. Moving to Japan as a student he was spotted and trained by the Takesago stable and made his professional debut at the age of 18 in 1999. Winning his first tournament, or basho, in 2002, his rise up the rankings culminated in him attaining the highest position of Grand Champion, or yokozuna, in January 2003, becoming only the 68th yokozuna in the sport's 2,000-year-old history. Two years later, he set a new record by being the only man to win all six official tournaments in one year. While Asashoryu's meteoric rise to the top was seen by many as reinvigorating a sport that had seen a decline in homegrown wrestlers and popularity, his success in the dohyo has not pleased everyone. Some have complained that his wins are too routine, and purists grouse that he does not poses the quality of \"hinkaku,\" the dignity and calm expected in a yokozuna, or give the sport's traditions the necessary respect. In 2003 he was disqualified from a bout for pulling on the top-knot of an opponent, and has gained a reputation as the enfant-terrible of sumo. Regardless of the criticisms of Asashoryu's wrestling style, sumo's reputation as a noble sport of tradition has suffered from a number of scandals in recent years and exposed it as just as susceptible to the problems faced by other sports. With deep links to Japanese culture going back to when sumo was part of the Shinto religious rituals, the sport's troubles have almost represented a national identity crisis. Following the banning of three non-Japanese wrestlers for using recreational drugs in September, the sport's chairman and former-wrestler Kitanoumi resigned. It came after a period of years in which a number of match-fixing allegations were made, some directly implicating Asashoryu, and plunging the sport into yet another crisis. In January 2007 he was accused of bribing other wrestlers to lose bouts, compounding the view that corruption was prevalent in the sport. Problems for Asashoryu continued in 2007 when he was suspended by the sumo wrestling federation for allegedly faking a doctor's note and was restricted from leaving his house in Tokyo, leading to reports of a nervous breakdown. Mental as well as physical strength are necessary to reach the top of the sport, but while the punishing physical routine and \"hazing\" in the training stables has been known and accepted, tragedy struck earlier this year. Takashi Saito, a 17-year-old sumo trainee, died in brutal circumstances, allegedly beaten to death by his stable-master and three fellow sumo wrestlers. Continuing to make his mark in the dohyo will be Asashoryu's aim for the rest of the year, while sumo hopes it can recover its own poise.","highlights":"Mongolian grand champion wrestler one of the sumo's most successful ever .\nReinvigorated the sport, but also has detractors critical of his style and attitude .\nAccused of match fixing and feigning illness, banned as a consequence ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Pentagon has revolutionized warfare during the past decade, making unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs, a staple of modern combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. A USAF technician at Creech Air Force Base, checks Hellfire missile attachments on a Predator. Remotely-controlled drones, such as the Predator and the Reaper, have allowed the U.S. military to spy on and attack enemy combatants without putting their own forces at risk, thereby making UAVs a must-have. \"The real advantage of unmanned aerial systems is they allow you to project power without projecting vulnerability,\" says USAF Lt. Gen. David Deptula at the Pentagon. But as USAF commanders try to provide enough pilots to take charge of drones, many are considering another aspect of the warfare revolution -- the psychological impact on those controlling the vehicles. As Dr. Kory Cornum, a USAF colonel, explains: \"Whereas we have thousands of years of data on what it's like to go to war really, we only have a few years of data on what it's like to go to war virtually. And so we don't have really enough data.\" Pilots are now dealing with something never experienced before -- a rapid transition from intense combat to home comfort, often in less than an hour. Some describe it as a version of post-traumatic stress disorder, often more associated with soldiers directly in harm's way. Peter Singer, an adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign team and author of \"Wired for War,\" described one encounter with a frustrated non-commissioned officer. \"She actually banged the table, saying: 'No one is paying attention to this issue of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] among my men and women, no one's paying attention to it,\" Singer says. \"And she talked about a scene where they were flying a drone above a set of U.S. soldiers that were killed and the drone was unarmed at the time and they couldn't do anything about it. They just circled above and they watched U.S. soldiers die in front of them.\" Watch the debate about the impact of UAVs on pilots \u00bb . USAF fighter pilots like Major Morgan Andrews remotely control drones from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Less than an hour after targeting he'll be back in suburban Las Vegas, his drive home more physically dangerous than the combat mission he has just undertaken. Commanders at Creech say that if there is stress, it comes from relentless around-the-clock shift work. Andrews says that like any good pilot he has learned to compartmentalize his life, using his commute to and from work to transition. \"I think about work, I think about what happened,\" Andrews explains, \"what I could've done better, anything I maybe did wrong that I could've done differently, how could I do it better next time. I just kind of go through it and usually, by the time I get home, I've sorted it all through my mind and stick it away in a file and go on with life.\" For Andrews, fighting from Nevada more than outweighs the drawbacks of long overseas deployments, allowing him to enjoy life at home with his family and friends. Cornum adds that the drive home is more of a blessing than anyone realized. \"It does give you some amount of time, as opposed to if you lived on base and you could literally walk out of war and into your house,\" he says. \"I don't know if 30 minutes is enough. But it gives you time to decompress.\" But conducting remote warfare, as Cornum explains, brings with it stress that vary from those usually experienced by troops. \"The big difference is that when you are actually deployed, you are with all your battle buddies who are experiencing the thing 24\/7. Whereas when you go home, you go home to your family, to your neighbors, who are not in the battle all the time. And that's good and bad.\"","highlights":"Robotic warfare allows pilots to control armed vehicles without risk to themselves .\nMilitary experts are now looking at the psychological impact this may have on pilots .\nPilots now transition from battlefield to home environment in less than an hour .\nSome pilots welcome operating from the U.S. rather than being deployed overseas ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of people killed by a typhoon that slammed into Taiwan and China earlier this month continues to rise, Taiwan announced Thursday. Tsai Sung Yu holds photos of his mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece who were all killed in the mudslides. At least 543 people are now known to have died when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, the country's Central Emergency Operation Center said Thursday. At least 117 people are still missing, and at least 46 people were injured. Emergency services also reported that 60 human limbs had been found, separately from the number of dead and wounded. Kaohsiung county was the worst hit, with 472 dead, 72 missing and 13 hurt, one seriously, the emergency center said. Morakot dropped 102 inches of rain on Taiwan August 8 before it roared on to mainland China the next day. More than 1.4 million people in China were forced to relocate because of the storm and more than 6,000 homes were destroyed. At least six people were killed there, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said after the storm passed. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou apologized last week for the slow response to the typhoon. He said he plans sweeping changes to the country's rescue agencies and may punish some government officials. \"We will try our best to do a better job in the rescue work that has been criticized for being too slow,\" said Ma. \"There are things that we have to correct and we also will be responsible for whatever mistakes or neglect that government officials have made.\" Rescuers have struggled to locate many who were missing in remote mountainous areas of southern Taiwan. Ma also apologized a week earlier for failings of the rescue effort as he traveled around the typhoon-battered island. He said heavy rain grounded rescue helicopters in the first few days after the storm hit, delaying relief efforts. Ma said the storm destroyed buildings, homes, roads and farms, causing about NT$100 billion (U.S. $3 billion) in damage. CNN's Eileen Hsieh contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 543 people are now known to have died when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan .\nAt least 117 people are still missing, and at least 46 people were injured .\nEmergency services have also found 60 human limbs .\nTaiwan President Ma Ying-jeou apologizes for the slow response to the typhoon ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Boeing is asking pilots who fly its 737 jets to pay careful attention to flight instruments after Dutch investigators said a faulty altimeter contributed to the recent crash of a 737 in the Netherlands. Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 broke into three pieces near Schiphol Airport on February 25. The 737 is the most widely flown jet in commercial aviation. More than 6,000 have been sold, according to Boeing. \"Boeing reminds all operators to make sure flight crews pay close attention to all primary flight controls during critical stages of a flight,\" Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx told CNN on Thursday. On February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam dropped from the sky on approach to the landing strip at Schiphol Airport, breaking into three pieces in a muddy field. Nine people died and 80 people were hurt in the accident. In a memo to pilots, Boeing says there was a malfunction in one of the plane's two altimeters, which measure the altitude above the terrain where the plane is going to land. The left altimeter was giving \"erroneous\" information, indicating that the plane was below 7 or 8 feet from ground level when it was actually about 2,000 feet in the air, the memo said. That caused the automatic throttles to slow the plane down. \"Boeing recommends operators inform flight crews of the above investigation details and the (Dutch Safety Board) interim report when it is released. In addition, crews should be reminded to carefully monitor primary flight instruments,\" the memo said. The plane was on automatic pilot when it crashed, said Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Board. The weather was misty at the time of the crash, possibly keeping the pilots from noticing their altitude, Van Vollenhoven said. Automatic pilot should not be used for landings if altimeters are malfunctioning, he said. Dutch investigators said there had been faulty meter readings on two other flights of the same jet, but the pilots were able to land. In the Amsterdam crash, the pilots did not recognize the altimeter problem until it was too late, Van Vollenhoven said. The Boeing memo notes that \"the autothrottle, which uses the left radio altimeter data, transitioned to landing flare mode and retarded the throttles to the idle stop. The throttles remained at the idle stop for approximately 100 seconds during which time the airspeed decreased to approximately 40 knots below the selected approach speed.\" Proulx said he did not know what that speed was for that particular 737 model. The warning issued by Boeing was for many other models of 737 jets, not just the 737-800 involved in the Amsterdam crash.","highlights":"Boeing urges 737 pilots to pay careful attention to flight instruments .\nDutch investigators said a faulty altimeter contributed to Netherlands crash .\nErroneous altitude data caused automatic throttles to slow the plane down .\nThe Turkish Airlines jet broke into three pieces on impact, killing nine people ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iceland and Sweden plan to take in about 200 Palestinian refugees from Iraq who have been living in refugee camps along the Iraqi-Syrian border, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. More than two dozen refugees stranded at the Al Waleed refugee camp for the last two years will be headed to Iceland in the next few weeks, the agency said. In addition, 155 Palestinians in the Al Tanf refugee camp have been accepted for resettlement in Sweden, it said. Many Palestinians living in Iraq have gotten caught up in the violence that has engulfed the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and have had to flee their homes. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that out of the estimated 34,000 Palestinians who lived in Iraq since 2003, about 10,000 to 15,000 remain. The UNHCR says about 2,300 Palestinians \"are living in desperate conditions along the Iraq-Syria border.\" They are, the UNHCR says, \"unable to return to Iraq or to cross the borders to neighboring countries.\" It says the Al Waleed camp has 1,400 people and Al Tanf about 900. \"UNHCR has repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians but with few results. Few Palestinians in the border camps have been accepted for resettlement or offered shelter in third countries; 223 Palestinians left to non-traditional resettlement countries such as Brazil and Chile. \"Some urgent medical cases were taken by a few European countries, but this is a very small number out of the 2,300 Palestinians stranded in the desert,\" the UNHCR said in a statement. It noted that Sudan has made an offer to take in some of those Palestinians, and said \"UNHCR and Palestinian representatives are finalizing an operations plan that will enable this to take place.\" Refugees International recently asked the United States government to intervene and resettle the Palestinians in the United States instead of Sudan, which itself is engulfed in sectarian fighting and whose government has been condemned for atrocities. \"The Palestinians being resettled in Sudan is obviously not an ideal or preferred solution,\" State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper told CNN last month. \"But we accept the judgment of the UNHCR that it is preferable to the Palestinians continuing to be stranded in the border area in extremely dire circumstances.\"","highlights":"Some 200 Palestinian refugees from Iraq will go to Iceland, Sweden .\n2,300 Palestinians \"are living in desperate conditions along the Iraq-Syria border\"\nPlans under way to send some refugees to war-torn Sudan ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett has been hospitalized in the latest stage of her battle against cancer, a producer working with the actress said Monday. Farrah Fawcett, shown here in 2004, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2006. \"She is not unconscious, she is not unresponsive, and she is not comatose,\" Craig Nevius told CNN. He added that Fawcett \"is surrounded by family and friends.\" She \"has a real iron will\" and is \"a fighter,\" he said. Nevius has been working with the 62-year-old on a documentary about her fight with cancer. Earlier, he told People magazine that Fawcett had checked into \"a Los Angeles hospital.\" Fawcett was diagnosed in 2006. People magazine reported that she has anal cancer. Early in 2007, Fawcett said she was told her cancer had gone into remission. Her official Web site has posts from February, 2007 celebrating the news. But the cancer returned later that year. Fawcett was a model best known for bit parts and commercials, and as \"Six Million Dollar Man\" actor Lee Majors' wife, when she shot a best-selling pinup poster in early 1976 at the behest of a Cleveland, Ohio, company called Pro Arts. Photographer Bruce McBroom placed Fawcett -- then known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors -- in the Indian blanket-draped front seat of his 1937 Chevy and snapped away. The poster, with Fawcett's million-dollar smile front and center and right nipple obvious through the fabric of her red bathing suit, became a sensation. Soon after the photo shoot, Fawcett was asked to join the cast of a new Aaron Spelling TV show, \"Charlie's Angels,\" about a trio of female detectives who work for a mysterious man named Charlie. Fawcett, who played Jill Munroe, was the last to be cast -- co-star Kate Jackson was the known name at the time -- but, thanks to her poster, Fawcett became the series' breakout star. The highly rated TV series kicked off what came to be known as \"jiggle TV,\" series full of young actresses who appeared in bikinis at the drop of a hat. \"Denunciations of 'massage parlor television' and 'voyeurism' only brought more viewers to the screen, to see what the controversy was about,\" wrote Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh in their exhaustive reference, \"The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.\" \"Charlie's Angels\" turned out to be a huge hit, and shows ranging from the sitcom \"Three's Company\" to the drama \"Baywatch\" owe the show a debt. Fawcett didn't stay with \"Angels\" long. At the end of the first season, unhappy with her contract, she left the show, replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Fawcett's career stagnated for a time after \"Charlie's Angels,\" as she appeared in a handful of forgettable films and divorced Majors. But her career received a major boost with her starring role in \"The Burning Bed,\" a 1984 made-for-television movie co-starring Paul LeMat. In the film, Fawcett played an abused wife who sets fire to her husband's bed as he lies sleeping. Fawcett received an Emmy nomination for her performance. Around that time, Fawcett became romantically involved with actor Ryan O'Neal, with whom she had a son, Redmond, in 1985. Redmond O'Neal was arrested Sunday morning for narcotics possession. In recent years, Fawcett has appeared sporadically in the public eye. She posed nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1997, she appeared on \"The Late Show with David Letterman,\" an interview that became notorious for Fawcett's apparent incoherence. She later said she was just having fun with Letterman. She reunited with her \"Charlie's Angels\" co-stars, Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, for an awards-show appearance in 2006. Fawcett has been making a documentary, \"A Wing and a Prayer,\" for NBC about her cancer battle. \"She is an icon, and you don't become an icon by being weak,\" Nevius said Monday. \"All you have to do is look back at her 30-year-plus career to see that she is not somebody that has ever stepped down or backed down from a challenge of any kind. \"","highlights":"NEW: Farrah Fawcett not unconscious, unresponsive or comatose, says producer .\nActress in Los Angeles hospital battling cancer .\nActress diagnosed with disease in 2006; after remission, cancer recurred in 2007 .\nFawcett best known for 1970s pinup poster, role in \"Charlie's Angels\" TV series ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Comic book fans have been waiting for years for a film to be made of \"Watchmen,\" the famed graphic novel about a group of misfit crimefighters battling a plot to eliminate their members while the world awaits nuclear war. Malin Akerman, who plays the second Silk Spectre, says \"Watchmen\" will make fans proud. Now that the film is complete and set for release Friday, the cast of the adaptation is confident the movie will meet fans' high expectations. \"We've heard a few comments from diehard fans where they're just saying, 'Wow, we're really impressed,' \" said Malin Akerman, who plays Laurie Jupiter\/Silk Spectre II in the movie. Praising director Zack Snyder, whose resume includes the highly successful \"300\" and \"Dawn of the Dead,\" Akerman said the film will make fans proud. \"This is just sort of a huge feat for Zack to take on. But him being a true fan, he came in with the mind of these fanboys and really kept that in mind and I think that he did a great job,\" she said. \"Watchmen\" had a long road to the screen. The original comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons came out in 1986 and 1987 and was compiled into a book. Since then it has been considered both brilliant -- it made Time magazine's list of the 20th century's greatest novels -- and unfilmable. Watch \"Watchmen\" stars talk about the film at its premiere \u00bb . Rights passed from studio to studio, with any number of directors attached (including Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass), before ending up with Warner Bros. (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) and Snyder. A longtime fan himself, Snyder said he was determined to remain true to the book. \"Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source material as possible,\" said Snyder's wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . Jackie Earle Haley, who stars in the film as Rorschach, said Snyder's passion for the film will lead to its success among dedicated fans. \"I think the film does to the comic book film genre what ['Watchmen'] the comic book does to the comic book genre,\" Haley said. \"I think Zack captured it ... and it's just an in-your-face, kick-butt comic book film, but it's got that extra depth, it's a little smarter.\" Fans of the comic book have been scrutinizing the film \"every step of the way,\" said Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But, he added, \"It's going to blow people away even with these high frigging expectations that everybody has.\" Indeed, there have been any number of challenges. The comic book is set in an alternative 1985 in which the United States and Soviet Union are on the verge of nuclear war, so there were period details to attend to. There are some superhero accessories, such as a flying machine nicknamed Archie, as well as the character Dr. Manhattan, a blue, extremely powerful and often naked Superman type. Carla Gugino lost herself in the part of Sally Jupiter, an early female crimefighter who is the mother of Akerman's character. That immersion -- which included age makeup for scenes in which Sally is in her 60s -- made the film easier to watch, she said. \"I look at it and don't feel like I'm watching myself, which then liberates you, because I am my own worst, harshest critic,\" she said. \"There was something about watching Sally older and I was like, 'Oh, that seems like a different woman ...' and I can sort of see her for what she is.\" iReport.com: Are you excited for \"Watchmen\"? Billy Crudup, who plays Dr. Manhattan, said seeing himself transformed with the effects of computer-generated imaging was astonishing. \"I was totally flabbergasted by the level of detail and sophistication that went into making Dr. Manhattan real,\" he said. In some cases, the actors were as excited as they expect fans to be. Morgan enjoyed delving deep into the character of Edward Blake, or The Comedian, and said the role allowed him to live his childhood dream. \"We got to play superheroes. We got to do something that I used to do when I was 12 years old,\" he said. \"This is always the guy that I wanted to be when I was 12 and I get to do it at 40 years old.\" CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" film has been anticipated since comic books in mid-'80s .\nFilm to be released Friday; stars are proud of finished product .\nActor Jeffrey Dean Morgan: \"We got to play superheroes\""} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hours after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered troops to take a television station's equipment and put a popular opposition leader under house arrest. President Pervez Musharraf explains his actions in a televised address Saturday. Musharraf also suspended the constitution and dismissed the Pakistan Supreme Court's chief justice for the second time. On Sunday, police arrested the Javed Hashmi, the acting president of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's opposition party was arrested, along with 10 aides, The Associated Press reported. Hashimi was arrested when he stepped outside his house in the central city of Multan, AP reported. The country is at a critical and dangerous juncture -- threatened by rising tensions and spreading terrorism, Musharraf said in a televised address to the nation after declaring martial law. As Pakistani police patrolled the streets of the capital, Islamabad, Musharraf said his actions were \"for the good of Pakistan.\" Watch Musharraf's speech \u00bb . There was quick condemnation from within and outside his country. The Supreme Court declared the state of emergency illegal, claiming Musharraf -- who also is Pakistan's military chief -- had no power to suspend the constitution, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry said. Shortly afterward, government troops came to Chaudhry's office and told him the president had dismissed him from his job. Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar was quickly appointed to replace him, according to state television. It was the second time Chaudhry was removed from his post. His ousting by Musharraf in March prompted massive protests, and he was later reinstated. See a timeline of upheaval in Pakistan \u00bb . Musharraf complained in his speech that the media -- which he made independent -- have not been supportive, but have reported \"negative\" news. Early Sunday, two dozen policemen raided the offices of AAJ-TV in Islamabad, saying they had orders to take the station's equipment. The government also issued a directive warning the media that any criticism of the president or prime minister would be punishable by three years in jail and a fine of up to $70,000, said Talat Hussain, director of news and current affairs for AAJ. Watch a former Pakistani P.M. call the developments in his country 'disturbing' \u00bb . U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- who is in Turkey for a conference with Iraq and neighboring nations -- said The United States doesn't support any extra-constitutional measures taken by Musharraf. \"The situation is just unfolding,\" Rice said. \"But anything that takes Pakistan off the democratic path, off the path of civilian rule is a step backward, and it's highly regrettable.\" A senior Pakistani official said the emergency declaration will be \"short-lived,\" and will be followed by an interim government. Martial law is only a way to restore law and order, he said. Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, agreed. \"I can assure you, he will move on the part of democracy that is promised ... and you will see that happen shortly.\" Musharraf was re-elected president in October, but the election is not yet legally official, because the Supreme Court is hearing constitutional challenges to Musharraf's eligibility filed by the opposition. Under the constitution, Musharraf couldn't run for another term while serving both as president and military leader. The court allowed the election to go ahead, however, saying it would decide the issue later. Some speculated that the declaration of emergency is tied to rumors the court was planning to rule against Musharraf. Musharraf has said repeatedly he will step down as military leader before the next term begins on November 15 and has promised to hold parliamentary elections by January 15. Meanwhile, popular opposition leader Imran Khan said early Sunday that police surrounded his house in Lahore, barged in and told him he was under house arrest. Musharraf also had Khan placed under house arrest during a government crackdown in March 2006. Asked about Musharraf's actions Saturday, Khan said, \"We are going to oppose this in every way.\" \"None of us accept ... this whole drama about emergency.\" Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- who arrived in Karachi Saturday from Dubai, where she had gone to visit her family -- described a \"wave of disappointment\" at Musharraf's actions. Watch crowds surround Bhutto upon her arrival \u00bb . Bhutto -- who returned to Pakistan last month after several years in exile -- wants to lift her Pakistan People's Party to victory in January's parliamentary election in the hope she can have a third term as prime minister. The nation's political atmosphere has been tense for months, with Pakistani leaders in August considering a state of emergency because of the growing security threats in the country's lawless tribal regions. But Musharraf, influenced in part by Rice, held off on the move. Watch a report on the volatile situation in Pakistan \u00bb . Musharraf, who led the 1999 coup as Pakistan's army chief, has seen his power erode since the failed effort to oust Chaudhry. His administration is also struggling to contain a surge in Islamic militancy. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Musharraf orders troops to take a television station's equipment .\nPakistani opposition leader Imran Khan says he's under house arrest .\nPresident Musharraf says his actions are for the good of the country .\nWhite House calls Musharraf's emergency declaration \"disappointing\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Singapore lawmaker was in intensive care Monday after a man set him on fire at a community event, a hospital official told CNN. Seng Han Thong of the ruling People's Action Party underwent skin graft surgery at Singapore General Hospital Monday morning and was in stable condition, said hospital spokeswoman Junaidah Hameed. Seng suffered burns to his face and chest after a man in his 70s came up behind him as he was sitting down for lunch, poured thinner on him and set him on fire, party official George Tan told reporters. An event organizer who rushed to Seng's aid and tried to douse the flames was also injured, the hospital said. Seng had gone to the community center in his parliamentary district to hand out money to residents -- a tradition among many politicians ahead of the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 26 this year. The attacker was a 70-year-old former cab driver who has been in and out of a mental clinic in recent months, the English-language daily newspaper the Straits Times reported. Tan, the party official, said the man had met Seng at several meet-and-greets and complained about \"evil spirits in his house.\" \"No matter what the reason is, and whatever condition the person is in, that is no reason to commit such a crime against anyone, not just against an MP [member of parliament],\" Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng told reporters at the hospital. Two years ago, Seng was attacked at another community event by another cab driver, the newspaper said. In that incident, the cab driver punched Seng because he was upset that the lawmaker was not helping him get his revoked license reinstated. CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man in his 70s poured thinner on lawmaker and set him on fire while he had lunch .\nSeng Han Thong of the ruling People's Action Party is in intensive care .\nHe suffered burns to his face and chest and underwent skin graft surgery .\nAttacker is a former cab driver who has been in a mental clinic, media says ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three professors and a former professor at Columbia University's Teachers College received hate mail this week, the New York Police Department said. It's the campus that was shaken by several bias crimes directed at black and Jewish professors in 2007. Columbia University's Teachers College is once again the target of a hate campaign. Three professors received manila envelopes Tuesday with images of swastikas in them. The fourth, a former professor who is an African-American, was sent a manila envelope containing an image of a noose, according to NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne. Among those receiving a swastika image was Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Jewish psychologist who has studied psychological principles in the context of the Holocaust, police said. In 2007, her office door was spray-painted with a swastika. (A swastika is the right-angles cross symbol used on Nazi Germany flags). The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into the incident. No arrests have been made. \"The TC community deplores these hateful acts, which violate every Teachers College and societal norm,\" said an e-mail Wednesday to faculty and students from the college's president, Susan Fuhrman; and dean, Tom James. No arrests were been made in the 2007 incidents. Police declined to say if they believe there is a connection between those cases and the mailings this week.","highlights":"Three professors, one former one at Columbia University receive hate mail this week .\nJewish psychologist at Teachers College among those receiving swastika .\nIn 2007, same psychologist's office door was spray-painted with a swastika .\nNYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading investigation; no arrests made ."} -{"article":"HERMOSILLO, Mexico (CNN) -- Parents in northern Mexico on Sunday began to bury the children who died in a horrific day care fire as Mexican authorities raised the death toll from the blaze to 41. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns her 2-year-old daughter, Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla on Sunday. A large crowd of mourners attended a funeral for six of the victims Sunday afternoon in Hermosillo, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the U.S. border. The cause of Friday's fire at ABC Day Care wasn't known, but investigators concluded that the fire didn't start inside the building, said Eduardo Bours, the governor of Sonora state. Neighbors described parents arriving at the day care center completely desperate on Friday, seeing it engulfed in flames and knowing there was no way to get the children out. The building had two doors, one of which was padlocked shut, and windows were too high for the children to reach, officials said. Some parents rammed their vehicles into the building to try to free the trapped children, witnesses told CNN. Watch parents gather at site of fire \u00bb . \"When we went out and ran towards the nursery, teachers already had many children outside, those who could walk properly,\" said one man at the scene, who did not give his name. \"A pickup truck broke down the walls. The dad of one of the kids broke down one of the walls with his car driving in reverse, and that helped us a bit.\" Others said they waited for hours for news of their children. Watch a town in deep shock \u00bb . \"They didn't tell us anything, nothing, until like 6 p.m.,\" said Ofelia Vasquez, whose 4-year-old son Herman was in the building. She said she eventually was told he was at Chavez Hospital. \"We went there and we saw that he was badly burned, 75 percent of his body was burned,\" she said. Herman Vasquez died after surgery, his mother said. As of Sunday afternoon, 26 children remained hospitalized, 12 of them in critical condition, Sonoran authorities said. Another 10 children had been transported to other hospitals: eight to Guadalajara, one to Ciudad, Obregon, and two to Sacramento, California. A team of 29 medical experts in Hermosillo was deciding if any more victims would be moved to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, or elsewhere. In addition, six adults were injured, Sonora spokesman Daniel Duran said. \"Without a doubt this is the worst disaster we've had,\" Bours told CNN. President Felipe Calderon traveled to Hermosillo on Saturday. He arrived with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont and Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova to get firsthand updates from doctors and investigators, the state news agency Notimex reported. Calderon ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate the blaze. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation and not burns, Bours said. But the fire was serious enough for the roof to collapse, he added. At the time of the blaze, 142 children were inside the ABC Day Care. The day care is for children ages 2 to 4, but Bours confirmed that children even younger were among the victims. All the children at the center had been accounted for by Saturday evening, Bours said. A severely burned 3-year-old girl arrived Saturday at the Sacramento hospital -- where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty -- and was in critical condition, according to Dr. Tina Palmieri, assistant chief of the burn unit. The child was burned over 80 percent of her body, the doctor told reporters. She said the hospital normally can save just over half of the children with burns that severe. In Hermosillo, a large crowd gathered outside of the emergency entrance of the city's general hospital and many people consoled each other, video from the scene showed. \"They told me that this happened in a matter of five minutes,\" Hermosillo Mayor Ernesto Gandara told reporters after surveying the scene.","highlights":"NEW: Funerals for children killed in Mexican day care center fire begin .\nNeighbors describe panic, horror as parents try to rescue kids from burning building .\nOne door was padlocked shut and children couldn't get to high windows, officials say .\nAt least 41 children die in fire; dozens more in hospitals in Mexico and U.S."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's amazing how a huge global phenomenon can begin. Tetris, the simple puzzle video game, has been addicting players for 25 years. In 1984, Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov was playing with one of his favorite puzzles when he had an inspiration: How about creating a computer version? Pajitnov wrote the program in his spare time, simplifying the idea to make it easier for those of us who aren't math geniuses. He used shapes made of four squares -- hence \"Tetris,\" which comes from the Greek word for four, \"Tetra.\" In the game, players must position and stack blocky shapes to fill a grid without leaving spaces in between. Successfully completed sections disappear. The more sections the player completes without reaching the top, the higher the score. iReport: 25 years of Tetris . Steadily, the game worked its way around the world. Millions of people found themselves glued to their computers and game players -- hearts racing and screaming in frustration -- all over getting a simple horizontal line of digital squares to disappear. \"I would just play it for hours and hours,\" said iReporter Joel Vetsch of New Haven, Connecticut, who got addicted to Tetris on a Game Boy when he was 10. \"I'm 29 now, and I still love it.\" See Vetsch's iReport here . Vetsch became so obsessed with Tetris that the game even showed up in his dreams. \"I'd go to sleep and in my head I'd see blocks. . .going into each other,\" he told CNN. \"It was weird.\" More than 125 million Tetris products have been sold, and Guinness World Records' 2009 Gamers' Edition book ranked Tetris No. 2 on its list of the top 50 console games of all time, behind Super Mario Kart. Twenty-five years to the month after Tetris was born, CNN spoke with Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, CEO of Blue Planet Software, the company that manages the exclusive licensing rights to the game. The two men talked about what makes Tetris so addictive, how they believe the game can help unite the world, and -- no joke -- why they want a Tetris competition in the Olympics. See Josh Levs' interview with Pajitnov and Rogers \u00bb . CNN: Alexey, I want to start with you. When you first dreamed up this scenario all those years ago, did you ever imagine it would turn into a global phenomenon? Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris creator: The very first time when my small game started working even without scoring or leveling, I couldn't stop playing. It's a really good game, but I [couldn't] imagine that it would be that big. Henk Rogers, CEO of Blue Planet Software: When I first found it at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1988, I kept on coming back and playing more. And that was a for sure sign that this was going to be a good game. CNN: There are stories of people going in to work on the weekends just to sit at their computer and play for hours. They even dream the Tetris shapes if they play for too long. Could one of you explain to me why it's so addictive and what goes on when you play it? Pajitnov: First of all, it's a very simple game and it has a really strong creative spirit in it. So instead of destroying something, you kind of build up the profile out of those small pieces and enjoy doing it. And that's probably the very important addictive factor. CNN: The simplicity and also the immediate satisfaction -- but then immediately it's time to work for the next one. Pajitnov: Yes. CNN: Henk, tell us some of the stunning statistics. Rogers: Over 70 million products have been sold as a box product, and more recently on the mobile [market] we're almost reaching 80 million downloads worldwide. Last year 10 percent of all games on mobile phones in this country were Tetris. CNN: We have some videos of takeoffs -- turning buildings into Tetris or human Tetris. Is that great publicity or are you concerned in a legal way, like, \"Stop grabbing our name and doing what you want with it?\" Rogers: It's all flattery. I like it. CNN: Alexey, you were originally unable to make a penny off of this for a long time. What happened there and how did it ultimately pay out for you? Pajitnov: Back in the '80s when I designed the game, the situation with intellectual property was very unclear in Russia. Communism Party didn't inspire some individual kind of activity. That's why I decided I granted my rights for Tetris for 10 years to Soviet Union to my computer center. And I didn't receive anything from this 10 years. But 10 years naturally ended, and I'm fine now. (laughs) CNN: You all put something into your news release: \"We have a vision of the future where people all over the world can meet and become friends without speaking the same language.\" You go on to say that people will be \"connected through the universal language\" of Tetris. Are you guys being sarcastic about that or is that an actual hope? Rogers: No that's a real dream for us. Games are a universal language and Tetris breaks all culture, language and age and gender barriers. CNN: Have you had complaints from people saying that Tetris is a drug, that it's more addictive, there should be some kind of warning with it? Pajitnov: It happens to me all the time. People approach me and say, \"I spent so much of my college time on Tetris I almost blow my exams.\" And I usually ask, \"But was it good hours which you spent on Tetris?\" And everybody say, \"Yes it was really good hours.\" So I say, \"I not waste it, I gift it to you!\" Rogers: I think that Tetris is the first virtual sport. And we'll see a Tetris Cup in the future and international competition. Hopefully we'll be part of the Olympics someday. CNN: The actual Olympics? The Olympics Olympics? Rogers: Sure, why limit the Olympics to physical sports? Why not mental sports? CNN: Wow, that would open up a whole new realm. I know you have a lot of plans for building this. What will we see when we envision the future? Will there be 3-D Tetris? Or will I have goggles and play virtual Tetris? Rogers: Tetris is the ultimate casual game, so we need to keep it simple. If 3-D takes it out of simple-to-understand games, then it probably won't go there. CNN: You want to tell me how much you have made off Tetris over the years? Rogers: A lot. (laughter) CNN: Alexey, how about you? Pajitnov: Yes, I am happy. CNN: Enough to give Oprah a run for her money? Pajitnov and Rogers: No, no. (laughter) CNN: No, I don't think real people do that ever. Have memories of Tetris? Send us iReports or join the discussions at Facebook or Twitter.","highlights":"Tetris, the addictive building-block video game, turns 25 this month .\nCNN speaks with Alexey Pajitnov, the game's creator, about its popularity .\nLast year, 10 percent of all games on mobile phones in the U.S. were Tetris .\nPajitnov: \"It's a very simple game and it has a really strong creative spirit in it\""} -{"article":"YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand for the first time Tuesday and told a Myanmar court that she did not violate her house arrest when she offered temporary shelter to an American man who swam to her lakeside home. People of Myanmar living in Japan protest for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi on May 24, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. \"She was very confident, very firm, very clear,\" said Mark Canning, the British ambassador to Myanmar, who was among diplomats and journalists allowed to watch the proceedings. \"In a strange way, she commanded the courtroom,\" he said. Suu Kyi, who is being tried on subversion charges, said she did not learn immediately that John William Yettaw swam nearly two miles and snuck into her crumbling, colonial-era bungalow on May 3. She was told about the visitor the next day by one of two housekeepers who are her sole companions in the heavily guarded residence, where she was under house arrest. Suu Kyi's two helpers are also on trial, as is Yettaw. \"I didn't know,\" she said. \"I was upstairs.\" Under questioning by a judge for half an hour, Suu Kyi said she provided Yettaw food but allowed him only to \"stay temporarily.\" Yettaw left late May 5, she said. \"He walked to the lakeside. But I don't know which way he went, because it was very dark,\" Suu Kyi said. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate also acknowledged that Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, had visited her once before last November. \"Did you report to the authority about his arrival?\" the judge asked. \"No,\" she replied. Suu Kyi had earlier told supporters that she did not tell authorities about the latest intrusion because she didn't want Yettaw or anyone else to get in trouble. But it is this silence that the Myanmar's military junta is trying her for. The government said Yettaw's presence violated the conditions of Suu Kyi's house arrest. The country's regime rarely allows Suu Kyi any visitors, and foreigners are not allowed overnight stays in local households without government permission. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years -- a confinement the military junta has regularly extended. Watch the U.N. secretary general explain what he is doing for Suu Kyi \u00bb . Her latest round of home detention -- after five years of confinement -- expires Wednesday, according to her supporters at home and abroad. Last week, the military began prosecuting Suu Kyi on allegations of subversion at a prison compound near Yangon. Her supporters say the move is meant to keep her confined even longer -- beyond the general elections that the junta has scheduled for next year. If convicted, Suu Kyi, 63, could be sentenced to three to five years in prison. Before the proceedings got under way at the Insean Prison compound Tuesday, the junta said Suu Kyi's house arrest did not expire for six more months. And though the government said it considered releasing her at the end of the term, it said it had no choice but to try her after she met with Yettaw. \"As Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Gen. Aung San, the leader of our country, we were deeply thinking whether to extend her detention or not,\" Police Brigadier General Myint Thein told reporters Tuesday. \"Unfortunately, a U.S. citizen entered her house for two days. She allowed and made conversation with him, gave him food. \"These kind of actions broke the law,\" he added. \"This is why we have no way but to open a case. And we are very sad about this case.\" Gen. Aung San played an instrumental role in bringing about the country's independence from British colonial rule. He was assassinated in 1947 and is still revered in Myanmar. Suu Kyi's lawyers rejected the junta's explanation, saying the United Nations had already deemed the opposition leader's continuing detention unlawful under Myanmar's state protection laws. \"The U.N. has said her house arrest expired a year ago,\" said Jared Genser, her U.S.-based lawyer. \"They are out of time, and they cannot detain her any longer under their own law.\" Thein told reporters that the pro-democracy advocate had actually been under house arrest for four-and-a-half years. The official said Suu Kyi's house arrest officially went into effect on November 28, 2004. That gives the government six more months to restrict her movement, he said. Genser countered the government's account, citing the conclusion of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The law is unclear whether detention begins from the time a person is arrested or when a detention order is issued, the council said. \"This would suggest an interpretation that you start counting from the day you begin to detain her,\" Genser said. In Suu Kyi's case, she was put under house arrest in May 2003. \"You can't issue an order months later and use that as your starting point. That creates an unfair period of detention,\" he said. After Suu Kyi's testimony Tuesday, the court asked the diplomats and journalists to leave. It denied a defense request to consult with Suu Kyi privately. The court then questioned Yettaw. He is charged with violating immigration laws and trespassing. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A lawyer selected by the U.S. Embassy is representing him. According to Yettaw's testimony in court Friday, he made the unauthorized trip because he had a vision that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he wanted to warn her. He muttered to himself during the proceedings, including utterances that Suu Kyi is innocent, said Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi's prosecution has prompted international criticism, with nine Nobel laureates -- including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa -- calling it a \"mockery.\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the charges against Suu Kyi \"baseless\" and accused the junta of \"continuing resistance to a free and open electoral process.\" The Nobel laureate has been the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement and the focus of a global campaign to free her. Her party won over 80 percent of the legislative seats in 1990. But she was disqualified from serving because of her house arrest, and the military junta ignored the results. The government has said next year's scheduled elections will reintroduce democracy in Myanmar. But its plan includes a clause that forbids citizens who bore children with foreigners from running for office. That makes Suu Kyi ineligible. She married a British man and has two sons with him. CNN's Kocha Olarn in Bangkok, Thailand, and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Junta says Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest does not expire for six more months .\nOpposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial with American John Yettaw .\nSuu Kyi told Myanmar court that she is not guilty, has not broken any law .\nYettaw is charged with violating the conditions of Suu Kyi's house arrest ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti installed himself as leader of a new unity government late Thursday, a move that drew condemnation from ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Making a late night public announcement, Micheletti said his entire cabinet had resigned to clear the way for a reconciliation cabinet to be named. \"This cabinet is a result of an ample participation of different sectors of civil society as well as the political parties,\" he said. \"Tonight with this new government, we're answering the call for the unity of all people of Honduras.\" He did not identify any of the new cabinet members. Representatives for Micheletti and Zelaya signed an agreement October 30 to form a reconciliation government that would rule until a new president, to be chosen in a November 29 election, takes office in January. The deal included the possibility of Zelaya's reinstatement to the presidency, but contained no guarantee. The pact called for the unity government to be named by Thursday. The agreement also stipulated that the nation's congress, in consultation with the supreme court and other institutions, would vote on whether Zelaya would be returned to power. That vote did not occur Thursday. Zelaya told local media that Micheletti's actions violated the accord, which he called \"a dead letter.\" The reconciliation government, he said, must be led by the democratically elected president of Honduras. \"How can a person who has not been elected by anyone lead a government?\" he said. Zelaya was flown out of the country by the country's military June 28 but secretly returned to Honduras on September 21, obtaining refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. Micheletti sent Zelaya a letter earlier this week asking him for the names of people the deposed president would like to have in the unity government. Zelaya did not answer the letter. Micheletti said Zelaya's refusal to answer gave the interim president the right to name all the members of a new government. \"With this agreement, we have made an important step to strengthen our democracy,\" Micheletti said. \"Despite the fact that Mister Zelaya did not send any of his representatives ... we're still looking for an opportunity for these citizens of Honduras to be integrated in the government of reconciliation.\" The Organization of American States, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. The United States and others imposed economic sanctions, which some analysts say have started to hurt Honduras. Many nations, including the United States, also said they would not recognize the winner of this month's presidential election if the vote is held under Micheletti's rule. The United States seemed to shift that position after last week's accord. Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol this week that the United States would recognize the winner of this month's presidential election even if Zelaya is not returned to power beforehand. Shannon played a key role in obtaining last week's agreement. The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution to allow longer terms for the president. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. Micheletti and his supporters say Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup.","highlights":"Interim President Roberto Micheletti announces formation of new unity government .\nUnity government formed without input of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya .\nNegotiators for Zelaya and Micheletti reached unity deal last week .\nZelaya calls last week's accord a \"dead letter\""} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year, according to U.S. military officials. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with its high mountain terrain. The troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected build-up of U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout next year. Earlier this year, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, requested at least 20,000 additional troops be sent there to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The officials could not say what units are being tapped to go because those units are now being told of their deployment and the announcement has not yet been made public. The aviation brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies around the country. There are more than 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a Dutch soldier was killed Friday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO command confirmed. The soldier died in an improvised explosive device strike, according to a news release from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. \"Our sincere condolences and sympathies are with the family and friends of this brave soldier, especially during this holiday season,\" said ISAF spokesman Capt. Mark Windsor Royal Navy. \"This soldier's death is an irreplaceable loss to all of us who fight for the peace and stability of Afghanistan. ISAF will continue to fight for the cause for which this brave soldier gave his life.\" Eighteen Dutch troops have died in the Afghan conflict, according to a CNN count of casualty figures.","highlights":"Troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade; transport helicopters to be sent .\nThey are latest to be approved for expected build-up of U.S. troops next year .\nDutch soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO confirms .\nSoldier died in an improved explosive device strike ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The home life Diana Krall shares with husband (and fellow musical brain) Elvis Costello and their 2-year-old twin boys is a little nutty. Diana Krall's new album, \"Quiet Nights,\" was inspired by a trip she made to Brazil. \"It's zany in the most wonderful way,\" says the 44-year-old jazz singer-pianist. \"You have two little boys leaping off the furniture who think they're Buzz Lightyear while we're practicing and playing. It's just a happy house.\" Krall's domestic bliss -- \"domestic\" being a new concept for the ever-touring artist -- is suggested in the warm, intimate vibe of her latest album \"Quiet Nights.\" \"It's a very natural process for me, making a record. It ends up being a reflection of where I am at that time. My life is just tremendous right now. It couldn't be better,\" she says. No kidding. \"Quiet Nights\" debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album charts last week, a career high for Krall. A memorable trip to Brazil in 2007 inspired the Canadian chanteuse to take her 12th album in a bossa nova direction: The title track is the English version of the bossa nova classic \"Corcovado.\" She also covers \"The Girl from Ipanema\" -- though naturally in her whispery rendition she flips \"girl\" to \"boy\" -- and gives a fresh spin on Frank Sinatra's \"Where or When.\" Watch Krall find bliss in Brazil \u00bb . \"There was something about turning 'Where or When' into a bossa nova that changes the feeling for me of the song,\" Krall said. \"It's much more emotional than if I sang it in a swing feeling. I've always experimented with that.\" Krall brought arranger and conductor Claus Ogerman on board. He was a natural, having worked with Sinatra and Brazilian singer-songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim who wrote both \"Ipanema\" and \"Corcovado.\" And Krall co-produced the album with frequent collaborator Tommy LiPuma. \"One of the best parts of making a record is the dinner after where you all you go to the restaurant, you decompress, have some great wine and just tell stories and listen to Claus and Tommy and [engineer] Al Schmidt and all these people telling amazing stories,\" says Krall. Diana Krall recently sat down with CNN to share some stories of her own about a teenaged letter to Oscar Peterson, idolizing Harry Connick Jr. and Mickey Mouse pancakes. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: This is the first album you've made since becoming a mother. Does it feel different somehow? Diana Krall: I think [this album reflects my present] state of mind. It's not about loss, it's not preparing for loss. I'm not peeling grapes. Life has changed a lot and it's not just about performing and touring. It's motherhood and having a home for the first time, because I've always been on the road. So it's an incredible thing to be making Mickey Mouse pancakes in the morning while you're doing your interviews. CNN: You've been producing Barbara Streisand's new album. What has that been like? Krall: Incredible. I just am so thrilled with her performance on this album. [She gives] one of the most incredible performances I think of her career on a song called \"You Must Believe in Spring\" with a great pianist from New York named Phil Charlap. It's just piano and voice and it's so incredibly stunning. She said to me, \"Maybe it needs some strings or something.\" I said \"Don't touch it! Just leave it! It's gorgeous!\" It's been great working artist to artist and we had a lot of fun. We played cards. So when there were moments in the studio where there was something technical that had to be fixed, we'd deal the cards and we'd play gin rummy, which I'm lousy at. Thank goodness. CNN: This is the first album you've produced for another artist. Way to choose somebody really small to start off with. Krall: She chose me! I had a few phone calls and it was a little daunting, but it was a great experience and really, really intense, as you would expect it to be. CNN: Some people were a little put out by your record \"The Girl in the Other Room\" because you strayed from jazz. How did you process that reaction? Krall: Somebody's always put out with anything I do (laughs). \"Why'd you do 'The Look of Love?' \" \"Why don't you do 'The Look of Love' again?\" I don't know! I'm too busy trying to put the Lego back in the box, and making sure nobody's eating all the Play-Doh. That record did very well and a lot of people say to me, \"That's my favorite record.\" And I wrote [it] with my husband, so I don't really look back. I look forward. And I've got a pretty loyal audience. CNN: What would you say to your sons if they tell you they want to be musicians when they grow up? Krall: They should do whatever makes them happy. This is what they know so if that's what they choose to do -- who knows. They could be like my mom and my dad and be a teacher-librarian and a chartered accountant. That's fine too. A month ago I found this letter I wrote to Oscar Peterson when I was 16 years old and my mom had saved it for me and put it in a box in the attic. It was a five-page letter I wrote to Oscar Peterson saying, \"Dear Oscar, I'm 16 years old and I hear a professional musician's life is a very difficult one but I know this is the only life I want to have.\" And it was really enlightening for me to see the focus of a 16-year-old. It reminded me of how much I love the music and always wanted to do what I'm doing, so how lucky am I? CNN: But it's not all luck. Krall: I think it's a lot of luck. I think I started in a very good time. When I went to see that film \"When Harry Met Sally,\" and I heard Harry Connick playing the piano, I though there's somebody who's my age and he's playing the music that I love. And I felt like there was a kindred spirit and it inspired me to go, \"I want to do exactly what he's doing.\" And I still owe a lot of thanks to Harry. I've only met him like a couple of times, but he's still a favorite artist of mine.","highlights":"Diana Krall's new album, \"Quiet Nights,\" features bossa nova interpretations .\nSinger-pianist is producing Barbara Streisand's new album .\nShe's doing what she loves; \"How lucky am I?\" she says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Senior Bush administration officials authorized aggressive interrogation techniques -- including forced nudity and waterboarding -- on suspected terrorists, despite concerns from military psychologists and attorneys, according to a Senate report released Tuesday. The Senate report focuses on the authorization to use aggressive techniques to interrogate detainees. \"The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees,\" said the report, which reveals new details about prisoner treatment at U.S. military prisons in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. \"Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies and compromised our moral authority,\" the report said. The full report on the Senate Armed Services Committee investigation was declassified Tuesday by the Defense Department, less than a week after the Obama administration released several Bush-era memos detailing the use of such techniques. \"In my judgment, the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse ... to low-ranking soldiers,\" Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate committee, said Tuesday. \"Claims, such as that made by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a 'few bad apples,' were simply false.\" The Senate report said that in December 2001 the Defense Department's General Counsel's Office solicited information on the \"exploitation\" of detainees from the federal agency charged with training U.S. troops on how to withstand enemy interrogation techniques considered illegal by the Geneva Conventions. The inquiry to that agency, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, was submitted more than a month before then-President George Bush signed a memo stating that U.S. military personnel \"shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions.\" The Senate committee's investigation was largely focused on the influence of a Joint Personnel program called \"Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape.\" The program is used to train U.S. soldiers how to resist enemy interrogation, and employs harsh techniques such as forced nudity, use of fear, sleep deprivation and -- until last year -- waterboarding. The Senate report said Bush administration officials green lighted the use of Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape techniques on detainees -- despite warnings from military psychologists against doing so. The report includes an e-mail from an Army psychologist. \"[T]he use of physical pressures brings with it a large number of potential negative side effects ... If individuals are put under enough discomfort, i.e. pain, they will eventually do whatever it takes to stop the pain,\" said Lt. Col. Morgan Banks, the senior Army Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape psychologist, in an October 2, 2002, e-mail to personnel at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Levin said the program is supposed to prepare troops in the event they are captured and subjected to abusive interrogations, and that it was \"never intended to be used in the interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody.\" In a section titled, \"The Department of Justice Changes the Rules,\" the Senate report noted that less than a week after the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency sent the Defense Department information about the interrogation techniques, the Justice Department issued two legal opinions signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee. The first opinion \"presented a narrow interpretation of what constituted torture under U.S. law,\" the report said. The memo said that to constitute torture, physical pain would have to match the intensity of that accompanying \"serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions or even death.\" The opinion said the administration could defend itself against the federal anti-torture statute by arguing necessity or self-defense. The second opinion concerned the interrogation of a specific detainee, al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydeh, and concluded that 10 different techniques -- including sleep deprivation and waterboarding -- did not violate prohibitions against torture. Last week, the Obama administration released the second Bybee opinion -- which the Senate committee did not have access to during the investigation -- and three others written by then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury in May 2005. Bradbury's opinions concern hypothetical situations with the same interrogation techniques, as well as some others not mentioned in the 2002 memo. Those memos also conclude, for varying reasons, that the techniques did not violate prohibitions against torture. The Senate report reveals new information about Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape use on accused enemy combatants held at Guantanamo -- which President Obama plans to close within a year. \"By early October [2002] there was increasing pressure to get 'tougher' with detainee interrogations\" at Guantanamo, according to testimony cited in the Senate report from a military behavioral scientist, Maj. Paul Burney, who worked with interrogators at the facility in Cuba. So, Burney and a colleague drafted a memo proposing aggressive interrogation techniques at the facility. The scientist testified that Guantanamo's intelligence chief told him the memo needed to contain coercive techniques or it \"wasn't going to get very far,\" the report said. Levin said that despite \"serious legal concerns raised by the military service lawyers,\" Defense Department General Counsel Jim Haynes recommended that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approve 15 of the interrogation techniques -- including stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of dogs) and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli. After Rumsfeld's December 2, 2002, approval, senior Guantanamo staff issued a memo on the use of aggressive techniques, saying, \"The premise behind this is that the interrogation tactics used at U.S. military SERE schools are appropriate for use in real-world interrogations,\" according to the report. The report details how Rumsfeld's approval prompted interrogators in Afghanistan and Iraq to adopt the aggressive techniques. Military officials essentially copied and pasted interrogation policies from Guantanamo, and posted them as their own in Afghanistan and, ultimately, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In September 2003, U.S. Central Command lawyers raised concerns about the interrogation techniques authorized for Abu Ghraib, which included stress positions, sleep deprivation and exploiting fears of dogs, the report said. The report reveals a newly declassified September 16, 2003, e-mail from a CentCom lawyer, Maj. Carrie Ricci, who warned that \"Many of the techniques appear to violate [Geneva Conventions] III and IV and should not be used. ...\" Dozens of military personnel who served at Abu Ghraib confirmed that the interrogation techniques cleared by Rumsfeld had made their way to the prison, according to the Senate report. An Army dog handler at Abu Ghraib told military investigators in February 2004 that \"someone from [military intelligence] gave me a list of cells, for me to go see, and pretty much have my dog bark at them. ... Having the dogs bark at detainees was psychologically breaking them down for interrogation purposes.\" The Senate report said that an interrogator told military investigators in May 2004 that it was \"common to see detainees in cells without clothes or naked\" and said it was \"one of our approaches.\" Levin noted that, despite the revelation of widespread use of aggressive and abusive interrogation techniques, there is still the question of whether the senior officials who approved the policies should be held accountable. Obama on Tuesday left open the possibility of criminal prosecution, saying it would be up to Attorney General Eric Holder to decide whether to prosecute the former officials. \"With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more a decision for the attorney general within the parameter of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that,\" Obama told reporters. \"There's a host of very complicated issues involved there. As a general deal, I think we should be looking forward and not backwards. I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.\"","highlights":"Lawyer's e-mail says, \"Many of the techniques appear to violate\" Geneva Conventions .\nInvestigator says \"one of our approaches\" was to keep detainees naked .\nReport: Officials encouraged use of stress positions, phobias, deprivation of light .\nTechniques came from program used to train troops to resist enemy interrogation ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On his final full day in office, President Bush issued commutations for two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted in 2006 of shooting and wounding an unarmed illegal immigrant -- suspected of drug smuggling at the time -- and then covering it up. An artist's sketch shows Ignacio Ramos, left, and Jose Compean. The prison sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will now end March 20. Ramos had received an 11-year prison sentence; Compean had received a 12-year term. They began serving their sentences in January 2007. The Office of the Pardon Attorney was still reviewing the clemency request when Bush made his decision, Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said. \"The president has reviewed the circumstances of this case as a whole and the conditions of confinement and believes the sentences they received are too harsh and that they, and their families, have suffered enough for their crimes,\" a senior administration official said. \"Commuting their sentences does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes. Ramos and Compean are convicted felons who violated their oaths to uphold the law and have been severely punished,\" the official stated. \"This commutation gives them an opportunity to return to their families and communities, but both men will have to carry the burden of being convicted felons and the shame of violating their oaths for the rest of their lives.\" The official noted that both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have supported a commutation, including President-elect Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and Texas GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. The head of the labor union representing Border Patrol agents told CNN Radio he was \"grateful\" that Bush commuted the sentences but questioned why the prison terms won't end until March 20. \"I would be quite curious to learn why they have to wait another two months for an unjust sentence,\" said Rich Pierce, president of the National Border Patrol Council. He said the union's ultimate goal would be for the men to get their Border Patrol jobs back. The shooting happened February 17, 2005, on the border southeast of El Paso, Texas. During their trial, Ramos and Compean said the illegal immigrant, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, had brandished a gun while actively resisting arrest. Aldrete-Davila, however, said he was unarmed and was attempting to surrender when Compean attempted to beat him with a shotgun. Aldrete-Davila was shot while fleeing toward the Rio Grande. Ramos and Compean were ultimately convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, lying about the incident and violating Aldrete-Davila's Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure. After receiving immunity to testify in the case against the two agents, Aldrete-Davila was arrested in 2007 on charges of bringing more than 750 pounds of marijuana into the United States. The case quickly became a political flash point, with advocates of tighter border controls defending the agents and civil liberties groups saying that the agents had used illegal and excessive force against Aldrete-Davila. Bush has granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations over his eight years in office, far fewer than Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan in their two-term administrations. During the final months of the Bush administration, speculation has swirled around the question of whether former vice presidential aide Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby would be granted the presidential favor. Libby was convicted in March of 2007 of four counts of lying and impeding a federal investigation into the leak of information that revealed that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative. Among the more notable people who have applied for -- but not received -- some form of clemency are: former Rep. Randall \"Duke\" Cunningham, R-California, who was convicted of receiving bribes; publishing executive Conrad Black, who was found guilty of fraud; former junk bold salesman Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud; and former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, convicted of accounting fraud. The parents of John Walker Lindh, who was given a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to supporting terrorists in Afghanistan, held a news conference in December urging Bush to commute their son's sentence. There is a long tradition of presidents issuing pardons and commutations during their final days in office. Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich during his last hours in office, setting off a firestorm of controversy. A commutation reduces a convict's prison term, but the conviction remains on the person's record. A pardon, however, wipes the slate clean by erasing the record of the conviction. A president has the sole authority to grant clemency to whomever he chooses, although a Justice Department office usually reviews applications and makes recommendations after considering such standards as a person's degree of remorse and ability to lead a responsible and productive life after release. Those applying for a pardon through the Justice Department are required to wait at least five years after their conviction or release from confinement.","highlights":"Bush commutes sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean .\nPresident believes \"the sentences they received are too harsh,\" official says .\nEx-Border Patrol agents will be released March 20 .\nPair convicted of shooting undocumented immigrant allegedly running drugs ."} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Thursday he will not resign over accounts in a book he wrote in 2005 about paying to have sex with \"boys\" in Thailand. Frederic Mitterrand admitted to paying for sex with \"boys\" in his 2005 autobiography, \"The Bad Life.\" In an interview with French television network TF1, Mitterrand said he \"absolutely condemn[s] sexual tourism, which is a disgrace, and ... pedophilia,\" in which he insisted he has never participated. Despite the use of the French word \"garcon\" in his 2005 book \"The Bad Life,\" Mitterrand, 62, has previously said the term did not mean \"little boys.\" He said the males he paid for sex were his age, or maybe five years younger, but not underage -- and the relations were consensual. \"Anyway, you can recognize someone who's 40 years old ...\" he told TF1. A 40-year-old man \"doesn't look like a minor,\" he added, suggesting that his partners were middle-aged men. His actions, Mitterrand said, were \"without a doubt, an error,\" but \"a crime, no,\" he said in the interview. Despite recent calls to resign from the far-right National Front and the left-leaning Socialist Party, Mitterrand, who is openly gay, vowed to stay in his job. He said he met Thursday morning with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and that the president supports him. In a July interview with the weekly French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Sarkozy said he had read Mitterrand's book, and found it \"courageous and talented.\" The controversy over the revelations in his book -- which he called neither autobiography nor memoir -- erupted anew after Mitterrand deplored the arrest last week of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who fled the United States in 1977 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The culture minister told TF1 that he was \"too emotional\" when he denounced the filmmaker's arrest in Switzerland as \"horrifying.\" \"To see him thrown to the lions for an old story that really has no meaning, and to see him alone, imprisoned, when he was going to attend a ceremony where he was to be honored, that is to say, he was trapped, it's absolutely horrifying,\" he said October 4, according to Agence France Presse. The far-right National Front organized an anti-Mitterrand demonstration in Paris on Thursday evening. \"Send this message on to everyone who will not put up with this indecency!\" the party's Web site said. The party's vice president, Marine Le Pen, has demanded Mitterrand's resignation for what she termed his sexually deviant acts. Mitterrand responded, saying, \"It's an honor to be dragged through the mud by the National Front.\" Mitterrand's acts of \"sexual tourism\" have left \"a dark smudge\" on the government, Le Pen said. The group is also gathering signatures on a petition, online and on paper, from those who want Mitterrand to step down. \"We really hope he will resign,\" National Front communications director Julien Sanchez told CNN. \"It's an embarrassment for our country, that our culture minister has done this. It affects our international image. It's not right,\" he added. Watch report on the controversy surrounding French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand \u00bb . On the other side of the political spectrum, the left-leaning Socialist Party suggested Sarkozy should consider Mitterrand's position. \"It's up to President Sarkozy to decide whether or not we can be involved in the fight against child prostitution and sexual tourism, and whether or not the acts written in an autobiography -- written by a minister -- are acts of sexual commerce,\" said party spokesman Benoit Hamon. \"If everything is relative and Mr. Mitterrand can be excused because he's famous, well, I don't excuse his behavior,\" Hamon said. Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialist Party, said she would wait until she had read the book before making any judgment. Mitterrand said on TF1 that he had had sexual relations with boys -- using the French word \"garcons\" -- but added, \"you must not confuse pedophilia with homosexuality.\" He also described his book as a mixture of his life and the life of others, and denied accusations that it was a glorification of sexual tourism. The minister said he never had sex with \"young boys\" and denounced those who accused him of such acts, saying that maybe they were confusing their own fantasies with what the book was really about. Mitterrand told an interviewer in 2005 that assertions that he liked \"little boys\" were untrue. \"It's because when people say 'boys' we imagine 'little boys,'\" he said then. \"How to explain that? It belongs to this general puritanism which surrounds us, which always makes us paint a black picture of the situation. It has nothing to do with that.\" Mitterrand was a television personality, not a government minister, when the book was published. It caused a stir upon its publication, as well, and has been the subject of heated debate several times since then. In one passage, published by the French newspaper Le Monde on Thursday, Mitterrand describes in detail a sexual encounter with a \"boy\" he said was called Bird. \"My boy didn't say a word, he stood before me, immobile, his eyes still straight ahead and a half-smile on his lips. I wanted him so badly I was trembling,\" he wrote. Mitterrand also wrote about visiting clubs to choose young male prostitutes in Thailand -- where prostitution is illegal and sexual intercourse with a minor is statutory rape and is punishable by imprisonment. \"Most of them are young, handsome and apparently unaware of the devastation that their activities could bring them. I would learn later that they didn't come every night, that they were often students, had a girlfriend and sometimes even lived with their families, who pretended not to know the source of their breadwinner's earnings,\" the book said. \"Some of them were older and there was also a small contingent of heavier bruisers, who also had their fans. It was the artistic side of the exposition: Their presence made the youthful charm of the others stand out.\" He also wrote that while he had read reports and seen documentaries on the evils of \"le commerce des garcons\" (the boy trade) -- the misery, the piles of money from which \"les gosses\" (the kids) got only a few crumbs, the ravages of drugs -- \"all of these rituals of the fair of the youths, the slave market, excited me enormously.\" \"The profusion of very attractive boys, immediately available, put me in a state of desire that I no longer had to restrain or conceal.\" Mitterrand -- the nephew of the Socialist former president Francois Mitterrand -- joined Sarkozy's center-right government this summer. Wikipedia, the user-edited online reference Web site, has locked down Mitterrand's entry, preventing changes to it, in a possible sign of the intensity of the debate surrounding him. CNN's Jen Carswell in Paris, France and Alanne Orjoux in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Culture minister condemns sexual tourism, denies he is a pedophile .\nFrederic Mitterrand, in 2005 book, wrote of paying for sex with \"boys\" in Thailand .\nLe Monde on Thursday published steamy excerpts from \"The Bad Life\"\nMitterand came to the defense of Roman Polanski after the filmmaker's arrest ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday it's considering tighter restrictions on propofol, a drug reportedly found after Michael Jackson's death in the Holmby Hills, California, mansion he rented. The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday it's considering tighter restrictions on propofol. \"We were petitioned and have been been looking into it for the past two years,\" said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne, who added in response to a question that the inquiry had not been affected by the singer's death of cardiac arrest on June 25. The agency is looking at designating the sedative as a \"scheduled\" drug, which would tighten restrictions on the its distribution and use. Payne said he could not divulge anything related to the Jackson investigation, \"but I can tell you that researchers making the decision about propofol would typically be interested in any information that would help them answer questions about the effects of propofol and its potential harm to the user.\" Propofol, known by the trade name of Diprivan, is administered intravenously in operating rooms as a powerful anesthetic and sedative. Payne said concern about the drug's potential for abuse led to the petition. But, he added, \"as far as we know, this is not something that's been highly abused.\" Payne said he did not know who had sought the change, adding, \"Typically we would not make that public.\" The process required to get a drug scheduled is a lengthy one, involving a number of agencies, he said. \"Lots of experts weigh in on questions such as potential for abuse, pharmacological effects, history and current patterns abuse,\" he said. Nutritionist Cherilyn Lee has said Jackson pleaded for the drug as a sleep aid, despite being told of its potentially harmful effects. And sources close to Jackson told CNN that the insomniac singer traveled with an anesthesiologist who would \"take him down\" at night and \"bring him back up\" during a world tour in the mid-1990s. The Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified sources, have reported that police found Diprivan among Jackson's medicines. Officials have said that the exact cause of death and whether drug use may have been involved will not be determined until after toxicology tests are completed, which could be several weeks. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory, saying two lots of a generic version of the drug had tested positive for endotoxin, a contaminant. The drug maker, Teva Pharmaceuticals, voluntarily recalled the lots. No fatalities were reported. A Teva spokeswoman said the DEA had contacted the drug maker \"about a specific lot number, and that lot number is not from the two we are recalling.\" Spokeswoman Denise Bradley would not say whether the contact was related to the Jackson investigation. A DEA spokesman said he could not comment on any ongoing investigation. In a written statement issued this month, the American Society of Anesthesiologists said it \"unequivocally maintains that Diprivan, or its generic name propofol, is a drug meant only for use in a medical setting by professionals trained in the provision of general anesthesia. \"Though the drug is often used for procedures requiring sedation, patients can have extremely variable responses to the drug and some patients can become completely anesthetized, including losing the ability to breathe,\" the statement continued. \"Diprivan should never be used outside of a controlled and monitored medical setting. Use of the drug should be directly supervised by a physician trained in anesthesia and qualified to provide physiologic rescue should too much drug be given,\" the statement said.","highlights":"Propofol, generic name of Diprivan, reportedly found in Michael Jackson's home .\nDEA spokesman: \"We've been looking into it for the past two years\"\nSpokesman says inquiry hasn't been affected by singer's cardiac arrest death .\nPropofol is administered intravenously in operating rooms as a powerful anesthetic ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- College football's perennial armchair-quarterback argument over the need for a clear-cut national champion came to Capitol Hill Friday. College football teams play in the BCS for the national championship trophy. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing to dissect the Bowl Championship Series, asking whether the model needs to be tweaked, overhauled or done away with altogether. Four witnesses testified at the morning hearing, including championship series coordinator John Swofford and Alamo Bowl President Derrick Fox; both of whom defended the current system, though Fox conceded that \"no system is perfect and the Bowl Championship Series is not perfect.\" Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson and Boise State Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier testified that they would like to see the system revamped. Many critics say they want college football to have a playoff system to ensure that a champion is clearly defined. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, called the Bowl Championship Series format unfair and perhaps took it one step further. \"You should either change your name to BES for Bowl Exhibition System or just drop the C and call it the BS system, because it is not about determining the championship on the field.\" Both sides were cordial but opinionated. Fox said he would prefer Washington not get involved. \"Those who don't like the current system will say that's the way of the world, but we don't believe that government should have any role in promoting a demise of the bowl games.\" Currently, 11 college conferences and three independents compete in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision -- formerly Division I-A. Six of those 11 conferences are guaranteed spots in the four Bowl Championship Series games. Schools from conferences that critics say are unfairly deemed as low profile are then left to fight their way into those prestige games. They share in significantly less of the series money and have less of an opportunity to challenge for the national title. President Obama is one of the proponents of a college football playoff. In an interview with ESPN in November, Obama said he's had just about enough of the Bowl Championship Series. \"I'm fed up with these computer rankings and this, that and the other. Get eight teams -- the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion,\" Obama said. Before heading out early to catch a flight, Barton made it clear that he expects to see college football change its ways or risk having lawmakers introduce legislation to impose change for them. \"I think there is better than a 50 percent chance that if we don't see some action in the next two months on a voluntary switch to a playoff system that you will see this bill move,\" he said.","highlights":"Bowl Championship Series decides college football's national champ .\nPerennial argument is that a playoff system would be a better way to decide .\nHouse committee hears testimony from officials, coaches on both sides ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congress passed a $300 billion farm bill over President Bush's veto for a second time Wednesday, a step made necessary by a clerical error when the original bill passed. Congress overrode President Bush's second veto of a $300 billion farm bill. The Senate voted 80-14 to approve the measure over Bush's objections, following a 317-109 vote in the House of Representatives. Both votes were well above the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, which Bush delivered Wednesday morning. Congress overrode an earlier veto of the farm bill last month, even though lawmakers had discovered that 34 pages were missing in the version originally sent to the White House. In spiking the latest version, Bush said he objected to its continued subsidies for the wealthy and its use of budget gimmicks to hide a $20 billion increase in spending. But Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the measure actually saves the government $110 million. \"This bill does not add to the deficit or debt, because this bill is paid for,\" he said. \"That is not my claim. That is the finding of the Congressional Budget Office.\" The discovery of the missing section, Title III, prompted concerns from House Republicans that the override vote was improper. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the sections of the bill that were originally sent to the president had become law after Congress voted to override Bush's first veto. But to put Title III into effect, Congress re-passed the entire legislation, including the missing pages, and resent it to Bush. The House voted 306-110 at the end of May. The Senate voted 77-15 for the bill at the beginning of June. Two-thirds of the $300 billion in spending for the farm bill will go for nutrition programs such as food stamps. Another $40 billion will go toward farm subsidies, and $30 billion is allocated for payments to farms to keep land idle and other environmental programs. After vetoing the latest version of the farm bill, Bush scolded Congress on Wednesday for not \"modifying certain objectionable, onerous and fiscally imprudent provisions. ... I am returning this bill for the same reasons as stated in my veto message.\" When he vetoed the first version of the farm bill, Bush said it \"continues subsidies for the wealthy and increases farm bill spending by more than $20 billion, while using budget gimmicks to hide much of the increase.\" The president said it would hurt efforts to improve American farmers' access to overseas markets. Congress has passed one other bill over Bush's objections: legislation for a $23 billion water project that the president vetoed in 2007. CNN Capitol Hill producer Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Senate votes 80-14 to approve measure over Bush's objections .\nPresident Bush vetoed $300 billion farm bill for second time .\nBush says bill is too generous to wealthy farmers .\nVersion originally sent to White House had 34 pages missing ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama won a battle against Somali pirates. But does he really want to go to war? The USS Bainbridge tows a lifeboat in which the captain of the Maersk Alabama was held hostage. You may have seen the headlines in the last few days: a Somali pirate attack and hostage-taking ended with a precision operation by U.S. snipers and a successful rescue. Somali pirates have been the scourge of the Horn of Africa for years. They've attacked dozens of ships and taken hundreds of hostages from several countries. The attack on the Maersk Alabama was the first on an American ship. But when it was over, Obama made a particularly broad pledge. \"We are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region,\" Obama said. \"We're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks. We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise.\" See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . Experts say that means addressing the anarchy ashore which allows the pirates to operate. Somalia is a failed state, where lawlessness is a license for every kind of criminal enterprise. James Christodoulou of Industrial Shipping Enterprises Corporation told CNN that if the US wants to do something about piracy, it has to \"go to Somalia and deal with the cause there. Whether it's with bullets or butter, the solution lies on land not at sea.\" The U.S. tried once before to impose order in Somalia, with disastrous results. It led a humanitarian mission to oversee the delivery of food aid that turned into an armed operation against local warlords. More than 40 U.S. personnel were killed before U.S. forces withdrew. That's the challenge facing the leader of every nation whose ships have fallen prey to the pirates. An international effort has been underway to patrol the troubled waters. The French navy has been particularly active. But no one has rushed onto Somali soil. The Obama administration is already managing wars in two countries. Wait and see whether it's really willing to risk a third.","highlights":"President Barack Obama says U.S. is committed to tackling piracy off Somalia .\nHostage captain of U.S. cargo ship rescued in U.S. Navy operation this week .\nBut experts say tackling piracy on seas means tackling failed state of Somalia .\nWith wars in two countries, is Obama willing to risk getting involved in another?"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- \"You break it, you buy it...\" Clark Howard says shoppers may save money if they keep their hands off the merchandise. \"Look, but don't touch...\" \"Keep your hands to yourself...\" Three tired platitudes you might hear in the world of retail that all suggest a direct connection between the power of touch and the act of buying something. Now a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research confirms what many have long believed, when you touch something in a store, you feel a sense of ownership and you're more likely to overpay for that item. That's why retailers like Apple always encourage you to play with the merchandise. First and foremost, the Journal of Consumer Research study presents a real caveat emptor for your wallet during a recession. And second, it confirms that I have the reading habits of a really dull guy! Hear a few interesting tips for saving money at the grocery store \u00bb . The warning for you is that if you don't want to spend money, don't go out and handle the merchandise. Whenever I shop at Costco Wholesale, I never get a cart. I only buy what I can carry in my two arms. Once my arms are full, I'm not constantly picking up new items along the way to the register. You'd be surprised how you can cut down on your bill using this simple trick. But there's a further caution in the study. Even window shopping or browsing online can prove dangerous for your budget. The study's authors talk about the power of visualization. They suggest that if e-tailers can get you to picture yourself owning something -- even if you really can't afford it -- they have a better chance of converting you into an online sale. The question of why people spend money in ways that don't make sense is one that's addressed by behavioral economics. It's a field of study that used to be discredited in serious academic circles. But now it's proving to be an important discipline as people look for new ways to save more and spend less. A 2008 study in The American Journal of Psychiatry found that about 1 in 16 Americans -- that's some 6 percent of us -- have compulsive spending habits. This kind of behavior leads to a momentary rush of adrenaline, but afterward comes the financial hangover. Christa, my radio show's executive producer, has done a lot in her life to take control of her wayward spending habits. She believes that if you're always buying new clothes, for example, you disrespect the things you already have in your closet. When the shopping bug bites you, try paying attention to the stuff you've already acquired in your life. Speaking of closets, I once owned a house built in 1937. The master bedroom's sole closet was all of 2 x 1.5 feet in dimension! During those Great Depression years, that was big enough for a middle-class husband and wife. Today, a closet of that size would never work. Some people have so much clothing that they can go for months without wearing the same thing. So the best way to tackle compulsive spending is with shock therapy -- you've got to ban yourself from stores! Let's say you're prone to go on a shopping binge when you feel blue. You've got to make sure you don't even get into the car to go to the store or the mall. Go for a walk or go to the park if it's a nice day. If you have a conditioned response that's bad for you, you've got to work to change it. And the next time you're tempted to pick something up while shopping, remember the study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Or if that's too pointy-headed for you, just start humming the refrain from that old song by the Georgia Satellites: \"Don't hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself!\"","highlights":"Research says if you touch an item in a store, you are more likely to overpay for it .\nPeople form emotional attachments with merchandise .\nTo save money, identify and avoid your emotional shopping habits .\nFind many more money-saving tips at CNN.com\/ClarkHoward ."} -{"article":"Hamid Dabashi is the author of \"Iran: A People Interrupted.\" He is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. His Web site is http:\/\/www.hamiddabashi.com\/. Hamid Dabashi says allegations of rape and torture are testing Iran's Islamic Republic as never before. (CNN) -- Troubling news of kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder is flooding out of Iran. Neda Aqa Soltan was murdered point-blank in the streets of Tehran for the whole world to see; while Sohrab Arabi was killed far from any global attention and his body given to his mother quietly to bury, as was the tortured body of Mohsen Ruholamini. These names have assumed symbolic significance for many more innocent young men and women murdered by the custodians of the Islamic Republic with a wanton disregard for the lives and liberties of its own citizens. Not just murder, but the rape of young men and women also is on the shameless roster of the Islamic Republic. After years of sporadic charges and troubling rumors, finally a courageous cleric has put a stamp of public recognition on atrocious practices in the theocratic state. Mehdi Karrubi -- one of the revolutionary founders of the Islamic Republic, a high-ranking cleric, a presidential candidate, a former speaker of the house and now a widely popular political activist -- has published a letter, addressing it to the former president and current head of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He accuses the security officers of the Islamic Republic of repeatedly and violently raping young women and men while they are in custody. Since the publication of this letter, a massive outpouring of testimony and reports has come out, corroborating Karrubi's charges that rapes of young women and men are a widespread, common practice in the Islamic Republic. These are not light charges for any state, for any republic, let alone for an Islamic Republic. These charges are no longer brought by expatriate, and at times discredited, opposition. It is the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic, with impeccable revolutionary credentials, who are bringing these charges, as others are coming out and corroborating them in excruciating detail. The Islamic Republic has never faced such a deep crisis of legitimacy in its turbulent 30-year history. As widely evident, it is not just the regime's claim to a \"republic\" that is in question and in jeopardy, but, perhaps far more seriously, it is its claim to Islam that has troubling consequences for more than 1.3 billion Muslims around the world. People in the streets of Tehran are chanting, paraphrasing a famous slogan of the 1979 revolution, \"Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic,\" pointedly replacing \"Iranian\" for \"Islamic.\" Though this a perfectly legitimate demand, given the criminal record of the Islamic Republic, by no means is this sentiment a common denominator of the growing opposition to the regime. To the degree that, at least in part, he represents this uprising, Mir Hossein Moussavi, as a pious and practicing Muslim, continues to insist that he wishes to restore the ideals and aspirations of the Islamic revolution within the constitution of the state. Never have the two opposing ideas of an \"Islamic Republic,\" and Muslims living in a democratic republic seemed so at odds with each other. The 30-year experience of the Islamic Republic shows fundamental flaws in defining a state apparatus in the exclusive terms of a militantly legalistic Islam, while at the same time Iranians, the overwhelming majority of them Shiite Muslims, have repeatedly demonstrated, under this regime, they are perfectly capable of democratic behavior. Not just as immigrants in the E.U. nations and the U.S., but as citizens in Iran, millions of Muslims have shown they are integral to the democratic institutions embedded in the notion of a nation-state. What is in question is the viability of an Islamic republic -- or for that matter, a Jewish state, a Christian empire, a Hindu fundamentalist government -- or any state or movement that is defined not by the democratic apparatus of citizenry, but by exclusionary membership in a world religion. As in the rest of the Muslim world, Islam is integral to Iranian society. But not exclusively so. Over the last 30 years, a radically legalistic interpretation of a cosmopolitan faith has been force-fed into a multifaceted political culture -- and today all the world can see the violent convulsion of the system. There has been much talk of the need for an Islamic \"reformation\" over the last few years. But what Islam needs is not a Christian-style Reformation. What Islam needs is a restoration of its historically cosmopolitan character in which Muslims and non-Muslims live in peace and prosperity, and which they now need to retrieve in order to live in peace and prosperity in a world that is not entirely Muslim. By virtue of living in a democracy, and having endured indignities of rampant Islamophobia in their own country, American Muslims have a historic role to play, by way of sending a delegation to Iran, connecting to this grassroots democratic movement in a Muslim nation, and helping it restore its cosmopolitan character in pursuit of enduring democratic institutions. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hamid Dabashi.","highlights":"Hamid Dabashi: Rape and torture allegations being made in Iran .\nHe says a prominent cleric and activist has accused security forces of wrongdoing .\nThe charges threaten the Islamic Republic's standing within the faith, he says .\nDabashi: Iran needs to restore notion of Muslims and non-Muslims living in peace ."} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- January 18, 2008 . Quick Guide . Focus on: The Economy - Hear about the \"r\" word, and see how a possible recession could be fought. No Girls Allowed - Learn why a Florida family is balking at a statewide baseball rule. A Song for Spain - Consider what it would be like to have a national anthem without lyrics. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome! Thanks for spending part of yours with CNN Student News! From the CNN Center, I'm your host, Carl Azuz. First Up: Focus on: The Economy . AZUZ: First up today: Technically, recession isn't a four-letter word. But it is one that Americans don't like to use, because it describes a downturn in the economy over time. Why might this happen? Well, many Americans' home mortgages are going up. And they're not able to pay. More people are out of work, consumers --like you and me-- are spending less money overall. And we don't even need to mention gas prices. Now these factors add up to an economic forecast that's not so good; Your family may be feeling the pinch. And all this is lighting a fire under government officials to fight a possible recession. Brianna Keilar considers the options Congress has, to try to prevent America from slipping into the red. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN REPORTER: With fears of a recession growing, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was on Capitol Hill Thursday, urging Congress to act quickly on an economic stimulus package. BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Stimulus that comes too late will not help support economic activity in the near term and it could be actively destabilizing if it comes at a time when growth is already improving. KEILAR: The president had a conference call with Senate and House leaders from both parties, the White House characterizing it as a consultation rather than a negotiation. All sides are indicating partisan bickering will take a backseat to finding a quick solution. Today marks the first time the White House has said President Bush is backing a stimulus plan, but spokesman Tony Fratto shied away from discussing specifics. TONY FRATTO, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECY.: The headwinds that we're dealing with right now are things that we see over the next coming quarters. So we do want to try to pass something quickly. KEILAR: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner met for the second day in a row. Both sides are stressing a bipartisan effort, but proposals are still vague. One option Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on: tax rebates: checks sent to taxpayers in an attempt to quickly pump money into the economy. Democrats say they'll scuttle any Republican attempts to extend the president's tax cuts as part of the stimulus package. Privately, congressional Republicans acknowledge it's a fight they can't win. What's more, Bernanke told Congress Thursday, making the tax cuts permanent won't help in the short term. BERNANKE: I think that the evidence suggests that measures that involve putting money in the hands of households and firms that will spend it in the near term will be more effective. KEILAR: Speaker Pelosi is hoping to have a final agreement before the State of the Union on January 28th. Brianna Keilar, CNN, the White House. (END VIDEO CLIP) No Girls Allowed . AZUZ: The next question today is, are girls as good as boys at sports? And if they are, should they be allowed to play at the organized, school level? Swing by Jacksonville, Florida, and you'll find that very controversy rounding the bases. But it's not over a school rule-- It's a state one. Laura Mazzeo of affiliate WJXT steps up to the plate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALYSSA PITRE, WANTS TO PLAY BASEBALL: I can play as well as a boy. LAURA MAZZEO, WJXT REPORTER: Twelve-year-old Alyssa Pitre is passionate about baseball . PITRE: I just love the sport. MAZZEO: She lives by the motto, \"practice makes perfect.\" PITRE: I'm gonna try harder. MAZZEO: She spends hours here in the batting cage and working with coaches on her curveball. But this week, Alyssa went to try out for the middle school baseball team at the Providence School and was told she couldn't play. PITRE: I'm a girl. So what? You're not supposed to discriminate against females if they want to try to do something new, and try to make history at their own school. MAZZEO: The school's headmaster says they have no problem with her playing with the boys, but that she isn't allowed by the Florida High School Athletic Association. DON BARFIELD, HEADMASTER OF PROVIDENCE SCHOOL: Since we have a softball team, the state has indicated to us that she would not be permitted to play baseball. MAZZEO: The most obvious difference between softball and baseball -- it's the ball. The softball and the baseball. But Alyssa says there's much more to it than that. PITRE: The pitching is different. The ball is different. In softball they have longer bats -- different gear. MAZZEO: Alyssa isn't alone in her baseball dreams. her parents are considering taking legal action in hopes of changing the rules. ALYSSA'S MOTHER: If she wants to pursue baseball, then we'll pursue baseball. I just want to give her a chance. You know, give her a chance to try out, to see if she's good enough to make any team. MAZZEO: Alyssa is a humble, yet confident 7th grader. PITRE: I was going to give them something to show, instead of wearing pretty jewelry and short skirts. MAZZEO: She believes she is good enough to play with the boys. PITRE: There's really no difference - girls an play just as good as boys. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo . AZUZ: Standing up for what she believes in; gotta give her props for that. Another famous American who stood up to create change: Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. CNN Classroom Edition will air 'The MLK Papers - Words that Changed a Nation.' It's on at 4 am Monday morning. Be sure to set your DVR's now. For special curriculum on the program, check out CNNStudentNews.com. Shoutout . MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Simmons' geography classes at Dixon-Smith Middle School in Fredericksburg, Virginia! Who wrote the lyrics to \"The Star-Spangled Banner\"? If you think you know it, shout it out! Was it: A) Betsy Ross, B) Thomas Jefferson, C) Susan B. Anthony or D) Francis Scott Key? You've got three seconds, GO! Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the U.S. national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, after witnessing a battle during the War of 1812. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Song for Spain . AZUZ: For many of us, it's hard to say, \"Oh Say Can You See\" without singing it --the words and music are sort-of glued together. In Spain, there's just a tune to hum. And though one Spaniard recently got really close to putting official words to it. Al Goodman explains why many people there, didn't like the way they sounded. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AL GOODMAN, CNN REPORTER: The English proudly sing their national anthem, the Americans croon to theirs. And then, there's Spain. Hold it. The Spanish anthem doesn't have any words. This man won a nationwide contest with his lyrics for the anthem. But then suddenly the Spanish Olympic Committee, which sponsored the contest, withdrew the winning entry. ALEJANDRO BLANCO, SPANISH OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Once Spaniards heard these lyrics, they sparked a lot of controversy, even rejection. GOODMAN: Viva Espana, or Long Live Spain, is how the now-discarded lyrics began. The phrase struck a sour note. Critics say it harkened back to the long right-winged dictatorship of Francisco Franco. MARGARITA SAENZ-DIEZ, JOURNALIST: You have to understand that many Spaniards do not consider the national anthem as their own. It was played a lot under Franco. GOODMAN: Spain is now a democracy, but many still bristle at the military march that's served for more than two centuries as the national anthem. Spain is made up of many different peoples, and five languages are spoken across the country. So, naturally, getting agreement on one set of lyrics is no easy task. One of those languages, ancient Basque, is among those taught in Madrid: Basques have their own national anthem and lyrics. At the Basque Cultural Center we found a Spaniard who liked the proposed lyrics for the Spanish national anthem. They're good, he says, and very neutral about Spain. Many others say the proposed lyrics lacked polish and shine. ANTONIO VILLALON, RETIRED CIVIL SERVANT (TRANSLATED): The French and American anthems speak about an enemy to defeat; our lyrics mentioned fields, wheat and friends. It's just stupid. MANUEL RINCON, TAXI DRIVER (TRANSLATED): The anthem should give us goose bumps. Spain's long history and diverse culture should show, in the lyrics. GOODMAN: The Spanish Olympic Committee says the search will go on, but in Beijing, Spanish athletes will likely have to just hum along to a wordless anthem, as they've done for years. It's a tune almost every Spaniard knows. Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid. (END VIDEO CLIP) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, smaller cell phones: Cool. Smaller MP3 players: Cool. Smaller bridges? You're not gonna get too much traffic across this Golden Gate bridge. It's pictured next to a toothpick because it's made from one! Check that out-- you can even see the lines on the hand holding it! This thing was carved, with a great deal more precision than I've got, from a single toothpick and glue. The footage sent in to us by I-Report. The guy who did this says he's been a toothpick artist for 36 years! Goodbye . AZUZ: And as you could see, he really knows how to 'pick' his subjects. That's just painful! And that's where we conclude our week's last broadcast. We'll return on Tuesday, next week. Enjoy your three-day weekend, everyone! I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Hear about the \"r\" word, and see how a possible recession could be fought .\nLearn why a Florida family is balking at a statewide baseball rule .\nConsider what it would be like to have a national anthem without lyrics ."} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombia will freeze prices for gasoline and other petrofuels through March, the government has announced. Hernan Martinez Torres, in a photo from September, says gas prices will be frozen in Colombia through March. The freeze takes effect Thursday and sets prices at December levels, the minister of mines and energy said Monday. The measure will be funded through a $170 million Fund for the Stabilization of Prices for Combustibles, which goes into effect January 1, a release on the Colombian president's Web site says. \"All this is being done to give consumers a clear signal of stability,\" Minister of Mines and Energy Hernan Martinez Torres is quoted as saying in El Pais newspaper. Gas prices also will not decrease, although there has been a significant drop in crude oil prices in the past few months, Martinez said. The price freeze pertains to gasoline, biogasoline (oxygenated gasoline), a product called ACPM (combustible oil for motors), and the mix of ACPM and biodiesel. For the time being, El Pais said, only propane will see a decrease in price, with the price going down 25 percent. It's the second price drop for propane, which decreased 10 percent in November.","highlights":"Price freeze on gas, other fuels takes effect Thursday, runs through March .\nFreeze is to give consumers \"a signal of stability,\" energy minister tells newspaper .\nGas prices can't rise or fall under the freeze, Hernan Martinez Torres says .\nPrice freeze doesn't affect propane; its price is set to drop 25 percent, paper reports ."} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner told the Democratic National Convention that the most important race facing the country is the \"race for the future ... and it won't be won with a president who is stuck in the past.\" \"This election ... is about the future vs. the past,\" former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner said Tuesday. \"We need a president who understands the world today, the future we seek and the change we need. We need Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.\" Warner was delivering the keynote speech at the convention, the slot that Obama himself filled four years ago. He accused President Bush of a failure of leadership at a critical moment in the nation's history. \"Folks always ask me, what's my biggest criticism of President Bush? I'm sure you all have your own. Here's mine: It's not just the policy differences. It's the fact that this president never tapped into our greatest resources: the character and resolve of the American people. He never really asked us to step up.\" John McCain, he said, offered only \"a plan that would explode the deficit and leave that to our kids. No real strategy to invest in our infrastructure. And he would continue spending $10 billion a month in Iraq. I don't know about you, but that's just not right. That's four more years that we just can't afford.\" Watch Warner say McCain is \"more of the same\" \u00bb . But much of his speech was devoted to the kind of bipartisan rhetoric Obama has espoused on the campaign trail. \"I know we're at the Democratic Convention, but if an idea works, it really doesn't matter whether it's got a 'D' or an 'R' next to it. Because this election isn't about liberal vs. conservative. It's not about left vs. right. It's about the future vs. the past. \"That's why we must elect Barack Obama as our next president,\" Warner said. \"Because the race for the future will be won when old partisanship gives way to new ideas. When we put solutions over stalemates and when hope replaces fear.\"","highlights":"Mark Warner says America needs leader who understands \"the future we seek\"\nBush never asked Americans to step up, Warner says .\nMuch of Warner's address focused on bipartisan rhetoric ."} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 30 Iraqi children riding in a bus were among the 160 people killed in Sunday's twin car bombings in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday. At least 540 people were wounded in Sunday's attacks, the deadliest in the capital in more than two years, the ministry said. One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry. The bombs detonated in quick succession about 10:30 a.m., officials said. The children were packed in a mini bus that was outside the Justice Ministry building, a ministry official said. The vehicle carrying the explosives that detonated outside the ministry building was a stolen white pick-up from Falluja, Baghdad Gov. Salah Abdul Razzaq told CNN during his inspection of the bomb site. Images from the time of the attack showed the truck, linked to the Department of Water, pull up to the side of the building and blow up, he said. Plumes of smoke billowed from the sites as victims fled, some with blood streaming down their faces. The streets were strewn with debris, including charred cars and chunks of concrete. Some government buildings and others in the area were heavily damaged. Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy said, declining to provide further details. The area struck is close to the heavily guarded \"Green Zone,\" which houses the embassy. The blasts sparked questions about Iraq's security and national elections planned for January. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who visited the scene shortly after the explosions, said holding the elections as scheduled would send a strong message to the attackers. \"The cowardly attack ... should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party, and the terrorist al Qaeda organization,'\" al-Maliki said in a written statement. U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections. Obama spoke with the prime minister and President Jalal Talabani to express his condolences and reiterate U.S. support. In August, more than 100 people were killed in a series of bombings that led to tightened security in Baghdad. Blast walls were installed across the city and checkpoints were added. Two years earlier, three truck bombings killed hundreds in Qahtaniya, in northern Iraq. Sunday's attacks were the deadliest on Iraqi civilians since those blasts in August 2007. A day before Sunday's explosions, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, visited Iraq for the first time. During her trip, she made a condolence stop at the Foreign Ministry, one of six sites attacked in August. Iraqis are supposed to go to the polls January 16, but parliament has not passed key election legislation, putting the balloting in limbo. The president, prime minister and other top officials are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the elections law and security concerns. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Mohammed Jamjoom, and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Death toll in Baghdad double bombing rises to 160 .\nBombs exploded outside government buildings in Baghdad .\nObama condemns bombings, pledges U.S. support for Iraq election ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The son of the late Gambino family crime boss John Gotti is set to stand trial in federal court in New York on Monday on murder and racketeering charges that could put him in prison for life if he is convicted. 'Junior' Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, talks with reporters outside the federal courthouse. Three previous racketeering trials against John \"Junior\" Gotti, 45, have ended in mistrials in New York. The government says it has learned since his previous trial, \"that Gotti had participated in three murders, that Gotti had run a multi-million dollar cocaine trafficking network, that Gotti had overseen a systematic effort to tamper with trial juries, grand juries and witnesses, and that Gotti had participated in various other violent crimes,\" according to court documents filed by prosecutors. The defense claims the newest round of charges is part of the government's ongoing quest to convict Gotti. The current case was moved to New York in December from Florida, where the original indictment was handed up. A superseding indictment was filed in the case on August 3. In the first indictment, Gotti was only charged with violating the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. The superseding indictment formally charged Gotti with the drug-related murders of two men -- allegations mentioned as part of the first indictment -- along with the RICO charge. The RICO law is used to target organized crime groups -- in this case, the Gambino crime family. Gotti's defense attorneys, however, allege in court filings that \"the prosecution has engaged in a 'win at all costs' campaign riddled with misconduct.\" \"The prosecution charges the same conspiracy, albeit with new garnishments,\" said one filing from July. \"After having received frustrating results in three separate trials, the case was hijacked to the Middle District of Florida in a shameful attempt to forum shop or judge shop or both.\" Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, say in court filings that Gotti's allegations he is a victim of a government vendetta are unfounded. Since Gotti's previous trials, prosecutors maintain, they have \"uncovered extensive new evidence of Gotti's criminal conduct in the course of investigating and prosecuting another Gambino family captain.\" The indictment alleges that Gotti was at times an \"associate, soldier, captain and de facto boss\" in the Gambino family, and also served on a \"committee of captains\" formed in the early 1990s to assist in family administration. \"The principal purpose of the GCF (Gambino crime family) Enterprise was to generate money ... for the GCF Enterprise members,\" the indictment says. \"This purpose was implemented,\" the indictment continued, \"through various criminal activities, including criminal acts involving the felonious manufacturing, importing, receiving, concealing, buying, selling and otherwise dealing in narcotics and other dangerous drugs, extortion, armed and unarmed robbery, armed home invasions, illegal gambling, extortionate credit transactions, theft and bribery.\" To further their activities, family members threatened and caused economic injury, the indictment says, as well as threatening and using physical violence \"ranging from simple assault to murder.\" The two murders Gotti is charged with are those of George Grosso, who died in December 1988 in Queens, and Bruce John Gotterup, slain in November 1991 in Queens. The indictment also accuses Gotti in connection with a third murder, that of Louis DiBono in October 1990 in the parking garage of the former World Trade Center, but does not allege that murder was drug-related. Although the murder charges carry a potential death sentence, prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty against Gotti. The trial will be the latest chapter in a long legal saga. In late 2006, a third mistrial was declared in a federal case against Gotti on charges including racketeering and extortion. Prosecutors said they would not retry Gotti, who was accused of ordering attacks on radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa after the Guardian Angels founder criticized Gotti's father on his program. Sliwa was shot three times but recovered and testified against the younger Gotti. At the time of Gotti's arrest in August 2008 on the latest charges, his attorney, Charles Carnesi, told reporters he \"was very disappointed to have to go through all this again.\" Carnesi continued, \"You can imagine the toll it took on him and his family to have to fight three times in the course of a year, to feel that, OK, perhaps it's over ... because the government itself came to the conclusion, no more. It's very disheartening for him to be back here again.\" Gotti's father, John Gotti Sr., was nicknamed the \"Teflon Don\" because prosecutors had trouble making charges against him stick. He died in prison of throat cancer in 2002.","highlights":"Junior Gotti, son of late \"Teflon Don,\" set to go on trial in federal court .\nGotti is accused of racketeering, participating in two drug murders .\nOriginal indictment was filed in Tampa, Florida; case moved to New York .\nGotti's lawyers say case is part of government effort to convict him at any cost ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden assured Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday that the incoming Obama administration will continue to support Pakistan's efforts to strengthen democracy and combat terrorism, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vice President-elect Joe Biden meets Pakistani officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday. Biden told Zardari that the new U.S. administration would also help Pakistan \"meet its socio-economic requirements and capacity building,\" the ministry said in a written statement. The vice president-elect \"assured the Pakistani leadership\" of the United States' \"continued assistance to Pakistan,\" the statement said. No additional details were provided. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, accompanied Biden on the trip. Biden \"described Pakistan as an incredibly valued U.S. ally and said that the U.S. recognized Pakistan's important contribution and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism,\" the ministry said. Zardari, who took office in September, said \"Pakistan needed the support and understanding of the international community in this effort,\" according to the statement. Pakistan's government is waging a bloody battle against Taliban and al Qaeda militants in its tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. The United States has provided Pakistan with billions of dollars in aid for those counterterrorism activities. Last year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill authorizing $7.5 billion in non-military aid over the next five years. The measure is sponsored by committee chairman Biden and the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. It would provide money for developments such as schools, roads and medical clinics, and it conditions security aid on State Department certification that Pakistan is making efforts against the Taliban and al Qaeda. The bill has not come before the full Senate. Biden also said he was hopeful that India and Pakistan could resolve their conflicts, according the ministry. \"The U.S. vice president-elect expressed the hope that both Pakistan and India will be able to overcome the current tensions and would resolve their differences peacefully,\" the ministry's statement said. November's attacks in Mumbai, India, fueled tensions between Pakistan and India, longtime rivals that have fought three wars since independence and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998. India has said Islamic militants trained in Pakistan were behind the three-day siege of India's financial capital. Pakistani officials have promised to cooperate with the investigation but have insisted that India show it the evidence supporting its case. On Wednesday, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the sole surviving suspect in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people, is a Pakistani national, state-run media reported.","highlights":"NEW: Vice President-elect Joe Biden hopes Pakistan, India overcome tensions .\nBiden and Sen. Lindsay Graham meet in Islamabad .\nBiden assures Pakistani president of support against terrorism .\nPakistan is one of main focus points in war to defeat the Taliban ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings didn't work for Eddie Freas, he sought another way to kick his 20-year drug and alcohol addiction. Eddie Freas fights drug addiction by putting all his energy into training for triathlons. He swam 2.4 miles. He biked 112 miles. He ran 26.2 miles. The Pennsville, New Jersey, resident found relief in triathlons. \"I feel better when I'm working out,\" said Freas, 33. \"It does wonders for the mind. The reason I started running -- it was a switch that went off in my head. I started feeling positive and feeling great about myself.\" Freas spent his youth in pursuit of drugs. At the age of 13, he snuck bottles of Amaretto and rum from his mother's liquor cabinet. He also developed a taste for marijuana and cocaine. By his senior year of high school, Freas was kicked off the wrestling and football teams after failing a drug test. Then in 2007, after a three-day binge, \"I came home and was crying,\" Freas said. \"I was so depressed. I turned on the TV.\" The set was tuned to ESPN, which was airing a story about a former drug addict who competed in triathlons. The program's subject was Todd Crandell, who had lost a college hockey scholarship because of a drug addiction. After 13 years of using drugs, Crandell started competing in Ironman races and championed finding positive ways to fight addiction through his program called Racing for Recovery. \"Having an athletic background, I was drawn to getting back in shape,\" Crandell said. \"It makes you turn intellectually and spiritually fit. Exercise is essential. It decreases addiction, depression and you use it as part of the recovery.\" Freas was entranced by the parallels. \"His whole story seemed like mine,\" Freas said. \"That's why it hit me so much. It was my story but it happened to somebody else. I knew I had to get back into fitness.\" He took a bus to Racing for Recovery's office in Sylvania, Ohio. There, Freas said he learned to \"stay clean and use other things -- fitness, instead of drugs.\" On his first day, Freas pushed himself to run 10 miles. \"It killed me,\" Freas said. \"I was just motivated. I was sore for a week and I gradually got into it. As soon as I started including fitness into my everyday lifestyle, it made it so much easier. It kept me busy and because of the physical fitness, it was making me feel better about myself.\" He pushed himself to run farther and raced in his first Ironman competition in 2008. \"It's different when you use drugs, you temporarily feel good and afterwards, you feel like doing more drugs,\" Freas said. \"When you go for a long run and do physical fitness, you feel good doing it.\" Research in animals and humans show that exercise can be a mild antidepressant. \"It isn't a huge surprise when you consider many positive effects exercise can have with regards to the brain chemistry: dopamine, serotonin, endorphin, epinephrine -- these are all associated with mood altering effects,\" said Dr. Cedric Bryant, the chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. \"If they're able to get this natural high, through a natural endeavor such as exercise, it allows them to replace the means to achieve that high with a more positive approach.\" One study showed that women trying to quit smoking were more successful when they exercised. And the National Institute on Drug Abuse held a conference last year to explore the possible role of physical activity in substance abuse prevention. \"The thought centers around the release of mood-altering brain chemical, mainly endorphins,\" Bryant said. \"It gives you euphoria or what you call 'runner's high.' \" Crandell said some people who battle drug addiction \"want something more than sitting in support groups filled with smoke, complaining about drinking.\" \"I've had some of my naysayers from other programs who say you've taken one addiction and replaced it for another,\" Crandell said. \"I've taken addiction and put into a new focus that includes exercise. Exercise for me is essential to my recovery and well-being.\" The purpose of Racing for Recovery is not to turn everyone into an athlete, but to focus on positive pursuits in a person's life. \"Whatever you lost during your addiction, that should be your Ironman, not just running,\" Crandell said. \"If your goal is to become a teacher, let that be your Ironman.\" After Freas spent six months in Ohio, he returned to his hometown. \"I didn't want to come back home, because this was where I did all the dirt, all the partying and stuff,\" Freas said. \"As time went on, I had to come back here. My life is turned around. I got to help people in my hometown.\" Back in New Jersey, Freas helped train Dustin Deckard, 19, a former high school star wrestler, who is recovering from a four-year heroin addiction. Deckard wanted to get clean after a near-fatal overdose. \"I have to be clean the rest of my life,\" Deckard said. \"Sometimes that overwhelms me. I just feel that sometimes it's not fair that other people can go out and have fun and drink and do whatever at a party. But me -- if I do anything -- it's off. I can't stop. I definitely have troubles with that.\" Freas and Deckard have developed a brotherhood. \"I know how he was feeling, being down, not wanting to use drugs,\" Deckard said. \"I just relate to him in every way. We both used. He's also into sports and into wrestling like I was. That's what's cool.\" This Sunday, Freas and Deckard head to Racing for Recovery's half triathlon at Monroe, Michigan where the teen will race for the first time.","highlights":"New Jersey man finds solace in exercise after spending youth on drugs .\nEddie Freas now member of group that advocates physical fitness in place of drugs .\nFreas competes in Ironman and also mentors a New Jersey teenager ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is visiting Iraq to boost what she sees as lagging efforts to deal with the problems of 2 million \"very very vulnerable\" internally displaced people in the wartorn country. Angelina Jolie has been working to focus attention on problem of refugees in Iraq. \"There doesn't seem to be a real coherent plan to help them,\" said Jolie, speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN's Arwa Damon Thursday. \"There's lots of goodwill. Lots of discussion, but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment, and a lot of pieces that need to be put together. I'm trying to figure out what they are.\" A goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie wants to find ways to help the agency be more active inside war-torn Iraq. Watch CNN's exclusive interview with Jolie \u00bb . Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the country has sparked a displacement crisis that is considered the most significant in the Middle East since the 1948 creation of Israel. More than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, around 2 million to neighboring states, mostly Syria and Jordan, and another 2.2 million displaced inside Iraq. The flight was aggravated by the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an attack that stoked pitched sectarian warfare. Many of the internally displaced live precarious lives amid conditions of squalor, crowded into camps and slums that often lack basic necessities, such as proper food, health care and shelter. \"How Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East,\" said Jolie. \"It's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement can lead to a lot of instability and aggression.\" Read transcript of interview . Jolie has been working to help draw attention to the problem and has called for governments to bolster their support of the U.N.H.C.R. In August, Jolie first visited Iraq and Syria to get a sense of the problem. She heard stories from refugees about their plight. Watch as Jolie lunches with troops \u00bb . This visit to Iraq is focusing on the problems of the internally displaced, 58 percent of whom are under age 12. A top issue for the agency is getting better security. Jolie is talking with U.S. officials, including top U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, about that issue, and are willing to provide such security which she said \"needs to be addressed and solved.\" The Iraqi government needs to empower agencies that deal with migration to address the concerns of the displaced -- but that has not happened yet, she said. Jolie said it was crucial that the government prepare a plan to deal with refugees who return home from Syria and Jordan and find that their homes are \"occupied\" by others or \"bombed out.\" She emphasizes the way in which these people are resettled will have \"broad implications\" in the region. Jolie also is talking to people about moving forward the U.S. effort to resettle Iraqi refugees in the United States, which has set a goal of taking in 12,000 of those people by September. Only 375 have been admitted so far. \"I have to believe there are people working toward that goal,\" she said. International agencies, such as the United Nations and the Arab League, and many countries in the region and in Europe are addressing the refugee and the internally displaced persons' crisis, and money is being allocated to Iraq and host countries to help clothe, feed and house people. Most of the refugees are in Syria and Jordan, and they reside in big cities like Damascus and Amman. The U.N.C.H.R. is trying to help governments in Syria and Jordan to cope with the influx, which has stretched the resources of institutions like schools and health systems. It is also attempting to help 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, such as Palestinians and Iranians. Last month, the UNHCR announced a plan to seek $261 million this year for its work to help these refugees. It has almost 350 staffers \"directly engaged in operations for Iraq and the surrounding region.\" Officials in Iraq and the coalition have been heartened by the fact that some refugees are starting to trickle back home. But they are returning to a country where mixed Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods have turned into Sunni or Shiite enclaves and that they might not be able to return to their homes. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Angelina Jolie visits Iraq to boost efforts to help internally displaced refugees .\nActress tells CNN: \"There doesn't seem to be real coherent plan to help them\"\nJolie is goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees .\nMore than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled homes, 2 million to neighboring states ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- The conventional wisdom, among most folks, anyway, is that buying a used car is usually something done out of necessity, by those on a budget -- that is, people who want, or need, to \"move down\" from the new-car market because a new model is simply out of their reach. Bottom line, the Lexus reputation is for high-end luxury, quality and long-term dependability. However, there is another category of used cars that appeal to those with a bit more disposable income: used luxury cars. For some buyers, the used-luxury market is a way of getting into that Lexus, Lincoln, Infiniti or Porsche you always wanted, without laying out $70,000 or $80,000 for something you're not actually going to live in. For others, scouring the used-luxury-car listings is a way of re-visiting the halcyon years of their youth. At this point, some of these used-luxe models have been around so long that they almost qualify as vintage throwback editions. Recently, Consumer Reports magazine issued its list of best and worst used cars, and divvied them up by price range. Using CR's recommendations as a guideline, here is a list of some of the best used luxury cars currently on the market in the $24,000-30,000 price range. 2005 & 2006 Acura MDX . A luxury SUV, the MDX is spacious, seats seven, and boasts distinctive styling and Acura's famed attention to detail. Plus, it packs some punch under the hood -- this generation was powered by 3.5-liter, 253-hp V6 matched to a five-speed automatic transmission. AOL Autos: Used Acura . Priced just right as a new vehicle, it included safety features like dual-stage front airbags, three-point seatbelts and adjustable head restraints for all seating positions. 2007 Acura RDX . A crossover vehicle that mixes sedan-like ride with SUV roominess, the '07 RDX offered unibody construction, leather upholstery, heated front seats, power moonroof, 18-inch alloy wheels with all-season tires, xenon HID headlights with foglamps and the 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine -- plus a five-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters on the steering wheel, and the patented SH-AWD (SH for Super Handling) system. 2006 & 2007 Acura TL . A mid-size, front-wheel-drive, four-door sedan powered by a 258-hp 3.2-liter V6, the Acura TL is a fine road machine. Actually, it was available for '06-'07 as both a TL and a higher-end TL Type S -- the latter of which sported an upgraded engine, a 286-hp 3.5-liter. Depending on trim level, you can find it with a five-speed automatic with a console-mounted lever or shift paddles on the steering wheel. 2007 Audi A3 . Audi designers have always shown a certain flair for dynamics, and that is evident here, in a sharply-engineered, handsomely-appointed vehicle that offers a fine balance between silky ride, nimble handling and zesty performance. This sporty compact was powered by a 200-hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine in '07, and came standard with a six-speed manual and an optional Direct Shift Gearbox. AOL Autos: Used Audi . 2005 & 2006 BMW 3-Series . The 3-Series is another winning stable of cars, but Consumer Reports especially liked specific model years\/versions\/features in the 3-Series family: The 2005 RWD coupe and convertible; the '06 325i RWD sedan; the '06 330i RWD sedan and the '05 Z4. Depending on the model year and version, the standard engine ranged from a 184-hp 2.5-L to a 255-hp 3.0-L. AOL Autos: Used BMW . 2005 & 2006 Infiniti FX35 . Another of the many crossovers that have hit the market the last several years, the FX35 is one of the sportier editions. During these model years, the FX35 2WD came with a 280-hp 3.5-liter V6 and a five-speed automatic transmission. Rear-wheel-drive was standard, but AWD was also an option. Some spiffier features included leather seating surfaces, 18-inch wheels, dual-zone climate control with microfiltration and steering-wheel controls. AOL Autos: Used Infiniti . Infiniti G35 . The G35 is one of the more svelte sports-sedan beauties on the road, offering Infiniti's typical attention to detail and sporting attitude. Yes, it has four doors, but it handles like a sporty coupe, with its power coming from a finely-tuned 3.5-liter V6. Horsepower output is 280 for the automatic and 298 with the manual. Luxo amenities include leather upholstery, automatic climate control, steering wheel audio controls, illuminated visor vanity mirrors and high-intensity discharge (HID) xenon headlamps. Lexus . Any luxury-car aficionado knows that a Lexus is one of the most exquisitely-designed, high-performing chariots on the luxury-car market, and CR saw fit to include more than a half-dozen Lexus models on this list of recommended used luxury cars -- from the '02 SC and LX models, to the '03-'04 GX edition, '03 LS, '04 \/ '06 IS entries, '04-'05 RX model, '05 GS and '06 ES to ... well, you get the picture. Bottom line, given the Lexus reputation for high-end luxury, quality and long-term dependability, it's hard to go wrong with any of the above-named Lexus entries. And all have plenty of engine oomph and luxo-line amenities. AOL Autos: Used Lexus . 2007 Lincoln MKX . This luxury crossover vehicle debuted in '07 as a replacement for the Aviator, and made a big splash. A higher-end and pricier version of the Ford Edge, it seats five and is powered by a 265 hp 3.5-liter V-6 and comes with standard six-speed automatic tranny. Either FWD or AWD is available. One cool option was the glass-paneled roof dubbed the \"Vista Roof.\" 2007 Lincoln MKZ . Also new for the '07 model year, this handsome and fully-loaded mid-size luxury sedan replaced the Zephyr. Under the hood purrs a muscular 263-hp V6 hitched to a six-speed automatic transmission. FWD is standard, but AWD is optional. Standard safety features include side-impact air bags in the front; curtain-style head protection airbags for all outboard positions; plus traction control and antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution. 2007 Lincoln Town Car . A venerated luxury car whose heritage goes way back, the Town Car still \"has game\" -- and is a far cry from the floaty boats your granddad drove in the '70s and '80s. It's still cavernous inside, but now boasts a much more refined design. It seats six comfortably and is powered by a 239-hp 4.6-liter V-8 that's linked to a four-speed automatic. The well-appointed cabin is trimmed in premium leather and burl walnut appliques. Available in Signature, Signature Limited, Designer and Signature L trim levels, you can find one to fit any taste. 1998 Porsche 911 . No, your eyes don't deceive you -- CR did include a primo, high-line vehicle like a Porsche 911 on its list of recommended used cars under $30,000. But, take note: This is the 1998 edition. But when you're dealing with quality of this level, even an 10-year-old vehicle has a lot of juice left in it. So, by \"going vintage,\" driving enthusiasts can get into their car of their dreams without breaking the bank. In '98, the 911 was powered by a 3.6L H-6 282 hp engine. So, while it wasn't quite the road-burner it is today, is still packed plenty of thrust. 2007 Volvo S60 (FWD) Only a year old, the '07 used edition should still be in fine condition, and it boasts top-drawer performance, stylish design and Volvo's all-world safety features. The '07 S60 came in several trim levels, with an array of engine sizes, from the turbocharged 2.5-liter 208 hp job to the 2.3-liter 257-hp inline five-cylinder plant to the 2.5-liter high-pressure turbocharged and intercooled engine that churned out 300 ponies. Depending on the trim line, either a manual or automatic transmission can be had. 2006 & 2007 Volvo XC70 . The XC70 is a crossover vehicle, splitting the difference between an SUV and a wagon. And it's one of the finest crossovers on the road. It's all-wheel drive, and the latest used-model-year, the '07, was powered by a 208-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-five-cylinder engine matched to a Geartronic five-speed automatic transmission that also offers manual gear selection.","highlights":"Some buyers go to used-car market to get the luxury car they always wanted .\nConsumer Reports magazine issues its list of best and worst used cars .\nInfiniti G35 is one of the more svelte sports-sedan beauties on the road .\n1998 Porsche 911 made the list of cars for under $30,000 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Incumbent leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won a third term in office after a landslide victory in Algeria's presidential election, media reports said Friday. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrives to cast his vote at a school in Algiers. Bouteflika's victory came despite calls from his political opponents for voters to boycott the polls. They claim the election was a charade, with the other presidential candidates -- from left-wing parties to Islamists -- standing no real chance. The 72-year-old was elected with over 90 percent of the vote, Reuters.com quoted the official in charge of organizing Thursday's presidential election as saying. \"Bouteflika has won ... 90.24 percent of the votes cast,\" Interior Minister Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni told a news conference. Algerian lawmakers, most of them loyal to the president, cleared the way for him to stand for re-election last year by abolishing constitutional term limits. Critics said that would allow him to serve as president-for-life. Supporters of Bouteflika say he deserves credit for steering the North African country, an oil and gas producer, back to stability after a bloody civil conflict in the 1990s that killed an estimated 150,000 people. But critics say he is using the threat of renewed violence from Islamic militants to mask the country's deepening economic problems. \"I continue to regard the restoration of civil peace as a national priority, as long as hotbeds of tension and pockets of subversion survive,\" Bouteflika, running for a third term, said in his final campaign speech on Monday, Reuters.com reported. He has also promised to spend $150 billion on development projects and create 3 million jobs, his remedy for an economy in which energy accounts for about 96 percent of exports but where other sectors have been choked by red tape and under-investment.","highlights":"Bouteflika, 72, win third term comfortably with 90 percent of vote .\nLawmakers abolished constitutional term limits last year .\nPolitical opponents claim vote was a charade .\nAlgeria is fighting an Islamic insurgency and an ailing economy ."} -{"article":"FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father's very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable. Khidir, now 8, was kidnapped and held hostage for two years by operatives with al Qaeda in Iraq. Khidir was just 6 years old when he was savagely ripped away from his family, kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives in Iraq. \"They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it,\" said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands. \"And they would make me work on the farm gathering carrots.\" What followed was even more horrific, an ordeal that would last for two years in captivity. Khidir and his father spoke to CNN recently, more than half a year after his rescue by Iraqi police. Watch boy describe torture \u00bb . \"This is where they hammered a nail into my leg and then they pulled it out,\" he says, lifting up his pant leg to show a tiny wound. He says his captors also pulled out each of his tiny fingernails, broke both his arms, and beat him repeatedly on the side of the head with a shovel. He still suffers chronic headaches. He remembers them laughing as they inflicted the pain. \"I would think about my mommy and daddy,\" he replies, when asked how he managed to get through the agony. His father, Abdul Qader, struggles for words. \"When he tells me about how they would torture him, I can't tolerate it. I start crying,\" he says. \"What hurts me the most is when they hammered a nail into his leg.\" The father, a police officer, was sleeping at the police station in Falluja when his son was kidnapped. It was too dangerous to go home regularly. Although Falluja was no longer controlled by insurgents, assassinations against police were common. \"I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion ... and then I heard my name on the radio. I ran outside and they came to me saying your house was blown up,\" he says. \"When the police patrol came back, they all started kissing and comforting me,\" he continues. \"I was asking, 'What's going on? Where is my family?' They told me that they took my son. This was a disaster. I went mad that day, I wasn't normal, I was hysterical.\" Khidir's grandmother was at home with the family at the time. \"The kidnappers climbed the fence and kicked in the door,\" she says.\"They were screaming for Abdul Qader. I told them he's not here. They called me a liar and said we want his son. His son was hiding behind me, clutching my clothes. I said this is not his son. They hit me on the back with a rifle and ripped him out of my arms.\" The last thing she remembers were his screams of \"Granny, Granny!\" The attackers rigged the house with explosives and demolished it before taking off with the 6-year-old. The boy's grandmother and seven other family members rushed out of the home before it exploded. \"The kidnappers called me on the phone and demanded that some prisoners that we had be released or they would slit his throat,\" Khidir's father says. \"But I said no to the release. I would not put killers back out on the street that would hurt other Muslims. So I thought to myself, 'Let my son be a martyr.' \" He even held a secret funeral for his little boy. He didn't want to tell the rest of the family that he had refused the kidnappers' ultimatum, allowing them to hope that he was still alive. Last December, nearly two years later, police in Taji, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away, received a tip that terrorists were holding kidnapped children. \"We thought that it was just a tip to ambush us, but we considered the mission as a sacrifice,\" said Iraqi police Capt. Khalib Ali. \"Either we find the children and free them or face the danger and take the risk.\" The tip led the Iraqi police to a rundown farm and a series of mud huts. Khidir's tiny body was twisted abnormally. And in another hut, they found another child. Two children are still believed to be with the kidnappers. Al Qaeda in Iraq has historically kidnapped children for money, to pressure officials, and even to use in terrorist attacks. For Khidir's father, it was as if his son had come back from the dead. \"He didn't recognize his mother or his grandmother,\" Abdul Qader says. \"But then he saw me in uniform and ran to me. I went flying toward him to hug him. People said be careful; both his arms are broken. So I held him from his waist, and he hugged me, kissed me, smelled me, and then broke into a smile.\" The father flips through old family photos -- all they were able to salvage from their destroyed home -- and notes some of the kidnappers are still at large. He still fears for his son's safety, but says he won't quit the police force. \"Never, never,\" he says. \"If I leave the police force, if others leave the force, who will protect us from the terrorists? We are the only ones.\" CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqi boy survives two-year hostage ordeal by al Qaeda in Iraq operatives .\nTerrorists took the boy to blackmail his father, who was a police officer in Iraq .\n\"They pulled my teeth out with pliers,\" the boy tells CNN .\nDad says he won't leave police force despite intimidation, threats ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexicans in the United States sent home 12.2 percent less money this past August than the same month last year, the Banco de Mexico said Wednesday. Mexicans in the U.S. are sending fewer dollars home and are suffering from a tough economy. That translates into remittances of $1.9 billion, versus $2.2 billion last year, said the bank, which blamed tough economic times in the United States for the decline. \"The prolonged deceleration of economic activity in the United States has adversely affected the opportunities for employment in that country and, consequently, those of the Mexican migrants,\" the bank said in a statement posted on its Web site. August's tally quickens a trend -- during the first eight months of the year, remittances fell 4 percent to $15.6 billion, the statement said. The numbers translate easily into stories of hardship. Marilyn Pena lives outside Mexico City and depends on remittances to get by. Her father migrated to Chicago 12 years ago to find work and, in good months, sends his daughter about $200 per week. But last week he sent nothing. \"He told me he has no more work because of the situation there,\" Pena said. \"Temporary workers are always the first to lose their jobs in crises like this one,\" said Luis Pena, an economist. \"Since many Mexicans in the United States are there illegally, they are most vulnerable to unemployment.\" Some economists predict the drop will increase by year's end to 20 percent. After oil exports, remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign currency. In Atlanta, Georgia, which has one of the greatest concentrations of Mexican residents in the southeastern United States, Yasmin Gutierrez runs a company that Mexican immigrants use to send dollars abroad. \"Before, they used to come every week and they used to send big amounts and lately, well, nothing, or almost nothing. Some clients are no longer coming, and those that are coming are sending small amounts.\" Rosina Gonzalez, who ran a Western Union office in Atlanta several years ago and recently returned to the job, said she has noticed a big change. Back then, \"everyone was sending money to Mexico, Mexico, Mexico -- a lot of money,\" she said. \"Now, I'm returning to work after four or five years and the norm now is that the people who used to send money to Mexico are asking the people in Mexico to send money here.\" Some are abandoning their hope for a slice of the American dream by opting to return to their country. The woman running the foreign-currency exchange service Afex, also in Atlanta, said business is so bad she is afraid of losing her job. CNN's Harris Whitbeck in Mexico City and Viviana Fernandez in Atlanta contributed to this story.","highlights":"Bank: Mexicans in U.S. sent 12.2 percent less money back to Mexico than last August .\nSome economists predict the drop will increase by year's end to 20 percent .\nAfter oil exports, remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign currency .\nSome migrant workers are opting to return to Mexico ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Are circus elephants abused? Or are the elephants under the big top healthy and thriving in a caring environment? Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephants pass the U.S. Capitol in a parade this week in Washington. That's the issue a federal judge must decide in a 9-year-old legal dispute pitting four animal rights groups against the nation's most famous circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Closing arguments will be heard Wednesday in the case in which the circus is accused of mistreating its 54 Asian elephants, which are protected under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Under the law, endangered species cannot be \"harmed, harassed, wounded, injured or killed.\" The circus \"is in fact in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act as a result of their routine practices that they use on the elephants,\" according to Tracy Silverman, general counsel for the Animal Welfare Institute. Silverman alleges that the circus uses \"bull hooks\" and electrical prods called \"hot shots\" to train and manage the elephants and that handlers chain the elephants for extended periods of time. These practices violate federal law, Silverman says. But the circus says that no evidence was presented at the six-week trial that such tools as bull hooks and hot shots are used on elephants. \"Ringling Bros.' practices are well known to the federal government who regulates their business,\" says Ringling Bros. attorney Michelle Pardo. The tools the circus uses to handle animals \"are time-tested, approved and commonly used,\" she added. Pardo insists the trial evidence \"showed the elephants are healthy, well cared for and they're thriving in Ringling Bros. care.\" Besides the Animal Welfare Institute, other groups involved in the suit are the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Fund for Animals and Born Free USA, acting with the Animal Protection Institute. While the animal rights groups allege the circus \"severely mistreats and abuses\" elephants, the circus says the animals are not only healthy but \"really do benefit from the enrichment that the circus provides.\" No immediate ruling is expected from the judge.","highlights":"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey accused of mistreating 54 Asian elephants .\nJudge is set to hear closing arguments in nearly decade-old legal dispute .\nAnimal rights groups say circus violating 1973 Endangered Species Act .\nCircus attorney says elephants \"thriving in Ringling Bros. care.\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For the past decade, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has been moving the data from his brain onto computers -- where he knows it will be safe. Gordon Bell wearing a SenseCam, which automatically records photos throughout the day. Sure, you could say all of us do this to some extent. We save digital pictures from family events and keep tons of e-mail. But Bell, who is 75 years old, takes the idea of digital memory to a sci-fi-esque extreme. He carries around video equipment, cameras and audio recorders to capture his conversations, commutes, trips and experiences. Microsoft is working on a SenseCam that would hang around a person's neck and automatically capture every detail of life in photo form. Bell has given that a whirl. He also saves everything -- from restaurant receipts (he takes pictures of them) to correspondence, bills and medical records. He makes PDF files out of every Web page he views. In sum, this mountain of data -- more than 350 gigabytes worth, not including the streaming audio and video -- is a replica of Bell's biological memory. It's actually better, he says, because, if you back up your data in enough places, this digitized \"e-memory\" never forgets. It's like having a multimedia transcript of your life. By about 2020, he says, our entire life histories will be online and searchable. Location-aware smartphones and inexpensive digital memory storage in the \"cloud\" of the Internet make the transition possible and inevitable. No one will have to fret about storing the details of their lives in their heads anymore. We'll have computers for that. And this revolution will \"change what it means to be human,\" he writes. Bell, who, along with fellow researcher Jim Gemmell, is the author of a new book called \"Total Recall,\" talked with CNN about the advantages and drawbacks of recording one's life in painstaking digital detail. The following is an edited transcript. CNN: What have you learned about yourself through this process? That's been a really hard question to answer. ... The main driver of the recall turns out to be a [computer] screensaver or something where I go looking for [a digital memory] and I find something else. I guess it's the rich set of connections and people that I've been involved with. CNN: What do you use to record your memories? In a way, most of what happens during the day is sort of routine -- what you've done before. So I carry the SenseCam only when I think there's an episode or a sequence or a certain set of events that I want to capture and have automatically photographed. But I tend to always carry a camera with me. I live next to a fire station and I've got lots of photos of the hook and ladder coming out of the house. And I like food so I tend to photograph wonderfully presented food all the time. To me those are very pleasant memories. CNN: If we rely on computers instead of our brains, will humans become mentally sluggish? That's certainly one of the concerns. I tend to counter that theory. To me, I feel a lot freer. In a way I feel like I still remember all that stuff, but I generally remember that [the computer is] remembering something for me so I can find it. People have no memory of phone numbers now because of the cell phone -- their address book is in a cell phone. So I don't think they're getting any worse or any less facile about that. What an e-memory does, to me, is gives me a really wonderful free feeling. CNN: If we all record audio of our lives, do you think conversations will become stilted and fake? I think there will be a lot of court cases and lawyering around all of that. I'm personally less hung up about that. Certainly, people my age and Baby Boomers are. But the current X-Generation, [they think] this is pretty natural. CNN: Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Yeah, I'm on Facebook and Twitter and occasionally I will tweet something. Somehow my problem is that I don't think I have anything interesting to tweet about. CNN: Should all of our memories and observations be public? Absolutely not. Our own memories are our own private thing, and how much you choose to have on Facebook or blogs, that's your thing. CNN: What does your family think about your effort to record everything? Gradually, everybody is getting this idea. ... Think of it: You are a librarian for your life. Somebody has to be the family librarian. CNN: Are you worried about losing your memory? ... Forgetting is not a feature, it's a flaw. I don't think forgetting is an important feature of human memory. I think it's important to be able to remember things accurately. CNN: Are there any memories you deleted? No. When we were scanning stuff I had written a memo about a company, an unpleasant company -- probably the only company I was ever ashamed to be a part of. ... I put a note on that file that said, \"Don't ever scan or copy this!\" My assistant who was doing the scanning ran across this and said, \"What do you want me to do with this?\" And I said, \"Well, gee. This is my life.\" I said, \"It's OK, just go ahead.\" So it's all there. CNN: Do you think it's possible for people to turn away from new technologies? Or are advances like \"Total Recall\" inevitable? I think it's inevitable because so much content is being created. Virtually everything is coming in digitally -- everything from your photos to your videos to your music. ... I will love that day when the world is just bits. It's the ultimate in green, by the way.","highlights":"Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell argues we will soon have searchable memories .\nBell details his ideas in a new co-authored book called \"Total Recall\"\nBell has been recording almost every detail of his life digitally for a decade ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In staging their Fourth of July fireworks show, authorities in Ocean City, Maryland, have faced challenges in recent years from Mother Nature. Fireworks light up the sky over Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the city's 2008 Fourth of July festivities. In 2005, thick fog veiled the celebration. Spectators couldn't see the detailed patterns and colors of the fiery blasts -- they only saw the clouds and haze get brighter. Thunderstorms erupted the next two years, delaying the show in 2006 and then forcing its cancellation in 2007. That year, storms brought winds that were just too strong. \"We start taking a hard look at the direction and speed of the wind when it gets to 15 or more knots [about 17 mph],\" said Ocean City Fire Marshal Sam Villani. \"At 20 knots, we consult the shooters ... to see if our perimeter is safe for the crowds. Twenty-knot [23 mph] sustained winds would probably be our cutoff.\" As millions gather across the United States on Saturday to celebrate America's birthday with fireworks displays, fire officials will be watching weather forecasts and preparing to make sure revelers are as safe as possible. They often start by banning spectators from a safety zone, or perimeter, around the launch site to protect them from drifting embers that can get as hot as 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. For that reason, fireworks launches over harbors, rivers and other bodies of water can often be larger in scale. \"For a venue like New York Harbor, it is common for [launch] barges to be located on the water, well away from land,\" said Guy Colonna, division manager with the National Fire Protection Agency. \"Even if the winds increase, it's possible...[for] the safety of the display not to be compromised.\" Fireworks shows originating on land have stricter standards for the size of the perimeter, depending on wind speed, because spectators are generally closer to the explosives, Colonna said. Strong winds can make safety trickier. According to the Boston Globe, hundreds of people at a 2005 Fourth of July fireworks show in Canton, Massachusetts were accidentally showered with glowing embers when winds shifted about 10 minutes after the event began. High winds can even cancel a fireworks celebration. Rain, however, will not necessarily stop a show, said Philip Butler of Fireworks by Grucci, a Long Island, New York-based fireworks production company that has choreographed shows for presidential inaugurations and the Olympics. Fireworks don't extinguish in the rain, and as long as operators \"keep the powder dry,\" they will explode, Butler said. Moisture can cause them to change colors, though. \"A brilliant blue may appear as a royal blue,\" he said. Weather challenges are nothing new for Grucci. In preparing for a large show in Dubai, the production company once faced 105-degree heat and a sandstorm. \"They told us to simply kneel down and cover our heads with our capes and ride it out,\" Butler said. Ideal conditions for fireworks are calm winds, comfortable temperatures and clear night skies, Butler said. \"When the sky is black and clear, it's like a painter's canvas for us.\" Some commonly asked questions about fireworks: . Do fireworks still work when it snows? Yes. For many New Year's Eve celebrations in cold-weather states, it's often snowing during fireworks shows. Fireworks production companies say the snow acts as a prism, reflecting and shifting the colors. What's the biggest danger that spectators face from fireworks? Statistics show the vast majority of fireworks-related injuries are caused by over-the-counter fireworks instead of burning debris from public fireworks celebrations. The risk of fireworks injury is 2\u00bd times higher for children than for the general population, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. The biggest culprit? Sparklers. The National Fire Protection Agency advises against using your own fireworks. \"Leave it to the professionals.\" For a Fourth of July weather forecast for your area, visit CNN.com\/weather.","highlights":"High winds and rainstorms can pose serious challenges to fireworks shows .\nSevere weather affected fireworks three of past four years in Ocean City, Maryland .\nWinds can cancel a fireworks celebration, although light rain often will not .\nOne fireworks company weathered a sandstorm before a show in Dubai ."} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN -- Military officials in Sri Lanka said they shot down a Tamil Tiger aircraft near the Colombo International Airport on Friday, in an air engagement with rebels that killed two people and left about 50 wounded. An injured survivor of a suicide attack in northeast Sri Lanka on February 9 . Sri Lankan officials claimed both planes were shot down by the Sri Lankan Air Force, SLAF, refuting the Tiger's claim they were conducting suicide missions in the country's capital. A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan Military said the body of a Tamil Tiger guerrilla was found by the plane's wreckage after it was shot down near the Colombo International Airport. The other plane, which entered the capital of Colombo, dropped a bomb but crashed into the offices of the Department of Inland Revenue, two blocks away from Air Force Headquarters, a military spokesman said. According to the Sri Lanka's Lankapuvath news agency, the country's air defense was activated at 9:30 p.m.( 11 a.m. ET) Friday after receiving information that two of the rebels light aircrafts were circulating over Colombo. \"Both aircrafts were brought down by air force firing,\" Lankapuvath reported. \"The dead body of the LTTE pilot was also found strewn about.\" The news agency said 50 people were admitted to Colombo General Hospital due to injuries from the crash. Two died from their wounds. According to the pro-Tamil Tiger Web site Tamil.net.com, two Black Air Tiger Pilots -- the group's elite squadron --died after carrying out diving missions into Sri Lanka's air force headquarters in Colombo and an air force base in Katunayaka. CNN could not independently verify the claims made by the rebels or the government. In a report released on Thursday, Human Rights Watch criticized the Sri Lankan government for its \"indiscriminate\" killings of civilian as it attempts to fight the rebel movement. As the rebel stronghold continues to shrink, civilians are trapped in the cross-fire, HRW said. \"Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there,\" James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. HRW also condemned the Tamil Tigers for its treatment of civilians. The organization's 45-page study said 2,000 civilians have been killed and another 5,000 have been wounded. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.","highlights":"NEW: Officials claim air force shot down rebel planes .\nTwo dead, 50 wounded in capital, Colombo .\nBoth sides to blame for rise in civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch says .\nUp to 250,000 civilians trapped in Sri Lanka conflict zone, aid groups say ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- One small slice Monday of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's war on drug cartels: two shootouts on the streets of two cities; a man and a woman ambushed in their car; at least four people dead; three soldiers wounded, one of them gravely. Suspected members of Los Zetas drug cartel are presented to reporters in Mexico City in April. The confrontations between unidentified gunmen and Mexican army and federal police took place in the communities of San Nicolas de los Garza and Escobedo, near the U.S. border in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, the state-run Notimex news agency said. One of the firefights lasted 45 minutes. At one point, the suspects launched hand grenades at the soldiers. House-to-house searches took two hours and it would be another seven hours before the areas were secured. According to Notimex and news reports from the newspapers Excelsior, El Porvenir, El Nuevo Leon and El Norte, here's what happened: . Around 6 a.m., a military convoy came across a group armed men in several late-model vehicles in San Nicolas de los Garza. Shooting broke out, and the gunplay continued for 45 minutes along several neighboring streets as the suspects tried to get away. The armed men abandoned their cars, blocked one of the streets with a Suburban truck and fled aboard several other vehicles. The confrontation continued for another two hours as soldiers sealed off a city block and searched house-to-house. \"From early on, we could hear the shots and much shouting,\" Excelsior and El Nuevo Leon quoted an unidentified woman as saying. \"We could hear footsteps on the roofs and soldiers yelling to them. There were several explosions; it seems like grenades went off, because we could hear it very loudly twice.\" Around 7:45 a.m., the soldiers entered a house where the gunmen had holed up. A grenade went off upstairs. Three gunmen died there, though officials did not say if it was from bullet wounds or the grenade explosion. At the same time, Mexican military and federal police were involved in a shootout with armed men in Escobedo. That confrontation left three soldiers wounded, with one of them clinging to life Monday afternoon. Also nearby, a man and a woman riding in car were ambushed at an intersection by armed men in several cars who surrounded them and drilled their auto with bullets. The woman died on the scene, her body sprawled on the street. The man was wounded but survived. The violent scene in Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, has become a near-daily experience in Mexico since Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched a war on drug cartels. More than 11,000 people have been killed during that time -- about 1,000 of them police and other authorities.","highlights":"Two shootouts in two cities near U.S. border in Mexican state of Nuevo Leon .\nSan Nicolas de los Garza and Escobedo are cities .\nShootouts leave 4 dead, 3 wounded ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection was under way for a second day Tuesday in the trial of a man accused in the rape and beating death of an Arkansas television anchor a year ago. Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, would face the death penalty if convicted of charges including capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft in the October 2008 death of Anne Pressly, 26. He has pleaded not guilty. Pressly, the morning news anchor for Little Rock, Arkansas, television station and CNN affiliate KATV, was found badly beaten and unconscious in her home and died five days later. Vance was linked to the killing through DNA, and police told CNN last year they are \"110 percent\" sure he killed Pressly. Vance has given several statements to police, including one saying he was at her home and another admitting to her slaying. Defense attorney Steve Morley told CNN affiliate WREG that such evidence presents an obstacle for them to overcome, but he said he hopes an emotional closing argument will persuade jurors to spare Vance's life. \"Literally, you can affect an individual, and by affecting that individual you affect the outcome,\" Morley told the station. Pressly's mother, Patti Cannady, told NBC last year her daughter fought for her life -- so much so that her left hand was broken. \"I found my daughter beyond recognition with every bone in her face broken, her nose broken, her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it; I actually thought that her throat has possibly been cut,\" Cannady said. \"Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke.\" DNA evidence has also tied Vance to a rape in April 2008 in Marianna, Arkansas, about 90 miles east of Little Rock, police said in December. Police have said they found no previous link between Vance and Pressly and do not believe her being on television played a role in the slaying. \"I think he saw her someplace, probably followed her home with the intention of robbing her,\" Lt. Terry Hastings, spokesman for Little Rock police, told CNN in December. \"And then went from there.\" Pressly's purse was taken, police have said. Parties in the case are hoping to finish jury selection Tuesday, according to the Pulaski County Circuit Court clerk's office.","highlights":"Man accused in rape, beating death of Anne Pressly, 26, a year ago .\nCurtis Lavelle Vance, 29, has pleaded not guilty, would face death penalty if convicted .\nVance was linked to killing through DNA, has given conflicting statements to police .\nParties in the case hope to finish jury selection Tuesday, county circuit court clerk's office says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He has been at the center of Asia's biggest sex scandal, but now actor Edison Chen has broken his silence on the public episode that has ended careers and caused him to face at least one reported death threat. Internet sex photos of Edison Chen and starlets caused a huge media storm and fall from grace for many. Talking exclusively to CNN on his return to Hong Kong, where he had been forging a career in the movies, Chen reveals his side of the scandal that broke in early last year when hundreds of sexually explicit photos of Chen with other celebrities turned up on the Internet. \"There's been a lot of talk through the past year and a half about this or that and a lot of rumors, a lot of hearsay, and I feel, you know, I've kept quiet just to kind of respect everyone and respect the law,\" Chen told CNN. A Hong Kong computer technician was sentenced to more than eight-and-a-half months in jail for dishonestly obtaining access to the intimate photos when Chen sent his computer in for repairs. But it is still unclear exactly how the images made their way to the web. Watch the full exclusive TV interview with Edison Chen online \u00bb . The photographs caused shock in Hong Kong and across Asia, with around 1,300 salacious images fueling front page news for tabloids for weeks. There was also a huge public backlash against the 28-year-old who has been one of the rising young stars of Asia cinema. After the scandal broke, Chen, who admitted taking the photos, announced his retirement from Hong Kong's entertainment business and fled to his native Canada. Added to the media attention, Chen says he faced death threats. A bullet was sent to a TV station in Hong Kong earlier this year warning the entertainer to stay out of the limelight. While Chen issued his own apology for any hurt or embarrassment caused soon after the photos surfaced, he maintains he suffered as well. \"I believed I was a victim. I believed that I was hurt by this a lot. I believed that...I knew that I had nothing to do with the spreading of these photos,\" he told CNN in the exclusive interview. \"I can't say I didn't do anything wrong. I've admitted that I was wrong, and I wouldn't say sorry if I wasn't wrong. But I also believe that at the same time that I wasn't the perpetrator, and I had suffered a lot from this as well.\" Chen has suffered a spectacular fall from grace and some of the starlets in the photos have endured public disgrace in this culturally conservative region. For some, careers have been left in ruins. Chen says he has not spoken to any of the women identified in the photos since the scandal broke. \"Initially it was because I couldn't find them. Secondly, it was because I didn't really know how to approach and really what to say to be honest with you,\" Chen told CNN. Cecilia Cheung was one of the actresses identified in the photos and in a recent interview, she had strong criticism for Chen. \"I wasn't allowed to talk to her in the initial because of the police request and they were investigating me...I had so much things on my mind,\" said Chen. \"I'm not trying to say that that justifies any wrongdoing that she thinks I've done to her. But I hope that she can understand, and I hope that she can forgive me either today or one day, and she'll understand that I had my difficulties, and I really, really never wished this to happen upon anyone, and I still respect her.\" Watch the full exclusive TV interview with Edison Chen online. \u00bb Chen talks at length to CNN's Anjali Rao about the women involved in the photographs, why he took the images, the effect the scandal had on his health, his family and others.","highlights":"Actor gives exclusive interview with CNN on the sex scandal that rocked Asia .\nChen faced death threats; careers of some girls in explicit photos ruined .\nReturns to Hong Kong to explain his side of scandal and its effects .\nWatch even more from the interview in exclusive online only footage ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama has ordered a review of security screening processes after Friday's botched terror attack on a U.S. airliner, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday. Appearing on the ABC program \"This Week\" and the NBC program \"Meet the Press,\" Gibbs said Obama is receiving regular briefings by his national security staff on the incident in which a suspect allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, making its final approach to Detroit, Michigan. The suspect, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was on a broad watch list of 550,000 names since last month, Gibbs said. That list does not automatically bring tighter screening of individuals, Gibbs said, and Obama has ordered a review of the procedures for determining which people on the list undergo more stringent checking. Obama also called for \"a review to ... figure out why an individual with the chemical explosive he had on him could get on a plane in Amsterdam and fly into the United States,\" Gibbs said on NBC. \"The president is very confident that this government is taking the steps that are necessary to take our fight to those who seek to do us harm,\" Gibbs said on the ABC program. Authorities on Sunday focused their investigation on how a lone traveler smuggled explosives aboard the Northwest Airlines flight and who might have helped him. Abdulmutallab, who had a multiple entry visa to the United States, was charged Saturday in a federal criminal complaint. Q&A: Why did security checks fail to spot explosives . People on the flight described a chaotic scene that began with a popping sound followed by flames erupting at Abdulmutallab's seat. Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch passenger on the flight from Amsterdam, leaped across the aisle to grab the suspect, who according to authorities suffered burns on his legs. Schuringa told CNN he saw that Abdulmutallab was holding a burning object between his legs. \"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away,\" Schuringa said. He said he heard fire extinguishers as he pulled Abdulmutallab out of his seat and dragged him to the front of the plane. In Nigeria, Abdulmutallab checked no baggage on his trip that originated in Lagos on a KLM flight to Amsterdam, where he changed planes to the Northwest flight, according to Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority. The suspect had a shoulder bag and went through the normal check-in process with his passport and U.S. visa scanned, Demuren said Sunday. The multiple-entry U.S. visa was issued in London, England, in June 2008 with an expiration date of June 2010, Demuren said. Abdulmutallab then passed through a walk-through metal detector and put his shoulder bag through an X-ray screening machine, Demuren said. He also said the suspect underwent secondary screening at the boarding gate for the KLM flight, according to officials of the Dutch airline. The father of the suspect recently contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria with concerns his son was planning something, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday. The father -- identified by a family source as Umaru Abdulmutallab -- contacted the embassy \"a few weeks ago\" saying his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had \"become radicalized,\" the senior administration official, who is familiar with the case, told CNN. A family source told CNN that the elder Abdulmutallab -- who recently retired as chairman of First Bank PLC, one of Nigeria's premier banks -- had contacted the embassy in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, and various other security agencies earlier than the timeline provided by the administration official. The family source said Abdulmutallab went to those agencies about three months ago after receiving a text message from his son. The source, who lives at the family home in Kaduna in northern Nigeria, said the son informed his family in the text message that he was leaving school in Dubai to move to Yemen. He implied that he was leaving \"for the course of Islam.\" The family member said Abdulmutallab \"had no family consent or support,\" adding he \"absconded to Yemen.\" Abdulmutallab's information about his son was forwarded to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, and Abdulmutallab was added to a general watch list, a senior administration official said. But the official said \"the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list.\" In addition, the official said there was \"no derogatory information that would have prevented him from getting a visa\" back in June 2008. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation into Abdulmutallab said investigators are still trying to trace his past travels. \"Investigators are looking into any al Qaeda connections and whether he had help and training from Yemen,\" the law enforcement official said. A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device on the plane contained PETN, also known as Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, a highly explosive chemical compound. In addition, FBI agents recovered what appear to be remnants of a syringe near Abdulmutallab's seat, believed to have been part of the device. The family source said Abdulmutallab received a college degree at the University College London, where spokesman Dave Weston said a man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was enrolled in the mechanical engineering department between September 2005 and June 2008. When Abdulmutallab returned to Nigeria from London, he told his family he wanted to get a second college degree in Cairo, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, the family source said. The family refused because they were worried that he may have developed ties to some dubious people. He went to Dubai instead, the source said, where he sent a text message saying he had gone to Yemen to start a new life and that it would be difficult for anyone to reach him because he had thrown away his SIM card. Abdulmutallab's father notified the U.S. Embassy with information on his son, saying the family feared he went to Yemen to participate in \"some kind of jihad.\" A federal security bulletin obtained by CNN said Abdulmutallab claimed the explosive device used Friday \"was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.\" Yemeni authorities have yet to receive official information on the terror attempt, according to a Yemeni official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. But, the source said the country's government will take immediate action once the attempted bombing suspect's alleged link to the country is officially identified. Earlier Saturday, the Netherlands' national coordinator for counterterrorism told CNN that Abdulmutallab had gone through \"normal security procedures\" in Amsterdam before boarding the flight and those were \"well-performed.\" The initial impression is that the suspect was acting alone and did not have any formal connections to organized terrorist groups, a U.S. administration official said. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the attempted act of terrorism would be the focus of an oversight hearing next month. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, also said his Senate Commerce Committee would hold a hearing on the incident. In Nigeria, the government said Saturday that it \"received with dismay the news of attempted terrorist attack on a U.S. airline\" and has ordered its security agencies to investigate the incident. Officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Washington have flown to Michigan \"to gain Consular access\" to Abdulmutallab, the embassy said in a statement Saturday. The embassy said it plans to cooperate with U.S. authorities. An official with the Transportation Security Administration told CNN there will be increased security measures taken on international flights to the United States. The official advised travelers to allow for extra time before the flight. There will be no change in the number of carry-on bags allowed. CNN's Elise Labott, Jeanne Meserve, Carol Cratty, Richard Quest and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama calls for review on how chemicals got on plane .\nSuspect had shoulder bag, went through normal check-in process in Nigeria .\nFarouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had his passport and U.S. visa scanned .\nHis bag went through X-ray screening machine, and he was checked at gate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin vowed on Tuesday to use her executive experience to tackle government reform and energy independence if she and Sen. John McCain win this year's presidential election. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks with CNN's Drew Griffin Tuesday. \"It's going to be government reform because that, that is what I've been able to do as a mayor and as a governor, you, you take on the special interests and the self-dealings. Yep, you ruffle feathers and you have the scars to prove it,\" Palin said Tuesday in an interview with CNN's Drew Griffin. \"You have to take that on to give the American people that faith back in their own government. This is their government and we've got to put it back on their side,\" she said. Palin said she and McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, discussed the possibility of her working on the issue of energy independence if she becomes vice president. Watch Palin talk about potential plans for the vice-presidency \u00bb . \"That's been my forte as the governor of an energy producing state and as a former chair of the, of the energy regulator -- entity up there in Alaska,\" she said. \"[I] look forward to that and that's a matter of national security and, and our economic prosperity opportunities.\" Palin also said helping families with special needs children and cleaning up Wall Street were among the other \"missions\" she and McCain had discussed. Palin emphasized her executive credentials as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and governor of Alaska, contrasting them with what she said was Sen. Barack Obama's lack of leadership experience. \"We don't like to toot our own horn so we don't,\" Palin said. \"But, I have, I do have more experience than Barack Obama does. You know, he had served for his 300 days before he became a presidential candidate and that wasn't in, in executive office.\" Watch Palin say she has more experience than Obama \u00bb . Palin also apologized Tuesday for any misunderstanding caused when she referred last week to the patriotic values of \"the real America\" and \"pro-America areas of this great nation.\" Democrats and others criticized Palin for seeming to imply that some parts of the country are more patriotic than others. Palin denied that was her intention in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. \"I don't want that misunderstood,\" Palin said. \"If that's the way it came across, I apologize.\" The Alaska governor made the remarks at a fundraising event in North Carolina last week. \"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation,\" she told the crowd. On Tuesday, Palin also addressed Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden's comment that Sen. Barack Obama would be tested from the very beginning of his time in office. At a fundraiser Sunday night, Biden said that after taking office, \"it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. ... We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.\" Palin told Griffin that the comment points to the dangers of electing a relatively inexperienced person . \"We need to thank Joe [Biden] for the warning,\" Palin said. Watch Palin say the media gave Biden a pass \u00bb . Biden's point, according to a statement issued later, was that \"we need steady leadership in tumultuous times, not ... the stubborn ideology of John McCain.\" Palin stopped short of labeling Obama a socialist Tuesday, although she and others have previously called his tax policies socialist. \"I'm not going to call him a socialist, but as 'Joe the Plumber' has said, it looks like socialism to him,\" she said of Joe \"the plumber\" Wurzelbacher. The GOP ticket and their supporters have invoked Joe the Plumber numerous times ever since the Ohio man confronted Obama about his tax policy in an impromptu campaign moment. Palin said Wurzelbacher is representative of \"Jane the engineer and Molly the dental hygienist and Chuck the teacher.\" Obama defended his decision to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 a year while cutting taxes for people with lower incomes, telling Wurzelbacher that \"when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.\" Palin said the policy was \"not good for the entrepreneurial spirit that has built this great country,\" the economy or small businesses. Watch the entire interview with Gov. Sarah Palin \u00bb . Obama brushed off McCain and Palin's characterization on Sunday in Fayetteville, North Carolina. \"John McCain thinks that giving these Americans a break is socialism,\" Obama said. \"Well, I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that.\"","highlights":"NEW: If elected, Palin says she will address energy issues, government reform .\nNEW: Palin says she has more executive experience than Sen. Barack Obama .\nPalin says she did not intend to imply that parts of America more patriotic than others .\nPalin made the controversial remarks at a rally in North Carolina last week ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia said a senior al Qaeda operative tied to several attacks in East Africa was killed Monday in a U.S. strike in southern Somalia. Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan, pictured on the FBI's Web site, reportedly was tied to al Qaeda's East Africa operations. Intelligence sources have confirmed to the Somali government that Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan was killed, Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said Tuesday. \"We welcome that attack because those people targeted were murderers, and they are unwanted and unwelcome in Somalia,\" Gelle said. Nabhan's death will have \"a major impact\" on al Qaeda's operations in the Horn of Africa, according to one regional analyst. U.S. special operations forces used a helicopter to fire on a car Monday in southern Somalia, killing several people, including one they believed was Nabhan, U.S. officials told CNN earlier. Nabhan, 30, was born in Kenya and had been tied to attacks that included the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, according to the sources. More than 200 were killed, and 4,000 wounded in those attacks, most of them Kenyans. The United States targeted Nabhan in an airstrike in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border in March 2008, U.S. officials said at the time. In February 2006, the FBI announced that Nabhan was wanted for questioning in connection with the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and the unsuccessful attack on an Israeli charter jet in Mombasa, Kenya. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis -- including two children -- were killed when three suicide bombers detonated a car bomb outside Mombasa's Paradise Hotel in November 2002. The bombing took place within minutes of an unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli charter jet, which was taking off with 261 passengers and 10 crew members. President Obama signed off on Monday's operation, a senior U.S. official said. The United States had been monitoring the situation for days and had intelligence that Nabhan was in the area, the U.S. officials said. The officials who talked to CNN are familiar with the latest information on Monday's strike but did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The U.S. helicopter flew from a U.S. Navy warship offshore, while the ship kept watch on the operation, one of the sources said. The warship was ready to rescue the American troops if they got into trouble. Farmers in the southeastern town of Barawe, Somalia, said they witnessed the assault. They said helicopters attacked a car and its occupants and that at least two people died. The witnesses said some helicopters landed and that some of the injured or dead were pulled into at least one helicopter. A U.S. official said the troops landed to take away the body believed to be that of Nabhan for positive identification. Nabhan is believed to be an associate of al Qaeda member Harun Fazul, who was indicted in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies. The U.S. military has long sought Nabhan because he is believed to be deeply involved in al Qaeda's East African operations, a senior U.S. official said last year. \"He was certainly one of the leading al Qaeda figures in East Africa,\" said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst for the International Crisis Group, an independent advisory and analysis organization. Nabhan \"has been living in the shadows\" in Somalia and not much is known about his recent activity, Abdi said. \"The fact that he is now out of the picture will have a bigger impact on al Qaeda than on Al-Shabaab,\" he said, referring to the Islamist militia in Somalia that has ties to al Qaeda. \"He is a man with an important organizational memory, and if a key figure like him is killed, it always has a major impact.\" Al-Shabaab is waging a bloody battle against Somalia's transitional government and is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations because of its al Qaeda ties. There are growing concerns that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. Journalist Mohammed Amiin Adow and CNN's David McKenzie, Barbara Starr and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Analyst calls operative \"one of the leading al Qaeda figures in East Africa\"\nAl Qaeda operative Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan killed, Somali official says .\nU.S. special operations forces fired on car from chopper in Somalia, U.S. officials say .\nOfficials: Man tied to 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Neither the magic of Harry Potter nor the combined star power of Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler was enough to keep a crew of wise-cracking guinea pigs from scurrying to the top of the box office this weekend. Disney's family comedy \"G-Force\" made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Disney's family comedy \"G-Force,\" produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Will Arnett, and Penelope Cruz as a team of world-saving rodents, made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Despite opening hot on the heels of the one-week old \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,\" the animation\/live action hybrid pic was a hit with young audiences, pulling 55 percent of its viewers from the under-18 crowd. But Potter's box office magic hasn't worn off just yet: The series' sixth installment landed in the number two spot its second weekend with $30 million, bringing its total to $221.8 million. After just 12 days in theaters, 'Half-Blood' is already the fifth biggest hit of the year domestically, not to mention overseas, where the powerhouse has raked in an additional $236 million. There was plenty for adults to enjoy at the box office, too. \"The Ugly Truth,\" a raunchy R-rated rom-com that pits Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler in a battle of the sexes, scored an impressive $27 million bow, a career best for both Heigl and director Robert Luketic (\"Legally Blonde\"). The weekend's other wide release, Warner Bros' creepy \"Orphan\" -- starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga -- pulled in $12.8 million from an audience that was 55 percent female. Lower down on the chart, Fox Searchlight's \"(500) Days of Summer\" (at number 11 with $3 million) is still building momentum. The quirky rom-com posted a hefty $19,176 per-site average and a 95 percent increase over its debut last weekend. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Disney's family comedy brought in an estimated $32.2 million over the weekend .\nThe sixth installment of the \"Potter\" series raked in another $30 million at No. 2 .\n\"The Ugly Truth,\" starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, took in $27 million .\nCheck out the other top earners on this weekend's top 10 list ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It's no secret that \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell often shows no mercy toward aspiring singers. Quirky, tattooed contestant Megan Joy Corkrey discovered that Wednesday night during the elimination round on the popular singing competition. Megan Joy said she and Simon Cowell remain on good terms. Megan Joy, who dropped her last name, told Cowell that she \"didn't really care\" about his criticisms of her Tuesday night performance of Bob Marley's \"Turn The Lights Down Low,\" which he described as \"boring, indulgent and monotonous.\" Those comments sealed the 23-year-old single mother's fate. Host Ryan Seacrest asked Cowell if he would be using the \"save\" rule in Megan's case. Cowell demurred: \"Megan, with the greatest respect, when you said that you don't care -- nor do we. So I'm not going to pretend that we're even going to contemplate saving you,\" replied Cowell. \"I don't care that Simon didn't like that song,\" Joy said in an interview with CNN on Friday. \"I truly didn't and I still don't. I still loved it, I sang it the way I wanted to.\" Watch what CNN's Michelle Wright said about Megan Joy \u00bb . Despite all the bickering, Joy says that she and Cowell remain on good terms. After Wednesday's program, she says they both laughed and he told her that he enjoyed watching her. Watch what CNN's Lisa Respers France thought of performance \u00bb . Furthermore, the self-described \"dork\" says her \"American Idol\" experience has opened new doors to her future. \"Before all this competition, I thought I was just going to be a stay-at-home mom,\" Joy said. \"Now, I am interested to see all sorts of different things I could possibly try and dabble. ... I'm excited to just see what's out there.\" And those bizarre moments onstage Wednesday when she flapped her arms and squawked like a bird? Joy says that's just her personality. \"I do a lot of sound effects all the time, bird noises, animal noises,\" she said. \"Wednesday, I kind of had a feeling it was going to be me ... so I decided that I'm just going to be myself and be silly out there.\"","highlights":"Megan Joy dropped from \"American Idol\" on Wednesday night .\nShe had dismissed judge Simon Cowell's criticism; Cowell dismissed her .\nJoy says \"Idol\" has opened up new worlds for her ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Irish government ordered a recall Saturday of all pork products linked to pigs slaughtered in Ireland, after laboratory tests found the presence of dioxins in animal feed and pork fat samples. Preliminary evidence gathered by Ireland's Food Safety Authority indicated that the contamination likely started in September, the government said in a statement. The Food Safety Authority advised consumers not to consume Irish pork and bacon products for the time being. The government is now trying to determine the scope of the contamination. Dioxins are environmental contaminants, often present in industrial waste. Most dioxin exposure occurs through diet, with more than 95 percent coming from the consumption of animal fats, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dioxin levels in food are regulated. Dr Tony Holohan, Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, said that the dioxin usually impacts the nervous system and liver in comments reported by the UK Press Association. Holohan added that the dioxin would only be perilous through prolonged exposure. The agency reported that an animal feed ingredient supplied by one business to 40-plus farms is regarded as the likely cause of the dioxin by experts, and that tests revealed the dioxin polychlorinated biphenyls to be 80 to 200 times above the acceptable safety level.","highlights":"Food scare in Ireland after dioxins found in animal feed and pork fat samples .\nGovernment evaluating extent of contamination, risk only via prolonged exposure .\nMedia: Government says level of dioxins were 80 to 200 times above acceptable level ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry has identified the suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate the country's assistant interior minister last Thursday and released details of a phone conversation between the two men prior to the attack. A Saudi man reads a newspaper featuring a front-page story on Thursday's attack. The disclosures reported by the country's official news agency were highly unusual. The agency, SPA, reported the attacker, Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri, a wanted Saudi militant who had been hiding in Yemen, got in touch with Saudi authorities telling them he wanted to turn himself in to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the assistant minister of Interior for Security Affairs. After arriving back in Saudi Arabia, Asiri spoke by phone to Mohammed, who agreed to see him during a Ramadan reception at his home in the city of Jeddah. According to a transcript provided by SPA, during the phone call the men exchanged greetings and discussed the importance of the holy month of Ramadan. Mohammed is quoted as telling Asiri that \"one should be careful; evil people would like to exploit all of you. Now only you to fear Allah Almighty and come home.\" Later in the conversation, Asiri asked if a special plane could be dispatched to take him to meet with Mohammed. Asiri, escorted by security, was transported to Jeddah, where he met with the prince at his palace. During the meeting, Asiri explained to Mohammed that other Saudi militants in Yemen also wished to surrender but sought reassurances from the prince. According to SPA, a call was then placed to one of the militants in Yemen. While the prince was on the phone, Asiri blew himself up, SPA reported. Mohammed, who is also the son of the country's Interior Minister, was lightly injured in the attack. Saudi King Abdullah was shown visiting the prince in the hospital after the attack on Saudi TV. The king asked the prince why the militant was allowed to get so close him without being inspected properly and searched thoroughly. Prince Mohammed answered the king by telling him it had been a mistake. SPA adds that \"the concerned security authorities opened an investigation into the incident. However, the criminal laboratory and a forensic report have reached conclusions that, for security considerations, will not be announced at this time.\" Asiri's name was on a list of 85 most wanted suspects released by Saudi Arabia in February. At the time the list was released, Saudi Arabia asked Interpol for its help in apprehending dozens of the wanted Saudis on the list who were suspected of plotting attacks against Saudi Arabia from abroad. The announcement was significant because it is rare for the kingdom to announce that some of its most wanted terrorists are on the loose. It is also unusual for Saudi Arabia to ask for help in finding them. Some of the suspects on the most wanted list had been released from Guantanamo Bay, returned to Saudi Arabia, and had then gone through a Jihadi reeducation program run by the Interior Ministry, before fleeing to Yemen and taking up terrorist activity once more. Saudi Arabia has been battling terrorism since 2003, when al Qaeda launched a series of attacks inside the Kingdom. In the security crackdown that followed, Asiri, like many other wanted Saudi militants, fled to Yemen. Earlier this year, Saudi al Qaeda and Yemeni al Qaeda merged to form \"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.\" Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates out of Yemen, claimed responsibility earlier this week for the attack against Mohammed. In August, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry announced that over the past year, 44 al Qaeda suspects across the country had been arrested. While the Interior Ministry is calling the attempted assassination an \"action of treachery and treason\", SPA reports that the Ministry will not change its \"open-door policy\" of granting amnesty to militants wishing to surrender - in particular, \"those citizens residing outside the country\" who wish to \"take advantage of the state-sponsored program of advice and care.\"","highlights":"Wanted Saudi militant Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri had been hiding in Yemen .\nReportedly got in touch with Saudi authorities saying he wanted to turn himself in .\nAsiri met with Saudi assistant minister of Interior for Security Affairs .\nHe explained other Saudi militants in Yemen also wished to surrender ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australia's National Rugby League apologized on Tuesday for the behavior of its players after ABC's \"Four Corners\" current-affairs program revealed allegations of group sex in 2002 between players and a New Zealand woman. Two other women told the program they were sexually abused by NRL players. Former Cronulla player Matthew Johns said he was unable to say \"sorry enough\" regarding the incident . \"Violence against women is abhorrent, and sexual assault and the degradation of women is just that,\" said David Gallop, the NRL's chief executive. \"So much of what we saw [during Monday night's program] was fundamentally indefensible. And if anyone in the game today is ignoring the importance of that message, then frankly they will need to find another career.\" The allegations of group sex involved NRL personality Matthew Johns, who played for Cronulla at the time of the alleged incident in Christchurch, New Zealand. Watch more on the scandal \u00bb . Johns was suspended indefinitely by the Nine Network on Wednesday. \"The fact is, whatever the arguments about the details of the New Zealand incident involving Cronulla players in 2002, the conduct and its aftermath was simply unacceptable, full stop,\" David Gyngell, Nine's chief executive officer, said in a statement on the network's Web site. \"I fully endorse David Gallop's comments concerning the indefensible conduct of some players and the lack of respect for women -- and the critical focus on all stakeholders to help eradicate it from our game.\" \"I join with him in extending my apologies and sympathy to the young woman involved in the incident, who clearly is still distressed as a consequence,\" Gyngell said. In the ABC report, the then-19-year-old woman said she met Johns and his Cronulla teammate Brett Firman when she was working as a waitress. She said she went back to their hotel room, where she alleges six Cronulla players and staff had sex with her, while a half-dozen others watched. \"They were massive, like big rugby players. I felt that I just had no idea what to do. There was always hands on me,\" she said. \"I thought I was worthless, and I thought I was nothing. I think I was in shock. I didn't scream. They used a lot of mental power over me and belittled me.\" Less than a week after the incident, the woman made a complaint to police and about 40 Cronulla players and staff were questioned, ABC reported. Those involved said the sex was consensual and no charges were filed. The woman told ABC she's speaking out now because she wants the wives and girlfriends of the players to know what they did. \"If I had a gun, I'd shoot them right now,\" she said. \"I hate them. They're disgusting.\" Before the ABC report, Johns addressed the allegations last week on the Nine Network. \"It was an incident that was investigated by police. It caused all parties enormous pain and embarrassment,\" Johns said. \"For me personally, it's put my family through enormous anguish and embarrassment, and has once again. And for that, I just, I can't say sorry enough.\" In his statement, Gallop pointed to NRL initiatives put in place since 2002 to promote positive attitudes toward women, including programs developed with the help of a rape crisis center. \"Rugby League means an enormous amount to millions of people and, in many ways, the football we see today and the strength of the competition is better than it has ever been,\" he said. \"No amount of on-field success, though, can take away from the need to face up to these issues.\"","highlights":"Allegations of group sex involved NRL personality Matthew Johns .\nHe played for Cronulla at the time of alleged incident in Christchurch, New Zealand .\nNine Network suspends Johns; CEO apologizes, extends sympathy to woman .\nWoman tells ABC she's speaking out to let players' wives, girlfriends know ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Building upon the success of the Green Week franchise, CNN International expands its environmental coverage this year with special Earth Day reports on April 22, and plans additional specials in July and October and a series of comprehensive reports around the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December. On Earth Day, Wednesday April 22, CNN International's special coverage, \"Going Green,\" will showcase the network's extensive global resources with an array of reports and live coverage of Earth Day events around the world. From specific signature newscasts to business shows, the network will focus its attention on everything green and help make sense of what it means to be green today. In addition, CNN International will change the network's signature red logo to green during the coverage. \"CNN International is committed to green coverage,\" said Katherine Green, senior vice president of CNN International. \"It is a topic that resonates with our viewers and with our correspondents. We have reporters all over the world. They find stories no else can. This allows us to give our viewers a true global picture of the environmental issues and solutions.\" The network's business programs, 'World Business Today' and 'Quest Means Business', will focus on the business of going green. From the CEO of an up-and-coming green company to a climate change skeptic, these programs will speak to a variety of people to offer viewers many perspectives on green topics. Throughout the day, CNN International will engage their international audiences asking them what they are doing to be green. iReport correspondent, Errol Barnett, will solicit iReports and ask viewers to describe what they have done to \"go green\" in the past year. He'll also share those iReports throughout the day in special segments across CNN International's programs. On Saturday, April 25 at 1300 BST and Sunday, April 26 at 0100 and 1900 BST, a special programme, 'Your Green World', will focus on the current state of green initiatives around the planet. Correspondents from different parts of the world will report on how the current concern over the state of the environment touches the lives of global citizens. The special will explore many stories, including an initiative in Jakarta, Indonesia that promotes the planting of trees before a couple can get married, and a US recycling plant that tackles financial hurdles brought by the country's financial downturn.","highlights":"CNN International to broadcast series of reports on Earth Day, April 22 .\nAdditional specials are planned for July and October .\nCNN plans in-depth reporting around Copenhagen Climate Conference ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In \"Street Kings,\" Keanu Reeves' bad-boy cop Tom Ludlow may not play by the rules, but the film sure does. Keanu Reeves, second from left, and Forest Whitaker are shifty cops in \"Street Kings.\" The movie is textbook Cop Noir. Directed by David Ayer, who wrote \"Training Day\" and directed \"Harsh Times,\" from a script that originated with \"L.A. Confidential\" novelist James Ellroy, it's a story both men have told before and will doubtless return to again. Too bad that story -- the one about the constant struggle with an impure world, betrayal, disillusionment, retribution, all that jazz -- isn't told with much originality this time around. As Ludlow, a detective with a special LAPD vice squad, Reeves shoots first and asks questions much, much later. In his field the bad guys are easy to spot, and if Tom has to get his hands dirty, well, then he'll be careful to wipe away the residue before he calls it in. He works from the gut. We have Ludlow's number from the beginning: He wakes up, vomits, cleans his gun, and knocks back a couple of miniature bottles of vodka. Then he crashes a kidnappers' den and puts down four gangsters before they know what's hit them. \"Don't worry,\" he tells the distraught little girls caged up in the back. \"I'm a cop.\" It's probably superfluous to add that he's still nursing a grievous hangover from the wife who died in flagrante with a person unknown two or three years ago. It's also probably superfluous to mention that Internal Affairs (headed by Hugh Laurie) is beginning to sniff around Ludlow's unit. In particular, IA is talking to his ex-partner Washington (Terry Crews), a revelation that sends Ludlow reaching for his baseball bat. Before he can put Washington straight, though, his old pal is gunned down before his eyes by a couple of punks. Can Ludlow cover up his own potentially incriminating presence at the scene and still track down the cop killers? Hell, yes, even if he has to alienate everyone in the department before he's through. Reeves doesn't do much \"acting\" as such, but he doesn't need to: His performance is clean and spare, in synch with Ayer's clipped economy, and he has a doleful quality that goes some way to redeem a nasty and wretchedly na\u00efve character. Alcoholism doesn't appear to have thrown off Ludlow's aim any, but it must have dulled his reasoning. A broody, intuitive detective should be able to piece together this boilerplate mystery without too much head-scratching, but Ludlow never stops to look even two steps ahead. (I guess he's not a James Ellroy fan.) But what he lacks in insight he makes up for in sheer determination, not to say blood-lust. In a neat touch, when it's time to cool off his public profile for a spell, the rogue cop is transferred to a desk in the complaints department -- surely his idea of purgatory, and, obviously, an utterly pointless occupation. Forest Whitaker boosts the energy level as Ludlow's paternalistic mentor, boss, and No. 1 fan: \"You're the tip of the spear,\" he tells him. \"Who else is going to hold back the animals?\" Violent and cynical and a shade or two overdetermined, \"Street Kings\" ably demonstrates the pitfalls embedded in the pragmatics of \"a necessary evil,\" or anyone who sets himself up as a law unto himself, but ultimately it can't conceive of a better alternative. After all, the rest is politics, a game that even the most hard-boiled anti-hero would never lower himself to enter. And, besides, he's seen it before. \"Street Kings\" is rated R and runs 107 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Street Kings\" has been done better before, says CNN.com's Tom Charity .\nMovie stars Keanu Reeves as rogue cop who finds self in awkward position .\nFilm is adequate, but no surprises for those who've seen \"Training Day\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A newborn infant, who was abducted Tuesday from his home in Tennessee, has been found alive in Alabama, according to authorities. Yair Anthony Carillo is reported to be in good health since being recovered. Yair Anthony Carillo was found Friday night in a home in Ardmore after an intensive three-day search, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Tammy Renee Silas, 39, was taken into custody for allegedly stabbing Maria Gurrolla at her Nashville home and then stealing the baby just four days after he was born. Gurrolla told police a woman posing as an immigration worker attacked her and took Carillo. A break in the case came when investigators were able to track down a Kia Spectra that was photographed in a Wal-Mart parking lot shortly before the attack. Authorities determined that Silas rented the vehicle from the Nashville airport, Gwyn said. My Harrison, of the FBI's Memphis office, praised all of the investigators who worked on the case. \"We reunited a family,\" she said. \"It doesn't always turn out this way.\" There is no word on a possible motive or what charges Silas will face. Carillo, who is reported in good health, will be reunited with his family after a routine medical examination, Harrison said.","highlights":"Yair Anthony Carillo found safe after being abducted days after birth, authorities say .\nChild's mother says woman posing as immigration worker stabbed her, took boy .\nTammy Renee Silas taken into custody; no word on possible motive ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama raised more than $40 million from more than 442,000 donors in March, his presidential campaign announced Thursday. Sen. Barack Obama greets campaign volunteers during a stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wednesday. More than 218,000 of the donors were giving for the first time, the campaign said. The figures are estimates, a campaign spokesman said. \"We're still calculating.\" Sources in Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign said the New York senator raised $20 million in March. Impressive as the $40 million figure is, it is well below the $55 million Obama raised in February. Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, raised about $35 million in February. Political analysts say this kind of fundraising power catches the attention of voters. \"They add to the so-called 'bandwagon effect' -- the sense that Obama is building, that he's going to be the nominee,\" said Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report. With its March totals, the Obama campaign has raised approximately $234 million, which surpasses the Democratic record of $215 million that 2004 nominee Sen. John Kerry raised in that presidential primary season. Obama is $25 million shy of President Bush's presidential primary fundraising record of $259 million, set in his uncontested campaign in 2004. Obama raised $194 million through the end of February. Official fundraising tallies for March are due to the Federal Election Commission by April 20. Clinton raised $156 million through the end of February. The Clinton campaign said Thursday morning it would not release March figures until required to file its FEC report, two days before the critical Pennsylvania primary April 22. But later, campaign sources provided the figures, which show March to be Clinton's second-highest fund-raising month for the campaign. A Clinton spokesman downplayed the importance of Obama's fundraising total. \"We knew that he was going to out-raise us. He has out-raised us for the last several months,\" Howard Wolfson said after Obama's figures were released. \"We will have the resources that we need to compete and be successful in the upcoming primary states.\" Wolfson also said he expected Clinton's tax returns to be released soon. Clinton pledged March 25 she would release her returns within a week. Sen. John McCain, the expected Republican nominee, raised $11 million in February. He has not announced his March total. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Rob Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Clinton raised $20 million in March, campaign sources say .\nClinton camp says her tax returns will be released soon .\nMore than 442,000 donors contribute to Sen. Barack Obama's, campaign says .\nNumber is below record $55 million Obama raised in February ."} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Army investigators on Sunday asked troops and civilians for help in the probe of a deadly mass shooting at Fort Hood last week, saying some who fled the gunfire might have evidence. \"The Fort Hood office of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command is seeking any military or civilian personnel who may have left the scene ... with gunshot damage such as damaged privately owned vehicles, personnel clothing, etc.,\" investigators said in a written statement. \"CID is also seeking any military or civilian personnel who may have inadvertently left the scene of this incident with material that could be used as firearms residue related evidence such as shell casings inside the boot, etc.\" The statement said such objects would help Army investigators and the FBI \"in their bullet trajectory analysis of the scene, to insure the comprehensiveness of the ongoing investigation.\" Thirteen people -- a dozen soldiers and a civilian -- died Thursday in the shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post. Some 42 people were wounded, according to the post's public information office. It was unclear how many of those suffered gunshot wounds. Among the wounded was Pvt. Joseph Foster, 21, who was preparing for his January deployment to Afghanistan when he was hit in the hip during the attack. With his wife and 6-week-old daughter beside him, he told reporters gathered outside his home Sunday that it was difficult to accept such an attack on his own post. \"Not here at home -- but as we've seen, anything is possible,\" Foster said. \"We are at war.\" As of Sunday, 16 gunshot victims remained hospitalized plus the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, spokesman Col. John Rossi told reporters. He did not say where all those hospitalized were being treated. Of the 16, seven were in intensive care, he said. When Staff Sgt. Alvin Howard's wife heard he was hurt at the post, her feelings were \"indescribable,\" she said Sunday. Kaneesha Howard told reporters her husband was set to deploy to Afghanistan in January. In 2003, he was deployed to Iraq, she said. Daughters, Alanna, 9, and Kristen, 7, were shaken by the event. Alanna said of her younger sister: \"She started crying when we went to the hospital because she [had] never seen her dad bandaged up like that.\" Howard was shot in the shoulder and was recovering in the hospital, his family said. They were unsure when he would be released. Rossi said Hasan, a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post, is no longer on a ventilator, but remained in critical but stable condition and in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center. Authorities have not identified a motive in the attack at Fort Hood's military processing center, where soldiers report before they head to war. Efforts to assist those affected by the incident, including family members of soldiers at the post, were ongoing, Rossi said. Fort Hood was awaiting the arrival of two specialists in child psychology and disaster management, he said. \"This is not just for those directly affected by this tragedy,\" Rossi said, noting that effects from trauma sometimes are not immediately apparent. However, he said, soldiers are trained to respond to violence by controlling and securing the scene. \"Their training kicks in, and that's what we saw,\" Rossi said. \"The troubling part of it is it happened here in our own house.\" Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said Saturday that all evidence indicates that the suspect acted alone and there was no indication of \"friendly fire.\" The processing center has been moved to another location so its work can continue while investigators work at the crime scene, Rossi said Sunday. He told reporters he did not know Hasan's schedule on the day of the shooting, but \"my understanding is that there was no purpose for him\" to be in the processing center. The remains of those killed are currently at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, undergoing the same process as the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. \"These heroes are being treated the same way,\" Rossi said. Rossi said he had visited with Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley -- the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan in a shootout -- and with an injured soldier. \"Truthfully, it was an honor just to be in their presence,\" he said. But, he said, \"I cannot tell you how many times they reiterated to me that this is not about them.\" Munley has drawn national praise for her actions. Her husband has been brought in from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be with her, Rossi said. In a statement Saturday, Munley's family said she had undergone a second surgery and was in good condition. The suspect's brother, Eyad Hasan, released a statement Saturday saying the family was in a \"state of shock and disbelief over this dreadful news.\" He wrote, \"I've known my brother Nidal to be a peaceful, loving and compassionate person who has shown great interest in the medical field and in helping others. He has never committed an act of violence and was always known to be a good, law-abiding citizen.\" Eyad Hasan said the family has faith in the legal system. An earlier statement from another family member said Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, had been telling his family that he wanted to get out of the military but had been unsuccessful in doing so. Rossi said Saturday that Hasan had a late November deployment date to Afghanistan. It was to have been his first overseas deployment. The shooting, on the nation's largest military base, sparked outrage. In his Saturday radio address, President Obama said it was \"an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred any place in America.\" But, he said, \"it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.\" Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend a Tuesday memorial service for the victims.","highlights":"NEW: Soldier wounded in Fort Hood attack: It's difficult to believe this could happen .\nObama: Massacre and response showed worst and best of human nature .\nThirteen dead, 42 wounded, according to the Fort Hood's public information office .\nSuspect and 17 others still hospitalized, spokesman says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of child abuse reports in Jamaica increased dramatically in 2008, the nation's Office of Children's Registry reported Saturday. The office received 3,784 child abuse reports last year, up from only 425 complaints in 2007, a significant increase for a nation with a population of about 2.8 million. OCR Registrar Carla Edie told the Jamaican government news service, JIS, that the people of Jamaica have become \"increasingly mindful of their legal responsibility to report such incidents,\" and are increasingly concerned about child safety, given a recent trend of violence against minors in the country. According to JIS, a police report issued late last year said that, between January 1, 2008 and November 1, 2008, 73 children were murdered and 383 cases of carnal abuse were reported. Flogging and other forms of physical abuse are a part of Jamaican culture, Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne told JIS in an interview. \"There are many parents who even threaten to 'murder' their children, even some as young as two years old,\" Lightbourne said. Regarding official child abuse reports, Edie also said that the large increase can be attributed to growing awareness that the Office of Children's Registry is the department responsible for tracking and acting on such information, and not other government and police agencies that handled those reports in the past. In addition, \"if someone has information of suspected child abuse and fails to make a report to the Registry, that person can be charged a maximum fee of $500,000 or-and six months imprisonment,\" Edie told JIS. In response to increased demand, the OCR will increase its operating hours and staff.","highlights":"Child abuse reports in Jamaica have risen dramatically in past year, officials say .\nJustice Minister: Flogging, other forms of physical abuse are part of Jamaican culture .\nIn 2008, 73 children were killed in 10-month span, according to police report ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ed McMahon, the longtime pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick whose \"Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!\" became a part of the vernacular, has died. Ed McMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years. McMahon passed away peacefully shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan\/UCLA Medical Center, his publicist, Howard Bragman, said Tuesday . McMahon, 86, was hospitalized in February with pneumonia and other medical problems. He had suffered a number of health problems in recent years, including a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. In 2002, he sued various insurance companies and contractors over mold in his house and later collected a $7 million settlement. Though he later hosted a variety of shows -- including \"Star Search\" and \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes,\" McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Carson on \"The Tonight Show,\" which Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. The two met not long after Carson began hosting the game show \"Who Do You Trust?\" in 1957. iReport.com: Share your memories of Ed McMahon . \"Johnny didn't look as if he was dying to see me,\" McMahon, who was hosting a show on a Philadelphia TV station, told People magazine in 1980 about the pair's first meeting. \"He was standing with his back to the door, staring at a couple of workmen putting letters on a theater marquee. I walked over and stood beside him. Finally the two guys finished, and Johnny asked, 'What have you been doing?' I told him. He said, 'Good to meet you, Ed,' shook my hand, and I was out of the office. The whole meeting was about as exciting as watching a traffic light change.\" Watch McMahon discuss meeting Johnny Carson \u00bb . Though McMahon was surprised to be offered the job as Carson's sidekick, the two soon proved to have a strong chemistry. Carson was, by nature, introverted and dry-witted; McMahon was the boisterous and outgoing second banana, content to give Carson straight lines or laugh uproariously at his jokes (a characteristic much-parodied by comedians). Watch Comedian Joan Rivers recall McMahon \u00bb . Carson made cracks about McMahon's weight, his drinking and the men's trouble with divorce. McMahon was married three times; Carson, who died in 2005, had four wives. McMahon was also the show's designated pitchman, a talent he honed to perfection during \"Tonight's\" 30-year run with Carson, even if sometimes the in-show commercial spots fell flat. For one of the show's regular sponsors, Alpo dog food, McMahon usually extolled the virtues of the product while a dog eagerly gobbled down a bowl. But one day the show's regular dog wasn't available, and the substitute pooch wasn't very hungry. McMahon recalled the incident in his 1998 memoir, \"For Laughing Out Loud.\" \"Then I saw Johnny come into my little commercial area. He got down on his hands and knees and came over to me. ... I started to pet Johnny. Nice boss, I was thinking as I pet him on the head, nice boss. By this point the audience was hysterical. ... I just kept going. I was going to get my commercial done. \" 'The next time you're looking at the canned dog food ...' -- he rubbed his cheek against my leg -- ... reach for the can that contains real beef.' Johnny got up on his knees and started begging for more. I started petting him again ... and then he licked my hand.\" McMahon also promoted Budweiser, American Family Insurance and -- during the most recent Super Bowl -- Cash4Gold.com. Entertainment Weekly named him No. 1 on its list of TV's greatest sidekicks. Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 6, 1923. His father was a promoter, and McMahon remembered moving a lot during his childhood. \"I changed towns more often than a pickpocket,\" McMahon told People. He later joined the Marines and served in World War II and Korea. Though McMahon was well-rewarded by NBC -- the 1980 People article listed his salary between $600,000 and $1 million -- his divorces and some poor investments took their toll. In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, told CNN's Larry King that McMahon had gotten caught in a spate of financial problems. \"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that,\" said McMahon, who added that he hadn't worked much since the neck injury. McMahon later struck a deal that allowed him to stay in the house. He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and five children. A sixth child, McMahon's son Michael, died in 1995.","highlights":"McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Johnny Carson on \"The Tonight Show\"\nMcMahon hosted \"Star Search\" and \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\"\nMcMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Franklin Graham has arrived in North Korea bearing a gift for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday. The Rev. Franklin Graham reportedly will oversee the delivery of $190,000 in equipment for a dental school. Graham handed the present, which was not identified, to a high-ranking official Wednesday to give to Kim, the Korean Central News Agency reported. Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the president of Samaritan's Purse, arrived Tuesday in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, KCNA said. On its Web site, Samaritan's Purse said Franklin Graham was to meet with high-level government officials and to inspect medical facilities that the organization has installed. \"I believe it is important to make visits like this to help improve relations and to have a better understanding with each other,\" Graham said, according to the Samaritan's Purse Web site. The group said Graham will visit a hospital and also will oversee the delivery of $190,000 in equipment to outfit a dental school that can train up to 70 dentists per year. KCNA reported that Graham said he hoped he could act as a bridge for better relations between the United States and North Korea. The visit marks Graham's third trip to North Korea. His father visited the country in 1992 and 1994 and met with President Kim Il Sung, Samaritan's Purse said. His mother, the late Ruth Bell Graham, attended a mission school in Pyongyang in 1934, the organization said. Later this week, Graham is scheduled to travel to China, where he'll dedicate a clinic that Samaritan's Purse built, visit a city destroyed by last year's earthquake and speak at churches, the organization said.","highlights":"The Rev. Franklin Graham makes third trip to North Korea .\nGraham aims for better ties between North Korea and U.S., news agency says .\nSon of evangelist Billy Graham to meet with top officials, visit medical facilities .\nFranklin Graham also set to travel to China ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Prince Harry led tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales on the 10th anniversary of her death, describing her as \"the best mother in the world\" in a speech at a memorial service. Here is his speech in full: . William and I can separate life into two parts. There were those years when we were blessed with the physical presence beside us of both our mother and father. Princes Harry and William greet guests at a thanksgiving service in memory of their mother. And then there are the 10 years since our mother's death. When she was alive, we completely took for granted her unrivaled love of life, laughter, fun and folly. She was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. She will always be remembered for her amazing public work. But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world. We would say that, wouldn't we. But we miss her. She kissed us last thing at night. Her beaming smile greeted us from school. She laughed hysterically and uncontrollably when sharing something silly she might have said or done that day. She encouraged us when we were nervous or unsure. She -- like our father -- was determined to provide us with a stable and secure childhood. To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age, as others have experienced, is indescribably shocking and sad. It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night. But what is far more important to us now, and into the future, is that we remember our mother as she would have wished to be remembered as she was: fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine. We both think of her every day. We speak about her and laugh together at all the memories. Put simply, she made us, and so many other people, happy. May this be the way that she is remembered. Prince William's reading from St Paul's letter to the Ephesians: . I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Thanks be to God. The Bishop of London's speech: . \"Who's cheating?\" The scene is an old people's home. Two residents are playing Beggar My Neighbor. Enter the Princess. The question from the royal visitor is unexpected but everyone laughs. Afterwards they comment on her large eyes and what life she brought into the room. One tiny incident, characteristic of countless other occasions in the Princess's public life in which she found the right word or the right gesture to bring cheer and comfort. Everyone here will have their own memories. I remember meeting Princess Diana for the very first time early in 1981 to discuss details of the wedding service in St Paul's. Even Archbishop's Chaplains have their share of proper diffidence and I was nervous entering the presence. It must have been a bewildering time for the Princess as well, but even then, at the age of 20, her capacity for empathy and her very strong intuitive power ensured that any tension soon evaporated. Prince Harry has spoken movingly and justly, as few others have the right to do, about the Princess as a mother. I want to dwell for a moment on her public work, its cost and its meaning. After her marriage, the Princess joined her natural gifts of beauty, empathy and powerful intuition with that extraordinary charge which association with the Royal Family generates. Led by our Queen and other members of the Royal Family, our constitution has developed in response to the challenges of the past century. There is a properly political sphere in which the monarch may counsel but doesn't intrude, but there is another sphere, vital to any sense of national unity and creativity, a sphere in which communities must be celebrated, common values articulated and the transcendent source of those values honored. We tend to be suspicious of public figures who wrap themselves in divinity and claim that their will is God's will, but if no-one can articulate in an un-ignorable way in the public realm the creative energy of the love that we see in Christ, the human face of God, then we shall find ourselves inhabiting a maimed and diminished society. And at a time when people are suspicious of rhetoric, the monarchy communicates by symbol and by simple speech, and the Princess brought her own gifts to this work. She was still only 26 in 1987 when she shook the hand of a patient at the opening of the Middlesex Hospital's Aids ward. It was the first in the UK and it is very hard now to credit the degree of fear and prejudice which surrounded Aids in the '80s. Those familiar with the field have no doubt that the Princess played a significant part in overcoming a harmful and even a cruel taboo in a gesture which was not choreographed but sprung from a deep identification with those who were vulnerable and on the margin. And she had a similar impact in the USA. An editorial in the New York Times in 1989 admitted ruefully that it had taken a foreign, and even a royal, dignitary to draw attention to a major public health concern in the US. Her work in the very last year of her life for the victims of landmines also caught the popular imagination internationally and certainly accelerated the adoption of the Ottawa Convention, banning the use of a weapon which disproportionately kills and maims women and children. She proved the eloquence of embrace and of touch which, of course, have been used by royal healers throughout the centuries. And as she said, in her words, \"the biggest disease today is not leprosy or TB but the feeling of being unwanted\". She sought out places of suffering, because they are so very often places of truth where the masks have been removed, and she was not afraid to be with the dying and to comfort them in an unsentimental way. Bill Deedes accompanied her on some of her visits. His response to the cynics was typically robust. He said: \"She was one who sought above all to help vulnerable people in society and who did it so well. She was good at this because she herself was vulnerable. She knew the feeling. She didn't set out to be a saint.\" The role brought great power but, like any member of the Royal Family, she also experienced the weight of expectation and the intensity of the scrutiny. Honoring but managing the role and not allowing it to take over one's personal humanity is a desperately difficult task. As we have heard from Prince Harry, his mother Diana did all that she could to prepare her sons for the work which lies ahead. She confessed to receiving a very great deal from some of those whose lives she touched. She said of John, a young Greek suffering from cystic fibrosis: \"He showed no sign of anger, no trace of bitterness but touched us all with an aura of optimism and hope for the future such that I have never before encountered.\" The love of Christ described in the lesson read by Prince William contains the essence of the spiritual life. Princess Diana recognized this quality of life in many of those, like John, whose lives she touched. It was a mystery which resonated deeply with her and for which she reached out. And the mystery is this - the more you go beyond yourself, the more you will become your true self; the more you lose yourself in loving and serving others, the more you will find yourself; the more you keep company with those who suffer, the more you will be healed. This is the knowledge which passes all understanding. This is certain and has been proved experimentally in the life of all the saints. It's easy to lose the real person in the image, to insist that all is darkness or all is light. Still, 10 years after her tragic death, there are regular reports of \"fury\" at this or that incident, and the Princess's memory is used for scoring points. Let it end here. Let this service mark the point at which we let her rest in peace and dwell on her memory with thanksgiving and compassion. Let us also, echoing the words of Prince Harry, look to the future and pray, in the words of St Paul, for all those who serve our country as members of the Royal Family and most especially for the sons who were so precious to her: . \"I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power with all the saints to grasp what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ and to know this love which surpasses knowledge that you might be filled with the fullness of God.\" Amen. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Prince Harry describes Princess Diana as \"the best mother in the world\"\nHe asks for her to be remembered as \"fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine\"\nBishop of London praises her humanitarian work .\nHe says that disputes about her death should \"end here\""} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Radio host Don Imus has prostate cancer. Radio shock jock Don Imus has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The shock jock made the announcement on his radio show Monday morning. Imus learned of the Stage 2 prostate cancer diagnosis last Wednesday, said Laurie Cantillo, program director for WABC-AM of New York. A bone scan indicated that the cancer has not spread, she said, and doctors believe it is fully treatable. Stage 2 prostate cancer means the cancer can be felt on exam but has not spread beyond the prostate gland. Imus, 68, said he's been on an organic diet for the past 10 years, avoiding meat and fish and eating mostly fruits and vegetables. \"It wasn't great, but I was surprised,\" Imus said after learning the results of a biopsy that was performed last Monday. He added that he plans to go to San Francisco, California, for a second opinion. Imus said he's spoken with Sen. John Kerry and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani about his diagnosis. Kerry and Giuliani are both prostate cancer survivors. Imus exuded confidence while discussing his situation. \"They are predicting they can treat it. They can cure it.\" Imus returned to the radio in December of 2007, months after his inflammatory remarks caused the cancellation of his morning radio show on the CBS radio network. His four-hour program is syndicated nationally by the Citadel Broadcasting Corp. Known for decades for his outspoken comments and off-color humor, Imus sparked a public outcry with his comments in April 2007 about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. The controversy eventually led to the cancellation of his show by CBS Radio. He called the Scarlet Knights \"tough girls\" and \"nappy-headed 'hos\" during a national broadcast a day after the team lost the NCAA championship to the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers. He later apologized.","highlights":"NEW: Imus says he was \"surprised\" by biopsy results, will seek a second opinion .\nRadio shock jock announces the diagnosis on his show Monday morning .\nBone scan indicates the cancer has not spread, his program director says .\nDoctors believe it is fully treatable, she says ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A 24-year-old gang member was arrested Thursday in connection with a shooting at a Los Angeles bus stop in which eight people were wounded, city officials said. Bystanders express shock after a shooting at a bus stop in Los Angeles Wednesday. Billy Ray Hines is believed to have fired into a crowd of people at the bus stop. Hines was apprehended Thursday afternoon as he was walking down the street, about a half-mile from the scene of the shooting, Police Chief William Bratton told reporters. Hines will face 10 counts of attempted murder -- one for each of the eight victims, and two more for what authorities believe to be his two intended victims, who were still being sought Thursday, Bratton said. Authorities are also seeking the gun used in the incident, he said. The shootings took place Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of Central and Vernon avenues, in an area where police are concerned about gang violence. Five of the victims were children. An 11-year-old girl was shot in the chest, and another girl, age 11, was shot in the right arm. Three boys were wounded -- ages 10, 12 and 14. One was shot in the leg, one in the buttocks and the third in the ankle, police said. One man was wounded in the leg and another in the ankle, and a woman was shot in the face. \"While no one died yesterday, the bullets unleashed shot through the core of the entire community,\" Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in announcing the arrest Thursday. \"The decent people of this community responded with force.\" Watch mayor, authorities discuss arrest of gunman \u00bb . Witnesses came forward after the incident to identify the gunman as Hines, Bratton said. The shooting was believed to stem from a dispute between the gunman and the two intended victims, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Billy Ray Hines is believed to have fired into a crowd, police say .\nEight people, including five children, were shot, authorities say .\nShooting happened Wednesday near a middle school, but not on school grounds .\nHines will face 10 counts of attempted murder, police say ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Twenty-six year old Brazilian footballer Kaka is at the subject of negotiations about a salary that could see him earn nearly 95 times more than what Barack Obama will be paid when he enters the White House. Pay rise: Kaka could soon be earning $726,000 per week . Reports circulated Wednesday that the AC Milan midfielder is being offered a \u00a3500,000 ($726,000) per WEEK salary by English Premier League club Manchester City. A statement on Italy's Mediaset Web site appeared to suggest he will turn down the offer, however Manchester City officials insist the talks are ongoing. Even if he declines the move, the offer is far beyond the pay for many other high-profile jobs. For example, the U.S. President receives about $7690 per week, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown receives around $5233. What do you think of these salaries? Should footballers be paid more than world leaders? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. A comparison of a variety of salaries shows just how highly footballers, and professional sportsmen and women are paid in relation to other jobs. Even current football salaries dwarf the pay for most executive positions and public offices. WEEKLY INCOME (approximate) U.S. President: $7690 . British PM Gordon Brown: $5233 . Band 5 nurse in Britain: $567 . Director-General of BBC: $22,800 . Average U.S. teacher: $915 . Cristiano Ronaldo: $177,345 . Lewis Hamilton: $391,593 . Kaka's reported offer: $726,881 . If Kaka's deal does proceed, he will earn more than triple the Premier League's current highest-paid player, Robinho. The Brazilian, also with Manchester City, earns approximately $232,580 per week. Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, a man believed to be worth about $22 billion -- so funding the salary shouldn't be a problem. Kaka's current salary at AC Milan was believed to be about $208,000 per week.","highlights":"European media reports suggest Kaka is being offered a $726,000 weekly pay .\nThe U.S. President earns about $7690 per week (plus other benefits)\nWorld Footballer of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo is paid $177,000 a week ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Millions of people around the world have taken part in ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement. Scouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society. Dawn celebrations involving 28 million young people took place across the globe, from Ecuador to Bhutan. In southern England, 40,000 young people from around the globe gathered to take part in the largest ever 12-day world Scout Jamboree. The island where the movement was born, Brownsea Island off the coast of England, has been the focus of celebrations, with 300 scouts from more than 160 countries attending a commemorative camp. It was on that site that Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp for 20 boys, following his experiences in the Army during the Boer War. The movement requests its members, boys and girls from the age of six, to uphold values such as trustworthiness, loyalty and to \"do their best\". Scouts from countries including the UK, Lebanon, Nepal, Rwanda, Serbia, Libya and Argentina, displayed their flags on the island, before taking part in a sunrise ceremony. In Romania, scouts formed a human chain around the Parliament building in the capital Bucharest to express how young people will play a role in the country's future. In Namibia, Africa, around 1,000 scouts cooked breakfast over a camp fire, and groups from Malawi camped at the top of Mulanje mountain. The Taj Mahal in India, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Sydney Opera House in Australia also witnessed sunrise ceremonies. The small gathering at Brownsea Island led the rest of the globe in renewing their Scouting promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society. A speech written by Baden-Powell during the first scout camp was also read out to the group. It includes a call for peace, comradeship and cooperation over rivalry between \"classes, creeds and countries which have done so much in the past to produce wars and unrest\". Alistair, 16, from Manchester, at the Brownsea Island ceremony, said: \"It has made me think how one man has changed the world. \"It is one world, one promise. We are all here as peace ambassadors. We are the next generation. We are the ones bringing peace forward into the world,\" he told the Press Association. Ana Mejia, 14, from Honduras, added: \"It doesn't matter what our nationality, our religion, our color, we are a family and we have to support each other. Baden-Powell's book \"Scouting for Boys\" is the fourth biggest selling book in the world after the Bible, the Koran and Mao's Little Red Book. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At least 28 million scouts across the world took part in sunrise ceremonies .\nScouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society .\nStarted by Robert Baden-Powell it upholds values such as trust and loyalty ."} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A strong Russia is good for the United States, President Obama said in a speech in Moscow, where he is visiting in an effort to \"reset\" the countries' relations. President Obama meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday before heading to the G-8 in Italy. Obama delivered a commencement speech Tuesday at a Moscow graduate school. \"America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia,\" he told a large crowd at the New Economic School. \"This belief is rooted in our respect for the Russian people, and a shared history between our nations that goes beyond competition.\" He repeated the message in a meeting later with Russian business leaders, but also said Russia has to do more to fight corruption. \"We have to promote transparency, accountability, rule of law on which investments and economic growth depend,\" he said. Watch Obama discuss thoughts on Kremlin visit \u00bb . \"We want Russia to be selling us goods and we want Russia to be buying goods from us,\" he said. \"Total trade between our countries is just $36 billion. Our trade -- America's trade with Russia -- is only about 1 percent of all our trade with the world -- 1 percent -- a percent that's virtually unchanged since the Cold War.\" Watch Obama's full opening statement \u00bb . Obama later met Russian opposition leaders, speaking of the importance for the country to \"not simply tolerate dissenting voices but also to respect and recognize dissenting voices.\" Obama also spoke to civil society leaders, promising the United States will support universal values and human rights such as the rights of people to live as they choose, to have a free press and to speak their minds. On Monday Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and discussed a series of agreements -- including one on nuclear-arms reduction -- as part of an effort to strengthen ties between the one-time Cold War rivals. The two signed a deal on parameters for negotiations to replace the START agreement, with the goal of reducing nuclear weapons. START expires December 5. Watch Obama discuss arms control pact \u00bb . Under Monday's agreement, Russia and the United States will reduce their strategic warheads to a range of 1,500 to 1,675, and their strategic delivery vehicles to a range of 500 to 1,100. The numbers would be a reduction from the expiring START, which allowed 2,200 warheads and 1,600 launch vehicles. The two-day summit in Moscow was to help refocus a relationship that, according to Obama, \"has suffered from a sense of drift\" in recent years. The president reiterated that in his speech Tuesday. \"That is why I have called for a 'reset' in relations between the United States and Russia,\" Obama said. \"This must be more than a fresh start between the Kremlin and the White House, though that is important,\" he said. \"It must be a sustained effort among the American and Russian people to identify mutual interests and to expand dialogue and cooperation that can pave the way to progress.\" Obama met with Medvedev again Tuesday and with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin before heading to Italy for the Group of Eight summit. The G-8 agenda is packed with issues, including Iran, the global financial crisis, climate change and eradicating world poverty. Putin said his meeting with Obama was \"very good and substantive.\" \"We also talked about how we will be improving our relations in the near- and medium-term. It was a very well-intentioned and substantial conversation in many concrete fields. We have many points we agree on,\" Russia's prime minister said. After his speech, Obama sat down with Ed Henry, CNN senior White House correspondent, for a brief interview. The president spoke about a wide range of issues, including how much his daughters were enjoying Moscow, his impressions of Putin, relations with Iran and Michael Jackson. On Iran, Obama reiterated recent statements about the post-election protests there. \"Events in recent weeks have disturbed the world. They are not only heartbreaking, but raise questions over where leaders want to take the country,\" Obama said. \"We have to wait and see how the dust settles. But we have to speak out and say that the Iranian people have to be treated with justice.\" The president also spoke about the legacy of Michael Jackson, on the day of the pop star's public memorial program. \"No doubt he was one of greatest entertainers of our or any generation. Like Elvis, Sinatra, the Beatles, he became core part of our culture,\" Obama said. \"His extraordinary talent and music was mixed with big dose of tragedy in private life. It is important for us to affirm the best of him.\" CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: PM Putin: Much agreement in \"well-intentioned, substantial\" talks .\nObama cites respect for Russian people, shared history that transcends competition .\nObama is in Moscow for two-day summit with President Medvedev, Putin .\nObama, Medvedev sign \"joint understanding\" on cutting nuclear arsenals ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A silent, invisible battle is being fought against roadside bombs in Iraq. Though the military doesn't like to advertise their use, electronic jamming systems are playing a key role in neutralizing the threat. Smoke billows from tires of a U.S. military truck hit by an IED near the Iraqi-Syrian border in October 2005. \"Any weapon we had against IEDs, [improvised explosive devices] was utilized including jamming technology,\" said Jason Spencer, 29, an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, engineer who served with the Army in Iraq in 2005. Vehicle mounted electronic jammers attempt to block a signal going to a radio-controlled IED. The military also uses portable backpack jammers. \"The sophistication of IEDs definitely increased during my time in Iraq,\" said Spencer. \"There was a definite increase in remote detonation.\" A signal going to a remote-controlled IED operates on a radio or infrared frequency. Jamming devices, known as Counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare, or CREW systems, attempt to intercept or block a signal before it reaches its intended target, preventing detonation. One common method is barrage jamming, which knocks out a broad range of radio signals. However, it also knocks out communications used by U.S. troops putting them at increased risk. \"Ideally what you want to be able to do is have something that can grab very precise signals, capture the signals and render them irrelevant without knocking out your own communication,\" said CNN military analyst retired Army Brig. Gen. James \"Spider\" Marks. These technologies represent the last line of defense, Marks said. \"We don't want to give our potential enemies an understanding of what we are doing to counter their efforts,\" he said. Along with jammers, troops use air surveillance, robots, blast-resistant vehicles and mine rollers as countermeasures. See counter-IED technologies in Iraq \u00bb . IEDs are the No. 1 source of U.S. and alllied casualties in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. From July 2003 to July 2007, 1,565 coalition forces were killed by IEDs, according to iCasualties.org. See the casualty toll inflicted by IEDs \u00bb . \"We dealt with hundreds of IEDs while in theater,\" said Spencer. \"IEDs were always on our minds during every patrol.\" Spencer says IEDs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. \"From a simple mortar round on the side of the road with a fuse and a wire running to a push-button, to complex explosives poured into concrete (shaped like curbs) with remote detonators and booby traps.\" Most roadside bombs are remotely detonated using common household devices: cell phones, garage door openers, burglar alarms, key fobs, doorbells, or remote controls for toy cars. Learn more about the IED threat \u00bb . \"Our enemy hides in plain sight. He buys his bomb parts in stores. It's standard commerce,\" said Marks. U.S. forces are dealing with an adaptive, innovative and flexible enemy, according to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, which is leading the counter-IED effort for the military. As insurgents modify their devices to outwit the military, the military in turn adapts its own jamming technologies. Many companies have been tapped to supply jammers to coalition forces. JIEDDO is interested in technologies that can be used in the field within two to eight months -- \"light speed\" in Defense Department terms. The Army's main CREW system is the Warlock Duke, a vehicle- mounted radio jammer developed by Syracuse Research Corporation. It's capable of jamming most radio-controlled IEDs, according to the Pentagon. The Navy, which oversees the CREW program, contracted BAE Systems to produce 3,800 wearable jammers to be fielded in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2008. Canadian firm Med-Eng is building jammers for the Marines, reports military contractor General Dynamics. By the end of 2007, JIEDDO will have funded more than 30,000 jammers for Marine and Army units. They have spent $1.6 billion on jamming technology for this fiscal year. \"This gear saves lives every day,\" wrote retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, in a column titled \"On the Offensive: The Battle Against IEDs.\" One in six IEDs causes casualties in Iraq, JIEDDO reports. To remain effective the enemy \"must expose himself more and take higher risks to do his ugly work,\" Meigs said. In January, the Government Accounting Office launched a review of JIEDDO and its efforts to counter IEDs. The Defense Science Board criticized the agency for focusing too much on defensive countermeasures \"to which the enemy quickly adapts, making these efforts less effective,\" in an April 2006 report. JIEDDO is fully cooperating with the GAO, said Col. Dewey Ford, director of strategic communications for JIEDDO. He added that Congress has long supported eliminating the IED threat. JIEDDO said it is aggressively going after the bomb makers, working to destroy their networks. The agency acknowledges that the mission won't be achieved merely by technical means. \"The best way to counter the IED threat is through understanding the network that allows an IED to even be assembled,\" said Marks, who supports JIEDDO's work. \"I'd rather have the guy who is going to put that IED in place get killed long before he's even part of the network. And I don't want him to know how I found him out because I want to find out where all his buddies are and kill them too.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Counter-IED technologies are troops' last line of defense in Iraq .\nSignal jammers used to block an IED from detonating .\nEnemy is adaptive, innovative and flexible .\nBest way to combat insurgents -- go after the bomb makers ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former State Department employee and his wife, who are accused of spying for Cuba for nearly 30 years, will remain in jail as they await trial, a judge ruled Wednesday. An artist's sketch shows Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Myers, 71, in court Wednesday. Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Myers, 71, are charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government, wire fraud and providing classified information to Havana, according to court documents. U.S. Magistrate John Facciola ordered the couple Wednesday held without bail after a prosecutor said they posed a flight risk. Investigators found a calendar showing that the couple planned to sail to the Caribbean in November, federal prosecutor Michael Harvey told the court. The two have the financial means to obtain false documents and flee to Cuba with their sailboat or through Mexico or Canada, he said. \"They are unworthy of this court's trust,\" Harvey added. The couple was quiet and expressionless during the proceedings Wednesday. Kendall Myers sat with his arms folded across his chest, while his wife sat with her arms at her side. They stared straight ahead, and did not appear to acknowledge anyone in the courtroom. A defense attorney urged the court to allow them to remain in their home, where they could visit with their children. \"You could disable the sailboat, freeze their funds and require ankle bracelets,\" Thomas Green said. The judge allowed the couple to meet briefly with their son after the court proceedings, but turned down the request to allow them to go home. He said he was concerned that the two would go to the Cuban Interests Section or the embassy of a country that has diplomatic relations with Cuba. Such a move would put them beyond the reach of federal law enforcement agencies. The State Department has not described what information the Myerses may have passed to their Cuban handlers, but said more information would come out after a full assessment. A senior State Department official said Kendall Myers was an \"upper-level civil service employee\" at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research who \"had come up in the ranks.\" U.S. officials did not discuss the Myerses' motives for their alleged work for the Cuban government. Conviction on the wire fraud charge would carry a sentence of up to 20 years; illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government would carry a sentence of up to 10 years; and the conspiracy charge would carry a sentence of up to five years. Myers retired from the State Department on October 31, 2007. He had viewed more than 200 classified reports on Cuba in his final months, even though he was an analyst on European issues at the time, court documents say. The couple has been held without bail since pleading not guilty Friday. A future trial date has not been scheduled. CNN's Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Judge rules that husband, wife will remain in jail as they await trial .\nNEW: He cites concern about pair fleeing beyond reach of U.S. law enforcement .\nThey're charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, providing classified data to Havana .\nState Department hasn't said what data the pair may have passed to Cuban handlers ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Former Culture Club singer Boy George has been convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort. The judge told Boy George he faced jail. Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, said the frontman with the 1980s band beat him with a metal chain as he tried to flee his London flat after a naked photo shoot. A jury at a London court found on Friday that the case was proven against the 46-year-old musician -- tried under his real name of George O'Dowd. The singer declined to give evidence during the trial but the jury heard he told police he handcuffed Carlsen to his bed while he investigated alleged tampering with his computer. Carlsen told the court O'Dowd invented the story about computer tampering so he could punish him for not having sex at a previous meeting. He said: \"I think he couldn't handle the refusal -- me not having sex with him.\" O'Dowd looked grim as the verdict was delivered, according to the Press Association. The singer was bailed until sentencing on January 16. Judge David Radford warned him that he was likely to face jail. \"The fact that your bail is being continued does not imply that this will be dealt with by a non-custodial sentence. I don't want any false expectations created,\" he said.","highlights":"Boy George convicted by jury in London of falsely imprisoning male escort .\nNorwegian Audun Carlsen said star beat him with metal chain after photo shoot .\nSinger told police he handcuffed Carlsen while he investigated tampered computer ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The number of people killed in a car bombing in Afghanistan's capital rose to 26, including six Italian soldiers, Afghan authorities said Saturday. The coffins of six Italian soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Kabul return to Rome. Sixteen people died in the blast Thursday, and at least 55 Afghan civilians were wounded. Ten have died from their injuries since the bombing. The explosion Thursday targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul, a witness said. The bodies of the Italian soldiers killed in the blast returned to Italy Sunday, their coffins draped in the red, green and white Italian flag. Dignitaries, relatives and row upon row of uniformed troops stood on the airport tarmac as the coffins were carried off the plane, television pictures from the scene showed. Watch more about Italy in mourning \u00bb . Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano gently touched the caskets perched on the shoulders of grim-faced soldiers at Rome's Ciampino military airport. Nearby, a woman shook uncontrollably as a baby sported a maroon beret -- the kind worn by the paratroopers killed in the Kabul attack. The six deaths marked largest number of Italians killed in a single day in Afghanistan. Watch more about Italy's Afghan mission \u00bb . Before the remains left for Rome, the Italian military, international troops and dignitaries held a service in the Afghan capital. \"It's a tragedy for us,\" Lt. Col. Renato Vaira of the Italian military said at the Kabul service. \"But this is a point to continue our mission.\" \"We'll miss them. They're not the first. I hope it will be the last,\" said Maj. Gen. Tommaso Ferro of the Italian military. The arrival of the soldiers' remains was televised nationally in Italy. The bodies were taken for an autopsy. A day of mourning is scheduled in Italy on Monday, the same day as the burial service. After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it would be \"best\" for the country's troops to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. Berlusconi gave no timeline for a withdrawal, but said any pullout would have to be coordinated with allies. The 500 troops Italy sent to Afghanistan this summer will be home by Christmas, Ignazio La Russa, Italy's defense minister said. The troops were sent ahead of the Afghan presidential election August 20. The rest of Italy's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan will withdraw only when NATO calls for it, La Russa said.","highlights":"Explosion targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul .\nBodies of six Italian soldiers who died returned to Italy Sunday .\nItalian Prime Minister says it would be \"best\" for country's troops to leave Afghanistan .\nDeaths were the highest single-day death toll for Italy in the Afghan mission ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China has canceled or postponed several military exchanges with the U.S. in reaction to last week's announcement that the U.S. is selling weapons to Taiwan, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday. Apache attack helicopters are part of the $6.4 billion weapons deal between the U.S. and Taiwan. Officials announced last week an intention to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, though the deal still needs to be approved by Congress. Maj. Stewart Upton said the sale does not violate the Taiwan Relations Act, which allows the United States to provide Taiwan with items for self-defense . Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland in 1949 and the United States has vowed to support them if China initiates an unprovoked attack. The arms deal comes at a time when the United States needs China in negotiations over Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs. \"The Chinese reaction is unfortunate and results in missed opportunities,\" Upton said. \"We feel that the global security environment calls for U.S. and [Chinese] officials to maintain close relations to address common security challenges.\" The \"bilateral events\" China called off or postponed involve \"senior level visits and humanitarian assistance\/disaster relief exchanges\" scheduled to happen by the end of November, he said. The Chinese ambassador was said to be on his way to the State Department Monday afternoon to protest the proposed weapons sale to Taiwan. One U.S. official said the tension with China will not affect the role China is playing in negotiations with Iran or North Korea over its nuclear program. The official declined to speak for attribution because of the sensitive diplomacy involved. The arms deal package includes a variety of U.S.-made weapons systems, including Patriot III anti-missile system, Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.","highlights":"China protesting U.S. deal to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan .\nDeal comes when the U.S. needs China in negotiations over Iran and N. Korea .\nChinese ambassador expected to protest sale to the State Department .\nU.S. defended deal, saying it does not violate international agreement ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from Larry King's autobiography, \"My Remarkable Journey,\" published by Weinstein books. Larry King anchors \"Larry King Live\" at 9 p.m. ET on CNN. Larry, left, at age 10 with his younger brother, Marty, shortly after their father died. I was walking home from the library carrying nine books. That's the way my memory sees it. I can't know for sure if it was exactly nine books. Maybe I picture nine books because I was nine years old. I'm certain that I was nine years old, because I'm sure of the date -- June 9, 1943. There were a lot of books under my arm on that summer day because I loved books. I wonder what happened to those nine books ... There were three squad cars in front of my apartment building. Flivvers, we called them. I don't remember exactly when I started to hear my mother's screams. But as I hurried up the steps, a cop quickly came down, straight for me. He picked me up and the books went flying. Watch Larry on his \"Remarkable journey\" \u00bb . I'm not sure if I knew the cop. But I may have. For years, before the war started and my father went to work in the defense plant, he'd owned a little neighborhood bar and grill. He was friendly with all the cops. The cops loved my father the way they loved any bar owner who had a great sense of humor. I remember having my own police costume when I was very young. A badge and a little nightstick came with it. I'd make like I was walking the beat. The cop put me in the squad car. He told me that my father had died. Heart attack. I didn't cry. I remember that. I didn't cry. I was more befuddled than anything else. It must have been difficult for the cop. He started the car and drove. We wound through the streets of Brownsville and ended up at a movie theater. I'll never forget the movie, Bataan, starring Robert Taylor as Sergeant Bill Dane. It was about a bunch of American soldiers trying to stave off the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Larry King's life in pictures \u00bb . Sergeant Dane and his patrol are ordered to blow up a bridge to stop the advancing enemy. They're cut down one by one until only Sergeant Dane and two others remain. The first is killed by a sniper. The second is stabbed by a Japanese soldier who'd been playing dead. The movie ends with Sergeant Dane firing his machine gun straight into the camera at the Japanese soldiers coming at him in one last act of courage and defiance. I don't remember what it was like when I got home that day. A lot about that day I've blocked out. My younger brother Marty has blocked it out, too. He was only six at the time. But there are a few more memories attached. I didn't go to the funeral. I'd been so close to my father -- yet I refused to go. I stayed at home. There must've been somebody watching me, but I remember being alone. I remember bouncing a spaldeen -- the Spalding rubber ball we used to play stickball -- off the front stoop. Two other things I can tell you for sure. I never went back to that library again, and from that day on I was nervous if I saw a squad car in my neighborhood. If one parked by my apartment building, I'd start running home, in fear that my mother had died.","highlights":"Larry was 9 years old when his father died of a heart attack in 1943 .\nLarry says he has blocked much of that day from his memory .\nHe recalls a police officer broke the news, then took him to see a movie .\nLarry refused to attend funeral though he and his father were extremely close ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In just one day, you'll get a mere glimpse of Rome, a city teeming with over two millennia of culture -- but it will surely whet your appetite for more. The sun sets behind St. Peter's Basilica on a beautiful spring day in Rome. Spring is one of the most beautiful times of year to visit the \"eternal city,\" when flowers begin to bloom from ancient monuments, cafe tables reappear on bustling sidewalks and throngs of summer tourists are yet to descend en masse. Food-lovers will also be thrilled to find many traditional Italian ingredients in high-season -- look out for fresh fava beans, agretti and wild mushrooms. Before dawn, head up to the Janiculum Hill to catch the sun rise. From here you'll be able to see the Vatican, Borghese Gardens, Pantheon, Colosseum, Castel Sant'Angelo and Campidolgio, all come to light in one breathtaking cityscape. In Rome, breakfast is on-the-go. Your best bet is to stroll through one of the early morning markets to pick up a hot cornetto and some fresh fruit. One of the oldest is Campo di Fiori, a daily mix of food and flower stalls in an eclectic renaissance square. Proceed from the Campo through the ruins of the Roman Forum, past the spot where Julius Caesar was slain, toward the Pantheon. Built in 124 A.D. as a temple to all the gods of Rome, the Pantheon remains today as a Catholic church and a tomb for Italian luminaries, such as the artist Raphael and King Vittorio Emmanuelle II. Stand in the center of the rotunda and gaze up to the heavens through the eight-meter-high oculus at the center of the five-ton concrete dome --a stunning feat of ancient engineering, still intact after two thousand years. The most important part of the morning is the coffee, and Romans are passionately divided as to who makes the best cup: Sant Eustachio (Piazza Sant'Eustachio, steps behind the Pantheon) or Tazza d'Oro (Via degli Orfani, a few feet in front of the Pantheon). Take your coffee the traditional Italian way, standing up at the bar. Spend the rest of the morning exploring St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums. Home to the papacy, Vatican City is brimming with extraordinary artworks and monuments of history. Once inside St. Peter's, admire Michaelangelo's \"Pieta\" and the incredible soaring dome he helped complete. Climb to the top of it for an incredible view, and perhaps another coffee. Image gallery: See more of Rome's art treasures \u00bb . Splurge on a private tour guide for the Vatican museums to avoid the hour-long lines outside. Highlights include the Sistine Chapel, featuring Michelangelo's famed ceiling fresco series and \"Last Judgment,\" works by Raphael, da Vinci, Caravaggio, and ancient wonders from Rome and Egypt. After the Vatican, stroll across Via Cola di Rienzo and the Ponte de Margherita to the Piazza del Popolo, where an Egyptian obelisk of Rameses II has stood since 10 B.C. The food at Dal Bolognese, a fixture on the well-heeled lunch scene, is consistently outstanding and the view on the square cannot be beaten (don't miss the Caravaggios tucked inside the tiny Santa Maria del Popolo church nearby). In the afternoon, head to the Borghese for a leisurely stroll through the gardens and a stunning collection of Baroque sculpture. If you're in the mood for shopping, head down the Via Babuino towards the Spanish Steps. Drop into l'Offatorio perfume bar on the way for a \"fragrance tour\" and get a custom-made scent bottled. Also check out TAD, a minimalist-design luxury lifestyle store for everything from shoes to a haircut. Some of the city's best boutiques are nearby - find them by meandering through the side streets between Via Croce and Via Condotti. Essential to any afternoon in Rome are a few scoops of ice cream. The renowned classic Giolitti, in the Piazza Colonna, is an Italian institution: politicians flock here between their government meetings. Enjoy a few of their 40-odd flavors of gelatto as you stroll around the Column of Marcus Aurelius. If you're over by the Spanish Steps, try San Crispino on Via della Panetteria, and sit at the edge of Bernini's Trevi Fountain while you indulge. In the evening, take in a performance before dinner either at the Teatro dell'Opera, or the Accademia Santa Cecilia, for classical music. For dinner, Rome's casual outdoor trattorias cannot be beaten. For pizza, locals line up outside Da Ivo in Trastevere, then take their piping-hot thin-crust pie over to Piazza Santa Maria, the neighborhood's heart, and watch impromptu performers and musicians cheer the crowds. For homemade pasta, try Maccheroni or Da Francesco (particularly for gnocchi) near Piazza Navona. For a formal meal, head to the Michelin three-starred La Pergola at the Cavelieri Hilton. Arrive early for a gorgeous view of the sunset from the hotel bar, perched high atop Monte Mori. At night, the spirit of Fellini's \"La Dolce Vita\" lives on, in low-lit cafes, wine bars and nightclubs. Bar della Pace is a fashionable Roman classic for drinks. For all-night dancing, try the see-and-be-seen La Maison. Both are tucked behind the Piazza Navona, where you can stroll past Bernini's \"Quatro Fiumi\" (Four Rivers) fountains, beautifully lit up in the early hours of the morning. What are your tips for getting the most out of the city? Use the Sound Off box below and have your say.","highlights":"Our tips for Rome: Hire a private guide to see Michaelangelo's stunning frescoes .\nIndulge in homemade gnocchi and gelatto in Rome's bustling piazzas .\nTaste the good life with the late-night locals at Bar della Pace .\nWhat are your favorite places in Rome? Share them with CNN users below."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- I've never really been a fan of the \"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus\" school of relationship thought, but I'll admit that sometimes I feel as though the men I've dated have spoken a different language. Like when a great date is followed by the deafening silence of the phone. Or when the big relationship talk results in a boyfriend-shaped hole in my wall. Those are the times I want nothing more than a dictionary that translates every deer-in-headlights look, ambiguous voicemail, and cryptic text message. That's where Jeff Mac's \"Manslations: Decoding the Secret Language of Men\" comes in. The good . Actions speak louder than words. Sure, not a novel idea, but this \"duh\" lesson is one that can take years to learn. If it looks, walks, and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck. Mac's Golden Rule? Whenever there is any conflict between what a man says and what he does, always, always ignore what he says. There is no such thing as a man dumping you because he is afraid of getting hurt, is frightened that his feelings are too strong, or because he finds you intimidating. Mac says to think of the simplest solution -- is it that this man sensed you were the perfect woman for him, who touched him so much in deep, important places that he couldn't handle? Or was he just not feeling it? It's OK to call him first -- and if you get blown off, it's not because you called first. This is my favorite piece of advice from Mac, who says the mistaken conclusion women come to when they call first post-date and get blown off is that the call made them look clingy and spooked the guy. \"This is not how it went,\" says Mac. \"If you called him and he blew you off, it went like this: . 1. You had a great date, and he did not. 2. He planned to blow you off. 3. You called him, and nothing changed.\" The bad . All men are obsessed with cars, the remote, sports, and video games. Yawn. For the record, my man keeps his video game playtime short, hands remote control power over to me, and doesn't care for sports or cars. Is my guy an exception to the rule, or is it possible that all men are different and do not necessarily share those interests as a gender? I'm guessing it's the latter. The ugly . Men are like dogs. Is this statement required filler for all dating books, right after the part about women being shopping-obsessed nags? According to Mac, men are like dogs because, among other things, they have short attention spans and pay a lot of attention to their own crotches and the crotches of others. I'm willing to bet short attention span isn't an inherently male trait, and I can personally testify that neither is an interest in crotches. So is Jeff Mac's \"Manslations\" the be-all and end-all of man manuals? Not exactly. But when your girlfriends refuse to help you decode, for the eighth time, what he meant when he said, \"I'll call you later,\" Jeff Mac's sometimes trite, always funny advice comes in handy. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Woman rates Jeff Mac's \"Manslations: Decoding the Secret Language of Men\"\nIf there's conflict between what man says or does, always ignore what he says .\nHer favorite:OK for women to call guy first, and if dumped, it's not because of call ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Living Golf's resident pro Adam Scott shows the tricks of the trade that have helped him conquer some of the world's toughest courses. Whether it is acheiving a better drive, improving approach shots to the green or tackling testing bunkers, Scott has the tips to help your game. Improve your game by following the Living Golf lessons every month on CNN.com .","highlights":"Australia's Adam Scott tells Living Golf the tricks of the trade .\nImprove your game by following Scott's lessons each month ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Watch the full interview with Serena Williams on \"Your $$$$$\" Saturday at 1 p.m. ET and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on CNN. Serena Williams says she believes she apologized for her actions promptly and completely. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Serena Williams just wants to move on. But the controversy around her obscenity-laced tirade at a line judge at the U.S. Open continues. Williams, 27, said she was \"in the moment\" and doesn't really remember her now-famous outburst at a line judge who had called a foot fault. It was a 12-second verbal attack that has played over and over for three days. \"It was a really tough point in the match and it was really close and got a really tough call that wasn't the correct call, and, you know, things got a little heated and I had a conversation with the line judge that didn't go so well,\" Williams said. Williams, ranked No. 2 in the world by the Women's Tennis Association, said she does not recall moments of Saturday's incident but believes she apologized for her actions promptly and completely. Watch Williams talk about call \u00bb . \"I couldn't apologize any sooner, and then also I learned from my mistakes ... I was talking to [former Giants defensive end] Michael Strahan earlier today and he said how, when he's out there you're so intense. Obviously, when you get a bad call, it's like 'What's going on?' So when you're in the moment, you are just there. You don't really quite remember exactly what's going on,\" Williams said. Williams found herself explaining her outburst while promoting her recently published memoir, \"On the Line,\" in which she details growing up the youngest of five sisters, her struggles on the court and off, and her positive messages of inspiration, especially to her younger fans. \"Those kids probably just need to know it's great to be a competitor, how passionate someone is, and just making the right decisions at the right time -- realizing that, hey, everyone falls, 'Wow, she's human, she made a bad decision, a bad choice.' \" Williams added, \"I am not a robot. I have a heart and I bleed.\" In the aftermath of Saturday's match, tournament officials fined Williams $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $500 for smashing a racket during the same event. So far, no suspensions have been served, but the United States Tennis Association has said that it has launched an investigation into the incident.","highlights":"Tennis star's obscenity-laced tirade at the U.S. Open stays in the spotlight .\nShe's fielding questions about it as she promotes new book .\nWilliams says she was \"in the moment\" and doesn't remember all that was said .\nHer young fans can now see \"she's human, she made a bad decision,\" she says ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Travelers to China who display flu-like symptoms may be randomly quarantined over concerns of the swine flu virus, the U.S. State Department warned. A child traveling with his parents wears a face mask after they arrive at the Beijing, China, airport. There have been cases of children being separated from parents after either tested positive for the virus, also known as H1N1, a travel alert said Friday. Chinese officials may give medications to minors in such cases without consulting their parents, according to the alert. \"Although the proportion of arriving Americans being quarantined remains low, the random nature of the selection process increases the uncertainty surrounding travel to China,\" the alert said. Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs transmitted to humans and caused by type A influenza virus. Symptoms include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. There have been about 48,000 confirmed cases worldwide, including 519 in China, according to the World Health Organization. The Chinese government has taken measures to stop the spread of the virus. They include placing passengers who have fever or flu-like symptoms on a seven-day quarantine, the alert said. Others facing quarantine include those sitting close to travelers with symptoms, those with elevated temperatures and those from areas where virus outbreaks have occurred. A 15-year-old from Topeka, Kansas, told CNN on Monday that she was quarantined in Beijing for a week. \"Apparently, I was sitting too close to a man who had a fever on the 14-hour plane ride,\" Kaitlin Hannigan said, adding that she initially thought she had a fever, but her temperature was fine when officials checked it. A day after she arrived in Beijing with an educational group, government officials showed up at her hotel. \"They were wearing quarantine suits, goggles and masks and, like, full body suits and gloves, and said I had to be quarantined for seven days because I came in contact with that guy,\" Hannigan said. Earlier in June, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin was quarantined in Shanghai after possible exposure to the virus. Nagin was headed to Australia on an economic development trip when he was quarantined for four days after sitting beside a passenger who was being treated for suspected swine flu symptoms. Nagin showed no signs of illness. State officials warned Americans traveling to China that they have to follow local quarantines procedures. \"The U.S. Embassy will be unable to influence the duration of stay in quarantine for affected travelers,\" the statement said. The travel alert expires in September.","highlights":"Travelers to China with flu-like symptoms could face 7-day quarantine .\nChinese government officials try to control spread of H1N1 virus .\nNew Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin recently quarantined on China trip ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton will win Florida's Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, CNN projects, although party sanctions have stripped the state of its convention delegates and no Democrats campaigned there. Hillary Clinton addresses a crowd in Davie, Florida, after winning the state's primary. Published polls showed the New York senator and former first lady was heavily favored in the state. Her leading rivals, South Carolina primary winner Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Edwards, did not campaign in Florida. They opted to concentrate on next week's \"Super Tuesday\" contests in states such as New York, California, Missouri and Georgia. CNN's projection is based on precincts reporting results, entrance polls and other statistical models -- including the number of votes outstanding in areas where Clinton was expected to do well. The sanctions make Tuesday night's results largely meaningless to the Democratic presidential race. Obama described the primary as a \"beauty contest\" Tuesday, and his campaign issued a statement declaring the race a tie in the delegate count: \"Zero for Obama, zero for Clinton.\" But Clinton has pledged to fight to have the state's delegates seated at the August convention in Denver, and has increasingly stressed the state's importance since losing Saturday's hotly contested primary in South Carolina to Obama. Though Democrats agreed to leave the state off their itineraries in a show of solidarity with the national party, Clinton attended permitted fund-raisers in Florida on Sunday and planned to appear with supporters there after polls closed. And turnout was high for the race even though no delegates were at stake. Nearly 400,000 people cast early or absentee ballots ahead of the primary, and Tuesday's vote was expected to top the nearly 800,000 who turned out in 2004. Donna Brazile, who managed former Vice President Al Gore's presidential bid, said many Democrats were likely to turn out to vote on a state constitutional amendment that would limit property tax increases and expand homestead exemptions. \"People are very afraid this will cut public services, cut back education,\" said Brazile, a CNN analyst. \"So the Florida Education Association and all of the unions are spending millions of dollars to get voters to turn out.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rivals Sens. Barack Obama and John Edwards did not campaign in Florida .\nThere were no delegates at stake in Florida .\nObama and Edwards concentrated efforts on Super Tuesday states ."} -{"article":"BABAHOYO, Ecuador (CNN) -- At least 10 people have died and thousands have been left homeless after torrential rains inundated large parts of Ecuador, officials said Thursday. Authorities said the rains, which began a week ago, were the worst in a quarter century. Civil defense officials said more than 10,000 families have been affected. Los R\u00edos -- north of Guayaquil -- was the hardest hit of nine provinces affected, civil defense officials said. In Los R\u00edos province, five people died when an ambulance drove into a hole at the side of a street at dawn Thursday. A newborn boy, his parents, a doctor and a driver were killed. Streets also were flooded in the capital of Quito. Watch the scenes of devastation in Ecuador \u00bb . On Wednesday, President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency and ordered 2,000 members of the army and the police to help rescue workers. Correa increased by $25 million the $10 million he already had allocated for the emergency efforts. He also directed another $88 million to municipalities. Once the crisis has eased, an emergency fund will give seed and fertilizer to help farmers whose fields were washed away, Ecuador's government said. There also have been reports of livestock drowning. Cristina Medina, a spokeswoman for the Ecuadorean Red Cross, said provinces most heavily affected were along the Pacific coast, where drinking water was often in short supply. In some towns, high waters forced entire neighborhoods to evacuate, Medina said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At least 10 people have died in torrential rains in Ecuador, officials say .\nAuthorities say the rains are the worst in a quarter century .\nCivil defense officials say more than 10,000 families have been affected .\nEcuador's president declares state of emergency, orders army, police to help ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jeff Kepner just wanted to hold his 13-year-old daughter's hand again. The nine-hour operation completed on Monday was the first double hand transplant in the United States. The 57-year-old Augusta, Georgia, resident underwent the first double hand transplant in the United States on Monday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. On Friday he remained at the transplant intensive care unit. He is \"very stable, awake and alert, and he's talking with us,\" said Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, who led the nine-hour surgery. \"He is having good circulation in the transplanted hands.\" Kepner shows no signs of transplant rejection, Lee said. The patient was groggy, but asked more questions about the operation as he started feeling better, said his wife, Valarie Kepner. He is expected to remain in the intensive care unit for a week, said Lee, chief of the division of plastic surgery and professor of surgery and orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In 1999, Kepner lost both hands and feet to a strep infection. As the bacterial infection spread throughout his body, it stopped blood flow to his limbs and shut down his liver and kidneys. While most strep infections are mild, in some cases the bacteria can destroy muscles, fat and skin tissue and cause toxic shock syndrome. At the time, Kepner's daughter was only 3 years old. \"She doesn't remember her dad any other way but this. We looked through pictures and we can't find one of him holding her hand. That's one thing she was looking forward to -- that she's going to be able to hold her dad's hand again.\" The infection came at a time when Kepner had just earned a degree in pastry arts. \"He was a good cook all the way around. I worked full time,\" his wife said. \"I was spoiled, because when I came home dinner was on the table. He did it very well.\" For the last decade, Kepner adjusted to prosthetic limbs. He drove his teenage daughter, Jordan, to school and worked part-time at Borders bookstore. But he could no longer cook. Although he could do some of the basic tasks, Kepner said her husband could not perform activites that required fine motor skills. She had to help him in the shower and help him get dressed. \"He would be on my schedule, that's why this [the hand transplant] would give him a whole level of independence,\" she said. With his new hands, Kepner hopes to perform small tasks such as changing a light bulb and using a remote control. \"I'm looking forward to his cooking,\" his wife said. \"I'm looking forward to him doing the things he wants to do when he wants to do them.\" Kepner initially had doubts, especially since it was an elective procedure. \"The two points that changed his mind as we talked was, No. 1, the independence he wanted to gain,\" his wife said. The second point was that they believed there were fewer risks with this particular surgery. The Kepners knew a double hand transplant meant Kepner would have to take drugs to suppress his immune system for the rest of his life (like any transplant, the recipient's immune system could attack the new organ as a foreign object). But for this surgery, the Pittsburgh doctors would also transplant bone marrow from the donor to reduce the amount of immunosuppressants Kepner would have to take. According to the doctors, the bone marrow cells could re-educate the immune system so it wouldn't reject the hands. Despite the risks, Lee said hand transplant recipients regain much of their autonomy. \"They can perform activities of daily living -- the simple things you and I take for granted such as personal hygiene, brushing our teeth, combing our hair,\" Lee said. \"When you don't have either hand, you are often completely dependent on another person, a family member or in Mr. Kepner's case his wife, for a lot of very basic activities during the day.\" On January 22, Kepner signed up to be a candidate for the medical center's clinical trial for hand transplants. He had to pass a screening process, which included a physical and a psychiatric evaluation of his coping skills, his expectations and his understanding of the transplant. Three months later, Kepner received the call. There was a donor whose hands matched Kepner's skin color, gender and size. After getting permission from the donor's family, the surgeons removed the donor's hands extending midway to the elbows. A team of surgeons attached arteries and veins, repaired tendons and nerves and set the bones for both hands. The surgery involved 27 bones, 28 muscles, three major nerves, two major arteries, multiple tendons, veins and soft tissue. Kepner still cannot feel with his new hands, Lee said. \"We really don't expect him to [now],\" Lee said. \"The nerves grow at a speed of one inch per month, and there are many inches between the mid-forearm to the fingers.\" After Kepner leaves the intensive care unit, he is expected to begin three months of physical therapy to gain mobility in his joints, wrists and fingers. \"Based on the results of hand transplants performed so far around the world, just about everyone regains protective sensation, which is the ability to distinguish between hot and cold and feel a pin prick,\" Lee said. While it's difficult to predict how much movement and sense of touch Kepner will have in his new hands, Lee said, \"We are optimistic he will regain protective sensation and even more than that.\" More than 32 patients have received hand transplants. Some of these recipients in the United States and Europe have lived with their new hands for more than a decade.","highlights":"Former pastry chef received double hand transplant Monday .\nJeff Kepner lost both hands and feet after fighting strep infection 10 years ago .\nDoctor says Kepner shows no signs of rejection ."} -{"article":"CANTON, Georgia (CNN) -- Meet Kaden, bomb-sniffing dog in training. Jeff Schettler coaches handlers on how to work with detection dogs, including Kaden, far right, in the field. His name, a Gaelic word meaning \"little battle,\" is fitting for the energetic 12-pound puppy with a perky tail that curls like a cinnamon bun. At 4 months old, Kaden is a playful, black- and white-coated basenji being schooled at Georgia K9 National Training Center. Once fully trained, he will assist federal and local police officers as well as private corporations in nosing out deadly explosives at schools, airports and public events. His detective skills can potentially save thousands of lives in an era where law enforcement agencies are aggressively fighting against drugs and terrorist attacks. \"Think about a scenario like the 1996 Olympic bombings,\" says Kaden's trainer Jeff Schettler, a cheery man who has coached hundreds of dogs to sniff out bombs, drugs, missing people and corpses since the mid-1990s. Demand for these detection canines -- including bomb dogs such as Kaden -- has surged as homeland security and drug crackdowns become a bigger priority for government and law enforcement. The North American Police Work Dog Association says 35,000 dogs are trained to do detective work in the U.S. The association estimates up to 10,000 dogs have been added since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Watch three detection puppies in action \u00bb . Official records of training puppies to work as detection dogs date back to the early 1900s in the U.S. In more recent years, police departments realized a dog's nose was a valuable asset. Dogs possess impressive olfactory abilities -- some breeds more than others. For each drop of odor detected by a dog, the human nose would require 1,000 to 10,000 drops of odor, veterinarians say. Can your pooch be a detection dog? \u00bb . Other animals may have smelling skills that rival a dog's, such as pigs nosing for truffles in France or honey bees that can sniff out TNT particles, but veterinarians say dogs are the most controllable and sociable for their human handlers. Police dogs remain the most affordable and reliable solution to solving crimes that require scent detection, police officers say. Trained dogs can track down cocaine camouflaged inside car seats. They can find children who have mysteriously vanished overnight. Detection dogs can even weed out pest-infested apples and oranges accidentally left in suitcases at airports. \"They are a growing aspect of law enforcement,\" says Jim Watson, secretary at the North American Police Work Dog Association and a handler for decades. Earlier this month, investigators were baffled during the international manhunt for George Zinkhan, a former University of Georgia professor accused of fatally shooting his wife and two other people. Two weeks into the search, two cadaver dogs, a German shepherd named Circe and an Australian shepherd named Madison, arrived. Within 10 hours, the dogs picked up the scent of Zinkhan's remains in a shallow pit hidden in a thick forest. Once the dogs neared the suspect's body, they gave their handlers personalized signals. Circe barked excitedly. Madison lay down. Trainer Jeff Schettler explains Kaden is an unlikely candidate for police work. Basenjis, a breed that originated in central Africa, are usually used as hunting or show dogs. There are only two other trained police dog basenjis recorded by the North American Police Work Dog Association. Most trainers in the police dog world dislike experimenting with new dogs, preferring to stick to breeds with a proven track record. Most law enforcement agencies rely on Belgian Malinoises and German shepherds for detection work because of their protective yet friendly personalities, but labs, bloodhounds and beagles also can be used. \"We're not trying to fix anything,\" Schettler says. \"We're trying to enhance it.\" Schettler points out some of Kaden's advantages: The dog's weight will peak at about 25 pounds, enabling him seamlessly to sift between cramped luggage and lockers. Kaden is barkless because basenjis have an oddly shaped larynx, ideal for quiet searches. On a recent rainy Saturday morning at the Georgia K9 National Training Center, little Kaden undergoes testing. Passing the exam depends on his whiffing talents. Upon the instructor's command, Kaden's pencil-thin legs playfully trot along the damp grass to an oversize wall scattered with dozens of holes. His instructor has hidden black gunpowder wrapped in pantyhose in one of the holes. If Kaden's nose sniffs out the gunpowder, he will immediately sit. Kaden begins on the left side, quickly taking a zigzag pattern from one hole to another. His pace is methodical, a sniff for each hole. Soon he slows, pauses, inhales again and then sinks his tiny hindquarters to the ground. \"What a good boy,\" coo several of Kaden's trainers, stroking his sleek fur and rewarding him with one of his favorite treats, torn bits of venison jerky. As Kaden nibbles on his treat, Schettler admits there are drawbacks to training basenjis. Basenjis don't have a furry coat to endure cold weather like a German shepherd. Basenjis are also a highly independent, stubborn breed with personalities similar to cats, making them difficult to train. Kaden's personality, however, is contrary to most basenjis. He was culled from a litter in Atlanta at 7 days old because of his unusual sociability with humans. \"At eight weeks, he was in the airport going up to people and running around like he owned the place,\" Schettler says. Training detection dogs such as Kaden often begins during puppyhood so imprinting scent differentiation becomes innate, handlers say. Puppies are selected based on breed purity, confidence, sociability and temperament. In any training program, there are doggie dropouts. In those instances, the puppies become pets. On the job, dogs can suffer from on-site injuries, such as mild sprains and bruises. Some dogs have even been killed when a bomb explodes or buildings collapse. As police dogs age, health problems such as arthritis can send them into early retirement. A work dog's career typically spans about seven years, instructors say. Different breeds specialize in certain detection jobs, says Joseph Morelli, a canine handler for the Connecticut State Police. Morelli says he relies on Labrador retrievers for arson cases. German shepherds at his school are saved for patrolling or drug cases. \"People are really starting to see how useful these dogs can be,\" says Morelli, who has started to train dogs from neighboring states in recent years. \"We're really seeing our program take off.\"","highlights":"Police dogs can nose out explosives, drugs, bodies and missing people .\nKaden, at 4 months old, is training to become of the the few basenjis bomb dogs .\nTraining usually begins in puppyhood so handlers can imprint skills .\nAbout 35,000 police dogs work in the U.S., group says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The man arrested for the videotaped rape of a toddler in Las Vegas, Nevada, will make his initial appearance in court Friday, a Clark County, Nevada, court official told CNN Tuesday. Authorities have not yet decided if Chester Arthur Stiles will appear in person or via video link. The judge will set a date for the arraignment at that hearing. Stiles, 37, was taken into custody Monday night after a Henderson, Nevada, police officer pulled over the white Buick Century he was driving. A former girlfriend of Stiles' said that, before the arrest, she lived in fear after going to police to identify the suspect after seeing enhanced photos from the videotape on the local news. \"I've had my share of nightmares,\" Elaine Thomas told CNN's Nancy Grace. Thomas said she screamed when she recognized the photos on television and had no choice but to contact police about the man she had thought was a \"weapons enthusiast\" with only a minor criminal record. Watch Thomas say how she felt when she saw the photos \u00bb . \"How could I not tell them who that man was? That little girl suffered unimaginable things, and I knew for a fact it was him,\" Thomas said. The judge in the case will hold an administrative hearing Wednesday, but Stiles will not be present, Clark County court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. Stiles was already being sought on an unrelated 2004 charge of felony lewdness with a child under 14, Sommermeyer said, adding that authorities amended that earlier filing on October 4 to include 20 counts related to the videotaped rape, including sexual assault and attempted sexual assault. Jerry T. Donohue, the attorney for the girl's mother, told CNN that the child on the videotape was younger than 3 when the abuse occurred. Henderson Police Officer Mike Dye said he pulled over Stiles' car Monday night because it did not have a license plate and became suspicious when the driver gave him an expired California driver's license with a photo that did not look like him. Dye said he and another officer, Mike Gower, questioned Stiles until he admitted his identity. \"He finally told us, 'Hey, I'm Chester Stiles. I'm the guy you're looking for,'\" Dye said. \"At that time, he said, 'I'm sick of running.'\" Dye said Stiles was calm and cooperative. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was turned over to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and booked into the jail in Clark County, where he had been sought in connection with the videotape, which shows a girl being sexually assaulted. The girl, who is now 7, was found last month after a nationwide search. The tape was given to authorities by Darren Tuck, who told police he had found it in the desert five months before handing it over. Because of the delay, during which Tuck allegedly showed the tape to others, he faces charges of exhibiting pornography and possession of child pornography. He turned himself in to authorities in Nye County, Nevada, earlier this month. Professionals have evaluated the girl in the videotape since she was found, and she appears to be \"healthy and fine and happy,\" her mother's attorney said this month. The mother had not known her daughter had ever been victimized and was apparently oblivious to efforts to find her until late last month, Donohue said. \"A family friend called her and said, 'My God, you need to turn on the TV. I believe that is your daughter,' \" Donohue said. Donohue said the mother recognized Stiles, a former animal trainer. The alleged abuse most likely occurred while the mother -- a single woman working six days a week -- was at work, Donohue said. Another former girlfriend of Stiles', Tina Allen, said this month she thinks she is the reason Stiles came in contact with the girl and is \"mortified\" by the allegations against him. \"He said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,\" Allen said. Allen said she took Stiles to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her daughter, the alleged assault victim. Todd Allen, Tina Allen's son, said he recognized his old apartment from scenes in the video. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect's ex-girlfriend: \"I've had my share of nightmares\"\nChester Arthur Stiles to make his initial court appearance Friday .\nStiles, 37, arrested following a routine traffic stop .\nSuspect said \"I'm Chester Stiles. ... I'm sick of running,\" according to officer ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leading figures from Poland to the United States have been paying tribute to Marek Edelman, the anti-Nazi resistance fighter and Solidarity movement supporter who died Friday. Marek Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in World War II. Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, \"the largest, symbolically most important Jewish uprising\" against the Nazis during World War II, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk both issued statements mourning Edelman. Tusk called him an \"exceptional man,\" saying \"his bravery was a testament to the courage of the fighters of the Jewish Fighting Organization,\" as the largest Jewish resistance movement in the ghetto was known. The prime minister also praised him for standing up against the Polish Communist government's anti-Semitic campaign of 1968, and hailed him as an example for free, democratic Poland. The U.S. State Department saluted \"his life dedicated to the defense of human dignity and freedom. The United States stands with Poland as it mourns the loss of a great man.\" Edelman is thought to have been the last surviving commander of the uprising, in which Jews fought Nazi efforts to send them to concentration camps. Armed with pistols, some rifles and automatic weapons, and hand-made grenades, the resistance fighters attacked the Germans and their allies when they tried to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943. The Nazis had planned to round up all the ghetto's Jews in three days, but in the end it took them more than a month -- longer than some countries held out against Hitler's armies. The Nazis reduced the ghetto to rubble in the process of flushing resistance fighters out of their bunkers. Edelman was in one of the last groups to hold out in the headquarters of the Jewish Fighting Organization at 18 Mila Street. In the final days of the uprising he was able to sneak out of the ghetto by way of the city's sewers, he wrote after the war. He went on to fight in the Warsaw Polish Uprising, a two-month battle against the Nazis in 1944, undertaken primarily by non-Jewish Poles. After the war, Edelman became a cardiologist. In the late 1940s, he published a short history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Polish, Yiddish, and English, called \"The Ghetto Fights.\" In it, he described the creation of the ghetto by the Nazis. \"In November 1940, the Germans finally established the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jewish population still living outside the 'Seuchensperrgebiet' ('Quarantined Zone') was brought inside the special area. Poles living within the designated ghetto boundaries were ordered to move out,\" he wrote. \"Beginning with November 15, no Jew was allowed to leave the Jewish precincts. All houses vacated by Jews were immediately locked by the Germans and then, with all their contents, gratuitously given to Polish merchants and hucksters ... . The walls and barbed wire surrounding the ghetto grew higher every day until, on November 15, they completely cut off the Jews from the outside world.\" Hunger and disease were rife in the ghetto, he wrote. \"People began to die of hunger in the streets. Every morning, about 4-5 a.m., funeral carts collected a dozen or more corpses on the streets that had been covered with a sheet of paper and weighted down with a few rocks. Some simply fell in the streets and remained there,\" Edelman remembered. Jews organized a local government and Socialist unions, but conditions became progressively worse in the ghetto, with the Nazis summarily executing people. Nazis then began deporting Jews to concentration camps -- sometimes with the help of Jewish collaborators in the ghetto -- Edelman wrote. By that time, many in the ghetto knew the Nazis were systematically murdering Jews in the camps, he recalled. He describes in detail the spring 1943 uprising, a street-by-street battle that ended with the ghetto in ruins. Edelman's history finishes simply, listing the handful of survivors of the hundreds who fought back. \"Those who had gone over to the 'Aryan side' continued the partisan fight in the woods. The majority perished eventually. The small group that was still alive at the time took an active part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising as the 'ZOB Group.' At present the following of our comrades are still among the living: Chajka Betchatowska, B. Szpigel, Chana Krysztal, Masza Glejtman, and Marek Edelman.\" During the early 1980s Edelman was active with Solidarity, the Polish trade union movement that opposed the Communist government. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner awarded him the Legion of Honor in 2008, on a visit to Poland marking the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Edelman was born in 1921, according to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. He was buried in Warsaw's Jewish cemetery on Friday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported .","highlights":"Marek Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising .\nBoth Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk pay tribute .\nEdelman is thought to have been the last surviving commander of the uprising .\nDuring early 1980s Edelman was active with Polish trade union movement, Solidarity ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fireworks continued to erupt between Bolivia and Peru over a costume worn at this year's Miss Universe pageant. Last week, during the national costume part of the competition, Miss Peru, Karen Schwarz, wore an Andean-inspired outfit featuring a headpiece with large horns based on the costume used in the traditional Diablada, or deviled, folk dance. In wearing the outfit, Schwarz unwittingly set off a firestorm in Bolivia, whose culture minister Pablo Groux threatened to go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to claim that the Diablada belongs to Bolivia's culture and no one else. Bolivia sent a letter to the Miss Universe organizers, citing evidence that the dance has its roots in Bolivia and distinctly belongs to the country, Bolivia's state-run news agency ABI reported. Bolivia dancers showcased the Diablada at events in Washington and Panama, and Bolivia's ambassador to France summed up the country's stance, according to ABI: \"We ask that urgent, adequate, opportune and pertinent measures be taken to protect Bolivian cultural patrimony and the respect of the origin of our customs and ancient traditions.\" Peruvian officials have said that the Diablada folk dance has its roots in both countries. Bolivia has no grounds to claim the dance in the international court, countered Peru's director of its National Institute of Culture, Cecilia Bakula told the newspaper El Comercio. \"This issue should stop because we can't lose tolerance or respect between both countries over things like this,\" Schwarz said in an interview with Bolivian media. \"We have a dance that unites us because the Diablada is danced in Bolivia and Peru.\" The cultural dispute comes at a time of political disagreement between the countries relating to maritime access at the border between Chile and Peru. Peruvian President Alan Garcia has accused Chile and land-locked Bolivia of negotiating an under-the-table deal that would leave Peru out. On Monday Peru said it was taking its own case to the International Court of Justice over the maritime dispute.","highlights":"Miss Peru, Karen Schwarz, set off firestorm in Bolivia with Andean-inspired outfit .\nBolivia's cultural minister threatens to go to international court .\nReport: Peru cultural director says Bolivia has no grounds to claim dance .\nPeru also threatens to go to court: over maritime dispute with Chile and Bolivia ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They may live on separate continents, in different countries with differing cultures, but the same message is being echoed by the world's poor, according to a new report by aid agency Oxfam. Farmers in Uganda have little choice but to attempt to cultivate crops on arid land. The report, \"Suffering the Science,\" tells the stories of people who are discovering to their detriment that long-held truths about seasons and rainfall no longer apply. \"I travel a lot and people are always saying to me, 'the seasons have changed,'\"Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking told CNN. \"I think there's a real sense of uncertainty. People have lost confidence. They have a very close relationship with the Earth, nature and climate and suddenly they're finding that it doesn't work anymore.\" People such as Florence Madamu from western Uganda. \"The sun is prolonged until the end of September,\" she told Oxfam. \"And whenever it rains it rains so heavily it destroys all our crops in the fields. You can plant a whole acre or two and come out with nothing.\" July is a particularly harsh month in large swathes of Africa. It's the peak hunger season and this year people are expected to be more vulnerable than usual following record high food prices in 2008. Laborers are planting precious seeds in fields of dirt with no guarantee they'll produce a harvest, while the conditions they're working under are becoming more extreme. \"For me the big worry is that many of them don't know why it's happening so they can't actually help themselves prepare for the changes,\" Stocking told CNN. \"We need to work with them to help them become more resilient -- whether it's cyclones and weather-related disasters or whether it's a long-term change. They need to be prepared for very different sorts of seasons now.\" And for unfamiliar diseases. Higher temperatures are encouraging the migration of malaria and other vector-borne diseases into new areas where, in some cases, health authorities are ill-equipped to cope. Oxfam found Iha at her daughter's bedside in a hospital in Indonesia. Twelve-year-old Laila was the second of her children to contract dengue fever at their home on the island of Java. \"They said that this is a new type of dengue fever,\" Iha told Oxfam. \"She has already had 30 bags of infusion water. After nine days her condition is still not stable.\" It is the stories of people such as Iha who are living with the consequences of climate change that Oxfam hopes will prompt action from leaders of developed nations who are meeting in L'Aquila, Italy this week. \"Ideally what we'd like is the G8 countries to come out very clearly as to what their targets are for carbon emissions reductions by 2020 and the amounts of money needed,\" Stocking said. \"It's unlikely they'll be as precise about that,\" she conceded, adding, \"but we really need some good strong wording in the G8 communiqu\u00e9 about the recognition that for a deal to be done [in Copenhagen], money will be needed for the poorest countries.\" Talks in Copenhagen in December are being billed as an unmissable opportunity for developed and developing nations to agree a global plan to combat climate change. Stocking commended a proposal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to establish a $100 billion annual fund to help developing nations contend with climate change, but said closer to $150 billion was needed. Oxfam points out that's about the same amount the U.S. government spent on bailing out insurance company AIG. While scientists warn that a cut of 40 percent in carbon emissions by 2020 is vital to avoid severe repercussions, developed nations have yet to commit to anything close. \"We need America to come forward much more positively,\" Stocking said. \"It's really got to stand up to the bar clearly if there's going to be any deal.\" \"We're really pressing as well for the EU to come out much more clearly about what it will do it as a whole. \"There isn't even a Council of Minister's meeting until October and that's going to be far too late. There needs to be some serious meetings including heads of state very quickly now to get an agreement to put something very direct on the table,\" she said.","highlights":"Oxfam report tells the stories of people affected by climate change .\nReport 'Suffering the Science' catalogs challenges of world's poor .\nStocking: \"People are always saying to me, 'the seasons have changed'\"\nOxfam wants greater action on climate change from developed nations ."} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The fiery leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant movement assured Lebanon on Monday that his movement will cooperate in the country's political life. Supporters carry posters of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Hassan Nasrallah said: \"We don't want to have control over Lebanon, or to have governance over Lebanon or to impose our ideas over the people of Lebanon, because we believe Lebanon to be a special and diverse country that needs the collaboration of everyone.\" Nasrallah spoke a day after Lebanon's parliament elected Michel Sleiman the country's president after a six-month vacancy in the position. Nasrallah, speaking at a packed stadium, told his followers: \"I renew my appeal and invitation for a true national partnership with no eliminations or impositions. The national unity government is not the victory of the opposition against the pro-government. It is the victory of all Lebanese.\" He said Sleiman's election \"renews the hope amongst the Lebanese people to a new era and a new start.\" \"I must say that there are deep wounds from our side and theirs, we are both in front of two choices; either to expand the wounds and add salt to them or try to cure them for the sake of Lebanon and we prefer the second choice.\" The parliament had tried 19 times to vote on a new president, but failed because of disagreements over how to share power in a new Cabinet. Lebanon's Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition reached a deal last week aimed at ending an 18-month political crisis that pushed the country to the brink of civil war, and paved the way for Sleiman's election. The agreement, reached in Doha, Qatar, calls for a consensus government in which the Cabinet would be comprised of 30 posts -- 16 for the majority, 11 for the Hezbollah-led opposition and three set aside for the president to nominate. The seat allocation had been a key sticking point for the opposition, which wanted to ensure it had the power to veto major decisions. With 11 Cabinet posts, it will have that power. In exchange for the veto power and a redistricting plan ahead of next year's elections, Hezbollah agreed to end its sit-in protest that has paralyzed downtown Beirut since late 2006. In his speech, Sleiman expressed gratitude to Qatar and to the Arab League for helping broker the deal. Sleiman was the consensus candidate, and is viewed as a neutral party by Lebanon's political factions. The nation's previous presidents have been seen as either pro-Syrian or pro-Western. In his 10 years as chief of the army, Sleiman also is believed to have unified the splintered military. However, he inherits a nation grappling with divisions. Lebanon's elected, pro-Western government has long been locked in a power struggle with Hezbollah. In public statements and demonstrations in recent years, Hezbollah threatened to use its power and popularity to oust the Sunni-led government, triggering fears of a new civil war that could further destabilize the volatile region. The election helped end a political crisis that deteriorated into violence this month. That crisis was defused when the Lebanese government gave in to two key Hezbollah demands -- lifting a government ban of Hezbollah's telecommunications system and reinstating the chief of security at Beirut's airport. \"The performance of the opposition proved that it did not organize a coup, but only wanted the illegal government to withdraw its two decisions,\" Nasrallah said. \"I promise that the opposition's representation in the government will not be monopolized by Hezbollah, Amal and the Change and Reform bloc. We will give other opposition parties shares - and unfortunately we must speak of shares - even if it is at the expense of Hezbollah's shares.\" Hezbollah has been linked to numerous terrorist attacks against U.S., Israeli, and other Western targets and the United States lists it as a terrorist organization. But many in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East -- particularly Shiites -- view Hezbollah militants as freedom fighters.","highlights":"Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says Lebanon needs collaboration of everyone .\nNasrallah praises election of Michel Sleiman as president after six months .\nElection comes after Hezbollah and government agreed power-sharing deal .\nSleiman is considered a consensus president in the divided country ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York Post cartoon Wednesday drew fire from civil rights activist Al Sharpton and others who say the drawing invokes historically racist images in suggesting an ape wrote President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package. Al Sharpton says he wonders whether the cartoon \"is making a less-than-casual inference\" to a form of racism. The artist, Sean Delonas, called Sharpton's reaction \"ridiculous,\" and the newspaper defended its decision to run his cartoon. But other African-American leaders joined Sharpton, who has been the butt of previous Delonas panels, in attacking what they called the cartoon's racial overtones. \"Sean Delonas' cartoon in today's New York Post is insensitive and offensive,\" National Urban League President Marc Morial said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. \"Comparing President Obama and his effort to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable.\" The cartoon showed two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot, a reference to this week's mauling of a Connecticut woman by a pet chimp, which police killed after the attack. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, \"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.\" New York Post: See cartoon . The nearly $800 billion stimulus package was the priority for Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, who signed it Tuesday. Watch Sharpton raise racism concerns, and see the cartoon \u00bb . \"The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys,\" Sharpton said. Sharpton questioned whether Delonas \"is making a less-than-casual inference to this form of racism.\" \"The Post should at least clarify what point they were trying to make in this cartoon, and reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy if, in fact, this was yet another racially charged cartoon,\" he said. In a brief phone interview with CNN, Delonas called the controversy \"absolutely friggin' ridiculous.\" \"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon,\" Delonas said. \"It's about the economic stimulus bill,\" he added. \"If you're going to make that about anybody, it would be [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi, which it's not.\" Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, said the cartoon \"is a clear parody of a current news event.\" Watch CNN panel discuss the cartoon \u00bb . \"It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist,\" Allan said in a written statement. But Sharpton and Morial were not alone in their criticism. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said the Post showed a \"serious lapse in judgment\" by running the cartoon. \"To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence,\" Ciara said in a written statement. \"Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst.\" Jeff Johnson, a former activist turned Black Entertainment Television host, said provocative cartoons are good, but that \"none of this is appropriate on any level.\" \"The Post ultimately has to answer ... [for] a specific reference to the president of the United States to violence and to his connection to an animal likeness,\" Johnson said. In California, civil rights leader Earl Ofari Hutchinson called on the Post to apologize. \"In times past, that depiction of African-Americans has been vigorously condemned as racially offensive,\" Hutchinson said in a statement issued from his Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. \"The cartoon also subtly condones violence. We call on the Post management to issue an immediate apology and a statement that racial insults will not be tolerated by Post writers and cartoonists.\"","highlights":"NEW: Others join Al Sharpton in saying cartoon invokes historically racist images .\nCartoon makes references to recent chimp attack, stimulus bill .\nCartoonist calls Sharpton's objections \"ridiculous\"\nNewspaper's editor: Sharpton showing himself to be a \"publicity opportunist\""} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jay S. Winuk, co-founder of MyGoodDeed, is the brother of Glenn J. Winuk, an attorney and volunteer firefighter and EMT who died in the line of duty when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001. This week Glenn was posthumously honored with the 9\/11 Heroes Medal of Valor from the United States of America. Jay Winuk says September 11 is best observed as a day of service to others. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The upcoming eighth anniversary of the attacks of September 11 raises a compelling question for millions of Americans: How should we best observe this uniquely tragic day in our nation's history? Surely, it should not be a holiday. This is no time for days off from work and three-day weekends to enjoy barbeques and white sales. No, September 11 is a day for reflection, and its historical and emotional significance should not lessen with time or be diminished in any way. It is a day to focus on the substantial lessons learned. I'm a 9\/11 family member. My brave brother, Glenn J. Winuk, was a partner at a large law firm, Holland & Knight, located two blocks from the World Trade Center. For almost 20 years Glenn was also a volunteer firefighter and an emergency medical technician. When the Towers were hit, Glenn borrowed rescue equipment and ran from safety toward the South Tower to participate in the rescue effort. He died when the South Tower collapsed. Soon after the attacks, I co-founded, with my friend David Paine and other 9\/11 family members and friends, a grassroots initiative called MyGoodDeed. Our goal? To establish the anniversary of September 11, 2001 as an annually recognized national day of service. Our widely shared view was that there would be no better way to pay tribute to those thousands lost and those millions who rose in spontaneous, compassionate and effective service to help rebuild our spirit and our nation in the aftermath of the attacks. Supported by all the leading 9\/11 family, survivor and volunteer organizations, the initiative has since attracted the attention and participation of millions of people around the world, from all 50 states and more than 170 nations and territories. People choose whatever form of kindness and service they'd like to perform each 9\/11. And with acts large and small, they are making a real difference in the lives of people and communities in need. Some make donations -- clothing, books, eyeglasses, money, blood. Some help repair schools and parks and beaches. Some send care packages to our troops overseas, or work in soup kitchens. Some read to the blind, or visit the elderly. This Sunday, retired New York Giants great George Martin is leading a fundraising walk from New York to New Jersey to raise money for the health care of thousands of rescue and recovery workers of Ground Zero who are ailing as a result of their service after 9\/11. There is no limit to what people can do to participate. Of note is that just like those who died in the horror of that September morning, those who engage in service on 9\/11 represent a wide range of political preferences, ages, races, religions, economic status and geographic locations. Unlike as suggested recently by some conservative journalists and bloggers, this 9\/11 service phenomenon is not new and is certainly not about some kind of liberal agenda intended to diminish the meaning of September 11 or redefine it for political gain. Indeed, the notion of engaging in service to mark each 9\/11 began during the Bush administration, and has been widely supported by both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. In fact, in 2004 the U.S. Congress unanimously passed House Congressional Resolution 473, saying the anniversary of September 11 should be a national day of service and compassion. In April of this year, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, substantially bi-partisan legislation that included a provision formally establishing September 11 as a \"National Day of Service and Remembrance.\" The 9\/11 community largely applauded this major step forward. And as I watched the president sign this legislation, along with members of the ServiceNation coalition and surrounded by a diverse group of political leaders, educators, students, service volunteers and others, I experienced both chills and a feeling of great warmth as I thought about my brother who died in service to others. Service as a way to honor the victims, workers and volunteers of September 11 ensures that future generations will learn not only about the attacks but about how good people around the world responded when our nation was severely wounded. Further, it serves as a productive and meaningful way forward out of the ashes of September 11 as our national challenges are now as great as ever. Some people say, \"Enough about 9\/11 already. Let's move on.\" Surely, I understand that. Even while remembering, we must move ahead. And that's really the point about this observance. Let's pay tribute to all those who were injured or who perished, like my brother, and to all those who rose in service to save and protect our nation, by looking forward and by improving the lot of those people and communities in need. This moment in history was not just about the attacks. It was also about compassion. And that is the lesson of the events of 9\/11, and for me is the essence of this National Day of Service and Remembrance. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jay S. Winuk.","highlights":"Jay Winuk: 9\/11 has been recognized as a national day of service .\nHe says it's not a day to skip work or go shopping .\nHe says people choose to do acts of kindness, large or small .\nWinuk: There's no political agenda, Bush and Obama have supported it ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Is cheese the answer for Cayuga County, New York? Larry Rosenbaum surveys the field where he hopes to build a high-end specialty cheese factory. Like small towns all across America, this agricultural community is suffering, with unemployment approaching 10 percent. Entrepreneur Larry Rosenbaum thinks he can do his part to turn things around. For a decade, the insurance man by trade has been dreaming of building a factory for high-end specialty cheese. One key selling point: His product would meet the strictest standards of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. Rosenbaum says the demand for kosher and halal cheese is high but the selection is slim. So he's been eyeing a plot of barren farmland between Aurelius and Auburn -- two Cayuga towns -- as the future home of a $40 million, 64,000-square-foot factory that would churn out feta and brie. The goal is for his company, Saratoga Cheese Corp., to produce 30 million pounds of cheese in the first year and distribute it domestically and internationally. \"It's the beginning of a trend of bringing back manufacturing industry to New York,\" said Rosenbaum. According to the Public Policy Institute of New York State, manufacturing in New York declined more than 30 percent between 1997 and 2007. Watch Rosenbaum talk about his plans \u00bb . Rosenbaum estimates that Saratoga Cheese Corp. would bring 75 factory jobs and 150 temporary construction jobs to the region. Plans also include 50 yeshiva work-study students to be placed on participating farms. In addition, several rabbis and imams would supervise production. If Saratoga Cheese can get off the ground, it could mean a boost for local farmers like Dale Hemminger, who has agreed to supply kosher milk to Saratoga Cheese Corp. Hemminger says it could be a crucial new market for his milk. And though he was at first skeptical of Rosenbaum's plan, Hemminger says he admires Rosenbaum's vision. But that vision is still $10 million short of becoming reality. Rosenbaum has secured $30 million in government grants, loans and private funding, but needs $40 million before Saratoga Cheese Corp. can break ground. Given the recession, securing the final amount is proving no small feat. According to Bill Teator, a board member of Saratoga Cheese Corp., the best-case scenario is a combination of investment by a kosher dairy company and private lending. Teator says that though investors are confident about the business plan, the economic environment makes it tough to secure the needed cash. But support from local lawmakers is abundant. Republican state Sen. Michael Nozzolio is optimistic that Saratoga Cheese Corp. will find a home in his 54th District. And with an estimated $140 million in local revenue hanging in the balance, there's reason to hope. Recession or not, Rosenbaum is steadfast in his belief. For him, it's not a question of if the factory will get built, but when. \"We're not going to quit until we make it,\" says Rosenbaum. It's a persistence that is necessary in a recession that has proved legendary.","highlights":"Entrepreneur has long dreamed of building high-end specialty cheese factory .\nHe sees plot of barren farmland as future home of $40 million feta-and-brie plant .\nKey selling point: Product would meet strict standards of Jewish, Muslim faiths .\nHe hopes factory can help turn around declines in manufacturing, employment ."} -{"article":"COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (CNN) -- World leaders gave thanks Saturday to military veterans for their efforts in the D-Day landings of 65 years ago at a ceremony in northwest France, warning that their legacy must not be forgotten as the world faces renewed threats of tyranny. President Obama and Britain's Prince Charles were among those attending the ceremony. President Obama joined Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a ceremony at the American Cemetary in Normandy, close where many died in the World War II offensive. More than 150,000 allied troops, about half of them Americans, took part in D-Day on June 6, 1944, overwhelming German forces in an operation that proved a turning point in driving the Nazis out of France. Allied forces secured the beaches at a cost of about 10,000 casualties in what was the first step in a campaign that would, in a matter of weeks, liberate Paris, which had been under Nazi occupation for more than four years. Brown praised those who fought on that day, saying, \"as long as freedom lives, their deeds will never die.\" He said their sacrifices had put obligations on people living today in what he called \"the great covenant of D-Day. \"We must be as if liberators for our day and our generation too,\" he said, citing Burma (renamed Myanmar) and Zimbabwe, as well as the \"mortal threat of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease and want.\" Obama addressed the 288 veterans said to be attending the ceremony, telling them: \"You are why we keep coming back.\" Watch Obama deliver speech to veterans \u00bb . \"You remind us that in the end, human destiny is not determined by forces beyond our control. You remind us that our future is not shaped by mere chance or circumstance. \"It has always been up to us,\" he said. Watch Obama arrive in France \u00bb . He urged the world to remember what happened at nearby Omaha Beach, one of the main landing points for U.S. troops involved in the operation. \"Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget -- what we must not forget -- is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century.\" Sarkozy described the horrors of the battle, where so many died before they were able to land that \"those who did make it ashore waded through the bodies of the dead and wounded that floated in on the tide.\" He cited a letter from a U.S. soldier who said the day \"was like a waking nightmare. The ground was so strewn with bodies that you could practically cross the beach without touching the sand.\" \"Never, never will France forget,\" he vowed. The speeches were followed by a 21-gun salute, a lone trumpter playing taps and a flyover by American, British and French jets. Among veterans attending Saturday's remembrance ceremonies will be 86-year-old former British soldier Jim Tuckwell, who said the events will help those present to remember fallen comrades lost in the heat of battle. \"There was no time to mourn, you didn't have time to mourn,\" he said, recalling the events of 1944. Read Tuckwell's story . \"And the worst thing about later battles was that when you lost people, you normally had to bury them yourself. You couldn't leave the bodies on the ground, there was nowhere else to put them.\"","highlights":"Dignitaries, World War II veterans pay tribute to D-Day fallen .\nPresident Obama, France's Sarkozy, UK's Brown among those attending .\n150,000 allied troops took part in operation on June 6, 1944 ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Chrysler and General Motors announced this week that they would shrink their dealer base in the U.S. Chrysler will close 789 dealers. General Motors announced the closing of 1,100 dealers. Chrysler will close 789 dealers, leaving them with approximately 2400 stores in the U.S. General Motors announced the closing of 1,100 dealers and hopes to be at a size of 3,600 dealers at the end of 2010. While Chrysler dealers will be \"forced out\" by June 9, GM is positioning for a smoother closing of its stores, with each shutting down when it runs out of inventory. Unlike Chrysler's announcement, GM's list of closing dealers will not be made public, leaving that decision to each dealer. What happens to my GM or Chrysler vehicle warranty? Your warranty is valid through its term, regardless of where you bought your vehicle. In March, President Obama announced that the U.S. government would provide the backing for Chrysler and GM vehicle warranties under the \"Warrantee Commitment Program.\" Can I take my vehicle for service and warranty work to another (surviving) dealer? Yes, but make sure it's a certified dealer. If you're going to take your Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicle in for warranty work, you can do so at a closing dealership until June 9. After that time, Chrysler will no longer pay those dealers for warranty work. GM vehicles will receive service and warranty work at closing dealers until they shut down. Will there be good deals on these vehicles? The Chrysler dealerships to close will have about 44,000 units on hand, or roughly what Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge sell across the country every 2-3 weeks (using April's sales numbers as a guide). There will be deals, but be warned that if those 44,000 aren't sold before June 9, Chrysler will work to redistribute them to other dealers. Whether the best deals will be had before or after June 9 is likely negligible; if you're interested in a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge product, you will save a lot of money on a new purchase right now. One important factor to keep in mind is that approximately 10% of those remaining units are 2008 vehicles. Be careful the car you're looking at hasn't been sitting on the lot inactive for too long; cars actually do \"rot.\" GM's dealer announcement is a different story, since the company isn't releasing the names of the closing dealers. Dealers who chose to disclose their shutdown may provide better deals. AOL Autos: Why do cars rot on the lot? How many people and jobs are affected by closing dealers? The impact on communities will be significant. Since dealers typically employ about 50 people and contract with a handful of suppliers (consider the business that sells paper or office furniture to each dealer), there will be impact within the community. Some economists, however, believe that the impact will be less than expected, since dealers typically have a high turnover rate and technician jobs were in a short supply already. But, the related aspects of dealer closings are certain: think of the little league baseball teams and charities that receive funding from do-gooding dealers. Even real estate is affected; car dealerships usually set the market for commercial real estate in smaller communities. When those go empty, the entire city feels the pain. AOL Autos: Pressure to buy American . Why were these dealers chosen? Both Chrysler and GM have expressed interest to shrink their dealer base. Company officials cite various data points related to choosing these dealers, but the main one is performance. GM said that the average dealer of the 1,100 affected only sold 35 cars in all of 2008. Chrysler cites similar numbers, with half their closing dealerships selling less than 100. But, even after these reductions by Chrysler and GM, they still have more dealers than other manufacturers. Using April 2009's sales data as a proxy, Toyota has approximately 95 dealers per 1 point of market share in the U.S., while Chrysler has 256 and GM will have 172 (at the end of 2010). This means that, effectively, Toyota is able to sell more vehicles per dealership. AOL Autos: Fate of the GM brands . Can dealers do anything about this? Typically, dealers would have protection under state franchise laws against such events. However, in Chrysler's case, those franchise laws are not applicable since the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chrysler dealers can (and likely will) protest the process by which they were chosen (sales volume, number of brands in the store, the area in which the dealership operated). But after June 9, the selected Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers will have to take down their signs. GM dealers will likely organize their own group, but details of that are unclear at this time. AOL Autos: Are extended warranties worth it? Even after cuts, do the big three still have too many U.S. dealers? Some companies need fewer dealers to sell the same amount of cars: . Chrysler LLC Number of dealers: 2411 Market share: 9.4 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 256 . Ford Motor Co. Number of dealers: 3723 Market share: 15.7 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 237 . General Motors Number of dealers: 3600 Market share: 20.9 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 172 AOL Autos: Six cars to save the big three . Honda Motor Co. Number of dealers: 1304 Market share: 12.4 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 105 . Toyota Motor Corp. Number of dealers: 1470 Market share: 15.4 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 95 . Market data shown reflective of April 2009, courtesy of Autodata. Chrysler dealer total is effective June 9; GM dealer total is estimate for end of 2010.","highlights":"Chrysler and General Motors announce they will shrink dealer base in U.S.\nChrysler dealers will be \"forced out\" by June 9 .\nYour warranty is valid through its term, no matter where you bought your car .\nYou will save a lot of money on a new vehicle purchase right now ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China, often criticized for its liberal use of the death penalty, will reduce the number of criminal executions it carries out, a top official said. Chinese police guard a group of prisoners outside a Beijing court on May 25, 2001, before their sentencing. \"As it is impossible for the country to abolish capital punishment under current realities and social security conditions, it is an important effort to strictly control the application of the penalty by judicial organs,\" Zhang Jun, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said in an interview with Legal Daily, the state-run China Daily reported. \"Judicial departments should use the least number of death sentences as possible, and death penalties should not be given to those having a reason for not being executed,\" Zhang said. Legislation will be enacted to restrict the number of death sentences imposed and the court will tighten restrictions on the use of capital punishment, according to Zhang. The sentence of \"death penalty with reprieve\" will be used more often in courts, Zhang said, which could be commuted to life in prison. The term could later be shortened to 20 years and possibly reduced further for good behavior. China will retain the death sentence, according to Zhang, adding that it should be applied to \"an extremely small number\" of serious offenders. Human rights groups estimate 1,700 to 5,000 people were executed in China last year for crimes such as spying, corruption and drug trafficking. The official number of executions is a state secret. The death penalty remains an iconic form of punishment in China, where executions are used as a public warning. Sentencing is broadcast on national television. Two years ago, however, the Supreme Court was given the authority to review death penalty cases and, last year, 10 percent of death sentences were overturned. Criminals who've expressed remorse or agreed to compensate victims' families have had their sentences reduced. The death penalty will now be reserved for those who commit heinous crimes with \"grave social consequences,\" the government said. It's a step in the right direction, China analysts say. But they criticize the move as being too ambiguous and remain skeptical that it will lead to an actual reduction in executions. \"This is a small incremental step, but a step in the right direction,\" said Victor Gao, a director of the China National Association of International Studies. \"While other countries have abolished the death penalty because they think it is cruel and unusual punishment, China has decided it wants to keep the death penalty.\" Crimes with \"grave social consequences\" is a \"broad, catch-all concept which can be interpreted flexibly,\" Gao said. CNN's Emily Chang contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government: Execution only for heinous crimes with \"grave social consequences\"\nHuman rights groups estimate 1,700-5,000 people were executed in China last year .\nSupreme Court overturned 10 percent of death sentences last year after review .\n\"This is a small incremental step, but a step in the right direction,\" Victor Gao says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Palestinians, including two sick children, have died recently while waiting for resettlement from Iraq, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie visits the Al Waleed refugee camp in August. About 2,000 Palestinian refugees are stranded in camps along the Syrian border and face difficult living conditions, including limited medical care, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The agency has appealed for the resettlement of \"vulnerable and sick\" children in Al Waleed refugee camp at the Iraqi-Syrian border. One of those who died in the camp was a 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was suffering from rickets and pneumonia. He died a few days ago in a Ramadi hospital and then was buried in Al Waleed. The other was a 14-year-old suffering from Hodgkin's disease who died in Baghdad last week. A 50-year-old man who was waiting to be resettled died earlier this month in Al Waleed. The agency says seven people, including three children, have died at the camp since refugees fleeing attackers began arriving at the border in March 2006. About 30 to 40 people arrive at the Al Waleed camp each week, the UNHCR reports. The agency has been pursuing medical resettlement. \"UNHCR has helped resettle one family of eight with several sick children from this camp to Norway last August. Another 11 medical cases submitted for resettlement are awaiting approval,\" the agency said, which is working to identify other medical cases. And it is urging the resettlement of the entire group. \"UNHCR has sought solutions for the whole group since last year and has only received positive indications from Sudan and Chile,\" the agency said. Thousands of Palestinians have lived in Iraq, with some going there when Israel was formed and others born there. The UNHCR notes that some got \"preferential treatment\" under the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But they have been the targets of violence since he was toppled. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.N. agency appeals for medical resettlement of Palestinians in Iraq camps .\nAbout 2,000 Palestinians in camps along Iraq-Syria border .\n30 to 40 refugees arrive at border camp each week, UNHCR says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspected link between Chinese drywall and toxic effects reported by thousands of U.S. homeowners was strengthened Monday by three preliminary reports issued by the federal government. The strongest link came from an analysis of air sampled inside dozens of homes containing drywall made in China. \"While the study of 51 homes detected hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde ... at concentrations below irritant levels, it is possible that the additive or synergistic effects of these and other compounds in the subject homes could cause irritant effects,\" the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in its executive summary of the study. Two other preliminary studies found copper sulfide corrosion in metal components taken from homes containing the Chinese drywall. The drywall in question was imported from 2005 through 2007, when a housing boom and two active hurricane seasons created a shortage of building materials in the southern United States. Since then, the product safety agency has received nearly 2,100 reports from 32 states -- but mostly from Florida, Louisiana and Virginia -- of homeowners complaining of a rotten-egg smell, sickness, failed appliances, and corroded wires and pipes. Many have moved out of their homes. In some cases, insurers have refused to reimburse them. The air study tested 41 houses containing Chinese drywall and compared those findings with air from inside 10 homes in the same geographical areas whose homeowners had not complained, said Jack McCarthy, president of Environmental Health & Engineering Inc., which carried out the work. The investigators also examined materials such as copper pipes and wiring for corrosion, and looked at indoor air humidity, temperature and air exchange, he said. Copper and silver strips were left in the homes for two weeks and then examined for corrosion, he said. The result: in the 41 homes containing the problem drywall, there was a \"strong association\" between the high levels of hydrogen sulfide and the corrosion of the metals, he said. \"Temperature, humidity and air-exchange rates also appear to be contributing factors,\" McCarthy told reporters on a conference call, noting that higher moisture and temperature levels and lower air-exchange rates were connected with more corrosion. Formaldehyde, also a potential source of irritation, was found in both complaint and noncomplaint homes, he said. Though McCarthy cautioned that the study was not intended to examine health effects, \"we can say that the levels of the pollutants we found, particularly the hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde, could possibly contribute to some of the health problems that have been reported to the CPSC.\" McCarthy also said that not all Chinese drywall may be alike. Its risk \"depends on what it is made of, not necessarily what country it's from,\" he said. The next step is to determine how to identify homes with the corrosive materials and how to fix them, said Scott Wolfson, the product safety agency's director of information and public affairs, who noted that the investigation is the largest in the agency's history. He said none of the tainted drywall entered the United States this year. Hundreds of thousands of suspect boards have been stockpiled in warehouses; their owners have been told it will not be sold, he added. Several weeks ago, agency representatives traveled to China, where they visited mines, factories and government officials to determine the scope of the problem, which is still not clear, Wolfson said. \"The CPSC is working hard to determine how many homes in how many states are affected,\" he said, adding that the data do not support the widely reported figure of 100,000 homes. Wolfson said the Chinese helped investigate. \"They're committed to helping us with the technical side of this investigation,\" he said. Though the study raises suspicions that the drywall is responsible for the health effects reported by some families, Wolfson said a causal association has not been proved. \"The work continues,\" he said. \"The work toward an exact nexus between drywall and effects is still ongoing.\" Wolfson called on the news media to help alert homeowners in affected houses to report the problem. Some may be hesitant to report because they are afraid their insurers will drop their coverage, he said, but he pointed out that the reports can be made confidentially. \"We will make sure that you are not harmed in any way by reporting to the government,\" he said. Monday's report did not surprise Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, who said the product safety commission's chairwoman, Inez Tenenbaum, told him Monday she did not know when further testing would be completed. \"I am very disappointed with the whole process, and especially that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] can't say whether drywall is harmful to people's health,\" he told CNN. \"Common sense says otherwise, but we still lack definitive answers.\" Joan Glickman, who moved out of her townhouse in Pompano Beach, Florida, after her wiring and air conditioning failed, said Monday's report told her nothing new. \"It was a huge letdown because it still didn't tell me how to fix it, who's going to fix it, how do we go about fixing it, where the money comes from,\" said Glickman, who moved in with her mother. \"This has left us in such a mess.\" CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this story from Miami, Florida.","highlights":"Air samples from 41 homes containing drywall made in China are analyzed .\n\"Strong association\" found between high hydrogen sulfide levels, corrosion in the homes .\nNearly 2,100 reports detail smell, sickness, failed appliances, corrosion in homes .\nDrywall in question was imported during U.S. housing boom, from 2005 through 2007 ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- President George W. Bush called India's prime minister Thursday to push a proposed nuclear partnership that sparked an unsuccessful no-confidence vote against the Indian leader this week, a White House spokesman said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a confidence vote despite opposition to the nuclear deal. \"Both leaders expressed their desire to see the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible,\" Gordon Johndroe said. The phone call took place two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh narrowly survived the no-confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament. The vote was sparked by concerns from the opposition that India was kowtowing to the U.S. The tentative deal was announced in 2006 and signed by Bush and Singh a year ago. Under the agreement, which will need to be approved by the U.S. Congress, India would have access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology for its civilian nuclear power plants. That would happen even though New Delhi, which tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998, has declined to join international non-proliferation agreements. In return, India has promised that it would not transfer the fuel and equipment to its weapons program, and it would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect at least 14 of its 22 nuclear plants. The plan would also expand U.S.-Indian cooperation in energy and satellite technology. The plan was approved by India's Cabinet last year, and does not have to be ratified by the parliament. The leaders of India's two communist parties -- which hold about 60 seats in Parliament -- have accused Singh of surrendering India's sovereignty to the United States with the deal. A no-confidence vote would have forced Singh to resign, and required the government to hold early elections unless a new coalition could have been formed. The Congress Party-led coalition has governed India since 2004. Tuesday's 275-256 vote was so crucial to the survival of Singh's government that five members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to cast votes -- under the watchful eyes of their jailers. Shortly after Singh survived the vote, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino praised the deal as \"a good one for everybody.\" \"It's good for India because it would help provide them a source for energy that they need, one that is nonpolluting and one that doesn't emit greenhouse gas emissions,\" she said. \"And we think that we can move forward with this. If their legislature lets it move forward, then we can do the same here and then we'll be able to get this wrapped up.\"","highlights":"President Bush calls India's PM to push a proposed nuclear partnership .\nIndian government won confidence vote in face of anger over U.S. nuclear deal .\nFive members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to vote ."} -{"article":"SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (CNN) -- Honduras' interim government on Sunday rejected a proposal to reinstate ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya, ending a round of negotiations aimed at resolving the country's political crisis. Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted from the Honduran presidency on June 28. The proposal had been presented by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who was mediating the talks between the two Honduran sides at his home over the weekend. \"I'm very sorry, but the proposal you presented [is] unacceptable by the government of Honduras that I represent,\" Carlos Lopez, who was representing interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti at the weekend negotiations, said of the proposal advanced by Arias. Representatives of Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup, said this marked the end of talks with Honduras' interim government. The weekend's talks were the second attempt by Arias to negotiate a resolution. He vowed Sunday to continue his mediation efforts. \"I want to take 72 hours to continue working, even more arduously this time, to see if we can really reach an agreement between the parties in this conflict,\" Arias said. Arias expressed concern that violence could ignite in Honduras if the sides stop talking, and that a civil war could result. Shortly after announcing the end of the negotiations, Lopez indicated in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that Micheletti's delegation would be open to further talks in the future. At a news conference later Sunday, the head of the Organization of American States said he had been enthusiastic about the proposal advanced by Arias. \"We regret deeply the attitude of Micheletti,\" said OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. \"I think [the proposal] was a good one.\" The proposal, presented by Arias to both sides on Saturday, would have returned Zelaya to the Honduran presidency. It would also have compelled Zelaya to abandon efforts to modify the country's presidential term limits. In remarks to reporters before starting Sunday's talks, representatives of Zelaya said he accepted the seven-point proposal. Micheletti has said he would not accept Zelaya's return as president, and remarks by Zelaya printed in a Brazilian newspaper contradicted Zelaya's acceptance of the proposal, Micheletti negotiator Arturo Corrales said. In Sunday's editions of the Folha newspaper, Zelaya was quoted in support of continuing with his push for a reform to term limits. \"We cannot betray the people and abandon the process,\" the paper quoted Zelaya as saying. \"Yesterday they said one thing, and today another,\" Micheletti negotiator Corrales said, adding that Zelaya's remarks broke the good faith behind the talks. The newspaper, however, noted that Zelaya was interviewed one day before he agreed to Arias' seven-point proposal. Zelaya was removed from office June 28 in a military-led coup that has drawn international condemnation. Congressional leader Micheletti was sworn in hours later as provisional president. Micheletti and his supporters, including the Honduran supreme court, congress and the military, argue that the action was not a coup, but a constitutional transfer of power. Other steps proposed by Arias included moving up elections scheduled for late November, establishing a national unity government, providing amnesty for all political crimes and setting up an international commission to oversee implementation of the accord. Under Arias' proposal, oversight of the Honduran military would have switched from the executive branch of government to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal one month before the elections. Delegations representing Zelaya and Micheletti also met at Arias' home in Costa Rica last week but did not reach an accord. Zelaya, a leftist who took office in 2006 on a narrow victory, had been at odds with Honduran lawmakers, the country's supreme court and the military over his attempts for a referendum. He sought the referendum, which he planned to hold last month, to see if voters wanted a measure on November's ballot to establish a constitutional assembly to study whether a president could run for re-election. Under the current charter, a president can serve only one four-year term. Congress had forbidden the referendum and the supreme court ruled it illegal. The military declined to participate in its usual role of safeguarding the vote, saying it could not take part in an illegal act. Zelaya vowed to hold the vote anyway, but was toppled before the voting started.","highlights":"Talks between Honduras' interim government, ousted president end without deal .\nInterim government's representative: Proposal to reinstate Zelaya \"unacceptable\"\nZelaya had OK'd proposal presented by Costa Rican president, who was mediating .\nZelaya was removed from office June 28 after he pushed for term-limit reform ."} -{"article":"A Saudi Arabian man who was arrested for bragging about his sex life on television has apologized for his comments while Saudi authorities discuss whether he should be charged with a crime, according to local media. Mazen Abdul Jawad appeared earlier this month on Lebanese channel LBC's show \"Red Lines,\" on which he discussed foreplay, sexual conquests and how he picks up women, all taboo subjects in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi daily newspaper Arab News, Abdul Jawad has initiated a damage-control campaign and on Sunday \"appeared in the pages of a local newspaper apparently wiping away tears from a handkerchief as he apologized and begged for forgiveness.\" Abdul Jawad is a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four. In Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal and unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle. According to Arab News, Abdul Jawad is not in jail and is considering filing a complaint against the show's producers for presenting him \"in the worst possible manner by taking two hours of footage and condensing it down to a minutes-long segment.\" Ashraf Al-Sarraj, the lawyer representing Abdul Jawad in his possible complaint against LBC, told Arab News, \"We will study the case and eventually present it to the Ministry of Information.\" According to the paper, \"LBC refused to comment on the matter until it has more time to formulate a response.\" The segment in question has, since its initial broadcast, been posted on YouTube and been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. It includes scenes of Abdul Jawad discussing his enjoyment of sex and how he lost his virginity at age 14. Abdul Jawad is also shown in his bedroom, where he holds up sexual aids to the camera. It ends with him cruising the streets of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in his car and looking for women. CNN has been unable to reach Abdul Jawad, the Saudi Ministry of Justice or the Saudi Ministry of Information for comment.","highlights":"Mazen Abdul Jawad apologizes for discussing sex life on TV, reports say .\nSaudi authorities debating whether charges should be filed, reports say .\nJawad appeared earlier this month on a show on Lebanese channel .\nIn deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- While many now recognize the scientific explanation for a solar eclipse, the phenomenon is still marked with tradition and sometimes suspicion in Hindu-majority India. People test the \"sky watching telescope\" at the Gujarat Council of Science City in India. The \"exceptionally long\" eclipse that will cross half the planet Wednesday will be able to be seen by virtually all of the population of China and India. For beggars in India, the occasion means an extra day of receiving alms and food. The panhandler in Sandeep Jaggi's neighborhood normally visits the block every week on Tuesdays and Saturdays, as well as the days of a new and full moon. And because his patrons mark an eclipse with alms-giving, prayers and bathing, he rarely misses the chance to meet them on this day as well. \"It's a family tradition and I follow it,\" says 34-year-old Jaggi. He will fill the beggar's small steel pail with mustard oil and coins and his disheveled sash with lentils. For others in the country, the eclipse is not a reason to celebrate, but a more ominous phenomenon. Send us your photos of the eclipse . Most pregnant women hope to avoid giving birth during an eclipse. \"None of the expectant mothers under my treatment are willing to have deliveries on Wednesday,\" Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynecologist at New Delhi's Fortis La Femme hospital, told CNN. In fact, there are critically ill patients who do not want to be in the hospital on the day of the eclipse, she said. Indian astrologers even advise expectant mothers to stay indoors when this celestial event occurs. \"It may not cause any physical harm to the baby, but it may affect the child's overall personality,\" said R.K. Sharma, who describes himself as a \"remedial astrologer.\" A solar eclipse, he says, weakens the sun god temporarily because of an encounter with dragon Rahu and leaves some cascading results everywhere. \"Bathing in holy rivers and ponds during this time thus helps protect health and develop positivism and greater will power,\" he explained. About 1.5 million people are expected at one such pond -- the Brahmsarovar, or the pool of Hindu god Brahma -- in northern India on Wednesday. \"They offer prayers to the sun god and take holy dips during an eclipse,\" said Ashok Kumar Bansal, the sub-divisional magistrate of Kurukshetra, an ancient Hindu city. But the century's longest total solar eclipse is not just about the dragon-sun combat, it also means business for some. Travel firms in India have plans in place to cash in on the phenomenon. Cox and Kings India has a planeload of eclipse watchers heading for the eastern state of Bihar, one of the most preferred locations for sighting the event. The plane will hover over Gaya in Bihar and return to New Delhi the same day, company spokesman Thomas C. Thottathil told CNN. Passengers were given two options: to book a \"sunside\" seat facing the eclipse for about $1,640, or reserve an \"earthside\" seat for about $610, Thottathil added. \"And it's a sold out flight now!\" he said.","highlights":"Solar eclipse marked with tradition and often suspicion in Hindu-majority India .\nMost pregnant women in India hope to avoid giving birth during eclipse .\nSome critically ill patients do not want to be in hospital on day of eclipse .\nAstrologer: Eclipse weakens sun god because of encounter with dragon Rahu ."} -{"article":"OMAHA, Nebraska (CNN) -- Investigators probing the deadly mall shooting in Omaha have seized computers and are analyzing information on Web sites in the search for clues in the case, police said Thursday. The 19-year-old gunman sent at least one text message to his former girlfriend, with whom he broke up about two weeks ago, Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said. Robert Hawkins also left a voice mail for his mother before killing eight people at a department store Wednesday. He chose his victims randomly, police believe, then took his own life. Hawkins visited a friend near the Westroads Mall before the shootings and apparently went directly to the shopping center after that meeting, Warren said. Police don't yet know why Hawkins chose the mall or the Von Maur department store in particular, Warren said, adding only that the teen \"may have frequented the Westroads Mall.\" See who Hawkins killed in department store \u00bb . The incident itself appeared to be premeditated, as Hawkins left a suicide note and other correspondence, Warren said. Watch officials detail the rampage \u00bb . \"Typically there are hints that something like this may take place,\" Warren said. \"Certainly you can't anticipate someone engaging in this type of shooter rampage, but if there is any justification, any explanation,\" police will find it, he said. \"Apparently he had been experiencing some mental health problems, ideations of suicide.\" Debora Maruca-Kovac -- a friend of Hawkins' family who was letting him live in her home -- found the suicide note just minutes before the shootings. Watch her describe their last conversation \u00bb . \"He basically said how sorry he was for everything,\" she told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. \"He didn't want to be a burden to people and that he was a piece of s--- all of his life and that now he'd be famous.\" Warren said the rifle used was an AK-47. Police haven't finished tracing the gun, but believe Hawkins stole it from his stepfather's home. Security officers flagged Hawkins as suspicious when he entered the mall. He left soon after he entered, then returned less than six minutes later with something apparently hidden in a balled-up sweatshirt. He went up an elevator to the mall's third floor, then immediately began firing, ultimately turning the firearm on himself, Warren said. \"It doesn't appear as though there was an opportunity for intervention,\" Warren said. Hawkins fired more than 30 rounds, the police chief said. The shootings sent panicked holiday shoppers fleeing for cover. \"It was just so loud, and then it was silence,\" said witness Jennifer Kramer, who hid inside a circular clothing rack. \"I was scared to death he'd be walking around looking for someone else.\" Watch how Kramer and her mother hid \u00bb . A friend of Hawkins' said he hadn't thought Hawkins was capable of such violence. \"He was the one guy, you know, if people would be getting in a fight he'd be trying to break it up,\" said Shawn Saunders, who had known Hawkins for about 2\u00bd years. \"If there were arguments amongst our friends or groups, he was kind of like the calm, cool and collected one.\" Watch how Saunders learned Hawkins was the shooter \u00bb . Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said Hawkins had been a ward of the state for nearly four years, but he did not specify in what capacity. The state's custody ended in August of last year, Heineman said. U.S. Army recruiters turned Hawkins down last summer when he tried to enlist, a source familiar with the situation said Thursday. The source didn't want to be named because it is against the military's rules to discuss potential recruits. The reason for his rejection was unclear. Heineman ordered that flags throughout the state be lowered to half-staff through Sunday. The dead include six store employees and two customers, ranging in age from 24 to 66. One store employee was in critical but stable condition Thursday and another had been upgraded from critical to serious, according to hospital officials. Another person was still being treated Thursday afternoon, Warren said, but he did not specify whether the individual was a customer or employee. Two other customers had been treated and released, he said. Westroads Mall remained closed Thursday, but the facility, including the Von Maur store, could reopen Friday. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police confiscate computers, examine information on Web sites .\nGunman may have frequented the Westroads Mall, police say .\nMall shooter was ward of state for almost four years, governor says .\nArmy recruiters turned down Robert Hawkins when he tried to enlist ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A day before embarking on a trip to Latin America, President Obama described his planned talks with Latin American leaders as discussions among equals. President Obama refuses to criticize Latin American leaders. \"Times have changed,\" Obama told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol Wednesday. Referring to his planned meeting later this week with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, he said, \"My relationship with President Lula is one of two leaders who both have big countries, that we are trying to solve problems and create opportunities for our people and we should be partners. \"There's no senior partner or junior partner.\" Obama and Lula da Silva are among leaders scheduled to attend the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Obama refused to criticize the leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, who have taken measures to change their constitutions to extend their holds on power. \"I think it's important for the United States not to tell other countries how to structure their democratic practices and what should be contained in their constitutions,\" he said. \"It's up to the people of those countries to make a decision about how they want to structure their affairs.\" Asked how he plans to interact with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States who once described former President George Bush as the devil, Obama offered no criticism. \"Look, he's the leader of his country and he'll be one of many people that I will have an opportunity to meet.\" Though he said he believes the United States has a leadership role to play in the region, Obama qualified that role, saying, \"We also recognize that other countries have important contributions and insights. We want to listen and learn as well as talk, and that approach, I think, of mutual respect and finding common interests, is one that ultimately will serve everybody.\" Asked about Cuba, Obama, who recently eased restrictions on travel and sending money to the island, offered a prod and a carrot to Havana. \"What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted,\" he said. \"And if there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we can see a further thawing of relations and further changes.\" Obama sought to distance his administration from that of his predecessor, noting that he plans to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where \"some of the practices of enhanced interrogation techniques, I think ran counter to American values and American traditions.\" He said his team has spoken with the Spanish government about a Spanish judge's call for an investigation into the role of Bush administration officials in the detention of five Spaniards at Guantanamo. But he did not dwell on his predecessor's legacy. \"I'm a strong believer that it is important to look forward and not backward and to remind ourselves that we do have very real security threats out there.\" Though the U.S. image abroad may have suffered in recent years, \"there's a reason why there are consistently so many immigrants to our country from Latin America,\" he said. Obama lauded Mexican President Felipe Calderon, with whom he is to meet Thursday in Mexico City, as having done \"an outstanding and heroic job in dealing with what is a big problem right now along the borders with the drug cartels.\" He vowed that the United States can be counted on to help. \"We are going to be dealing not only with drug interdiction coming north, but also working on helping to curb the flow of cash and guns going south,\" Obama said. Obama described himself as \"a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform,\" and said he has met with the congressional Hispanic Caucus \"to try to shape an agenda that can move through Congress.\"","highlights":"Obama heading to Summit of Americas this week in Trinidad and Tobago .\nHe says U.S. should not tell \"countries how to structure their democratic practices\"\n\"We want to listen and learn as well as talk,\" Obama says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A car bomb attack in Algeria has killed three people and wounded 23, the Algerian Press Service reported. An Algerian policeman stands in front of destroyed buildings in Thenia. The attack occurred Tuesday near an office housing judicial police in the city of Thenia, about 50 km (31 miles) east of the capital of Algiers, the agency said. The blast destroyed about 20 houses, and a commission has been appointed to look after the victims, the press agency said. Islamic extremists in Algeria and other North African countries have struck several times in recent years. An al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility last year for the deadliest attack in Algiers in 10 years, a bombing that destroyed the prime minister's headquarters and a police base, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 220. Al Qaeda also took responsibility for a January 2 bombing that killed four and wounded 20 at a building housing security forces in Naciria, a city about 50 km (31 miles) east of Algiers. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Attack occurred near an office housing judicial police in the city of Thenia .\nThe blast destroyed about 20 houses; 23 also injured .\nAl Qaeda also took responsibility for a January 2 bombing that killed four ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- We remember Henry Ford as the automotive magnate who perfected assembly line technology, but he also dabbled in ambitious social programs, including one in which he hired ex-convicts straight out of Sing Sing to staff his factories. Henry Ford, pictured in 1942, unsuccessfully attempted to increase the rubber supply with a plantation in Brazil. Although many of these efforts were successful, Ford's ill-fated foray into the Brazilian jungle was a notable and fascinating exception. The plan . If you're going to make millions of cars, you're going to need an awful lot of rubber. In 1927, Ford came up with a novel plan: He'd solve his rubber problem and test out his lofty theories about social planning. If everything went well, he could craft both a utopia full of healthy, productive workers and a direct pipeline of coveted rubber to Detroit. Ford approached the task with characteristic zeal. He talked the Brazilian government into granting him 10,000 square kilometers of land in the Amazon rain forest -- a plot that was nearly twice as big as the state of Delaware -- in exchange for a 9 percent cut of the plantation's profits. In theory, this setup seemed like one of Ford's ideas that would shake out pretty well, and in 1928, Ford sent a barge full of supplies from Michigan down to his new plantation town, which was dubbed \"Fordlandia.\" Growing rubber in the jungle . Unfortunately for Ford's stockholders, though, the captain of industry didn't always have a great eye for detail. (One famous story about Ford was that he disliked accountants so fiercely that he never had his company audited. By the end of his tenure, the Ford Motor Company allegedly had no idea exactly how much it cost to build a car.) Ford didn't check to see if the plantation was suitable for growing rubber. According to Greg Grandin, author of \"Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City,\" Ford never consulted any sort of expert on rubber cultivation; he just sent a bunch of supplies and managers into the jungle hoping to grow some rubber. Mental Floss: Henry Ford and others who survived bankruptcy . Ford was legendarily contemptuous of experts, but he could have saved some serious dough if he'd just hired a consultant to tell him that the plantation wasn't at all suitable for growing rubber. The land wasn't very fertile, but that wasn't the main problem. The real difficulty was that it's practically impossible to farm rubber in a plantation setting in the Amazon rainforest. To grow the trees on a commercial scale, you've got to pack them in fairly close together, and at that point they become incredibly susceptible to blight and insect attacks. Fordlandia's trees were no exception, and caterpillars and blight quickly decimated the fields. Not exactly a worker's paradise . Obviously, the rubber production part of the Fordlandia got off to a rocky start. How was the \"worker's paradise\" part of things going, though? Even more abysmally. The American managers and their families that Ford imported from Michigan weren't accustomed to the sweltering Brazilian heat and headed back north with an alarming frequency. The heavy machinery used on the plantation left deep ruts in the soft soil, which collected stagnant water and became breeding grounds for malaria-ridden mosquitoes. Ford had attempted to design Fordlandia like any American town, complete with schools, restaurants, a golf course, and shops. The catch here, though, was that the indigenous Brazilians who farmed the rubber weren't used to living in a stylized American community. Worse still, the plantation's workers were expected to work a strict shift from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., whereas normal harvesting practices in the region saw workers hit the fields before dawn, take a long break, and then head out again at twilight to save themselves the misery of working in the tropical midday heat. Food fights . Ford's influence extended all the way down to the residents' diets, and while the indigenous workers weren't crazy about having to eat American foods, they were livid about having to eat in a cafeteria setting rather than enjoying the homestyle meals to which they were accustomed. Eventually, the workers decided they'd had enough of the affront of cafeteria dining and rioted during a meal. Mental Floss: Three historical food fights . As the American managers fled to the safety of boats, the workers destroyed their mess hall and continued to riot until Brazilian soldiers came in to suppress violence. Another sticking point for the workers was Ford's insistence that his model community be entirely free of alcohol and tobacco. Although Prohibition wasn't exactly an unqualified success at home, and although alcohol was still legal in Brazil, Ford stayed firm on his booze ban. Workers who needed a drink were forced just outside the city limits to buy a bottle of cachaca; enterprising liquor salesman could simply paddle by on the river and unload their wares. Mental Floss: Why is the drinking age 21? End of the road . Eventually, even though Henry Ford steadfastly insisted that the community could thrive and help introduce American-style industrialization to the rest of the world, it became abundantly clear that the noble Fordlandia experiment was a flop. After the perfection of synthetic rubber in 1945, Ford sold the plantation at a $20 million loss and left Brazil. Just how much of a fiasco was the Fordlandia experiment? Although Ford spent 17 years trying to produce rubber on the plantation, no Ford car ever rolled off the assembly line with a single bit of Fordlandia's rubber in it. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The auto magnate set up a plantation in the Amazon rain forest to produce rubber .\nHe didn't research the land and found out to late it wasn't suitable for growing rubber .\nBrazilian workers rioted against U.S.-style mess hall, ban on alcohol .\nFord ultimately sold the plantation at a $20 million loss ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 22-year-old college student in Boston, Massachusetts, has been charged with murder in connection with the death of a woman who may have been contacted through a Craigslist ad, police said. Police found Julissa Brisman, 26, unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds on April 14. She later died. Philip Markoff, a pre-med student at Boston University with no criminal record, also was charged with the armed robbery and kidnapping of another victim, Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced Monday evening. Markoff, who was under police surveillance, was arrested earlier in the afternoon after a traffic stop south of the city, police said. Markoff is suspected in the death of New York City resident Julissa Brisman, 26, who was found unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel on April 14. She was transferred to Boston Medical Center, where she died from her injuries shortly afterward. Police said that Brisman, a model, offered massages via Craigslist, a popular online classified ads service. The confrontation between Brisman and her killer seems to have begun as an attempted robbery, police said. \"It appears that there was a struggle between the victim and the suspect in the threshold of the hotel room immediately prior to the shooting,\" the Boston Police Department said in a statement posted on its Web site. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blonde man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, said the Boston Police Department, which had asked for the public's help in identifying the man. Police did not release a photo of Markoff on Monday. Four days before Brisman's killing, Markoff allegedly robbed a 29-year-old woman at gunpoint at a Westin Hotel in Boston, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said. A police spokesman would not disclose the details of her Craigslist ad but said she and Brisman were \"involved in similar professions.\" \"This is a compelling case with a myriad of evidence -- with computer evidence being a part of it,\" Conley said, adding that additional search warrants would be executed this week. Markoff's arraignment was set for Tuesday morning at the Boston Municipal Court. It was not immediately clear if he had retained defense counsel. Davis and Conley warned there may be other victims that come forward in the case. \"We would like to make one final pitch to those out there who may have been a victim of robbery at the hands of Philip Markoff, especially those who may have used Craigslist in the manner in which the victim used Craigslist,\" he said. Authorities received more than 150 leads in the case, which Davis credited to the popularity of the Web site. \"The public came forth, they were fascinated by this crime,\" he said, adding, \"I wish we had this level of cooperation in every homicide that occurred.\" Davis said Boston investigators were working with police in Warwick, Rhode Island, in what could be a related case. On April 16 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, according to Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, according to McCartney. He said no conclusions could be made, but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Watch police say assailant is perusing Craigslist ads \u00bb . Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said the company was \"horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence.\" He promised that Craigslist would evaluate the incident to see if additional measures could be introduced to further protect users. CNN's Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police make public plea to \"those who may have been a victim\" on site .\nPolice charge 22-year-old Phil Markoff in woman's slaying .\nSuspect also charged in kidnapping, armed robbery of another victim .\nWoman found with gunshot wounds was model who advertised on Craigslist ."} -{"article":"PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Wendell Potter says he is finished defending the insurance industry, which he says is \"beholden to Wall Street.\" Wendell Potter once was a vice president in the public relations department for insurance giant Cigna. At a hearing last week before the Senate Commerce Committee, the former vice president of corporate communications at the insurance giant Cigna testified, \"I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry.\" The committee's chairman, Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, told Potter, \"You are better than Russell Crowe on 'The Insider,' \" referring to the award-winning 1999 film about cigarette company executive Jeffrey Wigand, who blew the whistle on the tobacco industry's practices. In his testimony and during an interview with CNN, Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies. Industry executives refer to the practice as \"purging,\" Potter said. \"When that business comes up for renewal, the underwriters jack the rates up so much, the employer has no choice but to drop insurance,\" Potter said. CNN obtained a transcript of a 2008 Cigna conference call with investors in which company executives use the term \"purge.\" But in an e-mail to CNN, Cigna spokesman Chris Curran denied the company engages in purging. \"We do not practice that. We will offer rates that are reflective of the competitive group health insurance market. We always encourage our clients to compare our proposed rates to those available from other carriers,\" Curran wrote. Cigna had revenue of $19.1 billion in 2008, according to the company Web site. P . \"It was almost like an electrical jolt,\" Potter said. At the event, Potter took pictures of doctors offering free health care to the uninsured. \"The volunteer doctors were seeing patients in barns, people in animal stalls,\" Potter said. \"It changed it for me.\" He says he finally decided to quit in 2007 after Cigna's controversial handling of an insurance claim made by the family of a California teenager, Nataline Sarkysian. The Sarkysian family made repeated appeals at news conferences for Cigna to approve a liver transplant for the 17-year-old, who had leukemia. Cigna initially declined to cover the operation, then reversed its decision. Sarkysian died hours after the company's reversal. As Cigna's spokesman during the controversy, Potter had no role in the decision to deny coverage. But he was inundated with angry phone calls. \"After she died, my voice mail and my e-mail inbox were just filled with messages from people who were just outraged, \" Potter said. Now a senior fellow on health care for the nonpartisan watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, Potter writes a blog on health care reform. In particular, he is keeping an eye on efforts to defeat legislation that would give Americans the option of joining a government health care plan, something he now supports. He says he witnessed how the insurance industry torpedoed health care reform efforts during the Clinton administration. \"They conduct what I call duplicitous PR campaigns. They'll say what people want to hear,\" Potter says. \"It's how they operate. You cannot trust these guys.\" Potter is also taking aim at some of the TV commercials aired by groups opposed to changes. One such ad caught Potter's eye. Run by the conservative organization Patients United Now, the ad says that \"now, Washington wants to bring Canadian-style health care to the U.S.\" \"Sometimes you'll see misleading information. And sometimes you'll see outright lies, like that [ad] is,\" Potter said, referring to the spot. Patients United Now spokeswoman Amy Menefee disagreed. \"We're not saying there's a Canada health care act of 2009,\" Menefee said. \"It is a trend. It's trending in that direction.\" Potter notes that the leading proposals for health care in Congress do not seek to set up Canadian-style health care in the United States. He says claims that overhauling the system would lead to \"rationing\" of care are missing his point. \"What we have is rationing by corporate executives who are beholden to Wall Street. And it happens all the time,\" Potter said.","highlights":"Wendell Potter says insurance companies only out to please Wall Street investors .\nCigna would make it hard to renew policies for some expensive clients, he says .\nFormer PR executive left the company after teenager died awaiting transplant .\nCigna says it does not purge and encourages business to compare rates ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Robert Barnett, a prominent Washington attorney, has worked on eight national presidential campaigns, focusing on debate preparation. He played the role of George H.W. Bush in practice debates with Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and with Michael Dukakis in 1988, and practice debated Bill Clinton more than 20 times during the 1992 campaign. He also played the role of Dick Cheney in 2000 and 2004 and helped prepare Hillary Clinton for 23 primary debates for the 2008 nomination. Barnett spoke with CNNI's Michael Holmes. Robert Barnett has been in practice debates with Democrats from Geraldine Ferraro to Bill Clinton. CNN: How does Tuesday night's town hall format differ from other debates? Barnett: The individuals will not necessarily express the question as a journalist would. So, for example, one of these people will probably not ask about Internal Revenue Service Code section 341, but rather will ask about their taxes and their tax burdens and what they care about with respect to taxation. And so you have to be very careful to be sure you understand what the individual is asking about and you have to be particularly careful to answer the question, because if you don't, you risk alienating the questioner and the audience and the listeners. CNN: You're in a unique position. You have prepped, I think, seven or eight presidential campaigns. You've done debate prep, you've stood in and played the role of Dick Cheney and others. What's that like? What are you trying to do to prepare the candidate, any candidate? Barnett: If I'm playing the surrogate, if you will, if I'm the Republican for a Democrat, I try to prepare myself -- not to imitate; I'm not Darrell Hammond or Dana Carvey. I'm not that talented. But I try to be ready with what my candidate that I'm playing, if you will, has said -- the exact words used, the way they counterattack, the way they attack. And I try to make sure that the candidate I'm working with, meaning the Democrat, has heard just about everything that they could hear from their opponent before they ever walk on the stage. CNN: Do you try to bait them, get them to bite a little and then say that's not what you should be doing? Barnett: Well, it can get pretty contested. When I prepared with Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 when she was running against then-vice president George Herbert Walker Bush, I baited her a lot and she got so angry with me that she frequently walked over to me and slugged me on the arm. So I left the process black and blue. CNN: When you're doing that sort of thing, how direct can you be with the candidate? Or do you have to treat them with a bit of kid gloves? Barnett: I treat them with no kid gloves. It's fair to say I'm direct, I make sure they hear everything from me before they hear it on the stage and maybe hear it even a little more aggressively so they can be prepared.","highlights":"Robert Barnett: Candidates must make sure they answer town hall questions .\nBarnett has played Republicans in practice debates for more than 20 years .\nBarnett: I try to prepare candidates for the attacks they will face .\nBarnett says he'll make the case aggressively to prepare candidates ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Target Corp. this month will open 27 new stores employing a total of more than 4,300 people, the company said. One of Target's two new Hawaii stores awaits its Sunday grand opening. The stores' openings will come just weeks after the retailer cut 600 people from its headquarters staff amid what it called weaker-than-expected sales. The retailer will hold grand openings for the 21 general merchandise stores and six full-grocery SuperTarget stores on Sunday. The new sites include the company's first two stores in Hawaii. Each general merchandise store employs 150 to 250 people, and each SuperTarget has 200 to 300 workers, the company said. In late January, Minnesota-based Target cut its headquarters staff by 9 percent and eliminated 400 open positions. The company, citing difficult economic conditions and sales that didn't meet expectations, also said it would soon close an Arkansas distribution center that employs 500 people and would cut back on planned new-store openings. \"We are clearly operating in an unprecedented economic environment that requires us to make some extremely difficult decisions to ensure Target remains competitive over the long term,\" Gregg Steinhafel, Target president and CEO, said in a news release that month. Retailers in the United States took a hit last year as a weak economy weighed on consumer spending. Retail sales fell six straight months until January, when sales rose 1 percent, according to the Commerce Department. However, retail experts said they were skeptical a rebound had taken hold. Still, two other retailers also announced plans to expand. Kohl's announced last month that it intends to open 55 stores in 2009, and Dollar General in February said it is looking to open more than 400 stores. Target reported its fourth-quarter net earnings were 40.7 percent lower than the same quarter a year earlier. Same-store sales in January were 3.3 percent lower than a year earlier. December same-store sales fell 4.1 percent. Target's new general merchandise stores are in Rogers, Arkansas; Santa Clarita, California; Pensacola, Florida; Bethlehem, Georgia; Honolulu and Kapolei, Hawaii; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Las Vegas, Nevada; Paramus, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Lebanon and Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; Philadelphia and Exton, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; Houston, San Antonio and San Marcos, Texas; Midlothian, Virginia; and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The new SuperTarget stores are in Kissimmee, Florida; Canton, Georgia; Hillside, Illinois; and Pflugerville, Allen and Lewisville, Texas. The new locations will increase the number of Target stores to 1,699, the company said. CNNMoney.com's Parija B. Kavilanz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Retailer's new stores to open in 16 states .\nNew locations to employ more than 4,300 .\nTarget in January announced headquarters job cuts, reduction of expansion plans ."} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian police foiled a plot by Marxist guerrillas to assassinate the nation's defense minister, according to President Alvaro Uribe. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says authorities foiled an assassination plot against the country's defense chief. Ten guerrillas dressed as police planned to infiltrate the family farm of Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos over Easter week and kill the official and his family, Uribe said Thursday on national television. The guerrillas, who belong to the FARC, the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, were captured, Uribe said. Uribe thanked and congratulated federal authorities, saying, \"This investigation had been proceeding for several months, and fortunately the National Police has dealt this well-placed blow.\" Police Director Oscar Naranjo said eight of the guerrillas were captured at a property near Santos' farm in the municipality of Anapoima, 54 miles (87 kilometers) from Bogota, the capital. Officials did not reveal where the other two guerillas were captured. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts have said the FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, analysts said. The guerrilla group is known to pull off audacious operations, sometimes dressed as police, soldiers or other government officials. On April 11, 2002, a 20-member commando group dressed in police and military uniforms faked a bomb alert at the parliament building in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city. They tricked 12 congressmen into getting on a bus by telling them the military provided it for their safety. They then drove off, taking the congressmen into captivity. Eleven of those congressmen died in June 2007 during a shootout between military and the FARC. The sole surviving congressman, who was released in February, said the FARC shot the hostages when the soldiers approached.","highlights":"Plot was against Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, president says .\nTen guerrillas planned to kill Santos' family, President Alvaro Uribe says .\nMembers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were captured, Uribe says ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An emotional Nancy Reagan helped unveil a statue of her late husband, President Reagan, on Wednesday, calling the 7-foot figure \"a wonderful likeness.\" Nancy Reagan, with House Minority Leader John Boehner, wipes away tears at Wednesday's event. \"I know Ronnie would be deeply honored to see himself with a permanent home in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and very proud to be representing his beloved California,\" Nancy Reagan said. She appeared to battle emotions as she mentioned her last visit to the marbled hall for Reagan's memorial in June 2004. \"It's nice to be back under happier circumstances,\" she said. Watch Nancy Reagan unveil the statue \u00bb . The statue is one of two from California in the National Statuary Hall Collection donated by states to honor significant figures. Nancy Reagan stood arm-in-arm with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio to pull down the curtain from the statue. She thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for making the event possible. In her remarks, Pelosi noted that the former president's statue contains pieces of the Berlin Wall, \"as a symbol of his commitment to national security and to his success.\" The wall was torn down shortly after Reagan left office. \"I'm so grateful to Californians for giving him this honor,\" Nancy Reagan said. \"Artist Chas Fagan has captured his likeness so well, and I think the addition of the pieces of the Berlin Wall in the pedestal reflects my husband's commitment to freedom and democracy for everyone.\" The former president is credited with polices that led to the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the dismantling of the wall that divided Berlin as a symbol of Cold War politics. James Baker, a longtime Republican who served in the Cabinets of Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, recalled that Reagan inherited some major problems when he took office in 1981. Citing the former president's trademark optimism, he quoted from Reagan's first inaugural address that \"we are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline.\" Nancy Reagan attended a White House ceremony Tuesday marking Barack Obama's signing of legislation authorizing a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission. The 11-member commission will plan activities marking Reagan's 100th birthday on February 6, 2011. Reagan was president from 1981 to 1989.","highlights":"NEW: Former first lady touts husband's \"commitment to freedom\"\nCalifornia donated figure for Capitol Rotunda to honor former president .\nPelosi says statue contains pieces of Berlin Wall .\nCommission planning events to mark 100th birthday in 2011 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Organized crime gangs are exploiting a new target for illegal profit: Medicare and Medicaid. Experienced in running drug, prostitution and gambling rings, crime groups of various ethnicities and nationalities are learning it's safer and potentially more profitable to file fraudulent claims with the federal Medicare program and state-run Medicaid plans. \"They're hitting us and hitting us hard,\" said Timothy Menke, head of investigations for the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. \"Organized crime involvement in health care fraud is widespread.\" One hot spot for health care fraud is Los Angeles, California, where Russian, Armenian and Nigerian gangs have been caught by federal agents. Recent cases include crime boss Konstantin Grigoryan, a former Soviet army colonel who pleaded guilty to taking $20 million from Medicare. Karapet \"Doc\" Khacheryan, boss of a Eurasian crime gang, was recently convicted with five lieutenants of stealing doctor identities in a $2 million scam. Two Nigerians, Christopher Iruke and his wife, Connie Ikpoh, were charged October 15 with bilking Medicare of $6 million dollars by fraudulently billing the government for electric wheelchairs and other expensive medical equipment. The two, allegedly members of an organized crime ring, entered pleas of not guilty and are being held in a federal detention center. \"They deny any allegations of wrongdoing,\" said their attorney, James Kosnett. Defrauding government-run health care programs involves stealing two types of identities: those of doctors, who bill for services, and patients, whose beneficiary numbers entitle them to medical care and necessary equipment. Criminals are expert at collecting both. Watch doctor tell what happened when his identity was stolen . \"That information is very, very valuable to these crooks. And the doctor may work at one clinic but he won't know about the second and third clinic that they've already set up using his identification,\" said Glenn Ferry, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles region for the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. \"They are definitely well-organized, well-schooled on how to commit Medicare fraud.\" Dr. Gianfranco Burdi had his identity stolen when he was recruited to join what appeared to be a new medical practice near Koreatown in Los Angeles. After the managers failed to show a business license and proof of malpractice insurance, Burdi pulled out. Two years later, the FBI came calling. Agents questioned Burdi, a psychiatrist, about whether he had prescribed $800,000 worth of electric wheelchairs for Medicare patients. \"I said no. I am a psychiatrist. Why would I prescribe an electric wheelchair?\" said Burdi. \"It was shocking.\" A jury found Leonard Uchenna Nwafor guilty of using Burdi's identification to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment. \"I was naive enough to provide them my medical license, my other data,\" said Burdi. Patient beneficiary numbers are easy to buy along Los Angeles' Skid Row. Impoverished residents of shelters there tell CNN they've accepted cash from recruiters -- known as \"cappers\" -- to go to bogus medical clinics where they share what they call their \"red, white and blue\" -- the tri-colored Medicare card that has a beneficiary number for billing the government. \"People down here need to eat. Somebody who comes up on a quick hustle, quick money, they going to jump on. I'm one of them, I will,\" said a man who identified himself as Scott. \"They're just defrauding the patients, defrauding the government.\" Jimmy Rodgers of San Bernadino, California, tells CNN he went to a clinic three times a week, receiving $100 per visit but little medical care. \"This is just like Carte Blanche,\" said Rodgers, holding his Medicare card. \"Matter of fact, better than Carte Blanche. Carte Blanche has limitations on it.\" The clinics, he concedes, were clearly fronts for collecting beneficiary data. \"They were no doctors. They were just somebody who had their hand out,\" said Rodgers, who later cooperated with federal investigators. \"And they just ripping the system off and using me as a means to rip the system off.\" Once criminals have doctor and patient identification numbers, they begin filing false claims. The Khacheryan gang told Medicare that health services were being provided on the 10th floor at 754 South Los Angeles Street. But there is no doctor's office in that decrepit industrial building -- only a mail drop, where the Khacheryan group collected checks from the U.S. government for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The inspector general's office of the Department of Health and Human Services estimates it is on track to recover about $4 billion this year by breaking up health care fraud schemes perpetrated by all types of criminals, from organized rings to corrupt doctors. That amount, though, is only about 5 percent of the annual health care fraud cost in the United States, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. Because government health programs operate on the honor system, law enforcement officials say it's easy for organized crime rings and average criminals to cash in at the taxpayer's expense.","highlights":"Gangs make millions by getting ID numbers of doctors, patients .\nThen they file fraudulent Medicare, Medicaid claims for care that never happened .\nOne doctor had his ID stolen, learned it was used to bill $800,000 for wheelchairs .\nGovernment to recover $4 billion this year -- but that's just 5 percent of fraud cost ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pop icon Michael Jackson, 50, who died Thursday afternoon after being rushed to a Los Angeles hospital in cardiac arrest, had a long history of confirmed health problems, in addition to rumored conditions. Michael Jackson, seen here in 2005, was taken to UCLA Medical Center in cardiac arrest Thursday. In 1984, Jackson was burned while singing for a Pepsi-Cola commercial in Los Angeles, when a special-effects smoke bomb misfired. He had to have major surgery on his scalp and said that because of the intense pain, he developed an addiction to painkillers. He also was reported to have a form of lupus in the 1980s, but it was later said to have gone into remission. Jackson also had had numerous plastic surgeries, including rhinoplasty and a chin implant. In 1993, Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, released a statement saying that Jackson had a skin disease called vitiligo. The condition causes a person to lose melanin, the pigment that determines the color of skin, hair and eyes, in patches or all over the body. Vitiligo affects 1 million to 2 million people in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health, and no one knows what causes it. Learn about the difference between heart attack and stroke . He was also hospitalized with chest pains in 1990 and postponed a concert because of dehydration in August 1993. A concert tour was cut short in November 1993 because of an addiction to prescription painkillers amid allegations of child molestation. During a rehearsal at the Beacon Theater in New York in December 1995, the entertainer collapsed onstage from apparent dehydration and low blood pressure and was hospitalized. While jurors deliberated in a case in which he was accused of child molestation in June 2005, Jackson went to a hospital for treatment of what his spokeswoman said was recurring back pain. He had complained of back problems before. Rumors circulated in December that Jackson was ill and in need of a lung transplant because of Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a rare genetic condition. More rumors emerged in May that Jackson had skin cancer. But Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, told CNN at the time, \"He's as healthy as he can be -- no health problems whatsoever.\" Jackson apparently collapsed in his home in Los Angeles on Thursday and was taken by ambulance to UCLA Medical Center. Watch CNN's Sanjay Gupta talk with Anderson Cooper about Jackson's death \u00bb . Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman told CNN on Thursday that Jackson's use of medications had gotten in the way of doing rehearsals. \"His injuries, which he had sustained performing, where he had broken a vertebra and he had broken his leg from a fall on the stage, were getting in the way. I do not know the extent of the medications that he was taking,\" he said. Cardiac arrest, distinct from heart attack, affects about 300,000 Americans every year, Dr. Clyde Yancy of the American Heart Association told CNN. Without immediate efforts to resuscitate a person, the survival rate is usually 5 percent to 15 percent, he said. If resuscitation takes longer than three to five minutes, a person could experience profound impairments, particularly neurologically, he said. Beyond five minutes, the likelihood of success falls quickly, especially in older people. Younger people can tolerate cardiac arrest somewhat better, he said.","highlights":"Jackson was burned while singing for a Pepsi-Cola commercial in 1984 .\nHis skin condition, vitiligo, causes a person to lose melanin, the pigment in skin .\nJackson collapsed in 1995 from apparent dehydration and low blood pressure .\nMore rumors emerged in May that Jackson had skin cancer, but were discredited ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A search was under way Tuesday for the pilot of an F-16 that crashed over the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City, Utah, the Air Force said. An F-16 from Hill Air Force Base trains in Utah in 2001. The F-16 crashed about 10:25 p.m. Monday, according to a posting on the Air Force's Web site. The crash site was found in a remote area of the range, but no contact has been made with the pilot, the Air Force said. Emergency responders from nearby Hill Air Force Base were searching for the pilot. The F-16 was assigned to the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base and was on a routine training mission when it crashed, the posting said. Air Forceofficials will investigate the incident.","highlights":"Emergency responders from Hill Air Force Base in Utah searching for pilot .\nCrash site found in remote area of Utah Test and Training Range .\nNo contact has been made with the pilot, who was on a routine training mission ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain feared that it would have been overwhelmed in the event of a Soviet attack because of the depleted state of its armed forces, according to secret files made public on Tuesday. U.S. President Jimmy Carter watches UK PM James Callaghan speak at a 1979 meeting in Guadeloupe. Papers released by the National Archives, under the 30-year rule, reveal that Royal Air Force fighter jets only had sufficient ammunition for two days of combat and the Royal Navy would fail to defend the country from Russian submarines. The army would have been too over-stretched to cope with a widescale campaign of sabotage and subversion by Soviet special forces, the papers show. Prime Minister James Callaghan called the situation a \"scandal\" when he discovered the scale of the problem and demanded resignations among the military. \"Heaven help us if there is a war!\" he scrawled on one note. But ministers could do little until the Tornado fighter plane became available in the mid-1980s along with other military hardware. The problem became clear when senior intelligence officers warned in late 1977 that, in the event of a conventional war, the Russians could unleash up to 200 bombers and 18 submarines against the UK. The assessment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was that British forces would be unable to cope. \"UK forces cannot match the threat postulated by the JIC assessment,\" the chiefs noted in January 1978 in a document marked Top Secret UK Eyes Alpha. \"Air defenses would be outweighed because aircraft would be outnumbered and stocks of air defense munitions would sustain operations for only two or three days. \"Maritime forces need better anti-submarine weapons, and face a massive threat from submarine and air-launched missiles and also from mines; the most serious deficiency is in numbers. \"The army in the UK would, until mobilization is complete, have insufficient forces to meet its commitments; after mobilization of the reserves, a process taking between 15-20 days, the Army would be able to counter the currently assessed Soviet land threat during the initial stages of the war but, lacking supporting arms and logistic support, it would be inadequate to deal with any more significant threat, including sabotage or subversion on a wide scale.\"","highlights":"Britain feared it would have been overwhelmed in Soviet attack, papers reveal .\nPapers were released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule .\nPrime Minister James Callaghan called the situation a \"scandal\""} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's main political parties Sunday reached a deal designed to allow non-U.S. foreign troops to stay in the country past the end of the year, when a United Nations resolution authorizing their presence expires. Iraqi and British soldiers during an Iraqi army training session in Basra last week. The deal would set a deadline of July 31, 2009, for all non-U.S. foreign troops to withdraw, according to Abdul Hadi al-Hassani, a lawmaker with the main Shiite parliamentary bloc, who spoke to Iraqi state television on Sunday. The agreement awaits approval by Iraq's Parliament, which is expected to vote on the measure on Monday, several Iraqi lawmakers said. The emergency negotiations came after lawmakers Saturday rejected a similar proposal that would have been law. Sunday's proposal, by contrast, was drafted as a resolution that would empower the Cabinet to authorize international troop presence without requiring Parliament to pass a law. Washington and Baghdad have already worked out a separate agreement that will keep U.S. troops in Iraq but tighten restrictions on them. Countries other than the United States that have troops in Iraq could be left with no legal cover for their presence there if Baghdad does not act swiftly. Iraq's Cabinet had approved a draft law authorizing non-U.S. foreign troops Tuesday, the first step in passing legislation, but it fell at the next hurdle -- Parliament. That left lawmakers scrambling Sunday for a way to give foreign troops legal cover quickly. Lawmakers expect Sunday's agreement to cut through the problem, because a resolution can be passed in a single day, while it takes at least a week to pass a law. British government lawyers, meanwhile, are studying \"all possible options\" to legally extend the presence of British troops in Iraq beyond New Year's Day in case Iraq's Parliament rejects the new compromise. Britain has the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq -- about 4,100 -- after the United States, which has about 142,500. All other countries combined have only several hundred troops in the country. Britain and Iraq announced last week that British troops would begin leaving Iraq in May 2009, while a \"handful\" of British military personnel would remain after that date to continue naval training for Iraqi sailors, primarily to protect oil platforms. The United States reached a security agreement with Iraq in November. That deal, which was ratified by the Iraqi Parliament, calls for American troops to leave Iraqi cities by June 2009, and to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Beginning New Year's Day, U.S. commanders will have to get prior Iraqi government approval for any operations. American military personnel who commit crimes while not on duty or who commit grave crimes while on duty would be subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction under the new agreement. The U.S. security agreement does not govern the presence of troops from other coalition countries. The Parliament's rejection of the Cabinet's proposed law allowing foreign forces to remain in Iraq after January 1 came after heated arguments that lasted for days. The session became so contentious that Parliament's speaker threatened to resign, lawmakers said. Some political blocs, notably the Sadrists, oppose any extension of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq. That group, headed by Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr -- an anti-Western cleric -- is demanding an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces. CNN's Jill Dougherty and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Deal would permit non-U.S. troops to stay into 2009 .\nNEW: Agreement would set July 31 withdrawal deadline for those troops .\nU.K. examining options in case Iraqi Parliament doesn't OK deal .\nSadrists oppose any extension of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The war in Afghanistan may no longer be forgotten but the true victims always are. Having been denied healthcare and education under the Taliban, Afghan women are now training as midwives . Women and children in the landlocked Asian country have continuously paid the ultimate price throughout the decades of conflict and war. It is their lives that are considered not precious enough to save. A woman here dies every 29 minutes due to childbirth complications, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) -- one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. One in four children die before they reach the age of five because of the lack of health care and medical facilities in their cities and villages. But ignorance is also deadly. Misguided cultural pride prevents men from allowing their women to see a doctor, merely because the doctor could be male. And in many cases, it's not just women who die from childbirth-related issues. It is young girls forced into marriage before they even reach puberty. Their still-forming bodies cannot handle the complications of childbirth. But there are women in Afghanistan stepping up within the crowds of the forgotten and pushing past the barriers. They are training as midwives across the country to help bring change and save lives. \"A woman can help a woman more,\" midwifery student Fariha Ibrahimi told CNN. \"We have to introduce them with what to do, what foods to eat, how to take care of themselves. \"[We] tell their husbands how to treat them. There are some husbands who beat their wives to the point where they can no longer even get pregnant.\" At the Ibni Sina Balkhi Midwifery Training Center in Kabul, dozens of future midwives study and practise in the hope of bringing a brighter future to their countrywomen. \"It's very heartbreaking,\" Ibrahimi said of the situation women face. \"Afghanistan has gone through so much war and most girls were not allowed to get an education, so I want to study and bring forth something new.\" Sympathy for Afghan women is the strongest motivating force among students in this field: Many know personally what is like to live in a society where pregnant women are ignored and forgotten. \"We live in an area where we are far from any clinic or hospital and there are a lot of difficulties there for pregnant women,\" Nourzia, a student and mother, told CNN. \"It's very difficult for them to reach a hospital. This is why I was so keen in learning this profession and helping these women; so in the future they are in less danger.\" All the women here are training with the permission and support of their families. They are leading the way to a brighter tomorrow for Afghan women -- one that may one day catch up with the rest of the world. \"The world is moving forward and he didn't want me to sit around jobless,\" said future midwife, Maurina whose husband is supportive of her new career. \"He wanted me to push ahead in this field, especially a field in which our people need help in.\" There are still many obstacles left and these women are still in the minority. According to the World Health Organization there are only about 2,000 trained midwives servicing Afghanistan's population of just under 33 million. But that is a giant leap from just eight years ago when most women were denied an education, medical care and the basic necessities of survival under the Taliban regime. It will take many years to change mindsets instilled by decades of brutality. But these women prove that maybe, just maybe, the next generation can fix the mistakes of the last.","highlights":"Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world .\nA woman dies in childbirth every 29 minutes, one in four children die before age 5 .\nIn Kabul, dozens of women are now studying to become midwives to help save lives ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When Danish auteur Lars von Trier presented his gothic thriller, \"Antichrist\" at Cannes Film Festival last month, it was greeted with cat-calls, jeers and, at times, disbelieving laughter. Danish auteur Lars von Trier has been making films that shock, provoke and impress for over 40 years. Filmmakers are expected to give audiences a hard time at Cannes and the two-hander starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple grieving the loss of a child is no exception. But it was the level of pornographic sex and visceral brutality that outraged some and astonished many. Von Trier was labeled a woman-hater for the wince-inducingly horrific final scene in which female lead Charlotte Gainsbourg takes a pair of rusty scissors to her genitals and performs a DIY clitoridectomy right to camera. An Ecumenical Jury that normally hands out a prize at Cannes celebrating spiritual values felt moved to award \"Antichrist\" an \"anti-prize\" for being \"the most misogynist movie from the self-proclaimed biggest director in the world.\" \"Lars von Trier, we get it,\" wrote film critic Wendy Ide in UK paper The Times. \"You really, really don't like women.\" Misogyny couldn't be further from the truth, according to Von Trier, who says he sees himself up there on the screen: \"I mostly see myself as the female character,\" the 53-year-old director told CNN in Cannes. Do you think that Lars von Trier is a woman-hater? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . The director says that he shot the film as a form of therapy after recovering from a serious mental illness. Indeed, a few years ago, it was questionable whether von Trier, who is famously multi-phobic, would be able to make another film. In the winter of 2006, he fell victim to depression and checked into hospital, the aftermath of which left him \"like a blank sheet of paper,\" he told Danish paper Politiken at the time. Today, if not fully recovered -- the most terrifying thing he can think of is still \"myself\" -- he is able to function once more and is receiving cognitive behavioral therapy to help him face up to his psychological issues. Despite, or perhaps because of, what he describes as his \"sensitive\" nature, von Trier is one of today's great contemporary European auteurs, considered responsible for spearheading a revival in the fortunes of Scandinavian filmmaking. \"I think that if you are, shall we say, sensitive, then there is a good side and a bad side about it,\" said von Trier. \"The good side is that you can sometimes achieve something creatively. But, of course, it always also allows some of these negative thoughts in.\" Watch Lars von Trier talking to CNN's The Screening Room about \"Antichrist\" \u00bb . He has been nominated for the top prize at Cannes, the Palme D'Or, a staggering eight times, winning once in 2000 for the harrowing operatic tragedy, \"Dancer in the Dark,\" starring Icelandic musician, Bjork, who also took home the Best Actress prize that year. It is rumored Bjork became so unhinged filming \"Dancer in the Dark\" she ate her own cardigan. Von Trier claimed each morning she would say \"Mr von Trier, I despise you,\" and spit at him. In pictures: The wierd world of Lars von Trier \u00bb . Von Trier has a reputation for being tough on his actors. His friend and long-time collaborator, actor Stellan Skarsgard describes von Trier as \"not uncomplex.\" \"I was scared,\" admitted Gainsbourg who won Best Actress at Cannes for her performance. \"I had heard stories about him as a director ... maybe he's cruel and vicious.\" But she now describes him as her \"guide\" and \"the greatest director I've ever worked with.\" Fueled by his unconventional approach and upbringing, the mythology surrounding von Trier looms large over everything he touches. Brought up in Copenhagen by bohemian parents who were committed nudists, he suffers from crippling bouts of agoraphobia; and, most famously, a fear of flying. Each visit to Cannes involves a five-day road trip from Denmark to the French Riviera by camper van. He has an undeniable egotistical streak: this year at Cannes, he declared, \"I am the best filmmaker in the world,\" and in 1991, when displeased that Cannes jury president Roman Polanski had only awarded \"Europa\" the runner-up Grand Prix prize, he called him a \"dwarf.\" He also seems to actively court controversy: 1998 Palme D'Or contender \"Dogme #2: The Idiots\" grabbed headlines for being the first commercial film to show non-simulated sex on screen, and for von Trier's typically eccentric claim that the best way to prepare actors for sex scenes is to direct in the nude. But, von Trier says, he has always taken a deeply personal approach to the experimental, often dark and challenging works that he creates. He says he finds it difficult to know how to satisfy the needs of others with his films and so works only for himself. \"I feel very strongly for satisfying, maybe not my own needs, but my own idea of the film and the images that come from within,\" he told CNN. \"If I didn't follow my instinct, then I can't work.\"","highlights":"Pornographic sex and visceral violence in \"Antichrist\" shocked early audiences .\nVon Trier was accused of misogyny but claims to identify with the female character .\n\"Antichrist\" stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe as a bereaved couple .\nVon Trier's \"The Idiots\" (1998) was first mainstream film to show non-simulated sex ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: John Feehery worked as a staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients including News Corp., Ford Motor Company and the United States Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. John Feehery says Republicans are poised to bounce back for several reasons. (CNN) -- \"It is important for us to have a strong Republican Party,\" Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tauntingly told a press conference on April 23. \"And I hope that the next generation will take back the Republican Party for the Grand Old Party that it used to be.\" Thanks Mrs. Pelosi, for your best wishes. But be careful what you wish for. I wouldn't write the obituary for the Republican Party quite yet. Sure, things are looking grim at the moment. Yes, our Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele stumbled out of the starting gate, making several verbal gaffes, and raising questions about his competence. Yes, the latest poll numbers are in the toilet, showing only 21 percent of the American people call themselves Republicans. Yes, Arlen Specter decided the GOP was a drag on his personal political future. And yes, we lost a special election in upstate New York that maybe we should have won. But things change. Remember a year-and-a-half ago, when everybody thought the election would be a referendum on the Iraq war. Remember 10 months ago, when everyone thought that expensive gas was going to drive people to the polls. It turned out that, by the time of the election, the most important thing that people cared about was their declining 401ks or their lost job. Here are five reasons why the Republican Party will be back and perhaps sooner than anyone thinks: . 1) Overreach: Several of my Democratic friends over the last several months have tried to comfort me when discussing the fall of the Republican Party with one consoling thought: Don't worry, we will screw it up. And on that one thing I agree with them. The liberal Democrats that currently run the Congress are destined to overreach on the legislative front. Pelosi and her California allies, like Reps. Henry Waxman, George Miller and Pete Stark, tend to think the rest of America wants the same things they do, from higher taxes on energy to a national health care plan that could be a blueprint for socialized medicine, from abortion on demand to gay marriage. But most Americans actually look at California as an economic basket case and social mess. It is a beautiful state, but it is also completely screwed-up, thanks largely to liberal governance. The Democrats are certain to overdo it on the liberalism, and that will make the Republicans much more attractive in two to four years. 2) Checks and balances: Unlike the parliamentary governments of Europe, where one party runs everything until they mess up, the American system actually gives a preference to both parties having skin in the game. While most voters don't actually think \"divided government\" when they go to the polls, they do think that one-party government tends to lead to excess and corruption. That is why the people have a chance a mere two years after the president gets elected to give him a midterm report card in the form of Congressional elections. Most polls now show voters prefer a candidate who will serve as a check on President Obama's power. And for most voters, who see Pelosi and Nevada Sen. Harry Reid as even more liberal than the president, Republicans will serve as that check. 3) Crisis breeds renewal: When things are going well, a political party tends to discourage independent thought and enforce philosophical orthodoxy. But when a political party faces crisis, all of that goes out the window. It is a wide-open world right now for Republicans as they debate amongst themselves what the party truly stands for. The debate will be painful, as neoconservatives, paleo-conservatives, progressive conservatives, moderates and libertarians battle it out to chart the course for a new and more vibrant party. Republicans can afford to have these debates now when they are in the minority, because frankly, they have nothing else to do. The Democrats went through this process in the mid-90s, and they built a new party that attracted centrists like Mark Warner, without alienating old-line liberals like Pelosi or Waxman. 4) Talent senses opportunity: Investors know that the time to buy is not when the market is at its peak, but when the market is at the bottom. But it is not always easy to know when the bottom hits. In politics, it is pretty easy to know when a party has hit the bottom. And for the Republicans, it is now. Talented political entrepreneurs look to the GOP and see nothing but opportunity. The old bulls have been wiped out. The new guard is ready to start leading. In the House, young guns like Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan are charting the future for the next Republican takeover. Adam Putnam of Florida and Mark Kirk of Illinois are getting ready for state-wide runs. But it is not just the young guns. It also more experienced politicians, John Kasich and Rob Portman of Ohio, Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, Jeb Bush of Florida, who see an opportunity to lead the party back to power. 5) The Republican Party is the de facto Libertarian Party: Most people I talk to think of themselves not as Republicans or Democrats, but as libertarians. Not libertarians in the political party sense, but libertarians in a deeper philosophical sense. They tend to want government to stay out of their lives as much as possible. They tend to distrust all politicians, and when they hear someone say, \"I am from the government, and I am here to help,\" they tend to laugh uproariously. It was Will Rogers who said, \"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.\" The Republican Party does best when it seeks to reform government, to lessen the power of the bureaucrat, and to fight to give more freedom to the people. When the GOP returns to that philosophical creed -- which it will do in the face of the Obama administration's vast expansion of government power -- its fortunes will brighten again. If the Republican Party were a stock, the smart investor would start buying it now. Yes, things look grim at the present time, but things change. The GOP is not dead yet, and Speaker Pelosi may see her wish of a resurgent Republican Party come true quicker than she anticipated. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Feehery.","highlights":"John Feehery: The Republican Party is struggling, but isn't dead .\nHe says there are five good reasons to think the GOP will bounce back .\nU.S. system is designed to provide checks on the majority party, he says .\nRepublicans are in position for creative thinking about ideas, Feehery says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's Olympic gold medal gymnasts have been officially cleared of lying about their ages. Widespread reports claimed that gold medal winner He Kexin was only 14 years of age. An investigation was launched after the Beijing Games over claims that several members of their women's squad were ineligible because they were not 16 in the year of competition. But on Wednesday, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) closed a near six-week probe saying that documentation provided confirms they were old enough to compete. The inquiry had been called for by the International Olympic Committee who were concerned that the controversy undermined the results of the competition in Beijing. Watch tiny gymnasts work out \u00bb . China provided passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan, all showing the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year. \"We have received all we could possibly ask for,\" FIG secretary general Andre Gueisbuhler told Associated Press. \"All of them confirm the age that they should be, so what can we do ?\" he added. The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition in Beijing and five members won individual medals. One of the challenges came from a blogger known as \"Stryde Hax.\" The blogger claimed to have uncovered proof that He Kexin is only 14. In Internet searches, \"Stryde Hax\" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. That would make her 14 -- too young to compete in the Olympic Games. CNN was not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appeared to back up the claim. Other bloggers joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994. But Chinese gymnastics coaches have stridently defended their team. \"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion,\" said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams, referring to media inquiries. \"They shouldn't be suspicious.\" It was not all good news for the Chinese gymnasts, with the FIG announcing that it would step up its investigation into the 2000 team which won the bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics, particularly Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun. Yang, who also won a bronze medal on the uneven bars in 2000, said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was only 14 in Sydney . Dong, who was a technical official for the Chinese team in Beijing, allegedly provided documents for her credentials which indicated that she too must have been only 14 in 2000. Gueisbuhler warned that legal and statute of limitation issues might hinder further scrutiny and sanctions against the 2000 Chinese team. Underage gymnasts have been a problem since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu. In women's gymnastics, younger teenage girls can have an advantage over older competitors due to their often smaller, more agile bodies and lighter frames. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"China's gold medal gymnasts cleared of competing while under age limit of 16 .\nInternational Gymnastics Federation announces decision after investigation .\nFurther doubt cast on members of the 2000 Chinese Olympic squad .\nIOC ordered probe after widespread claims that Chinese squad were too young ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Richard Phillips, the cargo-ship captain whose capture by pirates triggered a dramatic U.S. Navy rescue off the coast of Africa, called on the federal government Thursday to provide military escorts for international shipping vessels. Capt. Richard Phillips, left, and John Clancy, the head of Maersk Line Ltd., testify before a Senate committee. Testifying before a key Senate committee, Phillips conceded there may not be sufficient resources to do that. He also said arming vessels' crews could deter pirates, but should only be allowed in limited circumstances. Phillips was in command of the Maersk Alabama when it was boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia on April 8. Phillips said the optimum situation for cargo vessels would be to have military escorts. He said he realizes there is a limit to government resources that can be deployed in the vast area off the Somali coast and the Horn of Africa. See map of attacks \u00bb . Phillips told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he would not be opposed to having private security forces on a vessel, but \"very clear protocols would have to be established and followed. ... In the heat of an attack, there can be only one final decision-maker.\" Phillips said that, in his opinion, arming a ship's crew \"cannot and should not be viewed as the best or ultimate solution to the problem. ... To the extent we go forward in this direction, it would be my personal preference that only a limited number of individuals aboard the vessel should have access to weapons, and they should be specially trained.\" He warned that \"even this limited approach to arming the crews opens up a very thorny set of issues. ... We all must understand that having weapons aboard a merchant marine ship fundamentally changes the model of commercial shipping and we must be very cautious about how it is done.\" When the Maersk Alabama was seized, Phillips, 53, offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew. He tried to escape the next day, jumping into the ocean in an effort to reach a nearby U.S. Navy ship. He was rescued April 12 when Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed three pirates holding him captive on a lifeboat. John Clancy, the head of Maersk Line Ltd., said arming sailors could potentially worsen the current situation off the African coast. \"Arming merchant sailors may result in the acquisition of even more lethal weapons and tactics by the pirates in a race that merchant sailors cannot win,\" Clancy told the committee. \"In addition, most ports of call will not permit the introduction of firearms into the national waters,\" he noted. Clancy said the solution to piracy must ultimately be an international one. He pointed out that most of the vessels that face a piracy threat do not fly the U.S. flag. He also noted that most of the naval vessels assigned to counter piracy off the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden are not from the United States. Somali pirate attacks in and around the heavily traveled Gulf of Aden have risen dramatically in the past few years. Pirates have been able to successfully demand ransoms for millions of dollars from shipping companies -- for whom it makes business sense to pay in order to free their crews and many millions of dollars more worth of cargo. The attack on the Alabama was the first successful attack on a U.S.-flagged ship during that time. \"The renewed threat of piracy demands a multifaceted, multinational effort, one that coordinates the world's naval powers, the United Nations, the international shipping community, and the nations that border Somalia,\" said Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, at the start of the committee's hearing. \"International law is clear in its condemnation of piracy. This is an opportunity for all nations to come together and work in order to effectively respond.\" Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the committee, stated that the \"root cause of this problem is the breakdown of law and order in Somalia, which is what allows the pirates to operate from shore with impunity.\" Lugar warned that \"the existence of failed states directly threatens the national security interests of the United States.\" Meanwhile, the bodies of the three pirates killed by the Navy SEALs were turned over to Somali authorities Thursday, according to a U.S. defense official with knowledge of the matter but not authorized to speak about it. The bodies were being held on the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer until the U.S. State Department could arrange a transfer. The official said the bodies were turned over to police authorities from Puntland, a self-declared autonomous state in northern Somalia. Two police boats from the Puntland town of Bosasso met the Boxer to receive the bodies, the official said. It was unclear if the bodies will be returned to family members.","highlights":"Capt. Richard Phillips rescued earlier in April from pirates off Somalia's coast .\nArming crews under certain circumstances could deter pirates, he said .\nPhillips told Senate committee best solution is military escorts .\nBreakdown of law and order in Somalia at root of piracy says Sen. Richard Lugar ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Previously unseen footage of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken just hours before she was killed in a car crash, has been shown to the jury at the inquest into her death. The footage showed Diana and Dodi step into an elevator at the Ritz Hotel. Images taken from a security camera at the Ritz Hotel in Paris show the 36-year-old smiling as she and her lover Dodi Fayed step into an elevator and later walk out of the hotel. Further footage shows Fayed visiting a jeweler's shop, images that could lend support to claims that he was buying an engagement ring. Earlier, a British coroner at the inquest said tt may never be known for certain whether Princess Diana was pregnant when she died in the Paris car crash. Lord Justice Scott Baker told the jury at the inquest into the deaths of the princess and her lover Dodi Fayed that scientific evidence might be unable to demonstrate \"one way or the other\" whether she was in the early stages of pregnancy. But he said they would hear \"intimate\" details of her personal life. Watch footage of Diana's last hours \u00bb . Baker told the 11 members of the jury -- six women and five men -- Diana may have been on the contraceptive pill and that evidence she was poised to get engaged to Dodi on the night she died was contradictory. On Tuesday the judge, who is acting as coroner in the case, told the jury that a famous image taken in summer 1997 showing Diana wearing a swimsuit could not be proof she was pregnant with Dodi's child as she had not started a relationship with him at that stage. The jury is set to hear \"scene setting\" evidence, including CCTV and a tourist video. The inquest to establish cause of death is expected to be a six-month process. Fayed's father, Mohammed Al Fayed, has contended from the start that Diana and his son were murdered because the royal family \"could not accept that an Egyptian Muslim could eventually be step-father to the future king of England,\" referring to Diana's son Prince William. \"I'm hoping for justice,\" Al Fayed said outside court. \"At last, we're going to have a jury from ordinary people and I hope to reach the decision which I believe that my son and Princess Diana have been murdered by the royal family.\" Baker told the jury of Al Fayed's allegations, but again reminded them that they were responsible for deciding the facts of the case, but not to assign blame or guilt. \"You have to decide four important, but limited factual questions: who the deceased were, when they came by their deaths, where they came by their deaths and how they came by their deaths,\" Baker said, according to inquest transcripts. \"The first three questions are unlikely to give rise to any difficulty. The fourth is a rather wider question and is directed towards the means by which they died.\" Diana, 36, and 42-year-old Dodi Fayed were killed on August 31, 1997 when the Mercedes-Benz they were traveling in hit a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris. They were being pursued at the time by the paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel. Driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, was drunk and driving at high speed. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor. Next week, the jury is scheduled to travel to Paris to see the crash site, along the River Seine. They are also expected to hear testimony from the paparazzi who were present after the accident. In its evidence section, the Web site for the inquest has posted previously unpublished pictures taken by paparazzi of the limo before and immediately after the accident. One is a closeup -- looking into the front of the vehicle -- that shows Diana, Fayed, Paul and Rees-Jones minutes before the crash. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Jury shown new footage of Diana taken hours before her death .\nDiana and Dodi Fayed inquest jury to hear \"scene setting\" evidence .\nOn Tuesday coroner outlined controversial claims, published new images .\nCourt will make final decision on what happened in car crash 10 years ago ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three women who were seized along with six other foreign workers in Yemen have been killed, Yemeni government officials said Monday. South Korean officials discuss the kidnappings Monday. A South Korean woman reportedly was killed. \"It is with profound sorrow that the Yemeni government reports finding three bodies,\" according to a statement from Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen's Embassy in the United States. The statement said the dead were identified as a South Korean teacher and two German nurses in training, all in their 20s. They were found in the Noshour Valley in Safrah district in the province of Saada. The women were abducted Sunday along with five other Germans, including three children, and a Briton, according to Yemen's state-run SABA news agency. Earlier, the Yemen Post said seven of the nine hostages were killed, citing the country's interior ministry. But SABA reported later Monday the remaining six were believed to be alive, and security forces were searching for them . Albasha said the nine foreigners left the city of Saada without police escorts that are required due to the \"heightened security situation\" in the area. \"This event was a heinous crime and constitutes not only a violation against the peaceful principles of Islam, but also the precepts of humanity,\" the embassy spokesman said. \"Moreover, it does not reflect the good traditions and culture of Yemen.\" The Germany Foreign Ministry said it is in close contact with the German Embassy in Yemen but couldn't confirm any details at this stage. Initial official statements said the group was apparently seized by Houthi rebels, Shiite militants who have been fighting the government for years, according to SABA. The militants are hoping to derail the peace and reconstruction process in Saada, which has been rocked by war in the past year, according to SABA. However, the news agency later reported Houthi rebels accused drug cartels of abducting the group and killing the three. In addition, SABA said a spokesman for the rebels accused regional tribes of being behind the kidnappings and slayings. Sunday's abduction was the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreign workers in Yemen this year. All the previous hostages had been released unharmed, including 24 medical workers whom armed tribesman seized last week in Yemen's Amran province. CNN's Caroline Faraj, Diana Magnay and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Korean teacher, two German nurses in training found dead, Yemen says .\nInitial reports cited Shiite militants in abductions .\nBut Houthi rebels blame drug cartels and regional tribes, news agency says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An air-supported roof over the Dallas Cowboys' practice field collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm Saturday afternoon, leaving 12 people injured, authorities said. An aerial view of the scene shows the Dallas Cowboys logo amid the ruins of the indoor practice facility. About 70 people, including more than two dozen of the team's rookies, were in the facility when it was blown down shortly before 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET), team officials said. Two or three suffered serious injuries, but none were believed to be in life-threatening condition Saturday night, said Dr. Paul Pepe, Dallas County's emergency medical services chief. CNN affiliate WFAA reported Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, the son-in-law of former NFL head coach Dan Reeves, suffered a broken back. DeCamillis was seen on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. A line of heavy thunderstorms was moving through the Dallas area at the time, he said, but no other damage to buildings was reported, said Mike Adams, a dispatcher for the Irving, Texas, fire department. Watch the roof collapse on players, coaches \u00bb . Arnold Payne, a photographer for WFAA, was shooting the Cowboys' practice session when rain began falling \"tremendously hard.\" \"I noticed the walls started to waver ... and then I noticed that the lights that were hanging from the ceiling started to sway, and it wouldn't stop,\" Payne told CNN. Shortly after that, he said, \"It was as if someone took a stick pin and hit a balloon.\" Watch Payne describe being inside when structure collpased \u00bb . Payne said Cowboys staff photographers were up in the metal framework beneath the canopy to film the practice session and \"actually rode the building down with the storm.\" At least one was in surgery Saturday night, he said. \"There was nowhere for them to go, and it fell so fast -- it just collapsed as if it was being imploded,\" Payne said. Video from CNN affiliate WFAA showed the roof caving in during a heavy storm, sending players, coaches and a handful of reporters and photographers scrambling to escape. Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones told NBC that about 27 rookies from the NFL team and members of the team's coaching staff were inside the suburban Dallas facility at the time. \"They did not get good warning there, and the structure did collapse,\" Jones said, speaking from the Kentucky Derby in Louisville. \"We're assessing who's injured at this particular time.\" CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Witness: Team photographers were up in framework of structure, rode it down .\nDallas Cowboys' practice facility collapses during thunderstorm, injuring 12 .\nNone of the injuries appears to be life-threatening, says county EMS chief .\nAbout 70 people were inside the facility when it fell, fire official says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roger Federer takes on Robin Soderling, who knocked out tournament favorite Rafael Nadal in a fourth-round stunner, in the men's final of the French Open on Sunday. Roger Federer screams in joy after beating Juan Martin del Potro to reach the French Open final. A victory in Roland Garros would give Federer 14 Grand Slams, tying his career wins to American Pete Sampras. The second-seed Federer lagged at first, but beat Argentine Juan Martin del Potro on Friday to make the final. Soderling advanced over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Federer, 27, has a 9-0 record over the 24-year-old Swede going into the final. The Swiss star has suffered emotional defeats recently. At England's Wimbledon last year, he lost to Rafael Nadal after a five-year reign. The game, which ran about seven hours with a few rain breaks, was the longest-ever Wimbledon men's final. Nadal also beat Federer in the Australian Open earlier this year. Soderling stunned the top-seed Nadal by handing him a loss in the fourth round of the French Open. The 23rd-seed Soderling was a rank outsider against the world number one who had never lost a match on the clay at Roland Garros and was a short-priced favorite to win a record fifth straight title. In women's tennis, number one Dinara Safina was beaten Saturday in straight sets by fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final of the French Open at Roland Garros. Safina, who has reached the top of the world rankings despite not having a major title to her name, looked completely out-of-sorts against her compatriot, who secured a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory in just over an hour. The defeat was a crushing blow to Safina, 23, who has long had to contend with the accusations that she is not a worthy world number one -- and this third grand slam final defeat will do nothing to silence the doubters. It was the second straight year she has lost in the final here, after going down in straight sets to Ana Ivanovic of Serbia last year. It was also her second successive grand slam final defeat, having lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year.","highlights":"A French Open win would give Federer 14 Grand Slams .\nThat would tie his career wins to American Pete Sampras .\nFederer has a 9-0 record over the Swede going into the final .\nSoderling topples favorite Rafael Nadal in a fourth-round stunner ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If a bed and 14 other antiques up for sale in New York next week look familiar, it might be that you saw them in a movie. An American Renaissance gilt, carved, inlaid and ebonized bed is expected to go for $500,000. Pieces of furniture owned by two very rich 19th-century Americans were destined for a trash pile before they were rescued for the silver screen. They will find new life on the auction block next week. Made by the Herter Brothers in the 1870s, the furniture sat in Warner Brothers' Hollywood props department since 1942, when the studio bought it at an estate auction for a fraction of the original cost. Warner Brothers, owned by CNN parent Time Warner Inc., could get $2 million from the auction, and it means valuable space will be cleared out in the props department storage. One studio source said using such expensive -- although authentic -- props on movie sets doesn't make business sense. Jon King, director of Bonham's, the New York auction house that will put the furniture on sale next Thursday, said he did not have the studio's permission to reveal in which movies the furniture might have been used. You can watch post-1942 Warner Brothers period films to find them. \"You have to go slow-motion and stop and start an awful lot,\" King said. \"I would imagine that if any of these were in movies they might steal the scene away from the actors,\" said King, an expert in 19th-century furniture. A New York Times article about the furniture, published in 1995, said it appeared in Warner Brother's \"Saratoga Trunk,\" a 1945 movie starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. Few records were kept over the decades to track the pieces' appearances, a studio source said. King said he saw Herter Brothers furniture from the same estate in Alfred Hitchcock's \"Psycho,\" filmed in 1960 on Universal's lots. Universal bought its furniture at the same 1942 estate auction that Warner Brothers attended. The studio sold its collection years ago, King said. The furniture -- in American Renaissance and American Aesthetic styles -- was made with \"very exotic and very expensive materials\" for two very rich California men -- Gov. Milton Slocum Latham and railroad magnate Mark Harper, King said. The most dramatic piece is an ornate bed commissioned for the master bedroom at Latham's Menlo Park, California, home. It could sell for $500,000, King said. \"A lot of people in the field regard that as the finest bed ever made in the 19th century in America,\" King said. \"Basically, the quality of carving and the number of things going on in there in the bed, it's just amazing.\" Changing times and tastes made the furniture obsolete for anything but a period movie by 1942. Movie studios were scouring the country for cheap furniture for their props departments, King said. But recent decades have see a steep rise in values for Herter Brothers craftwork, he said. King said next week's sale is significant for collectors because \"this is the last studio collection.\" The Herter Brothers -- German immigrants who set up their furniture-making shop in New York City after the Civil War -- also made furniture for the White House, where some pieces remain.","highlights":"The furniture was owned by two wealthy 19th-century Americans .\nStudio bought it at an estate auction in 1942 for a fraction of its original cost .\nAuction house not allowed to reveal in which movies the furniture was used .\nYou can watch post-1942 Warner Brothers period films to find the antiques ."} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Don't confuse Katey Sagal for Peg Bundy -- it's a common mistake. Katey Sagal says being a mother has been her greatest teacher -- for all her roles. While her infamous alter ego was uneducated, Katey is thoughtful and well-spoken; Peg's fashion is time-warped (hello, bouffant!), Katey's is earthy; for every ounce of laziness in Peg's body, Katey has a multitasking one to match. It may have taken years for the actress to shake her TV counterpart, but watch Katey as fierce matriarch Gemma Morrow on FX's motorcycle drama \"Sons of Anarchy\" (which was released on DVD Tuesday), and you'll start to wonder, \"Peg who?\" Rachel Bertsche: You're known for playing three very different mothers -- \"Married with Children's\" Peg Bundy, Kate from \"8 Simple Rules\" and now Gemma. Plus, you have three kids of your own, two teenagers and a 2 1\/2-year-old. Given all that on- and off-screen mothering experience, is there any universal quality that you would say all moms have? Katey Sagal: Being a mother has been my greatest teacher and also the most self-sacrificing thing I've ever done. I've never loved anybody the way I love my children. It's an experience I was surprised by. You have your boyfriend, your husband, your friends, but it's a different thing. It's deeper, and it's a fantastic -- and risky -- commitment to love that deeply. I think the characters I've played all have that quality, even Peg Bundy. She was devoted and loyal to her children in her own wacky way. But Gemma is intensely dedicated to her family and would do anything to protect her son and her extended family, which is the club. In my personal life, I don't know that I would go to the lengths for my kids that Gemma does, but close. Bertsche: You were Peg Bundy before you were actually a mom. Once you had your first child, id having firsthand experience change the way you played her? Sagal: Well, I've always been a maternal type, but yes, everything was different once I had kids. Your whole perspective on the world changes -- I love how I wasn't so self-obsessed anymore! I can't say my characterizations of Peggy necessarily changed much. I just understood more what I was doing. Bertsche: You mentioned your husband, Kurt Sutter, who is also the creator of your show. What's it like to mix family with business? Sagal: Most of the time it's super great. There are moments when it's not, of course, but most of the time it's nice because we actually get to see each other. His job is intense, so he doesn't get a day like I have today where he can stay home from work. When I'm there, we can sometimes have lunch together, stuff like that. The hard part gets to be like \"OK, maybe we should talk about something else.\" It becomes the constant topic of conversation, the show and the kids, and we have to make a conscious effort to say, \"Let's not talk about it tonight.\" Bertsche: People used to say that women of \"a certain age\" -- over 40 -- couldn't find any roles in Hollywood. That's certainly not true anymore, especially on cable, and you might be playing one of the toughest women out there. Why do think that has changed? Sagal: I don't know why it's changed, but I'm really grateful it has. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we're all living longer and suddenly it's okay to get older. Maybe there's a broader audience for these characters. The stories you can tell about older women are deeper. Plus, cable has opened up enormous possibilities. In feature films, you're still lucky if you're not the girlfriend or the wife. But I just read yesterday that Dianne Keaton is going to be on television now, she's doing a series with HBO, so TV is where our stories are being told. Bertsche: Gemma's a pretty controversial character. How do you feel about her? Sagal: I really like her. I like that she's flawed but she doesn't think that she is. She's survived a lot, and people like that tend to live in a lot of denial. She knows how to get through life in her way, and she doesn't question it. It's just, \"This is how it is.\" For instance, I don't think Gemma's ever been to therapy. She's not that girl. What you see is what you get. Bertsche: What's on tap for her this season? Sagal: Something very dark happens. The club is going to go through some turmoil -- when you live an outlaw lifestyle, that's the risk you take. As my husband says, this season is all about loyalties. Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin are on the show this year, and they ... well, I don't want to say too much, but they're not really good guys. Bertsche: I promised a co-worker I'd ask you about \"Lost.\" She's dying to know if your character, Helen, is really dead. Even though we saw the grave, she doesn't believe it's the full story. Got anything on that? Sagal: I was just reading an article this morning at the gym about how they were going to bring back people who were dead on \"Lost,\" and they didn't mention me! Nobody tells me anything. I'm always thinking that Helen should come back and show up on the island, but as of today, no one's sent me a plane ticket to Hawaii. So I don't think it's going to happen, but I don't know. They're very close to the chest with all that stuff. Oprah.com: Get up close with all the hottest celebrities! Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Katey Sagal's series about cyclists, \"Sons of Anarchy,\" is out on DVD .\nSagal says being a mother has given her insight into her major roles .\nShe hears rumors about \"Lost,\" but nobody's told her anything personally ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Blair MacIntyre imagines a world where tiny clouds of information -- Facebook statuses, business cards, Twitter posts -- float above all of our heads. \"Augmented reality\" can combine live video with data and information from the Internet. In some ways, it's not that far from reality. Advancements in mobile phone technology have cleared the way for a coming wave of \"augmented reality\" applications that merge the physical world with information compiled about people and places on the Internet. \"When the technology gets there, this stuff could be amazingly useful and mildly terrifying in some ways,\" said MacIntyre, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who has taught classes in augmented reality for a decade. The idea of pairing digital information with our real, 3-D environments is not especially new -- think robot-human vision in the \"Terminator\" movies. MacIntyre even plodded about college campuses in the 1990s wearing a 40-pound backpack and nerdy goggles, trying to make something similar happen. But as mobile phones become better equipped with GPS systems, which use satellites to locate the phones; compasses, which tell the direction the phone faces; and accelerometers, which relay the device's tilt; the once-lofty idea of augmented reality is being put into the hands of consumers. Last July in the Netherlands, a company called SPRXmobile released a mobile browser, Layar, that lets people see pieces of this new info-reality through their phone screens. A Layar user sets his or her phone to video mode, aims it around and sees all kinds of information pop up on the screen: blinking dots on apartments that are for sale, the values of those units, pull-down reviews of the bar up on the corner or details about sales at a nearby retail store. Watch a video demo of the app . This makes information easier to find and helps people make better sense of the physical world around them, said Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, co-founder of Layar. \"I think it will actually get you out more than you would stay at home,\" he said. \"You're not at your couch anymore, you're not at your desk\" when you need to find information. Layar, which bills itself as the first mobile browser that features augmented reality, is only available in the Netherlands and only on certain phones, including Google's Android, T-Mobile's G1 and the HTC Magic. But Lens-FitzGerald said the company plans to announce a global expansion plan on August 17 and will develop an app for the iPhone if Apple changes policies that obstruct developers from creating such applications on that device. A range of other \"AR\" apps are in development or are on the market. One, called Nearest Tube, highlights subway routes in New York and London. Wikitude is an app that aims to show people encyclopedic information about nearby landmarks. Like Wikipedia, users can add information to the service. The idea could usher in an era of cell-phone tour guides. Total Immersion, a French company, developed an app that makes 3-D baseball players spring to life from baseball cards. Users can turn the card to see their favorite players, through a phone screen, from all angles. And at Georgia Tech, researchers are working on video games that may one day make it look like virtual zombies are chasing players down real-world streets. Alex Michaelis, CEO of Tweetmondo, a site that pairs Twitter posts with geographical information, said he has developed an app that will let mobile phone users see their friends' tweets through the video camera on their phones. He expects it to be available within the month. \"It adds information to your world, and this is what it's all about,\" he said. To picture how that service would work, think about walking into your living room in the evening. If a roommate had posted to Twitter from the couch, his or her Tweet would hover in that space when viewed through a mobile phone's video camera. Michaelis admits the model is a bit clunky for now. But he sees a future when the app will let people stand on a street corner, hold their phone up to their face, and see the Twitter posts of crowd members as they mill about. Phones would have to be able to communicate with satellites and computer services constantly, instead of only when someone posts a message, to make that possible, he said. \"I see this being resolved in the near future,\" he said, \"because, really, it's just a matter of really experimenting with this technology and pushing it to the limit.\" But there are doubts about augmented technology on phones. Lens-FitzGerald, of Layar, is concerned that augmented reality is being over-hyped and may create unrealistic expectations from consumers. \"It's a cool technology, but yeah, we need to see how much [funding and visibility] our companies will get,\" he said. \"It's getting a lot of press now without being proven, but do we make money, are we going to make people happy with it? We don't know. We're just starting.\" He added: \"It's like the first TV. We need to build an audience.\" MacIntyre, of Georgia Tech, said the technology behind today's augmented reality apps is crude. Mobile phone GPS isn't nearly accurate enough to make sure a Twitter post is tagged to a person, for instance, rather than the lamp post that's 50 feet away. Furthermore, the idea behind the information-reality mesh on mobile phones is off-base, he said. \"I don't see them answering a problem that needs to be solved,\" added MacIntyre, who believes two-dimensional maps can be used to display information much more easily with current technology. More functional problems exist as well. People don't necessarily want to walk around the world holding cell-phone screens in front of their faces. And the world's information has to be tagged geographically to make sense in an augmented-reality setting. But MacIntyre does see a bright future for augmented reality. Within a year, mobile phone applications will become much more functional, he said, and in the foreseeable future, augmented reality will move off of phone screens and onto futuristic sunglasses, whose wearers will see blips of information about everything around them, he said. If that happens, the \"Terminator\" vision will have truly arrived.","highlights":"\"Augmented reality,\" a merger of the digital and virtual worlds, is coming to phones .\n\"AR\" apps put info -- like Twitter posts -- on top of live video captured by phone .\nSmartphone GPS and compass systems paved the way for the advance .\nSome say AR is in its infancy; others question its usefulness ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dutch tourist says she recently spotted missing 4-year-old Madeleine McCann at a French restaurant near Montpellier, McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said Wednesday. A handout photo, released September 16, 2007, of missing child Madeleine McCann. The tourist said she recognized Madeleine from the many media reports about the child's May 3 disappearance and may have even seen the well-publicized defect in the little girl's eye, Mitchell said. \"She and a friend saw a child that they immediately took to be Madeleine,\" said Mitchell. \"They actually called out her name. \"A man who was with the child scooped the child up and took her out of the cafe before the girls could take a photograph with their mobile phones,\" he said. Mitchell said there is a surveillance tape of the girl in the L'Arche restaurant and Madeleine's parents are hoping to be able to use it to determine if it is their missing daughter. Mitchell explains how the sighting came about \u00bb . But The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed police official, is reporting that investigators have determined it was not the missing child. Police watched the closed-circuit video footage, and despite the child looking like Madeleine, it was not her, said the official, who did not want his name published because he is not authorized to speak to media about the case. Madeleine disappeared May 3, days before her fourth birthday. Her parents, who were vacationing with her in Portugal, have said she disappeared from their room at a resort while they dined in a nearby restaurant. Despite a global search and the attention of celebrities like Virgin Chairman Richard Branson, author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham, there have been no major breaks in the case. Portuguese investigators in September named the McCanns official suspects in their daughter's disappearance. The McCanns deny involvement, saying they believe Madeleine may have been abducted by pedophiles and taken to North Africa. A few months ago, there was a reported sighting of Madeleine in Belgium, but nothing came of that report. Last year, excitement grew when a video surfaced of a Moroccan woman carrying a child on her back who looked very similar to Madeleine. Authorities determined that it was the woman's child. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Madeleine McCann possibly seen at roadside restaurant near Montpellier .\nAP: Police say girl on surveillance tape is not Madeleine .\nMan takes girl from restaurant after Madeleine's name called, spokesman says .\nMcCann has been missing since May 3; her parents named official suspects ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman and three children were killed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when a suspected robber fleeing in a car jumped a curb and struck them, police said Thursday. Four people were killed after a car fleeing police struck a home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. \"He literally cut a tree in half,\" Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said, \"then hit the 1-year-old, [who] was in a stroller. The other individuals were on the front porch of their own home. He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose.\" Latoya Smith, 22, died Thursday from injuries in the crash, which occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Fentonville area of north Philadelphia, police Capt. James Clark said. Smith's daughter, Remedy Smith -- who would have turned 1 on Friday -- died at the scene, as did Alicia Griffin, 6, and Gina Rosario, 7, Clark said. Video of the scene showed a crumpled silver Pontiac on the sidewalk, pushed up against the front steps of a house and wedged against a tree. Watch police commissioner describe carnage \u00bb . Donta Cradock, 18, the alleged driver of the gray Pontiac, faces charges for theft of a motorcycle, the crime that allegedly triggered his flight, police said. Other charges are pending approval from the district attorney's office, police said. \"We're hopeful that it will be four counts of murder,\" Clark said. Cradock and an alleged accomplice, Ivan Rodriguez, 20, stole a motorcycle at gunpoint around 7:30 p.m., he said. Rodriguez fled the scene on the motorcycle, while Cradock drove away in the Pontiac, Clark said. An unidentified person told a traffic police officer in the area about the alleged robbery and pointed out the Pontiac, he said. The police officer followed the car and tried to stop it at a traffic light, Clark said. \"At that point the Pontiac fled at a high rate of speed,\" he said. The officer followed the vehicle, but lost sight of it, Clark said. The officer was not close enough to chase the car, police said, but eventually came across what Clark called a \"horrific accident.\" Cradock was thrown from the Pontiac and is in the hospital, Clark said. He said a gun was recovered on the suspect. Rodriguez was arrested at his home, Clark said, and faces a theft charge. Both men have \"very extensive criminal histories,\" Ramsey said. Bench warrants were out on them at the time of their arrest, Clark said. It was not immediately clear if the two had retained attorneys. CNN's Mark Norman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Donta Cradock, 18, allegedly fled scene of motorcycle robbery in silver Pontiac .\nPolice chase ends when car hits home, killing Latoya Smith, 3 kids .\n\"He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose,\" police say .\nCradock and accomplice face motorcycle theft charges; others pending ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Bookatz, 32, was walking home one night in January when he noticed a man walking toward him. Michael Bookatz as he looked when first responders arrived after he was attacked. \"Then he just suddenly ran up to me and punched me in the face,\" he said. \"He started stamping on me, kicking me. A friend of his came from the other side of the road and started stamping and kicking on me. And they said: 'This is because of what happened to the Palestinians in Gaza.'\" The attack on Bookatz -- a Jew who wears a skullcap and lives in a particularly Jewish neighborhood of London -- is one of more than 250 assaults on Jewish targets in the United Kingdom since the beginning of the year, according to the Community Security Trust, a non-governmental organization which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain. The group recorded more than 200 incidents in the month of January alone, the highest monthly total it has seen since it began keeping records in 1984. London's Metropolitan Police \"report that since December, there have been four times as many anti-Semitic attacks as attacks on Muslims, even though there are seven or eight times the number of British Muslims as there are Jews,\" said British lawmaker Denis MacShane, who chaired the country's first parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism. Against this backdrop, London hosted a two-day international conference on combating anti-Semitism Monday and Tuesday. Watch what Bookatz says of the attack on him \u00bb . MacShane called it the \"first conference of its type,\" bringing together lawmakers from at least 35 different countries. \"Parliaments now have to acknowledge that anti-Semitism is back. It's a potent ideological force, causing fears to Jews in many different countries, and it has to be combated by all people that care about democracy,\" MacShane said. It is not only a problem for Jews to tackle, the lawmaker said. \"I'm not Jewish. Most people at the conference are not Jewish,\" he said. The rise in attacks on Jewish targets comes amid heightened tension in the Middle East, the Community Security Trust noted. The incidents include arson and graffiti attacks on synagogues, verbal and physical abuse of Jews, and hate mail. Similar events were reported across Europe during Israel's three-week military assault on Hamas in Gaza in December and January, the CST said in a statement. But Bookatz is not convinced Gaza is the real reason for the assaults on Jews. \"Anti-Semitism is around,\" he said. \"It has always been around. Throughout my life, I have experienced anti-Semitic attacks. \"Gaza was probably a focal point, something that triggered it: 'OK, now that Gaza is happening, we can use it as an excuse to attack people,'\" Bookatz said. MacShane said lawmakers around the world needed to take a stand against anti-Semitism. \"We would like to get the police to take anti-Semitism seriously, to take Internet anti-Semitism seriously,\" he said. \"We need to say to countries that promote anti-Semitism: 'Drop that hate of Jews.'\" He warned anti-Semitism was an indicator of other problems. \"Whenever anti-Semitism sinks roots, the world is heading in a disastrously wrong direction,\" he said. \"That is a lesson from history. If we don't tackle anti-Semitism in the early stage, then it devours democracy.\" CNN's Atika Shubert and Eileen Hsieh contributed to this report .","highlights":"UK holding international conference to combat anti-Semitism .\nWatchdog says January saw highest ever number of anti-Semitic attacks in UK .\nPolice: More Jewish attack victims than Muslims despite bigger Muslim population .\nLawmaker: Anti-Semitism has to be combated by all (who) care about democracy ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Armenian President Robert Kocharian declared a state of emergency Saturday night after a day of clashes between police and protesters, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said. The protesters claim last month's presidential election was rigged. The state of emergency will \"hopefully bring some order\" to the capital, Yerevan, said Salpi Ghazarian, assistant to the Armenian foreign minister, who spoke to CNN early Sunday. The state of emergency could last until March 20, she said, but the government hopes \"that it will be lifted sooner.\" The clashes began when authorities used force to clear Freedom Square of thousands of demonstrators who had camped there for the past 10 days, according to a U.S. Embassy official. Ghazarian said the authorities \"moved in\" because \"they thought that there were arms there, and it turned out that they were right.\" Watch a report on clashes between police and the opposition \u00bb . The embassy official estimated that the demonstrations in Freedom Square grew to as many as 60,000 Armenians at times over the last 10 days. As of early Sunday morning, Freedom Square was empty, Ghazarian said, but the protesters were demonstrating in a main square elsewhere in the city. Watch Ghazarian discuss the situation in Armenia \u00bb . \"What is happening on the streets of Yerevan is people protesting what they consider to be unfair elections,\" Ghazarian said. \"After the president was forced to declare a state of emergency, things have quieted down. There are a couple of burning cars, and there are a few hurt people,\" she said. \"We're convinced that this will come to an end soon.\" She did not elaborate on the number of people injured or the extent of their injuries. Witnesses told CNN that Saturday morning's action by Armenian riot police was bloody, but the U.S. official said there were no confirmed deaths or serious injuries. An Armenian woman interviewed by CNN said there was \"huge chaos\" when police moved in. \"These are innocent people,\" she said. \"They just want their freedom. They just want to be heard. They are being beaten up, some people have horrible wounds.\" She asked that CNN not use her name because she feared for her safety. As night fell Saturday, the sounds of gunfire could be heard from the direction of the protesters' gathering, and tracer fire could be seen in the sky, according to another Yerevan resident, who also asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety. The man said his wife saw two demonstrators hit by a police car earlier in the day. The car initially did not stop, he said, but the protesters surrounded the car, dragged the officers out and burned the vehicle, he said. The officers were able to escape, he said, but he did not know the condition of the protesters who were struck. The protests began soon after the February 19 presidential election. Opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian lost to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, a political ally of outgoing President Kocharian. The opposition party immediately accused the government of vote fraud and demanded that the results be voided. Ghazarian said Sunday that the government had reached out to the opposition. \"We are hoping with the help of the international community, the opposition, the leader of the opposition, will come and enter a political dialogue rather than continuing this debate on the streets,\" she said. Haroutiun Khachatrian, editor of the Noyan Tappan News Agency, told CNN that riot police arrested several hundred people in the square Saturday morning, including many opposition party officials. Ter-Petrosian was there but was not arrested, he said. The opposition vowed to pursue its claims through legal means. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitored last month's Armenian election and concluded that it was mostly in line with international standards, although it did include some criticism in its report. The U.S. Embassy has warned the several hundred Americans living in Yerevan to stay at home and avoid the downtown area where the demonstrations have been taking place, the U.S. official said. Armenia, population 3 million, is a former Soviet republic east of Turkey, south of Georgia and north of Iran. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Protest moves after crackdown at Freedom Square .\nOrder sought after protests over last month's election turn violent .\nDemonstrators say the election was fraudulent .\nState of emergency could last until March 20, official says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portuguese football coach Jose Mourinho, ever the headline creator, has caused further outcry this week after he substituted Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari from his Inter Milan side during their Italian Serie A clash with Bari. Inter midfielder Sulley Muntari was substitued Jose Mourinho for his low-energy levels as a result of fasting. Taking a tired player from the field of play was hardly breaking news, at least it wasn't until Mourinho revealed the move had been prompted because the player's perceived \"low-energy levels\" were as a result of fasting. Muntari is a practicing Muslim who, like many of the same faith around the world, is currently not eating during the hours of daylight to mark the Ramadan holy period .Should fasting footballers be dropped by their managers? Sound Off below. A discipline that clearly irked Mourinho who said in a post-match press conference: \"Muntari had some problems related to Ramadan, perhaps with this heat it's not good for him to be doing this (fasting). Ramadan has not arrived at the ideal moment for a player to play a football match.\" Muslim leaders in Italy have criticized the opinions of the coach known as the \"Special One\", but Mourinho did not rule out the possibility of dropping the player for the Milan derby between arch rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan this weekend for the same reason. Click here to see our gallery of the top 10 Muslim football stars \u00bb . Elsewhere in Italy, fellow Muslim and Siena striker Abdelkader Ghezzal added to the debate by revealing he cannot fast and play at the same time. \"I've always observed Ramadan but I have had to change my habits for health reasons from the first year that I became a professional. Before that I played at Crotone [while fasting] but after two weeks I felt ill and had to stop.\" Egypt's Under-20 football squad passed up the chance to break the Ramadan fast to help them prepare for the forthcoming World Youth Championship which they host at the end of September. The Egyptian Football Association confirmed that the Dar al-Ifta, the country's institution which clarifies religious principles and issues edicts, had given specific permission for the players to legitimately avoid fasting. It is not just Ramadan which has caused issues between Muslim players and their clubs. The beliefs of Sevilla striker Freddie Kanoute have conflicted with the demands of his professional career. Kanoute taped over the logo of the Sevilla club's shirt sponsors - internet gaming company 888.com -- in 2006 because he said Islam forbade the promotion of gambling. So is Mourinho right to take account of how religious practices may affect his players' performance? Is it wrong to drop a fasting footballer whose energy levels may be lower than his teammates? Should Mourinho contemplate that a player of faith may perform better in a period of self-enforced discipline? Were the Egyptian players right to carry on fasting even though they were given permission to break the fast? If Kanoute right to bring his religious beliefs into his place of work? And can sport and religion ever be separated in a satisfactory way?Let us know your thoughts in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Jose Mourinho substituted Sulley Muntari because he had been low energy .\nThe Ghanaian midfielder is a Muslim and had been fasting during Ramadan .\nEgypt's national youth team turned down the opportunity to break the fast .\nLet us know if fasting footballers should dropped in the Sound Off below ."} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Eleven-year-old Hiroki Ando will likely die if he does not get a new heart. Hiroki in an ambulance on the way to catch his flight to New York, where he will wait for a heart. Hiroki suffers from cardiomyopathy, which inflames and impairs the heart. The same disease killed his sister five years ago. \"We have two children in our family who got a disease that happens one out of every 100,000 people. I am sorry for my children. We are having my daughter and Hiroki going through this harsh experience,\" said father Ryuki Ando. \"We were told by his doctor at the end of last year that the heart transplant operation was the only way for him to survive,\" Ando said. But the law in Japan prohibits anyone under the age of 15 from donating organs -- meaning Hiroki can't get a new heart in his home country. According to the web site for Japan Transplant Network, a non-governmental group that supports changing Japan's transplant law, \"this stipulation has greatly reduced the possibility of transplants to small children; heart transplants to small children have become impossible.\" Watch Hiroki's trip to the United States \u00bb . Lawmaker Taro Kono is spearheading efforts to change the law, which was enacted in 1997. Japan's parliament is now debating four proposed amendments-- including one that would scrap the age limit. But, beyond the age matter, the issue of organ transplantation in general, has been a difficult one for the country because of perceptions of brain death. Some refuse to accept it if their loved ones' hearts are still beating. \"For a long time, it's the heart that mattered in Japan. Some religions ask us not to declare being brain dead as death. But that is not the majority,\" Kono said. \"So it is simply that we have been doing things this way and a lot of people are very skeptical about it.\" Kono, who gave a kidney to his father, said a total of 81 organ transplants have been conducted in Japan since the transplant law was enacted in 1997, whereas nearly thousands of transplants occur in the United States each year. \"A lot of people in Japan waiting for a transplant, waiting for a liver, a heart, other organs, most of them just die simply because they couldn't get any organs,\" he said. Kono said he believes the public supports changing the law to allow organ donation from children, noting that \"when the parents of the child are going on the street asking for donations, they can actually raise more than a million dollars.\" Incredibly, that's just what Hiroki's family has done. They started a group called \"helping Hiroki\" and raised $1.7 million in donations. \"It was very tough to get the donations, but so many people from all over Japan donated the money,\" he said. \"It was not only the money, but so many letters and messages to energize us, sent to the group. We realized there are so many people supporting us, and they are the reason that we made it this far and will be able to continue after going to the U.S.\" Hiroki is now at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, awaiting a new heart. His father says he knows that the transplant issue is a difficult one for families. \"The honest wish from the recipient's side is to have a donor show up as soon as possible,\" he said, pausing. \"I still do not know whether I can make a decision to give my child's heart to someone else if I am faced with such a situation. But unless the people face the issue and think about it seriously, I do not think the time will come soon to see more people volunteering to donate organs.\" Ando said he hopes that one day he will be able to play baseball with his son, who is an avid sports fan. \"I would like to have a fun time again with Hiroki. I would like to make it home with everyone in good health,\" he said. \"That's the biggest hope I have now.\" Ando's mother wrote in a blog on her Web site (http:\/\/www.hirokikun.jp\/) that Hiroki was high on the waiting list for a heart transplant in New York. \"I believe Hiroki will be all right,\" she wrote.","highlights":"Hiroki Ando, 11, suffers from cardiomyopathy, which inflames and impairs the heart .\nHe can't get heart in Japan because people under 15 not allowed to donate organs .\nHiroki's family raised $1.7 million in donations to send Hiroki to New York for surgery ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Director of National Intelligence is replacing the agency's inspector general just days after the public release of a blistering report critical of the DNI's office. DNI head Dennis Blair announced Friday Justice Department official Roslyn Mazer will replace Inspector General Edward McGuire as the DNI's internal watchdog. The inspector general's role is to examine the operations of the office and investigate any allegations of waste, fraud or misconduct. Earlier this week, Maguire testified before Congress about his report on the state of the DNI's office, outlining rampant communication problems, continuing turf battles within the intelligence community and financial mismanagement. All of those problems were supposed to be addressed when the position of DNI was created by Congress in 2004 to look at the intelligence failures associated with the 9\/11 terrorism attacks and the claims of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. The classified inspector general report was completed in November 2008, but was not made public until this week. DNI spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Maguire's departure has nothing to do with his report. She claimed Blair, who assumed his position two months ago, wanted to bring his own leadership team. \"The director appreciates the efforts and work of the previous inspector general and will continue to build on some of the suggested reforms,\" Morigi said.","highlights":"Inspector General Edward McGuire is being replaced as DNI's internal watchdog .\nMaguire's departure comes after blistering report critical of DNI .\nReport details turf battles within intelligence community, financial mismanagement ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Around 200 new species of frogs have been found in Madagascar, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. A study has found nearly 200 new species of frogs in Madagascar. A study identified between 129 and 221 new species of frogs on the island. The Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), who carried out the study, believe the find could practically double the number of amphibians known in the world if the results are extrapolated at a global scale. The study, published in the journal \"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA,\" suggests that the number of amphibian species in Madagascar has been significantly underestimated. \"The diversity of species in Madagascar is far from being known and there is still a lot of scientific research to be done. Our data suggest that the number of new species of amphibians not only has been underestimated but it is spatially widespread, even in well studied areas,\" said Professor David R. Vieites, CSIC researcher to the press at the Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum in Madrid. \"For example, two of the most visited and studied national parks, Ranomafana and Mantad\u00eda\/Analamazaotra, harbor 31 and 10 new species respectively.\" Dr. Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Zoologische Staatssammlung from Munich was part of the research team: \"During the past 15 years, we discovered and described over 100 new frog species from Madagascar, which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete. But as our new surveys show, there are many more species than we suspected,\" he said in a press statement. The paper suggests that the total biodiversity on the island could be much higher in other species as well, so the actual destruction of natural habitats may be affecting more animals than previously thought. This has important consequences for conservation planning, as the rate of destruction of rainforests in Madagascar has been one of the highest in the planet, with more than 80 percent of the historic surface of rainforest already lost, according to the study's authors. Almost a quarter of the new species discovered have not been found yet in protected areas, but the unstable political situation in Madagascar has also been cited as hampering conservation efforts. \"Although a lot of reserves and national parks have been created in Madagascar during the last decade, the actual situation of politic instability is allowing the cut of the forest within national parks, generating a lot of uncertainty about the future of the planned network of protected areas\", said Vieites. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and one of the most biodiverse areas globally, with a high degree of endemic species. \"To get an idea of its biodiversity --while in the Iberian Peninsula [there] are about 30 species of amphibians and in Germany about 20, in a single locality in Madagascar we can find around 100 species of frogs,\" said Vieites. Dr. Miguel Vences, professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, who was also part of the study team, and believes that a century of new species discovery is just beginning: \"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet. But the majority of life forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition.\"","highlights":"Nearly 200 new species of amphibians found on biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar .\nStudy found many outside of the island's conservation areas .\nPolitical instability in the country makes conservation efforts extra difficult ."} -{"article":"QUEENS, New York (CNN) -- For Victor Guevares, winning a bid at a raucous foreclosure auction two months ago was just the first step toward achieving his dream of home ownership. And after getting through several obstacles along the way, he finally moved his family into the two-story, three-bedroom house in Queens. Victor Guevares, second from right, bought a home at a raucous foreclosure auction two months ago. The auction process isn't as easy as it looks, Guevares said. \"If you're going to an auction, do your research,\" he told CNN. CNN first met the Guevares family in March when he grabbed a home once worth $527,000 for less than half that price. Guevares had won an auction at USHomeAuction.com's foreclosure sale in New York. Banks and other lenders were unloading foreclosed houses, and many were selling at 50 percent to 60 percent below their highest values. Foreclosures skyrocketed in March and the first quarter of 2009 to their highest levels on record as banks lifted moratoria on filings. Foreclosure filings -- which include default papers, auction sale notices and repossessions -- reached 803,489 in the first quarter, according to a recent report by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. Watch Victor Guevares give a quick tour of his new home \u00bb . That is a 24 percent jump over a year earlier and a 9 percent increase compared to the previous quarter. Of those first-quarter filings, 341,180 happened in March, a 17 percent increase from February and a 46 percent jump from March 2008. Sitting with his stomach in knots on that March 8 afternoon, Guevares made the opening bid and kept pace until they passed $100,000, then $200,000. Looking shell-shocked, Guevares ended up with the winning bid: $230,000. But he soon realized there was much more to it, after plunking down $7,000 in auction fees and another $5,000 required from every bidder. And still, he couldn't immediately lock in a mortgage at the auction as he had hoped because records showed the home faced a possible code violation. \"I had a problem,\" Guevares said. An inspection cleared that hurdle, and closing day ended happily with Guevares holding the deed to his first house. But he wasn't through yet. Guevares, a married father of two, wanted to have his family moved in by the end of May -- and had his work cut out, since the home was split into two apartments. He broke down a wall, opened up a staircase, put in new floors, repainted and created a sunroom. All that work brought his cost to roughly $280,000 -- about $20,000 less than the estimated value of the home, he said. Guevares spent the past 12 years renting and trying to save for his first home, and believes he came out ahead with the auction win. \"I got a great deal on the house. My mortgage is $300 less than what I paid in rent,\" he said. The backyard is filled with garbage bags filled with debris, but the family was able to move in last week. Guevares' son, 8-year-old Devin, is reveling in his bright green room that has a window to peek out into his yard -- and the neighbor's. \"They have a dog named Rocky, just the same as the dog we have,\" he said. Another perk: no more worrying about being quiet as he did at their apartment. \"I can just scream,\" said Devin.","highlights":"Victor Guevares won bid at a raucous foreclosure auction two months ago .\nThe auction process isn't as easy as it looks, Guevares says .\nGuevares spent 12 years renting as he saved for first home .\n\"My mortgage is $300 less than what I paid in rent,\" says Guevares ."} -{"article":"PADUCAH, Kentucky (CNN) -- The aunt of former U.S. soldier Steven Green told jurors tearfully Monday that \"We did not send a rapist and murderer to Iraq\" as defense lawyers worked to save her nephew from a death sentence. Former U.S. soldier Steven Green has been convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. Patty Ruth, a Texas elementary school principal, told a civilian jury about Green's childhood as a reader who loved to be hugged by relatives. \"I do not know how we got to this spot,\" Ruth said in emotional testimony. \"I do not know how this happened.\" Green was convicted last week in U.S. District Court in Kentucky of murder, rape, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in connection with a 2006 rape-and-murder south of Baghdad. A jury found him guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl, then killing her and setting her body on fire to destroy evidence. Green also was found guilty of killing the girl's parents and 6-year-old sister. He could become the first former U.S. soldier to face the death penalty for war crimes before a civilian court, where he was tried because he had been discharged from the military before his crimes came to light. Four other former soldiers are in prison for their roles in the crimes and the cover-up that followed. Green faces either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. His fate will be in the hands of the jury by week's end. The defense has presented relatives and medical professionals who have pieced together a picture of Green's childhood as troubled and stressful. It included the breakup of his parents' marriage, routine beatings to the point of injury by an older brother and being moved about through Texas by his mother. Ruth, the final witness scheduled by the defense, said that when the idea of the military came up for her nephew, she was unsure the Army would accept him. Even after he received a high school diploma through a correspondence course, she said, \"I could not picture or imagine how he could make it through basic training.\" Ruth said when she saw a picture of her nephew before his September 2005 deployment, she knew he wasn't \"Stevie\" anymore, standing as tall as his father in the photo at Fort Benning, Georgia. When he returned from Iraq 11 months later, he was \"remarkably thin,\" Ruth said, and she noticed circles under his eyes. Green and his father spent a night at the Ruth home, his aunt said, and she remembered him pacing the yard while smoking. He fell asleep wearing his fatigues, she said. When asked by the defense about the rape-murder plot that left an Iraqi family dead near Yusufiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Ruth responded, \"He's my Steve. You can't stop loving someone.\" There were other family members in the court on Monday. Green's father, John, an oil field worker from Midland, Texas, looked on quietly. He did not testify. Ruth, who is John Green's sister, noted for the jury that Green's mother is not at the trial this week. The mother is moving and had to attend a going-away party, Ruth said. Final arguments are expected Wednesday.","highlights":"Steven Green in sentencing phase after being convicted of rape, murder .\nGreen found guilty last week of incident in Iraq while he was soldier .\nAunt: \"He's my Steve. You can't stop loving someone\""} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- The Orleans Parish district attorney said he plans to look into deaths at a New Orleans hospital in the days following Hurricane Katrina, but stopped short of calling it an investigation. Staff at Memorial were accused of hastening four patients' deaths in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. \"My office has not reopened an investigation into the deaths at Memorial hospital\" after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, Leon Cannizzaro said in a statement released Friday. \"As district attorney, I have a legal obligation to evaluate statements regarding possible criminal activity in this jurisdiction,\" the statement said. \"I am making that kind of evaluation, but that does not constitute an investigation by this office.\" The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported in a story Saturday that Cannizzaro will interview New Orleans coroner Frank Minyard and possibly other pathologists on the coroner's staff regarding the deaths of Memorial Medical Center patients. But the newspaper quoted Cannizzaro as saying an investigation would involve convening a grand jury and bringing in witnesses to testify, and he does not at this time have plans to do that. After speaking with the coroner, the district attorney said he would decide whether a more in-depth investigation is necessary. Cannizzaro's spokesman, Christopher Bowman, said Monday the DA's office had no further comment beyond the Friday statement. According to the Times-Picayune, Cannizzaro's conversation with Minyard was prompted by an article in The New York Times last month that quoted two doctors as saying that they gave Memorial patients morphine and other drugs in the days after the hurricane struck, knowing they would die. Cannizzaro told the newspaper he would be \"remiss in his responsibilities\" if he did not talk to Minyard about information in the article. \"That doesn't mean I am opening an investigation,\" he said. Katrina roared ashore near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line on August 29, 2005, rupturing three of New Orleans' protective levees and putting about three-quarters of the city under water. Then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. launched an investigation after officials from Lifecare, an acute-care facility operating on the seventh floor of Memorial, reported allegations that several seriously ill, mostly elderly patients had been euthanized by medical staff at Memorial as the floodwater rose around the hospital and conditions inside deteriorated. In 2006, Foti ordered the arrest of Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, on preliminary charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of four patients. Former Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who under Louisiana law was responsible for prosecuting crimes, gave Budo and Landry immunity in exchange for their testimony. In July 2007, the grand jury refused to indict Pou. Foti said his investigation revealed that the four patients -- ages 63, 68, 91 and 93 -- were given a \"lethal cocktail\" of morphine and midazolam hydrochloride, both central nervous system depressants. Pou, Landry and Budo all denied the charges, and their attorneys said they acted heroically, staying to treat patients rather than evacuate. In an interview with Newsweek magazine in 2007, Pou admitted giving the patients drugs. \"If in doing so it hastened their deaths, then that's what happened,\" she said. \"But this was not, 'I'm going to go to the seventh floor and murder some people.' We're here to help patients.\" The grand jury never heard testimony from five specialists who advised Foti that the patients were deliberately killed with overdoses of drugs after Katrina struck. All five were brought in by Foti's office to analyze the deaths, and concluded the patients were homicide victims. After the grand jury refused to indict Pou, Jordan called the case closed and said he would no longer pursue it. If Cannizzaro does decide an in-depth investigation is warranted, it could affect the outcome of a lawsuit in which CNN and The Times-Picayune are seeking the release of Foti's investigative file into the deaths. CNN was the first to report the allegations of euthanasia, six weeks after the hurricane. The case went to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which in July sent it back to the trial court to rule on whether criminal litigation in the case is reasonably anticipated, according to Lori Mince, the New Orleans attorney representing the media organizations. A reopened investigation could lead the court to rule that criminal charges may be forthcoming. Hospital workers identified only as John and Jane Doe had sued to block the public release of the file, claiming the records are covered by grand jury secrecy rules, that they should have been considered confidential informants and that releasing the documents would violate their privacy.","highlights":"Post-Katrina euthanasia was alleged at Memorial Hospital .\nGrand jury declined to file charges and case was closed .\nDifferent district attorney deciding whether to reopen investigation .\nCNN first reported allegations six weeks after Hurricane Katrina ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A new Taliban military \"code of conduct\" calls for restrictions on suicide attacks aimed at avoiding the killing of civilians, but U.S. and Afghan military officials dismissed the document as propaganda, calling it hypocritical. A Pakistani looks at a bus set on fire by Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan in June. The booklet, obtained by CNN in northwestern Pakistan, has emerged during a crucial moment in the fight between troops and militants in Afghanistan, where battles are raging in the country's Helmand province and troops work to establish stability for the upcoming presidential elections. \"Suicide attacks should be at high value and important targets because a brave son of Islam should not be used for low value and useless targets,\" the code of conduct said. \"In suicide attacks the killing of innocent people and damage to their property should be minimized.\" It also says \"all mujahideen must do their best to avoid civilian deaths and injuries and damage to civilian property.\" And it says that mujahideen \"should refrain\" from disfiguring of people, such as the severing of ears, nose and lips. \"Mujahideen must be well behaved, and treat the people properly, in order to get closer to the hearts of civilian Muslims,\" the code said. Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, saidit was notable that the document is intended to be \"prescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves.\" Watch why Taliban have brought out new code of conduct \u00bb . \"Their day to day actions contradict everything in it,\" Sidenstricker said. \"The long and the short of it is, they don't operate in accordance to their code of conduct.\" She said more than 60 percent of civilians killed have been killed by the Taliban, and since January, more than 450 innocent Afghans have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been injured. Watch why Taliban are proving hard to uproot \u00bb . Also, half the casualties resulting from roadside bombs were civilians. \"The booklet also says suicide attacks should always be done against high-ranking officials. In reality, they have killed more then 200 Afghan civilians,\" she said. Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Azimi said the code is \" propaganda\" and that the Taliban \"will never implement that.\" He cites a recent beheading of a retired Afghan soldier as a clear example of the group's real behavior. \"It was against all the laws of war,\" Azimi said. As far as the upcoming election, Azimi said, the Taliban has tried its best in the past \"to disrupt the normal process of peace and security, and they will try their best to disrupt the peace and security process in the future.\" The code of conduct is dated as coming into effect on May 9, 2009. It is similar to a previous document that emerged in 2006 and covers many topics. For example, it says \"kidnapping for ransom is strictly prohibited.\" As for prisoners, the code says \"it is strictly prohibited to exchange prisoners for money. Killing can only be decided by the Imam or his deputy. No one else has the right to do so.\" It says an imam or his deputy are on the only ones to make decisions on whether to kill, release of exchange a captured \"military infidel.\" Further, it says the practice of taking weapons from people by force \"is no longer permitted.\" \"But people may hand over their weapons voluntarily,\" it said. And it says that the \"mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate should not collect donations forcibly\" and that \"people should be free to choose who they want to give to.\" It said mujahideen shouldn't search peoples' homes. \"If there is a need to do this, they should get permission from authority and the search should be done in the presence of the imam of the local mosque and two elders.\" The code said mujahids aren't permitted to smoke and that \"a male who has not yet grown a beard may not stay in a common sleeping area with other men.\" CNN's National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said the militants \"clearly\" are aware of the need to win \"hearts and minds\" and are trying to rectify the \"mistakes\" of al Qaeda in Iraq. \"They have their own counter-insurgency strategy in winning hearts and minds,\" Bergen said. \"This is a corrective, absolutely.\" He said \"there's a window for both sides to make some progress\" and the Taliban want to exploit the moment. \"The Taliban believe they are either winning or not losing. If you are an insurgent not losing is important,\" he said. CNN's Ivan Watson, Tim Schwarz and Joe Sterling and journalist Janullah Hashimzadeh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Taliban issues a new code of conduct to show it is a disciplined force .\nCode outlines rules to limit suicide attacks and civilian casualties .\nU.S. and Afghan officials dismiss rules as propaganda and hypocritical ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fifteen years after his death, and after his family fought a very long bureaucratic battle with the government, Enrique Valdez's name was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Rick Valdez looks at his father's name on the Wall on Monday. Valdez was a Marine gunnery sergeant wounded by shrapnel in August 1969, combat that left him a quadriplegic. Since his death in 1994, his family has been waiting for the Defense Department to answer their requests that Valdez be included on \"The Wall.\" On Memorial Day, his family finally got their wish, as they watched his name officially added to \"The Wall.\" His name was added to the registry after the Department of Defense declared he was eligible because he died from his war injuries. Rick Valdez was 7 when his father was deployed to Vietnam. \"The night he had to go to the bus station for his second tour of duty, that was the last time I saw him walking,\" the son recalled. \"The next time we saw him was at the Veterans Administration hospital in Long Beach [California], after they shipped him home,\" he said. The Marine was 32. \"There are people that are worse off than I was,\" Tina Valdez recalled his father always saying. \"I enlisted, and I served. I knew what I was getting into. And if this is the worst that could happen to me, well then, so be it.\" When notification came weeks ago from the Defense Department that Valdez's name would be added to the Wall, there was no explanation with it. Valdez's family previously thought since he hadn't been killed during war, Enrique Valdez couldn't be on the wall. Comrades and others told the family that he could be added to \"The Wall \"as long as we could show that his death was a result of his [war] injuries,\" said daughter Tina Valdez. \"And when my father passed away, they put it on the death certificate, long before we even knew that this was a possibility.\" Now, they couldn't be more thrilled that it's not a possibility anymore -- it's a reality -- though they don't have an explanation for why the Defense Department finally notified them. \"What changed?\" his daughter Tina Valdez asked. \"I've been sending [the Defense Department] the same information for 14 years. Why all of a sudden is it different now?\" But when she saw the fresh lettering earlier this month on Panel 17, she felt that an explanation didn't matter as much anymore. \"It's OK, because his name is here,\" she said. Watch Gunnery Sgt. Valdez's family at the Memorial \u00bb . Enrique Valdez joins 58,260 other names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and his is the only name added this year under 1969, for combat deaths that year or later deaths resulting from injuries sustained in combat that year.","highlights":"Marine Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Valdez's name added to Vietnam Veterans Memorial .\nValdez died from wounds suffered in August 1969 .\nHis family worked for years to have his name added to the memorial ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A few hundred people on Sunday marched in Brooklyn to protest last week's fatal beating of a 31-year-old Ecuadorean man -- an incident authorities say may have been a hate crime. Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten December 7 after leaving a party at a church. The demonstrators -- holding signs reading \"No more hate crimes\" -- walked a half-mile in the neighborhood where police say Jose Sucuzhanay was hit in the head with a bottle and beaten with an aluminum baseball bat on December 7. Sucuzhanay died of his injuries Friday at Elmhurst Hospital, hours before his mother arrived in New York from Ecuador, his family said. Police said Sucuzhanay's attackers yelled racial slurs; no arrests have been made in the case. One of his brothers, Diego Sucuzhanay, said Sunday he is convinced the attack was a hate crime. \"Nothing was taken from him,\" said Diego Sucuzhanay, who didn't join the demonstration, opting instead to help his mother make arrangements to return the body to Ecuador. Watch marchers protest against hate crimes \u00bb . Police said Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel had left a party at a church when several men approached them in a car in Brooklyn's Bushwick section, about a block from the brothers' home. The men shouted anti-gay and anti-Latino vulgarities and attacked the brothers, police said. Romel, 34, escaped with minor scrapes and has talked with detectives. Police have released a sketch of one possible suspect in the case. Police are offering a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the attack. In a statement, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the attack \"a pointless and gutless crime.\" He promised authorities would find and prosecute those responsible. Family spokesman Francisco Moya said Jose Sucuzhanay had lived in the United States for more than a decade and was a legal resident. Diego Sucuzhanay said Jose set up a successful real estate business in a low-income area, thinking he could make a difference there. He said his brother wanted to help everyone and hired a diverse team, including four African-Americans and two Latinos. He was raising two children: a 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. \"We were proud of him,\" Diego Sucuzhanay said. He said the family had wanted Jose's mother to get to his bedside before he died. Doctors told them Jose was brain dead since the attack, and that machines kept him alive until his heart failed Friday. At a press conference Sunday outside the hospital, Diego Sucuzhanay touched his chest and said: \"My heart is broken, but my brother's [memory] will live on. \" Asked in an interview with CNN how his brother would be remembered, he paused several seconds and answered: \"For being the victim of a hate crime.\" Though he didn't participate in the demonstration, he said he was grateful to those who did, and that everyone needs to practice tolerance. \"We definitely have to speak out,\" he said.","highlights":"Police say December 7 beating of Jose Sucuzhanay may have been a hate crime .\nAuthorities say attackers shouted racial slurs; Sucuzhanay died Friday .\nBrother: He'll be remembered as \"a victim of a hate crime\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that both engines of the US Airways flight that ditched last month into the Hudson River contained bird remains. The feather found inside one of the engines of the plane that crashed into the Hudson River. The engines from US Airways Flight 1549 were sent to the manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the NTSB directed the analysis, it said in a news release. The plane's flight data recorder \"revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines,\" the NTSB said. The NTSB also said that an \"engine surge event\" in the right engine on January 13, two days before the accident, was caused by a faulty temperature sensor, which had been replaced. Investigators said last month they found a single feather and evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" on the aircraft. The find reinforces the pilot's report that the plane was brought down by a flock of birds. Pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, 58, told investigators his aircraft struck birds, disabling both engines, about 90 seconds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York. The feather, found on a flap track on the wing, was also sent to identification experts at the Smithsonian Institution last month. The pilot ditched the Airbus A320 in the Hudson River and passengers tried to flee the aircraft almost immediately after it settled in the water and began to float along the river current. All 155 crew members and passengers on the plane survived the incident, which New York Gov. David Paterson dubbed a \"miracle on the Hudson.\"","highlights":"Engines sent to manufacturer in Ohio after crash .\nLast month single feather, evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" found on aircraft .\nPilot ditched plane in Hudson after he said aircraft hit flock of birds .\nAll 155 crew and passengers survived what was called \"miracle on the Hudson\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former rugby superstar Jonah Lomu has revealed that he is poised to make a shock playing comeback at the age of 34 with French third-division club Marseille Vitrolles. Jonah Lomu pictured in action for New Zealand's All Blacks during the 1999 World Cup in France. The giant New Zealander, who became a global name after an electrifying series of performances on the wing for the All Blacks at the 1995 World Cup, retired in 2007 after a succession of injuries hampered his attempt to return following a kidney transplant. He played 63 internationals, the last of them in 2002, but was never able to regain his previous dominance even after regaining full health. \"Marseille Vitrolles is on the point of finalizing the transfer of the greatest legend in world rugby,\" said statement on the club's Web site. Lomu, who is featuring in a new worldwide advertising campaign for sportswear manufacturer adidas called \"Nothing Is Impossible\", was also quoted as confirming his desire to return to the playing field. \"I took a sabbatical year to be at my pregnant partner's side and to fully enjoy this important moment in any man's life,\" he said on the Web site. \"Everyone thought I had ended my playing career, but that was wrong. I still feel the desire to play and it will be me alone who decides when to call it a day. \"My ambition is to help a club like Marseille join the group of top clubs in France.\" Lomu was first diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a rare and serious kidney disorder, at the end of 1996. He successfully returned to the game after treatment, but in May 2003 he was put on dialysis three times a week due to deterioration in his kidney function, with the treatment's side effects leaving him with severe nerve damage in his feet and legs. Lomu faced life in a wheelchair if a kidney transplant was not performed, so underwent the operation. He signed a two-year contract with New Zealand province North Harbour in 2005, and also played for Welsh club Cardiff Blues during the southern hemisphere's off-season. However, he was unable to achieve his goal of being selected in the All Blacks squad for the 2007 World Cup in France, having suffered a shoulder injury. Lomu agreed to play in a charity match in England last year, but withdrew after injuring his ankle in training.","highlights":"Former All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu to join French third-division club .\nThe 34-year-old will play for Marseille Vitrolles after supposedly retiring in 2007 .\nNew Zealander became rugby's first global superstar after the 1995 World Cup .\nHe previously returned to playing after having a kidney transplant ."} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro is taking over leadership of a country whose government believes its citizens are not working hard enough. Raul Castro was chosen Sunday to take over Cuba's presidency from his brother, Fidel Castro. The state-run newspaper recently ran an article headlined \"Work: Option or necessity?\" The writer pointed out that, judging by the number of people in the streets during the day, many Cubans don't seem to be on the job. They have few motivations to buckle down: Salaries average about $15 per month on the island, and Cubans get monthly food rations even if they don't work. Watch a report on the realities in Cuba \u00bb . \"There is a strong desire to protect and to gradually increase the incomes and savings of the population, particularly of those least favored,\" said Raul Castro, 76. The black market is so widespread that Cubans have coined a special term for breaking the law to make ends meet: \"resolver\" -- literally, \"to resolve.\" See Cuba through I-Reporters' eyes \u00bb . The new president, who took the reins of power Sunday from his ailing brother, Fidel, 81, has said the country must become more productive. \"The country's priority will be to meet the basic needs of the population, both material and spiritual, based on the sustained strengthening of the national economy and its productive basis without which, I'll say it again, development would be impossible,\" Raul Castro said in a speech Sunday. Cubans, too, are calling for reforms, though not all of them related to productivity. In a recent video that has made the rounds on the Internet, a student poses tough questions to the president of Cuba's National Assembly, asking why Cubans cannot travel freely to resorts -- a practice derided by critics as \"tourist apartheid.\" Though such a public display of discontent is rare, the video echoed sentiments often voiced in private for years, particularly since the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 and, with it, the loss of billions of dollars in subsidies. Cuban officials counter that Cubans are not granted access to the nation's most luxurious spots because they do not have the foreign exchange brought by the tourists and needed to run the country's social programs, such as free health care and education. With a new president steering the island nation for the first time in 49 years, some Cubans have allowed their expectations to rise. \"I think those expectations are really very large indeed and it'll be the Achilles heel, potentially, of this new government if it doesn't attack them with some vigor,\" said Hal Klepak, a professor of history and warfare studies at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. Indeed, Castro has promised to move within a few weeks to improve efficiency by cutting some of the red tape that can frustrate the most fervent of revolutionaries. But Wayne S. Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington and chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982, predicted Sunday in an editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Raul Castro will not break strongly from his brother's policies. \"Rather, we will see a peaceful transition and the existing system remain largely intact,\" Smith predicted. Still, changes are inevitable, he said. \"Raul Castro has called for a nationwide debate on the country's economic future and for Cubans to propose reforms in group discussions. \"He has also called for new proposals to raise productivity, including discussion of more private ownership of land. The Cuban people want change, want reforms that will bring about a better way of life.\" Smith credited the younger Castro's leadership over the past 1\u00bd years, while serving as acting president, with having already resulted in \"a greater openness, and open criticism of certain government programs.\" But the degree of change remains uncertain, as does the possibility that \"even from the shadow Fidel will try to discourage reforms,\" he said, adding \"the prognosis, nonetheless, is hopeful.\" See a timeline of Castro's rise to power \u00bb . The U.S. government's former man in Havana recommended current politicians exert pressure on the island with a light touch. \"We could accomplish far more by reducing tensions and beginning a meaningful dialogue,\" he said. \"Raul Castro has several times suggested such a dialogue. Why not take him up on it? We have disagreements, yes, but how do we resolve them without talking?\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Morgan Neill contributed to this story.","highlights":"Cuban President Raul Castro says the country must become more productive .\nCastro has promised to improve efficiency by cutting some red tape .\nExpectations rise as a new president leads Cuba for the first time in 49 years .\nRare public displays of discontent show frustrations faced by Cubans ."} -{"article":"H. W. Brands is the author of \"TR: The Last Romantic\" and the just-released \"Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.\" He teaches history at the University of Texas at Austin. Historian H.W. Brands says power as well as race was behind controversy over Booker T. Washington. AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- In his concession speech on Tuesday night, John McCain illustrated the historic significance of Barack Obama's election by noting that a little over a century ago the inclusion of another black man, Booker T. Washington, at a White House dinner provoked outrage in large parts of the country. McCain wasn't giving a history lecture, and he quickly moved on, but the tale is worth exploring, as it is both more complex and more instructive than McCain's brief remarks suggested. Washington was the one who initiated the acquaintance that led to his 1901 dinner with Theodore Roosevelt. Washington had built the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama into a political base that made him the most powerful black leader in the country. Invited to address the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895, Washington offered white America a racial bargain: Blacks would cease agitating for immediate political and civil rights if whites would fund black educational and economic advancement. This \"Atlanta Compromise\" outraged black intellectuals like W. E. B. Du Bois, but it appealed to white leaders in the South and white philanthropists in the North -- and it marked Washington, the broker of Northern largesse and Southern cooperation, as one of the shrewdest politicians in the South. Washington spotted Roosevelt on the rise, and after Roosevelt became vice president, Washington invited him to Tuskegee, where he knew Roosevelt, the apostle of the strenuous life, would be entranced by the rigorous physical regimen the students pursued. Roosevelt was preparing to visit Tuskegee when the assassination of William McKinley elevated him to the presidency and threw his plans into turmoil. Roosevelt instead invited Washington to call at the White House whenever he was in town. Washington didn't have to be asked twice. Within weeks, he was in the capital and was invited to join the president for dinner on October 16. Roosevelt's ascension to the presidency made him that much more interesting to Washington. Yet no more interesting than Washington was to Roosevelt. The peculiar politics of the Republican Party gave Washington an importance among Republicans that belied the abnegations of the Atlanta Compromise. Discriminatory Jim Crow laws kept most blacks from voting in the South, but they didn't prevent the Southern states from sending delegations to the Republican national conventions every four years. These delegations could tip the balance in a tight contest, and Roosevelt -- who though president was profoundly unpopular among the Republican bosses -- expected the 1904 convention to be a tight contest. Roosevelt's invitation to Washington to dine at the White House had little to do with Washington's race per se, but everything to do with Washington's role as a political boss of Southern Republicans who happened to be black. Likewise, the outrage expressed by Southern editors and spokesmen over Roosevelt's alleged affront to the South, while couched in the language of race, was really about political power. \"White men of the South, how do you like it?\" fulminated the New Orleans Times-Democrat. \"White women of the South, how do you like it?\" The Richmond Times frothed over the implications of the honor Roosevelt had bestowed on Washington: \"It means that the president is willing that Negroes shall mingle freely with whites in the social circle -- that white women may receive attentions from negro men; it means that there is no racial reason in his opinion why whites and blacks may not marry and intermarry, why the Anglo-Saxon may not mix negro blood with his blood.\" The vehemence of the Southern response gave the game away. Booker Washington had explicitly forsworn any claim to social equality, let alone the right for blacks to marry whites. What the Southern foamers, political conservatives to a man, feared was that Washington might help the dangerously progressive Roosevelt get elected in his own right. When he did precisely that -- Roosevelt fended off the conservatives at the 1904 convention and was returned to office overwhelmingly -- they foamed the more. The race question in America has often been about race, but it has equally often been about power. Not for 40 years, since the dismantling of the Jim Crow system, has the race of guests at the White House prompted anything other than idle curiosity. But until last Tuesday those African-Americans among the guests were precisely that: guests -- visitors who lacked the power that occupancy of the White House entails. Symbolism isn't unimportant, and the symbolism of a black man taking the oath of the president's office in January will certainly bring an outpouring of sentiment like that which greeted Obama's election. But behind the symbolism of race is the reality of power. Obama will wield power of an order Booker Washington appreciated in Roosevelt but never possessed for himself. A week or a month after the symbolism fades, the reality will remain. At that point, Obama's race won't matter nearly as much as his facility with power. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of H.W. Brands.","highlights":"H.W. Brands: Roosevelt-Washington White House dinner was controversial .\nHe says the the opposition was about power as well as about race .\nAfrican-Americans have often been guests at the White House .\nBrands: When Obama moves in, it will represent a leap in terms of power ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Researchers in the United States are buoyed by the results of a study which has determined that a giant grass could help the country to meet its steep biofuel targets. Stephen Long amid Miscanthus stalks found to outperform other biofuel sources. After successful long-term trials in Europe, a three-year field study of Miscanthus x giganteus by the University of Illinois has revealed that it outperforms traditional biofuel sources, producing more than twice the ethanol per acre than corn or switchgrass, using a quarter of the space. Crop sciences professor and study leader Dr. Stephen Long told CNN that while there probably isn't one magic bullet to fix our climate woes, Miscanthus -- also known as elephant grass -- promises to be one of five or six options that could help the U.S. to reach its target of replacing 30 percent of gasoline use with biofuels by 2030. \"I think it's important in the biofuels debate that we don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The idea we use the sun's energy to grow plants and then make fuels from those plants is essentially a good one,\" Dr. Long said. \"It's been tainted by the fact that the easy way to do it is to just use food crops, but society needs to realize there are big opportunities beyond food crops and beyond the use of crop land.\" Miscanthus, for instance, is able to grow on land too marginal for crop production, so it doesn't have to compete with land for food crops. It also doesn't require major input or fertilization after planting and once established will yield for around 15 years. Yet even with the success of these trials in the U.S. and the earlier European ones, it could be years before the full potential of Miscanthus is realized. This is due in part to the fact that it's much more complex to make cellulosic ethanol -- ethanol made from non-food plants -- than it is to turn simple food starches found in corn or wheat into ethanol. In the United Kingdom, Miscanthus is recognized by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as an energy crop and it's currently being used to co-fire the Drax power station in England's Yorkshire. Even still, Dr. Geraint Evans from the UK's National Non-Food Crops Centre said rather than plants like Miscanthus, wheat grain will be used to meet the UK target of replacing five percent of fuel with renewable sources by 2010. \"Miscanthus has the potential to be more efficient, producing between 4,000 and 7,000 liters of fuel per hectare, whereas ethanol made from wheat grain makes about 1900 liters per hectare.\" \"Wheat grain-derived ethanol is what we can do today with the technology we have available today. The technology to use Miscanthus is not yet commercially available,\" Dr. Evans told CNN. In addition to the technical hitch, Dr. Evans said a further downside is that even though Miscanthus is a low maintenance crop, it can be costly to plant compared to wheat or rapeseed canola and the first yield wouldn't occur for at least three years. In an effort to overcome some of the challenges, Dr. Long now intends to turn his attention to experimenting with the wild Miscanthus used in the U.S. trial. And if the sort of improvements made to corn in the last 50 years are any indication, Miscanthus could be well be used to fuel the future in a matter of years. Is Miscanthus the next big thing in biofuels? Sound off below.","highlights":"A U.S. study has revealed a giant grass outperforms other biofuel sources .\nMiscanthus produces more than double the ethanol of corn per acre .\nIt's already used to co-fire the Drax power station in north England .\nThe full potential of Miscanthus as a biofuel may take years to realize ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swedish car manufacturer Saab, a fully owned subsidiary of General Motors, announced Friday that it will \"file for reorganization ... to create a fully independent business entity.\" The Swedish car maker says a formal reorganization is the best way to create an \"entity that's ready for investment.\" Under the Swedish court system, an independent administrator will be appointed to work closely with the Saab management team to formulate a reorganization proposal, which will be presented to creditors within three weeks of the filing. Saab said it will continue to operate as usual and in accordance with the formal reorganization process, with the government providing some support during this period. \"We explored and will continue to explore all available options for funding and\/or selling Saab and it was determined a formal reorganization would be the best way to create a truly independent entity that is ready for investment,\" said Jan Ake Jonsson, managing director for Saab Automobile. \"Saab has an excellent foundation for strong growth, assuming we can get the funding to complete engineering, tooling and manage launch costs. Reorganization will give us the time and means that help get these products to market, while minimizing the liquidity impact of Saab on GM.\" General Motors said this week that it plans shed tens of thousands of employees, close factories, cut product lines and wants billions of dollars in government funding to stave off bankruptcy. When all is said and done, GM said that by 2011 it could need a total of $30 billion, which includes the $13.4 billion in Treasury loans it has already received. In the near term, GM will most certainly need $9.1 billion in additional loans and could require an additional $7.5 billion in the next two years if auto sales don't improve.","highlights":"Independent adminstrator appointed to form Saab reorganization plan .\nAuto maker says plan considered to be the best way to attract future funding .\nSaab is a fully owned subsidiary of ailing U.S. auto maker General Motors .\nGM is fighting to stave off bankruptcy with job cuts, U.S. Treasury loans ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Walking through a maze of narrow streets south of Tiananmen Square, Nick Frisch appeared unfazed by the sight of drastic changes -- traditional courtyard houses that once lined up these hutongs, or alleys, now in different stages of being knocked down. Nick Frisch's underground exploration in Beijing has attracted the attention of a Singapore TV crew. While the Qianmen area is going through an extreme makeover -- a restoration of its Qing dynasty flavor ahead of the Olympics -- Frisch's destination is safe from the city's ubiquitous wrecking balls. Upon reaching the entrance to the Underground City, however, he was told it was closed for \"renovation,\" just like the surrounding neighborhood. \"It's like they're trying to literally bury this place before the Games,\" said Frisch, a recent graduate of Columbia University in the United States, with a major in history and Chinese language. This place is a vast network of tunnels built beneath Beijing's city center during the 1970s in anticipation of a nuclear war with the Soviets. Covering an area of 85 square kilometers and containing 1,000 anti-air raid structures, the subterranean complex was said to have been mostly hand-dug by 300,000 local residents. \"The plan was to move half of Beijing's population underground and the other half to western hills in the event of a nuclear attack,\" Frisch explained. The 22-year-old New York native has lived in China on and off for a year and is fascinated by the bomb shelter and its history. After the authorities opened part of the Underground City as a tourist attraction to woo foreigners, he turned a routine visit to an adventure in 2006. Armed with a flashlight, Frisch veered off from the mandatory guided tour. Moving sandbags and unchaining doors, he explored the off-limit area and found rooms with bunk beds and decayed cardboard boxes of water purifiers. \"It's more than just propaganda posters down there -- it really is a parallel universe, with street signs stenciled on the wall,\" Frisch said. Since then, Frisch has discovered other shelters linked to the network -- many of them turned to cheap hostels -- on busy streets. Not surprisingly, the time-warped part of the Underground City remains his favorite. \"I sometimes wish I was born earlier to witness the Cold War unfold -- and the tunnels have given me a unique vantage point to look into that period of history,\" Frisch said. \"While Beijing is transforming itself for the Olympics, it's just amazing to see this space in such a sharp contrast to the city aboveground.\" E-mail to a friend . Steven Jiang is a Beijing-based freelance writer and former CNN producer.","highlights":"American university student exploring Beijing's underground tunnels .\nPart of capital's \"Underground City\" now open to tourists .\nBeijing's underground tunnel network was built in 1970s as giant bomb shelter ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Ten French soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting near the Afghan capital of Kabul after 100 insurgents attacked a patrol, authorities said. French soldiers patrol in Afghanistan in May 2008. French and NATO authorities confirmed the deaths and said 21 other soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Sarobi area in Kabul province, about 30 miles northeast of the capital. The clashes began late Monday afternoon and continued into Tuesday, when the casualties occurred, French officials said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his \"determination is intact\" to continue \"this battle against terrorism for democracy and liberty.\" \"The cause is just. It is an honor for France and its armies to defend them,\" said Sarkozy, who will travel Tuesday night to Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said. Last month, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern Afghanistan. U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch troops have been engaged in much of the combat in Afghanistan. The United States has been urging other countries in the NATO-led alliance to help ease the burdens of those troops on the front lines. About 1,670 French troops serve in Afghanistan under NATO's International Security Assistance Force, according to ISAF's Web site. Before this incident, a total of 12 French troops had died in several incidents during the Afghan war, mostly in combat. As for the latest fighting, NATO said the initial patrol -- which included Afghan forces -- had been \"reinforced with quick reaction forces, close air support and mobile medical teams.\" It said \"a large number of insurgents were killed.\" Gen. Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday that Afghan army forces rushed to the battle scene soon after the attack took place. He said 27 militants were killed and 14 were wounded in the fighting, and 13 of the bodies were recovered by the Afghan army. He said one of the dead militants was identified as a Pakistani national. The Taliban posted a Web statement saying its forces attacked an \"American\" convoy, killing 20 soldiers and destroying five military tanks. It also said foreign forces later Tuesday bombarded the region and killed five Taliban militants and several civilians. The fighting came after authorities tightened security on Monday in anticipation of militant attacks on the country's Independence Day. Several suicide bombers struck an American base about 12 miles from the border with Pakistan in Khost province on Tuesday, but U.S. and Afghan forces repelled the onslaught. Seven insurgents were killed in the attack on Forward Operating Base Salerno, including three suicide bombers who blew themselves up after forces from the base encountered them more than 3,000 feet from the base, ISAF said in a statement. U.S. and Afghan troops noticed the approaching militants by their \"special behavior,\" the spokesman said. Helicopters flew in to attack them, the force said. ISAF said it suffered no casualties. Gov. Arsallah Jamal of Khost province said four commandos -- presumably Afghans -- were wounded when the militants struck late Monday. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said 15 suicide bombers with small arms and machine guns entered the base and inflicted heavy casualties -- claims that the NATO-led force and Khost governor dismissed. That attack came after a suicide car bombing outside the same base killed 10 Afghan civilians and wounded 13 others Monday, the U.S. military said. Two other would-be bombers were killed before they could carry out attacks, Jamal said. Afghan forces stopped a second would-be car bomb near the base, performed a controlled detonation and detained a suspect, the NATO-led force said. This comes as a source from the Afghan Defense Ministry, who declined to be named, confirmed that Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani arrived in Kabul on Tuesday morning to meet with Afghan and NATO military officials. In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber struck a Canadian foot patrol on Tuesday in the Kandahar province district of Panjwayee, local police said. The bomber and an Afghan interpreter for NATO forces were killed and a NATO soldier and a child were wounded, police said. The attack occurred as troops chatted with villagers in the district's main bazaar. The Taliban, in a Web statement, said 11 foreign soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack. CNN's Ben Brumfield and Journalist Farhad Peikar contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 'This cause is just,' French President Sarkozy says .\nNEW: Sarkozy to travel to Afghanistan Tuesday night .\nNEW: Officials dismiss Taliban claim of 15 suicide bombers entering base .\n10 French soldiers killed as fighting flares around holiday ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dom DeLuise, who spiced up such movies as \"Blazing Saddles,\" \"Silent Movie\" and \"The Cannonball Run\" with his manic delivery and roly-poly persona, has died, his son's publicist said. Dom DeLuise was best known for his roles in Mel Brooks films as well as films with his friend Burt Reynolds. Publicist Jay Schwartz did not disclose the cause of death, but DeLuise, 75, had been battling cancer for more than a year. DeLuise was surrounded by family when he died in a Santa Monica, California, hospital Monday night, son Michael DeLuise told CNN affiliate KTLA. DeLuise was most famous for his supporting roles in a number of Mel Brooks films, including 1974's \"Saddles\" -- in which he played a flamboyant musical director who led dancers in a number called \"The French Mistake\" -- and 1976's \"Silent Movie,\" in which he played the assistant to Brooks' director Mel Funn. He was also in the Brooks-directed \"The Twelve Chairs\" (1970), \"Spaceballs\" (1987) and \"Robin Hood: Men in Tights\" (1993). But he could also assay more serious roles, most notably in the 1980 dark comedy \"Fatso,\" in which he played an overweight man trying to wean himself from comfort food. The film was directed by Brooks' wife, Anne Bancroft. Watch an impromptu performance by Dom DeLuise \u00bb . DeLuise, who struggled with his own weight, was also an author of cookbooks. In 1991, he told CNN's Larry King that after meeting Luciano Pavarotti while working on an opera, he realized he needed to try to shed some of his weight. \"I finally became powerless over food,\" he told King. \"You know, anybody who's an alcoholic or cocaine or something, that's what food was to me.\" Besides authoring cookbooks, DeLuise penned seven children's books. DeLuise was also part of the supporting cast in the Burt Reynolds crash-'em-up vehicles \"Smokey and the Bandit II\" (1980), \"Cannonball Run\" (1981) and \"Cannonball Run II\" (1984). Other DeLuise films include \"The End\" (1978), \"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas\" (1982) and \"Johnny Dangerously\" (1984). His voice was featured in such films as \"An American Tail\" (1986) and its sequels, \"All Dogs Go to Heaven\" (1989) and its 1996 sequel, and \"Oliver & Company\" (1988). Dominic DeLuise was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 1, 1933. In the 1960s he had bit parts in a handful of movies, including \"Fail Safe\" (1964), but became well known as a regular on \"The Entertainers\" and a Dean Martin variety show. He had his own summer replacement show in 1968 and was a regular on Glen Campbell's \"Goodtime Hour\" in 1971-72. Watch DeLuise talk about working on \"The Mike Douglas Show\" \u00bb . DeLuise had three sons -- Peter, Michael and David -- who all became actors. He told Larry King that it was the \"joy of my life\" to work with his oldest son, Peter, when he directed the film \"Second Nature.\" His wife of 40 years, actress Carol Arthur, appeared in several movies with him, including \"Blazing Saddles\" and \"Silent Movie,\" according to DeLuise's Web site. DeLuise worked closely on several films with pal Gene Wilder, who in 2002 told Larry King that of all of his co-stars, DeLuise \"makes me laugh the most.\" A frequent collaborator with DeLuise, Burt Reynolds released a statement to \"Entertainment Tonight\" on his friend's death. \"I was thinking the other day about this. As you get older you think about this more and more, I was dreading this moment. Dom always made everyone feel better when he was around. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much,\" Reynolds says.","highlights":"Dom DeLuise appeared in several Mel Brooks films and Burt Reynolds movies .\nAmong DeLuise's best-known films: \"Silent Movie,\" \"Cannonball Run\"\nReynolds: \"Dom always made everyone feel better when he was around\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nigeria's main militant group issued a veiled threat Monday against an upcoming world football tournament that is tentatively scheduled to take place in the west African nation later this year. Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, pictured September 2008 in the Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta warned the international football association FIFA that it should \"rethink\" allowing Nigeria to host the upcoming under-17 World Cup series later this year. \"The safety of international players and visitors can not be guaranteed due to the current unrest,\" MEND said in an e-mail. Only two out of the nine stadiums in Nigeria are close to being ready for the tournament which is scheduled to take place between October 24 and November 15, according to FIFA. The association has given the country a grace period to start constructing the remaining venues, FIFA Vice President Jack Warner said. In its e-mail, MEND claimed to have attacked a Chevron oil station in the Niger Delta region Monday as part of its latest offensive against the Nigerian government, dubbed \"Hurricane Piper Alpha.\" \"Hurricane Piper Alpha hit the Abiteye flow station operated by Chevron today, Monday, June 15, 2009 at about 0200 Hrs triggering another 'systems failure' which resulted in a massive fire outbreak that is consuming the entire facility,\" MEND said. It threatened further attacks in other states in the Niger Delta region, as well as offshore oil facilities. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it is investigating the reported attack on its Abiteye flow station. \"We are working to ensure the safety of our people, restore the integrity of our operations as soon as possible and are not speculating on any comment while investigations are being undertaken,\" according to an e-mailed statement from Chevron spokesman Scott Walker. Last month, the militant group declared an \"all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be reinvested in the region instead of enriching those whom the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent. The recent violence -- which has included attacks on pipelines and hostage-taking -- has limited shipment of crude oil supplies out of Nigeria, Africa's largest producer.","highlights":"Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, produces 2.4 million barrels of oil per day .\nRecent attacks by MEND have limited shipment of crude oil supplies .\nTournament to take place between October 24 and November 15, according to FIFA .\nOnly two out of the nine stadia for under-17s competition close to being ready ."} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Christina Aguilar sits in a converted storage room of a Las Vegas medical center, the best hope for underinsured cancer patients to get the treatment they need. Christina Aguilar, 28, is being treated for advanced-stage ovarian cancer in Nevada. Drip by drip, Aguilar, 28, watches as chemo enters her body to fight advanced-stage ovarian cancer. She is here because her insurance company wouldn't pay for her chemotherapy or her surgeries. \"I thought, 'Why am I getting insurance if it's not going to pay for the most important thing?' \" she says, recalling the day she learned her insurance wouldn't cover treatment. Getting chemo in an old storage space isn't the most ideal situation, but it's her only choice. Watch chemo in a closet \u00bb . Earlier this year, state budget cuts in Nevada resulted in the slashing of the outpatient cancer center at the University Medical Center's oncology clinic, forcing patients to find treatment on their own. \"We're supposed to be the safety net for patients, and yet obviously the safety net has holes in it,\" says Kathleen Silver, the CEO of University Medical Center. Oncologist Nick Spirtos found a solution. He persuaded his partners to take on the patients pro bono, converted a storage area in his office into a chemotherapy room and got Clark County to pay for the expensive chemo drugs. One treatment can cost upwards of $10,000. He's also sought more primitive ways to cover costs. He holds up a clear plastic box bearing the label \"Cash for Chemotherapy.\" Dollar bills and loose change jingle. There are 380 boxes placed throughout the county. \"It helps,\" says Spirtos, the director of the Women's Cancer Center of Nevada. \"If these boxes pay for one more patient's chemo, that's one lady who in the overall context wouldn't be able to have her treatment.\" With the nation debating health care reform, Spirtos says he does favor universal health care, but not without trepidation. Learn more about America's health care debate \u00bb . He says Medicaid reimburses doctors at a fraction of their costs, and he believes other government programs are poorly run. He wrote an open letter to President Obama and Congress earlier this month. \"[I] respectfully suggest that instead of rushing headlong into ill-thought out proposals, you and your staff along with Congress take some time and thoughtfully review the issues facing us and formulate a plan that might actually meet our needs,\" Spirtos said. But on this day, he's focused on his patients. Decked out in a blue doctor's gown, Spirtos makes the rounds to see the women at his clinic. Aguilar's ovaries were recently removed and she is getting her latest chemo regimen. She's reclined in a chair, a red blanket draped over her legs. She opens a laptop and flips through digital pictures of her mother, who died of lymphatic cancer 10 years ago. Aguilar says her cancer was detected almost by accident. She went in for a checkup and a small acorn-sized cyst was discovered. A month later, it was the size of a grapefruit. She broke down in tears just after her ovaries were removed. \"I started crying. I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm not going to be able to have kids,' \" she says. Aguilar was a cashier at Toys R Us, making $8.76 an hour. She had insurance through work, but it wouldn't cover her costs. Her salary made her inelgible for Medicaid. With the slashing of the county hospital's oncology unit, her bills were racking up and she had few options. Luckily, her doctor referred her to Spirtos. Spirtos says cases like hers are becoming all too common, especially in the down economy. He treats 75 to 85 women per month; about 20 percent are in a similar situation as Aguilar. \"If you're recently unemployed, you have no insurance benefits and you don't qualify for any of the public aids,\" he says. \"So amazingly, the people who've been working and supporting the system, the moment they're out of work they don't fit in any of the round holes -- they're square pegs.\" If Aguilar wasn't getting treatment from him, he says, \"Over time, her cancer would progress and she'd pass away.\" The doctor, who is bald, stops at her side. Aguilar rubs the doctor's golden dome. \"The great part about this is Christina's hair is going to grow back and mine won't,\" he says. The two laugh and smile. Outside the room, the doctor says he's doing all he can to make sure the women who come to him have the best treatment possible. \"I get to hug my patients, I get my head rubbed and I get an incredible amount of gratification,\" he says. He pauses. \"Getting a hug from one of these ladies is like my kids running up and saying, 'I love you.'\" He turns and walks down the hall. More patients await his help. CNN's Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dr. Nick Spirtos of Nevada treats cancer patients pro bono after state funds slashed .\nChristina Aguilar, 28, is getting treated for ovarian cancer .\nIf Aguilar went untreated, \"her cancer would progress and she'd pass away\""} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In what feels like a box-office weekend from \"The Twilight Zone,\" a low-budget and critically acclaimed movie with no stars and an unknown director managed to top the charts. \"District 9,\" the alien action pic produced by Peter Jackson, crushed the competition grossing $37 million. \"District 9,\" the alien action pic produced by Peter Jackson and directed by the 29-year-old Neill Blomkamp ? who shot the film in Johannesburg, South Africa, of all places -- crushed the competition by grossing $37 million, according to early estimates. Audiences clearly enjoyed what they saw too: \"District 9\" has already soared to No. 78 on IMDb's top 250 movies list, although it'll obviously drop some as the initial euphoria wears off. Second place went to \"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,\" which dropped 59 percent in its second weekend but still managed to recruit $22.5 million. The $175 million action movie should pass $100 million domestically by Monday. \"The Time Traveler's Wife\" materialized into third place with $19.2 million in its debut weekend, proving that there is a market for watching Eric Bana disappear. Rounding out the top 5 were \"Julie & Julia\" (No. 4 with $12.4 million) and \"G-Force\" (No. 5 with $6.9 million), respectively. Also opening wide was a trio of movies that failed to make a significant dent on the box office. \"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,\" a cars-salesmen comedy starring Jeremy Piven, barely registered on the mercury thermometer by earning $5.4 million. \"Ponyo,\" the 10th film by Japan's animation auteur Hayao Miyazaki, grossed $3.5 million on 927 screens. While that amount represents Miyazaki's best opening weekend in America, it's still fish feed compared to \"Ponyo's\" worldwide gross of $187 million. The music comedy \"Bandslam\" won't be getting any requests for encores after making only $2.3 million from more than 2,000 screens ? even the promise of seeing the \"Taylor Lautner takes off his shirt\" trailer of The \"Twilight\" Saga: New Moon couldn't save the Vanessa Hudgens movie. In limited release, the Jimmy Page\/The Edge\/Jack White music documentary \"It Might Get Loud\" opened promisingly, grossing $101,000 from just seven theaters. And \"500 Days of Summer\" continues to cement its title as \"the indie breakout of the summer\" by charming $3 million more from moviegoers, bringing its total to $18 million so far. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"District 9,\" the alien action pic, crushed the competition grossing $37 million .\n\"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra\" dropped 59 percent, bringing in $22.5 million .\n\"The Time Traveler's Wife\" materialized into third place with $19.2 million .\nCheck out which other movies made this week's top ten list ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Hudson's ex, Black Crowes rocker Chris Robinson, is going to be a dad again, a representative for the band confirmed in a statement Tuesday. Chris Robinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges will be having a child in early 2010. Robinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges, who have been dating for two years, are expecting their first child in early 2010, the statement said. The baby will be the 42-year-old frontman's second child --\u00ad he and Hudson have a 5 1\/2-year-old son, Ryder Russell, together. Hudson and Robinson were married for six years and their divorce was finalized in October 2006. They were granted joint custody of their son. Robinson and his brother Rich formed the band that would eventually become the Black Crowes in the 1980s. The Crowes' new album, \"Before the Frost . . . Until the Freeze,\" is in stores now.","highlights":"Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson having baby with girlfriend .\nRobinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges have been dating for two years .\nHe and ex Kate Hudson have a 5-1\/2-year-old son, Ryder Russell, together ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Extra-time goals by Darren O'Dea and Aiden McGeady gave Celtic a 2-0 victory over Glasgow rivals Rangers in the Scottish League Cup final at Hampden Park. Darren O'Dea (left) peels away after scoring the opening goal in Celtic's 2-0 victory over Rangers. After 90 tense minutes had failed to produce a goal, the game moved in to extra-time and just a minute after the restart O'Dea, who had not scored since Celtic beat Livingston in February 2007, leapt to head a Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick past goalkeeper Allan McGregor. Then, In the third minute of added time at the end of the match, Rangers defender Kirk Broadfoot was red-carded for denying McGeady a clear goalscoring opportunity and the Ireland international scored from the resulting penalty. There was little between the two sides in normal time but Celtic's superior fitness paid off, giving them a psychological boost in their bid for a fourth Scottish Premier League title in succession -- a race in which Celtic lead Rangers by three points. The victory was Celtic's first major final victory over their arch-enemies for 20 years -- and ensured Rangers, who are also through to the semifinals of the Scottish FA Cup -- cannot now lift the domestic treble.","highlights":"Celtic defeat rivals Rangers 2-0 to win Scottish League Cup final at Hampden .\nExtra-time goals by Darren O'Dea and Aiden McGeady secure cup for Celtic .\nThe result will give Celtic a boost as they battle with Rangers for Scottish title ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida court has approved the divorce of the father of Haleigh Cummings, a Florida girl who disappeared in February, and the girl's stepmother, a key witness in the case. Ronald Cummings divorced his wife, Misty, who was the last person to see his daughter, Haleigh. Ronald Cummings, 25, cites irreconcilable differences in ending his short marriage to his 17-year-old wife, whom he married more than a month after Haleigh went missing from her father's home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9. Cummings has made several public pleas for information in her disappearance. Misty Cummings, then known as Misty Croslin, was the last person known to have seen Haleigh the night she disappeared from the family's rented mobile home. The teenager said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. and went to sleep herself two hours later, but awoke at 3 a.m. to find the girl missing and a cinder block propping open a back door. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. Investigators have said they do not feel Misty Cummings has told them everything she knows. \"The police have been telling me that I've been keeping Misty under my wing and that's why she hasn't talked to the cops,\" Ronald Cummings told a HLN's \"Nancy Grace\" producer earlier in October. \"So now, here you go, I divorced her. So now go find my baby.\" The Putnam County Sheriff's office said in August that \"the evidence and investigatory effort has minimized the likelihood that Haleigh's disappearance is the work of a stranger.\" Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield, Haleigh's mother, are not considered suspects, police said. \"Investigators believe that Misty Croslin-Cummings continues to hold important answers in the case,\" the sheriff's office said in a written statement. \"She has failed to provide any sort of detailed accounting of the hours during the late evening and early morning of Haleigh's disappearance. Furthermore, physical evidence at the scene contradicts Misty's sketchy account of her evening activities.\" Croslin has not been named a person of interest or suspect in the case. In televised interviews, Croslin has said she does not know what happened to the little girl, while also saying she believed \"the other side of the family\" knows where she is. The couple lived together for about six months before marrying in March. Under the divorce settlement approved Thursday by a St. John's County court, both sides permanently and irrevocably waive any rights to alimony and other types of financial payments.","highlights":"Ronald Cummings, wife Misty finalize divorce after brief marriage .\nMisty Croslin was last person to see 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings .\nHaleigh Cummings disappeared from home in February while in Croslin's care ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Remember the worst job you ever had? You know, back when there were jobs to be had? Jesse Eisenberg tries to strike up a relationship with Kristen Stewart in \"Adventureland.\" For writer-director Greg Mottola, it was the summer he spent on hiatus between college and the real world, working as a carny at the local carnival. He's turned the experience into the basis for the wonderful \"Adventureland.\" Handing out stuffed animals to the lucky customer whose tin horse romps home in first place -- this is not how James (Jesse Eisenberg from \"The Squid and the Whale\") would choose to see himself. The paycheck is dismal, but undeniably commensurate with (as a character puts it) \"the work of pathetic, lazy morons,\" which is what it comes down to. Most jobs have their compensations, though. At Adventureland, for James, the biggest benefit comes in the form of Em (Kristen Stewart), another recent grad with plans to move to New York in the fall, and who isn't entirely disdainful of his company. Last time out of the gate Mottola enjoyed a hit with the spectacularly lewd \"Superbad,\" an angle that Miramax Films is understandably keen to play up in the marketing this time around. At first glance the cap seems to fit. James' sexual experience -- or rather the lack of it -- is a defining element in the story. \"Adventureland\" comes with the usual farcical peccadilloes of teen comedy -- barf gags, car wrecks and inopportune erections -- as well as several familiar supporting players from the Judd Apatow stable. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are engagingly upbeat as the mutually besotted park managers, and Martin Starr (from \"Freaks and Geeks\") is James' cerebral, pipe-smoking buddy, Joel. (Mottola directed a couple of episodes of Apatow's short-lived Fox series \"Undeclared.\") There's also an extended cameo from Ryan Reynolds, an actor whose faintly supercilious good looks have graced innumerable dumb slacker comedies, including \"Van Wilder,\" \"Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle\" and \"Waiting.\" Yet, after an initial flurry of gross guffaws, the movie edges toward something rather different: a nuanced, sensitive coming-of-age story that finds its heart in post-adolescent romantic turmoil. Obviously adept with actors, Mottola respects his characters too much to let first impressions stick. The relationships in \"Adventureland\" are much richer, and stickier, for it. The understanding that James arrives at with his father (Jack Gilpin), for example, is delineated in just a handful of looks and glances between them, but it's enough to imply the older man's resignation at his fate, and his appreciation for James' tacit sympathy. It's in moments like these (and there are a number of them) that we're reminded Mottola made a fine indie movie, \"The Daytrippers,\" more than a decade ago now, another sharp and tender comic distillation of family bonds and fractures. Blessed with comical seriousness, Eisenberg is like a young Woody Allen: fretful, intelligent, naive and deluded. And like Allen, he seems to enjoy more than his fair share of luck with the opposite sex. Still, \"Adventureland\" makes more effort than \"Superbad\" -- not that hard admittedly -- to develop a character for Stewart. Looking wan and pensive (the \"Twilight\" star always looks in need of a good night's sleep), Stewart as Em gives the impression she's living life more acutely than the others. She seems to have more on the line. Set in the mid-'80s, the film suggests the period unobtrusively, but predominantly through pop music. Lou Reed provides sweet relief to repeated bursts of Falco's \"Rock Me Amadeus.\" Yes, in retrospect, that's exactly what being young in 1987 was like. A mature movie about immature young people, \"Adventureland\" may be too muted to succeed in today's marketplace, too sensitive for its own good. Like an anxious parent, a critic can only send it on its way and hope the world treats it well. \"Adventureland\" is rated R and runs 107 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Adventureland\" is about a young man spending a summer in a crummy carnival .\nTom Charity: Film pays attention to teen movie clich\u00e9s but goes much deeper .\nDirector Greg Mottola cares about characters, making movie richer, Charity says ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Bone-dry conditions in an area that has not seen a major fire in more than 60 years pushed a Southern California wildfire from 45,000 acres to more than 100,000 acres in a matter of hours Monday, fire officials said. A charred fire truck sits at the bottom of a hill Monday near Acton, California. Two firefighters died in the vehicle. The Station fire, burning in Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles, has forced thousands of evacuations and threatened thousands of structures -- including major communications installations on Mount Wilson, said Mike Dietrich, the U.S. Forest Service's incident commander. \"This is a very difficult firefight,\" Dietrich said. \"This is a very angry fire that we're fighting right now. Until we can get a change in weather conditions, I'm not overly optimist.\" Weather forecasts show little change in conditions for the next four to five days. The fire, which has sent plumes of thick smoke spiraling as much as 20,000 feet into the air, is creating its own wind patterns, making it unpredictable, officials said. See images of the wildfire \u00bb . \"This fire is headed just about anywhere it wants to right now,\" said Dietrich, who earlier said the blaze had \"a mind of its own.\" Fire officials said Monday they had issued evacuation notices for residents of the 10,000 homes under threat. Nearly 100 homes were added to the notices Monday afternoon. But six people in the evacuation area had refused repeated requests to leave, said Commander David Fender, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's incident commander. \"There's six individuals, they're up there, they've been asked to leave three times,\" Fender said. \"They refuse to leave. That's their choice.\" Earlier reports indicated the six were trapped at their Gold Canyon ranch and firefighters were unable to reach them, but Fender said he had no indication that was true. \"They've all shared that they do not want to leave,\" he said. The fire claimed the lives of two firefighters Sunday. Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, and Specialist Arnaldo Quinones, 35, were killed when their vehicle went down a steep, 700-foot embankment, Dietrich said. Hall was with the department for 26 years and Quinones for eight years. Watch a fire official give details on the \"tragic\" accident \u00bb . Dietrich said the blaze had destroyed two communications arrays in the area but had not flared up on Mount Wilson, home to 20 television and radio transmission towers, fire and police communications equipment and the Mount Wilson Observatory. That area is under a critical threat and a strike team is in position to protect the observatory. But, Dietrich stressed, \"My No. 1 priority is our firefighters' safety.\" \"If they have to abandon the position, there's no facility that is worth a human life,\" he said. Despite the difficulties, Dietrich told reporters that firefighting teams \"will not rest until it's out.\" And Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Bryant noted that \"there have been hundreds of homes saved by firefighters in this effort.\" The Station fire was the largest of eight blazes burning across the state on Monday, officials said. Watch iReporters' footage of the wildfire \u00bb . Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday his administration is \"working around the clock to ensure that our brave men and women working on the fires' front lines have the resources needed to respond and beat back these fires as quickly as possible. \"We have the toughest and best-trained firefighters in the world fighting to protect public safety and property,\" Schwarzenegger said. \"I am confident in the state's response as these fires continue to burn throughout California.\" The governor on Monday toured damage left in the wake of the 49 Fire in Placer County, in northern California. As of Monday, the fire had burned 275 acres and was 50 percent contained. On Sunday, the governor expressed his condolences for the loss of the firefighters in the Station fire. Learn more about areas under threat \u00bb . The Station fire started Wednesday and had destroyed 18 structures by Sunday. At least 10,000 homes, 500 businesses and 2,000 other structures are threatened by the fire, which exploded in size over the weekend, fueled by low humidity and high temperatures. Evacuations have been ordered for an unspecified number of residents. One of them was Elsa Aguirre, 57, who left her ranch home in Altadena, California, early Saturday. She, her husband and her cat were at a Red Cross shelter in a high school on Monday. Aguirre brought a box of mementos with her, including her mother's tea set from Argentina. \"The challenge is going to be going back to reality because I've been looking at the fire and the mountains from where I am,\" she said. \"The mountains look pretty spooky right now without any vegetation. ... I'm just taking it one day at a time.\" Watch homeowners discuss fears \u00bb . Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday as a result of the Station fire. The governor also declared a state of emergency in Monterey County, where one blaze, called the Gloria fire, has burned about 6,500 acres, and another, called the Bryson fire, has charred more than 3,000 acres, according to the Forest Service. On Sunday, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Placer County, his office said. Three people suffered burns while in the Big Tujunga Canyon recreational area, where three homes were destroyed by the Station fire, said Bruce Quintelier, fire information officer for the Forest Service. In addition, two to three dozen recreational cabins were destroyed, said Randi Jorgensen, another Forest Service information officer. The fire is also threatening communication towers on Mount Disappointment, Quintelier said. CNN's Rob Marciano, Chad Myers, John Torigoe and Stephanie Chen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Fire creates own wind patterns, making it unpredictable, officials say .\nFast-growing wildfire nearly doubles to 164-square-mile conflagration .\nTwo firefighters killed battling blaze when vehicle went down steep embankment .\nSix people refuse to evacuate their Gold Canyon ranch ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot and co-pilot aboard a FedEx cargo plane were killed when the plane burst into flames Monday while landing at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan, airport and hospital officials said. Smoke rises from a FedEx cargo plane that crash landed on the tarmac of the Narita International Airport, Tokyo. Both crew members were American men, an official at Narita Red Cross Hospital told CNN. Video from the landing showed the plane bouncing at least twice on the runway and veering left as it turned on its side before bursting into flames. The fire destroyed the aircraft, which was identified by FedEx as a McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Japan's Ministry of Transport said it was the first fatal crash at Narita, which opened in 1978. Strong winds may have played a role in the crash, said Masaru Fujisaki, an airport official. FedEx Express Flight 80 took off from Guangzhou, China, and crashed at Narita about 7 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. Sunday ET), said FedEx spokesman Matt Ceniceros. Watch more about the cargo plane accident \u00bb . According to observations at the airport, wind gusts were reported to be between 30 to 50 mph around the time if the crash. Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that Narita firefighters had worked through the flaming wreckage to try to rescue two people believed to be the crew. The news agency said the cargo plane was landing on Runway A, the longer of the two runways at Narita, a major international airport. The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said Sunday night it was sending a team to Japan to assist in the investigation of the crash. CNN's Kyung Lah in Tokyo contributed to this report.","highlights":"FedEx cargo plane crashes and bursts into flames at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan .\nPilot and co-pilot, both Americans, aboard plane from Guangzhou, China, are killed .\nStrong winds may have played a role in the crash, says airport official .\nVideo shows plane bouncing on the runway and veering left as it turns on its side ."} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Even if you're not going to Fiji or the Maldives, accidentally ending up in a popular honeymooning spot while not actually on your honeymoon is easier than you think, especially with the abundance of all-inclusive deals online. Just because your hotel mates are on a romantic getaway doesn't mean they're not open to company. If watching smooching couples while chilling out with your friends makes you want to puke, no worries. You can still have a blast, even if you're not traveling with your newly committed soul mate. Relax . You probably chose the fantastic place because you found a great deal to an amazing destination (much like your cuddling neighbors), so take advantage. Hit the spa, do some yoga, swim or make time for the mellow activities that are tough to fit in back home. While you probably won't meet the guy of your dreams lying motionless in a mud wrap, you'll be Zen enough to have a new outlook once your return home. Don't underestimate the locals (or the ex-patriot) There's nothing better than getting to know a place by hanging out with people who can tell you more than a guidebook about the area's culture and hidden gems. Have a glass of wine and chat up the bartender (or the person with the best English if you're abroad) or find out about an area of town where the ex-patriots live. Especially if you've been away from home for a long time, an American omelet or bagel can keep you smiling. Make friends . Just because your hotel mates are using the vacation as a romantic getaway doesn't mean that they are not open to meeting others on their travels. There's a chance you'll end up chatting with a couple who bores you with the details of their wedding, but you might luck out and make a few friends (who perhaps will save you seats at the breakfast buffet the next morning). Plan activities . Jet skiing, para-gliding, R.V. treks -- take advantage of all the offerings, that way you'll have fun and burn some of the calories you've packed on by sipping cocktails on the beach all day. Besides experiencing new things, you may run across others who have unknowingly booked the same Travelocity deal without any romantic intentions. Come prepared . With portable board games, books, cards and an unlimited amount of iPod-fueled music, keeping busy in a honeymoon spot can seem a bit like summer camp (but with booze). Use the time a couple might spend in their room getting busy to work on your Scrabble skills, or catch up on all the new music you've downloaded but have yet to hear. And if you forgot your iPod, don't like spas, and can't find anyone in the entire city who isn't newly married and in love, you and your travel-mates can always place bets on which honeymooning couple will be the first to break up. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"It's easy to accidentally wind up in a popular honeymoon spot while traveling .\nHit the spa, do some yoga or swim, author suggests .\nThere's nothing better than getting to know a place by hanging out with locals .\nAuthor: Come prepared with board games, iPod music, etc."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manager Jose Mourinho was sent off as Italian leaders Inter Milan crashed to a 2-1 defeat at title hopefuls Juventus on Saturday night. Second-placed AC Milan are now four points adrift of their city rivals after a 3-0 home crushing of Sampdoria, who remained in fifth. Ten-man Juve went third, five points behind Inter, after ending the defending champions' eight-match unbeaten run in Serie A. Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo was credited with the 20th-minute opening goal in Turin as he deflected in a free-kick from compatriot Diego, and Mourinho was ordered from the dugout following his protestations about the foul being awarded in the first place. Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o leveled six minutes later with a header from Dejan Stankovic's cross, but new Italy international Claudio Marchisio gave the home side victory in the 58th minute after goalkeeper Julio Cesar blocked a shot by midfielder Mohamed Sissoko. Melo was sent off with three minutes left for his second yellow card after aiming an elbow at Mario Balotelli, who was also booked for his theatrical reaction. The defeat was a blow to Inter's confidence ahead of Wednesday's Champions League showdown with Russia's Rubin Kazan at the San Siro, with the winner earning a place in the knockout stages. AC Milan scored all three goals in the first half as striker Marco Borriello, who used to play for Sampdoria's city rivals Genoa, headed the opener in the first minute from Ronaldinho's cross. The Brazilian was in fine form, and also set up the second goal for Clarence Seedorf in the 21st minute as he threaded a neat pass to the veteran Dutch midfielder. Ronaldinho's compatriot Alexandre Pato made it 3-0 just two minutes later with his seventh goal of the season, netting at the second attempt after goalkeeper Luca Castellazzi blocked his initial effort following a header on by Borriello. It was Milan's fifth successive victory, with coach Leonardo taking Ronaldinho off at halftime as a precaution due to a slight knee problem ahead of Tuesday's Champions League trip to FC Zurich, which will determine whether the Rossoneri qualify for the knockout stages. Sampdoria slumped to a third defeat in a week, having been knocked out of the Italian Cup by lowly Livorno in midweek following the embarrassing 3-0 derby defeat to Genoa last weekend.","highlights":"Jose Mourinho sent off as Italian leaders Inter Milan lose 2-1 at Juventus .\nManager ordered from dugout for his protests following the opening goal by Juve .\nThird-placed Juventus are now five points behind the defending champions .\nSecond-placed AC Milan are four points behind their rivals after beating Sampdoria 3-0 ."} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Reports that Iran has sentenced a British embassy employee to four years in prison are \"deeply concerning,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Thursday. Hossein Rassam \"is a hardworking embassy official\" who was \"doing work that was wholly within the boundaries of diplomatic work,\" Miliband said at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium. The reported sentence is \"wholly unjustified and represents further harassment of embassy staff for going about their normal and legitimate duties,\" Miliband had said earlier, in a statement issued Wednesday. Rassam is one of several British embassy employees arrested in the wake of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the official results declaring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. Iran accused Britain and the United States of fomenting the unrest. Rassam was put on trial in August. The European Union, France and the United Kingdom denounced the proceeding. Rassam's lawyer has not officially been informed of the embassy worker's sentence, and he does not know where Rassam is, he told Iranian media. Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told the Fars News Agency that the terms of Rassam's bail did not prevent him from leaving the country. He said Rassam had been in Iran recently, but he did not know his current whereabouts. He said he could not express an opinion on the verdict before the court officially informs him of it, which he said normally happens after it is issued. The European Union condemned the reported verdict as \"unjustified and harsh,\" and urged \"the Iranian authorities to overturn it swiftly,\" the Swedish presidency of the 27-nation bloc said in a statement Thursday. \"Any action against one EU country (a citizen or member of embassy staff) is considered an action against the entire EU, and will be treated accordingly,\" the statement said. France also condemned the sentencing of Rassam. Miliband said he understood the sentence could be appealed and urged \"the authorities to conduct this quickly and overturn this harsh sentence.\" \"This will be seen as an attack against the entire diplomatic community in Iran,\" he said in a statement late Wednesday. The Foreign Office summoned the Iranian ambassador to London, and Britain's envoy in Tehran spoke to Iran's deputy foreign minister, Miliband said.","highlights":"European Union, France and the UK denounced the trial of Rassam .\nRassam one of several UK embassy employees after unrest in June .\nThousands of Iranians protested the results of the presidential election ."} -{"article":"Cristiano Ronaldo is in the running to win the FIFA World Player of the Year for a second successive year after being named on a 23-man shortlist for this year's award. The Portuguese winger, who joined Real Madrid this summer from Manchester United for a world record transfer fee, heads a familiar cast of football's biggest names ahead of the annual gala in Zurich, Switzerland, on December 21. Champions League holders Barcelona boast six nominees -- defender Carlos Puyol, midfielders Andres Iniesta and Xavi, and strikers Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Former Barca star Samuel Eto'o, now playing for Inter Milan, also joins the nominations list. Spain's La Liga boasts 11 nominees altogether, in addition to the Barcelona contingent there is Valencia's David Villa, Sevilla's Luis Fabiano and Real Madrid's Kaka and Iker Casillas. The English Premier League follows with eight nominees; England internationals Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are among those up for the award. Nominees list: . Michael Ballack (Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain),Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Diego (Brazil), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Ghana), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Steven Gerrard (England), Thierry Henry (France), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Kaka (Brazil), Frank Lampard (England), Luis Fabiano (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Carles Puyol (Spain), Franck Ribery (France), Wayne Rooney (England), John Terry (England), Fernando Torres (Spain), David Villa (Spain), Xavi (Spain).","highlights":"FIFA announce list of nominations for the World Player of the Year award .\nThe annual ceremony takes place in Zurich, Switzerland on December 21 .\nReigning holder Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid nominated once again ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Roya Hakakian is the author of \"Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran.\" Her web site is http:\/\/www.royahakakian.com\/live\/. Roya Hakakian says she lived through an earlier moment when Iranians thought freedom was at hand. (CNN) -- Since last Saturday, the images of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman who died on the streets of Tehran, keep playing before my eyes. When I don't look at the clip on my computer, it runs on its own in my mind's eye. What has me so riveted is not entirely empathy, the intuitive human response the images are bound to stir in everyone. There is also something less noble at work in me, an obsession with seeing my own face upon hers. Each time I see her die, I die along with her. I, too, was born and raised in Iran. My coming-of-age years coincided with the Iranian revolution of 1979. I, too, was on the streets, watching and rooting for the demonstrators. Nothing seemed more natural, more compelling than being on the streets, calling for freedom, breathing the intoxicating, the dangerously euphoric Tehran air. I was 12 in 1978, yet I was as undaunted as any adult. Nothing, least of all my pleading parents, could keep me away from the rooftops at 9 p.m. Amid the night's dark, where the crowds were as indiscernible as ghosts, the shouts of \"Allah-o-akbar\" rose from every rooftop like smoke rising from an invisible bonfire. We were all victims of the flames and the very arsonists at once. We were burning in the fire of our own making. Thirty years hence that fire still burns in Iran, because moments before her death, Neda Agha Soltan cried: \"I'm on fire!\" I am entranced by her because she and I are the only two possibilities of the dictatorial narrative: Death or escape. She died. I escaped. I live. And because I live I cannot escape her death -- the memory of her large eyes languidly drifting to one side, then freezing upon the abyss. Survival of this kind brings its own eternal damnation: A bifurcated existence lived in the here and now, but perpetually haunted by there and then. Making peace with the past would have been easier, if only the essence of that past had not been in doubt, if its dignity were intact. But in my first American ride in my first American taxi cab, I learned the staggering counter-narrative that I would hear again and again, dominating the western perceptions of Iran, when the driver asked: \"So, where are you from?\" \"I come from Iran,\" I said, in broken English. \"Eeran,\" he asked with uncertainty. \"Eeeran?\" Then passing his fingertips across his throat like a knife, he said, \"Eeran ... Khomeini?\" In that, 2,500 years of civilization was reduced to one vile name and the invocation of a throat being slit. It did not take long for me to learn that between the Iran that I knew and the Iran that Americans knew was a discrepancy as vast as the waters that separated us. I soon learned that the images of a fist-throwing mob of angry men and darkly veiled women burning the Uncle Sam effigies were the only images that most Americans had of Iran. Those images had little in common with the Iran I knew -- greater in numbers and in the grip of the same fist-throwing crowds. With Neda's death, the Iran I know finally has a face. The sequence of her death is the sequence of our nation's struggle in the past 30 years: The democratic future that 1979 was to deliver collapsing, then trails of blood -- that of so many executed or assassinated -- streaming across its bright promise. The film of Neda's death is the abbreviated history of contemporary Iran. If history is a contest among competing narratives and icons, let the image of a young woman lying on the ground endure as that of Iran today. Let it loom so large to wipe away the memory of the thugs marching American hostages out of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Let the scarf that loosens and falls off her head to expose her dark hair be emblazoned in our memories as the metaphor for the plight of Iran's women. As if her death were not tragic enough, the authorities have banned all mosques throughout Tehran from holding prayer services for Neda. Silence in the face of such inhumanity is a sin as great as the one a war could spur. This Friday evening throughout Iran, people will be lighting candles in memory of Neda and others who have died in the past few days. Here in the United States, I hope you join me and thousands of my compatriots in a memorial campaign for Neda by asking your religious and spiritual leaders to include a prayer for Neda and other fallen Iranians of the recent days in this week's services. For 30 years, Iran's regime has appropriated God. Let us reclaim God from those who deny a family the right to properly mourn the death of their child through our prayers and help bring peace to a tormented nation. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roya Hakakian.","highlights":"Roya Hakakian: I was a girl in Iran during the revolution of 1979 .\nShe says she saw the hopes of democracy and freedom quashed .\nHakakian: Join me in praying for Neda and other fallen Iranians ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen and Innosight Institute Executive Director of Education Michael B. Horn are the co-authors along with Curtis W. Johnson of \"Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.\" Clay Christensen says the sudden burst of federal spending on schools holds great danger. (CNN) -- Historically the federal government has been a small investor in the nation's education system. With the recent economic stimulus bill, however, this changed virtually overnight. There is great danger in the sudden and massive amount of funding -- nearly $100 billion -- that the federal government is throwing at the nation's schools. District by district, the budgetary crises into which all schools were plunging created the impetus for long-needed changes. The most likely result of this stimulus will be to give our schools the luxury of affording not to change. This is borrowed money that we're pumping into our schools, and it comes at a price. Charging education isn't changing it. That our schools need to change should not be surprising. Just walk into your local school and enter a classroom. Odds are high that it won't look too different from a classroom from a generation or two ago. Sure, there might be some computers in the back of the room and perhaps an interactive white board instead of a chalkboard, but chances are high that students will still be sitting at desks lined up in neat rows with a teacher at the front delivering the same lesson on the same day to all the students. This might be acceptable if society and the skills many people need to succeed in today's economy hadn't changed either, but they have. While U.S. schools stand still, the rest of the world is moving forward, and this has a price tag -- not just for individual children, but also for the nation. We urge the federal government to consider four criteria when creating new programs or grants for states and districts to help transform an outdated educational system into one fit for the 21st Century. First, don't fund technology that simply shoves computers and other technologies into existing classrooms. We've spent well over $60 billion in the last two decades doing just that, and there is now overwhelming evidence that when we do it, the current unsatisfactory system co-opts the technology to sustain itself. We should instead use technology funding to bolster new learning models and innovations, such as online-learning environments, to level the playing field and allow students from all walks of life -- from small, rural communities to budget-strapped urban schools -- to access the rich variety that is now available only to children in wealthy suburban districts. Second, don't fund new school buildings that look like the existing ones. If the architecture of new buildings is the same as that of existing schools -- designed around teachers delivering monolithic, one-size-fits-all lessons to large batches of students -- it will lock students into another century in which the physical infrastructure works against the flexibility needed for student-centric learning. Instead, invest in bandwidth as an infrastructure of change. The government has a productive history in investing in infrastructure that creates change and innovation -- from allocating land to those building the transcontinental railroad and the land-grant colleges in 1862 to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funding the creation of the Internet. To allow all districts to realize the power of online learning to advance us toward a student-centric system, the federal government should help deliver broadband capabilities necessary not just for today's needs, where schools already lag, but also in anticipation of tomorrow's. Third, don't fund the institutions that are least likely to change. Our research shows that institutions are good at improving what they are structured to do, but that transformative innovations that fundamentally change the trade-off between cost and quality -- disruptive innovations -- come from start-up institutions. This means that there is a high probability that spending money on existing schools of education will only result in their doing more of the same, for example. Meanwhile, there are a host of disruptive training organizations that are providing comparable educators at lower cost, such as Teach for America, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and New Leaders for New Schools. Alternative certification, including alternative programs from existing schools of education, has grown at a 29 percent compound annual growth rate since 1997. The government must embrace this and back the winners, not defend the old institutions. Fourth, direct more funds for research and development to create student-centric learning software. Just a fraction of 1 percent of the $600 billion in K-12 spending from all levels currently goes toward R&D. The federal government should reallocate funds so we can begin to understand not just what learning opportunities work best on average but also what works for whom and under what circumstance. It is vital to fund learning software that captures data about the student and the efficacy of different approaches so we can connect these dots. Transformation of any existing system isn't an easy process, but ignoring the laws of innovation, although it may be perhaps politically expedient in the short run, will only make it more difficult. When the federal government directs future funds toward education, having these principles in place will go a long way toward making sure we're not simply charging education, but that we have a fighting chance of changing it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn.","highlights":"Christensen, Horn: Federal spending on schools is set to jump .\nThey say it would be a big mistake to use money to let failing schools resist change .\nCo-authors: Federal money should go to innovators challenging traditional ways .\nThey say technology should be used to create new forms of schooling ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose book \"When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams\" will be published in a new paperback edition this week. Bob Greene says he and his family didn't expect to be able to enjoy this Mother's Day. (CNN) -- This is the Mother's Day we thought was going to be empty. Last summer, my brother, my sister and I got the news like a sucker-punch to the stomach: Our mother's health, which had not been good for some time, had taken a sudden turn for the worse. A very compassionate hospice evaluator came to her home and said that, although one could never be absolutely certain, the end was quite near. \"It may be two days. It may be two weeks.\" Those were the words. We tried to process them. She would be gone from us by the fall. Except ... \"Debby just picked me up a book from the library, and I'm a few chapters into it,\" my mother said to me on the phone the other day. She got better. \"Better\" does not mean great; she walks with some difficulty now, she is fragile in ways she once was strong, but on this Mother's Day that we all expected to be such a desolate one for us, she's here. On that morning the woman from hospice first came to visit, our mother was in her bed in the same room where our father, 10 years ago, had slowly died. Toward the end, he had not been able to get out of his bed, and we foresaw the same awful drama unfolding in the same way in the same bedroom. It was going to be even more wrenching to witness this time around. But somehow, from somewhere inside herself, she decided: \"Not yet.\" I don't say that glibly; I know that most men and women, in the months of their dying, do not have a choice about whether they will regain a semblance of their health. There comes a point when there is little to do but give in as gracefully as possible. Our mother didn't. And while my brother and sister and I cherish the extra time we have been given with her, the most moving thing is to quietly behold how fiercely she is cherishing the extra time she has been given with the world -- the extra time she has been given with life itself. That book from the library my sister brought her, it is one of many she has read since last summer. It's as if she realized that, if the prediction had been right -- if she had left us within two days or two weeks -- she never would have known the pleasure of reading another book. She has loved reading all her life; now she is reading new books with a sense of gratitude that we can literally feel. She got to watch one more presidential campaign. She has always taken her responsibility as a citizen with utter seriousness. She thought, last summer, that she would never know who the next president would be. But as, little by little, she got better during the fall, I can guarantee you that not even Wolf Blitzer or John King followed the day-to-day fluctuations of the campaign with more devotion than she did. She used to joke with our father that their trips together to the polling place were ultimately a waste of time: He was on one end of the political spectrum, she was on the other, and, as she put it, \"Our votes always canceled each other's out.\" She was born during the Woodrow Wilson administration -- and in November, against all odds, she got to cast a ballot for president one more time. Whenever my brother flies to central Ohio to visit her, he goes not straight from the airport to her house; he makes a stop. He picks up some pizzas at Rubino's on East Main Street in Bexley, and he has them in his hands as he walks through her front door. She hasn't tasted her last Rubino's pizza, not yet -- she thought she had, and each slice is a reminder of the good things that life still holds for her. She enjoys the television series \"Brothers and Sisters\"; each Sunday evening, as she tells us that she is preparing to watch it, we know that it is seemingly small things like that, things that once felt mundane to her -- an hour with a favorite program -- that she relishes anew. Over the holidays, I bought her the complete DVD series of \"The Sopranos.\" She is an admirer of great acting, and she was enthralled by the talent of James Gandolfini during the original run of the show; she has watched the entire arc of \"The Sopranos\" again, from the first episode to the last, and she did it in a hurry. You never know how much time you are given. It might not be the worst way for any of us to live, even those of us who are much younger than she is; it might not be a bad idea for us to live as if someone has told us, \"It may be two days. It may be two weeks.\" Imagining those words is a pretty good reminder that we should savor every hour we are given. My brother, my sister and I don't fool ourselves; just as warm days in March are sometimes followed by snow and ice, we realize that our mother's return to vibrancy may turn out to be a false spring. Yet even if it is a brief illusion, it is a springtime that brings tears of thanks to our eyes. In October, she will turn 90, if she, and we, are lucky. But that's the wrong way to put it. If we are lucky? We are. This is the Mother's Day we didn't think we'd have. And I think she knows exactly what is in our hearts. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: This Mother's Day is one my family didn't expect to enjoy .\nHe says his mother has survived and made good use of precious time .\nGreene: We should all live as if we have only a few weeks more of life ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lanka ordered an end to combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north, the president's office said Monday. But the rebels accused the military of continuing to bomb civilians. Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard next to a tank captured from the Tamil Tigers. \"Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties,\" according a statement from the Presidential Secretariat. A rebel Web site, Tamilnet.com, immediately accused the government of violating its own order and \"deceiving the international community.\" \"Two Sri Lanka air force fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks,\" Tamilnet said, citing S. Puleedevan, director of the Tamil Peace Secretariat. \"Obviously we need to see what that means in practice,\" John Holmes, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations, said about the government announcement to end combat operations. \"But, on the face of it, I think it's good news.\" The military will now concentrate on \"saving\" and \"rescuing civilians,\" who have been caught in the fighting between government forces and rebel fighters, the presidential statement said. The government's decision followed an unscheduled meeting of the National Security Council called by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The session included the commanders of the army, navy and air force. The developments came a day after Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil rebels, warning instead that government troops would continue a new offensive until the group surrendered, a senior government official told CNN. \"The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer,\" said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security. The Tiger leadership had asked the international community to \"pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate\" on the cease-fire offer. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and India have called for a cease-fire. The foreign ministers of three nations are due in Sri Lanka on Wednesday -- David Miliband of the United Kingdom, Bernard Kouchner of France and Carl Bildt of Sweden. The rebels' proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan army sources. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of \"fresh displacement\" now exceeds 100,000 people. Watch civilians describe what they are experiencing \u00bb . Fifty metric tons of relief supplies -- which landed in Colombo on Monday -- will be sent by UNICEF to the north to help displaced residents. UNICEF, which called the situation in the north a \"catastrophe for children,\" said the displaced lack food, water and basic medical supplies. The rebels estimate the number of civilians still located in the territory at more than 160,000. The Sri Lankan military said it \"freed 3,254 civilians from LTTE clutches\" in operations Sunday. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.","highlights":"Tamil rebels say Sri Lankan forces ignoring orders to end military operations Sri Lanka: Forces ordered to cease use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft Rebels say fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets after announcement .\nDevelopments come after Sri Lankan officials reject rebels' cease-fire offer ."} -{"article":"GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama called on Iran to provide the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency with \"unfettered\" access to the newly disclosed Qom uranium enrichment site, and Tehran's nuclear negotiator said the country would cooperate with inspectors. President Obama said Iran must provide inspectors with \"unfettered\" access to the new site within two weeks. Iran says it plans to cooperate \"fully\" and \"immediately\" with the U.N. nuclear agency and will invite representatives of the body to visit its newly revealed uranium enrichment facility \"soon,\" said Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief. The IAEA has confirmed a trip to Iran by Director General Mohamed ElBaradei would take place soon, but no specific date has been announced. A senior U.S. official speaking on background told reporters that ElBaradei's trip to Tehran could come as early as this weekend. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said \"transparency is not something new\" for the Islamic republic's nuclear program. \"Iran has committed itself to follow all the obligations and the like,\" Jalili said, speaking through a translator provided by the Iranian delegation in Geneva. \"What I want to emphasize is that our cooperation with the agency and the way we look specifically regarding to nuclear energy is that we believe that nuclear warheads are illegitimate and no country should have these kind of weapons.\" He said nuclear energy for peaceful purposes \"is the right of every sovereign state and country.\" Watch more from the Jalili interview \u00bb . There were a number of developments at a meeting Thursday in Geneva between Iran and world powers over Iran's nuclear program; Solana said the meeting \"represented the start of what we hope will be an intensive process.\" \"I and all the representatives of the six countries were united in underlining the importance of fully transparency and of rebuilding confidence through practical steps. In the course of the day, we had both plenary meetings and bilateral discussions allowing for detailed exchanges on all issues,\" Solana said. The meeting occurred on the heels of the recent revelation that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom, a dramatic development that jacked up tension between Iran and international powers. International powers have threatened more sanctions if the Islamic republic doesn't change its ways. At a news conference Thursday after the talks, Solana said International Atomic Energy Agency experts are expected to visit the facility near Qom \"within the next couple of weeks.\" IAEA spokesman Gill Tudor said Director General Mohamed ElBaradei \"has been invited to Tehran by Iranian authorities. He will travel there soon to discuss a number of matters.\" Solana confirmed that world powers and Iran will hold another round of talks before the end of the month, but it is not known where or exactly when. \"An agenda for that meeting will be worked out through diplomatic channels. It will focus on nuclear issues, including proposals previously put forward by both sides. It will also deal with global issues that any of the parties wish to address,\" Solana said. Solana also said the world powers and Iran agreed in principle \"that low-enriched uranium produced in Iran would be transported to third countries for further enrichment and fabrication into fuel assemblies for the Tehran research reactor, which produces isotopes for medical applications.\" Details will be worked out at the next meeting, Solana said. The senior U.S. official told reporters that the enrichment would happen in Russia. \"The potential advantage of this, if it's implemented, is that it would significantly reduce Iran's [low-enriched uranium] stockpile which itself is a source of anxiety in the Middle East and elsewhere,\" the senior U.S. official told reporters in a briefing Thursday. Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, noted at a news conference Thursday that the parties hope to reach a framework for future talks. The Geneva talks also featured a proposal for Iran to send its enriched uranium to a third country for final processing to ensure that it would be used for medical purposes, rather than a nuclear weapons program. Of the third-party enrichment proposal, Obama said it might be \"a step towards building confidence that Iran's [nuclear] program is, in fact, peaceful.\" The president said Thursday in Washington that he expected to see \"swift action\" by Iran on the steps outlined in the Geneva talks. Watch Obama demand transparency \u00bb . \"This is a constructive beginning, but hard work lies ahead,\" Obama said, noting that an \"intensive period\" of negotiations with Iran will be occurring. \"Talk is no substitute for action,\" Obama said in urging Iran to take the necessary steps to meet its obligations under international non-proliferation agreements. \"This is about the global non-proliferation regime and Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy,\" Obama said. Iran participated in the talks along with the EU, Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. Top officials from the United States and Iran huddled on the margins of the Geneva talks on Iran's nuclear program. Jalili met with William J. Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs who was leading the U.S. delegation, a senior U.S. official and a diplomatic source confirmed. The men discussed the nuclear program, a sit-down described as the first face-to-face meeting over the Iran's nuclear program. The diplomatic source, who characterized the meeting as \"serious and frank,\" said world powers are pushing for a date for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to examine the nuclear facility in Qom. See a map of Iran's nuclear sites \u00bb . They also discussed human rights issues, including detained Americans in Iran. Among those held in Iranian custody are three hikers who strayed from Iraqi territory into Iran. The sources would talk only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing discussions with Iran. \"They certainly are historical talks,\" said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former weapons inspector. \"For the United States and Iran to sit down finally and start to talk about the significant differences between the two countries is extremely important, and I think it's long overdue.\" Watch commentators on concerns over Iran's nuclear program \u00bb . The existence of the second uranium enrichment facility prompted Obama and the leaders of Britain and France to publicly chide the Islamic republic last week at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh and threaten further sanctions. Iran claims that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes, but many in the international community have accused the country of trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability. CNN's Andrew Carey, Matthew Chance, Christiane Amanpour and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S., Iran hold talks on margins of multilateral meeting on Iran's nuclear plans .\nObama says talks are \"constructive\" start but demands more .\nForeign policy chief confirms another round of talks coming .\nNewly revealed Iranian uranium facility is focus for world powers ."} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates who hijacked a crude oil tanker off the coast of Kenya are approaching a Somali port, the U.S. Navy says. An undated photo of the Sirius Star in South Korean waters. The Sirius Star -- a crude \"super tanker\" flagged in Liberia and owned by the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco company -- was attacked on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. The crew of 25, including British, Croatian, Polish, Filipino and Saudi nationals, are reported to be safe. U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the super tanker weighs more than 300,000 metric tons and \"is more than three times the size of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.\" Oil industry insiders say a tanker of this size can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil, and the ship's operator, Dubai-based Vela International Marine Ltd, says it is fully laden. A U.S. Navy spokesman said the tanker is approaching Eyl, Somalia, on the Indian Ocean coast. It is routine procedure for pirates to take hijacked ships to shore, where they will keep them while they discuss negotiations. A multinational naval force including vessels from the U.S., the UK and Russia has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters seas near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, following a sharp increase in pirate attacks in the region. \"It was attacked more than 450 nautical offshore of Mombasa. This means that the pirates are now operating in an area of over 1.1 million square miles. This is a measure of the determination of the pirates and ... a measure of how lucrative piracy could become,\" Campbell said. Campbell said the Navy does not expect to dispatch a vessel to aide the super tanker because it does not have dangerous weapons aboard like the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms that was seized by pirates on September 25. The UK Foreign Office confirmed two Britons were aboard and said it was seeking more information about the incident. South Korean officials said on Sunday that armed gunmen hijacked a Japanese freighter and its 23-member crew off the coast of Somalia. The hijacking came as the Korean government was considering sending a warship to join those of other countries to combat piracy in the area. A Russian patrol ship also thwarted an attack on a Saudi vessel. Eleven vessels are currently being held by pirates hoping to secure ransoms for their release, according to The Associated Press. They include the MV Faina, which was hijacked along with 20 crew and a cargo of weapons and T-72 tanks. Ninety percent of ships transiting the perilous seas are using a guarded corridor and there have been no hijackings inside the zone since it was set up on August 22, Danish Commodore Per Bigum Christensen told AP last week. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. \"Our presence in the region is helping deter and disrupt criminal attacks off the Somali coast, but the situation with the Sirius Star clearly indicates the pirates' ability to adapt their tactics and methods of attack\" said U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces. \"Piracy is an international crime that threatens global commerce. Shipping companies have to understand that naval forces can not be everywhere. Self protection measures are the best way to protect their vessels, their crews, and their cargo.\" CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Hijacked super tanker heading towards port in Somalia, U.S. Navy says .\nSaudi-owned oil tanker has 25 crew aboard in the Arabian Sea .\nPirate attacks have increased sharply in perilous Gulf of Aden region this year .\nMultinational naval force has been patrolling the area to provide protection ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Disgraced former NFL star Michael Vick declared that \"I am not the bad person or the beast I've been made out to be\" in a letter to a judge asking for leniency. Michael Vick wrote he was \"forever a changed man.\" \"I have been talked about and ridiculed on a day to day basis by people who really don't know Michael Vick the human being. They only knew the football player which is unfair,\" Vick said in a handwritten letter released this week. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson sentenced Vick on Monday to serve 23 months in prison for financing a dogfighting ring and helping to kill pit bulls that did not fight aggressively. Vick wrote the judge that he had accepted responsibility for his actions, would pay restitution and never again use \"a single dollar that I have earned for anything but to help people.\" Read letters from Vick, his mom, sports stars \u00bb . The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback said he grew up not knowing the severity of the crime of dogfighting and asked Hudson for \"a second chance.\" Other letters supporting Vick were sent by his mother, his seventh-grade teacher and children he had met since becoming a star and one of the NFL's most highly paid players. Brenda Vick Boddie said her son fell victim to friends who took advantage of Vick's inability to \"say no.\" \"PLEASE Your HONOR give my baby Michael another chance. [H]e's never been in trouble with the law before, PLEASE! PLEASE! one more chance,\" she pleaded in her own handwritten letter. Former Falcons teammate Warrick Dunn, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and two sporting legends -- former home-run king Hank Aaron and former two-time boxing heavyweight champion George Foreman -- also wrote letters on Vick's behalf. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Michael Vick wrote five-page letter to judge seeking leniency .\nFormer NFL star said he was wrong and promised to make amends .\nVick's mom, Atlanta mayor and sports legends also sent letters to judge .\nVick sentenced Monday to 23 months in prison in dogfighting case ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Now that Caylee Anthony's remains have been identified, the search for the Florida toddler turns into a prosecution of her mother. Casey Anthony, 22, is accused of killing her daughter. Investigators say her alibi didn't check out. Although Orange County, Florida, Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia said Friday she could not determine how Caylee died, she concluded the death was a homicide. The child's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, faces charges including murder in the disappearance and death of Caylee, who was 2 when she vanished last summer. The remains were found last week in woods about a half-mile from Anthony's parents' house and identified through DNA testing. See where Caylee's skeleton was found \u00bb . On Saturday, investigators finished 10 days of sifting through the crime scene and served a warrant at the Anthony house for a third search for evidence, said Capt. Angelo Nieves of the Orange County sheriff's department. Cindy and George Anthony, the child's grandparents, were present for the search. The mother's defense team had claimed since her October indictment that the child might still be alive, even claiming witnesses spotted Caylee since her disappearance. The finding of the body \"has really cut the legs out of the defense,\" Stacey Honowitz, an assistant Florida state's attorney, said Friday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Watch experts size up the legal case \u00bb . The lack of a cause of death and the absence of any soft tissue on the toddler's skeletal remains poses a challenge for prosecutors, forensic expert Lawrence Kobilinsky, a defense consultant for Casey Anthony, told Larry King. \"If you don't have a cause of death, isn't it possible that it might have been an accident?\" Kobilinsky said. A murder conviction would require proof the victim was killed intentionally. Legal experts say duct tape reportedly found on the body could convince a judge or jury that Caylee's death was not an accident. Perhaps of greater significance, though, is Casey Anthony's behavior since -- and even before -- her child went missing. According to earlier reports, Caylee was the result of an unintended pregnancy, and Anthony made an attempt to give her up after birth. She referred to Caylee as \"the little snot head\" and continued to maintain an active social life. Follow a timeline of the case \u00bb . When Caylee went missing, Anthony did not tell her family for a month. It was the child's grandmother who called police. Anthony told conflicting stories at the beginning of the investigation, including a tale that Caylee was with a nanny. The name and address turned out to be bogus. As police searched for Caylee, they say Anthony's active social life continued -- including one memorable evening dancing at an Orlando bar that was hosting \"Hot Body Contest.\" Investigators said they found the scent of decomposing flesh and a trace of chloroform, a powerful knockout agent, in the trunk of a car Anthony drove at the time. Anthony's family offered various explanations, including a rotting pizza and a dead squirrel. Watch a tribute to the little girl \u00bb . On the Anthonys' home computer, police found there had been searches for chloroform, missing children and \"neck-breaking,\" although Garavaglia said Friday that she did not find evidence of trauma to the bones. \"The prosecution is going to have a great deal of circumstantial evidence, and this is a physical evidence case,\" Kobilinsky said. \"This is not a question about credibility, although obviously a jury looks at credibility and contradictions, but the physical evidence will either include her or exclude Casey. It's an uphill battle for the defense.\" Nevertheless, forensic expert Kathy Reichs, who also is working with Anthony's defense team, sees an opening. \"Given that there's no evidence as to the cause of death, ... you could have an accidental death and a mother that panics,\" she told King. \"There are alternative explanations.\" Perhaps not enough to save Anthony, said famed defense attorney Mark Geragos, who is not associated with the case. \"The defense will try to focus, I'm sure, on all of the forensic evidence and whatever else they can do,\" he told King. \"But they're always going to be up against it with the 'She didn't act right' evidence, and that's the hardest thing to combat in this case.\" Prosecutors don't need to show what killed Caylee, Geragos said. The defense needs to overcome Casey Anthony's statements and behavior. \"Somebody is going to have to give an explanation at some point as to when she last saw the child, who she gave the child to,\" he said. \"And until that is done, I don't care what they put together, it's not going to carry any weight.\"","highlights":"Casey Anthony's defense team has big challenge, experts say .\nLack of cause of death, physical evidence could hinder prosecution .\nMother's partying, other behavior don't help her defense .\nOfficials have identified remains of Florida toddler who vanished last summer ."} -{"article":"Suzanne Simons is an executive producer at CNN as well as author of the book \"Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War\" (Collins, June 2009). Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, is pictured in Afghanistan in November 2007. (CNN) -- The private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater has held classified contracts with the Central Intelligence Agency for nearly a decade, but an allegation that the contractor was part of a secret CIA program to kill al Qaeda operatives -- if true -- would take the relationship to a whole new level. The CIA hired the private security firm Blackwater USA in 2004 to work on a covert program aimed at targeting and potentially killing top al Qaeda leaders, a source familiar with the program told CNN. Former company executives deny knowing about the program. Current leaders of the company did not return calls to CNN. The CIA won't comment on classified contracts. The classified program, canceled by CIA director Leon Panetta earlier this year, was part of a broader effort inside the CIA to develop the capacity to conduct training, surveillance and possible covert operations overseas, according to the source. The program was outsourced to contractors to \"put some distance\" between the effort and the U.S. government. Other contractors were brought in for other parts of the program, another source said, and Blackwater's involvement ended by mid-2006. But one thing is clear: The company that renamed itself Xe earlier this year in an effort to escape controversy surrounding a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead has had a long relationship with the world's most famous spy agency. When Erik Prince first opened his Blackwater training facility in the late '90s, his clients included special forces teams and law enforcement agencies from around the country. Prince had expressed frustration with the training facilities he visited during his time as a Navy SEAL, and a sizable inheritance allowed him the financial freedom to retire from the military and try his hand at creating a better facility. His first clients were indeed SEAL teams. But they also included teams from other government agencies, including the CIA. Case officers and protection details, the people generally accustomed to working in the shadows, began showing up for training on the shooting range or the driving track in a rural part of North Carolina. When then-CIA Executive Director Alvin \"Buzzy\" Krongard, whose own son was a Navy SEAL, visited the facility, former Blackwater President Gary Jackson suggested he meet with Prince, who worked out of an office in the Washington area. The two had lunch and Krongard immediately took a liking to the man who would later lead the world's most notorious private contracting company. At the time, contacts like these were essential to building the business, so when terror struck the heart of America in September 2001, Prince called up his new friend Krongard and offered to help. Sources inside the agency at the time say that Krongard in fact, was pushing hard for Blackwater to be given the first urgent and compelling, no-bid contract to protect CIA facilities in Afghanistan. The military, it seems, wasn't up to the task of staffing such an effort. Once awarded the initial contract, Prince maintained a close relationship with Krongard, and made trips to Afghanistan to make sure things were going smoothly. The idea that the agency came to Blackwater for help on any other contracts, including one with the overall goal of locating and assassinating al Qaeda operatives, wouldn't come as a huge surprise, particularly since so much of the intelligence budget is spent on private contractors. But with investigations under way into just what was done and by whom at the CIA under the Bush administration, people are remaining tight-lipped. Especially under the threat of possible prosecution, should it go that far.","highlights":"Relationship between Blackwater and CIA goes back almost a decade .\nRecent allegation says contractor was part of CIA program to kill al Qaeda operatives .\nBlackwater was given contract to protect CIA facilities in Afghanistan after 9\/11 attacks .\nThe private contractor renamed itself Xe earlier this year ."} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Gabriel Medina can't reach his hotel in New Orleans because there's a police barricade in front of it. A manager promises to \"help\" him cancel the reservation, but three days later, his credit card is charged $113. Now his credit card has sided with the hotel. Is there anything else he can do? Q: I don't know where else to turn. I recently booked a room at the Holiday Inn French Quarter-Chateau Lemoyne in New Orleans through its central reservations phone number. When I arrived, the New Orleans Police Department had the entire block closed off. I immediately called the hotel and told a manager I couldn't access the hotel. He said he did not know when the blockade would be lifted and couldn't help get my car or luggage to the hotel. He couldn't cancel my reservation because I had made it through Holiday Inn's central reservations number. After several more attempts to reach the hotel, he agreed to help me cancel my reservation. I stayed at another hotel that night. Three days later, a $113 charge appeared on my credit card from the Holiday Inn. I disputed the charge, but they told me I couldn't get a refund because I could not prove that they refused me the room. When I called guest relations they said they needed a cancellation number before they would consider a refund. Otherwise the hotel itself would need to reverse the charge. When I call the hotel, I get only voicemail. Can you help? -- Gabriel Medina, Elk Grove, California . A: If a hotel representative says your reservation is canceled, you shouldn't be charged for your stay. But a review of your correspondence raises a few red flags. First, a manager told you that it was impossible for him to cancel a reservation made through Holiday Inn's 800-number. Then, a few minutes later, the same manager agrees to \"help\" you cancel the reservation. I would assume that \"helping\" you means your reservation is officially canceled, but what if he just looked into it and then decided it couldn't be done, and left your original reservation intact? Since Holiday Inn didn't have a cancellation number, it probably means there was no cancellation. Here's what you did right: You noted the name of the manager with whom you spoke. You followed up with Holiday Inn, and you were persistent but polite. Here's what you overlooked: You should have called the central reservations number and asked for a cancellation number. If they refused to give you a number, you should have given a representative the name of the manager you spoke with. I would have followed up with the manager and not let Holiday Inn off the hook until you had a number. But getting a number isn't enough. Instead of continuing to call Holiday Inn, I would have sent it a short, cordial email asking for a verification of your cancellation in writing. If you send an email through a hotel company's Web site (Holiday Inn) you'll typically receive a meaningful answer in a matter of days, if not hours. With that information, your credit card dispute would have probably been a slam-dunk. Before getting to the resolution on your case, let me add one more thing. As far as I can tell, Holiday Inn was under no obligation to refund your money. You couldn't reach the hotel because of a police barricade, which the property couldn't control. But since a manager assured you that he would help you make a cancellation, I think it's reasonable to expect a refund. I contacted Holiday Inn on your behalf. It reviewed your case and apologized for the way in which your refund was handled. \"Clearly the inability to access the hotel was beyond your control, and in as such, you should be relieved of the $113 charge you have received,\" a representative wrote to you in a letter. You're getting your $113 back. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Guest finds his hotel blocked by police barricade and calls the hotel manager .\nThe manager promises to help him cancel the reservation, and he stays elsewhere .\nDays later, he finds his credit card charged for unused, blocked hotel room .\nHoliday Inn hotel apologizes and returns the man's $113 ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau, the last two months have been a whirlwind. \"Full of the best moments and the scariest moments of my life,\" says the 24-year-old Olympic swimmer. Eric Shanteau said he felt angry when he found out he had testicular cancer. \"Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, 'I want to make an Olympic team. That's where I want to be'.\" In June, a week before the qualifying round of the Olympics he was told he had testicular cancer. \"My initial reaction was probably anger more than anything else,\" he says. \"I'm used to being in control of everything. I'm in control of how I train, how I race and then to all of a sudden have that control ripped away from me was tough.\" After weeks of tests to determine the \"stage\" or spread of the cancer, Shanteau's team of doctors cleared him to compete in the Beijing Olympics, which meant carefully monitoring his tumor but delaying treatment. Though putting off the surgery was controversial to some, Eric says it was an educated choice based on numerous doctor evaluations. \"I hope people understand that if I was in a different position with my test results, then I wouldn't have put off having surgery.\" Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from Eric Shanteau's surgery \u00bb . He swam a personal best in the 200 meter breaststroke. He did not qualify for the finals. Cancer was a motivator, he says, because he knew it meant he could be facing his last competition. He put everything he had into that heat. \"Leave it all in the pool, and I don't look back and regret anything as far as how I raced.\" Once back from Beijing, Shanteau invited CNN to spend time with him the night before his surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Though admittedly a little scared, he spent the evening relaxing with his family, cooking dinner, walking the dog. A source of inspiration, he says, were fans who shared their stories of beating cancer. \"They send me their story and it helps me to learn that people are going through the same thing I am all over the world,\" says Shanteau. \"They all affect me in a different way and it's been really encouraging to share in this experience with other people.\" Testicular cancer is diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime. It is the most common form of cancer for 15- to 34-year-olds. It is also one of the most curable if discovered early. Nearly 140,000 men in the United States are testicular cancer survivors. Shanteau says he experienced no symptoms of cancer and came across the tumor by chance. \"I've been in a Speedo half my life,\" he says. \"So I am really comfortable with my body. One day I just felt something that wasn't suppose to be there. I decided to go and get it checked out.\" He adds that although he had the \"greatest excuse in the world\" -- an Olympic dream -- to ignore the lump, he understood the importance of early detection. Shanteau's father Rick, is battling lung cancer and responding well to treatment. \"A lot of guys, if they hear a rattle in their car, they're at the mechanic the next day,\" he says. \"But if they feel something [physically] that they don't think should be there, it takes them a year to get to their doctor and that just is not smart. There's really no excuse, because it can save your life.\" Fast forward to Shanteau's recent operation at Emory University Hospital. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was with Shanteau during the surgery and spoke with the lead surgeon, Dr. Jeff Carney, moments afterward. \"I think the operation went very well,\" Carney said. \"Eric's a very healthy young man, very thin, in excellent shape. That makes my job easy.\" Later that week, Shanteau's pathology results revealed that the operation removed the most of the cancer. \"The majority of it is gone.\" he tells CNN. \"There is a small chance it could come back but I shouldn't need chemotherapy at this point, so I am really optimistic.\" His treatment plan is to keep a close eye on his health for the next year with regular medical tests. \"Obviously, it would have been nice if the doctor said, 'You're completely in the clear,' but my results are exactly what the doctors expected.\" Eric says the cancer diagnosis gave him a different perspective on life. \"I appreciate life much more now,\" he says. \"I don't let myself get upset about the little nitpicky things anymore. Food even seems to taste better. It is really great.\" As for Shanteau's swimming career, he plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome, Italy. \"2012 [the next Olympics] is a push for me. Right now I'm just kind of taking it year by year and we'll see what happens.\"","highlights":"Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau found out about his cancer in June .\nHe delayed treatment so he could compete in the games in Beijing .\nHe plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome .\nTesticular cancer is diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the seven weeks since the military-backed bloodless coup in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, a new Amnesty International report says. The marks of a police truncheon are shown on a student's back after a protest, Amnesty International says. The report, released Wednesday, said the beatings were meant to punish those who opposed the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in June. It includes testimony from, and photographs of, several people who were baton-whipped and detained by police officers who sometimes wore no visible identification and hid their faces behind bandanas as they broke up demonstrations. \"They beat us if we raised our heads; they beat us when they were getting us into the police cars,\" said a student whom Amnesty International interviewed in late July at the police station where he was being detained. \"They said, 'Cry and we'll stop.'\" Multiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered. The government has said in the past that the demonstrators were arrested for engaging in violence and provoking authorities. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's defiant push to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. He was ousted in a coup on June 28. The congress named Roberto Micheletti provisional president shortly after the military detained Zelaya and sent him into exile. Micheletti and his supporters deny that a coup took place, calling the action a constitutional transfer of power. The coup resulted in unrest throughout the country, with frequent clashes between police and military on one side and civilian protesters on the other. At least two people were shot to death, Amnesty said. Among several examples, the Amnesty report quotes F.M., a 52-year-old teacher, who said he was demonstrating peacefully when police descended on the rally. \"They grabbed me and shouted, 'Why do you (all) support Zelaya's government?' They beat me. I have not been informed as to why I am detained.\" He showed deep-red imprints on his back, which he said were from a beating with a baton. \"Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing,\" said Esther Major, Amnesty's Central America researcher.","highlights":"President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a bloodless coup in June .\nReport: Beatings meant to punish those opposed to ouster of Zelaya .\nMultiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- McDonald's probably won't be exclaiming \"I'm Lovin' It\" in this case. McCurry restaurant owners A.M.S.P Suppiah and his wife Kanageswary Suppiah. In a David-and-Goliath match-up in the world of fast food, McCurry -- a small Indian curry shop in Malaysia -- has won an eight-year legal battle against the hamburger giant. McDonald's claimed that the prefix \"Mc\" in McCurry trampled on its trademark. The country's Federal Court on Tuesday ruled that it didn't. \"We're very relieved -- much, much relieved -- that this eight-year-old saga is finally over,\" said McCurry owner P. Suppiah. \"We're a typical South Asian-Malay cuisine. No way people walking into McCurry can confuse us with McDonald's.\" The sparse 24\/7 self-service restaurant in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is popular with blue-collar workers who are drawn to its affordable fare, such as biryani rice and fishhead curry. Its logo: a chicken flashing a thumbs-up. The eatery opened in 1999. McDonald's filed suit two years later. \"We were shocked that such a big giant wants to take us to court,\" Suppiah said. \"We felt that we had nothing in common, because we were not selling any Western fast food.\" The hamburger chain, which has 185 restaurants throughout Malaysia, said McCurry was violating the prefix \"Mc\" and that McDonald's had the right to protect it. McCurry, in turn, said the prefix is common and is part of last names all across Europe. Furthermore, it said, the \"Mc\" in McCurry stands for \"Malaysian Chicken Curry.\" A lower court ruled in favor of McDonald's, and Suppiah appealed. An appeals court in 2006 overturned that ruling, prompting McDonald's to appeal this time. On Tuesday, the Federal Court -- the highest in the land -- held up the appeals court ruling. McDonald's said it accepts the judgment. \"We respect the finding of the court and beyond that have no further comment,\" said Liam Jeory of McDonald's Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region. Suppiah said the ruling means he can now add other McCurry locations, with its slogan: \"Tasty and so Gooood.\"","highlights":"David-and-Goliath match-up in fast food world sees McCurry defeat McDonald's .\nMcDonald's claimed that the \"Mc\" in McCurry trampled on its trademark .\nMcCurry owner P. Suppiah: \"We're very relieved -- much, much relieved\""} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: The European champions and current highest-ranked soccer team in the world, Spain, are beaten 3-0...by a team of robots. On the way: Robots are developing steadily towards the goal of beating humans at football. It may sound ridiculous, but robot developers in Asia, the U.S. and Europe are dreaming of that very goal. Working under the umbrella organizations FIRA (Federation of Robot-Soccer Association) and the RoboCup Federation, researchers and developers are aiming to advance robot technology to the point that a team of humanoids can beat the best humans in the sport by 2050. Since robot soccer competitions began in the mid-1990s, researchers have already made significant developments towards their goal. Phil Culverhouse of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Plymouth told CNN that the first robots in competition were controlled by humans and many were on wheels or four-legged, but that is changing. \"Since 2007 the team have progressed to bipedal robots that have cameras on board,\" he said. \"Our robots are autonomous -- they have no control from outside sources. The cameras try to work out where the goal is, where the ball is and where the other players are.\" Further robotic developments appear to be close. Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid released a study in the March 2009 online edition of 'Expert Systems with Applications,' showing they had refined a technique known as machine-learning. Basically, the scientists were able to teach a virtual player simple reactions to visual stimuli -- based upon how real humans react in the same situation. Do you think robots will one day be able to beat humans at football? Sound Off box below. This year robots will go head-to-head at both the RoboCup event in Austria in June\/July and the FIRA RoboWorld Cup in Korea in August. The most advanced classes at present are the bipedal classes for 'humanoid' robots. Co-chair of RoboCup 2009, Gerald Steinbauer, told CNN this year's event was the 13th edition of the cup, and he was impressed by progress by advances since the competitions began. \"At the last RoboCup in China 2008 we had games of teams of three humanoid playing attractive soccer. They walk on two feet, fight for the ball and of course score... so we are approaching the goal,\" he said. Culverhouse said interest in both events had steadily grown, especially since the two-legged robots had been introduced. This year up to 3,000 competitors from 40 countries are expected at RoboCup. \"This has been extremely effective in gaining interest. These are much more exciting to watch. We have seen a steep level of change in interest from not just young people but everybody.\" Despite the increasing profile, Culverhouse said there are still plenty of major challenges before the humanoids can seriously compete with humans. \"This is still a long way from competing against humans. The next big challenge to be met is to get robots walking like humans and then running like humans. \"One of the most challenging things is getting a robot to walk on uneven terrain without falling over,\" he said, explaining that some fall over after kicking at goal. (Although, it's not hard to think of professional footballers who have suffered the same problem.) The University of Plymouth team is currently researching how robot's feet can be improved, and hope to release a concept later this year that could usher in a new era of in foot design. For Steinbauer, the critical issues are that of perception and cognitive abilities. \"Perception is one of our major problems. It is important that a robot is able to understand a scene like a human does. If you enter a complete unknown room you are able to recognize the important things like furniture and also relations and functions of objects very fast,\" he said. \"Despite huge progress in this area we are far behind the capabilities of animals or humans. \"And of course there's cognitive capabilities. To reason about new, uncertain or even inconsistent facts is easy for a human but very hard for a robot,\" Steinbauer said. Size and cost are other limiting issues. \"In order to make this affordable we are developing robots 50 to 60 centimeters high. At that size each robot costs about 10,000 pounds to make. At full human size each would cost about 50,000 pounds,\" Culverhouse said. Soccer is an ideal testing ground for robotics as it encompasses many different elements including movement, vision and strategy, Steinbauer said. But the applications developed in these robots could serve a greater purpose. Steinbauer said robot technologies could be used for entertainment or performing simple tasks around the home and office. They also could be used in rescue scenarios -- where robots could be sent into dangerous situations in place of humans, he said.","highlights":"FIRA and RoboCup organizations promoting development of robots .\nRobots have been competing in regular soccer contests since the mid-'90s .\nScientists hope to be able to beat world's top team of humans by 2050 .\nRobotics developments tested in robo-soccer have uses in other fields ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A close aide to Pakistan's Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud said he is breaking ties with him and confirmed reports that Mehsud was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 at a campaign rally. Qari Turkestan Bhitaini, a self-proclaimed right-hand man of Mehsud, said Mehsud was behind the December 27, 2007, assassination of Bhutto, Pakistan's Express TV reported. Bhitaini said he is breaking ties with Mehsud because he blames the Taliban chief for killing scores of innocent Muslims in recent attacks in Lahore. The Pakistani government and CIA officials have said in the past that Mehsud was responsible for Bhutto's death. Bhutto, 54, was heading the opposition to then-President Pervez Musharraf when she was assassinated during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi ahead of parliamentary elections. The Pakistani government, who has struggled to control terrorism, is waging a military offensive against the Taliban in the country's North West Frontier Province.","highlights":"Report: Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud responsible for Benazir Bhutto's slaying .\nMehsud's former aide makes allegations, blames him for killing Muslims .\nBhutto was assassinated in December 2007 at campaign rally ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Leaving school at 16 is not normally the route to success. But Richard Branson did just that, setting up a magazine and then entering the record business. Now his brand is behind more than 300 companies -- from cola to trains, from phones to planes making Virgin a global name. Soon Virgin will reach galactic proportions. In 2009 Richard Branson hopes to take tourists into space. CNN's Todd Benjamin caught up with the billionaire in London and asked what drives him to create such a diverse enterprise. Branson: What drives me to create a lot of different businesses is simply a feeling that we can, most likely, do it better than other people in particular areas. We won't create a business if somebody else is doing it really well, the only time we'll create one is if it's not being done well. Benjamin: How would you describe your own personality? Branson: I love people, I love to learn. I never went to university so I see my life as one long university education I never had. I'm very inquisitive, hence the fact we've gone to 350 different businesses, which is quite unusual for a western company. Benjamin: You run your companies as a series of independent companies. What do you look for in your key lieutenants? Branson: Number one, the Virgin brand is absolutely paramount, they must do nothing to damage the reputation of the brand. And the second thing is to look after their team of people. Benjamin: Your headmaster when you left high school said to you ''Branson, congratulations, I predict you'll either go to prison or become a millionaire.'' What was it in your character that you think made him make that observation? Branson: Well I suspect the fact that at age 13 I'm writing him letters on how he could organize the catering better and how the school could save money, and if they save money they could then put it into better facilities for the students. And I managed to persuade him to give me a study to start my magazine and it was only when he actually finally came to me and said \"Look, you're either going to have to do your school work or your magazine,\" that I said \"Well, goodbye. I'm off to do the magazine, but thanks very much.\" Benjamin: In your autobiography you write about being four-years-old and your mother stops the car and makes you get out and what does she make you do? Branson: We were on the way to my grandmother's house in Devon, and I think about three miles before we got there she made me get out and told me to find my own way to my grandmother's house. Basically, her approach was to try and get us to stand on our own two feet and she went to extreme measures sometimes to do so. Benjamin: Without your persona do you think the Virgin brand could have ever become what it became? Branson: I think the particular Virgin brand perhaps needed me, in the past, to get out there and be adventurous, and therefore to give the brand an adventurous feeling; take on the big guys, which we did, and beat the big guys and that's what's created the Virgin brand. I think now if my balloon pops, or the space ship just continues to go into space, or whatever, I think the brand is strong enough to withstand all that and it'll continue to grow. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, talks to CNN's Todd Benjamin .\nBranson left school at 16 to work on a magazine he had set up .\nHe is now responsible for over 300 businesses under the Virgin brand ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- City officials in New York have denied Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center next week, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked to visit ground zero, but New York city officials said no. The controversial, outspoken president wanted to \"pay his respects\" and lay a wreath at the site of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks during his visit to the U.N. General Assembly, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, citing Iranian officials. But workers are rebuilding the foundations of the site, \"and it would not be possible for him to go where other people don't go,\" Kelly told CNN. Iranian officials have not put in any additional requests to visit the public platforms at ground zero, police spokesman Paul Browne told CNN. But, he said, \"If there were a further request, we'd reject it\" because of security fears. Watch why New York said no to Iranian leader \u00bb . The Iranian mission to the U.N. said it had not been told of the decision, but in a statement issued Wednesday evening, it called the rejection \"unfortunate.\" Iran is ruled by a Shiite Muslim government hostile to the fundamentalist Sunni al Qaeda. Ahmadinejad's predecessor at the time of the September 11 attacks, Mohammed Khatami, condemned them, and Tehran cooperated with the U.S.-led campaign to topple al Qaeda's Taliban allies in Afghanistan that followed. The United States and Iran have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1980 after Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and held Americans hostage for 444 days. The United States considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism and has accused the country of meddling in Iraq and in Afghanistan where U.S. troops are battling Taliban and al Qaeda remnants more than six years after the September 11, 2001, attacks. More than 2,700 people died in the attack on the World Trade Center, when al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked passenger jets into the twin towers. A third jet hit the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers resisted their hijackers. \"It is appalling that President Ahmadinejad, one of the world's leading sponsors of terror, would find it appropriate to visit this hallowed ground,\" State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. Several presidential candidates also condemned the requested visit. Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and Democratic front-runner, called the request \"unacceptable.\" Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading Republican, called it \"shockingly audacious.\" And former Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- whose leadership after the attacks is the cornerstone of his GOP presidential bid -- said that \"under no circumstances\" should Ahmadinejad be allowed to visit the World Trade Center site. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the site should not be \"used as a photo op.\" Numerous critics have attacked Ahmadinejad's hard-line anti-Israel stance and his insistence that Iran will defy U.N. demands that it halt its production of enriched uranium. Iran insists it is producing nuclear fuel for civilian power plants, but Washington accuses Tehran of trying to produce a nuclear bomb. E-mail to a friend . CNN Correspondent Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to visit ground zero .\nNew York City officials said no because site is under construction .\nThe United States considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism .\nLeaders call request \"audacious,\" \"unacceptable\""} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- More than 80 years after his family was ordered from the country, the grandson of one of the last Ottoman sultans was buried Saturday as hundreds of admirers looked on. Relatives carry the coffin of Osman on Saturday after his funeral ceremony in Istanbul. Ertugrul Osman, grandson of Sultan Abdulhamid II and heir to the Ottoman throne, died this week in Istanbul of kidney failure at the age of 97, after having lived most of his life in exile in a humble third-floor walk-up apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Osman's funeral in the garden of the mammoth Sultanahmet Mosque was attended by Turkish state ministers, artists and media glitterati. They lined up to pay their respects to Osman's widow, Zeynep Osman, herself a descendant of the royal family of Afghanistan. One woman pressed her forehead to Mrs. Osman's hand in a traditional Turkish show of respect, saying \"I'm just an ordinary person, but I would like to kiss your hand.\" \"His death marks the passing of an era,\" wrote Jason Goodwin, author of \"Lords of the Horizons,\" which tells the history of the Ottoman Empire, in an e-mail to CNN. \"Osman himself was born into a family that still ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean. He was named after the founder of his dynasty, who lived seven centuries ago.\" During annual campaigns at the peak of its power, the Ottoman Sultan's army of Janissaries struck fear into the hearts of European monarchs. For 400 years, the Ottomans declared themselves the \"caliphs\" -- spiritual leaders -- of the Muslim world. But the empire declined during the 19th century, eventually suffering a humiliating defeat and partition at the hands of Allied armies during World War I. In 1922, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, sent the last Ottoman sultan packing aboard a British warship. Two years later, Ataturk banned the caliphate, declaring Turkey a secular state. Ertugrul Osman, who had played as a boy in the imperial palaces of Istanbul, was sent with the rest of his family into exile. He lived for decades in Europe, then moved after World War II to the United States. Friends say he ran a successful mining business in Chile. They described Osman as a polyglot Renaissance man with a passion for politics and opera and a taste for evening cocktails. Over the years, Osman told reporters he had no interest in assuming the Ottoman throne. In the early 1990s, after more than half a century outside the country, Osman returned to Turkey at the invitation of a Turkish prime minister. Friends say that, prior to getting a Turkish passport in 2004, he traveled using documents identifying him as an Ottoman citizen. The hundreds of mourners at Saturday's funeral stunned other surviving members of the Ottoman royal family. One man rushed Bulent Osman, a tall, elderly French-born nephew of the deceased, kissing his hand and crying in Turkish? \"My prince, we are guilty for how we treated you!\" \"I am not a prince,\" Osman later explained to a reporter in French-accented English. \"I am quite surprised. It is the first time I have seen such an outpouring.\" The royal family seems to be especially revered by devout muslim Turks, who see the sultan's descendants as a link to the abolished Islamic caliphate. \"They are our grandfathers,\" said a young man named Fatih, who wore the long beard, turban and robes of a fundamentalist Islamic sect. \"They glorified our religion and brought it to the highest level.\" The funeral was attended by an eclectic mix of mourners -- stylishly dressed members of the royal family who grew up in Europe alongside fervent Islamists, some of whom pushed through the crowd ordering women to move to the back to pray. Hundreds of police officers blocked traffic as Osman was buried in a garden filled with the gravestones of Ottoman pashas and viziers, beside the ornate tombs of his grandfather Sultan Abdulhamid II and another ancestor, Sultan Mahmut II. Osman's death serves as a reminder of Turkey's recent, yet often forgotten Ottoman history, said historian Jason Goodwin. \"His funeral may be a catalyst for modern, republican Turkey to overcome its historical amnesia, and come to terms with its own past,\" Goodwin said.","highlights":"Grandson of one of the last Ottoman sultans was buried Saturday .\nErtugrul Osman died this week in Istanbul of kidney failure at the age of 97 .\nOsman's funeral attended by Turkish state ministers, artists, media glitterati ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When man first walked on the moon 40 years ago, it was not only a \"giant leap for mankind\" but also a boon for everyday items. A NASA-inspired tracking system is helping monitor endangered whale sharks. Sports shoes, for example, took a huge leap forward in the late 1980s when AVIA Group International, then a subsidiary of Reebok, turned to space technology to make them more flexible and durable. Freeze-dried food, artificial limbs, cordless vacuum cleaners and edible toothpaste were also developed using research that can be linked to NASA's forays into space. They are listed in detail in \"Spinoff,\" a NASA magazine first compiled in 1976 as a definitive guide to the commercialized products whose development can be tied to space technology. \"We are fairly liberal with our application of the term spinoff,\" said editor Daniel Lockney. \"The product has to contain a component that was developed for NASA, some aspect of it or it could just be NASA's know-how that helped the commercialization of the product,\" he said. More than 1,660 articles on space-related products have been published since the magazine's first edition. Watch some of the spin-offs developed from space technology \u00bb . What you won't find on the list is the bright orange powered drink, Tang, or Teflon, or Velcro -- all products that have over time been erroneously linked to NASA's space mission. \"Tang was developed by General Foods before NASA was even made a federal agency, but it was popularized during astronaut tasting experiments,\" Lockney said. \"Velcro was invented by a Swiss engineer in the 1940s,\" he said, adding \"Teflon was created by Dupont. It has many applications within NASA but is not a NASA technology.\" Infant formula makes the grade due to an ingredient discovered during NASA research into algae as a source of food supplements. \"Different experiments led to the discovery of a nutrient substance that has previously only been found in breast milk. [This is] believed to be important in the development in the eyes and the brain.\" It's now in 95 percent of infant formula sold in the U.S. and in 65 countries around the world, Lockney said. It may have been 40 years since NASA put the first man on the moon, but the number of products that use space technology doesn't seem to be diminishing. \"Spinoff\" publishes articles on 40 to 50 new space-related products every year but receives many more submissions for inclusion. The next edition due out in October will feature a new tracking system for endangered animals, including polar bears and whale sharks, which was derived from an algorithm developed for tracking star patterns. \"Tracing theses animals is something that previously a small core group of scientists would go out and do. We're now able to have ordinary citizens upload their pictures of these animals that have been spotted through Flickr and Facebook. Logging times and dates will significantly increase the level of monitoring of these endangered species,\" Lockney said. For more space-related products see NASA's \"Spinoff\" Web site.","highlights":"Many common products can be traced back to research conducted by NASA .\nFreeze-dried food, artificial limbs, edible toothpaste are among NASA spin-offs .\nContrary to rumors, Tang, Velcro and Teflon not developed for space travel .\nIt has been 40 years since NASA's Apollo 11 mission took man to the moon ."} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Angered by what he perceived as the systemic discrimination of the minority Tamils by successive Sri Lankan governments, 18-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran, armed with just a revolver, set out in 1972 to right the perceived wrongs by forming a militant group. Sri Lanka's defense ministry says this handout photo shows troops with a captured Tamil Tiger craft. That group eventually morphed into the Tamil Tigers, who have engaged in a brutal 25-year insurgency for an independent Tamil state that has left more than 70,000 dead. Along the way, the group has been declared a terrorist organization in 32 countries, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the suicide belt. It was also behind the assassination of two world leaders -- the only terrorist organization to do so. Over the weekend, the militants offered to \"silence\" their guns after an intense military offensive decimated their ranks, usurping them from their stronghold in the north and east of the country, and cornered the remaining rebels on a small stretch of land. Watch more on the possible end to the conflict \u00bb . On Monday afternoon, the Sri Lankan government said it had killed Prabhakaran. If the rebels now follow through on their announcement, the action will potentially mark the end of the longest-running civil war in Asia. Who are the Tamils? The Tamils are an ethnic group that makes up about 12 percent of Sri Lanka's population of about 20 million. They mostly dominate the northern and eastern part of the country. Tamils are mostly Hindu and speak Tamil. That sets them apart from Sri Lanka's majority group, the Sinhalese, who make up 74 percent of the population. They are Buddhists and speak Sinhala. The tension between the two ethnic groups date to the British colonization of the country -- an island in the Indian Ocean, south of India. At the time, the country was known as Ceylon. Many Sri Lankans regarded the Tamils as British collaborators and resented the preferential treatment they received. The tables turned when the country achieved independence in 1948 and the Sinhalese majority dominated government. It was the Tamils then who claimed they were being discriminated against in politics, employment and education. By the 1970s Tamil politicians were demanding a separate Tamil state. It would be called Tamil Eelam. In this climate Prabhakaran emerged with his militant group, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Who is Prabhakaran? Prabhakaran operated from a secret jungle base in the northeastern part of the country, granting few media interviews and remaining an elusive figure to even many Tigers. He was reputed to wear a cyanide capsule around his neck -- to swallow rather than risk capture. And he reportedly expected the same dedication from his troops. As a result, few Tigers have been captured alive. To Prabhakaran's supporters he was a hero fighting for the rights of his people. The Sri Lankan government deemed him a war criminal with disregard for civilian casualties. He was wanted by Interpol on charges including terrorism and organized crime. In 1975, three years after forming his group, Prabhakaran was accused of fatally shooting the mayor of Jaffna, his birthplace. Prabhakaran was also accused of masterminding the killing of then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later, a Tigers' suicide bomber, allegedly acting under Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . Who are the Tamil Tigers? The Tigers reportedly number about 10,000, recruited from villagers in Tamil-dominated areas and unemployed Tamil youths who think they were passed over for jobs because of their ethnicity. Their armed struggle began in July 1983 when the Tigers killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. It led to, what was until then, the largest outburst of violence in the island's history. Hundreds of Tamils were killed, thousands left homeless and more than 100,000 fled to south India. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Tigers have -- until now -- shown no signs of being overpowered by the Sri Lankan military. The Tigers are infamous for suicide bombings, with men and women strapping on suicide vests for more than 200 attacks against Sri Lankan citizens and dozens of high-profile political leaders. In addition to perpetrating the attacks that killed Gandhi and Premadasa, the rebels have carried out the assassinations of two lawmakers and four ministers. A suicide bomber targeted Sri Lankan then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999 while she was campaigning for re-election. She was wounded but survived. The Tigers, however, have refrained from targeting Western tourists out of fear that foreign governments would crack down on Tamil expatriates who raise money for them abroad, the U.S. State Department said. Have there been peace talks? Periodically fighting has briefly halted because of a handful of peace agreements. By February 2002 the Tigers had dropped their demands for a separate homeland in exchange for a power-sharing deal with the government. Norway and some other countries agreed to monitor the ceasefire. A year later the rebels dropped out of the negotiations, saying they were being marginalized. They launched a suicide bombing campaign soon after. What led to renewed fighting? In January 2008 the Sri Lankan government announced it was annulling the nearly six-year-old truce with the rebels, declaring that it would crush the rebels. The fighting intensified with security forces driving the rebels from their strongholds in the east and north of the country. The government asked the rebels to lay down arms; the rebels vowed to continue. Caught in the crossfire were civilians, thousands of whom were displaced and hundreds killed. International aid groups expressed concern that both the government and the rebels disregarded civilian safety even in no-fire zones and hospitals. Both sides blamed the other for civilian casualties and exaggerated accounts of their victories. With journalists not allowed into the battle zones, their claims could not be independently confirmed. On Sunday, the Tigers posted an \"urgent statement\" on a pro-rebel Web site, saying the battle had reached \"its bitter end.\" \"We have decided to silence our guns,\" the statement said. Euphoria gripped the war-wracked nation. And Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa readied to announce to Tuesday that military operations had ended. But one last order of business awaited: The capture, dead or alive, of Prabhakaran. In the past, the Tigers have emerged from near-defeat. But if Prabhakaran's death is confirmed, the government is optimistic that it can write off the Tigers. CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report, which includes information from various sources. They include the U.S. State Department, the FBI, Interpol, Human Rights Watch, the Council on Foreign Relations, the CIA Factbook, and previous CNN reports.","highlights":"25-year long insurgency has killed more than 70,000 people .\nTamil leader reportedly wore a cyanide capsule around his neck .\nFBI says group pioneered use of suicide belts for bomb attacks ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A small, rural town in the hills of New Hampshire was jolted by a home invasion over the weekend that left a mother dead and her young daughter severely injured. Steven Spader, 17, is accused of using a machete to kill a woman and injure her daughter. \"This type of murder does not happen very often,\" New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said. \"This is something out of the ordinary.\" Four teenagers have been charged in connection with the incident early Sunday morning along an isolated dirt road in Mont Vernon, a town of about 2,000. In a news release Tuesday, the New Hampshire Department of Justice identified the victim as 42-year-old Kimberly Cates. The medical examiner determined that she died from \"multiple sharp injuries to the head, torso, left arm, and left leg.\" The victim's 10-year-old daughter sustained serious knife injuries that required hours of surgery. \"She's still in the intensive care unit,\" Delker said. \"Her injuries weren't life-threatening, but you shouldn't minimize the severities of the injuries she suffered.\" Delker said Kimberly Cates' husband was away on business at the time of the attack. Cates was a registered nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire. \"She worked part time in our maternal and labor department and also in our emergency department,\" Sarah Ward, director of marketing and communications for the hospital, said Tuesday. \"The staff is pretty upset about it. They were pretty close to her.\" \"The people up here aren't used to this kind of thing,\" Don Himsel, senior photo editor for the Nashua Telegraph, said Tuesday. \"This never really happens.\" Himsel also said violent crime is extremely rare in Mont Vernon. \"I think we may have had one assault in town in the last 10 years.\" The Mont Vernon Congregational Church opened its doors Wednesday for people who want to grieve, pray and meditate. \"This is a way to come together peacefully; that's what we are trying to do,\" church official Jane Nilles said Wednesday. \"The church understands that there are people hurting on both sides. This is a time to pray and ask for God's presence right now. It is a time to gather and to pray.\" On Tuesday, the state Department of Justice announced the arrests of the four teenagers accused of taking part in the crimes. Steven Spader, 17, and Christopher Gribble, 19, were charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. William Marks, 18, and Quinn Glover, 17, were charged with burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and armed robbery. \"The allegations are that Spader wielded the machete and Gribble used the knife, and each of them struck the victims,\" Delker said. Delker, who described the case as being in its earliest stages, said prosecutors will evaluate whether additional charges will be brought or upgraded. \"Under New Hampshire law, anyone 17 and older is charged as an adult,\" Delker said. A probable cause hearing for the suspects will be held October 20.","highlights":"Four teens charged in Sunday incident in Mont Vernon .\n42-year-old woman was killed; 10-year-old daughter severely injured .\nWoman's husband was away on business at time of incident .\n\"This type of murder does not happen very often,\" state official says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Since the revolution in 1959 Cuba has been many things to many people, but the collapse of the Soviet Union meant few have seen the island state as a vision of the future. But that could be changing -- at least in one aspect. Cuba experienced a reordering of its food production in the early 1990's. A boom for organic foods, but problems persist. As worries grow in developed nations about a future without plentiful supplies of oil, the communist republic is proving to be an increasingly popular example of how to cope when the spigots run dry, for the simple reason: they've already been there. With the loss of supplies from oil-rich Russia in 1991, and a U.S. embargo preventing imports from elsewhere, Cuba was plunged into a severe recession in the early 1990's, referred to as \"the Special Period.\" Suddenly society was faced with dramatically reduced amounts of hydrocarbon energy, and the result was a fundamental reorganization of food production, leading to a boom in urban organic agriculture, which requires fewer inputs than conventional farming. Despite the increase in organic production, problems remain for Cuba's agricultural system and ability to feed itself with local produce. \"Some estimates of the amount of food imports in Cuba go as high as 80 percent of domestic consumption,\" says CNN's Havana Bureau Chief, Morgan Neill. \"This isn't to say that small scale organic farmers couldn't learn for isolated growers, but Cuba's overall agriculture is one of the government's biggest problems.\" Cuba's organic example, however, has been a source for inspiration for many outside of the country, such as the UK-based Cuban Organic Solidarity Group (COSG). \"With the collapse of the Soviet Union Cuba was in a position where no-one thought it would survive -- they lost 80 percent of their trade overnight,\" says Wendy Emmett of COSG. \"As a result the priority given to food changed, and it was immediately seen as much more important.\" All over Havana small-scale organic gardens were started on roof-tops, backyards and in empty parking lots, spreading rapidly to other cities and urban centers. Farmer's markets known as \"Kiosks\" sprang up providing city-dwellers with access to locally-grown fruit and vegetables, cutting the use of oil in transporting food in from the countryside. In the countryside, oxen and horses replaced tractors. Manual labor replaced machines. A huge program of land re-distribution was instigated. Many of the vast collective farms beloved by communist planners started to look inefficient, and so were broken up into units more manageable without fleets of tractors. The process is still ongoing. In February 2009 the Cuban authorities announced that 1,827 square miles of state land would be given to Cubans with agricultural experience or other citizens. But this change wasn't easy. Prior to the \"Special Period\" Cuba had been a heavy user of oil-based chemical fertilizers, and much of the land was heavily degraded, requiring years of careful manuring to restore fertility. However, despite the obstacles, they did it. \"I was there in 1992, which was one of the most difficult years, and certainly people were moaning a lot, but they worked together, they still kept the milk coming for the schoolchildren,\" says Emmett. \"Throughout it all they didn't close any hospitals, they didn't close any schools; they kept going against the odds. In many ways they show us what is possible, what a community can achieve when they work together; the power of co-operation.\" A blue-print to cope with problems post-peak oil? Of course a powerful authoritarian state and strong central planning made such huge changes easier to implement; a similar process of development might be very different, and possibly lees successful, in the West. But as an increasing number of people believe we will soon face a major social and economic crisis as oil supplies dwindle over coming decades, many believe we have a lot to learn from the Cuban experience. \"The industrialized world can learn that its dependency on oil will eventually push it through similar experiences to that which Cuba had to face in the 1990's, and with similar outcomes,\" says Julia Wright, author of \"Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba.\" \"We can also learn that if we do not have the necessary capacities in place, our food production system will be caught short, as was Cuba.\" All over the world from New Zealand to the United Kingdom members of the Transition Town Movement, which aims to help communities prepare for the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change, hold regular screenings of the film, \"The Power of Community\", an upbeat documentary that explores the Cuban experience, alongside films about our oil addiction such as \"The End of Suburbia\" and \"A Crude Awakening.\" \"Cuba inspires groups overseas wanting to develop alternative, more sustainable farming and food systems, partly based on the myth that has built up around Cuba being organic,\" says Wright. \"Organic farming in Cuba only operates in urban areas, not rural... [but] the Cuban organic movement and the people within it are highly dedicated to their work and will continue to influence and be influenced by the organic movement overseas.\" The future is less clear. New allies are once again opening Cuba up to the outside world -- and providing fresh oil supplies. \"Hugo Chavez is supplying Cuba with increasing quantities of oil and agrochemicals, so Cuban agriculture -- and here I'm talking about rural farms which supply 95 percent of the nation's domestic food needs -- is becoming more industrialized, though it will not revert back to the extreme practices of the Soviet era,\" says Wright. \"Organic urban agriculture will continue and likely continue to expand out to peri-urban areas.\" But whatever the years ahead bring, Wright believes the experience of the \"Special Period\" has left its mark on Cuban society. \"The crisis that Cuba suffered has made it a better place in certain aspects, as people had to become more resilient and self-sufficient and less wasteful,\" says Wright. \"Although Cubans would certainly say that their food shortages and lack of inputs has been a hardship.\"","highlights":"Cuba's economic hardship in early 1990's led to reorganization of agriculture .\nUrban and organic farming implemented plus break up of inefficient large farms .\nSome see Cuba's experience as way to cope with problems of future oil crises ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Preliminary results of an investigation show that Tuesday's massive power outage in Florida was caused by human error, Florida Power and Light President Armando Olivera said Friday. A field engineer was diagnosing a switch that had malfunctioned at FPL's Flagami substation in west Miami. Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Olivera said. \"This was done contrary to FPL's standard procedures and established practices,\" he said. Standard procedures do not allow the simultaneous removal of both levels of protection. \"We don't know why the employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays,\" he added. A fault occurred during the diagnostic process, and because both levels of relay protection had been removed, the fault caused an outage ultimately affecting 26 transmission lines and 38 substations, Olivera said. Find out more about power grids and blackouts \u00bb . One of the substations affected serves three of the generation units at Turkey Point -- a natural gas unit and both of the plant's nuclear units. Both the nuclear units automatically shut down due to an under-voltage condition, he said. Also affected were two other generation plants in FPL's system. The total impact to the system was a loss of 3,400 megawatts of generating capacity. The error affected 584,000 FPL customers, Olivera said. Another 500,000 non-FPL customers also lost power. That translates to about 3 million people. See photos of the blackout's impact \u00bb . The employee has been suspended with pay as the investigation continues, he added. \"The employee realized something had gone wrong, but I think it's fair to say the employee didn't recognize the extent or magnitude of the problem,\" Olivera said. The affected region ranged from Miami to Tampa, through Orlando and east to Brevard County, home to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. See a map of the affected areas \u00bb E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A field engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Florida Power and Light says .\nFPL: Actions were contrary to standard procedures and established practices .\nThe employee has been suspended with pay as the investigation continues .\nAbout 3 million people lost power Tuesday ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An elderly British couple who died together at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland died \"peacefully\" after receiving \"wonderful and humbling care\" from their doctors, the couple's family said. Peter and Penelope Duff from Bath, England, died in Zurich on February 27, according to a statement released Thursday by their family and reported by Britain's Press Association. Both had terminal cancer, the statement said. \"Penny had fought a rare cancer, GIST, since 1992 and Peter's colon cancer had spread to his liver,\" the statement said. \"Their decision in no way reflected on the wonderful and humbling care they have received from their consultant, doctors and nurses, for which the family, and they, were so appreciative.\" Peter Duff, who was reported to be 80, was the executive chairman of Alcohol in Moderation, a nonprofit group that advocates a \"sensible drinking ethos.\" His daughter, Helena Conibear, is executive director of AIM Digest, a monthly publication. Conibear and AIM could not be reached for comment Friday. The Press Association said Penelope Duff was 70. Her condition, GIST, stands for gastrointestinal stromal tumor, a rare type of cancer found in the digestive system. Dignity in Dying, a British charity that advocates the choice of assisted death for terminally ill patients, said it was \"extremely sad\" that the Duffs had to travel abroad to die. \"Had they had the option of an assisted death in this country they may still be alive, as their physical ability to travel would not have been a factor,\" said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying. Wootton called on Parliament to modernize laws on suicide to allow for assisted dying. Phyllis Bowman, executive director of Right to Life, which opposes euthanasia, also said the Duffs' case was sad. \"I think it's very sad, particularly as they could have gone together into a hospice. A hospice with cancer -- there is not uncontrollable pain,\" Bowman told CNN. \"I think that with the euthanasia lobby, they feed on despair and they encourage despair rather than hope.\"","highlights":"Peter and Penelope Duff from Bath, England, died in Zurich on February 27 .\nPenny had fought a rare cancer, GIST, since 1992 and Peter had colon cancer .\nDignity in Dying charity: \"Extremely sad\" the Duffs had to travel abroad to die .\nThey called on UK to modernize laws on suicide to allow for assisted dying ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. If you've rolled up your sleeves and gotten experience, tell potential employers when applying for a job. Talk to a dozen students on any college campus and you're likely to hear a dozen different perspectives on what they hope to get out of college. Some want high GPAs; some want to get into the work force and earn a lot of money. Ask their parents and you'll get just as many different answers. Some parents hope that their children earn their degree and have an easy time finding a job. Others want them to be at the top of the class so they can get into the best graduate school possible. And some just want their children to stop partying long enough to attend class once in a while. Ask employers what they want from graduates and the answers are equally diverse. Depending on the job, you might need a degree and an internship, a degree and work experience, or the right connections to even land an interview. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 39 million Americans over the age of 18 have a bachelor's degree. Considering that 281 million people live in the country, college graduates are still a small percentage of the population. Still, with a number in the millions, you are competing with a lot of job seekers who also have the same educational background as you. Relying only on your bachelor's to land a job is not the safest route to employment. As with most things, it's all in the presentation. Degree or not, presentation matters . Sue Chehrenegar studied biology as an undergraduate and biomedical research as a graduate student. During her job search, she found herself losing out on job opportunities because she lacked the proper experience, despite her education. Or so she thought. \"At the end of the 1980s, I spent more than one year looking for a job,\" she remembers. \"I kept getting this question: 'Have you done anything in the area of molecular biology?'\" She would tell employers that she didn't have the proper experience because she wasn't specifically trained for that. \"I did not mention the fact that I once assisted a graduate student who was putting DNA and RNA into cultured cells.\" What does that mean in layman's terms? Because her specialization and the bulk of her experience was not in this particular field, she didn't consider the limited work with the graduate student worth mentioning. She later realized employers weren't looking for someone to be the ultimate authority on the subject; they wanted someone who had a broad range of knowledge. \"I realized my mistake more than two years after I got a job,\" Chehrenegar remembers. \"My first year I worked in an infectious disease lab. Later, they put me in a molecular biology lab. When I helped with one of the projects in that lab, I realized that my old, unmentioned experience related to what I was doing at that time.\" A degree isn't useless . Sure, if you're applying for a job with bio- as a prefix, you know a degree is a requirement. But for less research-intensive jobs, you might think a degree can always be supplanted by enough experience. Depending on your occupation, that could be true but isn't a hard and fast rule for all positions. For example, you might be able to find work at a museum, but you the odds of you transitioning into a curator can be extremely difficult without extensive education in art history and related courses. You could find that you hit a ceiling in an organization. Although this bodes well for graduates who come armed with one or more degrees, it also means that workers in this industry have the opportunity to earn an education while they ascend the corporate ladder. In some cases, the combination of their experience and a recently awarded degree could be more impressive if you've relied on your degree and haven't diversified your experience. How to present yourself . Here are some tips to keep in mind when presenting yourself to employers: . \u2022 Even though you know education isn't the single factor in getting hired, it is often a prerequisite to land an interview. Don't hide your degree just because you have a lot of experience -- you don't want to lose out on an interview because your education was overlooked. \u2022 Use all of your education to your advantage. Connect the job requirements to any courses you took, whether as an elective or part of your minor. You might not have loved that statistics course, but if it's relevant to the job, mention it. \u2022 Treat work experience and internships as proof that you're a professional, not just a student. If you speak as if you see yourself as a student who doesn't consider himself or herself as part of the working world, the employer might not either. Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Presentation of your experience can be just as important as your degree .\nSome 39 million Americans have a bachelor's degree .\nPresent any of your internships or work experience that employer may appreciate ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition forces found 26 bodies buried in mass graves and a bloodstained \"torture complex,\" with chains hanging from walls and ceilings and a bed connected to an electrical system, the military said Wednesday. Twenty-six bodies were found in mass graves near a \"torture complex\" discovered by coalition forces. The troops made the discovery while conducting an operation north of Muqdadiya, Iraq. From December 8 to 11, the troops who found the complex also killed 24 people they said were terrorists and detained 37 suspects, according to a statement issued by Multinational Division North at Camp Speicher in Tikrit. The moves were part of an operation called Iron Reaper that has been in progress across northern Iraq for the past few weeks. The complex was in an area thought to be an al Qaeda in Iraq haven and operating base, the military said. Iraqis had told the military about the site during an earlier operation. \"Evidence of murder, torture and intimidation against local villagers was found throughout the area,\" the military statement said. Ground forces first found what appeared to be a detention facility, which was one of three connected to the torture complex, Multinational Division North said. One of the facilities appeared to have been a headquarters building and a torture facility, it added. As the area was cleared, the bodies were found. Eventually, 26 bodies were uncovered in mass graves next to what were thought to be execution sites, the military said. The bodies are believed to have been dead between six and eight months, according to a gruesome military video shot at the scene. Some had their hands tied behind their backs. Identification is proving to be a challenge because of advanced decomposition. Photos given to the news media show a filthy bed wired to an electrical system, with an outlet hanging from wires on the wall. In the video, troops point out rubber hoses and boxing gloves, a ski mask and a blood-covered sword and knives. Other still photos show an entrance to the underground bunker and barbed wire stretched outside it. A short distance away from the complex, troops found a bullet-riddled Iraqi police vehicle. Some of the bodies may belong to Iraqi police, according to the military video. The operation netted nine weapons caches, which have been destroyed, the military said. They included anti-aircraft weapons, sniper rifles, more than 65 machine guns and pistols, 50 grenades and a surface-to-air missile launcher and platform, the statement said. Also found were mines, pipe bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar tubes and rounds and 130 pounds of homemade explosives. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Military says some of the 26 bodies may belong to Iraqi police .\nComplex believed to be an al Qaeda in Iraq haven .\nCoalition forces say they made the discovery during operations in northern Iraq .\nMilitary: Evidence of torture and murder against local villagers found ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- England doesn't yet swing in the transporting, ruefully tender coming-of-age drama \"An Education.\" Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard star as a couple in \"An Education.\" It's 1961, and Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a bright 16-year-old schoolgirl in a tidy London suburb, nurtures aspirations of sophistication that involve smoking cigarettes and dreaming of the day she can sit in a Paris cafe. Beatles-era grooviness and sexual liberation haven't yet reached this corner of the Empire, where cautious, 1950s-style postwar provincialism still prevails -- the same squareness the gents across the pond in \"Mad Men\" are just beginning to bend. Jenny's dad (Alfred Molina) is fearful and fussy; Mum (Cara Seymour) is resigned. So the good student studies her Latin, grinding for admisson into Oxford University. Life lessons don't begin until she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), who's in his early 30s, and Jewish, and suave. He's so charmant, he even dazzles Mum and Dad. Being included in David's exotic, if mysteriously shady, universe -- the travel, the jazz clubs that hint at wider horizons, and, oh yes, the sex -- is like a crash course in worldliness. And as this picture of times that were a-changin' demonstrates with quiet, though conventionally built, artistry, worldliness has its discontents. \"An Education\" is the vivid story of how one girl became a woman -- and how Olde England morphed into the youthquake center of '60s yeah yeah yeah. None of which would be quite so vivid without the beguiling performance of newcomer Mulligan. She's very much an It Girl, with her natural elegance in a brunet upsweep \u00e0 la Audrey Hepburn. And she's protectively partnered by Sarsgaard in the tricky job of playing sweet yet suspect, a balance he sustains with nonchalance. Equally important players: Dominic Cooper and the divine Rosamund Pike as David's ever-so-knowing pals, Olivia Williams as a teacher who hates to see her prize pupil make poor choices, and Emma Thompson, steaming forth like a battleship as Jenny's headmistress. The movie, in a palette of cloudy blues, is adapted from a vivid memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber and directed by gifted Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig from a screenplay of economical empathy by \"High Fidelity\" novelist Nick Hornby. Afterward, you'll want to listen to the Beatles sing \"She's Leaving Home.\" It might be a girl like Jenny the lads had in mind. EW Grade: A-minus . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Carey Mulligan does fine job as teen seeking greener pastures in \"An Education\"\nFilm is about a girl in 1961 Britain who starts dating 30-something man .\nGood performances all around, especially from Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Mississippi schoolteacher was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for shooting and stabbing to death her lover's pregnant fiancee in 2006. Carla Hughes met the victim's fiance at the middle school where she was a teacher. The same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of two counts of murder Tuesday for the death of Avis Banks spared her life, declining to impose the death penalty. Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives. Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest asked the panel of nine women and three men to sentence Hughes to death based on the gruesome nature of Banks' murder. Banks, 27, was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29, 2006, in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Keyon Pittman, the father of her unborn child. She was five months pregnant. She had been shot four times in the leg, chest and head, and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying, according to medical testimony. Prosecutors alleged that Hughes killed Banks so she could have Pittman, a colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, to herself. \"She took Avis Banks' life and the life of her unborn child because she wanted that life,\" the prosecutor said. The jury deliberated Wednesday for about an hour to decide on the sentence after hearing emotional testimony from seven defense witnesses, including her parents. \"Carla has been a kind, loving person all her life,\" said Carl Hughes, who adopted his daughter when she was 6 weeks old. \"I'm not asking you, I'm pleading with you, to spare my daughter's life,\" said Hughes, who is also a teacher. He said that the person portrayed by prosecutors as a cold-blooded killer was completely different from the accomplished honors student, equestrian and beauty pageant contestant that he knew and loved. Hughes' pastor and friends also took the stand to describe her work mentoring youths, volunteering at church and at the school where she met the victim's husband. Suspicion initially fell on Pittman, who admitted to having an affair with Hughes, a language arts teacher. A key prosecution witness, Pittman told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes' home and even went out of town together, but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex. Throughout the trial, defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman, portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood. Prosecutors alleged the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime. The defendant's cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Banks' death. Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Banks' body to the gun, which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police. None of Banks' relatives testified at the sentencing. Instead, the jury heard from a forensic pathologist, who described the nature of Banks' injuries. Madison County Deputy District Attorney John Emfinger urged the jury to look past Hughes' prior achievements and focus on the crime in rendering its sentence. \"In my mind, this overshadows everything else she's done in life. She took the lives of two people in that garage,\" he said in his closing argument Wednesday. \"When that door opened, (Avis Banks) was not met by a beauty pageant winner, she was not met by a member of the mayor's youth council, she was not met by a peacemaker. ... She was met by a stone-cold killer,\" he said. In Session's Jean Casarez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of murder declines to impose death penalty .\nProsecutors said gruesome nature of crime warranted death sentence .\nAvis Banks was five months pregnant when she was shot, stabbed multiple times .\nProsecutors alleged Hughes killed rival so she could be with Keyon Pittman ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The reaction to Kanye West's hijacking of the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards came quickly and unequivocally. Kanye West took the microphone from Taylor Swift during her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Celebrities and fans alike expressed their disapproval of West interrupting Swift's win for Best Female Video to tout his appreciation of nominee Beyonce. \"Taylor, I'm really happy for you,\" West said after grabbing the microphone from a clearly stunned Swift. \"I'll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!\" Elliott Wilson, founder and chief executive officer of Rap Radar, sat in front of members of West's entourage at the live Sunday night awards show and said the mood quickly turned from one of surprised amusement to anger. Watch West grab the microphone from Swift \u00bb . \"At first, people weren't sure if it was kind of like a gag,\" Wilson said. \"You could feel everybody being nervous and not knowing if it was a prank or something. Then people started booing him really loud.\" Wilson said he believes that West -- who he said bounded on stage from his seat in the front row near Beyonce -- intended to have his say before allowing Swift to continue but said the rapper became angered by the crowd response in a moment that wasn't captured by the MTV cameras. \"The reaction to his tantrum was so strong ... and what happened was, he gave everybody the finger,\" Wilson said. Stars taking to Twitter returned the sentiment with some harsh words for the sometimes mercurial rap star. Singer Pink tweeted, \"Kanye West is the biggest piece of [expletive] on earth. Quote me,\" and Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte tweeted, \"All i'm saying is Taylor Swift is a young chic and you just walk up and grab the mic.\" Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said via Twitter that \"Taylor Swift deserved that award, damnit. It is what THE PEOPLE voted! My heart broke for her, she looked so sad at the end of that moment.\" Singer Katy Perry weighed in with \"F--- u Kanye. It's like you stepped on a kitten.\" VMA nominee Kelly Clarkson took to her blog to publish an open letter to West. \"What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough??\" she asked. On Monday, \"Taylor Swift,\" \"VMAs,\" \"Kanye's\" and \"Beyonce\" were top trending topics on Twitter. Watch Swift respond to what happened \u00bb . Wilson, a noted hip-hop journalist, said there was a great deal of tension inside the event Sunday night before West and his girlfriend, model Amber Rose, left the show. \"It was almost like wrestling, when the good guy turns bad and the crowd turns on him,\" Wilson said. \"Every time his name was mentioned, people booed.\" Wilson said he believes that alcohol may have played a part in West's actions, given that the rapper appeared both on the red carpet and inside the arena with a bottle of cognac. Wilson added that West is well known for such behavior. He appeared uninvited onstage at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, walked out of the 2004 American Music Awards after losing in the Best New Artist category and reportedly threw a backstage tantrum at the 2007 VMAs because he did not perform on the main stage. \"I think Kanye came in to be the bad boy, but he obviously had an emotional spaz moment because he is cool\" with Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z, Wilson said. \"I think the alcohol blurred his judgment.\" Wilson said attendees at the awards show were allowed to have drinks at their seats. Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence.com, said West may have gone too far with his antics this time. \"I think that it was not Kanye's place to speak for Beyonce or to ruin Taylor Swift's moment,\" Wilbekin said. \"It's OK for Kanye to rattle off about himself, but I think he crossed the line when he decided to speak for other people.\" Though West is known for having a healthy ego, Wilbekin said, his actions may be damaging the very legacy the rapper claims to want to leave. \"He's talked about wanting to be Elvis; he's talked about wanting to be the new king of pop,\" Wilbekin said. \"It's almost like he's overshadowing himself by getting in his own way with his mouth.\" West apologized to Swift via his blog. As for Swift, the young singer gave her acceptance speech after Beyonce graciously invited her onstage during her win for Video of the Year. West's disruption wasn't the only one the evening offered, Wilson said. During a performance by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, rapper Lil Mama rushed the stage. Wilson said that from his vantage point in the audience, the female rapper, who also serves as a judge on MTV's \"America's Best Dance Crew,\" was neither expected nor wanted as part of the performance. iReport: Is civility dead? The stars' behavior might have long-lasting consequences, Wilson added. \"I wouldn't be surprised if MTV banned alcohol [at the event] next year,\" he said.","highlights":"Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance speech .\nCelebs take to Twitter and blogs to express outrage .\nWest is well-known for shocking behavior .\nVMA attendee: \"Every time his name was mentioned, people booed\""} -{"article":"Editor's note: David Craig is a film, television and Web producer, an adjunct professor at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, and a gay rights activist. David Craig says there's growing support for recognition of gay unions and gay marriage. LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- My battle for marriage equality began in 1990, after my partner, Brian Binder, and I had a commitment ceremony. The ceremony was held at the end of a conference for Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays and was attended by more than 300 friends and members of both our families. We were featured in a couple of books on gay marriage because the concept was so new at the time. We also registered as domestic partners and entered into every possible form of legal recognition available at the time. A few years later, Brian was visiting his parents in Nevada to inform them that he was giving up his battle with AIDS. Something went horribly wrong, and he was rushed to the hospital. I flew there immediately. As his caretaker, I knew his medical condition and had been involved in every medical decision. We had shared the joy of making a commitment to one another and the pain and suffering of a horrible disease. But when I arrived, I was told I could not see him because I was not \"family\" and because my legal documents were valid only in California. Even as I heard him calling out my name, they refused to let me see him because we were not married. Brian died in 1992. In 1995, I helped organize the first Freedom to Marry March in Los Angeles. Ten years later, the idea for A Day Without Gays was conceived. iReport.com: Are you taking part in \"A Day Without Gays?\" I was discussing same-sex marriage with Delia Fine, my colleague at the A&E Network. I proposed a gay version of Lysistrata, an ancient Greek satire about Athenian women who withheld sex from their husbands until they agreed to stop going to war. She replied, \"what if gays went on strike instead?\" and the idea was born. We convinced A&E to produce a movie based on the idea, which became a romantic comedy called \"Wedding Wars\" that aired on the network in 2006. Critics compared the film to \"A Day Without a Mexican,\" which led to the one-day protest by the Latino community called A Day Without Immigrants. In the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage, I posted the event on Facebook. My fellow organizer, Steve Holzer, inspired by the Latino protests, suggested we call it A Day Without Gays. We soon discovered that other organizers had conceived of the same idea simultaneously, and we all agreed to schedule the protest for December 10, which is International Human Rights Day. A week later, Join The Impact, the group that organized City Hall rallies nationwide November 14, joined forces with us. Our goal is to raise awareness that marriage is a \"basic human right\" as declared by the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia, the case that ended race-based restrictions on marriage. We believe that to deny gays and lesbians that right, and the 1,400 state and federal legal and economic benefits of marriage, is discrimination and in violation of the 14th Amendment. We are asking people who support us to \"call in gay\" to their workplace by taking the day off or to shut down their businesses. Our goal is to raise awareness that we are gay and lesbian Americans who work, own businesses, pay our taxes and support the economy to the tune of $712 billion a year, according to an analysis by Witeck-Combs Communications, a public relations agency that specializes in the gay and lesbian consumer market. This is a declaration that we take our rights seriously and demand full equality. Our Facebook site has had a million visitors, and more than 225,000 people indicate that they will or might participate. There are also more than 17,000 postings from participants who have taken the time to debate, support and\/or deride these issues. There is still much to do. Thirty states have passed bans on same-sex marriage. Thirty states allow employers to fire someone based on sexual orientation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Some states have instituted or are considering bans that directly or indirectly prevent gays and lesbians from adopting or fostering children. In addition, the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act by Congress in 1996 denies civil unions what Barack Obama's campaign described as the more than 1,100 benefits of marriage including immigration, taxation, Social Security and veteran's benefits. A recent Newsweek poll reflects that, for the first time, a majority of Americans now believe that gay and lesbian couples deserve recognition, with 55 percent supporting legally sanctioned unions. It found increased backing for inheritance and other rights and found that 39 percent favor gay marriage. The tide is clearly turning in our favor, and I believe that love, equality and support for all families will triumph. In the words of Tony Kushner, \"We will be citizens. The time has come.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Craig.","highlights":"David Craig: I've been battling for marriage equality for gays since 1990 .\nHe says civil unions don't provide same level of rights and benefits as marriage .\nCraig is part of a group organizing \"day without gays\" protest for December 10 .\nCraig: Poll shows growing support for gay unions and for gay marriage ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It isn't clear whether the United States will ever be able to declare victory in Iraq, the top U.S. commander there said Thursday. Army Gen. Ray Odierno speaks to reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. \"I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years,\" Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon. About 123,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq now, and President Obama says all combat forces will be gone by the end of August 2010, leaving as many as 50,000 noncombat troops to advise and train Iraqi forces before leaving by the end of 2011. Odierno has said he wants to draw down the U.S. forces at a faster rate than planned if the security situation allows it. On Thursday, he said he expected the number of U.S. troops to drop to 120,000 by the end of October, and to as few as 110,000 by the end of 2009. \"What we've done here is we're giving Iraq an opportunity in the long term to be a strategic partner of the United States, but more importantly, be a partner in providing regional stability inside of the Middle East,\" Odierno said. Odierno also highlighted continuing security issues inside the country, saying Iraqi security forces have recently seized several \"very large\" caches of Iranian-made rockets and armor-piercing munitions known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs. \"If you're training people ... in Iran to come back into Iraq, and you're providing them rockets and other things, I call that significant because it still enables people to conduct attacks not only on U.S. forces but on Iraqi civilians,\" Odierno said. At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Odierno said the main threat to stability in Iraq are Arab-Kurd tensions, adding there has been difficulty bringing the two sides together for possible joint patrols. \"We've had some very good meetings,\" he said. \"But we still have some ways to go on that.\"","highlights":"U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno makes remark to reporters at Pentagon .\nAbout 123,000 U.S. troops in Iraq; could drop to 110,000 by January, he says .\nOdierno: Iraqi security forces recently seized caches of Iranian-made weapons ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A passenger plane skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on Friday, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 20, according to government-backed Press TV. Aryan Airlines Flight 1625 skidded off the runway and burst into flames Friday in Mashhad, Iran. There were 150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. There was no immediate information on the number of crew. An Iranian official said those aboard had been evacuated. Ghahraman Rashid, deputy governor-general of Khorasan province, said the plane had flown from Tehran, IRNA reported. \"All those killed and injured and the rest of the passengers had been evacuated from the plane and the fire on board had been brought under control,\" IRNA quoted the official as saying. He said the plane was a Russian-made Ilyushin. Watch video of the plane \u00bb . This is the second deadly plane crash in Iran this month. On July 15, a Caspian Airlines passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed in northwestern Iran, killing everyone on board, including 10 members of the country's youth judo team: eight athletes and two coaches.","highlights":"Passenger plane skids off runway and catches fire in Mashhad .\n150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to news reports .\nFlight had originated in Tehran, official says .\nOn July 15, a passenger plane crashed in northwest Iran, killing all 168 aboard ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ancient man may have started global warming through massive deforestation and burning that could have permanently altered the Earth's climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Primitive slash-and-burn agriculture permanently changed Earth's climate, according to a new study. The study, published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews and reported on the University of Virginia's Web site, says over thousands of years, farmers burned down so many forests on such a large scale that huge amounts of carbon dioxide were pumped into the atmosphere. That possibly caused the Earth to warm up and forever changed the climate. Lead study author William Ruddiman is a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a climate scientist. \"It seems like a common-sense idea that there weren't enough people around 5, 6, 7,000 years ago to have any significant impact on climate. But if you allow for the fact that those people, person by person, had something like 10 times as much of an effect or cleared 10 times as much land as people do today on average, that bumps up the effect of those earlier farmers considerably, and it does make them a factor in contributing to the rise of greenhouse gasses,\" Ruddiman said. Ruddiman said that starting thousands of years ago, people would burn down a forest, poke a hole in the soil between the stumps, drop seeds in the holes and grow a crop on that land until the nutrients were tapped out of the soil. Then they would move on. \"And they'd burn down another patch of forest and another and another. They might do that five times in a 20-year period,\" he said. That slashing and burning on such a large scale spewed enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and warmed the planet, the study says. Ruddiman has studied and researched the idea of ancient man contributing to climate change for years now. And he's endured plenty of criticism over his theories. Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, California, is among those who disagree with Ruddiman. He said Ruddiman is \"exaggerating the importance of early man.\" Caldeira told CNN that while ancient farmers may have played a tiny role in climate change, \"it just wasn't a significant factor.\" He added, \"There are actually studies showing if you cut down forests for farmland, you actually cool the planet, because of the glare from the cleared land.\" Ruddiman and study co-author Erle Ellis, an ecologist with UMBC, acknowledge that some models of past land use show it's only been in the past 150 years -- with a huge population explosion, the onset of the Industrial Age and the rise of fossil-fuel burning -- that global warming has accelerated. But Ruddiman said, \"My argument is that even at the beginning, they just used much more land per person, so even though there weren't that many people, they used enough to start to push these greenhouse gas concentrations up.\" Ruddiman's research also argues that the Earth was on its way to another ice age 10,000 years ago and that ice sheets were already forming in northern latitudes when ancient man started his slashing and burning method of farming.","highlights":"Study: Ancient people were fewer in number, but burned 10 times as much land .\nWilliam Ruddiman: People would slash, burn \"five times in a 20 year period\"\nKen Caldeira, a climate scientist, says study exaggerating impact of early man ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A long line of hospital staff wraps around the corridor outside a small conference room in New York to catch a glimpse of the precious cargo. A worker looks at the mummified skull of King Tut in November 2007. Inside are the three frail bodies in open wooden crates causing all the commotion. Another body -- a prince no less -- is a few rooms down in a computer tomography scanner. The bodies are part of the Brooklyn Museum's collection of 11 Egyptian mummies, transported to the North Shore University Hospital to be scanned. The goal: Find out who they are, how they might have died and establish a chronology of advances in ancient Egypt's mummification techniques. The process is not necessarily new. Egyptian mummies have been exposed to radiographic study since 1896 and CT scans, which conducts imaging by sections, for more than two decades. Perhaps the most famous of them, King Tutankhamun (c. 1355-346 B.C.), was scanned in 2005 right outside the vault that holds his sarcophagus. The scan resulted in more than 17,000 images that were analyzed by an international team of radiologists, pathologists and anatomists, led by the world-renowned Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The scope and ability of CT scan technology are proving invaluable in learning more about the funeral rituals of ancient Egyptians and the mummies themselves. Whereas conventional X-rays cannot clearly distinguish soft tissue from bone and can see only two planes, CT scanning can differentiate among the various types of bone and soft tissue, and reconstruct three-dimensional images that \"show fine detail inside coronary arteries down to 0.6 millimeters\" said Amgad Makaryus, director of cardiac CT and magnetic resonance imaging at North Shore, providing a better chance at diagnosis and differentiation among diseases. \"CT has proved to be exceptionally well-suited for studying the fragile, wrapped figures of Egyptian mummies, especially those still contained within their decorated plasterlike shells, or cartonnages,\" according to an article by a team of eight researchers, led by Derek N.H. Notman, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology. CT scanning is fast and non-invasive, Makaryus agrees. A scan of one of the four bodies brought to North Shore quickly revealed that the mummy named Lady Hor was actually a man. The body never had to leave its cartonnage for the procedure. In the case of King Tut, initial X-rays of his mummy decades ago showed fragments of bone inside his skull, causing speculation that he might have been killed by a blow to the back of the head. The scan immediately revealed that his skull was intact; and the team found no other indication of foul play, according to its report. \"King Tut is the icon of Egyptian history, but he is only one of thousands of mummies we can study. Through CT scans, we can, in a way, bring the dead back to life,\" Hawass told National Geographic magazine. In another famous case, a CT scan helped identify the mummy of the Pharaoh Ramses I (1293-1291 B.C.) in 2000. It had been bought from a Canadian museum by the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Heidi Hoffman, a former radiology resident at Emory now practicing in Chicago, Illinois, and part of the team of scientists who analyzed the pharaoh's body, was able to observe a type of bone erosion, and \"coalescence of air cells can be seen in cases of chronic mastoiditis,\" an inflammatory condition usually due to chronic ear infections. Though easily treatable with antibiotics today, the pharaoh's untreated ear infection could have spread and caused his death. At North Shore, Jesse Chusid, director of Imaging Informatics at the Department of Radiology, said the 64-slice CT scanner takes 0.6 mm-thick sectional scans and combines and magnifies them to provide extraordinary detail. Curators of the Brooklyn Museum reached out to North Shore for the first time in 2007, to scan Demetrios, a 2,000-year-old mummy, before he was to join a traveling exhibit called \"To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures From the Brooklyn Museum,\" opening at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, in October. Demetrios is called a \"red shroud mummy\" because of unusual red pigment in his linen shroud. Another red shroud mummy is in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. There, CT scans revealed the remains of a mummified ibis, a bird sacred to Egyptians, wrapped inside. Curators of the Brooklyn Museum wanted to find out whether Demetrios had his own ibis, thought to be a sacrifice to the god Toth, whose head was an ibis. Demetrios did not have one. Still, Dr. Lawrence Boxt of North Shore University Hospital told The New York Times in 2007 that Demetrios either \"had an easy life or was carried around a lot. He certainly didn't do much heavy lifting during his lifetime.\" The same was true for the mummy of the royal prince Count of Thebes, Pa-seba-khai-en-ipet. Edward Bleiberg, curator of Egyptian, classical and ancient Middle Eastern art at the Brooklyn Museum, said initial findings of his scan reaffirmed his high status: A small incision to the side of the abdomen to remove the organs, while carefully leaving the heart in place, then filling the body with embalming liquids -- all indicated a high-quality mummification process. Why the heart? In ancient Egypt, the heart was considered the thinking organ -- the center of the soul and the source of knowledge, Bleiberg said. \"The heart knows what a person thinks and feels,\" he said. \"It is supposed to be left in place during mummification so that it could be weighed against the feather of truth in the final judgment.\" The images produced on the latest mummies at North Shore will have to be studied for months before researchers gain new insight into ancient Egyptian funeral practices. In the meantime, some revelations brought to light by the scans beg more questions yet: Pa-seba-khai-en-ipet seems to have a tube lodged inside him, running from his mouth through his esophagus and into the top of his chest. Bleiberg said he and Makaryus are pretty certain that was not the cause of death, and that it was inserted post-mortem. Purpose? That might be lost to the ages.","highlights":"Radiologists at NY hospital analyze Egyptian mummies .\nCT testing allow radiologists to study mummies without doing damaging procedures .\nRecent CT scan reveals Egyptian mummy named Lady Hor was actually a man ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The way professional golf is played may have changed for good after the U.S. PGA Tour decided to go along with a new rule that amounts to a rollback of golf technology, a move that world number one Tiger Woods has endorsed. Tiger Woods supports a rule change that will make it harder to play out of the rough. The rule, implemented by the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) and Royal and Ancient Golf Club (RA), means that from the start of 2010 the U-shaped grooves on wedges will be banned in favor of V-shaped grooves, with the intention of rewarding accurate driving over distance hitting. Research by the USGA has shown that U-shaped grooves allow top players to generate much more spin when playing the ball out of the rough, making the ball come to a quick stop on the green. The USGA and RA felt this meant that landing in the rough was no longer enough of a penalty for shots that strayed from the fairway. In recent years pro golfers have begun to drive for distance rather than accuracy, knowing they can spin their way out of the rough if they miss their target -- a style of play known as \"bomb and gouge.\" Despite pressure from some players and golf equipment manufacturers, the U.S. PGA Tour has decided to go along with the rule change, meaning U.S. PGA Tour competitions, including the U.S. Open, will feature the club restriction from next year. Amateur competitions will not ditch the U-shaped grooves until 2014 and the new rule will not apply to recreational players until 2024. Gareth Taylor, Product Manager at leading golf club manufacturer Callaway, told CNN he believes the change will reward more skilful players. \"At the moment players are getting a lot of spin on the ball so I think it will make people play better,\" he said. \"They'll have to get their technique finely tuned and not rely on the club.\" He says club makers have been given ample notice to prepare for the switch. \"I don't think the change is a regression, it just means research and development will have to come up with better ideas to help the players out.\" Taylor explained that as a golfer strikes the ball the grooves on the club face catch the coating on the ball's surface, producing back spin. He said that the rule change applies to five irons and up and requires the grooves on the club face to be more spaced out, which will make it harder for the grooves to catch the ball. Tiger Woods has supported the changes, saying: \"I think it's great. We've had plenty of time to make our adjustments. All the companies have been testing and getting ready for this.\" To compensate for the loss of spin from the rough, tour players may use softer balls, which spin more but do not travel as far. That could favor players who already use the softer ball -- including Tiger Woods.","highlights":"The PGA Tour has agreed to a rule that will ban U-groove clubs for tour players .\nThe rule should reward accuracy by making it harder to play from the rough .\nGolf club designers are researching new technologies to replace the u-groove ."} -{"article":"NYON, Switzerland -- Celtic have been fined $50,800 by UEFA and AC Milan's Dida has been banned for two matches after the incident which saw a pitch-invading supporter approach the Brazilian goalkeeper in last week's Champions League match at Celtic Park. Dida's theatrical over-reaction has resulted in UEFA suspending him for two matches. The incident occurred when the Scottish side beat Milan 2-1 in Glasgow. A fan ran onto the field in the 90th minute, soon after the home side scored their winning goal, and made what appeared to be minimal contact with Dida. The Milan goalkeeper turned to chase the supporter before dropping to the ground. He was carried off the field on a stretcher and replaced. Dida's theatrical over-reaction has cost him severely -- but Celtic may choose not to complain about their own punishment, with half of their fine suspended for two years. UEFA did have the power to change the result of the match, although that was always unlikely. UEFA's control and disciplinary body found Celtic guilty of charges of \"lack of organisation and improper conduct of supporters\", while Dida was found to have breached UEFA's \"principles of loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship\". Milan have pledged to appeal against the punishment, which as it stands means he will miss the club's Champions League games against Shakhtar Donetsk. \"It's a suspension that is absolutely excessive,\" said Milan lawyer Leandro Cantamessa. \"It seems to us a very, very unbalanced sentence. It turns Dida into the protagonist of the incident, whereas the protagonist was someone else, and that's not right from a logical point of view.\" Celtic acted swiftly to punish the 27-year-old supporter, who turned himself in and has since admitted a breach of the peace in court and will be sentenced next month. The club banned the fan for life from all their matches, home and away. Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell said: \"As a club we feel this penalty is proportionate to the incident in question and a fair outcome.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"AC Milan's Brazilian goalkeeper Dida is suspended by UEFA for two matches .\nDida was banned for his over-reacting to being touched by a Celtic supporter .\nCeltic have been fined $50,800 for allowing the fan to run onto the field of play ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Iran has condemned the kidnapping of one of its diplomats in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, calling it an \"act of terrorism,\" an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said. Pakistani policemen inspect a bullet-riddled car of a kidnapped Iranian diplomat on Thursday. \"Pakistan should do its best to protect foreign diplomats and their residential places,\" the spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. At least four gunmen abducted Heshmatollah Attarzadeh near his home in Peshawar as he headed to work at the Iranian consulate, according to Pakistani police and Iranian diplomatic officials. His bodyguard, a Pakistani police officer, was shot and killed when the two men tried to resist, a Peshawar police official said. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also \"strongly condemned\" the attack, and informed Iran that the government \"will take all necessary measures for his safe and early recovery.\" Attarzadeh is a commercial attache for the Iranian consulate in Peshawar. It is the second attack targeting a foreign worker in Peshawar in two days. An American aid worker was shot and killed outside the Iranian consulate in Peshawar on Wednesday. Stephen Vance worked for a non-profit foundation funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development that helped find jobs for people in Pakistan's tribal regions, according to a statement from his employer, the Cooperative Housing Foundation International. \"Stephen had fully immersed himself in the community in which he worked,\" the statement said. \"He dressed traditionally and even sent his children to local schools.\" Vance, 52, a native of California, is survived by his wife and five children -- all of whom lived with him in Peshawar -- CHF International official Bill Holbrook told CNN. The attacks come less than three months after gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the senior U.S. diplomat in Peshawar, Lynne Tracy. She escaped unharmed. Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, an area rife with Islamic extremists and the site of recent clashes between security forces and militants. In late June, Pakistan's military launched an offensive in the province -- the biggest push against extremists in the tribal region since the civilian government took power in March. Islamic militants vowed to retaliate. Since then, militants have launched several deadly attacks. Pakistan's new government has tried to negotiate a deal with militants as part of its efforts to bypass military might and achieve peace through talks.","highlights":"Diplomat was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan .\nAuthorities believe he was kidnapped while traveling from his home to consulate .\nOn Wednesday, gunmen shot and killed an American aid worker in Peshawar ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Marines have been making children's Christmas dreams come true for nearly 60 years, but the corps may be seeing fewer smiles this year. Volunteer Betty Whelan sorts donated toys in a Toys for Tots center in Boston, Massachusetts. With demand up due to the poor economy and toy donations down, Toys for Tots, the Marine Corps' program that distributes Christmas toys to children in need, is facing one of its toughest years, according to Bill Grein, the Toys for Tots Foundation vice president. Grein said the program last year distributed approximately 16.6 million toys and books, but this year he doesn't think they will be able to reach that number. \"We always run out of toys before we run out of children,\" he said, but this year \"it's a major problem.\" Grein said that the program is getting more requests than in previous years and cities like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miami, Florida; Fresno, California; Atlanta, Georgia, and many others are hurting for donations. \"Every kid deserves a present,\" said Marine Sgt. Daniel Sampson of the Toys for Tots program in Boston, Massachusetts. \"Right now, we're not sending out as much as we should be.\" In the Washington area, the Marines need to find toys for 82,000 children, but \"we are tens of thousands of toys behind,\" Master Sgt Timothy Butler said. If they can't fill the need and get every child on the list a toy for Christmas, Butler said, \"It's gonna break my heart.\" Last year, the Marines were able to raise $13,000 in donations from people at Union Station, a major commuter hub in downtown Washington, but this year the Marines will be \"lucky to get half that,\" Staff Sgt. Johnny Noble said. In Atlanta, Toys for Tots administration chief Edward Barrett said they had received 241,814 donations, well short of their goal of 800,000. Barrett understands that the economy has a lot to do with the lack of contributions, and he estimates that donations are down by about 30 percent this year. In San Francisco, California, Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Anthamatten said the Toys for Tots program there was also seeing a 30 percent decrease in toy and monetary donations. In Boston, last minute donations came to the rescue. According to volunteer Kay Carpenter, the Boston Toys for Tots program used money that came in last week to buy $15,000 worth of toys, hopefully, enough to fill all of their orders. But, nationally, Toys for Tots bins are still empty. \"We're Marines and we set goals,\" Edwards said, \"and when we can't achieve those goals that's frustrating.\" CNN's Bethany Swain contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Marines' Toys for Tots program has distributed donated toys for 60 years .\nBad economy has resulted in more requests for toys and fewer donations .\nMarines will fall short of 16.6 million toys distributed last year .\nIn Atlanta and San Francisco areas, donations down 30 percent ."} -{"article":"FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- More than 1,000 volunteers rushed to fill sandbags early Wednesday as many in North Dakota tried to protect themselves from a historic floods that are expected to swamp the area. A Fargo resident surveys the sandbags outside his home, located about 15 feet from the Red River, on Tuesday. Even at 3:30 a.m., hundreds of volunteers packed into individual sandbagging centers, an organizer said. \"There have been so many volunteers that we had to turn people away,\" said Ryan McEwan, a supervisor at one volunteer coordinating center. \"It is very busy. They are filling sandbags as fast as they can.\" Fargo city officials estimated that as many as 10,000 volunteers have come forward since Sunday to aid in a sandbagging effort that's taken over North Dakota State University's central arena, the Fargodome, and to help build levees along the now closely watched Red River. See map of affected area \u00bb . That river posed the greatest risk of about eight rivers in the state that were at flood levels, emergency officials said. The fear is that the Red River could overtake all previous records. As of Wednesday morning, the Red River ran at about 33 feet -- 15 feet above flood stage. A record level of 41.1 feet was set in 1897. The record level of the river set in the April 1897 flood could be surpassed Friday, Cecily Fong of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services said Tuesday. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from an area near the city of Bismarck on Tuesday night as the Missouri River flooded, Rick Robinson of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services said Wednesday. Recent rain and blizzard conditions have swollen the rivers. Gov. John Hoeven received word late Tuesday that North Dakota had received a presidential disaster declaration. \"We've had a severe winter and are experiencing significant flooding across the state, so we are grateful to receive this federal assistance as we continue the flood fight and recovery effort,\" Hoeven said. Under the declaration, the federal government will cover 75 percent of the costs. \"We're concerned about the rise of the river and how fast it's coming up, so our concern is that we're going to hit 41 feet,\" Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said Tuesday, adding that the way the levees are currently set up, they would protect against overflow only up to 38 feet. Officials are guessing the Red River, which runs through the eastern parts of North and South Dakota, and western Minnesota, could crest in Fargo -- North Dakota's largest city, with about 99,200 residents -- anytime Friday or Saturday and that the water may linger at its crest height. The city has canceled all trials scheduled in Fargo Municipal Court through April 2 because of the expected flooding, to allow all police officers to be available for possible emergencies, according to the city's Web site. As of late Tuesday, Fargo residents and out-of-town volunteers had filled more than 1 million sandbags out of the needed 2 million. Mahoney said he hoped that, with the 24-hour sandbagging effort at the Fargodome, that goal will be met by Thursday. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video . Another factor threatening efforts is the possibility of freezing temperatures, because sandbags freeze together and then aren't individually stackable. Despite the stress, volunteers have been working around the clock. \"You got old people, young people -- all helping out,\" Mahoney said. \"It's heartwarming to see how many people are here.\" CNN's Robyn Sidersky contributed to this story.","highlights":"City of Fargo prepares for what could be the worst flooding it's ever had .\nUp to 10,000 volunteers have come forward since Sunday to aid in sandbagging .\nSwollen Red River running 14 feet above flood stage Tuesday night .\nResidents have had much less time to prepare than major 1997 flood ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will address the West in a new message, according to a banner ad from the group's production wing posted on Islamist Web sites known to carry messages from al Qaeda and bin Laden. This image accompanied a message from Osama bin Laden in November. \"To the western nations, soon, God willing, A new speech by the Lion of Islam Sheikh Osama Bin laden, The reasons of the struggle in the 60th anniversary of the Israeli Occupation,\" the banner reads. It was not known whether the message would be audio or video or when it might be posted. In the past, messages were available from an hour to two days after the initial posting. Bin Laden's last message came March 20, when in an audiotape he called Iraq \"the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine.\" In an audiotape released the previous day, bin Laden condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet, Mohammed.","highlights":"Banner ad on Islamist Web sites says al Qaeda leader will release message soon .\nIt is not known exactly when the message will come .\nBin Laden's last communication was an audiotape released March 20 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What do Copernicus and a Britney Spears look-a-like have in common? Despite centuries separating the two, both have inspired greatness in Poland. Maxim named Joanna Crupa, a Polish\/American model and actress, 61st in its 2006 Hot 100 list. Here we look at some of Poland's most famous nationals -- from years gone by to the present day. Many have influenced a world far beyond their country's boundary. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. He is primarily known, however, for his theory that earth is not the center of the universe. His book, \"De revolutionibus orbium coelestium\" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining moment that began the Scientific Revolution. Copernicus was born in 1473 in Thorn. Thorn was a city in Prussia, an autonomous region in the old Kingdom of Poland. Frederick Chopin (Fryderyk Chopin) (1810-1849) Born in the village of Zelazowa Wola in Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French father, he was regarded early on as a child-prodigy piano virtuoso. He is generally considered to be Poland's greatest composer, and ranks as one of music's greatest tone poets. Always in fragile health, he died in Paris in 1849 from chronic pulmonary tuberculosis. He was only 39. Mari-Sklodowska (Marie Curie) (1867-1934) Marie Curie, a Polish physicist and chemist, is arguably the most famous female scientist. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the only person honored with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, and the first female professor at the University of Paris. Her French husband Pierre Curie and both her daughter Ir\u00e8ne Joliot-Curie and son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie were awarded a Nobel prizes. Marie Curie was born in Warsaw. In 1891 she moved to Paris to further her studies and work on scientific projects. She found the theory of radioactivity and also found two new elements, radium and polonium (the latter being named after her native Poland.) Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) (1920-2005) Karol J\u00f3zef Wojtyla was born on 18 May, 1920 in the Polish town of Wadowice. At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope elected since Pope Pius IX in 1846. He reigned as the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. His reign of over 26 years was the second-longest after Pius IX's 32-year reign. He has been the only Polish pope, and was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Adrian VI in the 1520s. The pope traveled extensively, visiting over 100 countries, more than any other pope and was fluent in numerous languages: Polish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Croatian, Portuguese, Russian and Latin. He was the victim of several assassination attempts, but later said he forgave the perpetrators. He was chosen twice as person of the year by Time magazine. Andrzej Wajda (1926 - ) Wajda, born in Suwalki, Poland is an award-winning Polish film Director. He received an honorary Oscar in 2000. After the fall of communism in 1989, he was elected as a government senator while he continued his role as artistic director of Warsaw's Teatr Powszechny. His films often raise social awareness and have dealt with a number of subjects including war, communism and murder (based on the murder of his own father by the Soviets in 1940). Wajda married four times. He has one daughter and is currently married to actress Krystyna Zachwatowicz. Roman Raymond Polanski (1933 - ) Polanski is an Academy Award-winning and four-time nominated Polish film director, writer, actor and producer. After beginning his career in Poland, Polanski became a celebrated filmmaker and director of such films as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). Recently Polanski has made acclaimed films such as the Academy Award-winning and Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winning The Pianist (2002), and Oliver Twist (2005). Polanski has a tragic personal history. He lived in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War and was persecuted for being Jewish. He escaped death by hiding in a farmer's cow shed, while his mother was murdered in the infamous Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. After surviving the Holocaust and moving to the United States, Polanski married American actress Sharon Tate. In 1969, Tate, who was pregnant at the time, was murdered by serial killer Charles Manson's sect. In 1978, Polanski pleaded guilty in the United States to \"unlawful sexual intercourse\" with a 13-year-old girl. The director fled to France before sentencing. He now lives there and has French citizenship. He cannot return to the United States because he is likely to be imprisoned. Lech Walesa (1943 - ) A former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Walesa is often credited with changing the Polish political system. He founded the organization \"Solidarity,\" the country's first independent trade union, which was pivotal in bringing about the fall of the communist regime. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his human rights activism. In 1989, after the fall of the Soviet Union, he persuaded leaders from formerly communist parties to form the first non-communist coalition government. He was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995. In 2000, Walesa once again stood for the presidential election, but received very little support and subsequently announced his retirement. Joanna Krupa (1979 - ) Krupa is a Polish-American model and actress. Born in Warsaw, the daughter of hotelier Steven Krupa, she eventually moved with her family to the United States at the age of five. Krupa has appeared on various magazine covers including FHM, Personal, Inside Sport, Stuff, Steppin' Out, Teeze and Maxim, in which she was named the Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the World. Maxim named her 61st in its 2006 Hot 100 list. She was also voted German Maxim's Model of the Year 2004-2005. She posed nude in the July 2005 issue of Playboy and also did a nude photoshoot for animal rights group PETA. The advertisements all have \"I would rather go naked than wear fur\" as a motto. Krupa has been quoted as saying, \"There is nothing sexy about wearing something that is so obviously tied to senseless pain and killing.\" Robert Kubica (1984 - ) Born in Krakow, Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Since 2006 he has driven for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during the 2006 season. In June 2008, he achieved his maiden F1 victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, becoming the 99th F1 racer to win a Grand Prix. Dorota Rabczewska or \"Doda\" (1984 - ) Dorota Rabczewska, or Dorota Rabczewska-Majdan, is often nicknamed Doda or Doda Elektroda or \"the Polish Britney Spears.\" She was born in Ciechanow, and is one of the most famous and successful pop singers in Poland. Doda started her career at the age of 14 and became popular after her participation in a reality TV show \"Bar.\" In 2000, at the age of 16, Rabczewska became the vocalist of the Polish rock band Virgin. In December 2005 and October 2007, she posed nude for the Polish edition of Playboy Magazine. She also posed for CKM Magazine several times. Doda received a Superjedynka award on National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 2006. In 2007, she left her record company, Virgin, to begin a solo career. Her first solo album was released in 2007 and was certified as gold on the day before its official release. In 2008, her album \"Diamond Bitch\" went double platinum after 60,000 copies of the album had been sold.","highlights":"Top ten Poles: Marie Curie and her Nobel Prized family .\nPope John Paul ll: 27 year-reign, visited over 100 countries, spoke ten languages .\nJoanna Crupa: Former \"Sexiest Swimsuit Model\" in the world ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Radical Islamist fighters seized control of the seat of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government Monday, raiding the parliament building and demanding that several lawmakers publicly surrender, according to a journalist who witnessed the spectacle. Members of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament are meeting in the neighboring country of Djibouti. Al-Shabab fighters took over the parliament building and the presidential palace in Baidoa, in the southwestern part of the country, a day after the Ethiopian troops who had backed up the transitional government left the country. The insurgents captured five members of parliament and paraded them through the city streets, with hundreds of residents looking on, the reporter said. The five were released after publicly surrendering. The situation left Somali lawmakers stranded in the neighboring country of Djibouti, where they often convene and where talks on forming a new government are under way. \"We have nowhere to return to,\" Parliament Speaker Aden Mohamed Nur told fellow lawmakers there. Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government took office after Ethiopian troops invaded the country at its request in December 2006. The Ethiopian invasion ousted the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist movement that had claimed control of the capital Mogadishu earlier that year. Ethiopia's invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. But various Islamist groups -- including the hard-line Al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- rejected the presence of Ethiopian forces and mounted an insurgent campaign against the Ethiopians and the transitional government. Ethiopia announced on Sunday that all its forces have left Somalia. Last week, as Ethiopian troops began pulling out of the Somali capital, forces from different Islamist groups -- including Al-Shabab -- took control of bases the Ethiopians abandoned around Mogadishu. The transitional government maintained very little control outside of Baidoa, even with the support of the Ethiopian forces. It has also been wracked by an internal power struggle between Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in December. In Washington, the State Department said U.S. officials are working to independently confirm the reports from Baidoa. But State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said members of one of the major Islamic factions, which signed a peace agreement in October in Djibouti, are already joining the transitional government. Duguid said the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, another offshoot of the ICU, will choose up to 200 new members of the transitional parliament. Another 75 members will be drawn from other opposition groups, and the expanded parliament is expected to elect a new president soon. \"We remain deeply concerned about the ongoing violence in southern Somalia, which continues to claim innocent lives,\" Duguid said. \"Lasting peace and stability in Somalia can only be established through the reconciliation process underway through the Djibouti Agreement and rejection of extremism.\" With Monday's takeover of Baidoa, the transitional government only has control of the presidential palace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and the road to the airport in the capital city, which it holds with the help of African Union forces. CNN's Ben Brumfield and journalists Mohamed Amiin Adow and Omar Faruk Osman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Islamist fighters seize control of Baidoa, Somalia .\nBaidoa is headquarters of Somalia's U.N.-backed government .\nTown's seizure leaves country's lawmakers stranded in nation of Djibouti ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has been a piece of Berlin history for 80 years, a symbol of Nazi power but also of Germans' desire for freedom after World War II. The giant Tempelhof Airport in Berlin will shut it doors for good on Friday. Friday, Berlin's Tempelhof Airport will shut its doors for good. Tempelhof was where American and British pilots touched down after the war when Soviet Forces blockaded West Berlin. The allied pilots flew in millions of tons of food, fuel and medication for an ailing population, earning themselves the title \"candy bombers,\" for dropping candy as they flew over the city. \"Through Tempelhof, we stayed alive,\" said Hedi Koenig, 83, who lived near the airport in West Berlin after the war. Without the air drops, she said, the people would have starved to death. The airport rapidly became Berlin's only hub for supplies, eventually carrying almost 2.5 million tons of goods into the city. Tempelhof's massive main building -- originally designed to represent Nazi Germany to visitors -- remains one of the largest structures in the world. The U.S. Army later built a basketball court and firing range at Tempelhof, and hid an entire command center in the vast network of tunnels under the buildings. These days, however, its runways are too short for most modern civilian aircraft. City officials said the airport was not profitable and needed to be shut down as Berlin builds a major new airport, Berlin-Brandenburg International. Moves to close Tempelhof have sparked protests from residents and aviators who thought more should have been done to preserve such an important part of the city's history. See archive photos of the airport . \"The people want it, private enterprise wants it, all national arguments are in favor of it,\" Friedbert Pflueger, a local opposition leader, said last year. More than 100 private pilots staged a \"fly-in\" in September 2007 to protest the plans. Koenig said Berliners were still angry with city officials who allowed the closure. She blamed business leaders for putting pressure on the city to close the airport by arguing it cost too much and didn't make enough money. \"For business people, the airport doesn't mean anything,\" said Koenig. She said they were too young to remember how important Tempelhof has been for the city. Koenig is among many who believe the airport should be turned into a cultural memorial. A memorial already exists outside the airport to remember the candy bombers, dozens of whom died flying in during bad weather or after being harassed by Soviet fighter planes. \"The success of the airlift made sure that the communist ideology lost its impetus, lost its thrust, because people began to realize that democracies can defend their way of life,\" said Helmut Trotnow of the Berlin Allied Museum. The allied pilots, Koenig said, were responsible for saving the city amid the Russian blockade. \"The Russians tried with all their might to break us,\" she said. Koenig snuck into West Berlin from the East after the war. That meant she didn't have a visa and couldn't receive official food rations, so she literally scraped by during her night job at a bakery. Koenig said she cleaned the pans and would try to scratch off whatever food remained stuck to the sides. Her boss would check to make sure she wasn't eating any of the remnants, but Koenig said she did it anyway, whenever her boss wasn't looking. Tempelhof's beginnings date to September 4, 1909, when American aviation pioneer Orville Wright flew an engine-powered plane for a few minutes on the airfield there. It ushered in the era of aviation in Germany, and Tempelhof eventually became Berlin's central airport and the biggest hub in Europe. The airport also became the home of Lufthansa, which was founded in Berlin in 1926. Civilian traffic declined during the second world war and the Soviet Army occupied the airport. The Americans took it over in July 1945. The Soviet blockade of West Berlin began in May 1948 as an attempt to force the Western Allied powers out of that part of the city. They cut off rail and road links to the West, and West Berlin -- isolated in the middle of the new East Germany -- found itself isolated even more. In response, the Allies imposed counter-blockade measures which included cutting off East German communications and an embargo on Eastern bloc exports. The moves forced the Soviet Union to eventually lift the blockade a year later, in May 1949. The last flights from Tempelhof will fly just before midnight Thursday, the airport authority said. One will be a special Lufthansa flight aboard a Junkers Ju-52, a post-World War II transport aircraft. The other will be a DC-3 -- the same type of plane flown by the candy bombers from Tempelhof some 60 years ago. With the closing of Tempelhof, the city has two remaining airports -- at Schoenefeld and Tegel. All flights from Tempelhof will move to Tegel. Eventually, Schoenefeld will become the new Berlin-Brandenburg International, or BBI. It is scheduled to open in 2011, after which Tegel will close. CNN Berlin Bureau Chief Fred Pleitgen and CNN's Carolin Fiehm in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"The giant Tempelhof Airport, once a symbol of Nazi power, is to close .\nAirport was also used by British and Americans to break Soviet blockade .\nPilots flew in millions of tons of food, fuel and medication for ailing population ."} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- With car companies going in into bankruptcy and shedding famous names left and right, it's important to remember that today's automotive titans started out as tiny startups, not unlike Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. General Motors was almost called International Motors Co. Names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Porsche call to mind the huge corporate successes of the past and the great automotive families that survive today. But behind every brand name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. Most of the time, they gave their name to the companies. And that fame was often about all they ended up with. David Buick, who invented the overhead valve engine, founded the Buick Motor Car Co. in 1903. William C. Durant, the industrialist who would eventually found GM, took over the company in 1904, when it ran into financial trouble. Buick stayed on as a director, but left in 1908, never making much money from the enterprise. He reportedly died in 1929, unable to afford one of his cars. Durant kept the name for one of his company divisions and for the car, even though he worried that people might pronounce it \"Boo-ick,\" according to one author. Strangely enough, the man who practically created General Motors single-handedly never really liked the idea of a 'Durant' car. In another example, Robert Hupp invented the Hupmobile,'a two-seat runabout, in 1908. But he sold his stock in his Hupp Motor Car Company in 1911. He turned around and founded the Hupp Corp. that same year. Investors in his first firm took him to court to make him drop the \"Hupp\" from his new company's name and they won. His own automotive glory quickly faded, although the Hupmobile survived until the 1940s. Swiss-born Louis Chevrolet's experience was similar. Durant brought him into a new car-building venture in 1911, hoping to trade on his fame as an absolutely fearless race car driver. Chevrolet left the company in 1913, apparently unable to make the adjustment from racing to building production vehicles. But its name stuck to the new Chevrolet vehicles; Durant reportedly liked its musical lilt. It could also work the other way around. In 1925, Walter P. Chrysler got the naming rights to the Maxwell Motor Co. after he and another industrialist steadily bought up shares in the firm over a two-year period. Things turned out a little differently for Henry Ford. He suffered the ignominy of being booted from an early auto company that bore his own name. But his revenge was sweet. The Henry Ford Company, which traded freely on Ford's early fame as an inventor, fired him in 1902 \"because he was spending all his time developing a race car, not a passenger car,\" according to the Encyclopedia of American Business and Biography. AOL Autos: Ford's 'Wonder Woman' engineers most important new car . After Ford was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac, after Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the French nobleman who founded Detroit in 1703; his heraldry became the model's badge and the company became a part of General Motors in 1909. After his firing, Ford quickly found investors to help him found his own firm, the Ford Motor Co., in 1903. He introduced the company's first new vehicle, the Model and followed it up with other low-cost vehicles, including his greatest achievement, the Model T, in 1908. Its price tag started at $850 and fell steadily as Ford introduced more production innovations. The young firm became phenomenally successful. AOL Autos: 10 classic American rides . In the 1920s, he got the chance to buy the five-year-old Lincoln Motor Co. out of bankruptcy. It was then owned by one of the very people, Henry Leland, who fired him in 1902. Then he used the former aircraft company to launch his own line of luxury cars bearing the Lincoln name. For its part, General Motors almost didn't get the name it bears today. Durant actually incorporated his company under the name \"International Motors Co.\", in New Jersey in 1908. But his attorney advised him that it would be easier to raise capital under a new name. \"We might use 'United Motors Company' were it not for the fact that there is already a United Motor Car Company in that state,\" the attorney wrote. \"We suggest the name General Motors Company, as we have ascertained it can be used.\" A newly coined French word, auto-mobile, inspired many vehicle names of the early years. Inventor Ransom E. Olds filed a patent for an \"auto-mobile\" during the mid-1890s. Names like Bugmobile, Locomobile, Hupmobile, and of course, the Oldsmobile, could not have come along without it. The origins of some names can be tricky to trace. The first use of Jeep, for instance. is shrouded in mist. Jim Allen, the author of a book called \"Jeep,\" concludes that it's based on early World War II slang for \"a new, unproven recruit or a new unproven vehicle.\" It wasn't until 1950 that Toledo-based Willys-Overland, Inc., one of the producers of the early four-wheel-drive vehicle, trademarked the term. Many of the names were not originally associated with the auto industry. The Toyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan; When it turned to car production, the Toyoda family changed the 'd' to a 't' to make it simpler and more elegant in Japanese script. AOL Autos: Top 10 best car names . There's little doubt about other brand names. Pontiac was an offshoot of the Pontiac Buggy Co., a horseless carriage manufacturer named after a renowned Indian chief. Mechanic Soichiro Honda started producing motorized bicycles after the devastation of World War II and eventually graduated to cars. AOL Autos: Pontiacs we'll never forget . Volkswagen, a response to Adolf Hitler's call for a car for the common folk, means 'people's car' in German, evidently beating out the prototype's name, 'Strength through Joy,' for the honors. In 1917, the Rapp Engine Works became known as the Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH, or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) as the four-year-old airplane engine firm diversified into motorcycle engines, with a stylized white propeller against a blue sky as its logo, according to some authorities. The first BMW cars were produced 11 years later. The legendary Jaguar name is considered one of the best sports car names of all time. It beat out a long list of lackluster animal names compiled by a British ad agency in 1935. In 1939, Ford struck gold with Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. It tapped into Greek and Roman mythology for the name, just as it did for the similarly styled Lincoln Zephyr, the god of the wind, three years earlier. Some other storied automotive brands are based on acronyms. Fiat stands for Fabbrica Italiani Automobili Torino, or Italian Automotive Works Turin. Similarly, Saab stands for Svenska Aeroplanaktiebolaget, or Swedish Aeroplane Ltd., hearkening back to the automaker's origins as an aircraft company. Ford might have done better with an acronym in 1958. The Edsel was conceived as a new, distinct Ford Motor Co. brand, with its own models, badge and division. The mission was to take on GM's Oldsmobile. After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943. The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales. AOL Autos: Best and worst automotive designs of all time . Its name wasn't the sole reason for its failure. It didn't help that the country was in recession or that the new car seemed based on Ford and Mercury models. But all that didn't stop Edsel from entering the vocabulary as an idea or project fated to failure.","highlights":"David Buick invented the overhead valve engine, founded Buick Motor Car Co.\nFearless race car driver Louis Chevrolet's name stuck for its musical lilt .\nThe Henry Ford Company fired its namesake who later started Ford Motor Co.\nToyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Director Barry Levinson is the star of his new film. Well, almost. Director Barry Levinson sizes up politics and media in his new film, \"PoliWood.\" In the Academy Award-winning filmmaker's new documentary \"PoliWood,\" Levinson takes a look at the world of policymakers and screen actors and ends up voicing his own ideas in the process. \"The fact that my voice is in it always scares me to death, because I never like to be on camera, period,\" Levinson said. (The \"Rain Man\" director has appeared in a handful of films, notably the Robert Redford-directed \"Quiz Show.\") In \"PoliWood,\" Levinson follows a group of politically active actors to the Democratic and Republican conventions as they take in the theater of it all. The journey leads to President Obama's inauguration. \"PoliWood\" also explores the idea that the media have become confusing catalysts that blur the lines of reality and myth. Television, which was once a romanticized invention that brought entertainment and public service announcements into our homes, is now a portal for manipulating what we see, feel and think, in the film's presentation. CNN talked to Levinson about the politics of the media, Hollywood actors supporting candidates and \"PoliWood.\" CNN: Tell me about the celebrity-politician-media link. Barry Levinson: Well, I think what happened is, you have this television screen, and everything has to go through that screen -- and at a certain point, I don't think that we can tell the difference between the celebrity and the politician. They both have to entertain us in some fashion. That's why I think, in second half of the 20th century, you saw this kind of change where John F. Kennedy was probably the first television politician. He came across, he was good-looking, he was great in the way he spoke; he had a certain sense of humor. Then you had Reagan. Someone looked at him giving a speech for Goldwater and said, you know, he could be a politician. Two years after that, he became governor of California. So anyone that is pleasant enough on television suddenly gets credentials, whether they have earned it or not. And there's that blurring of it between celebrity and politics and everything else. CNN: Do you think that most celebrities have a good understanding of the politicians they support, or do some just jump on the bandwagon? Levinson: I think \"PoliWood\" shows it in some ways and talks about it. But basically, to be honest, there is no upside for any actor to be politically involved other than the fact that they are concerned citizens. It doesn't benefit their career at all. The term \"celebrity\" is sort of a bogus term, though, in a lot of ways. CNN: Why? Levinson: Well because Paris Hilton and Susan Sarandon, they're both celebrities, but Paris Hilton hasn't ever really done anything, in a way. Susan Sarandon has been an actress whose done a lot of different roles, been around a long time, has been politically active, extremely smart and knowledgeable about that. But there's two women, they get exposure, but there's a huge difference between that. Some have earned it; some get that attention just by the way they look or the way they have carried on in public. CNN: There's a scene in \"PoliWood\" where actors sit down with regular people, and they talk about relating to one another. Levinson: Well, how is that so-called celebrities -- how would they possibly relate to the ordinary person? But 90 percent of them come from those families -- they come out of the Midwest or the South or the Northeast. They come out of working-class families primarily. And because of the nature of America, that if you have certain dreams, and ultimately those dreams can in fact come true, they benefited by the society that they live in. But their roots come from all these small towns around the country, so of course they can relate. CNN: Do you think the Democratic and Republican conventions are pure theater? Levinson: Oh, absolutely. There's no political content that takes place at a political convention. It used to be that they would hammer out a platform. You know, there's all kind of back-room meetings, so now it's a show. It is a show both places. CNN: What do you think of President Obama? Levinson: He obviously is great on TV, and he is extremely smart, and so what we're gonna see as it goes down the road, what changes does he actually bring about? How does he work with Congress? All of those particular issues. He understands TV, and he's a great communicator. Now, will he be good or bad? We'll see what happens in a four-year period from someone who has great capabilities -- where does it all go? It's too early to determine that. CNN: Do you watch much television, or do you have a cynical view about it? Levinson: I try to watch TV like anyone else. I like to tune in just to see what new shows are out there. And then there are certain shows that I just get infuriated over. And then there are so-called political shows that I have a difficult time with. And sometimes I sit, and images are flying by so fast in some of these pieces, I'm going, \"What is that about?\" I've no idea. It looks like a collision of images on the screen.","highlights":"Barry Levinson's new film looks at how TV has influenced politics .\nLevinson: Hard to tell politician and entertainer apart on television .\n\"Rain Man\" director observes celebrities, ordinary people try to relate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the leaders of Madagascar to resolve their differences after an anti-government rally a day earlier turned violent and left more than two dozen people dead. Protesters rally Saturday before violence broke out near the Presidential Palace. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ban deplored the violence and called Sunday on authorities \"to urgently initiate a fair process by which those responsible will be brought to justice.\" Ban also blamed the \"tragedy\" on a \"lack of restraint on all sides.\" \"The Secretary-General calls upon all concerned parties to resolve their differences through peaceful and democratic means and through the exercise of responsible leadership,\" according to the statement. A police official said the death toll from Saturday's violence outside the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Antananarivo had risen to 26. More than 80 were injured during the demonstration, officials said. The capital city was quiet as mourners attended a public ceremony for the dead. The violence stemmed from an ongoing dispute over who is in charge of the government. Andry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarivo, took to the streets one week ago, declaring himself the Indian Ocean island nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Watch an iReport on the Madagascar violence \u00bb . But President Marc Ravalomanana has fired him and put someone else in the mayoral job. Rajoelina had called the rally to unveil his new government at the May 13th Plaza, according to Brittany Martin, an American citizen who is a Harvard Fellow and lives in Antananarivo. Martin said the rally was peaceful in the morning hours of Saturday, until gunshots rang out in the afternoon after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks ago, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. See pictures from last week's upheaval \u00bb . Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. Anger has risen in Madagascar, where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year, over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Rajoelina has urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government could be established in the nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map \u00bb . \"What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time,\" said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he had received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try and disperse the crowd. Journalist Dregoire Pourtier in Antananarivo, Madagascar, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ban blames the \"tragedy\" on a \"lack of restraint on all sides\"\n26 dead, more than 80 wounded during an anti-government rally on Saturday .\nViolence stems from a dispute over who is in charge of the government .\nAndry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarivo, declares himself Madagascar's leader ."} -{"article":"PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- American student Amanda Knox, accused of killing her housemate two years ago, testified in her murder trial Saturday that she was intimidated by Italian police during questioning. American college student Amanda Knox, 21, testifies Friday at her murder trial in Perugia, Italy. Knox, 21, is charged in the death of British student Meredith Kercher, who was her housemate in Perugia, a university town north of Rome. Kercher, 20, died in what prosecutors say was a \"drug-fueled sex game\" after suffering a sexual assault. She was found half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck, in her bed November 2, 2007. Saturday was the second day of testimony for Knox, who is from Seattle, Washington. The public prosecutor, her defense lawyer, the attorney for her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and the judge asked her about what happened the night of Kercher's death and the following day. Both Knox and Sollecito, 25, are charged with murder and sexual assault. Knox tried to explain Saturday why she gave conflicting answers to police when they interrogated her on November 6. She said it was a combination of police pressure, their suggestions, and her confused and frightened state of mind. \"When I would say that I was with Raffaele, they would say, 'You are a liar,' and they repeated this,\" she said, testifying in fluent Italian. \"You will go to prison for 30 years. ... You must remember,\" Knox recalled the police as saying. Knox said the police were standing behind her and officers were going in and out of the interrogation room. A policewoman next to her was constantly pressing her to give them a name, and an interpreter on her right said people under trauma tend to forget things, she said. \"I was confused. ... I had so much fear,\" Knox said. She testified that she thought, \"Hell, perhaps they're right and I have forgotten.\" Knox repeated Saturday that police slapped her on the back of her head while questioning her. As she spoke, she hit her head a few times with her right hand and gestured broadly. Knox testified Friday that she was not at the women's villa the night Kercher died, which authorities believe was the evening of November 1. She said she was at Sollecito's house. Watch Knox take the stand \u00bb . Knox testified Friday that the couple had dinner, watched a movie, smoked marijuana, had sex and went to bed on the night of November 1. She said she returned to her and Kercher's villa the next morning to take a shower. That's when she said she noticed \"strange things\" such as the front door being left open, dried blood in the bathroom sink and on a bath mat, feces in the toilet, and the door to Kercher's room locked. Watch Knox in court \u00bb . When Knox returned to Sollecito's house, she said, he suggested they call police in case the house had been burglarized. Police then found Kercher's body. All cameras were barred from the courtroom Saturday because the public prosecutor said he wanted to avoid \"sensationalism.\" Cameras were allowed at the beginning of the session Friday but then ordered out. Knox's father, Curt, defended his daughter Saturday. \"What we've seen over the past five months is a character assassination, and now, hopefully .... a different point of view of who she is is coming out,\" he told reporters. People are beginning to see that \"she is not this dark angel she's been portrayed as,\" he added. \"Amanda did a great job\" on the stand, Curt Knox said. \"She was very articulate in her answers. She answered all of the questions truthfully. She was not quivering in her voice. She was looking the judge in the eyes.\" Her attorney, Carlo della Vedova, described his client as \"very confident.\" \"She has repeated exactly what happened that night, on the fifth and sixth, when she was arrested. She gave all the information that was requested\" during her testimony, he said. The trial is to resume next Friday, but Knox isn't expected to testify again. A third person, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in a fast-track trial in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing the verdict.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. student Amanda Knox says questioners badgered, slapped, confused her .\nKnox, ex-boyfriend on trial in death of Knox's British housemate, Meredith Kercher .\nKnox contends she was at boyfriend's house the night Kercher was killed .\nIvory Coast native Rudy Guede sentenced to 30 years for Kercher's murder ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is expelling the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States in response to a similar move by Venezuela, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. \"We have informed the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States that he will be expelled and should leave the United States,\" McCormack said. Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Friday two senior Venezuelan intelligence officials -- Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva -- and one former official -- Ramon Rodriguez Chacin -- of assisting leftist rebels in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with narcotics trafficking. \"Today's designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted and funded the FARC, even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents,\" said Adam J. Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement. The action freezes assets the three men may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits Americans from conducting business with them. The U.S. decision to expel the Venezuelan ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, is the latest move in an escalating diplomatic battle that pits the United States against two of Latin America's leftist leaders. It comes a day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he was expelling the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy. Chavez also said he was recalling the Venezuelan ambassador from the United States. \"He has 72 hours, from this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas, to leave Venezuela,\" Chavez told a crowd of supporters. \"When there's a new government in the United States, we'll send an ambassador. A government that respects Latin America.\" The president said he was making the moves \"in solidarity with Bolivia and the people of Bolivia.\" Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday accused the United States of fomenting a coup d'etat by rich eastern department landowners against him, and he called for the U.S. ambassador to leave for allegedly encouraging those protesters. For the past two weeks, the demonstrators in the country's richer eastern lowlands have been protesting Morales' plans to redistribute the country's natural gas revenues. \"Without fear of anyone, without fear of the empire, today before you, before the Bolivian people, I declare the ambassador of the United States persona non grata,\" Morales said Wednesday of Ambassador Philip Goldberg in a nationally televised speech. The United States called the allegations baseless and kicked out the Bolivian ambassador Thursday. The Bolivians \"made it very clear what their intention was and we took them at their word,\" McCormack said Friday. \"We take President Chavez at his word in this particular case, and we have reacted appropriately.\" Before expelling the U.S. diplomat from his country, Chavez also said Thursday that he had uncovered a U.S.-backed plot to remove him from power. \"It's the empire that's behind this,\" he told supporters in a televised address. \"They go around looking for a way to stop our revolution and, with it, to strike all the processes of change that are occurring in our Americas, in the Caribbean, in Central America.\" Chavez then played a four-minute tape of what he said were conversations among current and retired members of the Venezuelan military discussing whom they could count on to support a movement against the presidential palace. He said also that the presence of two Russian warplanes on Venezuelan soil for a training exercise \"is a warning\" to the rest of the world that Venezuela's allies include Russia.","highlights":"U.S. move on Venezuelan ambassador follows similar action by Caracas .\nVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelling the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela .\nU.S. Treasury Department also accuses Venezuelans of aiding Colombian rebels .\nU.S. in escalating diplomatic battle with Venezuelan, Bolivian leaders ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top Obama administration officials outlined several new initiatives to safeguard the country's food supply Tuesday, saying the recent spate of food-borne illnesses is unacceptable. Recent salmonella outbreaks, including one at Nestle, were called unacceptable by federal officials Tuesday. The FDA intends to issue new guidance over the next three months regarding steps the entire food industry can take to more quickly detect contamination sources and remove the unsafe products from stores. A new position at the agency -- deputy commissioner for foods -- will be created for the sole purpose of overseeing food protection. The commissioner will be part of a \"unified incident command system\" established to address contamination outbreaks and facilitate responses at the federal, state, and local levels, officials said. In addition, they said, food safety information will be more effectively communicated to the public through a revamped Web site: www.foodsafety.gov. The announcement was made near the White House by Vice President Joe Biden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. \"There are few responsibilities more basic or more important ... for the government than making sure our families in America eat food that is not contaminated,\" Biden said. Dozens of people have become sick in recent weeks due to a nationwide E. coli outbreak linked to tainted Nestle cookie dough. Spinach, peanut products, pistachios, peppers, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts, have also been recent culprits, noted Sebelius. An estimated 5,000 Americans die annually after consuming contaminated food and tens of millions fall ill, she said. J.D. Hanson, a policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, called the initiatives a good first step. \"They are the kinds of things we have been calling on previous administrations to do, and we're glad this administration is moving fairly quickly on these issues,\" he told CNN. Hanson praised the creation of the position of deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, saying it should have happened long ago. \"You'd think an agency called 'Food and Drug' would have made food a priority a long time ago. They didn't until today.\" But he said the government still isn't tough enough with the food industry. \"Their goal of 90 percent compliance with their new guidelines is not good enough. It needs to be very close to 100 percent compliance.\" And he said bureaucracy stands in the way of improvement. \"Right now there are 13 federal agencies that deal with food safety. We would pull all of those functions into one agency.\" Making eggs safer . New safeguards to protect against salmonella contamination of eggs alone should cut the number of food-borne illnesses every year by roughly 80,000, and generate an annual savings of over $1 billion, according to Sebelius. \"Salmonella enteritidis is a major cause of food-borne illness in the United States and eggs are a significant source,\" Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told reporters in a telephone conference call. The $81 million program will translate into less than a penny per dozen eggs and will yield $1.4 billion in annual public health benefits, the agency said. In all, more than 79,000 of the 142,000 cases of sickness and 30 deaths associated with tainted eggs each year will be prevented, it predicted. Under the rule, egg producers must buy their chickens and hens from producers who monitor for salmonella bacteria, said Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. If salmonella bacteria or its derivatives are detected, a sample of eggs from the facility must be tested over eight weeks, he said. If any test positive, the producer must process the eggs to destroy the bacteria or divert the eggs to non-food uses. In addition, henhouses must be tested and those that test positive must be cleaned and disinfected, he said. Under current law, eggs do not have to be refrigerated until they are packed for the ultimate consumer, said Nancy Bufano, a food technologist at the agency. \"What's new here is requiring now that eggs must be refrigerated on the farm and during transport and storage beginning no later than 36 hours after the time they're laid,\" she said. A key part of the plan to reduce salmonella enteritidis is the requirement that producers institute rodent-control programs, said Darrell Trampel, a poultry veterinarian at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. \"Mice are notorious carriers of [salmonella enteritidis] and, in the fall when it starts getting cold, the mice start looking for a warmer home and some of them make their way into chicken houses, and then they leave their droppings behind in the feed and so the chickens pick it up in that manner.\" Producers will have to pay more to comply with the testing requirements, \"but I don't think this should put anybody out of business,\" he said. The rules go into effect within a year for producers with more than 50,000 hens, which produce approximately 71 percent of eggs sold to consumers, the FDA's Sundlof said. Those with fewer than 50,000 hens have three years to comply; those with fewer than 3,000 hens or those that sell directly to consumers are exempt. About 1 in 200 eggs in flocks of fewer than 3,000 hens test positive for salmonella and derivatives, Sundlof said. Until now, egg quality assurance programs have been voluntary, Sundlof said. \"So the fact that they will now be required really gives us greater assurance.\" Industry supports the requirements, though many of them have long been complying voluntarily, said Howard Magwire, director of government relations for United Egg Producers, a trade association. \"Our egg farmers have always done everything they could to provide a safe, affordable, high-protein product to consumers and for years we have been supportive of the concept of an egg-safety rule to address the salmonella enteritidis problem,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"Do we go out and do a pep rally for more regulation? No, but at the same time, we understand why the industry has been moving that way.\" CNN's Tom Watkins and CNN Radio's Matt Cherry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Department wants better control of salmonella in eggs, turkey and poultry .\nControl E. coli outbreaks by issuing new instructions regarding beef production .\nFDA will release new safety standards to help prevent the contamination of produce .\nSalmonella safeguards in eggs alone to cut food-borne illnesses by 80,000 a year ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least seven Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded when a bomb exploded near a Shiite holy shrine in northern Baghdad on Wednesday morning, an Interior Ministry official said. The Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, seen in 2007, is holy to Shiite Muslims. The bomb detonated near the Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in the Kadhimiya district, the official said. The Kadhimiya shrine is one of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims around the world. On Tuesday, a parked car bomb killed at least nine people and wounded more than a dozen others, also in Kadhimiya. This is the third straight day of deadly attacks in the capital, striking mostly Shiite areas. On Monday, seven bombings in Baghdad left at least 32 people killed and more than 130 wounded. Iraqi officials have warned that they expect a rise in attacks. The country's president and his deputies urged security forces to intensify their efforts to secure the country. The government has blamed the ousted Baath party and al Qaeda in Iraq for Monday's attacks, saying they were meant to create sectarian divisions. The U.S. military also pointed the finger at al Qaeda. \"The nature of the attacks and targets are consistent with past al Qaeda in Iraq attacks. We see this as coordinated attack by terrorists against predominantly Shia targets that they gauge as vulnerable to instigate sectarian violence,\" the U.S. military said.","highlights":"Three days of attacks in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad leave dozens dead .\nBomb near revered Shiite shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim kills 7 on Wednesday .\nParked car bomb in same area of Baghdad kills at least 9 people on Tuesday .\nAt least 32 killed on Monday in seven bombings around Iraqi capital ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United went five points clear at the top of the Premier League as goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar set a new English record for minutes in not conceding a goal in the 1-0 victory over Everton. Van der Sar was left to celebrate a United win and a new goalkeeping record. Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed the winning goal with a 44th minute penalty but once again it was United's rock-solid defense and keeper that made sure of the vital three points. Everton's failure to score by the 73rd minute at Old Trafford left van der Sar unbeaten for 1,104 minutes. The Dutch international was breaking the previous record set by Reading's Steve Death 30 years ago. He had taken Petr Cech's Premier League record in the 5-0 win at West Bromwich Albion last week and has now had 12 straight clean sheets. With title rivals Chelsea and Liverpool playing each other on Sunday and Aston Villa being held 0-0 at home by Wigan, the record was the icing on the cake for Alex Ferguson's defending champions. World footballer of the year Ronaldo had hit the post in the first half before converting from the spot after Michael Carrick was tripped by Mikel Arteta. In truth, Everton, missing three strikers through injury, rarely troubled van der Sar with most of the action at the other end. Carrick had appeals for a second penalty turned down after appearing to be brought down by Joleon Lescott, but referee Mark Halsey ignored his pleas. Carlos Tevez shot wide from Park ji-Sung's right wing cross and Tim Howard later had to save smartly from a deflected free kick from the Argentine star. United manager Alex Ferguson was delighted with yet another clean sheet and the three points. \"It's a fantastic performance from the boys. I couldn't believe it when I read that the last goal we conceded was against Arsenal in October,\" he told Setanta Sports. \"Van der Sar brings calmness and assurance. Over the last 12 games we have changed the back four I don't know how many times so you have to give great credit to them.\"","highlights":"Record breaker Edwin van der Sar has now kept 12 clean sheets for United .\n1-0 win over sixth-placed Everton sees United go five points clear in Premier League .\nClosest rivals Chelsea and Liverpool play each other in title showdown on Sunday ."} -{"article":"(This Old House) -- Unless you're a perfect caretaker of your lawn (and, really, who is?), prepare for another round in the turf wars this summer. You'll have to deal with a full frontal assault from the dandelions, of course. And an attack from the crabgrass. But you'll face more stealthy opponents, too: root-chomping grubs and microscopic mildew that turn the grass from green to gray or brown. \"If a lawn is neglected, or cared for in a hit-or-miss way, it gets weak,\" says This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook. \"And that's when weeds, insects, or fungal diseases become a major problem.\" Little wonder that last year almost 50 million homeowners bought products to fight these invaders. But as in most battles, the best defense is a strong offense: doing everything right to cultivate healthy turf. That means giving it up to an inch and a half of water per week; aerating and dethatching annually so water and nutrients can get down to the roots; mowing with a sharp blade to the right height (ask your local garden center what's best where you live); and fertilizing in spring and fall. So promise yourself -- and your turf -- you'll do that this year. In the meantime, here's how to conquer the most common turf problems you're likely to confront this summer. Fungal disease . Symptoms: Circular patches of yellow-to-brown grass; or blades with tiny red threads. Culprits: Powdery mildew, brown patch, dollar spot, and fusarium patch; or red thread. These fungal diseases can take hold of stressed turf. Solutions: Though lawns will generally recover from small areas of infection, if a fungus is progressively marching across your yard, look for a fungicide with the active ingredient thiophanate-methyl and follow the directions. For an organic fix, search out a corn-gluten mix that will cure brown patch and weaken most other fungi. Then nurse your lawn back to health by practicing good lawn-care habits: Avoid excessive shade (prune back trees and large shrubs, if necessary) and too many applications of fertilizer, herbicides, or pesticides. Carefully monitor your turf's moisture intake and never water in the evening. Weeds . Symptoms: Fast-growing and unruly greenery that quickly overtakes surrounding grass. This Old House: What type of grass is right for your yard . Culprits: Crabgrass or broadleaf weeds such as dandelion, purslane, henbit, and chickweed that commonly pop up where soil is compacted and grass hasn't completely taken root. To check for compacted soil, stick a screwdriver into the ground; it should slide in easily. Solutions: The first step is to eradicate any foreign invaders. The best approach is to pull them out by hand using a weeder or a hoe. This will also loosen the soil in affected areas. Or use a liquid herbicide in a hand sprayer to spot-treat an infestation. If weeds are too plentiful to be pulled, check your garden center for a \"weed-and-feed\" blend of granular fertilizer and herbicide that will kill weeds without harming turf types commonly grown in your area, or look for an organic fertilizer with corn gluten. Be sure to follow the directions on the box exactly, as some formulas must be applied during a dry spell or need a 24-hour breather with no foot traffic. From here on out, mow up to twice a week during the beginning of summer when grass grows swiftly, and raise the mower blade an inch during hot or dry periods. Water well as the summer heats up, and your turf should naturally overtake the weeds. In the fall, open up compacted soil poke holes with a pitchfork over a small yard, or rent a power aerator for large yards and overseed the lawn. You may want to follow up with a pre-emergent herbicide next spring. Insects . Symptoms: Brown turf that becomes loose enough to lift like a mat. Culprits: White grubs, a catch-all name for root-chomping beetle larvae, including june bugs, Japanese beetles, and masked chafers. To be sure that's what you've got, cut a square foot of infected turf and roll it back, looking for pale, half-inch- to inch-long C-shaped bugs. If you find more than six, treat the turf. This Old House: Meet the good bugs . Solutions: Grubs are the biggest threat to lawns, and pesticides formulated with imidacloprid are proven effective. For an organic fix, spread powdered milky spore or lay down beneficial nematodes-microscopic worms that will feed on the grubs if they're present. With nematodes, timing the application with their life cycle is critical, so be sure to follow the directions on the box exactly. Both milky spore and nematodes can be ordered from some garden centers or online (gardensalive.com). Symptoms: Irregular-shaped patches of brownish-yellow grass. Culprits: Chinch bugs, gray-black, quarter-inch-long insects that suck moisture from grass and are most likely to attack St. Augustine and zoysia grasses in the South and Kentucky bluegrass in the North. To spot them, bury an empty coffee can, with both ends removed, at the edge of the affected area and fill it with water. The bugs will seek out the moisture, then float to the top. If you see more than 10 after 20 minutes, you should address the problem. Solutions: Chinch bugs live on the surface, among thatch, so dethatching will reduce their numbers. To eradicate them completely, look for an appropriate insecticide with a pyrethroid ingredient. Longer-term, overseed with chinch-bug-resistant grasses. Symptoms: Patches of thin lawn with blades chewed off at the base. Culprits: Sod webworms and tropical sod webworms, hairless cream-to-gray spotted caterpillars that grow into small, buff-colored moths at maturity. The tropical species that thrive in warm southern climates cause the most harm. To check for webworms, mix two tablespoons of mild detergent with two gallons of water; pour it over the infested turf. Any larvae will float to the top. Solutions: You can try flooding your lawn to drown them. Or choose an appropriate insecticide; in an organic product, look for the ingredients azadirachtin or spinosad. With extreme cases of tropical webworm infestation you may need to replace the turf with a resistant grass mix. TIP: If dogs regularly make a pit stop of your lawn, keep a hose or water bucket nearby. Dog urine is high in nitrogen, which can \"burn\" turf, creating a good-sized yellow patch. The best fix is immediate action: Flush the area ASAP with water to dilute it. Once badly burned, grass won't come back on its own-you'll have to rake out the dead stuff and reseed. This Old House: What to do when your yard is bowser's bathroom E-mail to a friend . Get 2 Free Trial Issues . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2008 THIS OLD HOUSE VENTURES, INC.","highlights":"A good corn-gluten mix cures brown patches and weakens most fungi .\nBrown patches are often indicative of bug problems .\nDog urine is high is nitrogen, so flush affected areas with water ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov will be free to launch his competitive comeback before the end of next month following a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling in Switzerland on Tuesday. Kazakh rider Vinokourov will be free to resume competitive cycling before the end of next month. Vinokourov was originally suspended for one year by his federation (KCF) after the pre-race favorite was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping. The International Cycling Union (UCI) disputed the length of the ban which should have been for two years under their rules. Parties involved agreed the issue should go to arbitration and Vinokourov, who 'retired' after being banned, has now been told his ban will be for two years. This year's Tour de France runs from July 4-26 while Vinokourov has been told by CAS he can resume competitive action two days before the race ends in Paris. Vinokourov has said he wants to launch a comeback, preferably with Astana alongside Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador. \"My dream would be to win the world championship and wear the rainbow shirt for my last year in 2010,\" he said last month. Swiss-based CAS issued its preliminary decision in the arbitration between the UCI, Vinokourov and the KCF in a Web site statement on Tuesday . CAS said: \"The decision adopted on 5 December 2007 by the Anti-Doping Commission of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation is set aside. \"Mr Vinokurov committed an anti-doping rule violation under Articles 15.2 of the Anti-Doping Regulations of the Union Cycliste Internationale and, according to Articles 261, 268 and 275 of the Anti-Doping Regulations, is declared ineligible for a period of two years commencing on 24 July 2007. \"Mr Vinokurov will be eligible to compete in international competitions as of 24 July 2009.\"","highlights":"Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov is told his doping ban is for two years .\nPre-race favorite was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping .\nBanned for year by Federation, Vinokourov can resume cycling on July 24 ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Internet sensation Susan Boyle came up short, coming in second during \"Britain's Got Talent\" finale on Saturday. Fans cheering on Susan Boyle react after she comes in second during \"Britain's Got Talent.\" Boyle was upset by winner Diversity, a 10-person dance group from Essex and East London, England, ranging in age from 12 to 25 years old. The group won 100,000 British pounds ($161,000) and will perform for Queen Elizabeth II in the Royal Variety Show. \"The best people won,\" Boyle said. The dancers appeared shocked Saturday when it was announced that they had won. The group was formed in 2007, and in the same year won the United Kingdom Dance Championships. The group's choreographer \"tries to create a dance style that is eye-catching and entertaining\" and uses films such as 2007's \"Transformers\" for inspiration, the show's site said. Boyle wowed the crowd Saturday night with an encore performance of the song that first made her so famous around the world -- \"I Dreamed a Dream,\" from the musical \"Les Miserables.\" After her performance Saturday, the crowd and judges gave Boyle, who wore a floor-length gown, a standing ovation. Boyle finishes second \u00bb . \"You had the nerve to come back here tonight, face your critics and beat them,\" judge Simon Cowell told her. \"You did it.\" Boyle had vowed to leave the television show before the finale, after a hectic week, but recanted and performed at the finale Saturday. The 48-year-old Scottish singer wowed audiences and judges during her audition in April when she belted out \"I Dreamed a Dream.\" Her performance earned her a string of global television appearances. During the semifinals Sunday, she started off by missing the first note of her performance of \"Memory\" from the musical, \"Cats.\" Watch Boyle's semifinal performance \u00bb . She redeemed herself to earn a standing ovation and a spot in Saturday's finale. The global fame and the \"odd bit of negative press\" in the past week have been too overwhelming for her, judge Piers Morgan told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Friday. \"She's just had a pretty rough week because I think the full enormity of what has happened to her is beginning to hit home,\" Morgan said. \"Earlier this week, she had a lot of tears. ... At one stage, she was going to leave the show. So, fortunately, we've calmed everything down.\" Watch how Boyle may be feeling the pressure \u00bb . Boyle said that that she has put the tumultuous week behind her and is getting ready for the finale. \"It's all I've been thinking about,\" she said on the show's Web site. \"I'm not going to throw away my big chance now.\" \"Britain's Got Talent\" defended Boyle on its Web site, saying that media reports of an emotional outburst \"have been taken out of context.\" The unemployed charity worker has inspired millions in the face of pop music's penchant for pre-processed princesses. Before she sang during her audition, the unassuming single woman with a loose mop of curly hair drew snickers from the audience, including notoriously hard-to-please judge Simon Cowell. The scowls and eye-rolling were replaced by wild cheers as soon as she sang the first line. Cowell later apologized for poking fun at her during the auditions stage. \"You are one special lady,\" he said last week. \"You really are.\" Reporters made their way to her quiet home in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, much to Boyle's great surprise. \"I keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, because you have to,\" Boyle told CNN last month. Asked what has been the most surprising change since her audition, she responded simply -- \"The way everyone seems to have embraced me. The way they seem to have apparently fallen in love with me.\"","highlights":"NEW: 10-person dance group Diversity seemed shocked to win \"Britain's Got Talent\"\n48-year-old Internet sensation Susan Boyle came in second .\nShow judge Piers Morgan says Boyle thought about leaving show after rough week .\nSinger catapulted into media spotlight after her audition wowed audiences worldwide ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Kellogg Co. announced Wednesday it is recommending that consumers not eat its peanut butter crackers because they may be tainted with salmonella. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The products affected are Austin- and Keebler-branded: . -- Toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers. -- Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. The Michigan-based maker of cereals and snacks posted the recommendation in a statement on its Web site. Peanut butter produced by Peanut Corporation of America, one of several peanut butter suppliers to the company, has been linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that has affected at least 434 people in 43 states, federal health officials said Wednesday. \"Kellogg Company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the company received any consumer illness complaints about these products,\" the Kellogg statement said. \"Nonetheless, Kellogg Company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of PCA and Kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue.\" All of the company's peanut-butter crackers are made at its bakery in Cary, North Carolina, said spokeswoman Kris Charles. Though consumers are urged \"to hold the product until we have more information,\" Charles recommended anyone seeking a refund call 888.314.2060 for details about how to get one.","highlights":"Some types of Austin- and Keebler-branded sandwich crackers affected .\nOne of its peanut butter suppliers has been linked to outbreak of salmonella .\nKellogg says warning is strictly precautionary; no incidents of illness reported .\nOutbreak of salmonella poisoning has affected at least 434 people in 43 states ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Carly Fiorina is chief executive of Carly Fiorina Enterprises and former chief executive of HP. She was an adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year. Carly Fiorina says outrage at Wall St. pay is justified but salaries shouldn't be set by government. (CNN) -- Americans are outraged over excessive CEO pay and perks. That outrage is justified, particularly when American taxpayers are footing the bill. Our capitalist system works best when there is transparency and accountability. There has been too little of both on Wall Street. Inevitably, the president and Congress are now attempting to respond to taxpayer anger and restore some \"common sense,\" as President Obama recently declared, to CEO compensation. The proposed solution caps top executive pay at $500,000 for institutions that have received bailout money. I don't think this is the answer, although it is an understandable reaction. It's arbitrary: Why not $400,000 or $600,000? It's incomplete. It only applies to institutions that will receive more government assistance going forward. And it doesn't strengthen our economy when government decides how much each job is worth. In America we leave that job to markets. So what's the answer? To strengthen transparency, all aspects of CEO pay and perks should be fully disclosed on a regular basis. This should include airplanes, cars, golf-club memberships, bonuses, stock options, retirement plans and salaries -- in short everything that a common-sense person would consider part of a CEO reward package. See Fiorina discuss exec pay, including her own \u00bb . To strengthen accountability, all aspects of CEO compensation should be voted on by shareholders on an annual basis. Ultimately, it is the owners of a company who must determine whether a CEO's rewards are justified by a CEO's performance. And because the American taxpayer is now a partial owner in many companies, the government can get a vote as well -- in some cases a very sizeable vote. In addition, \"clawback provisions,\" which require a CEO to return compensation to shareholders if promised results aren't delivered, should be standard fare. Finally, when a company comes to Washington for American taxpayer money, it is an admission that mistakes have been made and major bets have failed. These CEOs should be prepared to tender their resignations and those of their boards. To earn a bailout, a CEO and board should be held accountable. We should not weaken our economy while trying to fix it. These are difficult times. President Obama has described our current situation as a \"crisis\" and an impending \"catastrophe.\" In such times, action is required. The key is to take actions that help in the short-term, while also being sensible for the medium and long-term. Too often our politicians react to crisis and public anger by over-reaching, and they create new, unforeseen problems that only become clear with the passage of time. In this country, the opportunity to be rewarded for taking prudent risk is fundamental to our economic vitality and strength. Let's not lose that fundamental principle in our outrage over Wall Street greed and excess. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Carly Fiorina.","highlights":"Carly Fiorina: It's understandable that people are outraged at Wall St. pay .\nFiorina says government shouldn't set limits on executive compensation .\nShe says all aspects of pay and perks should be disclosed .\nFiorina: Shareholders, including government, should vote on pay packages ."} -{"article":"AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- The Austrian who reportedly admitted holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering seven children with her will plead insanity, his lawyer said. Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children. Attorney Rudolf Mayer said he believed 73-year-old Josef Fritzl had a mental disorder, The Associated Press reported. Mayer said someone who was mentally ill \"didn't choose\" to do what police allege he did. Mayer said Fritzl would be confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a prison if he was certified as insane and convicted, AP reported. Police said last week that Fritzl had confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a secret cellar dungeon in his home, fathering seven children with her and burning the body of one who died in infancy in a furnace. Meanwhile, Fritzl's sister-in-law has said his wife did not know her daughter was held captive in their basement for decades because she had been trained not to ask questions under her husband's tyrannical rule of the household, . \"He was such a tyrant,\" said the woman identified only as Christine R. in a Saturday interview conducted and translated by AP. \"He tolerated no dissent,\" Christine R. added. \"Listen, if I was scared myself -- I was scared of him at a family party and I did not feel confident to say anything in any form that could possibly offend him -- then you can imagine how it was for a woman who spent so many years with him.\" Watch what the sister-in-law has to say \u00bb . In the televised interview, Christine R. added detail to the bizarre story of 73-year-old Fritzl who was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter captive in a dungeon under the home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven kids -- with six of them surviving. Christine R. also said Fritzl committed an unrelated rape in 1967, served 18 months in prison for that crime and that her sister continued to stay married to him in a desperate attempt to keep their family together. Recent media reports also claimed Fritzl had been convicted of rape. Austrian police have said they are looking into the claims. The horrifying story has shocked many locally and across the world. On Sunday, members of the Amstetten religious community held a Mass to remember Fritzl's family. After the Mass, members of the church signed a banner outside a church in support of the victims. Watch church members sign the banner \u00bb . The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel two weeks ago, when Fritzl's daughter, Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions and was hospitalized. The 19-year-old girl, who had been locked in the basement her entire life along with her mother and two brothers, was in an artificially induced coma in an Amstetten clinic. She was suffering from a kidney ailment that worsened because she did not receive medial treatment sooner, authorities said. Watch how Fritzl led double life \u00bb . Fritzl told his wife that their daughter Elisabeth, who is now 42, ran away from home at age 18. The couple adopted three of the children who Josef said were left on their doorstep as infants by his runaway daughter. In the interview Christine R. said her sister, Rosemarie, truly thought that her daughter had ran away to join a cult. \"She never believed him being capable of it,\" said Christine R. \"We were all taken in by him and believed that she (referring to Elizabeth), was in a cult and that she wouldn't come out.\" It may have been Fritzl's strict rule over the household that made it possible for him to keep his gruesome secret hidden for so long, Christine R. said. The unspeakable ordeal has taken a toll on the whole family, Christine R. said, stating that she spoke to her sister on the phone recently. \"Five or six days after Kerstin went to the hospital I called my sister and asked her how the girl was doing,\" Christine R. said. \"She said that she herself was doing badly, and the girl herself was doing badly and she wished with all of her heart that the girl would pull through.\" Fritzl is being held in police custody. He has yet to be charged, but he can be held by police for 14 days without formal charges while the investigation is under way. That amount of time can be extended by a judge. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Lawyer of Austrian incest suspect says his client has a mental disorder .\nFritzl imprisoned and raped daughter, also fathered her children, police say .\nWife of Josef Fritzl was too scared to question him, her sister says .\nFritzl's wife focused on keeping family healthy, according to her sister ."} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Record the CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Notes from North Korea when it airs commercial-free on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.) Program Overview . CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour travels to North Korea as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra makes a historic visit to one of the world's most closed societies. She examines the tense standoff with the U.S. over nuclear weapons and provides a rare look inside a notorious, top-secret nuclear facility. Grade Levels: 9 -- 12, College . Subject Areas: U.S. History, World History, Current Events, Political Science, Government . Objectives . The CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Notes from North Korea and its corresponding discussion questions and suggested activities challenge students to: . Curriculum Connections . Social Studies . Standard VI. Power, Authority, and Governance: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/strands\/) are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/ncss.org\/). United States History . Standard 27. Understands how the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics . Level IV [Grade 9-12] . Benchmark 1. Understands U.S. foreign policy from the Truman administration to the Johnson administration . Standard 30. Understands developments in foreign policy and domestic politics between the Nixon and Clinton presidencies . Level IV [Grade 9-12] . Benchmark 5. Understands the influence of U.S. foreign policy on international events from Nixon to Clinton . Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education (Copyright 2000 McREL) is published online by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) (http:\/\/www.mcrel.org\/standards-benchmarks ), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO 80014; Telephone: 303\/337-0990. World History . Standard 44. Understands the search for community, stability, and peace in an interdependent world . Level IV [Grade 9-12] . Benchmark 11. Understands common arguments of opposition groups in various countries around the world, common solutions they offer, and the position of these ideas with regard to Western economic and strategic interests . Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education (Copyright 2000 McREL) is published online by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) (http:\/\/www.mcrel.org\/standards-benchmarks ), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO 80014; Telephone: 303\/337-0990. Civics . III. How Does The Government Established By The Constitution Embody The Purposes, Values, And Principles Of American Democracy? 4. Major responsibilities of the national government in domestic and foreign policy . IV. What Is The Relationship Of The United States To Other Nations And To World Affairs? 1. Nation-states . 2. Interactions among nation-states . 4. The historical context of United States foreign policy . 5. Making and implementing United States foreign policy . 6. The ends and means of United States foreign policy . 7. Impact of the American concept of democracy and individual rights on the world . The National Standards for Civics and Government (http:\/\/www.civiced.org\/index.php?page=stds) are published by the Center for Civic Education (http:\/\/www.civiced.org\/). Discussion Questions . 1. Who is the leader of North Korea? According to the report, how do North Koreans regard this leader? What aspects of his personality are revealed in the program? 2. According to the program, North Korea is a \"closed society.\" What does this mean? 3. How does the report describe the history of U.S.-North Korea relations? According to the report: What tensions currently exist between these two nations? What humanitarian and political concerns exist in North Korea? 4. Why do you think that North Korea invited the New York Philharmonic to play, and decided to open the Yongbyon nuclear facility to the media at this point in time? Why are these events historically and politically significant? 5. Who is Madeline Albright? When and where did she meet with Kim Jong-Il? How does she describe her visit with Kim Jong-Il? Why does Albright say that she is not surprised that Kim Jong-Il chose the New York Philharmonic for this \"cultural overture\"? 6. According to the report, why is the division of Korea an emotional issue for many Koreans? Who are Kim Cho Wun and Ji Hae Nam? To what countries did they defect, and why did they flee North Korea? What risks and sacrifices do you think that they assumed when they chose to defect? 7. According to the report: Why did New York Philharmonic President Zarin Mehta accept North Korea's invitation to play? Why was this performance controversial? What logistical hurdles did Mehta have to overcome to execute the trip? 8. What were some of the pieces of music that the New York Philharmonic played during its concert? Which of these pieces, if any, do you think were politically significant? Explain. If you were choosing the music for this performance, what pieces would you have selected, and why? 9. Following the concert, North Korea's nuclear negotiator, Minister Kim Gye Gwan, was quoted as saying that the concert was \"a political breakthrough; an act of courage by both nations.\" What do you think that he means? Do you agree with the minister? Why or why not? 10. What is \"cultural diplomacy\"? How do you think that cultural diplomacy differs from other forms of diplomacy? Give examples. According to U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, why is \"people-to-people diplomacy\" important to the future of U.S.-North Korea relations? 11. According to Amanpour, to what extent did the New York Philharmonic's concert impact U.S-North Korea relations? In your view, what actions, if any, might these two nations take to build upon the goodwill that was generated by the concert? 12. What did CNN's Christiane Amanpour observe during her visit to the Yongbyon nuclear facility? What impact, if any, do you think that this visit will have on U.S.-North Korea relations? 13. In your opinion, should the U.S. fulfill its commitment to remove North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism? State your rationale. 14. Prior to viewing this program, what preconceived notions, if any, did you have about North Korea? To what extent did Amanpour's report challenge or reinforce these perceptions? Explain. Suggested Activity . Point out to students that towards the end of World War II, Korea was divided by the Soviet Union and the United States at the 38th parallel, and that by 1948, North and South Korea had become independent nations. Generate a class discussion about students' knowledge of North Korea. Next, refer students to online resources to learn more about North Korea. Use the following questions to guide their research: . After students present their findings, ask: Do you think that peace talks between North and South Korea could benefit the two nations, as well as the international community? Explain. Given the cultural diplomacy represented by the New York Philharmonic's trip to Pyongyang, what do you think should be the next step in relations between the U.S. and North Korea? Challenge each student to write a brief for a North Korean, South Korean or an American diplomat that outlines a strategy for addressing the existing tensions among these parties. Have students present their documents to the class. Keywords . North Korea, Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il, secret state, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Yongbyon nuclear facility, defect, diplomacy, negotiations, United Nations .","highlights":"Examine the history of U.S.-North Korea relations .\nLearn about the New York Philharmonic's historic concert in Pyongyang .\nExamine North Korea's standoff with the U.S. over nuclear weapons ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian newspapers, an archbishop and civil liberties campaigners expressed shock and revulsion on Monday after photographs were published of sunbathers apparently enjoying a day at the beach just meters from where the bodies of two drowned Roma girls were laid out on the sand. Photographs of the dead Roma girls on a beach caused outrage in Italy. Italian news agency ANSA reported that the incident had occurred on Saturday at the beach of Torregaveta, west of Naples, southern Italy, where the two girls had earlier been swimming in the sea with two other Roma girls. Reports said they had gone to the beach to beg and sell trinkets. Local news reports said the four girls found themselves in trouble amid fierce waves and strong currents. Emergency services responded 10 minutes after a distress call was made from the beach and two lifeguards attended the girls upon hearing their screams. Two of them were pulled to safety but rescuers failed to reach the other two in time to save them. Watch why the photos have generated anger \u00bb . The Web site of the Archbishop of Naples said the girls were cousins named Violetta and Cristina, aged 12 and 13. Their bodies were eventually laid out on the sand under beach towels to await collection by police. Photographs show sunbathers in bikinis and swimming trunks sitting close to where the girls' feet can be seen poking out from under the towels concealing their bodies. A photographer who took photos at the scene told CNN the mood among sunbathers had been one of indifference. Other photos show police officers lifting the bodies into coffins and carrying them away past bathers reclined on sun loungers. \"While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away,\" Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported. Corriere della Sera said that a crowd of curious onlookers that had formed around the bodies quickly dispersed. \"Few left the beach or abandoned their sunbathing. When the police from the mortuary arrived an hour later with coffins, the two girls were carried away between bathers stretched out in the sun.\" The incident also attracted condemnation from the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crecenzio Seppe. \"Indifference is not an emotion for human beings,\" Seppe wrote in his parish blog. \"To turn the other way or to mind your own business can sometimes be more devastating than the events that occur.\" Recent weeks have seen heightened tensions between Italian authorities and the country's Roma minority amid a crackdown by Silvo Berlusconi's government targeting illegal immigrants and talk by government officials of a \"Roma emergency\" that has seen the 150,000-strong migrant group blamed for rising street crime. That has provided justification for police raids on Roma camps and controversial government plans to fingerprint all Roma -- an act condemned by the European Parliament and United Nations officials as a clear act of racial discrimination. Popular resentment against Romanies has also seen Roma camps near Naples attacked and set on fire with petrol bombs by local residents. In a statement published on its Web site, the Italian civil liberties group EveryOne said Saturday's drowning had occurred in an atmosphere of \"racism and horror\" and cast doubt on the reported version of events, suggesting that it appeared unusual for the four girls to wade into the sea, apparently casting modesty aside and despite being unable to swim. \"The most shocking aspect of all this is the attitude of the people on the beach,\" the statement said. \"No one appears the slightest upset at the sight and presence of the children's dead bodies on the beach: they carry on swimming, sunbathing, sipping soft drinks and chatting.\" CNN's Jennifer Eccleston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Italian outrage over photos of sunbathers at a beach where two Roma girls drowned .\nPhotos showed girls' bodies lying on sand covered in beach towels .\nNewspapers report beach goers eating lunch, sun bathing as bodies carried away .\nIncident occurred amid heightened tensions between authorities, Roma minority ."} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Prosecutors in Florida are taking a new look at the 2007 death of Anna Nicole Smith to see if recent evidence that California investigators gathered might cause them to open an inquiry. Prosecutors in Florida are reviewing evidence gathered in California for a probe into Anna Nicole Smith's death. Howard K. Stern -- Smith's longtime partner and attorney -- and two doctors were charged this month in California with conspiring to furnish drugs to Smith before her fatal overdose. \"Our prosecutors have met with representatives of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the California Department of Justice and discussed the evidence they have turned up in their investigation,\" said Ron Ishoy, a spokesman for Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz. \"We are now examining that evidence to see where it might lead in relation to Ms. Smith's death here in Broward County in 2007.\" The Broward County state attorney's office never opened a probe into Smith's death but assisted the Seminole police in its investigation in the days afterward. Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8, 2007, after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Hollywood, Florida. A coroner said she died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Officials said both prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three anti-depressant or anti-anxiety drugs. Human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, also were found in toxicology tests, officials said. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor were charged in California with several felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007 -- only weeks before Smith's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich also were charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" And each was charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, prosecutors said. \"Anna was the center of a cruel tabloid feeding frenzy,\" Eroshevich's attorney, Adam Braun, told CNN in a statement after his client was charged. \"In the face of this, Dr. Eroshevich did her best to help the patient while protecting what little privacy Anna had left. Any actions were done with the patient's well-being in mind and were certainly not criminal.\" Watch allegations over photos and the doctor \u00bb . California Attorney General Jerry Brown said the doctors and Stern devised a plan to use fake names so Smith could be prescribed \"thousands of pills.\" The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star was drugged \"almost to the point of stupefaction,\" Brown said. \"The quantity of the drugs, the variety of the drugs, the combination at any given point, and her continuing to use that -- that, to a professional, is clear evidence of addiction,\" Brown said Friday. \"These cocktails of methadone and anti-depressants and sleeping pills and Xanax, you put all that into a cocktail, it explodes and can cause death, injury and permanent morbidity and disability.\"","highlights":"Broward County, Florida, prosecutors taking new look at death of Anna Nicole Smith .\nEx-Playboy playmate found dead in Florida hotel room in February 2007 .\nCoroner: Smith died of accidental overdose of prescription drugs .\nSmith's boyfriend, two doctors charged recently in California drug case ."} -{"article":"BUNNELL, Florida (CNN) -- Faith Coleman had no health insurance when she learned she had cancer, but she describes her battle with the illness as \"one of the absolute greatest blessings\" of her life. Faith Coleman's ordeal as an uninsured cancer patient drove her to help others without health insurance. \"Having kidney cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to me ... because I can truly empathize with patients,\" said Coleman, 54. That compassion inspired Coleman to open a free clinic in her Florida community to help other uninsured people in need of medical care. In July 2003, Coleman, a nurse practitioner, learned she had a malignant tumor growing on her right kidney. But as a contract worker for several doctors, she did not receive health insurance. Coleman's treatment totaled about $35,000, and she was forced to take out a mortgage on her house to help pay for it. \"I [fell] through the crack ... and I [had] a great job and a good education,\" said Coleman, a mother of six. Realizing that her financial and health woes were not unique, Coleman -- now in remission -- became determined to help those in similar situations access medical treatment. \"I have been given another chance, and I felt that it was important for me to make a difference and to help other people,\" she said. So after her recovery in 2004, Coleman approached Dr. John Canakaris. The local physician with 60 years of experience had been treating the indigent population for years. Canakaris was eager to reach more patients in need. The two worked together to establish the Flagler County Free Clinic in Bunnell, Florida, which provides medical care for the uninsured. It has treated more than 6,700 patients. The clinic opened its doors in February 2005, with eight volunteers treating eight patients. Since then, it has expanded to 120 volunteers who see about 80 patients every other weekend. Coleman said she's seen an increase in the number of patients at the clinic, which serves people who meet federal poverty guidelines. \"If you see 100 cars in the parking lot, that's us!\" Coleman said, describing how she tells people the way to find the clinic. \"We have what I call 'controlled chaos.' It's just busy, busy, busy, go, go, go.\" Watch the \"controlled chaos\" at the clinic \u00bb . Health insurance: 'Nebulous, fairy-like thing' Flagler County has a 15.5 percent unemployment rate -- the highest in Florida -- according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Living without medical insurance often is the only way for some local struggling families to make ends meet, Coleman said. \"When your health insurance [premium] is the same or more than your mortgage payment on your home, which one do you think they're going to choose?\" Coleman asked. \"They have to live. They have to eat. Insurance becomes the nebulous fairy-like thing that's flying around out here. It would be nice to have because it's silver and shiny and pretty, but it's too expensive to hold on to. So it has to go,\" she said. The clinic, which operates out of a building donated by Canakaris and other doctors for use on the weekends, is not affiliated with any hospitals, Coleman said. The local Rotary Club, churches and private contributions help fund the operation. In addition, physicians volunteer to see patients recommended by the clinic, and an imaging center donates two X-rays and two CAT scans per month. Coleman says she and her team generally treat common illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases, but adds \"we've also found a lot of cancers.\" Many diagnoses have led to life-saving treatments. Watch Coleman interact with patients at her clinic \u00bb . \"I had this lump growing in my throat on the right side and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I didn't have any insurance,\" said Franklin Dias, a cancer survivor. \"Ms. Coleman called in one of her buddies who said this is an emergency ... [then] I was in the hospital.\" Today, Dias is cancer-free. And to show his appreciation of the clinic, he bakes. \"I paid them in banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread,\" Dias said. Emilio Viera, a Cuban immigrant, also credits Coleman with saving his life. \"She was perfect, she was precise, she was accurate,\" said Viera. \"I'll be very grateful all my life to Ms. Coleman. She's 'Faith,' and when you have five minutes with her she makes you have faith.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Flagler County Free Clinic and see how to help.","highlights":"Faith Coleman was uninsured when she found out she had kidney cancer .\nHer experience inspired her to help others with similar financial, health issues .\nShe co-founded a free clinic in Florida to help the uninsured access health care ."} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- An unopposed former Communist leader was elected Nepal's new prime minister Saturday, ending nearly three weeks of political uncertainty. Madhav Kumar Nepal waves at his supporters at the country's parliament in Kathmandu. Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) was the only person to serve as a candidate for the post after he received backing from more than 20 of the 25 parties in parliament. Nepal, 56, is a former general secretary of the Communist Party, but had resigned after the party made a poor showing last year against another Communist movement. In that vote, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party, with 38 percent of the seats in the 601-member constituent assembly which also functions as parliament. Nepal had been general secretary since 1993 and served as the country's deputy prime minister for nine months in 1995. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chairman, resigned as prime minister May 4 after the president overturned the Cabinet's decision to sack the army chief. Nepal became a republic last year. The new government has two important tasks before it: the writing of a new constitution within a year, and integration of 19,600 Maoist combatants into the security forces. Without the support of the former Maoist rebels, these tasks cannot be achieved. The Maoists fought a 10-year insurgency aimed at abolishing the monarchy.","highlights":"Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal was only candidate .\nNepal, 56, is a former general secretary of the Communist Party .\nPushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chairman, resigned as prime minister May 4 .\nFollowed president's decision to overturn Cabinet's sacking of army chief ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Humiliation and comedy have always been natural bedfellows, but the one doesn't guarantee the other, as poor Katherine Heigl discovers in this crude, sub-par stab at a modern screwball comedy. Katherine Heigl plays the sophisticated female boss of Gerard Butler in \"The Ugly Truth.\" The \"Grey's Anatomy\" and \"Knocked Up\" star plays Abby, a supposedly intelligent producer on a local Sacramento TV news show. We're repeatedly assured that she's good at her job, though there's little or no evidence for that in what we see, and apparently the ratings are in the toilet. That's why her boss drafts controversial cable clown Mike (Gerard Butler), whose bargain basement show \"The Ugly Truth\" gives viewers the real dope on the opposite sex. Mike's straight talk isn't exactly edifying -- or original. It boils down to this: men are only interested in one thing, and it's not your IQ score. His advice to women: swallow your pride -- and anything else that might come up. Abby is understandably skeptical, both professionally and personally, but the sweeps prove her wrong. Mike may be outrageous, but Sacramento loves him for it. A smarter comedy might make mischief from these base ingredients, the sophisticated female boss and her rude, reactionary star employee. But this movie, which is credited to three female screenwriters, bends over backward to accommodate Mike's tired old sexist world view and fails to be funny in the process. Abby really is a neurotic control freak, living alone with her cat and a checklist about what constitutes the perfect guy. And when a close approximation of the type moves in right next door (Eric Winton as a handsome young doctor), she only lands him by putting herself in Mike's hands: accentuating her cleavage, losing the ponytail and trading in dinner and an art show for a hot dog and a baseball game. Directed by Robert Luketic (\"Monster in Law\"), \"The Ugly Truth\" barely attempts to disguise its own lifts and tucks. The most craven of these gambits involves Abby going into multiple orgasm at a business dinner, a variation on Meg Ryan's famous scene in \"When Harry Met Sally,\" except that in Ryan's case, she was in full control, demonstrating her mastery of the fake-out. Abby, though, is sent into inadvertent paroxysms when the remote control of the vibrating panties she's wearing -- don't ask -- falls into the hands of a curious kid. Watch the stars describe the scene \u00bb . In other scenes, Heigl is caught hanging upside down from a tree in her nightgown, hiding in her office closet and furiously rubbing a stain out of the doctor's crotch in front of a stadium of ball fans. Presumably this is what picking up Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock's cast-offs entails these days. Katharine Hepburn would weep. But what about Mike? Surely he has lessons to learn and comic indignities to endure? Not so much. In contrast to Abby's makeover, he's allowed to be comfortable in his own rather corpulent skin. Gerard Butler evidently hasn't worked out since Sparta; heck, he hasn't even bothered to shave. You won't be surprised that the avowed bachelor boy falls in love with dear Abby. Of course he's a nice guy underneath. We know that from the way he looks out for his fatherless nephew. So what if he's a sexist pig? He's a sexy sexist pig, and obviously father material. What more could any woman want? \"The Ugly Truth\" is rated R and runs 97 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"The Ugly Truth\" is a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler .\nMovie bends over backward to accommodate a tired old sexist world view .\nFilm fails to be funny in the process ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Toney Dixon's fascination with dead bodies goes back to her childhood, when she would sneak around her uncle's funeral home and watch him prepare bodies. The bodies on display are plastinated, a process that replaces bodily fluids and fat with plastic. \"I found my heart racing,\" said Dixon, 67. \"But instead of being taken aback and terrified, I wanted to know more.\" Years later, Dixon's curiosity drew her and her twin sister, Erlyene Toney-Alvarez, to Body Worlds, an exhibit that shows preserved human specimens bisected and stripped of skin. \"It's like standing in the mirror and seeing yourself in a totally new way,\" said Dixon, the younger twin. The twins were so impressed that they signed up on the spot to donate their earthly remains to the exhibit, which is currently showing in the United States, Canada, England and Germany. With their signatures, the women joined a group of people who believe that having their bodies dissected, preserved and displayed will serve a greater purpose than burial or cremation. Body Worlds' donor program boasts about 800 people in North America and 8,600 worldwide. \"I thought, since I like to think outside the box, this would be a really good way to preserve our bodies instead of the typical funeral,\" Toney-Alvarez said. \"It's also something I can go to my death feeling good about, like I made a contribution to humankind.\" Individual Americans have had the right to bequeath their bodies to science since 1965, when the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act established the human body as property. With that law, a donor's wishes superseded those of the next of kin. But academics in the field of gross anatomy attribute recent increases in body donations to relaxed social mores, according to an article published by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Traditionally, medical schools have been the most common recipients of willed specimens in America. Then, in 1993, controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens emerged with an alternative. Von Hagens, a self-styled iconoclast who earned the moniker Dr. Frankenstein in Europe for performing a public dissection, invented plastination in the 1970s. See photos of the Body Worlds exhibit \u00bb . He spent the next few years popularizing and refining the process, which replaces bodily fluids and fat with plastic, earning equal shares of admiration and infamy. In 1993, von Hagens founded the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany, a research center that performs plastination and manages the Body Worlds exhibits. The Institute produces specimens for Body Worlds exhibits and academic institutions that pay anywhere from $200 to $60,000 for them. Von Hagens says he relies on donors not only as a source of specimens, but also as representations of Body Worlds' philosophy. \"I feel it is in line with democratic principles that you can decide in your lifetime whether to go to the cemetery or put yourself on display in an exhibition to teach the next generation,\" von Hagens said in a recent telephone interview. Von Hagens says the Body Worlds donor program distinguishes it from similar exhibitions that have used bodies of questionable origin. In a settlement with the New York State Attorney General's Office, Premier Exhibitions admitted that the specimens used in \"Bodies ... The Exhibit\" might be victims of torture or execution from Chinese prisons. The settlement requires that Premier Exhibitions obtain proof of donor consent for specimens used in its shows. The company has also set up a fund to compensate visitors to its New York show. Legislation is pending in several states that would require shows like Body Worlds to prove donor consent before they open. Von Hagens has weathered similar allegations over the years. He insists that the specimens in Body Worlds exhibits come from donors. He has done some plastination work on bodies from China at the request of medical schools and universities, but these bodies were not put on display. \"It is very, very important for the donors to know the purpose of the exhibit, that it is not entertainment, it is education and enlightenment,\" von Hagens said. \"I have to be in peace with those on display.\" The donors meet periodically at conferences, where they catch up with each other and with von Hagens. Recently, the sisters attended a donor conference in Los Angeles, California, with their mother, Irma Henry, who signed on in 1997. Marc Rohner donated his leg to Body Worlds because he wanted others to learn from it. \"What you see in a picture or on \"CSI\" does not do justice to what the real human body looks like or how it functions,\" said Rohner, whose leg was amputated in 2006 to remove a malignant giant cell tumor. \"By having a three-dimensional leg or black lung in front of you, you have areas of focus and details you can't see in a photo.\" With his donation, Rohner, a pathologist's assistant in Columbus, Ohio, became the first living person to give a body part to the Institute. Rohner acknowledges that the exhibits are not for everyone. Church groups in Europe have repeatedly denounced the shows as disrespectful, and skeptics around the world continue to question whether the Body Worlds specimens really are from legitimate sources. But Toney-Alvarez says she will visit Body Worlds, even if her mother and sister are on display. \"Once you have passed on, it's just a shell. The memories are in the heart and in the mind,\" she said.","highlights":"Body Worlds was created by Gunther von Hagens, who invented plastination .\nBody donor Toney Dixon says the exhibit is a didactic alternative to burial, cremation .\nAbout 800 people in North America are on donor list for Body Worlds .\nPurpose of the exhibit is education and enlightenment, von Hagens says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Will Michael Jackson stop the world? Fans have set up impromptu shrines to Michael Jackson, including this one at his family's house. Thousands are expected to swamp Los Angeles, California, to mourn him Tuesday at the Staples Center, and the accompanying media crush will be enormous. The tribute to the King of Pop at Harlem's Apollo Theater earlier this week drew coverage from all over the world, along with a public turnout in the thousands. Given the feverish interest in all things Jackson, the Los Angeles memorial could be one of the most-viewed events of all time. \"This will obviously be a huge media event, and with Web streams of the funeral, it may be impossible to say for sure how many people watched once all is said and done, because there's still no comprehensive way to measure Web viewing,\" said Toni Fitzgerald, of Media Life, in an e-mail interview. A handful of events have earned the kind of worldwide coverage to put the world on pause, if only for a moment. The 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy \"had the nation locked in a trance for two or three days,\" recalled TV critic Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com. The world audience for the Apollo 11 moon landing has been estimated in the hundreds of millions. The BBC estimated 2.5 billion people watched the 1997 funeral of Princess Diana. Watch Jermaine Jackson talk about his brother's legacy \u00bb . The numbers are easily exaggerated -- nobody knows how many people are watching in groups or in public places -- and the Web has complicated matters further. But in a multichannel, satellite TV, computer-and-cell phone world, the Jackson memorial could have an audience in the hundreds of millions. It was first believed the event would take place at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. But the family announced Thursday that it will hold a private ceremony Tuesday, and then a massive public memorial service at the Staples Center. Fans had until 6 p.m. Saturday to register for free tickets to the memorial service. Organizers used a computer to choose 8,750 names from 1.6 million who registered since Friday. Watch a tour of Neverland \u00bb . \"You have to go back to the Beatles, the death of John Lennon perhaps, and the death of Elvis Presley to find a comparable figure in, not just pop music, but pop culture,\" said Entertainment Weekly critic-at-large Ken Tucker. (EW, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.) \"And Jackson so self-consciously turned himself into not just an American pop icon but a global pop icon. I think this does have worldwide implications and interest.\" See how interest in Jackson's music has skyrocketed \u00bb . The circumstances of Jackson's death have led to comparisons with Presley's in 1977, but in terms of coverage, the two can't compare. The news wasn't even the top story on CBS' \"Evening News,\" Bark recalled, and there certainly wasn't wall-to-wall nationwide live coverage of his funeral. A public viewing drew about 30,000 fans; the funeral, two days after his death, was held in Graceland's living room. But Bark said there are parallels, at least in terms of coverage, with the Kennedy assassination. \"These days it's so much harder to get a bulk audience on any given venue the way the [broadcast networks] did back then, but still the enormity [of the event] -- it's the syndicated tabloid shows ... and TMZ and all the cable networks devoting lots of attention to it, [and] the broadcast networks can't seem to do enough specials in prime time,\" said Bark. \"I do think it's comparative but in a very different way.\" Officially, the sorts of events that have attracted the largest mass audiences have been scheduled entertainment or sports programs. Sixty percent of America watched the 1983 \"M*A*S*H\" finale; more than half watched the 1980 \"Who Shot J.R.\" episode of \"Dallas\" and the 1977 \"Roots\" conclusion. The Beatles' first appearance on \"The Ed Sullivan Show\" in 1964 drew about 45 percent of the country. The Super Bowl is routinely the year's most watched program, with audiences north of 80 million -- about 40 percent of U.S. television households. Although interest in Jackson has been high, the number of viewing choices (and, perhaps, the traditional decline in summer viewing) has kept the ratings for individual Jackson-oriented shows down. \"Jackson's death came up in just about every conversation I had from Thursday to Sunday, and yet only 5 million people tuned in to some of those broadcast specials,\" Media Life magazine's Fitzgerald observed. Still, the public memorial service might be different. \"I expect you'll see very big tune-ins on the cable news networks and on BET, if they cover it; they had huge numbers for their BET Awards focused on Jackson over the weekend,\" Fitzgerald said. The BET Awards was watched by 10.7 million, the most ever for a cable awards show. \"With the celebrity factor thrown into the funeral, who'll be there, who'll talk, I would guess tens of millions in the U.S. will watch it on TV,\" she said. It is certain is that the news media will be there in force. \"I guess we're all going to wait and see what the spectacle is,\" Bark said. \"There may be no precedent for this.\"","highlights":"Public memorial Tuesday could be one of the most-viewed events of all time .\nIt could have a television and online audience in the hundreds of millions .\nJackson's death has led to comparisons with Elvis Presley's death .\nOthers see parallels, at least in terms of coverage, with the Kennedy assassination ."} -{"article":"O'Fallon, Missouri (CNN) -- Nathan Halbach is 22, with a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. He knows that \"horrible stuff\" lies ahead. His mother, Pat Bond, has been taking care of him full time. But when she needed help, she reached out to the Roman Catholic Church. After all, his father is a priest. Nathan was born in 1986, during a five-year affair between his mother and Father Henry Willenborg, the Franciscan priest who celebrated Nathan's baptism. In a story first reported in the New York Times, it was revealed that The Franciscan Order drew up an agreement acknowledging the boy's paternity and agreeing to pay child support in exchange for a pledge of confidentiality. Now her son -- the youngest of four children -- may have just weeks to live. And when the Franciscans balked at paying for his care, she decided she was no longer bound by her pledge of confidentiality. \"I never asked for extraordinary amounts. I asked for the basic needs and care of my son,\" Bond told CNN's \"AC 360.\" But she said the church told her, \"No, we are not Nathan's biological father, we have no legal obligation to your son.\" Willenborg, whose priestly vows require celibacy, has been suspended from his most recent assignment, in northern Wisconsin, as Catholic leaders investigate allegations that he was involved with another woman -- then in high school -- around the same time he was seeing Bond. Willenborg has acknowledged his relationship with Bond, but denies any inappropriate relationship with the other woman while she was a minor, according to his current bishop. And his order acknowledges its agreement to support his son, telling CNN they have paid about $233,000 to support Nathan over his lifetime. Since the affair has become public, the Franciscan Order has agreed to pick up Nathan's medical bills and the costs for the funeral that now appears likely. Willenborg refused to speak to CNN. But a statement to his parishioners in Ashland, Wisconsin, in September, said, \"My failure to be faithful to my vows has caused me and many others pain and disappointment. I have regretted this for a long time.\" And in October, he told The New York Times, \"We've been very caring, very supportive, very generous over these 20-something years. It's very tragic what's going on with Nathan.\" Bond, then Patricia Halbach, said she and Willenborg began their affair in 1983. At the time, Willenborg was a priest in her hometown of Quincy, Illinois, about 130 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri. Bond, then a 27-year-old, married mother of three, went to a retreat for women with troubled relationships. Willenborg was the retreat's spiritual director, and she said he was a \"terrific\" priest -- \"incredibly charismatic, very sought-after.\" He began to counsel her on a regular basis. After about three months, at the end of one of their sessions, she said he kissed her. Bond said she went home and immediately asked her husband for a separation, and she said she began a romantic relationship with Willenborg. Bond said she knew he was forbidden to have sex with her. But she said when in love, \"You don't think clearly.\" \"I make stupid decisions in my life,\" she said. \"I am not perfect, far from sainthood, and I loved him.\" During their relationship, Bond was a lay leader in the church, and \"We were a very good team, a very dynamic team,\" she said. But in 1985, she learned she was pregnant. The pregnancy ended with a miscarriage that October. She said in its aftermath, she ended her sexual relationship with Willenborg, only to resume it the following spring. It was during that period that Nathan was conceived, she said. Nathan was born in December 1986. Willenborg had to disclose the affair and Bond's pregnancy to his superiors. A deal was negotiated by Father Robert Karris, who told CNN the Franciscans insisted on confidentiality \"to protect Nathan, his mother, and the priest.\" But Karris, now on the research faculty of the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York, also acknowledged the goal in part was to protect the church. The agreement was reached about a year after Nathan's birth. Afterward, Willenborg was removed from his job, and it was 17 years before he would lead a congregation again. He told his superiors that his relationship with Bond was over, but she said it continued. \"That was the statement, and they bought it,\" Bond said. \"But the truth of the matter is during those eight month of negotiations, we were living together physically, sexually and every form of relationship there was under their nose.\" The relationship went on until Nathan was nearly 2 years old, Bond said. She and Willenborg went on family outings, including a trip to Florida, with Nathan and her children from her previous marriage. Back in Quincy, where she grew up, Bond said she had a simple answer to questions about Nathan's parentage: \"He's my baby.\" But things ended in 1988, after Bond learned that Willenborg was seeing another woman. She eventually moved from Quincy to a St. Louis suburb. \"You had to go away, you had to take your story, you had to take your children, you had to get out of this town. We're a small community, everybody knew everybody,\" she said. Nathan grew up as a popular, athletic boy, a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club and the Blues hockey team. He has autographs of the entire hockey team and a Cardinals uniform signed by All-Star first baseman Albert Pujols. For years, he said, he wanted a relationship with his father. \"He's popped in and out of my life, but I've never gotten the full respect and love out of him that I would always want,\" he said. But several years ago, after Willenborg took him out to dinner on their first night out in years, he said his father didn't seem to want to have anything to do with him. \"When it comes to this person who's my dad, who should be helping me out more than a person on the street, he hasn't done so throughout my 20-plus years of life,\" Nathan said. Nathan was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. Over the summer, he and his mother went to New York's Sloan-Kettering cancer center in a last-ditch effort to halt the disease. It was unsuccessful, and doctors give him a prognosis of weeks. \"If I just live my life as happy as I can, I can have a lot of fun until this horrible stuff happens,\" he said. The church had paid for some medical expenses and gave her $1,000 toward travel expenses for the trip, but not room and board or treatment costs, Bond said. And in the past week, she said, the church was questioning the cost of a looming funeral. \"They were concerned with getting us out of their lives, and I guarantee you, the day my son goes, the church will rejoice,\" she said. Since she went public, the Franciscans wrote a letter to Bond telling her they will cover 100 percent of her son's funeral costs -- and added, \"Please advise if there is any additional assistance that the Franciscans can provide to Nathan at this time in connection with his day-to-day expenses and comfort.\" The order also has since said it will not take Bond to court for breaching the confidentiality of the agreement. For four years before September, Willenborg was a priest at Our Lady of the Lake church in Ashland, Wisconsin. Bishop Peter Christensen, whose diocese includes the church, said Willenborg was a good priest -- but added, \"Because of his behavior 23 years ago, the community is now suffering.\" Nathan will not be going back to the hospital and will die at home, Bond said. She can't afford a part-time nurse to help take care of him in his last days, but said she hopes the church lives up to its word.","highlights":"Nathan Halbach's father is the priest who baptized him, Henry Willenborg .\nNathan's mother made a confidential agreement with the church to keep Willenborg's identity secret .\nHis mother went public about the secret agreement after he contracted cancer ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama called his former Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, a hero at a bipartisan dinner Monday night and encouraged politicians to reach across the aisle. President-elect Barack Obama greets Sen. John McCain on stage after praising him at a bipartisan dinner. \"I could stand here and recite the long list of John's bipartisan accomplishments ...\" Obama said. \"Campaign finance reform. Immigration. The Patients' Bill of Rights. All those times he has crossed the aisle and risked the ire of his party for the good of his country. And yet, what makes John such a rare and courageous public servant is not the accomplishments themselves, but the true motivation behind them.\" McCain returned the gracious feelings at the dinner. \"I am very grateful to the president-elect and to all of you for this very considerate gesture, and for allowing me to play a small role in the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, even if it isn't the one I had in mind a few months ago,\" McCain said. \"Tomorrow, the President-elect will accept the burdensome privilege of leading America to its next accomplishments and its future greatness,\" McCain went on to say. \"He has my sincere best wishes for his success, and my promise of assistance. For his success will be our success.\" After praising McCain, Obama urged everyone to take the bipartisan dinner past \"just an inaugural tradition\" and turn it into a \"new way of doing the people's business in this city.\" \"We will not always agree on everything in the months to come, and we will have our share of arguments and debates,\" Obama said. \"But let us strive always to find that common ground, and to defend together those common ideals, for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now.\" On the eve of his inauguration, the president-elect even made time for a joke. \"I'm here tonight to say a few words about an American hero I have come to know very well and admire very much -- Sen. John McCain,\" Obama said as he opened his speech. \"And then, according to the rules agreed to by both parties, John will have approximately 30 seconds to make a rebuttal.\" Obama's speech at the bipartisan dinner capped a day filled by appearances, including visiting wounded soldiers and exhorting Americans to spend more time in the service of others. In Washington people took in the sights of pre-inauguration activities and concerts. \"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before,\" said Nancy Wigal, who lives in Vernon Square. \"People are walking lighter, standing taller and are reaching out to one another. It feels like hope. It feels like shared happiness.\" Wigal said Obama's inauguration has given residents hope that change actually will happen. \"It's all because of Obama -- we dare to feel positive that we may have actually elected a leader, not just a politician,\" she said. \"There are impromptu progressive dinner parties, cookouts and house parties. We finally feel like a real change has come to town.\" Obama began his day with a surprise visit to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He met with 14 patients injured in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Obama visited a National Day of Service project, stopping by the Sasha Bruce House, an emergency shelter for homeless teenagers in the Washington area. Watch Obama speak about service on the eve of his inauguration \u00bb . The shelter provides a variety of services, including counseling, job training, and substance abuse prevention assistance, for up to 15 teenagers at a time. Roughly 30 teenagers are spending the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday volunteering at the shelter by helping to renovate a dorm room. Obama rolled up his sleeves and pitched in during the visit, using a roller to help paint a couple of walls and a piece of furniture. He also quoted King to the teenagers, noting that \"everybody can be great [because] everybody can serve.\" \"Don't underestimate the power of people who join together to accomplish amazing things,\" Obama added. Given the crisis America is currently in, \"we can't allow any idle hands. Everybody's got to pitch in.\" Wigal said Obama's actions and words make her believe the president-elect has the skills needed to help the country move forward. \"Those of us who live and work here, who try to create, shape, influence and move policy forward, are feeling as if we can finally do something that'll result in forward motion,\" Wigal said. \"We believe we have a leader who listens to those who work the issues every day and know the real solutions.\" For Wigal, that's exactly what makes Inauguration Day so important. \"Tomorrow is going to be the biggest day in our country's history since its creation,\" she said. During Monday's activities Obama also cited the heroics of U.S. Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who safely landed a crippled commercial airliner in the Hudson River last Thursday, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. \"If everybody did their job as well as he did [his] job, we would be in pretty good shape,\" Obama said. Obama has personally invited Sullenberger to the inauguration. Obama later joined Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a high school where students were making blankets and greeting cards, among other things, for soldiers overseas. Speaking to the students, Obama again invoked King's memory, noting the slain civil rights leader had \"dedicated his life to working at the grassroots level ... on behalf of justice and equality.\" \"I am making a commitment to you, as your next president, that we are going to make government work,\" Obama said. But, he warned, \"government can only do so much. If we're just waiting around for someone else to do it for us ... it never gets done. We're going to have to take responsibility, all of us.\" Incoming first lady Michelle Obama, joined by Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president-elect, spent the morning at a separate volunteer service event at RFK Stadium, where people were assembling care packages for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is traditionally viewed as a day to encourage greater volunteerism.","highlights":"NEW: John McCain: President-elect \"has my sincere best wishes for his success\"\nBarack Obama praises Sen. John McCain's leadership at bipartisan dinner .\n\"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before,\" D.C. resident says .\nObama urges students to join him and take responsibility ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher could be set to make a shock return to Formula One as Ferrari look for a short-term replacement for the injured Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher remains very much part of the Ferrari set-up as an advisor for the Formula One team. The 28-year-old Brazilian is currently in intensive care at the AEK military hospital in Budapest after suffering a fractured skull in a freak accident in qualifying for Saturday's Hungarian Grand Prix. Massa's condition has improved in the past 24 hours with doctors taking him out of a medically-induced coma on Monday night. He has since responded well to questions and Peter Bazso, the medical director of the hospital, claimed on Tuesday morning that Massa might be able to walk out of the hospital in 10 days' time. Felipe Massa's crash in pictures. \u00bb . \"My expectation is that he would walk out of the hospital on his own. If his recovery continues, I wouldn't rule out that he could leave within 10 days,\" Bazso told Hungarian TV channel M1. \"He's spending more and more time awake, talking to family and friends. I would like to point out that, although he is recovering, this is not the end of the story, he is still in a life-threatening condition. Of course, the danger is decreasing by the day.\" While the news regarding Massa's condition continues to be encouraging, behind the scenes Ferrari are faced with the task of finding a replacement driver. Doctors have said Massa will be out for at least six weeks, although there are still fears he may never return as a result of his injuries. He will certainly miss the European and Belgian Grands Prix at the end of August, although the current four-week break before the next race in Valencia gives the Italian team time to assess their options. On the list of likely replacements could be Schumacher -- who won five of his drivers' titles with Ferrari and works as an advisor for the team. The 40-year-old German's representative Sabine Kehm told CNN: \"There is no offer from Ferrari, but if they decided they need him, Michael would certainly weigh his options.\" Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni later confirmed to the Press Association that Schumacher, who retired in 2006, was an option. \"We have said before that it is possible that Michael Schumacher could return to help us out,\" said Colajanni. \"However, we have two test drivers at Ferrari (Luca Badoer and Marc Gene) at the moment and Michael is an advisor. Does safety need to be improved in Formula One? \"We have not spoken to him and we will have to wait and see what happens. It is something for (Ferrari team principal) Stefano Domenicali to consider over the coming weeks. \"We need to see how Felipe is and the situation will evolve from there. We are not in any hurry, the first and foremost thing is Felipe's recovery.\" Colajanni also provided further encouraging news regarding Massa, although he played down Bazso's assertion that he could walk out of hospital as early as next week. \"I think that on Monday he improved a lot but we have to remain cautious,\" he said. \"It is not useful to put forecasts on these things. I think for the moment we should just enjoy the positive improvements that Felipe is making.\" Massa was hurt when a spring that had fallen from the back of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car struck him on the helmet at high-speed, causing him to lose control of his car and crash into a tire barrier. On Monday, Professor Robert Veres, the surgeon who operated on Massa over the weekend, told reporters that Massa had suffered some damage to his left eye, which could threaten his future in the sport. \"It's too early to say about his future as we don't know the extent of the damage. Without an operation it's very hard to evaluate the eye's function,\" said Vares. Massa's crash came less than a week after Formula Two driver Henry Surtees, the son of former world champion John Surtees, was killed in similar circumstances, knocked unconscious by a tire which flew off another car in a race at Brands Hatch in England, before crashing. Formula One's safety record has improved dramatically in recent years, with the last fatality in 1994 when the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna crashed at Imola.","highlights":"Michael Schumacher could be set to make a surprise return to Formula One .\nSchumacher might be a short-term replacement for the injured Felipe Massa .\nMassa continues to make good improvement following his crash on Saturday ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Questions swirled Friday about the possible role prescription medications may have played in the death Thursday of pop idol Michael Jackson, people close to him said. The cause of pop star Michael Jackson's death has not been determined after Friday's autopsy. His autopsy was completed, but further tests must be carried out before the cause of death can be determined, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner said. Craig Harvey said the tests would take four to six weeks, after which \"we anticipate being able to close the case and issuing a final cause of death.\" Among the tests to be carried out, he said, are neuropathology (brain) and pulmonary (lung) tests. Harvey added, \"We know that he was taking some prescription medications,\" but said he was not able to divulge what. The possibility that Jackson may have been taking medication that could have contributed to his death at the age of 50 weighed heavily Friday on a number of people close to the star. Watch coroner's office discuss Jackson's death. \u00bb . In 2005, after he was cleared on charges of child molestation, Jackson spent a week at a center run by Dr. Deepak Chopra, a physician who focuses on spirituality and the mind-body connection. During that week, Jackson asked Chopra for a prescription for a narcotic, the doctor told CNN. \"I said, 'What the heck do you want a narcotic prescription for?' And it suddenly dawned on me that he was probably taking these and that he had probably a number of doctors who were giving him these prescriptions, so I confronted him with that. At first, he denied it. Then, he said he was in a lot of pain.\" Chopra said he responded to Jackson that there were plenty of other ways for him to handle his pain, but that the arguments were not persuasive. Watch CNN's Sanjay Gupta discuss Jackson's death \u00bb . \"For a while, I lost him,\" he said. \"I have had that happen with me with other celebrities in Hollywood. There's a plethora of doctors in Hollywood, they're drug peddlers, they're drug pushers, they just happen to be having a medical license and I hope that this episode today, this tragic death of a great human being, will bring to light the huge problem we have in Hollywood with some of the medical establishment, the celebrity doctors, who not only initiate people into the drug experience, but then they perpetuate it so that people become dependent on them.\" Chopra said Jackson had recently gone on a diet to prepare for his planned comeback tour, which was to have begun next month in England, and was excited about his planned resumption of his performing career. \"He was practicing, he was fasting, and yet he wasn't physically in the condition to do this, and he was not confronting his drug addiction, which is the big problem,\" Chopra said. He blamed Jackson's death on drug abuse, though he offered no direct evidence. \"When you have enough drugs in your system, your heart goes into an arrhythmia and your respiration stops,\" he said. \"I think the drugs killed him.\" Chopra said he had known Jackson to take the opium-derived painkiller OxyContin at one time, as well as injections of the narcotic pain reliever Demerol \"and other narcotics, and I was really desperate to try to help him, but you know you can't help somebody who would go into denial.\" Watch crowds gather at the hospital. \u00bb . Jackson typically would refuse to call Chopra for several weeks at a time, the doctor said. \"Then he would call me two or three weeks later and say he was sorry, that he had been busy and it wasn't the drugs -- but it was the drugs.\" Chopra, who said he knew Jackson for more than two decades, described him as \"my little brother -- I feel very bad for him.\" Brian Oxman, a former attorney for the Jackson family who was with the family in the hospital emergency room on Thursday, also expressed concern about medications the pop star was taking. \"I talked to his family about it, I warned them -- I said that Michael is overmedicating and that I did not want to see this kind of a case develop,\" Oxman told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday. He referred to Anna Nicole Smith, the former model and reality TV show star who died of an overdose in 2007. \"I said, 'If that's what's going to happen to Michael, it's all going to break our hearts.' And my worst fears are here.\" Oxman emphasized that he did not know what killed Jackson, and was not making accusations against any individual. Jackson's ex-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, said in an online blog posted Friday that she was not surprised by Thursday's news. She said she divorced him in January 1996, after less than two years of marriage, because she was \"in over my head in trying\" to save Jackson \"from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" Jackson talked with her about his death during \"a deep conversation\" 14 years ago about \"the circumstances of my father's death,\" she wrote, referring to Elvis Presley. The singer collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem. The similarity to the \"King of Rock\" apparently resonated with the \"King of Pop.\" \"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,' \" Presley said. Watch crowds gather at the hospital. \u00bb . \"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.\" That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson's death Thursday, she said. \"I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,\" she wrote. \"A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.\" Her blog can be found online at http:\/\/blogs.myspace.com\/lisamariepresley . CNN is seeking response from the family. Meanwhile, police -- who had spoken Thursday with Dr. Conrad Murray, who was with Jackson when he died -- were trying to reach him again Friday. A car that Murray had parked at Jackson's home was impounded and may contain medications pertinent to the investigation, said Detective Agustin Villanueva of the Los Angeles Police Department. Public records show the impounded car was registered to a Texas woman who is an associate of the cardiologist, who is licensed in California and Texas and also has an office in Las Vegas, Nevada. CNN's calls to Murray's office were not returned Friday. AEG Live, the promoter of Jackson's planned tour, said their deal with the singer included a dedicated private physician of his choosing and that Jackson chose Murray, his physician of three years. A source close to the family said Murray spent much of the last two months with Jackson, as he prepared for his upcoming concert series. The doctor is said to be cooperating with officials. Jackson was in cardiac arrest when paramedics took him Thursday from his home to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where the music idol was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. ET). Listen to the 911 call \u00bb . He had been preparing for a comeback tour -- aimed at extending his legendary career and helping him to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Jackson began his professional work at age 5, singing with his brothers, before shooting to superstardom as a solo singer. He had numerous No. 1 hits -- the best known being \"Thriller,\" the best-selling album of all time, at an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. After dominating the popular music scene for years, Jackson became reclusive and mired in scandals that included child molestation charges. He reached a settlement with one accuser and was acquitted in another case after a highly publicized trial in Santa Maria, California, in June 2005. Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II. Condolences and appreciations continued to pour in Thursday from around the world. President Obama said he considered Jackson a \"spectacular performer\" and expressed his condolences to the Jackson family, the White House said Friday. At a briefing with reporters, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he spoke with the president Friday morning about the death of the pop superstar. \"He said to me that, obviously, Michael Jackson was a spectacular performer, a music icon. I think everybody remembers hearing his songs, watching him moonwalk on television during Motown's 25th anniversary.\" But Gibbs said the president also noted that \"aspects of his life were sad and tragic. His condolences went out to the Jackson family and to fans that mourned his loss.\" In a written statement, Jackson's second ex-wife, Debbie Rowe Jackson, said, \"Though Michael is now at peace, the world has lost a beautiful and loving soul. I appreciate the outpouring of support and prayer for Michael, all of his family, me and our children, and hope our privacy can be respected at this difficult time.\" CNN's Alan Duke and Drew Griffin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Deepak Chopra believes prescription drugs killed \"King of Pop\"\nCause of Michael Jackson's death deferred; no trauma or foul play found .\nSpokesman: Jackson was taking prescription medications .\nPhysician's car may contain \"medications pertinent to the investigation\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Indonesian fisherman has been killed by Komodo dragons after he was attacked while trespassing on a remote island in search of fruit, officials said Tuesday. Komodo dragons kill their prey with an extremely toxic bite. Muhamad Anwar, 32, bled to death on his way to hospital after being mauled by the reptiles at Loh Sriaya, in eastern Indonesia's Komodo National Park, the park's general manager Fransiskus Harum told CNN. \"The fisherman was inside the park when he went looking for sugar-apples. The area was forbidden for people to enter as there are a lot of wild dragons,\" Harum said. Other fisherman took Anwar to a clinic on nearby Flores Island, east of Bali, but he was declared dead on arrival, he added. Komodo dragons, the world's heaviest lizards, can grow up to 3 meters (10 feet) in length and have a toxic bite that they use to kill prey such as buffalo, returning to feast when the animal succumbs to the poison. Despite their ungainly appearance, the carnivorous reptiles can run as fast as a dog in short bursts, jump up on their hind legs, and kill animals with a blow of their powerful tails. Attacks on humans are rare, but Monday's incident is the latest in a series in which the monster lizards -- which have forked tongues and fearsome claws --have killed or injured people. Last month a park ranger survived after a Komodo dragon climbed the ladder into his hut and savaged his hand and foot. In 2007 an eight-year-old boy died after being mauled. In June last year, a group of divers who were stranded on an island in the national park -- the dragons' only natural habitat -- had to fend off several attacks from the reptiles before they were rescued. Park rangers also tell the cautionary tale of a Swiss tourist who vanished leaving nothing but a pair of spectacles and a camera after an encounter with the dragons several years ago. An endangered species, Komodo are believed to number less than 4,000 in the wild. Access to their habitat is restricted, but tourists can get permits to see them in the wild within the National Park. All visitors are accompanied by rangers, about 70 of whom are deployed across the park's 60,000 hectares of vegetation and 120,000 hectares of ocean. Despite a threat of poachers, Komodo dragon numbers are believed to have stabilized in recent years, bolstered by successful breeding campaigns in captivity. On Monday, a zoo in Surabaya on the Indonesian island of Java reported the arrival of 32 newborn Komodos after the babies all hatched in the past two weeks, the Jakarta Post reported.","highlights":"Fisherman was trespassing on island when dragons attacked .\nMuhamad Anwar died from heavy bleeding on his way to hospital .\nKomodo dragon attacks on humans are rare ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of uprooted people across the world dropped slightly last year, but new displacement this year in conflict zones like Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka so far \"has already more than offset the decline,\" the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. Pakistani displaced battle severe winds and dust at Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar. \"Today, we are seeing a relentless series of internal conflicts that are generating millions of uprooted people,\" U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a news release. This is one of the main points in Global Trends, an annual report by the U.N. agency on developments regarding refugees, internally displaced people, asylum seekers and stateless people. The number of \"uprooted people worldwide\" in 2008 was 42 million, a drop of about 700,000 from 2007, according to the report. \"In 2009, we have already seen substantial new displacements, namely in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia,\" Guterres said. \"While some displacements may be short-lived, others can take years and even decades to resolve. We continue to face several longer-term internal displacement situations in places like Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Each of these conflicts has also generated refugees who flee beyond their borders.\" The number of refugees and internally displaced people who returned home in 2008 was around 2 million, a decline from 2007, the report said. Refugee repatriation, which was 604,000, was down 17 percent. Displaced people's returns were down by 34 percent at 1.4 million people. \"Traditionally the largest durable solution for refugees, it was the second-lowest repatriation total in 15 years,\" the report said. \"The decline in part reflects deteriorating security conditions, namely in Afghanistan and Sudan.\" The report listed other statistics and trends in 2008: .","highlights":"U.N. reports shows slight decline in global refugee numbers to 42 million in 2008 .\nBut numbers set to rise in 2009 because of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia conflicts .\nPakistan hosted the largest number of refugees in the world at 1.8 million .\nAround 2 million refugees returned home in 2009 ."} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Have you ever been watching television and thought, \"Wow, this soap opera is so good it could cause the downfall of a corrupt communist regime,\" or even, \"I bet one day this show is going to send the first woman into space\"? Well, maybe you're not giving the boob tube enough credit. Popular television shows have influenced politics in the United States and around the world. While others are busy blaming television for all of society's downfalls, we think it's time someone stood up for ye olde idiot box. After all, these 10 television shows didn't just entertain, they helped convince the world to get with the program. 1. \"DALLAS\" The Show that Overthrew a Dictator . (Well, kind of.) \"Dallas\" was one of the most popular TV shows in history -- and nowhere was it more talked about than in Nicolae Ceausescu's communist Romania. How did the soap opera get past Romanian censors? With help from \"Dallas\" leading man, J.R. Ewing, of course. Because J.R. was portrayed as a despicable oil baron, Ceausescu's government presumably decided the show must be anti-capitalist. Whatever the reasoning, \"Dallas\" became a runaway hit when it arrived in Romania in 1979. A series about wealthy, beautiful people (evil or not) was an inspiration to Romania's poor and dejected masses. Eventually, the government decided such Western television was a bad influence, and \"Dallas\" was taken off the air in 1981. But by then, it was too late. The fantasies of Western life lived on in the imaginations of Romanians, and in 1989, Ceausescu was overthrown during a public uprising. Not incidentally, the actor who played J.R., Larry Hagman, visited Romania some years later and was treated as a hero. In an interview following the experience, Hagman said, \"People from Bucharest came up to me in the street with tears in their eyes saying, 'J.R. saved our country.' \" 2. \"SEE IT NOW\" The Show that Ended McCarthyism . If you know your 1950s history (or if you saw the movie \"Good Night, and Good Luck\"), you know the impact crusading journalist Edward R. Murrow had on American politics. His vehicle for galvanizing change? The current affairs show, \"See It Now,\" which premiered in 1951. Well known as a World War II radio correspondent, Murrow wasn't a fan of television initially. He wanted to go beyond the talking-head discussions and newsreels that filled most nightly news shows at the time. So when he finally decided to move forward with \"See It Now,\" he did so on his own terms. The show's debut episode featured television's first live coast-to-coast transmission, which included a split-screen of the Brooklyn Bridge on one side and the Golden Gate on the other. Murrow also broke new ground by airing a day in the lives of Korean War soldiers. Of course, the show's most influential role was in exposing Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist fear campaign and opening Americans' eyes to the many lives and careers it was ruining. Thanks in part to fallout from Murrow's broadcast on March 9, 1954, the U.S. Senate reprimanded McCarthy for abusing his power, and McCarthyism came to an abrupt end. Murrow wasn't afraid to take on rogue senators, and later, he proved he wasn't scared to take on Big Tobacco, either. Two episodes of \"See It Now\" explored the link between cigarettes and cancer -- a brave move, considering television depended heavily on tobacco sponsorships at the time. But perhaps Murrow had a personal interest in the story. A three-pack-a-day smoker who regularly appeared on camera with a cigarette in hand, Murrow died of lung cancer in 1965. 3. \"GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER\" The Show that Turned Ronald Reagan into a Republican . In the early 1950s, film actor Ronald Reagan was at a low point in his career. So when Taft Schreiber, of the Music Corporation of America, got him a gig as the host of the anthology series \"General Electric Theater,\" Reagan jumped at the opportunity. For $125,000 a year and part-ownership of the program, he not only hosted the show, but also toured America as a \"goodwill ambassador\" for the electricity giant, giving speeches to plant employees and acting as its public spokesperson. By the time \"General Electric Theater\" was cancelled in 1962, Reagan was a new man. Turns out, all those years defending free enterprise for one of the nation's biggest multinational companies had transformed Reagan into one of America's leading conservative speakers. Although the actor had long been a Democrat, the Republican Schreiber convinced Reagan to change political parties. Four years later, the newly Republican Reagan was elected governor of California, and the rest is presidential history. 4. \"CATHY COME HOME\" The Drama that Transformed the Welfare State . Directed by Ken Loach (who later became one of Britain's most respected filmmakers), the drama \"Cathy Come Home\" was a poignant episode of the BBC-1 anthology series The Wednesday Play. It told the tragic story of Cathy Ward, a young wife and mother who becomes the victim of Britain's welfare state. Going from working-class struggle to dire poverty, Cathy's journey begins when her husband loses his job following an accident and becomes unable to support the family. In a painful spiral toward destitution, Cathy suffers through various states of homelessness, separates from her husband, and eventually, has her children forcibly taken away from her by government council workers. A truly horrifying story, its impact was compounded by the fact that \"Cathy Come Home\" was filmed in such a realistic style that some viewers thought it was a documentary. And although the Conservative Party government claimed the movie was \"full of blunders,\" Labour Party politician Anthony Greenwood said the show should be \"compulsory viewing once a month for the next five years.\" British audiences agreed, and \"Cathy Come Home\" was aired again shortly after. The ensuing public outrage helped bring major changes to British welfare law. Other nations followed suit, with similar reforms and charities. 5. \"THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR\" The Show that Swung an Election . \"The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour\" was many things. It was the first network TV show to make fun of the Establishment, support America's counterculture, and have enough nerve to put blacklisted singers (such as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger) back on the air. Ironically, however, the show's major achievement might have been making Richard Nixon president. As a gag, show star Pat Paulsen ran for office during the 1968 presidential election. \"I'm consistently vague on the issues,\" announced Paulsen on national television, \"and I'm continuing to make promises that I'll be unable to fulfill.\" Regardless of his humorous motives, Paulsen seemed to have a \"Ralph Nader Effect,\" stealing 200,000 votes from the Democrats and helping to swing one of the closest elections in history. Thanks to Paulsen's efforts, Nixon narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. \"Hubert Humphrey told me I cost him the election,\" recalled Paulsen, \"and he wasn't smiling when he said it.\" E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Dallas\" gave poor Romanians a view of a better life .\nJ.R. Ewing actor Larry Hagman greeted as hero in the country .\nHubert Humphrey blamed comic for election loss ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday insisted that his country's nuclear arsenal is \"definitely safe,\" despite growing concerns about recent gains by the Taliban along the country's border with Afghanistan. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari insists his country's nuclear arsenal is \"definitely safe\" from militants. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Zardari responded to the fact that the United States doesn't know the locations of all of Pakistan's nuclear sites. He also addressed the Obama administrations concern over whether the weapons are vulnerable to Taliban fighters who are gaining control of some border regions. \"They can't take over,\" Zardari said, referring to militants. \"We have a 700,000 (person) army -- how could they take over?\" For the last two weeks, Pakistani troops have been battling Taliban fighters in Buner and Lower Dir, two districts bordering the Swat Valley -- a broad Taliban stronghold in Pakistan. Army generals claim to have killed scores of militants. Pakistan's government recently signed a deal that would allow Islamic law, or sharia, in the Swat Valley, in exchange for an end to fighting. Still, Pakistan's military is continuing an assault on militants in Taliban-held areas after they seized territory in violation of the agreement signed by Zardari. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama said Pakistan's government appears to be \"very fragile\" and argued that the United States has \"huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable\" and doesn't end up a \"nuclear-armed militant state.\" And, after making two visits to Pakistan in the last three weeks, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated Monday that he is \"gravely concerned\" about recent Taliban and al Qaeda gains across much of southern Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Pakistan's nuclear weapons are \"definitely safe,\" Zardari said Tuesday. \"First of all, they are in safe hands. There is a command and control system under the president of Pakistan. And Buner ... there has been fighting there before. There will be fighting there again and there will always be an issue of people in those mountains that we've been taking on.\" Zardari's comments came as the Obama administration prepared for meetings set for Wednesday with Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to discuss security in the region. A senior administration official told reporters that the U.S. objective of the meetings is \"an alliance with these countries against a shared threat.\" Watch Pakistan's U.S. ambassador discuss the Taliban insurgency \u00bb . Zardari and Karzai will also be visiting key congressional leaders and policymakers in advance of meetings with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A bill called the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009, introduced by Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Dick Lugar, R-Indiana, would authorize $7.5 billion in non-military aid to Pakistan over the next five years to foster economic growth and development, and another $7.5 billion for the following five years. Zardari, for his part, said he is grateful for the financial aid Pakistan has received from the United States, but said he needs \"more support.\" \"I need drones to be part of my arsenal. I need that facility. I need that equipment. I need that to be my police arrangement,\" he said. The U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, after Zardari's government was criticized for not cracking down on militants along the Afghan border. The unmanned drone attacks have rankled relations between Pakistan and Washington. Asked whether the U.S. strategy bothered him, Zardari said, \"Let's agree to disagree. ... We're still in dialogue.\" Zardari also denied speculation by some Congressional lawmakers that his country has used most of the $10 billion given by the United States to strengthen its arsenal against a threat from nuclear rival India -- as opposed to going after the ongoing militant threat. \"They've given $10 billion in 10 years, a billion nearly a year for the war effort in -- against the Taliban, and the war that is going on,\" he said. Zardari also addressed his government's apparent resistance to significant U.S. involvement on Pakistani soil. Recently, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates observed, \"There has been a reluctance on their part up to now. They don't like the idea of a significant American military footprint inside Pakistan. I understand that. And -- but we are willing to do pretty much whatever we can to help the Pakistanis in this situation.\" Zardari called Pakistan's relationship \"pretty strong\" and said, \"We are asking. We've been asking for a lot of help, and it has been in the pipeline for a long time.\"","highlights":"Pakistani President insists his state's nuclear arsenal is safe, despite Taliban gains .\nRecent gains by the Taliban along Pakistan's Afghan border have raised concerns .\nFor 2 weeks, Pakistani troops have fought Taliban in districts bordering Swat Valley .\nU.S. President Barack Obama said Pakistan's government appears \"very fragile\""} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A lawyer for Howard K. Stern says the longtime partner of late sex symbol Anna Nicole Smith will fight conspiracy charges announced Thursday. Krista Barth, an attorney for Howard K. Stern, says it's not appropriate to talk publicly about details of the case. Stern was Smith's \"chief enabler,\" obtaining a variety of prescription drugs to keep the former Playboy model sedated and compliant, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in announcing the charges against Stern and two doctors. Lisa Bloom of In Session and guest host Joy Behar questioned Stern's attorney Krista Barth Friday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" BEHAR: Did Howard see this all coming? BARTH: No, we did not see this coming. We knew that there was obviously the raid earlier on Dr. [Sandeep] Kapoor's office. But this was something that we honestly never expected. Watch part of the discussion \u00bb . BEHAR: Well, they are very serious charges. There are so many counts here, eight felonies. Will he plead not guilty? What's he going to do? BARTH: Well, he will plead not guilty because he is not guilty. BEHAR: Now, the attorney general, Jerry Brown, called Stern \"the principal enabler\" in what he says was a conspiracy among three individuals. Do you have a reaction to that? BARTH: I think it's reminiscent of what happened at Duke. I don't think that this was something that should have been stated in a public forum. I think it's contrary to the rules of professional conduct regarding trial publicity. And you have to wonder why such a statement was made. But to say that something like that would not bias my client is beyond me. I can't even be -- I can't even venture a guess. BLOOM: Krista, the difference, though, between the Duke case and this case is that we know that she had at least 11 different medications in her system, the very same medications that are in this criminal complaint. We know that she was taking these drugs for years. We saw her zoned out of her mind with the slurred speech on her reality show and every awards show. So it was pretty common knowledge that Anna Nicole was an addict. And I think your client has even admitted that. There's a substantial amount of evidence here. It doesn't mean your client is guilty. But I think it's enough to raise eyebrows so that ever since she's died, people have wondered: How did she get all of those medications? How was it possible that doctors were giving her all that stuff? BARTH: The most basic tenet of our judicial system is that Mr. Stern is presumed innocent. ... And the concern that I have is that the public nature of the statements by the attorney general in the state of California is a bit troubling. And when I make the analogy to the Duke case, I think you're missing the point, in that that was done during an election campaign. There are sometimes political motivations for things that are done. You have to ask why is this case important to so many when what Attorney General Brown is talking about is a pervasive, over-prescription of prescription drugs. BEHAR: How much responsibility do the tabloids have in this case? I mean, it really was all over the place. BLOOM: I think that's going to be part of the defense, that they got prescriptions under false names because the tabloids were after her and they wanted every detail and she wanted some privacy. And as a celebrity, she may be entitled to that. I think that may be a valid defense as to why they were under false names. But there's no defense that I can see why thousands of pills. BEHAR: Krista, where did she get thousands of pills? BARTH: Well, you know what? Discussing the details of this is not appropriate. I think that the most important thing to focus on here is the way that our judicial system is supposed to work. I mean how often does that happen, that we're talking about a situation, you are not supposed to say, and I'm quoting here, something that you know reasonably should, or reasonably should know will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in this matter?","highlights":"California attorney general's comments are prejudicial, lawyer says .\nBrown saying too much about Anna Nicole Smith case, Krista Barth says .\nBarth is attorney for Smith's ex-partner, Howard K. Stern .\nStern, two others charged with conspiring to supply Smith with drugs ."} -{"article":"Ann Arbor, Michigan (CNN) -- Even among the hundreds of applications, this one stood out. Most applicants to creative writing programs submit stories about the angst of their suburban childhoods. This writer's stories concerned the daily ordeals of a boy living with his family on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, and the horrific plight of a Rwandan girl whose mother is Tutsi and father Hutu. Not only did the applicant have what writers call \"material,\" he was blessed with an uncanny ear for human speech and the poetry to describe his characters' very unpoetic lives. I can still remember the young Kenyan boy watching his mother decant the glue she intends to sniff. The glue, the boy tells us, \"glowed warm and yellow in the dull light,\" and when his mother had poured enough, \"she cut the flow of the glue by tilting the tin up. The last stream of gum entering the bottle weakened and braided itself before tapering in midair like an icicle.\" Still, this applicant gave us pause. The writer had so much to say, he seemed to be trying to channel a raging waterfall through the tiny funnels of two short stories. His use of punctuation was idiosyncratic, to say the least. And the applicant was a priest! Would the other students be willing to share their stories, rife as these tend to be with profanity, drugs and sex, if a clergyman was in the room? And would this particular clergyman understand what all great religious writers know -- that true literature doesn't spring from one's certainties about the universe, but rather from one's questions? That said, how could our students be inhibited by a classmate who didn't hesitate to describe a 12-year-old Kenyan prostitute being paid by rich white tourists to perform sexual acts with their monkey? As to the shapelessness of the applicant's prose and the eccentricity of his punctuation, anyone with this writer's gifts could be taught to structure his material and punctuate his characters' speech correctly. If I still felt apprehensive about having a priest in my workshop, that anxiety vanished when Uwem Akpan walked in the room. Rather than wear his clerical garb and collar, Uwem showed up in a blue and maize University of Michigan sweatshirt. With his wide, gap-toothed smile, wall-shaking laugh, disarming candor and gleeful giggle, he exuded magnetic charm. Nor was Uwem out of place for being the only Nigerian in his cohort. Despite what the judges of the Nobel Prize might say about American writers being too insular to compete with their European counterparts, this country's MFA programs provide one of the only spaces on the planet where writers of many races, religions, nationalities and sexual orientations can come together. Writers find common ground not through the homelands they once inhabited but the thematic questions with which they grapple. Early that first semester, I assigned a story by Philip Roth called \"Defender of the Faith,\" in which a Jewish sergeant who has witnessed the horrors of the concentration camps must decide whether to grant special favors to the Jewish recruits in his command or enforce strict impartiality. I didn't know whether Uwem would connect to Roth's quintessentially Jewish outlook. But the moment the discussion started, Uwem's hand shot up. \"This is the story of my continent!\" he declared. If Africans continued to put tribal allegiances above universal fairness, Uwem said, progress would remain unattainable. This abhorrence of tribalism is what makes Uwem so open-minded. Like most people who are comfortable in their own skins, he is wonderfully able to inhabit the skins of others. One semester, he audited a seminar on Holocaust literature. The professor had no idea who Uwem was, so she couldn't help but be surprised when he asked, \"Can you tell me, please, how is it that people can do such terrible things to one another?\" If anyone else had asked that question, the professor might have thought he was simpleminded. But she could tell that this mysterious stranger was asking his question in the most profound way, from the depths of his own experience. A few months later, Uwem accompanied me to my temple for the Jewish New Year. After sitting -- and standing -- for hours through the service, he commented that he had studied in the Bible how Jesus opened the scroll to read, but he had never quite understood how that worked, so it was beautiful for him to see how the Jews really did that. And he was happy to note what Catholicism had copied from Judaism. Just as Uwem opened his mind and heart to us, I opened my mind and heart to Uwem. An atheist with a degree in physics, I don't believe in prayer. And yet, when Uwem stopped by the evening before a frightening operation on my spine, I granted his request that he pray for my well-being. Startled by the warmth I felt flowing along my spine as Uwem held his hands above my head, I burst out crying. Of course, my colleagues and I never forgot why Uwem was in Ann Arbor, Michigan. During his two years in our program, all of us worked hard to help him develop his many gifts. But mine was the first workshop Uwem took, and I saw his stories at their rawest. As I waded through the reams of rough drafts he had given me, it occurred to me that I had been called upon to help the children of Africa the only way I could -- by helping Uwem to write their stories. We talked about the need to focus each story around a single character's conflict and a single thematic question rather than attempting to convey everything Uwem knew about all his characters. I also urged him to allow his young protagonists at least a chance for freedom or redemption. Yes, the children whose lives he wanted to depict were the victims of adults who abused, exploited and betrayed them. But even in a society in which a child can be prostituted to provide her family's food and pay her brother's school fees, the prostitute's brother might choose to decline that money, to leave the family, to walk away. Uwem listened attentively, but I wasn't sure that he believed what I was saying. I didn't see another version of his story about the street family in Nairobi for several months. When I did, the hairs at the back of my neck stood up. That second version of \"An Ex-Mas Feast\" was so powerful and finely polished that I asked Uwem if he would send it to the deputy fiction editor of The New Yorker, whom I had met a few weeks earlier when the magazine brought its college tour to Ann Arbor. Uwem hesitated -- I didn't know this, but he already had submitted an earlier version of the story, twice, to \"The Editor\" at The New Yorker -- but I kept nagging him until he sent the new version. The rest, as they say, is history. The magazine accepted Uwem's story for its fiction issue. Then, a year later, it published a revised version of the story about the half-Tutsi, half-Hutu Rwandan girl. In many ways, Uwem's success makes sense. Even when he was studying to be a priest, he gave up precious hours of sleep to stay up writing. He applied to an MFA program and got accepted. His teachers recognized his extraordinary potential and helped Uwem to achieve it. And yet, much of Uwem's success is inexplicable. In a world in which so little attention is paid to children's suffering, a world in which fewer and fewer publishing houses remain interested in acquiring literary fiction and independent bookstores, even in college towns such as Ann Arbor, are closing their doors, the editors at every major publishing house in New York competed for the privilege of publishing a book that might not sell many copies but had shaken them to the core. And Oprah ... how could Oprah, who had never selected a collection of stories for her book club, choose a collection like Uwem Akpan's, with its multilingual patois, complete absence of pathos or sentimentality and nearly unbearable-to-read violence toward children? Yet all of this came to pass. Oprah respected her audience enough to assume that if she was so deeply moved by Uwem's stories, they would be moved as well. In choosing \"Say You Are One of Them,\" Oprah brought to Uwem's cause the intelligence and heart of her many readers. That any of this happened at all, let alone in five short years, is a literary miracle. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eileen Pollack.","highlights":"Eileen Pollack: There was concern about Uwem Akpan's application to a writing program .\nShe says he fit in well and his talent soon became evident .\nAkpan's blessed with great talent for hearing people and with poetic writing ability, she says .\nHis book of stories about African children has been selected by Oprah's book club ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Predatory mice are threatening the albatross population on a remote south Atlantic island and have caused the birds' worst nesting season on record, a British bird charity says. Baby albatross on a remote Atlantic island are threatened by killer house mice. The research from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds indicates bad news for the Tristan albatross, whose only home is Gough Island in the middle of the south Atlantic. House mice not native to the island are threatening the Tristan albatross with extinction, the RSPB said. The mice are also threatening the native population of bunting, one of the world's largest finches, the RSPB said. \"Without removal of the mice, both the albatross and the bunting that live there are doomed to extinction,\" Grahame Madge, a conservation spokesman for the RSPB, told CNN. The mice on the island eat the chicks of the albatross and bunting before they make it to the fledgling stage, the RSPB said. This makes it especially difficult for the albatross population to survive because the birds lay eggs only once every two years -- a very low reproductive rate compared to other birds, Madge said. \"What [the mice] are affecting is the ability of the albatross to produce enough young to sustain the population,\" he said. Adult Tristan albatross are threatened by longline fishing at sea, a practice in which boats put up numerous 100-meter long fishing lines baited with squid or fish. The albatrosses are attracted to the bait and while some manage to steal it successfully, many more get snagged and drown, Madge said. Because of the impact from house mice, introduced to the island by sealers in the 18th and 19th centuries, conservation alliance BirdLife International earlier this year listed both the Tristan albatross and the Gough bunting as critically endangered -- the highest threat level before extinction. Gough Island, a British territory almost midway between Argentina and South Africa, is a place of stunning natural beauty. The island is not inhabited by humans. Gough Island and nearby Inaccessible Island are both listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. A survey of the albatross on Gough Island in January showed 1,764 adults incubating eggs, the RSPB said. A later survey revealed only 246 chicks had survived to fledgling. \"We've known for a long time that the mice were killing albatross chicks in huge numbers,\" said RSPB scientist Richard Cuthbert, who recently visited the island to assess the problem. \"However, we now know that the albatrosses have suffered their worst year on record.\" The bunting suffer because the mice eat their eggs and chicks, and may also compete with them for food in the winter, Cuthbert said. \"The decline in bunting numbers is alarming,\" said Peter Ryan of the University of Cape Town, who has been studying buntings on the island since the 1980s. \"Without urgent conservation action to remove the mice, both the albatross and the bunting are living on borrowed time.\" The RSPB has been studying whether it is possible to remove the mice. It said trials so far look promising, but it urged the British government to step up funding for the project. It said eradicating the mice from Gough Island would solve the primary conservation threat facing both bird species. The RSPB said it had been working with New Zealand conservationists on a program to remove the smaller mice by dropping poisoned bait from helicopters. Tristan albatrosses are one of 22 species of albatross in the world. Albatrosses principally live in the southern Atlantic but some also live in the Pacific, the RSPB says. Albatrosses are among the largest flying birds, weighing up to 25 pounds (22.5 kilograms). One species -- the wandering albatross -- has a wingspan of 11 feet, the RSPB says. The birds can fly thousands of miles without a pause, and their only need to touch land is to nest and raise their young, the RSPB says.","highlights":"Predatory mice are threatening the albatross population on a south Atlantic island .\nHouse mice not native to the island are killing and eating chicks .\nMice are also threatening the native population of large finches ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil has confirmed 657 fatalities caused by the H1N1 flu, the highest number of deaths in the world, the nation's Health Ministry said. Brazil registered 7,569 new cases of the virus also known as swine flu from August 25 to 29, the Health Ministry said. However, new cases of the virus had dropped in the past three weeks. In terms of mortality rate -- which considers flu deaths in terms of a nation's population -- Brazil ranks sixth and the United States is 12th, the Brazilian Health Ministry said in a news release this week. Argentina ranked first per capita, Brazilian health officials said.","highlights":"Brazil has 7,569 new cases of the virus from August 25 to 29, Health Ministry says .\nHowever, new cases of the virus had dropped in the past three weeks .\nIn terms of mortality rate, Argentina ranks sixth, Brazil sixth and the U.S. is 12th ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On Friday afternoon, Robin Meade, HLN anchor of \"Morning Express with Robin Meade,\" sky-dived just before former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who was commemorating his 85th birthday. HLN Anchor Robin Meade chats with former president George H.W. Bush on his 85th birthday. In recent years, Bush's jumps have been about fun and celebration, but he first parachuted out of a plane when he was a naval aviator shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. On Friday, Meade and Bush were each strapped to a member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team. They made their jumps over Kennebunkport, Maine. Before the jumps, Meade sat down with Bush to learn more about why he sky-dives. Plus, the former president weighed in on his and his son's legacies, Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor, and his view on the country's most pressing problems. This is an edited transcript of the interview. Robin Meade: Thank you for making time for us to talk to you today. George H.W. Bush: Oh, no, listen, I'm so glad you're here. Meade: Happy birthday -- 85. Bush: I thought you didn't know. Meade: Everybody knows, right? Bush: I know. It's exciting. It really is wonderful. Meade: What's with your penchant for jumping still? Bush: Well, two reasons. One, it still feels good. You still get a charge out of it. Not easy to do at 85, but ... Meade: I don't think it's easy to do at any age. Watch Bush talk about why he still sky-dives \u00bb . Bush: And secondly, just because you're old, that doesn't mean you can't do fun stuff. And you don't want to sit around drooling in the corner. And so it's a wonderful release. And you know, because I was president, it sends a message all around. You can go out and get something going. Old guys can still have fun and still do stuff. And so, those are the two reasons. ... Meade: You know, I'm thinking about, too, last Saturday we had the 65th anniversary of D-Day, and that was the first time, in World War II, that you jumped, because you had to ditch your plane. Bush: Yes. Meade: Being back with service members up in a plane and getting ready to jump, does that kind of rekindle your feelings of connection? Bush: A little bit of deja vu. A little bit, but not that much anymore. But yes, that's one of the reasons I made the first controlled jump, is because I did the first jump -- or had to get out of the plane. And that was kind of ugly. I pulled the ripcord too early and hit my head on the tail of the plane going by. I was just lucky I'm still alive. And the parachute hung up for a minute on the tail of the plane. It's all kind of war stories. If I start telling you that, then you'll tell me about your father's war stories or something, or grandfather's. And so it wouldn't be fair. But I wanted to do it right. And I did it wrong then. It did save my life, but I did it wrong. So then I've been out with the Golden Knights and I made several solo jumps. And now it's tandem. I think they hope the old boy will remember to push. Meade: Did I read somewhere that you asked President Clinton to jump once? And he hasn't jumped with you. Bush: I may have asked him. I can't remember. Maybe I did, but I have a good relationship with him, a very good one. Watch Bush leave plane, land \u00bb . Meade: Now that you're 85, are you thinking a little bit more about the \"L\" word, \"legacy?\" Bush: I was thinking of the \"L\" word being \"life.\" Life its own self. But no, I think my view on legacy is let the historians figure out what I screwed up and figure out what I got right. And I'm confident that, you know, we had a good administration and good people. And I think the same thing is true of our son. And you know, he had tough times and all, but he's doing it right. He's laying back there and he's not criticizing the president. And I'm very proud of him. Watch Bush and sons talk after the jump \u00bb . And I hope that we both have set examples for how you ought to conduct yourself when you've been president and then go out of office. Let the other guy do it, and support him when you can, and be silent. Don't be out there criticizing all the time. Meade: The one guy at the helm? Bush: Yes. And the \"L\" word, so it doesn't -- I mean, my view is the historians will decide these things, for better or for worse and for right or for wrong. So I'm not doing any biography or anything like that. And I'm confident, because we had such a great team around us, that it will be favorable. Meade: Tell me a little bit about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, she's someone that you appointed to a U.S. District Court. Bush: District Court. Meade: Now she's been nominated for the Supreme Court. What would her impact be on the Supreme Court, do you think? Bush: I think she'd pull a ripcord just at the right time and make a very nice parachutist. I'm going to leave that to others to analyze, but she should be given a fair hearing. She should be accorded every courtesy that goes with her record as a judge and her aspirations to be a Supreme Court justice. And I have a feeling she will be confirmed, but again, I don't go into that day in and day out. ... I think she's had a distinguished record on the bench and she should be entitled to fair hearings. I like the way Sen. John Cornyn said it. I mean, he may vote for her, he may not. But he's been backing away from these -- backing off from those who use radical statements to describe her or to attribute things to her that may or may not be true. I mean, she was called by somebody a \"racist.\" Well, that's not right. I mean, it's not fair. It doesn't help the process to be out there name-calling. So let them decide whether they want to vote for her or not, and get on with it. Meade: There are so many causes and so many problems, so many issues right now. Bush: Right. Right. Meade: What is our most pressing problem, do you think, in the country? Bush: Well, I'd have to say as long as people are hurting, the economy, and those who are out of work, can't find work. I think it will get better. I remain optimistic about our recovery and all of that. But I'd say that's -- and health care. But those -- we've got a lot of people working on those problems. Meade: Oh, by the way, one more question. Is there going to be another jump after this? Bush: I think when I finish this one, I'll say, \"See you on my 90th.\" Whether I do it or not, it gives me a goal. I'm a goal-oriented guy. I really believe in goals. And so -- but we finish this one ... Meade: I hope we do. Bush: ... we'll all be standing there. And they'll say to you, \"What are you going to do?\" And you'll say, \"Five more years, I'm going to do another one.\" And I'll say, \"I'll be there.\" Ninety years old. I'll do it. Meade: Is it a deal? In five years, we'll do it again? Bush: I'm for it. I'm for it. Meade: OK. All right.","highlights":"HLN Anchor Robin Meade sat down to interview George H.W. Bush .\nLater, the two went sky-diving to celebrate former president's 85th birthday .\nBush talks to Meade about how he stays young, and what his legacy will be .\nSee more at the Morning Express blog and showpage ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- On March 30 the Open Skies treaty went into effect, liberalizing air travel between the U.S. and Europe. But how will the ease of restrictions on transatlantic routes affect business travelers? Under Open Skies, European and U.S. airlines will be given unlimited access between Europe and U.S. points. The treaty puts an end to the exclusive arrangement granted to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and American Airlines to fly transatlantic out of London Heathrow. But with the airport currently operating at almost-maximum capacity, new flights will be severely limited. As a result competition is fierce for Heathrow slots, with airlines paying as much as $60 million to get their hands on them. For each flight that is added, another less lucrative service is scrapped. Airlines are giving priority to high-yield business routes to and from Heathrow. While European carriers are now allowed to fly from any point within E.U across the Atlantic, the U.S. domestic market remains closed to them. Operators in Europe hope that a second phase of the Open Skies deal will mean a relaxation of restrictions on European airlines' investment in U.S. carriers and the ability for European airlines to compete in the U.S. domestic market. The issue is pending in U.S. Congress. If the U.S. doesn't deliver, there is a clause in the agreement that states the Open Skies treaty -- phase I included -- can be torn up. Industry experts foresee some fare wars in both economy and business-class. Service options are also likely to improve as competition intensifies. U.S. airlines will vie with BA, the dominant carrier at Heathrow, that currently has flights to 24 U.S. cities. The biggest challenge to the incumbent airlines operating out of Heathrow will come from carriers in the SkyTeam alliance, that includes Air France and KLM, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines News, and Continental Airlines. Before Open Skies, the SkyTeam alliance offered no transatlantic routes to and from Heathrow. By summer they will offer 10 percent of these flights. SkyTeam carriers will be located for the first time in Terminal 4. Given the size of the market for U.S.-London flights, airlines will continue to offer services from Gatwick, London's second-busiest airport. Open Skies will intensify competition for ailing U.S. airlines on what has been their most profitable route. Analysts expect to see consolidation between U.S. airlines as they combine international networks to beat competition. One advantage U.S. airlines can offer is opportunity for connecting flights to other European cities as well as on to Asia and the Mideast. European carriers on the other hand, cannot operate domestic flights within the U.S. New flights and new airlines . Oneworld Alliance . British Airways will shift its Dallas and Houston services from Gatwick to Heathrow and its Warsaw operation to Gatwick. Flights to Detroit and Harare will be axed. In June, the airline will also launch services between Continental Europe and New York. Operated by subsidiary OpenSkies, the daily flights will fly from either JFK or Newark to Brussels or Paris CDG using Boeing 757s from its existing fleet. In the future, OpenSkies plans to fly to other business centers, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, and Geneva. BA will also commence business-only flights between New York and London City Airport next year using Airbus A318 jets in a 32-seat layout. SkyTeam Airline Alliance's new transatlantic flights starting between March 30 and June 2008 . \u2022 Air France in joint venture with Delta: daily service to Los Angeles \u2022 Continental: twice-daily service to Houston and twice-daily service to Newark Liberty International (EWR) from May 29 2008 \u2022 Delta in joint venture with Air France: daily service to Atlanta and twice-daily service to New York JFK \u2022 Northwest in joint venture with KLM: daily service to Detroit, daily service to Minneapolis and daily service to Seattle. Slots were secured as a result of Air France ditching four daily rotations from London to Paris Charles de Gaulle and KLM dropping three of its slots to Northwest from Eindhoven and Rotterdam. Non-aligned airlines . Aer Lingus launched services from Dublin to Washington DC, Orlando and San Francisco last year. This followed agreement between the Irish and U.S. governments that the airline could begin operations before others. Low-cost airline Ryanair is considering setting up a separate long-haul carrier that would fly ultra-low-fares between secondary airports in Europe and U.S. such as Stansted and Baltimore-Washington International. Virgin Atlantic has decided to wait to see if Open Skies Phase II is adopted before starting new flights to New York from non-UK cities. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Biggest challenge to Heathrow incumbents will come from SkyTeam alliance .\nNew flights start this year from Air France, Continental, Delta and Northwest .\nBA will launch services between Continental Europe and New York in June ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A fan of English football club Arsenal has been injured after the bus he and other supporters were traveling in was ambushed before the sides' Champions League clash in Rome, Wednesday night. Winners: Arsenal beat Roma 7-6 on penalties after one of their fans was injured before the game. A spokesman from the British Embassy in Rome told CNN the fan was understood to have suffered wounds to the leg -- but it was unsure if he had been stabbed or injured by broken glass. The spokesman said the mini bus, which was not an official tour bus, became lost near the stadium and \"ended up at the wrong part of the ground\". Roma fans nearby set about attacking the bus, the spokesman said. \"They smashed the windows and then one of them managed to get on the bus. This appears to be where the injury occurred,\" he said. Police were quick to arrive and the bus managed to move on to safety, where the fan was treated for the wound, he said. The visiting side went on to win the tie 7-6 on penalties after Roma won the game 1-0, leaving the two-match tie level 1-1 on aggregate. Arsenal had distributed a booklet to its estimated 3,500 traveling fans warning that they were \"at risk\" if they traveled alone to the Stadio Olimpico. The booklet warned supporters to stay clear of areas that were known gathering points of Roma's \"Ultra\" fans -- a group known for creating conflict with rival supporters. Last month ten football fans were shot dead in the south of Nigeria on the way to support their team. The victims were traveling supporters of the Ocean Boys Football Club in Nigeria. Also in February, one fan was killed and at least 40 more injured when violence broke out at football matches across Brazil. In 2007, Manchester United fans were injured after violence in two separate incidents with Roma fans when the teams met in Rome. In 2003 five England fans suffered gunshot wounds during a violent incident in Zurich, Switzerland, before the side played a Euro 2004 qualifier with Liechtenstein.","highlights":"Fan injured during ambush on bus before Champions League game in Rome .\nArsenal bus attacked when it arrives at wrong part of Stadio Olimpico .\nWindows on bus smashed by Roma fans and one fan enters bus .\nArsenal go on to win match 7-6 on penalties after it finishes 1-1 on aggregate ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The jury that convicted O.J. Simpson of robbery and other charges relied mostly on audio and video evidence -- and very little on testimony from prosecution witnesses -- jury members said Sunday. O.J. Simpson, convicted of robbery and kidnapping last week, could be sentenced to life in prison on December 5. \"We honestly felt we could not rely on that witness testimony,\" said Michelle R. Lyons, one of seven jurors who spoke to reporters in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday. \"There was not one decision we made that was based only on witness testimony.\" Jury foreman Paul Connelly said some of the prosecution's witnesses didn't seem trustworthy. At least three former Simpson co-defendants who cut deals to testify in the case had criminal records. Asked whether the jury trusted the witnesses, Connelly answered: \"Not entirely, no.\" Watch jurors explain their verdict \u00bb . Prosecutors produced an audiotape of the confrontation in which authorities said Simpson and five men burst into a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel on September 13, 2007. The men allegedly made off with pillowcases containing Simpson sports memorabilia. Several jurors said audiotapes of the incident and conversations between Simpson and others that were recorded surreptitiously before, during and after the heist made the prosecution's case. \"It would have been a weak case\" without the tapes, juror Dora Pettit said. The jury of nine women and three men found Simpson and co-defendant Clarence \"C.J.\" Stewart guilty Friday of 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon. Simpson, 61, could get life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for December 5 in Las Vegas. Prosecutors alleged that Simpson, a former football star, led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take the memorabilia and other items from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley. Four men who had been charged with Simpson cut deals with the prosecution and testified against him. One testified that Simpson instructed him to bring a gun to the hotel encounter. \"Everything was based on the recordings,\" juror Dora Pettit said of the panel's decisions. Simpson, who did not testify during the trial, told police he didn't know the people with him were armed. He also claimed the items had been stolen from him, and the hotel encounter was just about him retrieving his items. Simpson's lawyer has indicated he plans to appeal the conviction, partly because some of the jurors had indicated during jury selection that they disagreed with a 1995 verdict in which he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Watch Fred Goldman hail the verdict \u00bb . Teresa Owens, one of the jurors in the Simpson robbery case, said any suggestion that the jury found Simpson guilty because of the verdict 13 years ago is \"terrible.\" \"There's reports right now that we've had some kind of vendetta against Mr. Simpson for ... 13 years ago,\" she said. \"That in no way had anything to do with this case whatsoever.\" Connelly said the murder trial \"never came up.\" \"I don't think it was on anybody's minds. For that, I can say I'm proud of the jury,\" he said. Before the robbery and kidnapping trial, the jurors promised they could disregard Simpson's past and solely consider the evidence against him and Stewart, 54. Owens also said it would be \"preposterous\" for anyone suggest that the makeup of the jury -- 11 jurors were white, and one said she was Hispanic, while Simpson is black -- hurt the defense's chances. \"They chose us. Five hundred people ... filled out these questionnaires,\" Owens said. \"They had the [opportunity] to pass us.\" Pettit said the jury has been painted by some \"as an all-white jury that hates O.J.\" \"That's just not true,\" she said. \"It couldn't be further from the truth.\" Asked whether they felt the crime was bad enough to warrant life sentences, Connelly said that was up for the court to decide. Pettit said that \"if he walked out tomorrow, I'd be fine with that.\" However, she said Simpson had to be found guilty and that his argument about just wanting to recover his own things didn't work. \"Under Nevada law ... even if you're recovering your own stuff, you can't do it in the manner that they all went in and did it,\" Pettit said.","highlights":"Some witnesses didn't seem trustworthy, jury foreman says .\nAt least three witnesses who cut deals to testify had criminal records .\n\"Not one decision\" was made based solely on testimony, juror says .\nJurors: Simpson's 1995 acquittal on murder charges never came up ."} -{"article":"ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- In 1988, a relatively unknown rock and blues guitarist named Warren Haynes got some of his friends together to play music in Asheville, North Carolina. It was just an opportunity for local musicians to jam during the holidays, the one time of year they were all in town together. Warren Haynes' good work has been noted by the street named after him. The artists also wanted to give back to the community, so they gave the money raised by their show to various charities. The tradition has continued. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, Haynes' Christmas Jam has evolved into an epic annual event for the musicians, fans, and particularly Habitat for Humanity. \"We need Habitat For Humanity more now than ever, with the whole mortgage crisis that put us where we are now, and the fact that Habitat is about building homes for people that can't afford homes as opposed to lending money to people who can't afford homes,\" Haynes told CNN. Haynes and his wife, Stefani Scamardo, decided to donate 100 percent of the Christmas Jam proceeds to Habitat for Humanity years ago because they could see exactly where the money was going. They go back each year and meet the families they helped build homes for. Singer Joan Osborne echoed Haynes' thoughts. \"It's a scary time. A lot of people are losing their homes so it's good to be able to do something that helps with that specific problem,\" she said. Going into 2008's shows, which were held December 12 and 13, the Christmas Jam had raised more than $665,000 for Asheville's Habitat For Humanity. The money has gone into building 12 houses in Enka Hills, a wooded community surrounded by mountains on a street the organization appropriately named Warren Haynes Drive. (In 2005 Habitat also built a house in the New Orleans Musicians Village.) The Thursday before the show, Haynes presented the key to a new home to single mother Suzie Cromer and her 8-year-old daughter. \"Meeting the families and seeing the work that Habitat's doing with our help -- you know its hard to see that and not get emotional,\" Haynes said. \"Warren is a hero in our mind,\" said Habitat's Arianne Kjellquist. \"In western North Carolina, the housing costs are really out of whack with what the local wages are, so there's a big discrepancy there. There are more people that maybe would have been approved previously when the lending standards weren't so strict.\" This year's Christmas Jam lived up to the long-lasting and crowd-pleasing traditions of previous shows. The first night's show ran more than nine hours, ending with an Allman Brothers set after 4 a.m. The second night's show ended at 3:30 a.m. Performers included Ben Harper and Relentless 7, Travis Tritt, Michael Franti, Osborne, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Steve Earle and Haynes' band Gov't Mule. Perhaps the most anticipated addition this year among both fans and artists was former Led Zeppelin member John Paul Jones, who played acoustic mandolin, bass and keyboards throughout the weekend with just about everyone. Jones said he was happy to pitch in. \"In the economic climate like this, people really just want to get out and enjoy themselves and forget about the day to day stuff that they have to deal with. So it works on many levels,\" Jones said. \"The fact that it is for a good cause is just a huge bonus.\" Haynes says the 20-year evolution of the Christmas Jam reflects his career. \"We've grown up together. Its a parallel of the progress that I have achieved, and the event reflects not only the philosophy I share with these people but the mission.\" And as fans danced the night away while the artists played their hearts out, families' dreams of owning their perfect home come true. \"I would have never imagined or dreamed that it would turn into what its turned into,\" Haynes reflected with a huge smile.","highlights":"Guitarist Warren Haynes helped start Christmas Jam 20 years ago .\nAsheville, N.C., concert has raised thousands for charity .\nMoney has built 12 Habitat for Humanity houses in a local neighborhood ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The slayings of two super-yacht staff within two weeks have shaken the luxury yacht industry and sparked calls for crews to exercise extreme caution. Australian luxury yacht captain Drew Gollan was killed in January in English Harbor, Antigua. Both slayings occurred in popular yachting destinations in the Caribbean and involved violent attacks. Last week, U.S. luxury yacht chef Sara Kuszak, of Savannah, Georgia, was killed after being abducted during a morning run in Puerto Rico. The body of Kuszak, who was five months pregnant, was found with a slashed throat in a field. A local man has been arrested by police in connection with the incident. On January 22, Australian Drew Gollan, captain of Perini Navi yacht Perseus, was shot dead in what was described as a \"failed robbery\" in English Harbor, Antigua. Gollan, 38, was described as a \"widely respected member of the yachting community.\" His death came less than a year after the double killing of a British couple on the island. Suspects have been arrested and charged with murder in both cases. Antigua, in particular, is highly dependent on the luxury yacht industry to boost its local economy -- and it appears news of the crimes is already having a negative impact. In a press release, the Antigua Charter Yacht Meeting acknowledged that \"a number of boats have decided to leave Antigua in the wake of this incident.\" Further reports from yachting magazine SuperYachtWorld suggest several captains on the island have also decided to leave. Meanwhile, luxury yacht staff who are remaining in the Caribbean have been urged by industry Web site yotcru.com to \"exercise vigilant personal safety at all times.\" After the death of Gollan, local Antigua politicians and yacht industry representatives held an emergency meeting to discuss the problem. At the meeting, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, said: \"Antigua is still a safe place to be. It's an unfortunate situation, however we are all hoping that justice will be done,\" SuperYachtWorld reported. Spencer also pledged new security efforts to help prevent future crimes. An international charter company manager and luxury yacht industry expert, Els Bucknell, said yacht crews and clients were \"shocked and saddened\" by the deaths, and there would likely be a short-term impact on the Caribbean region. \"Most people assumed that this part of Antigua was safe and I think it has come as a shock,\" she said. \"Some boats have already left and I think you will see some of that.\" However, Bucknell felt the incident would not affect the region in the long term. \"People do forget about these things over time ... and the local business people with police and other authorities have made a serious attempt to make it safer. \"The economy being the way it is has more to do with how business operates than these kind of things,\" she said.","highlights":"Australian captain Drew Gollan shot dead in Antigua on January 22 .\nU.S. yacht chef Sara Kuszak was abducted and killed in Puerto Rico last week .\nReports indicate some yachts and crew members leaving Caribbean ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pet store expecting a shipment of exotic fish this week found itself with a man's dead body instead. The man's widow told CNN that it might have been her husband's \"last practical joke.\" The body of Jon Kenoyer, a California man who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was being donated to an Allentown, Pennsylvania, research group, Life Quest Anatomical. The shipment was handled by US Airways, which also has delivered imported fish from throughout the world to Pets Plus Pet Center for more than a decade, store manager Mike Mullarkey said. On Tuesday, Mullarkey said, he received what he thought was an expected shipment of seahorses, anemones and corals from Vietnam via California. Before opening it, however, he discovered that the box's label indicated that it contained the remains of a man who had died four days before. The Pets Plus people were \"shocked to see that,\" he said. Mary Kenoyer, Jon Kenoyer's widow, told CNN that she was initially startled by the news, but was able to see the comic side of it. \"At first, of course, you're upset and shocked. But then I realized it was just a mistake,\" she said. Noting her husband had been afraid of flying during his life, she said, \"He's just playing the last practical joke on me for putting him on a plane.\" Kenoyer said she hopes news of the mistake won't discourage others from donating their bodies to science. \"The casket wasn't opened and was treated with respect,\" she said. Mullarkey said police supervised the return of the shipment to US Airways, which rerouted it to Life Quest. \"In all the years, I can understand a mixup,\" Mullarkey said. \"But something like that, I think, should be handled a little more delicately.\" US Airways issued a statement of apology: \"Regrettably, there was an unfortunate mixup yesterday at the US Airways Cargo facility near Philadelphia International Airport. The mixup occurred due to a verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative. We are working to rectify the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.\" A spokeswoman at Life Quest Anatomical declined to comment.","highlights":"Body of Jon Kenoyer delivered to Pets Plus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania .\nIntended for delivery to Life Quest Anatomical in Allentown, Pennsylvania .\nPet store expected shipment of seahorses, anemones, and corals .\n\"He's just playing the last practical joke on me,\" says widow ."} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The grandparents of missing 2-year-old Caylee Anthony continue to stand by their daughter, who is accused of killing Caylee, an attorney said Monday. Caylee Anthony, 2, has been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. The lawyer's announcement came just hours before a source confirmed authorities discovered bones in the area where a body believed to be Caylee's was found last week. The bones were scattered in the dirt, perhaps by an animal, the source said. Crime scene investigators were searching the area where the body was found and will continue searching through at least Wednesday, according to Commander Capt. Angelo Nieves with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Outside agencies, including the FBI, were helping the sheriff's office sift through the area \"in order to make sure that no stone, no area, is left untouched where the child's remains were found,\" Nieves said. \"Significant finds have been made,\" he added. \"At this point, we cannot identify what items have been recovered.\" George and Cindy Anthony were \"devastated\" upon learning a toddler's corpse had been found near their Orlando, Florida, home, attorney Brad Conway said, but the couple is waiting for authorities to confirm the body's identity. \"They're not grieving yet, because they don't know whose body this is, but if it is identified as Caylee they're going to go through that grieving process privately, and when they're ready to speak, they will,\" Conway told reporters. A utility worker discovered the remains in a plastic bag Thursday and alerted authorities. CNN affiliate WFTV-TV in Orlando reported the utility worker, a meter reader, picked up a bag at the site and a skull fell out. Listen to the disturbing 911 call \u00bb . Later that day, authorities searched the Anthonys' home and removed \"a number of items,\" Conway said. Authorities have said Casey Anthony, 22, waited about a month before telling her family Caylee was gone. Caylee's grandmother called police on July 15, saying her daughter would not tell her where Caylee was. See where remains were found \u00bb . The girl was 2 at the time of her disappearance. The FBI is using DNA analysis to try and positively identify the remains, Conway said. Though bureau spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday he did not know when tests would be complete, Conway said the FBI is likely to have results \"within the next week.\" Watch Conway describe the grandparents' devastation \u00bb . \"Everybody wants to make sure that there are no mistakes made, that the person responsible for this crime is held responsible for it and, if that happens to be Casey, a jury of her peers will have to make that decision after the state of Florida proves beyond a reasonable doubt,\" he said. If the remains prove to be those of their granddaughter, the body would be released to the Anthonys \"for proper and respectful burial,\" he said. Conway described his clients as \"good, honest, decent people that are getting publicity that they do not deserve.\" Orange County Sheriff Office's spokesman Carlos Padilla said last week that authorities believe the remains are Caylee's because no other children have been reported missing in the area, the remains are consistent with a child Caylee's age and the remains were found near the grandparents' home. Watch how a home became a crime scene \u00bb . Caylee and her mother had lived in the house with Caylee's grandparents, but Casey Anthony moved into an apartment at the time Caylee disappeared. Casey Anthony faces charges including first-degree murder in Caylee's disappearance. If convicted, she could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Prosecutors said this month they would not seek the death penalty. Casey Anthony's attorneys have insisted she is innocent. Watch Caylee's uncle dismantle a memorial \u00bb . After learning a corpse was found last week, attorneys sought a court order allowing them to observe the autopsy and conduct their own forensic tests. A judge denied the request after prosecutors said the motion was premature because the body had not yet been identified. Watch why police think it's Caylee \u00bb . \"What I don't want to see, bluntly, is 24 hours after viewing an autopsy, a defense expert on a national news show describing this child's remains,\" prosecutor Jeff Ashton argued. \"The specter of that is nauseating to me.\" Asked Friday how Casey Anthony responded to the news her daughter's remains may have been found, lawyer Jose Baez said, \"It's not something that someone takes well.\" Casey Anthony remains in protective custody and has no contact with other inmates, corrections officials said. A psychologist has seen her, and she is on psychological observation, which is not the same as suicide watch, according to a statement. Casey Anthony's trial, originally set for January, has been postponed until at least March. When questioned by police this summer, Casey Anthony gave conflicting statements, including some that were later disproved, according to hundreds of documents and investigative reports released in the case. She claimed she dropped Caylee off with a babysitter, but when police checked out her story, they learned the address Casey Anthony supplied belonged to an apartment that had been vacant for weeks. The woman Casey Anthony named as her babysitter told police she did not know her. Review a timeline of the case \u00bb . Investigators said cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Anthony's car as well as in her parents' backyard. They also said air quality tests conducted by the FBI found evidence consistent with human decomposition and chloroform in the car's trunk. A neighbor told police Anthony had asked to borrow a shovel. CNN's John Couwels and Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sheriff's official says \"significant finds have been made,\" doesn't elaborate .\nSource says authorities find bones near site where corpse was found .\nFBI should have DNA analyzed \"within the next week,\" he adds .\nHair, age, measurements of remains match toddler, police and attorneys say ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Lewis Hamilton has escaped punishment after allegations of erratic driving behind the safety car in the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend. Vettel ran into the back of Webber when they were racing behind Hamilton. The FIA ruled that Hamilton would suffer no penalty after inquiring into the accident when Sebastian Vettel crashed into Mark Webber in Fuji. Vettel's original 10-place penalty on the Chinese Grand Prix starting grid was replaced with a reprimand. The stewards studied film of the incident, including amateur video footage, before announcing their verdict. They said: \"Having heard the explanation of all concerned and viewed both the original film of the incident which was available to stewards at Fuji as well as the new film, what has become apparent is the view clearly expressed by all drivers and team managers alike that the conditions at Fuji were exceptionally bad and worse than those experienced when the race starts behind the safety car. \"Because of those views, the stewards accept that it may be inappropriate to impose the penalty normally applied for an offence such as this. \"In the circumstances the stewards will reduce the penalty imposed on Vettel to a reprimand. \"The involvement of Lewis Hamilton in this incident has also been considered in the light of evidence given by him, his team manager and in particular all other parties present and no penalty is imposed upon him.\" The 22-year-old British rookie, who drives for McLaren-Mercedes, leads the race for the world championship by 12 points, with two rounds left, and there had been speculation that he might lose some of those points if the FIA found him culpable. Hamilton had strengthened his title bid with a superb victory at Fuji in appalling conditions which twice saw the safety car deployed. As the field trailed behind the safety car on the second occasion, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Vettel drove into the back of Red Bull's Mark Webber, causing them both to retire. The drivers, who were lying in second and third places behind Hamilton a the time of the accident, both criticized Hamilton for driving erratically and slowing up and down. The incident was missed by television cameras but footage, taken from the grandstand, was shown on the YouTube Web site. It appeared to show Hamilton pulling over to the right-hand side of the track and slowing down markedly, in turn forcing Webber to slow down, which caught Vettel on the hop. Webber said: \"It definitely contributed to Sebastian hitting me up the back because he (Hamilton) wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing, clearly. \"He spoke in the drivers' meeting about how good a job he was going to do and he did the opposite. Still, we know for next time,\" added the Australian. Webber stressed, however, that he had not complained to the stewards about the incident. On Friday he issued a statement saying: \" I would just like to make it clear that, although I criticized Hamilton's driving in yesterday's FIA Press Conference, at no time have I made any official complaint about anyone's driving following Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.\" Hamilton, speaking at practice for the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, had protested his innocence before the verdict was announced. \"I had a good weekend, I didn't put a foot wrong. I didn't do anything to put anyone else in danger,\" he said. \"I've come away to China and all of a sudden I'm going to be punished for something. \"I just think it's a real shame for the sport. Formula One's supposed to be about hard, fair competition. That's what I've tried to do this year, just be fair. \"There's been some real strange situations this year where I'm made to look the bad person and, by the looks of it, this weekend be given a penalty. \"If this is the way it's going to keep going, it's not somewhere I really want to be.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lewis Hamilton is cleared of erratic driving in the Japanese GP .\nThe FIA probed a crash between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber .\nHamilton had been ahead behind the safety car ."} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- African governments have stopped importing Chinese dairy products as the crisis which has seen more than 52,000 Chinese children poisoned by melamine-tainted goods spreads. Burundi, Gabon and Tanzania have joined governments closer to China -- including Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia -- in banning Chinese dairy products. At least 11 countries have banned imports. The precautions come as the number of affected children in China continues to swell. Four babies have died from melamine-tainted infant formula and more than 52,000 children have fallen ill, Chinese authorities say. \"I think we will see more cases, but it is, of course, impossible to predict how many cases there finally will be,\" said Hans Troedsson, the the World Health Organization's China representative. \"We have to remember that China is a large country with a population of 1.3 billion people. However, of course, 40- to 50,000 children are affected as reported now. It's a staggering figure, but where we will end up is too early yet to say.\" On Monday, China's top quality control official, Li Changjiang, resigned as a result of the scandal, which has seen the arrest of at least 18 people. Two brothers arrested last week on charges of selling contaminated milk could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. The raw milk used to produce powdered baby formula had been watered down and the chemical melamine was added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Watch CNN visit the company at the center of the scandal \u00bb . Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Beijing hospitals and a supermarket to show his concern. China's Health Ministry said about 13,000 children were hospitalized, while another 40,000 had undergone outpatient treatment. \"What we need to do now is to ensure that nothing like this happens in the future, not only in dairy products, but in all foods,\" he said. \"Manufacturers and owners of dairy companies should show more morality and social responsibility in these cases. They are heartless, so we have to create strict law and legislation. I'm sorry.\" Watch how Beijing is under pressure over public safety \u00bb . The repercussions from the scandal were felt as far away as Africa. Burundi imports milk products from two suspect Chinese companies and the government has set up a commission to investigate how much tainted product could remain on store shelves, officials said. \"For the moment, nobody knows if the milk is being sold on the Burundi market,\" Noel Nkurunziza, president of a Burundi consumer association known as ABUCO, is quoted as saying in The Guardian newspaper and other publications. In Asia, Singapore announced a recall of all Chinese milk products on Tuesday. The head of Indonesia's Food Safety Watch said she was instituting a temporary ban of all milk imports from China, although contaminated milk has not been found in the country. In issuing its recall of milk products, Singapore had already suspended the import and sale of milk and dairy products from China on Friday, after it said it has found traces of melamine in three Chinese-made dairy products. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said \"White Rabbit Creamy Candy\" was ordered off of shelves after tests showed it was contaminated. White Rabbit is among the best-known candy brands in China and one of the few exported widely. The United States is among 40 nations that import the candy, a man in the administrative office of the Shanghai-based company told CNN Monday. Earlier, Singapore's agri-food agency said it found melamine in two other milk-based Chinese imports: the Yili brand \"Choice Dairy Fruit Bar Yoghurt Flavored Ice Confection\" and the Dutch Lady brand of strawberry-flavored milk. In Bangladesh, three Chinese powdered milk brands -- Sanlu, Suncare and Yashili -- have been taken off shelves and all milk powder imports at Bangladeshi ports will be inspected. Bangladeshi TV showed the country's Rapid Action Battalion climbing over a fence to raid a storage facility believed to contain tainted milk. In Malaysia, Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai announced that import of Chinese milk products had been stopped. In addition to banning imports, thousands of tons of tainted milk powder have been recalled. In the Philippines Monday, the country's Bureau of Food and Drugs banned the distribution and selling of two brands of imported Chinese milk that could possibly be tainted, the Philippines News Agency reported. The milk brands were Yili and China Mengniu Diary Company, the agency reported. One of the implicated Chinese plants is operated by a subsidiary of the Marudai Food Co. in Japan. Marudai said it was recalling five types of products from the plant, would halt operations there for one month, and will send employees to the subsidiary to examine quality controls. The factory will be shut down through October 19. Even some countries that don't import Chinese dairy products, such as Malaysia and Brunei, have banned milk products from China. In Hong Kong, concerned parents have swamped hospitals. A 3-year-old Hong Kong girl was reported this weekend as the first case outside of mainland China. The girl was treated for kidney stones at Princess Margaret Hospital and released, Hong Kong's government Web site reported. Her condition is being monitored. Watch the public outcry faced by the Chinese government \u00bb . A second child, a 4-year-old boy, had similar renal symptoms, the government reported Monday. The boy, a Hong Kong native, had consumed milk products contaminated with melamine and was diagnosed with a kidney stone in mainland China, the Department of Health said. He was treated at Princess Margaret on Monday and was in stable condition. The hospital said Monday it has provided medical consultation to 63 people who might have consumed contaminated milk products. The patients, 34 males and 29 females, ranged in age from 2 months to 17 years old. A Hong Kong government hotline has received nearly 1,000 calls. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Some Chinese dairy plants have added it to milk products to make it seem to have a higher protein level. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . Melamine is the same industrial contaminant from China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats last year. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition.","highlights":"NEW: Burundi, Gabon, Tanzania ban import of suspect milk products from China .\nNEW: Singapore, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei impose bans .\nHead of China's quality watchdog resigns over tainted baby formula scandal .\nFour infants in China dead, over 52,000 reported ill from tainted milk powder ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An extended trip to Ecuador by two Americans changed from a dream to a nightmare after a brutal attack last week, according the couple's blog and U.S. officials. State Department spokesman Robert Wood confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador had been told that two Americans from Bend, Oregon, were attacked in the city of Esmeraldas, on Ecuador's northern coast. But he said he could provide no further information because of privacy laws. Two State Department officials, however, said that the man was stabbed more than 24 times and that his fianc\u00e9e was beaten and raped. CNN does not name the victims of sexual assault and has removed publication of the man's name to help protect the identity of the woman. The couple was evacuated to the United States on Tuesday for treatment, the officials said. The couple wrote a blog throughout their trip. In the most recent post on Monday, the woman wrote that her fiance was in intensive care after three surgeries. \"I was informed by the head surgeon there is no certainty he will survive,\" she wrote. The earlier postings were happier reflections on their visit to Ecuador, a year-long trip they planned after getting engaged and selling all their belongings. In the blog, the couple seems unconcerned about safety, posting that they occasionally hitchhiked, visited the homes of strangers and posed for pictures with new friends they made on their travels. One senior official told CNN that the victims' parents complained to U.S. consular officers in Ecuador that the Embassy did not do enough to warn Americans that many people have been attacked in Esmeraldas. The State Department's Web site advises caution when traveling to the northern border region of Ecuador, including Esmeraldas. The travel advisory section notes that \"U.S. government personnel are under limitations with respect to traveling alone and over-nighting in these areas due to the spread of organized crime, drug trafficking, small arms trafficking, and incursions by various Colombian terrorist organizations.\" The Web site says that since 1998, at least 10 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped and one killed near Ecuador's border with Colombia. Wood on Tuesday expressed the State Department's \"deep sympathy\" for the victims and said the department worked with the victims' families to provide assistance. \"It's a horrible and shocking incident\" he said.","highlights":"U.S. officials say man was stabbed repeatedly, his fianc\u00e9e raped and beaten .\nRelative tells media that couple was attacked on beach in northern Ecuador .\nFianc\u00e9e writes in blog that her companion may not survive despite three surgeries .\nState Department site advises caution when traveling to parts of northern Ecuador ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- President Obama mixed jokes with serious discussion Thursday during an appearance on \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.\" President Obama chats it up with Jay Leno on \"The Tonight Show\" on Thursday. While presidential candidates have used comedy shows for campaigning as far back as Richard Nixon's performance on \"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In\" in 1968, Obama became the first sitting president to appear before a late-night talk show studio audience. Obama complimented guitarist Kevin Eubanks on his suit, and he cracked jokes about the Secret Service and \"American Idol\" host Simon Cowell. Obama also remarked on his poor bowling skills, which were evident during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. He told Leno that he bowled 129 in the White House bowling alley and said his bowling skills are \"like Special Olympics or something.\" Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the president's remarks were not meant to poke fun of the Special Olympics. \"The president made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,\" Burton said. \"He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world.\" Obama later moved on to topical discussions of the economic crisis and the AIG bonus scandal. Watch some of Obama's appearance \u00bb . \"The problem with AIG was that it owed so much and was tangled up with so many banks and institutions that if you had allowed it to just liquidate, to go into bankruptcy, it could have brought the whole financial system down. So it was the right thing to do to intervene in AIG,\" Obama said. Obama said earlier this week that he'll \"take responsibility\" for AIG executives receiving those controversial bonuses -- roughly $165 million -- while the company took $173 billion in government bailouts. Congress is looking for ways to recoup all or some of that money. \"The larger problem is we've got to get back to an attitude where people know enough is enough, and people have a sense of responsibility and they understand that their actions are going to have an impact on everybody,\" he said. \"If we can get back to those values that built America, then I think we're going to be OK.\" Obama also said he was confident in his embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. \"I think Geithner is doing an outstanding job. I think that we have a big mess on our hands,\" he said. \"It's not going to be solved immediately, but it is going to get solved.\" Obama taped the show Thursday afternoon during a two-day swing through the Los Angeles area for town hall meetings focusing on the economy. iReport.com: Nice to see the \"real\" Obama . Obama also discussed the \"life in the bubble,\" musing over how Secret Service agents would not let him walk 750 yards from Air Force One to the Costa Mesa fairgrounds, where some of the day's activities were to take place. Obama said flying in Air Force One is \"pretty cool,\" especially because \"they give you the jacket with the [presidential] seal on it,\" he said. The only time Leno appeared to stop Obama in his tracks was when he asked the president whether he thought people intentionally lose basketball games when they play with him. \"I don't see why they would throw the game, except for all those Secret Service guys with guns around,\" he said. There's some political risk for Obama, according to Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, who also hosts CNN's \"Reliable Sources.\" AC360 blog: Laughing through the pain . \"He has to be very careful about his tone, because if he yuks it up too much and seems to be having too good a time, it will be quite a contrast there with the pain the people are feeling with the crumbling economy,\" Kurtz said. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"President compliments Kevin Eubanks' suit, pokes fun at Simon Cowell .\nObama on more serious topic: \"The problem with AIG is it owed so much\"\nHe says bonuses are problem, but larger issue is people feel lack of responsibility .\nPresident must be careful not to trivialize economic pain, media observer cautions ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the test pilot, the Air Force said. An F-22A fighter jet similar to this one crashed Wednesday during a test mission in California. The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) for unknown reasons, Air Force officials said. Lockheed Martin said the test pilot, David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, joined the company in 2003 and was a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release. At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter. In 2004, an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert. The pilot ejected and was not hurt, though the jet was destroyed. The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike. Once the Cold War ended, the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival. However, the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program, which was almost eliminated by Congress. In the end, the aircraft survived, and most of the problems were fixed -- except for the price tag, which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft.","highlights":"NEW: Test pilot David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, dies in crash .\nF-22A fighter jet crashes 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB around 10:30 a.m.\nThe one-seater jet was on a test mission when it crashed .\nAt $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter ."} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German investigators Thursday acknowledged \"credible information\" indicating that one of the world's most wanted Nazi war criminals died almost 20 years ago in Egypt. The former the hotel in Cairo where Heim spent his final days. The announcement from the Baden-Wuerttemberg State Criminal Investigations Office came a day after German public broadcaster ZDF reported similar findings about Aribert Heim, wanted since 1962. ZDF said research it conducted with the New York Times showed that Heim died in Cairo in 1992 of intestinal cancer. Witness accounts and documents, including a passport, prove that Heim lived under the false name of Tarek Farid Hussein, ZDF said. CNN spoke to Heim's son, Ruediger Heim, who said his father fled Germany to Egypt via France, Spain and Morocco. Ruediger Heim told CNN he visited his father in Cairo several times, including in the final weeks of his life when the terminal cancer was discovered. The German investigators said they were was checking the new information. \"This information has not yet been verified due to time constraints,\" the office said in a statement. But German authorities said they already had hints that Heim was living and working in Egypt. The office said it received information in 1965 and 1967 indicating Heim was working in the country, but Egyptian authorities at the time, acting on a German request, did not find any conclusive evidence. \"Our main goal now is, in cooperation with the Egyptian authorities, (to) identify the remains of Aribert Heim,\" the office said. The chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, said the news about Heim's death, if true, is deeply disappointing. \"I personally feel a tremendous sense of disappointment that he escaped justice,\" Zuroff told CNN. But he emphasized that he had not seen the evidence that Heim was dead. \"There is no body and no grave, so we can't do a DNA test,\" he said, adding that \"there are people who have a vested interest in convincing us that he is no longer alive.\" He said he expects to see the documentary evidence of Heim's death on Thursday. Heim would be 94 years old if he were still alive. Zuroff described Heim as \"the most wanted Nazi war criminal,\" and said the Simon Wiesenthal Center was about to raise the reward for information about him from \u20ac315,000 ($405,000) to \u20ac1 million ($1.3 million) when it heard the reports of his death. During World War II Heim was a doctor at the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was known to inmates as \"Dr. Death\" for performing often-fatal experiments on prisoners. After the war, he was initially cleared of wrongdoing, but in 1962 German authorities issued an arrest warrant for him. CNN Berlin Bureau Chief Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report .","highlights":"German broadcaster reports Nazi hiding in Egypt died in 1992 .\nAribert Heim known to inmates as \"Dr. Death\" performed experiments on prisoners .\nZDF reports he lived lived in Cairo as Tarek Farid Hussein; died of cancer .\nNazi hunter groups says it expects to see documentary evidence Thursday ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Tananarive Due is an American Book Award-winning and NAACP Image Award-winning novelist. She is based in Los Angeles. Her Web site is http:\/\/www.tananarivedue.com\/. The Due sisters -- Johnita, left, Tananarive, center, and Lydia -- prepare for a Jackson concert in 1984. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson died Thursday, and my family gathered by telephone from Florida, Texas, California and Georgia to mourn and remember. But we began mourning long ago. I was 17 when the \"Motown 25th Anniversary Special\" aired in 1983, and my parents, sisters and I first saw Michael Jackson moonwalk to \"Billie Jean.\" He sent a lightning bolt through our living room, and all of us leaped to our feet with shouts. He may have been the best entertainer I live to see. His music asked us to transcend race and geography, hate and bigotry, and made us feel like we were the world. In recent months, I showed my 5-year-old son, Jason, that Motown performance on YouTube. \"Billie Jean\" made Jason want to moonwalk and wear a glove. \"Beat It\" inspired Jason to kick his leg and fling his head from side to side like Michael. But it has been a long time since I could watch Michael Jackson videos without feeling sad. His death is only the next stage of the loss. Michael Jackson left the music world to mourn -- but many of us, especially black Americans, felt like we lost a family member on Thursday. He pained and puzzled us, but we still loved him. Until Thursday, some of us had forgotten how much. Michael was not always easy to love. He tested us, sometimes asking us to ignore what we could see with our own eyes. We may never know fully what Michael did or didn't do, but he was like the lost relative we wished we could bring back to shore. When Jason asked questions about Michael's changing face in the videos, I showed him the beautiful brown-skinned, bright-eyed little boy who grew up in my family's living room. There is supreme irony in the death of Michael Jackson the same year as the inauguration of the first black president. Michael, who would ascend higher than any black artist in music history, learned a bitter lesson: Even at the top of the mountain, there is only the man in the mirror. Jason isn't old enough to fully understand black and white, why his grandmother was sent to jail for ordering a hamburger at a Woolworth lunch counter in 1960, or how an ill-used child's soul might never find its way back home. So I told Jason about the time Mommy, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lydia and Aunt Johnita [now an assistant general counsel at CNN] drove from Miami to Jacksonville to see the Jacksons' Victory Tour in 1984, when Michael Jackson ruled the world. How his aunties and I dressed up for the concert in our own gloves. After the concert, still floating from the surreal experience, we approached a stretch limousine on the highway. As my father sidled our car closer and my sisters and I pressed our noses to the window to try to see, the limo's tinted electric window slid down. A sparkling silver glove waved out to us. When we saw that glove, the whole car screamed -- even my father, who was driving. My sisters and I begged my father to follow the limousine...and it finally came to a stop in front of our budget hotel. When the rear door opened, a white blond-haired decoy stepped out -- wearing a silver Michael Jackson glove. If only we'd never seen past the tinted window. If only we had a perfect memory of Michael waving goodbye. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tananarive Due.","highlights":"Tananarive Due: My family mourned the loss of Michael Jackson last week .\nIn some ways, she says, the mourning began long ago with his puzzling behavior .\nShe says many black Americans forgot how much they loved him ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran tested a missile-launching system and several types of short- and medium-range missiles Sunday, the state-run Press TV said. A short-range missile is test-launched during war games in Qom, Iran, south of Tehran, on Sunday. Earlier, the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had said it would stage missile exercises beginning Sunday to promote the armed forces' defense capabilities. The tests, which are expected to last until Monday, are code-named \"Payghambar-e Azam 4\" or \"The Great Prophet 4,\" Press TV said. The missiles, fired at targets around the country Sunday, included the Fateh-110, a short-range ground-to-ground missile, and Tondar-69, a short-range naval missile, the station said. Several models of medium-range Shahab missiles were tested at night, Press TV reported. Watch Iranian missile tests \u00bb . The final stage of the tests will be held Monday morning, when Iran plans to test the long-range Shahab missile, the station said. In May, Iran said it tested a surface-to-surface missile that is capable of reaching parts of Europe. At the time, a White House official said actions in Iran were noteworthy. \"Of course, this is just a test, and obviously there is much work to be done before it can be built and deployed. But I see it as a significant step forward in terms of Iran's capacity to deliver weapons,\" said Gary Samore, special assistant to the president on nonproliferation. The latest test follows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disclosure Friday that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility. Watch analyst's view on missile tests, nuclear tensions \u00bb . The United States and Israel believe that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program. Iran has denied the allegation.","highlights":"NEW: Iran test-fires several types of short- and medium-range missiles .\nNEW: Tests are code-named \"The Great Prophet 4,\" state-run Press TV says .\nMissile tests come days after Iran admits existence of second nuclear facility .\nIn May, Iran tested surface-to-surface missile capable of reaching parts of Europe ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Luci Baines Johnson was just 16 years old when she approached her father, President Johnson, with what she considered a reasonable request. Luci Baines Johnson, left, and her older sister, Lynda Bird, pose inside the White House in 1963. \"I asked my father if we could have the Beatles come to play at the White House,\" she recalled. \"I was very excited about it.\" His response? A decisive no, \"without even any moment of trying to soften the blow,\" Johnson said in a recent phone interview. The president thought the move would be viewed as self-serving. His daughter, however, saw it as a chance to honor \"a great talent\" and strengthen ties between the United States and Great Britain -- not to mention a golden opportunity for her and her friends. \"I could see how different sets of folks could have either perspective. And I suspect my father could see that too,\" she said. Luci Baines Johnson learned quickly of the scrutiny that came from being a first daughter. Her family moved into the White House in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Johnson was catapulted into the exclusive fraternity of White House families and embraced what she describes as a role she landed simply by chance. That fraternity has most recently expanded to include President Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia. \"I was an eyewitness to history, over and over, during my father's five years in the White House. And I wasn't elected to that option. I had no qualifications that provided me that privilege except an accident of birth,\" she said. See famous first kids who grew up in the White House \u00bb . Johnson speaks fondly of the opportunity she was afforded to dine with kings and queens, meet the movers and shakers of her time, engage with the body of America and hold a front-row seat to history. While most of her memories fall into two categories -- \"the fond personal memories\" and \"the fond memories of public privilege\" -- there's one in particular that was a combination of both. \"My 17th birthday, I received a handwritten note from my father, the only handwritten note I have, telling me how much he loves me and how much he has delighted in having me as his daughter for all those 17 years,\" she said. The note was dated noon, July 2, 1964. Six hours later, in the East Room of the White House, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on race or gender in public places, schools and places of employment. \"Can you imagine ever receiving a more momentous, glorious, exciting, thrilling birthday present that lasted forever and ever than something like that, that would change the world for all time and make it a much more decent place? That took place on my birthday,\" she said. Life in the White House, however, came at a cost. Johnson and the first children before and after her will always have to \"pay a big price in terms of personal time,\" she said. More than 45 years after she moved into the White House, she still receives requests for interviews about the time she spent there. But the public's interest in first daughters is nothing new. Fanny Hayes, for example, who was about the same age as Malia when she moved into the White House in 1877, was followed by the media until the day she died. \"She was an American celebrity,\" said presidential historian Doug Wead. While the interest in first daughters has stayed steady, the pressure on the children has intensified, said Wead, author of \"All the Presidents' Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families.\" \"It's like the Miss America contest -- it's a real dilemma for the daughter of a president. She's supposed to be gracious. She's mocked and ridiculed if she isn't pretty,\" he said. When Chelsea Clinton was just 13 years old, for example, she was ridiculed in a 1993 \"Saturday Night Live\" sketch that declared her \"not a babe.\" Actor Mike Myers later apologized, and the skit was cut from replays of the show. Amy Carter, who was 9 when she moved into the White House, was also mocked for her appearance and for her poor manners, after she pulled out a book during a state dinner. Her parents enrolled her in public school, illuminating the already bright spotlight on her. An infamous photograph of her first day at school shows the young girl with her head hanging low, carrying a Snoopy book bag and surrounded by a swarm of paparazzi. To this date, no other presidential children have attended public school. But other presidential children have taken on power roles in their fathers' administrations. Anna Roosevelt, for example, was a \"super aide\" to Franklin D. Roosevelt during his last year in office, Wead said, describing her as a combination of a personal secretary and chief of staff, not to mention popular in the public eye. And Alice Roosevelt, a fashion icon who was known to have quite the rebellious streak, also played a pivotal role for her father, Theodore Roosevelt. She went on an around-the-world junket for the purposes of American foreign policy -- a move that diverted attention from her father's efforts to bring about a peace treaty in the Russo-Japanese War, Wead said. The president later won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on various peace treaties. Under the administration that followed, William Taft's daughter became one of the unsung heroes of women's rights, Wead said. Taft credited his daughter, Helen, for helping to change his mind about women's suffrage. But for all presidential children, Wead said, there remains a lifelong battle of seeking approval from their fathers while struggling to carve their own identities. Many presidential daughters have gone on to author books about their time in White House, in what Wead describes as an attempt to restore their fathers' reputations. \"It's like sitting in front of a big window ... and seeing a billboard with misspelled words on it. It's just irritating,\" he said. \"And the writing of a book, if it doesn't change history, it is a purifying experience for the child.\" Susan Ford Bales once told the San Francisco Chronicle that while in the White House, \"I kept thinking, I want to be normal. But I can't be normal. .... Everyone was watching. It was like living out loud.\" But Ford also cashed in on some of the perks of her high-profile position and took Alice Roosevelt's advice to \"have one hell of a good time.\" Ford roller-skated through the White House, held her prom in the East Room and scored VIP treatment at concerts -- including a backstage pass to see Rod Stewart. (That move ignited the public's interest in her, sparking rumors that she and Stewart were engaged.) Johnson said that some of the best advice she received while in the White House was to just recognize that she couldn't change things or make the attention go away. \"There are inevitably going to be moments when you feel like the pressures of the goldfish bowl seem unfair or more than you can bear, but so are the opportunities to learn, to understand, to grow, to love, to make friends, to witness,\" she said. \"I describe it as the best of times and sometimes the worst of times, but whatever the times, it was a time of extraordinary privilege.\"","highlights":"Luci Johnson describes being a first daughter as an \"extraordinary privilege\"\nIt was \"the best of times and sometimes the worst of times,\" she says .\nFirst daughters often followed by media for remainder of their lives .\nThe pressure on first daughters has intensified over the years, historian says ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Oscar Reynoso owed his bosses $300,000, and he was running out of time. One anti-drug operation in Atlanta netted $10.6 million, 108 kilos of cocaine, 17 pounds of meth and 32 weapons. Gunmen snatched Reynoso and locked him in the basement of a home to try to settle the drug debt. He was chained to a wall of the basement by his hands and ankles, gagged and beaten. His captors, members of a powerful Mexican drug cartel, held Reynoso for ransom, chained in the sweltering, dirty basement for six days without food. Reynoso's ordeal could've been a scene from the drug war in Mexico. But it played out recently in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. U.S. federal agents are fighting to keep that kind of violence from gripping Atlanta, as the city known for Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines has become a major distribution hub for Mexican drug cartels. In fiscal year 2008, authorities confiscated about $70 million in drug-related cash in Atlanta, more than anywhere else in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration says. This fiscal year, Atlanta continues to outpace all other U.S. regions in such seizures, with $30 million confiscated so far. Next are Los Angeles, California, with about $19 million, and Chicago, Illinois, with $18 million. \"There is definitely a center of this type of drug activity here, and we are working to make sure the violence does not spill out to the general public,\" Atlanta U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said. Atlanta has become a stopping point for truckloads of Mexican cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine, agents say. The drugs are held in stash houses before being distributed up the East Coast. \"The money comes down here also to money managers in Atlanta, who get the books in order before it is sent out,\" said Rodney Benson, Atlanta's chief of the DEA. Agents attribute the growth in drug trafficking to Atlanta's location, proximity to other major cities and access to major highways. Authorities also point to the growth of the Hispanic population in Atlanta, which allows practitioners of the Mexican drug trade to blend in among hard-working, law-abiding Hispanics. No place is that more evident than in Gwinnett County, a community about 20 miles north of Atlanta. Gwinnett's Hispanic population rocketed from 8,470 in 1990 to 63,727 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census. By 2010, 20 percent of the county's projected population of 700,000 is expected to be Hispanic. \"In Gwinnett County, the drug dealers are able to hide in plain sight,\" county District Attorney Danny Porter said. \"To combat this, we have to be much more coordinated between my office, the police department and the federal authorities. The presence of the organizations is a dilemma enough that we have to develop new tactics.\" Federal agents say arrests and drug-related violence in Atlanta have been linked to the two most powerful Mexican organizations: the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels. A battle over drug routes has been blamed for the recent surge in violence in Mexican border towns, bloodshed that has included hundreds of deaths. The fear is that the battle will extend deeper into the United States, causing more to suffer a fate similar to Reynoso's ordeal in the Gwinnett County basement. Lucky for Reynoso, federal agents had a wiretap on his captors' phones. Agents stormed the home just as it appeared that the debt would not be paid and Reynoso would be killed. \"There is no doubt in my mind that we saved his life that day,\" said the DEA's Benson. One case resolved, as cartels thrive in Atlanta.","highlights":"City outpaces all others in the United States in drug-related cash seizures .\n$30 million has been confiscated in Atlanta this fiscal year .\nLocation, proximity to other cities and highways cited in trafficking growth .\nDrug dealers \"hide in plain sight\" in suburban Gwinnett County ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Perveen Crawford became Hong Kong's first female pilot in 1995 and is soon to be Hong Kong's first female astronaut when she blasts off to sub-orbital space as a paying customer on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne. Po Toi O is in Clear Water Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The Hong Kong socialite shows us around her city's favorite haunts. For the best seafood in the city, Crawford recommends Po Toi O a small fishing village at Clear Water Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. At the village's two seafood restaurants diners can sample the freshest fish picked from teeming water tanks and enjoy specialties such as fried mantis shrimp with peppery salt and fried rice with sea urchin. There's also a 300-year-old temple in the village and hiking trails abound in the hills around the bay. Po Toi O is a 45-minute drive from Hong Kong Island and can be reached using minibus route 16 from Po Lam and by car along the Po Toi O Chuen road. Another of Hong Kong's hidden gems is the retro-chic China Club on the 13th floor of the Old Bank of China building on Bank Street. The style is 1930s Shanghai with traditional furniture as well as contemporary Chinese art and dazzling views from the balcony. On the menu is traditional Chinese food (monosodium glutamate is completely banned) as well as Western tea, coffee and cakes during the day. China Club, The 13\/F, The Old Bank of China Building, Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong. Telephone: 25218888.","highlights":"Perveen Crawford, Hong Kong's first female pilot, shows us around her favorite spots .\nFor the best seafood try Po Toi O a small fishing village in the New Territories .\nThe retro-chic China Club in Central Hong Kong serves traditional Chinese food ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors Tuesday urged a Florida judge to sentence actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison and fine him $5 million to demonstrate to taxpayers that refusal to pay income taxes carries severe penalties. Wesley Snipes was acquitted of the most serious charges against him. Snipes is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 by U.S. District Judge William Hodges in Ocala, Florida, on three counts of failure to file federal income tax returns. One week after vowing to crack down on \"tax defiers,\" the Justice Department filed court papers seeking the maximum penalty for the three misdemeanor counts on which Snipes was convicted. \"This case presents the court with a singular opportunity to deter tax fraud nationwide,\" the government said in its sentencing recommendation. Snipes had been charged with felony conspiracy counts for participating in a scheme that rejects the legal foundation of the tax system. However, a jury accepted his argument that he was innocently duped by errant tax advisers, and acquitted him on the most serious charges. \"The fact that Snipes was acquitted on two felony charges and convicted 'only' on three misdemeanor counts has been portrayed in the mainstream media as a 'victory' for Snipes,\" the government document says. \"The troubling implication of such coverage for the millions of average citizens who are aware of this case is that the rich and famous Wesley Snipes has 'gotten away with it.' In the end the criminal conduct of Snipes must not be seen in such a light.\" Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman, head of the Justice Department's Tax Division, last week promised to beef up the government's efforts to pursue those engaged in a variety of schemes making legal assertions that income taxes are either voluntary or unconstitutional. \"For nearly a decade Snipes has engaged in a campaign of criminal tax conduct combining brazen defiance with insidious concealment,\" the prosecutors say. \"By these means Snipes has escaped paying more than $15 million in income tax to the IRS and has pursued an intended fraudulent harm to the United States Treasury of more than $41 million.\" The document says Snipes shipped millions of dollars to accounts in Switzerland, Antigua and the Isle of Man to avoid taxes. \"Given defendant's income, earning capacity, and financial resources, both disclosed and undisclosed, the United States submits that a fine of at least $5 million is warranted,\" the sentencing recommendation says. The 35-page argument for the stiffest possible penalty ends with a dramatic flair. \"In the defendant Wesley Snipes, the court is presented with a wealthy, famous and inveterate tax scofflaw. If ever a tax offender was deserving of being held accountable to the maximum extent for his criminal wrongdoing, Snipes is that defendant,\" it says. The IRS is also seeking repayment of all taxes and interest through civil court proceedings. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Federal prosecutors urge judge to sentence Wesley Snipes to 3 years .\nProsecutors also want to fine Snipes $5 million .\nJustice Dept. wants to use Snipes as example to deter tax fraud .\nSnipes was charged with conspiracy, was acquitted of most serious charges ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Russian bombers have landed at a Venezuelan airfield, from which they will carry out training flights for several days, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Russia's Tupolev TU-160, pictured here in 2003, is a long-range strategic bomber. The Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers landed at Venezuela's Libertador military airfield and \"will spend several days carrying out training flights over neutral waters, after which they will return to the base,\" Interfax reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, a ministry spokesman, told Interfax that NATO fighters followed the bombers on their 13-hour flight over the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic. \"All flights by air force aircraft have been and are marked by strict conformity to the international rules on the use of air space over neutral waters,\" Drobyshevsky told Interfax. The U.S. will monitor the Russian training, said Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the information. On Monday, Russia announced it might hold joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean. The declaration came in the wake of increased tension between Russia and the United States over Russia's invasion last month of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a U.S. ally that aspires to join NATO. Russia on Monday denied any link between that announcement and the conflict in Georgia, although Russia has criticized U.S. support for Georgia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long antagonized Washington. Earlier this month, Chavez said Venezuela would welcome the Russian air force, according to Russian news agency Novosti. \"If Russian long-range bombers should need to land in Venezuela, we would not object to that either. We will also welcome them,\" Chavez said on September 1, according to Novosti. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this story .","highlights":"Russian bombers will use airfield for training over neutral waters, Interfax reports .\nRussian Defense Ministry spokesman: NATO fighters followed bombers .\nVenezuelan president had said he'd welcome Russian air force, Novosti reports ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six U.S. troops were killed in Iraq on Monday, making 2007 the deadliest for the American military in the Iraq war. The grim record came despite lower death rates in recent months, which were not enough to offset death tolls that topped 100 during three months in the spring. Four soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in northern Iraq's Tameem province; another died in combat in Anbar province. A sailor was killed in Salaheddin province \"as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion while conducting operations,\" the military said. According to a CNN count of Pentagon figures, 853 U.S. service members have died so far in 2007. The next highest death toll was in 2004, when 849 were killed. The total number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq stands at 3,856, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department. The high number of deaths this year corresponds with the U.S. troop buildup called the \"surge\" and a crackdown on insurgents in and near Baghdad. Monthly death tolls were highest in the first part of the year: 83 deaths in January, 81 in February and 81 in March. Numbers peaked in the next three months, with 104 deaths in April, 126 in May and 101 in June. The numbers have dropped from that level since -- with 78 in July, 84 in August, 65 in September, 38 in October and 12 so far in November. Civilian deaths have also dropped in recent months, U.S. and Iraqi authorities say. The Iraq war began in March of 2003 and in that year there were 486 U.S. military deaths. In 2004, major offensives were responsible for many fatalities, including the massive operation in Falluja in November and fighting between U.S. troops and Shiite militants in Najaf. The number of deaths in 2005 was 846 and in 2006 it was 822. The U.S. military also announced on Tuesday that it intends to release nine detained Iranians in Iraq \"in the coming days,\" a move that dovetails with the American hope that Iranian authorities are honoring a recent pledge to stop Iranian help to insurgents in Iraq. \"These individuals have been assessed to have no continuing value\" and don't pose a \"further threat\" to Iraqi security, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith. Two of them are from the \"Irbil 5\" detained in January. Irbil is the largest city in the Kurdish area of Iraq. The U.S. military had accused the five Iranians arrested in Irbil of having links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard-Quds Force, a military unit accused of aiding insurgent activity -- including the distribution of roadside bombs. Smith said Tuesday that materials for roadside bombs \"do not appear to have arrived into Iraq after the Iranians have made their pledge to stop arming, funding and training extremists.\" \"We hope in the coming weeks and months to confirm that Iran has indeed honored its pledge through further verification that the flow of ammunitions and other lethal aid has indeed stopped,\" said Smith, who noted that Iran, Iraq and the United States plan to hold another round of security talks. Last month, Gen. David Petraeus, the top-ranking U.S. military official in Iraq, told CNN the Iranian ambassador had given assurances to his Iraqi counterpart that such training and supplying of insurgents would end. Meanwhile, a Kurdistan Regional Government official on Tuesday confirmed to CNN that two Iranian consulates had been established in the region, offices created in the wake of the arrests in Irbil. At the time of the arrests, Iran insisted the arrested officials were \"diplomats\" working in a diplomatic mission, while Iraq's Foreign Ministry and the U.S. military said it was a \"liaison\" office which did not have diplomatic status. One of the new consulates is in a building in Irbil that had been closed down during the January raid, the Kurdistan official said. Also Tuesday, the U.S. military reported that U.S. and Iraqi troops found 22 corpses buried in Iraq's Lake Tharthar region. The Iraqi Army and local security forces \"are investigating the mass grave to determine the identities of the deceased and the causes of death for notification of their families,\" the military said. Lake Tharthar is in both Anbar and Salaheddin provinces and northwest of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi troops have been conducting an operation in the same region since Sunday to target al Qaeda in Iraq. So far, they have found and destroyed two car bomb facilities and a number of weapons caches and detained 30 men. The military also said that coalition troops on Tuesday killed eight people described as terrorists and detained 10 suspects in operations targeting al Qaeda and foreign militant networks in central and northern Iraq. The military also said an operation involving Iraqi forces in the Tikrit area on October 30 led to the detention of 39 \"suspected insurgents\" and the discovery of a torture cell, a mobile hospital, car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and a Katyusha rocket. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sailor's death brings Monday's U.S. death toll in Iraq to six .\nU.S. military says nine detained Iranians to be released in \"coming days\"\nU.S. and Iraqi troops find 22 bodies in mass grave ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first bodies to be recovered from the crash of Air France 447 arrived at a Brazilian Air Force base in Recife, Brazil, Wednesday, the air force announced. Brazilian pilots and a medical team bring one of the first bodies ashore at Fernando de Noronha island. The 16 bodies were taken to the Legal Medical Institute in Recife for identification, the statement said. Police will perform DNA tests at their lab in the capital, Brasilia, if necessary, they said. Another 25 bodies have been found and will go through the same procedure starting Thursday, the air force said. Official identification of the bodies will be made only by the Legal Medicine Institute, even if any of the bodies could have been identified while on Fernando de Noronha, the islands where they were first brought after being recovered. A French nuclear submarine joined the hunt Wednesday for the flight data recorders and other wreckage from Air France Flight 447 as Brazilian air force and navy crews continued to pull bodies from the Atlantic. Bad weather and poor visibility are expected in the search area, Brazilian Air Force spokesmen said. France is leading the investigation into what caused last week's accident when the Paris-bound flight from Rio de Janeiro plunged into the sea off the Brazilian coast with 228 passengers and crew on board. The French nuclear submarine Emeraude began patrolling the area Wednesday morning, the French defense ministry said. Around 400 French military personnel are involved in the salvage effort. France has also sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations. Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- are participating, along with five Brazilian ships. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders. The \"towed pinger locators,\" which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) -- will be placed aboard the French tugs. Watch challenges faced by search crews \u00bb . Brazilian officials emphasized earlier this week that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders. The 16 bodies retrieved Tuesday from the Atlantic were taken to the island of Fernando de Noronha for transport by helicopter to Recife. The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate. Watch bodies being returned to land \u00bb . The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. See photos of bodies arriving at Fernando de Noronha \u00bb . It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air. The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), Brazilian officials said. Map of Flight 447's flight path \u00bb . The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire\/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. Brazilian officials said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife. The cause of the crash is still not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors. Did plane's tail fin snap off? \u00bb . Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday. The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month. Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents. The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident. Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused \"a loss of airspeed data,\" according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed. Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. CNN's Karl Penhaul, Ayesha Durgahee, Niki Cook, Jim Bittermann and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"16 bodies retrieved from crashed airliner arrive in mainland Brazil .\nBodies taken to police laboratory in Brasilia for DNA testing .\nFrench nuclear submarine joins hunt for wreckage from Air France Flight 447 .\nLocation, cause of crash off Brazilian coast have not been determined ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. troops have launched a \"major operation\" against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials announced in Afghanistan early Thursday. U.S. Marines gather for a briefing in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. About 4,000 Americans, mostly from the Marines, and 650 Afghan soldiers and police launched Operation Khanjar -- \"strike of the sword\" -- in the Helmand River valley, the U.S. command in Kabul announced. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it follows a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said. It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official said the size and scope of the new operation are \"very significant.\" \"It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level,\" the official said. \"In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan.\" Helmand Province, where much of the fighting is taking place, has been a hotbed of Taliban violence in recent months. At least 25 U.S. and British troops have been killed there in 2009. The defense official said the operation is a \"tangible indication\" of the new approach that McChrystal -- a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command -- is bringing to the nearly eight-year war. \"They're not just doing an offensive push to get bad guys; they're going in to hold the area and stay there,\" the official said. \"This approach is indicative of McChrystal's philosophy: measuring success by the number of Afghans protected, not bad guys killed.\" The Obama administration has moved about 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the war launched after the September 11 attacks. During his confirmation hearing in June, McChrystal told senators that the conflict requires a new focus on counterinsurgency to reduce violence and build support for the U.S.-led NATO alliance among Afghans. \"Although I expect stiff fighting ahead, the measure of success will not be enemy killed. It will be shielding the Afghan population from violence,\" he said. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan before its allies in the al Qaeda terrorist network attacked New York and Washington in 2001. Though quickly toppled after the attacks, its leaders escaped, and the movement regrouped in the Afghan countryside and across the border in Pakistan. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"4,000 American troops, 650 Afghans involved in Operation Khanjar .\nIt focuses on Helmand River valley, hotbed of Taliban violence .\nOperation's size and scope are \"very significant,\" official says ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family history of poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath took another tragic turn Monday when it was revealed that their son had committed suicide after battling depression. Poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath had separated before their son's first birthday. Nicholas Hughes, whose mother asphyxiated herself in 1963 by putting her head in a gas oven at her London home while her two children slept in the next room, hanged himself at his home in Alaska, his sister Frieda told The Times newspaper. Hughes, 47, was unmarried with no children of his own and had until recently been a marine biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Times said that shortly before his death he had left his academic job to set up a pottery workshop at home. Frieda Hughes, a poet, author and artist, said in a statement to the newspaper: \"It is with profound sorrow that I must announce the death of my brother, Nicholas Hughes, who died by his own hand on Monday March 16, 2009 at his home in Alaska. \"He had been battling depression for some time.\" She added: \"His lifelong fascination with fish and fishing was a strong and shared bond with our father (many of whose poems were about the natural world). \"He was a loving brother, a loyal friend to those who knew him and, despite the vagaries that life threw at him, he maintained an almost childlike innocence and enthusiasm for the next project or plan.\" Hughes was only a baby when his mother killed herself, and his father tried to shield his children from the intense public interest in the family. Some feminist groups blamed the death on Ted Hughes, who had left Plath for Assia Wevill, the wife of another poet. Six years later, Wevill gassed herself and their daughter Shura in an apparent copycat suicide. Ted Hughes died in 1998, the year he published Birthday Letters, a series of poems about his life with Plath and her death. Hughes appears in both of his parents' poetry. In \"Nick and the Candlestick,\" published in Plath's posthumous collection \"Ariel,\" she wrote: \"You are the one. Solid the spaces lean on, envious. You are the baby in the barn.\" Later his father wrote of how, after Plath's death, their son's eyes \"became wet jewels, the hardest substance of the purest pain. As I fed him in his high white chair.\" Frieda Hughes has written about her parents and her own battles with depression but a family friend dismissed the idea that Nicolas's death fitted into a family trend. \"Nick wasn't just the baby son of Plath and Hughes and it would be wrong to think of him as some kind of inevitably tragic figure,\" said the unnamed friend. \"He was a man who reached his mid-forties, an adventurous marine biologist with a distinguished academic career behind him and a host of friends and achievements in his own right. That is the man who is mourned by those who knew him.\"","highlights":"Son of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath commits suicide, his sister says .\nNicholas Hughes, whose mother gassed herself, hanged himself in Alaska .\nHughes, 47, was unmarried with no children of his own and was marine biologist ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- After arguing with her husband, Liza Murphy walked out of their home in Emerson, New Jersey, leaving behind her purse, her cigarettes, her cell phone and her three children, her husband told police. There has been no sign of her since August 19, 2007. Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007. Murphy's friends and family reported her missing the next day. \"In my heart, I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone,\" said her mother, Sophia Stellatos. Police searched extensively for Murphy, especially around a reservoir not far from her home, but they found nothing. Cadaver dogs caught her scent near the George Washington Bridge, but the trail went cold, police told the family. Deepening the mystery, her husband, Joe Murphy, tried to take his own life a few days after his wife disappeared by walking into oncoming traffic and throwing himself in front of a fire truck, police say. He was hospitalized and recovered from his injuries, but police say he hired a lawyer and is no longer cooperating with investigators. His lawyer said Murphy, an Irish immigrant, has nothing to hide from the authorities. He said his client has no criminal record and no history of violence. Attorney Joseph Rem added that there was no physical violence in the marriage. According to her family, Liza Murphy, 42, was not the type of person to take off on her own without letting her family know. Watch an update \u00bb . \"She would never leave her three children behind voluntarily,\" her mother insisted. \"What doesn't make sense is Liza leaving her house without her purse, cell phone, wallet, keys or cigarettes,\" she added. \"She was a heavy smoker, and if she took off after a fight for a walk to cool off, she definitely wouldn't leave without her cigarettes!\" Liza Murphy and her husband were having marital problems, her family said. Stellatos described Joe Murphy as possessive of his wife, never allowing her to go out with her friends. She said he was even jealous if she spent time with her parents. Rem pointed out that his client has not been named as a suspect or a person of interest in the case. He said police have not asked to speak to his client recently. Liza Murphy's children are 15, 13 and 10 years old now. Joe Murphy has full custody of them, and the Stellatoses have not seen their grandchildren since shortly before their daughter disappeared. Murphy and her children had spent the week before her disappearance visiting with her parents, who live about 125 miles away. They returned the Friday before Murphy's disappearance. Police say both the Murphy home and their vehicles have been processed for forensics, but they found no evidence of foul play or struggle. Liza Murphy had been suffering from depression and was on medication for fibromyalgia, a painful condition that affects the muscles and soft tissues. Police say she may have been accosted after she left home, still stewing over the argument. The police seek the public's help in this case. Anyone with information leading to the whereabouts of Liza Murphy or the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the Emerson Police Department's tip line at 201-262-2800.","highlights":"Woman disappeared after argument with husband .\nHusband tried to kill himself after disappearance, denies involvement .\nCadaver dogs detected Liza Murphy's scent near George Washington Bridge .\nKnow something? Call 201-262-2800 ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- At least three horses -- two yearlings and a mare -- were among the victims of the flood that inundated much of Georgia Monday. Floodwaters hit the ranch of Ed and Nancy Wellham on Monday. At least three horses died there. Jerrie Self said she called her parents, Ed and Nancy Wellham, on Sunday night to warn them to prepare their 13 horses housed in two barns and pastures on their 60-acre ranch in Powder Springs, Georgia, half an hour northwest of Atlanta. \"I told them, 'You might want to start getting your stuff out of the barns; I think it's going to get bad,\" the 40-year-old construction finance manager told CNN in a telephone interview. \"They had no idea how fast it was gonna come.\" On Sunday night, Self's parents, Ed, 60, and Nancy, 59, made sure the horses were in the barns or on high ground and then went to sleep, she said. At 3 a.m. Monday, the storm awakened their son-in-law, who lives in an apartment in one of the barns. After he opened the door and 3 feet of water flooded into the apartment, he called the Wellhams and told them the horses needed to be moved. See photos of flooding in Georgia \u00bb . The family scrambled, putting two horses into a trailer and hauling it to the house, then leading several show horses onto high ground behind the house, Self said. The other horses remained on two acres of unflooded pasture near Sweetwater Creek, and the family went back to the house, she said. \"They thought they'd be fine till daylight,\" she said. But when they looked out again when it was light, the horses were in neck-deep water trying to swim to safety, Self said. A neighbor said the creek had risen at the rate of 1 foot every 20 minutes. \"We all got here and we swam out the ones that could swim out,\" she said. Though they got two horses out that way, \"we thought all five babies and three mares were lost,\" she said. That turned out not to be the case. At noon Monday, they found that two of the mares had swum through the woods and made it to high ground. But they found the dead body of one of the mares and two yearlings floating in the water, and three other yearlings are unaccounted for, she said. The Wellhams, who moved to the area in the early 1980s, use their land to grow and sell hay and breed horses. Ed Wellham also owns a car-repair shop. \"My dad has lots of equipment: tractors, hay balers,\" Self said. \"Until the water goes down, we don't know what's salvageable and what isn't.\" She said her parents had tried to buy flood insurance years ago, but were denied, since their land is on a flood plain. Self said her grandmother's home, which is also on the property, flooded so much that it is a total loss.","highlights":"Georgia couple put their 13 horses were in barns or on high ground before flooding .\nCouple scrambled to move some horses as barn flooded early Monday .\nBy daylight, other horses in neck-deep water; family helped two swim away .\nThree horses later found dead; three others unaccounted for ."} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- \"Amelia\" is a frustratingly old-school, Hollywood-style, inspirational biopic about Amelia Earhart that doesn't trust a viewer's independent assessment of the famous woman pictured on the screen. Hilary Swank plays Amelia Earhart and Richard Gere plays husband George Putnam in \"Amelia.\" The mystery we ought to be paying attention to is: What really happened on the legendary American aviator's final, fatal flight in 1937? But the question audiences are left with is this: How could so tradition-busting a role model have resulted in so square, stiff, and earthbound a movie? Why present such a modern woman in such a fusty format? Dressed for the title role in a wardrobe of jumpsuits, leather jackets, scarves, and slinky evening wear dashing enough to stop air traffic, Hilary Swank's Earhart doesn't so much talk as make stump speeches -- even when she's at her own breakfast table. And director Mira Nair (\"The Namesake\"), working from an overexplanatory script by Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan (based on dual biographies by Susan Butler and Mary S. Lovell), overloads the picture with a cargo of messages, so much so that she deadens her subject's spirit. Some of these talking points are aimed at today's teenage girls who might admire the subject's highly personal fashion sense; others go out to older women who cherish her feminist cred. All of them add up to banners that might as well be flown from an aircraft tail over a beach: Amelia Earhart lived free in life and love! And Fly! She! Must! Of course, she did, setting records as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 (she was a passenger, but still, ladies of the day generally didn't wear leather helmets and zoom through the air). Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932. She went on to launch her own brand-name fashion line. In 1935, she became the first pilot to fly solo from Hawaii to California. Sometimes the press dubbed her Lady Lindy, linking her fame to that of pioneering pilot Charles Lindbergh. Most famously, she vanished (along with her navigator, Fred Noonan) in the middle of the Pacific while on an around-the-world flight in 1937; her plane was never found, and she was declared legally dead in 1939. Along the way, the celebrity married George Putnam, the publisher and tireless promoter who shaped her public image. (Richard Gere does the honors as Putnam with all the dated, silver-head-in-hands poses required of him as a worried businessman\/spouse whose wife is also his client.) For a time, the freethinking woman also conducted a love affair with aeronautics pioneer Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), now best known as the father of writer Gore Vidal. Swank delivers long, carefully composed explications of Earhart's unorthodox attitude toward marriage and feminine autonomy, taken from her journal entries, in studied accents somewhere between those of the Kansas plains of Earhart's birth and those of Katharine Hepburn in her most famous trouser-wearing, gumption-gal roles. iReport.com: Share your movie reviews . \"Amelia\" dutifully conveys the salient biographical info with a trusty cinematic device: As Earhart and Noonan embark on their doomed flight, flashbacks catch the audience up on the events that got her there. (Christopher Eccleston, as Noonan, is the one understated player in this endeavor.) Those last 10 minutes or so of radio-communications loss, concurrent instrument failure, and dawning awareness of disaster are honestly gripping. But just in case the point isn't clear enough (She! Must! Fly!), throughout the drama composer Gabriel Yared lays on blasts of musical exclamations that are as distracting as sirens. Sometimes that music says, \"It's great to be in the sky and surfing the clouds!\" Sometimes it says, \"Look how pretty the landscape looks below -- kind of makes you miss the music in 'Out of Africa,' right?\" Sometimes the rumble of violins and horns hints, \"Uh-oh, we're getting to the tragic part of the story!\" Mostly, the busy orchestra backs up the starry cinematography to remind us, \"This slim, androgynous beauty, with her unusual love life and her driving need to take to the skies, sure was something, huh?!\" Whatever the message, there's no navigating around such intrusive messengers. EW Grade: C+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Amelia\" hits viewers over the head with its themes, says EW .\nFilm stars Hilary Swank as aviator Amelia Earhart .\n\"Amelia\" is flat and dull when it should be exciting .\nSome of the dialogue is delivered as speeches: yawn ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea has completed preparations for launching what it says is \"an experimental communications satellite,\" the reclusive nation's state news agency reported early Saturday. A satellite image shows a rocket sitting on its launch pad in northeast North Korea. \"The satellite will be launched soon,\" KCNA reported. How \"soon\" was anyone's guess. On Friday, President Obama reiterated that the United States strongly opposes any such launch. \"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative, it puts enormous strains on the Six-Party Talks and that they should stop the launch,\" Obama said while on a stop in France. Obama warned that the United States will join with its allies to take \"appropriate steps\" to let North Korea know it can't violate United Nations rules and get away with it. Western nations fear that North Korea plans a ballistic missile test rather than a satellite launch, but the administration's special envoy to the Six-Party Talks, Stephen Bosworth, said it didn't matter if the North Koreans were trying to put a satellite in space or testing a ballistic missile that could threaten Japan or the United States. \"Whether it is a satellite launch or a missile launch, in our judgment makes no difference. It is a provocative act,\" Bosworth said. Bosworth said the United States stands ready, in the event of a launch, to participate in U.N. deliberations on new sanctions against North Korea. A commentary carried by KCNA recently blasted critics for opposing its plans. \"This is nothing but a groundless outcry of the political philistines ignorant of any legality of the study of space for peaceful purposes,\" the commentary said. The U.S. Navy is monitoring the expected launch with at least four ships in the region around the Korean Peninsula and northern Japan, according to U.S. military officials. The ships -- three destroyers and one cruiser -- are capable of tracking and shooting down ballistic missiles using powerful Aegis radar systems aboard each vessel. Two ships are in the Sea of Japan, the USS Curtis Wilbur and the USS Stethem, both guided-missile destroyers. Two other ships are on the Pacific Ocean side of Japan to monitor the missile if it flies over that nation. Those ships are the USS Shiloh, a guided-missile cruiser and the USS Fitzgerald, another guided-missile destroyer, the officials said. All four U.S. ships are working with Japanese naval ships in the same region that are also equipped with Aegis radar. Watch report on launch preparations \u00bb . U.S. military officials say Pyongyang seems to still be on track to launch the missile as early as Saturday, but one official told CNN that winds strong enough to delay a launch are predicted for Saturday in the area of the launch site, in northeastern North Korea.","highlights":"N. Korea says rocket containing \"communications satellite\" is ready for launch .\nU.S. military officials anticipating Saturday launch, but windy weather could delay it .\nObama: U.S. opposes any such launch, which puts \"strain\" on Six-Party Talks .\nAegis-equipped U.S., Japanese naval ships are monitoring in Sea of Japan, Pacific ."} -{"article":"LEONE, American Samoa (CNN) -- Another earthquake struck Wednesday near the Samoan islands, an area already devastated by earthquake and tsunami damage which killed more than 130 people. A traditional Samoan fale is destroyed Wednesday in the devastated village of Leone. The 5.5-magnitude earthquake occurred at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday evening (1:13 a.m. Thursday ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake's epicenter was 10 km (6 miles) deep in the Pacific Ocean about 121 miles (194 km) from the city of Apia, Samoa. The quake did not trigger a tsunami warning, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. It followed an 8.0-magnitude earthquake which hit the small cluster of Samoan islands early Tuesday triggering a tsunami. At least 139 people are confirmed dead as a consequence of Tuesday's quake and tsunami. They include 22 people killed in American Samoa, 110 in Samoa and seven in Tonga, according to officials on the islands. A huge emergency effort was continuing late Wednesday in the Samoan islands and officials warned that the death toll could rise as rescue workers start to reach outlying villages and discover new casualties. Watch the tsunami take over the street \u00bb . Survivors like Ropati Opa were trying to find ways to cope. The massive waves had destroyed his home, store and gas station in the village of Leone on the southwest coast of American Samoa. With tears in his eyes, he said \"I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I don't have money. I lost everything yesterday. But thank God I am alive.\" iReport.com: Witness describes tsunami hitting land . U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the disaster at an event Wednesday in Washington. \"To aid in the response,\" he said, \"I've declared this a major disaster to speed the deployment of resources and FEMA ... is working closely with emergency responders on the ground, and the Coast Guard is working to provide immediate help to those in need. \"We also stand ready to help our friends in neighboring Samoa and throughout the region, and we'll continue to monitor this situation closely as we keep the many people who have been touched by this tragedy in our thoughts and in our prayers,\" Obama said. Journalist Jeff DePonte contributed to this report.","highlights":"Latest death toll from Tuesday's quake, tsunami stands at 139 .\nSecond quake -- magnitude 5.5 -- shook Samoan islands region Wednesday .\nQuake does not trigger a tsunami warning, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says .\nHuge rescue effort under way in Samoan islands amid fears death toll could rise ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British reality TV star Jade Goody married Sunday after being told by doctors last week that her cancer is terminal. Jade Goody, pictured with fiance Jack Tweed Saturday, before Sunday's wedding . Goody, 27 tied the knot with boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, in Hatfield Heath, Essex, east of London, UK media reported. After the ceremony Max Clifford, the couple's publicist, told waiting reporters that there had been \"lots of tears and smiles and laughter\" and that the congregation gave the newlyweds a standing ovation after the signing of the register. Goody sprung to fame in \"Big Brother\" in 2002, going on to launch a range of her own products and host TV shows. But her return to the celebrity edition of the show in 2007 ended in international ignominy, after her taunting of Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Goody's behavior resulted in more than 40,000 complaints and sparked protests in India. Shetty said last week that she was unable to attend the wedding due to filming commitments but was praying for Goody. Read blog about how media covered wedding . In August 2008 Goody appeared on the Indian version of \"Big Brother,\" only to fly home after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. News of Goody's condition has sparked massive interest in the UK, both from the media -- which bid for rights to her story -- and among the public, who have contacted charities for information about cervical cancer. Critics have attacked Goody's decision to sell rights to what may be her final weeks, although the star has told British media that she wants to leave her children by a previous relationship -- sons, Bobby, five, and Freddie, four -- financially secure. Watch Jade Goody's wedding preparations \u00bb . But Clifford told ITN: \"Ironically, a big part of what she's doing now is to fund her children's education. To give them the education she never had.\" Charity Cancer Research UK said in a statement earlier this month that daily visits to its Web site had increased two- to three-fold since news of Goody's illness was announced. \"The publicity around Jade's diagnosis has led many more people to ask questions and seek information about cervical cancer,\" spokeswoman Emma Gilgunn-Jones said. Shetty, writing on her blog earlier this week, said that Goody had invited her to the wedding but had been unable to attend due to filming commitments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. \"Read an article on Jade Goody's deteriorating condition,\" wrote Shetty. \"It disturbed me 'cause the last time I spoke to her, she seemed very positive and we were all expecting that the doctors would be able to curb the cancer from spreading. This piece of news came as a shock - so I called her hoping it was only a rumor but she confirmed it. Shetty added that she was praying for Goody and that she hoped God \"gives her the strength to cope with this pain.\" \"She wants the best for her kids,\" Shetty wrote. \"I hope Jack makes a good father to them. I also hope for a miracle to happen for her children's sake.\" On Friday the UK's Ministry of Justice said it would allow Tweed, who was jailed in September 2008 for assault, to spend his wedding night with his bride, the Press Association reported. \"We are absolutely thrilled,\" the agency reported Clifford as saying. \"It will be the dream finish to her dream day, and it makes so much difference. Tweed, who was released early from jail in January, has to wear a tag and is subject to a 1900 GMT curfew. \"We'll get married if I have to drag her wheelchair down the aisle,\" he told ITN last week. The wedding dress, which media reports say included a pouch to hold Goody's medication, was donated by Harrods owner Mohamed al Fayed. Goody's bridesmaids were seen with the TV star Saturday, wearing plastic bald caps in a show of solidarity at the impact of her chemotherapy treatment.","highlights":"Publicist: Couple receive standing ovation, lots of tears, laughter, smiles .\nBritish 'Big Brother' star fast-tracked plans to get married after cancer spread .\nShetty says she was invited to ceremony but unable due to film commitments .\nCharities report marked increase in public seeking details about condition ."} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Bedraggled, hungry and dazed, the refugees arrived on the shores of Thailand after fleeing one of the most repressive governments in the world -- the hard-line military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma. This picture provided to CNN is said to show refugees being towed out to sea by the Thai army. But a CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that for hundreds of Rohingya refugees -- members of a Muslim minority group -- abuse and abandonment at sea were what awaited them in Thailand, at the hands of Thai authorities. Extraordinary photos obtained by CNN from someone directly involved in the Thai operation show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose and abandoned. One photo shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea. Watch the backstory on the investigation \u00bb . For days, accusations have been carried in several regional papers that the Thai army has been systematically towing boat-loads of Rohingya refugees far out to sea and setting them adrift. The army denied it, and the Thai government has launched an inquiry. CNN's investigation -- based on accounts from tourists, sources in Thailand and a Rohingya refugee who said he was on a boat towed back out to sea -- helps to piece together a picture of survival thwarted by an organized effort not just to repel arriving refugees, but to hold them prisoner on shore, drag them in flimsy boats far out to sea and then abandon them. Watch CNN's investigation into reports of refugees being set adrift \u00bb . Three tourists recently voiced concern to CNN over what they had seen -- and in some cases photographed -- near Thailand's tourist areas. One tourist provided CNN with photos last week of refugees detained by Thai authorities on a beach near a tourist site, with the refugees prone on the sun-bleached sand while guards stood nearby. \"Whenever someone raised their head or moved, they [guards] would strike them with a whip,\" said Australian tourist Andrew Catton. A CNN crew traveled to a remote stretch of the Thai coast four hours north of the tourist island of Phuket to investigate the growing reports that the Thai military was secretly detaining Rohingya refugees before towing them out to sea and setting them adrift. In an isolated beach area, debris including sandals and campfire remnants indicated that large numbers of people had been there but were nowhere to be seen. The crew then traveled to a nearby island, where residents reported that refugees who had escaped were living in the jungle. In one hamlet, villagers had captured a Rohingya man they believed had been living in the jungle for days. The refugee, who identified himself as Iqbal Hussain, told CNN he was on one of six boats in a makeshift refugee fleet that arrived in Thailand in December. He said all six boats with their refugee cargo were towed back out to sea in January, and five of the six boats sank. His boat made it back to shore, and he hid in the jungle for days until nearby villagers captured him. In broken English and using sign language and drawings, he described what happened to the other men on the boats: . \"All men dead,\" he said, putting the number of dead at several hundred. The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in rickety boats for years, in search of a better life. In Thailand, many instead have found deprivation and the possibility of desertion far off shore, according to the CNN investigation. The source who provided CNN with photos of refugees in a boat being towed out to sea stressed that the Thai army had given the refugees food and water, but he also confirmed that the boats had been pulled for more than two days into international waters before they were set adrift. His account directly contradicts briefings by senior Thai army sources who denied any such operation was undertaken. A source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. But the source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was always given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. CNN asked the government for comment and was told that an investigation was being launched and that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has plans to call an emergency meeting once the country's foreign minister returns from Cambodia. Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, gave no timeline for the foreign minister's return or the emergency meeting. He did say the government is taking the matter very seriously.","highlights":"CNN finds evidence hundreds of Rohingya refugees abandoned at sea by Thai army .\nPhotos show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose .\nThe army denies setting refugees adrift; Thai government has launched an inquiry .\nRohingya have been fleeing persecution of the hard-line military regime in Myanmar ."} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The number of people killed in a car bombing in Afghanistan's capital rose to 26, including six Italian soldiers, Afghan authorities said Saturday. The coffins of six Italian soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Kabul return to Rome. Sixteen people died in the blast Thursday, and at least 55 Afghan civilians were wounded. Ten have died from their injuries since the bombing. The explosion Thursday targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul, a witness said. The bodies of the Italian soldiers killed in the blast returned to Italy Sunday, their coffins draped in the red, green and white Italian flag. Dignitaries, relatives and row upon row of uniformed troops stood on the airport tarmac as the coffins were carried off the plane, television pictures from the scene showed. Watch more about Italy in mourning \u00bb . Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano gently touched the caskets perched on the shoulders of grim-faced soldiers at Rome's Ciampino military airport. Nearby, a woman shook uncontrollably as a baby sported a maroon beret -- the kind worn by the paratroopers killed in the Kabul attack. The six deaths marked largest number of Italians killed in a single day in Afghanistan. Watch more about Italy's Afghan mission \u00bb . Before the remains left for Rome, the Italian military, international troops and dignitaries held a service in the Afghan capital. \"It's a tragedy for us,\" Lt. Col. Renato Vaira of the Italian military said at the Kabul service. \"But this is a point to continue our mission.\" \"We'll miss them. They're not the first. I hope it will be the last,\" said Maj. Gen. Tommaso Ferro of the Italian military. The arrival of the soldiers' remains was televised nationally in Italy. The bodies were taken for an autopsy. A day of mourning is scheduled in Italy on Monday, the same day as the burial service. After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it would be \"best\" for the country's troops to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. Berlusconi gave no timeline for a withdrawal, but said any pullout would have to be coordinated with allies. The 500 troops Italy sent to Afghanistan this summer will be home by Christmas, Ignazio La Russa, Italy's defense minister said. The troops were sent ahead of the Afghan presidential election August 20. The rest of Italy's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan will withdraw only when NATO calls for it, La Russa said.","highlights":"Explosion targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul .\nBodies of six Italian soldiers who died returned to Italy Sunday .\nItalian Prime Minister says it would be \"best\" for country's troops to leave Afghanistan .\nDeaths were the highest single-day death toll for Italy in the Afghan mission ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jordan Belfi has a great job: He plays Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage,\" a comedy series that takes a look at the life of a young actor, Vincent Chase, and the old friends who surround him in Hollywood. Jordan Belfi arrives at the premiere of \"Entourage\" season six in Los Angeles, California. Davies is one of the few characters on the show who has the ability to shake one of the central figures: the unshakeable agent Ari Gold. Belfi has been around since the early days of \"Entourage\" and remembers the humble beginnings of his character's career as an agent under Gold's direction. Since that first season, Davies has risen to become Ari's chief rival on the show. Belfi believes conveying the tension between him and Ari is easy, based on the great material he's given. \"It's a testament to the writing by Doug Ellin, the creator of the show. It's just on the page,\" Belfi said. \"When you get setups and writing and dialogue and scenes that good, it makes your job that much easier.\" CNN talked to Belfi, who's also in the movie \"Surrogates\" (opening Friday), about his experiences on the show and his inspiration for the role. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: A lot of fans really missed that rivalry between you and Ari Gold. Talk a little about how you and Jeremy Piven kind of prepare for that and try to make that real on screen. Belfi: Adam Davies has become ... one of the few characters on the show that really knows how to get under Ari's skin and push his buttons. Ari is an entertaining character, and it's fun to watch him go after things, but people really enjoy kind of when Ari's off balance. That interplay, that back and forth, particularly the sort of thing that's happening now [on the show], the constantly one-upping each other, is just really fun to watch. It's entertaining. And I get that response from a lot of the fans of the show. They love Adam Davies for that reason because he just knows how to do it. Jeremy ... [is] an actor with so much power and force and impact that you're sort of forced to up your game. You're really present in the moment. And when you're there and you're really going back and forth, that's when the sparks really fly. CNN: Talk little bit about the inspiration you draw from to play Adam Davies. Belfi: I started way back on season one in the beginning of the show. And back then, Adam Davies was still in his cubicle. So a lot of the inspiration came from meetings I had when I was starting out -- you know, behavior I experienced from agents and other industry people when I was starting out. I was in a not-too-dissimilar position. ... And I think that's what people really respond to. There's an absolute foundation of truth -- almost scary truth -- to the things Adam says, the things Ari does, all that kind of stuff. And it's why it's such a visceral experience for people in the industry and fun for people that happen not to be in the industry. CNN: What are your thoughts on Adam Davies as a person? Belfi: What gives Ari a little bit of his soul, his heart, is that we have all these scenes with his wife and his family, and you really get to see him as a dad. ... [But] we haven't gotten to see any of the personal life of Adam Davies. So I don't know if there's anything yet to kind of balance out those ruthless qualities he has. But I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have if you're that actor trying to go after that job. You want that agent who's going to beg, borrow and steal to help prove that you're the guy. So in that respect, it seems like he's someone you'd want on your side. And the thing is, I think that's what made the rivalry between him and Ari so great. You know when he was coming up, he probably did a lot of the same things [as Ari] and ran over people in similar kinds of ways. They're really kind of the same in a lot of ways. So you're either best friends or mortal enemies when you share that much in common with somebody. CNN: Exempting Davies, who's your favorite character on the show and why? Belfi: Ah! Impossible question! I have to exempt Adam Davies from the answer? ... If I absolutely, gun-to-my-head have to choose, there's a quality about [Chase's brother] Drama that I've always loved. And it was maybe more prominent in the first couple of seasons than it is now because it's evolved slightly. The quality that I always found the most entertaining, is that Drama was always this mix of desperation and simultaneous pride. And that's really funny. You know at the beginning he was just scratching, begging for something, some chunk of the game or to get back in the game. But he simultaneously kind of knows it all. And that mix is a great comedic mix, comedic recipe. It was both funny and heartbreaking. CNN: Of course, our diehard \"Entourage\" fans would love to get some scoop on the coming story lines. You've gotta give us something. Belfi: A little something? Well, I don't think I'd be giving away too much to say that Adam might get Lloyd. In terms of the story line, there's some stuff that I'm told with Drama and his going after this role on \"Melrose Place\" and the screen test for that role and the ups and downs of that. And also, some big things happen between Eric and Sloane. But in terms of the really exciting stuff between Adam Davies and Ari, I guess I'll say this: At the end of season two, when Ari is trying to form his coup, to break up the agency, and Adam is the one who rats him out and gets him fired and humiliated and causes that whole thing ... In the amazing way that Doug has constructed it, all that stuff from the end of season two comes full circle. There's this one thing that happens that will really stand out and that people will talk about. So some fun, exciting stuff to look forward to.","highlights":"Jordan Belfi plays acting agent Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage\"\nBelfi has played Ari Gold's nemesis on the show since the first season .\n\"I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have,\" Belfi says of Davies .\nA little something about coming story lines: Belfi says Adam might get Lloyd ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso met with President Barack Obama on Tuesday making him the first head of state to be hosted by the new administration. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso steps off his Boeing 747 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland Monday. It was a long trip -- 6,800 miles (11,000 km) -- for a short meeting -- one hour -- and happened as Obama was preparing his first address to a joint session of Congress. Sitting next to Aso in the White House, Obama said: \"The friendship between the United States and Japan is extraordinarily important. \"It is for that reason that the prime minister is the first foreign dignitary to visit me in the Oval Office.\" Obama said the U.S.-Japanese alliance would be crucial in solving international problems including climate change. \"We think we have to work together, not only on issues relating to the Pacific Rim, but throughout the world,\" Obama added. Aso said the global economy was also on the agenda at their meeting. \"We are the number 1 and second biggest economies of the world. We will have to work hand in hand. \"I think we are the only two nations which are powerful enough to solve those very critical, vital issue,\" Aso said. Japan's Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said that being the first to visit the Obama White House was an indication of the priority the new president placed on the relationship. Another topic likely to have been on the agenda was Japan's Asian neighbor North Korea, which U.S. intelligence says is preparing to test a long-range missile. Pyongyang has denied the charge, instead saying it is making preparations to launch a satellite. A test-fire by North Korea in 2006 failed 40 seconds after launch. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers), which -- if true -- could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii. Aso's visit to Washington comes, as his approval rating stands at a meager 11 percent, the second lowest ever recorded for a Japanese prime minister. Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister, resigned after his rate bottomed out at 9 percent. Last week his finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa announced he will step down after coming under fire for appearing intoxicated at a weekend news conference during the G-7 meeting in Rome. CNN's Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Aso's approval rating at 11 percent, the second lowest ever for a Japanese PM .\nAso is first head of state hosted by Obama administration .\nObama will give his first address to joint session of Congress hours later ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Another body was found in the same 92-acre parcel west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the remains of 10 other people have been discovered, police said Thursday. An Albuquerque, New Mexico, police forensics team member digs at the burial site. The latest discovery was made Tuesday, and the remains were recovered Wednesday, Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said. Like the others, it was sent to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, he said. A woman walking her dog found the first bodies earlier this month on the property, which had been graded in preparation for development. The graves are on about 10 acres, police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said earlier, but that area keeps expanding. So far, 11 bodies have been found, including those of a first-trimester fetus with those of a pregnant woman. Police believe the bodies were buried sometime in the earlier part of the decade, Walsh said Thursday. Authorities have identified two of the remains, Walsh said. Body No. 8 belongs to Gina Valdez, who was born in 1982, he said. Valdez was pregnant, and the remains of her fetus were with her. Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz told reporters that Valdez had a prior criminal history that included arrests for prostitution and drug charges, according to CNN affiliate KRQE-TV. Earlier, police had identified another set of remains as belonging to Victoria Chavez, a prostitute and drug user who was last seen in 2003 and reported missing in 2004. Authorities are investigating how the two women's paths may have crossed, Walsh said. Valdez's father, Dan Valdez, told KRQE she was 22 when he reported her missing four years ago. Despite her rough lifestyle, he said, \"she was my daughter and didn't deserve to be buried in the desert.\" Hamby said earlier there is housing south and east of the vacant land. After rain caused flooding, surrounding neighbors complained to the developer, who made culverts to divert the water, apparently bringing the first remains to the surface.","highlights":"NEW: Eleventh body found at site west of Albuquerque, New Mexico .\nOne body found earlier has been identified as a prostitute reported missing in 2004 .\nFirst bodies were discovered two weeks ago by a woman walking her dog ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Christine Beatty, chief of staff for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from their text-messaging sex scandal case and will serve four months in jail, according to the Wayne County prosecutor's office. Under a plea deal, Christine Beatty, shown in August at an arraignment in Detroit, will serve five years probation. Beatty pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, according to Maria Miller, the prosecutor's spokeswoman. Charges of perjury and misconduct against Beatty will be dropped as part of the plea arrangement, she said. Beatty agreed to a plea arrangement under which she will serve five years probation -- the first 120 days to be served in jail -- and pay a $100,000 fine, \"based on [Beatty's] ability to pay,\" Miller said. Beatty will begin serving her jail sentence on January 5, when she will be formally sentenced, Miller said. Kym L. Worthy, prosecuting attorney for Wayne County, released a statement saying she is \"very pleased that this defendant admitted her guilt.\" \"We live in an age where greed and protecting one's secrets is glorified and accepted,\" Worthy said. \"Now the city of Detroit, the region and the state of Michigan can truly begin to move forward when this ugly chapter in Detroit's history is put to rest.\" In September, Kilpatrick resigned as mayor and pleaded guilty to two felony obstruction of justice charges stemming from his efforts to cover up his relationship with Beatty. Like Beatty, Kilpatrick was sentenced to five years probation with the first four months to be served in jail. He is serving that sentence in the Wayne County jail. At the time of his sentencing in October, the judge in the case called Kilpatrick \"arrogant and defiant,\" particularly for a televised speech that aired hours after Kilpatrick entered his pleas. \"That night, the community expected to hear a message of humility, remorse and apology,\" Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner said at Kilpatrick's sentencing. \"Instead, we heard an arrogant and defiant man who accused the governor, among others, for his downfall.\" In addition to his jail and probation sentence, Kilpatrick must also pay the city of Detroit $1 million in restitution, and forfeit any future pension. Initially, Kilpatrick was accused of blocking a criminal investigation into his office and firing a police deputy to cover up an affair with Beatty, then his chief of staff. When that deputy, Gary Brown, filed a whistle-blower suit, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied under oath that an affair had taken place between them. Text messages that contradicted Kilpatrick's and Beatty's denials of an affair were made public in January by the Detroit Free Press, and county prosecutor Worthy charged Kilpatrick and Beatty with multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. The most serious charges would have carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison upon conviction. Beatty resigned her post after the text messages were made public. Kilpatrick initially refused to resign after the scandal broke, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called a hearing on whether she should remove him from office at the request of the Detroit City Council. Granholm adjourned those hearings after Kilpatrick pleaded guilty and resigned in September.","highlights":"Christine Beatty pleads guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice .\nChief of staff for former Detroit, Michigan, mayor will serve four months in jail .\nShe gets probation, $100,000 fine; perjury, misconduct charges to be dropped .\nCharges stemmed from text-messaging sex scandal involving mayor ."} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Two newlyweds are fighting for the dismissal of the justice of the peace who refused them a marriage license because they are of different races. A Louisiana justice of the peace refused to perform a marriage for Beth and Terence McKay. \"We've retained an attorney, and we're in the process of taking the next steps in order to make sure that (the justice of the peace) loses his job,\" Beth McKay told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Monday. She and her husband, Terence McKay, stepped into the national spotlight when Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, refused them a license. They ultimately got a marriage license from another justice of the peace in the same parish. Despite a national uproar and a call by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for him to lose his license, Bardwell, 56, said he has no regrets. \"It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong,\" he told CNN affiliate WAFB on Saturday. He insisted he is not racist and does not treat black people differently. He said he does not perform mixed-race marriages because he is concerned about the children of such marriages. Bardwell did not return calls from CNN. Beth McKay, 30, said she was speaking with Bardwell's wife by phone about getting a marriage license and was \"shocked\" to be asked whether they are an interracial couple. Watch how justice's decision shocked couple \u00bb . \"She said, 'Well, what's the deal? Is he black, or are you black?' And so I answered her question, and then she just said, 'Well, we don't do interracial marriages.'\" Terence McKay, 32, told CNN, \"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but he's absolutely wrong on all aspects of his stance.\" McKay added, \"If it wasn't for interracial couples today, we wouldn't have our president. So for him to take that outlook, that's still like 1800s or something.\" \"A lot of people have come up to us and said, 'You know, we're in interracial relationships as well,' not just black and white, and just encouraged us to stand up for our rights and to speak out against things like this,\" Beth McKay said. The incident \"caught us completely off guard,\" said Terence McKay, \"and we're just trying to live our lives.\" The National Urban League called for an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, saying in a statement that Bardwell's actions were \"a huge step backward in social justice.\" The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out race-based limitations on marriage in the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. In the unanimous decision, the court said that \"Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.\"","highlights":"Couple were denied marriage license because they are of different races .\nJustice of Peace Keith Bardwell said he was concerned for kids of biracial marriages .\nLouisiana couple eventually got married by different justice of the peace .\nBeth, Terence McKay hire lawyer, want judge to lose job ."} -{"article":"DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) -- It's a stimulus plan on sneakers. The NCAA men's Final Four at Detroit's Ford Field could generate $30 million to $50 million from visitors. The NCAA men's basketball Final Four couldn't come at a better time for the city of Detroit -- the hard-hit capital of the U.S. auto industry at the center of the state of Michigan's economic woes. The 12-percent unemployment rate here is the highest in the nation, and with the Big Three automakers all needing multibillion-dollar government bailouts in an attempt to stay afloat, the future isn't much brighter, some say. \"We need some help,\" said Detroit resident Mark Franklin, who took his 5-year-old son to Friday's Hershey's College All-Star Game at Ford Field. \"There are too many people out of work already. Even if you have a job, you know someone who doesn't.\" Enter the Final Four and a quartet of powerhouse college basketball teams -- all seeking NCAA brass. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have won a combined nine NCAA championships and reached 31 Final Fours. But more important to the city are the visitors -- and the wallets -- that college basketball's marquee weekend will bring to Detroit. City leaders expect 100,000 fans to visit -- staying in hotel rooms, renting cars and spending an anticipated $30 million to $50 million. The participation of Michigan State adds icing on the cake. The school's campus sits just 90 miles away, in East Lansing, giving the Spartans a home-floor advantage as they give locals some added pride on a special weekend. MSU helped things along mightily by advancing to the finals Saturday, defeating Connecticut 82-73. In the national championship game, the Spartans will play North Carolina, 83-69 victors over Villanova later Saturday. More than half the Michigan State players are from in-state and many have felt the impact of the region's economic woes. \"I have family that are unemployed right now,\" said sophomore guard Durrell Summers, who starred at Detroit's Redford Covenant High School. \"[For the Final Four] to bring that kind of money in, hopefully it can help open up jobs for my family and for other families because some people got laid off for no reason.\" Watch Elaine Quijano's report on a GM dealer's perspective . Detroit's first Final Four is the latest in a series of big sporting events for the city. The Pistons have hosted a pair of NBA Finals in suburban Auburn Hills, while the NHL's Red Wings have won two Stanley Cups at downtown Joe Louis Arena. Baseball's Tigers have played in a World Series and its home, Comerica Park, hosted an MLB All-Star game. This weekend's host venue, Ford Field, was the site of Super Bowl XL and Oakland Hills Country Club was home to the 2004 Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship last August in nearby Bloomfield Hills. This is the first year of a new stadium configuration for the Final Four, requiring host domes to use all permanent seating to meet a 70,000-seat minimum. \"You see people driving up just to take a picture of the Final Four sign on (Ford Field). It's something to be proud of,\" Franklin said. \"Now we need city leaders to take advantage of it.\"","highlights":"NEW: Michigan State, North Carolina to vie for national title .\nMen's Final Four couldn't come at a better time for hard-hit capital of the auto industry .\nDetroit's jobless rate is highest in nation, and auto industry bailouts bode ill for future .\nThe participation of nearby Michigan State in the event adds icing on the cake ."} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Some Florida amusement park visitors may enjoy space-themed roller-coasters, but the first vehicle they board at Orlando International Airport may be the most futuristic ride of their vacation. Four hydrogen shuttle buses are part of the fleet at the Orlando International Airport. The airport is testing four Ford shuttle vans equipped with internal combustion engines modified to run on hydrogen instead of gasoline. \"It's quiet, it doesn't shake like diesel, it doesn't have that diesel smell,\" said Rafael Sanchez, who has been driving the vans for a year. The quieter engine makes conversation inside the bus easier than in conventional vehicles. \"Hydrogen is one of the many technologies we are exploring, trying to become more of a green airport,\" said Ronald Lewis, director of airport operations. Vehicles powered with hydrogen engines are different from the many vehicles across the nation that run with the help of hydrogen fuel cells -- which are the gold standard of green machines. The use of hydrogen in internal combustion engines is far less efficient than in the fuel cells. The modified engines aboard the Ford E-450 shuttle buses are 6.8 liter V-10s. The airport's fleet also includes three gas-electric hybrid vehicles and 24 biodiesel buses. The facility also powers its maintenance equipment -- such as lawnmowers and tractors -- with biodiesel. But like many experiments with alternative fuels, the price is very high and the long-term outcome is unknown. Proponents of hydrogen technology have long had a chicken-and-egg dilemma over whether to build million-dollar fueling facilities or to wait until more vehicles are in use. Energy companies are reluctant to pour money into expensive fueling stations without a lot of hydrogen vehicles around, but consumers are not likely to buy a vehicle without adequate places to fill up. \"It is clear nothing is going to displace gasoline or diesel for 20, 30, maybe 40 years,\" said John Lapetz, who has been working on alternative fuels at Ford for more than 20 years. The Orlando project has several goals: To get average consumers acquainted with hydrogen and to acquire data on the buses' performance in a setting where they are in use almost nonstop. Lapetz said it's an effort to use a technology that customers take for granted (the internal combustion engine), while preparing for the day when drivers can complete the divorce from fossil fuels. At the Boggy Creek Hydrogen Fueling Station in Orlando, the hydrogen is produced on-site. \"We are doing a process called steam methane re-forming, which is natural gas to hydrogen,\" said Puneet Verma, manager of biofuels and hydrogen at Chevron Technology Ventures, one of the players involved in the project. During a careful fueling process, technicians check for leaks of the highly flammable hydrogen -- leaks both in the bus and the fuel pump. Because a fossil fuel, methane, is used to make the hydrogen, the buses are about 12 percent cleaner than gasoline or diesel when their entire carbon footprint is measured. \"We view the hydrogen efforts as a technical success,\" said Verma. \"This is the first time we have been able to demonstrate actual production of hydrogen at the station. It's not necessarily an economic success yet.\" \"The ultimate goal is hydrogen fuel cell cars,\" Verma said. \"The hydrogen internal combustion engine buses are much less expensive to manufacture, but they consume a lot more hydrogen.\" Verma said the buses are \"valid transition technology\" aimed at quickly building significant demand for hydrogen, which would then justify an expensive infrastructure. The hydrogen test project also includes the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Ford Motor Company, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Progress Energy and SeaWorld. Hydrogen buses began shuttling SeaWorld employees in February from the park's outer parking lots to their workplaces. \"The environment is really an important part of SeaWorld's culture here,\" said Kelly Bernish, director of environmental health and safety at Busch theme parks SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica. Bernish described the venture as another opportunity for \"employees to feel like they can impact the environment by using this kind of vehicle, that will lessen our footprint on the world.\" SeaWorld's Discovery Cove animal training supervisor Jay Tacey said \"somebody has to get the ball rolling. Until somebody takes that first step, there's always going to be the 'what if?' \" Airport Operations Director Lewis said being in on the hydrogen experiment early could pay off in the long run. \"We are hopeful that since they built the facility here, the only one in the southeast United States, that there will be a long-term usage for it.\"","highlights":"Orlando airport tests cleaner hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines .\nSmoother, quieter engines require million-dollar fueling stations .\nTesters hope to learn more by gathering data from nonstop shuttle usage .\nHydrogen engines cheaper than hydrogen fuel cells, but they use more hydrogen ."} -{"article":"HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- It's been more than a year since a racial slur threatened to end the television career of Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman. But the incident still weighs heavily on his mind. Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman watches his son's baseball game this month in Honolulu, Hawaii. A&E briefly suspended his top-rated reality show in late 2007, and his reputation was on the line. Now, with his show back on the air and at the top of the network's ratings list, Chapman insists that he does not want the controversy to be forgotten. \"They said, 'It'll pass,' and I said to the guy, 'You know what? I won't let it.' \" Chapman, 56, spoke candidly about accusations of racism on a recent windy Saturday afternoon on the sidelines of 8-year-old son Garry's baseball game. It was his other son, Tucker, who recorded a profanity-laced conversation with his father and reportedly sold the recording -- which included Chapman repeatedly using the \"n-word\" -- to the National Enquirer in 2007. Some African-American leaders called for the cancellation of his show. Chapman said he was advised to lay low for several weeks, but he refused. \"All the spin doctors ... all those guys told me, 'Dog, say that you were this, say you were that, [but] if you go out there, you're done.' I said, 'I'm going out in a hail of glory. You may call me a convict ... but you ain't gonna call me something I'm not. I'm going out swinging.'\" Chapman said his meetings with leaders of the black community were more than an attempt to redeem himself in the public eye and get his show back on the air. In a February 8, 2008, foreword to his book, \"You Can Run But You Can't Hide,\" he writes that \"giving up cussing is just the first step toward my evolution as a human.\" He said he was referring to his use of the racial slur, which he admits -- even on the recording -- knowing that it would spark public outrage. But as a former prison inmate of mixed ethnicity -- he is part Native American -- Chapman said he felt he could use the word without it defining him as a racist. \"I was with 38,000 black men at the age of 22 in the '70s, the [prison] guards -- whether they're black or white -- called them that [the slur] every day,\" he said. \"Once I said it and met with leaders of the black community and realized what that word meant, that's when I said, 'I will never again utter that word. Ever.' \" He said, \"I don't give a damn that [it] was a private call they burglarized; I knew not to do that. I didn't know not to say the word because what it would do, but I do now. Now if you catch me [saying it], you won't have to stop my show, I'll resign.\" Controversy is something that Chapman draws on; it defines his character both publicly and privately. He ran with motorcycle gangs before he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to a five-year prison term in 1977. He maintains his innocence and served a fraction of the sentence. His determination to prove he was the world's best bounty hunter led him to Mexico in 2003, where he and his team captured the heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune, Andrew Luster, who was convicted in absentia on charges of rape. The Mexican government charged Chapman and his team with kidnapping and demanded their extradition, but the charges later were dropped. His life story of an ex-con-turned-vigilante is the hallmark of his celebrity and leads many people to tune in to his show, which began in 2004. Chapman said his fans perceived the racial slur incident differently. \"Not one black person to this day has walked up to me and said anything bad; it's all been the whites,\" he said. \"[Others said], 'You know here's a bounty hunter, was convicted, went to prison, 30 years later he's arrested 7,000 people. You think he might say a couple bad words.' That's the good things that were said to me.\" His 10-year-old daughter, Bonnie Jo, heard about what happened on the radio. \"And she goes, 'Dad, you know you can't use that [word], you're not a rapper. OK, love you, Dad, see you.' And I'm like, 'And is that what your friends are saying?' 'Yep, they know you're not a rapper. They know you're Dog the Bounty Hunter. And it was over, just like that.\" While some of his viewers have forgotten the controversy, Chapman does not want it to go away -- particularly the accusations that were leveled against him in the media. \"You better not forget the s*** you put me through over that. I ain't lettin' 'em forget it. Ever. You think black guys forget it? It hurts my feelings to hear it [the slur]. So, yeah, there's such a thing as passing, but I never heard of that. It ain't passing.\" He added, \"I understand the saying now, 'Lest ye forget.' Don't ever forget that. Please don't forget that, that I went through that. That I learned.\"","highlights":"Use of slur threatened to end TV career of Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman .\nChapman says he does not want the controversy to be forgotten .\nChapman was heard repeatedly using racial slur in recording sold to tabloid .\nReality show has returned successfully to A&E network ."} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- His name is \"Average\" and the story of his desperate flight from the wreckage of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is an increasingly common one. Math teacher Mawise Gumba fled Zimbabwe and found his qualifications mean little as a refugee. The tall 34-year-old, slouching exhausted in a Johannesburg church that has become a de facto transit camp, is one man in a tide of migrants washing up in South Africa. \"There is nothing for me there in our country any more. I had no job and I could not afford anything. Even when I was working life was tough,\" he said. \"It's hard for everyone ... I thought it was better for me here,\" said the former store clerk, whose dusty jeans and boots tell of a long and difficult journey. The tale told by Average -- whose name is not unusual in Zimbabwe -- is depressingly familiar to a people who have watched their once prosperous land spiral into economic disaster. When Mugabe's government, facing inflation of close to 5,000 percent, ordered companies to halve prices of basic goods and services a month ago -- effectively demanding that they operate at a loss -- Average lost his job as the supermarket chain he worked for cut staff. Facing the prospect of homelessness and hunger in his own country, he joined the estimated 4,000 Zimbabweans who head south to South Africa, most of them illegally, every day. Mugabe, 83 and in power since the country's independence from Britain in 1980, has been accused of running Zimbabwe's economy into the ground while implementing a draconian crackdown aimed at keeping power. His decision to launch violent seizures of white-owned farms seven years ago is partly blamed for soaring unemployment and the highest inflation rate in the world. Average scraped together his last salary, some money he made from trading sugar bought at a discount from the supermarket where he worked, and funds borrowed from friends to secure a visitor's visa and bus ticket to Johannesburg. A friend who promised to meet him on arrival failed to show up, leaving him stranded without a place to sleep. On Wednesday evening he walked into the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg and joined a long queue of people waiting for shelter and food. The church's homeless shelter has become a virtual refugee camp for 800-900 Zimbabweans and a smaller number of migrants from other countries. \"Over the past three years, and more so over the past couple of months, I have noted an exponential increase in the number of people we have from Zimbabwe,\" Bishop Paul Verryn said. Outside his office the line of people waiting for help grew. Many of the new arrivals were asleep in their seats. \"We offer them a place off the streets, where they are protected and have warmth from the inclement streets of Johannesburg,\" Verryn said. At sunset the refugees crowd into the building and lay out reeking blankets. \"People just sleep anywhere they can find a space to sleep. Some people sleep on the steps here, in the corridors and others in the foyer and in the meeting rooms,\" said 27-year-old Walter Rusike from Harare. The commerce graduate and his wife and two children share a meeting room with other families and have been at the shelter for four months. Average said he hoped to get accommodation for a few days until he finds his friend, work or both. \"I have a diploma in stores management and store control, a certificate in security and a driver's licence. I think maybe I will be able to find some work with my qualifications. Anything will be better than the situation I was in,\" he says. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"His name is \"Average,\" he fled wreckage of President Mugabe's Zimbabwe .\nOne of the 4,000 who flee hunger, homelessness into South Africa a day .\nOnce-prosperous nation now an economic disaster with 5,000 percent inflation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Germany's much-loved model train manufacturer, Maerklin, has filed for bankruptcy, leaving fans around the world wondering whether it's the last stop for the company's toy business. This Maerklin train has a video in the front so users get a driver's view. Maerklin has been building toy trains for nearly 150 years and its railroads made their way into countries as far away as Australia and New Zealand. The company said it applied for insolvency proceedings Wednesday after talks to secure credit from banks broke down. Despite intensive negotiations, the commercial banks did not extend their lines of credit, Maerklin said. \"It is sad,\" shopper Frank Steen, 39, said at London's famous Hamleys toy store. \"With fewer older brands around, all we're left with is Japanese plastic.\" Although Maerklin generated a turnover of around $165 million in 2008, it struggled to obtain a credit extension beyond January 31, it said. Despite financial difficulties, the company still planned to set up its stall Thursday at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Railway devotees will have plenty to look forward to after Maerklin boss Dietmar Mundil promised to bring 400 new products to the show.","highlights":"Maerklin toy train firm files for bankruptcy .\nCompany says it failed to secure extension of credit lines from banks .\nMaerklin generated a turnover of around $165 million in 2008 .\nCompany still plans to attend this week's Nuremberg Toy Fair ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The toddler whose body washed ashore in Texas last month has been tentatively identified as a 2-year-old girl, and her mother and a man identified as her boyfriend were arrested Saturday, the Galveston County Sheriff's office said Sunday. Police believe two-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers may be \"Baby Grace.\" Investigators believe the child they dubbed \"Baby Grace\" is actually 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, the Galveston County Sheriff's office said Sunday. DNA analysis is still in progress to confirm that identification. The child's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, and a man identified as Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, were arrested Saturday on charges of injuring a child and tampering with physical evidence, the sheriff's department said. The couple lives in Spring, Texas, a Houston suburb about 75 miles north of Galveston. Their bonds were set at $350,000 each. The arrests followed searches conducted Saturday after a November 7 tip, the sheriff's department said. Deputies and FBI agents plan to release more information at a news conference Monday, Galveston County Sheriff's Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said. The girl's grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, of Cleveland, Ohio, told CNN affiliate WKYC that Riley Ann has been missing since June. Watch Sawyers family describe their fears before child was identified \u00bb . On October 29, a fisherman discovered the body in a blue Sterilite plastic container on an uninhabited island in Galveston's West Bay. Police dubbed the dead girl \"Baby Grace,\" and asked the public for help in identifying her. A medical examiner said the child's skull was fractured, and a forensic dentist estimated her age at 2 to 3 years. In composite sketches, the girl is wearing a pink skirt and matching top -- clothing authorities said she was wearing when she was found. The other sketch, a close-up rendering of the child's face, shows a fair-skinned toddler with long blond hair. \"She is more to us than just a case number, more to us than just an unidentified body. She is very much a human being,\" Tutoilmondo said last month. \"She is someone's child, someone's grandchild, someone's cousin, someone's best friend, and to us, that is the most important part about this case.\" \"We have adopted the name of Baby Grace because, there again, that is part of the emotional part of this case for us,\" he said, holding a tiny sneaker identical to one of those the child was wearing when she was found. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Hank Bishop contributed to this story.","highlights":"Woman, boyfriend arrested after a tip led to search .\nPolice believe child found dead in box is Riley Ann Sawyers, 2 .\nBody of little girl was found in box that washed ashore last month .\nPolice asked public for help identifying girl they dubbed \"Baby Grace\""} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Fight police misconduct with a cell phone, the NAACP says. The century-old civil rights organization has launched an online reporting system that lets users upload cell phone images of alleged police abuses. The Rapid Report System also lets users send text messages and e-mails about alleged misconduct. \"We know that most of police officers around the nation are excellent public servants. But the few who violate people's rights are often not held accountable,\" said Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. \"Research has shown that there are many barriers to reporting incidents of police misconduct, including intimidation at police departments and a lack of trust in the integrity of the system, among other reasons. This breakdown leads to an absence of public safety and a deterioration of the quality of life in many communities of color.\" The NAACP unveiled the online system Monday at its national convention in New York City. Users can post images from their cell phones or online. Cell phone footage has repeatedly helped spotlight alleged police misconduct in recent years. The fatal shooting of an unarmed man in Oakland, California, on New Year's Day made headlines and spread across the Internet partly because of cell phone video. The killing sparked large protests in Oakland and led to a murder charge against the transit officer.","highlights":"NAACP unveils new program to allow people to report alleged police misconduct .\nTexts, e-mails can also be sent to document alleged police misdeeds .\nUnarmed California man's shooting captured on phone garnered national attention ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States signed an agreement Thursday on civil nuclear cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. Calling the agreement \"a powerful and timely model for the world and the region,\" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the deal, along with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed. \"We applaud the UAE's commission -- commitment to the highest standards of safety, security and nonproliferation in its pursuit of nuclear power,\" Rice said. Congress has to ratify the agreement before it can take effect, and congressional critics fear it could spark an arms race and proliferation in the region. The UAE's ties to Iran also have caused concern. Under the \"1-2-3 deal,\" similar to one the United States signed last year with India, Washington would share nuclear technology, expertise and fuel. In exchange, the UAE commits to abide by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. The small oil-rich Gulf nation promises not to enrich uranium or to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear bombs. The deal is part of a major UAE investment in nuclear energy. It has already signed deals to build several nuclear power plants. \"We are a country that is very rich in its oil and gas, but we do look forward that we have a program, a nuclear, peaceful program that could sustain our future needs,\" said bin Zayed. Rice said she hoped existing work by U.S. companies on the UAE nuclear program would be expanded under the agreement. \"We believe our technology is the best in the world, and we hope that the UAE will give that technology strong consideration,\" she said. The United States has stressed its role in global nonproliferation initiatives and has donated $10 million to establish an International Atomic Energy Agency international fuel bank. The U.S. has held up the UAE's development of nuclear energy in stark contrast to Iran, which is suspected of enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb. Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat from California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the safeguards in the agreement \"encouraging\" but voiced concerns that Iran could take advantage of the agreement. \"This could be a significant advance in nonproliferation policy, and a model for future nuclear cooperation agreements,\" Berman said in a statement. \"However, I and many other members of Congress place a very high priority on the international effort to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and will be analyzing this and any other nuclear cooperation agreement in the context of how it implicates the attainment of that goal.\" Iran is the among the UAE's largest trading partners. In the past, the port city of Dubai, one of the UAE's seven emirates, has been used as a transit point for sensitive technology bound for Iran. Dubai was also one of the major hubs for the nuclear trafficking network run by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. But U.S. officials said the UAE has taken major steps to improve export controls and prevent money laundering. Still, such ties contributed to stiff opposition in Congress to the failed deal for Dubai Ports World to manage U.S. ports. The U.S. already has similar agreements with Egypt and Morrocco, and U.S. officials said Washington is working on similar pacts with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan.","highlights":"U.S. Congress has to ratify the agreement before it can take effect .\nCongressional critics fear it could spark an arms race and proliferation in the region .\nUnder the deal, the U.S. would share nuclear technology, expertise and fuel .\nThe UAE will abide by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, other safeguards ."} -{"article":"DOVER, Delaware (CNN) -- It was a very public goodbye for Joe Biden on Friday as the Delaware senator addressed the deployment ceremony of his son's National Guard unit as they prepare to leave for a tour of duty in Iraq. Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden addresses the deployment ceremony Friday. Following Thursday night's debate with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in St. Louis, Missouri, Biden flew back to Delaware to spend the day with his 39-year-old son before his deployment to Iraq. Beau Biden -- a captain in the National Guard and Delaware's attorney general -- will be a trial counselor in the 261st Signal Brigade, a unit that specializes in providing communications for the military in Iraq. \"I've come here many times before as a Delawarean, as a United States senator,\" he told a crowd in Dover. \"But today I come, as you prepare to deploy, as a father -- a father who had some sage advice from his son this morning: 'Dad, keep it short, we're in formation.' \" \"My heart is full of love and pride. ... You are the best demonstration of both our nation's greatness and ... our people's goodness,\" he added. Watch more of Biden's comments \u00bb . Biden joined the rest of Delaware's congressional delegation and the state's Gov. Ruth Ann Minner in speaking to the 110 members of the unit. \"Let me simply say, thank you, thank you for answering the call of your country. ... So stay strong, stand together, serve honorably ... may God bless you and may he protect you,\" Biden added, later saluting the crowd. Beau Biden doesn't ship out right away. Instead, he heads to Fort Bliss, Texas, this weekend, where his National Guard unit completes assigned tasks and receives additional training specific to the conditions in Iraq. Then, in six to eight weeks, they ship out to Iraq. Despite increased interest and security because Biden is now a vice presidential nominee, the public affairs officer for the unit had insisted the ceremony would be no different, and not political. Lt. Col. Len Grattieri said Wednesday that the last time Biden -- who has often spoken at deployment ceremonies -- addressed a departing unit was 18 months ago, and that he usually roots his remarks in foreign policy, offering his perspective on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Grattieri couldn't say where Beau Biden will be based, but his role will be that of a prosecutor enforcing the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He added that positions aren't clearly defined, and the unit will do whatever the Army needs it to. In the past week, Biden had been trying to balance debate prep with family time. On Tuesday afternoon, he took a break and went out to lunch with Beau, Beau's wife, Hallie, and the couple's young daughter. Aides say it's been a tough week for Biden, with Beau's departure weighing on him. Biden said in an interview Tuesday that he is proud of his son, but wishes he weren't going. Palin, along with Biden, brought up their respective sons' deployment to Iraq during the debate. Palin's son Track, 19, an infantry soldier, was deployed to Iraq with his Army unit September 11. Palin spoke at her eldest son's deployment ceremony in Alaska, which honored the 4,000 Alaska-based troops to be deployed from Fort Wainwright to Iraq in the coming weeks. Track Palin, who was standing in formation among members of the 1st Stryker Brigade's 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, went unmentioned by the governor in her brief remarks. Palin had agreed to speak at the deployment ceremony several months ago, before she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate. Though the speech wasn't a political event -- media credentials were issued by the military base -- that didn't stop dozens of national reporters and photographers from descending on the military base in Fairbanks, home to nearly 12,000 soldiers and their families. \"As you depart today,\" Palin told the infantrymen, \"don't mind us -- your parents, your friends, your family -- if we allow for a few tears, or if we hold you just a little close once more before you're gone. Because were going to miss you. We can't help it. We are going to miss you.\" Palin said victory in Iraq is \"within sight.\" \"You and others like you will be there to see the mission through,\" she said. \"You will be there to win. You will see victory. Track Palin signed up to join the Army on September 11, 2007. During his 12-month deployment, his unit will protect reconstruction teams that are rebuilding the country, said Maj. Chris Hyde, the public affairs officer for the brigade. Hyde, who called Track Palin \"a low-profile individual,\" said he had not heard any security concerns about having the son of a prominent political figure in the brigade. \"The decision to put him in that role was made before Gov. Palin was picked by McCain,\" he said. \"If anything comes down from headquarters, we will comply, but I wouldn't even want to speculate. I wouldn't say yes or no. That's just my opinion. We will do well with Track Palin whether he's there or he's not.\" CNN's Peter Hamby, Ed Hornick and Alexander Marquardt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joe Biden speaks at his son's deployment ceremony in Delaware .\nBeau Biden is a National Guard captain and Delaware's AG .\nBiden tells the crowd: \"My heart is full of love and pride\"\nSarah Palin's son, Track, was deployed to Iraq on September 11 ."} -{"article":"LONDON (CNN) -- The latest video from Somalia's al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab wing is as slickly produced as a reality TV show but with a startling message -- complete with a hip-hop jihad vibe. Experts think Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed \"The American\" by al Qaeda, speaks in the Somali video. \"Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell,\" the unidentified voice raps on the video, which runs at least 18 minutes. The video also shows a man reported to be Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed \"The American\" by al Qaeda. He apparently is now in Somalia training and counseling Somalis from North America and Europe. He speaks in American English. \"Away from your family, away from our friends, away from ice, candy bars, all those things is because we're waiting to meet the enemy,\" says the man believed to be al-Amriki. Watch part of the video \u00bb . Intelligence experts say the video was probably made in recent weeks and comes on the heels of an audio message in March purportedly from Osama bin Laden. In that recording, the al Qaeda leader calls on his \"Muslim brothers in Mujahid Somalia\" to overthrow President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed for cooperating with the West. Al-Shabaab is the militant Islamic wing in Somalia. It means \"Youth\" in Arabic. \"We're seeing perhaps their most sophisticated attempt so far to really reach an audience of potential recruits in America, and that's one of the things that made that video very significant,\" said Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a Washington-based research group that tracks al Qaeda's development and messages. \"They're casting it in a way that's going to speak to the youth of today,\" Venzke said. \"Most of the time, what we're seeing in their videos directly parallels what the groups are doing operationally, what they are targeting, where they're recruiting.\" Sheik Ahmed Matan knows that firsthand. A respected member of Britain's Somali community, Matan said he knows of hundreds of young Somali men who have returned to Somalia for terrorist training. \"A lot of young people from here, from America, from Canada, from everywhere from Europe -- they went there,\" he said. He added that these men are capable of being sent back home to conduct terrorist operations, even suicide bombings. \"It can be, they can train anytime and send them here, anytime,\" Matan said. Somalis from North America and Europe are beginning to come to terms with the problem of recruitment, he said. The United States and British governments say Somalia is an emerging terror hot spot, which could pose a threat beyond its borders. Matan said he often challenges \"recruiters\" at mosques and elsewhere in Britain, demanding that they stop brainwashing younger Somalis about Islam. He said the government should play a greater role in monitoring what is said and done at these mosques -- but, he concedes, doing so has proved highly controversial in Britain and throughout Europe. There is some evidence that al Qaeda is successfully preying on some of those with Western backgrounds. One of them was a business student from London who suddenly left for Somalia. He surfaced about 18 months ago on a martyrdom video, just before blowing himself up in southern Somalia, killing at least 20 people, officials say. U.S. Defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said months ago that one of their worst nightmares would be al Qaeda operating freely in Somalia. Now that nightmare continues, with Somalis in North America and Europe admitting that al Qaeda's reach is spreading. Venzke said Al-Shabaab has put out more videos than ever before in the past year. \"If that's what they're doing publicly, we can only assume how their operations have developed,\" he said.","highlights":"Al Qaeda's Somali arm has hip-hop jihad rap and message from \"American\"\nIntel expert says group is trying \"to reach audience of potential recruits in America\"\nVideo comes on the heels of purported bin Laden message on Somalia ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Obama marks his 100th day in office, most recent national polls indicate that more than six in 10 Americans approve of the job he's doing as president. Polls reflect that most Americans approve of President Obama's performance during his first 100 days in office. According to a CNN poll of polls compiled Wednesday, 63 percent said they approve of how Obama is handling his duties. Twenty-nine percent disapprove. The rating is down 3 percentage points from CNN's previous poll of polls, which was compiled Sunday. The president's approval rating stood at 64 percent in a CNN poll of polls in January shortly after his inauguration. \"The number of Americans who think Obama has the right personal qualities to be president has gone up since the campaign last fall,\" said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. \"That wasn't true for George W. Bush eight years ago, and it may be one reason why Obama's approval rating is still in the 60s.\" How does Obama compare with his predecessors around the first 100-days mark? Bush stood at 62 percent in a CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup Poll in April 2001; Bill Clinton at 55 percent in a CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup Poll in April 1993; George H.W. Bush at 58 percent in a Gallup Poll from April 1989; and Ronald Reagan at 67 percent in a Gallup Poll in April 1981. \"The 100-day mark tends to fall during a period when Americans are still evaluating a new president. The danger period for most presidents comes later in their first year in office,\" Holland said. \"Bill Clinton, for example, still had good marks after his first 100 days, but his approval rating had tanked by June of 1993. Ronald Reagan's approval rating stayed over 50 percent until November of his first year in office, but once it slipped below that mark, it stayed under 50 percent for two years. So Obama's current rating certainly does not indicate that he is out of the woods yet.\" The most recent edition of the CNN poll of polls is an average of seven national surveys taken over the past week: CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. (April 23-26), ABC\/Washington Post (April 21-24), Fox\/Opinion Dynamics (April 22-23), CBS\/The New York Times (April 22-26), Marist (April 21-23), Quinnipiac (April 21-27) and the Gallup tracking poll (April 25-27). iReport.com: Grade the first 100 days . The poll of polls does not have a sampling error.","highlights":"CNN poll of polls finds 63 percent approve of how President Obama handling duties .\nObama's approval rating at 64 percent in CNN poll of polls in January .\nCNN poll of polls is an average of seven national surveys taken over the past week ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Actor Rainn Wilson plays paper salesman Dwight Schrute in the television comedy \"The Office.\" Rainn Wilson says fellow members of his Baha'i faith are being persecuted in Iran. (CNN) -- Why is Rainn Wilson, \"Dwight\" on \"The Office,\" writing a news commentary for CNN? Good question. It's a bit strange for me, to say the least; a comic character actor best known for playing weirdos with bad haircuts getting all serious to talk about the persecution of the fellow members of his religious faith. Dear readers of CNN, I assure you that what I'm writing about is no joking matter or some hoax perpetrated by a paper-sellin', bear-fearin', Battlestar-Galactica obsessed beet farmer. I am a member of the Baha'i faith. What is that, you ask? Well, long story short, it's an independent world religion that began in the mid-1800s in Iran. Baha'is believe that there is only one God and therefore only one religion. All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine. This constantly updated faith of God, Baha'is believe, has been refreshed for this day and age by our founder, Baha'u'llah. There. Nutshell version. Now, as I mentioned, this all happened in Iran, and needless to say the Muslim authorities did not like the Baha'is very much, accusing them of heresy and apostasy. Tens of thousands were killed in the early years of the faith, and the persecutions have continued off and on for the past 150 years. Why write about all this now? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see there's a 'trial' going on very soon for seven Baha'i national leaders in Iran. They've been accused of all manner of things including being \"spies for Israel,\" \"insulting religious sanctities\" and \"propaganda against the Islamic Republic.\" They've been held for a year in Evin Prison in Tehran without any access to their lawyer (the Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi) and with zero evidence of any of these charges. When a similar thing happened in 1980, the national leadership of the Iranian Baha'i community disappeared. And this was repeated again in 1981. In fact, since 1979, more than 200 Baha'is have been killed, holy places and cemeteries desecrated, homes burned, civil rights taken away and secret lists compiled of Baha'is (and even Muslims who associate with them) by government agencies. It's bad right now for all the peace-loving Baha'is in Iran who want only to practice their religion and follow their beliefs. It's especially bad for these seven. Here's a link to their bios. They're teachers, and engineers, and optometrists and social workers just like us. This thought has become kind of a clich\u00e9', but we take our rights for granted here in America. Imagine if a group of people were rounded up and imprisoned and then disappeared not for anything they'd done, but because they wanted to worship differently than the majority. There is a resolution on the situation of the Baha'is in Iran being sent to Congress. Please ask your representatives to support it. And ask them to speak out about this terrible situation. Thanks for reading. Now back to bears, paper and beets! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rainn Wilson.","highlights":"Rainn Wilson: I'm a member of the Baha'i faith, founded in the 1800s in Iran .\nHe says the faith has been persecuted on and off for 150 years .\nSeven Baha'i leaders are going on trial in Iran on a variety of charges, he says .\nWilson: Ask your congressman to support a resolution on the Baha'is ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The apocalyptic tales of nature's impending demise are as well worn as they are numerous. Dr. Joseph Adelegan has pioneered new energy sources, including using cow waste to create cooking gas. But while our leaders wrangle over quotas for greenhouse emissions over banquets at lavish summits, there are remarkable individuals who are doing their small bit to prevent our planet from peril. Take Nigerian civil engineer, Dr Joseph Adelegan for instance. He firmly believes that the world's future fuel demands can be met through renewable energy. And he is using increasingly innovative methods to achieve these results. Three years ago Adelegan won plaudits for his \"Cows to Kilowatts\" project, which used effluents and waste products from abattoirs to produce cooking gas. The project was a winner of the prestigious 2005 Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) International Awards. It is still going strong and being used to provide cooking fuel for nearly 6000 homes in Ibadan, southern Nigeria. Adelegan tells CNN there are now plans to roll it out across most of Africa, including Zimbabwe, Kenya and Egypt. This time he's back with another groundbreaking idea to use waste from the cassava plant, a staple food of Nigeria, to generate electricity. His project \"Power to the Poor: Off-Grid Lighting from Cassava Waste in Nigeria,\" was awarded a $250,000 grant in May from the World Bank after being named one of the best projects in Africa. According to Adelegan, Nigeria produces over 20 percent of the world's output of cassava, it is a $5 billion industry and provides the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food. However, waste from cassava refining is a major public health problem in Nigeria, causing water pollution and emitting noxious greenhouse gases. Through innovative biogas technology, zero emission bioreactors at specially constructed plants treat the cassava waste and produce biogas which drives microturbines for low cost, safe and reliable off-grid efficient lighting to thousands of rural homes. Using this method, Adelegan says he hopes to generate 200kw daily, which will provide basic electricity for more than 2000 households initially. He told CNN: \"There will be four lighting points in their homes. We're thinking in terms of basic lighting, they will be able to use their TV, cassette player, that sort of thing, but it will not be able to power a refrigerator. \"These people currently rely on kerosene lamps that are very bad for emissions and pollution. We also plan to provide them with low wattage lamps that use just 5kw to bring down usage.\" Through his not-for-profit organization-- Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research)-- Adelegan has achieved the impressive feat of galvanizing the notoriously bureaucratic Nigerian government into action. He told CNN that the governor of Kwara State, in northern Nigeria has donated a plot of land for the launch of the project, scheduled to start next month. The scheme will cost $310,000 and will become profitable in little over three years, Adelegan says. \"This can never replace fossil fuels because of the huge demand we have for them, but we can help to reduce greenhouse emissions by creating alternative sources of energy,\" he said. The Ice Man Cometh . In the furthest reaches of northern India, glaciers once stretched far down the mountains, now they are all but gone as global warming takes its devastating toll. Hardworking but impoverished farmers in the Ladakh region have watched as their sole source of fresh water slowly melts away. But one man is taking matters into his own hands. Enter Chewang Norphel, a softly-spoken but sprightly 72-year-old has created artificial glaciers and managed to generate water and greenery in this barren landscape. Perched high up in the remote cold deserts of the Himalayas, Norphel has mastered the art of harvesting water by using just a few hundred meters of iron pipes and stone embankments. \"Fifty to sixty years ago, we used to have huge glaciers here, the retired civil engineer, told CNN. \"They have been reduced now because of global warming and now they are on high peaks.\" The idea of the 'artificial glacier' was born after he noticed that taps were left running in winter to stop the water from freezing in the pipes. The water then flowed into the drains surrounding the taps and froze. \"And it then occurred to me: 'why not try and make artificial glaciers in the winter?' So that local farmers get a real headstart when they need it most,\" Norphel says. The result was a device which traps the waters which melt down the high mountains by turning them into chunks of ice. The largest artificial glacier Norphel has built so far is near the village of Phuktsey. About 1,000 feet (300 meters) long, 150 feet (45 meters) wide, and four feet (1 meter) deep, it supplies irrigation water to the entire village of around 700 people. For Norphel, there are several advantages of an artificial glacier over a natural one. Firstly, it is closer to the village and at a comparatively lower altitude. Natural glaciers, on the other hand, are located way up in the mountains and they melt slowly in summer, releasing water to the villages quite late. Now engineers from other mountainous regions in India and Afghanistan have visited to learn his methods. One artificial glacier costs just $7,000, compared to $34,000 for a dam. Only local materials are needed, and the villagers themselves can build and maintain them. For his efforts, Norphel has been awarded the Far Eastern Economic Review's 1999 Gold Asian Innovation Award, twelve years after he created the first one. However, he is frustrated at the lack of investment and funding to help modernize the design. \"The funding is not sufficient,\" he said. \"We are getting very little amounts and we need a lot more. I hope to get more as this year I want to make two or three more glaciers, with a new design to improve the efficiency.\" In 1996, one year after he had retired, Norphel joined the Leh Nutrition Project, a non-governmental organization, as project manager for watershed development. \"Watershed development is the only solution for Ladakh's rural economy. Otherwise, you will have rural folk flocking the city in search of jobs. And there are not many to go around,\" he says. Do you have other examples of how people are using innovative ways to create renewable energy sources? Share your views and experiences in our sound-off box below.","highlights":"Individuals around the world are devising innovative ways to save the planet .\nJoseph Adelegan has created fuels using cow waste and cassava plant .\nChewang Norphel is known as the \"Ice Man\" after creating artificial glaciers ."} -{"article":"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- The Taliban in Afghanistan have momentum that makes any effort to negotiate with them difficult, the U.S. defense secretary said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday. He's visiting Afghanistan on Wednesday. Secretary Robert Gates spoke to CNN's Chris Lawrence in an exclusive interview Tuesday evening before leaving for Afghanistan, where he is visiting troops and bases Wednesday. \"The political level of the Taliban probably isn't ready to think about reconciliation or any kind of accommodation at this point,\" Gates said in the interview. \"They probably feel like they have the momentum with them. And until that momentum changes, it will be difficult.\" As part of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, the military and Afghanistan government are attempting to reach out to elements of the Taliban who are engaged in the battle for financial gain, rather than ideological gain. \"There are really two groups we're talking about -- the younger, or less committed, who do this mainly to earn a living and put food on the table for their families, and those that are more ideologically committed. The latter are going to be a tougher pull, and we'll probably have to wait awhile before there's an opportunity there.\" On Monday, CNN's Nic Robertson interviewed a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, who said the Taliban will only negotiate with the Afghanistan government when the United States leaves the country. \"Our conditions are clear, we want to negotiate and they [the U.S.] will not interfere in our affairs; secondly, they [the U.S.] will leave the country,\" Mujahid told CNN. Gates said the stance was not surprising. \"Well I don't know what else he'd say. He's leading the opposition, he's leading this insurgency. He's not going to sort of, sort of throw down and say 'We're ready to negotiate, we're about done here,' \" Gates said. The United States is adding 21,000 troops to the Afghanistan battlefield. The majority will be moving to the south to confront the Taliban along the porous Pakistani border. The Taliban have had mostly free rein in that area with few U.S. or coalition forces to confront them until now. Gates admitted moving the battle to the south will mean there is \"a tough fight ahead.\" \"I think, certainly, I have been pretty clear. As we move into areas of the south that have not seen any Afghan or coalition forces so far, we're clearly going to be going into areas where the Taliban are very entrenched,\" he said. \"And, sad to say, I expect with the rising level of our activity and operations, there probably will be higher casualties.\" In recent weeks, the Pakistani government has seen the Taliban gain control on its side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Privately, Pakistani officials have expressed concern to the United States that the increased fighting in southern Afghanistan will only push the Taliban back to the Pakistani side. \"Well I think it's just the reality that there are extremists on both sides of that border. And they threaten both the elected government of Afghanistan and the elected government of Pakistan. So like it or not, they both have a certain common enemy,\" Gates said. Gates said he is encouraged by recent cooperation efforts between the two countries to deal with the problem, and by Pakistan's recent confrontation with the Taliban in Bunir province, near the capital of Islamabad. \"The signs right now are pretty positive,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"U.S. defense secretary: Political level not ready for reconciliation, accommodation .\nU.S. trying to reach out to Taliban interested in financial gain, not ideological gain .\nTaliban spokesman: We will negotiate with Afghan government when U.S. leaves .\nGates says that as U.S. forces build up in southern Afghanistan, fight will be tougher ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nineteen former patients at a Denver, Colorado, hospital have tested positive for hepatitis C, federal prosecutors said Thursday as they announced new charges against a former hospital employee accused of exposing the patients to the virus. A hospital worker is accused of injecting herself and using unclean syringes for patients. Prosecutors charged Kristen Diane Parker with 21 counts of tampering with a consumer product and another 21 counts of obtaining a controlled substance by deceit or subterfuge, according to an indictment. Parker, 26, had previously faced three federal counts from earlier this month. Parker, who worked as a surgical technician at Rose Medical Center in Denver, is accused of injecting herself with syringes that held patients' pain medication Fentanyl, then replacing the pain medication in the syringes with saline, according to a statement from the office of the U.S. attorney for Colorado. In a statement to police during the investigation, Parker said, \"I can't take back what I did, but I will have to live with it for the rest of my life, and so does everyone else.\" Parker's attorney did not return a call from CNN on Thursday. Authorities said Parker knew she had hepatitis C, a contagious liver disease. Hepatitis C can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parker believes she contracted the virus through using heroin and sharing needles with other users while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities said. According to an affidavit filed by an investigator with the Food and Drug Administration, Rose Medical Center knew Parker tested positive for hepatitis C. She was counseled on how to limit her exposure to patients. Parker worked at Rose Medical Center from October 2008 to April 2009, said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for Colorado. Parker's employment was terminated after she failed a hospital-ordered drug test, said Leslie Teegarden, spokeswoman for Rose Medical Center. The tests were ordered after co-workers reported \"suspicious behavior,\" Teegarden said Thursday. Rose Medical Center contacted about 4,700 patients who may have been exposed to the virus, according to a statement on the center's Web site. Of those patients, 3,540 have been tested thus far, Teegarden said. She said the hospital plans to use tamper-resistant, pre-filled Fentanyl syringes to prevent intentional contaminations. Parker also worked at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York and Audubon Ambulatory Surgical Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Prosecutors have not charged her with any crimes related to her employment at the other two facilities. About 1,200 patients may have been exposed between May 4 and July 1 of this year, when Parker worked at Audubon, according to the center's Web site. As of last week, 545 of Audobon's former patients had been tested for the virus, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. One patient tested positive for hepatitis C, but that infection could not be linked to Parker, according to the department's Web site. Nearly 1,000 patients had been tested as of Thursday, said Audubon spokeswoman Amy Triandiflou. Details about what Parker may have done to expose Audubon patients to the virus are still sketchy, Triandiflou said. More than 2,700 patients could have been exposed at Northern Westchester Hospital, according to the hospital's Web site. The site did not indicate whether any infections had been detected. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. If Parker is convicted and if any one of the former patients suffers serious bodily injury because of her actions, she could face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said. If she is convicted and if any one of the former patients dies as a result of the infection, she could be sentenced to life in prison, according to prosecutors. CNN's Jim Spellman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Denver, Colorado, hospital worker accused of exposing patients to hepatitis C .\n19 former patients test positive for hepatitis C, which affects the liver .\nKristen Diane Parker accused of using syringes filled with pain medication Fentanyl .\nPolice say she refilled syringes meant for patients with saline solution ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital. A group of men push a giant snowball across Kensington Gardens, west London Monday. Heathrow, one of the busiest transport hubs in the world, closed both its runways for more than two hours Monday morning and operated with just one for the rest of the morning, according to BAA, the company which runs it. London City airport is also closed, while the British capital's other two airports, Stansted and Gatwick, were operating with severe delays, BAA said. British Airways canceled all flights out of Heathrow until 5 p.m. except for Edinburgh and Lisbon routes. Send your iReport videos, stories . One of the city's largest cab companies was in such high demand it stopped taking cash and credit card bookings, serving only customers with accounts, it said. Dial-a-Cab, which has a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles, served mainly blue-chip companies trying to get employees into work, said Keith Cain a Control Room manager for the company. Customers waited up to an hour and a half for a cab early in the morning, he said. See gallery of UK under snow \u00bb . Jochen Jaeger, 36, found himself stranded at Heathrow, unable to fly home to Zurich or to get back into the apartment he rented in London. \"I will stay here at the airport,\" he told CNN. \"There is no other option. I may have to spend the night here.\" American businessman Ken Plunkett, 60, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was trying to fly out from Heathrow Airport but found himself caught in the weather chaos. \"I know England does not have the infrastructure to remove snow like we do in Minnesota,\" he said. Watch passenger stranded by snow \u00bb . Jenny Leslie, a shop worker at Heathrow's Terminal 2, said it was so quiet at the airport \"you can hear a pin drop.\" Southampton Airport, southwest of London, was also closed for several hours Monday morning, but re-opened by 1200 GMT. But many people in the city were delighted by the unusual weather. \"Londoners of all ages are childishly happy to be making snowmen and having snowball fights. Bankers of all ages are throwing snowballs in the middle of the residential streets,\" Monica Majumdar told CNN in an iReport. She lived in New York before moving to London four years ago, and was surprised by how little snow it took to bring the British capital to a standstill. \"I have seen snow like this. But somehow, it's more beautiful here. It's partly due to the fact that even Londoners are amazed by the snow -- so there is a general air of surrealism,\" she said via e-mail. \" I do feel like I'm in a Christmas snowglobe, with all the iconic London monuments blanketed by the powdered snow.\" London's famous red buses were pulled off the roads on Sunday night as the snow got deeper. It was the first time \"in living memory\" that all city bus service had been suspended, including when London was being bombed during World War II, a spokesman for the city's transit agency, Transport for London, said. \"Bus services were suspended throughout London last night on the grounds of passenger safety due to the unsafe road conditions resulting in a large number of traffic incidents across London,\" the agency said in a statement Monday morning. Watch London grind to a halt \u00bb . About six million people ride London buses each day, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. London Mayor Boris Johnson suspended the \u00a38 ($11.30) daily congestion charge drivers normally pay to enter central London, the city transport authority said. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. The city's subway system was also experiencing severe delays, leaving normally bustling central London something of a ghost town. On a regular weekday, London's transit system handles more than three million passenger journeys. The Federation of Small Businesses estimated that at least one in five workers nationwide -- about 6.4 million employees -- failed to make it into work Monday morning. But the figure was estimated to be far higher -- around two in five -- in London and southeast England, which is home to around a fifth of all British businesses. Monday's disruptions are likely to cost businesses \u00a31.2 billion ($1.7 billion), FSB spokesman Stephen Alambritis told CNN. Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, issued severe weather warnings for all of England and much of Scotland and Wales for both Monday and Tuesday. It reported 20cm of snow in Balham, south London, and 15cm at Canary Wharf in east London. The last time such widespread snowfall affected Britain was in February 1991, the Met Office said. Watch iReport on snowy Stonehenge. The snow meant a break from school for the region's children as classes gave way to snowball fights. In the southern English seaside resort of Brighton there was a carnival atmosphere as dozens of people who were unable to get to work threw snowballs and built snowmen on the beach. Mother-of-three Fiona Robbins, 45, added: \"Everyone is very excited to be able to show their children proper snow for the first time.\" Tuesday's forecast is expected to bring some relief, with the snow expected to stop and temperatures to rise above freezing. Two climbers were found dead Monday morning on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, after being reported missing Sunday night, North Wales Police said. It was not clear if their deaths were related to the storm. CNN Business Assignment Editor Alysen Miller, Laura Perez Maestro, Simon Hooper and Olivia Feld in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK business spokesman: Disruptions would likely cost $1.7 billion .\nMeteorologists said snow is worst in southeastern England in 18 years .\nMajor international airports including Heathrow, Gatwick badly affected .\nUK weather service issues severe weather warnings for Monday, Tuesday ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of a shipping company recently victimized by pirates off the Somali coast told lawmakers Tuesday that U.S. cargo crews should be allowed to arm themselves in response to the rising hijacking threat. In April, pirates attacked The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, but were unable to board. Philip Shapiro, head of Liberty Maritime Corp., told a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee that the owners of U.S.-flagged \"have done all they can within the law to protect our crews.\" Unfortunately, he said, U.S. vessels are still largely at the mercy of pirates in shipping lanes around the heavily trafficked Gulf of Aden. \"In light of the recent threats to U.S. merchant mariners, we respectfully request that Congress consider clearing the obstacles that currently block ship owners from arming our vessels,\" Shapiro said. Pirates unsuccessfully attempted to board the Liberty Sun, a cargo vessel owned by Shapiro's company, near the Somali coast on April 14. The ship was on a humanitarian relief mission at the time, carrying 47,000 tons of food to Mombassa, Kenya. Pirate leaders later said the attempted hijacking was carried out as revenge after the U.S. Navy killed three pirates involved in a failed attack on the cargo ship Maersk Alabama. The slain pirates were holding Capt. Richard Phillips, who was in charge of the Alabama when it was boarded April 8. \"We've heard some suggestions that U.S.-flagged ship owners have not done enough to protect their vessels,\" Shapiro said. \"That view ... is flat wrong. Our company adopted every measure recommended by the international maritime organizations and required by the Coast Guard's approved security plan for making the vessel a difficult piracy target -- and more.\" Merchant vessels don't usually carry firearms, he said, but the \"Maersk Alabama incident constitutes a game changer. ... Self-proclaimed pirate leaders have now issued direct threats of violence against American merchant mariners.\" Shapiro said that U.S. crews have a right to self-defense under U.S. laws dating back to 1819, but \"recently enacted State Department arms export regulations effectively prohibit the arming of vessels.\" He also said that ship owners are at risk of \"being second-guessed in U.S. and foreign courts for self-defensive measures that were common in 1819.\" Shapiro urged congressional leaders to help \"bring U.S. law up to date and give us the legal framework we need to be able to protect ourselves.\" Until then, he said, U.S. naval escorts or government security teams will be required for U.S. vessels on high-risk transits. Shapiro was joined at the committee hearing by Phillips, who said the most desirable response would be the establishment of U.S. military escorts as well as military detachments. Phillips repeated an assertion he made before a separate Senate committee last week that arming vessels' crews could provide an effective deterrent -- but only under certain limited circumstances. \"Unless the root causes of piracy are addressed [on land], piracy will continue to expand and evolve into an even greater threat for American and foreign seamen,\" Phillips said. A Transportation Department official testifying at the hearing noted that the ships most vulnerable to attack are those built low to the water with insufficient top speeds. Ships need to be able to accelerate to \"a high rate of speed [for] aggressive maneuvering\" and should have high walls that are tough for pirates to scale, said Undersecretary of Transportation Roy Kienitz. He recommended that ship owners mandate a range of \"best practices,\" including having fire hoses to spray water over the side of a ship and extra manning for watches during dawn and dusk, when attacks are tougher to detect. Shapiro said that the crew of the Liberty Sun was able to fend off the pirate attack in part by rigging fire hoses to cover the stern of the vessel and \"create a virtual flood wall of water coming off the ship.\" Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, applauded the efforts of the crews on both the Alabama and the Liberty Sun. \"These bandits have to be stopped,\" he said at the opening of the hearing. \"Violence and lawlessness will not be tolerated whether on land, in the sky or at sea. We have a duty to protect the ships that proudly fly America's flag.\"","highlights":"Liberty Maritime Corp. chief speaks before U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee .\nHe says U.S. vessels are at mercy of pirates around the busy Gulf of Aden .\nPirates tried, failed to board one of his company's cargo ships, the Liberty Sun .\nRichard Phillips, the hijacked Maersk Alabama captain, joined him at the hearing ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One of the things I find frustrating about modern American life is we wait for someone else -- anybody else -- to solve whatever problem it is that's out there. Clark Howard says Best Buy should have lauded employees who ran after a shoplifter, not fired them. We see something and feel like it's not our job. It's the \"not in my silo\" mentality found in corporate America. But there are times we wait for help to arrive when we're the help we seek. Unfortunately, this mentality has seeped beyond corporate America into normal earthlings. Have you heard the story about Jared Bergstreser and Colin Trapp? These two Best Buy employees tackled a shoplifter they saw busting out of their Denver, Colorado-area store with stolen electronics. They wrestled the suspect to the ground at great personal risk. The perpetrator pulled out a knife and cut a manager before ultimately escaping, according to The Wall Street Journal. Bergstreser had been a three-year employee, while Trapp was on the job for less than a year. What did Best Buy do for these employees who showed such extreme loyalty? They fired them. A spokeswoman for Best Buy said the company won't comment on the terminations. However, she said the company's employees are aware of a policy of not pursuing shoplifters. Best Buy says the policy is in place for the safety of its employees. Watch Clark reveal a Vegas vacation scam \u00bb . This case is not unusual. I am privy to a story about a separate incident that happened with a discount retailer. Again, a couple of guys I know who were employees tackled a shoplifter. The suspect then pulled out a gun and tried to shoot them. They managed to disarm the shoplifter after he fired and he was taken into custody. Did they get a reward or bonus from their employer? No, they were canned. I got some interesting reactions when I discussed these two stories in a pre-show meeting with my team. Somebody immediately piped up saying, \"Of course they have to fire them because of liability.\" Liability?! One of my producers even called me a vigilante. After all, I'm the guy who chased down my own mugger on a Madrid subway train during a staff trip to Spain. In retrospect, what I did was really stupid because I could have gotten injured or worse. But my natural instinct just took over and I successfully recovered my wallet. The idea that we're supposed to stand by idly and allow people to steal from us or steal from an employer is something that I just cannot support. I think we have a responsibility to get involved. Otherwise, if you let a small number of lawbreakers get away with it whenever, then they get away with it over and over and over again. I could understand if Best Buy were so cowardly and afraid of a lawsuit that they felt these two employees should be sent to \"Best Buy re-education camp.\" Fine. But to fire them for trying to stop a brazen criminal who was armed and dangerous and busting out of the store with electronics? I just don't get it. And remember, when Bergstreser and Trapp went after this person, there was no benefit for them, unlike my experience being mugged in Madrid. They were putting themselves in danger to protect their employer. You should be, if not rewarded for that, then at least not punished! I believe Best Buy is sending a terrible message by firing them. What do you think?","highlights":"Howard says there are times we wait for help to arrive when we're the help we seek .\nBest Buy employees tackle shoplifter and get fired as a result .\nHoward says incident is not unusual but sends a terrible message ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- More than 11,500 public servants have been suspended or fined for corruption during the past two years, the Mexican government said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, at right, spoke at the National Public Security Session last month. \"We have made an important effort to oversee the good use of public funds,\" said President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday. \"We have broken up networks of corruption in Pemex [the state-owned oil company], ... in customs or in areas linked to construction of public works.\" Some 40 agents of the attorney general and of the secretary of security also are under investigation for presumed ties to drug cartels. Some are accused of receiving money from the narcotraffickers in exchange for information. Among them is the nation's former anti-drug czar, Noe Ramirez, who is accused of receiving $500,000 per month for passing information to the Pacific Cartel. Although organized crime has penetrated state institutions charged with fighting crime, Calderon said he had a program intended to work on that. Watch what Mexico is grappling with \u00bb . \"With Operation Cleanup, we will continue acting against police, agents, public ministers or any servant implicated in corruption who may have crossed over the line to crime.\" The problem extends beyond bureaucracy. A poll by the organization International Transparency shows that Mexico is one of the emerging countries where businesses are more open to paying bribes. In all, 38 percent of Mexican businesses surveyed said they tended to use relationships with friends or relatives to obtain public contracts, and 32 percent said they had bribed politicians and government workers. \"Clearly, this lends itself to corruption,\" said Jose Claudio Trevino, a senior manager with Ernst & Young in Mexico. Corruption is rampant in the private sector, particularly in deals that involve buying or selling, he said. According to official studies, more than 100 million acts of corruption are committed in the country each year, and the typical family spends the equivalent of 25 percent of its income on bribes.","highlights":"International Transparency poll: Businesses in Mexico more open to paying bribes .\nOrganized crime has penetrated state institutions charged with fighting crime .\nSome 40 government agents under investigation for presumed ties to drug cartels ."} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Two satellites, one Russian and one American, have collided some 800 kilometers (500 miles) above Siberia, the Russian and U.S. space agencies, said Thursday. Debris from the collision poses no threat to the International Space Station. The collision on Tuesday produced two large debris clouds, NASA said. The satellites collided at 10 kilometers (6 miles) per second, producing 500-600 new pieces of space debris, the U.S. Strategic Command said. That debris is not believed to pose a threat to the International Space Station as long as the clouds continue moving in a lower orbit, according to NASA and the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos. \"There is some elevated risk, but it is considered to be very small to the ISS and to the other satellites that NASA has in orbit,\" NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey told CNN. She said experts were still assessing the effects of the debris. Mikhail Martirosov, from Russian mission control center, told Interfax news agency that the real threat from the debris will become obvious next week, once experts can calculate the trajectory of the fragments' descent. \"We have not received a warning of the possible danger to the ISS. The fragments may descend to the ISS orbit in several years, although I do not rule out that some fragments may go down within several days,\" Martirosov said. The Russian satellite was launched in 1993 and had been out of service at the time of the collision, Roscosmos said. The U.S. satellite was part of the Iridium global mobile communications system and is owned by a consortium headed by Motorola, the space agency said. It was launched in 1997. Iridium said in a statement Wednesday it \"expects to implement a network solution by Friday,\" and will \"move one of its in-orbit spare satellites into the network constellation to permanently replace the lost satellite\" within the next 30 days. CNN is \"one of the larger non-government users\" of Iridium, said Arnie Christianson, operations manager for CNN Satellites and Transmission. \"We do rely on it for communication in high-risk areas like Iraq, Afghanistan, and other remote locations,\" he said. \"Because of this collision, there may be a slightly longer hole in the coverage from one satellite to the next, but only in a very small area and for a very small amount of time. This is a collision, not an internal failure of the satellite or the system.\" The satellite crash may result in \"brief, occasional outages\" that may slightly disrupt service, Iridium said in the statement, adding \"this event is not the result of a failure on the part of Iridium or its technology.\" Christianson questioned how U.S. government, which tracks all space junk larger than a football, didn't see this coming. But he said the system will continue to work without any noticeable problems. A representative of Iridium could not immediately be reached for comment. NASA's Dickey said a collision like this one is very rare. \"This is the first impact between two intact satellites traveling at hypervelocity,\" she said. \"There have been some other occasions when things have accidentally collided in space, but they have been parts of rockets or parts of satellites and (produced) a very small cloud.\" Major Regina Winchester, of the U.S. Strategic Command, said: \"Space is getting pretty crowded. The fact that this hasn't happened before -- maybe we were getting a little bit lucky.\" Winchester said Strategic Command tracks more than 18,000 pieces of manmade objects in space every day. \"Any time there's an event that creates more debris, it's a concern,\" she said. \"All countries who have assets in space are going to be concerned simply because when there's more debris, there's a higher chance it's going to hit something.\" CNN's Yuri Pushkin in Moscow and Melissa Gray in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"One Russian and one U.S. satellite collide at 10 km per second .\nCollision is believed to be the first of its kind .\nNASA spokesman quoted as saying crash produced massive debris cloud .\nWreckage from collision expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The polite hush that descends on the crowd seconds before service is nowhere to be heard when it comes to the issue of equal prize money in women's tennis. Australian Open champion Serena Williams pocketed $1.3 million for the tournament, the same as male winner Rafael Nadal. It may be two years since Wimbledon and the French Open joined the other major tournaments in offering women the same cash prize as men, but for some tennis fans the issue is far from resolved. \"Admit it sisters,\" screamed one recent headline on Australian Web site AdelaideNow, \"this is not equal.\" The author went on: \"Political correctness, sexual equality and feminism all prevent many commentators from stating the bleeding obvious ... no sports watcher in their right minds could honestly say female tennis players, or golfers for that matter, deserve as much money as their male counterparts.\" The writer -- a woman -- went on to lambaste the world's best female tennis players, describing world number one Serena Williams' defeat of Dinara Safina in the Australian Open final as \"embarrassing, pitiful and pathetic.\" \"Her humiliation of Dinara Safina was a terrible advertisement for a sport that has apparently disappeared up its own backside.\" Rather than provoking a tirade of abuse, many readers agreed with the author, outspoken Australian journalist and sports commentator, Rebecca Wilson. \"Right on the money. Women's tennis is boring. Typical game. \"Ugh. Grunt. Ugh. Grunt. Ugh. Grunt. Out. Love-Fifteen,\" one said. Another added: \"It's about time someone said what everyone was thinking.\" More chimed in: \"Everyone agrees, few will say it\" and \"totally agree. Women's tennis is pathetic.\" A couple of dissenters in the crowd urged Wilson to turn her attentions elsewhere: \"The usual tripe that Wilson dishes up week after week,\" and \"please go away and let someone with something important to say use your space.\" What do you think? Do women deserve equal prize money in tennis? Sound Off below. Billie Jean King has heard it all before. The former world number one has spent a good part of the last forty years campaigning for equal prize money, and equal status, for women. The decision by the All England Tennis and Croquet Club in February 2007, and then the French Open one day later, to award equal prize money to women marked the end of a fight that started in 1968, the first year of Open tennis. \"When Rod Laver won Wimbledon, he got \u00a32,000. And when I won Wimbledon in the same year, 1968, I got \u00a3750,\" she told CNN in an interview filmed for this month's edition of \"Revealed.\" \"I knew then that was going to be one of our next battles that we would have to fight over the years,\" she added. King hoped to put the matter to rest in 1973 when she took on self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in now famous match known as \"The Battle of the Sexes.\" Riggs, a former men's number one, claimed the women's game was so poor that even he, as a 55-year-old retiree from the sport, could beat the top female players. King accepted the challenge and thrashed Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in front of a television audience of millions. Those who argue for lower pay for women's tennis say they play fewer sets and attract a smaller television audience so they should receive less money. Campaigners for equal pay say that it's not an issue of time on the court, but an matter of fair and equal treatment . As current world number six Venus Williams once argued in an open letter published in The Times, \"we enjoy huge and equal celebrity and are paid for the value we deliver to broadcasters and spectators, not the amount of time we spend on the stage.\" What do you think? Should the top female tennis players be taking home the same prize money as men? Sound Off below. Revealed: Venus Williams airs on CNNI at on the dates and times below: . ALL TIMES GMT Wednesday, February 18: 0930, 1830 Saturday, February 21: 0830, 1900 Sunday, February 22: 0530, 1830 Monday, February 23: 0400 .","highlights":"Issue of equal prize money for women's tennis continues to ignite debate .\nJournalist describes Serena Williams' defeat of Safina as \"pitiful and pathetic\"\nWimbledon and the French Open introduced equal prize pots in 2007 .\nWhat do you think? Should female tennis players earn as much as men?"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Crichton, who helped create the TV show \"ER\" and wrote the best-sellers \"Jurassic Park,\" \"The Andromeda Strain,\" \"Sphere\" and \"Rising Sun,\" has died in Los Angeles, his public relations firm said in a news release. Michael Crichton, here in 2005, was a director and best-selling author. He co-created the TV series \"ER.\" Crichton died unexpectedly Tuesday \"after a courageous and private battle against cancer,\" the release said. He was 66. Crichton, a medical doctor, was attracted to cautionary science tales. Watch more about the life of Crichton \u00bb . \"Jurassic Park\" -- perhaps his best-known work -- concerned capturing the DNA of dinosaurs and bringing them to life on a modern island, where they soon run amok; \"The Andromeda Strain,\" his first major fiction success, involves an alien microorganism that's studied in a special military compound after causing death in a nearby community. Crichton also invited controversy with some of his scientific views. He was an avowed skeptic of global climate change, giving lectures warning against \"consensus science.\" He later took on global warming and the theories surrounding it in his 2004 novel, \"State of Fear,\" which attracted attacks in its own right from scientists, including NASA climatologist James Hansen. iReport.com: Were you a fan? Share your tributes. Crichton was a distinctive figure in the entertainment business, a trained physician whose interests included writing, filmmaking and television. (He was physically distinctive as well, standing 6 feet 9 inches.) He published \"The Andromeda Strain\" while he was still a medical student at Harvard Medical School. He wrote a story about a 19th-century train robbery, called \"The Great Train Robbery,\" and then directed the 1979 film version. He also directed several other films, including \"Westworld\" (1973), \"Coma\" (1978), \"Looker\" (1981) and \"Runaway\" (1984). In 1993, while working on the film version of \"Jurassic Park\" with Steven Spielberg, he teamed with the director to create \"ER.\" The NBC series set in a Chicago emergency room debuted in 1994 and became a huge hit, making a star of George Clooney. Crichton originally wrote the script for the pilot in 1974. \"Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park,' \" said Spielberg, a friend of Crichton's for 40 years, according to The Associated Press. \"He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. ... Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.\" Crichton was \"an extraordinary man. Brilliant, funny, erudite, gracious, exceptionally inquisitive and always thoughtful,\" \"ER\" executive producer John Wells told the AP. \"No lunch with Michael lasted less than three hours and no subject was too prosaic or obscure to attract his interest. Sexual politics, medical and scientific ethics, anthropology, archaeology, economics, astronomy, astrology, quantum physics, and molecular biology were all regular topics of conversation.\" Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942 and grew up in New York's suburbs. His father was a journalist and Michael loved the writing profession. He went to medical school partly out of a concern he wouldn't be able to make writing a career, but the success of \"The Andromeda Strain\" in 1969 -- the book was chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club and optioned by Hollywood -- made him change his mind, though he still had an M.D. Though most of Crichton's books were major best-sellers involving science, he could ruffle feathers when he took on social issues. \"Rising Sun\" (1992) came out during a time when Americans feared Japanese ascendance, particularly when it came to technology. \"Disclosure\" (1994) was about a sexual harassment case. iReport.com: How did Crichton's work affect you? Share your tributes . Crichton won an Emmy, a Peabody, a Writers Guild of America Award for \"ER,\" and won other awards as well. \"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand,\" the news release said. Crichton was married five times and had one child. A private funeral service is expected.","highlights":"Michael Crichton wrote several best-sellers, including \"Jurassic Park\"\nCrichton, a physician, also helped create hit TV show \"ER\"\nCrichton died after \"courageous and private battle against cancer,\" release says ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The first child in Britain known to have been screened as an embryo to ensure she did not carry a cancer gene was born Friday, a spokesman for University College London told CNN. Genetic screening allows lab-fertilized embryos to be tested for genes likely to lead to later health problems. Her embryo was screened in a lab days after conception to check for the BRCA-1 gene, linked to breast and ovarian cancer. People with the gene are known to have a 50-80 percent chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer in their lifetimes. British newspapers have dubbed the girl the \"cancer-free\" baby. \"This little girl will not face the specter of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life,\" said Paul Serhal, a consultant at University College London Hospital and Medical Director of the Assisted Conception Unit. \"The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations.\" Yet not everyone is thrilled with the idea of testing embryos for genes that could cause health problems later in life, a process known as preimplanatation genetic diagnosis. \"This is not a cure for breast cancer,\" said Josephine Quintavalle, co-founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, which describes itself as group that focuses on ethical dilemmas related to reproduction. What do you think about testing embryos for gene defects? \"This is simply a mechanism for eliminating the birth of anybody (prone to) the disease,\" she said. \"It is basically a search-and-kill mechanism.\" She opposes the procedure because embryos found to carry disease-causing genes often are discarded. She says that is essentially murder. \"They will be destroyed,\" she said. \"They will never be allowed to live.\" Doctors in Britain and elsewhere increasingly test embryos for genes that are certain to cause illnesses such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington's Disease. What's different about the girl born Friday is that she is the first infant known to have been tested in Britain as an embryo for a gene that is merely likely -- not certain -- to cause disease. In the United States, geneticists are free to test for any condition for which they can develop a probe -- and they're free to look for genes that are certain to cause diseases as well as genes that merely may pose problems later in life. Quintavalle opposes any form of in-vitro fertilization where embryos are \"killed,\" she said. But she is particularly troubled by the idea of screening an embryo for the BRCA-1 gene because carriers of the gene do not always develop the disease, and the disease is not always fatal. \"The message we are sending is: 'Better off dead than carrying (a gene linked to) breast cancer,'\" she said. \"We have gone very much down the proverbial slippery slope.\" Peter Braude, one of the top British experts on the genetic testing of embryos, said he understands the ethical objections but focuses on the benefits. \"There has always been a vociferous group in opposition,\" he said. But \"there are people who can benefit and I think they should be allowed to do so.\" In fact, he argues that the procedure actually prevents abortions because it takes place on a three-day old embryo in a lab. Only embryos that lack the defective gene are implanted. \"I don't think you can equate eight cells in a dish to an embryo or a child,\" said Braude, head of the department of women's health at the King's College London School of Medicine. For many couples, the alternative to testing an embryo is to conceive a child naturally and test the fetus weeks or months into a pregnancy. Some couples opt for an abortion when such testing reveals a defect. Diagnosing an embryo genetically typically involves fertilizing an egg with a sperm in a lab, testing the resulting embryo and implanting it in the mother if no defects are found. Braude agrees that testing for diseases that may not be fatal -- or may not manifest themselves for decades -- raises thorny ethical questions. \"How serious does it have to be before you throw away an embryo?\" he asked. \"Are you prepared to throw away a 16-week embryo for Huntington's, which will not manifest until age 40?\" In Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority determines the conditions for which geneticists can test. It has approved testing for more than 60 conditions since it was established in 1990. The authority approved testing for the BRCA-1 gene in 2008. Dr. Mark Hughes, who founded a genetics clinic in the United States, said he likes the idea of an authority that regulates what tests can be performed -- the system in place in Britain -- but believes that parents who want to test for genetic abnormalities should be allowed to do so. At his Genesis Genetics Institute in Detroit, Michigan, Hughes carries out about two tests a month for BRCA-1 or BRCA-2, a related gene. \"The couple is the best one to be making these decisions, because they live with these diseases,\" he said. \"When it hits your family over and over again, many couples are saying: 'Enough of this. Let's prune this out of our family tree forever.'\" He rejects the notion that parents will use genetic testing to remove all imperfections from children. \"You can get up on your high horse and say people are looking for perfect children, but let's give these families more credit,\" he said. \"They just want one that has a fighting chance of not having a disease.\" Hughes said he doubts genetic screening will ever be used to test all babies. That's partly because it costs the equivalent of about $11,755 -- 8,000 British pounds -- to screen embryos. It's also because the process is very complex. \"It's gotten easier to do now than it was 19 years ago,\" when Hughes did his first test for cystic fibrosis, he said. \"But it has not exploded, not burst onto the medical field like some technologies do. \"No one would use these technologies for a trivial reason. It's too much effort,\" he said. \"Not just the money -- it's so many hoops to jump through for a couple that would prefer to make their baby on vacation rather than in a clinic.\"","highlights":"\"Cancer-free baby\" born; baby girl is first in UK to be screened for cancer gene .\nEmbryo was screened to check she didn't carry gene linked to breast, ovarian cancer .\nEthicists criticize screening for genes that could cause later health problems .\nDoctors say cost of screening makes it unlikely all embryos will ever be tested ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama addressed Congress shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, but a casual viewer might have believed it was actually morning in America. President Obama takes a page from Ronald Reagan's playbook in his speech to Congress. \"Morning in America\" was the theme of Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, and it was front and center in Obama's most critical event since Inauguration Day. The president who has pledged to reverse much of Reagan's economic revolution took a page from the 40th president's playbook in his 52-minute speech, striking a defiantly optimistic tone that belied the nation's sour mood and rebutted critics who have accused him of intentionally talking down the economy for short-term political gain. \"Though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,\" Obama declared to a thunderous round of applause from a packed House chamber. See video highlights of the speech, issue by issue \u00bb . Delivered against a backdrop of dismal economic news and with polls showing overwhelming majorities of Americans believing the country is on the wrong track, Obama's first speech to Congress amounted to a political tour de force. He proposed what many claim is a complete overhaul of the country's economic foundation while ripping his conservative predecessors for transferring \"wealth to the wealthy\" and gutting regulations \"for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market.\" And he did it while employing some of Reagan's favorite rhetorical tools. Obama stuck to a fairly short list of priorities while invoking traditional American values of responsibility, hard work and thrift to pound home a back-to-basics message. iReport.com: 'Obama just replaced Reagan' \"A generosity, a resilience, a decency and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity ... Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure,\" he said. It is time, he declared, to \"summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit.\" Ideological differences aside, the nation's 44th president has made no secret of his admiration for his Republican predecessor. \"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not,\" Obama argued at the start of last year's Democratic primaries. Reagan, Obama said, knew that Americans \"want clarity. We want optimism. We want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that [has] been missing.\" Tuesday night's speech featured all of those elements. \"The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist ... in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth,\" Obama said. What did you think of the speech? Rate it through our CNN report card \u00bb . The president's agenda as defined in his address to Congress may have been the most ambitious in a generation or even two, but it was also easily boiled down to a few bullet points: restore financial stability, strengthen education and promote energy independence and health care reform. It was, in many ways, the mirror image of 1981, when a newly inaugurated Reagan used the combination of stagnating economic growth and skyrocketing inflation to promote an equally ambitious, simple agenda: cut taxes, shrink government and build up the defense budget. \"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,\" White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said shortly after the election in November. In fact, Obama's team believes that their boss has already trumped both the Great Communicator and Obama's immediate Democratic predecessor. Reagan didn't get his economic agenda passed until summer 1981, a senior White House official noted before the speech Tuesday. And when then-President Bill Clinton delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress in 1993, he had only passed the Family and Medical Leave Act and was struggling politically because of the gays-in-the-military flap. In contrast, Obama has already signed into law a sweeping $787 billion economic plan, an expansion of children's health insurance coverage and pay equity legislation. The senior official boasted that Obama has \"gotten more done in 30 days ... than any modern president.\" When he took office in 1981, Reagan said, \"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.\" Obama's response came Tuesday night: \"I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves, that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.\" It is morning in America again. A new day has clearly dawned.","highlights":"Like Reagan, Obama takes a defiantly optimistic tone in speech to Congress .\nObama employs some of Reagan's favorite rhetorical tools .\nBut Obama rejects Reagan view that government has no role in prosperity ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's president has defended his government's recent ceasefire in the country's volatile Swat Valley in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, saying that many in the West have mischaracterized the deal. President Zardari also said that the cease-fire would not close girls' schools in the troubled region. The permanent ceasefire, which was brokered in late February between members of the Taliban and leaders of Swat Valley, has been criticized and called a major concession by the Pakistani government in an attempt to hold off Taliban attacks. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants from areas of the North West Frontier Province . As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly attacks, beheadings and destruction of girls' schools. They also continued to gain ground, setting up checkpoints throughout the area. President Asif Ali Zardari addressed the international criticism in his Wall Street Journal article, published Wednesday. \"We have not and will not negotiate with extremist Taliban and terrorists,\" Zardari wrote. \"The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban. Indeed, in our dialogue we'd made it clear that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban and other insurgents.\" The deal was brokered by Sufi Mohammed, a pro-Taliban cleric who in the past was arrested for leading thousands of fighters against the United States in Afghanistan. Mohammed made the deal with his son-in-law and Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah. In the article, Zardari also said that the cease-fire would not close girls' schools in the region. \"We have not and will not condone the closing of girls' schools, as we saw last year when militants closed schools in pockets of Swat Valley. Indeed, the government insists that the education of young women is mandatory. This is not an example of the government condoning or capitulating to extremism -- quite the opposite,\" Zardari wrote. The cease-fire deal imposes Islamic law, or sharia, in the region. As part of the agreement, the Taliban is allowing boys' schools to reopen and the government to set up temporary quarters for the more than 200,000 Swat residents who fled. Women in the area interviewed by CNN said that they would not be able to go to the schools and that, under Taliban-imposed sharia law, they cannot even be seen in public without their husbands or fathers. Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. It is near the Afghanistan border and is 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the capital, Islamabad. -- CNN's Stan Grant contributed to this report.","highlights":"Deal brokered in February between Taliban and leaders of Swat Valley .\nCentral government has long exerted little control in the area .\nZardari: \"The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban\"\n\"It is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban,\" he said ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Marcus Schrenker, the financial manager who officials say faked his own death in a plane crash after scamming his customers, has been found after an apparent suicide attempt, Florida and federal authorities said Tuesday. Marcus Schrenker was taken to a hospital after he was found in Quincy, Florida, on Tuesday, authorities said. The man was found in Quincy, Florida, with marks on his body consistent with a suicide attempt, said Lt. Jim Corder, a spokesman for the Gadsden County sheriff's office. He was taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Porter said. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Peter Swaim said late Tuesday the man has been identified as Schrenker. The service was leading the manhunt for Schrenker, who has been missing since Sunday. A Marshals Service source, who asked not to be named because the case is still under investigation, said federal agents found Schrenker inside a tent at a camp site with a cut on his wrist. He was airlifted to the hospital, the source said. The source would not say how marshals knew to look at the camp site. Schrenker was charged in Hamilton County, Indiana, on Tuesday with unlawful acts by a compensated adviser and unlawful transaction by an investment adviser. Authorities believe Schrenker defrauded investors through three companies he owns before attempting a bizarre and potentially deadly vanishing act. Schrenker took off alone Sunday night from Anderson, Indiana, in a Piper PA-46 en route to Destin, Florida. Over Alabama, he contacted air traffic controllers, saying the windshield had imploded and he was bleeding profusely, authorities said. Police suspect he then put the aircraft on autopilot and parachuted to the ground. The plane later crashed near the Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida, missing a group of homes by only 50 to 75 yards, said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, sheriff's department. \"We do consider him dangerous,\" U.S. marshals Deputy John Beeman said Thursday. \"He has shown his disregard for life by letting this plane go unmanned until it crashed into the ground in Florida.\" Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Monday, hours after the crash, Schrenker showed up at a residence in Childersburg, Alabama, and said he had been in a canoeing accident, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. A resident gave him a ride into Childersburg, and police made contact with him, identifying him through his FAA pilot's license, authorities said. Childersburg is about 35 miles south of Birmingham. Unaware of the crash, the officers took Schrenker to a hotel in nearby Harpersville. After hearing about the crash, they went back to the hotel, where they found that Schrenker had checked in under a fictitious name and was gone, possibly into a wooded area, police said. Officials now believe he fled Harpersville on a 2008 red Yamaha street bike he had stashed at a storage unit earlier, also using an assumed name. Investigators found the unit empty of the motorcycle and with some wet clothes left behind. When leasing the storage facility, Schrenker brought the motorcycle in a brown pickup with a trailer and told the leasing agent he would return for it Monday, according to the Marshals Service. Back in Florida, military aircraft from Whiting Field in Milton, Florida, were dispatched Sunday to intercept the plane after Schrenker reported the emergency. The pilots saw that the plane's door was open, the cockpit was dark and witnessed the plane's crash, according to the Santa Rosa County sheriff's office. Watch what authorities believe happened \u00bb . Although Schrenker had said he was bleeding, no blood was found in the downed plane. Before authorities said Tuesday night that Schrenker was found, friends of Schrenker's seemed as mystified as police, who were seeking him in several states. \"Why someone would jump out of a plane and leave it on autopilot with his training and his background is beyond me,\" Tom Britt said. \"There's no reason for him to do it other than trying to stage something.\" Watch Schrenker perform airborne stunts \u00bb . Britt said he received an e-mail Monday night from someone who identified himself as Schrenker. The message said Schrenker had been reading accounts of his disappearance on CNN.com and other news outlets and was \"disturbed and wanted to set the record straight,\" Britt told CNN affiliate WRTV in Indianapolis. Britt said the message writer said that he would never abandon a plane and let it crash somewhere but that he \"panicked.\" The writer claimed he blacked out and was disoriented, Britt said. The e-mail also implied that Schrenker might commit suicide, Britt said. The message said, \"By the time you read this, I'll be gone.\" On Monday, a judge in Indiana froze Schrenker's assets at the request of investigators looking into his business dealings, said Jim Gavin, a spokesman for the Indiana secretary of state. The order also applies to Schrenker's wife, who was seeking a divorce, and his three companies, Gavin said. Those companies -- Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services and Icon Wealth Management -- are \"the subjects of an active investigation by the Indiana Securities Division,\" Gavin said. Public documents list Schrenker as president of Heritage Wealth Management in Fishers, Indiana. Court papers contain allegations that Schrenker defrauded several investors. A search warrant related to the inquiry was served December 31, Gavin said. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Kathleen Johnston and Tristan Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Authorities: Marcus Schrenker apparently attempted suicide, taken to hospital .\nNEW: Schrenker found in Florida two days after plane crash, authorities say .\nPolice: Schrenker bailed out of plane before crash, fled on stashed motorcycle .\nAuthorities file charges against Schrenker, accused of defrauding investors ."} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag. Santa and his helpers stand under palm trees at Baghdad's first public Christmas festival. Welcome to the first-ever public Christmas celebration in Baghdad, held Saturday and sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Once thought to be infiltrated by death squads, the Ministry now is trying to root out sectarian violence -- as well as improve its P.R. image. The event takes place in a public park in eastern Baghdad, ringed with security checkpoints. Interior Ministry forces deployed on surrounding rooftops peer down at the scene: a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and tinsel; a red-costumed Santa Claus waving to the crowd, an Iraqi flag draped over his shoulders; a red-and-black-uniformed military band playing stirring martial music, not Christmas carols. On a large stage, children dressed in costumes representing Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups -- Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Arab Muslims not defined as Sunni or Shiite -- hold their hands aloft and sing \"We are building Iraq!\" Two young boys, a mini-policeman and a mini-soldier sporting painted-on mustaches, march stiffly and salute. Watch the celebration in Baghdad \u00bb . Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. \"All Iraqis are Christian today!\" he says. Khalaf says sectarian and ethnic violence killed thousands of Iraqis. \"Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism,\" he says, \"and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties.\" In spite of his claim, the spokesman is surrounded by heavy security. Yet this celebration shows that the security situation in Baghdad is improving. Many of the people attending the Christmas celebration appear to be Muslims, with women wearing head scarves. Suad Mahmoud, holding her 16-month-old daughter, Sara, tells me she is indeed Muslim, but she's very happy to be here. \"My mother's birthday also is this month, so we celebrate all occasions,\" she says, \"especially in this lovely month of Christmas and New Year.\" Father Saad Sirop Hanna, a Chaldean Christian priest, is here too. He was kidnapped by militants in 2006 and held for 28 days. He knows firsthand how difficult the lot of Christians in Iraq is but, he tells me, \"We are just attesting that things are changing in Baghdad, slowly, but we hope that this change actually is real. We will wait for the future to tell us the truth about this.\" He just returned from Rome. \"I came back to Iraq because I believe that we can live here,\" he says. \"I have so many [Muslim] friends and we are so happy they started to think about things from another point of view and we want to help them.\" The Christmas celebration has tables loaded with cookies and cakes. Families fill plates and chat in the warm winter sun. Santa balloons hang from trees. An artist uses oil paint to create a portrait of Jesus. In the middle of the park there's an art exhibit, the creation of 11- and 12-year-olds: six displays, each about three feet wide, constructed of cardboard and Styrofoam, filled with tiny dolls dressed like ordinary people, along with model soldiers and police. They look like model movie sets depicting everyday life in Baghdad. Afnan, 12 years old, shows me her model called \"Arresting the Terrorists.\" \"These are the terrorists,\" she tells me. \"They were trying to blow up the school.\" In the middle of the street a dead \"terrorist\" sprawls on the asphalt, his bloody arm torn from his body by an explosion. Afnan tells me she used red nail polish to paint the blood. A little plastic dog stands nearby. \"What is he doing?\" I ask. \"He looks for terrorists and searches for weapons and explosives,\" Afnan says. Her mother, the children's art teacher, Raja, shows me another child's display called \"Baghdad Today.\" \"This is a wedding,\" Raja explains. \"Despite the terrorism, our celebrations still go ahead. This is a park, families enjoying time. And this is a market where people go shopping without fear of bombings. This is a mosque where people can pray with no fear.\" In the middle is a black mound that looks like a body bag. Policemen and Interior Ministry forces surround it. \"This is terrorism,\" she tells me. \"We killed it and destroyed it, and our lives went back to normal.\" A Christmas tale perhaps, I think, but one that many Iraqis hope will come true.","highlights":"Iraq's first public Christmas party decorated with Jesus, Santa, Christmas tree .\nCelebration put on by Interior Ministry to \"strengthen community ties\"\nKids' art projects show Baghdad scenes, including one with toy as dead \"terrorist\"\nChristian priest at celebration says Baghdad changes give him hope ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Hundreds of Indian army troops were using helicopters and boats Wednesday to deliver supplies and rescue villagers stranded by the worst flooding in decades, after the Kosi River breached an embankment in Nepal to the north. The death toll in the hard-to-reach Bihar state in northeastern India has been difficult to determine. Bihar emergency management official K.K. Agarwal confirmed 10 deaths to CNN on Wednesday, but the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported 55. Phone lines and electricity are out in the flooded areas. In the Supaul district city of Birpur, Mohd Rauffudin's hopes were fading. He told IBN -- a CNN partner station in India -- that while he was trying to stay afloat, he lost contact with his wife and children, as well as his nine brothers and his parents. \"I wish the help had reached (us) on time. That way at least my children could have been safe,\" he said. A woman who called herself Ruby told IBN her baby has been sick for four days, she can't reach medical help and she has lost track of her family. \"My child is so ill. I cannot do a thing about it. I wonder what I did wrong that my child must suffer,\" the mother said. The flooding began when the river burst through an embankment in Nepal more than a week ago, swallowing villages and destroying about 225,000 homes, officials and UNICEF India said. Water flowed so forcefully from the breach that the river changed course, making a new channel about 75 miles (120km) east of its river bed, flooding areas unaccustomed to water that high. Watch survivors find safety on roofs \u00bb . Agarwal said the disaster affected about 2 million people and 725 villages in Bihar, India's poorest state. Ninety-five relief shelters had been set up, 44 health-care camps and 22 shelters for animals, he said. Army spokesman Lt. Col. A. K. Mathur said 400 troops were involved in rescue operations, and the military had dispatched at least 20 rescue boats. Three army helicopters were dropping thousands of food packets, he said. PTI reported earlier in the day that bad weather had prevented Indian air force choppers from conducting relief drops in the worst-hit districts of Bihar: Supaul, Saharsa, Araria and Madhepura. Officials told CNN it was the worst flooding in Bihar in 80 years. Watch more on people stranded \u00bb . The Kosi is known to Indians as the \"River of Sorrow\" because of its flooding during the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September. The river flows into the Hindu-revered Ganges River. Video has shown residents huddled atop low-rise buildings, standing in waist-high water in the streets and trying to escape in boats. The flooding has submerged roads and railway tracks, and cut off electricity.","highlights":"Indian army troops use helicopters, boats to deliver supplies, rescue villagers .\nNEW: Survivor says he lost wife, children, parents, nine brothers .\nIndia says more than 2 million affected, 225,000 homes destroyed by flooding .\nNinety-five relief shelters and 44 health-care camps set up ."} -{"article":"Honolulu, Hawaii (CNN) -- U.S. Navy hospital corpsman Francis Nicola received a unique Christmas gift Thursday: a phone call from his commander in chief. President Obama called Nicola, currently deployed in the Arabian Gulf, to extend a personal holiday greeting, according to a Navy spokesman. Nicola has served on the guided-missile frigate USS Rentz for one year. The Rentz is on an extended eight-month deployment, Public Affairs Officer Corey Barker noted in a statement. \"It was a great honor,\" Nicola said. \"The president passed his personal thanks to me and to the crew for our service over the holidays.\" Obama \"started the conversation off asking about my wife and my son Anthony,\" he added. \"He then went on to express his thoughts on being deployed away from them during the holiday period and hoped for my safe return to them in the coming months.\" The president's decision to call Nicola was the result of a submission by Nicola's commanding officer. \"Petty Officer Nicola's performance has been nothing short of flawless,\" said Cmdr. Jeff Miller, the Rentz's commanding officer. \"He quickly earned my trust [and] confidence.\" Nicola said he invited Obama \"for a day of burgers and basketball on the pier in San Diego,\" the Rentz's home port. Obama said he \"would try to take us up on that offer,\" Nicola noted. Nicola, who previously served on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, is the senior medical representative for over 220 crew members on the Rentz, Barker said. His duties include routine patient care and trauma response. Presidents have traditionally called members of the military during the holiday season. Obama told reporters Thursday that he was planning to call \"a few\" service members this year \"and wish them merry Christmas and to thank them for their extraordinary service.\"","highlights":"Obama calls Navy corpsman Francis Nicola at sea to wish him merry Christmas .\nNicola is on board the USS Rentz in the Arabian Gulf .\nHis commanding officer submitted his name as candidate for presidential call .\nNicola says he invited Obama for burgers and basketball when the Rentz gets home ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Al Qaeda is still operating within Pakistan's mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and the United States lacks a \"comprehensive\" plan for meeting its national security goals there, said a U.S. government study released Thursday. A Pakistani policeman watches over a border area in February 2008. Despite the United States providing $10.5 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan, a key U.S. ally, the Government Accountability Office said it \"found broad agreement ... that al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven\" in Pakistan's Federally Administrated Tribal Areas. Of the $10.5 billion in U.S. aid, more than half -- $5.8 billion -- was specifically provided for the tribal region, the GAO said. Furthermore, the report said, \"No comprehensive plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in FATA has been developed, as stipulated by the National Security Strategy for Combating Terrorism [in 2003], called for by an independent commission [in 2004] and mandated by congressional legislation [in 2007].\" \"Our report does not state that the U.S. lacks agency-specific plans; rather, we found that there was no comprehensive plan that integrated the combined capabilities of Defense, State, USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development], the intelligence community,\" GAO said. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said intelligence indicated that Osama bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda leaders, who had been based in Afghanistan before the attacks on New York and Washington, were operating in the tribal region. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has denied that claim and has said that U.S. military missions there would violate Pakistan's sovereignty. So, since 2002, the United States has \"relied principally on the Pakistan military to address U.S. national security goals\" in that region, the GAO report said. Of the $5.8 billion the United States provided for aid in the tribal region, 96 percent of it reimbursed Pakistan for military operations there, the agency said. Two of the eight lawmakers who commissioned the GAO report, Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said it indicated a failing on the part of the Bush administration. \"The Bush administration has had six years to come up with a plan to get Osama bin Laden and his group, but it is still flying by the seat of its pants,\" Menendez said in a statement. \"We've dumped 10 billion American taxpayer dollars into Pakistan with the expectation that the terrorists will be hunted down and smoked out, but al Qaeda has been allowed to rejuvenate in the area that is supposed to be locked down,\" he said. Harkin called the report's findings \"appalling.\" \"The White House must propose a strategic policy in this area and follow it, especially when we have this new opportunity to forge a fresh strategic relationship with the new civilian government in Pakistan,\" he said in a statement. The Defense Department said it agreed with the report's findings, according to letters attached at the end of the GAO report, but the State Department disagreed with them, saying there was a comprehensive plan in place. A letter from Kathleen Turner, a spokeswoman for the office of the Director of National Intelligence, said that office and the National Counterterrorism Center concurred with the report's assessment that the United States has not met its national security goals in the tribal region but maintained that there was a plan in place. USAID said that it generally agreed with the report's recommendation for a comprehensive plan but that work in the tribal areas should be guided by the Pakistani government's own FATA Sustainable Development Plan from 2006. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Al Qaeda has \"succeeded in establishing a safe haven,\" GAO says .\nReport says there is no comprehensive U.S. plan for reaching security goals .\nDemocratic critic says report is \"appalling,\" blames administration ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When it came to second bananas, Ed McMahon was second to none. Ed McMahon turned being a sidekick into art. McMahon, known to generations of Americans through \"Tonight,\" \"Star Search,\" \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\" and as a commercial pitchman, died Tuesday. He was 86. For 30 years on the \"Tonight Show\" -- and several years more beforehand -- he was Johnny Carson's trusty sidekick, introducing him, feeding him straight lines, making the guests comfortable on the couch. It was a job that generally aimed the spotlight at Carson, the host. But it made McMahon a star nonetheless. \"He was a star in his own right. Being a sidekick didn't mean he was any less,\" Doc Severinsen, the longtime \"Tonight\" bandleader, told CNNRadio. \"Johnny defined what the host should be and Ed defined what the sidekick was.\" David Letterman, whose \"Late Night\" followed Carson's show on NBC from 1982 to 1993, said in a statement: \"Ed McMahon's voice at 11:30 was a signal that something great was about to happen. Ed's introduction of Johnny was a classic broadcasting ritual -- reassuring and exciting. Ed was a true broadcaster, and an integral part of Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show.' We will miss him.\" Gallery: Ed McMahon through the years \u00bb . McMahon, known to generations of Americans through \"Tonight,\" \"Star Search,\" \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\" and as a commercial pitchman, died Tuesday. He was 86. While Carson could be insular and shy off camera, McMahon was always possessed of an outsized, hail-fellow-well-met attitude, comedian Joan Rivers -- a frequent \"Tonight\" guest and guest host -- told CNN. \"I remember him with great affection, and I remember him [as] very solid whenever I hosted the show. ... When you needed him, he was a rock. A real rock,\" recalled Rivers. \"He went beyond the 'Tonight Show' and had his own identity and America liked him very much. He was a good guy. He was the neighbor.\" Watch Rivers' memories of McMahon \u00bb . Dick Clark -- who really was McMahon's neighbor in 1950s Philadelphia, when Clark hosted \"American Bandstand\" and McMahon was a local TV star -- remembered his \"Bloopers\" co-host as a man with \"a really big heart.\" \"Fifty years ago, Ed and I were next-door neighbors. Over the years, our friendship grew while he became one of America's favorite television personalities,\" he said in a statement. \"We were together for years. Ed was a big man, had big talent and a really big heart. We'll all miss him.\" Rivers remembers McMahon as someone who was always willing to reach out. After she left the Carson show -- which she had hosted frequently in Johnny's absence -- for her own late-night show, she remembered becoming persona non grata with many in Hollywood. But not McMahon. \"Ed McMahon always, whenever he would come in a restaurant or see me anywhere, would make it his business to come over and say hello,\" Rivers said. \"And that was going against, quote-unquote, 'boss' orders.' \" Watch McMahon recall the invention of \"Carnac the Magnificent\" \u00bb . The boss, however, knew his sidekick's value. In vaudeville vernacular, a \"second banana\" was the guy who played off the star comedian (the \"top banana\"). He was the straight man, the set-up guy, the performer who smoothed the way and occasionally got in his own line, all in the service of the lead. And few were better than McMahon. \"Ed was the best at what he did and will never be replaced,\" said Don Rickles, a longtime friend, in a statement. \"Another giant is gone.\"","highlights":"Ed McMahon, who died Tuesday, was known as a sidekick -- but also a \"star\"\nHis outgoing public persona was in contrast to that of his boss, Johnny Carson .\n\"Tonight\" bandleader Doc Severinsen: \"Ed defined what the sidekick was\"\nJoan Rivers: \"When you needed him, he was a rock\""} -{"article":"JENA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Charges against Bryant Purvis, one of the six black students accused of being involved in beating a white student, were reduced to second degree aggravated battery during his arraignment Wednesday morning. Bryant Purvis says he is focusing on his studies and practicing basketball. Purvis, who was facing charges of second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, entered a not guilty plea to the reduced charges in the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena. Charges have now been reduced against at least five of the students in the racially charged \"Jena 6\" case. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile. Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and five other teens accused of the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker. After the arraignment, Purvis said he has moved to another town to complete high school. He said he is focusing on his studies and practicing basketball, which he hopes to play in college. Mychal Bell, 17, is the only one of the \"Jena 6\" teens still in jail. Although he was released in September after his adult criminal conviction for the beating was overturned, he was ordered two weeks later to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility for a probation violation relating to an earlier juvenile conviction. A district judge tossed out Bell's conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in juvenile court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell's battery conviction in mid-September. Prosecutors originally charged all six black students accused of being involved in beating Barker with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Charges against Bryant Purvis reduced to second degree aggravated battery .\nPurvis had faced attempted murder, conspiracy charges .\nCharges reduced against at least five of six blacks charged in beating .\nCase of \"Jena 6\" drew national spotlight during September protest ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Jury selection is set to start Monday in a trial pitting two children of Martin Luther King Jr. against their brother, whom they accuse of mishandling the late civil rights leader's estate. Bernice King and her brother Martin Luther King III say Dexter King took funds from their father's estate. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III sued their brother Dexter King in July 2008, one month after accusing him of converting \"substantial funds from the estate's financial account at Bank of America\" for his own use, according to the lawsuit. Also named as a defendant is the Martin Luther King Jr. estate, which is incorporated. Dexter King is the corporation's president and chief executive, in addition to being the estate's administrator. The three are the only shareholders in the corporation, and the plaintiffs hold at least 20 percent of its outstanding shares. The lawsuit contends Dexter King illegally and fraudulently converted estate funds and should be forced to repay the money and reimburse the plaintiffs' legal costs. The document, which lists five counts, does not say how much he is accused of taking. Dexter King has denied the accusations. The lawsuit reveals a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings. The three are the only surviving children of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968, and Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006. Their oldest child, Yolanda King, died in 2007. Bernice King administers her mother's estate. In a countersuit, Dexter King has asked a judge to force Bernice King to turn over their mother's personal papers, including love letters central to a now-defunct $1.4 million book deal. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King complained that Dexter King refused to hold shareholders meetings, which they said was another example of his lack of transparency in handling their father's estate. There had been no shareholders' meeting of the corporation since 2004, something that Dexter King blamed on the distraction caused by the deaths of his mother and sister. Judge Ural D. Glanville ordered a meeting, which was held last week. In a hearing held in late September, Glanville, who will preside over the trial in Fulton County Superior Court, also expressed serious concern about governance of the King estate. The judge issued an order saying \"the court is extremely troubled.\" He noted that Dexter King, as the majority shareholder, wields significant power in the corporation because he holds 80 percent of its shares. He alone can constitute a quorum for transacting business, the order says. The judge warned all three Kings that any failure to comply with the Georgia Corporation Code could result in the dissolution of the corporation and the appointment of a receiver.","highlights":"Bernice King, Martin Luther King III accuse brother of taking estate funds for own use .\nDexter King, administrator of Martin Luther King Jr. estate, denies accusations .\nDexter King files countersuit, wants sister to turn over mother's personal papers .\nJudge's order says \"the court is extremely troubled\""} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Dressed in fancy clothes, she applies eye liner, dabs her nose with a powder puff and the director shouts, \"Silence, rolling!\" Avika Gor, who plays child bride Anandi in the popular but controversial show. On cue, the star of the show delivers her lines. Meet Anandi, the main character of \"Balika Vadhu,\" an Indian television serial. Twelve-year-old Anandi is a child bride who was married off at the age of eight. She now lives with her husband and in-laws, bound by customs and traditions in their home. The daily soap is just over a year old and already one of India's most highly rated TV shows. An estimated 74 million people watched it in July. The CEO of Colors, the channel the show airs on, says viewers love it because it's based on reality. Rajesh Kamat said: \"There is enough research on child marriage, the evils of child marriage. We've based our storyline on that.\" Kamat added the concept the show was based on is very much real and most of the incidents depicted in the program still happen in parts of India. Even though the Indian legal age for marriage is 18 for girls and 21 for boys, the law is often ignored. Since it's an illegal act, it's very hard to find a record of how many child marriages take place -- but according to UNICEF, 40 percent of all child marriages in the world take place in India. Critics of \"Balika Vadhu\" say the premise -- that child marriage takes place in India -- is the only real aspect of the show. The driving force behind child marriage is poverty, says Puja Marwaha, of the children's charity Child Rights and You. She says child brides are often illiterate, malnourished, considered a burden on their parents -- and their lives bear no resemblance to the glossy images seen on TV. According to Marwaha, the serial glorifies child marriage. \"To show it as harmless, is a problem.\" \"Poverty is not pretty so the child is not going to be wearing party frocks and looking pretty, contented and happy because that's not what really happens. What really happens is the child is forced into adult responsibilities too early. Whether it's the responsibility of motherhood or whether it's linked to abuse, as is the case many times.\" That, according to Marwaha, is the reality of child marriage. The people behind the show say its goal is not to glamorize child marriage -- but to highlight its dark side. Kamat said: \"Have we depicted it in a way that is entertaining? Yes. Is the evil of child marriage highlighted? Yes. Are the evils associated with it highlighted? Absolutely.\" In between takes on the set of the show just outside Mumbai, Avika Gor, who plays Anandi, does her part to educate the audience. \"I feel very bad about what's happening to Anandi. Child marriage is very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad.\" Some Indian lawmakers argued the show violated the Indian Constitution and demanded the show be banned. The government looked into it and gave it a clean chit, so the cameras continue to roll on the sets, and the show goes on.","highlights":"Soap with child bride as central character is one of India's most watched TV shows .\nCritics says the show glosses over the brutalities of India's real child brides .\nExecutive defends show, says it does highlight evils of child marriages .\nChild brides problem is widespread in India despite 18 being legal age for marriage ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five members of Liverpool's backroom staff have followed manager Rafael Benitez in committing their long-term futures to the Premier League title challengers. Rafael Benitez's backroom staff have followed his example in signing new contracts with Liverpool. Benitez signed a new contract with the club last week, following months of speculation, keeping him at Anfield until 2014. Now the Spaniard's lead has now been followed by assistant manager Sammy Lee, first-team coach Mauricio Pellegrino, goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero, fitness coach Paco de Miguel and chief scout Eduardo Macia -- all of whom have agreed contract extensions of at least two years. \"I said when I signed my own deal recently that it was a priority to sort out the future of the technical staff,\" Benitez told PA Sport. \"We work extremely well as a team, and continuity is essential if we are to build on the progress we have made this season and move the club further forward. I am delighted we have been able to sort out the contracts,\" he added. The news caps a remarkable month for the club, who have thrashed Manchester United and Aston Villa to re-enter the Premier League title race and also crushed Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League.","highlights":"Five members of Liverpool's backroom staff sign new contracts with the club .\nThe news follows the decision of manager Rafael Benitez to finally agree terms .\nThe signings are a further boost as Liverpool chase Europe and domestic glory ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of ACORN on Tuesday sharply deplored recent videos showing some of the group's workers advising people how to set up a prostitution business. ACORN leader Bertha Lewis defends her group at the National Press Club on Tuesday in Washington. \"It made my stomach turn,\" Bertha Lewis, chief executive officer of ACORN, told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. \"It just made you sick.\" ACORN workers who did perform their tasks properly \"did not deserve to have co-workers who did not live up to their standards,\" Lewis said. \"So yes, I terminated those employees.\" At the same time, Lewis defended the community organizing group and punched back at widespread criticism, touting the group's efforts in helping poor people in the areas of housing and voting. She backed up the group's legal action in Maryland against the makers of one of the videos. Video, shot with a hidden camera, shows conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute. Lewis said that \"we want to hold them accountable\" for what she said was breaking the law. Similar videos were made at other ACORN offices. \"It is illegal, as Linda Tripp will tell you, to record someone in the state of Maryland without their permission. Just because we were embarrassed by these highly edited tapes, which don't tell the whole story again, and hopefully that will come out, doesn't mean that these people didn't break the law in order to embarrass and attack the organization,\" Lewis said. Lewis was referring to the former White House employee who recorded conversations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky about her sexual encounters with President Clinton, which ultimately led to his impeachment. ACORN -- which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- was in the headlines during last year's presidential campaign after GOP allegations of falsifying voter registration applicants. Some of its voter registration workers were prosecuted, and some other employees resigned. But after the recent release of videos, the political criticism grew. In the videos, some ACORN workers advised the undercover conservative activists how to set up a prostitution business involving underage, foreign girls. Along with firing employees, ACORN also is conducting an investigation through an independent auditor. The Justice and Treasury departments are investigating the group, too. The U.S. Census Bureau has terminated ACORN's involvement in its public outreach program, both chambers of Congress have voted to deny federal funding to the organization, and several states are looking into ACORN operations. In addition, ACORN suspended tax preparation services it carried out as part of an Internal Revenue Service program. And Bank of America announced it is pulling its funding of an ACORN housing affiliate until it is satisfied that all issues related to the organization have been resolved. Lewis contends the group also has been responsive to allegations that some canvassers falsified voter registration applications and turned in those who falsified voter registration forms. \"We were punished for following the law and doing the right thing, and that part of the story was never told,\" she said. \"And so nine months later it finally began to resonate with folks that we had not had one individual who voted fraudulently in the presidential election because of an ACORN registration -- not one Mickey Mouse, not one Donald Duck, not one New York Jet, Giant or any other fraudulent person.\" One of the shadows over ACORN is an embezzling incident involving Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke. Lewis acknowledged that the founder's sibling embezzled nearly $1 million from the group. She disputed reports that a subpoena from the Louisiana attorney general's office showed that the amount was up to $5 million. Lewis said the claim is \"speculation, \"completely false\" and not based on any documentation. She attributed the contention to two \"disgruntled former board members.\" Lewis' group works in poor precincts across the country considered Democratic turf. She said e-mails from Karl Rove, when he was Bush's top political adviser, show that ACORN was targeted to stop its voter registration efforts because \"we were moving too many minorities to vote\" and \"changing the power dynamics\" in local elections. Such critics of the group believe \"we needed to be stopped,\" Lewis said. \"I do think that after 40 years of going after the rich and powerful, I think you make some powerful enemies. I think since 2004, things have been ramped up.\" Lewis said ACORN has been demonized and news about it has served as a Republican fund-raising tool. She said this form of \"modern-day ACORN McCarthyism has got to stop.\" \"Last week, members of Congress were asked, 'Are you now or have you ever been members of ACORN? Everybody should take pause at that. Everybody should say, 'Wait a minute. This is not how we have discourse,' \" she said, making reference to the familiar phrase from McCarthy-era hearings in the 1950s: \"Are you now or have you ever been a communist?\" Appointed to her post in 2008, Lewis said she has been working hard to improve the group's management practices to \"restrengthen, reorganize and put together the 21st-century ACORN.\" \"I'm proud to say that they've made it clear to me that I will continue to be tortured for at least another year. If the board thought or our membership thought that I should resign, I would do it in a heartbeat,\" she said. \"I don't think, however, it is fair to judge me as I'm cleaning up a previous administration, and now we have real documentation that these are political attacks on us, which is unprecedented.\"","highlights":"ACORN leader defends community organizing group at National Press Club .\nSome ACORN workers advised undercover conservatives on prostitution in videos .\nACORN's Bertha Lewis says group targeted due to its voter registration efforts .\nLewis: ACORN has responded properly to allegations, fired workers in videos ."} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- '\"I had such a crush on him when I was a kid,\" says my friend Didi Linburn, pigtails peeking out from beneath her pink ski helmet rather than the wool pompom hat she wore as a kid. I peer into the tiny ski shop at the Alta Peruvian Lodge and catch a glimpse of a cute guy in glasses behind the counter. \"No idea how old he is,\" she says, \"but I've seen him here every winter since I was 15.\" Didi and Jeff Linburn on the slopes . Twenty-two years later, and Didi and her teenage crush are still here? I've yet to even take a run down the powder white slopes, but I already sense that Alta, Utah, just might be as special as everyone says it is -- including my self-proclaimed \"Altaholic\" husband. Tired of not getting an invite to his annual \"guys' trip,\" and admittedly jealous about the other love in his life, I decided to tag along on Didi's annual father-daughter jaunt. And finally experience for myself this almighty Alta -- with just seven lifts (and not much else) spread across 2,200 acres of heart-pumping hikes and narrow chutes, chest-deep powder, and total lack of pretension. Skis slung over our shoulders, we walk out the weathered wooden door of the lodge, taking in a deep breath of fresh -- albeit thin -- mountain air. I'm instantly happy to be here at 10,550 feet, on leased U.S. Forest Service land at the resolutely un-corporate resort, where faded one-pieces outnumber Bogner jackets, chairlifts seat at most four across, and five no-frills lodges, scattered up Little Cottonwood Canyon, sleep 1,200 skiers, tops. Skiers. Not shoppers. Not ski bunnies. Sunset.com: Plan your trip to Alta . And, above all, not snowboarders. As the mountain motto goes, Alta is for skiers. During my stay, I see it flaunted on banners, baseball caps, bumper stickers. Alta is, after all, one of just three resorts left in the country that ban boarders, since Taos Ski Valley opened its slopes to all in March. Geared up, Didi, her dad, and I creep along in a bar-less triple chair, surrounded by nothing save blue sky and the towering peaks of the Wasatch Range. \"Same as it was in the '60s,\" says Geoff Linburn, who first came to Alta from California in search of what he'd heard was the best snow in the West. Back then, lift tickets cost $8, and there were only five slowly moving chairlifts, but apart from building a couple more and raising ticket prices to a reasonable $64, Alta remains Alta. Didi's dad smiles. \"Still the best snow in the West.\" A whopping 500 inches annually of light-as-a-feather powder -- and I can't wait to try it. But that will take some effort. Without a convenient tram to Alta's best terrain, the limited number of skiers allowed uphill work for every turn with an almost perverse pleasure. As a typically lazy, play-it-safe sort of skier, I'm intimidated. Is this really worth it? We hop off the Sugarloaf chair and onto a big \"dump\" (a record-setting blessing of snow) and join the parade of people inching their way, single file, up, up, up, and gliding precariously, over, over, over, only to climb again. Is this really worth it? I think to myself, sweating in the snow. I contemplate taking off my skis, but then I look up. \"Aw, it's a bootpacker!\" one guy yells at another fellow who's stomping with his skis on his shoulders rather than suffering the steep sidestep with everyone else. I press on, inspired by the unspoken camaraderie on the traverse toward Devil's Castle -- a wide-open bowl and depository of powder -- and the shared anticipation among strangers bound by a passion for Alta's almost guaranteed fresh tracks. Still, exhausted -- okay, panting really -- I stop and watch as the hard-core hikers keep stomping; my heart is pounding. I look downhill at the almost untouched powder and decide I've had enough hiking. Who needs the untouched stuff? Time to ski. After a blissful day on the slopes, the return to the Peruvian lodge is a comedown. The guest rooms remind me of my college dorm. There are shared bathrooms and a Ping-Pong table but no TVs. Still, the Peruvian, like all of Alta's lodges, has a 75 percent return rate. Sunset.com: Top 10 ski resorts . I'm honestly baffled, but by the end of dinner -- a slippers-acceptable, family-style affair, where a wine collector wearing turquoise sweatpants shares rare bottles he brought from home and our table swaps stories like old friend -- I start to understand. But, unlike most of the longtime guests, who remain fiercely loyal to \"their\" lodge, never venturing steps away to check out another, I'm curious and leave Didi a few nights later for Alta's Rustler Lodge, where things are a tad more civilized (read: pricey). Now I have a television and my own bathroom, and reservations are taken for the window-walled dining room, where the next morning, I overhear a waiter bellow \"Welcome back!\" to guest Roger Urban, who has been staying here since his bachelor days. He and his wife -- looking very '80s (like the lodge) in their matching rainbow-striped rugbys -- fuel up at the breakfast buffet, while their teenage daughter, Alexandra, heads out for a lesson with the same instructor she's always had. Meanwhile, I finish my eggs alone and realize that I miss the chaos of the Peruvian's hostel-like atmosphere. I slip on my skis and hop the rope tow to meet Didi for another day on the slopes. Alta never changes . From the chatter around the lift line, it's clear that it's not just the powder that draws people to Alta -- it's also the people themselves. Old college buddies, moms and sons, widows who used to come with their husbands ... everyone returns without question. Likewise, all the locals I meet say they'd intended to come out for a season and do the ski-bum thing. But before they knew it, 10, 20, 30 years had passed -- and they're still here. \"Alta just swallows you up,\" says Craig Dillon, Didi's ski shop crush, who, it turns out, is 41 and has lived here half his life. And so, because people never leave Alta, it's only natural that they grow old here. Not in the typical, canasta-by-the-pool way of growing old. Rather, Alta is like a real-life \"Cocoon,\" where the mountain is the fountain of youth. Senior passes start at age 80. Didi and I return to the Sugarloaf chair and ride up with an 86-year-old couple. \"Skiing is only getting easier!\" the husband says, beaming. \"Free tickets!\" says his wife. Inspired, I make a mental note to be just like them in 50 years. As we climb, once again, toward Devil's Castle, a father whizzes by with a tiny skier bouncing on his shoulders. \"Daddy? Are we at Devil's Castle yet?\" He hikes as far as possible, plops his daughter in knee-deep powder, and off she goes: a 4-year-old making fresh tracks. I watch, dumbfounded. And determined. I decide to hike out as far as I can. I want those fresh tracks, and this time I'm willing to work for them. Heart racing, legs aching, I reach the end of the ridge. I rest for a moment and then dip in. Flying solo through feet of untouched powder, carving near-perfect turns, snow spraying like the pros, I realize that I'm floating. This is it. This is why I've come to Alta. Sunset.com: Top 10 hotels for nature lovers . Later that evening, lounging around the Peruvian lobby after dinner -- with Scrabble, impromptu sing-alongs, nothing to face tomorrow but more fresh snow -- I get the feeling I'm continuing a tradition at risk of being lost forever to the fast-paced, froufrou world beyond Little Cottonwood Canyon. \"Everything changes in your life ... so much,\" reflects Leslie Johnson, who's been coming here every winter since 1982. \"Friends move on ... my family's homes have come and gone ... but Alta, Alta never changes.\" I get it. I'm hooked. Another Altaholic is born. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2009 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Alta is spread across 2,200 acres of heart-pumping hikes and narrow chutes .\nThe resort is one of just three in the country that ban snow boarders .\nGuests at the resolutely un-corporate resort stay in five no-frills lodges ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA and Japan improved our world view this week, or at least our view of the world. This image using ASTER imagery shows the Himalayan glaciers in Bhutan. The American space agency and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have released a new digital topographic map of Earth that accurately portrays more of our planet than ever before. The new map consists of 1.3 million images taken by NASA's Terra satellite that have been pieced together to form a unified picture of the planet. The images were taken by a Japanese imaging instrument called the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER. \"This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world,\" said Woody Turner, a program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington. The map covers more than 99 percent of Earth's land mass from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Antarctic Circle. During February 2000, space shuttle Endeavour mapped about 80 percent of the planet's surface. \"The ASTER data fill in many of the voids in the shuttle mission's data, such as in very steep terrains and in some deserts,\" said Michael Kobrick, a shuttle project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which manages the program. \"NASA is working to combine\" the new data with that from the shuttle and other sources \"to produce an even better global topographic map.\"","highlights":"New digital topographic map reveals more of Earth than ever before .\nImages were taken by Japanese imaging instrument on NASA satellite .\nMap consists of millions of satellite images to form unified picture of planet ."} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A top Mexican drug cartel suspect has been arrested along with 12 accomplices, including five women, federal authorities said. Police guard suspected members of the Beltran Leyva cartel after they were arrested in a 2008 raid. Rodolfo Lopez Ibarra, known as El Nito and believed to be a top lieutenant in the Beltran Leyva cartel, was arrested Monday at an airport in Nuevo Leon state, said the Mexican National Defense secretary. Along with the suspects, officials said they also confiscated a Cessna 550 airplane, two cars, a large quantity of drugs and cash, firearms and a hand grenade. Soldiers acting on an anonymous tip arrested the eight men and five women, including one minor, National Defense said in a release Tuesday. Authorities said they confiscated 40,680 pesos (U.S. $3,150), $29,385 (379,507 pesos), 13 packages of marijuana weighing 13 kilograms (29 pounds), three computers and 28 cell phones. The Beltran Leyva cartel is one of the top drug organizations in Mexico, allied with the Gulf cartel in its battle against the Sinaloa organized crime syndicate. The Beltran Leyva group was formerly allied with the Sinaloa cartel, considered the largest drug-trafficking organization in the nation. The two other major drug organizations in Mexico are the Juarez and Tijuana cartels. According to media reports, someone alerted authorities when a tipster noticed heavily armed men waiting at the airport in northern Mexico. Ibarra was on a flight back from a baptism in Acapulco at which drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva had anointed him with the top post in Nuevo Leon, the news reports said. A published photo of Ibarra after his arrest shows him wearing a long-sleeved printed shirt and blue jeans, a forlorn look on his face as he gazes off to the side. Ibarra, 33, was the second top suspect from the Beltran Leyva cartel arrested in recent weeks. In March, authorities announced the arrest of Hector Huerta Rios, also known as \"La Burra\" or \"El Junior.\" Like Ibarra, he was arrested in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon state, along Mexico's border with the United States. Mexican officials also have recently announced the arrests of several other high-ranking cartel suspects as President Felipe Calderon wages a battle against a drug trade he says killed 6,500 people last year. About 2,000 more Mexicans are believed to have been killed this year. In April, authorities announced the arrest of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a suspected leader of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel. A couple of weeks earlier, officials said they had arrested Sigifredo Najera Talamantes, a drug-trafficking suspect accused of attacking a U.S. consulate and killing Mexican soldiers. Talamantes, also known as \"El Canicon,\" also is suspected in attacks on a television station in Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, the state-run Notimex agency said. That same week, the Mexican military also arrested the son of a top drug cartel lieutenant.","highlights":"Suspected top Beltran Leyva cartel lieutenant arrested at airport in Nuevo Leon .\n12 more suspects arrested; airplane, cars, drugs, cash, guns confiscated .\nRodolfo Lopez Ibarra, aka El Nito, arrested on his way back from a baptism ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal judge on Monday ruled against a Web site operator who was seeking to publish an encyclopedia about the Harry Potter series of novels, blocking publication of \"The Harry Potter Lexicon\" after concluding that it would cause author J.K. Rowling \"irreparable injury.\" Steven Vander Ark speaks to the media outside the U.S. District Court on April 15, 2008 in New York City. U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson awarded Rowling and her publisher $6,750 in statutory damages and permanently blocked publication of the reference guide. Harry Potter fan Steven Vander Ark sought to publish the book, a reference guide to the Harry Potter series, through a small Michigan-based publishing house called RDR Books. Vander Ark operates a Web site called \"Harry Potter Lexicon.\" Rowling sued RDR Books in 2007 to stop publication of material from Vander Ark's Web site. Vander Ark and RDR Books claimed the book should not be blocked from publication because it was protected by the \"fair use\" doctrine, which allows for commentary and critique of literary works. Patterson, in his ruling, said the defendants failed to demonstrate fair use. Rowling issued a statement after Monday's ruling, saying, \"I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably.\" Vander Ark did not immediately return calls from CNN on Monday. \"We are obviously disappointed with the result, and RDR is considering all of its options, including an appeal,\" attorney David S. Hammer said. Rowling, who said she has long planned to publish her own encyclopedia, and Warner Brothers Entertainment, producer of the Potter films, filed suit to stop RDR from publishing the book. Warner Brothers is owned by Time Warner, CNN's parent company.","highlights":"Web site operator wants to publish encyclopedia about Harry Potter novels .\nJudge awards \"Harry Potter\" author J.K. Rowling and publisher $6,750 in damages .\nRowling says she has long planned to publish her own encyclopedia ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just as \"Y2K\" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes \"Twenty-twelve.\" The sun shines through the door of the Seven Dolls Temple, in the Maya ruins of Dzibilchaltun in Mexico. Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012. The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America. (Some scholars believe the cycle ends a bit later -- on December 23, 2012.) Speculation in some circles about whether the Maya chose this particular time because they thought something ominous would happen has sparked a number of doomsday theories. The hype also has mainstream Maya scholars shaking their heads. \"There's going to be a whole generation of people who, when they think of the Maya, think of 2012, and to me that's just criminal,\" said David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin. \"There is no serious scholar who puts any stock in the idea that the Maya said anything meaningful about 2012.\" Find out more about the history and culture of the Maya \u00bb . But take the fact that December 21, 2012, coincides with the winter solstice, add claims the Maya picked the time period because it also marks an alignment of the sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and you have the makings of an online sensation. Type \"2012\" into an Internet search engine and you'll find survival guides, survival schools, predictions and \"official stuff\" to wear, including T-shirts with slogans such as \"2012 The End\" and \"Doomsday 2012.\" Theories about what might happen range from solar storms triggering volcano eruptions to a polar reversal that will make the Earth spin in the opposite direction. If you think all of this would make a great sci-fi disaster movie, Hollywood is already one step ahead. \"2012,\" a special-effects flick starring John Cusack and directed by Roland Emmerich, of \"The Day After Tomorrow\" fame, is scheduled to be released this fall. The trailer shows a monk running to a bell tower on a mountaintop to sound the alarm as a huge wall of water washes over what appear to be the peaks of the Himalayas. 'Promoting a hoax' One barometer of the interest in 2012 may be the \"Ask an Astrobiologist\" section of NASA's Web site, where senior scientist David Morrison answers questions from the public. On a recent visit, more than half of the inquiries on the most popular list were related to 2012. \"The purveyors of doom are promoting a hoax,\" Morrison wrote earlier this month in response to a question from a person who expressed fear about the date. A scholar who has studied the Maya for 35 years said there is nothing ominous about 2012, despite the hype surrounding claims to the contrary. \"I think that the popular books... about what the Maya say is going to happen are really fabricated on the basis of very little evidence,\" said Anthony Aveni, a professor of astronomy, anthropology and Native American studies at Colgate University. Aveni and Stuart are both writing their own books explaining the Mayan calendar and 2012, but Stuart said he's pessimistic that people will be interested in the real story when so many other books are making sensational claims. Dozens of titles about 2012 have been published and more are scheduled to go on sale in the coming months. Current offerings include \"Apocalypse 2012,\" in which author Lawrence Joseph outlines \"terrible possibilities,\" such as the potential for natural disaster. But Joseph admits he doesn't think the world is going to end. \"I do, however, believe that 2012 will prove to be... a very dramatic and probably transformative year,\" Joseph said. The author acknowledged he's worried his book's title might scare people, but said he wanted to alert the public about possible dangers ahead. He added that his publisher controls the book's title, though he had no issue with the final choice. \"If it had been called 'Serious Threats 2012' or 'Profound Considerations for 2012,' it would have never gotten published,\" Joseph said. Growing interest . Another author said the doom and gloom approach is a great misunderstanding of 2012. \"The trendy doomsday people... should be treated for what they are: under-informed opportunists and alarmists who will move onto other things in 2013,\" said John Major Jenkins, whose books include \"Galactic Alignment\" and who describes himself as a self-taught independent Maya scholar. Jenkins said that cycle endings were all about transformation and renewal -- not catastrophe -- for the Maya. He also makes the case that the period they chose coincides with an alignment of the December solstice sun with the center of the Milky Way, as viewed from Earth. \"Two thousand years ago the Maya believed that the world would be going through a great transformation when this alignment happened,\" Jenkins said. But Aveni said there is no evidence that the Maya cared about this concept of the Milky Way, adding that the galactic center was not defined until the 1950s. \"What you have here is a modern age influence [and] modern concepts trying to garb the ancient Maya in modern clothing, and it just doesn't wash for me,\" Aveni said. Meanwhile, he and other scholars are bracing for growing interest as the date approaches. \"The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy, I'm sorry to say,\" Stuart said. \"I just think it's sad, it really just frustrates me. People are really misunderstanding this really cool culture by focusing on this 2012 thing. It means more about us than it does about the Maya.\"","highlights":"December 21, 2012, marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on a Mayan calendar .\nSome think the date is ominous, others say it may signal the dawn of a new era .\nTheories are fabricated on the basis of very little evidence, Maya scholar says .\n\"The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy,\" another scholar warns ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shel Israel is not the kind of person you'd expect to find on Twitter all day. He's 65. Shel Israel, author of a new book on Twitter. He says the micro-blogging service changed his life. But Israel has been using the micro-blogging service longer than most. In fact, he gave up his lifelong habit of reading the newspaper every day about four years ago and turned exclusively to social media. He now knows how to use Twitter, how not to use it, and how to benefit from it, and he says Twitter has changed his life. The social-media journalist and public speaker is the author of a new book, \"Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods.\" The book shows how Twitter flattens geographical boundaries and helps people connect with others around the world who share their interests. To Israel, it's the mundane details of one's life, shared through tweets and status updates, that matter. He believes that tweeting about what you had for lunch can actually help build a meaningful personal or business relationship. Israel also says that who you follow on Twitter is much more important than the number of people who follow you. That's because the people you follow become \"your newspaper -- the way you get the information that you see, that you digest, and that you use.\" Here is an edited version of the conversation. CNN: Your timing in writing this book seems perfect -- Twitter just blew up. Did you see this boom coming? Israel: Yeah I did, but not with this great prescience. I just thought it was going to get bigger and bigger, and I thought there was a value to Twitter that no other social media tool had. See part of our chat with Israel here \u00bb . What are those values you mentioned that only Twitter has? There are two values and they're closely intertwined. The first is that Twitter lets people behave online more closely to how we behave in real life than anything that ever preceded it in history. It's kind of past now, but there was this whole wave of admonition of nobody cares what you had for lunch, and to be honest that's absolutely false. If I said that I was in a restaurant in Atlanta, [Georgia,] you'd say, \"Oh, where did you go? You didn't by chance try the...\" and we have a conversation that way. We care about the details of life. When you bring this into business, I don't think many members of your audience ever bought or sold anything from a conversation that starts with, \"Are you going to buy something?\" It begins with small talk. And that brings us to the second point. The brevity creates an interaction that no other media tool allows. Until now most social media is I write or create something, and you read it and comment back. In Twitter, it's so brief that no one is the lead conversationalist, really. And it isn't about what you post in 140 characters, it's about the number of spoonfuls of content that you feed people who are interested in eating it. Why are you so fascinated by Twitter? Most people your age don't use social media at all. I was born too soon? (Laughs) I don't know what it is about me, but it's what drew me to Silicon Valley in the first place -- I just get turned on by new ideas and new trends. I am extremely curious by nature. I like meeting people who think and act differently than I do. And that I think keeps me young, along with the fact that I spend much of my time with people younger than me. And they seem to value the fact that this older guy has some wisdom, but they don't understand how much I'm learning from them. You tell a lot of specific Twitter anecdotes in your book. Do you have a favorite character? I have a few real favorites. [One is] Janis Krums, who was the 23-year-old guy taking a ferry to New Jersey when a funny thing happened -- the US Airways flight 1549 landed [on the Hudson River] a couple of football fields away from him. He whips out an iPhone, uses a 30-day-old product called Twit Pic, and takes a picture. Twenty-seven minutes later he's on national TV, the photo he took is the backdrop, and his voice is being heard nationally through the iPhone that he used. I asked him how his life had changed by becoming the most famous citizen journalist of at least 2009. And his answer to me was, \"You know, I didn't plan to be a citizen journalist, I just wanted to go to New Jersey.\" And that might have been my single favorite answer to any question. You also describe why certain strategies work for particular organizations in your book. Are there Twitter marketing strategies that wouldn't work for some companies? Yeah, I talk a lot about changing of eras. We're going [away] from the broadcast era -- that's when content is sandwiched by messages to pay for the experience, and those messages are in the form of advertising or PR or other marketing tactics. And most people don't like them anymore, and we use our Tivo and our spam filters to avoid as many of these messages as possible. In social media, if companies come up and try to treat [Twitter] as just an extension of their marketing solutions, they will fail. What they need to do in social media is join the conversation rather than start the conversation, and not make it about themselves. They need to tell what they're doing rather than sell what they're doing. And that's a fundamental change. We're going into a conversational era, which is bi-directional. What would you say to employers who don't let their employees use social media like Twitter and Facebook during work hours? Whenever something new comes into the marketplace, there are companies that are really in love with the way it's always been done. When you start banning things, you're showing a natural distrust of your employees, which is, even in tough times, not an intelligent way to treat your employees. And the second thing is they're banishing the state-of-the-art communications tool. What's the future of Twitter, in your opinion? A year from now, Twitter will be more of an everyday experience -- the need to meet up, to talk will move on to something that we don't know about yet. My vision for Twitter is that employees of your age coming into the workplace will be shown a desk, a computer ...[and set up their social media accounts] and then be told to go to work and use [Twitter] how they see fit to get the job done.","highlights":"Shel Israel is the author of a new book about how to get the most out of Twitter .\nIsrael says tweeting about mundane details can help build meaningful relationships .\nWho you follow on Twitter is more important than who follows you, he says .\nIsrael: Twitter is ushering in a two-directional, conversational era of marketing ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Carrie Prejean's lawyer gave Miss California USA executive director Keith Lewis what he said was a final warning to retract statements made about the former beauty queen or face a defamation lawsuit. The lawyer for former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, says the ousted beauty queen's good name is \"tarnished.\" Prejean, stripped of the Miss California USA title last week, \"suffered severe emotional distress\" and her reputation was harmed by Lewis, Charles LiMandri said in a letter sent Thursday to Lewis' lawyer. LiMandri's letter also accused Lewis, whom he referred to as a \"gay activist,\" of setting Prejean up to be fired because of her statements opposing same-sex marriage. When Prejean, 22, was dethroned, Lewis said it was for \"contract violations,\" including missed public appearances. He told CNN's Larry King last week that it wasn't one thing Prejean did, but \"many, many, many things.\" \"She came to us and said I'm not interested in your input; I'll make my own decision what I'm going to do,\" Lewis said. \"You know, when you have a contract, when you're working for someone, you have a responsibility to follow through on what that requirement is.\" Lewis told King it was clear \"she was not interested in upholding the title or the responsibilities.\" \"Carrie Prejean's good name has been tarnished by your client's false and defamatory accusations,\" the letter from her lawyer to Lewis' said. \"Please view this letter as a last opportunity for Mr. Lewis to retract the defamatory statements made against my client and to seek to restore her good name,\" LiMandri said. \"If he does not comply, I will have no alternative but to recommend that Ms. Prejean proceed to do so through litigation.\" In response to the letter, Lewis issued a statement that said: \"Mr. LiMandri obviously has never watched 'The Apprentice' if he believes that Mr. Trump could be so easily fooled. Facts are facts, and we stand by them.\" LiMandri denied any contract violations, saying it was a \"complete and utter pretext\" for her firing. The list Lewis gave to reporters of Prejean's missed appearances was \"an outright fraud,\" he said. Prejean \"did not refuse reasonable appearance requests\" that could \"be expected to promote and further the intended purposes of Miss California USA,\" he said. The beauty queen expected to be asked to attend \"Rotary conventions and avocado festivals,\" not events Lewis suggested, LiMandri said. \"She did not think it was appropriate for her to accept Mr. Lewis' invitation to attend a gay documentary in Hollywood promoting same-sex marriage,\" he said. \"It was not my client's job, as Miss California, simply to help your client promote his personal or business interests as a Hollywood agent and producer, or gay activist.\" He accused Lewis of trying to make commissions off Prejean's appearances. \"Your client was trying to wrongfully profit off of my client's participation as Miss California, in violation of her contract, by taking 20 percent of any appearance fee she would earn, such as at the Las Vegas jewelers convention she attended at his request,\" LiMandri's letter said. LiMandri cited a statement he said Lewis made during a May 15 conference call that \"clearly shows that your client was trying to 'set-up' our client for termination\" by relaying an offer to appear semi-nude in Playboy. Three people who worked for a public relations agency representing Prejean at the time heard it, he said. \"All three of those people distinctly remember Keith Lewis talking about sending Ms. Prejean an offer to do a Playboy photo shoot 'so when they take her title away, she doesn't sue me,' \" he said. LiMandri said Lewis -- and former co-executive director Shanna Moakler -- were \"bound and determined to get her fired, and they have now finally gotten their way.\" Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump announced last month that Prejean could keep her title despite a controversy over topless photos, missed appearances and her statements against same-sex marriage. Trump reversed himself last week. \"I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA organization, and I gave her the opportunity to do so,\" Trump said. \"Unfortunately, it just doesn't look like it is going to happen, and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision.\"","highlights":"NEW: Pagaent director responds, \"Facts are facts, and we stand by them\"\nAttorney Charles LiMandri pens ultimatum to Miss California USA director's lawyer .\nCarrie Prejean's lawyer says dethronement caused \"severe emotional distress\"\n\"Please view this letter as a last opportunity\" to retract statements, LiMandri writes ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Topps Meat Co. on Saturday expanded a recall of ground beef from about 300,000 pounds to 21.7 million pounds, one of the largest meat recalls in U.S. history. The recalled products are all ground beef patties with various brand names. In a statement, the Elizabeth, New Jersey, company said the hamburger patties may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a bacterium that can cause severe diarrhea and cramps, as well as other complications. A statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said 25 illnesses are under investigation in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The ground beef products being recalled have a \"sell by date\" or a \"best if used by date\" between September 25, 2007, and September 25, 2008, Topps' statement said. Watch the latest on the beef recall \u00bb . The packages also have the marking \"Est. 9748\" inside the USDA mark of inspection. Tuesday, the company announced a recall of about 331,000 pounds of hamburger meat, according to the USDA. \"Because the health and safety of our consumers is our top priority, we are taking these expansive measures,\" said Vice President of Operations Geoffrey Livermore in the statement. \"Topps is continuing to work with the USDA, state departments of health, retailers and distributors to ensure the safety of our consumers. Additionally, we have augmented our internal quality control procedures with microbiologists and food safety experts. We sincerely regret any inconvenience and concerns this may cause our consumers,\" Livermore said. This is the company's first recall in its 65 years of business, the statement said. Consumers who find the products at home are asked to cut off the UPC code and return it to Topps for a full refund, then dispose of the product immediately, Topps spokeswoman Michelle Williams said. The company said to avoid E. coli, consumers should wash hands thoroughly after handling the beef. Topps set up a toll-free recall help line at (888) 734-0451. Williams said because the products may have been produced up to a year ago, many of them have already been safely consumed. Production in the ground beef area of the company's plant in Elizabeth has been shut down until all the investigations are complete, Williams said in a phone interview. \"We're working with the USDA and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and conducting our own investigation,\" she added. The products, all ground beef patties and hamburgers with various brand names, were distributed mainly in the northeastern United States, but went to retailers in many other areas of the country as well, Williams said. While the sheer size of the recall is large, two other companies have been involved in larger recalls. In 2002, Pilgrim's Pride recalled more than 27 million pounds of poultry, and Hudson Foods recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef in 1997. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Topps Meat Co. hamburger patties may contain E. coli bacteria .\nNew Jersey plant's grinding operation shut down .\nAs many as 25 cases of illness recorded in eight states ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In death as in life, Michael Jackson continues to light up the Internet. Millions worldwide watched online coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral service in Los Angeles. Millions of people around the world watched coverage of Jackson's memorial service on the Web, although the event appeared to fall well short of online viewership records. Global Web traffic was at least 19 percent above normal, and as high as 33 percent above normal, during most of the star-studded memorial at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, California, according to Akamai Technologies, a Massachusetts-based firm that monitors Internet traffic. CNN.com reported 9.7 million live video streams Tuesday between 12 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET -- which included the entire memorial service -- according to CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin. The news site's all-time viewership record for a full day, almost 27 million video streams, was set on President Obama's inauguration day in January. During that period Tuesday, CNN.com also attracted 81 million page views, 11.8 unique visitors and a peak of 781,000 concurrent live video streams, according to internal data. Jackson's startling June 25 death nearly brought the Web to a standstill, with several sites buckling under the sheer weight of traffic. The Internet appeared to fare better during Tuesday's memorial service, however. \"So far we are seeing some slowdowns ... [but] overall the Internet is performing OK,\" said Dan Berkowitz, spokesman for Keynote Systems, a mobile and Internet monitoring firm based in San Mateo, California, midway through the Staples Center event. Keynote monitors the 40 most popular news Web sites from major cities around the United States. CNN.com partnered with Facebook, the social-networking site, to let friends and family share commentary while watching Jackson's memorial service live online. As of 1:30 p.m. ET, shortly before the memorial service began, the partnership was yielding about 6,000 status updates per minute, said a Facebook spokeswoman. CNN.com and Facebook entered into a similar collaboration during Obama's inauguration, although Facebook saw twice as many status updates during that event. With many North Americans at work during Jackson's memorial service, online traffic had been expected to reach near-record levels. \"This event will almost certainly shatter records for the biggest single live stream ever, and could be one of the biggest worldwide media events in history,\" wrote blogger Ben Parr on Mashable, the social media news site. Other Web sites, including CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com, FoxNews.com and Hulu.com, also hosted live streaming coverage of the service. The 10 most popular topics on Twitter Tuesday afternoon were all connected to Jackson's memorial. Google Trends rated the Jackson memorial's online popularity as \"volcanic,\" while on Web-traffic monitoring site Alexa, most of its hottest stories Tuesday were Jackson-related. But early numbers suggested that Internet traffic Tuesday may have lagged behind other recent news events. Akamai recorded a peak of 3.9 million global Internet visitors per minute shortly after noon ET -- less than half the number of users who went online the evening of November 4, 2008, to follow presidential election returns. \"It may be impossible to say for sure how many people watched once all is said and done, because there's still no comprehensive way to measure Web viewing,\" said Toni Fitzgerald, managing editor of Media Life, in an e-mail interview with CNN. Long before the memorial service began about 1:40 p.m. ET, many Web sites braced themselves for an onslaught of traffic. During the sign-up period for the memorial ticket lottery, the Staples Center Web site took down all non-essential materials to ensure that it coped. Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine said the computer servers hosting the registration site counted 500 million \"hits\" -- 120,000 a second -- in the first 90 minutes on Friday. About 17,500 fans were randomly selected to watch the memorial live at the Staples Center -- only a small fraction of the 1.6 million fans who applied for tickets. Watch panelists discuss Jackson's legacy \u00bb . CNN's Stephanie Busari and Linnie Rawlinson contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Web viewership of Michael Jackson's memorial fell short of online records .\nNEW: Global Web traffic was at least 19 percent above normal during service .\nNEW: Views of live video on CNN.com trailed President Obama's inauguration .\nWeb sites braced themselves Tuesday for heavy traffic ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steve Bierfeldt says the Transportation Security Administration pulled him aside for extra questioning in March. He was carrying a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and an iPhone capable of making audio recordings. And he used them. Steve Bierfeldt is accusing the Transportation Security Administration of \"harassing interrogation.\" On a recording a TSA agent can be heard berating Bierfeldt. One sample: \"You want to play smartass, and I'm not going to play your f**king game.\" Bierfeldt is director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an outgrowth of the Ron Paul presidential campaign. He was returning from a regional conference March 29 when TSA screeners at Lambert-St. Louis (Missouri) International Airport saw a metal cash box in his carry-on bag. Inside was more than $4,700 dollars in cash -- proceeds from the sale of political merchandise like T-shirts and books. There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Bierfeldt's cause and is suing Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, whose department includes the TSA. Their complaint alleges that Bierfeldt was \"subjected to harassing interrogation, and unlawfully detained.\" Larry Schwartztol of the ACLU said the TSA is suffering from mission creep. \"We think what happened to Mr. Bierfeldt is a reflection that TSA believes passenger screening is an opportunity to engage in freewheeling law enforcement investigations that have no link to flight safety,\" he said. Schwartztol believes many other passengers have been subjected to the same kind of treatment, which he claims violates constitutional protections against unlawful searches. The TSA wouldn't comment on the lawsuit, but said in a statement that the movement of large amounts of cash through a checkpoint may be investigated \"if suspicious activity is suspected.\" Unbeknownst to the TSA agents, Bierfieldt had activated the record application on his phone and slipped it into his pocket. It captured the entire conversation. An excerpt: . Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question. Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question. Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money. Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question? Officer: So you refuse to answer that question? Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing. Officer: Well, you're not answering. Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law. The officers can be heard saying they will involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and appear to threaten arrest, saying they are going to transport Bierfeldt to the local police station, in handcuffs if necessary. Bierfeldt told CNN he believes their behavior was inappropriate. \"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me.\" But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money. Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul? Bierfeldt: Yes, sir. Officer: You're free to go. According to the TSA, \"Passengers are required to cooperate with the screening process. Cooperation may involve answering questions about their property. A passenger who refuses to answer questions may be referred to appropriate authorities for further inquiry\" Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights. \"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't.\" The TSA says disciplinary action has been taken against one of its employees for inappropriate tone and language.","highlights":"Passenger questioned about large amount of cash .\nHe says the money was from sale of political merchandise .\nACLU is suing Homeland Security Secretary on behalf of passenger .\nTSA says movement of large sums of cash may be investigated ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For four days, an American sea captain and four Somali pirates rode the waves of the Indian Ocean in an enclosed lifeboat, far out of sight of most of the world. Capt. Richard Phillips, right, stands with U.S. Navy Cmdr. Frank Castellano after Phillips' rescue Sunday. But for those four days, they were on the minds of people around the globe, from the captain's hometown in Vermont, to the White House, to port cities and anywhere that families send their loved ones off to sea. \"I actually was more concerned for his family,\" said Adm. Rick Gurnon, head of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where Capt. Richard Phillips had trained. \"I was pretty sure he would be OK,\" Gurnon said of Phillips, adding, \"as a captain at sea, in a lifeboat, he was in an environment he was comfortable with even if he was sharing it with four armed Somali pirates. \"I was more worried for his family. They've been going through hell since Wednesday. This is truly a joyous day for them.\" Watch Gurnon praise Phillips' courage, professionalism \u00bb . The waiting ended Sunday with news that U.S. Navy snipers had shot and killed three of Phillips' captors, with the fourth pirate in custody onboard the nearby USS Bainbridge, and that Phillips had been rescued uninjured. The expressions of relief and praise flowed. Watch how SEALs took down pirates \u00bb . \"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Capt. Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew,\" President Obama said. \"His courage is a model for all Americans.\" Phillips offered himself as a hostage after the pirates stormed the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama on Wednesday morning, according to Maersk Line Limited, which owns the ship. The pirates eventually left the Alabama with Phillips that day aboard the lifeboat, where they would stay for four days. In Phillips' hometown of Underhill, Vermont, Maersk spokeswoman Alison McColl said Phillips' wife, Andrea, had spoken to her husband by phone after his rescue. \"She was laughing while she was on the phone with him,\" McColl told reporters. \"She was saying his trademark sense of humor was still very much intact, and he's in great spirits. If you guys could have seen her light up when she talked to him, it was really remarkable.\" McColl said Andrea Phillips and her family \"have felt a tremendous amount of support from the entire nation.\" Watch statement from Andrea Phillips \u00bb . \"The thoughts, the prayers, the sentiments, the support you've shown has really helped them endure this very difficult situation,\" McColl said. Still speaking for the captain's wife, McColl added: \"She believes she can feel it, and she believes that her husband felt it out there in the middle of the ocean. So thanks to the entire nation, the local community, the state of Vermont, for all your help there.\" Phillips was being praised for his apparent willingness to put his own life in jeopardy to secure the release of his crew and his ship. But Gurnon, who described the captain as \"the good shepherd who willingly exchanged his life for the lives of his flock,\" cautioned that the end of one hostage situation should not be taken as the end of the growing problem of piracy, especially with scores of other lives in peril from pirates who are holding ships and crews off the expansive Somali coast. \"While this is a great day for Massachusetts Maritime Academy and for all of our alumni and all mariners around the world, we still have more than 200 men and women held hostage in Somalia,\" Gurnon said. \"We should not let the spotlights, the TV cameras, the focus of the world be removed from that problem,\" he said.","highlights":"Captain's family had been \"going through hell,\" head of maritime academy says .\nCapt. Richard Phillips, rescued from pirates Sunday, had been trained at academy .\n\"I was pretty sure he would be OK,\" academy leader says .\nWife talked to, laughed with Phillips on phone after rescue, spokeswoman says ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Terrorism, a slow economy and rising gas prices are issues that can keep American voters awake at night. Undecided voters gathered at Emory University, where Dr. Drew Westen studies how brains react to messages. Political strategists know that the most successful candidates are masters at capitalizing on fears such as these, and that can make a huge difference at the polls. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson was running for president against conservative Barry Goldwater when his campaign unleashed the \"daisy ad.\" It showed a little girl counting as she plucked a daisy, charmingly mixing up her numbers. Then a baritone voice takes over, counting down to an overwhelming nuclear explosion. It's followed with a warning that the stakes are too high not to vote for Johnson. The ad, which ran only once, was so chilling and effective, analysts say, it helped Johnson win the presidency by one of the widest margins in U.S. history. CNN recently gathered eight undecided voters to see how they would respond to attack ads and how the ads might affect their choices. They met at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where psychologist Drew Westen studies how brains react to candidates' messages. Westen, who wrote \"The Political Brain,\" said fear-based attack ads are effective because they tap into a voter's subconscious. \"Those kinds of gut-level reactions tell us things like, 'I don't feel like this person is telling us the truth,' \" Westen said. \"Unless someone is a really good con man, those reactions are extremely helpful. The conscious brain processes only a tiny percent of information.\" Westen and his business partner, Joel Weinberger, have created software, through their company ThinkScan, that looks into a voter's subconscious. The software does this by measuring people's reaction time to certain words after they watch attack ads. The undecided voters in CNN's group watched the ads and were then asked to identify the color of words such as \"weak,\" \"inexperienced\" and \"terrorist.\" If they hesitated, even for one-thousandth of a second, before they clicked on the color that corresponded with the word, Weinberger said, it meant the word had an impact. \"If the word is on their mind, if the word was activated, it will slow them down,\" Weinberger said. Westen predicted that the undecided voters would say they didn't like the ads and that the ads had no impact on them. He was right. The group watched Hillary Clinton's \"3 a.m.\" campaign ad, which was intended to make voters question Barack Obama's experience. Viewers said that the ad was fear-mongering and that it did not make them think Clinton was a stronger leader than Obama. But the data, Westen said, showed that their brains reacted differently. Voters had the greatest hesitation with words like \"weak\" and \"lightweight\" during the color test. Westen said this meant the ad made them question Obama's readiness. \"The purpose, too, is to make him seem scary, dangerous. 'You need to be afraid of this guy as president,' \" Westen said. \"That message unconsciously got through.\" The undecided voters also watched an ad attacking John McCain for saying the U.S. could be in Iraq for the next 100 years. After watching the ad, the group gave it a thumbs-down. But researchers said the data showed that it left them feeling McCain has poor judgment and is too close to President Bush. The results were identical when the same test was given to a much larger group of 100 voters. This happens because the ads trigger a response in the part of the brain called the amygdala, which experiences emotions such as fear. When it is aroused, it overrides logic, according to Westen. Despite the ability of attack ads to affect voters' subconscious thinking, Westen cautions that fear-based ads are risky because they can backfire. What advice does Westen have for presidential hopefuls? \"They should make voters feel inspired by them and worried about their opponent at the same time,\" Westen said. \"It works.\"","highlights":"Fear-based attack ads are sometimes used by candidates to influence voters .\nCNN gathered eight undecided voters to measure the impact of attack ads .\nPsychologist Drew Westen says fear-based ads appeal to voters' subconscious ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The recent hacking of a Twitter employee's personal e-mail account is raising questions about the security of storing personal information and business data on the Internet. A Twitter co-founder says password toughness is important to online security. The Web has been buzzing since a hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account about a month ago and used that information to access the employee's Google Apps account. That account housed some of Twitter's private financial documents and notes, according to Twitter's official blog. Some of those documents circulated the blogosphere on Wednesday, and TechCrunch, a technology blog, published a Twitter financial forecast. The hacker sent 310 documents to the tech site, according to a post by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch's founder and co-editor. In what appears to be a separate incident, a hacker broke into Twitter chief executive Evan Williams' wife's e-mail account and then accessed Williams' PayPal and Amazon accounts, Twitter says. It's unclear what if any impact the incidents will have on the future of cloud computing, the idea that documents and computing power can be stored \"in the cloud\" of the Internet rather than on desktops or laptops. Many tech blogs are weighing in on the hacking's impact. Some see the incident as an indication of serious security flaws at Twitter. Others say it's a sign Twitter has gotten big, and any rising company makes a good target for a cyberattack. People outside the Silicon Valley micro-blogging company, such as Twitter account holders, reportedly were not affected in the incident. \"This was not a hack on the Twitter service, it was a personal attack followed by the theft of private company documents,\" Twitter co-founder Biz Stone writes on the company's official blog. Google's suite of online applications, which allows users to share and store calendars, spreadsheets and text documents, is not to blame for the hacking, Stone said in the post, adding that Twitter continues to use Google Apps. \"This isn't about any flaw in Web apps,\" Stone writes. \"It speaks to the importance of following good personal security guidelines such as choosing strong passwords.\" Security experts say it's best for users to create new passwords for each of their online accounts. The passwords generally should be complicated, combining letters, numbers and symbols. And they should be changed often. CNET, a tech site that partners with CNN, says the hack highlights how interconnected information is online -- and how vulnerable that setup is to attack. \"Although it seems that Twitter has been thrust into this situation a bit unfairly, a hack along these lines could have happened to the executives of more Web companies than anybody would like to admit,\" Josh Lowensohn and Caroline McCarthy write on the news site. \"What it really highlights is the extreme interconnectedness of the social Web: with the likes of e-mail contact importing and data-portability services like Facebook Connect now commonplace, a savvy hacker can have access to multiple accounts simply by accessing one.\" Ken Colburn, a computer security expert, recently told CNN.com\/Live that Google Docs are \"as secure as anything you're going to do on the Internet. It's not any more or less secure than Microsoft Office.\" Writing for Mashable, a blog that covers online social media, Stan Schroeder says the latest Twitter breach proves the micro-blogging site needs to address nagging security flaws. \"There have been so many problems [at Twitter] over the past couple of months that it's getting hard to keep track of them,\" he writes. \"It's time to fix it once and for all, because these security issues are a dark shadow looming over the otherwise bright future of this company.\" Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief at Mashable, says the hacking is \"another embarrassing moment in Twitter's torrid growth, but nothing that's likely to bring the house down.\" Peter Kafka, senior editor at AllThingsD.com, offers another analogy. \"This looks roughly akin to having your underwear drawer rifled: Embarrassing, but no one's really going to be surprised about what's in there,\" he writes. Another debate happening online concerns TechCrunch's decision to publish some of the information stolen from Twitter. Arrington, of TechCrunch, writes that \"a few of the documents have so much news value that we think it's appropriate to publish them.\" Still, \"there is clearly an ethical line here that we don't want to cross, and the vast majority of these documents aren't going to be published, at least by us,\" he writes. Some, including TechCrunch readers, have criticized the blog's decision to publish any of the information. Twitter has said it is seeking legal counsel on the matter. \"We are in touch with our legal counsel about what this theft means for Twitter, the hacker, and anyone who accepts and subsequently shares or publishes these stolen documents,\" Stone writes on the site's blog. Ostrow, of Mashable, writes that there's nothing \"really juicy\" in the Twitter documents. \"The bottom line seems to be this: your Twitter accounts are safe, but there are a number of documents that Twitter would rather not have published publicly in other people's hands,\" he says. \"But if you're expecting something really juicy (like, how Twitter plans to make money), you should probably prepare to be disappointed.\" What do you think of the news? Are you worried about security and cloud computing? Do you use Google Docs and will you continue to? What about TechCrunch's decision to publish the info stolen from Twitter? Feel free to chime in with comments below.","highlights":"A hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account .\nThe hacker stole Twitter financial documents and leaked them to several blogs .\nWeb is abuzz with opinions on the hacking's impact and the ethics of posting the info .\nTwitter says it is seeking legal counsel on the matter ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When Patricia Cornwell began writing thriller novels, she ruled the world of forensic science. \"I'm very interested in what motivates people, why they do what they do, how they do it,\" Patricia Cornwell said. \"I could treat readers in each book to some new aspect that they wouldn't be familiar with,\" Cornwell said. Now the author is bombarded with \"CSI\"-like information from every side -- from \"Bones\" to \"Forensic Files\" to, well, \"CSI.\" \"It's like you create this monster and find out it's living in the house with you, and it's banished you to a room because it has more power than you,\" she said. Cornwell knew she had to adapt to the changing entertainment climate. \"One of the questions I really did ask myself was, 'What's the one thing I have no one else does?' \" The answer was chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell's heroine. Scarpetta is independent, feisty and someone Cornwell knows better than she knows herself. To honor that close relationship, Cornwell decided to name her 16th book in the series after its main character, titling it simply \"Scarpetta.\" \"I realized, here it is 2008. I finished my first book 20 years ago in 1988. This is a really big anniversary,\" Cornwell said. In the novel, Scarpetta leaves South Carolina for New York, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured psychiatric patient. The patient has a graphic tale to tell -- one of paranoia and murder. The novelist said her books all have two things in common: First, of course, is a plot twist that allows Scarpetta to make a Sherlock Holmes-like deduction. The second is intriguing character interaction. \"What's going on with them in this book? What are they doing with or to each other? Who's in love? Who isn't? Who's on the outs with whom? Because I hope, in the end, [my books] are like high-level, crime soap operas.\" With two decades of character history, Cornwell has a lot to work with in that area. But her books are also full of intellectual fodder. Scarpetta is a disciplined academic -- a scientist with a law degree. Cornwell spent six years working in a medical examiner's office before writing her first book, and she continues to spend time with professionals to keep up on new forensic technology. In recent weeks she has researched an autopsy in Florida and worked with the National Forensic Academy. If she's going to write about trace evidence, she believes, she's going to go to a trace evidence lab. \"I was never a scientific person,\" Cornwell said. \"When I got interested in science I had to learn it after the fact... and that was good because I had already learned how to describe things, how to ask questions the audience would want answered. I was much better able to translate things into a language someone else could grasp.\" Her dedication to understanding her subject translates into other areas as well. Cornwell became a helicopter pilot, a certified scuba diver and qualified for a motorcycle license, all because she was writing about characters who were doing those things. Fans appreciate Cornwell's enthusiasm and writing style, pushing 12 of her novels onto USA Today's best-seller lists. But Cornwell said \"Scarpetta\" is actually more uplifting than her last couple of books, which took on a more twisted aura. \"I'm glad because I think we live in very dark times and no one wants to read a depressing book now.\" Still, Cornwell has been delving deeper into her characters' minds with each new book, and \"Scarpetta\" won't alter that trend. \"I'm very interested in what motivates people, why they do what they do, how they do it,\" she said. \"It probably has something to do with where I am in life. I'm 52 years old and I think differently than I did at 42.\" Fans have asked if this is Cornwell's last book in the series -- noting that the title \"Scarpetta\" is very ominous-sounding. But she promises to keep writing as long as the characters let her. \"It's certainly not by intention to be the last book,\" she said. \"I wanted to make this a very special book. I decided that early in the writing process. I wanted to make it longer, a richer book, a feast for the fans. So no, this isn't the last book about Scarpetta.\" Which sounds, well, ominous. Kay Scarpetta, watch out.","highlights":"Patricia Cornwell releases 16th book about Kay Scarpetta called \"Scarpetta\"\nScarpetta leaves South Carolina for new case in New York .\nCornwell enjoys exploring her characters' minds and criminal psychology .\nAuthor still spends time researching forensic science ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Before dying, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers was beaten with belts, picked up by her hair, thrown across the room and held under water, according to an affidavit from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. Police believe 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers is \"Baby Grace.\" The affidavit says the girl's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, described to police how her daughter died and was put in a plastic storage box that Trenor and her husband, Royce Zeigler, later dumped into a Galveston waterway. Trenor told police Zeigler tried to commit suicide the weekend before Thanksgiving, and wrote a note that said, \"My wife is innocent of the sins that I committed.\" The body of the then-unidentified toddler was found on October 29. A fisherman found Riley's body stuffed inside a blue storage container that washed up on an uninhabited island in Galveston's West Bay. A medical examiner said the child's skull was fractured, and a forensic dentist estimated her age at 2 to 3 years. Police dubbed the child \"Baby Grace.\" A police artist's sketch of her was widely circulated in the news media and prompted a call to Galveston police from Riley's grandmother in Ohio, who had not seen the girl in months. On Saturday, police arrested Trenor and Zeigler on charges of injuring a child and tampering with physical evidence, the sheriff's department said. Their bonds were set at $350,000 each. The affidavit, obtained by CNN, says when police interviewed Trenor on November 23, she \"gave a voluntary statement on video with her attorney present in which she describes her involvement, with Royce Zeigler, in the physical abuse, death and disposal of the remains of her daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers.\" Trenor's statement said on July 24, she and Zeigler both beat the child with leather belts and held her head under water in the bathtub. She said Zeigler picked the girl up by her hair and also threw her across the room, slamming her head into the tile floor. After her daughter died, Trenor's statement said, she and Zeigler went to a Wal-Mart that night and bought the Sterilite container, a shovel, concrete mix, and other supplies. The statement said the box containing the child's body was hidden in a storage shed for \"one to two months.\" Then, Trenor said, she and Zeigler carried it to the Galveston Causeway and tossed it in, and she saw it drifting away. Riley Ann's father, Robert Sawyers, on Monday tearfully remembered her as a \"fun-loving girl ... with a big imagination.\" Watch Riley Ann's father describe the little girl \u00bb . Riley was \"very active, very hyper, but also very well-behaved,\" Sawyers told reporters in Mentor, Ohio. She would play \"with a water hose ... spraying the whole patio soaking wet until she was done with it,\" he said, as he sat behind two photographs of his daughter, a toddler with wispy blond curls. Robert Sawyers' mother, Sheryl Sawyers, said the family was \"devastated\" to learn that police believe Riley is dead. \"It's hard to think that I'll never see her again,\" she said, clutching a red Elmo doll she had planned to give Riley for Christmas. Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff's Department said Monday that authorities are \"fairly confident\" that the toddler whose body was found on October 29 is Riley Ann Sawyers. DNA analysis is still in progress to confirm the identification. The results will be available in two to three weeks, Tuttoilmondo said. Tuttoilmondo said Riley is originally from Mentor, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, and that \"she and her mother came down to Texas earlier this year.\" The toddler was last seen in Texas \"three or four months ago,\" Tuttoilmondo said, although he did not know by whom. Tuttoilmondo said police did investigate whether Child Protective Services had taken Riley away, something the mother had reportedly alleged. Of that report, Tuttoilmondo said, \"What we believe is that is not what happened.\" The affidavit said Trenor admitted that after the body was found, Zeigler had her type up a fake letter from the Ohio Department of Children's Services saying that Riley was to be taken away. Trenor left Ohio in late May, after filing an allegation of domestic violence against Robert Sawyers and reaching a joint voluntary agreement that gave her custody of Riley and gave Robert Sawyers visitation rights, the Sawyers' family lawyer said Monday. \"She disappeared,\" Laura DePledge said Monday at the Ohio news conference with the Sawyers. Sheryl Sawyers said Monday that she saw widely distributed police sketches of \"Baby Grace\" and contacted Galveston police in November. The girl in the police sketches strongly resembles photos of Riley. \"No, I never did think it would end up like this,\" Sheryl Sawyers said Monday, eyes welling. \"I guess knowing is better than not knowing.\" The girl's family in Ohio has been \"very helpful\" in this case, Tuttoilmondo said, adding that the FBI and a Galveston County police officer visited the family in Ohio on Sunday. DePledge said Riley was the product of a \"teenage pregnancy.\" Trenor and Robert Sawyers were together for two years as a result of the pregnancy, DePledge said, during which time they lived with Sheryl Sawyers. DePledge said Monday that the family, whose grief she described as \"simply overwhelming,\" wants Riley's body returned to Ohio for a memorial service. \"What Riley needs is to be brought home,\" she said. \"I think this family needs some closure.\" Tuttoilmondo asked anyone who knew the child or her family to help detectives reconstruct the events of Riley's short life. The toddler's case has touched even hardened police officers, he said. \"Any way you look at it, we carry a piece of her with us, and we'll always carry a little piece of her with us,\" he said Monday. He held up a small, pink-and-white shoe identical to those the child was wearing when she was found. \"That says it all. A little-bitty shoe.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Sean Callebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police affidavit quotes mother's statement about beating that killed girl .\nMother's husband threw Riley Ann Sawyers across room, affidavit says .\nHusband later attempted suicide, mother told police .\nRiley Ann's mother and her husband arrested after a tip led to search ."} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida woman accused of killing her toddler daughter made a rare court appearance Thursday for a hearing regarding \"disturbing\" images of the scene where her daughter's skeletal remains were found. Caylee Anthony, 2, had been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. The hearing began without Casey Anthony, as defense attorney Jose Baez saying she waived her right to appear. But prosecutors objected, saying Anthony should be brought into court and questioned before waiving her appearance. Orange County Circuit Judge Stan Strickland agreed, sending deputies to retrieve Anthony from jail but starting the hearing without her. She later was brought in, wearing navy jail scrubs. Answering Strickland's questions in a clear voice, Anthony confirmed that she had waived her right to appear in court. Watch Casey Anthony appear in court \u00bb . Strickland, however, had her remain for the rest of the hearing. She sat expressionless, appearing to listen closely as prosecutors and defense attorneys hashed out routine discovery and evidentiary issues. Anthony, 22, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, who was last reported seen in June. She was arrested in October and charged with first-degree murder and other offenses, even though Caylee's body had not been found. The girl's skeletal remains were found last month in woods about a half-mile from the home of Anthony's parents, where Caylee and her mother had been living. Authorities have been unable to determine how the girl died but said she was the victim of a homicide. In Thursday's hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys wrangled over defense experts' access to images from the scene where the body was found. Prosecutors said they did not want the defense to copy, print or send any photos or X-rays of Caylee to their experts, many of whom were outside Florida, out of concern they might wind up in the media's hands. Because the experts are outside the jurisdiction of the Florida court, Strickland would have little recourse if the photos wound up \"displayed on some magazine at the checkout at the Publix,\" prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick said Thursday. The pictures \"are not necessarily gruesome, but they are disturbing,\" especially images of the child's skull when it was found and removed from the woods, she said. Baez agreed he did not want the photos to be made public, and said he doubted his experts would jeopardize their reputations by leaking them, noting they have signed confidentiality agreements. The parties agreed that the defense would set up a secure Web site for its experts to evaluate the photographs. Strickland also ordered Baez not to copy the images or transmit them in any way. In an earlier hearing Thursday, another Orange County circuit judge ruled that a lawsuit filed against Anthony may proceed, but the judge is not requiring Anthony to submit to a deposition at this time. In questioning after Caylee's disappearance, Anthony told police she had left the child with a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez and had not seen her since. Checking out her story, authorities found that the apartment where Anthony said she left Caylee was vacant and located a Zenaida Gonzalez, who said she had never met Anthony. Gonzalez filed a defamation suit against Anthony, saying that as a result of Anthony's statements, she has been suspected wrongly of involvement in Caylee's disappearance. Her attorney, John Morgan, told the judge Thursday that Gonzalez lost her job because of those claims. Anthony's defense attorneys asked that proceedings in the Gonzalez suit -- specifically, Anthony's deposition -- be postponed until the criminal case against Anthony is resolved, because Anthony's answers to questions in the deposition could potentially incriminate her, meaning she would have to invoke her Fifth Amendment right in refusing to answer. Circuit Judge Jose Rodriguez agreed that Anthony should not be compelled to undergo an oral deposition, but said Morgan could depose her with written questions and answers. \"No matter how much we want to separate these cases, they're intertwined,\" Rodriguez said in issuing his decision. Morgan noted that Anthony has filed a countersuit against Gonzalez, and said Anthony cannot duck a deposition at the same time that she is suing his client. \"They cannot have their cake and eat it too,\" Morgan said, adding that Anthony \"can't sue someone and then say, 'You can't question me because of the Fifth Amendment.' \" Anthony's countersuit accuses Gonzalez of attempting to cash in on the high-profile case. A trial date has not been set for Anthony, who could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted of killing Caylee. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty against her.","highlights":"Judge calls Casey Anthony to hearing at request of prosecutor .\nHearing focuses in part on how to share crime scene images with defense experts .\nProsecutors fear images could wind up in hands of media .\nIn separate hearing, judge says defamation suit against Anthony can proceed ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- They came from all corners of the world, braved fiercely cold temperatures and stood together on the Mall in Washington to share in one historic moment -- when Barack Obama became the 44th president and the first African-American elected to the post. Crowds at the inaugural parade cheer and snap photos of President Obama on Tuesday. Millions of people packed the Mall early Tuesday to watch Obama's inauguration and later hit the parade route to catch a glimpse of the new president. For many, the inauguration was the realization of a dream they never thought could be fulfilled. This is America happening,\" said Evadey Minott of Brooklyn, New York. \"It was prophesied by [the Rev. Martin Luther] King that we would have a day when everyone would come together. This is that day. I am excited. I am joyful. It brings tears to my eyes.\" Obama's speech: How did he do? L.J. Caldwell of Somerset, New Jersey, said Obama's inauguration capped five decades of struggle for African-Americans. \"When you think back, Malcolm [X] fought. Then we come a little further, Rosa Parks sat. Then come up a little further, and Martin [King Jr.] spoke. Then today, President Obama ran, and we won.\" Watch Obama say Americans have \"chosen hope over fear\" \u00bb . iReporter Barbara Talisman, 48, of Chicago, watched Tuesday from a spot on the Mall near the American Museum of Natural History. \"The historical significance of today and importance of our work made it necessary for me to be here and not at home. I want to be a witness,\" Talisman said. Kim Akins, 43, of Chicago, Illinois, who lives just blocks from Obama's home, made the trek to Washington with her 8-year-old daughter, Chloe. Vanessa Reed of Centerville, Virginia, took her daughters to a spot on the inaugural parade route. \"I was going to take my daughter here if it was the last thing I did,\" she said. \"It's breathtaking. ... It's overwhelming.\" Vanessa Reed of Centerville, Virginia, who brought her two young daughters to the inauguration, reflected on Obama's speech as she sat with her daughters across from the presidential reviewing stand at the end of the parade route. \"It was beautiful. It spoke to the issues of the moment,\" said Reed, who worked for the Obama campaign. \"I am proud this country saw what we saw in him.\" Patrick Bragg, 44, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contemplated the day as he tried to stay warm standing over steam vents on H Street. Patrick Bragg says he rode a bike 18 miles to get to downtown Washington on Tuesday morning. \"I've been sitting here thinking -- it's really beautiful,\" said Bragg, who rode a bike 18 miles from Bethesda, Maryland, to attend Tuesday's ceremonies. \"This is what I would consider the true representation of all of America. Obama gives everyone space at the table.\" Some of those attending Tuesday recalled how they were part of the effort that culminated in the historic day. \"You remember why you are doing it all, why you were working so hard on the campaign making phone calls, knocking on doors and getting slammed in the face sometimes,\" said iReporter Vanessa Palmer of the University of South Florida in Tampa. Howard University student Shakuwra Garrett, 18, said she felt like \"a part of history.\" \"I can carry this with me the rest of my life,\" Garrett said. \"It's an accomplishment for all of us.\" The accomplishment crossed borders and oceans for some of those at Tuesday's inauguration. \"The dream came true,\" said Fatima Cone, 39, who came to the U.S. from Ivory Coast, where her mother wears an Obama T-shirt. She conveyed the excitement her family feels in West Africa. \"The fight is the same for all blacks. It's the same story. It's the same fight wherever you come from,\" Cone said. Canadians Peter and Susan Butler drove down from Toronto, Ontario, to see the event and \"support the American people.\" iReport.com: Are you in Washington? Share your story . \"This is a world event,\" Susan Butler said. \"We can tell our grandchildren we were here.\" Briton Simon Ginty called the Obama inauguration \"an international moment.\" Simon Ginty of Manchester, England, said the world was celebrating Tuesday. \"This is an international moment as well as an American moment. I'm excited to see how Obama changes things. I imagine things are gonna be on the up,\" Ginty said. Eli Bracken, an iReporter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, drove into Washington early Tuesday to try to see the inauguration, but large crowds kept him away from the Mall. Watch a satellite image of the crowd \u00bb . Instead, he watched on TV from a McDonald's restaurant on E Street near the Canadian Embassy. The eatery went silent during the inaugural prayer, he said. \"It was just cool that everybody knew they were witnessing something awesome,\" Bracken said. \"There were people gathered around every car they could just to hear it.\" Dartmouth College student Amarita Sankar, 18, watched Obama's speech on the grounds of the Washington Monument. \"Whenever I hear him speak, I want to be a better person. That's what you want in a leader, \" Sankar said. Margaret Trowelle of Jersey City, New Jersey, gets strangers to autograph an inauguration hat Tuesday. Margaret Trowelle of Jersey City, New Jersey, showed off a hat she had signed by others she's met in the nation's capital. \"Everyone is so friendly,\" she said. Benica Tripleti from Eastern Kentucky University was among a group of 54 people headed to the Mall. She said she had one goal: \"to see Obama's head.\" Kathie Easom and Christine Hannon of upstate New York were looking to plant themselves on the Mall and watch the proceedings on a screen. \"It's a once in a lifetime event,\" Easom said. Eight rows behind the inauguration stand, Sylvia Schoen of Phoenix, Arizona, waited in the morning cold. \"It's freezing. It's worth it. It's worth it,\" she said. Watch the atmosphere surrounding the inauguration \u00bb . \"Obama's cause is all about the future. I think that's why everyone's so excited right now,\" Schoen said. \"It's like we can do anything. Look what we just did, the people. The people did this. Not the politicians. We did it.\" Harvard University student Megan Starr, 21, was impressed with the crowd. \"I've never seen people excited about politics before,\" she said. \"Usually they are politically apathetic, but people are getting involved.\" Woodie Lee Durham of Buffalo, New York, says Tuesday marks a milestone for African-American influence. In a seating section for the disabled on the Mall, Woodie Lee Durham of Buffalo, New York, said Tuesday was a landmark for African-American influence on America. \"It is no longer a question; this is the answer,\" Durham said. Of the millions who came to hear Obama speak, many made sure to hit the parade route, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the new president. \"Obama! Obama!\" throngs of people cheered as the limo carrying the new president made its way down the street. Obama and his wife, Michelle, stepped out of the presidential limo for a couple of minutes and walked the parade route, waving to supporters as they passed. Meghann Curtis, 30, of New Jersey was at the Mall for the inauguration but also managed to snag a seat at the parade. \"It was majestic. That's the word that keeps coming to mind,\" she said. \"They are elegant and tall and gorgeous,\" Curtis said of the Obamas. \"There is something breathtaking about the two of them.\" Many reached for their cameras, trying to capture a permanent memory of the moment. Supporters waved American flags, and some even sang as they waited for their chance to greet President Obama. See photos of Obama's inauguration \u00bb . After 12 hours of waiting, many of them in the cold, Karin Riggs, 29, of Seattle, Washington, and her bandmates marched into history. The trumpet player was one of 177 participants, from 26 states, performing with the Lesbian and Gay Band Association -- the first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group in history to be invited to march in a presidential inaugural parade. \"We were not just making history for our organization. We were making history for the LGBT community,\" she said by phone. Danielle Davis and son Carson, 6, of Chantilly, Virginia, got into their parade seats at 10:40 a.m. Davis said the experience was worth dealing with freezing weather and a long wait. \"It was exciting, thrilling,\" she said. \"I am so glad to be a part of history.\" CNN's Adam Levine, Ed Hornick, Valerie Streit, Scott J. Anderson and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Jersey woman calls inauguration, parade \"majestic\"\n\"This is America happening,\" says New York woman .\nBarack Obama's election shows American people \"can do anything,\" woman says ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Griffin Bell, who served as attorney general in the Carter administration, has died, according to the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He was 90. Griffin Bell is sworn in as attorney general in January 1977. Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement saying that he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter were deeply saddened by Bell's death. \"A trusted and enduring public figure, Griffin's integrity, professionalism, and charm were greatly valued across party lines and presidential administrations,\" Carter said. \"As a World War II veteran, federal appeals court judge, civil rights advocate, and U.S. attorney general in my administration, Griffin made many lasting contributions to his native Georgia and country. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.\" The son of a south Georgia cotton farmer, Bell passed the Georgia bar exam while still a student in law school, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. He went on to help build the prominent Atlanta law firm King and Spalding, and then to serve as the nation's top legal officer. He was a chairman of John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, and Kennedy appointed him to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1961. As a federal judge, Bell was involved in desegregation rulings in the 1960s, and he became known as a moderate legal voice in the South. Fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter nominated Bell as attorney general in 1976. He was confirmed shortly after Carter's inauguration but only after sometimes difficult Senate hearings. Bell's memberships in private segregated clubs and some of his decisions as a federal judge became issues. He was confirmed in January 1977 by a Senate vote of 75 to 21. Bell's tenure as attorney general followed the Watergate era, and he was credited with helping restore public confidence in the Justice Department during the late 1970s. Bell resigned as attorney general in 1979 to return to private law practice in Atlanta with King and Spalding. He resurfaced in the public eye periodically, including in 2004 when he was listed among Georgia Democrats who endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election. Also in 2004, he co-authored an independent study ordered by FBI Director Robert Mueller of the FBI's internal disciplinary procedures. The report sharply criticized the FBI and called its methods for determining punishments for its agents \"seriously flawed.\"","highlights":"President Jimmy Carter nominated Griffin Bell as attorney general in 1976 .\nBell credited with helping restore confidence in Justice Department in late 1970s .\nHis \"integrity, professionalism, and charm\" valued across party lines, Carter said .\nIn 2004, he was listed among Georgia Dems who endorsed Bush for re-election ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Watching the Dave Matthews Band moments before they take the stage is like watching a football team bursting out of the locker room before a big game. Dave Matthews says he bellieves strongly in the power of community. They slap hands. Bump fists. Jump up and down, exclaiming \"Feel the love, feel the love!\" The energy in the air is electric. And when they walk out on stage, the energy explodes into thousands of shining faces. People dance in the aisles. Others sing every word to every song. A few share funny cigarettes. For more than three hours, the jubilant atmosphere creates a sense of community between an amphitheater filled with strangers and the ethnically diverse musicians leading the charge on stage. But then DMB is all about community -- creating its own and giving back. BAMA Works Fund -- the group's charitable foundation -- has handed out $5 million in grants to worthy causes, including schools and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Watch Matthews sound off on the album -- and racism \u00bb . And despite the unexpected passing of saxophonist LeRoi Moore due to complications from an ATV accident last summer, the band members seem to be recharged. In June, DMB notched its fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard chart with \"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.\" We caught up with Matthews just as news hit the Web that former President Jimmy Carter believed racism was the root of some of the negativity directed toward President Obama in recent weeks. The 42-year-old singer-songwriter offered a unique perspective, as a man who split his childhood between the United States and South Africa during apartheid. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: President Carter said he thinks that a lot of the animosity directed toward President Obama is race related. Dave Matthews: Of course it is! I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here -- I just see it everywhere. There's a good population of people in this country that are terrified of the president only because he's black, even if they don't say it. And I think a lot of them, behind closed doors, do say it. Maybe I'm paranoid about it, but I don't think someone who disagreed as strongly as they do with Obama -- if it was Clinton -- would have stood up and screamed at him during his speech. (Shakes his head) I don't think so. CNN: Everything has gone to such a frenzied pitch. Matthews: I think a lot of it has to be on the press. We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten. There's no way that Walter Cronkite, as a young journalist, no way Ed Murrow would be hired to do news today. Not a chance. CNN: Because they're too low-key? Because they're not bombastic? Matthews: Because they're thoughtful, and they're patient, and they're tying to tell you a truly balanced story. They're trying to impart information. I don't think that's the goal [now] because it's not a good business plan. ... Everyone's outraged all the time. Why are you outraged? There's war -- there's always been war, as long as most of us have been alive. There have always been people being abused, there's always been horrible things in the world. Why are we outraged? We should just be quiet and figure it out, and work it out together. ... There's no solution in Washington as long as people are shouting like that. CNN: Before you went on stage at the Greek Theatre (in Los Angeles), we were talking to the crew -- and they couldn't wait to tell us how well they're treated by the Dave Matthews organization. ... It's like your own minicommunity out there. You even print your own tickets, right? Matthews: We have kept everything in-house. The core crew guys are the same guys we had when we were driving in a van, so they can always call \"bull\" on us if we start acting like prima donnas. It keeps a sense of community going when you travel a lot. There's a good vibe. ... I have friends who are famous, and friends that are not famous -- but there are those who stick out to me. Willie Nelson is one -- a really genuine person -- or Neil Young. Adam Sandler ... people who really try and keep a sense of unity, and camaraderie and equality around them. That's essential. That's it for me. I don't think socialism, and I don't think warmness and respect are necessarily bad words. CNN: Do you think you're competitive? A perfectionist? Matthews: I'm a very vicious critic of myself. CNN: So what do you think of this record (\"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King\")? Matthews: I think that's a really good record. (Laugh) Our first three records were really good. We made good records after those first three -- really good records -- but I don't think they were necessarily the spirit of the band. I think this is the greatest record that we've ever made, and it captures the band like none of our records have. ... CNN: Before this album, weren't you burned out a little bit? Matthews: I insisted upon taking as much time to make this as I needed. And my manager would call -- my manager who I love, who's a dear friend of mine -- he'd call and say, \"Are you going to have it finished by the summer?\" \"No.\" \"Are you going to have it finished by Christmas?\" \"No.\" I practiced \"no.\" I need to work on \"no\" still, but I got better at it. CNN: What other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Matthews: I want to figure out a way to not be stupid with money, then make a whole bunch of it, then I want to move to Outer Mongolia. I want to milk a yak. Maybe I'll just settle for a cow. Can you milk a bison? I have fantasies about being a farmer. I always wanted to be a fireman, but who didn't want to be a fireman? I just wouldn't tell anyone. I'd just go \"poof!\" Sometimes I like that idea. CNN: You don't tell people about a lot of things you do. There's no press release that goes out saying, \"Dave Matthews Band just donated $5 million to this cause or that cause.\" Matthews: We definitely use our fame and our celebrity to raise money for things we care about. ... What a luxury to be able to just do a show, and then look -- pow! ... I don't want to become a poster child. That's a whole different thing. I don't want to be the face on it.","highlights":"Dave Matthews: \"I just see [racism] everywhere\"; not surprised at anger at Obama .\nNews media adds to anger, he says, in that it focuses on \"loudest\" messages .\nDave Matthews Band aims for community, active with charitable efforts .\nMatthews calls \"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King\" their greatest record ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators had a \"significant break\" in tracking the salmonella outbreak when they found the bacteria on a jalape\u00f1o pepper imported from Mexico at a Texas food supplier, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday. The FDA has discouraged all consumers from eating raw jalape\u00f1o peppers. The FDA also warned consumers not to eat fresh jalape\u00f1os and products made with fresh jalape\u00f1os. The discovery may provide a clue to the source of a recent outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul. The bacteria have sickened more than 1,200 people in 42 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"One of the jalape\u00f1o peppers has tested positive with a genetic match to the Saintpaul strand,\" said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases. Consumer Tips Blog: Hold the jalape\u00f1os He said officials are \"looking at the chain that the peppers would have passed through to decide if any of them are a point of contamination.\" Watch more on the salmonella outbreak \u00bb Tauxe called the discovery a \"significant break.\" \"While this one sample does not give us the whole story, this genetic break is very important,\" he said. \"This will hopefully help us pinpoint the source of this outbreak.\" The bacteria were found at a distribution center in McAllen, Texas, and the distributor has agreed to recall the products. Although the pepper was grown on a farm in Mexico, Tauxe said, investigators are not yet certain where the bacteria originated. Read food safety tips \u00bb \"This does not mean that the pepper was contaminated in Mexico,\" he said. \"We aren't only looking for the source, but the reason for the spread [of the outbreak].\" The news comes just days after the FDA lifted its ban on consumption of certain raw tomatoes. The FDA has not ruled out tomatoes as the source of the original outbreak, but investigators have determined that tomatoes currently in fields and stores are safe, Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for food protection, said Thursday. Learn about the differences between salmonella and E. coli \u00bb The FDA is still investigating fresh tomatoes as a possible source of the outbreak. It is possible that tomatoes were paired with another food that was contaminated, Tauxe said. Watch more on the FDA investigation \u00bb Before Monday's warning, the agency had discouraged high-risk people -- elderly people, infants and those with impaired immune systems -- from eating serrano and jalape\u00f1o peppers. Two elderly men with pre-existing conditions died while infected with Salmonella Saintpaul, and the FDA said the infection could have contributed to their deaths.","highlights":"NEW: Discovery called a \"significant break\" in outbreak investigation .\nStrain is Salmonella Saintpaul, which has sickened hundreds recently .\nCDC: Pepper grown in Mexico, but origin of bacteria uncertain .\nBacteria were found at distribution center in McAllen, Texas ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Britain's Prince Harry apologized through a spokesman Saturday after videos surfaced showing him using offensive language to describe people in his military unit. Prince Harry apologized for videos of him making offensive comments while on military duty in 2006. In one clip, a voice said to be Harry's calls a soldier a \"Paki.\" In another clip, the voice tells a soldier wearing a cloth on his head that he looks \"like a raghead.\" The British newspaper News of the World posted the videos on its Web site Saturday. It did not say how it obtained them. A spokesman for Prince Harry apologized in a statement released by St. James's Palace Saturday. The spokesman said the prince -- who is third in line to the British throne -- \"understands how offensive this term can be, and is extremely sorry for any offense his words might cause.\" It is not the first apology for offensive behavior by Prince Harry. In 2005, he was photographed wearing a Nazi uniform to a party. He said he was sorry for that incident. \"It was a very stupid thing to do and I've learned my lesson, simple as that really,\" he said in a September 2005 interview with Britain's Press Association, marking his 21st birthday. \"I'd like to put it in the past now. What's done is done. I regret it.\" The videos that surfaced Saturday were filmed by the prince himself during his military service in 2006, according to the News of the World Web site. \"Ahh, our little Paki friend... Ahmed,\" a voice says as the camera zooms in on a soldier from across the room. The video does not show Prince Harry's face. The soldiers were waiting for their flight to Cyprus for a mission, according to the Web site. The Royal family said the 'Paki' term was a nickname for a friend in his platoon. \"There is no question that Prince Harry was in any way seeking to insult his friend,\" the St. James's Palace statement said. The second video was filmed after arriving in Cyprus, according to News of the World, and shows a British soldier with a cloth over his head. A voice, which the News of the World claims to be Harry's, is heard saying, \"(expletive) me, you look like a raghead.\" St. James's Palace said, \"Prince Harry used the term 'raghead' to mean Taliban or Iraqi insurgent.\" Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry's grandmother, urged people to take the prince's words in context. \"Harry is not the same man as he was three years ago,\" Arbiter told Britain's ITN network. \"You don't think when you are shooting a video.\" And he pointed out that Harry was serving in the army, where language is not always delicate. \"It is quite common for names to be used in the military.... He's a serviceman first and foremost, but people see him as a prince first and he has to be careful of what he says.\" The British Ministry of Defense said it was not aware of any complaints against Prince Harry and would investigate the allegations of inappropriate behavior, according to a written statement released Saturday. \"Bullying and racism are not endemic in the Armed Forces,\" it said. David Cameron, the leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party, said Prince Harry's remark was \"obviously a completely unacceptable thing to say.\" But he told the BBC's Andrew Marr program that he saw no need for the prince to be disciplined. \"No, he has made an apology... and I think that's enough.\" --CNN's Katy Byron and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prince Harry apologizes for offensive language used while on duty three years ago .\nVideos surface of him calling one soldier \"paki,\" another called \"raghead\"\nBritish Ministry of Defense plans to investigate allegations ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 93-year-old World War II medic who froze to death last month in his Bay City, Michigan, home left his entire estate to a local hospital, an estate attorney told CNN Wednesday. Martin Schur poses with his wife, Marian, in 1976. Local and state officials agree that Schur's death was avoidable. The attorney would not disclose the exact amount left behind by Martin Schur. But his nephew said his uncle indicated to family members two years ago that he had saved up more than a half-million dollars over the years. Schur and his wife, Marian, who died more than a year ago, did not have any children. \"I just know at one time he said he had over $600,000 in savings,\" said William Walworth. \"That's what he told me and my brother, and he was proud that he was able to save and build his estate up to that.\" Cathy Reder, an attorney negotiating on behalf of Bay Regional Medical Center and the Schur family, said she was filing paperwork in probate court Wednesday for the court to determine the validity of the will. A hearing has been set for March 17. Reder would not specify the amount left to the hospital, other than to say it's more than $1. \"The will leaves everything to Bay Medical Center,\" she said. The hospital had no immediate comment. Walworth said his uncle was a frugal man who hadn't eaten at a restaurant for over 30 years. \"He was very tight, and he was very frugal. But he did manage to save a lot of money.\" He said it's possible his uncle's estate could be less than $600,000, but he believes it's still \"sizable.\" \"Knowing my uncle, that's him,\" Walworth said. \"He loved his community. He loved Bay City, Michigan.\" He added, \"Hopefully his death is not in vain and we can learn from this, and he's still able to save lives. ... He was a very unique, special person in my life. I'm proud of what he was able to do in his life.\" He said he hopes his uncle's message will spur others to \"look out for their neighbor.\" The size of the estate -- if it's as large as the nephew believes -- adds another tragic twist to Schur's death. The power company limited his electricity because he owed about $1,000. Watch neighbor say the death is \"unforgivable\" \u00bb . Schur's death last month shocked Bay City, a town of about 37,000 on Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. The World War II veteran's frozen body was found in his home January 17, just four days after a device that regulates how much power he uses -- installed because of failure to pay -- shut off his power. A medical examiner said the temperature was 32 degrees in the house when Schur's body was found. The medical examiner told The Bay City Times that Schur died a \"slow, painful death.\" \"It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning,\" Dr. Kanu Virani told the paper. The Michigan State Police launched an investigation into Schur's death for possible criminal violations. \"We have to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again, whether it's Bay City or in any one of the cold weather states,\" Bay City Mayor Charles Brunner said last week. The death has prompted a review of Bay City Electric Light & Power's rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power. It also resulted in Bay City residents protesting Monday to the city about its handling of the whole situation. A neighbor who lives down the street called Schur's death \"unforgivable.\" \"This can't be allowed to happen in this country,\" said Jerome Anderson. Walworth said he believes his uncle's death was \"preventable.\" \"It should never have happened. It's a tragic loss,\" he said. \"I had a lot of fond memories of my uncle, and that's the type of memory I don't want to have: Him freezing to death.\" Utility officials said Schur owed about $1,000 resulting in a \"limiter\" being put on his home. Limiters are devices that cut power as a warning for people who haven't paid their bills. Limiters can be reset to restore a lesser degree of power until a bill payment is worked out. In Schur's case, the limiter was never reset, and it's unclear whether he knew how to do that. Schur had been living alone since his wife died, Walworth said. Unlike private utilities regulated by the state, Bay City runs and oversees its own utilities and therefore doesn't fall under Michigan's public service commission. By law, Michigan requires private companies to prohibit cutting off service to senior citizens between November and April. Seniors must register for the program. The city has begun questioning whether its rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power need a major overhaul. The utility has stopped its practice of cutting power to customers who don't pay their bills. The utility also has removed all \"limiters\" on homes. Walworth said someone should have looked at Schur's payment history and made direct contact to see whether something was wrong. He's hoping the nation will learn from his uncle's death. \"Hopefully, some good can come out of this. I'm still an optimist.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Martin Schur, 93, froze to death in his home last month; leaves estate to hospital .\nAttorney won't disclose amount; relative says it's likely in excess of $500,000 .\n\"Hopefully his death is not in vain and we can learn from this,\" nephew says .\nThe death has prompted a state investigation into the manner in which he died ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration hailed North Korea's declaration of its nuclear program as a success for the multilateral diplomacy it engaged in through the six party talks with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Workers remove fuel rods on the reactor floor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility this year. In fact, North Korea's confessions of many of its nuclear sins -- and its shutdown of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon -- are the closest the international community has come to curbing North Korea's nuclear program. As a result of Pyongyang's handover of the 60-page declaration document -- and Friday's expected destruction of the cooling tower at Yongbyon -- President Bush ordered some sanctions against North Korea lifted and instructed the State Department to remove the reclusive communist nation from U.S. lists of enemies and nations that support terrorism. But as important as what the document says is what it doesn't say. There is no mention of how many weapons North Korea has or where they are hidden. Nor did North Korea admit to a suspected uranium enrichment program or what nuclear secrets it may have shared with Syria. Both issues are reduced in the declaration to \"concerns\" Pyongyang promises to address down the road. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have pledged a robust verification process to double-check North Korea's claims. And North Korea has promised to allow U.S. inspectors access to the Yongbyon facility and to interview its nuclear experts. But it is far from clear whether Pyongyang will allow the kind of intrusive inspections of its entire nuclear arsenal that the United States will need to get a complete picture of North Korea's program. Congressional Republicans not so sure about Pyongyang . The stiffest opposition to the deal is coming from conservative Republicans. Once considered President Bush's strongest allies in confronting North Korea's nuclear ambition, they feel that the Bush administration has let North Korea off the hook, especially when it comes to its enriched uranium program and suspected proliferation to Syria. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed \"profound disappointment\" over Bush's announcement that North Korea would be coming off the lists of enemies and state sponsors of terrorism. And Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, the top Republican on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, accused President Bush of sacrificing its principles for a foreign policy success. \"A decision seemingly has been made that it is more important for the White House to reach a legacy agreement than to get to the bottom of North Korea's nuclear efforts,\" Hoekstra said. \"Lifting sanctions and removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism flies in the face of history and rewards its brutal dictator for shallow gestures.\" Rep. Ed Royce, R-California, called North Korea's declaration late and incomplete, alleging that North Korea built a nuclear facility for Syria, considered a terrorist state by the United States, while the nuclear negotiations were ongoing. That, he said, was proof that Pyongyang can't be trusted. \"How do you have a meaningful declaration of your nuclear program without saying how many bombs you have?\" Royce asked. \"This is a signal to other proliferating regimes that nuclear weapons will be rewarded without ever having to give them up.\" Democrats, who once criticized Bush for not talking directly to North Korea about its nuclear program, are cautiously supportive of the deal. Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the North's submission of a declaration \"encouraging.\" Even former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, praised the Bush administration, saying \"engaging our enemies can pay dividends.\" But Kerry added, \"historians will long wonder why this administration did not directly engage North Korea before Pyongyang gathered enough material for several nuclear weapons, tested a nuclear device and the missiles to deliver them.\" Are we headed down the same road with Iran? In his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush termed Iraq, North Korea and Iran the \"axis of evil,\" saying they were \"arming to threaten the peace of the world.\" Fourteen months after delivering that speech -- and after dictator Saddam Hussein released a 12,000-page declaration that it had no weapons of mass destruction -- U.S. forces invaded Iraq. But no such program was found, nor were stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction. More than five years into the war, the United States is still battling al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents there. Six-party talks with North Korea began in 2003, after North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Progress was limited until 2007, when North Korea agreed to shut down Yongbyon and allow international monitors back into the country for monitoring and verification. Progress has been even more limited for the third member of the \"axis of evil,\" Iran. The Bush administration has joined the other members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, France, China and Russia, along with Germany -- in offering Iran a set of political and economic incentives similar to the ones North Korea was given in exchange for suspending its uranium enrichment program. But the United States has refused to sit down with Iran until that suspension takes place. The U.N. Security Council has passed three resolutions imposing sanctions against Iran, and the United States has worked with some success to isolate Iran from the international financial community. But unlike North Korea, which is isolated and desperately in need of international aid, Iran is rich in oil and a powerful force in the Middle East. And it's only getting richer and more immune to sanctions as oil prices skyrocket. And Iran seems to be running out the clock and waiting to try its luck with a new U.S. president. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has pledged to engage Iran in direct talks to try to curb its nuclear ambitions. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has taken a much tougher line, refusing to rule out military action to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. With the coming change in the U.S. administration, U.S. officials, diplomats and other Iran experts believe that it would be at least eight months to a year before the United States and Iran could seriously think about talking. Meanwhile, by its own admission, Iran continues to perfect its nuclear technology. If the North Korean experience can serve as a lesson for the next U.S. president, that lesson may well be that the longer the United States waits to talk to Iran, the higher the cost will be to get Tehran out of the nuclear business.","highlights":"Just as important as what the nuclear declaration says is what it doesn't say .\nNorth Korea didn't admit to uranium enrichment or sharing secrets with Syria .\nMany Republicans say Bush administration has let Pyongyang off the hook .\nU.S. may be headed down the same road with Iran ."} -{"article":"Lima, Peru (CNN) -- Peru will turn over to Chilean authorities all evidence into allegations that a Peruvian air force officer was spying for the neighboring country, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Monday. Garcia ordered his foreign minister and justice department to hand over all details of the investigation so Chile could \"give the corresponding explanations,\" he said in a televised address. The alleged spying by Chile, Garcia declared, was the result of fear and an inferiority complex by the Chileans. He added that Peru will not let the incident become a full-blown crisis between the two nations. The suspect, Victor Ariza Mendoza, remained imprisoned at a maximum security facility north of Lima, authorities said. Two other Peruvian air force officers, accused of being collaborators, also were detained, as were two Chilean military officers who were alleged accomplices, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported. Mendoza could face charges of treason, which carry a minimum sentence of 25 years. News of the spy case caused Garcia to prematurely end a trip to Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Garcia and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, had planned to attend a workshop Saturday with other world leaders, but the Peruvian leader canceled his agenda to return to Lima. Chile has dismissed the espionage allegations. \"Chile has nothing to do with this case,\" Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez told reporters after a meeting with his nation's ambassador to Peru. According to local media, the suspected spy once worked at the Peruvian Embassy in Chile and sold secrets to the Chileans since 2002, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported. Chile and Peru have a history of animosity, having fought in the War of the Pacific from 1879 to 1883. Hard feelings linger to this day. The two nations nearly came to war in 1975, when left-wing Peruvian leader Juan Velasco, who was backed by Cuba, wanted to invade Chile, which was led by right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The invasion was called off, and Velasco was deposed in a coup a short while later. Tensions rose again when Peru discovered a Chilean spy mission, but war was averted. More recently, tensions between the two South American nations flared in December after the revelation that Peru's top army general said at a party that Chileans in Peru would be sent back in coffins or body bags. Both countries said they would work to heal relations after the general's comments. Journalist Gisu Guerra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Peruvian president says Chile spied on neighbor because of inferiority complex .\nPeruvian officials ordered to turn over evidence of espionage to Chile .\nSpy suspect, Peruvian air force officer, remains in prison north of Lima .\nChile has dismissed allegations ."} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The bodies of 152 people killed in a fiery plane crash in Iran Wednesday have been returned to their families, an Iranian state broadcaster reported Sunday. An Iranian Armenian woman places flower at crash site. Ahmad Majidi, the head of the special working group investigating the Caspian Airlines crash, also said a Russian team had arrived in Iran to help study the crash of the Russian-made plane, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said. The plane went down in a field near the city of Qavzin Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board and leaving a huge smoldering crater. Majidi did not say what had happened to the 16 bodies that have not been handed over. The plane's flight data recorders have been recovered and are being studied by Iranian and Russian experts, IRIB said. Fragments of the plane are also being examined to help determine the cause of the crash, Majidi said. The plane \"disintegrated into pieces,\" said Col. Masood Jafari Nasab, security commander of Qazvin. See a map of the crash location \u00bb . Video of the crash site showed a huge crater in the earth scattered with charred pieces of the plane and tattered passports. Watch as the flight data recorders are recovered \u00bb . \"The aircraft all of a sudden fell out of the sky and exploded on impact, where you see the crater,\" a witness told Iran's government-backed Press TV from the crash site. Ten members of the country's youth judo team were aboard the plane, several sources including Press TV reported. The government-backed network said the dead included eight athletes and two coaches. It was at least the fifth major airline accident in the world this year, following crashes of planes flown by Colgan Air, Turkish Airlines, Air France and Yemenia Airways. A US Airways pilot managed to land his plane safely on the Hudson river in New York City in January, with no major injuries, after the plane lost power. But aviation safety expert John Wiley said there was no reason to fear air travel in general, and no one airline or aircraft is particularly dangerous. Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 -- a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154M plane -- went down near the village of Jannatabad near Qazvin at 11:33 a.m. (2:03 a.m. ET) Wednesday, Press TV reported. Conversations between the pilot and the ground were normal and did not indicate any technical problems, the network's Web site reported, citing the managing director of Iran's airport authority without naming him. The Tupolev 154 is essentially banned in the West because it does not comply with European noise and pollution regulations, but it has a safer-than-average accident record, Wiley said. Wednesday's crash is the first on record for Caspian Airlines, which was founded in 1993, he added. The plane crashed 16 minutes after takeoff, said the newspaper Hamshari, quoting a spokesman from Iran's civil aviation organization. That would have put the flight in one of the safest stages of travel, according to International Air Transport Association data. Only about 5 percent of accidents take place during the phase called en-route climb, 16 to 20 minutes into a flight, when a plane climbs to cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. About half of accidents take place during landing.","highlights":"Bodies of 152 people killed in plane crash in Iran returned to their families .\nRussian team arrives in Iran to help study crash of Russian-made plane .\nIran's Press TV says flight data recorders of crashed plane damaged .\nAll 168 aboard killed when Tupolev Tu-154M went down near Qazvin ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Britain's Princess Eugenie has been reprimanded by her school after being caught frolicking naked on college grounds, it was reported Saturday. Princess Eugenie is sixth in line to the British throne. The 18-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah Ferguson, was apprehended for her involvement in end of term \"high jinks\" at the exclusive Marlborough College, west of London, the UK Press Association said. A royal source told the Press Association, \"It was nothing more than high jinks at the end of term in May. A group of them were reprimanded and that's the end of the matter.\" The tabloid Sun newspaper reported that a college staff member woke to playful shrieks and found several young women dancing around without clothes. It said there was no suggestion boys were present or that drugs were involved but claimed a pupil said the students had been drinking. Princess Eugenie, the sixth in line to the British throne, is studying art, history of art and English at the $46,000-a-year college, PA said. It said the princess was expected to be among guests celebrating the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday. A spokesman for the princess made no comment about the claims, PA reported.","highlights":"Britain's Princess Eugenie reprimanded for naked school frolic, reports say .\nSixth in line to British throne involved in end of term \"high jinks,\" insiders say .\nPrincess due to attend queen's official birthday celebrations ."} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- There is no evidence of \"friendly fire\" during this week's deadly shooting at Fort Hood, an Army spokesman said Saturday. Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said authorities did not believe that any of those killed or wounded were shot by anyone other than the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Furthermore, Grey reiterated that all evidence indicates that the suspect \"acted alone.\" Grey said there was \"no evidence to contradict that finding.\" He added that the investigation is continuing. Thursday's mass shooting left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and 42 people wounded, according to the post's public information office. It was unclear how many of those injured suffered bullet wounds. By Saturday night, 17 people and the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained hospitalized, Col. John Rossi told reporters. All had suffered gunshot wounds, he said. Rossi said Hasan is no longer on a ventilator, but is still in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center. Earlier Saturday, W. Roy Smythe, chief of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, said \"a lot of progress has been made\" in treating patients wounded in the rampage and that \"some of them are out of the woods.\" But Smythe, flanked by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and two state representatives, told reporters there is a possibility some patients will be \"physically impaired\" for life. And, he said, there's \"no doubt many\" will be \"psychologically impaired the rest of their lives.\" The incident has sparked national outrage. In his Saturday address, President Obama said it was \"an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America.\" But the president said, \"it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.\" The White House said President Obama and the first lady will be attending a memorial service on Tuesday and the president ordered flags flying over the White House and other federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff until Veterans Day on Wednesday. In Texas on Saturday, Smythe told reporters that of the 10 patients admitted to that hospital after the Thursday massacre, four have gone home and one may go home later Saturday. He said of the six originally in the surgical intensive care unit, only two remained there Saturday morning, with the others moved to a regular in-patient floor. The people in the intensive care unit \"are no longer on the ventilator and quite stable.\" Despite improvements, he said the injuries to some \"are so severe that only time will tell how they'll do in the long run.\" He said \"some of these patients are young and sometimes young patients will surprise you in regards to their rehabilitation.\" And at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Jeri Chappelle, a representative of that facility, said eight patients are currently being treated there -- five in the hospital's intensive care unit and three others in a regular unit who are in fair condition. Perry -- speaking outside the Scott & White hospital -- lauded the hospital's quality and professionalism and praised the patriotism of the soldiers. \"What I heard time after time in those hospital rooms that it's their honor to be able to serve our country, and that is a very humbling thing to watch a young man or woman whose life has been irreparably harmed in a violent act, yet their concern and their interest is in continuing to be able to serve this country,\" Perry said. Also, he praised the first responders, and mentioned Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan in a shootout. Munley has drawn praise from the military and from citizens across the nations for her quick and bold actions. Perry called her a \"true professional\" and a \"selfless public servant.\" \"She's very understated,\" said Perry, who spoke with Munley on Friday. \"A person who understands the gravity of what occurred, but also a classic public servant who is not interested in anything but getting on with her life and hopefully never having an event like this ever occur again.\" Citing other reports, Perry said, \"this is not the first time that she's been called to action\" and said \"we all should be thankful that we have people like that in America.\" Perry said he is in contact military and state law enforcement officials and that the Texas Rangers are helping federal officials in their probe. The governor also said the Department of State Health Services to send crisis counseling teams to the area. Share memories of victims . As for the investigation, Obama said he met with FBI Director Robert Mueller and representatives of other relevant agencies to discuss their probe. \"I'll continue to be in close contact with them as new information comes in,\" he said in his Saturday radio address. Obama, a Democrat, and Perry, a Republican, both said that the situation brought out the best in people, citing the efforts of soldiers and civilians to aid others. \"Even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display,\" the president said, \"we also saw the best of America.\"","highlights":"NEW: Official: Evidence so far indicates alleged shooter acted alone .\nNEW: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan off ventilator, spokesman says .\nChief of surgery: Some patients will be \"physically impaired\" for life .\nPresident Obama says he met with FBI director and will monitor investigation ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been admitted to a London hospital after suffering a bad reaction to medication, her representative said Tuesday. Amy Winehouse has undeniable talent, but has become better known for her wild behavior. Winehouse, 25, went to the private London Clinic on Sunday, said her spokesman, Chris Goodman. He said Winehouse's medication made her ill and her doctors asked her to come in so they could investigate. Goodman did not disclose what type of medication was involved, saying only it is part of her \"ongoing treatment.\" It was not clear Tuesday whether she had been discharged. Yesterday Winehouse's husband Blake Fielder-Civil lost his appeal against his 27-month jail term for assault and perverting the course of justice. Earlier this month he was moved from prison to a drug rehabilitation unit. The Grammy-winning Winehouse has suffered a string of health problems in recent years, many related to her battles with drug addiction. She spent two weeks in a drug rehabilitation clinic in January. See a timeline of Winehouse's career \u00bb . One of her biggest hits is the song \"Rehab,\" describing her reluctance to enter a clinic. Another bad reaction to medication prompted Winehouse to enter a London hospital in July, but she was discharged the next day. Winehouse won five Grammy awards earlier this year -- three for \"Rehab,\" as well as Album of the Year and Best New Artist.","highlights":"Amy Winehouse representative: Singer has had bad reaction to medication .\nAnother bad reaction to medication prompted Winehouse to enter hospital in July .\nGrammy-winning Winehouse has suffered a string of health problems ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Phoenix, Arizona, elementary school bus careened out of control for nearly a mile Wednesday evening, causing more than a dozen accidents and sending at least 26 people to the hospital. A Phoenix, Arizona, school bus crossed over several lanes of traffic, crashing into several vehicles on Wednesday. Phoenix police officer James Holmes told CNN the bus struck two cars at an intersection as it approached an overpass on Interstate 10. The bus later crossed into oncoming lanes, causing a chain reaction of collisions. At least two cars overturned, and several passengers in the vehicles had to be cut out of the wreckage, authorities said. Holmes said the bus carrying 45 students came to a stop a mile from the first accident scene. He said panicked children began jumping from the bus and fled into the neighborhood. Watch children describe frenzy of being on out-of-control bus \u00bb . Officers had to round up the students and used media reports to ask for help in looking for them. By late Wednesday, police thought they had located everyone. No injuries were reported to any of the children on board. Police were interviewing the driver, trying to determine what caused the accident. CNN affiliate KPNX reports the bus driver lost consciousness before the crash. Twenty-six passengers in the other cars, including several children, were being treated at hospitals. Some of the injuries were serious, but none was thought to be life-threatening.","highlights":"Out-of-control school bus crashes into dozens of cars in Phoenix, Arizona .\nPanicked children jumped from bus, fleeing into neighborhood .\nAt least 26 people treated at area hospitals ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gains access to a reported \u00a320 million ($41.1 million) fortune as he turns 18 on Monday, but he insists the money won't cast a spell on him. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix\" To the disappointment of gossip columnists around the world, the young actor says he has no plans to fritter his cash away on fast cars, drink and celebrity parties. \"I don't plan to be one of those people who, as soon as they turn 18, suddenly buy themselves a massive sports car collection or something similar,\" he told an Australian interviewer earlier this month. \"I don't think I'll be particularly extravagant. \"The things I like buying are things that cost about 10 pounds -- books and CDs and DVDs.\" At 18, Radcliffe will be able to gamble in a casino, buy a drink in a pub or see the horror film \"Hostel: Part II,\" currently six places below his number one movie on the UK box office chart. Details of how he'll mark his landmark birthday are under wraps. His agent and publicist had no comment on his plans. \"I'll definitely have some sort of party,\" he said in an interview. \"Hopefully none of you will be reading about it.\" Radcliffe's earnings from the first five Potter films have been held in a trust fund which he has not been able to touch. Despite his growing fame and riches, the actor says he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground. \"People are always looking to say 'kid star goes off the rails,'\" he told reporters last month. \"But I try very hard not to go that way because it would be too easy for them.\" His latest outing as the boy wizard in \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix\" is breaking records on both sides of the Atlantic and he will reprise the role in the last two films. Watch I-Reporter give her review of Potter's latest \u00bb . There is life beyond Potter, however. The Londoner has filmed a TV movie called \"My Boy Jack,\" about author Rudyard Kipling and his son, due for release later this year. He will also appear in \"December Boys,\" an Australian film about four boys who escape an orphanage. Earlier this year, he made his stage debut playing a tortured teenager in Peter Shaffer's \"Equus.\" Meanwhile, he is braced for even closer media scrutiny now that he's legally an adult: \"I just think I'm going to be more sort of fair game,\" he told Reuters. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gets \u00a320M fortune as he turns 18 Monday .\nYoung actor says he has no plans to fritter his cash away .\nRadcliffe's earnings from first five Potter films have been held in trust fund ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of inmates rioted at the Reeves County Detention Center in Texas on Saturday, the second disturbance at the prison facility in the last two months. As many as 2,080 inmates from two of the center's three buildings began fighting in the prison yard about 4:30 p.m. CT, said county Sheriff's Office Dispatcher Anna Granado. Authorities from several law enforcement agencies responded to quell the violence. However, officials had not brought the unrest under control as of 1 a.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff's office. Officials said they do not know what prompted the riots. Three inmates were hospitalized, including one with a severed finger, the sheriff's office said. On December 12, inmates took two workers hostage and set fire to the recreation area at the center in Pecos, located about 430 miles west of Dallas. The inmates, who had made several demands, surrendered later that night. The prison is a 2,400-bed, low-security facility, operated by Geo Group Inc. It houses federal prisoners as well as inmates from other states. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Inmate unrest at Texas prison enters second day .\nNEW: Authorities: Three inmates have been hospitalized; one has severed finger .\nPrison was site of another inmate riot in December .\nOfficials say they do not know what sparked latest riot ."} -{"article":"CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CNN) -- A \"dangerous\" Hurricane Jimena bore down Tuesday on the Mexican peninsula of Baja California, with the resort town of Cabo San Lucas lying in its path. Meanwhile, a new tropical storm was forming in the Atlantic Ocean. A NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Jimena off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, on Tuesday morning. Jimena's maximum wind speed dropped from 145 mph to 135 mph, but it still remained a Category 4 storm, according to the U.S. National Weather Service's 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET) update. \"Some fluctuations in strength are likely today and gradual weakening is forecast on Wednesday,\" the weather service said. \"However, Jimena is expected to remain a major hurricane until landfall.\" Also on Tuesday, Tropical Storm Erika formed in the Atlantic, 390 miles east of the Leeward Islands, the National Hurricane Center said. Jimena's storm center is forecast to come ashore on Thursday morning, but the weather service warned that \"because it will be moving parallel to the coastline, any slight change in direction could have a huge impact in the location and timing of landfall.\" Mexico's government extended a hurricane warning for most of the southern half of Baja California -- from Punta Abreojos on the peninsula's west coast to Mulege on its east coast, according to the National Weather Service. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area in the next 24 hours and people should quickly prepare \"to protect life and property.\" \"A dangerous storm surge along with battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California Peninsula,\" NWS said in its 11 a.m. PT report . On its current track, Jimena's center will approach the peninsula's southern portion later on Tuesday and central Baja California peninsula by Thursday, the weather service said at 11 a.m. PT. In addition to damaging winds, the storm could bring as much as 15 inches of rain, forecasters said. Jimena -- the 10th named storm of the Pacific season -- was centered about 110 miles (175 km) south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, according to the weather service. It was traveling north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph). People in his town of Los Cabos, at the very tip of the peninsula, were preparing for the storm and were getting a precursor as winds and rains began to pick up, said resident Cuauhtemoc Morgan on Monday. Morgan, who sent videos to to CNN's iReport, said residents had protected every home in his neighborhood, fortifying windows with masking tape. Lines at supermarkets were long with worried residents preparing for the storms, Morgan said. Authorities were setting up shelters in schools and trying to devise a plan to protect the homeless, he added.","highlights":"NEW: Tropical Storm Erika forms in eastern Atlantic, National Hurricane Center says .\nJimena's maximum winds fell to 135 mph, but storm is still a Category 4 .\nThe storm's center is forecast to come ashore on Thursday morning .\nHurricane warning covers most of the southern half of the Baja Peninsula ."} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Editor's note: Watch The Screening Room March show at the following times: Saturday 28 March: 0730, 1800, Sunday 29 March: 0530, 1830, Monday 30 March: 0400 (all times GMT) Buzz around the release of DreamWorks' latest animated feature, \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" will add new momentum to the drive towards a fully-3D movie industry. DreamWorks Animation's 3D movie, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a welcome boost in tough economic times. It is a welcome boost to the 3D schedule: The introduction of special screens and digital projectors into cinemas across the world has slowed in the last six months along with the economy. Instead of the 5,000 3D screens expected to roll out, the figure is closer to 2,000, as the cost of installing new technology during the downturn causes pause for thought. The release of \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" along with the recent announcement that Pixar 3D animation, \"Up\" will open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May, should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a lift. \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" which U.S. movie industry bible, Variety describes as \"'Monsters, Inc.' Meets 'War of the Worlds'\" features a fight between a collection of well-loved movie monsters ( think 1950s B-movie characters like a 50 ft woman, a friendly amorphous blob, and a genius cockroach scientist) and alien invaders who want to take over Earth. The brains behind the feature -- which has an all-star cast including Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland -- are Rob Letterman, the writer-director of Will Smith animated pic, \"Shark Tale\" and Conrad Vernon, the director of \"Shrek 2.\" The film is one of a number of 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi \"Avatar,\" already in production that are slated for 2009 and 2010 release. Of course, 3D is not new: Films like \"The Creature from the Black Lagoon\" and \"It Came from Outer Space\" first emerged during the affluent years of the 1950s, but because 3D was quite gimmicky the medium fell into decline and exhibitors turned their attention to other technologies. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is one of the new breed of 3D movies, projected digitally and very immersive for audiences, that Hollywood is hoping will lure paying audiences out of the comfort of their living rooms and back into cinemas. \"Hollywood is throwing themselves into 3D like never before,\" said Nick De Semlyen, critic for British movie magazine, Empire. \"All the big directors from Spielberg to Peter Jackson from 'Lord of the Rings,' they are making 3D films and it's looking like pretty much every big film is going to be in 3D in the next couple years ... It's a huge thing, it's a revolution.\" Do you think 3D will be a movie revolution or is it all hype. Tell us below in the SoundOff box. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is the first film that DreamWorks Animation, the Hollywood giant behind movies like the \"Shrek\" franchise, \"Madagascar\" and last year's \"Kung Fu Panda,\" has designed from scratch as a purely 3D movie. Dennis Laws is Chief Projectionist at the BFI IMAX, which is home to the UK's biggest cinema screen and also has 3D capability. He told CNN, \"It's the first film from DreamWorks that was designed from the very beginning to be in 3D and DreamWorks are very proud of the fact.\" DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is probably 3D's most devoted advocate. He has said that the medium's introduction may be as significant to the movies as sound, and that all DreamWorks animations will be made in 3D from now on. \"Mr Katzenberg was so articulate in explaining what he wanted to do, and it was very different than anything that I had ever heard of before, which was 3-D used as a gimmick in a film,\" Keifer Sutherland told CNN at the UK premiere of \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" Watch Kiefer Sutherland talking about \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" \"He actually wanted to envelope the audience in the movie and make you feel like you were part of the scene. \"That not only knocks down the fourth wall between the movie and the audience but it also furthers telling the story.\" With commercial 3D still in its infancy, all eyes are on each new release to take in the advances in the technology, which is moving forward very quickly. \"The technology is growing really fast,\" De Semlyen told CNN, \"It's very exciting.\" Mairi Mackay contributed to this story.","highlights":"Buzz around \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" adds new momentum to drive for fully 3D industry .\nEconomic slowdown affected introduction of 3D screens and projectors in cinemas .\nOther 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi \"Avatar,\" slated for 2009 release .\nBritish film critic, Nick De Semlyen on 3D: \"It's a revolution\""} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States fears recent weapons purchases by Venezuela could fuel an arms race in South America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday. Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez met and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Tuesday. \"They outpace all other countries in South America and certainly raise the question as to whether there is going to be an arms race in the region,\" Clinton said about Venezuela's arms deals, after a meeting with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez. The Russian government Monday extended $2.2 billion in credit to Venezuela to finance arms purchases, including 92 Soviet-era T-72 tanks and short-range missiles with a reach of 55 miles (90 kilometers). Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also said his nation will purchase an anti-aircraft weapons system with a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers). The planned arms purchases come at a time when Venezuela is at odds with neighboring Colombia over negotiations that would give U.S. troops access to Colombian military bases. Chavez has said his military buildup is in response to the growing U.S. presence in the region, which he calls threatening and dangerous to Latin America. The United States is also concerned about deepening ties between Venezuela and Iran. In addition to ongoing military cooperation, Chavez said in Tehran last week that the Iranian government would help Venezuela develop nuclear technology. In exchange, Venezuela has offered to export gasoline to Iran, which would give Tehran an out if Western nations impose petroleum sanctions over Iran's nuclear program. Senior administration officials say Venezuela's attempt at \"sanctions busting\" is alarming. Clinton urged Venezuela to be transparent about its weapons purchases. Venezuela, she said, \"should be putting in place in procedures and practices to ensure that the weapons they buy are not diverted to insurgent groups or illegal organizations like drug trafficking gangs and other criminal cartels.\" Vazquez voiced concern that an arms race in South America would divert funds from badly needed development in poor countries. \"We should devote our energies and resources to fight against the real scourges of our societies ... such as drug trafficking and terrorism,\" he said. \"Instead of spending it in weapons, spending it in housing, good housing for our people, and to further deepen investment, especially in the field of education.\"","highlights":"Russia extends $2.2 billion in credit to Venezuela to finance arms purchases .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton worries about arms race in South America .\nRelations tense between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia, a U.S. ally .\nWashington worries about Hugo Chavez's deepening ties to Iran as well ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A new Taliban military \"code of conduct\" calls for restrictions on suicide attacks aimed at avoiding the killing of civilians, but U.S. and Afghan military officials dismissed the document as propaganda, calling it hypocritical. A Pakistani looks at a bus set on fire by Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan in June. The booklet, obtained by CNN in northwestern Pakistan, has emerged during a crucial moment in the fight between troops and militants in Afghanistan, where battles are raging in the country's Helmand province and troops work to establish stability for the upcoming presidential elections. \"Suicide attacks should be at high value and important targets because a brave son of Islam should not be used for low value and useless targets,\" the code of conduct said. \"In suicide attacks the killing of innocent people and damage to their property should be minimized.\" It also says \"all mujahideen must do their best to avoid civilian deaths and injuries and damage to civilian property.\" And it says that mujahideen \"should refrain\" from disfiguring of people, such as the severing of ears, nose and lips. \"Mujahideen must be well behaved, and treat the people properly, in order to get closer to the hearts of civilian Muslims,\" the code said. Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, saidit was notable that the document is intended to be \"prescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves.\" Watch why Taliban have brought out new code of conduct \u00bb . \"Their day to day actions contradict everything in it,\" Sidenstricker said. \"The long and the short of it is, they don't operate in accordance to their code of conduct.\" She said more than 60 percent of civilians killed have been killed by the Taliban, and since January, more than 450 innocent Afghans have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been injured. Watch why Taliban are proving hard to uproot \u00bb . Also, half the casualties resulting from roadside bombs were civilians. \"The booklet also says suicide attacks should always be done against high-ranking officials. In reality, they have killed more then 200 Afghan civilians,\" she said. Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Azimi said the code is \" propaganda\" and that the Taliban \"will never implement that.\" He cites a recent beheading of a retired Afghan soldier as a clear example of the group's real behavior. \"It was against all the laws of war,\" Azimi said. As far as the upcoming election, Azimi said, the Taliban has tried its best in the past \"to disrupt the normal process of peace and security, and they will try their best to disrupt the peace and security process in the future.\" The code of conduct is dated as coming into effect on May 9, 2009. It is similar to a previous document that emerged in 2006 and covers many topics. For example, it says \"kidnapping for ransom is strictly prohibited.\" As for prisoners, the code says \"it is strictly prohibited to exchange prisoners for money. Killing can only be decided by the Imam or his deputy. No one else has the right to do so.\" It says an imam or his deputy are on the only ones to make decisions on whether to kill, release of exchange a captured \"military infidel.\" Further, it says the practice of taking weapons from people by force \"is no longer permitted.\" \"But people may hand over their weapons voluntarily,\" it said. And it says that the \"mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate should not collect donations forcibly\" and that \"people should be free to choose who they want to give to.\" It said mujahideen shouldn't search peoples' homes. \"If there is a need to do this, they should get permission from authority and the search should be done in the presence of the imam of the local mosque and two elders.\" The code said mujahids aren't permitted to smoke and that \"a male who has not yet grown a beard may not stay in a common sleeping area with other men.\" CNN's National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said the militants \"clearly\" are aware of the need to win \"hearts and minds\" and are trying to rectify the \"mistakes\" of al Qaeda in Iraq. \"They have their own counter-insurgency strategy in winning hearts and minds,\" Bergen said. \"This is a corrective, absolutely.\" He said \"there's a window for both sides to make some progress\" and the Taliban want to exploit the moment. \"The Taliban believe they are either winning or not losing. If you are an insurgent not losing is important,\" he said. CNN's Ivan Watson, Tim Schwarz and Joe Sterling and journalist Janullah Hashimzadeh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Taliban issues a new code of conduct to show it is a disciplined force .\nCode outlines rules to limit suicide attacks and civilian casualties .\nU.S. and Afghan officials dismiss rules as propaganda and hypocritical ."} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- If you turn to the Bible -- Isaiah Chapter 35, Verse 8 -- you will see a passage that in part says, \"A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.\" Churchgoers in six states have held prayer sessions along the side of Interstate 35. Now, is it possible that this \"highway\" mentioned in Chapter 35 is actually Interstate 35 that runs through six U.S. states, from southern Texas to northern Minnesota? Some Christians have faith that is indeed the case. It was with that interesting belief in mind that we decided to head to Texas, the southernmost state in the I-35 corridor, to do a story about a prayer campaign called \"Light the Highway.\" Churchgoers in all six states recently finished 35 days of praying alongside Interstate 35, but the prayers are still continuing. Some of the faithful believe that in order to fulfill the prophecy of I-35 being the \"holy\" highway, it needs some intensive prayer first. So we watched as about 25 fervent and enthusiastic Christians prayed on the the interstate's shoulder in Dallas. They chanted loudly and vibrantly, making many people in the neighborhood wonder what was going on. They prayed that adult businesses along the corridor would \"see the light\" and perhaps close down. They prayed for safety and freedom from crime for people who lived along the interstate. They prayed that all Americans would accept Jesus into their lives. Watch believers offer prayers \u00bb . The woman who came up with the concept of \"Light the Highway\" is a Texas minister named Cindy Jacobs. She says she can't be sure Interstate 35 really is what is mentioned in the Bible but says she received a revelation to start this campaign after \"once again reading Isaiah, Chapter 35.\" Jacobs also points out that perhaps there is a link between the area near this highway and tragedies that have happened in history, such as the bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis last August and the assassination of JFK 44 years ago near I-35 in Dallas. That's why prayer certainly can't hurt, she adds. Now, it's only fair to say most people, the religious and the non-religious alike, don't buy any of this, but none more than the owners of some of the adult businesses along I-35. At an adult go-go club, the owner tells us he resents people trying to impose their will on others. And he says his club holds fundraisers, food drives and toy drives to help the community. But on the side of the road, the prayerful aren't going to change their minds. Holy highways and nude clubs, they believe, are not a combination God has in mind. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some see connection between the Bible and Interstate 35 .\nBelievers pray by the side of the highway, which runs through six states .\nI-35 runs from southern Texas to northern Minnesota ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Richard Nixon Presidential Library will allow access Tuesday to about 154 hours of Nixon White House tape recordings and 30,000 pages of documents that were formerly classified. President Nixon announces the U.S. incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War in April 1970. Among the tapes and documents are conversations about the Vietnam War, Nixon's second inauguration, the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and the first Watergate trial, according to a library statement. Tuesday's release is the 13th opening of Nixon White House tapes since 1980, the statement said. The new Nixon tapes and documents will be available on the Internet and in the Richard Nixon libraries in College Park, Maryland, and Yorba Linda, California. Nixon resigned August 9, 1974, over the Watergate scandal -- the first president to resign from office. President Ford pardoned Nixon the following month, saying it was necessary for the nation to heal after Watergate.","highlights":"Richard Nixon Presidential Library to open access to 154 hours of recordings .\nTapes include conversations about Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam War .\nRelease also includes 30,000 pages of formerly classified documents ."} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has indicted two Minnesota men in connection with the recruitment of Somali immigrants to fight with Islamic insurgents in their home country. Jamal Bana is one of several missing Somali-Americans believed to have fought with an Islamist insurgency. Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse are charged with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, the indictment states. The recruiting effort took place between September 2007 and December 2008, according to the charges. Ahmed also is charged with two counts of making false statements to investigators. According to the indictment, he told FBI agents that he had traveled alone on a flight to Somalia when, in fact, he and another person were going together \"so that they could fight jihad in Somalia.\" Ahmed was arrested Saturday, FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson told CNN. Isse had been in custody for some time, said Omar Jamal, the head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. Both were from Minnesota and in their 20s, Jamal said. Jamal said Ahmed and Isse were \"foot soldiers\" carrying out the work of others, and that he expected more indictments \"in a week or two.\" The FBI has been investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by the al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months, and at least three have been killed in Somalia, community leaders have said. The latest, Jamal Bana, was confirmed dead over the weekend, his family said Sunday. The same day, Somalia's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country. \"I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to foment violence against your people,' \" President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said. Al-Shabaab has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government, U.S. officials said. It remains entrenched in the northeast and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. Wilson said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is \"in the 10s,\" but their recruitment is \"a significant concern and one that we're giving our highest priority.\" In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab, traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. It was the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen, and it raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Burhan Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis, went missing eight months ago, around the same time as Bana. Last month, his family learned that he was killed in Somalia. Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States, where they came as young boys, and Bana's family believes he was being held against his will, said Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. \"Only one time he placed a phone call [in mid-November], he didn't say much,\" Jamal said. \"He spoke as if he was being held hostage. He couldn't be speak freely. They asked him to cut the conversation short.\" Hassan's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, said a fourth man -- 30-year-old Zakariya Maruf -- was killed Friday, but Jamal said Maruf may only be injured. Maruf was the first of the missing Somalis to head overseas, said Bihi, who has become a spokesman for the families of the missing men. Bihi called him a \"leader\" whom the others consulted on travel plans. Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground. Ethiopia invaded Somalia to push the Islamists out of Mogadishu in December 2006, but their presence in the country was an outrage to most Somalis and became a rallying cry for al-Shabaab. Ethiopian troops left Somalia this year, leaving Ahmed's weak transitional government to battle the insurgents. CNN's David McKenzie and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two defendants were mere \"foot soldiers,\" their legal advocate says .\nTwo charged with conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists .\nFBI investigating Somali militants' recruiting effort in immigrant communities in U.S.\nThe militant group in Africa has ties to al Qaeda ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Frank Buckles considered it his duty to represent his fellow soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day. Frank Buckles, 107 and the last living U.S. WWI veteran, said it was his duty to represent his fallen soldiers. \"I have to,\" he told CNN, \"because I'm the last living member of Americans\" who fought in what was called The Great War. Buckles, 107, who is the sole living U.S. World War I veteran, attended ceremonies Tuesday at the grave of Gen. John Pershing, the top U.S. commander in that war. He was present for the first Veterans Day in 1918 -- though it was originally called Armistice Day -- that marked the end of WWI. Buckles was warmly greeted with standing applause by those in uniform and others who had gathered for the commemoration, but he said he did not think the fuss was about him. \"I can see what they're honoring, the veterans of World War I.\" \"Time has passed very quickly to me,\" he said after a wreath-laying. \"I've had a lot of activity in the last 90 years.\" Watch interview with Frank Buckles \u00bb . According to an autobiography released this year by the Pentagon, Buckles was eager to join the war. Although only 16 in the summer of 1917, he lied about his age to get into the armed services. He said his recruiter told him \"the Ambulance Service was the quickest way to get to France,\" so he took training in trench casualty retrieval. Buckles was an officer's escort in France before joining a detail transporting German prisoners of war. A few decades later, Buckles was in the Philippines as a civilian, on the day in December 1941 that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He was taken as a prisoner of war in Manila and held for 39 months. Today Buckles is the symbolic leader of a drive to improve a run-down city-owned memorial on the National Mall for those lost in the World War I. The gazebo-styled structure was built in the 1930s. There is no national memorial in the nation's capital for the troops known as \"doughboys\" who served in the war that ended 90 years ago. Legislation in Congress would provide federal funding to restore and enhance the city's memorial. A $182 million World War II memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in 2004.","highlights":"Frank Buckles, 107, is the last living U.S. veteran of WWI .\nBuckles was present for first Veterans Day in 1918 when it was Armistice Day .\nBuckles said it was his duty to represent soldiers since he is last WWI vet .\nThere is no national memorial in Washington for WWI veterans ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Australian man and his daughter have created a furor after going on television to admit an incestuous relationship which has produced two children. John Deaves and his daughter Jenny pictured in the 60 Minutes interview. John Deaves, 61, appeared on the 60 Minutes show with daughter Jenny, 39, and their child -- nine-month-old Celeste, Melbourne's The Age newspaper reported. Last month Judge Steven Millsteed banned the couple from having sex with each other, but released them on a three-year, $460 good behavior bond. Court transcripts also revealed their first child died in 2001 from a congenital heart disorder. The couple told 60 Minutes that they fell in love in 2000 when they \"discovered each other later in life.\" Deaves had left the family home when Jenny was a baby, and did not see her again for 30 years. What do you think of the couple's relationship? However, the Age reported Deaves' former wife, Dorothy, disputed their claim that they were virtual strangers when they fell in love. \"They were in contact all the time,\" she said. \"His youngest daughter [from his second marriage] didn't even know they were together and she is really traumatized -- she is hurting terrible.\" Deaves' first wife and Jennifer's mother, Joan, said children deserved a better chance in life than one that originated from incest. Watch video report on incest couple. \u00bb . \"I just think that the whole relationship is dreadful,\" she told News Ltd. \"These incestual [sic] relationships produce children and the children have problems and it's not fair to kids.\" Professor Freda Briggs, of the University of South Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that a good behavior bond would not stop the pair from having more children. \"My controversial suggestion was that in these sorts of circumstances judges should be able to persuade them one way or another,\" she said. \"For the mother for example to have her tubes tied or the father-cum-grandfather to be sterilized.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Father and daughter reveal incest on Australian television show .\nCouple have had two children, with one dying soon after birth .\nJudge bans couple from having sex to prevent another pregnancy ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Walking into the Khatmul Nabeen Masjid (mosque), you can for a moment forget that you're in Afghanistan. Beautiful buildings, walkways, flowerbeds and even a grass soccer pitch. Mohammed Asif Mohseni is said to be behind the law. Young men and women, dressed in Muslim attire, walk around freely and with smiles. Smiles are a bit of a rarity in today's Kabul, a polluted city of survival and despair, so this was both shocking and refreshing to me. We didn't have an appointment but we were hoping to interview Mohammed Asif Mohseni, a conservative Shia cleric. He is said to be the man behind the controversial Shia state law, a law critics say strips Afghan Shia women of many rights. While security was checking our bags, one guard said that Mohseni had been waiting for us. I tried explaining that we did not have an appointment. Nonetheless, we were sent back to where Mohseni was waiting. Before entering the room I was cautioned by a guard to make sure none of my hair was showing below my headscarf. They were apologetic; one even asked me to zip up my sweater higher because too much of my neck was exposed. I complied, tucking in my hair and zipping my sweater as high as it could go. Now paranoid about the design holes in my scarf that exposed parts of my hair, I took off my shoes to enter. As we walked in, Mohseni, an older man with a white beard wearing a Shia-style turban called a \"dulband\" was sitting on a brown couch. He looked at the two men who brought us in and said, \"These aren't the two I was waiting for.\" I explained that we just showed up for an interview because we did not have a number to reach him. He smiled and said, \"I guess you are in luck.\" Mohseni welcomed us and asked me to translate his warm welcome to our Scottish cameraman. As the interview started, I noticed that Mohseni avoided my eyes. I wondered if it was because I was female. I was also prepared for verbal attacks; a journalist friend told me that when he brought a western journalist to interview Mohseni a few days ago, the journalist ended up having more questions thrown at him than he was able to ask. But it didn't take long for Mohseni to warm up and explain why Shia state law is just and a part of Islam. Those who don't agree don't understand it, he said. \"The law ... which I created I see as correct for both men and women,\" he said. \"We have given rights to both men and women, even better than rights given to women in the West. We give women more in this law.\" I asked him about reports that if a woman does not comply in having sexual relations with her husband, then the husband can refuse to feed her. \"Yes, I said that,\" Mohseni said looking me in the eye. \"When a couple marries, sex is a part of marriage, and they agree to that.\" He went on to explain that a woman isn't obliged to have sexual relations every single night or if she is told by her doctor to refrain. But otherwise it is her obligation and something she signed up for when she got married. He calls it the wife's duty. Mohseni added that a wife wearing makeup \"prevents a man from thinking about other women on the streets and he can just think of his wife.\" He continued: \"It is natural that women (wear makeup). Don't they in the West? Their women wear it on the streets and in shops. Women should put make-up on for their husbands as it will increase the love and attraction between the two.\" The cleric also explained that a woman is not required to ask the permission of a man to leave the house if she has a job and needs to go to work. But they do need to get permission if they are leaving for other reasons. More importantly, he said, a couple needs to make clear the day they marry whether or not she will need permission to leave the home. If they disagree then they should not get married. \"Like, you are working for CNN,\" he said. \"If your boss tells you, you'll be working for 8 hours a day, then you're responsible for that. It's the same here. They both have to agree on it.\" According to Mohseni, the West is imposing its beliefs on the Muslim world because they don't understand. However, it's not just people in the West who are opposed to this law. Many Afghans, men and women, have vehemently resisted it. They fear it will set women back after the progress that has been made in the last seven years. Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, has been working for a year now, trying to amend certain articles within the law. \"I feel discriminated. Clear-cut. I don't feel equal in this country,\" she told us. Samar said the law does not represent Islam. It blatantly contradicts the constitution of Afghanistan, which states that men and women are equal. Critics have labeled the law as \"Talibanistic,\" but Samar says even many of the Taliban's actions were not enshrined in law. She admitted that a law for Shias is necessary but that it should be what is stated in Sharia or Islamic Law. \"One of the very important pillars in Islam is justice, there is no justice in this law,\" she said. Samar also pointed out the absurdities in the law, such as the edict on makeup. \"If she doesn't (put on make-up), will the husband go complain to the police that she didn't put (on) the lipstick? Or, 'I like red but she put on pink.'\" However, Samar didn't blame the clerics alone for creating the new law; she blamed various parts of the government for allowing it to pass. \"I think they -- all of them -- took the whole issue very superficially. And none of the state institutions, ministry of justice, parliament, senate and the office of the president, really didn't look at the law as serious as they should,\" she said.","highlights":"Mohammed Asif Mohseni is said to be man behind Shia State Law .\nCritics say the law strips Afghan Shia women of rights .\nMohseni: \"Law ... which I created I see as correct for both men and women\"\nAfghan human rights campaigner says law does not represent Islam ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Danish authorities said Tuesday they have arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a \"terror-related assassination\" of a cartoonist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed sparked rage in the Muslim world two years ago. The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked widespread outrage in the Muslim world two years ago. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said police arrested a 40-year-old Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisians. The Danish citizen is charged with a terrorism offense, the intelligence service said, and the Tunisians will be deported. Police have not yet released the names of the three. The operation took place in the Aarhus area of western Denmark at 4:30 a.m. local time following lengthy surveillance, the intelligence service said. The target of the plot, the intelligence service said, was the cartoonist for the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jullands-Posten, which first published the controversial drawings in September 2005. The paper identified the cartoonist as Kurt Westergaard. Watch how threats have targeted cartoonists \u00bb . \"Not wanting to take any undue risks [the intelligence service] has decided to intervene at a very early stage in order to interrupt the planning and the actual assassination,\" the statement by Jakob Scharf, the agency's director general, said. \"Thus, this morning's operation must first and foremost be seen as a preventive measure where the aim has been to stop a crime from being committed.\" The uproar over the cartoons ignited after the Danish newspaper published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed. Some Muslims believe it is forbidden by the Quran to show an image of the prophet. Demonstrations erupted across the world in early 2006 after other newspapers reprinted the images months later as a matter of free speech. Some turned deadly. Many protesters directed their ire at Denmark, prompting the closure of several Danish embassies in predominantly Muslim countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan. Westergaard's cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse. Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist. \"Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me,\" Westergaard said in a statement posted on the newspaper's Web site. \"However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness.\" CNN's Paula Newton said the arrests reinforced growing fears in Europe that radical Islam was trying to suppress free speech. \"More and more Europeans feel that Islam is a threat to their way of life,\" Newton said. A recent Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum showed a majority of Europeans believed relations between the West and the Muslim world were worsening. According to the poll this sentiment was strongest held among Danish. Westergaard remains under police protection and does not know whether it will continue. \"I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life,\" he said. \"It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life.\" Carsten Juste, the paper's editor-in-chief, said staffers have been \"deeply worried\" for several months. \"The arrests have hopefully thwarted the murder plans,\" he said on the newspaper's Web site. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report .","highlights":"Danish police say several arrested for plotting \"terror-related assassination\"\nAgency reports that suspects include two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin .\nNewspaper says the target was its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard .\nProphet Mohammed drawings sparked protests in the Muslim world two years ago ."} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Obesity is the No. 1 health crisis in the United States, and the nation could be at risk without immediate action, former President Clinton said at CNN's first Fit Nation Summit. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former President Clinton lead the discussion at the first Fit Nation Summit. \"We need to do something about it for our children, and for our country, because something like this could easily collapse our nation if we don't act now,\" Clinton said. Clinton and CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, gathered with experts from across the country Wednesday to explore solutions to America's obesity crisis. Two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight or obese; the same is true for one-third of U.S. children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity carries increased risk of myriad health problems, including hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Gupta, Clinton and a panel of experts addressed such proposed solutions as healthy school lunches, elimination of trans fats, the need for healthier food in urban communities and the importance of supporting community-based efforts to fight obesity. Watch Gupta explain the solutions proposed at the Fit Nation Summit \u00bb . Clinton, who's been tackling the obesity issue over the past few years with his Alliance for a Healthier Generation, stressed the need to help educate people about the importance of a healthy diet and exercising together. Motivating Americans, especially kids, won't be easy, Clinton said. \"They need to be handled with care. Kids need to know it's important, but [fitness] can't be boring,\" he said. \"There's no shame, there's no embarrassment. We have to let them know it's all good, but you have to do it.\" Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a strong advocate against trans fats in foods, stressed that the Food and Drug Administration should ban trans fats altogether and stop leaving it up to local and state governments. Trans fats, at one time, thought to be good fat substitutes, over the years have been shown to raise LDL or bad cholesterol in people and lower their HDL, or good cholesterol. \"They're just not good for our health, Jacobson said. However, Dr. Robert Eckel, former president of the American Heart Association, warned, \"Although we support the removal of trans fats, our biggest concern is what they'll be replaced with. We need to think about that, because there will be a substitute.\" The panel took questions from an audience of 150 people -- mostly obesity experts or those who work in industries that deal with obesity. Gupta was inspired to launch Fit Nation, an ongoing, multiplatform, grass-roots initiative against obesity. Over the past three years, Gupta and the CNN Medical Unit have crisscrossed the country, asking Americans to take charge of their weight by exercising more and eating healthier. This year, Gupta traveled from Michigan to California asking the public to pledge to add 1 million hours to their collective lives by getting off the couch and exercising. Since he began the tour in April, the campaign has surpassed its goal, with exercise pledges close to four times that amount. Gupta said he hopes that legislators and administrators who can make a difference in policy and perhaps change attitudes about obesity will hear the solutions discussed at the summit. \"I''ve covered a lot of stories on obesity,\" Gupta said. \"There's a battle going on, and we need to win the battle. I've talked to people out there and many are just blas\u00e9. \"This is our opportunity to make them care.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Experts gather at CNN's first Fit Nation Summit to propose obesity solutions .\nFormer President Clinton: Without obesity solution, nation risks \"collapse\"\nMotivating youngsters, removing shame, embarrassment called key .\nExperts: Removing trans fats, finding healthy replacements also critical ."} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a Florida woman charged with killing her missing 3-year-old daughter, according to court documents filed Friday. Casey Anthony has been charged in an indictment with the premediated murder of daughter Caylee. \"It is not in the best interest of the people of the state of Florida to pursue the death penalty as a potential sentence,\" prosecutors concluded, according to the document. \"Therefore, the state of Florida will not be seeking the death penalty as to Casey Marie Anthony.\" Anthony, 22, is charged with killing her daughter, Caylee Anthony, in a case that has received national attention. She was arrested last month and faces charges including first-degree murder in the disappearance of Caylee, who has been missing since June. Watch newly released jailhouse tapes \u00bb . She could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Anthony waited about a month before telling her family that Caylee was gone. Cindy Anthony -- Caylee's grandmother and Casey Anthony's mother -- called the Orange County, Florida, sheriff July 15, saying her daughter would not tell her where Caylee was. When questioned, Anthony gave conflicting statements to police, including some that were later disproved, according to hundreds of documents and investigative reports released in the case. She claimed she dropped Caylee off with a baby sitter, but when police checked out her story, they learned that the address Anthony supplied belonged to an apartment that had been vacant for weeks. The woman Anthony named as her baby sitter told police she did not know her. Investigators previously have said cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Anthony's car, as well as in her parents' backyard. They also said air quality tests conducted by the FBI found evidence consistent with human decomposition and chloroform in the trunk of Anthony's car. A neighbor told police that Anthony had asked to borrow a shovel. Also, analysis of Anthony's computer found she had visited Web sites discussing chloroform, as well as Internet searches of missing children, according to information released in the case. Last month, Florida 9th Circuit Judge Stan Strickland denied prosecutors' request to impose a gag order in Anthony's case, saying he could not state that continued publicity would pose a threat to her trial, or even that a gag order would stem the flood of media attention. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"Document: It's not in Florida's best interest to seek death penalty for Casey Anthony .\nAnthony is charged with first-degree murder in daughter's disappearance .\nCaylee Anthony, 3, was missing for a month before her mother told anyone ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Alabama man whose wife died during a honeymoon scuba diving trip off the coast of Australia almost five years ago has been charged in her death. Tina Watson, background right, lies motionless after she drowned in 2003 while diving in the Great Barrier Reef. An Australian coroner ruled Friday that there was enough evidence to put Gabe Watson on trial for the death of Tina Watson, who was 26 when she drowned in October 2003 while diving around a historic shipwreck in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Watson, 31, told police that his new bride appeared to panic 45 feet underwater and that he \"looked into her eyes and saw her eyes were wide open, but there was no response,\" Townsville Coroner David Glascow said in his inquest findings. Glascow, however, cited what he said were inconsistencies in Watson's statements to investigators. The coroner said he was \"unable to conclude that Tina's death was an accidental drowning.\" Watch Tina Watson's family demand justice \u00bb . The couple married just 11 days earlier in Birmingham, Alabama. They left their home in Hoover, Alabama, for their Australian honeymoon two days later, the coroner said. As possible evidence for the husband's motive, Glascow pointed to a statement by the woman's father that Watson asked her to maximize her life insurance and make him the beneficiary shortly before the wedding. The insurance company confirmed that Gabe Watson inquired about her life insurance policy after her death, the coroner said. The coroner noted that Watson, through his lawyers, contended that police had made a judgment that he killed his wife before they began their investigation and that they tailored their investigation to fit their theory. Glascow said he saw no evidence of police rushing to judgment. \"It appears certain that at some point in time, investigators considered some of Gabe's explanations lacked credibility, and it further appears to me that investigators gave Gabe the opportunity to clarify matters which may have caused concern,\" the coroner said. The husband was an experienced diver, and his new wife was considered a novice, the coroner said. They were diving on the Yongala shipwreck about 42 miles off the coast of Townsville in the state of Queensland, Australia.","highlights":"Gabe Watson has been charged with 2003 death of his wife during honeymoon .\nTina Watson died while scuba diving in Australia's Great Barrier Reef .\nCoroner unable to conclude that Watson's death was accidental ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some Democrats say they fear their party's method of picking a nominee might turn undemocratic as neither presidential candidate is likely to gather the delegates needed for the nomination. The Democrats' superdelegate system is supposed to avoid turmoil at the party's conventions. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are running neck and neck toward the party's August convention in Denver, Colorado. Most projections show neither getting the necessary 2,025 delegates in the remaining nominating contests before then. Party rules call for the votes of superdelegates -- 800 or so party officers, elected officials and activists -- to tip the balance. The party instituted the system to avoid the turmoil that a deadlocked race would create at a convention. But even some superdelegates are questioning the system, as the party heads toward the conclusion of a race in which they might determine the outcome. \"It's not the most democratic way of doing things,\" said Maine superdelegate Sam Spencer. Watch the scenario for a \"civil war\" in the Democratic Party \u00bb . At least two organizations have launched petition drives to reflect how the vote went in primaries and caucuses. MoveOn.org, which has endorsed Obama, is trying to get 200,000 signatures this week and plans to run an ad with its petition in USA Today. And Democracy for America, headed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's brother Jim, said it will deliver signed petitions to all the superdelegates. While pledged delegates are allocated with the understanding they'll vote the way their state went in its primary or caucus, superdelegates are free to vote however they want. And even if they pledge their support to a candidate, they're free to change at any time. Clinton already has 234 superdelegates and Obama has 157. But Obama has a sizable lead in pledged delegates, 1,096 to 977, and is on a roll, having won all eight nominating contests since Super Tuesday. See which states pledged delegates come from \u00bb . If the superdelegates were to tip the balance against the popular vote, the turmoil would last long beyond the convention, longtime Democratic Party strategist Tad Devine said. \"If a perception develops that somehow this decision has been made not by voters participating in primaries or caucuses, but by politicians in some mythical backroom, I think that the public could react strongly against that,\" Devine said. \"The problem is [if] people perceive that voters have not made the decision -- instead, insiders have made the decision -- then all of these new people who are being attracted to the process, particularly the young people who are voting for the first time, will feel disenfranchised or in some way alienated,\" he said. Superdelegates were established in 1982 to bring more moderate Democrats back to conventions, where their attendance had been dropping since the 1950s, and to relect the party's mainstream more accurately. \"[Superdelegates] are the keepers of the faith,\" said former San Francisco, California, Mayor Willie Brown. \"You have superdelegates because this is the Democratic Party. You don't want the bleed-over from the Green Party, the independents and others in deciding who your nominee will be.\" Devine was part of the first campaign to benefit from the roles of superdelegates -- that of former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984. Mondale's 1984 campaign went into the party convention with too few delegates to secure the nomination against the campaigns of former Sen. Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson. Mondale had received more votes, but Hart had won more states. Mondale was able to line up the superdelegates going into the convention and avoid a fight on the convention floor. Each campaign actively is trying to encourage the unpledged delegates to pledge to their side. Jason Rae, a 21-year-old Wisconsin superdelegate, said he's gotten calls from former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from Hillary Clinton's camp, and Obama's wife, Michelle, visited with him during a campaign stop Tuesday in Wisconsin. Rae said he hasn't yet decided how he'll vote in Wisconsin's primary on Tuesday. Crystal Strait, a party activist from California, said she's received calls from Clinton herself and daughter Chelsea but she remains uncommitted. Massachusetts superdelegate John Walsh said he'll stay loyal to Obama despite the fact that the senator lost the primary in Walsh's state. So will fellow Massachusetts superdelegates Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry. Among Clinton's committed superdelegates are Harold Ickes Jr., her husband's former deputy chief of staff; Terry McAuliffe, who led her husband's 1996 re-election campaign and is chairman of her campaign; and her husband. Whether those superdelegates stay committed to their candidates, even if it means tipping the outcome of the race against the pledged delegate lead or the popular vote, could split the party. \"It's in a total contradiction of the way the Democrats have set up their primary process, with all this proportional representation,\" said CNN political analyst Amy Holmes. \"The whole point of it was that no one could walk away with the elites. And if this is decided by superdelegates, I think the Democratic Party morally is going to be looking at each other and say, 'What did we just do?' \" Devine said it could hurt the party in the general election. \"I think it will hurt us particularly because so many of the policies that we're saying we will pursue in government as Democrats are based on fairness, whether it's the tax policies that we advocate or the social programs we want to advance, there's a fairness component in all of that,\" he said. \"People need to believe, I think, that our process is fair as well, if they want to believe that our policies will be fair.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Campbell Brown, John Helton and Ed Hornick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Democrats' system includes about 800 superdelegates -- party officials, leaders .\nUnlike elected delegates, superdelegates can vote for any candidate they choose .\nSome says they fear superdelegates could tip balance against the popular vote .\nIf such a thing happens, some say voters will feel alienated, disenfranchised ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Beijing Olympics has lost one of its major attractions after Maria Sharapova pulled out of the tennis tournament with a shoulder injury. Sharapova has treatment for a shoulder injury that has ruled her out of Olympics. The Russian world number three sustained the injury in beating Marta Domachowska of Poland at the WTA tournament in Montreal and immediately underwent an MRI scan to determine the extent of the problem. The result was not encouraging and Sharapova told her official Web site of her disappointment. \"I'm currently packing up real quick to hop on a plane to New York for a second opinion (on the injury) but I wanted to let you all know first that there is no chance of me competing in Beijing,\" she said. \"The timing is so unfortunate and this makes me more sad than anything.\" It is another shattering setback for 21-year Sharapova who started the year with a brilliant victory at the Australian Open but has since been struggling with injury and loss of form. Wednesday's match in Montreal was her first since a disappointing exit from Wimbledon. \"After the match I knew there was something seriously wrong with my shoulder,\" she added. Sharapova's appearance in the final grand slam of the season at the U.S. Open, which takes place almost immediately after the Beijing Games, must also be in serious doubt. Sharapova joins a growing list of Beijing casualties, including Athens silver medallist Amelie Mauresmo and fellow Frenchwoman Mary Pierce. Meanwhile, Vera Zvonareva will replace Sharapova in the Russian team for Beijing, spokesman Vladimir Kamelzon has confirmed.","highlights":"Maria Sharapova withdraws from the Bejing Olympics due to a shoulder injury .\nRussian star aggravated the injury in three-set win at Rogers Cup Wednesday .\nSharapova now a serious doubt for the final grand slam at Flushing Meadows ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hemant Karkare, Mumbai's slain terror chief, was a shrewd and unflappable investigator whose death is a blow to a police force that has difficult work ahead, his colleagues said this week. Hemant Karkare, left, was killed by gunmen in Mumbai shortly after this video was taken Wednesday. According to accounts in Indian newspapers, Karkare, 54, was credited with solving many crimes and did his job apolitically and with the utmost integrity. \"The state Anti-Terrorism Squad has lost a daredevil officer in Hemant Karkare,\" Peter Lobo, chief inspector of the Anti-Terror Squad in Pune, told The Times of India on Thursday. Karkare, head of Maharashtra state's Anti-Terrorism Squad, was heading home Wednesday when he learned gunmen were attacking the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil told The Hindu newspaper. Karkare later got word the situation at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was more serious. The terror chief and two other officers -- armed with automatic weapons -- jumped in a jeep and rushed to take on the terrorists, The Hindu reported. Watch how victims are coping with the attack \u00bb . Footage from CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN, showed Karkare donning a helmet and putting a bulletproof vest over his light blue shirt as uniformed police officers with firearms and walkie-talkies surrounded him. Watch Karkare's funeral \u00bb . It would be the last video taken of Karkare before terrorists shot him three times in the chest near Cama hospital, the site of another Wednesday attack in Mumbai. \"Though a workaholic, he was a soft-spoken officer. ATS has received a severe blow because of the untimely death of Karkare,\" Lobo told The Times of India before departing Pune to pay his respects to Karkare. Karkare joined the Indian Police Services in 1982. He became head of Maharashtra's Anti-Terror Squad in January after he returned from Austria, where he served seven years in the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency. The post in Austria was testament to his acumen as a police officer, a colleague told The Times of India. \"Due to his excellent ability to handle things, he was posted to the Research and Analysis Wing in Austria. He was like family to me,'' said Bipin Gopalakrishna, who joined the force with Karkare in 1982. According to CNN-IBN, Karkare was credited with solving bombing cases in Thane, Vashi and Panvel and played a key role in cracking the case of the September 29 blast in Malegaon, which reportedly killed six people. He also uncovered several radical Hindu groups operating in Maharashtra, according to media reports. Karkare came under intense political pressure while investigating the Malegaon bombing, and it was widely reported that he warned officers in his command against succumbing to pressure to doctor evidence. \"We should do our job and it is for the court to decide,\" Karkare was quoted in several media outlets as saying. Watch officials speculate on who may be responsible for this week's attacks \u00bb . \"He was simply superb. He could handle any difficult situation boldly and with a cool mind,\" Aurangabad Police Commissioner Thakur Deepaksinh Gaur told The Times of India. Gaur told the paper he had worked with Karkare in Aurangabad and Nanded. Added another Indian Police Services officer: \"His death is a huge loss to our force and society.\" When not on the clock, Karkare was known to enjoy sculpting and could often be found whittling driftwood, The Indian Express reported. He also enjoyed music and dabbled in palm reading, former diplomat T.P. Sreenivasan told The Hindu. \"We used to put him in one of the stalls as an Indian palmist during the annual charity fair organized by the Indian ambassador and he was big hit with the crowd,\" said Sreenivasan, who worked with Karkare in Vienna for five years. Sreenivasan told The Hindu that Karkare -- who had strong credentials in fighting terrorism, corruption and money laundering -- could have earned a post at a U.N. agency in Vienna, but chose instead to return home to serve India. Karkare is well-admired, Sreenivasan told The Hindu, and is survived by a doting family and many friends and admirers. Contacted in Pune, Karkare's brother Shirish found it difficult to speak about his brother's death Thursday. \"He was a father figure for me,\" the younger brother told The Times of India. Shirish's wife Amruta told the newspaper that the anti-terror chief would be laid to rest when his daughters arrived from overseas. The older daughter Jui Navare lives in Boston, Massachusetts, she said, and the younger daughter studies at the London School of Economics. Karkare's son Akash is a student at R.A. Podor College of Commerce and Economics. His wife Kavita teaches at a college in Mumbai, she said.","highlights":"Official tells paper Hemant Karkare was on his way home when he heard of attacks .\nReports: Karkare was shot three times in chest responding to Mumbai attacks .\nColleagues describe terror chief as \"workaholic\" with utmost integrity .\nKarkare had interest in woodworking, music, palm reading, reports say ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Perhaps, now the candidates will play nice. For all their insistence on how unlike they are from one another, the three U.S. presidential candidates share some noteworthy family connections, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has found. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who has made his opposition to the Iraq war a linchpin of his campaign, is distantly related not only to President George W. Bush but also to another wartime leader -- former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Because of his shared ancestry with President Bush, Obama is also indirectly related to his rival on the Republican side, Sen. John McCain. McCain, it turns out, is a sixth cousin of First Lady Laura Bush. Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is related to beatnik author Jack Kerouac, Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England. Clinton also shares ancestors with Grammy Award-winning singers Celine Dion and Madonna. The senator won a Best Spoken Word Grammy for the audio version of her book, \"It Takes a Village.\" Rival Obama also snagged one in the same category for his book \"The Audacity of Hope.\" Conservatives who sometimes accuse Democrats of being in bed with liberal Hollywood elites may have been handed one more round of ammunition by the Society's findings. Clinton, the Society said, is related to Angelina Jolie. And Obama is related to Jolie's boyfriend Brad Pitt. Watch a report on the candidates' family trees and other news \u00bb . The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, says it is the oldest such organization in the country. Members spent three years tracing the lineage of the candidates. Among its other findings: . McCain, the Vietnam War veteran who spent five years as a prisoner of war, descends from a long line of kings: Scottish King William the Lion, English King Edward I and French King Louis VII. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, is \"related to millions of contemporary Americans - perhaps even a significant percentage of the population,\" the researchers said. He is cousins with six U.S presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. He is also linked to American artist Georgia O'Keefe, the Duchess of Windsor and two men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Most surprisingly, Obama -- the man who could become America's first African-American president -- is linked by ancestry to Robert E. Lee, who commanded the armies of the Southern slave-holding states during the American civil war. Bedfellows, it turns out, make for strange politics. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New England Historic Genealogical Society studies candidates' ancestry .\nHillary Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie, Jack Kerouac and Madonna .\nBarack Obama is related to Brad Pitt; John McCain shares a link to Laura Bush ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former Alabama judge accused of checking male inmates out of jail and forcing them to engage in sexual activity was found not guilty Monday on charges of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy and assault, his lawyer said. Attorney Robert Clark said former Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on several charges and the judge in the case granted a directed verdict of acquittal on all the other counts. The Mobile County district attorney did not immediately return CNN calls for comment. Thomas, 48, denied wrongdoing. Clark said on October 20 that the judge was trying to mentor the inmates and did not assault them. The judge does not deny bringing the inmates into his office, Clark said last week. \"He was mentoring them. He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens.\" Thomas cried after the verdicts were read, Clark said Monday. \"He hugged me and he hugged his wife. And he had a courtroom full of supporters. It all worked out in the end,\" the attorney said. One of the alleged victims testified October 19 that he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office by Thomas, according to The Mobile Press-Register newspaper. But he did say Thomas spanked him with a belt on several occasions, the newspaper reported, and that the paddlings took place inside a jury room, in the small office and at a Mobile, Alabama, fraternity house. Another man testified that after he was charged with kidnapping and robbery in 2002, Thomas visited him in jail and urged the man to let Thomas decide the case instead of a jury, according to the Press-Register. Thomas convicted him of lesser charges, he testified, and sentenced him to a 90-day boot camp. He said Thomas also beat him with a belt on his bare buttocks about a dozen times at the courthouse, the newspaper reported. Neither man was identified. \"All of them [the alleged victims] were given preferential treatment at some point,\" Nicki Patterson, chief assistant district attorney for Mobile County, said earlier this month. \"And ultimately, when some of them refused to continue participating [in the activities], they were given what I would view as excessive sentences. But certainly while the inmates were involved with the activities we allege, the state would say, it was extremely lenient sentences.\" Clark said his client's next hurdle is the Alabama State Bar. \"They suspended him back in March because he got indicted. And we're fighting to give him his law license back,\" he said. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Judge Herman Thomas acquitted of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy, assault .\nJudge says he brought inmates to his office to mentor them .\nLawyer: \"He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens\""} -{"article":"She told stories, flirted outrageously with boys and was constantly changing her hairstyle. Anne Frank hid with her family in a secret room at her father Otto Frank's office in Amsterdam. It could be the description of almost any young girl growing up in Europe. But this is how Eva Schloss remembers her childhood friend Anne Frank, who had she not died in a Nazi concentration camp, would have celebrated her 80th birthday this week. Schloss described Frank, whose account of hiding from Jewish persecution in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam is one of the world's mostly widely-read books, as a spunky young schoolgirl with a passion for storytelling that often got her into trouble. \"She got her diary in 1942, so obviously her father knew she was interested in writing and I know she told stories,\" said Schloss. \"She talked a lot and she was called Mrs Quack Quack. Very often she used to write hundreds of lines [at school] of 'I'm not going to talk so much,' and so on -- but obviously she had a lot to tell.\" In some ways the two friends lived parallel lives -- but tragically they had very different outcomes. Watch more about Schloss' story \u00bb . Schloss and Frank both came from Jewish families who fled to Holland to escape the wave of anti-Semitism spreading across Europe as the Nazis rose to power in Germany ahead of the Second World War. But while Schloss was more of an introvert, Frank loved the limelight. Schloss said: \"I was actually quite shy and she was the center of attention. We had steps where we sat, and she had a crowd of children around her. \"She was a big flirt -- she loved boys. She was always showing us who was her boyfriend at that particular time. She was always interested in her clothes. Her style, she always changed it. Sometimes she had curls, then she had straight hair.\" Schloss says they were unaware of the full scale of what was going on around them as war escalated across Europe, placing their lives in increasing jeopardy. \"Our parents really protected us so there was no talk about the horrendous things which happened. \"You couldn't go out anymore after 8 o'clock, but for a 11 to 12 year old it didn't matter so much. Or not going to the cinema -- we were upset about those little things which we couldn't do, but we really didn't really take it seriously at that time.\" Like Frank, Schloss was also forced into hiding when the Nazis took control of Holland. Frank hid with her family in a secret room at her father Otto Frank's office. But Schloss and her family had to split up. Schloss stayed with her mother while her father and brother hid elsewhere. She and her mother moved around, staying in seven different hiding places over a two-year period. Eventually both families were betrayed and were sent to concentration camps, where Frank died at the age of 15. Schloss said: \"My father and brother were betrayed by a Dutch nurse who was a double agent, and all four of us were arrested and taken to the headquarters to be interrogated. \"I didn't know anything, which was a good thing. So eventually they realized this and they gave up torturing me. Within two days we were put on a transport to Auschwitz.\" Of her family, only Schloss and her mother survived Auschwitz, one of the most notorious concentration camps, located in southern Poland. Today Schloss, who has just celebrated her own 80th birthday, has a husband, three daughters and five grandchildren. Schloss says it took her decades to rebuild her life, with the help of Frank's father Otto, who also survived incarceration in a concentration camp. She met Otto in August 1945, when he showed her Frank's diary. Schloss said: \"He read a few passages but he always burst into tears. It took me 20 years. I was really unhappy, but it was Otto who came to our apartment to talk to us, and he helped me a lot. He had lost everybody. \"Her book, she [Frank] made people aware of what happened. There are many messages. She believed in the goodness of mankind. \"People always ask me, what she would have done. I guess we will never know. But I guess she would have gone into politics -- she was a fighter. It's a pity, but also -- maybe her diary would have never been published.\" CNN's Don Riddell contributed to this story.","highlights":"Anne Frank would have celebrated her 80th birthday this week .\nFrank, 15, died at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland .\nHer diary is one of the world's mostly widely-read books .\nLike Frank, Eva Schloss and her family fled from Nazi persecution of the Jews ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder stepped up his call for the passage of federal hate crimes legislation Thursday, arguing that the federal government needs to take a stronger stand against criminal activity fueled by bias and bigotry. Attorney General Eric Holder has been a vocal proponent for tougher laws regarding hate crimes. He also sought to assure opponents that such a bill would not allow Christian clergy to be prosecuted for outspoken opposition to homosexuality. Holder made his remarks during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is currently considering the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill would allow the Justice Department to provide assistance to state and local authorities in the prosecution of hate crimes while also expanding federal protection against hate crimes to cover disability, gender and sexual orientation. \"Hate crimes victimize not only individuals but entire communities,\" Holder said. \"Perpetrators of hate crimes seek to deny the humanity that we all share, regardless of the color of our skin, the God to whom we pray or the person who we choose to love. ...,\" he said. \"The time is now to provide justice to victims of bias-motivated violence and to redouble our efforts to protect our communities from violence based on bigotry and prejudice.\" The attorney general argued that recent numbers \"suggest that hate crimes against certain groups are on the rise, such as individuals of Hispanic national origin.\" Specifically, he said, more than 77,000 hate crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or \"nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade.\" In light of such statistics, he said, it was one of his \"highest personal priorities ... is to do everything I can to ensure this critical legislation finally becomes law.\" Republicans on the Judiciary Committee disputed Holder's assertion that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of hate crimes. They also questioned the need for federal involvement in the prosecution of violent acts -- traditionally a function of state and local governments. They pointed to FBI figures showing a slight decline from 7,755 hate crimes reported in 1998 to 7,624 in 2007, the most recently compiled statistics. It is \"important to know (if) we have a problem of significant numbers of (hate crime) cases ... not being prosecuted in state and local governments,\" said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the committee. \"Murders occur all over America every day. Robberies, assaults, rapes, burglaries occur every day, and those are handled by our state and local jurisdictions. ... They do a pretty good job.\" When pressed, Holder acknowledged he had no hard evidence of trends showing the problem getting worse, nor that states are not prosecuting cases based on their own state hate crimes statutes. The attorney general insisted, however, that the issue should be viewed more broadly. \"It seems to me this is a question of conscience,\" Holder argued. He emphasized that the bill is designed to give special protections to groups that historically have been victims solely based on who they are. Holder added that while state and local governments generally do a good job prosecuting violent crimes, there is nevertheless a need for the federal government to serve as a \"backstop\" on occasion, particularly if localities lack the resources for an effective investigation or prosecution. \"There are instances where the (federal) government needs to come in,\" he said. He also asserted that any federal hate crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs. \"It is the person who commits the actual act of violence, who would be subject to this legislation, not the person who is simply expressing an opinion,\" Holder said. Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate crimes law could be used to criminalize speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. The attorney general has been a vocal proponent of federal hate crimes legislation since his tenure in the Clinton Justice Department. Last week, in a speech on civil rights, he cited three recent fatal shootings in calling for stricter hate crimes laws. \"The violence in Washington, Little Rock and Wichita reminds us of the potential threat posed by violent extremists and the tragedy that ensues when reasoned discourse is replaced by armed confrontation,\" he said. Holder was referring to the shooting death of a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, allegedly by a self-avowed white supremacist; the shooting of two U.S. soldiers in Little Rock, Arkansas, allegedly by a man prosecutors say was targeting the U.S. military for its treatment of Muslims; and the slaying of a doctor who ran a women's clinic in Wichita, Kansas, allegedly by an abortion opponent. CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report .","highlights":"Bill would expand scope of federal protection against hate crimes .\nEric Holder says hate crimes against certain groups, such as Hispanics, on the rise .\nRepublicans on Senate panel dispute assertion of increase in hate crimes .\nSome religious groups worry law could be used to criminalize speech ."} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- The five remaining defendants in the racially charged \"Jena Six\" case will appear in court Friday and are expected to enter a plea, a spokesman for the district attorney's office said. Protesters converged on the small Louisiana town in September 2007 after the \"Jena 6\" were charged. Bill Furlow, spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, declined to say whether the defendants will plead guilty. \"It's not a done deal until it's a done deal,\" he said. In December 2006, six African-American teenagers were charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy in the beating of a white classmate. The incident followed months of racial tension in the community of about 3,000 people. Jena, Louisiana, is about 140 miles southeast of Shreveport in the north-central part of the state. The case drew national attention from civil rights groups, who argued that the charges were excessive. An estimated 15,000-plus demonstrators turned out for a rally on behalf of the teens: Carwin Jones, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Mychal Bell. The charges were eventually reduced. Bell pleaded guilty to battery in a juvenile court and moved to Monroe, Louisiana. In January, Bell said he had attempted suicide the month before by shooting himself in the chest but was recovering. Friday's hearing is set for 1:30 p.m.","highlights":"\"It's not a done deal until it's a done deal,\" spokesman says .\n6 teens charged in December 2006 with beating a white classmate .\nIncident followed months of racial tension in town of about 3,000 people .\nOne of the the \"Jena 6\" pleaded guilty to battery in juvenile court this year ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- President George W. Bush called India's prime minister Thursday to push a proposed nuclear partnership that sparked an unsuccessful no-confidence vote against the Indian leader this week, a White House spokesman said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a confidence vote despite opposition to the nuclear deal. \"Both leaders expressed their desire to see the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible,\" Gordon Johndroe said. The phone call took place two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh narrowly survived the no-confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament. The vote was sparked by concerns from the opposition that India was kowtowing to the U.S. The tentative deal was announced in 2006 and signed by Bush and Singh a year ago. Under the agreement, which will need to be approved by the U.S. Congress, India would have access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology for its civilian nuclear power plants. That would happen even though New Delhi, which tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998, has declined to join international non-proliferation agreements. In return, India has promised that it would not transfer the fuel and equipment to its weapons program, and it would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect at least 14 of its 22 nuclear plants. The plan would also expand U.S.-Indian cooperation in energy and satellite technology. The plan was approved by India's Cabinet last year, and does not have to be ratified by the parliament. The leaders of India's two communist parties -- which hold about 60 seats in Parliament -- have accused Singh of surrendering India's sovereignty to the United States with the deal. A no-confidence vote would have forced Singh to resign, and required the government to hold early elections unless a new coalition could have been formed. The Congress Party-led coalition has governed India since 2004. Tuesday's 275-256 vote was so crucial to the survival of Singh's government that five members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to cast votes -- under the watchful eyes of their jailers. Shortly after Singh survived the vote, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino praised the deal as \"a good one for everybody.\" \"It's good for India because it would help provide them a source for energy that they need, one that is nonpolluting and one that doesn't emit greenhouse gas emissions,\" she said. \"And we think that we can move forward with this. If their legislature lets it move forward, then we can do the same here and then we'll be able to get this wrapped up.\"","highlights":"President Bush calls India's PM to push a proposed nuclear partnership .\nIndian government won confidence vote in face of anger over U.S. nuclear deal .\nFive members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to vote ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will leave her post by noon on January 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn in to office. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has resigned effective January 20. In an e-mail to the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, outgoing HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt asked Gerberding and several other senior officials from his team to submit their letters of resignation. \"She did so, and it was accepted, and it is effective January 20,\" CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter said. Leavitt explained his move this way: \"The next phase of Transition involves the departure of our team on January 20, and the arrival of President-elect Obama's team later that day,\" his e-mail said. \"In order to create a clear path for leadership transition, I am attaching a list of senior leaders who will become the acting heads of their respective agencies and offices (or in some cases, remain as heads of their respective agencies and offices) until the new administration appoints individuals to various leadership positions.\" In addition to the change at CDC, Assistant HHS Secretary Charlie Johnson will serve as acting secretary, Leavitt said. CDC's Chief Operating Officer William H. Gimson III will take over as interim director at the agency until the next HHS secretary appoints a new one, the e-mail added. Gimson and Gerberding were traveling and unavailable for comment.","highlights":"Dr. Julie Gerberding will leave her post by noon on January 20 .\nOutgoing HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt asked her for resignation .\nChief Operating Officer William H. Gimson III will take over as interim director ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Rev. James Orange, a civil rights activist whose 1965 jailing sparked a fatal protest that ultimately led to the famed Selma-to-Montgomery march and the Voting Rights Act, died Saturday at Atlanta's Crawford Long Hospital, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said in a statement. He was 65. Orange was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, \"who resided in southwest Atlanta for four decades while fighting the good fight for equality and social justice for all mankind,\" said the SCLC, a civil rights organization. Orange was arrested and jailed in Perry County, Alabama, in 1965 on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors for enlisting students to aid in voting rights drives. As rumors spread that Orange would be lynched, civil rights activists organized a march to support him. However, the marchers clashed with Alabama state troopers during the February 18 demonstration, and a young black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot in the stomach. \"I could hear the singing and the commotion,\" Orange told CNN last year. \"Once the tear gas was flying and the shots started, I couldn't tell what was going on.\" Jackson, 26, died eight days later. Witnesses said Jackson's grandfather, who was active in the voting rights movement, had been beaten by troopers, and Jackson was trying to get him to the hospital. The anger resulting from Jackson's death led civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to organize the Selma-to-Montgomery, Alabama, voting rights march. The first attempt at that march was broken up by club-wielding state troopers and sheriff's deputies, a melee that became known as \"Bloody Sunday.\" \"Jimmie's death is the reason that Bloody Sunday took place,\" Orange said. \"Had he not died, there would never have been a Bloody Sunday.\" On the marchers' third attempt, in March, they made it to Montgomery. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in August 1965. In May 2007, a former Alabama state trooper, James B. Fowler, now 74, was indicted in Jackson's shooting, one of several cases involving the deaths of civil rights activists that prosecutors have revived in recent years. Fowler has claimed he shot Jackson in self-defense, but Orange and Elijah Rollins, who was upstairs at a nearby cafe when the shooting took place, last year disputed claims that protesters were throwing rocks and bottles at police. \"Not one bottle or brick was thrown back at the troopers,\" said Orange, adding that film and a Justice Department report back that up. He said he was glad Jackson's case had \"never been forgotten.\" Orange was a project coordinator at the SCLC from 1965 to 1970, then later became a regional coordinator with the AFL-CIO in Atlanta, the SCLC said. Since 1995, he had served as the founder and general coordinator for the M.L. King Jr. March Committee-Africa\/African American Renaissance Committee, Inc., which coordinated commemorative events honoring King and also promoted industry and commerce among Atlanta, the United States and South Africa. Orange is survived by his wife, five children and two grandchildren, the SCLC said. Funeral arrangements were incomplete Saturday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Orange jailed in Alabama in 1965 for getting students to help voting rights drives .\nIn march to support him, a man was killed, leading to 'Bloody Sunday,' famed march .\nAfter successful Selma-to-Montgomery march, Voting Rights Act signed into law ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities searched a church near where an 8-year-old California girl was found dead Monday in the hopes of finding clues that would lead to her killer. Mourners leave condolences for Sandra Cantu, who was found dead on April 6 in Tracy, California. The body of Sandra Cantu of Tracy, California, was found stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond. Cantu had been missing since March 27. Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told CNN's Nancy Grace he would not elaborate on what evidence led them to Clover Road Baptist Church. He would say only that detectives developed probable cause that persuaded a judge to sign a search warrant. Lane Lawless, the church's pastor, told CNN affiliate KCRA he was questioned for about three hours by police, adding that he had nothing to do with Cantu's disappearance or death. \"We have fully cooperated with the police,\" Lawless told KCRA. \"We have answered all their questions.\" Authorities also searched the mobile home park Tuesday where the girl lived. Watch report on murder investigation \u00bb . \"Investigators are looking at additional information they received since yesterday (Monday) and, hopefully, that will lead us to Sandra's killers,\" Sheneman said. Asked if his use of the plural meant police were looking for more than one person, Sheneman responded, \"We have no specific suspects.\" Watch Sheneman say there has not been an arrest in the case \u00bb . Sheneman also implied the killer likely was familiar with the location where the body was found. He said he himself was unfamiliar with the location where the girl's body was found, despite having lived in the community for nearly 12 years. \"Someone would have to be familiar with that area to know to go there,\" he said. Watch how the suitcase was found \u00bb . Sheneman said police had no one in custody, despite having interviewed hundreds of people regarding the case. \"Everyone that we speak to right now is being considered a person of interest,\" he said. \"We're not eliminating anyone.\" The autopsy was being conducted Tuesday, but it was not clear when the report would be available. \"It's going to be some time before we hear from the coroner,\" Sheneman said. \"I can't tell you when that's going to be.\" More than 10 search warrants have been executed as part of the investigation and \"a lot\" of evidence has been recovered, Sheneman said. The day Cantu was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman. Police said Monday the girl's clothing helped them identify the body.","highlights":"NEW: Police search church near mobile park home where Sandra Cantu lived .\nPolice would not say what evidence led to search of church .\nCantu was found in suitcase in a pond near her California home .\nCantu had been missing since March 27 ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal safety officials want the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately ground a type of small sports aircraft, saying six of the planes have broken up in flight in the past three years, killing 10 people. The National Transportation Safety Board questions the safety of the Zodiac CH-601XL. In an urgent letter to the FAA, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board says there is \"substantial circumstantial evidence\" that aerodynamic \"flutter\" preceded some, if not all, of the fatal accidents, and that more accidents are likely to occur if action isn't taken. Flutter is a condition in which airflow around the plane causes unsafe structural vibrations. The vibrations can quickly cause the plane to break up if it is not sufficiently dampened, the safety board said. The aircraft involved is the Zodiac CH-601XL, a single-engine, two-seater that was designed by Zenair Inc. It is built by various manufacturers and also sold as a kit. In making its recommendation, the safety board said it reviewed six fatal accidents, including crashes in Spain and the Netherlands, and said flutter is the likely cause of the accidents. The board said it also considered other incidents that did not result in deaths. The NTSB said two other countries, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, have grounded the aircraft. The FAA had no immediate response to the safety board's recommendation. A Zenair official did not immediately return a reporter's phone call. But the NTSB letter says Zenair contends that the flutter problem can be addressed by proper cable tension, and asserted that a November 2005 certification flight test confirmed the plane is protected from flutter. But the safety board said the type of testing used may not be adequate to uncover all susceptibility to flutter. The NTSB said the FAA certified the CH-601XL as a Special Light Sport Aircraft in 2005. This type of certification does not require that the FAA approve the airplane's design. Instead, the airplane model is issued an airworthiness certificate if the manufacturer asserts that the plane meets industry-accepted design standards and has passed a series of ground and flight tests. The safety board is asking the FAA to prohibit further flight of the Zodiac CH-601XL until the board can determine that the airplane is no longer susceptible to aerodynamic flutter. \"The NTSB does not often recommend that all airplanes of a particular type be prohibited from further flight,\" NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said in writing comments. \"In this case, we believe such action will save lives. \"Unless the safety issues with this particular Zodiac model are addressed, we are likely to see more accidents in which pilots and passengers are killed in airplanes that they believed were safe to fly.\" The safety board also found that the stick-force gradient -- a measure of the force applied to the control stick and the increase in lift that results -- was not uniform throughout the range of motion, particularly at high vertical accelerations or increased gravitational forces. The lessening of the gradient at high gravitational force could make the airplane susceptible to being inadvertently over-controlled by the pilot, which could create a condition in which the airplane is stressed beyond its design limits, leading to an in-flight structural failure. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"National Transportation Safety Board questions safety of the Zodiac CH-601XL .\nOfficials: Six planes have broken up in flight in past three years, killing 10 people .\nZenair, designer of plane, has said proper cable tension addresses issue .\nFAA had no immediate response to the safety board's recommendation ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001. In an exclusive, CNN talked with President Obama in Ghana about his order to review alleged deaths of Taliban. \"The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention,\" Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview during the president's visit to Ghana. The full interview will air 10 p.m. Monday. \"So what I've asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up,\" Obama said. The inquiry stems from the deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners who had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001. The fighters were in the custody of troops led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Afghan warlord who has served as chief of staff of the country's post-Taliban army. Dostum, a former communist union boss and militia leader who fought against the U.S.-backed mujahedeen in the 1980s, is known for switching sides as Afghanistan's political conflict has evolved. When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Dostum sided with the Americans and received military and CIA support to battle the Taliban. The allegations against him first surfaced in a 2002 Newsweek report, which cited a confidential U.N. memo saying the prisoners died in cramped container trucks while being transported from their Konduz stronghold in northern Afghanistan to Sheberghan prison, west of Dostum's stronghold at Mazar-e Sharif. At the time, the Boston, Massachusetts-based group Physicians for Human Rights said it found a mass grave in nearby Dasht-e Leili, where witnesses said the bodies of Taliban prisoners were buried. The finding prompted U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion of Afghanistan, to support an investigation into the allegations. But The New York Times, citing government officials and human rights organizations, reported Friday that the Bush administration \"repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode.\" State Department officials recently have tried to derail Dostum's reappointment as military chief of staff to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the newspaper reported, citing several senior officials who suggested the administration \"might not be hostile to an inquiry.\" Dostum, a key ally of Karzai, was reportedly living in exile in Turkey until last month, when he was reinstated to his post as defense minister. He had left Afghanistan over allegations that he had kidnapped Akbar Bai, a former ally turned political rival. When asked by CNN about whether Obama would support an investigation, the president replied, \"I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war. And if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of laws of war, then I think that, you know, we have to know about that.\" Watch part of CNN's exclusive interview with the president \u00bb . Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, on Sunday praised Obama \"for ordering his national security team to collect all the facts in the Dasht-e-Leili massacre and apparent U.S. cover-up.\" \"U.S. military and intelligence personnel were operating jointly and accepted the surrender of the prisoners jointly with General Dostum's forces in northern Afghanistan,\" Sirkin said earlier in the week. \"The Obama administration has a legal obligation to determine what U.S. officials knew, where U.S. personnel were, what involvement they had, and the actions of US allies during and after the massacre. These questions, nearly eight years later, remain unanswered.\"","highlights":"Allegations: Bush administration resisted inquiry into CIA-backed Afghan warlord .\nInquiry stems from alleged deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners under warlord .\nGen. Dostum has served as chief of staff of Afghanistan's post-Taliban army .\nObama: \"There are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war\""} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Had this custody drama played out in the United States, Christopher Savoie might be considered a hero -- snatching his two little children back from an ex-wife who defied the law and ran off with them. A Tennessee court awarded Christopher Savoie custody of his son, Isaac, and daughter, Rebecca. But this story unfolds 7,000 miles away in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, where the U.S. legal system holds no sway. And here, Savoie sits in jail, charged with the abduction of minors. And his Japanese ex-wife -- a fugitive in the United States for taking his children from Tennessee -- is considered the victim. \"Japan is an important partner and friend of the U.S., but on this issue, our points of view differ,\" the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Tuesday. \"Our two nations approach divorce and child-rearing differently. Parental child abduction is not considered a crime in Japan.\" The story begins in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee, with the January divorce of Savoie from his first wife, Noriko, a Japanese native. The ex-wife had agreed to live in Franklin to be close to the children, taking them to Japan for summer vacations. Savoie in March requested a restraining order to prevent his ex-wife from taking the children to Japan, saying she had threatened to do so, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate WTVF and posted on the station's Web site. A temporary order was issued, but then lifted following a hearing. \"If Mother fails to return to Tennessee [after summer vacation] with the children following her visitation period, she could lose her alimony, child support and education fund, which is added assurance to Father that she is going to return with the children,\" Circuit Court Judge James G. Martin III noted in his order on the matter. After that ruling, Christopher Savoie tried to have Martin recuse himself, as he was a mediator in the case prior to becoming a judge, said Marlene Eskind Moses, Noriko Savoie's attorney. But that request was denied, as Savoie earlier said he had no concerns about Martin hearing the matter. Following the summer trip, Noriko Savoie did return to the United States, and Christopher Savoie then took the children on a vacation, returning them to his ex-wife, his attorney, Paul Bruno, told CNN. Watch latest report on Savoie's situation \u00bb . But days later, on the first day of classes for 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca, the school called Savoie to say his children hadn't arrived, Bruno said. Police checked Noriko Savoie's home and did not find the children. Concerned, Savoie called his ex-wife's father in Japan, who told him not to worry. \"I said, 'What do you mean -- don't worry? They weren't at school.' 'Oh, don't worry, they are here,' \" Savoie recounted the conversation to CNN affiliate WTVF earlier this month. \"I said, 'They are what, they are what, they are in Japan?' \" The very thing that Savoie had predicted in court papers had happened -- his wife had taken their children to Japan and showed no signs of returning, Bruno said. After Noriko Savoie took the children to Japan, Savoie filed for and received full custody of the children, Bruno said. And Franklin police issued an arrest warrant for his ex-wife, the television station reported. But there was a major hitch: Japan is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on international child abduction. The international agreement standardizes laws, but only among participating countries. So while Japanese civil law stresses that courts resolve custody issues based on the best interest of the children without regard to either parent's nationality, foreign parents have had little success in regaining custody. Japanese family law follows a tradition of sole custody divorces. When a couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children. In court documents filed in May, Noriko Savoie denied that she was failing to abide by the terms of the couple's court-approved parenting plan or ignoring court-appointed parent coordinators. She added she was \"concerned about the stability of Father, his extreme antagonism towards Mother and the effect of this on the children.\" Noriko Savoie could not be reached by CNN for comment. Bruno said he helped Christopher Savoie pursue legal remedies to recover the children, working with police, the FBI and the State Department. \"We tried to do what we could to get the kids back,\" Bruno said. \"There was not a whole lot we can do.\" \"Our court system failed him,\" said Diane Marshall, a court-appointed parent coordinator who helped Savoie make decisions about the children. \"It's just a mess.\" But Moses, Noriko Savoie's attorney, told CNN that the children's father had other legal options. The International Association for Parent-Child Reunion, formed in Japan this year, claims to know of more than 100 cases of children abducted by non-custodial Japanese parents. And the U.S. State Department says it is not aware of a single case in which a child taken from the United States to Japan has been ordered returned by Japanese courts -- even when the left-behind parent has a U.S. custody decree. Facing such statistics and the possibility of never seeing his kids again, Savoie took matters into his own hands. He flew to Fukuoka. And as his ex-wife walked the two children to school Monday morning, Savoie drove alongside them. He grabbed the kids, forced them into his car, and drove off, said police in Fukuoka. Watch CNN panel discuss Savoie's legal options \u00bb . He headed for the U.S. consulate in that city to try to obtain passports for Isaac and Rebecca. But Japanese police, alerted by Savoie's ex-wife, were waiting. Consulate spokeswoman Tracy Taylor said she heard a scuffle outside the doors of the consulate. She ran up and saw a little girl and a man, whom police were trying to talk to. Eventually, police took Savoie away, charging him with the abduction of minors -- a charge that carries a jail sentence of up to five years. Bruno said if the situation were reversed and a Japanese parent had abducted a Japanese child and fled to America, U.S. courts would \"correct that problem, because it's a crime.\" He said he has \"concerns about Japan ... providing a place for people to abduct children and go to. The parent left behind does not have recourse.\" He added, \"the president and his administration should do something to correct this.\" The consulate met with Savoie on Monday and Tuesday, Taylor said. It has provided him with a list of local lawyers and said it will continue to assist. Meanwhile, the international diplomacy continues. During the first official talks between the United States and Japan's new government, the issue of parental abductions was raised. But it is anybody's guess what happens next to Savoie, who sits in a jail cell. CNN's Kyung Lah in Tokyo, Japan, and Aaron Cooper, Saeed Ahmed and Carolina Sanchez in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-wife's attorney says dad had other legal options besides grabbing kids .\nAmerican dad tries to snatch children from ex-wife who took them to Japan .\nShe is a fugitive in Tennessee, but has broken no law in Japan .\nFather, who has legal custody in U.S., charged in Japan with abduction ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Nearly all healthy pregnant women who receive a single dose of the H1N1 flu vaccine will be protected from that flu, according to just-released clinical trial data. In a news conference Monday at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said out of about 100 pregnant women who participated in trial studies, over 90 percent showed a robust immune response to a single 15-microgram dose of the H1N1 vaccine. And at this point, there have been no reported side effects, Fauci said. Fauci stressed that these results should be reassuring for already-vaccinated pregnant women and this is \"vital information for those who have not yet been vaccinated.\" He added that \"pregnant women have tolerated the vaccine well, and no safety concerns have arisen.\" Pregnant women are considered to be among the highest at risk for serious complications of this new flu strain. Since H1N1, also known as swine flu, first emerged in April, 28 pregnant women reportedly have died from complications of this flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Despite health officials repeatedly saying the H1N1 vaccine is safe, questions about it persist. To reassure those who question the safety of the vaccine, Dr. Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program Office, noted that a new independent panel has been formed to review data from all sources on the safety of the vaccine. The group will monitor all sources reporting problems with the vaccine. \"The vast amount of adverse events have been minor,\" said Gellin. He said there has been one reported death linked to the vaccine, but further investigation showed that the person died from the actual H1N1 flu, not the vaccine. Gellin said the panel was designed to keep an eye on any possible negative consequences and report them immediately. According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, who also attended the news conference, 30 million doses of the vaccine are available for states to order. She explained that that does not mean 30 million shots are available to the public at this point. The vaccines need to be ordered by each state and distributed before they make it to doctor's offices and clinics. Schuchat reassured the public that more vaccines would be made available within the next few weeks, as demand for shots continues to rise. Fauci also noted further studies on children -- youngsters between the ages of 6 months to 35 months, and children from the age of 3 years to 9 years -- found they responded much better to two 15-microgram doses of the vaccine, than one single dose. For children 9 and older, a single 15-microgram dose gave young people a robust immune reaction that should protect them against the virus. When asked how this H1N1 virus differed from the seasonal flu, Schuchat said they were at opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to high-risk patients. \"With seasonal flu,\" said Schuchat, \"Ninety percent of the deaths every year are in people over the age of 65.\" She noted, \"But with H1N1, 90 percent of the deaths, thus far, have been in people under the age of 65.\" And she added, \"half of those are under the age of 25 years, in young people. So those are the people we want to get our message to. Children, pregnant women, young people should be getting vaccinated.\" Fauci agreed saying, \"You need to look at the risk ... Right now, the risk of becoming seriously ill, even dying from this virus, outweighs the risk of something happening to you if you take the vaccine. It's really that simple.\" CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Over 90% of women in study showed robust response to one 15-microgram dose .\nDr. Anthony Fauci: Vaccine is safe and effective in pregnant women .\nYoung people and pregnant women have shown to be vulnerable to H1N1 flu .\nChildren 9 and younger have responded better to two doses of the vaccine ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Six days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday and challenged U.S. lawmakers to tear down other walls. \"Today's generation needs to prove that it can meet the challenges of the 21st century. In a sense, we are able to tear down walls of today,\" she said. What that means, Merkel said, is \"creating freedom and security, creating prosperity and justice. And it means protecting our planet.\" Merkel, the first German chancellor to address a joint meeting of Congress, emphasized the need for an agreement on global warming. \"Icebergs are melting in the Arctic. In Africa, people become refugees because their environment has been destroyed,\" she said. \"We need an agreement on one objective: Global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius.\" She said she hopes that agreement will be reached at a the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month. Merkel also touched on the global financial crisis, saying that the \"near collapse of the markets has shown what happens when there is no underpinning order.\" \"A globalized economy needs a global order ... a global framework of rules,\" she said. \"Without global rules and transparency and supervision, we will not gain more freedom, but rather risk the abuse of freedom and thus risk instability.\" Merkel also recalled her years in East Germany before the wall fell. The United States, \"the land of unlimited opportunity was for me, for a long time, impossible to reach,\" she said. \"The wall, barbed wire and the order to shoot at those who tried to leave limited my access to the free world,\" she said. Merkel said she and her countrymen owed the United States for its friendship and support. \"To put it in just one sentence, I know, we Germans know, how much we owe to you, our American friends, and I personally shall never ever forget this,\" she said. Earlier, President Obama welcomed Merkel and thanked her for her country's \"sacrifice\" in Afghanistan. He also called her a leader on the issue of climate change. He said her opportunity to speak to the joint meeting of Congress was a \"great honor.\" \"It is, I think, a very appropriate honor that's been bestowed on Chancellor Merkel,\" he said. In 1957, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer addressed the House and Senate separately, Merkel said.","highlights":"Angela Merkel is first German chancellor to address a joint meeting of Congress .\nShe stressed protecting the planet, need for an agreement on global warming .\nMerkel: Near collapse of the markets shows what happens when there is no order ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Emmy-winning Patrick McGoohan, the actor who created one of British television's most surreal thrillers, has died aged 80, according to British media reports. Fans holding placards of Patrick McGoohan recreate a scene from 'The Prisoner' to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the show in 2007. The Press Association, quoting his son-in-law Cleve Landsberg, reported he died in Los Angeles after a short illness. McGoohan, star of the 1960s show 'The Danger Man,' is best remembered for writing and starring in 'The Prisoner' about a former spy locked away in an isolated village who tries to escape each episode. The Internet Movie Data Base Web site says the \"mysterious final episode caused such an uproar that McGoohan was to desert England for more than 20 years.\" In a long career in TV and movies, he was King Edward Longshanks in 'Braveheart,' and he won two Emmys for work on the 'Columbo' series starring Peter Falk. He also did a voiceover on 'The Simpsons' cartoon of his character in 'The Prisoner.' He was born in Astoria, New York to Irish emigrants but the family returned to Ireland shortly afterwards. McGoohan was raised in Ireland and England.","highlights":"Actor Patrick McGoohan dies age 80, media reports .\nMcGoohan best-known for creating and starring in 'The Prisoner' TV series .\nHe was an Emmy winning actor whose TV and Movie career spanned six decades ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The head of the U.N. Children's Fund has expressed concern over a Saudi judge's refusal for a second time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. UNICEF's Ann Veneman said consent cannot be free if either party is too young to make an informed decision. \"Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights,\" said Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF. \"The right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision.\" The most recent ruling, in which the judge upheld his original verdict, was handed down Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza, where late last year the same judge rejected a petition from the girl's mother, seeking a divorce for her daughter. Have your say by clicking here . A relative said the judge, Sheikh Habib al-Habib, \"stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty.\" The family member, who requested anonymity, added that the mother will continue to pursue a divorce for her daughter. The case, which has drawn criticism from local and international rights groups, came to light in December when al-Habib declined to annul the marriage on a legal technicality. The judge ruled that the girl's mother -- who is separated from her father -- was not the girl's legal guardian and therefore could not represent her in court, Abdullah al-Jutaili, the mother's attorney, told CNN at the time. The girl's father, according to the lawyer, arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, who is a close friend of his. At the time of the initial verdict, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, al-Jutaili told CNN. The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said. Last month, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to him for reconsideration. Under the complicated Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect, but that a challenge to the marriage was still ongoing. The appeals court in Riyadh will now take up the case again and a hearing is scheduled for next month, according to the relative. The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom recently. While rights groups have petitioned the government for laws to protect children from such marriages, the kingdom's top cleric has said that it's OK for girls as young as 10 to wed. \"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger,\" Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in remarks last January, according to the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. \"A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong, and they are being unfair to her.\" Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry. \"We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls,\" he said, according to the newspaper. \"We should know that sharia law has not brought injustice to women.\" Sharia law is Islamic law. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism. CNN was unable to reach government officials for comment. Christoph Wilcke, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told CNN in December that his organization has heard of many other cases of child marriages. \"We've been hearing about these types of cases once every four or five months because the Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger -- especially so when girls are traded off to older men,\" Wilcke said. Wilcke said that although Saudi ministries might make decisions designed to protect children, \"It is still the religious establishment that holds sway in the courts, and in many realms beyond the court.\" In December, Zuhair al-Harithi, a spokesman for the Saudi government-run Human Rights Commission, said his organization is fighting against child marriages. \"The Human Rights Commission opposes child marriages in Saudi Arabia,\" al-Harithi said. \"Child marriages violate international agreements that have been signed by Saudi Arabia and should not be allowed.\" He added that his organization has been able to intervene and stop at least one child marriage from taking place. Wajeha al-Huwaider, co-founder of the Society of Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, told CNN that achieving human rights in the kingdom means standing against those who want to \"keep us backward and in the dark ages.\" She said the marriages cause girls to \"lose their sense of security and safety. Also, it destroys their feeling of being loved and nurtured. It causes them a lifetime of psychological problems and severe depression.\"","highlights":"UNICEF: Marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights .\nJudge said girl could petition \"once she reaches puberty,\" relative tells CNN .\nGirl's father arranged her marriage to a 47-year-old to settle debts, lawyer says .\nGirl's mother says she will continue to seek daughter's divorce ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An attorney for convicted Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, who is scheduled to be executed November 10, will seek clemency from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on October 22. John Allen Muhammad listen to testimony from victims' relatives during his 2004 sentencing. Jonathan Sheldon said he will also file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on November 2. He posted the dates Tuesday on his law firm's Web site. During a three-week period in October 2002, police say, Muhammad and young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo shot 13 people, killing 10. Malvo, who was 17 at the time, was convicted in one shooting and was sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad is to be executed for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Virginia, gas station. Meyers was killed by a single bullet, which became the signature of the two-person sniper team. Kaine told CNN affiliate WTOP Radio during its \"Ask the Governor\" program last month that he couldn't imagine a circumstance under which he would grant clemency. \"I know of nothing in this case that would suggest that there is any credible claim of innocence or that there was anything procedurally wrong with the prosecution,\" Kaine said. Under Virginia law, condemned prisoners can choose to die by electric chair or by lethal injection. If the inmate does not state a preference, he or she is executed by lethal injection.","highlights":"John Allen Muhammad is to be executed November 10 for a Virginia slaying .\nPolice say Muhammad and an accomplice killed 10 people in October 2002 .\nGov. Tim Kaine has said he couldn't imagine a circumstance for clemency .\nOn his firm's Web site, attorney says he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elvis Presley. Marilyn Monroe. Jim Morrison. Officials won't say where Michael Jackson was buried, but family gathered at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Their graves are public shrines for fans and followers. Countless people from all over the world make pilgrimages to their burial sites, hoping to draw close to those they adored from afar. Now Michael Jackson's gravesite will become the next holy grail. A private gathering for the pop icon was held Tuesday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California. Afterward, his casket was taken to the public memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But it remains unclear whether his body has been interred -- or where. Officials at Forest Lawn won't disclose where Jackson's body is being buried. If his final resting place is at Forest Lawn, fans who wish to visit will have to overcome the funeral company's stringent security patrols. A Los Angeles Police Department official told CNN that the force hoped Jackson would be buried outside of its jurisdiction for fear officers might be assigned to protect the grave for months. There has been some speculation that Jackson's body will eventually be moved to Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County, California. But that would require the family to obtain zoning exemptions and settle legal disputes, which could take years. Jackson retained only a small share of ownership in the ranch. If a public memorial were created at Neverland -- or anywhere -- it might easily surpass the tombs of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley as the most-visited gravesite. \"If it gets moved somewhere more public, I think a lot of people will come visit,\" said Steve Goldstein, author of L.A.'s Gravesite Companion: Where the VIP's RIP. \"He'll probably take over as the most visited grave site over Marilyn.\" Fame follows celebrities in life and in death. \"There's always a fascination with celebrities, but it's rude to stalk people and sit outside their houses,\" says Jim Tipton, founder of findagrave.com, a site that lists the grave records of more than 34 million celebrities and ordinary citizens. \"But once they are interred into the ground, anyone who wants to go can go.\" Tipton's fascination with locating earthly remains began 15 years ago, when he saw mobster Al Capone's grave in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. He and many others who are avid about visiting celebrity and historical graves dub themselves \"grave hunters.\" They seek the dead for various reasons. Some go out of simple curiosity. Others are history lovers. Many are fans who deeply admired the stars. Some say they feel a connection to the celebrities by standing beside their graves. At Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, guests visiting the grave can stay at the retro Heartbreak Hotel and visit the museum to learn more about the King of Rock and Roll. Westwood Memorial Park and Cemetery in Los Angeles houses Hollywood notables including sex symbol Marilyn Monroe and comic Rodney Dangerfield. The most recent celebrity to be buried there is actress Farrah Fawcett, who died of cancer last month. Visitors can access the cemetery easily, and even tour buses drop by. \"I'm a product of that era, of Charlie's Angels,\" said Jayne Osborne, a self-proclaimed grave hunter who visited Fawcett's grave a week ago. The 48-year-old education administrator began searching for celebrity graves in the early 1970s. Since then, she's visited hundreds of celebrity resting places in Southern California. \"I wanted to pay my respect.\" At Westwood, the most popular grave site remains Monroe's. Fans often decorate her grave with flowers and cards. Her headstone is slightly darker than the others from so many fans touching it, grave hunters say. In P\u00e8re-Lachaise, the largest cemetery in Paris, France, American singer Jim Morrison's grave is tattooed with graffiti and artwork. Morrison fans like to leave candles, poems and gifts as tokens of appreciation. At one point, fans were so rowdy that a stone block was put in place in an attempt to seal the grave from fans trying to unearth it. After unsuccessful attempts by French authorities to move the tomb to another site, security officers were placed at the grave. Similar trouble plagued Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, where members of the Allman Brothers Band were buried in the early 1970s. Thousands of fans journeyed to visit the graves and party there, leaving behind cigarette butts and empty alcohol bottles. Relatives fought to have an iron fence erected around the graves. Some celebrity graves prove tempting to visitors, like that of heartthrob actor James Dean. His headstone in a public cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana, has been stolen twice. Forest Lawn Memorial Park remains one of the most exclusive Hollywood burial sites. The staff is tight lipped, refusing to release the whereabouts of anyone buried there, except to family members. Security cars constantly patrol the grounds. \"We don't advocate or promote any visitation out of respect for the privacy of the family,\" said William Martin, a spokesman for company. Company officials wouldn't say whether Jackson's body was, or could be, tucked into one of the cemetery's locked gardens where celebrities like Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow and Sammy Davis Jr. are laid to rest. If Jackson is buried in Forest Lawn, that won't stop fans and grave hunters from trying to sneak in, says Karen Fogarty, a paralegal from the San Fernando Valley area in California and an occasional celebrity grave hunter. \"It's going to keep Forest Lawn on their toes,\" she said.","highlights":"Celebrities' graves become public shrines for fans and followers .\nGrave hunters say people will try visit Michael Jackson's burial site .\nForest Lawn Memorial Park employees won't say whether Jackson's body is there .\nFuneral company has stringent security patrols."} -{"article":"ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (CNN) -- The acrimony from the Republican campaign trail carried over quickly into the CNN\/YouTube GOP presidential debate Wednesday. The debate marked the first time the candidates had faced off on the same stage in over a month. With five weeks to go until the first contest of the 2008 nominating season, the Republican candidates engaged in a free-for-all, trying to differentiate their views on immigration, the Iraq war, abortion, gun control and even whether they believed every word in the Bible was true. Unlike previous debates in which the candidates focused most of their attacks on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, Wednesday night's attacks were launched at each other. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney traded jabs over illegal immigration, something they have been arguing about on the trail for the past month. Romney attacked Giuliani's record, saying that as mayor, he promoted illegal immigration. And Giuliani shot back, accusing Romney of having a \"sanctuary mansion\" at his own home. Watch the debate format produce raw moments \u00bb . \"In his case, there were six sanctuary cities. He did nothing about them. There was a sanctuary mansion -- at his own home, illegal immigrants were being employed,\" Giuliani said. Romney denied Giuliani's allegation, and the two raised their voices as they tried to talk over each other. In his quest to appeal to the hard-line immigration wing of the party, Romney also turned some of his fire on the same topic toward former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been rising in the polls. Rep. Tom Tancredo, who has anchored his candidacy on securing the borders and cracking down on illegal immigration, seemed delighted with the give and take, saying the other candidates were trying to \"out-Tancredo\" him. Huckabee drew one of the night's largest cheers when he said that one of the agencies he would abolish to control federal spending was the Internal Revenue Service. \"Most people in this country are more afraid of an audit than they are of a mugging, and there's a reason why,\" he said. Sen. John McCain, freshly back from a visit to Iraq over Thanksgiving and the most hawkish of the candidates, and Rep. Ron Paul, the most anti-war of the candidates, tangled on two occasions over the Iraq war. Did YouTubers get their questions answered? \u00bb . Asked which government programs they would cut, Paul said bringing the troops home from Iraq would save \"a trillion dollars.\" McCain said: \"It's that kind of isolationism that caused World War II,\" which drew some hoots from the crowd. Watch McCain, Paul spar on Iraq \u00bb . Paul replied: \"The real question you have to ask is why do I get the most money from active duty officers and military personnel?\" A retired brigadier general, Keith Kerr, who is gay, asked candidates if they thought U.S. military personnel were professional enough to work with gay and lesbian troops. CNN later learned that a June media release from the campaign of Democratic front-runner Clinton listed Kerr as a member of its steering committee for gay and lesbian supporters. Watch Kerr deny that the Clinton campaign influenced his question \u00bb . David Bohrman, CNN senior vice president and executive producer of the debate, said, \"We regret this incident. CNN would not have used the general's question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate.\" Political Ticker . Kerr told CNN after the debate that he has not worked for the Clinton campaign and was representing no one other than himself. Kerr also said he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay and lesbian Republican grass-roots organization. Prior to the debate, CNN had verified Kerr's military background and that he had not contributed money to any presidential candidate. In a section of the debate about gun ownership rights, three of the GOP presidential hopefuls said they do not own guns: McCain, Giuliani and Romney. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson quipped, \"I own a couple of guns -- but I'm not going to tell you what they are or where they are.\" Watch the candidates address gun control \u00bb . The debate turned personal when a viewer, holding the Bible, asked: \"Do you believe every word of this book? And I mean specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand.\" Huckabee, a Baptist minister, said, \"Sure, I believe the Bible is exactly what it is.\" Giuliani said he believes the Bible, but not \"literally true in every respect.\" After that, Romney stammered a bit when moderator Anderson Cooper asked him if he believed every word. Watch the candidates get personal about the Bible \u00bb . \"Yeah, the Bible is the word of God. ... I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read the Bible and I believe the Bible is the word of God,\" Romney said. When asked about abortion, Romney said he was wrong in favoring a woman's right to choose -- his position when he was elected governor of Massachusetts. \"If people in this country are looking for someone who's never made a mistake on a policy issue and is not willing to admit they're ever wrong, they're going to have to find somebody else. On abortion, I was wrong,\" he said. His remarks came in response to the 30-second video produced for the debate by Thompson's campaign, which included a clip of Romney expressing support for Roe vs. Wade during a 1994 debate against Sen. Ted Kennedy. When asked what women and doctors should be charged with if abortion was to become illegal, Paul said it was not an issue for the president or the federal government. \"We don't need a federal abortion police, that's the last thing we need,\" Paul said. He added that the issue should be left to the states and courts and not federal authorities. On the issues of taxes, Thompson said he'd \"never met a tax he liked.\" \"I've got a tax-cut bill on the table. But I don't do pledges to anybody but the American people,\" he said. His response was met by a \"Go, Fred, go!\" from a member of the audience. On the issue of trade with China, Rep. Duncan Hunter said China is \"cheating on trade ... and it's in the interest of the United States to stop China's cheating. Buy American this Christmas season -- that might keep your neighbor from losing his job.\" The candidates fielded video questions submitted by the public via the YouTube Web site, just as Democratic White House candidates did in July. The debate was the first time the GOP candidates had faced off on the same stage in over a month. CNN's political team viewed nearly 5,000 videos for the GOP debate -- about 2,000 more than they saw for the Democrats' debate. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"YouTube questions address taxes, the Bible, abortion, gun control .\nGiuliani, Romney, Huckabee spar over immigration .\nMcCain challenges Paul over suggestion to bring troops home from Iraq .\nNearly 5,000 videos for the GOP debate; 2,000 more than Democratic debate ."} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Wednesday approved a bill to put new rules in place for intelligence agency eavesdropping on suspected terrorists. Communication technologies like mobile phones have made the 1978 FISA bill out of date, supporters say. The bill also effectively protects telephone companies from being sued for cooperating with a government surveillance program launched in the wake of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The White House pushed hard for the provision, with a threat to veto the bill if it did not contain protection for phone companies. The vote was 69-28, with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois voting in favor. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona was not present for the vote. President Bush said Wednesday afternoon he will sign the bill, calling it \"vital\" and \"long overdue.\" Watch Bush praise the new FISA bill \u00bb . The bill, formally known as the FISA Amendments Act, updates the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It will: . Opponents argued that the provision creating a judicial review of cases against the telecommunication companies is a sham. The bill essentially grants immunity to the telecommunication companies, the opponents said, because all of the telephone carriers received government certifications saying their participation in the program was legal. Obama was criticized for backing away from his early opposition to the bill by liberal bloggers and individuals commenting on his campaign Web site. Before voting for the bill, Obama voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, that would have stripped the language granting immunity to telecommunications companies. Civil liberties groups have vowed to fight the legislation in court. \"This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,\" Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project, said in a statement issued minutes after the Senate approved the bill. \"The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans' international telephone and e-mail communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.\" President Bush acknowledged in 2005 that he ordered the secretive National Security Agency to intercept communications between U.S. residents and people overseas suspected of having ties to terrorism. The administration says the program was authorized when Congress approved military action against al Qaeda after the 2001 attacks. CNN's Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill updates Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 .\nSenate passes measure by a vote of 69-28; Bush says he will sign the bill .\nBill updates eavesdropping rules to take into account technology changes .\nCivil liberties groups vows to fight bill in court ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leszek Balcerowicz, Poland's former finance minister, recently said his country is enjoying \"its best period in 300 years.\" CNN looks at how the country emerged from communism to become one of eastern Europe's most stable and thriving democracies. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa addresses striking workers in Gdansk, Poland in 1989. Modern Poland gained independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Almost six million Poles, including the majority of the country's large Jewish population, died during the devastating six-year conflict. The shadow of Stalin continued to loom large over Poland after the war, when the communist-dominated government ensured that Poland would become a Soviet satellite state for the next 40 years. The following decades were punctuated by revolts against the repressive authoritarian regime in Warsaw, but none had a greater impact on Poland's political future than events in 1980 at a shipyard in western Poland. With a struggling economy and rumors of corruption and mismanagement within the state causing widespread discontent, a series of strikes by workers paralyzed the country. Eventually the government was forced to negotiate and on August 31, 1980, workers at the massive Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, signed a deal giving workers the right to strike and form trade unions. This heralded the creation of the Solidarity movement, which would ultimately be instrumental in bringing Poland's communist era to an end. The presence in the Vatican at the time of Polish-born Pope John-Paul II was also a significant influence on the movement throughout the 1980s, as the Catholic church had remained a very potent force in Polish life. The Pope even made a visit to the country in 1979. Despite Soviet-endorsed attempts to slow the erosion of the regime's grip on power -- including the declaration of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981 which outlawed Solidarity -- Poland's worsening economic situation, compounded by further nationwide strikes, meant that the government had no alternative but to negotiate a date for free elections with Walesa and the Solidarity movement. Solidarity members won a stunning victory in the election of 1989, taking almost all the seats in the Senate and all of the 169 seats they were allowed to contest in the Sejm or parliament. This gave them substantial influence in the new government. Activist and journalist Tadeusz Mazowiecki was appointed prime minister, while Lech Walesa was elected as president the following year. Were you in Poland in 1989? Send us your memories . After years of economic mismanagement under the communists, Poland embarked on a painful reform program under finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz -- especially in traditional heavy industries such as coal and steel -- which moved away from the inefficient state-controlled system of economic planning. Despite growing unemployment and a dilapidated infrastructure, Poland was slowly transformed into an investment-friendly, market economy. Banking and lending policies were reformed, while newly reshaped ownership relations, independent enterprises and strengthened domestic competition all had a massive impact. Over a relatively short period of time, Poland had become one of the most dynamically developing economies in Europe and by the mid-1990s, it became known as the \"Tiger of Europe.\" Poland also liberalized its international trade during this period. The national currency -- the zloty -- became convertible to other currencies and internal convertibility was also established, providing another platform for dynamic economic growth. New markets in countries that had been treated not so long before as ideological as well as economic enemies were opened up to Polish companies. The EU and U.S. were now the key markets for Polish goods. This realignment of policy was emphasized by its accession into the European Union in 2004. It had also joined NATO in 1999. Unfortunately the continuing problem of high unemployment and the promise of better salaries encouraged many Poles to work in other EU countries after 2004. However this trend started to reverse in 2008 as the Polish economy enjoyed a boom period. Politically, Poland has also successfully transformed itself into a fully democratic country. Since 1991 the Polish people have voted in parliamentary elections and four presidential elections -- all free and fair. Incumbent governments have transferred power smoothly and constitutionally in every instance to their successors.","highlights":"Poland was ruled by Soviet-backed regime after the Second World War .\nSolidarity movement became a key factor in the fall of communist regime .\nCentrally-planned economic system replaced by free market economy .\nPoland joined the European Union in 2004 ."} -{"article":"DAVID, Panama (CNN) -- Dozens of families frightened by aftershocks slept outside overnight Wednesday after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook coastal Panama near the border with Costa Rica. The quake was centered about 235 miles (380 km) west of Panama City, near the town of David, according to the U.S. Geological Survey . The temblor occurred at 1:11 a.m. ET and residents reported feeling three aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but damage was reported in the cities of Paso Canoa, David and Puerto Armuelles. The extent of the damage was not immediately known. Many families opted to stay outside their homes, saying that they felt as if the earth were swallowing them and that trees and their houses were falling down. One resident, Carlos Estribi, said he picked up his children in his arms and ran to the public plaza in David, seeking protection since he felt like his house was collapsing. Family members told CNN that patients at the Regional Hospital of David went outside and refused to go back in because aftershocks were still being felt. Patients at the Materno Infantil Jose de Obaldia Hospital and the Regional Rafael Hernandez Hospital also fled their rooms. Cyclists from Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Germany, who were in David for a bicycle race, also had to leave their hotel rooms. Police and other security officials were inspecting schools, hospitals and private and public buildings for damage. Journalist Demetrio Abrego in David contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Frightened patients flee hospital and refuse to return as aftershocks rumble .\nNEW: No immediate reports of casualties; damage reported but extent not yet known .\nQuake struck at 1:11 a.m. ET about 235 miles (380 km) west of Panama City ."} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- It all boils down to this. It doesn't really matter all that much what hot, nubile French maverick has set the fashion world on fire. Or which Milanese visionary has a new fabric technique discovered during a life-changing trip to Angkor Wat that's sure to bring back sixties minimalism with a twist. Or that so-and-so has signed a deal to develop boutique spa hotels around the globe in former monasteries. Because, in the end, he's Ralph Lauren, and we're not. Ralph Lauren has his eye on China and Japan. For four decades no other designer has had a greater impact, not only on the way American men and women dress but also on the way they imagine, seek and indulge in the Good Life, than the former tie salesman from the Bronx. \"Those ties were handmade, by the way,\" recalls Lauren. \"Back then, ties, even designer ones, didn't sell for more than $5 apiece. Mine were $12 to $15. Such luxury in something so simple was revolutionary.\" And ironic. Because while no other designer logo exemplifies aspiration in the home of the free and the brave like the mallet-wielding guy on the pony, Lauren originally named his company Polo because \"it was the sport of kings. It was glamorous, sexy and international.\" See his designs \u00bb . In the beginning a few people questioned if it was named after Marco Polo -- but today the fact that virtually none of Lauren's millions of devoted customers has ever even seen a polo match is immaterial. Lauren instinctively caught something that was in the air before any of his competitors had a chance to grab it -- the desire, not just to be a success but to look like one before you'd even achieved your goal. What's more, Lauren made it look as easy as Fred Astaire dancing down a staircase. \"What matters the most to me are clothes that are consistent and accessible,\" says the designer. \"When I look at the people I've admired over the years, the ultimate stars, like Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Astaire, the ones who last the longest are the ones whose style has a consistency, whose naturalness is part of their excitement. And when you think of the blur of all the brands that are out there, the ones you believe in and the ones you remember, like Chanel and Armani, are the ones that stand for something. Fashion is about establishing an image that consumers can adapt to their own individuality. And it's an image that can change, that can evolve. It doesn't reinvent itself every two years.\" However, with a media that is insatiable for the new, the now and the next, being steadfast doesn't always make for good copy. \"The spotlight is always going to search for the newcomer,\" Lauren admits. \"And that's fine. But the key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. It's about getting your message out to the consumer. It's about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again. My clothes -- the clothes we make for the runway -- aren't concepts. They go into stores. Our stores. Thankfully, we have lots of them,\" says Lauren. \"What I rely on is people walking into my store saying, 'I want your clothes.'\" Well, if all of Lauren's customers shouted that together, he would go deaf faster than he could pull on one of his classic pullovers. Lauren's effortless luxury is all over the red carpet, on ski slopes and boats, at Wimbledon and elsewhere. It furnishes living rooms and graces dinner tables. It's on the bed, in the bed and under the bed -- and now sits on coffee tables, thanks to the tome Ralph Lauren (Rizzoli), celebrating his 40-years-and-growing career. But far from giving his customary over-the-head wave and riding off into his Colorado-ranch sunset, the designer is going even more global. \"Americans have a real inferiority about their own style. We've brought sportswear to the world, and yet we have a long way to go.\" Already in Milan, London, Paris and Moscow, Lauren has more stores planned for China, Japan ... oh, everywhere. \"There aren't enough Americans out there,\" he says. Who better to start with than Ralph? Just as long as he doesn't let on that most of us still can't play a lick of polo. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Ralph Lauren began as tie salesman from the Bronx .\nFirst design: Wide ties when others were narrow .\nHas designed high fashion for four decades .\nGoal: Glamorous clothing that is \"consistent and accessible\""} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's foreign ministry said Wednesday that it has lodged a \"strong\" protest with the U.S. ambassador over missile attacks conducted on Pakistani soil by unmanned drones. The aftermath of a suspected U.S. drone attack on a building in North Waziristan. The ministry said it summoned Ambassador Anne Patterson to underscore that such attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately. A statement from the ministry said Patterson was also told that the attacks have cost lives and undermined public support for Pakistan's counter terrorism efforts. The ministry lodged its protests three days after a missile strike from a suspected U.S. drone on a compound in South Waziristan killed 20 people. Pakistan has repeatedly raised objections to foreign nations violating its sovereignty to pursue terrorists. A U.S. ground operation in September that left several civilians dead rankled relations between the two countries. Last week, Pakistan's parliament passed a resolution that condemned any incursion on Pakistani soil by foreign forces. The resolution called for a review of the country's national security strategy and said the government needs to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The ministry said it handed Patterson a copy of the resolution. The U.S. and NATO, which have troops in Afghanistan, have been seeking a way to effectively battle militants who launch attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. They have become frustrated with Islamabad over the years, saying it is not being proactive enough against militants -- a claim Pakistan denies. The United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely. In another development, suspected Taliban militants kidnapped three government officials from an administrative office in Pakistan's tribal region Wednesday, officials said. The militants abducted two employees and a security guard from the Ambar district in Mohmand Agency. Mohmand is in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a presence of militants. Earlier in the day, militants tried unsuccessfully to take control of a school in Mohmand and abduct about 100 students, authorities said. A shootout with Frontier Corps followed, in which one militant was killed and another arrested. The Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force which uses recruits from Pakistan's tribal areas and is overseen by Pakistani army officers. Also Wednesday, a suicide car bomber detonated explosives outside a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing two security personnel, officials said. The Wednesday afternoon attack in the Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province also wounded a dozen people, military sources said. The bomber targeted a check point near a military hospital, said the sources who did not want their names revealed because they are not authorized to speak to the media. CNN's Reza Sayah and journalist Janullah Hashimzada contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan summons U.S. ambassador over missile attacks .\nMissile strike from a suspected U.S. drone killed 20 people .\nSuspected Taliban militants kidnap 3 officials from in tribal region ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush blasted the Democratic-controlled Congress on Tuesday for having \"the worst record in 20 years.\" \"Congress is not getting its work done,\" Bush said, flanked by members of the Republican House leadership. \"The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq.\" Bush criticized Congress for not being able to send \"a single appropriations bill\" to him. \"They haven't seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it,\" he said. Democrats quickly fired back. Jim Manley, senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said, \"Taking advice from President Bush about fiscal responsibility and getting things done for the American people is like taking hunting lessons from Dick Cheney. Neither is a very good idea.\" Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Illinois, issued a statement saying, \"President Bush's rally this morning reminds us that congressional Republicans remain ready and willing to rubber-stamp the Bush agenda: No to children's health care; no to a new direction in Iraq; and no to investing in America's future. The White House and congressional Republicans want to continue the status quo.\" Bush said the Senate was \"wasting valuable time\" by taking up the children's health insurance bill, which he had earlier vetoed. Watch Bush describe what he thinks Congress is doing wrong \u00bb . House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, issued a statement calling Bush \"the biggest obstacle\" to extending health coverage to \"10 million low-income, working-class American children.\" Hoyer said GOP House leaders need to \"stop posing for pictures, and sit down with Democrats and Republicans in Congress who are working together to extend coverage to our children.\" The State Children's Health Insurance Program measure passed in the House last week would expand the program by nearly $35 billion over five years, the same as the measure Bush vetoed on October 3. Bush had proposed adding $5 billion to the program, and said the version he vetoed would have encouraged families to leave the private insurance market for the federally funded, state-run program. Democratic leaders said the new version addresses Republican objections by tightening restrictions on illegal immigrants receiving SCHIP benefits; capping the income levels of families that qualify for the program; and preventing adults from receiving benefits. The program currently covers about 6 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor, but who can't afford private insurance. Democrats want to extend the program to another 4 million, paying for it with a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes. Bush said Congress knows the current version of the children's health bill \"does not have a chance,\" to get enough votes to override another veto. Hoyer accused Bush of breaking a promise he made in 2004 to extend coverage under the SCHIP program. \"Now, Congress must do what the president said he would do,\" he said in his statement. The Senate could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday. Bush also threatened to veto a \"three-bill pileup.\" \"There are now reports that Congressional leaders may be considering combining the Veterans and Department of Defense appropriations bills, and then add a bloated labor, health and education spending bill to both of them,\" he said. \"Congress should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally responsible manner,\" he said. Bush also urged Congress to send him a \"clean defense appropriations bill and a war supplemental bill.\" \"They ought to get me a bill that funds among other things bullets and body armor,\" he said. Bush also criticized Congress for trying to \"hold hostage\" funding for troops. \"It would be irresponsible to not give our troops the resources they need to get their job done because Congress was unable to get its job done,\" he said. Hoyer's release said Bush's comments on appropriations bills and fiscal responsibility \"ring hollow.\" \"The fact is, this administration has pursued the most fiscally irresponsible policies in American history, turning record surpluses into record deficits and adding more than $3 trillion to the national debt,\" he said. \"Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility today because we believe our government must pay for the things it purchases and not force our children to pay our bills. The fight over 2008 appropriations bills is not a fight over spending. It is a fight over priorities.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bush: Senate \"wasting valuable time\" with children's health insurance bill .\nCongress \"holding hostage\" funds for troops, Bush says .\nBush accuses Congress of gridlock, failing to promote anyone's agenda .\nDemocrats fire back, saying Bush's words \"ring hollow\""} -{"article":"Yabuli, China (CNN) -- Insulated in designer skiwear against a temperature of -15\u00b0 Celsius, three of China's burgeoning ski set bundle into a gondola headed to a wind-swept mountaintop in Heilongjiang province, Northeastern China. These new members of China's skiing elite had traveled from Harbin three hours drive away for a day's skiing at Sun Mountain, Yabuli, and clearly relished hurtling downhill at one of the country's newest high-end resorts. \"Control your speed\" is good advice for any novice skier, but it could be equally applied to the growing number of businesses aiming to tap into the nascent Chinese skiing industry. Skiing is just the latest market in China touted to \"boom\" as an increasingly affluent middle class finds new ways to spend their wealth and leisure time. The China Ski Association put the number of skiers in China at 5 million in 2005, up from just 200,000 in 2000. The association predicts 20 million skiers by 2014. \"But around 80 percent will probably never do it again, because the experience is so bad,\" says Graham Kwan, CEO of Melco China Resorts the developers of Sun Mountain, Yabuli. It's a factor that has held back the momentum of the Chinese ski industry, where the image is still one of bumpy nursery slopes crowded with first-time skiers snow-ploughing into one another. \"The industry isn't developing as fast as it should,\" says Justin Downes, president of Axis Leisure, a Beijing-based resort industry consultancy. \"Ninety percent of skiers are still considered beginners and rent their equipment. The quality of the product and safety has often been questionable, service has been poor.\" Kwan hopes Sun Mountain will provide Chinese skiers with a five-star destination resort that keeps novices coming back to the slopes. Others developers are following suit. French resort company Club Med plans to open a dedicated ski village in China at the end of the year, the first of five the company plans to open by 2015. China's Wanda group have plans on a resort in the mountains bordering North Korea, and a resort called Beijing Secret Garden is being developed outside of Beijing near the Great Wall. Since opening last year Sun Mountain has gained accolades, including TIME Magazine's Best Resort Make-over in 2009. Yabuli was also the site of the World University Games in 2009, with a reported $400 million invested by the government in updating the facilities and improving transport links to the area, making it the base for China's national ski team. For Kwan, however, transforming a sleepy town with one aging hotel at the bottom of a mountain has been far from a smooth ride. \"To be perfectly honest, it's been a struggle,\" says Kwan. \"It's easy to have a mountain in China. People often ask, 'Why did you put [the resort] here?' There are beautiful mountains [elsewhere], but too far from the market. Chinese people travel like Europeans; they're North-South travelers.\" With over $100 million invested in Sun Mountain, Kwan hopes it will be the centerpiece of the new face of skiing in China, offering more than just well-groomed slopes and apr\u00e8s-ski with a Chinese twist. \"It's a combination of operations and real estate, you can't sell luxury homes if you don't sell luxury products,\" says Kwan. A new boutique hotel at the top of the 1000-meter mountain will open next year and capacity eventually expanded to 15 hotels. But it is the resort's real estate that will be just as important to how fast the area develops. Around 75 houses are already built with almost a thousand more nestled on the mountainside planned for the next 10 years. \"The concept of buying a recreational home in the mountains when it's -20\u00b0 Celsius is not something the Chinese have grasped yet,\" says Downes. \"The ski market [in China] is so small that you can't expect to put $100 million into a project and hope to recoup that any time soon off your ski operations. But the leisure real estate market is also immature in China.\" As well as selling the resort as an investment opportunity, nurturing the culture of skiing is part of the development. Its absence is something that Downes believes is really hampering the market. \"When I went to work in a ski resort it's because I wanted to ski all day and party all night. The people who go to work in Chinese ski resorts don't have any aspirations to do any of those things,\" says Downes. A few gold medals by Chinese skiers at the Winter Olympics could help create a buzz around the sport itself, but for Kwan and Downes, presenting a gold-standard lifestyle is just as important. \"All their gear is high-end, because of course it represents their status. And that's why we've chosen to go higher end, because those kinds of customers want to be with us,\" says Kwan, who plans to add VIP gondolas with heated seats and sound system at Sun Mountain, as well as slope-side tea service. \"You can't just pick up a Whistler or Three Valleys pop it into China and expect it to be successful,\" adds Downes. \"Because while Chinese skiers want all the positive trapping they also want something that is theirs -- food and cultural elements, but delivered at a much higher level. \"The younger generation is getting money, traveling and getting more adventurous, they're the ones who are going to define the industry.\"","highlights":"China's ski industry seen as a huge growth market for up-scale resort developers .\nChina predicted to have 20 million skiers by 2014 .\nNumerous international developers are building resorts across the country .\nCulture of skiing needs to be developed as much as resorts for success say analysts ."} -{"article":"Editor's note: Uwe Reinhardt is James Madison professor of political economy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. From 1986 to 1995 he served as a commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Committee, established in 1986 by Congress to advise it on issues related to the payment of physicians. Uwe Reinhardt says health costs are rising at unsustainable pace, gobbling up middle-class incomes. (CNN) -- Watching the angry outbursts at town hall meetings on health reform and the continuing public ambivalence about current efforts to reform our health system almost makes me wish that the reform effort fails. Perhaps Americans need to be taught a basic lesson on the economics of employment-based health insurance before they will feel as smugly secure with it as they do now and before they will stop nitpicking health-reform efforts to death over this or that detail. And America's currently insured middle class will be increasingly desperate if health reform fails. Millions more such families will see their take-home pay shrink. Millions will lose their employment-based insurance, especially in medium and small-sized firms. And millions will find themselves inexorably priced out of health care as we know it. Milliman Inc., an employee benefits consulting firm, publishes annually its Milliman Medical Index on the total health spending by or for a typical American family of four with private health insurance. The index totals the family's out-of-pocket spending for health care plus the contribution employers and employees make to that family's job-related health insurance coverage. The Milliman Medical Index stood at $8,414 in 2001. It had risen to $16,700 by 2009. It is likely to rise to $18,000 by next year. That is more than a doubling of costs in the span of a decade! Since 2005, the index has grown at an average annual compound rate of 8.4 percent. Suppose we make it 8 percent for the coming decade. Then today's $16,700 will have grown to slightly over $36,000 by 2019. Economists are convinced that this $36,000 would come virtually all out of the financial hides of employees, even if the employer pretended to be paying, say, 80 percent of the employment-based health insurance premiums. In the succinct words of the late United Automobile Worker Union leader Douglas Fraser: . \"Before you start weeping for the auto companies and all they pay for medical insurance, let me tell you how the system works. All company bargainers worth their salt keep their eye on the total labor unit cost, and when they pay an admittedly horrendous amount for health care, that's money that can't be spent for higher [cash] wages or higher pensions or other fringe benefits. So we directly, the union and its members, feel the costs of the health care system.\" (\"A National Health Policy Debate,\" Dartmouth Medical School Alumni Magazine, Summer 1989: 30) Unfortunately, very few rank-and-file workers appreciate this fact. Aside from their still modest out-of-pocket payments and contributions to employment-based insurance premiums, most employees seem sincerely to believe that the bulk of their family's health care is basically paid for by \"the company,\" which is why so few members of the middle class have ever been much interested in controlling health spending in this country. The price for that indifference will be high. If efforts at better cost containment fail once again, and health care costs rise to $36,000 on average for a typical American family of four under age 65 -- as almost surely it would -- that $36,000 will be borne entirely by the family. That family's disposable income would be much higher if the growth of future health spending was better controlled. And, as noted, many smaller firms will stop altogether providing job-based health insurance. It would be a major problem for families with an income of less than $100,000 a year. In 2007, only about 25 percent of American families had a money income of $100,000 or more. Close to 60 percent had family incomes of less than $75,000. Here it must be remembered that the wages and salaries of the solid American middle class have been relatively stagnant in recent years and are likely to remain so for the next decade. Unemployment is not likely to fall significantly soon, regardless of what stock prices do on Wall Street. Indeed, often stock prices rise as firms lay off workers to drive up profits through leaner payrolls. This prospect -- relatively stagnant family incomes combined with family health-care costs that double every decade -- is what America's middle class should contemplate as it thinks about the imperative of health reform. It is a pity that this central issue seems to have been shoved aside by mendacious distortions from Sarah Palin, Betsy McCaughey, Rush Limbaugh and other extremist commentators seeking to frighten Americans with their prattle about \"death panels\" and \"pulling plugs on granny\" that no bill before Congress even remotely envisions. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Uwe Reinhardt.","highlights":"Uwe Reinhardt: Consider what will happen if health reform fails .\nHe says health costs have already doubled in a decade .\nReinhardt says dollars spent on health care come out of wages for middle class ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Connecticut woman attacked Monday by her friend's pet chimpanzee was taken Thursday from a Connecticut hospital to the famed Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a hospital spokeswoman said. She would not divulge the victim's condition nor the reason for the move. Travis, seen here as a younger chimp, was fatally shot by police after attacking Nash, authorities say. Charla Nash, 55, was transferred by airplane and ambulance to the clinic, where doctors in December performed the first facial transplant in the United States. The attack has raised questions about whether exotic animals should be kept as pets. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday that primates and crocodiles should be added to a state list of animals citizens are not allowed to own. Nash initially was taken to Stamford Hospital, where she underwent seven hours of surgery after she was attacked by the 14-year-old chimp, named Travis. Nash's friend, Sandra Herold, 70, had called Nash for help in getting the animal back inside her house after he used a key to escape. When Nash arrived at Herold's Stamford home, the chimp, who has been featured in TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, police said. Doctors said Wednesday that Nash had received extensive injuries to her face and hands. A Stamford police officer fatally shot the nearly 200-pound chimp after the primate turned on him inside a police cruiser, police said. Herold told reporters at her home that she and the chimp slept together and that she considered him like a son.","highlights":"Charla Nash, 55, transferred from Connecticut by airplane .\nFriend's chimp mauled and bit her on Monday .\nWoman received extensive injuries to face, hands, doctors have said .\nConnecticut's attorney general wants primates banned as pets in that state ."} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A double amputee sprinter has won the right to be eligible to compete at this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing after sport's highest court backed his appeal against a ban imposed by athletics authorities. Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorious competed in two able-bodied athletics meetings in 2007. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that South African Oscar Pistorius, who runs on prosthetic blades, is eligible to compete against able-bodied athletes. Pistorius, 21, who lost both legs below the knees when he was a baby, runs on shock-absorbing carbon-fiber prosthetics that resemble bent skis -- earning him the nickname \"Blade Runner.\" Pistorius, a Paralympic Games champion and world record holder, had lobbied the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to allow him to compete at the Olympics this August, but after extensive tests the IAAF ruled in January that his J-shaped prosthetics qualify as technical aids, which are banned in IAAF-governed sports. The IAAF does allow athletes with prosthetics to compete in able-bodied sports, as long as the IAAF believes they do not give the athlete an unfair edge. But Friday's ruling by the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, overturned that verdict. In a statement, it said that its panel had \"not been persuaded that there was sufficient evidence of any metabolic advantage in favor of a double-amputee\" using Pistorius' blades. Appeals of court decisions are allowed, but on very limited grounds. But the CAS said it did not exclude the possibility that future scientific tests could be developed which might enable the IAAF to prove that the blades provided Pistorius with an advantage over able-bodied athletes. The South African won gold in the 200 meters, and bronze in the 100 meters at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. He holds the Paralympic world records in the 100, 200, and 400 meters. Since Athens, he has competed in two able-bodied races in which he finished second and last, respectively. Pistorius will have emphasized to the court the disadvantages he feels he has by running with prosthetics, CNN World Sport's Don Riddell said. \"There are disadvantages when it's windy, when it's raining, (and) it takes him longer to get up to speed at the start,\" Riddell said. \"He will be hoping that they take everything into consideration and not just rule on how much spring his prosthetic limbs give him.\" In November, the IAAF carried out tests on Pistorius over two days at the German Sport University in Cologne to determine if his prosthetics, known as Cheetah limbs, could be considered a technical aid. A team of more than 10 scientists used high-speed cameras, special equipment to measure ground-reaction forces, and a three-dimensional scanner to record body mass. The scientists concluded Pistorius was able to run with his prosthetic blades at the same speed as able-bodied sprinters with about 25 percent less energy expenditure. Pistorius' blades gave him an energy return nearly three times higher than the human ankle joint offers in maximum sprinting, they said. Riddell described Friday's ruling in Pistorius' favor as \"groundbreaking,\" and said it raised questions about the future of paralympic sports. \"What does this do to the future of the Paralympics if he's allowed to run in the able-bodied Olympics? Is he actually doing a disservice to other Paralympic athletes? Does it cheapen the Paralympic Games?\" Riddell asked.","highlights":"Court of Arbitration for Sport backs double amputee sprinter in Olympic bid .\nIAAF had ruled that Oscar Pistorius' prosthetic blades give him unfair advantage .\nSouth African, 21, hopes to compete at this summer's Beijing Olympics .\nPistorius holds paralympic world records at 100, 200, and 400 meters ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's Geek Pride Week in Atlanta as thousands of fans take over four downtown hotels for Dragon*Con, an annual celebration of science fiction, fantasy, comics and gaming. Karen Lee and husband Dillan dressed like comic book characters for Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia. Where else -- OK, other than San Francisco or New Orleans -- are city streets shut down for a ragtag parade of zombies, superheroes, robots, Klingons and Middle Earth dwellers? Where else can comic book collectors rub shoulders with movie stars, vampires, alternate-history speculators and Harry Potter look-alikes, all while taking part in a lively game of Godzilla Bingo? The whole thing is a bit of a shock to college football fans in town for the season-opening game between Alabama and Virginia Tech, one of whom called it a \"freak show.\" But those aliens grow on you after a while. \"At first I thought it was really strange,\" Hokies fan Emily Nardone of Ashburn, Virginia, said. \"But now I see everybody's having so much fun. And I enjoy looking at the freaks.\" One Dragon*Con \"freak\" getting a lot of looks was Karen Lee of Cullman, Alabama. She was dressed a dramatic, cleavage-baring winged costume inspired by \"Dawn\" comic book artist Joseph Michael Linsner. Lee made the costume by hand at home. \"My living room is completely demolished,\" she said. Her husband, Dillan, made up as the Batman character Two-Face, said he could attest to the condition of the living room. Lee is entered in a Dawn look-alike contest with a top prize of $1,000. \"The theory behind the concept of Dawn is just paying homage to women of all shapes and sizes,\" she said. \"She can be blonde, brunette or redhead. So basically, it's just inviting women to get up there and do their interpretation of what they think beauty in women is.\" iReport.com: Share your pics and videos from Dragon*Con . Fashion augmented with gadgetry is what drew Pendleton, South Carolina, librarians Gypsey Teague and Marla Roberson to a Dragon*Con workshop on Steampunk costuming. Steampunk is sci-fi set in a Victorian aesthetic. Think pearl-handled, brass-barreled ray guns. The movies \"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen\" and \"Wild Wild West\" are examples of the genre. \"Anything your imagination can come up with, you can do,\" Roberson said as she marveled at a vendor's shoes that had little copper boilers and compasses on them. But it seems there's a certain element of snobbery in Steampunk. A crew of Steampunk pirates entered the room, decked out in their tricorn hats and eye patches. Teague was not impressed. \"Where's your molecular destabilizer?\" she sniffed. Out in the hallway, Steampunk time travelers Candace and Kane Bacon were just arriving. They're new to the game, but Kane had a copper staff with dials on top and a big metal backpack with dials and knobs strapped to his back. A large brass key dangled from the sash around Candace's waist, and she carried a basket of dinosaur eggs they'd found. \"Some of it we had just [lying] around the house, antique stuff,\" Candace said. \"Other parts we got from Lowe's. The backpack is made from radio parts; my dad is in the radio business, and he got some old radio parts for us. And yard sale gadgets.\" She said she was a Steampunker before she knew what Steampunking was. Watch the Dragon*Con parade \u00bb . \"I'd always liked Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, that type of stuff,\" she said. \"I decorated my living room in antiques and like, old compasses, and I didn't realize that that was Steampunk until we actually got here\" to last year's Dragon*Con, she said. The Johnson City, Tennessee, couple chose to forego the hotels and stay with a friend just outside Atlanta and ride MARTA, the public rail system, in to the convention. MARTA's central Five Points station was peopled Saturday morning with anime heroines, a wizardess with green lipstick and an incongruous ladybug who appeared to be about 8 years old -- all mingling with football fans, a few of whom were in pretty outlandish getups themselves. Watch Dragon*Con attendees in full regalia \u00bb . There were no incidents, however, as intergalactic military police were on hand everywhere to maintain order. Back at the Marriott Marquis, thousands of attendees snaked through lobbies on several levels. Among them was Melinda Ellington, an international affairs student at Georgia Tech. She carried an orange and yellow parasol and wore a green jumpsuit as the spaceship mechanic Kaylee from the short-lived Joss Whedon TV series \"Firefly.\" \"You meet anyone who likes 'Firefly,' it's weird because we immediately become like family,\" she said on the hotel's mezzanine. \"A very large, creepy, incestuous family, but family nonetheless.\" In the lobby below her, a 20-piece brass band blasted a set of Henry Mancini show tunes while thousands of attendees filed past. They needed to keep moving, lest anyone be late for the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow Recruiting Session and Bake Sale.","highlights":"Convention celebrates science fiction, fantasy, comics and games .\nCollege football fans caught unawares by Atlanta, Georgia, \"freak show\"\nSteampunk aficionado sneers at pirates' lack of molecular destabilizer ."} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- If you're a comedy fan, you've probably heard of him by now. Comedian Brian Regan, 50, is famous for his clean jokes about everyday life. He is on tour. Famous for his clean jokes about everyday life, comedian Brian Regan is at the peak of his career, gaining new followers with every performance. On a recent Saturday night, he dazzled a sold-out audience of more than 2,000 people near Atlanta as part of his 2009 comedy tour. The easygoing 50-year-old comedian with a boyish smile and energetic presence pranced back and forth across the stage Saturday telling jokes that brought laughter to issues both serious and silly -- from the stressful economy to the quirks of text messaging. Regan, a Miami, Florida, native, has been performing stand-up comedy since 1980 by starting at small venues and comedy clubs. His breakthrough came in the late 1990s after the release of his album \"Brian Regan Live,\" which sold 150,000 copies despite the comedian's relative obscurity at the time. The album featured simple routines that made fun of childhood memories such as Little League baseball games and seat belts. His witty, clean style of humor on the album, which resonated with a wide audience from college kids to grandmothers, catapulted him to success. Since then, he has gone on to release three DVDs. Punchline Magazine, a comedy publication, named Regan's most recent DVD, \"The Epitome of Hyperbole,\" one of the top five comedy DVDs of 2008. Nowadays, he routinely appears on television, including specials on Comedy Central and slots on the \"Late Show With David Letterman.\" His tour this year will visit more than 80 cities, nearly twice as many as four years ago. CNN.com sat down with Regan to learn more about his brand of comedy and what's in store for the future. CNN: How did you become interested in comedy and stand-up? Brian Regan: This isn't the main reason, but when I was in college [Heidelberg College in Ohio], my name was Rip for Rip van Winkle. I had a 7 a.m. class, and I missed it almost every day. I would wake up and run across campus. I remember thinking, \"What's going to happen if I don't wake up for things?\" And then a comedian performed at our college, and I went to the show, and I noticed the show started at 8 p.m. and I was like, well, the hours are good. I can handle a job that starts at 8 p.m. CNN: Who are some of your influences? Regan: I love Steve Martin. He took silliness to a level of brilliance, I think. CNN: How do you get your ideas? Regan: I used to try and sit down with a blank piece of paper. I would stare at the paper, and it just continues to stay blank. I've learned that for me, it's easier for me to go out and live my life and do my thing. CNN: You don't really use the crass language many comedians rely on. Is there a reason for that? Regan: I don't really know those words [laughing]. I used to have a few jokes here and there with a four-letter word in it. I was always 90 to 95 percent clean with my jokes anyways, and I'm kind of anal so, why be 95 percent something when you could be 100 percent something? It worked out, and people really seem to respond to it so I guess that other 5 percent wasn't that important anyways. CNN: Do you try to incorporate the economy into your jokes? Regan: I do a few jokes about the economy but from an everyday person perspective. People like to laugh, and they especially like to laugh during difficult circumstances. One of the best shows in New York I had was the week after 9\/11. I was surprised this comedy club was even going to have a show. They said people were looking for a diversion. I went up and said I'm not trying to make light of what happened, I'm just trying to forget about it for an hour. I find it's similar to what is happening with the economy. Obviously, it's not as serious as 9\/11, but people are looking for an escape. I think people want to laugh. CNN: How can comedy help people through tough times? Regan: I think comedy is a good way to deal with anything. I hear about people in the hospital who are ill, and they use humor to help them through it. I think it's a great remedy for many things. They say a formula for comedy is comedy equals tragedy plus time. A difficult or uncomfortable situation takes place, and then you laugh about it later down the road. Sometimes I wonder if I could be so mentally healthy to subtract the time part. Like what if there is a flat tire, and it's raining outside? Instead of laughing a month later, why not laugh while you are changing tires in the rain? CNN: Your fan base has really grown in the last five years. How does the fame feel? Regan: It's been a slow gradual thing for me. I've never had a single event or television show that did it. I just pick up a couple more fans and a few more fans, and before you know it, it's like hey man, things are going OK. CNN: What's in store for the future? Regan: This is what I like doing, and I will hopefully do it forever. If something else comes along, I'd be open to that. CNN: What about a television show? Regan: I'm not really interested in being an actor. But I would like to get on a television show that would capture my comedy and in that role do a little acting. I'd like to do something that has to do with my comedy.","highlights":"Brian Regan has become a top-ranked comedian by keeping material clean .\nRegan's humor is observational, focuses on everyday life .\nOne inspiration for comedy career was being able to sleep in, Regan says .\n\"Comedy is a good way to deal with anything,\" Regan says ."} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani military says security forces have taken back the city of Mingora from the Taliban, calling it a significant victory in its offensive against the Taliban. Pakistani solders escort a suspected Taliban militant inside an army base in Mingora. Mingora is the largest city in Pakistan's Swat Valley where security forces have been fighting the Taliban in a month-long offensive. \"It is a great accomplishment,\" said Pakistani Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. \"This is the largest city in Swat and for all practical purposes, Mingora has been secured.\" Abbas said militants put up a stiff resistance, but their resistance weakened as troops moved in. Abbas told CNN pockets of militants remain just outside Mingora. The fighting has uprooted about 2.4 million Pakistanis from their homes in the northwestern region of the country, according to the latest data from the United Nations. Of those displaced, about 10 percent -- or 240,000 -- are living in refugee camps, according to the U.N. The announcement that the military has pushed the Taliban out of Mingora comes after days of Taliban attacks in other areas in the country. The military issued a press release on Saturday saying that 25 militants and a soldier were killed in fighting across the region over the last 24 hours. Pakistani authorities increased security throughout Islamabad on Friday after a string of deadly bombings in Lahore and Peshawar, and a threat by the Taliban to carry out further attacks. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide attack in Lahore on a building housing police, intelligence and emergency offices. Twenty-seven people were killed. The militant group also threatened to continue attacking cities in Pakistan until the military ends its operations against Taliban militants in the country's northwest.","highlights":"Pakistani military says it has taken back key Swat Valley city of Mingora .\nArmy spokesman says operation is a \"great accomplishment\"\nFighting in northwestern region has displaced about 2.4 million Pakistanis .\nPakistan raises security levels after deadly blasts in Lahore, Peshawar ."} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's lower house of parliament elected a woman as its speaker Wednesday, a first in the male-dominated chamber's history. Meira Kumar was nominated by the ruling Congress party. Meira Kumar is also a member of the \"untouchable\" Dalit class, the lowest rung in the centuries-old caste system in the country. The speaker conducts the proceedings of the house. She will preside over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women. Kumar, 64, was elected to the position unopposed. She was nominated by the ruling Congress party but also had the backing of the alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Women play a prominent role in the politics of India, the world's largest democracy. The South Asian country of 1.1 billion people has a female president, Pratibha Devisingh Patil. And four of the country's political parties, including the Congress Party, are led by women. Hindus believe there are five main groups of people. The last group is the Dalits. They're considered impure and are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells and use different entry ways to come and go from buildings. Dalits number about 250 million in India, about 25 percent of the population, according to the Colorado, U.S.-based Dalit Freedom Network. India's constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Meira Kumar a member of the Dalit class -- lowest rung in centuries-old caste system .\nShe will preside over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women .\nKumar, 64, was elected to the position unopposed ."} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A group of anonymous software developers said they will soon start selling a program that will allow iPhone owners to use the hugely popular device on cell phone systems around the world and not just with AT&T. Apple's iPhone is yet to go on sale outside the U.S. Apple's iPhone, released in the United States two months ago, was engineered to operate for the first two years only on the AT&T system through an exclusive arrangement between Apple and AT&T. It has not yet been sold outside of the U.S. Los Angeles software consultant Brett Schulte, who is not affiliated with the developers, demonstrated the software for CNN Friday evening. An iPhone that had the new software appeared to work on the T-Mobile system just seconds after Schulte replaced the AT&T SIM card with a T-Mobile SIM card. \"It's completely software hacked,\" Schulte said. \"There's no case opening required. It's not required to do any kind of disassembly.\" It took Schulte about two minutes to unlock the iPhone. The developers would not give CNN their last names, saying \"We don't want to be hounded.\" The said they would start selling the software, which they haven't yet priced, as soon as their online payment and customer service systems are ready. They're also waiting for more information from their lawyers. Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock told CNN her company has no comment. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said he couldn't speculate on the legality of unlocking the phone, but he added, \"When you sign up, you're signing a two-year contract. You're obligated to pay the bill.\" \"When people buy the iPhone it's clear from our materials it's designed to operate exclusively on AT&T,\" Siegel said. Schulte, however, said it is possible to buy an iPhone without being contractually obligated to AT&T. The developers recently created a Web site -- iPhoneSIMfree.com -- but there is very little information on it and no direct way for anyone to purchase the software. Internet records showed they bought the domain name less than two weeks ago. Two members of the group, who identified themselves only as \"John\" and \"Liu,\" told CNN in a phone interview that a core group of six people on three continents worked to unlock the iPhone as a hobby. They said they are fans of Apple products who thought the iPhone should be made accessible to people who cannot use AT&T. \"I'm not in America and I can't use it,\" said Liu, who would not reveal the country in which he lives. \"It's not fair.\" Asked if he thought modifying the iPhone was legal, he said \"That's a very good question. I truly believe it is.\" John and Liu said they have not been contacted by either Apple or AT&T, but said that could change the moment their software goes on sale. Earlier this month, a teenager figured out a way to unlock the iPhone, but his method required disassembly of the unit. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Software developed enabling Apple's iPhone to be used on any phone network .\nDevice can currently only be used on AT&T network in the U.S.\nAnonymous developers plan to start selling program soon ."} diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_validation.jsonl b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_validation.jsonl deleted file mode 100644 index dbfea652ae..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_validation.jsonl +++ /dev/null @@ -1,80 +0,0 @@ -{"article":"(CNN)After weeks of controversy and the sudden departures of two co-hosts, \"Fashion Police\" is going on an extended break. The fashion commentary show on E! channel announced Tuesday that it will be on hiatus until September. \"We look forward to taking this opportunity to refresh the show before the next awards season,\" it said in a statement. The announcement caps a rocky few months. Last week, co-host Kathy Griffin bid the show bye-bye after seven episodes, saying her style did not blend in with her co-hosts. She made a dig at the show on her way out. \"There is plenty to make fun of in pop culture without bringing people's bodies into it,\" she said in a statement. \"I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.\" Shortly before her departure, co-host Giuliana Rancic faced backlash last month for suggesting that Disney star Zendaya Coleman's dreadlocks smelled of marijuana. Rancic later issued an on-air apology to the 18-year-old after social media jumped to the teen's defense. But her apology was not enough for co-host Kelly Osbourne, who criticized her remarks and quit a few days later. Rancic and fellow co-host Brad Goreski will return in September, along with executive producer Melissa Rivers.","highlights":"Fashion commentary show will be on hiatus until September .\nCo-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski will return in September ."} -{"article":"(CNN)It's called the Grand Renaissance Dam -- and the clue is in the name. With some 8,500 laborers working around the clock on its construction, the imposingly-named dam is surely one of Africa's most ambitious infrastructure projects, reaffirming Ethiopia's ambitions of becoming a big regional player and a major exporter of power. When completed, the project will generate around 6,000 megawatts of electricity for both domestic use and exports. The most striking aspect of the nearly $5 billion enterprise is, however, that it is entirely funded by Ethiopia, without any foreign investment. According to the authorities, 20% of the project is financed from bond offerings to Ethiopians, and the remaining 80% from tax collection. \"It was seen as a strategically important initiative that the government and the Ethiopian people are financing it 100%,\" says Zemedeneh Negatu, managing partner at Ernst & Young Ethiopia. \"They have come up with a very creative and innovative way that I think will be a lesson for other African countries who want to embark on such large infrastructure projects, and want to have the flexibility to do it themselves,\" he adds. Hydroelectric powerhouse . So far, Ethiopians at home and abroad have contributed about $350 million, and the government says that the 170 meter tall dam is on track for a 2017 opening, with 40% of the work already complete. Ethiopia's per capita income might be one of the lowest in the world, but the country has enjoyed an impressive economic growth since 2000, averaging 10.9% annually, which has resulted in a 33% reduction of people living in poverty. If the Grand Renaissance Dam and other hydroelectric projects, such as the Gibe III dam on the Omo river, are completed on time, The World Bank estimates Ethiopia could earn $1 billion a year from electricity exports. Negatu says that this would make the country the largest exporter of power in Africa, and second only to South Africa when it comes to installed capacity. Unhappy neighbors . Yet, not everyone is happy about Ethiopia's energetic drive to harness its water resources. The Grand Renaissance Dam is being built on Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River which has been powering the agriculture of Sudan and Egypt -- through which it flows -- for millennia. These countries have opposed the project in the past, fearing that the dam will reduce their share of the Nile water. The ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi had even threatened to defend \"each drop of Nile water with our blood if necessary\" back in 2013. Passions have been calmer more recently, and today the Reuters news agency reported that representatives of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia reached a preliminary agreement in Khartoum on how to operate the dam. Negatu is convinced that a compromise will be reached, as he thinks that the dam will ultimately benefit not just Ethiopia but most other East African nations. \"This is actually a regional project because up from Egypt all the way down to Rwanda, countries are going to buy the power that's generated by this dam,\" Negatu says, adding that both Rwanda and Kenya have already agreed to purchase thousands of megawatts once the project is finished. A lack of reliable power has long stunted Africa's development, with 600 million people on the continent not connected to the grid and getting by on a mix of generators, kerosene lamps and candles. In Ethiopia, only 15 to 20% of the population has access to power according to a study by Chatham House. \"It's Africa's Achilles' heel,\" says Negatu. \"With anyone who wants to build a factory in Africa, the first thing they ask is infrastructure, and within infrastructure, whether there is sufficient electricity. Industrialization has always been about electricity, and this [dam] addresses this basic need.\" He adds that, after depending on exporting raw commodities for decades, governments across Africa should be pursuing a strategy of industrialization, following the example of China. \"We've got to move up the value chain, and it's what Ethiopia is doing right now. Its strategy is industrial-based -- not to export commodities but to manufacture value-added things, and other African nations are trying to emulate that. But without electricity there won't be industrialization in Africa.\" More from Africa View . Read this: New railway links to transform West Africa . Read this: Fast-rising aviation hub spreads its wings . Brandon Clements contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ethiopia is building the largest hydro-electric dam in Africa .\nThe country says the $5bn Grand Renaissance Dam is funded entirely by the government and its people .\nNeighboring Sudan and Egypt fear that the dam will affect their water supply ."} -{"article":"(CNN)On the heels of the magical success of Disney's live-action \"Cinderella,\" the studio is eyeing another live-action retelling: \"Mulan.\" Disney bought a script by writing team Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek that centers on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, the female warrior who was the main character in Disney's 1998 animated film. Chris Bender and J.C. Spink (\"We're the Millers) are producing the new project. From Cinderella to Elsa (and Back to Cinderella): The Evolution of Disney Princesses . The 1998 film, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, followed a young woman who disguises herself as a man so she can take her father's place in the army and go to war. With the help of her trusty dragon sidekick Mushu, she becomes a skilled warrior and, eventually, one of the country's greatest heroines. It earned $304.3 million worldwide, earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations and resulted in a 2005 direct-to-DVD sequel, \"Mulan II.\" Disney has been on a roll with its live-action versions of its classic animated films. \"Cinderella,\" starring Lily James, has earned $336.2 million worldwide to date since hitting theaters three weeks ago. In 2010, the reimagined \"Alice in Wonderland\" grossed a staggering $1.02 billion and when \"Maleficent,\" starring Angelina Jolie as the iconic villainess, opened in May 2014, it went on to earn a stunning $758.4 million worldwide. 'Beauty and the Beast': Meet the Cast of Disney's Live-Action Retelling . Disney is also making a live-action retelling of \"Beauty and the Beast,\" starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens. Audra McDonald just joined the cast of the project, which will be directed by Bill Condon. It hits theaters on March 17, 2017. And in 2016 Disney will release a new version of \"The Jungle Book\" and the sequel to\"Alice in Wonderland.\" Finally, a live-action version of \"Dumbo,\" which will be helmed by Tim Burton, is also in the works. Best bad guys: The scariest Disney villains . Writing team Martin and Hynek met in high school, among other projects, have written for the Know Theatre of Cincinnati and rewrote a script for Amazon Studios. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"After the buzz from 'Cinderella' and 'Maleficent,' Disney is planning a live-action take on 'Mulan.'\nMulan is a female warrior and star of the 1998 animated film.\nLive action remakes of 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Dumbo' are already in the works."} -{"article":"(CNN)The only thing crazier than a guy in snowbound Massachusetts boxing up the powdery white stuff and offering it for sale online? People are actually buying it. For $89, self-styled entrepreneur Kyle Waring will ship you 6 pounds of Boston-area snow in an insulated Styrofoam box -- enough for 10 to 15 snowballs, he says. But not if you live in New England or surrounding states. \"We will not ship snow to any states in the northeast!\" says Waring's website, ShipSnowYo.com. \"We're in the business of expunging snow!\" His website and social media accounts claim to have filled more than 133 orders for snow -- more than 30 on Tuesday alone, his busiest day yet. With more than 45 total inches, Boston has set a record this winter for the snowiest month in its history. Most residents see the huge piles of snow choking their yards and sidewalks as a nuisance, but Waring saw an opportunity. According to Boston.com, it all started a few weeks ago, when Waring and his wife were shoveling deep snow from their yard in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a coastal suburb north of Boston. He joked about shipping the stuff to friends and family in warmer states, and an idea was born. His business slogan: \"Our nightmare is your dream!\" At first, ShipSnowYo sold snow packed into empty 16.9-ounce water bottles for $19.99, but the snow usually melted before it reached its destination. So this week, Waring began shipping larger amounts in the Styrofoam cubes, which he promises will arrive anywhere in the U.S. in less than 20 hours. He also has begun selling a 10-pound box of snow for $119. Many of his customers appear to be companies in warm-weather states who are buying the snow as a gag, he said. Whether Waring can sustain his gimmicky venture into the spring remains to be seen. But he has no shortage of product. \"At this rate, it's going to be July until the snow melts,\" he told Boston.com. \"But I've thought about taking this idea and running with it for other seasonal items. Maybe I'll ship some fall foliage.\"","highlights":"A man in suburban Boston is selling snow online to customers in warmer states .\nFor $89, he will ship 6 pounds of snow in an insulated Styrofoam box ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Another one for the \"tourists behaving badly\" file. Two American women have reportedly been arrested for carving their initials into a wall with a coin inside Rome's Colosseum. Daily Italian newspaper La Stampa says the women, aged 21 and 25, were spotted carrying out the act by fellow tourists, who then told security. The two letters -- J and N -- were about eight inches in length and scratched on a brick wall at the historic Roman amphitheater. The women, both from California, reportedly snapped a selfie of themselves with their initials before they were arrested. Their names have not been released. The American pair may now face a fine for \"aggravated damage\" on a building of historical and artistic interest. If one Russian's experience is anything to go by, the price won't be cheap. Last November, authorities in Rome slapped a 20,000-euro ($21,685) penalty on a Russian tourist caught carving his name into the famed landmark. The 42-year-old man was apprehended after a guard at the Colosseum saw him carve the letter \"K\" in a section of brickwork. After police caught up with him, the man was found guilty of causing aggravated damage, fined and given a four-month suspended sentence. The Russian was one of five tourists caught carving graffiti on Colosseum walls in 2014. The earlier incidents involved two Australians -- a father and son -- and a Canadian and a Brazilian, both teenagers. Rome isn't alone in having to deal with inappropriate tourist behavior this month. Egypt is now looking into reports that one of its most historic sites was the backdrop for a Russian porn flick. According to Al Arabiya News, authorities have confirmed that an X-rated film was shot next to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx and are now investigating. The video was reportedly made by Russian tourists, who then uploaded it to the Internet nine months ago. Al Arabiya reports that Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh al-Demati says the issue has been referred to the public prosecutor and new surveillance cameras are being installed in the area. The incident comes as a reminder that no world landmark is safe from the salacious urges of tourists -- no matter how sacred it might be to the locals. Cambodia's Angkor Archeological Park experienced its own string of nudity-related incidents this year. In February, U.S. tourists and sisters Lindsey Kate Adams and Leslie Jan Adams were deported after allegedly getting caught taking partially nude photos at Preah Khan temple, one of the sacred sites inside Cambodia's Angkor complex. They received six-month suspended prison sentences, a one-million riel ($250) fine and were banned from entering the country for four years. In January, a group of photos featuring a topless dancer leaning against the ruins surfaced on Facebook. Early last year, Peru officials were forced to respond to a chain of \"naked tourism\" incidents at Machu Picchu, also a World Heritage Site. They detained four American tourists, two Canadians and two Australians for stripping down for pictures at the site. CNN's Barry Neild contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two American women arrested for carving initials into a Colosseum wall .\nMeanwhile, Egypt investigating Russian pornography film reportedly shot at Great Pyramids .\nCambodia's Angkor Archeological Park experienced a string of nudity-related incidents this year ."} -{"article":"Peshawar, Pakistan (CNN)A former lawyer for the doctor who helped the CIA look for Osama bin Laden has been shot dead in northwest Pakistan, police said. Unidentified gunmen attacked the lawyer, Samiullah Afridi, in his car near the city of Peshawar on Tuesday, said Mian Saeed, a police superintendent in Peshawar. Two different militant groups claimed responsibility for the killing. The lawyer had represented Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who was convicted of treason in 2012 by a Pakistani tribal court and is now serving a 23-year prison sentence. The two men are not related. The doctor helped the CIA set up a fake vaccination campaign in an attempt to collect DNA samples from relatives of Bin Laden in an effort to verify his presence in a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. The Qaeda leader was killed in a U.S. raid on the compound in May 2011. It was unclear which of the two groups claiming responsibility for the attack was actually behind it. Fahad Marwat, a spokesman for the militant group Jundallah, told CNN that Afridi was on the group's hit list. But Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, said his group had carried out the assassination because Samiullah Afridi defended the doctor, whom he described as \"a friend\" of bin Laden's killers. CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen said Jundallah is \"kind of a splinter group\" of the Pakistani Taliban that's \"been around for a long time.\" \"They're extremely violent,\" he said. \"They've been killing all sorts of religious minorities in Pakistan.\" Last month, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a Shiite mosque in the city of Rawalpindi. Bergen said Dr. Afridi is \"a very unpopular figure in Pakistan\" because of the perception that he was involved in helping find Bin Laden. \"And his lawyer, by extension, would also be seen as an unpopular person because of that perception,\" he said. But Bergen said he didn't think the doctor played a key role in the hunt for Bin Laden. \"The idea was the doctor and his staff would take DNA samples from the Bin Laden kids as part of this 'vaccination program,'\" he said. \"That never happened because the kids never came out.\" Although Dr. Afridi was working for U.S. intelligence, \"the CIA wasn't telling the doctor, you're helping us find bin Laden,\" Bergen said. After the killing of bin Laden, health workers administering polio vaccinations have come to be viewed with suspicion by many Pakistanis. The vaccination teams have repeatedly been targeted by militants. The latest instance came Wednesday when unidentified attackers killed one polio vaccination worker and wounded another in Bajaur agency in northwestern Pakistan, local authorities said. Journalist Zahir Shah reported from Peshawar, and CNN's Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Sophia Saifi and journalist Saleem Mehsud contributed to this report.","highlights":"A second militant group claims responsibility for the killing .\nSamiullah Afridi had represented Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who was convicted of treason ."} -{"article":"New York (CNN)Korean Air's \"nut rage\" case has made its way back to New York, with the flight attendant who served the offending macadamia nuts filing a lawsuit against the airline and a former executive. Heather Cho, a Korean Air executive and daughter of the airline's chairman, is serving a one-year prison sentence in South Korea after throwing a fit on a New York flight because her nuts were served in a bag instead of a porcelain bowl. In a civil suit filed this week in state Supreme Court in Queens, New York, Cho -- whose name is listed as Heather Hyun A-Cho in court documents -- is accused of \"verbally and physically\" attacking flight attendant Kim Do-hee in December on a Seoul-bound flight departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport. At the time, Cho, who was seated in first class, demanded that the plane go back to the gate so Kim could be kicked off the flight, according to the lawsuit. The episode, which was widely reported, was a \"prime example of the corrupt and entitled behavior of the members of elite South Korean business families,\" the lawsuit states. The suit describes Cho as the \"princess\" of the \"so-called royal\" family that controls Korean Air, and says the executive screamed obscenities at Kim before hitting, shoving and threatening the flight attendant. On her return to South Korea, the lawsuit states, Kim was \"pressured to lie to government regulators in order to cover up the incident, and to appear in public with Cho as part of an orchestrated effort to try and rehabilitate Cho's public image.\" A South Korean judge last month said that Cho's actions threatened the development of the aviation industry and inconvenienced passengers, and ruled that she violated aviation law, changed a flight path and interfered with operations. She was sentenced to a year in jail. The judge blasted Cho for her conduct, saying that she had used the plane as if it were her personal car and that as a passenger, she could not override crew members and give orders during a flight. The case is emblematic of growing resentment over the perceived privileges and nepotism of the families that control the country's top companies. Cho resigned as vice president at the company a few days after the incident and publicly apologized, saying she accepted \"full responsibility.\" Last month, she appeared in a South Korean court wearing a green prison uniform. She gazed downward. Her hair hung in her face. \"I don't know how to find forgiveness,\" she said. Park Chang-jin, the chief steward who was booted from the flight instead of Kim, has said the former executive treated crew members like \"feudal slaves.\" Park and Kim, the flight attendant who served the nuts, had knelt in front of Cho in apology. Kim testified that Cho berated them about the service and later shoved and cursed her. When the flight arrived in Korea, the flight attendant said another airline manager, Yeo Woon-jin, pressured her not to talk to investigators about Cho's physically abusing her and Park. Yeo was found guilty of interfering with an investigation. Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho apologized to the flight attendants and the public following the public uproar over the incident. In a statement, Kim's lawyer, Andrew Weinstein, called Heather Cho's behavior \"humiliating, degrading, and damaging to Ms. Kim, but ... also emblematic of Ms. Cho's unbridled arrogance and disturbing sense of entitlement.\" The incident has damaged Kim's \"career, reputation, and emotional well-being,\" and efforts to settle the case out of court have been unsuccessful, according to the statement -- which didn't specify how much was being sought in damages. Attempts to reach representatives of Korean Air as well as lawyers for Cho were unsuccessful. CNN's David Shortell contributed to this report.","highlights":"A former Korean Air executive is named in lawsuit after interrupting a flight over how nuts were served .\nHeather Cho is accused of \"verbally and physically\" attacking flight attendant Do Hee Kim .\nKorean Air is also named in the lawsuit ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Kerry Washington is headed for HBO. The \"Scandal\" star has signed on to play Anita Hill and executive produce a TV movie for the premium cable network, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Called \"Confirmation,\" the telepic \u2014 which is in development from HBO Films \u2014 will detail the explosive 1991 Clarence Thomas-Hill Supreme Court nomination hearings, which brought the country to a standstill and forever changed the way people think about sexual harassment, victims' rights and modern-day race relations. See more on-set with the gladiators: inside the fast-paced world of ABC's 'Scandal' Academy Award nominated writer Susannah Grant (\"Erin Brockovich\") will pen the script and executive produce the drama, which is being produced by Groundswell Productions in association with ABC Signature Studios. Groundswell CEO Michael London (ABC's upcoming soap \"Astronaut Wives Club\") and production president Janice Williams will executive produce alongside Grant and star Washington. Sources tell THR that Rick Famuyiwa (Sundance hit \"Dope,\" \"The Wood\") is in talks to direct the pic, but no deal is in place. See more: 40 Years of HBO . Confirmation comes as Washington was poised to film Warner Bros.' feature drama \"Unforgettable\" in the summer for director Amma Assante but the HBO project may take over the \"Scandal\" star's hiatus from her ABC Shonda Rhimes series. For HBO, \"Confirmation\" comes as the premium cabler is building its roster of original films. The cabler this week tapped Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti to play tennis legends Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, respectively, in a movie detailing the duo's legendary Battle of the Sexes match. Additionally, HBO is also prepping an adaptation of Bryan Cranston's Tony winner \"All the Way\" with Jay Roach attached to direct. Read more: TV Ratings: 'Empire' Audience Grows, Though Demo Finally Holds . The \"Confirmation\" deal also marks a big off-network sale for ABC Signature, the boutique arm of ABC Studios. It's also HBO's latest buy from an outside studio following series including Warner Bros. Television's \"The Leftovers\" and upcoming \"Westworld.\" Grant is repped by CAA and Kleinberg Lange; Washington is with CAA, Washington Square Films and Hansen Jacobson; Famuyiwa is with CAA, Oasis Media Group and Del Shaw. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Scandal\" actress Kerry Washington to star as Anita Hill in HBO movie .\nHill is the former colleague of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who accused him of sexual harassment ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Jessie Usher, the lead of Starz's series \"Survivor's Remorse,\" has been cast in Fox's sequel \"Independence Day 2.\" Liam Hemsworth has also been cast in a lead role and Jeff Goldblum will reprise his role as David Levinson from the original. It has been nearly 20 years since the Will Smith-starring sci-fi film hit theaters, grossing more than $800 million worldwide at the box office. Director Roland Emmerich will return to helm the film. \"Independence Day 2\" is set for release on June 24, 2016 \u2014 almost exactly 20 years from when the first film hit theaters on July 3, 1996. Dean Devlin, Emmerich and Harald Kloser are producing. Independence Day 2 is a big get for Usher, who will play a central character in the new film as the son of Smith's character. Smith's role in the first blockbuster helped establish him as a star, kicking his career up to the next level. Usher stars in the Lebron James-produced Starz TV series \"Survivor's Remorse\" as Cam Calloway, a basketball player who moves with his family to Atlanta after he signs a pro contract. The first season premiered Oct. 4, 2014, and Starz quickly renewed the show for a second season, which will air later this year. The rising star's film credits includes TriStar football drama When the Game Stands Tall, which hit theaters in August. On the TV side, he previously starred in the Cartoon Network's series Level Up. He's repped by Paradigm and Williams Unlimited. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Jeff Goldblum set to reprise his role in \"Independence Day 2\"\nLiam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher also cast in key roles .\nSequel will be released 20 years after the original box office smash about an alien invasion ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The next time someone accuses you of acting like a Neanderthal, don't be offended. Just say \"thank you.\" A new study published this month suggests Neanderthals were more \"cognitively advanced than we give them credit,\" Kansas University's David Frayer said in a release. Frayer, a professor emeritus of anthropology, was a part of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE that looks at eagle talons found in present-day Croatia. The talons are among the thousands of human remains, animal bones and tools originally excavated between 1899 and 1905 in the area by Croatian scientist Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger. Only recently, however, did Frayer identify the cut marks and notches on the 130,000-year-old bones as ones modified by humans. \"I was stunned,\" Frayer said of the discovery. \"It's so obvious that these are cut.\" The markings, including polishes and areas where the bones were \"rubbed together,\" show that the talons were \"manipulated into a piece of jewelry,\" Frayer said. Frayer co-wrote \"Evidence for Neanderthal Jewelry: Modified White-tailed Eagle Claws at Krapina\" with three other Croatian scientists. Their research indicates Neanderthals were more than just the cavemen-like characters depicted in Geico commercials, but sophisticated creatures concerned with ornamentation and possibly even an \"advanced level of prowess\" in catching birds, according to Frayer. \"We can't prove it, but we suspect that they were catching these birds,\" he said. Even with modern technology, catching an eagle is an enormously difficult thing to do. Frayer believes Neanderthals must have had excellent \"planning skills and ritual\" they would've used in catching the bird. \"Neanderthals are often thought of to be simple-minded mumbling, bumbling, stumbling fools,\" Frayer said. \"But the more we know about them the more sophisticated they've become.\"","highlights":"Researchers say marking on eagle talons prove Neanderthals made jewelry .\nEagle bones used in study more than 130,000 years old .\nScientist: \"It really shows a level of technical sophistication\""} -{"article":"(CNN)An ancient ring has shed new light on the ties between Vikings and the Islamic world, more than a century after its discovery. The finger ring found in a 9th century Swedish grave is inscribed with Arabic Kufic writing. The letters appear to read \"AL_LLH, researchers say, which they interpret as meaning \"for\/to (the approval of) Allah.\" In a paper published in the journal Scanning, the researchers say it is the only ring with an Arabic inscription ever found at a Scandinavian archaeological site. The object was originally discovered during a late 19th century grave excavation in the town of Birka, on Bj\u00f6rk\u00f6 island, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Stockholm. Birka was a key trading center during the Viking age and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. The ring is part of the Swedish History Museum's collection, originally cataloged as being made of gilded silver and violet amethyst, bearing the inscription \"Allah.\" Researchers led by Stockholm University biophysicist Sebastian W\u00e4rml\u00e4nder say they used \"scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to analyze the ring's composition and found that it was in fact made of silver alloy and the \"amethyst\" was colored glass. \"For the stone, we must remember that even though colored glass might today be perceived as a 'fake' material of lower value, this was not necessarily so in the past,\" the team cautioned. \"Even though glass production began around 5,000 years ago in the Levant it was still an exotic material in Viking Age Scandinavia.\" More significantly, the researchers found no trace of the gold that had been assumed to coat the ring and noted the presence of filing marks. \"Together with the absence of gold on the metal surface ... the file marks clearly show that the previous description of the ring as gilded was mistaken: if the surface had been gilt and the gold layer had worn away, also the file markings would be gone. But the metal surface displays no wear, and as the original file marks are still in place, this ring has never been much used.\" The team, therefore, believes the ring was passed from an Arabic silversmith to the woman, with few or any other owners in between. While imported coins were also found in the grave -- many from Afghanistan -- they were \"usually worn and torn ... from passing many hands along the established trade routes\" researchers said. The owner of the ring was found wearing traditional Scandinavian clothing, but the researchers said it was impossible to determine her ethnicity due to the decomposed state of the bones in the grave. \"It is not impossible that the woman herself, or someone close to her, might have visited -- or even originate from -- the Caliphate (which then stretched from Tunisia to the borders of India) or its surrounding regions,\" they said. While travel between the Islamic caliphate and the Viking world was recorded in ancient texts, tales of such journeys often included references to \"giants and dragons\" making it hard to tell fact from fiction, the researchers said. \"The importance of the studied Birka ring is that it most eloquently corroborates ancient tales about direct contacts between Viking Age Scandinavia and the Islamic world. Such contacts must have facilitated exchange of goods, culture, ideas, and news much more efficiently than indirect trade involving several merchants in-between,\" they concluded. Modern relationship . This new evidence of ancient ties between the Vikings and the caliphate comes at a time when Sweden's relationship with the modern Islamic world seems to be problematic. The country's foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, has recently come under scrutiny after criticizing human rights in Saudi Arabia. In January, she tweeted that the flogging of blogger Raif Badawi was \"a cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression,\" which needed to be stopped. Saudi Arabia blocked Wallstrom from giving a speech to the Arab League in Cairo on March 9, in which she planned to refer to human rights and the rights of women. Sweden subsequently announced that it would not renew its memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia on military cooperation -- and in turn Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates withdrew their ambassadors to Sweden. The United Arab Emirates said it had summoned Sweden's ambassador to protest \"the abusive remarks by the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Margot Wallstrom, against Saudi Arabia.\"","highlights":"Swedish researchers have used scanning to examine a ring found in a Viking grave .\nThe ring carries an Arabic inscription thought to be \"for\/to (the approval of) Allah, they say .\nTheir analysis suggests the ring was little worn, meaning trade ties could have been close ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Serena Williams had a big decision to make earlier this year, and she wanted to run it by her parents. She was nervous. She wanted to see whether they would support her going back to Indian Wells, California, to play in a tournament she had skipped 13 times since winning in 2001. The last time she was there, she had been booed loudly and lustfully. The fans were upset and sensed some sort of conspiracy that she didn't have to face her talented older sister in the semifinals. Venus Williams had withdrawn 10 minutes before their match with a knee injury. Many fans didn't buy it and thought it was orchestrated to give the younger Williams a chance for extra rest. Two days later, during the championship match, Serena Williams, 19 at the time, was jeered when she did well and cheered when she fared poorly. Then days after the tournament, which she won, her father, Richard, told USA Today that as he and Venus walked down the stairs to their seats, people kept calling him the N-word and one man said: \"I wish it was '75; we'd skin you alive.\" Neither Serena nor Venus has played in the tennis tournament since. That will end Friday when Serena Williams, the world No. 1, faces Monica Niculescu, the 68th-ranked player in a second-round match. The end of the boycott took a lot of conversations with a lot of people, Williams told reporters Thursday. Two of the most important were with her parents. \"It was a really emotional time for me,\" she said, saying the prospect of the talks made her a little nervous. She told them she wouldn't go back if they didn't want her to go. But they both said to play. Her dad said it would be a big mistake not to come back, she said. Williams said her mother said, \"I will be there for you.\" Venus Williams, the No. 11 singles player, isn't playing in the tournament, but Serena Williams said her older sister was 100% behind her. She is \"very happy that I am here. And even encouraged me to come,\" Serena Williams said. Serena Williams announced her return to the event in a TIME magazine first-person piece in February, writing she would ended her boycott in the spirit of forgiveness. She said Thursday that she didn't just have to forgive the fans at Indian Wells. \"In order to forgive, you have to be able to really let go of everything. I kind of let go a long time ago, and I kind of forgave, but I wasn't at point where I was ready to come back,\" she said. The timing seemed right this year, she said. She added that she will be a little nervous in her first match at the BNP Paribas Open. Still she was \"looking forward actually to kind of stepping out on center court and letting the whole world know that it doesn't matter what you face -- whether it's something that wasn't right, something that hurt you, hurt your family. You can just come out and be strong.\" CNN's Chris Borg and Tom McGowan contributed to this report.","highlights":"In 2001, her father said the family was the subject of racial slurs .\nNeither Serena or Venus Williams has played in the tournament since .\nSerena Williams says playing shows the world you can be strong in the face of intolerance ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The State Department only last month started automatically preserving dozens of high-level officials' emails, according to a department spokeswoman, a revelation that comes amid the controversy surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's own email use. This is key because Clinton, in her news conference on Tuesday to answer questions about why she exclusively used a private email address to communicate during her tenure, told reporters she'd thought her communications to senior department officials were always saved. That's an important point, given legal requirements for preserving federal records. \"In meeting the record-keeping obligations, it was my practice to email government officials on their State or dot-gov accounts so that the emails were immediately captured and preserved,\" she said. The news about the State Department's archiving practices -- and the change that started in February -- could refuel the furor of Republicans over Clinton's choice to not use her government email account, to have a private server in her family home house her emails, and to decide (with her staff) which emails to delete and which to turn over to the State Department for review. Rep. Susan Brooks, a member of the select committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack, said in the Republicans' weekly media address Saturday, \"You see, right now there is no way for us to know whether we have all of the State Department communications that rightfully belong to the American people.\" \"The only way to truly know is by having access to Secretary Clinton's personal server,\" the Indiana Republican added. \"We are asking Secretary Clinton to turn her server over to a neutral, third-party arbiter. After a complete inventory, this arbiter can make a determination as to which emails should be public and which should remain private. These decisions would be completely impartial and independent.\" So far, Brooks' committee had gotten just under 300 of Clinton's emails from the State Department. Last year, as it was trying to update its records, the State Department asked former secretaries of state for nonpersonal emails from their personal accounts that could be work-related. That request prompted Clinton to turn over 30,490 emails -- about 55,000 pages. Clinton has asked for those emails to be made public, and department officials are reviewing them to make sure no sensitive information is released. Clinton's office had said her account contained 62,320 sent and received emails from March 2009 to February 2013. \"About half were personal that were not in any way related to work. I had no reason to save them,\" Clinton said at her press conference. The fact that all emails from senior officials weren't automatically saved until recently doesn't mean they are gone, according to the State Department. \"I wouldn't state it's lost to history, because there are always -- there are technical means of gaining access to past information,\" spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday. At the same time, Psaki said the State Department chose to change its approach -- by automatically saving all emails -- \"because it's an imperfect system.\" \"This is a more efficient and better way,\" she said of the new system. \"But, obviously, there were ways to preserve (emails), and employees and individuals were expected to do that prior to this new process.\" Separately, Psaki said that a letter was recently sent to former State Department staffers asking for their help in the preservation effort. \"If they should become aware ... of federal record in their possession -- such as an email sent or received on a personal email account while (they were) serving in their official capacity at the Department -- that ... record (should) be made available to the Department,\" Psaki said the ex-staffers were told. Even before last month's chance, emails of current Secretary of State John Kerry, who uses a government address, were already being saved automatically. CNN's Adam Levine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton used a private email address while Secretary of State .\nShe's said she thought her communications to officials were always saved .\nHowever, a State Department official says emails weren't automatically archived until last month ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Share, and your gift will be multiplied. That may sound like an esoteric adage, but when Zully Broussard selflessly decided to give one of her kidneys to a stranger, her generosity paired up with big data. It resulted in six patients receiving transplants. That surprised and wowed her. \"I thought I was going to help this one person who I don't know, but the fact that so many people can have a life extension, that's pretty big,\" Broussard told CNN affiliate KGO. She may feel guided in her generosity by a higher power. \"Thanks for all the support and prayers,\" a comment on a Facebook page in her name read. \"I know this entire journey is much bigger than all of us. I also know I'm just the messenger.\" CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the page. But the power that multiplied Broussard's gift was data processing of genetic profiles from donor-recipient pairs. It works on a simple swapping principle but takes it to a much higher level, according to California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. So high, that it is taking five surgeons, a covey of physician assistants, nurses and anesthesiologists, and more than 40 support staff to perform surgeries on 12 people. They are extracting six kidneys from donors and implanting them into six recipients. \"The ages of the donors and recipients range from 26 to 70 and include three parent and child pairs, one sibling pair and one brother and sister-in-law pair,\" the medical center said in a statement. The chain of surgeries is to be wrapped up Friday. In late March, the medical center is planning to hold a reception for all 12 patients. Here's how the super swap works, according to California Pacific Medical Center. Say, your brother needs a kidney to save his life, or at least get off of dialysis, and you're willing to give him one of yours. But then it turns out that your kidney is not a match for him, and it's certain his body would reject it. Your brother can then get on a years-long waiting list for a kidney coming from an organ donor who died. Maybe that will work out -- or not, and time could run out for him. Alternatively, you and your brother could look for another recipient-living donor couple like yourselves -- say, two more siblings, where the donor's kidney isn't suited for his sister, the recipient. But maybe your kidney is a match for his sister, and his kidney is a match for your brother. So, you'd do a swap. That's called a paired donation. It's a bit of a surgical square dance, where four people cross over partners temporarily and everybody goes home smiling. But instead of a square dance, Broussard's generous move set off a chain reaction, like dominoes falling. Her kidney, which was removed Thursday, went to a recipient, who was paired with a donor. That donor's kidney went to the next recipient, who was also paired with a donor, and so on. On Friday, the last donor will give a kidney to someone who has been biding time on one of those deceased donor lists to complete the chain. Such long-chain transplanting is rare. It's been done before, California Pacific Medical Center said in a statement, but matching up the people in the chain has been laborious and taken a long time. That changed when a computer programmer named David Jacobs received a kidney transplant. He had been waiting on a deceased donor list, when a live donor came along -- someone nice enough to give away a kidney to a stranger. Jacobs paid it forward with his programming skills, creating MatchGrid, a program that genetically matches up donor pairs or chains quickly. \"When we did a five-way swap a few years ago, which was one of the largest, it took about three to four months. We did this in about three weeks,\" Jacobs said. But this chain wouldn't have worked so quickly without Broussard's generosity -- or may not have worked at all. \"The significance of the altruistic donor is that it opens up possibilities for pairing compatible donors and recipients,\" said Dr. Steven Katznelson. \"Where there had been only three or four options, with the inclusion of the altruistic donor, we had 140 options to consider for matching donors and recipients.\" And that's divine, Broussard's friend Shirley Williams wrote in a comment her on Broussard's Facebook page. \"You are a true angel my friend.\"","highlights":"Zully Broussard decided to give a kidney to a stranger .\nA new computer program helped her donation spur transplants for six kidney patients ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The sounds recorded on one of the \"black boxes\" recovered from downed Germanwings Flight 9525 firms up investigators' theory that the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and then crashed the plane. \"For God's sake, open the door!\" Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer screamed as he banged on the cockpit door, pleading with the co-pilot. Thirteen minutes later, the plane slammed into the French Alps. The audio from the plane's cockpit voice recorder has not been released, but the German newspaper Bild published Sunday what it claims is a summary of the transcript from the recording. CNN translated Bild's report -- which the newspaper says is based on the 1.5 hours of audio that was on the cockpit voice recorder -- but cannot independently verify the information. France's accident investigation agency, BEA, told CNN that the agency is \"dismayed\" by the voice recording leak to Bild. Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the leak could not have come from a BEA agent. She said the agency considers the report mere \"voyeurism.\" According to Bild's report, Sondenheimer told co-pilot Andreas Lubitz that he didn't manage to go to the bathroom before takeoff. Lubitz tells him he can go anytime. Lubitz is believed to have locked the pilot of Flight 9525 out of the cockpit before putting the plane on a rapid descent into the mountains, French authorities have said. The flight took off 20 minutes late. After reaching cruising altitude, Sondenheimer asked Lubitz to prepare the landing. Once that's finished, Lubitz again tells the captain he \"can go anytime.\" There is the sound of a seat being pushed backward after which the captain says, \"You can take over.\" At 10:29 a.m., air traffic radar detects that the plane is starting to descend. Three minutes later, air traffic controllers try to contact the plane and receive no answer -- shortly after which an alarm goes off in the cockpit, warning of the \"sink rate,\" Bild reported. Next comes the banging. Sondenheimer begs Lubitz to let him in. Passengers then begin to scream, according to the transcript obtained by Bild. Another three minutes pass. A loud metallic bang is heard at 7,000 meters (almost 23,000 feet). A minute and half later and 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) lower to the ground, an alarm says \"Terrain -- pull up!\" \"Open the damn door!\" the pilot says. It's 10:38, and the plane is at 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet). Lubitz's breathing can still be heard on the voice recorder, according to Bild's report. Two minutes later, investigators think they hear the plane's right wing scrape a mountaintop. Screams can be heard one final time. Cockpit recordings are some of the most sensitive and closely held parts of aviation crash investigations. They're never officially released, according to CNN aviation reporter Richard Quest. Quest called it \"unbelievable\" that the black box audio would be leaked in this manner. Communications between air traffic control and a plane's cockpit can be downloaded privately, but that's less common in Europe than it is in the United States. An edited and redacted version of the transcript is usually published in part of a final report on an incident. Although search teams have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder remains missing. That device could reveal crucial details about what happened during the final moments of the flight. Jean Pierre Michel, lead investigator for the French inquiry, said on Saturday that investigators are not ruling out any scenario with respect to the crash out at this point. But French authorities have said that Lubitz appeared to have crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately into the Alps on Tuesday as it flew from Barcelona, Spain, toward Dusseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board. Much attention has focused on Lubitz's state of mind since then, with suggestions that he may have had mental health issues. Lubitz, 27, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination in summer 2014, a German aviation source told CNN. An official with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health. The official also said that the company was never given any indication Lubitz was depressed, and that if he went to a doctor on his own, he would have been required to self-report if deemed unfit to fly. A Dusseldorf clinic said he'd gone there twice, most recently on March 10, \"concerning a diagnosis.\" But the University Clinic said it had not treated Lubitz for depression. The speculation about Lubitz' mental state is based on a letter found in a waste bin in his Dusseldorf apartment. The note, which was \"slashed,\" said Lubitz was not able to do his job, city prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said Friday. The fact that investigators found \"ripped, recent medical leave notes, including for the day of the offense, leads to the preliminary conclusion that the deceased kept his illness secret from his employer and his professional environment,\" prosecutors said. Germanwings corroborated that assertion, saying it had never received a sick note from Lubitz. A handful of publications, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Lubitz suffered from various psychological maladies. CNN has not been able to confirm these reports. Lubitz suffered from \"generalized anxiety disorder,\" and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday, citing sources close to the investigation. In 2010, Lubitz received injections of antipsychotic medication, the paper said. He was also prescribed a medication that influences neurotransmitters, but it's unclear when that happened, according to Le Parisien. The newspaper said investigators found a handful of pills in his apartment in addition to two sick notes, which forbade him from working from March 16 to March 29. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Lubitz suffered from mental illness and kept his diagnosis concealed from his employer. A subsequent report from the Times on Saturday, citing two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz sought treatment before the crash for vision problems that might have put his career at risk. However, an official with Lufthansa, said that if Lubitz had vision problems, they would have been discovered during his pilot recertification medical examination. Authorities have not ruled out the vision problems could have been psychosomatic, according to the Times. Citing an unidentified senior investigator, German newspaper Die Welt said that Lubitz suffered from a severe \"psychosomatic illness\" and that German police seized prescription drugs that treat the condition. Lubitz suffered from a \"severe subjective burnout syndrome\" and from severe depression, the source told the newspaper. News reports also stated that antidepressants were found during the search of his apartment. Investigators are expected to question his relatives, friends and co-workers as they try to pin down what could have prompted the co-pilot to steer a jetliner full of people into a mountainside. Lubitz had a girlfriend, a teacher at a school in Dusseldorf not far from his apartment, according to German media. Who was co-pilot Andreas Lubitz? Dozens of people attended a remembrance ceremony Saturday for the victims of the crash at a church in a nearby town, Digne-les-Bains, France. Most of the people on the plane were from Germany and Spain. Relatives of the victims and local residents also gathered Saturday afternoon by a simple stone memorial set up near the crash site, in the village of Le Vernet. Flowers have been laid there, in the shadow of the snow-covered peaks of the French Alps. The mayor of one local community said he had seen Lubitz's father on Thursday evening, describing him as \"a man in deep distress.\" \"We get the impression that that man is bearing the whole weight of the disaster on his shoulders,\" Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bleone, said Saturday. \"I can tell that this is a man whose life is totally broken,\" Bartolini said. \"He had so much emotion in him.\" CNN's Steve Almasy, Laura Smith-Spark, Frederik Pleitgen, Sandrine Amiel, Jethro Mullen, Lynn Franco, Margot Haddad and Tim Lister contributed to this report.","highlights":"France's accident investigation agency, BEA, \"dismayed\" by the voice recording leak .\nGerman newspaper Bild releases a timeline of the flight's final moments .\nAndreas Lubitz suffered from \"generalized anxiety disorder,\" and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reports ."} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero.\" It was a routine sign-off, an all-is-well. On March 8, 2014, at 1:19 a.m., someone spoke those last words from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to air traffic controllers before the Boeing 777 vanished. A year later, searchers have no new clues as to where it went with 239 people on board. Radar and satellite reports have provided hints, but searchers still have nothing to hold in their hands. No wreckage seen floating at sea or beached on shore. No fuselage resting on the sea floor. Experts have said the data indicate the flight path from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing unexpectedly veered, putting the commercial jet over the southern Indian Ocean. But the water's vast and intricate depths have revealed no secrets. And as clarity has eluded grasp, analysts have made many speculations about what happened. The most controversial idea: Is the maritime search area all wrong? Did the plane land clandestinely on solid ground? Here are some expert theories about what happened to MH370. Investigators have since cast doubt on some of their details. Who radioed those last words to air traffic control? Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah? First officer Fariq Abdul Hamid? There was much speculation over that, but the Malaysian inspectors in April said it was Zaharie. The pilots were supposed to check in with new air traffic controllers in Vietnam, but never did. One theory is that one pilot may have incapacitated the other, then guided the plane to its end, taking the passengers down with him in a dramatic suicide. Mark Weiss, a retired American Airlines captain, has flown a Boeing 777. He believed shortly after the crash that there may have been a struggle. \"It was one of the pilots that maybe had a meltdown or did something nefarious to the airplane,\" he said. But Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya has vehemently defended his employees, particularly the pilot. \"We do not suspect any one of our crew until there's such evidence. ... Captain Zaharie is a very capable man,\" he said. \"We have no reason to suspect (him).\" Weiss also thought there could have been another person -- a crew member or someone else -- in the cockpit who \"was bent on perhaps committing suicide or doing some destruction on the aircraft.\" Copilot Hamid, 27, reportedly once invited a woman and her friend into the cockpit on a 2011 flight between Thailand and Malaysia. \"That's an enormous breach of security,\" Weiss said. But investigators punched holes in the idea, saying there was no indication of a third party in the cockpit, CNN reported in April. The difference between hijacking and commandeering is nuanced. The former term is often used when the hijacker issues a demand such as being taken to a safe-haven country or receiving ransom to release passengers. When people commandeer a plane, they might keep the motives secret, said political analyst Peter Bergen. They may want to steer it themselves at a target, like the September 11, 2001, terrorists did. In 1994, a FedEx employee burst into the cockpit of FedEx Flight 705 with a hammer and spear gun. He wanted to crash the plane into the company's Memphis, Tennessee, headquarters. The crew thwarted that takeover. \"Commandeering would fit with the few facts that we do know, and (it's) certainly a theory that we haven't heard a lot of that isn't a conspiracy,\" Bergen said. Experts are divided on this theory, partly because no terrorists have claimed responsibility at a moment when they would have the world's attention -- unless potential terrorists were waiting for something. MH370 went to Kazakhstan. Outlandish conjecture or genius insight? The theory that Russian actors on board MH370 found a way to get the plane through the border territory of China, Pakistan and India to a Kazakh landing strip leased to Russia comes from science journalist and private pilot Jeff Wise. Fleets of ships and search aircraft are looking in the wrong direction, he says. The airliner went north, not south. Investigators may have misinterpreted a key component of the Inmarsat satellite data. \"This is not a normal investigation. They need to throw out the book,\" Wise has said. Another aviation analyst, David Soucie, also cast doubt after MH370 went missing on the most widely held belief that the plane hit the Indian Ocean. \"If it had crashed in the way that we think it did, which is to run out of fuel and hit the water and break up into pieces, there would be pieces somewhere,\" he said. But Michael Exner, an engineer with decades of experience in the mobile satellite communications industry, says the data \"accurately and unambiguously\" shows MH370 went down near the so-called 7th arc, a path along which the search has been focused. \"The current ATSB search strategy remains the best search strategy,\" he said. In a less sinister but equally lethal explanation, some experts theorized the plane mysteriously crashed somewhere because of mechanical malfunction. Perhaps the electronics died, or a fire broke out, preventing the pilots from communicating. Maybe they turned to look for a landing strip but couldn't steer the plane properly. Pilots had trouble embracing the thought. \"I've been running that in my brain now ever since this thing happened,\" said Jim Tilmon, an aviation expert and retired American Airlines pilot. \"One possibility would be a total electrical failure which is very, very hard to imagine because (the plane) has so many generators coming from different places,\" Tilmon said. If they fail, there are other backups. He has said he's never heard of anything like it happening before. For months after MH370 disappeared, Malaysian officials reported details of the search to next of kin and the public. Something would be spotted, hopes rose, and then it didn't pan out. Hopes were dashed; anguish returned. Sunday, a year to the day after the plane disappeared, the international independent investigation committee released an interim report on the disappearance of MH370. It found no indications of unusual behavior among the aircraft's pilots and cabin crew before it took off, and said that Zaharie had had no personal or financial problems that would cast suspicion on him. The interim report also revealed that the battery of the underwater locator beacon on the plane's flight data recorder had expired more than a year before its disappearance. The battery on the plane's other so-called black box, the cockpit voice recorder, had been replaced as scheduled, and remained within its expiry date, the report said. CNN's Pamela Boykoff and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Many experts believe the plane went down in the South Indian Ocean .\nThe most controversial theory: Russians hijacked the plane to Kazakhstan .\nElectrical failure is another theory ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A video appears online. In it, fraternity members from your university are chanting a hateful, racist song about lynching African-Americans. The video goes viral. You're president of the university. Imagine being in that situation. What would you do? There are two ways to answer the question. The first is in the moment of crisis. The second is about the long term. As most everyone knows by now, David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, faced just this situation Monday. And I've been thinking about it intensely, not only because I care about race and civic leadership in America, but also because Boren was my first boss, when he was a U.S. senator. I'm not from Oklahoma but ended up working for Boren through a college internship. He was a mentor to me during my years in Washington, and a model for me when he left the Beltway to be of greater use and service as an educator. Though we haven't talked since the crisis broke, I see familiar patterns of leadership. Boren responded to the crisis swiftly, with a statement that went viral. Boren told the students from Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) he had a message for them: \"You are disgraceful. You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves Sooners\" (the OU nickname). Boren went on to sever all ties between OU and SAE. The national fraternity closed the local chapter. Later, Boren said he'd be glad if the students in the video left campus because \"we don't provide student services for bigots.\" The next day he expelled two of them. His actions have resonated across the country. On social media, people shocked by the video find themselves also stunned by Boren's response. Why? Because he did something rare in public life today. He expressed a decisive, judgmental view with moral clarity. Then he followed through. His statements have been free of mushy lawyer-talk or euphemism. He's led authentically, from the heart. Of course, people have carped. Some question whether Boren has the legal authority, as head of a public institution, to expel students on the basis of their free speech, even racist hate speech. Some lament that what he should have branded as disgraceful was the students' actions, not the students themselves. Legitimate concerns, perhaps. The First Amendment question, certainly, is being debated by legal scholars. But these concerns are eclipsed by the bigger picture. Boren wasn't just condemning wrongdoers; he was shifting social norms for all. A cynic might consider laughable a refrain from Boren's statement about \"real Sooners.\" Boren said that real Sooners are not racists or bigots; they believe in equal opportunity, treat people with mutual respect and love each other like family. A cynic might say Oklahoma is a state both very white and very red, not known for flying the banner of anti-racism. Indeed, the original Sooners were the white settlers who raced in to claim land that had been wrested from Native Americans. But the point of Boren's \"real Sooners\" riff is not to describe or sanitize today's reality; it is to issue a challenge. It is to bind people to a creed, a standard of being and belief that is easy to assert but hard to achieve. Not unlike being a true patriot. So now begins the longer term. Here, another opportunity arises to lead by example. David Boren can now examine the institution he works for and ask how and why such attitudes and behaviors -- racism so casually vicious -- could ever take root among people as young as freshmen. He can explore the ways in which everyone -- not only the obviously guilty parties at a frat party -- is touched by unconscious bias and institutional racism. He can now ask his community to face the inequities of history and race. We can all do that. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, is doing this at his company. He was moved after the incidents of Ferguson and Staten Island to hold truly open forums with employees about the pain and anguish of racial division. But you don't have to be a college president or a CEO. You don't have to be a white man in charge to start a tough reckoning with racism (though it'd help if more did). Whoever you are, you can start a new kind of conversation in your neighborhood. On your campus. At your house of worship. Ask what the history is. Ask why there are such imbalances of power and voice. Ask what it would take to be truly inclusive. Then, in word and deed, start answering your own questions. We can all do that. The sooner, the better.","highlights":"David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, responded to offensive video .\nEric Liu: Boren did something rare in public life today -- he acted with moral clarity ."} -{"article":"(CNN)It turns out that Jupiter may be more than just an enormous ball of gas spinning a few hundred million miles farther out in the solar system. We earthlings might have the giant planet to thank for our very existence. Two scientists are suggesting that the inner solar system once played host to a bunch of \"super-Earths\" -- planets that were larger than our own but smaller than Neptune. Jupiter, however, put an end to those early occupiers of the inner orbits, bulldozing in and sweeping them into the sun, according to a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jupiter's epic, planet-shattering journey toward the sun and back out again laid the foundations for the creation of Earth and the other smaller planets nearby -- Mercury, Venus and Mars. \"Our work suggests that Jupiter's inward-outward migration could have destroyed a first generation of planets and set the stage for the formation of the mass-depleted terrestrial planets that our solar system has today,\" said Konstantin Batygin of Caltech, one of the authors of the paper. The theory attempts to explain why our solar system is a bit of an oddball in our galactic neighborhood. Most other systems that have planets orbiting around a star similar to our sun look very different. They generally have at least one planet significantly larger than Earth that's in a closer orbit than Mercury's. But they don't have many objects farther out. Maybe that's because of Jupiter's destructive romp in the early history of the solar system. \"There is no reason to think that the dominant mode of planet formation throughout the galaxy should not have occurred here,\" Batygin said. \"It is more likely that subsequent changes have altered its original makeup.\" He and his co-author -- Gregory Laughlin of University of California, Santa Cruz -- are building on a scenario of Jupiter's migration that was previously put forward by other scientists. Known as the Grand Tack scenario, it describes Jupiter getting drawn toward the sun in the early era of the solar system thanks to its huge mass. What stops it from being sucked right into the sun is Saturn. The two gas giants start to exert gravitational influence on one another, entering a planetary dance that eventually sends them back farther out into the solar system. Batygin and Laughlin suggest that during its inward journey, Jupiter dragged a load of planetary building blocks, known as planetesimals, along with it. That sent the planetesimals smashing into debris in the inner solar system, causing them to break apart and fall into the sun at a faster rate. The scientists say they ran a simulation of what would happen if there were also a number of super-Earths in the vicinity as well. They found that a wave of decaying planetesimals would steer the super-Earths into the sun over the course of 20,000 years. \"It's a very effective physical process,\" Batygin said. \"You only need a few Earth masses worth of material to drive tens of Earth masses worth of planets into the sun.\" On its way back out, Jupiter left some remaining planetesimals in its wake -- the building blocks that over millions of years would come to form Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars.","highlights":"Scientists: An epic migration by Jupiter led to destruction of \"super-Earths\"\nThe planet-shattering journey laid foundations for Earth, they say ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Myanmar warplanes fighting rebels dropped a bomb at a sugarcane field in China, killing four civilians, the latter's state media reported Saturday. In addition to the fatalities, nine others were wounded, according to Xinhua news agency. Shortly after the incident Friday, China sent fighter jets to patrol over their shared border. The jets are there to \"track, monitor, warn and chase away\" Myanmar military planes, China's air force told state media. China summoned Myanmar's ambassador in Beijing after the incident in the border city of Lincang. Liu Zhenmin, the vice foreign minister for China, called on Myanmar to investigate and bring those behind the attack to justice. Myanmar forces have been battling ethnic separatist rebels in the rugged border region across from Yunnan province. In recent incidents, stray gunfire has damaged property on the Chinese side of the border, prompting Beijing to warn Myanmar to ensure safety. There was no immediate reaction from Myanmar.","highlights":"China sends fighter jets to patrol over border with Myanmar following the incident .\nReport: In addition to the fatalities, nine others were wounded ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Her murder shocked a nation, but according to the slain woman's father, it also woke Turkey up. Ozgecan Aslan's body was found last month, burned and abandoned, just days after her family reported her missing. She allegedly fought off a sexual assault before being killed by the driver of a bus she'd taken to go home. Her death sparked widespread protests. \"A country woke up,\" Aslan's father, Mehmet Aslan, told CNN in a phone interview. \"There was no way for so many people to come together over a single killing. But, I know that my Ozgecan was sent for a reason. And as devastating it is, it was her part, her destiny to wake people up.\" Aslan, 20, was a first-year university student. She studied psychology. \"My Ozge lived for peace,\" her father said. \"For peace, love and beauty. She believed in a better tomorrow.\" Since her death, hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets and online, demanding Turkey do more to protect women. They say the problem is cultural; it's also criminal. Bianet, a Turkish group that tracks violence against women, reports that at least 281 women were killed in Turkey in 2014 -- up 31% from the previous year. According to Hulya Gulbahar, a Turkish activist and women's rights lawyer, laws are irregularly applied. \"In a majority of Turkey's female abuse cases, the perpetrators receive mitigations in their sentences due to court's detection of consent granted by the victim,\" Gulbahar said. \"In some cases, wearing a miniskirt or some cleavage got the woman's rapist mitigation in his punishment, while in some cases the consent was attached to her wearing red.\" It's unclear what will happen in Aslan's case. Three suspects have been arrested in her death, Turkey's semiofficial news agency Anadolu has reported. The agency identified the main suspect as 26-year-old Ahmet Suphi Altindoken and said that he had confessed. Aslan reportedly fought him using pepper spray, which had been given to her by her mother. Although he is heartbroken and angry, Mehmet Aslan isn't out for revenge. In fact, his family has received donations from across the country and is planning to use those to set up a rehabilitation center -- not for women who are abused but for men who abuse. \"We must surrender to love,\" he told CNN. \"Otherwise, we all lose.\" Aslan's murder is similar in many ways to well-known case in India. There, a student was attacked by five men on a public bus in 2012. She was raped and later died from her injuries. Like Aslan's murder, her death triggered massive outrage and nationwide protests. And like Turkey, India has a serious problem when it comes to women's rights. Out of 142 countries, Turkey ranks 125th (India ranks 114th) on the World Economic Forum's 2014 gender gap index. On Sunday, some 3,000 women marched in Istanbul to mark International Women's Day, Anadolu reported. The female-only rally was dedicated in Aslan's memory. \"Ozgecan's screams have indeed been heard. Maybe not that very instant, but later -- and in millions of hearts,\" said Mehmet Aslan.","highlights":"Ozgecan Aslan allegedly fought off a sexual assault before being killed .\nHer death triggered widespread protests, including one on International Women's Day ."} -{"article":"(CNN)In fairy tales, it's usually the princess that needs protecting. At Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley, the princess is the one defending the castle. Meet Parisa Tabriz, the 31-year-old with perhaps the most enchanted job title in engineering -- \"Google Security Princess.\" Her job is to hack into the most popular web browser on the planet, trying to find flaws in the system before the \"black hats\" do. Indeed, much like the good and bad witches of the Wizard of Oz, hackers are described as having \"white\" or \"black\" hats. To defeat Google's attackers, Tabriz must firstly think like them. In this cyberspace battle, the data of around a billion Chrome users hangs in the balance -- and Tabriz wasn't going to settle for any old moniker. \"When I started, my official job title was 'Information Security Engineer,' which I thought was a bit boring and not really meaningful,\" said the Iranian-Polish-American, speaking a million miles an hour over the phone from Google HQ. \"So I changed it to 'Security Princess' as more of a tongue-in-cheek thing. I've never been exceptionally girly or fit the stereotype of a princess, so it was a bit ironic for me to go by that name -- and then it stuck!\" Tabriz's role has evolved dramatically in the eight years since she first started working at Google. Back then, the young graduate from Illinois University was one of 50 security engineers -- today there are over 500. \"Our users include presidents of foreign countries -- I hope Obama uses Chrome too. It includes really highly-targeted individuals, political dissidents, journalists, and people who just want to casually use the internet,\" she said. \"Google depends on those users trusting us with their data. So if we can't protect it, we have no business.\" Cybercrime has come a long way in the past decade -- from the cliched Nigerian Prince Scam to credit card theft, and suspected government surveillance over emails. Tabriz's biggest concern now is the people who find bugs in Google's software, and sell the information to governments or criminals. To combat this, the company has set up a Vulnerability Rewards Program, paying anywhere from $100 to $20,000 for reported glitches. \"What we've seen in the last couple of years is what we suspect to be governments trying to intercept communications,\" said Tabriz. \"In one case, there were Iranian-region Gmail users whose connection was being intercepted.\" \"These incidents are especially scary since they seem to be carried out by large, well-funded organizations or governments,\" she added. It's a world away from Tabriz's computer-free childhhod home in Chicago. The daughter of an Iranian-American doctor father, and Polish-American nurse mother, Tabriz had little contact with computers until she started studying engineering at college. Gaze across a line-up of Google security staff today and you'll find women like Tabriz are few and far between -- though in the last few years she has hired more female tech whizzes. She admits there's an obvious gender imbalance in Silicon Valley, but for once is stumped on the fault. \"Clearly the numbers make you think 'what is the problem that there aren't more women working in security, that there aren't more women working in technology?\" she said. \"And it does make me think what is the problem here? Is it the culture or the atmosphere?\" Funnily enough, during training sessions Tabriz first asks new recruits to hack not a computer, but a vending machine. \"There's this idea that you need to be a super genius computer geek to be a hacker. But in reality, I think anybody can be a hacker in the real world -- just think of all the non-software examples,\" said Tabriz. \"A lot of people ask me what's the best answer I've been given to the vending machine problem, and the real answer is there is none. Some people think about how they'd steal their favorite snack; some people figure out how to steal the entire machine of snacks; and some people figure out how they could add some sort of functionality to the machine that wasn't there before\" Tabriz's job is as much about technological know-how, as understanding the psychology of attackers. \"Anybody who's working in defense -- police officers, security, or law enforcement -- has to stop and think 'what is the enemy or the attacker going to do?'\" she said. \"Because you always want to stay one step ahead of them.\" Read more from Make, Create, Innovate: . The world's largest machine gets ready to restart . You will you soon be able to 'swallow the doctor' The end of electronics as we know it?","highlights":"Parisa Tabriz is the 31-year-old computer whizz paid to hack into Google .\nThe self-styled 'Security Princess' finds bugs in the software before attackers ."} -{"article":"Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)With partial results reported in the Nigerian presidential election, it appears opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari is leading incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. Reuters, which has collated results from three-quarters of Nigeria's states as they're broadcast live on state TV, reported that Buhari has so far obtained 11.5 million votes, Jonathan 9.5 million. Electoral officers from each of the 36 states are taking turns declaring results from their respective states at the Independent National Electoral Commission. The vote count was stopped Monday night and will resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday (5 a.m. ET), according to a tweet from Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the electoral commission. Jega will be the one to announce final results. Violent protests after Nigeria's presidential elections Saturday sparked calls for calm from the two main candidates and a warning by the United States and Britain against political interference. Protesters fired gunshots and torched a local electoral office in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers state on Sunday as they marched to protest the elections, amid claims of vote-rigging and voter intimidation. Heavy rain eventually forced the protesters to leave, but there are fears it will take more than rain to stop further protests and violence. More than 800 people were killed in post-election violence across Nigeria's north in 2011 after charges that those elections were illegitimate. Now Nigeria has just held what are thought to be the closest elections since a return to democracy in 1999 after decades of military rule. The two main candidates are incumbent Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party and retired Buhari of All Progressives Congress. Jonathan and Buhari last week issued a pledge reaffirming their commitment to \"free, fair and credible elections\" after their signing of the Abuja Accord in January. After the protests in Rivers, Buhari's All Progressives Congress demanded the elections there be canceled. \"There's been so much violence in Rivers state that it's just not tenable,\" party spokesman Lai Mohammed said. But the Peoples Democratic Party disputed the accusation, saying the election was \"credible and the result reflects the overwhelming wish of the people of Rivers state to support President Goodluck Jonathan.\" \"We are concerned by what seems to be happening,\" said Jega, the election chairman, about events in Rivers. Voting ended after problems with ballot papers and digital voting cards saw it extended to Sunday in some areas. Read more: Nigerian election extended one day . Britain and the United States entered the fray Monday with their top diplomats issuing a statement welcoming a \"largely peaceful vote\" but warning any political interference would contravene Jonathan and Buhari's peace pact. \"So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process. But there are disturbing indications that the collation process -- where the votes are finally counted -- may be subject to deliberate political interference. This would contravene the letter and spirit of the Abuja Accord, to which both major parties committed themselves,\" U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. Responding to their joint statement, electoral commission spokesman Kayode Idowu said: \"For all that I know there is no sign of political interference in the collation procedure.\" Idowu said the collation procedure \"cannot be subject to interference as long as our representative is present.\" The fear is that the results may not be accepted by the loser. If the opposition believes it has been rigged out of victory by the ruling party, then the protests in Rivers could spread to northern Nigeria. Both candidates have taken to social media to call for calm. \"I want to urge all Nigerians to also wait patiently for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to collate and announce results,\" Jonathan said on his Facebook account. \"Fellow Nigerians, I urge you to exercise patience and vigilance as we wait for all results to be announced,\" said Buhari on Twitter. Nigeria's vote had been scheduled for February 14, but on February 7, Nigeria's election commission announced it would be postponed for six weeks because of security concerns, with the military needing more time to secure areas controlled by extremist group Boko Haram. The controversial decision was unpopular among many Nigerians and led to widespread protests. Jonathan has been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram, which is waging a campaign of terror aimed at instituting a stricter version of Sharia law in Nigeria. On Saturday, residents in the northeastern state of Gombe said at least 11 people were killed and two more injured in attacks at polling stations, apparently by Boko Haram extremists. In other attacks not believed to be related to voting, suspected Boko Haram militants decapitated 23 people in a raid Saturday night on Buratai village in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, according to residents and Ibrahim Adamu, a local politician in the village. Meanwhile on Monday, Nigeria's police force issued a statement saying police and a \"local vigilante group\" had foiled an attack by unknown gunmen on the town of Tafawa Balewa in northeastern Bauchi state. The assailants had \"stormed Tafawa Balewa town in a convoy of 18 Hilux vehicles and started firing sporadically,\" the statement said. After being forced to retreat and abandon four vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns, the attackers went to Jitar village, where they killed three \"male vigilante members,\" police said. Security forces had cordoned off the surrounding area, they said. Read more: Democracy was the real winner . Christian Purefoy reported from Lagos and Susannah Cullinane wrote from London.","highlights":"Vote-counting postponed until Tuesday morning, election leader says in tweet .\nPartial vote count shows opposition candidate leading in Nigeria, Reuters reports .\nIncumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari faced off in election ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Cody Simpson just wants to make the world happy. That's why the Australian-born pop star is in Austin, Texas, this week, where he will be performing at a United Nations\/MixRadio brunch at the SXSW festival. Simpson, 18, is the spokesman for the #HappySoundsLike playlist, promoting the U.N.'s International Day of Happiness on Friday, March 20. The singer and other celebs selected tracks for the playlist. \"There is honestly nothing I can think of that I like to do more than make other people happy through live music,\" said Simpson, who will perform a few acoustic tracks at the SXSW brunch. The International Day of Happiness is a global celebration that came about after the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2011 recognizing happiness as a \"fundamental human goal.\" The observation was decreed in 2012 after the first U.N. conference on happiness, and the first Day of Happiness was held on March 20, 2013. Simpson said it makes sense to have music as such an important part of the day. \"I want to be able to share a message of happiness,\" the singer said. \"I think music is such an escape for people.\" He selected Bob Marley's \"Three Little Birds\" for the playlist. Britney Spears selected Prince's \"Kiss,\" and Pharrell picked Talking Heads' \"This Must Be the Place.\" Ed Sheeran, David Guetta, Charlize Theron, John Legend and James Blunt are also among those taking part. Simpson recently released a cover of Marley's \"No Woman No Cry\" and said the legendary reggae artist is a personal inspiration. \"The majority of music today has no substance,\" said Simpson, who is an independent artist. \"You want to be able to feel something true.\" As for what makes Simpson the happiest (other than music, of course), he said it's the simple things like relaxing with his family and just slowing down. \"Happiness is kind of taken from you if your mind is too busy,\" he said. \"Be present in that moment.\" Fans are being encouraged to post the song that makes them the happiest using the social media hashtag #HappySoundsLike.","highlights":"Simpson helped curate the playlist to celebrate the UN's International Day of Happiness .\nHe will mark the day by performing at the SXSW festival .\nFans are encouraged to share the songs that make them happy ."} -{"article":"(CNN)As an offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens, John Urschel already has a lot on his plate. He regularly goes head to head with the top defensive players in the NFL and does his best to keep quarterback Joe Flacco out of harm's way. But besides his endeavors on the field, Urschel also keeps up another demanding pursuit that is rarely associated with NFL players: mathematical research. Not content with the respect of the locker room, he also seeks the esteem of top mathematicians around the globe. \"I have a Bachelor's and Master's in mathematics, all with a 4.0, and numerous published papers in major mathematical journals,\" Urschel wrote in a recent article for The Players' Tribune. His latest contribution to the mathematical realm was a paper for the Journal of Computational Mathematics with the impressively esoteric title, \"A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians.\" Urschel, 23, makes no effort to hide his unusual combination of talents: his official Twitter handle is @MathMeetsFball. As word of his double life spread on social media in recent days, users responded with fascination and admiration. \"You are my goddamn hero (football fan and aspiring complex\/functional analyst here),\" tweeted Roy Cardenas, who describes himself as a math Ph.D. student. But Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has \"a bright career ahead of me in mathematics.\" After every season, he says in the Players' Tribune article, his mother tries to discourage him from continuing to play football. The Penn State graduate says the reason he keeps going isn't for the money (he drives a used Nissan Versa and lives on less than $25,000 a year) or \"for some social status associated with being an elite athlete.\" It's simpler than that. \"I play because I love the game. I love hitting people,\" he writes. \"There's a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you.\" \"This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else,\" he explains. He shared his thoughts after San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland announced last week that he was retiring from professional football at age 24 because he was worried about the long-term effects of head trauma. Urschel says he envies Borland but doesn't feel able to quit. \"When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around,\" he writes. \"This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work.\" And as if two areas of overachievement weren't enough, there is one other thing at which Urschel excels. \"I'm also an avid chess player,\" he says. \"And I have aspirations of eventually being a titled player one day.\"","highlights":"The NFL player has published numerous papers in major math journals .\nHe keeps playing football despite the risk of potential brain injury .\n\"I play because I love the game. I love hitting people,\" he says ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Roberto Mancini says he carries Manchester City's supporters in his heart -- but there's not much love being shown towards the man who replaced him as manager of the Premier League champions. Manuel Pellegrini is a man feeling the heat -- and the current City manager has come under fire from his predecessor just 24 hours after insisting he is not under pressure to win a trophy every season. Mancini, the man who led Manchester City to its first Premier League title in 44 years back in 2012 says Pellegrini is \"lucky\" to have inherited the side he left behind after being sacked exactly a year to the day since winning England's top division. Pellegrini, who led City to the domestic title last season, is under fire with City trailing Chelsea by six points in the league and facing elimination in the European Champions League. \"I think Pellegrini was really lucky because he got this team that is a strong team and he has a chance to put in more good players,\" Inter Milan coach Mancini told CNN's Don Riddell on the eve of City's crucial game with Barcelona in the Champions League. \"I think City can win a title every year and have a chance -- it should and must try to win a title every year.\" Nicknamed \"the Engineer,\" Pellegrini has seen the wheels come off his side's title charge in recent weeks. The Chilean is reportedly on the brink with his team having apparently surrendered its Premier League title with another meek showing in the 1-0 defeat by minnow Burnley last weekend. His team have managed just three victories in their past 11 games -- its season could be more or less over by tomorrow night. City faces a daunting task to reach the last eight of the European Champions League -- a competition it has struggled in despite spending $482 million on players since the start of the 2011-12 season. It must overturn a 2-1 deficit against Barcelona at Camp Nou on Wednesday after being outplayed for the majority of the home fixture. Only once in nine attempts has Barcelona won the first leg of a two-legged Champions League knockout tie and not progressed. Pellegrini has spent heavily since arriving at City but a number of those purchases have failed to impress. Eliaquim Mangala, who arrived from Porto for $47million has endured a dismal first season in English football, while $32million man Stevan Jovetic has also struggled to make an impression since arriving from Fiorentina. \"It's my opinion that City is the best team in the Premier League,\" said Mancini. \"It's in second and six points behind Chelsea but I think it's the best team. \"In the Premier League anything can happen right up to the last game, in the last minute,\" perhaps a nod to City's last gasp English Premier League title win in 2012, thanks to Sergio Aguero's stoppage time winner against Queens Park Rangers. \"I think they should think that they have a chance to win the title.\" Mancini, who replaced Mark Hughes in December 2009, enjoyed great success during his three-and-half-year tenure. He led the club to the FA Cup in 2011 before winning the league title the following season. Under Mancini, the club attracted star players such as Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, David Silva and Aguero. He signed a new five-year deal with the club in July 2012 but results dipped with rival Manchester United regaining the league title and City suffering a shock FA Cup final defeat by Wigan. Mancini was criticised for his side's lack of success in the Champions League, where the failure to negotiate the group stage playing a key role in the decision to relieve him of his duties. The Italian, 50, was also involved in a series of high-profile disagreements with Carlos Tevez, the Argentina striker, which cast doubts over his ability to handle the big names in the City squad. In the 12 Champions League ties under his stewardship, City managed just three victories -- a damning indictment on the team's failure on the European stage. At the time of his sacking, the club said that Mancini failed to hit \"stated targets\" and that it wanted to \"develop a holistic approach to all aspects of football\". \"I had a fantastic time in England,\" he added. \"We won the Premier League after many years. I have all City's supporters in my heart and all those moments in my head because it is impossible to forget this. \"Maybe I miss the Premier League because I worked there for three-and-a-half years. I built the team that is now in second position. \"I think they play with the same players and I am very proud of this.\" Mancini faces a struggle of his own at Inter with the club unlikely to qualify for European competition next season. Inter is eighth in Serie A and is eight points off the qualifying places for the Europa League. It faces German side Wolfsburg in the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday having lost the first leg 3-1.","highlights":"Roberto Mancini says Manchester City still the best team in the Premier League .\nItalian says City should win a title every year .\nManuel Pellegrini under growing pressure at club .\nCity faces Barcelona in Champions League on Wednesday ."} -{"article":"(CNN)As a person-of-color, African-American, veteran minority journalist and longtime enthusiast of all things \"Daily Show,\" I am of course as happy, proud and thrilled as the wife of a successful Apollo astronaut over the impending ascension of Trevor Noah, the biracial comedian from South Africa, to Jon Stewart's anchor chair on what's believed by many to be the most trusted half-hour of news and information in America. As a person who believes in fair play and equal opportunity for all, I am also moved to wonder when a woman will get the chance to preside over a talk show after sunset? Look. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. After generations of near-to-total invisibility on mass media airwaves, it's bracing to find a whole one-hour block of high-profile cable television infotainment anchored by men who look like me. Indeed, in pushing forth both Noah and Larry Wilmore, the writer, comic and erstwhile National Black Correspondent for \"The Daily Show,\" to preside over both halves of Comedy Central's much-coveted 11 p.m.-to-midnight bloc, Stewart is acknowledging what the mainstream of the country truly is: i.e. not as pale-faced as it once thought it was. And so far, Wilmore's \"The Nightly Show,\" which premiered earlier this year as a replacement for the very different \"Daily Show\" companion once hosted by Stephen Colbert, is gradually establishing its own identity as an equally cheeky hybrid of sketch satire and celebrity forum with its own multicultural flavor. Still, one does wonder what happened to the groundswell of support building among \"Daily Show\" constituents for Jessica Williams, a three-year veteran of the show and an early favorite for Stewart's spot after he announced last month he was leaving. Williams, who is black, tweeted back to her supporters her grateful opinion that she was \"extremely under-qualified for the job.\" Maybe, but what about Samantha Bee? She's the \"most senior correspondent\" for \"The Daily Show\" and is taking her penchant for performance artistry and provocation to TBS, where she'll create her own satiric news franchise. Her track record bodes well for her prospects there. But it's difficult to find any evidence that she was considered a Stewart successor -- though her announcement that she was leaving the show came a month after Stewart's. Besides Bee? No one, least of all those affiliated with Comedy Central, have disclosed any candidates besides Noah. There was even less buzz about the Stewart opening than Colbert's a year ago, during which time there were many willing to say that now was the time to finally give a woman a shot at late-night TV for the first time since the late Joan Rivers' Fox Network effort, \"The Late Show\" came in 1987-- and went in 1988. And yes, we aren't neglecting Chelsea Handler, whose \"Chelsea Lately\" was for seven seasons on the E! Network a bawdier late-night alternative to whatever Letterman, Stewart and others were putting down beyond prime-time. She's supposed to start streaming a new show through Netflix sometime next year. So one supposes she's pretty busy. It will happen, perhaps sooner than one now expects. Look how long it took before Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric were given their shots to anchor evening news broadcasts on ABC and CBS respectively. Hmmm ... wonder what they're doing after 11 p.m. these days.","highlights":"As a black man, Gene Seymour thrilled Trevor Noah tapped for \"Daily Show.\" But in service of fair play he asks: Why not a woman for the job?\nJessica Williams, Samantha Bee would have been good candidates. When will women finally get their shot at late night?"} -{"article":"(CNN)From an iconic marble statue of a heavily pregnant disabled artist to the more recent giant blue cockerel, London's Fourth Plinth art project has always provided a controversial modern twist to the traditional landmarks around London's Trafalgar Square. The latest offering, \"Gift Horse,\" which took up residence in the Square's northwest corner Thursday, looks set to continue the tradition with a work that explores the link between power, money and history, according to organizers. Unveiled by London's Mayor Boris Johnson, the sculpture created by German-born conceptual artist Hans Haacke portrays a skeletal riderless horse with an ribbon-shaped electronic ticker tied to its left leg showing live market data from London's Stock Exchange. \"'Gift Horse' is a startlingly original comment on the relationship between art and commerce and I hope it will stimulate as much debate as other works that have appeared on the plinth,\" Johnson said. The 13-feet high bronze skeleton is a \"wry comment,\" organizers say, on the equestrian statue of King William IV originally planned, but never realized for the plinth more than 150 years ago. Further nods to the past and the sculpture's location can be found in the pose which is based on the engraving \"The Anatomy of a Horse\" by English artist George Stubbs, whose famous equine portraits hang on the walls of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square's north side. One of London's most famous landmarks, Trafalgar Square is popular with tourists. Named after a famed 1805 British naval victory against the French, its centerpiece is a column commemorating Lord Horatio Nelson, who died during the conflict. In a career spanning half-a-century, Haacke has frequently explored the interconnectedness of art, power and money through installations, paintings, photography and written text. Many of Haacke's most famous works have explored systems, be it physical -- as evidenced by his famous 1960s work \"Condensation Cube\" -- or the social and political as seen in \"MoMA Poll\" (1970), \"A Breed Apart\" (1978) and more recently his \"Der Bev\u00f6lkerung\" (The People) installed in Germany's Reichstag building in Berlin in 2000. \"It's a very prominent spot,\" said the 78-year-old, reflecting on the \"Gift Horse's\" positioning in Trafalgar Square, \"It's very beautiful. Everybody sees it.\" \"There are other statues and the idea of having the empty plinth which has been made available periodically for artists is a great idea,\" added Haacke. Around Trafalgar Square there was mixed reaction to the sculpture. \"It definitely doesn't look like a horse's head, does it? Looks more dinosaur-ish to me,\" said a slightly baffled female day-tripper from Wales, while another tourist seemed equally confused. \"My first impression was that it looked like an alien, because you see it and then you think, huh? What is it?\" said Toni, visiting from Switzerland. Local reaction was more positive though. \"I just think it's very witty,\" said Londoner Tony Francis. \"I can see the (George) Stubbs influence. And I love the Stock Exchange (ribbon) scrolling round and the way they merge into each other.\" \"Gift Horse\" is the 10th artwork to sit on the plinth and follows the \"Hahn\/Cock,\" created by German artist Katharina Fritsch which was in residence from July 2013 to February this year.","highlights":"A new sculpture for Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth unveiled Thursday .\n'Gift Horse' by German-born artist Hans Haacke will sit on plinth for 18 months .\nHaacke's is the 10th artwork to be displayed on the plinth ."} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Captain America\" actor Chris Evans met some \"true superheroes\" on Saturday at Seattle Children's Hospital in a visit with \"Guardians of the Galaxy\" star Chris Pratt. It was their second hospital visit as part of a Super Bowl bet that ended in a win for everyone. The bet: If Pratt's team -- the Seattle Seahawks -- won the Super Bowl, Evans would visit Seattle Children's Hospital dressed as Captain America. If Evans' team -- the New England Patriots -- won, Pratt would visit Christopher's Haven in Boston dressed as \"Guardians of the Galaxy\" character Star-Lord, wearing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's jersey. Even though the Patriots won, the two Chrises visited both hospitals. Pratt wore his Star-Lord costume to visit Boston Children's Hospital in February, and Evans donned his Captain America duds to visit Seattle Children's on Saturday, bearing gifts in the form of Marvel action figures and accessories. \"Meeting Captain America and Star-Lord is an experience our patients will always remember,\" Seattle Children's said. \"The kids were beyond excited to meet Captain America and Star-Lord.\" The superhero actors met Oskar Beechum, 7, who has been at Seattle Children's for four months for epilepsy treatment. \"Meeting them was a nice reprieve for us,\" Oskar's mom Kelli Beechum said. \"So many of our visitors are doctors, and the conversations are medical. I can't wait to watch the Captain America movie with Oskar. It will be like he knows him personally now.\" The visit made an impression on Evans, too, who said he felt inspired, blessed and touched after meeting \"some TRUE super heroes!\"","highlights":"Chris Evans, Chris Pratt visit young patients at Seattle Children's Hospital .\nThe pair visited children's hospital in Boston in February in Super Bowl bet ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Three Florida police officers were fired and a fourth resigned after exchanging a series of racially offensive text messages and a video that portrayed President Barack Obama in a derogatory way, Fort Lauderdale police said. Jason Holding, James Wells and Christopher Sousa were terminated after a five-month internal affairs investigation found sustained department misconduct, conduct unbecoming of a police officer and engaging in \"conduct prejudicial to the good of the order of the police department.\" A fourth officer, Alex Alvarez, resigned but authorities said Friday that he would have been fired had he not done so. In the text message exchanges, the former officers used racially derogatory terms to refer to people they encountered while on duty, included racially insensitive material from the film, \"Django Unchained,\" and talked about getting drunk and \"killing n*****,\" according to investigative documents. The men allegedly criticized co-workers, including African-Americans, making crude comments about their grammar, appearance and work ethic. One message referred to an entire shift as \"lazy f****,\" the documents state. Alvarez created a faux movie trailer with the title \"The Hoods,\" with offensive language and images of Obama, the Ku Klux Klan and African-Americans. \"There was no criminal behavior detected during this investigation, however, the four officers' conduct was inexcusable and there is zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department,\" Chief Franklin Adderley told reporters. \"Its attempt was to damage the image of our agency and I just hope that the people and the public realize that we're not going to tolerate it and anyone that's engaged in this behavior will be addressed immediately,\" he said. In a statement, the Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police said the officers deserve their due process, CNN affiliate WSVN reported. \"The Fraternal Order of Police is a multicultural organization which does not tolerate racism,\" the group's president, Jack Lokeinsky, said in the statement. \"Our officers take great pride in our commitment to diversity. Our dedicated officers have positive relationships with residents in every community we serve.\" The officers worked in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. \"I am very disappointed, disgusted and shocked by this incident,\" Mayor Jack Seiler said. \"The inappropriate racist behavior exhibited by those involved is unacceptable and reprehensible, it violates the trust we place in our law enforcement officers, it damages the bond we have established in our community and undermines the standards in which each and every city employee is held accountable,\" Seiler said at a news conference. Police officials were alerted of the existence of offensive material by Alvarez's ex-fiancee, who discovered it when the couple agreed to check each others' phones, according to the documents. The woman told police she thought their behavior was wrong, but feared he would hurt her if she told anyone. After the 10-month relationship ended, she went to the authorities. Adderley said that four officers had not exhibited a pattern of race-related complaints. Holding was recently disciplined with a two-day suspension for mishandling property of a suspect. The police department is implementing a mandatory \"diversity class\" for officers and a screening process for new hires, said Adderley.","highlights":"Fort Lauderdale officers exchanged racially offensive text messages .\nThree officers were fired, a fourth resigned .\nPolice chief: \"There was no criminal behavior detected\""} -{"article":"(CNN)Want to take a self-portrait using your snazzy new selfie stick in front of London's National Gallery? That's fine. But don't try to use it inside the museum. The National Gallery has become the latest museum to ban the handy (or irritating, depending on your point of view) device. Selfies turn museums into playgrounds for a day . The British museum joins the Smithsonian, New York's Museum of Modern Art and a host of institutions around the world banning what the New York museum calls \"camera extension poles.\" Before you pout that the ban is going to ruin your selfie for #MuseumSelfie Day next year, know that Mar Dixon, the day's creator, supports the ban. \"I'm all for photos in museums as that is a memory -- a personal memory -- of your visit,\" Dixon wrote in an email. But not selfie sticks, which she says allow you to invade other people's personal space. \"They're just as bad IMO as tripods or opening an umbrella. \"There is also a risk, while lining up your shot with a selfie stuck inside a museum or gallery, of knocking other people around you or worse, the art,\" Dixon wrote. \"Selfie sticks are brilliant, don't get me wrong, but not inside museums and galleries. Outside and for other attractions they are perfect!\"","highlights":"London's National Gallery is the latest museum to ban the selfie stick .\nEven the creator of #MuseumSelfie Day supports the ban ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The fury of Tropical Cyclone Pam, one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall, has moved on, but the misery it left behind in the islands of Vanuatu is just starting to become apparent. Aid workers described scenes of extensive devastation in the capital, Port Vila, and expressed fears of even more destruction farther afield. Thousands were in need of shelter, food and water, the Red Cross said Sunday. \"Homes have been lost, crops are destroyed. The damage is enormous, and people need our help,\" said Aurelia Balpe, head of the Red Cross in the Pacific. \"Yet it will still take some time before we really understand the full extent of the damage.\" The storm flattened houses, scattered trees across roads and inflicted damage on key buildings meant to serve as safe havens, such as the hospital, schools and churches. \"It's becoming increasingly clear that we are now dealing with worse than the worst-case scenario in Vanuatu,\" said Helen Szoke, executive director in Australia for the aid group Oxfam. \"This is likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific.\" At least 90% of housing in Port Vila has been badly damaged, parts of the hospital are flooded and the state mortuary took a hit, Oxfam said. Some 60,000 children are in need of assistance, UNICEF reported Sunday. How to help Vanuatu residents . At least six people have been confirmed dead. But communications with many of the 80-plus islands in the archipelago are down, so the fear is that the toll will climb as more information emerges. The confirmed deaths, reported by the National Disaster Management Office, are just from Port Vila. For most of a 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday, the cyclone pummeled Vanuatu, where some 260,000 people live, many in flimsy homes built of thatch. It is unclear how many thousands of people have been displaced by the massive storm, which had the power of a Category 5 hurricane when it made landfall. Aerial assessments are being carried out by military aircraft from New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand. Relief workers are raising concerns about a lack of clean water and sanitation for the many people left homeless. Aid has started to trickle in. The Australian government said a first contingent of officials and supplies arrived in Port Vila around noon Sunday and more flights were expected to follow. \"In Port Vila, there's a lot of activity now -- people are starting to emerge,\" said Tom Perry of the aid group CARE International. \"You can see trees that are strewn across roads being chopped down. The evacuation centers are beginning to be set up.\" Perry, who arrived on one of the first Australian military flights into Port Vila, told CNN the damage there was \"very significant\" with trees that looked like \"snapped toothpicks.\" \"It's like a bomb has gone through,\" said journalist Michael McLennan, who lives in Port Vila. \"It's really quite apocalyptic.\" Most buildings in the capital were destroyed or damaged, he told CNN on Sunday. Many roads were blocked by fallen trees or power lines. The main objective now is to get disaster response teams into Vanuatu and kick-start the humanitarian operation, Sune Gudnitz, regional head for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told CNN from Fiji, about 600 miles away. His aid agency has had word of much destruction on Efate, the island where Port Vila is located, and from the southern island of Tanna, he said. Only a little information has so far trickled out from beyond the capital, but Gudnitz said he fears the worst. \"Unfortunately, the more that comes out, the worse it looks,\" he said. Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale, who was at a U.N. conference on disaster risk reduction in Japan on Saturday, issued an appeal to the global community to help his shattered nation. Vanuatu has officially declared a state of emergency, opening the door for other countries to help. Vanuatu's remote location adds to the challenges the international response faces. Port Vila is more than 1,770 kilometers (1,100 miles) northeast of Brisbane on Australia's east coast, and some 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) north of Auckland, the closest city in New Zealand. Reaching the more isolated communities will also take time. Vanuatu's archipelago -- comprising 83 small islands, about 65 of them inhabited -- is roughly 850 kilometers (528 miles) long. Many of the people are subsistence farmers, said CNN's Bill Weir, who visited Vanuatu recently. He recalled talking to a resident who built the first indoor bathroom on his island and sought advice on where to find a toilet paper dispenser. \"It's setting them back years,\" Weir said of the storm. People away from the capital live much as their ancestors did generations ago. Homes are built of weak materials, including straw and corrugated steel, that stood little chance against Pam's raging winds. \"When you've got a Category 5 cyclone that essentially just sat here for 24 hours -- where do you go when you have a storm that powerful?\" Perry of CARE International said. \"It's very terrifying to think about what people have been through.\" While international teams are finding a way in, it will be up to humanitarian agency staffers on the ground and the local communities themselves to do what they can to get by amid the wreckage. Aid workers said the most immediate challenge is to get clean water to people. Many people will be spending another night in emergency shelters. Track the storm . Pam is the South Pacific's second strongest cyclone since record-keeping began in 1970. And it's the strongest of any type since Super Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippines in 2013, killing more than 6,000 people. CNN's Ralph Ellis, Ben Brumfield and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.","highlights":"Situation is \"worse than the worst-case scenario,\" Oxfam says .\nHomes, hospital, schools and churches all damaged, aid group reports .\nAid officials and supplies start to arrive in Vanuatu's capital from Australia ."} -{"article":"London (CNN)It might sound like a really old wives' tale, but a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion for eye infections may hold the key to wiping out the modern-day superbug MRSA, according to new research. The 10th-century \"eyesalve\" remedy was discovered at the British Library in a leather-bound volume of Bald's Leechbook, widely considered to be one of the earliest known medical textbooks. Christina Lee, an expert on Anglo-Saxon society from the School of English at the University of Nottingham, translated the ancient manuscript despite some ambiguities in the text. \"We chose this recipe in Bald's Leechbook because it contains ingredients such as garlic that are currently investigated by other researchers on their potential antibiotic effectiveness,\" Lee said in a video posted on the university's website. \"And so we looked at a recipe that is fairly straightforward. It's also a recipe where we are told it's the 'best of leechdoms' -- how could you not test that? So we were curious.\" Lee enlisted the help of the university's microbiologists to see if the remedy actually worked. The recipe calls for two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine and oxgall (bile from a cow's stomach) to be brewed in a brass vessel. \"We recreated the recipe as faithfully as we could. The Bald gives very precise instructions for the ratio of different ingredients and for the way they should be combined before use, so we tried to follow that as closely as possible,\" said microbiologist Freya Harrison, who led the work in the lab at the School of Life Sciences. The book included an instruction for the recipe to be left to stand for nine days before being strained through a cloth. Efforts to replicate the recipe exactly included finding wine from a vineyard known to have existed in the ninth century, according to Steve Diggle, an associate professor of sociomicrobiology, who also worked on the project. The researchers then tested their recipe on cultures of MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a type of staph bacterium that does not respond to commonly used antibiotic treatments. The scientists weren't holding out much hope that it would work -- but they were astonished by the lab results. \"What we found was very interesting -- we found that Bald's eyesalve is incredibly potent as an anti-Staphylococcal antibiotic in this context,\" Harrison said. \"We were going from a mature, established population of a few billion cells, all stuck together in this highly protected biofilm coat, to really just a few thousand cells left alive. This is a massive, massive killing ability.\" Diggle said the team also asked collaborators in the U.S. to test the recipe using an \"in vivo\" wound model -- meaning it's in a live organism -- \"and basically the big surprise was that it seems to be more effective than conventional antibiotic treatment.\" The scientists were worried they wouldn't be able to repeat the feat. But three more batches, made from scratch each time, have yielded the same results, Harrison said, and the salve appears to retain its potency for a long time after being stored in bottles in the refrigerator. The team says it now has good, replicated data showing that the medicine kills up to 90% of MRSA bacteria in \"in vivo\" wound biopsies from mice. Harrison says the researchers are still not completely sure how it works, but they have a few ideas -- namely, that there might be several active components in the mixture that work to attack the bacterial cells on different fronts, making it very hard for them to resist; or that by combining the ingredients and leaving them to steep in alcohol, a new, more potent bacteria-fighting molecule is created in the process. \"I still can't quite believe how well this 1,000-year-old antibiotic actually seems to be working,\" Harrison said. \"When we got the first results we were just utterly dumbfounded. We did not see this coming at all.\" She added: \"Obviously you can never say with utter certainty that because it works in the lab it's going to work as an antibiotic, but the potential of this to take on to the next stage and say, 'yeah, really does it work as an antibiotic' is just beyond my wildest dreams, to be honest.\" Lee, who translated the text from Old English, believes the discovery could change people's views of the medieval period as the \"Dark Ages.\" \"The Middle Ages are often seen as the 'Dark Ages' -- we use the term 'medieval' these days ... as pejorative -- and I just wanted to do something that explains to me how people in the Middle Ages looked at science,\" she said.","highlights":"Researchers say a medieval remedy made of garlic, onion, wine, bile may be able to defeat MRSA superbug .\nAncient recipe was found in 10th-century medical book at the British Library ."} -{"article":"(CNN)As a youngster, Rohana Rozhan had a nickname that summed her up perfectly: \"Rohana the Piranha.\" Even as a little girl growing up in Malaysia, the future CEO of a $4.6 billion media company was small but deadly. \"I was born independent, fiercely so,\" 51-year-old Rozhan told CNN's Kristie Lu-Stout. \"I always had a chip on my shoulder that I had to prove to everyone that I'm independent.\" Today she's proved it -- and then some. Rozhan heads Astro Malaysia, one of the biggest media and entertainment firms in the region. She's in charge of producing over 9,000 hours of original content a year -- ranging from radio broadcasts to hits on the silver screen. \"We have 52% women working at Astro, but one of the things we are very very passionate about, is that each woman has to be the best person for the job.\" \"If you grow up a good Muslim, Malay girl, one of the things you have to learn is you can be the smartest kid on the block, but you have to be respectful.\" \"You have to want it, but you can't just want it without the work. You have to want it, yet understand, that it's not going to be easy.\" Inspire: Patricia Arquette's rallying cry . Get involved: International Women's Day events you'd be crazy to miss .","highlights":"Meet Rohana Rozhan, boss of multi-billion dollar Astro Malaysia .\nSays secret to success is reflecting audience within workforce ."} -{"article":"Chao Hu, Anhui, China (CNN)Six-year-old Lu Yiming is a handful. One minute, he's on the concrete roof of his two-story house, the next he's fiddling with fireworks. Now, he's skating down an alley. \"Come back here!\" yells his grandmother. \"I have such a headache raising this child,\" 72-year-old old Tang Xinying confides. Lu's mother abandoned him after he was born and his father works as a carpenter in Shandong province hundreds of miles further north. He comes back perhaps once a year. In China, Lu is what's called a \"left-behind child.\" Conservatively, there are at least 61 million such children in China -- that's a staggering one in five. They struggle at school, have higher rates of mental health issues, and suffer from more behavioral problems than their contemporaries. \"I tell him 'your father is working and your mother doesn't want you,'\" says an exasperated Tang. In Chao Hu, a village in the inland province of Anhui, a dead-end track passes by half-finished housing projects and abandoned fields. A yellow haze hangs in the air leaving a metallic taste in the mouth. China's industrial pollution made it out here, but the jobs haven't. Everyone of working age in Chao Hu has gone to the cities to find work, leaving the old and very young behind. Lu holds my hand as we walk through the tiny village. A group of old women sit on three-legged wooden stools listening to Chinese opera on a small radio. Another walks by knitting. Some old men make bootleg liquor in an oil drum. \"We don't have fields that we can farm, if you don't go out to work, then how do you earn an income?\" says Tang. \"Their parents have to work outside of town and they cannot bring their children with them.\" The All China Women's Federation, a state- backed organization, paints a bleak picture for left behind children. A steady stream of state media reports highlights the abuse suffered by left behind children. And crimes are often blamed on them. \"It has a huge impact on society and the generation of people who grow up without parents,\" says Ines Kaempfer, of the Center for Child-Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility. \"There is a generation of Chinese society that lacks security and trust. It could have a potentially disastrous effect.\" Unintended consequences of mass urbanization and migration are not unique to China. But draconian rules have made the problem worse. China's much-hated hukou system registers families as either rural or urban. Most migrants can't change their household registration when they move. They struggle to access healthcare and other social services in urban areas. Their children can't go to public schools -- even if they are born in the cities. Critics say the hukou system has created a vast underclass of cheap labor to help drive China's manufacturing revolution. Recognizing some of its failures, the Chinese Communist Party has proposed reforms of the hukou system including doing away with temporary residence permits. The topic is under discussion this week at the annual meeting of China's National People's Congress, the country's rubber-stamp parliament. \"Though it is better than before, the hukou system is a huge problem,\" says Professor Fan Bin, of the Huadong Technology Institute. \"Migrants can't afford to keep their children in big cities, the rent is high and the wages are low, and they can't pay the tuition for private schools.\" In Chao Hu village, Tang is cooking a meal of rice and spinach for her grandson. She swirls peanut oil on her simple stove top. \"I can't teach my grandson well. This boy should be educated by his father and mother,\" she says, \"I cannot catch him when he runs away from me. I cannot discipline him when he misbehaves.\" Tang is convinced she can't give her grandson the support he needs. \"We don't have a choice, even if the situation isn't good. If I don't take care of him who will,\" she says. CNN's Serena Dong contributed to this report.","highlights":"One in five Chinese kids are \"left behind\"\nTheir parents are migrant workers who leave rural areas for the cities .\nThey struggle at school, have higher rates of mental health issues, ."} -{"article":"Ferguson, Missouri (CNN)Loistine Hoskin cared for her old car as a sentimental possession, missing a tire while parked beside her home, until one day the city ticketed her for having a \"derelict vehicle in driveway.\" A tow truck took it away in 2009. So began an odyssey with Ferguson police, municipal court and city hall that left her with $1,200 in fines that to this day she still doesn't fully understand. She paid the sum because endless court hearings about the car wore her down. \"I don't have a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer. It's me going up against the city of Ferguson when the attorneys won't help,\" Hoskin said this week. She never saw again her 1996 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight with 168,000 miles. Its location is a mystery. She accepts the loss because at least she's not in jail, where city authorities threatened to put her at one point, she said. While Hoskin's surrender of both car and $1,200 to the city may seem a matter of personal choice, the U.S. Justice Department revealed this week a \"pattern and practice\" of racial discrimination within Ferguson that may lend credibility to Hoskin's account of a government run amok. Just about every branch of Ferguson government -- police, municipal court, city hall -- participated in \"unlawful\" targeting of African-American residents such as Hoskin for tickets and fines, the Justice Department concluded this week. The millions of dollars in fines and fees paid by black residents served an ultimate goal of satisfying \"revenue rather than public safety needs,\" the Justice Department found. To the outside world, the federal findings were staggering, but to Hoskin and other longtime residents, the conclusion was nothing new. They've felt it all along, they say. It's only now that federal authorities have documented the institutionalized racism, as part of a civil rights investigation after a white police officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, 19, last summer. The officer, Darren Wilson, was cleared of federal civil rights violations this week and was earlier cleared of criminal wrongdoing. The Justice Department is expected to pursue a court-supervised consent decree that requires the city of Ferguson to make changes to its police and courts. \"It's definitely a vicious cycle,\" said Hoskin, 64, a retired airline reservation agent. \"Unfortunately for most people who are in this cycle, they continue to be in a downward spiral because they can't get jobs, they can't do anything, they can't pay the fines.\" Hoskin's household has experienced its share of ugly encounters with Ferguson police, the family said. Hoskin's daughter was ticketed by police in what she described as racial profiling, she said. In 2007, Kimberly Hoskin got a $124 ticket for driving her sister's car, which wasn't insured in Missouri, and then had to pay an additional $100 fine when she missed a court appearance because of an emergency appendectomy. The court, she said, rejected her medical excuse and issued a warrant for her arrest. She paid a total of $224 in fines because she was in the middle of a job search and didn't want an outstanding warrant to prevent her from getting a good job. \"Why is it that all the people in court are black?\" Kimberly Hoskin said of defendants in municipal court. \"I've had so many police officers make a U-turn, follow me, run my plates, find out everything is OK, then turn around and go back in the direction they were going. \"There's nothing we can do. In Ferguson, the police do what they want to do. Ferguson does what it wants,\" said Kimberly Hoskin, 35, who now works the overnight shift on a General Motors manufacturing line. City officials and police declined to respond to CNN's requests this week for comment about the Hoskin family's assertions. Last September, the City Council repealed administrative fees imposed by police when overseeing the release of a towed vehicle, the mayor said. The city also no longer has a specific offense for failing to appear in court, which eliminates certain additional fees and court costs, the mayor said. The Justice Department's report details how Ferguson operated a vertically integrated system -- from street cop to court clerk to judge to city administration to city council -- to raise revenue for the city budget through increased ticketing and fining. Ferguson's budget increases were so sizable that city officials exhorted police and court staff to levy more and more fines and tickets against violators, who turned out to be largely African-American, the Justice Department said. The demands for revenue were so intense that the police department had \"little concern with how officers do this,\" even disciplining officers who failed to issue an average of 28 tickets a month, the Justice Department report said. Officers competed \"to see who could issue the largest number of citations during a single stop,\" the Justice Department said. One apparent winner was an officer who issued 14 tickets at a single encounter, according to the federal investigation report. Many police stops of civilians \"have little relation to public safety and a questionable basis in law,\" the report said. Ferguson police chief mum on federal report . Indeed, Ferguson enjoyed so much success in issuing tickets and fines that Ferguson, population 21,000, was ranked in the top eight of the 80 municipal courts in St. Louis County by having more than $1 million in revenue in 2010, the report said. When Ferguson court revenues exceeded $2 million in 2012, the city manager responded to the police chief in an internal email: \"Awesome! Thanks!\" according to the federal report. Even municipal judges were pressured to boost revenue. \"The city has made clear to the police chief and the municipal judge that revenue generation must also be a priority in court operations,\" the federal investigation found. The city finance director said in a 2011 report that the municipal judge had been successful since 2003 in increasing court collections, and that internal 2011 city report noted a judge's statement that \"none of these changes could have taken place without the cooperation of the court clerk, the chief of police, and the prosecutor's office,\" the Justice Department investigation found. Cash filled the city treasury. By 2013, revenue from enforcing municipal codes reached $2.46 million, the federal report said. By 2015, the city anticipated that fines and fees would account for 23% of the budget, or $3.09 million of $13.26 million in general fund expenses, the Justice Department found. Just five years earlier, court fines and fees made up only 12% of the budget, or $1.38 million of $11.07 million in general fund revenues, the Justice Department found. The fines were among the highest of surrounding municipalities. For example, area parking fines ranged from $5 to $100, but Ferguson's parking fine was $102. A fine for \"weeds\/tall grass\" was $5 in one nearby city, but Ferguson's fine ranged from $77 to $102, the Justice Department found. The federal government made a forceful conclusion: . \"City, police and court officials for years have worked in concert to maximize revenue at every stage of the enforcement process, beginning with how fines and fine enforcement processes are established,\" the federal report said. After the Justice Department's announcement this week, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told reporters that he, Police Chief Tom Jackson and City Attorney Stephanie Karr met with federal officials about their findings and initiated several initiatives, including reforms to the municipal court. Knowles said municipal judges have created a docket for alleged offenders having trouble paying fines. Also, a defendant may ask a judge or prosecutor about different payment plans or alternative sentencing, the mayor said. Defendants have been required to pay an entire fine at once, regardless of ability to pay, the federal report said. The city also passed an ordinance last September to cap municipal court revenues at 15% of the city's overall budget, the mayor said. That figure is half Missouri's legal limit, he added. All the reforms are intended to \"move this city, its residents and our entire community forward,\" the mayor said. Back at her home, Loistine Hoskin recalled the height of absurdity in her fight against the city, which occurred shortly after her husband, Calvin, died in 2008 of complications from paralysis he suffered in a car accident three years earlier. She had been his caregiver. She appeared in court to appeal the citation, but an officer arrested her and put her in the back of the squad car. Her offense? Failing to appear in court, she said. She spent four hours in jail. She insists she made every court date. For now, she lives in fear of the police, even at home. \"We just got to a point where we said we're just not going to have anyone over -- because they were fearful when they left they would get some ticket, and they didn't even live here,\" Hoskin said. CNN's Ed Lavandera and Tristan Smith contributed from Ferguson. Michael Martinez reported and wrote this story from Los Angeles.","highlights":"Loistine Hoskin gave up fighting the city, paying $1,200 in fines over a broken-down car .\nHer daughter recounts how she was racially profiled for a $124 ticket .\nFerguson mayor announces reforms so his troubled town can move forward ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A Facebook post by actor Ashton Kutcher lamenting the lack of diaper changing tables in public men's rooms has parents talking. The new father -- he and partner Mila Kunis welcomed baby Wyatt Isabelle in October -- complained to his followers that he had yet to encounter a changing table in the public bathrooms he visits. He offered to give a social media shout-out to the first business where he found a diapering table in the men's room. The post had logged more than 230,000 comments as of Wednesday morning. Lots of folks offered up places Kutcher should patronize, such as Walmart and Cracker Barrel, where they say changing tables abound. Some dads said they didn't have a problem finding changing tables, but it may be because they're frequenting more down-to-Earth establishments than the Hollywood star. Other posters said \"family restrooms\" would take care of the problem altogether. Do modern dads get enough credit? Many praised Kutcher for raising the issue: \"Thank you for doing this. This is not just an issue for dad's such as yourself who are awesome, but so many of the families I know who have two daddies have this issue ALL The time,\" wrote one poster. Another mom agreed: \"My boyfriend was taken aback when he had to get a key for the family change room instead of just going into the men's with our son because they had no change table. It doesn't make ANY SENSE. Gender equality needs to go both ways.\" No update yet on whether Kutcher has encountered a diapering station in a men's room. Dad blogger's death prompts renewed push to rename 'Amazon Mom'","highlights":"Actor Ashton Kutcher complained on Facebook that men's rooms don't have diapering tables .\nHe offered to give free publicity to the first establishment where he encountered one .\nKutcher and his partner, Mila Kunis, welcomed baby Wyatt Isabelle in October ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Closed for over a decade, a trail that's been described as \"the world's most dangerous path\" will no longer be off limits to the public thanks to a massive reconstruction project. Due to reopen March 26, Spain's stunning Caminito del Rey features a cliff face boardwalk that hangs 100 meters above the Guadalhorce River. The trail, which begins in the village of El Chorro in southern Malaga province, has been around since the early 1900s, originally built to provide access to two waterfalls for hydroelectric workers. Over the years, the boardwalk deteriorated and, following a string of fatal accidents in 1999 and 2000, the government demolished the access points to the walkway. The reopening, which comes over a year since reconstruction efforts kicked off, coincides with Spain's annual Holy Week celebrations. According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the provincial government allocated 5.5 million euros ($5.8 million) to the project. The entire route is 7.7 kilometers long, with boardwalks covering 2.9 kilometers of the trail. The most famous section includes the Balconcillo de los Gaitanes bridge, which spans the Gaitanes Gorge. Tourism officials say it takes between four and five hours to walk the entire route, which includes some steep slopes. Entry will be free for the first six months after the attraction reopens on March 26. Visiting hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. from April 1 to October 31, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. from November 1 to March 31. Those who want to visit need to book a spot on the official website, Caminitodelrey.info.","highlights":"Spain's '\"most dangerous path\" due to reopen this month after extensive reconstruction efforts .\nOriginally built in the 1900s, the trail's boardwalks deteriorated over time, forcing the local government to close it ."} -{"article":"(CNN)I met Kelly Gissendaner in January 2010 in a nondescript classroom at Metro State Prison for Women in Atlanta. She arrived for class beaming with excitement about the journey she was about to begin -- participation in a yearlong academic theology program sponsored jointly by four Atlanta seminaries. Since she has been sentenced to the death penalty and lives in solitary confinement, Kelly was particularly eager to share community with others, if only one morning a week. And she was grateful for the opportunity to explore the Bible and theology in a rigorous manner that would nurture and deepen her devotional life. That image of her on the first day of class remains vivid to me because it captures the core of who Kelly is \u2014 who she has become: someone full of contagious joy and gratitude, open to others and to new experiences for growth and ministry. Kelly's process of transformation began shortly after she arrived in prison following her conviction for murder in the death of her husband, Doug Gissendaner. A pastor began visiting her and initiated a series of difficult, yet compassionate, conversations that urged her toward courageous self-reflection. This same pastor has been visiting Kelly for almost 16 years. Her commitment to Kelly, along with that of the prison chaplain and chaplaincy interns, provided steady, ongoing love that fostered change. So by the time I met Kelly in 2010 she had already undergone a significant transformation. She was, in the words of the Apostle Paul, a \"new creation\" (2 Cor. 5:17). In the theology program, Kelly found her own voice and came to see that her reflections on Christian faith could be a gift to the wider church \"on the outside,\" as well as in prison. By studying historical and contemporary Christian thinkers, Kelly became part of the conversations that make the Christian tradition dynamic. She asked honest questions about her relationship to God, others and the world. She read scripture and grappled with centuries-old theological questions. She discovered her authentic theological voice in the midst of this work. \"From the start of the theology class I felt this hunger,\" she said in her 2011 graduation speech. \"I became so hungry for theology, and what all the classes had to offer; you could call me a glutton.\" One of the great joys of being a theology professor is getting to know students holistically, not only as thinkers, but also as human beings wrestling with some of life's most urgent questions. My relationship with Kelly had this quality from the start. But it deepened six months into the year when a new warden arrived at the prison. In her graduation speech, Kelly described this moment: . \"There came a time when ... my worst fears became my reality -- I was pulled from the courses. I was taken from my theological community. Being pulled from the program devastated me as badly as if someone had just told me one of my appeals had been turned down. \"Since I couldn't go to the theology class ... the instructors came to me. Still, this was far from being ideal because now I had to have class and community through a gate. It was hard ... but I pushed on. I pushed on because of that hunger. That gate ... was meant to keep everyone and everything separated from me. But that gate couldn't keep out the knowledge that I was so hungry for, nor friendship and community. And it sure couldn't keep out God.\" This change afforded us the chance to have two hours of one-on-one conversation every Friday. We continued to read theological texts together, including a book by then-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Williams describes healing and restoration as the act of facing our painful memories, \"the ruins of the past,\" and building from them here and now. Restoration, Williams writes, \"is going back to the memories of the painful, humiliating past and bringing them to redemption in the present ... to Christ [who] comes to repair the devastation.\" I sat with Kelly as she went back over some of her own painful memories, took responsibility for them and showed profound remorse about who she had been and what she had done. Indeed, the power of these moments -- when Kelly looked me in the eye and confessed concrete sins, when we spoke of God's love and forgiveness -- will stay with me forever. Kelly embraced what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor-theologian and Nazi resister, calls \"costly grace.\" For Bonhoeffer, \"cheap grace\" is seeking God's forgiveness as a \"cover-up for one's sins, for which one has no remorse and ... even less desire to be set free.\" In contrast, costly grace requires rigorously following Jesus in a way that leads to continuous, visible transformation, what the New Testament calls the fruits of redemption. The fruits of Kelly's redemption are now well-documented: reconciliation with her children, ministry to inmates full of despair, counsel to troubled youth and daily concern for others. On the night Kelly thought would be her last, she spent the evening writing a letter to her fellow inmates, urging them not to worry about her, but to be encouraged. Most poignant for Kelly are the writings of German theologian J\u00fcrgen Moltmann, who is widely known as the \"theologian of hope\" and with whom Kelly began corresponding in 2010. Moltmann shows that biblical hope is not a hope that gives up on this life and looks for something better beyond the grave. Rather, hope makes manifest the kingdom of God now --God's intended social order \"on earth as it is in heaven\" (Matt. 6:10). Biblical hope \"revolutionizes and transforms the present.\" It is the hope of the psalmist who \"looks for the goodness of God in this life\" (Ps. 27:13). In the words of Kelly's favorite scripture, it is a hope that proclaims: \"I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord\" (Ps 118:17). In Kelly's own words: . \"The theology program has shown me that hope is still alive and that, despite a gate or a guillotine hovering over my head, I still possess the ability to prove that I am human. Labels on anyone can be notoriously misleading and unforgiving things. But no matter the label attached to me, I have the capacity and the unstoppable desire to accomplish something positive and have a lasting impact ... Even prison cannot erase my hope or conviction that the future is not settled for me, or anyone.\" Many people have asked me in recent days how I have been transformed by my friendship with Kelly and by Kelly's journey of hope. While I struggle to find adequate words, what I do know is that Kelly's story pushes the logic of Christian faith to its outermost limits. It pushes Christians to reexamine and reaffirm the truths we proclaim about repentance, forgiveness, redemption and hope. Indeed, even professional theologians and life-long pastors struggle with the weight of the claims we make. Today, Kelly's life hangs in the balance. The state of Georgia on Monday issued a last-minute postponement of her execution, citing concerns about the drugs that were to be used to kill her. The Department of Corrections has said that it plans to resume executions once an analysis of the drugs is complete. While Gov. Nathan Deal does not have the formal power to commute Kelly's sentence to life in prison, I join more than 1,100 faith leaders from across the nation, including more than 500 from Georgia, who have signed a letter urging the governor to use his political influence to save Kelly's life and to speak out publicly against her execution. I call on all people of good will to reach out to Gov. Deal and to Georgia state legislators to demand a more just, merciful, and accountable system of justice -- for Kelly and for all. As theologian Richard Amesbury wrote, \"If the life even of a convicted murderer can be turned around and so radically redirected, then none of us is without hope.\" We need to hear Kelly Gissendaner proclaim to us -- as much as we proclaim to her -- that the promises of God are real.","highlights":"The execution of Kelly Gissendaner was postponed due to concerns over injection drugs .\nMcBride: In her time on death row, Gissendaner has discovered hope through theology ."} -{"article":"(CNN)New Zealand are on course for a first ever World Cup title after a thrilling semifinal victory over South Africa, secured off the penultimate ball of the match. Chasing an adjusted target of 298 in just 43 overs after a rain interrupted the match at Eden Park, Grant Elliott hit a six right at the death to confirm victory and send the Auckland crowd into raptures. It is the first time New Zealand has ever reached a World Cup final, and it will play either Australia or India on Sunday. Te pair face each other in Sydney on Thursday. Not the first time in the sport, rain played a part. South Africa were motoring with the bat before a two-hour delay for poor weather. Though its total was escalated by the Duckworth\/Lewis method -- used to calculate a revised target in the event of a rain delay -- New Zealand held firm thanks to Elliott. His 84 not out underpinned its innings and it was fitting that he delivered the final blow, smashing Dale Steyn for six off the second last ball to spark jubilant scenes at Eden Park. \"I don't think this win is for myself or the team, but everyone here,\" Elliott said at the post-match presentation. \"The supporters have been amazing. \"I think we timed the pace of the innings to perfection. I wasn't as calm as I looked. When you have 45,000 fans screaming at you every ball... \"It has been an absolute pleasure playing in front of this crowd. We have had a good run. It is the first final we have been in as New Zealand. \"We are a very level team, we will approach it as any other game. Nothing going in my mind when I hit the six. I don't even know where the ball went.\" South Africa, who themselves have never reached the final, have been accused of choking in past installments of the one-day competition. But that indictment cannot be leveled at it after one of the most dramatic matches in World Cup history. It had recovered from 114-3 in the 27th over to 216-3 after 38 overs thanks to some fierce hitting from captain AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, before the rain came. With the game stopped for two hours, it finally reached 281 off its reduced 43 overs, du Plessis top scoring with 82. New Zealand's target was upgraded via Duckworth\/Lewis, a calculation that takes into account how many overs were left and how many wickets had been lost, to 298. Kiwi skipper Brendan McCullum got it off to a fast start with a 22-ball half-century but after he was dismissed it wobbled, and needed 139 from 22 overs. But Elliott was the steadying hand, judging his innings perfectly. And though he was dropped in the penultimate over, he struck the telling blow off Steyn to seal victory and inflict a fourth semifinal defeat on South Africa. \"It was a great advertisement for cricket,\" McCullum said at the post-match presentation. \"Everybody involved will remember this for the rest of their lives. \"What a great innings from Grant. He came out of wilderness not long ago. The greatest time of our lives. We have enjoyed the experience. \"I hope the crowds are all dreaming the way we are. Gee it would be nice to win it. We don't mind whom we face in the final. \"They are both quality sides, but we know if we play the way we want to we are a good chance.\" Should Australia beat India at the Sydney Cricket Ground, then the joint hosts of the World Cup will meet in the final in Melbourne. \"It was an amazing game of cricket,\" AB de Villiers said. \"Probably the most electric crowd I have ever heard in my life. I guess the best team has come out on top. We gave it our best. No regrets. \"We left it all out there. It is hurting. It is going to take a while to recover. The bigger picture is for the people back home. We play for them. I hope they can still be proud of us.\"","highlights":"New Zealand edge a thriller against South African to reach cricket World Cup final .\nGrant Elliott hits a six in the final over to seal Kiwi victory in front of Auckland crowd .\nSouth Africa had posted a total of 281 in a rain affected match .\nNew Zealand will face either Australia or India in the final on March 29 ."} -{"article":"London (CNN)Tunisia's ultra-radical fringe has come back to bite a government born out of the most successful experiment in constitutional reform to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions. Wednesday's attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis was grimly predictable, coming from what the Tunisian Interior Ministry calls a violent ultra-radical Islamist fringe forced underground -- but not crushed -- by security services. Jihadist firebrands representing thousands of active militants at home and abroad have been threatening retribution on Tunisia's outward-looking, investment-friendly majority. The attack was carried out by two gunmen, believed to have been supported by at least two accomplices. It may torpedo efforts to revive Tunisia's employment-generating tourism industry and may discourage other big-spending visitors. It will probably lead Tunisians -- who have shown a sage propensity to unite in the face of greatest adversity despite a marked appetite for political bickering -- to support a robust response by elected President Beji Caid Essebsi. The attack adds to the global narrative by which Islamic revolutionaries -- increasingly flying under the flag of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) -- pose an existential crisis to moderate states, often Western allies, in the Arab world. Tunisia is the sole country to have emerged from an Arab Spring revolution with its political process intact -- current president, Essebsi, who was elected in November 2014, and his ruling coalition, are the products of a long constitutional process. In four tumultuous years they have competed hard with, but also showed a capacity to work with, opposition parties, led by the \"moderate Islamist\" Ennahda, which is represented in government and parliament. Islamists of a very different hue were responsible for the Bardo attack. Local Salafist groups (of whom the best known is Ansar Al-Sharia) as well as multinational units including ISIS have been most effective in recruiting disaffected young Tunisians in the capital's poorer quarters and in dusty towns of the south and interior, where the original revolution that removed Ben Ali in February 2011 surged up. Legitimate claims for more jobs and resources in these underprivileged areas during the four subsequent years have largely come to nothing, adding to frustrations. Radical jihadists -- some with back bases in Libya and Algeria -- have posed a major security challenge to successive governments, murdering two prominent \"secular\" politicians in 2013. The Tunisian armed forces, supported by Algeria's more experienced and better equipped military, have been fighting jihadist radicals in the Mount Chaambi region for nearly three years. They have yet to declare final victory, pointing to the resilience of underground groups. While successive governments have acted against radical Salafist groups, thousands of Tunisians have gone underground; they are widely believed to make up the biggest national group fighting with jihadists in Syria (over 3,000 by many accounts), and are present in Libya and other failing states. In January 2013, Tunisians and Libyans made up the majority of jihadists who attacked a strategic gas plant operated by BP and Statoil in southern Algeria. So, the Bardo attackers are a known enemy. Prime Minister Habib Essid has promised a robust security response. But the Tunis tragedy is unlikely to have any immediate impact on the political process. A majority of Tunisians remain foursquare behind preserving \"republican institutions,\" even if they vocally disagree on the detail of policy. It will remind Tunisia's many friends that the country's transition is brittle, and that Tunis needs commitments of support to become reality, with more military and wider financial assistance, and, above all, investment that can kickstart an economy in the doldrums since 2011. Massacre at the Bardo places Tunisia more centrally within the global ISIS narrative, which has recently expanded to neighboring Libya. It is a ghastly way to remind the world that Tunisia's experiment in democratic reform needs all the help it can get.","highlights":"Jon Marks: Ultra-radical fringe has previously threatened Tunisia's liberal majority .\nMajority of Tunisians likely to support robust response from president, he writes .\nAttacks a reminder that Tunisia's transition to democracy is \"brittle,\" Marks says ."} -{"article":"(CNN)African safaris conjure up images of four-wheel drive cars trundling through games parks carrying tourists with binoculars clamped to their eyes. But if you want to get a bit closer to some of nature's most beautiful beasts then heading out on four legs, not four wheels, might be your best bet. Venturing into the continent's game reserves on horseback may seem a little daunting but is one of the best ways to experience the environment, says Philip Kusseler, co-owner of Wait A Little horse safaris. Kusseler has been leading outings into South Africa's Karongwe and Greater Makalali Game Reserves near the famous Kruger National Park for more than a decade. His stable of around 40 horses at a farm in Ofcolaco in the northwest of the country includes warmbloods, native Boerperds and former thoroughbreds. The ex-racehorses may be more used to chasing on the turf than exploring the bush, but Kusseler says that once trained they make for great tour guides. \"When you get a retired racehorse, you have extremely fit horse right from the beginning which is of course very good to work with. Secondly, you get a horse that likes to excite itself and learn new things,\" Kusseler told CNN's Winning Post. Most racehorses face an uncertain future when their track days come to an end -- usually at the age of around six or seven. A lucky few are sent to stud while others, like double Gold Cup winner Kauto Star, try their luck at different equestrian disciplines. Some will see out their days at animal sanctuaries but many are simply slaughtered because owners are unable or unwilling to foot the bill for upkeep once their racing days are through. Kusseler is looking to grow his current stock of three ex-racers which are prepared for their new role by his wife Gerti, a former dressage rider and FEI coach. \"We train all our horses in basic dressage,\" she explains. \"It's very important that they are responsive and trust the rider and trust the aids of the rider. The basic training and dressage helps a lot to make them responsive and fun to ride as well.\" All horses spend a minimum of two years being schooled at a purpose-built riding arena at the farm and also in the bush where they learn to deal with some of nature's most intimidating creatures. \"When an ex-racehorse sees a lion,\" explains Philip Kusseler, \"you can feel it's heartbeat through the saddle but he soon learns to cope with it and they are just as cool as any other horse breed.\" \"Trekking with horses is extremely dangerous because the horse fits the lions prey preference perfectly. But they are so well-trained and so well disciplined that they don't react like a prey animal would, so the lions get quite confused.\" Along with the \"Big Five\" game (lions, elephants, rhinos leopards and buffalo) Wait A Little's intrepid guests can expect to come across zebras, wildebeests, hippos and giraffe amid 35,000 hectares of game park. But as Gerti concedes, seeing these beasts up close from the saddle is not everyone's idea of a good time. \"We have had people that were too scared. I can't say it's 100% safe because it isn't. But it is very, very safe when you go out with Philip because he has such huge experience,\" she says. \"He gives his horses a lot of confidence and sometimes some horses need that. I always say the animals are the least dangerous -- the most dangerous thing is riding horses.\" Of course, there are other modes of transport with anything from trains to camels ready to carry you through the bush. Most tourists still opt for a traditional four-wheel drive vehicles but the Kusselers wouldn't swap their thoroughbred horsepower for anything else. \"They are just lovely,\" says Philip Kusseler. \"As long as you are able to stimulate them in the bush by having wonderful outrides you will have a horse that keeps on smiling.\"","highlights":"Horseback safaris offer a different way to experience the African bush .\nSouth African company Wait A Little organize tours into game reserves .\nHusband and wife team train horses to cope with demands of facing game animals .\nHorses, including thoroughbreds, keep calm even when stalked by lions ."} -{"article":"London (CNN)Best-selling British fantasy author Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66, his website said Thursday. Pratchett, who wrote more than 70 books, including those in his \"Discworld\" series, had been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease in 2007. A statement on the website announced the news of his death at home Thursday with \"immeasurable sadness.\" \"I was deeply saddened to learn that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds,\" said Larry Finlay, managing director at Transworld Publishers. \"In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, 'Discworld' was his vehicle to satirize this world: He did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humor and constant invention.\" Pratchett continued to write following his diagnosis, completing his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014. Revealing his illness in 2007, the author -- who had a strong following among fans of fantasy fiction -- said he had been diagnosed with \"a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's,\" which he described as \"an embuggerance.\" He said then, \"Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet.\" According to Thursday's statement, he had posterior cortical atrophy, a progressive degenerative condition involving the loss and dysfunction of brain cells, particularly at the back of the brain. The last posts on his verified Twitter account, run by Pratchett with close friend Rob Wilkins, give a poignant farewell -- and have already been retweeted thousands of times. \"AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER,\" the first tweet in the series reads -- an apparent reference to Death, a recurring and generally sympathetic character in the Discworld books, who always speaks in ALL CAPS. \"Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. \"The End.\" Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, a charitable organization, said Pratchett -- who spoke out publicly about his condition and called for greater funding for Alzheimer's research -- had \"fundamentally changed the way dementia is seen and understood.\" \"His vehement determination to reduce the stigma of dementia meant he helped drag it out of the shadows -- kicking and screaming at times,\" he said. \"Shouting from the rooftops about the absurdity of how little funding dementia research receives, and fighting for good quality dementia care, he was and will remain the truest of champions for people with the condition.\" Pratchett was also a patron of the British Humanist Association, which paid tribute Thursday to the humor and dedication with which the author \"turned his suffering into a positive campaign.\" Pratchett, who began writing while a provincial newspaper journalist in the 1960s, became a full time writer in 1987 and received the Order of the British Empire \"for services to literature\" from Prince Charles in 1998. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report.","highlights":"Author Terry Pratchett has died age 66, his website says .\n\"In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him,\" says publisher ."} -{"article":"(CNN)It's Canada's ultimate pairing. World No.7 and Wimbledon runner up Eugenie Bouchard posted a photo of herself on Twitter with compatriot and heartthrob Justin Bieber as they teamed up for a game of tennis. Bouchard credited the pop star's \"nice serve\" and once said the \"Baby\" singer would be her ideal date during an awkward on-court interview at 2014's Australian Open. Bieber courts a lot of interest on social media with a Twitter following of 61.3 million -- roughly the entire population of Italy -- but the 21-year-old has yet to respond to Bouchard's tweet. The pair played doubles at the Annual Desert Smash event hosted by Will Ferrell at California's La Quinta Resort in aid of Cancer for College, a charity that provides scholarships for students who have battled with the disease. Danish tennis star and recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Caroline Wozniacki also had her photo taken with the singer estimated to be worth $80m, tweeting: \"Just another night in the desert #beliebit.\"","highlights":"World No.7 tennis player Eugenie Bouchard partners up with pop star Justin Bieber in game of doubles .\nBouchard has previously said she would like to date the Hollywood starlet .\nFormer World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki also got a snap with \"the Bieb\""} -{"article":"Kuala Lumpur (CNN)The initial hours after the disappearance of flight MH370 were characterized by confusion and chaos, as air traffic controllers struggled to comprehend the situation and radar operators failed to take notice, according to data contained in an interim report. The report -- released one year after the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew --- provides a detailed picture of delays and protocol violations before the launch of the search and rescue. An astonishing five hours and 13 minutes passed between the last communication from the flight crew and Kuala Lumpur's first distress signal concerning the missing plane. And it was another five hours before the first search flights took off to try to find it. CNN's aviation correspondent Richard Quest said he believes the delayed response was the most disturbing thing revealed by the interim report -- \"the lack of somebody pushing the big red button that says crisis and panic.\" A year later after the plane's disappearance, not a single trace of Flight MH370 has been found despite extensive search efforts. Investigators believe the wreckage lies somewhere on the bottom of the Indian Ocean, based on the analysis of satellite communications data. The first sign that something was wrong with flight MH370 came after plane failed to check in with Vietnamese Air Traffic Controllers after leaving Malaysian airspace. According to protocol, Ho Chi Minh ATC should have informed their Kuala Lumpur counterparts (KL ATCC) about this within five minutes. Instead they waited 20. When Ho Chi Minh finally did inform Kuala Lumpur, the confusion was evident, as seen in transcripts of the conversation released Sunday. KL ATCC asked three times at what point Ho Chi Minh lost contact, then went on to express concern at the delay, asking \"Why you didn't tell me first? Within five minutes you should be (sic) called me.\" The confusion only got worse after Malaysia Airlines mistakenly told Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Controllers they could see the flight somewhere over Cambodia. It took an hour and a half to clear this up, after Malaysia Airlines admitted to controllers they were only looking at the projected flight track. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the misinformation was a momentary lapse by a company employee. \"Our information was only to be as a guide. We are not an ATC per se. We don't have radar,\" he told CNN. The watch supervisor then waited another two hours to activate the rescue coordination center. Still another hour went by before before Kuala Lumpur issued the distress signal. No explanation for the delay is given in the interim report, which is composed of factual data and provides no conclusions or recommendations. After the air traffic controllers lost contact with MH370, the plane continued to fly within the range of multiple radar systems belonging to four different countries. Yet little seems to have been done with the data in the immediate hours after the plane disappeared. The interim report says that \"for unknown reasons\" Indonesia's Medan Radar did not see the flight. And Thailand \"did not pay much attention,\" since MH370's flight path did not fall within its borders. Malaysian military radar tracked the flight for an additional hour, including its turn back across the Malay Peninsula. Despite this information, search and rescue teams did not begin expanding the search area for a full day. Though the interim report makes no mention of it, a failure by the Malaysian military to alert others to the relevant radar data may be blame. A briefing document prepared by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said military authorities failed to share the final radar fix of MH370 with their civilian counterparts for 20 hours. CNN approached Malaysia's Ministry of Defence for comment but is yet to receive a response . Another working document notes that MH370's turn back might have been discovered much earlier, if the military and non-military agencies had coordinated better. \"In essence, a week or more was lost in the initial search because of poor civil\/military cooperation,\" reads the ICAO working document. The interim report released by Malaysian investigators on Sunday provides no information about when the military radar data was shared with other authorities. It's impossible to know if a speedier response from air traffic controllers, or more immediate access to radar data, would have changed the course of events for MH370. But it would have provided authorities with more time, either to track the flight or to search the ocean before the batteries died in the emergency locator beacons. Looking back at the series of miscommunication between air traffic controllers and the radar lapses also provides valuable lessons that could help future search and rescue operations. Though the MH370 investigation team did not draw lessons in the current report, it plans to provide safety recommendations in the months ahead. Journalist Chan Kok Leong contributed to this report.","highlights":"Interim report exposes delays and inaction after MH370 disappeared .\nFlight carrying 239 people and crew has not been found, one year later .\nTook 10 hours for the first search flights to take off, according to report ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The BBC's director-general, Tony Hall, has allegedly received death threats days after \"Top Gear\" host Jeremy Clarkson was dropped. \"Police in Westminster are investigating an allegation of threats to kill,\" the Metropolitan Police confirmed to CNN in a statement. The allegation was reported to the police on Wednesday. \"The threat was made by email,\" the police added. \"The content of the message suggests (it was sent) from outside the UK.\" The alleged threats come shortly after Hall took the decision to dismiss popular presenter Clarkson from \"Top Gear,\" one of the most-watched television shows in the world. \"Top Gear\" was suspended March 10 after an apparent altercation between the motor show host and producer Oisin Tymon on March 4. At the time, the BBC issued a statement saying that there had been a \"fracas\" between the host and a BBC producer. More than 1 million fans of Clarkson and \"Top Gear\" signed a petition to reinstate the host. The document was delivered to the BBC's headquarters by a fan dressed as the \"Stig\" -- the incognito racing car test-driver who appeared regularly on the show -- driving an armored tank. On Wednesday, the British broadcaster announced that it would not be renewing Clarkson's contract as host of \"Top Gear\" after he allegedly busted his producer's lip and hurled verbal abuse at him. Hall issued a statement online following the decision. \"It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract,\" he announced. \"It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon.\" Placing emphasis on Clarkson's legacy, Hall added that the BBC will be looking into a new host for \"Top Gear\" in 2016. \"This will be a big challenge and there is no point in pretending otherwise,\" he said. Inquiries are ongoing to establish where the threat came from, the police said. A representative for the BBC told CNN: \"We don't comment on security matters.\"","highlights":"Metropolitan Police say they're investigating \"an allegation of threats to kill\"\nAlleged threats received after dismissal of popular \"Top Gear\" host Jeremy Clarkson ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Police in Detroit made a gruesome discovery Tuesday. A bailiff performing an eviction on a home on the east side of Detroit called 911 after discovering the body of a female child inside a freezer. While investigating the body, authorities found a second body, a male, according to a release from the Detroit Police Department. Both bodies were inside a plastic bag, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. There are tentative plans to begin the autopsy tomorrow said Ryan Bridges, spokesman for the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. He added that the office was waiting to allow the bodies to thaw naturally in order to preserve forensic evidence. The mother of the children was apprehended at a separate location, and was later arrested on child abuse charges, pending the \"results of the medical examiner's report,\" a release from the police department said. Police have not yet released her name. The names of the children have also not been released , but Craig said the boy was approximately 11 years old and the girl was approximately 14. There were two older children living in the home. They have been placed in protective custody, according to Craig. The chief said it's too early in the investigation to determine what happened. \"It's unknown what factors were involved in this,\" he said. Moreno said the department is asking for the public's help to come forward with any information pertaining to the crime. CNN's John Newsome contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bodies of boy and girl found in Detroit freezer .\nBailiff performing an eviction makes the initial discovery .\nMom arrested on child abuse charges, pending results from medical examiner ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Empathy. Confidence. Passion. These are the traits the next police chief in Ferguson, Missouri, will need to shrink the ocean of distrust between community and police. So says Cecil Smith. And maybe he should know. Smith is the police chief in Sanford, Florida, another community rocked by racial tensions and poor police-community relations after the high-profile shooting of a black teenager -- the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin. And if Smith's experience is any guide, it will take \"a lot of prayer and a little goading\" to convince someone to step into the job vacated this week by Chief Thomas Jackson. \"That community, as we see, has been hurting and struggling for some time now,\" he says. And how: . -- The community remains deeply scarred by the events last year, after the August shooting death of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown by a white Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson, and the November decision by the St. Louis County Grand Jury not to charge Wilson, who later resigned. Occasionally violent protests and sometimes heavy-handed responses by police deepened divisions and distrust. -- The police department was already groaning under the epic weight of months of nearly constant protest and last week's release of a damning Department of Justice report that found evidence of discriminatory conduct on the part of Ferguson officials. -- Add to that the obvious fears facing officers following the shooting early Thursday of two police officers only hours after Jackson resigned. The decision for Jackson to step aside was a mutual one between the chief and city, Mayor James Knowles told reporters. He'll get severance and a year of health insurance and will turn the reins over to Ferguson police Lt. Col Al Eickhoff next week. The city will launch a nationwide search for a permanent replacement, Knowles said. \"The City of Ferguson looks to become an example of how a community can move forward in the face of adversity. We are committed to keeping our police department and having one that exhibits the highest degree of professionalism and fairness,\" said Knowles -- who has himself been targeted by protesters demanding he resign. To get there, it might look to Sanford for guidance. There, trust in the police department bottomed out in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting. While no police officers were involved in the shooting, anger over their perceived failure to arrest the teenager's killer, George Zimmerman, pushed relations in the community to a boiling point, eventually resulting in the firing of Chief Bill Lee. Zimmerman eventually was arrested, and a jury acquitted him. Smith watched the chaos play out from Elgin, Illinois, where he was deputy police chief. A former boss in Illinois suggested he look at the job, so he traveled to Florida on his own time, getting to know the community and learning what divided residents and police. He still isn't sure how to explain why he took the job. \"The first year, I was still wondering, was it a smart move?\" Smith joked. But things are better now, he says. After taking the job, Smith made it a point of spending time \"walking and talking\" in Sanford, building relationships with community leaders and everyday residents. Inside the department, stepped up training in engagement and ethical policing. He also stepped up recruitment of African-American officers. \"One of the things that's going on is we don't have people who look like us in the community,\" said Smith, himself an African-American. He handed out long-delayed promotions. And he even presided over a makeover, enlisting officers to help choose new uniforms. The new chief in Ferguson will likely need to do some of the same things, Smith says. Community leaders and other officials agree. \"We need to deal with the culture issue here to make sure whoever is coming in behind Chief Jackson is not a new face and a new name on the same type of issues,\" Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson Township,\" told CNN Wednesday. \"We need to seriously deal with the culture of the police department and the municipal courts and the way the city is run.\" New York police Commissioner William Bratton said there are two issues confronting the heads of police forces. There is the lack of trust on the community's part and the lack of confidence some officers have in their leadership. On the first issue, he said: \"You need to be willing to embrace that there is a need to change.\" To police leadership consultant John Vanek, whoever takes over the Ferguson department will need to have the same leadership traits valued in boardrooms across the world -- the ability to form partnerships across organizational lines, to think differently, to turn failure into success and to do it all in a harsh media spotlight. But that's easier said than done. \"There's going to be a lot of hostility in Ferguson for a long time,\" he said. So will the new chief need to be African-American to help defuse the racial tensions roiling the city? Here's the politic answer: Find the right candidate, regardless of race. \"You want to find the best candidate to be police chief,\" said attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. \"But diversity is very important. It's very important that the police officers understand the communities, at least want to engage with members of the community they are going to be protecting and serving.\" \"There's an old saying in the black community that everybody else is protected and served but we are policed,\" Crump said. \"We don't want to be policed. We want to be protected and served as any American citizen.\" CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"NYPD commissioner: Chiefs need to embrace need for change .\nFerguson might look to Sanford, Florida's experience when choosing a new chief .\nThat city also had to find ways to heal divisions between community and police ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Denise Huskins, who was reported kidnapped two days ago in Vallejo, California, has been found safe more than 400 miles away, authorities and her father said Wednesday. Huskins' boyfriend Monday afternoon called police and said she had been abducted that morning from his home in the Bay Area. About 48 hours later, she was located an hour south of Los Angeles. Officers from the Huntington Beach Police Department found Huskins at her father's apartment complex, department spokeswoman Jennifer Marlatt told reporters. Huskins, 29, is in good condition and had no apparent injuries, Marlatt said. Huskins left with police to meet several family members. Vallejo police Lt. Kenny Park said that the case was being treated as a kidnap for ransom and investigators hoped to get a clearer picture of what happened by talking to Huskins later that night. It was unclear whether that would happen in Vallejo or whether detectives would have to travel to Huntington Beach, some 420 miles away. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that her father, Michael Huskins, said in a telephone interview that he received a voice mail from his daughter Wednesday morning saying she had been dropped off at his apartment. He called police to ask that the authorities pick her up and make sure she was safe, he told the newspaper. \"I almost had a heart attack,\" he said, according to the Chronicle. \"I tried to get authorities to pick her up, but they kept asking me a bunch of questions. I said, 'Send a squad car.' I was hyperventilating.\" Earlier, Michael Huskins had made an emotional appeal through CNN affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco directed at the kidnappers: Don't hurt her, please don't hurt her.\" \"The biggest fear is the horror she might be going through ... that's my biggest fear. The horror, she doesn't deserve that, not from anybody.\" \"It's like a nightmare that I can't wake up from,\" her father told the affiliate. \"This is not supposed to happen.\" Police have not ruled anyone out as a potential suspect, Park told reporters. He declined to give much information about the case, including whether a ransom had been paid. He said he was unaware of any relationship between the man and woman. Park did say the man is both a witness and a \"potential victim.\" Michael Huskins has said the couple had been dating for seven months. When asked whether police have considered that this might not be a kidnapping, Park said: \"We're looking at all possible angles.\" The FBI is involved, he said. The Chronicle posted an audio clip on which Denise Huskins says she has been abducted. Her father confirmed the voice on the recording is hers. In it, she says: \"My name is Denise Huskins. I am kidnapped, otherwise I'm fine. Earlier today there was a plane crash in Alps and 158 people died. And one thing that people know about me is that I went to my first concert, me and my mom, to Blink 182 (last word is inaudible): . The editor in chief of the Chronicle, Audrey Cooper, said in a written statement that the newspaper received a link to the audio file in an email. The Chronicle reported the anonymous email said Huskins would be \"returned safely (Wednesday). We will send a link to her location after she has been dropped off. She will be in good health and safe while she waits. Any advance on us or our associates will create a dangerous situation for Denise. Wait until she is recovered and then proceed how you will. We will be ready.\" CNN's Dan Simon, Tony Marco, Faith Karimi, Elan Bird, Michael Martinez, Stella Chan, Rosalina Nieves and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police say case is still being treated as a kidnapping for ransom .\nFather of missing woman tells newspaper she called him from his apartment .\nAbductors seized Denise Huskins on Monday, her boyfriend told authorities ."} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded medals Monday to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and to Andrei Lugovoi, the suspect in the murder of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, among more than 30 other honorees. Kadyrov was given the Order of Merit. The decree signed by Putin states: \"For work achievements, active social activities and many years of diligent work the Order of Merit is awarded to Ramzan Kadyrov, the President of the Chechen Republic.\" Lugovoi, the suspect in the poisoning death of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, was given a second-class medal of the Order of Merit for the Motherland, according to Putin's decree. Sergey Kislyak, a diplomat who's been serving as Russia's ambassador to the United States since 2008, was also among the honorees. He was cited as an \"Honored employee of a diplomatic service.\" Lugovoi is an MP in Russia's lower house of parliament for the nationalist and pro-Kremlin Liberal Democratic Party. He is deputy chairman of the lower house's security and anti-corruption committee. He also has hosted a show called \"Traitors\" on Russian TV and runs a restaurant in Moscow. Kadyrov has spoken out about the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, defending Zaur Dadayev, one of the Chechens charged in the shooting. \"Zaur Dadayev was a Russian Interior Ministry officer who served with distinction,\" Kadyrov said on his Instagram account. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a coincidence that the arrest of suspects in Nemtsov's killing happened around the same time as the award to the Chechen President. In an interview with Russian business outlet RBC, he stressed that the decree on awards was filed several months ago.","highlights":"Russian President honors more than 30 people, including Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov .\nAlso honored: Andrei Lugovoi, charged by the UK with London murder of former Russian security agent .\nRussian ambassador to the U.S. is cited as \"honored employee of a diplomatic service\""} -{"article":"(CNN)When photographer Richard Ross wants to talk to a child at a juvenile detention center, he knocks on their cell door. He asks them if he can come inside. The 67-year-old Californian is used to taking off his shoes when he enters homes, so he does the same in a cell. \"Most of the kids, they've never had that kind of respect,\" he said. \"But I give it to them, I give them the power. I sit on the floor so they're looking down on me.\" Ross doesn't begin by hammering them with questions. He wants to have a conversation. \"I say, 'What's gone on in your life?' \" The result of that tenderness and patience is Ross' latest collection of photos, \"Girls in Justice.\" The images are unflinching. They convey the ugliness of a young person's life behind bars. The pictures are replete with the unique loneliness, anger and boredom of a juvenile detention center. But the girls also tell their stories alongside the images. One photo shows a girl in a tan jumpsuit, hand on her head, sitting alone in a drab, cavernous room. \"I've been here 17 times,\" one girl says. Many of the stories are bleak, reflecting adults who endangered the girls or, at the very least, failed repeatedly to protect them. \"Mom's a stripper. Dad was an alcoholic, drug addict, murdered last year,\" said one girl explaining her past. \"They took my brother and I away because my dad chained us in the house and tried to burn it down. I lived with my grandma and uncle. The people who are supposed to love you never do.\" The photos show girls wasting the day in their bunks, staring at the wall. Some struggle with mental illness. The girls obscure their faces or are turned away from the camera. That works to protect their identities, but it also evokes shame. Ross seems to be saying the shame isn't the girls' -- it's ours as a society for jailing children. His images aren't always literal. A photo shot toward an azure sky is framed by concertina wire. A straight-forward photo, of a utility wall holding dozens of scissors, turns the stomach after reading the caption -- the guards need the scissors to cut away any cloth a teenager might use to trying to hang herself. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. Ross recalled one particularly agonizing interview with a girl who kept telling him, \"I can't wait to get out of here so I can kill myself.\" \"She was just a kid, but she was at that place where you have no hope,\" he said. \"I feel all these stories, but that one just hit me hard. I was sobbing. You want to say, 'It will get better,' but you also know the system and you know that you can't say that.\" Ross, the son of a New York City police officer, had a happy upbringing in a home of modest means. He got into a decent amount of trouble growing up, and he said he could have easily wound up in the justice system. But times were different then, he said, and there's been a cultural turn in America toward criminalizing a child's bad behavior. He recalls a detention-center director in Reno, Nevada, who asked him to visit and take photos. At intake, he photographed a fifth-grader who had been taken to jail because he had acted up in class. \"This fifth-grader came up to my belt buckle,\" Ross recalled. \"He was drinking warm milk, like someone gave him a cardboard thing of milk. I can still smell that milk. That intake area smelled like elementary school.\" The child's single mother couldn't pick him up for hours. She was holding down a job that wouldn't allow her to leave until after 6 p.m. The detention-center director sent Ross' photo to every principal in the area to make a point: Children do not belong in lockup, so find another solution. Ross is adamant that he's making photographs to bring about \"immediate change.\" He speaks across the country to law schools and works closely with child welfare advocates. His work has been shown during legislative sessions to illustrate how sorely the juvenile justice system needs fixing. \"I'm trying to wake people up, make them realize there are lives at stake,\" he said. \"At the same time, I don't, I can't, position myself as the great hope. I might not be able to do much but listen. But I think I'm a good listener, and I think these kids deserve to tell their stories.\" Richard Ross is a photographer based in California. You can follow his Juvenile in Justice project on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.","highlights":"Photographer Richard Ross shows what life is like for girls in a juvenile detention center .\nHe wants to \"wake people up\" about the system and bring about \"immediate change\""} -{"article":"(CNN)Everyone's favorite male models made a surprise appearance at Tuesday's Valentino show at Paris Fashion Week. And, no surprise, they were really, really ridiculously good-looking. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reprised their roles as the vacuous models from the popular 2001 film \"Zoolander\" at Tuesday's women's couture show. There was no mistaking Stiller for anyone other than the fierce Zoolander as he sashayed down the runway in a Valentino trench, casting Blue Steel in every direction. He was followed by nemesis Hansel McDonald, played by Wilson, showing off another Valentino coat over a pair of \"lovely\" pajamas, Wall Street Journalist fashion columnist Christina Binkley said. The duo is gearing up for \"Zoolander 2,\" which is slated for release in February 2016. \"Apparently Derek and Hansel have come to terms on #Zoolander2,\" Ben Stiller joked in a selfie posted on his Instagram account. Publicity stunt, perhaps, but we're not complaining about an opportunity to bring back the phrase, \"he's so hot right now.\"","highlights":"Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reprised their roles as male models at Paris Fashion Week .\nThey walked in the Valentino show as Derek Zoolander and Hansel McDonald ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A well-heeled employer goes back to his hotel after a hard(ish) day's work and finds no hot dinner on the table. He snaps, lashing out (allegedly) at the nearest underling who could be held responsible. Within days, almost 1 million people sign a petition for him not to lose his job, while the suspension of the TV program he presents loses the BBC 4 million viewers. Why is this man so popular that he can be accused of abusing his staff (not to mention members of other ethnic groups and nationalities) and seemingly get away with it? A serial offender, Jeremy Clarkson seems to enjoy a charmed life. But, with the BBC now deliberating over his future, has his luck finally run out? Not a chance. Clarkson, like so many celebrities, sees his stock grow with every controversy. Every indiscretion seems calculated to raise his profile and boost his esteem among his fervent followers that little bit further. The \"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe\" incident, which saw the N-word slip out -- whoops, did I really hear what I think I heard? -- was designed to achieve just the right effect: offensive enough to generate howls of protest, but trivial enough for his fans to spring to his defense, crying \"over-reaction\" and \"storm in a teacup.\" The presenter later apologized, saying his efforts to obscure the offending word \"weren't quite good enough.\" On this latest occasion, was it the beleaguered producer lodging a complaint, or, like any normal person who's been punched in the face by a thug, pressing charges with the local constabulary? No, it was none other than Clarkson who willingly gave himself up to the corporation. Go on, sack me, he seemed to be saying, when he told a reporter that his dismissal \"is coming, isn't it?\" See how my adoring public likes that. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho are, like Clarkson, seasoned experts in rebranding themselves (or their team) as the victims, even when they seem to have everything going for them bar the position of the stars. They have all perfected the glum, hangdog expression that invites sympathy, begging forgiveness for each misdemeanour. It makes their success all the sweeter if they can convince us that they achieved it in the face of hostility. While waiting for the BBC to deliver its verdict, Clarkson penned an article for The Sun in which he likened himself to a \"dinosaur\" whose time is about to run out, knowing full well that his followers will protest: no, of course you're not washed up and irrelevant, Jeremy. Britain needs you to stand up to Johnny Foreigner! It is almost tempting to wonder whether there might be a political role ahead of him should the Beeb decide to give him the push for once and for all (I use the word \"political\" advisedly here). The Romans had a goddess, Fama, who fanfared both good and bad deeds for all eternity. Badly behaved celebrities have their trumpets blown by the massed forces of the media, which are of course only too pleased to have such good copy. Clarkson is already assured of immortality, if only through YouTube or its futuristic equivalent, but while waiting to shuffle off this mortal coil he -- like all celebrities -- acts as a conduit of divinity. He is the chain that binds the earthly audience to the goddess Fama, and this is why we allow him to act in such a beastly way, without complaining (too much). In the east of India, holy intermediaries called Kalasis beat devotees with canes. The devotees flinch with the mortal pain, but they receive it as a blessing. Contestants on the X Factor queue all night for the opportunity to be verbally abused by Simon Cowell. Bruises, actual and emotional, are worn with pride, whether delivered by the Kalasis cane, Cowell's tongue, or Clarkson's fist (allegedly). They are blessed that are touched by celebrity. So how about Oisin Tymon, Clarkson's hapless producer, who, according to the Daily Telegraph, had to seek hospital treatment for a cut lip following the \"fracas?\" Had he presented poor, weary Jeremy with a nice succulent steak on his arrival that evening, he would still be languishing in the realms of the unknown. And don't feel sorry for the hotel owner either: just watch bookings at Simonstone Hall, the Yorkshire hotel where the alleged incident took place, go through the roof. They may as well start engraving that blue plaque now.","highlights":"Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson allegedly lashed out a producer, prompting BBC to cancel broadcast of program .\nClarkson, like so many celebrities, sees his stock grow with every controversy, says David Giles .\nClarkson is already assured of immortality, says Giles, adding that like all celebrities -- the presenter acts as conduit of divinity ."} -{"article":"Kiev, Ukraine (CNN)Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk have withdrawn all heavy weapons from the front lines in accordance with a recent peace deal, the rebel group Donetsk People's Republic said Saturday. On the other side, the Kiev-backed Donetsk regional authority said Ukrainian forces also withdrew all heavy weapons from the front lines in Donetsk, but added that in a 24-hour period from Friday to Saturday pro-Russian militants carried out 46 attacks, all of which were repelled, according to Col. Valentin Fedichev. A shaky ceasefire has been in place in Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region, the center of a months-long conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces. The estimated number of people killed in eastern Ukraine since April 2014 now exceeds 6,000 \"in spite of successive ceasefires,\" the United Nations Human Rights Office said earlier this week. The escalation in fighting in recent weeks, particularly near the Donetsk airport and in the Debaltseve area, resulted in hundreds of deaths, both civilian and military, according to the United Nations report. The report paints a picture of \"merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure,\" said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. He called for all sides to adhere to the peace deal, reached last month in Minsk, Belarus, which calls for a ceasefire in many of the conflict's hotspots. Victoria Butenko contributed from Kiev. CNN's Michael Martinez wrote from Los Angeles.","highlights":"The withdrawal comes after last month's peace deal .\nA shaky ceasefire has been in place in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Cleanup crews on Thursday started assessing the damage caused by storms that slashed across Oklahoma on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring about two dozen others across the state. A reported tornado ravaged a mobile home park, destroying dozens of trailers just west of Tulsa in the suburb of Sand Springs. Authorities said the man who died at the River Oaks Mobile Home Park had been trying to help his father, who was injured, according to CNN affiliate KJRH. One woman at the mobile home park told KJRH that she was cooking when the storm hit. \"Within 5 minutes it was dark and the sirens were going off and you couldn't hear yourself think,\" Brandy Richards said. \"And you just grab the kids and we ran across the street. My best friend has the only house that's back there, and we barely got into the house and it took the garage. It was so fast.\" \"It looks like there's been a little war zone around here,\" Tammi Hart told CNN affiliate KTUL. The storm flattened a Sand Springs gymnastics studio, where 60 kids and adults were huddled underground. \"We were just in the middle of practice and the sirens started going off and we just had to get all the kids to the basement,\" according instructor Kelsey Haggard, who said she heard a \"big boom\" when the building was hit. \"Just really happy everyone got out safe,\" said Haggard. \"It was really scary ... it just seems so surreal.\" In addition to the death at the mobile home park, KTUL reported two other people were taken to the hospital in critical condition. The Oklahoma State Department of Health said two dozen people were injured across the state, according to CNN affiliate KOKI. Storm damage was reported across the Tulsa metro area. Gov. Mary Fallin toured the damage in Sand Springs on Thursday and declared a state of emergency for 25 counties. \"Our hearts and prayers go out to the family that lost a loved one and certainly to those who were injured or lost their home or business,\" she said. Severe weather also tore through the Oklahoma City area, including Moore, which has seen more than its share of devastating storms. A massive tornado hit Moore nearly two years ago, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds of others. The Moore Police Department said a 2-mile square area had significant damage, mainly roofs off homes and downed trees. Trees had to be cleared so law enforcement and emergency vehicles could get through. \"You know, this isn't the first time we've done this so ... unfortunately, we've gotten pretty good at getting people back into their residences as quick as we can,\" said Sgt. Jeremy Lewis with the city's police. Until Wednesday, there hadn't been a single report of a tornado in the United States during March. CNN meteorologist Judson Jones said there were preliminary reports of seven tornadoes on Wednesday. An average year would produce 80 twisters in March, he said. March is typically a transitional month, where warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cold Arctic air to produce severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. This year, however, the jet stream pattern responsible for all the cold air and snow in the East had remained stuck in more of a winter mode. But that changed this week as an Arctic cold front began crashing to the south, bringing together the stormy mix. CNN's Sean Morris, AnneClaire Stapleton, Jeremy Grisham and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"It looks like there's been a little war zone around here\"\nNational Weather Service: There are preliminary reports of 7 tornadoes .\n\"It looks like there's been a little war zone around here,\" Oklahoma resident says ."} -{"article":"New Delhi (CNN)Thankfully, no one was wounded after crude bombs were hurled at a Tamil news station in India on Thursday. But the loud explosions injured a vital part of the world's largest democracy: free speech. Last week, when India's government and a British documentarian faced off over a film featuring a man imprisoned for a 2012 gang rape in South Delhi, a little-known channel hundreds of miles away in southern India was waging its own battle. Hardline Hindu groups were angry with broadcaster Puthiya Thalaimurai for filming a show about the relevance of a traditional necklace -- called mangalsutra in Hindi and thaali in Tamil -- worn by married Indian women. For them, the contents, as shown in the promos, were offensive to Hindu culture. The station planned to release the program Sunday, International Women's Day. But it canceled the telecast after demonstrations took place outside its office. Protesters allegedly attacked one of its cameramen. Four days later, the channel came under fire again, when four men on two motorbikes threw bombs into its compound in a predawn attack, authorities say. Six people involved in the bombing have been arrested, said S. George, the commissioner of the southern Indian city of Chennai. Their leader turned himself in separately, claiming responsibility for the attack, police said. \"The show wanted to give women a platform. We welcome all opinions and thoughts. But you cannot strangle freedom of free expression by violent means and threats,\" said Shyam Kumar, the CEO of New Generation Media Corp., which runs Puthiya Thalaimurai. \"We condemn the attack in the strongest possible terms,\" he told CNN. 'India's Daughter,' the film banned by India: What did it show? But India is no stranger to censorship imposed legally or forced by rowdy protesters. The country's constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but not without restrictions. Communities or people claiming their religious sentiments were hurt by anyone else's opinion can file a lawsuit. Authorities can seek restraining orders from local courts -- as they did to ban the recent BBC documentary \"India's Daughter\" -- by citing potential disorder. Earlier last year, Penguin India withdrew \"The Hindus: An Alternative History,\" a book by American academic Wendy Doniger, after a local advocacy group accused the writer of denigrating Hinduism. In December, a Bollywood movie, \"PK,\" came under attack over similar accusations when mobs tore apart its posters in parts of India. A satire on religious rituals, \"PK\" became a roaring success by being one of the country's highest-grossing movies. But India, home to one of the world's largest film industries, has blocked several movies from screening. At least two films were not allowed last year. One of them featured the lives of the Sikh assassins of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the other centered on the violence in Sri Lanka in the closing months of its civil war. Hounded by protests over his novel, Perumal Murugan, a Tamil author, announced quitting writing in a dramatic post on Facebook in January. \"Perumal Murugan, the writer is dead. As he is no God, he is not going to resurrect himself. He has no faith in rebirth. As an ordinary teacher, he will live as P Murugan. Leave him alone,\" he said on Facebook two months ago. Religious and caste-based organizations had slammed his novel \"Madhorubhagan,\" which depicted a childless wife taking part in an ancient festival allowing consensual sex between strangers. Just last week, India blocked the BBC from airing \"India's Daughter\" because it included comments from one of the men convicted of raping a young student in a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012. The reason: The inmate's views could create unrest. \"There's a growing intolerance towards different shades of opinion. It's a medieval mindset. What India needs is a concerted effort to move beyond it and embrace free expression in totality,\" said Kumar, the New Generation Media chief executive.","highlights":"Indian broadcaster Puthiya Thalaimurai drew protests for a show about traditional necklaces worn by married women .\nThis comes after India banned a film featuring a man imprisoned for a gang rape in South Delhi .\n\"There's a growing intolerance towards different shades of opinion,\" a broadcasting company CEO says ."} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Breast is best\" -- you could call it a mantra of sorts that sums up much of today's research on breastfeeding. Not only does breastfeeding have clear short-term benefits, such as protection from infectious diseases and a reduction in mortality, it's also been shown to be associated with an increase in intelligence. Prior studies have shown an increase of up to 7.5 IQ points in elementary age children who were breastfed, as well as an increase in verbal, performance and comprehensive IQ in adults. The latest addition to this perspective is a long-term study of infants born in Pelotas, Brazil, in 1982. Published in Lancet, the study interviewed 5,914 new mothers about their plans for breastfeeding and then followed up to see how they did. \"Information on breastfeeding duration was collected very close to the time when weaning happened, so we had a very precise information on the duration of breastfeeding,\" said study author, Dr. Bernardo Lessa Horta, in a podcast on Lancet. What makes this study unique is that it followed the subjects all the way to age 30. \"We were able to follow about 68% of the participants, which is a very good follow-up rate,\" said Lessa Horta. \"We observed that breastfeeding was positively associated with performance and intelligence at 30 years old, as well as with education, school achievement and higher monthly incomes.\" In fact, Lessa Horta said the subjects who had been breastfed for 12 months or longer had a higher IQ (about 3.7 points), more years of education and earned roughly 20% more than the average income level. \"It's suggesting that the positive effect of breastfeeding on IQ leads to a higher income,\" he said. \"This is our main finding at this moment.\" One possible reason for the advantage of breast milk, Lessa Horta added, is that it is \"rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids which are important to brain growth and development.\" Called LCPUFA for short, these essential fatty acids are found in salmon and shellfish and have been added to infant formulas since the 1990s. However, the benefit to mental or psychomotor development from adding LCPUFA to infant formula is unclear. Because the study did not measure home life, intellectual stimulation or bonding between mother and child, it was not able to tease out whether these factors may have also contributed to the increase in IQ. That leaves it open to critics, such as Texas A&M Professor Joan Wolf, author of \"Is Breast Best? \"This study does not address the very real possibility that mothers who choose to breastfeed, regardless of income or education, distinguish themselves from those who bottle-feed in all kinds of ways that are likely to promote intelligence,\" Wolf wrote CNN. For Lessa Horta, the implications of his study are clear: \"The finding supports the promotion of breastfeeding. It's more evidence that besides the clear short term benefits, breastfeeding also has long term consequences in terms of human potential.\"","highlights":"Long-term study finds that IQ at age 30 was nearly 4 points higher for babies breastfed for a year or more .\nStudy conducted in Brazil also associates longer breastfeeding with higher income and education levels .\nCritic points out that the study doesn't account for other possible contributing factors ."} -{"article":"Tokyo (CNN)Police in Japan say they have arrested a 40-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing five neighbors in a farming community in Sumoto city. The man has admitted stabbing three women aged 59, 76 and 84, as well as two men aged 62 and 82, Deputy Police Chief Keizo Okumoto told CNN. He said the accused refused to comment further as he was awaiting his lawyer. The victims -- two couples and the 84-year-old woman -- lived within 100 meters (330 feet) of the suspect's home, police said. According to local media, the accused and the victims shared the same surname, but it is unclear if they are related. Sumoto city is on Awaji Island, Hyogo prefecture, in Japan. CNN's Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report from London.","highlights":"Police in Japan say they have arrested a man, 40, after five neighbors were fatally stabbed .\nThe accused shares the same surname as the victims, aged 59 to 84, local media say .\nA police official says the man has admitted to the stabbings but refused to comment further ."} -{"article":"(CNN)The first official visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Washington comes as excitement mounts over the possibility that direct peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are imminent. The visit, which began Sunday, offers the opportunity for discussion and progress on a number of fronts, the coming face-to-face talks with the Taliban almost certainly among them. But while the start of such talks would certainly be a positive development, it would hardly be a sign that peace is about to descend upon a land ravaged by decades of war. The reality is that an agreement with the Taliban that is good for the Afghan government is probably impossible right now. Negotiations to end the Taliban insurgency face a series of significant challenges, and an imperfect deal could harm Afghanistan's nascent unity government, encourage the formation of splinter groups of hardened fighters, boost existing terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS and plunge the country into an era of renewed violence and instability. That said, the United States should remain broadly supportive of these talks by promoting conditions that could make the possibility of success more likely down the road -- history has shown that successful negotiations most often occur when each party has some vulnerability to the other. Militarily, the Taliban is not the Afghan government's equal, but that does not mean the insurgents lack a strong negotiating position. For a start, the international presence in Afghanistan is declining, freeing the Taliban to operate more openly in the rural corners of the country. Meanwhile, Afghan security forces are being killed at rates that are probably not sustainable and civilian casualties are at an all-time high. Most troublingly, the new national unity government has yet to clearly demonstrate its ability to govern. All this means that until the new government shows that the diverse interests within it can coexist, and it articulates a cohesive strategy to counter the Taliban, the insurgents can make a strong case for postponing peace in the hopes of a better situation in the future. A second key to negotiating a path toward peace in Afghanistan is devising a strategy to contain splinter groups. Often in the course of negotiations, those unsatisfied with the peace process flock to new organizations to continue the fight. These can include so-called \"bitter enders,\" hardened fighters who want no part of peace. The emergence of splinter groups is an expected part of any peace negotiation process, but it must be minimized for an agreement to take hold. In the case of Afghanistan, there is no shortage of groups willing to absorb fighters, from outlaw bandit groups to al Qaeda. Recently, as Ghani has highlighted, there have even been stories of fighters declaring allegiance to terrorist group ISIS. It goes without saying that the spread of ISIS's particularly violent form of extremism within Afghanistan would make an already complex and precarious security situation all the more so. Finally, negotiations must happen at a time when a peace agreement can reasonably be enforced -- it is one thing to craft a compromise and quite another to carry it out. Too often in peace negotiations, an agreement is viewed as a finish line, but any deal can easily be derailed by unpopular political accommodations, economic incentives and rebel fighters who refuse to drop their arms. To take hold, peace agreements require a legitimate and effective government capable of communicating new realities to the public and executing policies that are often untried and complex. At the moment, the Afghan government is struggling to carry out existing policies, while juggling the country's many divergent interests. While a peace agreement would certainly boost the legitimacy of a national unity government, a stillborn accord would only lead to disillusionment and doubt. Ultimately, the chances that talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban will succeed are remote at best. Yet the United States should do everything it can to help create the underlying conditions to support productive negotiations -- if not now, at some point in the future. What can the U.S. do? Two things: . First, the Obama administration could agree to the Afghan government's request to slow American troop withdrawals. This would allow the United States to assist the Afghan government to stabilize the country and contain any splintering anti-government factions. Second, the U.S. could remain actively engaged in promoting the success of the Afghan national unity government. This means not merely maintaining existing development and economic efforts, but finding opportunities to assist the new government to boost its legitimacy. For example, the United States could support emerging efforts to build a meaningful relationship between Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, which would increase public confidence in the government's ability to protect its people. It also could lend a hand advising political leaders, including the many first-time cabinet officials, on governance and public service. Sowing the seeds of future success in bringing peace to Afghanistan requires no new U.S. boots on the ground or extravagant financial commitments. Rather, it takes a willingness to continue to engage with Afghanistan's dynamic set of political challenges in small, but meaningful ways.","highlights":"Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is visiting the United States .\nRebecca Zimmerman: U.S. doesn't need more boots on ground ."} -{"article":"Lausanne, Switzerland (CNN)Talks to reach a deal on a framework agreement on Iran's nuclear program will be extended an extra day, U.S. officials said Tuesday. \"\u200eWe've made enough progress in the last days to merit staying until Wednesday. There are several difficult issues still remaining,\"\u200e State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the talks in Lausanne would continue another day as \"long as the conversations continue to be productive.\" Diplomats and negotiators worked late as an initial deadline approached, but more time appeared necessary to reach a framework deal. How long talks will continue was unclear. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius informed the Iranians that he will return to Paris at dawn Wednesday in an apparent effort to force the Iranians' hand, Western diplomatic sources told CNN. Hamid Ba'idinejad from Iran's Foreign Ministry said earlier Tuesday there are no \"artificial\" deadlines and a deal will be reached, when each issue has been resolved. Diplomats told CNN that there has been progress, but gaps remain. For Iran, that means there's a light at the end of the tunnel for crippling sanctions. For the West, it means real hope that it's possible to loosen up on Tehran while still being confident that it won't develop nuclear weapons. The international sanctions relief issue has been resolved, according to Ba'idinejad. \"We have had long discussions on this, but there are issues that are related to sanctions that are still under consideration,\" Ba'idinejad said. He added that is not the only issue that needs to be worked out. The thing is, nuclear physics is complicated. So are the international dynamics anytime you're talking about Iran and the West, with mutual distrust and contempt a shared sentiment for years. That's why it's taken so long to even get to this point, and why what's happening in Lausanne matters. Before you can iron out nitty-gritty technical details in a permanent, comprehensive pact -- which carries the more important deadline of June 30 -- you have to agree on what you're going to talk about. What happens if Wednesday passes and there's no framework agreement? In the short term, it appears, not much. Iran's power rises, with or without deal . The real deadline isn't for three months, after all. As for the March 31 date, there's nothing to stop the parties from continuing to talk -- though an Iranian official told state-run Press TV that no one had raised the idea of an extension as of late Monday. \"All emphasize that the chance should not be missed, and they are all doing their best,\" Ba'idinejad said. So far, there's been a lot of meetings, with occasional smiles for cameras followed by foreign ministers talking behind closed doors. After working through the previous night, representatives from the key players -- most of them foreign ministers -- met all day Tuesday to try to resolve differences in what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described as \"the final stage\" of \"these marathon-like negotiations.\" The parties are either on the verge of a milestone agreement or still separated on some crucial points, depending on who you listen to. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is among the optimists. Russia has been closer than most to Iran even as it's gone along with sanctions. \"Prospects for this round of talks are not bad, I would even say good,\" Lavrov said before heading to Switzerland for the final round of negotiations, according to state-run Sputnik news agency. \"The chances are high.\" But in comments Monday to CNN, a more cautious Kerry conceded there was \"a little more light there today, but there are still some tricky issues.\" \"There still remain some difficult issues,\" the top U.S. diplomat said. \"We are working very hard to work those through ... with a view to get something done.\" 21 questions on Iranian nuclear talks . Iran has been under intense international pressure and has faced crippling sanctions over its nuclear program for years. The sides began moving away from stalemate with Iranians' 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani, who has insisted that Iran wants a peaceful nuclear energy program but not weapons. Viewed as a moderate -- especially compared with other powerful figures in Iran, including the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- Rouhani campaigned on a platform that he'd work to help Iran's economy by reducing its rifts with the outside world. His government has had some success easing those tensions, spearheading interim agreements that have loosened some sanctions. But a comprehensive and final deal has remained elusive. There's been discussion on what to do with Iran's existing fissile material -- which is important because, as long as it's still around, that will make it easier to produce a nuclear weapon more quickly. Still, U.S. officials suggested Monday the debate over this has been overblown, with Harf calling it one outstanding issue though \"it hasn't, quite honestly, been one of the toughest ones.\" More important are three points that have dominated the talks in Lausanne: . \u2022 How quickly or slowly Iran will be allowed to advance its nuclear technology in the last five years of the 15-year agreement. \u2022 How quickly the crushing U.N. sanctions will go away. \u2022 Whether sanctions will snap back into place if Iran violates the deal. Iran wants them gone for good. Lavrov claims that the U.N. Security Council will lift the sanctions right away, but other international negotiators want to merely suspend them, so they can be reapplied as leverage if Iran does not keep its end of the bargain. Agreement on those points is crucial, a Western diplomat said. \"There cannot be an agreement if we do not have answers to these questions,\" the diplomat said. Another point of contention: what to do with the nuclear substances Iran already has. Diplomats had told journalists about a plan for Iran to ship its fissile material to Russia. The idea is that if Tehran doesn't have a nuclear stockpile at its fingertips, it will have a longer \"breakout time\" to make a nuclear weapon should negotiations fall apart. Iran isn't ready to do that, one of its negotiators said Sunday. \"The export of stocks of enriched uranium is not in our program,\" Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, \"and we do not intend to send them abroad.\" But on Monday, U.S. officials said the rumblings in the media about the stockpile issue were overblown. Negotiators had not yet decided any specifics about the disposal of fissile material, and Iran has made the comments many times before, a senior State Department official said, citing a list of previous examples of such statements in press reports. With or without a deal, a lot can change in the next three months. For one, the devil is in the details -- any one of which could throw everyone back to square one. Then there's the possibility that a deal ironed out in Switzerland is rejected by any of the key players. That's been raised as a possibility in the United States, even though a Washington Post-ABC News Poll conducted in the past few days found that 59% of respondents support a deal in Iran that would restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Earlier this month, 47 Republican senators wrote directly to the Iranian government, reminding it that any deal it reaches with U.S. President Barack Obama might be moot once his term ends in less than two years. One person leading the charge against a possible deal, even though he'll have no direct part in shaping it, is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reiterating points he made earlier this month to the U.S. Congress, Netanyahu said Tuesday \"the greatest threat to our security and safety and our future is Iranians' attempt to become nuclear.\" \"And the agreement that is being formed in Lausanne,\" the Israeli leader said, \"is paving the road to that result.\" CNN's Elise Labott reported from Lausanne, and Steve Almasy and Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta. Jethro Mullen wrote and reported from Hong Kong. CNN's Ben Brumfield, Jim Sciutto, Nimet Kirac and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sources tell CNN that French foreign minister has told Iranians he is leaving early Wednesday morning .\nNetanyahu: \"Agreement ... in Lausanne is paving\" way for Iran nuclear weapons .\nIran, world powers talking to set up parameters for framework deal on Iran's nuclear program ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Scientists at NASA are one step closer to understanding how much water could have existed on primeval Mars. These new findings also indicate how primitive water reservoirs there could have evolved over billions of years, indicating that early oceans on the Red Planet might have held more water than Earth's Arctic Ocean, NASA scientists reveal in a study published Friday in the journal Science. \"Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much water was lost to space,\" said Geronimo Villanueva, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. \"With this work, we can better understand the history of water on Mars.\" To find answers to this age-old question about Martian water molecules, scientists used the world's three major infrared telescopes, in Chile and Hawaii, to measure traces of water in the planet's atmosphere over a range of areas and seasons, spanning from March 2008 to January 2014. \"From the ground, we could take a snapshot of the whole hemisphere on a single night,\" said Goddard's Michael Mumma. Scientists looked at the ratio of two different forms -- or isotopes -- of water, H2O and HDO. The latter is made heavier by one of its hydrogen atoms, called deuterium, which has a neutron at its core in addition to the proton that all hydrogen atoms have. That weighed down HDO more, while larger amounts of hydrogen from H2O floated into the atmosphere, broke away from Mars' low gravity and disappeared into space. As a result, water trapped in Mars' polar ice caps has a much higher level of HDO than fluid water on Earth does, the scientists said. The scientists compared the ratio of H2O to HDO in Mars' atmosphere today to the ratio of the two molecules trapped inside a Mars meteorite, a stone that broke off from Mars -- perhaps when an asteroid hit -- and landed on Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. They were able to determine how much that ratio had changed over time and estimate how much water has disappeared from Mars -- about 87%. The findings indicate that the Red Planet could have had its fair share of blue waters, possibly even yielding an ocean. According to NASA, there might have been enough water to cover up to 20% of Mars' surface. That would amount to an ocean proportionally larger than the Atlantic on Earth. \"This ocean had a maximum depth of around 5,000 feet or around one mile deep,\" said Villanueva. NASA scientists say that much of this water loss happened over billions of years, along with a loss of atmosphere. And as the planet's atmospheric pressure dropped, it was harder for water to stay in liquid form. Heat also contributed to its evaporation. As a result, the remaining primeval ocean water continued to move toward the poles, where it eventually froze. \"With Mars losing that much water, the planet was very likely wet for a longer period of time than was previously thought, suggesting it might have been habitable for longer,\" said Mumma. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientists studied water in Mars' atmosphere with three giant infrared telescopes .\nThey compared the ratio of certain molecules on the planet with that of a Mars meteorite that landed on Earth ."} -{"article":"(CNN)If you were the lucky recipient of a bunch of fragrant roses this Valentine's Day, it's likely that they came from Kenya. The country is the third largest exporter of cut flowers in the world, accounting for around 35% of all sales in the European Union. Famed for being long-lasting, Kenya's roses, carnations and summer flowers are also popular in Russia and the U.S. where last week several growers showcased their blooms at the World Floral Expo in Los Angeles. The event is one of the industry's largest and gathers over 80 exhibitors from across the world, with several Ethiopian growers also representing the African continent alongside Kenya. The country's flower power is attributed to its sunny climate, which enables high-quality blossoms to be grown year-round without the need for expensive-to-run greenhouses. Kenya also has excellent transport links to Europe, and from there, the rest of the world through Nairobi airport, which has a terminal dedicated specially to the transport of flowers and vegetables. This means that delicate floral cargo which is perishable in nature can be shifted from growers to consumers swiftly. More than 500,000 people in the country depend on the trade according to the Kenya Flower Council, with roughly half of the country's 127 flower farms concentrated around Lake Naivasha, around 90 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. \"Naivasha is a big center because it's a freshwater lake and it is not very far from Nairobi, which makes transport easy,\" says John Kihia, technical director of Floralife Africa, a company which provides hydration, transport and storage for the cut-flower industry. \"People have been growing flowers there for a long time so there is a skilled labor force in place,\" he adds. Activists have expressed concerns over the environmental impact that the booming trade could inflict on the lake, but local farmers have been working with the WWF in order to make sure that water levels are not affected: \"It's about putting together a strong business case about why it's good for growers to save water and ways to manage that,\" says Drew McVey, WWF technical adviser who calls the collaboration \"a story of success.\" Naivasha Lake's location 1,884 meters above sea level is particularly fertile ground for medium-sized roses which are often found in the floral sections of EU supermarkets, whereas farms in higher altitudes yield bigger blooms popular in Russia: \"It's a consumer preference. In Moscow people will buy a single rose, so if it's bigger it naturally looks more spectacular, whereas in the UK they buy bunches more often,\" says Kihia. Big business . Horticulture has been one of the top foreign exchange earners for Kenya, and the flower industry alone raked in around $600m last year, exporting 124,858 tonnes valued at around $507m in 2013. Nearly two thirds of exports are destined for Holland, where they are resold to florists through auctions which present a safe avenue into the market for less seasoned growers: \"If you sell through an auction and you have a good quality product, people will be competing for your flowers which will give you a better price,\" Kihia says. While Europe remains the biggest destination for Kenyan flowers due to its relative geographic proximity and good transport links, this has left producers vulnerable to turmoil on the continent, such as the recent recession. \"It has had an impact on the sector and we have experienced a slowdown in demand, which slows down business,\" says Jane Ngige, CEO of the Kenyan Flower Council. Kenyan exports also suffered when in October of last year the EU imposed import taxes on cut flowers from the country, but the levy was lifted on Christmas Day allowing Kenyan producers to storm Valentine's Day sales. Jane Ngige says that the industry is now exploring other markets such as Australia, Canada and Japan, and adds that direct flights from Nairobi airport play a crucial role in helping the Kenyan flower business take off globally: \"A direct flight to the destination is key owing to the fact that this is fresh produce and it needs to get to the end user quickly in order to guarantee quality. It also makes it less expensive,\" she says. Kenyan growers are now lending their floral expertise to neighboring Rwanda by partnering with the country's government to create a 35 hectare flower park 60 kilometers from Rwanda's capital Kigali. It's hoped that the park will eventually produce three million stems per year and kick-start Rwanda's floriculture sector, which could pump more than $200 million into the country's economy by 2017. Editor's Note: Each week, Africa View explores the trends, figures and initiatives shaping Africa. From education and energy to technology and innovation, it showcases topics and influential sectors driving countries on the continent.","highlights":"Kenya is one of the biggest flower exporters in the world .\nAround one in three flowers sold in Europe come from the country ."} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)Hillary Clinton is pressing the reset button -- yet again. She's quietly fighting back a week after her awkward and occasionally combative news conference on the furor over the private email server she used while running the State Department. Clinton's Twitter account is buzzing this week with posts that test political messages on health care, college affordability, civil rights and jobs -- issues she hopes will help mobilize President Barack Obama's Democratic coalition and pave her way to the presidency. Meanwhile, her nascent operation is leaking details of future staffers in an unmistakeable message to Democrats spooked by the email flap that the campaign-in-waiting will become an official effort, possibly as soon as next month. A CNN\/ORC International Poll out on Wednesday found that she's miles ahead of any potential Democratic challenger and would beat all potential Republican candidates by at least 10 points. Despite fretting among some Democrats who worried that the party's best -- and perhaps only -- viable Democratic candidate appeared to be in trouble, early signs suggest Clinton is doing what the Clintons do best: mounting a comeback. \"The interest in the story is collapsing onto itself. I don't see an organic clamoring for more information,\" said a longtime Clinton ally who didn't want to speak for a campaign that hasn't yet been announced. This person, who has spent time in Iowa, argued that outside the community of political reporters and consultants in Washington and New York who fixated on the story, the people who really count -- voters -- weren't really interested. \"People very much want to know what the campaign is going to be about ... what is she going to do about student loan costs, for example?\" Tharon Johnson, a Democratic strategist who was Southern regional director of Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, agreed. \"If and when Hillary Clinton decides to run, she will have to address this issue, but I believe the American people are more interested in her addressing the kitchen table issues that matter most to them,\" he said. Of course, Clinton still faces plenty of challenges and the email saga raised questions about whether she can run a more sophisticated, no drama campaign than the one she managed in 2008. But the CNN poll revealed that those critical of Clinton's role in the email affair appear to break close to party lines and her favorable rating remains at 53%. A slow recent decline in that rating appears to coincide with Clinton's slow re-entry into partisan politics and does not necessarily reflect her recent stumbles. Perhaps the most intriguing figure in the poll is that only 1% of respondents had never heard of Clinton. That supports the idea expressed by some Democrats that Clinton may be the most vetted figure in public life. There are people who will never vote for her and those who are dedicated to her quest to be the first female president, but very few whose minds may not be made up. A less well-known candidate might have made a terrible first impression if faced with the kind of hyper-covered flap Clinton was. But Republicans believe the email scandal could be a political gift that keeps on giving, as it touches on a narrative that the Clintons are secretive, resistant to transparency and often blur the rules. There are also other problems -- including the question of foreign funds sent to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton's whopper speaking fees -- that Republicans believe could reach a political mass and fan doubts about the likely Democratic nominee's character. Then there are the foreign policy questions, including a now damaging photo op in which Clinton offered a \"reset\" button to Russia only for the country to revert to a Cold War-esque posture. She was also a central player in Obama's foreign policy, which often appears to be overtaken by the Middle East's swift descent into chaos. \"For everything that I can see, the Democrats have put all of their eggs in one basket here,\" said Sean Spicer, communications director of the Republican National Committee. \"That is more of a downfall in the general election than in the primary.\" Spicer argued that even with younger voters, who do not remember the Clinton years, the question of impropriety over her emails could provide an entry point into past scandals. Though Clinton is the prohibitive Democratic front-runner, her support in the party is not universal. But where she faces resistance, it is more likely to be over policy than emails, as grass-roots Democrats are suspicious over her centrist, pro-business and hawkish foreign policy leanings. \"As this discussion was playing out inside the Beltway, our members were focused on issues,\" said Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org, which wants Elizabeth Warren to challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Galland said activists were preoccupied with the preservation of the social safety net, constraining Wall Street and those on the \"ragged edge\" of the middle class. Similarly, the young voters who flocked to Obama in 2008 and who will be crucial to Clinton's hopes of mobilizing an effective Democratic coalition in 2016 may also offer Clinton a political cushion. This group is hazy over historic references to long ago Clinton scandals like Filegate, Travelgate and even the Monica Lewinsky episode that led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment. \"The media loves a Clinton scandal,\" said one Democratic source who didn't want to be named because he doesn't work for Clinton. \"But young people are more likely to know her as secretary of state, and someone who ran for president in 2008.\" Polling bears out the theory. The CNN survey shows Clinton's favorability among voters age 18 to 34 with a 22 point positive differential. But she's barely in positive territory among voters age 50 to 64, who are likely to have strong memories of her time as first lady, and is underwater among those 60 or older. Another well-connected Democrat who didn't want to go on the record criticizing Clinton admitted that the email issue did play into GOP caricatures about the allegedly \"conspiratorial\" politicians and that it could challenge the former secretary of state's early efforts to get her message out about her ideas and rationale for running for president. But Democratic operatives think that once Clinton is actually running, with an infrastructure behind her, and striking messages about the minimum wage, college debt and middle-class economic issues, voters will engage. In many ways, the email furor was a story the media couldn't wait to write, so it may be that journalists have inflated the importance of the episode, at least in the absence of any evidence that Clinton broke the law or made classified information vulnerable. Political reporters have pined for weeks for Clinton to swing her campaign into action, and her failure to offer a storyline opened a vacuum that was easy for unflattering stories to fill. Her slow response breathed new life into a question that only Clinton can answer: Will her 2016 campaign be as dysfunctional, reactive and distracted as her chaotic and unsuccessful 2008 effort? But there were a few lessons. It's clear the Clinton machine is not about to morph into a humming, scandal-free effort in the image of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign. And Clinton's bitter relationship with political reporters seems as bad as ever. The days when she partied with a State Department press corps more preoccupied with policy than politics seem like ancient history. But here also, Clinton is trying a reset. Her nascent campaign has made it known that she is staffing up her campaign and press operation. John Podesta, who is expected to take a leadership role in her campaign, is respected by reporters, as is Jennifer Palmieri, the outgoing White House communications director expected to take on a similar role for Clinton. On Tuesday, it emerged that Clinton would name Brian Fallon, who has also good ties with reporters, to be lead press secretary.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton fights to put furor over a private email server behind her .\nEarly signs suggest Clinton is doing what the Clintons do best: mounting a comeback ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Last November, the American people placed a great amount of trust in Republicans when they gave them complete control of Congress. Voters bought the illusion that a Republican Congress would govern effectively, help the middle class and focus on important issues like jobs and the economy. Now, after two months, that illusion has been shattered. Over the last two weeks, we have seen the Republican Congress manufacture, then escalate, a political crisis by threatening to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. There is no government task more basic than keeping citizens safe. And yet Republicans are recklessly putting our national security at risk to protect their own political security. By failing to do a full extension of DHS funding \u2014 holding it hostage with demands that the legislation roll back the President's immigration actions -- Republicans are leaving uncertain the livelihoods of more than 240,000 men and women who proudly serve as employees of the Border Patrol, Transportation Security Administration and other DHS agencies. Local law enforcement will continue to be denied access to the grants that help them keep our streets safe. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies that respond to natural disasters, like major winter storms, would have their operations disrupted. All so Republicans can try to score a few cheap political points with their base. But while this shutdown crisis is scary, what is even scarier is that this dysfunctional governing style is becoming a pattern with the Republican Party. The Republican Congress seems more intent on bickering with itself, pushing an agenda to help special interests and catering to the most extreme wing of the party, than working for the middle class. These last two months have been a disgrace, a disservice to our country, and the American people won't soon forget what a reckless disaster Republicans in Congress have turned out to be.","highlights":"Ben Lujan: Americans voted in a GOP Congress on promise of effective governance that prioritized middle class .\nHe says that was an illusion. On DHS funding, other issues, GOP has prioritized catering to its extreme wing and special interests ."} -{"article":"(CNN)With majorities in both chambers of Congress, it is time for Republicans to begin rolling back six years of failed Obama administration policies. Our highest priority during the ongoing budget debate should be undoing the damage caused by defense sequestration and the hundreds of billions of dollars of defense cuts made by the Obama administration. Regrettably, military strength is seen in many quarters as the cause of military adventurism. A strong, robust defense is seen not to deter aggression, but to provoke it. For years, we have systematically underfunded our military, marrying a philosophy of retreat with a misplaced understanding of our larger budgetary burdens and the real drivers of the debt: our entitlement programs. As expected, almost four years after the passage of the Budget Control Act, virtually nothing has been done to address the unsustainable growth of our entitlement programs, while essential defense programs have been sacrificed. Political leaders in Washington need to be reminded that our defense is the single most important responsibility of the federal government. Instead of starting the process by setting arbitrary defense spending levels and then forcing our military to cut vital programs in order to meet these levels, the budgeting process should start by taking into account all the threats against us, listing the programs and capabilities we'll need to protect our people and interests around the world, and then funding those efforts. Even though we've been able to keep the homeland safe for more than a decade, the threats to Americans at home and abroad are growing. From the rise of the Islamic State and the spread of Islamic terrorism, to Russia's aggression in Europe, to Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, the threats to American security are growing. Yet, even as the world outside our borders is filled with more doubt and uncertainty, the United States has been steadily reducing our spending on defense. Even before sequestration, President Obama made defense cuts of $487 billion over 10 years and redirected the savings to already bloated domestic programs. This was followed by tens of billions more in defense cuts each year because of sequestration, which, when combined with Obama's prior cuts, will total $1 trillion over the coming decade. All of these reductions were enacted despite the warnings of four secretaries of defense and our entire military leadership. The results of these cuts have been disastrous for our military and for our ability to project power and deter our enemies. The slight increase in President Obama's proposed 2016 budget won't significantly change that. At the end of this process, our military will be significantly smaller, dramatically less capable and dangerously unready to deploy if these budget cuts remain in place. The Army is on the path to be reduced to pre-World War II levels. The Navy is at pre-WWI levels. And our Air Force has the smallest and oldest combat force in its history. Our force reductions have been felt throughout the world -- by our friends and our enemies. They have presented not just a crisis of readiness for America, but also a perilous strategic weakness. Our adversaries have been emboldened by what they perceive as our diminished military presence. History has shown that every time we have unreasonably cut resources from our military in anticipation of a peace dividend, it has only cost us more to make up for the deficit we create in military readiness and capability, and the expected era of perpetual peace fails to materialize. We think we are saving money, but in the long run, we end up paying more and creating more risk and uncertainty. We can afford the military we need, but we must make it a priority. For this reason, we introduced an amendment to the Senate budget resolution this week to address the dangerous funding gap our military currently faces. We believe we must increase the resources available to our military to the levels proposed by (former) Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his FY12 budget, the last defense budget based solely on an assessment of the threats we face and the requisite military needs to deal with those threats. It is the budget that the bipartisan, congressionally-mandated National Defense Panel stated was \"the minimum required to reverse course and set the military on a more stable footing.\" Now that Republicans control both house of Congress, it is time to support a defense budget that actually reflects the world in which we live, not the world the way we wish it was. Until now, our approach as a country and a party since the Budget Control Act has not been one of American strength. Continuing on the current path will only invite war and conflict through weakness. We need to heed the bipartisan warnings of our nation's military leaders and get back on track toward a defense budget that reflects the realities of the challenges we face and is worthy of our brave men and women in uniform. In the end, it is they who will suffer the most if sequestration is not reversed and our readiness and equipment continues to degrade. As members of Congress, we have a sacred obligation to ensure that they have the best possible training and equipment so they can successfully complete their missions. Despite the fiscal constraints imposed on our military, they are doing their part and are holding up their end of the bargain. It's time that we hold up ours.","highlights":"Senators Rubio, Cotton: As threats have grown, U.S. defense budget has faced cuts .\nThey say spending to strengthen U.S. forces is a necessity ."} -{"article":"Havana, Cuba (CNN)So what has U.S. State Department subcontractor Alan Gross been up to since he was released from a Cuban prison exactly three months ago? It turns out a lot more than most of the rest of us. Gross, 65, has started to make up for the five years he spent imprisoned in Cuba by traveling abroad, attending the State of the Union address as a guest of the Obamas and last week meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican to personally thank him for his role in helping to win Gross' freedom. After five years of being disconnected from the outside world, Gross now frequently posts on social media, writing of family reunions, eating the foods he longed for in prison and the reminders he experiences of his time in Cuba. \"I can't get away from Cuba,\" Gross wrote after hearing a Cuban song playing in an airport on his travels. While visiting Israel, he posted a photo of Cohiba cigars advertised for sale in a Tel Aviv tobacco shop. In 2009, Gross was arrested by Cuban state security agents and eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned communications equipment to the island. Gross said he was merely helping the island's small Jewish community get online, but Cuban officials accused of him being part of a U.S. government plot to destabilize the island's single-party Communist government. Cuba has highly restricted Internet access, and most people are not able to access the Web in their homes or on their phones. On December 17, 2014, Gross was freed, along with three Cuban intelligence agents and a Cuban man convicted of spying for the United States. It was part of a deal between the Cuban and U.S. governments to reestablish diplomatic relations after five decades of Cold War animosity. Gross, his wife, Judy, his attorney and three U.S. congressmen flew from Havana to his home state of Maryland aboard a U.S. military jet, one of the smaller versions of Air Force One used to transport President Barack Obama. The image of Gross celebrating his freedom aboard the flight home with CNN reporting the news of his release on a TV screen in the background became the picture he would use on his @AlanPGross Twitter page. The night of his release, he enjoyed a meal of spicy Thai food with family and friends, a far cry from the bland rations he was forced to eat in prison. In January, Gross changed the status of his Facebook page to read that he had left his job as \"hostage\" at the Carlos Finlay military hospital where had been held in Havana. Later, he shared pictures of a visit to the dentist's office to replace the teeth that he lost while he was held in Cuba. With his dental concerns met, he moved on to food. Gross also recounted savoring long-denied bowls of chili and bagels loaded with lox and cream cheese. Many of the posts are the daily jottings of a man returning to his life after an extended absence: Gross renewing an expired driver's license or visiting a Starbucks for the first time in five years. But in other posts, he writes about taking in a sunset on the beach in Israel, seeing the snow fall in Washington and believing citizens in every country should have unimpeded access to the Internet. A spokeswoman for Gross turned down a CNN request for an interview with him but confirmed that the social media accounts are his. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrat representing the Maryland district Gross hails from, called it \"incredibly moving\" that a man who spent five years in a Cuban prison has since sat next to first lady Michelle Obama and met the pope. More than that, he's come to signify the changing dynamics between officials in Washington and Havana. \"Alan did not ask for this special role in history,\" Van Hollen said, \"but he's become a catalyst for this new chapter in American and Cuban relations.\" The photos that Gross posted online show a smiling man, slowly putting back on some of the 100 pounds he lost in prison, no longer the gaunt-faced, hollow-eyed prisoner who had gone on hunger strikes to protest his conditions while he was held in Cuba. \"The distance we've come since December 17th 2014 has been a rewarding journey,\" Gross wrote in a Facebook post Saturday. \"For which we're grateful.\"","highlights":"Rep. Van Hollen: Alan Gross became \"a catalyst\" for next chapter in U.S.-Cuba relations .\nGross has been a guest of the Obamas, got to meet Pope Francis since release from Cuba .\nHe's also been to the dentist, watched a D.C. snowfall and indulged in some good food ."} -{"article":"New Delhi, India (CNN)The North Korean ambassador in Bangladesh issued an apology after one of the embassy's diplomats was caught carrying 27 kilograms (59 pounds) of undeclared gold into the country's main airport in Dhaka, according to officials in Bangladesh. North Korean officials could not be reached for comment. Meanwhile, state media in the largely isolated communist country has not yet reported on the incident. Kazi Muhammad Ziauddin, a top official in Bangladesh's customs agency, told CNN his officers discovered the gold on the afternoon of March 5th, after the diplomat arrived on a Singapore Airlines flight. Ziauddin said customs officials had received a confidential tip that a North Korean diplomat would be carrying \"illegal items.\" \"It was very tough. We have to be very careful and sensitive when we deal with a diplomat,\" Ziauddin said, referring to the Vienna Convention, which affords diplomats certain degrees of consular immunity. He said the suspect, whom he identified as Son Young Nam, the first secretary of North Korea's embassy in Dhaka, initially refused to allow his baggage to be searched. \"He said there is no way we can open or scan his bag,\" Ziauddin said. \"At first he said 'This is an electric motor.' After further questioning he changed his mind and told us, 'These are cipher machines and very confidential.'\" Eventually, customs officers opened the diplomat's bag and found the undeclared goods, that included 170 gold bars and golden ornaments. At current market prices, the gold would be valued at around $1 million. Entering Bangladesh without declaring this quantity of precious metal is a violation of the country's customs regulations. An official with Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary, speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity, said his government lodged a protest with the North Korean ambassador. It's far too early to jump to conclusions about whether the alleged gold smuggling incident could be an isolated example of corruption or an effort to move official funds. Due to international sanctions, North Korea faces substantial obstacles when trying to access international banking systems. \"It would be interesting to see if [the diplomat] is disciplined when he gets back\" to North Korea, said John Delury, associate professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies. \"That would be a way of saying whether or not he's a corrupt diplomat.\" According to the Foreign Secretary's office in Bangladesh, the North Korean diplomat allegedly caught carrying the gold has since left the country. CNN's K.J. Kwon contributed from Seoul .","highlights":"North Korea apologizes to Bangladesh after one of embassy's diplomat caught with 59 pounds of gold .\nGold was undeclared, says Bangladeshi government ."} -{"article":"March 30, 2015 . Monday on CNN Student News: Find out what issues were on the minds of Nigerians, as voters in Africa's largest democracy went to the polls. Discover how an astronaut on a 340-day mission to the International Space Station will become one of the experiments being conducted. And lend your ears to an invention that aims to extinguish fires with low-frequency sound waves. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call."} -{"article":"(CNN)Could a simple blood test someday tell if you're genetically predisposed to post-traumatic stress disorder? That's what a team of international researchers is hoping after finding a genetic marker linked to PTSD in the blood samples of Marines stationed in conflict zones. \"We'll draw the blood and have a way to do this very rapidly and start to tease apart who is a little more at risk and who is a little more resilient for PTSD,\" says principal investigator Dr. Dewleen Baker of the University of California-San Diego. \"It's exciting.\" PTSD can occur after many types of trauma: rape, torture, child abuse, natural disasters and car, plane, and train wrecks, to name a few. According to the PTSD Alliance, more than 13 million Americans have PTSD and the societal cost is in the billions. Women are about twice as likely as men to develop the disorder. Symptoms tend to cluster into three areas: . \u2022Reliving the event via nightmares or vivid images, along with an extreme reaction such as uncontrollable shaking, chills or heart palpitations. \u2022Avoiding reminders of the event, including becoming emotionally withdrawn and detached from friends, family and everyday activities. \u2022Being hyperaroused, easily startled, irritable, angry, or having difficulty sleeping or concentrating. As one might expect, service members are hardest hit. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 30% of all Vietnam vets have experienced PTSD. Among troops recently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, PTSD can run as high as 20% in any given year. But why does severe emotional trauma trigger PTSD in some people and not others? The idea that your genes play a role in whether you develop PTSD is a popular focus of recent research. Scientists have discovered genes that help regulate fear reactions in mice. The lack of a fear-regulating brain chemical called gastrin-releasing peptide led to greater fear response among the rodents. In another study, mice without a protein necessary to form \"fear memories\" were less likely to freeze up and more willing to explore unknown spaces. Studies of twins show heredity accounts for about 30% of the differences in response to trauma, with identical twins much more likely to both develop PTSD than fraternal twins. Other research has looked into the role of inherited brain differences, mental disorders, or addictive tendencies. An unusual avenue of research is how our immune systems may contribute to the development of PTSD symptoms. Prior studies of people diagnosed with PTSD compared to control groups without the disorder suggest differences in genes related to inflammation may play a role. \"The body is built to keep us alive and it functions as one big system,\" says Baker, discussing the interface between stress and immune chemicals. \"The systems all talk to each other.\" The recent study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, is unique because it compares blood samples from 188 Marines taken before and after they were deployed to combat zones. Another group of 96 Marines was also studied to verify the results. \"Under this experimental design, not only can we identify differences between U.S. Marines with PTSD and without, but we can go back in time, so to speak, to see if any of the Marines who eventually developed PTSD\" showed evidence that it would emerge, says the study's co-senior author, Christopher Woelk. \"In this vein, we are able to start labeling findings as being putatively 'causal' in nature.\" In the blood of Marines ultimately diagnosed with PTSD, the study found biomarkers associated with gene networks that regulate innate immune function -- the body's first line of defense -- and interferon, a protein responsible for kicking the immune system into action. In addition, this hypervigilant immune response occurred before and after exposure to trauma. \"Why do certain people start out with slightly higher immune response and others have less? Is it somehow just built in or have they been exposed to some kind of pathogen?\" asks Baker. Instead of pathogens, another possible explanation is that the inflammatory response is activated by the stress of going off to war. \"You could try to dampen down the activation and see if that improves symptoms or prevents development of PTSD,\" says Baker. Baker stresses these questions are purely hypothetical at this time and that the study needs to be replicated and expanded. \"We're early in the process of having some clues as to what might predict risk and resilience, and with more research we'll begin to have effective preventions and treatments,\" says Baker.","highlights":"More than 13 million Americans have PTSD .\nGenes account for about 30% of risk .\nImmune system plays a role in risk and resilience ."} -{"article":"London (CNN)Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson was suspended for allegedly hitting a producer, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The BBC said Clarkson, one of the corporation's highest earners, had \"a fracas with a BBC producer\" in a statement released yesterday. \"Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation,\" they said. \"No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday.\" The BBC reported that the next two episodes, and possibly the third and final show of the series, will not be aired. Fans of the presenter expressed dismay at the decision. At the time of writing, more than 300,000 people have signed a petition seeking his reinstatement. Using the hashtag #BringBackClarkson, which is trending worldwide, some Twitter users lamented that the show would not be the same without him. Clarkson himself also took to Twitter, posting an apology (of sorts) to Labour leader Ed Miliband -- for knocking him down the news agenda. \"Save Clarkson?\" his co-host James May tweeted. \"Save empty cardboard boxes and off-cuts of string. They're far more useful.\" But a \"Sack Jeremy Clarkson\" petition is also doing the rounds, gathering 2,814 signatures so far. Some will be glad to see the back of him. Former CNN host Piers Morgan, who has had a series of run-ins with the presenter, also waded in with a cheeky jibe. This is not the first time that Clarkson has been at the center of controversy. In May last year, the television presenter asked forgiveness after using a racist term during a taping of the show. Clarkson had mumbled the n-word while reciting a children's nursery rhyme, but that version of the take was never aired. Last year, the BBC show hit the headlines when Argentina complained about a \"Top Gear\" special filmed in the country in which the number plate H982 FKL was used -- interpreted by some as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War. Forced to stop filming and leave the country, Clarkson said on the BBC Newsbeat website that the use of the plate was purely coincidental. Top Gear was named as the world's most widely watched factual program in the Guinness World Record 2013 Edition book, with an estimated 350 million global viewers. The show is sold to 214 territories worldwide. In a previous article on their website, the BBC said \"Jeremy Clarkson is not a man given to considered opinion.\" In their statement, the corporation declined to comment any further.","highlights":"Presenter was involved in an encounter with a BBC producer .\nTop Gear was due to air this Sunday, episode pulled from schedule ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A Pennsylvania community is pulling together to search for an eighth-grade student who has been missing since Wednesday. The search has drawn hundreds of volunteers on foot and online. The parents of Cayman Naib, 13, have been communicating through the Facebook group \"Find Cayman\" since a day after his disappearance, according to close friend David Binswanger. Newtown Police say Cayman was last seen wearing a gray down winter jacket, black ski pants and hiking boots. He could be in the Radnor-Wayne area, roughly 20 miles from Philadelphia, or may have purchased a train ticket to Philadelphia, according to an alert posted on Facebook. \"We think that he got a email from school and was upset by it and left as an impulsive act,\" Farid Naib, Cayman's father, wrote Thursday on the group page. \"We have spoken to his friends and they do not know where he is. Cayman does have his phone, we don't know if he has any cash, he does not have his wallet.\" The parents said that his phone was out of power at the time. \"Cayman left within 30 minutes after he received an email from school regarding overdue home work (we do not blame the school) and most probably did not do any pre planning ... He is a good kid, and has no substance abuse or other issues, this is the first time he has ever done anything like this,\" his father and mother, Becky Naib, posted Friday. The parents wrote Saturday that Cayman was not wearing waterproof clothing and that he did not take his backpack. Binswanger said weather limited search efforts Wednesday, the night Cayman went missing. Wednesday it was rainy and Thursday there was 6-8 inches of snow. Hundreds of volunteers have stepped up to pass out fliers and to canvass areas, according to posts. A post late Saturday explained search efforts included \"advanced, geo-spacial tracking software to determine the exact locations where searchers went,\" and added that the search would be taken to the skies Sunday with deployment of the Civil Air Patrol. In many posts, the families appealed directly to their son. \"Cayman, if you read this please know that you are forgiven for everything, and I mean everything, you have the ultimate free pass. Just come home, we are so worried about you\" the family posted Saturday. A message to families from the head of The Shipley School, which Cayman attends, read in part: \"Cayman's sister Savannah is in ninth grade at Shipley and his parents, Farid and Becky, are terrific people. They have contacted police and are aware that we are sending you this email. We hope that Cayman is ok and are saying our prayers.\" CNN could not immediately get in touch with police or the FBI.","highlights":"Cayman Naib, 13, hasn't been heard from since Wednesday .\nPolice, family, volunteers search for eighth-grader ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Chinese relic experts claim that a 1,000-year-old mummified monk encased in a Buddha statue was stolen from a village temple in Eastern China in 1995, state media reported. The mummy made international headlines last year when it first showcased at Drents Museum in the Netherlands. The Cultural Relic Bureau in Fujian province launched an investigation and found photos and historical records suggesting the statue belonged to a village temple where it was worshiped as an ancestor. The bureau will continue the investigation and report to national cultural authorities to seek repatriation in compliance with normal procedures, a spokesperson told the state-run Xinhua news agency on Sunday. The statue, currently in possession of a Dutch private collector, was being housed at the Hungarian Natural History Museum as a part of a European tour. The museum announced on their website that the mummy, originally scheduled to be on display until May, has been pulled from the exhibition at \"the request of the loaning partner\" -- the Drents Museum. It's unclear exactly when or how the statue made its way to a market in the Netherlands where a private buyer bought it in 1996. Drents Museum said the owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, had bought it legally. The mummy was discovered when the owner brought it to an expert for restoration. But it wasn't until a team of researchers and scientists did a CT scan -- a comprehensive three dimensional X-ray image -- last year, did they discover the mummy's organs were missing. \"We thought it would be lung tissue, but instead we found little scraps of paper covered with Chinese characters,\" said Vincent van Vilsteren, an archaeology curator from Drents Museum. The mummy was found sitting on a bundle of cloth covered in Chinese inscriptions, revealing its identity as a Buddhist monk called Liuquan who may have practiced \"self-mummification\" to prepare for life after death. The process of self-mummification is a known tradition in countries like Japan, China and Thailand, and was practiced more than a thousand years ago. The elaborate and arduous process includes eating a special diet and drinking a poisonous tea so the body would be too toxic to be eaten by maggots. The few monks that were able to successfully complete the process were highly revered. \"We suspect that for the first 200 years, the mummy was exposed and worshiped in a Buddhist temple in China ... only in the 14th century did they do all the work to transform it into a nice statue,\" said van Vilsteren. Researchers are still waiting on DNA analysis results to help trace the mummy back to its exact location in China.","highlights":"Chinese relic experts claim that a mummified monk encased in a statue was stolen .\nThe statue was bought in 1996 at a market in the Netherlands .\nResearchers believe the monk practiced \"self-mummification\""} -{"article":"(CNN)Pakistan's highest court Friday ordered the release of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks, calling his detention illegal. Lakhvi, a top leader of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was not present at Friday's court proceeding. The terror attacks in India left more than 160 people dead in November 2008. In the attacks, heavily armed men stormed landmark buildings around Mumbai, including luxury hotels, the city's historic Victoria Terminus train station and a Jewish cultural center. On Friday, India summoned the Pakistan high commissioner \"to convey our strong feelings about (the) Lakhvi verdict,\" said India's external affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin. Last year, the court granted Lakhvi bail, a decision the Pakistani government had said it would challenge. Many in India are still angry over the attacks and had criticized the bail decision. \"It is very disappointing that the accused of the Mumbai attacks has been granted bail,\" the nation's home minister, Rajnath Singh, said in December. India executed the last surviving gunman from the attacks in 2012. Other suspects were all killed during the series of attacks, which went on for three days. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"The terror attacks in India left more than 160 people dead .\nA court granted the suspect bail last year ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Outside of Israeli politics, Isaac Herzog is not a well-known name. That may change on March 17, when Israelis head to the polls for election day. In the final round of polling before the elections, Herzog's Zionist Union party is in the lead, holding a four-seat edge over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. \"I believe in a certain type of leadership that is not always customary in this region. I'm not a general. I don't give orders. I know how to work together,\" he says. Throughout the campaign, Herzog has been seen as an underdog, lacking the charisma and the English fluency of Netanyahu. Herzog says that doesn't bother him at all. \"I have always suffered from a certain underestimation,\" Herzog said, \"and I have always surprised.\" He promised, \"I will surprise again, and I will show my leadership and stamina.\" Herzog began his political career in 2003, when he first won a seat in the Knesset with the Labor Party. He held a variety of ministerial positions, including minister of housing and construction, minister of tourism, and minister of welfare and social services, before becoming leader of the Labor Party in 2013. In those elections, he also became the leader of the opposition, as Benjamin Netanyahu won another term as prime minister. But when Netanyahu called for early elections in 2014, Herzog pegged his bid for the premiership on social reform. \"What I run for is social justice. I will change the nature of the division of wealth in a fair and more balanced way, close inequality and give a sense of purpose to the people here in the workplace, in the housing, and in the cost of living,\" promised Herzog. Before the election, the issue of a nuclear Iran garnered international headlines as it further aggravated tense relations between the White House and Netanyahu. Herzog, in a speech almost immediately after Netanyahu's address to Congress, promised to work with the United States and European powers, not against, to ensure the safety of Israel. He echoed that sentiment in an interview with CNN's Elise Labott. \"A nuclear-armed Iran is dangerous to world peace, is dangerous to our region, is dangerous to Israel. As leader of Israel, I will never accept a nuclear-armed Iran. Never. And all options are on the table.\" In these elections, negotiations with the Palestinians haven't been one of the major issues, but Herzog promised to restart the stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. \"I will do my best to ignite a political process with our Palestinian neighbors. ... Although I cannot promise 100% results, I promise 100% effort.\" Herzog comes from Israeli political royalty. His grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, was the first chief rabbi of the state of Israel. His father, Chaim Herzog, was an Army general, an ambassador to the United Nations and the president of Israel. Herzog believes it is his destiny to be the next prime minister of Israel. \"What I carry with me is a unique legacy, a family legacy, but most important, an experience that brings me to be able to lead our nation.\"","highlights":"Polls show Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union party four seats ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's party .\nIsraeli parliamentary elections will be on March 17 ."} -{"article":"London (CNN)The discovery of the remains of Richard III beneath a car parking lot in the English city of Leicester in 2012 sparked excitement around the world. Now those bones are to be reburied following a series of commemorations full of the pomp and circumstance befitting of a royal farewell. In the years since it was exhumed, the King's skeleton has given up plenty of secrets -- and research continues to find out more. Say the name Richard III to most people, and the image that will spring to mind is of Shakespeare's villain, a cruel, conniving figure whose nasty character is reflected in his physical abnormalities, a \"poisonous bunch-backed toad.\" History, they say, is written by the victors, and according to the Tudors and their most famous playwright, Richard was hunchbacked, with a withered hand and limping gait, \"deformed, unfinished ... and that so lamely and unfashionable that dogs bark at me as I halt by them.\" For the archaeologists searching for Richard's remains, the sight of the freshly-uncovered skeleton's twisted spine was the moment the hairs began to stand up on the back of their necks; tests later revealed the King suffered from idiopathic adolescent-onset scoliosis. But while the skeleton's curved vertebrae are striking, experts say the resulting disability would not have been obvious in Richard III when he was alive. It would have meant his right shoulder was slightly higher than the other, but this was likely disguised by clothing, and so only apparent to the King's closest family and confidantes. READ MORE: Richard III's spine twisted, not hunched . The most famous portraits of Richard III depict him as dark-haired and steely eyed, but they were painted some 25 to 30 years after his death, and DNA tests on the remains suggest they are far from accurate. Genetic specialist Turi King, from the University of Leicester, said analysis of various genetic markers offered clues to the King's appearance, suggesting he was actually fair haired and had blue eyes. \"[There are] genes that we know are involved in coding for hair and eye color,\" she told CNN in December 2014. \"The genetic evidence shows he had a 96% probability of having blue eyes, and a 77% probability of having blond hair, though this can darken with age.\" This would mean that the painting of Richard III held by the Society of Antiquaries of London is the closest approximation we have to his real appearance: It shows him with grey-blue eyes and lighter brown hair than other portraits. READ MORE: DNA clue to Richard III's appearanceREAD MORE: Is this the face of Richard III? It is perhaps not surprising that a monarch would have a taste for the finer things in life, but heron -- really? Well yes -- in the medieval period wildfowl such as heron, egret and even swan would have featured heavily on the high-protein menus of the aristocracy. Scientists at the British Geological Survey measured the levels of isotopes including oxygen, strontium, nitrogen and carbon in Richard III's remains, revealing clues to what he ate and drank. They spotted a dramatic change in the last few years of his life -- suggesting his dietary habits became markedly richer once he became King. \"Obviously, Richard was a nobleman beforehand, and so his diet would be reasonably rich already,\" explained isotope geochemist Angela Lamb, who led the study. \"But once he became king we would expect him to be wining and dining more, banqueting more. \"We have the menu from his coronation banquet and it was very elaborate -- lots of wildfowl, including real 'delicacies' such as peacock and swan, and fish -- carp, pike and so on.\" READ MORE: King's bones reveal luxury lifestyle . Something in that rich diet made Richard III sick: Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Leicester found evidence the King was suffering from a roundworm infection when he died. Researchers examining soil samples from the pelvis and skull of the skeleton spotted roundworm eggs in the area where the dead monarch's intestines would have been. Roundworm eggs -- in this case Ascaris lumbricoides -- are ingested via contaminated food, water or soil; once hatched and matured, the worms can grow up to a foot long. \"Despite Richard's noble background, it appears that his lifestyle did not completely protect him from intestinal parasite infection, which would have been very common at the time,\" said Dr Jo Appleby, from the University of Leicester, who exhumed the King's remains. \"We would expect nobles of this period to have eaten meats such as beef, pork and fish regularly, but there was no evidence for the eggs of the beef, pork or fish tapeworm,\" said Dr Piers Mitchell of the University of Cambridge, adding that the lack of tapeworms suggested the food Richard III ate was thoroughly cooked. READ MORE: Richard III had roundworm infection . Richard III was the last English King to die in battle, at Bosworth on August 22, 1485. In his \"Anglica Historia,\" the Italian Polydore Vergil, recorded that: \"King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies.\" When archaeologists studied the remains unearthed in Leicester, they found evidence of 11 of wounds inflicted at or around the time of his death: Nine to his skull and two to other parts of his body. The position of the injuries suggest that Richard had lost both his horse and his helmet when he was set upon by opposition troops. \"The most likely injuries to have caused the king's death are the two to the inferior aspect of the skull -- a large sharp force trauma possibly from a sword or staff weapon, such as a halberd or bill, and a penetrating injury from the tip of an edged weapon,\" said Professor Guy Rutty, who said the wounds were consistent with accounts of what happened to him at Bosworth. Tests also found an injury to the inside of Richard III's pelvis which supports contemporary reports that his body was subjected to acts of ritual humiliation after his death. READ MORE: Richard III's fatal wounds revealed .","highlights":"Skeleton of Richard III found under English parking lot in August 2012 .\nRemains have been examined and researched, yielding some surprising discoveries .\nThe king -- the last English monarch to die in battle -- will be reburied in Leicester ."} -{"article":"(CNN)A grand jury in Clark County, Nevada, has indicted a 19-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his neighbor in front of her house last month. Erich Nowsch Jr. faces charges of murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder and firing a gun from within a car. Police say Nowsch shot Tammy Meyers, 44, in front of her home after the car he was riding in followed her home February 12. Nowsch's attorney, Conrad Claus, has said his client will argue self-defense. The Meyers family told police that Tammy Meyers was giving her daughter a driving lesson when there was a confrontation with the driver of another car. Tammy Meyers drove home and sent her inside to get her brother, Brandon, who allegedly brought a 9mm handgun. Tammy Meyers and her son then went back out, police said. They encountered the other car again, and there was gunfire, police said. Investigators found casings from six .45-caliber rounds at that scene. Nowsch's lawyer said after his client's first court appearance that Brandon Meyers pointed a gun before anyone started shooting. He said the family's story about a road-rage incident and what reportedly followed don't add up. After zipping away from the first shooting, Tammy Meyers drove home and the other car, a silver Audi, went there also. Police said Nowsch shot at both Tammy and Brandon Meyers. Tammy Meyers was hit in the head and died two days later at a hospital. Brandon Meyers, who police said returned fire at the home, was not injured. The driver of the silver Audi has yet to be found by authorities. That suspect wasn't named in Thursday's indictment. Nowsch was arrested five days after the killing in his family's house, just one block away from the Meyers' home. He is due in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.","highlights":"Erich Nowsch will face three charges, including first-degree murder .\nHe is accused of killing Tammy Meyers in front of her home .\nThe two lived withing walking distance of each other ."} -{"article":"(CNN)This week, Google CFO Patrick Pichette made headlines when his resignation memo announcing his retirement surfaced in the media. But the uproar wasn't that Pichette was quitting so much as why. \"After nearly seven years as CFO,\" he began, \"I will be retiring from Google to spend more time with my family.\" What he wanted now was to enjoy life at home and abroad with his wife, to \"grab our backpacks and hit the road -- celebrate our last 25 years together by turning the page and enjoy a perfectly fine midlife crisis full of bliss and beauty.\" The letter, which he said he wrote in part because, \"so many people struggle to strike the right balance between work and personal life,\" has been held up as a manifesto for the \"work\/life balance\" ideal that's become something of the new American dream. The media has described it as \"powerful\" and \"unusually reflective.\" Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page said, \"Well worth reading, it will warm your heart.\" But if Pichette's work\/life balance was achieved by quitting his job to go see the world, what message does it send to the rest of us seeking work\/life balance? What message does it send to those workers -- and in particular women -- who are constantly told they can \"have it all,\" or who can be at the top of their field and have a family? What does it say to all those women to whom we say that, with a little \"leaning in\" or \"playing big\" they don't have to choose between work and life? Successful women from Sheryl Sandberg to PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi have spoken out about the pressure to \"have it all,\" and how, perhaps, there's really no such thing. Research backs them up. A November 2014 study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that women show more signs of depression as they move up the career ladder. Similarly, a survey of Harvard Business School grads found that the pressure women put on themselves to balance work and family is causing them significant stress. The survey also found that the majority of men expected their partners to take primary responsibility for childcare -- and indeed that happened in more than 70% of cases. And yet in recent years, \"work\/life balance\" has been held up as a legitimately attainable ideal, one that you can achieve if only you give your personal life as much attention as your professional one. But if you look at those we tend to hold up as models of that ideal -- those who leave work earlier, silence their cellphones more, retire, as in the case of Pichette, at 52 -- are they really striking a balance? Which is why talking about work\/life balance at all is a perilous business, an invitation to fail. Having it all is very difficult, if not downright impossible. Pichette, after all, did not practice work\/life balance. He wrote, \"I was always on -- even when I was not supposed to be.\" Like many successful men (and women), he was likely able to work as hard as he did while still having a family because he had the support of someone at home. \"When our kids are asked by their friends about the success of the longevity of our marriage, they simply joke that Tamar and I have spent so little time together that 'it's really too early to tell' if our marriage will in fact succeed.\" It's in jest, of course, and yet likely rooted in some serious reality. This is a man who didn't achieve work\/life balance as an executive. Of course, one could argue that the idea of balancing work with life may be harder for men than for women, who are the traditional breadwinners and the ones more likely to find self-worth through their work. This is one reason we see many wealthy, powerful men working well into their 80s. At the same time, it's undeniably easier for these men to make a decision to leave the whole thing early. Pichette retires as Google's highest paid executive, with millions in stock incentives. He can afford to retire and not even have to work for the remainder of his life. The rest of us are nowhere close to having that luxury of choice. Corporate America, it should be noted, shoulders much of the blame for keeping balance at arm's length, with increasingly long days and ever-tightening limits on vacations, paid leave and other \"benefits.\" We shouldn't have to leave our jobs to achieve balance, and the fact that some do, means that companies need to make real changes. That includes staffing workplaces reasonably, putting workers' well-being on par with profits, showing workers you don't expect them to be \"on\" all the time. Only then will real work\/ life balance start to take shape. Until then: \"Google CFO Patrick Pichette's Goodbye Note Will Make You Dream of Quitting Your Job,\" so reads a headline at ABC News. Indeed, that's the kicker. Pichette can \"carpe diem\" and \"find balance,\" if that's what he's doing, at 52, because he truly does have choices. But for most of the workers in America, finding that sort of balance -- or choosing life over work -- will remain an impossible dream.","highlights":"Google CFO Patrick Pichette's memo announcing his resignation in order to seek work\/life balance went viral .\nPeggy Drexler: Most Americans who want to find work\/life balance don't have the luxury to just quit their jobs ."} -{"article":"Karachi, Pakistan (CNN)Suicide bombers attacked a Christian community in eastern Pakistan on Sunday, setting off two blasts that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more, officials said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadly attack and warned of more to come. The explosions, which struck the Nishtar Colony area in the city of Lahore, wounded at least 78 people, said Dr. Muhammed Saeed Sohbin, medical superintendent at Lahore General Hospital. Video from the scene aired by CNN affiliate GEO News showed twisted metal, shattered glass and panicked residents outside a church compound. Ambulance and security personnel were seen moving in. Later footage showed water cannons arriving to disperse the crowd. Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said by telephone that his group was responsible for the suicide bombings, declaring that such attacks would continue until Sharia law is implemented in Pakistan. After a period of disunity, the terrorist group's three major splinter groups announced last week that they were joining forces again under the name Tehrik-i-Taliban, or TTP. The Pakistani military has been waging a campaign against the militant group in North Waziristan, one of the loosely governed tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose government held unsuccessful peace talks with the TTP last year, strongly condemned Sunday's attack, according to a statement from his office. Sharif asked provincial governments to tighten security and \"take all possible measures\" to protect people and property, the statement said. The last major attack on Pakistan's Christian community took place in 2013, when suicide bombers struck a church in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 people. More recently, a Christian couple were burned to death in November by mob that accused them of blasphemy. \"The Christian community is a soft target for militant outfits in Pakistan,\" said Rabia Mehmood, a researcher at the Jinnah Institute, a Pakistani think tank. \"But generally Christians and other religious minorities are under a constant threat by the extremist elements in the society and rampant religious intolerance.\" On Sunday, Pope Francis said he learned of the attacks \"with pain, with much pain.\" He called for peace in Pakistan and said that persecution of Christians doesn't get the attention it deserves. The Pope prayed that \"this persecution against Christians, which the world tries to hide, might end, and that there be peace.\" Other minorities in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation have also been targeted this year. Last month, an attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar killed at least 19 worshipers and injured dozens of others. The Pakistani Taliban reportedly claimed responsibility for that attack, too. CNN's Sophia Saifi reported from Karachi, Pakistan, and Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Brian Walker and journalists Saleem Mehsud and Adeel Raja contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for the suicide bombings .\nAt least 78 people were wounded in the attack, hospital official says ."} -{"article":"(CNN)Airstrikes started Wednesday in Tikrit, where Iraqi and coalition forces are battling to wrest control from ISIS. \"These strikes are intended to destroy ISIL strongholds with precision, thereby saving innocent Iraqi lives while minimizing collateral damage to infrastructure,\" said Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, commanding general of the international coalition, led by the United States. \"This will further enable Iraqi forces under Iraqi command to maneuver and defeat ISIL in the vicinity of Tikrit,\" he said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. At the request of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the coalition is providing \"airstrikes, airborne intelligence capabilities, and advise and assist support to Iraqi Security Force headquarters elements,\" it said. According to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the first wave of airstrikes was intended to hit about a dozen preplanned targets. Tikrit, best known to Westerners as the birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, fell in June to ISIS, which has captured large areas of Iraq and Syria for what it says is its Islamic caliphate. On March 1, al-Abadi ordered Iraqi forces to retake Tikrit and Salaheddin province. There have been several failed attempts to recapture Tikrit since the second half of 2014. If Iraq regains control of the city, it could mean that retaking Mosul -- a city 10 times bigger -- is possible. CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"These strikes are intended to destroy ISIL strongholds with precision,\" U.S. general says .\nCoalition is providing help asked for by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ."} -{"article":"Hong Kong (CNN)The search is on for China's teen top guns. China said Monday it has selected 16 high schools to offer pilot training as the country's armed forces seek to attract better qualified recruits. The schools, in 11 provinces across the country, will recruit 1,000 male junior high school students aged between 14 to 16, the China Daily reported. Successful applicants will receive flight training and \"military standard\" physical training in addition to their regular high-school studies. It's the latest attempt by the People's Liberation Army's air force to attract more talent. Last year, it said it would require wannabe pilots to take psychological assessments and a flight simulation test. China's military has traditionally been focused on winning land battles and is now making efforts to improve its air and naval power in the pursuit of what President Xi Jinping has called \"balanced strength.\" \"China has made many strides in the development of advanced aircraft, but it must make sure there can be sufficient, well-trained pilots to fly them,\" Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine told The China Daily last month. The recruits will receive a stipend and board at the schools. Traditionally, serving in the military has not been a sought-after career in China and a U.S. report on China's military transformation released last month singled out the quality and professionalism of new recruits as a major challenge. Many are still drawn from rural areas with limited education, while country's one-child policy, which has created the \"little emperor\" phenomenon of spoiled children, produces recruits who \"may not be tough enough to withstand military discipline,\" the report added. To this end, China has been making efforts to recruit more high school and college graduates as it modernizes its armed forces. On completing the three-year program, students will take a pilot selection test, and those who pass will join a PLA flight academy and those who fail can choose to enter other military universities or civilian institutes.","highlights":"China wants 1,000 male junior high school students for pilot training .\nThe country seeks to strengthen its navy and air force ."} -{"article":"Atlanta (CNN)The daughter of the late singer Whitney Houston, in a medically induced coma after being found unresponsive in January, has been moved to a rehabilitation facility, a source close to the family said Friday. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, had been treated at Emory University Hospital. No details about the transfer to a rehab facility were given. Brown, Houston's daughter with singer Bobby Brown, was found unresponsive January 31 in a bathtub at her home in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell. The extent of her injuries isn't known. Last month, doctors at Emory removed her breathing tube, allowing Brown to be ventilated through a hole in her throat. At the time, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said the procedure suggested she would need to be on such support for \"weeks and months to come.\" Police have said they are treating Brown's case as a criminal investigation. When Houston died in 2012, she was also found in a bathtub. A coroner ruled her death an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. Brown is Houston's only child. Brown's boyfriend, Nick Gordon, says he performed CPR after finding Brown in the tub. Gordon has complained that Brown's family has not allowed him to see her, but Bobby Brown said last month that Gordon simply refused to abide by the family's terms for a visit. CNN's Sunny Hostin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Brown has been in a medically induced coma .\nShe was found unresponsive in a bathtub in January .\nThe extent of her injuries isn't known ."} diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl deleted file mode 100644 index 81e66bd709..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl +++ /dev/null @@ -1,344 +0,0 @@ -{"article":"(CNN)The Palestinian Authority officially became the 123rd member of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday, a step that gives the court jurisdiction over alleged crimes in Palestinian territories. The formal accession was marked with a ceremony at The Hague, in the Netherlands, where the court is based. The Palestinians signed the ICC's founding Rome Statute in January, when they also accepted its jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed \"in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, since June 13, 2014.\" Later that month, the ICC opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestinian territories, paving the way for possible war crimes investigations against Israelis. As members of the court, Palestinians may be subject to counter-charges as well. Israel and the United States, neither of which is an ICC member, opposed the Palestinians' efforts to join the body. But Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki, speaking at Wednesday's ceremony, said it was a move toward greater justice. \"As Palestine formally becomes a State Party to the Rome Statute today, the world is also a step closer to ending a long era of impunity and injustice,\" he said, according to an ICC news release. \"Indeed, today brings us closer to our shared goals of justice and peace.\" Judge Kuniko Ozaki, a vice president of the ICC, said acceding to the treaty was just the first step for the Palestinians. \"As the Rome Statute today enters into force for the State of Palestine, Palestine acquires all the rights as well as responsibilities that come with being a State Party to the Statute. These are substantive commitments, which cannot be taken lightly,\" she said. Rights group Human Rights Watch welcomed the development. \"Governments seeking to penalize Palestine for joining the ICC should immediately end their pressure, and countries that support universal acceptance of the court's treaty should speak out to welcome its membership,\" said Balkees Jarrah, international justice counsel for the group. \"What's objectionable is the attempts to undermine international justice, not Palestine's decision to join a treaty to which over 100 countries around the world are members.\" In January, when the preliminary ICC examination was opened, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as an outrage, saying the court was overstepping its boundaries. The United States also said it \"strongly\" disagreed with the court's decision. \"As we have said repeatedly, we do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC,\" the State Department said in a statement. It urged the warring sides to resolve their differences through direct negotiations. \"We will continue to oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive to the cause of peace,\" it said. But the ICC begs to differ with the definition of a state for its purposes and refers to the territories as \"Palestine.\" While a preliminary examination is not a formal investigation, it allows the court to review evidence and determine whether to investigate suspects on both sides. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office would \"conduct its analysis in full independence and impartiality.\" The war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza last summer left more than 2,000 people dead. The inquiry will include alleged war crimes committed since June. The International Criminal Court was set up in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. CNN's Vasco Cotovio, Kareem Khadder and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Membership gives the ICC jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Palestinian territories since last June .\nIsrael and the United States opposed the move, which could open the door to war crimes investigations against Israelis .","id":"f001ec5c4704938247d27a44948eebb37ae98d01"} -{"article":"(CNN)Never mind cats having nine lives. A stray pooch in Washington State has used up at least three of her own after being hit by a car, apparently whacked on the head with a hammer in a misguided mercy killing and then buried in a field -- only to survive. That's according to Washington State University, where the dog -- a friendly white-and-black bully breed mix now named Theia -- has been receiving care at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Four days after her apparent death, the dog managed to stagger to a nearby farm, dirt-covered and emaciated, where she was found by a worker who took her to a vet for help. She was taken in by Moses Lake, Washington, resident Sara Mellado. \"Considering everything that she's been through, she's incredibly gentle and loving,\" Mellado said, according to WSU News. \"She's a true miracle dog and she deserves a good life.\" Theia is only one year old but the dog's brush with death did not leave her unscathed. She suffered a dislocated jaw, leg injuries and a caved-in sinus cavity -- and still requires surgery to help her breathe. The veterinary hospital's Good Samaritan Fund committee awarded some money to help pay for the dog's treatment, but Mellado has set up a fundraising page to help meet the remaining cost of the dog's care. She's also created a Facebook page to keep supporters updated. Donors have already surpassed the $10,000 target, inspired by Theia's tale of survival against the odds. On the fundraising page, Mellado writes, \"She is in desperate need of extensive medical procedures to fix her nasal damage and reset her jaw. I agreed to foster her until she finally found a loving home.\" She is dedicated to making sure Theia gets the medical attention she needs, Mellado adds, and wants to \"make sure she gets placed in a family where this will never happen to her again!\" Any additional funds raised will be \"paid forward\" to help other animals. Theia is not the only animal to apparently rise from the grave in recent weeks. A cat in Tampa, Florida, found seemingly dead after he was hit by a car in January, showed up alive in a neighbor's yard five days after he was buried by his owner. The cat was in bad shape, with maggots covering open wounds on his body and a ruined left eye, but remarkably survived with the help of treatment from the Humane Society.","highlights":"Theia, a bully breed mix, was apparently hit by a car, whacked with a hammer and buried in a field .\n\"She's a true miracle dog and she deserves a good life,\" says Sara Mellado, who is looking for a home for Theia .","id":"230c522854991d053fe98a718b1defa077a8efef"} -{"article":"(CNN)If you've been following the news lately, there are certain things you doubtless know about Mohammad Javad Zarif. He is, of course, the Iranian foreign minister. He has been U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's opposite number in securing a breakthrough in nuclear discussions that could lead to an end to sanctions against Iran -- if the details can be worked out in the coming weeks. And he received a hero's welcome as he arrived in Iran on a sunny Friday morning. \"Long live Zarif,\" crowds chanted as his car rolled slowly down the packed street. You may well have read that he is \"polished\" and, unusually for one burdened with such weighty issues, \"jovial.\" An Internet search for \"Mohammad Javad Zarif\" and \"jovial\" yields thousands of results. He certainly has gone a long way to bring Iran in from the cold and allow it to rejoin the international community. But there are some facts about Zarif that are less well-known. Here are six: . In September 2013, Zarif tweeted \"Happy Rosh Hashanah,\" referring to the Jewish New Year. That prompted Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to respond with a tweet of her own: \"Thanks. The New Year would be even sweeter if you would end Iran's Holocaust denial, sir.\" And, perhaps to her surprise, Pelosi got a response. \"Iran never denied it,\" Zarif tweeted back. \"The man who was perceived to be denying it is now gone. Happy New Year.\" The reference was likely to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had left office the previous month. Zarif was nominated to be foreign minister by Ahmadinejad's successor, Hassan Rouhami. His foreign ministry notes, perhaps defensively, that \"due to the political and security conditions of the time, he decided to continue his education in the United States.\" That is another way of saying that he was outside the country during the demonstrations against the Shah of Iran, which began in 1977, and during the Iranian Revolution, which drove the shah from power in 1979. Zarif left the country in 1977, received his undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University in 1981, his master's in international relations from the University of Denver in 1984 and his doctorate from the University of Denver in 1988. Both of his children were born in the United States. The website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, which Zarif runs, cannot even agree with itself on when he was born. The first sentence of his official biography, perhaps in a nod to the powers that be in Tehran, says Zarif was \"born to a religious traditional family in Tehran in 1959.\" Later on the same page, however, his date of birth is listed as January 8, 1960. And the Iranian Diplomacy website says he was born in in 1961 . So he is 54, 55 or maybe even 56. Whichever, he is still considerably younger than his opposite number, Kerry, who is 71. The feds investigated him over his alleged role in controlling the Alavi Foundation, a charitable organization. The U.S. Justice Department said the organization was secretly run on behalf of the Iranian government to launder money and get around U.S. sanctions. But last year, a settlement in the case, under which the foundation agreed to give a 36-story building in Manhattan along with other properties to the U.S. government, did not mention Zarif's name. Early in the Iranian Revolution, Zarif was among the students who took over the Iranian Consulate in San Francisco. The aim, says the website Iranian.com -- which cites Zarif's memoirs, titled \"Mr. Ambassador\" -- was to expel from the consulate people who were not sufficiently Islamic. Later, the website says, Zarif went to make a similar protest at the Iranian mission to the United Nations. In response, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations offered him a job. In fact, he has now spent more time with Kerry than any other foreign minister in the world. And that amount of quality time will only increase as the two men, with help from other foreign ministers as well, try to meet a June 30 deadline for nailing down the details of the agreement they managed to outline this week in Switzerland.","highlights":"Mohammad Javad Zarif has spent more time with John Kerry than any other foreign minister .\nHe once participated in a takeover of the Iranian Consulate in San Francisco .\nThe Iranian foreign minister tweets in English .","id":"4495ba8f3a340d97a9df1476f8a35502bcce1f69"} -{"article":"(CNN)Five Americans who were monitored for three weeks at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital after being exposed to Ebola in West Africa have been released, a Nebraska Medicine spokesman said in an email Wednesday. One of the five had a heart-related issue on Saturday and has been discharged but hasn't left the area, Taylor Wilson wrote. The others have already gone home. They were exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone in March, but none developed the deadly virus. They are clinicians for Partners in Health, a Boston-based aid group. They all had contact with a colleague who was diagnosed with the disease and is being treated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. As of Monday, that health care worker is in fair condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has said the last of 17 patients who were being monitored are expected to be released by Thursday. More than 10,000 people have died in a West African epidemic of Ebola that dates to December 2013, according to the World Health Organization. Almost all the deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.","highlights":"17 Americans were exposed to the Ebola virus while in Sierra Leone in March .\nAnother person was diagnosed with the disease and taken to hospital in Maryland .\nNational Institutes of Health says the patient is in fair condition after weeks of treatment .","id":"a38e72fed88684ec8d60dd5856282e999dc8c0ca"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Duke student has admitted to hanging a noose made of rope from a tree near a student union, university officials said Thursday. The prestigious private school didn't identify the student, citing federal privacy laws. In a news release, it said the student was no longer on campus and will face student conduct review. The student was identified during an investigation by campus police and the office of student affairs and admitted to placing the noose on the tree early Wednesday, the university said. Officials are still trying to determine if other people were involved. Criminal investigations into the incident are ongoing as well. Students and faculty members marched Wednesday afternoon chanting \"We are not afraid. We stand together,\" after pictures of the noose were passed around on social media. At a forum held on the steps of Duke Chapel, close to where the noose was discovered at 2 a.m., hundreds of people gathered. \"You came here for the reason that you want to say with me, 'This is no Duke we will accept. This is no Duke we want. This is not the Duke we're here to experience. And this is not the Duke we're here to create,' \" Duke President Richard Brodhead told the crowd. The incident is one of several recent racist events to affect college students. Last month a fraternity at the University of Oklahoma had its charter removed after a video surfaced showing members using the N-word and referring to lynching in a chant. Two students were expelled. In February, a noose was hung around the neck of a statue of a famous civil rights figure at the University of Mississippi. A statement issued by Duke said there was a previous report of hate speech directed at students on campus. In the news release, the vice president for student affairs called the noose incident a \"cowardly act.\" \"To whomever committed this hateful and stupid act, I just want to say that if your intent was to create fear, it will have the opposite effect,\" Larry Moneta said Wednesday. Duke University is a private college with about 15,000 students in Durham, North Carolina. CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"Student is no longer on Duke University campus and will face disciplinary review .\nSchool officials identified student during investigation and the person admitted to hanging the noose, Duke says .\nThe noose, made of rope, was discovered on campus about 2 a.m.","id":"c27cf1b136cc270023de959e7ab24638021bc43f"} -{"article":"(CNN)He's a blue chip college basketball recruit. She's a high school freshman with Down syndrome. At first glance Trey Moses and Ellie Meredith couldn't be more different. But all that changed Thursday when Trey asked Ellie to be his prom date. Trey -- a star on Eastern High School's basketball team in Louisville, Kentucky, who's headed to play college ball next year at Ball State -- was originally going to take his girlfriend to Eastern's prom. So why is he taking Ellie instead? \"She's great... she listens and she's easy to talk to\" he said. Trey made the prom-posal (yes, that's what they are calling invites to prom these days) in the gym during Ellie's P.E. class. Trina Helson, a teacher at Eastern, alerted the school's newspaper staff to the prom-posal and posted photos of Trey and Ellie on Twitter that have gone viral. She wasn't surpristed by Trey's actions. \"That's the kind of person Trey is,\" she said. To help make sure she said yes, Trey entered the gym armed with flowers and a poster that read \"Let's Party Like it's 1989,\" a reference to the latest album by Taylor Swift, Ellie's favorite singer. Trey also got the OK from Ellie's parents the night before via text. They were thrilled. \"You just feel numb to those moments raising a special needs child,\" said Darla Meredith, Ellie's mom. \"You first feel the need to protect and then to overprotect.\" Darla Meredith said Ellie has struggled with friendships since elementary school, but a special program at Eastern called Best Buddies had made things easier for her. She said Best Buddies cultivates friendships between students with and without developmental disabilities and prevents students like Ellie from feeling isolated and left out of social functions. \"I guess around middle school is when kids started to care about what others thought,\" she said, but \"this school, this year has been a relief.\" Trey's future coach at Ball State, James Whitford, said he felt great about the prom-posal, noting that Trey, whom he's known for a long time, often works with other kids . Trey's mother, Shelly Moses, was also proud of her son. \"It's exciting to bring awareness to a good cause,\" she said. \"Trey has worked pretty hard, and he's a good son.\" Both Trey and Ellie have a lot of planning to do. Trey is looking to take up special education as a college major, in addition to playing basketball in the fall. As for Ellie, she can't stop thinking about prom. \"Ellie can't wait to go dress shopping\" her mother said. \"Because I've only told about a million people!\" Ellie interjected.","highlights":"College-bound basketball star asks girl with Down syndrome to high school prom .\nPictures of the two during the \"prom-posal\" have gone viral .","id":"1b2cc634e2bfc6f2595260e7ed9b42f77ecbb0ce"} -{"article":"(CNN)Governments around the world are using the threat of terrorism -- real or perceived -- to advance executions, Amnesty International alleges in its annual report on the death penalty. \"The dark trend of governments using the death penalty in a futile attempt to tackle real or imaginary threats to state security and public safety was stark last year,\" said Salil Shetty, Amnesty's Secretary General in a release. \"It is shameful that so many states around the world are essentially playing with people's lives -- putting people to death for 'terrorism' or to quell internal instability on the ill-conceived premise of deterrence.\" The report, \"Death Sentences and Executions 2014,\" cites the example of Pakistan lifting a six-year moratorium on the execution of civilians following the horrific attack on a school in Peshawar in December. China is also mentioned, as having used the death penalty as a tool in its \"Strike Hard\" campaign against terrorism in the restive far-western province of Xinjiang. The annual report catalogs the use of state-sanctioned killing as a punitive measure across the globe, and this year's edition contains some mixed findings. On one hand, the number of executions worldwide has gone down by almost 22% on the previous year. At least 607 people were executed around the world in 2014, compared to 778 in 2013. Amnesty's figures do not include statistics on executions carried out in China, where information on the practice is regarded as a state secret. Belarus and Vietnam, too, do not release data on death penalty cases. \"The long-term trend is definitely positive -- we are seeing a decrease in the number of executions (worldwide),\" Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty's Director of Global Issues, told CNN. \"A number of countries are closer to abolition, and there are some signs that some countries will be abolitionist by 2015. (There are) signals of a world that is nearing abolition.\" While the report notes some encouraging signs, it also highlights a marked increase in the number of people sentenced to death in 2014. At least 2,466 people globally are confirmed to have been handed the sentence last year, an increase of 28% compared with 2013. The report notes that the spike in sentencing is attributable to mass-sentencing in countries including Egypt and Nigeria, \"against scores of people in some cases.\" The organization found \"positive developments\" worldwide, with most regions seeming to show reductions in the number of executions. Opinion: Sharp spike in death sentences . Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, saw a 28% fall in reported cases, and executions recorded in the Middle East and North Africa were down 23% compared to 2013. \"Even though we've highlighted some of the negative developments... I think we would always highlight that there are positive developments,\" Gaughran said. \"Across the board, with the exception of Europe and Central Asia there were fewer reports of executions in every region.\" The resumption of the use of capital punishment in Belarus -- the only country in Europe and Central Asia to execute people -- after a two year hiatus spoiled an near-universal decrease in countries using the death penalty by region. The United States has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the Americas to conduct executions, but the number of convicts put to death here fell slightly, from 39 in 2013 to 35 in 2014. The state of Washington also imposed a moratorium on executions last year. The U.S. remains one of the worst offenders for imposing capital punishment, with only Iran (289+), Iraq (61+), and Saudi Arabia (90+) executing more people in 2014. While figures are not available, Amnesty estimates that China also executes \"thousands\" of prisoners each year, \"more than the rest of the world put together.\" The report also highlights the imperfections in the judiciary processes that lead to many sentenced to death. \"In the majority of countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the death penalty was imposed after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards,\" the report stated. \"In 2014 Amnesty International raised particular concerns in relation to court proceedings in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.\" The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, last year stressed the need to move toward abolition of capital punishment. \"The taking of life is too irreversible for one human being to inflict it on another,\" he said, in marking World Day against Death Penalty in October. \"We must continue to argue strongly that the death penalty is unjust and incompatible with fundamental human rights.\" Amnesty estimates that at least 19,094 people were believed to be on death row at the end of 2014.","highlights":"Amnesty's annual death penalty report catalogs encouraging signs, but setbacks in numbers of those sentenced to death .\nOrganization claims that governments around the world are using the threat of terrorism to advance executions .\nThe number of executions worldwide has gone down by almost 22% compared with 2013, but death sentences up by 28% .","id":"e2706dce6cf26bc61b082438188fdb6e130d9e40"} -{"article":"(CNN)Andrew Getty, one of the heirs to billions of oil money, appears to have died of natural causes, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said. The coroner's preliminary assessment is there was no foul play involved in the death of Getty, grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, said Detective Meghan Aguilar. Andrew Getty, 47, had \"several health issues,\" Aguilar said, adding that an autopsy will be conducted. There is no criminal investigation underway, he said. Some medication had also been recovered from Getty's home, though investigators don't know whether Getty was taking it or what his medical history was, Ed Winter, assistant chief in the Los Angeles County coroner's office, told CNN affiliate KTLA Tuesday night. KTLA reported that Getty was found on his side near a bathroom in his home. Getty's parents, Ann and Gordon Getty, released a statement confirming their son's death and asking for privacy. Where the Getty family fortune came from . Gordon Getty is one of three living sons of J. Paul Getty, the oil baron who was thought to be the richest man in the world at the time of his death in 1976. Gordon Getty, 81, has a net worth of $2.1 billion, according to Forbes. One other son died in 1958 and another died in 1973. Gordon Getty spearheaded the controversial sale of Getty to Texaco for $10 billion in 1984. In its list of richest American families, Forbes estimated the Gettys' net worth to be about $5 billion. Court records show Andrew Getty had recently filed to get a restraining order against an ex-girlfriend. A hearing in the case had been scheduled for next week. In his request, Getty said he had been diagnosed with a serious medical condition in 2013. \"A rise in my blood pressure places me in grave risk of substantial and irreparable injury or death,\" he wrote in the petition. \"My doctors have advised that heated arguments can cause my blood pressure to rise dangerously.\" Andrew Getty had three brothers and three half-sisters. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Doug Criss, Janet DiGiacomo, Mark Mooney, Mike Love, Julie In and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Andrew Getty's death appears to be from natural causes, police say, citing coroner's early assessment .\nIn a petition for a restraining order, Getty had written he had a serious medical condition.\nPolice say this is not a criminal matter at this time .","id":"0d3c8c276d079c4c225f034c69aa024cdab7869d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Filipinos are being warned to be on guard for flash floods and landslides as tropical storm Maysak approached the Asian island nation Saturday. Just a few days ago, Maysak gained super typhoon status thanks to its sustained 150 mph winds. It has since lost a lot of steam as it has spun west in the Pacific Ocean. It's now classified as a tropical storm, according to the Philippine national weather service, which calls it a different name, Chedeng. It boasts steady winds of more than 70 mph (115 kph) and gusts up to 90 mph as of 5 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) Saturday. Still, that doesn't mean Maysak won't pack a wallop. Authorities took preemptive steps to keep people safe such as barring outdoor activities like swimming, surfing, diving and boating in some locales, as well as a number of precautionary evacuations. Gabriel Llave, a disaster official, told PNA that tourists who arrive Saturday in and around the coastal town of Aurora \"will not be accepted by the owners of hotels, resorts, inns and the like ... and will be advised to return to their respective places.\" Aldczar Aurelio, a meteorologist with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), said the storm was centered 200 miles southwest of Aurora province as of 5 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) and heading west at a 12.5 mph clip. It's expected to make landfall Sunday morning on the southeastern coast of Isabela province and be out of the Philippines by Monday. Ahead of the storm. Isabela Gov. Faustino Dry III warned Saturday that residents should act as if this will be \"no ordinary typhoon.\" Dry told PNA, \"We do not know what the impact will be once it will make landfall.\"","highlights":"Once a super typhoon, Maysak is now a tropical storm with 70 mph winds .\nIt could still cause flooding, landslides and other problems in the Philippines .","id":"6222f33c2c79b80be437335eeb3f488509e92cf5"} -{"article":"(CNN)For the first time in eight years, a TV legend returned to doing what he does best. Contestants told to \"come on down!\" on the April 1 edition of \"The Price Is Right\" encountered not host Drew Carey but another familiar face in charge of the proceedings. Instead, there was Bob Barker, who hosted the TV game show for 35 years before stepping down in 2007. Looking spry at 91, Barker handled the first price-guessing game of the show, the classic \"Lucky Seven,\" before turning hosting duties over to Carey, who finished up. Despite being away from the show for most of the past eight years, Barker didn't seem to miss a beat.","highlights":"Bob Barker returned to host \"The Price Is Right\" on Wednesday .\nBarker, 91, had retired as host in 2007 .","id":"2bd8ada1de6a7b02f59430cc82045eb8d29cf033"} -{"article":"London (CNN)A 19-year-old man was charged Wednesday with terror offenses after he was arrested as he returned to Britain from Turkey, London's Metropolitan Police said. Yahya Rashid, a UK national from northwest London, was detained at Luton airport on Tuesday after he arrived on a flight from Istanbul, police said. He's been charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism, and with engaging in conduct with the intention of assisting others to commit acts of terrorism. Both charges relate to the period between November 1 and March 31. Rashid is due to appear in Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, police said. CNN's Lindsay Isaac contributed to this report.","highlights":"London's Metropolitan Police say the man was arrested at Luton airport after landing on a flight from Istanbul .\nHe's been charged with terror offenses allegedly committed since the start of November .","id":"ee17dfb574feca82ccac5689595e47483bd23f12"} -{"article":"(CNN)Paul Walker is hardly the first actor to die during a production. But Walker's death in November 2013 at the age of 40 after a car crash was especially eerie given his rise to fame in the \"Fast and Furious\" film franchise. The release of \"Furious 7\" on Friday offers the opportunity for fans to remember -- and possibly grieve again -- the man that so many have praised as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. \"He was a person of humility, integrity, and compassion,\" military veteran Kyle Upham said in an email to CNN. Walker secretly paid for the engagement ring Upham shopped for with his bride. \"We didn't know him personally but this was apparent in the short time we spent with him. I know that we will never forget him and he will always be someone very special to us,\" said Upham. The actor was on break from filming \"Furious 7\" at the time of the fiery accident, which also claimed the life of the car's driver, Roger Rodas. Producers said early on that they would not kill off Walker's character, Brian O'Connor, a former cop turned road racer. Instead, the script was rewritten and special effects were used to finish scenes, with Walker's brothers, Cody and Caleb, serving as body doubles. There are scenes that will resonate with the audience -- including the ending, in which the filmmakers figured out a touching way to pay tribute to Walker while \"retiring\" his character. At the premiere Wednesday night in Hollywood, Walker's co-star and close friend Vin Diesel gave a tearful speech before the screening, saying \"This movie is more than a movie.\" \"You'll feel it when you see it,\" Diesel said. \"There's something emotional that happens to you, where you walk out of this movie and you appreciate everyone you love because you just never know when the last day is you're gonna see them.\" There have been multiple tributes to Walker leading up to the release. Diesel revealed in an interview with the \"Today\" show that he had named his newborn daughter after Walker. Social media has also been paying homage to the late actor. A week after Walker's death, about 5,000 people attended an outdoor memorial to him in Los Angeles. Most had never met him. Marcus Coleman told CNN he spent almost $1,000 to truck in a banner from Bakersfield for people to sign at the memorial. \"It's like losing a friend or a really close family member ... even though he is an actor and we never really met face to face,\" Coleman said. \"Sitting there, bringing his movies into your house or watching on TV, it's like getting to know somebody. It really, really hurts.\" Walker's younger brother Cody told People magazine that he was initially nervous about how \"Furious 7\" would turn out, but he is happy with the film. \"It's bittersweet, but I think Paul would be proud,\" he said. CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Furious 7\" pays tribute to star Paul Walker, who died during filming .\nVin Diesel: \"This movie is more than a movie\"\n\"Furious 7\" opens Friday .","id":"384175be1c8d41610fbeddbd9d9cb46e716e2529"} -{"article":"(CNN)Seventy years ago, Anne Frank died of typhus in a Nazi concentration camp at the age of 15. Just two weeks after her supposed death on March 31, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she had been imprisoned was liberated -- timing that showed how close the Jewish diarist had been to surviving the Holocaust. But new research released by the Anne Frank House shows that Anne and her older sister, Margot Frank, died at least a month earlier than previously thought. Researchers re-examined archives of the Red Cross, the International Training Service and the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, along with testimonies of survivors. They concluded that Anne and Margot probably did not survive to March 1945 -- contradicting the date of death which had previously been determined by Dutch authorities. In 1944, Anne and seven others hiding in the Amsterdam secret annex were arrested and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Anne Frank's final entry . That same year, Anne and Margot were separated from their mother and sent away to work as slave labor at the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. Days at the camp were filled with terror and dread, witnesses said. The sisters stayed in a section of the overcrowded camp with no lighting, little water and no latrine. They slept on lice-ridden straw and violent storms shredded the tents, according to the researchers. Like the other prisoners, the sisters endured long hours at roll call. Her classmate, Nannette Blitz, recalled seeing Anne there in December 1944: \"She was no more than a skeleton by then. She was wrapped in a blanket; she couldn't bear to wear her clothes anymore because they were crawling with lice.\" Listen to Anne Frank's friends describe her concentration camp experience . As the Russians advanced further, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp became even more crowded, bringing more disease. A deadly typhus outbreak caused thousands to die each day. Typhus is an infectious disease caused by lice that breaks out in places with poor hygiene. The disease causes high fever, chills and skin eruptions. \"Because of the lice infesting the bedstraw and her clothes, Anne was exposed to the main carrier of epidemic typhus for an extended period,\" museum researchers wrote. They concluded that it's unlikely the sisters survived until March, because witnesses at the camp said the sisters both had symptoms before February 7. \"Most deaths caused by typhus occur around twelve days after the first symptoms appear,\" wrote authors Erika Prins and Gertjan Broek. The exact dates of death for Anne and Margot remain unclear. Margot died before Anne. \"Anne never gave up hope,\" said Blitz, her friend. \"She was absolutely convinced she would survive.\" Her diary endures as one of the world's most popular books. Read more about Anne Frank's cousin, a keeper of her legacy .","highlights":"Museum: Anne Frank died earlier than previously believed .\nResearchers re-examined archives and testimonies of survivors .\nAnne and older sister Margot Frank are believed to have died in February 1945 .","id":"203886369feea77bbc35715e6d7e518b751f57de"} -{"article":"(CNN)A year ago Bloomberg published a story with the following headline: Mike Pence, a Koch Favorite, Mulls 2016 Run for President. The story ticked off items on Pence's conservative things-to-do list while also noting his close ties to the deep-pocketed Koch brothers, as well as other right-wing lobbying groups. Last August the Indiana governor was in Dallas for an Americans for Prosperity event; the group is backed by the conservative Koch brothers, and supported Gov. Pence's tax-slashing budget. Now, Pence is drawing huge heat for his controversial decision to sign a religious freedom law last week that opens the door to discrimination against gays and lesbians. Why would Pence ignore the pleas of Indiana's Chamber of Commerce as well as the Republican mayor of his state capital and sign such a bill? Because there's a very powerful wing of his party that wants a conservative as its 2016 candidate and this bill was Pence's way of shoring up his street cred. It is also the reason why Republican Jeb Bush, Pence's fellow White House hopeful, who is viewed as a little light in that category, was first to rush in to defend Pence and the law. One lesson here: Just because more than 70% of the country now lives in states where same-sex marriage is legal does not mean 70% of the country is happy about it. Backlash aside, the fact is Pence has scored a lot of points this week among ultraconservatives. And while that may not be enough to get him over this political hump, the very public debate that now embroils him \u2014 and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and likely 14 other states considering similar proposals this year -- is more than enough to drag the entire Republican field farther to the right than the party had hoped. Pence: 'Was I expecting this kind of backlash? Heavens no.' For there is no way a Republican can get through the pending primary without denouncing LGBT rights, which unfortunately will turn numerous Americans into single-issue voters. I foolishly hoped the issue of LGBT rights would be a bit player in the 2016 general election, overshadowed by foreign policy and the economy. Instead it looks like it's going to be dragged down to a replay of Pat Buchanan's \"cultural war\" speech, during which he told the 1992 Republican National Convention: \"We stand with (George H.W. Bush) against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women\" and later followed with \"There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself. For this war is for the soul of America.\" Progressives may enjoy watching Pence's temporary fall from grace, but his policy rhetoric has echoed that of 2016 hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has indicated a federal ban on same-sex marriage is not off the GOP table. And even if you think neither Pence nor Bush nor Cruz will win the nomination, someone has to. In light of that, listen to conservative former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a potential 2016 candidate describing conservatives' discomfort with same-sex marriage: \"It's like asking someone who's Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli.\" Or Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal: \"I certainly will support Ted Cruz and others that are talking about making ... a constitutional amendment to allow states to continue to define marriage.\" Or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has a long history of fighting against same-sex marriage and civil unions. And Ben Carson said jail turns people gay, so there's that. Remember: Pence didn't act alone. He only signed a bill that first passed muster with other elected officials. In fact, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, \"the Indiana RFRA [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] is one of 24 introduced in 15 states this year that could allow someone to use their religious beliefs to discriminate. Numerous other bills specifically single out the LGBT community for unequal treatment.\" Who supports, denounces Indiana law? Gallup Polls may suggest voters nationwide are more gay-friendly, but the trend on the state level tells a different story. Perhaps we're witnessing the final gasp of long-ago biases. Or maybe those biases are having a rebirth we had underestimated. Former Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office, said he believes Republicans want the Supreme Court to rule in favor of same-sex marriage to provide political cover in the GOP primary. \"We're winning,\" he told a crowd in Chicago recently while promoting his latest book. I guess if you look at where the country was on LGBT issues 10 years ago, we definitely are. That's assuming you are part of the \"we\" who believe LGBT people should have the same rights as their heterosexual\/cisgender counterparts. But as the situation in Indiana has shown, \"winning\" should not be mistaken for having \"won.\" For it is doubtful that a candidate will be able to avoid taking a position on the wave of so-called \"religious freedom\" bills snaking through red-state legislatures. Or to sidestep the topic of a constitutional amendment when it's raised in a debate or at a campaign stop, especially with Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate. Pence, and to a lesser extent, Jeb Bush, may be toxic now but America has a short attention span. More importantly, they are not alone. Frank said when progressives get angry they march in the streets, and when conservatives get mad they march to the polls. If that holds true in 2016, \"winning\" is going to feel very strange.","highlights":"LZ: Indiana law pushing back LGBT rights, and other states' anti-LGBT moves, bow to far right wing that GOP candidates need for 2016 .\nCruz, Huckabee, Jindal, Carson, Walker are reviving culture wars, he says. Equality for LGBT has not yet \"won\" in America .","id":"1dd00c89d71a5611797bb34da8a6eada8f058405"} -{"article":"(CNN)If you're famous and performing the American national anthem, be prepared to become a national hero or a national disgrace. Facts are facts. Just ask Vince, Whitney, Roseanne, Jimi and Michael. M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce's Vince Neil reminded us again this week of the dangers of tackling \"The Star-Spangled Banner.\" Sure, he can shred it on \"Girls, Girls, Girls\" and \"Dr. Feelgood,\" but this is a different story -- a completely different story. To say Neil butchered the song before the Las Vegas Outlaws Arena Football League game would be unkind to those in the profession. There's less carnage when butchers are done with their work. The late Whitney Houston set the modern standard for the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV. In the early stages of the Gulf War in 1991, a patriotic America saluted her performance. Just six months earlier, comedian Roseanne Barr may have established the low-water mark. The crowd at the San Diego Padres game booed her rendition and President George H. W. Bush called it \"disgraceful.\" There's nothing quite like getting the presidential thumbs down. One of the most controversial and beloved versions of \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" comes from 1969. Guitar slinger Jimi Hendrix inflamed mainstream America with his psychedelic take on the national anthem to the delight of the Woodstock generation. And then there's Michael Bolton's version. Overly wrought songs are his specialty and he doesn't disappoint in that department when he sings at the American League Championship Series in 2003. Bolton belts it out, but there's one little problem -- the words. Can anyone say crib notes?","highlights":"Singing the national anthem is a risky proposition .\nWhitney Houston nailed it; Roseanne Barr destroyed it .","id":"eeafdc8b2d8130cabda5aafe352eab1198d0b9f8"} -{"article":"(CNN)As goes Walmart, so goes the nation? Everyone from Apple CEO Tim Cook to the head of the NCAA slammed religious freedom laws being considered in several states this week, warning that they would open the door to discrimination against gay and lesbian customers. But it was the opposition from Walmart, the ubiquitous retailer that dots the American landscape, that perhaps resonated most deeply, providing the latest evidence of growing support for gay rights in the heartland. Walmart's staunch criticism of a religious freedom law in its home state of Arkansas came after the company said in February it would boost pay for about 500,000 workers well above the federal minimum wage. Taken together, the company is emerging as a bellwether for shifting public opinion on hot-button political issues that divide conservatives and liberals. And some prominent Republicans are urging the party to take notice. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who famously called on the GOP to \"be the party of Sam's Club, not just the country club,\" told CNN that Walmart's actions \"foreshadow where the Republican Party will need to move.\" \"The Republican Party will have to better stand for\" ideas on helping the middle class, said Pawlenty, the head of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington lobbying group for the finance industry. The party's leaders must be \"willing to put forward ideas that will help modest income workers, such as a reasonable increase in the minimum wage, and prohibit discrimination in things such as jobs, housing, public accommodation against gays and lesbians.\" Walmart, which employs more than 50,000 people in Arkansas, emerged victorious on Wednesday. Hours after the company's CEO, Doug McMillon, called on Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto the bill, the governor held a news conference and announced he would not sign the legislation unless its language was fixed. Walmart's opposition to the religious freedom law once again puts the company at odds with many in the Republican Party, which the company's political action committee has tended to support. In 2004, the Walmart PAC gave around $2 million to Republicans versus less than $500,000 to Democrats, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. That gap has grown less pronounced in recent years. In 2014, the PAC spent about $1.3 million to support Republicans and around $970,000 for Democrats. It has been a gradual transformation for Walmart. In 2011, the company bulked up its nondiscrimination policies by adding protections for gender identity. Two years later, the company announced that it would start offering health insurance benefits to same-sex partners of employees starting in 2014. Retail experts say Walmart's evolution on these issues over the years is partly a reflection of its diverse consumer base, as well as a recognition of the country's increasingly progressive views of gay equality (support for same-sex marriage is at a new high of 59%, according to a recent Wall Street Journal\/NBC News poll). \"It's easy for someone like a Chick-fil-A to take a really polarizing position,\" said Dwight Hill, a partner at the retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle. \"But in the world of the largest retailer in the world, that's very different.\" Hill added: Same-sex marriage, \"while divisive, it's becoming more common place here within the U.S., and the businesses by definition have to follow the trend of their customer.\" The backlash over the religious freedom measures in Indiana and Arkansas this week is shining a bright light on the broader business community's overwhelming support for workplace policies that promote gay equality. After Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, signed his state's religious freedom bill into law, CEOs of companies big and small across the country threatened to pull out of the Hoosier state. The resistance came from business leaders of all political persuasions, including Bill Oesterle, CEO of the business-rating website Angie's List and a one-time campaign manager for former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Oesterle announced that his company would put plans on hold to expand its footprint in Indianapolis in light of the state's passage of the religious freedom act. NASCAR, scheduled to hold a race in Indianapolis this summer, also spoke out against the Indiana law. \"What we're seeing over the past week is a tremendous amount of support from the business community who are standing up and are sending that equality is good for business and discrimination is bad for business,\" said Jason Rahlan, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. The debate has reached presidential politics. National Republicans are being forced to walk the fine line of protecting religious liberties and supporting nondiscrimination. Likely GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush initially backed Indiana's religious freedom law and Pence, but moderated his tone a few days later. The former Florida governor said Wednesday that Indiana could have taken a \"better\" and \"more consensus-oriented approach.\" \"By the end of the week, Indiana will be in the right place,\" Bush said, a reference to Pence's promise this week to fix his state's law in light of the widespread backlash. Others in the GOP field are digging in. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the only officially declared Republican presidential candidate, said Wednesday that he had no interest in second-guessing Pence and lashed out at the business community for opposing the law. \"I think it is unfortunate that large companies today are listening to the extreme left wing agenda that is driven by an aggressive gay marriage agenda,\" Cruz said. Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who previously served on Walmart's board of directors, called on Hutchinson to veto the Arkansas bill, saying it would \"permit unfair discrimination\" against the LGBT community. Jay Chesshir, CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce in Arkansas, welcomed Hutchinson's pledge on Wednesday to seek changes to his state's bill. He said businesses are not afraid to wade into a politically controversial debate to ensure inclusive workplace policies. \"When it comes to culture and quality of life, businesses are extremely interested in engaging in debate simply because it impacts its more precious resource -- and that's its people,\" Chesshir said. \"Therefore, when issues arise that have negative or positive impact on those things, then the business community will again speak and speak loudly.\"","highlights":"While Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson was weighing an Arkansas religious freedom bill, Walmart voiced its opposition .\nWalmart and other high-profile businesses are showing their support for gay and lesbian rights .\nTheir stance puts them in conflict with socially conservative Republicans, traditionally seen as allies .","id":"dc833f8b55e381011ce23f89ea909b9a141b5a66"} -{"article":"(CNN)On May 28, 2014, some 7,000 people gathered in a stadium in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. But they had not come to watch the local football team or any other grand sporting event. Instead, the authorities paraded scores of prisoners dressed in orange jumpsuits. Armed soldiers guarded the exits. In the patently unfair, open air trial that followed, 55 people were found guilty of a range of offenses linked to violent attacks in the region and jailed. Three were sentenced to death. The public mass sentencing was part a China's \"Strike Hard\" campaign against unrest in Xinjiang, a campaign the government claims was launched to combat \"terrorism\" and \"separatism.\" But it was also indicative of a trend that was starkly evident last year around the world -- governments using the death penalty in a misguided, and often cynical, attempt to tackle crime and terrorism. Today, Amnesty International releases its annual review of the death penalty worldwide. Much of it makes for grim reading. In Pakistan, the government lifted a six-year moratorium on the execution of civilians in the wake of the horrific Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December. More than 60 people have been put to death since, and the government has threatened to send thousands more death row prisoners to the gallows. Iran and Iraq executed people for \"terrorism,\" and other countries expanded the scope of capital crimes in their penal codes. In a year when abhorrent summary executions by armed groups were branded on the global consciousness as never before, governments are themselves resorting to more executions in a knee-jerk reaction to terrorism. Other countries made use of executions in similarly flawed attempts to address -- or appear to address -- crime rates. Jordan ended an eight-year moratorium in December, putting 11 murder convicts to death, with the government saying it was a move to end a surge in violent crime. In Indonesia, authorities announced plans to execute mainly drug traffickers to tackle a public safety \"national emergency.\" Six people have already been executed this year. A sharp spike in death sentences recorded in 2014 -- up more than 500 on the previous year -- can also be attributed to governments using the death penalty as a political tool. The rise was largely because of developments in Egypt and Nigeria, where courts imposed hundreds of death sentences in the context of internal political instability or crime and armed conflict. The simple fact is that governments using the death penalty to tackle crime and security threats are deceiving themselves or the public or both. There is no evidence that the threat of execution is more of a deterrent to crime than a prison sentence, as United Nations and other studies have repeatedly confirmed. It is high time that world leaders stop using the death penalty as an easy way out when times get tough. At Amnesty International, we have campaigned for an end to the death penalty for decades. Thankfully, most of the world now appears to agree with us. The numbers speak for themselves. In 1945 when the United Nations was founded, only eight countries had abolished the death penalty. Today, 140 states are abolitionist in law or practice. Last year, we recorded executions in 22 countries, down by almost a half from 20 years ago. Despite the troubling developments we recorded last year, there was still much good news to be found. The number of executions recorded around the world dropped significantly in 2014 compared with the previous year, from 778 to 607. This number does not include China, where more people are put to death than the rest of the world put together, but with death penalty statistics treated as a state secret, the true figure is impossible to determine. Executions were recorded in only three countries in sub-Saharan Africa -- Equatorial Guinea, Somalia and Sudan -- and the number of people put to death went down by more than a quarter. The Americas continued to be execution-free, apart from the United States. Those governments that still execute need to realize that they are on the wrong side of history. They must join the vast majority of countries which have dropped the ultimate cruel punishment. Fighting for an end to the death penalty remains an uphill task, but all of us must try to make the world free of this punishment. With determination, I know that we can achieve this goal.","highlights":"Amnesty International releases its annual review of the death penalty worldwide; much of it makes for grim reading .\nSalil Shetty: Countries that use executions to deal with problems are on the wrong side of history .","id":"c222979bd1cfbc7d3ff821e9c738e3dbd29b14f4"} -{"article":"Marseille, France (CNN)The French prosecutor leading an investigation into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 insisted Wednesday that he was not aware of any video footage from on board the plane. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin told CNN that \"so far no videos were used in the crash investigation.\" He added, \"A person who has such a video needs to immediately give it to the investigators.\" Robin's comments follow claims by two magazines, German daily Bild and French Paris Match, of a cell phone video showing the harrowing final seconds from on board Germanwings Flight 9525 as it crashed into the French Alps. All 150 on board were killed. Paris Match and Bild reported that the video was recovered from a phone at the wreckage site. The two publications described the supposed video, but did not post it on their websites. The publications said that they watched the video, which was found by a source close to the investigation. \"One can hear cries of 'My God' in several languages,\" Paris Match reported. \"Metallic banging can also be heard more than three times, perhaps of the pilot trying to open the cockpit door with a heavy object. Towards the end, after a heavy shake, stronger than the others, the screaming intensifies. Then nothing.\" \"It is a very disturbing scene,\" said Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Bild online. An official with France's accident investigation agency, the BEA, said the agency is not aware of any such video. Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Menichini, a French Gendarmerie spokesman in charge of communications on rescue efforts around the Germanwings crash site, told CNN that the reports were \"completely wrong\" and \"unwarranted.\" Cell phones have been collected at the site, he said, but that they \"hadn't been exploited yet.\" Menichini said he believed the cell phones would need to be sent to the Criminal Research Institute in Rosny sous-Bois, near Paris, in order to be analyzed by specialized technicians working hand-in-hand with investigators. But none of the cell phones found so far have been sent to the institute, Menichini said. Asked whether staff involved in the search could have leaked a memory card to the media, Menichini answered with a categorical \"no.\" Reichelt told \"Erin Burnett: Outfront\" that he had watched the video and stood by the report, saying Bild and Paris Match are \"very confident\" that the clip is real. He noted that investigators only revealed they'd recovered cell phones from the crash site after Bild and Paris Match published their reports. \"That is something we did not know before. ... Overall we can say many things of the investigation weren't revealed by the investigation at the beginning,\" he said. What was mental state of Germanwings co-pilot? German airline Lufthansa confirmed Tuesday that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had battled depression years before he took the controls of Germanwings Flight 9525, which he's accused of deliberately crashing last week in the French Alps. Lubitz told his Lufthansa flight training school in 2009 that he had a \"previous episode of severe depression,\" the airline said Tuesday. Email correspondence between Lubitz and the school discovered in an internal investigation, Lufthansa said, included medical documents he submitted in connection with resuming his flight training. The announcement indicates that Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, knew of Lubitz's battle with depression, allowed him to continue training and ultimately put him in the cockpit. Lufthansa, whose CEO Carsten Spohr previously said Lubitz was 100% fit to fly, described its statement Tuesday as a \"swift and seamless clarification\" and said it was sharing the information and documents -- including training and medical records -- with public prosecutors. Spohr traveled to the crash site Wednesday, where recovery teams have been working for the past week to recover human remains and plane debris scattered across a steep mountainside. He saw the crisis center set up in Seyne-les-Alpes, laid a wreath in the village of Le Vernet, closer to the crash site, where grieving families have left flowers at a simple stone memorial. Menichini told CNN late Tuesday that no visible human remains were left at the site but recovery teams would keep searching. French President Francois Hollande, speaking Tuesday, said that it should be possible to identify all the victims using DNA analysis by the end of the week, sooner than authorities had previously suggested. In the meantime, the recovery of the victims' personal belongings will start Wednesday, Menichini said. Among those personal belongings could be more cell phones belonging to the 144 passengers and six crew on board. Check out the latest from our correspondents . The details about Lubitz's correspondence with the flight school during his training were among several developments as investigators continued to delve into what caused the crash and Lubitz's possible motive for downing the jet. A Lufthansa spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday that Lubitz had a valid medical certificate, had passed all his examinations and \"held all the licenses required.\" Earlier, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Dusseldorf, Christoph Kumpa, said medical records reveal Lubitz suffered from suicidal tendencies at some point before his aviation career and underwent psychotherapy before he got his pilot's license. Kumpa emphasized there's no evidence suggesting Lubitz was suicidal or acting aggressively before the crash. Investigators are looking into whether Lubitz feared his medical condition would cause him to lose his pilot's license, a European government official briefed on the investigation told CNN on Tuesday. While flying was \"a big part of his life,\" the source said, it's only one theory being considered. Another source, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, also told CNN that authorities believe the primary motive for Lubitz to bring down the plane was that he feared he would not be allowed to fly because of his medical problems. Lubitz's girlfriend told investigators he had seen an eye doctor and a neuropsychologist, both of whom deemed him unfit to work recently and concluded he had psychological issues, the European government official said. But no matter what details emerge about his previous mental health struggles, there's more to the story, said Brian Russell, a forensic psychologist. \"Psychology can explain why somebody would turn rage inward on themselves about the fact that maybe they weren't going to keep doing their job and they're upset about that and so they're suicidal,\" he said. \"But there is no mental illness that explains why somebody then feels entitled to also take that rage and turn it outward on 149 other people who had nothing to do with the person's problems.\" Germanwings crash compensation: What we know . Who was the captain of Germanwings Flight 9525? CNN's Margot Haddad reported from Marseille and Pamela Brown from Dusseldorf, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, Pamela Boykoff, Antonia Mortensen, Sandrine Amiel and Anna-Maja Rappard contributed to this report.","highlights":"Marseille prosecutor says \"so far no videos were used in the crash investigation\" despite media reports .\nJournalists at Bild and Paris Match are \"very confident\" the video clip is real, an editor says .\nAndreas Lubitz had informed his Lufthansa training school of an episode of severe depression, airline says .","id":"469c6ac05092ca5997728c9dfc19f9ab6b936e40"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, California televangelist and founder of the television ministry \"Hour of Power,\" died Thursday, according to his family. He was 88 years old. Schuller, also the founder of Crystal Cathedral megachurch, had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in August 2013, a release from \"Hour of Power\" said. \"My father-in-law passed away peacefully early this morning. He was a great Dad and a great man of God,\" said Schuller's daughter-in-law, Donna Schuller, in a Twitter message. Schuller's life followed an almost Shakespearean arc. He was born in a Iowa farmhouse without running water and longed to preach from his earliest days. In his autobiography, \"Prayer: My Soul's Adventure with God,\" he described standing alone by a river and picturing himself delivering sermons to a rapt congregation. After attending a Hope College and Western Theological Seminary in Michigan, he met his wife of more than 60 years, Arvella, while preaching at her church (she was the organist). With their young family in tow, the Schullers caravanned west to California, where he rented a drive-in theater and preached from the roof of the snack bar. It was beneath the dignity of Christian ministry, some local pastors huffed. The \"passion pits\" where teenagers necked was no place for the gospel. Schuller was undeterred, and he quickly outgrew the drive-in. He called the explosive growth of his tiny congregation a \"miracle,\" though his many mainstream critics had other names for it. His confident, breezy version of Christianity -- too breezy, by some estimations -- drew hordes of seekers and lapsed Christians who were put off by the hellfire fulminations of many post-War American preachers. Schuller sold a softer, gentler message, which borrowed heavily, he acknowledged, from the father of the feel-good gospel, Norman Vincent Peale. He preached not to convert or condemn people, but to encourage them, a sentiment he called \"possibility thinking.\" People loved it. \"Evangelicalism at its best wants to be innovative and reach people,\" said Timothy Larsen, a professor of Christian thought at Wheaton College in Illinois. \"And Schuller was a master at that.\" \"What he got right is that the gospel is good news,\" Larsen continued. \"And he preached an uplifting message about personal transformation and uplift and hope.\" Some of Schuller's favored phrases, though, struck others as cornpone Christianity. \"Turn your hurt into a halo?\" said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Dartmouth College, citing one such phrase. \"That's pretty weak tea.\" Still, Balmer gives Schuller some credit. \"It may be bad theology, but it's brilliant marketing.\" In 1970, Schuller began broadcasting \"Hour of Power,\" believed to be one of the first, if not the very first, Sunday service to be shown regularly on television. With his genial smile, priestly robes and gray hair, he looked and talked like a guy who wanted nothing more than to see his flock succeed. The show, which ran for decades, reached millions, making Schuller a televangelist before the term became tarnished by the sins of his many successors. Schuller's crowning achievement, at least architecturally, still stands in Orange County, California, though it is now owned by the Roman Catholic Church. The Crystal Cathedral, a great gleaming edifice with 10,000 glass panels, gave worshipers a look at the clouds that house the heavens, while Schuller preached in the pulpit below. The message was clear to many: The road to the former ran through the latter. During the 1980s and 1990s, Schuller's star continued to rise, with presidents stopping by the Crystal Cathedral -- often during campaigns, it should be said -- and future megachurch pastors like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels seeking his advice. As Schuller aged, though, his family was beset by a succession scandal straight from the pages of \"King Lear.\" He tried to install his only son, Bobby Jr., as pastor of Crystal Cathedral. But the preaching styles of father and son were too different for the congregation -- measured at times at 10,000 strong -- to countenance. Bobby Schuller Jr. left \"Hour of Power\" and the pulpit at Crystal Cathedral after a short time. As the family searched for a new successor and tussled over finances, viewers and donations to the church and its television show dropped precipitously. Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy in 2010, citing debts of more than $43 million, according to The Associated Press. Schuller's empire, which once soared as high as his glassy cathedral, had fallen to dust. Eventually, Schuller's grandson, also named Bobby, took over \"Hour of Power,\" though at a different church. In a statement on Thursday, the younger Schuller recalled standing atop Crystal Cathedral's 12-story Tower of Hope with his grandfather as they surveyed the surrounding landscape. \"You could see the whole world from there,\" he said. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Stella Chan reported from Los Angeles.","highlights":"The Rev. Robert Schuller, 88, had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2013 .\nHis TV show, \"Hour of Power,\" was enormously popular in the 1970s and 1980s .","id":"88e7dac40f3e6c159e4edc0747d0cc0f50886fbb"} -{"article":"(CNN)Michele Bachmann is comparing President Obama to the co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings flight. \"With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight - a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks,\" the Minnesota Republican and former representative wrote in a Facebook comment posted March 31. \"After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?\" Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, is accused by authorities of deliberately crashing the plane in the French Alps. He died in the crash along with 149 other crew and passengers. The motive of the March 24 crash is under investigation, though investigators are looking in to whether Lubitz feared a medical condition would cause him to lose his pilot's license. Many comments posted on her Facebook page blasted the former representative. Melissa Coca wrote, \"Comparing this tragedy to anything is moronic and despicable.\" Michael J Pristash wrote, \"Your allusion is so inappropriate and divisive, not to mention disrespectful on so many levels. Shame on you.\" Some also accused her of taking desperate measures to stay in the public eye. Lynda Anderson wrote, \"Posting outrageous things in a pathetic attempt to stay relevant?\" Negotiations are coming down to the wire between Iran, the United States and other nations on restricting Tehran's nuclear program to prevent the ability to develop an atomic bomb. One deadline passed Tuesday, but there is a June 30 deadline for a comprehensive deal -- with all technical and diplomatic impasses fully worked out. Bachmann is no stranger to voicing her opinion on the President's dealing with Iran, personally telling him to \"bomb Iran\" during the 2014 White House Christmas Party. \"I turned to the president and I said, something to the effect of, 'Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, because if you don't, Iran will have a nuclear weapon on your watch and the course of world history will change,'\" she told the Washington Free Beacon. The congresswoman, who sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, said Obama had a \"condescending smile on his face and laughed at me.\" She said he told her: \"Well Michele, it's just not that easy.\"","highlights":"Former GOP representative compares President Obama to Andreas Lubitz .\nBachmann said with possible Iran deal, Obama will fly \"entire nation into the rocks\"\nReaction on social media? She was blasted by Facebook commenters .","id":"ec4b5fef725b4cc81545689603ff84c8e19bd6dc"} -{"article":"Norfolk, Virginia (CNN)The second mate of the Houston Express probably couldn't believe what he was seeing. Hundreds of miles from land there was a small boat nearby. At first it looked abandoned. It was in bad shape, listing to one side. The crew of the 1,000-foot long container ship thought it was a yacht that had wrecked. Incredibly, as they got closer, they saw there was a man on it, signaling for help. \"He was moving, walking around, waving to us and in surprisingly good condition,\" Capt. Thomas Grenz told CNN by phone Friday. That man, Louis Jordan, 37, had an amazing story. He'd been drifting on the 35-foot Pearson sailboat for more than two months since leaving Conway, South Carolina, to fish in the ocean. Just a few days into his trip, a storm capsized his boat and broke his mast. One of his shoulders was broken, too, so he couldn't fix the boat right away. Eventually he was able to rig a makeshift mast and sail, but he could make little headway against the currents. \"It took so long,\" Jordan said. \"It moved so slowly.\" The boat capsized two more times before he was rescued, according to Jordan. His father, Frank Jordan, told CNN's Jim Sciutto that he was expecting his son to look different. \"He looked good. Hadn't lost too much weight. He wasn't badly sunburned like I thought he probably would be,\" he said. Lost at sea for 66 days . After his food and water ran out, it became an issue of survival. Collecting fresh water was a nightmare for Jordan. The weather wouldn't cooperate. Records show there were more than a dozen storms off the coast of the Carolinas during the time he was missing. The precipitation came at night during harsh conditions. \"I had tried to collect (rain)water ... but every time the waves would splash into the boat,\" Jordan said. \"The waves would put saltwater into my freshwater and it tasted bad. \"Finally the conditions were right. I filled up my water tank, which is 25 gallons. I filled up a bucket.\" Then there was the issue of food. The fish weren't cooperating, but after a while Jordan learned they were attracted to his laundry, which he would put out to sea for a rinse. The fish would swim in and out of his clothes and he could easily scoop them up with a hand net, he said. Jordan came ashore Thursday evening. CNN affiliate WAVY in Norfolk, Virginia, reported that he was able to walk from the helicopter into Sentara Norfolk General Hospital about 7:30 p.m. Coast Guard officials have said they have found no reason to doubt Jordan's incredible story. They noted that his father contacted them January 29 to report his son and his boat missing. Frank Jordan addressed the skepticism about his son's appearance, saying the boat stayed afloat and upright most of the time. His son spent most of his days in the cabin, out of the sun. Frank Jordan said it was obvious when the Jordans met at the hospital Friday morning that his normally low-key and private son had been through an ordeal. \"I know he went through what he went through,\" Frank Jordan said. Jordan is an unemployed truck driver who lived on his boat at a marina in Conway. He had free rent and free food in the river, he said. But when it became difficult to catch dinner, he took off for the ocean in hopes he would land some bigger fish. Frank Jordan told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday that he had worried about his son, who is an inexperienced sailor, but he held hope because his son had a good boat. And he had the strength to make it. \"He's got a very strong constitution and (is strong) not only physically, but spiritually,\" Frank Jordan said. \"And he told me on the phone that he was praying the whole time, so I believe that sustained him a great deal.\" Rescue swimmer Kyle McCollum was the first to care for Jordan on the flight back to land. \"You would expect sunburns, severe sunburn, blisters maybe ... a bunch of medical issues that could possibly be wrong with him,\" he said. \"But for him to be in his current state was pretty amazing.\" Grenz was also surprised by Jordan's condition, physically and mentally. The rescued sailor knew almost exactly what day it was, remarkable for someone who had been on the water for more than 60 days. Jordan was dehydrated and said he was hungry. \"We took him to a rescue boat,\" the container ship captain said. \"He was given water and pea soup to gain some power again.\" Derriel Morris, a neighbor at the Bucksport Plantation Marina & RV Resort called Jordan a nice guy who loved his 47-year-old boat, named \"Angel.\" Morris said: \"It was immaculate, it was gorgeous, beautifully painted. I mean it looked like a brand new sailboat.\" Morris told CNN affiliate WPDE that one day in January he was going to the store and Jordan asked him to bring back some coffee creamer. But when he returned to the marina, Jordan had slipped away. \"There was no shore line, no hose; it was like he was never there,\" Morris told the station. After he disappeared others who also live there held a candlelight ceremony. The marina's manager, Jeff Weeks, told WPDE that Jordan is expected to be back at Buscksport next week. Tales of people who cheated death after days, weeks adrift .","highlights":"Father: \"I know he went through what he went through\"\nLouis Jordan was found on his sailboat, which was listing and in bad shape, rescuer says .\nHe appears to be in good shape, physically and mentally .","id":"ffff11a2f44d731cd80c86819a89b7e227581415"} -{"article":"(CNN)The United States and its negotiating partners reached a very strong framework agreement with Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday that limits Iran's nuclear program in such a way as to effectively block it from building a nuclear weapon. Expect pushback anyway, if the recent past is any harbinger. Just last month, in an attempt to head off such an agreement, House Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to preemptively blast it before Congress, and 47 senators sent a letter to the Iranian leadership warning them away from a deal. The debate that has already begun since the announcement of the new framework will likely result in more heat than light. It will not be helped by the gathering swirl of dubious assumptions and doubtful assertions. Let us address some of these: . The most misleading assertion, despite universal rejection by experts, is that the negotiations' objective at the outset was the total elimination of any nuclear program in Iran. That is the position of Netanyahu and his acolytes in the U.S. Congress. But that is not and never was the objective. If it had been, there would have been no Iranian team at the negotiating table. Rather, the objective has always been to structure an agreement or series of agreements so that Iran could not covertly develop a nuclear arsenal before the United States and its allies could respond. The new framework has exceeded expectations in achieving that goal. It would reduce Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile, cut by two-thirds its number of installed centrifuges and implement a rigorous inspection regime. Another dubious assumption of opponents is that the Iranian nuclear program is a covert weapons program. Despite sharp accusations by some in the United States and its allies, Iran denies having such a program, and U.S. intelligence contends that Iran has not yet made the decision to build a nuclear weapon. Iran's continued cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections is further evidence on this point, and we'll know even more about Iran's program in the coming months and years because of the deal. In fact, the inspections provisions that are part of this agreement are designed to protect against any covert action by the Iranians. What's more, the rhetoric of some members of Congress has implied that the negotiations have been between only the United States and Iran (i.e., the 47 senators' letter warning that a deal might be killed by Congress or a future president). This of course is not the case. The talks were between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia) plus Germany, dubbed the P5+1. While the United States has played a leading role in the effort, it negotiated the terms alongside its partners. If the agreement reached by the P5+1 is rejected by Congress, it could result in an unraveling of the sanctions on Iran and threaten NATO cohesion in other areas. Another questionable assertion is that this agreement contains a sunset clause, after which Iran will be free to do as it pleases. Again, this is not the case. Some of the restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities, such as uranium enrichment, will be eased or eliminated over time, as long as 15 years. But most importantly, the framework agreement includes Iran's ratification of the Additional Protocol, which allows IAEA inspectors expanded access to nuclear sites both declared and nondeclared. This provision will be permanent. It does not sunset. Thus, going forward, if Iran decides to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, monitors will be able to detect such a move in a matter of days and alert the U.N. Security Council. Many in Congress have said that the agreement should be a formal treaty requiring the Senate to \"advise and consent.\" But the issue is not suited for a treaty. Treaties impose equivalent obligations on all signatories. For example, the New START treaty limits Russia and the United States to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads. But any agreement with Iran will not be so balanced. The restrictions and obligations in the final framework agreement will be imposed almost exclusively on Iran. The P5+1 are obligated only to ease and eventually remove most but not all economic sanctions, which were imposed as leverage to gain this final deal. Finally some insist that any agreement must address Iranian missile programs, human rights violations or support for Hamas or Hezbollah. As important as these issues are, and they must indeed be addressed, they are unrelated to the most important aim of a nuclear deal: preventing a nuclear Iran. To include them in the negotiations would be a poison pill. This agreement should be judged on its merits and on how it affects the security of our negotiating partners and allies, including Israel. Those judgments should be fact-based, not based on questionable assertions or dubious assumptions.","highlights":"Richard Klass: Iran framework agreement on nukes is strong, but opponents will cast doubts on this and try to obscure its facts .\nHe says the deal would cut uranium stockpile, centrifuges, implement rigorous inspections; it should be judged on merits, not disinformation .","id":"c7caf9181c2e94a79d9102da6e11cde48c880aa5"} -{"article":"Los Angeles (CNN)It's more than just one state's internal problem. The historic California drought hurts the rest of the union, too. That's because California is a breadbasket to the nation, growing more than a third of its vegetables and nearly two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. Here's why we should heed the ongoing drought in the most populous state, a slowly expanding natural disaster now in its fourth year that this week prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to announce a mandatory 25% cutback in water consumption in all cities. In 2014, one expert predicted consumers would pay more for some groceries because of the California drought. He was often right, according to statistics gathered by Timothy Richards, agribusiness professor at Arizona State University. Prices rose last year for these items on your kitchen table: . \u2022 Berries rose in price by about 80 cents per clamshell to $3.88 . \u2022 Broccoli by 11 cents per pound to $1.89. \u2022 Grapes by 64 cents a pound to $3.06 . \u2022 Melons by 24 cents a pound to $1.23. \u2022 Packaged salad by 23 cents a bag to $2.91. \u2022 Peppers by 26 cents a pound to $2.39. Though fruits and vegetable prices fell in February, overall prices are expected to rise this year, because of inflation, U.S. Department of Agriculture economist Annemarie Kuhns said. Fresh fruit prices are projected to rise between 2.5% and 3.5%, and vegetables between 2% and 3%, close to historical average increases, Kuhns said. Whether the California drought will affect food prices again this year is unknown, thanks to a strong dollar. The greenback's strength allows producers to import crops that may be withering under the absence of West Coast rain or other misfortunes elsewhere in the nation, Kuhns said. Moreover, the drop in oil prices also eases the cost of transporting food from California to the other 49 states, she said. What economists don't know yet is whether farmers will plant fewer crops because of the drought. Those decisions are now being made in the field and could boost supermarket prices, she said. \"The drought in California does have the potential to impact the price we pay for fresh fruit and fresh vegetables and dairy and fresh eggs we pay at the counter,\" Kuhns said. \"We are not sure what the exact impact will be.\" The reality is there's a major drought throughout the West and Southwest. While not as bad as California, Texas and Oklahoma are also seeing extreme and exceptional drought -- the two worst categories -- in several parts of their states, the U.S. Drought Monitor said this week. Overall, the Western drought affects more than 52 million people, the monitor says. As a result, consumers paid a whopping extra 12.1% for beef and veal in 2014, the USDA reports. Straining under a drought that began in 2012, ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma last year saw smaller grazing pastures, paid more for feed, and experienced difficulties accessing water to cool their cattle. So the cattlemen began culling their herds, Kuhns said. This year's beef and veal prices should rise only by 6% at most, still higher than the 4.1% historical average, the feds project. But beef prices offer an object lesson about the drought. \"There's other areas being affected,\" Kuhns said. It's called the Golden State for the gold rush of yore, but let's face it: the rest of the nation flocks to California for vacation because of another golden reason. Its year-round sunshine. So the next time you take a holiday in California, you'll find a few changes around here, thanks to the drought. Like asking for a glass of water at a restaurant. You won't find water waiting for you on the table. Eateries now \"can only serve water to customers on request,\" the State Water Resources Control Board declared in March under expanded emergency regulations. Tourists can also expect to hear a lot of requests at hotels about whether they want their linens and towels laundered daily. These requests are mandatory under the new regulations. And they'll see fewer homes running decorative fountains. Because much of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada has alarmingly disappeared, many ski resorts shut down early this year, including at Lake Tahoe, and some are now building zip lines, mountain bike trails and wedding venues to keep tourists coming, the Sacramento Bee reported. \"If the drought continues through next winter and we do not conserve more, the consequences could be even more catastrophic than they already are,\" State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus said in March. But what about those yummy California wines, you ask? Guess what. They're only getting better -- because of the drought. Yes, you read that right. The 2014 wine grape harvest was \"third in a string of great vintages this decade,\" the Wine Institute says. \"California vintners and growers across the state are grateful for another excellent vintage, despite an ongoing drought and earthquake that rocked south Napa in late August just as crush was getting underway,\" the institute said in a statement last year. \"A mild winter and spring caused early bud break, although the overall length of the growing season was similar to past years.\" Wine grapes use relatively low water, said institute spokeswoman Gladys Horiuchi. \"Yes, drought years tend to produce terrific quality,\" she added. \"With the record high California wine grape harvests in 2012, 2013 and 2014, there is a good supply of California wine.\" That may be the only thing to toast about this drought.","highlights":"Americans paid more for some fruits and vegetables last year because of the drought .\nTourists will now have to ask for a glass of water at a California restaurant .\nPerhaps the only good thing is another \"great\" wine grape harvest last year .","id":"b21cd549314996de79ba0ca2636c8ced66468267"} -{"article":"(CNN)The FBI charged a Philadelphia woman on Thursday with trying to travel overseas to fight for ISIS. She's one of three women arrested this week on terror charges. Two New York women were also taken into custody. An FBI complaint cites numerous social media messages dating back to August 2013 that were sent by Keonna Thomas, 30, also known as \"Young Lioness\" and \"Fatayat Al Khilafah.\" One Twitter message said, \"If we truly knew the realities ... we all would be rushing to join our brothers in the front lines pray ALLAH accept us as shuhada [martyrs].\" Another said, \"When you're a mujahid [violent jihadi fighter] your death becomes a wedding.\" The FBI said Thomas purchased an electronic visa to Turkey on March 23. Turkey is known as the easiest place from which to enter Syria and join ISIS. An ISIS manual advises recruits to buy round-trip tickets to vacation spots such as Spain and then purchase tickets for their real destination once they arrive overseas, the FBI said. On March 26, Thomas purchased a ticket to Barcelona, with a March 29 departure and an April 15 return to the United States, the complaint said. It's not clear when or where she was arrested. She was charged with knowingly attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. She could be sentenced to 15 years in prison. On Thursday, Noelle Velentzas, 28, and her former roommate, Asia Siddiqui, 31, were arrested in New York and accused of planning to build an explosive device for attacks in the United States, federal prosecutors said. In the past 18 months, the Justice Department's National Security Division has prosecuted or is prosecuting more than 30 cases of people attempting to travel abroad to join or provide support to terrorist groups. Of those cases, 18 allegedly involve support to ISIS. \"The terrorist threat is more decentralized, more diffuse, more complicated,\" Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told reporters Thursday. \"It involves the potential lone wolf actor, it involves the effective use of social media, the Internet.\"","highlights":"The FBI cites social media messages sent by Keonna Thomas, 30 .\nShe's accused of trying to travel overseas to join ISIS .\nThomas is one of three women facing federal terror charges this week .","id":"17412737648b2cad59669560765fcb5169fc8116"} -{"article":"(CNN)Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, women have been barred from attending most sports events involving men. But the situation appears set to improve in the coming months after a top Iranian sports official said that the ban will be lifted for some events. A plan to allow \"women and families\" to enter sports stadiums will come into effect in the next year, Deputy Sports Minister Abdolhamid Ahmadi said Saturday, according to state-run media. But it isn't clear exactly which games women will be able to attend. According to the state-run Press TV, Ahmadi said the restrictions would be lifted for indoor sports events. The rules won't change for all matches because some sports are mainly related to men and \"families are not interested in attending\" them, Press TV cited him as saying. Iranian authorities imposed the ban on women attending men's sports events after the revolution, deeming that mixed crowds watching games together was un-Islamic. During the ensuing decades, the crowds at soccer games, Iran's most popular sport, have been all male. Iranian women were briefly permitted to attend volleyball matches under the moderate President Mohammad Khatami, but the ban was reinstated in 2005 after the more hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power. The Iranian government has come under pressure from international sports officials over the restrictions. FIFA President Sepp Blatter called on Iran last month to end its \"intolerable\" ban on women attending soccer matches, saying the situation \"cannot continue.\" Iran had been in the running to host the 2019 edition of soccer's Asian Cup, but the tournament was awarded to the United Arab Emirates. The ban on women attending matches was widely seen as a major impediment to Iran's chances of securing the event. The ban came under the spotlight at the Asian Cup in Australia earlier this year, when thousands of female Iranian fans watched their soccer team without restriction. During the match against Iraq, activists called for the ban to end and unfurled a banner showing the face of Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran last year while trying to watch a volleyball match. Iranian officials have denied that Ghavami was arrested for attending the volleyball game, saying she was taken into custody for \"anti-Iran activities.\" The news agency Reuters reported that she was recently pardoned by the Court of Appeal. CNN's Annie Ramos contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian sports official: The ban will be lifted for some events in the coming year .\nBut he says \"families are not interested in attending\" some sports matches .","id":"970f75d6e5b23e11c15b05c59a109ccbb160b289"} -{"article":"(CNN)Just as mimeograph machines and photocopiers were in their day, online activity -- blogs, YouTube channels, even social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter -- have fully emerged as the alternative to traditional mainstream media. It is not just the low cost of posting online that attracts dissidence, though that in itself is liberating. It is the lack of access to traditional print and broadcast media in authoritarian countries that is really the driving force leading disaffected voices to post online. It is not unique to Asia, but it might seem more pronounced if you live there. Going online has become the path of least resistance if you want to make yourself heard. But it still brings resistance, some of it legal, some of it deadly. Let's look at the legal angle first. Amos Yee, the teenage video blogger who was arrested and held pending bail Sunday in Singapore, drew international attention for his anti-Lee Kuan Yew harangue. But jailing critics is not usually the government's first choice in Singapore. It is part of Lee Kuan Yew's legacy that the government's use of the courts to bring libel and defamation cases, usually carrying heavy financial penalties, is the preferred method of silencing discomfiting online voices. His father has reportedly apologized for his son's behavior, but the younger Yee could face up to three years in jail. Yee is not unique. Another dissident blogger in Singapore, Roy Ngerng, continues to suffer financial and legal pressure, including the loss of his job, because of a blog post that allegedly accused the city-state's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, of corruption. Ngerng's concern is with the lack of transparency in the management of the Central Provident Fund, the government's compulsory pension program. Yee and Ngerng are two of many. The Committee To Protect Journalists' file on Singapore going back to 2000 has a long string of similar cases, some against politicians, others against citizens simply frustrated with their government. But it is not just Singapore where Internet activity comes under fire: On Monday in Malaysia, with much less of the international attention heaped on Amos Yee, five editors and executives from The Malaysian Insider were arrested over the site's March 25 report claiming that a senior council of royal rulers and state governors, known as the Conference of Rulers, had rejected a proposal to amend federal law to allow for the introduction of hudud, or punishments meted out under Islamic law. In deeply Muslim Malaysia, questions of Islamic faith are a third-rail issue, as is revealing government decisions before they are announced. By far the biggest jailer of journalists in the world is China, where a majority of the 44 people behind bars at the end of 2014 were bloggers, most of them Uighur or Tibetan activists who straddle the line between journalism and activism. But in second place in Asia is Vietnam, where CPJ's most recent prison census showed Vietnam holding 16 reporters behind bars as of December 1. Add one more in late December, Nguyen Dinh Ngoc, a prominent blogger who was arrested for \"law-violating\" after police searched his home in southern Ho Chi Minh City on December 27, and two more in January, Nguyen Quang Lap and Hong Le Tho, arrested on anti-state charges of \"abusing democratic freedoms\" and you can see the pattern. Because the print and broadcast media are so totally government controlled, mainstream journalists seldom go to jail any more in Vietnam. Only two investigative print reporters remain behind bars in Vietnam, their cases dating back to 2012 and 2013. Both were accused of accepting bribes for dialing back critical news coverage. The list could go on, but the reality is that, as CPJ wrote in 2013, across Asia \"governments have curtailed Internet freedoms through increasingly restrictive practices, including prohibitive laws, heightened surveillance and censorship, and threats of imprisonment on various national security-related offenses.\" That is still the policy path being followed by most countries in Asia, and it does not look like it will be changing any time soon. Jailing journalists is one thing, but watching them being killed and doing little or nothing about it is another. Since 1992, 11% of journalists killed have died for their work online. Because our 1992 start date really precedes the full advent of the Internet, that proportion can be expected to grow. While most bloggers have not been the targets of murderers, Bangladesh has recently become the exception. On Monday, Washiqur Rahman Babu was the second blogger to be hacked to death in public in Bangladesh in the past five weeks. Blogger Avijit Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonna, were attacked by assailants wielding sharp weapons while the couple was visiting Dhaka. Roy, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was killed and his wife was critically injured. Both Rahman and Roy had written critically on Islamic matters. The blogger death toll gets higher in Bangladesh if you go back a year or two, and religious beliefs are always involved, and the killings almost always carried out with near perfect impunity. In January 2013, blogger Asif Mohiuddin, who wrote critical commentary on religion, Islamist groups, free speech, and human rights, barely survived after he was stabbed by Islamists. In February 2013, blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, who had written about Islamic fundamentalism and Islamist groups, was hacked to death by members of an Islamist militant group, according to police investigations. Later in 2013, Islamist groups called for the execution of bloggers they said had committed blasphemy. While arrests were made after those murders, there have been no convictions. The bottom line: Online journalists, operating outside the restraints of mainstream media, have become the most vulnerable targets for governments and independent actors. Where there is the restrictive rule of law, journalists are vulnerable to the anger of officialdom. Where the rule of law is weak, they are vulnerable to the attacks of killers who seldom, if ever, answer to the rule of law.","highlights":"Going online has become the path of least resistance if you want to make yourself heard .\nBut where there is the restrictive rule of law, journalists are vulnerable to the anger of officialdom .\nFrom China to Malaysia, journalists and bloggers have been jailed -- even killed .","id":"9f051fe922a8f45b315a366a5af1aab58d93f050"} -{"article":"(CNN)When singer Avril Lavigne went missing from the music scene, there was tons of speculation. Was she pregnant? In rehab? Going through a split from her husband, Nickelback front man Chad Kroeger? Focus on the mystery intensified in December after a fan Twitter account posted a direct message from Lavigne when she solicited prayers, saying she was \"having some health issues.\" Now the Canadian singer has revealed to People magazine that she was bedridden for five months after contracting Lyme disease. \"I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk, and I couldn't move,\" she told the magazine. \"I thought I was dying.\" Lyme disease: What you should know . Lavigne believes that she was bitten by a tick last spring. What followed was months of lightheadedness and lethargy that doctors were initially unable to diagnose. The 30-year-old performer said she recuperated in her Ontario home, where her husband would use tour breaks to care for her and her mother moved in to assist. \"There were definitely times I couldn't shower for a full week because I could barely stand,\" she told People. \"It felt like having all your life sucked out of you.\" Opinion: Why you should be afraid of Lyme disease . After her direct message about her health went viral, Lavigne was inundated with concern from fans. \"The get-well messages and videos they sent touched me so deeply,\" she said. Now declaring herself \"80 percent better,\" Lavigne is releasing a new single this month to support the 2015 Special Olympics and says that being ill was a \"wake-up call\" that has given her a new perspective. \"I really just want to enjoy life from here on out,\" she said.","highlights":"The singer had been off the scene for a while .\nShe says she was bedridden for months .\nLavigne was sometimes too weak to shower .","id":"202a51397a4de6483e6a7427d1952c46fca69d81"} -{"article":"(CNN)A trip to a former heavyweight champ's gaudy, abandoned mansion. The tallest and fastest \"giga-coaster\" in the world. A dramatic interview with a famed spiritual leader -- and the tearful reaction by one of his former students. These are some of the best videos of the week: . In the 1980s and '90s -- before he moved to Vegas and started keeping tigers as pets -- former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson lived in a Southington, Ohio, mansion. The home featured an indoor swimming pool, a marble-and-gold Jacuzzi (with mirrored ceiling, naturally) and an entertainment room large enough for small concerts. Tyson sold the house in 1999; it's due to become, of all things, a church. The video can be seen at the top of this story. Not a fan of roller coasters? You may want to skip the next video -- but for the rest of us, the thrill of watching is the next best thing to being there. The Fury 325 can be found at Carowinds amusement part in Charlotte, North Carolina. Watch the video: . In a CNN exclusive, Alisyn Camerota looked into allegations that Bikram yoga creator Bikram Choudhury sexually assaulted six former students. \"He's a person who's based a lot of truths on a lot of lies,\" said Sarah Baughn, who alleges that Choudhury sexually assaulted her. Watch the video: . CNN's Karl Penhaul spoke to a shepherd who witnessed the final seconds of Germanwings Flight 9525, which crashed in the French Alps last week. \"I saw the plane heading down along the valley and I said, 'My God, it's going to hit the mountain,' \" Jean Varrieras told Penhaul. \"I ducked my head. ... Then after that, I saw the smoke.\" Watch the video: . Magician and comedian Penn Jillette was part of a panel speaking to CNN's Don Lemon about the controversial Indiana religious freedom law. Jillette, an avowed atheist and libertarian, noted \"we are not talking about forcing people to engage in gay sex, or even endorse gay sex.\" His provocative opening led to an energetic back-and-forth with the Alliance Defending Freedom's Kristen Waggoner and the ACLU's Rita Sklar. Watch the video: . A professor of physics at a British university asked 100 people to create a composite with facial features they thought were beautiful -- and then asked another 100 to rate their attractiveness. You'll never guess what celebrities best fit the model. Watch the video: .","highlights":"Here are six of CNN's best videos of the week .\nClips include a look at Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion .","id":"2f6106809de41d59f422d527900a6b344174c5b2"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the deal six world powers struck to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, saying he sees better options than \"this bad deal or war.\" \"I think there's a third alternative, and that is standing firm, ratcheting up the pressure until you get a better deal,\" Netanyahu told CNN's Jim Acosta Sunday on \"State of the Union.\" His comments come as Democrats and Republicans spar over the framework announced last week to lift Western sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country dropping from 19,000 to 5,060 active centrifuges, limiting its highly enriched uranium, and increasing inspections. President Barack Obama endorsed the deal, saying it was better than the alternatives. But GOP contenders for the party's 2016 presidential nomination lambasted it, saying it gave Iran too much flexibility. On Sunday, the sparring continued. One Senate Democrat said Netanyahu needs to \"contain himself.\" And a top Republican said almost any of Obama's successors as president \"could do better.\" Netanyahu's most recent argument against the Iran nuclear deal was similar to the one he'd made in a March trip to Washington, when he addressed a joint session of Congress -- fueling a Republican push to have the deal sent to Congress before it's implemented. \"It does not roll back Iran's nuclear program. It keeps a vast nuclear infrastructure in place. Not a single centrifuge is destroyed. Not a single nuclear facility is shut down, including the underground facilities that they built illicitly. Thousands of centrifuges will keep spinning, enriching uranium,\" Netanyahu said Sunday. \"That's a very bad deal. \" Netanyahu said Iran is a country of \"congenital cheating\" and that it can't be trusted to abide by the terms of the deal, which lasts 10 years with some provisions extending well beyond that. He said his opposition has little to do with his frosty relationship with Obama. \"I think that we can have a legitimate difference of opinion on this, because I think Iran has shown to be completely distrustful,\" Netanyahu said. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, meanwhile, said she wishes Netanyahu \"would contain himself.\" The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said negotiators working on the deal -- from Iran and the United States, as well as Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- are \"on the cusp of something that can be workable.\" \"It's a framework. It has to be wrapped into a final agreement. There still can be some changes,\" Feinstein said. \"But I don't think it's helpful for Israel to come out and oppose this one opportunity to change a major dynamic -- which is downhill, a downhill dynamic in this part of the world.\" Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz defended the deal in an appearance on CBS' \"Face the Nation\" on Sunday, saying it would extend from two months to one year the \"breakout\" time period -- the length of time it would take Iran to build a nuclear bomb. He said it also allows for the \"almost instantaneous recognition of any attempt to evade the deal.\" \"We have blocked all of these pathways to a bomb,\" he said. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said on \"Face the Nation\" that the best option for the United States is to keep current sanctions in place for two more years and then have a \"new crack at it with a new president that doesn't have the baggage of Obama.\" And he said the alternatives to Obama on both sides -- with the exception of Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who's called for a less active U.S. role overseas -- would likely strike a better deal. \"Hillary Clinton would do better. I think everybody on our side, except, maybe, Rand Paul, could do better,\" Graham said.","highlights":"Netanyahu says third option is \"standing firm\" to get a better deal .\nPolitical sparring continues in U.S. over the deal with Iran .","id":"9a2ffa6ad643d52e6b99b0b08e497f41ba23b2b2"} -{"article":"(CNN)Standing up for what you believe. What does it cost you? What do you gain? Memories Pizza in the Indiana town of Walkerton is finding out. The family-run restaurant finds itself at the center of the debate over the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act after its owners said they'd refuse to cater a same-sex couple's wedding. \"If a gay couple was to come and they wanted us to bring pizzas to their wedding, we'd have to say no,\" Crystal O'Connor told CNN affiliate WBND-TV in South Bend. The statement struck at the heart of fears by critics, who said the new law would allow businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians. They called for boycotts. But supporters also rallied. And by the end of the week, they had donated more than $842,000 for the business. Social media unloaded on the pizzeria in the community of 2,100 people that few folks outside northern Indiana knew existed before this week. RiskyLiberal tweeted: \"Dear #MemoriesPizza. No. My boycotting your business because I don't like your religious bigotry is not a violation of your freedom to practice your religion.\" \"Don't threaten #MemoriesPizza\" tweeted A\u10e6anda. \"Just mock them for their ignorance.\" Bad reviews flooded the restaurant's Facebook page, most having little to do with the quality of the food. Many too vulgar to share. \"Do you really want to financially support a company that treats some of your fellow citizens like second class citizens? BOYCOTT MEMORIES PIZZA!!\" said Rob Katz of Indianapolis. \"Let's hope they either rethink their policy or the free market puts them out of business.\" Anti-bigotry critics harass wrong pizzeria . But one outburst in particular shut down the restaurant Wednesday and was expected to do the same Thursday. \"Who's going to Walkerton with me to burn down Memories Pizza?\" Jessica Dooley of Goshen tweeted, according to the Walkerton Police Department. The account has been deleted since the tweet was posted. Detectives who investigated have recommended charges of harassment, intimidation and threats, according to Charles Kulp, assistant police chief. The mood was a bit more subdued on the streets of Walkerton. A man stood outside Memories simply holding a sign that reads \"bigots.\" Jason Narducy bought $100 of pizza from another shop down the street and started handing it out, WBND reported. \"Do you want some non-discriminatory pizza?\" Narducy asked. But for every tweet and Facebook post taking Memories Pizza to task were words of support and a groundswell of financial support. \"Because nothing says tolerance like threatening to kill Christians & burn down their businesses,\" said a tweet from Victor Nikki. \"What's happening to #MemoriesPizza isn't the free market, it's a lynch mob,\" tweeted Savannah. \"Cyber bulling isn't the same as taking your business elsewhere.\" Supporters rallied to a GoFundMe page in support of Memories Pizza. By the time the fundraiser ended late Friday, $842,387 had been raised. The purpose of the campaign is \"to relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors' stand for faith,\" according to Lawrence Billy Jones II, the man who started it. For the O'Connors their stand was no pie in the sky dream. It wasn't calculated but was spurred by their beliefs, they told WBND. \"That's a lifestyle that you choose. I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual,\" Kevin O'Connor told the TV station. \"You can't beat me over the head with something they choose to be.\" Faced with threats against business, they're still weighing the cost. CNN's Rob Frehse and Melanie Whitley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indiana town's Memories Pizza is shut down after online threat .\nIts owners say they'd refuse to cater a same-sex couple's wedding .","id":"f78024d271fd21f0667f5da6843516314af71f8f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Police in the Indian city of Malegaon, in the western state of Maharashtra, are requiring identity cards for an unusual group of residents: Cattle. Following a recent state-wide ban on the sale and consumption of beef, authorities in the city have asked residents to take a 'mugshot' of their cattle and submit it to the police. Along with the photograph, the residents have to give information about their animal's 'unique features,' such as the coloring and age of the cow, along with the length of its tail and other distinctive characteristics. Police officials believe this is the only way to solve cow slaughter cases and enforce the law. Cows are considered holy and revered by that state's majority Hindu population. \"We are creating a database. If we get an information of a cow slaughter, we can quickly go to the resident's place and check whether it is there or not\", Mahesh Sawai, Deputy Superintendent of Malegaon Police told CNN. \"I believe this will be very effective\" So far over 100 owners have complied with the police order and more are lining up outside police stations across the city to get their livestock photographed. The ruling came in the wake of a recent case of cow slaughter in Malegaon, where two men have been charged for killing the animal and and selling its meat. The Maharashtra Animal Preservation Bill now includes bans on the killing of bulls and bullocks in its list of non-bailable offenses. Even the consumption or sale of beef could now land you in prison for five years. The slaughter of buffaloes, however, is still permissible. However, beef traders in the country strongly reacted to the decision and called a month-long strike, which ended Wednesday. The traders refused to even slaughter buffaloes and deprive the state of all bovine meat. They have now vowed to file a case in the state's high court. Red meat lovers weren't too delighted either, arguing the government doesn't have a right to interfere in an individual's personal preference. Maharashtra is not the only Indian state to tighten its laws on cow slaughter. Haryana state has implemented a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, the toughest penalty in the country. Rajnath Singh, India's Home Minister has promised that he would do all to devise a country-wide law against cow slaughter.","highlights":"Authorities in the Indian city of Malegaon have asked residents to take a 'mugshot' of their cattle .\nCows are revered by the majority Hindu population, and many parts of the country have laws banning the slaughter of cattle .\nOfficials in Malegaon believe this is the best way to solve cow slaughter cases and enforce the law .","id":"63e19d477469e39e3fc4143919e6a5acb58dbc23"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's the kind of thing you see in movies, like Robert Redford's role in \"All Is Lost\" or Ang Lee's \"Life of Pi.\" But, in real life, it's hard to swallow the idea of a single person being stranded at sea for days, weeks, if not months and somehow living to talk about it. Miracles do happen, though, and not just in Hollywood. We're not talking about people who float aimlessly or run aground after running out of gas or being let down by faltering winds only to be picked up a few hours later by the U.S. Coast Guard. Much rarer are cases in which individuals become lost at sea long enough that they run out of whatever food and drinking water they'd brought aboard, if any. In order to survive, they can't bank on technology or the proximity of a nearby city, town or boat -- but instead must rely on ingenuity, resourcefulness and luck. It's hard to say how many of these types of stories end sadly, with a sailor dying at sea, except that it is a much higher number than those that end in rescues. Such happy endings do occur -- given what rescue agencies have reported and assuming you believe what any sole survivor says, a big qualifier since typically no one else can prove or refute their accounts. Below are a few recent examples: . Louis Jordan says that he set off on his 35-foot sailboat from South Carolina in late January. He headed into the Gulf Stream looking for a good spot to catch fish. And then everything -- his boat, his life -- turned upside down. Rescued man says he is 'utterly thankful' Not only did his boat capsize, but its mast broke, Jordan said. And so, too, did his shoulder. He bought time by rationing water, then collecting fresh water in a bucket. As to food, Jordan says he used laundry to trap and scoop up fish. And he rigged a makeshift mast and sail. But, Jordan said, \"It took so long. It moved so slowly.\" His sailboat would capsize two more times before crew members on a German-flagged container ship, the Houston Express, spotted Jordan about 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday. After their reunion, his father greeted him with a hug and an admission every parent dreads. \"I thought I lost you.\" Jose Salvador Alvarenga says his journey began in Paredon Viejo, a port on Mexico's Pacific coast, in late 2012. The exact date is up for debate -- he says he set off in December, locals say it was November. But what's not in doubt is that, after he left, he disappeared. Until January 2013. That's when Alvarenga interacted with humans once again, thousands of miles away on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands. Castaway recounts how he survived over a year adrift in Pacific . What was supposed to be a one-day trip, he says, turned into an arduous odyssey across the Pacific Ocean, one that saw him lose his fishing companion and tested his will and ability to survive. His nightmare began when winds blew the pair off course. Then a storm hit causing their boat, which was about three people long and one wide, to lose its engine and use of its radio communication and GPS systems. Four weeks in, Alvarenga said his partner -- 23-year-old Ezequiel Cordova, according to the boat's owner -- died because he refused to eat raw birds. The days, weeks and months ran together after that. Alvarenga says he drank rainwater and, when there wasn't any available, his own urine. He ate sea turtles. Then, after 13 or 14 months adrift, he and his small, heavily damaged boat arrived on the Ebon Atoll, about a 22-hour boat ride from the Marshall Islands capital of Majuro. The atoll has one phone line, no Internet service and a few residents, two of whom Alvarenga spotted and shouted to after spending a night in the woods. The El Salvador native told CNN that his faith in God helped him survive. \"I thought, 'I am going to get out,\" he said. \"Get out, get out, get out.\" Some in their late 60s might relax in their retirement, reining it in a few notches as life slows down. And if you live in Hawaii, there's even more reason to take it easy. The thing is: Ron Ingraham isn't one of those people. He's a fisherman. The sea is both his life and livelihood, his son, Zakary, told CNN. And he's tough, with his son jokingly comparing him to Rambo. Still, even the hardiest fishermen would have been tested by what Ron Ingraham went through after setting off around last Thanksgiving solo from the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Son vindicated as father rescued after 12 days at sea . After bad weather hit, Ron Ingraham told CNN affiliate KHNL\/KGMB that his 25-foot sailboat went \"backwards all night long.\" At one point, a huge wave struck -- pushing his mast into the water and him as well. The 67-year-old used a rope to pull himself back in. But his boat couldn't be rescued so easily, leaving him at the mercy of the current. A distress call went out, prompting a search that would cover 12,000 square miles. When a Coast Guard official told him the search was being called off December 1, Zakary Ingraham responded, \"I don't feel like he's dead. I don't feel it.\" He was right. Twelve days after that first distress call, Ron Ingraham was picked up about 64 miles (103 kilometers) south of Honolulu \"weak, hungry and dehydrated\" and -- most importantly -- alive. The veteran fisherman headed back to shore only after getting assurances his damaged boat would come with him. In February 2012, two friends asked 18-year-old Adrian Vasquez whether he wanted to tag along on an overnight fishing expedition. He said yes, and the three set off from the Panama town of San Carlos on a small boat, Vasquez's mother, Nilsa de la Cruz, recalled. Things started out well, by all accounts. The three caught plenty of fish. Then, their boat's engine died without warning. And, with no tools and scant navigational experience, the trio didn't know what to do, according to Vasquez's mother. Mother calls Panama teen's return 'a miracle' Vazquez ate raw fish and drank rainwater as currents swept his boat, the Fifty Cents, further and further from the coast and into the Pacific Ocean. Somewhere along the way, his two companions died. It's not clear exactly how, with Ecuadorian Rear. Adm. Freddy Garcia Calle saying Vasquez threw their bodies into the sea \"because they had become badly decomposed.\" Some 26 days after and nearly 600 miles away from where the journey began, fishermen spotted the tiny vessel north of the Galapagos Islands. The Ecuadorian navy came in and picked up the teenage survivor, who'd lost 20 pounds and showed \"severe signs of dehydration and lack of nutrition,\" according to Calle. He returned home to loved ones eager to embrace him, but mindful of giving him time to process the ordeal. \"For us, this is an opportunity to get closer as a family,\" his mother said by phone, \"to be more understanding and loving.\" Sometimes one doesn't have to be in the ocean for weeks to have his or her life imperiled. Sometimes people don't have to set off by boat to have the sea challenge them to the end. For proof, look no further than Hiromitsu Shinkawa. 60-year-old man waves red flag to alert rescuers . He was at home on March 11, 2011, when a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck 231 miles northeast of Tokyo. A devastating tsunami followed, its 30-foot waves ravaging cities and towns and damaging several nuclear reactors. By the time it had run the course, nearly 16,000 people were dead. It's a miracle Shinkawa wasn't one of them. Shortly after the quake, he and his wife had gone to collect some belongings when the tsunami slammed their hometown of Minamisoma. His home was one of the tens of thousands destroyed by the the huge, powerful tsunami wave. \"I was saved by holding onto the roof,\" the 60-year-old said, according to Kyodo News Agency. \"But my wife was swept away.' More than two days later, video showed Shinkawa barely visible amid heaps of splintered wood, shattered homes and other debris floating more than nine miles (15 kilometers) out to sea. He was waving a self-made red flag. After being spotted by crew aboard a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer and picked up in a smaller rescue boat, he took a drink offered to him and burst into tears, Kyodo reported. Shinkawa told his rescuers, \"I thought today was the last day of my life.\"","highlights":"A South Carolina man says he spent 66 days alone at sea before being rescued .\nOther sole survivor stories include a Japanese man washed away by a tsunami .\nAn El Salvador man says he drifted from Mexico to Marshall Islands over a year .","id":"cf7094270cbb4c8fad5029bd2c2da694f1411870"} -{"article":"(CNN)The world's biggest and most powerful physics experiment is taking place as you read this. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator and the largest machine in the world, is ready for action following a two-year shutdown. After problems that delayed the restart in March, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) completed final tests, enabling the first beams to start circulating Sunday inside the LHC's 17 mile (27 km) ring. \"Operating accelerators for the benefit of the physics community is what CERN's here for,\" CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said on the organization's website. \"Today, CERN's heart beats once more to the rhythm of the LHC.\" The LHC generates up to 600 million particles per second, with a beam circulating for 10 hours, traveling more than 6 billion miles (more than 10 billion kilometers) -- the distance from Earth to Neptune and back again. At near light-speed, a proton in the LHC makes 11,245 circuits per second. It took thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians decades to devise and build the particle accelerator, housed in a tunnel between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountain range. The purpose of the lengthy project is to recreate the conditions that existed moments after the \"Big Bang\" -- the scientific theory said to explain the creation of the universe. By replicating the energy density and temperature, scientists hope to uncover how the universe evolved. Our current, limited, knowledge is based on what's called The Standard Model of particle physics. \"But we know that this model is not complete,\" Dr. Mike Lamont, operations group leader at the LHC, told CNN in March. The burning questions that remain include the origin of mass and why some particles are very heavy, while others have no mass at all; a unified description of all the fundamental forces such as gravity; and uncovering dark matter and dark energy, since visible matter accounts for only 4 percent of the universe. The LHC could also question the idea that the universe is only made of matter, despite the theory that antimatter must have been produced in the same amounts at the time of the Big Bang. CERN says the energies achievable by the LHC have only ever been found in nature. The machine alone costs approximately three billion euros (about $3.3 billion), paid for by member countries of CERN and contributions by non-member nations. The organization also asserts that its guidelines for the protection of the environment and personnel comply with standards set by Swiss and French laws and a European Council Directive. Scientists and physics enthusiasts will be waiting with bated breath as the LHC ventures into the great unknown. \"After two years of effort, the LHC is in great shape,\" said CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rick Bordry. \"But the most important step is still to come when we increase the energy of the beams to new record levels.\" Peter Shadbolt contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) begins again after a two-year shutdown .\nThe restart was delayed in March .","id":"934a2d9235022c9e8a6aeec5e7e941b127569b76"} -{"article":"Atlanta (CNN)It was a scene worthy of any top cop show on TV -- bullets flying, banged-up cars and the FBI chasing an armed robbery suspect. In the end, two agents were injured in a crash and the suspect was shot before being captured. FBI agents and task force officers were following 36-year-old Kevone Charleston of Austell, Georgia, as he pulled into a CVS pharmacy in Forsyth County, Georgia, early Saturday. Charleston is suspected of involvement in 32 commercial robberies dating to November 2013, according to FBI officials. \"The incident all happened around 7 o'clock Saturday morning,\" said FBI Special Agent Stephen Emmett. \"There were multiple agents and officers that were following him based on his prior MO, and when they saw he was about to rob another CVS, they moved in.\" Authorities say Charleston parked his vehicle nearby and then popped the hood as if there were something wrong. Then he walked to the CVS, preparing to enter. When agents confronted him, Charleston ran, got in his car and traveled about 75 yards as agents opened fire. \"There were several FBI vehicles that were rammed or were hit by the suspect's vehicle when he was trying to flee. One government vehicle sustained heavy damage to its front and side, and another government SUV ended up on its side. That's how the two agents sustained their injuries,\" Emmett said. Twelve FBI agents and six government vehicles followed Charleston. Emmett said Charleston \"was trying to get away, our agents were trying to stop him. He collided with the first government vehicle, the Taurus, then the second, and the SUV ended on its side. \"The perp was stopped 8 feet away in the median, and that's where he received his gunshot wounds.\" The two agents were treated at an area hospital and released, according to Emmett, who says \"they are fine.\" Charleston was shot and wounded by FBI agents and task force officers, but his injuries are not life threatening, according to Forsyth County Sheriff's Deputy Robin Regan. Although he declined to give details of the 32 previous robberies, Emmett said it was an intensive investigation that was already underway as a priority for the FBI's violent crimes and major offender squad. He added, \"His MO involved armed confrontations, so our officers went into this fully prepared for an armed confrontation based on his past history.\" Emmett says he's relieved that the FBI's officers and agents are OK and that the suspect is in custody. He said it was the \"conclusion of an intensive and lengthy investigation.\" CNN's Vivian Kuo and Ryan Scallan contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI agents and a suspected serial robber exchange gunfire in an FBI stakeout .\nTwo FBI agents are injured and the suspect is shot during the gunfight .","id":"82461522ee90f8f5be2ec226e2016ad40588866d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Sky watchers in western North America are in for a treat: a nearly five-minute total lunar eclipse this morning. Here's how it's unfolding: . It started at 3:16 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, when the moon began moving into Earth's shadow. For the next hour and 45 minutes, that shadow will move across the moon and engulf it at 4:58 a.m. Pacific Time. The total eclipse will only last four minutes and 43 seconds, and NASA says that makes it the shortest one of the century. Watch it live on NASA TV . While people west of the Mississippi River will have the best view, at least a partial eclipse will be visible across the nation. But sunrise will interrupt the show on the East Coast. Parts of South America, India, China and Russia also will be able to see the eclipse, but it won't be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Europe, Africa or the Middle East. A lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Earth and moon form a straight line in space, with the Earth smack in the middle. The sun shines on the Earth and creates a shadow. As the moon moves deeper into that shadow, it appears to turn dark and may even appear to be a reddish color. Why red? Because Earth's atmosphere is filtering out most of the blue light. Some people have nicknamed the effect the \"blood moon.\" NASA says lunar eclipses typically happen at least twice a year, but this eclipse is the third in a series of four in a row, known as a \"tetrad.\" The first was on April 15, 2014. The second was in September 2014, the next is Saturday and there will be one more, on September 28. If you want to learn more about the eclipse, NASA astronomer Mitzi Adams will take questions on Twitter @NASA_Marshall. Did you see the total lunar eclipse? Share your photos with CNN iReport.","highlights":"The total eclipse will only last 4 minutes and 43 seconds .\nPeople west of the Mississippi River will have the best view .\nParts of South America, India, China and Russia also will see the eclipse .","id":"37477ed1fc065f438021ee3b6d3e2b827e270353"} -{"article":"(CNN)The terrorist group Al-Shabaab has claimed an attack on Garissa University College in eastern Kenya, in which many people have been killed and still more taken hostage. The attack is another step in the ongoing escalation of the terrorist group's activities, and a clear indicator that the security situation in East Africa is deteriorating fast. Somalia-based Al-Shabaab has been behind a string of recent attacks in Kenya, the most well-known of them being the massacre at the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi in 2013. Cross-border raids into Kenya by the group, however, date back to 2011. Al-Shabaab incursions triggered a military response by the government in Nairobi, which sent troops to Somalia as part of an African Union mission in support of Somalia's internationally recognized government that had been under pressure from Al-Shabaab and other militants for several years. Al-Shabaab is predominantly driven by the same radical interpretation of the Koran as al-Qaeda and ISIS (also known as Islamic State), but also employs more opportunistic approaches to shoring up local support. Its origins lie in Al-Ittihad al-Islami (Unity of Islam), one of several militant factions that emerged in the wake of the fall of Siad Barre in 1991. These disparate groups fought each other and a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Somali civil war that led to the complete collapse of the country, from which it has yet to recover almost quarter of a century later. Al-Shabaab (literally \"the Youth\") split from Unity of Islam in 2003 and merged with another radical Islamist group, the so-called Islamic Courts Union. As their alliance obtained control of Somalia's capital Mogadishu in 2006, Ethiopia, the only majority Christian country in the region, took military action against the group. The offensive weakened Al-Shabaab and pushed it back into the rural areas of central and southern Somalia, but it failed to defeat it. To the contrary, Ethiopia's invasion and occupation of parts of Somalia -- although invited by the Somali government and backed by the African Union -- enabled Al-Shabaab to partially re-invent itself as both an Islamist and nationalist force opposing a foreign \"Christian\" invasion. Initially, the group primarily attacked Ethiopian forces, but soon began to \"expand\" its activities against the Somali government as well. The first attack outside Somalia was an attack in the Ugandan capital of Kampala in 2010. Soon after this, cross-border raids in Kenya began, predominantly targeting Christians there. Increasing its links with al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab declared its full allegiance in 2012 -- and it is not clear whether it will switch allegiances to ISIS. Much will depend on how the relationships between al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a long-time ally of Al-Shabaab based in Yemen, and ISIS develop. The key point is that Al-Shabaab's attack in Garissa is part of a broader regional context of instability fueled by a huge number of factors. It must not be interpreted simply as another act of garden-variety fundamentalist terrorism. Clearly, the presence and activities of terrorist groups in the region is a major concern, and it is undoubtedly driven by radical and exclusivist interpretations of Islam. But the entire region also suffers from a range of other problems: from economic development challenges to environmental degradation; from organized crime to inter-tribal and inter-communal violence; from corruption to serious deficits in human rights and good governance. These entrenched inequalities help Al-Shabaab appeal to a wide variety of potential recruits, who may sympathize with and actively support the group for any number of reasons. Attacking a university in northern Kenya and separating Christian from Muslim students epitomizes the way Al-Shabaab advances itself by exploiting religious, tribal and nationalist identities. Ultimately, though, this all comes down to a struggle for control -- over people, over territory, and over resources. As long as the majority of people in the region remain excluded from any meaningful political, economic, and social participation in their societies -- which are dominated by primarily self-interested elites that put their own advance before that of their communities -- human lives matter little in the pursuit of selfish interests. It is important to counter Al-Shabaab directly, including by military means. But there won't be any lasting solution to the wider region's security problems without a more comprehensive and concerted effort to address the deeper problems of exclusion suffered by the citizens of the countries challenged by Al-Shabaab. As Garissa shows, these problems are still providing oxygen for nihilistic ideologies and their deadly fruit. Copyright 2015 The Conversation. Some rights reserved.","highlights":"Terrorist group Al-Shabaab has attacked a Kenyan college, killing and taking hostages .\nIt is a clear indicator the security situation in East Africa is deteriorating, says Stefan Wolff .\nMore than military action aloe is needed to combat terrorism in the region, he says .","id":"4fbf675fb79046440d1cf01dd4fc2e505f2b5169"} -{"article":"(CNN)Easter is a cornerstone event in the Christian faith, but it's surrounded by interesting quirks. It celebrates the completion of Christ's mission of salvation in the Crucifixion and Resurrection. By dying on Good Friday, Christ atoned for the sins of others; by rising from the grave on Sunday, Christ conquered death. Simple enough and reason for Christians to celebrate. But, like Christmas with its tree, ornaments and Santa Claus, Easter has picked up its peripheral trappings -- the bunny and colorful eggs. Unlike Christmas, it doesn't fall on the same day every year but shifts around in spring depending upon cosmic events. And that blood moon we just had -- is it pure coincidence that it fell around Easter? (No.) Here's a journey from the Vatican to the Holy Land, around the moon and the Earth's tilting axis, to Germany and the United States to try to explain the complex holiday called Easter. And you'll learn to how to color Easter eggs with Kool-Aid. Let's start at the Vatican. At the Vatican, Holy Week began with Palm Sunday last week and culminated in Easter Sunday Mass with multiple celebrations in between to mark the final week of Christ's mortal life. Jesus rode on the back of a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday where crowds celebrated him as the Messiah and laid down palm branches in his path. But the crowd and the Romans turned on him in the course of the week, according to the Bible, leading to his crucifixion and resurrection. Rain sprinkled down on worshipers standing under a sea of umbrellas as they gathered in a gray St. Peter's Square on Sunday to partake in the outdoor services held by Pope Francis. Afterward, the Pontiff took a moment to tell the world to do right those in need in his Urbi et Orbi address. Francis lamented the suffering of people in many of the conflicts around the globe. From Nigeria to South Sudan, Iraq to Ukraine, he expressed hope that violence would end. Francis also doesn't put on airs. This week he washed the feet of believers, repeating the Biblical account of a woman, a sinner, washing Jesus' feet and anointing them with oil. Let's move on to old Jerusalem, the birthplace of Easter. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in old Jerusalem unifies the spot where Christ was crucified -- Calvary -- with his tomb, or sepulcher. On Sunday, Catholics and Armenian Christians celebrated the Resurrection there. In the morning, the Latin Patriarch, the Archbishop of Jerusalem, entered the basilica. Then mass was held followed by a procession. But a large group of indigenous Christians didn't join them. It's not quite Easter yet in the Holy Land for Eastern Orthodox Christians. They'll be celebrating a week from now, because they determine Easter's date by a different calendar than Western Christians -- the Julian calendar. Which brings us to the question of how astronomy is used to determine the date of Easter Sunday. A blood moon appeared in the sky early Saturday, right between Good Friday and Easter Sunday and during Passover. Just a coincidence? Not completely, because the dates for both Passover -- the Jewish holiday celebrating the deliverance from slavery in Egypt -- and Easter are determined by moon phases, according to timeanddate.com. Easter's timing is related to Passover, because Jesus was crucified around then, according to the Bible. Many Jewish holidays, including Passover, fall on full moon, which is also a prerequisite for a lunar eclipse, the event that turns the moon a blood red color. Since the timing of moon phases doesn't jibe with Earth's orbit -- which is how we determine the length of a year now -- Passover's exact date moves around -- and so does Easter's. When Christian bishops first convened at the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, they made a rule to determine the date of Easter, so as to fairly reliably pin it to Passover: . It would fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. That's the day in March when Earth's axis reaches a midpoint between winter and summer and the day and night are of equal length. But ... if the full moon fell on Sunday, Easter would be pushed down a week. Confusing? It got worse. When the West moved from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, Orthodox Christians stayed put, resulting in -- usually -- two separate dates for Easter. In 1997, the World Council of Churches pushed for a unified method of determining a date based on astronomical occurrences. It didn't catch on. But some odd Easter trappings that popped up after the Middle Ages very much have -- the eggs and the bunny. The bunny is an egg-laying pagan that worships the moon. That's one notion of its origins, but probably not the actual one. German immigrants appear to have brought it to North America in the 1700s. German historians are not clear on its beginnings, but the first known mention of the bunny and the eggs in writing was in 1682. Professor of medicine Georg Franck von Frankenau described in his paper \"De ovis paschalibus,\" or \"On Easter eggs,\" a custom in the Alsace region involving a bunny and eggs, according to German public television. Some also credit the region with inadvertently inventing the Christmas tree. But von Frankenau left out any explanation of how the tradition arose, leading to a number of theories in Germany. One common idea: During Lent, people had to abstain from eating eggs, but hens kept on laying them, so farmers boiled and preserved them. By the time Easter rolled around, they were practically swimming in them. They had to figure out something to do with them when the holiday hit. Play hide and seek with them; color them; give them as gifts. Parents may have invented the bunny as a playful explanation for children on where the Easter eggs came from. If you're coloring eggs this year, here's an interesting tip. Instead of stinking up your place with the smell of vinegar, use Kool-Aid, YouTube science geek Grant Thompson suggests. And it appears to work. Just use a whole packet in a small glass of hot water and gently lay the eggs in. They turn out as bright as they would in any other food dye. But be careful, it stains everything else, like clothes and upholstery, Thompson warns. That's why your tongue changes colors when you drink it. Happy Easter! Happy Passover!","highlights":"Easter is a key event in the Christian faith, but where did the Easter Bunny come from?\nWhy is the date different every year, and what does it have to do with the moon?","id":"c5390093fa60d62c4dc9013977ca09a8edf7c32b"} -{"article":"(CNN)After years of making the case that the education of athletes is paramount, the NCAA now says it has no legal responsibility to make sure education is actually delivered. On its website, the NCAA prominently states, \"It's our commitment -- and our responsibility -- to give young people opportunities to learn, play and succeed.\" And later, it says that \"in the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second.\" But the NCAA is taking a very different position in response to a lawsuit filed by former University of North Carolina athletes. The lawsuit claimed the students didn't get an education because they were caught up in the largest known academic fraud scandal in NCAA history. In its response, the NCAA says it has no legal responsibility \"to ensure the academic integrity of the courses offered to student-athletes at its member institutions.\" Even with pages of online information about academic standards, and even though the NCAA has established a system of academic eligibility and accountability that it boasts of regularly, NCAA attorneys wrote in this court filing that \"the NCAA did not assume a duty to ensure the quality of the education of student-athletes,\" and \"the NCAA does not have 'direct, day-to-day, operational control' \" over member institutions like UNC. \"It's nonsense. It's double talk,\" said Gerald Gurney, a former athletic-academic director who is now president of The Drake Group for academic integrity in collegiate sport. \"If you look at their basic core principles, it's all about academics, the experience, the integration of academics, and the education of the student is paramount,\" Gurney said. \"They seem to talk out of both sides of their mouths.\" The NCAA referred calls for comment to an online statement, which read in part: . The NCAA believes that the lawsuit misunderstands the NCAA's role with respect to its member schools and ignores the myriad steps the NCAA has taken to assist student-athletes in being equipped to excel both in the classroom and on the playing field. \"This case is troubling for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the law does not and has never required the NCAA to ensure that every student-athlete is actually taking full advantage of the academic and athletic opportunities provided to them,\" said Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer. In its response to the lawsuit, it also likened its role to that of the American Bar Association or American Medical Association, and said that those entities are not sued every time a lawyer or doctor acts inappropriately. The scandal at UNC involved thousands of athletes who, over 18 years, were funneled into classes that never met, where advisers fudged grades and accepted plagiarism so that athletes who were falling behind in class could remain eligible to play sports. Mary Willingham, the UNC whistleblower turned NCAA critic, has for years said that athletes across the country are accepted to colleges even though they're academically underprepared and then pushed into classes where little work is required. The system of eligibility that the NCAA brags about, she says, is a sham. \"Why do we go through the trouble of compliance if we can't legitimize that the courses are real and the education is real anyway? It makes no sense,\" said Willingham, who recently wrote a book about the UNC scandal called \"Cheated.\" \"If they can't legitimize that the academics are real and take no responsibility for that, then why certify students semester after semester to play? It's lost its meaning for me.\" The NCAA's claim that it's hands-off when it comes to athletics seems to be a direct contradiction of what the organization has been repeating for years, not just in the rhetoric on its website, but in speeches by its president, Mark Emmert, and in court defending itself from numerous lawsuits over paying athletes. For example, before it lost a case filed by former UCLA player Ed O'Bannon, suing for the right of athletes to make money off their images and likenesses, the NCAA stood on the pillar of amateurism, insisting that college athletes are paid with an education. That's the defense the NCAA is now using in another class action filed by big-time sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler, seeking to make college sports a free market where athletes are paid salaries based on their value. In response, the NCAA said that what sets college sports apart from pros is education: Consistent with \"its commitment to amateurism, member institutions conduct their athletics programs for students who choose to participate in intercollegiate athletics as a part of their educational experience and in accordance with NCAA bylaws.\" Attorney Michael Hausfeld, who represented both O'Bannon and now the UNC athletes, said this: . \"This startling inconsistency is unfortunately all too symptomatic of the NCAA's shifting rhetoric and faltering commitment to its college athletes. NCAA President Mark Emmert has repeatedly proposed that 'What we live for is the education of our athletes,' but the NCAA's record tells a far different story.\" But Rick Burton, professor of sport management at Syracuse University, said it's not realistic to think that the NCAA would regulate every professor and every course an athlete might take at each university across the country. \"I understand, I think, where the NCAA is coming from. We would not let the NCAA come in and tell us how to run our chemistry department at Syracuse University,\" he said. \"It sounds like someone is trying to say the NCAA should have been supervising that department at the University of North Carolina, and there's no logic to that,\" he said. \"The people who are saying the NCAA should be held accountable for academics at every school are just looking for an opportunity to throw rocks at the NCAA.\" UNC, which was also sued, has admitted to the fraud, but also asked for a judge to throw out the case, saying the athletes waited too long -- seven years -- to sue and the \"educational malpractice\" theory doesn't apply. UNC claims it is protected by state law. This is reminiscent of another NCAA reversal. The NCAA, which was founded a century ago to protect athletes from \"dangerous and exploitive athletic practices,\" now says it does not enforce health and safety rules. In fact, in response to a lawsuit filed by the family of a player who died in 2011, the NCAA wrote: \"The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes.\" A CNN investigation found that the NCAA has failed to open investigations in several cases where safety rules allegedly were broken. It has also fallen behind in imposing rules for concussions -- far behind even the NFL. Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, and a leading thorn in the NCAA's side for decades, said this latest backpedaling from the NCAA leaves him wondering why the organization exists at all. \"There's nothing left the NCAA can claim it does that is beneficial to college athletes or society. One has to wonder what does the NCAA do if it doesn't protect players? If it doesn't play a role in the education of college athletics? It begs the question of why does the NCAA exist -- and why does it have a tax exemption.\"","highlights":"In response to lawsuit, NCAA says it doesn't control quality of education for student-athletes .\nBut its website emphasizes importance of education, \"opportunities to learn\"\nLawsuit claims students didn't get an education because of academic fraud at UNC .","id":"58b9fcb9a3537d014d3499b0ad4d4123cfd3eac0"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Connecticut teen who has been forced to have chemotherapy to treat Hodgkin lymphoma will remain in temporary custody of the state for the time being, according to her attorney, Josh Michtom. A Connecticut juvenile court judge issued a written decision Wednesday denying a motion to let the teen, identified in court documents as \"Cassandra C.,\" go home. The judge also denied a motion for visitation. The 17-year-old is in remission after nearly six months of forced chemo treatments. On March 16, Michtom tried to convince the court that she should be able to return to her mother's home because she was no longer at imminent risk of harm from her illness. Michtom and attorney Michael Taylor, who represents Cassandra's mother, Jackie Fortin, released a written statement after receiving the judge's decision Wednesday: \"We are disappointed in this ruling, not least of all because it draws a factual conclusion that is directly contradicted by the weight of the evidence. We're conferring with our clients now about next steps, including whether to take another appeal.\" Cassandra was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in September and medical experts gave her an 85% chance of survival if treated with chemotherapy. Without it, doctors said at the time, she was likely to die within two years. She started chemotherapy in November but ran away after two days, according to court documents, when she decided she did not want to put the poison of the treatment into her body. In December, a judge ordered the young woman to be under the custody of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. At that time, she was admitted to Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford and has remained there since then. Doctors surgically implanted a port in Cassandra's chest to administer chemotherapy medications, which began in spite of legal maneuvers to halt them. Cassandra is feeling well and is in good shape as far as her health is concerned, according to Michtom. \"She's seen in her case the side effects weren't bad, and she's been well-treated by the nurses and doctors and does want to complete the treatment,\" he said. Her treatment is scheduled to wrap up this month. Michtom and Taylor failed in their effort before the Connecticut Supreme Court to make the case that Cassandra was mature enough to make her own medical decisions. Joette Katz, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, told CNN in March the agency is \"very pleased with Cassandra's progress toward a complete recovery. We understand how difficult this has been for Cassandra and her family, but we have had full confidence throughout that the medical professionals involved in her treatment would be successful in saving her life.\" The agency has denied CNN's request to speak with Cassandra or her physicians. According to Michtom, the Department of Children and Families could have withdrawn its position for an order of custody but hasn't. He said the department sees Cassandra as a flight risk because she has run away before. Representatives for the department have said in court and in conversations with Michtom and Taylor that they will withdraw their pending neglect petition once Cassandra completes her last round of chemo -- expected around the end of April -- and that she'll be allowed to return home. So for now, Cassandra is said to spend her days reading, watching TV and drawing. \"The hospital is effectively jail,\" Michtom said.","highlights":"Judge won't allow teen leave hospital before her last chemotherapy treatment .\nAttorneys for the teen are deciding whether to appeal .\nCassandra C. is now in remission and is no longer opposed to the chemotherapy treatments .","id":"44d681105bcab063dfa0c80ce9cf96393677f9cc"} -{"article":"(CNN)Mark Ronson's \"Uptown Funk!,\" featuring Bruno Mars, is the longest-leading Billboard Hot 100 of the 2010s, ruling the chart for a 13th week. It's also just the 10th single in the Hot 100's entire history to spend at least 13 weeks at No. 1. Plus, newcomer Natalie La Rose reaches the top 10 with her debut hit \"Somebody,\" featuring Jeremih. As we do each Wednesday, let's run down all the songs in the top 10, and a bit beyond, on the sales\/airplay\/streaming-based Hot 100 (dated April 11). \"Funk,\" released on RCA Records, passes Robin Thicke's \"Blurred Lines,\" featuring T.I. and Pharrell to take sole possession of the Hot 100's longest command this decade. Here's an updated look at the hits to lead for the most weeks since the beginning of 2010: . Weeks at No. 1, Title, Artist, Date Reached No. 1 . 13 (to date), \"Uptown Funk!,\" Ronson feat. Mars, Jan. 17, 2015 . 12, \"Blurred Lines,\" Robin Thicke feat. T.I. + Pharrell, June 22, 2013 . 10, \"Happy,\" Pharrell Williams, March 8, 2014 . 10, \"We Found Love,\" Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris, Nov. 12, 2011 . \"Funk\" also becomes one of an elite 10 singles ever to top the Hot 100 for at least 13 weeks, dating to the chart's Aug. 4, 1958 launch: . Weeks at No. 1, Title, Artist, Date Reached No. 1 . 16, \"One Sweet Day,\" Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, Dec. 2, 1995 . 14, \"I Gotta Feeling,\" The Black Eyed Peas, July 11, 2009 . 14, \"We Belong Together,\" Mariah Carey, June 4, 2005 . 14, \"Candle in the Wind 1997\"\/\"Something About the Way You Look Tonight,\" Elton John, Oct. 11, 1997 . 14, \"Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix),\" Los Del Rio, Aug. 3, 1996 . 14, \"I'll Make Love to You,\" Boyz II Men, Aug. 27, 1994 . 14, \"I Will Always Love You,\" Whitney Houston, Nov. 28, 1992 . 13 (to date), \"Uptown Funk!,\" Ronson feat. Mars, Jan. 17, 2015 . 13, \"The Boy Is Mine,\" Brandy & Monica, June 6, 1998 . 13, \"End of the Road,\" Boyz II Men, Aug. 15, 1992 . Ask Billboard: Will 'Uptown Funk!' be the Hot 100's No. 1 Song of 2015? With \"Funk\" now just three weeks from potentially tying \"One Sweet Day\" for the record, and four weeks from possibly claiming it all to itself, can it rewrite Hot 100 history? It's too early to forecast charts a month away, but \"Funk\" still sports strong leads in all main Hot 100 metrics. \"Funk\" logs a 13th week atop the Digital Songs chart with 165,000 downloads sold (down 12 percent) in the week ending March 29, according to Nielsen Music. That's a record-tying feat: \"Funk!\" matches Flo Rida's 2007-08 hit \"Low,\" featuring T-Pain, for the most weeks a title has spent at No. 1 on Digital Songs. \"Funk\" also leads Streaming Songs (16.2 million U.S. streams, down 15 percent) for an 11th week. On Radio Songs, \"Funk\" reigns for a 10th week with 166 million in all-format audience (down 4 percent). It's the first song to reach double-digit weeks at No. 1 on Radio Songs since \"Blurred Lines\" led for 11. Ask Billboard: Will 'Uptown Funk!' Be the Hot 100's No. 1 Song of 2015? \"Funk,\" thus, leads the Hot 100 and its three main component charts (Digital Songs, Radio Songs and Streaming Songs) simultaneously for a record-extending ninth week (nonconsecutively). Perhaps helping the chances that \"Funk\" can remain at No. 1 on the Hot 100, at least for another week: while it's down by 11 percent in overall activity, the No. 2 song (for a third week), Maroon 5's \"Sugar,\" decreases by 3 percent, while Ed Sheeran's \"Thinking Out Loud,\" at No. 3 (for a third week, after peaking at No. 2 for eight weeks), is off by 2 percent. And, the lead of \"Funk\" over those songs is still significant: they each boast approximately two-thirds of the Hot 100 points of \"Funk\" this week. Could either \"Sugar\" or \"Loud\" rebound to challenge \"Funk\" further on the Hot 100? Could another song in the top 10 topple it? Or, is it a song just building, or not even yet released, that will take over? Again, it's too soon to tell. We know only that a song will eventually dethrone the uncommonly overarching smash that \"Funk\" has become. (At least we think one will ...) Chart Highlights: Taylor Swift's 'Style' hits No. 1 on adult pop songs . Meanwhile, \"Sugar\" takes over at No. 1 on the subscription services-based On-Demand Songs chart, despite a 10 percent drop to 4.1 million streams. (\"Funk\" falls to No. 3 on the list after 11 weeks at No. 1.) \"Sugar\" holds at No. 2 on Digital Songs (143,000, down 8 percent); rises 4-2 on Radio Songs (133 million, up 3 percent); and keeps at No. 4 on Streaming Songs (9.5 million, down 4 percent). Below Sheeran, Ellie Goulding's \"Love Me Like You Do\" holds at No. 4 on the Hot 100 after reaching No. 3. The Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack single dips 3-4 on Digital Songs (114,000, down 14 percent) and stays at No. 5 on Radio Songs (118 million, up 8 percent) and Streaming Songs (9 million, up 9 percent). From the same hit movie, The Weeknd's \"Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)\" reaches the Hot 100's top five (6-5), adding top Airplay Gainer honors for a second week. On Radio Songs, it pushes 9-6 with a 23 percent gain to 86 million. \"Earned\" (a possible contender for No. 1 on the Hot 100 ...) holds at No. 6 on both Streaming Songs (8.9 million, up 24 percent) and Digital Songs (107,000, up 4 percent). The sultry track also takes over at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot R&B\/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Chart Highlights: Taylor Swift's 'Style' Hits No. 1 on Adult Pop Songs . Fetty Wap's \"Trap Queen\" rises 8-6 on the Hot 100, while spending a second week at No. 1 on Hot Rap Songs; Taylor Swift's \"Style\" ranks at No. 7 on the Hot 100 for a third week after reaching No. 6 (and, as previously reported, reaches No. 1 on the Adult Pop Songs airplay chart); Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney's \"FourFiveSeconds\" drops 5-8 on the Hot 100 after climbing to No. 4 (and departs the Hot R&B\/Hip-Hop Songs summit after seven weeks); and Flo Rida climbs 10-9 with \"G.D.F.R.,\" featuring Sage the Gemini and Lookas. The rapper's new EP, My House, arrives Tuesday (April 7). One song is new to the Hot 100's top 10: La Rose's \"Somebody,\" featuring Jeremih (13-10). The Dutch singer's debut hit lifts 10-8 on Radio Songs (73 million, up 9 percent); backtracks 13-14 on Digital Songs, but with a 7 percent gain to 68,000; and zooms 31-19 on Streaming Songs (4.3 million, up 5 percent). The track tops the Rhythmic Songs airplay chart for a second week. (Jeremih scores his fourth Hot 100 top 10, and first in a featured role.) La Rose is adjacent to her friend, and mentor, Flo Rida, on the Hot 100. After she had introduced herself to him at a party, they soon began working together, and she started touring with him. They created \"Somebody,\" based on Whitney Houston's 1987 Hot 100 No. 1 \"I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),\" as La Rose is a \"huge fan of '80s music,\" as she told Billboard. She's currently recording her debut EP. Just beyond the Hot 100's top 10, Walk the Moon's \"Shut Up and Dance\" pushes 15-12, and is the new No. 1 on the Hot Rock Songs chart, while Jason Derulo's \"Want to Want Me\" bounds 27-17. And, Rihanna roars in at No. 23 with \"B**** Better Have My Money,\" the chart's highest debut, powered largely by its No. 5 debut on Digital Songs (108,000 sold since its digital retail arrival on March 26). More details on action below the top 10 in the weekly \"Hot 100 Chart Moves\" column to post on Friday (April 3). See the original story at Billboard.com. \u00a92015 Billboard. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"The song rules the chart for 13th week .\nIt passes Robin Thicke's \"Blurred Lines\"\nSong three weeks from potentially tying \"One Sweet Day\" for record .","id":"a43893ac704663476a285673392de84c0c17d4e5"} -{"article":"(CNN)A high temperature of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit might sound like a pleasant day in early spring -- unless you're in Antarctica. The chilly continent recorded the temperature (15.5 degrees Celsius) on March 24, possibly the highest ever recorded on Antarctica, according to the Weather Underground. The temperature was recorded at Argentina's Esperanza Base on the northern tip of the Antarctica Peninsula, according to CNN affiliate WTNH. (Note to map lovers: The Argentine base is not geographically part of the South American continent.) The World Meteorological Organization, a specialized United Nations agency, is in the process of setting up an international ad-hoc committee of about 10 blue-ribbon climatologists and meteorologists to begin collecting relevant evidence, said Randy Cerveny, the agency's lead rapporteur of weather and climate extremes and Arizona State University professor of geographical sciences. The committee will examine the equipment used to measure the temperature, whether it was in good working order, whether the correct monitoring procedures were followed, whether the equipment was placed in the correct location and whether the measurement is matched by corresponding records from surrounding stations, Cerveny said. The committee will discuss the issues and make a recommendation to Cerveny, who will make an official finding, probably by late summer or early fall. Researchers who study climate change carefully watch weather changes in the Antarctic region and elsewhere for evidence that the Earth is getting warmer.","highlights":"High temperatures are recorded on the northern tip of the Antarctica Peninsula .\nThe World Meteorological Organization will make the final determination .","id":"f7c2eb465479b965669b81535234e24735915ebf"} -{"article":"(CNN)The United States has seemingly erupted this week about what it means to live your religion, especially in Indiana, where its new Religious Freedom Restoration Act faces a firestorm from critics who say it uses faith as a pretext to discriminate against gay people. Such state laws have been growing ever since the U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act became law in 1993, designed to prohibit the federal government from \"substantially burdening\" a person's exercise of religion. So far, 20 states have some version of the religious liberty law, and the legal controversies have grown, too. Nonetheless, claims under those state RFRAs are \"exceedingly rare,\" and victories involved mostly religious minorities, not Christian denominations, experts say. \"There is reason to doubt whether these state-level religious liberty provisions truly provide meaningful protections for religious believers,\" wrote Wayne State University law professor Christopher Lund in a 2010 analysis, when there were only 16 states with such laws. Here are some of the more interesting cases arising from the federal and state laws, touching upon an array of religious matters from a knife carried by an IRS accountant to a tea from the Amazon: . He was a Native American with eagle feathers at a religious gathering of tribes. But not in the eyes of the feds. In 2006, Robert Soto and Michael Russell attended an American Indian powwow while in possession of eagle feathers, in violation of the federal Eagle Protection Act, which outlaws the killing of bald and golden eagles and even picking their feathers off the ground. Soto, a Lipan Apache, asserted he was participating in an Indian religious ceremony. The feathers are sacred to Native Americans. But a federal Fish and Wildlife Service agent found his tribe wasn't federally recognized, and Soto surrendered his feathers. Russell, who is married to Soto's sister, isn't American Indian and agreed to pay a fine, according to court papers and the America Bar Association Journal. Soto, however, petitioned the federal Interior Department to return his feathers. The feds said no, because he wasn't from a recognized tribe. Soto and Russell sued the federal government, but a federal district court ruled in favor of the government, rejecting the two men's First Amendment assertions and their claims under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the same 1993 statute that Indiana legislators used in developing their new state law. But last August, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's decision and sent the case back to that court after finding the government's action would violate the federal RFRA. On March 10, the federal government returned the eagle feathers to Soto. But the legal war isn't over. The federal government still maintains it can criminally prosecute Soto and his congregants, so Soto is seeking a preliminary injunction, claiming the feds are violating the federal RFRA, said Luke Goodrich, Soto's attorney who's with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. A tea used by a Brazilian faith is to them like wine used by Catholics at communion, but U.S. agents considered the brew an illegal drug. The religious organization O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal uses a sacramental tea called hoasca, made from two plants native to the Amazon that contains dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogen, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. The religion is a Christian spiritist faith that originated in Brazil and includes Amazonian and indigenous spiritual traditions. About 140 members of the church live in the United States and use the tea in a sacred communion. In May 1999, U.S. Customs agents entered the church headquarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and seized all of its hoasca. The church became alarmed and cited how the federal government allows an exception for American Indians to use another illegal drug, peyote, in their religious ceremonies. In fact, the federal RFRA was designed partly to protect the Native Americans' use of peyote, said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. \"They were a legitimate religion, and this was a legitimate ritual of the religion, and Congress wanted to make sure it was protected,\" Toobin said of peyote and the 1993 law. The Uniao do Vegetal, which means \"the union of the plants,\" cited that federal law in suing the federal government. \"The government has never explained why it has accommodated The Native American Church's use of peyote (which contains mescaline, also a controlled substance) but cannot accommodate the UDV's use of hoasca,\" the church said in a statement. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the church's favor, saying the federal government failed to show a compelling interest to ban the substance for religious use. \"The peyote exception also fatally undermines the government's broader contention that the Controlled Substances Act establishes a closed regulatory system that admits of no exceptions under RFRA,\" the court ruling said. Bruce Rich, an Orthodox Jewish prisoner in Florida, wanted kosher meals, but the warden said no. So Rich sued the state prison system in 2010, saying its denial of a kosher menu violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, a landmark civil law rights law for inmates whose predecessor was the federal religious freedom law. Rich, 66, is serving a life sentence for murdering his parents, in their 70s, in 1995 allegedly to inherit their home. The prison system argued the meals were costly and would lead to security concerns, namely \"retaliation against the kosher inmates\" if other inmates believed the higher costs of kosher meals impacted the quality of their food, court papers said. At least 35 other states and the federal government, however, provided kosher diets to inmates. After losing before a magistrate, Rich won an appeal before the 11th Circuit Court, which cited \"the defendant's meager efforts to explain why Florida's prisons are so different from the penal institutions that now provide kosher meals such that the plans adopted by those other institutions would not work in Florida.\" Recently baptized in the Sikh faith, Kawal Tagore went to her job with the IRS in Houston in 2005 carrying a new religious item: a 9-inch kirpan, a small ceremonial sword that resembles a knife but has an edge that is blunted or curved. Tagore needed to carry the kirpan at all times as a mandatory article of faith. But the federal government banned her from the building, citing the kirpan as a \"dangerous weapon\" with a more than 3-inch blade, and she was later fired from her accounting job because she refused to keep the kirpan out of the workplace. Tagore sued the government under the federal law. Tagore cited how the government allowed the public to enter the federal building with more threatening objects: real 2.5-inch blade knives and metal canes, said her attorneys with the Newar Law Firm and the Becket Fund. Also, federal employees inside the building were allowed to use box cutters and cake knives. In November, the federal government agreed to settle the case shortly after the start of Tagore's trial. The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Tagore's attorneys described the settlement as \"a groundbreaking policy allowing Sikhs and other religious minorities to wear religious symbols and attire in federal buildings,\" they said in a statement. Invoking a religious freedom law and related statutes doesn't always equate to victory. In Chicago, an association of 40 churches called the Civil Liberties for Urban Believers found it too onerous to erect houses of worship in business and commercial zones. The ministers needed a special use permit, but such permits were often thwarted by aldermen or it was too bureaucratic and costly to obtain one, the church leaders claimed. In fact, it was easier to get a club, lodge or community center approved. So the pastors sued the city of Chicago in 2000, alleging that its zoning laws violated the Illinois religious freedom statute, the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the U.S. Constitution. But in 2003, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision and rejected the church group's claims, finding no substantial burden on the churches, which also failed to establish their RLUIPA claim. Defeated, church leaders were angry. \"The forty (40) churches in C.L.U.B. and certainly people of all faiths throughout Chicago are outraged by the majority opinion which neuters the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act passed unanimously by Congress in 2000,\" Apostle Theodore Wilkinson, the group's chairman, said in a statement. \"Also alarming is the court's conclusion that Chicago's religious assemblies have no free speech protection from zoning laws. The majority opinion would apparently extend free speech protection to religious assemblies only if they allowed live nude dancing,\" he said. At the same time, the city of Chicago revised its zoning ordinance to avoid \"the threat of heightened scrutiny under RLUIPA,\" according to a League of California Cities report in 2002. CNN's Alexandra Meeks contributed to this report.","highlights":"A Native American from a tribe not recognized by the feds wins the return of his eagle feathers .\nAn IRS accountant is fired for insisting on carrying a symbolic Sikh knife to work .\nA group of Chicago pastors takes on City Hall over its permits for new churches and loses .","id":"e8c90d557031700caa1afb66dfc85358ef719108"} -{"article":"Atlanta (CNN)Robert Lewis Burns Jr., the original drummer in Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died Friday night in a car crash, a Georgia State Patrol spokesman said. Burns, 64, died after his car hit a mailbox and a tree in Cartersville, spokesman James Tallent said. No other cars were involved in the crash, which occurred shortly before midnight. \"He was not restrained at the time of the crash,\" Tallent told CNN. The musician lived in northern Georgia. Burns was part of the genre-defining band's original lineup, which formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1965. Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant started Noble Five with Burns, guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins and bassist Larry Junstrom in their hometown. It then made a name change in a reference to a high school gym teacher. Lynyrd Skynyrd changed members over the years as it produced rock anthems including \"Sweet Home Alabama\" and \"Freebird.\" Burns left the band before its third studio album, \"Nuthin Fancy,\" in 1975, \"exhausted by touring,\" according to the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography. He was not involved in the 1977 plane crash that killed three members, including Van Zant. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Lynyrd Skynyrd still tours with Rossington, the only original member still in the band. \"Today I'm at a loss for words but I just remember Bob being a funny guy,\" Rossington said on the band's official Facebook page. \"My heart goes out to his family and God bless him and them in this sad time. He was a great great drummer.\" People we've lost in 2015 .","highlights":"Robert Lewis Burns Jr. was part of Lynyrd Skynyrd's original lineup .\nHis car hit a mailbox and a tree just before midnight .","id":"c71b08cede3b6edb662a2f2c95f8b543fa65e405"} -{"article":"Seoul, South Korea (CNN)The man accused of stabbing U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert in Seoul last month is now charged with attempted murder, a South Korean court official said Wednesday. Kim Ki-Jong has also been charged with assaulting a foreign envoy and business obstruction, the Seoul Central District Court official said. According to South Korean law, Kim's trial must begin within 14 days of receiving today's indictment. Lippert was stabbed March 5 during an event organized by the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, which advocates peaceful reunification between North and South Korea. Shortly before Lippert was supposed to give a speech, the attacker slashed him in the face and jaw. The ambassador suffered a gash from his right cheekbone to his lower jaw that required 80 stitches. That wound measured 10 centimeters (4 inches) long and 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) deep, but there was no serious facial nerve damage, said Dr. Jung Nam-shik of the Yonsei Severance Hospital. Lippert also suffered five cuts in his left arm and hand, but was not expected to have permanent damage to his arm function. Police said Kim stabbed Lippert with a 10-inch knife because he opposed the joint South Korean-U.S. military drills, which happen every year and frequently draw the ire of North Korea. Police official Yoon Myeong-seong told reporters that Kim had visited North Korea seven times between 1999 and 2007, and that authorities were investigating a possible connection between his visits to the reclusive state and the attack against Lippert. Kim, 55, has a history of unpredictable behavior. In 2010, he received a suspended two-year prison sentence for throwing a piece of concrete at a Japanese ambassador to South Korea, according to the Yonhap news agency. South Korean President Park Geun-hye condemned the attack. \"This incident is not only a physical attack on the U.S. ambassador,\" she said, \"but an attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance and it can never be tolerated.\" CNN's Madison Park and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kim Ki-Jong is charged with attempted murder and assaulting a foreign envoy .\nHe's accused of stabbing U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert in the face and arm .\nPolice said Kim opposed the joint U.S.-South Korean military drills .","id":"f9f5d81bc74d6cf6d713d6fa6be4a30427b46e68"} -{"article":"(CNN)When Hong Kong police answered a call in the early hours of a Saturday morning last November, they encountered a grisly scene and an alleged crime that shocked the city. One woman was lying on the floor with cuts to her neck and buttocks. Another was stuffed inside a suitcase on the balcony. A former banker, 29-year-old Briton Rurik Jutting, was charged with two counts of murder. On Thursday, a court hearing that was to determine whether there was enough evidence to proceed to trial was adjourned until May. Here's what we know so far about the victims and their alleged attacker. Jutting allegedly lived at the murder scene, an upmarket apartment in the middle of Wan Chai, an inner-city suburb that's home to an eclectic mix of late-night bars, residential tower blocks and local markets selling groceries and assorted cheap goods. In the early hours of Saturday morning, November 1, police say Jutting called them to the apartment. There they found a woman lying on the blood-splattered floor, later identified as 29-year-old Seneng Mujiasih. During a search of the apartment, officers uncovered another body hidden in a suitcase on the balcony. It's alleged 25-year-old Sumarti Ningsih was killed on October 27, five days before her body was found. Sumarti Ningsih was from Cilacap, in Central Java, and was the mother of a five-year-old girl. In a statement, her cousin, Jumiati, described her as \"just an ordinary woman from Indonesia\" who, like many others, was \"forced to work abroad to feed her poor family and make her dream comes (sic) true.\" \"She wanted to work as professional so she can earn money and dignity for her family,\" Jumiati wrote. \"She is good girl and did not deserve this treatment.\" According to the Asian Migrant Coordinating Body, Ningsih was visiting Hong Kong as a tourist and had been due to fly back to Jakarta the day after her body was found. Last year, her grieving father, Ahmad Khaliman, told Agence France-Presse that his daughter had worked in Hong Kong as a domestic helper between 2011 and 2013. She'd since returned on two occasions, Khaliman said. He said the family had been shocked by her murder, and called for the perpetrator to be executed. \"If not, I cannot accept it. He has already taken my daughter's life, so he has to pay with his life,\" he told CNN affiliate Trans7. Seneng Mujiasih had more recently worked as a domestic worker in Hong Kong but had overstayed her visa, according to the Asian Migrant Co-ordinating Body. Also known as Jesse Lorena, Mujiasih was from the city of Muna in Sulawesi province, in southeast Indonesia. Other than that, few details are known about her life and why she stayed on in Hong Kong. After news of their death spread, fellow domestic workers held a vigil in Hong Kong's Victoria Park. Around 200 people gathered to sing and pray, and lay flowers besides photos of the two women. The victims' bodies were buried after being repatriated to Indonesia in November. Before being taken into custody, Rurik Jutting lived in the upmarket J Residence in Wan Chai. He was detained at the scene, where police found the bodies of two women and seized a knife during a search of the premises. It's unclear when Jutting left his job as a trader at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch; a BoA spokesman would only confirm that a man of the same name had worked there in the past. Jutting's profile on LinkedIn said he haad been employed at the bank's structured equity finance and trading division in Hong Kong since July 2013. Before that, he worked in the same unit in London for three years. According to the profile, Jutting previously worked in capital markets for the British bank Barclays and studied history and law at the prestigious University of Cambridge, between 2004 and 2008. As part of the trial process, tests were conducted to determined if Jutting was psychologically fit to enter a plea. He was. The case was then adjourned to allow for more than 200 pieces of forensic and DNA evidence to be analyzed.","highlights":"Hong Kong banker alleged murder case adjourned until May .\nThe 29-year-old Rurik Jutting is accused of killing two Indonesian domestic workers .","id":"32a7125a655a052b3ea62350a8e02f0245cc220e"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Jake the dog and Finn the human. The fun will never end. Adventure Time.\" So begins the dreamy theme song intro to the strangely addictive Cartoon Network TV show that's centered around psychedelic characters like the Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen and, of course, Jake and Finn. Now, mega-fans of the hit show can experience \"Adventure Time\" in the skies. Thai Smile, a subsidiary of Thailand flag carrier Thai Airways, on Thursday unveiled colorful new livery featuring Jake, Finn and the beloved Princess Bubblegum sprawled across an Airbus A320 at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The interior of the plane also has an Adventure Time theme, with overhead bins, head rests and even air sickness bags covered in the faces of characters from the show. Airlines show off their new flying colors . The Adventure Time plane is the result of a partnership between Thai Airways subsidiary Thai Smile and Cartoon Network Amazone, a new water park near the Thai resort city of Pattaya featuring attractions based on shows that appear on the Turner Broadcasting System channel. Turner Broadcasting is a parent company of CNN. Check out these cool airline liveries . The inaugural Thai Smile Adventure Time flight takes place on April 4, heading from Bangkok to Phuket.","highlights":"Thai Airways subsidiary Thai Smile features Cartoon Network paint job on A320 jet .\nOverhead bins, head rests and air sick bags feature characters from Cartoon Network .","id":"38a207accfb31afc694f16531d23d2cda79ac85d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Imprisoned soldier Chelsea Manning can now communicate with the world -- in 140 characters or less. Manning, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents, appears to have joined Twitter this week. In a series of tweets, the prisoner formerly known as Bradley Manning said she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets to communications firm Fitzgibbon Media, which will post them on her behalf. She is not allowed Internet access in prison, according to The Guardian. \"It will be hard, but I don't want this Twitter feed to be a one-way street\/conversation,\" Manning posted to her nearly 26,000-plus followers. Manning was sentenced in 2013, and in August of that year, she said she wanted to transition to a female. The Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas, where she is serving her sentence, has authorized hormone therapy for her treatment. Manning said she suffers from gender dysphoria. Her lawyers describe it as \"the medical diagnosis given to individuals whose gender identity -- their innate sense of being male or female -- differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, causing clinically significant distress.\" Last year, a Kansas judge granted her request to be formally known as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. The former Army intelligence analyst was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks in what has been described as the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history. She was found guilty of 20 of the 22 charges, including violations of the U.S. Espionage Act. Manning has written opinion pieces for The New York Times and The Guardian from prison.","highlights":"Manning is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking thousands of classified documents .\nShe says she will be using a voice phone to dictate her tweets .","id":"9bea5cbe9a0184eec4086a08452066dead185173"} -{"article":"(CNN)President Barack Obama tied himself to the mast of a nuclear deal with Iran even before he became the Democratic candidate for president. Reaching a good, solid agreement with Iran is a worthy, desirable goal. But the process has unfolded under the destructive influence of political considerations, weakening America's hand and strengthening Iran. Obama's political standing and his historic legacy in foreign policy are so deeply intertwined with reaching an accord with Iran that if the deal ultimately collapses, he may fear that historians will conclude that his legacy in global affairs collapsed with it. There is a reason one gets the feeling that it is the United States and not Iran that is the more eager, even desperate, side in these talks, even though Iran is the country whose economy was sent into a deep chill by international sanctions; the country whose only significant export, oil, lost more than half of its value in recent months. The reason is that Obama has a huge political stake in these negotiations. The President may insist that the United States will choose no deal over a bad deal, but few people truly believe he has a credible Plan B. Few believe it, particularly in the Middle East and notably among America's Arab friends, who hold the view that Iran is running circles around the United States and outplayed Obama. As the writer David Rothkopf aptly put it, \"Iran is having a great Obama administration.\" That's a belief that has already started shaking up the region. Saudi Arabia has said that it will pursue nuclear weapons if it believes Iran has not been stopped, and there is little doubt that other countries among Iran's Muslim rivals will do the same. In fact, the notion that Obama is not handling the Iranian threat effectively is contributing to a new war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and other Arabs are trying to push back against gains by Iran's allies. We can trace it all back to the Democratic primaries in 2007, when then-Sen. Obama said he would meet Iran's leaders \"without preconditions,\" leading his rival, Hillary Clinton, to call the idea \"Irresponsible and frankly naive.\" As the years of his presidency unfolded, and the Middle East started coming apart, finding a deal with Iran started to look like the one major foreign policy achievement Obama might leave behind. The political imperative started to intrude in strategic considerations on an issue that is of transcendent importance to world peace. The framework agreement announced on Thursday came two days after Obama's March 31 deadline. The U.S.-imposed deadline served only to pressure the United States, and the French ambassador very publicly decried as a \"bad tactic.\" That bad tactic was a political move, a push to produce some sort of result, however vague, to protect the talks from critics. Again, a solid agreement that ensures Iran will not produce nuclear weapons would be a most welcome development. But the agreement so far does not look promising. It certainly shows the final outcome will differ greatly from what Obama had vowed. In a presidential debate in 2012, Obama described a crystal clear goal for negotiations. \"The deal we'll accept is they end their nuclear program. It's very straightforward.\" Nobody is talking about Iran ending its nuclear program. Not even close. Iran will be allowed to keep one-third of its more than 6,000 centrifuges. That's not a small symbolic number. And it does not appear as though any of its nuclear facilities will be dismantled, although Fordow will contain no nuclear materials. Iran has insisted all along that its nuclear program has only civilian uses. The fact is that Iran has a well-established record of lying and concealing the elements of its nuclear program to U.N. inspectors. And the U.N. agency chief says that has not stopped. A couple of weeks ago, with days left until the negotiating deadline, U.N. nuclear chief Yukiya Amano said Iran is still stonewalling. \"We are still not in a position to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is [for a] peaceful purpose,\" he warned. The negotiations' starting point is that Iran would like to have the bomb and the international community wants to delay that as much as possible -- and preferably, forever. The world only learned about Iran's secret facilities at Arak and Natanz after dissidents raised the alarm. Iran, we have learned repeatedly, is very good at lying to international inspectors. It is well-established that it has had something to hide about its nuclear program. It is well-established that many of Iran's neighbors don't trust it and are anxious about the U.S.-led international dealings with Iran. It is well-established that Iran has engaged in international terrorism and in destabilizing the region. It is also clear that it took harsh international sanctions and a collapse in oil prices to bring Iran to the negotiating table. It was Iran that had the most to lose from a failure of talks. But political considerations turned the United States into the supplicant. The framework agreement starts lifting those indispensable sanctions much too soon. Nuclear enrichment will continue, although at a lower level. Iran officially, legally, becomes a nuclear threshold state, with the capability to make the final dash to a bomb within a \"breakout\" period of one year, the time when presumably inspectors would discover violation and allow the rest of the world to act. Even the Fordow facility, conveniently inside a fortified bunker in a mountain, will remain in existence, though \"converted\" to a nuclear \"research facility\" And without nuclear material on site. International sanctions lifting will begin almost immediately. Its nuclear infrastructure will remain largely in place, even if operating at a reduced pace, giving Iran much of what it wanted. With Iranian forces gaining ground in Arab lands and Iranian commanders declaring the destruction of Israel \"nonnegotiable\" and threatening Saudi Arabia, this deal does not look reassuring. Obama is right that a diplomatic solution is the most desirable option. But the deal so far looks like (another) win for Iran. It introduces enough restrictions that it could give the President the political cover he wants, but it does not do enough to make the world safe from nuclear proliferation and more potentially catastrophic instability in the Middle East.","highlights":"Frida Ghitis: President Barack Obama is right to want a deal, but this one gives Iran too much .\nShe says the framework agreement starts lifting Iran sanctions much too soon .","id":"a2ee2faeb2dc4e5eab43b1d14233c4ac658f0a8f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Universal's \"Furious 7\" continues to build momentum at the Friday box office for a weekend debut in the $135 million-$138 million range, the largest opening in North America since fall 2013. That includes a projected Friday take of $58 million-$60 million. The final film featuring the late Paul Walker, \"Furious 7\" is opening around the globe this weekend and earned a record-breaking $60 million internationally on Wednesday and Thursday for a possible worldwide debut approaching or crossing $300 million by the end of Easter Sunday. \"Furious 7\" is getting the widest release in Universal's history. Domestically, it will be playing in 4,003 theaters by Good Friday. Internationally, it has booked more than 10,500 screens in 63 territories, although it won't open in China, Japan and Russia until later. The current record-holder for top April opening domestically is \"Captain America: The Winter Soldier,\" which debuted to $95 million from 3,928 theaters last year. \"Furious 7\" is likewise poised to nab the biggest opening of 2015 to date. And it will easily beat the $121.9 million launch of \"The Hunger Games Mockingjay \u2014 Part 1\" in November 2104, making it the largest three-day opening since \"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire\" ($158 million) in November 2013. The movie enjoys massive awareness and interest, due to both the popularity of the street-racing series and Walker's death. The last film, \"Fast & Furious 6,\" debuted to a franchise-best $117 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend in 2012, including $97.4 million for the three days, on its way to grossing $788.7 million worldwide. Universal intended to open \"Furious 7\" on July 11, 2014, but production was halted in November 2013 when Walker died in a car crash during the Thanksgiving hiatus. After director James Wan, writer Chris Morgan and Universal pored over existing footage and tweaked the script, production resumed in April 2014. CGI and voice effects were used in some scenes featuring Walker's detective character, Brian O'Conner, with Walker's brothers, Caleb and Cody, used as stand-ins. \"Furious 7\" pits Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto and crew (which includes Michelle Rodriguez and Tyrese Gibson, among others, as well as Walker) against Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw, out for revenge after the death of his brother. Dwayne Johnson also reprises his role as Hobbs. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The final film featuring the late Paul Walker, \"Furious 7\" is opening around the globe this weekend .\nIt's worldwide debut may approach or cross $300 million by the end of Easter Sunday .","id":"fd0e8622b9ee38d1d6fff2fff59f0566f1a2f8f7"} -{"article":"(CNN)Deion Sanders is such a dad. The NFL legend called out Deion Sanders Jr. on Twitter for saying he only eats \"hood doughnuts.\" In response, the elder Sanders -- in front of his 912,000 followers -- reminded his son he has a trust fund, a condo and his own clothing line called \"Well Off.\" \"You're a Huxtable with a million $ trust fund. Stop the hood stuff!\" Sanders followed it up with another tweet that included the hashtags #versacesheets #Huxtable and #Trustfund. Junior is a wide receiver at Southern Methodist University, an aspiring entrepreneur and occasional rapper. His Twitter timeline is a mix of biblical verses, motivational quotes and references to sports, cars, school and Balenciaga shoes. He also has gone on record with his love for \"hood doughnuts,\" or confections from \"a place in the hood,\" saying \"if my doughnuts don't come in a plain white box, I don't want them!\" His father promptly put him in his place. Sanders Jr. seemed to take the public browbeating in stride, retweeting his father's comments. At least he knew better than to delete them.","highlights":"Deion Sanders calls out son for \"hood doughnuts\" comments .\n\"You're a Huxtable with a million $ trust fund. Stop the hood stuff!\"","id":"6302a6cf8564e4bb4753e2dc3dae328f13edae50"} -{"article":"(CNN)According to an outside review by Columbia Journalism School professors, \"(a)n institutional failure at Rolling Stone resulted in a deeply flawed article about a purported gang rape at the University of Virginia.\" The Columbia team concluded that \"The failure encompassed reporting, editing, editorial supervision and fact-checking.\" Hardly a ringing endorsement of the editorial process at the publication. The magazine's managing editor, Will Dana, wrote, \"We would like to apologize to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students.\" Brian Stelter: Fraternity to 'pursue all available legal action' The next question is: . Can UVA, Phi Kappa Psi or any of the other fraternities on campus sue for defamation? The Virginia Supreme Court said in Jordan v. Kollman that \"the elements of libel are (1) publication of (2) an actionable statement with (3) the requisite intent.\" \"Actionable\" means the statement must be both false and defamatory. Of course, the law of defamation must be balanced against the freedom of speech protected under not only the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, but also the Virginia Constitution. True statements cannot be defamatory. Neither can pure statements of opinion, because they theoretically cannot be either true or false. But the Rolling Stone article certainly purported to be fact, and it apparently is not exactly what the law considers \"true.\" The individual members of the fraternity will likely be considered private individuals, and not public figures; the latter have a harder time proving defamation. A private person suing for defamation must establish that the defendant has published a false factual statement that is about the person and that it also harms the person's reputation. The private plaintiff also must show that the defendant knew that the statement was false, or believed it was true but lacked a reasonable basis, or acted negligently in checking the facts. At first blush, that sounds like it fits perfectly, right? The Columbia report may go a long way toward establishing at least a modicum of the required intent. But that's only half the battle. There are strict rules about who can be a plaintiff in a defamation action like this. The identity of the aspiring plaintiff matters. First, let's eliminate UVA. The university is a public university, and therefore it is a governmental entity. The Supreme Court has been clear on the issue of libelous statements about the government: The government cannot sue for defamation. There is no such cause of action in American jurisprudence. Now the fraternities, starting with Phi Kappa Psi. A fraternity is not an individual, but a group. A plaintiff in a defamation case must show that the statements were \"of or concerning\" the plaintiff. It sounds obvious, but if you're going to say a statement hurt you, you have to prove the statement actually was about you to begin with. When the statements are about a group without naming an individual, it's hard to say the statement is \"concerning\" the individual -- and groups generally cannot sue. For example, you can be sued if you call a specific lawyer a thief, but that same person cannot sue you if you simply call all lawyers thieves. Defamatory statements about a group are therefore not actionable by the group's individual members, for the most part. Like all rules, however, there are exceptions. If the defamatory language is about \"a comparatively small group of persons and the defamatory part is easily imputed against all members of the small group, an individual member may sue.\" If I said, \"The 1980 Philadelphia Phillies infielders were a bunch of criminals\" (they weren't), the individual players could sue, because that mean statement is clearly about certain persons -- if I said that -- which I didn't. Phi Kappa Psi would likely argue that the \"small group\" exception fits it perfectly: Even if the individual members were not identified by name, the defamatory story has been imputed directly to individual members, who have suffered by their association with the group. On the other hand, Rolling Stone's lawyers would likely argue that the group is so large and fluid (after all, the membership changes somewhat every year), that even though the fraternity's reputation is tarnished, the members have suffered no individualized injury. As for the other fraternities on campus but not implicated in the story, that's likely a group that moves from the small category to large, and the members of Greek life generally will have a harder time bringing a lawsuit. Lawyers will tell you that a libel suit is one of those things that citizens often threaten each other with on Facebook, but that such cases are rarely actually filed. That's because a plaintiff usually has to show some kind of financial harm. So if your Aunt Edna calls you a loser on Twitter, you're going to have to spend money on an expert to explain to a jury how that actually damaged you financially. And since most of the people who waste time threatening each other with defamation suits on Facebook live in their moms' basements and are \"between jobs,\" these are not the kind of people who have money or reputation to damage in the first place. The UVA situation is not your run-of-the-mill defamation case. The university won't be able to sue, but if the members of the fraternity can get past some of the preliminary hurdles of a defamation claim, and they can make a tangible case for damages, then this could be one of those rare successful defamation cases.","highlights":"An outside review found that a Rolling Stone article about campus rape was \"deeply flawed\"\nDanny Cevallos says that there are obstacles to a successful libel case, should one be filed .","id":"8012ab9261e117ab47a2759b3c0b628f2a007a82"} -{"article":"(CNN)One of Tokyo's most prominent districts has taken a small, but potentially significant step to recognizing same-sex unions in Japan. The government of Shibuya ward, one of the capital's most famous shopping and trendy entertainment districts, passed ordinance on Wednesday paving the way for \"partnership certificates\" for same-sex couples, allowing them some of the rights of married heterosexual couples. Same-sex partners who are registered with the district's ward office will be able to hold visitation rights in hospitals and co-sign tenancy agreements. Other advantages that heterosexual married couples enjoy, such as joint filing of taxes, are controlled by the federal government and are outside the remit of individual municipalities. The measure was proposed in February by Shibuya's mayor, Toshitake Kuwahara. While the certificates will not be issued until later in the summer and are not legally binding, proponents of marriage equality in socially conservative Japan say that the ward's decision is a step in the right direction. \"It is not a marriage license and advantages will be limited but still better than nothing,\" Gon Matsunaka, a gay rights activist, told CNN. While Shibuya's decision does not yet equate to heterosexual marriage, the hope is that the move will be the beginnings of promoting marriage equality for gay communities. \"What is important for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in Shibuya is the ruling will make us visible in society,\" Matsunaka said . \"It could be a strong driver for Shibuya citizens to learn and know what kind of problems LGBT people are facing.\" Taiga Ishikawa, Tokyo councillor and the first male gay local assembly member in Japan, told CNN the ordinance was a \"big first step for the protection of human rights.\" He called the decision \"happy\" but said that it must go alongside education about alternative lifestyles. He said that the most important part of today's announcement is that it \"should be actually put into practice, as should education for understanding (LGBT individuals) especially they suffer as they find out their sexuality when they are young.\" Neighboring Setagaya ward has indicated that it would look into following Shibuya's lead. However, former councilor Ishikawa cautioned against taking the movement's momentum for granted. \"To realize equal rights for gay couples, a national law has to be made,\" he said. While outright discrimination against the LGBT community is rare in Japan, its effects can be hidden and gay people often find themselves at a disadvantage. Many hide their sexuality from their employers, co-workers, families and friends. But the tide may be turning. A recent poll found that a slight majority at 52.4% oppose gay marriage, but support amongst young adults in their 20s and 30s is as high as 70%. An editorial in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which commissioned the poll, welcomed the Shibuya decision, calling it \"a bold and important step forward.\" Only traditional marriages are recognized under Japan's constitution, but the wording is vague enough to open it to interpretation, according to Mari Miura, a professor of gender and politics at Sophia University in Tokyo. \"The constitution does not rule out same-sex marriage, so an interpretation can be made that it is constitutional,\" Miura told Bloomberg Business. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party \"don't like the idea of same-sex marriage, but at the same time the issue is gaining momentum.\" Conservative groups were vocal in their opposition, with one, known as the Network Pushing for Normalization of Education, telling the Japan Times that granting same-sex couples the same rights as all other Japanese citizens would degrade the \"familial system and practice that heterosexual unions have long preserved in human history.\" While Shibuya's registration system will be a first for Japan, Yodogawa ward in the western Japanese city of Osaka was the first in the nation to recognize and support the LGBT community. In 2013 the ward government pledged to give consideration to the issues that the community faced, and to train staff to accommodate needs specific to LGBT individuals. Journalist Chie Kobayashi contributed reporting from Tokyo .","highlights":"Shibuya ward in Tokyo passes an ordinance that gives same-sex couples some of the rights of married heterosexual couples .\nActivists welcome the decision; hope that it will lead to greater equality for LGBT people in Japan .\nRecent poll finds most young Japanese open to the idea of gay marriage .","id":"b10db3ae83abe1eec4236126d9c195ed7db90cc3"} -{"article":"(CNN)Blue Bell ice cream has temporarily shut down one of its manufacturing plants over the discovery of listeria contamination in a serving of ice cream originating from that plant. Public health officials warned consumers Friday not to eat any Blue Bell-branded products made at the company's Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, plant. That includes 3-ounce servings of Blue Bell ice cream from this plant that went to institutions in containers marked with the letters O, P, Q, R, S or T behind the coding date. The warning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not affect other Blue Bell ice cream, including other 3-ounce servings, not made at the plant. But Blue Bell has recalled other products. The company is shutting down the Broken Arrow facility \"out of an abundance of caution\" to search for a possible cause of contamination. It is the third time Blue Bell has taken action in light of a listeria outbreak at a Kansas hospital that served the company's ice cream. Listeria monocytogenes was recently found in a cup of ice cream recovered from the hospital. The cup contaminated with the bacteria was produced at the Broken Arrow plant in April 2014, Blue Bell said. And, according to the CDC, listeria bacteria was found in additional samples of the same product that were recovered from the plant. The bacteria in the hospital sample and the factory sample appeared to match each other genetically, the CDC said. But they did not appear identical to listeria samples taken from patients infected in the Kansas outbreak. In a separate outbreak in Texas, the CDC did find that listeria samples taken from patients who came down with listeriosis between 2010 and 2014 in a hospital that served 3-ounce Blue Bell cups matched the listeria in recovered samples. None of this means the ice cream is the source of either spate of the infections. \"Investigation to determine whether these illnesses are related to exposure to Blue Bell products is ongoing,\" the CDC said. In early March, in light of the Kansas listeria outbreak, Blue Bell recalled a group of products made at a plant in Texas. It later added 3-ounce cup servings to the recall. Five people were infected and three died in the past year in Kansas from listeria that might be linked to Blue Bell Creameries products, according to the CDC. All five of them were hospitalized at the same hospital before developing listeriosis, the CDC said. At least four of them had consumed milkshakes made with Blue Bell ice cream before developing the infection. \"We are devastated and know that Blue Bell has to be and can be better than this,\" Paul Kruse, Blue Bell CEO and president, said in a statement. \"Quality and safety have always been our top priorities. We are deeply saddened and concerned for all those who have been affected.\" The CDC advises that individuals and institutions should check their freezers for the recalled products and throw them away. In a statement on its website, Blue Bell said \"this recall in no way includes Blue Bell ice cream half gallons, pints, quarts, 3 gallons or other 3 oz. cups.\" This has been the first product recall in the 108-year history of Blue Bell Creameries, the company said. Listeriosis is a serious infection caused by eating food contaminated with listeria, and primarily affects the elderly, pregnant women, newborns and people with weakened immune systems, according to the CDC. Symptoms of a listeria infection are fever and muscle aches, sometimes associated with diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. In the United States, an estimated 1,600 people become seriously ill each year, and approximately 16% of these illnesses result in death. Cervical infections caused by listeriosis in pregnant women may result in stillbirth or spontaneous abortion during the second or third trimesters. CNN's Debra Goldschmidt, Amanda Watts and Jacque Wilson contributed to this report.","highlights":"A test in Kansas finds listeria in a Blue Bell ice cream cup .\nThe company announces it is temporarily shutting a plant to check for the source .\nThree people in Kansas have died from a listeria outbreak .","id":"4cc5744a14d8a07414760b271c1801c670149f68"} -{"article":"(CNN)The classic video game \"Space Invaders\" was developed in Japan back in the late 1970's -- and now their real-life counterparts are the topic of an earnest political discussion in Japan's corridors of power. Luckily, Japanese can sleep soundly in their beds tonight as the government's top military official earnestly revealed that the country's Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) had never encountered an extraterrestrial unidentified flying object. Responding to a query from flamboyant former wrestler-turned-lawmaker Antonio Inoki, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told the Diet, Japan's parliament, that his jets had, to date, never come across any UFOs from outer space. \"When the Air Self Defense Force detects indications of an unidentified flying object that could violate our country's airspace, it scrambles fighter jets if necessary and makes visual observation,\" Nakatani said. He continued: \"They sometimes find birds or flying objects other than aircraft but I don't know of a case of finding an unidentified flying object believed to have come over from anywhere other than Earth.\" Inoki has appeared in the U.S.-based WWE -- which describes him as \"among the most respected men in sports-entertainment\" -- and is the founder of the New Japan Pro Wrestling organization. He entered Japan's Upper House for a second stint in politics in 2013. He also famously fought Muhammad Ali in 1976, in one of the first-ever mixed-discipline matches, which would later pave the way for today's wildly popular Mixed Martial Arts contests. Before his return to politics he was a regular fixture on Japanese TV variety shows and has promoted a slew of products, from hot sauce to banks. The maverick politician also traveled to Iraq in 1990 to try to secure the release of Japanese hostages, and has more recently attempted to replicate former NBA star Dennis Rodman's \"basketball diplomacy\" by staging a wrestling tournament in North Korea. He reportedly converted to Islam in the 1990s, although he says he practices both Islam and Buddhism. The lawmaker, who is universally known in Japan for his colossal chin and once-ever-present red scarf -- these days often replaced with a red necktie -- as much as for his political achievements, had asked a Upper House Budget Committee meeting if aircraft were ever scrambled to meet extraterrestrial threats, and if research was being done into alien visitors, prompting Nakatani's response. Inoki also claims to have seen a UFO with his own eyes, but admitted that he didn't know personally if aliens existed. The exchange wasn't the first time Japanese politicians have discussed the implications of visitors from another planet. In 2007 then-Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba pondered the legal ramifications, under Japan's pacifist constitution, of a defense against an invasion from outer space. READ MORE: Japan unveils Izumo, its largest warship since World War II .","highlights":"Japan's top military official earnestly revealed that the country's Self Defense Force (SDF) had never encountered a UFO .\nCelebrity politician and former wrestler Antonio Inoki had posed a question concerning extraterrestrials to a government committee .","id":"e2bccd4dec93c9bb7b327827dae004c2d494ec31"} -{"article":"(CNN)Residents of central Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, have learned the hard way that key strategic bombing targets are located in their neighborhoods: Detonating ordnance has been shattering their windows and doors. And fighting has killed hundreds of people in less than two weeks. The Saudi-led coalition smashed parts of Yemen's Defense Ministry Central Command in the capital over the weekend, senior Yemeni officials said. Under the rain of coalition bombs, the Houthis, who are Shiites in a majority Sunni country, still control Sanaa. But the airstrikes have hurt them and destroyed a lot of infrastructure. The electricity has gone out on 16 million Yemenis living in Houthi-held areas, the Yemeni officials said. Many fear they will lose access to clean water as well. Yemen's deposed President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi heaped scorn on top of the airstrikes. He fired his former Army chief of staff, Hussein Khairan, on Sunday. The firing had no practical effect, since Khairan had switched sides weeks ago and is the Houthi rebels' acting defense minister. Hadi is holed up in Saudi Arabia, which is working to defeat his enemies and reinstall him. Fighting has ended dozens of lives each day. On Monday, more than 50 people died in the port city of Aden alone, where Houthis and their allies are battling troops loyal to Hadi on the ground, Agence France-Press reported. Since the bombing campaign and intense fighting began just over a week ago, some 600 people are estimated to have been killed. Many more have been wounded, and tens of thousands have fled the country. The International Committee of the Red Cross has cried out for a humanitarian ceasefire to let aid in. \"Otherwise, put starkly, many more people will die. For the wounded, their chances of survival depend on action within hours, not days,\" said Robert Mardini, the ICRC's head of operations in the Near and Middle East. \"Medical supplies need to be here yesterday,\" said ICRC spokeswoman Marie-Claire Feghali from Sanaa. \"We need to save the lives that can be saved.\" Saudi Arabia signed off on letting the ICRC into Yemen via two aircraft -- one with medical supplies, the other with workers. But flying in will be hard, since most airlines have canceled their flights, and airstrikes have taken out many airfields. On Monday, the flight loaded with 48 tons of medical supplies was grounded in Djibouti, Feghali said. The ICRC is hoping to fly out in a day or two. Following the ICRC's call, on Saturday the U.N. Security Council discussed the humanitarian situation at Russia's behest. Moscow submitted a draft resolution calling for a halt to the airstrikes by the nine-country regional coalition. The meeting adjourned with no decision announced. One diplomat said the draft was missing key elements. It didn't call for the Houthis to stop fighting or for political talks between the belligerents, the diplomat told CNN on condition of anonymity. Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since Houthi rebels -- who have long complained of being marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- forced Hadi from power. The Houthis put Hadi under house arrest when they overtook Sanaa in January. But Hadi escaped in February, fled to Aden and declared himself to still be president. Houthis and their allies, including those loyal to Hadi's predecessor, then fought Hadi's forces in the Aden area. Hadi fled Aden in late March, ultimately for Saudi Arabia, when the rebels and their military allies advanced on the city. The conflict prompted Saudi Arabia, a predominately Sunni nation and Yemen's northern neighbor, and other Arab nations to intervene with force. The Houthis are allied with Iran, Saudi Arabia's bitter rival across the Persian Gulf, and Riyadh does not want an proxy of Iran in power on its border. Complicating matters in Yemen is the fact that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- not the Houthis or the forces loyal to Hadi -- holds sway in the country's east. AQAP is considered one of the most ruthless branches of the terrorist organization. It has taken advantage of the chaos to overrun one city and break prisoners out of jail. Hadi's government had cooperated with the United States to fight AQAP, but with the Houthi takeover, that arrangement has evaporated, and the terror group operates generally unchecked.","highlights":"Bombing of targets in central Sanaa smashes residents' windows and doors .\nHundreds killed in less than two weeks; humanitarian situation desperate, agencies say .","id":"357a3c6ad7f5add7f35198fa68585da8195367b4"} -{"article":"(CNN)Film director David Lynch has confirmed he will no longer direct the revival of \"Twin Peaks\" -- a cult 1990s television show that was set to return in 2016. The offbeat TV series, created by Lynch and Mark Frost, featured a quirky FBI agent who went to the Pacific Northwest town of Twin Peaks to investigate the mysterious murder of a high school girl named Laura Palmer. The groundbreaking series is considered one of the most influential shows in television history. Lynch broke the news about his departure in a series of tweets, saying that the show's third season will continue without him. He said he felt the network was not offering enough money to produce the show \"the way it needed to be done.\" Lynch also wrote that he had personally called the actors over the weekend to let them know he would no longer be directing. Showtime Network, which will air the nine-episode comeback, released a statement saying they were \"saddened\" by Lynch's decision. \"We were saddened to read David Lynch's statement today since we believed we were working towards solutions with David and his reps on the few remaining deal points,\" read the statement. \"Showtime also loves the world of Twin Peaks and we continue to hold out hope that we can bring it back in all its glory with both of its extraordinary creators, David Lynch and Mark Frost, at its helm.\" Showtime announced they would produce a third season in October last year. Actor Kyle MacLachlan, who played the coffee-obsessed FBI agent Dale Cooper in the original series, had confirmed he would reprise the lead role for the new season.","highlights":"David Lynch says he won't be directing new episodes of Twin Peaks .\nShowtime \"saddened\" over decision, which involved a dispute over money .","id":"78a670384c908a15617cab7f575fd50dc5999937"} -{"article":"(CNN)A University of Kentucky basketball player is apologizing for the \"poor choice of words\" he muttered under his breath after the team's stunning loss to Wisconsin on Saturday. As a deflated panel of Wildcats fielded a reporter's question about Wisconsin standout Frank Kaminsky, a hot mic picked up Kentucky guard Andrew Harrison saying of Kaminsky, \"F**k that (N-word).\" Harrison, who is is black, said his words were \"in jest,\" and that he meant no disrespect to Kaminsky, who is white. \"First I want to apologize for my poor choice of words used in jest towards a player I respect and know,\" Harrison tweeted. \"When I realized how this could be perceived I immediately called big frank to apologize and let him know I didn't mean any disrespect.\" Kaminsky -- the 2015 Associated Press player of the year -- said Sunday that he was \"over it.\" \"He reached out to me. We talked about it. [I'm] Over it,\" he said. \"Nothing needs to be made out of it.\" Harrison said he wished Kaminsky well in Monday's national title game against Duke. \"We had a good conversation, and I wished him good luck in the championship game Monday.\" CNN reached out to Kentucky for comment on Sunday but did not hear back. Kentucky vs. Wisconsin nets biggest Final Four ratings in 22 years .","highlights":"Kentucky player mutters N-word under his breath about a Wisconsin player at postgame news conference .\nAndrew Harrison, who is black, tweets that he apologized to Frank Kaminsky, who is white .\nKaminsky says he's talked it over with Harrison -- 'I'm over it\"","id":"8be49747e364357d7c5d32fca516ec230e5083ed"} -{"article":"(CNN)The FBI has confirmed that one of its most wanted terrorists, the Malaysian bomb maker known as Marwan, was killed in an otherwise disastrous raid in the Philippines in January. Marwan, whose real name is Zulkifli bin Hir, was believed by the FBI to a member of southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah's central command. The FBI said in February that a DNA sample -- understood to be from a severed finger -- taken from a man killed in a raid in the southern Philippines showed a link with a known relative of Marwan. But the FBI now says tests have confirmed that the dead man was the wanted Islamic extremist. \"After a thorough review of forensic data and information obtained from our Philippine law enforcement partners, the FBI has assessed that terrorism subject, Zulkifli Abdhir ... is deceased and has been removed from the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists,\" David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, told CNN in a statement. The FBI had been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to Marwan's capture in the wake of his 2007 indictment on terror charges in a California court. It accused him of being a supplier of IEDs to terrorist organizations, and having conducted bomb making training for terror groups, including the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf. Marwan had previously been falsely reported dead after a raid by Philippine security forces in 2012. The Philippines has been fighting an insurgency in the predominantly Muslim south for years, and last year signed a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest rebel group in the region. But in January it launched a surprise raid in pursuit of Marwan at Mamapasono, in the southern province of Maguindanao. The mission went disastrously awry. Forty-four members of the police's elite Special Action Force (SAF) unit were killed in the assault, targeting an area controlled by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) -- a hardline splinter group which has rejected the peace deal with the Philippines government. According to a report released by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) last month, the BIFF faction sheltering Marwan had sworn allegiance to ISIS. In the immediate aftermath of the assault, the SAF company charged with executing Marwan came under fire, before another SAF company stationed in nearby MILF territory as a \"blocking force\" became engaged in an eight-hour firefight with MILF fighters. According to the IPAC report, the SAF \"blocking\" company eventually ran out of ammunition and only one of their number survived, . Eighteen MILF fighters were killed and a number of BIFF fighters may also died. The clash shattered a three-year ceasefire with the MILF, authorities said. A national day of mourning was declared as the men were laid to rest. Bowdich expressed the FBI's \"sincere condolences to the brave officers of the Special Action Force who lost their lives while attempting to apprehend this dangerous fugitive.\" While an SAF superintendent said at a eulogy for the fallen commandos that their sacrifice had been worth it, controversy has dogged the botched mission in the Philippines. The IPAC report argued that the \"single-minded focus\" of authorities on killing Marwan has threatened the peace agreement with the MILF, which is yet to cross the final hurdle of being passed into law by the Philippines Congress. \"The best chance the southern Philippines has ever had for peace may now be in jeopardy,\" read the report, which argued that the Mamapasano fiasco was the result of a misguided emphasis on killing Marwan. The report argued that, although Marwan had aided terror attacks and provided funds and equipment to MILF and Abu Sayyaf, he was not \"the master bomber that his reputation suggested.\" Yet for the Philippines authorities and their U.S. allies, killing Marwan had become such a priority that security forces bypassed the mechanisms that had been established to alert the MILF to such operations, for fear of word leaking to their target. The report quoted an anonymous Indonesian associate of Marwan's who described the Malaysian as \"a little snake who has been blown up into a dragon.\" READ MORE: Dozens of Philippine police killed in raid on 'high value' bomb makers . READ MORE: Philippines honors 44 slain commandos with day of mourning . CNN's Arlene Samson-Espiritu and Kathy Quiano contributed to this report.","highlights":"A man killed in a raid in the Philippines in January was a \"most wanted\" terrorist, the FBI says .\nMarwan was a Malaysian believed to have provided support to Islamist terror groups .\n44 elite Philippine commandos were killed in the raid on his hideout last month .","id":"23b01320d93bb8a0fce96fb0dc37bcebf3f179cb"} -{"article":"(CNN)The presence of a harmful pesticide at a luxury villa in the U.S. Virgin Islands may have resulted in the illness of a Delaware family, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday. Paramedics were called last week to a rented villa at the Sirenusa resort in St. John after the family of four fell ill. They had rented the villa from March 14 to March 22, and were later hospitalized. The illness was reported to the EPA on March 20. \"Our preliminary results do show that there was a presence of methyl bromide in the unit where the family was staying,\" said Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman. Exposure to methyl bromide can result in serious health effects, including central nervous system and respiratory system damage, according to the EPA. The use of the pesticide is restricted in the United States because of its acute toxicity. It's not allowed to be used indoors. Only certified professionals are permitted to use it in certain agricultural settings. \"It's an ongoing investigation; we're still on the island doing our assessment,\" Rodriguez said. \"We have been doing different types of air sampling and wipe sampling.\" Final test results were expected next week. The EPA is working with local government agencies to investigate whether the family was made ill after a fumigation at the resort on March 18 and whether any environmental regulations or laws were violated. \"Pesticides can be very toxic, and it is critically important that they be applied properly and used only as approved by EPA,\" said Judith A. Enck, a regional administrator for the EPA. \"The EPA is actively working to determine how this happened and will make sure steps are taken to prevent this from happening to others at these vacation apartments or elsewhere.\" Depending on the season, the luxury villa where the family stayed rents between $550 and $1,200 per night. Sea Glass Vacations, which acts as a rental agent for several units at Sirenusa, said that the unit directly below the one where the family stayed was recently treated for pests, but that their unit was not treated. The company said it licensed an outside company, Terminix, for the pest control services. \"Sea Glass Vacations does not treat the units it manages for pests but instead relies on licensed professionals for pest control services,\" the company said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a criminal investigation into the matter, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing made Monday by ServiceMaster Global Holdings, the parent company of Terminix. In an email to CNN, a spokesman for Terminix wrote that the company is \"committed to performing all work ... in a manner that is safe for our customers, employees, the public and the environment\" and is \"looking into this matter internally, and cooperating with authorities.\" \"We're thinking about the family, and we join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery,\" Terminix wrote. James Maron, an attorney who has been a spokesman for the family, has not responded to requests for comment. The SEC filing described the injuries to the family members as \"serious.\"","highlights":"Delaware family becomes ill at the Sirenusa resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands .\nPreliminary EPA results find methyl bromide was present in unit where family stayed .\nU.S. Justice Department has initiated a criminal investigation into the matter .","id":"7fb513044e371fa3354fc08eaac50975cf65666a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Comedian Chris Rock made light of racial disparities in police treatment of whites and blacks with a tongue-in-cheek guide to not being beaten by the police. He encapsulated the frustration and grief caused by a New York grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer in the death of a black man with a simple tweet: \"This one was on film.\" Now, he's stirring things up again with a series of tweets documenting three traffic stops in seven weeks. \"Stopped by the cops again wish me luck,\" he posted early Tuesday, along with a photo showing him behind the wheel of a car with what looks like blue police lights in the background. He posted similar photos in February. Many African-Americans have long bemoaned the phenomenon of being pulled over for no apparent reason, calling it \"driving while black.\" Blacks are about 30% more likely to be pulled over by police than whites, according to figures reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2013. And in amid increased conversation over race and policing after the high-profile deaths last year of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the issue is even more sensitive. Rock hasn't commented on the tweets and didn't say how the police stop turned out. He got lots of support on Twitter. \"My heart legit dropped, no kidding,\" one Twitter fan posted. Many praised him for documenting the stops. Some accused him of race-baiting. But one bit of advice in particular lit up social media. Actor Isaiah Washington urged Rock to \"#Adapt\" to avoid racial profiling. \"I sold my $90,000.00 Mercedes G500 and bought 3 Prius's, because I got tired of being pulled over by Police,\" Washington tweeted. Some saw that as a sell-out, saying Rock shouldn't have to take steps others might not have to as a way to avoid being pulled over. \"Let me guess..you also make sure your pants are pulled up as well?.\" Twitter user YeshaCallahan posted. Appearing on CNN, Washington defended the tweet, saying he wanted to \"excite a conversation.\" Years ago, Rock filmed a sketch for his \"Chris Rock\" show on HBO in which he detailed ways to avoid being beaten by police as a black man. Besides obeying the law, he suggested bringing a white friend along for the ride. He did just that last year in a segment of \"Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee\" with Jerry Seinfeld. The two chat as Seinfeld drives an orange Lamborghini. And what happened? They get pulled over after Seinfeld goes a bit heavy on the gas. \"Here's the crazy thing,\" Rock tells Seinfeld as the police officer stops the duo. \"If you weren't here, I'd be scared.\"","highlights":"Chris Rock posts selfies after being pulled over three times in last seven weeks .\n\"Stopped by the cops again wish me luck,\" he posted this week .","id":"c67a5be9af71197193435ab7073e964298851089"} -{"article":"Hong Kong (CNN)Six people were hurt after an explosion at a controversial chemical plant in China's southeastern Fujian province sparked a huge fire, provincial authorities told state media. The plant, located in Zhangzhou city, produces paraxylene (PX), a reportedly carcinogenic chemical used in the production of polyester films and fabrics. The blast occurred at an oil storage facility Monday night after an oil leak, though local media has not reported any toxic chemical spill. Five out of six people were injured by broken glass and have been sent to the hospital for treatment, Xinhua news agency reported. More than 600 firefighters were sent to battle the blaze and the fire is now under control, the Zhangzhou fire department wrote on their official microblogging account Tuesday morning. Residents living close to the plant had heard the explosion and took to Weibo to post photos of the fire. One user wrote that he heard a loud blast and felt slight tremors. The plant was hit by another explosion in July 2013, although there were no reports of casualties or toxic leaks at the time. Though demonstrations are illegal in China, the construction of PX plants has sparked protests, which have occasionally turned violent, in several cities in recent years. The Zhangzhou plant was slated for Xiamen -- a densely populated city in the southeast of the country. However, it provoked an angry backlash in 2007 due to pollution concerns and prompted the local government to relocate the factory to its current, more remote location.","highlights":"A blast rocks a chemical plant in China's southeastern Fujian province for the second time in two years .\nSix were injured after the explosion and are being hospitalized .\nThe explosion was triggered by an oil leak, though local media has not reported any toxic chemical spills .","id":"599bf6f13bc8477d50aa7599baf53123a6e57708"} -{"article":"(CNN)The United States Department of Justice has named a new defendant in the war on drugs, and the charges are serious indeed. A 15-count indictment filed in federal court in California bristles with accusations of conspiracies, transporting prescription pharmaceuticals dispensed with illegal prescriptions, violations of the Controlled Substances Act, misbranding charges, and money laundering charges. Who is this menace to society? FedEx. Yes, the courier delivery service. Wait, can companies even be charged with crimes? Where would a FedEx be incarcerated? Is there a corporate Shawshank Prison? How does one fit a company for a prison jumpsuit? It turns out a corporation can indeed be prosecuted like a person. It's a practice the Supreme Court has approved of for over a century. In fact, in many ways they are easier to prosecute than people. Corporations don't have all the same inconvenient constitutional rights as citizens accused of crimes. Imprisoning convicted citizens is expensive, but corporate convictions, on the other hand, turn tidy profits for the U.S. government, with zero prison overhead. Even if corporations can be held criminally liable, should a courier service like FedEx be held liable for \"possessing\" what bad guys may send through the service? The answer, according to FedEx, is not just \"No,\" but a \"No\" so conclusive that this case should never see a courtroom. The company maintains that it is innocent. It has a point. \"Possession\" is an elusive concept. When it comes to drugs, the law recognizes two kinds of possession: actual and constructive. Actual possession is when you have physical control over the contraband. When you have a gun in your hand or drugs in your pocket, you \"actually\" possess those things. The somewhat hazier concept of \"constructive possession\" means you can \"possess\" something without even having it on your person, as long as you have ownership, dominion or control over the contraband or the property where it is found. For example, the government would argue that while you may not have actual possession of the 5,000 OxyContin pills in the trunk of your car parked in your driveway, you \"constructively\" possessed them. Conversely, sometimes you can be holding something in your hand or have it in your vehicle, but not \"possess\" it either actually or constructively, in the eyes of the law. Such is the case with couriers who routinely drive to your home, walk up to your door and hand you a package, completely ignorant about what is inside it. It's hard to argue the UPS guy intentionally \"possessed\" your subscription to porno mags, in their nondescript brown packaging. That is the idea behind the \"common carrier\" exception to possession, and a large part of FedEx's compelling legal argument. A \"common carrier\" is one who offers its services to members of the public -- without much discretion -- and is engaged in the business of transporting persons or property for compensation. The public policy reasons behind \"common carrier\" exemptions make sense; the industry simply couldn't function if every driver, courier and handler who touches a valid shipment of OxyContin had to obtain a prescription for opiates to be legally allowed to deliver it to your front door. That would lead to an absurd result. That's why the Controlled Substances Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act allow common carriers to lawfully possess controlled substances, so long as it is in the usual course of their business. Of course, this is not a permission slip for drug runners to avoid liability by calling themselves \"common carriers.\" That's why the \"usual course of business\" language acts as an additional safety measure. In court papers, FedEx's lawyers offer the example of an airline whose sole activity was flying controlled substances from Jamaica to Miami. This would not be acting in the usual course of business of a common carrier, since this imaginary airline is not offering its services to the public, generally. On the other hand, FedEx argues that it is indeed a common carrier, performing the normal duties of a common carrier, because (a) it is engaged in the business of transportation of property and (b) it offers its services to the public generally. It's hard to imagine extending liability to common carriers for possession of contraband. Does this mean a Greyhound bus driver becomes liable for marijuana possessed by a passenger? The bus driver would argue he has no reason to know if a particular passenger is carrying drugs. But if the guy boards the bus with a Grateful Dead T-shirt and a set of bongos, shouldn't the driver at least have a hunch? That seems dangerously close to profiling. Is this another illogical straw man argument? Maybe. Obviously, the Department of Justice disagrees, which is why it has brought this criminal prosecution. According to the indictment, from at least as early as 2004, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, and members of Congress put FedEx on notice that illegal Internet pharmacies were using its shipping services to distribute controlled substances and prescription drugs in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and numerous state laws. The indictment alleges that as early as 2004, FedEx knew that it was delivering drugs to dealers and addicts. FedEx's couriers in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia expressed safety concerns that were circulated to FedEx senior management. The DOJ is making the argument that even though FedEx carries and delivers whatever is handed to it by the public, FedEx knew or should have known in specific instances that it was involving itself in suspicious drug activity. It raises a larger question, though: Why do we prosecute inanimate objects that we can't even incarcerate? The answer is the same reason that the drug dealers deal drugs, and drug smugglers smuggle them: Money. Power. The government in these cases gets to impose its will and policy upon large corporations -- in this case, it would be to force FedEx to help law enforcement in policing shady pharmaceutical transportation. The government also gets to extract gargantuan sums of money from corporations in \"deferred prosecution agreements.\" The reason you don't see a lot of corporate trials is because most companies prefer to enter into such agreements; for a company, a public prosecution alone would be tantamount to a death sentence, whether or not it's found guilty. Still, every defense attorney would love to offer the option to his or her human clients of avoiding felony conviction and a potential life sentence -- by agreeing to pay some fines. Don't get me wrong: I'm all about prosecuting the black market, especially if that means prosecuting the guys who send us those spam emails to our work accounts with \"V1AGRA\" in the subject line, for our co-workers to see while we go to the bathroom. I want those guys locked up for sure. I'm just not sure that FedEx has anything to do with the kingpins of the \"FR33 CYALIS\" email campaign. The DOJ's underlying intentions are noble enough -- this is an attack on the supply line of the illegal drug market by attacking the actual supply chain. It makes good strategic sense. It might seem like good financial sense in the short run, with the millions in fines extracted from corporations, but that money has to come from somewhere. It's just a matter of time before that trickles down to job cuts and less leg room on our flights. It probably doesn't make good legal sense either. Yes, we have been treating corporations as fictional \"persons\" for centuries in some ways -- but it's silly to treat them as persons in all ways. FedEx has a strong argument for dismissal in this case, but even if not, it won't be swapping its logo orange for prison orange anytime soon.","highlights":"Justice Department prosecuting FedEx over unauthorized shipment of drugs .\nDanny Cevallos: FedEx has a strong argument that it shouldn't be held responsible .","id":"e65440d2469c8d9fc44b6121ca6e7fd25e272eab"} -{"article":"(CNN)Boston native Mark Wahlberg will star in a film about the Boston Marathon bombing and the manhunt that followed, Deadline reported Wednesday. Wahlberg's film, to be titled \"Patriots' Day,\" is being produced by CBS Films, which linked to the Deadline article from its website. According to Deadline, Wahlberg is hoping to play Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who retired after the attack in 2013. The film will be told from Davis' point of view. The film will feature material researched and shot by CBS Films' corporate sibling, the CBS News program \"60 Minutes.\" Wahlberg is also a producer of the film. \"Patriots' Day\" is the second film related to the Boston bombing to be announced. Fox announced in November that it will be making a film called \"Boston Strong\" about the event.","highlights":"Mark Wahlberg is planning to appear in \"Patriots' Day\"\nThe film will be about events surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing .\nAnother film, \"Boston Strong,\" is also in the works .","id":"e30518a464ea7096b1aa5a17b45570631e3cf080"} -{"article":"(CNN)What do we have for the contestant on \"The Price Is Right\"? A brand-new car! Whoops. That wasn't supposed to happen. On Thursday's edition of the popular game show, model Manuela Arbelaez accidentally revealed the correct answer to a guessing game for a new Hyundai Sonata. Host Drew Carey couldn't stop laughing. \"Congratulations! Manuela just gave you a car!\" he exulted. Arbelaez was mortified, attempting to hide behind the display. But everything turned out OK, she tweeted later. It's been a busy week for \"The Price Is Right.\" On Wednesday, former host Bob Barker, 91, showed up to run his old show.","highlights":"\"The Price Is Right\" gives away a car ... accidentally .\nA model makes a big mistake during a game .\nHost Drew Carey thought the error was hilarious .","id":"386b182672cd041d574a3fe0e9ccf2f16b751f2e"} -{"article":"(CNN)Authorities identified and charged a man Monday in connection with the discovery of human remains in a duffel bag in Cambridge, Massachusetts, over the weekend. Carlos Colina, 32, was arraigned on charges of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and improper disposal of a body, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office said in a statement. \"This was a gruesome discovery,\" said District Attorney Marian Ryan. \"Detectives are continuing to analyze evidence and awaiting information from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner so that we may determine if additional charges are warranted.\" Police were notified Saturday morning about a suspicious item along a walkway in Cambridge. Officers arrived at the scene, opened a duffel bag and found human remains. After that discovery, police say, a surveillance video led them to an apartment building, where more body parts were discovered in a common area. That location is near the Cambridge Police Department headquarters. The remains at both locations belonged to the same victim, identified Monday as Jonathan Camilien, 26. Camilien and Colina knew each other, according to authorities. The next scheduled hearing in the case is set for April 14. CNN's Andreas Preuss contributed to this report.","highlights":"Carlos Colina, 32, is arraigned on charges of assault and battery, improper disposal of a body .\nBody parts were discovered Saturday in a duffel bag and a common area of an apartment building .\nThe victim in the case is identified as Jonathan Camilien, 26; authorities say he knew Colina .","id":"192bf513d8adb0c0dd49d0dae337632838a1090e"} -{"article":"(CNN)For those wondering if we would ever hear from the Bluth family again, the answer would appear to be yes. \"Arrested Development\" executive producer Brian Grazer said the show will return for a fifth season of 17 episodes. The Hollywood mogul was interviewed on Bill Simmons' podcast recently, and let it drop that fans can expect more of the quirky comedy. Netflix had no comment for CNN when asked to verify his statements. The fourth season was streamed exclusively on Netflix in 2013, after Fox canceled the show several years before. Despite critical acclaim, the series never had big ratings, but has a devoted fan base, who often quote from the show. It was not yet known if the full cast, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Will Arnett, will return for the season.","highlights":"Fan favorite series \"Arrested Development\" to return for a fifth season, according to producer .\nBrian Grazer claimed the show would be back in a podcast .\nNetflix is not commenting .","id":"8ec9aabea31ae79f0d429e9ab2e4a1a4f8d1b605"} -{"article":"(CNN)This is the end. Beautiful friend, the end. For the 1960s, the end arrived with -- depending on your ideals and your tribe -- either the Rolling Stones' Altamont fiasco in December 1969, the Kent State shootings in May 1970 or Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election. For \"Mad Men,\" the \"end of an era,\" as its slogan has it, begins Sunday. Over the past eight years, the show about a 1960s advertising agency and its collision with changing times has become part of the national fabric, if never a huge ratings hit. Stores have created fashion lines inspired by the show; there have been \"Mad Men\" cocktails and \"Mad Men\" museum exhibits and even \"Mad Men\" presidential references. Don Draper, the creative director played by Jon Hamm, has become a symbol of the times -- his and, sometimes, ours. Its subjects have taken the show to heart. In March, a \"Mad Men\" bench was unveiled in front of New York's Time & Life Building, where the fictional firm of Sterling Cooper & Partners has its headquarters. The end of a TV series brings with it some risk. \"The Sopranos,\" \"Mad Men\" creator Matthew Weiner's former employer, divided fans with its famous cut-to-black finale. On the other hand, \"Mad Men's\" former AMC stablemate, \"Breaking Bad,\" was saluted for an almost perfect landing. Speaking of landings: The last season -- technically, the first half of season 7 -- ended with the moon landing in July 1969. Though Weiner and his cast have been typically tight-lipped -- Weiner even hid the finale from his cast at first -- it's reasonable to assume the new season will pick up soon afterward. What's going to happen? Here are some educated guesses. With the '60s screaming towards their conclusion, \"Mad Men\" probably won't jump ahead much. The latter half of 1969 included the Manson murders, the Woodstock festival, a New York mayoral campaign and the Vietnam War moratorium demonstrations -- plenty of fodder for the characters to interact with, if only tangentially. Who knows? The show might even mention the Miracle Mets. It would be a nice way to acknowledge the agency's late Lane Pryce. Of course, Weiner might have a different idea; he's from Baltimore. \"Mad Men\" is generally a show about disintegration, reflective of the '60s themselves. The old orders are falling apart: white-shoe WASP firms like Sterling Cooper giving way to the ethnic pace-setters such as Doyle Dane Bernbach; grimy New York replaced by sunny Los Angeles; the \"Good War\" generation butting heads with the \"Make Love, Not War\" cohort; vacuum tubes and ledger books being displaced by a sleek, solid-state IBM world. It's all an ad agency can do to keep up. Last season saw plenty of intraoffice turmoil, thanks to the ill-fitting merger between Sterling Cooper and former rival Cutler Gleason and Chaough. Though the agency survived, it's now without Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) and under the ownership of (real-life) Madison Avenue titan McCann Erickson. That's not a recipe for long-term survival, and expect a number of longtime characters -- Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton), Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) and perhaps even Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) -- to look for an exit. Roger Sterling -- the wisecracking executive played by John Slattery -- might find an exit as well, but not one he's anticipating. He's suffered two heart attacks. He drinks to excess. He's never grown up. Bet on a sudden and shocking departure. On the other hand, Peggy Olson's star has continued to rise (much like one of the character's models, advertising wunderkind Mary Wells Lawrence). She left Sterling Cooper once; indeed, she wouldn't have returned if her new agency hadn't merged with her old one. If Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss, bolts the firm, it will probably be to head her own agency -- and possibly get married. That is, if she's still interested in such an old-fashioned tradition. In recent seasons, Don's ex-wife, Betty (January Jones), has lost herself amid all the turmoil. She sees herself through the eyes of her spouses, and though husband Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) has been far more supportive than Don, he's a busy man. And Sally, Don's daughter (Kiernan Shipka), is proving to be a handful. On the one hand, she's obviously bright; on the other, she's a teenager and starting to rebel. In recent seasons she's run away and started sneaking cigarettes, and she's always fighting with her mother. You could see her hitchhiking to Woodstock, or at least dropping out of school. Anything's possible, but given all that the character has been through -- divorces, affairs, office politics, morose late-night rides with Glen Bishop -- it's a bit on the nose, isn't it? Instead, try this: It's April 1, 1970. Richard Nixon is signing legislation banning cigarette ads on radio and television, reminding Don of the day 10 years earlier when he came up with the Lucky Strike campaign that began the series. No fool, he had seen this day coming years before. He'll fix himself a drink, ponder buying an avocado-colored refrigerator, clean out his ashtray and leave the show the way he arrived: on top of the zeitgeist, unable to accept his past and utterly, inscrutably alone.","highlights":"\"Mad Men's\" final seven episodes begin airing April 5 .\nThe show has never had high ratings but is considered one of the great TV series .\nIt's unknown what will happen to characters, but we can always guess .","id":"25a52d1de3a385d6d1405272f7dff0813fcd3b2d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Just kill it already. That was the sentiment of many \"Vampire Diaries\" fans on Tuesday after star Nina Dobrev announced she will be leaving the CW show at the end of this season. \"I always knew I wanted Elena's story to be a six season adventure, and within those six years I got the journey of a lifetime,\" she posted on her social media accounts after a \"goodbye party\" at Lake Lanier outside Atlanta, where the show is filmed. \"I was a human, a vampire, a doppelganger, a crazy immortal, a doppelganger pretending to be human, a human pretending to be a doppelganger. I got kidnapped, killed, resurrected, tortured, cursed, body-snatched, was dead and undead, and there's still so much more to come before the season finale in May.\" And while that may be true, fans were feeling a little jilted. Many chastised the show's producers, some even Dobrev herself, for allowing the show to go on to a seventh season this fall after she departs. Many were upset that Dobrev's departure could sink hopes of seeing a satisfying denouement to the relationship between Dobrev's character, Elena Gilbert, and love interest vampire Damon Salvatore. Fans called the couple \"Delena.\" \"I feel angry, sad, depressed, numb but most of all I feel like part of me died along with Nina leaving TVD. Nothing will be the same again,\" Twitter user iDamonAndElena posted. Producer Julie Plec issued a statement supporting Dobrev's decision. \"Nina is excited to spread her wings, get some rest, travel the world and also take it by storm, and we support her a thousand-fold,\" she said in the statement, according to media accounts. \"We will miss Nina and the four hundred characters she played, but we look forward to the insane and exciting challenge of continuing to tell stories of our Salvatore Brothers and our much-loved and gifted ensemble.\" No thanks, some fans said. Dobrev seemed to anticipate the pain, urging fans to hold on through the show's finale next month. \"If you think you know what's coming, you don't,\" she said.","highlights":"\"Vampire Diaries\" star Nina Dobrev announces she's leaving the show .\n\"Nothing will be the same again,\" fans say .","id":"9fbd984bd3a49c69074601a62d5d1d05bbeb2237"} -{"article":"New Delhi, India (CNN)Police have arrested four employees of a popular Indian ethnic-wear chain after a minister spotted a security camera overlooking the changing room of one of its stores. Federal education minister Smriti Irani was visiting a FabIndia outlet in the tourist resort state of Goa on Friday when she discovered a surveillance camera pointed at the changing room, police said. Four employees of the store have been arrested, but its manager -- herself a woman -- was still at large Saturday, said Goa police superintendent Kartik Kashyap. State authorities launched their investigation right after Irani levied her accusation. They found an overhead camera that the minister had spotted and determined that it was indeed able to take photos of customers using the store's changing room, according to Kashyap. After the incident, authorities sealed off the store and summoned six top officials from FabIndia, he said. The arrested staff have been charged with voyeurism and breach of privacy, according to the police. If convicted, they could spend up to three years in jail, Kashyap said. Officials from FabIndia -- which sells ethnic garments, fabrics and other products -- are heading to Goa to work with investigators, according to the company. \"FabIndia is deeply concerned and shocked at this allegation,\" the company said in a statement. \"We are in the process of investigating this internally and will be cooperating fully with the police.\"","highlights":"Federal education minister Smriti Irani visited a FabIndia store in Goa, saw cameras .\nAuthorities discovered the cameras could capture photos from the store's changing room .\nThe four store workers arrested could spend 3 years each in prison if convicted .","id":"947eeb8bbfec54f46a6ee0dd066b7bd6007dc630"} -{"article":"(CNN)Nine British citizens were arrested in Turkey on Wednesday, suspected of trying to cross illegally into Syria, the Turkish military said on its website. The group included four children -- the oldest being 10 or 11, with the youngest born in 2013, a Turkish official told CNN on condition of anonymity. The nine were arrested at the Turkey-Syria border, the Turkish military said. It didn't say why the group allegedly was trying to get into Syria, which has been torn by a roughly four-year war between Syrian government forces and Islamist extremist groups and other rebels. Among the war's combatants is ISIS, which has taken over parts of Syria and Iraq for what it claims is its Islamic caliphate, and which is known to have been recruiting Westerners. Accompanying the children were three men and two women; all nine had British passports, the Turkish official said. UK police charge man with terror offenses after Turkey trip . The British Foreign Office said Wednesday that it is aware of reports of the arrests and that it is seeking information about the incident from Turkish authorities. CNN's Gul Tuysuz reported from Istanbul, and Elaine Ly reported from London. CNN's Jason Hanna contributed to this report.","highlights":"The group included four children, Turkish official says .\nTurkish military didn't say what group's intent was .\nUK Foreign Office says it is trying to get information from Turkish officials .","id":"e4fcad9e8cf8acbf076000d7232e9513dafb6743"} -{"article":"(CNN)A nuclear submarine being repaired at a Russian shipyard has caught on fire, according to a law enforcement source speaking to Russia's state-run news agency ITAR-Tass. \"The submarine is in a dry dock,\" Tass reports, citing the source, and there is no ammunition on board. \"The rubber insulation between the submarine's light and pressure hull is on fire,\" Tass reported. Russia's RIA Novosti news agency says insulation caught on fire as welding work was being done on the submarine. Tass reported that the fire began on a sub in the Zvyozdochka shipyard in northwestern Russia. Zvyozdochka spokesman Yevgeny Gladyshev told the news agency that the sub had been undergoing repairs since November 2013. \"Nuclear fuel from the sub's reactor has been unloaded,\" he reportedly said. \"There are no armaments or chemically active, dangerous substances, fissionable materials on it,\" Gladyshev said to Tass. \"The enterprise's personnel left the premises when the submarine caught fire, no one has been injured. The fire presents no threat to people and the shipyard.\"","highlights":"Submarine is in Zvyozdochka shipyard, in northwestern Russia .\nNo \"dangerous\" substances on the submarine, shipyard spokesman told ITAR-Tass .","id":"61a6105642804ffdb55a3b78f74380f8d099cde6"} -{"article":"(CNN)Kayahan, one of Turkey's best-loved singers and songwriters, died of cancer Friday at the age of 66. He had performed most recently in Istanbul on Valentine's Day. The performer, who was also an accomplished guitarist, was first diagnosed with cancer in 1990, the year he competed in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the year before he released the album that ignited his career. The cancer returned in 2005 and then again in 2014, Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu Agency reported. He died Friday in a hospital in Istanbul, five days after his 66th birthday. \"We are in grief over losing Kayahan, who contributed to Turkish music with countless compositions and marked a generation with his songs,\" Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu tweeted. The singer, whose full name was Kayahan Acar, was born in Izmir province, in western Turkey on March 29, 1949. He grew up in Ankara, Turkey's capital, before moving to Istanbul. In 1990, he competed in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 17th. The following year he released an album titled \"I Made a Vow,\" which catapulted him to prominence. Though he recorded nearly 20 albums, that one would remain his most popular. His final album was released in 2007. Other artists recorded his material throughout his career. Videos available online show a vibrant performer with a thick shock of dark hair as he accompanies himself on guitar and croons in a clear tenor. Kayahan was best known for his love songs. More recent videos show a frailer performer, seated and without a guitar, but still clearly glorying in the joy of singing a song.","highlights":"Kayahan wrote some of Turkey's best-loved pop songs .\nThe singer was first diagnosed with cancer in 1990 .\nHe most recently performed in February in Istanbul .","id":"996940764a066a9c16f622c873ad041ac5521fa3"} -{"article":"Beijing (CNN)China's state prosecutors on Friday formally charged the country's former security czar with accepting bribes, making him the highest-ranking Chinese Communist Party official ever to face corruption charges. Zhou Yongkang, 72, was also charged with abuse of power and leaking state secrets, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the highest prosecution authority in China, said. As a member of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee -- China's top decision-making body -- Zhou was one of nine men who effectively ruled the country of more than 1.3 billion people. He retired in 2012. At the height of his power, Zhou controlled police forces, spy agencies, court systems as well as prosecution offices across China -- and wasn't shy in deploying his vast assets to crush dissent and unrest in the name of \"preserving social stability.\" Now, prosecutors have accused Zhou of \"taking advantage of his posts to seek benefits for others and illegally accepting huge amounts of money\" during his long political career. His alleged actions have caused heavy losses to public assets and greatly harmed national interests, they added. Zhou was notified of his legal rights during the investigation and his lawyer's views were heard, according to a statement by the prosecutors. His case will be tried in Tianjin, a city near the Chinese capital, Beijing. The president of China's supreme court recently told reporters there would be \"open\" trials for accused former leaders like Zhou. However, the charge of leaking state secrets may allow authorities to shield certain legal proceedings from public view in Zhou's case. Zhou has not been seen in public since he attended an anniversary event at his alma mater in October 2013. He was expelled from the Communist Party and arrested last December. State media have painted an intricate web of officials, cronies and tycoons -- some with alleged mafia connections -- orbiting around Zhou before the crumbling of his power structure last summer. Zhou and his family members were said to have accumulated enormous wealth, in a blatant exchange between money and power. He was also found to have affairs with multiple women and allegedly traded power for sex, state-run Xinhua news agency reported last year. Analysts have viewed his shocking downfall as a watershed moment in the secretive world of Chinese politics, now ruled by President Xi Jinping. Xi has been spearheading a massive anti-corruption campaign, targeting both \"tigers\" and \"flies\" -- high-ranking, and low-level, officials. Zhou is by far the biggest tiger caught in Xi's dragnet to date. \"The important thing here is that Xi has proven he's powerful enough to break this taboo of never incriminating former Politburo Standing Committee members,\" longtime political analyst Willy Lam, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said last year, when the government revealed its formal investigation into Zhou. Many observers also note Zhou's patronage of Bo Xilai, a former Communist leader sentenced to life in prison for corruption in 2013. Bo's spectacular downfall the year before -- complete with tales of murder, bribery and betrayal -- attracted global attention. State media have cited his subsequent conviction as a prime example of Xi's resolve to clean up the party. The former Chongqing Communist Party chief's supporters, however, have long called him a political victim -- the former high-flying politician was once considered Xi's main challenger for the top spot of Chinese leadership. Political watchers see similarities between the Bo and Zhou cases. \"The people being investigated for corruption are on the losing side of factional struggles,\" said Lam, who has predicted a suspended death sentence for Zhou.","highlights":"Prosecutors formally charged former top official Zhou Yongkang .\nZhou charged with accepting bribes, abuse of power and leaking state secrets .\nFormer domestic security official is the most senior Chinese official to face corruption charges .","id":"d96576c5c5e667d33e2f2117584bf796bd66389a"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me,\" Jesus tells the rich man in one of his best-known parables. It was a mantra he invoked repeatedly: the poor were blessed, and it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it was for the well-to-do to enter paradise. Meanwhile, Jesus told his Twelve Apostles to leave their day jobs and follow him on an itinerant mission with few prospects of success and no visible means of support. So how did this wandering band of first-century evangelists support themselves? Clearly, money was a concern, and not just as an impediment to salvation. In the New Testament, money gets 37 mentions, while \"gold\" gets 38 citations, \"silver\" merits 20, and \"copper\" four. \"Coin\" comes up eight times, and \"purse\" and \"denarii\" -- the Roman currency -- get half a dozen mentions each for a total of 119 currency referrals. Perhaps the most relevant reference is also one of the most charged passages in the New Testament: . As the Gospel of John tells it, six days before Passover, Jesus was in Bethany at the house of his friend Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. A woman named Mary takes a jar of costly perfumed oil and anoints the feet of the reclining Jesus. She dries his feet with her hair, an irresistible image for artists and dramatists. Judas Iscariot objected to the act. \"Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?\" Judas asks. Though 300 denarii was the annual wage of a laborer, Jesus told Judas to leave her alone, and foreshadowing his fate, said the anointing would be useful for his burial, and besides, \"you always have the poor with you\" -- but Jesus would not always be there. What that passage makes clear is that the Jesus community had a common purse because they needed money to survive. So how much? \"I imagine the ministry functioned at a subsistence level,\" Rabbi Joshua Garroway, a professor of Early Christianity and the Second Commonwealth at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Jesus and his disciples walked, wore what they had, slept outside or in stayed in friends' homes. They ate what they caught or what others shared. \"I venture to guess that begging and hospitality will have sufficed to meet the basic needs of Jesus and the companions with whom he traveled,\" Garroway said. Garroway said that it was possible, even likely, that Jesus and his followers received donations from supporters, and possibly substantial ones from some of the rich people who were drawn to his ministry despite -- or perhaps because of -- his preaching on the perils of wealth. The Gospel of Luke gives us a glimpse of how Jesus' ministry functioned on a practical level: . \"Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.\" So, according to Luke, women whom Jesus had healed in turn provided for him out of their \"resources,\" with Mary Magdalene and Joanna capturing our attention -- one by virtue of her husband, and the other, by her stature in the story of Jesus. Joanna was an upper-class woman married to a man who was intelligent and capable enough to manage the complicated household of Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, the violent and ambitious head of Judea. As part of this volatile but powerful household, Joanna would be uniquely positioned to help Jesus with her resources, being both wealthy and having palace connections. She attends to him during his life, and, the Gospels tell us, after his death, as one of the trio of women who go to his tomb and find it empty. With her on that morning is Mary Magdalene, also identified as -- among other things -- a financial supporter of Jesus. Mary likely came from the prosperous town of Magdala, on the Sea of Galilee. As home to a thriving fishing industry, as well as dye and textile works, Mary could well have come from an affluent family -- or have been a successful business woman herself. Mary Magdalene was free to travel the country with Jesus and his disciples, so was unlikely to have a husband and children waiting for her at home, and in \"Finding Jesus\" we examine the Gnostic gospel of Mary Magdalene and explore the argument that Jesus was, in fact, her husband. She may have simply been an independent woman with her own resources who found a compelling message, and messenger. Not only was Mary Magdalene one of Jesus' most devoted followers, who stuck with him all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem, from the ministry to the cross and the tomb, but also she provided for him from her own means, said Mark Goodacre, a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University. When the Gospels speak of her \"ministering\" to Jesus, they are explaining that she was one of the key figures in Jesus' everyday mission, Goodacre continues. Along with other women like Joanna and Susanna, she was one of those who made his mission viable. Along with these women, men like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both men of stature and wealth, may have chipped in to help fund Jesus' ministry. The Gospels reveal that both these men were rich, and supported Jesus -- indeed, it was Joseph who removed Jesus from the cross on Good Friday, anointing his body with the help of Nicodemus, and placing him in the tomb that Joseph had reserved for himself. After the resurrection on that first Easter Sunday, the movement Jesus started grew exponentially, and the church's relationship to money grew more complicated as the needs became greater. Michael McKinley is co-author, with David Gibson, of \"Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery.: Six Holy Objects That Tell the Remarkable Story of the Gospels.\"","highlights":"Some of Jesus' most important financial backers were women, historians say.\nJoseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both men of stature and wealth, chipped in to help fund Jesus' ministry.","id":"41592d02ca324abe370ff063962b97ca5d976e73"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)Three people were killed and five others were wounded Thursday afternoon when a group of armed assailants stormed into the attorney general's office in Balkh province, northern Afghanistan, according to a press release from the provincial governor's office. Although most staff members and civilians have been rescued, an exchange of fire between Afghan security forces and the assailants is ongoing, the statement says. Two police officers and a security guard of the provincial attorney general's office were among the dead. Afghan security forces are cautiously making advances in the fight in order to avoid civilian casualties, according to the press statement.","highlights":"Three people killed; five wounded in attack on attorney general's office in Balkh province .\nStaff and civilians have been rescued as gunmen engaged Afghan security forces .","id":"2b4eb5a283f51b54e1b0318936ae9bcfa70ce243"} -{"article":"(CNN)When I was elected to the Kentucky State Senate in 1967, I became the first woman and the first person of color to serve in the body. Five decades later, I find it almost unfathomable that a politician from my own state is attempting to launch his presidential campaign on a record that includes questioning landmark voting rights and civil rights legislation. But that is what Rand Paul, who today declared he's running for president of the United States, is doing. His campaign team told reporters last week that his campaign announcement message would be about \"expanding the Republican Party\" -- a message of inclusion. But those of us listening today who he is hoping to include, heard nothing more than hype. I'm not buying it. Since coming to the U.S. Senate, Paul has tried to sell himself as a different type of Republican. He's tried to brand himself as the GOP's minority outreach candidate. The problem for Paul, and the GOP at large, is that they don't back up their words with their policies. Yes, it's about time that Republicans started seriously considering the fact that black voters are an important piece of the electoral puzzle. But they can't actually appeal to the community unless they have a real commitment to the issues facing minority communities. A quick survey of Sen. Paul's positions makes clear that he does not. Paul kicked off his announcement speech in Louisville by declaring \"I have a message that is loud and clear: We have come to take our country back.\" I have no doubt that under Paul's leadership, he would indeed take our country back -- in the wrong direction -- way back to a time when we were debating the Civil Rights Act -- which Paul has done since landing on the national stage; when there was no Department of Education -- a department he thinks \"should be done away with;\" when women didn't have choices -- choices Paul seeks to limit in Washington; when DREAMers weren't protected from deportation -- protections Paul currently opposes. In his inept speaking engagements at historically black colleges and universities, he has come across as condescending and lacking basic cultural competency. But Paul has also questioned the Civil Rights Act, and even claimed that private business owners have a right to discriminate. When asked about the need for a more robust Voting Rights Act following the Supreme Court's dismantling of the law, Paul dismissively remarked, \"We have an African-American President.\" When President Obama stood with John Lewis and other veterans of the civil rights movement in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge last month to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he inspired us all by saying: \"With effort, we can roll back poverty and the roadblocks to opportunity. ... With effort, we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge -- and that is the right to vote.\" America is better -- and we solve more problems -- with more democracy, not less. Unfortunately Rand Paul has demonstrated that he disagree with that basic principle. Paul tried once again from that stage in Louisville to fashion himself as the one member of his party courageous enough to try to broaden Republican appeal to constituencies they ignore year after year. But his record makes it very clear that his views are outdated, outside of the mainstream, and disqualifying for a man who wants to lead our country. The American people deserve a leader who won't disrespect their intelligence, who won't pander to them when it's convenient, and who won't work to dismantle the progress we have made over the last five decades. What I heard today, didn't change the facts about Rand Paul's record. The American people deserve better than Rand Paul.","highlights":"Georgia Powers: Rand Paul, running for president, would like minorities to think he's an advocate. His record on rights shows otherwise .\nOn civil rights, women's choice, voting rights, immigrant DREAMers, education, he has shown he'd take country backwards, she says .","id":"69af3b9fc4ba1fa6bd272c82d17ec318da5ff97a"} -{"article":"(CNN)A French-language global television network regained control of one of its 11 channels Thursday after a cyberattack a day earlier crippled its broadcasts and social media accounts. Television network TV5Monde was gradually regaining control of its channels and social media outlets after suffering what the network's director called an \"extremely powerful cyberattack.\" In addition to its 11 channels, TV5Monde lost control of its social media outlets and its websites, director Yves Bigot said in a video message posted later on Facebook. On a mobile site, which was still active, the network said it was \"hacked by an Islamist group.\" ISIS logos and markings appeared on TV5Monde social media accounts. But there was no immediate claim of responsibility by ISIS or any other group. As day broke Thursday in Europe, the network had regained the use of one of its 11 channels and its Facebook page, Paul Germain, the chain's editor in chief, told BFMTV, a CNN affiliate in France. However, by late morning, a number of pages on the network's website had messages saying they were under maintenance. The outage began around 8:45 p.m. Paris time (2:45 p.m. ET) on Wednesday. TV5Monde offers round-the-clock entertainment and news programming that reaches 260 million homes worldwide, according to the Ministry of Culture and Communications. It functions under a partnership among the governments of France, Canada and Switzerland, as well as the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Other networks that provide content to TV5Monde include CNN affiliates France 2 and France 3, France 24 and Radio France International.","highlights":"Network regains control of Facebook page and one of its 11 channels .\nISIS logos displayed but no claim of responsibility made by any group .\nNetwork reaches 260 million homes worldwide .","id":"76a518ad3aa590fbac1b9e6e68634fe4709270ed"} -{"article":"Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN)Lost luggage after a long flight is a common, frustrating occurrence of modern air travel. And sometimes, airlines lose things that are irreplaceable. American Jennifer Stewart says she was devastated to learn that Etihad Airways lost her most important baggage following a recent trip from Abu Dhabi to New York City: her 2-year-old pet cat, Felix. Stewart said that she and her husband, Joseph Naaman, booked Felix on their Etihad Airways flight from the United Arab Emirates to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on April 1. Shortly after the plane arrived in New York that evening, Felix went missing somewhere on the grounds of Kennedy Airport, according to Etihad Airways. Felix was able to get loose, Stewart said she believes, because the cat's plastic carrier was badly damaged at some point either during the flight or the transfer from the airplane to the pickup area. Stewart said a cargo manager called the couple to an office after they landed at Kennedy last week and notified them that their cat's carrier had been crushed. Photographs taken by Stewart showed a large hole in the top of the cat's carrier. At least one of the corners of the case appeared partially collapsed. Nearly one week later, Felix remains missing. \"For them to take a cat and ship him like he was cargo, not a live animal, makes me sick,\" Stewart said. \"You trust that people care and are doing the job well, and then this happens.\" A representative for Etihad Airways told CNN that that the loss of pets during air travel is \"extremely rare.\" The airline shipped more than 200 pets last year. Etihad Airways is investigating the incident and is working with ground handlers at the New York airport to help locate the missing cat. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier also said it hired \"third-party specialists\" to help in the hunt for Felix. \"We deeply regret this unfortunate incident and are keeping the owner apprised of the progress of the search,\" Etihad Airways told CNN in a statement. \"We will review our pet handling procedures in the wake of this incident, as the safety and care of pets traveling with Etihad Airways is a top priority.\" Stewart and her husband booked the cat's flight as part of their job relocation to the United States after living in Abu Dhabi for more than three years. The couple said they spent $1,200 to ship Felix on the 14-hour flight. \"You pay all of this money, but for what? People assume you pay extra to have your pets taken care of, but they're treated no differently than a free piece of checked luggage,\" Stewart said. It isn't the first time a pet has gone missing at New York's busiest airport. In August 2011, a cat escaped from its carrier before an American Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco. That cat was eventually discovered -- alive -- two months later in a customs room at the airport. But the cat later had to be euthanized because of injuries and malnutrition it suffered while lost. This weekend, Stewart enlisted the help of a local nonprofit, which provided a highly trained detection dog, to help track down Felix's scent. A wildlife biologist who works with the airport has also placed traps to facilitate Felix's safe return, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Officials at Kennedy have offered to assist Etihad Airways as the airline investigates what happened, the Port Authority said. Stewart said the couple will continue to search the airport until they have answers. \"We just want to find Felix. But I just don't know if we will,\" she said.","highlights":"Couple spends $1,200 to ship their cat, Felix, on a flight from the United Arab Emirates .\nFelix went missing somewhere at John F. Kennedy International Airport, airline says .\nPets are \"treated no differently than a free piece of checked luggage,\" Jennifer Stewart says .","id":"ff9c1536bfa6ee669b800b6e9db04d9a9751dda1"} -{"article":"(CNN)The nation's top stories will be unfolding Tuesday in courthouses and political arenas across the country. Massachusetts is hosting two of the highest-profile court trials in recent memory -- those of former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez and Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Both lengthy trials are coming to a close. In Louisville, Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul made the not-so-surprising announcement that he will run for president, while in Chicago, voters will head to the polls in a very surprising runoff between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus \"Chuy\" Garcia. And in Ferguson, Missouri, the shadow of Michael Brown and the protests over his shooting by Officer Darren Wilson will loom large over the city's elections. Here's a breakdown of what to expect today and how we got here: . Tsarnaev, who's accused of detonating a bomb at the 2013 Boston Marathon along with his now-deceased brother, faces the stiffest of penalties -- life in prison or the death penalty -- if he's found guilty on any of 17 capital counts against him, including setting off weapons of mass destruction at a public event as an act of terrorism. The 13th juror: What defense? On Monday, survivors and victims' families wept and Tsarnaev fidgeted at a defense table as jurors heard a prosecutor allege that the 21-year-old \"brought terrorism into the backyards and main streets.\" The jury on Tuesday morning began what is expected to be a lengthy deliberation process on 30 total charges, before the so-called penalty phase, should he be found guilty on any counts. It took prosecutors months to present 131 witnesses to support their claim that Hernandez killed semi-pro player Odin Lloyd, yet on Monday, Hernandez's defense team wrapped up its witnesses in less than a day. Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday, and the jury will begin deliberations soon thereafter. Jurors in Fall River, Massachusetts, will be asked to decide if Hernandez is culpable in the shooting death of Lloyd, whose body was found in a Massachusetts industrial park in the summer of 2013. Much of the evidence against Hernandez is circumstantial, and among the facts the jury will be asked to take into consideration are New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft's testimony, the testimony of Hernandez's fiancee, some grainy footage from Hernandez's home security system and a footprint left by a Nike Air Jordan shoe. Hernandez known for swagger, even in court . OK, sure, no one was floored when the Kentucky senator announced his bid for the Oval Office, but of course it was news when he made it official Tuesday. Paul is expected to hit the campaign trail visiting the all-important early voters in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa and Nevada. The physician rode a wave of tea party popularity into the Senate in 2010, where he carefully built a brand of mainstream libertarianism, and he is banking on a coalition of younger voters and traditional Republicans to usher him into the White House. Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz are the only declared candidates for the GOP nomination, though the field will certainly grow and could include the likes of Florida's Jeb Bush, New Jersey's Chris Christie, Wisconsin's Scott Walker, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Florida's Marco Rubio. Would Rand be here without Ron? It's the Windy City's first runoff for a citywide office, and it's being billed as a battle for the \"future of Chicago.\" In one corner, you have Emanuel, President Barack Obama's notoriously hard-charging former chief of staff, and in the other, you have Jesus \"Chuy\" Garcia, a county commissioner who has come to embody populist and liberal Democrats' frustrations with the Chicago incumbent. After Emanuel failed to snare half the vote in February's general election, he will go head-to-head with Garcia. The timing is interesting, too, as Easter, Passover and spring break appear to have spurred more than 142,000 early votes, up from about 90,000 before the first round of voting in February. Following Michael Brown's death, the national spotlight shone on Ferguson, particularly how the city's predominantly black population is woefully underrepresented in its police force and City Council. Yet with all the hubbub about the face of civic leadership, only four in 10 city residents hit the polls in November to cast ballots. Residents speak out ahead of vote . Tuesday's election will bring change, no matter how the ballots are cast: Two black men are running for one of the open seats, and the current lone black council member isn't up for re-election. In another ward, two black women and two white men are vying for an open seat. And a white protester is running for a third post.","highlights":"The trials of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Aaron Hernandez are coming to a close .\nVoting has put Rahm Emanuel and Ferguson, Missouri, back in the headlines .\nRand Paul has announced his bid for the presidency .","id":"7b8bb308a48e838c9d7f3fee08d4670efd305463"} -{"article":"(CNN)A mammoth fire broke out Friday morning in a Kentucky industrial park, sending plumes of thick smoke over the area as authorities worked to contain the damage. The blaze began shortly before 7 a.m. at the General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville, according to Mike Weimer from the city's emergency management agency. He said that there were no reports of anyone injured or trapped. Video showed both smoke and bright orange flames. Firefighters took up positions around the affected buildings, spraying water from the periphery. Weimer told CNN that authorities didn't know what had caused the fire, which had gone to at least four alarms. According to a GE website, its facility in the Louisville Appliance Park is \"revitalizing manufacturing in the United States.\" The park is large, such that 34 football fields could fit in one of its warehouses in the facility.","highlights":"Fire breaks out at the General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky .\nCity official: No is believed to be injured or trapped .","id":"43f18fc9b20fe64405d7f18a08fb8d9ef932ed8b"} -{"article":"Cedar Falls, Iowa (CNN)As aides politely tried to rush Ted Cruz from an event in Cedar Falls to one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, the presidential candidate continued shaking hands with anyone who wanted to meet him. Finally, after the selfies and conversations started to die down, his aides managed to move him closer to the door when a tall, burly man stopped him. \"Senator,\" he said, \"can I pray with you real quick?\" \"Yeah,\" Cruz said, as he clasped the man's upper arm and the two bowed their heads. It was one of the many moments when Cruz connected with voters on a religious level last week, as the senator from Texas hit the trail in Iowa for the first time as a presidential candidate. Being the only official contender in the race, Cruz drew large crowds during his two-day swing across the state. He's counting on Iowa, known for its vocal and active evangelical base, to propel him forward in what's expected to be a tough competition among a crowded field of GOP candidates. Cruz, himself, displays a pastoral swagger when he is speaking on stage and working a room. The senator regularly avoids using a podium, instead favoring pacing the stage with a wireless microphone, a scene reminiscent of a Sunday morning sermon. When he meets with people after events, he embraces each one's hand with both of his, softens his usually theatric tone and looks people square in the eye -- a familiar interaction between churchgoing Christians and their pastors. The past two winners of Iowa's caucuses rose to victory with support from the Christian right, and Cruz, who announced his bid last month at the well-known Baptist school Liberty University, is aiming to energize that same base and claim the coveted state as his prize. Evangelicals make up a large segment of Iowa's Republican voter bloc. According to a Des Moines Register\/Bloomberg Politics poll from January, 44% of likely 2016 Republican caucus-goers said they were born-again or evangelical Christians. Cruz has built a brand as a stalwart conservative willing to buck GOP leadership on fiscal issues, but he showed in Iowa last week that he's also eager to champion social issues at a time when many Republicans are anxious to avoid them. He was one of the loudest defenders of the religious freedom law in Indiana, which came under fire last week for what critics called paving a path to discrimination against gays and lesbians. He described the outrage over the laws as \"shameful\" and an \"assault\" on First Amendment rights. \"There are a lot of people here in Iowa and across the country whose hearts are breaking, watching what has happened in the last two weeks,\" Cruz said Friday night at an event in Des Moines. \"We have seen a grossly unfair vilification of religious liberty.\" RELATED: Republican 2016 hopefuls back Indiana's 'religious freedom' law . He's more than comfortable talking about his own faith and telling the story of how his father became a Christian and a pastor. Rafael Cruz, who's become a celebrity among Christian conservatives, will frequently visit Iowa over the next year, Cruz told voters. And Cruz's Iowa director, Bryan English, is a former pastor. Cruz's first television ads are appearing this weekend during programs on Fox News and NBC that are pegged to Easter Sunday. In the ad, Cruz talks about the impact of the \"transformative love of Jesus Christ\" on his life. While neither Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa in 2008, nor Rick Santorum, who won in 2012, went on to win the nomination, their successes helped launch them into high-profile battles with the then-front-runners. And with both of them likely running again in 2016, the competition will be stiff. That's why, for Cruz, courting evangelicals is only a component of a three-pronged strategy to win the nomination that also includes dominating the tea party faction and competing for the libertarian base. His stump speech hits on elements that appeal to each faction. He received standing ovations last week for calling to abolish the IRS, and, in a knock against the National Security Agency, he frequently tells audiences to leave their cell phones on so President Obama \"can hear every word I have to say.\" Cruz argued Thursday that the Republican Party needs to bridge the gap between what he described as the Ron Paul-Rand Paul faction of the party -- young libertarian-minded voters -- and the Santorum base -- evangelicals. The two blocs, he said, are \"not necessarily the best of chums.\" \"If we're going to win, we've got to bring that coalition together,\" he said in Cedar Falls. \"And I think we can do that.\" Cruz frequently says he wants to see a return of the evangelical vote to 2004 levels, when more than six in 10 evangelicals voted in the presidential election, a higher than normal turnout for the demographic. That number has waned slightly since 2004 -- but it's not too far off from the 56% of the overall population that voted in 2012. Still, his campaign believes that if it can tap into the group of evangelicals who've been staying home and get the demographic as a whole to overperform, then that could mean the difference of millions more at the polls. \"If you look at available places for the party to expand the vote, it doesn't exist in the middle, it exists in the evangelical vote,\" said Rick Tyler, a top Cruz adviser. \"It isn't a pond, it's an unfished ocean of available voters who are conservative.\" Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he expects to see record turnout among evangelicals in 2016 no matter who the nominee is or what that person says. Moore points to hot-button topics like religious freedom issues in the U.S., as well as increased attention to the killing of minority Christians in the Middle East and rising anti-Semitism. \"I don't think a candidate is going to be able to get very far simply by using evangelical lingo or by pointing to his or her personal faith,\" Moore said. \"I think a candidate is going to have to explain how he or she would protect religious liberty and would appoint justices and judges who will maintain the common good.\" Later in April, voters in Iowa will see the bulk of the GOP field tackle these issues when they take the stage at an event hosted by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. While the past two winners of the Iowa caucuses -- Santorum and Huckabee -- are likely running for president again, Steve Scheffler, president of the group, argued that the field is wide open in terms of who's going to win favor among evangelicals. Jeb Bush, while not popular among conservative activists, was known for his staunch anti-abortion record as Florida governor and touts his Catholic faith as a big force behind his policy views. Scott Walker is the son of a pastor. Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon, rose to fame in conservative circles after criticizing the Obama administration at a national prayer breakfast. And other likely candidates -- from Marco Rubio to Rick Perry to Rand Paul -- have made serious efforts to court the religious right. \"It's up for grabs. It's a clean slate regardless of if you've run before,\" Scheffler said. \"Naturally those two (Huckabee and Santorum) have the name recognition and database of people who supported them in the past, but by and large voters are going to say, 'Let me take a good look at all of these candidates.'\"","highlights":"Ted Cruz has built a brand as a stalwart conservative on fiscal issues .\nBut he's also eager to champion social issues at a time when many Republicans are eager to avoid them .\nCruz says the GOP needs to unite young libertarian-minded voters and evangelicals .","id":"72df456684b62acd43db2ac9bb23f509b9b53942"} -{"article":"(CNN)One hundred and forty-seven victims. Many more families affected. Even more broken hopes and dreams. As Kenyans mourned those killed last week in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the nation, citizens used social media to share the victims' stories, hopes and dreams. Using the hashtag #147notjustanumber -- a reference to the number of people, mostly students, killed at Garissa University College on Thursday -- Kenyans tweeted pictures of the victims in happier times. Kenyan authorities have not released a list of the victims. The posts provided heart-wrenching details on the victims, including one about an elderly man whose dreams died with his son. He had reportedly taken a loan to educate him at the university, where he was killed by Al-Shabaab terrorists. The attack in Kenya killed 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel, and was the nation's deadliest since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998. Kenyan churches mourned the dead during Easter services Sunday as armed guards protected the congregations. In emotional services nationwide, churchgoers wept as they paid tribute to the victims of the massacre. The gunmen who attacked the university in the predawn hours separated Muslims from Christians and killed the latter. The extremist group has also killed Muslims in recent attacks. The Interior Ministry has identified one of the attackers killed by security forces as the son of a government official. The father of suspect Abdirahim Abdullahi is a chief in Mandera and had reported his son missing, officials said. The Islamist extremist group is based in Somalia, but it hasn't confined its terrorism to the nation that shares a border with Kenya. In 2013, militants attacked Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall, killing nearly 70 people.","highlights":"Kenyans use hashtag #147notjustanumber to honor victims of Kenya university attack .\nThe attack killed 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel .","id":"e67604ecb75aa21391e1d15a577d16b8db990de5"} -{"article":"(CNN)The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday said it is ordering Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to pay a record $1.6 billion penalty for unsafe operation of its gas transmission system, including the pipeline rupture that killed eight people in San Bruno in September 2010. Most of the penalty amounts to forced spending on improving pipeline safety. Of the $1.6 billion, $850 million will go to \"gas transmission pipeline safety infrastructure improvements,\" the commission said. Another $50 million will go toward \"other remedies to enhance pipeline safety,\" according to the commission. \"PG&E failed to uphold the public's trust,\" commission President Michael Picker said. \"The CPUC failed to keep vigilant. Lives were lost. Numerous people were injured. Homes were destroyed. We must do everything we can to ensure that nothing like this happens again.\" The company's chief executive officer said in a written statement that PG&E is working to become the safest energy company in the United States. \"Since the 2010 explosion of our natural gas transmission pipeline in San Bruno, we have worked hard to do the right thing for the victims, their families and the community of San Bruno,\" Tony Earley said. \"We are deeply sorry for this tragic event, and we have dedicated ourselves to re-earning the trust of our customers and the communities we serve. The lessons of this tragic event will not be forgotten.\" On September 9, 2010, a section of PG&E pipeline exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people and injuring more than 50 others. The blast destroyed 37 homes. PG&E said it has paid more than $500 million in claims to the victims and victims' families in San Bruno, which is just south of San Francisco. The company also said it has already replaced more than 800 miles of pipe, installed new gas leak technology and implemented nine of 12 recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board. According to its website, PG&E has 5.4 million electric customers and 4.3 million natural gas customers. The Los Angeles Times reported the previous record penalty was a $146 million penalty against Southern California Edison Company in 2008 for falsifying customer and worker safety data. CNN's Jason Hanna contributed to this report.","highlights":"The penalty is more than 10 times the previous record, according to a newspaper report .\nUtility commission to force Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to make infrastructure improvements .\nCompany apologizes for explosion that killed 8, says it is using lessons learned to improve safety .","id":"41c6edecee127c396d17e2e9115a4a89252cc52b"} -{"article":"Boston (CNN)Guilty across the board. But will he face death? After deliberating for 11\u00bd hours, jurors found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on Wednesday of all 30 counts he faced in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. Seventeen of the 30 counts were capital charges, meaning he is eligible for the death penalty. The trial will next move into a penalty phase, where the jury will hear testimony and arguments from both sides and ultimately be tasked with deciding whether Tsarnaev, 21, will be executed. A look at all of the charges . Jurors will be asked to weigh aggravating factors such as the heinousness of his crimes against mitigating factors such as his family and mental health history, as well as his relative youth. Tsarnaev was 19 at the time of the bombing. The start date of the penalty phase has not yet been set. Since testimony began March 4, federal prosecutors have called 92 witnesses, and the defense just four. It seemed a mismatch from the start. \"He was there,\" Tsarnaev's defense attorney Judy Clarke conceded as the trial opened, but many say the defense strategy always had been to focus on persuading the jury to spare Tsarnaev's life. Tsarnaev lawyer keeps hated criminals off death row . Clarke tried to convince jurors that her client's older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with police days after the terror attack, was the instigator of the marathon plot. The younger man, Clarke said, was only following his older brother. After the verdict, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said Clarke now faces an uphill battle. \"Because No. 1, he (Tsarnaev) is almost functioning as an officer of a military organization attacking the United States -- the claim of course that he's an Islamic radical and that this is almost an army-like attack on civilians. \"And the second thing -- it was so well planned and so callously planned so that civilians would die, so that children would be maimed. And all of this, she has to get around and convince the jury he's not worthy of the death penalty. \"Boy, she's climbing the Mount Everest of death penalty cases in this case,\" Callan said about Clarke. Survivors react to the verdict . Ann O'Neill reported from Boston. Dana Ford reported from Atlanta.","highlights":"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is found guilty on all 30 charges he faced .\nSeventeen counts were capital charges, meaning he is eligible for the death penalty .","id":"947b339a524aac1f43384a8c68e5a3a624ed309f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Four workers died in a massive oil rig fire that raged for hours off the coast of Mexico Wednesday. Mexican state oil company Pemex said 45 workers were injured in the blaze, which began early Wednesday morning. Two of them are in serious condition, the company said. Authorities evacuated about 300 people from the Abkatun Permanente platform after the fire started, Pemex said. At least 10 boats worked to battle the blaze for hours. The fire had been extinguished by Wednesday night, Pemex said in a Twitter post. The company denied rumors that the platform had collapsed and said there was no oil spill as a result of the fire. The state oil company hasn't said what caused the fire on the platform, which is located in the Gulf of Mexico's Campeche Sound. The fire began in the platform's dehydration and pumping area, Pemex said. CNN's Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.","highlights":"The fire on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico has been extinguished, Pemex says .\n45 workers were injured in the blaze, according to the state oil company .\nFour workers were killed in the oil rig fire, which started early Wednesday .","id":"8911c07945c382306d5aba8cf6c513c0c8ce61d0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Easter is unique on the Christian calendar, a major point in the cycle of the religious year, and one that has always been able to resist the commercialization and culture warring that surrounds Christmas. That's in part because Easter is genuinely about how religious impulses, and patterns, can operate in ways that affect our lives. Nevertheless, I'm often surprised by how little people, even those supposedly within the Christian tradition, actually know about what is called Holy Week and its culmination on Easter Sunday. At a time when our culture is roiled by questions of identity and ethics (and tolerance) that have profound religious implications, it's worth pausing to explore this crucial holiday -- and the awareness of the human condition, in all its sadness and glory, that it engenders. After all, Holy Week calls mostly to those who incline their minds and hearts in its direction with seriousness of intent. Still, the fuss must puzzle those looking on, wondering what it all means. Why do Christians make so much of this springtime week, and make so much of Easter weekend? There is a phrase that many never come across, even among Christians: Easter Triduum. This refers to the three days of Easter that begin with Good Friday, proceed through Holy Saturday, and conclude with Easter Sunday. It's definitely a progression, although the word itself -- triduum -- can refer to any three days of prayer. Easter Triduum has a kind of major prologue in Maundy Thursday, the day when, by tradition, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem on the night before he was crucified. The idea of Holy Communion begins with this meal, which was a Passover meal. Jesus, of course, was Jewish, as were all his disciples. He was never trying to erase Judaism and found a new religion. His work involved modifying and extending Judaism in fresh ways. On Maundy Thursday, Christians sometimes practice the washing of feet, recalling that Jesus washed the very dusty feet of his disciples at the Last Supper as a way of demonstrating profound humility -- showing that he was himself a servant -- and modeling a kind of ideal behavior. Good Friday isn't, in fact, so good. It's the day of the crucifixion, when Jesus was scourged and beaten, forced to carry his cross to Golgotha, the \"place of the skull,\" and nailed to the cross itself for what must have been an agonizing death. The actual scene of the Crucifixion varies from gospel to gospel, as do his last words, assembled into the so-called \"seven last words\" of Jesus by adding up fragments from different gospels. Some of these words are quotations, as when Jesus asked God why he has abandoned him: This is a quote from the 22nd Psalm, which opens: \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" Good Friday is a day of death, sacrifice, displacement, fear. Holy Saturday is probably the least understood day of the Easter Triduum. It's a passageway between the darkness of the crucifixion and the bright hope of Easter. This day occupies an anxious space in human experience, when the certain knowledge of something dreadful isn't quite erased -- can't be erased -- simply by hope. It's a day of depression, a day of suspension. Then comes Easter, with the aura of the resurrection. I'm always moved by the deep symbolism of this mythic moment, when the body of Christ becomes what is called a \"glorified body.\" This was not, as I've said elsewhere, the Great Resuscitation, although that's part of it, too. Resurrection implies a total transformation, something beyond the physical realm. It's very important that almost nobody who encounters Jesus after the resurrection can really recognize him, know him, or understand him as the same person who was with them before he was crucified. Easter embraces the great mystery of resurrection, with its promise of transformation -- a shift from one form to another, and a change that moves well beyond any literal understanding. The three days of Easter, the Triduum, occur only once a year on the calendar. But the really interesting thing is that we all experience the pattern of the three days again and again. We find ourselves emptied out in small ways, nailed to our own trees in life, embarrassed or broken by life. It was the Buddha who famously observed that life is suffering. Good Friday embodies the Christian version of that truth. Jesus suffered in the way all of us must suffer. We must all die, perhaps less ignominiously but just as certainly. Our friends and families must die. We all experience illness, loss, sadness, a loss of confidence, darkness. This is simply part of the human experience. We dive again and again into Holy Saturday, too -- a period of transition, when the bleakness of suffering is perhaps slightly behind us but nothing restorative seems in view. We know well this in-between time; it's an anxious passage, with only a glimmer on the horizon of potential hope. And we've all been resurrected, again and again, perhaps in tiny ways. This is the joy of Easter, and it's not something reserved for one day on the calendar. It's there whenever we experience what T.S. Eliot once called the \"timeless moment,\" which can only occur -- paradoxically -- in time itself. It's a mystical point where timelessness intersects with time. I suspect we all experience the Triduum frequently, sometimes more than once in a single day. But the ritual enactment of these three days of the Easter season reminds all of those who practice Christianity -- and perhaps those who don't -- that we should expect to move through darkness into light. It's a pattern that describes a kind of spiritual progression. It's good cause for celebration, too: and one that won't easily be co-opted by secular culture.","highlights":"Jay Parini: When religious identity, ethics, tolerance are roiling the culture, it's worth looking at message of Holy Week and Easter .\nHe says ritual enactment of these three days is reminder that again and again the human condition moves through darkness into light .","id":"b8e56b3cb5faa8d68341738b5708168e5cf18e2f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Police in India are putting aside their batons in favor of an overhead solution to angry and unruly crowds: pepper-spraying drones. Yashasvi Yadav, Senior Superintendent of police in Lucknow, northern India, told CNN the city's force has bought four drones and is in the process of purchasing one more. \"The drones have been tested in controlled conditions,\" he said. \"They have been very successful and will be used by the Lucknow police whenever there are violent protests or mob attacks.\" The miniature aircraft will be fitted with a camera and pepper spray; each drone costs between $9,560 and $19,300, Yadav added. Views on the new measure are mixed, with some concerned about the suppression of freedom of speech -- an already contentious issue in India. Last month, the country failed to enforce a law that would allow authorities to arrest people who post offensive material on social media. Others believe the country could learn from events further afield. Some say this method of crowd control needs regulation too. Questions have also been raised as to why the police are resorting to aggression. \"While I think it is bound to fail if not be another scam in the making, it also shows the mindset of the administration to not use dialogue and mediation to solve problems but use authoritarian and forceful methods,\" photojournalist Chirag Wakaskar in Mumbai told CNN. \"What they could do is start by having video surveillance in sensitive areas and have swifter justice.\" Protests are a common occurrence in India, a country with a population of 1.2 billion; Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, also used drone cameras to monitor crowds at a recent religious festival. As well as being used as a security measure in other cities including Delhi and Mumbai, the unmanned, airborne vehicles have been used in tiger hunts, disaster relief and criminal investigations -- and even pizza deliveries. Reports suggest that the drone surveillance will be officially launched by the Chief Minister of Lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav, later this month. Kunal Sehgal contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police in Lucknow, northern India, have bought four drones to help control crowds .\nThe unmanned aerial vehicles are being fitted with cameras and pepper spray to subdue angry protesters .\nSome Indians have questioned why police are resorting to \"authoritarian and forceful methods\"","id":"63ee59d69982f3f73bb33da9880747c8138dbea4"} -{"article":"(CNN)Just as the agency begins to recover from a series of high-profile missteps, the Secret Service is facing yet another scandal. A female employee accused Xavier Morales, a supervisor within the agency, of assault after he made sexual advances at her, according to The Washington Post. \"The woman told police and agency investigators that Morales, her boss, told her during the party at Capitol City Brewing Company that he was in love with her and would like to have sex with her,\" and later tried to kiss her in the office, according to a report from The Washington Post. During the incident, he \"grabbed her arms when she resisted\" and the two tussled until Morales gave up, sources told the paper. The Post reports that the March 31 party was in celebration of Morales' new assignment as head of the Louisville field office. A Secret Service spokesperson confirms that Morales was placed on administrative leave and his security clearance was suspended. This incident was first reported on April 2, and Secret Service Director Joe Clancy was briefed that afternoon. Clancy called the allegations \"very disturbing.\" \"Any threats or violence that endangers our employees in the workplace is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,\" he said in a statement. This is just the latest chapter for an organization embroiled in scandal over the past several months. Last month, two top-ranking officials were suspended following an incident at a White House command post during an investigation of a possible bomb. Clancy was not made aware of the episode until five days later. The agency has also faced scrutiny for another lapse in late January when a drone crash-landed on the White House lawn. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned in September after a fence-jumper gained access to the East Room of the White House. Earlier in September, an armed security contractor was allowed to get into an elevator with President Barack Obama during a trip to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. An independent report released in December found that the Secret Service is stretched \"beyond its limits,\" needing more training, more staff, and a director from outside its ranks. Clancy, who formally assumed the post in February, is a 27-year veteran of the agency. \"It's going to take time to change some of this culture,\" Clancy said at a House Appropriations Committee hearing last month. \"There's no excuse for this information not to come up the chain. That's going to take time because I'm going to have to build trust with our workforce.\" The incident will be further investigated by the Office of the Inspector General.","highlights":"Secret Service says supervisor's security clearance has been suspended .\nHe is accused of trying to kiss a colleague .","id":"ff42fad959e8b522b562b7b715c8d558270a79f2"} -{"article":"Marseille, France (CNN)Investigators have collected all the main evidence from the site where Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed, a French national police official told CNN on Saturday. Investigators are not expected to return to the crash site, said Capt. Yves Naffrechoux of the High Mountain Gendarmerie. The plane crashed March 24 in rugged terrain of the Alps about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the town of Seyne-les-Alpes. \"All the police investigators have left the (Germanwings) crash site,\" he said. \"There is only a private security company ensuring security around the crash site so that no one can go there.\" The security firm will guard the site until the remaining debris is collected and taken to secure locations for further analysis, if necessary, he said. The flight data recorder, or \"black box,\" was found Thursday by a member of the recovery team. The cockpit voice recorder was found days after the crash. In addition, out of more than 2,000 DNA samples collected from the crash site, lab workers have isolated 150 DNA profiles, said Brice Robin, Marseilles prosecutor. The crash killed all 150 people on board. Brice Robin, Marseilles prosecutor, said authorities have found 470 personnel effects at the site. That number includes 40 cell phones, though all those were badly damaged. Robin cast doubt that any useful information could be retrieved from those phones, given their condition. Authorities say the flight's co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the captain out of the cockpit and engineered the plane's demise. Initial tests on the flight data recorder show that Lubitz purposely used the controls to speed up the plane's descent, according to the French air accident investigation agency, the BEA. It also has emerged that Lubitz had battled depression years before he took the controls of Flight 9525 and that he had concealed from his employer recent medical leave notes saying he was unfit for work. Calls for crash avoidance technology . CNN's Margot Haddad reported from Marseille, and Greg Botelho wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"All the police investigators have left the (Germanwings) crash site,\" a police official says .\nPrivate security company is ensuring no one goes on the site, official says .\nAuthorities say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane, killing all 150 on board .","id":"3cf7f404fef8bef1cc9dab35b6931647a83c7ccd"} -{"article":"(CNN)Pardon us, \"Lost\" fans, but April 8 wasn't only your day. Yes, we know the significance of April 8, 2015, and the alignment of 4:23.42 p.m. on that date to everyone obsessed with the hit ABC show, and we heard about the general geek-outs that were occurring. But don't forget, April 8 was also \"Rex Manning Day.\" Twitter didn't, paying homage to the 1995 film \"Empire Records\" and the character of Rex Manning, played by the very dreamy Maxwell Caulfield. The movie -- also starring Liv Tyler, Anthony LaPaglia and Ren\u00e9e Zellweger -- centers on an independent record store in Delaware where, on April 8, former pop idol Manning is scheduled to make an in-store appearance. Fret not if you missed it, as we have some other dates made famous by films that you aren't going to want to let pass you by: . April 14 . Their love affair was doomed like two ships passing in the night, but it was so good while it lasted for Jack and Rose in the 1997 blockbuster movie \"Titanic.\" The sketch Jack does of his beloved is dated April 14, 1912. The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. April 25 . Thanks to the 2000 film \"Miss Congeniality,\" we now know that April 25 is the perfect date. Just don't forget to dress accordingly. October 3 . \"Mean Girls Day\" is officially October 3, given that's when Aaron Samuels (OMG, he is so hot!) asks Cady what day it is. Of course, she replies \"It's October 3.\" Honestly, any day is a good day to quote the 2004 film. It's so fetch. October 21, 2015 . Buckle up for this one. In the 1989 film \"Back to the Future Part II,\" Marty McFly and the gang travel to October 21, 2015. We hope to be celebrating that in our flying car that we are STILL waiting on, please and thank you.","highlights":"April 8 was huge for \"Lost\" and \"Empire Records\" fans .\nApril 14, April 25, October 21 are other big dates in movies .","id":"a8c1b6fc67380b8b4a542a6a2512a2f3c2d07d45"} -{"article":"(CNN)They're not gonna take it anymore. Really. Twisted Sister says that its 2016 tour will be its last, according to a press release. Next year marks the band's 40th anniversary, and to celebrate, the tour is being titled \"Forty and F*ck It.\" \"It's official: Farewell,\" Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider posted on Facebook. Snider also noted that the band will play with a new drummer, Mike Portnoy of Adrenaline Mob. Portnoy replaces A.J. Pero, who died March 20. The band will also perform two shows in Pero's honor: one at Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the other at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. The latter is in support of Pero's family. Twisted Sister's biggest hit, \"We're Not Gonna Take It,\" hit the Top Forty in 1984 and was featured in a popular video.","highlights":"Twisted Sister's 2016 tour will be its last .\nBand will celebrate 40 years in 2016 .\nTwisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero died in March .","id":"cb56840e21bbf8a71cd0337b5908d3f783862ae0"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)\"Grace of Monaco,\" starring Nicole Kidman as star-turned-princess Grace Kelly, is heading straight to Lifetime. The critically-panned film, which opened last year's Cannes Film Festival, will premiere on Lifetime on Memorial Day, May 25. After the movie performed poorly in its international engagements, The Weinstein Co., which first purchased U.S. distribution rights at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, decided to sell it directly to Lifetime rather than book it into U.S. theaters, a source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. THR: Grace of Monaco' Cannes review . The film, which was directed by Olivier Dahan and focuses on a period in the early '60s when Monaco was involved in a stand-off over taxes with France and Grace was contemplating a return to Hollywood, was originally scheduled for release in late 2013. Given the names involved, some handicappers had put it on their list of potential Oscar contenders. But when TWC pulled it out of awards contention and shifted its release to March 14, 2014, Dahan lashed out at TWC's Harvey Weinstein, over the movie's final cut, which the director was in the process of completing. \"There are two versions of the film for now, mine and his,\" Dahan complained, continuing, \"They want a commercial film smelling of daisies, taking out anything that exceeds that which is too abrupt, anything that makes it cinematic and breathe with life.\" That planned March release was then scrubbed, when Cannes expressed interest in debuting the director's version of the movie in May. Even before it screened, though, Grace's children blasted the picture as \"needlessly glamorized and historically inaccurate\" and boycotting the Cannes red carpet. THR: The Weinstein Co. nearing deal to keep 'Grace of Monaco' Weinstein didn't attend the movie's premiere either -- explaining that he had been visiting Syrian refugee camps in Jordan as part of a long-scheduled U.N.-sponsored trip. But TWC did strike a new distribution deal for the film in Cannes, agreeing to show Dahan's cut in the U.S., but acquiring rights for just $3 million upfront, a $2 million discount from its earlier contract. But TWC then did not slot \"Grace of Monaco\" into its fall, 2015 release schedule. Tim Roth costars as Kelly's husband Prince Rainier III, Frank Langella as Kelly's priest and confidante, Parker Posey as Grace's aid, and Paz Vega (\"Spanglish,\" \"Sex and Lucia\") as opera singer Maria Callas. See the original story at The Hollywood Reporter. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The film will premiere on Memorial Day .\nIt opened last year's Cannes Film Festival .\nA planned March theater release was scrubbed .","id":"afd04a7bf645f376ba6d6ba5880a4725431793c1"} -{"article":"(CNN)In her 40 years living in Rochelle, Illinois, Cathy Olson had never seen a tornado that big. \"I saw the top of the funnel cloud, and it was absolutely massive,\" she said. She watched the hulking gray twister grind past her town Thursday, tearing up its fringes. Farther north, in the rural Illinois hamlet of Fairdale, one person died as a twister shredded homes and ripped trees bare of leaves and most limbs. Only the thickest branches remained standing. It was the only death reported so far in two days of tornado touchdowns. Rochelle was fortunate. But in nearby Kirkland, debris was so thick on the roads, responders searching for trapped residents could not yet assess the damage or injuries, fire officials said. On Thursday, a video surfaced on YouTube of a massive twister barreling across an open field, barely missing farmhouses and barns. Images of the funnel turned up elsewhere on social media. Multiple tornadoes ripped through the rural Midwest on Thursday. A large and dangerous twister tore across fields in Iowa. And a twister touched down 70 miles outside of St. Louis. Eight tornadoes were reported Wednesday in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, the Storm Prediction Center said. But it appears residents have been fortunate enough to come away from the terrifying weather spectacle alive. Hail stones the size of tennis balls plummeted down on Ashton, Illinois. It could have been worse as severe tornado damage dotted a path not far from the dense populations of Chicago and Rockford -- the state's third largest city. The tornado cut a 22-mile path through Ogle County, according to disaster management coordinator Tom Richter. North of Rochelle, a tornado took away a local favorite restaurant -- Grubsteakers. \"It's kind of one of your little greasy spoon restaurants,\" said Eric Widick, who drove up in his truck to help out. \"We're a community. If one person is in need, we'll all be there for them.\" People were inside when the storm quashed Grubsteakers and turned over a semitruck parked outside. No one was killed or seriously injured, Widick said. Although a patron who found shelter in a restroom was trapped inside for about half an hour. People had been eating at Grubsteakers for some 25 years and will miss it, Widick said. In Rochelle, the tornado flattened some of Olson's friends' homes. A safe distance away from it, at her mother's house, she had to think about her husband, Chet, who was reelected mayor of the town of about 10,000 people the day before. He'd have a job ahead of him. \"I have not been able to get a hold of him, Olson said, \"but I know he's in touch with the sheriff and is safe,\" she said. Sheriff Brian VanVickle told journalists late Thursday that the tornado had spared life and limb in Ogle County aside from some people whose injuries were easily treatable. The county lost 20 homes -- one of them was his own. Fifty to 100 houses had significant damage, he said. Only foundations remained of some homes, said storm chaser Dan Gottschalk. \"You can hear the hissing everywhere from where the structures used to be,\" he said. Lindsey Clark, a reporter from CNN affiliate WREX, said rescuers were pulling trapped people from a home in the Rochelle area. VanVickle was newly elected sheriff of Rochelle on Wednesday. On Thursday, the storm took his house and his sister-in-law's. \"I've got the clothes on my back,\" he said. But his family wasn't at home when it hit. \"My family was on the way to Louisville, dog was in the basement and she survived.\" It was the first tornado the sheriff had ever seen in his county. \"I've lived here all my life, am the fifth generation in the county. My mom said this is the first time she's ever seen a tornado.\" He is thankful that the National Weather Service warned one could come. That saved lives, he believes. The service warned of a \"particularly dangerous situation.\" People across the Midwest should be on alert for severe weather. Tornado watches were set to run out early Friday. CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton, Catherine Shoichet, Greg Botelho, Dave Alsup, Steve Almasy, Jack Maddox and Sean Morris contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least one person died as a result of storms in Illinois, an official says .\nFire department: Rescuers searching for trapped victims in Kirkland, Illinois .","id":"32f8af7757d529a19067a7a375316a0f5440c037"} -{"article":"(CNN)Eyewitness video showing white North Charleston police Officer Michael Slager shooting to death an unarmed black man has exposed discrepancies in the reports of the first officers on the scene. Slager has been fired and charged with murder in the death of 50-year-old Walter Scott. A bystander's cell phone video, which began after an alleged struggle on the ground between Slager and Scott, shows the five-year police veteran shooting at Scott eight times as Scott runs away. Scott was hit five times. If words were exchanged between the men, they're are not audible on the tape. It's unclear what happened before Scott ran, or why he ran. The officer initially said that he used a Taser on Scott, who, Slager said, tried to take the weapon. Before Slager opens fire, the video shows a dark object falling behind Scott and hitting the ground. It's unclear whether that is the Taser. Later in the video, when Slager approaches Scott's body, Slager appears to drop a dark object near Scott. Slager is seen in the video handcuffing Scott after the shooting. Witness: I nearly erased shooting video out of fear . Feidin Santana, the witness who recorded the video, said he didn't see Scott grab Slager's Taser. His account contradicts what Slager told dispatchers. In two interviews with NBC, Santana said that he was walking to his job in North Charleston on Saturday morning when he saw Slager chase Scott, who had been pulled over for a broken taillight. Santana told NBC's Lester Holt on Wednesday that he saw the two men struggling on the ground. \"They were down on the (ground) ... before I started recording,\" Santana said. \"I remember the police (officer) had control of the situation. He had control of Scott.\" Santana said he heard the sound of a Taser being used. He believed Scott was trying to get away from it. But Scott never got the Taser or used it on the officer, Santana told NBC. Who was Walter Scott? A North Charleston Police report included brief statements from eight police officers, but not Slager. One officer, identified as Sgt. J. Gann, said in the report he was conducting a separate traffic stop about 9:30 a.m. Saturday when he heard -- apparently via radio -- Slager say he was \"in foot pursuit\" of another motorist. Gann said that while driving to the officer's location, \"Slager advised that he deployed his Taser and (requested) back up units.\" Seconds later, Gann reported, he heard Slager tell a dispatcher, \"Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser.\" Hours after the shooting, The Post and Courier of Charleston quoted a statement from police spokesman Spencer Pryor, who said Slager attempted to use his Taser to stop a fleeing suspect. The men struggled over the device, with the suspect taking the Taser and attempting to use it against Slager, the newspaper reported. In the police report, another officer, J. Banias, said he was heading to the scene about 10 minutes after the initial call. Slager asked him to \"secure his vehicle at the site of the traffic stop.\" Banias said he spoke to a passenger in the car Scott was driving. \"The passenger was ... detained and placed in the back seat of my vehicle,\" the officer reported. The passenger's identity was not given in the report, but the officer said in the report that the passenger was detained. Scott family spokesman Ryan Julison confirmed to CNN that a man was with Scott and said he is not related to the family. The family declined to provide any more information. A timeline of events . The North Charleston Police Department is not providing additional information, citing an ongoing investigation of Scott's killing by the independent South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Gann said when he arrived at the shooting scene, an officer identified only as Habersham \"was administering first aid\" to Scott. \"I exited my vehicle and assisted Officer Habersham with first aid and CPR to the driver,\" Gann said in the report. \"We continued to perform first aid and CPR until EMS arrived... When EMS and first responders arrived, EMS took care over providing care to the driver, who was pronounced deceased a short time later.\" Habersham, in his account, did not mention performing CPR. \"I attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds and (directing) the best route for EMS and fire to get to the victim faster,\" he said in the report. An officer identified as Sgt. Webb said that he requested an ambulance. Webb said that at 9:41 a.m. he saw Habersham \"administering chest compression to the defendant.\" North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers was asked at a news conference this week whether CPR was performed on Scott. \"I do not know. I was told that life-saving ... that they tried to save his life,\" Driggers said. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey added that not every North Charleston police officer is CPR certified. What we know about Officer Slager .","highlights":"More questions than answers emerge in controversial S.C. police shooting .\nOfficer Michael Slager, charged with murder, was fired from the North Charleston Police Department .","id":"5362f24162b3ed6f36037319ee66fbaaddc50650"} -{"article":"(CNN)Kanye West has settled a lawsuit with a paparazzi photographer he assaulted -- and the two have shaken on it. The photographer, Daniel Ramos, had filed the civil suit against West after the hip-hop star attacked him and tried to wrestle his camera from him in July 2013 at Los Angeles International Airport. West pleaded no contest last year to a misdemeanor count of battery over the scuffle. A judge sentenced him to two years' probation, as well as anger management sessions and community service. Ramos and his lawyer, Gloria Allred, sought general and punitive damages in the civil suit, saying that West had interfered with the photographer's rights to pursue a lawful occupation. The case had been set for trial next week, but Allred issued a statement Tuesday night saying Ramos' side had filed a dismissal \"because the case was settled to the satisfaction of the parties.\" She didn't disclose the details of the settlement other than saying that \"one important aspect of it was an apology by Kanye West to our client, Daniel Ramos.\" Her statement included a picture of West and Ramos shaking hands, which she said happened after the apology. The original incident was caught on video, including the following exchange. \"Kanye! Kanye! Talk to me, Kanye!\" Ramos shouts outside a terminal at the Los Angeles airport on the night of July 19, 2013. \"What's' going on? Why can't we talk to you? I mean, why?\" he asks as West moves through a group of paparazzi. \"Now come on, Kanye, I don't want to fight with you,\" he says as West advances toward him. \"I told you, don't talk to me, right,\" West says. \"You're trying to get me in trouble so I step off and have to pay you like $250,000.\" West is then seen rushing the photographer and attempting to wrestle his camera from his hands. West retreats after about 15 seconds of scuffling with the photographer. \"We believe that this case sent an important message,\" Allred said. \"Celebrities are not above the law, and they have no right to physically attack someone simply because they were asked a question.\" Beverly Hills Police investigated an incident in January 2014 in which West was accused of assaulting a man at a Beverly Hills chiropractor's office. West avoided criminal charges by reaching a civil settlement with the man. Kanye West apologizes to Beck, Bruno Mars . CNN's Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.","highlights":"The rapper assaulted the photographer at Los Angeles International Airport in 2013 .\nWest apologized as part of the settlement, the photographer's lawyer says .","id":"a2b66e4376258cd41604d654a395f7540d2e8514"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"A long, long, time ago...\" Those five words, when uttered or sung, makes baby boomers immediately think of Don McLean's pop masterpiece \"American Pie.\" It's hard to believe that his phenomenal 8\u00bd minute allegory, which millions of Americans know by heart, is 44 years old. All sorts of historical cross-currents play off each other in this timeless song, brilliantly gilded with the unforgettable chorus, which starts as \"Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.\" There is no real way to categorize McLean's \"American Pie\" for its hybrid of modern poetry and folk ballad, beer-hall chant and high-art rock. On Tuesday, Christie's sold the 16-page handwritten manuscript of the song's lyrics for $1.2 million to an unnamed buyer. McLean was a paperboy when, on February 3, 1959, he saw that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. \"The Big Bopper\" Richardson had been tragically killed in an airplane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. \"The next day I went to school in shock and guess what?\" McLean recalled. \"Nobody cared. Rock 'n' roll in those days was sort of like hula hoops and Buddy hadn't had a big hit on the charts since '57.\" By cathartically writing \"American Pie,\" McLean has guaranteed that the memory of those great musicians lives forever. Having recorded his first album, \"Tapestry,\" in 1969, in Berkeley, California, during the student riots, McLean, a native New Yorker, became a kind of weather vane for what he called the \"generation lost in space.\" When his cultural anthem \"American Pie\" was released in November 1971, it replaced Bob Dylan's \"The Times They Are A Changin\" as the Peoples Almanac of the new decade. It's important to think of \"American Pie\" as one would of Henry Longfellow's \"Evangeline\" or Johnny Mercer's \"Moon River\" -- an essential Americana poem emanating wistful recollection, blues valentine, and youthful protest rolled into one. There is magic brewing in the music and words of \"American Pie,\" for McLean's lyrics and melody frame a cosmic dream, like those Jack Kerouac tried to conjure in his poetry-infused novel \"On the Road.\" Don McLean: Buddy Holly, rest in peace . Influenced by Pete Seeger and the Weavers, McLean proudly wore the mantle of troubadour in the early 1970s, when \"American Pie\" topped the Billboard charts, and has never shed the cape. Wandering far and wide, singing \"American Pie\" at windblown dance halls in Wyoming and cloistered colleges in New England, at huge amphitheaters in California and little coffee houses in the Hudson River Valley, McLean has performed his global anthem thousands of times. Yet the encore number never loses its transfixing allure. When McLean prods audiences by rhapsodizing \"and they were singing\" everybody spontaneously joins in with the \"Bye, Bye\" chorus. Watching McLean deliver his most notable song in concert is to take part in a collective Happening. What makes \"American Pie\" so unusual is that it isn't a relic from the counterculture but a talisman, which, like a sacred river, keeps bringing joy to listeners everywhere. When \"American Pie\" suddenly is played on a jukebox or radio it's almost impossible not to sing along. Like \"Danny Boy\" or \"Streets of Laredo\" or \"Shenandoah,\" it's eternal. With illusions to football fields and rock 'n' roll, river levees and nursery rhymes, the song cascades along like a boat going down Niagara Falls or a roller coaster that jumps tracks but floats instead of crashes. After all these years, \"American Pie\" still makes me feel empowered and yet filled with a sense of loss. The song is alive and joyful, yet fretful about a world gone wrong. It is a song that will never die. A reverie for the ages. There is a jump to the chorus, which forces the mind to relive the '50s, '60s and '70s, to troll through the back pages of our lives while, like a traditional Irish folksong, it reminds us of fate. While McLean, the muse, has rightfully not tried to interpret \"American Pie,\" it's fair to surmise that \"the king\" is Elvis Presley, \"Helter Skelter\" refers to the Charles Manson murders, the \"jester on the sidelines in a cast\" is Bob Dylan, and \"Jack Flash\" the Rolling Stones. But who knows? The lyric remains a puzzle open to thousands of spirited interpretations. As a literary artifact of the early 1970s, there isn't anything to compare to \"American Pie.\" Normally, I don't like rankings of literature or songs or even presidents, for that matter. But the fact that the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment of the Arts chose \"American Pie\" as the fifth greatest song of the 20th century speaks to the composition's importance as an enduring piece of pop art. The other four were \"Over the Rainbow\" (by Harold Arlen and E.Y \"Yip\" Harburg), \"White Christmas \"(by Irving Berlin), \"This Land is Your Land\" (by Woody Guthrie) and \"Respect\" (by Otis Redding). That is fine company. Quite simply, \"American Pie\" is one of the greatest songs ever written. And Tuesday the original lyrics found a new home.","highlights":"Manuscript of \"American Pie\" lyrics is sold to unnamed buyer for $1.2 million .\nDouglas Brinkley: The song, a talisman for its age, brings joy to people 44 years later .","id":"646cba2e8b30945a2079ec4c671740d5db5676e2"} -{"article":"(CNN)Their relationship led to jail time for her, but Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau wants the world to know that she and her husband, Vili Fualaau, are still happily together. She was a married 34-year-old teacher and mother of four in Seattle in 1996 when she began an affair with Fualaau, her 13-year-old student. Letourneau gave birth to her young lover's child and went on to serve more than seven years in prison on charges related to their sexual relationship. On Friday, ABC's \"20\/20\" will air an exclusive interview with the couple, who will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary on May 20. The pair wed soon after she was released from prison in 2005 and are now the parents of two teen girls. According to ABC, during the interview with Barbara Walters, \"Mary Kay tells Walters what makes their marriage work in spite of their huge difference in their age.\" \"She also discusses her surprising plans to teach again, as well as her intentions to have her status as a registered sex offender lifted,\" a posting on the network's site says. \"Vili Fualaau, meanwhile, discusses his bouts with alcoholism, depression and why he believes the system failed him while he was still a minor.\" Letourneau Fualaau is now 53, and her husband is 31.","highlights":"Letourneau Fualaau had a sexual relationship with her student .\nHe was 13 when they began the relationship in 1996 .\nIn May, they will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary .","id":"dd4f726200355d742f631777aaa7b265533c0baf"} -{"article":"(CNN)That's some rich \"American Pie.\" The lyrics to the famed Don McLean song sold for $1.2 million Tuesday morning at an auction held by Christie's. \"Don McLean's manuscript of 'American Pie' achieved the 3rd highest auction price for an American literary manuscript, a fitting tribute to one the foremost singer-songwriters of his generation,\" Christie's Tom Lecky said in a statement. McLean told Rolling Stone that it was time to part with the manuscript. \"I'm going to be 70 this year,\" the singer and songwriter said in February. \"I have two children and a wife, and none of them seem to have the mercantile instinct. I want to get the best deal that I can for them. It's time.\" Over the years, \"American Pie\" has become one of the most dissected and argued-about songs in the pop music canon. McLean has said that the opening lines were inspired by the death of Buddy Holly, but after that, it's all been conjecture -- which hasn't stopped a marching band's worth of analysts from trying to parse the symbols in the 8-minute, 33-second opus. Is the jester Bob Dylan? The football game Vietnam? The \"girl who sang the blues\" Janis Joplin? (One thing's certain: Buddy Holly's plane was NOT named \"American Pie.\") \"Over the years I've dealt with all these stupid questions of 'Who's that?' and 'Who's that?' \" McLean said. \"These are things I never had in my head for a second when I wrote the song. I was trying to capture something very ephemeral and I did, but it took a long time.\" The song catapulted the former folk singer to headliner status. The song hit No. 1 in early 1972, despite its length. (The 45-rpm single split the song in half on its A and B sides.) The draft that was auctioned is 16 pages: 237 lines of manuscript and 26 lines of typed text, according to Christie's. It includes lines that didn't make the final version as well as extensive notes -- all of which should be revealing, McLean said. The record for a popular music manuscript is held by Bob Dylan's \"Like a Rolling Stone,\" which sold for $2 million in June. Opinion: What's so great about 'American Pie'?","highlights":"Don McLean's \"American Pie\" lyrics auctioned for $1.2 million .\nThe song is dense with symbolism; McLean says lyrics, notes will reveal meaning .\n\"Pie\" is McLean's biggest hit, was No. 1 in 1972 .","id":"33cab1f129c3b1f6578e597ea1a278a0c8338965"} -{"article":"(CNN)You may know Mindy Kaling from Fox's cult hit comedy \"The Mindy Project,\" in which she plays Mindy Lahiri, a perky, quirky OB\/GYN juggling her career and love life in New York. (Only in the Big Apple can a doctor not afford an apartment!) The show was a breakthrough for on-screen representation \u2014 the first network sitcom created by and starring a woman of color \u2014 and it looks likely to be renewed for the coming 2015-16 season. Recently, however, Kaling's brother Vijay Chokalingam unveiled a project of his own, and while it has been getting a lot of attention, it hasn't generated quite as many laughs \u2014 either from observers or from his famous sibling, who told him it brought \"shame upon their family.\" You see, Chokalingam revealed that, as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, he engaged in a daring (his view) or ridiculous and offensive (pretty much everyone else) scam: He applied to medical school claiming to be African-American. Chokalingam had spent his college years as a \"hard-partying frat boy,\" and achieved a less than stunning 3.1 GPA. Upon facing graduation and exploring his med school options, he realized that fellow Indian-Americans with his grades were getting turned down from the universities of his choice \u2014 but that \"black, Hispanic, and Native American applicants with my grades and test scores were much more likely to gain acceptance.\" This revelation led him to make the decision to pose as a black man, both to \"dramatically improve\" his chances of admission, and to illustrate the unfair advantage that blacks and other underrepresented minorities receive when applying to prestigious schools. To accomplish this goal, Chokalingam shaved his head of its naturally wavy black locks, trimmed his \"long Indian-American eyelashes,\" checked \"black\" under the optional race\/ethnicity declaration and submitted his application to 14 schools under his childhood nickname \"JoJo.\" He received invitations for in-person interviews at 11 schools, results that he claims support the notion that African-Americans garner special privileges that are unavailable to whites or Asians. And now that the statute of limitations on his act of fraud has expired, he's looking to write a book on his experiences, titled \"Almost Black: The True Story of an Indian American Who Got Into Medical School Pretending to Be an African American.\" What's truly curious is that even if you agree with Chokalingam that affirmative action is merely a form of \"systematic racism,\" when all is said and done, it offers very little evidence of the \"privilege\" that he claims is accorded to black, Hispanic and Native American candidates. Chokalingam had mediocre grades and MCATs, but he graduated from one of the most prestigious schools in the nation. Yet even while representing himself as black, Chokalingam received only a single admission offer, to St. Louis University's School of Medicine, which falls somewhere between 57th and 67th in national rankings. Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and all the higher ranked schools he applied to rejected him. Meanwhile, he admits, pretending to be black came with disadvantages. He found himself being accused of shoplifting by store clerks and harassed by cops \u2014 who would regularly stop him while driving and demand that he tell them how much his car cost, implying that he must have stolen it. These acts of very real prejudice, experienced regularly by blacks and Hispanics of all backgrounds \u2014 multimillionaire comedian Chris Rock has recently been tweeting pictures of the occasions when he is pulled over by police for no reason \u2014 didn't seem to dissuade Chokalingam from his adamant belief in the unfairness of a system that seeks to address the shockingly low numbers of minority health practitioners by providing some weight to race and ethnicity in decision-making. It's not just a matter of what individual applicants \"deserve.\" One-third of Americans are black, Hispanic or Native American; just one in 10 physicians are. Since minority medical practitioners are up to three times as likely to practice in their own communities, this lack of diversity has produced \"doctor deserts,\" in which urban and rural ethnic enclaves across the nation go without access to primary care physicians. Years ago, when I told my father \u2014 a doctor from a long line of doctors \u2014 that I didn't want to follow in his footsteps, he told me that was fine, because medicine is a service trade, and anyone not interested in serving should avoid the profession. A medical degree isn't a reward to be earned, he said, but a responsibility to be accepted. Which really cuts to the heart of what's so sad about Chokalingam's racial farce. Like others who've recently been exposed for falsely claiming racial identities \u2014 including putative presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who registered himself as \"Hispanic\" on a 2009 voter form, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was excoriated during her campaign for having claimed Native American ancestry in the past \u2014 Chokalingam wanted to claim the fruits of racial affiliation without having to carry black people's burden. Race isn't just about color or blood; it is about the collective experiences and inherited cultural context and present-day condition of a community of people. Many of the markers of race are persistently corrosive; others are deeply painful. Affirmative action programs are a means of redress for these awful realities of our nation's history; an imperfect one, but necessary. There are some fields where the imbalances might never correct themselves on their own. Industries like health care and Hollywood. Because what's most ironic about Chokalingam's decision to ride on his sister's coattails in telling his story: While Asians are well represented in medicine, our numbers are vanishingly low in the entertainment and media world, and until the recent breakthrough of modern pioneers like Mindy Kaling, it was impossible to imagine film and television that included our faces, voices and stories. Kaling's immense talent and charisma made her a star. But it was a quota-based affirmative action initiative -- NBC's Diversity Writers Program -- that gave her a start.","highlights":"Mindy Kaling's brother Vijay Chokalingam pretended to be black to get into med school .\nJeff Yang: That's offensive and ironic, considering that minorities experience many disadvantages .","id":"f78fb08d7ccc8bf7d4a376d5a885c5ab54026a6f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Buzz has surrounded HBO's new documentary \"Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,\" but Scientologist John Travolta is not a fan. Travolta told the Tampa Bay Times that he has not seen the documentary, \"and I don't really care to.\" \"I've been so happy with my (Scientology) experience in the last 40 years that I really don't have anything to say that would shed light on (a documentary) so decidedly negative,\" Travolta said. The actor, one of the Church of Scientology's most high-profile members along with stars like Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley, is premiering his new film, \"The Forger,\" in Clearwater, Florida. The HBO documentary is based on the book \"Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief\" by Lawrence Wright and is critical of the organization, which has close ties to the showbiz industry. Travolta said he believed the doc was a result of \"people who were disgruntled with their experiences\" with the Church of Scientology, which he touted as a positive experience for him. \"I haven't experienced anything that the hearsay has (claimed), so why would I communicate something that wasn't true for me?\" Travolta asked. \"It wouldn't make sense, nor would it for Tom (Cruise), I imagine.\" He called Scientology \"brilliant\" and credited the church with helping him to survive the death of his teen son, Jett, after a seizure while the family was on vacation in the Bahamas in 2009. \"Oh, my God, I wouldn't have made it,\" said Travolta, whose wife, Kelly Preston, is also a member. \"Honestly.\"","highlights":"The actor says he's not planning on seeing the buzzed-about documentary .\nHe called Scientology \"brilliant\"\nTravolta credits the church with helping him deal with his son's death .","id":"cc86a588b4e4e038e2591c363b4b895e46edbeda"} -{"article":"(CNN)Anthony Ray Hinton is thankful to be free after nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row for murders he says he didn't commit. And incredulous that it took so long. Hinton, 58, looked up, took in the sunshine and thanked God and his lawyers Friday morning outside the county jail in Birmingham, minutes after taking his first steps as a free man since 1985. He spoke of unjustly losing three decades of his life, under fear of execution, for something he didn't do. \"All they had to do was to test the gun, but when you think you're high and mighty and you're above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody,\" Hinton told reporters. \"But I've got news for you -- everybody that played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God.\" Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro had ordered Hinton released after granting the state's motion to dismiss charges against him. Hinton was convicted of murder in the 1985 deaths of two Birmingham-area, fast-food restaurant managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason. But a new trial was ordered in 2014 after firearms experts testified 12 years earlier that the revolver Hinton was said to have used in the crimes could not be matched to evidence in either case, and the two killings couldn't be linked to each other. \"Death Row Stories\": Hard questions about the U.S. capital punishment system . The state then declined to re-prosecute the case. Hinton was 29 at the time of the killings and had always maintained his innocence, said the Equal Justice Initiative, a group that helped win his release. \"Race, poverty, inadequate legal assistance, and prosecutorial indifference to innocence conspired to create a textbook example of injustice,\" Bryan Stevenson, the group's executive director and Hinton's lead attorney, said of his African-American client. \"I can't think of a case that more urgently dramatizes the need for reform than what has happened to Anthony Ray Hinton.\" Stevenson said the \"refusal of state prosecutors to re-examine this case despite persuasive and reliable evidence of innocence is disappointing and troubling.\" Amnesty report: Executions down but death sentences on the rise . Dressed in a dark suit and blue shirt, Hinton praised God for his release, saying he was sent \"not just a lawyer, but the best lawyers.\" He said he will continue to pray for the families of the murder victims. Both he and those families have suffered a miscarriage of justice, he said. \"For all of us that say that we believe in justice, this is the case to start showing, because I shouldn't have (sat) on death row for 30 years,\" he said. Woman who spent 22 years on death row has case tossed . Hinton was accompanied Friday by two of his sisters, one of whom still lives in the Birmingham area. Other siblings will fly to the area to see him soon, Stevenson said. His mother, with whom he lived at the time of his arrest, is no longer living, according to the lawyer. Hinton planned to spend at least this weekend at the home of a close friend. He will meet with his attorneys Monday to start planning for his immediate needs, such as obtaining identification and getting a health checkup, Stevenson said. The plan now is to spend a few weeks to get oriented with freedom and \"sort out what he wants to do,\" Stevenson said.","highlights":"Anthony Ray Hinton goes free Friday, decades after conviction for two murders .\nCourt ordered new trial in 2014, years after gun experts testified on his behalf .\nProsecution moved to dismiss charges this year .","id":"f1c555fe64f94df1f8c6afecf1ae4c0d78f6efa8"} -{"article":"(CNN)Blues legend B.B. King was hospitalized for dehydration, though the ailment didn't keep him out for long. King's dehydration was caused by his Type II diabetes, but he \"is much better,\" his daughter, Claudette King, told the Los Angeles Times. The legendary guitarist and vocalist released a statement thanking those who have expressed their concerns. \"I'm feeling much better and am leaving the hospital today,\" King said in a message Tuesday. Angela Moore, a publicist for Claudette King, said later in the day that he was back home resting and enjoying time with his grandchildren. \"He was struggling before, and he is a trouper,\" Moore said. \"He wasn't going to let his fans down.\" No more information on King's condition or where he was hospitalized was immediately available. B.B. is short for Blues Boy, part of the name he used as a Memphis disc jockey, the Beale Street Blues Boy. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and has 30 Grammy nominations. King, 89, has used various models of Gibson guitars over the years, and named each one of them Lucille. In the 1980s, Gibson officially dropped the model number on the guitar he used last and most. It became a custom-made signature model named Lucille, manufactured exclusively for the \"King of the Blues.\" Some of his hits include \"The Thrill Is Gone,\" which won him his first Grammy in 1970, \"There Must be a Better World Somewhere\" and \"When Love Comes to Town,\" a collaboration with U2. Last year, the bluesman suffered from dehydration and exhaustion after a show in Chicago, forcing him to cancel the remainder of his tour. CNN's Greg Botelho and Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.","highlights":"B.B King is now out of the hospital and back at home .\nBluesman suffered from dehydration and exhaustion after a 2014 show in Chicago .\nB.B. is short for Blues Boy, part of the name he used as a Memphis disc jockey .","id":"2c05ddcc2bf50bd20dfc8c16f124d32867075b32"} -{"article":"(CNN)Anyone who has given birth -- or been an observer of the event -- knows how arduous it can be. But to do it live on the Internet? With two hooves sticking out for several minutes in the midst of labor? Luckily, Katie -- a giraffe at the Dallas Zoo -- is a champ. In an hour-long labor captured by 10 cameras and streamed live by Animal Planet, Katie gave birth to a not-so-little baby (about 6 feet tall) early Friday evening. There was no immediate word on the newborn's gender or condition. But there were good signs, as seen on the live stream and Dallas Zoo's Twitter feed -- like its ears moving, its efforts to stand, and its nursing (or at least trying to nurse) from mom. \"We're so proud,\" the zoo tweeted. The newcomer's debut was a long time coming, especially when you count for Katie's 15-month gestation period -- average for a giraffe, according to Animal Planet. The baby joins a sister, 4-year-old calf Jamie. It wasn't immediately known how many people online saw Katie go into labor and give birth. But the giraffe definitely did have watchers in the form of fellow giraffes who saw the scene unfold from an abutting barn, one of them being Katie's BFF Jade. The fact that the spunky Katie held up so well under the spotlight isn't a total shocker. The zoo describes her as the \"diva\" among a herd of 12 giraffes at the zoo who loves to \"toss her head around\" when she doesn't like something. As Animal Planet noted, \"She's one of the only giraffes at the Dallas Zoo who can stick her long tongue out on cue.\" CNN's Justin Lear contributed to this report.","highlights":"Animal Planet captures Katie the giraffe's labor and delivery .\nThe new baby wiggles its ears, rises, tries to nurse from its mom .","id":"2af3d5505559f8c3d1728dbfac48da66b81af909"} -{"article":"(CNN)Do you remember the talk about plans for Iraqi-led force to try to take back Mosul this spring? Well, you might want to forget it. Nearly three months after a U.S. official said up to 25,000 Iraqis troops were expected to return to the key northern Iraqi city in April or May, a senior official in President Barack Obama's administration said Thursday that Washington is \"not putting a timeframe on\" a possible invasion. It \"might be some time from now. Might be soon,\" another senior administration official said. Mosul has long been the big prize in the Iraqi government's fight -- aided by a U.S.-led military coalition, which has carried out airstrikes for months -- to defeat ISIS. It has also long been a source of embarrassment, considering how it fell after Iraqi troops dropped their weapons, abandoned their posts and ran for their lives when militants arrived last June. The senior administration officials who talked to reporters Thursday stressed the Iraqis and their allies are making progress in their fight against the group that calls itself the Islamic State. In fact, officials insist that ISIS has been degraded substantially thanks to a combination of air power and ground combat. The biggest and most recent example of this came with the recapture a few weeks ago of Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein that is located some 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Iraqi forces aided by Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen took that northern city, the same place where ISIS allegedly massacred Iraqi troops last year. Still, Mosul isn't Tikrit. For one thing, it has a lot more people -- about a million, one Obama administration official noted. And it's more important not only to Iraq, but ISIS, meaning the terrorist group has all the more reason to go all-out to defend it. In some ways, the campaign for Mosul has begun, according to officials. There are no plans for U.S. combat troops involvement in an eventual operation, they say, but airstrikes have already targeted ISIS positions in the area. Just because the area has been softened up some from the air, though, doesn't mean a full ground assault is imminent. Calling for \"patience,\" an administration official said that winning Mosul is a complex endeavor. It will \"take a lot of capacity,\" the official said, \"and some time to build.\"","highlights":"U.S. official said in February that Iraqi troops could go into Mosul in April or May .\nOfficials say now that there's no timetable, an invasion could come sooner or later .\nThey note that recapturing Mosul from ISIS could be a complicated endeavor .","id":"f8e429a6906f299a0925f6d70e2570834a7b8dc6"} -{"article":"(CNN)Where do you go from here? The fourth season of \"Game of Thrones\" saw massive battles, major deaths (Tywin!) and White Walkers, but what can fans expect Sunday as we head into a fifth season of one of the most popular shows in HBO history? It's the most high-profile premiere yet, airing simultaneously in 170 countries for the first time. (HBO is a Time Warner company, like CNN.) We sought out \"Thrones\" aficionado Doug Gross, a writer for Nerdwallet and a former CNN employee, who had a few thoughts on the matter (beware, TV fans, he has read the books). \"We're going to start seeing some of the show's major story arcs coming together,\" Gross said (as confirmed by the executive producers). \"Already, Stannis has shown up at the Wall to save Jon Snow and the rest of the Night's Watch from the wildlings,\" he said. \"Now we'll see how his quest for the Iron Throne collides with the Watch's supposedly non-political role protecting the realm.\" Tyrion's path should cross with Daenerys' this season, according to the trailers. \"Season five also will be unique in that some of the major story arcs will clearly be moving ahead of where George Martin is in the 'Song of Ice and Fire' books,\" Gross pointed out. Executive producer David Benioff told Rolling Stone, \"We are starting to build to a crescendo, which means the battles have to get bigger and things have to get more dramatic.\" Indeed, this fifth season means we're past the halfway point, with the show currently set to end after seven years. The Stark daughters, Arya and Sansa, will be the characters to watch this season, as will Cersei. The world of Westeros is constantly plagued by war, but is there a time when people have just had enough? \"Wars are waged by the nobles, but it's the common folk who suffer,\" Gross noted. \"And, this season, we'll get a glimpse of what happens when those common people have had enough.\"","highlights":"The smash hit series \"Game of Thrones\" returns for a fifth season Sunday .\nMajor story arcs should start to converge this year .","id":"cf3f7388c3b51980ead39a8e701c7a4860d9f77c"} -{"article":"(CNN)A popular Chinese television host known for impromptu satire is now the subject of controversy after being caught on camera cursing the late Chairman Mao Zedong. Bi Fujian, who works for state-run China Central Television, was filmed at a dinner party singing a revolutionary song that eulogizes the Communist Party's early years when he started going off script. \"The Communist Party, Chairman Mao. Don't mention that old son of a b***h. He made us suffer so bad,\" went Bi's improvised lyrics. The other dinner guests burst into laughter. Bi later apologized. \"My personal speech has led to grave social consequences, and I feel remorseful for that. I hereby sincerely apologize to the public. As a public figure, I shall learn the lesson from this incident, adhering to strict self-discipline,\" he posted on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform. Making disrespectful references to China's leaders in public is considered a taboo in China, even today. And Bi's comment was directed at the man regarded by many as the country's founding father -- despite his controversial reputation. The 75-second video clip, seemingly filmed on the cellphone of another dinner guest, was uploaded on Monday. Since then, it has been removed from video-sharing sites inside China, although it was still accessible on Weibo. It's unclear when the incident occurred, or what the relationsip was between the camera person and Bi. CCTV said it would investigate. \"As a CCTV presenter, Bi Fujian's speech in the online video has led to grave social consequences,\" the network said in a statement posted on its Weibo account. CCTV did not respond to a CNN request for comment. Fondly known as \"Grandpa Bi,\" the 56-year-old TV personality was born and grew up in the Mao era. The song Bi riffed on was part of a \"red\" Peking opera that was first performed in the late 1950s. It was popularized during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s -- which was launched by Mao -- when China was torn apart by violence and social unrest. The video quickly divided China's online community. Critics said Bi, as an influential public figure, deserved a harsh punishment. But others rushed to his defense, arguing that Bi was simply enjoying himself in a private setting and was set up by whoever uploaded the clip. The video also emerged just a day before the new head of CCTV started his job, leading some to wonder if it were a case of \"a new broom sweeps clean.\" Mao still divides opinion in China. His giant portrait hangs on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate, and thousands flock to see his embalmed body at his mausoleum in Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital. But despite this reverence, Mao's is a deeply flawed legacy. Many remember him as a brutal dictator who inspired fear, paranoia and famine, and whose actions resulted in tens of millions of deaths. CNN's Shen Lu contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bi apologizes on social media: \"My personal speech has led to grave social consequences\"\nChinese TV star filmed cursing the late Chairman Mao Zedong .\nMaking disrespectful references to China's leaders in public is still taboo .","id":"8ba20bec4358b39f84a8a07264f71566bb3c5e8e"} -{"article":"(CNN)Rebekah Gregory blinked back tears as she thought about the verdict. It had been almost two years since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother planted bombs at the Boston Marathon, setting off deadly explosions that wounded her and hundreds of others. In court last month, she testified that one of the blasts on that day in 2013 left her lying in the street, staring at her own bones. Now, jurors have found him guilty on all 30 counts he faced for the deadly bombings and their aftermath. But no verdict can ever totally make up for the pain, she said. \"I don't believe that there will ever be justice brought to this, no mater if he does get the death penalty or he remains in prison for the rest of his life,\" she said, crying as she spoke to reporters outside her Texas home. \"I do believe, however, that he should be held accountable for his actions. And I'm very thankful for each of the jury members that are making him do that.\" Gregory, who wrote a widely publicized letter to Tsarnaev after testifying, said the trial has left her and other victims reeling from a flood of emotions as they relive horrifying memories, but it's an important step. \"Everything is being brought up again full force. Our lives will never ever be the same, but I hope with this we can move forward and remember that we are still here for a reason, that there's a bigger plan,\" she said. \"I may be standing on one fake leg, but I'm standing here, stronger than ever, because someone tried to destroy me, and he failed.\" For Gregory and others who lived through the 2013 attack, Wednesday's verdict brought a mix of emotions, from triumphant vows to move forward, to expressions of gratitude, to debate over whether Tsarnaev should be sentenced to death. There were no outbursts inside the federal courthouse in Boston. In fact, there was barely any peripheral noise as people sat on the edges of their seats. As Tsarnaev fidgeted and scratched the back of his head, some survivors and victims' family members lowered their heads and dabbed tears. As CNN's Alexandra Field noted from inside the courtroom, \"They've waited a long time for this.\" The family of Sean Collier, a 26-year-old police officer shot to death in his patrol car on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, were terrorists who \"failed monumentally\" in striking fear in people. \"While today's verdict can never bring Sean back, we are thankful that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be held accountable for the evil that he brought to so many families,\" the Collier family said in a written statement. To Richard \"Dic\" Donohue, an MBTA police officer left in a pool of blood after being wounded in a shootout with the Tsarnaevs in Watertown, the verdicts show that \"as a society, ... terrorism will not prevail, and we will hold those accountable for their acts against our nation.\" \"Justice has been served today,\" Donahue tweeted. Survivor Karen Brassard said she needed to attend the trial to help her heal. She doesn't believe Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's brother Tamerlan, now dead, persuaded him to take part in the plot, as the defense contended. Dzhokhar, in her view, was \"all in.\" \"Obviously we are grateful for the outcome today,\" Brassard tolder reporters. \"It's not a happy occasion, but it's something that we can put one more step behind us.\" That sense of turning the page was echoed by Bruce Mendelsohn, who is among those who rushed to save lives at the marathon finish line. The verdicts mean that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is no longer a bombing suspect -- he is now officially a \"convicted killer.\" You can't call it celebration. But there is a newfound peace of mind, at least, in and around Boston. This was a community that suffered greatly after the bombing and subsequent manhunt. And they got through it by rallying around each other, a deep bond reflected in the mantra \"Boston Strong.\" That feeling was reaffirmed all around the city by Wednesday's verdict. And it's evident in people like Heather Abbott, who lost her left leg below the knee. Since then, she's become a living example of someone who wasn't stopped by the terror -- learning not only to walk again, but to run again. \"Nothing can ever replace the lives that were lost or changed forever,\" Abbott said Wednesday on Facebook. \"But at least there is some relief in knowing that justice is served and responsibility will be taken.\" That view was commonly shared. For those hurt -- physically, mentally, emotionally -- by the horrors of 2013, Wednesday was key to their progression. But it's not the end of the road. Just ask Jeff Bauman. The picture of him, bloodied, being rushed through the streets of Boston by good Samaritan Carlos Arredondo, became a symbol of the carnage and heroism from this attack. Even after losing both his legs, Bauman has become a symbol since of resilience -- moving on with his life, by marrying and fathering a child. On Wednesday, Bauman said the verdict \"will never replace the lives that were lost and so dramatically changed.\" \"But it is a relief,\" he added, \"and one step closer to closure.\" CNN's Ann O'Neill and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Survivor Jeff Bauman stresses \"we will never replace the lives that were lost\"\nA man who was at the finish line is glad Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now a \"convicted killer\"\n\"Justice has been served today,\" says a once wounded police officer .","id":"d8aee1ae4b1130afbf0572a49afc2f5366b181c9"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)Richard Dysart, the Emmy-winning actor who portrayed the cranky senior partner Leland McKenzie in the slick, long-running NBC drama \"L.A. Law,\" has died. He was 86. Dysart, who also played Coach in the original 1972 Broadway production of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning \"That Championship Season,\" died Sunday at home in Santa Monica after a long illness, his wife, artist Kathryn Jacobi, told The Hollywood Reporter. The acclaimed \"L.A. Law\" \u2014 created by Steven Bochco (who eventually handed off the series to David E. Kelley) and Terry Louise Fisher \u2014 aired for eight seasons from 1986 to 1994. For playing the founder of the firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak, Dysart was nominated for the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for four straight years, finally winning the trophy in 1992. \"I always had him in mind for that role,\" Bochco said in a 2002 interview with the Archive of American Television. \"He's so avuncular. So I reached out to him. You know, Dick is sort of an old hippie. So he went into his closet and tried to find a lawyer outfit, and he came to meet us wearing a suit and tie. He was perfect.\" \"We got together, mapped out the character's past to give us a basis from which to work, and it's all gone smoothly since then,\" Dysart said in a 1990 interview with The Seattle Times. \"Sometimes I worry \u2014 it's all been going too well \u2014 a role I love to play in a series that's about as good as you can get. Something's wrong!\" Perhaps Dysart's most memorable character arc on the show was when he was found in bed with power-hungry competitor Rosalind Shays (played by Diana Muldaur). He was one of the few actors to appear in every episode. Dysart's range of authority -figure parts ran right to the top. He limned Harry Truman in the CBS telefilm \"Day One\" and in the ABC miniseries \"War and Remembrance,\" both of which aired in 1989, and he was Henry L. Stimson, the 33rd U.S. president's Secretary of War, in the 1995 HBO telefilm \"Truman,\" starring Gary Sinise. Similarly, he played the Secretary of Defense in \"Meteor\" (1979). Hollywood Reporter: Most powerful people in N.Y. media . Dysart also performed extensively in the medical- (movie) field, performing enough doctor roles to, perhaps, qualify to practice. His two most memorable came in classic satires: in Paddy Chayevsky's scathing \"The Hospital\" (1971), starring George C. Scott (a good friend), and in \"Being There\" (1979), as Melvyn Douglas' doctor. He also was a doctor who died a gruesome death in John Carpenter's \"The Thing\" (1982) and a physician in such films as \"The Terminal Man\" (1974), \"The Falcon and the Snowman\" (1985) and \"Warning Sign\" (1985). Dysart portrayed J. Edgar Hoover in the 1993 USA telefilm \"Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair\" and in Mario Van Peebles' \"Panther\" (1995). Dysart also excelled as cranky coots and shifty sorts. He portrayed a motel receptionist in Richard Lester's \"Petulia\" (1968); was the bad guy who battled Clint Eastwood in \"Pale Rider\" (1985); stood out as a power player in Oliver Stone's \"Wall Street\" (1987); and sold barbwire in \"Back to the Future III\" (1990). Dysart was born March 30, 1929, in Boston and raised in Maine. Following high school, he attended the Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, for a year, served in the U.S. Air Force and attended Emerson College, where he graduated with a master's degree in speech communications. At the time, he was interested in a career in radio (he became fascinated with the medium in first grade, when he was bedridden for a year because of rheumatic fever) but was soon tempted by acting. He moved to New York on a whim and was able to land minor roles on TV and a part in an off-Broadway production of \"The Iceman Cometh\" opposite Jason Robards. In the mid-1960s, he joined the American Conservatory Theater and toured the country doing plays, then landed roles on Broadway in \"All in Good Time,\" \"The Little Foxes\" and \"A Place Without Doors.\" He received a Drama Desk Award for his performance in \"That Championship Season.\" Hollywood Reporter: Q&A with Liz Smith . Dysart's credits include an eclectic array of movies, including \"The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder\" (1974), \"The Day of the Locust\" (1975), \"The Hindenburg\" (1975), \"An Enemy of the People\" (1978), \"Prophecy\" (1979), \"Mask\" (1985) and \"Hard Rain\" (1998). On television, he was top-notch in the telefilms \"The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman\" (1974), \"The People vs. Jean Harris\" (1981), as Dwight D. Eisenhower in \"The Last Days of Patton\" (1986) and as studio chief Louis B. Mayer in \"Malice in Wonderland\" (1985). Survivors also include his stepson Arie and daughter-in-law Jeannine Jacobi, mother-in-law Lenore, brother and sister-in-law Nadine and John Jacobi and grandchildren Abby and Levi. A private memorial is being planned. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, an outdoor theater in Topanga Canyon in the Los Angeles area. Dysart and Jacobi had a second home in the forests of British Columbia. He was lured out of retirement for his last onscreen appearance, the \"L.A. Law\" reunion telefilm of 2002. \"They remain timely, with cases about points of law that are still current,\" he said of watching \"L.A. Law\" reruns in a 2002 interview with The Bangor Daily News. \"[The show] was also one of the fathers of yuppiedom. It was very much of the times, and very Los Angeles. It holds up as well as any series I know.\" People we've lost in 2015 . \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Richard Dysart best known for Leland McKenzie in \"L.A. Law\"\nDysart had many TV and film roles, including spots in \"Being There\" and \"The Thing\"\nActor won Drama Desk award for performance in theatrical \"That Championship Season\"","id":"c34d84d38ccfd021ba0b3712dc23feadd455af5b"} -{"article":"(CNN)The outlines of a nuclear deal with Iran are in place. Unfortunately, it seems like too many in President Barack Obama's administration have forgotten that the only reason this terrorist-supporting state came to the negotiating table in the first place was because of tough sanctions imposed by the U.S. Congress. Indeed, the reality is that President Obama is giving up enormous leverage in his nuclear deal with Iran -- and I worry we will lose it for good. Bleeding money, and faced with falling oil prices, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei gave his government rare permission to bargain with the \"Great Satan\" -- the United States. But just as U.S. and European sanctions were forcing Iran to the nuclear crossroads, President Obama has given Tehran an easy exit. For Khamenei, the \"framework\" announced last week looks like a win-win: He gets to keep his nuclear infrastructure, and in return gets billions of dollars in sanctions relief. Congress offered a better strategy when the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, and I introduced a bill to hit Tehran with its toughest sanctions yet. Unfortunately, this bill -- which passed the House in a 400-20 vote -- was blocked in the Senate last year, despite the fact that it would have sharpened the Ayatollah's choice: Dismantle your nuclear weapons program or see your economy collapse. President Obama once had a tougher line, when in 2012 he said: \"The deal we'll accept is they end their nuclear program. It's very straightforward.\" But the framework announced last week does nothing of the sort. Negotiated between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the framework concedes that Iran can maintain \"a mutually defined enrichment program,\" operate thousands of centrifuges, and continue its research and development of nuclear technologies. The deal currently on the table would hand Tehran billions of previously sanctioned funds, filling the coffers of the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism, with strongholds in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. Meanwhile, the strictest restrictions on Iran's enrichment will expire in only 10 years, despite the President receiving a letter from 367 Members of Congress -- both Democrats and Republicans -- in which we insisted that \"verifiable constraints on Iran's nuclear program must last for decades.\" The President admitted as much when he conceded that \"in year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that point the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero.\" But as bad as these concessions are, the most concerning aspect of the April 2 deal is that it lacks tough safeguards to stop Iran from cheating. The key question is this: Will the inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency be allowed to inspect these military sites without warning? Because if the IAEA cannot conduct \"anytime, anywhere\" inspections, Iran will be able to \"sneak out\" to a bomb. It has been done before. Remember, in 1994, when President Bill Clinton told us he had struck a deal with North Korea that would \"make the United States, the Korean Peninsula, and the world safer\"? President Clinton sounded a little too much like the current Secretary of State John Kerry, when he promised that the North Korea agreement \"does not rely on trust\" and that \"compliance will be certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency.\" Twelve years after these assurances, North Korea detonated its first nuclear bomb. Iran could easily do the same. The best predictor of its future behavior is its past behavior -- between 2004 and 2009, the Iranian government built a huge centrifuge facility named Fordo under a mountain deep in the Iranian desert. Luckily for the world, Western intelligence agencies discovered Tehran's deception. But we cannot rely on such luck in the future, particularly when Iran still hasn't come clean about its history of secret weapons development and is still dodging basic questions from the IAEA. Let's not forget the other things Iran has been doing while its diplomats have been bargaining with the U.S. and its partners. While Iran was showing its friendly new face to the world, it has simultaneously been helping Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad kill his own people, training and funding the terrorist group Hezbollah, which aims to annihilate Israel, and supporting the Houthis, who started a civil war and overthrew the government in Yemen -- one of America's more reliable counterterrorism partners in the region. If President Obama is going to hand over billions of dollars to a regime that behaves like this, run by a man who publicly declares: \"Death to America,\" it has to be a better deal. The framework we have before us keeps Iran's nuclear door well and truly open.","highlights":"Ed Royce: Best predictor of Iran's future behavior is its past behavior .\nNew framework keeps Iran's nuclear door well and truly open, he says .","id":"2549d3c10d5bc8ede708af559dd095271e0225e1"} -{"article":"(CNN)The VII Summit of the Americas was supposed to be all about the symbolic handshake between the United States and Cuba. But insert Venezuela into the mix and Panama City, Panama, quickly turns into a \"triangle of tension.\" Heads of state from 35 countries in the Western Hemisphere have met every three years to discuss economic, social or political issues since the creation of the summit in 1994. Cuba has historically been the wrench in the diplomatic machinery, with some Latin American leaders threatening not to attend the Summit of the Americas if the United States and Canada didn't agree to invite President Raul Castro. The tide changed December 17, 2014, when President Barack Obama and Castro announced that more than five decades of Cold War rivalry was ending. Diplomats from both countries immediately began negotiations to establish embassies in Havana and Washington, and the attention immediately focused on the Summit of the Americas, where for the first time since the about-face, Obama and Castro would come face-to-face. The much anticipated handshake between Obama and Castro would steal all the headlines if it wasn't for Cuba's strongest ally, Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recently accused the United States of trying to topple his government and banned former President George Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio from entering Venezuela. \"They can't enter Venezuela because they're terrorists,\" Maduro said, blaming the American politicians for what he called terrorist actions in Iraq, Syria and Vietnam. The U.S. State Department said the allegations of U.S. involvement in a coup plot against Maduro were \"baseless and false.\" Later, Obama issued an executive order sanctioning seven Venezuelan officials for human rights violations and saying the country was a \"threat to national security.\" White House officials said every executive order includes that language, but it has sparked a fiery response from Maduro, who has been collecting millions of signatures demanding the repeal of the order. He also asked for repeal in full-page ads in The New York Times and in a Panama City newspaper. Maduro didn't stop there; he has been rallying other Latin American leaders, including Bolivian President Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. But perhaps most damning for the United States -- and creating the \"triangle of tension\" at the summit -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has sided publicly with Maduro. \"We reiterate our strong condemnation of the unacceptable and unjustifiable unilateral sanctions imposed against the sister nation of Venezuela and the continued foreign interference with the purpose of creating a climate of instability in that sister nation. We ratify our firmest support to the Bolivarian Revolution and the legitimate government headed by President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro,\" Rodriguez said. While the world watches for the photo-op of Obama and Castro, it's unclear if more Latin American diplomats will side with Maduro, and for America, the VII Summit of the Americas could go from \"mi casa es su casa\" to a walk into the lion's den.","highlights":"U.S., Venezuelan relations threaten to overshadow Obama, Castro meeting .\nVenezuelan President says United States moved to oust him; he has the support of the Cuban foreign minister .","id":"5a650587a76e9eb9c03612c7064bbee9f552ebec"} -{"article":"Waterloo, Iowa (CNN)Martin O'Malley and Jim Webb share little in common. Both Democrats are toying with a presidential run, both are facing long odds in that endeavor, and both shared a stage at the Polk County Democrats Awards Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday night. But, as was evident at the dinner, that is where the similarities end. O'Malley is a former mayor and Maryland governor who seems most at home when he is pressing the flesh at events and introducing himself to anyone who would extend their hand. Webb, on the contrary, is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and former senator from Virginia who comes across as more stoic and, at times, uncomfortable with retail politics. Before the event, O'Malley confidently cruised the union hall. He took selfies with young environmental activists and chatted with sometimes tepid supporters who admitted their other political allegiances. \"It is a marathon, not a sprint,\" one man told O'Malley, a nod to his long odds in the 2016 Democratic nomination process. \"Yes, it is; it's a marathon,\" O'Malley responded. \"Welcome to Iowa,\" said another man. \"We hope to see you here more.\" O'Malley smiled, \"Thanks a lot. I hope you do, too.\" Webb wasn't nearly as active, opting instead to stay close to his seat near the front of the venue and chat with a small group of people around him. As Webb cut into his sizable helping of pork, O'Malley was standing directly behind him, shaking hands. The former Virginia senator, after possibly seeing O'Malley making the rounds, did stand up and shake hands with a few of the diehard Democratic activists in the room. \"Seven months old,\" Zach Smith, a new father, said of his baby boy, Noah. \"I have a bunch of kids. The youngest one is 8 years old,\" Webb said. The baby looked up at the senator. \"He is pretty calm,\" Webb remarked, himself calm. Despite coming from bordering states, Webb and O'Malley don't know each other. When they passed each other in a Des Moines hotel lobby on Friday morning, it was the first time the two had met. That said, the two Democrats find themselves in the same position. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who is set to announce her presidential bid Sunday, leads every national and state poll of the Democratic field. She has begun to build a sizable staff and is expected to have massive amounts of money to win the nomination. O'Malley and Webb are both looking up at her. In a March CNN\/ORC poll (PDF) of national Democrats, only 1% said O'Malley and Webb were their top choice. In a January poll from Bloomberg Politics and the Des Moines Register (PDF), O'Malley was at 1% among Iowa Democrats, while Webb found himself at 3%. The speaking portion of the night further showed Webb and O'Malley's differences. Webb, who spoke before the governor, gave a more subdued, biographical speech that mentioned three areas he would focus on if he ran for president: Basic governance, economic justice and criminal justice reform. To the approval of the audience, Webb promised to come back to Iowa regularly. \"I am committing to you right now,\" he said, \"we are going to go over the whole state.\" And the biggest applause came near the end of his speech, when he urged his party to get back to talking about issues. \"Money is ruining our political process,\" Webb said to a chorus of applause and \"hear hear.\" O'Malley, on the other hand, gave a speech littered with intentional applause lines. At points, the governor would deliberately stop to allow for the silence to be filled with clapping hands. \"When the American Dream is denied, our lives shrink, our hopes fade, and our days unfold not in the light of possibility but in the darkness of fear,\" O'Malley said, delivering the same stump speech he usually gives. \"To make the dream true again, we must fight for better wages for all workers, so that Americans can support their families on what they earn.\" As the event wound down, Webb and O'Malley stuck around to shake more hands and meet people. O'Malley, who spent the previous day in Iowa, left Friday night for New York. Webb, who is in the midst of a four-day trip to Iowa, stayed in Des Moines and headlined a veterans event on Saturday morning in Waterloo. Webb regularly speaks about his service and appeared more at home at the event. He told war stories with young and old veterans and spoke at length about how the government could be doing more for veterans. He also touted his work on passing the 21st Century G.I. Bill of Rights, a 2008 act that expanded education benefits for veterans, and stressed that more needed to be done. \"You want the next greatest generation, give them the same opportunity the the greatest generation had,\" Webb said to applause. \"If you really want to thank them, hire a vet.\" After the event, Webb shook hands with people veterans who told stories about dropped benefits and problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He occasionally smiled and thanked people for coming on a sunny Saturday morning. Asked whether he enjoys the retail politics that is crucial in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire, Webb smiled. Skepticism of retail politics is not new for Webb. As a one-term Democratic senator, Webb was rumored to loathe the burdens that came with campaigning, namely fundraising and retail politics. This time, he put on a rosy view. \"This is the good part of it, \"Webb said, with a laugh. \"Talking to the media, that is not always the good part.\"","highlights":"There are few similarities between Democrats Martin O'Malley and Jim Webb .\nBut they find themselves in a similar position as long-shot presidential hopefuls .","id":"e3f8ceb7a6271bb978b2bb47978054f58390852e"} -{"article":"(CNN)Mullah Mohammed Omar is \"still the leader\" of the Taliban's self-declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. That appears to be the primary message of a biography, just published by the Taliban, of the reclusive militant who is credited with founding the group in the early 1990s. The Taliban's \"Cultural Commission\" released the 11-page document in several different translations on the movement's website, ostensibly to commemorate the 19th anniversary of an April 4, 1996, meeting in Afghanistan's Kandahar province when an assembly of Afghans swore allegiance to Omar. Several Afghan observers say the biography is aimed at dispelling rumors of Omar's demise. \"There have been a lot of rumors lately about him. Some people are saying that he is not alive,\" said Sayyed Muhammad Akbar Agha, a former Taliban insider who has written an autobiography about his days with the movement. \"I think the Taliban thought it was an important time to release his biography to give assurances that he is alive and present,\" Agha told CNN in a telephone interview. Bergen: Why U.S. must stay in Afghanistan past 2016 . The biography also appears to be an attempt to remind the world of the Afghan's jihadi leadership credentials, at a time when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has declared himself \"caliph\" of the world's Muslims. \"The Taliban has a huge leadership problem at a critical political moment,\" said Graeme Smith, a Kabul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group. \"Another caliph has announced himself to the world, and the Taliban has been silent. And that is getting noticed by militants across South Asia.\" Omar was famously camera-shy during the Taliban's six-year rule over most of Afghanistan. To this day, there are only a handful of photographs of the one-eyed leader. \"He never was actively involved in any of these propaganda campaigns. No publicity. No interviews. He never used the Internet,\" said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on Afghanistan who once interviewed Osama bin Laden. Omar then all but disappeared after a U.S.-led bombing campaign routed the Taliban from Kabul in 2001. Washington has offered a $10 million reward for his capture. The Taliban have released written statements purportedly made by the leader-in-hiding. But years without any video or audio recordings of the fugitive have led to growing speculation that Omar may have died. The biography challenges rumors of Omar's death by offering a description of his daily work schedule, which begins with prayers, study of the Quran, and then delivering \"orders in a specific way to his Jihadi commanders.\" The publication also seeks to fill in some of the gaps about the militant's early years, including the detail that his \"preferred weapon of choice\" was the RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade. According to the biography, Omar was born in 1960 in a village called Chah-i-Himmat in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. His father, a \"well-known and respected erudite and social figure,\" died only five years later, apparently of natural causes. Omar studied at a religious school, or madrassa, run by his uncle. The rise of the Communist Party in Afghanistan, and the subsequent 1979 Soviet invasion, interrupted the young man's studies and propelled him into the arms of the armed Afghan opposition known as the mujahedeen. For the next decade, Omar commanded rebel groups \"against the invading Russians and their internal communist puppets,\" according to the biography. Along the way, he was wounded a number of times and was blinded in his right eye. In one battle, the biography claims, Omar and a fighter named Mullah Biradar Akhund destroyed four Soviet tanks, even though they were armed with only four RPG rounds. The Taliban biography makes no mention of the fact that the U.S., allied with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, helped arm and bankroll the mujahedeen until the Soviet army withdrew in defeat in 1989. Afghan historians have documented the rapid rise of the Taliban in the chaotic years after the communist government in Kabul collapsed in 1992. The movement of warriors who identified themselves as religious scholars emerged to bring order to a country being ripped apart by rival mujahedeen warlords who battled one another for power. The Taliban biography says that Omar and his compatriots \"launched their struggle and fight against corruption and anarchy\" after an initial meeting in Kandahar in June 1994. Two years later, the Taliban captured Kabul and began imposing its austere interpretation of Islamic law on the rest of the country. While the document denounces the Taliban's post-9\/11 overthrow at the hands of a U.S.-backed coalition of rival Afghan fighters, it makes no mention of the Taliban's alliance with bin Laden and al Qaeda. During a decade in exile, the Saudi-born bin Laden continued to release periodic video and audio statements until he was killed by U.S. raid on his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011. Though Taliban militants have continued to battle the U.S.-backed government across Afghanistan, Omar has not been seen or heard from in years. The movement claims he continues to oversee a Taliban leadership council, judiciary and nine executive commissions, as well as military commanders who operate in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Exclusive: ISIS 'recruits Afghans' in chilling video . CNN's Masoud Popalzai contributed to this report from Kabul, Afghanistan.","highlights":"Mullah Omar, the reclusive founder of the Afghan Taliban, is still in charge, a new biography claims .\nAn ex-Taliban insider says there have been rumors that the one-eyed militant is dead .","id":"012819ffa2547138101055add33deebe7beaa3d4"} -{"article":"(CNN)#UporDown? That's the trending question on social media, thanks to a photo of a cat coming down some stairs. Or is it going up some stairs? (And you thought you were done with this kind of optical illusion free-for-all after #TheDress.) The picture was apparently uploaded on Imgur a few days ago and has caught fire thanks to a post on the website 9gag.com. Some people are noting the apparent motion of the cat. Others are commenting about the construction of the stairs. (Nobody has mentioned that some cats we could name would be more likely to stop in the middle of the steps and play with a mousie.) Of course, where there's public debate, there are advertisers waiting to take advantage of the situation. Taxes? Now, those are REALLY confusing.","highlights":"The Internet is raging about a cat going #UporDown .\nThe debate is fueled by an optical illusion photo .\nThe story brings to mind the furor over #TheDress .","id":"c7a2fff8169408776d5f35229fb5c3fcb9b2523c"} -{"article":"(CNN)Tornado sirens blared Wednesday night in Kansas as several storms brought reports of twisters. Spotters reported a tornado about 6 miles northwest of Goddard, which is less than 15 miles west of Wichita. That storm moved to the northeast, missing the city, but posing potential risks to other communities. \"There will be storms ... that pop up all night long,\" said CNN severe weather expert Chad Myers. \"Nighttime tornadoes are the most deadly, are the most dangerous.\" Other reports of tornadoes came in from southwestern Kansas, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Three of the sightings were near Aetna, 125 miles southwest of Wichita. Kansas wasn't the only state affected by the storms. The National Weather Service indicated a tornado may have touched down in the small town of Potosi, Missouri, about 70 miles from St. Louis. CNN affiliate KMOV reported that it had received reports of wind damage and flooding in the town. One Instagram user there posted a photo of a fallen tree. Aerial footage also showed damage to roofs and one street overtaken by water. Not far away from Potosi, Shyler and Christin Strube in Leadington posted an Instagram picture of some unusual dark clouds. And a Twitter user in Farmington got bad news when he went out to his car. \"They weren't kidding when they said baseball size (hail),\" Kevin Knox wrote. On Thursday, more storms are expected in the Midwest, Mississippi River Valley, Tennessee River Valley and near the southern Great Lakes, the weather service said. CNN's Sean Morris and AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kansas spotters report at least four tornadoes .\nPotosi, Missouri, sees wind damage to roofs and some flooding .\nThursday's forecast calls for more storms but to the east .","id":"7d5b44afe30b34c03f77f0e5ebf5eb88498ee71c"} -{"article":"(CNN)I remember the day I stopped praying. It was the day after my little brother, Jimmy, died of cancer. He was 25. I was so angry at God. I was 27 at the time, and, like most young people I had stopped going to church. But, on that day -- that terrible day -- I desperately needed to understand why God took my brother. I called the nearest Catholic church, looking for a priest. A lady picked up the phone. \"Can I talk with Father?\" I asked. I wish I could say her answer was \"yes.\" Instead, she asked me if I was a member of that particular parish. \"Does it matter?\" I asked. (At the time I lived far from my home parish.) I don't remember how she responded, but the answer about my being able to see Father was clearly no. I don't know if all Catholic churches would have shut me out, but I figured, at the time, it was part of the long list of rules the Vatican required Catholic leaders to follow. I cried for a bit, then decided I would never ask God for anything. Clearly, his conduits on Earth did not have time for me -- a lifelong Catholic -- and sinner -- so why would he? Ever since, I've considered myself a lapsed Catholic. Until Pope Francis. There is something about Francis that's reawakened my faith. And it's not because he opened the floodgates to allow sin in the eyes of the church. He still argues against things I passionately support, but I find myself -- like many other lapsed Catholics -- enthralled. Recently I had the pleasure of meeting one of the Pope's newly appointed cardinals. His name is Cardinal Gerald Lacroix. The 57-year-old presides at the Basilica Cathedral of Notre Dame in Quebec City. One of my first questions: What is it about Pope Francis? \"Every person is a mystery you know. ... But what's evident is this man is living with such freedom, such inner freedom. He's himself. He's in tune with the Lord,\" Lacroix told me. \"Those close to him say he's up close to 4 in the morning to prepare his daily Mass, which is at 7 in the morning on the weekdays. So that's almost three hours of prayer, preparation and silence before the Lord and the word of God. Wow, that really fine-tunes you to start off a day.\" Perhaps that's how the Pope stays humble. Why he defies tradition and washes the feet of the disabled, women and those of other faiths. Why he ordered showers to be built for the poor in St. Peter's Square. All of this is appealing, but it's more than that. In my mind, it's his tone. When Pope Francis said, \"If a person is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?\" The comment took me aback. Homosexuality has long been a taboo subject for the Vatican, yet Pope Francis uttered those welcoming words. Lacroix likened the Pope's approach to Jesus. \"Jesus didn't judge. Jesus did not come as a judge. He came as someone who preached and talked about the love of God.\" Those kinds of answers are so different in my experience, but I understand why more conservative Catholics worry. If the Pope does not judge, then who will tell us who is a sinner and who is not? \"I hear that sometimes, too,\" Lacroix told me. \"I think Pope Francis is conservative in the right way. You have to be conservative enough to come back to what is the foundation: that's the Gospel. You cannot reproach Pope Francis of not living the Gospel, or not preaching the truth of the Gospel.\" But isn't homosexuality a sin in the eyes of the church? \"There is room for everyone. The door is open,\" Cardinal Lacroix insisted. \"Of course you know that the Catholic Church will never promote same sex marriage, but do we respect homosexual persons? Do we welcome them? Do we accompany them? Of course. But to respect the Church and its teaching, which is based on a long tradition and also the word of God, we will not go so far as to bless. But that doesn't mean we reject.\" That last sentiment -- \"that doesn't mean we reject.\" -- did it for me. I finally understood why Pope Francis reawakened my faith. I always felt my church would reject me for committing the smallest of sins. Like calling a priest at a church that was not my home parish. Like not covering my head with a traditional veil at Easter. Like accidentally eating meat on Holy Friday. Like supporting the use of contraception. But as Lacroix told me, Jesus walked with sinners until the very end. He did not banish them to fires of hell, for He refused to give up on anyone. The Cardinal's last words to me: \"I'm trying to do my best on (the) local level -- to have an open ear to what the church and world are experiencing. To see how we can today respond to those needs. I want people to see me, and the church, as an open heart to grow together. Not a church that's imposing -- we have nothing to impose -- we have someone to propose: the Lord Jesus and his Gospel.\" I can't wait to go church next Sunday. And, yes, I will bow my head and pray for forgiveness, and if I'm worthy, Christ's love.","highlights":"There is something about Pope Francis that's reawakened her faith, say CNN's Carol Costello .\nMeeting Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of Quebec showed how the Pope is putting people in place to carry out his new vision, Costello writes .","id":"dc8bb8429f624c4cceea3caae72874acb85e69b3"} -{"article":"New York (CNN)When Liana Barrientos was 23 years old, she got married in Westchester County, New York. A year later, she got married again in Westchester County, but to a different man and without divorcing her first husband. Only 18 days after that marriage, she got hitched yet again. Then, Barrientos declared \"I do\" five more times, sometimes only within two weeks of each other. In 2010, she married once more, this time in the Bronx. In an application for a marriage license, she stated it was her \"first and only\" marriage. Barrientos, now 39, is facing two criminal counts of \"offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree,\" referring to her false statements on the 2010 marriage license application, according to court documents. Prosecutors said the marriages were part of an immigration scam. On Friday, she pleaded not guilty at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, according to her attorney, Christopher Wright, who declined to comment further. After leaving court, Barrientos was arrested and charged with theft of service and criminal trespass for allegedly sneaking into the New York subway through an emergency exit, said Detective Annette Markowski, a police spokeswoman. In total, Barrientos has been married 10 times, with nine of her marriages occurring between 1999 and 2002. All occurred either in Westchester County, Long Island, New Jersey or the Bronx. She is believed to still be married to four men, and at one time, she was married to eight men at once, prosecutors say. Prosecutors said the immigration scam involved some of her husbands, who filed for permanent residence status shortly after the marriages. Any divorces happened only after such filings were approved. It was unclear whether any of the men will be prosecuted. The case was referred to the Bronx District Attorney's Office by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security's Investigation Division. Seven of the men are from so-called \"red-flagged\" countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Pakistan and Mali. Her eighth husband, Rashid Rajput, was deported in 2006 to his native Pakistan after an investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. If convicted, Barrientos faces up to four years in prison. Her next court appearance is scheduled for May 18.","highlights":"Liana Barrientos, 39, re-arrested after court appearance for alleged fare beating .\nShe has married 10 times as part of an immigration scam, prosecutors say .\nBarrientos pleaded not guilty Friday to misdemeanor charges .","id":"f66c8ff2cad2a7c8fcfae64e5e00f0bce75334b2"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)Washington was rocked late Thursday by shootings -- one at the gates of the U.S. Census Bureau's headquarters and another in a popular area packed with restaurant patrons. The shootings were connected, authorities said. They began with what authorities believe was a domestic kidnapping incident, according to D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The suspect's vehicle was spotted outside the Census Bureau, which is in Suitland, Maryland. A guard apparently approached the vehicle and saw two people arguing. That guard was then shot at least once in the upper body, said Prince George's County Fire Department spokesman Mark Brady. The guard was in extremely critical condition, according to Brady. The police chief said the suspect then fled the scene. Officers picked up the chase, and the suspect fired gunshots at multiple locations, Lanier said. The chase ended in a crash on Washington's busy H Street. A shootout ensues, Lanier said. An officer and the suspect were wounded, according to the police chief. Both were conscious and talking when they left the scene. \"Right now, we have every reason to believe that the car that we have in this last incident here is the same car involved and the same person involved in the kidnapping,\" she said. Lanier told reporters the kidnapping victim was located and is in good condition. She did not identify the suspect, nor the guard, nor the officer who were injured. Steve Brusk reported from Washington. Dana Ford wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Greg Botelho also contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities believe the two shootings are connected .\nA suspect leads police on a wild chase, firing at multiple locations .\nA Census Bureau guard is in critical condition, a fire official says .","id":"9b54bd1709bdcad40b3d57f57f59a7631868132b"} -{"article":"(CNN)An Amnesty International report is calling for authorities to address the number of attacks on women's rights activists in Afghanistan. The report, entitled \"Their Lives on the Line,\" examines the persecution of activists and other champions of women's rights not only by the Taliban and tribal warlords, but also by government officials. Its publication is timely. The brutal murder of Farkhunda, a young woman in Afghanistan, whose body was burnt and callously chucked into a river in Kabul, shocked the world. Accused of burning pages from the Muslim holy book, the Quran, many protested the 27-year-old's innocence. But what also made international headlines was the fact that for the first time in history, women in Afghanistan became pallbearers, hoisting the victim's coffin on their shoulders draped with headscarves, under the gazes of men; unreservedly sobbing and shouting messages of women's solidarity as they marched along the streets. In a country ranked in 2011 by a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll as the most dangerous place in the world for women, this feminist act seemed perilous. Latest figures suggest they were risking their lives to be heard. In 2013, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released statistics that showed the number of women killed in the country had increased by 20% from the previous year, although the number of civilian victims had decreased, said Amnesty in the report. The Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General in Afghanistan at the time, Jan Kubis, told the U.N. Security Council that \"the majority (of women killed) is linked to domestic violence, tradition, culture of the country. \"Women activists have been deliberately targeted.\" And according to the human rights group, little support has come from those in power. \"The Afghan government has done very little to protect them,\" Amnesty's Afghanistan researcher, Horia Mosadiq, tells CNN. \"Perpetrators almost always walk free, and threats reported by women rights defenders are often simply ignored. \"Many women defenders we spoke to said that even when they received some protection from authorities, it was often significantly less than what male counterparts or colleagues were afforded.\" During the attack on Farkhunda, \"many eyewitnesses have testified that police officers stood idly by while this woman was being lynched and killed,\" says Mosadiq. Twenty-six people were arrested and thirteen police officials suspended in connection with the attack, but she argues that this is insufficient. \"Suspending police officers is not enough, those who failed in their duty must also be held to account -- anything less will just encourage further mob violence.\" But what is striking is the resilience of the activists, who continue their work despite their lives being on the line. \"It was a remarkable moment,\" says Mosadiq, recalling the female protesters at Farkhunda's funeral. \"Unlike anything I have seen in my decades of campaigning for women's rights in our country.\" Selay Ghaffer, 32, is a women's rights activist and spokesperson for the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan -- a small but outspoken political party based in Kabul and twenty provinces that fights for issues such as democracy, social justice and women's rights. The party was the first to be banned in the country for accusing Afghan leaders and commanders of war crimes and demanding that they be brought to justice. Taking part in Farkhunda's funeral and protests against her death, she tells CNN that despite the onslaught of violence against Afghan women over the years, this was the worst case. But the opportunity was taken to deliver a clear message. \"So the women of Afghanistan showed that we will not keep silent anymore... And we are not ready to accept more brutality and violence against women,\" said Ghaffer. \"So this is why we decided to carry the dead body of Farkhunda on our own shoulders and show to the world that not only men can do it and somehow broke the traditionalism that (a) man has to do this job.\" Surprisingly, she says that male onlookers supported their mission, although they are in the minority overall in the country. \"Men (at the funeral), they said you have to do this, because this is how you can change the hatred in Afghanistan. \"Without men, it is not possible for women to get their rights,\" she says. \"So these men and women were working together. But at the same time, women need to step forward for their rights.\" Mosadiq says the fight for women's rights was established a while ago. \"Women's activism in Afghanistan is nothing new -- the women's rights movement has grown substantially since 2001, and has fought for and achieved some very significant gains. \"These gains are under threat now, however, and some are even rolled back. It's essential that the government and its international partners do not allow this to happen.\" Ghaffer herself has been subject to threats because of her work, received through emails and phone calls, at her home and office. But she says she knew what she was getting herself into. \"I knew it wasn't an easy task. There might be many challenges and you have to lose your life when you are going and struggling for your rights. \"As a woman, I want to struggle more (for my rights), I want to have more people around me, to struggle with me.\" Mosadiq says it is too soon to talk about a revolution, although the response to Farkhunda's killing, from both men and women, has been a \"silver lining.\" Ghaffer, however, believes this is the beginning of an uprising -- but she says it needs to keep moving. Interestingly, it was a man in her life that motivated her to fight. \"I must say strongly that it was my father (who inspired me), who is not any more with me, because he... died three months ago,\" she says. \"He always told me that women always suffered in this country,\" she says, her voice overcome with emotion. \"And you have to struggle for your rights. Because in this traditional, patriarchal society, nobody will give these rights (to) you.\" She realizes how lucky she is, she adds, in a society where she has witnessed men -- fathers and husbands -- oppressing women as opposed to being their role models. Ghaffer maintains that silence is an injustice to women, not least to the victim of the recent, horrific mob violence. \"So if I should not do it, if another sister is not doing it, then who will do it? Who will get the rights for us? We have to struggle for it. \"If we keep our silence, more Farkhundas will be killed in this country.\"","highlights":"An Amnesty International report calls for attacks on women's rights activists in Afghanistan to be investigated .\nThe report examines the persecution of activists not only by the Taliban and tribal warlords, but also by government officials .\nSome activists continue their work despite their lives being at risk .","id":"84dabfdd73c25b81b7ea0ce23e74638cc6c559ce"} -{"article":"(CNN)The University of Michigan has decided to proceed with a screening of the film \"American Sniper\" despite objections from some students. More than 200 students signed a petition asking the school not to show the movie as part of UMix, a series of social events the university stages for students. Bradley Cooper was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL and the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. Kyle was fatally shot at a Texas shooting range in 2013. Some students believed the movie's depiction of the Iraq War reflected negatively on the Middle East and people from that region. Michigan's Detroit metropolitan area is home to the nation's largest Arab-American population. But there was a backlash to the decision to yank the movie, and a counter-petition asked school officials to reconsider. On Wednesday, E. Royster Harper, University of Michigan's vice president for student life, said in a statement that \"It was a mistake to cancel the showing of the movie 'American Sniper' on campus as part of a social event for students\" and that the show will go on. \"The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters,\" the statement said. UMix will offer a screening of the family-friendly \"Paddington\" for those who would rather not attend \"American Sniper.\" The announcement drew praise from Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh.","highlights":"Some complained about the film's depiction of the Iraq War .\nA petition asked the university not to show the Bradley Cooper film .","id":"b3619076f8eba9b3dcd53d10a5c54b590bfab1e2"} -{"article":"New Delhi (CNN)An Indian software pioneer and nine others have been sentenced to seven years in jail for their role in what has been dubbed India's biggest corporate scandal in memory, police said. Ramalinga Raju, the former chairman of software services exporter Satyam Computers Services, was also fined $804,000, R.K. Gaur, a spokesman for India's Central Bureau of Investigation, told CNN. In 2009, Satyam Computers Services was at the center of a massive $1.6 billion fraud case after its then-chairman Raju admitted inflating profits with fictitious assets and nonexistent cash. Investigators say losses to investors resulting from the company's book manipulation were much higher. A special court convicted Raju and nine other people of cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of public trust and other charges, said the Central Bureau of Investigation, which looked into the case. In the media, the case has been compared to the 2001 Enron Corp. scandal, in which a Houston energy company's earnings had been overstated by several hundred million dollars. When the scam made headlines, Satyam, which means \"truth\" in Sanskrit, was India's fourth-largest software services provider. It was serving almost 700 companies, including 185 Fortune 500 companies, and generated more than half of its revenue from the United States. The company had about 53,000 employees and operated in 65 countries. After Raju's shock disclosures six years ago, the Indian government fired Satyam's board. In a subsequent state-backed auction, the company was bought by Tech Mahindra, part of the country's Mahindra Group. A heavyweight of the nation's software industry, Raju, 60, has been in jail for the past 32 months. He had founded Satyam in 1987. His company made giant strides as the outsourcing business grew in India in the 1990s.","highlights":"Satyam Computers Services was at the center of a massive $1.6 billion fraud case in 2009 .\nThe software services exporter's chairman, Ramalinga Raju, admitted inflating profits .\nSatyam had been India's fourth-largest software services provider .","id":"978a6fc6a910592f6be5add104474e7d9ba428c5"} -{"article":"(CNN)A 32-year-old Massachusetts man is facing murder charges, authorities said Wednesday, four days after another man's remains were found in a duffel bag. The Middlesex District Attorney's Office said that Carlos Colina, 32, will be arraigned the morning of April 14 for murder in connection with the remains discovered Saturday in Cambridge. Earlier this week, Colina was arraigned on charges of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and improper disposal of a body. A Middlesex County judge then revoked bail for Colina in another case he's involved in, for alleged assault and battery. The victim in that case is different from the one whose remains were found in recent days. Police were notified Saturday morning about a suspicious item along a walkway in Cambridge. Officers arrived at the scene, opened a duffel bag and found human remains. After that discovery, police say, a surveillance video led them to an apartment building, where more body parts were discovered in a common area. That location is near the Cambridge Police Department headquarters. The remains at both locations belonged to the same victim, identified Monday as Jonathan Camilien, 26. Camilien and Colina knew each other, according to authorities. \"This was a gruesome discovery,\" District Attorney Marian Ryan said. CNN's Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prosecutor: Carlos Colina, 32, will be arraigned on the murder charge next week .\nHe's already been arraigned for alleged assault and battery, improper disposal of a body .\nBody parts were found in a duffel bag and a common area of an apartment building .","id":"a2a2ac30f4650050ee114a48316e7451936692ca"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Star Wars\" fans will get more than they bargained for when the saga comes to digital HD on Friday. The collection of the first six \"Star Wars\" movies will also include many special features, some of which give fans a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the saga. One focus of the features will be the sound effects of the movies, including that of the insect-like Geonosians, as seen in \"Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.\" 'Star Wars' universe gets its first gay character . In the exclusive first-look video, sound designer Ben Burtt explains which animals were used to capture the alien sounds made by the Geonosians. Take a look at the video above to find out. 'Star Wars' films available for digital download for first time .","highlights":"The \"Star Wars\" digital collection is set for release this week .\nSpecial features include behind-the-scenes stories on the unique alien sounds from the movie .","id":"d71e9a0213b10081afe70fa288f6fd351d942468"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)An Iranian military observation aircraft flew within 50 yards of an armed U.S. Navy helicopter over the Persian Gulf this month, sparking concern that top Iranian commanders might not be in full control of local forces, CNN has learned. The incident, which has not been publicly disclosed, troubled U.S. military officials because the unsafe maneuver could have triggered a serious incident. It also surprised U.S. commanders because in recent months Iranian forces have conducted exercises and operations in the region in a professional manner, one U.S. military official told CNN. \"We think this might have been locally ordered,\" the official said. The incident took place as the U.S. and other world powers meet with Iran in Switzerland to negotiate a deal limiting Tehran's nuclear program. At the same time, Iran has been active in supporting proxies in several hotspots in the Persian Gulf and neighboring regions. The Navy MH-60R armed helicopter was flying from the deck of the USS Carl Vinson on a routine patrol in international airspace, the official said. An unarmed Iranian observation Y-12 aircraft approached. The Iranian aircraft made two passes at the helicopter, coming within 50 yards, before the helicopter moved off, according to the official. The official said the helicopter deliberately broke off and flew away in a 'predictable' manner so the Iranians could not misinterpret any U.S. intentions. The Navy helicopter was in radio contact with the ship during the encounter, but there was no contact between the two aircraft and no shots were fired. The Navy crew took photos of the incident but the military is not releasing them. The U.S. administration is considering a potential demarche protest against Iran, the official said. CNN has reached out to Iranian officials but has not received a response. This type of Iranian observation aircraft generally operates over the Gulf several times a month. But after the recent incident, U.S. naval intelligence did not see it again for two weeks, leading to the conclusion that the incident may have been ordered by a local commander who was then reprimanded by higher-ups. The Pentagon has noted for the last several years that most encounters with the Iranian military at sea or in air are conducted professionally, but that some missions run by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forces have been too aggressive against U.S. forces in the area. The U.S. military's concern has been that one of these incidents could escalate into a military encounter. This incident \"might have been buffoonery\" the official said, but there is always a risk from such actions. The incident comes as the Navy patrols the Gulf of Aden to watch for Iranian ships the U.S. believes are trying to bring weapons to resupply the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Navy would share such intelligence with Saudi Arabia, a second U.S. official told CNN.","highlights":"Iranian plane came within 50 yards of U.S. Navy Sea Hawk copter .\nNavy copter was on patrol in international airspace .\nU.S. official think Iranian plane may have been under orders of local commander .","id":"9378a8d4b9a6d21fed266f63692b1da961172363"} -{"article":"(CNN)When photographer Johan Bavman became a father for the first time, he took more than a passing wonder about how his native Sweden is said to be the most generous nation on Earth for parental leave. He immersed himself in fatherhood -- twice over, you might say. He used his photography to document the real-life experience of other fathers taking full advantage of Sweden's extraordinary program, which allows mothers and fathers to take long, long leaves from their careers so they can care for their newborns. Get this: Sweden grants a total of 480 calendar days of parental leave, with 390 of them paid at 80% of income, with a maximum of 3,160 euros a month or $3,474. The remaining 90 days are paid at a flat-rate benefit of 20 euros a day, or $22. But there's a catch. Fathers have to share that leave with mothers. So to promote both parents to raise their children, Sweden has mandated that 60 of the 480 days be \"daddy months\" or \"partner months.\" If the 60 daddy days aren't used, they are lost, reducing the maximum leave to 420 days. The country also created a \"gender equality bonus\": the more days that parents share the leave equally, they get a bonus that could total up to 1,500 euros, or $1,649. The idea is for both parents to share the joys and struggles of raising infants. In reality, only 12% of Swedish couples equally share the 480 days of leave, Bavman said, with women continuing to lead the way as the stay-at-home parent and men as the careerist. Still, Bavman mused last summer about how the policy impacts those men who use the full measure of their parental leave. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. At first, Bavman had difficulty finding such men. But the fathers he did find and photograph, he captured their devotion in realistic imagery. \"I realized while I was talking to these dads, these dads are struck by how important the bonding is between you and the children,\" said Bavman, who now has a 3-year-old son, Viggo, with partner Linda Stark, a freelance journalist. \"I didn't want to bring out fathers as superdads,\" Bavman said. \"I wanted to bring out these role models which people can connect to. \"I want to have those dads who can also show their tiredness ... which comes with being home with your children. It's a hard full-time job. This is something that we have been taking for granted for hundreds of years. This is something that mothers have never been recognized for.\" He also found moments of humor, with one child nearly ripping apart the shirt of his busy father. The fathers have become more understanding of their wives and even their own mothers, Bavman said. Some are now considering a career change to accommodate their parenthood. \"Being home nine months, they get time to think about their life,\" the photographer said. Bavman is looking for a total of 60 fathers to photograph, to culminate in an exhibition and a book. So far he's found 35 worthy of his lens. Johan Bavman is a freelance photographer based in Malmo, Sweden. From 2008-2011, he worked as a staff photographer at Sydsvenskan, one of Sweden's largest newspapers.","highlights":"Johan Bavman photographed fathers in Sweden, which has generous parental leave .\nSweden's policies encourage fathers to take just as much leave as mothers .","id":"e6c7c16699d2400824d9ea25f8dca04c575ba677"} -{"article":"(CNN)Craig Hicks, who is charged in the deaths of three Muslim college students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, earlier this year, can face the death penalty, a judge ruled Monday, according to CNN affiliates. Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. ruled that Hicks' case is \"death penalty qualified,\" WRAL and WTVD reported. The 46-year-old was arrested February 10 in the deaths of Yusor Mohammad, 21, her 23-year-old husband, Deah Shaddy Barakat, and 19-year-old sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. All three were shot in the head. Hicks, who was the victims' neighbor, turned himself in to police the night of the killings. The next week, he was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and a count of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. He had no prior criminal record, police said. Police said \"an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking\" might have been a factor in the shootings but also said they weren't dismissing the possibility of a hate crime. On what is believed to be Hicks' Facebook page, numerous posts rail against religion. The victims' family members have called on authorities to investigate the slayings as a hate crime. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement in February saying the department's Civil Rights Division, along with the the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of North Carolina and the FBI, have opened \"a parallel preliminary inquiry\" to determine whether any federal laws, including hate crime laws, were violated. \"It has always been our position that Mr. Hicks should be held responsible for his actions to the full extent of the law. His killing of three college students was despicable, and now he must face the consequences of his actions,\" said Rob Maitland, an attorney for Hicks' wife. Karen and Craig Hicks are in the process of divorce.","highlights":"Hicks is charged in the deaths of three Muslim college students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina .\nVictims' family members have called on authorities to investigate the slayings as a hate crime .","id":"84c9dd43080eba5a11a28798a570ccaea75ff42d"} -{"article":"(CNN)HBO just whetted our appetite for a new season of \"True Detective.\" The network released a teaser video for season 2 of the critically acclaimed show, and it looks intense. Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams and Taylor Kitsch star in the new season, which premieres June 21. Here's the plot synopsis, according to Den of Geek: . \"A bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California. Colin Farrell is Ray Velcoro, a compromised detective in the all-industrial City of Vinci, LA County. Vince Vaughn plays Frank Semyon, a criminal and entrepreneur in danger of losing his life's work, while his wife and closest ally (Kelly Reilly), struggles with his choices and her own. Rachel McAdams is Ani Bezzerides, a Ventura County Sheriff's detective often at odds with the system she serves, while Taylor Kitsch plays Paul Woodrugh, a war veteran and motorcycle cop for the California Highway Patrol who discovers a crime scene which triggers an investigation involving three law enforcement groups, multiple criminal collusions, and billions of dollars.\" Yes, please. The first season starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a pair of Louisiana State Police detectives investigating the death of a young woman. The crime drama proved to be a runaway hit, and the season 1 finale crashed the HBO Go site in March 2014.","highlights":"HBO released a teaser video for the new season, starting June 21 .\nThe series stars Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn .","id":"18e1af12d67995d1f20580b30bf7a7c8379a9009"} -{"article":"(CNN)Lauren Hill, who took her inspirational fight against brain cancer onto the basketball court and into the hearts of many, has died at age 19. The Indiana woman's story became known around the world last year when she was able to realize her dream of playing college basketball. Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati successfully petitioned the NCAA to move up the opening game of its schedule to accommodate her desire to play. Hill died early Friday. At a ceremony honoring her life on the school's campus Friday afternoon, head coach Dan Benjamin said the toughest thing a coach has to deal with is a loss. The community had lost more than a player, he said. It lost a friend and a daughter. And it lost \"an unselfish angel.\" \"It's not often you get to celebrate a loss,\" he told the crowd as he struggled to hold in his tears. \"But today we celebrate a victory on how to live a life, through Lauren Hill. (No.) 22 you will be missed and remembered by so many.\" An assistant coach read a quote from Hill: . \"I encourage everyone to cherish every moment with no worry about the past or anxiety about the future. Because the next moment is never promised. Never leave anything unsaid. I have learned to see the blessings in every moment and through every struggle, no matter how tough it might be. Nothing holds me back from living my life and chasing my dreams. I always finish what I start and see it through to the end. Never give up on your dreams. Find something to fight for; I fight for others.\" Hill would go on to help raise $1.4 million for pediatric cancer research with the nonprofit group The Cure Starts Now. The organization called her a \"worldwide inspiration.\" \"Lauren captured the hearts of people worldwide with her tenacity and determination to play in her first collegiate basketball game with her Mount St. Joseph University team,\" the group said on Facebook. People we've lost in 2015 . Mount St. Joseph University President Tony Artez said Hill's \"love and laughter will remain in our hearts.\" \"We are forever grateful to have had Lauren grace our campus with her smile and determined spirit,\" Artez said in a statement. \"She has left a powerful legacy. She taught us that every day is a blessing, every moment a gift.\" Her principal at Lawrenceburg High School, Bill Snyder, announced her death to students Friday morning. \"Lauren's message was constantly positive,\" he told CNN. \"We all need to work together to beat obstacles. Not just cancer. In any situation we can be positive.\" As news of her death spread, social media lit up with messages honoring her life. NBA great LeBron James called her the \"true definition of strength, courage, power, leadership.\" \"The greatest accomplishment we can achieve as humans is to inspire many,\" Twitter user Just_AP wrote. \"Lauren Hill did that.\" NCAA President Mark Emmert said Hill's \"enthusiasm and strength were an inspiration not only to those who knew her best, but also to the millions of people she touched around the world by sharing her story.\" \"Lauren achieved a lasting and meaningful legacy, and her beautiful spirit will continue to live on,\" he said in a statement. Hill was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma in 2013 when she was a senior in high school. The rare brain tumor was inoperable, but Hill persisted in playing on her high school team despite chemotherapy treatments. \"I never gave up for a second, even when I got a terminal diagnosis, never thought about sitting back and not living life anymore,\" she told CNN affiliate WKRC-TV at the time. She had already committed to play for Mount St. Joseph when she was diagnosed. In October, the school received permission from the NCAA to move up its first scheduled game so Hill could play. In front of a sellout crowd, many wearing T-shirts bearing her name and slogan, \"Never Give Up,\" watched the ballplayer score the first two points and the final layup of the game. \"Today has been the best day I've ever had,\" Hill told the crowd after the game. \"I don't know what to say but thank you.\" CNN's Jill Martin, Emanuella Grinberg and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lauren Hill's coach says she was \"an unselfish angel\"\nAfter playing for her college, Lauren Hill helped raise money for cancer research .\nNCAA president says she \"achieved a lasting and meaningful legacy\"","id":"42c49513463e57bfb455edac643d5c05724940e0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Chris Copeland of the Indiana Pacers was stabbed after leaving a trendy New York nightclub early Wednesday, and two Atlanta Hawks -- who had just finished a home game hours before the incident -- were among those arrested, according to police and CNN affiliates. The Hawks were not involved in the stabbing incident, police said, but were arrested on obstruction and other charges later. Though New York Police Department Det. Kelly Ort initially told CNN the incident occurred just before 4 a.m. at 1OAK, a club in New York's Chelsea neighborhood known to draw celebrities among its clientele, the club later told CNN that the stabbing occurred in front of the Fulton Houses project down the street. \"1OAK staff was unaware of the incident when it happened, as it occurred beyond their view in a different location. However, 1OAK's team assisted Mr. Copeland to their fullest capabilities, and called for help as soon as he was seen walking back towards the venue,\" the statement said. The statement continued, \"A review of the video footage seems to reveal the incident did not originate from the venue or its immediate surroundings that are under 1OAK supervision.\" Copeland and a female companion, Katrine Saltara, were in the club for about 10 minutes before leaving and walking down the street toward Fulton Houses, where their car was parked, said a 1OAK spokesperson. The spokesperson gave CNN additional details on condition of anonymity because 1OAK's legal team had approved only the club's official statement. The suspect, who the spokesperson said never entered 1OAK, stabbed Copeland and Saltara in front of Fulton Houses, and according to the club's statement, \"Mr. Copeland's driver sprang to accost and detain the apparent perpetrator and that individual is now in police custody.\" Charges against the suspect are pending, and his name will be released once charges are filed, Ort said. Copeland and Saltara tried to make their way back to the club to seek help from the 20 or so security personnel on hand, leaving a \"bloody trail of handprints\" between the site of the stabbing and the club, the spokesperson said. Copeland \"almost landed right next to the club,\" the spokesperson said, adding that surveillance footage will not show the actual stabbing because it occurred too far away from the club. The club shut down immediately after the incident, the spokesperson said. A male and two females were taken to area hospitals, Ort said. A knife was recovered, a suspect was arrested and two individuals not involved in the dispute -- the Hawks' Pero Antic, 32, and Thabo Sefolosha, 30 -- were arrested on charges of obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct, she said. Sefolosha faces an additional charge of resisting arrest, Ort said. Word of the stabbing quickly spread through the club, reaching Antic and Sefolosha, who went outside to check on their friend, Copeland, the 1OAK spokesperson said. At one point, the two began pushing their way through a crowd that had gathered around the scene, leading to their arrests, the spokesperson said. \"We will contest these charges and look forward to communicating the facts of the situation at the appropriate time,\" the players said in a joint statement released by the team. \"We apologize to our respective families, teammates, and the Hawks' organization for any negative attention this incident has brought upon them.\" The Hawks are in New York for a Wednesday night game against the Brooklyn Nets. Neither player will be in uniform, the team said. Police released little information Wednesday, but local media identified the injured man as Copeland, 31, who is from Orange, New Jersey. The Pacers released a statement saying Copeland suffered a knife wound to his left elbow and abdomen, and he's in stable condition at a New York hospital. \"We are aware that Chris Copeland was injured early this morning in New York City. We are still gathering information and will update when we know more. Our thoughts are with Chris and those injured,\" Larry Bird, the Pacers' president of basketball operations, said in a statement. Copeland's agent, John Spencer, issued a statement saying, \"We're concerned about the safety of Chris and Katrine. We don't have any details at this particular time. All we can do is pray and wait.\" The NBA and the Hawks front office said they were looking into the incident. \"We are aware of the situation involving Pero Antic and Thabo Sefolosha this morning. We are in the process of gathering more information and will have further comment at the appropriate time,\" Hawks spokesman Garin Narain said in an email. Copeland's Pacers are slated to play the New York Knicks on Wednesday night. The pair apparently had only recently arrived in New York prior to their arrests, as both were on the court for the Hawks' 96-69 win over the Phoenix Suns in Atlanta on Tuesday night. Antic played 12 minutes, and Sefolosha played 20. The game ended around 10 p.m. Copeland, a former Knick, was near the nightclub with Saltara when a 22-year-old Brooklyn man approached them, police told CNN affiliate WABC. There was some sort of dispute before the suspect stabbed the 6-foot-8-inch Copeland in the abdomen, slashed Saltara and then slashed another woman, the station reported. Saltara suffered cuts to her arm, breast and buttock, and the other woman suffered a slash to her stomach, CNN affiliate WCBS reported. While WCBS reported that the second woman was 53 years old, WABC reported she was 23. Images published in the New York Daily News showed a considerable amount of blood on the sidewalk and a white sports coupe, roped off with police tape, with several streaks of blood on its driver's side. Antic and Sefolosha interfered with officers trying to establish a crime scene, and one of the Hawks pushed a police officer, WABC reported. The Hawks are preparing for a historic playoff run after clinching the No. 1 seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. Tuesday's win over the Suns marked a franchise-best 58 wins in a season for the club. The Pacers sit in the conference's 10th spot but are only one game out of playoff contention. CNN's Laura Ly, Jason Durand and Jill Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hawks say neither Thabo Sefolosha nor Pero Antic will play Wednesday against Brooklyn .\nChris Copeland left \"bloody trail of handprints\" as he returned to club seeking help, club says .\nSuspect in custody, police say, adding they will release his name once charges are filed .","id":"ca1c3b587b7216654c8c719a66738de80d495179"} -{"article":"Des Moines, Iowa (CNN)Martin O'Malley told reporters in Iowa on Friday that inevitability -- a term bandied about regarding Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton -- is not unbreakable. \"I've seen it before,\" the former Governor of Maryland and possible presidential contender said. \"History is full of examples where the inevitable frontrunner was inevitable right up until she was no longer or he was no longer inevitable.\" Clinton was considered inevitable to win the nomination in 2008 but ended up losing to Barack Obama. O'Malley had previously dropped the inevitability comment in a television interview last month. The former governor, who capped off his two-day trip to the first-in-the-nation caucus state with a speech to the Polk County Democrats in Des Moines, said that although Clinton is an \"eminently qualified candidate,\" the Democratic Party is full of \"good leaders.\" \"History is full of examples where people who are not very well known nationally can be very well known once they are willing to make their case to the people of Iowa,\" O'Malley said. In some polls, he has scored in the low single digits in the state. In a March CNN\/ORC poll of national Democrats, only 1% picked O'Malley. In a January poll by Bloomberg Politics and the Des Moines Register, O'Malley was also at 1% among Iowa Democrats. Clinton, who leads most polls by upwards of 40 points, is planning to launch her presidential candidacy on Sunday through a video message on social media, a person close to her campaign-in-waiting told CNN on Friday. While he wouldn't say much about Clinton, when asked about her candidacy, O'Malley said, \"if leaders believe that they have the experience and the framework to move our country forward, they should run. And they should engage with voters and our country would be the better for it.\" O'Malley, like other Democrats, appears to refrain from directly attacking Clinton. Although last month on ABC, he said that the presidency is \"not some crown to be passed between two families,\" he has not focused on her. He has, however, openly teased a presidential run. \"I know that, as Democrats, we expect -- and I have heard this all over the country -- the Democrats expect a robust conversation about the issues we face as a nation and the challenges we face,\" he said. \"They believe that that conversation needs to take place in something as important as a presidential primary.\" He concluded: \"It would be an extreme poverty indeed if there was only one person willing to compete for our party's nomination for President.\"","highlights":"He made the statement before in March .\nO'Malley is low in the polls with Democrats, but he has been flirting with a presidential run .","id":"6da088a4a4c512402649d361e95ac8b256ddf529"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hip-hop star Nelly has been arrested on drug charges in Tennessee after a state trooper pulled over the private bus in which he was traveling, authorities said. The 40-year-old rapper from St. Louis, who shot to fame 15 years ago with the track \"Country Grammar,\" has been charged with felony possession of drugs, simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security said. The state trooper stopped the bus carrying Nelly and five other people on Interstate 40 in Putnam County on Saturday because it wasn't displaying U.S. Department of Transportation and International Fuel Tax Association stickers, according to Tennessee authorities. The trooper was about to conduct an inspection of the bus, a Prevost motor coach, when he \"noticed an odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle,\" authorities said in a statement. Two troopers then searched the bus, finding \"five colored crystal-type rocks that tested positive for methamphetamine, as well as a small amount of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia,\" the statement said. The search also turned up several handguns and 100 small Ziploc bags, which the statement said are commonly used for selling drugs. The guns included a gold-plated .50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol, a .45-caliber Taurus pistol and a .500 Smith & Wesson magnum. Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Haynes, was taken to the Putnam County Jail along with another passenger. He later posted bond and left the jail, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said. CNN couldn't immediately reach Nelly's representatives for comment Saturday. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"State troopers say they found methamphetamine and marijuana on a bus carrying Nelly and five others .\nNelly has been charged with felony possession of drugs .","id":"9dc3325d901844d26713549fd93f7b42b70efe5b"} -{"article":"Charleston, South Carolina (CNN)Police officers Saturday accompanied the hearse carrying the body of Walter Scott to his South Carolina funeral service, where hundreds of mourners celebrated his life and death as a catalyst for change in America. A pair of officers on motorcycles were part of the large procession delivering the father of four -- who was fatally shot in the back by a police officer -- to a service open to the public. An overflow crowd gathered on a humid and occasionally rainy April afternoon at W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center in Summerville, which has a capacity of about 300 people. The flag-draped casket of the U.S. Coast Guard veteran was wheeled inside the church as Scott's relatives and friends followed. Some dabbed tears; others embraced. Hundreds, including local officials, assembled inside the packed sanctuary -- in corridors, under an awning at the entrance, wherever they could stand. Silence filled the vast space as Scott's daughter Samantha read a poem of love dedicated to her father. Anthony Scott said God had selected his brother as a candidate for change in America. \"The change will come,\" he said, bringing to the crowd to its feet. The head of the church, George Hamilton, spoke of how Scott had brought members of his family to the church, of the agony of not only losing a family member but having to watch it happen on video. The death of Scott, who was black, at the hands of a white police officer was \"motivated by racial prejudice,\" Hamilton said. It was \"an act of overt racism.\" \"Hate came because Walter was an African-American,\" he said. Hamilton said his remarks were not meant as an indictment of law enforcement, but he singled out the officer who killed Scott as a \"disgrace to the North Charleston Police Department.\" \"There is gong to be change,\" he said. \"Walter's death will not be in vain.\" After the service, pallbearers gently lifted Scott's casket into the hearse. Crowds poured from the church. A slow-moving procession of black cars then made its way to Live Oak Memorial Gardens in Charleston for the private burial. Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Scott family, said the death represented more than an race issue. \"It's a human issue,\" he said. \"We're getting emails from people in Arkansas telling us, 'I'm a white male, and I'm supporting this family.' Their son is going to be remembered for changing the way we look at each other.\" On Friday night, Scott's open casket was draped with an American flag, and he was in a dark suit for his private visitation in Charleston. A Dallas Cowboys banner -- his favorite NFL team -- was placed outside the casket, and a figurine of a Cowboys player stood at his side. But Scott's family was missing. They needed privacy, said Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley, who attended. A week ago, Scott was killed in North Charleston after getting pulled over for a broken taillight. A passer-by caught the shooting on cell phone video, and Officer Michael Slager was swiftly charged with murder. He was fired and faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. Who was Walter Scott? The video shows Scott running from an officer, who fires eight shots. Scott is struck five times; he falls to the ground. \"Nothing in this video demonstrates that the officer's life or the life of another was threatened,\" National Urban League President Marc Morial said. \"The question here is whether the use of force was excessive.\" But one witness is speaking of a struggle before the shooting. And at least one expert believes a murder charge may not hold up. On Thursday, Gwen Nichols told CNN's Brian Todd that she saw Scott and Slager scuffling at the entrance to a vacant lot. \"It was like a tussle type of thing, like, you know, like, 'What do you want?' or 'What did I do?' type of thing,\" Nichols said. \"I didn't hear Mr. Slager saying 'Stop!' \" Nichols' account has similarities to Slager's. He had told investigators that he had tussled with Scott over his Taser and that he feared for his safety. A timeline of events . Criminal defense attorney Paul Callan said he believes Slager's defense will play up the reported scuffle in arguing that this is not a murder case. \"Defense attorneys will say this was a heat of passion shooting -- (that) this was something that he did suddenly after some kind of an altercation, a physical altercation with a suspect,\" Callan said. \"And that would constitute manslaughter under law, as opposed to murder, and it makes a huge difference in sentencing.\" In South Carolina, a murder conviction requires a measure of premeditation. But the account from the witness who recorded the cell phone video, Feidin Santana, paints a different picture. He was walking to work when he saw Slager on top of Scott, he said, who was on the ground. Santana said he could hear the sound of a Taser in use. He said he didn't see Scott go after the Taser, as Slager initially claimed. He said he believes Scott was trying to get away. \"Mr. Scott never tried to fight,\" Santana said. Neither the struggle nor the use of a Taser was captured on video, because Santana started recording shortly after that. Investigators from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division found troubling inconsistencies from the very start, it said in a statement. \"We believed early on that there was something not right about what happened in that encounter,\" division Chief Mark Keel said in a statement. \"The cell phone video shot by a bystander confirmed our initial suspicions.\" Slager's lawyer, Andy Savage, has complained that he \"has not received the cooperation from law enforcement that the media has.\" Savage's office said in a statement that it has yet to receive \"any investigative documents, audio or video tapes, other than a copy of Mr. Slager's arrest warrant.\" The news release added that the lawyer has been advised that the police union that Slager belongs to \"is no longer involved in the case.\" Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said Slager's wife, Jamie, who is eight months' pregnant, and his mother had a visit with him at the county detention center Friday. Slager was being held in isolation and being \"monitored for his mental health,\" Cannon said. In a statement, one of Slager's lawyers said the meeting lasted about an hour. \"His wife and mom were tearful but strong, and they were all very grateful for the chance to see him in person, even if separated by a thick pane of glass,\" the statement said. \"They held up family photos -- and even Jamie's ultrasound from earlier that day -- to remind him of all those who love him. Throughout the visit, Michael was focused on Jamie and their baby and was very relieved to know that she is being shown so much love and support by their families.\" A second video, taken from a police dash cam, has also emerged from the day Scott died. It shows moments before the shooting, when things seemed to be going smoothly between Scott and Slager. Scott apparently tells the officer that he has no insurance on the vehicle, and Slager returns to his car to do paperwork. Then Scott gets out of the car and runs out of the camera's frame. Scott was the subject of a bench warrant over $18,104.43 in unpaid child support at the time of the stop, according to court records. That was why he ran, lawyers for the family said after the funeral service. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, told reporters outside the service that Scott lost a $35,000-a-year job the first time he was jailed for failing to pay child support. \"He said it was the best job he's ever had,\" Clyburn said. \"Now you have to ask ... if you want to collect child support, there's got to be income. And you ain't going to make much income from jail. It seems to me that we need to take a look to how to deal with that issue without causing unemployment and the loss of freedom.\" On Friday afternoon, police met with a man who was in Scott's car, but the passenger's name wasn't in a police report obtained by CNN. He was detained briefly after the shooting, one officer wrote in the report. Scott family attorney Chris Stewart said he was a co-worker and friend. But he did not identify the passenger by name. On Friday, a few mourners trickled into the Fielding Home for Funerals. A white banner with a blue star near Scott's casket displayed his favorite NFL team. It said: \"Tradition, the Cowboys way.\" \"This is a heartbreaking tragedy for everyone in our community,\" said Riley, the mayor. \"It breaks everyone's hearts.\" CNN's Polo Sandoval and Martin Savidge reported from Charleston, and Ben Brumfield and Ray Sanchez reported and wrote in Atlanta and New York.","highlights":"Police officers escort the funeral procession to the service .\nScott's family did not attend his visitation; they need privacy, mayor says .\nPolice meet with the man who was a passenger in his car when it was pulled over .","id":"04c28c2d6c524d96e046cadf32eb44803f83a98c"} -{"article":"(CNN)For 12 years Adelma Cifuentes felt worthless, frightened and alone, never knowing when her abusive husband would strike. But as a young mother in rural Guatemala with three children and barely a third grade education, she thought there was no way out. What began as psychological torment, name-calling and humiliation turned into beatings so severe Cifuentes feared for her life. One day, two men sent by her husband showed up at her house armed with a shotgun and orders to kill her. They probably would have succeeded, but after the first bullet was fired, Cifuentes' two sons dragged her inside. Still, in her deeply conservative community, it took neighbors two hours to call for help and Cifuentes lost her arm. But the abuse didn't stop there. When she returned home, Cifuentes' husband continued his attacks and threatened to rape their little girl unless she left. That's when the nightmare finally ended and her search for justice began. Cifuentes' case is dramatic, but in Guatemala, where nearly 10 out of every 100,000 women are killed, it's hardly unusual. A 2012 Small Arms Survey says gender-based violence is at epidemic levels in Guatemala and the country ranks third in the killings of women worldwide. According to the United Nations, two women are killed there every day. There are many reasons why, beginning with the legacy of violence left in place after the country's 36-year-old civil war. During the conflict, atrocities were committed against women, who were used as a weapon of war. In 1996, a ceasefire agreement was reached between insurgents and the government. But what followed and what remains is a climate of terror, due to a deeply entrenched culture of impunity and discrimination. Military and paramilitary groups that committed barbaric acts during the war were integrated back into society without any repercussions. Many remain in power, and they have not changed the way they view women. Some 200,000 people were either killed or disappeared during the decades-long conflict, most of them from indigenous Mayan populations. Nearly 20 years later, according to the Security Sector Reform Resource Centre, levels of violent crime are higher in Guatemala than they were during the war. But despite the high homicide rate, the United Nations estimates 98% of cases never make it to court. Women are particularly vulnerable because of a deep-rooted gender bias and culture of misogyny. In many cases, femicide -- the killing of a woman simply because of her gender -- is carried out with shocking brutality with some of the same strategies used during the war, including rape, torture and mutilation. Mexican drug cartels, organized criminal groups and local gangs are contributing to the vicious cycle of violence and lawlessness. Authorities investigating drug-related killings are stretched thin, leaving fewer resources to investigate femicides. In many cases, crime is not reported because of fear of retaliation. Many consider the Guatamalen National Civil Police, or PNC, corrupt, under-resourced and ineffective. Even if a case does get prosecuted, according to Human Rights Watch, the country's weak judicial system has proved incapable of handling the explosion in violence. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing women in Guatemala is the country's deeply rooted patriarchal society. According to Mar\u00eda Machicado Ter\u00e1n, the representative of U.N. women in Guatemala, \"80% of men believe that women need permission to leave the house, and 70% of women surveyed agreed.\" This prevailing culture of machismo and an institutionalized acceptance of brutality against women leads to high rates of violence. Rights groups say machismo not only condones violence, it places the blame on the victim. The political will to address violence against women is slow to materialize. \"Politicians don't think women are important,\" says former Secretary General of the Presidential Secretariat for Women Elizabeth Quiroa. \"Political parties use women for elections. They give them a bag of food and people sell their dignity for this because they are poor.\" Lack of education is a major contributor to this poverty. Many girls, especially in indigenous communities don't go to school because the distance from their house to the classroom is too far. Quiroa says \"They are subject to rape, violence and forced participation in the drug trade.\" Although the situation for girls and women in Guatemala is alarming, there are signs the culture of discrimination may be slowly changing. With the help of an organization known as CICAM, or Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n, Cifuentes was finally able to escape her husband and get the justice she deserved. He is now spending 27 years behind bars. Cifuentes is using her painful past to provide hope and healing to others through art. Since 2008, she and four other abuse survivors known as La Poderosas, or \"The Powerful,\" have been appearing in a play based on their real life stories. The show not only empowers other women and discusses the problem of violence openly, but it also offers suggestions for change. And it's having an impact. Women have started breaking their silence and asking where they can get support. Men are reacting, too. One of the main characters, Lesbia T\u00e9llez, says during one presentation, a man stood up and started crying when he realized how he had treated his wife and how his mother had been treated. He said he wanted to be different. The taboo topic of gender-based violence is also being acknowledged and recognized in a popular program targeting one of Guatemala's most vulnerable groups, indigenous Mayan girls. In 2004, with help from the United Nations and other organizations, the Population Council launched a community-based club known as Abriendo Oportunidades, or \"Opening Opportunities\". The goal is to provide girls with a safe place to learn about their rights and reach their full potential. Senior Program Coordinator Alejandra Colom says the issue of violence is discussed and girls are taught how to protect themselves. \"They then share this information with their mothers and for the first time, they realize they are entitled to certain rights.\" Colom adds that mothers then become invested in sending their daughters to the clubs and this keeps them more visible and less prone to violence. The Guatemalan government is also moving in the right direction to address the problem of violence against women. In 2008, the Congress passed a law against femicide. Two years later the attorney general's office created a specialized court to try femicides and other violent crimes against women. In 2012, the government established a joint task force for crimes against women, making it easier for women to access justice by making sure victims receive the assistance they need. The government has also established a special 24-hour court to attend to femicide cases. On the global front, the International Violence Against Women Act was introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2007; it has been pending ever since. But last week the act was reintroduced in both the House and Senate. If approved, it would make reducing levels of gender-based violence a U.S. foreign policy priority. Pehaps the most immediate and effective help is coming from International nongovernmental organizations, which are on the front lines of the fight against gender-based discrimination in Guatemala. Ben Weingrod, a senior policy advocate at the global poverty fighting group CARE, says, \"We work to identify and challenge harmful social norms that perpetuate violence. Our work includes engaging men and boys as champions of change and role models, and facilitating debates to change harmful norms and create space for more equitable relationships between men and women.\" But the job is far from over. While there is tempered optimism and hope for change, the problem of gender-based violence in Guatemala is one that needs international attention and immediate action. Cifuentes is finding strength through the theater and the support of other abuse survivors, which has allowed her to move forward. But millions of other women trapped in a cycle of violence are facing dangerous and frightening futures. For them, it's a race against time and help cannot come soon enough.","highlights":"Gender-based violence is at epidemic levels in Guatemala .\nAccording to the United Nations, two women are killed in Guatemala every day .\nFive abuse survivors known as La Poderosas have been appearing in a play based on their real life stories .","id":"6344c9689865cf86da50fbe90acf13c3407d5429"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hillary Clinton is finally announcing her candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. Although she has watched her standing in the polls sag in recent months, there is likely to be a boost in the days that follow the announcement. For Democrats, there is ample reason to be excited about Clinton's run for the presidency. She is certainly one of the strongest candidates in many decades. She brings to the table extensive political and policy experience, a combination of skills that is often lacking. She has been through some of the roughest partisan wars and emerged stronger than ever before. She has a keen sense about the nature of the modern news media, how to use it to her advantage and how to survive scandal frenzies. She is a hardened, tough partisan who will not shy away from Republican attack. Americans have many positive memories of Clinton name, given the booming economy of the late 1990s during Bill Clinton's presidency. If Hillary Clinton puts together an effective campaign, she could be unbeatable in the Democratic primaries as well as in the general election. However, during the buildup to her final decision, some of her weaknesses have also been exposed. Clinton doesn't want to end up like Vice President Al Gore in 2000. Although he did relatively well in the final election (with many Americans believing that he did actually defeat George W. Bush) he didn't generate much energy once the campaign started. Although he too was touted as a \"perfect\" candidate who was the ideal person for the job, something seemed stiff and inauthentic when he actually hit the trail. He seemed to freeze when the television cameras were rolling. Gore had trouble connecting with voters, and he seemed to remake his image constantly. His biggest asset ended up being that he was viewed as the inevitable nominee, rather than what he actually stood for. Clinton must avoid following Gore's path. She suffered this fate in the 2008 primaries and can't afford to do so again. She needs to do more than rest on the perception that her candidacy is inevitable and on her record of experience. That is not enough. More important is for her to put forth an exciting vision about what she would stand for in the White House. Voters thirst for signs of greatness when they pick their presidents, even if they are savvy enough to understand that the reality of a polarized Washington will probably limit her ability to achieve bold change. A recent story in The Washington Post suggests that her advisers are aware of this potential liability. After the announcement, they are going to avoid big rallies and events and instead concentrate on smaller events where she will meet with voters directly in states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton also will have to contend with doubts about her authenticity. In his first day on the campaign trail, Sen. Rand Paul immediately tapped into these concerns by raising questions about whether she could be trusted. That question has dogged the Clintons ever since they came onto the national political scene in the late 1980s. Their greatest virtue, their immense skills as politicians, has often come back to haunt them. Bill Clinton was attacked as \"slick Willie\" by members of both parties for the perception that he would say anything to win and Hillary Clinton has faced similar criticism. When she tried to distance herself from her vote for the use of force in Iraq, many Democrats didn't buy her critique of President George W. Bush's foreign policies and went for Barack Obama instead. When she conducted her \"listening tour\" of New York before running for the Senate, many voters saw it as a manufactured effort to hide the fact she was running for office as an outsider. When she explained that there was nothing to the recent stories about her use of a private email server rather than her State Department email, some felt that even if the story was relatively minor it indicated that she wasn't always telling us what she was really about. Even if she isn't hiding anything, she often gives that appearance. During the next few months, Clinton will also have to connect with her party's base. The ongoing speculation about Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has suggested that the most active part of the Democratic Party is not that enthused with Clinton's candidacy. While they will probably vote for her, they are not very motivated and don't trust that she will stand for Democratic values. She will need to address these concerns, not through her style but through her agenda. Voters will want to hear her talking about issues such as tougher financial regulation and policies to diminish economic inequality as well as her positions on race and policing. She will also need to make clear that she has heard voters on being too hawkish about going to war and give clear indications about how she would handle a nuclear agreement with Iran. Clinton will also have to contend with the gender bias that still exists in the electorate at large. Without any doubt she will be subject to questions and comments -- about her appearance, for instance -- that won't be aimed at male candidates. Part of her candidacy is itself an effort to break down these remaining vestiges of political sexism. But the struggle will be tough. Finally, and this relates to the last challenge, Clinton will have to contend with her husband. To be sure he can be an immense force on the campaign trail, one of the most compelling Democrats of our generation. But he can also be liability. As she learned in 2008, Bill Clinton is not always easy to control. When he speaks his mind, as he did in dismissive comments about Obama's candidacy, it can often work against her. The fund-raising records of the Clinton Foundation will also raise questions about conflict of interest, and ongoing stories about his personal life, as was the case when Monica Lewinsky returned to the media a few months ago, could re-emerge on the campaign trail. Whether that is fair or not is beside the point: Everything is fair game on the modern campaign trail. Hillary Clinton has the potential to be a hugely successful presidential candidate. But she and her campaign team will need to address the multiple questions and weaknesses that have become clear in recent months.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Hillary Clinton has immense political and governmental experience .\nHe says she needs to make stronger connection to her party's base .\nClinton also needs to convince voters of her authenticity, Zelizer says .","id":"ff4cf78e837bd36ead5799c8051d22a8d7b9b178"} -{"article":"(CNN)A year after its Cannes debut and finally seeing a theatrical release, \"Lost River\" is still causing quite a stir. Booed at its premiere and mocked by reviewers, Ryan Gosling's first feature as director has been divisive, to put it mildly. But there has been one shining light cutting through the fog of critical hyperbole: its setting, a besmirched and decaying Detroit. Wavering on the brink of annihilation, yet providing kindling for its own rebirth, the city is captured in all its waning splendor, the perfect backdrop for Gosling's post-industrial gothic. Speaking about the film in London, Gosling made clear that the city was at the heart of the project -- in fact, without Detroit's crumbling edifices there would be no film at all. Gosling said that \"Lost River\" began as a collection of speculative shots of the Brewster-Douglass Projects, the first black social housing development in America and a place Motown legends The Supremes and boxer Joe Louis once called home. \"I heard [the authorities] were going to tear them down,\" Gosling said. \"I had to shoot them before they did.\" Taking time out between acting jobs, he ventured into the projects. \"I started shooting more and more,\" he explained, \"and then I realized that I was making a film. Then I started writing [the script] during the process of filming.\" Gosling's affection for the Motor City is longstanding, the actor growing up \"not too far away\" in Cornwall, Ontario. \"It seemed like everything cool came from Detroit... the whole American Dream,\" he reminisces. \"The Model-T, Motown, the refrigerator...\" Now though he references \"40 miles of dead neighborhoods,\" the city declaring bankruptcy. \"Houses are burning and things are being torn down,\" he says, \"and within that there are families trying to hold on to their homes. For them it has become a nightmare and I wanted to make a film about that.\" The title itself alludes to a once thriving community now displaced, its homes at the bottom of a reservoir built with little concern for the residents -- man-made interference with untold social repercussions. Speaking in broader terms, Gosling argues \"there are Lost Rivers everywhere and we wanted to share the experience these people were having.\" On screen he paints a nihilistic image of wanton destruction; torched properties and bulldozers jostling for our attention amid acts of extreme human violence -- sometimes self-inflicted. The director plainly states that as a location it \"was pretty dangerous.\" He describes \"an energy there that was threatening... We had a very charmed experience [filming]. It worked its way into the fabric of the movie --- a tone of impending threat that was just there.\" However there are signs of humanity and regeneration amongst the chaos, on camera and off. For the film's young protagonist, every raid on an unoccupied house offers copper piping waiting to be recast and ultimately reclaimed. Similarly, Gosling references the Heidelberg Project during the discussion, a community organization in the city's McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, reimagining derelict buildings as giant canvases for budding artists. He recalls seeing \"one house covered with teddy bears, another covered in clocks... people taking spaces and personalizing them.\" The city's scope for urban renewal was clearly a draw. \"Something really interesting is happening in Detroit at the moment -- a rebirth. People redefining what they are,\" according to Gosling. \"There's a resilience there and an energy, and it's exciting.\" As much as the visual content of \"Lost River\" revolves around a maudlin preoccupation with dereliction -- and perhaps plays on the outside world's perception of Detroit -- aspects of the narrative suggest hope and the possibility of reincarnation for the city. Gosling claims this paradox should exist when discussing Detroit, and is precisely what the film is trying to convey. \"We want people to know that dereliction is happening there, but that it's not only what is happening there,\" he argues. \"It doesn't define Detroit, it's just part of what it's dealing with right now.\" \"Lost River\" receives a limited theatrical release in the U.S. and UK on April 10.","highlights":"Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, \"Lost River\", is set in the city of Detroit .","id":"ecb2616fc4fbb5b42ee775ed80b21f08b6e304e8"} -{"article":"(CNN)Bring your own beaker, goblet or vase and slurp it up. 7-Eleven is hosting the first Bring-Your-Own-Cup Slurpee Day at United States stores from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday to kick off peak Slurpee season. This shot at brain freeze isn't free, but customers at participating stores can fill their \"cup\" of choice for $1.49, the average cost of a medium Slurpee. Note: A garbage can is not a cup. In-store displays with a 10-inch-diameter hole will rule out anything too ridiculously large for Slurpee consumption, and cups must be sanitary. But within those parameters, pretty much anything goes: . \"From sand buckets to trophies, customers can unleash their creativity by bringing in their choice of a unique, fun Slurpee cup,\" said Laura Gordon, 7\u2011Eleven's vice president of marketing and brand innovation, in a statement. The promotion isn't to be confused with Free Slurpee Day, traditionally celebrated each July 11.","highlights":"Bring your own large \"cup\" for a $1.49 7-Eleven Slurpee .\nAny sanitary container less than 10 inches in diameter is fair game .","id":"695fecd970abb3f1679615e6d2cdd9d65f94f9f4"} -{"article":"(CNN)All Elizabeth Sedway wanted was to leave paradise and head home. But she couldn't. Why? Because, according to her, she has cancer. That's what she said in a video posted to Facebook that shows her group packing up from their Alaska Airlines plane as it sat at the gate in Hawaii. \"You're taking me off the airplane because I don't have a doctor's note saying I can fly,\" a woman is heard saying. \"All these people are waiting, and I'm being removed as if I'm a criminal or contagious, because I have cancer and no note to fly.\" Sedway did eventually get on a flight back to San Jose, California, although she didn't get home until late Tuesday night. And she got an apology. \"We regret the inconvenience Ms. Sedway experienced ... and are very sorry for how the situation was handled,\" Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said. \"... While our employee had the customer's well-being in mind, the situation could have been handled differently.\" Her cancer fight notwithstanding, Sedway was in Hawaii in time to celebrate her 14th wedding anniversary. Still, on Monday, she was on a plane to head east. Then, according to her Facebook post, an airline employee who saw Sedway seated in the handicapped section asked her how she was doing. The second time she inquired, Sedway wrote that she responded by saying she sometimes felt weak. That was followed by a call to a doctor, then her removal from the plane. Egan, the Alaska Airlines spokeswoman, acknowledged that the carrier's policy when someone has a medical issue is to call MedLink, a group of ER nurses and doctors. The idea, she explained, is that \"it is better to address medical issues or concerns on the ground rather than in the air, especially on flights to or from Hawaii\" -- which in that case would last five-plus hours over open ocean. The decision to pull Sedway from the flight was done with \"the customer's well-being\" in mind, according to Egan. Still, that doesn't mean it was the right decision. Alaska Airlines since apologized to Sedway \"for the disruption this has caused,\" in addition to refunding her family's tickets and paying for their overnight accommodations.\" Even though she was stuck in Hawaii, Sedway made clear on Facebook that this was a real \"disruption.\" \"Because of this, I will miss my chemotherapy, my children will miss school and my husband will miss important meetings,\" she said.","highlights":"Elizabeth Sedway posted to video to Facebook showing her removal from a plane .\nShe was forced off a flight in Hawaii and told she couldn't head home to California .\nAlaska Airlines later apologized, saying it could have handled the situation differently .","id":"97c0670cd614dc25fe1371f8c5e03b043f0efdc9"} -{"article":"(CNN)There was a larger message in the article about a purported gang rape that Rolling Stone retracted on Sunday night -- a part of the story that was never disputed: The University of Virginia is under continuing investigation over how it handles sexual assault on campus. The school has never expelled a single student for sexual assault -- even when the student admitted to it. The Virginia attorney general asked the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers to take a look at how the university historically handled allegations of sexual assault by its students. That includes how UVA officials handled the allegations in the discredited Rolling Stone article by a student the magazine called \"Jackie,\" especially since the school knew about the allegations for more than a year before the article came out. The alleged gang rape at a fraternity house was in 2012, and Jackie told the university about it the next spring. She started telling her story very publicly, including at a \"take back the night\" rally. But Charlottesville police didn't hear about it until after a separate incident in the spring of 2014, in which Jackie claimed someone threw a bottle that hit her in the face. When a university dean arranged for her to talk to police about that alleged assault, she also told the story of the alleged 2012 incident. In both cases, police said Jackie refused to cooperate and so they could not pursue the case. But more women came forward to talk about their experiences -- women whose stories were not as dramatic or horrific as Jackie's. Rolling Stone's story opened up a conversation about the topic, and then women began coming forward to talk about a culture on campus that was not sensitive to victims. Many women told CNN about a euphemism for the word rape used by other students on campus. They'd call it a \"bad experience.\" Others told CNN that there were fraternities with reputations for being \"rapey\" and for using date-rape drugs. That some judged who could come in based on the sluttiness of a woman's outfit. And if a woman did report her rape, some women complained that the internal process didn't seem worth it if their abuser wouldn't be kicked out of school. Rolling Stone had a line in its original story: \"UVA's emphasis on honor is so pronounced that since 1998, 183 people have been expelled for honor-code violations such as cheating on exams. And yet paradoxically, not a single student at UVA has ever been expelled for sexual assault.\" After the article published, UVA admitted this and instituted a zero-tolerance policy on sexual assault going forward -- although that policy was never defined, so it's unclear what it means. When the story was deleted from Rolling Stone's website, that was lost. \"You lose a lot of other people's voices who were in that article,\" said Sarah Roderick, a survivor and UVA student, \"and a lot of good things that could have come about. Fixing problems with administration here and on our campus\" -- and, she added, across the nationo. Along with the O'Melveny & Myers investigation, there's also an open Title IX investigation into UVA by the U.S. Department of Education as a result of a civil suit. The attorney who filed the suit, James Marsh, told CNN that UVA medical staff lost or destroyed evidence from the alleged sexual assault victim he's representing, making it impossible for her to move forward and get justice. When the Columbia Journalism School's 12,000-plus-word critique is summed up, it really boils down to this: The mistake could have been avoided if the writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, had picked up the phone and made just a few more phone calls to the friends of Jackie who she claimed were with her that night. They'd later tell other media outlets, including CNN, that they remembered a very different story. Rolling Stone says their account would have been a red flag. And all three say they would have talked if they'd been called. Ryan Duffin, one of the trio, said he felt deceived by Jackie, but he also pointed out that Erdely's mistake in fact-checking was about one single incident, and the fallout has caused a much bigger issue to be lost. \"Had she gotten in direct contact with us, it probably wouldn't have been printed, at least in that way,\" he said. \"A lot of the article was still based in truth, but the focal point would have been different.\" It might have been less dramatic, but it would have probably focused on some of the other UVA students who shared much more common stories of acquaintance rape on campus. \"I think my problem with it was that this reporter wanted to sensationalize an experience that's not very common,\" Roderick said. \"... And I wonder if it would have been different if (it dealt) with someone with a less horrific story -- something that happens to more people. I think this discredits what a lot of survivors go through. Something this physically horrific is not what everyone goes through. Now it's like, 'If I wasn't assaulted by more than one man then my story is not as worthy of attention.' It's frustrating that this is how rape is portrayed on college campuses because this is not the norm.\" Before the report came out, Abraham Axler, the student body president, said that some good had come from the article because it forced UVA to institute new policies and to open up a conversation on a topic that needed to be discussed nationwide. But some survivors and advocates are afraid the retraction set back their progress. \"I do feel like there's a possibility people will be afraid to come forward. If you come forward and share your story, if you don't have the date right, every detail down, you'll think, 'I'm going to be accused of being a liar. It's easier for me to keep it to myself,'\" Roderick said. \"There are very serious and unresolved questions about the university's performance,\" said Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism. \"Rolling Stone teed that subject up. I wouldn't say that everything about Rolling Stone's treatment of that subject was perfect, but it certainly doesn't fall under the same category as their reporting about Jackie's narrative.\"","highlights":"University of Virginia is under continuing investigation over how it handles sexual assault on campus .\nSome fear retraction of Rolling Stone story about one case takes focus off the broader issue .\nAfter the story came out, UVA instituted a zero-tolerance policy on sexual assault going forward .","id":"c811d9ae87c9bfbf31481bf8a916dc0b8e083a60"} -{"article":"(CNN)Change is coming to Ferguson. In the next few weeks the Department of Justice (DOJ) will begin to negotiate in earnest with the city to restructure the police department, which the department has charged with engaging in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination. It should not be forgotten that the DOJ review of the Ferguson Police Department was precipitated by months of protests and activism following the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer and by revelations about the town's dysfunctional government and court system by local civil rights law groups. Now, after a half year of unrest, and with citizens on Tuesday electing two new black city council members, change is beginning to come to Ferguson. The question is, what kind of change? The report from the Department of Justice offered a devastating insight into a police department and court system that preyed on its own citizens. Through illegal traffic stops and arrests, and the use of excessive force, the police department held town residents in bondage. The municipal court system used excessive court fines and fees to ensure that citizens arrested for even minor infractions would be charged thousands of dollars or face jail time. Court costs and fees constituted the second-largest sources of revenue for the town. Rather than a force for public safety, the Ferguson Police Department became, according to Attorney General Eric Holder, \"a collection agency\" -- one that preyed disproportionately on the town's African-American residents. The evidence of ugly and explicit racial discrimination was devastating. It included blatantly racist emails traded among officers, and evidence that African-Americans were victims in all of the police canine bite incidents recorded by the department. But just a few weeks before the release of the report, the Ferguson police chief declared there were \"no racial issues\" in his department. Ferguson's ugly, racist emails released . The recommendations in the report, ranging from new training and supervision of police officers, addressing racially discriminatory conduct to structural revisions in the court system, will, if implemented, remake the law enforcement system in the town. (A grand jury that investigated the shooting of Brown by Officer Darren Wilson chose not to file charges against him and the Justice Department also didn't find reason to prosecute.) Without question, change is coming to the town's government. Town Manager John Shaw, Ferguson's most powerful official and, until the DOJ's blistering report, the one who inexplicably managed to elude public scrutiny, resigned weeks ago and has been replaced by the city's deputy manager. Three sitting city council members chose not to run for office again and, on Tuesday, citizens elected two black candidates to the city council, changing its racial composition: Five of six members and the mayor were white. Now the council will be 50% black. Ferguson's hapless police Chief Thomas Jackson also finally resigned after holding on through a months-long display of astonishing incompetence. The department first drew the attention of the nation for its display of military weaponry and tear gas in response to civilian protests. The appointment of a commander from the State Highway Patrol was deemed necessary to begin quelling the unrest and to build community trust in the early days of the protest. Jackson's departure sent an important signal to the population of a town preyed upon by officers under his command. And so we can be certain that along with the new makeup of the city council, there will be a new police chief in Ferguson. But does that mean that fundamental change will come to Ferguson? Not necessarily. Not unless protest and activism during this critical period turns to influence the vitally important opportunities that lie ahead in the coming weeks. The Department of Justice's full-on negotiations with the leadership in Ferguson will determine the shape of the new Ferguson Police Department. Indeed, the DOJ report alludes to the possibility of disbanding the department in favor of a regional policing integration with St. Louis County. Many local activists have suggested just such a solution, but given ongoing problems with policing in the county -- including the role of county forces in some of the most controversial clashes with activists in Ferguson last fall -- community representatives will have to fight hard to ensure that the DOJ can fold St. Louis County Police into its monitoring and reform process. Equally important were the April 7 general elections. Turnout in municipal elections has been notoriously low in Ferguson, with white voters nearly three times more likely to turn out than African-Americans. But local groups had engaged in vigorous voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns.. The Mayor has two years left to his term and has defiantly insisted that he will not resign (although a petition for his recall has been circulating). That means that he will be a lead voice in negotiating with the DOJ to remake the police department. Has he committed to a clear set of principles that will guide his participation in those talks? Community activists and residents must ensure that Mayor James Knowles plans to represent their vision of new Ferguson Police Department. But there is an opportunity to begin thinking about even more ambitious structural change in Ferguson and throughout St. Louis County. Ferguson's governing structure, with a strong city manager and a weak council and mayor, mirrors that of thousands of other suburbs in the United States. That form of governance might have been precisely what thriving, middle class white suburbanites wanted when they fled racial integration in cities like St. Louis. But working class suburbs like Ferguson with a majority black population in which the needs of the population in the areas of education and economic opportunity more closely hews to the needs of urban residents, may need a more robust form of governance. In any case, a system in which the elected officials have minimal power, but non-elected leaders, like the town manager and the chief of police, have inordinate power, is a recipe for the kind of unaccountable, non-representative government that controlled Ferguson's residents. Yet this precise form of government is in wide use across the country. Likewise, Missouri, like the vast majority of states, holds municipal elections in non-presidential election years, guaranteeing a significantly lower voter turnout -- although only a few states hold the primary and general election in March and April as Missouri law requires Ferguson to do. It's not that Ferguson is so different than towns across America. It's precisely because Ferguson holds up a mirror to flaws in our democratic system of government in towns across this country that the stakes are so high. Ferguson residents now have the opportunity to begin a movement for change in the other 89 jurisdictions in St. Louis County plagued by similar governance flaws, including those towns led by African-Americans. And Ferguson's example should provoke self-examination in working class suburbs across the country, where the power and effectiveness of weak elected local government is inadequate to meet the needs of the population. Change is coming to Ferguson. But the scope and breadth of that change will depend upon the ambition and discipline of activists and residents, whose passion and tenacity have already transformed the trajectory of leadership in a typical American town.","highlights":"Sherrilyn Ifill: A city with a pattern of racial discrimination elected two new black candidates to its city council Tuesday .\nShe says Ferguson faces other changes, too, that should spur rethinking in working class suburbs across America .","id":"ff866754ef03f2e2e4a2148c6a8ef2b8bda84832"} -{"article":"(CNN)What was supposed to be a fantasy sports car ride at Walt Disney World Speedway turned deadly when a Lamborghini crashed into a guardrail. The crash took place Sunday at the Exotic Driving Experience, which bills itself as a chance to drive your dream car on a racetrack. The Lamborghini's passenger, 36-year-old Gary Terry of Davenport, Florida, died at the scene, Florida Highway Patrol said. The driver of the Lamborghini, 24-year-old Tavon Watson of Kissimmee, Florida, lost control of the vehicle, the Highway Patrol said. He was hospitalized with minor injuries. Petty Holdings, which operates the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway, released a statement Sunday night about the crash. \"On behalf of everyone in the organization, it is with a very heavy heart that we extend our deepest sympathies to those involved in today's tragic accident in Orlando,\" the company said. Petty Holdings also operates the Richard Petty Driving Experience -- a chance to drive or ride in NASCAR race cars named for the winningest driver in the sport's history. CNN's Vivan Kuo and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"The crash occurred at the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway .\nOfficials say the driver, 24-year-old Tavon Watson, lost control of a Lamborghini .\nPassenger Gary Terry, 36, died at the scene .","id":"69e1f777e41bf67d5a22b7c69ae76f0ae873cf43"} -{"article":"Atlanta (CNN)A passenger on an Atlanta-bound Air Canada flight told a CNN reporter on the plane Friday that a stranger sitting behind him tried to choke him. Oliver Minatel, 22, said he was sleeping on Air Canada Flight 8623 from Toronto when he felt something around his neck. \"With a rope, something that he has, he just jumped on me. That's what happened,\" Minatel told CNN's Paula Newton moments after the incident. She was seated four rows behind Minatel, a professional soccer player traveling with his team. The incident occurred about a half-hour before the flight landed, after the pilots had begun their descent. \"I forced it (the cord) down and then other people came to help, and then I got out and he started saying that we were here to kill him,\" Minatel said. The man was not restrained for the rest of the trip, but the flight crew told him to stay seated with his seat belt on. The man kept trying to get out of his seat but other passengers yelled at him whenever he tried to stand up. The two-hour flight landed at Atlanta's Hartsfield airport at about 4:30 p.m. where it was met by U.S. authorities. The suspect was escorted off the plane. An FBI spokesman confirmed the agency responded to the incident. \"The passenger, however, was transported for medical\/mental evaluation under the direction and coordination of the Atlanta Police Department,\" Special Agent Stephen Emmett said. \"While there are currently no federal charges pending, the facts of the matter are being relayed to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta.\" Minatel, a forward from Brazil, was traveling with his teammates from the Ottawa Fury Football Club of the second-division North American Soccer League. They are scheduled to play the Atlanta Silverbacks on Saturday. \"We're very thankful to everyone who came to the aid of Oliver and relieved that he's O.K. and ready to play in our game,\" Fury FC Head Coach Marc Dos Santos said in a statement posted on the team's website. Several witnesses said they saw the suspect try to choke Minatel with the cord of his headphones. Kevin Kerr says he was seated next to the suspect. \"He was talking about how this soccer team was trying to kill him. I thought he was maybe a deranged fan,\" said Kerr. Kerr said he fell asleep and he awakened to see the suspect trying to choke Minatel. \"I assisted to make sure that didn't happen,\" Kerr said. The Canadian businessman said he and members of the soccer team kept a close eye on the suspect as the plane landed to make sure he did not threaten other passengers.","highlights":"Oliver Minatel, a 22-year-old player from Brazil, was attacked from behind, he says .\nWitnesses say suspect tried to choke him with the cord from his headphones .\nTeam says forward is OK, will play Saturday night; suspect was taken for evaluation .","id":"32655a04c9e4733a1ae4b210a045bc6e0d443d85"} -{"article":"(CNN)A federal grand jury has charged millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst, a convicted felon, with unlawful possession of a firearm. In this week's indictment, Durst, 71, is accused of possessing a .38 caliber revolver, which authorities allegedly found in his hotel room last month. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if found guilty of that charge, according to the indictment. The charge is the latest in a litany of accusations. A Louisiana judge ruled last month that Durst, who is charged with first-degree murder, will be held without bail at a facility near New Orleans. Durst was featured this spring in \"The Jinx,\" a HBO documentary about him. He's accused of killing his friend Susan Berman at her home in California in 2000. He also faces state weapons and drugs charges in New Orleans. Last month, court documents claimed that Durst had a loaded .38-caliber revolver, marijuana, his passport and birth certificate, a latex mask with salt-and-pepper hair attached and more than $40,000 cash. He also had a UPS tracking number. The package was intercepted by the FBI, prosecutors said, and it contained clothing and more than $100,000 in cash. But the bigger courtroom fight will probably unfold in Los Angeles, where the district attorney filed a first-degree murder charge against Durst last month. He awaits extradition to Los Angeles to face that charge. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Prosecutors accuse Durst of \"lying in wait\" and killing Berman, a crime writer and his longtime confidante, because she \"was a witness to a crime.\" Berman was shot in the head in her Beverly Hills home in December 2000, shortly before investigators were set to speak with her about the 1982 disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Durst has long maintained that he had nothing to do with Berman's death or his wife's disappearance. It's not the first time he has been accused of murder. He admitted killing and dismembering his neighbor at a 2003 trial, but he was acquitted after arguing that he acted in self-defense. FBI agents have also asked local authorities to examine cold cases in locations near where Durst lived over the past five decades, a U.S. law enforcement official said. Unsolved cases in Vermont, upstate New York, the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California are among those getting a new look, the official said. Durst's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said it's a sign that authorities are desperate. DeGuerin has said Durst has serious medical conditions. He is suffering from hydrocephalus, which required brain surgery a couple of years ago, DeGuerin said. Doctors implanted a stent on the right side of his head, the attorney said. \"At the same time he was in the hospital, he had an operation on his esophagus to remove cancer. So he's got some serious health issues. ... He's lost a lot of weight. He's not in good health,\" DeGuerin said. DeGuerin also said that Durst is \"mildly autistic\" and has received treatment in the past from one of the country's leading experts in Asperger's syndrome and autism.","highlights":"Durst, a convicted felon, charged with unlawful possession of a firearm .\nHe is accused of having a .38 caliber revolver and faces up to 10 years in prison .","id":"3783ef06d42f795f34533caf346c2cb9d3c844dd"} -{"article":"(CNN)The graffiti, written in a French chalk quarry and dating back almost 100 years, is plain and stark. \"HJ Leach. Merely a private. 13\/7\/16. SA Australia,\" reads one inscription. \"HA Deanate, 148th Aero Squadron, USA. 150 Vermilyea Ave, New York City,\" another says. \"9th Batt Australians, G. Fitzhenry, Paddington, Sydney, N.S.W., 1916 July; Alistair Ross, Lismore, July,\" reads a third. They were World War I soldiers, four of almost 2,000, whose writings have recently been found underneath battlefields near Naours, France, about 120 miles north of Paris. Photographer Jeff Gusky, who has been chronicling details of the site, describes the inscriptions -- and the underground city in which they were found -- as \"breathtaking.\" \"This is a treasure trove,\" he said Monday night from his home in East Texas, where he works as an ER doctor. \"Even locally, no one realized what was there.\" Gusky, a National Geographic photographer, has chronicled the area in a portfolio he calls \"The Hidden World of WWI.\" The revelations of the underground city, which extends for miles in some directions, have come to light recently only because of a series of events, Gusky said. The underground city actually dates back centuries but was sealed up in the 18th century. It was rediscovered in the late 19th century. During World War I, soldiers would take refuge in the carved-out rooms and pathways. The front was sometimes mere miles away; the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest in world history, was fought nearby in 1916. The land was privately owned for many years and generally off-limits to outsiders, said Gusky, but it changed hands in 2013. The rights to operate it were purchased by a consortium of villages that wanted to promote awareness of the area's history, he said. Researching the city is a painstaking task. For one thing, it's dark, so observers generally haven't realized what's in there until they've gone exploring. Moreover, the maze-like extensiveness of the site has made discovery a slow process. \"They go on and on and on. They're so elaborate in some places, there are maps carved into stone so the soldiers wouldn't get lost,\" he said. The graffiti looks like it was written yesterday, he added. Gusky has noted 1,821 names. About 40% are Australian, with most of the others identified as British. Fifty-five are Americans, and 662 have yet to be traced. For Gusky, the graffiti provides a human connection with men who lived a century ago. In many cases, they just wanted to be remembered, he said. \"Someone could be in this place one day and the next fighting at the front,\" he said. Leach, \"merely a private,\" was killed a month later in battle, Gusky observed. \"It could very well have been the last time he recorded his name as a living, breathing human being,\" he said. 7 things you didn't know about the man who started WWI .","highlights":"World War I graffiti is discovered in an underground quarry .\nThe writings are generally plain, with listings of names and places .\nPhotographer: Graffiti a human connection to the past .","id":"ef92201afc2d9a4aa64448a9f5ae8b6a712fa9e4"} -{"article":"Durham, North Carolina (CNN)President Obama's nomination of Loretta Lynch to become the country's first African-American woman attorney general is a historic pick. Her confirmation, however, is now taking on new historical relevance as her wait for a confirmation vote by the full Senate drags into its sixth month. The period between the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to confirm and the full Senate vote -- which in Lynch's case has not been scheduled -- has lasted longer for her than for any attorney general nominee in recent history. By the time the Senate returns from Easter recess on Monday, it'll have been longer than the eight previous nominees for the job -- combined. Lynch, currently the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, cleared the committee February 26 by a vote of 12-8, with Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona joining Democrats in sending the nomination to the full Senate. Obama nominated Lynch to replace Attorney General Eric Holder on November 8, after Holder had announced plans to leave the post weeks earlier. Hundreds of miles from Washington, longtime residents of Durham, North Carolina, were beaming with pride. Lynch's family moved to the city when she was a child. Her parents, married for 60 years, still live there. They watched the announcement on television . \"That was encouraging but I knew then that we had a fight on our hands,\" said Lynch's father, the Rev. Lorenzo Lynch. \"I've been in politics most of my life. I know that nothing is certain, and I know that nothing is easy.\" Lorenzo Lynch, 82, is a retired Baptist preacher and was active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He ran, unsuccessfully, for mayor of Durham in 1973. For the next round of his daughter's \"fight,\" he traveled to Washington in late January to attend his daughter's confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee. \"I heard a lot at that hearing that I've heard since childhood. That is the presupposition of the mindset,\" Lorenzo Lynch said. \"The dual system or the dual treatment.\" When asked to provide specific examples, Lorenzo Lynch deferred to the state branch of the NAACP and E. Lavonia Allison, a Durham activist who has known Loretta Lynch since the family moved to Durham. \"I don't want to think about the epidermis, but some people are thinking that way,\" Allison said, suggesting that Lynch's confirmation vote has been delayed because Lynch is African-American. \"When it has taken so long, when it has been so different from any other person who has been nominated ... how else can we interpret that it is so different?\" Allison said. In March, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, \"I think race certainly can be considered as a major factor in the reason for this delay, but it's also the irrationality of the new Republicans.\" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, evoked imagery of the segregated South in criticism of Republicans, saying Lynch had been \"asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar.\" Durbin was harshly criticized by Arizona's Sen. John McCain. \"I deeply regret that the senator from Illinois chose to come here yesterday and question the integrity and motivation, mine and my Republican colleagues,\" McCain said on the Senate floor. \"It was offensive and unnecessary, and I think he owes this body, Ms. Lynch and all Americans an apology,\" McCain added. \"I thought he should be commended,\" Lorenzo Lynch said. \"I think that's a poetic description of what has happened and poetry, like most language, is limited but it does have wings ... to carry a point.\" Giuliani pushes for Lynch confirmation . Senate Republicans adamantly deny the delay in scheduling a vote on Lynch's nomination is because she is African-American. Many point out that Lynch, if confirmed, will be replacing the country's first African-American attorney general who was confirmed by an overwhelming margin. Instead, Republicans and Democrats say the delay is part of an ongoing partisan battle. For some, it's part of a fight over a human trafficking bill that has stalled in the Senate. For others, the delay is retaliation for President Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration. On the eve of Holder's announcement of his plans to leave the Department of Justice, the political number crunchers at FiveThirtyEight.com predicted that whoever the President nominated would \"likely face at least a moderately tough confirmation hearing in the Senate.\" Some of Lynch's supporters across North Carolina have organized to convince the state's two Republican senators to support Lynch's confirmation. In March, several dozen North Carolina women, led by the NAACP, traveled to Washington to meet with their senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis. Reportedly, the meeting lasted nearly an hour and was very cordial. At a news conference at the Washington Press Club, the group blasted the senators for opposing the nomination. \"Senator Burr and Senator Tillis, it is time for you to act like you have some sense. It's past time. You have embarrassed the state of North Carolina,\" Allison said after the meeting. For their part, Burr and Tillis released a statement after the meeting: \"While we remain concerned with Ms. Lynch's stated desire to lead the Department of Justice in the same manner as Eric Holder and will not be supporting her nomination, we are grateful that the group came to Washington to talk about this issue and exchange ideas. Weeks later, the NAACP organized protests outside the senators' offices in Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington. \"I think there is a much deeper analysis,\" said North Carolina NAACP Branch President Rev. William Barber II. \"I believe if she had been Clarence Thomas, she would have been confirmed.\" \"Because of her courage, her character and her commitment to the law and to the enforcement of the laws of this land, particularly the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, and because her consciousness was shaped in the crucible of the civil rights movement -- that is what they fear,\" Barber said. Obama turns up the heat on Loretta Lynch confirmation 'limbo' Lorenzo Lynch says he carried his daughter to several civil rights marches on his shoulders. He admits that he did not think that much of the recent progress of African-Americans was possible when he was fighting for equal rights. Now, his small living room is filled with stacks of loosely organized newspaper stories about his daughter's nomination and photos of his visit to the White House. Lynch admits that he's never told his only daughter that he's proud of her, although he's sure she knows it. He plans to change that, soon, regardless of the outcome of her pending nomination.","highlights":"The nomination of Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney general was announced in November .\nShe would be the country's first African-American woman attorney general .\nBut as her confirmation process drags on, her supporters wonder why .","id":"2b1b6a434b171e198413479aaba118f0cd20c843"} -{"article":"(CNN)Are we alone in the cosmos? Or might there be intelligent life elsewhere? Last week, NASA scientists discussed in very concrete terms the steps to discovering life elsewhere in the universe over the next decade or two. This year is the 20th anniversary of the discovery of a planet around a star like our own sun, 51 Pegasi. Since then, ground-based surveys and NASA's Kepler satellite have discovered nearly 2,000 confirmed \"exoplanets,\" and thousands more candidates await confirmation. Many of these planetary systems are quite unlike our own solar system. Some have large planets like Jupiter that orbit their stars far closer than Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system. But smaller rocky planets like Earth, though harder to find, appear to be even more abundant. Life on Earth developed in its oceans about a billion years after the planet formed. That suggests that rocky planets with liquid water on their surfaces might also have developed primitive forms of life. Life as we know it is carbon-based and requires liquid water. Astronomers define the \"habitable zone\" around a star as the region within which liquid water can exist on a planet's surface. Any closer to the star, the water will boil into vapor; any farther and the water freezes into ice. Extrapolating from discoveries to date, astronomers estimate there are perhaps 40 billion Earth-like, habitable-zone planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone. Of course, there is a difference between single-celled organisms -- which developed 3.8 billion years ago and remained the most sophisticated form of life for another billion years or so -- and mammals, which appeared about 200 million years ago. And then the humans, who have existed for only 200,000 years. Intelligent life that can communicate via radio waves with other intelligent life is less than 100 years old here on Earth. So while planets that develop simple forms of life may be a dime a dozen, the number that have sentient beings with whom to converse -- even assuming they evolved as humans did, with ears and spoken language, or eyes and written language -- is likely to be tiny. And life that can use radio waves has existed on Earth for only 0.000002% of the planet's history -- 100 years out of 4.5 billion. If the half dozen or so rocky, Earth-like exoplanets now known are similar, the odds of discovering humanlike life on them are about the same as, well, winning your state lottery with one ticket. Of course, if there are 40 billion Earth-like planets out there, the odds improve quite a bit. If they all have histories like the Earth's, there might be 1,000 planets in the Milky Way that could support communicative beings. But before you start composing your first letter to an alien, think about this: The chance that those beings evolved on exactly the same time scale is minuscule. Another planet's 100 years of brilliance might have occurred a billion years ago, or it might happen a billion years in the future. A lot depends on how long communication capabilities last. Civilizations that can build huge telescopes and broadcast stations also have the technology to destroy their planet. So the duration of the Communication Age on a planet could be short. Not to mention: The average light-travel-time to such a planet could be tens of thousands of years, so unless humans evolve to be ageless, we're not exchanging IMs with aliens anytime soon. If advanced civilizations can maintain their capabilities for millions of years or more, the chances of communicating with them are not negligible. But in that case, they are likely to be far more sophisticated than we are (since they developed the capability far earlier than we did) -- so if they wanted us to know they exist, wouldn't they simply tell us? The SETI project has been listening for such broadcasts for more than 30 years in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Probably the most likely form of life on exoplanets is far more primitive. Astronomers have found signatures of organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in the interstellar material that permeates the space between stars in our galaxy. Possible signatures of living organisms on distant exoplanets include an oxygen-rich atmosphere, such as that created by the first bacteria on Earth, or perhaps methane or carbon dioxide. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in 2018, will look for evidence of life in the atmospheres of rocky, habitable exoplanets. NASA's rovers have shown that Mars was once much more habitable. It had fresh-water lakes and streams of water running along its surface. Some water still remains, and there may yet be life discovered on Mars. New missions plan to look at Europa and Ganymede, moons of Jupiter that have liquid water below their icy surfaces. Life elsewhere in the universe, and even elsewhere in our own Milky Way galaxy, is practically inevitable. Signs of life on exoplanets orbiting nearby stars will probably be discovered in the coming decades with advanced telescopes. But the chance of talking to those little green men will probably have to wait for another few hundred million years.","highlights":"NASA scientists discuss steps to discover life elsewhere in the universe over the next two decades .\nMeg Urry: Life elsewhere in the universe, and even elsewhere in our own Milky Way galaxy, is practically inevitable .\nBut the chances that we can communicate with that life are slim, she writes .","id":"a2363d02185ba79b223bf7290b390cf65f81dd50"} -{"article":"(CNN)It took prosecutors months to present 131 witnesses to support their claim that former NFL star Aaron Hernandez killed semi-pro player Odin Lloyd. On Monday, Hernandez's defense gave its side of the story, wrapping up its witnesses in less than a day. Hernandez, 25, is on trial for the shooting death of Lloyd, whose body was found in a Massachusetts industrial park in June 2013. Now that the defense has rested, it won't be long before the jury begins deliberating. Much of the evidence in the former New England Patriots' case is circumstantial. Here are some key points jurors will have to consider after each side makes closing arguments on Tuesday: . As news spread that Hernandez was under investigation in June 2013, Patriots owner Robert Kraft called in the tight end for a meeting two days after Lloyd's death. \"He said he was not involved,\" Kraft testified last week. \"He said he was innocent, and that he hoped that the time of the murder incident came out because he said he was in a club.\" There's only one potential problem with that claim: The time Lloyd was killed hadn't been made public yet by the time Hernandez met with Kraft. So how could Hernandez have known when Lloyd was killed? \"What a great, great witness for the prosecution,\" CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins said. \"Basically what happened is Aaron Hernandez lied to his boss. And the only way you rebut it is if you put him on the stand.\" When questioned by a defense attorney, Kraft said that he'd never had any problems with Hernandez and that the player was always respectful to him. Hernandez's fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, revealed for the first time last week that Hernandez told her to dispose of a box from the couple's home that she said reeked of marijuana. She also said she didn't know what was in the box. That revelation may contradict the prosecution's contention that the weapon used in the killing was in the box. The murder weapon in the case has not been recovered. During cross-examination by the defense, Jenkins testified that she suspected marijuana because the box smelled \"skunky.\" Earlier, she told prosecutors during direct examination that she didn't know what was in the box. She said Hernandez never told her, and she never looked. After concealing the box with her daughter's clothing, Jenkins said she threw it away in \"a random dumpster\" but could not remember exactly where. Much testimony has focused on the shoes Hernandez wore the night Lloyd was shot. A Nike consultant testified that Hernandez was wearing Nike Air Jordan Retro 11 Lows. About 93,000 pairs of that shoe were made, significantly fewer in a size 13. The shoe's sole makes a distinct impression, said Lt. Steven Bennett of the Massachusetts State Police. The consultant testified under questioning from defense attorney Jamie Sultan that other Nike shoes -- more than 3 million -- make the same impression. Yet Bennett, who works in crime scene services, testified that the footprint left near Lloyd's body was \"in agreement\" or consistent with the Air Jordan Retro 11 Lows size 13. Although he did not have the shoes that Hernandez wore that night, he used an identical pair to make his determination. Bennett did so by creating a transparency of the sole and laying it over a photo of the footwear impression. Jurors watched as he drew lines showing how the sole aligned with the impression. What may have been a key moment for the prosecution was quickly derailed by defense attorney Jamie Sultan. Sultan questioned the science behind analyzing footprints. He introduced a March 2014 investigative report written by Bennett saying the partial footwear impression lacked certain detail and quality to be able to make a comparison. Prosecutors used grainy footage from Hernandez's home security system to suggest he was holding a .45-caliber handgun -- the same kind of gun police said was used to kill Lloyd. Hernandez could be seen on camera pulling into his driveway minutes after Lloyd was shot to death in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez's home. \"In my opinion, the firearm shown in the video stills is a Glock pistol,\" Glock sales manager Kyle Aspinwall testified. The video is time-stamped minutes after workers in a nearby industrial park describe hearing loud noises like fireworks -- the moment prosecutors say Lloyd was gunned down after getting out of a car Hernandez was driving. Hernandez's lawyers then showed a different part of the video time-stamped a few seconds earlier with Hernandez holding what appeared to be a shiny object in one hand, suggesting it may be an iPad. \"Glock pistols don't have white glows to them, do they?\" defense attorney James Sultan asked. \"No, they do not,\" Aspinwall answered. Sultan then displayed a soft-pellet gun similar in shape to a Glock, suggesting it could also be the object Hernandez is holding. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in Lloyd's death. But already, his arrest has led to deep consequences, including his release from the New England Patriots and the loss of millions of dollars in expected earnings. So what might make a young man who had signed a $40 million contract risk everything? Prosecutors have said Lloyd might have done or said something that didn't sit well with Hernandez. They claimed Hernandez rounded up some friends and orchestrated a hit to settle the score. Hernandez's co-defendants, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, also pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately. But the case gets more complicated. Evidence collected in Lloyd's death investigation led to two more murder charges against Hernandez in a separate case in Boston. Hernandez is also accused of shooting Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, allegedly over a spilled drink at a nightclub. That double shooting took place in July 2012, almost a year before Lloyd was killed. Prosecutors have said in pretrial hearings that Hernandez may have been mad at himself for possibly showing Lloyd the spot where that double murder happened. During trial, prosecutors suggest a text written by Hernandez the day before the murder saying he was \"buggin\" for showing Lloyd \"the spot\" may have played a role in plotting to kill Lloyd. The judge has banned any mention of the double murder in Lloyd's trial, ruling it is prejudicial. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in those deaths as well. But when the Lloyd trial ends, that murder trial awaits him. CNN's Jason Hanna, Lawrence Crook, Laura Dolan and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Closing arguments in the case are set for Tuesday .\nAaron Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Odin Lloyd .\nHis defense lawyers made their case on Monday .","id":"6c4ed9b048e05aebceee87dc492ef555e0dca128"} -{"article":"(CNN)Saturday at the Masters, like any PGA tournament, has been dubbed 'Moving Day'. It's the day after the fat has been cut and the big dogs make their move up -- or occasionally down -- the leader board. Players rose and players fell away on Moving Day at the 2015 Masters. Rory McIlroy went out in 32 and briefly raised the crowd's hopes that he had a sniff of completing an improbable Grand Slam on Sunday night. But he dropped two shots late on in the round to finish six under par. Woods comeback? A rejuvenated Tiger Woods showed touches of his old class mixed with the ragged unpredictability that has marked his new game to finish six under too. A huge improvement, but still a long way from him wearing the green jacket again. \"It could have been a super low today,\" a disappointed Woods said after his round. \"All in all. It should have been two shots better.\" Phil Mickelson powered around the course, threatening to challenge too, finishing on eleven under. As did a late Justin Rose surge, where he fired four birdies in a row to finish twelve under and in second place. In the end, there was lots of moving, but no one could move quick enough or far enough to trouble Jordan Spieth. Infallible . The 21 year old has been nothing short of a sensation at Augusta. His infallible first two rounds gave the 21 year old from Dallas, Texas a five shot lead going in to the third round. That has happened only three times at Augusta before, and on all three occasions the leader has gone on to win. Spieth's 15 birdies are just 10 away from Phil Mickelson's Masters mark set in 2001. He could also break Tiger Woods 270 set in 1997. As it happened, Spieth played a steady, almost conservative round. When he made the occasional mistake, like the bogey at 15, he hit back straight away with a birdie next hole. As his third round came to a close the birdies flowed, his putting impeccable. The only nerves on show came during the last two holes with a double bogey at the 17. Echos of 1996? When reminded of some of the great Augusta comebacks, including Nick Faldo's 11 shot swing in 1996, Tiger Woods still believes anything is possible. \"It really is,\" he said. \"We saw what happened in 1996. You never know. It depends on the conditions.\" He is, of course, right. As Greg Norman knows only too well, anything can happen on the final day. But that kind of crescendo also depends on Spieth experiencing a Greg Norman-style meltdown. Spieth's double bogey on the 17th and wobble on the 18th will give the chasing pack some hope. Yet, for all the movement of Mickelson, Woods, Rose and McIlroy, they made just a one shot dent into Spieth's second round lead. He will begin Sunday four shots ahead.","highlights":"Jordan Spieth holds lead in 2015 Masters .\nStrong starts from McIlroy and Woods .\nBoth fall away as 21 year old Spieth takes control .","id":"f555b81fb888354a9a83ba9acc1bdb18791441ca"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Delaware father is in stable condition and improving as his two boys remain in critical condition after they became sick -- perhaps from pesticide exposure, federal officials say -- during a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Steve Esmond, his teenage sons and the teens' mother fell ill more than two weeks ago in St. John, where they were renting a villa at the Sirenusa resort. The family has confidence in their medical professionals and is hopeful for a full recovery, according to a statement released Monday from the family's attorney, James Maron. The teens' mother, Theresa Devine, was treated at a hospital and released, and is in occupational therapy, Maron said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the presence of a pesticide at the rented villa in St. John may have caused the illnesses, which were reported to the EPA on March 20. Paramedics were called to the villa, which the family was renting. Esmond was found unconscious; the boys and their mother were having seizures, Maron said. The lawyer did not say who called the paramedics. Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman, said the agency's preliminary test results \"do show that there was a presence of methyl bromide in the unit where the family was staying.\" Exposure to methyl bromide can result in serious health effects, including central nervous system and respiratory system damage, according to the EPA. The use of the pesticide is restricted in the United States because of its acute toxicity. It's not allowed to be used indoors. Only certified professionals are permitted to use it in certain agricultural settings. For example, the pesticide is injected into the soil of some U.S. strawberry fields, said Judith Enck, an EPA regional administrator. \"We trust that the strawberry producers are making sure that there's not excess pesticide residue on strawberries,\" Enck said. \"You definitely want to wash them really good. \"This is a pesticide that's been around for a long time, and ironically because of its impact and damage to the ozone layer, it's being phased out because of the air impacts of this fumigant,\" Enck added. Field workers at a Connecticut nursery were poisoned by the chemical in 1990, according to the Journal of Industrial Medicine. In 2011, warehouse workers in California fell ill after exposed to grapes imported from Chile fumigated with methyl bromide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, said many parts of the world banned the chemical, a neurotoxin. The agent is to be used only outdoors. The chemical is also odorless and colorless, Gupta said. \"It's not something that you would have any warning of,\" Gupta said. The chemical is often mixed with tear gas so people can be aware of its presence, he added. The EPA said it is working with local government agencies to investigate whether the family was made ill after a fumigation at the resort on March 18 and whether any environmental regulations or laws were violated. Enck, the EPA regional administrator, said paramedics were called early on March 20. Sea Glass Vacations, which acts as a rental agent for several units at Sirenusa, said the unit directly below the one where the family stayed was recently treated for pests, but that the family's unit was not treated. The company said it licensed an outside company, Terminix, for the pest control services. On Monday, it ended its contract with Terminix. In an email to CNN before the termination, a spokesman for Terminix wrote that the company is \"committed to performing all work ... in a manner that is safe for our customers, employees, the public and the environment\" and is \"looking into this matter internally, and cooperating with authorities.\" The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a criminal investigation. \"Many questions remain why an odorless pesticide of this level of toxicity could be manufactured, distributed and applied in a residential area resulting in this family's injuries,\" Maron said. The attorney added: \"The family is confident that the responsible parties will be brought to justice and held accountable.\" CNN's Rob Frehse, Jean Casarez, Sara Ganim, Jason Hanna, Laura Ly and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Chemical damages ozone and is being phased out, though it's used in strawberry fields, EPA says .\nA Delaware family becomes ill at a resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands .\nPreliminary EPA results find methyl bromide was present in the unit where they stayed .","id":"9eb7dd37e50b863e99b554ed340e7b766c1b6329"} -{"article":"(CNN)Recently, a New York judge issued an opinion authorizing service of divorce papers on a husband completely via Facebook. What exactly is \"service of process\"? Serving people with legal papers is an industry and its own body of law premised on one guiding principle: if you are going to sue someone, you should at least let them know about it. Sounds simple, right? In theory it is. In practice, it turns out people don't like being sued. It also turns out that, to many defendants, procrastination of a lawsuit is a viable defense. Just as you may avoid bad news in life, defendants tend to avoid process servers. Once a defendant has been served, that means the judicial proceedings begin. Unfortunately, that means defendants have an incentive to go \"off the grid\". Although every state is different, the law of service of process has evolved this way: the ideal and fairest way to notify a person of a lawsuit is to have another human hand the papers to the defendant in person, and have some proof that the person was the defendant. In-person service is not always possible, for obvious reasons. So, the law had to develop methods of alternate service, but carefully balance a defendant's right to have notice of a lawsuit, against a diligent plaintiff's access to court if a defendant is avoiding the inevitable. As reliable as the U.S. mail is, regular mail is not a reliable form of serving papers. Not because the postmen can't be trusted; they can. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, will keep them from delivering those papers. Instead, it's defendants -- no wait, all of humanity -- that can't be trusted. Every one of us has ignored mail or even pretended we didn't get it. Defendants are no different. One form of alternate service is \"nail and mail\" service. This means that you take a hammer and nail, and nail the papers to the defendant's front door. The problem with that is that many defendants are nomadic by nature. Just because you find a house that a defendant stayed at, doesn't mean he'll be back there anytime soon. Another, even odder form of \"service\" is service by publication. This is an almost laughable legal fiction. If you can't find a defendant, a judge might let you serve by publication. That means that a plaintiff can take out an ad in five point font for a week in an obscure publication, on the off chance you are reading the classified ads of the Secaucus Law Journal looking for lawsuits against you. As laughable as serving someone by tweeting it sounds, it's at least more rational than this antiquated method. At first blush, the idea of service by Facebook seems to offend traditional notions of ensuring notification of a defendant of a case against him. When it comes to serving papers, however, \"traditional\" doesn't necessarily mean \"good.\" Service by publication or nailing paper to the door of an empty apartment is hardly reliable; it's just service of last resort. For those people who are concerned that being served papers will become a Facebook announcement in a news feed, along with the photos of dinner or kittens, to be \"liked\" by all your gawking \"friends,\" we're not quite there ... yet. While the older forms of alternate service were public, most electronic service takes the form of email. Where email isn't available, it is Facebook private messaging, which should be as private as email. That's the form of service authorized by the court here. So for now, we're not quite putting lawsuits on Instagram ... but I wouldn't rule it out in the future. Online service may be a new frontier, but it's not unheard of. Most of us exist more online now than we \"live\" in a particular condo, or Mom's basement. Virtually everyone has a phone or access to the Internet. Not everyone has a lease or a mortgage. Plus, online service has the added benefit of tracking. Believe me, somewhere, some computer has already logged the fact that you read this article, how long you read it, and even how far down you scrolled before you got bored and bailed on the article (thanks for still being here, by the way). In a way, maybe online service is long overdue. You can outrun a process server for a while, but sooner or later, all of us have to go back online -- and no human can outrun an email.","highlights":"A court allowed a wife to serve divorce papers via Facebook .\nDanny Cevallos: Why not let people be found via social media?","id":"8610ead0a43054be202a1fc756620415a6d572fe"} -{"article":"(CNN)The commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency will make an emergency visit to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria on Saturday, a spokesman says. Commissioner-General Pierre Kr\u00e4henb\u00fchl will assess the humanitarian situation in the camp and speak with individuals about ways to relieve the suffering of the people who remain there. \"The visit is prompted by UNRWA's deepening concern for the safety and protection of 18,000 Palestinians and Syrian civilians, including 3,500 children,\" agency spokesman Christopher Gunness told CNN's Paula Newton. \"Yarmouk remains under the control of armed groups, and civilian life continues to be threatened by the effects of the conflict.\" Kr\u00e4henb\u00fchl will meet with senior Syrian officials, U.N. and relief agency staff members, and displaced people from the camp itself. The Yarmouk refugee camp, which sits just 6 miles from central Damascus, has been engulfed in fighting between the Syrian government and armed groups since December 2012. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the militant group ISIS and the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front control about 90% of the camp. The organization also claims that the Syrian government has dropped barrel bombs on the camp as recently as Sunday in an effort to drive out armed groups. Yarmouk was formed in 1957 to accommodate people displaced by the Arab-Israeli conflict and is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. The U.N. relief agency estimates that there were 160,000 people in the camp when the conflict began in 2011 between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters. That number has dropped to about 18,000, according to estimates. Yarmouk has been largely cut off from aid since November 2013. There have been widespread reports of malnutrition and shortages of medical care. \"We will not abandon hope,\" Gunness said. \"We will not submit to pessimism, because to abandon hope would be to abandon the people of Yarmouk. ... We cannot abandon the people of Yarmouk, and we will not, hence this mission.\"","highlights":"The United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief will visit Yarmouk camp Saturday .\nPierre Kr\u00e4henb\u00fchl will assess the humanitarian situation there .\nYarmouk has been engulfed in fighting since December 2012 .","id":"346c39e1a89203f1035541a114e7406521ff8b4e"} -{"article":"London (CNN)It wasn't messrs Clooney, Pitt and their nine accomplices who sailed down an elevator shaft and cracked open dozens of safety deposit boxes at a London vault during the Easter weekend. But last weekend's raid in the heart of the city's jewelry district feels like it has been taken from a movie like \"Ocean 11\" given its daring and planning. Such robberies are rare: the gang didn't follow the current criminal trend of manipulating digits in cyber space but instead went back to basics and committed their burglary in a way not seen in London for more than 40 years. In September 1971, the staff of a bank in Baker Street, central London, arrived at work to find that thieves had dug a 40-yard tunnel from a shop they had rented, hauled in a thermic lance and explosives and opened the strong room. The gang got away with a haul worth around \u00a330 million (the incident later formed the basis of the movie \"The Bank Job.\") But how are such heists organized? Roy Ramm, a former commander of specialist operations at London's Scotland Yard for 27 years, explains. In the UK burglaries and robberies are often committed by working-class people, people who would otherwise have blue collar jobs. In more than 25 years as a Scotland Yard detective, I never met a Raffles- or a Thomas Crown-style criminal from a middle-class background who had then turned to the hard side of crime. Sophisticated heists like the Hatton Garden raid are generally not a natural progression for burglars who began with smaller domestic break-ins. Many neighborhood criminals commit burglaries to feed drugs habits and acquire long strings of convictions that mean they are always on the police radar. Occasionally, they steal things they can't sell and end up dumping valuable paintings or antiques when they are not able to sell them on quickly. More specialist criminals -- those, for example, who target museums or country houses -- will be very specific and steal only what they know they can quickly convert to untraceable cash. Many of those who commit the bigger crimes or run major criminal enterprises combine high IQs with a kind of raw street intelligence. One of their skills is the ability to recognize a criminal opportunity when it presents itself, possibly from a source of inside information. Probably the biggest difference between any heist you'll see in a movie and its real-life equivalent is the motive. I've never encountered any criminal who committed a high value crime just for the challenge or to prove that it could be done. The only reason has been for the money, often to support a certain lifestyle and to fund other criminal enterprises. Inside information is one way of identifying a criminal opportunity, using people who are able to provide that crucial detail or who will participate in some small way to facilitate the crime. The Brinks MAT robbery in 1983 -- a case which I was involved in at the time -- saw a criminal gang escape with gold bullion worth more than \u00a328 million (around \u00a388 million -- or $130million -- adjusting for inflation) from a warehouse at London's Heathrow Airport. The Knightsbridge safety deposit robbery of 1987 saw a gang make off with tens of millions of pounds in cash and valuables from an upscale London neighbourhood (the true amount will never be known). Both were made possible by inside information: it's an angle that London detectives investigating last weekend's heist will be looking at very closely. The planning behind the Hatton Garden raid will have been meticulous. The target will have been observed, perhaps for months, and the thieves will have decided on the right time to commit the crime. A long weekend or a public holiday are occasions when more time may be available, also perhaps when regular staff are away. Sometimes the mastermind behind the raid will need a larger team of criminals to do a specific job. Usually they will already be known directly to each other, perhaps because they worked on other jobs together. Possibly a specialist can be brought in by another team member -- but they have to be able to trust each other and trust comes from understanding, so gangs in the UK tend to come from the same social and ethnic group, maybe even limited to one relatively small geographic area. Even though there is more diversity in society, it would be unusual to find a broad ethnic or social mix in the team put together for a major crime. Vehicles will have been obtained, stolen or purchased for cash and their identities cloned or changed. Equipment will have been sourced. Everything will have been cleaned, cleaned and cleaned again to remove forensic traces. They will plan routes that avoid CCTV and timings that attract the least attention. They will have untraceable disposable phones and an outside team to warn the inside men of any problems. They will have planned their getaway, their clean-up and how and when they are going to dispose of anything that might link them to the crime scene -- and of course how they are going to sell on the proceeds of their crime. What criminals steal doesn't vary that much. Cash is probably first choice, followed by anything that can quickly and easily be converted to cash, like gold, jewellery and watches. The conversion of stolen goods to cash is risky and expensive: the Brinks MAT bullion that was traced was because it had been clumsily smelted and then sold on. Fine paintings and rare antiques are less desirable for experienced criminals -- unless they are stealing to order -- because they are so identifiable and because the black market is so much smaller. A painting may sell at an international auction for millions of dollars but it will only fetch a fraction of its true value from a dishonest collector. London detectives investigating the Hatton Garden heist will be looking very closely at the possibility of inside involvement. But police enquiries won't stop there. They will look at every aspect of how the target business operates, then try to think like criminals to identify the weaknesses in physical and operational security that the gang may have been informed about or else spotted and then exploited. The forensic assault on the crime scene will be immense. In recent years forensic science has made major advances in identifying trace evidence and investigators will look for any scrap of evidence that might yield the DNA of a criminal. CCTV footage from street cameras and from inside private premises will be analyzed and vehicle movements logged and cross-checked. Rewards for information will be offered. Witnesses will interviewed. In the police's criminal intelligence branch, the movements of known criminals will be analyzed and the networks of sources -- informers -- will be tasked to report what they hear. The details of any identifiable goods which have been stolen will be circulated to known markets, both in the UK and internationally. The detectives investigating these major crimes in the UK see them as an exciting challenge to their professionalism. They don't admire the criminals but they have less contempt for a gang that builds a sophisticated plan and causes no personal harm to anyone than say for a violent robber. But the investigation will still be relentless.","highlights":"Police in London are trying to catch the gang which staged a multi-million heist during the Easter vacation .\nFormer police commander: Such crimes require meticulous planning and use of information by criminals .\nThe masterminds behind such complicated crimes carefully assemble their gangs with men they can trust .","id":"68382576e6999d52ff2d16777add23a5cea605f0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Fans of the late actor Paul Walker knew that watching him in \"Furious 7\" would be bittersweet. Even so, many moviegoers said the final scenes of the new film, which earned a record $146 million over the weekend, still packed an emotional wallop. \"Not gonna lie, I shed a few tears at the end of Furious 7. The tribute to Paul Walker was very well done,\" one woman said Monday on Twitter. Hers was just one of a flood of messages on social media from people who said they got choked up during scenes featuring Walker, who died at 40 in a car crash in November 2013, before filming on \"Furious 7\" was completed. To finish Walker's scenes, the makers of the movie used body doubles, computer-generated images and even the actor's brothers. But it was the ending that really got to moviegoers. In finishing \"Furious 7,\" the film's producers sought to retire Walker's character, Brian, while paying homage to his role in the blockbuster \"Furious\" action franchise. But they felt that killing him off might appear exploitative. \"If they had gone down the other path, I think I would have refused to finish making this movie,\" director James Wan told BuzzFeed. Instead, the movie's makers chose to \"retire Paul's character in the most sincere and elegant way (they) could,\" Wan said. Their idea was to have Brian retire from his dangerous, high-octane lifestyle out of a sense of responsibility to his growing family with girlfriend Mia, who is pregnant with their second child. A scene late in the movie shows him and Mia playing on a beach with their son while the crew looks on -- essentially saying goodbye. Then his longtime buddy Dom reminisces about their years together, leading to a montage of Walker scenes from the first six movies. The song that plays over the montage is \"See You Again,\" a collaboration between Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth. Co-star Vin Diesel shared the video for the song late Sunday on his Facebook page, where it has more than 1.5 million likes. Fans on Twitter and Facebook mostly praised the movie's ending as a fitting tribute -- and an emotionally wrenching one. \"Man I don't care how tough u are or how gangsta u claim to be . ...the last five minutes had me choked up in the movie theater ... I saw it 3 times in one day ... ...the ending is the deepest ending I've ever seen,\" one man wrote on the movie's Facebook page.","highlights":"Moviegoers are tearing up during the emotional ending of \"Furious 7\"\nThe movie's end is a tribute of sorts to actor Paul Walker, who died during filming .","id":"cd745b3c66da579d0538e668fde2922c0b3bc9f5"} -{"article":"(CNN)Tejano star Selena, who died 20 years ago, is coming back in a big way: with a hologram-like figure. Billboard reports that the singer's family is creating a version of the singer that will be \"walking, talking, singing and dancing digital embodiment\" of her persona. \"By no means is this something that's creepy or weird,\" her sister, Suzette Quintanilla, told Billboard. \"We think it's something amazing. A lot of the new fans that did not get to experience what Selena was about hopefully will be able to get a sense of her with this new technology that's going to be coming out.\" Selena: 20 years after her death . The technology is being handled by Acrovirt LLC, a Nevada-based tech company. \"Using detailed individual personalized functions spanning the mind, brain and body, the individual's Digitized Human Essence will autonomously learn and react on behalf of its human counterpart's,\" the company explained. The project is being called \"Selena the One.\" Twenty years after she was killed by her fan club president, Selena remains incredibly popular, with her Facebook page recording 2 million likes and fans continuing to post videos and tributes. Selena will be the first figure to use the Acrovirt technology, Quintanilla said. \"I'm excited at the fact that she will be the first ever, and the fact that she's a Latina makes it even more awesome,\" she said. \"It's not about replacing Selena in any shape, way or form; it's just something to help her legacy continue growing.\" The family intends to expand her legacy in another way: with some new music. Selena the One \"will release new songs and videos, will collaborate with current hit artists, and aims to go on tour in 2018,\" said a statement on Selena's Facebook page. Selena isn't the first performer to try the virtual route. A Michael Jackson hologram appeared at the Billboard Music Awards in 2014, and a hologram of Tupac Shakur performed at Coachella in 2012. But the new technology is a step forward, Quintanilla said. \"People don't realize how fast technology is moving,\" she told Billboard. \"This is something that we're building for another two to three years, so when 2018 comes around they'll be like, 'Oh, OK, we get it.' \" Fans can join an Indiegogo campaign, www.selenatheone.com, to support the launch. The campaign, which hopes to raise $500,000, begins April 16. The commemorative Fiesta de la Flor in Corpus Christi, Texas -- which celebrates her life -- is scheduled for April 17 and 18. CNN's Katia Hetter contributed to this story.","highlights":"Selena Quintanilla-Perez will be re-created as hologram-like figure .\nThe Tejano singer is first to be part of a new technology, says sister .\nSelena was killed 20 years ago but remains hugely popular .","id":"eb39e1395ad10fd27f5688d5f7f589e1eac61738"} -{"article":"(CNN)Gastrointestinal illness has gripped 100 people on the cruise ship Celebrity Infinity, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control. Of the ship's 2,117 passengers, 95 have suffered from vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms, the CDC said. The illness has also affected five members of the 964-person crew. The CDC has yet to determine what's causing the ailments. Two staffers from the agency are scheduled to meet the West Coast-based ship in San Diego on Monday. The Infinity left San Diego on March 29. It made its last stop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on April 10, according to MarineTraffic.com. Celebrity Cruises has been taking action since the outbreak began, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures, keeping passengers informed and taking specimens from the afflicted for testing by the CDC, the agency says. According to the Maritime Executive, this is the third time the Celebrity Infinity has suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, with others occurring in 2006 and 2013. The ship was built in 2001 and refurbished in 2011.","highlights":"100 passengers and crew members have been sickened on Celebrity Infinity .\nThe ship, which is based on the West Coast, left San Diego in late March .\nThe CDC is scheduled to board the ship Monday .","id":"12d18fce81557ef7d4e34874e709376defd1819d"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)The original cast of Twin Peaks is backing David Lynch in his salary standoff with Showtime. The stars have teamed together for a video backing the show's co-creator with a #SaveTwinPeaks campaign that says doing the revival without Lynch is \"like pies without cherries,\" among other nods to the original drama series. Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, James Marshall, Peggy Lipton and other familiar faces from the series appear in the video. (Some members have also set up a Facebook page.) Showtime renews 'Shameless,' orders 'Happyish' to series . Lynch announced Sunday that he was exiting Showtime's nine-episode revival over a salary dispute. He originally signed on to direct the project but noted that there was \"not enough money offered to do the script the way I felt needed to be done.\" Showtime already had a deal in place with Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost to bring back the cult hit with star Kyle MacLachlan for a run in 2016, with sources telling THR that the scripts had already been written. Showtime chief on 'Twin Peaks' plans, 'Homeland' backlash and free speech . For its part, Showtime noted that it \"continues to hold out hope\" that Twin Peaks can be brought back with both its creators at the helm. MacLachlan is the only cast member currently confirmed for the reboot. Lynch to leave 'Twin Peaks' reboot . \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Twin Peaks\" creator David Lynch announced he was departing the Showtime revival of the cult series Sunday .\nCast members of the show posted a YouTube video Wednesday pleading for him to return .\nWednesday was the series' 25th anniversary .","id":"0b66cb7ebcfd16de6d6d7623036c2dd9161f032b"} -{"article":"(CNN)A judge this week sentenced a former TSA agent to six months in jail for secretly videotaping a female co-worker while she was in the bathroom, prosecutors said. During the investigation, detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department in Tennessee also found that the agent, 33-year-old Daniel Boykin, entered the woman's home multiple times, where he took videos, photos and other data. Police found more than 90 videos and 1,500 photos of the victim on Boykin's phone and computer. The victim filed a complaint after seeing images of herself on his phone last year. Boykin plead guilty to unlawful photography, aggravated burglary and violation of the computer act, the Nashville District Attorney's Office said. Police said the incident happened in a TSA-only restroom, and that there was no evidence public restrooms were targeted. A TSA official tells CNN that Boykin worked in an administrative capacity and didn't engage in public security screening. Assistant District Attorney Amy Hunter said this case was one of the worst invasion of privacy cases she's seen. \"We are thankful that the sentence includes periodic confinement so that the sentence will hopefully make an impression on this defendant and others,\" Hunter said in a statement. The judge, Randall Wyatt, on Friday called the invasion of privacy \"egregious.\" His sentence also includes five and a half years of probation, which will include GPS monitoring. Boykin was terminated last year when the investigation began. \"TSA holds its employees to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace,\" TSA's Ross Feinstein said in a statement.","highlights":"Former TSA agent Daniel Boykin, 33, videotaped his female co-worker in the restroom, authorities say .\nAuthorities say they found 90 videos and 1,500 photos of the victim on Boykin's phone and computer .\nBoykin worked in an administrative capacity and didn't do public security screenings, TSA official says .","id":"054ccc280767c3d59e7da55572425d2fdcb6e711"} -{"article":"(CNN)Five young Chinese feminists, whose detention has provoked an international outcry, may face up to five years in prison over their campaign for gender equality. The women were among detained on March 6 and March 7 in three Chinese cities -- Beijing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou -- shortly before events they had planned for International Women's Day on March 8. Wang Qiushi, the lawyer for one of the women, Wei Tingting, said police had recommended on April 6 that prosecutors press charges of \"assembling a crowd to disturb public order.\" Wang told CNN that prosecutors had to decide whether to pursue the charges within seven days of the submission -- by Monday. \"We hope that the prosecutors will not approve a formal arrest warrant, following the laws and standing up to pressure,\" he said. \"But nobody knows what to expect till Monday; we can do nothing but wait.\" The five were initially held on suspicion of \"picking quarrels and provoking trouble.\" Wang said he didn't know why the charge against the women changed. \"Neither should constitute a crime,\" he said. Campaign group Amnesty International said the new charge was less serious but still carried a maximum jail term of five years. \"The women were doing nothing wrong, nothing illegal. They were simply calling for an end to sexual harassment,\" William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International told CNN. \"Everything they were doing was in line with China's own laws and policies.\" Wang said that Wei had been subject to lengthy cross examinations during her detention but was well the last time they met on March 31. Two of the women are said to be in poor health. He added that the charges relate both to the activities the women planned for International Women's Day and earlier campaigns against domestic violence and for more public toilets for women. The five -- who are members of China's Women's Rights Action Group -- had planned to hand out stickers printed with slogans saying \"stop sexual harassment, let us stay safe\" and \"go police, go arrest those who committed sexual harassment!\" on women's day. The detention of Wei, along with Wu Rongrong, Li Tingting, Wang Man and Zheng Churan has drawn harsh criticism from the international community. Protests have taken place in several cities, including Hong Kong, that urge Chinese officials to \"free the five.\" A social media campaign also uses the phrase as a hashtag. On Monday, Hillary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, tweeted that the activists' detention was \"inexcusable.\" Her comment drew a rebuke from Chinese authorities, who said public figures should respect China's sovereignty and independence. Maya Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the activists were best known for their \"performance art\" style protests -- occupying public toilets to highlight long lines at women's restrooms, donning blood-spattered wedding gowns to protest domestic violence and shaving their heads to protest against barriers to higher education for women. \"These activists epitomize the spirit of the times. They are young, confident, ready to challenge established norms,\" Wang said. As China prepares to mark the anniversary of landmark UN Fourth World Conference on Women in September, it will be hard for authorities to justify detaining the activists, she added.","highlights":"Five young women have been detained by China since early March .\nThey campaigned against sexual harassment .\nTheir detention has attracted international criticism .","id":"eaf4a7864208468af3cdc858185b807d54110e95"} -{"article":"(CNN)Those poor fish must have been wondering what the heck was happening to them. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has reported that a section of a fiberglass boat 20 or 30 feet long was spotted off the state's coast this week and has been towed into harbor. The debris is suspected to be from the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The boat fragment was found this week and towed to Newport, Oregon, where it is moored at a marina. Inside were found -- more than four years and 4,000 miles later, if officials' suspicions are correct -- some specimens of a variety of yellowtail jack fish normally found in Japanese waters. Biologists with the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center inspected the debris while it was still at sea and determined that the ecological threat posed by invasive species was small. The remnants of the boat will be dried out, inspected further and taken to a landfill. But for the yellowtail jack fish, the journey is not over. They'll be taken to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.","highlights":"Debris from boat to be dried, inspected and taken to landfill .\nThe debris contained fish normally found in Japanese waters .\nThe earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March 2011 .","id":"b7c282a0373913300e4cb1d5bb529c068b550618"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two Alabama college students are accused of gang raping a woman while on spring break at Florida's Panama City Beach. Ryan Calhoun and Delonte Martistee, students at Troy University, were arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, according to a statement from the Bay County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. The Troy, Alabama, Police Department found video of what appeared to be a Panama City gang rape during the course of an investigation into an unrelated shooting. The video was turned over to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. The Bay County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division has identified the victim in the video but said state law prevents the office from releasing any information about her. She was a visitor in Panama City. \"We are not releasing her location or any additional information on victim to protect her from further trauma,\" said sheriff's spokesman Tommy Ford. After interviewing witnesses, Bay County investigators determined the alleged rape took place sometime from March 10, 2015, to March 12, 2015, behind Spinnaker Beach Club, a popular bar and dance club for spring breakers. A statement from Troy University confirmed the two men are current students. \"The students have been placed on temporary suspension from school per the university's standards of conduct and disciplinary procedures. Martistee, a member of the track and field team, has also been removed from the team.\" The investigation continues and more arrests are expected, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said. Calhoun and Martistee will have their first court appearance Saturday morning, a Bay County deputy said. CNN could not determine if the men have attorneys.","highlights":"Case begins when police find video of what appears to be a gang rape .\n2 students from Troy University in Alabama are charged in the case .","id":"20a6b5894c4cd75e32f6f4946467854aeb539337"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Star Wars\" is once again back in our lives, the Burger-King couple helped us believe love can be found in fast food, and Mindy Kaling's brother had a shocking announcement. Those are just a few of the stories that trended this week. 1. 'Star Wars' streaming . The Force is with the streaming device of your choice, thanks to this week's surprise announcement that the entire \"Star Wars\" saga (so far, anyway) would be released on digital HD at the end of the week. Between this and the release of \"Daredevil,\" we imagine lots of nerds called in sick on Friday. 2. Mindy Kaling's brother: I faked being black to get into medical school . Actress Mindy Kaling's brother says that he posed as a black man years ago to get into medical school and that the experience opened his eyes to what he calls the hypocrisy of affirmative action. Among those who disapprove of the book he's planning to write about the whole thing: his sister. 3. Farewell, Rosco . \"Dukes of Hazzard\" fans mourned the loss of actor James Best, best known as Hazzard County's hapless sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, this week. Others who passed on: \"L.A. Law\" actor Richard Dysart and frequent Clint Eastwood co-star Geoffrey Lewis. 4. When Burger met King, it was love . Joel Burger is set to marry Ashley King in July, and when fast food giant Burger King got wind of the nuptials, the couple scored a free wedding. 5. Michelle Obama broke it down (again) The first lady's Let's Move campaign has featured her dancing on more than one occasion, but she brought the (White) House down on Monday with the \"So You Think You Can Dance\" all-stars during the Easter egg roll. 6. \"The Vampire Diaries\" crisis . Not since Zayn Malik announced that he was quitting One Direction has Twitter had such a meltdown: \"Vampire Diaries\" star Nina Dobrev is leaving the CW series. \"Nothing will be the same again,\" one fan tweeted. Other things we loved: . More than 10 million people have seen Anne Hathaway's take on Miley Cyrus' \"Wrecking Ball,\" complete with props, from Spike's hit show \"Lip Sync Battle.\" Go, greased lightning! \"Late Late Show\" host and Tony winner James Corden put on \"Grease\" for Los Angeles drivers waiting in traffic. The cast of the movie \"Suicide Squad,\" including Will Smith and Margot Robbie, assembled for the first time this week in a Twitter photo from director David Ayer. And no worries, future Joker Jared Leto was taking the photo (in an image inspired by classic comic book \"The Killing Joke\"). The comments are the whole reason to read this \"Humans of New York\" post on a woman named Beyonce.","highlights":"A couple named Burger and King?\nInternet has a meltdown over \"Vampire Diaries\" departure .","id":"130663882dcf622a6069d2ab429acde689b9f428"} -{"article":"Irbil, Iraq (CNN)ISIS claimed it controlled part of Iraq's largest oil refinery Sunday, posting images online that purported to show the storming of the facility, fierce clashes and plumes of smoke rising above the contested site. The group said it launched an assault on the Baiji oil refinery late Saturday. By Sunday, ISIS said its fighters were inside the refinery and controlled several buildings, but Iraqi government security officials denied that claim and insisted Iraqi forces remain in full control. CNN couldn't independently verify ISIS' claim. It wouldn't be the first time that militants and Iraqi forces have battled over the refinery, a key strategic resource that has long been a lucrative target because the facility refines much of the fuel used by Iraqis domestically. If an attack damaged oil fields or machinery, it could have a significant impact. The refinery is just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, which Iraqi forces and Shiite militias wrested from ISIS less than two weeks ago. CNN's Jennifer Deaton and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"ISIS says it controls several buildings at the Baiji oil refinery .\nIraqi government security officials say Iraqi forces remain in full control .\nThe refinery, Iraq's largest, has long been a lucrative target for militants .","id":"5493b9481b00e8ca9d83320d00abe09266bbeaef"} -{"article":"Havana, Cuba (CNN)All eyes are going to be on the new kid finally allowed to play and the big kid who for so long wanted nothing to do with him -- Cuba and the United States in the same diplomatic playground. Cuba pulled off a diplomatic coup by marshaling the support of other regional countries to insist on their attendance at the Summit of the Americas. And for the first time since 1962, the U.S. has not blocked Cuba's attempt to join. Now it's time to see how they play and who they play with -- especially Venezuela, which often falls out with Washington for crushing dissent at home and supplying Havana with billions of dollars in oil. Cuba is trying to re-establish itself at the two-day summit in Panama, arriving with more than 100 government officials, diplomats, small business people and artists. But Cuba's attempts to rebrand itself as an open, diverse society stumbled Wednesday when government supporters and anti-Castro supporters brawled in the streets of Panama. Video of the incident showed Cuban government officials exchanging punches and insults with dissidents until Panamanian police in riot gear broke up the melee. With the historic thawing in relations between the U.S. and Cuba, Washington now has urgent business to discuss with Havana. \"We have really big issues with the Cubans that do need to be solved,\" said Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, who served as the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. She added \"The Cubans are typical of their negotiating style. You think it's going to be easy because we have said 'We are going to have good relations with you' and they say, 'That's not exciting for us and it is for you.' So they are hard negotiators as they always have been.\" The forum could provide the opportunity to push forward an agreement to re-establish formal relations and re-open embassies after nearly four months of negotiations. While President Barack Obama is not scheduled to meet Cuban leader Raul Castro, U.S. officials said there will be opportunities for \"interaction\" between the two leaders. The first time the two heads of state met was in 2013 at Nelson Mandela's funeral. Their brief handshake captured the world's attention and lit up social media. Few people then knew that the two countries were secretly involved in negotiations to thaw five decades of deadlocked Cold War-era relations. Obama had said he had hoped a U.S. Embassy would reopen in Havana before the summit, but Cuban officials have said they cannot imagine a full restoration of diplomatic ties until Cuba is removed from the U.S. State Department list of countries that support terrorism. \"It would be difficult to explain that diplomatic relations have been resumed while Cuba has been unjustly listed as a state sponsor of international terrorism,\" said Josefina Vidal, the general director of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry and lead negotiator in the talks. Cuba was added to the list in 1982, which includes Syria, Iran and Sudan. The designation carries financial sanctions which Cuban officials say further damages their already ailing economy. The State Department has sent a recommendation to the White House that Cuba be removed, paving the way for the White House to announce its intent to de-list Cuba as early as this week, two administration officials told CNN. Removal from the list \"does not relate to whether or not we agree with everything a country does or whether we agree with its political system, or its foreign policy,\" Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday. \"It's a very practical review as to whether or not a government is sponsoring terrorism.\" Rhodes also dialed backed rhetoric on Venezuela, saying the country did not pose a national security threat to the United States, despite a recent declaration to that effect. The designation was meant to allow officials to target seven allegedly corrupt Venezuelan officials, but it ignited a firestorm, particularly in Cuba, which has close ties to Venezuela. Deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was a friend and admirer of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro continues to send Cuba tens of thousands of barrels of oil each day, despite his country's own economic turmoil. In exchange, Cuba sends doctors, military advisers and sports trainers to Venezuela. In Cuba's state-run media, criticism of U.S. policy towards Venezuela has overshadowed the improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations. In March, Fidel Castro published a letter criticizing the U.S.' \"brutal plans towards\" Venezuela and the Cuban government promised \"unconditional aid\" to help defend against American threats. Its remains to be seen how much Cuba will risk its warming relations with the United States to back up ally Venezuela. But apparently there is little doubt among the Cuban people on what their government should do. A poll of 1,200 Cubans released on Wednesday found that 97% of the people surveyed by Miami-based polling firm Bendixen & Amandi on behalf of The Washington Post and Univision Noticias\/Fusion supported improved U.S.-Cuban relations.","highlights":"Cuba pulled off a diplomatic coup by gaining attendance at Summit of the Americas .\nFirst time since 1962, the U.S. has not blocked Cuba's attempt to join .\nCuba is trying to re-establish itself at the two-day summit in Panama .","id":"3fbdee096ce9d027da681c5f9c89eb319ff21a9f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Getting caught napping on the job is never good. Getting caught napping on the job in the cargo hold of a plane takes it to a whole different level. Alaska Airlines Flight 448 was just barely on its way to Los Angeles from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday afternoon when the pilot reported hearing unusual banging from the cargo hold. \"There could be a person in there so we're going to come back around,\" he told air traffic control. The banging in the cargo hold did come from a person and he turned out to be a ramp agent from Menzies Aviation, a contractor for Alaska Airlines that handles loading the luggage, the airline said. The man told authorities he had fallen asleep. It appears he was never in any danger. The cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled, the airline said. The plane was also only in the air for 14 minutes. The passengers knew something wasn't right, almost as soon as the plane took off. \"All of a sudden we heard all this pounding underneath the plane and we thought there was something wrong with the landing gear,\" Robert Higgins told CNN affiliate KABC. The pounding grew louder. \"At that point, we started hearing yelling, screams for help, very, very faint,\" Jamie Davis said. \"That's when we notified the flight attendant that there was somebody underneath us.\" As the banging continued, a federal air marshal sprang into action. \"At some point, the marshal kind of made himself known,\" said Troi Ge. \"He started banging back, and he yelled really loud and said, 'We're getting ready to land, hold on to something.'\" The emergency landing spooked the folks aboard Flight 448. Affiliate KOMO spoke to Marty Collins, another one of the passengers. \"We just took off for L.A. regular and then ... about five minutes into the flight the captain came on and said we were going back and we'd land within five to seven minutes, and we did,\" Collins said. \"When we landed was when all the trucks and the police and the fire trucks surrounded the plane.\" \"I think it's scary and really unsafe, too,\" Chelsie Nieto told affiliate KCPQ. \"Because what if it's someone who could have been a terrorist?\" The ramp agent appeared to be in OK after the ordeal. He was taken to an area hospital as a precaution, the airline said. He passed a drug test and was discharged. The employee started work at 5 a.m. and his shift was scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m., just before the flight departed. \"During a pre-departure huddle, the team lead noticed the employee was missing. The team lead called into the cargo hold for the employee and called and texted the employee's cell phone, but did not receive an answer. His co-workers believed he finished his shift and went home,\" the airline's blog said. Alaska Airlines said it's investigating. The man had been on a four-person team loading baggage onto the flight. All ramp employees have security badges, and undergo full criminal background checks before being hired, according to the airline. After the delay, the flight with 170 passengers and six crew members on board made it to Los Angeles early Monday evening. CNN's Greg Morrison contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ramp agent tells authorities he fell asleep in cargo hold, Alaska Airlines says .\nThe cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled .","id":"837970f6b544e927c6fe2261a81f74f8313f2bdf"} -{"article":"(CNN)One year after it was perpetrated, the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by a jihadist group in Nigeria remains a crime almost too horrifying to comprehend: Hundreds of teenaged girls, just finishing school, destined perhaps for significant achievement -- kidnapped, never to be seen again. \"This crime has rightly caused outrage both in Nigeria and across the world,\" the country's President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, said Tuesday in marking the anniversary. \"Today is a time to reflect on the pain and suffering of the victims, their friends and families. Our thoughts and prayers, and that of the whole Nigerian nation, are with you today.\" The girls were abducted on the night of April 14-15, 2014, in the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, about a two-hour drive from the border with Cameroon. The Government Girls Secondary School had been closed for a month because of the danger posed by Boko Haram militants, who are opposed to Western education, particularly for girls. But students from several schools had been called in to take a final exam in physics. The militants stormed the school, arriving in a convoy of trucks and buses and engaging in a gun battle with school security guards. Then they forced the girls from their dormitories, loaded them into trucks and drove them into the forest. Most have never been seen since, except in a photograph in which they sat on the ground in a semi-circle, clad in Islamic dress. They were between 16 and 18 years old. Police said the militants kidnapped 276 girls in all. About 50 managed to escape soon after they were abducted. Those who did not, it is feared, may have been raped, brutalized, enslaved and forced to convert to Islam. Their parents were stricken with grief. The world was appalled. On Twitter, a hashtag began trending and spread around the world: #BringBackOurGirls. On Tuesday, Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the face for speaking out in favor of girls' education, sent a message to the kidnapped girls. \"I am one of the millions of people around the world who keep you and your families foremost in our thoughts and prayers,\" she wrote. \"We cannot imagine the full extent of the horrors you have endured. But please know this: We will never forget you.\" One year later, a few things have changed. Each of the missing girls has had a birthday in captivity. Each is now a year older. Nigeria's current president, Goodluck Jonathan, was defeated in his campaign for re-election, in part, it is thought, because he failed to effectively combat Boko Haram. Buhari, the incoming president, has pledged an aggressive effort to wipe out the group. But much remains unchanged, as well. Boko Haram still controls swathes of northeastern Nigeria. According to UNICEF, 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict between the Nigerian military, civilian self-defense groups, and Boko Haram. Amnesty International says women and children continue to be abducted. And it says Boko Haram continues to kill in large numbers. Beyond that, more than 200 schoolgirls who had gathered one year ago to take their science exam are still missing. Their families are still bereft. And Tuesday on Twitter, a hashtag was still trending: #BringBackOurGirls.","highlights":"Nigeria's President-elect sends nation's prayers to families of girls .\nWorld still expresses hope that the girls will return .\nBoko Haram controls a portion of northeastern Nigeria .","id":"b882ed05925f8879660ec4f9efdcded1d5e45561"} -{"article":"(CNN)A hooded angel with black wings appeared on Tuesday near the spot where Walter Scott was shot and killed by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. Since then, it's been taken up as an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement. When protesters held the winged figure at a Wednesday morning rally outside North Charleston's City Hall, the artwork was widely photographed. Creator Phillip Hyman grew up in the neighborhood where Scott, an unarmed black man, was shot in the back several times by a white police officer on Saturday. Hyman now lives in another part of the city and couldn't stop thinking about it. He woke up about 3 a.m. a couple of days after Scott was killed and began searching for materials. \"Art is really about that moment. I just couldn't take it any longer,\" he said. Hyman dug into the trash and found a piece of wood that was the perfect size. Then he picked up a can of black house paint and started making the reclaimed wood into a work of art. The 56-year-old said he crafted the artwork as a way of mourning with the family. \"That's who all this should really be about, not about the propaganda and making it your own story,\" said Hyman, who talks quickly and passionately about his subject material. \"Shooting him in the back and just the indignity of it all.\" The figure, painted black in mourning for the family, has wings because it's going to heaven, Hyman said. The man depicted in Hyman's piece is dressed in a hooded sweatsuit, though that's not what Scott was wearing when he was killed. Hyman said he prefers not to say too much about who the black angel figure is. People can look at the art and make their own interpretations, he said. \"It's a statement of where we are in America today. It's relevant in Charleston, Ferguson, Florida, anywhere now.\" After Hyman put the piece up on Tuesday near where Scott was killed, he got a call from a local protester with the Black Lives Matter movement, which has staged protests around the country in the wake of high-profile deaths at the hands of police. The group asked for permission to use his artwork in its demonstrations at the North Charleston City Hall. Hyman was happy to oblige. Each day, the protesters call Hyman and he either carries the angel-winged artwork to the protest, or the protesters come over to his home to pick it up. \"It's taken a life of its own, so I'm letting it do what it's supposed to do now,\" he said. Freelance photographer Joel Woodhall spotted the artwork and wondered where it came from. Woodhall, who lives in nearby Charleston, said the artwork made him feel sorrow for a life ended too soon. \"It was very emotionally moving. It's beautiful,\" he told CNN. This isn't the first time Hyman has used artwork to effect change: He restored a local theater to its former glory. He commemorated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday by painting a mural in a bad neighborhood that needed light. Hyman's wife, Kay, says her husband always paints from the heart. \"To see this recognized, he just goes into tears because it's very special to him.\"","highlights":"The Walter Scott shooting inspired a local artist to create artwork .\nPhillip Hyman crafted the angel-winged artwork in the middle of the night .\nProtesters from the Black Lives Matter movement have started using it as his symbol .","id":"5231a93ff48e3dcdc22ea9df981237c26a474714"} -{"article":"(CNN)For more than four days, police say, a 21-year-old quadriplegic with cerebral palsy was left lying in the woods of Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek Park with only a blanket and a Bible. The person responsible is the man's mother, who on Sunday faced a host of charges after allegedly abandoning her son and catching a bus to Maryland to see her boyfriend, said Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker. Low temperatures reached the mid-30s during the week, and rain was reported in the area Wednesday and Thursday. The man is unable to communicate how he came to be in the park, but Walker told reporters that the man's mother, whom he did not identify for CNN, left him there Monday morning. \"Sometime at 11 a.m., the mother went to visit her boyfriend down in Maryland, over in Montgomery County, and we believe she placed the child into Cobbs Creeks Park,\" Walker said at a news conference. Walker told CNN the man was transported to Presbyterian Hospital, but CNN affiliates reported he was being treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He suffered eye problems, dehydration, malnutrition and a cut to the back that has raised infection concerns, the lieutenant told reporters. \"This kid's obviously a fighter,\" Walker said during a Saturday news conference. \"It's just unbelievable how we found him out there last night. To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see another human, especially a mother, can treat someone like that.\" Officials at Philadelphia's School of the Future, which the man attends, became concerned when he didn't show up for classes and tried to contact his mother but eventually reached an aunt, CNN affiliate WPVI reported. When police tracked down the mother, she told them her son was with her, Walker said. \"She indicated to both family members and the police officers that the child was with her down with her boyfriend in Maryland,\" he said. The boyfriend was not aware of what happened, Walker told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. The mother now stands charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, neglect of a care-dependent person, unlawful restraint, kidnapping and false imprisonment, the station reported. Walker told reporters she bore \"clear criminal liability in this case.\" Maryland police took her into custody on Sunday, and she will face the charges in Philadelphia following an extradition hearing, WPVI reported. There was no reason for the man to suffer, Walker told philly.com, because the mother had sisters willing to take care of him. Two of his aunts, who have tried to obtain guardianship of him, were staying with him at the hospital, police told the website. The mother has another child, a 16-year-old, who is also being taken care of by family members, WPVI reported. The mother's arrest was only the beginning of the investigation, Walker told reporters. Authorities are interested in learning more about \"how this kid was cared for, and what actions were taken and providing of services by different agencies.\" CNN's Carma Hassan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Temperatures dipped into the mid-30s during 4 days man lay in woods of Philadelphia park .\nMom told police son was with her in Maryland, but he was found Friday with blanket, Bible .\nVictim being treated for malnutrition, dehydration; mother faces host of charges after extradition .","id":"da9588f556b1c3575e7ad2109967fa3156699813"} -{"article":"(CNN)What would you do if a complete stranger asked you for $100, or offered you an apple in a parking lot without explanation? These are only two of the 100 challenges Chinese-born, American-based Jia Jiang put himself up to when he decided to blog about \"100 Days of Rejection\", a project he launched after he quit his comfortable six-figure job to follow his dreams of being an entrepreneur at the age of 30, just weeks before his first child was born. After his tech start-up was declined investment, Jiang decided to confront his fear of rejection head-on. This led to his writing his book called Rejection Proof, part self-help and part motivational\/autobiography, which is being released this week. Famously, in 2012 on his third day of the project, Jiang asked Austin, Texas, Krispy Kreme manager (Jackie Braun) to make him five interlinked donuts to mimic the Olympic symbol. To his surprise, she rose to the challenge and his rejection request faltered. He shared his video and it went viral on Reddit. Before long, Jiang (and Braun) were invited on talk shows and Jiang was being asked to speak at events across the US. Jiang was even offered jobs as his project continued and his fame grew. That wasn't the goal of the project though. \"I'm really just a person trying to overcome my own fears,\" explained Jiang. The project started out to help \"fix my own problems, and now I'm helping others fix theirs,\" he said. \"The fear of rejection really holds people back. I'm trying to demystify the idea of rejection.\" Jiang, who as a child dreamed of being Bill Gates and has been viewed 7 million times on YouTube, has found his entrepreneurial dream in a different role for the moment. \"My goal is to turn rejection into opportunity. I always thought it was something to run away from, but if we can embrace it, we can turn it into a lot more than an obstacle.\" 8 top tips in making rejection work for you: . 1 - The fear of rejection holds us back a lot more than actual rejection. By putting ourselves out there, the world will usually open itself up to you. Though the world can seem cruel and cold, actually humans have a hard time saying no. So open yourself up, don't be afraid to ask for something. If you fail, remember it's not about you. 2 - Rejection is more or less a numbers game. Sometimes the most far-fetched idea gets a yes. If you talk to enough people, somebody will say yes to you. J.K. Rowling went through 12 rejections to get her yes for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 3 - You cannot use rejection to measure the merit of an idea. Sometimes if you really want to change the world, getting rejection is a must. Rejection is a human interaction with two sides. It often says more about the rejector than the rejectee, and should never be used as the universal truth and sole judgment of merit. 4 - Don't run away after a no. The most common thing we do when we're rejected is we want to run because rejection is painful - you're hurt, angry and you lose confidence. But actually if we know how to handle it, we can often minimize the chance of rejection. Be confident, engaging, collaborate. I used all of these traits to maximise getting a yes. 5 - Ask why? When you get rejected you have to find out why. Then spend time to find solutions to solve that why. Sometimes through this process you learn there is something else you can ask for. Ask for an intermediate position rather than the top position. 6 - Set a number of how many no's you can take. In his book, Jiang helps his wife set out to get her dream job at Google. He tells her that instead of thinking about getting a job, she needs to prepare herself for how many no's she can take. In the end, she was offered a job at Google. 7 - Be invincible. By the end of his project, Jiang said he felt he could ask anything from anyone and not have the pain of rejection. It was a gradual process - gradually my comfort zone expanded. It's like a muscle, I could become stronger and stronger. 8 - Stand tall and remember rejection is an opinion. People are who they are. A lot of people will reject you because of their mood, their education, their upbringing, and you can't change who they are. But you can stand confidently. Innate confidence comes across. How missing sleep can damage your IQ . The surprising benefits of doing nothing . 7 habits of highly ineffective people .","highlights":"One man's entrepreneurial quest turned into unexpected success .\n\"100 Days of Rejection\" took Jiang out of his comfort zone .\nIt's the fear of rejection, more than rejection itself, which holds us back .","id":"bbe26fc38175793719dd50c23605f1c96c579b08"} -{"article":"(CNN)It was like a scene out of \"Make Way for Ducklings\" on Tuesday on a rainy street in Washington. CNN Situation Room correspondent Brian Todd and photojournalist Khalil Abdallah were on their way to interview a legal analyst on L Street NW when they happened on a brood of baby ducks causing a stir. Abdallah reports the ducklings and their mom had crossed heavily trafficked street, and some restaurant patrons stopped on the sidewalk to corral them. A man gave up his umbrella for the cause \"while the mom was going crazy.\" \"One duckling tried to run back to the street but they caught it in time,\" Abdallah said. The mother duck followed the umbrella while pedestrians stopped cars on L street for them to safely cross the road. The Washington Post reports the pedestrians took the bird family to \"a more enclosed grassy area\" at 16th and L streets NW. (Yes, baby ducks warrant two national news stories.) \"We thought it was an extraordinary situation,\" Todd said. \"You see pigeons, you see squirrels, you see the occasional raccoon in the D.C. area, and ... you see deer ... We've never seen anything like this in the middle of town.\"","highlights":"Bystanders stopped to rescue a lost brood of ducklings in D.C. Tuesday .\nCNN's Brian Todd and Khalil Abdallah paused to capture the scene .","id":"3bfe27dc86f0424787f32deb16df09a902c6a8e6"} -{"article":"(CNN)Police added attempted murder to the list of charges against the mother of a quadriplegic man who was left in the woods for days, Philadelphia police spokeswoman Christine O'Brien said Tuesday. Nyia Parler cannot be extradited to face the charges in Philadelphia until she completes an unspecified \"treatment,\" Maryland police said Monday. When she does arrive, she will be charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and related offenses, in addition to the attempted murder count, O'Brien said. The Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Police took Parler, 41, into custody Sunday after Philadelphia police reported that she left her 21-year-old son in the woods while she hopped a bus to see her boyfriend in Maryland. A man walking through the woods found him Friday \"lying in leaves, covered in a blanket with a Bible and a wheelchair nearby,\" Philadelphia police say. Citing federal health care privacy laws, Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said he could not divulge why Parler was receiving treatment, but he said she had to complete it before she could be extradited. She remained in treatment as of Tuesday morning, Starks told CNN. If she chooses not to challenge her extradition, she will be transported to Philadelphia once the treatment is complete, he said. For more than four days, police say, the quadriplegic man, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, was left lying in the woods of Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek Park. Low temperatures reached the mid-30s during the week, and rain was reported in the area Wednesday and Thursday. The man is unable to communicate how he came to be in the park, but Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker told reporters that the man's mother left him there the morning of April 6. Starks identified the mother as Parler on Monday. \"The mother went to visit her boyfriend down in Maryland, over in Montgomery County, and we believe she placed the child into Cobbs Creeks Park,\" Walker said at a news conference. Walker told CNN the man was transported to Presbyterian Hospital, but CNN affiliates reported he was being treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He suffered eye problems, dehydration, malnutrition and a cut to his back that raised infection concerns, the lieutenant told reporters. \"This kid's obviously a fighter,\" Walker said during a Saturday news conference. \"It's just unbelievable how we found him out there last night. To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see another human, especially a mother, can treat someone like that.\" Officials at Philadelphia's School of the Future, which the man attends, became concerned when he didn't show up for classes last week and tried to contact his mother but eventually reached an aunt, Philadelphia police said. \"The aunt was in contact via text message with Nyia throughout the week and when she expressed her concerns about the complainant, Nyia replied, 'We're OK,' which the aunt believed meant that the victim was with Nyia in Maryland,\" according to a police news release. When police tracked down the mother, she told them her son was with her, Walker said. \"She indicated to both family members and the police officers that the child was with her down with her boyfriend in Maryland,\" he said. The boyfriend was not aware of what happened, Walker told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. Walker told reporters she bore \"clear criminal liability in this case.\" There was no reason for the man to suffer, Walker told philly.com, because the mother had sisters willing to take care of him. Two of his aunts, who have tried to obtain guardianship of him, were staying with him at the hospital, police told the website. Parler's sister told police that Parler has another child, a 16-year-old. The mother's arrest was only the beginning of the investigation, Walker told reporters. Authorities are interested in learning more about \"how this kid was cared for, and what actions were taken and providing of services by different agencies.\" CNN's Chuck Johnston and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Philadelphia police add attempted murder to list of charges mom will face .\nMom told police son was with her in Maryland, but he was found Friday alone in woods .\nVictim being treated for malnutrition, dehydration; mother faces host of charges after extradition .","id":"f97b9b19e5a90dce0fc0b098f2a7f70ec36445fb"} -{"article":"(CNN)After a Russian fighter jet intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane in an \"unsafe and unprofessional manner\" earlier this week, the United States is complaining to Moscow about the incident. On Tuesday, a U.S. RC-135U was flying over the Baltic Sea when it was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 Flanker. The Pentagon said the incident occurred in international airspace north of Poland. The U.S. crew believed the Russian pilot's actions were \"unsafe and unprofessional due to the aggressive maneuvers it performed in close proximity to their aircraft and its high rate of speed,\" Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said. Russian state news agency Sputnik reported the U.S. plane was flying toward the Russian border with its transponder switched off, according to a Defense Ministry spokesman. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the Russian jet flew around the U.S. plane several times to identify it and get its tail number. An official with the U.S. European Command said the claim that the transponder was off was false. Wright said the Pentagon and State Department will \"file the appropriate petition through diplomatic channels\" with Russia. This is not the first time the U.S. has complained about an incident involving a RC-135U and a SU-27. A year ago, a Russian jet flew within 100 feet of a RC-135U over the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific, according to U.S. officials who called it \"one of the most dangerous close passes in decades.\" The Pentagon complained to the Russia military about that incident. Russian and U.S. aircraft often encounter each other, both in Northern Europe as well as the area between the Russian Far East and Alaska. CNN's Steve Brusk and Jamie Crawford contributed to this report.","highlights":"The incident occurred on April 7 north of Poland in the Baltic Sea .\nU.S. says plane was in international airspace .\nRussia says it had transponder turned off and was flying toward Russia .","id":"5139ccfabee55ddb83e7937f5802c0a67aee8975"} -{"article":"(CNN)The mother of a quadriplegic man who police say was left in the woods for days cannot be extradited to face charges in Philadelphia until she completes an unspecified \"treatment,\" Maryland police said Monday. The Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Police took Nyia Parler, 41, into custody Sunday after Philadelphia police reported that she left her 21-year-old son in the woods while she hopped a bus to see her boyfriend in Maryland. A man walking through the woods found him Friday \"lying in leaves, covered in a blanket with a Bible and a wheelchair nearby,\" Philadelphia police say. Citing federal health care privacy laws, Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said he could not divulge why Parler was receiving treatment, but he said she had to complete it before she could be extradited. She remained in treatment as of Tuesday morning, Starks told CNN. If she chooses not to challenge her extradition, she will be transported to Philadelphia once the treatment is complete, he said. For more than four days, police say, the quadriplegic man, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, was left lying in the woods of Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek Park. Low temperatures reached the mid-30s during the week, and rain was reported in the area Wednesday and Thursday. The man is unable to communicate how he came to be in the park, but Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker told reporters that the man's mother left him there the morning of April 6. Starks identified the mother as Parler on Monday. \"The mother went to visit her boyfriend down in Maryland, over in Montgomery County, and we believe she placed the child into Cobbs Creeks Park,\" Walker said at a news conference. Walker told CNN the man was transported to Presbyterian Hospital, but CNN affiliates reported he was being treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He suffered eye problems, dehydration, malnutrition and a cut to his back that raised infection concerns, the lieutenant told reporters. \"This kid's obviously a fighter,\" Walker said during a Saturday news conference. \"It's just unbelievable how we found him out there last night. To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see another human, especially a mother, can treat someone like that.\" Officials at Philadelphia's School of the Future, which the man attends, became concerned when he didn't show up for classes last week and tried to contact his mother but eventually reached an aunt, Philadelphia police said. \"The aunt was in contact via text message with Nyia throughout the week and when she expressed her concerns about the complainant, Nyia replied, 'We're OK,' which the aunt believed meant that the victim was with Nyia in Maryland,\" according to a police news release. When police tracked down the mother, she told them her son was with her, Walker said. \"She indicated to both family members and the police officers that the child was with her down with her boyfriend in Maryland,\" he said. The boyfriend was not aware of what happened, Walker told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. When she arrives in Philadelphia, the mother will stand charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and related offenses, a Philadelphia police spokeswoman said. Walker told reporters she bore \"clear criminal liability in this case.\" There was no reason for the man to suffer, Walker told philly.com, because the mother had sisters willing to take care of him. Two of his aunts, who have tried to obtain guardianship of him, were staying with him at the hospital, police told the website. Parler's sister told police that Parler has another child, a 16-year-old. The mother's arrest was only the beginning of the investigation, Walker told reporters. Authorities are interested in learning more about \"how this kid was cared for, and what actions were taken and providing of services by different agencies.\" CNN's Chuck Johnston and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mother must complete \"treatment\" before she can be extradited, Maryland police say .\nMom told police son was with her in Maryland, but he was found Friday alone in woods .\nVictim being treated for malnutrition, dehydration; mother faces host of charges after extradition .","id":"0f39feebc34fee03b8c647d1557eb40bb20f4e8b"} -{"article":"(CNN)A new Kansas law banning a common second-term abortion procedure is the first of its kind in the United States. The law, signed by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday, bans what it describes as \"dismemberment abortion\" and defines as \"knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus.\" Supporters of the measure described it as a groundbreaking step, while opponents warned it was dangerous and among the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. The law does not spell out a specific time frame that limits when an abortion can occur, but it bans the dilation and evacuation abortion procedure commonly used during the second trimester of pregnancy. The law allows for the procedure if \"necessary to protect the life or health of the mother,\" according to a statement on Brownback's website. On Twitter, Brownback, a Republican, said he was proud to sign a law \"protecting life at its most vulnerable stage.\" Planned Parenthood Advocates of Kansas and Mid-Missouri sharply criticized the move, which it described as the latest in a series of \"extreme political measures aimed at denying women access to health care and at undermining their decision-making ability.\" \"Kansas is now not only the sole state with this atrocious law; it also now has more restrictions on abortion than any state in the U.S.,\" the advocacy group said in a Facebook post. Both sides appear to be prepared to take their battle over such measures to other states -- and to court. Carol Tobias, the president of National Right to Life, said in a statement that the Kansas law was the first of what her organization hopes \"will be many state laws.\" \"This law has the power to transform the landscape of abortion policy in the United States,\" she said. Julie Burkhart, CEO of Wichita-based South Wind Women's Center, said on Twitter that the signing of the law marked a sad day for Kansas and the United States. \"This law puts women at risk and ties doctors' hands,\" she said. \"We'll continue to fight!\" CNN's Sam Stringer contributed to this report.","highlights":"A new Kansas law bans what it describes as \"dismemberment abortion\"\nSupporters say it's a groundbreaking step .\nOpponents say it's dangerous and politically motivated .","id":"89daa80db49b6e36c1cd0bde9b253ca7fa143811"} -{"article":"(CNN)The first daughter to be married from the hit reality show \"19 Kids and Counting\" has also become the first mother. People magazine reports that Jill (Duggar) Dillard gave birth Monday to a 9-pound, 10-ounce son she and husband Derick have named Israel David. Jill's parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, posted a video of the new family on their official Facebook page. The baby was a bit tardy, going past his due date by more than a week. Dillard, who is a student midwife, said she gave herself two due dates and was prepared for the wait. \"I have told myself, 'First-time moms often go a week and a half over, so don't get discouraged,' \" she told People. \"When everyone else is asking you, 'When are you going to have that baby?' The baby will come when the baby comes.\" Dillard has a ways to go to catch up with her mother. Her super-sized family and their lives have been well-documented on their TLC series, including Jill and Derick's wedding on June 21. Eldest Duggar son Josh is already the father of three children, and his wife, Anna, is expecting their fourth in July.","highlights":"Dillard was the first of the Duggar daughters to be married .\nHer 9-pound, 10-ounce son was overdue .","id":"fcd69b35b0bdae540d8357d0029369ab3cef1363"} -{"article":"(CNN)The killing of an employee at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, may have been a hate crime, authorities said Tuesday. Investigators are looking into the possibility, said Goldsboro police Sgt. Jeremy Sutton. He did not explain what may have made it a hate crime. The victim -- Ron Lane, whom officials said was a longtime employee and the school's print shop operator -- was white, as is the suspect. Lane's relatives said he was gay, CNN affiliate WNCN reported. The suspect, Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, worked with Lane as part of a work-study program, but was let go from the program in early March due to poor attendance, college President Kay Albertson said Tuesday. On Monday, Stancil walked into the print shop on the third floor of a campus building, aimed a pistol-grip shotgun and fired once, killing Lane, according to Sutton. Stancil has tattoos on his face. Sutton said investigators are looking into whether he is part of a white supremacist gang. He has no previous criminal record, authorities said. Sutton said Stancil fled on a motorcycle after the shooting and ultimately abandoned it in a highway median. Then, Stancil continued on to Daytona, Florida, but authorities don't know how he traveled, Sutton said. He was arrested just after 1 a.m. Tuesday, after he was found sleeping on a beach, about 550 miles (885 kilometers) from Goldsboro. Volusia County Beach Patrol had approached him for violating the city's ordinance against sleeping on the beach. He had a knife, police said. He was taken into custody without incident. Authorities in North Carolina expect to bring him back to face charges. Wayne Community College, a two-year school, has a student population of 3,837, according 2013 figures from the National Center for Education Statistics. Slightly more than half the students are part-time. Crime statistics from the center's website show no killings, assaults, robberies or motor vehicle thefts between 2011 and 2013. There were three arrests for illegal weapons possession in 2012 and three in 2013.","highlights":"Relatives of Wayne Community College shooting victim say he was gay, local media report .\nThe suspect had worked for the victim but was let go, college president says .\nThe suspect, Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, was found sleeping on a Florida beach and arrested .","id":"c0340e53445e1d38aaf9a2681c2ae2e950a98860"} -{"article":"(CNN)Former Australia cricket captain and legendary broadcaster Richie Benaud has died at the age of 84. Benaud, whose witty one-liners from the commentary box resonated far beyond Australia's shores, said last year he was being treated for skin cancer. \"After Don Bradman, there has been no Australian player more famous than Richie Benaud,\" Cricket Australia said on its website. \"Benaud stood at the top of the game throughout his rich life, first as a record-breaking leg-spinner and captain, and then as cricket's most famous -- and most impersonated -- broadcaster.\" A veteran of 64 Test matches, Benaud was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. While many regarded his voice as the soundtrack to an Australian summer, Benaud was equally revered by the cricketing public on the other side of the world where he spent more than four decades with the BBC taking the game into millions of British living rooms. But whether you were sitting in Sydney or in South London, there were plenty of \"marvelous\" Richie moments from the box to savor: . \"And Glenn McGrath dismissed for two, just ninety-eight runs short of his century.\" \"From our broadcasting box you can't see any grass at all. It is simply a carpet of humanity.\" \"Captaincy is 90% luck and 10% skill. But don't try it without that 10%.\" News of his passing quickly generated a wave of condolences, including from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. \"To most Australians Richie Benaud was cricket. He personified its traditions and its values,\" Abbott said in a written statement Friday. \"While many Australians only know Richard Benaud as the voice of cricket, we should not forget that in his day he was a cricketer with few equals. It was why he was so insightful as a commentator. \"As a player his record has withstood the test of time. He led the Australian side from 1958\/59 through to 1963\/1964, never losing a series in his 28 Tests as captain. \"As captain, he was first to lead a full Australian tour to India and Pakistan in 1959\/60. He was the first cricketer to reach a Test double of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets. \"Given the special place Richie Benaud has in our national life, I have asked that on the day of his funeral flags fly at half-mast. I extend my condolences and the condolences of the Australian people, to his wife Daphne and his family and friends. Current Australian captain Michael Clarke posted an image of Benaud on Instagram with the message: \"What a man. Extremely sad day. You were a lot more then just a cricketer Richie. RIP.\" Clarke's former teammate Shane Warne also took to Instagram to post a touching letter to the late commentator. He wrote: \"Dear Richie, I've known you & Daphne for close to 30 years & to everyone you were a legend on all levels & rightly so too. \"As a cricketer, commentator & as a person, you were the best there's ever been & to top it off, an absolute gentleman... For me it was an honour & a privilege to call you a close friend & mentor, we had so many wonderful times together, talking cricket & in particular, our love & passion of leg spin bowling. \"I will cherish our entertaining dinners & all the fun times we shared over a long period of time. I would also like to thank you & Daphne for all your support & time you made for me as a young cricketer & leg spin bowler trying to make his way as an 18 year old, your tips & advice along the journey meant so much !!! \"Richie, you were loved by everyone, not just the cricket family, you were the godfather of cricket & you will be missed by all... R.I.P my friend.\" Benaud, who was born in 1930 in Penrith, New South Wales, lead Australia into an era of world dominance as a player. But it was after he hung up his spikes that his legendary status was confirmed. Writing in a column in The Australian, cricket writer Gideon Haigh wrote \"television was Benaud's calling, suiting his captain's spontaneity and intuition. \"He was authoritative but not pedantic, dignified but not pompous, and never spoke unless he had something to say. He was so popular that many humorists strove to imitate him, so distinctive that none ever quite got him right.\" The BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew agreed. \"He was quite simply peerless. Nobody else had his authority, popularity and skill,\" Agnew said in a column on the BBC website. \"If you speak to any broadcaster from any sport, they will point to Richie as the standard-bearer.\" Australian national team coach Darren Lehmann said Benaud set \"an incredibly high standard on and off the field.\" \"The fact that Australia never lost a series under his captaincy says so much and those standards were just as high when he turned his attention to calling the game,\" he told cricket.com.au. \"We loved listening to him commentate when the team was together in the dressing room. When he was on air, we always had the TV volume turned up because his comments were so insightful.\" Benaud's passing also drew messages of sympathy on social media from beyond his native Australia. Imran Khan, the former captain of Pakistan and now a leading politician there, tweeted: \"Saddened by the death of Richie Benaud, one of the greatest cricketing brains.\" While Kumar Sangakkara, the current captain of Sri Lanka's Test team, posted: \"So sad to hear about the passing of Richie Benaud. The great voice of cricket is no more. He defined an era with conviction and sincerity.\" British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: \"I grew up listening to Richie Benaud's wonderful cricket commentary. Like all fans of the sport, I will miss him very much.\" CNN's Pierre Meilhan and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report.","highlights":"Richie Benaud first earned fame as a cricket player, later as broadcaster .\nPrime Minister Tony Abbott calls him \"a cricketing champion and Australian icon\"","id":"36ac591f1b7a4eb01b7301b50912c5791c38386a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Irish betting company Paddy Power is backtracking after tweeting that \"Newcastle have suffered more Kop beatings over the last 20 years than an unarmed African-American male.\" The tweet, a pun on the name of the famous home end at Liverpool Football Club, alluded to recent controversial incidents in the United States in which unarmed African-American men have been killed by police. Paddy Power -- well-known for its use of publicity stunts -- used it to link to a piece showing statistics for games between Liverpool and Newcastle United ahead of their English Premier League match on Monday. A Paddy Power spokesman told CNN before Liverpool's 2-0 victory at Anfield: \"It was a joke, and no offense was meant.\" The tweet has since been deleted, but its removal -- along with the statement -- did little to placate social media users who condemned the organization, with some calling for the person who wrote the tweet to be sacked. In January, Paddy Power attracted headlines after backing David Ginola's failed candidacy for the presidency of world football's governing body. The former Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham player could not persuade enough FIFA football associations to back his bid. He needed five to have any chance of unseating Sepp Blatter. Paddy Power started the funding for the candidacy, but its penchant for publicity stunts quickly led many people to dismiss Ginola's bid as another attempt to grab headlines. Paddy Power, the son of one the company's founders and its marketing spokesman, explained: \"We've been known for some mischievous activity around the world. This is not that. This is for real.\" Last year, the company generated anger when it promised \"money back if he walks\" in relation to the trial of disgraced South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. Monday's win put Liverpool fifth in the table, four points behind defending champion Manchester City, which holds England's final European Champions League qualification spot with six games left to play this season. Young England forward Raheem Sterling, who has turned down a new contract, scored a fine solo goal in the first half, and midfielder Joe Allen's 70th-minute strike condemned 13th-placed Newcastle to a fifth successive league defeat. Newcastle, which had France international midfielder Moussa Sissoko sent off in the 83rd minute, has not won at Anfield since a 1-0 victory in the League Cup in November 1995.","highlights":"Company known for use of publicity stunts .\nTweet contained pun on name of Liverpool's Kop stand .\nIt was used to link to Liverpool-Newcastle stats .\nSocial media backlash leads to apology .","id":"f97442bee2acf684b1b8d5e653acea2307fc5dad"} -{"article":"(CNN)Desperate migrants from Africa and the Middle East keep heading to Europe, with 978 rescued Friday in the Mediterranean Sea, the Italian Coast Guard said Saturday via Twitter. The migrants were picked up 30 miles off the coast of Libya, said European Parliament member Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy's far-right Northern League. In the first three months of 2015, Italy registered more than 10,000 migrants arriving, the International Organization for Migration said, and about 2,000 were rescued at sea during the first weekend of April in the Channel of Sicily. Most migrants recorded this year come from countries in West Africa as well as Somalia and Syria, the IMO said. They use Libya as a country of transit. At least 480 migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, often because of bad weather and overcrowded vessels used by smugglers, the IMO said. Sometimes the captains and crews abandon the ships, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. At this time last year, there were fewer than 50 deaths reported, the IMO said. Most of the migrants are asylum seekers, victims of trafficking or violence, unaccompanied children and pregnant women.","highlights":"The migrants were picked up 30 miles off the coast of Libya, an Italian leader says .\nAt least 480 migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean this year .","id":"74e99c26d8bb7ef87afa0784082c2918927e753e"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama says he is \"absolutely committed to making sure\" Israel maintains a military advantage over Iran. His comments to The New York Times, published on Sunday, come amid criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the deal that the United States and five other world powers struck with Iran. Tehran agreed to halt the country's nuclear ambitions, and in exchange, Western powers would drop sanctions that have hurt the Iran's economy. Obama said he understands and respects Netanyahu's stance that Israel is particularly vulnerable and doesn't \"have the luxury of testing these propositions\" in the deal. \"But what I would say to them is that not only am I absolutely committed to making sure they maintain their qualitative military edge, and that they can deter any potential future attacks, but what I'm willing to do is to make the kinds of commitments that would give everybody in the neighborhood, including Iran, a clarity that if Israel were to be attacked by any state, that we would stand by them,\" Obama said. That, he said, should be \"sufficient to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see whether or not we can at least take the nuclear issue off the table,\" he said. The framework negotiators announced last week would see Iran reduce its centrifuges from 19,000 to 5,060, limit the extent to which uranium necessary for nuclear weapons can be enriched and increase inspections. The talks over a final draft are scheduled to continue until June 30. But Netanyahu and Republican critics in Congress have complained that Iran won't have to shut down its nuclear facilities and that the country's leadership isn't trustworthy enough for the inspections to be as valuable as Obama says they are. Obama said even if Iran can't be trusted, there's still a case to be made for the deal. \"In fact, you could argue that if they are implacably opposed to us, all the more reason for us to want to have a deal in which we know what they're doing and that, for a long period of time, we can prevent them from having a nuclear weapon,\" Obama said.","highlights":"In an interview with The New York Times, President Obama says he understands Israel feels particularly vulnerable .\nObama calls the nuclear deal with Iran a \"once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\"\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many U.S. Republicans warn that Iran cannot be trusted .","id":"e709f9942da05f8747aa6bc61952de27090512ac"} -{"article":"(CNN)There's an old saying which states the Cape Verde Islands are home to a greater number of musicians per square kilometer than any other country in the world. In truth, such a definitive claim may be nigh on impossible to prove. But there is a certain factual accuracy behind the legend: the important and proud relationship the Atlantic island country of just 500,000 people has with music. Situated roughly 350 miles off the west coast of Africa, Cape Verde has long been a mesh of cultures, history and races. The former Portuguese territory was once a key location for the transatlantic slave trade, a target for 16th century pirates and a refuge for exiled Jews. From this diverse melting pot were born the unique sounds of the batuque, morna, funana and other distinct musical styles. Now, Cape Verde is seeking to tap-into the spoils of this rich cultural heritage in a bid to help its economy flourish. Bereft of oil, gas, gold, diamonds or the conventional natural resources that have fueled growth in many other African countries, Cape Verde has had to look for alternative sectors to aid its development. And what's more alternative than a jiving, swinging, musical economy? \"Besides fish, it is pretty common (for Cape Verde) to say 'our biggest richness is in music and culture,'\" said Christine Semba of Womex, an international networking platform for the world music genre. The economic potential of music has been also acknowledged by Cape Verde's prime minister, Jose Maria Neves, while the country's ministry of culture is run by Mario Lucio de Sousa, himself a popular musician. \"The future of our country lies in our capacity to create, our capacity to innovate,\" Neves said in reference to the music and the arts at a World Trade Organization conference in 2013. Other elements of the creative economy include handicrafts, fashion and visual arts to name but a few. However, a 2013 report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development noted that Cape Verde's creative sector remained a relatively small part of its economy with much room for improvement and long term planning. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been some promising early signs that music has the potential to play a key role in the future. One early musical success has been the Kriol Jazz Festival. The event, which is celebrating its seventh edition, took place in the capital city of Praia this past weekend. Artists including Grammy-winning U.S. singer Esperanza Spalding have been invited to perform, as have acts from the likes of Luxembourg, Brazil and, of course, Cape Verde. According to Harold Taveres, a liaison to the mayor of Praia involved with promoting the festival, \"KJF has become one of the most spectacular events in Cape Verde. \"We breathe the music in Cape Verde, we live with the music,\" he added. \"Now the festival has brought people from every corner in the world (to share in this).\" During the festival, bars, hotels and restaurants are full to the brim while taxi drivers are seldom unable to find a fare during what locals refer to as \"the week of party.\" It's a lucrative trade, for sure. Yet in order to take full advantage of this bustling scene the country's ministry of culture, alongside some enterprising private sector figures, thought a deeper relationship with the music business was required. Enter the Atlantic Music Expo, a three-year-old conference and networking event that seeks to help Cape Verdean artists secure international exposure. This year's AME took place in the days before the Kriol Jazz Festival. Delegates, local musicians and their management teams were exposed to roundtables, workshops and talks on the intricacies of the global music business. \"We try to invite lots of producers and a lot of journalists from around the world to see the festival and the musicians from Cape Verde,\" said Jose Da Silva, long time manager of the late Cape Verdean songstress Cesaria Evora. Da Silva is one of the driving forces behind AME as well as being the founder of the Lusafrica and Harmonia record labels that aim to discover a new generation of artists from Cape Verde. He hopes that by exposing musicians to a range of experienced industry professionals and top-level musicians, they will become equipped with the tools and ambition to take the music of Cape Verde across the globe. Not only will this help launch the careers of artists and musicians (with all the respective behind the scenes business structures such developments require) but it will garner valuable attention for the country. This is where the greatest potential economic benefits lie. Tourism is expected to account for 20% of the country's GDP by 2024, according to research from the World Travel and Tourism Council. Getting Cape Verde's name out on the world stage through recognition of its rich musical culture is therefore increasingly important. \"Economically it's beneficial for the country because the money we would have to spend on the market to give the country this exposure in the world would be too big,\" Da Silva said. \"This way it costs less money.\" Semba agrees with this, and highlights the joined up thinking of the government and private sector actors like Da Silva for special praise. \"In the long term, the whole country is behind this event,\" Semba said, adding \"this is a very innovative approach which we would like to see in many more countries.\" It must be noted, however, that few countries have the same natural resources for music as Cape Verde. More from Marketplace Africa .","highlights":"Cape Verde seeking to tap-into rich cultural heritage .\nTiny island nation wants to grow creative economy .","id":"07f60889bcd1f3d2c48b715220f13df8d2c5e158"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Hamlet.\" \"Romeo and Juliet.\" \"A Midsummer Night's Dream.\" For centuries, these plays and three dozen more by William Shakespeare have formed history's most heralded literary canon. But now they may have to make room for an addition to Shakespeare's famous oeuvre. New research indicates that \"Double Falsehood,\" a play first published in 1728 by Lewis Theobald, was actually written more than a century earlier by Shakespeare himself with help from his friend John Fletcher. The findings were published this week by two scholars who used computer software to analyze the writings of the three men and compare it with the language of the \"newer\" play. \"The match between the 'Double Falsehood' play and Shakespeare was a landslide. It was shockingly clear,\" said Ryan L. Boyd, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. The study, co-authored by Boyd and UT colleague James W. Pennebaker, was published in the journal Psychological Science. \"There's very little wiggle room to interpret the numbers any differently.\" Boyd said he and Pennebaker analyzed 33 plays by Shakespeare, nine by Fletcher and 12 by Theobald to create a \"psychological signature\" of each author based on word choices, phrase patterns and other factors. They compared those profiles to the language in \"Double Falsehood\" and determined that the play's first half was almost entirely written by Shakespeare, though the second half appeared to be split evenly between Shakespeare and Fletcher. Only tiny traces of Theobald's signature were found. \"We're certainly not suggesting that Theobald didn't make edits,\" Boyd told CNN. \"But he clearly did not write it.\" \"Double Falsehood,\" also known as \"The Distressed Lovers,\" is based on the \"Cardenio\" section of Don Quixote, the classic 17th-century novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Set in Spain, the play revolves around the romantic entanglements of two brothers: one virtuous, one sinful. Theobald said he based the play on three original manuscripts he had discovered, all of them written by Shakespeare. But many scholars have long dismissed the play as a fake, suspecting that Theobald tried to pass the Bard's work off as his own. Shakespeare, who died in 1616, wrote most of his published plays between 1590 and 1612. British publishers Arden Shakespeare published \"Double Falsehood\" in 2010 -- for the first time in 250 years -- amid renewed claims by experts that it was Shakespeare's work. But the new study by Boyd and Pennebaker, the first to analyze the writings from a psychological perspective, may settle the matter once and for all. Shakespearean scholar Brean Hammond, professor of modern English literature at Nottingham University in the UK, praised the Texas study for its scientific approach. Hammond said Boyd and Pennebaker \"have got no dogs in the fight. They're not literary scholars, (so) their work could be seen as more objective than some of the literary studies.\" Hammond studied \"Double Falsehood's\" authorship from a literary perspective five years ago and found Shakespeare's DNA evident in the play. But he doubts the new research will put the matter entirely to rest. \"Those people who don't believe the play was written by Shakespeare aren't going to just lay down and die,\" he said.","highlights":"New research indicates that a play published in 1728 was written by William Shakespeare .\nScholar Lewis Theobald had passed the work off as his own .\nTexas researchers used software to analyze and compare the language of the men .","id":"454434c7bf77d898feba8ff0e38a2d1dd68c44ba"} -{"article":"Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)Kenya froze dozens of accounts linked to suspected terror supporters after militants massacred 147 people last week at a university in Garissa. The government is tracking the finances of people suspected of ties to Al-Shabaab, the militant group that claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack. So far, the government has frozen 86 accounts, but that number could go up, said Mwenda Njoka, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The government has tracked supporters of the terror group since 2011, and efforts to freeze their assets have gone on since then. It has a list of suspects from various parts of the country, but mostly in Nairobi and Mombasa, he said. Kenyans mourned the victims of the attack Tuesday night at Nairobi's Uhuru Park, where hundreds gathered. Organizers unloaded 147 crosses, some draped with the nation's flag, as candles flickered in the dark. Of the fatalities, 142 were students at the university, and the rest were security forces and campus security. \"I can't even look at pictures of the people killed without crying,\" said Mary Wambui, 32, who lives in Nakuru, hundreds of miles from Garissa. \"They were just children. They were trying to make a better life for themselves. Some were first to go to college in their communities. They died trying to get an education.\" Using the hashtag #147notjustanumber, Kenyans used social media to talk about the lives of the victims. They shared pictures of beaming faces, full of life and energy, in happier days. They talked about parents too shocked to speak after identifying their children's bodies. Some students remain unaccounted for, and wailing relatives alternate their searches between hospitals and morgues. Kenyan authorities have not released the names of the victims. Kenyan authorities had prior intelligence that a university in Garissa could be attacked, yet the country's rapid response team was stuck in Nairobi for hours after the massacre awaiting transport, a police source said Monday. The frozen accounts is the latest in a series of actions as the government faced heavy criticism for the siege, which lasted hours. A spokesman for President Uhuru Kenyatta said authorities \"got the job done\" and saved lives. The university had about 800 students. \"With the benefit of hindsight, you can always say things could have been done better,\" Manoah Esipisu said. Kenya also launched airstrikes Monday targeting Al-Shabaab's training camps in Somalia, according to a military source, who said they were not retaliation for last week's massacre. \"The latest attack of Al-Shabaab bases by the Kenya military is part of the ongoing operations that started in 2011,\" the source said Monday. Kenya has also offered 20 million Kenyan shillings, or about $215,000, for information on the whereabouts of Mohamed Mohamud, who allegedly organized the attack. Mohamud is a senior Al-Shabaab leader known by the aliases Dulyadin and Gamadhere, authorities said. Al-Shabaab is based in Somalia, and its violence has spread to Kenya before. In 2013, militants attacked Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall, leaving 67 people dead. The terror group has intensified attacks in Kenya since the country sent troops to Somalia four years ago to help battle the militants. CNN's Joseph Netto reported from Nairobi, and Faith Karimi reported and wrote from Atlanta.","highlights":"The attack at a Garissa university last week killed 147 people, mostly students .\nThe government is tracking the finances of people suspected of ties to Al-Shabaab .","id":"bbdc0e58a203b016166f896936d9862ae9fd11be"} -{"article":"(CNN)Jodi Arias was sentenced to life in prison Monday for the gruesome 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. Maricopa County Judge Sherry Stephens could have sentenced Arias to life with the possibility of early release after 25 years, but decided the convicted killer should spend the rest of her life behind bars. Before her sentence was handed down, Arias expressed remorse for her actions. \"To this day I can't believe that I was capable of doing something that terrible,\" Arias said. \"I'm truly disgusted and repulsed with myself. I'm horrified because of what I did, and I wish there was some way I could take it back.\" Earlier, Travis Alexander's sisters gave their victim impact statements. Hillary Alexander said she's trying to block her brother from her life. \"I don't want to remember him anymore, because it hurts too much to remember him alive. ... I remember how he was brutally taken from us and I can't handle it. This is what I've had to do so I can cope,\" she said through tears. Arias, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in May 2013. The jury that convicted her found the murder was especially cruel, making Arias eligible for the death penalty. However, that same jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should live or die. A new jury was empanelled in October 2014 to decide Arias' fate, but they, too, were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Because a second jury was deadlocked in the penalty phase of Arias' case, the death penalty was taken off the table, leaving Arias' sentence up to the judge. Arias will serve her sentence at the Lumley Unit in the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville near Goodyear, Arizona.","highlights":"Jodi Arias is sentenced to life in prison with no possibility for parole .\nArias expressed remorse for her actions .","id":"7e4d197d5fe8272c0471199cf9987f3786a80c2b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Last month Wu Rongrong was taken into custody for planning to protest on International Women's Day against sexual harassment in China. Since then, the Chinese authorities have formally detained her and four other activists for \"creating disturbances.\" They also briefly detained some of the activists' supporters, raided a prominent nongovernmental organization that called for their release, and have at points denied some of the women access to medical treatment, lawyers and adequate rest. The fate of the five will be revealed by April 13, as their case reaches the legal time limit when they must either be released or \"formally arrested,\" which almost always leads to conviction in China's legal system. The timing of the detentions of China's most inventive women's rights activists is ironic: Not only did they take place on the very day that marks women's achievements and their struggle for equality, but they also come in a year in which Beijing would have won praise for its role in promoting women's rights. It appears poised to adopt its first and long-awaited anti-domestic violence law, which is expected to get a reading before the National People's Congress Standing Committee this summer. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the influential Fourth World Conference on Women hosted in Beijing, during which Hillary Clinton famously declared that \"women's rights are human rights.\" I first met Wu at a conference several years ago, at a time when there were very few women in China's weiquan or \"rights defense\" movement. It was common back then for male colleagues to publicly address them as \"babes\" or \"little sisters,\" even in professional\u2014and ostensibly progressive\u2014settings. As women's rights activists, Wu and others fight on two fronts: against overt rights violations by the Chinese government and against the wider gender norms that relegate women to second-class citizens. By the time we met again two years later, Wu and her young \"direct-action\" feminist colleagues were clearly off and running. They staged small, public \"performance art\" protests that attracted media headlines, energized the more mainstream and academically inclined women's rights movement, and pushed women's rights into the national consciousness and onto the government's agenda. Wu had an upbringing typical of her times. She comes from the countryside, which for many has changed beyond recognition within their lifetimes. In recent decades the economy has soared, but her generation is confronting the unhappy consequences of unchecked growth: pollution, unsafe foods and growing inequality between rich and poor. Like many parents, she worries about how to find untainted milk powder for her infant boy, and whether to keep her child with her in the city or to send him to his grandparents in the countryside for a quieter, safer upbringing. Many in Wu and her colleagues' generation are clear-eyed about the problems of China's development model, and some want to address those. Wu joined Yirenping, a nonprofit organization that promotes social equality, whether it is between sexes or among people with and without disabilities, and later founded the women's rights organization Hangzhou Women Center. And it is in Yirenping that she became particularly attuned to the challenges confronting young women in modern China. Wu and her colleagues have used innovative tactics with a certain shock factor \u2014 \"occupying\" public toilets to show the need for more such conveniences for women, donning blood-spattered wedding gowns to protest domestic violence, shaving their heads to protest against barriers to higher education for women \u2014 that raises awareness of gender inequality in ways that resonate, especially with young women in the country. Perhaps this is what the government finds threatening: that these activists epitomize the spirit of the times. They are young, confident, ready to challenge established norms, and most importantly, they feel responsible for their society and they want to improve it. As China prepares to mark the anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in September, it will be harder for the authorities to justify detaining these activists. But even if they are released, their work promoting women's rights will have become exponentially more difficult. The women will now be labeled \"sensitive\" individuals at a time when the authorities are increasingly paranoid about independent groups, their role in fostering nonviolent protests and the overthrow of oppressive governments (known as \"color revolutions\"), and foreign funding of civil society organizations. What Wu and her colleagues are now enduring is consistent with a broader government effort to strangle independent activism. Authorities have harassed and detained an ever expanding list of activists, and imprisoned others, but they have also tried to co-opt some groups by allowing them to provide services the government finds acceptable, so long as they abandon their activism. This kind of \"differentiated management\" of nongovernmental organizations \u2014 punishing some but co-opting others \u2014 may work to neutralize some of the more outspoken groups. But ultimately the desires for change among ordinary people that make Wu and her friends' campaigns so popular are unlikely to be answered through \"authoritarian activism\" alone. The Chinese Communist Party now faces a dizzying array of challenges, not least that younger generations do not identify with the party or its values like past generations. Rather than lengthening its list of challenges, the party could resolve some and lessen concerns about its legitimacy by freeing and engaging activists like Wu and her colleagues, rather than treating them as criminals.","highlights":"Maya Wang: 5 women held by China authorities after planning International Women's Day protests on sex harassment remain detained .\nShe says in a year when country poised to adopt anti-domestic violence law, Beijing also sending chilling message on women's activism .","id":"6ce9f3ddbed94dc2223aea4b851ebedbb67f8c56"} -{"article":"(CNN)Malala Yousafzai's stellar career has included a Nobel Peace Prize. Last week, she made it into outer space. A NASA astrophysicist has named an asteroid after the teenage education activist from Pakistan, who was gravely wounded by a Pakistani Taliban gunman for promoting the right of girls' to go to school. It took a meticulous medical response to save her life more than two years ago. But Malala recovered with no serious neurological damage to become a powerhouse for her cause. After reading her story, scientist Amy Mainzer, who also consults for PBS on a children's educational science show, decided Malala deserved to be immortalized. So, she attached her name to the heavens. Thousands of asteroids swarm through the solar system mainly between Mars and Jupiter. Mainzer, working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discovered Asteroid 316201 in June 2010, which gave her the right to name it. \"My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Carrie Nugent brought to my attention the fact that although many asteroids have been named, very few have been named to honor the contributions of women (and particularly women of color),\" Mainzer wrote in a note to Malala. Mainzer gave it the name 316201 Malala, or 2010 ML48. Malala's asteroid circles the sun between Mars and Jupiter every five and half years, Mainzer said. \"It is about 4 kilometers in diameter, and its surface is very dark, the color of printer toner.\" As a scientist, her support for Malala's work is logical. When girls around the world also get educations, it increases human potential. \"We desperately need the brainpower of all smart people to solve some of humanity's most difficult problems, and we can't afford to reject half the population's,\" Mainzer wrote.","highlights":"Astrophysicist Amy Mainzer says she was was touched by Malala's story of determination .\nMainzer also works on educating children about science .","id":"12a3eec84bff4a1cfa3391479c9a259ecca5741b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Emy Afalava is a loyal American and decorated veteran. He was born in American Samoa, a U.S. territory since 1900. He has been subject to American law his whole life and thinks he should be a citizen. The Constitution would agree. The Fourteenth Amendment declares that \"All persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.\" Yet, Afalava has been denied the right to vote because the federal government insists that he is no citizen. How can it be, in the 21st century, that Americans born on U.S. soil are denied the rights of citizenship? That injustice clouds the recent celebration of the 115th anniversary of the decision of American Samoa to join the United States. It is a wrong that Afalava and other American Samoans are now seeking to right in a federal lawsuit before the D.C. Circuit. A decision could come any day. Since the United States was established, it adhered to the rule that those born on U.S. lands were U.S. citizens. The rule is colorblind, yet the only exception that the Supreme Court has ever declared was not. The infamous Dred Scott case legitimized slavery as it declared that free African-Americans had \"no rights that the white man was bound to respect.\" Though they were Americans, they were not citizens under the Constitution. A Civil War later, the 14th Amendment reversed the ruling in the Dred Scott case. Today, the Dred Scott case has come to be regarded as one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. But racial discrimination didn't end there. In 1904, a Puerto Rican woman named Isabel Gonzalez sailed for New York. Because Puerto Rico was U.S. territory, she believed herself to be a U.S. citizen. But officials at Ellis Island labeled her an undesirable alien and prevented her from entering the mainland. She sued, with some reason to hope for a favorable ruling. Yet the Supreme Court that eventually heard Gonzalez's case was still racist. In preceding years, for example, it had permitted a flat ban on naturalizing anyone of the Chinese race. And, in a case addressing the status of recently acquired island territories such as Puerto Rico, the justices had cited the alleged racial inferiority of tropical peoples as reason to treat these lands as second-class U.S. territories. Justice Edward Douglas White's opinion stated that U.S. sovereignty extended over them, but that their residents did not hold the same constitutional rights as other Americans. He did so, he privately revealed, because \"he was much preoccupied by the danger of racial and social questions.\" In the Gonzalez case, the justices agreed unanimously that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and thus not subject to immigration laws. But they declined to decide whether or not Gonzalez was a citizen. Though preoccupied by fears that islanders were \"savages\" and racially unfit for citizenship, they were unwilling to violate the Constitution. As a result of the court ruling, federal officials were able to deny Gonzalez and others the full panoply of rights conferred on citizens for years. As Isabel Gonzalez's lawyer told the Court, declaring that residents of America's island territories are not U.S. citizens would mean adding to \"precedents in our history of which we are least proud.\" Those precedents, he warned the Court, had been \"repudiated by the American people in the Civil War, by three amendments to the Constitution of the United States, by this court, and by ... advancing civilization.\" Surely, 147 years after the Dred Scott case was overturned, the time has come to put an end to this farce. In the past century, the inhabitants of every other U.S. island territory have become citizens. Today, Emy Afalava and his fellow American Samoans are the last Americans still waiting to become citizens.","highlights":"Emy Afalava is a loyal American and decorated veteran; he's also an American Samoan .\nSam Erman and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal: It is outrageous that he and others like him are denied citizenship .","id":"4bd20bce9066eb3e0950299a340faa935026fe5a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Over the last year more than 25,000 people, a population about the size of Key West, Florida, have fought Ebola infections. More than 10,000 have not survived. But for those who have survived, life will never be the same. And even for those who did not experience Ebola personally, the \"most severe public health emergency seen in modern times\" showed the world its vulnerability to disease. It revealed real flaws in government systems that are supposed to protect us. While the intensity of the largest Ebola epidemic in history has died down, and the initial dire predictions that there would be over a million infections by January never came true, dozens are still newly infected each week. The latest World Health Organization Report confirmed a total of 30 new confirmed cases of Ebola were reported in the week of April 5. This is the lowest weekly total since May 2014. But reports are mixed on stopping the virus completely: In Liberia and Sierra Leone, the number of cases has fallen so much, there are more treatment facilities than demand. WHO in Liberia is in the process of decommissioning surplus facilities. But in Guinea, of the 19 confirmed deaths from April 5, seven were only identified as Ebola post-mortem and there were reports of 21 unsafe burials. \"Taken together these data indicate that though surveillance is improving, unknown chains of transmission could be a source of new infections in the coming weeks,\" the latest WHO report said. Click on the photos above to learn how a grave digger, a first responder, and many others have changed in the wake of Ebola.","highlights":"April 8, 2014, the WHO finally started reporting the Ebola epidemic was a \"concern\"\nFront line health care workers and Ebola survivors say the world has to act quicker .","id":"578677b3280b0f5ab8b45fdd948707262c9ffed3"} -{"article":"(CNN)No prostitutes. No ifs, ands or buts -- and yes, that includes when and where prostitution is perfectly legal. That was the message Friday from Attorney General Eric Holder to members of the U.S. Justice Department, which includes the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies. \"The solicitation of prostitution threatens the core mission of the department,\" Holder wrote in a memo to all personnel in the department he heads. \"... Regardless of whether prostitution is legal or tolerated in a particular jurisdiction, soliciting prostitutes creates a greater demand for human trafficking and a consequent increase in the number of minor and adult persons trafficked into commercial sex slavery.\" Holder doesn't mention specific cases of federal agents and prostitution in his memo. Nor is he dictating a new policy; the attorney general said only that he wanted \"to reiterate to all department personnel, including attorneys and law enforcement officers, that they are prohibited from soliciting, procuring or accepting commercial sex.\" Agents behaving badly overseas . The directive comes a few weeks after a Justice Department inspector general report found DEA agents in foreign postings attended sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels, among other indiscretions. That report, by department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, cited light punishments and poor handling of sexual misconduct cases at DEA and other Justice Department agencies. Justice Department employees don't have a monopoly on such stories: In 2012, a group of agents and officers in the Secret Service -- which is part of the Department of Homeland Security -- and officers sent to Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama were relieved of duty and returned home amid allegations of misconduct that involved prostitution. That prostitute visit was arranged for by a DEA agent stationed in Colombia, according to Horowitz's office. If someone from the ATF, FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons or a federal prosecutor is caught with a prostitute they'll be suspended or fired, according to Holder's memo. \"This rule applies at all times during an individual's employment, including while off duty or on personal leave.\"","highlights":"Attorney General Holder reiterates Justice Department policy on prostitutes .\nSoliciting prostitutes is banned, even in places where it's legal, Holder says .\nHis memo comes weeks after a report involving DEA agents and prostitutes .","id":"be5d8524bf21d485e203425d764ed60a3bf71b8d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Recently, Nashville's district attorney banned prosecutors from offering female sterilization in plea deals. Believe it or not, Nashville prosecutors have offered this option four times in the past five years. There has been public outrage at the notion that a defendant in America in 2015 would be offered a choice of sterilization as part of a plea deal. Except, it happens all the time. Some have claimed this practice \"evokes a dark corner of American history\" where the mentally ill or \"deficient\" were forced to undergo sterilization. Yeah, that's true. We did that. And it was bad. Except this isn't quite that. Female sterilization is linked to the controversial \"eugenics\" movement, which advocated for the notion that the human race can be improved by selective breeding of people with superior genes. There is even a 1927 Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell, in which the justices ruled that a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit and \"imbeciles,\" \"for the protection and health of the state,\" was constitutional. The opinion in the case is stunning, especially because the Supreme Court has never technically overruled it. But Buck v. Bell dealt with involuntary sterilization of people because of their mental disabilities, not because they were being punished for a crime. You can hate sterilization, and the Tennessee case may have the creepy feel of the antiquated practice of eugenics, but it's not that. Present-day sterilization plea deals involve a voluntary choice of sterilization by persons accused of a crime, and for whom sterilization will be part of their punishment. Others may argue that the Supreme Court has already spoken on the issue of compulsory sterilization as punishment, and struck it down. That's true too, sort of. In Skinner v. Oklahoma, the Court struck down a law permitting compulsory sterilization of criminals as unconstitutional, but not because it was cruel and unusual. Instead, the law was struck down because the law was unequally applied for similar crimes. So the question remains: Is sterilization as a punishment unconstitutional? The Eighth Amendment provides: \"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.\" Practically, however, punishments are rarely deemed cruel and unusual by the judiciary. We have executed people with hangings and by firing squad. Sterilization has to be somewhere below that, right? Ultimately, however, the constitutionality of sterilization may be a red herring in this analysis, because it appears that even if a punishment vciolates the Constitution, it is permissible, if you willingly choose it. Suppose arguendo (for argument's sake) that sterilization is judicially labeled a cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. This is where it gets interesting: It still might be an appropriate and constitutional part of a plea deal. Shocked? You shouldn't be. As citizens, we validly waive our constitutional rights all the time. You waive your Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure when you answer \"yes\" to an officer's \"Mind if I look in your trunk?\" You waive your Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when you try to explain to the detective in the interrogation room how that body got in your vehicle's trunk. So then, if we can validly waive our other constitutional rights, can we waive our Eighth Amendment rights and choose a cruel and unusual punishment, even if it would otherwise be unconstitutional? And are people outraged because this is a new step in punishment or a new frontier and a slippery slope in the world of plea deals? Nope. Sterilization statutes have been around for a while as punishment for defendants all over the country, and defendants have willingly chosen the procedure. If sterilization plea deals are likely constitutional, and we've been doing it for a while, then that begs the question: Why the outrage now? Why the story that a Tennessee prosecutor was fired for a plea bargain that appears to be widely practiced? There are really only two possibilities. First, some people just had no idea that this was going on until this story hit the news. Second, even if we knew about it, we didn't mind the practice until now because of one fundamental difference. Most of the sterilization defendants are men. Search your feelings, Luke. When we talk about castrating men who are recidivist sexual predators and child molesters, the idea of castration as punishment doesn't sound so bad right? Be honest: Let go of your \"we're-all-equal-in-all-ways\" banner for a moment. After all, not too long ago, execution was a legal punishment for nonhomicide sex crimes in some jurisdictions. So if we're OK with the gas chamber, we're probably OK with a snip. It's OK. You can admit it; we are all hardwired with a modicum of gender bias, whether we like it or not. Still not convinced? Watch this parlor trick: What if I suggested sterilization for a person convicted of having sex with a minor? So far you're not ruling it out. And what if it's a young female high school teacher having sex with her 17-year-old student? Most of our gut feelings shifted from \"maybe\" to \"no\" just now. It's OK to admit that, too. Of course, sterilization won't prevent a female sex offender from offending again, no more than sterilization will prevent a male offender from offending again. But the point is, somehow, the notion of sterilizing a male criminal somehow sits better with us than sterilizing a female criminal. Maybe it's that on a primal, unconscious level, what feels cruel and unusual punishment for a woman just feels less so for a man. Even if you're offended by this theory of why an old practice is now a \"shocking\" news story, you must concede it fits. Why else has castration of men not been a blip on the radar, but offering a woman the option of sterilization is suddenly a travesty? Of course, we have to consider the related justification. Overall, a lot more men commit acts that merit sterilization than do women. Just ask any domestic violence prosecutor. Are sterilization plea deals morally right? It's hard to say. For now, they appear to be constitutional, but controversial. If we know a mother is likely to kill or seriously hurt her current children or her unborn child, should the government step in? If so, to what degree? Fortunately, we can avoid a final decision and continue to attack the problem in a way that seems to be more acceptable for now: just keep neutering the men.","highlights":"Nashville's district attorney banned prosecutors from offering female sterilization in plea deals .\nDanny Cevallos: Present-day sterilization plea deals are voluntary and unlike creepy antiquated practices .","id":"574767c29dfee14ea227639f45387c07437a55e5"} -{"article":"(CNN)After two days of deliberation, jurors found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all counts in the Boston Marathon bombing. The verdict isn't surprising. What might be, however, is the answer to how we prevent this kind of violence from happening again. Because there could be other more young men just like him, which means the lessons we take from Boston will affect whether we can keep America and Americans safer. Today, nearly 1 out of 4 people in the world are Muslim. By 2050, Pew reports, that will be some 1 out of 3. By 2070? Well, I'll quote the all-caps headline reprinted by the Drudge Report: \"Muslims to outnumber Christians!\" Many Americans read such numbers and worry: Will this mean more Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs? But that's only if you believe Islam causes extremism, which many have argued. And that's wrong, of course. On the other hand, there are people who claim Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Which is true \u2014 and false. Sure, the Islamic faith forbids murder, but there's a small but significant minority of Muslims murdering people in terrible ways, and in Islam's name. Understanding what leads young Muslims like Dzhokhar down a dangerous path requires we understand radicalization. At any given moment in the Middle East, we have little idea who's going to attack whom next, who's on whom's side, how this is going to end, or what anyone's even fighting over anymore. This bad news is going to turn worse before it gets better. But it will get better. To understand why, we have to take a stab at understanding what radicalizes Muslims . Contrary to common belief, Muslims aren't unusually predisposed to violence. Radical Islam, which has taken on an ugly life of its own, began at the intersection of politics, religion and religious identity. Islam is about what you believe, but it's also about being part of a community. And what happens when you are a member of a community and you see it under attack? Some Muslims who have turned to violence have done so with good intentions (the road to hell, after all). Consider: The tragedy of modern Islam is in its endless sequence of tragedies. Before my time, the brutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan horrified many Muslims. When I was in high school, Bosnia occupied all our attention. There was of course Russia's brutal war on the Chechen people \u2014 Dzhokhar shares his name with a recent Chechen patriot -- and Israel's ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories. And the blows against Muslims don't end there. There was Serbia's war on Kosovo, another war in Chechnya, the invasion of Iraq, oppression in Myanmar, civil strife in Syria, the colonization of East Turkestan, massacres of Muslims in the Central African Republic, wars on a besieged Gaza and West Bank still under Israeli rule. Imagine how this looks to a restless young Muslim. Countless places where co-religionists have been killed, and nobody seems to do anything about it. Nobody even wants to. Extremists have long offered crude reasons for why the violence was happening, and then moved quickly to a single, tempting, terrible response: Take up arms \u2014 and kill. In her new book, \"Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now\", Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that extremism isn't caused by political circumstances, but by Islam itself. Her conclusion is wrong. To fight extremism, we don't need to reform Islam. We need to show young Muslims that extremism is doing the opposite of what it claimed to. Rather than help Muslims, it's harming them. When I was a teenager, our Massachusetts mosque hosted a delegation from Bosnia that shared graphic, heartbreaking stories of rape, exile, and massacre inflicted on Muslims, all because of their faith. The mosque raised money, collected food, blankets, medicine. Promises were made to provide more, and regularly. But we all knew that wasn't enough. As we left the mosque, my peers and I were disgruntled and confused. Shocked. Angry. Our teachers could've told us: Go and fight. Defend your Muslim brothers and sisters who are under siege. Or they could've told us to keep our heads down and make money and live comfortably. Neither answer would have satisfied. Fortunately for us, they offered us a third way. They showed us, patiently, how to work with others, how to compromise, how to get things done. A more engaged American Muslim community, they explained, could use its resources to help people suffering all around the world. They were right. We saw the dead-end road of radicalism from afar, but we also saw, up close, how communities that isolated themselves and turned inward found themselves powerless, ineffectual and ignored. Thanks to social media, a medium that the world's burgeoning young Muslim population is increasingly comfortable with, more Muslims can and will see this, too. Radicalism will be done in by fellow Muslims who want to save their religion from this monster within it. It's happening already. Our national conversation about Islam is focused on the wrong issues. Does Islam need a Reformation? What in Islam causes violence? We would do a lot better if we accepted that Muslims the world over have real grievances \u2014 dictatorships, corruption, foreign intervention, religious illiteracy, lack of economic opportunity -- and radicals exploit these. We need to show the young Dzhokhars that, if they want to help, then violence isn't going to help. To fight extremism, we need to pose this question to young Muslims: \"Do you want to help your brothers and sisters in faith?\" Because those who claim to be defending us are making things so much worse. Their narrative has failed. Their solution is bankrupt. The Caliph wears no clothes. It's the reason why increasing numbers of Muslims reject extremism -- and not just because our numbers are increasing.","highlights":"Haroon Moghul: Tsarnaev found guilty in terrorist bombing of Boston Marathon. How to prevent future such acts by young Muslims?\nPew reports by 2050, one in 4 will be Muslim. Many equate terror with Islam. Not true, but we should grasp what causes radicalization .\nMoghul: Muslims see their community besieged around world, some think solution is violence. They must be shown other way to help .","id":"2dac7b4a9ed9eb9cfcabae0e8e0eb07abc5b8860"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's a good thing -- a lucky thing -- that a bystander had the courage and presence of mind to record the shocking video that shows a white police officer, Michael Slager, gunning down and killing an apparently unarmed black man named Walter Scott after a traffic stop in North Charleston, South Carolina. And the resulting national wave of revulsion and indignation -- along with the prompt arrest of Slager on murder charges -- is a welcome and appropriate response. But the event raises broad, troubling questions about how often such incidents take place without the benefit of a third-party recording. It's not supposed to be a mystery: More than 20 years ago, Congress approved a law, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, signed by President Bill Clinton, that requires the federal Justice Department to collect data on deaths caused by police. The law has never truly been implemented, leaving us with patchy information about particular episodes rather than a comprehensive sense of how race and policing play out in America. \"What happened here today doesn't happen all the time. What if there was no video? What if there was no witness -- or hero, as I call him -- to come forward?\" said L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for Scott's family. \"As you can see, the initial (police) reports stated something totally different.\" That's putting it mildly. In early police statements -- issued before the video came to light -- Slager reportedly said that Scott attacked him, that he fired only after a scuffle and that cops made medical efforts to revive Scott. The video makes hash of those claims, and likely contributed to Slager's swift arrest and pending murder charges. \"When you're wrong, you're wrong,\" said North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. That leaves Slager to face murder charges that could land him on death row -- and the rest of us to face a disturbing reality. I'm all for having police use body cameras, although they are not a magic cure for preventing or stopping the excessive use of force. But the much bigger problem is that we simply don't know when and where police killings take place, or whether they cluster in particular cities or states. And that means we don't know for certain whether unjustified or excessive force correlates with particular forms of officer training or detectable underlying racial bias. We don't even know the role played by officers operating under stressful conditions or while dealing with mental or physical illness. These vital questions aren't supposed to be a mystery. According to Section 210402 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, \"The Attorney General shall, through appropriate means, acquire data about the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers. ... The Attorney General shall publish an annual summary of the data acquired under this section.\" That section of the law has effectively been ignored, beyond a first attempt at a comprehensive report published in 1996. By 2001, a New York Times article noted that when it comes to police uses of deadly force, \"No comprehensive accounting for all of the nation's 17,000 police department exists.\" There are multiple reasons the law has been ignored. Collecting information from the nation's thousands of jurisdictions -- the myriad villages, counties and cities -- is a tough, expensive assignment. The job is even harder because many police departments, reluctant to air their dirty laundry, fail to distinguish between justified and unjustified killings on the reasonable grounds that it's up to the courts to rule on whether an officer has committed brutality -- something that's often established only after years of court proceedings. These hurdles could be overcome by a determined effort from Washington, but Congress has failed to press the Justice Department to demand the data and comply with the 1994 law. A weak substitute called the Death in Custody Reporting Act was passed in 2000 and renewed in 2014, but it is a voluntary reporting program intended to coax information out of local departments. Some of the data gap has been filled by media organizations -- and what they have discovered only underscores the need for muscular, mandatory enforcement of the data-gathering law. In 2011, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published an extensive investigation of police killings in and around Las Vegas and found 378 shootings over a 20-year period, 142 of which were fatal. In no case was an officer convicted or even fired because of an on-duty shooting. In South Carolina last month, The State newspaper published an examination of 209 instances in which officers shot at suspects, and found that only a handful of officers were charged, and none found guilty. \"In South Carolina, it remains exceedingly rare for an officer to be found at fault criminally for shooting at someone,\" the Columbia newspaper concluded. A group of activists has created a website called MappingPoliceViolence.org that flags cases of police killings; its estimate that at least 304 black people were killed by police in 2014 may stand as the best guess we have about the dimensions of a national problem. But we shouldn't be guessing. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorialized in 2011: \"How many lives might be saved if taxpayers everywhere were better informed about police shootings? How can they know about a potential local problem without information? ... Police already track everything from domestic violence to child abuse to murder, and police routinely lobby state and federal lawmakers to put new crimes into statute. The budgetary impact of adding another reporting category to local police forces would be minuscule. The social impact of such an addition, however, would be huge.\" That common-sense observation is being echoed by the Obama administration -- specifically, the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, created in December in response to widespread protests following the police killings of unarmed black men including Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The recently released interim report of the task force calls, one more time, for the Justice Department to collect comprehensive data from local departments. But it will take more pressure -- from activists, victims' families, members of Congress and President Barack Obama himself -- to demand an end to the stonewalling of information. It's long past time we got to the truth of how many more killings like Walter Scott's are happening without a video to set the record straight.","highlights":"Errol Louis: By chance a bystander video caught South Carolina officer shooting apparently unarmed black man .\nFederal law on reporting of such shootings goes unenforced -- how many instances do we never hear about? he asks .\nLouis: It's long past time for officials to tell the truth -- even when there's no video .","id":"a37f0005819d1973a72a8bac4cbee8bbb28c16dd"} -{"article":"(CNN)The new emojis are here! On Thursday, Apple released a new version of its mobile operating system that includes more diversity than ever when it comes to the race, ethnicity and sexual orientation of its emojis -- those cute little images that users can insert into text messages or emails when words alone just won't cut it. The reaction to this new lineup is, as should be expected with almost anything new in today's hypersensitive climate, a range of cheers and jeers. Why is any of this important, you may ask? For many, these images are far more than tiny clip art for texting. Rather they are seen as recognition that their own ethnicity, sexual orientation, race or even hair color is part of mainstream America -- despite what others might say. This matters in a digital age where texting is how most people communicate and represent themselves dozens -- if not hundreds -- of times every day. Think receiving a text of an image of a person smiling. Or more accurately, think of a white face smiling because up until Thursday's update, all the emojis had pale skin. But that has all changed. Now there's a range of emoji skin tones to pick from, including yellow, brown and black. I'm sure few people will be upset with this development. But how about in December? Why? Now that will be able to choose the skin tones for each human emoji, and that will also include ... Santa Claus. That shrieking sound you may have heard was from Fox News' Megyn Kelly, who famously stated in 2013 that Santa Claus is absolutely, definitely and without a doubt a white guy. In fact, thanks to Apple, we may even see Brown Santa emojis this December. (Could that mean he's a Muslim Santa?! Cue even more shrieking from Fox News.) There is more. Apple has now given us gay and lesbian couple emojis, kissing with a heart over their heads. This inclusiveness was cheered by at least one gay news service on Twitter. It's not yet clear if a person who likes to use same-sex kissing emoji couples can be denied service by a person who objects on grounds of \"religious liberty.\" But it would be interesting to hear what any of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates might have to say about \"gay emojis.\" And I would predict some conservative will claim that the kissing gay emojis will turn children gay. The fact is, when you embrace diversity, you will still leave out other minority groups. Redheads, for example, are pretty pissed off because there are no emojis featuring their hair color. In fact, supporters of a redheaded emoji have started a petition that has already garnered several thousand signatures. Even expanding the flags represented by emojis, as Apple has done, comes at some peril. Apparently Canada is overjoyed that finally Apple has included it. But Armenians are not happy they were left out. I must admit that being partially of Palestinian heritage, it's heartening to see that despite the fact that some refuse to recognize a Palestinian state, Apple has chosen to now include a Palestinian flag emoji. Armenia, I feel your pain. Of course the bigger question in the whole diverse-emoji issue is: What took Apple so long? How hard could it have been to add different skin colors to pick from? That the company (finally) did is a step in the right direction: America's demographics are changing, so our representations of who we are -- even representations as tiny as emojis -- should reflect this. Apple has \"evolved\" in showing diversity -- from brown people to same-sex couples. Maybe \"religious liberty\" conservatives who discriminate will follow.","highlights":"Dean Obeidallah: Apple's new emoji lineup is diverse in race, ethnicity and sexual orientation .\nIt's just like America, but what took Apple so long? Obeidallah asks .\nHe says change may rankle (or win over?) conservatives who discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation .","id":"1ecb11d97cc3290881a814fa863c1b06b6b96502"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hillary Clinton finally answered the question we've all been asking for years: Will she run for president in 2016? With official news of her candidacy just hours old, one thing is already crystal clear: For the next year and a half, Clinton will be the barometer by which we assess gender equality in the United States. Win or lose, this creates a burden for her that no male candidate will ever have to shoulder. Just consider the two potential outcomes. A win would mean a woman in the White House, which is a vital step in the march toward women's full political inclusion. But it's possible that the march will end right there. We'll break our arms patting ourselves on the back for how far we've come. We'll raise the \"Mission Accomplished\" banner over the women's movement. And we'll call it a day. Granted, 80% of elected officials throughout the country will still be men. Women will continue to be less likely than men even to consider running for office. And pay inequities, sexual assault and human trafficking will persist as challenges that no one person can solve, no matter how hard Clinton might try. \"But we've elected a woman as president,\" we'll say. Let her take care of it. A loss would be even more difficult. Clinton will be blamed for running a subpar campaign regardless of how brilliant her strategy is. More generally, her loss would perpetuate the myth that women cannot win big elections, that the electoral environment is rife with bias and discrimination, and that women must be twice as good to get half as far. \"If Hillary Clinton can't win an election,\" potential female candidates will ask, \"How can I?\" Extrapolating from one female candidate's experiences to women in politics more broadly is always suspect. But in the case of Clinton, it is particularly flawed for at least two fundamental reasons. First, Clinton is no ordinary female presidential candidate, if there is such a thing. She began the 2008 race with levels of name recognition that many candidates never achieve, and she is even more well-known today. But that means that she also enters the electoral arena with 23 years of public accomplishments and 23 years of well-publicized baggage. Voters, donors, journalists and pundits all hold clear impressions of Clinton before she ever eats a corn dog in Iowa, steps onto a debate stage in New Hampshire or takes a shot of bourbon in Kentucky. Too often, we treat Clinton's loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary as a referendum on how citizens feel about electing women to positions of political power. In reality, what people knew about Hillary Clinton likely shaped their views of Hillary Clinton. Widespread sexism and misogyny likely did not. After all, for decades, women who have run for office have performed just as well as men. They win elections at equal rates and routinely raise comparable amounts of money. Do some voters still question women's suitability as leaders? Of course they do. But these attitudes, which have become increasingly rare, do not translate into systematic biases against female candidates. Second, presidential politics is, first and foremost, a partisan affair. The D or R in front of the candidates' names -- not the X or Y chromosomes in their DNA -- tells us about how more than 90% of the population will vote. Party polarization has essentially rendered the importance of sex on the campaign trail far less relevant than might otherwise be the case. Now, I'll be the first to predict that by the middle of the week, we will be able to assemble a reel of sexist comments uttered by pundits, and we will be one mouse click away from a steady stream of misogynistic memes, photos and captions that have taken hold on social media. The Clinton campaign will once again have to determine which incidents to address, which to ignore and how to preempt future episodes. I don't want to diminish the problems associated with this type of behavior or the fact that it is inappropriate, disrespectful and appalling. And incorporating these concerns into a broad campaign strategy is likely something that male candidates won't need to consider. But men yelling \"Iron my shirt\" at a campaign rally, cable news pundits associating Clinton with their ex-wives outside of probate court and manufacturers producing Hillary Clinton nutcrackers do not change the fact that when it comes to presidential elections, partisanship and the state of the economy tell us almost everything we need to know. If Clinton wins the race, it will be because it was a good year for Democrats. And if she loses, it will be because the GOP developed a winning message. But how much does any of this really matter? Sure, voters are amenable to electing women. Any Democratic nominee would face the same electoral landscape. The problems confronting women in society are just as grave regardless of who occupies the White House. And inferring too much from Hillary Clinton's experiences is a risky endeavor. Yet the minute Clinton announced her candidacy, she became the official litmus test for true gender equality in the United States. That's a label that no female candidate should have to wear. Let the burden begin.","highlights":"Jennifer Lawless: There's a strong temptation to view Hillary Clinton's candidacy as all about cracking the glass ceiling for women .\nShe says the reality is that most people will vote not on gender but on the economy and partisanship .","id":"e21f3aefeb41b20bc197297ad55d2e2a8933fc45"} -{"article":"(CNN)In 2013, \"The Bible\" broke ratings records on the History Channel, so of course, a sequel was ordered up -- and this one is on NBC. The new miniseries from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey is one of six shows to watch this week. 1. \"A.D. The Bible Continues,\" 9 p.m. ET Sunday, NBC . Just in time for Easter, the peacock network debuts the \"Bible\" sequel, picking up with Jesus' resurrection and following the early days of Christianity. NBC scored on picking up the follow-up to the smash cable hit, starring Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus and Greta Scacchi as Mary (replacing Downey in the role). The full miniseries will run for 12 weeks, so consider it a spring revival. 2. \"Mad Men,\" 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC . We've arrived at the end, \"Mad Men\" fans. This is the first of the last several episodes, where we'll learn the fate of Don Draper and the cast of characters. Click here for more on \"Mad Men.\" 3. \"American Odyssey,\" 10 p.m. Sunday, NBC . Anna Friel (\"Pushing Daisies\") stars as a special forces translator in Mali who is believed to be dead by those back in the States. On the show, she struggles to get back home, while we discover how she ended up how she did. 4. \"Louie,\" 10:30 Thursday, FX . Louis C.K.'s critically-acclaimed comedy is back for a fifth season. Will Louie continue to offend people in his life? All signs point to yes. Is Louie still dating his best friend-turned-girlfriend, Pamela? We'll have to tune into find out. 5. \"The Comedians,\" 10 p.m. Thursday, FX . Billy Crystal returns to television, with co-star Josh Gad, as two people starring in an FX comedy. It's a meta mockumentary about the making of a comedy show. \"Seinfeld\" and \"Curb Your Enthusiasm's\" Larry Charles is among the producers. 6. \"Marvel's Daredevil,\" Friday, Netflix . This ain't Ben Affleck's movie. Now that Marvel has the rights to the \"Man Without Fear\" back, they've decided to launch several series for Netflix, starting with this dark, gritty drama about blind lawyer Matt Murdock, and his moonlighting as a costumed avenger (no pun intended).","highlights":"Sequel to popular \"Bible\" miniseries debuting on NBC .\n\"Mad Men\" premieres the first of its final episodes .\nNetflix premieres its first Marvel series, \"Daredevil\"","id":"1c26bc664022ab5ffb8bca0d077c5d72cac7976f"} -{"article":"London (CNN)The Pentagon released a map this week showing coalition forces have taken back 25-30% of Iraqi territory seized by ISIS. The map, above, shows gains in key central and northern areas of Iraq where the terror group was previously the dominant force. The gains made in the fight against the terror group by Iraqi security forces and coalition air power certainly look impressive -- although as the U.S. Department of Defense acknowledges it's a dynamic conflict and territory can change hands depending on \"daily fluctuations in the battle lines.\" So, how exactly should we read this information? What does it say about the wider fight against ISIS? CNN asked Afzal Ashraf, a counterinsurgency specialist and consulting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute to give us a steer on what this new data tells us about the fight against ISIS in Iraq. Below is an edited version of the conversation. CNN: So, is the tide turning in Iraq -- is the coalition winning? Afzal Ashraf: When it comes to insurgencies it's always problematic to think about the tide turning in terms of territorial gains because insurgencies by their very nature are extremely good at adapting to change. The one difference between ISIS and insurgencies in general is that ISIS declared itself a state, a caliphate once had territory so any loss is very strategic loss of prestige and image for them. (There have been) significant gains against ISIS -- particularly in Tikrit -- and it's no coincidence we've seen ISIS make spectacular attacks in refugee centers in Syria. It's asymmetric warfare, they know they cannot hold conventional force back for very long so what they do is they withdraw ... then take initiative elsewhere. They have to distract attention from those losses by gains and attacks elsewhere. It continues their image of initiative, of shocking, of reshaping the world -- which is what they are trying to do. CNN: What does the map tell us about the coalition's strategy? AA: It's very telling. There are losses but most of the losses are around the edges of their territory and what that means is a very conventional push forward by the Iraqi forces. It's a push against the front line of ISIS rather than being brave and creative and going in behind ISIS's lines and breaking it up. What this isn't is using maneuverist warfare -- which is a military philosophy that exploits the capabilities of conventional forces to project power by using air forces to take land along main supply routes and put friendly forces on that land to cut land into chunks which causes massive disruption to command and control and their supply chains which can cause forces to collapse much more rapidly than a frontal push. The capability you need (for this kind of warfare) is much more high-tech than the capabilities the Iraqis have. Those capabilities are available in the region -- Jordanians, Egyptians and other forces have helicopters and aircraft -- and it's very interesting that the Middle Eastern nations have not developed an effective coalition to target ISIS which is an existential threat. CNN: What about Ramadi? ISIS seems to be winning there. AA: Ramadi has been a potential battlefield for the past decade. But in this context (ISIS) will ... be pushing in Ramadi because that's an area they have lots of support. It also diverts their attention away from losses to their gains. The concept of success is hugely important to them -- it's what sustains the recruitment effort of ISIS. Nobody wants to join a bunch of losers, so it's very important for them to be seen to be succeeding. Above all this is a rhetorical war that is being fought deliberately in the media. They are losing so of course they are going to try to distract us by destroying ancient statues in Nimrud and killing refugees in camps like Yarmouk. But where it counts they are not standing and fighting.","highlights":"Pentagon releases map showing coalition forces have taken back 25-30% of Iraq territory from ISIS .\nCounterinsurgency specialist Afzal Ashraf on what new data tells us about fight .\nAshraf: Where it counts (ISIS is) not standing and fighting .","id":"2ffe3bdf91bdd8e12fc00fa02267545d8a0cb6da"} -{"article":"(CNN)Arsenal kept their slim hopes of winning this season's English Premier League title alive by beating relegation threatened Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor. A first half goal from Welsh international Aaron Ramsey was enough to separate the two sides and secure Arsenal's hold on second place. More importantly it took the north London club to within four points of first placed Chelsea, with the two clubs to play next week. But Chelsea have two games in hand and play lowly Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, a team who are themselves struggling against relegation. Good form . Arsenal have been in superb form since the start of the year, transforming what looked to be another mediocre season struggling to secure fourth place -- and with it Champions League qualification -- into one where they at least have a shot at winning the title. After going ahead, Arsenal rarely looked in any danger of conceding, showing more of the midfield pragmatism epitomized by the likes of Francis Coquelin, who also played a crucial role in the goal. \"He has been absolutely consistent in the quality of his defensive work,\" Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports after the game when asked about Coquelin's contribution to Arsenal's current run. They have won eight games in a row since introducing the previously overlooked young Frenchman into a more defensive midfield position. \"He was a player who was with us for seven years, from 17, he's now just 24,\" Wenger explained. \"Sometimes you have to be patient. I am very happy for him because he has shown great mental strength.\" Now all eyes will be on next week's clash between Arsenal and Chelsea which will likely decide the title. \"They have the games in hand,\" said Wenger, playing down his club's title aspirations. \"But we'll keep going and that's why the win was so important for us today.\" Relegation dogfight . Meanwhile it was a good day for teams at the bottom of the league. Aston Villa continued their good form since appointing coach Tim Sherwood with a 1-0 victory over Tottenham, who fired Sherwood last season. Belgian international Christian Benteke scored the only goal of the game, his eighth in six matches, to secure a vital three points to give the Midlands club breathing space. Another Midlands club looking over their shoulder is West Brom, who conceded an injury time goal to lose 3-2 against bottom club Leicester City. But it was an awful day for Sunderland's former Dutch international coach Dick Advocaat, who saw his team lose 4-1 at home against form team Crystal Palace. Democratic Republic of Congo international Yannick Bolasie scored Crystal Palace's first ever hat trick in the Premier League to secure an easy victory.","highlights":"Arsenal beat Burnley 1-0 in the EPL .\nA goal from Aaron Ramsey secured all three points .\nWin cuts Chelsea's EPL lead to four points .","id":"0a6b027b3384e79929c19b94062882db8c7f91fc"} -{"article":"(CNN)I'm haunted by the video of Officer Michael Slager firing eight shots at Walter Scott as he fled his encounter with North Charleston police -- his back turned to the officer. What I find more disturbing is how the officer cuffs the fallen Scott and allows him to die face-down in the dirt while Slager appears to plant an item next to his body. I understand why people are skeptical of self-defense claims -- especially from law enforcement. If not for the video taken by a bystander, I can't help but think that this story would be shuttered behind the wall of an active investigation. As a defense attorney, I am more sensitive than anyone to the assumption of innocence for those accused of a crime, but this single piece of evidence -- a video of a man shot in the back while in full retreat -- defies any reasonable explanation. Thank God there was a camera. It will help ensure that justice will be served in this case. However, there is another camera that -- had it been deployed -- might have prevented the entire tragedy: a police body camera. Throughout the entire encounter with Scott, it's clear Slager had no idea someone was filming him. Had he known there would be video of his every move, would he have drawn his weapon on a fleeing man? Would he have fired? Eight times? Would he have misrepresented the encounter on his police report? Of course not. If Slager had been wearing a body camera, Scott would probably still be alive, and Slager wouldn't be facing the possibility of life in prison -- or a possible death sentence. Body cameras are expensive to deploy, sure. And storing the massive amounts of data that body cameras create costs even more. That cost, however -- if we're talking the monetary kind -- may be eclipsed by the punitive damages delivered to Scott's family in an inevitable civil suit against the North Charleston Police Department. Most importantly, we have to ask ourselves this: What's the value of a human life? Certainly it's worth the price of some mass data storage. And there's something else at stake. The public is losing confidence in law enforcement, and the strained relationship between minorities and police is reaching a breaking point. Every police shooting that captures headlines justifies an ever increasing fear of cops in the street. As fear ratchets up, so does the tension between cops and the people in the communities they serve. As tension rises, the risk of more shootings increases. It is a cycle of destruction that could lead to chaos. Police body cameras can help break this cycle. Studies have shown that both cops and people in the community act better when they know they are on camera. Complaints against cops decrease, and, most importantly, use-of-force incidents drop. I will admit that body cameras are only an interim solution. They only help compensate for the real underlying problem, which is this: There is a bias against black men that has infiltrated the criminal justice system, and we are seeing it in the disproportionate shooting of black men. When we look at this footage -- and when we see the dashboard camera from the other South Carolina officer who last year shot a man who was reaching for his driver's license -- it's clear that many cops are more likely to interpret actions, even routine actions, from black men as potentially aggressive. These may not be overtly racist cops. They may not intentionally treat black men differently, but we can't pretend that black men aren't being disproportionately targeted. All across the country, we see it happening, and with the proliferation of video, we're seeing it happen with alarming frequency. Somehow, we're going to have to beat this bias out of our system. Set tougher employment screening standards when hiring cops. Institute more training to help officers recognize the bias and adjust for it. As a society, we have to focus on the broad social changes needed to address disparities in income, education and opportunities -- disparities that keep us a racially divided nation. But social change, sadly, may take generations of hard work. In the meantime, if we can't immediately root out racial bias, we can at least put a bright spotlight on it, and we can start by focusing on the one interaction where racial bias results in the loss of life -- we can start by placing body-mounted cameras on cops.","highlights":"Mark O'Mara: Video captured Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott; if cop had been wearing a body camera, he probably wouldn't have fired .\nO'Mara says such cameras are expensive, but cheaper than wrongful death payouts -- and the cost of a human life.\nThe underlying problem is racial bias in policing; until that's solved, body cameras are a good interim solution .","id":"5a4f7f0a9cc7a0e70ec80fd9238ed98b531ecbbb"} -{"article":"(CNN)Danny Kahneman, my good friend and co-author who got a Nobel Prize in economics, once helped to run an experiment involving patients undergoing colonoscopies. One group received a mildly pleasurable experience at the end of the procedure; the other group, which experienced the same type of colonoscopy, did not. It turns out that the group for whom things ended well had significantly more positive recollections of the whole affair from its beginning. The psychology of it is simple to understand: Happy endings matter. Even an unpleasant experience can lead to happy memories in hindsight if it ends well. So too with taxes. Let's just say that when it comes to taxes for the average American, \"stuff\" happens (keeping the colonoscopy metaphor running), paycheck to tax-reduced paycheck. But recent statistics suggest that 8 out of 10 American taxpayers get a refund when they file their taxes, and the average amount is close to $3000. That pays for a lot of stuff. To make the good news even better, tax filing has gotten rather simple for most people, with various software and service providers offering to do the dreaded paperwork for free. No filing headaches and a check to boot. What's not to like? The fact of the matter is there is plenty not to like when it comes to the U.S. tax system. For example, the laws are biased against two-worker marriages; taxes go up when two relatively equal earners marry, as the rate brackets for couples are less than double that for single filers. Taxes are also overly complex and essentially optional for the truly rich, who make their wealth off of their existing wealth, the largely untaxed returns from capital, rather than by getting ordinary paychecks like most of us. But now is not the time to explain such serious matters; the people are too busy spending their refunds. The once dreaded Tax Day has become a happy spending spree for most Americans. This state of short-term bliss follows from some deep trends in our tax laws. In brief, the U.S. income tax system is increasingly a wage tax, with limited taxes on capital (what the rich have) and limited deductions for most of us. For example, 3 out of 4 Americans using a standard deduction get no break for their charitable contributions. All of this has been hashed and rehashed by politicians, professors and pundits. But who has time for that? Let's go to our television sets and check out the commercials. One clever spot ran during the recent Super Bowl, suggesting that the Boston Tea Party -- a tax revolt -- could have been averted with free online filing, which the sponsor was eager to provide. Filling out 1040s was part of what made the income tax so odious for the masses for such a long time -- who doesn't remember our parents fretting over shoeboxes of receipts sometime in April, the cruelest month? Now as Tax Day approaches, we are flooded with advertisements about America getting its billions back, without even having to pay to prepare the forms. We get paid to play! Here is the happy ending that Kahneman and others have shown can mitigate the memories of unpleasantness past. The simple fact is that a simple tax is also rather simple to administer. Service providers kindly offer to help out the masses of befuddled Americans. Of course, these kind souls want their happy endings too. They are betting that once the large refunds become obvious to their customers, the grateful taxpayers-turned-consumers will happily purchase add-on services, such as \"audit protection insurance,\" or perhaps deposit the money in financial accounts managed by the provider. Just as lottery winners notoriously go on impulsive spending sprees, the \"found money\" of tax returns can finance many nice purchases. Of course, there are still those annoying matters of the deep unfairness of the tax laws, biased against modern families and wage earners, and in favor of the rich living off capital. No real bother -- stuff happens. Let others fret about fairness. As long as our taxpaying or colon procedures end with a smile -- or a check -- who has time to dwell on the bad stuff that came before?","highlights":"Edward McCaffery: There's a fundamental unfairness to U.S. tax laws .\nBut Americans don't care because most of us get a refund on Tax Day, and that makes us happy .","id":"f309d4d0aabf03a015bb1125544d916aa6fe520d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Even in the horror of Syria's civil war, there are few places that showcase the scale of the destruction -- and the senselessness of the loss of life -- more than the Yarmouk camp on the outskirts of Damascus. Set up as a refugee camp for Palestinians in the 1950s, it slowly evolved into a neighborhood over the years, but since 2012 it has been engulfed in the Syrian conflict. Two weeks ago ISIS fighters stormed Yarmouk, and that made life for those still inside even worse than it was before. The Syrian government responded by unleashing a bombing and shelling campaign on the area, residents told CNN, including barrel bombs that flattened many of the buildings already scarred by the three-year-long conflict. Death comes day and night. \"I looked up and saw dust,\" one resident said. \"I opened the door and started walking outside and started shouting to the neighbors. One told me 'I am wounded,' another one didn't answer me at all. That second one -- may god have mercy on his soul -- he was martyred.\" While the battle for Yarmouk is very typical of Syria's civil war, the conflict here is unique. Most of those fighting on all sides are Palestinians. Pro-government factions besiege the area from the outside, cutting off supplies and aid most of the time. The inside is held by anti-regime groups, some of which are Islamists. The situation in Yarmouk was thrust in to the headlines on April 1 when ISIS fighters stormed the rebel-held area and unleashed a campaign of violence and killings. Since then, a local activist tells CNN, ISIS has withdrawn to another area and left the al Qaedalinked group Jabhat al-Nusra in charge of the district. 'The deepest circle of hell': Terrified Yarmouk residents describe ISIS raid . But this is only the most recent in a deadly urban war that is slowly grinding down Yarmouk's buildings and people. Of the more than 100,000 that used to live there, only about 18,000 remain, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency tasked with aiding Palestinians. I have been to Yarmouk on various occasions, and the picture has always been the same. Pro-government factions surrounded the area and there was house-to house combat, mostly at night. A lot of destruction, very little territorial gain for either side, all of it taking a horrifying toll on the civilians trapped in the middle. \"We have no food or water,\" one resident said, standing amid the ruins of Yarmouk's houses. \"They should open a route so we can eat and drink and they can deliver assistance and food. We have nothing. What can we do?\" But international aid groups can do very little. There are few occasions where aid is allowed into Yarmouk, or where civilians are allowed out. UNRWA can only care for those who do manage to escape. U.N. official to visit besieged refugee camp . The agency, along with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, runs several shelters for displaced people in government-controlled areas near the camp. Pierre Krahenbuhl, the Commissioner General for UNRWA, recently visited some of them and acknowledged that far too little help was reaching those who need it most. \"We have to call on the world and call on all the actors in the world who can influence the situation to mobilize,\" Krahenbuhl said. \"But much more has to be done to respect the civilians and to make sure that they are safe inside the camp.\" But of course those still inside are by no means safe -- subjected to shelling, bombing and street combat on top of being thirsty, hungry and in need of medication. But one thing that has not been broken is the residents' self-respect and pride. \"This is Yarmouk camp and we are not leaving our homes,\" one man said. \"Whatever happens, if they keep hitting us with barrel bombs we will die.\" An elderly woman recalled her life as a Palestinian refugee. \"I fled Palestine when I was seven years old,\" she said. \"But I will not leave the Yarmouk camp even if I am 75 or 76 years old. Yarmouk camp is equal to my soul. I built it with my bare hands. I carried its stones on my head from a village and laid the foundation to my home. Block by block I carried them on my head.\" But despite their defiance, there's seemingly nothing that can be done to prevent Yarmouk from being reduced to rubble. This is a war of attrition, two sides fighting for inches in tough combat without seeing that they are wrecking the prize they claim to be fighting for. Desperation for Palestinians trapped in Syrian refugee camp .","highlights":"ISIS raided Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus on April 1 .\n18,000 Palestinian refugees remain in the camp, cut off from vital aid .\nOne defiant elderly resident told CNN: \"I will not leave the Yarmouk camp even if I am 75 or 76 years old\"","id":"a168d9139450678679e8dd7ddfa9fd5b8f8d1c7b"} -{"article":"(Billboard)From Channing Tatum twerking for Jennifer Lopez to host Amy Schumer's archery fail, there were plenty of highlights and misfires from the 2015 MTV Movie Awards. 2015 MTV Movie Awards: See the full winners list . Here are the jokes, performances and moments that hit the target and the ones and missed it. Best Moments . Amy Schumer's opener: From a \"Boyhood\"\/HPV joke to nearly flashing J.K. Simmons to her run-in with a cancer support group, Schumer's opening video segment was as reliably hilarious and inventive as her Comedy Central show (which can't come back on TV soon enough). Plus, her monologue killed: \"Half of you know who I am, half of you think I'm Meghan Trainor.\" Channing Tatum doing his thing: When the cast of \"Magic Mike XXL\" presented J.Lo with the Scared As Shit Performance award, she asked them exactly what we were all thinking: \"Why aren't you dancing?\" Channing Tatum obliged, popping a twerk (in a suit) onstage in front of Lopez. \"Your turn,\" he told her. Sadly, she did not oblige. Amy Schumer takes on Hillary Clinton, Zayn Malik and more in monologue . Rebel Wilson's censored moment: Introducing an exclusive clip from \"Pitch Perfect 2\" as an \"exclusive clit\" was easily the funniest non-Schumer joke of the entire night. Even her castmates seemed shocked when she slipped it in. Fall Out Boy meets Fetty Wap: \"Centuries\" didn't need a rap breakdown, nor did \"Trap Queen\" need a punk-rock edge. But did it sound killer on both counts? Hell yeah. Fetty with an electric guitar is something that needs to happen again. Charli XCX, Ty Dolla $ign & Tinashe: There's a reason Charli gets invited to every MTV awards show: She attacks a pop song with the abandon of a rock 'n' roll tidal wave. \"Drop That Kitty\" was Tinashe's time to shine, though. It's only a shame she got about 30 seconds to command the stage. Kiss Cam: Amy Schumer sensuously kissing Amber Rose just before a commercial break? Well played, Amy. Kevin Hart's Comedic Genius Award: While Kimmel's intro jokes were a little one-note (we get it, Kevin is short), it was pretty adorable that Hart brought his kids onstage to accept his Golden Popcorn. As his son held it, you realized the award was bigger than the kid's head. MTV Movie Awards: See all the photos . Robert Downey Jr. accepting Generation Award: His speech was fine (kudos for the \"keep your nose clean\" quip), but his Avengers castmates taking a knee while he accepted his award was just perfect. Misfires . Archery fail: Schumer's bow-and-arrow misfire was a literal misfire. It wasn't a big deal, but the fact that it ruined an entire gag (with Jimmy Kimmel pretending to get shot in the chest) was naturally awkward. Of course, Schumer poked fun at herself almost immediately. \"Gone Girl\" joke: \"How good was Gone Girl? It's the story of what one crazed white woman -- or every Latina -- does when a man cheats on them,\" Schumer joked. It wasn't awful, just kinda off. MTV immediately cut to J.Lo laughing like \"ummm, OK\" -- which is an accurate response. Vin Diesel sings 'Furious 7' Paul Walker tribute song at MTV Movie Awards . Shailene Woodley speech: Woodley definitely marches to the beat of her own drum, which is part of her appeal. But halfway through her Trailblazer award acceptance speech, the neo-hippie charm wore off, leaving most people wondering what she was trying to say. One of those wondering where she was going was Woodley herself, who wrapped up her speech by admitting it had totally gotten away from her. Zac Efron and Dave Franco: Was the punchline for their whole shtick really just Efron grabbing Franco's balls? Yes. Apparently, a man touching another man's junk is still comedy gold in 2015. Dwayne Johnson: The Rock shouting into the camera about 2014's movie highlights was totally unnecessary. At this point, MTV has to realize we've heard jokes about \"American Sniper\", \"Gone Girl\", \"Boyhood\" and \"Whiplash\" for almost a year now, and we're all ready to move on. But God Bless The Rock for giving it his all.","highlights":"MTV Movie Awards host Amy Schumer had some hits and misses during the show .\nRebel Wilson tossed in a censor-worthy joke .","id":"b540aeae06b011f092bff5efc36df3bdc64215cb"} -{"article":"(CNN)For superhero fans, the cup runneth over. Most of us know the members of the Avengers by now: Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and the rest, and the fact that a few more like Quicksilver are joining the cast in the \"Avengers: Age of Ultron\" sequel. But there was one character who remained a mystery: the Vision, to be played by Paul Bettany. Thus far, we've only seen his eyes in a trailer. With less than a month to go before the movie hits theaters, Marvel Studios put all the speculation to rest with a poster featuring Bettany as the heroic android, who was a member of the superhero group for many years in the comics. Meanwhile, as many Marvel fans know, Thursday was the eve of the new Netflix series \"Daredevil,\" and after a photoshopped first look at Charlie Cox's iconic red Daredevil suit went out, Marvel put out a video of the real one. Not to be outdone, director Bryan Singer announced a new character for next year's sequel \"X-Men: Apocalypse,\" by telling Empire magazine that Ben Hardy would be playing the role of the winged mutant Angel. He even had a photo to share. And Thursday's new super images weren't quite done, because the questions over how Jamie Bell's rocky character The Thing in the rebooted \"Fantastic Four\" movie (out August 7) might look were also finally answered. And he looks ... pretty much like The Thing we already knew (but reportedly, CGI this time). Within 24 hours, we got yet another indication that the superhero trend isn't going anywhere anytime soon (and we didn't even talk about the new photo of Ryan Reynolds' \"Deadpool\").","highlights":"Marvel Studios releases first looks at Paul Bettany as the Vision in \"Avengers: Age of Ultron\" and Charlie Cox in full \"Daredevil\" costume .\nJamie Bell's character of The Thing was also unveiled for 20th Century Fox's Marvel-based reboot of \"Fantastic Four\"\nBryan Singer unveiled the first look at \"X-Men: Apocalypse\" Angel played by Ben Hardy .","id":"74b24c60df8b6c07fc2714997a7cb0b59c4d2e2a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Ursula Ward kept repeating her son's name -- Odin. She steadied herself against the podium in the Fall River, Massachusetts, courtroom and occasionally paused. She was tired after more than two years of pain, punctuated Wednesday when her son's killer, Aaron Hernandez, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Odin Lloyd was her first born, her only son. \"Odin was the backbone of the family. Odin was the man of the house. Odin was his sisters' keeper,\" Ward told Judge Susan Garsh, before Garsh sentenced the former pro-football player. Lloyd was 27-years-old and working for a landscaping firm when he was killed in June 2013. He played football for the Boston Bandits, the oldest semi-pro team in Boston and the winner of four championships in the New England Football League, according to the team's website. His mother, sister, uncle and cousin described him as a champion of family, a gifted athlete and a hard worker with a sense of humor. They said he rode his bike several miles to get to work. He went to all of his niece's recitals. \"Odin was my first best gift I (will) ever receive,\" his mother said. \"I thank God (for) every second and every day of my son's life that I spent with him. \"The day I laid my son Odin to rest,\" she continued, pausing to maintain her composure, \"I think my heart stopped beating for a moment. I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my son, Odin.\" She can still hear him talking to her: \"'Ma, did you cook? Ma, go to bed. Ma, you're so beautiful.'\" Ed Lloyd followed Ward to address the judge. Odin Lloyd's uncle thanked everyone who worked on the case against Hernandez. His nephew, he said, \"meant a lot to me.\" \"To see how he grew, the respect he had, the toughest thing for me is that I won't get to see him have a child...,\" Ed Lloyd said. He loved watching his nephew and his son together. \"A lot of people won't see from the outside the value and the riches (Odin Lloyd) had,\" he said. \"I'm sorry for where I stand today but I know that all the time I had with him was special and he'll always be with me.\" Who was Odin Lloyd? Odin Lloyd's sister Olivia Thibou wept as she explained what it has felt like to lose her brother. \"These last couple years have been the hardest of our lives,\" she said, recalling that she was asked to writer her brother's eulogy. \"I got to write all the great memories I have of him.\" She laughed, recalling his insistence on wearing the same Adidas flip-flops until the soles wore away. He was \"prideful,\" she said. He would take her car out and just when she was starting to angry, he'd pull in with the car shining and clean, inside and out. He taught her daughter how to ride a bike. His murder, she said, \"feels like a bad dream.\" Ward told the court that she constantly thinks about her son. \"I miss my baby boy Odin so much,\" she said. \"But I know I'm going to see him again someday and that has given me the strength to go on.\" She has also apparently gained strength from the act of forgiveness. \"I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder,\" she said. \"I pray and hope that someday everyone out there will forgive them also.\" What's next for Aaron Hernandez?","highlights":"Ursula Ward talks about the shock and pain of her son's murder .\nOdin Lloyd's sister said her brother's death has felt like 'a bad dream'","id":"72610cfcc7b8bc1e90a08d8cac4f7b53a1e1389b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez will need to keep his lawyers even after being convicted of murder and other charges in the death of Odin Lloyd. The 25-year-old potentially faces three more trials -- one criminal and two civil actions. Next up is another murder trial in which he is accused of killing two men and wounding another person near a Boston nightclub in July 2012. Prosecutors have said Hernandez fatally shot Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado when he fired into their 2003 BMW. Another passenger was wounded and two others were uninjured. Hernandez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. The trial was originally slated for May 28, but Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, said Wednesday the trial had been postponed and no new date had been set. \"We expect to select a new court date in the coming days and then set the amended trial track. The Suffolk indictments allege two counts of first-degree murder for the July 16, 2012, shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston's South End; three counts of armed assault with intent to murder and one count of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon for shots fired at three surviving victims; and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm,\" he said. The families of de Abreu and Furtado filed civil suits against Hernandez, and a judge froze his $5 million in assets, pending the outcome of the double-murder trial. The freeze includes the disputed $3.3 million signing bonus payment Hernandez claims he is owed by the New England Patriots. Hernandez is also being sued by a man who claims Hernandez shot him while they were in a limousine in Miami in February 2013. Alexander Bradley claims the then-New England Patriot tight end wounded him after the two got into a fight at a Miami strip club. In a lawsuit filed four months later, Bradley said Hernandez fired at him during a limo ride after leaving the club and that Hernandez intentionally \"possessed a gun which he was not legally licensed to have.\" Hernandez's lawyers have argued he couldn't defend himself properly while on trial in Massachusetts. There was no criminal charge in the case. And then there is the grievance over unpaid bonus money filed by the NFL players union on behalf of Hernandez, who signed a contract in 2012 that potentially was worth more than $40 million. If the grievance is heard by the league, Hernandez will be represented by the the National Football League Players' Association. Who was Odin Lloyd? CNN's Lawrence Crook contributed to this report.","highlights":"Aaron Hernandez has been found guilty in Odin Lloyd's death, but his troubles are not over .\nHe also faces murder charges in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, but trial was postponed .\nIn addition, Hernandez will face two civil lawsuits; one is in relation to Suffolk County case .","id":"e84c74b45a589a6faefaa881016505fd282a46ca"} -{"article":"(CNN)SPOILER ALERT! It's not just women getting cloned. That was the big twist at the end of \"Orphan Black's\" second season. The kickoff to the new season leads the list of six things to watch in the week ahead. 1. \"Orphan Black,\" 9 p.m. ET, Saturday, April 18, BBC America . The cloning cult sci-fi series remains one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV, thanks in large part to the performance of Tatiana Maslany, who has taken on at least six roles on the show so far, including a newly introduced transgender clone. Maslany told reporters this week that we can expect even more impressive scenes with multiple clones. \"We like to push the boundaries of what we're able to do and the limits of those clone scenes,\" she said. \"So, yes, you'll definitely see more complex clone work this season and that's just because we're getting more comfortable with the technology and we're excited by getting to sort of further complicate things.\" And the introduction of a group of male clones will certainly increase the suspense. \"There definitely is a shift towards the Castor clones that we get to explore them a little bit more,\" she said. The fans of the show, dubbed the \"Clone Club\" have a lot to look forward to when the show premieres on Saturday the 18th, and Maslany is blown away by the response to the series so far. \"We've always been really humbled and really inspired by our fans and by their dedication to the show and their knowledge of the show, and just how it changes their own lives. It's incredible.\" 2. \"Turn: Washington's Spies,\" 9 p.m. ET, Monday, AMC . The series about spies in the early days of the Revolutionary War returns with a new subtitle, \"Washington's Spies,\" and a new Monday night time slot. Series star Jamie Bell told CNN what we can expect in the second season. \"This year we have a lot more battles; we have the journey of [George] Washington and we're getting under his skin a little bit as well. We also introduce new characters like Benedict Arnold, a very infamous character in American history.\" Bell hopes the series might bring more recognition to the Culper spy ring and everything it did. \"I think there should be a monument to all of the Culper ring somewhere. I was amazed that there is nothing [in Washington] about these people who did something extraordinary.\" 3. \"Game of Thrones,\" 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, HBO . The world of Westeros returns for a fifth season in one of the biggest season premieres of the year. Click here for more on what to expect. 4. \"Justified,\" 10 p.m. ET, Tuesday, FX . Timothy Olyphant's tour de force performance as Raylan Givens comes to an end Tuesday night, as the modern-day Western airs its season finale. We'll have to see how his final showdown with Boyd Crowder goes. 5. \"Veep,\" 10:30 ET, Sunday, HBO . Hugh Laurie joins the cast and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is now the president of the United States on HBO's hit comedy. 6. \"Nurse Jackie,\" 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, Showtime . The final season of Showtime's long-running melodrama begins.","highlights":"Critically acclaimed series \"Orphan Black\" returns .\n\"Turn: Washington's Spies\" starts a second season .\n\"Game of Thrones\" is back for season five .","id":"00dddbedf41ec993a8b976f3cce2dd8ca2c7efed"} -{"article":"(HLNtv)Actress Alyssa Milano had some angry tweets for Heathrow Airport authorities Thursday morning after workers there allegedly confiscated breast milk she'd pumped for her daughter while she was on a plane. Milano, who was on a trip with her husband that she described in an earlier tweet as a \"romantic getaway,\" was furious. According to the Heathrow Airport guidelines on its website regarding baby food and\/or milk, the airport asks that travelers carry only what they need for the flight. A blogger mom apparently experienced a similar issue at the airport in 2011 when her pumped milk was also confiscated. Per the UK Department of Transport, travelers can carry breast milk through security and are allowed quantities larger than 100ml if necessary. Milano, who has long been an outspoken advocate of breastfeeding, said the cooler the milk was in was also confiscated. See the original story at HLNtv.com.","highlights":"Milano had pumped while on plane .\nTravelers are asked to carry only what they need .","id":"4e1ad6dac4fec0c8d76c056dde5719ef5ddfa73f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Ten years ago, a prosecutor in Centre County, Pennsylvania, took a day off work and vanished. Since then, the case of Ray Gricar has become one of the most intriguing and talked about missing persons stories in the country. Investigators have taken dives to the bottom of lakes, dug up a grave, chased more than 300 reported sightings from Arizona to North Carolina, dropped fliers over Slovenia, consulted a psychic, interviewed a member of the Hell's Angels and enlisted NASA technology. But no one has been able to find the veteran district attorney, who was 59 when he disappeared. When he went missing that Friday morning on April 15, 2005, he left behind a live-in girlfriend, a beautiful and successful daughter and a bank account that was supposed to fund a fast-approaching retirement. His red Mini Cooper was found abandoned near a bridge on the Susquehanna River about 55 miles away from his home. Months later his county-issued laptop and hard drive were found -- separately -- on the banks of the river, too damaged to read. As far as hard evidence goes, that's about all police have. The best lead they got was the sighting of a woman who has not been identified, and information that he had searched online for ways to destroy a hard drive. What's left is theory, speculation and a case that's been cold almost from the beginning. \"When a district attorney goes missing, you know, it's pretty big. It's going to catch people's attention. A lot of people don't have a large footprint. This guy had influential friends, he was well known,\" said Todd Matthews, director of communications and case management for the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, or NamUs. From the start, investigators have considered three possibilities: Gricar committed suicide, fell victim to foul play or deliberately walked away. The prevailing theories have been suicide or walk-away, especially since 2009, when a search of his Google history on his home computer found that someone had been searching \"how to fry a hard drive\" and \"water damage to a notebook computer.\" Gricar, a private and quiet man, was spotted with a woman who was not his girlfriend the day he went missing, and cigarette ash was found near his car, even though he was not a smoker. Friends and colleagues recalled him being distant in the weeks that led up to his disappearance, and recounted his fascination with another law enforcement official from Ohio who vanished in 1985. Matthews said that NamUs has compared Gricar's DNA to unidentified bodies nine times since the database became available in 2009, but so far, none has been a match. \"Even if he chose to make himself go missing, it sounds like something was terribly wrong that caused a drastic change in his life. There's something wrong if he's Googled how to fry a hard drive. Did he Google it? Did someone else Google it? Was he threatened? Did he do something and is trying to cover it up? It's not a normal thing to Google that.\" Matt Rickard, the former investigator who had been in charge of the investigation for several years, thinks that hard drive is the key to cracking the case. He said he's still holding out hope that someday technology will allow investigators to recover the damaged data. \"I think there is something out there. Whether it's evidence or a person, there's something that could lead us to something,\" he said. \"In all honesty, somebody destroyed the hard drive and there was a reason. We have very few solid leads and the biggest one could be contained on that hard drive.\" In 2011, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing boys, it was revealed that it was Gricar who decided not to charge Sandusky when the first victim came forward in 1998. Gricar cited a lack of evidence. The intrigue already simmering in Gricar's case exploded. Sleuths desperately tried to find a link between the two cases, but investigators said there was no evidence that Gricar's disappearance had anything to do with Sandusky's crimes. But some have stuck to the homicide theory, suggesting that Gricar was an enemy of mob-like gangs in central Pennsylvania who were upset at his drug and corruption prosecutions. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist, said he considered writing a book about Gricar, his ties to the Sandusky case, and whether it led to suicide. But, Wecht said, he abandoned the book idea when it became clear there was not enough evidence. \"I don't think it's a great stretch,\" Wecht said. \"He was one of those guys with a very strong sense of justice and professional discipline and in light of what evolved and came to be disclosed -- I speak as a forensic pathologist who's done so many suicides over the years and what can bring someone to that point. It's pure conjecture, not based on any factual knowledge.\" Plus, Wecht said, if it was a suicide, \"I don't understand how they never recovered the body.\" Bob Buehner, a former district attorney in Montour County, Pennsylvania, who was Gricar's friend, has never accepted a suicide or walk-away theory. He believes his colleague was killed. Buehner has doubts that, 10 years later, state police can recover from what he considers a bungled start to the case. \"It didn't seem like there was any overall game plan that made sense in terms of a systematic investigation,\" Buehner said. \"One of the things I'd asked them to do from the first couple weeks is now impossible to do -- to do a hotel-motel canvas looking for the mystery woman seen with Ray and then match the names with photo IDs which police have access to.\" Buehner said those records are now gone and his faith in finding Gricar is dwindling. \"I give it a 50-50 at best and only because I'm an optimist and I hope that's what will happen,\" he said. \"As a pessimist, maybe 1 in 10 that we'll find him.\" Despite fresh eyes on the investigation when it was handed over to state authorities last year, the mystery woman has not been found. \"Pennsylvania State Police continue to chase down new leads and take a fresh look at old leads and we continue to hold out hope that something will break out in this case,\" said Centre County's District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller. \"Everybody, regardless of what position they held, deserves this kind of attention. In any missing persons case, he's not the only one, we feel discouraged when we can't answer the questions for the family, but it doesn't change our dedication to the case.\" The case has gotten significant attention on the national level, appearing on several true-crime television shows, including HLN's \"Nancy Grace.\" So it was strange to many in Pennsylvania that for years a case with such a high profile would be handled by the tiny Bellefonte Police Department, where one investigator was assigned to juggle Gricar's case along with several more. In 2014, the state police took over, but that was nine years after Gricar went missing and two years after he had been declared legally dead. Sources close to the investigation told CNN the case, as state police received it, was disorganized and porous. Evidence had been compromised in storage. Reports were missing. Evidence had been collecting dust in file cabinets. There was never a forensic audit of his finances. Today, some of Gricar's friends believe the case is damaged beyond repair. They have lost faith that there will ever be any answers. When asked if she thought things might change when state police got the case, Barbara Gray, his ex-wife and the mother of his daughter Lara, said no. \"The evidence is the same,\" she said. Lara declined to comment, and investigators said they've had trouble reaching her. \"There is always a remote possibility that we might never have an answer,\" said Lt. James Emigh, who leads the investigation for the Pennsylvania State Police after inheriting it last year. \"We still hold out hope, and the state police will however continue to diligently follow up every possible lead and attempt to bring closure to the family and friends of Ray.\"","highlights":"Prosecutor Ray Gricar has been missing for 10 years .\nHis laptop and hard drive were found too damaged to read .\nGricar has been declared legally dead .","id":"d81b36b16a1efd6e6e8f6d2a31955fd86082c985"} -{"article":"(CNN)As Americans mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death this week, let us remember that he not only belongs to the ages, but also belongs, in a special way, to Illinois. Lincoln's two greatest legacies -- indivisible union and irreversible emancipation -- grew organically from his Midwestern roots. He knew firsthand that no defensible border shielded the land of corn from the land of cotton. The entire region from the Appalachians to the Rockies drained through the Mississippi River, enabling farmers in this vast basin to float their goods down to market through New Orleans and from there to the world. He thus could never allow a potentially hostile power to control this geostrategic chokepoint in particular, or Dixie more generally. The U.S. landmass, he insisted, \"is well adapted to be the home of one national family; and it is not well adapted for two, or more\" because \"there is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary upon which to divide.\" Lincoln supplemented his Midwestern geography lesson with a distinctly Midwestern claim about constitutional history: \"The Union is older than any of the States; and in fact, it created them as States.\" Lincoln did not need to make this controversial claim to prove his case, and elsewhere he stressed the decisive legal point that the Constitution's text clearly prohibits unilateral secession. The Constitution is always and everywhere the supreme law of the land -- no matter what an individual state says. But Lincoln's additional assertion that the Union created the states, not vice versa, provoked strong disagreement in other parts of the country. Most Virginians, including Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, insisted that of course Virginia had come first! At the outbreak of the American Revolution, the Old Dominion was already a century and a half old. Generations of Lees had helped govern Virginia long before the United States was born. But if Lee was, first and always, a Virginian, Lincoln was an American. His father came from Virginia, his grandfather hailed from Pennsylvania, and before that, the family had probably lived in New England. Abe himself had been born in Kentucky and had moved as a boy to Indiana, and later, as a young man, to Illinois. These latter two Midwestern states had undeniably been formed by the Union itself. These places had begun as federal territory -- the common inheritance of all Americans -- and it was the federal government that had indeed brought these new states to life. When young Abe moved to Indiana, it was just becoming a state, thanks to federal governmental action. It was a wise set of federal policies -- proper land surveys and a commitment to public education -- that had drawn the Lincolns and countless other Kentuckians to leave the Bluegrass State for a brighter future in the Midwest. Retracing Lincoln's assassination 150 years later . That brighter future also involved freedom from slavery. The Old Northwest had always been free soil, as provided for by a Northwest Ordinance that predated the U.S. Constitution. The words of the 13th Amendment -- the only constitutional amendment that Lincoln would live to sign -- promised to end slavery everywhere in America and did so by borrowing verbatim from Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance. True, geography is not inexorable destiny. Many other Midwesterners in Lincoln's era embraced slavery and secession. Hugo Black, the Supreme Court justice who did the most to make Lincoln's constitutional vision a reality over the next century, was born and raised in Alabama. But geographic variation has always been a large part of America's constitutional saga. In the 1860 election that brought him to power, Lincoln swept almost all the Northern states, but did miserably in the slaveholding south. John Wilkes Booth, the dastard who ended Lincoln's life 150 years ago this week, was an embittered extremist from a slave state. So was Lincoln's nemesis on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roger Taney. Taney's most infamous ruling, the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision in 1857, had emerged from a court dominated by the South; although slave states accounted for less a third of America's free population, this region held an absolute majority of the seats on the court. Remembering Lincoln's murder . In our era, given the fact that Republican appointees have held a majority of the court for the last 40 years, the court has been rather moderate. Much of this moderation has come courtesy of northern Republicans on the Court -- most notably, Minnesota's Harry Blackmun, Illinois' John Paul Stevens, and New Hampshire's David Souter. All nine of the current justices learned their law in liberal New England, at Harvard or Yale, and the Republican appointee most attentive to gay rights, Anthony Kennedy, grew up in northern California, a corner of the country renowned for its respect for alternative lifestyles. Which takes us back to Lincoln. When Anthony Kennedy was a lad in California's state capital, the governor, a friend of the Kennedy family, was a Lincoln Republican named Earl Warren -- a man who would later author the Court's iconic opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, vindicating the constitutional amendments enshrined by Lincoln and his allies. Today, both parties at their best claim Lincoln. Jeb Bush aims to appeal to the better angels of our nature and Rand Paul is a Kentuckian who professes interest in racial outreach. Hillary Clinton was born an Illinois Republican. And the leader of her adopted political party -- who also happens to be president -- is a lanky and brainy lawyer from Illinois who knows how to give a good speech, and who swept to power in 2008 by recreating Lincoln's geographic coalition, winning every state within a four-hour drive of Chicago. In the largest sense, then, all Americans, of both parties and all regions -- whether or not they have ever set foot in Illinois -- are living in the Land of Lincoln.","highlights":"Akhil Amar: Lincoln's two biggest legacies, keeping union together and abolishing slavery, had Midwestern roots .\nLincoln saw the federal government as pre-eminent and believed there was no logical border for dividing the U.S.","id":"4c4869d2243ad80744e1b6d447ee960b25249d43"} -{"article":"(CNN)Justice may be blind, but it's easy to see that Marvel's \"Daredevil\" is already a hit with fans. The pitch-black-dark new series streamed its entire first season on Netflix on Friday morning, and the early word is quite good. Charlie Cox is perfectly cast as blind attorney Matt Murdock, whose nights are consumed with cleaning up the New York neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen while dressed in a black ninjaesque outfit. As the season unfolds, he heads toward a confrontation with Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin. Two love interests enter Murdock's life in the form of Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson). Oh, and there's that red suit. So what do critics think? Quite a lot, with 94% giving it positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. \"Marvel's 'Daredevil,' Netflix's latest offering, is a well-scripted, beautifully acted superhero saga that is surprisingly impressive,\" said the Philadelphia Inquirer's Tirdad Derakhshani. \"The series stays incredibly faithful to Daredevil's pulp roots and does something delightfully unexpected -- trust its fans enough to spare us a long, drawn-out origin story,\" said Sadie Gennis of TV Guide. Early risers on Twitter praised the show as well, especially Cox's performance, as well as a drawn-out, well-choreographed fight scene in episode 2. Does Netflix have a \"House of Cards\"-like hit on its hands? Time will tell.","highlights":"Marvel's long-awaited show \"Daredevil\" began streaming early Friday .\nBinge-watchers are already giving the series high marks .","id":"b4663e481991e93d99f65af67fdf6c7695f730fa"} -{"article":"Polk City, Florida (CNN)If you drove by it, you wouldn't even know it's there. The Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation sits on 200 acres of land in rural central Florida, halfway between Orlando and Sarasota, off a nondescript country road. An armed security guard greets you at the entrance. After a short drive down a gravel road, you get the sense this is a special place. \"You can walk around and you don't hear anything,\" said Kenneth Feld, who opened the center in 1995. \"These elephants, they have these large feet and they travel silently through the fields. I think it's very peaceful.\" Twenty-nine elephants currently live here, and 13 more will join the group by 2018, after Ringling Bros. decided this year to stop using elephants in its traveling circus. \"This was a decision that our family had discussed for quite some time,\" said Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, the company that owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The change comes after years of repeated criticism and lawsuits by animal rights groups. The ultimate decision to phase out the elephants, Feld said, is the result of the different laws regulating the use of the animals in each of the 115 cities the circus visits every year. \"You can't operate any business, much less with animals, if you don't have consistency from city to city,\" Feld said. \"It's a definite expense to be in litigation and to be fighting legislation, and there is a saying and it's been around for a long time: 'You can't fight city hall.' And we found that to be the case in this situation.\" The circus business has been a part of the Feld family since 1967, when Irvin Feld purchased Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. When Irvin died in 1984, his son, Kenneth, took over. \"This is a whole family affair,\" he said. \"It's a family affair for our family but also for all the elephants.\" When the center opened 20 years ago, it housed fewer than 10 elephants. \"It was a place for elephants to retire,\" Feld said. Today, the center houses elephants of all ages. \"We have lots of different elephants, meaning males and females, youth elephants, older elephants, so it is a great place to study behavior,\" he said. The center is also focused on breeding the animals. Wendy Kiso, a research and conservation scientist, spends her days at an onsite lab, trying to figure out how to keep the species from going extinct. Part of her lab includes several tanks that \"cryo-preserve\" elephant sperm at negative-196 degrees. \"We process the semen and we extend it in such a way that we can freeze it,\" Kiso said. \"This is a genetic resource bank for Asian elephants.\" Twenty-six elephants have been born here, Feld said. Mike, the newest pachyderm to join the group, was born at the center's birthing barn nearly two years ago. \"We have the largest and only sustainable herd of Asian elephants in the Western Hemisphere,\" Feld said. Caring for the elephants is no small task. Trudy Williams and her husband, Jim, spend their time taking care of the animals' daily needs. It takes the couple hours to bathe, walk and feed the elephants every day. \"First thing in the morning, we water them, and give them some treats and feed them some hay,\" Williams said. Each elephant eats about 150 pounds of food a day. Twenty-one tons of hay usually lasts only 10 days at the center. Exercise is also part of the daily routine, including stretching. \"We just do that a few times on each leg with them, just to give them a good stretch,\" Williams said.\"We do some footwork with them. All of our elephants, generally once a month, get a pedicure, just to make sure their feet are in good condition.\" All of this care isn't cheap. \"Each elephant costs over $65,000 a year, per year, over all the years of their life,\" Feld said. \"We're fortunate we're for profit. We do make a profit and we're a privately owned family business, and so we've made a decision we want to devote a lot of resources here.\" It's a price Feld said he's willing to pay to keep this species -- some varieties of which in Asia and Africa are endangered -- alive for generations to come. \"I always say, it's sort of like Jurassic Park with a happy ending,\" Feld said. \"We knew that if we didn't do something, maybe my grandchildren would never have the opportunity to see these incredible animals.\" CNN's Javier de Diego contributed to this report.","highlights":"29 elephants currently live at the circus sanctuary, and 13 more will join by 2018 .\nThe expansion comes after Ringling Bros. said it would stop using elephants in circus .\n$65,000 worth of care annually includes pedicures, stretching and tons -- literally -- of food .","id":"484b88f32a6422b318e7d5cd25809082579485b9"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two years ago, the storied Boston Marathon ended in terror and altered the lives of runners, spectators and those who tried to come to their rescue. Just last week, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges related to the bombings at the race and the dramatic violence that dragged out for days afterward. The jury will begin deliberating his punishment next week. The death penalty is on the table. Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police, were intent on terrorizing not just Bostonians, but all Americans, prosecutors said. But the Tsarnaevs were not on the minds of most people in Boston on Wednesday. The injured victims and those who lost their lives were spoken of with reverence in somber ceremonies. Relatives of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the attack's youngest victim, and the family of Krystle Campbell stood with Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin Walsh. Bagpipes played and banners whipped in the wind on Boylston Street, the Boston Globe reported. Boston University graduate student Lingzi Lu also was killed in one of the two horrific blasts that brought chaos to the competitors and spectators near the race's finish line on April 15, 2013. Who were the victims? Many bombing survivors were in the crowd for Wednesday's events, the newspaper said. They wore white, blue and yellow pins celebrating \"One Boston Day,\" which was created to recognize acts of valor and to encourage kindness among Bostonians. Many there and those who couldn't observe the day in person tweeted their respect and memories using #BostonDay. The marathon historically happens on a Monday. This year, runners will take on the 26.2 mile challenge April 20. \"I think today will always be a little emotional for me -- Marathon Monday is my favorite day of the year, and will continue to be, despite these tragedies,\" Boston resident Lindsey Berkowitz told CNN. \"I have so much respect and support for all of the survivors, and hope the city continues to come together on this day to embrace the strength and resilience of Boston, and the love we all have for this great city.\" Melanie DiVasta was working just a mile from the finish line in 2013 when one of the bombs set by the Tsarnaevs exploded. Several of her friends were waiting at the finish line. They were unharmed. \"It was just an overwhelming feeling of shock to start hearing about it and seeing images,\" DiVasta said. \"You couldn't help but cry and just ask why.\" What's next for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev? CNN's Jareen Imam contributed to this report.","highlights":"Citizens gather to honor victims on One Boston Day, two years after the marathon bombings .\n\"Today will always be a little emotional for me,\" one Bostonian tells CNN .","id":"8c8bdb850787c0477df9ee824a61d723d2494f0d"} -{"article":"Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)University of Nairobi students were terrified Sunday morning when they heard explosions -- caused by a faulty electrical cable -- and believed it was a terror attack, the school said. Students on the Kikuyu campus stampeded down the halls of the Kimberly dormitory, and some jumped from its fifth floor, the university said. Hundreds were injured and were taken to hospitals. One person died, according to the school. The confusion and panic came less than two weeks after Al-Shabaab slaughtered 147 people at a college in Garissa, Kenya. Kenyan teachers and students have said they fear being targeted by the Somalia-based terrorists. On Sunday, as many as 108 students from the University of Nairobi were admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital. Among them, at least 63 students have been discharged, and at least four are slated for surgery, the school said. Almost all of the 54 students being treated at PCEA Kikuyu Hospital have been released, the university said. Kenya Power authorities and its CEO are at the school and looking into the electrical issue. Normal power supply will resume after repairs, the university said. \"As we mourn the unfortunate loss of the departed student, we are also praying for the quick recovery of those who were injured,\" said Vice Chancellor Peter M.F. Mbithi in a statement. He called on the students, staff and public to remain calm. CNN's Lillian Leposo reported from Nairobi and Ashley Fantz wrote this story in Atlanta.","highlights":"Students stampeded; some jumped from a fifth story at a dorm; one student died, school officials say .\nThe blasts were caused by faulty electrical cable, and Kenya Power is at the school .\nThe panic came less than two weeks after terrorists attacked Kenya's Garissa University .","id":"05cf349b0acd480c600238ba1c40b59a8aafc8b7"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Tulsa County reserve deputy who fatally shot a man instead of using his Taser turned himself in to authorities Tuesday at the Tulsa County Jail. Video shows Reserve Deputy Robert Bates announcing he is going to deploy his Taser after an undercover weapons sting on April 2 but then shooting Eric Courtney Harris in the back with a handgun. Bates was charged with second-degree manslaughter Monday. He surrendered Tuesday morning, accompanied by his attorney, Clark Brewster, and immediately posted bail of $25,000. As he exited the jailhouse, Bates paused in front of television cameras for a moment but did not speak. His attorney reiterated that he believes the charge against his client is unwarranted. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office says a sting operation caught Harris illegally selling a gun. Harris ran when officers came in for the arrest. Authorities say Bates thought he pulled out his Taser but \"inadvertently\" fired his gun. Harris' brother, Andre Harris, told CNN that he is pleased District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler pressed charges. In his opinion, however, no type of force should have been used in the arrest of his brother. Watching the video of the shooting, Andre Harris said he can see that three or more officers were already on top of his brother. That manpower should have been enough to arrest him, he said. \"It was a situation where I didn't necessarily think that a Taser should even be used,\" Andre Harris said. Scott Wood, another Bates' attorney, has said the shooting was an \"excusable homicide.\" Investigators' efforts to defend Bates and the other deputies involved in the arrest have sparked a mounting chorus of criticism online. Harris' relatives are demanding an independent investigation of what they call unjustified brutality. They're also questioning why the 73-year-old Bates -- the CEO of an insurance company who volunteers as a certified reserve deputy -- was on the scene in such a sensitive and high-risk sting operation. Daniel Smolen, an attorney representing the Harris family, said Bates paid big money to play a cop in his spare time. Bates, who was a police officer for a year in the 1960s, had been a reserve deputy since 2008, with 300 hours of training and 1,100 hours of community policing experience, according to the sheriff's office. He was also a frequent contributor to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, including $2,500 to the re-election of Sheriff Stanley Glanz. The sheriff's office has said that Bates had law enforcement certification, but Smolen said he has not seen any field training records. \"We're holding up all right at this point,\" Andre Harris said. \"We're putting our faith in God that justice will be served, and we can get some closure in this situation.\" How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser? In a statement released Tuesday, Eric Harris' family members said they know there are many good deputies working in Tulsa County. \"However, the treatment of Eric of April 2 clearly shows that there is a deep-seated problem within the TCSO,\" the statement said. The family said that the sheriff has not apologized and that the department has not shown remorse or indication it will change its policies. CNN's Jason Morris and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.","highlights":"Reserve Deputy Robert Bates surrenders to authorities, posts bail of $25,000 .\nBates is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the killing of Eric Harris .","id":"f7e0de384a8e52cafaa3161f71a979d269fe12fe"} -{"article":"(CNN)Laying down tracks for their debut album in the recording studio in Los Angeles, Iman Hashi, 25 and her sister Siham, 27 could not be further from their hometown of Mogadishu. The sisters were born in the Somali capital but were forced to flee after war broke out in 1991. Along with their parents, the girls relocated to Canada as refugees where during their teens they discovered a passion for music. Heading south to LA by way of Atlanta, the singing sisters with a bold flair for fashion are now embarking on a musical journey, gearing up to unleash their Afro-pop sound to the world. CNN's African Voices caught up with the sister act -- known collectively as Faarrow (combining the translation of their names into English -- Iman means \"Faith\" and Siham means \"Arrow\") to talk about music, aspirations and Somalia. CNN: Hi guys, thanks for chatting with me today. What are some of your musical influences? Iman: We love Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie -- stuff my mom would listen to and play -- and the Spice Girls. We used to die for the Spice Girls. I love new artists now but I don't know if it's a nostalgia, but I remember ... my mom used to pump whatever -- Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston. CNN: You are working on your debut album now -- how's that been? Siham: We've been working with Elijah Kelley -- he's actually an actor. He was in \"Hairspray,\" \"The Butler,\" and most recently he was in the George Lucas animation, \"Strange Magic.\" That's what he's more known for but his first passion is music. He's an incredible producer, writer and singer. I just felt like he was always the missing piece. He brought everything together. CNN: So now that you've found your \"missing piece,\" how would you describe your sound? Siham: Our music before was experimenting with Afrobeat sounds but now it's more of a fusion (of what) we are inspired by. It's pop with undertones of hip hop and rhythmic African percussion. It's a fusion of everything. CNN: And do you guys write the songs as well? Siham: The entire album was pretty much (written and produced) by me, my sister and Elijah. And when we signed we already had a lot of those songs already done. Warner Brothers Records is really great in that way that they already loved what we were doing and let us do our own thing. CNN: What are you listening to right now? Siham: Oh my God, there's so many! Iman: Sia with \"Chandelier.\" Siham: I really love this new song -- I don't know if Iman is going to agree with me -- but his name's LunchMoney Lewis, it's called Bills; I love it. CNN: As well as your music, you both work with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) -- how did you start your humanitarian work? Iman: Ever since we were kids we wanted to help Somalia, we always talked about it. But we were like \"what can we physically do?\" We were doing some research and we called our mom and she said 'You know you still have family over there. There's a refugee camp in Kenya and your great uncle and his kids live in a refugee camp.' And we did some research about Dadaab refugee camp, it's a massive camp that has taken in Sudanese refugees, Somali refugees, Rwandan refugees -- pretty much anywhere there was a conflict. Everybody fled to Dadaab. In the beginning (it was) pure advocacy talking about it on Twitter and Facebook. CNN: But then you decided to \"up your game\" as it were... Iman: Yes, then we started a non-profit and we'd do small benefit concerts in Toronto and in San Diego -- wherever there was a big Somali community we would do outreach but all we had was our singing, working with UNHCR in a capacity as a spokesperson. We headlined World Refugee Day at the Kennedy Center, as well as the Nansen Awards twice in Geneva. We felt like this platform of singing -- the bigger it gets, the more we can do. Siham: We obviously love fashion so we wanted to do our own socially conscious brand so we've been making these bracelets and necklaces called \"Wish Creatively.\" Wish stands for \"Women Internationally Selling Hope.\" We wanted to do a socially conscious brand where we sell these bracelets where it goes back to projects in Kenya or Somalia with women providing them with a sustainable income. CNN: So what's next for you two? Siham: We're actually in the mixing process right now. We still have a few (tracks) to finish up but the majority of the album is pretty much done. We want to turn it in as soon as possible so they can put together a rollout plan and get ready for the first single to drop. Iman: I don't feel like we ever lost that feeling like we're creative spokespersons for our generation as well as for Somalia. I feel like now because we followed our dreams it's like 'they're not just refugees anymore.' We don't have to become doctors so we can one day give back to Somalia and help rebuild -- it's such a beautiful dream but not ours. In our culture, anything creative is not really respected or appreciated. But I feel like now but even with our new deal we're still trucking along. I feel like we inspire people. Read this: Nigerian soul singer Nneka is back! Read this: Angelique Kidjo takes no prisoners . More from African Voices .","highlights":"Somali sisters, Iman and Siham Hashi, make up Faarrow .\nA fusion of hip-hop, world pop and Afrobeats, they are currently finishing debut album .","id":"9e2ca2fdcd22c0cbb2a3b88c407320c23fc78b4c"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)Hundreds of additional Iraqi troops are being sent to reinforce colleagues who are trying to fend off ISIS' attempt to overrun Iraq's largest oil refinery, a key paramilitary force said Tuesday. The reinforcements come four days after ISIS began attacking northern Iraq's Baiji oil refinery, a key strategic resource that has long been a target because the facility refines much of the fuel used by Iraqis domestically. The additional troops came from Camp Speicher, a fortified Iraqi base near the city of Tikrit, according to the media office of the Hasd Al-Shaabi militia. The reinforcements include two federal police regiments, an Iraqi military quick reaction force battalion and a regiment from Hasd Al-Shaabi, which is a predominantly Shia militia that worked with the Iraqi military as well as Sunni fighters to liberate Tikrit from ISIS about two weeks ago. ISIS launched an assault on the Baiji oil refinery late Saturday. By Sunday, ISIS said its fighters were inside the refinery and controlled several buildings, but Iraqi government security officials denied that claim and insisted that Iraqi forces remained in full control. The Hasd Al-Shaabi media office said Tuesday that Iraqi troops already at the refinery were holding their ground, preparing to push ISIS out of the facility entirely. The attack could have a significant effect if it damages oil fields or machinery. The refinery is 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Tikrit. CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali reported from Baghdad. CNN's Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Arwa Damon and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"ISIS attacked the Baiji oil refinery Saturday .\nThe refinery, Iraq's largest, has long been a lucrative target for militants .","id":"43fa72fbd3637351b6423d18237061a8ac8dffce"} -{"article":"Tokyo (CNN)The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has given up trying to recover a robotic probe after it stopped moving inside one of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) deployed the remote-controlled robot on Friday inside one of the damaged reactors that had suffered a meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. It was the first time the probe had been used. The robot, set out to collect data on radiation levels and investigate the spread of debris, stalled after moving about 10 meters, according to a statement released by TEPCO. A newly released report and footage from the robot shows that a fallen object had blocked its path and left it stranded. TEPCO decided to cut off the cable connected to the device Sunday as it had already covered two-thirds of the originally planned route. It managed to collect data on radiation levels in 14 of the 18 targeted locations. Four years after the devastating nuclear crisis, the radiation levels inside the three damaged reactors are still extremely high and remain unsafe for people to enter. Decommissioning work is estimated to cost $50 billion and will take years to complete. TEPCO called the robotic probe an \"unprecedented\" experiment. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki reported from Tokyo, Japan and Naomi Ng wrote from Hong Kong.","highlights":"The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant said it has abandoned a robotic probe inside one of the damaged reactors .\nA report stated that a fallen object has left the robot stranded .\nThe robot collected data on radiation levels and investigated the spread of debris .","id":"375a61863b8873566c75e13630cd9ce9d21f3246"} -{"article":"(CNN)More than 500 Houthi rebels have been killed since the start of Saudi-led military operations against Yemeni Shia fighters, a Saudi Defense Ministry official said Saturday, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. A Saudi general said Saturday the nine-nation coalition has undertaken 1,200 airstrikes since they began on March 26. Gen. Ahmed Asiri added that the raids aim to keep the rebels from moving toward southern Yemen, according to the SPA. Clashes took place Friday near the Saudi-Yemeni border, in the Najran region. Saudi forces responded to mortar rounds fired by Houthis on a Saudi border site. Three Saudi military officers were killed and two others were wounded in the shelling, a defense official said, according to SPA. A Saudi source also confirmed to CNN's Nic Robertson that three Saudi soldiers were killed in the shelling. The Yemeni Health Ministry on Saturday said 385 civilians have been killed and 342 others have been wounded. The World Health Organization has put higher figure on both tolls -- 648 killed and 2,191 wounded -- but includes militant casualties in the totals. Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since Houthi rebels -- minority Shiites who have long complained of being marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- forced Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January. And even before the crisis escalated with the Saudi airstrikes, most of the 25 million people in Yemen required humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs, the United Nations said Friday. CNN's Pierre Meilhan and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Saudi general says more than 1,200 airstrikes since campaign began March 26 .\nThree Saudis were killed in attack on border position, source tells CNN .","id":"02b7cd5b0d1e192f1dcb9da18d21c1a2bec00562"} -{"article":"Hong Kong (CNN)There's a booming black market in Hong Kong, but it's not for fake Apple Watches, or the iPhone. Instead, people are going crazy for tins of butter cookies. Tourists and locals line up around the block for several hours just to get their hands on Jenny's cookies -- at $9 a tin. Its popularity has spurred bakeries to make and sell knockoffs, and the original store has signs warning against buying 'fake' Jenny's cookies. The tiny shop, located in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city's main shopping districts, is swarming with people handing over wads of cash for the \"little bear cookies\" as they are known across Asia. People are even hired to stand in line to buy the goods and are later resold at a 70% mark-up yards away, something the bakery also tries to discourage. A few meters away from the long cookie line, old ladies hold up paper signs advertising the cookies for sale. But when they see cameras approaching, they scurry away, only to reappear on another street corner. The frenzy in Hong Kong over the buttery treats is by no means an isolated example. In other parts of the world, food mania has erupted, swiftly winning people's hearts and stomachs, only to fizzle out in a few months. From cronuts to ramen burgers, here are some foods that people around the world have spent hours of their lives waiting for. Were they worth it?","highlights":"Tourists and locals queue for several hours to get their hands on Jenny's butter cookies .\nPeople are even hired to stand in line to buy the cookies, which are later sold at an up-to-70% mark-up .\nFood frenzies have also taken place in other parts of the world .","id":"266a2a7274d3688dc763b334b379d3adb70163db"} -{"article":"Kano, Nigeria (CNN)An explosion late Thursday outside a bus station in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe \u200ekilled at least five people and injured more than a dozen others, witnesses said. The explosion outside the Bauchi Motor Park\u200e happened around 8:30 p.m. after a woman left her explosives-laden handbag near a bus filling up with passengers. The bus was heading to the central Nigerian city of Jos, 125 kilometers away. \"There has been an explosion just outside the motor park and five people have been killed while more than 12 others have been seriously injured,\" said Adamu Saidu, an employee at the bus station. \"Some of the injured have had their limbs blown off\u200e and one of them has had his eye gouged out,\" said Saidu, who was involved in the evacuation of the victims to a hospital. The woman pretended to be going to Jos and lingered around the bus, which was \u200ewaiting to fill up with passengers, according to Falalu Tasiu, a grocer near the bus station. \"The woman kept talking on the phone and dropped her bag beside the bus, pretending to be waiting for the bus to fill up,\" Tasiu said. \"She moved towards shops overlooking the bus station as if she was going to buy something and disappeared. Moments later the bag exploded and set the bus on fire, killing five people and inujuring around 15 others,\" Tasiu said. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Boko Haram Islamists have repeatedly carried out suicide and bombing attacks on bus stations and markets in Gombe and other northern cities, making the group the main suspect. Boko Haram has in recent months been under sustained pressure from sweeping offensives from a four-nation regional alliance of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The regional offensives have considerably weakened Boko Haram's capabilities, which has prompted the Islamists to resort to attacks on soft targets such as bus stations, markets and schools. The explosion was the first attack since Nigeria held its presidential election at the weekend, which was won by opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, who vowed to crush Boko Haram when he assumes office in late May.","highlights":"Woman leaves explosives-laden handbag beside bus during boarding .\nNo group has claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram is suspected .","id":"34cb179dfa67e280999a620bfafd4b770a80aa53"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)ISIS is a problem that is \"off the charts historically\" and has sent the United States into \"uncharted territory\" when it comes to putting down the terror group, the Obama administration's point man in the fight recently told CNN. The comments, which Brett McGurk made in an exclusive interview, were some of the administration's strongest to date in describing the challenge the United States and its allies face in battling ISIS. \"This is a problem that is off the charts historically,\" he said, referring to the more than 20,000 foreign fighters who have gone into Syria. \"Just put that into perspective: It's about twice the number that went into Afghanistan in the 1980s over a 10-year period to fight the Soviet Union, and those came really from only a handful of countries.\" He concluded, \"We're in unchartered territory here.\" McGurk just returned from an urgent summit of coalition nations held in Jordan. Last week, Canada became the latest nation to conduct airstrikes against ISIS over Syria. The United States now lists 62 countries in the coalition. As the U.S.-led coalition has focused attention on Iraq and Syria, ISIS has expanded its reach to Libya, Egypt and Yemen, often with existing extremist groups pledging allegiance to the militants. McGurk did not rule out expanding U.S. military action beyond Iraq and Syria to combat the increasing regional threat. \"We have a lot of tools to protect ourselves and our national security interests, some of which are military tools,\" he said. \"Of course we apply those tools when the president determines and our chain of command makes the recommendation that that is the right thing to do.\" The United States has also been stepping up efforts to involve Sunni groups in the fight against ISIS. To date, that involvement has been extremely limited as Sunni tribes see Shiite militias, many with horrendous human rights records, take the lead. But McGurk said that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is making progress getting Sunni tribes to support a planned Iraqi offensive against ISIS in Anbar province in the coming weeks. He stressed the importance of working with al-Abadi, noting that the Iraqi leader was in Anbar province last week handing out more than 1,000 AK-47s to tribal fighters who are going to join the Iraqi security forces. \"We are helping to enable and train (them) as they begin to go on the offensive over the coming weeks and months in Anbar,\" McGurk said. \"They put out this very perverse, twisted vision, and it's very attractive to a lot of young men around the world,\" he acknowledged. \"But in fact, what the foreign fighters are finding in Syria and Iraq is that they're more likely to get killed in Iraq and Syria, and in fact, instead of getting a slave bride as ISIS leaders promise them, they're more likely to get killed by a female Peshmerga fighter in the streets of Kobani.\" That bottom line, he assessed, could turn the tide: \"The foreign fighters are learning the reality of what it's like when they go to join this twisted version of a caliphate, and I think we're going to see those networks begin to dry up.\"","highlights":"Obama's point man in ISIS fight doesn't rule out U.S. military action beyond Iraq and Syria .\nBrett McGurk: Iraqi leader making progress with Sunni tribes in planned Anbar offensive .","id":"2f714a80804beb25790b1cf681a00659a79308bb"} -{"article":"(CNN)The first trailer for a documentary on the life and music of late British singer Amy Winehouse was released Thursday. The teaser for \"Amy: The Girl Behind the Name,\" set for UK release on July 3, features early footage of Winehouse talking about how her music career was born and where she believed she was headed. \"Singing has always been important to me, but I never thought, 'I'll end up singing' or 'I'll be a singer,' \" Winehouse said. \"I felt like I had nothing new that was coming out at the time that really represented me or the way I felt, so, you know, I just started writing.\" Winehouse, known for her bluesy voice, bouffant hairdo and numerous tattoos, struggled publicly with drugs and alcohol during a career in which she recorded two albums and won six Grammys (one posthumous). She died from alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 on July 23, 2011. Her biggest hit, \"Rehab,\" chronicled the efforts of those around her to get her to submit to substance abuse treatment. \"Amy\" seeks to \"truly capture not just the great artist that she was, but also the funny and loving person that most people didn't get a chance to know,\" the filmmakers said on Facebook after announcing the film in 2013. Amy Winehouse documentary gets UK release date . The trailer conveys Winehouse's ambivalence about fame. \"I'm not a girl trying to be a star or trying to be anything other than a musician,\" she says. \"I don't think I'm gonna be at all famous,\" Winehouse tells an interviewer early in her career. \"I don't think I could handle it. I would probably go mad. Do you know what I mean? I would go mad.\" A life cut short: Remembering the tragedy of Amy Winehouse . Unlike an earlier look at the singer's life, 2013's \"Fallen Star,\" the documentary has been endorsed by Winehouse's family. It will feature \"extensive unseen archive footage and previously unheard tracks,\" Deadline reported. The team behind the new film includes Asif Kapadia, director of the documentary \"Senna,\" on the life of Brazilian Formula 1 racer Ayrton Senna. The film won two BAFTA awards. \"The award-winning producers of Senna presented a vision that would look at Amy's story sensitively, honestly and without sensationalising her,\" the family statement said. \"We want this to be a tribute to her musical legacy.\"' A U.S. release date for the film has yet to be announced. CNN's Michael Pearson contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Amy\" features archival footage of the singer and original music tracks .\n\"Amy\" seeks to \"truly capture not just the great artist that she was,\" filmmakers say .\nWinehouse, who died at 27, said fame would probably drive her \"mad\"","id":"4ece348e2122eb3fc1503d0fb35a86d05935f994"} -{"article":"Boston (CNN)The Boston Marathon is traditionally an event in which people in and around the Massachusetts capital come together, celebrate and enjoy. But not in 2013, when three people died and over 200 were injured when a pair of bombs went off within 12 seconds of each other at the finish line. And not this year -- at least not if you're a member of the jury that convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the bombings. That's what federal Judge George A. O'Toole told jurors Tuesday, stressing the importance of avoiding anything that could be prejudicial in the trial's sentencing phase. That begins April 21, a day after this year's edition of the landmark race. \"Do not attend the Boston Marathon or any events or gatherings related to the anniversary or the current running of the Boston Marathon,\" O'Toole said in court. The judge spoke for less than 10 minutes, and stressed the seriousness of his warnings. The first phase of Tsarnaev's trial began March 4, after which federal prosecutors called 92 witnesses, and the defense just four. Timeline of the bombings, manhunt and aftermath . Tsarnaev's lawyers never disputed that their client was at the scene of the bombings and part of the days-long mayhem that followed. Tsarnaev lawyer Judy Clarke acknowledged in opening arguments that: \"It was him.\" But Clarke argued that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev only took part in the plot under the influence of his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died after the bombings, but before his brother was captured in a boat parked in a Watertown backyard, . That argument wasn't enough to sway the jury, though. Rather, they convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on all 30 counts he faced -- including using weapons of mass destruction, bombing a place of public use, conspiracy and aiding and abetting. A look at all of the charges . The only question now, short of a successful appeal of that verdict, is what price he'll now pay. The maximum penalty for several of the charges is death. Talking to the jury on Tuesday, O'Toole predicted that the sentencing phase will last four weeks before cautioning that forecasting a specific timetable is less reliable than guessing the weather. The plan is for the court to be in session for four days a week, as long as the process takes. Until then, O'Toole told the jurors, \"Please put the case out of your minds. Enjoy the warm weather.\" What's next for Tsarnaev? CNN's Ann O'Neill reported from Boston. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Alexandra Field, Aaron Cooper, Kevin Conlon, Jason Hanna and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty of all 30 counts, may face death penalty .\nThe sentencing phase starts April 21; a judge predicts it will last four weeks .\nHe warns jurors not to do anything that could be prejudicial to the case .","id":"56941fcf624a88a5f670a1de1c0688467158b2c5"} -{"article":"(CNN)A former U.S. Army enlistee who posted on Facebook about \"the adrenaline rush\" of dying in jihad was arrested Friday and charged with trying to detonate a car bomb at Fort Riley military base in Kansas, authorities said. A second man, who allegedly knew about the bomb plot but didn't call authorities, was charged with failing to report a felony. John T. Booker Jr. of Topeka, an American citizen also known as Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was taken into custody near Manhattan, Kansas, in a van that contained what he thought was a bomb, the criminal complaint said. The \"bomb\" had actually been put together by two confidential informants with nonexplosive materials, the complaint said. Fort Riley's security was never breached and no people were in danger, the U.S. Justice Department said in a press release. Booker enlisted in the Army last year and was due to ship out to basic training April 7, 2014, said Army spokesman Wayne Hall. The criminal complaint said the FBI questioned him March 24, 2014 about comments posted on Facebook, such as, \"Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush. I am so nervous. NOT because I'm scare to die but I am eager to meet my lord.\" Booker waived his Miranda rights and told the agents he enlisted to commit an insider attack against American soldiers like Maj. Nidal Hassan had done at Fort Hood, Texas, the complaint said. Hassan opened fire in a building in November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30. His enlistment was terminated March 24, 2014, at the request of Army Criminal Investigation Command, Hall said. Booker began communicating with a confidential informant later in 2014, the complaint said, and often talked about his plans to engage in violent jihad in support of ISIS. He and the informant watched ISIS videos together, the complaint said, and Booker talked about how he wanted to go to Iraq and turn his weapon on American soldiers when ordered to shoot the enemy. On March 9, Booker said he believed ISIS wanted him to commit a truck bombing in the United States and thought a good target would be nearby Fort Riley, a large Army base that's home to the 1st Infantry Division, known as \"The Big Red One.\" Booker said \"that detonating a suicide bomb is his No. 1 aspiration because he couldn't be captured, all evidence would be destroyed and he would be guaranteed to hit his target,\" the criminal complaint said. He made a video with a Fort Riley airfield in the background and said ISIS was coming to kill American soldiers, both abroad and in the United States, the complaint said. Booker acquired components for a bomb and rented a storage locker to store the components, the complaint said. The plan was for confidential informants to build a bomb and for Booker to drive to Fort Riley and detonate it, the complaint said. But the bomb was built with \"inert\" parts and would never explode, the complaint said. On Friday, the informants and Booker drove to what Booker thought was a little-used utility gate near Fort Riley, the complaint said. While Booker was making final connections on the \"bomb,\" the FBI arrested him, the complaint said. He was charged with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq, a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Alexander E. Blair, 28, of Topeka was taken into custody Friday and charged with failing to report a felony. The FBI said agents interviewed Blair after Booker's arrest. Blair said he shared some of Booker's views, knew of his plans to detonate a vehicle bomb at Fort Riley and loaned him money to rent storage space, according to the FBI's criminal complaint. He said he thought Booker would carry out his plan but did not contact authorities, the complaint said. If convicted, Blair faces a maximum of three years in prison.","highlights":"Alexander Blair, 28, of Topeka accused of knowing about bomb plot but not contacting authorities .\nFort Riley's security was never breached and the device was \"inert\" and not a threat, authorities say .\nJohn T. Booker Jr., 20, of Topeka had acquired bomb parts and made a propaganda video, the Justice Department says .","id":"1514bbfb012abc67c499be84929aa07ddbd59b09"} -{"article":"(CNN)Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress turned lifestyle guru, is known for promoting detoxes and health cleanses on her site, Goop.com. But she's now bringing awareness to the difficulties of life on food stamps. In a tweet Friday, Paltrow showcased an array of leafy greens, dried beans and rice, purchased for the amount a person living on food stamps is allotted each week, she explained. The amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits a person can get is based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Thrifty Food Plan. The plan estimates how much it costs to buy food, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. In this case, Paltrow will be spending just under $30 for groceries. Her participation is part of the #FoodBankNYCChallenge. Celebrity chef Mario Batali, a close friend of the star's, nominated Paltrow and musicians Sting and Deborah Harry for the challenge through a video. The challenge urges participants to use only $29 for all the food a person eats for seven days. \"For one week, walk in someone else's shoes,\" Batali is quoted saying on the Food Bank for New York City's website. \"By truly understanding what our friends and neighbors are going through, we will be better equipped to find solutions.\" The #FoodBankNYCChallenge is an attempt to live on a food stamp budget for one week, which translates to $1.38 per meal, according to the site. The effort is in response to recent cuts to food stamps. \"Congress cut food stamps twice since 2013, and soup kitchens and food pantries saw an immediate increase in visitors,\" the site explains. Organizers hope the challenge will raise public awareness of the struggles for families to afford food while on food stamps.","highlights":"Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is trying to live on $29 worth of food for one week .\nIt's a part of the #FoodBankNYCChallenge, which is bringing awareness to food poverty .\nPaltrow was nominated by her friend chef Mario Batali .","id":"f909795f48c05d4900a765cdfb72ba61abb8f2b3"} -{"article":"(CNN)It was a typical practice day for the Washington University of rowing team, but then danger came from beneath. The scene was Creve Coeur Lake outside of St. Louis early Friday morning. The team's boat got near the dock, when suddenly a swarm of Asian carp emerged from the water and went on the attack, some even going into the boat. Team member Devin Patel described the moment of terror: \"The fish was flopping on my legs. It was so slippery that I couldn't get a grip on it.\" Patel screamed at teammate Yoni David, \"Yoni, get it off me!\" Thankfully, no rowers were injured during the ordeal, but the strong smell of fish lingered in the moments afterward. Watch iReporter Benjamin Rosenbaum's video above.","highlights":"Rowing team at Washington University attacked by flying carp .\nMember of the team caught the attack on video .","id":"08298a250150e63ce894a69a12fbfdda4c452fe4"} -{"article":"Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)A day after winning Nigeria's presidency, Muhammadu Buhari told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he plans to aggressively fight corruption that has long plagued Nigeria and go after the root of the nation's unrest. Buhari said he'll \"rapidly give attention\" to curbing violence in the northeast part of Nigeria, where the terrorist group Boko Haram operates. By cooperating with neighboring nations Chad, Cameroon and Niger, he said his administration is confident it will be able to thwart criminals and others contributing to Nigeria's instability. For the first time in Nigeria's history, the opposition defeated the ruling party in democratic elections. Buhari defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan by about 2 million votes, according to Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission. The win comes after a long history of military rule, coups and botched attempts at democracy in Africa's most populous nation. In an exclusive live interview from Abuja, Buhari told Amanpour he was not concerned about reconciling the nation after a divisive campaign. He said now that he has been elected he will turn his focus to Boko Haram and \"plug holes\" in the \"corruption infrastructure\" in the country. \"A new day and a new Nigeria are upon us,\" Buhari said after his win Tuesday. \"The victory is yours, and the glory is that of our nation.\" Earlier, Jonathan phoned Buhari to concede defeat. The outgoing president also offered a written statement to his nation. \"I thank all Nigerians once again for the great opportunity I was given to lead this country, and assure you that I will continue to do my best at the helm of national affairs until the end of my tenure,\" Jonathan said. \"I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word.\" Buhari, 72, will be sworn in on May 29. He will take the helm at a critical time, as Nigeria grapples with Boko Haram, serious economic woes and corruption. This isn't Buhari's first time leading Nigeria, but it's his first time in nearly 30 years. A military coup brought Buhari to power in late 1983, closing a brief period of popular rule by Shehu Shagari. But Buhari himself was ousted by another military coup in August 1985. Read more: Who is Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari? His presidential win is the result of his fourth attempt to lead the country since he was ousted 30 years ago. Buhari is a Sunni Muslim from Nigeria's poorer North, while Jonathan comes from a Christian and animist South that is rich with oil. Buhari praised voters for exercising their right peacefully. \"Your vote affirms that you believe Nigeria's future can be better than what it is today,\" he said in his statement. \"You voted for change, and now change has come.\" Buhari campaigned as a born-again democrat to allay fears about his strict military regime. He stressed that Nigeria's security needs to be the next government's focus. His campaign was also fiercely anti-corruption. He ran under the slogan of \"new broom,\" and his supporters were often pictured holding brooms in the lead-up to the vote. Despite years of democracy, analysts say, corruption has hindered Nigeria from building a stable economy. One of Buhari's biggest challenges will be Boko Haram, which has been terrorizing Nigeria as it tries to institute a strict version of Sharia law in the country. In the past few years, the terror group has bombed churches and mosques, killed hundreds of people and kidnapped more than 200 teenage girls from a boarding school. Even the presidential vote had to be postponed because of the radical militants. The election was originally scheduled for February 14, but was delayed six weeks because the military needed more time to secure areas controlled by Boko Haram. Yet the violence persisted. On Saturday, residents in the northeastern state of Gombe said at least 11 people were killed in attacks at polling stations, apparently by Boko Haram extremists. Jonathan had been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram. Before the election, African affairs analyst Ayo Johnson said the vote would come down to who could make Nigeria feel safe. \"Many Nigerians will not forget (Buhari) was a military leader during a dictatorship,\" Johnson said. \"Or maybe they will feel that they need a military leader to address fundamental problems such as terrorism.\" Boko Haram isn't the only obstacle facing the new president. The economy is another major issue. Nigeria overtook South Africa last year as the region's largest economy. Nigeria is one of Africa's largest oil producers and is a major supplier of crude oil to the United States. It also hosts many international oil companies and workers. But many complain that the country's vast wealth from oil exports doesn't trickle down to the average citizen. As many as 70% of Nigerians live below the poverty line, surviving on less than a dollar a day. Christian Purefoy reported from Lagos; Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Stephanie Busari, Faith Karimi and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.","highlights":"Muhammadu Buhari tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he will fight corruption in Nigeria .\nNigeria is the most populous country in Africa and is grappling with violent Boko Haram extremists .\nNigeria is also Africa's biggest economy, but up to 70% of Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day .","id":"8af2cd1849c711d773b22969b22eca8867748cb0"} -{"article":"West of Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)The call from Faleh Essawi, the deputy chief of the provincial council, who we were supposed to be meeting up with, came just as we were about to hit the bridge -- the only safe route from Baghdad to neighboring Anbar province. \"ISIS has taken the east of the city, it's not accessible,\" he says, sounding frantic, rapidly rattling off the neighborhoods and areas ISIS fighters had just stormed into. Moments later, we see the impact: An endless stream of humanity, shell shocked, and exhausted. Parents cradle babies in blankets, some struggle under the weight of their belongings, some carry small plastic bags, while others nothing but the children clutching at their hands. Cars are not permitted to cross this bridge across the Euphrates. The government feels that restricting vehicles will decrease the likelihood of explosives making their way into Iraq's capital. Those too young or too tired to walk pile into metal carts pushed by boys or young men, normally used to carry produce to markets. An elderly woman sits in one, a child in her arms, a worn down plastic doll in her hand. Many don't want to talk, at least not for long. What they just went through is too raw, too painful. One man we encounter describes how ISIS fighters commandeered his house. \"We heard clashes in the early morning, and we couldn't see the security forces anywhere,\" he recalls. \"We saw the ISIS fighters, they just came into the house, they didn't say a word. They just sent a sniper to the roof. I grabbed my children and ran.\" His wife bursts into tears, prompting him to apologize for not being able to talk anymore -- they just want to keep going. Another older woman, sitting in one of the carts surrounded by her grandchildren, starts sobbing the moment we approach her. \"They took our homes and kicked us out,\" she cries. Over the weekend ISIS moved into towns just to the north of Ramadi, which lies 68 miles (110km) west of Baghdad, sending thousands fleeing on foot into the city. ISIS had already blocked off access from the south months ago, and the west was contested territory. The east, until now, was not just a relatively safe zone but the only viable entrance and exit. At a hospital in Amriyat al-Falluja, about a 15-minute drive away, a wounded local fighter winces in pain. He was shot by a sniper in Ramadi that morning as ISIS fighters advanced -- the bullet barely missed his heart. \"We had been warning we could see their movements,\" he tells us. \"But we just didn't have the force to hold them off. We didn't leave a single person we didn't call and ask for back up.\" But none came. Hours after our morning conversation we speak to Essawi again by phone. \"Security is collapsing in the city,\" he screams. \"This is what we warned Baghdad would happen. Where is Baghdad? Where is al-Abadi? \"Just God knows if we will survive this,\" he says and hangs up. Amriyat al-Falluja regularly comes under attack from rockets and mortars from ISIS positions nearby. The hospital's fa\u00e7ade is scarred by shrapnel. The wards are full of people injured during these attacks. Fifteen-year-old Mustafa Ahmed has bandages on his neck, leg, and other parts of his body. \"A mortar fell on our street, one of my neighbors was wounded,\" he explains. \"We went out to help him and the second one fell on us.\" His friend died, he says. In the next room Amal Ahmed speaks softly. \"I was in the garden and a rocket hit and the shrapnel sliced me open,\" she says, as tears roll down her face. \"Something fell out of me and I grabbed it and I put it back in and I lay down.\" She starts to cry harder. Her husband was killed by U.S. forces in Fallujah -- another city in Anbar -- in 2003. Her children have all moved away except her youngest, who broke his arm in the same attack. \"When I see the situation I don't have hope, it's just getting worse.\" A few moments later, we hear two massive explosions from another of the hospital's buildings. They think it's an ISIS rocket or mortar attack so we take cover along with the Iraqi forces we are with in the hallway, away from the windows. More explosions go off in the distance. Then another actually shakes our building. \"Anyone want tea?\" one of the policemen with us asks, laughing as he pours. \"This happens all the time, we're used to it.\" The police chief, Major Aref al-Janabi, radios to his men to respond. Al-Janabi, like so many others, is frustrated with the lack of support from Baghdad. Earlier, he had taken us to the front lines, a long berm that stretches along the northern and western parts of the town that is dotted with fighting positions. He says he regularly provides the joint command center with coordinates for ISIS positions, but so far there have been no significant air strikes or reinforcements. More explosions follow in the distance. We're quickly moved out and leave the town, heading back towards the bridge and the long, snaking lines of refugees. An ambulance passes us, trying to force its way through the crowds. The swell of people fleeing has grown considerably in the last hours -- not surprising given Essawi's dire assessment and warning. \"Ramadi is under siege from all sides,\" he'd told us earlier, anger mixed with an air of resignation. \"I consider the city to have fallen.\" He claimed that 150,000 have fled, scoffing at statements from Iraqi officials in Baghdad that reinforcements have been sent to Ramadi. He has yet to see them.","highlights":"Families flee parts of western Iraq amid continuing onslaught from ISIS fighters .\nOfficials there say the Iraqi government is failing to protect them .\nThousands have been forced to grab what they can and head east toward the capital .","id":"e90ddb6e9b9463f10182f6524bc2a7d2e8f3871b"} -{"article":"Obock, Djibouti (CNN)Amina Ali Qassim is sitting with her youngest grandchild on her lap, wiping away tears with her headscarf. Only a few months old, this is the baby girl whose ears she desperately tried to cover the night the aerial bombardment started. She lay awake, she says, in a village mosque on the Yemeni island of Birim, counting explosions as the baby cried. It could have been worse though. They could have still been in their house when the first missile landed. \"Our neighbor shouted to my husband 'you have to leave, they're coming.' And we just ran. As soon as we left the house, the first missile fell right by it and then a second on it. It burned everything to the ground,\" Qassim tells us. Qassim and her family fled Birim at first light, piling in with three other families. Twenty-five of them squeezed into one boat setting sail through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to Djibouti. Bab al-Mandab is one of the busiest waterways in the world, a thoroughfare for oil tankers and cargo ships. It's now being crossed by desperate Yemenis in rickety fishing boats seeking refuge from the conflict threatening to engulf their country. Qassim's son Mohamed describes the families' journey across this part of the Red Sea as \"a window into hell.\" \"The women were violently ill,\" he tells us. \"It was a catastrophe.\" It took them five hours to cross into the north of Djibouti, where the government is providing the refugees with temporary shelter in this unfinished orphanage here in Obock. And the U.N. says thousands more refugees are expected. Qassim and her family will soon have to move to the plastic tents that have been prepared for them on the dusty outskirts of the town, taking with them only the collection of plastic mats and pots neatly stacked in the corner. It's all that remains of everything they once owned. Her two daughters are trapped back in Yemen, in Taiz. She hasn't been able to reach them and the worry she says is almost unbearable. I ask her how many days it was after the Saudi aerial bombardment began that they left. She looks at me and laughs, \"How many days would you have stayed?\" Then she goes quiet, looking down at the granddaughter in her lap. Finally she tells me, \"I thought she would never be able to stop screaming. That the fear would stay with her forever.\" \"May God please have mercy on Yemen.\"","highlights":"Amina Ali Qassim's family sought shelter in a mosque before fleeing Yemen .\nThousands like them are boarding boats to sail to Djibouti .\nSaudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen in a bid to defeat Houthi rebels .","id":"1cf6b07ab3d14424eba3aa653b1f9cced7b13dd6"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Coxes can rest more comfortably living in Georgia now that their 5-year-old daughter can get the marijuana extract she needs. \"This means the world to us,\" said Haleigh Cox's mother, Janea Cox. Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bill Thursday that will legalize low-THC cannabis oil for certain \"medication-resistant epilepsies,\" while creating an infrastructure, registration process and research program for the drug. (THC is the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana.) The bill is dubbed Haleigh's Hope Act. Haleigh, who has been the face of the bill, was having hundreds of seizures a day and the five potent drugs meant to control them weren't making life better for the little girl. Janea Cox said in a March 2014 interview that she made the difficult decision to move her daughter to Colorado, where medical marijuana is legal, in hopes of saving her life. \"She was maxed out,\" Cox said. \"She'd quit breathing several times a day, and the doctors blamed it on the seizure medications.\" 10 diseases marijuana could affect . Cox had heard that a form of medical marijuana might help, but it wasn't available in Georgia. So a week after hearing a doctor's diagnosis that Haleigh might not live another three months, she and Haleigh packed up and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, Haleigh began a regimen of cannabis oil: four times a day and once at night. \"Every time she smiled I knew we did the right thing, because we hadn't seen her smile in three years,\" Cox said. \"Now she's thriving, she's healthy, she's happy, and they're absolutely shocked at the difference. So I think we've turned some nonbelievers into believers of cannabis oil.\" Deal is apparently one of those believers, signing HB1 on Thursday and opening the door for the use of cannabis oil to treat certain medical conditions. The bill will benefit not only people who suffer from chronic seizure disorders, but it also will allow patients to receive in-state treatment. To obtain a license in Georgia, you will need to have a specific covered condition, such as acute seizures. \"For the families enduring separation and patients suffering pain, the wait is finally over,\" Deal said Thursday. \"... Now, Georgia children and their families may return home while continuing to receive much-needed care.\" For Cox, it's a blessing \"to be able to come back home, and with Haleigh's medicine, it's done wonders for her -- going from 200-plus seizures a day and on her deathbed to a smiling, happy girl who says words now and looks us in the eye and lets us know she's in there.\" She added, \"Colorado has been good to us, but Georgia's home. Georgia's definitely home.\" With medical marijuana legal in nearly half the states, doctors are increasingly studying what effect the drug has on various ailments. While Georgia's law is specific to a handful of conditions, medical marijuana laws in states such as California permit marijuana use for an array of ailments. But as states rewrite their regulations, federal law remains the same: Marijuana is illegal to grow, sell or use for any purpose. Under the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed on Schedule 1, meaning it has \"no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.\" To backers of reform, it presents a Catch-22: Marijuana is restricted, in large part, because there is scant research to support medical uses, yet research is difficult to conduct because of tight restrictions.","highlights":"Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signs a medical marijuana bill .\nThe bill is inspired by Haleigh Cox, a 5-year-old whose seizures threatened her life .","id":"f5d9a27682ced72fc53d3f2472d24db19bf6bdfb"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Cuba that photographer Carolina Sandretto captures is a world away from the images of neon 1950s American cars and postcard-worthy white sand beaches that most visitors to the island bring back home. Instead Sandretto focuses on \"solares,\" the crumbling buildings that many Cubans divide and cohabitate, often with several generations and separate families sharing one dwelling. \"This situation of bringing into your house your husband or your wife and living with your own parents in your late 30s and 40s, I always thought is really interesting and different than the U.S. but similar to my country since that's the way it was 50 years ago,\" said Sandretto, who is from Italy. Following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, houses and apartments were redistributed throughout Cuba and the government promised that everyone would have a home in the new socialist utopia. But building did not keep pace with the population, and Cubans were forced to adapt by dividing and re-dividing up homes to make room. \"It ends up to be a very interesting habitat,\" Sandretto said. \"Because there (are) so many different layers of people. It creates a whole community, even if neighbors really don't like each other.\" Sandretto said she first visited Cuba three years ago and was instantly hooked. \"I stayed and went back and back because it's a very unique place and people are really beautiful and amazing and with interesting stories,\" she said. Gaining entrance to the maze-like solares was a constant negotiation, Sandretto said, and plenty of times she was turned away. \"I always try to explain what I do, why I am there, why I am interested in where they live, the aim of my project,\" she said. Toting a 30-year-old Hasselblad 500cm camera, Sandretto found it was a good way to strike up a conversation with her subjects. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. \"They get curious when see someone going around with a bulky old camera,\" she said. \"I talk a lot. I am Italian. I speak Spanish, which helps but not a lot because you have to speak 'Cuban,' which is another language.\" Her persistence allowed her to capture intimate moments of Cubans resting in the sweltering heat, crowding around a communal TV or just going about life despite their disintegrating surroundings. There are no modern appliances or conveniences in her photographs. The people in these solares aren't the fortunate Cubans who have relatives visiting from Miami with flat-screens and smartphones in tow. Instead, there is the sense of time being whittled away -- one game of dominoes or one TV soap opera a time. Sandretto said she hopes to continue to document the changes on the island that occur as the United States and Cuba work to restore diplomatic relations and an inevitable influx of American visitors arrive. The thawing in relations could even change life in Cuba's solares. \"People want to travel, have access to the Internet and improve their economic situation,\" she said. \"I hope that's what happens.\" Carolina Sandretto is an Italian photographer based in New York. You can follow her on Twitter.","highlights":"Carolina Sandretto focuses on the crumbling buildings many Cubans live in together .\nThe maze-like \"solares\" often include separate families under one roof .","id":"c726079f1026da70912e96ea8ee08a5e4919c2c1"} -{"article":"(CNN)The White House insists it doesn't need congressional approval for the Iran nuclear deal announced this month. But while historical precedent suggests the President might indeed have the authority to move forward without Congress, the Obama administration should probably learn another lesson from history: Getting Congress' signature might be worth the effort. True, the fight for congressional approval would be politically bruising and consume a huge amount of energy. But it would still be a mistake to move forward with the deal as an executive-based agreement rather than obtaining the consent of the legislative branch -- a diplomatic breakthrough of this magnitude would be far more enduring with the imprimatur of Congress. The President and his advisers have avoided using the term \"treaty,\" instead explaining that it would be a \"nonbinding agreement.\" According to Secretary of State John Kerry: \"We've been very clear from the beginning. We're not negotiating a 'legally binding plan.' We're negotiating a plan that will have in it a capacity for enforcement.\" On \"Meet the Press,\" Kerry said, \"What we're looking for is not to have Congress interfere with our ability, inappropriately, by stepping on the prerogatives of the executive department of the President.\" There is a big legal argument that will play out over these definitional issues, with the potential for court challenges. But outside of the legal debate, there are also significant political questions, and those are a different beast altogether. For a start, there is growing pressure on Capitol Hill -- from members of both parties -- to pass legislation that would give Congress the right to review the deal and make a decision about lifting sanctions. On Tuesday, a deal was reached on legislation proposed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker that would require President Barack Obama to submit the final deal to Congress, giving it 52 days to review and approve the agreement. Corker told MSNBC on Tuesday that negotiators had reached a \"bipartisan agreement that keeps the congressional review process absolutely intact, full of integrity.\" What's in the Iran bill and why all the fuss? There is good reason for Obama to avoid calling this a treaty. After all, given the contentious political environment on Capitol Hill, where legislators struggle to pass even a routine budget, the notion that they would move on a treaty of this importance seems dubious at best. But there is also a history of Congress causing significant trouble for important international treaties. In the late 1970s, for example, President Jimmy Carter tried to obtain consent for the SALT II treaties, but conservatives argued the agreement was evidence that Carter was weak on defense. Carter pushed for the treaties as essential to international peace but to no avail. After Iranians took American hostages and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the treaties died in the Senate. Yet there are other examples where even in a contentious congressional environment, presidents successfully pushed for the ratification of treaties that they knew would cost them important political capital, and even once the White House exited the struggle bruised and battered, the historic treaties endured. Top GOP, Dem senators say Iran compromise reached . This was the case with another treaty that Carter asked the Senate to ratify: the Panama Canal Treaties of 1978. Carter decided that turning authority of the canal over to Panama was essential to regional peace and stability. He knew this would be tough sell, and Tennessee Republican Howard Baker for his part predicted he wouldn't even get 20 votes as conservative groups coordinated their campaign through the Committee to Save the Panama Canal and the Emergency Coalition to Save the Panama Canal. Indeed, they dispatched speakers to warn that the deal would give the Soviets a foothold in the region. However, Carter countered aggressively, both on a personal level -- helping secure the vote of Sen. Richard Stone of Florida by sending a personal letter to the senator, dispatching experts to Florida to answer the questions of constituents and addressing audiences through state-of-the-art telephone hookups. In the end, the Senate ratified the treaties by one vote more than the required two-thirds majority, although Carter also paid a political price after energizing the right during the fight. President Ronald Reagan faced a similar challenge. Toward the end of his presidency, he reached a historic breakthrough on intercontinental ballistic missiles with the Soviet Union. Yet despite excitement in the White House and across the nation about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Washington in December 1987, many conservatives blasted the decision, arguing that Reagan had betrayed the conservative cause. During a meeting at the White House, eight Republican senators who opposed the treaty shared their feelings with Reagan. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming, one of Reagan's closest allies, said: \"The Soviets have broken most every treaty they have ever signed. ... How do we assure compliance with the new treaty?\" Right-wing organizations, meanwhile, compared Reagan with Neville Chamberlain. Reagan responded with an aggressive effort to halt their rebellion. In a hearing on the treaty, Secretary of State George Shultz attacked North Carolina Republican Jesse Helms, who had accused Reagan of \"confusion, misstatements and ... even misrepresentation.\" He met with Republicans, spoke with reporters and lobbied the public to endorse the deal. Despite their protests, most Republicans eventually came around. On May 27, 1988, the Senate ratified the treaty 93-5. Helms, one of the few to vote against the treaty, admitted they were \"licked.\" And the treaty, which marked the beginning of the end for the Cold War, has endured. The reality is that the signature of Congress is still worth a lot in American politics -- the ratification process brings legitimacy to a major and controversial agreement and makes it much more difficult for opponents to attack in the future as some power grab by a president. Congressional support also makes the strength of the treaty greater in the eyes of leaders overseas. All this will be true with Iran, especially as many members of Obama's own party are leery about the agreement. Ultimately, the President probably has the right to go his own way with this, and his frustration with Congress might create strong incentives for doing so. But in the long term, persuading and pressuring a sufficient number of legislators to sign on to this deal would greatly improve the chances of avoiding a regional war -- and would help prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. The good news is that there have been some statements from the White House that offer hope it recognizes the centrality of Congress in a solid deal. Now it's time to see if the administration follows through.","highlights":"Framework agreement with Iran over its nuclear program was reached this month .\nJulian Zelizer: White House should seek congressional approval for final deal .\nThere's a history of Congress causing trouble for major international treaties, he says .","id":"dad0557defe53d85aed75cfea751623432d40039"} -{"article":"(CNN)Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott's tour bus caught fire on a Texas freeway Thursday morning, but everyone on board was safely evacuated. Michael Barnett captured dramatic video of the fire, on Interstate 30 just northeast of Dallas, and uploaded it to CNN iReport. Smoke and flames poured from the rear of the bus as traffic slowed to a crawl and Barnett slowly approached in his vehicle. As he drew closer to the bus, Barnett decided to stop filming because he didn't know what to expect. \"It was shocking,\" he said. \"I didn't know what I was about to see. I didn't know if anyone was hurt.\" Barnett said he didn't realize at the time that the bus belonged to the country band. Hillary Scott, co-lead singer for the band, posted a photo of the charred bus on Instagram and noted that she, her husband, the tour manager and the driver were all evacuated safely. \"Thanking God for our safety and the safety of all of those who helped put this fire out and keep us safe,\" she wrote. The tour manager told CNN affiliate KTVT that the bus stopped after a rear tire blew out. It burst into flames after everyone had gotten off. Scott also posted an Instagram photo and message saying that the fire destroyed everything in the bus's back lounge except her Bible. The band's two other members, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, were not traveling on the bus, KTVT reported. Lady Antebellum is set to perform at the 50th Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday in Arlington, Texas.","highlights":"Country band Lady Antebellum's bus caught fire Thursday on a Texas freeway .\nA CNN iReporter captured the dramatic scene on video .\nSinger Hillary Scott shared a pic of the charred bus on Instagram .","id":"88c2481234e763c9bbc68d0ab1be1d2375c1349a"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)In a broad bipartisan vote, the Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to a Medicare reform bill that includes a permanent solution to the \"doc fix,\" a method the government has used to ensure payments to Medicare providers will keep up with inflation. The bill, which passed 92 to 8, also includes a two-year extension of a popular children's health insurance program. The issue of payments to Medicare providers has been a thorny issue for years. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah called passage of the bill a \"major, major accomplishment.\" \"Tonight, the Senate is voting to retire the outdated, inefficiency-rewarding, common sense-defying Medicare reimbursement system,\" said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee just before the final vote. The House approved the same bill overwhelmingly more than two weeks ago and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it. Senate passage came just hours before cuts to physicians would have taken place since the last temporary \"doc fix\" had already expired. Some conservative senators, including Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz of Texas, balked at the more than $200 billion price of the bill and pushed an amendment to have the costs offset. The bill, \"institutionalizes and expands Obamacare policies that harm patients and their doctors while adding roughly half a trillion dollars to our long-term debt within two decades,\" Cruz said in a statement. \"Any deal should be fully paid for and include significant and structural reforms to Medicare.\" But that amendment was defeated, as were several others from each party that came up for votes. Earlier, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio warned the Senate not to change the bill. \"Unless the Senate passes the House-passed 'doc fix,' significant cuts to physicians' payments will begin tomorrow,\" Boehner said. \"We urge the Senate to approve the House-passed bill without delay.\" Cruz voted against the bill, as did Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another Republican running for president. GOP presidential contender Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted for the bill.","highlights":"Bill passes 92 to 8; passage came just hours before cuts to physicians would have taken place .\nGOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio vote against the bill, candidate Rand Paul votes for it .","id":"ccf6ea7fd486707521869d880322b188c48e4d76"} -{"article":"(CNN)Caught up in a rip current while snorkeling at Finn's Beach in Bali, Roxy Walsh was holding on to some rocks when she spotted something special. Engraved with the words, \"Darling Joe, Happy 70th Birthday 2009. Love Jenny,\" the antique ring lodged in the rocks clearly meant something to both Joe and Jenny. But there were no other clues (besides the fact that the words were written in English) as to where the couple might live. When she returned home to Palm Beach, Australia, Walsh was determined to reunite the ring with its owner. She went to the 5,000 members of her company's Facebook page, Kids in Adelaide, to reunite Joe and Jenny with the ring. She also created a \"Find Joe and Jenny\" page to track them down. \"Hi all. It's Roxy here. This is a reaaaallyy long shot but would love some SHARE love on this post to help find Joe. Found this gold ring snorkeling at Finns Beach in Bali today. It's got a family crest on it, and engraved with the message 'Darling Joe, Happy 70th Birthday 2009. Love Jenny' How amazing would it be to find him! Please click share.\" The post got shared all over the world. Nine months earlier, Joe Langley had been snorkeling in the same spot in Bali when he lost the ring, which his wife, Jenny, had purchased an antique store and had engraved for his birthday. \"I went for a swim, got caught in a rip, decided the rip was going to take me and finished up on the rocks,\" Langley told Sunshine Coast Daily. \"In clawing my way over the rocks, the ring pulled off my finger.\" The Langleys' 19-year-old granddaughter saw the Facebook post April 9 and made the connection. It turns out that the Langleys are fellow Australians, living in the town of Noosa, just three hours from where Walsh lives in Palm Beach. Walsh had the ring professionally cleaned before she met the happy Langleys in Noosa to return it.","highlights":"An Australian woman finds a ring while snorkeling in Bali .\nWords engraved on the antique ring give clues to its owner's identity .","id":"c4e511ac9601a43018de08c45fa3d5315ea5b374"} -{"article":"Cairo (CNN)At least 12 people were killed Sunday, and more injured, in separate attacks on a police station, a checkpoint and along a highway in Egypt's northern Sinai, authorities said. Six people, including one civilian, were killed when a car bomb exploded near the police station in Al-Arish, capital of North Sinai, Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghafar told Ahram Online. He said 40 people were injured. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an ISIS affiliate, claimed responsibility for the attack, which came hours after another operation that the group also claimed. In that earlier attack, a first lieutenant, a sergeant and four conscripts were killed when their armored vehicle was attacked on the highway from Al-Arish to Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai, the military said. Two other soldiers were injured and taken to a military hospital. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed many attacks against the army and police in Sinai. A third attack Sunday on a checkpoint in Rafah left three security personnel injured, after unknown assailants opened fire at them, according to state media. The attacks come as the military announced a reshuffle of several senior military positions, state media reported. Among those being replaced are the generals in charge of military intelligence and Egypt's second field army, which is spearheading the battle against the insurgents in the northern Sinai. Egypt's army has been fighting a decade-long militant Islamist insurgency, which has spiked since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsy in the summer of 2013. Hundreds of police and soldiers, as well as civilians, have been killed in militant attacks in the past months. Ian Lee reported from Cairo. Anas Hamdan reported from Atlanta.","highlights":"Six people, including one civilian, are killed when a car bomb explodes near a police station .\nSix others are killed when their armored vehicle is attacked on a highway in northern Sinai .\nAnsar Beit Al-Maqdis, an ISIS affiliate, claims responsibility .","id":"b84942ea01dc7b7abc2faff5a151bc37d5e645ac"} -{"article":"(HLN)HLN's #MeForReal is an uplifting, revealing conversation about the way we present ourselves online. We want to see the REAL parts of life, the ones that don't get a filter or a Facebook post but are a part of our realities nonetheless. Tag your favorite unscripted, unedited, un-perfected moments using #MeForReal and see what others are sharing on Facebook, Twitter and the Daily Share. The Internet is always quick to dish out judgmental opinions, such as the body-hate people showed to singer P!nk after she posted a photo of herself in a black dress she wore to a cancer benefit this past weekend (which, if you ask us, was pretty fantastic, and she looked fabulous in it.) As a woman with a lot of experience singing to her detractors, though, she knew exactly what to say and how to say it. And when it came to keeping her tongue firmly in cheek while she schooled people who had nothing better to do than be totally rude, she owned it. Clearly, it's not troubling P!nk or her hubs, Carey Hart (who, by the way, is quite handsome himself, so clearly he has rad taste). Not only did P!nk's response rally her fans, but they also started sharing their own photos of themselves post-pregnancy and embracing what P!nk tells her daughter is her \"squishiness.\" Postscript for the haters: We think you just racked up MORE fans for P!nk. Now go look in a mirror, and tell us -- are YOU perfect?","highlights":"P!nk took to Twitter to address online comments about her body .\nHer \"squishiness\" is a result of happiness, she says .","id":"d95242c455c5d0ad794139a84c002d38cc5c7c66"} -{"article":"(CNN)Cynthia Lennon, who married John Lennon when he was a struggling musician and was there when he rose to fame with the Beatles, died Wednesday, according to a post on the website of her son, Julian. She was 75. \"Cynthia Lennon passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain, following a short but brave battle with cancer. Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout,\" his website says. \"The family are thankful for your prayers. Please respect their privacy at this difficult time.\" John and Cynthia Lennon were married for six years, from 1962 to 1968. The pair met at art school, where Cynthia studied to be an illustrator and John practiced painting -- in between concerts with a band that would become the Beatles. \"When we were at art college, I think he was more interested in the music than he was in the art,\" she told ClassicBands.com. Cynthia Lennon, born Cynthia Powell in 1939, was a stabilizing force for the young John, who lost his mother when he was a teenager and was raised by his Aunt Mimi. \"John was always insecure,\" she said in a 2005 interview, having lost his mother at a young age. But his humor -- and his wildness -- were attractive, she told ClassicBands.com. \"He was a rebel. He was outrageous. That was something I hadn't experienced before the age that I was, which was about 16 or 17. I'd had quite a normal, straightforward life,\" she said. \"I was just instantly attracted to him.\" The two married in 1962, just as the Beatles were making their rise. Their son, Julian, was born April 8, 1963. Lennon's sometimes-brittle personality and his overwhelming fame became a challenge for Cynthia. During her pregnancy, \"I was not supposed to be known or heard about. In the wisdom, or lack of wisdom, anything to do with somebody becoming famous, male, was not supposed to be married or have (a) girlfriend.\" She was threatened by fans and occasionally in danger of being left behind in the band's whirlwind; when the group traveled to Bangor, Wales, to meet with the Maharishi in 1967, Cynthia was caught in a scrum and couldn't make the train in time. She was also there on the 1965 night George Harrison, Patti Boyd and Lennon were dosed with LSD -- an experience she disliked -- and traveled to India with the band in early 1968. The couple divorced in 1968, by which time John was seeing Yoko Ono. Cynthia Lennon married three more times after John and wrote two books about her marriage to the Beatle, \"A Twist of Lennon\" and \"John.\" She had no contact with the surviving members of the band until meeting up at the 2006 Las Vegas premiere of \"The Beatles Love.\" For all the difficulties and disappointments -- she described Julian, for whom she wrote \"John,\" as \"very scarred by life\" -- she acknowledged that the whirlwind could also be enthralling. \"The whole situation changed my life completely. God knows where I would've been ended up. I probably would've been a schoolteacher with about three or four children in a boring situation,\" she told ClassicBands.com. \"I've had the most amazing life, a wonderful life.\" She is survived by her son. Her fourth husband, Noel Charles, died in 2013. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Cynthia Lennon was John Lennon's first wife .\nShe was there during the rise of the Beatles .\nHer death was announced by her son, Julian .","id":"6561edd3b6be44223be41a146a7c878e52dc9c00"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's no surprise which image is making the headlines from this week's gathering of leaders from nearly three dozen nations in Panama: A historic handshake between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro. But this first meeting of Obama and Castro since they announced plans to start normalizing diplomatic ties should not be the end of the summit story. Or at least Obama is hoping it won't be. After all, the President has had some unhappy experiences at hemispheric summits, where the headlines have often focused on some less than flattering moments. The reality is that the United States has been losing ground in this increasingly important region, and Obama needs to put on a strong performance in Panama at the Summit of the Americas if the U.S. is to have a chance of improving ties with neighbors who should be best friends, but who have drifted away as America has been focused on challenges at home and instability in the Middle East. Unfortunately, America has lost influence in Latin America to a hyperactive China, a cunning Russia and a troubling Iran, all of which have made inroads in the region at Washington's expense. This gathering therefore offers a chance for the U.S. to reverse the tide and build on the potential offered by a natural alliance strengthened by millions of people with Latin American and Caribbean blood who make their homes in the United States. The foundations for a strong hemispheric bloc are there. But they need attention, and the Panama meeting offers a good opportunity to start building. But first: Do no harm. Large diplomatic gatherings are minutely orchestrated events, and the U.S., with its vast experience in preparing for high-level multilateral meetings, knows the importance of dotting the I's and crossing the T's. But this hasn't stopped recent summits descending into diplomatic and PR disasters for the U.S. Just look at the last summit, held in Cartagena, Colombia, which stayed in the news much longer than anyone expected after Secret Service agents embarrassed the United States by hiring prostitutes and bringing them to their hotel rooms, in violation of basic security protocols. They were reportedly caught after one of the women accused an agent of refusing to pay an agreed fee. As a result of all this, the Americans looked dumb, incompetent -- and cheap. And back in 2009, the President -- new on the job -- was caught flat footed by a fast-talking, fiery anti-American president of Venezuela. The late Hugo Chavez outplayed the leader of the free world, who had just taken office and was trying to show America's new \"outstretched hand\" toward the foe of the George W. Bush era. The summit hit a depressing low for the Obama administration when Chavez walked up to Obama and, as the cameras clicked, handed the American President a copy of the book \"Open Veins of Latin America,\" which blames the region's woes on the U.S. and Europe. Yet the problems in Cartagena weren't just symbolic. Regional leaders lined up against Washington, which had refused to include Cuba in the summit, and vowed they would not hold any more of the gatherings unless Havana was also invited. America was cornered. All this stands in contrast to the optimism of the early Clinton years, when the President issued an invitation to \"democratically elected\" heads of state of Latin America, which was then breaking the chains of military dictatorship. Back then, the U.S. had just led the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and actually seemed to stand for something attractive to the region, namely democracy, free trade and economic growth. That's what it should aim for every time: articulating a clear vision and rallying neighbors behind it. Can Obama manage something similar this time? True, the President has come armed with his new Cuba policy. Unfortunately, in an effort to placate critics who say Obama is not doing more for pro-democracy activists, the White House has miscalculated with Venezuela, handing the repressive regime of Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, a stick with which to beat the U.S. Obama has long and rightly ignored Maduro's claims that the U.S. planned to overthrow him. But a modest plan to impose sanctions has suddenly handed Maduro -- who has presided over an economic catastrophe in his country -- a way to portray himself a victim of the U.S., something he will no doubt play that up in Panama. All this risks again reviving memories of past tensions with Latin Americans who already have complicated feelings toward the U.S. over its Cold War support for unseemly right-wing dictators, a policy it claimed to pursue in the name of preventing Soviet-backed communism from taking hold. But those days are behind us. Today, the people want prosperity, they want democracy, and they want the rule of law -- all of which leave a potential opening for the United States. Too many national leaders are eroding democratic norms: Opposition leaders are in prison in Venezuela; a prosecutor who criticized the President was found dead in Argentina; press freedom is under siege in several countries; and corruption is reaching new highs. All of this suggests that if Obama plays his cards right, he will have the opportunity to explain to the people of Latin America that their goals are also America's goals; that like them, he supports democracy, human rights, the rule of law, full freedom of expression and free elections in every country. The fact that he met with Cuban dissidents was welcome, and sends a message that he is not neglecting other issues such as human rights as he recasts relations with Cuba. For the millions in Latin America that still live in poverty, these freedoms can seem like a distant luxury. But if Obama can show them that the United States is a true partner in efforts to improve their lives, then he will leave a longer-lasting legacy in the region than just a handshake.","highlights":"President Barack Obama is attending the Summit of the Americas .\nFrida Ghitis says he must work to improve ties with region .","id":"5ddf9c6800d012326f0cc44edfc7df58712fa910"} -{"article":"(CNN)Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children can lose up to $11,000 of welfare benefits a year under a new government policy, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced. Currently parents can choose to opt out of vaccinations for medical or religious reasons, or by stating they are \"conscientious objectors,\" and still receive taxpayer funded child care benefits. Under the new \"no jab, no pay\" policy, the exemption as a conscientious objector will be removed starting January 2016. \"The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of child care payments,\" said Abbott in a joint statement with Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison. Thousands of families could lose out on welfare payments, with the Australian government estimating more than 39,000 children under the age of seven have not been vaccinated because of their parents' objections. The number of children in Australia who have not received immunization against measles and other diseases has almost doubled in the past decade, according to the government. Anti-vaccination campaigns have recently gained traction in Western countries. Some parents believe the shots cause autism, but the theory has been widely discredited. Existing exemptions on medical or religious grounds will continue said Abbott, but guidelines on religious exemptions will be tightened. \"It requires the formal position of that religious body being advised to the government and approved by the government. This is a very significant narrowing,\" Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Sunday. He added that no mainstream religious organizations have made any formal objection to immunizations. In response to the announcement, more than 7,000 people have signed a petition in opposition to the reforms.","highlights":"Australia to cut welfare benefits for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children .\nThe \"no jab, no pay\" policy will come into effect in January 2016 .\nThe Australian government estimates more than 39,000 children who have not been vaccinated .","id":"89ee97659f1a10f3f3793bc10a6429691b0eee3c"} -{"article":"(CNN)A New Jersey auction house has removed items from its April 17 event after an uproar from the public. The items are crafts and artifacts made by Japanese-Americans confined to World War II internment camps. A grass-roots campaign of a change.org petition, a Facebook page, and mediation by \"Star Trek\" actor George Takei has resulted in Rago Arts and Auction Center agreeing to pull the items from the sale. \"There is an essential discussion to be had about the sale of historical items that are a legacy of man's inhumanity to man. It extends beyond what is legal. It is something auction houses, galleries and dealers are faced with regularly,\" the auction house said. \"We hope this controversy will be the beginning of a discourse on this issue.\" Takei, who with his family spent time in one of the camps, thanked people for working to stop the sale. According to a comment on the Facebook page \"Japanese American History: NOT for Sale,\" he was working on the issue while on a trip to Australia. \"It took a few calls today here in the wee hours, and I'll be issuing a formal statement later, but we can all celebrate a bit today at this news,\" he wrote. The auction house said 24 lots of an original collection of works of art and crafts were removed. During World War II, about 117,000 people of Japanese descent were forced to live in 10 internment camps. The government called them relocation centers. Many of the people who lived there and their descendants had another phrase for the facilities. They call them concentration camps. Two-thirds of the people who were ordered there were native born U.S. citizens, according to the National Archives. CNN affiliate KGO reported the items were given to historian Allen Eaton, who opposed internment camps. The items were inherited from the historian's estate. Miriam Tucker, a partner with the auction house, said it had hoped the items would go to someone who cared about their historical meaning. \"For us, there could be no better resolution than for a suitable museum, foundation or members of the Japanese-American community with the means to preserve this collection to come forward and secure it for education, display and research,\" she said. KGO reported the people it talked to would like items returned to family members if possible and any other artifacts put in an exhibition. \"This was a gift and let the gift come full circle,\" said Judy Hamaguchi with the San Francisco Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. She was referring to a letter the organization sent to the auction house. \"It should be returned as a gift.\" The lots have been packed away for now, said auction house partner David Rago in an email. \"Once the dust settles from this auction weekend (1,200 lots in three days) we will work with a small group of people from the Japanese-American community who have identified themselves through this process as generous, informed, voices of reason,\" he wrote. He said a suitable institution is the best possible home and the auction house will work with the current owner to find the right place. The seller -- known in the auction business as the consignor -- has never been in a position where the items could be donated, Rago said. \"But the consignor, who has been a sensitive and dedicated custodian of this collection for over 35 years, has agreed this evening to work with Rago Auctions to secure appropriate placement of Eaton's life work,\" he added.","highlights":"The items were originally given to a historian who opposed the camps, CNN affiliate reports .\nAuctioneer hoped they would be bought by museum or someone who would donate them for historical appreciation .\nJapanese-Americans were furious about items from family members, others being sold .","id":"c057413a05d66aa81666df08e5e68548b169bff3"} -{"article":"Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan (CNN)In the canvas expanse of the Shariya refugee camp, thousands of Yazidis live within hearing distance of one of Iraqi Kurdistan's frontlines with ISIS. The vast majority of the camp's occupants are from the town of Sinjar and fled the ISIS assault there back in August. But not everyone escaped. ISIS took thousands of Yazidis captive. Men faced a choice -- convert to Islam or be shot. But the Islamist militants separated the young women and girls to be sold as sex slaves. In its fourth edition of \"Dabiq,\" the ISIS online magazine, an article titled \"The revival of slavery before the hour,\" outlines the group's twisted justification and guidelines for the enslavement of the Yazidis. \"One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar (infidels) and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of Shariah,\" the article reads. We're told that women who have just given birth or are breastfeeding are considered impure and cannot be taken as sexual slaves -- but Hanan, 19, was neither of those things. \"They separated all of us,\" she says. \"They dragged us away by our hair. They took married women, young ones. The youngest with us was just 10. We were all crying. \"They said we are going to marry you off, you will forget your family.\" ISIS: Enslaving, having sex with 'unbelieving' women, girls is OK . For the first week, Hanan was held with 50 others, regularly beaten and threatened with torture, and fed just a bowl of rice. The group was then taken to a three story building in Mosul she described as a sex slave warehouse, where hundreds of girls and women were held. \"They would line about 50 of us up at a time, in rows of 10. They would say don't move, don't cry or we will beat you. The men would come in and describe the kind of girl they wanted and then they would pick and choose as they pleased,\" she recalls. She was eventually chosen, part of a group of 25. From that group Hanan was separated into a smaller group of seven and taken into a house in a village. 'Treated like cattle': Yazidi women sold, raped, enslaved by ISIS . Two ISIS fighters guarded the door and ordered the girls to clean and bathe themselves. \"They brought in a Yazidi girl who had been with them for two months. She was wearing the black niqab. They said to us we are going to do to you what we did to her,\" Hanan says. \"The girl spoke to us in Kurdish and said they beat me, they cuffed me and raped me.\" Hanan and the others decided they had to try to escape. That night they crawled out the bedroom window. \"The fourth girl jumped out, I was the fifth. I crawled to the wall and was about to jump over it and then I saw their flashlight,\" she tells me. \"They caught the last two girls.\" They ran, and somehow evaded capture. Four hours later they were out of ISIS territory. \"If I just see someone with a beard I start shaking,\" Hanan says. Now physically free but mentally still captive, Hanan remains tormented -- like so many others, by what she has been through and what those still with ISIS are being forced to endure -- a fate worse than death. Fleeing ISIS -- A Yazidi family's tale .","highlights":"Hanan, 19, was captured by ISIS when militants took the town of Sinjar .\nShe was among the women and girls separated to be sold as sex slaves .","id":"13dbbdc745b153c9a31a536b780a220e6dba2292"} -{"article":"(CNN)Donald Sterling's racist remarks cost him an NBA team last year. But now it's his former female companion who has lost big. A Los Angeles judge has ordered V. Stiviano to pay back more than $2.6 million in gifts after Sterling's wife sued her. In the lawsuit, Rochelle \"Shelly\" Sterling accused Stiviano of targeting extremely wealthy older men. She claimed Donald Sterling used the couple's money to buy Stiviano a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover, and that he helped her get a $1.8 million duplex. Who is V. Stiviano? Stiviano countered that there was nothing wrong with Donald Sterling giving her gifts and that she never took advantage of the former Los Angeles Clippers owner, who made much of his fortune in real estate. Shelly Sterling was thrilled with the court decision Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN affiliate KABC. \"This is a victory for the Sterling family in recovering the $2,630,000 that Donald lavished on a conniving mistress,\" attorney Pierce O'Donnell said in a statement. \"It also sets a precedent that the injured spouse can recover damages from the recipient of these ill-begotten gifts.\" Stiviano's gifts from Donald Sterling didn't just include uber-expensive items like luxury cars. According to the Los Angeles Times, the list also includes a $391 Easter bunny costume, a $299 two-speed blender and a $12 lace thong. Donald Sterling's downfall came after an audio recording surfaced of the octogenarian arguing with Stiviano. In the tape, Sterling chastises Stiviano for posting pictures on social media of her posing with African-Americans, including basketball legend Magic Johnson. \"In your lousy f**ing Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with -- walking with black people,\" Sterling said in the audio first posted by TMZ. He also tells Stiviano not to bring Johnson to Clippers games and not to post photos with the Hall of Famer so Sterling's friends can see. \"Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f**k him, but don't put (Magic) on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me,\" Sterling said. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the league, fined him $2.5 million and pushed through a charge to terminate all of his ownership rights in the franchise. Fact check: Donald Sterling's claims vs. reality . CNN's Dottie Evans contributed to this report.","highlights":"V. Stiviano must pay back $2.6 million in gifts from Donald Sterling .\nSterling's wife claimed the ex-Clippers used the couple's money for the gifts .\nThe items included a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover .","id":"404f859482d47c127868964a9a39d1a7645dd2e9"} -{"article":"(CNN)Jason Rezaian has sat in jail in Iran for nearly nine months. The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tehran was arrested in July on unspecified allegations. It took more than four months for a judge to hear charges against him. They remained publicly undisclosed until last week. The Iranian-American will be tried soon on espionage, Tehran's chief justice said. He is accused of economic spying, the Post reported, citing Iranian state media. The Washington Post did not mince words on the allegation. \"Any charges of that sort would be absurd, the product of fertile and twisted imaginations,\" the paper said in a statement. The State Department also reacted with term \"absurd\" after hearing of reports in Iran's press about the charges. \"If the reports are true, these charges are absurd, should be immediately dismissed and Jason should be immediately freed so that he can return to his family,\" the State Department official said. Since officers picked up Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, on July 22 at their home, the Post, the State Department and Rezaian's family have protested and called for his release. Salehi was released on bail in October. Rezaian was denied bail. And for months, he was denied access to proper legal representation, his family has said. Boxing great Muhammad Ali, also an American Muslim, appealed to Tehran last month to give Rezaian full access to legal representation and free him on bail. \"To my knowledge, Jason is a man of peace and great faith, a man whose dedication and respect for the Iranian people is evident in his work,\" Ali said in a religiously worded statement. The journalist has also not been allowed to see visitors aside from his wife and has endured long interrogations, family members have said. In December, after a 10-hour hearing, Rezaian signed a paper to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him, the Post reported. Iran's human rights chief, Mohammad Javad Larijani, told news outlet France 24 last year that he hoped Rezaian's case would come to a positive conclusion. He said, \"Let us hope that this fiasco will end on good terms.\" More on detained Americans . CNN's Sara Mazloumsaki and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officers arrested Jason Rezaian and his wife in July on unspecified allegations .\nIt took months to charge him; charges were made public last week .\nThe Washington Post and the State Department find the charges \"absurd\"","id":"c98d90876700947bad3a6a088011bf904e468837"} -{"article":"(CNN)NBA player Thabo Sefolosha says police caused his season-ending leg injury when he was arrested last week after leaving a nightclub in New York. In a statement Tuesday, the guard\/forward for the Atlanta Hawks described his injury as \"significant,\" and said it \"was caused by the police.\" Sefolosha suffered a fractured fibula and ligament damage when he and teammate Pero Antic were arrested near the scene of the stabbing of Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland and two other women early April 8. Police said Sefolosha and Antic were not involved in the stabbing incident, but they were charged with misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration. TMZ Sports released video last week that shows a group of police officers arresting the 6-foot-7 Sefolosha and taking him to the ground. It also shows an officer within that group getting out a baton and extending it near him, but what may have caused the injury is not clear in the video. Sefolosha appears to be limping as he is led away by officers. New York Police Department Sgt. Daniel Doody said Wednesday that the matter is being reviewed by the Internal Affairs Bureau and would not comment further. Internal Affairs had no comment. Sefolosha did not specify his injury in his statement Tuesday, but the Hawks said last week that he has a fractured fibula and ligament damage, will undergo surgery and will miss the rest of the season, including the playoffs, which begin this weekend. The Hawks enter as the top seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. Sefolosha, who turns 31 in May, is in his ninth NBA season and his first with the Hawks. He averaged 5.3 points per game this season. \"I am extremely disappointed that I will not be able to join my teammates on the court during the playoffs and apologize to them for any distraction this incident has caused,\" Sefolosha said in his statement. \"I will be cheering for them every step of the way and will be diligent in my rehabilitation. \"On advice of counsel, I hope you can appreciate that I cannot discuss the facts of the case. Those questions will be answered by my attorney in a court of law. I will simply say that I am in great pain, have experienced a significant injury and that the injury was caused by the police.\" Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said in a statement last week, \"This is a very difficult situation for Thabo and our thoughts and support will be with him during his recovery. We know that his approach and dedication will serve him well in his rehabilitation. Our team remains focused and will be prepared as we head into the postseason.\" Antic, a 31-year-old, 6-foot-11 center\/forward, missed the April 8 game against the Brooklyn Nets, but has played since then. In a joint statement last week, Sefolosha and Antic said they will contest the charges. According to the Pacers, Copeland underwent surgery on his abdomen and left elbow for stab wounds. He was released from the hospital two days after the incident, according to Bleacher Report. The Pacers, with one regular-season game left, are trying to secure the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. If they do, their first-round opponent would be Atlanta. CNN's Camille Cava contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thabo Sefolosha says he \"experienced a significant injury and ... the injury was caused by the police\"\nHe and teammate Pero Antic were arrested near the scene of a stabbing early April 8 .\nThey were not involved in the stabbing police said, but they were arrested for obstruction, other charges .","id":"acdfe5f28cd4446646c211961b7660719ecdd36b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Sometimes the best ideas come from the bathroom. But Gaioz Nigalidze's ideas from the loo were a little too good. The Georgian chess grandmaster has been banned from the Dubai Open Chess Tournament after officials discovered he was darting to the toilet to consult his smartphone, which was logged onto a chess analysis app, the Dubai Chess and Culture Club said. Nigalidze's opponent, Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, grew suspicious when Nigalidze kept bolting to the restroom. \"The Armenian noticed the Georgian was oddly frequenting the toilet after each move during a crucial part of the game,\" the Dubai Chess and Culture Club said. When officials first checked Nigalidze, they didn't find any device on him, the club said. But after looking into the bathroom stall he visited, they found the smartphone hidden in toilet paper. At first, Nigalidze claimed the smartphone wasn't his, the Dubai chess organization said. But the phone was logged on to a social media network under his account. \"They also found his game being analyzed in one of the chess applications,\" the chess club said. The infraction has been reported to the International Chess Federation. The Dubai tournament's chief arbiter, Mahdi Abdul Rahim, said players found guilty of cheating will be suspended for three years from all sanctioned tournaments and up to 15 years for a repeated offense, the chess and culture club said. But this wouldn't be an isolated case of cheating in high-stakes chess matches. In 2008, an Iranian player was banned from the Dubai Open after getting help from someone who was watching the game's live broadcast and was sending suggestions via text messages, the Dubai chess club said. Nigalidze's resume includes victories in the 2013 and 2014 Georgian Chess Championships. It's not clear how many times he went to the bathroom during those matches.","highlights":"Gaioz Nigalidze is banned from the Dubai Open Chess Tournament .\nOfficials say he frequented the bathroom, where his phone was hidden in toilet paper .\nThat phone had a chess analysis application open, officials say .","id":"f49e94b0716c72fe47876130176c1d5b4ce46e94"} -{"article":"(CNN)While the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq holds the world's gaze, a simultaneous transformation is getting less attention: the deterioration of al Qaeda. In an audio message released Sunday, al Qaeda confirmed that two of its leaders, known as Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Qari Abdullah Mansur, were killed in CIA drone strikes in January in North Waziristan, near the Afghan-Pakistan border. Farooq's real name was Raja Mohammad Suleman, al Qaeda said. He was a Pakistani who acted as the group's liaison to the Pakistan Taliban and was the deputy commander of al Qaeda's South Asia branch. (Mansur's real name was Qari Ubaidullah, a Pakistani who oversaw suicide missions against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan). Al Qaeda's South Asia branch is relatively new, announced with some fanfare back in September by al Qaeda's top leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The creation of the terror group's South Asia branch was seen by some terrorism analysts as an attempt to steal some of the limelight from ISIS, which is embroiled in a public dispute with al Qaeda for leadership of the global jihad movement. The deaths of the two men continue the decimation of al Qaeda's bench of leaders. On Monday, in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, local al Qaeda commander Nurul Hassan was killed in a raid, said Arif Hanif, district inspector general of police. Florida-raised Adnan Shukrijumah, 39, who was in charge of al Qaeda's operations to attack the West, was killed in December in a Pakistani military operation. Texas-born Mohanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, who also played a planning role for al Qaeda's operations, was arrested in Pakistan last year. The deaths of Ubaidullah and Suleman underline the fact that there are almost no top leaders of al Qaeda left except al-Zawahiri. Both Ubaidullah and Suleman were Pakistani. This is an indicator of how al Qaeda has become a largely Pakistan-focused group, increasingly able to do nothing of any significance outside of Pakistan or Afghanistan. Indeed, al Qaeda has virtually no capacity to carry out attacks in the West. The last successful al Qaeda attack in the West was the London transportation system bombings a decade ago. Al Qaeda is now reduced only to holding American hostages such as 73-year-old aid worker Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped from his home in the Pakistani city of Lahore on August 13, 2011. To be sure, al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, continues to pose a threat to American aviation. The group has built hard-to-detect bombs, which it has placed on U.S.-bound flights. Luckily, those bombs were faulty or were detected. The group also trained one of the gunmen who attacked the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January, killing 12, but it's not clear if AQAP had any direct role in planning this attack. Meanwhile, ISIS continues to attract Western recruits and also inspire \"homegrown\" terrorists in the West, but the core al Qaeda organization that killed almost 3,000 men, women and children on 9\/11 is on life support. Al Qaeda's confirmation of the deaths of Ubaidullah and Suleman is just one of the latest pieces of evidence for this assessment.","highlights":"Al Qaeda confirms that two of its leaders were killed in January drone strikes .\nOther leaders have been killed or captured recently .\nThe terrorist group's capacity to carry out attacks in the West has been greatly diminished .","id":"84b727701a058446b864bb4c8cc77a113994580a"} -{"article":"Tulsa, Oklahoma (CNN)Amid growing scrutiny over whether a 73-year-old volunteer deputy who killed a suspect during a sting operation was qualified to be policing the streets, a new report raises a troubling allegation. Some supervisors at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office were told to forge Reserve Deputy Robert Bates' training records, and three who refused were reassigned to less desirable duties, the Tulsa World newspaper reported. Claims that the volunteer deputy's records had been falsified emerged \"almost immediately\" from multiple sources after Bates killed Eric Harris on April 2, reporter Dylan Goforth said. Bates claims he meant to use his Taser but accidentally fired his handgun at Harris instead. The newspaper's story does not say who allegedly asked the supervisors to falsify the training records or why. But the orders apparently started years ago, before Harris' death, \"back when (Bates) was trying to get on as a deputy,\" reporter Ziva Branstetter told CNN's \"New Day.\" The Sheriff's Office denied the allegations in the Tulsa World's report. It also declined a CNN interview to respond to the claims. In an email to CNN, the department's Maj. Shannon Clark said the lack of named sources in the newspaper's report leaves him dubious. \"Just keep in mind that the Tulsa World reporter cannot validate her sources and claims anonymity, which leaves us skeptical that her claims are unsubstantiated and deceptive,\" Clark wrote. Clark Brewster, an attorney who represents Bates, said the accusations are based on an affidavit from a former Sheriff's Office employee who's now facing a first-degree murder charge. \"I don't put a lot of stock in that report or the credibility of who would further that report,\" Brewster said. Shooting casts spotlight on volunteer police programs . Sheriff Stanley Glanz and other sheriff's officials have repeatedly insisted Bates was properly trained. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has released a summary of Bates' training courses only over the past seven years. The office rejected CNN's request for the full training records because Bates' case is under investigation. Branstetter said she's run into similar obstacles when asking for the names of supervisors who'd signed off on Bates' training records. \"You would think the Sheriff's Office, if in fact there has been no pressure applied, no falsification of records, that they would be forthcoming with these documents,\" she told CNN's \"New Day.\" \"We've asked for them. They've said they don't believe they're public records.\" Bates was classified as an advanced reserve deputy for the Sheriff's Office. That means he would have had to complete 480 hours of the field training officer program to maintain that classification, the paper said. Bates would also have needed firearms certification training. But the sheriff himself has acknowledged there is a problem with Bates' gun certification records -- his office can't find them. \"Bob went out and qualified with three different weapons with an instructor,\" Glanz told KFAQ radio this week. He said Bates \"qualified with a young lady that was a firearms instructor.\" But she is no longer there. \"She has left the Sheriff's Office and is now a Secret Service agent,\" Glanz told KFAQ. \"And we're trying to get a hold of her and talk to her about ... we can't find the records that she supposedly turned in. So we're going to talk to her and find out if for sure he did qualify with those.\" Opinion: Who gave this reserve cop a gun? Even before the Tulsa World story, inconsistencies were apparent in Bates' history with the Sheriff's Office. In his statement to investigators, Bates said he \"became an advanced TCSO Reserve Deputy in 2007.\" But the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has said Bates had been a reserve deputy since 2008. It also said Bates had undergone 300 hours of training. That would be less than the 480 hours of field training that the Tulsa World said is required to be an \"advanced\" reserve deputy, which Bates claimed to be. In a statement he made to investigators after the shooting, Bates said the gun he used was his personal weapon, adding that he last qualified at the range in autumn. He also said he'd attended \"numerous schools and seminars related to drug investigations and the tactical operations associated with the apprehension of suspects involved in drug trafficking,\" a five-day homicide investigation school in Dallas and training from Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on responding to active shooters. But an Arizona official told CNN Bates never trained with the agency. \"He didn't come to Arizona,\" the official from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said, \"and he certainly didn't train with us.\" Brewster said that line in Bates' statement was referring to a lecture given at a seminar in Washington by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The seminar was part of extensive training Bates received at classes across the country and through work in the field, he said. \"He met every training regimen,\" Brewster said. \"He met every requirement, and all he did was give of himself.\" Bates is now charged with second-degree manslaughter for Harris' death. He turned himself in to authorities Tuesday and immediately posted bail of $25,000. His attorney has said he's not guilty, calling the death an \"excusable homicide.\" The lawyer for Harris' family claims Bates wasn't qualified to be on the force, but received preferential treatment because he'd made donations to the agency and was a friend of the sheriff -- an accusation officials deny, saying they stand by his training record. Tulsa Police Sgt. Jim Clark, who has been brought in to review the case, has said Bates fell \"victim\" to something called \"slip and capture,\" a term to describe a high-stress situation in which a person intends to do one thing and instead does something else. It's a controversial claim that hasn't convinced critics of the department, and calls for an independent investigation into the Sheriff's Office and the case are growing. Earlier this week, the office spokesman rejected any idea of outside investigators into the shooting. \"We're not scared to prosecute our own. ... There's nobody in this culture that can be tougher on cops than their own,\" Clark said. \"You know that analogy that you'll eat your young? You know, that's the same thing in law enforcement. If we have a dirty cop in our ranks, we will disclose them much quicker than the media.\" A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said his office is concerned about allegations reported in the media about the case \"and will continue to monitor and assess what appropriate measures, if any, are warranted.\" Glanz has stated publicly that he's reached out to the regional office of the FBI to look into the shooting. Special Agent Terry B. Weber told CNN there's no open FBI investigation into the case. How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser? CNN's Ed Lavandera reported from Tulsa. CNN's Holly Yan and Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta. CNN's Dave Alsup and Jason Morris contributed to this report.","highlights":"Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona says Robert Bates never trained with them .\n\"He met every requirement, and all he did was give of himself,\" his attorney says .\nTulsa World newspaper: Three supervisors who refused to sign forged records on Robert Bates were reassigned .","id":"fa54ab08ad72dae8e220896d57fca8747de03865"} -{"article":"(CNN)Eleven channels associated with the French-language global television network TV5Monde went black late Wednesday due to an \"extremely powerful cyberattack,\" the network's director said. In addition to its 11 channels, TV5Monde also temporarily lost control of its social media outlets and its websites, director Yves Bigot said in a video message posted later on Facebook. On a mobile site, which was still active, the network said it was \"hacked by an Islamist group.\" ISIS logos and markings could be seen on some TV5Monde social media accounts. But there was no immediate claim of responsibility by ISIS or any other group. The outage began around 10 p.m. Paris time (4 p.m. ET), and network teams were still working to restore service more than five hours later. According to France's Ministry of Culture and Communications, TV5Monde offers round-the-clock entertainment, news and culturing programming in French that reaches 260 million homes worldwide. It functions under a partnership that consists of the governments of France, Canada and Switzerland, as well as the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Other networks that provide content to TV5Monde include CNN affiliates France 2 and France 3, France 24 and Radio France International.","highlights":"TV5Monde went black late Wednesday and was still out hours later .\nThe network blames an \"Islamist group\"; there's no claim of responsibility .","id":"a396e698f80b68e0392dfa6d66ce0731940375f3"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hillary Clinton's campaign-in-waiting met on Saturday in its Brooklyn headquarters, a day before the former secretary of state officially announces her campaign for president, according to a Democrat who attended the meeting. Robby Mook, Clinton's soon-to-be campaign manager, distributed a \"values statement\" at the meeting that outlined what the campaign will stand for, what their goals are and how they plan to win -- something Clinton failed to do in 2008. The campaign's purpose, the document states, is \"to give every family, every small business, and every American a path to lasting prosperity by electing Hillary Clinton the next President of the United States.\" The document makes clear that the campaign will try to avoid mistakes that plagued Clinton's failed 2008 run. Many of the \"guiding principles\" in the memo mention issues that sunk Clinton's first campaign. The document, according to the source, includes the ideas from Mook, along with a wide array of Clinton's soon-to-be staffers and advisers. The memo maintains that the campaign must remain humble, disciplined and united, something voters in Iowa and others states have said Clinton did not do in 2008. \"This campaign is not about Hillary Clinton and not about us,\" reads the document that was obtained by CNN. In the section about the campaign's guiding principles, the document reads, \"We are humble: We take nothing for granted, we are never afraid to lose, we always outcompete and fight for every vote we can win. We know this campaign will be won on the ground, in states.\" It also calls on campaign staffers to remain \"disciplined\" and \"open to a diverse range of views.\" \"When we disagree, it's never personal. Once a decision is made, we execute it -- together,\" reads the memo. \"We know there will be tough days, but we will bounce back and get back to work.\" The document also appears to telegraph the name to Clinton's campaign: \"Hillary for America.\" Clinton is planning to launch her presidential candidacy on Sunday through a video message on social media, according to Democratic sources. Shortly after her announcement, Clinton will travel Iowa and New Hampshire, critical early caucus primary and caucus states.","highlights":"Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be campaign manager, distributes a \"values statement\"\nThe memo maintains that the campaign must remain humble, disciplined and united .","id":"1699cfcf49de1f7b02ea39e985a005afa835e957"} -{"article":"(CNN)No identification, no Social Security card and only a box to live on. John Helinski was homeless and nameless for three years. Suddenly, he's set to buy his own place and collect a nice pension. Helinski hit it big thanks to the Social Security Administration, and a big-hearted cop and a case worker determined to untangle major bureaucracy. Charles Inman could not bear to see his 62-year-old ward land back on the street, he told CNN affiliate WFTS. The shelter where the case worker works set Helinski up with a bunk and a locker. But getting him into the system was hard, because Helinski's ID and Social Security cards had been stolen. \"He needed to have an identification, but we couldn't get an identification without a birth certificate,\" Inman said. A hassle all by itself, except that Helinski was foreign born -- in Poland, as an American citizen. \"We first had to figure out that we needed a consular record of foreign birth or something like that,\" said Tampa police Officer Dan McDonald, who pitched in to help Helinski. With those papers squared away, he and Inman got Helinski a driver's license and a Social Security card. Then, Helinski remembered that he used to have an account with a certain Landmark Bank. \"Then it became Bank of America,\" he said. The account was still there, and the Social Security Administration hadn't forgotten about him. It had kept paying Helinski benefits for years, and they had stacked up high. Now Helinski is thinking of buying his own four walls. And he'll have monthly benefits to live on. \"I guess I'm exhilarated, excited, you know,\" he said. McDonald said he and Inman were stunned. \"We weren't quite sure what to say.\"","highlights":"John Helinski's ID and Social Security cards had been stolen .\nHis case worker and a cop had to get foreign ID papers to get him a driver's license .\nThen Helinski remembered a bank account he used to have .","id":"a5089c604c41c8fba8f5fc463cbcdb2ab816d766"} -{"article":"(CNN)A natural gas line explosion at a law enforcement shooting range in Fresno, California, injured 11 people, including some inmates who were on a work detail there. Others being treated include a county road worker and two sheriff's deputies, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said. The exact cause of Friday's blast is under investigation, Mims said, but it happened at the spot where a county worker was operating a front loader. The explosion sparked a fire that roared like a jet engine, Mims said. The operator of the front loader was injured but able to walk to an ambulance, the sheriff said. The most serious injuries were suffered by a group of inmates who were assigned to maintenance and cleaning work at the sheriff's firing range. There were 10 inmates near the blast site who were also injured, officials said. Three other inmates at the site were not hurt. Earlier, the sheriff's office included them in the injury count. After the blast, Mims said, two sheriff's deputies who were at the firing range ran toward the fire to move the injured. CNN affiliate KFSN posted a video of the scene that shows a tall ball of fire rising from near a highway. One inmate was airlifted to the hospital, the sheriff said. That inmate and the county worker were undergoing emergency surgery, she said. The others suffered mostly burns. The pair of deputies who provided aid also went for treatment for ringing ears and sunburn-like conditions, she said. Firefighters put out the blaze, revealing a crater at the blast site and a blackened front loader, Mims said.","highlights":"The cause of a gas line explosion in Fresno, California, is unknown .\nTwo of the injured were undergoing emergency surgery .","id":"c3cb61c858ec4a178760b619430ddff7e03eb0c8"} -{"article":"(CNN)For Lt. Colonel John Schwemmer, the scenery is all too familiar. This is his sixth tour in Iraq, and he's back doing a job that he's been tasked with before: training Iraqi soldiers. Schwemmer and other active U.S. military personnel are on the ground in Iraq, whipping often ill-equipped government troops into shape. They've been here before, but this time, he feels, they're getting it right. But the U.S. military isn't the only contingent of Western forces in the region -- dozens of foreigners, including Americans, have volunteered to take the fight to ISIS. And increasingly, U.S. military training efforts are being supplemented by outside agencies, who are working with Kurdish government troops and even militia in Iraq and Syria. \"Many of us do feel that we do have the skills and qualifications that can be used to benefit those in the region,\" said Ian Bradbury, a Canadian former soldier who is training Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq. While it is difficult to say how many foreign volunteers are fighting ISIS, a spokesman for a Kurdish militia fighting against them in Syria -- known as the YPG -- told the New York Times their forces include more than 100 American citizens. U.S. law enforcement officials say it is illegal to join a Syrian militia. But some organizations have set up recruitment drives online, featuring applications for foreign fighters complete with checklists of what to bring and advice on bringing body armor across international borders. Jordan Matson, a 28-year-old former U.S. army soldier from the tiny town of Sturtevant, Wisconsin, volunteered with the YPG. He told CNN that after much soul searching he realized that he needed to help in the battle against ISIS' brutal, expansionist regime. \"I got in contact with the YPG on Facebook and prayed about it for probably a month or two and asked, 'is this what I want to do?' and eventually, you know, decided to do it. \"All my life I wanted to be a solider... so I guess this just fits well over here.\" But foreign fighters aren't universally welcomed by those opposing ISIS. The Peshmerga, the military wing of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) that has been one of the most effective counterbalances to ISIS' expansion, has said they don't want or need foreign fighters, according to Bradbury. \"The information I've been getting back is that there's very little use for (Western fighters) on the front lines, especially on the KRG side -- they have significant numbers of personnel -- it's a source of Kurdish pride for them to rise up in scenarios like this. They more need the development assistance.\" Peshmerga spokesman Helgurd Hekmat also told Kurdish news wire Rudaw that it was illegal for foreigners to join their ranks. While individual fighters are not always accepted, volunteers working as military trainers are sharing their expertise to support those on the front lines of the fight against ISIS forces. Bradbury set up 1st North American Expeditionary Forces (1st NAEF), a training body which, he says, is currently providing material support and training to the Peshmerga, whose name means \"those who face death,\" in northern Iraq. \"Internal capacity building is by far the solution that you can put into a region that is suffering instability from conflict,\" he told CNN by phone from his base in Ottawa, Canada. \"Increasing their ability to maintain stability over the long term is far better than trying to influx it with a bunch of westerners who are going to leave within a short period of time.\" He was prompted to establish the group after seeing \"fairly significant gaps\" in the support provided by the coalition forces for the Kurdish, Iraqi regular and militia ranged against ISIS. The U.S. military is \"confident\" that its support of the forces battling ISIS on the ground is sufficient. \"We're confident the U.S. military mission of degrading and ultimately defeating (ISIS) will be found by working through our Middle Eastern partners and the international community,\" Maj. Omar Villarreal, Communication Integration Planner, U.S. Central Command Communication Integration Directorate, told CNN. \"The training element of the mission is no different. It relies on direct and comprehensive military cooperation with regional partner nations, who share a mutual interest in promoting security. One of the goals of the train and equip program, is to build the capabilities of the moderate Syrian fighters to defend the Syrian people. We are confident in our efforts.\" With coalition members keen to distance themselves from calls for Western boots on the ground -- and little political appetite from overseas for risking Western troops in what many see as a sectarian conflict, Bradbury contends that the best-case scenario is exactly the kind of logistical support that organizations like 1st NAEF are providing. ISIS is keen to play up religious and sectarian divisions in order to create the perception that they are the Sunni protectors of a persecuted underclass, sending non-Arab troops into the battlefield -- even in a support role -- could play into that divisive rhetoric. Bradbury downplays this risk, saying the threat is there, and is best contained in the region. Providing noncombat backing, such as medical, weaponry, logistical and training assistance would appear, he thinks, to be the best way of supporting those Kurdish and Arab troops on the front. \"Regardless of perceptions of any kind of us-against-them scenario, it absolutely is a world-against-ISIS issue that needs to take place and there definitely needs to be a global response,\" he said.","highlights":"Foreign fighters are increasingly signing up to fight ISIS on the front lines .\nFor some of the jihadist group's foes, foreign fighters are not welcome comrades .\nTraining and logistical support, some argue, is the best way to support the fight against ISIS .","id":"5427581bb0159db133529ba5a336e42cb1aab19b"} -{"article":"(CNN)It would be easy to laugh off Vin Diesel's prediction that his film \"Furious 7\" will win an Oscar next year, but not for the reason you might think. After all, the actor was serious when he recently told Variety \"It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don't want to be relevant ever.\" But rather than ignore it because it's a glossy, blockbuster action film, some might argue that the movie goes against type for Academy Award nominated films because the cast is so diverse. \"Furious 7\" hits theaters Friday, months after controversy was stirred about the lack of diversity at the Oscars. There were no actors of color nominated and no women in the directing category, which was dominated by white males. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez I\u00f1arritu went on to win best director for \"Birdman.\" The lack of diversity was so glaring (even with the mostly black cast of the movie \"Selma,\" which received a nomination for best picture) that it spurred the Twitter hashtag \"#OscarsSoWhite.\" In contrast, \"Furious 7\" couldn't be more racially and ethnically inclusive. The cast includes Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson -- a Samoan\/black man -- black actors Christopher \"Ludacris\" Bridges and Tyrese Gibson, Hispanic performer Michelle Rodriguez, Thai martial artist Tony Jaa, Beninese expatriate Djimon Hounsou and the late Paul Walker, a blue-eyed, blond-haired California native. The filmmakers even went so far as to make sure casting directors in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where key scenes were filmed, found diverse extras. \"We were mainly looking for the diverse look of the (United Arab Emirates),\" Miranda Davidson, owner of the casting company, told The National. \"They really wanted to make sure we reflected the international feel of the country.\" Almost since the beginning, the \"Fast and Furious\" films have had a diverse focus and appeal. The band of street racers, which encompassed white, black, Asian, Hispanic, male and female and bond as a family, has done well at the box office with each iteration. In 2011, then Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris wrote, \"Go on and laugh your Benetton, Kumbaya, Kashi, quinoa laugh, but it's true: The most progressive force in Hollywood today is the 'Fast and Furious' movies.\" \"They're loud, ludicrous, and visually incoherent,\" he said. \"They're also the last bunch of movies you'd expect to see in the same sentence as 'incredibly important.' But they are -- if only because they feature race as a fact of life as opposed to a social problem or an occasion for self-congratulation. (And this doesn't even account for the gay tension between the male leads, and the occasional crypto-lesbian make-out.)\" According to the Motion Picture Association of America's 2014 Theatrical Market Statistics Report, while Hispanics make up 17% of the U.S. population they account for 25% of frequent moviegoers. Likewise, women make up 52% of moviegoers. Entertainment Weekly points out that the film franchise is doing a much better job of reflecting its audience than others in Hollywood. \"Despite the films' cumulative worldwide gross of almost $2.4 billion, their racial inclusiveness remains an outlier; American movies are still overwhelmingly white,\" EW's Chris Lee writes. \"According to UCLA's 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, a mere 16.7% of 2013 films starred minorities in lead roles.\" At least one moviegoer tweeted that he appreciated the effort. Diesel told EW the franchise has come a long way from the original 2001 film, which featured segregated gangs of racers pitted against each other. \"It doesn't matter what nationality you are,\" the star said. \"As a member of the audience, you realize you can be a member of that 'family.' That's the beautiful thing about how the franchise has evolved.\"","highlights":"The film's cast is diverse .\nEW points out that Hollywood still needs to catch up .\nOne of the stars says the franchise has evolved .","id":"efc4a48ce85a4713387a919db0e48c220374dc00"} -{"article":"(CNN)A measles outbreak that affected more than 130 Californians since December is over, the California Department of Public Health declared Friday. It has been 42 days since the last known case of B3 strain of measles, the equivalent of two successive incubation periods, said Dr. Karen Smith, director of the health department. The department said in its latest update that 131 people came down with the B3 strain, and five who had a different genotype than the outbreak strain. Of the 131 cases, the state was able to obtain the vaccination status for 81 patients. Of the 81, 70% were unvaccinated. \"Prompt investigation of cases, interviewing hundreds of contacts of infected people, vaccinating hundreds of at risk people, and increasing awareness among health care providers about measles, helped to control this outbreak,\" Smith said. The outbreak began with dozens of visitors to two Disney theme parks in the state. The health department said 42 of the cases occurred from December 17-20. Two patients with rashes have been identified in April, but they have a different measles genotype. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website that 19 different strains have been discovered since 1990. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease. It causes fever, red and sore eyes, runny nose, cough and a rash. It can cause deadly health complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis. It is spread by contact with an infected person through coughing or sneezing. It can remain in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours. CNN's Debra Goldschmidt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials say 131 Californians were affected by one strain, five by other strains .\nAbout 70% of the people who could show health records were unvaccinated .\nOutbreak began in December among visitors to two Disney theme parks .","id":"ad0aafb71bbeb906dba9cda85bb350eecc0e960f"} -{"article":"(CNN)As thousands of South Africans took to the streets of the city of Durban to rally against violence and xenophobia, an online community has joined the protests. The marches follow recent violent attacks on foreigners in the country that have claimed five lives. During the protest march Thursday, Twitter followers voiced their support through hashtag campaigns. #PeaceMarch and #SayNoToXenophobia were some of the most popular. South African Police Services said more than 10,000 people attended the march, including civil rights groups and nongovernmental organizations. Hashtags are now pouring out of South Africa. But many are asking, some via Twitter, is it enough to fight #xenophobia? Attacks this week in Durban alone have killed two immigrants and three South Africans, including a 14-year-old boy, authorities said. For South African Tim Flack, tweeting wasn't going to make a bit of difference. Flack, who lives in Cape Town, has brought allegations of hate speech and human rights violations against Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, who he said referred to foreigners as \"lice\" and has said \"they should pack their bags and go.\" \"People listen to him,\" Flack said. \"He is a monarch. The Zulu people in South Africa take him very seriously, they don't question what he says.\" Flack said he was motivated to make the allegations after seeing multiple complaints about xenophobic violence on social media and thinking they weren't enough. So he filed a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission, and then tweeted about it. \"The activists sit around feeling accomplished because they retweeted five times,\" Flack said. \"I want to reach people who see that they can lay a charge and it won't cost them anything, but I will have done something to change the country and push it into a better state of being.\" Now, the Human Rights Commission must decide whether to investigate Flack's allegations against the King, who denies fueling any violence. Flack hopes others will also make complaints. Flack added that Zulus aren't the only people in South Africa who share in the xenophobic sentiment. \"People are frustrated and unemployed, and people in South Africa pay foreign nationals a lot less,\" he said of the tension between nationals and immigrants. \"A domestic worker would ask for 250 rand a day to clean a house, whereas a foreign national would ask for 150 rand, so it causes resentment.\" Imtiaz Sooliman, founder and chairman of the Gift of Givers Foundation in Durban, doesn't think most South Africans are against foreigners. \"South Africans are against xenophobia,\" said Sooliman, who insists the majority of the country is providing an overwhelming amount of support for foreign nationals. Gift of Givers has been administering assistance at five refugee camps set up by the South African government that now hold roughly 8,000 foreign national refugees, he said, passing out things like clothing and hygiene packs. The organization posts its work at the camps online and tags it on social media with #xenophobia. Why? \"In South Africa, everyone knows xenophobia,\" Sooliman said, \"and the way a disaster agency works is we post what people understand. So if you say #tsunami or #war, people follow it. So here, people say #xenophobia, and they all know what it is -- it is a disaster, so you are going to post what people understand.\" He said South Africans also have been going to the camps, which are on sports fields with makeshift tents, bringing cooked food and other necessities. \"This is different from what happened in 2008,\" Sooliman said. That year, scores were killed in attacks in the poorest areas of Johannesburg. Most of the victims were Zimbabweans who had fled repression and dire economic circumstances. Sooliman said that along with the government strongly condemning the violence, community engagement is happening now as it never happened before. It is a kind of national unity that can be best summed up with another hashtag that has emerged from this story: #WeAreAfrica. Only time, or, tweets will tell if it works.","highlights":"More than 10,000 people marched in Durban against violence, officials say .\nTwitter followers voiced their support through hashtag campaigns .\nA Cape Town resident tweets his complaints against a Zulu King .","id":"f14c68b37e84bdfa261da0a985ff0840283a8158"} -{"article":"New York (CNN)A suburban New York cardiologist has been charged in connection with a failed scheme to have another physician hurt or killed, according to prosecutors. Dr. Anthony Moschetto, 54, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to criminal solicitation, conspiracy, burglary, arson, criminal prescription sale and weapons charges in connection to what prosecutors called a plot to take out a rival doctor on Long Island. He was released after posting $2 million bond and surrendering his passport. Two other men -- identified as James Chmela, 43, and James Kalamaras, 41 -- were named as accomplices, according to prosecutors. They pleaded not guilty in Nassau County District Court, according to authorities. Both were released on bail. Requests for comment from attorneys representing Moschetto and Chmela were not returned. It's unclear whether Kalamaras has retained an attorney. Moschetto's attorney, Randy Zelin, said Wednesday that his client \"will be defending himself vigorously,\" the New York Post reported. \"Doctors are supposed to ensure the health and wellbeing of people, but Dr. Moschetto is alleged to have replaced that responsibility with brazen, callous and criminal acts,\" Acting Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement. Police officers allegedly discovered approximately 100 weapons at Moschetto's home, including hand grenades, high-capacity magazines and knives. Many of the weapons were found in a hidden room behind a switch-activated bookshelf, according to prosecutors. The investigation began back in December, when undercover officers began buying heroin and oxycodone pills from Moschetto in what was initially a routine investigation into the sale of prescription drugs, officials said. During the course of the undercover operation, however, Moschetto also sold the officers two semiautomatic assault weapons as well as ammunition, prosecutors said. Moschetto allegedly told officers during one buy that he needed dynamite to \"blow up a building.\" He later said he no longer needed the dynamite because a friend was setting fire to the building instead. Kalamaras and Chmela are believed to have taken part in the arson, according to prosecutors. \"The fire damaged but did not destroy the office of another cardiologist whose relationship with Dr. Moschetto had soured due to a professional dispute,\" according to the statement from the district attorney's office. Moschetto allegedly gave an informant and undercover detective blank prescriptions and cash for the assault and killing of the fellow cardiologist, according to prosecutors. He also requested that the rival's wife be assaulted if she happened to be present, authorities said. \"He was willing to pay $5,000 to have him beaten and put in a hospital for a few months, and then he said he would pay $20,000 to have him killed,\" said Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly, reported CNN affiliate WCBS. The three men are to appear in Nassau County District Court on Friday.","highlights":"Dr. Anthony Moschetto, 54, arrested for selling drugs and weapons, prosecutors say .\nAuthorities allege Moschetto hired accomplices to burn down the practice of former associate .\nAttorney says client will \"vigorously\" defend himself .","id":"11b3565b7bd3e53c7740ebf580758d58af7891c6"} -{"article":"(CNN)The U.N. Security Council voted Tuesday in favor of an arms embargo on Houthis -- the minority group that has taken over large swaths of Yemen, including its capital, Sanaa -- and supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The resolution \"raises the cost\" for the Houthis, according to Mark Lyall Grant, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations. In addition to the arms embargo, it also demands that the Shiite group pull back and refrain from more violence and includes sanctions aimed at controlling the spread of terrorism, according to Grant. Russia abstained from Tuesday's vote, saying it didn't like the inclusion of sanctions. In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition that is conducting airstrikes on targets associated with Saleh's supporters and the Houthis, who have emerged as Yemen's most dominant force in recent months. Also Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi Arabian Minister of Defense Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz agreed to form a joint military commission to discuss the implementation of a major strategic maneuver inside Saudi Arabia, Egypt's state-run Ahram news agency reported. Egypt announced that it would dispatch several naval ships to help halt the rebels' advance. In response to media reports, Egyptian officials said no troops have yet been sent to Yemen. The Houthis forced President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January, though Hadi still claims he is Yemen's legitimate leader and is working with the Saudis and other allies to return to Yemen. Those allied with Hadi have accused the Iranian government of supporting the Houthis in their uprising in Yemen. They include Yemen's current ambassador to the United Nations, Khaled Mahfoodh Abdulla Bahah, who said Tuesday, \"We refuse (the) influence of Iran in Yemen affairs.\" CNN's Richard Roth and Dominique Dodley reported from New York, and CNN's Greg Botelho wrote this report from Atlanta. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Egypt, Saudi Arabia to launch joint military maneuvers inside Saudi borders .\nThe arms embargo applies to the Houthis and backers of ex-President Saleh .\nRussia abstains from the U.N. Security Council vote over the inclusion of sanctions .","id":"861ccb52d9c9beda2263f9b10ef6acab0803f96b"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)A trailer for Zack Snyder's upcoming \"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice\" leaked online on Thursday before quickly being taken down minutes later. A YouTube user uploaded the handheld or camera phone capture of the trailer, which had Spanish subtitles on the screen. The trailer begins with a commentator's voice asking, \"Is it really surprising that the most powerful man in the world should be a figure of controversy?\" As footage of Superman plays, numerous commentators' voices overlap one another with their opinions of the superheroes, including \"We as a population on this planet have been looking for a savior\" and \"Maybe he's just a guy trying to do the right thing.\" Ryan Gosling in talks to star in \"Blade Runner\" sequel . A blurred image of Ben Affleck's face appears shortly before a masked Batman appears, followed by the two superheroes coming face to face. The highly anticipated footage was set to premiere in Imax theaters on Monday. On Wednesday morning, Snyder teased the trailer by releasing a short excerpt on Twitter. \"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice\" will be released on March 25, 2016 and stars Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman. The film also stars Amy Adams. How much it costs to get Mark Hamill's autograph at \"Star Wars\" celebration . \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice\" trailer leaked Thursday before being yanked offline .\nFilm will be released on March 25, 2016 and stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill .","id":"3146c14e3a00d9d1d464110fba0dab55f01786e6"} -{"article":"(CNN)From late January, when New England was living through one of its bleakest and snowiest winters, to a warm and sunny afternoon in April, the jurors in the first-degree murder trial of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez have considered how a promising young athlete who earned millions came to take the life of his onetime friend and future brother-in-law, Odin Lloyd. The jury of seven women and five men listened to more than 130 witnesses and reviewed more than 400 pieces of evidence over the months-long trial. On Wednesday, they convicted Hernandez, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, after deliberating more than 35 hours over parts of seven days. After the verdict, jurors agreed to meet with reporters, at times laughing nervously while shedding light on what some described as the grueling deliberation process. Here are five things to know about what they said: . While declining to discuss specifics of what happened in the jury room, jurors said they came away satisfied with their decision. \"It's a very big decision to make, and every one of us ... made sure we came to the best conclusion,\" one juror told reporters. At one point on Monday, jurors asked Judge Susan Garsh to allow smoking breaks, which were permitted during trial. Some observers thought this signaled weeks of deliberations. A male juror said some panel members had meticulously filled four to eight notebooks as they listened to testimony. \"It was hard ... for everyone,\" said a woman on the jury. \"Everyone's life changed because of this.\" Asked to elaborate, she told a reporter, \"I've been here for as long as you have.\" \"It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life,\" she said later about serving on the jury. \"Absolutely, by far.\" Asked whether they would say anything to Hernandez, one of the women on the panel said simply, \"Nothing.\" Others nodded in apparent agreement. Do they have any feelings about the 25-year-old former star? \"For me, Judge Garsh said, 'Keep your mind suspended,' \" said a female juror. \"We went in there every day with open minds. We listened to the evidence. We heard what they had to say. We got to go into a room and see and touch and feel all the evidence and that's when we came to our conclusion.\" Did they know anything about Hernandez or the case before the trial? One juror responded: \"Nothing.\" \"Very little,\" said another. About six jurors raised their hands when asked who among them was a New England Patriots fan. The jurors said they found out about Hernandez's other legal woes from Garsh only after they reached a verdict. Hernandez potentially faces three more trials, one criminal and two civil actions. Next up is another murder trial in which he is accused of killing two men and wounding another person near a Boston nightclub in July 2012. Prosecutors have said Hernandez fatally shot Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado when he fired into their 2003 BMW. Another passenger was wounded and two others were uninjured. Hernandez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. The families of de Abreu and Furtado filed civil suits against Hernandez, and a judge froze his $5 million in assets, pending the outcome of the double-murder trial. The freeze includes the disputed $3.3 million signing bonus payment Hernandez claims he is owed by the New England Patriots. Hernandez is also being sued by a man who claims Hernandez shot him while they were in a limousine in Miami in February 2013. Alexander Bradley claims Hernandez wounded him after the two got into a fight at a Miami strip club. \"It's amazing a lot of the information we learned today,\" a female juror said Wednesday. \"I think we can all say we made the right decision.\" Some jurors admitted to not knowing who Patriots owner Robert Kraft was when he took the stand at the trial. But they agreed that Kraft's testimony was crucial. Kraft testified that Hernandez proclaimed his innocence to him and told the team owner that \"he hoped that the time of the murder ... came out because I believe he said he was in a club.\" \"To this day -- we just went through a three-month trial, and this is now two years later -- we still don't know the exact time of Odin's murder,\" a male juror said. \"So I don't know how Aaron would have had that information two years ago.\" Another juror was struck by the emotional testimony of Lloyd's family and friends. \"For me, it was in the beginning -- the pictures,\" a woman said of autopsy photos of Lloyd's bullet-riddled body. \"You're told to be unemotional and to sit there and hold back tears ... (That) was hard.\" One man said his time on the case made him \"appreciate how quickly life can end and how fleeting it can be.\" And that the justice system can work. \"The system is designed to be fair to both sides,\" he said. \"In fairness, you can't rush.\" The jurors did not find credible the defense team's contention that Hernandez's co-defendants -- Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz -- carried out the murder. The two men have pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately. In closing arguments, defense lawyer James Sultan for the first time placed Hernandez at the murder scene. Sultan described Wallace and Ortiz as a pair of drug dealers known to become crazed while on PCP, as men capable of killing someone in drug-induced fits of rage. \"Did he make all the right decisions? No,\" Sultan said of Hernandez. \"He was a 23-year-old kid who witnessed something, committed by somebody he knew. He really didn't know what to do, so he put one foot in front of another. Keep in mind, he's not charged with accessory after the fact. ... He's charged with murder ... and that he did not do.\" \"We were all shocked about that,\" a female juror told reporters Wednesday. \"It was very surprising,\" said another. Asked about post-trial fame or the possibility of book deals for their role in the sensational case, a female juror smiled. \"None of us wanted to come into this room,\" she told the reporters gathered around her. The jurors said they expected to sleep peacefully Wednesday night. \"After a beverage,\" one of them added. Asked whether they were leaving the experience as friends, they all seemed to say, \"Yes.\"","highlights":"Female juror: \"Everyone's life changed because of this\"\nThe jurors said they didn't learn of the other charges against Hernandez until after the verdict .\nFor these jurors, the system worked: It's \"designed to be fair to both sides\"","id":"82f0e524efc212bb100776514177cbf5d4eaeab6"} -{"article":"Panama City Beach, Florida (CNN)A third person has been arrested in the case of an alleged spring break gang rape that was videotaped on a crowded stretch of Panama City Beach, the Bay County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. Police arrested the suspect at 11 p.m. Tuesday. \"After developing information that George Davon Kennedy was the third suspect seen in the video of the gang rape, BCSO Investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest,\" according to a news release. Investigators discovered that Kennedy had family in DeKalb County, Georgia, and reached out to the sheriff's office there. Deputies in DeKalb, in the Atlanta area, tracked down Kennedy and arrested him on a charge of sexual assault by multiple perpetrators, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said. Kennedy is from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and has been a student at Middle Tennessee State University, the sheriff's office said. Previously, Ryan Calhoun and Delonte Martistee were arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, the sheriff's office said. Calhoun was released Saturday after posting $50,000 bond; Martistee remains in Bay County Jail, a county deputy said. Troy University in Alabama said the two are students and have been \"placed on temporary suspension from school per the university's standards of conduct and disciplinary procedures. Martistee, a member of the track and field team, has also been removed from the team.\" Martistee is represented by a public defender. Calhoun's legal representation is unclear. No public statement has been made on either's behalf. The arrests come after a woman told police she may have been drugged and gang-raped on a beach behind a popular club in broad daylight as bystanders watched. The woman didn't recall the assault, police say, but she saw the video of her alleged assault on the news, and though the footage had to be blurred, she recognized her tattoos and contacted authorities. It's not the first time this has happened to a young woman in Panama City Beach, authorities say. Four young men were involved in the assault, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said, and while he previously said federal marshals were trying to track down a third suspect and investigators were seeking a possible witness, it's unclear if the person arrested Tuesday was someone the police had been looking for. \"There's hundreds, hundreds of people standing there -- watching, looking, seeing, hearing what's going on,\" McKeithen said. \"And yet our culture and our society and our young people have got to the point where obviously this is acceptable somewhere. I will tell you it is not acceptable in Bay County.\" Authorities have said they plan to interview the woman and show her the full video to see whether she knows the attackers and can help identify other suspects, said Ruth Corley, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. Authorities are pressing charges, and the woman plans to cooperate, Corley said. Investigators were to meet with her this week. After interviewing witnesses, Bay County investigators determined the alleged rape took place between March 10 and March 12, behind Spinnaker Beach Club, a popular bar and dance club for spring breakers. She \"does not remember the assault at all,\" Corley said. \"She remembers taking a drink from a CamelBak and there is a strong possibility she was drugged.\" (CamelBak sells various products for transporting water or other drinks.) She was visiting Panama City Beach at the time of the assault, and is now home, authorities said. The Troy, Alabama, Police Department found the video during the course of an investigation into an unrelated shooting and turned it over to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. The video shows suspects pushing the victim's hand aside and holding her legs down, Corley said. \"You can see in the video there are people two feet away. They were assaulting her, and we believe the people around her knew she was being assaulted.\" The suspects can be heard commenting about what they are doing to her, Corley said. Authorities have three sworn statements from witnesses stating that the assault happened, Corley said. The sheriff's office released part of the video to local TV stations, which blurred portions of it before airing. CNN is showing part of what was released. While the video is \"one of the most disgusting, repulsive, sickening things that I've seen this year on Panama City Beach,\" it's not an isolated incident, McKeithen said. \"This is not the first video we've recovered. It's not the second video. It's not the third video. There's a number of videos we've recovered with things similar to this, and I can only imagine how many things we haven't recovered.\" Corley said that through social media, \"we have been able to find video of girls, incoherent and passed out, and almost like they are drugged, being assaulted on the beaches of Panama City in front of a bunch of people standing around.\" About 100,000 spring break revelers come to the beach community every year. This year, the Bay County Sheriff's Office made more than 1,000 arrests for various crimes -- about triple the number of arrests made in the same period last year. CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton, Josh Levs and Alexandra Field contributed to this report.","highlights":"Third suspect identified as George Davon Kennedy of Murfreesboro, Tennessee .\nYoung woman was raped on a crowded beach in broad daylight, police say .\nSome bystanders saw what was happening and didn't stop it, authorities say .","id":"1c7626ddf4eef3af3a5ca5ed5d41c1ec461ecf37"} -{"article":"(CNN)Remains of up to nearly 400 unaccounted for service members tied to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor will be exhumed this year, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The hope is that most of the battleship's sailors and Marines can be identified. \"The secretary of defense and I will work tirelessly to ensure your loved one's remains will be recovered, identified, and returned to you as expeditiously as possible, and we will do so with dignity, respect and care,\" Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said in a statement. \"While not all families will receive an individual identification, we will strive to provide resolution to as many families as possible.\" The USS Oklahoma sank when it was hit by torpedoes on December 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A total of 429 sailors and Marines on the ship were killed. Thirty-five crew members were positively identified and buried in the years immediately after the attack, according to the Defense Department. By 1950, all unidentified remains were laid to rest as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2003, five more service members were identified, with the help of historical evidence from Pearl Harbor survivor Ray Emory, 93. Emory, a native of Peoria, Illinois, was serving as a seaman first class on the light cruiser USS Honolulu that fateful day. After the war, Emory worked in Washington state before moving to Hawaii about 30 years ago. The retiree made it his mission to ensure graves are properly identified. \"It's something I looked forward to for a long time,\" he told CNN about Tuesday's announcement. Speaking by phone from Honolulu, Emory said that proper identification means a lot to the families of those who lost loved ones -- and to him. Next of kin were being notified starting Tuesday. Service members who are identified will be returned to their families for burial, with full military honors. WWII pilot, 99, reunited with historic C-47 plane . CNN's Phil Gast contributed to this report.","highlights":"USS Oklahoma was lost during Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 .\nHundreds of crew members were buried without identification .","id":"a9f0d9f04f7244eeb27797bd7c45e2a224c2d32f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Thousands of Syrian and Palestinian refugees trapped in the Yarmouk refugee camp have suffered what can only be described as untold indignities. But while the story is in itself tragic, it is the individual lives at the heart of the camp that make the imperative for humanitarian action so compelling. I encountered two such individuals on my mission to Damascus -- Jihad and Mohammad -- tiny, vulnerable infants who were taken from Yarmouk in recent days, a place that was described last week by the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as \"the deepest circle of hell.\" The fact that they are alive truly make them miracle children. Looking into those bright young faces, touching their pristine hands, the logic of our humanitarian mandate -- the mission to protect -- never felt stronger to me. Like the wider Syrian conflict, Yarmouk has a human face; the faces of young Mohammad and young Jihad. I want to introduce you to them in the hope that you, too, will understand why I am firmly convinced that turning away is not an option -- and why the international community must act in a concerted manner to respond to the many tragedies in Syria. Jihad Ya'qoub, the youngest Palestinian refugee to flee Yarmouk, was born on March 30. His mother, Said Fatima, never imagined bringing a child into this world could be so tough. \"I was hoping to drink milk and eat eggs during my pregnancy, but our financial situation did allow us to buy these expensive food items,\" she said. Said Fatima was living in a community where the average person survived on just 400 calories a day. Mohammad was born in Yarmouk on January 25 of this year. When ISIS -- Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- entered the camp and tensions heightened, his mother, Nadia, fled in search of safety. Her only thoughts were to save the life of her newborn son. Yet she has not lost hope in the possibility of a dignified future. She hopes that if and when life returns to normal, she will be able to live once more with her husband and son in the family home in Yarmouk. These tales of courage and human dignity are a lesson for us all. When I next brief the Security Council, as I did a few days ago, I will tell them about Jihad and Mohammad. I will continue to press the case for humanitarian access to other children like them inside Yarmouk, other civilians who need help where they are. To do this, hostilities will have to subside. Pressure must be exerted on armed actors in Yarmouk to this end. Beyond that, those civilians wishing to temporarily leave must be allowed to do so safely. These things are all possible. But it takes the necessary political will -- nothing more, nothing less. Yarmouk must be a place where the politics of the possible begin to take hold. I believe they can. Because to abandon such belief would be to abandon Jihad, Mohammad and thousands of other civilians like them. And that is simply not an option.","highlights":"Yarmouk is a refugee camp near Damascus in war-ravaged Syria .\nPierre Kr\u00e4henb\u00fchl of the United Nations: Individual lives underscore need for humanitarian action .","id":"475ed771e0c8382c1ce3025f1eb21afd484c3a72"} -{"article":"(CNN)Authorities detained a 15-year-old girl from Cape Town, South Africa, at the city's airport after receiving information she was leaving the country to join ISIS, State Security Minister David Mahlobo said. \"We are still conducting further investigation. The girl over the past period has been using technology on social media platforms interacting with strange people and reading material that suggested she expressed an interest in joining a terrorist group called ISIS,\" he told broadcaster eNCA. Police and airport security located the girl on a Johannesburg-bound flight, and \"we got our agencies to secure all the important exit points in the country. We got her at Cape Town International Airport,\" Mahlobo said. Virginia teen accused of being ISIS recruiter . It's not clear how the girl was recruited or how the airfare was arranged, he said. Officials debriefed the girl's family and released her into the family's care, Mahlobo said. \"The recruitment and radicalization of particularly young people to take part in acts of terror is a growing global concern and local law enforcement agencies will continue to work hard in clamping these from materializing,\" the minister said in a statement Monday. Australia teens suspected of trying to join ISIS stopped at airport .","highlights":"Official: Girl, 15, \"expressed an interest in joining a terrorist group called ISIS\"\nAuthorities detain girl at Cape Town airport, release her into family's care, he says .","id":"44751ad9ec8726280c92fe64eb4fa9f421be12b1"} -{"article":"(CNN)Deputies rushed Kenneth Morgan Stancil III from court Thursday after the 20-year-old murder suspect swore at a judge and tried to flip over a table. Stancil is accused of killing an employee Monday at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Relatives have said victim Ron Lane was gay, CNN affiliate WNCN reported, and investigators are looking into whether the shooting was a hate crime. Authorities arrested Stancil after he was found sleeping on a Florida beach on Tuesday. Just a few minutes into Thursday's hearing on the first-degree murder charge he faces, Stancil snapped back at the judge after he was offered a court-appointed lawyer. \"No, I don't need one,\" said Stancil, who stood before the judge with his legs shackled and his arms handcuffed in front of him. \"You know what I'm saying? I knew I would get life anyway.\" Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones interjected, pointing out that the maximum sentence Stancil faces is the death penalty. \"Yes, I know that,\" Stancil fired back. \"But when I knew what I had to do and I knew when I got caught, you know, I knew in my mind that I could get life, I could get the death penalty. You know what I'm saying? Do you follow my topic? I would have killed you, you know what I'm saying, if you're a f---ing child molester.\" The judge told him not to swear. \"I don't give a f--- what you want,\" Stancil said, lunging forward and lifting up the table in front of him. Deputies quickly corralled him and hustled him from the courtroom. The hearing resumed about 25 minutes later, when Stancil was brought back into the courtroom, this time with his arms handcuffed behind him. When asked again by Jones whether he wanted a lawyer, his response was quick -- and calm. \"Yes, sir,\" he said. In an interview with CNN affiliate WRAL, Stancil described himself as a neo-Nazi and said he hates gay people \"with a passion.\" Stancil had worked for Lane, the school's print shop operator, as part of a work-study program, but was let go from the program in early March because of poor attendance, college officials said. During the interview, and during a court appearance in Florida on Tuesday, Stancil said Lane deserved to die, accusing him of being a child molester who'd made advances in online messages to Stancil's 16-year-old brother. Lane's family has described those accusations as untrue and slanderous. His cousin, Steve Smith, told WRAL that Lane never made sexual advances toward children or anyone with whom he worked. He described him as a loving man who was dedicated to family and friends. \"Yes, Ron was gay. But people need to get over it,\" Smith said. \"That's between him and the Lord, him and his savior.\"","highlights":"Kenneth Morgan Stancil, charged with first-degree murder, swears at the judge .\nDeputies escort him from court after he tries to flip over a table .\nStancil is accused of killing an employee at Wayne Community College .","id":"5ec241bce317fef97331e1d385b67dab05f5b1dc"} -{"article":"(CNN)Robert Bates says he gets it, how you might wonder how a cop could confuse a pistol for a stun gun. Bates -- the Tulsa County, Oklahoma, reserve sheriff's deputy accused of manslaughter in the death of a fleeing suspect -- told NBC's \"Today\" show Friday that he used to think that, too. \"Believe me,\" he told the show in his first appearance since being charged in the April 2 death of Eric Harris, \"it can happen to anyone.\" Harris died after Bates shot him -- accidentally, he says -- after calling out \"Taser! Taser!\" in a tussle captured on a police body camera. Bates told investigators that he mistook his firearm for the stun gun. How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser? While Bates is at the center of the maelstrom over Harris' death, he isn't the only one under scrutiny. The Oklahoma NAACP wants charges against other officers involved in Harris' death, and a state and federal investigation into the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office's treatment of minorities. The sheriff's office also finds itself fending off allegations that supervisors were told to forge Bates' training records. In his interview Friday with \"Today,\" Bates said he had the documentation to show he had completed the necessary training required of reserve deputies. \"That is absolutely the truth. I have it in writing,\" he told the show. And on Thursday, a sheriff's office official denied to the Tulsa World newspaper that any records had ever been forged. As an advanced reserve deputy, sheriff's office policy calls for Bates to have completed 480 hours of the field training officer program, according to the Tulsa World. Bates would also have needed firearms certification training. Officials have yet to locate records showing what training Bates completed, said Maj. Shannon Clark of the sheriff's office. But Clark did say it's possible that some training requirements may have been waived. Sheriff Stanley Glanz has the authority to waive any department policies, Clark said. \"The policies within our organization are signed off by the sheriff, but there are also policies that give the sheriff the ability to waive any policy within our organization. That's part of being a sheriff's office,\" Clark told the newspaper. Glanz told KFAQ radio this week that officials can't find records of Bates' firearms certification. The instructor who provided that training is now a U.S. Secret Service agent, and officials haven't been able to locate training records she was supposed to have turned in, Glanz told the station. Other discrepancies have surfaced about training that Bates claims to have attended, including questions about active shooter and homicide investigation instruction. Tulsa World reporter Dylan Goforth said the paper had been told by multiple sources that Bates' records had been falsified. The newspaper has not said who allegedly asked the supervisors to falsify the training records or why. But the orders apparently started years ago, \"back when (Bates) was trying to get on as a deputy,\" reporter Ziva Branstetter told CNN's \"New Day.\" Bates has donated equipment to the department and was also a donor to Glanz's re-election campaign, leading to allegations he had essentially paid to be a cop. He rejected that claim in the \"Today\" interview as \"unbelievably unfair.\" Bates' attorney, Clark Brewster, also has rejected the allegations of poor training or forgery as unfounded. He said those making the accusations include fired sheriff's office employees represented by the law firm that also represents Harris' family. \"His training is extensive and certainly adequate,\" Brewster told CNN on Thursday. Bates appeared on the \"Today\" show with his wife, two daughters and Brewster. He seemed composed but said he was still might be in shock over what had happened. \"I can tell you it stayed with me for a number of days,\" Bates said. \"I'm not at all sure it's not still with me today. Lack of sleep, inability to concentrate, all of those plus more. You know, I still can't believe it happened.\" In describing the events leading up to Harris' death, Bates said he was parked several blocks away from the site where an undercover deputy was conducting a sting operation to catch Harris in the act of illegally selling a gun. Bates said he had participated in \"several hundred\" such operations but always in a backup role where he would come in and \"clean up\" after deputies, taking photos and notes. But as deputies rolled up to arrest him after the sale, Harris bolted from the vehicle and ran toward Bates' position. As deputies were trying to subdue Harris, Bates told investigators he saw an opportunity to use his stun gun to help get the suspect under control. \"I yelled, 'Taser! Taser!' as required in training. The deputy below me ducked, he pulled away from it so that I could,\" Bates said. \"The laser light is the same on each weapon. I saw the light and I squeezed the trigger,\" Bates told \"Today.\" The result was not the staccato click of a well-deployed stun gun. Instead, it was a gunshot. \"I shot him! I'm sorry!\" Bates is heard emotionally saying on video of the incident. Bates apologized to Harris' family, who have rejected allegations he was violent and on drugs. Harris' brother, Andre Harris, said this week that he didn't think the shooting was racially motivated. Instead, he said, \"This is simply evil.\" But Bates,who is charged with second-degree manslaughter, said he didn't mean to kill Harris. His attorney has called it an \"excusable homicide.\" \"I rate this as No. 1 on my list of things in my life that I regret,\" said Bates, who is free on $25,000 bail.","highlights":"\"I rate this as No. 1 on my list of things in my life that I regret,\" Robert Bates tells \"Today\"\nHe says he didn't mean to kill Eric Harris and rejects claims his training records were forged .\n\"I still can't believe it happened,\" Bates tells the NBC show .","id":"3c2242c8c19c1149cfb8a03442812b84d3122d6d"} -{"article":"Garissa, Kenya (CNN)The desks of the small Madrassa are empty. Its 573 students, all male, are staying home after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced three days of national mourning following last week's deadly attack at a nearby university. Only a few kilometers away, 147 people -- mostly students -- were brutally massacred when Al-Shabaab militants invaded the campus in Garissa, a town in northeastern Kenya. We've come to this particular Islamic religious school because the man suspected by Kenyan authorities of being the \"mastermind\" behind the atrocity -- Mohamed Mohamud -- once taught here. \"He was someone who was very quiet, he didn't like too much talk,\" recalls Sheikh Khalif Abdi Hussein, the principal at the Madrassa. He says he also taught with Mohamud for two years. \"When he left the Madrassa, he joined Al-Shabaab. But before, he was normal, just like me and other people.\" What worries authorities here is exactly that -- Mohamud was Kenyan. But now, say officials, Mohamud is in command of an Al-Shabaab militia based near Kenya's long, porous border with Somalia -- about 118 miles (190km) from Garissa -- who are believed to be responsible for numerous cross-border attacks into Kenya. The Islamist militant group, who are allied with al Qaeda, have been waging a bloody campaign for control of Somalia. With Kenyan troops part of an African Union force deployed in support of Somalia's United Nations-supported government, Kenya has now become a target. Last year, an attack by Al-Shabaab on a shopping center in the country's capital, Nairobi, claimed the lives of 68 people. Now Mohamud stands accused of being behind Thursday's attack -- the deadliest attack in the nation since al Qaeda killed more than 200 people at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. But Mohamud is not Kenya's only homegrown terrorist. The Kenyan Interior Ministry has said at least one of the four gunmen who carried out the attack on the university was also Kenyan. Abdirahim Abdullahi was in his 20s and the son of a government chief. His father says he lost contact with his son in 2013, shortly after he left university. The Kenyan government is concerned that Al-Shabaab is recruiting disaffected youth from inside the country. \"Our task of countering terrorism has been made all the more difficult by the fact that the planners and financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities,\" President Kenyatta said during an address to the nation in the aftermath of the massacre. Meanwhile, Sheikh Khalif insists his Madrassa has nothing to do with Mohamud's extreme, violent ideas. \"This man is a dangerous man, a killer, a criminal,\" he says. But he was also once a neighbor. And so Kenyans must now look within to tackle this very real threat to the country's -- and the region's -- stability.","highlights":"The attack at a Garissa university last week killed 147 people, mostly students .\nMohamed Mohamud taught at a Madrassa in the Kenyan town .\nAuthorities fear the rise of homegrown terrorists in the African country .","id":"7270dfc8b2d5e4f6968ab684b3d62e5223e40270"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's not easy being the Pope. Not only does he shepherd nearly 1 billion Catholic souls, he also leads a small but morally significant state with envoys and interests in nearly every country. As scholars like to say, the Vatican has walked the line between spiritual and worldly concerns for centuries. Sometimes, as when St. John Paul II stood up to Communist Poland, the church's moral and political clout have combined to pack a powerful punch. At other times, popes have to make a hard choice: Adopt the sharp tongue of a prophet or the discretion of a diplomat? This Sunday in Rome, Pope Francis faced just such a dilemma. First, the back story: . One hundred years ago, more than 1 million Armenians (some estimates run as high as 1.5 million) died at the hand of the Turks. Many of the victims were part of a branch of Christianity closely aligned with Catholicism. A slew of historians and at least 20 countries call the killings a \"genocide.\" (A U.S. resolution to do the same has languished in Congress.) Turkish officials disagree, arguing that the deaths, while unfortunate, were part of a long-running war that witnessed casualties on all sides. For their part, previous popes had finessed the genocide question. John Paul II used the \"g\" word in 2001, but didn't dare speak it out loud. Instead, it was tucked into a document signed by the former pontiff and the head of the Armenian church, after they had celebrated Mass together. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI called the killings \"a great evil\" and \"terrible persecution\" in a speech 2006, but avoided labeling them genocide. (Benedict found other ways to tick off the Turks, initially opposing their entry into the European Union.) As Pope Francis prepared to celebrate a special Mass Sunday to commemorate a century since the slaughter, Vatican watchers were divided about whether he would use the word \"genocide.\" He did, but in a roundabout way, by quoting John Paul's document. \"In the past century, our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,\" Francis said. \"The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the 20th century,' struck your own Armenian people.\" The middle phrase comes directly from the document issued 14 years ago by John Paul. In citing his predecessor, Francis highlighted one of the Vatican's chiefest concerns, especially on matters of moral import: continuity. Whether holding the line against artificial birth control, declining to ordain female priests or dealing with diplomatic tensions, it sometimes seems as if the church considers inconsistency the most unforgivable of sins. \"The Vatican and the papacy love continuity,\" said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Vatican analyst for National Catholic Reporter. If Francis had not called the Armenian killings a genocide, particularly at such a high-profile event -- the audience included Armenia's President -- it might have been interpreted as a change in church policy, Reese said. At the same time, Francis didn't want to anger the Turks more than necessary, especially since they have become a key ally against the persecution of Christians by ISIS in the Middle East, which the Pope alluded to in his speech on Sunday. \"The fact that he quoted John Paul is a sign that he's downplaying it,\" Reese said of the Armenian murders. \"He's telling people: There's nothing new here.\" New or not, Turkey was not happy. The nation recalled its Vatican ambassador for \"consultations\" just hours after Francis' comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Turkey also promptly summoned his counterpart, the Vatican's ambassador, for a meeting, Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported. In a tweet Sunday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the Pope's use of the word \"unacceptable\" and \"out of touch with both historical facts and legal basis.\" \"Religious authorities are not places through which hatred and animosity are fueled by unfounded allegations,\" the tweet reads. \"Hatred\" and \"animosity\" are not words often used to describe Pope Francis. Because he often shines a sympathetic face on the world, emphasizing mercy over judgment, it's easy to miss the bluntness Francis brings to the bully pulpit. On matters of doctrine and diplomacy, he may be carrying on Catholic traditions, but in his willingness to engage in geopolitics and the tone that engagement often takes, this pope is decidedly different. He has helped broker a backroom detente between the United States and Cuba, and invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders for an unprecedented prayer service at the Vatican (after annoying some Israelis with an impromptu prayer at the wall that separates the West Bank from Jerusalem.) But Francis has also suggested that force may be justified to stop ISIS' slaughter of Christians, warned of the \"Mexicanization\" of Argentina and said that satirists who insult religion should expect a retaliatory punch. On Monday, the Pope addressed a roomful of priests at morning Mass. He must have heard the hubbub about his \"genocide\" remark, but he encouraged his charges to speak frankly, without fear, and to bear the courage of their convictions, just as the early apostles had. \"We cannot keep silent about what we have seen and heard,\" Francis said. CNN's Gul Tuysuz and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Previous popes had finessed the question of whether the killing of 1.5 million Armenians was genocide.\nBecause he often shines such a smiley face on the world, it can be easy to forget the bluntness Francis sometimes brings to the bully pulpit .","id":"a382fc98c0652dea0c2275a4110b744476b30ea3"} -{"article":"(CNN)Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson will be reinstated as an active player by the NFL on Friday, the league said. The NFL suspended the 30-year-old football star in November over allegations that last May he disciplined his son, who was 4 at the time, too harshly with a \"switch,\" or thin stick. In a letter, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Peterson that his continued participation in the league was contingent on a number of requirements, including that he maintain \"an ongoing program of counseling and treatment as recommended by medical advisers,\" the NFL said Thursday. Also required of Peterson: Avoiding \"any further conduct that violates the (NFL's) personal conduct policy or other NFL policies.\" \"Any further violation of the personal conduct policy by Peterson would result in additional discipline, which could include suspension without pay or banishment from the NFL,\" the league said in a statement. Peterson played in one game last season, a 35-6 win against St. Louis in September, before the league put him on an exempt list September 17 -- keeping him off the field with pay -- in light of his indictment that month in the case. Initially charged with felony child abuse, Peterson pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless assault in November in Texas. The NFL then suspended him without pay and he lost his appeal of that sanction the next month. In February, a Minnesota district court judge vacated the decision that upheld his suspension, making Peterson eligible for reinstatement. Bleacher Report: Latest details, comments, reaction . The Vikings issued a brief statement in which they said they \"look forward to Adrian rejoining the Vikings.\" ESPN reported that the team will hold voluntary offseason workouts beginning Monday. The next Vikings' organized team activities begin in late May. It is unclear whether Peterson will attend. He has been unhappy with how the Vikings have handled the matter. Though Peterson dodged jail time with his no-contest plea, he received probation, community service and a $4,000 fine. He also will take parenting classes. \"I truly regret this incident,\" Peterson said after accepting the deal. \"I stand here and I take full responsibility for my actions. I love my son more than any one of you can even imagine.\" Peterson is considered one of the best running backs in the NFL. In 2011 he signed a seven-year contract worth more than $100 million with the Vikings, who were 7-9 last season and failed to make the playoffs. In eight seasons, including last year's abbreviated year, he has rushed for 10,190 yards and averaged a strong 5.0 yards per carry. CNN's Jill Martin and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adrian Peterson had been suspended after pleading guilty to misdemeanor reckless assault .\nNFL Commissioner Roger Goodell requires him to keep going to counseling, other treatment .\nMinnesota Vikings, 7-9 last season, say they look forward to him rejoining the team .","id":"cb5638856f8d116a0285e2a6ea63f3381dc6218e"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Tulsa County reserve deputy is on administrative leave after \"inadvertently\" shooting a suspect with his gun. Police say Robert (Bob) Bates, 73, thought he pulled out his Taser during an arrest, but instead shot the suspect, who later died at a local hospital. The shooting happened after an apparent drug and gun selling operation by the Tulsa Violent Crimes task force Thursday. Bates, a member of the task force, was part of a group of deputies trying to arrest Eric Courtney Harris, 44, in the parking lot of a Dollar General store. Police say Harris, a convicted felon, sold undercover officers a pistol. When confronted by an arrest team, he fled the scene on foot and police say they \"observed him reaching for his waistband area ...causing concern for the deputies safety.\" After a brief pursuit, police say Harris was forced to the ground, where he continued to resist arrest and \"refused to pull his left arm from underneath his body where his hand was near his waistband.\" It was during this portion of the arrest that police say \"the reserve deputy was attempting to use less lethal force, believing he was utilizing a Taser, when he inadvertently discharged his service weapon, firing one round which struck Harris.\" Harris died at a local hospital and his cause of death is under investigation. Police say Harris admitted to medics at the scene that he may have been under the influence of Phencyclidine, a street drug commonly known as PCP. When asked if another gun was found on Harris, Shannon Clark of the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office says \"The suspect was placed in the ambulance and transported so quickly. I have not been told there was a second weapon found on him yet.\" Deputy Robert Bates, who's been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, received his reserve status from the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office in 2008 and was assigned to the violent crime task force. He had also served as a Tulsa Police officer. When asked by CNN affiliate KTUL whether age may have played a factor in the \"inadvertent\" shooting, Clark says \"did an accident happen? Sure. But is it accredited to his age? Or was it accredited to the rapidly evolving situation? I guess that will be determined in the investigation.\" CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton, Joe Sutton contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police say Robert Bates, 73, thought he pulled out his Taser during an arrest .\nInstead, he shot the suspect, who later died at a local hospital .","id":"b899262894067de7b1a7a6cb27bf128066a11f79"} -{"article":"(CNN)Chinese police have arrested more than 133,000 people and seized 43.3 tons of illegal narcotics during a six-month anti-drug campaign, the country's Ministry of Public Security has announced. Authorities also handled 115,000 drug-related crimes -- such as robbery -- and 606,000 cases of drug use during the nationwide campaign to \"ban drugs in hundreds of cities,\" Liu Yuejin, Assistant Minister of Public Security, said Wednesday. The figures were nearly double the same period a year earlier, while the amount of narcotics seized was up by 44.9%, according to the ministry. Liu said drug trafficking groups have \"suffered a heavy blow\" and drug users have been \"forcefully regulated.\" However, the police also paid a price, Liu said, in quotes carried by the state-run Xinhua news agency. Nine police officers died and another 657 were wounded in the mission, with 76 severely wounded. The ministry rewarded 60 units and 100 people. Liu said China's drug-related problems were still severe, with online drug trafficking an increasing problem. He said the ministry had launched a three-month online campaign starting in April targeting people engaged in drug-related Internet crimes. Over the past nine months, a string of movie and television stars, film directors and pop singers have been arrested and charged over drug related incidents, including Jaycee Chan, son of kung fu movie star Jackie Chan, who was convicted on a drug charge and sentenced to six months in prison by a Beijing court. In August last year, dozens of management agencies representing actors and singers signed an agreement with Beijing authorities banning drug use from the entertainment industry and pledging to sack any artists who broke the law.","highlights":"Police arrest 133,000 people and seize 43.3 tons of narcotics in a six-month period .\nChina launches a new online campaign to crack down on online drug crimes .\nCelebrities have been embroiled in the nation's intensifying anti-drug campaign .","id":"95a0d209717732f9565d925715ed0ccce9a194a0"} -{"article":"(Billboard)Fresh off his scorching performance at Coachella Saturday night (and days before his next one on the festival's second weekend), rocker Jack White announced he'll take a hiatus from touring. White will wrap his touring efforts in support of \"Lazeretto\" with a brief, first-ever acoustic tour that will hit \"the only five states left in the U.S. that he has yet to play,\" according to White's website. Rounding out the acoustic quartet on tour will be Fats Kaplin, Lillie Mae Rische and Dominic Davis. The shows will be unannounced until day-of-show, with tickets priced at $3 and limited to one ticket per person, to be purchased only at the venue on a first-come, first-served basis. Billboard: Jack White on Not Being a 'Sound-Bite Artist,' Living in the Wrong Era and Why Vinyl Records Are 'Hypnotic' The purposely vague announcement surely has fans (and journalists) scouring the Internet for White's touring history. Unclear is whether White includes his work with The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and Dead Weather in his touring history, or just his solo road work. Presumably, he's including all of his touring, with all bands, as Billboard could find only 29 states in which he has performed as Jack White. Tour dates with White Stripes add another 12 states. That leaves nine states for which we could not find a show for White: Hawaii (where a show is scheduled for tomorrow, April 15), Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Vermont, Iowa, and North and South Dakota. Billboard: Jack White Plays The Hits, Declares 'Music Is Sacred' at Coachella . Through the process of elimination (surely he has played Boise, Little Rock, and Salt Lake?), our guess as to which five \"states\" White will play on the brief acoustic run: South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont and ... Puerto Rico? If that's the case, this tour is in for some long jumps, with Puerto Rico to Vermont being a potential beast. (Though shipping acoustic instruments and ribbon mics will be a lot less taxing than a full electrified stage setup.) \u00a92015 Billboard. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Jack White taking a hiatus from touring after brief acoustic jaunt .\nHe'll play five states he has yet to get to, charge just $3 .\nPlaces and times of shows are currently a mystery .","id":"1ec031cfc87a8b4ee02762362b88d04e578cc04f"} -{"article":"Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)As the transport plane comes in to land at Sanaa Airport, the deep scars of the brutal conflict tearing Yemen apart are only too clear: wrecked aircraft line the runway, and nearby buildings lie in ruins. To most of the outside world, this war-torn country is off limits, the weeks-long battle between Houthi rebels and Saudi-led coalition forces making it too dangerous to visit, and a no-fly zone rendering its international airport all but obsolete -- but on Tuesday, CNN was granted rare access on a desperate aid mission by Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund. The airport has previously been bombed. Hostilities are likely to resume before the day is out: a brief, peaceful window has been delicately negotiated following a special request from the U.N. -- but it won't last long. Unicef hopes there will be just enough time to deliver vital food and supplies, helping to ease the country's worsening humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 Yemeni civilians have fled their homes since fighting began, and OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, estimates that 15.9 million people here are in need of assistance. The main terminal at El Rahaba Airport is under the control of the Houthi rebels. We can't get near it for fear of provoking trouble. But there is plenty to be done out on the tarmac. Within minutes of touching down, a small army of aid workers is busy unloading huge mounds of much-needed provisions. Gusts of wind blow dust across the runway, as crates and pallets of emergency nutrition and medical equipment pile up rapidly beside the plane. Unicef's team has overcome more than one hurdle just getting it this far -- now they'll have to work out how to distribute it to those most in need in a country paralyzed by a lack of resources. Even before Saudi airstrikes, most of the 25 million people in Yemen required humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs, according to the United Nations. As they work, an Air India plane is taxiing away from the terminal. Thousands have fled the country on evacuation flights in recent weeks as the situation in Yemen has deteriorated. But for those who have nowhere else to go and no chance of a flight out, mercy missions by Unicef and other NGOs like it are the only hope. READ MORE: 'A window into hell' - desperate Yemenis flee by boatREAD MORE: Civilian catastrophe looming in YemenREAD MORE: Yemen crisis - how you can help . Bryony Jones contributed to this report .","highlights":"Almost 16 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, according to U.N.\nPlaneload of aid supplies including food and medicine was flown in to Sanaa on Tuesday .\nA rare ceasefire was negotiated to allow the plane to land briefly .","id":"14bb29c3ecc54a552530aca193f9f36007364e22"} -{"article":"(CNN)Their eyes reflect childhoods marked by tragedy. Their faces show wrinkles made deeper by pain and the passage of time. Tomasz Lazar spent hours photographing and interviewing adults who were ripped from their homes as children in the 1940s and forced to live thousands of miles away in Siberia. \"For me those faces are like maps,\" Lazar said. \"The more you look at them, the more you are discovering.\" Soviet authorities invaded Poland during World War II and deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. Some were sent to prison camps in the frozen wilderness of central Russia. Many were children. In effect, Moscow stole much of an entire generation of young Poles, a handful of whom Lazar has located seven decades later. During Lazar's interviews, many of the survivors broke down in tears. \"It was very traumatic for them,\" he said. \"Some lost mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters -- killed by the Soviets.\" Lazar remembers hearing 84-year-old Boguslaw Dokurno recall his grandfather's dying wish. Dokurno's grandfather asked his grandson to return home to Poland after his death to retrieve Polish soil and bring it back to his Siberian gravesite. Another exile, Sofia Bocian, told Lazar how her brother escaped their prison camp, leaving her with the horrifying experience of being interrogated by Soviet secret police. Lazar began his professional photography career in 2006 after fully realizing the medium's storytelling power. \"For me when you're doing photography -- whether it's conventional journalism or other types -- you want to share something with people,\" he said. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. Lazar said the interviews surprised him. Despite his subjects' traumatic experiences, \"they welcomed me with open arms,\" he recalled. \"They really wanted to share their stories.\" Fearing for their safety, they couldn't tell their stories publicly until the fall of the Soviet Union. Now that they're in their 80s, time is running out for them to document their struggles. Look at Lazar's images. The faces fill each frame. Each portrait is unique. Before taking each photo, he waited \"for the moment when they really started going inside themselves,\" he said. \"Those people are really strong in their souls.\" Their stories should be documented for history, he said, to remind future generations \"not to make the same mistakes.\" Tomasz Lazar is a Polish photographer. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.","highlights":"The Soviets invaded Poland in World War II and deported hundreds of thousands of people .\nTomasz Lazar photographed some of these Poles and listened to their stories .","id":"800a11db7698feea5619392f19b5595b5372e640"} -{"article":"(CNN)The lawyer for Robert Bates, an Oklahoma reserve deputy who fatally shot a man he meant to subdue with a Taser, on Saturday released documents that he says verify some of Bates' training as a law enforcement officer. The documents show Bates had one Taser training class over a six-and-a-half-year period, took three firearms training classes and qualified 10 times, from 2009 to 2014, to use a handgun. His evaluations say he got along with other officers and related well with the public. \"Robert Bates has met all the requisite training required by Oklahoma to be a reserve deputy,\" said the lawyer, Scott Wood, in an interview with CNN. Read the documents . CNN could not independently confirm the documents were authentic. Wood said he got them from Bates, who asked the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office to provide his training records. The sheriff's office has turned down CNN's requests for the training documents, saying they are part of the investigation. Authorities did not reply Saturday to a request for comment on Wood's statements. The documents are important because Bates' training has become a central issue in the case. The lawyer for the family of the man who was killed claims that Bates, 73, wasn't qualified to be on the force, but received preferential treatment because he'd made donations to the agency and was a friend of the sheriff. The Tulsa World newspaper reported some supervisors in the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office were told to forge Bates' records and were reassigned when they refused. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has denied these allegations. The documents provided to CNN cover the period from July 22, 2008, to December 12, 2014. Bates had one Taser training class, on March 4, 2009, according to a document with a heading from The Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, which sets the standards for training peace officers in the state. Wood said the council requires only one hands-on class on use of a Taser. Bates had weapons training once in September 2008 and twice in 2009, according to sheriff's office records that Bates obtained, Wood said. He scored high enough at the pistol range 10 times from September 24, 2009, to April 9, 2014, that he was allowed to carry a handgun while on duty, Wood said. Bates is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Eric Harris. Friends and family of Harris gathered in Tulsa on Saturday afternoon for a visitation and viewing. Bates is free on $25,000 bond. He says he meant to use his Taser on Harris during the April 2 arrest but accidentally fired his handgun instead. \"I shot him! I'm sorry!\" Bates is heard saying on video of the incident. Bates, an insurance company executive, has gone to his own defense. In an interview Friday with the \"Today\" show on NBC, Bates said he had the documentation to show he had completed the necessary training required of reserve deputies. \"That is absolutely the truth. I have it in writing,\" he told the show. Questions have already been raised about Bates' training and when his service with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office started. In his statement to investigators, Bates said he \"became an advanced TCSO Reserve Deputy in 2007.\" Wood said Bates started working for the sheriff's office in late 2007 or 2008. But the sheriff's office has said Bates had been a reserve deputy since 2008. Bates, who worked as a police officer for one year in the 1960s, completed 300 hours of training and 1,100 hours of community policing experience since becoming a reserve deputy, according to the sheriff's office. The Tulsa World said 480 hours of field training are required to be an \"advanced\" reserve deputy, which Bates claimed to be. Questions have been raised about Bates' firearms qualifications scores. To be allowed to carry a pistol on duty, deputies need to score 72 while firing at a silhouette of a man at the firing range, Wood said. Documents with a heading \"Firearms Qualification Record\" show Bates scoring at least 72 on six different days. But firearms qualification records from four dates in 2012 and 2013 are missing for the entire sheriff's office, Wood said. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office says it can't find the records. The department's summary of Bates' weapons training shows he scored 80-84 those four times. \"If you're going to forge somebody's score why not give them a 90 or a 95,\" Wood said. CNN provided the documents to the Tulsa World. Ziva Branstetter, an editor with the newspaper, said the new information doesn't undercut the World's reporting. \"These records back up the validity of our story and we stand by our story,\" she said Saturday. Another seeming oddity of the records is how many classes Bates took on two days. The Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training records show Bates took 14 training classes worth 20 credit hours on December 10, 2013, and 20 classes worth 31 credit hours on December 11, 2014. Wood said Bates may have been cramming in his required training before the end of the year by taking computer classes. \"It's possible you could take a half-hour class and if you know the material you could finish it in 15 minutes,\" he said. Evaluations show supervisors had a good opinion of Bates. One from March 14, 2009, says of his strengths: \"Works well with his fellow officers and relates to the public very well.\" His weakness: \"Radio usage\/geography.\" Remedial training: \"Does not have a lot of radio usage time which will be worked on. Will have to work on his geography skills. Both will be remedied in time!\"","highlights":"Reserve deputy Robert Bates said he meant to use a Taser but accidentally shot and killed a man .\nLawyer for slain man's family says Bates wasn't qualified to be on the force and received preferential treatment .\n\"Robert Bates has met all the requisite training required by Oklahoma to be a reserve deputy,\" Bates' lawyer says .","id":"cdcdb9afa458d94e8973dd6a095a3f78da202101"} -{"article":"(CNN)A naturalized U.S. citizen pleaded not guilty in Ohio Friday to federal charges of providing material support to terrorists and lying to the FBI. Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, of Columbus, allegedly traveled to Syria for training and wanted to return home to kill Americans -- particularly U.S. soldiers, execution style, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. Mohamud was remanded into custody on Friday. \"I am confident in the system working fairly and (in) our client getting a vigorous and aggressive defense,\" said his lawyer, Sam Shamansky. Mohamud told someone that he wanted to target U.S. armed forces, police officers or other people in uniform, the indictment alleges, adding that \"Mohamud's plan was to attack a military facility, and his backup plan was to attack a prison.\" \"Mohamud talked about doing something big in the United States. He wanted to go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style,\" it says. Mohamud allegedly said he was happy that his brother, Aden, died fighting for al-Nusra Front, al Qaeda's largest affiliate in Syria. Mohamud told someone he planned to join Aden in death soon, the indictment says. He became a U.S. citizen in February 2014 and submitted a U.S. passport application days later, according to the indictment. Mohamud traveled to Syria in April 2014 \"for the purpose of training and fighting with terrorists,\" prosecutors said in a news release. To get there, Mohamud bought a one-way ticket to Greece with a layover in Istanbul, Turkey, the Department of Justice said. He skipped the connecting flight \"and instead completed pre-arranged plans to travel to Syria.\" Once there, he trained in shooting weapons, breaking into homes, using explosives and hand-to-hand combat, prosecutors said. Mohamud \"also stated that, after completing this training, he was instructed by a cleric in the organization to return to the United States and commit an act of terrorism.\" CNN's John Newsome contributed to this story.","highlights":"Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud pleads not guilty to charges of providing material support to terrorists and lying to the FBI .\nThe Columbus, Ohio, resident became a U.S. citizen in February 2014 .\nIn April 2014, he went to Syria for terrorism training, prosecutors say in a news release .","id":"96a0b5ca4c68b0bb9ced5d0c16dd2128657bae34"} -{"article":"(CNN)Most airline pilots have an above average ability to compartmentalize personal problems. The cockpit is our \"safe\" place. The flight deck is a structured world of black and white. Checklists. Procedures. Standardization. Stress from the job is an accepted part of our career. However, sometimes during the course of an airline pilot's career, or anyone's career for that matter, stress issues may manifest as depression. Depression is treatable. And for airline pilots, it is no longer debilitating to our livelihood. The Federal Aviation Administration now approves certain prescribed medication, allowing us to continue flying until depression is no longer a factor. As the world learns more about Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot on Germanwings Flight 9525, it is readily apparent that this young man had psychiatric issues far beyond clinical depression. He reportedly was administered a series of injections to mitigate his problems, an absolute reflection on the serious nature of his illness. But Lubitz's illness didn't just appear out of thin air. Its effects had to be apparent to others. Lubitz's girlfriend made her concerns public knowledge -- unfortunately after events took their course. Considering the hoops Lubitz had to jump through to have established himself as a Germanwings co-pilot, it's curious to me how the red flags of his illness were missed. To what hoops am I referring? First, let's start with his passion for gliders. Glider flying is one of the purest forms of aviation. Although it is mostly an individualistic endeavor, the sport involves teamwork. Interaction among fellow enthusiasts is paramount to both enjoyment and safety. I'm a glider pilot. Participation among the members of my club uncovers the personalities and idiosyncrasies of each pilot. Behaviors not quite conducive to the activity are readily apparent. Second, Lubitz had to compete successfully in a selection process just to have the opportunity to train through Lufthansa's flight program, a requirement of Germanwings employment. The selection process is most likely highly competitive, requiring above-average aptitude. Is the selection process flawed to the extent that a serious mental disorder would go unnoticed? Regardless, the process had to be a stressful experience. Opinion: Germanwings and the stigma of mental illness . Once accepted into the flight program, a rigorous training period began. For primary training, Lufthansa utilizes an ab initio (from the beginning) program based at a facility the airline owns in Goodyear, Arizona, near Phoenix. The training is geared toward a multi-crew pilot license, or MPL, recognized by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The purpose of an MPL is to funnel airline pilot candidates having little or no flight time into the right seat as first officers. Countries that don't have the luxury of selecting from a large pool of experienced pilots use this license. Airline pilots in the United States are not licensed in this manner, requiring as much as 1,500 hours to qualify as a co-pilot. This is a fairly recent change in FAA regulations, initiated as a result of the 2009 Colgan Airlines crash in Buffalo, New York. Lubitz had barely over 600 hours of flight time when he committed his act of horror. As a 21-year-old flight instructor, I had that much flight time; it hardly qualified as a lot of experience. As with all of the MPL programs, the training involves an intense period of airline-specific instruction. And to add insult to injury, candidates are not paid during the training until such time as they pass a final check ride. Regardless, the cost is borne by the student to the tune of about $76,000. Using both actual flight experience in a single-engine airplane and simulator time, the student receives about 250 hours of training. It is a period of almost constant supervision. Aside from observing and checking performance criteria, wouldn't at least one instructor have noticed behavioral issues in such an intense environment? And wouldn't a fellow trainee have noticed also? According to reports, Lubitz took a leave from his training -- a very untypical behavior. Was that not in and of itself a red flag? Wouldn't a manager in Lufthansa's flight department consider it prudent to reconsider a candidate with an indication of potential issues? After all, the selection process was most likely highly competitive, with other qualified candidates readily available. Once the primary training in Arizona was complete, Lubitz would have returned to Germany and completed more specific schooling on the Airbus A320 he was about to fly. Again, no one observed issues. But even more curious, according to reports, Lubitz disclosed a diagnosis of previous depression to Lufthansa. Over the course of a career, an airline pilot spends thousands of hours sharing the confined space of the cockpit with colleagues. Even if we have never flown with a particular individual, experience allows us the intuition to know when something isn't quite right. That determination can be made through performance observation of typical routines, or perhaps through a simple conversation. In that regard, I find it difficult to believe that none of Lubitz's colleagues made a less than positive assessment at some point in time. As supplemental background, Germanwings had been established as the low-cost, alter ego carrier of Lufthansa. Depending upon a pilot's monthly flight time, salary for pilots can be as much as 20% lower than the mainline carrier. In addition, more days on duty were part of a Germanwings crew member's schedule. Apparently as late as March 20, Lufthansa pilots had been on strike, one of the main disputes being an early retirement option and less desirable working conditions for new hires. Perhaps enough of a disparity existed for Germanwings pilots such that medical leave benefits would not have covered Lubitz's absence. Regardless, all of these factors combined to add a perfect storm of stress to one sick 27-year-old man. The world knows the end result. It just seems to me that this was an accident waiting to happen. Could it have been prevented? Well, this is the primary purpose of accident investigation: Never allow the same tragedy to occur again.","highlights":"Les Abend: There were likely warning signs during the co-pilot's training .\nHe says Andreas Lubitz had to go through many challenges to qualify to be a co-pilot .","id":"0c4f14a0d887abcf5c19e2fc7712b28a4d442ebf"} -{"article":"(CNN)Han and Chewie are back. An ESPN reporter went on a regrettable rant. And we all taxed our brains trying to deduce the date of Cheryl's damn birthday. Here are pop culture's most talked-about stories of the week. Producers of \"Star Wars: The Force Awakens\" unveiled a nearly two-minute trailer for the upcoming movie, arriving in December. When Harrison Ford shows up with Chewbacca at the end, you can almost hear the Internet's collective squeals. A logic problem from a Singapore math test somehow spread across the Web, leaving millions trying to figure out the hypothetical birthday of someone named Cheryl. We're guessing that most of us cheated and peeked at the answer. Who retires at age 34? Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who walked what she says was her last fashion-show runway this week in her native Brazil. She'll still keep modeling, though -- and hanging out with her husband, who is apparently a football player of some kind. Oh, Britt McHenry. We all hate having our car towed. But for someone who's on air at ESPN, you don't seem to understand how to behave on camera. Speaking of McHenry, a new book by Jon Ronson explores how social media may go too far in encouraging haters to shame people who make public missteps. Ronson told CNN, \"It's so corrosive to create that kind of society.\" The first set of female quintuplets in the world since 1969 was born in Houston, Texas. Just imagine how fun it'll be for their parents 16 years from now when they all start dating. Fire department, I need you now . Singer Hillary Scott of country band Lady Antebellum had to vacate her tour bus when it caught fire outside of Dallas. Most of her stuff was burned, but her Bible survived. To infinity and beyond . Famed physicist Stephen Hawking, known for his sense of humor, partnered with the silly lads of Monty Python to recreate the \"Galaxy Song\" from their 1983 film \"The Meaning of Life.\" Duckie dances! Remember Duckie from \"Pretty in Pink?\" Of course you do. Actor Jon Cryer charmed fans on CBS's \"Late Late Show\" by reprising his character's record-store dance to Otis Redding's \"Try a Little Tenderness,\" right down to the wall-dancing and counter-bashing.","highlights":"Here's a roundup of the week's trending pop-culture stories .\nThey include a new \"Star Wars\" trailer and an ill-advised, on-camera rant .","id":"a259c44d8375e7e74e961a4b75a2bca7879cb3d2"} -{"article":"(CNN)Wanted: film director, must be eager to shoot footage of golden lassos and invisible jets. CNN confirms that Michelle MacLaren is leaving the upcoming \"Wonder Woman\" movie (The Hollywood Reporter first broke the story). MacLaren was announced as director of the movie in November. CNN obtained a statement from Warner Bros. Pictures that says, \"Given creative differences, Warner Bros. and Michelle MacLaren have decided not to move forward with plans to develop and direct 'Wonder Woman' together.\" (CNN and Warner Bros. Pictures are both owned by Time Warner.) The movie, starring Gal Gadot in the title role of the Amazon princess, is still set for release on June 23, 2017. It's the first theatrical movie centering around the most popular female superhero. Gadot will appear beforehand in \"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,\" due out March 25, 2016. In the meantime, Warner will need to find someone new for the director's chair.","highlights":"Michelle MacLaren is no longer set to direct the first \"Wonder Woman\" theatrical movie .\nMacLaren left the project over \"creative differences\"\nMovie is currently set for 2017 .","id":"027936fedb5e785fe79e84cb6e55c9cc26042ad3"} -{"article":"(CNN)When Etan Patz went missing in New York City at age 6, hardly anyone in America could help but see his face at their breakfast table. His photo's appearance on milk cartons after his May 1979 disappearance marked an era of heightened awareness of crimes against children. On Friday, more than 35 years after frenzied media coverage of his case horrified parents everywhere, a New York jury will again deliberate over a possible verdict against the man charged in his killing, Pedro Hernandez. He confessed to police three years ago. Etan Patz's parents have waited that long for justice, but some have questioned whether that is at all possible in Hernandez's case. His lawyer has said that he is mentally challenged, severely mentally ill and unable to discern whether he committed the crime or not. Hernandez told police in a taped statement that he lured Patz into a basement as the boy was on his way to a bus stop in Lower Manhattan. He said he killed the boy and threw his body away in a plastic bag. Neither the child nor his remains have ever been recovered. But Hernandez has been repeatedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and has an \"IQ in the borderline-to-mild mental retardation range,\" his attorney Harvey Fishbein has said. Police interrogated Hernandez for 7\u00bd hours before he confessed. \"I think anyone who sees these confessions will understand that when the police were finished, Mr. Hernandez believed he had killed Etan Patz. But that doesn't mean he actually did, and that's the whole point of this case,\" Fishbein has said. But in November, a New York judge ruled that Hernandez's confession and his waiving of his Miranda rights were legal, making the confession admissible in court. Another man's name has also hung over the Patz case for years -- Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester acquainted with Etan's babysitter. Etan's parents, Stan and Julia Patz, sued Ramos in 2001. The boy was officially declared dead as part of that lawsuit. A judge found Ramos responsible for the boy's death and ordered him to pay the family $2 million -- money the Patz family has never received. Though Ramos was at the center of investigations for years, he has never been charged. He served a 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania for molesting another boy and was set to be released in 2012. He was reportedly immediately rearrested upon exiting jail in 2012 on failure to register as a sex offender. Since their young son's disappearance, the Patzes have worked to keep the case alive and to create awareness of missing children in the United States. In the early 1980s, Etan's photo appeared on milk cartons across the country, and news media focused in on the search for him and other missing children. \"It awakened America,\" said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. \"It was the beginning of a missing children's movement.\" The actual number of children who were kidnapped and killed did not change -- it's always been a relatively small number -- but awareness of the cases skyrocketed, experts said. But the news industry was expanding to cable television, and sweet images of children appeared along with destroyed parents begging for their safe return. The fear rising across the nation sparked awareness and prompted change from politicians and police. In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children's Assistance Act, which led to the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Former President Ronald Reagan opened the center in a White House ceremony in 1984. It soon began operating a 24-hour toll-free hot line on which callers could report information about missing boys and girls. Joe Sterling and CNN's Lorenzo Ferrigno contributed to this report.","highlights":"The young boy's face appeared on milk cartons all across the United States .\nPatz's case marked a time of heightened awareness of crimes against children .\nPedro Hernandez confessed three years ago to the 1979 killing in .","id":"3bbd62f52949858ff0e49e9def0416141383bcf1"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)It may be time to light the lights. ABC is filming a proof of concept for a revival of \"The Muppets,\" The Hollywood Reporter has learned. \"The Big Bang Theory\" co-creator Bill Prady is co-writing the script for a pilot presentation that sources say could be unspooled at May's upfront presentation to Madison Avenue advertisers. Sources tell THR that the project, if all goes well, could go straight to series. Bob Kushell (\"Anger Management,\" \"3rd Rock From the Sun\") will also co-write and is attached to serve as showrunner, with Wilfred's Randall Einhorn attached to exec produce and direct the presentation. ABC's \"Muppets\" revival is being produced by ABC Studios and The Muppet Studios, which Disney owns. The presentation is set to film next weekend on the Disney lot in Burbank with some of the original Muppet performers returning. Sources say the concept for the presentation includes the regular cast of characters created by Jim Henson \u2014 Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and Animal, among others \u2014 gathering at ABC Studios for a meeting about the new \"Muppet Show.\" However, the show won't move forward unless Miss Piggy signs on, and her current relationship with frequent love Kermit is on the rocks, preventing the show from getting off the ground. Early plans call for two celebrity cameos \u2014 including Miss Piggy's current co-star \u2014 as well as new roles including Fozzie's girlfriend and her parents. For Prady, the revived \"Muppets\" \u2014 which landed at ABC after initial interest from Netflix \u2014 marks a return to his roots. The producer, who currently does not have an overall deal, started his career working for Henson in 1982 and ultimately started writing for \"The Jim Henson Hour,\" remaining on the series until a year after Henson's death in 1990. This marks the second time Prady has attempted to revive \"The Muppets.\" The writer-producer shot some test footage before CBS' \"The Big Bang Theory\" that Disney ultimately passed on. For his part, Prady earned an Emmy nomination in 1991 for writing tribute \"The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson\" in 1990 and has contributed writing to Disney's Muppet-themed attractions. Should ABC order \"Muppets\" to series, Prady would juggle both that project and CBS' \"The Big Bang Theory,\" which he exec produces. Created in 1955 by Henson, the original Muppet characters appeared on \"Sam and Friends\" from 1955-61 before going on to appear on late-night talk shows and commercials and becoming a regular part of \"Sesame Street\" in 1969. \"The Muppet Show\" launched on its own as a comedy-variety series and ran from 1976-81, with Kermit serving as the de-facto showrunner on the syndicated series that was produced out of the U.K. The franchise has spawned multiple movies (1979's \"The Muppet Movie,\" 1981's \"The Great Muppet Caper,\" 1984's \"The Muppets Take Manhattan\") as well as NBC's 1989 series \"The Jim Henson Hour.\" Following Henson's death, the franchise continued with \"Muppets Tonight\" airing on ABC in 1996 with reruns airing on sibling Disney Channel from 1997-2000. That was the last television series to feature the Muppets characters. On the feature side, the franchise featured 1992's \"The Muppet Christmas Carol,\" 1996's \"Muppet Treasure Island\" and 1999's \"Muppets From Space,\" the latter two of which were co-produced by Disney, who acquired rights to the Muppets in 2004 and formed The Muppets Studio. The company rebranded the franchise in 2008 with Jason Segel's \"The Muppets,\" with an eighth feature in the franchise, \"Muppets Most Wanted\" bowing in 2014. For ABC, the Muppets revival comes as variety shows are in the midst of a resurgence on the broadcast networks. NBC has made the format a priority, unspooling Marlon Wayans-hosted celebrity variety series \"I Can Do That!\" in the summer and has Neil Patrick Harris entry \"Saturday Night Takeaway\" in the works. The decision to revive \"The Muppets\" also comes as remakes and reboots are having their moment in the sun on the small-screen, as broadcast networks look to fan bases for existing franchises to help cut through the clutter and draw eyeballs in an increasingly crowded scripted space. On the comedy side, \"The Muppets\" arrives as it has become increasingly challenging to launch original scripted half-hours. Prady is repped by Rothman Brecher and Lichter Grossman; Kushell is with ICM Partners; Einhorn is with WME, Odenkirk Provissiero and Bloom Hergott. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"The Muppets\" might return to television on ABC .\n\"The Big Bang Theory\" co-creator Bill Prady is co-writing a pilot script .\nThe old Muppet gang would return for the variety show .","id":"0e7bacb781264bdc558dc3df66fc52ae5824f19f"} -{"article":"(CNN)I remember traveling one day in the local train in Mumbai with my mother, my younger sister and brother. The compartment was extremely crowded. As we prepared to disembark, I felt my skirt being lifted and someone groping my private parts. It was terrible. I wanted to scream, but my voice would have drowned in the noise of the crowd. I wanted to push the hands away, but my arms were pinned to my body. I wanted to cry but could only think to myself, \"Stop it! Please stop touching me.\" I was 13 years old. I never told anyone about that day until recently. Twenty-five years later, I continue to hear similar stories of women and girls being harassed on local transportation and other public spaces. The stories can be stomach churning: men masturbating on buses and at bus stops, boys stalking young girls -- both physically and online, men taking pictures of women without permission and uploading them on the Internet. Then there are just the everyday, uncomfortable stares, frequently accompanied by comments with sexual connotations. This isn't all simply anecdotal. A study by We the People found that 80% of women in Mumbai had been street harassed, primarily in crowded areas like trains and railway platforms. Most people, including women, only think of sexual violence as rape and tend to overlook touching, groping and stalking, not to mention the \"milder\" forms of ogling, leering, catcalling and whistling, even though all of this can be intimidating. Indeed, many women choose to limit their hours outside, select more conservative clothes, or opt for a longer but safer route home. It was only recently that I realized my phobia of trains likely originated with that bad experience I had as a child. I still avoid trains when I can. Most people are silent when inappropriate sexual behavior occurs to women. It was depressing to hear one young college student tell me in a recent sexual harassment workshop I led that \"staring and commenting by men is normal and I've learned to ignore it.\" The reality is that sexual harassment in India is pervasive in all aspects of life. It hits you in the face every day when you walk down the street, take local transport, go about your daily routine or at the workplace. According to U.N. Women's report, 1 in 3 women around the world face some form of sexual violence at least once in their lifetime. This statistic is likely even higher in India. Out of the 2,000 women who have attended workshops I've conducted, only a handful of them have never been at the receiving end of harassment in some setting of their daily lives. Shockingly, less than 10 of them had reported harassment to any official channel. Why are we constantly limiting our options rather than confronting sexual harassment? Over the past two years, I have been working to encourage women to talk about their experiences and realize the tremendous potential power they hold within themselves through acknowledging the problem and being a part of the change to shift the culture around sexual harassment in India. It is not always easy speaking up about sexual harassment. I know firsthand. But acknowledging that it is unacceptable is an important first step. India has laws for sexual violence in public spaces as well as at the workplace, and knowing these rules gives women the power to confront her harasser. But is it enough? Women still have to confront the cultural challenge of not feeling \"ashamed\" and bringing \"disrepute\" to their families while overcoming their fear of dealing with the police, who too often file complaints in the wrong categories to reduce the number of official cases on which their performance is judged. However, despite the barriers, two recent cases in India provide proof that even when the perpetrator is in a position of immense power, coming forward to report sexual harassment can make a difference. There is, for example, the young employee from an environmental research organization who alleged that her boss Rajendra Pachauri made unwelcome advances to her through text messages. Her bold and persistent quest for justice resulted in Pachauri stepping down from his position as chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Pachauri denied the allegations and insisted his computer and phone were hacked. His counsel stated in court that Pachauri's inbox was not hacked, but he had shared the password with several people who could have sent inappropriate emails to the employee under his name. Similarly, last year, Tarun Tejpal, founder of one of India's leading media companies, was arrested for sexually assaulting his employee in an elevator. She first told her female editor who reportedly did not take her seriously. She then spoke about it to her male colleagues who encouraged her to report the incident to the police. Tarun Tejpal, who explained the incident as a \"bad lapse of judgment,\" was let out on interim bail while the case is still ongoing. Women have allies -- both male and female -- who are willing to help clear the barriers. Women everywhere just need to find the courage to speak up. The alternative to speaking out is a world where women feel less able to live full lives, restricted and disempowered. We cannot accept harassment as part of our daily routine. We cannot ignore it -- for our own sake and the next generation of women.","highlights":"Women in India are street harassed, primarily in crowded areas like trains and railway platforms .\nElsa Marie D'Silva: It's time we speak up; we cannot accept harassment as part of our daily routine .","id":"7e91926e47bdaa4054e3a69784bee8ee27d0dd4b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Canadian actor Jonathan Crombie, who co-starred in the \"Anne of Green Gables\" TV movies, died this week at age 48. Crombie died Wednesday from complications of a brain hemorrhage, \"Anne of Green Gables\" producer Kevin Sullivan said. \"It's a real tragedy to see someone at age 48 go like that,\" he said. \"I will remember him as someone who worked extremely hard to make the roles he played onscreen come to life.\" Based on Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery's children's books, \"Anne of Green Gables\" debuted in Canada on CBC TV in 1984 and became a cultural touchstone. The plot focused on the adventures of fiery orphan Anne Shirley, played by Megan Follows, who is sent to live on a farm in Prince Edward Island. Crombie played Gilbert Blythe, who evolves over time from Anne's pigtail-tugging tormentor to friend to husband. Follows and Crombie reprised the roles in the sequels \"Anne of Avonlea\" (1987) and \"Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story\" (2000). The movies were carried in the United States by the Disney Channel and PBS, drawing a cult following beyond Canada and extending to Japan, which made its own animated series based on the books. Crombie, son of former Toronto Mayor David Crombie, was cast in the role at 17, beating out other aspiring Canadian actors of the era, including Jason Priestly, Sullivan said. Despite his lack of acting experience, Crombie's boy-next-door looks and cool demeanor made him the perfect actor to star opposite Follows, Sullivan said. \"It was an amazing chemistry between him and Megan Follows,\" Sullivan said. \"There was a lot of affection, but they kind of grounded each other.\" The movies spawned various spinoffs, including \"Road to Avonlea,\" starring child actor Sarah Polley, and turned Anne's fictional home on Prince Edward Island into a popular tourist destination. The role made Crombie a heartthrob of his time, a sentiment expressed by many fans in the wake of his death. As one person said on Twitter, \"I don't know any female Canadian from my generation that *didn't* have at least a little bit of a crush on Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert.\" Crombie went on to play roles in other American and Canadian TV shows, including \"21 Jump Street\" and \"The Good Wife,\" but even his Facebook page acknowledges he is best known for his portrayal of Gilbert Blythe. Crombie's sister told CBC News that her brother happily answered to the name Gil when greeted by fans in public. \"I think he was really proud of being Gilbert Blythe,\" she said. \"He really enjoyed that series and was happy, very proud of it -- we all were.\" People we've lost in 2015 .","highlights":"Jonathan Crombie is best known for playing Gilbert Blythe in \"Anne of Green Gables\"\nBook, movies about girl sent to live on Canadian farm .","id":"ef32ee293f0a184d83be301644abd7c96aa26201"} -{"article":"(CNN)This week's attack on Garissa University College is Al-Shabaab's fifth major assault in Kenya in the past year and a half. The Thursday massacre was the most deadly assault so far, with 147 dead, easily eclipsing the terrorist group's most notorious attack, a four-day siege in late September 2013 at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in which 67 people were killed. After the Westgate attack, Al-Shabaab unleashed a string of attacks in Kenya that have killed more than 100 people -- assaulting the coastal town of Mpeketoni on June 16, 2014; shooting bus passengers who could not recite the Quran on November 22, 2014; and then, days later, executing Christian quarry laborers. Why is Al-Shabaab, a Somali nationalist, Islamist group affiliated with al Qaeda, targeting Kenya? Al-Shabaab says its attacks are to protest the more than 3,500 Kenyan soldiers participating in the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. But if that is the case, why doesn't Al-Shabaab target Kenyan military bases rather than attacking undefended so-called soft targets such as Kenyan malls and universities? In fact, Thursday's attack on the university is one more sign of the weakness of Al-Shabaab, which has steadily been losing ground for years in Somalia as a result of the African Union forces fighting them there, as well as a covert U.S. drone and Special Operations Forces campaign that has also degraded the group's capabilities. In 2006, Al-Shabaab controlled the Somali capital of Mogadishu and, in the following years, much of central and southern Somalia. Six years later, African Union forces had recaptured Mogadishu, parts of southern Somalia and critical cities such as Kismayo. The loss of Kismayo, Al-Shabaab's last city stronghold and an important port, took a financial toll on the group. Ground battles with African Union forces have decimated Al-Shabaab's rank-and-file, while U.S. drone strikes and Special Operations raids have killed some of the group's leaders. In the past four years, according to a count by New America, the U.S. has launched a dozen drone strikes and six Special Operations raids against Al-Shabaab. These strikes and raids -- almost all occurring in southern Somalia -- have targeted the terrorist group's training camps and leaders. American drones or special operators have killed 10 leaders: Aden Hashi Ayro, the top commander; Ahmed Abdi Godane, Ayro's successor; a top commander, Sheikh Muhidin Mohamud Omar; Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior official who operated training camps; commander Jabreel Malik Muhammed; Bilal al-Berjawi, the deputy of military leader Fazul Abdullah Mohammed; chief bomb-maker Ibrahim Ali Abdi; intelligence chief Tahlil Abdishakur; Yusef Dheeq, the chief of external operations and planning for intelligence and security; and Adan Garar, who was involved in planning the Westgate Mall attack. Al-Shabaab has been unraveling for years. Thursday's attack should remind the world that the group is a pale shadow of the organization that once dominated much of Somalia but now is reduced to high profile attacks against undefended civilian targets.\u200b .","highlights":"Al-Shabaab's attack on Garissa University College is the group's deadliest so far in Kenya .\nAuthors: The group is under pressure from African Union forces and a covert U.S. war .","id":"ba2ec653b7d0c46759f39aef6dac850c9229716f"} -{"article":"Los Angeles (CNN)Former rap mogul Marion \"Suge\" Knight was ordered Thursday to stand trial for murder and other charges stemming from a deadly hit-and-run confrontation on the movie set of the biopic \"Straight Outta Compton\" earlier this year. In addition to that ruling, Judge Ronald Coen also lowered Knight's bail to $10 million from $25 million, a figure that defense lawyers called excessive. The judge also dismissed one of the two counts of hit-and-run against Knight. In all, Knight will stand trial on one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of hit-and-run, the judge ruled after holding a two-day preliminary hearing this week that ended Thursday. Knight, 49, faces up to life in prison if convicted. Knight suffers diabetes and blot clots, and the case has clearly strained him: He collapsed in court last month after learning of the $25 million bail and he was taken to the hospital for treatment. Knight was in court Thursday. At the end of hearing, he turned around and looked at his family in the gallery, and he smiled to his fiancee as deputies led him handcuffed out of the courtroom. In a press conference after the hearing, fiancee Toi Kelly said regarding Knight's health that he is \"doing much better.\" The judge dismissed the other hit-and-run count because California law says no more than one charge of hit-and-run should be brought against a defendant when the same weapon, in this case the vehicle Knight was driving, is used against several people. Knight is accused of running over two men, killing one of them, during an argument. Killed was Terry Carter, 55. The survivor is Cle Sloan, 51, who in testimony this week declined to identify Knight as his attacker because Sloan doesn't want to be a \"snitch\" who sends Knight to prison, according to CNN affiliates KABC and KTLA. Prosecutors offered Sloan immunity, but he still refused to testify against Knight on Monday, the affiliates reported. The deadly incident happened on January 29, after a flare-up on the set of the biopic \"Straight Outta Compton,\" a film about the highly influential and controversial rap group N.W.A. The alleged argument spilled over to the parking lot of Tam's Burgers in Compton. At the time, Knight was out on bail in a separate robbery case. The hit-and-run was captured on videotape and allegedly shows Knight inside a red truck. In the video, the truck pulls into the entrance of the Compton restaurant, and he is then approached by Sloan, who was working security on the site. The two men appear to talk for a few moments, with Knight still in his vehicle. Suddenly, the vehicle backs up, knocking Sloan to the ground. While still in reverse, the truck moves out of range of the security camera. The vehicle is then seen zooming forward, back into camera range, running over Sloan a second time, and then running over a second man, Carter, a former rap music label owner. Carter later died. In closing arguments prior to the judge's ruling, Knight's attorney Matthew Fletcher argued that Knight was the victim. Knight was only defending himself against Sloan, whom the defense attorney accused of possessing a gun at the time. \"Mr. Sloan is the initial and consistent aggressor,\" Knight's attorney argued. \"There's no intent to kill, there's an intent to survive.\" \"Even without a gun, we know Mr. Sloan was brave enough to attack in broad daylight,\" the defense attorney said. Fletcher added that Knight's defense was to stand his ground. Sloan \"needed immunity because he was the actual aggressor,\" Fletcher said. \"He is the person who got Terry (Carter) killed.\" Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes argued, however, told the judge that Knight was engaged in \"mutual combat situation\" where he used his car as deadly weapon. If Knight \"ever had the right of self-defense, the moment he backed-up and Mr. Sloan was ran-over, he lost the right of self-defense,\" Barnes said. \"There was pre-mediation and intent when he (Knight) ran over him a second time.\" Knight is scheduled to be arraigned on April 30. The incident is the latest run-in with the law for Knight, who founded the wildly successful Death Row Records in 1991 and signed artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg (now known as Snoop Lion) and Tupac Shakur. Knight was driving the car in which Shakur was a passenger when the rapper was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996. Shortly afterward, Knight spent several years in prison for violating parole on assault and weapons convictions. That prison time -- along with Shakur's death, feuds between Knight and a number of rappers, and desertions by Dr. Dre, Snoop and others -- contributed to the label's bankruptcy in 2006. In August, Knight and two other people were shot while inside a celebrity-filled Sunset Strip party hosted by singer Chris Brown on the eve of the MTV Video Music Awards.","highlights":"Former rap mogul Marion \"Suge\" Knight will be tried for murder in a videotaped hit-and-run .\nHis bail is reduced to $10 million from $25 million .\nA judge dismisses one of four charges against Knight .","id":"3f034e41bd128350195c9dd75a74258f86b1fd06"} -{"article":"(CNN)From the giant sequoias of Yosemite to the geysers of Yellowstone, the United States' national parks were made for you and me. And for Saturday and Sunday, they're also free. Though most of the National Park Service's 407 sites are free year-round, the 128 parks that charge a fee -- like Yellowstone and Yosemite -- will be free those two days. It's all part of National Park Week, happening April 18 through April 26, and it's hosted by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation. Check out night-time astronomy parties, daytime Revolutionary War programs, Earth Day parties and family-friendly Junior Ranger activities at national park sites across the country. Not sure how to start? Go to FindYourPark.com to learn more about park sites near you. Go to www.nationalparkweek.org for more ideas on how to explore. Then the park service wants people to share their stories using the hashtag #FindYourPark and at FindYourPark.com.","highlights":"It's National Park Week, and that means the parks are free April 18-19 .\nStargazing, Revolutionary War programs and other fun happens this week .","id":"53a7d60d97dfbf19727300a12c19f487b03e3884"} -{"article":"(CNN)Can you imagine paying $1,000 a month in rent to live in a one-car garage? Nicole, a 30-year-old woman, doesn't have to imagine this scenario because it's her everyday reality. The small and unusual living space is all that this employed, single mother can afford in her high-cost community in San Mateo, California. Nicole isn't alone in her struggles. CNN recently published a powerful piece called \"Poor kids of Silicon Valley\" that documents the affordable housing challenges facing families in the Bay Area. One aspect featured a house that is home to 16 people, including 11 children. Another chronicles a husband and wife named Rich and Stacey, both of whom have jobs, who are living in a San Jose homeless shelter with their two kids because they don't have the money to go anywhere else. Although Silicon Valley has unique characteristics, it isn't the only community confronting these challenges. Our entire nation is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. The agency I lead, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, recently released a report estimating that 7.7 million low-income households live in substandard housing, spend more than half their incomes on rent or both. These are families who are dedicating $1 out of every $2 they earn just to keep a roof over their head. And the more they spend on housing, the less they have to invest in their children's education, build up savings and shop at local businesses. These are outcomes that hurt our nation's economy and require us to respond with swift and bold action. HUD is working with local partners across the country to do just that. First, we're focusing on preserving the affordable housing that already exists. Since the mid-1970s, we have directed and insured loans for multifamily properties that have resulted in more than 700,000 affordable units. But by 2020, we're in danger of losing more than 125,000 because these mortgages are maturing, ending agreements to control rents in these units. So we've launched a preservation effort with private partners to keep these properties affordable for generations to come. We're also doing the same with public housing. Right now, the nation is losing 10,000 units of public housing every year, mainly because of disrepair, HUD created the Rental Assistance Demonstration initiative to bring private investment into the fold for the public good. It's cost neutral for the federal government and making a big impact for communities such as Lexington, North Carolina, where the local housing authority is making 58 years' worth of repairs in just 22 months, including new lighting, modern windows and better insulation to help residents stay warm and cut energy costs. RAD has allowed local communities to raise more than $733 million in new capital to date. That's why we're asking Congress to give every community the chance to participate by lifting the restrictions on this program. No American should ever have to wait six decades to have a decent and healthy place to call home. In addition to preservation, HUD is also working to create new affordable housing. A Harvard study revealed that in 2012, there were 11.5 million extremely low-income households and only 3.3 million affordable units available. It's clear that we can't preserve our way out of this problem. We've got to grow the supply to meet demand, so HUD is taking a multifaceted approach. For example, our HOME Investment Partnerships Program is leveraging $4 in private and other public resources for every $1 in HOME funds and leading to more than 1 million new and rehabilitated units for rent or sale to lower income families. This is more than just a statistic: It is progress for people, from the families living in the Broadway Crossing development in Washington to the seniors living in the Woodcrest Retirement Residence in Pennsylvania. To keep this momentum going, we've asked Congress to increase HOME funding by 16% to keep building affordable homes, prosperous partnerships and strong communities across the nation. We are also asking Congress to expand our Housing Choice Voucher Program, which allows recipients of modest means, the elderly, and people with disabilities to find housing in the private market. This includes restoring 67,000 vouchers that were lost to sequestration. And we're targeting our resources where they can have a big impact. For instance, HUD awarded $94 million in targeted homelessness assistance to 274 programs across the San Francisco Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, in January. And we continue to work with local partners to encourage private investment. To empower communities, President Barack Obama has also requested $300 million for new Local Housing Policy Grants to help them increase housing affordability, economic growth and access to jobs. All of this work is making a significant contribution to families and communities from coast-to-coast. Our nation's affordable housing challenges won't be solved overnight, and we still need to do more to make sure that more folks are able to prosper. Let's not squander this chance to make real progress for American families. Incredible things can happen when a wide variety of leaders come together for the common good. By leveraging private investment and increasing collaboration with state, local and tribal governments and other traditional housing partners, I know we can build a future where affordable housing is available to all.","highlights":"CNN's John Sutter told the story of the \"Poor kids of Silicon Valley\"\nHUD Secretary Juli\u00e1n Castro: Our shortage of affordable housing is a national crisis that stunts the economy .","id":"871d114e4e670b41f7153b1b4dd7e5bce0b8b279"} -{"article":"(CNN)An American citizen was wounded by gunfire Thursday as she drove from the medical school in Karachi, Pakistan, where she works, police said. Debra Lobo, a 55-year-old California native, was shot in the right cheek and left arm and is unconscious but expected to survive, according to Mohamad Shah, a Karachi police spokesman. Police found pamphlets that the assailants had thrown into Lobo's car, written in Urdu, saying \"America should be burnt,\" Shah said. Lobo had left the Jinnah Medical and Dental College, where she works as vice principal, to pick up her two daughters from school. Two assailants on a passing motorcycle shot her while she was driving, Shah said. \"Our U.S. Consulate General in Karachi is in close contact with Pakistani authorities and is working to obtain more information,\" said a U.S. Embassy spokesperson. Lobo is being treated at the Karachi's Aga Khan Hospital, said Shah. She has lived in Pakistan since 1996 and is married to a Christian Pakistani who is a librarian at the American School in Karachi. Karachi police are investigating, Shah said.","highlights":"Debra Lobo, 55, is unconscious but is expected to survive after being shot Thursday, police say .\nShe is vice principal of the Jinnah Medical and Dental College in Karachi .\nPolice: She was on her way to pick up her daughters from school when she was shot .","id":"5f30610478df4a9e0c1beccf6608f83f551f73ba"} -{"article":"(CNN)A jury of Rolling Stone's media peers has dissected the magazine's disastrous, discredited story about rape on the campus of the University of Virginia, and the emerging consensus is that Rolling Stone's lapses and sloppy blunders amount to journalistic malpractice -- made all the worse by the magazine's head-in-the sand reaction to the thorough, devastating report released by a panel of investigators from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Rolling Stone's egregious mistakes of reporting and editing are regrettable but understandable. The magazine's decision not to fire anybody or reorganize its newsroom operation is not. Before the original story, \"A Rape on Campus,\" was pulled from the Rolling Stone website, it registered 2.7 million hits following its publication in November -- more than any noncelebrity story in the magazine's history. An anonymous undergraduate, given the name \"Jackie,\" told Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely she had been invited to a party thrown by Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 2012 -- only to end up beaten and gang-raped by seven boys, who were allegedly coached along in the attack by the same student, a casual acquaintance, who had invited Jackie to the party. The horrific allegations sparked protests against the fraternity, a police investigation, the temporary suspension of all fraternities at the school and a nationwide debate about the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses. But the story began to unravel almost immediately when Washington Post reporter T. Rees Shapiro took a closer look, leading Rolling Stone to back away from the story and request a review by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. That review, which is considerably longer than the original article, reveals startling lapses in basic journalistic practice. Rolling Stone writer Erdely never verified the identity of the attacker and therefore never confronted him with the allegations; she never spoke to three of Jackie's friends who allegedly talked with Jackie immediately after the attack, and she never gave the fraternity a fair chance to respond, refusing to provide specific information about what happened and when. And at every step of the way, when Jackie began acting flaky -- refusing to provide basic information needed to verify her story or vanishing for weeks at a time without returning calls from the reporter -- neither Erdely nor her editors or the magazine's fact checkers made the hard but necessary decision to hit the pause button and decline to run the story. Having worked part time as a journalism professor for a decade (including one semester at Columbia), I would agree with colleagues who call Rolling Stone's lapses the kind that would be unacceptable in a freshman classroom. I've told students for years: You should never print allegations without giving people a fair chance to respond. And you should never take a source's word about important facts without verifying the truth. (There's a reason we call it reporting and not dictation.) Most of all, I tell students, remember that you're writing about human beings, who are complicated creatures: The good guys are never all that good, and the bad guys usually aren't completely bad. People can be mistaken or deceitful, I tell young reporters, they frequently forget and often lie to themselves. That doesn't make a source useless, but it must make you extra careful. Unfortunately, the early word from Rolling Stone is that they've absorbed none of these lessons. Publisher Jann Wenner has apparently decided not to fire, demote or discipline anybody at Rolling Stone, provoking expressions of disbelief among seasoned journalists. \"No one fired at Rolling Stone. Really?\" wrote CNN media critic Brian Stelter. \"What would Rolling Stone in its heyday write about an institution that screwed up unbelievably, damaged people's lives, but punished no one?\" tweeted John Bresnahan, the Capitol bureau chief of Politico. \"Rolling Stone outsources its investigation to Columbia and proceeds to do nothing in terms of individual accountability afterward? OK...,\" tweeted pundit Joe Concha. Worse still, the editors who committed the blunder seem unprepared to revamp their operation to prevent a repeat of the debacle, framing the error as an earnest but misguided attempt to believe the word of a sexual assault victim. \"Rolling Stone's senior editors are unanimous in the belief that the story's failure does not require them to change their editorial systems,\" the Columbia report says. And check out this amazing conclusion from Will Dana, the managing editor who presided over the disaster. Dana told the Columbia team: \"It's not like I think we need to overhaul our process, and I don't think we need to necessarily institute a lot of new ways of doing things. We just have to do what we've always done and just make sure we don't make this mistake again.\" That smug attitude pretty much ensures Rolling Stone's newsroom managers will commit another goof in the future. At a minimum, they should heed the wise counsel of my friend Bill Grueskin, an executive editor at Bloomberg who formerly served as dean of academic affairs at the Columbia J-school. \"When doing big, investigative stories, reporters face many challenges: recalcitrant sources, complex numbers, buried records. Editors, whose labors are usually cloaked in anonymity, are spared most of those hurdles. But they face their own internal newsroom challenges, particularly when handling a potential blockbuster story,\" Grueskin writes. \"They must keep their star reporters happy, trim verbiage that interrupts the narrative, and deal with the expectations of bosses hungry for prizes and traffic.\" The problem could be, says Grueskin, that Rolling Stone had too many chefs in the kitchen, instead of \"a single, talented editor with an intact set of vertebrae.\" Until Wenner and his team learn that basic lesson -- and revamp their hiring, editing and fact-checking process accordingly -- the Rolling Stone fiasco will eventually be followed by another, one made less forgivable because we all saw it coming.","highlights":"Columbia journalism school team finds major lapses in Rolling Stone's University of Virginia rape story .\nErrol Louis: Incredibly, the magazine isn't holding its staff accountable or changing procedures .","id":"3c53e7d227b2a1b72679806ceb7ca663c2d2ad55"} -{"article":"(CNN)Duckie's still got moves. On Tuesday night's \"Late Late Show\" on CBS, actor Jon Cryer reprised the character's record-store dance to Otis Redding's \"Try a Little Tenderness,\" right down to the wall-dancing, the counter-bashing and, of course, the trademark white shoes. In the original scene, one of the best-loved bits from the 1986 John Hughes film, Cryer dances around a record store, lip-syncing the song as he tries to win the affection of Molly Ringwald's Andie. In Tuesday's recreation, he dances in tandem with host James Corden, who tweeted that he'd \"fulfilled a childhood dream\" by re-creating the scene with Cryer -- who turned 50 on Thursday. \"I watched that 'Try a Little Tenderness' dance routine so many times, the tape on the VHS wore out,\" Corden said on the show. Like Cryer, who has most recently appeared on \"Two and a Half Men,\" many of the film's original fans are well into middle age. But still some may have squealed like teenagers when they saw the routine.","highlights":"Jon Cryer revives \"Pretty in Pink's\" Duckie dance routine for \"The Late Late Show\"\nHost James Corden tweets that the bit \"fulfilled a childhood dream\"","id":"96e6c84bd1e75199624f351b2dea411a3501a6ff"} -{"article":"(CNN)The public outrage over the \"religious freedom\" bills recently passed in Arkansas and Indiana caught the governors of those states completely off-guard, judging by their confused and contradictory responses. As poll watchers, they surely knew that most Americans now oppose the discriminatory laws and practices they accepted as normal only a dozen years ago. But the politicians underestimated the pushback organized by local and national businesses, including companies with no previous record of public support for social equality. They had better adjust to a new reality. For the past three decades, socially conservative evangelicals and pro-business interests have been powerfully allied against government regulations, environmental initiatives and social welfare programs, while supporting lower taxes for the wealthy and pushing back against the growing diversity in America's population. For many, this alliance been puzzling: Other, equally devout Christians who place more emphasis on Jesus Christ's message of unconditional love and on his denunciations of excessive wealth and neglect of the poor, have been uncomfortable with it, as have many business leaders. Their priorities, after all, are based on the bottom line. And companies that sell goods and services to the public are learning that support for discrimination -- or even passive acceptance of it -- threatens that bottom line. Hence, after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a law that opened a new door for discrimination against same-sex couples, the threat of boycotts and other retaliation was swift, from groups as diverse as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Indiana Pacers, Walmart, Eli Lilly, Apple and even the Marriott International hotel chain. Marriott International was founded by J.W. Marriott, a dedicated Mormon, and is now run by his son Bill, also a Mormon who fully accepts his church's teachings about traditional marriage. Yet in June, Marriott International launched a \"#Love Travels\" marketing campaign, aimed at attracting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers with an assurance of \"the company's commitment to make everyone feel comfortable about who they are.\" Asked about the discrepancy between his religious rejection of same-sex marriage and his marketing overtures to same-sex honeymooners, Marriott pointed to the Bible's injunction of unconditional love, but added \"beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business.\" In 2014, global spending by LGBT travelers was estimated at more than $200 billion, and spending by this market segment is rising much faster than overall spending on travel. So Marriott worries when states start to make such travelers feel unwelcome. Businesses seeking to develop brand loyalty among younger consumers have a special incentive to highlight their rejection of anti-gay bias. A CNN poll taken in February found that 72% of millennials nationwide believe that same-sex couples have the right to have their marriages recognized as valid. Even among white evangelical Protestants, 43% of millennials support same-sex marriage, compared with less than 20% of those their grandparents' age, 68 and older. It used to be that businesses could close their eyes to discrimination in areas geographically isolated from the more liberal coasts, but that is no longer possible. According to researchers for MTV's \"Look Different\" anti-bias campaign, 90% of youths aged 14 to 24 agree that it is important to make their communities a less biased place, and almost 80% say that everyone has a responsibility to help tackle bias. So who's the \"moral majority\" now? For media-savvy millennials, following that moral imperative means spreading the news about discrimination wherever it occurs and reaching beyond geographic boundaries to mobilize against it. In the first 24 hours after Arkansas passed its version of the \"religious freedom\" bill, the Twitter hashtag #BoycottArkansas was used 12,000 times. It then snowballed after celebrity blogger Perez Hilton tweeted it to his 5.9 million Twitter followers. America has crossed a threshold where it is no longer a good business model or political strategy to be intolerant of diversity, whether that pertains to race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Since 2011, the majority of children that have been born in the United States each year are members of racial or ethnic minorities. Hispanics are projected to account for most of the growth in the labor force between now and 2060. Women now lead men in educational attainment. And more than half of Americans live in states where same-sex marriage is legal. Business leaders and politicians who ignore or offend these constituencies do so at their own peril.","highlights":"Stephanie Coontz: Indiana, Arkansas governors caught off guard by outrage, boycotts over anti-LGBT law .\nShe says religious conservatives who discriminate no longer hold sway in a culture comfortable with diversity, including same-sex marriage .","id":"7db2bc1563c9474eacd18fb0f2a0abfad634cb89"} -{"article":"(CNN)Editor's Note: Ines Dumig was recently announced as a CENTER Grant Recipient. Sahra, a Somali refugee, left her home at 14 years old. Throughout her journey in search of asylum, she managed to overcome dangers and discomforts. But she never gave up, and she continuously reminded herself to keep going. She's the focus of Ines Dumig's photo series \"Apart Together.\" Dumig met Sahra through a photo workshop at Refugio, a shelter in Munich, Germany, for refugees and torture victims. What drew Dumig to Sahra specifically was her strength and her ability to effectively reflect on all of her experiences. \"It really impressed me how she deals with everything,\" Dumig said. \"She's strong in her way of connecting with the culture here and also reflecting on what happened, the culture where she comes from.\" The number of refugees seeking asylum in the European Union increased by 25% last year, with Germany receiving the most applications. One of the reasons Dumig decided to photograph Sahra is because growing up in Germany made Dumig realize that she lived a fortunate lifestyle. Another reason has to do with Dumig's interest in people's emotions and finding one's identity. \"I realized so many people want to come to Europe, and I always had the feeling to disappear or to go away,\" Dumig said. \"Seeing how people live in other parts of the world made me realize how privileged I am.\" \"Apart Together\" serves not only as a documentation of Sahra, but as a far-reaching story about people from all backgrounds. The title of Dumig's work refers to the fact that although people may be physically apart from one another, the comparable feelings they experience are what link all people together. \"Sometimes we feel strong, sometimes we feel lost -- that's kind of universal, I think,\" Dumig said. \"That's why I want to universalize (Sahra's) story as well, not only make it about her.\" The underlying themes of \"Apart Together\" include the feelings of isolation and \"otherness\" and the search for a valuable human dignity. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. \"Every one of these (refugees) have strong stories, and in the bureaucratic system, they are just a number or a document,\" Dumig said. \"But they are a person, they are people with emotions and lives.\" Sahra is currently under the status of \"suspension of deportation,\" meaning German immigration officials may grant her discretionary relief from deportation. Dumig describes Sahra as someone living through an unresolved situation. Regardless of the challenges Sahra faces as a refugee in Germany, she is a survivor and the embodiment of resilience, determined to establish a new life for herself. She has learned to speak German fluently, and she has started working in the nation as well. Like an unsolved photographic puzzle, each photo within \"Apart Together\" provides a piece of insight into Sahra's experiences. There is no certain and clear way in which to arrange the pieces, because they are a representation of the fragmented nature of Sahra's life. Many of Dumig's photos are not of Sahra herself, but instead show her surroundings. This makes \"Apart Together\" rich in symbolism and challenges viewers to develop their own perceptions. The photos are powerful because of this symbolic nature, as there are infinite interpretations attached to each one. \"I think everyone interprets by themselves, by however way they perceive it through their own experience. That's up to the viewer,\" Dumig said. \"It depends on who looks at the pictures. ... Everyone will see something different.\" \"Apart Together\" allowed Dumig to share various special moments with Sahra, and they were both able to learn from each other. \"It was just something we both got something out of,\" Dumig said. Ines Dumig is a photographer based in Germany.","highlights":"Ines Dumig's photo series \"Apart Together\" follows a Somali refugee living in Germany .\nThe underlying themes include isolation and \"otherness\" and the search for human dignity .","id":"08d2f92e29babb138b2a865506949f4a75aa44b8"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hockey player Jarret Stoll of the L.A. Kings was arrested Friday at the swimming pool of a Las Vegas resort on a drug-possession charge, CNN affiliate KSNV reported, citing a police spokesman. Stoll, 32, was charged with possession of controlled substances, including cocaine and ecstasy, according to KSNV. He was released from the Clark County Detention Center late Friday on $5,000 bail. The Kings said in a statement, \"We are aware of police reports out of Clark County, Nevada regarding Jarret Stoll. Our organization is concerned and has begun conducting a thorough internal investigation. While we continue to actively gather facts, we are withholding further comment at this time.\" The Canadian player is a center and has been with the Kings since 2008. The Kings, who won the Stanley Cup two of the past three seasons, did not make the NHL playoffs this season. He is reportedly involved with TV personality Erin Andrews, who is a Fox Sports reporter and co-hosts \"Dancing with the Stars.\" CNN contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to confirm details on Stoll's arrest, but according to the dispatcher no information was available until the beginning of the week.","highlights":"Stoll is a center who has played for the Kings since 2008 .\nHe is reportedly involved with sportscaster and \"Dancing with the Stars\" host Erin Andrews .","id":"75d3a5fe4845e328a561b00b895bead4c3fb0411"} -{"article":"(CNN)At first police in Marana, Arizona, thought the shoplifted gun Mario Valencia held as he walked through a busy office park was locked and unable to fire. The cable through the lever and trigger couldn't be taken off, an officer was told by an employee of the Walmart where Valencia took the gun and some rounds of ammunition. But just 10 seconds after the worker told police that ... a shot. Valencia had fired into the air, and less than a minute later a police car slammed into him in a move that ended a crime spree and sparked nationwide discussion on the officer's unusual tactic. The 36-year-old Valencia was hospitalized and within a few days transferred to jail where he faces 15 charges, including shoplifting the .30-30 rifle. That February morning, police have said, Valencia committed several crimes in nearby Tucson before stealing a car and driving to the Walmart in Marana. There he went to the sporting goods department, asked to see a rifle, then told an employee he wanted the ammunition. Officer who drove into suspect justified, chief says . The woman told police she gave Valencia the rounds because he told her he would break the case with the bullets inside. He also told her not to do anything stupid. In spite of that she also said she didn't feel threatened, leading police to charge him with shoplifting and not armed robbery. Walmart told CNN's Miguel Marquez that the store clerk acted appropriately, even using a code to alert security to call police. Valencia took the gun and ammo and fled into a nearby business park where he encountered an officer in a slow-moving patrol car. At one point he pointed the weapon at an officer and at another he pointed it at his head. The officer told him several times to put down the gun, police have said. The officers that were tailing him assumed that he likely couldn't shoot anyone because of the store's lock. Marana police on Thursday said the cable gun lock was still on the rifle when it was recovered. But the wire that goes through the trigger and the lever to reload the gun were loose enough to allow it to still be used, police said. It also should have been wrapped through the lever twice, not once, police said. A Walmart spokesman told CNN that the rifle had been properly locked and might have been affected by the hard blow caused by the police car. Valencia, who is in Pima County Jail, will appear in court again on May 18.","highlights":"Before he was slammed into by a police car, Mario Valencia fired a rifle with a loosened lock .\nHe shoplifted the gun and ammo from a Walmart, where a saleswoman who showed him the weapon alerted security .\nWalmart says the lock was properly installed but police say it was loose when it was found .","id":"dafce5c30b981fda2e8a2f223ab6f731f91953cf"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two Delaware boys are in a coma and their father still is unable to talk or move two weeks after they became sick -- perhaps from pesticide exposure, federal officials say -- during a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, their lawyer said Saturday. Steve Esmond, his teenage sons and the teens' mother fell ill more than two weeks ago in St. John, where they were renting a villa at the Sirenusa resort. The family was airlifted to hospitals in the United States. The boys, 16 and 14, were in critical condition at a Philadelphia hospital on Saturday, the family's lawyer, James Maron of Delaware, said. \"The boys are in rough shape,\" Maron said. \"The family are all fighters,\" he added. \"They're fighting for everything right now. I understand it's a long recovery.\" Esmond, also being treated at a hospital, is conscious but cannot move, Maron said. The teens' mother, Theresa Devine, was treated at a hospital but released, and is now in occupational therapy, Maron said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the presence of a pesticide at the rented villa in St. John may have caused the illnesses, which were reported to the EPA on March 20. Paramedics were called to the villa, which the family began had been renting since March 14. Esmond was found unconscious; the boys and their mother were having seizures, Maron said. The lawyer did not say who called the paramedics. Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman, said the agency's preliminary test results \"do show that there was a presence of methyl bromide in the unit where the family was staying.\" Exposure to methyl bromide can result in serious health effects, including central nervous system and respiratory system damage, according to the EPA. The use of the pesticide is restricted in the United States because of its acute toxicity. It's not allowed to be used indoors. Only certified professionals are permitted to use it in certain agricultural settings. \"It's an ongoing investigation; we're still on the island doing our assessment,\" Rodriguez said. \"We have been doing different types of air sampling and wipe sampling.\" Final test results were expected next week. The EPA said it is working with local government agencies to investigate whether the family was made ill after a fumigation at the resort on March 18 and whether any environmental regulations or laws were violated. Maron, the family's attorney, declined to comment on the investigation. Depending on the season, the luxury villa where the family stayed rents between $550 and $1,200 per night. Sea Glass Vacations, which acts as a rental agent for several units at Sirenusa, said the unit directly below the one where the family stayed was recently treated for pests, but their unit was not treated. The company said it licensed an outside company, Terminix, for the pest control services. \"Sea Glass Vacations does not treat the units it manages for pests but instead relies on licensed professionals for pest control services,\" the company said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a criminal investigation into the matter, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing made Monday by ServiceMaster Global Holdings, the parent company of Terminix. In an email to CNN, a spokesman for Terminix wrote that the company is \"committed to performing all work ... in a manner that is safe for our customers, employees, the public and the environment\" and is \"looking into this matter internally, and cooperating with authorities.\" \"We're thinking about the family, and we join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery,\" Terminix wrote. The SEC filing described the injuries to the family members as \"serious.\"","highlights":"A Delaware family becomes ill at the Sirenusa resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands .\nPreliminary EPA results find methyl bromide was present in the unit where they stayed .\nThe U.S. Justice Department begins a criminal investigation into the matter .","id":"cc3559083feb61f459b34589d73d51ccb76867d6"} -{"article":"(CNN)ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack Friday near the U.S. Consulate in the Kurdish Iraqi city of Irbil, according to several Twitter accounts linked to the terror group. The U.S. Consulate was the target of the attack, ISIS said. At least four people were killed and 18 injured, police said. All U.S. Consulate personnel were safe and accounted for following the explosion, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. Irbil is the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. Police said the incident began with an explosion of a small improvised bomb in the area. After that blast, a car moved in the direction of the consulate. Security personnel fired at the car, which exploded but did not reach the consulate, a police official said. It appeared that people inside the car detonated explosives that the vehicle was carrying, according to the police official. A separate official, B.G. Hazhar Ismail, said three civilians were killed and five others were injured. Ismail is a spokesman for the Peshmerga, the force that defends Iraq's Kurdish region. The blast sent a huge fireball into the sky on a street parallel to the consulate. Dark smoke filled the air, and gunfire was heard intermittently for the next hour. One witness said he saw attackers in a gunbattle with consulate security and police. Helicopters circled the neighborhood where the blast occurred, and a loudspeaker at the consulate building warned people to stay indoors and away from windows. In addition to the U.S. Consulate, the blast occurred immediately across the street from a strip of bars, cafes and shops popular with expats and consulate employees. The State Department thanked the response by the Kurdish government and will investigate the bombing together with them. \"The United States will continue to stand with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and all Iraqis as we work together in confronting these terrorist acts and towards our shared goal of degrading and defeating (ISIS),\" the department said in a statement. CNN's Kareem Khadder and Jason Hanna and journalist Mat Wolf contributed to this report.","highlights":"All U.S. Consulate personnel safe after blast, State Department spokeswoman says .\nSuicide bombers blow up car near the U.S. Consulate in Irbil, Iraq .","id":"b0d33cf6387c79719fe8eaab6fae32b09b516bf4"} -{"article":"(CNN)More than 300 suspects have been arrested in South Africa in connection with deadly attacks on foreigners that have forced thousands to flee, the government said Sunday. \"We once again unequivocally condemn the maiming and killing of our brothers and sisters from other parts of the continent,\" the government said. \"No amount of frustration or anger can justify these attacks and looting of shops.\" Thousands sought refuge in temporary shelters after mobs with machetes attacked immigrants in Durban. The attacks in Durban killed two immigrants and three South Africans, including a 14-year-old boy, authorities said. Heavily armed police have scrambled to stop clashes after local residents accused immigrants from other African nations of taking their jobs. The government praised law enforcement agencies for stopping further bloodshed in Durban. \"We believe that their commitment to duty has prevented injuries and even deaths that could have happened if they security forces had not acted,\" it said. The xenophobic sentiment is certainly not representative of all South Africans. \"There has been an outpouring of support from ordinary South Africans who are disgusted with the attacks not only because they are foreign, or African, but because they are fellow human beings,\" said Gift of the Givers charity, which is helping those seeking refuge. The charity said last week that about 8,500 people had fled to refugee centers or police stations because of the violence. South Africa's government implored citizens to remember the country's history of overcoming challenges with the support of African neighbors. \"During the Apartheid many South Africans fled persecution and death at the hands of the Apartheid government,\" it said in its statement. \"Africa opened its doors and became a home away from home for many South Africans.\" President Jacob Zuma has canceled a trip to Indonesia and visited displaced foreign nationals in Chatsworth to express his support, the government said. The Gift of the Givers charity assured immigrants that it has a facility in Johannesburg to help those who might need shelter there. \"We have tents and all essential supplies on standby but pray that sanity prevails and this does not become necessary,\" it said. In the past, Johannesburg has been the epicenter of anti-immigrant tensions. In 2008, scores were killed in attacks in the poorest areas of Johannesburg. Most of the victims were Zimbabweans who had fled repression and dire economic circumstances. In that attack, police arrested more than 200 people for various crimes including rape, murder, robbery and theft. CNN's Larry Register contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Africa is battling xenophobic violence after some said foreigners are taking jobs away .\nA 14-year-old boy is among those killed after a mob with machetes targeted foreigners .","id":"8a915cc7c9560f696e0544d8664e00ce32f75d12"} -{"article":"(CNN)The boy who asked a church to help him find a forever parent finally has one. Desperate for a home in 2013, Davion Navar Henry Only dressed up in a suit and borrowed a Bible from the boys home where he lived. Then he headed to a St. Petersburg, Florida, church to make a plea for his own adoption. Now 16 years old, he had lived his entire life in foster care, bouncing from one home to another. The older he got, the less likely it was that he would be adopted. But the Tampa Bay Times documented his journey, and a video of his plea went viral. Thousands of calls came into his agency, and a minster's family in Ohio asked him to come live with them. But he got into a fight with one of their sons, and they sent him back to Florida. Forever wasn't forever in that case. And to the people who asked what went wrong, his social worker had the answer. \"That boy spent his whole life in the system, that's what went wrong,\" Connie Going told the Tampa Bay Times. Photo helps gets teen adopted . For a year, he went through four more foster homes and wouldn't speak about what happened in Ohio. Finally, he reached out to Going, the woman who had been there for him since he was 7. Only had repeatedly asked her to adopt him, but she didn't think that she could be enough for him. She already had three children, ages 21, 17 and 14. But something changed in that latest call, and she knew she would finally say yes. So did her three children. Going rented a larger house, and Only moved into the home after his new mom passed the home study. His official adoption date is April 22. \"I guess I always thought of you as my mom,\" Only told her before Christmas. \"Only now I get to call you that for real, right?\"","highlights":"Davion Only took to the pulpit to find a forever home .\nAfter some setbacks, his family is set to make it official in April .","id":"9871ca2b08d50e34ab2accdab2aa4b02297eb308"} -{"article":"(CNN)In response to reports of big banks threatening to withhold campaign funds from Senate Democrats, Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week offered a defiant response: \"Bring it on.\" Warren said she isn't going to slack off on her calls for breaking up banks and other measures to rein in Wall Street. As Hillary Clinton prepares to officially launch her presidential campaign this month, she will need to make a choice about how much to highlight issues relating to economic inequality. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, is trying to steal Clinton's thunder by talking about the problems of disproportionate wealth. In other words, there are many signs that Democrats are planning to take on the big issue of economic inequality. But in other recent news, the likelihood that New York's Chuck Schumer will replace Harry Reid as leader of the Senate Democrats means the dreams of a more economically leftward party are crashing into political reality. While Schumer has been a very effective Democrat and skilled legislative leader, he is also a Wall Street Democrat who has spent much of his time courting and protecting powerful financial interests who run one of the dominant industries in his state. He is not alone. Even at his most progressive moments, President Barack Obama relied on Wall Street donations for both of his campaigns. Despite all the talk from conservatives about left-wing \"socialism\" in the White House, the financial community has been willing to open its coffers to Democrats without much concern, even in the 2012 election. Democratic populism can't really work within the current campaign finance system. The enormous pressures for parties to raise funds in campaigns has for many decades created pressure on Democrats, despite their political base, to court big donors. During the 1980s, California Democrat Tony Coelho, serving as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and then as majority whip, made a strong appeal to savings and loans executives before the crash of the industry to catch up to Republicans who had been outflanking them in raising money. The Democrats were, and have continued to, losing their traditional base of campaign support --organized labor -- which had been a central source of campaign muscle since the 1930s, providing money and campaign assistance during campaigns. Without organized labor to serve as their foundation and with the pressure for raising private funds increasing, many Democrats concluded they needed business by their side. Democrats running for president have made the same kind of choices. In 2008, Obama disappointed many supporters upon becoming the first president to abandon the post-Watergate public finance system for campaigns altogether, preferring to raise money himself for the general campaign. While small donors were enormously important to his victories, so too were business and Wall Street executives. At the height of the financial crash, when public sentiment had clearly turned against Wall Street, the administration agreed to a financial regulation bill (Dodd-Frank) that was structured in such a way as to give powerful interests more than enough opportunity to limit the bite over the coming years. Wall Street, with an army of counsel, succeeded in eroding the impact of the legislation. Not only does the acceptance of our campaign finance system limit the policy choices Democrats can make, but it also greatly damages the party's brand name. As The Washington Post reported, the scandal that might bring down New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez is the first involving large scale super PAC donations. At the heart of the story is almost $600,000 that physician Salomon Melgen gave to Senate Majority PAC, possibly in exchange for favors. This is not simply some sort of accommodation of Democrats to the corporate system. They don't have much of a choice. Without these funds, they won't be able to compete. In this election cycle, independent campaign donors are causing a huge stir. In conservative circles, the Koch brothers and their allies are throwing around enormous amounts of money to candidates who will support their deregulatory agenda. Individual donors such as Las Vegas gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson are causing ripples every time candidates speak, pressuring them to adjust their agenda. Democrats have found their own magnates for political support, such as Tom Steyer and George Soros. This is why campaign finance reform is so important, Without Congress changing the fundamental dynamics, there won't be much room for populism to thrive. Even if Democrats select someone like a Elizabeth Warren as their candidate or Hillary Clinton decides to move sharply to the left on economic policy, there won't be much room for reform when the time of governance actually starts. The Democratic Party needs Wall Street more than it needs to take a stand against Wall Street. Those are the facts on the ground. If Democrats really want to take on Wall Street and tackle economic inequality, they first have to bring about reform of the campaign finance system. If campaigns were publicly funded or there were more stringent limits on independent expenditures, Wall Street would have much more trouble achieving disproportionate influence. Reform could level the playing field. More often than not, campaign finance reform is an issue that gets sidetracked with little more than some pro forma words of support. A more populist economic agenda that revolved around progressive taxation and substantial public assistance to strengthen the middle class can only work in a different kind of political system. If things stay the same, Democrats can only continue to win elections by turning to their corporate and financial base of support.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Elizabeth Warren was defiant about Wall Street, but Hillary Clinton likely won't be .\nZelizer: The Democrats need Wall Street's campaign donations to be competitive in 2016 .","id":"45637b88f60cbdfa5879f2064d6979a4b05bbf1e"} -{"article":"(CNN)Thursday will mark three weeks since Saudi Arabia began airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. But there is as yet little sign that the rebels are being driven back, that the fighting in Yemen is dying down or that lives there are being saved. To the contrary, increasingly more Yemenis appear to be fleeing the country, attempting the dangerous trip in rickety fishing boats across the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa -- a trip historically made by people fleeing Africa rather than the other way around. Hopes for stability, not only in Yemen but in the Middle East in general, are fading as fears grow that Saudia Arabia and Iran are fighting a proxy war in Yemen for regional domination. And the number of dead continues to mount. Yemen's health ministry said over the weekend that 385 civilians had been killed and 342 others had been wounded. The World Health Organization has put a higher figure on both tolls -- 648 killed and 2,191 wounded -- but includes militant casualties in the totals. The Houthis forced Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January, though Hadi still claims he is Yemen's legitimate leader and is working with the Saudis and other allies to return to Yemen. Those allied with Hadi have accused the Iranian government of supporting the Houthis in their uprising in Yemen. Like the Iranians, the Houthis are Shiites. And like the Saudis, Hadi and his government are Sunni. Since it began on March 26, Saudi Arabia has launched more than 1,200 airstrikes. Saudi officials claim to have killed more than 500 Houthi rebels. The U.N. Security Council voted Tuesday in favor of an arms embargo on Houthis -- the minority group that has taken over large swaths of Yemen, including its capital, Sanaa -- and supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The resolution \"raises the cost\" for the Houthis, according to Mark Lyall Grant, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations. In addition to the arms embargo, the resolution also demands that the Shiite group pull back and refrain from more violence and includes sanctions aimed at controlling the spread of terrorism, according to Grant. Russia abstained from Tuesday's vote, saying it didn't like the inclusion of sanctions. Why is Saudi Arabia bombing Yemen?","highlights":"Saudi officials say 500 Houthi rebels killed, but signs of progress appear scant .\nCivilian casualties continue to mount .\nU.N. Security Council favors Houthi arms embargo .","id":"f626c9207fe036e2ed8e30df692ba94b7999cad7"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)Joy Womack is taking part in her first ballet class of the day at the Kremlin Ballet Theatre, kicking her legs up to her head, jumping and spinning across the room. After class, she eats boiled sweets, one after another -- they are a cheap form of energy. The dancer, raised in California and Texas, left her parents and eight brothers and sisters behind when she arrived in Russia six years ago, aged 15, speaking no Russian. She studied at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and was one of the first Americans accepted from the school into the company. But in 2013 she left under a cloud -- media reports suggested she had claimed she was asked by an unnamed Boshoi official to pay $10,000 to dance in even small roles. The Bolshoi still stands by comments made at the time by its general director, Vladimir Urin. He asked the dancer to make an official complaint and defend her position legally, saying the theatre was ready to assist the law enforcement agencies to investigate the case and that \"if the facts are legally established, those responsible should be punished accordingly.\" The dancer did not pursue a case against the Bolshoi. When she left the Bolshoi in 2013, Womack joined the Kremlin Ballet Theatre where she still works, aged 20, as a principal ballerina; dancing close to the Russian president's office, next to the cathedrals inside the red walls of the Kremlin. The surroundings may be opulent but her pay packet is not: for her role as a principal dancer Womack says she is paid around $240 a month -- which works out at around $8 a day. The dancer says the amount of money she makes in dollars each month has fallen as the Russian ruble has weakened -- the currency has suffered, in part, from a low oil price and international sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea last year. Womack says a friend helps her with accommodation and she says she has to make the money stretch in order to buy food. \"For anyone paid a salary in rubles, especially since the crisis, it is extremely difficult. You have to decide what is worth more for you - experience or financial stability. I'm at a point in my life where experience is worth more.\" Sitting in the wings of the stage, chatting in Russian to the other dancers and stretching before her rehearsal for Swan Lake, she says she has to make the $185 in her bank account last for the next few weeks. To earn extra money she dances bigger roles or takes part in events abroad. The Kremlin Ballet Theatre says Womack's salary corresponds to her job title as a principal dancer and that, \"on average, the salary [principal] dancers are paid is significantly higher\" than $240 a month but that Womack could have been paid that equivalent in dollars \"depending on the exchange rate on the day and depending on how much she danced in productions the previous month.\" As an American, Womack says she is paid the same as her contemporaries and is treated just like the Russians. But she says that is not always the case offstage. \"It's extremely difficult to watch the deteriorating relationships between the United States and Russia. The great thing about working for a Russian company is that we are focused on creating art but...outside the ballet world it is difficult for foreigners; the general tendency tends to be more nationalistic and they unfortunately judge foreigners by their cover.\" Although relations between the U.S. and Russia have taken a nosedive since Russia's annexation of Crimea last March, Womack says she is \"very loyal\" to the Kremlin Ballet Theatre. \"I love the Russian system and I'm very patriotic in that sense,\" she says. And despite the political situation -- and the money -- she says, \"Russia has a lot to offer, it is a beautiful place that creates stars and that itself is worth investing one's career in.","highlights":"20-year-old American dancer makes $240 a month at Kremlin Ballet Theatre .\nJoy Womack studied at Bolshoi Ballet Academy but left in cloud of controversy .","id":"1203b98b4a1739d0f88789ea59f4cceffde40f2d"} -{"article":"(CNN)A group of six young Minnesota men conspired to sneak into Syria and join ISIS \"by any means necessary,\" federal prosecutors said Monday. The group of friends, ages 19 to 21, were arrested Sunday. \"What's remarkable about this case was that nothing stopped these defendants from plotting their goal,\" said U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger of the District of Minnesota. \"They were not confused young men. They were not easily influenced. These are focused men who are intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible.\" Recruiting for the ISIS terrorist network is a particular problem in Minnesota's community of Somali immigrants. \"People often ask who is doing the recruiting and when will we catch the person responsible,\" Luger said. \"But it is not that simple. In today's case, the answer is that this group of friends is recruiting each other. They're engaged in what we describe as peer-to-peer recruiting.\" Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, 19; Adnan Farah, 19; Hanad Mustafe Musse, 19; and Guled Ali Omar, 20, were arrested in Minneapolis. Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 21, and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 21, were arrested in San Diego after driving there in hopes of crossing into Mexico, Luger said. They plotted for 10 months, Luger said. \"Even when their co-conspirators were caught and charged, they continued to seek new and creative ways to leave Minnesota to fight for a terror group.\" Another friend, who was part of the group, changed his mind and became a cooperating witness for the FBI, even tape recording some meetings, Luger said. The FBI investigation has previously netted Abdullahi Yusuf, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, and Hamza Ahmed, who has been indicted on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and is now pending trial, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint describes a man, identified only as \"Nur,\" who has spent time in Syria and allegedly helped the six accused men. Four of the men who were arrested appeared in federal court on Monday but did not enter a plea. The judge ordered they all be held without bail, and a detention hearing was scheduled for Wednesday. CNN's Tony Marco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Six young Minnesotans conspired to sneak into Syria and join ISIS \"by any means necessary,\" prosecutors say .\nThe men, ages 19 to 21, were arrested Sunday .\nThey plotted for 10 months, the U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota says .","id":"1ea2893555b80472c3b690b00dc9223c8f71e829"} -{"article":"(CNN)In case you haven't noticed, we're in the midst of a medical marijuana revolution. Given the amount of questions and mystery surrounding the science behind it, Dr. Sanjay Gupta wanted to provide some insight. He's been investigating medical marijuana for the last couple of years. His research has resulted in three CNN documentaries, culminating with \"Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution,\" airing at 9 p.m. ET\/PT Sunday. Gupta opened up to questions on Twitter. Here's what you wanted to know: . How does this affect me? Readers were curious about the effects of medical marijuana in easing symptoms of various ailments, asking how it could help with everything from life-threatening illnesses and neurological conditions to chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. Gupta pointed out the 10 diseases where medical marijuana research could have an impact and how it helped to stop one young girl's severe seizures, and he also referenced other studies. He said that the potential benefits of medical marijuana for people suffering from PTSD is actually the subject of a federally approved study. The belief: It could suppress dream recall and allow those sufferers to focus on the present. There is also research into how the drug might affect the spasms associated with people who have multiple sclerosis. Medical marijuana could also be an important option for those who rely on painkillers, as painkiller overdose is the greatest preventable death in the United States, Gupta said. Why don't other doctors talk about it? Many of the questions around medical marijuana can be tied back to the fact that it's just not discussed much. Teaching about medical marijuana remains taboo in medical school. But Gupta also presented the science directly, showing what your body on weed looks like. Readers also wanted to know why people are so against the legalization of marijuana. Decades of misinformation, Gupta said. What are the drawbacks? With medical marijuana so misunderstood, there naturally is a fear of potential side effects. There are legitimate, long-term concerns with the developing brain, Gupta said, and suggested that readers seek out the research of Dr. Staci Gruber, who has conducted numerous studies on marijuana use and brain function. Isn't it dangerous? When confronted with questions rooted in fear about the dangers of medical marijuana, Gupta confessed that he used to believe the same thing -- that marijuana is dangerous without proven benefits. After extensive research, he said he changed his mind on weed.","highlights":"CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers questions about medical marijuana .\nReaders wanted to know how medical marijuana could ease symptoms of illnesses .","id":"5c4eab115efd57b8283c0eb0b49b94ba585b8062"} -{"article":"Surkhet, Nepal (CNN)Ten years ago, with her high school diploma and a backpack, Maggie Doyne left her New Jersey hometown to travel the world before college. She lived in a Buddhist monastery, helped rebuild a sea wall in Fiji, then went to India and worked with Nepalese refugees. There, she met a young girl who wanted to find her family in Nepal. Doyne went with her. That's when Doyne's life took an unexpected turn. Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for CNN Heroes 2015 . A decade-long civil war had just ended in the country, and Doyne witnessed its effects firsthand. She met women and children who were suffering, struggling to survive. \"It changed me,\" said Doyne, now 28. \"There were children with mallets that would go into the riverbed, pick up a big stone and break it into little, little pieces (to sell).\u00a0And they were doing that all day, every day.\" Doyne called her parents and asked them to wire her the $5,000 she had earned babysitting. In 2006, she purchased land in Surkhet, a district in western Nepal. She worked for two years with the local community to build the Kopila Valley Children's Home. Today, Kopila -- which means \"flower bud\" in Nepali -- is home to about 50 children, from infants to teenagers. Doyne started the BlinkNow Foundation to support and grow her efforts. In 2010, the group opened its Kopila Valley School, which today educates more than 350 students. Doyne lives in Nepal year-round, traveling to the U.S. a few times a year. See more CNN Heroes . The CNN Heroes team traveled to Surkhet and talked to Doyne about her work and the community she supports. Below is an edited version of their conversation. CNN: How does it work, raising nearly 50 kids? Maggie Doyne: It's communal living, for sure! We're a family of almost 50 kids ages 8 months to 16 years. Everybody just pitches in and helps each other. They all have their chores. They all have their duties. And everybody cooks the meals together and makes sure that they do their part to make the home run smoothly. The staff at the home, we call them the aunties and the uncles. We wake up in the morning and go off to school. And then come home and do homework and eat our meals together, and everybody goes to bed at night. CNN: How does a child come to live in your home? Doyne: Our first priority as an organization is to keep a child with their family if at all possible. In order to come into the home, you need to have lost both parents, or in some rare cases have suffered extreme neglect, abuse or have a parent who's incarcerated. We have to conduct a full investigation. So usually that involves going to the child's village, making calls, doing police checks, getting documentation and paperwork. We have to dig up birth certificates, death certificates, make sure that everything lines up the way that they say it does. CNN: Meanwhile, you have 350 children attending your school. What is their background? Doyne: Every single year we'll get from 1,000 to 1,500 applicants. And we choose the ones who are the most needful and really won't be in school without us. Most of them live in one room, a mud hut. A lot of them are just in survival mode. We try to relieve the burden from the family, so that the child has food, medical care, books, zero fees for education. CNN: What have you learned working with the local community in Nepal? Doyne: I learned very early on, from the beginning, that I couldn't come in and just be like, \"Here, I have a vision. This is what we're going to do.\" That doesn't work. It has to be slow; it has to be organic. And it has to come from the community and be a \"we\" thing. It's really important to me that this is a Nepali project, working for Nepal, for the community. So the faces that you see are strong Nepali women and amazing Nepali role-model men. CNN: How does the project continue to grow? Doyne: We started with the home and then school. We run the school lunch program. Then we needed to keep our kids really healthy, so we started a small clinic and then a counseling center. From there we started getting more sustainable and growing our own food. And then from there we decided to start a women's center. We just bought a new piece of property to create a totally green and sustainable off-the-grid campus. This year we converted to solar energy. So we'll have a high school and then a day care, preschool, elementary, all the way up, and a vocational center where kids can become a thriving young adult with everything they need to succeed moving forward. It's become so much more than just a little girl with a backpack and a big dream. It's become a community. And I want to teach and have other people take this example and hope this sets a precedent for what our world can be and look like. Want to get involved? Check out the BlinkNow Foundation website at www.blinknow.org and see how to help.","highlights":"Nepal civil war aftermath inspired Maggie Doyne to help children .\nDoyne's BlinkNow Foundation supports a home for 50 children and a school that educates hundreds more.\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2015 CNN Heroes .","id":"275f70b420d88b7c1e6140d5b4586a2ea36a8015"} -{"article":"(CNN)A freshly fallen tree in the roadway was Jason Warnock's first clue. Warnock was driving through a canyon in Lewiston, Idaho, on Wednesday when he saw the tree, then looked up to see an SUV dangling over the edge of a cliff. The only thing holding the GMC Yukon and its terrified driver from a 30-foot drop was a crumpled chain-link fence, still clinging to the earth above Bryden Canyon Road. \"I seen that guy hanging there and he was trying to beat the window out or the door open and I was like 'Oh man,' 'cause only like five links were hanging there,\" Warnock told KXLY, a CNN affiliate. \"I was like, I gotta do something and no one was doing anything.\" What Warnock did next, captured in a dramatic photo by Lewiston Tribune photographer Barry Kough, made headlines around the world. Warnock dashed from his car and scrambled up a hill to the Yukon and its driver, 23-year-old Matthew Sitko, who appeared to be in shock. \"I got up there and I was like, 'Are you alright man?' He shook his head, yeah. I grabbed my Snap-on multi-tool and it had jagged edges on each end. I hit the window three times and it didn't break. Every time I hit it, the thing rocked like it was going to fall off,\" Warnock told KXLY. Sitko was finally able to get the passenger-side window down. Warnock then reached in and pulled Sitko out to safety -- a moment recorded by Kough's camera. Then Warnock disappeared. \"I left and got out of there before anyone knew who I was,\" he said. He remained an unknown good Samaritan, his identity a mystery, until Kough's picture of the daring rescue appeared in the Lewiston paper and spread across the Internet. \"I don't feel like I deserve any credit or anything,\" Warnock said. \"I just did what anyone would do, went right back to work.\" Thanks to Warnock, Sitko went to the hospital with just minor injuries. \"The Lewiston Police Department would like to thank Jason Warnock for his quick and decisive actions in helping Mr. Sitko and preventing the situation from worsening,\" said Roger Lanier, the interim police chief. Warnock told KXLY he didn't want or expect all the attention and would rather be fishing in the mountains than reading about himself.","highlights":"Jason Warnock rescued a man whose SUV was dangling off the edge of a cliff .\nWarnock: \"I don't feel like I deserve any credit ... I just did what anyone would do\"","id":"db61d01f82dc63596f7e2fa93b4ab4ae278daf1f"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's obvious that Tom Brady's love for his wife, model Gisele Bundchen, will never go out of fashion. Bundchen walked the runway for the last time Wednesday, and the New England Patriots quarterback wasn't just there to support her in person, he expressed his emotions to the world on Facebook. \"Congratulations Love of my Life,\" Brady wrote. \"You inspire me every day to be a better person. I am so proud of you and everything you have accomplished on the runway. I have never met someone with more of a will to succeed and determination to overcome any obstacle in the way. You never cease to amaze me. Nobody loves life more than you and your beauty runs much deeper than what the eye can see. I can't wait to see what's next. I love you.\" He followed the text with two hashtags, #GOAT (\"greatest of all time\") and #thebestisyettocome. Bundchen, 34, announced her retirement from the catwalk last weekend. \"I am grateful that at 14, I was given the opportunity to start this journey. Today after 20 years in the industry, it is a privilege to be doing my last fashion show by choice and yet still be working in other facets of the business,\" the Brazilian-born model wrote on Instagram. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen struts her stuff a final time . Bundchen was the highest-paid model in 2014, according to Forbes magazine, with a total $47 million in contracts. She is the face of Chanel and Carolina Herrera and has her own line of lingerie. Bundchen and Brady have been married since 2009. The couple has two children. What's next for Bundchen? Based on an interview she did with Brazil's Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, sounds like more quality time with Brady and their children. \"I want to be with my family more and focus on special projects,\" she said. CNN's Shasta Darlington contributed to this story.","highlights":"Tom Brady to Gisele Bundchen: \"You inspire me every day\"\nBundchen had last runway show Wednesday .\nShe'll be focusing more on family, \"special projects\"","id":"168d893a015c93c4fd2cdc3ab048a2b351478062"} -{"article":"(CNN)The greater adjutant stork is a majestic bird. Standing about 5 feet tall with an average wingspan of 8 feet, it soars over the Boragaon landfill like a great protector. It knows the residents and shies away from strangers. \"They are intelligent birds. Every time I got close to them they would fly away,\" photographer Timothy Bouldry said. The dirty, wet conditions of the landfill attracted the endangered stork, and the stork attracted Bouldry. Through a series of photos taken within a day, he captures what it's like to live inside one of the largest dumping grounds in India. The Boragaon landfill is located in the city of Guwahati, about 300 miles from Bangladesh near the Bhutanese border. It's 94 acres of mostly fresh waste, surrounded by swamplands. (Other landfills, Bouldry says, contain older, compacted trash.) For the past seven years, Bouldry has traveled the world photographing landfills. He's visited places such as Haiti, Venezuela and Colombia. The greater adjutant stork initially drew Bouldry to Boragaon, but he became connected with the people. About 100 families live inside the Boragaon landfill. Every day, they search the area for treasure -- a tiny scrap of metal, a bit of plastic, maybe a bone. They use large hooks to sort through the garbage, which sometimes reaches two or three stories high. They work in teams, and more than often they are barefoot. \"They don't look at the things they're doing as being unsanitary or unhealthy or unsafe,\" Bouldry said. They collect plastic, metal and wires and sell it by the pound. The families make around $2 per day. Their homes are constructed by recycled materials, with sometimes several families living in one shanty at a time. With no electricity, no running water -- and an overabundance of trash -- they are experts at repurposing. \"You might see a refrigerator being used as a closet,\" he said. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. Some of the children living in Boragaon go to school on scholarship, but most of them work in the landfill to provide for their families. But don't be deceived: The people living here feel anything but destitute. Bouldry uses words such as \"love,\" \"hope\" and \"spirituality\" to describe them. \"I found that the landfill community is content,\" Bouldry said. \"They are not jaded by modern civilization.\" Bouldry lives and works inside the La Chureca landfill in Nicaragua, one of the largest landfills in the world. He helps the people living there grow gardens fertilized with compost he makes with organic waste from local smoothie shops. In addition to his photography, he teaches English and yoga classes a few times per week. But why? Bouldry went to art school in Boston. He's no stranger to sophisticated civilization. He said he found humanitarian photo projects to be the most fulfilling, and he became especially intrigued by landfills even though they are \"scary, dirty and kind of grotesque.\" \"This is my 'thank you' to the informal recyclers of the world,\" he said. Timothy Bouldry is a photographer based in New Hampshire. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.","highlights":"Photographer Timothy Bouldry spent time at a massive landfill in Guwahati, India .\nAbout 100 families live inside the Boragaon landfill, but Bouldry said they are \"content\"","id":"10c476a5cff1ad9123aaa6f62dc2a54dac1263c6"} -{"article":"(CNN)Remember the Tuskegee syphilis experiment from the 1930s? Scientists studied poor African-Americans in Alabama who'd contracted the venereal disease but didn't tell them they had the disease or do anything to cure them. A lawsuit filed this week alleges Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation helped conduct a similar study in Guatemala from 1945 to 1956. Orphans, inmates, psychiatric patients and prostitutes were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases to determine what drugs, including penicillin, worked best in stopping the diseases, the lawsuit says. The subjects of the experiments weren't told they'd been infected, the lawsuit says, causing some to die and others to pass the disease to their spouses, sexual partners and children. The suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages and has 774 plaintiffs, including people who were subjects in the experiments and their descendants. This is the second attempt to collect damages. In 2012, a class-action federal lawsuit was filed against the U.S. government over the Guatemala experiments conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service. A judge dismissed it, saying the Guatemalans could not sue the United States for grievances that happened overseas. The new lawsuit was filed in the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Johns Hopkins and the Rockefeller Foundation filed statements on their websites condemning the experiments, but denying responsibility. \"The plaintiffs' essential claim in this case is that prominent Johns Hopkins faculty members' participation on a government committee that reviewed funding applications was tantamount to conducting the research itself and that therefore Johns Hopkins should be held liable,\" the Johns Hopkins statement said. \"Neither assertion is true.\" The lawsuit alleges the Rockefeller Foundation funded Johns Hopkins' research into public health issues, including venereal disease, and employed scientists who monitored the Guatemala experiments. The lawsuit, the Rockefeller Foundation statement said, \"seeks improperly to assign 'guilt by association' in the absence of compensation from the United States federal government.\" The suit says Johns Hopkins and the Rockefeller Foundation designed, supported and benefited from the Guatemala experiments. Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical group and that company's owner, Mead Johnson, also are defendants. The pharmaceutical company supplied drugs for the experiments, the suit says. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers Squibb sent this statement to CNN: \"We've only just received the complaint in this matter. Bristol-Myers Squibb played an important role in the development of penicillin in the past and today we continue to focus our work on developing breakthrough medicines for serious disease. As a company dedicated to patients, we take this matter very seriously and are reviewing the allegations.\" Nobody doubts the experiments happened. In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized to Guatemala for the experiments, saying they were \"clearly unethical.\" In the 1930s and 1940s, the government followed a policy of funding scientific medical research but not controlling individual doctors, the suit says. The lawsuit says John Hopkins controlled and influenced the appointed panels that authorized funding for research into venereal disease. The lawsuit says prostitutes were infected to intentionally spread the disease and that syphilis spirochetes were injected into the spinal fluid of subjects. A woman in a psychiatric hospital had gonorrhea pus from a male subject injected into both her eyes, the suit says. The lawsuit doesn't say why the experiments ended. The results were never published and were not revealed until 2011, when the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues wrote a letter to President Barack Obama telling of its investigation, the suit says. CNN's Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lawsuit says scientists infected hundreds of Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases .\nA similar lawsuit filed against the U.S. government was dismissed .","id":"a609c74babe625d1f6513c58752dabc34fcc6798"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two deputies involved in the fatal attempt to arrest Eric Harris in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have been reassigned because of threats against them and their families, Sheriff Stanley Glanz said Monday in a news conference. The deputies were trying to arrest Harris when Reserve Deputy Robert Bates shot him. Unlike Bates, they are not charged with a crime, but have come under criticism for pinning Harris' head to the ground as he said, \"I'm losing my breath.\" Police appear on video saying, \"F*ck your breath,\" apparently in response. Sheriff Stanley Glanz didn't specify the nature of the threats, but said he was \"very concerned\" for their safety and that of their families. He did not say what the deputies had been assigned to do. Another sheriff's official said the office has temporarily suspended operations of the agency's drug unit pending the review of the April 2 shooting of Harris following a weapons sting. Glanz indicated he has not yet decided how to proceed with a review of their actions, saying any action may be delayed until after the court case involving Bates has been settled. Bates is charged with second-degree manslaughter in Harris' death. Bates, who is free on $25,000 bond pending trial, shot Harris with his handgun after calling out, \"Taser, Taser,\" -- an indication he planned to use a stun gun to subdue Harris following a brief foot chase with the other deputies. Amid questions about his age -- 73 -- training and friendship with Glanz, Bates has said the shooting was accidental, and has apologized to the family. Lawyer releases training records for Tulsa deputy charged in killing . On Monday, Glanz also apologized to Harris' family. \"We are sorry Eric was taken from you,\" he said. But he said his office holds itself to the highest national standards of policing, and said Monday that the FBI had cleared the agency of any civil rights violations in the shooting. Bates is white. Harris was black. There have been allegations, first reported by the Tulsa World newspaper, that some of Bates' training records had been forged, or that he was unqualified to be serving on the force. The sheriff denied those allegations, saying he was certain Bates had qualified on the gun range and had extensive additional training. He said he was unaware of any forgery involving training records, and said he had not issued any training waivers for Bates, with whom he has been friends for more than two decades. But he said he supported prosecutor's decision to proceed with the case. He also said he had brought in a Dallas police consultant who had previously examined the office's policies and procedures for another look. Harris' family has said the shooting reveals \"a deep-seated problem\" within the department and has demanded justice, and changes in policy.","highlights":"Deputies reassigned after threats, sheriff says .\nThe two deputies pinned Eric Harris to the ground and one yelled \"F*ck your breath\" at him after he was shot .","id":"623ad83ebb32752afaa1fb4b134ab697eae8b798"} -{"article":"(CNN)ESPN suspended reporter Britt McHenry for a week after a video of her berating a towing company employee surfaced Thursday. The sports network announced her suspension on Twitter. McHenry posted an apology on Twitter, saying she allowed her emotions to get away from her during a stressful situation at a Virginia business. \"I ... said some insulting and regrettable things.\" \"As frustrated as I was, I should always choose to be respectful and take the high road. I am so sorry for my actions and will learn from this mistake,\" she wrote. On the roughly one-minute long video that was captured by a surveillance camera, McHenry says to an employee at a register: \"I'm in the news, sweetheart. I will (expletive) sue this place.\" The employee tells McHenry she's being recorded, but it doesn't stop her from continuing her rant. \"That's why I have a degree and you don't,\" she says. \"I wouldn't work at a scumbag place like this. Makes my skin crawl even being here.\" Later McHenry says, \"maybe if I was missing some teeth they would hire me, huh?\" The employee apparently says something about McHenry's hair and the color of her roots. McHenry sasses back, saying, \"Oh, like yours, 'cause they look so stunning, 'cause I'm on television and you're in a (expletive) trailer, honey. Lose some weight, baby girl.\" CNN reached out to the Arlington towing company for comment but didn't hear immediately back. The edited video was first posted on the website LiveLeak, which said the incident occurred April 5. The video inspired the Twitter hashtag #firebrittmchenry. The reporter is one of several ESPN on-air talents to be suspended in the past 12 months. In February, anchor Keith Olbermann was not on the air for most of a week after a Twitter spat that the anchor had with fans of Penn State University. Bill Simmons was suspended in September for three weeks for calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a liar. Commentator Stephen A. Smith was suspended in July for a week for widely criticized remarks about domestic abuse that referred to possible \"provocation\" by victims. How McHenry could have responded . McHenry is based in Washington and the incident happened across the Potomac River in Arlington. McHenry joined ESPN in 2014. At the time of her hiring, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, Vince Doria, praised her knack for getting interviews with major sports celebrities. \"In a relatively short time, Britt has established a reputation for strong, aggressive reporting in the D.C. area, and an ability to land big interviews,\" said Doria. \"Her presence there will be a great benefit to ESPN's newsgathering and, as with all of our bureau reporters, she will be assigned to high-profile stories around the country.\" Before ESPN, she was with WJLA in Washington. McHenry joined the station in 2008 and the sports staff in 2010. She went to Stetson as an undergraduate and Northwestern for graduate studies in journalism. Opinion: Who's worse: Britt McHenry, or us?","highlights":"#firebrittmchenry has become a popular hashtag on Twitter .\nBritt McHenry is a reporter for the sports network, and she is based in Washington .\nShe apologized on Twitter for losing control of her emotions, not taking the high road .","id":"ecff151a774c74df58f5e63978fc69ad86f07b62"} -{"article":"(CNN)The bored teenager who gunned down a college baseball player in Oklahoma simply because he and his two friends \"had nothing to do,\" is now a convicted murderer. Chancey Allen Luna was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday for his role in the August 2013 drive-by shooting of Christopher Lane, a 23-year-old college student in Duncan, about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City. Luna was 16 at the time of the shooting. Lane, an Australian attending East Central University, was jogging when he was shot in the back by a gun fired by Luna. A jury recommended Friday that Luna spend life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to court records. Because he was under 18 when the crime was committed, he is not eligible for the death penalty. He'll be formally sentenced in June. The vehicle's driver, Michael Jones, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Jones, who was 17 at the time of the murder, will be eligible for parole starting in 2051, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Prosecutors dropped first-degree murder charges filed against the third suspect, then only 15, after he agreed to testify against Luna and Jones, according to CNN affiliate KSWO. He will now be tried as a juvenile with accessory to murder after the fact. Duncan police Chief Danny Ford told Australian radio station 3AW that when police arrested the teens, Jones offered a motive that made clear that Lane, a baseball player on scholarship, was chosen at random. \"We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.\" After the verdict, Luna appeared to be crying as deputies led him out of the courtroom in handcuffs, whimpering \"I'm sorry\" to a reporter. CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report .","highlights":"Chancey Luna convicted of murder for gunning down Oklahoma college student as he jogged .\nPolice: Luna and his friends \"were bored\" so they decided to kill somebody .","id":"540fc636957b4d049d6b4f07ae72c1b3be6ec020"} -{"article":"(CNN)Here you go, galaxy. The Force is back. At an emotional event in Anaheim, California, director J.J. Abrams and the \"Star Wars: Episode VII -- The Force Awakens\" cast showed off for the audience and then capped the presentation with the trailer for the new film. The audience gasped, cheered and applauded. The cast was appreciative of the welcome. \"You're more than fans. You're family,\" Mark Hamill told the crowd. Carrie Fisher was also there, though without her trademark Princess Leia hair buns. They're \"retired,\" she said. Airline unveils 'Star Wars' 787 Dreamliner painted like R2-D2 . Also introduced: \"Star Wars\" emoji, some new Stormtroopers and the BB8, the soccer-ball-like droid that rolled around the stage, to the delight of the audience. It wasn't CGI, either, as much of the movie, Abrams said, was filmed on actual sets. Twitter erupted with near-instantaneous reaction, most of it enthusiastic. CNNMoney: 'Star Wars' teaser sends Twitter into lightspeed . The new \"Star Wars\" is due out December 18. CNN's Henry Hanks was in the audience. Here are his five top takeaways from the event: . 1. Han flies again . The trailer ended in a big way, with Han Solo and Chewbacca having apparently arrived after a flight on the Millennium Falcon. The reaction in the room of fans was nothing short of rapturous upon seeing Harrison Ford back in character as Han. A few burst into tears at the end of the the 110-second teaser. 2. That's not Tatooine . Abrams revealed that their shooting location was not meant to represent the Skywalker ancestral home of Tatooine, as many believed. Instead, it's a planet called Jakku, where much of the early action of the movie takes place. Daisy Ridley's Rey meets up with a stromtrooper, Finn (John Boyega) and that's where the adventure begins. 3. Hints of Luke and Leia . Oscar Isaac dropped a major hint that his pilot character of Poe is sent on a mission by \"a princess,\" and we're fairly certain which one he meant. Leia and Luke aren't seen in the trailer, but we hear Luke's unmistakable voice as he passes along a lightsaber, presumably to other Skywalker family members. Carrie Fisher also teased her new wardrobe, and promised no metal bikini. 4. There's less CGI than in the prequels . Abrams said he was proud that \"you can watch the movie and see what it is\" before the effects wizards at Industrial Light and Magic did their work. And yes, the new droid BB-8 (who was a fan favorite at the panel) is not CGI. 5. The ruins of the Empire are all around . A crashed Star Destroyer can be seen at the opening of the trailer, as well as a look at Vader's charred helmet. Chills. Creating the sounds of 'Star Wars' CNN's Henry Hanks contributed to this story.","highlights":"The new \"Star Wars: Episode VII -- The Force Awakens\" trailer is released .\nA fan gathering in Los Angeles featured the cast and a droid .\nThe movie comes out December 18 .","id":"8871ee52481a129f6b05e86cee798d7b1c3796ed"} -{"article":"(CNN)Wealthy Nigerians used to travel abroad to get their fix of luxury goods. However these days, they can take a stroll around Victoria Island, an exclusive neighborhood in Lagos where brands like Porsche, Hugo Boss and Ermenegildo Zegna line the streets. The Nigerian city is among African metropolises which have seen some of the highest growth in the number of millionaires on the continent. Others include Luanda, Dar es Salaam and Accra, which is predicted to nearly double its millionaire count from 800 in 2012 to 1,500 in 2020. If the growth continues, these cities could join an existing club of African wealth hubs hosting the so-called ultra-high net worth individuals, typically those with over $30 million of net assets excluding their primary residence. These centers of affluence are spread from Johannesburg in the south, through Lagos in the west and Nairobi in the east, to Cairo in the north. This emerging class of Africa's new millionaires has been pushing the demand for luxury products across the continent, with sales of high-end products growing by a third between 2008 and 2013. However, they are no longer concentrated in southern Africa, traditionally the wealthiest part of the continent. Nigeria is now one of the fastest growing markets for French Champagne and digital televisions according to a report by Deloitte, and in 2013 LVMH's seven Nigerian branches outsold its 600 South African stores. \"Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in terms of middle class,\" says Fflur Roberts, head of luxury at Euromonitor, a market research provider. \"It's due to a mix of rising incomes, rising population but also growth slowing in other emerging markets.\" Luxury brands tend to enter country markets through distributors, benefiting from local knowledge of their partners but still retaining a significant amount of control over how their name is marketed in that country. \"Getting a new brand in a new market where they don't fully understand the operating environment would be very dangerous for that brand,\" explains Roberts. She warns that in spite of potential, the future of luxury in Africa is dependent on reforms taking place: \"It will rely on infrastructure and the operating environment such as security and how trading is done,\" she says. When it comes to what they choose to splash their cash on, Africa's rich like to stick to well-known global labels that carry an automatic badge of status. \"Generally the brands they buy will be more ostentatious compared to somebody in the more developed, mature markets. It's going to be the Louis Vuitton, the Gucci, the Prada,\" says Roberts. She adds that this could be down to the fact that typical a luxury consumer in Africa is much younger than those in mature markets such as Western Europe, who tend to be in their 50s and 60s. \"They are in their late twenties or thirties so it's very much new wealth, and they will be looking towards luxury as a means of showing status and success,\" says Roberts. However, in spite of mainstream brand's dominance, smaller home-grown labels also see the growth in appetite for luxury goods as a valuable opportunity. \"Africa has all the foundations that are needed to create a real vibrant luxury industry,\" says Swaady Martin Leke, Ivorian entrepreneur and founder of the Johannesburg-based luxury tea brand Yswara. \"We have the craftsmanship, we have the heritage, we have a very rich culture that doesn't date just 20 years, but centuries, thousands and thousands of years of know-how and craftsmanship. So here is this continent where you have all the raw material and the know-how, but what is missing is the link to luxury. \"Now is the time and you need to start positioning yourself, because Africa is getting richer, that's for sure,\" she adds. More from Africa View . Read this: Ethiopia - a land where coffee meets tradition . Read this: Why Kenya is the flower garden of Europe .","highlights":"The city with most multimillionaires in Africa is Johannesburg .\nHowever a crop of new pretenders have been expanding their millionaire count .","id":"babcc42fae9ab246f20f64e8646c3954e2841448"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills\" star and former child actress Kim Richards is accused of kicking a police officer after being arrested Thursday morning. Richards was taken into custody by police at the Beverly Hills Hotel on accusations of trespassing, resisting arrest and public intoxication after security personnel complained that she was bothering hotel guests about 1:30 a.m. 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' cast member's mother dies . A police representative said Richards was asked to leave but refused and then entered a restroom and wouldn't come out. Hotel security made a \"private persons arrest,\" then police entered the restroom and took Richards into custody. \"Ms. Richards was displaying symptoms of alcohol intoxication including slurred speech and belligerent insolent behavior, cursing at the officers and passively resisted arrest,\" police said in a statement. \"After being transported to the station for booking, Richards kicked one of the officers in the leg; however the officer was not injured.\" Richards is expected to face misdemeanor charges, according to Lt. Lincoln Hoshino of the Beverly Hills Police Department. She has been released from custody. A call to Richards' representatives has not been returned. Richards reportedly entered rehab in 2011 for \"serious issues\" after what watchers deemed erratic behavior on the reality show, which also features her sister Kyle Richards. The Richardses are the aunts of former TV star Paris Hilton. 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' husband gets prison . Kim Richards appeared in Disney's \"Escape to Witch Mountain\" and \"Wonderful World of Color\" as a child and was a frequent guest star on television series, though her acting career later stalled. She had a significant role in the 2006 film \"Black Snake Moan.\" Bravo, the network that airs the \"Real Housewives\" franchise, declined to comment on her arrest.","highlights":"\"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills\" star Kim Richards was arrested early Thursday morning .\nBeverly Hills police say Richards wouldn't leave a hotel when asked and later struck an officer .","id":"a78086ae3a53965b491a031a3b84298cb78b75fd"} -{"article":"Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan (CNN)The children laugh and shriek, as some of them seem to always have the capacity to do no matter how depressing the circumstances. Their bright clothes provide splashes of color against the otherwise drab monotone white of the endless rows of tents. A small group plays with rocks, replacements for the toys they left behind when they fled, while others clamber through a jagged tear in the wire fence surrounding the refugee camp. The Shariya refugee camp opened around six months ago, made up of some 4,000 tents and counting. Thousands of Yazidis now call this corner of Iraqi Kurdistan home, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from one of the front lines with ISIS, where one can hear the occasional reverberation in the distance of what we are told are airstrikes. The vast majority of the camp's occupants are from the town of Sinjar, which is near the border with Syrian Kurdistan, and fled the ISIS assault there back in August. But not everyone escaped. ISIS took thousands of Yazidis captive. The fighters separated the young women and girls, some as young as 8 years old, to be sold as slaves, for their \"masters\" to use as concubines. Men faced a choice: Convert to Islam or be shot. Mahmoud was out running errands when ISIS fighters arrived, taking his wife, Ahlam, their three children -- the youngest of which was just a month old -- and his elderly parents. \"They took our phones, jewelry, money,\" Ahlam recalls. \"They had guns. They forced us at gunpoint into big trailer trucks.\" They were taken to a school turned prison in Tal Afar. From there, the family was moved from village to village -- and at one stage taken to Mosul. \"They wrote everyone's name down and they asked where we want to work, in the fields, as cleaners or as herders,\" she says. Ahlam and her family chose to herd goats. They were then taken to a Shia village whose residents had fled, where they were part of a group of around 40 living in one house. In the home, Ahlam found a cell phone left behind by its former occupants and called her husband. \"I said we are alive but we are prisoners.\" Ahlam's husband, who up until that moment had lost the will to live, thinking his family was dead, says he cried out of happiness despite his pain. Ahlam would call when she could, briefly, after midnight, hiding under her bedcovers. If she was caught with a phone, she would be killed. The village itself was a massive prison, its entrances guarded by ISIS fighters. She recalls that two men, in their late 40s or 50s, tried to escape. When they were caught, their bones were broken, their bodies tied to the back of a truck and then driven through the streets. The Yazidi captives were forced to watch the gruesome spectacle. The men's corpses were then tossed into a ditch and an order given not to bury them. One night, some of the Yazidi men risked their lives to toss dirt onto the bodies, to give those slain what dignity they could. Ahlam tells us that about a week before we met, ISIS fighters came by and took away her in-laws and the other elderly people living in the house. \"We didn't know where they were taking them, we thought we would be next,\" she remembers. So she and the rest of the group realized that they had to try to flee. \"We decided that either we survive or we don't.\" They left at midnight. Ahlam cradled the baby, as her two other children, ages 3 and 4 years old, clutched at her clothes. She prayed the baby wouldn't cry, that the children could keep walking. They knew the general direction to take, but not the exact route, and they could only hope it was toward freedom. \"When the sun started to come up, I thought that's it, we are going to get caught,\" Ahlam says. \"And what am I going to do with the kids? I can't carry all three of them and run.\" Luckily, Ahlam never had to answer that impossible question. The group made it into Iraqi Kurdistan. The couple can't put into words their emotions when they were reunited. Mahmoud, gently caressing his daughter's palm, says he could hardly believe that the woman whose stunning eyes and gentle words he had fallen in love with, and their three children, were by his side again. It had been eight agonizing months. But their joy was tainted by fear for Mahmoud's parents. A few days after Mahmoud and Ahlam were reunited, ISIS released 217 captives. No one is disclosing exactly why. Among them were 60 children, a handful of men and women, and the rest were elderly -- including Mahmoud's parents. \"We didn't know if they were going to slaughter us or what they were going to do with us,\" Mahmoud's father says. \"They moved us around a lot, and at one stage we stayed in in one place for three days.\" But Ahlam's parents are still with ISIS. Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi member of Iraq's parliament, speculates that the Yazidis ISIS released are individuals they were struggling to care for. Dakhil is part of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's delegation to the United States this week. She will be addressing the United Nations -- pleading for more international support for Iraq and more airstrikes to help defeat ISIS -- and she will address the plight of the Yazidis. \"We sometimes say that we wish we had been massacred. This would be better than being kidnapped and raped. We prefer death now over the fate of what is happening to these girls and women,\" Dakhil says. \"It is now on the government and on the international community to focus on this. How to get these captives back. It's inconceivable that in the 21st century, something like this is happening as if we were living in the Stone Age.\" Ahlam says she was spared because she was breastfeeding and she had young children, which, we're told, makes her impure and therefore unable to be used as a sex slave. For Ahlam, what she went through was not the hardest part of her ordeal. It's the moment when the ISIS fighters began taking away the girls and young women. She's haunted by their screams, the image of them being dragged away sobbing and screaming.","highlights":"The Shariya refugee camp opened around six months ago, made up of 4,000 tents and counting .\nThe vast majority of the camp's occupants are from the town of Sinjar and fled an ISIS assault .\nBut Ahlam, her children and their grandparents were taken captive .","id":"a1298d5283de222d3e063e04c882b2aa3c7b8cf3"} -{"article":"Tokyo (CNN)A Japanese court has issued a landmark injunction halting plans to restart two nuclear reactors in the west of the country, citing safety concerns, a court official told CNN. Japan's nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, had previously given a green light to the reopening of reactors 3 and 4 of the Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear plant. But locals successfully petitioned the court in Fukui Prefecture, where the plant is located, raising concerns about whether the reactors would survive a strong earthquake. Japan's 48 nuclear reactors are offline in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, when a tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake sent a wall of water crashing into the power plant. Since then, the island nation has imported greater amounts of expensive natural gas and coal to meet its energy needs. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pushed for a return to nuclear energy, arguing it is essential to the country's economic recovery to reduce the skyrocketing utility bills associated with energy imports. But opinion polls have consistently shown public opposition to a nuclear restart. Keith Henry, managing director of Tokyo-based Asia Strategy, which advises businesses on Japanese public policy issues, says the decision will force Abe to rethink the economics of his energy policy. \"That was a body blow [for Abe] because it's no longer a political issue, it's a legal issue. It changes the calculus and the dynamics,\" he said. \"It's now in the courts. And the government is powerless to do anything about it.\" READ MORE: Power company abandons robot stranded inside Fukushima plant . Anti-nuclear activists celebrated following the Fukui District Court's decision in their favor Tuesday. The nuclear plant operator had argued in court that the plant was safe, meeting heightened safety regulations introduced by the nuclear watchdog following the Fukushima disaster. It said in a statement that \"scientific and professional findings\" showed that the safety of the reactors was assured. But the court ruled that the new safety standards were \"loose,\" lacked rationality and could not guarantee the safety of the plant, an official said. The power company said it would appeal the decision. \"We deeply regret that our assertion was not well comprehended, and cannot accept it at all,\" it said in a statement. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Tuesday that the country's nuclear watchdog had deemed the plant safe according to the \"world's strictest\" safety standards. The government had no intention to change course on its planned nuclear restart, he said. Takahama was one of two nuclear facilities granted approval to resume operations. Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture has been granted approval to reopen by the prefecture's governor, although local residents are seeking to challenge this in court. Analyst Henry said the renewable energy sector could benefit from the Takahama decision, as the country weighed solar and hydro power as alternatives. Prior to the Fukushima disaster, about 30% of Japan's energy was nuclear generated. CNN's Junko Ogura contributed to this report from Tokyo.","highlights":"The reopening of two nuclear reactors has been blocked by a Japanese court over safety fears .\nThe reactors had previously been cleared to reopen by the country's nuclear watchdog .\nJapan's 48 nuclear reactors have been offline in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster .","id":"0a5c5a5f92c35ec03cd42feee53474d4164cbf33"} -{"article":"(CNN)The jailing of four Blackwater security guards, eight years after they killed 17 Iraqi civilians in a shooting in Baghdad, is a positive step for justice -- but is also not enough. The kind of horror represented by the Blackwater case and others like it -- from Abu Ghraib to the massacre at Haditha to CIA waterboarding -- may be largely absent from public memory in the West these days, but it is being used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to support its sectarian narrative. In its propaganda, ISIS has been using Abu Ghraib and other cases of Western abuse to legitimize its current actions in Iraq as the latest episodes in over a decade of constant \"Sunni resistance\" to \"American aggression\" and to \"Shiite betrayal\"\u2014as phrased in an ISIS publication from late 2014 titled \"The Revived Caliphate,\" which chronicles the rise of ISIS since 2003. As the Iraqi government today struggles to regain the support of Sunnis in its fight against ISIS -- or even renew intra-Sunni trust -- this invocation of American transgressions by ISIS should be a sobering reminder of the importance of good governance in the pursuit of a solution to the unrest in Iraq. The lack of accountability in the aftermath of the American intervention in Iraq not only paved the way for abuses like Abu Ghraib and Blackwater, it also fuelled sectarian tension in the country -- and today ISIS is reaping the benefits. The U.S. poured money into Iraq after the 2003 invasion, but it did not make this support contingent upon a fair distribution of power and resources by the Iraqi government. This enabled the Shiite-dominated government of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discriminate against the Sunni community. The United States was also sloppy in relying on private security firms like Blackwater without implementing rigorous measures to regulate their behavior. It also turned a blind eye to the way its own troops were treating Iraqis. All those factors contributed to a rising sense of injustice that is now being conveniently packaged by ISIS to push its own version of Iraqi history. In \"The Revived Caliphate,\" Abu Ghraib is invoked three times as the place where Iraqi Sunnis who resisted the U.S. ended up as a result of their betrayal by Shiites who collaborated with the Americans. The publication first recounts attacks on Abu Ghraib at the height of the American intervention by al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) -- ISIS' predecessor -- to free imprisoned \"Sunnis\" who had been detained by the Americans. It then presents the Sahwa (Awakening) of 2007 -- when Sunni tribes collaborated with the U.S. to fight AQI -- as a case of intra-Sunni resentment that led the tribes to hand over AQI members \"to the Americans, where they were put through severe torture in the likes of the prisons of Abu Ghraib,\" according to the publication. It then links those two stories to the storming of the prison by ISIS in 2013 to free those who had been tortured by \"the Americans and Shi'a\" (as the publication puts it) over ten years. In bridging a decade of history and in placing the Shiites squarely in the category of \"enemy,\" ISIS is sending a strong message that its current fight in Iraq is about reversing longstanding injustices against Sunnis and restoring a sense of Sunni belonging under the umbrella of the \"caliphate.\" The civilians killed by the Blackwater guards, like the Abu Ghraib prisoners, were both Sunni and Shiite. But the repackaging of history by ISIS -- in which the Saddam Hussein regime is reinvented as a \"Sunni\" regime that tried to stand up to the United States and its Shiite allies -- glosses over those nuances. The reproduced images of Abu Ghraib prisoners in the aforementioned ISIS publication, juxtaposed with images of civilian deaths as a result of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS targets, are presented as \"proof\" of the group's narrative. And they are reinforced with text that frames America today as \"the air force of the Shi'a.\" It is becoming clear that ISIS cannot be defeated in Iraq without buy-in from the country's Sunnis. Without Sunni help, ISIS will continue to frame the conflict as one where Sunnis are once again being attacked by the U.S. and the Shiites -- particularly as Shiite militias have become a key part of the fight against the terror group in places like Tikrit. To balance out this Shiite involvement, the U.S. and Iraqi governments are counting on the establishment of a cross-sectarian Iraqi national guard, and hoping to resurrect the \"awakening\" to re-engage and unify the Sunnis under a nationalist umbrella. But those plans will not succeed unless serious steps are taken to ensure that good governance measures are in place to hold both Iraqis and all those affiliated with the anti-ISIS coalition to account. This should not just apply in the context of the current conflict -- so that scenarios like Abu Ghraib and Blackwater are not repeated -- but also when the dust settles. Good governance is the most effective antidote to sectarianism.","highlights":"ISIS is using past Western transgressions in Iraq to justify its brutality .\nLack of accountability following 2003 invasion paved way for abuse -- and for sectarian tensions .","id":"b3a7fd59e7ed76e68034487a520966fa955c7bfe"} -{"article":"(CNN)On the surface, the mix-up seems incomprehensible: How can a volunteer sheriff's deputy accidentally fire a handgun instead of a Taser, killing a man? That's apparently what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when a 73-year-old reserve deputy, Robert Bates, killed Eric Harris. Bates said he meant to use his stun gun but ended up firing his handgun instead. \"Oh! I shot him. I'm sorry,\" Bates said in a video of the shooting. But it's happened before. In a well-publicized 2009 case, a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer fired his gun instead of his Taser, killing 22-year-old Oscar Grant in Oakland, California. The former officer, Johannes Mehserle, testified that he had meant to use his Taser but drew his gun instead. Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter but was released early due to good conduct. So how easy -- or hard -- is it to draw and fire a handgun mistakenly instead of a Taser? Here are some factors to consider: . Law enforcement experts say the gun should be holstered on the officer's dominant side of the body, and the Taser should be placed on the nondominant side. So if an officer is left-handed, the gun should be on the left side. Bates' attorney said his client is left-handed. But the reserve deputy said his gun was holstered on his right side -- his nondominanant side. \"I shoot long guns left handed and handguns right handed,\" Bates said in a written statement to investigators. After Bates announced at the scene he was going to use his Taser, he \"used his nondominant hand, and it was the gun,\" said Clark Brewster, Bates' attorney. \"He said that he saw the laser sight on the shoulder, assumed it was the Taser,\" Brewster said. \"Both the gun and the Taser have a laser sight, and he just made a mistake.\" Brewster also said his client's left hand was holding a pepper gun. In his statement to investigators, Bates said he had grabbed a \"pepper ball launcher\" to try to slow or stop Harris, who was running away. Bates did not say explicitly where the Taser was on his body. But he admitted to grabbing the wrong device and said he was \"startled\" by the recoil of the gun. \"After realizing what had happened I was in a state of shock and disbelief,\" he told investigators. Bates is now charged with second-degree manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison. Deputy who shot Eric Harris turns himself in . Bates was carrying his personal gun, a Smith & Wesson .357 five-shot revolver, and a Model X26 Taser, he said in his statement to investigators. Attorneys representing the Harris family said there are stark differences between the two devices. One held up a small black .357 revolver, followed by a mostly bright yellow Taser that was noticeably larger than the gun. \"There's no way an officer can get this confused with this,\" said one of the attorneys from the law firm of Smolen, Smolen & Roytman. Taser's X26 model comes in different designs. Some are mostly yellow, while others are mostly black with a yellow panel in the middle. But all appear to be larger than Smith & Wesson .357 five-shot revolvers. Sgt. Jim Clark of the Tulsa Police Department -- which is separate from the county sheriff's office for which Bates volunteered -- said Bates was the \"victim\" of something called \"slip and capture.\" That's when a person intends to do one thing but instead does another in a high-stress situation. But a criminal justice expert told CNN the claim amounts to \"junk science.\" \"There's no peer-reviewed articles that would support this. ... It's not generally accepted by the scientific community,\" said Phil Stinson, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University. \"So it's something that in most courts would not be admissible as evidence.\" An attorney for the Harris family said the \"slip and capture\" theory hasn't held up in court. \"The only time slip and capture has ever been used as a defense was in the shooting in Oakland (of Oscar Grant),\" the attorney said. And that defense failed. Tasers are built to feel and look different than guns, according to Taser International. Steve Tuttle, vice president for strategic communications at Taser, noted some of those differences to CNN: A gun is heavier. A Taser has a different grip and feel. When you take the safety off on a Taser, an LED control panel lights up. There's more: Tasers can be different colors (yellow or black), and the holster is different from a gun's. But in the field, where an officer reacts on instinct, there are other distinctions outside of the product itself that are important, Tuttle said. Taser's training calls for the stun gun to be placed on an officer's nondominant side, as law enforcement experts say. And its training suggests that officers shout aloud, \"Taser! Taser! Taser!\" as they prepare to deploy it. These guidelines are designed so that in the moment -- when an officer's muscle memory kicks in -- the body reflexively knows which weapon it is reaching for. It is up to each law enforcement department, however, in how it trains personnel and what regulations it requires as far as placement on the body. The company declined to comment on the Tulsa shooting in particular. The stun guns, or conducted electrical weapons, manufactured by Taser have been used more than 2.7 million times, Tuttle said, and are designed to be used in situations that are not considered life or death. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Brooke Baldwin, Ed Lavandera and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attorney: Robert Bates assumed the gun was a Taser because he saw a laser sight on it .\nHarris family lawyers say there are stark differences between the gun and Taser used .\nIn 2009, an officer in California also said he mistakenly used his gun instead of a Taser .","id":"d85ecb8f44efd363c3d288e7b2befed43b6cc4ac"} -{"article":"(CNN)French customs officers say they have seized more than 2 tons of cocaine aboard a sailboat that was falsely flying an American flag in the Caribbean. The drugs, whose value is estimated at more than $105 million, are the biggest cocaine seizure ever carried out by French authorities, said Michael Lachaux, director of customs operations in Martinique. Officers arrested one Venezuelan and two Spanish citizens who were on board the vessel off the coast of Martinique on Wednesday, Lachaux said in an interview with the radio station France Info on Saturday. Martinique is an overseas department of France. In November, French customs officials seized nearly 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of cocaine on a vessel that was also off the coast of Martinique, according to authorities.","highlights":"The value of the drugs is estimated at more than $105 million .\nOfficers arrested one Venezuelan and two Spanish citizens on board the vessel .","id":"ab94dcfeb47452db8f9d6762a42e6ef7b855e28a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces have successfully ousted ISIS from the nation's largest oil refinery, the coalition said Sunday. Iraqi security forces regained full control of the Baiji refinery, the Combined Joint Task Force said. A week ago, ISIS claimed it controlled part of the facility, posting images online that purported to back up the claim. Iraq is working to fortify the facility's defenses, the task force said in a statement. Over the past nine days, the coalition conducted 47 airstrikes in the area, the statement said. Meanwhile, Peshmerga forces -- also with the assistance of coalition strikes -- cleared 84 square kilometers (32 square miles) of ISIS-occupied territory in Iraq on Saturday, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said. The Peshmerga are the national military force of Kurdistan. \"Front-line reporting indicates at least 35 ISIS terrorists were killed during the offensive,\" the council said in a statement. The goal was to push back ISIS and \"diminish its ability to threaten the security of Kirkuk province,\" the statement said. \"This success follows an offensive south and west of Kirkuk\" last month in which 100 square kilometers (39 square miles) of terrain was cleared, the council said.","highlights":"Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces say they retook a key refinery from ISIS .\nPeshmerga forces also report retaking terrain from ISIS .","id":"65d40ec76a16ad24be8eac61855c14a9e63e8088"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)A Russian TV channel aired Hillary Clinton's first campaign video with a rating stamp that means it's for mature audiences, because of fears it might run afoul of the country's anti-gay propaganda law. A clip of the video, which features a gay couple holding hands, got the 18+ rating from the independent TV Rain channel in Russia on Monday. The channel told CNN that it didn't want to break the controversial law, which bans \"propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations around minors\" and bars public discussion of gay rights and relationships within earshot of children. \"There are no legal precedents for this law, so we just don't know what comes under this law and (what) doesn't,\" a TV Rain spokesperson told CNN. \"Therefore, fearing to break the law -- especially given the high attention to TV Rain from the supervising authorities -- we decided to put a marker (on the video).\" Clinton's video was released over the weekend to announce the start of her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. It features about five seconds of two men holding hands. One of the men says, \"I'm getting married this summer to someone I really care about.\" The former senator and first lady first declared her support for same-sex marriage in early 2013, saying that \"gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.\" Russia's controversial law caused an international outcry after it was passed by the Russian Parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin in July 2013. Human Rights Watch described the anti-gay propaganda law as \"a profoundly discriminatory and dangerous bill that is bound to worsen homophobia in Russia.\" Rights campaigners called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and a number of bars around the world stopped serving Russian vodka in protest. U.S. President Barack Obama -- Clinton's former boss -- said at the time that he found the legislation offensive. \"I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or harmful to them,\" Obama told Jay Leno in 2013. Putin defended the law, noting that unlike other countries, Russia decriminalized homosexual relationships (in 1993). \"We don't outlaw anything and don't nab anyone,\" he said before the 2014 Games. \"That's why you can feel safe and free here,\" he added, \"but please leave our children in peace.\" The rights group ILGA-Europe said in a May 2014 report that Russia was the worst place in Europe (out of 49 countries) for LGBTI people to live. READ MORE: Social media react to Hillary Clinton logo .","highlights":"Presidential hopeful's video, featuring gay couple, gets mature rating in Russia .\nRussian TV channel feared airing it would break the country's anti-gay propaganda law .\nClinton announced her support for same-sex marriage in 2013 .","id":"0095ce085581314285f894af73a55ea9ef003412"} -{"article":"Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN)A car bomb exploded at a restaurant near the presidential palace in the heart of Somalia's capital Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, including a woman and a boy, police said. Somalia-based Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. Group spokesman Sheikh Abdiaziz Musab, speaking to pro-Al-Shabaab outlet Andalus radio, said the blast targeted and killed several Somali intelligence agents. Somali police spokesman Qasim Mohamed Roble told reporters that the car bomb killed no government official or soldier. Among the dead, he said, was a boy who shined shoes. The area is not a new target for Al-Shabaab, which has battled Somalia's government for years with the goal of establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state. The restaurant is across the street from the Central Hotel, where Al-Shabaab killed at least 15 people in a bombing and gun attack in February. The streets outside the restaurant were \"littered with debris and human body parts\" after Tuesday's explosion, witness Mohamed Ali said. The blast damaged nearby buildings and vehicles at a parking lot, according to Ali. Ambulances took wounded people to a nearby hospital for treatment. Tuesday's bombing is at least the third high-profile attack near or at a Mogadishu hotel since February. On February 20, militants attacked the Central Hotel, blowing up a car bomb outside before shooting people and detonating another bomb inside. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. More than a month later, on March 27, gunmen detonated explosives and shot people at a different Mogadishu hotel -- the Makka Al Mukarama -- leaving at least 20 people dead. The attack stretched into the next day before security personnel killed all the assailants. Al-Shabaab also said it was responsible for the Makka Al Mukarama attack, claiming it targeted the hotel because its guests were spies and government officials. Among those killed in the March 27 assault was Yusuf Mohamed Ismail Bari-Bari, Somalia's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the Somali government said. Journalist Omar Nor reported from Mogadishu. CNN's Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta.","highlights":"Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack .\nThe explosion happened across the street from a hotel that was attacked two months ago .\nMogadishu has been the site of frequent attacks by Al-Shabaab .","id":"47537a0276a13e5264c0fefea0819ba760bf0f77"} -{"article":"(CNN)Recently, Robert Kennedy Jr. was in Sacramento, California, to campaign against Senate Bill 227, which makes it harder for parents to opt out of vaccinations. In his remarks at an anti-vaccination movie screening, he decided to compare \"vaccine-induced\" autism to the Holocaust. He said, \"They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone,\" Kennedy said. \"This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.\" A few days later, he apologized to people who were outraged on behalf of the memory of the Holocaust. To many, it's sacrilege to compare any lesser issue to the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis. In a statement, Kennedy said, \"I want to apologize to all whom I offended by my use of the word to describe the autism epidemic. I employed the term during an impromptu speech as I struggled to find an expression to convey the catastrophic tragedy of autism, which has now destroyed the lives of over 20 million children and shattered their families.\" Robert Kennedy Jr. has apologized for the wrong things. First and foremost, vaccines do not cause autism. The two have nothing to do with each other. Second, he seems to think people with autism are \"gone,\" their lives \"destroyed\" and their families \"shattered.\" Autism is not a death sentence. People with autism are not missing or destroyed. They are everywhere, trying to live their lives in a society that too often demeans them as subhuman, missing or worthless. Kennedy's rhetoric is a problem, even beyond the fraudulent basis for his claims about vaccines. People who believe autism is an environmental disease try to cure kids with quack treatments like giving them bleach-based enemas. Others, believing autism functions as a death sentence, even kill their children. I am worried about the effect of having such a powerful, high-profile member of our political class endorse this demeaning depiction of life with autism. I reached out to a number of autistic activists for comment. Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, wrote, \"Robert Kennedy Jr, who has engaged with autism only to spread lies, misinformation and dehumanizing rhetoric, has never meaningfully engaged in efforts to improve the lives of autistic Americans. While his father, uncle and many others in the Kennedy-Shriver family championed the rights of people with disabilities, he has instead cast his lot with those who use pseudo-science to question our humanity.\" These are harsh words, but try to see the situation through Ne'eman's eyes. Not only is Kennedy perpetuating a discredited theory, but he's also suggesting that it's better to let your children get preventable and sometimes fatal diseases than risk becoming autistic. The usual response to people like Ne'eman is that he is \"high functioning,\" but what of the burden to families who are struggling to care for less able individuals? Henry Frost, an autistic teenager and writer, is devastated by this focus on burden. Last year, he wrote a post to other autistic children: \"Know you are not a burden or trouble for being. You are a person who has every right to be. A family that is saying love but saying you are so hard so wrong for not being as they wanted. The family is wrong. Not You.\" Meanwhile, Amy Sequenzia, an autistic activist and blogger, wrote, \"I am very disabled, have most of the usual not autism but co-occurring conditions, seizures almost every day, but am happy, proud and accomplished, with the human supports I have. That's what is missing. Acceptance.\" As children, Sequenzia and Frost might well have been just the kinds of people labeled as \"gone,\" by Kennedy. Clearly, both are very much present. The solution lies in understanding autism and related conditions as part of human diversity. Michael S. Monje Jr., an autistic writer and editor with Autonomous Press, wrote, \"The neurodiversity movement is a direct counter to this kind of attitude. It is a way for autistic people, as well as anyone else who experiences the world differently due to their neurology, to assert that these natural divergences in human development are just that -- natural. The fact that they are largely unsupported by our society as it is currently configured does not make them in any way less natural, less worthy, or less beautiful than other ways of being in the world.\" I wish Kennedy realized how much his apology demeaned people with intellectual disabilities, even as he defended the sacred status of the Holocaust. There is, though, one story from the Holocaust that he might do well to consider. The first group the Nazis systematically exterminated, in the infamous Action T4, were people with intellectual and other kinds of disabilities. Thousands of children, adolescents and adults were sent to gas chambers, laying the groundwork for the later, larger scale acts of genocide. Underlying Action T4 was the belief that people with disabilities were devoid of value. We fight those beliefs by celebrating neurodiversity, not by fearmongering. Kennedy owes a lot of people another apology.","highlights":"David Perry: Robert Kennedy Jr. compared autism to the Holocaust, wrongly tied it to vaccines .\nHe says it's sad such a prominent Kennedy demeans people with autism .","id":"a5e9c4440c4dd8a2fa3ab9620df7db85c216ee8d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Debates on climate change can break down fairly fast. There are those who believe that mankind's activities are changing the planet's climate, and those who don't. But a new way to talk about climate change is emerging, which shifts focus from impersonal discussions about greenhouse gas emissions and power plants to a very personal one: your health. It's easy to brush aside debates involving major international corporations, but who wouldn't stop to think -- and perhaps do something -- about their own health, or the health of their children? This new way of talking about climate change -- and linking it to public health issues -- was part of a roundtable discussion Tuesday at Howard University's College of Medicine. President Barack Obama joined U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy for a roundtable discussion on the topic as part of National Public Health Week. \"I think we've always known -- or at least in the 20th century we've understood -- that environment has an impact on public health,\" the President told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. \"I remember when I first went to college in Los Angeles in 1979, the air was so bad that you couldn't go running outside,\" Obama said. \"You'd have air quality alerts, and people who had respiratory problems or were vulnerable had to stay inside. We took action, and the air's a lot better.\" \"There are a whole host of public health impacts that are going to hit home, so we've got to do better in protecting vulnerable Americans,\" Obama continued. \"Ultimately, though, all of our families are going to be vulnerable. You can't cordon yourself off from air or climate.\" Murthy revealed to the group that asthma is a personal issue for him, as a favorite uncle died from a severe attack when he was younger. \"It's also personal to me because I've cared for many patients over the years who have suffered from asthma and have seen firsthand how frightening it can be to suddenly be wheezing and fighting for every breath,\" Murthy said. \"Asthma can be very difficult for patients, but also for their families. The impacts of climate change could make the situation worse.\" \"This is not just a future threat -- this is a present threat,\" said Brian Deese, a senior adviser to the President. Deese cited a recent study by the American Thoracic Society that found seven out of 10 doctors reported climate change is contributing to more health problems among their patients. \"The good news is that, in addition to having doctors and nurses, public health officials, schools of medicine joining together to raise awareness -- and to in some cases impact their practice -- they anticipate, for example, increased asthma instances, and plan ahead of time to deal with those,\" Obama told Gupta. \"What we have is companies like Google and Microsoft that are going to take data we're releasing and start developing apps so that, potentially, individual families are going to be able to monitor the air quality in their communities in a real-time basis.\" \"Communities can start planning for prevention and mitigation efforts more effectively, and hopefully the other thing that happens is that families and parents join with these doctors and nurses to start putting some pressure on elected officials to try to make something happen to reduce the impacts of climate change,\" said Obama. The impacts of climate change on health will depend on a multitude of factors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. \"These factors include the effectiveness of a community's public health and safety systems to address or prepare for the risk and the behavior, age, gender, and economic status of individuals affected,\" the EPA says on its website. \"Impacts will likely vary by region, the sensitivity of populations, the extent and length of exposure to climate change impacts, and society's ability to adapt to change.\" The World Health Organization estimates climate change will cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. \"Most will likely perish from malaria, diarrhea, heat exposure and under-nutrition.\" \"Around the world, variations in climate are affecting, in profoundly diverse ways, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink,\" writes Dr. Maria Neira, director of the WHO's public health and environment department. \"We are losing our capacity to sustain human life in good health.\" \"Consider air pollution, the single greatest environmental health risk we face. In 2012 alone, exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants killed more than 7 million people -- one in eight deaths worldwide. Under-nutrition already accounts for 3 million deaths each year in the world's poorest regions. Rising temperatures and more variable rainfall patters are expected to reduce crop yields, further compromising food security. Floods are increasing in frequency and intensity, creating breeding grounds for disease-carrying insects. Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, are particularly sensitive to heat and humidity. What will happen if rising temperatures accelerate the lifecycle of the malaria parasite?\" \"Children and the elderly will be among the most vulnerable,\" writes Neira. \"Areas with health infrastructure will be least able to cope. Developing countries will be hardest hit. The health gaps we have been trying hard to close may grow even wider.\" Earth's average temperature has risen by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, and is projected to rise an additional 2 degrees over the next hundred years, according to the EPA. \"Small changes in the average temperature of the planet can translate to large and potentially dangerous shifts in climate and weather,\" the agency warns. \"Many places have seen changes in rainfall, resulting in more floods, droughts, or intense rain, as well as more frequent and severe heat waves.\" Still, there exists a sizable group of people who doubt climate change is happening. \"Although climate scientists have been in the news describing this winter as a strong signal that global warming is producing extreme weather, Americans are no more likely today (55%) than in the past two years to believe the effects of global warming are occurring,\" according to a March Gallup poll. A 2013 TIME magazine article makes the case that medical professionals may be the best messengers for global warming. \"Framing global warming as a public health issue rather than as an environmental or national security one produces the most emotionally compelling response among people, since it focuses on the immediate implications a warmer climate would have on people's lives,\" the article says. \"This strategy also has the benefit of providing a sense of hope that the problems can be addressed and avoided, if action is taken early enough.\" The President said what happened with Los Angeles' air proved that point. \"When the Clean Air Act was passed, not only was there a terrible smog in Los Angeles, it was true in most metropolitan areas across the country,\" Obama said. \"The fact is that air quality has dramatically improved and it's been much cheaper than anybody expected, because technology advanced and people figured out how to do it. As a consequence, the American people are a lot healthier, in addition to being able to, you know, see the mountains in the background because it's not covered in smog.\" \"We know how to do this,\" Obama said. \"We just have to be bold and recognize and trust the kind of innovative spirit that the American people have always displayed.\"","highlights":"President Obama attends Howard University roundtable on climate change and public health .\nLinking climate change to how it affects a person's health is a new way to talk about the subject .","id":"f8a95a1d465d25f83f7f483c828bceafc4359547"} -{"article":"London (CNN)Ever written yourself a note, stuffed it in your pocket and headed out into the world only to discover that, somewhere along your journey, the piece of paper has disappeared? If you live in the UK, there's a small chance that note has found its way into the hands of 23-year-old Daisy Bentley. For the past six years, the London-based artist has scoured the streets of cities and towns looking for those odd bits of paper that flutter to the ground when their owners aren't looking. Her quest has uncovered a fascinating, if idiosyncratic, collection of shopping lists, reminders, requests, love notes and motivational musings, all poignant pieces of others' lives. And now a gallery in London has put a selection on display for the public. \"I wasn't intending to start a collection,\" she told CNN. \"I always naturally collected things -- as many artists do -- and it got to the point that I was picking up every one I saw. Now I can barely walk down a street without picking up a scrap of paper.\" Bentley began collecting them six years ago after a note caught her eye one rainy night on a walk in her home town of Norwich, England. It's something she confesses has been a lifelong love -- keepsakes ranging from her mother's cutlery to her own dead goldfish have ended up carefully preserved in her collection for posterity. The notes project, she says, is a culmination of keeping her eyes on the sidewalk and spotting the little things that most people wouldn't notice as they walked down the street. \"I get very odd looks from strangers,\" she admits, \"but since I've made friends and families aware of the project, they get very excited when I find one while out with them.\" And while some dismiss such behavior as hoarding, Bentley feels it is part of human nature to hold on to items, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. \"Humans want to collect and show to others,\" she says. \"They want to share and learn from the things they have found.\" She says her collecting has led to interesting anthropological insights into the human condition. One of her favorite observations is the evolution of handwriting over the past few decades, from the beautiful copperplate penmanship of the '70s to modern teen girl love notes with hearts dotting i's and multiple exclamation marks. More recently, the note collection has led to an exhibition at Stour Space gallery in London's Hackney Wick, where Bentley works as a shop and studio manager. It showcases a small part of her 1,500-strong collection. The decision to display the notes came in part from a desire to put them back into the public space. \"I always wanted to showcase them, to see what people's reactions were and if anyone would come forward,\" she said. So far two note owners -- one a colleague from the gallery and one an employee from a pub whose beer coasters she had found on her quest -- have revealed themselves as owners of notes. Bentley gave them framed prints as a thank you. And while some may find the notion of handwritten notes quaint, as social media and smartphones begin to replace handwriting, Bentley says she finds the note collection an interesting way for an artist to explore people's lives. \"Technology is useful, but sometimes the simplest ways are still the best,\" she said. \"I still usually draw a map rather than relying on technology to get to a place -- and many people are just the same.\"","highlights":"A selection of notes from British artist's 1,500-note collection goes on display in London .\nArtist spent six years trawling streets finding scraps of paper detailing people's lives .\nIn era of smartphones and social media, notes provide reminder of power of handwritten word .","id":"36edb1496505b6c23531c6d58dedc49b480b9d65"} -{"article":"(CNN)Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill on Friday that would allow the state to perform executions with nitrogen gas if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or becomes unavailable. Nitrogen causes a quick loss of consciousness and then death from lack of oxygen, Fallin's office said in a press release. CNN affiliate KFOR says it's never been used in an execution in the United States. \"The person will become unconscious within eight to 10 seconds and death a few minutes later. In other words, a humane, quick and painless death,\" said Rep. Mike Christian, one of the bill's authors, according to KFOR. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told the Washington Post that the same \"painless\" argument had been used to advance the use of lethal injections. \"The hasty manner in which this bill sped into law reflects the same lack of care with which Oklahoma has managed its execution process historically,\" he said. Oklahoma's executions have been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews its use of lethal injections. Last year, the state came under scrutiny when it took 43 minutes to kill convicted killer Clayton Lockett. Fallin reaffirmed her support for the death penalty. \"Oklahoma executes murderers whose crimes are especially heinous,\" Fallin said. \"I support that policy, and I believe capital punishment must be performed effectively and without cruelty. The bill I signed today gives the state of Oklahoma another death penalty option that meets that standard.\" The governor's office said the first alternative for execution is lethal injection, followed by nitrogen gas, the electric chair and the firing squad.","highlights":"Nitrogen gas causes a quick loss of consciousness and then death from lack of oxygen, Oklahoma says .\nThe state's executions are on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the state's use of lethal injections .","id":"f11efd6ffa4277600d300a4027bd59084ac4d748"} -{"article":"(CNN)The American Pharmacists Association is discouraging its members from participating in executions. On Monday, the group voted at its annual meeting to adopt a ban as an official policy, stating that \"such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as healthcare providers.\" This bolsters the association's previous positions to oppose the use of the term \"drug\" for chemicals used in lethal injection and to oppose laws that require or prohibit pharmacists from participation in lethal injection cases. The group acted this week because of increased public attention on lethal injection, said Michelle Spinnler, spokeswoman for the American Pharmacists Association. That spotlight includes a January Supreme Court decision to stay the execution for three death row inmates in Oklahoma. This was prompted by Clayton Lockett's execution by lethal injection nearly one year ago in which he writhed on a gurney for 43 minutes before he died from a heart attack. In Georgia last month, the execution of female death row inmate Kelly Renee Gissendaner was postponed as a precaution when the execution team checked the medications and discovered they looked cloudy. Thirty-two sates allow capital punishment, and lethal injection is still the most common method. Last month, Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed a law reinstating firing squads as a method of execution in cases in which lethal injection medications are not available. Of the eight inmates currently on death row in Utah, three opted for the new choice of death by firing squad. Pentobarbital is the preferred drug used for lethal injection. In Texas, the department of criminal justice told CNN in March they are running out of their supply. In July 2011, Lundbeck Inc., the manufacturer of pentobarbital, decided to no longer provide the drug to prisons for use in capital punishment. The companies that manufacture the products traditionally used in executions almost unilaterally decided to stop selling to institutions that used the products for that purpose, so states then turned to compounded preparations, Spinnler said. \"Pharmacists should not be involved in preparation of these products or involved in executions in any other way.\" she says. The new declaration by the American Pharmacists Association aligns with positions held by other professional medical organizations such as the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology.","highlights":"The American Pharmacists Association passed a new policy banning members from participating in lethal injections .\nPharmacists say role as health care providers conflicts with participation in lethal injection .\nThe pharmacy association first adopted a policy against lethal injection in 1985 .","id":"b48858ca911327bc7cc4d6ec66e3be2d041513fc"} -{"article":"Tokyo (CNN)A second robotic probe sent into the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has captured images of a strange green glow. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) deployed the second remote-controlled robot last week after the first one broke down. The robot detected lower radiation levels and temperature than expected, an indicator that cooling systems were working effectively, according to a statement released by TEPCO. \"It is a great step forward towards the decommissioning work as we can earn necessary data for the next investigation,\" said Akira Ono, the chief of Fukushima Daiichi plant. TEPCO said the yellow seen on the images seemed to suggest a discoloration of the grating, though the cause was unknown. It said the green glow could not be seen when filmed from other angles. The shape-shifting robots were sent in to assess the damage in one of the reactors that suffered a meltdown after a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. TEPCO says the site's still too dangerous for workers to enter. The first robot, which was sent in on April 10, stalled after moving about 10 meters, according to a statement released by TEPCO. A report and footage from the robot shows that a fallen object had blocked its path and left it stranded. TEPCO decided to cut off the cable connected to the device on April 12 as it had already collected data on radiation levels in 14 of the 18 targeted locations, completing around two-thirds of the originally planned route. The second robot was sent in on April 15 and collected data from all 11 points, as scheduled. Four years after the devastating nuclear crisis, the radiation levels inside the three damaged reactors are still extremely high and remain unsafe for people to enter. Decommissioning work is estimated to cost $50 billion and will take years to complete. TEPCO called the robotic probe an \"unprecedented\" experiment. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki and Junko Ogura reported from Tokyo, Japan and Naomi Ng wrote from Hong Kong.","highlights":"A robotic probe into the Fukushima nuclear plant released crucial information on conditions inside the reactor .\nTEPCO: Recorded radiation levels and temperatures are lower than expected .\nThe robot was sent into the plant after the first one broke down .","id":"5a6e377984c07d69a6b60502b01cbba6f969dc96"} -{"article":"(CNN)Mike Rowe is coming to a river near you. \"Sometimes, you hear about a person who makes you feel good about humanity, but bad about yourself,\" Rowe says. On Thursday's episode of \"Somebody's Gotta Do It,\" Rowe meets up with Chad Pregracke, the founder of Living Lands & Waters, who does just that. Pregracke wants to clean up the nation's rivers one piece of detritus at a time. His quota? Always \"more.\" Read Mike Rowe's Facebook post on how to break our litter habit. Since he founded the nonprofit in 1998 at the ripe age of 23, Pregracke and more than 87,000 volunteers have collected 8.4 million pounds of trash from U.S. waterways. Those efforts helped him earn the 2013 CNN Hero of the Year Award, along with numerous other honors. \"Wherever you are, no matter if there's a stream, a creek, a lake, whatever, that needs to be cleaned up, you can do it. Just organize it and do it,\" he told CNN's Anderson Cooper after his win. Pregracke also gives Rowe a tour of the 150-foot, solar-powered barge that the Living Lands & Waters staff calls home during lengthy cleanups. The part-home, part-office, part-dumpster has seven bedrooms, two bathrooms, a classroom and a kitchen -- and just happens to be made from a recycled strip club. According to the organization's latest annual report, Pregracke has made it his mission in 2015 to remove 500,000 more pounds of trash. If you'd like to help achieve this goal, visit his website to learn how to help: LivingLandsAndWaters.org\/Get-Involved\/ .","highlights":"Chad Pregracke was the 2013 CNN Hero of the Year .\nMike Rowe visited Pregracke for an episode of \"Somebody's Gotta Do It\"","id":"6bedcd1b7eb540ab92dd4cb6d1f8552b6cba283c"} -{"article":"(CNN)A couple in their 20s, who led a youth ministry, and their baby boy were driving underneath a highway overpass in Bonney Lake, a Seattle suburb, when other motorists heard the crackle of a pending collapse. Concrete from a construction project crashed onto the family's car, killing Josh and Vanessa Ellis and their 8-month-old son, Hudson, authorities said. \"The damage was so severe it was impossible to tell how many victims were in the vehicle. The only thing we had was we could tell there was one victim,\" said Officer Todd Green of Bonney Lake Police Department, according to CNN affiliate KOMO. It took nine hours Monday for crews to remove enough debris to discover the death toll on Angeline Road underneath State Route 410, authorities said. Authorities continued their investigation Tuesday, but initial findings were that there was an ongoing construction project on the highway and a side jersey barrier \"came loose and fell onto the roadway,\" Green told the station. \"When it fell off the overpass, it landed square on the roof of the vehicle,\" Green added. Josh and Vanessa Ellis were youth pastors at the EastPointe Foursquare Church in Puyallup, near Bonney Lake, the church said. The couple earlier wrote a short autobiography on the church website: \"We love to laugh. We are passionate about seeing young people discover the love and grace that Jesus abundantly pours out on them. \"We get really excited about good coffee, quality time with friends and Seattle welcoming an NBA basketball team back to our city,\" the couple wrote. \"We love drive-in movies, frozen yogurt, dates to IKEA and trips to the beach.\" Lead Pastor James Ludlow said his church was reeling. \"We are stunned! Shocked! Wounded, broken and dismayed. But we know one thing for sure ... they are in glory in the loving arms of our King Jesus!\" Ludlow said on the church's Facebook page. Motorist Dawn Nelson was driving behind the Ellis' vehicle. \"I was just a second or two behind him,\" Nelson told KOMO. \"I could hear the three crunch sounds and then it just came down.\" Neighbors recounted a violent collapse. \"I thought a semi had come down the guardrail here in front,\" neighbor Katie Vance told the station. She felt the crash inside her home. \"It was a metal sound and a very heavy sound ... it was through your feet - like a guttural. It shook the whole house,\" she told the affiliate. CNN's Amanda Watts contributed to this story.","highlights":"Josh and Vanessa Ellis, a couple in their 20s, were youth pastors in a suburban Seattle church .\nThey and their 8-month-old son, Hudson, are killed when a highway barrier falls on their car .\n\"We are stunned! Shocked!\" the church's lead pastor writes on Facebook .","id":"408e1c4d0d4e925ae536f2be0d712d015b7dd067"} -{"article":"(CNN)There are two paths to practicing medicine in America. There's the traditional, time-tested way, where new doctors graduate from medical school and then pass a series of national exams while training for years as resident physicians. Then there's the approach being forged in Florida and Arizona: getting elected to a state legislature. Lawmakers in those states are too often donning the white coats to orchestrate medical practice. In 2011, Florida enacted the Firearm Owners' Privacy Act, which threatens prosecution and loss of licensure for any physicians who dare ask their patients about gun ownership and gun safety. Guns are a scientifically uncontested health risk. Asking about them is standard practice in pediatrics and psychiatry. I treat brain injuries, and it's part of my job to talk with patients about things that might be unsafe for them, like driving. And handling weapons. Some of those I treat suffered their injuries by bullets, typically fired by family members or themselves. Does anyone really believe I shouldn't talk about gun safety in these cases? It's a good thing I don't practice in Florida. Florida's gun censorship law was dragged into court soon after the governor signed it, and while a three-judge appeals panel upheld the law last summer, doctors can still ask about guns while the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether it will take up the case, a decision that could come down any day, the president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Tommy Schechtman, told me. He is a plaintiff in the case. In Arizona, another assault on physician free speech is scheduled to go into effect this summer. Bill 1318 goes a step beyond silencing doctors. It requires them to lie. The bill was originally a hum-drum attempt to block health plans from covering abortion services, a common state and federal strategy. But legislators slid in a last-minute provision mandating that physicians who prescribe the abortion pill RU-486 tell patients the pill is reversible. That's the opinion of a particular San Diego doctor who says this can be done through risky, large doses of progesterone. But the doctor hasn't proven his case, and his regimen is not recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists or the Food and Drug Administration. Any doctor is certainly within his or her rights to review the limited information available about the San Diego regimen and decide whether to discuss it with patients, but actually requiring physicians to make claims most believe to be untrue and unsafe means the legislators are overstepping their bounds and interfering with the patient-doctor relationship. I cannot imagine anyone attempting to put words into the mouth of a lawyer privately consulting with a client. Why are physicians putting up with a professional assault the American Bar Association would never permit? Dr. Ilana Addis, chairwoman of the Arizona chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told me the amendment was added shortly before she was scheduled to testify about the bill before the Arizona House. While Planned Parenthood and the ACLU joined her organization in criticizing the provision, the bill passed both chambers and was recently signed by the governor. There's a common relationship shared by these laws, beyond turning doctors into government spokespeople. These laws capitalize on controversial issues to divide and conquer. Physicians don't all share the same opinions on abortion and guns any more than they all vote Republican or Democrat. This is part of the reason the key state physicians' associations aren't taking the lead in battling these laws. The battle is left to the specialties most affected. In Florida, that's the state's chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, since pediatricians are most likely to ask about guns in the home. In Arizona, it's the state chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists carrying the torch for physician free speech. The Florida Medical Association didn't provide me with details about whether it has a lobbying effort against the gun law, and the Arizona Medical Association told me in a statement that \"ArMA's policy is to take no position on abortion.\" Representing physicians as a whole, the state medical associations have the most political clout in statehouses. The Massachusetts Medical Society (MSS) tried to utilize that power recently when it decided to dedicate \"Doctor's Day\" to the issue of physician free speech, highlighting the threat posed by Florida's gun law in particular. Members are concerned about the precedent being set. Arkansas enacted a law similar to Arizona just days later. The American Medical Association can do more. It did file a friend-of-the-court brief as part of the Florida legal challenge, but at this writing hasn't weighed in on Arizona. The AMA didn't sign on to a statement released last week by the Coalition to Protect the Patient-Provider Relationship that hits hard on the new abortion laws as an affront to good medical care. Its huge lobbying operations are tied up in Washington, while states are the main battleground over the integrity of medical practice. Now that the AMA has won the age-old \"doc fix\" battle, ending automatic Medicare payment cuts to doctors, perhaps it will consider assigning some of its $18 million lobbying team to stand in for lackluster state affiliates who've abdicated their responsibility to vigorously defend the medical profession. We have a Surgeon General now, Vivek Murthy, and he is on a national listening tour while he prepares to announce his areas of policy focus on April 22, Jonathan Beeton, a Health and Human Services spokesman told me. I hope Murthy will see beyond the bluster of abortion and gun politics and zero in on a key issue affecting public health -- free and unfettered communication between patients and doctors.","highlights":"Ford Vox: Florida law keeps doctors from talking gun safety with patients; Arizona law forces doctors to promote disputed abortion claim .\nHe says doctor organizations are failing to defend medical profession against politically motivated interference by clueless lawmakers .","id":"4231c35510d9656acd08c64b4a1a2d775641cfef"} -{"article":"Catania, Italy (CNN)The boat that sank in the Mediterranean over the weekend with hundreds of migrants on board may have capsized after being touched or swamped by a cargo ship that came to its aid, a U.N. official said. Carlotta Asami, a spokeswoman for the United Nations' refugee agency, made the comments to CNN early Tuesday after she and two of her colleagues had spoken to multiple survivors from the disaster who arrived in Catania, Italy. \"They say that there was a point in which they were very close and probably what happened is that, you know, a big ship creating a big wave -- they were approaching in a very strong manner and they lost balance,\" Asami said. The account she offered differs from that provided by Italian authorities on Sunday. They said that as the cargo ship King Jacob approached late Saturday, migrants on the smaller boat moved to one side, hoping to be saved, and caused the vessel to capsize. Mark Clark -- a communications executive representing OSM Maritime Group, the company that manages the King Jacob -- denied that the cargo ship caused the migrant boat to capsize. He said he also believed that people on the migrant boat rushed to one side, causing many to fall off. The cargo ship was going very slowly as it approached, hardly making any waves, Clark told CNN. It deployed rescue boats, a gangway, nets and life rings, he said. The conflicting accounts of the chaotic events highlight the challenges faced by commercial vessels that are often called upon to help in the escalating migrant boat crisis in the Mediterranean. Asami said the survivors whom she and her colleagues spoke to were \"consistent\" in what they were saying. She said their accounts made it \"credible to think\" that between 800 and 850 people were on board the boat that capsized roughly 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Libya. Previous estimates had put the number of people aboard anywhere between 700 and 950. Italian authorities, who have been coordinating the rescue effort, say only 28 survivors were rescued and 24 bodies have been recovered. The King Jacob, whose crew members are all from the Philippines, saved 22 of the survivors, according to Clark. The cause of the shipwreck is part of Italian authorities' investigation, said Giovanni Salvi, Catania's public prosecutor. Investigators want to study the King Jacob's voyage data recorder and find the wreck of the sunken boat, he told a news conference Monday. The likely toll makes the sinking the deadliest known disaster involving migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa. Many of the victims are feared to be still trapped inside the sunken boat. Asami said the survivors told her and her colleagues that they were all on the highest part of the overcrowded boat, while many people were down in the lowest area. Italian authorities said Sunday that an unidentified Bangladeshi survivor had told them that the smugglers had locked many people inside the lower levels of the vessel. Two of the survivors were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking upon arriving in Sicily on Monday, according to Italian police officer Maria Guia Federico. They were the boat's Tunisian captain and a Syrian crew member, said Salvi, the Catania prosecutor. Italian police identified the two suspects through questioning survivors aboard the coast guard vessel that brought them to Catania, Salvi said, according to Italian media. The sinking appears to be the worst among an intensifying spate of migrant boat disasters in the Mediterranean to which European governments are struggling to respond. Vast numbers of people fleeing violence and poverty have been setting out on the risky journey across the Mediterranean to southern Europe for years, but authorities have reported a sharp increase this month in the numbers in need of rescue. The number of deaths has also skyrocketed. The International Organization for Migration said Monday that more than 1,100 people were estimated to have drowned in the waters between Libya and Italy just in the past week. It reported Monday that three other migrant boats could be in distress in international waters. Shipping companies recently warned that European governments are putting what they say is an unfair burden on their vessels to come to the aid of migrant boats in trouble. \"We believe it is unacceptable that the international community is increasingly relying on merchant ships and seafarers to undertake more and more large-scale rescues, with single ships having to rescue as many 500 people at a time,\" the European Community Shipowners Associations said in a letter to EU leaders last month. \"Commercial ships are not equipped to undertake such large-scale rescues, which also create serious risks to the safety, health and welfare of ships' crews who should not be expected to deal which such situations,\" the letter said. Commercial ships rescued more than 40,000 people in the Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration. That's higher than the more than 35,000 people saved by the Italian Coast Guard but lower than the 80,000 rescued by the Italian Navy, which was running a special program, Mare Nostrum, for most of the year. European Union ministers met Monday in Luxembourg and proposed a 10-point plan to help address the crisis. \"We are not yet working on numbers, but what we have agreed on today is, for sure, the need to increase significantly the resources at sea, and the level of the operation, doing more search and rescue and doing it more together,\" said Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security police. Mogherini told CNN that the European Union must fight human traffickers, strengthen Europeans' duty to save lives at sea and share responsibility when it comes to the resettlement and relocation of refugees. \"We need to fight the organizations that are trafficking and smuggling people, so that we can prevent desperate people from leaving in desperate conditions,\" Mogherini said. \"My pain is that it was a reaction coming too late after so many people died.\" But some groups said European officials were offering too little too late. \"What we needed from EU foreign ministers today was life-saving action, but they dithered,\" said Justin Forsyth, the chief executive of Save The Children. \"With each day we delay we lose more innocent lives and Europe slips further into an immoral abyss,\" Forsyth said in a statement. \"Right now, people desperately seeking a better life are drowning in politics.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul reported from Catania, and Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Hada Messia, Isa Soares and Atika Shubert contributed to this report.","highlights":"Shipping company representative denies cargo ship caused the capsizing .\nUNHCR spokeswoman tells CNN that a cargo ship may have touched the migrant boat .\nItalian authorities have arrested two survivors on suspicion of human trafficking .","id":"c52340cb2df01c33f99b739f23454e56bc072bdf"} -{"article":"(CNN) An Asiana Airlines plane overran a runway while landing at Japan's Hiroshima Airport on Tuesday evening, prompting the airport to temporarily close, the Japanese transportation ministry said. Twenty-three people had minor injuries after Flight 162 landed at 8:05 p.m., according to fire department and ministry sources. There were 73 passengers and eight crew members -- including five cabin attendants, two pilots and a maintenance official -- aboard when the flight took off from South Korea's Incheon International Airport at 6:34 p.m. local time, Asiana said in a statement late Tuesday. Authorities are investigating initial reports that the Airbus A320 may have hit an object on the runway during landing, causing damage to the rear of its body and the cover of the engine on the left wing, the ministry said. Video of the scene showed the aircraft's body turned around, with its nose pointing in the direction that the plane had come from. Hiroshima Airport closed because of the incident Tuesday night while fire department officials worked at the scene. Airbus, the plane's manufacturer, is aware of the incident and is working to gather more information, Airbus regional media relations manager Marie Caujolle said.","highlights":"The plane might have hit an object on the runway, the Japanese transportation ministry says .\n23 people have minor injuries, officials say .\nThe Airbus A320 overshot the Hiroshima Airport runway at 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, officials say .","id":"5d7f597a39bfa89405ece41bb00caa9e18c2e7c5"} -{"article":"(CNN)On October 31, 2014, the Italian government announced the end of \"Mare Nostrum\" -- a naval mission that rescued would-be migrants in peril as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to seek security and a new life in Europe. In the operation's year-long existence, the Italian Navy and Coastguard had rescued an estimated 100,000 people. But it proved expensive and politically contentious, and Europe was not prepared to help Italy shoulder the burden of the crisis. Without European support, the Italian government cut back the naval assets dedicated to rescuing migrants. Mare Nostrum, which had been launched after some 600 people died when two migrant ships sank in 2013, was replaced by the more modest \"Operation Triton,\" under the auspices of the European Union's border agency, Frontex. Triton has about one-third of the funding of Mare Nostrum, with just six ships and patrol boats, two planes and one helicopter. It was designed as a policing rather than a humanitarian mission. At its inception, Klaus Rosler, operations director for Frontex, said \"Triton is not a replacement for Mare Nostrum.\" Nor was Frontex \"a coordinating body for search and rescue operations.\" Six months later, the argument about how to handle unprecedented numbers of desperate people heading for Europe continues unabated. Contributors to Triton include Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland and Iceland. Britain -- for example -- is not. It argues that search and rescue operations in international waters are \"an unintended 'pull factor,' encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths.\" It's perhaps no coincidence that immigration is a hot-button issue in Britain, with the UK Independence Party attacking the Conservative-led coalition government for being soft on allowing foreigners into the country. Similarly, the opposition Northern League in Italy opposed Mare Nostrum, accusing it of enticing migrants. If the first few months of this year are any guide, demand has not diminished even if the prospect of being rescued has. People from Syria, Mali and Eritrea are among the tens of thousands trying to escape repression, violence and abject poverty. Despite the danger, the great majority head first for Libya, where the collapse of authority allows smuggling operations to go unhindered. Italy -- the European state whose territory is closest to Libya -- has borne the brunt of the task of picking up, sheltering and providing food and medical help to the illegal migrants. In 2014, 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea. Italian ships have picked up about 11,000 migrants in the past week alone. The islands of Sicily and of Lampedusa (which is closer to Tunisia than to mainland Italy) see an almost daily influx of human misery. And at this time of year, there is a surge in the illegal trafficking as the weather and sea conditions improve. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said the Mediterranean is a sea, not a cemetery. On Sunday, in the wake of the latest disaster, he complained that Italy had been coping with the crisis in \"near solitude, sometimes assisted by some other international presence.\" Italy has also led calls for an international peacekeeping issue to help restore stability in Libya, not least in an effort to tackle the flow of migrants, many of whom set out from around Misrata and other ports in the west of the country. According to some human rights groups, the danger to migrants on the high seas has been accentuated by merchant ships turning a blind eye to boats in distress -- despite a maritime obligation to come to the aid of vessels in peril. After the latest sinking, the European Commission called an urgent meeting of foreign and interior ministers, saying that \"the reality is stark and our actions must therefore be bold. These are human lives at stake, and the European Union as a whole has a moral and humanitarian obligation to act.\" EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is Italian, said Sunday: \"We need to save human lives all together, as all together we need to protect our borders and to fight the trafficking of human beings.\" The task could not be \"left only to the southern countries,\" she insisted. But bold action is rarely a hallmark of the EU. The recently installed head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, has set out his priorities -- but they are yet to be acted upon. Junker said the current budget of Frontex - some 90 million euros ($97 million) - was \"a good start but does not yet equal the task of protecting Europe's common borders.\" That money has to cover all Frontex's roles -- and it's not only the Italian coast that is being targeted by migrants. Further east, thousands of migrants are trying to reach Greece by land and sea. According to the UN's refugee agency, 219,000 refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean last year. Junker has also argued for greater assistance to the European Asylum Support Office, which is based in Malta, arguing for \"more thorough risk assessments to spot problem areas before they become overloaded.\" Most controversially, Junker is proposing Europe adopt a common asylum system, saying that \"one and the same applicant for asylum can have a 70-75% chance of being granted asylum in one country of the European Union and less than 1%, with the same reasons, in another country.\" But progress toward a Europe-wide approach on migration is painfully slow. The European Commission plans to publish a policy document next month, but member states are in no hurry to grapple with such a politically explosive and costly subject. In the meantime, the argument in European meetings is likely to focus on priorities, with some (the UK and Germany) likely to argue that more resources must be devoted to cracking down on the lucrative people-smuggling racket. \"We must target the traffickers who are responsible for so many people dying at sea and prevent their innocent victims from being tricked or forced into making these perilous journeys,\" said British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Sunday. Others, including Italy, Greece, Spain and France, are expected to seek more concerted action in handling and funding the influx. But the hundreds of migrants being herded onto barely seaworthy boats from Libyan beaches will be oblivious to the debate. READ MORE: Migrant deaths at sea - what is Europe going to do?READ MORE: Why migrants are risking their lives to reach ItalyREAD MORE: 'I enter Europe or I die' - desperate migrants rescuedREAD MORE: How do illegal immigrants get into Europe?","highlights":"Italian Navy's \"Mare Nostrum\" mission to rescue would-be migrants in peril rescued an estimated 100,000 people .\nOperation ended in October 2014, but the tide of people trying to cross the Mediterranean has not abated .\nItaly has borne brunt of task of picking up, sheltering and providing food and medical help to illegal migrants .","id":"ff3a5618a72b644c41eb4dd9f5bef25138eaeea6"} -{"article":"(CNN)Five years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and unleashed the largest marine oil spill in the nation's history, we are still experiencing -- yet only beginning to truly understand -- its profound environmental and economic repercussions. The immediate aftermath of the oil spill has been well documented, with declines in tourism and the seafood industry, as well as the significant destruction of wildlife in the region. Since then, the amount of oil in the area has dissipated and communities have started to show signs of recovery. In fact, reports indicate that the Gulf of Mexico's seafood industry, which supplies the United States with roughly 40% of its seafood, is finally starting to rebound. However, profound challenges remain, in part because so many questions about the long-term consequences remain unanswered. To this day, it's still unclear where all of the oil went, exactly how much remains or whether the reappearance of wildlife is a result of adaptation or a signal that the crisis is truly abating. One of the populations that can provide insight into these questions is the Gulf crab. Crabs play an important role in the region: Roughly 60 million pounds were fished in the Gulf in 2012, earning tens of millions in revenue. Yet in the aftermath of the spill, changes to crustacean communities in the area were quite apparent to the naked eye. Researchers documented substantial differences in appearance, and deformities in crabs that were affected by the spill including lesions so numerous they ate through the joints, forcing limbs to fall off. These traits have affected not only the crabs' market value but also likely their ability to survive. While these changes in outward appearance have dissipated in the short-term, the health of these crabs could still be precarious. I have been working with colleagues at Florida International University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette to better understand what might be happening biologically inside the crab when it is exposed to oil and the dispersant used to respond to the spill. Using the power of genomics and computational biology, we analyzed the genes of flat back mud crabs that were exposed to oil from the Macondo Prospect where the Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling when it exploded or to a combination of oil and dispersant in the lab. By studying gene expression, the process that turns information from a gene into a product that functions within a cell, we searched for indicators that might signal exposure to oil and, based on the types of changes we might see, clues as to how the crabs respond. Although we are still in the early stages of our research, we are seeing significant differences in gene expression connected to exposure -- meaning the crabs are turning some genes on or off in response to oil and dispersant. We are still working to determine whether these changes impact their ability to survive and reproduce. It's not just Gulf crabs that are experiencing changes. Research on different species and other aspects of the regional environment is starting to show that there could be long-term effects resulting from the oil spill and the response to the spill. This not only has consequences for the Gulf area, where oil drilling continues, but also for communities along the Atlantic Coast, where the Obama administration has recently announced a plan to open unprecedented oil and natural gas exploration. (BP's vice president of communications, Geoff Morrell, told CNN that wildlife species in the Gulf have \"bounced back and \"there is no data that suggests there are any long-term population-level impacts to any species.\") With the virtual certainty of more spills, we need a lot more information on the consequences of these disasters and how we can combat them effectively and efficiently. The U.S. Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency are making some progress. In coming months, they are releasing changes to regulations and response plans based on the early lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon spill. But government agencies cannot just rely on the short-term data to determine the best response for the next oil spill crisis. Instead, the government and oil companies should work together to support ongoing, long-term ecological research so that we have a better grasp of what \"normal\" looks like and what factors are important in maintaining those conditions even after a disastrous oil spill. Only then will we truly understand the impact of offshore drilling and the best ways to respond to crises to protect our most important natural resources.","highlights":"Keith Crandall: Five years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, we are only beginning to understand its effects on the Gulf .\nA crab species may be a key indicator of the impact, he says .","id":"62c2041cd1c9f773fe4f018ef04ff39323fa64aa"} -{"article":"(CNN)North Korea accused Mexico of illegally holding one of its cargo ships Wednesday and demanded the release of the vessel and crew. The ship, the Mu Du Bong, was detained after it ran aground off the coast of Mexico in July. Mexico defended the move Wednesday, saying it followed proper protocol because the company that owns the ship, North Korea's Ocean Maritime Management company, has skirted United Nations sanctions. \"Because the company has avoided the sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council, the Mexican government is acting on the basis of its international obligations as a responsible U.N. member state,\" the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations said. The Security Council blacklisted Ocean Maritime Management in July, saying it \"played a key role in arranging the shipment of concealed arms and related materiel\" on another ship, the Chong Chon Gang, which was detained by Panama in 2013. But An Myong Hun, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said there was no reason to hold the Mu Du Bong and accused Mexico of violating the crew members' human rights by keeping them from their families. \"Mu Du Bong is a peaceful, merchant ship and it has not shipped any items prohibited by international laws or regulations,\" An told reporters at the United Nations headquarters Wednesday. \"And we have already paid full compensation to Mexican authorities according to its domestic laws.\" According to Mexico's U.N. mission, the 33 North Korean nationals who make up the vessel's crew are free, staying at a hotel in the port city of Tuxpan and regularly visiting the ship to check on it. They will soon be sent back to North Korea with help from the country's embassy, Mexican authorities said. In the case of the Chong Chon Gang, Panamanian authorities found it was carrying undeclared weaponry from Cuba -- including MiG fighter jets, anti-aircraft systems and explosives -- buried under thousands of bags of sugar. Panama seized the cargo and held onto the ship and its crew for months. North Korea eventually agreed to pay a fine of $666,666 for the vessel's release. CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Mu Du Bong was detained after it ran aground off Mexico's coast in July .\nNorth Korea says there's no reason to hold the ship and accuses Mexico of human rights violations .\nMexico says it followed proper protocol because the ship's owner skirted U.N. sanctions .","id":"49d4f5fecdcb7c0aac62c67cfcf1dc6c0524a06d"} -{"article":"(CNN)An American teenager who helped her boyfriend stuff her mother's lifeless body into a suitcase at an upmarket hotel in Bali has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Heather Mack, 19, who gave birth to her own daughter just weeks ago, was found guilty with her 21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, of killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack on the Indonesian island last August. Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for battering von Wiese-Mack to death in room 317 of the St. Regis Bali Resort. Schaefer had claimed he killed his girlfriend's mother in self-defense after a violent argument erupted over the young couple's relationship. The beaten body of von Wiese-Mack was found in a large silver suitcase that the couple had loaded in a waiting taxi outside the resort. They told the driver they'd be back soon, but after a lengthy wait he alerted hotel staff who inspected the bag, noticed blood and called police. The lovers were arrested after being found the following morning at another hotel about 15 kilometers (nine miles) away. Inside the bag, von Wiese-Mack's body had been wrapped in hotel bedding. A forensic examination determined that she had died from a blunt force to the face that fractured her facial bones and caused her to suffocate. Described as a Chicago socialite, von Wiese-Mack was reported to have a troubled relationship with her teenage daughter. Schaefer denied that the murder was premeditated. He told the court that he acted in self-defense when his girlfriend's mother started strangling him during an argument in the Bali hotel room. \"She squeezed my neck for about 20 to 30 seconds. I couldn't breathe. I had blood going to my head and my eyes were so watery,\" Schaefer told the court. He said he reached for a nearby bowl \"before she could.\" \"I couldn't see for a moment because my eyes were so watery and I was distraught, I was in a state of mind, I had no idea what was happening. I was almost about to black out. And I grabbed it and I started swinging,\" he told the court. Mack told the court her mother had threatened to kill the couple's unborn baby, according to local media. The prosecutor alleged that the two planned the murder, because Mack's mother disapproved of their relationship. After being detained by police, the couple initially claimed they'd been taken captive at the resort by an armed gang, whose members killed Heather's mother, and from whom they managed to escape. The two were tried separately, though both trials were heard by the same court, with the same prosecutors. Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 18 years for Schaefer and 15 years for Mack. Under Indonesian law, Mack will be allowed to keep her baby with her in prison for two years, after which she can nominate who should take custody. Journalists Fairuz Husaini and Ragil Lestari and CNN's Kathy Quiano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Heather Mack jailed for 10 years over mother's murder in Bali .\nBoyfriend Tommy Schaefer sentenced to 18 years in prison for the attack .\nMack gave birth to the couple's daughter last month .","id":"34ad340fa41e205b95b37b00e8ccbc38afb3e68f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Madonna has a thing for making out with fellow performers on stage. First it was Britney and Christina, and now rapper Drake has been on the receiving end of a little lip action from Madge. While the blondes had fun with it, Drake appeared less than enthused after Madonna's prolonged smooch onstage at the Coachella music festival in California on Sunday. In an update Monday from \"champagnepapi\" himself on Instagram, the rapper clarified his reaction: \"Don't misinterpret my shock!! I got to make out with the queen Madonna and I feel 100 about that forever. Thank you @Madonna.\" After the kiss, though, he seemed dazed. \"Oh, s***. What the f*** just happened?\" he asked moments later from the stage. It all went down after Drake performed \"Madonna,\" a song named for the megastar off his new mixtape \"If You're Reading This It's Too Late,\" according to Billboard. He welcomed Madonna onstage as a special guest to perform a few songs. While wrapping up \"Human Nature,\" the Material Girl, 56, planted one on the seated Drake, 28, who began to flail his arms after a while in an apparent attempt to escape. His sour face after the encounter led many to speculate that he didn't enjoy the kiss. Of course, Drake and Madonna's little makeout sesh got the web talking and meme-ing: . \"So @Drake proves that kissing @Madonna is about as ghastly as I always imagined it would be,\" wrote former CNN personality Piers Morgan. \"Grandma: give Nana some suga . Drake: no no noooooo!!!\" wrote another Tweeter.","highlights":"Drake thanks Madonna and says he \"got to make out with the queen\"\nSinger Madonna kisses rapper Drake onstage at Coachella .\nDrake's reaction was priceless, according to the Web .","id":"6215980e28590ee4b7700a24a671c1e9f8fe925a"} -{"article":"Boston (CNN)Now the real Boston Marathon trial can begin. A federal jury's decision to convict Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of 30 charges related to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings was the most anticlimactic of anticlimaxes. The 21-year-old's lawyers admitted from the beginning that their client had participated in the horrific terrorist attack, which both scarred and strengthened this city. The outcome of this first phase may have been preordained, but nearly two years after the bombing, the trial has held Boston and the region in thrall \u2014 more so than I might have imagined. The case regularly lands on the front pages of our two daily newspapers, the Globe and the Herald, and often leads the local television newscasts. The Twitter feeds of reporters covering the trial are avidly followed. We haven't learned much new, although harrowing details about the deaths of the Tsarnaev brothers' four victims have come out. More than anything, many people find something cathartic in seeing the seemingly insolent, unrepentant Tsarnaev being brought to justice. The only issue to be decided is whether Tsarnaev should be executed. Which is why the second phase of his trial is the one that really matters. Was Tsarnaev so thoroughly under the sway of his radicalized older brother, Tamerlan, that he should be spared lethal injection? Or had this seemingly typical teenager transformed himself into a hardened jihadist who obsessed over al Qaeda propaganda such as the article \"Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom\"? What kind of justice should Tsarnaev receive? There is no death penalty in Massachusetts, and in September 2013, according to a Globe poll, 57% of respondents supported life in prison for Tsarnaev; just 33% said he should be executed. By moving the case into federal court, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made it likely that Tsarnaev would receive the death penalty. Keep in mind that no members of the jury were deemed eligible to serve unless they stated beforehand that they were willing to consider putting Tsarnaev to death. But imagine a different scenario in which Tsarnaev had been allowed to plead guilty in return for a life sentence. He would have been denied the public stage he has been granted; although he has not testified (so far), his terrorist actions have been replayed over and over again for people to see the world over. The 2015 Boston Marathon will take place in less than two weeks, on Monday, April 20. Thousands of runners will clog the 26.2-mile route, and tens of thousands will cheer them on \u2014 as they did last year, proving to the world that we will not be intimidated. And Tsarnaev's lawyers will still be fighting for their client's life. It is a natural if disturbing reaction to events like this that it's easier to remember the names of the perpetrators than of their victims. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a loser and a nobody. He should be allowed to fade away into the obscurity of a maximum-security prison cell. The people who deserve to be remembered are those he and his brother killed on Marathon Day \u2014 Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu \u2014 and Sean Collier, the MIT police officer they executed in cold blood. It is they who should live on in our collective memories.","highlights":"Dan Kennedy: After Boston Marathon bombing guilty verdict, now real trial -- the sentencing -- can begin. What justice should Tsarnaev get?\nHe says a plea might have been better, to keep bomber out of the news and let him fade into obscurity in maximum security cell .\nKennedy: The people who deserve to be remembered are victims and MIT officer who was killed .","id":"8eca5923bf6356a9da0e5f14508cee9f16ce4073"} -{"article":"Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN)Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen sashayed down the catwalk at Sao Paulo Fashion Week on Wednesday night in an emotional farewell to the runway. Bundchen announced over the weekend that she would be retiring from the catwalk, though not the fashion industry. The 34-year-old, who is married to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and has two children, has said she wants to spend more time with her family. On Wednesday night, Brady had a front-row seat at what was hailed as a historic moment in Brazil's fashion world. Bundchen wrote about her fashion career on her Instagram account: \"I am grateful that at 14, I was given the opportunity to start this journey. Today after 20 years in the industry, it is a privilege to be doing my last fashion show by choice and yet still be working in other facets of the business.\"","highlights":"Gisele Bundchen walked the runway for the last time Wednesday night in Brazil .\nThe supermodel announced her retirement from runway modeling over the weekend .\nShe plans to continue working in other facets of the industry .","id":"288d66dd6e65926ce982707afea5f04f98c44e83"} -{"article":"(CNN)The TV season is winding down, and the finales are starting. Those endings lead off this week's six things to watch. 1. \"The Americans,\" 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, FX . Critics continue to praise \"The Americans\" as one of the best series on TV, and every finale has delivered in a big way. Season 3 has seen a battle for the soul of daughter Paige, the return of fan favorite Margo Martindale and Soviet agent Nina getting back in the game. The finale is titled \"March 8, 1983.\" That's the date when President Reagan called the Soviet Union an \"evil empire.\" We shall see what surprises lie in store for the season ender. 2. \"Fresh Off the Boat,\" 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, ABC . Critics and viewers seem to have taken to \"Fresh,\" the first sitcom with an Asian-American cast since the 1990s. It hasn't been picked up for a second season, but the signs are looking good. 3. \"Vikings,\" 10 p.m. ET Thursday, History . The first History Channel scripted series, which been renewed for a fourth season, wraps up on Thursday. 4. \"Scorpion,\" 8 p.m. ET Monday, CBS . This based-on-a-true-story show, about a ragtag band of geniuses sent on secret missions, got a lot of hype for CBS in the early going, and that was enough to get it a second season. With the producers safe in that knowledge, we could get a surprising season finale. 5. \"Broadchurch,\" 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, BBC America . Fox's American remake, \"Gracepoint,\" didn't last, but the British mystery series starring David Tennant continues. Another murder could be solved -- and the trial based on the events of season 1 resolved -- by the end of this finale. 6. Academy of Country Music Awards, 8 p.m. ET Sunday, CBS . Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton return to host the 50th annual awards. Christina Aguilera is set to perform a \"surprise duet\" (yes, that Christina Aguilera).","highlights":"\"The Americans\" ends a critically acclaimed third season Wednesday .\nAcademy of Country Music Awards holds its 50th ceremony Sunday on CBS .","id":"0a91b5a6c0d6bb53799799470e0b5918006c503f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, who remained on the job for years after becoming the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official convicted in connection with the church's long-running sex abuse scandal, the Vatican announced Tuesday. Finn, who led the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, was found guilty in 2012 of failure to report suspected child abuse. The case was tried by a judge instead of by jury because prosecutors wanted to protect the young victims' anonymity. Finn was convicted of one count but not a misdemeanor charge he'd also faced. He was put on two years' probation but was not forced to spend time in jail or pay a fine, according to the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Two charges against his diocese were dropped. At the time of his conviction, Finn said, according to CNN affiliate KCTV: \"I truly regret and am sorry for the hurt these events have caused.\" Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the conviction and penalty, which included starting a $10,000 fund for sexual abuse counseling and mandatory training for church officials on how to report abuse, would have positive ramifications. \"We can be assured now that if an allegation of child abuse comes to the attention of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, there will be no hesitation to report it immediately to the proper authorities,\" Baker said. The case against Finn revolved around his diocese's dealings with Shawn Ratigan, an Independence, Missouri, priest who pleaded guilty in August 2012 to five child pornography charges. Church officials found disturbing images on Ratigan's computer but didn't notify police until nearly five months later, prosecutors said. In those interceding months, the priest kept on working. And Finn kept his job as bishop, even after his 2012 conviction. The official website of the Catholic diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph still listed him as its bishop Tuesday morning. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who took over the abuse-shaken Boston archdiocese and has become one of the Pope's point men in the United States, has acknowledged the inconsistency that someone who wouldn't be allowed to teach Sunday school was still running an American diocese. \"It's a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently,\" O'Malley said in a \"60 Minutes\" interview in November. \"There's a recognition of that ... from Pope Francis.\" Candida Moss -- a professor at Notre Dame, a Catholic university in Indiana -- said it \"doesn't look very urgent\" that a decision came down only now, nearly three years after the conviction and five months after O'Malley's comments. Several factors may have played a role in the delay, including views from lawyers or power players at the Vatican, who may be reluctant to cast blame at high-level officials who don't report allegations quickly enough to government authorities. But the timing of the announcement may make sense given that it comes weeks after Francis came under fire for the installation of a new bishop in Chile, Juan Barros, despite protesters' claims he was complicit in sexual abuse cases there. \"It kind of shook Francis' reputation,\" said Moss. \"Having this resignation and putting right one of the more visible injustices on this, especially in the U.S., I think this is a typical Francis way to reinstall confidence.\" Now that the case has been addressed, the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese has a new leader: Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann. Under the Pope's directive, Naumann will be the Kansas City diocese's apostolic administrator, in addition to his regular responsibilities in Kansas, until a permanent bishop is appointed, according to an announcement on the diocese's website. \"I pray that the coming weeks and months will be a time of grace and healing for the Diocese,\" Naumann said in an open letter to parishioners. \"All of us, who are privileged to serve in leadership for the Church, do so for only a season. It is not our Church, but Christ's Church.\" Moss, the Notre Dame professor, predicted that the shuffling at the western Missouri diocese will be \"very well received,\" though some may question why it took so long. \"It's not just that it's late,\" Moss said, \"but it's that Francis could have been more explicit.\" To that point, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org asked for more elaboration than the Vatican's one-line announcement that Francis accepted the resignation \"in accordance with ... Canon Law.\" Anne Doyle, from the watchdog group that documents the Catholic church's abuse crisis, called Finn's removal \"a good step but just the beginning.\" \"The pope must show that this decision represents a meaningful shift in papal practice -- that it signals a new era in bishop accountability,\" Doyle said. \"... What no pope has done to date is publicly confirm that he removed a culpable bishop because of his failure to make children's safety his first priority. We urge Pope Francis to issue such a statement immediately.\" CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.","highlights":"Expert: Decision \"doesn't look very urgent,\" but it appears \"well-timed\" for Pope Francis .\nRobert Finn remained a bishop after a 2012 conviction for failure to report abuse .\nLeader of watchdog group calls the Pope's decision \"a good step but just the beginning\"","id":"d043c9730550c1f07bdadfa21f6cde1c4af09143"} -{"article":"(CNN)A look at Oklahoma City, 20 years later. A fly-by of Pluto, 4 billion miles away. And the struggle to save the last male northern white rhino in the world. These are your best videos of the week: . On April 19, 1995, the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was bombed by two disaffected young Americans. One hundred sixty-eight people died in the terrorist attack, including 19 children. As the 20th anniversary of the tragedy approaches, CNN captured video of the memorial that stands on the site today. The video is at the top of this story. The use of marijuana as a medicinal treatment actually dates back millennia, to at least 2730 B.C. CNN's Sanjay Gupta looks at the history of the herb in medicine -- including its prescription by Queen Victoria's doctor. Watch the video: . Just because you're a politician doesn't mean you come naturally to glad-handing. From the \"swing and miss\" to the \"smile, the cameras are rolling,\" the video age has captured a number of strange attempts by politicians attempting to look socially casual. Watch the video: . Just as Jimmy Fallon become the go-to guy for viral video, newly minted \"Late Late Show\" host James Corden began staking his claim. CNN's Lisa France addresses the latest late-night matchups. Watch the video: . On Thursday, a video of ESPN reporter Britt McHenry insulting a tow company clerk came out -- and immediately went viral. McHenry was suspended for a week. Watch the video: . There are just four countries in the entire world that don't guarantee any form of paid maternity leave. The U.S. is one of them. This and other details of women's status in the United States are examined in this video, as well as a remarkable series by CNN's Jessica Ravitz. Watch the video: . Five northern white rhinoceroses are left in the entire world. All are in captivity -- and just one is male. He's now being protected by armed guards around the clock. Watch the video: . TEPCO, the Japanese utility, sent a robot in to examine the remains of the Fukushima nuclear plant, destroyed in a 2011 tsunami. What it recorded was startling. Watch the video: . Leave it to NASA to create a car that might make the problems of parallel parking a thing of the past. Oh, and it'll also probably work well on space missions. Former NFL player Aaron Hernandez was found guilty of murder earlier this week. What happened at his trial? Watch the video: . This summer, after nine years traveling through space, the New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to reach Pluto. What will we learn? Some new pictures offer clues.","highlights":"Videos of the week include drone footage of Oklahoma City .\nNASA has a car that drives sideways -- and a spacecraft headed for Pluto .","id":"48bb48fabd01befc583f619667f742b6fcfc694f"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)The author of a 2006 novel has accused the \"Avengers\" director and \"Cabin\" director Drew Goddard of stealing his idea. With just weeks until his box-office victory lap for \"Avengers: Age of Ultron,\" Joss Whedon is now facing a lawsuit accusing him of stealing the idea for the 2012 meta-horror movie The Cabin in the Woods. Whedon produced and co-wrote the script for Cabin with director Drew Goddard, a writer on Whedon's \"Buffy the Vampire Slayer\" and a fanboy favorite in his own right, with credits that include Netflix's \"Daredevil\" (and reportedly may soon include Sony's upcoming Spider-Man projects). Whedon and Goddard are named as defendants, along with Lionsgate and Whedon's Mutant Enemy production company, in the complaint filed Monday in California federal court. Joss Whedon Slams 'Jurassic World' Clip as \"'70s-Era Sexist\" In the complaint, Peter Gallagher (no, not that Peter Gallagher) claims Whedon and Goddard took the idea for \"The Cabin in the Woods\" from his 2006 novel \"The Little White Trip: A Night In the Pines.\" He's suing for copyright infringement and wants $10 million in damages. Gallagher is basing his claim on the works' similar premises: Both feature a group of young people terrorized by monsters while staying at a cabin in what is revealed to be (spoiler alert) a horror-film scenario designed by mysterious operators. Read the full complaint. Gallagher also alleges similarities between the characters' names and personalities -- his book's blond Julie and shy Dura and the film's Jules (Anna Hutchison) and Dana (Kristen Connolly), and handsome and scatterbrained men in both works -- and certain scenes involving the characters finding strange items in their respective cabins and discovering hidden cameras. 'Age of Ultron': Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch Are \"Massively Important,\" Says Joss Whedon (Video) In the complaint, Gallagher describes how he self-published the novel and \"began grassroots efforts\" to sell it on the Venice Beach boardwalk and on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. \"[The defendants] currently reside and operate out of Santa Monica, California, a short distance from where the Book was sold,\" the lawsuit claims. Gallagher alleges that he \"was contacted by multiple credited entertainment industry producers who expressed interest in the Book,\" but he doesn't specify Lionsgate or Mutant Enemy. A Lionsgate spokesman declined to comment. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to representatives for Whedon and Goddard. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"An author says \"Avengers\" director Joss Whedon and \"Cabin\" director Drew Goddard stole his idea .\nPeter Gallagher alleges similarities to his \"The Little White Trip: A Night In the Pines\" from 2006 .","id":"74ef50fce7436e2ffd8635083243a86d2ece1aec"} -{"article":"(CNN)The much-discussed trailer for \"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice\" just got a makeover. Soon after the trailer went up late on Friday, YouTuber Bobby Burns got to work on doing his own version using classic superhero footage. Instead of Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill facing off, this version wonders what it would be like if comics' classic characters Adam West and Christopher Reeve took their places. CNN spoke to 18-year-old Burns about what motivated him to make his now-viral video. (Warner Bros. Pictures, the studio behind \"Batman v. Superman,\" is owned by Time Warner, as is CNN.) CNN: When did you start making YouTube videos like this? Burns: At age 11. I work for the Made In Network in Nashville, Tennessee. CNN: Where did this idea come from? Burns: I'm pretty hyped for \"Batman v. Superman.\" As soon as I saw the trailer, my brain immediately went to the classic \"Batman\" [TV series] and I thought how funny it would be if this film was made at the time. CNN: What were you looking to accomplish? Burns: I wanted to contrast the old with the new. CNN: What kind of reaction have you received? Burns: Within an hour of the trailer going up, I went to work on the edit. Within four hours, my edit was finished and up on the Internet. The reaction has been great! It's awesome to see so many people enjoying what I made. Take a look at the fan trailer below: .","highlights":"A fan re-edited \"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice\" trailer with classic scenes from older \"Batman\" and \"Superman\" TV and film .\nAdam West and Christopher Reeve replace Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in the re-imagined trailer .","id":"1206966b68cae5d31776e94fe23e9082930b1daa"} -{"article":"(Billboard)The key to rock's longevity is it never defines itself into irrelevance. So while there were some loud, dirty guitars at the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday night, there was as much recognition for rock's antecedents in soul and blues, speaking less to a particular taxonomy than a spirit that's beyond words. It's easy to talk of such spirit when Paul McCartney is there to honor Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono is on hand as well. Speaking briefly backstage, Ono expressed feeling that it was wonderful for Starr to be honored, \"just sad John and George aren't here,\" referring to her late husband John Lennon and Beatles guitarist and fellow songwriter George Harrison. Starr was certainly happy to be there \u2014 after a long wait, he's the final Beatle to be inducted as a solo act. \"I've finally been invited, and I love it,\" said the 74-year-old drummer. \"I got lucky, and it was actually in Cleveland,\" he said to enormous applause. Fifty-one years earlier, Starr had been in town to play the very same Hall; he admitted backstage that he didn't remember the cops stopping the show during \"All My Loving\" and making the Beatles return to the dressing room for ten minutes until the fans could be calmed. Starr said in a backstage interview that he couldn't recall the incident specifically, but admitted that there had been a lot of shows in between. \"I'll remember this one,\" he promised. Others receiving Rock Hall honors included Paul Butterfield Blues Band, early soul act The 5 Royales, singer Bill Withers, punk rockers Green Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was a night for the young to honor the old and perhaps prepare for a later visit. John Mayer hailed his longtime idol, the late Vaughan, in a heartfelt speech. John Legend came out to honor Bill Withers with a performance of \"Use Me\" backed by Stevie Wonder, who inducted Withers. The two then shared \"Lean on Me,\" until Legend went and pulled Withers to the front of the stage to join them. Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bill Withers, Seymour Stein hit Rock Hall's weekend festivities . The 76-year old soul legend hasn't performed live in many years but had hinted in the months leading up to the induction ceremonies that he might sing once more. Withers sounded great, though he may have an even brighter future in stand-up. \"This has got to be the biggest AA meeting [in the] Western hemisphere,\" said Withers, alluding to an earlier moment in the show when Jimmie Vaughan confessed, \"I taught my brother guitar, and he taught me how to get sober.\" He called being inducted by Wonder, \"A lion holding the door for a kitty cat.\" The moment of relative levity was welcome after moving tributes paid to the late Lou Reed by Patti Smith and Reed's widow, music artist Laurie Anderson, who shared the three rules for life that they came up with: \"One: don't be afraid of anyone; Two: get a really good b------t detector and learn how to use it; Three: be really, really tender.\" Smith had to push back tears on at least three occasions. She recalled a night when they wound up in the same hotel and Reed invited her up. She found him in the tub dressed in black and she sat on the toilet and talked with him. Green Day was inducted by Fall Out Boy, who referenced the length of some of the speeches. Cracked Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump: \"I feel like I'm in a line at the DMV.\" As one of the youngest acts, it's not surprising they gave one of the two most exciting performances of the evening. Rock Hall induction ceremony: Lou Reed 'would be amused,' says sister . The other belonged to Tom Morello, Doyle Bramhall II and Zac Brown with harmonica player Jason Ricci performing \"Born in Chicago\" in tribute to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Not only did Ricci slay, but Morello played a nasty scabrous solo that raised the hairs on your arm, it was so alive. Miley Cyrus inducted Joan Jett in her own inimitable way, recalling a time she walked in on Jett smoking pot and being so turned on by her strength, wisdom and soul that the young pop star wanted to have sex with the legendary rocker. Jett joined the Blackhearts and Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl for a mini-set that include such classics as \"Bad Reputation,\" the Runaways' \"Cherry Bomb\" and \"Crimson and Clover,\" the Tommy James & the Shondelles cover that Jett took to No. 1. It was that kind of a night, and it closed with a rousing version of the Beatles' \"I Want to Be Your Man,\" where just about everybody who could make it out on stage did, including a near-end guitar scrum\/lead-off between Gary Clark Jr., Morello, Zac Brown and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner. \u00a92015 Billboard. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Paul McCartney honors Ringo Starr at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony .\nGreen Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts also honored .","id":"0504db91916c64ada18e48f269607c91630929ed"} -{"article":"(CNN)How will the new \"Fantastic Four\" differ from the original movie of a decade ago? For starters, as a new trailer shows, Sue and Johnny Storm's father initiates the project that ends up giving the foursome their powers. They also end up in another dimension, and we see the early flirtation between Sue Storm and Reed Richards as well. The movie, due out August 7, promises a very different take on the classic Marvel comics characters, played this go-round by Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell. We also get our first glimpse of the villainous Dr. Doom in this new trailer, released Sunday. Fans on Twitter had mixed reactions. Check out the trailer here: . The trailerpalooza of \"Star Wars,\" \"Batman v. Superman\" and \"Fantastic Four\" kept sci-fi and superhero fans chattering all weekend. Not to be outdone, the new trailer for \"Jurassic World\" came out Monday morning. It features even more of star Chris Pratt. Pratt's scientist character knows dinosaurs better than anyone. After a genetically modified mutant dinosaur escapes from an island theme park along with others, he takes charge of a mission to contain the dangerous creatures. (The trailer also includes part of a scene that caused controversy after Joss Whedon called it \"sexist\" last week.) The movie is first in the rampaging-dino franchise since \"Jurassic Park III\" in 2001. And, as we see for the first time, the dinosaurs have learned to communicate with each other. Uh-oh. Early word on Twitter was pretty good. Here's the new trailer for the movie, out June 12: .","highlights":"Dr. Doom is seen for the first time in the trailer for the \"Fantastic Four\" reboot .\nChris Pratt takes the lead in the new trailer for \"Jurassic World\"","id":"aee64537c4209c29611ccc66babdaf4fd7ae0c21"} -{"article":"(CNN)The arrest and death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore has stoked protests and accusations of police brutality. But it's unclear how Gray, arrested on a weapons charge April 12, suffered a severe spinal cord injury that led to his death seven days later. Here are the big questions surrounding this explosive case: . Gray's arrest . What we know: Gray was arrested on a weapons charge in a high-crime area of Baltimore known for drugs. He \"gave up without the use of force,\" according to Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez. An officer apparently took his Taser out, and was prepared to use it on Gray, but he never deployed it, Rodriguez said, and none of the six officers involved in the arrest describe using force against the 25-year-old. Gray was placed inside a police van and was able to talk, said Rodriguez who described Gray as upset. \"And when Mr. Gray was taken out of that van, he could not talk, and he could not breathe,\" according to Rodriguez. What we don't know: It's unknown what caused the spinal cord injury that led to his death a week after the arrest, and it's also unknown what, if anything, happened inside the van. The knife . What we know: Court documents allege that Baltimore Police Department Officer Garrett Miller arrested Gray after finding a switchblade in his pocket. The Gray family attorney called the allegation a \"sideshow.\" Gray was carrying a \"pocket knife of legal size,\" attorney William Murphy told CNN. Police never saw the knife and chased Gray only after he ran from them, the attorney said. The court documents also say that Gray \"fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence.\" \"The officer noticed a knife clipped to the inside of his front right pants pocket. The defendant was arrested without force or incident,\" the documents say. \"The knife was recovered by this officer and found to be a spring assisted, one-hand-operated knife.\" Maryland law makes it illegal to \"wear or carry a dangerous weapon of any kind concealed on or about the person,\" including switchblades. What we don't know: It's not clear that simply having a knife is a crime, said Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. \"It is not necessarily probable cause to chase someone. So, we still have questions,\" she said. What can be seen on the released video . What we know: Segments of cell phone video shot from two different positions appear to begin after Gray has been arrested and show officers dragging Gray, who is handcuffed, to a van. He can be heard screaming. \"He was dragged a bit,\" said Rawlings-Blake, \"but then you see him using his legs to get into the van, so he was able-bodied when he was in the van, and we know that when he was finally taken out of the van, he was unresponsive.\" Officers placed more restraints on Gray inside the van, police said, while surveillance video recorded him conscious and talking. That was at 8:54 a.m. At 9:24 a.m., police called an ambulance for Gray. Police say Gray requested medical attention, including an inhaler, and an ambulance later took him to the University of Maryland Medical Center's Shock Trauma Center. What we don't know: It's unknown why Gray screamed, and the video doesn't capture the entire incident, start to end. It's unclear what happened between 8:54 a.m. and 9:24 a.m. Police response . What we know: In the wake of Gray's death, six police officers have been suspended. Their names were released Tuesday, a standard procedure after an \"in-custody death,\" said Baltimore Police Department spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalczyk. It doesn't mean the officers did anything wrong or that they were the only officers involved, he said. They are: Lt. Brian Rice, 41, who joined the department in 1997; Officer Caesar Goodson, 45, who joined in 1999; Sgt. Alicia White, 30, who joined in 2010; Officer William Porter, 25, who joined in 2012; Officer Garrett Miller, 26, who joined in 2012; and Officer Edward Nero, 29, who joined in 2012. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said that authorities plan to conclude their investigation by May 1. Their findings will go to the state's attorney's office, where prosecutors will decide whether charges should be filed. What we don't know: The officers say they didn't use force against Gray, but that's not certain. Gray's past run-ins with authorities . What we know: According to court documents CNN obtained, there were more than 20 criminal court cases in Maryland against Gray, and five of those cases were still active at the time of his death. The cases involve mostly drug-related charges, but there are charges from March for second-degree assault and destruction of property. Gray was due in court on a possession charge on April 24. He had been in and out of prison since 2009 for various drug cases, said Maryland Department of Corrections spokesman Gerard Shields. In February 2009, he was sentenced to four years in prison for two counts of drug possession with intent to deliver. Shields said he could not determine from records what kind of drug was involved. Gray was paroled on June 30, 2011. On April 4, 2012, Gray was arrested for violating parole but he didn't go back to prison, Shields said, reasoning that whatever Gray allegedly did, it \"was something minor.\" Gray went back to prison again in May 2013 for drug possession and served a month. He was released in June. What we don't know: It's not known whether Gray's criminal past had anything to do with his arrest, or his death. CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton, Stephanie Gallman and Eliott C. McLaughlin, Dana Ford and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gray was arrested on a weapons charge April 12; he was dead seven days later .\nGray was placed inside a police van after his arrest; it's unclear if anything happened inside the van .\nGray has a criminal history but it's unclear whether that had anything to do with his arrest, or death .","id":"a80ee6f2d8e4bbfce19b53d5b5f114d93a3ccb8f"} diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/train.jsonl b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/train.jsonl deleted file mode 100644 index 966a037a0c..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/train.jsonl +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8613 +0,0 @@ -{"article":"LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gains access to a reported \u00a320 million ($41.1 million) fortune as he turns 18 on Monday, but he insists the money won't cast a spell on him. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix\" To the disappointment of gossip columnists around the world, the young actor says he has no plans to fritter his cash away on fast cars, drink and celebrity parties. \"I don't plan to be one of those people who, as soon as they turn 18, suddenly buy themselves a massive sports car collection or something similar,\" he told an Australian interviewer earlier this month. \"I don't think I'll be particularly extravagant. \"The things I like buying are things that cost about 10 pounds -- books and CDs and DVDs.\" At 18, Radcliffe will be able to gamble in a casino, buy a drink in a pub or see the horror film \"Hostel: Part II,\" currently six places below his number one movie on the UK box office chart. Details of how he'll mark his landmark birthday are under wraps. His agent and publicist had no comment on his plans. \"I'll definitely have some sort of party,\" he said in an interview. \"Hopefully none of you will be reading about it.\" Radcliffe's earnings from the first five Potter films have been held in a trust fund which he has not been able to touch. Despite his growing fame and riches, the actor says he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground. \"People are always looking to say 'kid star goes off the rails,'\" he told reporters last month. \"But I try very hard not to go that way because it would be too easy for them.\" His latest outing as the boy wizard in \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix\" is breaking records on both sides of the Atlantic and he will reprise the role in the last two films. Watch I-Reporter give her review of Potter's latest \u00bb . There is life beyond Potter, however. The Londoner has filmed a TV movie called \"My Boy Jack,\" about author Rudyard Kipling and his son, due for release later this year. He will also appear in \"December Boys,\" an Australian film about four boys who escape an orphanage. Earlier this year, he made his stage debut playing a tortured teenager in Peter Shaffer's \"Equus.\" Meanwhile, he is braced for even closer media scrutiny now that he's legally an adult: \"I just think I'm going to be more sort of fair game,\" he told Reuters. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gets \u00a320M fortune as he turns 18 Monday .\nYoung actor says he has no plans to fritter his cash away .\nRadcliffe's earnings from first five Potter films have been held in trust fund .","id":"42c027e4ff9730fbb3de84c1af0d2c506e41c3e4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, Soledad O'Brien takes users inside a jail where many of the inmates are mentally ill. An inmate housed on the \"forgotten floor,\" where many mentally ill inmates are housed in Miami before trial. MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The ninth floor of the Miami-Dade pretrial detention facility is dubbed the \"forgotten floor.\" Here, inmates with the most severe mental illnesses are incarcerated until they're ready to appear in court. Most often, they face drug charges or charges of assaulting an officer --charges that Judge Steven Leifman says are usually \"avoidable felonies.\" He says the arrests often result from confrontations with police. Mentally ill people often won't do what they're told when police arrive on the scene -- confrontation seems to exacerbate their illness and they become more paranoid, delusional, and less likely to follow directions, according to Leifman. So, they end up on the ninth floor severely mentally disturbed, but not getting any real help because they're in jail. We toured the jail with Leifman. He is well known in Miami as an advocate for justice and the mentally ill. Even though we were not exactly welcomed with open arms by the guards, we were given permission to shoot videotape and tour the floor. Go inside the 'forgotten floor' \u00bb . At first, it's hard to determine where the people are. The prisoners are wearing sleeveless robes. Imagine cutting holes for arms and feet in a heavy wool sleeping bag -- that's kind of what they look like. They're designed to keep the mentally ill patients from injuring themselves. That's also why they have no shoes, laces or mattresses. Leifman says about one-third of all people in Miami-Dade county jails are mentally ill. So, he says, the sheer volume is overwhelming the system, and the result is what we see on the ninth floor. Of course, it is a jail, so it's not supposed to be warm and comforting, but the lights glare, the cells are tiny and it's loud. We see two, sometimes three men -- sometimes in the robes, sometimes naked, lying or sitting in their cells. \"I am the son of the president. You need to get me out of here!\" one man shouts at me. He is absolutely serious, convinced that help is on the way -- if only he could reach the White House. Leifman tells me that these prisoner-patients will often circulate through the system, occasionally stabilizing in a mental hospital, only to return to jail to face their charges. It's brutally unjust, in his mind, and he has become a strong advocate for changing things in Miami. Over a meal later, we talk about how things got this way for mental patients. Leifman says 200 years ago people were considered \"lunatics\" and they were locked up in jails even if they had no charges against them. They were just considered unfit to be in society. Over the years, he says, there was some public outcry, and the mentally ill were moved out of jails and into hospitals. But Leifman says many of these mental hospitals were so horrible they were shut down. Where did the patients go? Nowhere. The streets. They became, in many cases, the homeless, he says. They never got treatment. Leifman says in 1955 there were more than half a million people in state mental hospitals, and today that number has been reduced 90 percent, and 40,000 to 50,000 people are in mental hospitals. The judge says he's working to change this. Starting in 2008, many inmates who would otherwise have been brought to the \"forgotten floor\" will instead be sent to a new mental health facility -- the first step on a journey toward long-term treatment, not just punishment. Leifman says it's not the complete answer, but it's a start. Leifman says the best part is that it's a win-win solution. The patients win, the families are relieved, and the state saves money by simply not cycling these prisoners through again and again. And, for Leifman, justice is served. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mentally ill inmates in Miami are housed on the \"forgotten floor\"\nJudge Steven Leifman says most are there as a result of \"avoidable felonies\"\nWhile CNN tours facility, patient shouts: \"I am the son of the president\"\nLeifman says the system is unjust and he's fighting for change .","id":"ee8871b15c50d0db17b0179a6d2beab35065f1e9"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Drivers who were on the Minneapolis bridge when it collapsed told harrowing tales of survival. \"The whole bridge from one side of the Mississippi to the other just completely gave way, fell all the way down,\" survivor Gary Babineau told CNN. \"I probably had a 30-, 35-foot free fall. And there's cars in the water, there's cars on fire. The whole bridge is down.\" He said his back was injured but he determined he could move around. \"I realized there was a school bus right next to me, and me and a couple of other guys went over and started lifting the kids off the bridge. They were yelling, screaming, bleeding. I think there were some broken bones.\" Watch a driver describe his narrow escape \u00bb . At home when he heard about the disaster, Dr. John Hink, an emergency room physician, jumped into his car and rushed to the scene in 15 minutes. He arrived at the south side of the bridge, stood on the riverbank and saw dozens of people lying dazed on an expansive deck. They were in the middle of the Mississippi River, which was churning fast, and he had no way of getting to them. He went to the north side, where there was easier access to people. Ambulances were also having a hard time driving down to the river to get closer to the scene. Working feverishly, volunteers, EMTs and other officials managed to get 55 people into ambulances in less than two hours. Occasionally, a pickup truck with a medic inside would drive to get an injured person and bring him back up even ground, Hink told CNN. The rescue effort was controlled and organized, he said; the opposite of the lightning-quick collapse. \"I could see the whole bridge as it was going down, as it was falling,\" Babineau said. \"It just gave a rumble real quick, and it all just gave way, and it just fell completely, all the way to the ground. And there was dust everywhere and it was just like everyone has been saying: It was just like out of the movies.\" Babineau said the rear of his pickup truck was dangling over the edge of a broken-off section of the bridge. He said several vehicles slid past him into the water. \"I stayed in my car for one or two seconds. I saw a couple cars fall,\" he said. \"So I stayed in my car until the cars quit falling for a second, then I got out real quick, ran in front of my truck -- because behind my truck was just a hole -- and I helped a woman off of the bridge with me. \"I just wanted off the bridge, and then I ran over to the school bus. I started grabbing kids and handing them down. It was just complete chaos.\" He said most of the children were crying or screaming. He and other rescuers set them on the ground and told them to run to the river bank, but a few needed to be carried because of their injuries. See rescuers clamber over rubble \u00bb . Babineau said he had no rescue training. \"I just knew what I had to do at the moment.\" Melissa Hughes, 32, of Minneapolis, told The Associated Press that she was driving home when the western edge of the bridge collapsed under her. \"You know that free-fall feeling? I felt that twice,\" Hughes said. A pickup landed on top of her car, but she was not hurt. \"I had no idea there was a vehicle on my car,\" she told AP. \"It's really very surreal.\" Babineau told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: \"On the way down, I thought I was dead. I literally thought I was dead. \"My truck was completely face down, pointed toward the ground, and my truck got ripped in half. It was folded in half, and I can't believe I'm alive.\" See and hear eyewitness accounts \u00bb . Bernie Toivonen told CNN's \"American Morning\" that his vehicle was on a part of the bridge that ended up tilted at a 45-degree angle. \"I knew the deck was going down, there was no question about it, and I thought I was going to die,\" he said. After the bridge settled and his car remained upright, \"I just put in park, turned the key off and said, 'Oh, I'm alive,' \" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: \"I thought I was going to die,\" driver says .\nMan says pickup truck was folded in half; he just has cut on face .\nDriver: \"I probably had a 30-, 35-foot free fall\"\nMinnesota bridge collapsed during rush hour Wednesday .","id":"06352019a19ae31e527f37f7571c6dd7f0c5da37"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Doctors removed five small polyps from President Bush's colon on Saturday, and \"none appeared worrisome,\" a White House spokesman said. The polyps were removed and sent to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for routine microscopic examination, spokesman Scott Stanzel said. Results are expected in two to three days. All were small, less than a centimeter [half an inch] in diameter, he said. Bush is in good humor, Stanzel said, and will resume his activities at Camp David. During the procedure Vice President Dick Cheney assumed presidential power. Bush reclaimed presidential power at 9:21 a.m. after about two hours. Doctors used \"monitored anesthesia care,\" Stanzel said, so the president was asleep, but not as deeply unconscious as with a true general anesthetic. He spoke to first lady Laura Bush -- who is in Midland, Texas, celebrating her mother's birthday -- before and after the procedure, Stanzel said. Afterward, the president played with his Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, Stanzel said. He planned to have lunch at Camp David and have briefings with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and planned to take a bicycle ride Saturday afternoon. Cheney, meanwhile, spent the morning at his home on Maryland's eastern shore, reading and playing with his dogs, Stanzel said. Nothing occurred that required him to take official action as president before Bush reclaimed presidential power. The procedure was supervised by Dr. Richard Tubb, Bush's physician, and conducted by a multidisciplinary team from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the White House said. Bush's last colonoscopy was in June 2002, and no abnormalities were found, White House spokesman Tony Snow said. The president's doctor had recommended a repeat procedure in about five years. A colonoscopy is the most sensitive test for colon cancer, rectal cancer and polyps, small clumps of cells that can become cancerous, according to the Mayo Clinic. Small polyps may be removed during the procedure. Snow said on Friday that Bush had polyps removed during colonoscopies before becoming president. Snow himself is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer that began in his colon and spread to his liver. Watch Snow talk about Bush's procedure and his own colon cancer \u00bb . \"The president wants to encourage everybody to use surveillance,\" Snow said. The American Cancer Society recommends that people without high risk factors or symptoms begin getting screened for signs of colorectal cancer at age 50. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Five small polyps found during procedure; \"none worrisome,\" spokesman says .\nPresident reclaims powers transferred to vice president .\nBush undergoes routine colonoscopy at Camp David .","id":"24521a2abb2e1f5e34e6824e0f9e56904a2b0e88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The National Football League has indefinitely suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick without pay, officials with the league said Friday. NFL star Michael Vick is set to appear in court Monday. A judge will have the final say on a plea deal. Earlier, Vick admitted to participating in a dogfighting ring as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in Virginia. \"Your admitted conduct was not only illegal, but also cruel and reprehensible. Your team, the NFL, and NFL fans have all been hurt by your actions,\" NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to Vick. Goodell said he would review the status of the suspension after the legal proceedings are over. In papers filed Friday with a federal court in Virginia, Vick also admitted that he and two co-conspirators killed dogs that did not fight well. Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Vick's admissions describe actions that are \"incomprehensible and unacceptable.\" The suspension makes \"a strong statement that conduct which tarnishes the good reputation of the NFL will not be tolerated,\" he said in a statement. Watch what led to Vick's suspension \u00bb . Goodell said the Falcons could \"assert any claims or remedies\" to recover $22 million of Vick's signing bonus from the 10-year, $130 million contract he signed in 2004, according to The Associated Press. Vick said he would plead guilty to one count of \"Conspiracy to Travel in Interstate Commerce in Aid of Unlawful Activities and to Sponsor a Dog in an Animal Fighting Venture\" in a plea agreement filed at U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia. The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, \"full restitution, a special assessment and 3 years of supervised release,\" the plea deal said. Federal prosecutors agreed to ask for the low end of the sentencing guidelines. \"The defendant will plead guilty because the defendant is in fact guilty of the charged offense,\" the plea agreement said. In an additional summary of facts, signed by Vick and filed with the agreement, Vick admitted buying pit bulls and the property used for training and fighting the dogs, but the statement said he did not bet on the fights or receive any of the money won. \"Most of the 'Bad Newz Kennels' operations and gambling monies were provided by Vick,\" the official summary of facts said. Gambling wins were generally split among co-conspirators Tony Taylor, Quanis Phillips and sometimes Purnell Peace, it continued. \"Vick did not gamble by placing side bets on any of the fights. Vick did not receive any of the proceeds from the purses that were won by 'Bad Newz Kennels.' \" Vick also agreed that \"collective efforts\" by him and two others caused the deaths of at least six dogs. Around April, Vick, Peace and Phillips tested some dogs in fighting sessions at Vick's property in Virginia, the statement said. \"Peace, Phillips and Vick agreed to the killing of approximately 6-8 dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions at 1915 Moonlight Road and all of those dogs were killed by various methods, including hanging and drowning. \"Vick agrees and stipulates that these dogs all died as a result of the collective efforts of Peace, Phillips and Vick,\" the summary said. Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Phillips, 28, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Taylor, 34, of Hampton, Virginia, already have accepted agreements to plead guilty in exchange for reduced sentences. Vick, 27, is scheduled to appear Monday in court, where he is expected to plead guilty before a judge. See a timeline of the case against Vick \u00bb . The judge in the case will have the final say over the plea agreement. The federal case against Vick focused on the interstate conspiracy, but Vick's admission that he was involved in the killing of dogs could lead to local charges, according to CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. \"It sometimes happens -- not often -- that the state will follow a federal prosecution by charging its own crimes for exactly the same behavior,\" Toobin said Friday. \"The risk for Vick is, if he makes admissions in his federal guilty plea, the state of Virginia could say, 'Hey, look, you admitted violating Virginia state law as well. We're going to introduce that against you and charge you in our court.' \" In the plea deal, Vick agreed to cooperate with investigators and provide all information he may have on any criminal activity and to testify if necessary. Vick also agreed to turn over any documents he has and to submit to polygraph tests. Vick agreed to \"make restitution for the full amount of the costs associated\" with the dogs that are being held by the government. \"Such costs may include, but are not limited to, all costs associated with the care of the dogs involved in that case, including if necessary, the long-term care and\/or the humane euthanasia of some or all of those animals.\" Prosecutors, with the support of animal rights activists, have asked for permission to euthanize the dogs. But the dogs could serve as important evidence in the cases against Vick and his admitted co-conspirators. Judge Henry E. Hudson issued an order Thursday telling the U.S. Marshals Service to \"arrest and seize the defendant property, and use discretion and whatever means appropriate to protect and maintain said defendant property.\" Both the judge's order and Vick's filing refer to \"approximately\" 53 pit bull dogs. After Vick's indictment last month, Goodell ordered the quarterback not to report to the Falcons training camp, and the league is reviewing the case. Blank told the NFL Network on Monday he could not speculate on Vick's future as a Falcon, at least not until he had seen \"a statement of facts\" in the case. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike Phelan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: NFL chief, Atlanta Falcons owner critical of Michael Vick's conduct .\nNFL suspends Falcons quarterback indefinitely without pay .\nVick admits funding dogfighting operation but says he did not gamble .\nVick due in federal court Monday; future in NFL remains uncertain .","id":"7fe70cc8b12fab2d0a258fababf7d9c6b5e1262a"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Dressed in a Superman shirt, 5-year-old Youssif held his sister's hand Friday, seemingly unaware that millions of people across the world have been touched by his story. Nearby, his parents talked about the new future and hope they have for their boy -- and the potential for recovery from his severe burns. Youssif holds his sister's hand Friday. He's wearing a facial mask often used to help burn victims. It's the best birthday present the Iraqi family could ever have imagined for their boy: Youssif turns 6 next Friday. \"I was so happy I didn't know what to do with myself,\" his mother, Zainab, told CNN, a broad smile across her face. \"I didn't think the reaction would be this big.\" His father said he was on the roof of his house when CNN called him with the news about the outpouring of support for his son. \"We just want to thank everyone who has come forward,\" he said. \"We knew there was kindness out there.\" Like his wife, he couldn't stop smiling. He talked about how he tried in vain to get help for his son in Baghdad, leaving \"no stone unturned\" on a mission to help his boy. There were many trips to the Ministry of Health. He says he even put in a request to Iraq's parliament for help. The family eventually told CNN their story -- that Youssif was grabbed by masked men outside their home on January 15, doused in gasoline and set on fire. Simply by coming forward, his parents put themselves in incredible danger. No one has been arrested or held accountable in Youssif's case. Watch CNN's Arwa Damon describe 'truly phenomenal' outpouring \u00bb . Shortly after Youssif's story aired Wednesday, the Children's Burn Foundation -- a nonprofit organization based in Sherman Oaks, California, that provides support for burn victims locally, nationally and internationally -- agreed to pay for the transportation for Youssif and his family to come to the United States and to set up a fund for donations. You can make a donation at the foundation's site by clicking here. There's a drop-down menu under the \"general donation\" area that is marked \"Youssif's fund.\" The foundation says it will cover all medical costs -- from surgeries for Youssif to housing costs to any social rehabilitation that might be needed for him. Surgeries will be performed by Dr. Peter Grossman, a plastic surgeon with the affiliated Grossman Burn Center who is donating his services for Youssif's cause. Officials are still trying to get the appropriate visas for the family's travels. \"We are prepared to have them come here, set them up in a housing situation, provide support for them and begin treatment,\" said Barbara Friedman, executive director of the Children's Burn Foundation. \"We expect that the treatment will be from between six months to a year with many surgeries.\" She added, \"He will be getting the absolute best care that's available.\" Youssif's parents said they know it's going to be a lengthy and difficult process and that adjusting to their stay in America may not be easy. But none of that matters -- getting help for their boy is first and foremost. \"I will do anything for Youssif,\" his father said, pulling his son closer to him. \"Our child is everything.\" His mother tried to coax Youssif to talk to us on this day. But he didn't want to; his mother says he's shy outside of their home. The biggest obstacle now is getting the visas to leave, and the serious security risks they face every day and hour they remain in Iraq. But this family -- which saw the very worst in humanity on that January day -- has new hope in the world. That is partly due to the tens of thousands of CNN.com users who were so moved by the story and wanted to act. CNN Iraqi staff central to bringing this story together were also overwhelmed with the generosity coming from people outside of their border. In a nation that largely feels abandoned by the rest of the world, it was a refreshing realization. E-mail to a friend . CNN.com senior producer Wayne Drash contributed to this report in Atlanta.","highlights":"Parents beam with pride, can't stop from smiling from outpouring of support .\nMom: \"I was so happy I didn't know what to do\"\nBurn center in U.S. has offered to provide treatment for reconstructive surgeries .\nDad says, \"Anything for Youssif\"","id":"a1ebb8bb4d370a1fdf28769206d572be60642d70"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day. Suha, 37, is a mother of three. She says her husband thinks she is cleaning houses when she leaves home. \"People shouldn't criticize women, or talk badly about them,\" says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. \"They all say we have lost our way, but they never ask why we had to take this path.\" A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her. \"I don't have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother,\" she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself. Anger and frustration rise in her voice as she speaks. \"No matter what else I may be, no matter how off the path I may be, I am a mother!\" Watch a woman describe turning to prostitution to \"save my child\" \u00bb . Her clasped hands clench and unclench nervously. Suha's husband thinks that she is cleaning houses when she goes away. So does Karima's family. \"At the start I was cleaning homes, but I wasn't making much. No matter how hard I worked it just wasn't enough,\" she says. Karima, clad in all black, adds, \"My husband died of lung cancer nine months ago and left me with nothing.\" She has five children, ages 8 to 17. Her eldest son could work, but she's too afraid for his life to let him go into the streets, preferring to sacrifice herself than risk her child. She was solicited the first time when she was cleaning an office. \"They took advantage of me,\" she says softly. \"At first I rejected it, but then I realized I have to do it.\" Both Suha and Karima have clients that call them a couple times a week. Other women resort to trips to the market to find potential clients. Or they flag down vehicles. Prostitution is a choice more and more Iraqi women are making just to survive. \"It's increasing,\" Suha says. \"I found this 'thing' through my friend, and I have another friend in the same predicament as mine. Because of the circumstance, she is forced to do such things.\" Violence, increased cost of living, and lack of any sort of government aid leave women like these with few other options, according to humanitarian workers. \"At this point there is a population of women who have to sell their bodies in order to keep their children alive,\" says Yanar Mohammed, head and founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. \"It's a taboo that no one is speaking about.\" She adds, \"There is a huge population of women who were the victims of war who had to sell their bodies, their souls and they lost it all. It crushes us to see them, but we have to work on it and that's why we started our team of women activists.\" Her team pounds the streets of Baghdad looking for these victims often too humiliated to come forward. \"Most of the women that we find at hospitals [who] have tried to commit suicide\" have been involved in prostitution, said Basma Rahim, a member of Mohammed's team. The team's aim is to compile information on specific cases and present it to Iraq's political parties -- to have them, as Mohammed puts it, \"come tell us what [they] are ... going to do about this.\" Rahim tells the heartbreaking story of one woman they found who lives in a room with three of her children: \"She has sex while her three children are in the room, but she makes them stand in separate corners.\" According to Rahim and Mohammed, most of the women they encounter say they are driven to prostitution by a desperate desire for survival in the dangerously violent and unforgiving circumstances in Iraq. \"They took this path but they are not pleased,\" Rahim says. Karima says when she sees her children with food on the table, she is able to convince herself that it's worth it. \"Everything is for the children. They are the beauty in life and, without them, we cannot live.\" But she says, \"I would never allow my daughter to do this. I would rather marry her off at 13 than have her go through this.\" Karima's last happy memory is of her late husband, when they were a family and able to shoulder the hardships of life in today's Iraq together. Suha says as a young girl she dreamed of being a doctor, with her mom boasting about her potential in that career. Life couldn't have taken her further from that dream. \"It's not like we were born into this, nor was it ever in my blood,\" she says. What she does for her family to survive now eats away at her. \"I lay on my pillow and my brain is spinning, and it all comes back to me as if I am watching a movie.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Aid workers: Violence, increased cost of living drive women to prostitution .\nGroup is working to raise awareness of the problem with Iraq's political leaders .\nTwo Iraqi mothers tell CNN they turned to prostitution to help feed their children .\n\"Everything is for the children,\" one woman says .","id":"7c0e61ac829a3b3b653e2e3e7536cc4881d1f264"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A key rebel commander and fugitive from a U.S. drug trafficking indictment was killed over the weekend in an air attack on a guerrilla encampment, the Colombian military said Monday. Alleged cocaine trafficker and FARC rebel Tomas Medina Caracas in an Interpol photo. Tomas Medina Caracas, known popularly as \"El Negro Acacio,\" was a member of the high command of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia and, according to Colombian and U.S. officials, helped manage the group's extensive cocaine trafficking network. He had been in the cross-hairs of the U.S. Justice Department since 2002. He was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and manufacturing and distributing cocaine within Colombia to fund the FARC's 42-year insurgency against the government. U.S. officials alleged Medina Caracas managed the rebel group's sales of cocaine to international drug traffickers, who in turn smuggled it into the United States. He was also indicted in the United States along with two other FARC commanders in November 2002 on charges of conspiring to kidnap two U.S. oil workers from neighboring Venezuela in 1997 and holding one of them for nine months until a $1 million ransom was paid. Officials said the army's Rapid Response Force, backed by elements of the Colombian Air Force, tracked Medina Caracas down at a FARC camp in the jungle in the south of the country. \"After a bombardment, the troops occupied the camp, and they've found 14 dead rebels so far, along with rifles, pistols, communications equipment and ... four GPS systems,\" Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said at a news conference. \"The death of 'El Negro Acacio' was confirmed by various sources, including members of FARC itself.\" Medina Caracas commanded FARC's 16th Front in the southern departments of Vichada and Guainia. Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of State. E-mail to a friend . Journalist Fernando Ramos contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tomas Medina Caracas was a fugitive from a U.S. drug trafficking indictment .\n\"El Negro Acacio\" allegedly helped manage extensive cocaine network .\nU.S. Justice Department indicted him in 2002 .\nColombian military: He was killed in an attack on a guerrilla encampment .","id":"f0d73bdab711763e745cdc75850861c9018f235d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House press secretary Tony Snow, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, will step down from his post September 14 and be replaced by deputy press secretary Dana Perino, the White House announced Friday. White House press secretary Tony Snow will step down from his post on September 14. President Bush told reporters Friday that he will \"sadly accept\" Snow's resignation. Flanked by Snow and Perino in the White House press room, the president spoke warmly of his departing press secretary. \"It's been a joy to watch him spar with you,\" Bush told reporters. Watch the announcement about Snow leaving \u00bb . Bush said he was certain of two things in regard to Snow. \"He'll battle cancer and win,\" Bush said, \"and he'll be a solid contributor to society.\" Turning to Snow, the president then said: \"I love you, and I wish you all the best.\" Snow, speaking after Bush at the start of the daily White House news conference, said he was leaving to earn more money. He took a big pay cut, he said, when he left his previous jobs as anchor and political analyst for Fox News. According to The Washington Post, Snow makes $168,000 as the White House spokesman. His family took out a loan when he started the job, \"and that loan is now gone.\" \"This job has really been a dream for me, a blast. I've had an enormous amount of fun and satisfaction,\" Snow said. He said he would continue to speak out on issues, and would do \"some radio, some TV, but I don't anticipate full-time anchor duties.\" Snow said he's received great satisfaction from talking to people about his illness. Snow's cancer was diagnosed for the first time in February 2005. His colon was removed, and after six months of treatment, doctors said the cancer was in remission. Perino announced March 27 that Snow's cancer had recurred, and that doctors had removed a growth from his abdomen the day before. Sources told CNN two weeks ago that Snow was planning to leave his job, possibly as early as September. Bush tapped Snow to replace Scott McClellan in April 2006. Snow had been an anchor for \"Fox News Sunday\" and a political analyst for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996. He also hosted \"The Tony Snow Show\" on Fox News Radio. On Thursday, Snow told CNN his health is improving, citing two medical tests this month that found the cancer has not spread. \"The tumors are stable -- they are not growing,\" Snow said of the results from an MRI and a CAT scan. \"And there are no new growths. The health is good.\" The press secretary, whose hair has turned gray during chemotherapy treatment, said his black hair is expected to grow back in about a month. \"I'm also putting on weight again,\" he said after returning from a 10-day vacation. \"I actually feel very good about\" the health situation. Snow said on Friday he was to see his oncologist, and they will decide on some minor forms of chemotherapy to start as maintenance treatment. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"President Bush says Tony Snow \"will battle cancer and win\" Job of press secretary \"has been a dream for me,\" Snow says Snow leaving on September 14, will be succeeded by Dana Perino .","id":"5e22bbfc7232418b8d2dd646b952e404df5bd048"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police and FBI agents are investigating the discovery of an empty rocket launcher tube on the front lawn of a Jersey City, New Jersey, home, FBI spokesman Sean Quinn said. Niranjan Desai discovered the 20-year-old AT4 anti-tank rocket launcher tube, a one-time-use device, lying on her lawn Friday morning, police said. The launcher has been turned over to U.S. Army officials at the 754th Ordnance Company, an explosive ordnance disposal unit, at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, Army officials said. The launcher \"is no longer operable and not considered to be a hazard to public safety,\" police said, adding there was no indication the launcher had been fired recently. Army officials said they could not determine if the launcher had been fired, but indicated they should know once they find out where it came from. The nearest military base, Fort Dix, is more than 70 miles from Jersey City. The Joint Terrorism Task Force division of the FBI and Jersey City police are investigating the origin of the rocket launcher and the circumstance that led to its appearance on residential property. \"Al Qaeda doesn't leave a rocket launcher on the lawn of middle-aged ladies,\" said Paul Cruickshank of New York University Law School's Center on Law and Security. A neighbor, Joe Quinn, said the object lying on Desai's lawn looked military, was brown, had a handle and strap, and \"both ends were open, like you could shoot something with it.\" Quinn also said the device had a picture of a soldier on it and was 3 to 4 feet long. An Army official said the device is basically a shoulder-fired, direct-fire weapon used against ground targets -- a modern-day bazooka -- and it is not wire-guided. According to the Web site Globalsecurity.org, a loaded M136 AT4 anti-tank weapon has a 40-inch-long fiberglass-wrapped tube and weighs just 4 pounds. Its 84 millimeter shaped-charge missile can penetrate 14 inches of armor from a maximum of 985 feet. It is used once and discarded. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Carol Cratty, Dugald McConnell, and Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"Empty anti-tank weapon turns up in front of New Jersey home .\nDevice handed over to Army ordnance disposal unit .\nWeapon not capable of being reloaded, experts say .","id":"613d6311ec2c1985bd44707d1796d275452fe156"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As he awaits a crucial progress report on Iraq, President Bush will try to put a twist on comparisons of the war to Vietnam by invoking the historical lessons of that conflict to argue against pulling out. President Bush pauses Tuesday during a news conference at the North American Leaders summit in Canada. On Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, Bush will tell members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that \"then, as now, people argued that the real problem was America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end,\" according to speech excerpts released Tuesday by the White House. \"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left,\" Bush will say. \"Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields,' \" the president will say. The president will also make the argument that withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened today's terrorists by compromising U.S. credibility, citing a quote from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that the American people would rise against the Iraq war the same way they rose against the war in Vietnam, according to the excerpts. \"Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price to American credibility, but the terrorists see things differently,\" Bush will say. On Tuesday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, \"President Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two. Our nation was misled by the Bush Administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history. \"While the President continues to stay-the-course with his failed strategy in Iraq, paid for by the taxpayers, American lives are being lost and there is still no political solution within the Iraqi government. It is time to change direction in Iraq, and Congress will again work to do so in the fall.\" The White House is billing the speech, along with another address next week to the American Legion, as an effort to \"provide broader context\" for the debate over the upcoming Iraq progress report by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad. President Bush has frequently asked lawmakers -- and the American people -- to withhold judgment on his troop \"surge\" in Iraq until the report comes out in September. Watch Bush criticize the Iraqi government \u00bb . It is being closely watched on Capitol Hill, particularly by Republicans nervous about the political fallout from an increasingly unpopular war. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would wait for the report before deciding when a drawdown of the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq might begin. Bush's speeches Wednesday and next week are the latest in a series of attempts by the White House to try to reframe the debate over Iraq, as public support for the war continues to sag. A recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans -- 64 percent -- now oppose the Iraq war, and 72 percent say that even if Petraeus reports progress, it won't change their opinion. The poll also found a great deal of skepticism about the report; 53 percent said they do not trust Petraeus to give an accurate assessment of the situation in Iraq. In addition to his analogy to Vietnam, Bush in Wednesday's speech will invoke other historical comparisons from Asia, including the U.S. defeat and occupation of Japan after World War II and the Korean War in the 1950s, according to the excerpts. \"In the aftermath of Japan's surrender, many thought it naive to help the Japanese transform themselves into a democracy. Then, as now, the critics argued that some people were simply not fit for freedom,\" Bush will say. \"Today, in defiance of the critics, Japan ... stands as one of the world's great free societies.\" Speaking about the Korean War, Bush will note that at the time \"critics argued that the war was futile, that we never should have sent our troops in, or that America's intervention was divisive here at home.\" \"While it is true that the Korean War had its share of challenges, America never broke its word,\" Bush will say. \"Without America's intervention during the war, and our willingness to stick with the South Koreans after the war, millions of South Koreans would now be living under a brutal and repressive regime.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"President Bush to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Wednesday .\nBush to say that withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened today's terrorists .\nSpeech will be latest White House attempt to try to reframe the debate over Iraq .","id":"017d27d00eb43678c15cb4a8dd4723a035323219"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A chronology of bombings and attempted bomb attacks in the mainland UK since the 1970s: . Police close off streets around Haymarket, in London's busy theater district. June 29, 2007: Police defuse a bomb consisting of 200 liters of fuel, gas cylinders and nails found in an abandoned car in Haymarket, central London. A second car packed with gas and nails was later found to have been parked just a few hundred yards from the first, before it was towed away by traffic wardens in the early hours of Friday for violating parking restrictions. Police say two vehicles clearly linked. July 21, 2005: Two weeks after the deadly 7\/7 bombings, four men are alleged to have attempted to carry out a second wave of attacks against London's transport network at three London underground stations and aboard a bus. But their alleged rucksack bombs fail to explode. July 7, 2005: Four suicide bombers detonate themselves aboard three underground trains and a bus in a morning rush hour attack against London's transport network, killing 52 people and injuring around 700 more. Al Qaeda claims responsibility in a video statement. August 2004: Anti-terrorist police disrupt a plot by Islamic militants to blow up targets including the Ministry of Sound nightclub and the Bluewater shopping center in southeast England using explosives packed into limousines and large vehicles. Seven men are convicted in May 2007 and sentenced to up to 26 years in prison. March 2001: A car bomb explodes outside the BBC's London headquarters, wounding one man. Police blame the Real IRA, a republican splinter group opposed to the IRA's cease fire. April 1999: Three people die when a nail bomb explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub in London's gay district -- the third in a spate of series of nail bomb attacks also targeting immigrant areas of the city that left dozens injured. A 23-year-old self-declared \"Nazi\", David Copeland, is sentenced to six life terms. June 1996: A massive IRA bomb explodes in a shopping center in central Manchester, injuring more than 200 people. February 1996: Two people die as IRA terrorists detonate a bomb in London's Docklands area, causing damage estimated at around $170m and ending the group's 17-month cease fire. April 1993: An IRA truck bomb devastates part of London's financial district, killing one and wounding 44. March 1993: Two boys aged three and 12 are killed and dozens are injured by two bombs left in litter bins in Warrington, northern England. The IRA admits planting the bombs. April 1992: A huge IRA car bomb in London's financial district kills three people and wounds 91. February 1991: IRA terrorists launch a mortar attack at Prime Minister John Major's Downing Street offices. No-one is injured. September 1989: Eleven people die and 22 are wounded when an IRA bomb explodes at a Royal Marine music school in Deal, southern England. December 1988: A Pan Am airliner explodes over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 259 aboard and 11 people on the ground. Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the attack in 2001, was this week granted the right to mount a fresh appeal. (Read about Lockerbie bomber) October 1984: Five people die in an IRA bomb attack on a hotel in Brighton, southern England, where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet are staying for the Conservative Party's annual conference. December 1983: An IRA bomb at London's Harrods department store kills six people. July 1982: Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London's parks kill 11 people and wound 50. October-November 1974: A wave of IRA bombs in British pubs in Birmingham and Guildford kill 28 people and wound more than 200. February 1974: A coach carrying soldiers and families in northern England is bombed by the IRA, killing 12 and wounding 14. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two cars loaded with gasoline and nails found abandoned in London Friday .\n52 people killed on July 7, 2005 after bombs exploded on London bus, trains .\nBritish capital wracked by violence by the IRA for years .","id":"85f55a3e0dd672857aaaaa80954934a57b7a2fbf"} -{"article":"BREMEN, Germany -- Carlos Alberto, who scored in FC Porto's Champions League final victory against Monaco in 2004, has joined Bundesliga club Werder Bremen for a club record fee of 7.8 million euros ($10.7 million). Carlos Alberto enjoyed success at FC Porto under Jose Mourinho. \"I'm here to win titles with Werder,\" the 22-year-old said after his first training session with his new club. \"I like Bremen and would only have wanted to come here.\" Carlos Alberto started his career with Fluminense, and helped them to lift the Campeonato Carioca in 2002. In January 2004 he moved on to FC Porto, who were coached by Jos\u00e9 Mourinho, and the club won the Portuguese title as well as the Champions League. Early in 2005, he moved to Corinthians, where he impressed as they won the Brasileir\u00e3o,but in 2006 Corinthians had a poor season and Carlos Alberto found himself at odds with manager, Emerson Le\u00e3o. Their poor relationship came to a climax at a Copa Sul-Americana game against Club Atl\u00e9tico Lan\u00fas, and Carlos Alberto declared that he would not play for Corinthians again while Le\u00e3o remained as manager. Since January this year he has been on loan with his first club Fluminense. Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart said on Sunday that they would sign a loan agreement with Real Zaragoza on Monday for Ewerthon, the third top Brazilian player to join the German league in three days. A VfB spokesman said Ewerthon, who played in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund from 2001 to 2005, was expected to join the club for their pre-season training in Austria on Monday. On Friday, Ailton returned to Germany where he was the league's top scorer in 2004, signing a one-year deal with Duisburg on a transfer from Red Star Belgrade. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Werder Bremen pay a club record $10.7 million for Carlos Alberto .\nThe Brazilian midfielder won the Champions League with FC Porto in 2004 .\nSince January he has been on loan with his first club, Fluminense .","id":"77d7c8cf2a9432e395d629371a12790c563c19f7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney will serve as acting president briefly Saturday while President Bush is anesthetized for a routine colonoscopy, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday. Bush is scheduled to have the medical procedure, expected to take about 2 1\/2 hours, at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, Snow said. Bush's last colonoscopy was in June 2002, and no abnormalities were found, Snow said. The president's doctor had recommended a repeat procedure in about five years. The procedure will be supervised by Dr. Richard Tubb and conducted by a multidisciplinary team from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Snow said. A colonoscopy is the most sensitive test for colon cancer, rectal cancer and polyps, small clumps of cells that can become cancerous, according to the Mayo Clinic. Small polyps may be removed during the procedure. Snow said that was the case when Bush had colonoscopies before becoming president. Snow himself is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer that began in his colon and spread to his liver. Snow told reporters he had a chemo session scheduled later Friday. Watch Snow talk about Bush's procedure and his own colon cancer \u00bb . \"The president wants to encourage everybody to use surveillance,\" Snow said. The American Cancer Society recommends that people without high-risk factors or symptoms begin getting screened for signs of colorectal cancer at age 50. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"President Bush will have a routine colonoscopy Saturday .\nWhile he's anesthetized, his powers will be transferred to the vice president .\nBush had last colonoscopy in 2002, which found no problems .","id":"35f0e33de7923036a97ac245d899f990bda5e242"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A magnitude 4.2 earthquake shook the San Francisco area Friday at 4:42 a.m. PT (7:42 a.m. ET), the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The quake left about 2,000 customers without power, said David Eisenhower, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Light. Under the USGS classification, a magnitude 4.2 earthquake is considered \"light,\" which it says usually causes minimal damage. \"We had quite a spike in calls, mostly calls of inquiry, none of any injury, none of any damage that was reported,\" said Capt. Al Casciato of the San Francisco police. \"It was fairly mild.\" Watch police describe concerned calls immediately after the quake \u00bb . The quake was centered about two miles east-northeast of Oakland, at a depth of 3.6 miles, the USGS said. Oakland is just east of San Francisco, across San Francisco Bay. An Oakland police dispatcher told CNN the quake set off alarms at people's homes. The shaking lasted about 50 seconds, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. According to the USGS, magnitude 4.2 quakes are felt indoors and may break dishes and windows and overturn unstable objects. Pendulum clocks may stop. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"2,000 customers without electricity, power company says .\nMagnitude 4.2 quake set off home alarms, says Oakland police dispatcher .\n\"It was fairly mild,\" police say, no immediate reports of injuries, damage .\nIt was centered two miles east-northeast of Oakland, about 3.6 miles deep .","id":"2ad31cae96512af5105b9b23f9b681dc732b2605"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There is \"no remaining hope\" of finding six men trapped for almost a month in a Utah coal mine alive, a federal official said Saturday. Isaac Arellano holds a candle and sings during a fundraiser for miners Tuesday in Price, Utah. \"Over the past 25 days, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has exhausted all known options in our attempt to reach the six miners,\" Richard Stickler, head of the agency, said in a statement. \"The thoughts and prayers of the dedicated professionals at MSHA are with the families.\" Sympathy for the failed efforts also came Saturday from the White House. \"Last night, a difficult decision was made to end the search,\" President Bush said in a statement. \"Laura and I are deeply saddened by this tragedy and continue to pray for the families of these men.\" Labor Secretary Elaine Chao called the ordeal \"heartbreaking.\" \"The grueling around-the-clock rescue operation that claimed three lives and injured six others has also taken a tremendous toll on the many brave rescuers and the local community, and our thoughts and prayers are with them all,\" Chao said in a statement. After drilling seven holes into mine tunnels from the mountaintop above, there has been no sign of the miners -- and microphones have picked up no sound from the men. See a timeline of rescue efforts \u00bb . Tests showed underground oxygen levels were too low to sustain human life. \"We basically told the families that at this point in time we've run out of options,\" Stickler said at a news conference late Friday. \"We've consulted with the people that we have here, we've consulted with the technical support in Pittsburgh and we've consulted with private consultants in terms of where we can go,\" he said. \"And basically, through all the information we've gleaned over the past nearly four weeks in terms of the conditions we found, in terms of the air readings we found down there and ... everything else, we just don't know where else we can put a hole to get any other information.\" See photos of the rescue mission \u00bb . There were no public statements Saturday from Bob Murray, president and CEO of Murray Mining, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine, who was the outspoken face of the rescue operation for the first three weeks, then largely disappeared from public view. Federal officials became the spokesmen. No one from Murray Mining was present at Friday's news conference. \"They are done. It's finished,\" the attorney for the families said, according to the Saturday edition of The Salt Lake Tribune. \"It's a hard and bitter pill for our families, and there were quite a few tears shed,\" the newspaper quotes Colin King as saying. The men were trapped during a collapse on August 6, and it is not known whether they survived the cave-in. Efforts to reach them were suspended 10 days later when two rescuers and a federal mining official were killed, and six people were injured in a second collapse as they tried to tunnel horizontally toward the area where the men had been working. Murray said last week that the search effort would stop if no signs of life were found at the sixth hole. Under pressure from the families, however, he agreed to try one more time. Families wanted officials to drill a hole large enough to send down a rescue capsule. The effort to lower the robotic device down a seventh hole had been called \"a long shot\" by an official. MSHA's Stickler said that hole was drilled into the Crandall Canyon Mine on Thursday, but there were problems with a robotic camera that teams were trying to lower into it. Work resumed Friday, this time at the fourth hole, but the camera could only descend about 7 feet, he said. \"Basically, what it saw was really not that much. There was quite a bit of mud in there, water coming down the hole. It really couldn't go any farther than seven feet,\" he said of the latest try. In addition, the roof was sagging. \"The families asked many, many questions and we answered them all the best we could, basically coming to the conclusion that we had run out of options.\" Murray said last Saturday he has already filed paperwork with federal regulators to permanently close and seal the Crandall Canyon mine. \"I will never come back to that evil mountain,\" he said. Friends and family have identified the six missing miners as Luis Hernandez, Manuel Sanchez, Kerry Allred, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Don Erickson. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: President Bush says he and first lady are deeply saddened by the tragedy .\nMine Safety and Health Administration chief: We've run out of options.\nThe six men have been trapped underground since August 6 .\nSeven bore holes drilled into the mountain have found no signs of life .","id":"0d43b97000ff852282c89d8d105e41495c0ee9bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 14 people were killed and 60 others wounded Thursday when a bomb ripped through a crowd waiting to see Algeria's president in Batna, east of the capital of Algiers, the Algerie Presse Service reported. A wounded person gets first aid shortly after Thursday's attack in Batna, Algeria. The explosion occurred at 5 p.m. about 20 meters (65 feet) from a mosque in Batna, a town about 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Algiers, security officials in Batna told the state-run news agency. The bomb went off 15 minutes before the expected arrival of President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika. It wasn't clear if the bomb was caused by a suicide bomber or if it was planted, the officials said. Later Thursday, Algeria's Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said \"a suspect person who was among the crowd attempted to go beyond the security cordon,\" but the person escaped \"immediately after the bomb exploded,\" the press service reported. Bouteflika made his visit to Batna as planned, adding a stop at a hospital to visit the wounded before he returned to the capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. Algeria faces a continuing Islamic insurgency, according to the CIA. In July, 33 people were killed in apparent suicide bombings in Algiers that were claimed by an al Qaeda-affiliated group. Bouteflika said terrorist acts have nothing in common with the noble values of Islam, the press service reported. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bomb victims waiting for presidential visit .\nBlast went off 15 minutes before president's arrival .\nAlgeria faces Islamic insurgency .\nAl Qaeda-affiliated group claimed July attacks .","id":"bf0cd4ccacd4fe045995338f4c44d9cf18000226"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Football superstar, celebrity, fashion icon, multimillion-dollar heartthrob. Now, David Beckham is headed for the Hollywood Hills as he takes his game to U.S. Major League Soccer. CNN looks at how Bekham fulfilled his dream of playing for Manchester United, and his time playing for England. The world's famous footballer has begun a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy team, and on Friday Beckham will meet the press and reveal his new shirt number. This week, we take an in depth look at the life and times of Beckham, as CNN's very own \"Becks,\" Becky Anderson, sets out to examine what makes the man tick -- as footballer, fashion icon and global phenomenon. It's a long way from the streets of east London to the Hollywood Hills and Becky charts Beckham's incredible rise to football stardom, a journey that has seen his skills grace the greatest stages in world soccer. She goes in pursuit of the current hottest property on the sports\/celebrity circuit in the U.S. and along the way explores exactly what's behind the man with the golden boot. CNN will look back at the life of Beckham, the wonderfully talented youngster who fulfilled his dream of playing for Manchester United, his marriage to pop star Victoria, and the trials and tribulations of playing for England. We'll look at the highs (scoring against Greece), the lows (being sent off during the World Cup), the Man. U departure for the Galacticos of Madrid -- and now the Home Depot stadium in L.A. We'll ask how Beckham and his family will adapt to life in Los Angeles -- the people, the places to see and be seen and the celebrity endorsement. Beckham is no stranger to exposure. He has teamed with Reggie Bush in an Adidas commercial, is the face of Motorola, is the face on a PlayStation game and doesn't need fashion tips as he has his own international clothing line. But what does the star couple need to do to become an accepted part of Tinseltown's glitterati? The road to major league football in the U.S.A. is a well-worn route for some of the world's greatest players. We talk to some of the former greats who came before him and examine what impact these overseas stars had on U.S. soccer and look at what is different now. We also get a rare glimpse inside the David Beckham academy in L.A, find out what drives the kids and who are their heroes. The perception that in the U.S.A. soccer is a \"game for girls\" after the teenage years is changing. More and more young kids are choosing the European game over the traditional U.S. sports. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Beckham has agreed to a five-year contract with Los Angeles Galaxy .\nNew contract took effect July 1, 2007 .\nFormer English captain to meet press, unveil new shirt number Friday .\nCNN to look at Beckham as footballer, fashion icon and global phenomenon .","id":"2f43e9dfaa43ffbddbce339a8b6403ddce43b38a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A virus found in healthy Australian honey bees may be playing a role in the collapse of honey bee colonies across the United States, researchers reported Thursday. Honey bees walk on a moveable comb hive at the Bee Research Laboratory, in Beltsville, Maryland. Colony collapse disorder has killed millions of bees -- up to 90 percent of colonies in some U.S. beekeeping operations -- imperiling the crops largely dependent upon bees for pollination, such as oranges, blueberries, apples and almonds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says honey bees are responsible for pollinating $15 billion worth of crops each year in the United States. More than 90 fruits and vegetables worldwide depend on them for pollination. Signs of colony collapse disorder were first reported in the United States in 2004, the same year American beekeepers started importing bees from Australia. The disorder is marked by hives left with a queen, a few newly hatched adults and plenty of food, but the worker bees responsible for pollination gone. The virus identified in the healthy Australian bees is Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) -- named that because it was discovered by Hebrew University researchers. Although worker bees in colony collapse disorder vanish, bees infected with IAPV die close to the hive, after developing shivering wings and paralysis. For some reason, the Australian bees seem to be resistant to IAPV and do not come down with symptoms. Scientists used genetic analyses of bees collected over the past three years and found that IAPV was present in bees that had come from colony collapse disorder hives 96 percent of the time. But the study released Thursday on the Science Express Web site, operated by the journal Science, cautioned that collapse disorder is likely caused by several factors. \"This research give us a very good lead to follow, but we do not believe IAPV is acting alone,\" said Jeffery S. Pettis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory and a co-author of the study. \"Other stressors on the colony are likely involved.\" This could explain why bees in Australia may be resistant to colony collapse. \"There are no cases ... in Australia at all,\" entomologist Dave Britton of the Australian Museum told the Sydney Morning Herald last month. \"It is a Northern Hemisphere phenomenon.\" Bee ecology expert and University of Florida professor Jamie Ellis said earlier this year that genetic weakness bred into bees over time, pathogens spread by parasites and the effects of pesticides and pollutants might be other factors. Researchers also say varroa mites affect all hives on the U.S. mainland but are not found in Australia. University of Georgia bee researcher Keith S. Delaplane said Thursday the study offers a warning -- and hope. \"One nagging problem has been a general inability to treat or vaccinate bees against viruses of any kind,\" said Delaplane, who has been trying to breed bees resistant to the varroa mite. \"But in the case of IAPV, there is evidence that some bees carry genetic resistance to the disorder. This is yet one more argument for beekeepers to use honey bee stocks that are genetically disease- and pest-resistant.\" Bee researchers will now look for stresses that may combine to kill bees. \"The next step is to ascertain whether IAPV, alone or in concert with other factors, can induce CCD [colony collapse disorder] in healthy bees,\" said Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Besides the Columbia and USDA researchers, others involved in the study released Thursday include researchers from Pennsylvania State University, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the University of Arizona and 454 Life Sciences. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Colony collapse disorder has killed millions of bees .\nScientists suspect a virus may combine with other factors to collapse colonies .\nDisorder first cropped up in 2004, as bees were imported from Australia .\n$15 billion in U.S. crops each year dependent on bees for pollination .","id":"eb68bc51ed4fc727a1af058192a3fef0916c91e7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Savers at a leading UK mortgage bank lined up for a second day to empty their accounts Saturday, a day after the lender was bailed out by the Bank of England after heavily slashing profit forecasts. Fearful customers line up to withdraw cash from a Northern Rock branch in southeast London on Friday. Long lines formed before counters opened at the Northern Rock building society, one of the UK's top five lenders, as worried customers ignored reassurances from the bank and the government. Customers are believed to have already withdrawn about \u00a31 billion ($2 billion) since the bank's woes were revealed, prompting speculation that the global credit crunch made raising funds through commercial borrowing difficult. Shares in Northern Rock dropped up to 30 percent in Friday trading, with problems spilling over the European banking sector . The British Bankers' Association has urged customers to \"calm down,\" according to the UK Press Association. It said: \"Northern Rock is a sound and safe bank and there is absolutely no reason for either mortgage customers or savers to worry.\" Meanwhile, finance minister Alistair Darling said the Bank of England had stepped in \"to create a stable banking system\". He said: \"People can use their accounts in the usual way, they can carry on making their mortgage payments in the usual way. Northern Rock will be able to carry on its business.\" Northern Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth said yesterday that the bank had yet to draw on the emergency cash, which he called \"a backdrop in case we need to use it\", according to PA. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Savers at leading UK mortgage bank lined up to empty their accounts .\nNorthern Rock was bailed out by the Bank of England a day earlier .\nReassurances that banks was safe have gone unheeded by many .","id":"ad021a7924ee57491cee8576499ac196b1afeb23"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Former football star O.J. Simpson will be held without bail after his arrest on robbery and assault charges, police announced late Sunday. Police released this mug shot of O.J. Simpson after his arrest. Simpson is accused of having directed several other men in an alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia in a room at a Las Vegas hotel room. Las Vegas authorities said they have no information leading them to believe Simpson was carrying a firearm during the alleged incident at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino. Police said Simpson and other men burst into the room and walked out with the memorabilia, including some that was unrelated to Simpson, police said. \"We don't believe that anyone was roughed up, but there were firearms involved,\" Lt. Clint Nichols told reporters. Nichols said the firearms were pointed at the victims. A reporter asked Nichols: Was \"O.J. was the boss in that room?\" Nichols responded, \"That is what we believe, yes.\" Watch Simpson transferred Sunday in handcuffs \u00bb . The alleged victims were identified as Bruce Fromong, a sports memorabilia collector who described the incident as \"a home invasion-type robbery,\" and Alfred Beardsley, who has been quoted by celebrity Web site TMZ.com as saying that Simpson later apologized to him and told him he regretted the incident. Acting on a tip, police met over the weekend at McCarran International Airport with 46-year-old Walter Alexander, of Mesa, Arizona, who told them about the alleged robbery and validated the tipster's information, Capt. James Dillon told reporters. Alexander was arrested Saturday night on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon. He was released on his own recognizance and returned to Mesa either Saturday night or early Sunday morning, Dillon said. In addition, investigators are seeking four other men they believe accompanied Simpson into the hotel room, Nichols said. Nichols said, \"There is a social relationship between the individuals that we identified and O.J. Simpson.\" Though Simpson is not accused of having brandished a gun himself, two firearms that police said were used were recovered early Sunday in one of three searches. Investigators would would not divulge where the weapons were found. Nichols dismissed an initial report that the men may have been off-duty police. \"There is no truth to that whatsoever,\" he said. \"That came as a result of some language that was used when the individuals burst into the room that led our victims to believe that they may have been police.\" Simpson, 60, has acknowledged taking some items that belonged to him, but he has denied that any weapons were involved. \"Whether the property belonged to Mr. Simpson or not is still in debate,\" Nichols said. \"We are still in the process of sorting that out.\" Nichols also said that some of the property taken had Simpson's signature. But \"there was some other property taken as well,\" he said. \"I believe there were some Joe Montana cleats and some signed baseballs and other stuff.\" The latest charges against Simpson mean he faces the prospect of another prosecution, more than a decade after the June 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of murder the following year. The trial riveted much of the United States. But in 1997, a jury found him liable for the deaths in a civil case brought by the Goldman family. Simpson was ordered to pay the families a total of $33.5 million for the deaths . Goldman had gone to Nicole Simpson's Los Angeles home to return a pair of glasses the day of the slayings. Goldman's sister, Kim Goldman, said she wasn't surprised by the robbery allegations, since Simpson \"thinks he can do no wrong.\" \"He's capable of stabbing people to death, so I think robbery is nothing surprising,\" she said. \"Normal, logical, civil-minded, law-abiding people don't storm a room with guns demanding stuff back.\" Fromong had testified on Simpson's behalf in the civil case, telling the court that prices for Simpson memorabilia had dropped substantially since the 1995 verdict. His testimony was part of the defense's contention that Simpson could not afford to pay the Goldmans. Simpson recently wrote a book originally titled \"If I Did It\" and had planned to publish it himself, but a public outcry led to the cancellation of his book deal. A bankruptcy judge subsequently awarded the Goldmans the rights to the book in light of their inability to collect the wrongful death award. The Goldmans retitled the book, \"If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.\" That book just hit bookstores. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"No bail for ex-NFL star accused of directing men in alleged armed robbery .\nSimpson faces charges of robbery, assault, burglary and conspiracy .\nAlleged robbery involved sports-related items, police say .\nSimpson arrested Sunday in Las Vegas, but he says items were his .","id":"9d7fc7fd9ffbfecb1c458b9929fa02e6c3538368"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria's television survival show has been suspended after a contestant drowned in preparation for the program, said Dutch brewer Heineken's local unit which is sponsoring the show. Anthony Ogadje, 25, and nine other contestants had gone to Shere Hills Lake in Nigeria's hilly Plateau State to prepare for the \"Gulder Ultimate Search,\" which sets a variety of physical challenges for participants. A statement from Nigerian Breweries on Monday said Ogadje died suddenly and he was thought to have drowned. \"All attempts to revive him by the attendant medical team and the lifeguards, including his fellow contestants, failed,\" said Nigerian Breweries, which is majority-owned by the Dutch giant. Broadcasting had been due to start on Thursday. In the show, the weakest contestants are evicted one by one until a winner emerges. The prize money is a big attraction in a country where most people live in extreme poverty and benefit little from Nigeria's oil wealth. The winner was to get 5 million naira (about $39,000) in cash, a four-wheel drive jeep and another 500,000 naira (about $3,900) to buy clothes. The winner could also have expected to become an instant celebrity, attracting sponsorship deals. The Ultimate Search, which started in 2004, gets high ratings. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Anthony Ogadje, 25, reportedly drowned in Shere Hills Lake .\nHe was preparing for the show, \"Gulder Ultimate Search\"\nDutch brewer Heineken's local unit sponsors the program .","id":"30cb674030b01014d2c87b92f09152857e249631"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former government contract employee was indicted on charges of stealing restricted nuclear energy-related materials and putting the United States at risk, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Sources say the classified materials were taken from the East Tennessee Technology Park. Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, of Roane County, Tennessee, appeared in federal court in Knoxville on Thursday. Oakley was briefly detained for questioning in the case in January, when authorities first learned of the alleged plot to divulge the materials, government sources told CNN. He voluntarily surrendered Thursday at an FBI field office in Knoxville, the sources said. Oakley is a former employee of Bechtel Jacobs, the Department of Energy's prime environmental management contractor at the East Tennessee Technology Park, prosecutors said. The indictment states that Oakley, \"having possession of, access to and having been entrusted with sections of 'barriers' and associated hardware used for uranium enrichment through the process of gaseous diffusion ... having reason to believe that such data would be utilized to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation, did communicate, transmit and disclose such data to another person.\" The transfer took place January 26, the indictment alleges. Oakley is also charged with converting the material and \"restricted data\" to his own use. He began doing so on about October 17, 2006, and continued through January, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the materials involved have been examined by scientists and posed no threat to people who may have come into contact with them. Oakley's attorney, Herb Moncier, said outside court Thursday that Oakley's job was to break rods \"into little pieces\" and throw them away. Moncier said Oakley had a security clearance, but Moncier did not believe it was a high-level clearance. The government alleges that in January, Oakley attempted to sell the \"pieces of scrap\" to someone he thought was a French agent -- but in reality was an undercover FBI agent, Moncier said. He said he questions whether those broken pieces would be considered an \"appliance\" under the law. \"Mr. Oakley has cooperated fully for the last six months,\" said Moncier, who added that he had traveled to Washington for work on the case. Each count carries a possible sentence upon conviction of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. \"While none of the stolen equipment was ever transmitted to a foreign government or terrorist organization, the facts of this case demonstrate the importance of safeguarding our nuclear technology and pursuing aggressive prosecution against those who attempt to breach the safeguards and put that technology in the wrong hands,\" Kenneth Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security, said in the Justice Department statement. One government source said the materials involved are not the \"crown jewels,\" but they should not have been taken from the facility. A \"barrier\" is used to filter uranium during the enrichment process, according to nuclear energy officials, but a significant number of barriers are needed to do that job. Sources told CNN that federal authorities have been following Oakley and investigating the case for at least six months, after he allegedly tried to sell the classified material. Oakley, described as a low-level employee, apparently did not make contact with any foreign government and is not a foreign agent of any kind, an official familiar with the case said. A government official with with knowledge of the case said that when authorities learned of Oakley's alleged intentions six months ago, the FBI and Department of Energy launched a joint investigation. The FBI then developed a sting operation, government officials familiar with the case said, and authorities intervened before there could be any involvement of a foreign country. East Tennessee Technology Park is an area of the DOE's Oak Ridge reservation \"where we are currently decontaminating and decommissioning buildings that were last used in 1985,\" Gerald Boyd, manager of the DOE's Oak Ridge site office, said Thursday. \"When they were in use, now over 20 years ago, some of the buildings at ETTP housed facilities used for the enrichment of uranium.\" Boyd said the technology park and the reservation \"are protected by multiple layers of security systems and detection programs, both visible and unseen, meant to identify rogue employees attempting to abuse their access and position.\" In this case, a review of security procedures showed that the system worked and \"successfully identified the individual in question,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Terry Frieden and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Indictment: Man tried to pass nuclear filters to foreign agent .\nNEW: Roy Lynn Oakley appears in court in Tennessee after surrendering .\nNEW: Facility's role is to break down decommissioned equipment .\nNEW: Lawyer: Oakley's job was to break machine parts into pieces, pitch them .","id":"d41dc7fc05273a37f0aceaf4f3e35a187f12653e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Chelsea are waiting on the fitness of John Terry ahead of Wednesday's Champions League match with Valencia, but Frank Lampard has been ruled out. John Terry tries out his protective mask during training for Chelsea on Tuesday. Center-back Terry suffered a broken cheekbone during Saturday's 0-0 draw with Fulham, and Chelsea manager Avram Grant will see how he fares during training on Tuesday before making a decision on his availability. Terry trained at Valencia's Mestalla stadium with a face mask on after surgery on Sunday. \"John Terry wants to play which is very good. Now we need to wait for training and then we will speak with the medical department and decide,\" said Grant. Grant has confirmed that Lampard will definitely sit the game out though as the midfielder continues to recover from his thigh injury. Midfielder Michael Essien, who scored a last-minute winner for Chelsea to knock Valencia out of last season's Champions League, has also been battling a leg injury but he took part in training on Tuesday and is expected to play. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Chelsea are still waiting on the fitness of England captain John Terry .\nTerry trained in a face mask ahead of the Champions League tie in Valencia .\nThe central defender underwent surgery on a broken cheekbone on Sunday .","id":"fbc6a4d0697b2a3e8b549dcb1f80a8ce7bf47e34"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- Paul Lee got his liver from an executed Chinese prisoner; Karam in Egypt bought a kidney for his sister for $5,300; in Istanbul Hakan is holding out for $30,700 for one of his kidneys. Doctors in Pakistan have been arrested for abducting people, drugging them and stealing their kidneys. They are not so unusual: a dire shortage of donated organs in rich countries is sending foreigners with end-stage illnesses to poorer places like China, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Colombia and the Philippines to buy a new lease of life. Lee, a 53-year-old chief subway technician in Hong Kong, was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2005 but doctors denied him a transplant because they feared the tumor would spread. A friend told him about a transplant hospital in China's north eastern Tianjin city and he signed up for a place. That April, he paid 260,000 yuan ($34,380) for a transplant -- surgery that saved his life. \"The hospital has connections with a lot of prisons,\" Lee told Reuters. \"Mine came from an executed prisoner from Heilongjiang. I thank the donor deeply.\" The World Health Organization estimates that 21,000 liver transplants are carried out annually, but medical experts put annual worldwide demand at at least 90,000. Demand for kidneys also exceeds supply, and that has given rise to organ trafficking and a black market for rich people and \"transplant tourists\" who travel to poor countries to buy body parts from people with few other routes to a better living. A donor in South Africa receives $700 for a kidney compared with $30,000 in the United States. A lack of transparency and little protection for donors has spurred calls by international bodies to crack down on, or at least regulate, the trade. But even where the trade is banned, laws are often muddled or laced with loopholes, which are sometimes defended by vested interests. And the unregulated route is much less complicated for the recipient. Any transplant procedure involving a living donor carries risks for the donor -- especially for liver transplants which involve removing part of the donor's liver. The complications can include bleeding, infection, even death. In the transplant trade, the recipient need not worry about, for example, exposing a living relative to that risk. \"It is cheaper and your next of kin is not taking the risk and you don't have to care for someone you don't know. Once you pay, it is discarded in a way, it is dispensable,\" said Luc Noel, a Geneva-based coordinator for Clinical Procedures at the World Health Organization. China recently banned the sale of human organs and restricted transplants for foreigners, saying it must first meet demand at home for 2 million organs a year. Only 20,000 transplants are carried out in China each year. Of these, 3,000 are liver transplants and 95 percent of them use livers from dead donors. China defended its use of organs from executed prisoners, saying consent was obtained from convicts or their families. A transplant operation using the liver of a dead donor costs around $33,000 in China. \"What is important is the transparency, it has to be open to scrutiny ... if China makes its current system open to scrutiny and very transparent, that would do good,\" said the WHO's Noel. In Asia, a cultural obsession with keeping the body of the deceased intact has stymied public organ donation programs. Excluding China, Asia has fewer than 200 livers donated by people ahead of their death each year, said Lo Chung-man, professor of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery at the University of Hong Kong. Pakistan, where trade in human organs is not illegal, is turning into a \"kidney bazaar\", said the chief executive of Pakistan's Kidney Foundation, Jaffar Naqvi. There are no confirmed figures for the number of foreigners coming to the country for new kidneys but Naqvi said there were 13 centers in Lahore alone which reported more than 2,000 transplants last year from bought kidneys. Patients, mostly from Europe, Saudi Arabia and India, pay about 500,000 rupees ($8,500) for a new kidney, he said. Donors are paid $300 to $1,000 and often get no medical care after the surgery. There is no consent in some cases. In May police arrested nine people, four of them doctors, for abducting people, drugging them and stealing their kidneys for transplant operations. In the pipeline is a draft law aimed at banning the trade, but a powerful lobby bent on preserving it is trying to ensure it allows kidney donations for a non-relative, with no payment. Such a clause allowing \"altruistic\" organ donations will ensure the trade continues with secret payment to donors, Naqvi said. Stories of people selling their organs, especially kidneys, are not uncommon in Egypt, where more than 30 percent of a population of more than 73 million people live below the poverty line. Karam, who asked to be identified only by his first name because organ trading is illegal, said it took him only 15 days to secure a kidney for his sister who was suffering from kidney failure. He said a doctor found him a man willing to sell his kidney for 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,300). \"The fees of the doctor were 5,000 pounds. Both his money and the fees of the hospital were deducted from the money the 'donor' received,\" said Karam. He said doctors usually help in finding people willing to sell their organs from their patients' lists. Abdel-Kader Hegazy, head of the disciplinary committee at the Doctors' Union, said Egyptian law lacks clear punishment for those involved in illegal transplants, making it easy for doctors to repeat the offence. \"The law says it is illegal to trade in organs but does not specify the punishment. We at the union suspended many doctors and closed their practices, but they have appealed before courts and won their licenses back,\" he told Reuters. \"It is an annoying and a regrettable situation. Well-known doctors and professors are doing this. They are rich people but they do it because they have no moral values.\" The union has been pushing for legislation to regulate organ transplants, with a draft bill including heavy fines and a prison sentence for those involved and a ban on transplants between people of different nationalities. But the draft law has been languishing in parliament for several years because of differences between doctors and senior Muslim religious leaders on whether Islam allows organ transplants in the case of clinical deaths. In Turkey, students, unemployed young men and struggling fathers post adverts on the Internet selling their kidneys, listing their drinking and smoking habits and blood type. These would-be donors say they have had enquiries from Germany, Israel and Turkey with asking prices going up to 50,000 lira ($38,760). Hakan, a 27-year-old security guard in Istanbul with two young children who also requested only his first name be published, told Reuters he received five or six offers from Turkey and Germany, offering 10,000-15,000 lira ($11,600), but he's holding out for 40,000 lira. \"Of course it's frightening but there's nothing else to be done,\" he said, adding he hadn't told his wife as he knew she would object. \"I'm doing it because of my family, if I was alone it wouldn't matter. I've got two children ... there's nothing else I can do for them.\" E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Organ shortage in rich states has created a trade from poorer countries .\n\"Transplant tourists\" travel to poor countries to buy organs from the desperate .\nPakistan, where trade in human organs is legal, is turning into a \"kidney bazaar\"\nPatients pay $8,500 for a new kidney, while donors are paid just $300 to $1,000 .","id":"0753a471e6908c35bcbc2daa37e21f3a8443b590"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- \"To insure or not to insure?\" It isn't Shakespeare, but it is the dramatic question Hollywood filmmakers are asking about Lindsay Lohan following her legal troubles this week. Lindsay Lohan may still get work after her legal problems are settled, but the cost will be high. It is an important question, too, because whether companies insure Lohan's future movies may determine whether she will quickly fall off Hollywood's A-list. But Lohan fans have little to fear because no actor is uninsurable, say underwriting experts. While some producers may balk at conditions for hiring problematic stars, experts say that unless an actor is serving time in prison, even the most volatile can be covered -- albeit at a high cost. \"For a price, anything can be done, although an insurance carrier can make things so unpalatable that at times the makers of the film just won't be interested,\" said Ross Miller, partner with insurance brokerage D.R. Reiff & Associates Inc. Lohan's arrest this week in Los Angeles on suspicion of drunken driving and cocaine possession has left Hollywood wondering if the actress, who shot to fame as a child in Disney films like \"The Parent Trap,\" is too risky to cast in a film. Timeline: Lindsay Lohan's troubles \u00bb . It remains to be seen whether her latest relapse and brush with the law will cost her a role in \"Poor Things,\" a film produced by and starring Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine. See a gallery of Lohan's films \u00bb . A statement was expected early next week on whether the movie, already delayed this spring due to an earlier rehab stint by Lohan, will proceed with or without her. Insurance experts say the industry has long dealt with similar situations, although they may seem more frequent with the recent heavy media scrutiny of Lohan and fellow troubled party girls Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. \"I don't think it (a problematic artist) is any more of an issue,\" said Wendy Diaz, entertainment underwriting director at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., the leading film underwriter. \"It's pretty standard year to year.\" But Diaz did say the terms for covering Lohan would likely be \"serious at this point.\" She said Fireman's Fund, in such a case, would likely put in higher deductibles, or ask the star to put their salary into escrow to pay for any losses if production was disrupted. Last July, a producer on Lohan's last film, \"Georgia Rule,\" scolded her publicly for repeatedly showing up late on the set, costing the movie's makers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Brian Kingman, a managing director with entertainment insurance broker Aon\/Albert G. Ruben said covering situations like Lohan's required a lot of calculation and risk management. Insurance rates for errant actors can range anywhere from 1 percent to 3 percent of a movie's production budget, which can range from $5 million to $100 million or more, he said. \"Filmmakers fall in love with certain actors for certain roles and my job is to find risk-takers to take on the risk,\" Kingman said. He said actors were always required to undergo a medical exam before getting insurance. In certain circumstances, drug screening is conducted and actors are required to provide blood and urine samples. In cases of known drug abuse, \"minders\" are sometimes required on set to keep an eye on the actor. Kingman said he had even helped craft policies for actors in the event they risked the possibility of incarceration. \"I have been successful in finding and creating incarceration coverage for certain actors on probation which can be revoked if they break certain rules,\" he said, citing the case of Robert Downey Jr., another high-profile star with a history of legal, drug and alcohol problems. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Because of troubles, Lindsay Lohan likely difficult to insure .\nLohan supposed to appear in Shirley MacLaine film \"Poor Things\"\nInsurance rates may cost 1 to 3 percent of film's production budget .","id":"08450c1bc03472825196be1acb02ac0e13bef939"} -{"article":"ROME. Italy -- Italy and Roma striker Francesco Totti has threatened to quit the Italian Players Association, in a row over the starting date of the next Serie A season. Roma striker Totti has complained that the Italian players are never listened to. The row began last month, when the Italian Football League, which is run by the presidents of clubs in the country's top two divisions, voted to start the season on August 26. In doing so, they ignored a request by Italy coach Roberto Donadoni to play the first round of matches midway through the month, to give his players time to gain match-fitness ahead of Euro 2008 qualifiers against France and Ukraine in early September. \"I'm ready to leave the Italian Players Association. We are the principal actors, but also the people who are never listened to,\" Totti was quoted as saying in Italian football magazine Dieci. \"This is the moment in which we must make our voice heard. We wanted to start on August 19, to have an extra week's rest at Christmas and allow the national team to come into the big matches in September better prepared. \"Those who decided (on August 26) didn't care at all about Donadoni's needs.\" Serie A is one of the last major European leagues to start next season. The opening round of English Premier League matches is scheduled to start on August 11, while the French Ligue 1 will kick off on August 4. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Francesco Totti threatens to quit the Italian Players' Association .\nThe Italy and Roma striker is upset over the early start to the new season .\nHe says: We are the principal actors, but ... are never listened to.\"","id":"7fa8d9beca50155fd3d71a9087a4311ce321c34b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Allegations that Blackwater USA -- whose operations were suspended after 20 Iraqi civilians were shot to death last weekend -- was \"in any way associated or complicit in unlawful arms activities are baseless,\" the company asserted Saturday. Blackwater employees patrol Baghdad by air in a February 2005 photograph. Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that employees of Blackwater illegally purchased weapons and sold them in Iraq, according to U.S. government sources. A U.S. government official has said the U.S. attorney's office in Raleigh, North Carolina, is in the early stages of an investigation that focuses on individual company employees, and not the firm. Blackwater, which is based in Moyock, North Carolina, is a security firm hired by the State Department to guard U.S. staff in Iraq. \"The company has no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons,\" the Blackwater statement said. \"When it was uncovered internally that two employees were stealing from the company, Blackwater immediately fired them and invited the ATF to conduct a thorough investigation.\" Watch a report on Blackwater's response to the allegations \u00bb . The first public hint that an investigation was under way came earlier this week in a statement from State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard after he was accused of blocking fraud investigations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Krongard said the State Department has been cooperating with the prosecutors in the Blackwater probe. \"In particular, I made one of my best investigators available to help assistant U.S. attorneys in North Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq by a contractor,\" Krongard's statement said. Blackwater resumed normal security operations in Iraq on Friday, the State Department said, after a brief hiatus following the lethal incident last Sunday. The Iraqi government was outraged by the shootings and disputes the U.S. and Blackwater's claim that the guards were responding to an attack. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Elise Labott and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two employees bought, sold weapons on their own, company says .\nCompany fired workers, turned them in to ATF, says source .\nFeds investigating claims Blackwater employees made illegal arms deals .\nBlackwater in spotlight after shootings last weekend that killed 20 Iraqis .","id":"414a5b8ecbe189d2767c75b839775a1dcafaf4d3"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Youssif, the 5-year-old burned Iraqi boy, rounded the corner at Universal Studios when suddenly the little boy hero met his favorite superhero. Youssif has always been a huge Spider-Man fan. Meeting him was \"my favorite thing,\" he said. Spider-Man was right smack dab in front of him, riding a four-wheeler amid a convoy of other superheroes. The legendary climber of buildings and fighter of evil dismounted, walked over to Youssif and introduced himself. Spidey then gave the boy from a far-away land a gentle hug, embracing him in his iconic blue and red tights. He showed Youssif a few tricks, like how to shoot a web from his wrist. Only this time, no web was spun. \"All right Youssif!\" Spider-Man said after the boy mimicked his wrist movement. Other superheroes crowded around to get a closer look. Even the Green Goblin stopped his villainous ways to tell the boy hi. Youssif remained unfazed. He didn't take a liking to Spider-Man's nemesis. Spidey was just too cool. \"It was my favorite thing,\" the boy said later. \"I want to see him again.\" He then felt compelled to add: \"I know it's not the real Spider-Man.\" This was the day of dreams when the boy's nightmares were, at least temporarily, forgotten. He met SpongeBob, Lassie and a 3-year-old orangutan named Archie. The hairy, brownish-red primate took to the boy, grabbing his hand and holding it. Even when Youssif pulled away, Archie would inch his hand back toward the boy's and then snatch it. See Youssif enjoy being a boy again \u00bb . The boy giggled inside a play area where sponge-like balls shot out of toy guns. It was a far different artillery than what he was used to seeing in central Baghdad, as recently as a week ago. He squealed with delight and raced around the room collecting as many balls as he could. He rode a tram through the back stages at Universal Studios. At one point, the car shook. Fire and smoke filled the air, debris cascaded down and a big rig skidded toward the vehicle. The boy and his family survived the pretend earthquake unscathed. \"Even I was scared,\" the dad said. \"Well, I wasn't,\" Youssif replied. The father and mother grinned from ear to ear throughout the day. Youssif pushed his 14-month-old sister, Ayaa, in a stroller. \"Did you even need to ask us if we were interested in coming here?\" Youssif's father said in amazement. \"Other than my wedding day, this is the happiest day of my life,\" he said. Just a day earlier, the mother and father talked about their journey out of Iraq and to the United States. They also discussed that day nine months ago when masked men grabbed their son outside the family home, doused him in gas and set him on fire. His mother heard her boy screaming from inside. The father sought help for his boy across Baghdad, but no one listened. He remembers his son's two months of hospitalization. The doctors didn't use anesthetics. He could hear his boy's piercing screams from the other side of the hospital. Watch Youssif meet his doctor and play with his little sister \u00bb . The father knew that speaking to CNN would put his family's lives in jeopardy. The possibility of being killed was better than seeing his son suffer, he said. \"Anything for Youssif,\" he said. \"We had to do it.\" They described a life of utter chaos in Baghdad. Neighbors had recently given birth to a baby girl. Shortly afterward, the father was kidnapped and killed. Then, there was the time when some girls wore tanktops and jeans. They were snatched off the street by gunmen. The stories can be even more gruesome. The couple said they had heard reports that a young girl was kidnapped and beheaded --and her killers sewed a dog's head on the corpse and delivered it to her family's doorstep. \"These are just some of the stories,\" said Youssif's mother, Zainab. Under Saddam Hussein, there was more security and stability, they said. There was running water and electricity most of the time. But still life was tough under the dictator, like the time when Zainab's uncle disappeared and was never heard from again after he read a \"religious book,\" she said. Sitting in the parking lot of a Target in suburban Los Angeles, Youssif's father watched as husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, parents and their children, came and went. Some held hands. Others smiled and laughed. \"Iraq finished,\" he said in what few English words he knows. He elaborated in Arabic: His homeland won't be enjoying such freedoms anytime soon. It's just not possible. Too much violence. Too many killings. His two children have only seen war. But this week, the family has seen a much different side of America -- an outpouring of generosity and a peaceful nation at home. \"It's been a dream,\" the father said. He used to do a lot of volunteer work back in Baghdad. \"Maybe that's why I'm being helped now,\" the father said. At Universal Studios, he looked out across the valley below. The sun glistened off treetops and buildings. It was a picturesque sight fit for a Hollywood movie. \"Good America, good America,\" he said in English. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Boy on meeting Spider-Man: \"It was my favorite thing\"\nYoussif also met SpongeBob, Lassie and an orangutan at Universal Studios .\nDad: \"Other than my wedding day, this is the happiest day of my life\"","id":"cac7a712935380d74410a7cba8d406235d51249a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Marine convicted for his role in the death of an Iraqi civilian was sentenced Friday to a reduction in rank and will be discharged. Cpl. Trent D. Thomas was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit several offenses -- including murder, larceny, housebreaking, kidnapping, and making false official statements -- for his involvement in the April 2006 death in Hamdaniya, Iraq. Thomas will be demoted to the rank of entry-level private and will receive a bad-conduct discharge. The 25-year-old was among seven Marines and a Navy medic who were charged in connection with the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52. The Marines accused in the case were members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. They reported at the time that Awad planned to detonate a roadside bomb targeting their patrol. But several residents of Hamdaniya, including relatives of the victim, gave a different account, prompting a criminal investigation. Prosecutors accuse the group's squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, of dragging Awad from his home, shooting him in the street and then making it look like he had planned to ambush American troops. Hutchins has pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy and other charges in the case. He faces a sentence of life in prison if convicted. Thomas changed his plea from guilty to not guilty in February, arguing that he had merely followed orders. He told his attorneys that after reviewing the evidence against him, he realized \"that what happened overseas happened as a result of obedience to orders, and he hasn't done anything wrong,\" defense attorney Victor Kelley said. Thomas said in January, shortly after entering his guilty plea, that he was \"truly sorry\" for his role in the killing. He could have been sentenced to life in prison under his original plea. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Cpl. Trent D. Thomas found guilty this week of conspiracy to commit murder .\nMarine gets rank of private, will be discharged for role in death of Iraqi civilian .\nGroup's leader awaits trial on murder and conspiracy charges .","id":"e9093ca0a82f2aba28cd2762942c04177cfbb000"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Prince Harry led tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales on the 10th anniversary of her death, describing her as \"the best mother in the world\" in a speech at a memorial service. Here is his speech in full: . William and I can separate life into two parts. There were those years when we were blessed with the physical presence beside us of both our mother and father. Princes Harry and William greet guests at a thanksgiving service in memory of their mother. And then there are the 10 years since our mother's death. When she was alive, we completely took for granted her unrivaled love of life, laughter, fun and folly. She was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. She will always be remembered for her amazing public work. But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world. We would say that, wouldn't we. But we miss her. She kissed us last thing at night. Her beaming smile greeted us from school. She laughed hysterically and uncontrollably when sharing something silly she might have said or done that day. She encouraged us when we were nervous or unsure. She -- like our father -- was determined to provide us with a stable and secure childhood. To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age, as others have experienced, is indescribably shocking and sad. It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night. But what is far more important to us now, and into the future, is that we remember our mother as she would have wished to be remembered as she was: fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine. We both think of her every day. We speak about her and laugh together at all the memories. Put simply, she made us, and so many other people, happy. May this be the way that she is remembered. Prince William's reading from St Paul's letter to the Ephesians: . I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Thanks be to God. The Bishop of London's speech: . \"Who's cheating?\" The scene is an old people's home. Two residents are playing Beggar My Neighbor. Enter the Princess. The question from the royal visitor is unexpected but everyone laughs. Afterwards they comment on her large eyes and what life she brought into the room. One tiny incident, characteristic of countless other occasions in the Princess's public life in which she found the right word or the right gesture to bring cheer and comfort. Everyone here will have their own memories. I remember meeting Princess Diana for the very first time early in 1981 to discuss details of the wedding service in St Paul's. Even Archbishop's Chaplains have their share of proper diffidence and I was nervous entering the presence. It must have been a bewildering time for the Princess as well, but even then, at the age of 20, her capacity for empathy and her very strong intuitive power ensured that any tension soon evaporated. Prince Harry has spoken movingly and justly, as few others have the right to do, about the Princess as a mother. I want to dwell for a moment on her public work, its cost and its meaning. After her marriage, the Princess joined her natural gifts of beauty, empathy and powerful intuition with that extraordinary charge which association with the Royal Family generates. Led by our Queen and other members of the Royal Family, our constitution has developed in response to the challenges of the past century. There is a properly political sphere in which the monarch may counsel but doesn't intrude, but there is another sphere, vital to any sense of national unity and creativity, a sphere in which communities must be celebrated, common values articulated and the transcendent source of those values honored. We tend to be suspicious of public figures who wrap themselves in divinity and claim that their will is God's will, but if no-one can articulate in an un-ignorable way in the public realm the creative energy of the love that we see in Christ, the human face of God, then we shall find ourselves inhabiting a maimed and diminished society. And at a time when people are suspicious of rhetoric, the monarchy communicates by symbol and by simple speech, and the Princess brought her own gifts to this work. She was still only 26 in 1987 when she shook the hand of a patient at the opening of the Middlesex Hospital's Aids ward. It was the first in the UK and it is very hard now to credit the degree of fear and prejudice which surrounded Aids in the '80s. Those familiar with the field have no doubt that the Princess played a significant part in overcoming a harmful and even a cruel taboo in a gesture which was not choreographed but sprung from a deep identification with those who were vulnerable and on the margin. And she had a similar impact in the USA. An editorial in the New York Times in 1989 admitted ruefully that it had taken a foreign, and even a royal, dignitary to draw attention to a major public health concern in the US. Her work in the very last year of her life for the victims of landmines also caught the popular imagination internationally and certainly accelerated the adoption of the Ottawa Convention, banning the use of a weapon which disproportionately kills and maims women and children. She proved the eloquence of embrace and of touch which, of course, have been used by royal healers throughout the centuries. And as she said, in her words, \"the biggest disease today is not leprosy or TB but the feeling of being unwanted\". She sought out places of suffering, because they are so very often places of truth where the masks have been removed, and she was not afraid to be with the dying and to comfort them in an unsentimental way. Bill Deedes accompanied her on some of her visits. His response to the cynics was typically robust. He said: \"She was one who sought above all to help vulnerable people in society and who did it so well. She was good at this because she herself was vulnerable. She knew the feeling. She didn't set out to be a saint.\" The role brought great power but, like any member of the Royal Family, she also experienced the weight of expectation and the intensity of the scrutiny. Honoring but managing the role and not allowing it to take over one's personal humanity is a desperately difficult task. As we have heard from Prince Harry, his mother Diana did all that she could to prepare her sons for the work which lies ahead. She confessed to receiving a very great deal from some of those whose lives she touched. She said of John, a young Greek suffering from cystic fibrosis: \"He showed no sign of anger, no trace of bitterness but touched us all with an aura of optimism and hope for the future such that I have never before encountered.\" The love of Christ described in the lesson read by Prince William contains the essence of the spiritual life. Princess Diana recognized this quality of life in many of those, like John, whose lives she touched. It was a mystery which resonated deeply with her and for which she reached out. And the mystery is this - the more you go beyond yourself, the more you will become your true self; the more you lose yourself in loving and serving others, the more you will find yourself; the more you keep company with those who suffer, the more you will be healed. This is the knowledge which passes all understanding. This is certain and has been proved experimentally in the life of all the saints. It's easy to lose the real person in the image, to insist that all is darkness or all is light. Still, 10 years after her tragic death, there are regular reports of \"fury\" at this or that incident, and the Princess's memory is used for scoring points. Let it end here. Let this service mark the point at which we let her rest in peace and dwell on her memory with thanksgiving and compassion. Let us also, echoing the words of Prince Harry, look to the future and pray, in the words of St Paul, for all those who serve our country as members of the Royal Family and most especially for the sons who were so precious to her: . \"I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power with all the saints to grasp what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ and to know this love which surpasses knowledge that you might be filled with the fullness of God.\" Amen. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Prince Harry describes Princess Diana as \"the best mother in the world\"\nHe asks for her to be remembered as \"fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine\"\nBishop of London praises her humanitarian work .\nHe says that disputes about her death should \"end here\"","id":"55a6aabd120f0b18297f7efe22452f9b3aca0d8d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's declaration that France had to prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over its nuclear program was not conventional diplomatic behavior. But then Kouchner was never expected to be a soft-soaper on the diplomatic scene. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has a reputation for challenging convention and authority. A surprise appointment from the Socialist ranks to Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government, the founder of Medicins Sans Frontiers has always challenged convention and authority. The former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once called Kouchner 'an unguided missile' and the man himself has been known to declare: \"To change the law you sometimes have to break the law\". He was in his youth one of the leaders of the students revolt in France in May 1968. Kouchner is a humanitarian as well as a patriot, with a strong commitment to human rights. Unusually for a man of the Left, he supported the US-led intervention in Iraq (while criticizing the aftermath). But he did so on the grounds of Saddam Hussein's denial of human rights, not his possible possession of weapons of mass destruction. His and President Sarkozy's concern for human rights lies behind their eagerness to join Gordon Brown's Britain in a new push for action in Darfur. Bernard Kouchner did not come to his position with any of former President Chirac's instinctive distrust of the United States. Washington, which has been critical of some European states for their weakness in confronting Teheran, will have been delighted by his 'get serious' warning to Teheran. But the plain-speaking Kouchner is unlikely to be deterred by fears of upsetting the White House when he has criticisms to make of US policy. How much should be made of his words on Iran remains unclear at this stage. They were scarcely on the same scale as President Chirac's threat when he was still in office to retaliate with nuclear strikes against any state found to be responsible for a large-scale terrorist attack on France. But they are all of a piece with France's new high-profile style under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Kouchner, for example, became the first French Foreign Minister to visit Iraq since 1988, insisting that there could only be a political solution to the country's problems, not a military one, and offering France's services as a mediator and 'honest broker' between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. On Iran he is, in a way, merely echoing the words of his President who declared in a speech last month that a nuclear-armed Iran would be 'unacceptable' and describing the stand-off over its nuclear program as 'undoubtedly the most serious crisis before us today'. Certainly Mr Kouchner is making clear that France no longer takes the view once expressed by President Chirac that a nuclear-armed Iran might be inevitable . In continuing to ratchet up the rhetoric over that threat and to underline the West's resolution on Iran's nuclear enrichment program Mr Kouchner is supplementing his president's warnings. Neither is saying that military intervention against Iran is imminent or inevitable. Neither has yet confirmed that France would be part of any such military action. But both are stressing the risks which are piling up as a result of Teheran's brinkmanship. Perhaps the strongest lesson though from Mr Kouchner's intervention is his underlining that the new administration in France is not a knee-jerk anti-American one -- and that France is in the business of reclaiming a role at the top diplomatic tables. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"French FM Kouchner has told France to prepare for possibility of war with Iran .\nWas a surprise appointment to Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government .\nAlso the first French Foreign Minister to visit Iraq since 1988 .\nFounder of Medicins Sans Frontiers, also French student leader in May 1968 .","id":"06bc2f0272d033b123e9eebbb221c62d7d51c283"} -{"article":"1. \"F\u00fcr Elise\" Bob Dylan wrote \"It Ain't Me, Babe\" for Joan Baez. Written by: Ludwig van Beethoven . Written for: Some girl probably not named Elise. In fact, as far as most historians can tell, Beethoven didn't even know an Elise. Instead, the song was originally titled \"Bagatelle in A minor\" based on some handwritten notation a Beethoven researcher claimed to have seen on a now-lost copy of the sheet music. Further complicating things, Beethoven had hideous handwriting -- to the point that some scholars speculate the song was actually written \"for Therese,\" as in Therese Malfatti, one of several women who turned down a marriage proposal from the notoriously lovesick maestro. 2. \"Philadelphia Freedom\" Written by: Elton John & Bernie Taupin . Written for: Billie Jean King, as a thank-you for a tracksuit she gave Elton. And what a tracksuit it must have been! The 1975 song remains one of the most popular disco hits ever, leaving thousands of Hustle enthusiasts wondering just what Billie Jean King had to do with Philadelphia, anyway. Turns out, the song was a reference to King's pro tennis team, The Philadelphia Freedoms. Prior to 1968, tennis players were all considered \"amateurs\" and weren't eligible to receive prize money. So, if you didn't have the wealth to support yourself, you couldn't play. Billie Jean King fought against those constraints, ultimately founding Professional World Team Tennis in 1974 and turning tennis into a paid league sport. 3. \"Lola\" Written by: The Kinks' Ray Davies . Written for: A transvestite. But the question is, which one? According to Rolling Stone, \"Lola\" was inspired by Candy Darling, a member of Andy Warhol's entourage, whom Ray Davies briefly (and cluelessly) dated. If that's the case, then \"Lola\" is just another notch on Darling's song belt -- she's also referred to in Lou Reed's \"Walk on the Wild Side.\" (\"Candy came from out on the Island\/ In the backroom she was everybody's darlin'.\") But, in the Kinks' official biography, Davies tells a different story. He says \"Lola\" was written after the band's manager spent a very drunken night dancing with a woman whose five o'clock shadow was apparently obvious to everyone but him. 4. \"867-5309\/Jenny\" Written by: Jim Keller (of Tommy Tutone) and Alex Call . Written for: Unknown, as the songwriters apparently make up a different story about its inspiration every time they're asked. While the woman continues to remain a mystery, however, the phone number is all too real. In fact, it's been wreaking havoc ever since 1982 and the passage of time hasn't quelled of the number of crank calls. In 1999, Brown University freshman roommates Nina Clemente and Jahanaz Mirza found that out the hard way, when the school adopted an 867 exchange number for its on-campus phone system. Immediately, the girls' innocuous Room No. 5309 became a magnet for every drunk college kid with a 1980s fetish. Other unfortunate phone customers have fought back with creative and profitable solutions, like the holder of 212-867-5309, who put his phone number up for auction on eBay in 2004. Bids approached $100,000 before eBay pulled the item at the request of Verizon, the number's actual owner. 5. \"Oh, Carol\" Written by: Neil Sedaka . Written for: Carole King, naturally. Sedaka and King actually dated briefly in high school -- a romance Sedaka was able to successfully milk with \"Oh, Carol,\" a then top-10 (if now somewhat forgettable) 1959 pop song. However, the real success of \"Oh, Carol\" came a few months later, when it inspired King to write a rebuttal entitled \"Oh, Neil.\" At the time, King and her husband, Gerry Goffin, were fledgling songwriters in need of a hit tune. \"Oh, Neil\" wasn't that, but it did pay off. After Sedaka gave a tape of the song to his boss, King and Goffin landed jobs at the legendary Brill Building pop music factory, where the duo went on to write chart-toppers like \"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow\" and \"The Loco-Motion.\" 6. \"It Ain't Me, Babe\" Written by: Bob Dylan . Written for: Joan Baez, though it clearly wasn't the nicest gift Dylan could have given her. The two met in 1961, when Baez was an up-and-coming folk singer and Dylan was a nobody from Minnesota. Desperate to make his break in the music biz, Dylan worked like crazy to get Baez's attention. He eventually ended up going on tour with her, which is how he first became famous, and also how the two began dating. For a while, they seemed like the golden couple, but things soon went downhill. During a European concert tour together in early 1965, they had a huge fight and parted ways. That May, Dylan was holed up in a hotel after being hospitalized with a virus, and Baez, hoping to remain friends, decided to bring him flowers. Sadly, that's how she found out that her ex was already dating someone else. That someone else was Sara Lownds, whom Dylan married a mere six months later. 7. \"Our House\" Written by: Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) Written for: Joni Mitchell. In December 1968, Nash and Mitchell moved into a cozy little house in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. Though commonly left out of the hippy pantheon, Laurel Canyon was sort of a commune-home away from commune-home for San Francisco society -- not just CSN&Y, but also Jim Morrison, the Eagles, Frank Zappa, and more. \"Our House\" was directly inspired by a lazy Sunday in the Nash\/Mitchell household. The couple went out to brunch, hit an antiques store, and then returned to find the house just a bit chilly, at which point Nash literally \"lit a fire,\" while Mitchell \"placed the flowers in the vase that she bought that day.\" No, really. The whole tableau seemed so ridiculously domestic to Nash that he immediately sat down and spent the rest of the day writing about it. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Several famous songs written by men for a woman .\nBeethoven's \"F\u00fcr Elise\" may have been written \"for Therese\"\nSongwriters make up stories about who is behind \"867-5309\/Jenny\"","id":"17e43e8e7d2bbbb237df78537d108c3fa917d9fb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A wide-open presidential race and a willingness by candidates, interest groups, unions and corporations to buy TV time will lead to historic spending for political and issue-advocacy advertising in the 2008 election cycle, an analysis shows. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has spent the most on TV advertising so far among presidential contenders. The cost to try to influence the 2008 election could exceed $3 billion, according to TNS Media Intelligence\/Campaign Media Analysis Group, CNN's consultant on political television advertising. This is nearly twice as much than what was spent in 2004 when political and issue-advocacy television advertising rang in at $1.7 billion. In 2006, $2.3 billion was spent on political and issue-advocacy TV commercials. Just about every candidate running for an office from dogcatcher to president is spending the money, said Evan Tracey, CMAG's chief operating officer. The costs to produce a TV commercial are no longer prohibitive for local and state candidates, who are turning more and more to the airwaves to reach voters. See how spending breaks down for this year \u00bb . And interest groups have spent $6.2 million on TV ads so far this year for state and local ballot measures. On the national level, the cost of issue-advocacy television ad spending was $270 million in the first nine months of this year. Subjects ranged from the Iraq war to telecommunications reform. Television ads on health care alone total $60 million. CMAG estimates more than $3 million of the $270 million spent to air issue-advocacy ads this year has gone for commercials in states and districts that are likely to have competitive House and Senate races in 2008. Tracey said he thinks this is just the beginning of interest groups \"pivoting from legislative advocacy mode to political mode.\" \"What we expect to see between now and the end of the primaries, and through the general election, is groups will take a more aggressive stance on their advertising and actually target candidates,\" he said. With 17 Democratic and Republican candidates running for president, CMAG predicts that more than $800 million will be spent on TV ads in the battle for the White House. Up to now, the political commercials have been largely focused on the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Voters in some of the 20-plus states holding nominating contests on February 5 will start seeing ads in the coming months. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads all candidates in TV spending, having aired his commercials more than 11,000 times this year at a cost of nearly $8.6 million. This is a record for the number of airings at this point in a presidential election cycle. Watch how Romney is way ahead in ad spending \u00bb . In contrast, one of Romney's chief rivals for the GOP nomination, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has spent nothing on television ads, but Giuliani leads in the national polls and is within striking distance of the lead in several state surveys. Giuliani enjoys widespread national name recognition, while Romney does not. In the race for the Democratic nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has spent more than $2.3 million on television commercials, while New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has spent $1 million less and leads in both national and early state polls. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has probably benefited the most in the Democratic contest from the $2 million he has invested in his television commercials. Richardson's humorous TV ads effectively stated his experience as a lawmaker, diplomat and executive, and positioned him as a solid second-tier candidate. Romney used his $8.6 million in television ads to introduce himself as a social and fiscal conservative to Republican voters. These voters might otherwise not know much about him other than that he was the governor of the traditionally liberal Massachusetts. Romney is leading polls in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Further evidence of how Romney's television commercials have helped is in South Carolina. An American Research Group poll of South Carolina Republicans in August showed Romney registering at 9 percent with these influential primary voters. A month later, and with $350,000 worth of commercials aired in the two weeks leading up to the next poll, Romney was up 17 percentage points. Romney's latest ad began airing Friday in Iowa, and in it he vows to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, to boost the military by 100,000 people, to strengthen U.S. intelligence capabilities and to monitor calls into the U.S. from al Qaeda. All of these issues should play well with conservatives who participate in the Iowa caucuses. While only a handful of Democratic candidates and Romney have used the airwaves until now, Tracey said he expects this to change. \"Before the end of October, I suspect all the frontrunner candidates will be on the air,\" Tracey said. \"As we get closer to primary day, the frontrunners will be joined by all the candidates in the race who are taking their last, best shot.\" In the fight for Congress, CMAG predicts that as much as $639 million could be spent on television advertising. Democrats control the House and Senate. Tracey noted that CMAG's 2008 election cycle forecast does not take into account unforeseen events such as former Florida Rep. Mark Foley's House page scandal or the September 11 terrorist attacks. \"Politics is completely beholden to events,\" he said. \"Events will ultimately determine how much is spent, where and when.\" What television advertising challenges do candidates and interest groups face in the coming months? \"Chances are, just as what happened in 2006, voters will be numb after watching hundred and hundreds of ads,\" said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. \"The sheer number of ads probably dilutes their importance. After a while, the ads just become lots of chatter and an ad will have to be really good to cut through the noise.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Amount almost double what was spent in 2004 election cycle .\nLower TV production costs help more candidates advertise .\nMitt Romney leads presidential candidates in TV spending .\nAdvertisers face challenge of cutting through clutter of ads, analyst says .","id":"ddcdeb9bdd19fa23f9495c85d48eeee910f33102"} -{"article":"PHUKET, Thailand (CNN) -- Relatives of the 89 people killed in Sunday's plane crash in Phuket continued to arrive in the Thai resort town on Tuesday to try to identify their loved ones' remains. A Buddhist monk blesses the wreckage of One-Two-Go airline's MD-82 jet at Phuket airport on Tuesday. Most of those killed were foreign nationals, and about 36 of the bodies still have yet to be identified, according to Thailand's state-run Thai News Agency (TNA). All of the unidentified victims were foreign nationals, it reported. The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said that five Americans were among those killed when the One-Two-Go jet crashed in bad weather as it landed at Phuket's airport on Sunday. U.S. officials had previously confirmed that four Americans died in the crash, and one survived. Eight British nationals are believed to have died, according to Foreign Secretary David Miliband. He said three were still in hospital, with one in a critical condition. Thailand's Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said that of the 41 survivors who remain hospitalized, 38 were in stable condition and three in critical condition, according to TNA. Flight 269 was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members when it left Bangkok for Phuket on Sunday afternoon. Nationalities of the survivors include British, American, Swedish, Iranian, Austrian, Australian, Thai, German, Irish, Italian, Israeli and Dutch, authorities said. Watch a survivor recall the fiery horror \u00bb . One man who arrived in Phuket on Tuesday from Paris described a frustrating process of trying to communicate with Thai officials in his effort to locate the remains of his brother. For some families, DNA testing may be the only way to positively identify their relatives. Meanwhile, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders gathered outside Phuket's airport on Tuesday to remember those killed. The investigation into what caused the crash continues, but the strong winds and rain are a suspected factor. U.S. officials are aiding in the investigation because the aircraft -- a Boeing MD-82 -- was manufactured in the United States. One air traffic controller at Phuket airport said pilots were warned of possible wind shear, which is dramatic changes in wind speed and direction. Airport officials said that the wind at the time of the crash was 17 kilometers an hour (11 miles an hour) with stronger gusts, but no planes were delayed or diverted because of the weather conditions. The decision to land was the pilot's alone, according to Phuket's airport manager. \"Air traffic control would give weather information to pilot and warning information but the final decision is dependent on the pilot,\" Pornchai Eua-Aree said. One-Two-Go officials would not speculate on what may have happened, saying they will wait for the findings of the investigation. But they did say their aircraft were regularly checked and maintained, and denied some media reports that questioned whether the discount airline employed more inexperienced pilots for lower salaries. One-Two-Go is one of about 40 low-cost airlines operating in Asia, and the industry will be watching closely for the results of the investigation into the crash. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Andrew Stevens contributed to this report .","highlights":"Relatives of the 89 people killed in Thai air crash are still arriving in Phuket .\nAbout 36 of the bodies have yet to be identified, according to Thai authorities .\nU.S. Embassy in Bangkok confirms that five Americans were among the dead .\nThe investigation into what caused Sunday's crash is still continuing .","id":"ee0ba7928d8987f2cb21c9a2012a76730f77de45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Filmmaker Michael Moore, whose new documentary \"Sicko\" takes on America's health care system, faced off Tuesday with CNN chief medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Michael Moore and CNN's Sanjay Gupta argued Tuesday about Gupta's report on Moore's film \"Sicko\" Moore criticized a report Gupta did on CNN Monday on \"Sicko.\" \"He said the facts were fudged,\" Moore said, referring to Gupta, on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"That's a lie. None of the facts are fudged.\" Moore and Gupta shouted and argued over data Gupta used and data Moore used. Moore said his staffers backed up the film's facts to Gupta before the report aired and that Gupta aired it knowing his facts were wrong. Gupta disputed that. Watch Moore, Gupta make their points \u00bb . \"We try and look for some of the best sources we can possibly find,\" he said. \"Michael has a lot of different numbers. ... You're sort of cherry-picking data from different reports.\" Both agreed, however, on the basic premise of \"Sicko\": Problems abound in America's health-care system and need to be fixed. \"I thought it was a good movie, and I wanted to say that,\" Gupta said. \"I think it strikes at the irrefutable fact -- it's broken. We get it.\" He praised Moore for raising awareness of the issue. However, Gupta said he was concerned that the movie -- which notes that other developed nations such as France and Canada have universal health care --suggests that health care in those countries is free. While patients may not pay for services at the doctor's office, they do pay high taxes to fund such a system, something Gupta said he was concerned that \"Sicko\" audiences might not realize. Moore responded by saying Americans pay more in copays, deductibles and insurance premiums. \"We [America] have a system built on profit,\" the moviemaker said. He asked Gupta if the current system, which requires him to receive approval from an insurance company before performing some procedures, is cumbersome to him. \"It's a shameful system, especially when I'm dealing with some of my patients,\" Gupta said. But he questioned Moore's apparent solution -- putting health care in the hands of the Bush administration, which Moore fiercely criticized in the past, particularly in his film \"Fahrenheit 9\/11.\" \"The government actually used to do things right,\" Moore said in response. \"The problem is who we put in power.\" Moore has adamantly opposed the war in Iraq and said the government should reprioritize -- a position he took many years before skepticism of the war's success abounded in Washington. \"I am sorry we've taken so much time trying to correct [Gupta's] facts here tonight instead of talking about the real issue\" -- the ailing health care system, Moore said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Moore criticized a report Gupta did on CNN Monday on \"Sicko\"\nGupta's report questions some of the movie's numbers and solutions .\nGupta: \"I thought it was a good movie, and I wanted to say that\"","id":"554fd99f28ae12472c5d99ef6383bb184744c25a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some Democrats appear to be wavering on a highly contentious House resolution labeling Turkey's treatment of Armenians in World War I as genocide. A KC-135 tanker lands at Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey in 2003. Turkey, a longtime U.S. ally and NATO partner, was incensed by the resolution calling the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide and threatened to block access to Incirlik Air Base after the resolution passed a House committee vote. The base, in southern Turkey near Syria, is a major resupply center for U.S. operations in Iraq and elsewhere in the Mideast and Asia. The Pentagon is preparing to set up new supply routes for troops in Iraq if Turkey cuts off U.S. access to the strategically important Incirlik, military officials said Tuesday. Ankara acknowledges the killings of Armenians during World War I but vehemently objects to the \"genocide\" label. The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week adopted the nonbinding resolution. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would bring the measure to a vote of the full House sometime next month. But the Bush administration urged Congress to drop the issue, and some leading Democrats urged Pelosi not to bring it to the floor. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer signaled Tuesday that the vote might be put off. \"I said I thought we would bring this up prior to us leaving here,\" said Hoyer of Maryland. \"I have not changed on that, although I would be less than candid to say that there are a number of people who are revisiting their own positions. We will have to determine where everybody is.\" Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced his opposition to the resolution last week. And Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida and John Tanner of Tennessee, both members of the U.S. House delegation to NATO, urged Pelosi to reconsider in a letter released Tuesday. \"More than half of the cargo flown into Iraq and Afghanistan comes through Incirlik Air Base, and this base would be a key component of any plans for redeployment of our troops in the future,\" they wrote. Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pentagon planners are looking at \"a broad range of options\" to keep food, fuel and ammunition flowing to U.S. troops in Iraq if Turkey blocks Incirlik. \"We're confident that we'll find ways to do that,\" Ham told reporters at the Pentagon. \"There's likely to be some increased cost and some other implications for that, and obviously we'd prefer to maintain the access that we have.\" Defense Secretary Robert Gates echoed lawmakers' concerns last week. \"About 70 percent of all air cargo going into Iraq goes through Turkey. ... About a third of the fuel that they consume goes through Turkey or comes from Turkey,\" Gates said. He also said that 95 percent of the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protective vehicles, or MRAPs, being deployed in Iraq are flown through Turkey. The vehicles are built to withstand roadside bombs. See Incirlik's key location \u00bb . The U.S. military issued a \"warning order\" a few days ago to ensure that alternative air crews, planes, fuel and routes are lined up if Turkey stops or restricts U.S. access to Incirlik, a source said. Jordan and Kuwait are among the alternatives the United States is considering. Some fear pursuit of the resolution would also embolden the Turks to attack Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq which could further complicate Iraqi stability, U.S. officials said. Incirlik offers 10,000- and 9,000-foot runways and 57 hardened aircraft shelters, according Globalsecurity.org, a source of background information about military issues. Globalsecurity said Incirlik has become a hub for cargo shipments to Iraq, taking over for Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany because it is closer to Iraq, reducing the strain on troops and aircraft. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Barbara Starr and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Majority Leader says a number of Dems are \"revisiting their own positions\"\nTurkey is upset about World War I \"genocide\" resolution in Congress .\nHouse resolution calls killing of Armenians \"genocide\"\nIncirlik Air Base is key point for U.S. military supply of Iraq mission .","id":"9e141ebc1c06d483bf85f4e5c8b3c7bc2d00ea2f"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Twelve-year-old Mohammed Rasoul, his right leg severed below the knee, maneuvers on crutches over the dirt and loose stones through the Falluja graveyard. Mohammed Rasoul sitting with his mother, Jinan Khalifa, eagerly awaits his trip to the United States. Row after row of headstones stand as the deadly reminder of the tragedy the city went through as insurgents battled for control of the city. Mohammed stops at his cousin's grave. \"I feel an ache when I think of her. Every time I remember her, I cry,\" he told CNN at a visit to the grave a few months ago. As he spoke, he poured water on a tree he planted next to it. The headstone reads: \"Martyr 643, the child Hajer Ismael Khalil, 13 October 2006.\" Clutching her photograph, Mohammed says, \"My cousin died on the scene. I still remember her screams.\" The same explosion cost him his leg and his childhood. \"A car came out of nowhere. My cousin was playing with her friend,\" he says. \"I remember [the car] was green. It detonated.\" Watch Mohammed tell his story \u00bb . His mother, Jinan Khalifa, remembers that day all too well. She was in the kitchen when she heard a deafening explosion. \"There was shattered glass from the windows falling all over us. I went outside and saw my son covered in blood from head to toe,\" she says. Her son endured 11 operations before doctors amputated his leg below the knee. Khalifa says her son put forward a tough face, but when he finally went back home the shock hit him. \"That's where his personality started to change. He stopped laughing,\" she says. \"It was tearing me up,\" Mohammed says \"It was hard for me to watch others play. And I couldn't, I couldn't walk, it agitated me.\" CNN first broadcast his story in May where it caught the attention of an American charity, the Global Medical Relief Fund, which offered to help. \"I cannot put my feelings into words,\" Khalifa says. \"An entire book would not be enough. They gave my son his hope back. The America we knew was one that came, bombed, harmed. But when this organization came forward, we saw another face of America.\" The Global Medical Relief Fund, a small charity based in New York that helps children of war and natural disasters, has arranged for surgery and treatment at the Shriners Children Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Elissa Montanti, the founder and director of the organization, says she was inspired to act when she first heard of Mohammed's tragic story. \"I said, 'Oh, please, let me help this boy.' \" Mohammed will arrive in the United States on Thursday afternoon. He will be fitted for a prosthetic leg in coming weeks and examined to see if he needs additional surgery. Montanti said her organization has a list of other young Iraqi children in need of help. \"The word needs to get out.\" Asked how it makes her feel to help Mohammed, she says, \"It makes me cry with joy.\" Mohammed, too, is ecstatic. \"I didn't think this act of human kindness would be presented to me,\" he says. \"I didn't have hope in Iraq -- hope that I would ever get my hope back. I didn't have a future.\" He adds, \"I want to go to America and meet this person that gave me my future back.\" When he comes back home, he wants to help rebuild Falluja, starting with his school, which was bombed during the 2004 Falluja offensive. \"I will never leave school and, God willing, I will continue my education and become an architect and build all the schools,\" he says, standing on his crutches. But first, he says, he wants to walk to water the tree he planted next to his cousin's grave. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report from Atlanta.","highlights":"Boy, 12, lost leg to car bombing in Iraq; cousin was killed by blast .\nHe is now heading to the United States to get a prosthetic leg .\nBoy: \"I want to ... meet this person that gave me my future back\"\nCharity director says helping the boy makes her \"cry with joy\"","id":"c9160e2f5ce386dabb10517e7a5c0933c01a9546"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- India has elected its first female president, official results show, in what supporters are calling a boost for the rights of millions of downtrodden women, despite a bitter campaign marked by scandal. Pratibha Patil, 72, is India's first elected female president. Pratibha Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee for the mainly ceremonial post, easily beat opposition-backed challenger and vice president, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, in a vote by the national parliament and state politicians. \"This a victory of the people,\" Patil told reporters after official results were announced Saturday. \"I am grateful to the people of India and the men and women of India and this is a victory for the principles which our Indian people uphold.\" Patil won about two thirds of the electoral college votes. There had never been any doubt she would win, given support from the ruling coalition. The governor of the northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, she emerged on the national stage when the Congress-led coalition and its communist allies failed to agree on a joint candidate. \"This is a very special moment for us women, and men of course, in our country because for the first time we have a woman being elected president of India,\" Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, said. Supporters hoped Patil's candidacy would help bring issues that plague women in India, like dowry-related violence, into the public spotlight. A woman is murdered, raped or abused every three minutes on average in India. Her presidency also reflects the growing power of some women in India, where an increasing number are taking part in the workforce and in schools and hold senior positions in corporations. After the results, Patil supporters took to the streets, singing and dancing as others lit fire crackers and beat large brass drums. India has had a number of female icons in the past -- most famously Sonia Gandhi's mother-in-law, Indira, who was one of the world's first female prime ministers in 1966. But hope Patil's presidency would spark only positive talk about women's influence in India evaporated when it emerged the bank for women she helped established was closed in 2003 because of bad debts and amid accusations of financial irregularities. The employees' union has taken Patil and others to court, claiming loans meant for poor women were instead given to her brother and other relatives and not returned. She was also accused of trying to shield her brother in a murder inquiry. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has dismissed accusations against her as \"mud-slinging\", said on Saturday her victory was \"a vote against the politics of divisiveness\". \"All the allegations against me are motivated and have already been answered,\" Patil said in a statement last week. Her campaign was marked by other mishaps as well. She managed to offend many minority Muslims, and anger some historians, by saying Indian women first veiled their heads as protection against 16th century Muslim invaders. Then she dismayed modern India by claiming she had experienced a \"divine premonition\" that she was destined for higher office from a long dead spiritual guru. Critics also dug up a comment she was said to have made as Maharashtra's health minister in 1975, saying people with hereditary diseases should be sterilized. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"India elects first female president, official results show Saturday .\nPratibha Patil's supporters are calling victory a boost for women's rights .\nBitter election campaign was marked by scandal .\n72-year-old Patil was the ruling coalition's nominee for mainly ceremonial post .","id":"d256aee1a47eb5b489dee6fb72ab7f7d1483a37f"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- More than 100 homes in an upscale San Diego community were evacuated after a landslide about 60 yards wide pulled the earth from beneath a three-lane road and some of the multimillion-dollar homes that adorn it. Gina Yarbrough sent this picture of the road that collapsed in Wednesday's landslide. Mayor Jerry Sanders declared a state of emergency, asking California and the federal government to help the La Jolla community recover from the Wednesday landslide. As of Thursday morning, he had already received offers of aid from legislators, the governor's office and the White House, he said. Officials warned for at least two weeks that the ground was shifting beneath the hillside community along Soledad Mountain Road. Holes were drilled into the unsettled hillside to investigate the cause and magnitude of the shift, which earlier ruptured a water line, and according to some media reports, began cracking Soledad Mountain Road in July. On Wednesday, a 20-foot-deep chasm opened beneath the road and homes. Holli Weld told San Diego's KGTV that she was walking her son to preschool when the street collapsed. Watch a resident recall how he had to grab his dogs and run \u00bb . \"The street was sinking before our eyes,\" she said. Authorities told KGTV that most residents were at work and only seven people were in their homes when the landslide occurred. Evacuated homeowner Russell Moore told CNN he remembers hearing the earth \"groan\" in what he called a \"slow avalanche.\" \"The asphalt that should be under my feet was 8 feet in the air,\" Moore said. \"We watched the trees snapping and cracking and more boulders come down to our feet and we were witnessing this move.\" See photos of the hole the landslide left in La Jolla \u00bb . At least 111 homes were evacuated, but Sanders said residents would be allowed to return to 75 of those houses by early Thursday morning. Several homes were damaged and at least one was destroyed, according to media reports. Nine homes are \"red tagged,\" meaning no one is allowed to enter them, and 27 more are \"yellow tagged,\" which means residents can return for necessities, but cannot stay, Sanders said. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the landslide downed power lines and caused a minor gas leak. More than 2,400 customers were briefly left without electricity, but most residents had their power restored by Thursday, KGTV reported. The Red Cross opened a shelter at La Jolla High School. Deputy city engineer Robert Hawk told the Union-Tribune that the hillside has slowly been slipping for years because the soil is unstable. Landslide incidents in the neighborhood date back to the 1960s, Hawk told the newspaper. Pat Abbott, a retired geological sciences professor at San Diego State University, told the Union-Tribune that Mount Soledad is made up of weak layers of rock and that the culprit in the landslide is nature. \"Gravity pulling on the incline is pulling down masses of earth and those masses of earth have houses on top of them,\" Abbott told the paper. \"It's a geologically bad site and should not have been built on to begin with.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"San Diego mayor declares state of emergency; White House, governor offer aid .\nOfficials were investigating the shifting earth in the area for weeks .\nResidents can return to 75 of the 111 evacuated homes Thursday, mayor says .\n\"We watched the trees snapping and cracking,\" says one evacuated resident .","id":"2fff2bc541ef34a6647dfa2e4294cdcc187e47b9"} -{"article":"ABECHE, Chad (CNN) -- Most of the 103 children that a French charity attempted to take to France from Chad for adoption are neither Sudanese nor orphans, three international aid agencies reported on Thursday. Hundreds of women protest child trafficking and shout anti-French slogans Wednesday in Abeche, Chad. Six members of Zoe's Ark were arrested last week as they tried to put the children on a plane to France, where the charity said host families were waiting to take the children in. Three French journalists, a seven-member Spanish flight crew and one Belgian were also arrested. Representatives of the journalists and flight crew said they were unaware of problems with Zoe's Ark and thought they were on a humanitarian mission. Chadian President Idriss Deby hopes the journalists and the flight crew will be freed, his chief of staff, Mahamat Hissene, said Thursday. The president would legally be able to intervene in the case if it is transferred from a judge in the eastern city of Abeche, where the children were taken, to a judge in N'Djamena, the capital, Hissene said. The transfer will take place Monday, according to media reports. The International Red Cross Committee, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF said most of the children were living with their families before Zoe's Ark took them. The charity said the children were Sudanese orphans that it was trying to rescue from a war-torn nation. The agencies said most of the children also probably come from Chadian villages along Chad's border with Sudan. The children have been living in an orphanage in Abeche while authorities and aid agencies try to determine their identities. Watch a report on whether the children are orphans \u00bb . Chadian authorities immediately accused the charity of kidnapping the children and concealing their identities. Chad's interior minister said Zoe's Ark dressed the children in bandages and fake intravenous drips to make them look like refugees who needed medical help. The charity workers and journalists have been charged with kidnapping and extortion and could face 20 years of hard labor if convicted. The Spaniards and Belgian are charged with complicity. The Spanish flight crew is innocent and should be released, a company executive said Thursday. \"We thought we were doing a humanitarian transport,\" said Antoni Cajal, sales director of Spain's Gir Jet charter firm. \"If an NGO [nongovernmental organization] has done something wrong, it's impossible for us to know.\" Spain's Foreign Ministry has publicly expressed its disagreement with the charges and has dispatched top diplomats to Chad to try to win the group's release. Over the weekend, the captain appealed urgently to be rescued, fearing the crew could be harmed or killed, Cajal said. But the four women and three men are in good condition in custody, Cajal said, based on his conversations with a Spanish consular official who came from Cameroon to Chad and has been able to visit them. The detention is the first problem of its kind for the company, which hopes government negotiations can resolve the issue, Cajal said. On its Web site, Zoe's Ark describes itself as a nonprofit organization based in Paris that sends teams of physicians, nurses, firefighters and other specialists to care for children in war zones and place them with families in France, who then apply for asylum on their behalf. The Red Cross, UNHCR and UNICEF said the 21 girls and 82 boys range in age from about 1 year to about 10, and they are healthy. The agencies said they have been interviewing the children individually to determine their backgrounds. \"So far, the interviews carried out with the children -- some of whom could not provide any information due to their young age -- led to the preliminary conclusion that probably 85 come from Chadian villages near the cities of Adre and Tine along the Chadian-Sudanese border,\" the agencies said. \"Ninety-one children said they had been living with their family, consisting of at least one adult they considered to be their parent,\" the agencies said, adding that interviews with the remaining 12 children were ongoing. The agencies called their investigation painstaking and challenging because of the number of children, their youth and the situation in the region. Other French charities earlier had questioned whether Zoe's Ark could legally arrange adoption of children from Darfur, and contacted French authorities, according to French newspapers and The Associated Press. French authorities have reacted angrily to the Zoe's Ark trip, calling the group's actions \"illegal and irresponsible.\" The French Foreign Ministry has said the dispute will not affect France's participation in a European peacekeeping force due to be deployed along the border between Chad and Sudan. In response to the dispute in Chad, the Republic of Congo said late Wednesday it was suspending all international adoptions, The Associated Press reported. Reporters Without Borders said it will work for the release of the three journalists arrested in Chad. The organization said photographers Marc Garmirian of the Capa news agency and Jean-Daniel Guillou of the Synchro X agency were on assignment for their news organizations and were not part of the charity's efforts. The third journalist, Marie-Agnes Peleran of the TV station France 3 Miditerranee, was traveling with the group in a personal capacity, though she carried a camera from her station, Reporters Without Borders said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Al Goodman contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Chadian president wants journalists, flight crew released .\nRed Cross, UNICEF, UNHCR interview children that charity tried to fly out of Chad .\nMost are not from Sudan and have families, agencies say .\nSix members of Zoe's Ark, 11 others under arrest in Chad .","id":"677375a4c69e81ab623af7c06a6b0a8d03d6350e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Explorer Dennis Schmitt found an island nearly two years ago near Greenland. Fishermen pass by Greenland's Ilulissat fjord in this September 2004 picture. Such a discovery would usually elicit curiosity, even wonder perhaps, but it evoked mixed feelings for the explorer. The island was once thought to be a peninsula attached to Greenland by an ice shelf or a glacier. But such a large amount of ice melted, it revealed the distinct island. \"I very quickly realized two things,\" he told CNN's Anderson Cooper during a visit to the island earlier this year. \"One [was] that this was going to be significant because it was going to be an example of climate change.\" \"The other thing was that it meant it was really happening. It wasn't a joke. It wasn't just statistics. It was really happening.\" He calls his discovery Warming Island. Many climatologists and scientists say arctic ice melt and other changes in the Earth's climate are the result of an increase in the world's temperature, a trend widely called global warming. Many global warming experts say the phenomenon, if unchecked, is capable of altering the world's climate and geography. In the worst-case scenario, experts say oceans could rise to overwhelming and catastrophic levels, flooding cities and altering seashores. Other scientists and observers, a minority compared to those who believe the warming trend is something ominous, say it is simply the latest shift in the cyclical patterns of a planet's life. Most of the scientific community believes that some warming is occurring across the globe and through some layers of the atmosphere. But why it is occurring and what that means for the future is scientifically and politically contentious. The Earth's temperature averages about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (about 16 degrees Celsius). The average surface temperature has warmed one degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) during the last century, according to the National Research Council. The temperatures were relatively unchanged from 1880 to 1910, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They rose till about 1945, cooled until about 1975 and have risen steadily to present day. There are several possible reasons for the warming, scientists say. A change in the Earth's orbit or the intensity of the sun's radiation could change, triggering warming or cooling. The reason most cited -- by scientists and scientific organizations -- for the current warming trend is an increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases, which are in the atmosphere naturally and help keep the planet's temperature at a comfortable level. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, for instance, has increased by 35 percent since the dawn of the industrial age, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commonly referred to as the IPCC. The presence of methane is now 151 percent above pre-industrial levels, but the rate of increase has slowed in recent decades, according to the EPA. Meanwhile, nitrous oxide increased by about 18 percent during the past 200 years. Many scientists and experts who have studied global warming believe the increase is primarily the result of human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels, emissions from vehicles and the clearing of forests. \"For the last 30 years, there's no way there's anything natural that can explain it,\" Stephen Schneider, a professor of environmental studies at Stanford University in California, said. \"A vast bulk of the knowledgeable and honest community ... will say the science is settled and humans are at least a majority of the reason behind the warming,\" he added. Many scientific organizations share Schneider's view, ranging from the national academies of the countries that comprise the G8 to the National Research Council, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. But there are those who do not share his view, and among the skeptics is Richard Lindzen, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \"We've suddenly taken to reading tea leaves,\" he said. \"When we saw cooling from 1940 to 1970, we were proclaiming global cooling. Since then, there's been a few tenths of global warming, so we're proclaiming global warming.\" He believes the current warming trend is the result of natural variability, where a planet goes through phases of warming and cooling and the human contribution to it is minimal. \"The Earth is always getting colder and warmer,\" he said. \"It's always changing. In fact, this is true of any fluid-covered planet.\" Asked about glacial melt, which many observers point to as evidence of global warming, Lindzen said the way glaciers change and move are phenomena largely unexplained. \"We don't know why, but it's perfectly clear that glaciers change even though the temperature is cooling at the place that they've occurred,\" he said. \"What we're doing is cherry picking any event that occurs and then saying that's occurring due to global warming.\" Yet, for Schneider, it is a cause for concern and alarm. \"We're already in serious melt, nobody can explain it. The models don't predict it,\" he said. \"We don't know what's going on up there. All we know is that we could be triggering something really nasty.\" The greatest point of contention is the possible implications for future political and economic policies for the world's nations. The IPCC in February 2007 projected that if carbon dioxide levels doubled relative to pre-industrial levels, temperatures could rise between 3.6 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius) by 2100. The lower end of the range could cause more intense hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and flooding, Schneider said. The higher end could lead to the catastrophes commonly associated with the visions of Hollywood filmmakers. Uncertainties, however, plague such forecasts, which are based on computer simulations and models. The models contemplate factors associated with how the atmosphere, oceans and continents interact, all natural elements that have unpredictability intrinsic to them. \"Exactly how much it's going to warm up, we don't know,\" Schneider said. \"That it's going to warm up? I'd bet anything on that.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Earth has warmed one degree in past 100 years .\nMajority of scientists say greenhouse gases are causing temperatures to rise .\nSome critics say planets often in periods of warming or cooling .","id":"33530f97118cc905b05cb920671492c7bfdf3a3b"} -{"article":"MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- An enraged crowd dragged the body of an Ethiopian soldier through the streets of Somalia's capital Thursday after gun battles with Islamic insurgents killed 19 people, witnesses reported. In a brutal echo of a 1993 battle involving Somali militias in which the bodies of U.S. troops were dragged through the streets, crowds Thursday shouted \"God is great\" as they pulled the bruised, bullet-riddled corpse through a dusty Mogadishu neighborhood. The body was bound hand and foot with wire and wrapped in a sheet of plastic when insurgents pulled it out of a car and left it with the crowd in the northern Mogadishu neighborhood of Suqa Holaha, witnesses reported. Nine Ethiopians are reportedly part of the 19 dead. Another battle broke out on the city's south side Thursday morning between Ethiopian troops and insurgents armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The fighting drove hundreds more people from their homes, on top of the tens of thousands aid agencies say have fled in recent weeks. \"Ethiopians will launch violent attacks on us, for some of their comrades have been killed today,\" said Rahma Nor Omar, an elderly woman in the capital. \"They will be like wounded animals.\" Witnesses put the death toll from the day's clashes at 19, including Ethiopian troops, insurgents and civilians. Ethiopian troops arrived in Somalia in December 2006 to help a weak Somali government drive the Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu and restore a U.N.-backed transitional government after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. The Islamists responded by launching an insurgency against Somali government and Ethiopian troops that has lasted nearly a year. The United States accused the ICU of harboring suspected al Qaeda figures, including three men wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and raised no objections to Ethiopian presence in Somalia. Washington has long been concerned that Somalia could turn into a safe haven for terrorists, but ICU leaders denied harboring al Qaeda suspects. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ethiopian soldier dragged after battle with Islamic insurgents killed 19 people .\nThe body was bound hand and foot with wire and wrapped in a sheet of plastic .\nIncident recalls 1993 dragging of U.S. soldier through streets of Mogadishu .\nWashington is concerned Somalia could turn into a safe haven for terrorists .","id":"3c19a753303ae0d67b3ae28e070c0f4157ffc52d"} -{"article":"BOLINGBROOK, Illinois (CNN) -- The disappearance of a suburban Chicago police sergeant's wife is now being treated as a potential homicide, and her husband is a suspect, authorities said Friday. Stacy Peterson, 23, has been missing from her suburban Chicago home since October 28. In another development, a judge signed an order to exhume the body of Drew Peterson's third wife, who was found drowned in a bathtub in 2004, said Will County State Attorney James Glasgow. Peterson, 53, said he last spoke to 23-year-old Stacy Peterson -- his fourth wife -- the night of October 28. Drew Peterson initially told the media he believed his wife ran off with another man, but he hasn't repeated that accusation. CNN has been unable to contact Drew Peterson for comment. The couple have been married four years and have two children, who have been interviewed for the investigation, Glasgow said. Drew Peterson also has older children from a previous marriage. Investigators have twice searched the couple's home and vehicles, and removed several items, including computers, said Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich. Drew Peterson allowed a limited search on the night his wife was reported missing, but investigators were not allowed to look throughout the entire house and were given access to only one of the vehicles at that time, Dobrich said. \"Early on, we looked at this as a missing persons case, but also believed strongly ... it was strongly starting to look at Drew Peterson as being a person of interest,\" Dobrich said. \"I would say that right now, Drew Peterson has gone from being a person of interest to being a suspect.\" New information turned up during the investigation also raised questions about the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, which was ruled an accident by a coroner's jury, Glasgow said. \"There are strong indications that it was a homicide,\" he said. \"That's why we are doing the exhumation, because there are tests that need to be done that weren't done during the first autopsy.\" Watch why authorities want to exhume the body \u00bb . Glasgow cited abrasions on Savio's body and a gash on her head that could not be readily explained. \"Our main thrust is to determine whether or not it was a homicide, and as we do that, we will see if there is any evidence that implicates anyone,\" he said. Glasgow, who was not state attorney at the time of Savio's death, said he reviewed the case file before deciding to reopen the case. \"With 29 years of experience, there was no doubt in my mind it wasn't an accident,\" he said. \"That was clear.\" In 2002, Savio was charged once with battery and once with domestic battery against her husband, but was found not guilty at trial, Glasgow said. Another time, she tried to bring domestic battery charges against Peterson, but no charges were ever filed. Savio's sister, Sue Doman, said Savio expressed fear of Drew Peterson. \"She told me all the time, 'He's gonna kill me. It's gonna look like an accident,' \" Doman said. Doman said she didn't believe her sister could have died in the way the investigation concluded. \"I don't understand accidental drowning. You just don't drown in the bathtub, especially a small whirlpool. You just don't do that,\" she said. Meanwhile, friends and family of Stacy Peterson said she expressed concerns about her husband. A friend, Steve Cesare, has told CNN he received e-mail from her describing her relationship as abusive. The woman's aunt, Candace Aikin, of El Monte, California, said Stacy Peterson confided in her that there were problems during a visit to the Peterson home in suburban Chicago last month. \"She said that she was afraid because he was following her around 24\/7, even inside the house,\" Aikin said. \"He was very obsessed and stalking her, even inside her house. She was very, very full of stress and just not happy in her marriage at all,\" Aikin said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Judge signs order to exhume the body of Drew Peterson's third wife .\nPeterson has said he believed his fourth wife left him for another man .\nPolice: Case shifts from a missing persons search to a potential homicide .\nFriends and family: Stacy Peterson expressed concerns about her husband .","id":"9313988d26672c576f08e130c895edf20d8aa626"} -{"article":"QUEBEC, Canada -- Third seed Julia Vakulenko will face comeback queen Lindsay Davenport in her first WTA Tour final at the Bell Challenge on Sunday. Julia Vakulenko will seek her first victory on the WTA Tour at the Bell Challenge in Quebec. The Ukrainian battled through with a 6-1 4-6 7-5 victory over American qualifier Julie Ditty in the semifinals. The 24-year-old, who reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open, had previously twice lost at the last-four stage this year in Las Vegas and Berlin. She reached a career high of 33rd in the world rankings back in May, but is now 36th. \"Sometimes you play your best and win easy, but sometimes you don't play your best and really have to fight hard,\" said Vakulenko, who squandered points for 5-3 leads in both the second and third sets. \"I'm just going to try my best -- I've never played her and I'm looking forward to it.\" Former world No. 1 Davenport is seeking her second win in three tournaments since returning from a one-year hiatus to have a baby. The 31-year-old, who is unseeded after accepting a wild-card to enter the Canadian tournament for the first time, also had to battle to beat Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 in the semifinals. The three-time Grand Slam winner has surged back up the rankings from 234th to 126th after winning her comeback tournament in Bali and then reaching the last four in Beijing. The American has now beaten Zvonareva in all six encounters between the two players. \"I played well in the first set and had some chances early in the second set, but I didn't quite capitalize on them. I was able to come back but at 4-4 and 5-5 I just didn't return well enough,\" Davenport said. \"I was happy I was able to regroup in the third set. Physically I feel good. There are lots of positives I can take from it, especially beating a really good player and now being in the final. \"I want to be the one on the offensive and not the defensive, and that's what I'm going to try to do. \"I was trying to watch the first semifinal and see if that helped, but I play so much differently than Julie Ditty that it was hard to get anything from it.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Julia Vakulenko has reached her first final on the WTA Tour at Bell Challenge .\nThe Ukrainian third seed will face Lindsay Davenport after beating Julie Ditty .\nFormer world No. 1 Davenport defeated Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva .","id":"72f4a6670ec7ec915c83d58bb0ebf152b1605bb6"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hours after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered troops to take a television station's equipment and put a popular opposition leader under house arrest. President Pervez Musharraf explains his actions in a televised address Saturday. Musharraf also suspended the constitution and dismissed the Pakistan Supreme Court's chief justice for the second time. On Sunday, police arrested the Javed Hashmi, the acting president of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's opposition party was arrested, along with 10 aides, The Associated Press reported. Hashimi was arrested when he stepped outside his house in the central city of Multan, AP reported. The country is at a critical and dangerous juncture -- threatened by rising tensions and spreading terrorism, Musharraf said in a televised address to the nation after declaring martial law. As Pakistani police patrolled the streets of the capital, Islamabad, Musharraf said his actions were \"for the good of Pakistan.\" Watch Musharraf's speech \u00bb . There was quick condemnation from within and outside his country. The Supreme Court declared the state of emergency illegal, claiming Musharraf -- who also is Pakistan's military chief -- had no power to suspend the constitution, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry said. Shortly afterward, government troops came to Chaudhry's office and told him the president had dismissed him from his job. Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar was quickly appointed to replace him, according to state television. It was the second time Chaudhry was removed from his post. His ousting by Musharraf in March prompted massive protests, and he was later reinstated. See a timeline of upheaval in Pakistan \u00bb . Musharraf complained in his speech that the media -- which he made independent -- have not been supportive, but have reported \"negative\" news. Early Sunday, two dozen policemen raided the offices of AAJ-TV in Islamabad, saying they had orders to take the station's equipment. The government also issued a directive warning the media that any criticism of the president or prime minister would be punishable by three years in jail and a fine of up to $70,000, said Talat Hussain, director of news and current affairs for AAJ. Watch a former Pakistani P.M. call the developments in his country 'disturbing' \u00bb . U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- who is in Turkey for a conference with Iraq and neighboring nations -- said The United States doesn't support any extra-constitutional measures taken by Musharraf. \"The situation is just unfolding,\" Rice said. \"But anything that takes Pakistan off the democratic path, off the path of civilian rule is a step backward, and it's highly regrettable.\" A senior Pakistani official said the emergency declaration will be \"short-lived,\" and will be followed by an interim government. Martial law is only a way to restore law and order, he said. Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, agreed. \"I can assure you, he will move on the part of democracy that is promised ... and you will see that happen shortly.\" Musharraf was re-elected president in October, but the election is not yet legally official, because the Supreme Court is hearing constitutional challenges to Musharraf's eligibility filed by the opposition. Under the constitution, Musharraf couldn't run for another term while serving both as president and military leader. The court allowed the election to go ahead, however, saying it would decide the issue later. Some speculated that the declaration of emergency is tied to rumors the court was planning to rule against Musharraf. Musharraf has said repeatedly he will step down as military leader before the next term begins on November 15 and has promised to hold parliamentary elections by January 15. Meanwhile, popular opposition leader Imran Khan said early Sunday that police surrounded his house in Lahore, barged in and told him he was under house arrest. Musharraf also had Khan placed under house arrest during a government crackdown in March 2006. Asked about Musharraf's actions Saturday, Khan said, \"We are going to oppose this in every way.\" \"None of us accept ... this whole drama about emergency.\" Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- who arrived in Karachi Saturday from Dubai, where she had gone to visit her family -- described a \"wave of disappointment\" at Musharraf's actions. Watch crowds surround Bhutto upon her arrival \u00bb . Bhutto -- who returned to Pakistan last month after several years in exile -- wants to lift her Pakistan People's Party to victory in January's parliamentary election in the hope she can have a third term as prime minister. The nation's political atmosphere has been tense for months, with Pakistani leaders in August considering a state of emergency because of the growing security threats in the country's lawless tribal regions. But Musharraf, influenced in part by Rice, held off on the move. Watch a report on the volatile situation in Pakistan \u00bb . Musharraf, who led the 1999 coup as Pakistan's army chief, has seen his power erode since the failed effort to oust Chaudhry. His administration is also struggling to contain a surge in Islamic militancy. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Musharraf orders troops to take a television station's equipment .\nPakistani opposition leader Imran Khan says he's under house arrest .\nPresident Musharraf says his actions are for the good of the country .\nWhite House calls Musharraf's emergency declaration \"disappointing\"","id":"b73f50e29d5b2943eb315643bef8ee4e09f5605b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chief operating officer of the National Children's Museum was arrested Tuesday and is charged with distributing child pornography over the Internet, authorities said. Robert A. Singer is accused of sending images depicting child pornography to people he believed to be a 12-year-old girl and her 33-year-old mother, according to a statement issued by U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia of the Southern District of New York. In reality he was communicating with an undercover detective for the New York Police Department. Some of the pornographic images were sent from Singer's computer at the museum, according to an affidavit filed in support of the charges by a special agent who investigates child pornography and child exploitation for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The Washington museum posted a message on its Web site saying officials there are \"horrified\" by news of Singer's arrest. They reported that he has been suspended from his post, effective immediately, and is barred from the property. Singer, 49, was arrested at his home in Falls Church, Virginia, by federal agents, according to the prosecutors' statement. Authorities allege he engaged in several instant messaging \"chats\" and e-mail communications with the undercover detective, posing as the woman and her daughter, from August to September. He is charged with five counts of distributing child pornography in interstate commerce. If convicted on each count, he would face a sentence of up to 140 years in prison -- up to 20 years for the first count and up to 40 years for each additional count, prosecutors said. Singer allegedly initiated contact with the undercover detective, posing as the mother, in an America On Line chat room called \"Cuties.\" The chat room attracts people who \"are known to trade in pornographic images, including child pornography,\" according to an affidavit filed in the case by a special agent who investigates child pornography and child exploitation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. \"On five separate occasions in August 2007, Singer sent several images of child pornography over the Internet to the mother and the daughter, including images depicting sexual acts between minors and adults and images depicting known victims of child exploitation,\" prosecutors said. In his communications with the supposed daughter, Singer pretended to be a 15-year-old boy, authorities said. In August 2007, he sent her two images featuring child pornography, according to the affidavit, with the instruction, \"just delete it when you are done.\" A search of Singer's AOL account activity showed that from July to September, he sent about 80 images featuring child pornography to people including the detective, authorities said in the statement. Also, the search revealed that he had received about 10 images and one video depicting child pornography. Singer was expected to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge later Tuesday. He is identified in the complaint as a spokesman for the National Children's Museum, but a spokeswoman who asked not to be identified said he was promoted to chief operating officer within the past few months. He has been employed by the museum for four years, she said. In a written statement, the museum said it was notified by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE of Singer's arrest. \"We are horrified by the charges,\" the statement said. \"This news is deeply upsetting to the National Children's Museum family.\" \"As its essence, the National Children's Museum is about enriching the lives of children,\" the statement said. \"We are educators, child advocates and parents. Anyone who does anything that might endanger the welfare of a child has no place here. Harming children is against everything we stand for as an organization and as individuals.\" The museum, formerly known as the Capital Children's Museum, has been closed to the public since 2004, and operates from administrative offices, the statement said. A new facility is being built and is scheduled to open in 2012. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Robert A. Singer is accused of e-mailing child porn to 12-year-old girl .\n12-year-old girl was actually undercover New York City detective .\nSinger was identified in court document as National Children's Museum spokesman .\nWashington museum officials say they are \"horrified\" by the charges .","id":"f9689fb9656132e1c6d186851563f2b968643791"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With his hands and feet shackled and his face obscured by his long hair, Chester Arthur Stiles made his initial court appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday morning on charges stemming from the videotaped rape of a 2-year-old girl. Chester Stiles appears Wednesday in a Las Vegas, Nevada, courtroom. Stiles, 37, was taken into custody Monday night after a Henderson, Nevada, police officer pulled over the white Buick Century he was driving. Prosecutors added a couple more charges before Wednesday's hearing, bringing the total to 23 felony counts, including a charge of lewdness with a minor, sexual assault and the use of a child in the production of pornography, according to a statement issued by the Clark County, Nevada, court. One of the lewdness charges stems from a 2004 incident, while the others are related to the videotape, the court said. Judge Deborah Lippis set November 19 as the date for the preliminary hearing. After the hearing, Stiles' court-appointed attorney said his client was overwhelmed by the public opinion in the case. \"I think he's a little out of it,\" public defender Jeff Banks said. Jerry T. Donohue, the attorney for the girl's mother, told CNN that the child on the videotape was younger than 3 when the abuse occurred. The girl, who is now 7, was found last month after a nationwide search. The girl's mother said on \"The Dr. Phil Show\" Wednesday that she was \"relieved\" about Stiles' arrest, although it would have been \"better if they found him dead.\" The woman said she will testify against Stiles if the case goes to court. She told Phil McGraw that her daughter remembers nothing about the videotaped assault and that she recently had a conversation with the girl about inappropriate touching. She said her daughter told her that if someone touched her inappropriately, the girl would scream and tell her mother. But, she told McGraw, \"I don't trust anybody now.\" Although she is in a relationship with a man her daughter calls \"Dad,\" she said, \"I don't feel comfortable leaving her with him, nor with anybody else. ... I just cry and blame it on myself.\" Eight-and-a-half months pregnant, she said the incident has placed a lot of strain on her. Asked if she would rather not have known about the assault, she said, \"Yes, I could have lived without knowing it.\" A former girlfriend of Stiles' said that, before the arrest, she lived in fear after going to police to identify the suspect after seeing enhanced photos from the videotape on the local news. \"I've had my share of nightmares,\" Elaine Thomas told CNN's Nancy Grace. Thomas said she screamed when she recognized the photos on television and had no choice but to contact police about the man she had thought was a \"weapons enthusiast\" with only a minor criminal record. Watch Thomas say how she felt when she saw the photos \u00bb . \"How could I not tell them who that man was? That little girl suffered unimaginable things, and I knew for a fact it was him,\" Thomas said. Another former girlfriend of Stiles', Tina Allen, said this month she thinks she is the reason Stiles came in contact with the girl and is \"mortified\" by the allegations against him. \"He said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,\" Allen said. Allen said she took Stiles to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her daughter, the alleged assault victim. Todd Allen, Tina Allen's son, said he recognized his old apartment from scenes in the video. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Payne and Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Accused pedophile Chester Arthur Stiles gets additional charges .\nNEW: \"I think he's a little out of it,\" his attorney says .\nSuspect's ex-girlfriend: \"I've had my share of nightmares\"\nStiles, 37, arrested following a routine traffic stop .","id":"63831b842812b1a3d05b04904a10d160fe7ad2af"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South African fast bowler Dale Steyn took a career-best five for 34 as the Proteas took a tight grip on the first test against New Zealand in Johannesburg. Steyn's career-best 5-34 was his fourth five-wicket haul in 14 tests. New Zealand were bowled out for 118 in reply to South Africa's 226 and the home side piled on the agony by reaching 179 for two in their second innings. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis shared an unbeaten stand of 159 as South Africa stretched their lead to 287. South Africa's bowlers excelled to bring their side back into the game after their disappointing first innings. They snapped up five wickets in the morning session when the Kiwis could only muster 56 runs. Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming made 40 but the next best score was new cap Ross Taylor's 15. Fleming was struck on the right forearm by Steyn and did not field during the afternoon. Coach John Bracewell said he had gone for precautionary X-rays but there was only bruising. New Zealand, 41 for two overnight, lost nightwatchman Shane Bond, bowled by a Steyn yorker, before Makhaya Ntini claimed the crucial wicket of Fleming, who was well caught by AB de Villiers diving to his left at third slip. Scott Styris and Taylor scraped 19 runs in 10 overs before more wickets tumbled. Steyn's figures bettered his previous best of five for 47 against the same opponents at Centurion two seasons ago. It was his fourth five-wicket haul in 14 tests. Ntini took three for 47 and Kallis two for 11. South Africa made an uncertain start to their second innings with openers Herschelle Gibbs and captain Graeme Smith out cheaply, but Amla and Kallis blunted the attack and then took charge. They batted together for 205 minutes, Amla facing 230 balls and hitting 13 boundaries in his 85 while Kallis hit 12 fours off 122 deliveries in reaching 76. The Kiwis were left to regret Brendon McCullum's failure to hold a chance from Amla off Shane Bond, when the batsman had only scored two. \"The ball was hard and new and we were trying to get momentum. It cost us a lot,\" said coach John Bracewell. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"South Africa lead New Zealand by 287 with 8 wickets standing in the 1st test .\nThe Proteas reach 179-2 in their second innings after the Kiwis are 118 all out .\nSouth African paceman Dale Steyn takes a career-best 5-34.","id":"05688bac0e46542be65a6df240428a6f26c86fd0"} -{"article":"(Real Simple) -- Here are five great ways to enjoy your summer. Lazing in a hammock is one of the best ways to spend a summer evening. Best way to cut jeans into shorts -- What better way to declare the start of summer? The key to cutting off jeans is not to go too short too soon. Slip on the jeans and mark the desired length on one leg with chalk. \"Take them off, fold the leg at the mark, and iron the fold,\" says Caroline Calvin, creative director of Levi's. \"Then cut just under the crease with fabric scissors. Lay the short jean leg on top of the other side and cut to evenly match.\" Repeat as needed to get the length you want. Ninety-degree days? Bring 'em on! The best way to catch fireflies -- How? With womanly wiles: \"Fireflies blink to attract a mate,\" explains naturalist Lynn Havsall, director of programs at the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History, in Bar Harbor, Maine. \"Males fly around while females sit in trees, in shrubs, or on the ground. So find a female and watch her blinking pattern. Then imitate the pattern with a pen flashlight and the males will come to you.\" ]A plus: The bugs move slowly, so they're easy to trap in a jar. Punch some holes in the lid and add a little grass and a piece of fruit for moisture. Admire your pretty night-lights till bedtime, then let them go. The best way to run on the beach -- Who needs a treadmill when you have miles of shoreline? Running on the beach can get you into great shape. Take it from lifeguard Benjamin Guss, 25, of Del Mar, California, who recently qualified to compete in this year's Iron Man triathlon (yes, that means swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and then running a marathon -- consecutively) in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Beware, shoeless Joes. If you choose to run barefoot, keep your workouts brief at first to allow tender soles to build up calluses. \"You can get blisters, even burns, from hot, soft sand,\" says Guss. \"I like to run barefoot, but for more than a couple miles, I wear shoes.\" Know your sand. \"In soft sand, one mile is like two,\" says Guss. You may work foot and leg muscles you don't always use, so start slowly. And hard sand can be as tough on your legs as the road, so wear running sneakers. Pick the right time to run. \"My favorite time is in the evening,\" says Guss. \"The wind dies down, and the sand isn't that hot.\" To work harder, fill small bags with sand to use as hand weights. The best way to get in and out of a hammock -- Everyone looks good lazing in a hammock -- it's getting in and out that's tricky. To make it less so, try these tips from Penny Waugh, a buyer for http:\/\/www.hammocks.com\/. \u2022 Position your backside toward the hammock's center and tilt back until you reach a 45-degree angle, with the hammock parallel to your rear. \u2022 Gently sit back into the hammock and let it level out. \u2022 Swing your legs up and stretch them out. \u2022 Lie back. Loll. Sigh contentedly. For a graceful exit, sit upright and swing your legs off, anchoring your feet on the ground. Then push with your behind, gathering momentum to stand. \"It's tricky, since there's nothing to hold on to,\" says Waugh. \"But it's good for the glutes.\" The best way to tie espadrilles -- Apply this lace-up logic from Meghan Cleary, author of \"The Perfect Fit: What Your Shoes Say About You.\" \u2022 Slide your foot fully into the shoe and plant it firmly on the floor. \u2022 Cross and tie the laces once behind the ankle, then bring them forward, cross and tie again, and continue up the leg, depending on how long the laces are. The calf is the maximum height -- any higher and you'll look like a gladiator. \u2022 Each time you cross and tie, secure the laces slightly tighter than is comfortable, since they will loosen a bit when you walk. Just don't cut off your circulation. \u2022 For a streamlined leg, make the final tie in the back. Create a more whimsical look by putting the final tie in front with a small bow. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE ! Copyright 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Real Simple tips can add up to great summer .\nBest way to catch fireflies starts with easiest to catch .\nTip on how not to look like a gladiator when wearing espadrilles .\nThere is a graceful way to get in and out of a hammock .","id":"5ba0d22ccba29ac8a3c77da069165d6016f5a214"} -{"article":"AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- In the sunbathed schoolyard of the Shmisani Institute for Girls in Amman, Jordan, principal Sanaa Abu Harb makes an announcement over the speaker system. Iraqi students at the Shmisani school in Amman gather around a teacher. One in 5 students there is Iraqi. \"All Iraqi girls come outside now. All Iraqi girls. Iraqi girls only!\" she repeats several times, making sure the message is clear and waving away Jordanian pupils attracted by the commotion. Dozens of girls in green apron-like uniforms pour out into the courtyard and cluster on the top level of a stone staircase overlooking a concrete playground. Harb wants the CNN crew to see how many Iraqi refugee girls her school is accommodating. This school year, she says, 145 students are Iraqi -- roughly 20 percent of the students at this state-funded institution -- with another 40 Iraqi children on a waiting list. Watch Iraqi girls describe a long way from home \u00bb . The reason behind the jump in the number of Iraqis at the school is a new government policy: For the first time since the start of the Iraq war, Jordan is allowing all Iraqi children -- regardless of refugee status -- to enroll in state-funded schools. Simply, this means that even illegal refugees with no paperwork can send their kids to school with no questions asked. The move is cementing a massive population shift in the Middle East. More than 2.2 million Iraqis have fled the violence in their homeland, most of them seeking refuge in neighboring Jordan and Syria, according to humanitarian officials. Jordanian Minister of Education Khalid Touqan says he expects Jordan to accommodate 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqi students this year. That's more than double the number of Iraqi children enrolled in public school two years ago. Harb, on the front line of the phenomenon, says the influx is putting a strain on her school. Even with some U.N. and U.S. aid to Jordan, there's still not enough money. \"We need more teachers here, more resources, more buildings, more chairs for all Iraqi students and our students,\" she says. In a nearby neighborhood, in the study room of the Ahmed Toukan School for Boys, a handful of Iraqi kids talk of their experience living far from home. Seated at a rectangular table covered with a red and white tablecloth, the boys tell stories of horror and displacement. Eighteen-year-old Qutaiba lost five immediate family members before moving to Jordan to try to live a normal life. Matter-of-factly and with a straight-ahead stare, he repeats the number: \"Five members.\" Most of the boys and young men from Iraq have missed several years of school -- up to a four-year educational gap that will delay not only their high school graduation, but also their entry into the workforce. All say, though, that they feel lucky to have gotten out, even if the violence in their country means always having to be on the move, ready to live far from home and away from loved ones. \"It's not strange for me to be in the middle of people I don't know,\" says eleventh grader Ziad Tarek Al Shamsi. \"I had friends in Iraq when I was small, I left them. In America, I left them. I came here, I left them.\" He pauses: \"But you have to miss your country.\" The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates up to 250,000 school-age Iraqi children are in Jordan. Many of them are enrolled in private institutions. But as families run out of money they had when they left Iraq, they turn to public schools. Even so, more than a month into the new academic year, fewer Iraqi families than first anticipated enrolled their kids in schools this year. According to the charity Save the Children, 21,000 Iraqi children have so far enrolled in Jordanian classrooms. As a result, the government extended the deadline for student applications and cut down on the required paperwork for Iraqi families. The lower registration numbers were attributed in part to illegal refugees' fears of being identified through their children's school records. Regardless of what the final number will be this year, the population shift in the Middle East is, according to UNHCR head Antonio Guterres, the largest urban refugee situation in the world. Iraqi families are changing the social fabric of Jordanian society. About 10 percent of Jordan's population is now made up of Iraqi refugees -- the estimates range from 500,000 to 750,000 of them. The schoolchildren are living examples of how the Iraq war may permanently change the Middle East. \"Iraqi children will be incorporated and integrated within our mainstream line of education,\" says Touqan, the education minister. \"We will not run a parallel system of education.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jordan opens school doors to all Iraqi children, regardless of refugee status .\nPrincipal says her school is 20 percent Iraqi this year .\nEducation minister: Iraqi kids will be incorporated into \"mainstream\" life .\nOne student says he lost five family members in Iraq .","id":"9f63d6256158d260c426a9336d19b760d9bc5a48"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After weeks of controversy over Michael Mukasey's views on waterboarding, the Senate late Thursday approved the former judge's nomination for attorney general by a 53-40 vote. Waterboarding threatened to derail the approval of President Bush's nominee to lead the Justice Department. President Bush nominated Mukasey to replace longtime ally Alberto Gonzales, who resigned in September. The nomination had been considered at risk after a number of Democratic senators opposed Mukasey because of questions that arose from his views on the terror interrogation technique known as waterboarding and the president's power to order electronic surveillance. Mukasey, a former federal judge in New York, told senators he considers waterboarding \"repugnant,\" but he could not categorically say whether the technique amounts to torture, which U.S. and international law bans. Waterboarding is a technique that involves restraining a suspect and pouring water on him to produce the sensation of drowning. Mukasey's confirmation was all but assured last week when two key Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Chuck Schumer of New York -- said they would vote in favor of Mukasey despite the controversy. \"The Department of Justice, once the crown jewel among government institutions, is adrift and rudderless,\" Schumer said Tuesday -- the same day the committee voted 11-8 to send Mukasey's nomination to the Senate floor. \"It desperately needs a strong and independent leader at the helm to set it back on course and I believe Judge Mukasey is that person.\" Schumer said that in a meeting Friday the nominee said that Congress would be within its rights to pass a law that bans waterboarding across all government agencies and that the president \"would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore\" it. Schumer said he believed Mukasey would be more likely to find waterboarding illegal than an interim attorney general. \"Indeed, his written answers to our notices have demonstrated more openness to ending the practices we abhor than either of this president's previous attorney general nominees have.\" But Mukasey's pledge to enforce such a law rang hollow with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's chairman. \"Some have sought to find comfort in Judge Mukasey's personal assurance that he would enforce a future, new law against waterboarding if this Congress were to pass one,\" Leahy said Tuesday. \"Unsaid, of course, is the fact that any such prohibition would have to be enacted over the veto of this president.\" However, the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said he believed Mukasey would enforce a law banning waterboarding. \"He could have said a lot of things which would have given me more assurances,\" Specter said earlier. \"But he is intelligent; he's really learned in the law. He's strong, ethical, honest beyond any question. He's not an intimate of the president.\" A majority of Americans consider waterboarding a form of torture, but some of those say it's OK for the U.S. government to use the technique, according to a poll released Tuesday. Asked whether they think waterboarding is a form of torture, more than two-thirds of respondents, or 69 percent, said yes; 29 percent said no. Asked whether they think the U.S. government should be allowed to use the procedure to try to get information from suspected terrorists, 58 percent said no; 40 percent said yes. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. telephone poll of 1,024 American adults was carried out over the weekend and had a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"President Bush nominated Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales .\nMukasey is a former federal chief judge in New York .\nSome Democratic senators opposed nominee due to views on waterboarding .\nHuman rights groups consider waterboarding a form of torture .","id":"fb6516de631cade629b797e8f40f377523c4aa0e"} -{"article":"ORME, Tennessee (CNN) -- The drought in the Southeastern United States means more than just brown lawns to the folks in Orme, Tennessee. Water flows from their taps for just three hours each evening. A 1961 firetruck loads up with water from a hydrant in Alabama to haul back to Orme, Tennessee. The mountain spring that supplies water to the town usually dries up at the end of summer, but just for a few days. This year it dried up early, on August 1, and hasn't revived, leaving the town's 145 residents high and dry and relying on water trucked in from the next state. Every day at 6 p.m., Orme Mayor Tony Reames turns a big valve to release water from the town's tank. When he turns the crank again at 9 p.m., taps in the town run dry. \"When they cut it back on we jump for joy,\" Orme resident Debbie Cash said. \"And then you only have it for three hours.\" Three hours to do all the laundry, bathing, dishwashing and animal watering that has to be done. Watch how Cash copes \u00bb . The old mining town could be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the region. Just 150 miles to the southeast, the 4.5 million people who live in and around Atlanta, Georgia, are nervously watching water levels go down at their major reservoir. The drought has highlighted an ongoing struggle between Georgia, Alabama and Florida over rights to water from the Chattahoochee River. \"All of these people that are on the river systems better take note, because once your streams and tributaries to the river start drying up, the river isn't far behind,\" Reames said. See photos of a Atlanta's shrinking Lake Lanier reservoir \u00bb . Volunteers take turns three days a week driving a tanker truck or Orme's diesel-belching 1961 fire truck to a hydrant near Bridgeport, Alabama, 2\u00bd miles down the road. Making several round trips, they haul about 25,000 gallons of water back to Orme each day. Bridgeport, which gets its water from the Tennessee River, doesn't charge its neighbor. Stevenson and New Hope, Alabama, also help out, occasionally bringing trucks full of water to the hydrant, where it's transferred to the Orme trucks. See where Orme has to go for water \u00bb . But things are looking up in Orme. A pipeline from Bridgeport is nearly complete, built with the help of a $378,000 grant from the federal government. \"With this new water coming in, then we'll have it made,\" Cash said. \"Now we won't have to worry about it no more.\" In addition, an Austin, Texas, company called H2O Guard is planning to donate water-saving sink aerators, shower heads and toilet valves to everyone in Orme on November 17, company spokesman Robert Easter said. \"We think we're going to get another 90 gallons' savings per day per household,\" Easter said. \"That'll make that little water tower in that town go from three hours to four hours without any change in anyone's habits.\" Reames said residents have found creative ways to conserve, flushing toilets with condensation water from air conditioners and undrinkable water from swimming pools that were filled early in the summer. It's a lesson for everyone. \"Cherish the water you got and be kind of careful with it,\" Cash said, \"because you never know if you will be out of water.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Orme, Tennessee, has running water from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.\nTown's spring ran dry in midst of Southeast drought .\nDonated water is trucked in from Alabama .\nCompletion of pipeline will solve problem for good .","id":"0a71f063b78184b4ca2ffee3c642d48dc27ef91b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China has suspended exports of the Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a chemical that can convert to a powerful \"date rape\" drug, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday. The toys have caused some children who swallowed the craft toys to vomit and lose consciousness. China suspended exports of the Aqua Dots toys that contain a chemical that converts into a \"date rape\" drug. The agency said that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has ordered an investigation by quality control agencies and will release results as soon as they are available. The AQSIQ did not reveal the name of the toys' producer, Xinhua said. U.S. safety officials voluntarily recalled about 4.2 million of the Chinese-made toys Wednesday. Scientists have found the highly popular holiday toy contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic \"date rape\" drug GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate), Scott Wolfson, a spokesman with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), told CNN. \"Children who swallow the beads can become comatose, develop respiratory depression or have seizures,\" a CPSC statement warned. The arts-and-craft beads, which have been selling since April at major U.S. retail stores under the name \"Aqua Dots,\" have also been distributed in Australia under the name \"Bindeez Beads.\" The Bindeez toys were recalled Tuesday by Melbourne-based Moose Enterprise Pty. Ltd. after three children in Australia swallowed large quantities of the beads and were hospitalized. \"I was so frightened because I thought she wasn't going to make it,\" Heather Lehane told CNN affiliate Network 7 of her 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who was hospitalized in Australia after ingesting some of the beads. In the United States, the Washington-based safety commission said it has in recent days received two reports detailing the severe effects of the digested beads, which are part of a craft kit aimed at kids 4 years and older. The CPSC said a boy nearly 2 years old \"swallowed several dozen beads. He became dizzy and vomited several times before slipping into a comatose state for a period of time.\" The commission said the toddler was hospitalized and has since \"fully recovered.\" The second incident involved a child who vomited, fell into a coma and was hospitalized for five days. It was not immediately clear whether the child had made a full recovery. Toronto-based toy distributor Spin Master Ltd. stopped shipping the Aqua Dots toys and asked retailers to pull them off their shelves, where they were previously sold for $17 to $30. Anyone with Aqua Dots at home should return the product to the company, CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said. The toy had been named toy of the year in Australia and recently crested Wal-Mart's list of top 12 Christmas toys. Wal-Mart on Thursday listed the toys on its Web site as \"out of stock online\" and had removed them from their top toy list as well. This latest recall is part of a larger batch of recalls of Chinese-made toys that have swept across the country. Last month alone, U.S. government safety officials and retailers voluntarily recalled at least 69,000 Chinese-made toys over concerns of excessive amounts of lead paint, which can cause hazardous lead poisoning. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Janine Brady, Jason Carroll, Laura Dolan, Julie O'Neill and Leslie Wiggins contributed to this report.","highlights":"State-run news agency: China orders an investigation by quality control agencies .\nChildren who swallow the beads can become comatose or have seizures .\nToys are sold as Aqua Dots in the U.S., as Bindeez Beads in Australia .\nThree children were hospitalized in Australia after swallowing large quantities .","id":"700e0d133d2f5c2e65960aae7bffa66bb62c0df4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of Congolese refugees fled camps Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo as rebel troops attacked government forces in the area, the U.N. refugee agency said. Refugees move along a road Tuesday in Mugunga, near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A press release from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it didn't appear rebels had targeted the camps, but it reported some were looted after camp residents, classified as internally displaced persons, fled. Roads to Goma, about 10 miles from the camps, were crowded with refugees and local residents fleeing the fighting, the UNHCR reported. Torrential rain made the movement even more difficult. \"The main road toward Sake was crowded with people; we had difficulties getting through,\" UNHCR field safety adviser Pierre Nazroo was quoted as saying in the agency's release. \"Internally displaced people are moving from site to site, direction Goma.\" UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said, \"They have been living in extremely difficult conditions anyway. Now they have nothing but what they can carry.\" Redmond added, \"These are people in poor health; they are soaking wet because of the torrential downpours. They need shelter, they need water, they need a lot of assistance so we're going to have to move quickly to get that help to them because a lot of them are already in a weakened state.\" While the Congolese government accused troops under rebel general Laurent Nkunda of staging the attack, a Nkunda spokesman denied the allegation, according to a report from the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a U.N.-affiliated news service. The spokesman, Bwambale Kakolele, said Rwandan Hutu rebels who also operate in the area were behind the attack, that report said. A spokesman for the U.N. military mission in the Congo said it was uncertain which group attacked the Congo army outpost near the village of Kishangazi, according to the U.N.-affiliated news service. \"We think it could have been insurgents close to Nkunda who attacked, but we cannot rule out the [Rwandan rebels],\" spokesman Col. Pierre Cherayron was quoted as saying. The UNHCR identified the affected camps as Mugunga I, Mugunga II, Lac Vert and Bulengo, saying about 28,000 had abandoned the first three camps and about 2,000 had left Bulengo. The UNHCR said 375,000 Congolese in North Kivu province have been forced from their homes in the past year. In the past two months alone, 160,000 have fled their homes amid the fighting between renegade troops and government forces, the agency said. North Kivu is in eastern Congo near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda. Congolese President Joseph Kabila has tried to gain a cease-fire with the rebels in the area under Nkunda, but fighting continues as hard-liners among the rebels and in the government have blocked reconciliation efforts, according to the International Crisis Group, an nongovernmental organization looking for solutions to conflicts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Congo rebels blame Rwandan Hutus for attack, report says .\nInternally displaced Congolese flee as rebels attack government troops .\nTorrential rain makes refugee movement difficult .\nU.N. refugee agency: Some 375,000 have been forced from homes in past year .","id":"180642a2ddfce93ceaf3ee3ec4779400fe67ae1e"} -{"article":"(LiveWire) -- Voluble Gary Vaynerchuk, 31, the host of \"Wine Library TV,\" an online video show, has been known to lick rocks, suck leather and eat dirt while on camera, all to illustrate the unique properties of wine. \"Wine Library TV\" host Gary Vaynerchuk discusses four spooky wine varieties for Halloween show. Of a \"wild and gamey\" red from Rioja, Spain, Vaynerchuk says, \"Hit a deer on the road. Throw a bunch of cherries on it. Take out your knife, cut the deer. Bite it. That's the flavor profile.\" That kind of attitude appeals to people who are mystified by the arcane lexicon of traditional wine journals or turned off by what they perceive as elitist barriers. Across the Internet, budding wine geeks are discovering a burgeoning number of Web sites, blogs, bulletin boards and other outlets that preach the gospel of the grape in terms they can understand. About 40,000 Internet viewers -- many of them 20-somethings -- have a daily appointment with \"Wine Library TV.\" The low-budget video blog is produced five days a week from a nondescript office in the three-level wine retail operation that Vaynerchuk's family owns in Springfield, New Jersey. Vaynerchuk has a discerning nose and palate, and he doesn't dumb down his subject. Yet he stuffs his patter with sports and pop-culture references -- and the kind of language a Wine Spectator critic would be unlikely to employ. The mission of wine sites like \"Wine Library TV,\" say several of the people behind these new outlets, is to demystify wine (and in some cases, sell it, too). Using the language, attitude and new media that appeal to a young, tech-savvy generation, they advocate trusting one's own palate rather than obeying powerful wine critics. Some of the sites also provide opportunities for average wine drinkers to share their opinions. One site, SavorEachGlass.com, declares its dedication to \"exploring the spirit of wine for a new generation,\" with reviews, online journals and essays that explain the finer points of winemaking -- all with attitude. \"The (wine) establishment is about ratings and 'reputation,'\" says the site's founder, Tynan Szvetecz, 29. \"It's about collecting the 'good' stuff as defined by someone else's palate and tastes. That bores a younger generation.\" \"We're not afraid to be smartasses,\" he continues. \"We make fun of ourselves, old-world wine makers, new-world wine makers, and anyone else we can get our hands on.\" In the U.S., interest in wine is exploding. While consumption has leveled out in traditional wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain, especially among young people, it has trended upwards in the U.S. for 15 straight years. The U.S. is projected to overtake No. 2 Italy by the end of 2007, according to the annual report The U.S. Wine Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast a leading industry trade publication. Many of the new converts to wine are the so-called Millennials, the under-30 age group coveted by beverage marketers and so comfortable online that they're also called iGen, or the Internet Generation. One of the wine Web sites targeting a younger demographic is VineSugar.com, which features a blog called \"Wine Burps.\" \"We love wine but hate the elitism,\" writes founder, Ryan O'Donnell. \"After all, it's just grape juice.\" With rants about wine tasting fees, a feature spotlighting \"wine hotties\" working at California wineries, as well as interactive maps that plot and rate wineries, VineSugar.com leaves little doubt about its target audience. CellarTracker.com, an online wine community, appeals to more established wine collectors. The site provides free software -- designed by Eric LeVine, a fortuitously named former Microsoft software developer -- that allows wine enthusiasts to create an online inventory of their wines. The 39,000 users (who count 6 million bottles in their virtual cellars) post reviews of their wines and access scores and other data via PDAs and cell phones. Community tasting notes shed light on how cellar-worthy wines are evolving, helping others decide when to crack open a treasured bottle. Corkd.com, another online community of wine fans, already had 40,000 users when Vaynerchuk purchased the site last year. The free service allows users to catalog and review wines. Instead of having \"friends\" as on Facebook, members identify \"drinking buddies\" and check out what they're drinking. In the growing presence of wine fans on the Internet -- newbies as well as connoisseurs -- Vaynerchuk sees a movement. \"They're part of forums, they meet up (offline),\" he says. \"It's about bringing people together. It's all that's right about wine.\" Vaynerchuk should know. The 300-plus shows he has taped in the past two years have developed a cult following of online fans, who call themselves \"Vayniacs,\" share wine tips and obsess about their hero on the site's forum. On a recent rainy afternoon, Vaynerchuk barreled, unrehearsed and unscripted, through a 20-minute show in a single take. He wrapped up Wine Library TV episode No. 337 with what has become his signature line. \"You, with a little bit of me, we're changing the wine world, aren't we?\" E-mail to a friend . LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Neil Edward Schlecht is a freelance writer based in Litchfield County, Connecticut and the author of more than a dozen travel guides.","highlights":"\"Wine Library TV\" Internet show has about 40,000 regular viewers .\nShow takes irreverent look at wine business .\nWine consumption has risen in United States for last 15 years .","id":"3e868fbad714ceab14a41fa9dd5d8a40204f2199"} -{"article":"AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- In the sunbathed schoolyard of the Shmisani Institute for Girls in Amman, Jordan, principal Sanaa Abu Harb makes an announcement over the speaker system. Iraqi students at the Shmisani school in Amman gather around a teacher. One in 5 students there is Iraqi. \"All Iraqi girls come outside now. All Iraqi girls. Iraqi girls only!\" she repeats several times, making sure the message is clear and waving away Jordanian pupils attracted by the commotion. Dozens of girls in green apron-like uniforms pour out into the courtyard and cluster on the top level of a stone staircase overlooking a concrete playground. Harb wants the CNN crew to see how many Iraqi refugee girls her school is accommodating. This school year, she says, 145 students are Iraqi -- roughly 20 percent of the students at this state-funded institution -- with another 40 Iraqi children on a waiting list. Watch Iraqi girls describe a long way from home \u00bb . The reason behind the jump in the number of Iraqis at the school is a new government policy: For the first time since the start of the Iraq war, Jordan is allowing all Iraqi children -- regardless of refugee status -- to enroll in state-funded schools. Simply, this means that even illegal refugees with no paperwork can send their kids to school with no questions asked. The move is cementing a massive population shift in the Middle East. More than 2.2 million Iraqis have fled the violence in their homeland, most of them seeking refuge in neighboring Jordan and Syria, according to humanitarian officials. Jordanian Minister of Education Khalid Touqan says he expects Jordan to accommodate 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqi students this year. That's more than double the number of Iraqi children enrolled in public school two years ago. Harb, on the front line of the phenomenon, says the influx is putting a strain on her school. Even with some U.N. and U.S. aid to Jordan, there's still not enough money. \"We need more teachers here, more resources, more buildings, more chairs for all Iraqi students and our students,\" she says. In a nearby neighborhood, in the study room of the Ahmed Toukan School for Boys, a handful of Iraqi kids talk of their experience living far from home. Seated at a rectangular table covered with a red and white tablecloth, the boys tell stories of horror and displacement. Eighteen-year-old Qutaiba lost five immediate family members before moving to Jordan to try to live a normal life. Matter-of-factly and with a straight-ahead stare, he repeats the number: \"Five members.\" Most of the boys and young men from Iraq have missed several years of school -- up to a four-year educational gap that will delay not only their high school graduation, but also their entry into the workforce. All say, though, that they feel lucky to have gotten out, even if the violence in their country means always having to be on the move, ready to live far from home and away from loved ones. \"It's not strange for me to be in the middle of people I don't know,\" says eleventh grader Ziad Tarek Al Shamsi. \"I had friends in Iraq when I was small, I left them. In America, I left them. I came here, I left them.\" He pauses: \"But you have to miss your country.\" The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates up to 250,000 school-age Iraqi children are in Jordan. Many of them are enrolled in private institutions. But as families run out of money they had when they left Iraq, they turn to public schools. Even so, more than a month into the new academic year, fewer Iraqi families than first anticipated enrolled their kids in schools this year. According to the charity Save the Children, 21,000 Iraqi children have so far enrolled in Jordanian classrooms. As a result, the government extended the deadline for student applications and cut down on the required paperwork for Iraqi families. The lower registration numbers were attributed in part to illegal refugees' fears of being identified through their children's school records. Regardless of what the final number will be this year, the population shift in the Middle East is, according to UNHCR head Antonio Guterres, the largest urban refugee situation in the world. Iraqi families are changing the social fabric of Jordanian society. About 10 percent of Jordan's population is now made up of Iraqi refugees -- the estimates range from 500,000 to 750,000 of them. The schoolchildren are living examples of how the Iraq war may permanently change the Middle East. \"Iraqi children will be incorporated and integrated within our mainstream line of education,\" says Touqan, the education minister. \"We will not run a parallel system of education.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jordan opens school doors to all Iraqi children, regardless of refugee status .\nPrincipal says her school is 20 percent Iraqi this year .\nEducation minister: Iraqi kids will be incorporated into \"mainstream\" life .\nOne student says he lost five family members in Iraq .","id":"8b0a818edcbbefb79dd40a19b08119f6848083db"} -{"article":"PATUAKHALI, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Survivors of a storm that killed more than 3,000 people in the impoverished nation of Bangladesh grieved and buried their loved ones Monday as they waited for aid to arrive. Villagers grieve in Patargata, around 125 miles south of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, Monday. The number of dead killed from Cyclone Sidr -- now at 3,114 -- is expected to rise yet further as the South Asian nation continues to assess the damage. The Bangladesh Red Crescent fears the death toll could be 5,000 -- perhaps even reaching as high as 10,000. In the fishing village of Galachipa, in Patuakhali district, Dhalan Mridha was grieving for family members who died in the cyclone after ignoring an alert issued by authorities. \"Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to bed. Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hut was swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter,\" Mridha, a 45-year-old farm worker, told The Associated Press. On the way to a shelter, Mridha lost contact with his wife, mother and two children. The next morning he found their bodies. The Category 4 cyclone raked Bangladesh's southwest coast on Thursday with maximum sustained winds of 241 km\/h (150 mph), destroying fishermen's hamlets and villages. Thousands are still missing, while an estimated 280,000 others are unable to return to their homes which were wiped out by the storm. Many grieving families are now burying loved ones in single graves as no male members are available to dig them. Most houses in the region are made of flimsy materials such as bamboo and corrugated iron, and had no chance of withstanding the storm's powerful winds. In addition, the storm-struck area is criss-crossed by a huge river delta which surged as Sidr pushed through, wiping out many villages and littering the river's shores with debris. Watch as people are left to fend for themselves \u00bb . Low-lying Bangladesh is already prone to flooding which has wiped out the country's rice production -- a major food staple for the impoverished country. Improved warning systems and shelters have kept the number of deaths far lower than the disastrous cyclones in the region of 1970 and 1991, when the tolls were in the hundreds of thousands. Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed visited the devastated region Sunday, handing out some aid to the crowds of people before members of the international media. It was seen largely a token effort as hundreds were left empty-handed and furious. Security officials struggled to hold back the crowd. See dramatic photos of storm survivors \u00bb . Sidr has already ruined Bangladesh's rice harvest, but the international community is rallying to make sure the country does not suffer as acutely as it has in the past. Nearly a million people died after massive floods wiped out the country's rice production in 1974. International aid organizations promised initial packages of $25 million during a meeting with Bangladesh agencies Monday, the U.N.'s World Food Program said. The United States has offered more than $2 million as an initial contribution for emergency relief, and sent two U.S. Navy carriers to help in recovery operations. In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is airlifting in relief supplies and an 18-person Department of Defense medical team is in Bangladesh helping the estimated 15,000 injured by the storm. Bangladesh's government held an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday to assess the disaster and discuss recovery issues, Bangladeshi government spokesman Fahim Munaim told CNN. Officials fear the scope of the destruction may be much more extensive since there are remote areas where conditions cannot yet be determined. Munaim said nearly a third of Bangladesh's 64 districts were affected by the cyclone, most of those along the southern coast. The Bangladeshi military is working to provide shelter for the many people who have been displaced. International aid groups -- including Save the Children, World Vision, and the Red Crescent, which already have offices in Bangladesh -- are deploying resources to the cyclone-stricken region but -- like the government -- they have found it nearly impossible to reach the more remote areas to assess conditions. Roads to remote areas are either blocked by massive trees fallen by the storm, or so severely damaged that it is impossible for vehicles to use. Clearing could take weeks in the remote areas because it must be done by hand -- there are no chainsaws and modern machinery to speed up the process. Along the broken road that leads into Kolapara, the body of an 8-year-old girl called Rummie was carefully carried away for burial. Overwhelmed with sadness, her mother Khadija was steadied by a relative. \"I am feeling too much pain in my heart,\" she said. \"I have lost my daughter, so I am a victim of the cyclone as well.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Survivors of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh waiting for aid to arrive .\nRed Crescent Society official says deaths could rise to 5,000-10,000 .\nBangladeshi president distributes aid; angry survivors go empty-handed .\nThousands remain missing; estimated 280,000 homeless .","id":"ceb7a288ac1ad604a17bc25c5978fcc87b1a4446"} -{"article":"GLASGOW, Scotland -- World champions Italy clinched qualification for Euro 2008 after goals in the first and last minutes gave them a pulsating 2-1 victory at Hampden Park -- killing off Scotland's hopes of reaching the finals. Luca Toni celebrates his early goal as Italy won 2-1 in Scotland to clinch qualification from Group B. Luca Toni shot Italy in front but Scotland recovered to dominate and Barry Ferguson bundled home a 65th-minute leveller. However, Christian Panucci headed an injury-time winner after a controversial decision to award Italy a free-kick. The result also means France have sealed qualification, along with Italy, from Group B without playing a game. In a match played in torrential rain, Italy enjoyed the best possible start by taking the lead after just 70 seconds. Gianluca Zambrotta spotted Antonio Di Natale unmarked in the box, and picked him out with a throw-in as Scotland were caught napping. Di Natale swept the ball into the path of Toni who delicately flicked into the top left corner from six meters out. The home side almost conceded a second goal 60 seconds later. This time, Toni turned provider and his cut-back was met by Mauro Camoranesi who fired over from close-range. Toni then shrugged off two challenges before drawing a decent save from Craig Gordon with a well-struck effort that the goalkeeper did well to block at the near post. At the other end, Scotland were denied the opportunity to haul themselves back into the match when a thunderous drive from Lee McCulloch appeared to be handled by Zambrotta inside the area but penalty claims were ignored. Spurred on by a sense of injustice, the hosts cranked up the pressure on their visitors. Ferguson fired over from a James McFadden corner, before Alan Hutton nodded agonisingly wide of the upright following another perfect delivery from the Everton man. Scotland then produced some wonderful passing football, which culminated in a tight-angled drive from Ferguson, but Gianluigi Buffon dived low to smother. Then came another scare for the home side. Gordon was forced to pull a save out of the top drawer to deny a point-blank effort from Massimo Ambrosini, before Di Natale rifled the rebound into the back of the net. The assistant referee raised his flag for offside but television replays suggested the official may have called it wrong. Only last-gasp defending from the Italians prevented the Scots from grabbing a morale-boosting leveller on the stroke of half-time. David Weir rose above everyone else in a packed box to meet Ferguson's corner and his header appeared to be heading for the top corner before Andrea Pirlo somehow managed to nod off the line. A free-kick in a dangerous area provided Italy with the chance to start the second half as emphatically as they had started the first when Paul Hartley hauled down Camoranesi just outside the box. Pirlo seized on the chance and looped the ball over the wall but, despite a reputation as a dead-ball specialist, his effort was easily dealt with by Gordon. Instead, it was Scotland who found the back of the net as Hampden erupted with 65 minutes gone. McFadden's free-kick deflected into the path of McCulloch in front of goal. He was denied by Buffon, but the rebound fell kindly to Ferguson and the captain gratefully rifled home from close-range. With just over 15 minutes to go, Scott Brown was withdrawn for Kenny Miller as Scotland went for broke. The Derby striker quickly began to cause the Italians problems and delivered a wonderful diagonal cross to the feet of McFadden but he fired wide when it looked easier score. Scotland's impossible dream ended in the cruellest possible way when Italy snatched a last minute goal to secure their own qualification for Euro 2008. Hutton appeared to be barged over in front of the corner flag but the referee inexplicably awarded the free-kick the other way and Panucci rose to meet Pirlo's cross and nod home the winner. Italy coach Roberto Donadoni said: \"We knew it was going to be a physical match given the atmosphere. \"But through their character and desire, the lads were fantastic. They worked so hard, they deserve this. Qualifying for Euro 2008 is amazing. It's something positive after all that happened last week (the death of the Lazio fan).\" Captain Fabio Cannavaro: \"This was a victory won with the heart. It was difficult to play in this stadium, with that atmosphere it was like a cauldron. \"We played really well and managed to win. We showed once again that we are a strong and compact team and when we need to win we do everything to show that we are the world champions. \"In Italy we play a high level of football, we've won the Champions League and the World Cup but unfortunately at this moment we are being noticed for something else.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Italy win 2-1 in Scotland to secure their qualification for the Euro 2008 finals .\nThe result means Scotland cannot qualify and will now finish third in Group B .\nFrance will also be reaching the Euro 2008 finals after the result in Glasgow .","id":"a228e744966fe03eca515b971329acacf9feabb2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Azerbaijan recently uncovered a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Baku, prompting the facility to close its doors to the public Monday, Azerbaijan and U.S. officials told CNN. The Bibi Heybat Mosque, just outside the capital Baku. As a precaution, Britain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday \"following security concerns nearby,\" Britain's Foreign Office said. The terror plot was unraveled after a weekend raid outside Baku that netted several suspected members of the radical group, two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified and a spokesman for Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry told CNN. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that the details \"are still unfolding,\" and the threat \"may or may not be\" linked to the Saturday raid. \"There were some specific and credible threat information concerning the embassy and plans by militants to in some way do harm to individuals in and around the U.S. Embassy there,\" McCormack said, noting that no specific individuals were targeted. Several days ago, an Azerbaijani army officer who had connections to a radical Islamic group seized four assault rifles, a machine gun and 20 hand grenades from his military unit and hid them in the outskirts of Baku, the ministry spokesman and U.S. officials said. Government security forces tracked down the group and arrested several members during a sweep on Saturday in the village of Mastaga, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Baku, the spokesman said. One suspected member of the militant group resisted arrest and was killed in the sweep, the spokesman said. Several others are still at large, he added. He said the terror plot also targeted Azerbaijani government buildings. The U.S. Embassy in Baku issued a warden message warning Americans in Azerbaijan to take precautions. \"While there is no information at this time that other American or Western interests in Azerbaijan are being targeted, the U.S. Embassy encourages Americans to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security,\" it said. Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic that borders the Caspian Sea, and lies just north of Iran. McCormack said U.S. authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Baku and will determine when normal embassy operations will resume. He said he expects the embassy to limit its operations on Tuesday, as well. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Igor Malakhov in Moscow, Zain Verjee in Washington and Roger Clark in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Authorities uncover a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. embassy in Baku .\nThe United States has reduced its embassy's operations .\nBritain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday .","id":"c44238ec87e7fc40ab7fe6e724cfcbf301e01216"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- World number three Novak Djokovic crashed out of the Paris Masters after being trounced in his opening match by veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro on Wednesday. Fabrice Santoro returns the ball during his shock second-round victory against Novak Djokovic. The 34-year-old Santoro, who beat world No. 5 Andy Roddick at the Lyon Grand Prix last week, again rose to the occasion in front of his home fans as he stormed to a 6-3 6-2 second-round victory against the Serb. It was the first time the two players had met, with Djokovic making his first outing since losing to David Nalbandian in the semifinals of the Madrid Masters two weeks ago. Djokovic, like the American Roddick, has already qualified for the season-ending Masters Cup and will now have extra time to prepare for the event in Shanghai starting next month. The 20-year-old said he was struggling following dental surgery to remove two wisdom teeth. \"I couldn't give my 100 percent, not even 30 percent of my possibilities,\" Djokobvic said. \"He deserved to win. I'm still on medications. I didn't practise for a whole week, I only started practising two days ago. Physically, I'm not feeling at all good.\" The result is a boost for rising British star Andy Murray, who earlier kept alive his hopes of an unexpected place at the Masters Cup by winning his first match in Paris and was expected to face Djokovic. The 20-year-old, who has missed three months this season due to a wrist injury, beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to progress into the third round. The 15th seed is seeking to overtake Tommy Haas, who holds the eighth and final place ahead of the showpiece event in Shanghai. Murray, who trails the German by just three points, has not beaten Djokovic in three meetings so far but he has never played his unseeded next opponent Santoro. Ninth seed Haas, who has struggled with illness and injury this year, will play Djokovic's compatriot Janko Tipsarevic in the second round. Murray, who won his second title this year at the St Petersburg Open last Sunday, made a confident start against Nieminen and showed little sign of the stiff back he suffered after a minor car crash on Monday. He held his serve to love against a player who was beaten in the final of the Swiss Indoors event by Roger Federer last weekend, but then struggled for his best form as the first set went to a tiebreak. The Scot was broken just one point after having a winner overturned following an on-court appeal, but he leveled immediately and then broke Nieminen again to win a third successive game before serving out for victory. Defending champin and fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, one of six players to have already qualified for Shanghai, beat Argentina's Juan Del Potro 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 in his opening match on Wednesday. The Russian, fined for \"lack of effort\" after his defeat by Croatian qualifier Marian Cilic in St Petersburg, will next face Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in round three after Baghdatis shocked 13th seed Ivan Ljubicic. Ivo Karlovic broke Roger Federer's serve for the first time in his life, but the top seed and world number one progressed in a late match on Wednesday. Croatian Karlovic, the tallest man in tennis at 2.08 metres, went down 6-4 4-6 6-3 as Federer played for the first time at the Bercy event since 2003. Federer had gone 67 service games over four previous matches without a loss before Karlovic ended his duck to claim their second set. But the Swiss top seed got straight back in harness, breaking to start the final set and rolling ahead against a man he had just beaten days earlier in the Basel semifinals. World numbet two Rafael Nadal also reached the third round after thrashing Italy's Filippo Volandri 6-3 6-1. The Spaniard will next play Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, who won by the same scoreline against 16th seed Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"World No. 3 Novak Djokovic beaten in the second round of the Paris Masters .\nThe Serb, who had a first-round bye, lost 6-3 6-2 to veteran Fabrice Santoro .\nTop seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal win opening matches at Bercy .","id":"fff32094b00f3780cc98fe43bd98aace4b851281"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- After years in the bronze age, when sun-kissed cheeks and gloss reigned supreme, fall's return to glamour means that lipstick is making a major comeback. Lipstick outsold gloss by $76 million last year, and beauty companies are racing to launch new formulas that are more wearable than ever. So pucker up. We'll show you how to apply lipstick perfectly, along with the most flattering shades for day and night. For foolproof application, stick with sheer, subdued shades in the morning and save deep, bold colors (which require more time and precision) for night. Daytime equation . 1. Condition and protect with a balm that contains sunscreen, like Softlips Raspberry with Green Tea SPF 20. \"Dab some on immediately after getting out of the shower, when your lips are still a little moist,\" suggests Hollywood pro Kara Yoshimoto Bua. The smoother your lips, the more perfect your lipstick will look. 2. Choose a soft shade such as rose or nude that you can apply straight from the tube. A hydrating formula ensures a smooth coat of color. Try Neutrogena Moistureshine Soothing Lipsheers in Fresh Rose. 3. Blot, reapply and blot again to remove excess oils and create a stain, says Bua. \"The color looks more natural and lasts longer.\" Instead of tissues, use lint-free blotting papers, like Boscia Fresh Blotting Linens ($10). Nighttime equation . 1. Exfoliate before applying a bold hue like red or burgundy. Sally Hansen Gentle Peel for Rough Lips ($10; at drugstores) uses fruit enzymes to remove dry patches. 2. Create a base with a gel-based primer that fills in fine lines around the mouth and helps lipstick go on more smoothly. One to try: Olay Regenerist lip treatment ($19; at drugstores). 3. Define the borders of your mouth with a pencil to prevent color from bleeding, says Robin Fredriksz, who gave Barrymore her deep fuchsia lip. To avoid an unnaturally dark outline, use a shade that's lighter than your lipstick, like Revlon Colorstay lip liner in Plum ($8; at drugstores). 4. Brush on color for more control. Try: Shu Uemura Kolinsky Portable Extra lipbrush ($35) with Isadora Perfect Moisture lipstick in Bordeaux Red ($11). Makeup artists' favorites . Just like us, cosmetics pros use the same lipsticks again and again. From the just right daytime rose to the classic evening red, here are some of their all-time go-to picks for day and night. Carmindy's neutral picks for day are designed to \"enhance your natural lip color.\" For night she recommends dark berry or true red for all skin tones. Her clients: Heidi Klum and Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Day shades: Benefit Silky Finish in Candy Store, $16; Givenchy Rouge Interdit in Secret Pink, $26. Night colors: Nars in Scarlet Empress, $23; Revlon Super Lustrous in Love That Red, $8; at drugstores. AJ Crimson likes a subtle pink or sheer beige for all skin tones during the day. For night he recommends bright red for fair complexions and a deep purple for darker ones. His clients: Missy Elliot and Amerie. Day shades: Chanel Rouge Hydrabase in Pink Sugar, $25; Laura Mercier in Candy Pink, ($22). Night colors: Maybelline Moisture Extreme in Royal Red, $7; at drugstores; MAC in Cyber, ($14). Melissa Silver uses fuchsia on cool skin tones and peachy nude on warm ones for day. For night, she says, \"anyone can wear plum or sheer red.\" Her clients: Ren\u00e9e Zellweger and Cindy Crawford. Day shades: Clinique Colour Surge Butter Shine in Fresh Watermelon, $14; Lanc\u00f4me Le Rouge Absolu in Nectariche, $25. Night colors: MAC in Spice It Up!, $14; Sonia Kashuk in Sheer Cherry Blossom, $8. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Gloss taking backseat to bold colors in lipsticks .\nExfoliate lips before applying a bold hue .\nMelissa Silver: \"Anyone can wear plum or sheer red\" at night .\nAJ Crimson likes subtle pink or sheer beige for all skin tones for day .","id":"373ef5be1d84b8c4905193e569e0cf8a7ead3d03"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- A hit TV show. An Emmy. A summer blockbuster. A new company. A wedding! Katherine Heigl has every reason to smile for our camera. A star -- and a trio of gorgeous looks -- is born. The Ing\u00e9nue: \"This is my favorite look of the three just because it's sexy but not overtly so,\" Heigl says. \"I like simple hair and makeup.\" There has been a self-tanning mishap . As Katherine Heigl crosses the parking lot of the sandwich shop at the Roosevelt Golf Course at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, she walks stiffly, holding her arms away from her like a paper doll and apologizing profusely for running 10 minutes late. Earlier, she'd sprayed her entire body with self-tanner, which refused to dry. She resorted to having her fianc\u00e9, musician Josh Kelley, take a blow-dryer to her (didn't work). So here she is, in a strapless, ankle-length Juicy Couture sundress (donned to accommodate the residual stickiness), fanning herself and wondering how mottled the tan will be when (or if) the lotion ever sets. Not that one bum experience could turn her off beauty products. \"I love everything new,\" says Heigl, 28, who, in addition to being nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actress on \"Grey's Anatomy,\" just started a production company at Fox. \"When I was in Rhode Island filming this summer, I went to Sephora for the first time. It was like my holy mecca.\" She recently had her bathroom vanity renovated with a high counter to make more room for the large drawers below that hold her well-organized loot. Then there's her deal with Coty to be the face of Nautica's new women's fragrance in January. Considering this fondness for all things beauty -- as well as Heigl's impressive acting range -- she plays TV dramedy as deftly as cinematic romantic comedy, as in the mega-hit \"Knocked Up\" and next year's 27 Dresses -- it seems natural for her to be In Style's first ever triple-cover girl. These three looks take her from girl-next-door to red-carpet knockout to pixie-coiffed vamp. The star, whom pals call Katie (and Hollywood calls the Next Big Thing), popped out her retainer to talk about makeup, breakouts and what boys like. KATHERINE HEIGL: I'm so sorry, I have to take out my Invisalign before I eat. IN STYLE: Who knew you wore them? I guess that's the point of Invisalign. KH: I got them because of this wonky tooth. I was like, OK, I can't take it. It's awesome because every two weeks you switch to a new retainer. Pretty much the perfect way to describe Invisalign is Netflix for your teeth. IS: Right -- the things we do for beauty. So, how did you like being transformed into three such different looks? KH: It was fun. I was working with such great hair and makeup people. And to have these professionals turning you into someone else is pretty neat. IS: Do you ever go without makeup? KH: There was a time when I would. Now that I get followed by photographers, I'm really paranoid about it. I do not want to be the \"Look What This Celebrity Looks Like Without Makeup\" picture. I'm clearly vain, and I don't need that. Plus, I like products. IS: How often do you go through your drawers and purge? KH: Often, because people send me a lot of stuff now, which is exciting. I love getting those boxes. [Into the tape recorder:] Send me a box of makeup, Stila! When that happens, I feel like I have to clean out and give stuff to my sister, mom and friends because there comes a point of gluttony that I can't accept. IS: How do you think you express your personality through style? KH: I'm a big hair-up person. Last night at work they put my hair in two French braids to keep it flat under the scrub cap. I thought it looked cute and that I could pull it off after I'd slept on it. And ... no. So I thought I could recreate it myself ... no again. As far as clothing style goes, I fluctuate almost as much as I do with beauty products. I like to shop for sweaters -- maybe it's the New Englander in me. I'm building a house in the mountains in Utah, so I tell myself I'm \"preparing\" for that. I like sweaters -- they're like scrubs -- you don't have to suck it in or worry about the bloat. IS: Do you know how you want your hair and makeup at your wedding? KH: I have an idea, but it's so dependent on the dress, and I haven't gotten there yet. My sister is getting married too, so we looked for dresses together. After about five stores I was like, \"I'm done.\" Everyone says, \"You just know when you put that dress on.\" My sister found the right dress just like that. So I know it can happen. But it's grueling. IS: Wait, so your mom has two daughters getting married within months? KH: My poor mother is probably like, \"Why, God? Why?\" But I hired a planner. I want the day to be spectacular, but mostly I want it to be fun. And I don't want to freak out or stress. IS: Does your fianc\u00e9 have any particular opinions about your look? KH: Josh wouldn't mind if my hair was brown, if it was still long -- that's such a boy thing. IS: Would you ever wear a wig out? KH: I'd contemplate it, but I don't know if I actually have the courage to pull it off. I once wore a long hair-extension ponytail, and someone asked me if it was real, like I was one of those dolls when we were little, and the hair just cranks out. IS: How would you describe your skin? KH: My skin is sensitive, so everything bothers it. And I'm the jerk who keeps switching products and making it worse. IS: How do you treat a breakout? KH: I got a great product at Ona Spa called Sebuspot. I've tried so many that were disappointments, but maybe I stand too close to the mirror examining my pores. If I backed up, things might look fine. IS: What do you always carry in your bag? KH: Powder, because I get shiny. And lip balm, either the Smith's Rosebud Salve or C.O. Bigelow's Mentha Lip Shine in Black Cherry Soda from Bath & Body Works. It's shiny with a little shimmer and tastes so good. IS: An In Style.com reader wants to know how you maintain a healthy body image in Hollywood. KH: I train with Harley Pasternak. I love him with my whole soul and follow his 5-Factor diet. I first said, \"I'm never going to be -- nor do I want to be -- an uber-athletic girl.\" It's just not me and I don't have that kind of discipline. He said, \"I just want you to be healthy.\" A lot of what we focus on is posture. I slump into myself when I get stressed. If I were going to play an action hero, I'd have to get that look. But I'd never maintain it. For me it's never about achieving a look that's impossible. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Grey's Anatomy\" actress Katherine Heigl has own production company .\nStar of hit movie Knocked Up\" is getting married .\nDoesn't go without makeup for fear of ugly photographs .\nSays shopping for wedding dress is \"grueling\"","id":"f372b28e3d1f74d60aa8ee29d7bdd49a6e7f9779"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- 1. The SPAM\u00ae Museum . SPAM marks its 70th anniversary in 2007 which is also the Chinese Year of the Pig. If the on-site \"wall of SPAM\" is any indication, a tour through the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota, is guaranteed fun for the whole canned-pork-loving family. SPAM's parent company, Hormel Foods, opened the establishment in 2001 to the tune of almost 5,000 cans of SPAM. One of the main attractions is a scale model of a SPAM plant, where visitors can don white coats and hairnets while pretending to produce America's favorite tinned meat. 2. National Museum of Funeral History . It's pretty hard to argue with the motto \"Any Day Above Ground is a Good One.\" So goes the backhanded optimism of the National Museum of Funeral History, a Houston facility that opened in 1992. Visitors are treated to exhibits that include a Civil War embalming display and a replica of a turn-of-the-century casket factory. In addition, the museum boasts an exhibit of \"fantasy coffins\" designed by Ghanaian artist Kane Quaye. These moribund masterpieces include a casket shaped like a chicken, a Mercedes-Benz, a shallot, and an outboard motor. According to Quaye, his creations are based on the dreams and last wishes of his clients, which -- let's be honest -- really makes you wonder about the guy buried in the shallot. 3. The Hobo Museum . If you're bumming around but looking for a good time, be sure to take a load off in Britt, Iowa, at The Hobo Museum, which details the history and culture of tramps. Bear in mind, though, that the museum kind of, well, slacks on hours and is only open to the public during the annual Hobo Convention. Luckily, tours can be arranged by appointment any time of year. Of course, if you're interested in the Hobo Convention, lodging is available all over the area, but it's a safe bet that most of your compatriots will be resting their floppy hats at the \"hobo jungle,\" located by the railroad tracks. Both the event and the museum are operated by the Hobo Foundation, which --incidentally -- also oversees the nearby Hobo Cemetery, where those who have \"caught the westbound\" are laid to rest. 4. The M\u00fctter Museum . Originally, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia erected the M\u00fctter Museum as a creative way to inform medical students and practicing physicians about some of the more unusual medical phenomena. (You know, babies with two heads, that sort of thing.) But today, it primarily serves as a popular spot for anyone interested in the grotesque. There, you'll find the world's largest colon, removed from a man who died -- not surprisingly -- of constipation. Also on display: an OB-GYN instrument collection, thousands of fluid-preserved anatomical and pathological specimens, and a large wall dedicated entirely to swallowed objects. 5. The Barnum Museum . What better way to honor \"Greatest Show on Earth\" founder P.T. Barnum than with a mediocre museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut? Some visitors will appreciate the museum's ridiculously detailed miniature model of a five-ring circus. But only circus freaks (and by that we mean \"enthusiasts\") will get a kick out of seeing a stale piece of cake from the wedding of Barnum's 40-inch-tall sidekick, General Tom Thumb. 6. The Conspiracy Museum . There's more than one theory about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, so why not have more than one museum devoted to it as well? Most JFK buffs are familiar with the Sixth Floor Museum housed in the former Texas School Book Depository, which recounts all those boring \"mainstream\" details of the late president's life leading up to his death at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald. But just down the street, the Conspiracy Museum offers fodder for those less apt to buy into The Man's propaganda. For the most part, the museum specializes in showings of the Zapruder film and explanations of contrary assassination theories, including other gunmen on the grassy knoll and possible mafia involvement. 7. The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices . Take two trips to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices and call us when you've lost all faith in the medical profession. Thanks to curator Bob McCoy (who recently donated the collection to the Science Museum of Minnesota), those in search of history's quack science can find what they're looking for in the St. Paul tourist attraction, whether it's a collection of 19th-century phrenology machines or some 1970s breast enlargers. If you make the trip, be sure to check out the 1930s McGregor Rejuvenator. This clever device required patrons to enclose their bodies, sans head, in a large tube where they were pounded with magnetic and radio waves in attempts to reverse the aging process. 8. Cook's Natural Science Museum . What began as a training facility for Cook's Pest Control exterminators blossomed into one of the few museums in the country willing to tell the tale of the pest. At Cook's Natural Science Museum in Decatur, Alabama, visitors can learn everything they ever wanted to know about rats, cockroaches, mice, spiders, and termites ... all for free. And while most people would rather step on the live specimens than learn about them, museum exhibits such as the crowd-pleasing Pest of the Month keep reeling in patrons. 9. Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum . So, what do you get when you combine the loneliness of a pet cemetery with the creepy flair of vaudeville? The Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum, of course -- where dummies go to die. The Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, museum was the brainchild of the late William Shakespeare Berger, who founded the site as a home for retired wooden puppets. In fact, he collected figures from some of the country's most famous ventriloquist acts. And with more than 700 dummies stacked from floor to ceiling, you're bound to feel like you're stuck inside a 1970s horror flick -- albeit a really good one. But sadly, when Berger gave the tour, you could totally tell his mouth was moving. 10. The Trash Museum . Mom wasn't kidding when she said one man's trash is another man's treasure. At the Trash Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA) turns garbage into 6,500 square feet of pure recycling entertainment! T . our the Temple of Trash or visit the old-fashioned town dump. And for your recycler-in-training, head across the state to the Children's Garbage Museum, where you can take an educational stroll through the giant compost pile, get a glimpse of the 1-ton Trash-o-saurus, or enjoy the company of resident compost worms. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"If you build it, the tourists will come to your museum .\nMuseums for hobos, medical oddities and trash .\nKentucky museum is where dummies go to die .","id":"fbcaa7519e9ff82193afbaed67d8706f2350125f"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Interpol on Monday took the unprecendented step of making a global appeal for help to identify a man from digitally reconstructed photos taken from the Internet that it said showed him sexually abusing underage boys. This moving image shows how police used software to unscramble the image. (Source: Interpol) The man's face was disguised by digital alteration, but the images were capable of being restored, according to a bulletin from Interpol -- the international police agency based in Lyon, France. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the pictures have been on the the Internet for several years, but investigators have been unable to determine the man's identity or nationality. \"We have tried all other means to identify and to bring him to justice, but we are now convinced that without the public's help this sexual predator could continue to rape and sexually abuse young children whose ages appear to range from six to early teens,\" Noble said. He said there is \"very good reason to believe that he travels the world in order to sexually abuse and exploit vulnerable children.\" Interpol has determined the photos were taken in Vietnam and Cambodia. \"The decision to make public this man's picture was not one which was taken lightly,\" said Kristin Kvigne, assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings Unit. The suspect's photo and more information can be seen online at Interpol's Web site. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Man posted photos on the Internet of himself sexually abusing underage boys .\nComputer experts managed to undo digital masking to reveal the man .\nMan abused 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia .","id":"5ebd041d89a2ba41b387c30293f0657eef746910"} -{"article":"Reuters is a global information company providing material tailored for professionals in the financial services, media and corporate markets. Its information is trusted and drives decision making across the globe. In October 1851 Paul Julius Reuter, a German-born immigrant, opened an office in the City of London which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. 18 months earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. In 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln's assassination in the United States. As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874. In 1883 Reuters began to use a \"column printer\" to transmit messages electrically to London newspapers and in 1923 pioneered the use of radio to transmit news internationally. In 1927 it brought in the teleprinter to distribute news to London newspapers. Today Reuters has over 16,900 staff in over 94 countries across the globe, and is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, with 196 bureaux serving approximately 131 countries. In 2006 Reuters filed over two and a half million news items, including 656,500 alerts, from 209 countries around the world, published in 18 languages. Although Reuters is best known as the world's largest international multimedia news agency, more than 90% of its revenue derives from its financial services business. Some 370,000 financial market professionals working in the equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, money, commodities and energy markets around the world use Reuters products. The company supplies news -- text, graphics, video and pictures -- to media organizations across the globe. It also provides news to businesses outside the financial services sector, as well as direct to consumers. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Reuters was founded in 1851 by Julius Reuter, transmitting market quotations .\nThe company was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln's assassination .\nToday Reuters has 196 bureaux serving approximately 131 countries.","id":"ac4ae79796d05506dabe4380c24f7dd423e09965"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six of the seven college students killed in a massive house fire Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, attended the University of South Carolina, a university official said Sunday. \"This is a very sad day for the University of South Carolina family,\" Dennis A. Pruitt, the vice president for student affairs, told reporters. The seventh fatality is believed to be a Clemson University student, he said. The six survivors -- who were treated and released from Brunswick Community Hospital -- are also USC students, he said. Pruitt said the bodies were being sent to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for identification. Watch home video showing the house in flames \u00bb . \"It is difficult to ascertain exactly who was in the house and who was not,\" Pruitt said, explaining that several area houses were filled with college students visiting for the weekend. Newspaper deliveryman Tim Burns was aghast when he first saw the inferno early Sunday morning. He tried to approach the door but the flames were too intense, he told the Associated Press. \"When I was going up to the entryway, you could hear the windows above me explode,\" Burns said. \"When I knew the flames had taken over, I don't think I've ever felt as helpless in my life.\" The USC students were affiliated with the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Pruitt said, although he stressed that the weekend was not an official Greek function. \"It just so happens, as on many university campuses, that certain sororities and certain fraternities hang around together,\" he said. One person described as \"unaccounted for\" was later confirmed dead, Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith told CNN. \"We suffered a terrible tragedy at Ocean Isle this morning,\" Smith said in a news conference. \"Nothing like this has ever happened at Ocean Isle Beach, and we hope it never will again.\" She said officials had not yet contacted all the victims' families, and that they were not yet releasing their names. The mayor said one of the 13 people in the house was related to the house's owner. Smith said the house was fully \"engulfed\" in flames around 7 a.m. when the fire department arrived on the scene, about five minutes after the fire department was notified. She said the house had working smoke detectors, AP reported. Officials are investigating the cause of the fire, Smith said. \"We ran down the street to get away,\" Nick Cain told the AP. The University of North Carolina student was staying at a house about 100 feet away. Some of his friends had met several people staying at the house that burned down. \"The ash and the smoke were coming down on us. We were just trying to get away,\" Cain told the AP. Ocean Isle Beach is a popular resort destination along the southern coast of North Carolina. The 7-mile-long island's year-round population is about 425, while the summer season population is about 25,000, according to the town's Web site. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Six of seven dead in fire were University of South Carolina students .\nOfficial: Six treated at hospital and released were also USC students .\nMayor Debbie Smith said one of 13 at house is related to owner of house .\nVictims' names not being released until families are notified .","id":"62827a1a377491d88adcbac25ecf14a64b5f997b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attacks are down 75 percent in recent months in a perilous stretch of neighborhoods in northeastern Baghdad, prompting a U.S. military officer to proclaim Monday that security there is \"dramatically improving.\" Concerned citizens have helped troops improve security in parts of Baghdad, a military official says. People line the streets, cars congest them, trash collectors and other city workers have returned, local leaders are holding community meetings again and \"markets have come back like gangbusters,\" said Army Col. Don Farris, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. He added that the largely Sunni al Qaeda in Iraq presence has been \"crushed\" since the beginning of May. However, there are still dangers, most notably the threats posed by Iranian-backed Shiite militants, Farris said. Speaking to Pentagon reporters via video link from Baghdad, Farris cited several factors he said contributed to the improving security situation. Among them is the \"surge,\" the additional U.S. troops deployed earlier this year. Watch how old rivalries have been posing problems \u00bb . Also helping improve the security situation are the cease-fire by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and the development of a program that employs \"concerned local citizens\" to assist U.S. and Iraqi forces, Farris said. Some of those citizens are members of local Sunni \"awakening councils,\" comprised of former militants -- often armed -- who create neighborhood watch groups to root out the insurgent elements in an area. Especially in the last six weeks, Farris said, civic and religious leaders have seen outsiders operating in the area and troops have made arrests, two Iranian operatives among them . \"From my foxhole, in our sector, it is working,\" he said of the improving security in the area. \"I can only speak to what I see in my sector and I am encouraged.\" Farris' sector -- which includes the Sunni-dominated district of Adhamiya and Sadr City, the Shiite slum where militants have demonstrated a strong presence -- has seen a \"remarkable turnaround,\" he said. Many of the communities in his area have been wracked with sectarian warfare and terrorized by insurgents and death squads. Despite improvements in the security situation, Farris warned that \"we still have a lot of work to do\" because there doesn't appear to be any sign that Shiite extremists with links to Iran are halting their activities. Farris said troops also are still finding explosively formed penetrators, which are often delivered or manufactured by Iran. Nine such bombs were found in late October, he said. There are intelligence reports indicating weapons and money are still flowing into Sadr City, he said. There are also problems returning refugees and displaced people to their homes in the area, Farris said, because \"essential services\" like water and electricity are not yet up to snuff. Though a \"trickle\" of families has returned home and many are asking when they can return, Farris said he believes residents will return en masse only when basic services are in better shape. Paul Folmsbee, a State Department provincial reconstruction team leader, said at the same news conference that his personnel was handling development issues involving law, governance, economic development and essential services. Farris' Monday remarks echo a string of similar assertions made by U.S. and Iraqi military officials over recent weeks. The military officials say they are seeing signs of Sunni-Shiite reconciliation. At a press conference earlier Monday in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Ed Cardon, deputy commander for support of Multi-National Division-Center, discussed a \"definite period of progress\" in his region on the southern Baghdad outskirts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Official: Streets bustling, workers returning, markets \"back like gangbusters\"\nTroop surge, citizens groups, Mehdi Army cease-fire all help security situation .\nIranian weapons, fighters still posing problems in northeastern Baghdad .\nCommander says more families will return when basic services fully restored .","id":"d42463e1093a92ec4dbd20edd8f4bf3306f00f3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials are searching for the driver of a white truck seen on Santiago Canyon Road on Sunday, near the time the Santiago fire started, Orange County authorities said Friday. Chief Chip Prather holds a photo of a white truck similar to the one seen on Santiago Canyon Road. \"These people are not suspects at this time,\" Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said. \"They are persons of interest who were seen near the fire in a vehicle like this.\" The vehicle is a white, 1998 to 2004 Ford F150 pickup with chrome tubular running boards. Prather said the information came from a lead called into the investigation's tip line. A $250,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the blaze. Watch how residents feel about arsonist \u00bb . The Santiago fire, now 27,000 acres and still burning, was deliberately set, officials said Thursday. Several mandatory evacuations remain in place for the Santiago fire, which has destroyed 14 homes and various other structures. Late Friday afternoon, the blaze moved into Silverado Canyon, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies were evacuating residents in the fire's path. Watch the Santiago flames rage \u00bb . Authorities also suspect arson in the Rosa fire in San Diego County, which burned more than 400 acres before being fully contained. There was no information on the investigation. Elsewhere, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office filed arson charges Friday against a 41-year-old Sun Valley man who witnesses said set a fire in the West Hills neighborhood and walked away. Catalino Pineda is one of five people who have been arrested in arson investigations this week, but none of them has been linked to the major wildfires raging across Southern California. Pineda was arrested Wednesday after witnesses said they saw him lighting a fire on a hillside, police said. The fire was quickly extinguished. The witnesses followed Pineda to a nearby restaurant and called police, who arrested him. Pineda was expected to be arraigned in Van Nuys Superior Court Friday, Deputy District Attorney Steven Frankland said. He is charged with one count of arson of a structure or forest. Pineda is being held on $75,000 bail and faces up to six years in prison if convicted. In San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles, John Rund, of Hesperia, was arrested Wednesday on arson charges after a witness reported seeing him in brush near the starting point of a fire Tuesday, the sheriff's department said. That fire was quickly put out by passers-by. Investigators are trying to determine if Rund, 48, may have ties to other wildfires. He is being held on $750,000 bail. The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office on Thursday filed arson charges against Anthony Riperti, 47, of Redlands. A statement from the office did not say when or where Riperti is accused of setting a fire. He is being held on $250,000 bail. In San Diego County, the sheriff's department this week arrested an adult and a juvenile allegedly seen by an anonymous tipster starting a fire in Vista in the northern part of the county. In a written statement, the sheriff's department identified the adult as Gorgonio Nava. The Vista fire Department extinguished the blaze before it grew out of control, the statement said. Investigators have determined that the Grass Valley fire in San Bernardino County was not caused by arson, and a preliminary investigation into the cause of the 11,675-acre Slide fire seems to indicate arson was not a factor, sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beaver said. More than 1,600 homes have been destroyed in the past week by Southern California wildfires. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: White truck seen on Santiago Canyon Road near time fire started .\nCharges filed against man who allegedly set small fire and walked off .\nCatalino Pineda one of five arrested in arson investigations this week .\nArson investigations continue across multiple California counties .","id":"4b0eda92463958cce8c6b2537db39088e1254552"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The partnership started as a single shop on Oxford Street in London, opened in 1864 by John Lewis. Today the partnership is an organization with bases throughout the UK, with supermarkets and department stores, employing approximately 67,100 people. All 67,100 permanent staff are Partners who own 26 John Lewis department stores, 183 Waitrose supermarkets, an online and catalogue business, John Lewis Direct a direct services company - Greenbee, three production units and a farm. Every Partner receives the same scale of bonus, based on a fixed percentage of their annual wage. The bonus for 2006 was 18% equivalent to 9 weeks pay, which was rolled out for every employee. Chairman Sir Stuart Hampson retired at the end of March 2007, his successor is Charlie Mayfield. Hampson's salary for January 26, 2006 to January 26, 2007 was $1.66 million which included the partnership bonus of $250,000. John Lewis' consolidated revenue for the last financial year was $11.4 billion. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"John Lewis Partnership began as a shop on London's Oxford street in 1864 .\nAll 67,100 employees are partners in the organization and own shares .","id":"e117408ad19cc69e15b1e21b9ae54f10c07223ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The company was founded in 1985 by seven communications industry veterans -- Franklin Antonio, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi and Harvey White. One of Qualcomm's first products was OmniTRACS, introduced in 1988, which is currently the largest satellite-based commercial mobile system for the transportation industry. Today, Qualcomm's patent portfolio includes approximately 6,100 United States patents and patent applications for CDMA and related technologies. More than 130 telecommunications equipment manufacturers worldwide have licensed QUALCOMM's essential CDMA patents. Qualcomm is among the members of the S&P 500 Index, Fortune 500, and a winner of the U.S. Department of Labor's\" Secretary of Labor's Opportunity Award.\" The company has been listed among Fortune's \"100 Best Companies to Work For in America\" for nine years in a row and the magazine's list of\" Most Admired Companies.\" Qualcomm's Annual revenue for 2006 was $7.53 billion, with a net income of $2.47 billion. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The company has become a huge name in communications in just 20 years .\nQualcomm has a portfolio of approximately 6,100 U.S. patents .\nFortune lists the company as one of the 100 best places to work in the U.S.","id":"3c5b68b58c34853baa534d1265ec7fde00d4eb4e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A girl who was shown on a videotape being sexually assaulted in Las Vegas has been found and is safe, officials in Nye County, Nevada, said Friday. Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, is being sought as a suspect, police say. \"We have found the child, Madison. She's safe. The detectives say she is in good condition,\" Nye County Sheriff Tony De Meo said. The girl, now 7, was shown in a sex video made four years ago, Detective David Boruchowitz said at a news conference Friday night. She was found Friday with family in Las Vegas after thousands of tips poured in, thanks to an appeal by police to the news media to show the girl's picture. CNN and other news organizations did so until the child was found, when De Meo asked them to stop showing the picture. \"The mother has cooperated with us,\" De Meo said. \"We believe that the mother was not aware of anything that went on with this young girl,\" he said. \"It was very sad for her to find this out.\" A former Las Vegas animal trainer, Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, has been identified as a suspect and is being sought in the case, De Meo said. Pahrump is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. Watch what's known about Stiles \u00bb . Stiles was a distant friend of the girl's family, De Meo said. Someone close to Stiles has told investigators that Stiles is a \"survivalist type\" and always carries a weapon, Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said. De Meo addressed Stiles directly: \"Turn yourself in to your local law enforcement agency,\" he said. \"Understand this: Law enforcement not only has a long arm, but a long memory. You will not be forgotten by members of this agency or any other law enforcement agency.\" The FBI is also seeking Stiles on state charges of sexual assault and lewdness with a minor under the age of 14 in a separate matter, De Meo said. Police, who had called Stiles a person of interest, began calling him a suspect late Friday. There appeared to be physical similarities between Stiles and the man in the videotape, De Meo said. \"Nothing that I have seen in my career comes close to what this girl has gone through. Whoever this person is is a predator that, as far as I'm concerned, belongs in custody and, if successfully prosecuted, in jail for as long as the law allows,\" De Meo said earlier. Detectives said the child showed little emotion during the rapes, indicating she may have been brutalized before. Nevadan Darren Tuck recently gave police the videotape, saying he found it in the desert, De Meo said. Police said the tape was in his possession at least since May before he handed it over to authorities. He is being sought on a parole violation for failure to pay child support, but police -- who want to question him further -- have been unable to locate him. Tuck, who also allegedly showed the tape to others before giving it to police, faces a possible 10-years-to-life sentence for exhibiting pornography and another one to six years for possession of child pornography, De Meo said. Harry Kuehn, Tuck's attorney, said this week on CNN's \"Nancy Grace\" that Tuck was \"racked by indecision\" about what to do with the tape once he realized what it was. Asked why, Kuehn said, \"He's explained that to us, and at this point, we're not going to share that, because it goes to the defense of the matter.\" \"You have to consider what kind of concerns my client had; He's previously dealt with the sheriff's office in Nye County; it was previously unsatisfactory,\" the attorney said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Stiles described as \"survivalist type\" who carries a weapon .\nMother has cooperated with police, sheriff says .\nGirl on tape, now 7, found safe with family .\nTape shows man sexually abusing the girl 4 years ago .","id":"6c3d2feed04c75063d182103f0585c45da9aaa1b"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- They say a lot of artistic expression is motivated by self-loathing. But not for these folks! Long before the Material Girl ordered papa to stop preaching, these six puffed-up virtuosos knew darn well how to strike a pose. Alfred Hitchcock didn't leave people in suspense about how he felt about actors. Here's to the creative types who managed to raise egotism to an art form. Alfred Hitchcock . Hitchcock was, without question, one of the towering geniuses of cinema. And, like many greats, he wasn't exactly the best collaborator. Hitchcock was particularly trying for screenwriters, who felt he never properly credited them for their work. But he was notoriously hard on actors. He was once quoted as saying, \"Actors are cattle\" -- a quip that stirred up a huge outcry (actors can be so touchy). In response, he issued this correction: \"I have been misquoted. What I really said is, 'Actors should be treated as cattle.'\" Although it began accidentally (when he was short an actor for the film \"The Lodger\"), Hitchcock soon made it his egotistical trademark to appear in his own films, amassing a total of 37 cameos throughout his career. Ayn Rand . The egotist's egotist, author Ayn Rand (born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum) is the patron saint of Thinking You're Better Than Everybody Else. Her most famous novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, are massive dramatizations of Objectivism, her self-spun Oscar-the-Grouch philosophy for success. Objectivism champions ego and accomplishment, shuns all religion as folly, and condemns any form of charity or altruism as counterproductive to society. Rand's novels often focus on protagonists (invariably men) who are shunned by others because of their genius, but then persevere over the foolishness of morons to prove said genius and emerge triumphant. Not surprisingly, she saw humility as a weakness and regarded laughing at yourself as \"spitting in your own face.\" So, just how much did Rand believe in her own philosophy? Let's just say a lot. With signature modesty, she ranked herself as the philosophical equal of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Orson Welles . When you create a cinematic masterpiece such as \"Citizen Kane\" at the ripe old age of 25, you're bound to get a big head. But Welles was convinced of his own importance much earlier than that. In fact, \"Citizen Kane\" might have been sparked by nothing more than a bruised ego. After all, it's said he devised the film as a withering expos\u00e9 of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst because Hearst slighted Welles at a dinner party. Of course, after the unparalleled success of \"Citizen Kane,\" Welles's arrogant side didn't get any less subtle. Do yourself a favor: Track down a recording of Welles' outtakes for a TV commercial for frozen peas. You'll hear everything you need to know about the filmmaker's oversized ego. A classic quote goes: \"In the depths of your ignorance, what is it you want?\" Frank Lloyd Wright . As the brains behind the Robie House, Fallingwater, Taliesin West, the Guggenheim, and countless other design benchmarks, Frank Lloyd Wright is arguably the genius of 20th-century architecture. And, boy, did he know it! Wright was notorious for believing he was superior to mere mortals. In fact, the architectural egomaniac frequently acted as though the rules -- even those of geography and climate -- did not apply to him. But when you're Wright, you're right. In 1935, department store magnate Stanley Marcus (of Neiman-Marcus fame) commissioned the architect to design his Dallas home, but the project quickly went sour. Wright's avant-garde floor plan included \"sleeping porches\" that required his client to sleep outdoors year-round. In addition, Marcus' small bedroom \"cubicles\" came equipped with almost no closet space. When Stanley respectfully explained that (a) temperatures during summer nights in Dallas often exceed 80 degrees and (b) a high-fashion tastemaker might need bigger closets, Wright threw a series of tantrums. Fortunately for the voyeur in us all, said tantrums usually took place in letter form. Preserved and occasionally displayed at the Dallas Museum of Art, they make for delicious reading. Salvador Dal\u00ed . \"Every morning when I awake, the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dal\u00ed.\" Yup, he actually said that. Everything about the legendary Surrealist painter (he of the melting clocks) -- from his whacked-out paintings to his curled-up mustache -- was designed to shock, destroy convention, cause scandal, and stir controversy. Criticized for choosing to live under General Franco's fascist government in Spain, Dal\u00ed defended his position by stating that he didn't care about others so long as he could be king. Not exactly a man of the people. If he wasn't getting enough attention, he was known to walk the streets of New York City clanging a hand bell. Of course, this is also the guy who once said, \"The thought of not being recognized [is] unbearable.\" Need another telling quote? \"At the age of 6 years, I wanted to be a chef. At the age of 7, I wanted to be Napoleon. My ambitions have continued to grow at the same rate ever since.\" Apparently, so did his ego. Al Jolson . Plenty of performers this side of Gallagher have been labeled \"the world's greatest entertainer.\" But Al Jolson really, really believed it. The vaudeville singer, actor, dancer, and comedian was born Asa Yoelson in Seredzius, Lithuania, in what was then part of Imperial Russia. As a performer, he was known for hijacking the action in the middle of shows, ad-libbing, or just stopping to talk to the audience. During a 1911 performance of the critically hated \"Paris is a Paradise for Coons\" (title not edited for political correctness), Jolson stopped and asked the audience if they'd rather hear him sing than see the rest of the play. The crowd roared with applause, and Jolson ditched the whole program and took over. From that moment on, no one else could share the stage with him. Unlike some of the egomaniacs on this list, however, Jolson can be forgiven somewhat for his arrogance. According to most contemporary accounts, he actually was the greatest in the world. But, despite the enormity of his contributions to stage and screen, Jolson's legacy has become a political hot potato because of his use of stage blackface (considered highly offensive now, but pretty common at the time). E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Frank Lloyd Wright wanted store magnate to sleep on porch .\nSalvador Dal\u00ed's stated ambitions were bigger than Napoleon's .\nAyn Rand: Laughing at yourself same as \"spitting in your own face\"","id":"4fa1c0bd7f86368d7ae7730d95ff7e73dc9172da"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- AC Milan's Brazilian midfielder Kaka has been named European player of the year, lifting France Football's Ballon d'Or award. Kaka has already claimed all of the game's major prizes. His success comes two years after his fellow countryman, Barcelona's Ronaldinho, claimed the award . The 25-year-old Kaka was a major factor in AC Milan's triumphant Champions League campaign. The runner-up was Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo with Barcelona's Argentinian midfielder Lionel Messi finishing third. \"This is very special for me - it culminates an astonishing year for me,\" Kaka said. \"It's the top prize around and the only way to win something like this is to play for a team like AC Milan. It's great to be part of a team that wins.\" At 25 years old, he has already won all the game's major prizes, individually and collectively. He was part of Brazil's 2002 World Cup winning squad, although he was limited to just 19 minutes as a substitute against Costa Rica. He was top scorer in last season's Champions League, helping Milan to avenge their loss to Liverpool in the 2005 final. He won the Italian domestic title in his first season at Milan having joined from Brazilians Sao Paulo for$ 8.5 million, a sum that Milan president Silvio Berlusconi then described as peanuts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Brazilian Kaka is named European player of the year .\nThe AC Milan player is chosen ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester Utd .\nArgentine Lionel Messi of Barcelona finishes third .","id":"282f1910bd57e50d4401c695ebe75b817de68548"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- BUPA is an international health and care company with bases on three continents and more than eight million customers. BUPA began as The British United Provident Association in 1947 to preserve freedom of choice in health care. It believed that with a National Health Service being introduced a year later, there would still be a need for a complimentary service enabling people from all walks of life to afford the benefits of choice in where, when and by whom they were treated. Led by the growing public demand for health care and a lack of quality private accommodation BUPA initiated the Nuffield Homes Charitable Trust - later renamed Nuffield Hospitals. BUPA's biggest and original business is health insurance in the UK, both for individuals and corporations that want to look after the health of their employees. More than half of the UK's top companies are BUPA customers. The company's UK care homes offer specialist care to residents who include the elderly, the mentally ill, young people with physical or learning disabilities and people with conditions such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. BUPA is a leading healthcare company in the UK, Spain, Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malta and Saudi Arabia. BUPA International supplies health cover to expatriates in over 180 countries. Sanitas, the BUPA business in Spain, has one million insured customers who have access to a network of 18,000 medical professionals and 450 medical centres. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"BUPA was founded in 1947 in response to plans to establish the NHS .\nThe company's biggest base is in the UK but has customers in three continents .\nBUPA care homes cater for a number of conditions, including Parkinson's .","id":"af2d712599be471d1ba0b91fa18c347220ca595d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The owner of a North Carolina beach house where seven college students died in a weekend fire said Monday that his family's \"lives were just changed forever\" by the tragedy. Chip Auman said his 18-year-old daughter survived the fire but was hospitalized and in stable condition because of complications from smoke inhalation. \"The thought of losing a child is unimaginable to me, and as a father my heart goes out to the families that lost a loved one in this situation,\" he said. Auman said the situation was \"hard to fathom.\" \"There's just no words to describe what we've been going through,\" he said, asking for prayers for survivors and the families of those who died. \"We're numb, we're confused, we're heartbroken.\" Two college campuses mourned Monday. Six University of South Carolina students and a Clemson University student died in the fire early Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Six other South Carolina students were able to get out of the house in time. The six were treated and released from nearby Brunswick Community Hospital, but Auman's daughter was hospitalized again in Hartsville, South Carolina. Authorities from the state Bureau of Investigation and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire. Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith said the house was \"engulfed\" in flames when the fire department arrived on the scene, about five minutes after being notified. The flames shot into the sky and ultimately left little more than portions of the framing. Fire officials do not believe foul play was involved. Watch a neighbor's video, fears of fast-burning fire \u00bb . Dennis A. Pruitt, the vice president for student affairs for the University of South Carolina, said investigators have said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before the identities of the victims are confirmed publicly. It could be as much as a month until investigators know the cause of the fire, Pruitt said. The university did not cancel classes on Monday, but Pruitt said arrangements had been made for those who need to go home or stay out of class at the 28,000-student campus. Pruitt said meetings had been held Sunday with members of Delta Delta Delta sorority and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The South Carolina students were affiliated with those houses, he said, although he stressed that the weekend was not an official Greek function. He also said counselors and ministers were available to help students deal with the loss of their classmates. The university president, Dr. Andrew Sorenson, contacted the families of those who died in the fire to express the condolences and support of the university community. Jay Laura, student president of the USC chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said the campus would pull together after the tragedy. \"If any place can come together to help in the healing process and the aftermath of an event like this, it is South Carolina,\" Laura said at a Monday afternoon press conference. Fire survivor Tripp Wylie, a 20-year-old South Carolina sophomore, said he jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape the flames and was unable to get back in to help his friends. \"I could see a buddy of mine off to the left who had gotten out. He was just yelling at me to jump and stuff,\" Wylie told CNN affiliate WYFF. \"The smoke was pouring out, couldn't really breathe, so I had to make a quick decision. [I] just kind of leaned out the window and luckily I jumped far enough to make it into the canal.\" Neighbors flocked to see the fire as firefighters battled and ultimately got the blaze under control. See the scenes of devastation \u00bb . George Smith, who lives across the street from the house, said he heard sirens between 6:30 and 7 a.m. and went outside to see \"the whole sky lit up.\" \"The whole house was completely engulfed in flames, up to about 20 feet,\" he said. \"I have never seen [a fire] move so fast.\" George Smith said the house's occupants were \"partying in there yesterday and into the night.\" After about 10:30 p.m. Saturday they quieted down, he said. Linda Sing said she was walking her dog when she saw the fiery destruction. She noted that firefighters had saved an adjacent house by spraying it down with water. \"We knew there were people in there, but we hoped and prayed they'd gotten out,\" Sing said. \"This is the worst thing I've ever seen. We've had hurricanes, but this is worse.\" Ocean Isle Beach is a popular resort destination along North Carolina's southern coast. The year-round population of the 7-mile-long island is about 425, but it swells to about 25,000 during the summer season, according to the town's Web site. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Heartbroken\" house owner's daughter among six survivors hospitalized .\nOne survivor jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape .\nUniversity of South Carolina mourns deaths of six students .","id":"e3dd06d326c8d53722bdc5c8428e29c68a60d0d5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The head of Britain's intelligence services has warned that children as young as 15 are becoming involved in terrorist-related activity. Jonathan Evans, the chief of MI5, also said that at least 2,000 people in Britain pose a threat to the country's security because of their support for al Qaeda-inspired terrorism. \"As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country. They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism,\" he told a gathering of newspaper editors in Manchester. Evans said the figure of 2,000 -- an increase of 400 since November 2006 -- only included those the intelligence services knew about and that the actual number could be double. He said there had been 200 terrorist convictions in Britain since the September 11 attacks. The MI5 head added that over recent years much of the command and inspiration for attack planning in the UK had come from al Qaeda's remaining core leadership in the tribal areas of Pakistan. However, he said in the last 12 months terrorist plots on British soil were increasingly inspired by al Qaeda cadres in other countries, including in Iraq and East Africa. \"There is no doubt now that al Qaeda in Iraq aspires to promote terrorist attacks outside Iraq. There is no doubt that there is training activity and terrorist planning in East Africa -- particularly in Somalia -- which is focused on the UK,\" he told the Society of Editors meeting. According to Evans, there had been \"no decrease\" in the number of Russian covert intelligence officers operating in Britain since the end of the Cold War. He said that resources that could be devoted to counter-terrorism were instead being used to protect Britain against spying by Russia, China and others. \"A number of countries continue to devote considerable time and energy trying to steal our sensitive technology on civilian and military projects and trying to obtain political and economic intelligence at our expense,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"UK intel chief says children as young as 15 involved in terrorist-related activity .\nJonathan Evans: At least 2,000 people in Britain who pose threat to security .\nMI5 chief said the actual number could be double that .","id":"493fa8c40d1bc26ed1d25633c779b13bc33efdba"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- You must know what's really driving the immigration debate. It's the culture, stupid. Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Some opponents of immigration, even the legal kind, fear changes in local culture. Immigration restrictionists -- and by that, I mean those who want to limit all immigration, even the legal kind -- like to pretend they're so high-minded. Yet they can't help themselves. They always take the low road and harken back to the nativism that greeted earlier waves of immigrants. The restrictionists insist that what bothers them are merely practical concerns: that our borders aren't secure, that so many immigrants are coming into the country illegally, and that the new arrivals are burdening schools and draining social services once they get here. Really? If that's the extent of it, then why does the conversation quickly turn to the impact -- both real and perceived -- that immigrants have on American culture through everything from taco trucks to Spanish-language billboards. That seems to be the issue in North Dakota, where, according to a recent article in USA Today, towns facing tough economic times are nonetheless resisting a cultural transfusion that could save them. In Cooperstown, the locals opposed efforts to bring in a hog plant and a dairy, because those kind of dirty and hard jobs are likely to attract ... guess who? American kids who work at Starbucks? Nope. The article quotes Orville Tranby, a local community leader in Cooperstown, who says that some residents have told him \"face to face\" that such facilities might attract Hispanic immigrants who could change the local culture. You'll find the same fear in Lewisburg, Tennessee. Not long ago, an employee at a local library came up with the radical idea of a bilingual story time where children could hear tales read to them in Spanish. Townspeople wanted no part of that. They demanded that all books purchased by the library, or even donated, be in English-only. These stories are ridiculous, but they're also helpful. They illustrate what some people are really concerned about with immigration, and it goes well beyond words like \"legal\" or \"illegal.\" It's the perception that the country is becoming more Hispanic, that Spanish is replacing English, that Hispanic immigrants are weakening American identity, and that Main Street is turning into Little Mexico. A leader of the vigilante Minuteman movement moronically called it the \"colonization\" of the United States. This sort of rhetoric is all about fear -- that those who thrive in the dominant culture are losing their primacy, that the mainstream is being polluted by foreigners, and that our children are going to live in a world where they're going to have to work a lot harder to keep up. It conjures up the alarm bells that Benjamin Franklin set off about German immigrants in the late 18th century, who he insisted could never adopt the culture of the English, but would \"swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours.\" It popped up in the mid-19th century amid worries that Chinese immigrants were \"unassimilable,\" which led to Congress approving the explicitly-named Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. And it helped welcome the 20th century when Massachusetts Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge warned that immigrants (read: the Irish) were diluting \"the quality of (U.S.) citizenship\" and others complained that Italian immigrants were uneducated, low skilled, apt to send all their money to their home country and prone to criminal activity. Where have we heard that before? And when will we hear it again? After all, Hispanics may be the latest group to find themselves in a culture war with nativists. But they won't be the last. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist. You can read his column here. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Navarrette: Opponents see Hispanic immigrants as weakening U.S. identity .\nOne town demanded all library books be in English, Navarrette says .\nHispanics the latest to find themselves at center of culture war .","id":"56d7d67bb0fc32ee71cc006b915244776d883661"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Mauro Camoranesi scored with 13 minutes left to earn Juventus a 1-1 home draw with Serie A leaders Inter Milan on Sunday. Julio Cruz is mobbed by team-mates after giving Inter the lead in their 1-1 draw at Juventus. Camoranesi picked up a headed knock-down from substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta before seeing his shot deflect off defender Walter Samuel to leave goalkeeper Julio Cesar helpless. Inter took a first-half lead when Argentine striker Julio Cruz broke Juve's offside trap and latched onto Brazilian midfielder Cesar's through ball before firing past Gianluigi Buffon. The result means Inter retain their unbeaten record this season, despite injury problems that saw the likes of Patrick Vieira, Francesco Toldo, Marco Materazzi and Dejan Stankovic ruled out. The defending champions are now two points clear of Fiorentina at the top of the table, with Roma a point further behind and Juventus in fourth place. Earlier in the day, Roma missed out on the chance to close the gap on Inter when a late collapse saw them throw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Empoli. First half goals from French winger Ludovic Giuly and Matteo Brighi had put the visiting Romans in charge and for more than an hour they looked set to cruise to victory. But with 23 minutes remaining Ighli Vannucchi reduced the deficit and Sebastian Giovinco snatched an injury time equaliser to deny Luciano Spaletti's injury-depleted team. Siena snatched a share of the spoils from Parma in a 2-2 draw as Daniele Galloppa scored in the last minute while Napoli needed an injury time goal from striker Ezequiel Lavezzi to deny rock-bottom Reggina their first win of the season, forcing them to settle for a 1-1 draw in the south. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A Mauro Camoranesi goal earns Juventus a 1-1 draw with leaders Inter Milan .\nArgentine striker Julio Cruz had given injury-hit Inter the lead in the first half .\nThe result maintains Inter's unbeaten record and moves them two points clear .","id":"2b08ee205946dc0bb6ffe0db654cbbba1199eb28"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One Australian soldier, three civilians and Taliban militants were killed early Friday during heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan, according to information from Australian and NATO officials. Four Australian troops have now died in the conflict in Afghanistan. The incident occurred in Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province, where Taliban militants killed an Australian commando, the Australian Defence Ministry said. The 26-year-old commando -- Pvt. Luke Worsley of Sydney -- served with the Special Operations Task Group. This is the fourth Australian troop to die in the Afghan conflict. \"The action in which Private Worsley died only concluded in the last few hours and was characterized by heavy, close quarter fighting. The SOTG was conducting an operation to clear an identified Taliban bomb making facility in Uruzgan province, when the soldier was hit by small arms fire,\" Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said \"a significant number of Taliban insurgents were killed or captured as part of the operation. Taliban insurgents initiated the firefight which lasted several hours.\" Gen. Carlos Branco, ISAF spokesman, said it is not known how the civilians, two women and a child, died. \"However, we do know that the insurgents fired upon ISAF soldiers from the compound in which the Afghan civilians (two women and one child) were found after the fight. ISAF makes all effort to prevent losses of innocent civilian lives.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Taliban militants kill Australian commando in southern Afghanistan .\nHe was shot during operation to clear Taliban bomb making facility in Uruzgan .\nThis is the fourth Australian soldier to die in the conflict in Afghanistan .\nSeveral militants killed and a coalition troop injured in other fighting in southeast .","id":"782c4bdaee73189103d2e05748717b3ea0e89e5d"} -{"article":"HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- An 18-year-old authorities say shot eight people inside his high school in southern Finland, before turning the gun on himself, has died, police said. An image from a video posted on YouTube by \"Sturmgeist89.\" The shooting appeared to have been planned out in graphic videos posted on Internet file-sharing site YouTube. At a news conference this afternoon, police confirmed the dead numbered two girls, five boys and the school's headmistress at Jokela High in Tuusula, a quiet town around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Helsinki. Ten other people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The shooter, whom police identified as Pekka Eric Auvinen, died at Toolo Hospital, authorities said. Police said he took his own life. It was the first school shooting in Finland since 1989, when a 14-year-old student shot and killed two others in the coastal town of Rauma, the Finnish news agency STT reported. Police said Auvinen is from Tuusula and who acted alone. He had no previous criminal record and had never threatened anyone from the school before, they added. Auvinen published a manifesto online demanding war on the \"weak-minded masses\" and pledged to die for his cause. Watch Auvinen fire weapons in video from his Web page \u00bb . YouTube appeared to have removed 89 videos linked to his account, many of them featuring Nazi imagery, shortly after the incident. Finnish media reported someone posted a message two weeks ago on the Web site, warning of a bloodbath at the school. A video posted earlier Wednesday, by \"Sturmgeist89,\" was titled \"Jokela High School Massacre - 11\/7\/2007.\" \"Sturmgeist89\" identified himself as Auvinen, and said he chose the name \"Sturmgeist\" because it means \"storm spirit\" in German. The video showed a picture of the school, which then disintegrated to reveal two images of Auvinen against a red background, pointing a gun at the screen. The clip is accompanied by the song \"Stray Bullet\" from rock band KMFDM. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students behind the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, also cited that group's lyrics. Another short video clip, called \"Just Testing My Gun,\" showed Auvinen loading and cocking a handgun. He fired and hit several pieces of fruit in a wooded area; the camera then showed a close-up of the destroyed fruit, and then a full-screen shot of him again. He waved at the camera and then walked out of view. The site indicated that the youth appeared to be fascinated with killing. As well as video footage of the Columbine school shootings, it also included clips of the 1993 Waco siege in the United States, the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo, and bombs falling on Baghdad during the 2003 invasion. Many showed victims being wheeled away or people running for their lives. Throughout all of this, the single word \"DIE\" constantly flashed across the screen. Other video clips included Nazi-war-criminal footage. In the rambling text posted on the site, Auvinen said that he is \"a cynical existentialist, anti-human humanist, anti-social social-Darwinist, realistic idealist and god-like atheist. \"I am prepared to fight and die for my cause,\" he wrote. \"I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.\" The police said at this afternoon's press conference that they had been fired at when they arrived at the school at 11.45 p.m. local time (9.45 a.m. GMT). They described the scene as chaotic, with some of the 460 students, ranging in age from 12 to 18, breaking windows in an attempt to escape. When the police's special SWAT unit entered the high school they found the gunman unconscious and in critical condition in the lower lobby of the building with a gunshot wound to his head. Police assume he tried to take his own life as no officers fired at him. Several bodies were also found in the same location, where the shooting is believed to have begun, they added. They could not confirm comments by some students that Auvinen was firing through doors. Police also said that the gun Auvinen used, which was fully licensed, had been purchased less than a month ago on October 19. The legal age limit to own a gun in Finland is 18, which Auvinen passed in June of this year. He had a recommendation from a shooting club when he obtained the gun, police added, and practised sharp-shooting as a hobby at a shooting range. Finland, which enjoys a strong tradition of hunting, has a high proportion of gun ownership, with two million firearms owned in a nation of only five million. The Associated Press reported comments from Kim Kiuru, one of the school's teachers, on radio station YLE. Kiuru described how the headmistress used the public address system around noon to tell pupils to stay in classrooms. He said he locked his classroom door, then waited in the corridor for more news. \"After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small-caliber handgun in his hand through the doors towards me, after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction, \" Kiuru said. The agency reported Kiuru as saying that he saw a woman's body as he fled the school, before telling his pupils to leave the building through the windows. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Teen gunman is dead, Finnish police say .\nEight people, including headmistress, shot at Finnish school, say police .\nFirearm bought legally last month, shooting began in school's lower lobby .\nShooting appeared to have been planned in series of YouTube videos .","id":"87385fb51ac9eaf76e8421723c94410f724750fc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- France coach Raymond Domenech has again omitted striker David Trezeguet from his squad for this month's friendly against Morocco and the Euro 2008 qualifier against the Ukraine. Happier times: David Trezeguet celebrates after scoring for Juventus against Torino. Trezeguet has scored scored 10 goals in 11 Serie A matches for Juventus this season -- including two hat-tricks -- but has failed to win his way back into the 24-man party. The 29-year-old, who last played for France in the 1-0 home defeat by Scotland in September, was furious after being dropped for the games against Lithuania and the Faroe Islands. He played no part as Domenech's team overtook the Scots at the top of Group B with comfortable victories last month. The coach said: \"David is having a great start to the season with Juventus, but he's in competition for a place. If we qualify, the Euro 2008 will be in eight months. A lot of things can happen in between. \"I hope David will help Juventus win the Italian league title and that he will be at the Euro 2008 with us, and that he will find his form again for France.\" Domenech has again included young Lyon forward Hatem Ben Arfa, who made his debut as a substitute against the Faroes and scored the final goal in a 6-0 victory. Ben Arfa is joined in the squad by club-mate Karim Benzema, while Bolton's Nicholas Anelka is also among the forwards named despite still recovering from an injury. Captain Patrick Vieira is ruled out due to injury, but the Inter Milan midfielder will join up with the squad anyway. \"A player of Patrick's dimension is going to be missed, but we just have to accept it and get on with it. Pat should be coming to see us because he's a leader, and he's the captain,\" Domenech added. France face the Moroccans on November 16 and then travel to the Ukraine on November 21. Domenech's team will qualify for the finals if Italy beat Scotland at Hampden on November 17. If the Glasgow game ends in a draw, France will need at least a point in Kiev to book their ticket. France squad: Goalkeepers: M Landreau (Paris St Germain), S Frey (Fiorentina), U Rame (Bordeaux). Defenders: E Abidal (Barcelona, P Evra (Manchester United), W Gallas (Arsenal), B Sagna (Arsenal), L Thuram (Barcelona), S Squillaci (Lyon), F Clerc (Lyon). Midfielders: A Diarra (Bordeaux), L Diarra (Arsenal), M Flamini (Arsenal), C Makelele (Chelsea), J Rothen (PSG), J Toulalan (Lyon), S Nasri (Marseille). Strikers: N Anelka (Bolton), H Ben Arfa (Lyon), K Benzema (Lyon), S Govou (Lyon), T Henry (Barcelona), F Malouda (Chelsea), F Ribery (Bayern Munich). E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"David Trezeguet omitted from France squad to play Morocco and the Ukraine .\nThe Juventus striker last played for his country in the 1-0 defeat by Scotland .\nHe was dropped for the wins against Lithuania and the Faroe Islands .","id":"20528eb48341b50c0083fcf5a9d114b39040e5c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs tried to hang himself earlier this year while he was in jail awaiting trial, according to court documents unsealed by a Utah judge on Tuesday. Sect leader Warren Jeffs arrives in court to hear the verdict against him September 25 in St. George, Utah. Jeffs, the leader and so-called prophet of the 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is now awaiting sentencing after being convicted on two counts of being an accomplice to rape. The documents, released by Fifth District Judge James Shumate at the request of the media, also indicate that Jeffs confessed to \"immorality\" with a \"sister\" and a daughter more than 30 years ago. Among the documents is a competency report on Jeffs completed in April, in which social worker Eric Nielsen wrote that throughout the month of January, Jeffs refused food and drink and developed ulcers on his knees from kneeling in prayer for hours. On January 28, the report said, he attempted to hang himself in his cell. In the days following the suicide attempt, while he was on suicide watch, Jeffs on separate occasions threw himself against the wall and banged his head on the wall. Jail transcripts show that Jeffs' suicide attempt came three days after a visit with his brother, Nephi, in which he said, \"I am not the prophet. I never was the prophet, and I have been deceived by the powers of evil ... I ask for everyone's forgiveness.\" Jeffs also told his brother: \"Farewell forever.\" The day before that, Jeffs told a follower in a phone conversation that he was \"covered with immorality with a sister and a daughter when I was younger.\" In the FLDS, members call adult women \"sister,\" and Jeffs' meaning was unclear. Jeffs' defense attorneys, who argued against the release of the documents, said in a motion opposing the unsealing of the statements that Jeffs recanted them the following month. Defense attorneys claim Jeffs' medical condition influenced his state of mind when the statements were made. They presented Shumate with a letter from another Jeffs attorney, arguing that the statements' release could influence an Arizona jury when Jeffs stands trial in that state. Jeffs, 51, was convicted in September of being an accomplice to rape. He was accused of using his religious influence over his followers to coerce a 14-year-old girl into marriage to her 19-year-old cousin. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison when he is sentenced November 20. The FLDS -- which is not affiliated with the mainstream Mormon church -- is based in the side-by-side border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Jeffs, a former school headmaster, is the son of the sect's previous president and \"prophet,\" Rulon Jeffs, who died in 2002. Jeffs was on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list when he was arrested in August 2006 outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Critics say that inside the FLDS, marriages are arranged for girls as young as 13, and competition for brides may be reduced by exiling male teens and young men. If male followers are excommunicated, critics claim, wives and children can be reassigned. During Jeffs' trial, defense attorneys claimed authorities were persecuting Jeffs because of his religious beliefs, including practicing polygamy as the way to heaven. If Jeffs disavowed being the prophet of the FLDS, it could cause upheaval within the secretive sect. However, two of his followers who spoke to CNN -- although FLDS members usually do not talk to reporters -- said they do not believe he made the statements. \"He is a perfectly priestly man,\" said a woman who identified herself as Cathy. \"He is a man of God, and we will always love him. Once a prophet, always a prophet.\" Her husband, Patrick, told CNN, \"It's hogwash. I don't believe it ... I will always consider him my prophet.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Gary Tuchman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Documents say after suicide attempt, Jeffs repeatedly banged head on cell wall .\nTranscripts say Jeffs confessed to \"immorality,\" said he is not \"the prophet\"\nJeffs' attorneys say he has recanted statements .\nJeffs due to be sentenced November 20 on accomplice to rape charge .","id":"412630c97420afb50e5278d3406e0cf4b08d0b77"} -{"article":"SHANGHAI, China -- Championship leader Lewis Hamilton spun out of the Chinese Grand Prix to send the world title race to a cliffhanger finale in Brazil on October 21. A disconsolate Lewis Hamilton leaves his car after spinning into the gravel trap in Shanghai. Rookie Hamilton can still clinch the crown with third place in the closing race, but saw his 12-point lead cut to four by McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso in Shanghai. The Spaniard finished second behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who also kept his title hopes alive by moving within seven points of Hamilton. The young Briton started the race in pole position and at one stage led Raikkonen by more than eight seconds as he again showed superb skills in the wet conditions. However, the 22-year-old stayed out on the drying track too long in his wet tires, which deteriorated at an alarming rate to let Finland's Raikkonen take the lead. And when Hamilton -- who won in Japan last week to give himself the chance of clinching the title this weekend -- finally headed toward the pit lane, he spun out onto the gravel to end his chances with 25 laps to go. Raikkonen and Alonso both switched to dry tires on the 32nd of the 56 laps, with the Finn going on to win by by 9.8 seconds for his fifth victory this season -- one more than both Hamilton and Alonso. Raikkone's team-mate Felipe Massa was third, while fourth place was claimed by Toro Rosso's Sebastien Vettel, who was last week reprimanded for causing an accident in Japan behind the safety car while Hamilton was cleared of any wrongdoing. Britain's Jenson Button was fifth in a Honda ahead of Vettel's team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi, while Germany's Nick Heidfeld was seventh for BMW Sauber and David Coulthard of Scotland took the final point for Red Bull. Hamilton was still confident he could bounce back after suffering his first retirement of the season. \"I'm sorry for the team but I can still do it, don't worry,\" he said. \"When I got out of the car I was just gutted because it was my first mistake all year, and to do it on the way into the pits was not something I usually do. \"You cannot go through life without making mistakes. But I am over it and we look forward to Brazil. The team will be working hard to make sure the car is quick enough there, and we still have points in the bag. \"We were having a great race and we didn't know if it was going to rain or not. The tyres were getting worse and worse and you could almost see the canvas underneath. When I came into the pits it was like ice, I couldn't do anything about it.\" McLaren boss Ron Dennis refused to blame his driver or his team for the spin-off. \"It's too extreme to say anyone made a mistake in this. It has been a very competitive season between our drivers and it will go on for another Grand Prix,\" Dennis said. \"I don't think we did anything dramatically wrong and neither did Lewis. But the circuit was considerably drier than the pit lane entrance. That's what made the difference. \"It was easy to say that we could have stopped earlier, but would it have made a difference? All the top teams -- Ferrari and ourselves -- were trying to get through the rain and straight onto a dry tire.\" Alonso, who qualified for the race in fourth, is seeking to become the third driver to win three world titles. \"The result was good today and the eight points are a help for sure,\" he said. \"I think the championship will still be very difficult because I know it will not be easy to take four points from Lewis. \"I need something dramatic if I want to win. With a normal race it will be impossible.\" Raikkonen added: \"We are back in the championship and it will be interesting in the final race. \"Hopefully the car is good and it will be a battle all weekend. It is not just up to us though, we saw today that anything can happen, but we are back in the championship.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lewis Hamilton fails to clinch world title after spinning out of the Chinese GP .\nBriton's lead cut to four points by McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso .\nAlonso finished second in Shanghai behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen .","id":"dcd60a85e1e17ec0163a925c9412d480fd08072f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As part of an effort to share the best practices of modern business among organizations across the globe, CNN is talking to some of the world's top executives. In line with this, CNN will be hosting three events looking at modern strategies in today's business arena. The first of these master classes will be based at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai and will be aired November 10 and 11. One of the guests at the event will be Howard Schultz, chairman of the international coffee shop chain Starbucks. He will be part of a live discussion at the master class and will take questions that you, the CNN audience, put to him. As the head of a coffee empire that now boasts over 12,000 stores and recorded revenues in 2006 of $7.8 billion, Schultz is well equipped to tackle questions on the best ways to succeed in today's business world. The CNN Boardroom Master classes will take place in the homes of the world's largest stock markets -- Shanghai, New York and London. It airs on November10 at 2115 and November 11 at 0115 & 1615 HKT. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN will host three Boardroom Master Classes with business experts .\nThe first event will feature Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz .\nSchultz will take e-mail and video questions from the CNN audience .","id":"805644d370fae7b0492174c54c00e86eff742735"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This week MME speaks to the man charged with boosting growth in the Kingdom of Bahrain: Sheikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa. Sheikh Mohammed is concerned the nuclear dispute with Iran is deterring potential investors . As chief executive of the Economic Development Board, one of Sheikh Mohammed's main tasks is to ensure Bahrain stays ahead of its competitors. The government's pushing ahead with economic reforms to reduce the Kingdom's dependence on oil. But with crude prices near $100 a barrel, John Defterios asked whether the appetite for change had diminished. SM: The reforms are being done for aspirational reasons rather than necessity, so we are trying to enter the post-oil area because we want to. And therefore, because of this aspirational aspect, trying to get to as opposed to people pushing us somewhere we don't want to go. JD: How do you redefine Bahrain's role? Traditionally it's been a financial center, but you have Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Dubai even Abu Dhabi emerging in financial services. How you redefine it to sustain a lead? SM: The rising tide lifts a lot of places and as the region is booming and growing, financial services are growing throughout the region. Bahrain's strengths have been and will continue to be its human capital, the people that have led the financial sector and the long standing regulations that have been established in Bahrain. JD: Strategically and a geopolitical question here: the Crown Prince came out and declared what Iran's intentions really are -- in his view -- for a nuclear policy, and called for greater diplomacy right ahead of a visit by the President of Iran to the country. What's the motivation here? SM: We feel that the distraction caused by the Iranian nuclear issue is holding investment back in the region as a whole, and increasing the security threat of the region. Nobody is debating the right to peaceful nuclear power, but we all have that need and we all need a peaceful resolution to this. JD: Historically, Iran has even made claims against Bahrain, what do you do now moving forward now? Do you bring Russia, China, the United States and the European Union closer together, in terms of where we should be going in the future? SM: We've resolved our historical issue with Iran, and we are well beyond that, but going forward... This is such a important issue affecting security worldwide, that we feel it is important and at a level high enough that we need all powers involved because it does affect everybody. JD: Can the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) become much tighter as an organization to have a voice in that process; as opposed to speaking from the sidelines and hoping that the major powers move forward? SM: Absolutely, I mean, the GCC is speaking with a unified voice. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came out with a proposal for providing nuclear fuel from an independent authority; this was completely backed from the GCC. We are all moving forward and are willing to play a beneficial role to resolve this issue. Meet the Sheikh: . Sheikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa is chief executive of the Economic Development Board, the organization responsible for stimulating and supporting growth of the Bahraini economy. He was appointed in June 2005, following 10 years working directly for His Highness Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defense Force and Chairman of the Economic Development Board. From 1995 to 1999, he was director of the Crown Prince's office. In 1999, he was appointed head of the court and also deputy head of the Crown Prince's International Scholarship Program. During this time, Sheikh Mohammed was heavily involved with the Crown Prince's initiatives to liberalize the telecommunications sector and with labor market and economic reforms. A keen motor sports enthusiast, Sheikh Mohammed was deputy board chairman of the Bahrain International Circuit and is a former vice president of the Bahrain Motor Club, now known as the Bahrain Motor Federation. Sheikh Mohammed, who is married with two sons and one daughter, was born on April 14, 1969. In 1992, he received a bachelor's degree in economic theory from the American University, Washington DC. Two years later, he received a post-graduate diploma in business studies from the London School of Economics. (source: Bahrain Economic Development Board) E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sheikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa steers Bahrain's economic growth .\nSays Bahrain's strength is its \"human capital\" in the finance sector .\nCalls on world to unite to resolve nuclear dispute with Iran .","id":"3aa0ef8cac31a60076c43a9484792b59372edb64"} -{"article":"ALGIERS, Algeria (CNN) -- Rescuers are sifting through the rubble of the United Nations headquarters in Algiers hoping to find survivors after a powerful bomb ripped off the building's facade and leveled nearby U.N. offices. Rescuers and bomb experts search for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building. It was one of two suspected car bombs that struck Algiers within 10 minutes of each other. The death toll is unclear: the official government count is at least 26, but hospital sources in Algiers told CNN affiliate BFM-TV that 76 people were killed in the two blasts. A statement from the United Nations said 45 people were reported killed. Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni blamed a militant Islamic group with ties to al Qaeda for the attacks, which also targeted a building housing Algeria's Constitutional Council and Supreme Court. In a posting on an Islamist Web site, the group al Qaeda Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility. CNN could not immediately corroborate that claim, but the Web site is known to carry messages, claims and videos from al Qaeda and other militant groups. In the posting, the bombers were identified as Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Othman and Abdel Rahman Abu Abdel Nasser al-Asimi. It said two trucks were filled with \"no less than 800 kg (1,763 pounds) of explosives.\" The group called the operation \"another successful conquest and a second epic that the knights of faith have dictated with their blood, defending the wounded Islamic nation and in defiance to the Crusaders and their agents, the slaves of America and the sons of France.\" At least 10 U.N. staffers were among those killed, according to U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe. The offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees -- located across the street from the U.N. headquarters -- were leveled by a blast that struck about 9:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) Tuesday. \"Our offices are basically destroyed now, nothing works,\" UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said from its Geneva headquarters. Watch his full interview . He said rescuers are working into the night trying to get to the trapped U.N. workers. \"It's a very serious situation still with the U.N. in Algiers,\" he said. In a strongly worded statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he called \"an abjectly cowardly strike against civilian officials serving humanity's highest ideals under the U.N. banner.\" \"The perpetrators of these crimes will not escape the strongest possible condemnation -- and ultimate punishment -- by Algerian authorities and the international community,\" Ban said in the written statement. He said he has sent senior advisers and other top U.N. officials to head to Algiers to assist in the investigation and rescue effort. Most of those killed in the coordinated attacks were victims of the first suspected car bombing near the Constitutional Council -- which oversees elections -- and Supreme Court in the Algiers neighborhood of Ben Aknoun, according to the state-run Algeria Press Agency. That blast struck a bus outside the targeted building, killing many of those on board, the news agency reported. One man said he heard the first blast then the second exploded in front of him. \"I saw the trees falling and the glass shattering in front of me. I had to run away from the car,\" he said. Zerhouni said the attack was the work of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the same group that took responsibility for an attack in April in downtown Algiers that killed 33 people. That group also uses the name al Qaeda Islamic Maghreb after merging with al Qaeda earlier this year. It abandoned small-scale attacks in favor of headline-grabbing blasts after it joined with al Qaeda. CNN International Security Correspondent Paula Newton said the merger combined the expertise of Algerian guerrillas with the operational ability of al Qaeda in North Africa, enabling the group to penetrate the usually extensive security in high-profile areas of Algiers. She said the group's goal is to destabilize countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, which it sees as enemies of the Islamic state. Zerhouni said police interrogations of GSPC members arrested in the wake of the April attack revealed that Algeria's Constitutional Council and Supreme Court were on a list of GSPC targets. Algeria, which has a population of 33 million, is still recovering from more than a decade of violence that began after the military government called a halt to elections which an Islamist party was poised to win. Tens of thousands of people died in the unrest. Although the country has remained relatively peaceful, recent terrorist attacks have raised fears of a slide back to violence. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two bombs explode in Algerian capital near government and U.N. buildings .\nAlgeria blames group linked to al Qaeda .\nOfficial death toll is 26, but some sources say as high as 76 .\nU.N. officials say five of its staff killed and 14 missing .","id":"4cf51ce9372dff8ff7f44f098eab1c1d7569af7a"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain -- Lionel Messi scored for the sixth game in a row as Barcelona defeated big-spending Atletico Madrid 3-0 to stay in touch with Primera Liga leaders Real Madrid. Messi (left) is congratulated by Ronaldinho after scoring again in Barcelona's 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid. Barcelona had thumped Atletico 6-0 on their own ground last season and the visitors were out for revenge -- but conceded twice in four minutes. After 15 minutes, Italian goalkeeper Christian Abbiati let a routine Messi cross slip out of his hands and Deco rolled home into the empty net. Four minutes later Messi played a great one-two with Ronaldinho and rifled a shot past Abbiati for his sixth goal of the season and Xavi added a third late on. \"It was a deserved victory against a rival that we have had problems with in the past,\" explained Barca coach Frank Rijkaard. \"We scored twice in quick succession and then we controlled the match using aggression and with the team attacking and defending as a unit.\" \"Conceding two early goals inside four minutes is not easy to turn around especially against Barcelona,\" admitted Atletico coach Javier Aguirre. It was Barcelona's fourth straight league win but they still trail Real Madrid by two points after the champions beat Recreativo Huleva 2-0. Dutch international Ruud van Nistelrooy, the league's top-scorer last season, scored on 72 minutes before Gonzalo Higuain netted in the final minute to keep Real at the summit. Luck deserted them when Wesley Sneijder hit the post but Van Nistelrooy scored in the final quarter hour before Higuain struck to keep them two points clear at the top. Real have made their best start since 1991 but coach Bernd Schuster's rotation policy has been questioned with the German chopping and changing his team. \"It was an important victory because it is the final match before we go away on international duty,\" said Dutch winger Arjen Robben. \"We are now top for the next two weeks and can build on that when we return.\" Villarreal, now four points behind Real, lost for only the second time in 15 matches with a 3-2 reverse against Osasuna. Sevilla, third last season, are in a crisis after losing their fourth league game in a row with a goal from Riki handing Deportivo La Coruna a surprise 1-0 win. Sevilla have just six points from their first six matches and are 13 points behind Real. Levante's Abel Resino became the first Spanish league coach to be sacked this season, after their 3-0 home loss to Real Zaragoza. . The 47-year-old Resino, a former goalkeeper at Atletico Madrid, joined Levante in January as a replacement for Juan Ramon Lopez Caro. The Valencia-based club are bottom of the table with only a point from seven matches. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lionel Messi scores for the sixth game in a row as Barca defeat Atletico 3-0 .\nReal Madrid stay top of the Primera Liga table after defeating Recreativo 2-0 .\nSevilla's crisis continues as they lose their four league match in succession .","id":"ea06fd0b25cb9793397a51de73fd83f91b4323fa"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- There are some circuits that are cornerstones of the Formula 1 calendar: the Monacos and Silverstones whose every twist and turn are known intimately by the drivers and engineers. Then there are the newer circuits -- Malaysia and Bahrain, for instance -- but even these have become familiar to the drivers and their backroom boffins. Fuji Speedway employees pose behind a scale model of the new circuit and in front of an overhead view. Next week they have something completely new to contend with: a track that has yet to see a single F1 team put in a single lap. The Japan Grand Prix is to return to the Fuji Speedway, a circuit that hasn't seen an F1 race since 1977 (though now with a substantially different track layout). The Fuji circuit will be familiar to fans of classic arcade games. The old Fuji Speedway was the setting for the 1982 arcade game Pole Position (released by Namco in Japan and Atari in the rest of the world). The most notable aspect of the circuit is the vision of Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain, looming in the distance. Though the move to this picturesque location is not without its controversies. The Suzuka track -- which had held Japanese Grands Prix between 1987 and 2006 -- had been popular with drivers and fans alike, but for this year and the next the Japanese Grand Prix will be held at Fuji. However an announcement by Formula One Management (FOM) this month revealed that Suzuka will return to the calendar for 2009 -- on the condition that the circuit makes some approved modifications -- with the location of the Japanese Grand Prix alternating yearly between Fuji and Suzuka after that. Behind the scenes is a political battleground -- both circuits are owned by car manufacturers with F1 connections -- Honda owns Suzuka, Toyota owns Fuji. Toyota is a relative newcomer to F1 but, having this year surpassed General Motors as the world's number one automobile manufacturer, and reputedly having the best funded team in the paddock (a position that hasn't been reflected in sporting success), it is not without clout. The redesign of the Fuji track was carried out by Hermann Tilke in 2003. Tilke, a German architect redesigned a number of F1 circuits in the 1990s and has since designed many new grand prix tracks including Malaysia, Istanbul, Bahrain and Shanghai, and the tracks for 2008's debut grands prix in Singapore and Valencia. So how do F1 teams prepare for a new circuit such as Fuji without data from previous races to fall back on? The answer lies with computer simulation. Computer-aided design (CAD) is as much a part of the design of a circuit these days as it is a part of the design of the high-tech cars. Every bend, every straight and every camber is fastidiously analyzed on screen before an ounce of dirt is shifted on the ground itself. Despite never having raced on the circuit, the teams have been testing their cars on a virtual Fuji Speedway for some time. BMW Sauber's simulation experts received CAD data from the Japanese race organizers late last year. And when their cars arrive at Fuji for testing next week, their race set-up should be close to optimum. The circuit was analyzed and broken up into between 500 and 800 segments. The radius of each individual segment was measured, allowing the engineers to exactly calculate the optimum racing line (the route around the circuit that covers the shortest possible distance). Then the effects of factors such as gradients and inclines were calculated. The slightest change in angle of a gradient can have significant effects on the downforce and aerodynamic profile of a car. \"In order to avoid losing precious time during the race weekend, we need to have as accurate as possible a picture of downforce levels, gearbox ratios and brake specification in advance,\" says Willy Rampf, Technical Director of the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Dieter Glass, Chief Race and Test Engineer with Toyota F1 explains: . \"You start to determine what downforce level gives the best lap time on the new circuit. Once you know that, you look into which gear ratios suit the track with the given level of downforce, before you get into more detailed simulations of different set-up solutions. \"Getting a bit closer to the weekend, you start running race simulations in order to predict the optimum race strategy. This prediction takes into account estimates of relevant characteristics of the new track, like the degradation of the two Bridgestone tire compounds and the effect the fuel has on lap time. If you have more fuel in the car, this affects your lap time, but we can accurately predict how much time is lost with every extra kilogram of fuel carried.\" One peculiarity of the Fuji circuit is the exceptionally long main straight, which at 1.475 km (0.916 miles) will allow for higher-than average-straight line speeds but, after the straight the track is relatively twisty. The teams have to find a balance between getting the most speed into the straight, and the best grip decelerating into the bends. \"You have some very slow corners which require good mechanical grip,\" says Glass, \"and as always you want good grip in general, but you have to balance that with the long straight, where you need low enough downforce to get a level of drag which allows you to have a good top speed.\" The testing may be virtual, but the teams hope that these virtual figures are a hair's breadth away from real world eventualities: . \"Our aim is to ensure that the lap times and top speed calculated using the simulation software do not vary by more than one percent from the actual values,\" says Rampf. Not that everything can be predicted: \"I think we are quite accurate but the ultimate response to that is very difficult to say for sure because it very much depends on what happens in the race,\" continues Glass. \"Many incidents can happen, which then have a positive or an adverse affect on strategy.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Re-designed Fuji Speedway to host its first Japanese Grand Prix since 1977 .\nSuzuka to alternate with Fuji from 2009 .\nComputer models used to prepare teams for the unfamiliar circuit .","id":"a150e93fa52eaba281aae9eabe28b3ee4155f296"} -{"article":"NYON, Switzerland -- Celtic have been fined $50,800 by UEFA and AC Milan's Dida has been banned for two matches after the incident which saw a pitch-invading supporter approach the Brazilian goalkeeper in last week's Champions League match at Celtic Park. Dida's theatrical over-reaction has resulted in UEFA suspending him for two matches. The incident occurred when the Scottish side beat Milan 2-1 in Glasgow. A fan ran onto the field in the 90th minute, soon after the home side scored their winning goal, and made what appeared to be minimal contact with Dida. The Milan goalkeeper turned to chase the supporter before dropping to the ground. He was carried off the field on a stretcher and replaced. Dida's theatrical over-reaction has cost him severely -- but Celtic may choose not to complain about their own punishment, with half of their fine suspended for two years. UEFA did have the power to change the result of the match, although that was always unlikely. UEFA's control and disciplinary body found Celtic guilty of charges of \"lack of organisation and improper conduct of supporters\", while Dida was found to have breached UEFA's \"principles of loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship\". Milan have pledged to appeal against the punishment, which as it stands means he will miss the club's Champions League games against Shakhtar Donetsk. \"It's a suspension that is absolutely excessive,\" said Milan lawyer Leandro Cantamessa. \"It seems to us a very, very unbalanced sentence. It turns Dida into the protagonist of the incident, whereas the protagonist was someone else, and that's not right from a logical point of view.\" Celtic acted swiftly to punish the 27-year-old supporter, who turned himself in and has since admitted a breach of the peace in court and will be sentenced next month. The club banned the fan for life from all their matches, home and away. Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell said: \"As a club we feel this penalty is proportionate to the incident in question and a fair outcome.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"AC Milan's Brazilian goalkeeper Dida is suspended by UEFA for two matches .\nDida was banned for his over-reacting to being touched by a Celtic supporter .\nCeltic have been fined $50,800 for allowing the fan to run onto the field of play .","id":"a0a84718168357049273f6e65133fd06e67cd6d2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is blasting Congressional Democrats for not sending a bill that would fund veterans' care programs to the president's desk by Veterans Day. The White House's Dana Perino accused Democrats of holding veterans care funding hostage. \"There's absolutely no reason that the veterans' bill could not have been signed by the president today, except for the political games that the Democrats decided to play with it,\" White House press secretary Dana Perino said Sunday in Crawford, Texas. Congressional Democrats had attached legislation funding veterans programs to a $150.7 billion bill that also funded a number of domestic priorities, including health, labor and education. Democrats also added $3.7 billion to what the president budgeted for veterans programs. The labor-health-education bill would increase funding by more than $10 billion over last year's funding for those programs. The president has threatened to veto the bill because of the added spending. The House passed a health-labor-education bill 269-142 last week with the veterans funding attached, but the Senate later voted to strip out the veterans funding and send the health-labor-education bill to the president. Perino accused the Democrats of \"trying to hold hostage our veterans to extra domestic spending or increases in taxes.\" \"The president wants clean legislation, a clean bill to fund the veterans,\" Perino said. On Saturday, the Democratic congressional leadership sent a letter to President Bush saying they welcomed a dialogue on spending, sayings disagreements over funding levels \"have never been so great that we cannot reach agreement on a spending plan that meets the needs of the American people.\" \"Key to this dialogue, however, is some willingness on your part to actually find common ground,\" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said in the letter. The leadership said last year's Congress, which was still under Republican control, had never passed a separate bill funding veterans programs. Congress also sent to the president legislation that would fund veterans care at the levels requested by the president through December 14, the leadership said. The current funding level \"is still below the $3.9 billion extra that we passed,\" said Nadeam Elshami, spokesman Pelosi. \"We are committed to getting the extra funding that the Congress already voted on the president's desk for his signature.\" The leadership blamed Republican members of Congress for stalling the funding for the veterans programs by blocking its inclusion in the larger spending bill. Perino, though, said the Democrats could still send a separate bill to the president funding the veterans program that passed both chambers of Congress. \"The Democrats decided not to send the president this bill,\" Perino said. \"That has to be laid at their feet.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House accuses Democrats of holding hostage funding for veterans care .\nFunding was attached to large health-labor-education bill .\nWhite House says it wants a clean bill that only funds veterans programs .\nDemocrats call on White House to engage in a dialogue on spending levels .","id":"b5833a27ee69d7540435e3c70af040c2b743f541"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Muddy but unhurt, three University of Texas students emerged from a cramped cave complex in Austin, Texas, after a day-long search Sunday. A rescuer at the entrance to Airman's Cave in Austin, Texas, Sunday. Lt. Matt Cox, an Austin Fire Department spokesman, said the students -- two women and one man -- were reported missing early Sunday after a trip into Airman's Cave, about four miles south of the university's campus. They were found about halfway down the 12,000-foot-long cave, which has few spaces big enough for an adult to stand upright and is explored primarily by experienced spelunkers. The students were located shortly before 5 p.m. (6 p.m. ET), about 30 hours after they entered. Their names were not released Sunday night. A friend called 911 to report them missing at 5 a.m. The group had told friends to call 911 if they were not back by midnight Sunday, according to Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. Earlier reports that four students were in the cave were incorrect, Cox said. Authorities did not know Sunday evening why the students were in the cave for so long. But Cox said it would have been easy even for experienced cavers to get lost in Airman's, which he compared to the roots of a tree. \"There are so many ways to go,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Three Austin cave explorers are safe and are out of the cave, officials said .\nThe University of Texas students went into Airman's Cave Saturday .\nThe 12,000 foot long cave complex has tight twists and turns .\nUnclear exactly how the students lost their way, but cave is complex, official said .","id":"98dbba54da2a05bb04320aa0e4fb05fba3d75b63"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. first lady Laura Bush -- in a rare foray into foreign policy -- called on Myanmar's military junta to \"step aside,\" give up the \"terror campaigns\" against its people and allow for a democratic Myanmar in a commentary published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. U.S. first lady Laura Bush said the junta \"should step aside to make way for a unified Burma.\" \"Gen. Than Shwe and his deputies are a friendless regime,\" Bush said. \"They should step aside to make way for a unified Burma [Myanmar] governed by legitimate leaders. \"The rest of the armed forces should not fear this transition -- there is room for a professional military in a democratic Burma,\" Bush said, in keeping with the U.S. policy of still using Myanmar's former name. In Wednesday's commentary, Bush called on Myanmar's military leaders to release Aun Sung Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders so they can meet with and plan for a transition to democracy. \"Meanwhile, the world watches -- and waits,\" Bush warns. \"We know that Gen. Than Shwe and his deputies have the advantage of violent force. But Ms. Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders have moral legitimacy, the support of the Burmese people and the support of the world. \"The regime's position grows weaker by the day. The generals' choice is clear: The time for a free Burma is now.\" The humanitarian rights situation in Myanmar has been a cause for the first lady in the past few months as the crisis there worsened. Myanmar state media has reported that 2,000 people were detained during the demonstrations and the crackdown against them -- under an emergency law imposed on September 25 banning assembly of more than five people -- and that 700 of those people have been released. The official death toll from Myanmar's leadership is at 10, but there are reports that hundreds were killed and thousands arrested in the wake of the demonstrations that peaked late September, which were led by Myanmar's Buddhist monks. On Tuesday morning, Bush received a phone call from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to update her on the efforts of his special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari. A representative of the secretary general said the call was a follow-up to a conversation they had weeks ago. Gambari met last week with the military junta leadership as well as with Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in Yangon. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters that Laura Bush and her husband's administration believe that there is a \"need to start preparing for transition\" for Myanmar. \"We believe it is very important that progress be made and prisoners be released and conditions for Aun Sung Suu Kyi be improved [so] that she can prepare for participation for negotiations for a transition,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Laura Bush calls on Myanmar junta to \"step aside,\" allow for a democracy .\nMilitary leaders must give up the \"terror campaigns\" against its people, she says .\nJunta should release Aun Sung Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders, she says .\nHer rare foray into foreign policy was published in the Wall Street Journal .","id":"4a30d8e9ba08a56c1d503d719525113545c414e3"} -{"article":"NEW ALBANY, Indiana (CNN) -- President Bush vetoed a $600 billion spending bill Tuesday, accusing Democratic leaders of wasting money and plotting tax increases, then took his budget fight with Congress on the road. Congress should cut spending \"and send me a responsible measure that I can sign into law,\" President Bush said. \"The majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far, it's acting like a teenager with a new credit card,\" he said in a speech in New Albany, Indiana. The bill -- which Bush said was laden with $10 billion in \"pork\" -- would have funded the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. It also would have funded projects such as a prison museum, a sailing school and a program to teach Portuguese. \"Congress needs to cut out that pork, reduce the spending and send me a responsible measure that I can sign into law,\" the president said. Watch a report on the veto \u00bb . While polls show Bush's popularity remains at near-record lows, Congress ranks even lower as a whole. The president has taken numerous opportunities to mock the spending habits of the Democratic leadership and force confrontations over the appropriations bills needed to fund the government for the 2008 budget year, which began October 1. The bill Bush vetoed Tuesday includes about $150 billion to run those departments and more than $450 billion in mandatory spending on Medicare and Medicaid, the federal health care programs for the elderly and poor, according to the House Appropriations Committee. The committee's chairman, Rep. David Obey, called Bush's veto \"not responsible and not credible.\" \"This is a bipartisan bill supported by over 50 Republicans,\" Obey, D-Wisconsin, said in a statement issued after the veto. \"There has been virtually no criticism of its contents. It is clear the only reason the president vetoed this bill is pure politics.\" Bush said Democrats are supporting $22 billion in additional spending beyond his budget proposals this year and $205 billion over five years -- money he said would ultimately be raised by tax increases. \"When the bill for all that spending comes due, Congress is going to turn to the working people, to the small-business owners and the entrepreneurs,\" he said. Tuesday's veto is the fifth cast since Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. Congress has overridden one of those, voting last week to authorize $23 billion in water projects nationwide over the president's objections. Democrats will schedule another override vote this week, an aide to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. But Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, said Bush's GOP allies are confident they will be able to sustain the veto. Bush signed a $470 billion Pentagon spending bill that covers the Defense Department's normal operations, but Democrats split $50 billion in spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan off into a \"bridge fund\" to which they plan to attach demands for Bush to withdraw U.S. combat troops. The measure sets up another confrontation with the White House. Bush also demanded Congress reform the alternative minimum tax -- a measure originally aimed at preventing the wealthy from evading taxes, but one that increasingly affects middle-class earners -- without raising additional revenue. He said a plan proposed by Rep. Charles Rangel, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, to eliminate the tax was unacceptable. \"Preventing a tax increase in one area should not be an excuse for raising taxes in other areas,\" he said. \"Congress should eliminate the tax increases in the bill and send the AMT relief to my desk as soon as possible.\" The elimination of the tax would cause an estimated $800 billion to be lost over 10 years. To replace that, Rangel's bill would add a 4 percent surtax on individual incomes over $100,000, after deductions, and close corporate tax loopholes. The bill also would cut rates for many individual and corporate taxpayers. Republicans have already started calling it \"the mother of all tax increases.\" \"With all the other pressures on our economy, raising taxes is one of the most unwise things Congress could possibly do,\" Bush said. Bush acknowledged the difficulties Americans face from high fuel prices, a \"challenged\" housing market and \"uncertainty\" in financial markets stemming from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market -- \"but as we have seen in recent years, this economy is resilient, and that's important for the American people to understand.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bush says most of Congress \"acting like a teenager with a new credit card\"\nBill would have funded agencies, but also a prison museum, sailing school .\nHouse panel chairman: Bush's veto \"not responsible and not credible\"\nDemocrats to schedule override vote, but Bush GOP allies confident about veto .","id":"c3acabb0c18cc7615eb3796406500fba1b148d3d"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- France lock Sebastien Chabal has been cited for a dangerous tackle on England's Simon Shaw during Saturday's World Cup semifinal in Paris. Simon Shaw offloads despite being tackled by Raphael Ibanez, left, and Sebastien Chabal. The Sale Sharks forward will face a disciplinary hearing on Monday after his tackle on opposite second-rower Shaw was noted by citing commissioner Dennis Wheelahan. Chabal started the match on the substitutes' bench, but was brought on in the 26th minute to replace the injured Fabien Pelous during hosts France's 14-9 defeat. If he is suspended, then Chabal will miss Friday's third and fourth-place play-off match at the Parc des Princes. Meanwhile, France coach Bernard Laporte said that the defeat was tougher to take than England's 24-7 win in the 2003 semifinals. \"In 2003, they were better then us. In fact they were better than everyone,\" said Laporte, who is leaving his role to take up the post of junior sports minister in the French government. \"They were like the New Zealand of this tournament - the favorite, except they went all the way. This time it's harder because yesterday it was 50-50.\" Meanwhile, England -- seeking to become the first nation to defend the World Cup title -- revealed that star kicker Jonny Wilkinson again had problems with the match balls during the semifinal. The fly-half, who voiced his concerns after struggling with the boot against Australia, rejected a ball before kicking a vital three-pointer against France. \"We didn't say it last week but a non-match ball got onto the field in Marseille which Jonny kicked,\" director of rugby Rob Andrew said. \"He didn't think about it while he was kicking it. \"The match balls are marked, numbered one to six. Last night they had 'World Cup semi-final England vs France' written on them. On match night, Jonny was vigilant when kicking for goal that they were actually match balls he was kicking. \"The practice balls lose pressure and shape. The whole issue last week, the organizers accepted all six match balls should be used by both sides on the Thursday before game.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"France lock Sebastien Chabal cited for a dangerous tackle on Simon Shaw .\nChabal faces disciplinary hearing on Monday after incident against England .\nSale forward will miss the third and fourth-place play-off is he is suspended .","id":"1c1acc74329fe61636f900df9dbcef5ed695e5c9"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado -- A Colorado man terrorized by threats after testifying against his daughter's abusive boyfriend says he has spent $10,000 on a security system, hired a bodyguard for his son's wedding and never leaves home without a .45-caliber handgun strapped to his chest. Keith Reynolds was convicted for witness intimidation after threatening witnesses in his domestic assault case. The man, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case, says the state did nothing to protect him after the 1999 conviction of Keith Reynolds for domestic abuse -- even after prosecutors told him a hit had been put on his family. A report in the Denver Post pointed out major problems protecting witnesses in the state of Colorado. Paul Logli, chairman of National District Attorneys Association, told Congress this year that witness intimidation has become \"almost epidemic,\" according to the Denver Post. When asked if prosecutors had made the family aware of Colorado's witness protection program, the witness in the Reynolds case said, \"All they told us was maybe we should move.\" \"I'm pretty sure I told one of them -- either him or his wife -- about the program. I can't remember if I gave them all the details.\" the prosecutor assigned to the case, who didn't want to be named, told CNN. After Reynolds' conviction, the witness and his wife saw strange cars parked outside their home. They received phone calls during which the only sound on the other end of the line was a gun being cocked. The couple received a death threat from Reynolds himself through the mail. Watch witness describe fear of being targeted \u00bb . Reynolds was then sentenced to ten years in a maximum security prison for witness intimidation. However, it is likely he'll be released within five years. No national statistics on crimes against witnesses exist, and minimal research has been conducted on the subject. The latest National Institute of Justice survey on record -- conducted more than a decade ago -- shows that more than half of big city prosecutors consider witness intimidation a major problem. Colorado has $50,000 allocated to its witness protection budget. In contrast, the city of Denver spent almost $100,000 on landscaping last year. The state, on average, spends about $1,000 per witness. That figure supposedly includes moving expenses, rent, and furniture. The federal program spends in excess of $40 million per year on witness protection. One possible reason for the disparity is that witnesses in state cases do not get new identities, as do federal witnesses. \"It's not designed to be a long-term relocation at the public's expense; it's a way to ensure the immediate safety of the witnesses,\" according to Peter Weir, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. Colorado's witness protection program is a \"joke,\" according to The Rev. Leon Kelly, founder and executive director of the Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives. Kelly says the state doesn't provide enough incentive for witnesses to come forward. More than a decade ago, a young man named Darryl Givens asked Kelly for advice while deciding whether to testify in a murder case or face prison. Givens chose to testify. A few months later, he was shot twice in the head by men he considered friends. That day continues to haunt Kelly. Rhonda Fields says failures in the witness protection program may have contributed to her son's murder. Javad Fields was a college graduate who was engaged to be married. He had plans to move east when a Fourth of July barbecue in 2004 in changed all that. He witnessed the murder of his best friend and subsequently testified against three men suspected in the killing. Javad Fields and his fiancee were gunned down while driving along a suburban street in Aurora, Colorado. The couple, both 22, died instantly. Rhonda Fields says her son was never told about a witness protection program. She confronted prosecutors after his murder. Fields told CNN, \"I asked them what happened. Why weren't any measures taken to safeguard his life? And I was told he never asked for any protection.\" Javad's mother does not think it was her son's responsibility to ask for protection. \"I think it's the authorities' responsibility to notify witnesses of the dangers that are involved with being a witness,\" she said. Field's case illustrates glaring weaknesses in the witness protection program. Prosecutors filed an order for protection requesting Javad Fields' personal information be kept secret, but it wasn't signed by a judge until one year later, after defense lawyers had already given the suspects Fields' personal information, along with crucial trial documents. \"I felt like the DA's office used my son to win their case but did not take the proper measures to safeguard his life,\" Rhonda Fields told CNN. District Attorney Carol Chambers maintains the program has improved. She says a notice about witness protection is now attached to every subpoena, ensuring witnesses are aware of their options. That didn't start, however, until two years after Javad Fields was killed. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some witnesses say Colorado does nothing to protect them .\nOne witness spent over 10,000 dollars on security after being terrorized .\nCommunity activist says Colorado's witness protection program is \"a joke\"","id":"f70a7abb6c5b0ef383ea12a4d9ca046a5bd854e5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Previously unseen footage of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken just hours before she was killed in a car crash, has been shown to the jury at the inquest into her death. The footage showed Diana and Dodi step into an elevator at the Ritz Hotel. Images taken from a security camera at the Ritz Hotel in Paris show the 36-year-old smiling as she and her lover Dodi Fayed step into an elevator and later walk out of the hotel. Further footage shows Fayed visiting a jeweler's shop, images that could lend support to claims that he was buying an engagement ring. Earlier, a British coroner at the inquest said tt may never be known for certain whether Princess Diana was pregnant when she died in the Paris car crash. Lord Justice Scott Baker told the jury at the inquest into the deaths of the princess and her lover Dodi Fayed that scientific evidence might be unable to demonstrate \"one way or the other\" whether she was in the early stages of pregnancy. But he said they would hear \"intimate\" details of her personal life. Watch footage of Diana's last hours \u00bb . Baker told the 11 members of the jury -- six women and five men -- Diana may have been on the contraceptive pill and that evidence she was poised to get engaged to Dodi on the night she died was contradictory. On Tuesday the judge, who is acting as coroner in the case, told the jury that a famous image taken in summer 1997 showing Diana wearing a swimsuit could not be proof she was pregnant with Dodi's child as she had not started a relationship with him at that stage. The jury is set to hear \"scene setting\" evidence, including CCTV and a tourist video. The inquest to establish cause of death is expected to be a six-month process. Fayed's father, Mohammed Al Fayed, has contended from the start that Diana and his son were murdered because the royal family \"could not accept that an Egyptian Muslim could eventually be step-father to the future king of England,\" referring to Diana's son Prince William. \"I'm hoping for justice,\" Al Fayed said outside court. \"At last, we're going to have a jury from ordinary people and I hope to reach the decision which I believe that my son and Princess Diana have been murdered by the royal family.\" Baker told the jury of Al Fayed's allegations, but again reminded them that they were responsible for deciding the facts of the case, but not to assign blame or guilt. \"You have to decide four important, but limited factual questions: who the deceased were, when they came by their deaths, where they came by their deaths and how they came by their deaths,\" Baker said, according to inquest transcripts. \"The first three questions are unlikely to give rise to any difficulty. The fourth is a rather wider question and is directed towards the means by which they died.\" Diana, 36, and 42-year-old Dodi Fayed were killed on August 31, 1997 when the Mercedes-Benz they were traveling in hit a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris. They were being pursued at the time by the paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel. Driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, was drunk and driving at high speed. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor. Next week, the jury is scheduled to travel to Paris to see the crash site, along the River Seine. They are also expected to hear testimony from the paparazzi who were present after the accident. In its evidence section, the Web site for the inquest has posted previously unpublished pictures taken by paparazzi of the limo before and immediately after the accident. One is a closeup -- looking into the front of the vehicle -- that shows Diana, Fayed, Paul and Rees-Jones minutes before the crash. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Jury shown new footage of Diana taken hours before her death .\nDiana and Dodi Fayed inquest jury to hear \"scene setting\" evidence .\nOn Tuesday coroner outlined controversial claims, published new images .\nCourt will make final decision on what happened in car crash 10 years ago .","id":"a3dd38ec7bc9d7e8423b96d8fd0641a2a5d5c984"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republicans reacted with surprise and recrimination Sunday to blistering criticism of the Iraq war from former coalition commander retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. Lawmakers lashed back at retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez on Sunday after he criticized the war effort. On Friday, Sanchez, who was coalition commander in 2003 and 2004, called the Iraq war \"a nightmare with no end in sight.\" He said the Bush administration, the State Department and Congress all share blame. Speaking with military reporters in Virginia, Sanchez also said such dereliction of duty by a military officer would mean immediate dismissal or court martial, but the politicians have not been held accountable. \"I'm astounded, really,\" South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on CNN's \"Late Edition\" with Wolf Blitzer on Sunday. Graham, who recently returned from Baghdad, said he and GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain had visited Sanchez several times in 2003 and 2004. \"Every time we talked to Gen. Sanchez, we got pushback -- we have enough troops; Guard and reserves aren't being strained,\" Graham said. He added that Sanchez's own record in Iraq is blemished: Abu Ghraib \"got out of control under his watch. The war in general got out of control under his watch.\" But Graham said that \"finally,\" with the commitment of nearly 30,000 additional U.S. troops since January, \"We are getting it right.\" Sanchez told reporters that American political leaders have cost American lives on the battlefield with their \"lust for power.\" Sanchez said it had been his duty to obey orders and not object publicly while on active duty, but that he has an obligation to speak out now that he has retired. \"While the politicians espouse a rhetoric designed to preserve their reputations and their political power, our soldiers die,\" he said. That brought a tart response from McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. \"I wish that he had given us the benefit of that knowledge at the time,\" McCain told CBS's \"Face the Nation.\" He said Sanchez should have spoken out at the time -- or resigned -- but \"unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often.\" One of the reasons few speak out, he said, is evidenced by what happened to former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, McCain said. Shinseki was sidelined after telling Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to occupy Iraq. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, told ABC's \"This Week\" that Sanchez is simply wrong. \"My definition of winning is a stable country and an ally in the war on terror,\" he said. \"I think we're making significant progress toward that end.\" But, he added, \"I think the central government in Iraq has been an embarrassment. They've not been able to produce any of the kind of political compromises that we had hoped for.\" Graham said he hopes the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will \"step up to the plate and do something meaningful by the end of the year.\" If that does not happen, he said, \"it will be incumbent upon us, as a nation, to devise a new political strategy to find a way forward or create a stable Iraq.\" That brought a blistering response from Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser under President Carter. \"What is this? This is a colony,\" he said. \"That's the heart and essence of the difficulties we encounter.\" Even those Iraqis who were happy to see Saddam Hussein toppled from power more than four years ago are not happy with the continuing U.S. presence, Brzezinski said. Though some countries are willing to go along with the United States, \"No one in the world really supports our policy in Iraq,\" he said. In his Friday speech, Sanchez added that the \"surge\" of U.S. troops into Iraq represents \"a desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war.\" National Security Council spokeswoman Kate Starr did not address the comment. Instead, she said, \"We appreciate his service to the country. As Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker said, there's more work to be done but progress is being made in Iraq. And that's what we're focused on now.\" Gen. David Petraeus is the U.S. top commander in Iraq. Ryan Crocker is the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham: \"I am astounded\" by comments .\nSanchez, a retired former coalition commander in Iraq, called war \"nightmare\"\nRepublican Sen. John McCain wishes Sanchez would have spoken up earlier .\nRepublican Sen. Mitch McConnell said Sanchez is simply wrong .","id":"654c6b29b96d2a5a818d91400c20f838b0e8b6df"} -{"article":"ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (CNN) -- The acrimony from the Republican campaign trail carried over quickly into the CNN\/YouTube GOP presidential debate Wednesday. The debate marked the first time the candidates had faced off on the same stage in over a month. With five weeks to go until the first contest of the 2008 nominating season, the Republican candidates engaged in a free-for-all, trying to differentiate their views on immigration, the Iraq war, abortion, gun control and even whether they believed every word in the Bible was true. Unlike previous debates in which the candidates focused most of their attacks on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, Wednesday night's attacks were launched at each other. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney traded jabs over illegal immigration, something they have been arguing about on the trail for the past month. Romney attacked Giuliani's record, saying that as mayor, he promoted illegal immigration. And Giuliani shot back, accusing Romney of having a \"sanctuary mansion\" at his own home. Watch the debate format produce raw moments \u00bb . \"In his case, there were six sanctuary cities. He did nothing about them. There was a sanctuary mansion -- at his own home, illegal immigrants were being employed,\" Giuliani said. Romney denied Giuliani's allegation, and the two raised their voices as they tried to talk over each other. In his quest to appeal to the hard-line immigration wing of the party, Romney also turned some of his fire on the same topic toward former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been rising in the polls. Rep. Tom Tancredo, who has anchored his candidacy on securing the borders and cracking down on illegal immigration, seemed delighted with the give and take, saying the other candidates were trying to \"out-Tancredo\" him. Huckabee drew one of the night's largest cheers when he said that one of the agencies he would abolish to control federal spending was the Internal Revenue Service. \"Most people in this country are more afraid of an audit than they are of a mugging, and there's a reason why,\" he said. Sen. John McCain, freshly back from a visit to Iraq over Thanksgiving and the most hawkish of the candidates, and Rep. Ron Paul, the most anti-war of the candidates, tangled on two occasions over the Iraq war. Did YouTubers get their questions answered? \u00bb . Asked which government programs they would cut, Paul said bringing the troops home from Iraq would save \"a trillion dollars.\" McCain said: \"It's that kind of isolationism that caused World War II,\" which drew some hoots from the crowd. Watch McCain, Paul spar on Iraq \u00bb . Paul replied: \"The real question you have to ask is why do I get the most money from active duty officers and military personnel?\" A retired brigadier general, Keith Kerr, who is gay, asked candidates if they thought U.S. military personnel were professional enough to work with gay and lesbian troops. CNN later learned that a June media release from the campaign of Democratic front-runner Clinton listed Kerr as a member of its steering committee for gay and lesbian supporters. Watch Kerr deny that the Clinton campaign influenced his question \u00bb . David Bohrman, CNN senior vice president and executive producer of the debate, said, \"We regret this incident. CNN would not have used the general's question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate.\" Political Ticker . Kerr told CNN after the debate that he has not worked for the Clinton campaign and was representing no one other than himself. Kerr also said he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay and lesbian Republican grass-roots organization. Prior to the debate, CNN had verified Kerr's military background and that he had not contributed money to any presidential candidate. In a section of the debate about gun ownership rights, three of the GOP presidential hopefuls said they do not own guns: McCain, Giuliani and Romney. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson quipped, \"I own a couple of guns -- but I'm not going to tell you what they are or where they are.\" Watch the candidates address gun control \u00bb . The debate turned personal when a viewer, holding the Bible, asked: \"Do you believe every word of this book? And I mean specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand.\" Huckabee, a Baptist minister, said, \"Sure, I believe the Bible is exactly what it is.\" Giuliani said he believes the Bible, but not \"literally true in every respect.\" After that, Romney stammered a bit when moderator Anderson Cooper asked him if he believed every word. Watch the candidates get personal about the Bible \u00bb . \"Yeah, the Bible is the word of God. ... I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read the Bible and I believe the Bible is the word of God,\" Romney said. When asked about abortion, Romney said he was wrong in favoring a woman's right to choose -- his position when he was elected governor of Massachusetts. \"If people in this country are looking for someone who's never made a mistake on a policy issue and is not willing to admit they're ever wrong, they're going to have to find somebody else. On abortion, I was wrong,\" he said. His remarks came in response to the 30-second video produced for the debate by Thompson's campaign, which included a clip of Romney expressing support for Roe vs. Wade during a 1994 debate against Sen. Ted Kennedy. When asked what women and doctors should be charged with if abortion was to become illegal, Paul said it was not an issue for the president or the federal government. \"We don't need a federal abortion police, that's the last thing we need,\" Paul said. He added that the issue should be left to the states and courts and not federal authorities. On the issues of taxes, Thompson said he'd \"never met a tax he liked.\" \"I've got a tax-cut bill on the table. But I don't do pledges to anybody but the American people,\" he said. His response was met by a \"Go, Fred, go!\" from a member of the audience. On the issue of trade with China, Rep. Duncan Hunter said China is \"cheating on trade ... and it's in the interest of the United States to stop China's cheating. Buy American this Christmas season -- that might keep your neighbor from losing his job.\" The candidates fielded video questions submitted by the public via the YouTube Web site, just as Democratic White House candidates did in July. The debate was the first time the GOP candidates had faced off on the same stage in over a month. CNN's political team viewed nearly 5,000 videos for the GOP debate -- about 2,000 more than they saw for the Democrats' debate. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"YouTube questions address taxes, the Bible, abortion, gun control .\nGiuliani, Romney, Huckabee spar over immigration .\nMcCain challenges Paul over suggestion to bring troops home from Iraq .\nNearly 5,000 videos for the GOP debate; 2,000 more than Democratic debate .","id":"764d9ce99a1e3f79d95fbc4b68adbce14e7f8bcd"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- None of the 1,000-plus Iraqi detainees freed in recent weeks have broken a pledge not to return to the insurgency, according to the Marine general who oversees the U.S. detention centers in Iraq. A U.S. military panel reviews a detainee's case at Camp Cropper near Baghdad. Speaking in Arabic, Maj. Gen. Doug Stone on Wednesday reassured Iraqis about how the 25,000 detainees -- mostly Sunnis -- are treated after being taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the insurgency. Stone described the detention system as \"open and transparent,\" saying it makes the detainees better citizens and helps break the cycle of violence and poverty in the country. Stone said detainees get free medical care equal to what he gets as a general, food and water made to Islamic standards, educational opportunities, jobs skills and contact with families. The U.S. detention centers -- at Camp Bucca near the southern port city of Basra and in Camp Cropper near Baghdad -- are political sore points for Sunnis, who make up 83 percent of the detainees held. The main Sunni political coalition -- the Iraqi Accord Front -- cited the centers as one reason for quitting the government during the summer. Last month, the U.S.-led coalition launched Operation Lion's Paw in which between 50 and 70 detainees would be released daily during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan after taking a pledge not to rejoin the insurgency against the Shiite-led government. \"This pledge is an Iraqi pledge, a pledge before an Iraqi judge, frequently with a family member present,\" Stone said. \"I am pleased to tell you that in the more 1,000 that have gone through this program and taken the pledge, not one has returned to threaten Iraqi or coalition forces.\" Stone said the releases would continue at the same pace beyond Ramadan. Stone's description seems a far cry from the Abu Ghraib prison operated by the U.S. military in the first years after the invasion. That prison was closed down and razed in the wake of an international scandal over prisoner abuse. \"There are no secrets that go on in detention,\" Stone said. \"Our facilities are open to inspection by any agency that we in the federal government believe is credible. These agencies are welcomed because they are windows for the world.\" See what life's like inside Camp Cropper's walls \u00bb . By the time of their release, \"detainees grow in terms of working in an inter-sectarian environment,\" he said. Each detainee has a chance to take classes up to a sixth-grade level, and high school classes are being planned, Stone said. About one-third -- or 8,000 -- are in school, with 7,000 having passed the fifth-grade level, he said. The 860 detainees who are 17 or younger are all in school, Stone said. The average stay for a detainee is 300 days, but some have been detained for two years or longer, he said. A review board interviews detainees to decide if they are a threat to security, he said. If they are deemed not to be, they are offered freedom in exchange for taking the pledge. Only 280 detainees are foreigners, mostly from Syria, Egypt, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, he said. Other developments .","highlights":"More than 1,000 freed detainees reportedly keep pledge not to rejoin insurgency .\nU.S. general tries to reassure Sunnis that detainees face no abuse .\nMore than 80 percent of detainees are Sunnis .\nU.S. airstrike kills 13 suspected terrorists west of Baghdad .","id":"f16446db34e2861f0450dfa34d8cdda541ab7b19"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to modify or overturn a lower court's ruling allowing Mary Winkler, convicted of killing her minister husband, visitation rights with the couple's three daughters. Holding baby Brianna, Mary Winkler stands next to Matthew. In the foreground are Mary Alice and Patricia. Charles and Diane Winkler, parents of slain minister Matthew Winkler, had asked the court to intervene and either revoke Mary Winkler's visitation rights or allow them to proceed only under supervision of a counselor. The children -- Patricia, Mary Alice and Brianna -- have been living with their grandparents since their mother was arrested last year. Winkler has not seen the children in 15 months, said Kay Farese Turner, her attorney. She said her client was \"absolutely elated about the news and believes this will be her best Christmas ever.\" Turner said she believes the visit may come before Christmas. A jury convicted Winkler earlier this year of voluntary manslaughter in the shotgun death of Matthew Winkler -- not the first-degree murder conviction prosecutors had wanted. She said the slaying came after years of abuse, including physical violence and being forced to dress \"slutty\" for undesirable sex acts. Winkler received a three-year sentence, but a judge required her to serve only 210 days, gave her credit for the five months she had already served and allowed her to serve the remaining 60 days in a mental health facility. She was released in August. At the time of their father's death in March 2006, Patricia was 8, Mary Alice was 6 and Brianna was 1. Charles and Diane Winkler have moved to terminate Mary Winkler's rights and have filed a $2 million wrongful death suit against her for their son's slaying. The termination issue has not been decided in court. Turner said the court may want to determine what, if any, bond Winkler has with her children before making a decision. Attempts by CNN to contact attorneys for the Winklers were not immediately successful Wednesday. In September, a lower court granted Winkler visitation with her daughters pending the outcome of the custody battle. The court specified the visits be supervised by a guardian ad litem appointed to represent the children's interests and supervised by members of the couple Winkler is living with or by her sister. A subsequent appeal by the grandparents was denied, leading to their Supreme Court appeal. The Winklers said if their former daughter-in-law got visitation with the children at all, it should be under the supervision of a professional counselor. At a September hearing, according to court documents, they said the children \"exhibit fear and confusion\" toward their mother \"and her role in their father's death.\" One expert, in testimony, quoted Patricia as saying her mother had killed her father and, \"I don't know if she will kill me. I want to ask her if she would do that to me. It scares me, kind of; if she did, well, I guess I would see my father.\" The Winklers also said that after telephone calls with their mother, the children experienced \"urination accidents, sleeping problems, graphic nightmares and sleepwalking.\" They said the lower court erred by failing to appoint the guardian ad litem until after the September hearing. Turner, however, said she believes terminating Winkler's parental rights would not be in the children's best interest. \"She has a faith rarely seen, and she loves those children,\" Turner said. After Matthew Winkler's death, Winkler fled with the girls to the Alabama coast, where she was arrested. She said during a September appearance on the \"Oprah Winfrey Show\" that she never expected to get away with killing her husband, but that she fled to be with her daughters and \"have some good times.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mary Winkler convicted earlier this year of shooting her husband to death .\nWinkler served time and was released; the couple had three children .\nThe children live with their grandparents, who oppose visitation .\nWinkler has not seen her children in 15 months .","id":"3e910c5b8425cd7c871a402a32ca44680b53ce5e"} -{"article":"LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two Pakistani television networks that transmit from Dubai in United Arab Emirates were ordered off the air Friday at the request of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, officials from the networks said. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been under pressure to lift a state of emergency. GEO-TV and ARY Digital offer a variety of programming, including news, entertainment, sports and music. Both networks had been banned from Pakistan's cable television system -- along with other networks, including CNN and BBC -- since Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3. This latest action prevents the two Pakistani networks from broadcasting worldwide via satellite. \"This was basically our window to the world, GEO President Imran Aslan said. \"In Pakistan, we've been shut down since the 3rd.\" The action was not wholly unexpected, but surprising nevertheless, Aslan said. \"We uplink from Dubai, never having had a license to uplink from Pakistan,\" he said. \"Dubai is a media city which seemed to be a haven and a sanctuary.\" Aslan said network officials have been in discussions with Pakistani government officials and \"it seemed very obvious that they were going to do this. We were ready for it to a certain extent.\" \"Eventually they decided to put their feet on the pipe, as it were.\" The government has made numerous demands of the network, although none of them official, Aslan said. \"It's done through intermediaries,\" he said. \"[Dulling] down the content, not having certain anchors, some of the hosts of our programs and talk shows.\" Musharraf's emergency order put several restrictions on the media, preventing journalists from expressing opinions prejudicial to \"the ideology ... or integrity of Pakistan.\" Journalists are also restricted from covering suicide bombings and militant activity and could face three-year jail terms if they \"ridicule\" members of the government or armed forces. Almost a dozen journalists have been arrested. Musharraf has denied that his restrictions bar criticism, saying they only ask for responsibility in reporting. But last week, Pakistan expelled three print journalists for using language in an editorial that a Pakistani official called offensive to Musharraf. The editorial criticized Musharraf and the United States and Britain for continuing to support him. While many Pakistani journalists have protested the restrictions, some smaller television channels have complied with the government's restrictions. GEO and ARY have refused. \"It seems most of the other channels have kowtowed in order to survive,\" Aslan said. Musharraf has said the emergency order improves stability and will foster peaceful parliamentary elections, which he has said he would like to see take place before January 9. The exact date will be set by Pakistan's Election Commission. Opposition leaders have accused Musharraf of declaring emergency rule to keep his hold on power and avoid an expected court ruling that would have nullified his election victory in October. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: GEO-TV president: \"It seemed very obvious that they were going to do this\"\nOrder comes on the request of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf .\nGEO-TV and ARY Digital offer varied programming, including news .\nBoth networks transmit from the United Arab Emirates .","id":"973c14551fc97a1eef094bd0f33356d9e6836234"} -{"article":"JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- Four people were killed and several injured after an explosion Wednesday at a chemical plant sent a thick plume of smoke over a section of Jacksonville, authorities said. A thick plume of smoke rises Wednesday at a chemical plant in Jacksonville, Florida. \"Literally, it's a hellish inferno. There is no other way to describe it,\" said Fire Department spokesman Tom Francis. Fourteen people were hospitalized after the blast at the T2 Lab on Faye Road, in an industrial area on the waterfront in north Jacksonville, Francis said. Officials initially ordered an evacuation of nearby businesses, but by 4 p.m. the order had been lifted after tests of the air found no toxicity, Francis said. Firefighters were still battling hot spots, and the effort will be going on for \"quite some time,\" he said. See an I-Report account about the blast \u00bb . Six of those injured were transported to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville, hospital spokeswoman Kelly Brockmeier said. A Shands official said the hospital incident command system had been activated -- something done to put the staff in high alert in anticipation of trauma patients. A woman who answered the T2 Lab's 24-hour facility emergency phone said the plant manufactures ecotane, a gasoline additive that reduces tailpipe emissions, according to the laboratory's Web site. See a map of the site of the explosion \u00bb . The billowing black smoke could be seen from the city's downtown, said Florida Times-Union reporter Bridget Murphy. Murphy said she talked to several workers as they walked out of the area, and they were \"shaken to the core.\" \"They described a hissing noise and then a sound wave,\" she said. Antonio Padrigan was trying to get in touch with his son, who works in a plant in the area, but was having no luck reaching him on his cell phone. \"He was shook up when he called me, but I can't get through to him anymore,\" Padrigan said. \"I don't know if he's in the hospital or what.\" CNN I-Reporters Jonathan Payne and his son Calvin, 16, shot pictures of the explosion. They felt the blast shake their home, about 15 minutes away, and went to see what was going on. Carlton Higginbotham, 63, was working at home on Townsend Boulevard in Jacksonville when a loud boom shook his house, he said. \"It was a gunshot-type explosion; it wasn't a rumble,\" he said. Higginbotham, an insurance salesman, and his neighbor ran outside and noticed thick smoke billowing from the other side of the St. Johns River, which separates his neighborhood from the site of the blast. \"The cloud that came out of it was white, some would say mushroom-shaped,\" Higginbotham said. \"It was followed by dark, dark smoke.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Fire Department spokesman: 14 have been taken to area hospitals .\nFirefighters still fighting hot spots Wednesday afternoon, official says .\n\"It's a hellish inferno,\" he tells reporters .","id":"725938611c7dca6f876ada93b1d68b29ad25ce38"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nasser al Ansari is the CEO of Qatari Diar, a state-owned real estate investment company. Famous for its purchase of London's Chelsea Barracks, Qatari Diar was established in 2004 by the Qatar Investment Authority, to support Qatar's growing economy and to co-ordinate the country's real estate development priorities. It is now valued at $1 billion with 18 projects underway. Al Ansari is a graduate from the University of Miami and was responsible for high profile projects such as New Doha International Airport and the promotion of private sector investment through public sector privatization. Before being appointed as CEO of Qatari Diar, Al Ansari was at the office of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs as technical advisor. He joins us on MME to talk about the vision for Qatar, how Qatari Diar fits into it and its investments outside Gulf in Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Egypt and Europe. With oil prices hitting $88 this week, John Defterios begins by asking Nasser al Ansari about the differences he sees now compared to the 1970s when oil prices were also high. Any lessons learned? Nasser al Ansari: I believe so. In the 1970s, local government here did not deal in a very sophisticated way with this wealth. But now we are fortunate with a high level of education and the reformations in government policies in this region. We now understand how to utilize this wealth and economical growth. JD: I don't think most people know that you sit on one of the largest natural gas fields in the world and will likely be the largest exporter by 2010. This must give you great cushion to expand the Qatari Diar model. NA: Although we have this and we are fortunate with this, Qatar has adopted a policy to diversify its portfolio from its natural resources to other investment opportunities and one of them is Qatari Diar. We are investing a lot in real estate, not just in Qatar but worldwide. JD: In fact very close in the neighborhood as well. It's almost foreign policy strategy to invest in the poorer countries in the region. Is this to help the neighborhood develop alongside Qatar? NA: I think with the knowledge and know-how that we have gained in this area of expertise, we would like to export it to other countries to help their economical reformations; to try to create business opportunities for their local businessmen and to create job opportunities for the people in that particular country. JD: It's quite a radical departure say from the International Monetary Fund or World Bank giving loans or grants for development. This is turning the world upside down in your region, it is not? NA: Yes, I would like to assure you at Qatari Diar we are not in the business of lending. JD: You want a hard return. NA: We want return but we always think of the people when we are investing in these countries. I mean we want to make sure that the investment we are making is there for the long-term. Qatari Diar has a policy: it's a long-term policy not short-term. JD: Give me some insight on why Qatari Diar feels as comfortable in London with Chelsea Barracks as in Cuba, for example, with some of the projects you're undertaking. What makes you think you can pull that off? NA: I think with the expertise that we have and with the strength that we have, we would like to showcase the strength of the people of Qatar and we want to pull the flag of the state of Qatar even across the Atlantic and we are determined to do so. We are a small country but with big ideas. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nasser al Ansari is CEO of Qatari Diar, Qatar's state-owned investment group .\nIts global projects are part of nation's attempt to diversify investment portfolio .\nInvestment also aims to bring expertise and jobs to neighboring countries .","id":"28dbcf0c8624d9914a4e4292f872f17b063547c2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A day after New Jersey banned executions, newly released figures show that capital punishment dropped this year to a 13-year low. The Supreme Court will hold oral arguments January 7 about the constitutionality of lethal injection protocols. Forty-two people have been put to death this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a Washington-based group that opposes the practice. That figure is down 57 percent from what it was in 1999, when 98 inmates were executed. Next year's figures are expected to drop further. The Supreme Court is to hold oral arguments January 7 about whether lethal injection protocols in 36 of the 37 states with the death penalty are constitutional. See how the rates have dropped \u00bb . The justices placed a moratorium on executions in late September, when they decided to review a Kentucky case about whether the three-drug lethal \"cocktail\" of chemicals represents \"cruel and unusual punishment,\" since it may cause excruciating pain to inmates unable to express discomfort. Stays of executions have been issued in several states until the larger constitutional issues are addressed. If the high court finds the procedures unconstitutional, it could take years before death-penalty states would meet legal standards necessary to resume lethal injection. And even if the method is declared acceptable, it would be months before new execution dates could be set. Ten states carried out executions this year. Outside the South, Arizona, South Dakota, Indiana, and Ohio together subjected six men to lethal injection. Learn about states' death penalty policies and statistics \u00bb . Texas continues to lead the nation, with 62 percent of executions nationwide this year. Overall, 86 percent this year were in the South. No more executions are scheduled this year. \"The death penalty has been in a period of decline for many years,\" said Richard Dieter, executive director of DPIC. \"Two thousand seven will be known as the year executions came to a temporary halt and as the year of concrete legislation reconsidering the death penalty.\" Death penalty supporters acknowledge that states outside the South have been reluctant to impose the punishment, even in the face of rising big-city crime rates. \"I think the main problem is that the death penalty is not being imposed often enough in those urban jurisdictions,\" said Kent Scheidegger of the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. \"I think people of the cities are not getting the quality of justice that people elsewhere receive. I think we need to build support for the death penalty and need to impose it more regularly where it is warranted.\" New Jersey's legislature voted last week to outlaw the death penalty -- the first state to do so in 42 years -- and Gov. Jon Corzine signed the measure into law Monday. At the same time, he commuted the sentences of the eight men on the state's death row. The move was largely symbolic, since no executions have occurred there since 1963. Similar bills in Nebraska, New Mexico and Montana failed this year in the legislature. State lawmakers in Maryland, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee and California are also considering abolishing the death penalty, but no bills have been introduced. The Supreme Court on January 4 will decide whether to review an appeal from Louisiana inmate Patrick Kennedy, sentenced to death in 2003 for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The state's high court upheld the punishment as appropriate. The justices in 1976 banned capital punishment for rape, but 19 years later, Louisiana passed a law allowing execution for the sexual violation of a child under 12. State lawmakers distinguished the earlier high court case as pertaining only to \"adult women.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Death Penalty Information Center: 42 people have been put to death this year .\nThat's down 57 percent from 1999 level, when 98 inmates were executed .\nFigure partly due to states questioning the constitutionality of lethal injection .\nTexas leads the nation in executions this year, according to DPIC .","id":"4567b2098569ee4346cfdede5819257af4ee9c0f"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia -- Zenit Saint Petersburg have clinched their first Russian title in the post-Soviet Union era with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Ramenskoye on Sunday. Zenit captain Anatoly Timoshuk kisses the Russian Premier League trophy after their victory at Ramenskoye. The win means Zenit finish top of the table with 61 points, two points ahead of second-placed Spartak Moscow, who beat city rivals Dynamo 2-1. CKSA Moscow finished third on 53 points. Zenit went ahead in the 15th minute when Radek Sirl's shot from the edge of the box deflected off a Ramenskoye defender and beat goalkeeper Antonin Kinski. After the interval, the hosts poured forward seeking an equalizer and created several chances -- but Zenit held firm to secure their first championship since 1984 and make a hero out of Dutch coach Dick Advocaat. Nine-times champions Spartak took the lead midway through the first-half. Russian international striker Roman Pavyuchenko netted the opening goal in the 24th minute with a powerful shot from the edge of the six-yard box after a mix- up in the Dynamo defence. Brazilian striker Soares Welliton made it 2-0 seven minutes after halftime, heading home Pavlyuchenko's precise cross. Dynamo reduced the arrears in the 71st minute, when Spartak midfielder Radoslav Kovac scored an own goal. Meanwhile, Rostov and Krasnodar were relegated fronm the Premier League. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Zenit Saint Petersburg clinch the Russian Premier League title on Sunday .\nThey secure the title ahead of Spartak Moscow after a 1-0 win at Ramenskoye .\nThe title success is Zenit's first since 1984 and the first in the post-Soviet era .","id":"d0404188997ef57e0355b18fb867599b89c80407"} -{"article":"GLASGOW, Scotland -- Scottish Premier League leaders Celtic suffered another setback in their bid for a third successive title after being held 1-1 by managerless Hibernian on Saturday. David Murphy's goals have earned Hibernian four points against the Auld Firm this season. Gordon Strachan's team head the table by three points from Glasgow rivals Rangers, who have three games in hand ahead of Sunday's trip to Aberdeen. Visiting Hibernian, whose manager John Collins surprisingly resigned on Thursday citing a lack of financial backing from the Edinburgh side's board, took the lead in the 20th minute through left-back David Murphy. The Englishman played a one-two with Abdessalam Benjelloun before crashing a shot from the edge of the box past goalkeeper Mark Brown and in off the crossbar. Murphy's only other goal this season came in Hibs' 1-0 win at Rangers on October 6. Brown did well to keep out Merouane Zemmama's audacious shot from just inside the Celtic half soon after, and also tipped over Brian Kerr's looping header three minutes after half-time. Substitute Jiri Jarosik rescued Celtic from a first home SPL defeat this season in the 78th minute after being teed up by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who then headed against the post with two minutes to play. Hibernian held on despite having to play the final few minutes with 10 men, after Benjelloun was stretchered off with their three substitutes already used. The victory lifted the visitors up into fifth place, while Celtic have taken just six points from the last five games. Strachan, who confirmed he is hoping to sign Brazilian defender Coelho next month, said: \"We need to cut out the silly mistakes because if you look at some of the goals we have let in away from home this season, they are silly mistakes. \"We could have definitely done something with every one of them. I'm happy with the number of chance we've made in the last few weeks, but unhappy with individual mistakes. \"It's not been great to look at, and we need to cut it out. We have honest lads walking in to the dressing room and saying, 'That was my fault.' \"I said to them, 'It's very commendable lads but we can't keep doing this.' There has been a lot going right for us, but one or two things going wrong. We have to deal with that, and then I will look forward to the rest of the season.\" Third-placed Motherwell missed the chance to move above Rangers after being beaten 3-0 at home by Falkirk, who climbed to ninth with two goals in the second half to Michael Higdon and then another from Patrick Clegg on 65 minutes. Fourth-placed Dundee United failed to take advantage, losing 2-1 at home to bottom club Gretna -- whose only two wins this season have come against the Tangerines. Kenny Deuchar put the visitors ahead in the 12th minute before striker Noel Hunt leveled on 29, and Nicky Deverdics scored the eventual winner for the Borders outfit three minutes before half-time. Inverness Caledonian Thistle followed up last weekend's shock 3-2 victory against Celtic by also winning at Hearts by the same scoreline. The visitors led through Russell Duncan after 22 minutes and John Rankin made it 2-0 with a 53rd-minute penalty before Christophe Berra pulled one back on 62 and Lithuanian striker Andrius Velicka leveled from the spot (90). However, Graham Bayne scored a dramatic injury-time winner to lift Caley into the top six. In Saturday's other game, second-bottom St Mirren drew 0-0 at home to fellow strugglers Kilmarnock to be left seven points ahead of Gretna. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Scottish league leaders Celtic held 1-1 at home by managerless Hibernian .\nCeltic now lead by three points, having taken just six from last five games .\nSecond-placed Rangers have three games in hand ahead of trip to Aberdeen .","id":"ab10b3f8c4a6cca7aea94298447b13bc0721fe69"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- If you turn to the Bible -- Isaiah Chapter 35, Verse 8 -- you will see a passage that in part says, \"A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.\" Churchgoers in six states have held prayer sessions along the side of Interstate 35. Now, is it possible that this \"highway\" mentioned in Chapter 35 is actually Interstate 35 that runs through six U.S. states, from southern Texas to northern Minnesota? Some Christians have faith that is indeed the case. It was with that interesting belief in mind that we decided to head to Texas, the southernmost state in the I-35 corridor, to do a story about a prayer campaign called \"Light the Highway.\" Churchgoers in all six states recently finished 35 days of praying alongside Interstate 35, but the prayers are still continuing. Some of the faithful believe that in order to fulfill the prophecy of I-35 being the \"holy\" highway, it needs some intensive prayer first. So we watched as about 25 fervent and enthusiastic Christians prayed on the the interstate's shoulder in Dallas. They chanted loudly and vibrantly, making many people in the neighborhood wonder what was going on. They prayed that adult businesses along the corridor would \"see the light\" and perhaps close down. They prayed for safety and freedom from crime for people who lived along the interstate. They prayed that all Americans would accept Jesus into their lives. Watch believers offer prayers \u00bb . The woman who came up with the concept of \"Light the Highway\" is a Texas minister named Cindy Jacobs. She says she can't be sure Interstate 35 really is what is mentioned in the Bible but says she received a revelation to start this campaign after \"once again reading Isaiah, Chapter 35.\" Jacobs also points out that perhaps there is a link between the area near this highway and tragedies that have happened in history, such as the bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis last August and the assassination of JFK 44 years ago near I-35 in Dallas. That's why prayer certainly can't hurt, she adds. Now, it's only fair to say most people, the religious and the non-religious alike, don't buy any of this, but none more than the owners of some of the adult businesses along I-35. At an adult go-go club, the owner tells us he resents people trying to impose their will on others. And he says his club holds fundraisers, food drives and toy drives to help the community. But on the side of the road, the prayerful aren't going to change their minds. Holy highways and nude clubs, they believe, are not a combination God has in mind. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some see connection between the Bible and Interstate 35 .\nBelievers pray by the side of the highway, which runs through six states .\nI-35 runs from southern Texas to northern Minnesota .","id":"7c11a3353593edde95bae0ee6178fb1d1855baed"} -{"article":"CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- The price of sin rose Monday in Venezuela where President Hugo Chavez is on a campaign to make Venezuelans cut back on drinking and smoking. \"Everyone's shocked,\" said Leonora Marino, owner of Bodegon Marino in Valencia, Venezuela, west of Caracas. On Monday evening, she was still changing the prices in her store as her customers looked on and complained, she told a reporter. Alcohol is now 10 percent more expensive; cigarettes are 20 percent pricier. \"Really, it's difficult to buy at these prices,\" she said, then joked, \"They say they're going to stop eating so that they can continue drinking.\" The Venezuelan government is placing a higher tax on alcohol and cigarettes in an effort to cut consumption and prevent what it views as the social, economic and moral consequences of drinking and smoking, said Jose Vielma Mora, superintendent of Seniat, the government body that oversees the collection of taxes. Taxes on whiskey, brandy, cognac and other drinks that don't come from cane sugar have been raised $1.79 (3,838 bolivares) per liter, the government-run Bolivarian News Agency said. \"It's unfair because, in the end, the consumer is the one who pays,\" said Fernando Fernandez, a liquor exporter. Chavez has described whiskey as a drink for rich people, not for revolutionaries. \"We cannot be spending the international reserves of this country on whiskey,\" he said. The moves represent the first steps toward transforming each Venezuelan into what Chavez calls \"the new man.\" Chavez has cited the life of revolutionary socialist icon Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara as an example of how to lead a more pure life. In April, Chavez told a graduating class of medical students in Caracas, Venezuela, that the level of consumption of alcohol in the country represents a threat to public health and ought to make residents feel ashamed, according to an ABN report. \"The vice causes much harm, not only to individuals, but to the collective health of the nation,\" said Chavez, who said the dangers result in an increase in car wrecks and domestic violence. For his part, he has said he drinks too much coffee. Also effective Monday, stores near schools, churches and cultural centers will not be granted licenses to sell alcohol. Taxes on cigarette imports have also increased, from 50 percent to 70 percent of the total price. On the street, some people said they don't understand the motivations for the increase, but predicted their consumption would not change. \"The Venezuelan is not going to stop drinking or smoking,\" said one person. Chavez also plans to increase taxes on luxury items such as Hummers, which are imported privately and at great expense. There is no Hummer dealership in the country. Higher oil prices in recent years have translated into higher consumption in petroleum-rich Venezuela. Last year, car sales increased by about 70 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. But Chavez, who was in Cuba on Monday visiting communist leader Fidel Castro, said he wants to focus less on material goals for Venezuela's 27 million people, 38 percent of whom live in poverty. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Flor Santamaria contributed to this story.","highlights":"Venezuelan government hikes taxes on alcohol and cigarettes Monday .\nTen percent price increase on alcohol and 20 percent increase on cigarettes .\nStores near schools, churches and cultural centers cannot sell alcohol .\nChavez plans to increase taxes on luxury goods, including Hummers .","id":"487b272b94a620f9660e89bbf6ebab3ffdf1bf06"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Obesity is the No. 1 health crisis in the United States, and the nation could be at risk without immediate action, former President Clinton said at CNN's first Fit Nation Summit. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former President Clinton lead the discussion at the first Fit Nation Summit. \"We need to do something about it for our children, and for our country, because something like this could easily collapse our nation if we don't act now,\" Clinton said. Clinton and CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, gathered with experts from across the country Wednesday to explore solutions to America's obesity crisis. Two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight or obese; the same is true for one-third of U.S. children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity carries increased risk of myriad health problems, including hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Gupta, Clinton and a panel of experts addressed such proposed solutions as healthy school lunches, elimination of trans fats, the need for healthier food in urban communities and the importance of supporting community-based efforts to fight obesity. Watch Gupta explain the solutions proposed at the Fit Nation Summit \u00bb . Clinton, who's been tackling the obesity issue over the past few years with his Alliance for a Healthier Generation, stressed the need to help educate people about the importance of a healthy diet and exercising together. Motivating Americans, especially kids, won't be easy, Clinton said. \"They need to be handled with care. Kids need to know it's important, but [fitness] can't be boring,\" he said. \"There's no shame, there's no embarrassment. We have to let them know it's all good, but you have to do it.\" Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a strong advocate against trans fats in foods, stressed that the Food and Drug Administration should ban trans fats altogether and stop leaving it up to local and state governments. Trans fats, at one time, thought to be good fat substitutes, over the years have been shown to raise LDL or bad cholesterol in people and lower their HDL, or good cholesterol. \"They're just not good for our health, Jacobson said. However, Dr. Robert Eckel, former president of the American Heart Association, warned, \"Although we support the removal of trans fats, our biggest concern is what they'll be replaced with. We need to think about that, because there will be a substitute.\" The panel took questions from an audience of 150 people -- mostly obesity experts or those who work in industries that deal with obesity. Gupta was inspired to launch Fit Nation, an ongoing, multiplatform, grass-roots initiative against obesity. Over the past three years, Gupta and the CNN Medical Unit have crisscrossed the country, asking Americans to take charge of their weight by exercising more and eating healthier. This year, Gupta traveled from Michigan to California asking the public to pledge to add 1 million hours to their collective lives by getting off the couch and exercising. Since he began the tour in April, the campaign has surpassed its goal, with exercise pledges close to four times that amount. Gupta said he hopes that legislators and administrators who can make a difference in policy and perhaps change attitudes about obesity will hear the solutions discussed at the summit. \"I''ve covered a lot of stories on obesity,\" Gupta said. \"There's a battle going on, and we need to win the battle. I've talked to people out there and many are just blas\u00e9. \"This is our opportunity to make them care.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Experts gather at CNN's first Fit Nation Summit to propose obesity solutions .\nFormer President Clinton: Without obesity solution, nation risks \"collapse\"\nMotivating youngsters, removing shame, embarrassment called key .\nExperts: Removing trans fats, finding healthy replacements also critical .","id":"e1b6f4701835710d3f518729188754fcd7061289"} -{"article":"DURBAN, South Africa -- India's Yuvraj Singh smashed six sixes in one over as England crashed out of cricket's World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa on Wednesday. Yuvraj Singh smashes his sixth successive six off England fast bowler Stuart Broad . Paul Collingwood's side were eliminated at the Super Eights stage after South Africa earlier beat New Zealand by six wickets in Durban. England then lost by 18 runs to the Singh-inspired Indians, who kept their semifinal hopes alive ahead of Thursday's must-win clash with the hosts. Singh reached the fastest 50 in Twenty20 history, needing just 12 deliveries, as India made 218-4. The left-hander's six consecutive sixes in the 19th over bowled by Stuart Broad made him the first player to do so in Twenty20 matches and just the fourth in all senior cricket. South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs performed the feat at the 50-over World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year, while Sir Garfield Sobers and Ravi Shastri achieved it in first-class matches. Singh's innings ended on 58 -- from 16 balls -- when he hit a full-toss from Andrew Flintoff to captain Collingwood at long-on from the penultimate delivery of the final over, in which he also cleared the boundary ropes once. Virender Sehwag top-scored with 68 off 52 balls, putting on 136 for the first wicket with Gautam Gambhir, who hit 58 off 41 deliveries. Broad ended with the embarrassing figures of 0-60 off his four overs, while fellow seamer Chris Tremlett took 2-45. In reply, England battled gamely but could only post 200-6 in their 20 overs. Opener Vikram Solanki top-scored with 43 off 31 balls, and Kevin Pietersen hit 39 off 23 deliveries, but no-one could match the fireworks provided by Singh. Left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan claimed figures of 3-37 off four overs, while Rudra Pratap Singh took 2-28. If India can beat South Africa, it would create a three-way tie and require net run-rates to decide the two teams going through. The Proteas have two wins from two Group E outings after beating New Zealand, who have completed their Super Eights fixtures with two victories and a defeat. South Africa restricted the Black Caps to 153-8 from their 20 overs on Wednesday, then reached the target with five deliveries to spare as Justin Kemp made an unbeaten 89. Kemp was named man of the match after smashing a six off the otherwise economical Mark Gillespie for the winning runs. He belted six sixes and six fours in his 56-ball innings, having come to the crease in the fourth over with South Africa reeling at 17-2. Kemp added 28 in four overs with Gibbs (19) before putting on another 65 in eight overs with Mark Boucher. Boucher departed for 23, caught by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum off Gillespie, who ended with figures of 2-11 off 3.1 overs. The experienced Shaun Pollock then joined Kemp, and struck one six in his unbeaten 16 off 11 deliveries to help guide the Proteas to their second victory. The in-form Craig McMillan top-scored for the Kiwis, hitting an unbeaten 48 off only 25 balls to follow up his blistering 57 in Tuesday's five-run win against England. McCullum had put on 68 for the first wicket with Lou Vincent, scoring 38 before becoming the first of Morne Morkel's four victims. Morkel, who ended with figures of 4-17 off four overs, then removed Ross Taylor (1) two runs later and later bowled the dangerous Jacob Oram for a quickfire 15. He had Shane Bond caught by Boucher, and then almost became the first Twenty20 bowler to claim five wickets when his penultimate delivery -- which clean bowled Gillespie -- was declared a no-ball by umpire Billy Doctrove. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Yuvraj Singh becomes first player to hit six sixes in an over in Twenty20 game .\nSingh hits 58 in 16 deliveries as India beat England by 18 runs in Durban .\nEngland already eliminated from World Twenty20 after South Africa beat NZ .","id":"45027afbe54056c567ca8a48906dd06200f6d8c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The man arrested for the videotaped rape of a toddler in Las Vegas, Nevada, will make his initial appearance in court Friday, a Clark County, Nevada, court official told CNN Tuesday. Authorities have not yet decided if Chester Arthur Stiles will appear in person or via video link. The judge will set a date for the arraignment at that hearing. Stiles, 37, was taken into custody Monday night after a Henderson, Nevada, police officer pulled over the white Buick Century he was driving. A former girlfriend of Stiles' said that, before the arrest, she lived in fear after going to police to identify the suspect after seeing enhanced photos from the videotape on the local news. \"I've had my share of nightmares,\" Elaine Thomas told CNN's Nancy Grace. Thomas said she screamed when she recognized the photos on television and had no choice but to contact police about the man she had thought was a \"weapons enthusiast\" with only a minor criminal record. Watch Thomas say how she felt when she saw the photos \u00bb . \"How could I not tell them who that man was? That little girl suffered unimaginable things, and I knew for a fact it was him,\" Thomas said. The judge in the case will hold an administrative hearing Wednesday, but Stiles will not be present, Clark County court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. Stiles was already being sought on an unrelated 2004 charge of felony lewdness with a child under 14, Sommermeyer said, adding that authorities amended that earlier filing on October 4 to include 20 counts related to the videotaped rape, including sexual assault and attempted sexual assault. Jerry T. Donohue, the attorney for the girl's mother, told CNN that the child on the videotape was younger than 3 when the abuse occurred. Henderson Police Officer Mike Dye said he pulled over Stiles' car Monday night because it did not have a license plate and became suspicious when the driver gave him an expired California driver's license with a photo that did not look like him. Dye said he and another officer, Mike Gower, questioned Stiles until he admitted his identity. \"He finally told us, 'Hey, I'm Chester Stiles. I'm the guy you're looking for,'\" Dye said. \"At that time, he said, 'I'm sick of running.'\" Dye said Stiles was calm and cooperative. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was turned over to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and booked into the jail in Clark County, where he had been sought in connection with the videotape, which shows a girl being sexually assaulted. The girl, who is now 7, was found last month after a nationwide search. The tape was given to authorities by Darren Tuck, who told police he had found it in the desert five months before handing it over. Because of the delay, during which Tuck allegedly showed the tape to others, he faces charges of exhibiting pornography and possession of child pornography. He turned himself in to authorities in Nye County, Nevada, earlier this month. Professionals have evaluated the girl in the videotape since she was found, and she appears to be \"healthy and fine and happy,\" her mother's attorney said this month. The mother had not known her daughter had ever been victimized and was apparently oblivious to efforts to find her until late last month, Donohue said. \"A family friend called her and said, 'My God, you need to turn on the TV. I believe that is your daughter,' \" Donohue said. Donohue said the mother recognized Stiles, a former animal trainer. The alleged abuse most likely occurred while the mother -- a single woman working six days a week -- was at work, Donohue said. Another former girlfriend of Stiles', Tina Allen, said this month she thinks she is the reason Stiles came in contact with the girl and is \"mortified\" by the allegations against him. \"He said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,\" Allen said. Allen said she took Stiles to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her daughter, the alleged assault victim. Todd Allen, Tina Allen's son, said he recognized his old apartment from scenes in the video. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect's ex-girlfriend: \"I've had my share of nightmares\"\nChester Arthur Stiles to make his initial court appearance Friday .\nStiles, 37, arrested following a routine traffic stop .\nSuspect said \"I'm Chester Stiles. ... I'm sick of running,\" according to officer .","id":"e8c2d4a1d20efb0606506435ebcbf486e9eb4146"} -{"article":"JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- Eduardo Gonzalez, a petty officer second class with the U.S. Navy, is about to be deployed overseas for a third time. Making his deployment even tougher is the fact his wife may not be around when he comes back. Mildred and Eduardo Gonzalez worry about what would happen to their family if she is deported. His wife faces deportation to Guatemala -- her home country that she hasn't seen since 1989. He also doesn't know what would happen to his young son, Eduardo Jr., if that happens. \"I like being in uniform and serving my country, but if she goes back I'm going to have to give it all up and just get out and take care of my son and get a job,\" he said. \"Defending the country that's trying to kick my family out is a thought that always runs through my mind.\" Gonzalez, who works on helicopters that bring cargo, supplies and military personnel in and out of Iraq, testified before a House Judiciary Committee panel last month, detailing his situation and urging officials to consider some sort of policy to deal with cases like his, where military members' families could be deported while they're defending their country overseas. Watch \"they're tearing families apart\" \u00bb . \"I want to serve my country 100 percent. But with this issue in the back of my mind, I feel I can't do that,\" he testified on September 6. The U.S. military does not have a policy to deal with such cases. Each is handled case-by-case, not by the military, but by immigration authorities. The government doesn't have numbers on how many military members are in predicaments similar to Gonzalez's. Immigration officials also said marrying a U.S. citizen does not mean the spouse is automatically entitled to U.S. citizenship or permanent legal status. Lt. Col. Margaret Stock, a member of the U.S. Army Reserves who teaches immigration law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, said she believes there should be an overall policy dealing with the potential deportation of family members of active duty military members. \"You got to understand. When you're in a combat zone, you need to be focusing all of your energies on fighting the enemy. You can't be worried that your loved ones back home could be shipped off to a foreign country where you're never going to see them again,\" she said. Stock also said the government is conflicted about how to treat such cases. On the one hand, the government is supposed to be providing military families with assistance, housing and other forms of benefits while their spouses are overseas. On the other hand, the same government is trying to deport the very same people. \"What's happening right now is, because of the dysfunction and complexity of our immigration laws, we've got people fighting overseas who are facing the impossible situation of having family members facing deportation back home,\" she said. In Gonzalez's case, his wife, Mildred, came to the United States with her mother in 1989 when she was 5 years old. They were granted political asylum because of their status as war refugees from Guatemala. In September 2000, Mildred's mother applied for legalization and included her daughter in that application. Her mother was granted legal status in July 2004, according to Gonzalez. However, six weeks earlier, Gonzalez and Mildred got married, canceling Mildred's ability to apply for legal status through her mother because she was no longer an unmarried daughter under the age of 21. As a result, her legal status still remains in jeopardy. A judge in June granted her a one-year extension to remain in the United States. If her legal status does not change by June 8, 2008, she will have 60 days to voluntarily leave the country or face deportation. That's just fine, according to Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies for tougher laws on illegal immigration. \"What you're talking about is amnesty for illegal immigrants who have a relative in the armed forces, and that's just outrageous,\" he said. \"What we're talking about here is letting lawbreakers get away with their actions just because they have a relative in the military. ... There's no justification for that kind of policy.\" Gonzalez said that type of response is unjustified. \"I'm trying to make his country better -- my country better -- and it should be her country too.\" Gonzalez himself entered the country legally, crossing the Mexican border with his family when he was about 10. He joined the Navy as a so-called \"green-card sailor\" and became a U.S. citizen in July 2005. The military does accept some immigrants who aren't U.S. citizens. \"I understand the laws have to be followed and guidelines and a system must be maintained, but on the other token, there are times when the situation is just out of their reach,\" Gonzalez said. His wife, Mildred, added, \"We didn't come here to break the law. We just want to feel safe and have a home just like everybody else.\" U.S. Army Sgt. Emmanuel Woko, a member of the Army's 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division who faces his third tour in Iraq, understands just how Gonzalez and his family feel. His wife and children could be sent back to Nigeria. \"My heart is bleeding on the thought that my wife could be deported back to Nigeria while I am deployed in Iraq,\" he said. \"I am extremely distressed and distracted by the thought.\" That's a sentiment echoed by Gonzalez: \"We are not asking for anything. We are just asking for our families to stay with us.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sailor's wife could be deported while he's overseas .\nSailor: \"Defending the country that's trying to kick my family out\" is tough .\nU.S. military doesn't have overall policy to handle such situations .\nWife: \"We just want to feel safe and have a home just like everybody else\"","id":"da0ea6b7eae20528c7ec822fb77d8e8f78ba09b8"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Heavy rains and flooding have forced hundreds of thousands of people from homes in southern Mexico's state of Tabasco over the past four days, with nearly as many trapped by the rising waters, state officials said Thursday. Officials say about 300,000 people are still trapped by the worst flooding in the region for 50 years. The Grijalva River pushed over its banks through the state capital of Villahermosa on Thursday, forcing government workers to evacuate and leaving up to 80 percent of the city flooded, Gov. Andres Granier's office told CNN. About 700,000 people have seen their homes flooded, with about 300,000 of those still trapped there, Granier's office reported. One death had been blamed on the floods, which followed weeks of heavy rain in the largely swampy state. Tabasco borders Guatemala to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the north. The Associated Press reported that thousands of people clung to rooftops, huddled inside waterlogged homes or hunkered down in shelters in an attempt to survive the worst flooding the region has seen in 50 years. Weather forecasters predicted more rain in the coming days. The flooding was not related to Tropical Storm Noel, which was pounding the Caribbean. The Grijalva River, one of two large waterways ringing Villahermosa, has risen 6.5 feet (2 meters) above its \"critical\" level and gushed into the city's center, according to AP. Authorities said some of the rivers were continuing to rise. President Felipe Calderon visited the area on Wednesday and promised the federal government's full support. Non-governmental organizations throughout the country asked people to donate non-perishable goods or cash, AP said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"One dead as hundreds of thousands flee rising floodwaters .\nAbout 80 percent of the city of Villahermosa is under water .\nTabasco and Chiapas states hardest hit .\nAuthorities say 700,000 affected and 300,000 still trapped by flooding .","id":"42ab0385b3bb93236804c2abc9ff261b6ec79872"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations is calling on NATO to do more to stop the Afghan opium trade after a new survey showed how the drug dominates Afghanistan's economy. Afghan villagers tend to opium poppies in Taliban-controlled Helmand province in April 2007. The report from the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime shows the export value of this year's poppy harvest stood at around $4 billion, a 29 per cent increase over 2006. Despite Afghan security forces' efforts to curb the trade, 660 tons of heroin and morphine were trafficked out of the country in 2007, the report said. Opium is derived from poppies, and the data on cultivation was collected by examining satellite images and by assessments on the ground. The report said opium has accounted for more than half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2007. InvestorWords.com defines GDP as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, usually a calendar year. According to the U.N. survey, about a quarter of the earnings from opium go to farmers. The rest goes to district officials who collect taxes on the crop, to drug traffickers and to the insurgents and warlords who control the trade. Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, urged NATO to take a more active role in countering the spread of the drug trade, which has increased dramatically since the American-led invasion to remove the hard-line Islamist government of the Taliban in October 2001. \"Since drugs are funding the insurgency, NATO has a self-interest in supporting Afghan forces in destroying drug labs, markets and convoys,\" Costa said in a written statement to coincide with the release of the survey. \"Destroy the drug trade and you cut off the Taliban's main funding source.\" James Appathurai, a NATO spokesman, said coalition forces were equally concerned by the rapid growth in the narcotics trade. \"We share the U.N.'s concerns,\" Appathurai told CNN. \"Drugs not only poison people, but they poison economies and governments, and it is in everyone's interest to stop this proliferation.\" He said NATO forces were providing assistance to Afghan police through training and transport but he said there were no plans to deploy coalition troops to intervene directly. \"The issue of whether we can do more is certainly a live discussion for NATO, but at the moment this is a matter for the Afghan government,\" Appathurai said. Farming of opium poppies has been almost eradicated in the north and west of the country, Appathurai said. However, he said, in the lawless southern provinces and especially in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand, poppy production was going on largely unchecked. According to the report, U.N. observers have noticed a proliferation of heroin labs in neighboring countries and along trafficking routes. Costa said the labs are dependent on precursor chemicals, like acetic anhydride, that must be smuggled into the region. He called for tighter controls in chemical-producing countries and stronger intelligence-sharing between Afghanistan and its neighbors. \"Drug trafficking is a transnational threat, and therefore national initiatives have their limitations,\" the U.N. drug chief said. Appathurai said the most effective way to curb the drug trade was tackling the insurgency head-on. He also said it was important to provide alternative work for poor Afghan farmers to encourage them to give up opium production. \"You cannot have eradication in isolation. If we don't give them the support to produce alternative crops, then by wiping out their opium fields, you are only creating enemies for the future,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Study finds opium makes up half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product .\nAgency pushes NATO forces to attack skyrocketing problem aggressively .\nDrugs funds insurgency; poppy trade unchecked in Taliban strongholds .\nU.N. drug chief advocates providing income alternative for poppy farmers .","id":"3ad31f0dd26f2dce06da1c10ced8d601bd5594c5"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain -- David Nalbandian battled back to stun world No. 1 Roger Federer with a 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory in the final of the Madrid Masters on Sunday. David Nalbandian celebrates after upsetting Roger Federer in the Madrid Masters final. The Argentine, ranked 25th in the world, repeated his 2005 upset win over the Swiss star in that year's season-ending Masters Cup -- also an indoor event. Defending champion Federer, playing in his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open six weeks ago, made 38 unforced errors. Nalbandian became only the third player -- and the second this year after Novak Djokovic in Montreal in August -- to beat the world's top-three players en route to winning a title. German legend Boris Becker was the first to perform the feat 13 years ago. Nalbandian ousted second-ranked Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and then Serbian Djokovic in Saturday's semis. The 25-year-old, who lost in the Madrid final in 2004, claimed his first triumph on the ATP Tour since May, 2006, on clay in Portugal. He spent a year without a coach, but has revived his career since teaming up with Hernan Gumy. \"I'm extremely contented to beat the world number one,\" Nalbandian said. \"Roger and I have a long history and I think that influenced the match. \"It was an extremely hard first set. But I tightened the teeth and I began to play more strongly. Things came out fine, I played incredible, and that of course that helps.\" Federer added: \"He served well, I was quite surprised with how well he served. \"He came back strong and played well in the end. \"He was a better player all in all. I was struggling after the first set to play aggressively, for some reason. He played tough and didn't miss any more. I couldn't play way I wanted to. It was a pity, he played a great tournament.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"David Nalbandian won Madrid Masters after beating top seed Roger Federer .\nThe Argentine triumphed 1-6 6-3 6-3 against the Swiss defending champion .\nHe became third man to beat world's three top players en route to a title .","id":"a142b867b5b52449a790e8a2942654fd880cd2e4"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Juan Roman Riquelme scored twice as Argentina beat Bolivia 3-0 to notch a third successive victory in the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup on Saturday. Juan Roman Riquelme celebrates after scoring his first goal in Argentina's win against Bolivia. The midfielder followed up his brace of spectacular free-kicks in the opening 2-0 victory against Chile to help put his country five points clear of second-placed Brazil, who play Peru in Lima on Sunday. Riquelme again shrugged off his lack of club action with Villarreal, where he has fallen out with the Spanish side's management, to net twice in the second spell after Sergio Aguero gave the home side a first-half lead. The 19-year-old scored his first goal at international level five minutes before the interval after starting in a three-man attack with Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi. He headed home after Martin Demichelis nodded a cross from Manchester United striker Tevez back across goal. Riquelme added the second 11 minutes after the break with a dipping free-kick which beat Carlos Arias from 25 yards, having been superbly denied by the keeper's one-handed effort shortly beforehand. And he finished off the scoring in the 73rd minute with a cool sidefoot finish after being set up by Messi to cap off a match in which captain Javier Zanetti made a record-breaking 116th appearance for Argentina. Argentina next travel to Colombia on Tuesday, when winless Bolivia have an away clash with Venezuela. In other South American qualifiers, Colombia beat Venezuela 1-0, and Paraguay routed Ecuador 5-1. Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez, a Colombian, quit after his team's loss saying: \"I have taken the irrevocable decision to resign.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Argentina beat Bolivia 3-0 in South American qualifier for 2010 World Cup .\nJuan Roman Riquelme nets twice as Argentina win third successive match .\nEcuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez quits after 5-1 loss against Paraguay .","id":"04b39ee42fdc4284e402fbf7cdc7b825748f38b5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidates on Wednesday criticized President Bush's plan to withdraw roughly 30,000 troops from Iraq by next summer, with Sen. Hillary Clinton labeling it \"too little, too late.\" Sen. Hillary Clinton listens as Gen. David Petraeus testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee. In an open letter to Bush, Clinton said the troop withdrawal \"is simply too little, too late, and unacceptable to this Congress, and to the American people who have made clear their strong desire to bring our troops home, and end this war.\" Bush on Thursday is expected to endorse the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus that the troop levels in Iraq be lowered to 130,000 by July, down from the \"surge\" level of 160,000. \"As commander in chief, you have the authority and ability to greatly accelerate the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq, and to bring so many more troops home so much faster,\" the New York Democrat said. \"I strongly urge you to choose this course of action.\" In an interview Wednesday with CNN, one of Clinton's chief rivals for the 2008 nomination, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, said the president is returning to an earlier, failed policy. \"We now are still in the same position as we essentially were in June 2006,\" he said. \"We are in the same levels of violence; we are at the same levels of dysfunctional when it comes to the government in Iraq, and the American people at some point have a right to ask from their leadership in Washington and from the president: When is enough enough?\" Watch '08 Dems weigh in on war in Iraq \u00bb . Obama presented a new plan for Iraq on Wednesday afternoon in Clinton, Iowa. It calls for an immediate drawdown of combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year, according to excerpts released before his speech. A brigade comprises between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers. Obama recommended a new constitutional convention for Iraq, a new regional diplomatic effort and steps to confront the country's humanitarian crisis. \"Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops,\" Obama said in his speech. Presidential candidate John Edwards, who has been pressing congressional Democrats to take a more confrontational stance against President Bush, called for an immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 troops. In a prepared statement, Edwards, a Democrat from North Carolina, said Obama, Clinton and Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, who recently called for a withdrawal to begin by Christmas, have \"a moral responsibility to use every tool available to them, including a filibuster, to force the president to change course.\" Edwards also called Obama's plan for troop withdrawal a copy of the president's plan . \"Sen. Obama would withdraw only one to two combat brigades a month between now and the end of next year,\" said Edwards, \"which for the next several months could essentially mimic the president's own plans to withdraw 30,000 troops by next summer.\" In a statement, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, said Wednesday that it was useless to debate tactics when \"the underlying policy is a complete failure.\" \"I call on my colleagues to do what needs to be done to end our involvement in this civil war and help restore our national security by clearly and directly declaring that they will not support any Iraq measure without a firm, enforceable deadline tied to funding for the completion of redeployment of troops from Iraq,\" Dodd said. Democrats lack the votes in Congress to force the president to bring the troops home and are seeking a compromise position. Congressional Democratic leaders are meeting with Republican lawmakers, who want a change in war policy but are unwilling to cut funding or set a timeline for withdrawal. Privately, congressional Democrats concede that the next president probably will inherit at least a deployment of 100,000 troops in Iraq. The Democratic presidential candidates, particularly the five in Congress, face pressure from liberal groups such as MoveOn.org demanding that they directly confront the president. Obama said it was unlikely he would vote for any legislation that does not include a definite withdrawal deadline. \"You know, we are going to have to evaluate what's available, but it appears clear to me that the president is not willing to compromise, short of Congress forcing him to accept a shorter timetable, and, absent that, we are essentially engaging in a bunch of symbolic action there,\" Obama told CNN. \"What we need is a clear message from the Congress that it is time for us to change course, and it's time for us to do that,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's John King, Dana Bash, Scott Anderson and Xuan Thai contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: John Edwards calls for immediate withdrawal of 40,000-50,000 troops .\nSen. Hillary Clinton says withdrawal of 30,000 troops by July \"too little, too late\"\nSen. Barack Obama calls for an immediate start to troop withdrawals .","id":"ddafab36467762e9f1856687a7ef0e801243dace"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It is an irony of contemporary art-museum management: Sometimes the museum that creates an exhibition doesn't get to premiere it. In a treatment of a Bridgeman Art Library photo, the High shows visitors Jules Arnout's \"View of the Grand Gallery.\" This is the case this week, as Atlanta's High Museum of Art couples its public opening of a second year of Louvre-fueled shows from Paris, France, with an exhibition about influences on the Impressionists. \"Inspiring Impressionism\" is organized by the Denver Art Museum. It opened Tuesday at the High, to run there through January 2008. With the backing of Northern Trust, the show will then travel to Denver February 23 to May 25, 2008, and then on to the Seattle Art Museum from June 19 to September 21, 2008. Why not start in Denver? That museum this fall is host to pieces seen in the first year of the three-year Louvre Atlanta series of exhibitions. Like priceless dominos falling, these shows roll around the country and the world, globalization dictating galas, super-sensitive custom shipping companies probably among the biggest winners. See a gallery of images from 'Inspiring Impressionism' at the High Museum of Art \u00bb . Another unintended effect may be shadowing of one important outing by another. It should be interesting to learn whether showing \"Inspiring Impressionism\" at the High on the same time frame as the second year of Louvre Atlanta pays off. Do all the boats in Monet's \"Autumn on the Seine, Argenteuil\" float? Smart museum-goers will see it all. \"The Louvre and the Ancient World\" and the companion show \"The Eye of Josephine,\" after all, look at some of the oldest treasures in the Louvre's vast holdings. See a gallery of some of the highlights of the Louvre Atlanta shows \u00bb . The fit is comfortable, in a way, the Impressionist movement of the turn of the last century finding its main proponents in French artists. The emphasis here, however, is on what older works may have moved and motivated such artists as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul C\u00e9zanne. One very distinctive connection from the Louvre Atlanta opener of last year is a section of this new show that looks at the tradition of modern-era artists learning by studying the work of masters at the Louvre, Bartolom\u00e9 Esteban Murillo's \"The Beggar Boy\" of around 1650 being one of the most-copied canvases in Western art's modern history. From the outset, visitors to \"Inspiring Impressionism\" are reminded of the Louvre treasures all around them at the High: The Impressionism show's entry gallery is flanked by a handsome photographic treatment of Louis Jules Arnout's \"View of the Grand Gallery at the Louvre\" from between 1850 and 1870. In that original painting and color lithograph that followed, Arnout captured the bustle of artists working and visitors promenading in the Louvre's chief exhibition space that runs along the Seine in Paris. In fact, even older-era echoes of this same concept are encountered on looking at Louvre Atlanta's \"The Tiber\" marble from the first century A.D., you're reminded that Michelangelo himself was aware of that piece, influenced by it, presumably inspired by it. So a surprise symmetry takes shape at the High this fall, as visitors contemplate dialogues between museums (the Louvre, the High, Denver, Seattle), the viewers of art in Europe and the United States, and the artists themselves in France, in the U.S. and elsewhere. High director Michael Shapiro calls these synchronicities \"visual evidence of connections.\" His colleagues Timothy Standring of Denver and Ann Dumas of London, England, have held up their end of this conversational eyeful with timely contributions, glimpses of Old World craft from Titian and Velasquez to Fragonard and Rubens -- and the \"moderns\" who saw beyond them to a new age of aesthetic debate. Don't miss some of the comments and writings of various artists, used as part of the display of the show at the High. Degas may have said it most honestly: \"No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of refection and the study of the Old Masters.\" Joining Northern trust Corporation in funding the exhibition are the National Endowment for the Humanities, and support is also provided by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Inspiring Impressionism\" looks at Old Masters, other influences on modern art .\nFeatured are works of Monet, Renoir, C\u00e9zanne, Cassatt, Morisot .\n\"Inspiring Impressionism\" runs through January 31, 2008, at the High Museum .\nDenver Art Museum and Seattle Art Museum get the show next .","id":"6c177720c8623edcaefc45111018f98811c29693"} -{"article":"KIEV, Ukraine -- Serbian central defender Nemanja Vidic has convinced Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson that he should play in Tuesday's Champions League clash away to Dynamo Kiev. Vidic clashes with Roma goalkeeper Gianluca Curci during the UEFA Champions League Group F match. The former Spartak Moscow player sat out Saturday's 4-1 victory at Aston Villa after suffering concussion during the Premier League win over Wigan immediately before the international break. However, he has made a good recovery and will now partner Rio Ferdinand in the heart of the United defense. Injury-plagued French striker Louis Saha definitely misses the tie with a long-term knee problem and fellow casualties Gary Neville and Owen Hargreaves also stayed behind. England striker Wayne Rooney, who scored twice against Villa and was also on target in England's Euro 2008 defeat against Russia in Moscow last week, will partner Carlos Tevez in attack. A third successive victory after 1-0 wins against Sporting Lisbon and Roma would virtually guarantee United a place in the knock-out stage. United flew to Kiev a day earlier than normal, taking their own chefs and dieticians with them. \"The travel is always the biggest worry in these situations,\" said Ferguson. \"Ukraine is further away than most other journeys around Europe.\" Senegal defender Pape Diakhate, Guinea forward Ismael Bangoura and Ukraine midfielder Taras Mykhalyk are expected to return for Dynamo, but former Tottenham forward Serhiy Rebrov is an absentee. Dynamo warmed up for Tuesday night with a 1-0 win over strugglers Zakarpattia on Saturday in the Ukrainian Championship. But Kiev are bottom of Group F after losing their first two games -- 2-0 at Roma and 2-1 at home to Sporting. Glasgow Rangers are without Jean-Claude Darcheville and Brahim Hemdani for their formidable home clash against Barcelona on Tuesday. Darcheville is still struggling with a hamstring problem while Hemdani misses the Group E tie in Glasgow with a groin problem that kept him out of the weekend's 3-0 win against Celtic. UEFA Cup favorites Bayern Munich will probably have to do without midfielder Franck Ribery for their group game against Red Star Belgrade on Thursday. The French international hurt his thigh in Saturday's 2-1 win at Bochum that saw Bayern extend their lead at the top of the Bundesliga. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nemanja Vidic plays in Man United's Champions League tie at Dynamo Kiev .\nSerbian defender sat out 4-1 win at Aston Villa with after-effects of concussion .\nUnited started group campaign with wins against Sporting Lisbon and Roma .","id":"5365dfc7c7079ade7d090530f5ce0d8995a8f1cc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some Democrats appear to be wavering on a highly contentious House resolution labeling Turkey's treatment of Armenians in World War I as genocide. A KC-135 tanker lands at Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey in 2003. Turkey, a longtime U.S. ally and NATO partner, was incensed by the resolution calling the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide and threatened to block access to Incirlik Air Base after the resolution passed a House committee vote. The base, in southern Turkey near Syria, is a major resupply center for U.S. operations in Iraq and elsewhere in the Mideast and Asia. The Pentagon is preparing to set up new supply routes for troops in Iraq if Turkey cuts off U.S. access to the strategically important Incirlik, military officials said Tuesday. Ankara acknowledges the killings of Armenians during World War I but vehemently objects to the \"genocide\" label. The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week adopted the nonbinding resolution. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would bring the measure to a vote of the full House sometime next month. But the Bush administration urged Congress to drop the issue, and some leading Democrats urged Pelosi not to bring it to the floor. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer signaled Tuesday that the vote might be put off. \"I said I thought we would bring this up prior to us leaving here,\" said Hoyer of Maryland. \"I have not changed on that, although I would be less than candid to say that there are a number of people who are revisiting their own positions. We will have to determine where everybody is.\" Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced his opposition to the resolution last week. And Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida and John Tanner of Tennessee, both members of the U.S. House delegation to NATO, urged Pelosi to reconsider in a letter released Tuesday. \"More than half of the cargo flown into Iraq and Afghanistan comes through Incirlik Air Base, and this base would be a key component of any plans for redeployment of our troops in the future,\" they wrote. Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pentagon planners are looking at \"a broad range of options\" to keep food, fuel and ammunition flowing to U.S. troops in Iraq if Turkey blocks Incirlik. \"We're confident that we'll find ways to do that,\" Ham told reporters at the Pentagon. \"There's likely to be some increased cost and some other implications for that, and obviously we'd prefer to maintain the access that we have.\" Defense Secretary Robert Gates echoed lawmakers' concerns last week. \"About 70 percent of all air cargo going into Iraq goes through Turkey. ... About a third of the fuel that they consume goes through Turkey or comes from Turkey,\" Gates said. He also said that 95 percent of the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protective vehicles, or MRAPs, being deployed in Iraq are flown through Turkey. The vehicles are built to withstand roadside bombs. See Incirlik's key location \u00bb . The U.S. military issued a \"warning order\" a few days ago to ensure that alternative air crews, planes, fuel and routes are lined up if Turkey stops or restricts U.S. access to Incirlik, a source said. Jordan and Kuwait are among the alternatives the United States is considering. Some fear pursuit of the resolution would also embolden the Turks to attack Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq which could further complicate Iraqi stability, U.S. officials said. Incirlik offers 10,000- and 9,000-foot runways and 57 hardened aircraft shelters, according Globalsecurity.org, a source of background information about military issues. Globalsecurity said Incirlik has become a hub for cargo shipments to Iraq, taking over for Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany because it is closer to Iraq, reducing the strain on troops and aircraft. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Barbara Starr and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Majority Leader says a number of Dems are \"revisiting their own positions\"\nTurkey is upset about World War I \"genocide\" resolution in Congress .\nHouse resolution calls killing of Armenians \"genocide\"\nIncirlik Air Base is key point for U.S. military supply of Iraq mission .","id":"6235695e9e69aa35c488636fc63bae84d1e2ca1f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Milan goalkeeper Dida has been cleared to play in next month's Champions League match at Shakhtar Donetsk after partially winning his appeal to UEFA against a two-match ban. Dida has had one game of his two-match ban suspended for a year following an appeal to UEFA. Brazilian Dida was also fined 60,000 Swiss francs by European football's ruling body following an incident involving a supporter during the Champions clash against Celtic in Scotland on October 3. The 34-year-old Brazilian was initially banned for two games for his theatrics following a Celtic fan's encroachment onto the pitch during the 2-1 defeat at Celtic Park. \"Following Monday's appeals hearing, Dida is suspended for two matches, but one of the matches will now be deferred for a probationary period of one year,\" said a stement on UEFA's Web site. Dida sits out the home tie against Shakhtar on Wednesday after an inquiry based on Article 5, paragraph 1 of the UEFA disciplinary regulations (Principles of conduct), under which \"member associations, clubs, as well as their players, officials and members, shall conduct themselves according to the principles of loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship\". However, Dida will only serve the second match of his ban if he commits a similar offense -- a theatrical over-reaction --during the next 12 months, freeing him for the trip to Ukraine. UEFA said that their Appeals Body \"took note that Dida expressed his sincere regrets as regards his conduct during the match.\" AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani was satisfied with UEFA's decision. \"I believe it is fair -- I was against the two-game suspension but one seems OK. \"Dida has made a mistake but his error did not hinder anyone, not Celtic, nor any player,\" said Galliani. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Milan goalkeeper Dida is partially successful against two-match UEFA ban .\nDida misses Wednesday's home Champions League tie against Shakhtar .\nSecond game of ban suspended for one year freeing him for return in Ukraine .","id":"d954f33da49f4c839a6f4dadc446a4c30328c572"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Reggae legend Lucky Dube, one of South Africa's most famous musicians, was killed in an attempted car-jacking as he dropped his children off at a relative's house, his record label said Friday. Reggae star Lucky Dube was much loved by his fellow South Africans. Dube, 43, was killed in Johannesburg around 8 p.m. local time Thursday after someone tried to steal his car, Gallo Record Company said in a statement. Police said he was shot. The statement said Dube attempted to escape but died almost instantly from his wounds. Dube was much loved by his fellow South Africans, and his death cast a shadow over festivities ahead of South Africa's highly-anticipated appearance in the rugby World Cup final with England this weekend. News of his death was the headline in many Friday newspapers, knocking the World Cup off the front pages for the first time in days. Callers to talk radio stations suggested the Springboks wear black armbands in remembrance of Dube when they take to the field Saturday in Paris. Gallo Records called the death \"senseless and random,\" and it was not clear whether Dube's attackers knew who he was. South Africa is one of the most dangerous societies in the world. Figures from the South African Police Service show that from April 2006 to March 2007, more than 19,000 South Africans were murdered, more than 52,600 people were raped, and nearly 13,600 people were carjacked. \"It's very sad,\" said Mark Sutherland, London bureau chief for Billboard Magazine. \"He's a big loss to the South African music business. (He was) one of their most successful artists and certainly one of their leading reggae artists.\" Sutherland said Dube was an extremely respected musician who toured extensively around the world. Dube had just returned from a tour of the United States that stretched from California to New York. His record company said Dube leaves \"a great void\" in the music industry after a 25-year career. Dube recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans. Born outside Johannesburg in 1964, Dube was named \"Lucky\" by his mother because he was the first child to be born after several failed pregnancies. Dube started singing in 1982, joining a band playing Mbaqanga, or traditional Zulu music. It was only later that he began recording reggae tracks as a solo singer, but the genre was to dominate and define the remainder of his career. Ivor Haarburger, the chief exectutive of Gallo Music Group, said he was deeply saddened by the loss. \"Lucky was not just an extraordinary artist, he was a personal friend,\" Haarburger said. \"It's so sad to lose such a great friend and so tragically.\" Dube is survived by his wife, Zanele, and his seven children: Bongi, Nonkululeko, Thokozani, Laura, Siyanda, Philani and three-month old Melokuhle. E-mail to a friend . CNN correspondent Robin Curnow contributed to this report.","highlights":"South African reggae legend Lucky Dube killed in attempted hijacking .\nDube, 43, killed Thursday in Johannesburg after hijacker tried to steal his car .\nDeath casts shadow over South Africa's preparations for rugby World Cup final .","id":"5bdab1456ce6156a7378edaa4fa92a718cbf2568"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brendon Pelser said he saw pure terror in the faces of his fellow passengers after an engine fell from a wing as it took off from Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday. Men were sweating profusely, women were crying. \"There was fear on their faces,\" Pelser said. \"Everyone started panicking.\" But the pilot of Nationwide Airlines' Boeing 737 Flight CE723 was able to fly long enough to dump fuel and make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport. Including crew, 100 hundred people were on the plane that departed at 3:50 p.m. on an hourlong flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. No one was injured. The jet had only been in the air about 10 minutes before the engine fell. \"We heard something crash and bang, the plane veering left and right. A person on the right side said the engine was missing -- had broken clean off,\" said Pelser. Watch Pelser describe how the flight crew told passengers to \"prepare for the worst\" \u00bb . \"They flew us in very slowly. We were all prepared for the worst. We went into the fetal position, head between the legs,\" he said. \"Then we hit the runway.\" \"I did kind of pray. I didn't want to die. I'm not really ready to die,\" the 33-year-old said. An object had been sucked into the engine as the nose wheel lifted from the ground and officials are trying to identify it. The engine-to-wing supporting structure is designed to release an engine \"when extreme forces are applied,\" to prevent structural damage to the wing, Nationwide said on its Web site. The airline described the incident as a \"catastrophic engine failure.\" As the nose wheel lifted from the ground, \"the captain heard a loud noise immediately followed by a yaw of the aircraft (sideways slippage) to the right,\" the airline said in a news release. The flight instruments showed the No. 2 engine on the right side had failed, it said. Pelser said he spent the night in Cape Town, then flew back to Johannesburg where he lives, on the same airline. Nationwide said the engine had undergone a major overhaul in March 2005 at \"an approved Federal Aviation Authority facility in the U.S.A.\" and had flown only 3,806 hours since then. \"These engines typically achieve 10,000 hours between major overhauls,\" Nationwide Airlines' press release stated. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nationwide Airlines pilot dumped fuel until he landed plane Wednesday .\nAn object was sucked into the engine as the nose wheel lifted from the ground .\n100, including crew, were on the plane; no one was injured .\nPlane passenger: \"Everyone started panicking\"","id":"c03cd67baa8d84240b962876a5aaa2036d4f5275"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal Emergency Management Agency officials know the agency's performance in the California wildfires will be watched closely for comparisons to its failures in Hurricane Katrina. A volunteer distributes donated food and supplies to evacueesTuesday at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. FEMA Director David Paulison promised on Tuesday \"a different type of response than the federal government put together for Katrina.\" Paulison said Katrina \"was a wake-up call\" and that \"this is a new FEMA.\" President Bush signed a federal disaster declaration Wednesday, freeing up federal funds for families affected by the wildfires in seven counties in Southern California. \"I will continue to make sure that our efforts are coordinated, that we are responding to the needs of people, but most importantly I want the people in Southern California to know that Americans all across this land care deeply about them,\" he said. The action follows an emergency declaration by Bush on Tuesday morning for the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. He said he's \"looking forward\" to his visit to the region on Thursday. According to a statement from the White House, the federal disaster declaration will allow for federal aid that \"can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.\" FEMA and other relief and rescue services face significantly different challenges in the fire zone than they did on the Gulf Coast in 2005. For example, the fires aren't covering every square foot of the region, as Katrina did. The devastation in California is intense but not universal. During and immediately after Katrina, the destruction was so complete that relief personnel and supplies -- even the U.S. Army -- could not get within miles of the disaster's epicenter, New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, for several days. By contrast, roads in Southern California have remained open for residents to get out and help to get in without delay. Residents there are generally more affluent and are able to use their own vehicles to escape, whereas many of Katrina's victims were poor and had no means of transportation. Victims in California are not stranded on rooftops without food or drinkable water, but are able travel the relatively short distances to safe places. One of those safe places is San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, which is not endangered by the fires. FEMA and other relief agencies are able to stage supplies and meet victims' needs in an organized way. New Orleans' Superdome, on the other hand, sitting in the center of the disaster zone, was severely damaged by hurricane winds and threatened by rising water. What had been a shelter devolved into a trap. Katrina also wiped out the Gulf Coast's communications infrastructure, crippling the coordination of relief efforts -- even for the military. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged Tuesday that the government's response machinery had benefited from the Katrina experience. \"I think there's no question that [there were] a couple of the lessons from Katrina which we have put into effect here,\" Chertoff said. \"First of all, planning and preparation in advance for these kinds of challenges, so that we have worked together and planned together with the Defense Department and with state authorities well in advance of the crisis. That's been a big help here,\" Chertoff said . \"Second, we have really flooded the zone as quickly as possible by staging assets to deal both with the firefighting issue and with the response issue,\" Chertoff said. Chertoff said federal officials began discussing over the weekend the need to have FEMA ready, \"and as we saw the evacuation issue becoming more prominent, and the number of people seeking shelter becoming more prominent, we sprang into action yesterday. \"So we've been monitoring the situation continuously. The president's been on top of it. We've been on top of it. And we're going to continue to stay ahead of this as far as we can.\" Chertoff said Tuesday that he hadn't waited for the paperwork to be signed before staging assistance. \"We have been moving cots, blankets, other supplies into the area of San Diego so that we can handle any necessity for additional sheltering capacity,\" he said. \"We've also moved air assets to be poised to take flight when we do have the opportunity to deal with the fire, once the winds begin to die down.\" People left homeless by the fires can already go online to apply for federal help at www.fema.gov, Paulison said. Watch Paulison discuss the \"new FEMA\" \u00bb . He denied suggestions similar to those made in the aftermath of Katrina that the federal response was hampered because National Guard equipment was in short supply because of the Iraq War. \"I just haven't seen that,\" he said. The U.S. military has sent aircraft to help fight the fires, including 11 Defense Department helicopters equipped with water buckets and six C-130 aircraft able to drop water and flame retardant. More than 17,000 National Guardsmen have been made available; 550 Marines were ready for deployment from Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego; and 12 Defense Department firefighting teams, were engaged. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"FEMA doesn't face utter devastation as in Gulf Coast in 2005 .\nVictims can escape in own vehicles on open roads .\nCommunications infrastructure remains intact .\nAgencies learn from Hurricane Katrina mistakes .","id":"e2847808e1990f51cd54eccd660640c44638f088"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The late Chris Benoit idolized the Dynamite Kid, who was half of a professional wrestling team famous in the 1980s for spectacular high-flying, acrobatic moves. Chris Benoit strangled his wife and suffocated his son before hanging himself in June. The Dynamite Kid and his partner, Davey Boy Smith, were known as the British Bulldogs. They were quick, agile and muscular, and in 1986 they won the World Wrestling Federation tag team championship. Young Benoit dreamed of wrestling like the Dynamite Kid, whose real name is Tom Billington. At the beginning of his career, Benoit adopted the Dynamite nickname and copied his idol's signature moves. In June, Benoit murdered his wife and young son before hanging himself. Investigators found testosterone, painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs in Chris Benoit's body, Georgia's chief medical examiner said a month later. When asked about Benoit's double murder-suicide, Billington told CNN, \"It can make you aggressive, the steroids. But personally I wouldn't, you know, kill no bleeding kid, or wife either.\" Billington now lives in a public housing apartment outside Manchester, England. He has lost the use of his legs. A pin sticks out from one of his toes. Billington blames his wrestling life for doing this to him -- wrestling and the fact that he ignored doctors who told him to stop the punishment to his body. And from the steroids, he said. Billington told CNN that the steroids came from doctors, from friends, even from steroids meant for horses. He took them all, took a terrible pounding in the ring, and like his partner (who died at age 39 in 2002), began taking extensive amounts of painkillers. Benoit's death has refocused a media spotlight on the organization for which he wrestled, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, and the man who has ruled wrestling for years, Chairman of the Board Vince McMahon. McMahon, appearing with Linda McMahon, his wife and WWE CEO, told CNN: \"Nothing from the WWE, under any set of circumstances had anything to do with Chris Benoit murdering his family. How did we know Chris Benoit would turn into a monster.\" Read a full transcript of the McMahons interview . Vince McMahon defended the organization, saying its drug-testing policy was not just for show. \"Our policy stacks up just as well as anyone else's in sport, although again emphasizing we are entertainment, and no one in entertainment, no one has this kind of wellness policy,\" McMahon said. Critics say McMahon pushes his stars and non-stars, works them too many nights per year and has encouraged the large physiques prevalent in modern wrestling. They say McMahon only looks at his employees as commodities, pawns in a huge business. His businesses are quite successful. About 16 million people a week tune into WWE TV shows. Two of their cable programs -- \"Raw\" and \"Friday Night Smackdown\" -- are weekly ratings giants. Pay-per-view specials generate an average of $100 million per year. When asked about the high number of former wrestlers who had died before they turned 50 years old, Vince McMahon said each person in the WWE bore responsibility for their own lives -- especially outside the arena. \"If someone passes through our organization, it is not our responsibility for someone's personal activities,\" he said. He also said there isn't \"any organization in the world, be it entertainment or be it sport, that can tell you that they are totally drug-free.\" Watch as a WWE wrestler says the perception of steroid use is wrong \u00bb . The McMahons said the WWE is taking steps toward improving its oversight of its athletes. Since the newest WWE drug screening program began in February 2006, more than 30 of the organization's wrestlers have been suspended, including two since CNN's interview with the McMahons. David Black -- who helped the NFL develop its drug program and now runs tests for the WWE -- says twice that number have tested positive and been given a warning. But Dr. Gary Wadler, a world-renowned expert in the study of drugs and athletes, says the WWE is not doing enough. \"It certainly falls far, far short of where it needs to be,\" he said. \"And there is a gold standard, and I measure all these sporting and entertainment activities against this gold standard. And [the WWE is] miles apart.\" Wadler, a longtime critic of McMahon, was referring to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in Colorado Springs, Colorado. U.S. athletes training for the Olympics are randomly tested and, if caught just once, face a two-year suspension from competition. If caught a second time, they can be banned for life. Black's programs test wrestlers four times a year. The first is a \"baseline\" test, according to the WWE. Black then tests for \"nonmedical\" uses, meaning that if an athlete has a prescription, he is cleared. \"It's just a loophole that in my mind guts the entire program,\" said Travis Tygart, who heads the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. McMahon denies that his wrestlers are pushed to use steroids. He says the average wrestler is lighter than in recent years. Watch one of the new WWE stars talk about being \"straight edge\" \u00bb . \"There's an expression in our business, that here is where you make your money. It's your face, it's what you do with it,\" he said. \"It's your personality, it's what you do with it. It's your delivery, your elocution. It's storyline, it's things, all those things that are theatrical as well as athletic in the ring.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Drew Griffin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Vince McMahon: WWE has one of best drug-testing programs .\nWrestling boss tells CNN that individuals bear responsibility for actions .\nCritics say WWE penalties for drug use are not harsh enough .\nWrestlers still can get drugs if they have prescriptions from doctors .","id":"fbc2d5f3f088eda2b8128ebb12a042850f6e4f3d"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Everyone goes through a rebellious phase. And, if you're lucky, you'll be able to look back on those years and laugh. If you're less lucky, you spent those years on a reality show, so for the rest of time, millions of strangers can look back on them and laugh instead. In modern times, cats frolic among the ruins of ancient Rome. But, hey, it could be worse. You could be responsible for the fall of Western Civilization, just like Justa Grata Honoria, the Roman princess whose wild ways and (literally) naked ambition set off a chain reaction that culminated in the destruction of the Roman Empire. Barely regal . Smart, conniving, and ruthless, Honoria possessed all the attributes befitting a Roman emperor, except for that pesky Y chromosome. As a young girl, she watched as her dimwitted six-year-old brother, Valentinian III, was crowned emperor of the Western Roman Empire, while she was set aside to await a suitable marriage. Hardly content to lead a quiet and chaste life, Honoria rebelled with aplomb, sleeping her way through the royal court while still in her teens. Although her after-hours habits caused quite the scandal, they failed to satiate her need for attention and power, so Honoria set her eyes on the throne. Employing her ample charms, she seduced her brother's royal chamberlain, Eugenius, and together, they plotted to murder Valentinian and seize power. But, alas, their scheme was soon exposed. Eugenius was executed, and Honoria was sent to a convent in Constantinople. Life as a nun was a fate worse than death for Honoria, but even that couldn't quell her ambition. She spent her years at the nunnery plotting one escape attempt after another. Finally, out of sheer desperation, she turned to sources outside the empire. Her savior would have to be powerful enough to defy Valentinian and risk open war with Rome. Only one man fit that description: Attila, king of the Huns. Attila the hubby . Honoria got the barbarian's attention with a mutually beneficial proposal: If Attila would rescue her, she would marry him, and he would get half of the Western Empire as her dowry. Of course, Honoria was in no position to rightfully offer any portion of the Roman Empire. But she was betting that after marrying her, Attila would conquer the whole Empire, and she'd become queen to boot. Attila had secretly been planning a move against Rome for years, and Honoria's letter gave him the perfect opportunity to strike. Wasting no time, he told Valentinian that he planned to marry Honoria, and demanded the dowry he'd been promised. Naturally, Valentinian refused, and Attila used his status as a \"wronged husband\" to invade Roman territory in 451 C.E. The Hun armies quickly swept through the Empire, destroying everything in their path, and eventually they arrived in Rome. Like all the other cities before it, Rome would also have been annihilated were it not for the famine and disease that devastated the Huns during the invasion. Rome survived Attila's assault with the unlikely help of another nomadic enemy tribe, the Visigoths, but the Western Empire never recovered. Within a generation, the armies of the Goths, Franks, and Huns had overrun the area. The Princess bride . Ultimately, Honoria became neither Roman empress nor a Hun queen. Attila never rescued her, and she was eventually sent back to Rome and left to her brother's justice. Not wanting to cause a scandal by having her executed, and unwilling to send her back into exile where she could scheme again, Valentinian settled on a suitable third option. After years of struggle, Honoria finally suffered the fate she had been dreading all along: She was married off to an elderly Roman senator, and the rest of her life went unrecorded by history. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Justa Grata Honoria plotted to kill her emperor of Roman Empire .\nWhen first plot failed, she offered to marry Attila the Hun .\nHe failed to annihilate Rome, or marry her .\nShe then suffered the fate she dreaded .","id":"6f0d219aba6227e0a69e71e7fca4b85ae761101d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Football dignitaries gathered in Sheffield, northern England, on Wednesday to kick off the 150th birthday celebrations of Sheffield FC -- the sport's oldest club. FIFA chief Blatter was among those in Sheffield to kick off the 150th birthday celebrations of football's oldest club. Guests of honor at a service at Sheffield Cathedral included Sepp Blatter, president of football world governing body FIFA, and Massimo Moratti, president of Italian giants Inter Milan who are scheduled to play a friendly against Sheffield FC next month. Other guests attending a dinner in the club's honor included Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon and England and Manchester United legend Bobby Charlton. Pele -- widely recognized as the greatest footballer ever to play the game -- is also due in town next month to attend Sheffield FC's clash with Inter. Blatter was unveiling a bust of the club's co-founder William Prest -- one of two cricket fans who founded Sheffield FC, then known simply as Sheffield Club, on October 24, 1857 after deciding they needed a new sport to keep them active during the winter. Many more football clubs soon sprung up and by 1862 there were said to be 15 in and around the Sheffield area. The Football Association -- which codified the basic rules of the modern game -- was established in London the following year. Sheffield FC was instrumental in developing set rules for the game. The club studied existing rules and laid down a code of laws, which formed the foundation of the first commonly-accepted set of rules for the sport, according to the Sheffield FC Web site. The team was also responsible for several innovations in the game -- including heading, which was unheard of until 1875, when Sheffield traveled to London for a game. According to the team's Web site, the sight of the Sheffield players using their foreheads in addition to their feet reduced the London crowd to hysterics. Other innovations attributed to the team include the solid crossbar on the goal, corner kicks, free kicks for fouls, and playing a match under floodlights. Despite its celebrated place in the history of the world's most popular sport, Sheffield FC has never played at a professional level. The club currently competes in the Unibond League's First Division South, seven divisions beneath the English Premier League. The city of Sheffield has two professional clubs -- United and Wednesday -- who both currently play in English football's second tier, the Coca-Cola Championship. Sheffield FC's proudest achievement on the pitch came in 1904 when the team beat Ealing 3-1 to win the FA Amateur Cup in front of 6,000 people. But 100 years later in 2004, Blatter presented Sheffield FC with FIFA's \"Order of Merit\" -- an honor previously awarded only to the nine-time European champions Real Madrid. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"FIFA President Sepp Blatter among guests marking Sheffield FC's 150 years .\nEnglish side Sheffield FC recognized as the oldest football club in the world .\nClub is one of two to win FIFA's Order of Merit -- the other is Real Madrid .","id":"8c71492f2a3fbe7eb9c8205d65054ab14c1dbdb6"} -{"article":"(RealSimple.com) -- Why shoes are called \"pumps\" and other strange-but-true stories behind the clothes and accessories you know and love. So, how did the trend for pointed-toe shoes start? Manolo who? Long before they ever made an appearance on the TV show \"Sex and the City,\" pointed shoes were favored by Polish nobles, who introduced the fashion to England on a diplomatic visit in the 1300s. The shoes, dubbed \"crackowes\" or \"poulaines\" -- after Krak\u00f3w, Poland -- were so long that a chain running from the toe to the knee was often required to keep them from dragging. In 1363 the English attempted to rein in the look by law, assigning shoe spans to social classes. Commoners could sport footwear with toes of up to six inches, while those in the royal ranks were allowed a full two feet in length. Who invented the sports bra? In 1977 University of Vermont student Lisa Lindahl was running 30 miles a week -- and her bra wasn't holding up. With the help of two classmates, Lindahl sewed together two jock straps and -- presto! -- the sports bra was born. The coeds founded the company Jogbra a year later, garnering eternal gratitude from exercise-loving women everywhere. Almost 40,000 sports bras are now sold annually. Real Simple: Best bras for every figure . Is there a real Mary Jane behind Mary Jane shoes? Not quite: The most widely held theory is that the single-strapped footwear was named for a character in \"Buster Brown,\" a children's comic strip that was popular in the early 1900s. Mary Jane was either Buster Brown's sweetheart or sister, depending on which source you consult. What's the connection between Shakespeare and raincoats? Gabardine, a water-repellent fabric invented by Burberry, got its first mention from Shakespeare. The Bard used the word in The Merchant of Venice to refer to a coarse cloak worn as protection from storms. During World War I, British officers on the front lines kept warm and dry in a uniform coat made of the material -- the original Burberry trench. Who was the first person known to have pierced ears? No one knows who originated the style, but there's evidence that as early as 2500 B.C. Sumerian women wore pierced earrings -- gold half-moon hoops. And guys tired of defending their diamond studs can rest easy: Men have been wearing earrings since ancient Egypt, where the jewelry was introduced in 1500 B.C. Real Simple: Best way to clean jewelry . What was the inspiration for Lilly Pulitzer's colorful printed dresses? Bored Palm Beach socialite Lilly Pulitzer opened a juice stand in 1959 to pass the time, but she found one drawback: The citrus concoctions discolored her clothes. She instructed her dressmaker to create a uniform that would camouflage the bright stains, and the \"Lilly\" design -- sleeveless cotton shifts in vibrant prints -- was born. The style was an instant hit with customers, who soon began placing more orders for dresses than juice. How did pumps, stilettos, and sneakers get their names? The term pump first popped up in 1550 in England, where male servants sported the style. It is said that the noise they made while wearing the loose-fitting shoes resembled the sound of a water pump. The word sneaker entered the language in the 1870s; the rubber soles made the shoes quiet and therefore \"sneaky.\" The modern usage of stiletto, a Renaissance-era Italian word for an assassin's narrow-bladed knife, made its debut in 1953. The word turned out to be especially appropriate, because the shoes' pointy heels were murder on wooden floors. When did folks start toting around umbrellas? For thousands of years, in such places as Egypt, China, Japan, Mesopotamia, and India, umbrellas were used exclusively to shade the heads of dignitaries from the broiling sun. (When it rained, the well-to-do stayed dry in covered carriages and sedan chairs.) Umbrellas weren't employed in inclement weather until the late 17th and early 18th centuries. And another hundred years passed before advances in manufacturing made them lightweight, portable, and available to average Joes. Have bikinis always been so popular? Hardly! Named for the nuclear-testing site Bikini Atoll, the suits first appeared in 1946, but American women thought them immodest. Not until the 1960s were they accepted, possibly helped by the hit song \"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.\" Were French cuffs really created for the battlefield? It is said that the cuffs were designed to be used as handkerchiefs in combat. But, in fact, French royalty invented the style in the 1500s, when flowing sleeves were the rage; nobles would tie their sleeves back with fasteners. Amusingly, the competitive English tried to take credit for the fashion, which to this day they refer to only as \"double cuffs.\" Have women always carried purses? Once upon a time, ladies stored their essentials in a little waist sack tied under their clothing (sort of an early ancestor of the fanny pack) and accessible through slits in their skirts. Around 1800, thinner, silkier fabrics and slimmer cuts came into vogue, and women could no longer hide the bulging sacks around their midsections. The solution? They began carrying their belongings in small pocketbooks instead. Why is underwear nicknamed \"drawers\"? In the 16th century, drawers became a common term for both men's and women's underpants. Made of linen, the items were no-frills and looked more or less interchangeable (this being well before Victoria ever had a secret; decorative lace trim started appearing on the garments only in the middle of the 19th century). Most likely, underwear earned this distinctly unsexy epithet because it describes the way that people put on their unmentionables -- drawing them up and over the lower part of the body. Real Simple: Get your lingerie in order E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE ! Copyright 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Polish diplomats brought pointed shoes to Britain in 1300s .\nA female runner sewed two jock straps together for first sports bra .\nMen wore earrings in Egypt in 1500s .","id":"860cea3a6afb8527d26e9234ccba560a39eff2a7"} -{"article":"BARCELONA, England -- Ronaldinho has been recalled to the Barcelona squad for Tuesday's Champions League match against Rangers in Glasgow. Ronaldinho was dropped from the Barcelona squad on Saturday for returning late from international duty. The Brazilian was omitted from the squad that lost 3-1 to Villarreal on Saturday after returning late from international duty, but he has been named in an 18-man party for the trip to Scotland. Barca will be without Deco for that match though, after the Portuguese suffered a thigh injury against Villarreal that will keep him sidelined for around five weeks. Also missing are Samuel Eto'o, Yaya Toure, Gianluca Zambrotta, Edmilson and Rafael Marquez as the Catalans travel to Scotland in a battle between the two sides with 100 per cent records in Group E. Barcelona squad: Valdes, Jorquera; Puyol, Thuram, Sylvinho, Oleguer, Abidal, Milito; Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Messi, Xavi, Giovani, Crosas; Henry, Ezquerro, Gudjohnsen, Bojan. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ronaldinho is recalled to Barca squad to face Rangers in Champions League .\nThe Brazilian was dropped from the squad that lost to Villarreal on Saturday .\nMidfielder Deco will be out of action for five weeks after suffering a thigh injury .","id":"0914e3c80a676e14e225504cb759103503f3f1e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At one point in Jared Hutchins' young life, the Beatles were a big problem. The rallies, which draw mostly teens, are one part concert, one part Christian revival. \"I had to stop listening to them for a while,\" said Hutchins, who lives in Cumming, Georgia, and plays the piano, guitar and harmonica. He said the group's world view \"had a negative effect on me,\" and made him irritable and angry. \"God owns my life, not the Beatles,\" he said simply. Although Hutchins said he enjoys a wide range of music -- from Pink Floyd and Arcade Fire to Christian bands such as Hillsong United -- he said he has to be careful of what music he listens to, for the same reason he temporarily turned off the Beatles. Hutchins, a 16-year-old graced with poise and thoughtfulness, is one of many teenagers who say that some part of popular culture, with its ubiquitous references to sex, drugs and violence, has harmed him. Last year, Hutchins and his Christian youth group attended an Acquire the Fire rally in Atlanta, Georgia, he said. Acquire the Fire -- regional rallies held across the country -- and BattleCry -- the larger rallies held this year in only three cities -- are the products of the evangelical Christian organization Teen Mania. Go behind-the-scenes with CNN's Christiane Amanpour at a BattleCry event \u00bb . One part concert, one part Christian revival, the rallies seek to \"stage a reverse revolution\" against secular popular culture. They have the pull of headlining rock concerts, drawing thousands of people regardless of the region of the country, the month of year or the day of the week. The audiences are nearly always predominantly teenagers and young adults. From 2006 to 2007, a total of 127,830 people attended the 34 Acquire the Fire rallies, and 71,414 people attended the three BattleCry events held in San Francisco, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Bristow, Virginia, according to Teen Mania. Watch flags, fireworks and teens at rally . For Hutchins, who said he struggled in his early adolescence to fit in and be cool before having a personal experience with God about four years ago, the organization's message is exactly right. \"We don't have to be branded by the culture, we are branded by God,\" he said. \"Be who God created you to be.\" But the glossy, glamorous appeal of popular culture too often obscures that path to God, Teen Mania followers say. And so, Ron Luce, the 46-year-old founder of the organization, has waged a modern-day crusade against \"purveyors of popular culture,\" whom he has condemned as \"the enemy.\" More than two decades old, Teen Mania estimates it has reached more than 2 million teens with its message \"of living completely for Christ.\" The organization is sprawling. In addition to its live stadium rallies, there are BattleCry shirts and hats, mobile screen savers, books and a television program. There are international mission trips -- Hutchins attended one in Tijuana, Mexico, this summer. There is even a Teen Mania internship, a one-year program called the Honor Academy, based in Lindale, Texas. In the live events, Luce couples the earnest appeal of a young father with a preacher's ability to mobilize a crowd. He weaves disturbing statistics about teenagers amid his gospel. Today's teenagers are in crisis, he says. \"We're fighting for those who don't know they have a voice, that are being manipulated by our pop culture indulging in things that, really, they're not mature enough to be thinking about yet,\" Luce told CNN. \"Kids are hurting,\" he said. And of those who he feels inflict these moral wounds, Luce said, \"We call them terrorists, virtue terrorists, that are destroying our kids.\" \"They're raping virgin teenage America on the sidewalk, and everybody's walking by and acting like everything's OK. And it's just not OK.\" To some, Luce's rhetoric is off-putting, hateful and divisive. Opponents point to his views on homosexuality -- not \"in God's plan\" -- and abortion -- the \"ending of a precious life\" -- and say Luce is imposing conservative values on vulnerable teenagers. Explore Americans' views on religion . It is this criticism that Luce and his followers confronted head-on in March at BattleCry San Francisco. There, in arguably the most liberal city in the United States, protesters, armed with megaphones and poster board signs, rallied against BattleCry on the steps of City Hall as the Christian teenagers circled and prayed in a demonstration of their own. \"Ron Luce is a liar!\" one protester shouted. \"Let me hear you say Christian fascist,\" another yelled. Luce and the youths, some as young as 11, also raised their voices. \"God, I ask that as we do this BattleCry, Lord, that you would reveal yourself to the teenagers, God, here, God,\" Mindy Peterson, shouted. Peterson is a member of Teen Mania's Honor Academy. Afterward, Peterson railed against what she said was the protesters' mischaracterization of BattleCry. \"These people think that our war is against other people. They think that our war is against man. And our war isn't. Our war's against ... the pain in teenagers' hearts, like depression, alcoholism. Those things that -- that are, like, tearing our teenagers apart,\" she said. While much milder in his terms, Hutchins agrees. \"We're a generation that is kind of troubled,\" he said. Luce wants to \"rescue the hearts of our generation,\" he added. And of the critics' contention that the rallies, the organization, the message is neo-conservatism wrapped in Biblical verse? Hutchins smiles, nods patiently. \"I don't go because I have a political agenda,\" he said, adding that his friends don't, either. \"Mostly, what we're concerned with is Jesus.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Julie O'Neill and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands of teens attend Christian rallies each year .\nMany of the rallies attempt to offer an alternative to secular popular culture .\nOpponents say these impose conservative values on vulnerable teenagers .","id":"82a0e1f034174079179821b052f33df76c781b47"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I was 14 at the time. Lebanon's civil war was in full flood. One afternoon the shells began raining down on our neighborhood in Beirut. A Lebanese woman and her son run through west Beirut in 1989 during fighting between rival forces. We ran from school screaming. Forget the book bags, classmates, homework. Just run. Out of breath, my knees giving way, it seemed to take forever to reach our local shelter -- a dark humid room at the back of our apartment block. The memory of that terrifying afternoon receded -- until recently. After more than a decade of relative peace and reconstruction, the bombings and assassinations have returned to Beirut. Every time I hear of a new explosion, I think of a frightened child sitting in darkness. In 1988, I watched the last throes of Lebanon's civil war firsthand -- and like millions of Lebanese, sad, frustrated and often fearful. See a timeline of Lebanon's recent history \u00bb . Now I watch from another continent, but I find those same emotions resurfacing. The conspiracies, the car bombs, the threatening rhetoric and political deadlock are eerily familiar. The actors are like shadows from a long gone past. They are grayer perhaps -- those who have avoided assassination. But the cast in Lebanon's tragedy has changed little in two decades. Then, as now, a presidential election is the setting, and the struggle where religion and clan play the main roles threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years. See bios of Lebanon's major players \u00bb . In 1988, the president's term was coming to an end and the warring factions were unable to agree on a new candidate. Militias prevented parliament members from reaching the assembly building. Compromise was nowhere in sight. The West had abandoned Lebanon to the manipulation of its neighbors. Syria had its choice for president; Israel had its own allies -- a foil for growing Muslim radicalism. The country was awash with weapons. In his last act as president, Amin Gemayel named fellow Christian and Army Chief Michel Aoun as prime minister. At a stroke, he shattered the convention that a Muslim hold that position. Muslims refused to serve in the Cabinet and the country ended up with two governments. Aoun famously declared: \"I am prime minister and six ministers in one.\" Aoun's \"War of Liberation\" against Syria turned into defeat. Then, he turned on fellow Christians of the Lebanese Forces in the \"War of Elimination.\" When that failed, the Syrians drove Aoun to take refuge at the French Embassy. In August 1990, I came to CNN as a World Report panelist. I tried to explain Lebanon's chaos, the bewildering array of factions and the horrors of civil war for ordinary civilians. I had seen people killed in front of me; children orphaned in seconds, parents burying their infants in oversize white coffins. So when I was offered the opportunity to stay at CNN, I gratefully accepted the chance to escape the anarchy. But almost as I left, the civil war was being laid to rest. The various factions had fought each other to a standstill; Arab governments, supported by the West, helped negotiate a new constitutional framework overseen by Syrian influence. Peace came to Lebanon, but it would be five years before I returned. In 1995, I went back and was stunned. I kept looking around for checkpoints manned by militants. I couldn't believe that I could go anywhere without being harassed or kidnapped by one faction or another. No longer did identity -- Christian, Muslim or Druze -- define where Lebanese could go. People mixed freely in chic coffee shops and smoked the hubble-bubble, laughing at the same jokes. It was as if Lebanon's divisions had been wiped away by some magic eraser. Downtown Beirut, once rocked by explosions and pitted with bullet holes, was rocking to Lebanese pop music. The dusty sandbags had given way to boutiques carrying the latest European fashions and deluxe hotels. Lovers had returned to Beirut's Corniche, overlooking the Mediterranean, for romantic strolls at sunset. But the agreement that ended the civil war was more a truce than a real settlement -- and was overseen by a \"pax Syriana.\" As anti-Syrian sentiment grew, so did political tensions. On Valentine's Day 2005, the Corniche was once again rocked by an explosion. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed. The symbolism left me speechless. On the day of love, Lebanon was thrown back into its most hateful history. It had been widely expected that Hariri would run for office again and demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Suspicion fell on Damascus, which vehemently denied involvement. On March 14, Martyrs' Square became a human sea of demonstrators: Muslims, Druze and Christians alike, demanding the \"truth.\" But Hariri's death also exposed the fault lines that had broken Lebanon a generation previously. Even after it withdrew its troops, Syria still had allies in Lebanon. One was Hezbollah, accused of the suicide attacks that had killed scores of U.S. Marines in Beirut more than 20 years previously. Another was Gen. Michel Aoun; now back from exile, the same Michel Aoun who had defied Syria in 1989, but who now made common cause with Hezbollah against his fellow Christians. Earlier this year I visited Martyrs' Square. The spirit of the Cedar Revolution had evaporated. The place looked like a morgue. Anti-government Hezbollah squatters had brought life there to a standstill. As I passed through, business owners stood silent in the sun and shook their heads at me in despair. I wondered if they sensed my disappointment, my pain at watching Beirut bleed again. Lebanon's political actors now find themselves re-enacting scenes from the final act of the civil war 19 years ago. Once again, the term of the president is approaching its end; there is no agreement on his successor. Suspicion and fear are the political currency of the day. And the questions haunts me: Will the country's brief renaissance that so amazed me in 1995 be snuffed out by the old curse of sectarian rivalries? E-mail to a friend . CNN's Joe Sterling, David Ariosto, Saad Abedine and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN's Octavia Nasr: Will Lebanon's brief renaissance be snuffed out?\nNasr says Lebanon's key power players haven't changed since 1980s .\nNasr: Current struggle threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years .","id":"449c536051eba7070b18a7b33ebcf024891cb913"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Firefighters in Southern California are facing wind-whipped walls of flame from 15 wildfires that have scorched more than 400,000 acres and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Firefighters battle the Witch fire Tuesday in the Del Dios area of Escondido, California. The blazes have killed one person and injured at least 70 more. Firefighters were aided by resources from Mexico, the state and federal governments and even inmates from California's prisons. San Diego Fire Department Battalion Chief Bruce Cartelli described scenes of \"utter devastation\" with hundreds of homes lost and \"many hundreds\" of others damaged. \"It's probably the worst significant event in my career of 36 years,\" he said. \"It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around,\" Cartelli said. Meteorologists suggested that Santa Ana winds, which have fueled the wildfires with some gusts approaching 100 mph, could die down Wednesday afternoon. \"We are still facing some very serious fires,\" Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said after an aerial tour of the affected area. \"The weather has made it very difficult for the air assets to get up and fight the fires. ... If the weather cooperates, maybe we can turn the tide tomorrow.\" Officials have evacuated nearly 350,000 homes in San Diego County alone, where the worst of the fires are blazing. Using U.S. Census Bureau numbers from the 2000 census, that could mean as many as 950,000 were affected by the fires. Watch evacuees shaken, firefighters battling \u00bb . In San Diego County, at least half a million residents had been ordered to find refuge in shelters, schools and stadiums as fires pushed into new areas. Among the evacuees as more than 4,000 military personnel from several bases in the area. With the winds pushing them across the area, the fires spread quickly, forcing some residents to flee in the middle of the night. \"My wife woke me up like 12 o'clock, screaming and yelling that the flames were coming down,\" said Johnny Villanueva of Spring Valley, who fled with his wife and daughter to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, which is serving as a shelter to more than 12,000 evacuees. \"We just loaded up the car really quick and came down here ... slept in our vehicles.\" His wife, Elizabeth, added, \"I saw on the mountain on fire, and said, 'Oh my God, my family. ... Let's go.\" With Qualcomm Stadium being used by the evacuees, the San Diego Chargers planned to practice at the Arizona Cardinals' stadium in Glendale for next weekend's game. Lake Arrowhead resident Michelle Dresser, who owns a business and was chased from her home by a wildfire last year, said she was waiting until the last minute to leave. She spent the night in her store, partly to help customers and neighbors. \"It is crazy. We are surrounded by fire on both sides,\" she said. Asked by CNN where she would go, she replied, \"I have to find someplace to accept two dogs, two cats and a turtle.\" Watch people staying with pets at refuge \u00bb . Animals are allowed in Qualcomm Stadium, a nearby field and Del Mar Fairgrounds and Racetrack. President Bush is scheduled to visit the area on Thursday, the White House said. Chertoff arrived in San Diego Tuesday afternoon for a \"first-hand look\" at the devastation. \"I wanted to see for myself, first of all, how the shelter situation is in San Diego, what the fires look like up close,\" Chertoff told CNN. The secretary said that the federal response to the wildfires is \"phenomenally better\" than the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, \"because we have been preparing and planning and training together for the last 2 \u00bd years.\" \"Unlike in Katrina ... we have now built the process ... and we've rehearsed it, so when we take the field, the team already knows what we need to do,\" he said. See photos of the fires \u00bb . And the scene at Qualcomm Stadium on Tuesday did seem to live up to Chertoff's expectations as volunteers cheerily handed out chairs, food and water. Thirty-four firefighters have been injured, authorities said. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was \"heartbroken\" after touring the Lake Arrowhead area, where the Grass Valley and Slide fires have burned 5,000 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes. \"This is a tragedy, what is happening in California,\" he told reporters. The combination of dry terrain, searing heat and hammering winds had created \"the perfect storm for fire,\" the governor said. Schwarzenegger said about 7,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, including 2,300 inmates from California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, had sent four fire engines and their crews to help out, and the governor of Baja California had offered help. Chertoff said cots, blankets, water and other supplies have been moved where they are needed, and more are coming. The Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered 25,000 cots to Qualcomm early Tuesday. At least 150 National Guard members are assigned to provide security at the stadium. See where the fires are burning \u00bb . Of San Diego County's 10 major fires, the Witch fire in the north, which has grown to 200,000 acres, is the priority because of its significant threat to structures, said Ron Lane, the county's director of emergency services. The Harris fire had burned more than 70,000 acres by mid-morning. In northern Los Angeles County, the Ranch, Buckweed, and Magic fires have charred more than 93,000 acres and fire officials fear they could merge. \"We want to keep these fires as small as we can,\" said Capt. Barry Parker of the Ventura County Fire Department. The 54,500-acre Ranch fire was only two miles away from the 1,200-acre Magic fire. The blazes are straddling the L.A.-Ventura County line. Asked if he had enough resources, Parker said, \"We truly don't.\" \"We're using a limited amount of resources to go in and fight these fires,\" he said. \"We've got about 600 people on the Ranch fire; we normally would have about 1,500. \"So we have to be absolutely surgical in how we plan and how we tactically use our fire equipment because we just simply don't have enough fire engines in the state of California to battle these blazes.\" In San Diego County, a utility spokesman said a 500,000-volt transmission line was damaged when the Harris fire expanded, and it will be out of service until at least Wednesday. Other transmission lines have been destroyed. Sanders said Mexico's Federal Electrical Commission was providing power to the area's grid to help make up for the losses. California also received extensive offers of manpower and equipment from the military. A total of 550 Marines were ready for deployment from Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, and 67 Defense Department employees -- 12 firefighting teams -- already were engaged. Eleven Defense Department helicopters equipped with water buckets and more than 17,000 National Guardsmen were available, along with six C-130 aircraft able to drop water and flame retardant on the flames. But aerial attacks on the fires have been limited by the fierce Santa Ana winds. The Red Cross and other groups also were in the wings. They and some other groups were waiting for the flames to die down before bringing in their volunteers. The Red Cross has set up 11 shelters in the area and housed 3,000 people Monday night. More were expected Tuesday. A firefighter at Rancho Bernardo in San Diego County showed distress. \"Every one of us out here feels like these homes are our own. We know what it's like to see people's faces when they've lost everything. It's devastating to see so much of this all at once.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Thelma Gutierrez and Dan Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"No end \"until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around,\" official says .\nNearly 350,000 homes in San Diego County evacuated; 70 people injured .\nFlames have charred 700,000 acres, more than 1,000 homes .\nNot \"enough fire engines in the state of California,\" Ventura County official says .","id":"696d5716c42ab1096cdb464da3cfcf702626a62a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you thought it was difficult managing your own money in 2007, consider the pressure of the task when you're dealing with $1.8 trillion of client assets. Sallie Krawcheck has made Fortune's list of the World's Most Powerful Women every year since 2002 . That's what Sallie Krawcheck does as Chairman and Chief Executive of Citi Global Wealth Management. She joined the banking industry as a research analyst, but quickly rose through the ranks, gaining a reputation for honesty and integrity along the way. Dubbed the \"Mrs Clean\" of Wall Street, Ms Krawcheck was credited with restoring investors' faith in analyst reports while head of retail brokerage firm Smith Barney. She joined Citigroup in 2002, and spent some time as Chief Financial Officer before taking up her current role in March 2007. Sallie Krawcheck has been a regular entrant on Fortune's list of the World's Most Powerful Women in Business -- in 2007, she made number 12. John Defterios caught up with Ms Krawcheck in Dubai. He asked her for her views on the movement of capital outside the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States). Sallie Krawcheck (SK): I think what's happening right now, it's fascinating because in the United States and in developed Europe we're having a liquidity crunch -- someone might argue a liquidity crisis. And in fact, we are awash with liquidity in the Middle East and in Asia as well, so there's really a bifurcation that's occurring in the world. And if you think about, oil doesn't even have to stay at the 90-plus dollar level it is; even at levels in the 70's, 60's, 50's, 40's, a tremendous amount of liquidity is being generated in these markets which is really being put back into the market. Yes, the investments are going up globally, but the governments here really are investing back in the infrastructure and the economies of this region. And so over time, you're really going to see... I think continue to see... a shift in economic activity on a relative basis from the more developed economies here to the Middle East as well as to Asia. John Defterios (JD): It's coming almost as a perfect storm; we have a sub prime crisis, a 20 percent fall in the dollar in the last two years. In this window of time, is there a danger that the financial capitals build outside of Wall Street and it undermines its role? (SK): I think there is no doubt that New York is losing its status as a financial capital of the world. If you think about some years ago, if you think about the internet bubble for example, where it was New York and California wasn't it? And you look at a whole range of reasons for it, and the sub prime crisis perhaps, the decline of the dollar perhaps. But you have overlapping regulators in the United States, you have very high taxes in the United States, you have a very litigious environment in the United States, and you have the emerging markets coming up, so capital is being raised outside of the United States. These things, some of which are negative for the United States, some of which are positive for the other regions, is accelerating a shift that was underway from New York, to London, to Hong Kong, to Singapore, and potentially to Dubai as well. (JD): Some of the wealth funds are now on the radar of both Wall Street and Capitol Hill in Washington. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't say I want some of that liquidity but I only want part of that liquidity. What is the result of that do you think? Can you over-regulate the sovereign funds? (SK): Oh, I think you can over-regulate the sovereign funds. I think the same question can be asked of the private equity funds and the hedge funds as well; where in a lot of countries the regulators have been struggling with the issue of 'here are very important drivers of global markets and global liquidity'. And the concern is if, gee these are going to be important going forward, we want to have these involved in our economy and our markets, but if we regulate this alone that money will skitter away to another market -- to a market outside the United States or Europe for example. (JD): It's fascinating because if you look at Qatar or Egypt or Shanghai, the stock markets have almost had like a one way path; there's been some correction here in the Middle East. But what are we likely to see here, stair steps up the ladder with some corrections along the way, or an implosion because of the rapid gains? (SK): I think you've got to separate the idea of what's going on in the real economies and what's going on in the market places. They move together, but sometimes they separate, they diverge, and they can diverge for a long period of time. If you look at economic growth potential of the Middle East, of Asia, of Latin America, we feel very bullish about this. And I was making the point earlier today, China has been growing at 11 or 12 percent, not for one year or two years, but literally for 30 years. For 30 years it's been growing at that kind of rate and really can continue as far as the eye can see. So, say the same thing for the Middle East, the growth even at a lower oil price can be significant, but can be high single digit or double digit for some foreseeable period going forward. (JD): Is Wall Street, or for that matter, London or any other financial center ready for a woman -- for example in your case, 1.4 trillion dollars of assets... (SK): 1.8 Thank you... (JD): ...to run one of the major money center banks of the world? I'm sure you're feeling this pressure even though you're young by international standards. Are we ready for a woman to take over a money center bank? (SK): Well it looks like the United States may be ready for a woman to take over as President. So I think if we're ready to potentially have a woman run the country, I think we are getting ready as a country, to potentially have a woman run a money center bank. Now, you know, the board wouldn't ask and I wouldn't accept, but if you look across Wall Street, there are a few women who are putting themselves in positions to be successors the next time there are CEO's who move along, and I think it's a very exciting development for the industry and for the country. Have your say. Email us at mme@cnn.com, or send an i-report. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"MME speaks with Sallie Krawcheck, boss of Citi Global Wealth Management .\nRanked by Fortune magazine as World's 12th Most Powerful Woman in 2007 .\nManages client assets worth $1.8 trillion, formerly bank's CFO .\nTells MME: \"we're very bullish\" on economic potential of the Middle East .","id":"316f0f847800fdb547f7496f6095075cd610c7e4"} -{"article":"ORANGE COUNTY, California (CNN) -- One of the larger fires in Southern California was deliberately started by someone with apparent knowledge of arson, a fire official said Thursday. Firefighter Luke Perisin sets a backfire Wednesday against the Santiago Fire in Live Oak Canyon, California. The Santiago Fire in Orange County was started in two places along a little-traveled road, according to Chief Chip Prather of the county's fire authority. The fire, which has burned more than 25,000 acres, was started in brush just off Santiago Canyon Road, not close to homes. It spread rapidly, indicating the arsonist had some knowledge of winds and other factors. \"It is a confirmed arson. There was evidence found at the scene. That is the purpose of our early declaration of it being an arson-caused fire,\" Prather said. He would not describe the evidence. Watch how the evidence points to arson \u00bb . Prather said officials originally thought the fire had three points of origin instead of two. The Santiago Fire's points of origin are considered crime scenes, said Jim Amornino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The reward for information leading to an arrest has increased to $250,000 -- $50,000 each from the governor's office, the U.S. agency of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI, Prather said. KFI radio has chipped in another $100,000, the sheriff's department said. The state established a toll-free arson tip line at 800-540-7085. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said anyone convicted of arson would be dealt with harshly. If a suspect is to be found, \"it's going to be by a clue from the public,\" said county Sheriff Mike Corona. About 1,100 firefighters were working on controlling the Santiago Fire, which has destroyed at least 22 structures, according to Orange County Fire Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire was only 30 percent contained Thursday morning after being 50 percent contained the day before. Watch the Santiago flames rage \u00bb . The motive of the Santiago Fire's arsonist was a mystery to Concepcion. \"That's the part that I really can't figure out, to tell you the truth,\" he told CNN. \"That individual knew on Sunday when this fire started that we had, really, the perfect storm, if you will. We had the heavy Santa Ana winds, we had the low relative humidities, we had the high temperatures. \"And then for someone to even think about doing something as reprehensible as starting a fire where they knew the fire would grow as rapidly as it would -- traveling about three, 3\u00bd miles in about an hour -- is just really absolutely unconscionable,\" he said. The smaller Rosa Fire in Riverside County, 100 percent contained at 411 acres Thursday morning, was also probably arson, state officials said. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Fire Department investigators are looking into whether a man who was arrested on suspicion of arson in the San Fernando Valley may have had a role in any of the ongoing blazes, an L.A. police spokeswoman said. Catalino Pineda, 41, was arrested Wednesday, Officer Kate Lopez told CNN. Witnesses told police they saw him lighting a fire on a hillside in the West Hills area of San Fernando -- northwest of Los Angeles -- then walking away, Lopez said. Pineda was already on probation for \"making excessive false emergency reports\" to police at the time of the arrest, Lopez said. His bail has been set at $75,000, she said. The fire he allegedly set was brought under control, but now authorities want to find out if he had any role in the other wildfires. In San Bernardino County, John Alfred Rund, 48, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with setting a small fire along a rural roadside near Victorville. Rund was to be arraigned Thursday morning in Victorville. He was being held in lieu of $750,000 bail. The county's district attorney's office on Thursday also filed arson charges against Anthony Riperti, 47, of Redlands. A statement from the office did not say when or where Riperti is accused of setting a fire. He is being held on $250,000 bail and will be arraigned later Thursday. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department also arrested an adult and a juvenile accused by an anonymous tipster of starting a fire in Vista in the northern part of the county. In a written statement, the sheriff's department identified the adult as Gorgonio Nava. The Vista Fire Department extinguished the blaze before it grew out of control, the statement said. Investigators have determined that the Grass Valley Fire in San Bernardino County was not caused by arson, and a preliminary investigation into the cause of the 10,152-acre Slide Fire seems to indicate arson was not a factor, sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beaver said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Santiago Fire deliberately started in two places, official says .\nSantiago Fire grows to 25,000 acres .\nL.A. authorities investigate man arrested for suspected arson .\nBlaze has destroyed 22 structures .","id":"28e251ea722829df08d63e83824110fedcc13f8c"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Conditions that created what California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dubbed \"the perfect storm for fire\" eased Wednesday, helping firefighters gain ground against devastating Southern California wildfires. A plane drops fire retardant on the fourth day of a wildfire pushed by winds through Pauma Valley, California. Winds that gusted as much as 101 mph on Sunday dropped to about 30 mph Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, the dry Santa Ana winds that have fanned the flames, changed direction and began blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean, increasing the humidity and easing the burden on almost 8,900 firefighters in the area. But the destruction was taking its toll on the men and women on the front lines of the fires. \"It hurts us to have those homes lost. It hurts us to have those injuries. And it is frustrating for us to watch our community be devastated by this,\" said firefighter Andy Menshek. As conditions improved, officials allowed people to return to communities that had been off-limits because of intense flames and dense smoke. \"It was home,\" said Mark Davis, whose two-story Rancho Bernardo house burned to the ground. \"It was us. We had been there 28 years, and it had a lot of our flavor.\" The change in the weather also meant that firefighting aircraft -- grounded for most of the week by the winds -- could finally fly. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. Scott McLean called the droning sound of aircraft the \"sound of joy.\" \"Their drops are hitting their mark because the wind is not there,\" he said. The rate of burning had slowed significantly by Wednesday. Still, the fire damage increased to 434,543 acres, said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Watch Schwarzenegger give a progress report \u00bb . That amounted to 679 square miles, or about 10 times the size of Washington, D.C. By Wednesday evening, the largest fire -- the Witch in northern San Diego County -- was 10 percent contained. It burned about 196,000 acres before combining with the smaller Poomacha blaze. Seven fires among the 22 counted Wednesday were contained. See where the fires are burning \u00bb . Others, such as the Buckweed Fire in Los Angeles County, were as much as 94 percent contained. One large fire was a suspected arson. The FBI and the Orange County Fire Authority are investigating the Santiago fire that has burned more than 19,000 acres. All three of its points of origin have been declared crime scenes, said Jim Amornino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. A $70,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to the arrest of those responsible for setting the fire. The blaze was about 50 percent contained after destroying 17 structures. Watch the raging flames of the Santiago fire \u00bb . The smaller Rosa fire in Riverside County, 70 percent contained at just over 400 acres, was also a probably arson, state officials said. As the fire danger eased, residents were allowed to return to several neighborhoods surrounding San Diego: Del Mar Highlands, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Carmel Valley, Chula Vista and Otay Mesa. Helicopters were back in the air over the Lake Arrowhead, California, area after all air activity had been suspended because of extremely smoky skies. In nearby Running Springs, CNN's Ted Rowlands stood in the midst of charred, smoldering rubble strewn with potentially deadly power lines. \"It will be a while before these people will come back. When they do come back, unfortunately they'll have this pretty much to look at,\" he said Wednesday. Watch Rowlands describe a major battle with the flames \u00bb . About 500 homes were lost in the mountainous region in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles. See photos of the fires \u00bb . \"Yesterday we couldn't be here, because just this little flame and smoldering pieces of wood would be thrown by the intense winds. ... Now you can see the flames just basically burning themselves out,\" said Rowlands. The fires have already destroyed 1,664 structures -- including 1,436 homes -- and they still threaten 25,000 more, Schwarzenegger said Wednesday. The blazes have killed three people and left 40 hurt, he said. The governor will fly over the area Thursday with President Bush, who signed a major disaster declaration Wednesday. Watch Bush emphasize the need to be responsive \u00bb . It'll speed federal dollars to people whose property losses aren't covered by insurance and will help local and state agencies pay for the emergency response. The cost of homes destroyed by the wildfires is likely to top $1 billion in San Diego County alone, an emergency official said. Federal help keeps arriving as officials promise a response based on lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. People left homeless by the fires can go online to apply for federal help at FEMA.gov, he said. There were 76,000 people staying in the 42 shelters opened in San Diego County Wednesday morning, according to San Diego emergency spokeswoman Lynda Pfieffer. Qualcomm Stadium -- home to the NFL's San Diego Chargers -- housed 11,000 evacuees at the peak of the disaster, but that number dropped to 5,000 Wednesday morning. Watch how evacuees are being taken care of at the stadium \u00bb E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kate Bolduan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Local and federal officials probe suspected arson, offer $70,000 reward .\nWind speeds drop, humidity increases after Santa Ana winds change direction .\nPresident Bush signs major disaster declaration for Southern California .\nHome losses will likely top $1 billion in San Diego County, official says .","id":"4812698545d6a4c2243db340fad08d0b3b7fbe0b"} -{"article":"KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- A Sudanese court found a British teacher guilty of insulting religion and sentenced her to 15 days in prison Thursday for allowing a teddy bear to be named \"Mohammed,\" British authorities and her lawyer reported. An undated amateur photo of Gillian Gibbons, who has been found guilty of insulting religion. Gillian Gibbons also faces deportation from Sudan after her prison term, her lawyer told CNN. He said that he was \"very disappointed\" with the verdict and that Gibbons planned to appeal. Gibbons was not convicted of two other charges brought against her -- inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs, her lawyer said. Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday after she asked her class of 7-year-olds in Khartoum to name the stuffed animal as part of a school project, the British Foreign Office said. She had faced charges under Article 125 of Sudan's constitution, the law relating to insulting religion and inciting hatred. Although there is no ban in the Quran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's founder, likenesses are considered highly offensive by Muslims. Watch latest developments in the case. \u00bb . Appearing somber and dazed, Gibbons arrived at the central courthouse in Khartoum for her closed hearing early Thursday. A staff member from the British Embassy in Khartoum and defense lawyers attended the hearing with her. The courthouse was heavily guarded by police, who kept journalists -- and, for a while, even one of her attorneys -- away. Gibbons could have faced a sentence of 40 lashes, a fine, or a jail term of up to a year, according to the Foreign Office, which expressed Britain's dissatisfaction with the verdict. \"We are extremely disappointed that the charges against Gillian Gibbons were not dismissed,\" Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement issued shortly after the verdict was announced. \"As I said this morning, our clear view is that this is an innocent misunderstanding by a dedicated teacher. Our priority now is to ensure Ms. Gibbons' welfare, and we will continue to provide consular assistance to her. I have called in the Sudanese ambassador, Omer Siddig, this evening to explain the decision and discuss next steps.\" Watch a report on reactions to the verdict \u00bb . The Foreign Office said Gibbons would be given credit for the four days since her arrest, meaning that the she has 11 days remaining on her sentence. Earlier, Miliband had met with Siddig, who was summoned to the Foreign Office in London. \"I explained to him that we were very concerned by the case. We believe that this was an innocent misunderstanding,\" Miliband said in a statement released Thursday after the meeting. \"The Sudanese ambassador undertook to ensure our concerns were relayed to Khartoum at the highest level. He also said he would reflect back to Khartoum the real respect for the Islamic religion in this country,\" the statement added. On the first floor of the courthouse, around 25 police linked arms and forced journalists and British officials away from the court entrance. Police detained some journalists, and confiscated a camera belonging to a freelance CNN cameraman. Four vans filled with riot police were waiting outside the courthouse, but there were no signs of street disturbances or protests. Staff from Gibbons' school, including Robert Boulos, the head of Unity High School, were present. The staff members refused to comment on their colleague's predicament. On Wednesday, Boulos said he was \"horrified\" when he found out that the complaint about the naming of the bear came from a member of his own staff -- not from a parent, as originally thought. Defense counsel later confirmed that the complaint came from Sarah Khawad, a secretary at the school. Gibbons has been working at the school -- popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates -- since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool, England, this summer, Boulos said. He said Gibbons asked the children to pick their favorite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats. E-mail to a friend . Journalist Andrew Heavens contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"British teacher in Sudan found guilty of insulting religion .\nGillian Gibbons, 54, arrested after her class named teddy bear \"Mohammed\"\nGibbons was not convicted of two other charges brought against her .\nUK consular staff, Gibbons' defense team initially refused access to the court .","id":"81651fc015f2db10f24327d11b1a3748a19466f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The owner of a North Carolina beach house where seven college students died in a weekend fire said Monday that his family's \"lives were just changed forever\" by the tragedy. Chip Auman said his 18-year-old daughter survived the fire but was hospitalized and in stable condition because of complications from smoke inhalation. \"The thought of losing a child is unimaginable to me, and as a father my heart goes out to the families that lost a loved one in this situation,\" he said. Auman said the situation was \"hard to fathom.\" \"There's just no words to describe what we've been going through,\" he said, asking for prayers for survivors and the families of those who died. \"We're numb, we're confused, we're heartbroken.\" Two college campuses mourned Monday. Six University of South Carolina students and a Clemson University student died in the fire early Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Six other South Carolina students were able to get out of the house in time. The six were treated and released from nearby Brunswick Community Hospital, but Auman's daughter was hospitalized again in Hartsville, South Carolina. Authorities from the state Bureau of Investigation and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire. Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith said the house was \"engulfed\" in flames when the fire department arrived on the scene, about five minutes after being notified. The flames shot into the sky and ultimately left little more than portions of the framing. Fire officials do not believe foul play was involved. Watch a neighbor's video, fears of fast-burning fire \u00bb . Dennis A. Pruitt, the vice president for student affairs for the University of South Carolina, said investigators have said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before the identities of the victims are confirmed publicly. It could be as much as a month until investigators know the cause of the fire, Pruitt said. The university did not cancel classes on Monday, but Pruitt said arrangements had been made for those who need to go home or stay out of class at the 28,000-student campus. Pruitt said meetings had been held Sunday with members of Delta Delta Delta sorority and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The South Carolina students were affiliated with those houses, he said, although he stressed that the weekend was not an official Greek function. He also said counselors and ministers were available to help students deal with the loss of their classmates. The university president, Dr. Andrew Sorenson, contacted the families of those who died in the fire to express the condolences and support of the university community. Jay Laura, student president of the USC chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said the campus would pull together after the tragedy. \"If any place can come together to help in the healing process and the aftermath of an event like this, it is South Carolina,\" Laura said at a Monday afternoon press conference. Fire survivor Tripp Wylie, a 20-year-old South Carolina sophomore, said he jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape the flames and was unable to get back in to help his friends. \"I could see a buddy of mine off to the left who had gotten out. He was just yelling at me to jump and stuff,\" Wylie told CNN affiliate WYFF. \"The smoke was pouring out, couldn't really breathe, so I had to make a quick decision. [I] just kind of leaned out the window and luckily I jumped far enough to make it into the canal.\" Neighbors flocked to see the fire as firefighters battled and ultimately got the blaze under control. See the scenes of devastation \u00bb . George Smith, who lives across the street from the house, said he heard sirens between 6:30 and 7 a.m. and went outside to see \"the whole sky lit up.\" \"The whole house was completely engulfed in flames, up to about 20 feet,\" he said. \"I have never seen [a fire] move so fast.\" George Smith said the house's occupants were \"partying in there yesterday and into the night.\" After about 10:30 p.m. Saturday they quieted down, he said. Linda Sing said she was walking her dog when she saw the fiery destruction. She noted that firefighters had saved an adjacent house by spraying it down with water. \"We knew there were people in there, but we hoped and prayed they'd gotten out,\" Sing said. \"This is the worst thing I've ever seen. We've had hurricanes, but this is worse.\" Ocean Isle Beach is a popular resort destination along North Carolina's southern coast. The year-round population of the 7-mile-long island is about 425, but it swells to about 25,000 during the summer season, according to the town's Web site. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Heartbroken\" house owner's daughter among six survivors hospitalized .\nOne survivor jumped out of a third-story window into a canal to escape .\nUniversity of South Carolina mourns deaths of six students .","id":"f85e12129885fad0eabd6a1c6b6b24dbf8948db5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday he is cutting all ties with Colombia as long as Alvaro Uribe remains its president. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe withdrew his support for the Venezuelan leader's mediation efforts with the FARC. \"I say before the world, while President Uribe is president of Colombia, I will not have any type of relation with him or with the government of Colombia,\" Chavez said in an address broadcast on national television. \"I can't, I can't, I can't.\" Chavez noted that Uribe had asked him to help secure the release of hundreds of hostages being held by the leftist rebel group Armed Revolutionary Front of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). \"I went with my heart in my hand, and I was ready,\" Chavez told a group of supporters in the southwestern state of Tachira. \"I was prepared to go to the most dangerous forest in the country to help.\" But last Thursday, Uribe ended Chavez's participation, citing his direct communication with Uribe's top general, a move that Uribe said broke protocol. \"When we were at the point of succeeding, Uribe comes and, without telling me anything, he didn't even call me on the phone or send me an emissary, just sent me a letter saying he was ending my mission,\" Chavez said. \"That was a kick.\" Without being specific, Chavez accused Uribe of having lied. \"That's real ugly,\" he said. Chavez also accused Uribe of having bowed to pressure from Washington \"to get rid of Chavez.\" But the firebrand Venezuelan president, who has called U.S. President George W. Bush \"the devil,\" said his arms are open to the Colombian people. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Chavez says Uribe had asked him to help secure the release of hostages .\nUribe cited Chavez's direct communication with Uribe's top general as breach .\nChavez accuses Uribe of lying .\nChavez says his arms are open to the Colombian people .","id":"bffa402002700855fec36f83c8c226dfe271a6af"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ann Curley is the assignment manager for the CNN Medical News unit. She has been a type I diabetic for 40 years. This is her story of life with diabetes. Ann Curley uses a pump attached to a catheter in her body to monitor glucose levels and administer insulin. (CNN) -- When I was 7 years old, my mom took me to the doctor because I had lost a lot of weight, despite a voracious appetite. My family had just moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Pasadena, California, and this visit to the doctor's office was my introduction to a man who would come to have a huge impact on my life. His name was Dr. Robert Deputy, and he was the pediatrician who diagnosed me with diabetes. He spoke to me directly, rather than to my mother, and he asked me questions: Did I feel thirsty? Did I need to urinate during the night? The answer to both questions was yes. He asked for a urine sample and the result was immediate. Dr. Deputy told me and my mother that my body wasn't processing sugar properly. I had diabetes. That is how my 40-year journey with diabetes began. I was checked into a hospital to learn how to test my urine for sugar, give myself injections of insulin, follow a diabetic diet and control my diabetes. I spent several days in the hospital learning how to manage my disease, and then they sent me home. Dr. Deputy would call our house each afternoon to check on me and see how I was doing. Much to my parents' chagrin -- and to my delight -- he wanted me to be self sufficient and responsible for monitoring myself. I refused to let my parents give me injections or test my urine. This demand for self sufficiency turned out to be one of my best life lessons, and not just for managing my diabetes. While some diabetics may feel their disease is a burden, I feel that being diagnosed with diabetes was a blessing in disguise. It forced our family to eat healthily, and it taught me about good nutrition -- something I practice every day. I know carbohydrate counts in most foods, and I understand dietary concepts that most people don't even care about. Being active is also a way to burn off high blood sugar, so when my urine tested positive for glucose, my older sister Robin was in charge of exercising me. We had countless jump-rope contests, bike rides and roller-skating excursions, keeping me and my three sisters active and fit. And I felt like a little mad scientist, using a test tube with drops of water, urine and fizzy tablets to see if there was sugar in my urine. Fortunately, over time, technology improved. First, test strips were developed that could be dipped in urine to reveal whether sugar was present in it. But the truth is, testing urine for sugar was a primitive method. By the time sugar gets into the urine, it's a signal that the body doesn't have enough insulin to process sugar. And the urine test didn't give an actual number for the amount of sugar in the urine. It simply gave a color reading that corresponded with a range of how much sugar was present in the urine. Inaccurate was really an understatement when you talk about urine testing. Home blood glucose testing kits became available in the early 1980s, and they were a huge move toward precise control and management of diabetes. With the kit, the diabetic uses a device to poke a finger and produce a drop of blood. The blood is placed on a test strip that fits into a device that produces a reading of the blood glucose within seconds. While I initially balked at the idea of pricking my finger several times a day, now I can't imagine not doing it in order to monitor what my blood sugar is doing. The 1980s also saw the advent of the insulin pump. This device is the size of a pager and contains a reservoir filled with insulin. The reservoir connects to a tube that infuses the insulin into the body with a tiny plastic shunt. So rather than taking multiple injections to mimic the body's insulin patterns, the pump drips insulin into the body to keep blood sugars constant, then gives extra amounts with meals. Another life-altering development in diabetes, which I have discovered in the last year, is the continuous glucose monitor, or CGM. This is a small device inserted into the tissue -- usually the abdomen, hip or leg -- and it has a tiny sensor that reads the glucose level of the body's fluids. The data is transmitted to a receiver, and patients can see a constant reading of their blood sugar levels. I have participated in clinical trials for three different CGM devices, and I found them all to be quite accurate. Some sensors transmit data directly to an insulin pump, so you can use the reading to adjust and fine-tune the amount of insulin being pumped into the body. The patient still has to test his or her blood sugar to confirm the sensor is properly calibrated, but it's amazing to be able to see constant readings and graphs of what your blood sugar is doing and better manage blood sugars. CGM technology is a step toward the ultimate goal of controlling type I diabetes using what's called a \"closed loop system.\" This means diabetics someday will be able to wear a pump that gathers data from a sensor so precise that the pump can be programmed to act on its own and make adjustments all by itself. The current systems are \"open looped,\" meaning the diabetic controls when the doses are given. The goal is to eventually create a pump that is more like a robotic delivery system, and all the patient has to do is wear it. Once that technology is perfected, this type of device would be implanted, which would be the next best thing to not having diabetes. I mentioned to my sister Robin that I had tracked down Dr. Deputy for this article. She told me something I didn't know when I was 7. Forty years ago, before the advent of all of the cool diabetes technology such as insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors and blood sugar testing, parents were given a fairly grim prediction for how their child would fare. Dr. Deputy told my parents that I would probably only live to the age of 20 or 30, which apparently -- but not surprisingly -- had the whole family freaked out. I spoke with Dr. Deputy, who recently retired from his pediatric practice, and he seemed to remember me. When I asked him about his dismal prognosis for my survival, he said sadly, \"At that time, that was what we told parents back then. ... Everything changes with time -- diabetes, leukemia -- technology has changed with the pump and the equipment.\" I think he was relieved that his prognosis was wrong. I know that I certainly am. In fact, I am hoping to live another 40 years! E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN Medical Unit assignment manager Ann Curley is a type I diabetic .\nShe learned she had diabetes when she was 7 years old .\nTesting progressed from fizzy tablets in urine to continuous glucose monitors .\nWith changes in technology have come improvements in prognoses .","id":"360df256327edcaf7ce0b99314adec8b0a2c5be6"} -{"article":"CARDIFF, Wales -- Former Wales and British Lions center Ray Gravell has died of a suspected heart attack aged 56, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has announced. Gravell won 23 caps for Wales and played on the Lions tour of South Africa in 1980. Gravell had been on holiday with his family in the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca at the time. A WRU statement praised Gravell as being \"a man who epitomized the passion, flair and dignity of his beloved Welsh nation.\" Gravell made his debut for Wales against France in 1975, three years after helping his club side Llanelli to their famous win over the touring All Blacks. In all he made 23 appearances for what was then a dominant Wales side, winning Grand Slams in 1976 and 1978, and played all four Tests on the Lions' tour of South Africa in 1980. After retiring as a player in 1985, Gravell became president of Llanelli RFC and the Llanelli Scarlets. He also pursued a career as an actor and a respected rugby broadcaster. Earlier this year, Gravell had his right leg amputated below the knee following complications linked with his diabetes but he had been recovering well. WRU chief executive Roger Lewis said: \"We are all in total shock because Ray was so full of life even through the difficult health problems he suffered recently. \"He was a wonderful ambassador for rugby and for Wales and a great example of how the game can bring out the best in a man. \"As a player, he always gave a huge amount of respect to his opponents but never gave an inch of ground to anyone he faced on the field of play. \"It is a measure of the man that he forged rugby friendships which lasted long after his playing days up until the present day.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Former Wales and British Lions center Ray Gravell has died aged 56 .\nHe was on holiday with his family in Mallorca .\nAfter retiring he worked as an actor and broadcaster .","id":"35ae4229bbd571d86bb817df03b3784dc8cbf660"} -{"article":"COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama kicked off a series of local outreach gospel concerts Friday in Charleston, South Carolina, that unexpectedly came back to bite his campaign. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is competing for the black vote with Hillary Clinton. The concerts were meant to boost black voters' support for his presidential nominee bid -- the kind of events that would normally fly under the national radar. The ensuing controversy highlighted that Obama's desire to unite disparate voting blocs -- especially religious voters -- under his umbrella of \"change\" is not without some serious pitfalls. When the campaign announced the lineups for the three-city \"Embrace the Change!\" gospel tour last week, one name stood out to gay bloggers: Donnie McClurkin. The Grammy-award winning singer is on record as saying homosexuality is a choice, and that he was \"once involved with those desires and those thoughts\" but was able to get past them through prayer. To say the least, neither of those arguments is very popular in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. John Aravosis, a prominent gay blogger and co-founder of the Web site AmericaBlog, led the charge against the Obama campaign, writing that the Illinois Democrat was \"sucking up to anti-gay bigots\" and \"giving them a stage.\" When the story bubbled up into the mainstream media, it took the Obama campaign by surprise. Obama's efforts in the Palmetto State have overwhelmingly targeted African-American churchgoers in a bid to win over black voters in South Carolina from rival Sen. Hillary Clinton. The campaign has vigorously promoted the candidate's faith, launching \"40 Days of Faith and Family\" in September, which used Bible study groups to tap into the black electorate. Campaigners have run three radio ads, one of which called Obama a \"Christian family man,\" that aired on gospel stations across the state. Earlier this month, Obama spoke at an evangelical church in the traditionally conservative city of Greenville, where he demonstrated a casual familiarity with Christian vocabulary, telling the crowd, to much applause, that \"I am confident that we can create a kingdom right here on Earth.\" After that appearance, the Obama campaign told CNN that Republicans no longer had a choke hold on issues of faith and values. \"I think that what you're seeing is a breaking down of the sharp divisions that existed maybe during the '90s,\" Obama said. \"At least in politics, the perception was that the Democrats were fearful of talking about faith, and on the other hand you had the Republicans who had a particular brand of faith that oftentimes seemed intolerant or pushed people away.\" But on Tuesday, Obama was forced to confront the uncomfortable truth that some Christians and gays are a little more than just strange bedfellows, especially among blacks. Obama issued a statement saying, \"I strongly disagree with Reverend [Donnie] McClurkin's views and will continue to fight for these rights as president of the United States,\" and argued that it is important to confront homophobia among religious African Americans. A September poll of African Americans in South Carolina by Winthrop University and ETV showed that 62 percent of those surveyed said that \"sex between two adults of the same sex\" is \"strongly unacceptable.\" Obama held a conference call Wednesday with Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, and announced that the Rev. Andy Sidden, an openly gay South Carolina pastor, will appear at the same event as McClurkin on Sunday in Columbia. Solomonese was not completely assuaged. \"I spoke with Senator Barack Obama today and expressed to him our community's disappointment for his decision to continue to remain associated with Reverend McClurkin, an anti-gay preacher who states the need to 'break the curse of homosexuality,'\" he said in a statement. \"There is no gospel in Donnie McClurkin's message for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. That's a message that certainly doesn't belong on any presidential candidate's stage.\" The State newspaper in Columbia reported Friday that Obama organized a conference call Thursday night with gay and lesbian leaders. After the call, the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement announced it will hold a protest vigil outside Sunday's concert in Columbia. Privately, Obama aides say they believe Obama is a candidate of real, transformational change, and that uproars like the McClurkin controversy are necessary speed bumps on the road to bringing people with opposing viewpoints together to air their differences. Will Obama's refusal to kick McClurkin off the concert bill hurt him? Like many political squabbles, despite the national story, it depends how much the controversy resonates with voters in those crucial early states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. And in South Carolina, where African Americans make up about half of Democratic primary-goers, voters might not have a problem with McClurkin at all. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Obama holding concerts to win over African-American Christians in S. Carolina .\nBut lineup offends homosexuals, angered by appearance of anti-gay singer .\nObama disavows preacher-singer's views, asks gay pastor to appear too .","id":"fd93b423a3805de1c259d527393fd5fb75d06a55"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain -- Atletico Madrid recovered from their painful recent defeat by Barcelona to crush European rivals Real Zaragoza 4-0 in the Primera Liga on Sunday. Luis Garcia celebrates his first Atletico Madrid goal in their superb 4-0 victory over Real Zaragoza. Luis Garcia's first goal for the club, a double from Argentine Maxi Rodriguez and a Diego Forlan strike clinched a comfortable win as Atletico moved up to sixth in the table. It was also sweet revenge for Atletico as Zaragoza beat them home and away last season to beat them to sixth place and the final UEFA Cup spot. Atletico went ahead in the 10th minute when Forlan picked out a precise pass for Garcia who made no mistake with a calm side-footed finish. Forlan then got on the scoresheet himself with a first-time lob on 34 minutes for his third goal of the season, before Rodriguez stole the show with two more goals. Getafe registered their first win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Murcia. Substitute Kepa, who was later sent off, opened the scoring in the 54th minute and Francisco Casero added a second five minutes later to clinch the points. Elsewhere last season's second division champions Valladolid continue to struggle in the top flight, crashing to a 2-1 defeat against Athletic Bilbao. Artiz Aduriz scored twice for Bilbao after eight and 31 minutes to leave Valladolid second from bottom with promoted Levante, who have a meagre one point, propping up the table. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Atletico Madrid bounce back to form with a superb 4-0 victory over Zaragoza .\nMaxi Rodriguez scores twice with Luis Garcia and Diego Forlan also on target .\nGetafe registered their first win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Murcia .","id":"646676aabe72e75add3cde2d6afa56cea64c91a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The company owns The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Sands Macau in The People's Republic of China's Special Administrative Region of Macau, as well as Venetian Macau Limited, a developer of additional multiple casino hotel resort properties in Macau. The first phase of the Venetian Casino Resort opened in May 1999, which originally consisted of 3,036 suites though the number of suites was reduced over time to 3,014 based on renovations and remodeling. Since it's opening, the property has received recognition as revolutionizing the Las Vegas hotel industry, and has been honored with architectural and other awards naming it as one the finest hotels in the world. In 2003, The Venetian added the 1,013-suite Venezia tower -- giving The Venetian 4,027 suites, 18 world-class restaurants, and a retail mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers. In May 2004, Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Macau, located on China's southeastern coast. The Sands Macau includes approximately 163,000 square feet of gaming facilities, luxury suites, specialty restaurants and an International VIP club. In December 2004, in one of the year's most anticipated initial public offerings, Dr. and Mr. Adelson rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and with it shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. began trading. The price of the Sands stock rose 61 percent on its opening day, becoming the largest opening day of any American-based initial public offering in the last two years. The Venetian Casino Resort is one of the most productive properties on the Strip, having an occupancy rate of 98.3% and an average daily room rate of $219 during the nine months ended September 30, 2004. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The company owns three major casino complexes, in Las Vegas and Macau .\nVenetian Casino Resort opened in 1999, originally consisted of 3,036 suites .\nIn May 2004, Las Vegas Sands opened the Sands Macau .","id":"5acf12b2ef7771fd1cd1421acb7057d9a64be818"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- State Department officials should serve where they are needed -- even in war-torn Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that \"people need to serve where they are needed.\" Rice was responding to foreign service officers' objections to the possibility of \"directed assignments\" in Iraq. The issue has caused an uproar in the State Department, resulting in a contentious town hall-style meeting Wednesday. The new directives would be needed if enough qualified foreign service officers don't step forward to fill open positions at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. If the State Department enforces directed assignments, it will be the first time since the Vietnam War era. One official called the order to serve in Iraq \"a potential death sentence\" during the town meeting. The State Department already has begun notifying about 200 people considered prime candidates. Those chosen will be given 10 days to respond, according to last week's announcement. Unless they have a valid medical reason to refuse, those who decline could face dismissal, it said. Wednesday's heated meeting was replayed on an internal State Department television channel in Washington several times and talked about widely. Some at the hourlong meeting questioned why they were not told of the policy change directly, learning about it instead from news organizations last week. Watch the diplomats exchange angry words \u00bb . \"I just have no respect for the whole process because you've demonstrated a lack of respect for your own colleagues,\" said foreign service officer Jack Croddy. \"Thank you for that comment. It's full of inaccuracies, but that's OK,\" Harry Thomas Jr., director general of the foreign service, shot back. Others pointed out the risks of such assignments, considering the dangers of a war zone, lack of security and regular rocket attacks on U.S. personnel. Rice, who did not attend the meeting, tried to calm things down Friday by underscoring the State Department's attempts to do \"everything that we can to try and protect our diplomats.\" However, she said, \"This is one of the highest priority tasks of the United States, and we're going to meet our obligations.\" Speaking to reporters en route to Turkey and the Mideast, she said, \"I don't know if we will have direct assignments or not, but we are one foreign service, and people need to serve where they are needed.\" The secretary sent out a cable to State Department employees worldwide encouraging them to serve in Iraq. \"This year [U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker] has identified the need for additional positions to more effectively accomplish our mission in Iraq,\" Rice said in the cable. Rice said she has decided to go forward with the identification of officers to serve, \"should it prove necessary to direct assignments.\" \"Should others step forward, as some already have, we will fill these new jobs as we have before -- with volunteers. However, regardless of how the jobs may be filled, they must be filled,\" she said. Rice earlier said reports that the State Department was finding it hard to coax foreign service employees into Iraq \"couldn't be further from the truth.\" The assignments are new positions. Fifteen people have stepped forward to volunteer for Iraq service since the new policy was announced October 26, department spokesman Sean McCormack said. McCormack rejected comments by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, that State Department employees are \"nervous Nellies\" and that wounded U.S. military veterans should be asked to fill the Iraq vacancies. McCormack said until now the State Department has been successful in filling jobs in Iraq with volunteers. Since 2003, more than 1,500 personnel have volunteered to go to Iraq, he said. But with the expansion of the staff in Iraq this year, 58 spots were left open. \"They are serving in dangerous and challenging places,\" he said. \"We have a lot of brave people who are stepping up to the plate in Anbar and Basra and Baghdad and Kabul and a lot of other places that are not necessarily in the headlines.\" State Department employees have been killed in Iraq, but McCormack could not say how many. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Zain Verjee and Charley Keyes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Condoleezza Rice responds to foreign service officers' objections on Iraq duty .\n\"Directed assignments\" will be enforced if enough officers don't volunteer in Iraq .\nRice: Department doing \"everything that we can to try and protect our diplomats\"\nOne official calls order to serve in Iraq \"a potential death sentence\"","id":"0239342f05436085947bd0c5173a4636ee772b51"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Favorable weather and firefighter reinforcements helped ease the fire danger in parts of Southern California Thursday, but the human toll from the disaster was still coming to light. A firefighter watches the Harris Fire. Four bodies were found in a canyon in the path of the blaze Thursday. The number of deaths attributed directly to the fires grew to seven Thursday, after the charred bodies of four people believed to be illegal immigrants were found in a canyon east of San Diego. Seven other deaths are labeled as fire-related: Three elderly people died during evacuations, and four others died after being evacuated. Improving conditions allowed more people to come home Thursday, but new evacuations were ordered in areas where the unrelenting flames marched on. Where residents could return, they often found ash and rubble in place of their homes. \"We see pictures from online and on TV, but it's just, it's much different when you see it up front,\" said Louela Binlac in front of what remained of her Rancho Bernardo home. \"The most important thing is that our family is still together, everybody is safe, and eventually we will rebuild again,\" she said. \"Those things you can replace. We are just all grateful that everybody is safe.\" Rancho Bernardo resident Marilyn Wood said it was \"really scary\" to come back to the pile of ashes she once called home. Her voice breaking, Wood vowed to rebuild and recounted how she and her husband, Gordon, fled early Monday with only minutes to spare. See photos of the fires \u00bb . \"(Our house) was burning as we were leaving,\" she said. President Bush got a firsthand look at the aftermath of the devastating fires Thursday -- 10 still burning across seven counties. He promised federal help for those affected by the fires. Watch Bush tour the damage \u00bb . \"We're not going to forget you in Washington, D.C.,\" the president said after touring the area by air and visiting Rancho Bernardo with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Watch a report on Bush as 'comforter-in-chief' \u00bb . Bush signed a federal disaster declaration Wednesday, freeing money to help residents rent temporary homes and repair damaged homes and businesses and to help local and state agencies pay for the emergency response. The cost of homes destroyed by the wildfires is likely to top $1 billion in San Diego County alone, an emergency official said. People left homeless by the fires can apply online for federal help at FEMA.gov, said Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison. Watch a tour of FEMA's command center \u00bb . Almost 9,000 firefighters battled the blazes, augmented by reinforcements from dozens of states across the country. Twenty-three fires have scorched 472,478 acres (738 square miles), an area roughly three-quarters of the size of Rhode Island. See where the fires are still burning \u00bb . Along with homes and businesses, the flames have destroyed roughly one-third of San Diego County's lucrative avocado crop, along with other croplands, greenhouses and nurseries. A change in the winds -- from a ferocious 100 mph on Sunday to an almost manageable 10 mph on Thursday -- brought welcome relief and allowed a full-bore aerial assault on the fires. Reinforcements from across the country arrived to aid the exhausted firefighters, officials said. While the fires still threatened some 25,000 homes, the burn rate in the region -- a measure made up of factors like wind speed, humidity and available fuel -- was significantly lower Thursday, a spokeswoman at the California Department of Forestry and Protection said. Residents of several communities, including the city of San Diego, were allowed to return home Wednesday and Thursday, but more evacuations were ordered -- the latest covering the communities of Lake Henshaw and Mesa Grande and the La Jolla Indian Reservation in San Diego County. With the shifting fires, some shelters closed as others opened closer to danger. In San Diego, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced that Qualcomm Stadium -- the home of NFL's Chargers that held 11,000 evacuees at the height of the fires but dropped to 750 Wednesday night -- would close to evacuees. \"As we transition from a large-scale emergency evacuation center into the recovery process, we have begun assisting all evacuees to find more suitable shelter and housing,\" Sanders said. \"Toward that end, Qualcomm will close as an emergency shelter at noon tomorrow [Friday].\" Meanwhile, arson investigations were under way in Orange and Riverside counties in connection with some of the wildfires. Watch how arson investigators look for clues \u00bb . The Orange County Sheriff's Department announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the 23,000-acre Santiago fire, local officials said. Watch the raging flames of the Santiago Fire \u00bb . \"For someone to even think about doing something as reprehensible as starting a fire, where they knew that the fire would grow as rapidly as it would, traveling about three, 3\u00bd miles in about an hour, is just, is really absolutely unconscionable,\" Orange County Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" The FBI and the ATF are assisting Orange County authorities with the investigation. In addition, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection considers the Rosa fire in Riverside County an arson case. That fire burned more than 400 acres before being fully contained. In other arson investigations, two men have been arrested in San Bernardino County, one in San Fernando and an adult and a juvenile in San Diego County. None are believed connected with the major fires burning in the area. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Qualcomm Stadium to close as an emergency shelter at noon Friday .\nCharred bodies of three men and a woman found near San Diego .\nMore than half of Southern California fires are fully contained .\nBush to fire victims: We're not going to forget you in Washington .","id":"1f40e358077ff22078a4e91e5114c4f86a4d52db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The commander of the nuclear-powered submarine USS Hampton has been relieved of his command amid an inquiry into misconduct by crew members, the U.S. Navy said Friday. The USS Hampton appears in an undated photograph. Cmdr. Michael B. Portland lost his post \"due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,\" the Navy said in a statement. Cmdr. William J. Houston will replace Portland. The crew neither maintained inspection records nor conducted the required inspection of chemical levels associated with the cooling system of the ship's nuclear reactor, Navy officials said. The crew then went back and falsified existing records to make it appear the work had been done. \"There is not, and never was, any danger to the crew or the public,\" the Navy said. Portland's demotion brings to 10 the number of people relieved of duty on the submarine in the wake of the misconduct probe. Six personnel have been punished for forging inspection records for the cooling system, the Navy officials said Monday. Those six -- one officer and five enlisted personnel -- received a \"nonjudicial punishment\" after other Navy personnel discovered their actions, the officials said. The Navy said Friday that one officer and two enlisted crew members have been temporarily reassigned to Submarine Squadron 11. Portland also will be temporarily reassigned to that squadron. The misconduct was discovered September 17 but not made public until after completion of an initial inquiry. A fact-finding investigation is under way, and further action against Navy crew members is possible, a Navy official said. The Hampton remains in port in San Diego, California. In all, the $900 million vessel's crew includes 13 officers and 116 enlisted personnel. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Navy says it has lost confidence in officer's ability to command .\nCrew members on sub disciplined for faking inspection records, Navy says .\nTen people have been relieved of duty; six received \"nonjudicial punishment\"","id":"a8ac682f29acaad4b669781c39fb2804374b8b2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bus hopped a highway median and crashed into a pickup truck before being broadsided by an 18-wheeler, Arkansas police said, killing the pickup driver and two bus riders. Two passengers were found dead inside the bus, said Arkansas State Police. Forty people were hurt in Sunday night's crash, which shut down a 13-mile stretch of Interstate-40 east of Forrest City, Arkansas, said state police spokesman Bill Sadler. The bus was westbound en route from Chicago, Illinois, to Dallas, Texas. The driver of the pickup truck -- identified as 30-year-old Danny Okurily of Hot Springs, Arkansas -- died at the scene of the accident, Sadler said. Bus driver Felix Tapia, 28, of Brownsville, Texas, and tractor-trailer driver David Rice, 45, of Mars Hill, North Carolina, suffered minor injuries, according to The Associated Press. Two passengers were also found dead inside the bus, he said. Their names were not released because authorities have not yet notified relatives, Sadler said. Several dozen injured passengers were taken to hospitals in Forrest City, Memphis and West Memphis, said police. The bus, which listed 44 passengers on its manifest, was owned and operated by the Tornado Bus Line, which is based in Dallas, Texas, Sadler said. The crash happened just after 10 p.m. CT about 10 miles east of Forrest City and about 40 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, Sadler said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bus driver, tractor-trailer trucker injured in 3-vehicle crash, AP reports .\nBus crossed median, hit pickup truck, then 18-wheeler, killing 3 .\nAll lanes of I-40 closed for 13 miles east of Forrest City, Arkansas .\nDriver of the pickup truck and two bus passengers killed, police say .","id":"d4474ce9da725c1540ac826f3247f53d086808fb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If someone had asked Kelly Pless to describe herself three years ago, the word \"fit\" would have never crossed her mind. Kelly Pless weighed 220 pounds at her heaviest. She lost 95 pounds through diet and exercise. For most of her adult life, the 31-year-old graduate student from Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, has struggled with her weight. She started gaining as a teenager and by the time she graduated from high school, she was carrying 215 pounds on her 5' 2\" frame. Prom, she says, was a nightmare. \"I had to go to three different stores to buy a dress,\" Pless said. \"I had to buy the biggest, also the ugliest, prom dress the store had because it was the only one that would fit.\" After high school, she lost 50 pounds. But because she hadn't done it in a healthy way, her weight crept back up to 220 pounds. At 28, she started having trouble breathing and doctors told her the weight was to blame. She reached her breaking point. \"I remember being heavy and feeling like being fit just wasn't something I could be,\" said Pless. \"I remember feeling like even if I tried, it wasn't something my body was capable of.\" Despite her doubts, Pless decided to do something. Fortunately she didn't have to look far for inspiration. See before and after weight loss photos from CNN.com I-Reporters \u00bb . \"My manager at the Kennedy Space Center ran marathons, and he was the same age as my father,\" she said. Because her own father had diabetes and was in poor health, he seemed much older, she said. Over the next three to four months, she began walking, without any real goal or expectation. Pless believed that if she just focused on eating less and moving more, everything would fall into place. \"At first, it was hard to start exercising because I was worried people would make fun of me,\" Pless said. \"But then I just told myself, if that's the worst that could happen ... I just got out there and didn't care.\" Eventually, she started to run or \"shuffle\" as she jokingly recalls. She also adopted an \"eat to live\" philosophy and satisfied her cravings for sweets by eating lots of fruit. \"I changed how I felt about food and what it meant to me,\" said Pless, who occasionally indulges in a bite of birthday cake or a piece of chocolate. \"One of the first things I cut out was cakes and cookies. That was my weak spot. After a few months of cutting those things out, I focused more on portion control,\" said Pless. \"I pretty much eat when I'm hungry and don't eat when I'm not and really try to pay attention to when those times are. Make sure I'm not eating out of boredom or [at] social events, I try to make sure I'm not overeating, just because everyone else is.\" Kelly Pless shares her weight loss secrets \u00bb . Pless pays close attention to societal pressure, which she believes is the reason many people overeat. Restaurant servings are about three times bigger than a normal portion size, she says. She makes sure she doesn't overeat when dining out simply because the food is there. \"What's hard is to change how you feel about foods that you love or that aren't necessarily good for you, or actually change how you look at food. That was the hardest part for me.\" Instead of giving in to the temptation or convenience of calorie-laden or fatty foods such as cheeseburgers from the drive-through, Pless asks herself, \"What do I really want to eat? Or, what does my body really want right now?\" All of the hard work and determination paid off. Pless has lost 95 pounds and kept it off for 1\u00bd years. As a result, she says, she's healthier and more confident. She's also set a new professional goal -- to pursue a doctorate in food and exercise psychology -- so she can help others who are battling obesity and eating disorders. \"[The] negative side to weight loss is that people treat people differently. Being fat was a good filter -- I'm automatically treated better by people because I'm thinner. Society is so hard on people who are overweight or obese,\" said Pless. \"Now, those people think I'm funnier or smarter.\" Pless runs about 40 miles a week while she trains for two marathons she plans to run this winter. The first is in November in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the second is in Miami, Florida, in January. Forty pounds ago, the first thing she wanted to do once she lost the weight was to have a tummy tuck to remove all of the loose skin. But now, she said she can't imagine taking the break from running that recovering from surgery would require. \"Running has become a constant for me and does so much more for me than maintain my weight, which is now about 125 pounds,\" said Pless. If her past is any indication of her future success, Pless will certainly cross the finish line. I-Report: Have you lost weight? Share your story, tips and photos E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kelly Pless started gaining as a teen and weighed 220 pounds at her heaviest .\nExercise and an \"eat to live\" eating philosophy helped her shed 95 pounds .\nPless started out walking but now runs 40 miles a week .\nShe is training to run two marathons this winter .","id":"e74db6d20c456740ecb7b295c8d24489fb4f436f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It was two years late and billions of dollars over budget, but this week the Singapore Airline-owned A380 completed its maiden passenger journey between Singapore and Sydney. Making history: the first double bed on a commercial jet . On board were nearly 500 passengers who had bid thousands of dollars for the historical experience. This was a turning point in aviation history as Airbus' superjumbo became the world's largest aircraft. And the time had finally come for it to receive some admiration. Singapore Airlines' CEO, Chew Choon Seng named the jetliner the \"queen of the skies\". Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus said he would like to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary on one of its double beds. And CNN's Richard Quest, who was on board the maiden flight, said there was \"nothing quite like it\". The luxury on board, he said, sets a new standard for air travel. It's the quietest large passenger jet ever built (inside and out), it has a low fuel-burn to reduce fuel use and emissions, it can carry 40 percent more passengers than other large aircraft and in greater comfort. But the feature that has attracted greatest interest on the Singapore Airlines A380 is its ''beyond first class\" cabins. Behind the sliding doors of the Singapore Airlines Suites, the well-heeled can luxuriate in a private cabin designed by leading French yacht designer, Jean-Jacques Coste. There's a wide leather seat and alongside that, a standalone bed. This is two meters long with Givenchy duvets and cushions. And for couples traveling, the beds on the middle two suites can be converted into double beds. From bed or chair, travelers can catch a movie on a 23-inch widescreen LCD. Laptops can be plugged into an in-seat power supply and business travelers with just a thumb drive can plug this into a USB ports and access a suite of office tools on Singapore Airlines' in-flight entertainment system. Celebrity chefs including Britain's Gordon Ramsay and Georges Blanc were behind the first class menu that can be eaten off Givenchy tableware. Unlike other airlines, that have considered offering casinos, gyms and showers on their future A380s, Singapore Airlines has opted instead for a configuration that, whilst offering luxury, also makes money. As Chew Choon Seng, CEO of Singapore Airlines reminded reporters last week, the first Boeing 747s soon ditched the lounges and bars on the upper decks in favor of seats that could generate cash. Behind the 12 luxury suites there are 399 economy seats, ranked 10-abreast on the upper and lower decks, as well as 60 business class seats that are the biggest yet at 87 centimeters wide. Singapore Airlines has ordered 19 superjumbos for an estimated price tag of $5.7 billion. The second is due to arrive next February with further deliveries later in 2008. Tickets for the A380's first return commercial flight between Singapore and Sydney were sold at auction on eBay. One passenger paid $100,000 for the experience, with the majority paying between $1,500 and $5,000. The $1.4 million raised has gone to charities in Singapore, Sydney and a global humanitarian organization. From Sunday 28 October, Singapore Airlines will commence its scheduled service between Singapore and Sydney on one of the three daily flights in each direction. The jetliner to be delivered next spring will be used on one of the three daily flights between Singapore and London's Heathrow Airport. It's been a long road to this point for Airbus, but the journey is by no means over. The airline has a tough delivery schedule ahead to fulfil its 185 orders to 15 customers (see figures below). Next year it plans to deliver 13, a further 25 in 2009 and 45 in 2010. Tom Enders, Airbus' CEO doesn't underestimate the scale of challenge ahead. \"This is not a piece of cake,\" he told CNN, \"but we have learned our lessons and we are very confident today that we can deliver to our customers.\" It hasn't just been Airbus that has been frantically preparing for the A380 launch. Airports around the world have had to make changes to runways and gates, as well as buy in new vehicles that can tow the giant aircraft and lift high enough to its upper decks. Seventy airports are now ready, Airbus has said. Singapore's Changi Airport, home to the Singapore Airlines A380 fleet, was the first, and when its new Terminal 3 opens early next year, 19 gates across the three terminals will be A380-ready with aerobridge access to both decks. Heathrow's new Terminal 5 will be able to handle four A380s at one time. British Airways, the Terminal's sole occupant, recently confirmed an order for 12 superjumbos and it now wants BAA to upgrade a satellite building to be built next to Terminal 5 to accommodate them. As Willie Walsh, BA's CEO told CNN, \"we want to make sure that development is built with the A380 in mind.\" But whether the arrival of the A380 sets a standard for future air travel is still undecided. As CNN's Richard Quest points out, while these giant airplanes may be suitable for getting large numbers of people between key destinations quickly, demand could be even higher for the medium-size jets such as Boeing's up-coming 787 Dreamliner. As Richard Quest says, \"there's no doubt the A380 will sell, but it is going to take a long time to reach the 420 sales which is the amount Airbus needs to make money.\" But those worries, he adds, are for another day. Thursday was a day for celebration. SOME KEY FIGURES . Orders . Total: 185 orders (165 firm orders) 15 customers . Emirates: 47 Qantas: 20 Singapore Airlines: 19 Lufthansa: 15 Air France: 12 British Airways: 12 ILFC: 10 Emirates: 8 Virgin Atlantic: 6 Thai Airways: 6 Malaysia Airlines: 6 Qatar: 5 Kingfisher: 5 Korean Air: 5 China Southern: 5 Etihad: 4 . Delivery schedule . 1 in 2007 13 in 2008 25 in 2009 45 in 2010 . The Aircraft . Wingspan: 79.8 meters (747 - 64.4 meters) Length: 73 meters or seven London buses in a row (747 - 70.7 meters) Height: 24.1 meters (747 - 19.4 meters) Internal cabin width: 6.58 meters (747 - 6.1 meters) Seats: 555 (747 - 416) Flight range: 15,000 kilometers (747 - 13,450 kilometers) Wiring: 500 kilometers . Ideal routes . SIN-LHR DXB-LHR SYD-LAX CDG-NRT JFK-NRT . Ticket sales for maiden passenger trip between Singapore and Sydney Top ticket price: US$100,380 The bargain: US$560 for a single economy seat E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Singapore Airlines A380 superjumbo completes historic maiden flight .\nLuxury first class cabins have separate leather seats and double beds .\nOne passenger paid $100,000 for the first Singapore to Sydney trip .","id":"d79b790edcc3f5088161445102a656ae4adb8ab1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The illegal export of U.S. military technology to Iran and China poses a growing threat, the Justice Department said Thursday as it announced plans to combat the practice. Iran is the only country still flying the F-14 Tomcat. The department said the United States will tighten monitoring of export licenses and increase export restrictions on technologies that could have both civilian and military applications and could pose a danger to U.S. national security in the hands of terrorists or potential enemies. \"China and Iran pose particular U.S. export control concerns,\" the Justice Department said in a statement issued Thursday. \"Recent prosecutions have highlighted illegal exports of stealth missile technology, military aircraft components, naval warship data, night vision equipment, and other restricted technology destined for China or Iran.\" Representatives of more than a half dozen federal agencies will jointly announce their plans at a Justice Department news conference Thursday. Officials plan to highlight two recent cases. In the past week a Pittsburgh company, SparesGlobal Inc., was sentenced for lying about an illegal export of products that can be used in nuclear reactions and in the nose cones of ballistic missiles. The products ended up in Pakistan after being routed from the United Arab Emirates. In Utah, two men were charged last week with attempting to illegally export restricted components for F-4 and F-14 fighter jets. F-14 components are widely sought by Iran, which is the only military in the world that still flies the jet. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Illegal exports to Iran, China an increasing problem, Justice Department says .\nPittsburgh company cited for export of products with nuclear applications .\nUtah men charged with attempting to illegally export jet fighter parts .","id":"47f028dbf53e028eb6636c85d8b3ee0de6a1de7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Behind the state banquet and smiles from Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia's visit to London this week caused a wave of dissent. The UK political elite boycotted events. Demonstrators lined the Mall. The UK foreign secretary pulled out of a meeting with his Saudi counterpart to be with his new adopted son. And just days before he arrived, the Saudi King accused British officials of ignoring information that could have averted the terror attacks in London on July 2005. Whether the politics of the event were a success is open to debate. But this was just part of the story. The Saudis were also in town to cement a strong trading and business relationship that has developed between the two Kingdoms over the last 20 years. Saudi Arabia is the UK's largest trading partner in the Middle East. And behind the USA, the UK is the second largest foreign investor in the Kingdom. UK Trade & Investment has designated Saudi Arabia one of its 17 \"High Growth Markets\" along with UAE and Qatar in the region. As the nation diversifies its economy away from oil, commercial opportunities for UK thrive in a variety of sectors. Saudi Arabia is currently planning six privately-developed economic cities. The $26.6 billion King Abdullah Economic City -- the largest of these -- will create one million jobs and home to two million residents. The aim, says the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, is to boost the economy by creating a pro-business environment, and attracting investors and fostering investment opportunities. The UK has, since the early 1990s, been one of the top five exporters to Saudi Arabia, behind USA, Germany, China and Japan. In 2007, Saudi Arabian bank SABB predicts that UK exports to the Kingdom will increase by more than 5.5 per cent to reach $2.8 billion. While the balance of trade continues to be favor of the British, Saudi Arabia's exports to Britain are also gaining ground and closing the trade gap. This year, exports to Britain are expected to reach a record high of $2.1 billion, says SABB. And this isn't all about oil. In the 1980s, three quarters of Saudi exports to the UK were from oil, but today the non-oil sector accounts for 59 percent of exports. Products being shipped to the UK include machinery, transport equipment, plastics, non-metallic minerals and, despite the UK's dominance in the sector, chemicals. According to SABB, there are also more than 150 Saudi-British joint ventures underway with a value of around $15 billion. As John Sfakianakis, chief economist from SABB says, state visits such as this are important for bolstering trade talks, past and future. \"The biggest deal that will mark their relationship in trade is the purchase of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon Jets that was sealed last week,\" says Sfakianakis. The contract between the Kingdom and the UK Ministry of Defence via BAE is worth over almost $10 billion for the aircraft alone and a further $19 billion for the deployment, maintenance and training. This comes less than a year after the UK government decided to call off a Serious Fraud Office investigation into defense contracts with Saudi Arabia. This probe related to the sale of weapons by BAE Systems to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. BAE has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and making payments to Saudi royals to win business. But as Sfakianakis points out, any political sensitivity surrounding the visit is unlikely to harm future trading relationships between the nations. \"The relationship is far deeper than that,\" he says. \"Saudi Arabia's economy is booming and the opportunities businessmen see here are immense. Everything else takes a subsidiary part in that.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Saudi Arabia is the UK's largest trading partner in the Middle East .\nBritain is also the second largest foreign investor in the Kingdom .\nThe UK has been one of the top five exporters to Saudi Arabia since the 1990s .\nExports to Britain are expected to reach a record high in the non-oil sector .","id":"5f7a869908e864b70e83282b289ed1274c1f7f0d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of Congolese refugees fled camps Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo as rebel troops attacked government forces in the area, the U.N. refugee agency said. Refugees move along a road Tuesday in Mugunga, near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A press release from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it didn't appear rebels had targeted the camps, but it reported some were looted after camp residents, classified as internally displaced persons, fled. Roads to Goma, about 10 miles from the camps, were crowded with refugees and local residents fleeing the fighting, the UNHCR reported. Torrential rain made the movement even more difficult. \"The main road toward Sake was crowded with people; we had difficulties getting through,\" UNHCR field safety adviser Pierre Nazroo was quoted as saying in the agency's release. \"Internally displaced people are moving from site to site, direction Goma.\" UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said, \"They have been living in extremely difficult conditions anyway. Now they have nothing but what they can carry.\" Redmond added, \"These are people in poor health; they are soaking wet because of the torrential downpours. They need shelter, they need water, they need a lot of assistance so we're going to have to move quickly to get that help to them because a lot of them are already in a weakened state.\" While the Congolese government accused troops under rebel general Laurent Nkunda of staging the attack, a Nkunda spokesman denied the allegation, according to a report from the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a U.N.-affiliated news service. The spokesman, Bwambale Kakolele, said Rwandan Hutu rebels who also operate in the area were behind the attack, that report said. A spokesman for the U.N. military mission in the Congo said it was uncertain which group attacked the Congo army outpost near the village of Kishangazi, according to the U.N.-affiliated news service. \"We think it could have been insurgents close to Nkunda who attacked, but we cannot rule out the [Rwandan rebels],\" spokesman Col. Pierre Cherayron was quoted as saying. The UNHCR identified the affected camps as Mugunga I, Mugunga II, Lac Vert and Bulengo, saying about 28,000 had abandoned the first three camps and about 2,000 had left Bulengo. The UNHCR said 375,000 Congolese in North Kivu province have been forced from their homes in the past year. In the past two months alone, 160,000 have fled their homes amid the fighting between renegade troops and government forces, the agency said. North Kivu is in eastern Congo near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda. Congolese President Joseph Kabila has tried to gain a cease-fire with the rebels in the area under Nkunda, but fighting continues as hard-liners among the rebels and in the government have blocked reconciliation efforts, according to the International Crisis Group, an nongovernmental organization looking for solutions to conflicts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Congo rebels blame Rwandan Hutus for attack, report says .\nInternally displaced Congolese flee as rebels attack government troops .\nTorrential rain makes refugee movement difficult .\nU.N. refugee agency: Some 375,000 have been forced from homes in past year .","id":"59a9e7cad1c4c873738dda62b7e7b39bc2553710"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Genarlow Wilson, freed last week from a Georgia prison, said he's glad he rejected a plea deal from prosecutors, even if it would have sprung him from prison months earlier. Genarlow Wilson tells CNN on Sunday that he will be more conservative and alert in the future. The 21-year-old, who served two years of a 10-year sentence for aggravated child molestation, said the prospect of being labeled a sex offender drove him to turn down the deal. He had to think about his 9-year-old sister and having a family of his own one day, he said Sunday. \"It might've been lesser time, but then again, I would have nowhere to go because I would have no home,\" Wilson said during a CNN interview scheduled to air Monday at 8 p.m. \"I wouldn't be able to stay with my mother because I have a little sister. You know, when you're a sex offender you can't be around kids. Basically, I can't even have kids myself, you know, so what is the point of life?\" he asked. In 2005, a jury found Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a 2003 New Year's Eve party. Wilson was 17 at the time of the party. Watch Wilson say why he rejected the plea deal \u00bb . The conviction carried a 10-year mandatory prison sentence and a sex offender designation. According to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, prosecutors in Douglas County, Georgia, offered Wilson a plea deal that would have reduced his sentence, possibly to time served, and would have eventually removed the conviction and sex offender status from his record. Defense attorney B.J. Bernstein said in June that Wilson rejected the deal because he didn't want to plead guilty to a felony with a 15-year sentence. The state Legislature last year amended the law under which Wilson was convicted, making such sexual encounters misdemeanors. However, the Legislature did not make the law retroactive, so it had no effect on Wilson's sentence. Now 21, Wilson was released Friday after the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the young man's sentence \"constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.\" Wilson said Sunday he feels no \"negative energy\" toward District Attorney David McDade, who fought efforts to have Wilson's sentence reduced. Instead, Wilson said, he is focused on the future and hopes to soon immerse himself in his college studies. He wants to major in sociology, he said, \"because I feel like I've been living my major.\" The new Genarlow Wilson will be more conservative, more alert and more appreciative of the blessings bestowed upon him, he said. \"When it seems like you have everything, you know, you feel like you have no worries until it's all gone, and I know what it feels like to be without and I don't want to ever feel like that again,\" said the former honor student, football star and homecoming king. \"I don't ever want to see the inside of a prison or a prison, period.\" Though he called his sentence \"absurd,\" Wilson said he understands that prosecutors \"were doing their job and they felt they were carrying out the law.\" Wilson also said he knows what he did was foolish. \"I was young then. I did some idiotic things in my teen years, but you know, every average teen does,\" he said. \"I don't think any of us made very wise decisions, but I don't think that any of us can go back then and change what happened.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Genarlow Wilson: Accepting plea deal would have left him without a home .\nWilson, 21, promises to be more conservative, alert and thankful in future .\nHe plans to study sociology in college -- \"I feel like I've been living my major\"\nWilson served two years in prison after consensual oral sex with teen girl .","id":"c47db89f5f9de3e599e2947ab7940eb65be0b433"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general was all but assured Friday when two key Democratic senators said they will vote in favor of the nominee despite questions about his views on \"waterboarding\" and the president's power to order electronic surveillance. Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York announced they would support the retired federal judge from New York just hours after the chairman of the Judiciary Committee announced his opposition to the nominee. Feinstein and Schumer are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on the Mukasey nomination Tuesday. If all the Republican members of the committee also vote for Mukasey, which is expected, his nomination will go before the full Senate. A leading Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday Mukasey is likely to be confirmed if his nomination passes the Judiciary Committee. Schumer had praised the nomination of Mukasey as a consensus candidate when the president announced Mukasey as his choice to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales gave up the post in September. \"This is an extremely difficult decision,\" Schumer said. \"When an administration so political, so out of touch with the realities of governing and so contemptuous of the rule of law is in charge, we are never left with an ideal choice. Judge Mukasey is not my ideal choice. However, Judge Mukasey, whose integrity and independence is respected even by those who oppose him, is far better than anyone could expect from this administration.\" A number of Democratic senators, however, have said they will oppose Mukasey because of questions about his views on the interrogation technique called \"waterboarding\" and the president's power to order electronic surveillance. Waterboarding involves restraining a suspect and using water to produce the sensation of drowning. Mukasey told senators this week that he finds waterboarding \"repugnant,\" but he could not answer whether the technique amounts to torture. While saying \"serious questions have been raised about Judge Mukasey's views on torture and on separation of powers,\" Feinstein said she would support the nominee because the Justice Department needed fresh leadership. \"First and foremost, Michael Mukasey is not Alberto Gonzales. Rather, he has forged an independent life path as a practitioner of the law and a federal judge in the Southern District of New York. \"I believe that Judge Mukasey is the best we will get and voting him down would only perpetuate acting and recess appointments, allowing the administration to avoid the transparency that confirmation hearings provide and diminish effective oversight by Congress.\" Just hours before Feinstein and Schumer announced their decisions, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, announced he would vote against the Mukasey nomination. Watch Sen. Leahy explain why he can't support the Mukasey nomination \u00bb . \"No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture,\" Leahy said. \"Waterboarding was used at least as long ago as the Spanish Inquisition. We prosecuted Japanese war criminals for waterboarding after World War II. \"I am eager to restore strong leadership and independence to the Department of Justice. I like Michael Mukasey. I wish that I could support his nomination. But I cannot. America needs to be certain and confident of the bedrock principle -- deeply embedded in our laws and our values -- that no one, not even the president, is above the law.\" President Bush demanded the Senate confirm Mukasey during a speech Thursday at the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank. \"In a time of war, it's vital for the president to have a full national security team in place,\" the president said. The president has equated asking Mukasey about his opinion of waterboarding with asking him about the CIA-run interrogation program, whose details are classified. Bush said the program does not violate U.S. bans on torture, but added that Mukasey \"does not want an uninformed opinion to be taken by our professional interrogators in the field as placing them in legal jeopardy.\" But Leahy said \"Judge Mukasey was not asked to evaluate any secret 'facts and circumstances.' \" \"He was asked whether waterboarding is illegal. Our law makes torture illegal, and waterboarding is torture, and it is illegal. It is frankly not dependent on any, quote, 'relevant facts and circumstances of the technique's past or proposed use,' \" he said, quoting from Mukasey's response to senators on the question. Sources with knowledge of the CIA-run interrogation program have said agents are no longer using waterboarding. But those sources have said waterboarding was used in the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, now facing trial before a military tribunal for planning al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The practice was used by the Spanish Inquisition, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and the World War II Japanese military, according to Human Rights Watch. It is specifically banned in U.S. law governing the treatment of prisoners by the U.S. military. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Feinstein, Schumer say they'll vote for attorney general nominee .\nMichael Mukasey's nomination now expected to pass Judiciary Committee .\nSen. Patrick Leahy says he will not vote to confirm Michael Mukasey .\nCommittee scheduled to vote on nomination on Tuesday .","id":"a74c3ff540cb154fc1294fd9d48b6a952329722b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nine people were killed and 19 injured after a tour bus carrying people on a ski trip left a highway and rolled over Sunday night in southeastern Utah, a highway patrol spokesman said. The seats of the bus that rolled over are exposed to the snow at the crash site in southeastern Utah on Monday. At least 50 people were on the Arrow Stage Lines bus when it crashed on state Highway 163, about five miles north of Mexican Hat, at 7:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET), said Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Cameron Roden. Troopers reported the road was wet but not icy, he said. The bus was traveling south from Telluride, Colorado, to Phoenix, Arizona, when it left the right side of the highway and rolled over, Roden said. See where the crash occurred \u00bb . Police said the bus lost control on a curve, ran off the road and rolled over several times, tumbling 41 feet down an embankment, according to The Associated Press. \"When the vehicle was overturning, the roof of the bus split open and multiple occupants of the vehicle were ejected,\" Roden told the AP. Watch how the crash left the bus a mangled hulk \u00bb . Rescue crews took the injured people to hospitals in Utah, Colorado and Arizona, he said. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that ambulances from Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico responded to the accident, and a helicopter from Colorado could not fly to the crash site because of winter storms. Four of the dead were male and five were female, the Utah Highway Patrol said. Most of the passengers were returning home from a weekend ski trip to Telluride, he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN Radio's Barbara Hall contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Death toll rises to nine as tour bus runs off highway, rolls over .\nBus was carrying at least 50 people when it crashed in southeastern Utah .\nBus was en route from Telluride, Colorado, to Phoenix, Arizona, after weekend ski trip .","id":"f5692f8e01389a631dadcb70cfd4be3ff0ae45d3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Banksy is Britain's most wanted artist -- his art sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he continues to use public spaces as his main canvas, while all the time keeping his identity a secret. Banksy's latest piece in East London where a passer-by claims to have taken a photo of the artist. The guerilla artist has been spray painting his stencils around Britain and further afield for over ten years. Last week ten of his original pieces were sold at Bonham's auction house in London for over $1 million, while on the other side of the city Tower Hamlets council authority pledged to remove his graffiti from its streets. From his beginnings as a graffiti artist in Bristol, England, Banksy has become the darling of the art world for his subversive and satirical public art. Depicting things such as riot police with smiley acid-house faces and camera-wielding rats, his work is now sold now by major art galleries. Lazarides Gallery in London is one of the main dealers of his work and describes him as \"a media star...but popular long before any of this high-profile activity -- simply because the people love his stuff.\" While he set out to lampoon the establishment, he has now been wholeheartedly embraced by it. Fans include Hollywood A-listers, including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera who bought three of his prints in 2006, including one of Queen Victoria sitting on a woman's face. The recent sales of his work put him on a par with Jean-Michel Basquiat as the best-selling street artist. He is feted by art dealers and artists, including Damien Hirst, but he regularly mocks the art world that is so enthralled by him with ingenious stunts such as hanging his own work in the Tate gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It took the British Museum eight days to discover the \"prehistoric\" rock painting of a man with a shopping trolley in the British Museum Banksy has hung on a wall. There is often a political message with this work, too. He left an inflatable doll dressed as a Guantanamo prisoner in Disneyland and painted a hole with blue sky on the Palestinian side of the West Bank wall. Despite the huge popularity and exposure of his work, Banksy's identity remains a mystery. As he operates on the fringes of the law with his guerilla art it makes sense, but also adds to his mystique. Some things are know: he's originally from Bristol, is around 30 years old and called Robert or Robin Banks, but it's been reported that even his parents are thought to believe that he makes his living as a painter and decorator. He continues to divide opinion as to whether his work is vandalism or public art. Veteran British art critic Brian Sewell called Banksy, \"a complete clown, and what he does has absolutely nothing to do with art.\" Bristol city council has recognized the popularity and artistic merit of his work by protecting a number of pieces around the city. Other local authorities don't feel the same way. Tower Hamlets and Hackney councils in London have pledged to remove his graffiti from their streets. His latest work painted on a wall in East London -- a man in overalls resting next to a giant flower drawn as a continuation from the double yellow lines on the road -- is thought to be the artist's response. But this latest piece may also have revealed what the artist actually looks like. A passer-by took a photo of what is thought to be the artist at work. A spokesperson for Banksy refused to confirm it was him, but did say it was definitely his work. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"British graphic artist's identity remains a mystery despite huge popularity .\nFeted by the art world and Hollywood celebrities count among his collectors .\nDespite popularity local authorities have removed his public works .","id":"467e1b592518a5660d0a3b7eda24ef9574fe0d11"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The garbage crisis in Naples encompasses the worst Italian clich\u00e9s, and in particular those of the southern part of this lovely peninsula: mismanagement, political interference, mafia profiteering and the ability of those responsible to deflect the attention and the blame elsewhere. Naples has had problems in finding sites for municipal dumps -- now workers have stopped collecting trash. There is a popular saying here that roughly goes like this: everybody is competent enough (to find a solution) but nobody is responsible (for actually carrying it out). In many parts of the world waste disposal is a business -- and usually it is a good business. Garbage can be transformed into various sources of energy and then sold for a profit. In Naples, garbage is also good business, but in the sense that millions, if not billions, of euros have been wasted -- and nobody really knows how. The problem is as old and ugly as rotten trash. The region's dumps reached full capacity more than a decade ago, and since then a state of emergency has been declared every year. Eight different commissioners have been appointed, but they have all failed to solve the problem. State of emergency means government money: \u20ac1.8 billion (more than $2.5 billion) in emergency funds have been devolved to deal with the problem. It is still difficult to find out where or how that money has been spent. Incinerators that were supposed to be built were never finished, either because the companies in charge of constructing them could not finish the job, or else because magistrates stopped the work, pending ongoing criminal investigations into alleged mafia involvement. One Italian newspaper suggested that a good 20% of the money went to pay for the salaries of those in charge of coming up with a solution to the problem. More worrying perhaps, is another suggestion: that the local mafia, known as the Camorra, is taking advantage of the situation. As the crisis has worsened over the years, so the Camorra's profits, estimated now at around \u20ac1 billion (roughly $1.45 billion), are alleged to have increased. How does the local mafia make money? The Naples prosecutor in charge of environmental crimes says city government officials use the state of emergency to quickly award contracts which otherwise would have to be checked by complicated anti-racketeering legislation. Once they receive the money, companies linked to the underworld dispose of the waste either in the open or, ironically, at regular city dumps, even if they are overflowing. The mafia clans have now managed to burrow their way so deeply into the system that every attempt to fix the problem has proved futile. But why are citizens protesting now? Well, the government wants to re-open a previously shut dump to dispose of 3,700 tons of waste which is laying in the streets of Naples and surrounding areas. The problem is that when the site was closed years ago, locals were promised that a golf course would be built there. As a result, many residents invested savings to construct apartments and residences in the vicinity -- in some cases just a few yards away from the site. They are now waking up to a mountain of trash instead of 18 holes. A rotten deal indeed. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rubbish is piling up on the streets of Naples, with municipal dumps full .\nMany commentators question the role of the local mafia in the award of contracts .\nMore than $2.5B in emergency funds has been spent on the problem over the years .\nOne dump was going to be a golf course -- residents furious it is being re-opened .","id":"61acf6de75325370728f6e290bafb01adc24a3ca"} -{"article":"CHEBARKUL, Russia (Reuters) -- President Vladimir Putin said on Friday security threats had forced Russia to revive the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on regular patrols beyond its borders. A Russian strategic bomber flies over an airfield outside Moscow during an air show. Putin said 14 strategic bombers had taken off simultaneously from airfields across Russia in the early hours of Friday on long-range missions. \"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis,\" Putin told reporters after inspecting joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains. \"Today, August 17 at 00:00 hours, 14 strategic bombers took to the air from seven airfields across the country, along with support and refueling aircraft ... From today such patrols will be carried out on a regular basis. \"We hope our partners will treat this with understanding.\" At U.S. President George W. Bush's Texas ranch, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said he did not believe the flights posed a threat to the United States. \"Militaries around the world engage in a variety of activities, so this is not entirely surprising,\" he said. But the sorties are likely to add to Western concern about Russia's growing assertiveness. That trend has prompted some U.S. policymakers to draw parallels with the Cold War. Putin caused a stir this year by saying Russian missiles would once again be aimed at targets in Europe if Washington persisted with plans to build a missile defense shield in eastern Europe. Russian diplomats have clashed with the United States and European governments on issues such as Kosovo, energy, and Moscow's treatment of its ex-Soviet neighbors. Western military leaders have said this year that Russian flights near their airspace were becoming more frequent after a long quiet period. One Western defense official called the flights \"a little bit of chest-pounding, trying to let people know Russia is back in the game\". Putin said that when Russia had cut its flights in 1992, other military powers had not reciprocated. \"Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation,\" Putin said. That appeared to be a swipe at the U.S. and NATO, whose strategic bombers have continued to fly long-range missions. As Putin spoke to reporters and television cameras, four Russian military helicopters appeared and hovered in the background while Russian tanks trundled behind him, even though the exercises had ended long before. During the Cold War, Russian long-range bombers, which can carry strategic nuclear weapons, played elaborate games of cat-and-mouse with Western air forces. Earlier this month Russian air force generals said bomber crews had flown near the Pacific island of Guam, where the U.S. military has a base, and \"exchanged smiles\" with U.S. pilots scrambled to track them. The Pentagon said the Russian aircraft had not come close enough to U.S. ships to prompt American aircraft to react. In July, two Russian Tu-95 \"Bear\" bombers made unusually long sorties over the North Sea, leading Norway and Britain to scramble fighter jets to follow them. Russia's air force said later it was a routine flight. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Russia to send bomber aircraft on long-range flights on a permanent basis .\nPresident Vladimir Putin said the move was in response to security threats .\nThe White House says the flights do not pose a threat to the United States .","id":"172d2668b011501c20181b4925ebb6ba582f9a2f"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- 1. The Hamburger -- Louis' Lunch, New Haven, Connecticut . This burger did not come from Louis' so ketchup is OK. There are competing claims for the coveted \"Inventor of the Hamburger\" title, but according to Louis' Lunch (and the Library of Congress, for that matter), this small New Haven restaurant takes the prize. The story goes something like this: One day in 1900, a rushed businessman asked owner Louis Lassen for something quick that he could eat on the run. Lassen cooked up a beef patty, put it between some bread, and sent the man on his way. Pretty modest beginnings for arguably the most popular sandwich of all-time, huh? If you visit Louis' today, you'll find that not much has changed. The Lassen family still owns and operates the restaurant, the burgers are still cooked in ancient gas stoves, and, just like then, there is absolutely no ketchup allowed. 2. The Fried Twinkie -- The ChipShop, Brooklyn, New York . Sometimes what counts isn't being the inventor, it's being the innovator. Take the fried Twinkie, for example. The Twinkie -- in all its indestructible glory-- has been around for ages, but when ChipShop owner Christopher Sell had the brilliant idea to freeze the snack, dip it in batter, and deep-fry it, the Twinkie took gluttony to new heights. Even The New York Times raved about how \"something magical\" happens when you taste the deep-fried Twinkie's \"luscious vanilla flavor.\" Sell, who was trained in classical French cuisine, didn't start with the Twinkie, though. In his native England, he fried up everything from M&M's to Mars bars. 3. Root Beer Float -- Myers Avenue Red Soda Co., Cripple Creek, Colorado . If you thought what happened up on Cripple Creek only happened in song, you're sorely mistaken. In August of 1893, a failed gold-miner-turned-soda-company-owner named Frank J. Wisner was drinking a bottle of his Myers Avenue Red root beer while looking up at Cow Mountain. Just then, a full moon illuminated the snowcap on the otherwise black mountain, and Wisner had a brilliant idea -- float a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass of his root beer. The new drink was christened the \"black cow\" and became an instant classic. Today, of course, most of us call it a root beer float. 4. Corn Dogs -- Cozy Dog Drive In, Springfield, Illinois . In 1946, Ed Waldmire, Jr., revolutionized the stick-meat world when he debuted the Cozy Dog -- the first corn dog on a stick. At first, he wanted to call his creation the \"Crusty Cur,\" but his wife convinced him to change the name to \"Cozy Dog.\" She felt people wouldn't want to eat something described as \"crusty.\" Good call, Mrs. Waldmire. Shortly after the Cozy Dog's inception, the Cozy Dog Drive In opened alongside old Route 66 and has been serving up corn dogs ever since. 5. The Pizzeria -- Lombardi's, New York City, New York . Pizza has existed in one form or another for a long time, but America got her first true pizzeria when Gennaro Lombardi opened up a small grocery store in New York City's Little Italy. An employee named Anthony \"Totonno\" Pero started selling pizzas out of the back, and in no time, Lombardi's was concentrating on its burgeoning pizza business instead of plain old groceries. In 1905, the establishment was licensed as a pizzeria, and it's stayed that way ever since. Well, almost. The original restaurant closed in 1984 but reopened down the street 10 years later. On its 100th anniversary in 2005, Lombardi's decided to offer its pizza for the same price it'd been sold for in 1905 -- 5 cents a pie. Needless to say, the line wrapped around the block. 6. Fat Darrell -- R.U. Hungry, New Brunswick, New Jersey . You may not know what the Fat Darrell is, but when you hear what it contains, you'll understand why it's truly a work of inspired genius. Since 1979, Rutgers University has played host to a collection of mobile food vans collectively known as the \"Grease Trucks.\" Originally, they served a sandwich called the Fat Cat, which contained two cheeseburger patties, French fries, lettuce, tomato, and onions. Then one night in 1997, a hungry (and broke) student named Darrell W. Butler convinced one of the vendors to put chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, French fries, and marinara sauce on a sandwich. Strangely, the concoction sounded so appetizing that the next 10 people in line ordered it, and the Fat Darrell became a mainstay at the Grease Trucks. Hey, not any old sandwich gets to be named Maxim magazine's top \"Meat Hog\" sandwich. 7. Philly Cheesesteak -- Pat's King Of Steaks, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Philadelphia is known for many things (Ben Franklin, the Liberty Bell, and Rocky, for starters), but fine dining is not really its forte. That's OK, though, because Philly is the home of Pat's King of Steaks, and Pat's King of Steaks is where the Philly cheesesteak was born. One day back in 1932, hot dog stand owners Pasquale (Pat) and Harry Olivieri decided to change things up and make a steak sandwich with onions. A cab driver who ate at Pat's daily insisted on trying the new sandwich, and with the first bite declared, \"Hey, forget 'bout those hot dogs, you should sell these!\" Cab drivers know fast food about as well as anyone, so the brothers did just what the cabbie suggested. In no time, the modest stand turned into the Pat's that exists today. Controversy remains, however, over who's responsible for putting the cheese in cheesesteak. Pat's claims it was the first to do so (in 1951), but across-the-street rival Joe Vento of Geno's Steaks (opened 1966) insists he added the finishing touches. 8. Onion Rings -- Pig Stand, Dallas, Texas . According to most sources, the onion ring was invented when a careless cook at a Pig Stand location in Dallas accidentally dropped an onion slice in some batter, then pulled it out and tossed it in the fryer for lack of a better destination. Now, you'd think inventing the onion ring would be enough for one restaurant chain, but not Pig Stand. The company also lays claim to opening America's first drive-in, inventing Texas toast, and being one of the first restaurants to advertise using neon signs. Not bad for a little outfit from Texas. 9. Derby Pie -- Melrose Inn, Prospect, Kentucky . A Kentucky favorite, derby pie is a chocolate and pecan tart with a pastry-dough crust -- and that's about all we know about it. Why? Because the recipe is jealously guarded by the Kern family. Melrose Inn manager George Kern created derby pie in the mid-1950s with help from his parents, Walter and Leaudra, and the dessert was such a hit that the family was soon baking the treat full-time. In fact, Mrs. Kern, being the crafty monopolist she was, copyrighted the name, and to this day, you can only get real \"Derby-Pie\u00ae\" through Kern's Kitchen, Inc. Not only that, but a man from New England once handed Leaudra a blank check for the recipe so that his daughter could make the pie at home. She refused.I E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Famous American foods created across United States .\nConnecticut diner claims creation of the hamburger .\nOnion rings were courtesy of cook at Pig Stand in Texas .\nFat Darrell came from \"Grease Trucks\" at Rutgers University .","id":"314c7c0104eb4113074619b3b3f1e9356114e2f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Azerbaijan recently uncovered a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Baku, prompting the facility to close its doors to the public Monday, Azerbaijan and U.S. officials told CNN. The Bibi Heybat Mosque, just outside the capital Baku. As a precaution, Britain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday \"following security concerns nearby,\" Britain's Foreign Office said. The terror plot was unraveled after a weekend raid outside Baku that netted several suspected members of the radical group, two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified and a spokesman for Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry told CNN. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that the details \"are still unfolding,\" and the threat \"may or may not be\" linked to the Saturday raid. \"There were some specific and credible threat information concerning the embassy and plans by militants to in some way do harm to individuals in and around the U.S. Embassy there,\" McCormack said, noting that no specific individuals were targeted. Several days ago, an Azerbaijani army officer who had connections to a radical Islamic group seized four assault rifles, a machine gun and 20 hand grenades from his military unit and hid them in the outskirts of Baku, the ministry spokesman and U.S. officials said. Government security forces tracked down the group and arrested several members during a sweep on Saturday in the village of Mastaga, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Baku, the spokesman said. One suspected member of the militant group resisted arrest and was killed in the sweep, the spokesman said. Several others are still at large, he added. He said the terror plot also targeted Azerbaijani government buildings. The U.S. Embassy in Baku issued a warden message warning Americans in Azerbaijan to take precautions. \"While there is no information at this time that other American or Western interests in Azerbaijan are being targeted, the U.S. Embassy encourages Americans to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security,\" it said. Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic that borders the Caspian Sea, and lies just north of Iran. McCormack said U.S. authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Baku and will determine when normal embassy operations will resume. He said he expects the embassy to limit its operations on Tuesday, as well. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Igor Malakhov in Moscow, Zain Verjee in Washington and Roger Clark in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Authorities uncover a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. embassy in Baku .\nThe United States has reduced its embassy's operations .\nBritain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday .","id":"e66546893c2fa5fe38be74e1d1ed104f0c412b4d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The crew members of a North Korean freighter regained control of their ship from pirates who hijacked the vessel off Somalia, but not without a deadly fight, the U.S. Navy reported Tuesday. The USS James E. Williams ordered pirates to give up their weapons, the Navy says. When the battle aboard the Dai Hong Dan was over, two pirates were dead and five were captured, the Navy said. Three wounded crew members from the cargo ship were being treated aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams. The captured pirates were being held aboard the North Korean vessel, the Navy said. The bandits had seized the ship's bridge, while the crew kept control of the steering gear and engines, the Navy said. The Koreans moved against the attackers after the Williams -- responding to reports of the hijacking -- ordered the pirates to give up their weapons, according to the Navy. When the crew members stormed the bridge, the deadly battle began. After the crew regained control, Navy sailors boarded the Dai Hong Dan to help with the injured. North Korea and the United States have no diplomatic relations. Watch why the U.S. helped the North Koreans \u00bb . The incident took place about 70 miles northeast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the Navy said. It is the second incident of piracy reported in recent days. A second U.S. Navy destroyer was searching waters off Somalia for pirates who hijacked a Japanese-owned ship, military officials said. Over the weekend, gunmen aboard two skiffs hijacked the Panamanian-flagged Golden Nori off the Socotra archipelago near the Horn of Africa, said Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for the Kenyan-based Seafarers' Assistance Program. The guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke has been pursuing the pirates after entering Somali waters with the permission of the troubled transitional government in Mogadishu, U.S. officials said Monday. In recent years, warships have stayed outside the 12-mile limit when chasing pirates. Two military officials familiar with the details confirmed the ongoing operation. The Navy's pursuit of the pirates began Sunday night when the Golden Nori radioed for help. The Burke's sister ship, the USS Porter, opened fire and sank the pirate skiffs tied to the Golden Nori's stern before the Burke took over shadowing the hijacked vessel. When the shots were fired, it was not known the ship was filled with highly flammable benzene. U.S. military officials indicate there is a great deal of concern about the cargo because it is so sensitive. Benzene, which U.S. authorities have declared a known human carcinogen, is used as a solvent and to make plastics and synthetic fabrics. Four other ships in the region remain in pirate hands, the Navy said. U.S. and NATO warships have been patrolling off the Horn of Africa for years in an effort to crack down on piracy off Somalia, where a U.N.-backed transitional government is struggling to restore order after 15 years of near-anarchy. See how piracy is worse than 2006 \u00bb . On Monday, the head of the transitional government resigned as his administration -- backed by Ethiopian troops -- battled insurgents from the Islamic movement that seized control of Mogadishu in 2006. Hospital officials reported 30 dead in three days of clashes on the city's south side. In June, the ship USS Carter Hall fired warning shots in an attempt to stop a hijacked Danish cargo ship off Somalia, but the American vessel turned away when the pirated ship entered Somali waters. In May, a U.S. Navy advisory warned merchant ships to stay at least 200 miles off the Somali coast. But the U.S. Maritime Administration said pirates sometimes issue false distress calls to lure ships closer to shore. See the warning area \u00bb . The pirates often are armed with automatic rifles and shoulder-fired rockets, according to a recent warning from the agency. \"To date, vessels that increase speed and take evasive maneuvers avoid boarding, while those that slow down are boarded, taken to the Somali coastline and released after successful ransom payment, often after protracted negotiations of as much as 11 weeks,\" the warning advised. The agency issued a new warning to sailors in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen, after Sunday's hijacking. E-mail to a friend . CNN correspondents Barbara Starr at the Pentagon and Christian Purefoy in Nairobi contributed to this report.","highlights":"North Korean crew recaptures hijacked vessel .\nNavy says two pirates killed, five captured; three from crew injured .\nUSS Arleigh Burke enters Somali territorial waters to pursue other pirates .\nPirates aboard hijacked Golden Nori carrying highly flammable benzene .","id":"04882672036936ca86bdebed819a133539cbd296"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Debra Lafave, the former Florida middle school teacher convicted of having sex with a student, violated her probation by hugging a young co-worker, a Florida judge found Thursday. Debra Lafave was arrested after talking with a teenager. She is not allowed to have contact with anyone under 18. But the judge did not send Lafave to jail, saying the violation was \"not willful and substantial.\" \"Please don't come back,\" he scolded. Dressed in a tailored, black pantsuit, Lafave said she had \"innocent\" physical contact with a female co-worker she knew as under age 18. Watch Lafave in the courtroom \u00bb . At the time, she and the 17-year-old hostess worked at Danny Boy's, a small restaurant in the Tampa, Florida, area. Lafave, 27, pleaded guilty in November 2005 to having sex with a 14-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years under house arrest and seven years of probation. Lafave was required to register as a sex offender and ordered not to have any contact with minors. A tracking device she carries as part of her probation went off in court, prompting the prosecutor to observe, \"I think she's accounted for.\" Lafave acknowledged she was aware that hugs and other forms of physical contact -- as well as conversations about sex -- with minors violated terms of her probation. She referred to the sexually explicit conversations at work as just \"girl talk.\" Lafave denied talking about her sex life with co-workers. \"I don't speak that way about my personal life,\" she said. But she added that her co-workers spoke freely about sex in a \"small group setting.\" While other co-workers socialized outside work, Lafave said, the 17-year-old was not included in those outings. Asked why she hugged the young co-worker, Lafave explained it was a small restaurant with a casual atmosphere where co-workers felt like family. The contact came, she said, \"out of my good nature, that's the way it worked.\" The contacts that led to Thursday's probation violation hearing first surfaced during two polygraph tests administered as part of Lafave's court-ordered supervision. She received a verbal reprimand a year ago, according to testimony. When the behavior continued, her probation officer asked a judge to find her in violation. She was ordered to quit the restaurant job and now works as a receptionist in her mother's beauty shop. In the past, Lafave has said she suffers from bipolar disorder and is receiving treatment. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Judge finds former teacher in violation of probation in student sex case .\nBut judge spares Debra Lafave from jail, warns her \"don't come back\"\nLafave's probation forbids her to have contact with anyone under 18 .","id":"d5342fb6d8d522f336f2ce34eaa6e62446c0da2e"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- It all boils down to this. It doesn't really matter all that much what hot, nubile French maverick has set the fashion world on fire. Or which Milanese visionary has a new fabric technique discovered during a life-changing trip to Angkor Wat that's sure to bring back sixties minimalism with a twist. Or that so-and-so has signed a deal to develop boutique spa hotels around the globe in former monasteries. Because, in the end, he's Ralph Lauren, and we're not. Ralph Lauren has his eye on China and Japan. For four decades no other designer has had a greater impact, not only on the way American men and women dress but also on the way they imagine, seek and indulge in the Good Life, than the former tie salesman from the Bronx. \"Those ties were handmade, by the way,\" recalls Lauren. \"Back then, ties, even designer ones, didn't sell for more than $5 apiece. Mine were $12 to $15. Such luxury in something so simple was revolutionary.\" And ironic. Because while no other designer logo exemplifies aspiration in the home of the free and the brave like the mallet-wielding guy on the pony, Lauren originally named his company Polo because \"it was the sport of kings. It was glamorous, sexy and international.\" See his designs \u00bb . In the beginning a few people questioned if it was named after Marco Polo -- but today the fact that virtually none of Lauren's millions of devoted customers has ever even seen a polo match is immaterial. Lauren instinctively caught something that was in the air before any of his competitors had a chance to grab it -- the desire, not just to be a success but to look like one before you'd even achieved your goal. What's more, Lauren made it look as easy as Fred Astaire dancing down a staircase. \"What matters the most to me are clothes that are consistent and accessible,\" says the designer. \"When I look at the people I've admired over the years, the ultimate stars, like Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Astaire, the ones who last the longest are the ones whose style has a consistency, whose naturalness is part of their excitement. And when you think of the blur of all the brands that are out there, the ones you believe in and the ones you remember, like Chanel and Armani, are the ones that stand for something. Fashion is about establishing an image that consumers can adapt to their own individuality. And it's an image that can change, that can evolve. It doesn't reinvent itself every two years.\" However, with a media that is insatiable for the new, the now and the next, being steadfast doesn't always make for good copy. \"The spotlight is always going to search for the newcomer,\" Lauren admits. \"And that's fine. But the key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. It's about getting your message out to the consumer. It's about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again. My clothes -- the clothes we make for the runway -- aren't concepts. They go into stores. Our stores. Thankfully, we have lots of them,\" says Lauren. \"What I rely on is people walking into my store saying, 'I want your clothes.'\" Well, if all of Lauren's customers shouted that together, he would go deaf faster than he could pull on one of his classic pullovers. Lauren's effortless luxury is all over the red carpet, on ski slopes and boats, at Wimbledon and elsewhere. It furnishes living rooms and graces dinner tables. It's on the bed, in the bed and under the bed -- and now sits on coffee tables, thanks to the tome Ralph Lauren (Rizzoli), celebrating his 40-years-and-growing career. But far from giving his customary over-the-head wave and riding off into his Colorado-ranch sunset, the designer is going even more global. \"Americans have a real inferiority about their own style. We've brought sportswear to the world, and yet we have a long way to go.\" Already in Milan, London, Paris and Moscow, Lauren has more stores planned for China, Japan ... oh, everywhere. \"There aren't enough Americans out there,\" he says. Who better to start with than Ralph? Just as long as he doesn't let on that most of us still can't play a lick of polo. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Ralph Lauren began as tie salesman from the Bronx .\nFirst design: Wide ties when others were narrow .\nHas designed high fashion for four decades .\nGoal: Glamorous clothing that is \"consistent and accessible\"","id":"87cdc5b797032387ea9bd0c9a0d7fd57c088e65b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man named as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police officer last week was captured at a shelter in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said at a news conference. Miami Police Chief John Timoney said he had been alerted by Philadelphia police that the suspect, John Lewis, had taken a Miami-bound bus from Philadelphia. Acting on information from Miami Rescue Mission, officers went to a homeless shelter where they found Lewis, \"who was pretty easy to spot as he's 6 feet, 270 pounds,\" Timoney said. He was apprehended \"unarmed and without incident,\" the Miami chief said. Timoney said it didn't appear that anyone in Miami was helping Lewis, according to CNN affiliate WPVI. Miami Police Officer Gil Gonzalez said Lewis \"had a Bible and was praying when we went to get him. He had a look of guilt, a look of shock.\" Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street said people at the shelter recognized Lewis from televised photos of the suspect. Lewis is suspected in the October 31 shooting of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy. Cassidy was shot in the head when he inadvertently walked into a robbery in progress at a Dunkin' Donuts. He died the next day. Investigators told WPVI that Lewis was spotted on security video boarding a bus to Miami on Saturday night. Cassidy was one of three Philadelphia police officers shot in a four-day period last week. Mariano Santiago was shot in the shoulder late last Tuesday as he approached a vehicle. He is in fair condition. Officer Sandra VanHinkle was shot early last Sunday and is out of the hospital and doing well, police say. Former co-workers of Lewis who spoke to WPVI said they were surprised by the allegations against him. \"He was so nice,\" Kiani Clark told the station. \"He was really nice. He didn't seem like the type that would hurt a fly.\" The Associated Press reported that Lewis had been arrested in 2005 on drug charges, which were withdrawn after he completed a treatment program. He was arrested again in June on drug charges, and that case is still pending, the AP reported. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Aurore Ankarcrona contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tip leads police to John Lewis at homeless shelter in Miami .\nLewis is suspected in fatal shooting of Philadelphia Ofc. Charles Cassidy .\nCassidy walked in on doughnut shop robbery last week and was shot, police say .\nPhiladelphia police alerted Miami counterparts that Lewis was headed that way .","id":"4fd3285b643696cd49f08c14b0d482e559f32eed"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California -- One of the bigger difficulties any first-time buyer faces is purchasing a car that doesn't scream \"first-time\" to friends, relatives and co-workers, or indeed to the buyer each time they step into an ill-chosen purchase. A \"shark\" that races down roads. To break from the boring econobox, here are some of the more sculpted and stylish cars available for about $20,000 that will hold their looks for a long time and give a little bit of joy to a first-time owner. Hyundai Tiburon . If you didn't know already, Tiburon means \"shark\" in Spanish, and it's not hard to see how Hyundai's sporty coupe can stalk the unwary first-time buyer and snare them quickly. Like an instantly recognizable dorsal fin, the Tiburon in its third incarnation is perhaps the purest low-slung sportster that won't bust a first-time buyer's wallet, though it may chew a hole in the seat of their pants as they're pushed back into those tight-hugging bucket seats. The startling Hyundai-designed looks boast a touch of Italian styling uncommon for its bracket. Mazda MazdaSpeed3 . A bona-fide pocket rocket, any first-time buyer can put a fair distance between themselves and the pack in the MazdaSpeed3, part of the Asian carmaker's strategy to wrestle performance compact coupe sales from European carmakers. This one isn't overbearingly dripped in trim or wings, but don't let any youngster tell you it doesn't have what it takes to make their peers jealous. The MazdaSpeed3 will storm from standing to a mile a minute in under six seconds and is said to hit 155 mph. Its secret is torque negation in the low gears -- and perhaps its 263 horses under the hood. Another hidden gem is its seven-speaker Bose stereo. Pontiac G5 GT Coupe . Much like the fantastic Chevy Cobalt SS, its younger sister Pontiac G5 GT boasts highly sprung motoring at a price that appeals to the first-time buyer's wallet. The G5 GT has been tweaked just slightly from its sister SS -- like the difference between Ashlee and Jessica Simpson -- boasting a less horizontal grille and more sculpted valance. Both are reasonably stylish from the back and side and both leaving plenty room for aftermarket add-ons. A new grille entirely, like a Phantom, may just be what you need to set it off against the crowd. The GT's inline-four 2.4-liter 173-hp engine -- 25hp over the base -- drives the front wheels to hit 0-60 mph in 7.5 seconds. Gas mileage is good and customer satisfaction ratings are off the hook. Ford Mustang V6 . A revamped chassis is the key to why Ford's Mustang has become an outstanding product at a price that's hard to beat. A tweak to the iconic lines for last year included a smaller back window and a longer, craggier front end. Some might of course call us heretics for picking a V6 over the famous eight-cylinder included in the GT package but, to be honest, the V6 performs admirably, pushes out 210hp and emits a low-down growl that sounds wonderful. And it's still a Mustang. Civic Coupe . A Civic hatch was my second car (after a very short-lived VW Rabbit). The coupe tested earlier this year brought back fond memories of the Civic's surprisingly roomy front cabin, its enjoyable handling and maneuverability, first-class economy and its sporty elongated hood and swooping back end. Standard features include a 350-watt premium sound system, a touch-screen satellite-navigation system whose screen flips to reveal the CD player, and a slot for a computer memory card. It's also got a funky dash that spectrally lights at night -- what fun. Scion xB . On the heels of its 2004 release, Toyota's hipster Scion brand has remodeled its boxy wonder this year, this time boasting more than a design nod to its parent company's FJ Cruiser. Wide rear pillars, wraparound headlights and bumper define the second-generation variant, which comes dripping with gadgetry inside, as well as leaving plenty of room for after-market customization. This one turns heads while allowing you to pack five adults in relative comfort. Other notable features include a central console that fits in a DVD player alongside a backlit GPS sat-nav system that lights up in any one of 10 colors. Honda Fit . A co-worker bought one of these after crashing her old and very badly beaten up Saturn on a left turn into oncoming traffic. Ouch. So it technically wasn't her first car, but for many buyers, it will be. Energetic, filled with flair and boasting a vertical fold the length of its bonnet, the Fit looks the part as well as being colossally roomy inside for what you expect. You don't get a third row of seats in there but, with the back row folded flat, it almost lends you to believe it can become a camper. Other great touches include an mp3 input jack and reclining rear-seat headrests, while gas mileage is, as expected, very good indeed. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Tiburon is low-slung sportster that won't bust first-time buyer's wallet .\nPontiac G5 GT boasts highly sprung motoring .\nToyota's hipster Scion comes dripping with gadgetry inside .","id":"55930649e6f3cb285a26ef33525f8199bd86d089"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush blasted the Democratic-controlled Congress on Tuesday for having \"the worst record in 20 years.\" \"Congress is not getting its work done,\" Bush said, flanked by members of the Republican House leadership. \"The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq.\" Bush criticized Congress for not being able to send \"a single appropriations bill\" to him. \"They haven't seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it,\" he said. Democrats quickly fired back. Jim Manley, senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said, \"Taking advice from President Bush about fiscal responsibility and getting things done for the American people is like taking hunting lessons from Dick Cheney. Neither is a very good idea.\" Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Illinois, issued a statement saying, \"President Bush's rally this morning reminds us that congressional Republicans remain ready and willing to rubber-stamp the Bush agenda: No to children's health care; no to a new direction in Iraq; and no to investing in America's future. The White House and congressional Republicans want to continue the status quo.\" Bush said the Senate was \"wasting valuable time\" by taking up the children's health insurance bill, which he had earlier vetoed. Watch Bush describe what he thinks Congress is doing wrong \u00bb . House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, issued a statement calling Bush \"the biggest obstacle\" to extending health coverage to \"10 million low-income, working-class American children.\" Hoyer said GOP House leaders need to \"stop posing for pictures, and sit down with Democrats and Republicans in Congress who are working together to extend coverage to our children.\" The State Children's Health Insurance Program measure passed in the House last week would expand the program by nearly $35 billion over five years, the same as the measure Bush vetoed on October 3. Bush had proposed adding $5 billion to the program, and said the version he vetoed would have encouraged families to leave the private insurance market for the federally funded, state-run program. Democratic leaders said the new version addresses Republican objections by tightening restrictions on illegal immigrants receiving SCHIP benefits; capping the income levels of families that qualify for the program; and preventing adults from receiving benefits. The program currently covers about 6 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor, but who can't afford private insurance. Democrats want to extend the program to another 4 million, paying for it with a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes. Bush said Congress knows the current version of the children's health bill \"does not have a chance,\" to get enough votes to override another veto. Hoyer accused Bush of breaking a promise he made in 2004 to extend coverage under the SCHIP program. \"Now, Congress must do what the president said he would do,\" he said in his statement. The Senate could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday. Bush also threatened to veto a \"three-bill pileup.\" \"There are now reports that Congressional leaders may be considering combining the Veterans and Department of Defense appropriations bills, and then add a bloated labor, health and education spending bill to both of them,\" he said. \"Congress should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally responsible manner,\" he said. Bush also urged Congress to send him a \"clean defense appropriations bill and a war supplemental bill.\" \"They ought to get me a bill that funds among other things bullets and body armor,\" he said. Bush also criticized Congress for trying to \"hold hostage\" funding for troops. \"It would be irresponsible to not give our troops the resources they need to get their job done because Congress was unable to get its job done,\" he said. Hoyer's release said Bush's comments on appropriations bills and fiscal responsibility \"ring hollow.\" \"The fact is, this administration has pursued the most fiscally irresponsible policies in American history, turning record surpluses into record deficits and adding more than $3 trillion to the national debt,\" he said. \"Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility today because we believe our government must pay for the things it purchases and not force our children to pay our bills. The fight over 2008 appropriations bills is not a fight over spending. It is a fight over priorities.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bush: Senate \"wasting valuable time\" with children's health insurance bill .\nCongress \"holding hostage\" funds for troops, Bush says .\nBush accuses Congress of gridlock, failing to promote anyone's agenda .\nDemocrats fire back, saying Bush's words \"ring hollow\"","id":"8b1c9d7c48a0d857ae857a21395a4996de051915"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo said in a letter to CNN that he is still \"grappling with shame, guilt, remorse and my own healing if that will ever be possible.\" And a social worker who has worked extensively with him said he draws self-portraits that often show him with a tear running down his cheek. A self-portrait drawn by sniper Lee Boyd Malvo. Many of his drawings show him with a tear running down his cheek. Malvo, 22, spends 23 hours a day inside his cell at Virginia's toughest prison, a maximum-security compound called Red Onion, not far from the Kentucky border. He's serving a life sentence. According to social worker Carmeta Albarus-Lindo, Malvo is a changed person since he and John Allen Muhammad terrorized the Washington area five years ago this month in attacks that left 10 dead over a 23-day period. \"The most I can do is to continue to be there, because that is his greatest fear -- that, you know, another parental figure would abandon him because that was what he'd been exposed to all his life,\" said Albarus-Lindo, who has spent hundreds of hours with Malvo since his arrest and conviction. Read the letter \u00bb . She said one of those \"parental\" figures was Muhammad, who met Malvo in the Caribbean nearly two years before the deadly shooting spree began in 2002. Muhammad became the teenager's surrogate father, convincing him that violence was the only way to correct perceived injustices to African-Americans, Albarus-Lindo said. He ordered Malvo to go to bed each night and to memorize passages from \"The Art of War,\" an ancient Chinese text on battlefield strategy. According to Albarus-Lindo, Malvo was \"brainwashed\" into aiding Muhammad in the murders. However, prosecutors have said Malvo, even at 17, knew what he was doing. \"I thought he was coldblooded,\" said Paul Ebert, commonwealth attorney for Prince William County, Virginia, of the first time he met Malvo. \"He was a person who had chosen a life of crime.\" And when a Virginia jury spared Malvo's life, some investigators said they were horrified. \"That was the hardest day of my career,\" said April Carroll of the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco. \"I felt that day we had failed when Malvo was not sentenced to death.\" Some of the victims' families said they are content that Malvo did not receive the death penalty. Vicki Buchanan Snyder, whose brother James \"Sonny\" Buchanan was shot in the back while mowing a patch of lawn at a Maryland auto dealership, said she was \"satisfied\" with the jury's verdict. As for Malvo, Albarus-Lindo said he will \"never forgive himself for what has happened.\" When she first began seeing him, he still called Muhammad \"Dad.\" It took months, she said, before he stopped. In the interim, Albarus-Lindo said, he took college correspondence courses and began to draw. Muhammad is at a Virginia prison called Sussex One. In a DVD made last year inside prison and obtained exclusively by CNN, he said he is \"still fighting\" on death row. He wants to \"correct,\" he said, some \"inaccurate statements\" made by the news media about his relationship with Malvo. He wasn't specific about what he meant. Watch Muhammad on death row \u00bb . Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred, said she believed that she was the real target of the snipers from the beginning. She and her children live in suburban Washington, and she runs a Web site called Afterthetrauma.org, devoted to the victims of domestic abuse. Mildred Muhammad said she feels her ex-husband wanted to kill her as revenge because she was able to gain custody of their three children. As for his relationship with Malvo, she said she too is convinced that John Allen Muhammad brainwashed the younger man. \"That boy was a victim before he even knew it,\" she said. \"His life was over when he said, 'Hi.' \" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Social worker says sniper Lee Boyd Malvo is a changed person.\nTen people were killed in Washington-area sniper attacks in 2002 .\nIn a letter to CNN, Malvo writes he's still \"grappling with shame, guilt, remorse\"","id":"d95dce003f0fccc57742bd900c81897c45208c10"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Italy national coach Roberto Donadoni has left Cristiano Lucarelli in his squad for next Saturday's crucial Euro 2008 qualifier in Scotland. Lucarelli keeps his place in the Italian squad after scoring twice against South Africa. The Shakhtar Donetsk striker is in fine form and has been rewarded for his inspiring performance in last month's friendly against South Africa, when he scored twice in the world champions' victory. While Donadoni has again left out veteran forwards Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero, he has handed Juventus striker and Italy under-21 international Raffaele Palladino his first call-up to the senior squad. Donadoni's squad is also boosted by the return from suspension of captain Fabio Cannavaro, . Italy go into the clash in Glasgow third in Group B, two points behind leaders France and one point below Scotland. Italy end their qualifying campaign by taking on bottom side the Faroe Islands in Modena on November 21. Italy squad: . Goalkeepers: Marco Amelia (Livorno), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Gianluca Curci (Roma) Defenders: Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Daniele Bonera (AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Fabio Grosso (Lyon), Massimo Oddo (AC Milan), Christian Panucci (Roma), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona) Midfielders: Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Simone Perrotta (Roma), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan) Strikers: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Cristiano Lucarelli (Shakhtar Donetsk), Raffaele Palladino (Juventus), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich) E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Striker Cristiano Lucarelli keeps his place in Italy's squad to face Scotland .\nLucarelli impressed by scoring twice in the recent victory over South Africa .\nJuventus striker Raffaele Palladino earns his first call-up to the senior squad .","id":"f732a658c314c090257225483075e4d9fde28b95"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Erik Prince, the chairman and CEO of Blackwater USA, appeared Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Erik Prince, CEO and chairman of Blackwater USA, is sworn in Tuesday at a congressional hearing. The committee convened amid an FBI investigation into a September 16 shootout involving Blackwater personnel that resulted in the deaths of Iraqi civilians. Following is a transcript of Prince's opening statement: . Chairman [Henry] Waxman, [D-California], Congressman [Thomas] Davis, [R-Virginia], members of the committee, my name is Eric Prince, and I am the chairman and CEO of the Prince Group and Blackwater USA. Blackwater's a team of dedicated professionals who provide training to America's military and law enforcement communities and risk their lives to protect Americans in harm's way overseas. Under the direction and oversight of the United States government, Blackwater provides an opportunity for military and law enforcement veterans with a record of honorable service to continue their support to the United States. Words alone cannot express the respect I have for these brave men and women who defend -- who volunteer to defend U.S. personnel facilities and diplomatic missions. I am proud to be there to represent them today. After almost five years in active service as a U.S. Navy SEAL, I founded Blackwater in 1997. I wanted to offer the military and law enforcement communities assistance by providing expert instruction and world-class training venues. Ten years later, Blackwater trains approximately 500 members of the United States military and law enforcement agencies every day. After 9\/11, when the U.S. began its stabilization efforts in Afghanistan and then Iraq, the United States government called upon Blackwater to fill a need for protective services in hostile areas. Blackwater responded immediately. We are extremely proud of answering that call in supporting our country. Blackwater personnel supporting our overseas missions are all military and law enforcement veterans, many of whom have recent military deployments. No individual ever protected by Blackwater has ever been killed or seriously injured. There is no better evidence of the skill and dedication of these men. At the same time, 30 brave men have made the ultimate sacrifice while working for Blackwater and its affiliates. Numerous others have been wounded and permanently maimed. The entire Blackwater family mourns the loss of these brave lives. Our thoughts and our prayers are with their families. The areas of Iraq in which we operate are particularly dangerous and challenging. Blackwater personnel are subject to regular attacks by terrorists and other nefarious forces within Iraq. We're the targets of the same ruthless enemies that have killed more than 3,800 American military personnel and thousands of innocent Iraqis. Any incident where Americans are attacked serves as a reminder of the hostile environment in which our professionals work to keep American officials and dignitaries safe, including visiting members of Congress. In doing so, more American service members are available to fight the enemy. Blackwater shares the committee's interest in ensuring the accountability and oversight of contract personnel supporting U.S. operations. The company's personnel are already accountable under and subject to numerous statutes, treaties and regulations of the United States. Blackwater looks forward to working with Congress and the executive branch to ensure that any necessary improvements to these laws and policies are implemented. The worldwide personnel protection services contract, which has been provided to this committee, was competitively awarded and details almost every aspect of operation and contract performance, including the hiring, vetting guidelines, background checks, screening, training standards, rules of force and conduct standards. In Iraq, Blackwater reports to the embassy's regional security officer, or RSO. All Blackwater movements and operations are directed by the RSO. In conjunction with internal company procedures and controls, the RSO ensures that Blackwater complies with all relevant contractual terms and conditions, as well as any applicable laws and regulations. We have approximately 1,000 professionals serving today in Iraq as part of our nation's total force. Blackwater does not engage in offensive or military missions but performs only defensive security functions. My understanding of the September 16 incident is that the Department of State and the FBI are conducting a full investigation, but those results are not yet available. We at Blackwater welcome the FBI review announced yesterday, and we will cooperate fully and look forward to receiving their conclusions. I just want to put some other things in perspective. A recent report from the Department of State stated that in 2007 Blackwater conducted 1,873 security details for diplomatic visits to the red zone, areas outside the Green Zone in Iraq, and there have been only 56 incidences in which weapons were discharged, or less than 3 percent of all movements. In 2006, Blackwater conducted over 6,500 diplomatic movements in the Red Zone. Weapons were discharged in less than 1 percent of those missions. To the extent there is any loss of innocent life, ever, let me be clear that I consider that tragic. Every life, whether American or Iraqi, is precious. I stress to the committee and to the American public, however, that I believe we acted appropriately at all times. I am prepared to answer your questions. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater USA, testifies before House panel .\nHearings held amid an FBI probe into a shootout involving Blackwater personnel .\nPrince: \"I believe we acted appropriately at all times\"","id":"cbd21ed724b7e4a075ab4ae9a45d9e86d6151283"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- UEFA has punished Benfica midfielder Augustin Binya with a six-match European ban following his horror tackle on Celtic's Scott Brown last week. Augustin Binya, right, lunges towards Celtic midfielder Scott Brown during Benfica's 1-0 defeat in Glasgow. The Cameroon international was sent off for the challenge in his side's 1-0 defeat in the Champions League match in Glasgow last Wednesday. Scotland international Brown avoided injury, but claimed Binya had tried to break his leg with the tackle in the 85th minute -- and demanded that Europe's governing body take further action. Binya, 24, apologized for the challenge -- described by officiating referee Martin Hansson of Sweden as one of the worst he had ever seen -- on the day after the match. But UEFA's control and disciplinary body announced their sanction on Friday morning, having deliberated on the case on Thursday. In a statement on uefa.com, Binya's challenge was described as one which \"seriously endangered the physical health of the opposing player\". Benfica can appeal against the ban, which rules Binya out of the Portuguese club's remaining Group D matches against AC Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk. If unsuccessful, he will also miss any matches in the knockout stages of the Champions League or UEFA Cup. The suspension will also carry over to future seasons if, as seems likely, Benfica finish bottom of Group D and bow out of Europe for this campaign. Brown, who has been passed fit for Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifier against Italy, said straight after the Benfica match: \"He obviously tried to do me as hard as possible.\" It is the second time that UEFA has had to intervene following an incident involving Celtic this season. AC Milan keeper Dida was handed a two-match ban, subsequently reduced to one on appeal, after collapsing theatrically when a fan of the Scottish club invaded the pitch and lightly slapped the Brazilian in the face. Celtic were fined $50,000 and barred the supporter for life. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"UEFA has punished Benfica midfielder Augustin Binya with a six-match ban .\nThe Cameroon international was sent off for bad tackle on Celtic's Scott Brown .\nBrown was lucky to escape injury in incident during Champions League match .","id":"4a32d5f29cfb35f3a3966ee041fc1f358503f4b4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With the election of the next president a year away, Sen. Hillary Clinton remains the person to beat, a CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday suggests. As the countdown begins to November 4, 2008, the New York Democrat continues to dominate the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and comes out ahead when voters are asked whether they prefer her or the GOP front-runner, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. But Clinton's path to the White House is in no way certain. Clinton was criticized for her performance during a debate last week, and her rivals for the Democratic nomination have stepped up attacks that she has equivocated on her position on Iraq, Iran and other major issues. The Republican presidential candidates have also stepped up their attacks on the Democratic front-runner, with each suggesting that he has the best chance of stopping Clinton. The attacks may be working. The CNN\/Opinion Research polls suggests that Clinton's support has slipped from its height one month ago. Watch CNN's Bill Schneider on the latest poll numbers \u00bb . \"Clinton's strength is about where it was throughout the summer, indicating that she has lost the support she gained last month but that Obama has not yet cut into her core constituency,\" CNN political director Keating Holland said. Clinton is the top choice of 44 percent of the likely Democratic voters interviewed for the poll. Her closest rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, was the top choice of 25 percent, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has 14 percent. All other Democratic candidates were in single digits. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was backed by 4 percent, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware by 3 percent, Sen. Christopher Dodd by 2 percent, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich by 2 percent and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel was at 1 percent. The poll involved 467 interviews conducted on November 2-4 with Democrats or independents who lean Democratic. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. View the poll results \u00bb . In an October CNN\/Opinion Research poll, Clinton was supported by 51 percent of Democratic voters and had a 30 point lead over Obama. During last week's Democratic debate, Clinton received heavy criticism from her fellow Democratic presidential rivals, who are desperate to shake up the presidential race just months before the first voting occurs in the Iowa Caucus in early January. Edwards was particularly aggressive during the debate, criticizing Clinton for her stance on Iraq, Iran and Social Security. \"The American people ... deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth and won't say one thing one time and something different at a different time,\" Edwards said. Edwards has also accused Clinton of being a \"corporate Democrat\" too willing to defend a \"corrupt\" Washington establishement. \"We desperately need in the next president someone that recognizes we have a system in Washington that's become broken, corruption has crept into it, and we have to tell the truth about that,\" Edwards said Monday. \"If you defend that system, I don't believe you can bring about the change that America needs.\" In the Republican presidential race, Giuliani continues to be the leading candidate, with the backing of 28 percent of the Republican primary voters polled. Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee was backed by 19 percent. Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the top pick of 16 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 11 percent. Of the remaining Republican candidates, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee received 10 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul 5 percent, California Rep. Duncan Hunter 4 percent and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo 3 percent. The poll involved telephone interviews with 397 Republicans or independents who lean Republican. The poll's margin of error was 5 percentage points. In a head-to-head matchup of the two front-runners, Clinton leads Giuliani 51 percent to 45 percent. That lead has increased since October, when Clinton led Giuliani 49 percent to 47 percent. \"The overall political environment seems to favor the Democrats, partly because Democratic voters are more enthusiastic about the coming election and partly because the public is in a sour mood, which is usually not a good sign for the incumbent party,\" Holland said. Only 42 percent of Americans think things are going well, while 58 percent think things are going badly, the poll found. \"The public is not just pessimistic about the country -- Americans are angry,\" Holland said. \"More than eight in 10 say they are angry about the way things are going in the country.\" Clinton's lead over Giuliani would be greater if a third-party candidate entered the race who believes abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, the poll found. In a three-way race, Clinton would get the support of 48 percent of voters, Giuliani 32 percent and the third-party candidate 18 percent. The poll's margin of error was plus-or-minus 3 percent. \"My analysis of it is that [a third-party candidate] is more of an attempt to keep the nomination from me,\" Giuliani said. \"You know it is a tactic, and a legitimate one. People have to think about that and consider it.'' The lack of enthusiasm for Giuliani, particularly by social conservatives, could spell trouble for the GOP next year if he becomes the nominee, Holland said. \"Only 27 percent of Republicans say they would feel enthusiastic if Giuliani won the GOP nod, and the remaining GOP candidates fare even worse,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sen. Clinton supported by 44 percent of Democrats polled, down from October .\nRudy Giuliani continues to lead Republican presidential field with 28 percent .\nClinton beats Giuliani 51 percent to 45 percent, the poll found .\nOnly 42 percent think things are going well in the U.S., according to the poll .","id":"d470c9860671ae720ccc7df115a46d471b4b900a"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran should be allowed to pursue its nuclear program for peaceful purposes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday during the first visit to the country by a Kremlin leader since 1943. Putin, right, is greeted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following his arrival in Tehran. Putin, who is in Tehran to attend a summit of Caspian Sea nations, said that he and the other leaders agreed that \"peaceful nuclear activities must be allowed\" in the region. \"The Iranians are cooperating with Russian nuclear agencies and the main objectives are peaceful objectives,\" he said. Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power plant and has resisted moves by the U.S. and its allies to impose stronger U.N. sanctions against Tehran. On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's stance that \"all options\" must be kept \"on the table\" in confronting the threats posed by Iran -- a reference to the option of using military action against the long-time U.S. adversary. \"We should have no illusions about the nature of this regime or its leaders -- about their designs for their nuclear program, their willingness to live up to their rhetoric, their intentions for Iraq, or their ambitions in the Gulf region,\" Gates said in a speech to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. The leaders of Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan also met Tuesday to reach agreement on issues relating to the sharing and regulating of the Caspian Sea -- the world's largest inland body of water. Speaking afterwards, Putin said that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third parties intent on military action against other countries in the region -- a reference to rumors that the U.S. planned to use Azerbaijan as a base for a possible attack against Iran, The Associated Press reported. \"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state,\" Putin said. \"The Caspian Sea is an inland sea and it only belongs to the Caspian states, therefore only they are entitled to have their ships and military forces here,\" added Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Putin, defying reports of an assassination plot against him, was greeted by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as he stepped off his plane at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport. During a news conference Monday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Wiesbaden, Germany, Putin said rumors of an attempt on his life would not stop his plans. \"Of course I will travel to Iran,\" Putin said. \"If I reacted to these kinds of rumors every time, I could never leave the house.\" Iranian officials denied there was an assassination plot against Putin, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman describing rumors of a possible terrorist action during the Putin visit baseless. \"Spreading this kind of totally false news lacks any value and cannot damage the trend of the prepared programs,\" spokesman Mohammadali Hosseini told the Iranian FARS news agency. Hosseini blamed the rumor on Western media, particularly the U.S. media, saying the report was \"made up by the enemies of relations between Iran and Russia to create a psychological war.\" Putin's visit is the first by a leader in the Kremlin to Iran since Joseph Stalin's World War II conference meeting with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. \"Putin's trip to Tehran is a show of Russia's independence in global affairs. Putin, who approaches the end of his term, wants to demonstrate that he wouldn't cave in to the U.S. pressure,\" said Alexander Pikayev, an expert on Iran with Russia's Institute for World Economy and International Relations, in a report carried by AP. Putin's schedule also includes meetings with Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, AP said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian President Putin backs Iran's \"peaceful\" nuclear program during visit .\nPutin in Tehran to attend summit of Caspian Sea nations to discuss oil rights .\nIran, Russia set to discuss Iranian nuclear program, U.S. push for sanctions .\nPutin downplay rumors of assassination plot; Iran says claims are \"baseless\"","id":"55327ce32c4d5168e8e0fa7b5dabc9a8aafd9d78"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Three French journalists charged in an alleged plot to kidnap African children for adoption in Europe arrived in Paris on Sunday, hours after French President Nicolas Sarkozy held emergency talks in Chad. But 14 other people remained in custody in the African nation, some facing serious charges that could send them to jail for up to 20 years. The journalists were among seven Europeans a Chadian judge released Sunday, including a Spanish flight crew, whom Sarkozy dropped off in a brief stop in Madrid on his way back from Chad. All were arrested last week after workers from Zoe's Ark -- a French-based charity group -- were accused of trying to fly 103 children out of Chad in a kidnapping and adoption operation. Watch a report on how the events unfolded \u00bb . Some of the children may never return to their families because it is too difficult to determine their backgrounds, Red Cross spokeswoman Inah Kaloga told CNN on Friday. Those who remain under arrest in Chad are six members of the French charity, four Chadians and four remaining members of the flight crew. Some face kidnapping and fraud charges. Zoe's Ark leader Eric Breteau testified Saturday to a court in the Chadian capital that the three journalists and the flight crew of seven Spaniards and a Belgian were not involved in the alleged plot, court witnesses told CNN. At least some of the flight crew are scheduled to testify before a judge on Monday. The three journalists initially had been charged with complicity in the alleged kidnapping attempt. It's not clear if the charges against them have been dropped. Watch the freed Europeans leave Chad \u00bb . In a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Sunday at Madrid's Torrejon Air Force Base, Sarkozy expressed satisfaction that some of those detained had been released. At the same time, however, he told reporters, \"We should respect the sovereignty of Chad.\" Zapatero thanked Sarkozy for dropping the four Spanish flight crew members off in their home country, and thanked Chadian President Idriss Deby for allowing them to return. After his emergency talks in Chad, Sarkozy stressed the scandal would not affect the strong relations between the two countries or affect the planned deployment of a European force to protect refugees from Sudan's Darfur region who have fled to Chad and the neighboring Central African Republic. Sarkozy also said he hoped the six remaining French nationals -- all from Zoe's Ark -- would face trial in France. The charity says that the children were orphans from the Darfur region -- where the United Nations estimates 200,000 people have been killed in four years of conflict -- and that the group was taking them to host families in France. But after preliminary interviews with the children, aid agencies said Thursday it appeared most of them probably are not orphans and not from Sudan, but instead come from villages on the Chadian side of the border with Sudan. The children are staying in an Abeche orphanage while aid agencies and government officials try to find out where they came from -- a challenge hindered by the number of children, their youth, and the volatile situation in the region. A father of three of the children allegedly kidnapped told a French newspaper he put his children into the charity's care after he was told they would be educated at a school under construction in a nearby town. The Chadian man, who gave his name as Arbab, told Le Parisien on Sunday that workers from Zoe's Ark had visited his village three times. \"They never said they would take away our children,\" he told the newspaper. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Nic Robertson and Al Goodman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: French president returns to France with three released journalists .\nJournalists are among seven Europeans freed Sunday in child \"kidnap\" row .\nThere are still 14 other people in custody in Chad .\nFather: \"They never said they would take away our children\"","id":"022c18def42072e28a37979c622c6ab7e31371de"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- A sixth U.S. service member died Friday from injuries sustained when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northeastern Italy on Thursday, the U.S. military in Europe said. The helicopter, carrying 11 U.S. military personnel, crashed Thursday afternoon about 22 miles from Aviano, Italy. Four people were killed and seven were injured in the crash, and two of the injured later died, the U.S. military said. Treviso fire officials said one of the dead was a woman, and said no one on the ground was hurt. The U.S. military said the helicopter was an Army H-60 Black Hawk attached to the 1st Battalion, 214th Aviation Regiment. The military was not releasing the names of those killed, pending notification of the victims' families. Police and fire officials said the craft crashed in an open area near the Piave River north of Treviso, between the towns of Maserata Sul Piave and Santa Lucia Di Piave. Watch scenes of the crash site in northern Italy \u00bb . The helicopter appeared crumpled and charred in photos from the crash. Italy's ANSA news agency said the helicopter crashed near the bridge of a major highway and the road was closed as a precaution. ANSA said the helicopter had taken off from Aviano Air Base, but fire authorities could not confirm whether it was leaving or returning to the base. The Black Hawk is considered the workhorse of the military's helicopter fleet. It is used in missions in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry troops and equipment. The military has employed Black Hawks for about three decades. The helicopter's first combat mission was about 25 years ago. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Hada Messia and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four killed in crash; two people die later of injuries .\nCopter took off from Aviano Air Base, news agency reports .\nBlack Hawk helicopter had 11 people aboard .","id":"d49c8ddc7586fcc27a7d310a5cb7703f19e4607d"} -{"article":"MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) -- Three men have been arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death last week of a University of Memphis football player, Memphis police announced Monday. Police investigating a car crash on September 30 found Taylor Bradford, 21, fatally wounded near the campus residence hall area. He had apparently gotten into his car after being shot, and drove a short distance before crashing into a tree. Bradford -- a 5-foot-11, 300-pound defensive lineman from Nashville -- was pronounced dead at Regional Medical Center. Memphis Police Department Director Larry Godwin said DeeShawn Tate, 21, Victor Trezevant, 21, and Courtney Washington, 22, had been charged with murder in perpetration of attempted aggravated robbery. Homicide investigators developed the case against the three men with the help of a citizen's tip and Crimestoppers, he said. Godwin said the investigation continues, and \"we do expect additional arrests in this case.\" \"It was an attempted robbery, aggravated robbery,\" he said. Bradford \"was targeted because of some information that was out there and the fact that they believed he had some cash, or he had something that they wanted.\" Godwin said none of the three arrested suspects were students at the university, but he would not rule out that other suspects could be students. Shelby County District Attorney General William L. Gibbons said the three suspects would make an initial court appearance as early as Tuesday. He said prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty in the case, but no decision had been made. \"Whether or not it will be would be premature for me to say,\" Gibbons said. \"There are a lot of factors that go into it. We'll make a determination at the appropriate time.\" Officials at the 21,000-student school said Bradford, a marketing major who lived on campus, was popular with the football team and on the campus as a whole. He had transferred from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and was 36 credit hours short of graduation. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"University of Memphis athlete Taylor Bradford, 21, was shot September 30 .\nThree charged with murder in perpetration of attempted aggravated robbery .\nAfter player was shot, he got in his car, drove off and then crashed into a tree .\nThe killing spurred school officials to temporarily lock down the campus .","id":"bda116dccb075585a67fd5dd5b759015c7577eb0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A court has ordered pop singer Britney Spears to give up custody of her children effective Wednesday at noon. Kevin Federline and Britney Spears, here during happier times, have two children. Spears' former husband, Kevin Federline, is to retain custody of their two sons \"until further order of the court,\" according to a ruling by Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon. It was not clear what led to Monday's decision awarding Federline full custody. A transcript of the court proceedings was ordered sealed. Last month, a judge ordered Spears, 25, to submit to random drug tests after finding she engaged in \"habitual, frequent, and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol.\" That order, also by Gordon, provided no details and did not name any drugs. The former couple has been embroiled in a bitter custody fight over their sons, Sean Preston and Jayden. The parents had split custody 50-50, but Federline then asked for the arrangements to be shifted to 70-30 in his favor. Watch how Spears became user of -- and prisoner to -- fame \u00bb . In addition to ordering the twice-weekly drug tests, Gordon ordered Spears to spend eight hours per week working with a \"parenting coach,\" who was to observe her interactions with her children. Gordon also told both parents to avoid alcohol or \"other non-prescription controlled substances\" 12 hours before taking custody of the children. He also barred the exes from making \"derogatory remarks about the other party and the other party's family or significant other\" during the case. And he ordered the parents to go through \"joint co-parenting counseling\" and barred them from using corporal punishment on the boys. Spears and Federline were married for two years before their divorce became final in July. Monday's order comes amid a career freefall for Spears, whose new album is due to be released November 13. After her September 9 \"comeback\" performance on the MTV Video Music Awards, critics derided her singing and dancing as lackluster and said she appeared overweight in her sequined two-piece costume. Her former divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, resigned last month as her legal representative after telling reporters the singer \"just wants to be a mom.\" Spears' management company, the Firm, recently quit after representing the singer for little over a month. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kevin Federline to take custody of children effective Wednesday noon .\nFederline and Britney Spears have two children, ages 2 and 1 .\nPair were divorced in July .","id":"ee0b1bc5ee40697c0792e3906000fe8be5be182a"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Former football star O.J. Simpson walked out of jail late Wednesday after posting $250,000 bail. O.J. Simpson leaves the Clark County Detention Center late Wednesday night. Eighth District Judge Jackie Glass hours earlier doubled Simpson's bail to ensure his appearance at an April 7 trial. Glass said Simpson had violated terms of his previous bail. Glass was adamant that Simpson remain in the Clark County Detention Center until 15 percent of the $250,000 is paid in full -- $37,500 -- after it was revealed in court that Simpson never paid any part of his previous $125,000 bail. \"There's no 'get-out-of-jail-free card' today,\" an angry Glass told Simpson's lawyers. \"I don't want him out of the jail until the 15 percent is paid in full.\" Watch the scolding judge \u00bb . The judge scolded Simpson, saying he wasn't taking the matter seriously. \"I don't know if it's just arrogance. I don't know if it's ignorance,\" she chided. Simpson posted bail at about 6:15 p.m. local time (9:15 p.m. ET), according to Las Vegas authorities. Simpson returned to jail in Nevada from his home in Florida January 11 for Wednesday's hearing, after prosecutors alleged he violated the terms of his bail by attempting to contact a co-defendant. The original bail bondsman -- Miguel Pereira of Florida-based You Ring, We Spring -- testified Wednesday that the former football player didn't put any money toward the bail that allowed him to leave jail in September. \"Not one cent,\" he said. The bail bondsman himself paid the 15 percent premium and the $40 filing fee to allow Simpson to leave the detention center, although he said he had a power of attorney for Simpson's Florida home but never filed a lien on it. When questioned by Simpson attorney Yale Galanter, Pereira admitted he had never sent Simpson a bill for the premium. But, he said, he had an understanding with Simpson that he would be paid \"after it was all over.\" Glass described it as \"mind-boggling\" that Simpson never had to put up any collateral for his first bond and that the bail bondsman never asked for anything. Prosecutors also produced Wednesday a recording of a profanity-laced voice mail message left on Pereira's answering machine in November from Simpson, which he told Pereira to deliver to co-defendant Clarence Stewart. The prosecutor said the message contained \"an undercurrent of a threat,\" and he wanted the bail to be raised to at least $1 million. Galanter did not contest the authenticity of the recording. As part of his bail granted September 19, Simpson was to have no contact whatsoever with victims, witnesses or co-defendants in the case. Glass said the same goes this time. Watch how Simpson wound up in jail \u00bb . \"When I tell you, Mr. Simpson, there are conditions and there are rules, let me make sure you understand if you violate those rules ... you'll be back, locked up in the Clark County Detention Center; do you understand me?\" the judge asked. \"I understand 100 percent,\" said Simpson, dressed in a navy blue jail jumpsuit. \"No contact [with others in case], no phone messages to third parties, no emails, no letters -- nothing,\" Glass added. Galanter said his client \"was truly contrite about what has occurred.\" \"He will abide scrupulously by whatever this court decides,\" the attorney said. Simpson faces trial April 7 on 12 criminal counts, including conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon. The charges stem from a September 13 incident at a Las Vegas hotel in which he allegedly stole sports memorabilia he said belonged to him from dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong. According to earlier testimony, Beardsley and Fromong were offering more than 600 Simpson-related items for sale, including ties Simpson wore during his criminal trial for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson was acquitted in that trial. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Judge doubles bail to $250,000, accuses of \"arrogance\" or \"ignorance\"\nJailed since Friday, Simpson was required to put down $37,500 in cash to get out .\nBail bondsman tells judge O.J. Simpson never paid him .\nDA says Simpson violated bail terms by leaving message for co-defendant .","id":"75b0d4c21581a1b0c1fc5798adba334d8ecc34f3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Air Force is returning F-15E Strike Eagle jets to service over Iraq and Afghanistan after grounding other F-15s, the Air Force said Wednesday. The Air Force grounded models of its F-15 fleet after the crash of an older model F-15C this month. The F-15s were grounded after a crash earlier this month in Missouri of an older model that disintegrated in flight. Each F-15E must pass an inspection of critical parts on the airframe before returning to flying missions, Air Force officials said. All U.S. Air Force 224 E-model aircraft will undergo a one-time inspection of hydraulic system lines, the Air Force statement said. The longerons -- molded, metal strips of the aircraft fuselage that run from front to rear -- will also be inspected, according to the Air Force. The straps and skin panels in and around the environmental control system bay will also be examined, officials said. The Air Force would not say whether the parts being inspected were part of the problem on the aircraft that crashed. The investigation into why that plane fell apart in flight is still ongoing and Air Force officials will not say what happened until the investigation is complete, an Air Force spokesperson said. Air Force officials said the rest of the almost 500 F-15s -- older airframes than the F-15Es -- will remain grounded until the investigation offers a solution to what happened. The E-model aircraft, the youngest and most sophisticated in the F-15 inventory, is heavily used by Central Command for ground support in the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also used for the homeland security mission over the United States known as Operation Noble Eagle. On November 3, the Air Force grounded all of its F-15s in response to a November 1 crash of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C in Boss, Missouri. The grounding forced Central Command to use other Air Force, Navy and French fighters to fill the gaps, though Strike Eagles did fly to support troops in battle in Afghanistan as an emergency measure while they were still under grounding orders, according to Central Command reports. The plane that crashed, built in 1980, was one of the older F-15s in the fleet. The F-15E Strike Eagle is an air-to-ground and air-to-air fighter, making it more versatile than other F-15 models, which are used for only air-to-air missions. The Strike Eagle is used in Afghanistan and Iraq in its air-to-ground role, using its advanced sensors to drop bombs on targets. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"F-15s grounded after a November 1 crash in Missouri .\nF-15 is used for ground support in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .\nAll U.S. Air Force 224 E-model aircraft will undergo a one-time inspection .","id":"3f7e19cffef13f356e2298c5a63e6c8db20f3d91"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement accuse the agency in a lawsuit of forcibly injecting them with psychotropic drugs while trying to shuttle them out of the country during their deportation. Raymond Soeoth, pictured here with his wife, says he was injected with drugs by ICE agents against his will. One of the drugs in question is the potent anti-psychotic drug Haldol, which is often used to treat schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. Doctors say they are required to see patients in person before such drugs are administered. Two immigrants, Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia and Amadou Diouf of Senegal in West Africa, told CNN they were injected with the drugs against their will. Both are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the government. They are seeking an end to the alleged practice and unspecified damages. Watch why the former detainees claim abuse \u00bb . Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, law and ethics at Columbia University, reviewed both men's medical records for this report and was stunned by what he discovered. \"I'm really shocked to find out that the government has been using physicians and using potent medications in this way,\" said Appelbaum, who also serves as a member of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. \"That is the sort of thing that would be subject to a malpractice claim in the civilian world.\" The allegations of ICE forcibly drugging deportees were raised last month by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, during the re-nomination hearing of ICE chief Julie Myers. \"The information the committee has received from ICE regarding the forced drugging of immigration detainees is extremely troubling, particularly since it appears ICE may have violated its own detention standards,\" Lieberman spokeswoman Leslie Phillips told CNN in an e-mail. \"Senator Lieberman intends to follow up with ICE to ensure that detainees are not drugged unless there is a medical reason to do so.\" ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham, who is representing Soeoth and Diouf, said, \"It would be torture to give a powerful anti-psychotic drug to somebody who isn't even mentally ill. ... But here, it's happening on U.S. soil to an immigrant the government is trying to deport.\" Responding to Lieberman's written questions, Myers said 1,073 immigration detainees had \"medical escorts\" for deportation since 2003. From October last year to the end of April this year, she said 56 received psychotropic medications during the removal process. Of those, 33 detainees received medication \"because of combative behavior with the imminent risk of danger to others and\/or self,\" she said. \"First, I am aware of, and deeply concerned about reports that past practices may not have conformed to ICE detention standards,\" Myers said. She added no detainee should be \"involuntarily medicated without court order,\" except in emergency situations. But both Soeoth and Diouf say they had not exhibited any combative behavior. Soeoth, a Christian minister from Indonesia, spent 27 months in detention awaiting deportation after his bid for political asylum was rejected. Hours before he was to be sent back home on December 7, 2004, he says guards injected him with a mystery drug that made him groggy for two days. See the document that shows Soeoth was injected . \"They pushed me on the bench, they opened my pants, and they just give me injection,\" he said through broken English. He says he was taken to Los Angeles International Airport while in this drug-induced stupor, but two hours before takeoff, airline security refused to transport him, so ICE agents returned him to his cell at Terminal Island near Los Angeles. Terminal Island, once a federal prison, is a crowded facility along the ocean where hundreds of illegal immigrants await deportation. Soeoth's medical records indicate he was injected with Cogentin and Haldol, even though those same records show he has no history of mental illness. In the records, the government says he was injected with the drug after he said he would kill himself if deported -- a remark Soeoth denies ever making. ICE said in a written statement it couldn't respond to specific allegations due to pending litigation. \"Department of Homeland Security law enforcement personnel may not and do not prescribe or administer medication to detainees,\" the ICE statement said. \"Only trained and qualified medical professionals, including officers of the U.S. Public Health Service, may prescribe or administer medication.\" But, Diouf says, he was injected on the plane right before he was to be deported. He said he even had a federal stay of his deportation -- and the paperwork to prove it -- but his U.S. government escorts wouldn't let him show it to the pilot of the plane preparing to fly him out of the country. See Diouf's stay of deportation document . That's when, he says, \"I was wrestled to the ground and injected through my clothes.\" A government report says he was medicated because he did not follow orders. In both cases, Diouf and Soeoth remain in the United States pending a decision in the case. If they lose, they may land back in the hands of ICE, once again facing deportation. Soeoth says he's traumatized by what happened. \"I know this country [is] very generous to immigrants,\" he says. \"What they did to me was very, very bad.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Wayne Drash, Traci Tamura and Gregg Cane contributed to this report.","highlights":"Detainees file suit against ICE, allege they were injected with drugs .\nOne detainee tells CNN: \"What they did to me was very, very bad\"\nICE says 1,073 detainees have had \"medical escorts\" since 2003 .\nSen. Lieberman vows to investigate further; spokesman calls charges \"troubling\"","id":"00359f516cdf8b1800c7102711bd9aa400d1c749"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- A young girl shown on video being sexually assaulted was raped while in the care of a baby sitter her mother hired, the mother's attorney said Tuesday. Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, of Nevada is being sought as a suspect in the videotaped rape of a young girl. The mother did not know her daughter had ever been victimized and was apparently oblivious to efforts to find her until last Friday, Jerry T. Donohue said. \"A family friend called her and said, 'My God, you need to turn on the TV. I believe that is your daughter,'\" he said. Donohue said the mother recognized the suspect, Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, a former animal trainer. The abuse most likely occurred while the mother - a single woman working six days a week - was at work, Donohue said. The attorney said he knows who the baby sitter is, but would not release that information because of the ongoing investigation. Earlier, officials had said the girl, who is now 7, was 3-years-old at the time the video was made. But Donohue said Tuesday, \"To my understanding, the abuse occurred before she was 3 years old.\" The mother of the girl asked that the news media leave the family alone. \"I want to ask you, the press, to respect my family's privacy and to not attempt to contact my daughter or myself,\" the mother said in a written statement read by her attorney. Watch Donohue read the mother's statement \u00bb . The mother also said she is cooperating with investigators and that her daughter \"is safe and healthy.\" The girl's videotaped rape set off a nationwide search last week. She was found Friday with family in Las Vegas, Nevada, after thousands of tips poured in. Professionals have since evaluated her and she appears to be \"healthy and fine and happy,\" the lawyer said. The lawyer said neither he nor the mother has watched the videotape. Asked whether the mother is thankful to the news media for having published the girl's picture so that authorities were able to identify her, Donohue said, \"Not really ... there's some things maybe you don't want to know.\" Still, he said, he hopes the man in the tape is brought to justice. \"Speaking as a father myself, I wish the guy would dig a hole in the desert and put a gun in his mouth,\" he said, referring to such an outcome as \"Wild-West justice.\" Meanwhile, the intense manhunt for Stiles continued Tuesday. On Monday, Stiles' former girlfriend, Tina Allen, told CNN she thinks she is the reason Stiles came in contact with the girl and is \"mortified\" by the allegations against him. Allen said she and Stiles were in an on-again, off-again relationship for 10 years until recently, when she called it off. \"He said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,\" Allen said. Allen said she took Stiles to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her daughter, who allegedly was victimized by Stiles. \"I'm disgusted. I'm ashamed, embarrassed, mortified,\" Allen said of the alleged rape. \"I regret every, every step I ever took, I feel bad for the baby.\" The FBI is also seeking Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, in a separate matter involving state charges of sexual assault and lewdness with a minor under the age of 14. Pahrump is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. A man who said he found the tape in the desert and held it for at least five months before handing it over to authorities turned himself in Sunday to Nye County officials. Darren Tuck, a Nevada resident who allegedly showed the tape to others before giving it to police, faces charges of exhibiting pornography and possession of child pornography. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mom thinks girl was abused while in the care of a baby sitter, attorney says .\nMother had no idea daughter had been abused, attorney says .\nGirl, now 7, shown being raped on videotape made years ago .\nManhunt underway for suspect, Chester Arthur Stiles, 37 .","id":"f8be2f5ce06cb4af91cbb7b6bef9835991751ef5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday criticized a recent vote by Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Clinton as helping to give President Bush a \"blank check\" to take military action against Iran. Sen. Barack Obama says Sen. Hillary Clinton has shown \"flawed\" judgment. \"We know in the past that the president has used some of the flimsiest excuses to try to move his agenda regardless of what Congress says,\" Obama said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Last month, Clinton voted to support a resolution declaring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite part of the Iranian military, a foreign terrorist group. (The nonbinding amendment to the Defense Authorization Act passed by a 76-22 vote.) Obama said he would have voted against the measure but didn't because he was campaigning in New Hampshire at the time. He said it was impossible to know when votes will be scheduled in the Senate. \"This is a problem\" related to running for president, he said. Obama said Clinton also had shown \"flawed\" judgment during the vote to authorize the Iraq war five years ago. \"We know that there was embodied in this legislation, or this resolution sent to the Senate, language that would say our Iraqi troop structures should in part be determined by our desire to deal with Iran,\" Obama said. \"Now if you know that in the past the president has taken a blank check and cashed it, we don't want to repeat that mistake.\" Clinton on Thursday defended her vote on the resolution during an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio, saying \"what I voted on was a nonbinding resolution. It's not an amendment. It's not a law.\" While Clinton was campaigning Sunday in New Hampton, Iowa, an audience member at a town hall-style meeting pressed her on why she voted for the Iran measure and asked why she hadn't learned from past \"mistakes.\" Calling \"the premise of the question\" wrong, the senator from New York argued the resolution calls for the terrorist label so that sanctions can be imposed. The sanctions, Clinton said, will in turn \"send a clear message to the leadership\" and lead to stronger diplomatic efforts. Earlier this month, Clinton also co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, that would prohibit military operations against Iran without congressional approval. Obama's comments came on the fifth anniversary of the 77-23 Senate vote that authorized the president to use force against Iraq. Obama, then an Illinois state senator, spoke out against the resolution authorizing force at the time. Clinton's 2002 vote shows a clear difference in judgment between the two of them, Obama said. Watch as Obama questions Clinton's judgment \u00bb . \"I don't think it disqualified her, but I think it speaks to her judgment and it speaks to my judgment,\" Obama said. \"It speaks to how we will make decisions going forward. \"I think her judgment was flawed on this issue.\" Obama said he also will step up efforts to clarify his differences with Clinton, whom many political observers view as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. \"There's no doubt we are moving into a different phase of the campaign,\" Obama said. \"The first part of a campaign is to offer some biography and give people a sense of where I've been and what I am about. \"In this next phase, we want to make sure that voters understand that on big issues, like the decision to go into the war in Iraq, I had real differences with the other candidates, and that reflects on my judgment.\" Another leading Democratic candidate, John Edwards, also voted in 2002 to authorize force in Iraq while he was then a senator from North Carolina. He later called his vote a mistake. In a veiled swipe at Clinton, Obama also suggested he could better unite the country and offer \"something new, as opposed to looking backward and simply duplicating some of the politics that we've become so accustomed to, that frankly the American people are sick of.\" Obama would not say whether he would consider Clinton as his running mate should he become the Democratic Party's nominee. \"I think Sen. Clinton is a very capable person,\" he said. \"Right now, my goal is to make sure I am the nominee, and she is still the senator from New York.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Scott Anderson and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Hillary Clinton defends vote on resolution, saying \"it's not a law\"\nSen. Barack Obama: President could use Iran measure to justify military action .\nObama says Clinton's vote for resolution shows \"flawed\" judgment .\nDifferences with Clinton will be clear in \"next phase\" of campaign, Obama says .","id":"958a67b8550998886478275b404e2256a6b85c7c"} -{"article":"JENA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Charges against Bryant Purvis, one of the six black students accused of being involved in beating a white student, were reduced to second degree aggravated battery during his arraignment Wednesday morning. Bryant Purvis says he is focusing on his studies and practicing basketball. Purvis, who was facing charges of second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, entered a not guilty plea to the reduced charges in the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena. Charges have now been reduced against at least five of the students in the racially charged \"Jena 6\" case. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile. Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and five other teens accused of the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker. After the arraignment, Purvis said he has moved to another town to complete high school. He said he is focusing on his studies and practicing basketball, which he hopes to play in college. Mychal Bell, 17, is the only one of the \"Jena 6\" teens still in jail. Although he was released in September after his adult criminal conviction for the beating was overturned, he was ordered two weeks later to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility for a probation violation relating to an earlier juvenile conviction. A district judge tossed out Bell's conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in juvenile court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell's battery conviction in mid-September. Prosecutors originally charged all six black students accused of being involved in beating Barker with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Charges against Bryant Purvis reduced to second degree aggravated battery .\nPurvis had faced attempted murder, conspiracy charges .\nCharges reduced against at least five of six blacks charged in beating .\nCase of \"Jena 6\" drew national spotlight during September protest .","id":"4739f160c87994f52e894591194f5df06fed4c39"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Up to 1,000 human rights campaigners demonstrated Saturday in front of No. 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling on the British government to demand that full democracy be restored in Pakistan. Jemima Khan, center, ex-wife for former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan, joins protesters in London. Protesters waved placards and chanted in support of the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a week after he imposed a state of emergency in the country. The crowd of demonstrators massed behind barriers and included Jemima Khan, the ex-wife of former Pakistani cricket star turned politician Imran Khan. The demonstrators carried placards saying \"Free the innocent\" and \"End Musharraf's Regime\" and waved Pakistani flags. Imran Khan, who heads the the Movement for Justice Party, has been under house arrest since the emergency declaration. His ex-wife delivered a petition to a doorman at Downing Street, calling on Britain to use its influence to ensure that all institutions are in place well in advance of Pakistani elections originally scheduled for early next year. The petition also demands that Pakistan restore democracy and the judiciary and calls on Musharraf to release all political prisoners, including lawyers, journalists and opposition politicians. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Human rights campaigners demonstrate in front of No. 10 Downing Street .\nProtests urged UK government to demand full democracy restored in Pakistan .\nCricketer turned politician Imran Khan's ex wife Jemima among protesters .","id":"027a99a889b38fdb935cd14c204a5fca8a329bc1"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- After his weekend arrest on gun charges, rapper T.I. will remain in custody until a bond hearing Friday, a federal magistrate said Monday. T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, was arrested without incident in midtown Atlanta. The entertainer, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was arrested Saturday just hours before he was scheduled to perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards. The small court room of Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman was packed with family, supporters and media, but even more people, including the rapper's mother, were turned away because of the overcrowding. Harris, 27, was arrested in a federal sting after his bodyguard-turned-informant delivered three machine guns and two silencers to the hip-hop star, according to a Justice Department statement. Watch a search of the rapper's home \u00bb . He was held in federal custody over the weekend. Authorities said that Harris provided the bodyguard $12,000 to buy the weapons, which Harris is not allowed to own because he is a convicted felon. Court documents said Harris was convicted on felony drug charges in 1998, and a federal affidavit said he has been arrested on gun charges in the past. However, one of his attorneys, Dwight Thomas, said he was not aware Harris was a convicted felon and that \"a number of people\" live in Harris' suburban Atlanta home. Thomas added there were \"two sides to every story -- sometimes three\" and he was confident the legal system would work in Harris' favor. The entertainer was taken into custody about 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Atlanta, where the BET award show was taped. Harris, the show's top nominee, was up for nine awards, including CD of the year and lyricist of the year. He also was scheduled to perform, along with fellow rap stars Common, Nelly and Kanye West. Harris won two awards. The show went on without the self-proclaimed \"King of the South,\" whose car and home in the Atlanta suburb of College Park were searched after his arrest. Authorities said they found three more firearms in the car in which Harris drove to pick up the machine guns and silencers, \"including one loaded gun tucked between the driver's seat where Harris had been sitting and the center console.\" At his home, authorities found six other guns, five of them loaded, in his bedroom closet. \"Machine guns pose a serious danger to the community, which is why they are so carefully regulated,\" said David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. \"The last place machine guns should be is in the hands of a convicted felon, who cannot legally possess any kind of firearm. This convicted felon allegedly was trying to add several machine guns to an already large and entirely illegal arsenal of guns.\" The sting came after Harris' bodyguard was arrested purchasing the machine guns and silencers from an undercover Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Wednesday, according to the Justice Department statement. The bodyguard then agreed to cooperate with the ATF, the statement said. The guns were not registered on the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record as required by law. The bodyguard -- who has worked for Harris since July -- told authorities he had bought about nine guns for the rap star in the past, the statement said. On Wednesday, authorities said, Harris arranged for the bodyguard to pick up $12,000 in cash from a bank to buy the guns. After his arrest, the bodyguard made phone calls to Harris, which authorities recorded, the statement said. Harris was supposed to meet the bodyguard in a shopping center parking lot in midtown Atlanta to pick up the guns. Authorities arrested Harris there without incident, the Justice Department statement said. Court documents in the case show Harris was convicted on felony drug charges in Cobb County, Georgia, in 1998 and sentenced to seven years' probation. \"Harris has additional arrests and at least one probation violation for unlawfully possessing firearms,\" according to an affidavit. Harris' music is built around the drug culture and is known as \"trap musik,\" the name of Harris' second album. A \"trap\" is Southern slang for a drug house. Harris soon will appear in the movie \"American Gangster,\" starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. The film is set to open November 2. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike Phelan and Catherine Callaway contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: T.I. to remain in custody until Friday, when there's a bond hearing .\nRapper was arrested Saturday on weapons charges .\nT.I. won two awards at BET awards show Saturday night .","id":"c7c83a9ee902e568a55898c616f20181952ce057"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three Chinese nationals accused of importing thousands of counterfeit luxury handbags in the United States have been arrested in the past two days, federal authorities announced Thursday. Shoppers sort through counterfeit brand name luxury bags and wallets on a Hong Kong street. \"This was a sophisticated criminal conspiracy that trafficked millions of dollars of counterfeit goods from China, profiting off the backs of legitimate companies and their hard-working employees,\" said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher. Authorities call it one of the largest counterfeit operations ever discovered, involving about 300,000 bags and wallets with names like Burberry, Gucci and Coach. For customers who bought the knockoffs, it seemed like a deal. They paid a total of about $16 million for what would have been more than $100 million in handbags, purses and wallets in legitimate retail sales. The alleged leaders of the counterfeit operations are three Chinese citizens living in New York. Chong Lam, 49, and Joyce Chan, 39, were arrested there Wednesday. Eric Yuen, 39, was arrested Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who made the arrests began investigating the alleged scheme five years ago, after raids turned up counterfeit goods. The indictment was secretly returned in Richmond, Virginia, in October. The charges were unsealed when the alleged conspirators were taken into custody. Authorities seized and froze 29 bank accounts and three New York properties. The Chinese defendants will be taken to Richmond, where they will be arraigned at a later date, officials said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Authorities call it one of the largest counterfeit operations ever discovered .\nOfficial: Scheme profited \"off the backs of legitimate companies\"\nCounterfeit operation allegedly involved 300,000 high-end bags and wallets .\nThe alleged leaders are three Chinese citizens living in New York .","id":"7bff6a60ff0b62855bd28562bb820233c0c940e0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- National Hurricane Center director Bill Proenza left his position Monday, just days after nearly half of the NHC staff signed a petition calling for his ouster. Hurricane Center Bill Proenza left his job as director Monday. Proenza is still employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- a parent organization of the NHC -- but he is currently on leave, said NOAA spokesman Anson Franklin. Deputy Director Ed Rappaport has been temporarily placed in charge. Proenza, 62, became the director in January after the retirement of Max Mayfield. Proenza caused an uproar last month with comments about a key hurricane satellite called QuikSCAT. The satellite is five years beyond its life expectancy and operating on a backup transmitter. Proenza said if it were to fail, forecast tracks could be thrown off by as much as 16 percent. He said Washington reprimanded him for the remarks: \"They wanted me to be quiet about it.\" But one of the center's longtime forecasters said Proenza's comments were misguided. \"QuikSCAT is another tool that we use to forecast,\" Lixion Avila said. \"The forecast will not be degraded if we don't have the QuikSCAT.\" Last week, the Commerce Department launched an unscheduled review of the hurricane center after word of the staff's dissatisfaction started to become public. His staffers on Thursday issued a petition calling for him to step down. Watch how Proenza lost the confidence of his staff \u00bb . The petition said the center's \"effective functioning\" is at stake as the Atlantic hurricane season heads toward its peak. \"The undersigned staff ... has concluded that the center needs a new director, and with the heart of the hurricane season fast approaching, urges the Department of Commerce to make this happen as quickly as possible,\" said the petition, which was signed by twenty-three people, including four of five senior hurricane specialists. Hurricane center staffers told CNN's John Zarella they were unhappy not only about his comments about the QuikSCAT, but also about the environment at the center -- one characterized by closed doors and the public airing of dirty laundry. Proenza on Friday told CNN he had contacted his superiors in Washington about \"ways to move forward,\" but added, \"I am not going to resign.\" Proenza told CNN he did not think the staff should dictate the leadership through \"signing petitions.\" Proenza graduated from Florida State University with a degree in meteorology. He began his career in tropical meteorology in the mid-1960s at NHC and as a meteorologist on the \"hurricane hunter\" aircraft, according to his biography posted on the agency's Web site. He continued within the National Weather Service for more than 35 years, \"receiving numerous performance commendations and awards, including recognition from the NWS Employees' Organization as the NWS manager of the year for his collaborative leadership,\" the bio said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"National Hurricane Center director Bill Proenza has left his position .\nNearly half of the NHC signed a petition calling for him to step down .\nProenza came under fire for comments he made about the QuikSCAT satellite .\nStaff unhappy with environment of closed doors, public bickering .","id":"5ba5e49e25610f42416b2e7ba76d7496acab0f78"} -{"article":"DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) -- More than 1,700 people have died in Bangladesh after a devastating tropical cyclone ripped through the western coast of the country, and the toll is expected to rise, a government spokesman tells CNN. Families stand amid the wreckage caused by the cyclone Friday in southern Bangladesh. Brig. Gen. Qazi Abedus Samad, director of operations for the country's armed forces, told CNN Saturday the toll had reached 1,723, and the figure is expected to rise. As flood waters recede, aid workers say they expect to find scores more bodies when remote villages are finally reached and the counting is done. They face debris-blocked roads, no electricity and almost nonexistent communications. In addition to the dead, another 15,000 people have been injured. Thousands of people have been displaced and many are still missing. Cyclone Sidr, with sustained winds of at least 131 mph (210 kph), made landfall Thursday night along the western coast of Bangladesh near the border with India, unleashing floodwaters. Government spokesman Fahim Munaim told CNN by telephone that the government held an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday to assess the disaster and discuss recovery issues. He said the extent of the cyclone's damage may be much worse because emergency relief had not been able to reach remote areas. The government has identified the 12 worst districts -- all of them located on the southern coast -- out of the 23 affected by the cyclone, Munaim said. See victims pick up the pieces after the storm \u00bb . The Bangladeshi air force, army and navy are working to provide shelter for the many people who have been displaced. Power is still out in much of the country but it is being restored. Watch how the cyclone spawns a large relief effort \u00bb . Vince Edwards, national director of the relief agency World Vision in Bangladesh, said the high wind speeds of Cyclone Sidr have laid waste to the all-important rice crop and caused a huge loss of livestock. He said 280,000 families have been rendered homeless by the cyclone, but many have been able to get shelter from family members. World Vision is deploying 135 staffers and 7,000 volunteers to provide food, shelter and other relief. The group is appealing for $1.5 million in further funds to assist some 9.300 families rebuild their homes. In Dhaka -- about 200 miles north of the worst-hit region -- there were power outages, massive traffic jams and spotty phone service, CNN's Cal Perry said from the city. \"From an infrastructure perspective, the country absolutely has been brought to its knees,\" he said. Red Crescent spokeswoman Nabiha Chowdhury told CNN that communication with her agency's teams who have arrived in the stricken area is spotty, but they have resources with them to immediately help people with water purification, which she said was a top priority. Those teams have cash with them to buy relief supplies from local wholesalers, said Chowdhury, who said the latest number of people injured was 15,000 with 1,000 missing. Chowdhury said about 600,000 people had fled, adding that about 2 million people lived along the coast. The U.N. World Food Programme said it has enough high-energy biscuits to feed 400,000 people for several days. Another humanitarian group, Save The Children, appealed for aid from the public. \"Many families have lost everything, including their homes and their crops, and they are struggling to survive,\" said Kelly Stevenson, Save the Children's Bangladesh director. \"We are appealing to the U.S. public to support our efforts to assist children and families affected by this disaster. We remain very concerned about possible outbreaks of cholera and severe diarrhea due to the lack of access to clean water,\" he said in a written statement. The U.S. Department of State pledged Friday pledging \"to work with the government and foreign donors to assist in relieving the effects of the disaster.\" Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. Mission in Bangladesh, anticipating the storm, pre-positioned 16 Zodiac boats, water treatment systems, water ambulances and food for a more rapid response. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to approve plans to send up to three Navy amphibious warships, with up to 3,500 Marines, to locations off the coast of Bangladesh to assist in relief efforts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"More than 1,700 people dead, toll expected to rise, official says .\n15,000 people are injured following Thursday's tropical Cyclone Sidr .\nU.N. World Food Programme has food for 400,000 people for three days .\nPower outages, massive traffic jams and poor phone service in Dhaka .","id":"0961a6a9fef7ad978ab866a57415578a49ba187f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly displaying hangman's nooses from the back of a pickup truck during a civil rights march last year in Jena, Louisiana. A photo taken by I-Reporter Casanova Love shows a noose hanging from a pickup in Alexandria, Louisiana. Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Grant Parish, repeatedly drove slowly past a group of marchers gathered at a bus depot in Alexandria, which is near Jena, as they awaited buses to return them to Tennessee, federal authorities said Thursday. As many as 20,000 marchers had taken part in the huge protests in Jena. Authorities there had been accused of injustice in the handling of racially charged cases, including the hanging of nooses in a tree after a group of black high school students sat in an area where traditionally only white students sat. The noose incident at Jena was the beginning of months of racial tension that included the beating of a white student, allegedly by six black classmates. The black students were prosecuted, but the three white students responsible for the nooses in the tree were not. Munsen and an unnamed conspirator had attached nooses to their pickup on September 20 and driven to Alexandria specifically to threaten and intimidate the marchers, the authorities said. View a series of photos of the truck \u00bb . A juvenile passenger was apprehended with Munsen, according to the arresting officer's report. The juvenile told police he and his family are in the Ku Klux Klan and that he had \"KKK\" tattooed on his chest, the police report said. He also said that he tied the nooses and that brass knuckles found in the truck belonged to him, the report said. \"This indictment accuses the defendant [Munsen] of conduct that constitutes a federal civil rights conspiracy violation and a federal hate crime,\" said U.S. Attorney Donald Washington. Washington and Grace Chung Becker, acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, announced the indictment, issued by a grand jury in Shreveport, Louisiana. A photograph of the truck was sent to CNN by I-Reporter Casanova Love, 26, who said he is in the U.S. military. He was visiting his family in Louisiana and said he witnessed the event. Love added, \"If the police had not stepped in, I fear what might have happened.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Louisiana resident, 18, faces federal hate-crime, conspiracy charges .\nDriver allegedly taunted civil rights marchers with nooses on pickup truck .\nMarchers were protesting handling of several racially charged incidents .","id":"94148575d23050ffbedb00bddbd826d7137a4fe4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rock group R.E.M. debuted a song from its upcoming album Wednesday on CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0\" program. R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe says the band was honored to be involved with the \"Planet in Peril\" project. The song \"Until the Day Is Done\" also will appear later this month in \"Planet in Peril,\" a four-hour CNN documentary that looks at environmental crises around the world. \"With 'Planet in Peril,' Anderson Cooper and his team have done an amazing job capturing global eco-devastation,\" said R.E.M singer Michael Stipe in a news release. \"The images in the film are beautiful, while at the same time heartbreaking and frightening. We are honored to have our song included in this monumental project.\" This isn't the first time R.E.M. has worked with Cooper. The band premiered its video \"Bad Day\" on the show in 2002. \"Planet in Peril\" executive producer Charlie Moore said the group's longstanding commitment to environmental causes made them a natural choice for the project. Watch a trailer for \"Planet in Peril\" and hear \"Until the Day Is Done\" \u00bb . Moore said they contacted R.E.M. earlier this year to see if the group would be willing to write a song to go with the documentary, and the band happened to be in the studio working on their upcoming album. \"We were able to hear some of the stuff they were doing and this particular song fits perfectly for the project,\" Moore said. He said the group, their management and their record label were eager to be involved. \"It's sort of serendipitous that we were able to work something out with them,\" Moore said. \"All the stars were lined up for this to happen, they were in the studio, they were working on a song that fit with the feeling that the pictures portray and they really match up very well. And we like their music, we like their work and are just thrilled that they wanted to be a part of it.\" \"Planet in Peril\" features CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and \"Animal Planet\" host and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin. The two-part documentary was filmed in 13 countries and focuses on the issues of climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation. CNN will air \"Planet in Peril\" on October 23 and 24 at 9 p.m. ET. It also will be broadcast on CNN International. In a message on the R.E.M.'s Web site, the group said it had finished recording songs for the new album, which is scheduled to be released next year. The band also is releasing a live CD\/DVD on Tuesday with 22-tracks recorded at a 2005 concert in Dublin, Ireland. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"R.E.M. song \"Until the Day Is Done\" debuts on CNN .\nSong also to be used in documentary \"Planet in Peril\"\nSong will be on R.E.M.'s upcoming album .\nBand releasing live CD\/DVD next week .","id":"aaa346e0be1ef1b9c2ce152c859b30e364ea3bc0"} -{"article":"EL CALABOZ, Texas (CNN) -- Eloisa Tamez said she isn't scared anymore, just determined. \"I am not backing down,\" she said. The U.S. government wants to build a border fence like this one. About 100 landowners are fighting it. Tamez owns three acres of land along the Texas-Mexico border where the Department of Homeland Security would like to build a border fence. The property is a remnant of a 12,000-acre grant from Spain to her family in 1767, before the United States even existed. \"It is my history. It is my heritage,\" Tamez said. This week, the Justice Department began legal action against landowners and municipalities who have refused to give government surveyors access to their land. Tamez expects she will be sued sometime soon, but she is not intimidated. Asked how long she will fight, she said, \"As long as I have to.\" Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security, said the fence will not be stopped by opponents like Tamez. \"Can we simply abandon an enterprise because it is a problem for a particular individual?\" Chertoff told CNN. \"I don't think I can accept that.\" Watch Chertoff say it's \"civic responsibility\" to give up land \u00bb . Chertoff believes a fence would curb the steady stream of illegal immigrants making their way across the border and lessen the flow of drugs. He also argues it will increase the safety of Border Patrol agents who have faced increasing violence. The government wants to build 700 miles of fence along the Mexican border, including 370 miles of it by the end of this year. About 70 miles of fence is to be built in the Rio Grande Valley by year's end, if the government gets its way. The Rio Grande forms a natural barrier along this stretch of the border, but in some places it is narrow enough to swim across. On the banks of the river there is ample evidence that people do so. Piles of underwear lie discarded by swimmers after they make it across. The swimmers change into dry clothes they have carried across in plastic bags. Then they disappear into the United States. The Border Patrol has stepped up its efforts in the Rio Grande Valley with more lights, and sensors to pick up movement. A levee built along the river has a muddy road on top used by Border Patrol vehicles to patrol the area. Richard Cortez, the mayor of the border town of McAllen, Texas, believes hiring more Border Patrol agents, deepening the Rio Grande, and clearing its banks of tall vegetation would provide better border protection than the fence. Cortez calls the fence \"a multibillion-dollar speed bump,\" which will slow, but not stop, illegal immigration. \"It is a false sense of security,\" he said. \"America will not be safe. America will continue to waste resources on something that is not going to work.\" Cortez and other border mayors who oppose construction of the fence formed a group called the Texas Border Coalition. The coalition wrote to Chertoff asking for further consultations on the fence, but this week the Department of Homeland Security turned them down. While expressing support for open dialogue with residents and officials, David Pagan of U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrote in an e-mail, \"We do not plan to suspend work on the construction of fence in order to hold a series of additional consultation meetings.\" Cortez said his city is contemplating a court test of the law that mandated the construction of the border fence. And so a battle is being waged by about 100 landowners, those like Eloisa Tamez who are standing firm. \"I will not allow them to come and survey my land. I have an American-given right to protect my property,\" she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Government wants land for border fence; landowners refuse .\nSecretary Chertoff says he won't relent \"for a particular individual\"\nEloisa Tamez says her property has been in her family since 1767 .\nBorder town mayor calls the fence \"a multibillion-dollar speed bump\"","id":"7604af04967436c4aaf0c7df8b09afcec82f5be0"} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- Some Christian congregations, particularly in lower income, urban areas, are turning to an unlikely source for help -- the Church of Scientology. Rev, Charles Kennedy uses Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's book during a Friday night sermon. Scientologists do not worship God, much less Jesus Christ. The church has seen plenty of controversy and critics consider it a cult. So why are observant Christians embracing some of its teachings? Two pastors who spoke recently with CNN explained that when it comes to religion, they still preach the core beliefs of Christianity. But when it comes to practicing what they preach in a modern world, borrowing from Scientology helps. The Rev. Charles Kennedy, of the Glorious Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal church in Tampa, Florida, and the Rev. James McLaughlin, of the Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, are among the theological hybrids. Watch Rev. Kennedy preach \u00bb . They say they are not scared off by programs with ties to a church that critics say has aggressive recruiting, secretive ways and rigid theology. As men of God rooted in Christian values, they do not see Scientology as a threat to their faith, but rather as a tool to augment it. Scientology was founded in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer. Followers are taught that they are immortal spiritual beings called thetans. Although the church says there is a supreme being, its practices do not include worshipping God. \"I'm looking for solutions, and the people that I help, they don't ask me who L. Ron Hubbard is,\" said McLaughlin, who works with addicts. \"You know what they say? 'Thank God.' \" Critic Rick Ross, a court-certified Scientology expert, sees something more sinister at work. He warned that mainstream acceptance makes it easier for the Scientologists to achieve their ultimate goal -- new recruits. \"Their hope is that through these programs, people will become more interested in L. Ron Hubbard, what else Mr. Hubbard had to offer, and this will lead them eventually to Scientology,\" Ross said. The church has long been in the headlines for practices critics say are little more than cult-like mind control. It is also known for its stable of devout celebrity followers. And according to published reports, Scientology has been recently diversifying its outreach to include other religions and ethnic groups. Kennedy, McLaughlin and a handful of other Christian church leaders -- no one can say how many -- are finding answers to their communities' needs in Scientology's social programs. For Kennedy, it began two years ago when he attended a meeting at the Church of Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. He was introduced to a book called \"The Way to Happiness\" -- Hubbard's 64-page, self-described \"common sense guide to better living.\" In the book, which lays out ways to maintain a temperate lifestyle, Kennedy found a message he believed could help lift his predominantly lower income African-American congregation. He said the book's 21 principles help them with their struggle in an urban environment where there is too much crime and addiction and too little opportunity. Kennedy knew that before he could introduce any Scientology-related text to his congregation, he would have to prove that it did not contradict his Christian beliefs. And so, he found Scripture to match each of the 21 principles. Now Kennedy uses \"The Way to Happiness\" as a how-to supplement to his sermons. He believes it is easier to understand and clearer to follow than ancient Scriptures taken from the Bible. When asked whether Scientology's values contradict the religion of Jesus Christ, Kennedy replies, \"Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.\" But he says his congregation can relate to \"The Way to Happiness.\" Kennedy admits other pastors have criticized him, but the disapproval is not enough to discourage him. He insists that he has witnessed the changes \"The Way to Happiness\" has inspired in people. He also maintains that the Scientologists, many of whom he calls friends, are successful at outreach and getting desired results. At Kennedy's C. L. Kennedy Center, free tutoring based on Hubbard's \"study tech\" philosophies is provided to dozens of children and some adults. Kennedy's daughter, Jimirra, is one of the instructors. She said \"study tech\" and the Scientology orientation classes she attended helped her graduate from high school and become a poised woman. Though Jimirra Kennedy insists she does not ascribe to the religious side of Scientology, she still considers herself, at least in part, Scientologist. \"We say this all the time and I know my father says this, but I am like a Pentecostal Scientologist, that's what we are.\" Critics like Ross are alarmed by such a blurring of the lines. They consider it a marketing win for Scientology. In Houston, McLaughlin says he is not one to argue with success. Driven by a need to address the rampant drug problem in his community, McLaughlin spent years searching for a solution before he discovered \"Narconon,\" Scientology's nonprofit drug rehab center, in 2001. McLaughlin trained at Narconon and brought the techniques back to his community to launch \"First Step Faith Step,\" a program that combines Hubbard's methods with the teachings of Christianity. He claims a 70- to 80-percent rehabilitation success rate. Kennedy and McLaughlin said they have never lost a member of their congregations to Scientology. \"I think that they truly believe that this may help their communities, but in my opinion, they're na\u00efve,\" Ross said. Scientologists, he added, \"have their own agenda.\" The Church of Scientology would not grant CNN an interview, nor would its representatives answer questions about the Hubbard-based programs. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Christian pastors borrow ideas from Scientology to preach temperate lifestyle .\nCritics say Scientology is a cult, always looking for recruits .\nPastor in Houston, Texas, claims 70 percent success rate with addicts .","id":"1be68b94413120c0b2c7514ffd14b9cfc4413f90"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A car bomb attack in Algeria has killed three people and wounded 23, the Algerian Press Service reported. An Algerian policeman stands in front of destroyed buildings in Thenia. The attack occurred Tuesday near an office housing judicial police in the city of Thenia, about 50 km (31 miles) east of the capital of Algiers, the agency said. The blast destroyed about 20 houses, and a commission has been appointed to look after the victims, the press agency said. Islamic extremists in Algeria and other North African countries have struck several times in recent years. An al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility last year for the deadliest attack in Algiers in 10 years, a bombing that destroyed the prime minister's headquarters and a police base, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 220. Al Qaeda also took responsibility for a January 2 bombing that killed four and wounded 20 at a building housing security forces in Naciria, a city about 50 km (31 miles) east of Algiers. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Attack occurred near an office housing judicial police in the city of Thenia .\nThe blast destroyed about 20 houses; 23 also injured .\nAl Qaeda also took responsibility for a January 2 bombing that killed four .","id":"44fc3a2bc441a674f1ebdeabae73278977909db4"} -{"article":"SUSSEX, Virginia (CNN) -- Suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick must adhere to tightened restrictions after he tested positive for marijuana use, a federal judge said Wednesday. Suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick tested positive for marijuana in a September 13 drug test. Vick tested positive for the drug on September 13, a court document from the Eastern District of Virginia shows. As a result, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ordered Vick to \"submit to any method of testing required by the pretrial services officer or the supervising officer for determining whether the defendant is using a prohibited substance.\" Those methods could include random drug testing, a remote alcohol testing system \"and\/or any form of prohibited substance screening or testing,\" the order said. Vick, 27, must participate in substance abuse therapy and mental health counseling \"if deemed advisable by the pretrial services officer or supervising officer\" at his own expense, the order said. Vick was also ordered to stay home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., \"or as directed by the pretrial services officer or supervising officer,\" the order said. He is to be electronically monitored during that time. The conditions are to apply until Vick's sentencing, which is set for December 10. Read about the federal case against Vick \u00bb . \"This is a very difficult time for Mr. Vick,\" said Billy Martin, Vick's lead defense counsel, in a written statement. \"He will comply with the court's new conditions regarding release.\" Vick faces a possible prison term of 12 to 18 months after his August guilty plea to federal conspiracy charges related to dogfighting on his property in Surry County, Virginia. The original terms of the pretrial release, set in July by U.S. Magistrate Dennis W. Dohnal, required that Vick not use narcotic drugs or other controlled substances unless prescribed by a doctor. Vick's guilty plea in the federal case came after three associates -- Purnell Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Quanis Phillips, 28, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Tony Taylor, 34, of Hampton, Virginia -- admitted their roles in the operation and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. On Tuesday, a Virginia grand jury indicted Vick and the three co-defendants on state charges of running a dogfighting ring at the home. See a timeline of the case against Vick \u00bb . The Surry County grand jury brought two charges against Vick: one count of unlawfully torturing and killing dogs and one of promoting dogfights. Each is a felony charge that could result in a five-year prison term. Vick will be arraigned October 3 in state court in Virginia. Vick's attorneys say they are fighting the state charges on the grounds that he can't be convicted twice of the same crime. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Eric Fiegel contributed to this report.","highlights":"Vick's September 13 drug test shows marijuana use .\nPretrial release conditions tightened; must stay home from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.\nVirginia grand jury indicts Vick and the three co-defendants on state charges .\nVick already faces up to 18 months in prison after federal plea deal .","id":"fbb06b75e3963c5a810c9f73e4dc5382fbcb7405"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr clowned around and marveled at their band's amazing impact in an interview Tuesday on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Larry King, left, poses with (l-r) Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison and Ringo Starr Tuesday in Las Vegas. \"We were just kids from Liverpool,\" McCartney said. \"And, yes, it is quite amazing, because as time goes on, it kind of becomes more and more of a phenomenon.\" McCartney said the early Beatles knew they were a good band and were pretty sure of themselves, but Starr said, \"We thought we'd be really big in Liverpool.\" \"I think the most exciting thing is that, you know, we expect people our age to know the music. But actually, a lot of kids know the music,\" Starr said. \"And if anything is left, we have left really good music, and that's the important part, not the moptops or whatever.\" The pair appeared relaxed in sneakers and almost matching black suits and joked frequently -- often at each other's expense. \"They were nothing,\" Starr said of his former bandmates. \"And then I joined and then they got this record deal and look what happened.\" \"No, we were good,\" McCartney retorted. \"You wanted to join us. You begged to join us.\" \"I didn't beg,\" Starr said. Watch Paul and Ringo talk about the Beatles' magic \u00bb . McCartney and Starr were in Las Vegas with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, to celebrate the anniversary of Cirque du Soleil's \"Love,\" which uses the Beatles' music. Harrison said her husband was friends with Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and came up with the idea before he died of cancer in 2001. \"George was around just long enough to transmit that to all of us,\" Harrison said. Ono said she wasn't sure at first what her husband would have thought about the project. John Lennon was shot near the couple's New York apartment in 1980. \"Now I really know that John would be very happy with this,\" she said. Neither woman has remarried and they both said it was still sometimes difficult to deal with their losses. \"We feel so strongly about our husbands that sometimes it's hard for us, isn't it?\" Ono said. \"It's hard, you know,\" Harrison said. \"I mean their presence is very powerful and very strong. But the incredible thing about them is that they -- everything they left the world and left us is uplifting and joyful.\" The Beatles' music received a bit of a facelift for the show and has been remixed in 5.1 surround sound. (An album, \"Love,\" came out last year.) \"Paul and I went to listen to the music in 5.1 and we go 'Whoa, listen to that,' \" Starr said. \"You know you can hear everything now. Things that we buried a lot. It's all very clear, so it's really great to hear it.\" \"Most historic stuff goes down with age, you know?\" McCartney added. \"Winston Churchill's old papers go brown and crinkly, while our music gets brighter and shinier.\" \"Next year, it will be 10.1,\" Starr joked. McCartney's latest solo album, \"Memory's Almost Full,\" is No. 3 on the album charts and Starr is scheduled to release a greatest hits album in August. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr say their music sounds better .\nThe former Beatles talk to CNN's Larry King .\nWidows of John Lennon and George Harrison also appeared .\nHarrison, Ono say their husbands still have strong presence .","id":"551839469c1133ef4697ed435c5de192e6076858"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Palestinians, including two sick children, have died recently while waiting for resettlement from Iraq, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie visits the Al Waleed refugee camp in August. About 2,000 Palestinian refugees are stranded in camps along the Syrian border and face difficult living conditions, including limited medical care, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The agency has appealed for the resettlement of \"vulnerable and sick\" children in Al Waleed refugee camp at the Iraqi-Syrian border. One of those who died in the camp was a 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was suffering from rickets and pneumonia. He died a few days ago in a Ramadi hospital and then was buried in Al Waleed. The other was a 14-year-old suffering from Hodgkin's disease who died in Baghdad last week. A 50-year-old man who was waiting to be resettled died earlier this month in Al Waleed. The agency says seven people, including three children, have died at the camp since refugees fleeing attackers began arriving at the border in March 2006. About 30 to 40 people arrive at the Al Waleed camp each week, the UNHCR reports. The agency has been pursuing medical resettlement. \"UNHCR has helped resettle one family of eight with several sick children from this camp to Norway last August. Another 11 medical cases submitted for resettlement are awaiting approval,\" the agency said, which is working to identify other medical cases. And it is urging the resettlement of the entire group. \"UNHCR has sought solutions for the whole group since last year and has only received positive indications from Sudan and Chile,\" the agency said. Thousands of Palestinians have lived in Iraq, with some going there when Israel was formed and others born there. The UNHCR notes that some got \"preferential treatment\" under the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But they have been the targets of violence since he was toppled. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.N. agency appeals for medical resettlement of Palestinians in Iraq camps .\nAbout 2,000 Palestinians in camps along Iraq-Syria border .\n30 to 40 refugees arrive at border camp each week, UNHCR says .","id":"386e149797954c4b5cd52bcad0beece29f7eb04a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Coast Guard planes and ships were searching Friday for a Japanese balloonist who disappeared off the Alaska coast while flying from Japan to the west coast United States. Missing Japanese balloonist Michio Kanda (R) with Naoki Ishikawa. Friends of balloonist Michio Kanda, who was on a solo flight, last heard from him via satellite phone at 9 a.m. Alaska time (6 p.m. GMT) Thursday, said USCG Petty Officer Levi Read. When he missed three subsequent scheduled calls over the next six hours, they called the Coast Guard, Read said. Read said two Coast Guard C130 Hercules planes conducted searches Thursday 435 miles south of Adak, Alaska, the balloonist's last known position. The searches continued Friday and are ongoing, Read said. Two Coast Guard cutters are also headed for the area, but both are at least a day away, he said. Read said the balloonist, who was heading for Portland, Oregon, is equipped with provisions and a survival suit. Kanda holds the world record for the longest-duration balloon flight, with a time of 50 hours and 38 minutes, according to the World Air Sports Federation. In that January 1997 flight, he and Hirosuke Takezawa flew from the Canadian provionce of Alberta to the U.S. state of Montana, according to the federation. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Balloonist Michio Kanda missing on flight from Japan to U.S.\nU.S. Coast Guard searching area around his last known position .\nKanda holds the world record for the longest-duration balloon flight .","id":"25abfd6bf83eb62bdd4daf1f542d61b54ab2871d"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will duel for Super Tuesday votes Thursday night as the Democratic presidential hopefuls face off for the first time together minus former Sen. John Edwards. Thursday's debate is taking place at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The debate -- sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico -- starts at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN and CNN.com. CNN's Wolf Blitzer is the moderator. The event is the first Democratic debate since Obama's convincing victory Saturday in South Carolina. On Tuesday, Clinton won the Florida primary, a contest her campaign said helped the senator regain momentum even though it awarded no delegates. The forum at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood comes hours after the Obama campaign revealed it had raised $32 million in January from roughly 170,000 new donors. That amount will allow Obama to expand his television ad buys greatly in the 20-plus states holding primaries or caucuses Tuesday. Watch a time-lapse construction of the debate set \u00bb . The Clinton campaign would not indicate how much money it had raised in the same time period. Mike Gravel, the other Democratic presidential candidate still in the race, was not invited to participate in the debate because he did not meet certain criteria, including support in national polls. In a CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted January 14-17, Gravel received less than 1 percent. Edwards suspended his presidential run Wednesday in New Orleans, Louisiana, but he didn't endorse any candidate despite what aides described as furious lobbying campaigns by Obama and Clinton. Thursday's debate may be slightly more restrained than last week's brutal showdown. Following her South Carolina loss, Clinton has largely steered clear of opportunities to take aim at Obama. Former President Bill Clinton also has avoided criticizing his wife's rival after dominating headlines with his attacks in the days before the South Carolina vote. The economy is likely to dominate Thursday's debate, as both candidates look to appeal to supporters of Edwards and his brand of economic populism. Clinton and Obama have split victories in their parties' early-voting states: Obama has won in Iowa and South Carolina, and Clinton has won in New Hampshire, Nevada, Michigan and Florida. But the Michigan and Florida contests awarded no delegates, and all major Democratic presidential candidates pledged to avoid campaigning in those states following national party penalties against them for moving up their contests so early. Clinton was the only major candidate to appear on the Michigan ballot. Obama is leading Clinton in the number of pledged delegates -- those awarded based on primary or caucus votes. Clinton has the edge when superdelegates are factored in. (Superdelegates are party leaders and elected officials who are not obligated to support a particular candidate. They can change their decisions at any time leading up to the Democratic National Convention in August.) To date, Obama has won an estimated 63 national convention delegates as a result of primary or caucus votes, while Clinton has earned an estimated 48 delegates. Clinton, however, has the overall lead in delegates -- 232 to 158 -- when superdelegates are included. With solid fundraising numbers and a nod from Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts this week, Obama will be making the claim he holds the front-runner title. But Clinton -- who has led in national surveys for much of the race -- will be making her case as well. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report.","highlights":"Debate will be last time top Democrats face off before Super Tuesday contests .\nSens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to go one-on-one for first time together .\nEx-Sen. John Edwards suspended presidential campaign Wednesday .\nDebate will start at 8 ET on Thursday night on CNN and CNN.com .","id":"e5e0f9ea6381d513d4632644634d7c12e1c6c4cb"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- A car bomb struck a U.S. Embassy vehicle Tuesday as it traveled along a coastal highway north of Beirut, killing at least three Lebanese civilian bystanders, according to American and Lebanese officials. Lebanese soldiers and Red Cross workers stand near charred cars at the site of the explosion in Beirut. The driver of the embassy vehicle suffered minor injuries, and the sole passenger walked away unscathed, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Both were Lebanese nationals, he said. An American citizen who happened to be in the area suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the spokesman said. Lebanese internal security forces said three Lebanese civilian bystanders were killed in the explosion in Beirut's Dora area, contradicting earlier reports of four. Twenty-one others -- including the American bystander -- were wounded in the explosion, which was caused by a 15-kilogram (33-pound) bomb placed in a car before the explosion, the security forces said. The United States is outraged by the terrorist attack, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is traveling with President Bush in Saudi Arabia. \"I want on behalf of our country to say to those who were wounded, and certainly to the families of those who were killed, that our condolences are with them,\" she added. It was not clear whether the blast was caused by a suicide attack or by a remotely detonated car bomb. A communique issued by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said the embassy vehicle was apparently the intended target of the attack, and identified the driver and passenger as Lebanese security personnel for the embassy. But McCormack cautioned against jumping to any conclusions on the intended target. \"We don't yet have a full picture of exactly what happened, who is responsible, who is exactly being targeted,\" he told reporters during the State Department's daily briefing. \"We will see over the next day or two ... where the facts lead us.\" Citing security concerns, McCormack would also not address unconfirmed reports that the vehicle was part of a convoy for departing U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman. A U.S. Embassy statement said Feltman canceled a farewell ceremony that he was to host Tuesday night \"out of respect to the victims of today's terrorist explosion.\" In addition to the American, an Iraqi and at least three Lebanese were among those wounded in the blast, according to a Western diplomatic source. Video of the scene showed several damaged cars, including at least one that was left a pile of twisted metal. A nearby high-rise building also sustained damage. Mohammed Chatah, senior adviser to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, pointed out that the attack happened during \"a major political crisis\" in Lebanon, which has been without a president for nearly eight weeks amid a bitter political feud. \"This explosion just exacerbates a difficult situation,\" Chatah told CNN. Tuesday's blast appears to be the latest in a series of attacks against pro-Western, anti-Syrian targets in the Lebanese capital. Most recently, an explosion in Beirut's Christian suburb of Baabda killed Brig. Gen. Francois Al-Hajj, the head of operations for the Lebanese army, and his bodyguard on December 12. Al-Hajj was believed to be a top candidate to take over as army commander in the event current commander Gen. Michel Suleiman was elected to replace Emile Lahoud as president. Lebanon has been in the midst of a political crisis as pro- and anti-Syrian lawmakers in parliament are locked in a battle to elect a new president. The nation has been without a president since November 23, when the pro-Syrian Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term. In February 2005, the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut sparked widespread protests that led to the ouster of Syrian forces from Lebanon. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Anthony Mills in Beirut and Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: The United States is outraged by the attack, Secretary of State Rice says .\nCar bomb strikes U.S. Embassy vehicle north of Beirut .\nThree Lebanese civilians dead, American and Lebanese officials confirm .\nDriver of the vehicle was slightly injured, and the only passenger was not hurt .","id":"4e660c57fb36c03622b3ff9f9d0e78a0f7b0aea9"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- 1. Bobby Murcer's biggest fan . Former New York Yankee Bobby Murcer warms up during Old Timers Day Yankee Stadium on July 7. Our first story has a fairy-tale middle and a horrible ending. In August of '77, Bobby Murcer of the Cubs promised to hit a home run for terminally ill fan Scott Crull. That night, Murcer hit two of them. Pretty amazing, especially when you consider Murcer only hit nine homers the whole next season. But that's not why Crull -- a 12-year-old from Calumet City, Illinois -- makes this list. Broadcasting the game nationally on ABC, Keith Jackson told the country how Murcer had fulfilled the dying boy's last wish. Eyes watered, spines tingled. There was only one problem -- nobody had ever told the boy he was dying. His parents were horrified. Weeks later, Crull passed away. 2. The good luck charmers . Every sport has its own strange traditions. I'd argue hockey's \"throwing an octopus on the ice for good luck\" is the weirdest. Tossing the eight-tentacled cephalopod was the brainchild of Detroit storeowners Pete & Jerry Cusimano. The date: April 15, 1952. The logic: one tentacle for each of the eight victories it took to win the Stanley Cup. Later that spring, most likely fueled by the good luck octopus, the Red Wings won the title. PETA has objected to this practice, which continues to this day. The Red Wings mascot is not a Red Wing, but Al the Octopus. 3. The John 3:16 guy . Also known as \"Rainbow Man,\" the born-again Rollen Stewart and his John 3:16 signs were fixtures at major events in the 1970s and 80s. He brought his message to the World Series, Super Bowl, Olympics, and World Cup. He was outside Buckingham Palace when Di and Charles wed; he went to see the Pope in Alaska. But he was more religious fanatic than sports fan. According to the Los Angeles Times, Stewart planned to assassinate President Bush and candidate Clinton in 1992. And he's now serving three life sentences for holding a maid hostage at a Los Angeles Hyatt, also in 1992. By the way, chapter three, verse sixteen of the Gospel of John says, \"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\" This is also printed on cups at the In-N-Out Burger. 4. The All-Star heckler . For 12 years, Maryland lawyer and Washington Bullets fan Robin Ficker was the NBA's most prominent heckler. With season tickets behind the visiting team's bench, his antics were legendary. When he reminded Frank Layden of the Jazz that \"USA Today\" had rated him Worst Dressed Coach, Layden had to be restrained by security. With the Bulls in town, Ficker loudly read excerpts of Maverick, coach Phil Jackson's sex-laden 1975 autobiography. During the 1993 Suns-Bulls NBA Finals, Charles Barkley (of the Suns) flew Ficker to Phoenix and bought him a ticket behind the Chicago bench. Ficker was ejected in the first quarter. The Bullets became the Wizards in 1997 and moved into the MCI Center the following season. Ficker's new seats were not in shouting distance of the visiting team, forcing him into heckling retirement. Last year he received 9.5% of the vote in a losing bid for Montgomery County Executive. 5. Kim Jong-il . That's right, the world's most feared dictator is a hoops junkie. During a 2000 visit, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented him a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. The Chicago Bulls are the favorite team of Kim Jong-il, who reportedly has a video library with every game Jordan ever played. At 5'3\", the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army is roughly the same height as Muggsy Bogues. 6. David Letterman's Stalker . David Letterman's biggest fan was also his biggest headache. When she was arrested for stealing Dave's Porsche in 1988, Margaret Ray told police she was Mrs. Letterman. She was a frequent trespasser on Dave's estate, once camping out on his tennis court. Ray's antics made her a regular monologue target. But the jokes stopped in 1998, when Ray jumped in front of a moving train. The collective guilt spread when we learned she was schizophrenic, as were her two brothers, who also committed suicide. 7. Joe from Saddle River . A die-hard Jets, Mets and Rangers fan, Joe Benigno was a frequent caller to WFAN, New York's all-sports radio station. Benigno won the station's Fan Appreciation Day contest in 1994, earning a chance to guest-host his own show. By 1995, Joe was WFAN's overnight guy, a title he held for almost a decade. In 2004, he was deemed ready for daytime and given the 10 a.m.-1p.m. timeslot. For all the lonely and passionate talk radio callers out there, Joe gives hope. 8. Steffi Graf's biggest fanatic . Deranged and obsessed with seeing Steffi Graf return to the top of the rankings, Gunter Parche stabbed Monica Seles during a 1993 match in one of the most disturbing incidents in sports history. Almost as disturbing was his punishment. Parche received a two-year suspended sentence and was ordered to attend mandatory counseling. Even more shocking, I can't find footage of any of this on YouTube. Also receiving votes: John Hinckley; the fan who started the Pistons-Pacers brawl in 2004; Jeffrey Maier; The Kissing Bandit; \"Butch\" from Middlebury; Metallica superfan-turned-bass player Jason Newstead; and Steve Bartman. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Rainbow Man,\" or the John 3:16 guy, is in prison .\nCommunist dictator is a hoops fan .\nFrom fan to talk radio host .\nHow an all-star heckler lost his seat .","id":"586458cf89c9c2ddc5a7925e275f135245f5a0fc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A mother is seeking to have the womb of her severely disabled daughter removed to prevent the 15-year-old from feeling the pain and discomfort of menstruation. Doctors in Britain are now taking legal advice to see if they are permitted to carry out the hysterectomy on Katie Thorpe, who suffers from cerebral palsy. But a charity campaigning for the disabled said on Monday the move could infringe human rights and would set a \"disturbing precedent.\" Andy Rickell, executive director of disability charity Scope, told the Press Association: \"It is very difficult to see how this kind of invasive surgery, which is not medically necessary and which will be very painful and traumatic, can be in Katie's best interests. \"This case raises fundamental ethical issues about the way our society treats disabled people and the respect we have for disabled people's human and reproductive rights. Watch why the surgery is so controversial \u00bb . \"If this enforced sterilization is approved, it will have disturbing implications for young disabled girls across Britain.\" Katie's mother Alison Thorpe, who lives in Billericay, southern England, said the operation was in her daughter's best interests. \"First of all, this is not about me. If it was about me, I would have given up caring for Katie a long, long while ago,\" she told GMTV. \"It is about quality of life and for Katie to not have the associated problems of menstruation adds to her quality of life. It means she can continue with the quality of life we can give her now. \"Katie wouldn't understand menstruation at all. She has no comprehension about what will be happening to her body. All she would feel is the discomfort, the stomach cramps and the headaches, the mood swings, the tears, and wonder what is going on.\" Thorpe said an operation would be best for Katie, despite the initial pain it would cause. She added: \"The short-term pain and discomfort we can manage with painkillers. We will be able to manage that pain much better than menstruation once a month, when Katie cannot tell us 'I'm in pain.'\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mother seeks to have womb of severely disabled daughter, 15, removed .\nBriton wants to prevent cerebral palsy sufferer feeling pain of menstruation .\nUK doctors seek legal advice to see if they can perform hysterectomy .\nCharity for disabled says move could infringe human rights .","id":"8aca433d3662b6ffe76ef4026bdcd7cf784aacec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Chinese government is bracing itself for a rush of people wishing to marry when the summer Olympics kick off on August 8 -- because the number carries a special significance in Chinese culture, the state news agency said Sunday. A traditional Ming-style wedding is held in Nanjing, China, last December. The number \"eight\" (ba) is considered auspicious by many in China because it sounds like the word for \"wealth\" and \"fortune,\" the news agency Xinhua said. \"We've long been prepared for a stampede of newly-wed couples this year,\" Guo Xusheng, spokesman with the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, told Xinhua. Every year, many couples choose the 8th of August -- the eighth month of the year -- hoping \"eighth of the eighth\" luck will rub off on them, the news agency said. Nearly 3,400 couples got hitched on the day last year, some waiting all night outside the marriage registration office in Beijing. This year, the civil affairs bureau is accepting online reservations for marriage registrations for the day. The significance that numbers carry in Chinese culture often dictate various aspects of the people's lives there. And of all the numbers, eight is considered one of the luckiest. Beijing, itself, opted to kick off the Olympic Games at 8 p.m. on 8\/8\/08. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"China braces for rush of weddings on opening day of Olympics .\nOpening day of Beijing Olympics is August 8, 2008 .\nThe number \"8\" is considered by many Chinese to carry good fortune .","id":"066f8568d9c1c23ca3aeb23330123e7dd8967208"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Nihat Kahveci sent Turkey into the Euro 2008 finals behind defending champions and Group C winners Greece with the only goal in a narrow 1-0 victory over battling Bosnia-Herzegovina. Goalscorer Nihat gets a kiss from team-mate Altintop after Turkey sealed their place with a 1-0 win over Bosnia. The result ended Norway's hopes of snatching qualification despite their 4-1 victory away to Malta with Steffen Iversen scoring a first half hat-trick. Nihat struck at the end of a first half that Fatih Terim's Turkey dominated, yet the hosts were unable to build on that lead and had to endure some tense moments. Just a point had separated the third-placed Scandinavians from Terim's men -- and Turkey needed to win to progress. Nihat led the charge forcing early saves from goalkeeper Adnan Guso and finally making the breakthrough two minutes before half-time. Hamit Altintop found space down the left and crossed for the Villarreal forward who finished from 12 meters. Iversen broke the deadlock in Malta after 25 minutes and fired a second from the penalty spot three minutes later -- completing his treble on the stroke of half-time. Michael Mifsud hit back for Malta after the re-start, but Andre Schembri was red-carded after 67-minutes before Morten Gamst Pedersen's strike wrapped it up all to no avail. Portugal went through from Group A after a goalless home draw against qualification rivals Finland while group winners Poland completed their program with a 2-2 draw away to Serbia E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nihat Kahveci put Turkey into Euro 2008 with 1-0 win over Bosnia\/Herzegovina .\nNihat struck at the end of a first half as Turkey joined holders Greece in finals .\nPortugal joined Poland in qualifying from Group A with 0-0 draw with Finland .","id":"6589398915f67576609586704d5bcca6538c4727"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition troops killed the al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the February 2006 attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque and set off continuing violence and reprisal killings between Sunnis and Shiites, the U.S. military said Sunday. The attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque set off violence between Sunnis and Shiites. Haitham Sabah al-Badri, the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra, was killed by an airstrike Thursday east of Samarra, said Rear Adm. Mark Fox during a news conference. \"Eliminating al-Badri is another step in breaking the cycle of violence instigated by the attack on the holy shrine in Samarra,\" Fox said. \"We will continue to hunt down the brutal terrorists who are intent on creating a Taliban-like state in Iraq.\" Coalition forces Thursday raided four buildings outside Samarra that were associated with al-Badri, according to a U.S. military news release. During the raid, at least four armed men were seen leaving the buildings and setting up tactical fighting positions in an effort to ambush coalition forces, the release said. The coalition forces called in close air support, killing al-Badri and the three others, the release said. One of those killed was identified as a foreigner; al-Badri was identified by his close associates and relatives, the military said. El-Badri's death was first reported Saturday by a high-ranking Iraqi Interior Ministry official. No one was injured in the attack on the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite sites, but thousands have been killed by the death squads and reprisal bombings that have ravaged Iraq in the 17\u00bd months since the attack. In addition to the February attack that collapsed the mosque's dome, another bombing in June destroyed the shrine's two remaining minarets. Al-Badri is believed to have been involved in other attacks, including two last year, Fox said -- the June 23 bombing of a Kirkuk courthouse that left 20 Iraqis dead and the August 28 attack at a Samarra checkpoint that killed 29 Iraqi soldiers. Samarra is in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad. Mortar attacks kill 11 . Two mortar rounds struck a gas station in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 15 others, a spokesman with Iraq's Interior Ministry said. The attack in the Afdhailiya neighborhood happened about 8 a.m. (12 a.m. ET), the spokesman said. Suicide bombers attacked two gas stations Wednesday, killing 70 people, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, coalition forces said Saturday they killed four suspected militants and detained 18 thought to have helped make or plant roadside bombs, the U.S. military said. The militants were suspected of coordinating logistical support from Iran for elements of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and other Shiite militias operating in Iraq, the military said. Iraqi family upset with U.S. soldier's sentence . A U.S. soldier has been sentenced to 110 years in confinement for participating in the rape of a 14-year-old girl and the killings of her and her family in Iraq, an Army spokeswoman said. The girl's family told Reuters on Sunday they were dismayed by the punishment and would have preferred to see the death penalty handed down in the case. Pfc. Jesse Spielman was convicted Friday of rape, conspiracy to commit rape, housebreaking with the intent to commit rape and four counts of felony murder. The girl, her parents and younger sister were shot dead in March 2006 in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. \"We were expecting the death penalty against those criminals and the place to carry out the sentence is where the incident happened,\" the girl's cousin, Abu Ammar, told Reuters. Her uncle, Hadi Abdullah, told the wire agency that family members wished there was a way to appeal the sentence so the death penalty could be imposed. Three soldiers have previously pleaded guilty in the case and were given sentences ranging from five to 100 years. The accused ringleader, former Pvt. Steven Green, was discharged from the Army and awaits trial in a civilian court. Other developments . CNN's Pierre Bairin and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Haitham Sabah al-Badri was the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra .\nU.S. military says al-Badri suspected in two other attacks that killed 49 .\nFamily of slain girl upset soldier wasn't sentenced to death, Reuters says .\nAt least 11 people killed in mortar attacks in Baghdad, Interior Ministry says .","id":"cb4d9818866490b281e8f5529c9957ba366390e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Roberts, the embattled president of Oral Roberts University and the son of its namesake evangelist founder, stepped down Friday, according to the school's Board of Regents. Richard Roberts and wife Lindsay appear on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" in October. \"I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration, and I want to see God's best for them,\" Roberts wrote in his resignation letter. Roberts' decision was effective immediately and came as the school fought a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by three professors who accused him and his wife of misconduct. John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker said they lost their jobs after reporting information indicating that Roberts and his family lavishly spent school money for personal expenses. Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, have denied the allegations. The suit also claimed Oral Roberts University gave a \"convicted sexual deviant unrestricted access to students\" and evidence in the case had been shredded -- charges the university has denied. In addition, the suit alleged Lindsay Roberts repeatedly spent time with an \"underage male\" in various situations. She denied any improper behavior, insisting in a statement that she had \"never, ever engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of my marriage.\" The Board of Regents, which voted to hire an auditor to look into the claims, will meet early next week to discuss a search process for a new president, according to Friday's statement from Chairman George Pearsons. Roberts announced last month he would step aside temporarily as president, saying he and his family had suffered \"heavy damage.\" The controversy has drawn international attention to the private Christian university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"I love ORU with all my heart,\" Richard Roberts writes in his resignation letter .\nThree professors allege they were fired for revealing misspending .\nRoberts and wife deny spending university funds improperly .\nRoberts announced last month he was stepping aside temporarily as president .","id":"83181eb5628b02f9af1cf8be0b9e3d7841f6f94c"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Amid high emotions and tight security, thousands lined the streets of Beirut Friday to honor Antoine Ghanem, the anti-Syrian Lebanese MP killed in a powerful bomb blast along with four others. Amin Gemayel (R), Phalange party head, carries the coffin of assassinated deputy Antoine Ghamen. Against an atmosphere of intense political and patriotic fervor, the flag-draped coffins of the politician and two bodyguards also killed in Wednesday's rush hour blast made its way through the city's Christian district to the Sacred Heart church on what the government had declared as a day of national mourning. The procession was accompanied by thousands waving flags, as well as a brass band playing the anthem of Ghanem's Phalange Party, The Associated Press reported . TV pictures showed distraught mourners crowding and reaching out to the coffins as they were carried aloft. Several people were seen to collapse and had to be carried away. Mourners also carried photographs, threw rose petals and unfurled banners, some of which read \"We Won't Kneel,\" AP said. The coffins were greeted at the Christian Maronite church with applause from the gathered mourners, the agency said, including majority leaders and the Lebanese cabinet as well as Ghanem's family and friends. Ghanem was later buried in the city's Christian district. Ghanem's death is the latest in a series of attacks targeting prominent anti-Syrian figures, with the most notorious being the February 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which sparked widespread protests that led to the ouster of Syrian forces from Lebanon. Hariri also died in a massive explosion. The incident threatens to cast the country into political uncertainty ahead of a key presidential vote in a tightly divided parliament, almost evenly split between anti- and pro-Syrian camps. Watch how Ghanem's death disrupts Lebanese politics \u00bb . CNN's Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler said that many Lebanese now feared for the future, especially given other events in the region including the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, recent political differences in Iraq and Iran's bid to become a super power. \"There continues to be among a great deal of people here a sense of foreboding that perhaps the worst is yet to come,\" he said. U.S. President George W. Bush, in a written statement, joined other world leaders in condemning the \"horrific assassination.\" \"Since October 2004, there has been a tragic pattern of political assassinations and attempted assassinations designed to silence those Lebanese who courageously defend their vision of an independent and democratic Lebanon,\" Bush said Wednesday. Also in a written statement, a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. secretary-general \"condemns in the strongest terms this terrorist attack.\" \"The secretary general urges all Lebanese to exercise utmost calm and restraint at this very critical time and to allow judicial procedures to take their course,\" the spokesperson said. Bush's statement added: \"The United States opposes any attempts to intimidate the Lebanese people as they seek to exercise their democratic right to select a president without foreign interference. We will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Lebanese people as they resist attempts by the Syrian and Iranian regimes and their allies to destabilize Lebanon and undermine its sovereignty.\" The U.S. Embassy in Beirut issued a statement saying: \"It is not a coincidence that these attacks target those figures who have been working to secure Lebanon's independence from renewed Syrian hegemony. We note with concern that many Lebanese politicians allied with Syria have in fact warned that murder and violence would be the results of any effort to exercise genuine parliamentary democracy.\" And U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a written statement, said: \"The bombing that claimed these lives was another act in a campaign of terror by those who want to turn back the clock on Lebanon's hard-won democratic gains.\" \"The world should speak with one voice in calling for an end to violence in Lebanon intended to subvert democratic processes in that country,\" Rice said. \"Lebanese elections, scheduled to begin in just days, must proceed, in accordance with the Constitution, without threats of foreign interference and the violence that accompanies such obstruction.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Thousands lined Beirut streets to honor anti-Syrian MP, killed in car bomb blast .\nNoted parliamentarian killed along with four others during Wednesday rush hour .\nFlag-draped coffin paraded through streets before burial in Christian district .\nDay of national mourning called, with schools, universities, public offices shut .","id":"addda21620885e1019305bce0cbf308b421dc0ba"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Police made a string of arrests across Europe Tuesday, detaining 20 people suspected of involvement in the recruitment of suicide bombers, Italian police said. Eleven of the arrests were in Italy, in the northern cities of Milan, Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, and San Remo, said. Lt. Col. Sandro Sandulli, the head of the Carabinieri special forces. One was already in custody, so authorities served him with a new arrest warrant which included new charges against him, Sandulli said. Three arrests were in Britain, one in France, and one in Portugal, Sandulli said. The remaining arrests happened in European countries but Sandulli did not specify which ones. Those arrested are suspected of forming Salafi Jihad terrorist cells which were recruiting suicide bombers and sending them to Iraq and Afghanistan, said Col. Mario Parente, deputy commander of the Carabinieri special forces unit. Parente said that during the arrests, police found al Qaeda manuals for the production of explosives, detonation devices, and various poisons. He said the manuals also included details of guerrilla-style war operations. Salafi is an extreme school of Islamic thought which developed in Egypt and began to have prominence with militant groups there in the late 1960s and has since been adopted by terrorist groups in North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, said Sajjan Gohel, director of international security at the Asia Pacific Foundation in London. \"It's become the ideology of choice for transnational terrorism, including al Qaeda,\" Gohel said. \"It's emerging as a very dangerous ideology.\" The Madrid train bombers and various terrorist cells in Italy were part of the Salafi school of thought, he added. Italian police said Tuesday's arrests were the result of an investigation, started in 2003, into some Salafi cells which were organized by Tunisians and Algerians. The main suspect in the operation is a Tunisian who was arrested in 2002 during a separate antiterrorism operation, police said. The main terrorist cell was based in the northern Italian region of Lombardy and involved what investigators called a \"long-term\" jihadist program which provided military and ideological training. Another cell, based in Reggio Emilia, had the goal of creating a grand Islamic \"empire\" stretching from Morocco to China, police said. Parente said those arrested are also accused of producing false documents, facilitating illegal immigration, and covering up other individuals wanted for terrorism-related crimes. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Flavia Taggiasco in Rome contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police say 20 suspected of involvement in the recruiting suicide bombers held .\nArrests were in Italy and across other European countries, police say .\nThose held are accused of recruiting bombers to go to Iraq and Afghanistan .\n11 people were held in Italy and nine others across Europe .","id":"6a0a6f44de4059e1d7ef83841b3fd5e95e278ba2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They wore feathers. They wore fancy hats. And of course, they wore fur. Never mind the human -- the dog in haute couture was the fashionistas' focus during Pet Fashion Week. But the models strutting down the runway were of the four-legged variety. The glamorous pooches were accompanied by human models -- but the furry ones were getting all the attention. It was Pet Fashion Week New York and these canines were not wearing the boring plaid raincoats that have sold for years. They were wearing one-of-kind design creations. The show last weekend was aimed at owners of sophisticated canines who may be willing to pay for their pup's own stylist. Booths at the annual event features couture clothing, jewelry and other accessories for the well-dressed doggie -- all part of the $40 billion pet industry. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Dogs ruled in New York during Pet Fashion Week .\nDazzling couture designs trotted down the runway .\nUpscale pet accessories, apparel, and lifestyle items on display .\nDesign awards encourage pushing the envelope in style .","id":"b5313efdec6d9afa6f43f26378c6065fcc9c7535"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From \"Mississippi Masala\" to \"Vanity Fair,\" Mira Nair's movies have entranced audiences in India and the West. CNN spoke to the director of \"Monsoon Wedding\" and \"Salaam Bombay!\" at the Bollywood Movie Awards in Long Island about filmmaking in India and America and her adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel about loss and family, \"The Namesake.\" ............................... Film director Mira Nair . CNN: What inspired you to make \"The Namesake\"? Mira Nair: I happened to read \"The Namesake\" on a plane in early 2004, when I traveled from New York to Jo'berg to finish the filming of \"Vanity Fair.\" I read \"Namesake\" while in huge grief with the death of a beloved person to me [Mira's mother in law]. It was at that state of mourning that I picked up this novel, and in it Jhumpa writes really acutely of a loss of a parent in a foreign country, and I thought I had been understood by someone. It was also a story that linked the two cities in which I had grown up -- Calcutta and New York City -- and it was almost certainly the road that I had traveled. It just spoke to me and I felt compelled to do this film. A few months later we were shooting it. CNN: It's filmed in both India and New York, such different cultures. Tell us about the universal themes involved during the film. Nair: Well, the story of movement and crossings is as old as the hills. It's a tale of millions of us that have left one home for another, and tried to find out who we are through these places. Then when we have children, life gets more interesting. It is about growing up through our adult lives and our children's lives. It is also equally a love story between two people who come from a culture who don't send roses and diamonds for love; who sit at a kitchen table and look at each other. It's about that generation of parents who have that stillness about one another, versus the clang and hustle of young Gogol who is 15 and grows up in an American world because he wishes to be American. That flow -- that see-saw between parents and children, that's what \"The Namesake\" is about. CNN: Tell us about casting the role of Gogol. Nair: Well, Kal Penn plays Gogol and he's known as a comic star, but I had no idea that he existed until my 15-year-old son said, \"This has to be your Gogol.\" I didn't take him seriously at all until every night the campaign mounted at home: \"Tell me in the morning it's Kal Penn!\" he would say. And then Kal wrote to me and told me he became an actor because he had seen \"Mississippi Masala\" when he was eight years old and realized people on the screen could look like him, and other such seductive things. He came to my office and auditioned and he was just so appealing, and so much the real thing, that I cast him as Gogol. CNN: How have Indian audiences reacted to your heavily western-influenced films? Nair: It's not that different a kind of audience, that's what pleases me. \"Salaam Bombay!\" we really made for the children on the streets and the kids who really love that Bollywood stuff, and also with \"Deeply Alternative,\" which ran for 27 weeks. \"Monsoon Wedding\" was also a big hit in India. But no, they don't come to my films for Bollywood fare; it's a completely alternative thing. In terms of audiences on both sides, I've been blessed: the films have been really well received and highly anticipated. CNN: \"The Namesake\" was filmed in America and India. What differences were there in the two locations? Nair: In India it is more about orchestrating chaos, and it's about sifting the chaos, but I get especially excited about the throb and chaos on the streets and so on, and in America it's about paying for the chaos, you know every head has to be placed there and paid for. CNN: \"The Namesake\" is about not losing the identity of Indian culture. Was that a challenge? Nair: I am at home in many cultures. I live actively in three continents and I've done that for most of my life, so I just make films as I see the world, and that happens to speak to people. I do things that I want to do. It so happens because I am fluent in both worlds that my films enter both worlds, perhaps. CNN: Do Indian and American audiences behave differently? Nair: No, not really. I think films have to reach people and really grab them. That's what I hope to do when I make a film -- to get under your skin and really make you think about something, and have a transporting time that takes you somewhere. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nair directed \"Monsoon Wedding,\" \"Vanity Fair,\" \"Salaam Bombay!\"\nHer film, \"The Namesake,\" is based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel .\nNair cast character of \"Gogol\" after teenage son's recommendation .\nNair: Indian and American audiences \"not that different\"","id":"0644f27692b67af8f52f9518e29981de11684cd7"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A grand jury Tuesday indicted four suspects on charges of first degree felony murder and armed burglary in the slaying of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor. A grand jury identified Eric Rivera Jr. as the shooter in the death of NFL star Sean Taylor. Court documents say the youngest is alleged to have fired the fatal shot. The three adult suspects -- Venjah K. Hunte, 20, Jason Scott Mitchell, 19, and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18 -- appeared in court Tuesday via videoconference wearing thick green vests, which defense attorneys said were suicide safety smocks. They were ordered held without bail at the Pre-Trial Detention Center in Miami, Florida, where Corrections Officer Janelle Hall said they are under suicide watch. The fourth suspect -- Eric Rivera Jr., 17 -- remained in custody in Fort Myers, Florida. His attorney, Wilbur Smith, told CNN he expected his client to be moved to a Miami-Dade juvenile detention facility Wednesday. Watch CNN's Rick Sanchez speak to attorneys for two of the suspects \u00bb . Rivera was armed during the alleged burglary, and \"during the course of the commission of the offense ... discharged a firearm and as a result of the discharge, death or great bodily harm was inflicted upon Sean Maurice Taylor, a human being,\" the indictment says. The four men were arrested Friday, officials said. Taylor, 24, died a day after he was shot during an apparent burglary at his home. Miami-Dade police investigators said they believe the burglars thought the house was empty. Thousands of mourners attended Taylor's funeral Monday at Florida International University's arena. See photos from the funeral \u00bb . Police said Taylor and his girlfriend, Jackie Garcia, were awakened by noise coming from the living room early November 26. Taylor got up and locked the bedroom door, but the door was kicked in and two shots were fired, police said. One struck Taylor in the leg. Garcia and the couple's 18-month-old daughter were not hurt. Authorities have said Garcia told police she was hiding under the bedding during the attack, did not see what happened and could not provide a suspect description. A break-in had been reported at Taylor's residence eight days earlier. A police report from that incident said someone forced a window open and left a kitchen knife on a bed. Several drawers and a bedroom safe were searched during the break-in, according to the report. Taylor spent four years with the Redskins, earning his first Pro Bowl selection in 2006. He suffered a sprained right knee in a November 11 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and had not played since. The 2004 first-round draft pick played at the University of Miami, where he was an All-American in 2003. He was regarded as one of the hardest-hitting players in the NFL. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kim Segal and John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The 17-year-old suspect allegedly fired the fatal shot .\nNEW: Eric Rivera Jr. will be moved to a Miami-Dade facility Wednesday, attorney says .\nThree adult suspects in Sean Taylor slaying on suicide watch .\nTaylor died after being shot in home invasion last week .","id":"19dbfe3918d9bdd7b5f1792631c5e3e424146473"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, Florida (CNN) -- A man serving a life sentence for robbing a drugstore has confessed to overpowering and fatally shooting a deputy who was taking him to court Wednesday, authorities said. Michael Mazza, 40, was arrested outside a pawn shop in Hollywood, Florida, hours after the death of Broward County Deputy Paul Rein sparked a massive manhunt. It was the third shooting of a Broward County sheriff's deputy in four months, and the second fatality. The incident happened as Mazza was being taken to the second day of his trial in connection with the armed robbery of a Coral Springs bank, Sheriff Al Lamberti said. Mazza was being transported in a medical van because of a medical condition, Lamberti said. The driver's compartment of the van was separated from the back by a cage or grill. Mazza and Rein left about 8:05 a.m., Lamberti said. Minutes later, a truck driver who saw all or part of the altercation near Pompano Beach called 911. \"All of this transpired within six minutes. That's all it took,\" Lamberti said. The struggle began when Rein apparently pulled the medical transport van over at an intersection. The deputy's body showed other injuries from the fight -- a broken finger, bruises and cuts, Lamberti said. Mazza allegedly took Rein's service weapon away from him and shot him, authorities said. Although two shots were fired, Rein was shot only once, the bullet entering his upper chest and exiting his lower back, Lamberti told reporters. After the shooting, Mazza is believed to have thrown Rein from the van and driven away. A city public works employee later spotted the blood-spattered van in Fort Lauderdale, Lamberti said. Mazza, meanwhile, is believed to have hitchhiked his way down to Hollywood, about 20 miles away. He approached a man at a pawn shop and asked for a ride. The man, who was headed to a second pawn shop, agreed. When the man arrived at the second pawn shop, he left Mazza in the car and went inside, Lamberti said. As he was talking to the clerk, a television in the shop began broadcasting news about the deputy's shooting, and showed a picture of Mazza, he said. The man \"tells the clerk, 'Hey, I have that guy in my car,' \" Lamberti said. He went back to the car, took his keys, came back and told the clerk to call police. Mazza was arrested shortly afterward. Rein's gun was found with Mazza in the man's car, the sheriff said. Mazza faces charges including first-degree murder and escape, Lamberti said. He was being interviewed by police Wednesday afternoon and was to appear before a judge at some point, he said, and afterward would be transported to Dade County Jail. Because the shooting was \"an emotionally charged event for all of us ... we feel it's probably better that he be housed at another facility outside of Broward County,\" Lamberti said, and Dade County agreed to house him. Mazza initially was reluctant to talk to authorities, but later agreed, and confessed to shooting Rein, the sheriff said. He offered no details. Lamberti said Mazza was serving a life sentence for robbing a drugstore in Coconut Creek, correcting his earlier statement that Mazza was serving two life sentences. He was on trial for robbery of the Coral Springs bank. Broward County also has a pending case against Mazza -- a February drugstore robbery in Pompano Beach, he said. Mazza was dressed in civilian clothes -- a suit -- rather than jail scrubs Wednesday because he had a court date, authorities have said. When caught, however, Mazza was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, Lamberti told reporters. Police are investigating whether he had planned the escape in advance and whether anyone helped him. Rein's co-workers told reporters he was \"in outstanding condition physically.\" The sheriff's office has fitness-for-duty standards that deputies must meet. Broward County deputies conduct some 400 to 500 inmate court transports a day -- one deputy transporting up to a handful of inmates, Lamberti said. Thin staffing and scant resources prevent more than one deputy being involved, he said. \"It's a routine thing,\" Lamberti said. \"But it shows, in this profession, nothing is routine, whether it be a domestic, a traffic stop or just transporting an inmate to court.\" As news of the escape broke, all 273 schools in Broward County went on lockdown, according to Nadine Drew, a spokeswoman for the school system. Lamberti said Rein's wife spoke to her husband by cell phone just 10 minutes before he was shot. \"She said you never think it's going to happen to you,\" the sheriff said. The deputy was memorialized Wednesday on the Web site of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Visitors to the site were greeted by a photo of Rein, with a caption saying, \"Husband. Father. Friend.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Deadly struggle \"transpired within six minutes. That's all it took,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Suspect faces charges including first-degree murder and escape .\nIncident happened as the deputy was transporting Michael Mazza to court .\nMazza was apprehended after a massive manhunt .","id":"0f4fcaf8fd58c40bc31c4715cd230bb0f80f2d98"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- \"Human error factors\" probably were involved in a ship crash and oil spill that killed nearly 400 birds in San Francisco Bay and prompted a federal criminal probe, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday. A worker checks oil cleanup gear near the Golden Gate Bridge Thursday in San Francisco, California. The U.S. attorney in San Francisco has opened a federal criminal investigation into Wednesday's crash of the MV Cosco Busan to determine whether the captain and crew violated federal maritime laws. Although not officially detained, the captain and crew were barred by law from leaving the vessel, which is docked for repairs in Oakland, the Coast Guard said. \"You had a competently manned ship with a pilot, all the navigation and sensors,\" said Adm. Thad Allen, Coast Guard commandant. There were \"probably some human error factors, but we need to determine the facts, because there's no reason a ship like that should have collided with the bridge.\" Watch Allen on the criminal probe \u00bb . The Cosco Busan was departing Oakland for South Korea when it struck a tower supporting the western suspension span of the Bay Bridge, cutting a 212-foot, 12-foot wide gash in the ship's side. About 58,000 gallons of heavy-duty bunker oil poured out of the vessel as it was moored near Treasure Island. See where oil spilled \u00bb . The oil sickened birds and formed globules on more than 20 of the area's beaches. It oozed along the San Francisco city waterfront and out of the bay, beneath the Golden Gate Bridge toward Marin County. Allen defended the Coast Guard against criticism of its response to the spill. Some lawmakers, including one of the state's U.S. senators, Democrat Barbara Boxer, have criticized the Coast Guard's handling of the collision and resulting spill. Boxer said the Coast Guard initially reported that the ship's owner had said only 140 gallons had spilled from the Cosco Busan. Boxer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California have called for congressional hearings into the accident and resulting spill. Although Allen conceded some confusion in the Coast Guard's communication, he said it did not reflect their response. \"Response was set into play within an hour of the event itself,\" Allen said Monday. Regarding the initial low estimate of 140 gallons of lost oil, Allen said heavy fog and damage to the ship's tanks hindered initial aerial and on-ground evaluations of how much oil had leaked from the ship. In addition to federal prosecutors, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, and NTSB spokeswoman Debbie Hersman said Sunday that agency was interviewing the pilot, the ship's crew, and other pilots who were on the water at the time of Wednesday's crash. See photos of oil coating the bay \u00bb . The crew had been on its inaugural voyage on the ship, which the current owner purchased last month, Hersman said. The NTSB also intends to review the ship's voyage data recorder, which should have recorded captain and crew conversations on the bridge and other information in the 12 hours leading up to the bridge collision, Hersman said. The oil spill has sparked concern among local officials and environmentalists. As of Sunday, 23 beaches in the area remained closed. Angel Island State Park, the Bay's largest island, reopened Monday, the Coast Guard said. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency, freeing money to clean up the spill. Seven miles of containment boom stretched across the bay has collected more than 12,271 gallons of oil so far, and another 4,000 gallons have evaporated, officials said. Nearly 400 dead birds have been recovered from the bay, while another 500 birds have been rescued alive but soaked in oil, according to Lisa Curtis, administrator of the Department of Fish and Games Office of Spill Prevention and Response. In 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and fouled Alaska's Prince William Sound with almost 11 million gallons of crude -- the nation's worst ever oil spill. Thousands of birds and animals died in the disaster, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Often birds and animals are threatened when they come in contact with the oil and swallow it as they try to clean themselves, said the NOAA Web site. In addition to birds, oil spills can be very harmful to fish and shellfish, NOAA said. Twenty wildlife teams were scheduled Monday to be the bay, working to find sick birds so they can be rehabilitated, Curtis said. On Sunday, the state's other U.S. senator and a leading Coast Guard official decried the accident. \"This an incident which, in my view, should not have happened,\" Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said Sunday after being briefed by Coast Guard officials. Rear Adm. Craig E. Bone, the Coast Guard's director of inspection and compliance, echoed Feinstein's comments. \"This incident should have never ever occurred,\" he said. \"There's systems, there's capabilities, there's licensed operators, there's a pilot on board the vessel, there's the capacity and the capability to safely navigate through this port and waterways every day.\" He added, \"But we have to move beyond the incident and the fact that it occurred and move forward into the response.\" The California Department of Transportation said the collision did no structural damage to the bridge and there was no interruption of bridge traffic -- more than 250,000 vehicles daily. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Coast Guard initial assessment: Human error probably involved .\nIt was crew's first voyage on Cosco Busan, which hit Bay Bridge in dense fog .\nCrew not allowed to leave ship due to federal law, says Coast Guard .\nFeds launch criminal probe; 58,000 gallons leaked and killed nearly 400 birds .","id":"4aa90d4a364e8bd252a2a2e57f1bb4c9dab57062"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Josephs and Marys in search of a room at the inn this Christmas are being made an offer they can't refuse. Mary and Joseph ride a donkey to Bethlehem in a performance of the Nativity story near Guildford, England. A British hotel chain is promising free accommodation to couples who share their first names with the couple from the Christian Nativity story. Almost 30 Josephs and Marys had already signed up for the free night's stay at the Travelodge, said Shakila Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the hotel chain. \"The 'gift' of a free night's stay is to make up for the hotel industry not having any rooms left on Christmas Eve over 2000 years ago when the original 'Mary and Joseph' had to settle for the night in a stable,\" the company says on its Web site. The offer is good at any one of the chain's 322 hotels in the United Kingdom, the Web site says. The couples must bring proof of identity and must prove that they are in a long-term relationship. \"If you satisfy the criteria, you get a free night in a family room for two adults and two children,\" Ahmed said. \"There's also parking space for a donkey if needed,\" she joked. Ahmed said the offer, which will run from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night -- December 24 to January 5 -- had been very well-received. \"We've had a lot of interest. I think people like the fact that it resonates with the Nativity story at a time when the actual meaning of Christmas often becomes forgotten in festive overkill,\" she said. Couples can register their names at a special e-mail address set up by Travelodge, which has hotels across the Britain, Ireland and Spain, Ahmed said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Couples who share names with the couple from the Nativity story get free room .\nAlmost 30 Josephs and Marys have signed up for the free night's stay .\nCouples have to bring proof of identity .\nThey also have to prove that they are in a long-term relationship .","id":"239d0e3b504e4b9e1e6eb20eb77c8a873a2f5657"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It may take a lot of frequent-flier miles, a penchant for cold places, a tolerance of taxes and regular doses of chocolate, but happiness could be within reach. However, it's not where most people might expect. Journalist Eric Weiner says he wanted to explore the relationship between place and happiness. Just ask Eric Weiner, who made it his mission to find the most content places around the globe, uncovering lots of surprises along the way. Hungering for a tropical paradise? A warm climate doesn't necessarily make a happy nation, Weiner said. Thinking of moving to a wealthy state? Money can degrade happiness, he found. Weiner, who wrote the book, \"The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World,\" began his quest for very personal reasons. \"I'm an unhappy person, so it's kind of what prompts a hungry person to search for food,\" he said. Weiner spent 10 years as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, a job that took him to some of the least happy places in the world. It was enough to send him on a yearlong journey to look for just the opposite. Weiner mapped out his quest with a combination of scientific and personal methods, choosing some countries because they traditionally score high on happiness surveys and selecting others to see how factors like money play a role. A world map of happiness, based on 100 different studies and produced by Britain's University of Leicester in 2006, listed Denmark as the world's happiest nation. But for Weiner, the place where he felt the most bliss was a toss-up between Bhutan and Iceland, countries that ranked eighth and fourth, respectively, on the happiness map. Weiner's list of favorites also included Thailand, India and Switzerland. See photos of his favorites and listen to him explain why they're happy \u00bb . His top two picks, though very different countries, have unconventional paths to happiness, he said. \"Bhutan is probably the closest thing on Earth to Shangri-La, that fictional paradise,\" Weiner explained. He pointed out that while other countries focus on their gross domestic product, the Himalayan kingdom proudly touts its policy of \"gross national happiness.\" \"The Bhutanese very much believe that happiness should be part and parcel of every government decision,\" Weiner said. Cold place, warm relationships . Thousands of miles away, Weiner found happiness in a very different environment, marveling at the creativity and \"coziness\" of Iceland. \"Everyone in Iceland is a poet,\" Weiner recalled. He visited the country during winter and said he found a certain beauty in the cold and the darkness. Such a chilly climate usually encourages warm relationships, Weiner found. \"The cold inspires people to cooperate, traditionally. If you go back a few hundred years, people in cold climates have to cooperate or they die together. It's that simple,\" he said. Weiner found a different flavor of happiness in Switzerland, where he discovered people are content partly because everything runs like clockwork. Simple pleasures like trains arriving on time contributed to national happiness, he said. But there may be a much sweeter reason why Switzerland is a happy place. \"The Swiss eat a lot of chocolate, and let's not forget that,\" Weiner said. He was also impressed with how the Swiss view money. \"Their attitude is that if you've got it, hide it. While our attitude is if you've got it, flaunt it,\" Weiner said, comparing the Swiss to Americans. Weiner called the United States, which came in at No. 23 on the University of Leicester's world map of happiness, a nation that \"is not as happy as it is wealthy.\" The impact of wealth and taxes . The relationship between money and happiness took Weiner to the Middle East and Qatar, a country with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, thanks to oil and natural gas revenues, according to the CIA World Factbook. \"I went there specifically to examine what happens when the entire country wins the lottery,\" Weiner said. He found the wealth made the residents comfortable, but also degraded their level of contentment. \"Most of our happiness is derived from our relationships with other people,\" Weiner said. \"The money in Qatar has allowed them to wall themselves off, literally and figuratively, from other people. ... That's not a recipe for happiness.\" There are no income taxes in Qatar, but that's not a cause for contentment, Weiner found. Some taxation is necessary for happiness because it's a way of being invested in a place, he argued. \"You're giving money to someone else, a government, and you're trusting them to do something good with it,\" Weiner said. \"In a country where there's no taxation at all, people don't have vested interests in how well the government performs. You can't say, 'Hey, those are my tax dollars at work.'\" Quest creates buzz . Weiner's book has struck a chord, recently rising to the top 10 of The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. An expert who studies happiness said part of the book's appeal may lie in how Weiner mapped out his journey. \"He arranges an interesting itinerary because he uses science as his compass,\" said Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and the author of \"Stumbling on Happiness.\" Gilbert said it's only recently that a combination of biology, sociology and psychology has been able to answer the \"where's and why's\" of happiness, a subject that has always fascinated people. \"The quest for happiness is the central preoccupation of human beings and has been for as long as there have been human beings,\" Gilbert said. He echoed Weiner's findings that bliss is other people. \"Everyone has been telling us for the longest time that happiness is about social relationships, well, bingo, they're right,\" Gilbert said. Meanwhile, after a year of exploring some of the world's happiest places, Weiner -- the self-described \"grump\" -- said his mind-set has improved somewhat. \"I would describe myself as a recovering grump,\" Weiner said. \"At this point, I think I am marginally happier than before I started the project.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Journalist spent a year looking for the world's happiest countries .\nEric Weiner: Bhutan is probably the closest thing on Earth to Shangri-La .\nHe marvels at the creativity and \"coziness\" of Iceland .\nSelf-described \"grump:\" chocolate contributes to happiness in Switzerland .","id":"6ef705715b84a961f971d624e9574da6a65dd3ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi Arabian human rights attorney is asking the government to allow him to represent a woman who was gang-raped -- and then sentenced to prison for speaking out about the case. Human rights groups want Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to drop charges against the rape victim. The attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, had his license revoked last week by a judge for speaking to the Saudi-controlled media about the case, al-Lahim told CNN. The judge more than doubled the sentence against al-Lahim's 19-year-old client because she spoke to the media about the case, a court source told Arab News, an English-language Middle Eastern daily newspaper. The woman -- who was initially sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes -- had her sentenced increased to 200 lashes and was ordered to serve six months in prison under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic law. \"We were shocked,\" al-Lahim said of the increased sentence. CNN has been unable to reach Saudi government officials for comment on this report, despite repeated requests. Watch the emotional toll the crime took on the rape victim \u00bb . Al-Lahim had petitioned the court to sentence the attackers to the death penalty, but instead the court agreed to increase their jail sentences, which had been two to three years, to two to nine years, al-Lahim said. The case has sparked outrage among human rights groups. \"Barring the lawyer from representing the victim in court is almost equivalent to the rape crime itself,\" said Fawzeyah al-Oyouni, founding member of the newly formed Saudi Association for the Defense of Women's Rights. \"This is not just about the girl, it's about every woman in Saudi Arabia,\" she said. \"We're fearing for our lives and the lives of our sisters and our daughters and every Saudi woman out there. We're afraid of going out in the streets.\" Human Rights Watch said it has called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah \"to immediely void the verdict and drop all charges against the rape victim and to order the court to end its harassment of her lawyer.\" The woman, who is married, and an unrelated man were abducted and she was raped by a group of seven men more than a year ago, the lawyer said. The male victim was also given an increased sentence of 200 lashes and six months in prison, al-Lahim said. The man and woman were attacked after they met so she could retrieve an old photograph of herself from him, according to al-Lahim. Citing phone records from the police investigation, al-Lahim said the man was trying to blackmail his client. He noted the photo she was trying to retrieve was harmless and did not show his client in any compromising position. Al-Lahim said the man tried to blame his client for insisting on meeting him that day. It is illegal for a woman to meet with an unrelated male under Saudi's Islamic law. Al-Lahim has been ordered to attend a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Justice next month, where he faces a possible three-year suspension and disbarment, according to Human Rights Watch. He told CNN he has appealed to the Ministry of Justice to reinstate his law license and plans to meet with Justice Minister Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al Al-Sheikh. \"Currently she doesn't have a lawyer, and I feel they're doing this to isolate her and deprive her from her basic rights,\" he said. \"We will not accept this judgment and I'll do my best to continue representing her because justice needs to take place.\" He said the handling of the case is a direct contradiction of judicial reforms announced by the Saudi king earlier this month. \"The Ministry of Justice needs to have a very clear standing regarding this case because I consider this decision to be judiciary mutiny against the reform that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz started and against Saudi women who are being victimized because of such decisions,\" he said. Saudi Arabia's Islamic law or sharia is not written and, therefore, subject to a wide array of interpretations. Human Rights Watch points out that a judge in Jeddah threw out a lawyer simply because he was a member of the Ismaili faith, a branch of Shia Islam. Under Saudi law, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote. The Saudi government recently has taken some steps toward bettering the situation of women in the kingdom, including the establishment earlier this year of special courts to handle domestic abuse cases, adoption of a new labor law that addresses working women's rights and creation of a human rights commission. Christoph Wilcke of Human Rights Watch praised the female rape victim and her attorney for speaking out about the case, which he said may be indicative of \"many injustices that we still don't know about.\" \"It's not only one court, it is the Saudi government that is fully behind punishing a woman who's been raped [and] punishing the lawyer who's trying to help her and doing that both because they've spoken to the media,\" Wilcke told CNN. \"And if they hadn't spoken to the media, we wouldn't know about it.\" Shying away from criticism of key ally, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the case and the punishment \"surprising\" and \"astonishing.\" \"While this is a judicial procedure -- part of a judicial procedure -- overseas in courts outside of our country, still while it is very difficult to offer any detailed comment about this situation, I think most people would be quite astonished by the situation, \" McCormack said. \"I can't get involved in specific court cases in Saudi Arabia dealing with its own citizens. But most people here would be quite surprised to learn of the circumstances and then the punishment meted out,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saad Abedine and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report .","highlights":"Woman sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail under Islamic law .\nJudge more than doubled 19-year-old's sentence for speaking to the media .\nWoman's lawyer loses law license for speaking to Saudi-controlled media .\nHuman rights group: Lawyer faces three-year suspension and disbarment .","id":"e3f24714630bd679c4b4fdb77e90f785beb1ff33"} -{"article":"OMAHA, Nebraska (CNN) -- Investigators probing the deadly mall shooting in Omaha have seized computers and are analyzing information on Web sites in the search for clues in the case, police said Thursday. The 19-year-old gunman sent at least one text message to his former girlfriend, with whom he broke up about two weeks ago, Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said. Robert Hawkins also left a voice mail for his mother before killing eight people at a department store Wednesday. He chose his victims randomly, police believe, then took his own life. Hawkins visited a friend near the Westroads Mall before the shootings and apparently went directly to the shopping center after that meeting, Warren said. Police don't yet know why Hawkins chose the mall or the Von Maur department store in particular, Warren said, adding only that the teen \"may have frequented the Westroads Mall.\" See who Hawkins killed in department store \u00bb . The incident itself appeared to be premeditated, as Hawkins left a suicide note and other correspondence, Warren said. Watch officials detail the rampage \u00bb . \"Typically there are hints that something like this may take place,\" Warren said. \"Certainly you can't anticipate someone engaging in this type of shooter rampage, but if there is any justification, any explanation,\" police will find it, he said. \"Apparently he had been experiencing some mental health problems, ideations of suicide.\" Debora Maruca-Kovac -- a friend of Hawkins' family who was letting him live in her home -- found the suicide note just minutes before the shootings. Watch her describe their last conversation \u00bb . \"He basically said how sorry he was for everything,\" she told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. \"He didn't want to be a burden to people and that he was a piece of s--- all of his life and that now he'd be famous.\" Warren said the rifle used was an AK-47. Police haven't finished tracing the gun, but believe Hawkins stole it from his stepfather's home. Security officers flagged Hawkins as suspicious when he entered the mall. He left soon after he entered, then returned less than six minutes later with something apparently hidden in a balled-up sweatshirt. He went up an elevator to the mall's third floor, then immediately began firing, ultimately turning the firearm on himself, Warren said. \"It doesn't appear as though there was an opportunity for intervention,\" Warren said. Hawkins fired more than 30 rounds, the police chief said. The shootings sent panicked holiday shoppers fleeing for cover. \"It was just so loud, and then it was silence,\" said witness Jennifer Kramer, who hid inside a circular clothing rack. \"I was scared to death he'd be walking around looking for someone else.\" Watch how Kramer and her mother hid \u00bb . A friend of Hawkins' said he hadn't thought Hawkins was capable of such violence. \"He was the one guy, you know, if people would be getting in a fight he'd be trying to break it up,\" said Shawn Saunders, who had known Hawkins for about 2\u00bd years. \"If there were arguments amongst our friends or groups, he was kind of like the calm, cool and collected one.\" Watch how Saunders learned Hawkins was the shooter \u00bb . Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said Hawkins had been a ward of the state for nearly four years, but he did not specify in what capacity. The state's custody ended in August of last year, Heineman said. U.S. Army recruiters turned Hawkins down last summer when he tried to enlist, a source familiar with the situation said Thursday. The source didn't want to be named because it is against the military's rules to discuss potential recruits. The reason for his rejection was unclear. Heineman ordered that flags throughout the state be lowered to half-staff through Sunday. The dead include six store employees and two customers, ranging in age from 24 to 66. One store employee was in critical but stable condition Thursday and another had been upgraded from critical to serious, according to hospital officials. Another person was still being treated Thursday afternoon, Warren said, but he did not specify whether the individual was a customer or employee. Two other customers had been treated and released, he said. Westroads Mall remained closed Thursday, but the facility, including the Von Maur store, could reopen Friday. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police confiscate computers, examine information on Web sites .\nGunman may have frequented the Westroads Mall, police say .\nMall shooter was ward of state for almost four years, governor says .\nArmy recruiters turned down Robert Hawkins when he tried to enlist .","id":"589dc58218fe8920f0949cc7af767b6daf5018bc"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is visiting Iraq to boost what she sees as lagging efforts to deal with the problems of 2 million \"very very vulnerable\" internally displaced people in the wartorn country. Angelina Jolie has been working to focus attention on problem of refugees in Iraq. \"There doesn't seem to be a real coherent plan to help them,\" said Jolie, speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN's Arwa Damon Thursday. \"There's lots of goodwill. Lots of discussion, but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment, and a lot of pieces that need to be put together. I'm trying to figure out what they are.\" A goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie wants to find ways to help the agency be more active inside war-torn Iraq. Watch CNN's exclusive interview with Jolie \u00bb . Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the country has sparked a displacement crisis that is considered the most significant in the Middle East since the 1948 creation of Israel. More than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, around 2 million to neighboring states, mostly Syria and Jordan, and another 2.2 million displaced inside Iraq. The flight was aggravated by the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an attack that stoked pitched sectarian warfare. Many of the internally displaced live precarious lives amid conditions of squalor, crowded into camps and slums that often lack basic necessities, such as proper food, health care and shelter. \"How Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East,\" said Jolie. \"It's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement can lead to a lot of instability and aggression.\" Read transcript of interview . Jolie has been working to help draw attention to the problem and has called for governments to bolster their support of the U.N.H.C.R. In August, Jolie first visited Iraq and Syria to get a sense of the problem. She heard stories from refugees about their plight. Watch as Jolie lunches with troops \u00bb . This visit to Iraq is focusing on the problems of the internally displaced, 58 percent of whom are under age 12. A top issue for the agency is getting better security. Jolie is talking with U.S. officials, including top U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, about that issue, and are willing to provide such security which she said \"needs to be addressed and solved.\" The Iraqi government needs to empower agencies that deal with migration to address the concerns of the displaced -- but that has not happened yet, she said. Jolie said it was crucial that the government prepare a plan to deal with refugees who return home from Syria and Jordan and find that their homes are \"occupied\" by others or \"bombed out.\" She emphasizes the way in which these people are resettled will have \"broad implications\" in the region. Jolie also is talking to people about moving forward the U.S. effort to resettle Iraqi refugees in the United States, which has set a goal of taking in 12,000 of those people by September. Only 375 have been admitted so far. \"I have to believe there are people working toward that goal,\" she said. International agencies, such as the United Nations and the Arab League, and many countries in the region and in Europe are addressing the refugee and the internally displaced persons' crisis, and money is being allocated to Iraq and host countries to help clothe, feed and house people. Most of the refugees are in Syria and Jordan, and they reside in big cities like Damascus and Amman. The U.N.C.H.R. is trying to help governments in Syria and Jordan to cope with the influx, which has stretched the resources of institutions like schools and health systems. It is also attempting to help 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, such as Palestinians and Iranians. Last month, the UNHCR announced a plan to seek $261 million this year for its work to help these refugees. It has almost 350 staffers \"directly engaged in operations for Iraq and the surrounding region.\" Officials in Iraq and the coalition have been heartened by the fact that some refugees are starting to trickle back home. But they are returning to a country where mixed Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods have turned into Sunni or Shiite enclaves and that they might not be able to return to their homes. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Angelina Jolie visits Iraq to boost efforts to help internally displaced refugees .\nActress tells CNN: \"There doesn't seem to be real coherent plan to help them\"\nJolie is goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees .\nMore than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled homes, 2 million to neighboring states .","id":"06254d21e94c9c0b027629a1df90298887c31f14"} -{"article":"NAPLES, Italy -- Udinese remained in fifth place in Italy's Serie A after suffering a 3-1 defeat away to Napoli on Saturday, with both teams having a player sent off. Ezequiel Lavezzi inspired Napoli to victory against Udinese, netting twice and setting up the first goal. Ezequiel Lavezzi scored twice in two minutes to end a goal drought lasting two and a half months, netting on 74 and 75 as Napoli moved up to ninth in the table. The Argentine also provided the cross that Udinese defender Cristian Zapata put into his own net to leave the visitors playing catch-up from just the third minute. Pepe leveled the score on nine minutes, and then Napoli played with 10 men from the 36th minute after Paolo Cannavaro was expelled for a last-man foul. But the teams were even in numbers again after Pepe was ejected for a second yellow card on 60 minutes. Udinese are still four points behind fourth-placed Fiorentina and the last Champions League berth. Fiorentina hosts AC Milan, which has 30 points, on Sunday. In Saturday's other match, Fabrizio Miccoli scored the only goal to give Palermo a 1-0 victory over Livorno. Miccoli struck in the 76th minute with a shot from just outside the area with Livorno goalkeeper Marco Amelia partially unsighted by several players. Palermo keeper Alberto Fontana saved a penalty by Francesco Tavano at the end of the first half, and had to make several vital stops in the first opening period. Palermo had lost their last three Serie A matches and dropped down the table, but the win put them one point above Napoli in eighth. In Sunday's other matches, leaders Inter Milan host second-bottom Empoli and second-placed Roma travel to third-bottom Siena. Genoa are at home to Catania, third-placed Juventus host bottom club Cagliari, Sampdoria travel to Lazio, Parma play Atalanta and Reggina face fellow strugglers Torino. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Udinese stay fifth in Italy's Serie A after suffering a 3-1 defeat away to Napoli .\nEzequiel Lavezzi scored twice in two second-half minutes to end goal drought .\nBoth teams were reduced to 10 men, with one player sent off in each half .\nFabrizio Miccoli scores only goal to give Palermo a 1-0 victory over Livorno .","id":"5b93cafa2843ab23eb5baf8bb0bec93d0fc46864"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A six-month trial was launched this week that promises to transform the way luggage is tracked and monitored at London's Heathrow airport. As many as 28 in every 1,000 passengers do not arrive at their destination at the same time as their luggage. The trial -- run by BAA and airline Emirates -- is using RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to tag baggage. This will allow staff to more accurately track bags passing through the airport. The crucial difference between RFID and the existing barcode system is its scanning accuracy. Barcode tags can be easily damaged in transit and are also at risk of being covered when scanned. If not scanned, details must be entered manually into the system, adding time and error to the process. BAA estimates that Heathrow can read only 60 per cent of labels that pass through. RFID is reported to offer over 99 percent accuracy. The \u00a3150,000 trial -- the first of its kind in the UK -- will continue for six months tracking bags for passengers traveling with Emirates to and from Dubai, and transferring through Heathrow. A duplicate of the Heathrow system has been installed at Dubai Airport. During the check-in process at Heathrow Terminal 3, staff apply tags containing RFID chips to bags with information including the passenger's name and route. The chips are then read on entry into the baggage system; they are tracked as they move throughout; and finally on leaving the system. As a result, says Shaun Cowlam, Logistics Director at Heathrow Airport, staff can know where a bag is at \"every moment of every day\". BAA is also considering introducing a SMS text messaging service to keep passengers informed of where their bags are. When passengers arrive at Heathrow, says Cowlam, the idea will be to send passengers a text informing them what belt and what time their bags will arrive at. Ultimately, the use of RFID could extend services to frequent flyers, and provide the means to added value services such as faster check-in, and even be integrated with secure collection and delivery. The main benefits, however, will be for travelers passing through major hubs such as Heathrow and Dubai, as this system offers better processing of baggage on transfer flights. Emirates and BAA are sharing the costs of the trial. But as Vic Sheppard, Emirates Vice President for UK and Ireland says, \"cost is not an issue\", especially considering the savings the airline is expected to achieve by reducing loss and repatriation of bags. And as Cowlam adds: \"if we can introduce this across the whole network the costs will reduce significantly.\" Hong Kong International Airport was one of the first to deploy RFID technology in 2005. But as outlined in a recent survey by SITA, RFID is being used in just 6 percent of the airports surveyed. \"For this system to really take off we need other airports and other airlines to embrace the technology,\" says Cowlam. That widespread adoption may not be far off. The SITA survey indicated that RFID tags will be used in 45 percent of airports by the end of 2009. It's still early days, but BAA and Emirates are optimistic for RFID's future in airports. \"There have been giant strides in the technology in aviation in recent years. But in the last few decades there hasn't been any advancement in the methods adopted for baggage handling,\" says Sheppard. \"This is a major step forward.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New trial at Heathrow airport will use RFID to accurately track and monitor luggage .\nCompared to exsiting bar codes, RFID tags offer 15 percent more reading accuracy .\nA proposed service will send SMS to passengers informing when bags arrive .","id":"22f9667453cf7ea8a39080edde645776d5edc6f7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jordan's King Hussein sent a secret message to President Richard Nixon in 1970 pleading with him to attack Syria, according to declassified documents released Wednesday by the former president's library. President Nixon works at his desk in the Oval Office in a June 1972 photograph. The papers are among about 10,000 documents released by the Nixon Presidential Library, some of which offer harbingers of present-day events, such as concerns about terrorism and Saudi Arabia. Library director Timothy Naftali said the documents describe challenges such as how to get the Saudis more involved in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, how to get them more engaged against terrorism, how to address the Arab view that the United States always sides with Israel and how to build up moderate Palestinians to counter extremists. A 1973 diplomatic cable cites this objective: \"isolate and undermine terrorisms [sic] and commandos [sic] by establishing another, more stable and respectable Palestinian political entity and political personality.\" Documents detail U.S. efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia to move away from Fatah, the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, because U.S. officials believed the PLO was supporting the terrorist-linked, anti-Israel group Black September, referred to as BSO. The document, a U.S. State Department telegram from the embassy in Jeddah to Washington reads, \"BSO and Fatah [are] now linked together in vicious effort to create chaos and uncertainty. One might wonder whether central objective BSO conspiracy was not to erase any slight progress toward Middle East peace.\" The document release was intended to coincide with Mideast peace summit among Palestinian, Israeli and other Mideast leaders in Maryland, Naftali said. The Nixon White House also was adjusting to Israel's acquisition of a nuclear weapon. \"We are declassifying the records today that laid the basis for Richard Nixon's decision in 1969 to accept the fact, a fact of life, that Israel had a bomb, a nuclear device,\" said Naftali. \"That, of course, is very important with what's going on in Annapolis.\" \"Even though it is clear from the documents that the United States government did not encourage Israel to acquire a nuclear deterrent, it became a fact of life,\" Naftali said. \"There are materials here that show how our government, 30 years ago, dealt with this very, very difficult problem.\" Rather than openly declare itself as a nuclear power, Israel still maintains a strategic ambiguity over its nuclear weapons capability. In 1970, as King Hussein dealt with threats by both Palestinian refugees in his country and Syrian military forces crossing Jordan's border, the king asked \"the United States and Great Britain to intervene in the war in Jordan, asking the United States, in fact, to attack Syria,\" Naftali said. \"Syria had invaded Jordan and the Jordanian king, facing what he felt was a military rout, said please help us in any way possible.\" The telegram indicates that Hussein himself called a U.S. official at 3 a.m. to ask for American or British help. \"Situation deteriorating dangerously following Syrian massive invasion...,\" the document said. \"I request immediate physical intervention both land and air ... to safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Jordan. Immediate air strikes on invading forces from any quarter plus air cover are imperative.\" The library has withheld the Nixon documents from public access until Wednesday and have been reviewed for release and\/or declassified, Naftali said. Nixon served as president from January 20, 1969, to August 9, 1974, when he resigned under political pressure during the Watergate scandal -- the only U.S. president to do so. He died in 1994 after suffering a stroke at the age of 81. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Telegram: King Hussein wanted U.S. strike on invading Syrian troops in 1970 .\nNixon White House urged Saudis to distance from PLO's Fatah organization .\nPapers also discuss Israeli acquisition of nuclear weapon .\nDocuments among 10,000 papers released Wednesday by Nixon Library .","id":"521fc18da417d441ba600a4abdbf279bb0c8f69d"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Rev. James Orange, a civil rights activist whose 1965 jailing sparked a fatal protest that ultimately led to the famed Selma-to-Montgomery march and the Voting Rights Act, died Saturday at Atlanta's Crawford Long Hospital, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said in a statement. He was 65. Orange was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, \"who resided in southwest Atlanta for four decades while fighting the good fight for equality and social justice for all mankind,\" said the SCLC, a civil rights organization. Orange was arrested and jailed in Perry County, Alabama, in 1965 on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors for enlisting students to aid in voting rights drives. As rumors spread that Orange would be lynched, civil rights activists organized a march to support him. However, the marchers clashed with Alabama state troopers during the February 18 demonstration, and a young black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot in the stomach. \"I could hear the singing and the commotion,\" Orange told CNN last year. \"Once the tear gas was flying and the shots started, I couldn't tell what was going on.\" Jackson, 26, died eight days later. Witnesses said Jackson's grandfather, who was active in the voting rights movement, had been beaten by troopers, and Jackson was trying to get him to the hospital. The anger resulting from Jackson's death led civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to organize the Selma-to-Montgomery, Alabama, voting rights march. The first attempt at that march was broken up by club-wielding state troopers and sheriff's deputies, a melee that became known as \"Bloody Sunday.\" \"Jimmie's death is the reason that Bloody Sunday took place,\" Orange said. \"Had he not died, there would never have been a Bloody Sunday.\" On the marchers' third attempt, in March, they made it to Montgomery. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in August 1965. In May 2007, a former Alabama state trooper, James B. Fowler, now 74, was indicted in Jackson's shooting, one of several cases involving the deaths of civil rights activists that prosecutors have revived in recent years. Fowler has claimed he shot Jackson in self-defense, but Orange and Elijah Rollins, who was upstairs at a nearby cafe when the shooting took place, last year disputed claims that protesters were throwing rocks and bottles at police. \"Not one bottle or brick was thrown back at the troopers,\" said Orange, adding that film and a Justice Department report back that up. He said he was glad Jackson's case had \"never been forgotten.\" Orange was a project coordinator at the SCLC from 1965 to 1970, then later became a regional coordinator with the AFL-CIO in Atlanta, the SCLC said. Since 1995, he had served as the founder and general coordinator for the M.L. King Jr. March Committee-Africa\/African American Renaissance Committee, Inc., which coordinated commemorative events honoring King and also promoted industry and commerce among Atlanta, the United States and South Africa. Orange is survived by his wife, five children and two grandchildren, the SCLC said. Funeral arrangements were incomplete Saturday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Orange jailed in Alabama in 1965 for getting students to help voting rights drives .\nIn march to support him, a man was killed, leading to 'Bloody Sunday,' famed march .\nAfter successful Selma-to-Montgomery march, Voting Rights Act signed into law .","id":"48fd5553806beaaa508596b0c8267a1ee703a8fe"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Supporters and opponents of Lebanon's pro-Western government appeared to split seats on Sunday as Lebanese voters went to the polls to replace two ruling-party lawmakers assassinated in recent months. Lebanese women wait in line to cast their votes in Beirut. Voters in Beirut sent pro-government candidate Mohammed al-Amin Itani to parliament to replace Walid Eido, who was killed in a June bombing. Both Eido, a Sunni Muslim, and Itani are members of the bloc led by Saad Hariri -- the son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose 2005 killing triggered Lebanon's current wave of political upheaval. But in Metn, a Maronite Christian suburb east of the capital, anti-government candidate Camille Khouri upset former President Amin Gemayel by a few hundred votes, Lebanese television network LBC reported. Khouri is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, the anti-government party led by former Lebanese Army Gen. Michel Aoun. Aoun has said he will run for president of Lebanon -- and since the post is chosen by members of parliament, Sunday's results were closely watched. Gemayel was seeking the seat held by his son Pierre, who served as industry minister in the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora before being gunned down in his car in November 2006. He served as president from 1982 to 1988, during the civil war in Lebanon. His brother, Bashir Gemayel, was elected president in 1982 but was assassinated before he could take office. Eido and Gemayel were among several Lebanese political figures killed since the February 2005 killing of the elder Hariri. All were critical of Syria's influence in Lebanon, and their supporters blamed Damascus for their deaths -- allegations the Syrians and their allies in Lebanon denied. Hariri's killing triggered a wave of protests against Syria known as the \"Cedar Revolution,\" which brought Siniora's government to power and forced Syria to withdraw the garrison it kept in Lebanon for three decades. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Nada Husseini contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel loses by a few hundred votes .\nCandidates will replace legislator Pierre Gemayel and lawmaker Walid Eido .\nBoth were allies of U.S.-backed Lebanese government and opponents of Syria .","id":"f9b3e0253b7325cd0d37841a38c9f10a22c77c49"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate whether former operative John Kiriakou illegally disclosed classified information when he talked about the waterboarding of a terrorism suspect, government officials say. Ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou says he underwent waterboarding in training and cracked in a few seconds. Kiriakou spoke last week with several news organizations, including CNN, after the CIA disclosed that videotapes of certain interrogations were destroyed in 2005. That revelation has prompted new calls for investigations on Capitol Hill. The Bush administration appeared in U.S. District Court on Friday to answer a judge's questions about the tapes' destruction. Speaking to CNN last week, Kiriakou said that U.S. interrogators drew valuable information from al Qaeda captive Abu Zubayda by \"waterboarding\" him. But Kiriakou said the procedure amounts to torture and should be stopped. Waterboarding involves pouring a stream of water onto the cellophane-covered face of a suspect to induce the sensation of drowning, Kiriakou said. Watch how a suspect is waterboarded \u00bb . Kiriakou told CNN he was unaware that CIA interrogations were being taped, but that the tapes should have been kept \"as a matter of historical record.\" Kiriakou's attorney Mark Zaid told CNN that the referral of the case to the Justice Department is standard procedure. \"A criminal referral from the CIA would be both expected and normal under the circumstances,\" Zaid said in a written statement. \"It is a routine act that the CIA undertakes even when they know no violation has occurred.\" Zaid added that the question is whether the Justice Department will proceed, and that such a decision \"must be measured carefully.\" \"Doing so will unlock a Pandora's box that will place a spotlight on the information in question as to the lawfulness of the alleged conduct and the activities of those involved.\" he said. \"There would also exist a challenge regarding whether Mr. Kiriakou was being targeted for exercising his First Amendment rights.\" CIA officers who leave the agency are required to sign documents promising never to divulge classified information. Written comments are cleared by an agency review board before publication, and unscripted oral comments -- such as television interviews -- are referred to the Justice Department after the fact. About one case a week is referred to the Justice Department, and an investigation could take months to complete, a source in the intelligence community said. For private citizens found to be in violation of the secrecy standard, penalties can range from loss of security clearances to criminal prosecution leading to jail time. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the department has no comment on the Kiriakou matter, and routinely refuses comment on whether another agency has referred a case. Kiriakou said he was not present when other agents used the waterboarding technique on Abu Zubayda, but that he was told the al Qaeda suspect lasted 30 or 35 seconds. Kiriakou said he himself was subjected to the treatment during his training, and lasted about five seconds before having to stop. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"Justice Department must decide whether to pursue investigation .\nFormer agent John Kiriakou talked about interrogation technique on TV .\nKiriakou attorney says probe could cause CIA more problems .\nAdministration summoned for court hearing on destroyed tapes .","id":"3228a9d82b3829a4f09698b746db4036ebb38ad0"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- For some, Valentine's Day can be heavenly. For others, it's just plain hell. Take Felicia Sullivan, of Brooklyn. Four years ago, she and her live-in boyfriend -- the guy she thought she would marry -- were having a pre-Valentine's Day brunch when Sullivan leaned over and whispered a few sweet nothings in his ear. \"I said, 'I'm so happy to know that you're the one for me. Aren't you glad to know I'm the one for you?' \" says Sullivan, 32, who works in marketing. \"And there was this silence. And then he was, like, 'I know you're the one for me now. But can you give me until summer to make a final decision?' \" Aghast at his response, Sullivan quickly broke things off -- but she couldn't move until she found a new apartment. Home alone on February 14 in the apartment they shared, she decided to snoop through her ex-boyfriend's e-mail and discovered he'd had contact with several other women while they were together. \"I've never been a big fan of the holiday,\" Sullivan says. \"But now I typically refer to it as Black Monday...\" Watch whether romance is still alive \u00bb . Good times, bad times . Sullivan isn't alone in dreading Valentine's Day. Thanks to super-sized expectations and over-the-top commercialization, February 14 has gone from a sentimental aside to a pressure-filled gauntlet lined with chocolate boxes, tennis bracelets and cheesy stuffed bears. See where the love dollars go \u00bb . \"The holiday's designed to make you feel (bad),\" says Judy McGuire, author of \"How Not to Date.\" \"If you're in a relationship, it's never anything that it's supposed to be. And if you're single, you feel like a big loser because you don't have anybody. I think people should lower Valentine's Day expectations to pretty much nil. That way, anything that happens is good.\" Brian Wise, a 32-year-old technical writer from Seattle has seen his Valentine's Day go sideways repeatedly -- most memorably the time he ended up in handcuffs (and not in a good way). \"Last year, I was in Singapore and I met this beautiful woman who took me to dinner at this hot, new restaurant,'\" he says. \"But then she gets food poisoning and ends up in an alley with major gastrointestinal problems. And while I'm standing guard, the cops pull up and think I'm paying her for sex.\" Wise talked his way out of an arrest (luckily, one of the policemen had eaten at the same place) but he's found no release from his unlucky Valentine's. \"It doesn't matter who I'm out with,\" he says. \"The day is just cursed.\" There are ways, though, to avoid a miserable holiday. Good plans . Most women will admit they like to celebrate, but a fancy night on the town isn't necessary. \"Sometimes, hanging out at home can be a lot more fun than going out to some restaurant filled with couples,\" says author McGuire. \"Stay home with champagne, caviar and maybe a new toy from a tasteful sex shop.\" If you're not dating anyone, take some time to indulge yourself (a luxurious bar of chocolate, a pedicure), do something relaxing (take a yoga class or get a massage) or spend time with some of your closest friends. Make sure you're on the same page . And if you do make plans, stick to them. Galen, a 28-year-old secretary from Seattle, and her boyfriend had made special Valentine's Day plans a month in advance. But on the big night, his buddies showed up and talked him into going out with them instead. \"I was dressed to the nines,\" says Galen, who asked that her last name not be used. \"When his friends stopped by, he says, 'Do you mind if I go with them?' I said, 'Fine, go,' being totally sarcastic, and he picked up his coat and left.\" Although they talked about it later, Galen said, her boyfriend seemed not to understand that she was unhappy with his wanting to ditch her for his buddies. The two later broke up. Breaking a date on Valentine's Day is definitely bad form, but automatically expecting one to happen (a much more common scenario) is also problematic. To avoid a disconnect with your significant other, McGuire suggests being honest. Simply expecting your partner to know what you want is unrealistic. Not-so-good gifts . If you decide to go the gift route, McGuire recommends not settling for a clich\u00e9 like a stuffed animal or a hastily purchased bouquet of flowers. \"Listen to what the person talks about,\" she says. \"She may want the new 'Godzilla' game for her Wii. His underwear may be riddled with holes.\" Another thing to avoid, advises Katie Briggs, 44, of Seattle, is the gag gift. A few years ago, Briggs and a new beau went out to a nice restaurant where they shared dinner, drinks and presents. Briggs gave her date homemade cookies and a Starbucks gift card. He gave her a beautifully-wrapped box -- of Spam. \"He thought it was the best joke ever,\" says Briggs. \"But it just wasn't thoughtful. If you're going to go with a joke, you need to back it up with something else.\" E-mail to a friend . LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Diane Mapes is the author of \"How to Date in a Post-Dating World.\" Her column, \"Single Shot,\" appears in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.","highlights":"Woman remembers one Valentine's Day as \"Black Monday\"\nHigh expectations for day can come crashing down .\nMan ended Valentine's Day in handcuffs with date puking .\nSkip gag gifts -- can of Spam not a good gift .","id":"ee02f2bd6eaf55c06fef208248197679d2d96897"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorneys for a \"high-value\" terror suspect who says he was tortured while being held at secret CIA prisons have requested that a judge bar the agency from destroying evidence of the alleged torture. One of 14 \"high-value\" detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleges he was tortured. The motion, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys on behalf of Majid Khan -- who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- is dated November 29. That is a week before CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged the agency destroyed videotapes it made in 2002 of interrogations of al Qaeda suspects using newly approved \"alternative\" interrogation techniques. Khan -- a native of Pakistan who attended high school in Baltimore -- was held for more than three years at the secret CIA prisons and \"subjected to an aggressive CIA detention and interrogation program notable for its elaborate planning and ruthless application of torture,\" attorney Gitanjali S. Gutierrez claims in the court documents. Details of Khan's torture claims are redacted in the filing -- a whole page is blacked out -- but Khan's attorneys say he suffers \"severe physical and psychological trauma from which he is unlikely ever to recover fully\" as a result of his ordeal. Asked about Khan's claims, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano told CNN, \"CIA's terrorist interrogation effort has always been small, carefully run, lawful and highly productive. Fewer than 100 hardened terrorists have gone through the program since it began in 2002, and of those, less than a third required any special methods of questioning. The United States does not conduct or condone torture.\" Khan's attorneys claim he was taken into custody in 2003 and \"forcibly disappeared\" before his transfer to Guantanamo, \"where he remains imprisoned without charge or trial.\" He filed a legal challenge to his detention in September 2006 and appeared before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal in April, the court documents said. He was found to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant, but filed a challenge to that on August 14. He was not allowed to meet with an attorney, however, until October, the document said. The Bush administration contends Khan was an operative working for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Khan researched how to blow up gas stations and poison reservoirs in the United States, the administration has said. He is among 14 \"high-value\" detainees held at Guantanamo. Gutierrez and another CCR attorney, Wells Dixon, also released declassified notes of their meetings with Khan, saying he has been on hunger strikes while in Guantanamo, is \"painfully thin and pale\" and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In detention, he has been able to communicate with Abu Zubayda, an alleged lieutenant for Osama bin Laden, they said in the notes. A government official with knowledge of the destroyed CIA tapes has said that Zubayda was one of the two al Qaeda suspects whose interrogations were videotaped. While undergoing interrogation and torture by the CIA, \"Khan admitted anything his interrogators demanded of him, regardless of the truth, in order to end his suffering,\" the documents said. Without a court order requiring the preservation of evidence, \"there is substantial risk that the torture evidence will disappear\" and that may affect the challenge to his detention, the attorneys claim. The motion was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Hayden has said the CIA stopped videotaping in 2002, while Khan was not taken into custody until the following year. \"The careful, professional and lawful questioning of hardened terrorists has produced thousands of intelligence reports, revealed exceptionally valuable insights on al Qaeda's operations and organization, foiled terrorist plots and saved innocent lives,\" Gimigliano said. \"The information developed by the detention and interrogation program has been irreplaceable, and the program has operated in strict accord with American law.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Gary Nurenberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Majid Khan's attorneys say he endured an \"aggressive\" interrogation program .\nKhan's allegations of torture redacted in court documents .\nBush administration: Khan worked for 9\/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed .\nCIA: The United States does not conduct or condone torture .","id":"c8da607c6ffe49104ceacd4fe484581042e7f21a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- City officials in New York have denied Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center next week, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked to visit ground zero, but New York city officials said no. The controversial, outspoken president wanted to \"pay his respects\" and lay a wreath at the site of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks during his visit to the U.N. General Assembly, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, citing Iranian officials. But workers are rebuilding the foundations of the site, \"and it would not be possible for him to go where other people don't go,\" Kelly told CNN. Iranian officials have not put in any additional requests to visit the public platforms at ground zero, police spokesman Paul Browne told CNN. But, he said, \"If there were a further request, we'd reject it\" because of security fears. Watch why New York said no to Iranian leader \u00bb . The Iranian mission to the U.N. said it had not been told of the decision, but in a statement issued Wednesday evening, it called the rejection \"unfortunate.\" Iran is ruled by a Shiite Muslim government hostile to the fundamentalist Sunni al Qaeda. Ahmadinejad's predecessor at the time of the September 11 attacks, Mohammed Khatami, condemned them, and Tehran cooperated with the U.S.-led campaign to topple al Qaeda's Taliban allies in Afghanistan that followed. The United States and Iran have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1980 after Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and held Americans hostage for 444 days. The United States considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism and has accused the country of meddling in Iraq and in Afghanistan where U.S. troops are battling Taliban and al Qaeda remnants more than six years after the September 11, 2001, attacks. More than 2,700 people died in the attack on the World Trade Center, when al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked passenger jets into the twin towers. A third jet hit the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers resisted their hijackers. \"It is appalling that President Ahmadinejad, one of the world's leading sponsors of terror, would find it appropriate to visit this hallowed ground,\" State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. Several presidential candidates also condemned the requested visit. Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and Democratic front-runner, called the request \"unacceptable.\" Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading Republican, called it \"shockingly audacious.\" And former Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- whose leadership after the attacks is the cornerstone of his GOP presidential bid -- said that \"under no circumstances\" should Ahmadinejad be allowed to visit the World Trade Center site. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the site should not be \"used as a photo op.\" Numerous critics have attacked Ahmadinejad's hard-line anti-Israel stance and his insistence that Iran will defy U.N. demands that it halt its production of enriched uranium. Iran insists it is producing nuclear fuel for civilian power plants, but Washington accuses Tehran of trying to produce a nuclear bomb. E-mail to a friend . CNN Correspondent Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to visit ground zero .\nNew York City officials said no because site is under construction .\nThe United States considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism .\nLeaders call request \"audacious,\" \"unacceptable\"","id":"aeca50944e5a49735193304117849531fb4d667d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida judge Friday handed a legal victory to a former astronaut accused of assaulting a romantic rival, ruling evidence found in her car and statements she made to police after her arrest were inadmissible at trial. Lisa Nowak, accused of using pepper spray against a romantic rival, is set to go on trial in April. Ninth Judicial Circuit Judge Marc Lubet ruled that all were unlawfully obtained. He said his decision stemmed from a variety of factors, most concerning police tactics in their interview of Lisa Nowak and the fact that no written consent was obtained to search her car. \"In each and every case, this court must ensure that the constitutional protections afforded by our forefathers are scrupulously honored,\" Lubet wrote in his opinion. \"Unfortunately, in this case those protections were not as thoroughly followed as the law demands.\" Nowak, 44, is accused of stalking Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman and using pepper spray against her in a parking lot at Orlando International Airport in Florida on February 5. She pleaded not guilty March 22 to charges of attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, battery and burglary of a vehicle using a weapon. Her trial is set for April. If convicted, she would face a sentence of up to life in prison. Her defense attorneys had claimed Nowak's comments to police and her consent to search her car were made under duress. During a hearing held in August, Lubet heard testimony from, among others, Nowak, Shipman and Orlando police detective William Becton, who interviewed Nowak after her arrest. Lubet said in his ruling that when Nowak asked Becton if she needed an attorney during the interview, he failed to answer her question in a \"simple and straightforward manner.\" \"There was a concerted effort to minimize and downplay the significance of the Miranda rights by referring to these constitutional rights as 'formalities' \" during the interview, Lubet wrote. On the audiotape of the interview, there was no audible response from Nowak on whether she understood that her statements could be used against her in court, and when she was asked whether anyone had threatened or promised her anything to get her to talk to police, Lubet wrote. \"Thus, there is nothing in either the audio recording or the transcript of the interview that demonstrates that defendant understood these two rights and waived them.\" Nowak testified at the August hearing she did not respond to Becton's questions because she was confused, Lubet wrote. In addition, he said, Becton used \"legally impermissible\" statements and techniques, including threats, to get Nowak's statements and consent. \"Well, what you say can change what you're charged with,\" Becton said at one point. \"Right now we're looking at [a] possible life felony of carjacking.\" In a written statement, an Orlando Police Department spokeswoman said it was inappropriate for the department to comment on the case since it is pending in court, and referred questions to prosecutors. Lubet noted that, although Nowak was given the opportunity to use the restroom and was asked if she wanted something to eat, she was \"subjected to a barrage of questions\" beginning in the predawn hours and was questioned for six hours without being given the opportunity to sleep or make a phone call. \"Defendant had not slept during the preceding 24 hours,\" the judge said. Nowak's consent to search her car, Lubet wrote, \"followed illegal police activity, such as a prolonged detention, threats to obtain a warrant and repeated requests for consent.\" Prosecutors accuse Nowak of driving nearly 900 miles from Houston to Orlando -- wearing NASA diapers to cut down on the number of stops she needed to make -- and donning a disguise before following Shipman from baggage claim to a parking lot. Her attorney has strongly denied that she wore the diapers. Shipman told police that after she got into her car, Nowak feigned distress and knocked on the window. When Shipman cracked it to talk to her, Nowak sprayed her in the face with pepper spray, Shipman said. Police said Nowak was detained as she was disposing of her disguise in an airport trash bin. Nowak has said she merely went to the airport to talk to Shipman, who had begun dating Nowak's former love interest, Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein, who was also an astronaut but has since left the astronaut corps. At the August hearing, Becton testified that when he searched Nowak's car, he found maps showing how to reach the airport, maps of the airport's layout, a buck knife and papers including a letter Nowak appeared to have written to Oefelein's mother. He also testified he found used and clean diapers in the car. Police previously said they also found a BB gun, a steel mallet, a 4-inch knife and rubber tubing in the vehicle. Nowak's attorneys in August filed a notice of intent to rely on an insanity defense, saying in court documents her diagnoses include a litany of more than a dozen psychiatric disorders. On August 30, Lubet granted Nowak's attorneys' request that her electronic tracking ankle bracelet be removed. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Cristy Lenz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge: Lisa Nowak's statements and items in her car were unlawfully obtained .\nNowak's attorneys have said her comments were made under duress .\nFormer astronaut is accused of stalking and assaulting a romantic rival .\nNowak has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted kidnapping .","id":"301c27b4468420252a14f4c87c2b208c6b3259e1"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Sharon Long's work has earned her the nickname \"Skull Lady.\" Sharon Long is a forensic artist whose job is to help identify the dead, often murder victims. She is a forensic artist whose job is to give faces -- and sometimes identities -- back to anonymous murder victims who have been robbed of both. Armed with sculptor's clay, glass eyes, wigs and research, Long creates a face from a human skull. When Fort Myers, Florida, police found eight sets of human remains in the woods in March, they turned to her -- anything to help identify the people who were so mercilessly left to rot amid the trees and mud. \"[Police] have no other way. They have no fingerprints; they have no flesh. Usually, the last resort is building a face,\" Long said. See the \"skull lady\" at work \u00bb . She hopes that when the faces of those killed get printed in newspapers or appear on TV or online, a friend or loved one recognizes them and says, \"Gee, we haven't seen so-and-so for a while, and that kind of looks like him.\" \"Then, at least, you have a lead, and then you can get DNA from people. And then [police] have something to go on.\" Long, 67, has made faces for the unknown victims of grisly homicides and solved historical mysteries. During her 20-year career, the forensics specialist from the University of Wyoming helped identify the crew of the H.L Hunley, a Confederate submarine sunk during the Civil War. She also created the first picture of the only explorer to have died on the Lewis and Clark expedition. When law enforcement asks for Long's assistance, it is almost always on a case that has gone very cold. And that was exactly the case in Fort Myers, where police were desperate for any information on the dead they found: eight men killed, their bodies discovered in a wooded area on March 23, 2007. Watch how bones can give clues to investigators \u00bb . There were no witnesses, no leads and little evidence of killings other than the victims' bones. If Long could identify the victims of the crime, it might help to catch a serial killer. But before Long could create any likeness of the victims, she would have to do a lot of work -- hundreds of hours of it. Long first creates a mold of the skull and uses it to make a plaster replica. She puts eraser tips on points to mark tissue depth. Sculptor's clay fills in for skin and muscle. The faded gumline on the skull's teeth helps Long determine how thick the person's lips were. The victim's hair and eye color requires guesswork and research, Long says. Often while working on cases, she talks to people who lived in the same area as the victim or victims to find out the most common eye color and what hairstyles are in fashion. See how to decode a face \u00bb . She spent two months on the Fort Myers skulls. \"I start working, and 15 hours can go by, and I don't get up and move, and you don't realize how much time has gone by, and, well, that's how intense I get,\" she said. \"It's like you get carried away in this life of somebody. I start trying to think of them as being an alive person and doing something and not getting killed.\" Eventually, publicity about the Fort Myers case would lead people with missing relatives to submit their DNA. Testing revealed that two of the men were Erik Kohler and John Blevins. Both men lived hardscrabble lives and had run-ins with police. Both disappeared in 1995. At a news conference last month where Fort Myers police unveiled Long's sculptures, investigators said they still need to identify the other six victims if they are to solve the case. Kohler and Blevins didn't closely mirror Long's sculptures of their faces, but there were some similarities, some facial features that looked liked the two dead men. And that's what police say they want: They hope people with missing relatives will look at every detail of the other six sculptures to see whether they notice any resemblance, no matter how faint. \"Going into this, I knew there would be some level of subjectivity in the art part of it, but I think what it does is generate the interest,\" Fort Myers Police Detective Barry Lewis said. \"I am just looking for that one little similarity, that one little key that someone could recognize that they could make a call that that is their loved one.\" Since the news conference, police say, they have received hundreds of leads. Long's work on the case might be done, but she still has nightmares about the eight men killed. \"I hear screaming, and I hear pleading, and I hear all these things which I couldn't imagine,\" she said. \"I can see somebody dragging a body out there, and here he kept taking them to the same area. I think, what in the hell is wrong with this guy?\" Six of those killed remain nameless. And police are still trying to find the killer. Authorities urge anyone with more information on the case to call 877-667-1296. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sharon Long is forensic artist who creates faces from skulls .\nFort Myers, Florida, police called her after they found eight sets of remains .\nOnly two of the eight remains have been identified .","id":"9b5fc45f61bff9323a7744c1db605618763cb85c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German zookeepers in Nuremberg will bottle-feed a four-week-old polar bear and rear it away from its mother after concerns the mother would eat her cub, officials said Thursday. Zookeepers fear the unnamed polar bear cub could be at risk of being eaten. The cub, which doesn't yet have a name, was being cared for at Nuremberg City Zoo, where it was resting under heat lamps and is drinking formula. \"It's gaining weight, it's very hungry, it drinks a lot of milk,\" said Alexandra Foghammar, a spokeswoman for the city. The zoo announced Thursday that the cub is female. Wednesday, the zoo said keepers decided to take the cub away from its mother, Vera, because the mother was showing signs of being upset and confused, taking her baby in and out of the animals' enclosure. \"We were 100 percent sure that the baby was going to die if we didn't take it away from her,\" Nuremberg zoo director Dag Encke told Time magazine. \"This would have been a death verdict for the cub.\" The zoo confirmed earlier this week that its other female polar bear, Vilma, had eaten her two offspring. The zoo said it feared Vera would do the same, so it took her cub away as a precaution. Since then, the cub is thriving in the care of humans, but Vera seems to miss her cub, Foghammar said. Watch how zoo has faced criticism over polar bears. \u00bb . \"The mother is a little bit nervous,\" she said. \"She walks around and is searching for the baby, but the responsible persons for the zoo say this is normal. It will continue for three or four days. It's a normal situation.\" The zookeepers are pondering whether to bring another adult bear, possibly the cub's father, Felix, to the zoo to help Vera overcome her loss, and are seeking another small bear to serve as a companion for the rescued cub, Time reported. The zoo said a keeper entered Vilma's enclosure Monday and noticed that her two cubs were nowhere to be found. The zoo said it assumes Vilma ate her young because she believed the cubs were sick, though zookeepers say the cubs were last seen on Sunday and appeared in good health. But Foghammar told Time that the separation of the bears was bad for the \"principle of wildlife conservation\" at the zoo: \"Now the cub will not grow up to act in a natural way, just as the mother lacked the experience to bring up a cub.\" The plight of the cub follows the case last year of Knut, a cub rejected by its mother at Berlin Zoo who became the focus of a media frenzy after animal rights campaigners called for it to be killed, claiming it had become too dependent on humans. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Four-week-old polar bear separated from mother amid fears she would eat it .\nNuremberg City Zoo's other polar bear ate its own two offspring earlier this week .\nMother was showing signs of being upset and confused, zookeepers said .","id":"43144b95b0f947f2c6d40122fecd69ced8a4af92"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pastor Brady Boyd calls it the \"highlight of my ministry\" -- seeing the parents of the man who shot up his church be embraced by the parents of two teenage sisters who were killed in the attack. A former roommate took this photo of Matthew Murray performing in a 2002 Christmas program. \"The four of them met and hugged and cried,\" said Boyd, the senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. \"It made me evaluate my own life and think, 'Is there anyone I'm not forgiving?'\" Boyd was referring to a meeting on January 3 between Ron and Loretta Murray, whose 24-year-old son Matthew carried out the December 9 attack at New Life Church, and David and Marie Works, whose daughters, Stephanie, 18, and Rachael, 16, were killed in the rampage. David Works also was wounded in the shootings. Learn more about the victims \u00bb . The pastor said he invited the Murrays to visit the New Life campus after praying over the holidays. The family immediately accepted his invitation and was given a guided \"step-by-step\" tour of where the rampage took place and shown where their son died. \"It was extremely emotional. They wanted to hear the details. I kept telling them I would stop with details, but they wanted to hear them,\" he told CNN in a phone interview this week. At one point, the parents also met with security guard Jeanne Assam, who shot their son in the leg before he turned his gun on himself. The parents thanked Assam for her swift action and for helping save more lives, said Casey Nikoloric, a Murray family spokeswoman and long-time friend. \"They told Assam that they were so deeply sorry she had to do what she did,\" said Nikoloric. \"There were tears, lots of embraces, prayers.\" The visit, she said, was \"very, very, very important\" in the healing process for the Murrays as they deal with the loss of their son and the terror he inflicted. Boyd agreed. \"I thought this would be best for the Murrays,\" he said, adding that it touched everyone involved. \"I've never seen repentance and forgiveness as profound as I did that day.\" The Murrays toured the church with their other son, Christopher, 20, a student at Oral Roberts University. The Murrays met the Works in Boyd's office. He said he also asked the Murrays to share \"some of the good memories\" of Matthew as a boy. \"It put it in context: This kid was raised in an upper middle-class home and had every chance to do well,\" Boyd said. \"You wonder what went wrong for Matthew. They described Matthew as any parent would describe their son.\" The pastor said he didn't tell many people about the meeting before it happened, fearing it \"could have gotten volatile and hostile.\" \"It was risky, but I knew enough about the Murrays to know they were mature and good people,\" he said. On Sunday, he began his sermon by telling his congregation about what had transpired just a few days earlier. He was met with loud applause. Matthew Murray began his assault that day at the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada, Colorado, killing two people -- Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24 -- and wounding two others before he went to the New Life Church, about 80 miles away. The Murrays visited the mission center December 12 and met with the families of the slain victims, according to Nikoloric. \"The depth of our sorrow and our grief is greater than we could possibly describe,\" the Murrays said in a written statement. \"But with thanks to God, these remarkable families and their pastors and churches, healing and reconciliation have begun.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Parents of church shooter meet with victims' family .\nThey \"met and hugged and cried,\" pastor says .\nMatthew Murray, 24, killed four people in two shootings, before killing himself .\nHis parents also thanked guard who shot their son .","id":"58b49fef1d6d2be5211848adc2882b59f043a933"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- More than a dozen uncontained wildfires raged Monday across Southern California, threatening thousands of structures and forcing people to flee homes from San Diego to Malibu to Lake Arrowhead. This photo taken from space Monday afternoon shows smoke rising from the wildfires in Southern California. Fire officials said more than 265,000 people have been evacuated and nearly 4,900 firefighters are battling the fast-moving blazes, which began over the weekend. By Monday afternoon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention had reported 13 active wildfires have consumed more than 98,000 acres and destroyed or damaged at least 50 homes and businesses across six counties. The winds driving the flames are expected to stay strong, coming out of the northeast, at least through Tuesday, according to CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. \"It's a tragic time for California,\" California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said earlier Monday. He declared a state of emergency in seven counties and asked the National Guard to pull 800 soldiers from patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border to help battle the wildfires. Monday evening, Schwarzenegger asked U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to order delivery of all available Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) to help fight the fires. Watch fires devour homes and land \u00bb . Citing the proliferation in the number of fires, Schwarzenegger wrote, \"Your immediate assistance is necessary to deploy Department of Defense aircraft located in Wyoming, North Carolina and Colorado to assist California in our firefighting effort.\" According to the White House, the federal Agriculture Department will provide fire crews, air tankers and helicopters to fight the fires, and the state will receive assistance grants to help pay firefighting costs. See where fires burn across Southern California \u00bb . Hardest hit was San Diego County, where 250,000 people have fled from five fires. One person was killed and 18 were reported injured in the county, including five firefighters. Local officials said the fire situation had worsened throughout the day, prompting new evacuations. \"We have a very dangerous, unpredictable situation,\" said Ron Roberts, chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. \"We have some of the highest temperatures, some of the driest landscape conditions and some of the most powerful winds -- all the ingredients for a perfect firestorm.\" On one cul-de-sac in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, five of six homes burned to the ground, leaving flames from gas lines flickering amid the ruins, according to a KGTV report. See photos of the fires \u00bb . Officials turned Qualcomm Stadium, home of the NFL's San Diego Chargers, into an evacuation center. Residents of four housing areas at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in northern San Diego County were put on notice for possible evacuations and told to pack personal belongings as a precautionary measure. Earlier Monday, fixed-wing firefighting aircraft were grounded by the strong winds, officials said, making the jobs of fire crews on the ground even harder. Fires threatened the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park on Monday, causing the park to close. Some of the animals, such as endangered condors, are being moved to a safer location, according to zoo spokeswoman Yadira Galindo. Authorities are asking people to hold off on 911 calls unless there is a real emergency, saying clogged cell phone lines are hurting rescue efforts. The largest of the wildfires was the Buckweed blaze north of Los Angeles, which has consumed 27,500 acres and forced the evacuation of 15,000 residents from Santa Clarita and nearby communities, according to the state forestry department. About 4,000 structures were threatened, and the fire was moving toward the Magic Mountain amusement park. Two fires that erupted Monday morning in San Bernardino County near Lake Arrowhead have destroyed at least 123 structures and charred 1,800 acres, said Loretta Benavidez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest. Several communities in the area, including Green Valley Lake, Arrowbear and Running Springs, were evacuated. And in Malibu Canyon, south of the Pacific Coast Highway, nearly 1,450 firefighters were battling a blaze that began Sunday afternoon and still threatened 900 structures in the area, which is home to many Hollywood luminaries, the state forestry department said. The Canyon fire is only 10 percent contained, an official said. The Pacific Coast Highway remains shut down in Malibu. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 123 structures destroyed by wildfires in Lake Arrowhead .\nNEW: White House: Federal Agriculture Department will provide fire crews .\nFires threaten San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park; animals evacuated .\nMalibu Canyon fire is 10 percent contained, officials say .","id":"bdcc1253f679b14e54451db44f4f0e39af4bb559"} -{"article":"GLASGOW, Scotland -- Wednesday's Glasgow derby between Celtic and Rangers has been postponed as a mark of respect following the death of Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell, the Scottish Premier League announced. O'Donnell, left, celebrates Motherwell's Scottish Cup final win against Dundee in May 1991. \"These are never easy decisions. But we recognise that as a former player, Phil was part of Celtic's extended football family,\" said SPL secretary Iain Blair. \"After consultation with Rangers we agreed to postpone the Old Firm fixture on the second of January.\" Motherwell's game against Hibernian on the same day was called off on Saturday night in the hours after O'Donnell, 35, died following his on-field collapse. Gretna's match against St Mirren was also postponed as it was scheduled to take place at Fir Park which has become a shrine to the memory of O'Donnell, but the SPL confirmed that the other three fixtures scheduled for Wednesday will go ahead. Celtic skipper Stephen McManus spoke out in favor of the postponement after he and his team-mates met on Monday morning for the first time since O'Donnell's death. \"A number of our squad have very close connections to Phil's family and feel it would be inappropriate to proceed with this match at such a time, following such a tragic event,\" he said. Rangers manager Walter Smith agreed that the game should not be played. \"You cannot think of playing at a time like this,\" he said. \"Obviously it is a very difficult time for everybody, especially Phil O'Donnell's family.\" Motherwell's home game against Celtic next Sunday had already been postponed by the SPL. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Glasgow derby between Celtic and Rangers on Wednesday is postponed .\nDecision made as a mark of respect after death of ex-player Phil O'Donnell .\nMotherwell's home game against Celtic next Sunday was already called off .","id":"b22b1636da5dd15364b6f0c342e4ce4903e51c2a"} -{"article":"HARYANA, India (CNN) -- In a nation of more than a billion people and millions of unresolved court cases, how do you take care of the backlog? Long distances over questionable roads stop many Indians from making it into courtrooms. Solution: You take the courts to the people. A bell rings. A bailiff yells out the name of the accused. It's another day in the mobile courtroom of Judge Sandeep Singh. His courtroom is a desk plopped down in the middle of a dusty schoolyard in the northern Indian village of Haryana. \"It works like any other regular court,\" Singh said. \"The only difference is that instead of people going to the court, the court comes to the village.\" The mobile court is bused into rural areas to hear both criminal and civil complaints as part of an effort to dig the nation's court system out from under an enormous backlog of cases. With an estimated 300 million unresolved cases languishing in Indian courts, one consultant believes, it could take more than 300 years to clear the docket at the current pace. There's one main reason for the backlog: inconvenience. People often have to travel long distances over questionable roads, using slow modes of transportation. \"The witnesses -- definitely, they don't show up -- and even the parties -- they don't show up -- and they send their advocate,\" Singh said. \"But here, people are closer by, so definitely it makes a difference.\" With distance no longer a problem, more villagers and their attorneys are coming to hearings. Compared to the traditional legal system, the mobile court claims to be both fast and efficient. Singh said he has been able to clear 1,100 cases in just six months time compared to 500 under the traditional court system. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Indian judges bus mobile courts to rural villages to ease backlog .\nJudges say the mobile courts make justice more convenient .\nIndia has an estimated 300 million unresolved court cases .","id":"55986d11e0d0e5b031567157cf1f157610c65c31"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's top adviser on homeland security is stepping down after 4\u00bd years on the job, the White House said Monday. Fran Townsend served more than four years as homeland security adviser. Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend turned in her letter of resignation to President Bush on November 6 and will be looking for new opportunities outside government. \"I'm going to just take another job doing 20-hour days, but this time in the private sector,\" said Townsend, who has spent 25 years working in law enforcement and government. Bush praised Townsend's work Monday. \"Fran has always provided wise counsel on how to best protect the American people from the threat of terrorism,\" Bush said in a statement. \"We are safer today because of her leadership.\" Townsend's job, as the president's top adviser on fighting terrorism, involved identifying terrorist groups around the globe and assessing their threat, and finding ways to track and cut off their funding. She said that experience should will be useful in the private sector as well. Townsend -- the mother of two, ages 6 and 12 -- said she first will look into public speaking, writing and board work before pursuing opportunities in global risk management for a large multinational corporation or financial institution. Watch how Townsend is planning to use her skills \u00bb . She said she's been talking with the president about her planned departure for eight months. Townsend's name had come up during the president's recent search for a new attorney general, but she was not considered. She said not getting the job \"had absolutely nothing to do with her decision to leave.\" She said Bush had wanted her to stay on in his administration. \"It was a hard decision as I have loved and will cherish my every minute of service,\" she said in an e-mail. \"My family actually advocated that I remain and has always been supportive of my service so this was entirely my decision.\" Townsend is part of the search committee to find a replacement by the beginning of next year. The president appoints the senior staff position, and it needs no Senate confirmation. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fran Townsend says she'll look for opportunities in the private sector .\nTownsend has worked in government and law enforcement for 25 years .\nTownsend will be on a panel searching for a replacement .","id":"0a37124fe35e31ae9fe8dd7715aeed88002e23e9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chiquita Brands International faces a $7.86 billion lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of nearly 400 Colombian families who say the company should be held responsible for the \"torture and murder\" of their loved ones. With a map of alleged victims, Jonathan Reiter makes his case Wednesday at a New York news conference. Attorney Jonathan Reiter said his clients are seeking \"damages for terrorism, war crimes ... and wrongful death.\" The plaintiffs are asking for $10 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages for each of the 393 victims named in the suit. Earlier this year, Chiquita, as part of a plea agreement, admitted that what it called protection payments had been given to Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC. AUC was named a terrorist organization by the United States in 2002, making it a crime to give them money. The lawsuit alleges Chiquita's interaction with the paramilitary group went further than the payments -- it accuses the company of facilitating shipments of arms to the group. \"They conspired with the AUC, aided and abetted them in a far-reaching conspiracy and plan to control every aspect of banana growing, distribution and sale,\" Reiter said. The attorney said one couple refused to sell their banana farm \"for pennies\" and were killed by AUC in 2001, and other murder victims had been directed to \"sell their bananas only to Chiquita.\" The families filing the suit will remain anonymous because of fear of reprisals in their home country, he said. \"The principle upon which this lawsuit is brought is that when you put money into the hands of terrorists, when you put guns into the hands of terrorists, then you are legally responsible for the atrocities, the murders and the tortures that those terrorists commit,\" Reiter said. Responding to the allegations Wednesday afternoon, the company said, \"Chiquita Brands International categorically denies the allegations made by these attorneys. We reiterate that Chiquita and its employees were victims and that the actions taken by the company were always motivated to protect the lives of our employees and their families.\" Chiquita's director of communications, Michael Mitchell, went on to say, \"Our company had been forced to make protection payments to safeguard our workforce. It is absolutely untrue for anyone to suggest that these payments were made for any other purpose.\" Mitchell said the company will fight the allegations. \"Chiquita has already been the victim of extortion in Colombia. We will not allow ourselves to become extortion victims in the United States.\" In the March plea agreement, Chiquita Brands International agreed to pay a $25 million fine for the payments made by the company's former banana-producing subsidiary in Colombia. During a government investigation, the company admitted to making payments to AUC even after outside counsel told the company those payments were illegal and should stop immediately. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Attorney: Clients allege terrorism, war crimes, wrongful death, seek $7.86 billion .\nPlaintiffs want $20 million in damages for each of 393 victims named in suit .\nChiquita admits paying a group that the U.S. labeled a terrorist organization .\nCompany \"categorically denies\" attorneys' allegations, says it will fight them .","id":"ef3ee3ab85ed8802b6b76444bccb46256077963e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Before dying, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers was beaten with belts, picked up by her hair, thrown across the room and held under water, according to an affidavit from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. Police believe 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers is \"Baby Grace.\" The affidavit says the girl's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, described to police how her daughter died and was put in a plastic storage box that Trenor and her husband, Royce Zeigler, later dumped into a Galveston waterway. Trenor told police Zeigler tried to commit suicide the weekend before Thanksgiving, and wrote a note that said, \"My wife is innocent of the sins that I committed.\" The body of the then-unidentified toddler was found on October 29. A fisherman found Riley's body stuffed inside a blue storage container that washed up on an uninhabited island in Galveston's West Bay. A medical examiner said the child's skull was fractured, and a forensic dentist estimated her age at 2 to 3 years. Police dubbed the child \"Baby Grace.\" A police artist's sketch of her was widely circulated in the news media and prompted a call to Galveston police from Riley's grandmother in Ohio, who had not seen the girl in months. On Saturday, police arrested Trenor and Zeigler on charges of injuring a child and tampering with physical evidence, the sheriff's department said. Their bonds were set at $350,000 each. The affidavit, obtained by CNN, says when police interviewed Trenor on November 23, she \"gave a voluntary statement on video with her attorney present in which she describes her involvement, with Royce Zeigler, in the physical abuse, death and disposal of the remains of her daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers.\" Trenor's statement said on July 24, she and Zeigler both beat the child with leather belts and held her head under water in the bathtub. She said Zeigler picked the girl up by her hair and also threw her across the room, slamming her head into the tile floor. After her daughter died, Trenor's statement said, she and Zeigler went to a Wal-Mart that night and bought the Sterilite container, a shovel, concrete mix, and other supplies. The statement said the box containing the child's body was hidden in a storage shed for \"one to two months.\" Then, Trenor said, she and Zeigler carried it to the Galveston Causeway and tossed it in, and she saw it drifting away. Riley Ann's father, Robert Sawyers, on Monday tearfully remembered her as a \"fun-loving girl ... with a big imagination.\" Watch Riley Ann's father describe the little girl \u00bb . Riley was \"very active, very hyper, but also very well-behaved,\" Sawyers told reporters in Mentor, Ohio. She would play \"with a water hose ... spraying the whole patio soaking wet until she was done with it,\" he said, as he sat behind two photographs of his daughter, a toddler with wispy blond curls. Robert Sawyers' mother, Sheryl Sawyers, said the family was \"devastated\" to learn that police believe Riley is dead. \"It's hard to think that I'll never see her again,\" she said, clutching a red Elmo doll she had planned to give Riley for Christmas. Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff's Department said Monday that authorities are \"fairly confident\" that the toddler whose body was found on October 29 is Riley Ann Sawyers. DNA analysis is still in progress to confirm the identification. The results will be available in two to three weeks, Tuttoilmondo said. Tuttoilmondo said Riley is originally from Mentor, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, and that \"she and her mother came down to Texas earlier this year.\" The toddler was last seen in Texas \"three or four months ago,\" Tuttoilmondo said, although he did not know by whom. Tuttoilmondo said police did investigate whether Child Protective Services had taken Riley away, something the mother had reportedly alleged. Of that report, Tuttoilmondo said, \"What we believe is that is not what happened.\" The affidavit said Trenor admitted that after the body was found, Zeigler had her type up a fake letter from the Ohio Department of Children's Services saying that Riley was to be taken away. Trenor left Ohio in late May, after filing an allegation of domestic violence against Robert Sawyers and reaching a joint voluntary agreement that gave her custody of Riley and gave Robert Sawyers visitation rights, the Sawyers' family lawyer said Monday. \"She disappeared,\" Laura DePledge said Monday at the Ohio news conference with the Sawyers. Sheryl Sawyers said Monday that she saw widely distributed police sketches of \"Baby Grace\" and contacted Galveston police in November. The girl in the police sketches strongly resembles photos of Riley. \"No, I never did think it would end up like this,\" Sheryl Sawyers said Monday, eyes welling. \"I guess knowing is better than not knowing.\" The girl's family in Ohio has been \"very helpful\" in this case, Tuttoilmondo said, adding that the FBI and a Galveston County police officer visited the family in Ohio on Sunday. DePledge said Riley was the product of a \"teenage pregnancy.\" Trenor and Robert Sawyers were together for two years as a result of the pregnancy, DePledge said, during which time they lived with Sheryl Sawyers. DePledge said Monday that the family, whose grief she described as \"simply overwhelming,\" wants Riley's body returned to Ohio for a memorial service. \"What Riley needs is to be brought home,\" she said. \"I think this family needs some closure.\" Tuttoilmondo asked anyone who knew the child or her family to help detectives reconstruct the events of Riley's short life. The toddler's case has touched even hardened police officers, he said. \"Any way you look at it, we carry a piece of her with us, and we'll always carry a little piece of her with us,\" he said Monday. He held up a small, pink-and-white shoe identical to those the child was wearing when she was found. \"That says it all. A little-bitty shoe.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Sean Callebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police affidavit quotes mother's statement about beating that killed girl .\nMother's husband threw Riley Ann Sawyers across room, affidavit says .\nHusband later attempted suicide, mother told police .\nRiley Ann's mother and her husband arrested after a tip led to search .","id":"fb17ac082bd3f3af3dad8c8d36d9ea56360c520e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A chronology of bombings and attempted bomb attacks in the mainland UK since the 1970s: . Police close off streets around Haymarket, in London's busy theater district. June 29, 2007: Police defuse a bomb consisting of 200 liters of fuel, gas cylinders and nails found in an abandoned car in Haymarket, central London. A second car packed with gas and nails was later found to have been parked just a few hundred yards from the first, before it was towed away by traffic wardens in the early hours of Friday for violating parking restrictions. Police say two vehicles clearly linked. July 21, 2005: Two weeks after the deadly 7\/7 bombings, four men are alleged to have attempted to carry out a second wave of attacks against London's transport network at three London underground stations and aboard a bus. But their alleged rucksack bombs fail to explode. July 7, 2005: Four suicide bombers detonate themselves aboard three underground trains and a bus in a morning rush hour attack against London's transport network, killing 52 people and injuring around 700 more. Al Qaeda claims responsibility in a video statement. August 2004: Anti-terrorist police disrupt a plot by Islamic militants to blow up targets including the Ministry of Sound nightclub and the Bluewater shopping center in southeast England using explosives packed into limousines and large vehicles. Seven men are convicted in May 2007 and sentenced to up to 26 years in prison. March 2001: A car bomb explodes outside the BBC's London headquarters, wounding one man. Police blame the Real IRA, a republican splinter group opposed to the IRA's cease fire. April 1999: Three people die when a nail bomb explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub in London's gay district -- the third in a spate of series of nail bomb attacks also targeting immigrant areas of the city that left dozens injured. A 23-year-old self-declared \"Nazi\", David Copeland, is sentenced to six life terms. June 1996: A massive IRA bomb explodes in a shopping center in central Manchester, injuring more than 200 people. February 1996: Two people die as IRA terrorists detonate a bomb in London's Docklands area, causing damage estimated at around $170m and ending the group's 17-month cease fire. April 1993: An IRA truck bomb devastates part of London's financial district, killing one and wounding 44. March 1993: Two boys aged three and 12 are killed and dozens are injured by two bombs left in litter bins in Warrington, northern England. The IRA admits planting the bombs. April 1992: A huge IRA car bomb in London's financial district kills three people and wounds 91. February 1991: IRA terrorists launch a mortar attack at Prime Minister John Major's Downing Street offices. No-one is injured. September 1989: Eleven people die and 22 are wounded when an IRA bomb explodes at a Royal Marine music school in Deal, southern England. December 1988: A Pan Am airliner explodes over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 259 aboard and 11 people on the ground. Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the attack in 2001, was this week granted the right to mount a fresh appeal. (Read about Lockerbie bomber) October 1984: Five people die in an IRA bomb attack on a hotel in Brighton, southern England, where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet are staying for the Conservative Party's annual conference. December 1983: An IRA bomb at London's Harrods department store kills six people. July 1982: Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London's parks kill 11 people and wound 50. October-November 1974: A wave of IRA bombs in British pubs in Birmingham and Guildford kill 28 people and wound more than 200. February 1974: A coach carrying soldiers and families in northern England is bombed by the IRA, killing 12 and wounding 14. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two cars loaded with gasoline and nails found abandoned in London Friday .\n52 people killed on July 7, 2005 after bombs exploded on London bus, trains .\nBritish capital wracked by violence by the IRA for years .","id":"59f079f6095cbb82b0eaaa0ba5fc29cdaff1f81b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Topps Meat Co. on Saturday expanded a recall of ground beef from about 300,000 pounds to 21.7 million pounds, one of the largest meat recalls in U.S. history. The recalled products are all ground beef patties with various brand names. In a statement, the Elizabeth, New Jersey, company said the hamburger patties may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a bacterium that can cause severe diarrhea and cramps, as well as other complications. A statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said 25 illnesses are under investigation in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The ground beef products being recalled have a \"sell by date\" or a \"best if used by date\" between September 25, 2007, and September 25, 2008, Topps' statement said. Watch the latest on the beef recall \u00bb . The packages also have the marking \"Est. 9748\" inside the USDA mark of inspection. Tuesday, the company announced a recall of about 331,000 pounds of hamburger meat, according to the USDA. \"Because the health and safety of our consumers is our top priority, we are taking these expansive measures,\" said Vice President of Operations Geoffrey Livermore in the statement. \"Topps is continuing to work with the USDA, state departments of health, retailers and distributors to ensure the safety of our consumers. Additionally, we have augmented our internal quality control procedures with microbiologists and food safety experts. We sincerely regret any inconvenience and concerns this may cause our consumers,\" Livermore said. This is the company's first recall in its 65 years of business, the statement said. Consumers who find the products at home are asked to cut off the UPC code and return it to Topps for a full refund, then dispose of the product immediately, Topps spokeswoman Michelle Williams said. The company said to avoid E. coli, consumers should wash hands thoroughly after handling the beef. Topps set up a toll-free recall help line at (888) 734-0451. Williams said because the products may have been produced up to a year ago, many of them have already been safely consumed. Production in the ground beef area of the company's plant in Elizabeth has been shut down until all the investigations are complete, Williams said in a phone interview. \"We're working with the USDA and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and conducting our own investigation,\" she added. The products, all ground beef patties and hamburgers with various brand names, were distributed mainly in the northeastern United States, but went to retailers in many other areas of the country as well, Williams said. While the sheer size of the recall is large, two other companies have been involved in larger recalls. In 2002, Pilgrim's Pride recalled more than 27 million pounds of poultry, and Hudson Foods recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef in 1997. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Topps Meat Co. hamburger patties may contain E. coli bacteria .\nNew Jersey plant's grinding operation shut down .\nAs many as 25 cases of illness recorded in eight states .","id":"083bc4309f2ea52be2a378e78566d7dcc9f4dd73"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A boy playing with matches started a Southern California wildfire that scorched more than 38,000 acres, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. A firefighter talks on a radio while battling the Buckweed blaze on October 22. The Buckweed Fire, which destroyed 21 homes on its rampage, began October 21 in the Agua Dulce community. \"Our arson explosive detectives, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Fire Department investigators, immediately began their investigation, and during the course of the investigation, it led to a juvenile suspect,\" Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Tony Moore told CNN's \"American Morning\" Wednesday. \"After talking with that juvenile, he admitted to playing with matches, and accidentally starting the fire in that area,\" he said. Watch what's next for young suspect \u00bb . The boy, whose name and age were not given, is home with his parents, police said. The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney for possible charges. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Buckweed Fire burned 38,526 acres. Sixty-three structures, 21 of them homes, were destroyed, and three civilians and two firefighters were injured. The sheriff's department said the fire forced the evacuation of about 15,000 people. As of Tuesday, 18 of 23 wildfires in Southern California were completely under control, and the remainder were at least 70 percent contained, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fires are blamed for 14 deaths and charred more than 508,000 acres, destroying about 1,600 homes. Five people were arrested in arson probes last week, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday vowed to \"hunt down\" people responsible for setting wildfires. Authorities said Saturday they were following 1,700 tips about a white Ford F-150 pickup seen near the origin of the sprawling Santiago Fire in Orange County. Witnesses reported seeing the 1998-2004 model truck with chrome tubular running boards on Santiago Canyon Road on October 21 at about the time the Santiago Fire started. Authorities said last week they had found evidence at the scene, although they declined to describe it. \"If I were one of the people who started the fires, I would not sleep soundly right now, because we're right behind you,\" Schwarzenegger said, urging the culprits to turn themselves in. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"He admitted playing with matches and starting the fire,\" says police report .\nBoy, whose name and age were not given, is home with his parents .\nBuckweed Fire burned 38,000 acres, destroyed 63 structures, 21 of them homes .","id":"ac56bd50e449bfa1d7b923415afa2ae5f7c83392"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's all tied up in Texas. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are running a tight race in Texas. A new CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll suggests the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois is a statistical dead heat in Texas, which holds primaries March 4. In the survey, out Monday, 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters support Clinton as their choice for the party's nominee, with 48 percent backing Obama. But taking into account the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 4\u00bd percentage points for Democratic respondents, the race is a virtual tie. Watch Democrats target Texas. \u00bb . Two recent polls by other organizations also show the race statistically even. Map: National and state polling . \"One reason the race appears to be tight is that Texas Democrats are having a hard time choosing between two attractive options,\" says CNN polling director Keating Holland. \"Likely Democratic primary voters would be equally happy if either candidate won the nomination, and they don't see a lot of difference between them on several top issues. \"Roughly a quarter of likely voters say they could change their minds in the next two weeks -- and not surprisingly, those people are splitting roughly equally between Clinton and Obama.\" Many political strategists and analysts consider Texas and Ohio -- which also holds a March 4 primary -- must-win states for Clinton. Obama has won the past eight contests and is now ahead in the overall battle for delegates, 193 of which are at stake in Texas. The new survey indicates Arizona Sen. John McCain is the clear favorite for the Republican presidential nomination. Among Republicans, 55 percent of likely Texas GOP primary voters support McCain as their choice for nominee. Thirty-two percent back former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and 11 percent support home-state congressman and former Libertarian standard-bearer Ron Paul. The poll's sampling error for Republican respondents is 4 percentage points. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted by telephone from Friday through Sunday. Pollsters talked to 1,506 adults in Texas, including 553 likely Republican primary voters and 529 likely Democratic primary voters. McCain is the overwhelming front-runner in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination and party leaders have rallied around the candidate in an attempt for party unity. The poll was released on the same day the only living former Republican president -- George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father -- endorsed McCain at an event in Houston. Watch McCain get a big boost \u00bb . But McCain has had trouble winning conservative voters. Just last week, McCain lost the conservative vote to Huckabee in the Virginia primary, according to exit polls. The new survey, though, suggests McCain may have better luck in Texas. \"It looks like McCain has made some inroads with conservative Republicans,\" Holland said. \"McCain is picking up a bare majority among conservative likely voters in the GOP primary. The McCain campaign probably wishes that number were higher, but it does mean that a McCain victory in Texas would not be based on the votes of moderates and independents, as has happened in several states in the past few weeks.\" Texas Democrats and Republicans may not see eye to eye on the issues, but the poll suggests they do agree on what's the most important issue. Thirty-five percent of Democrats and an equal number of Republicans said the economy was the most important issue in their choice for president. The second most important issue for Democrats was health care, at 23 percent, followed by the war in Iraq at 22 percent, illegal immigration at 10 percent and terrorism at 7 percent. Nineteen percent of Republicans said illegal immigration was their most important issue, putting it in second place, followed by the war in Iraq and terrorism at 17 percent and health care at 8 percent. Sixty percent of Republicans say they'll definitely support the candidate they are now backing. That number climbs to 76 percent for Democrats. Likely Democratic primary voters view Clinton and Obama on roughly equal terms. Seventy-nine percent say they would be satisfied if Clinton were the nominee; an equal number feel the same way about Obama. Seventy-nine percent say it's likely Clinton can win the nomination; 82 percent say the same about Obama. The two candidates are essentially tied on immigration, Iraq and the economy, but Clinton has an advantage on health care and abortion. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Texas voters go to the polls March 4 .\nSen. John McCain is the clear front-runner on the Republican side .\nSen. Barack Obama is on an eight-state winning streak .\nSome strategists see Texas as a must-win state for Sen. Hillary Clinton .","id":"61e4747776bd844146a9b8c7c1913c827ffbcd8a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 200 people were evacuated from their homes, including 84 residents of an apartment building for the elderly, after a tanker truck carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline erupted early Wednesday in a northern Boston suburb. Firefighters battle a blaze Wednesday north of Boston after a tanker overturned carrying 9,000 gallons of gas. No serious injuries were reported in the Everett, Massachusetts, blast, but witnesses recounted close calls to a local television station. One man said he narrowly escaped from his car before it exploded. \"In consideration of everything that firefighters had to deal with, I think it's a miracle that we haven't seen some serious injuries,\" Everett Fire Chief David Butler said. The tanker overturned and caught fire at a traffic circle in the town of about 37,000 outside Boston. Officials are investigating whether the driver was speeding, Butler said. \"Our major concerns right now are we still have an ongoing fire operation in the family dwellings, and we are still heavily engaged in those operations, and we have some concerns environmentally,\" Butler said. Watch residents of an elderly housing complex describe their shock \u00bb . Flames from the truck engulfed at least 40 cars and three buildings, two of them houses, fire officials said. The truck was destroyed, but the driver was not seriously injured, the officials said. WCVB-TV in Boston identified the driver as Chad LaFrance of Dover, New Hampshire. Seven hours after the truck caught fire, firefighters were still battling a blaze in one of the homes, according to the television station. Evacuees were taken to an armory converted into a shelter, Red Cross official Amelia Aubourg told CNN. Local streets were closed temporarily, and a nearby school was shut down for the day, WCVB reported. One evacuee who fled a high-rise building told the television station he saw at least 15 cars burning. \"And popping, they were popping. I don't know if it was tires that were blowing, but they were completely gone, the cars,\" Dan Savage told WCVB. Nearby resident Chris Barrow awoke to the sound of a \"big bang,\" he told WCVB. At first, he thought it was a car accident, but when he went outside to investigate the noise, he saw fire \"just coming down the hill toward the houses as fast as you could think.\" Barrow tried to escape in his car, but fire quickly surrounded the vehicle, he told the TV station. \"I rode over the fire and my car caught fire,\" he told WCVB. \"I got out just in time, and I ran a couple feet just before it blew up.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Michelle Cumbo and Saundra Booker contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fire chief: \"I think it's a miracle that we haven't seen some serious injuries\"\nOfficials are investigating whether truck's speed a factor in the accident, chief says .\nEvacuees taken to an armory converted into a shelter, Red Cross says .\nMan tells WCVB-TV his car caught fire, exploded as he fled; \"I got out just in time\"","id":"a9854fc40719b0d083a3fd279b6196188228a4e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite the obvious claims of younger rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, few can really argue with the 96 football journalists who voted Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite as the 2007 World Footballer of the Year. Brazilian genius Kaka fully deserves winning the 2007 World Footballer of the Year award. The prestigious Ballon d'Or award is widely regarded as the most prestigious individual prize in football and Kaka's inclusion on its coveted roll of honor is a testament to the 25-year-old Brazilian's current standing in world football. When AC Milan defeated Liverpool in the Champions League final in Athens, avenging their heartbreaking loss to the same team in Istanbul two years previously, it enabled Kaka to fulfill his dream of holding aloft Europe's premier trophy -- a winner's medal he fully deserved after a sublime 90-minute performance. Kaka's stock for both club and country has risen steadily since his move to the San Siro from Sao Paulo for a fee of just $8.5 million in the summer of 2003. Unlike many a Brazilian sporting genius, Kaka did not hone his skills on the beach or the streets of a favela shanty town. He was born into a comfortable middle class Brasilia family, where football was not the only hope of a bright future. However, it soon became clear that this particular boy had a very special skill and he was signed by Sao Paulo, after his family had moved there, at just eight years of age -- making his first team debut as an 18-year-old. Kaka's progress was soon picked up by his national team coach and Felipe Scolari named the graceful midfielder in his 23-man squad for the 2002 World Cup finals, earning him a winners' medal despite playing only 19 minutes of the tournament in a group match against Costa Rica. A year later, and Kaka was on his way to Milan. Within a month he had made the starting line-up and his 10 goals helped the Rossoneri lift the Scudetto and the European Super Cup. Throughout his career, Kaka has always possessed the innate ability to score goals -- his record for both club and country sees him average roughly a goal every three games. Yet to describe Kaka merely as a goalscoring midfielder would be doing him a massive injustice. Tall, elegant and blessed with astonishing skill, Milan and Brazil utilize Kaka's ability superbly. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti soon recognized Kaka's genius, changing his team's system to a 4-4-1-1, playing the Brazilian behind a main target man. With Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso holding the central midfield area, Kaka has a license to roam in behind the lone striker, be it Filippo Inzaghi, Ronaldo or Alberto Gilardino. And Kaka does this with devastating effect, running at the opposition with pace and power, finding defense-splitting passes or shooting from range with deadly accuracy be it from a dead-ball situation or open play. The fly in the ointment for Milan comes in the shape of their poor form this season. Although they have already reached the last 16 of the Champions League, the club are floundering in Serie A and face the unthinkable prospect of not qualifying for next season's competition unless they win the trophy. Real Madrid have coveted Kaka for the last two years -- expect the world transfer record to be smashed if Milan don't secure a place among Europe's elite. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kaka deservedly named World Player of the Year for the first time in his career .\nThe Brazilian beats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the journalists' vote .\nThe 25-year-old averages one goal in three games for both AC Milan and Brazil .","id":"8d37ab9fcd0248c093f6d0e5682782ebdaf5e837"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Interpol on Monday took the unprecendented step of making a global appeal for help to identify a man from digitally reconstructed photos taken from the Internet that it said showed him sexually abusing underage boys. This moving image shows how police used software to unscramble the image. (Source: Interpol) The man's face was disguised by digital alteration, but the images were capable of being restored, according to a bulletin from Interpol -- the international police agency based in Lyon, France. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the pictures have been on the the Internet for several years, but investigators have been unable to determine the man's identity or nationality. \"We have tried all other means to identify and to bring him to justice, but we are now convinced that without the public's help this sexual predator could continue to rape and sexually abuse young children whose ages appear to range from six to early teens,\" Noble said. He said there is \"very good reason to believe that he travels the world in order to sexually abuse and exploit vulnerable children.\" Interpol has determined the photos were taken in Vietnam and Cambodia. \"The decision to make public this man's picture was not one which was taken lightly,\" said Kristin Kvigne, assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings Unit. The suspect's photo and more information can be seen online at Interpol's Web site. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Man posted photos on the Internet of himself sexually abusing underage boys .\nComputer experts managed to undo digital masking to reveal the man .\nMan abused 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia .","id":"d3199d123dedcdbae55b2e9d1f658717c1d5e233"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Up to 80,000 items at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library are unaccounted for, probably because of haphazard record-keeping and inventory procedures, officials said Thursday. An audit found \"significant breakdown in internal controls\" at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. An audit completed last month by the National Archives and Records Administration's inspector general looked at the management of presidential artifacts at six presidential libraries. It \"cites particular issues at the Ronald Reagan Library. ... We acknowledge that problems exist in inventory control at the Reagan library,\" said a statement from Allen Weinstein, national archivist. Inspector General Paul Brachfield was more blunt. A \"significant breakdown in internal controls\" was found at the Reagan library, in Simi Valley, California, he said in a statement Thursday. The audit results prompted the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation to urge the National Archives -- which is responsible for maintaining the artifacts -- to move quickly to fix the problems. The chairman of the board of trustees has contacted Weinstein \"to express the serious concerns and disappointment on behalf of the Reagan Foundation and Mrs. Reagan,\" the foundation said. Library officials told auditors that \"the collection contained approximately 100,000 items, yet the library systems only had information to locate and account for approximately 20,000 items,\" Brachfield said. \"This does not automatically mean the approximately 80,000 remaining items are missing. The vast majority may very well be safely located within the library's storage facilities. ... Some of these items may be missing or stolen, or none of these items may be missing or stolen.\" Control deficiencies at the library created an environment that could potentially have been exploited, Brachfield said. Although Congress has a copy of the audit, it has not yet been made public because of the ongoing investigation into the whereabouts of the items. The count of 100,000 was an estimate taken from the original Reagan White House Gift Unit database, Weinstein said Thursday, but was never meant to be used as a concrete inventory control number. The Reagan library has already begun implementing recommendations from the audit, he said. It has upgraded its management inventory software, is hiring additional trained museum staff, has begun a comprehensive inventory and is addressing storage issues by reshelving artifacts and taking steps to protect artifacts in case of an earthquake. \"Like all of the presidential libraries, the Reagan library stores their gifts in a locked vault, which is protected by a security camera,\" Weinstein said. The audit examined management of artifacts at the Reagan library; the Franklin D. Roosevelt library; the John F. Kennedy library; the Gerald R. Ford library; the George Bush library; and the William J. Clinton library, Weinstein said. \"Early collections of artifacts came to presidential libraries with few controls and incomplete information relating to the collections,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Of 100,000 items, library systems are able to locate about 20,000 .\nInspector general: This does not mean the remaining items are missing .\nInspector general: Items may \"be safely located within the library's storage\"\nRonald Reagan Presidential Foundation expresses \"serious concerns\"","id":"f249ede5a3cafd2506ff2bb400291a7db1c43b76"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dozens of Defense Department personnel are actively engaged in fighting the wildfires raging in Southern California, Pentagon officials said Tuesday, and thousands more National Guard and active-duty military personnel are available to help. The Rice fire, east of Camp Pendleton, caused the evacuation of the Fallbrook community. Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said that 12 Defense Department firefighting teams, with 12 engines, are already working the blazes and more than 17,000 National Guardsmen are potentially available if needed. In addition, he said, 550 Marines from Camp Pendleton are preparing to deploy to the fire area. \"All of the aid that we provide is the result of a request ... from the state,\" McHale said. \"However, we have been very proactive in independently preparing those capabilities for the possibility of such requests, and we have reached out early to state officials.\" California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already called up 1,500 National Guard troops, including more than 200 taken from border duty to help with supplies and security at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium and DelMar Fairgrounds and Racetrack, where thousands of evacuated residents are taking shelter. Schwarzenegger also requested and received from the federal government six \"modular airborne fire fighting systems\" units -- which are C-130s that drop water and fire suppressant on the blazes. Watch California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talk about the crisis \u00bb . The Pentagon provided 11 helicopters equipped with water buckets to fight the fires, McHale said. Aerial attacks on the fires, however, have been minimal because of high Santa Ana winds with gusts approaching 70 mph. In an effort to make room for more civilians who have had to evacuate their homes, sailors stationed in Southern California are abandoning their barracks. \"Orders have been given to all sailors ashore in barracks to move to shipboard billeting to provide room for evacuees,\" said a Tuesday statement released by the U.S. military. Only essential personnel are requested to report to duty at Naval Base San Diego, Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, and Naval Air Station in El Centro. Those bases have also set up cots and tents for evacuees. Also, the Navy has offered an Aegis cruiser, a guided missile destroyer, and two fast frigates to support evacuation efforts. Meanwhile, the Pentagon designated March Air Reserve Base as the primary staging area for medical and relief supplies coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, McHale said. And some 100 California National Guard medical personnel are helping alleviate \"critical staffing shortfalls\" at the San Diego Veterans Center, whose hospital staff are under voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders. The fires are also having a direct effect on military personnel -- McHale said 1,400 Navy personnel and their families have been forced to evacuate, and Camp Pendleton ordered 3,000 Marines to evacuate because of the fire, the Pentagon announced Tuesday evening. In all, the military has about Video 20 facilities around the San Diego area. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Fires at Camp Pendleton cause evacuation of 3,000 marines .\nMilitary lending direct and indirect assistance to firefighting efforts .\nAs firefighting efforts go on, base officials poised to evacuate .\nNavy and Marine Corps have more than 20 facilities in San Diego area .","id":"6343a202a70e8c5d3bfa4042bfd087d78ca5805e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tom Cruise expounds on his beliefs in Scientology in a 2004 video that made its way onto the Internet this week. Tom Cruise appears with his wife, Katie Holmes, at a movie premiere earlier this month. \"I think it's a privilege to call yourself a Scientologist, and it's something you have to earn,\" Cruise says at the beginning of the video. Cruise says he's \"driven ... by the opportunity to really help, for the first time, change people's lives. I'm absolutely, uncompromisingly dedicated to that.\" The video was shown at a 2004 Scientology ceremony honoring Cruise for his humanitarian work. Church of Scientology officials said it can be viewed at any of its churches, but it created a stir this week when what the church calls a pirated and edited version appeared on YouTube. The video has since been taken off YouTube, but an interview portion remained available on the celebrity Web site gawker.com on Thursday. Watch snippets of Cruise video \u00bb . \"The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried To Suppress\" is the title of gawker.com's presentation. \"You have to watch this video,\" the site says. \"It shows Tom Cruise, with all the wide-eyed fervor that he brings to the promotion of a movie, making the argument for Scientology,\" which it calls \"the bizarre 20th-century religion. Watch \"Showbiz Tonight\" discussion of Cruise video \u00bb . Cruise talks over a repetitive guitar-riff soundtrack, and appears to be answering questions, though an interviewer is not seen or heard. A second part of the video, made available to CNN by the publisher of a new unauthorized biography of Cruise, shows Cruise accepting Scientology's Freedom Medal of Valor award and exchanging military-like salutes with Scientology chairman David Miscavige to audience applause. The publisher denies leaking other parts of the video to the Web. In the video by the publisher, Cruise also salutes a portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, cited on the church's Web site as the founder of \"the only major religion founded in the 20th century.\" Hubbard's biography cites his accomplishments as everything from mariner and horticulturalist to author and humanitarian. In the video, Cruise puts emphasis on the latter role. A Scientologist \"has the ability to create new realities and improve conditions,\" Cruise says. On its Web site, the Church of Scientology highlights its humanitarian work, from anti-drug campaigns in places from Minnesota to Taiwan to teacher training in India. The Web site defines Scientology as \"the study of truth.\" Cruise embraces that in the video. \"If you're a Scientologist, ... you see things the way they are,\" Cruise says. He also says he finds peace in the religion. \"The more you know as a Scientologist, you don't become overwhelmed by it,\" according to Cruise. The unauthorized biography of Cruise is by author Andrew Morton. A Cruise spokesperson and the Church of Scientology have disputed the book, saying Morton did not seek their comment. \"Accuracy and truth were not on Morton's agenda,\" according to a church statement. Morton denies that and says Cruise, who he calls \"a towering figure on the international scene,\" and his faith are worthy of scrutiny. \"Tom Cruise has done remarkable work for his faith over the past few years,\" Morton said. \"If it wasn't for him the Church of Scientology would be a shadow of what it is today.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Brad Lendon, David Mattingly and Don Lemon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientology membership a privilege that's earned, Cruise says .\n2004 video part of ceremony honoring Cruise for humanitarian work .\nScientology defined as \"study of the truth\"","id":"da0d41b431367b51fd995573cb498c10b7f64ca0"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Australia's new prime minister assured Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday that his country's troops intend to be in Afghanistan \"for the long haul.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, shakes hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Kevin Rudd and French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew into the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday to meet with Karzai and visit their respective country's troops participating in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. In a morning meeting, Sarkozy \"assured President Karzai of his government's long term political and military support with the people of Afghanistan,\" according to a statement from the Afghan president's office. Rudd, who was elected in a landslide victory Nov. 24, appeared with Karzai at a news conference, where he repeatedly said that the Australian commitment to Afghanistan is strong. \"We will be, as I said before, in this country, Afghanistan, for the long haul. It's important for us to be here in partnership with NATO countries,\" Rudd said. \"On the question of the broader security policy challenges faced within Afghanistan, of course they are significant, they are real. But we are confident that in partnership with our friends in the Afghan government and with our other allies, particularly in NATO, that we can continue to achieve real progress in the long-term security of this country,\" he added. Australia's new defense minister, however, warned U.S. and NATO allies recently that they risk losing the war in Afghanistan without a sharp shift in military and reconstruction efforts there. Joel Fitzgibbon, who took office with Rudd allies during a conference in Scotland earlier this month, said that more work needs to be done to win the \"hearts and minds\" of the people of Afghanistan in the 6-year-old war against the country's former Taliban rulers and their al Qaeda allies. Karzai wished those at the news conference a merry Christmas, then thanked Australia, France and other countries for their help and support. More than 1,900 French troops are in Afghanistan, serving both the ISAF and the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Australia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the war in Afghanistan, with nearly 1,000 troops stationed mostly in the southern province of Oruzgan. Sarkozy, elected to lead France last May, told the U.S. Congress during a visit last month that France would stand \"shoulder to shoulder\" with the United States on the war in Afghanistan. \"Let me tell you solemnly today: France will remain engaged in Afghanistan as long as it takes, because what's at stake in that country is the future of our values and that of the Atlantic Alliance,\" he said. Rudd made a surprise visit Friday to Iraq, where he promised continued Australian aid, despite a decision to withdraw all 550 Australian troops in Iraq by mid-2008 -- an effort his predecessor, John Howard, staunchly opposed. Rudd had said he would start a phased withdrawal of Australian forces from Iraq if his Labor Party won the vote. E-mail to a friend . Journalist Farhad Peikar in Kabul contributed to this report.","highlights":"French and Australian leaders arrive in Afghanistan .\nBoth leaders expected to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai .\nBoth will visit with their respective country's troops .","id":"0620ff5fa324a35b4be54bbd2de49b42bdd0d7c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Vick turned himself in to authorities on Monday to get a head start on serving his sentence for running a dogfighting ring, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Michael Vick leaves court in Richmond, Virginia, in August after pleading guilty to dogfighting charges. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback is scheduled to be sentenced on December 10 on a federal conspiracy charge of bankrolling the dogfighting operation. Vick, 27, voluntarily turned himself in around noon, said Kevin Trevillan of the Marshals Service, and is being held at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, until the sentencing hearing. The quarterback, who has been suspended indefinitely by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, faces 12 to 18 months in prison on the charge. Vick pleaded guilty in August after three associates admitted their own roles in the operation and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. \"From the beginning, Mr. Vick has accepted responsibility for his actions and his self-surrender further demonstrates that acceptance,\" Vick's attorney, Billy Martin, said in a statement. \"Michael wants to again apologize to everyone who has been hurt in this matter and he thanks all of the people who have offered him and his family prayers and support during this time,\" Martin's statement said. CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin speculated that Vick started his sentence early \"to get it out of the way.\" Watch Toobin explain why Vick would surrender early \u00bb . On September 25, a Virginia grand jury indicted Vick and the three co-defendants -- Purnell Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Quanis Phillips, 28, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Tony Taylor, 34, of Hampton, Virginia -- on state charges of running a dogfighting ring at Vick's home outside Newport News. The Surry County grand jury brought two charges against the four men: one count of unlawfully torturing and killing dogs and one of promoting dogfights. Each is a felony charge that could result in a five-year prison term. In addition, Taylor faces three additional counts of unlawful torture and killing of dogs. A hearing in that case is set for November 27, but Vick does not have to be in court at that time. In September, Vick was put under tight restrictions by the federal court after he tested positive for marijuana use. Vick tested positive for the drug on September 13, a court document from the Eastern District of Virginia shows. As a result, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ordered Vick to \"submit to any method of testing required by the pretrial services officer or the supervising officer for determining whether the defendant is using a prohibited substance.\" Those methods could include random drug testing, a remote alcohol testing system \"and\/or any form of prohibited substance screening or testing,\" the order said. Vick was also ordered to stay home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., \"or as directed by the pretrial services officer or supervising officer,\" the order said. He was to be electronically monitored during that time. Vick must participate in substance abuse therapy and mental health counseling \"if deemed advisable by the pretrial services officer or supervising officer\" at his own expense, the order said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Vick's attorney says early surrender shows Vick accepts responsibility .\nSentencing set for December 10 on dogfighting charges against Michael Vick .\nAtlanta Falcons quarterback pleaded guilty in August .\nMonday, he surrendered to begin whatever sentence he gets on December 10 .","id":"f0eb8f9eee266512eb604a51b482833e202531d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Football should be used to teach young people moral lessons, Pope Benedict XVI said during an audience with representatives from the Italian football league and lower division clubs. Pope Benedict XVI is presented with a football by Ancona club officials. Italian football has been tarnished in recent seasons by corruption, match-fixing scandals and crowd trouble, but the pope insisted the sport celebrated positive virtues as well. \"The sport of football can be a vehicle of education for the values of honesty, solidarity and fraternity, especially for the younger generation,\" the pope said, according to Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. The comments are not the first foray by the Bavarian-born pope -- reputedly a Bayern Munich supporter -- into Italian football. In October, he was presented with a No. 16 shirt by officials of the lower league club Ancona after the Vatican endorsed its campaign to turn itself into a \"beacon of morality\" by adopting an \"innovative, ethical model of practising football,\" Reuters reported. The code committed Ancona to promoting fair play in a family atmosphere. The club is currently second in Serie C1\/B, Italian football's third tier league. \"Football should increasingly become a tool for the teaching of life's ethical and spiritual values,\" the pope said. Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was also a keen football fan, reportedly playing in goal during his youth in Poland. All Italian football matches were cancelled on the weekend following his death in 2005. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pope says football can teach values of \"honesty, solidarity and fraternity\"\nSport should be used as a vehicle of education for young people, he says .\nVatican has endorsed lower league club Ancona's adoption of ethical code .\nGerman-born pope is reputed to be a Bayern Munich fan .","id":"c8f743307d5d1f7f19f1474d68c9390b22f6d076"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two tractor-trailer trucks crashed and burst into flames Thursday on a bridge between the United States and Mexico, shutting a key border crossing and killing four people, police said. Police look at the aftermath of a fiery crash on a bridge linking Reynosa, Mexico, and Pharr, Texas. The collision on the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Texas triggered a chain-reaction accident with three other vehicles, said Lt. Lupe Salinas with the Pharr Police Department. A pickup flipped off the bridge, killing three people. Another person died in a vehicle that struck one of the tractor-trailers. Six others were injured. Pharr Emergency Management Coordinator Elsa Sanchez told The Associated Press the pickup truck had Texas license plates, and the two 18-wheelers and a minivan involved in the wreck appeared to have Mexican plates. Watch aftermath of fiery crash \u00bb . The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET). The bridge was closed for the rest of the evening. The bridge reopened on Friday morning after Texas Department of Trnasportation engineers inspected it, according to CNN affiliate KRGV. The bridge is normally open from 6 a.m. until midnight and is closed overnight. The 3.2-mile-long bridge connects U.S. 281 in Pharr, Texas, to the city of Reynosa in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, according to the city of Pharr's Web site. On an average day, the site says, 5,800 vehicles cross it. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Payne and Jessica Jordan contributed to this story. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Bridge reopens Friday morning after highway engineers give OK .\nFour killed in chain reaction crash that started when two tractor-trailers collided .\nThree killed in pickup truck that fell off bridge; 4th victim in car that hit one 18-wheeler .\nCrash happened on bridge linking Pharr, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico .","id":"5978abfdad91e604840a2dcc993df5ade9448e82"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- The wife of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in Thailand Tuesday morning to face corruption charges, promising to fight the accusations, her attorney said. Pojamarn Shinawatra with her husband Thaksin Shinawatra. According to Pichit Chuenban, Pojamarn Shinawatra was presented with an arrest warrant shortly after arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport and was escorted by authorities to the Supreme Court. \"She intends to fight all charges through judicial system,\" Pichit said. Greeted by about 50 well-wishers, Pojamarn arrived at court accompanied by her three children. She faces charges stemming from a Bangkok land deal and a stock concealment plan that could put her in jail for up to eight years, according to the Thai News Agency. The court released her on 5 million baht (about $168,000) bail and ordered her not to leave the country. On Monday, Thaksin's attorney Noppadon Pattama said the former prime minister would return from exile in mid-April to answer to the same charges his wife faces. He was deposed by a military junta in Sept. 2006 and fled to London. He plans to return after Thailand's new government is in place. In December's parliamentary elections, supporters of Thaksin, the People Power Party, won nearly half the seats in the lower house and will lead the ruling coalition. PPP leader Samak Sundaravej said a new parliament controlled by his party would pass an amnesty law to allow Thaksin's return and amend the constitution to let Thaksin get back into politics. Thaksin said he would not re-enter politics when he returned to Thailand. He said that he and his family had \"suffered enough\" but that he wanted to face the charges against him and prove his innocence. Thaksin is a 58-year-old telecommunications tycoon who owns the English Premier League Manchester City Football Club. Thaksin's party won two landslide victories before he was deposed. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Thaksin Shinawatra's wife handed arrest warrant after she returns to Thailand .\nPojamarn Shinawatra faces corruption charges that could imprison her for 20 years .\nThe case involves Pojamarn's 2003 purchase of some prime Bangkok real estate .","id":"5bcd4e61b39cc7ffff38ad88cd40afa208b18528"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The Paris suburbs were again rocked by riots after a second night of lawlessness Monday caused widespread destruction and left scores of police injured, according to French authorities and media reports. Firefighters in a Paris suburb battle to control a blaze started after youths rioted Sunday night. An angry mob repeatedly clashed with riot police and torched cars and buildings in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, after two teens on a motorcycle were killed following a collision with a police car Sunday night. Rioters bombarded police with baseball bats, Molotov cocktail bombs and bottles filled with acid as the violence spread to the nearby towns of Longjumeau and Grigby Monday night. The 15- and 16-year-old boys, both sons of African immigrants, according to police, died when their motorbike hit a patrol car in Villiers-le-Bel. Some residents, populated largely by immigrants and their French-born children, accused police of fleeing the crash scene. However, three eyewitnesses, interviewed on TV, said the police stayed and tried to revive the two boys with mouth to mouth resuscitation. Watch why a repeat of past rioting is feared \u00bb . More than 60 police officers were injured in Monday night's confrontation, with five kept in hospital in a serious condition, according to reports in a number of French newspapers. A spokesman for the police authorities in the Val d'Oise prefecture refused to confirm the numbers of police injuries, telling CNN that police feared the information could further enflame the already tense situation. The police spokesman said 60 cars, a library and car dealer's showroom had been set on fire in Villiers-le-Bel. He said a police station had also been damaged and 15 garbage cans torched. Security was tightened Tuesday, with helicopters deployed to patrol over the town, the spokesman said. Villiers-le-Bel was not among the districts hit by the weeks of nationwide rioting in November 2005, when disaffected youths nationwide set thousands of cars ablaze to protest against unemployment and discrimination. Those riots were also sparked by fatalities, namely the deaths of two men of North African descent who were electrocuted while hiding from police in an electrical substation. French president Nicolas Sarkozy, then serving as the interior minister, provoked controversy at the time by referring to the rioters as \"scum.\" Sarkozy, currently on a state visit to China, had urged residents Monday to \"cool down and let the justice system determine who is responsible for what.\" A spokesman for the president's office told CNN Tuesday they were continuing to monitor the situation. The prosecutor's office in the nearby town of Pontoise has already begun an inquiry into the deaths. Police said the teens drove through a red light without wearing helmets and on an unregistered bike. But Omar Sehhouli, the brother of one of the victims, told French media the police involved should be arrested. \"Everyone knew the two boys here,\" he told French radio. \"What happened, that's not violence, it's rage.\" According to the initial findings from the French police watchdog, reported Tuesday in the daily newspaper, Le Figaro, the boy's motorbike was driving \"at very high speed\" and had failed to give priority to the police patrol vehicle. The police car was driving normally at around 40 kilometers an hour, the newspaper reported the watchdog had found. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report .","highlights":"Riots in French suburb for second night after two teens killed in police crash .\nViolence spreads from Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, to two nearby towns .\nMore than 60 police injured, bombarded with Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid .\nParallels drawn with unrest in 2005, when President Sarkozy was interior minister .","id":"44815c184e3013f07781311b30ec5ff009174738"} -{"article":"Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi walks Anjali Rao through the streets of Tokyo. She stunned global cinema audiences with her controversial and Oscar-nominated performance as a lonely deaf girl in the film \"Babel.\" Rinko Kikuchi is one of Japan's hottest young actresses and models, recently working with Karl Lagerfeld as the new face of Channel. Despite her success, she remains an unconventional figure in Japan, at odds with the traditional demure image of the Japanese woman and forging a career on her own terms. Talk Asia follows her on a modelling assignment, discusses how her life has changed since \"Babel\" and revisits the unique location of one of the film's most important scenes. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rinko Kikuchi was Oscar-nominated for her performance in the film \"Babel\"\nShe has recently worked with Karl Lagerfeld as the new face of Channel .\nShe challenges the traditional demure image of the Japanese woman .","id":"d7783bd2bf5ad92156962380342411c2eb068853"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The orgy of violence that has greeted Kenya's disputed election result has led to hundreds of deaths and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. But away from the tragic human cost, the unrest has also provoked concerns about the stability of the east African country's economy, until now seen as a model for the region. Businesses have been destroyed and looted and supply routes disrupted after the opposition accused incumbent president Mwai Kibaki of election fraud after he was declared winner Sunday. Investors are watching events closely in the country, fearful of how it could affect one of Africa's few economic success stories. And the early signs have been worrying. The equity market on the Nairobi Stock Exchange lost 40 billion Kenyan Shillings ($591 million) in value on its first day of New Year trading Wednesday, the Kenyan financial newspaper Business Daily Africa reported. And business leaders said that the government was losing around 2 billion Shillings ($29.5 million) a day in lost revenue as a result of the political violence, the paper reported. \"We do seem to be in a new place, there's a lot of uncertainty about where we go from here. And a lot depends crucially on how long-lasting this is,\" said Razia Kahn, an analyst specializing in Africa at Standard Chartered bank. Kenya has attracted a large number of multi-nationals and is home to one of the world's fastest growing stock exchanges. Its relative economic success has been helped in part by its thriving tourist sector, with visitors attracted by its abundant wildlife and pristine beaches. Provisional figures for 2006 from the Kenya's tourist board said the country had received 1.5 million visitors for the year, a growth of 5.2 per cent. However, fears that the tourist industry could take a heavy hit from the unrest grew with the British Federation of Tour Operators announcing Thursday it was suspending all holidays to the country departing up to and including this Saturday. Watch an aid worker describe fears that crisis may resemble Rwanda's \u00bb . British tourists already in the country have been advised by the British Foreign Office to stay indoors and to stay away from the major cities. There are also worries about the knock-on effect for the region, since around 40 percent of Kenya's exports go to other African nations, Kahn said. Of even greater concern is the effect on Kenya's lucrative agriculture industry. Exports of tea, coffee, vegetables and flowers are big earners for the country, with agriculture making up about a fifth of the total economy. There have been media reports of tea and coffee auctions being halted by the violence as well as widespread disruption to transport routes as rioters blockade major roads across the country. Arun Shah, who runs a coffee import business based in London, told CNN his livelihood depended on a stable Kenya. \"We have had absolutely reliable supply,\" he said. \"We have had reliable quality and the quantities that we need for our trade.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Boulden in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Kenya's once-stable economy faltering due to violence following disputed election .\nEquity market on Nairobi Stock Exchange lost $591 million on first day of 2008 .\nBusiness leaders say the government losing $29.5 million a day in revenues .\nThriving tourist industry also hit, with British tour operators calling off flights .","id":"4963edb0ad2703e9f6c54593149d9b81e7ada91f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This month on Art of Life we feel the need for speed. From the world's first road-legal grand prix bike to a rock legend with a passion for aviation. Monita Rajpal samples the finest in Italian motorbikes . Monita Rajpal meets the boys behind Ducati's motorbikes, Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson explains why flying is his new source of adrenaline, and trance legend Paul Van Dyk takes us round his favorite haunt in the former East Berlin. Ducati: Riding in Style . Ducati has long-been the ultimate name in luxury motorbikes, but just like its racers, the company has had to compete fiercely to defend its title. As a small Italian manufacturer, up against Japanese mega-plants, employing thousands of workers, Ducati's comparatively small family is driven by pride. CNN's Monita Rajpal visits the Bologna factory floor and talks to some of the men behind the company, meets Ducati's Moto GP champion Casey Stoner and takes a test drive of Ducati's Desmosedici racing replica, the world's first road-legal grand prix bike. Watch Monita's trip to the Ducati factory . Bruce Dickinson: Rock star in the sky . A leather-clad, long-haired pilot, donning a t-shirt with blood-spewing skeletons would be a nightmare for many uneasy flyers. Fortunately for passengers on Bruce Dickinson's plane, the lead singer of Iron Maiden has gotten a new wardrobe and a new day job. Art of Life meets up with the rock legend to find out why he has chosen to take to the skies and become a commercial airline pilot. Watch Dickinson take to the skies . Paul Van Dyk: Guides us through Germany . Paul Van Dyk, the legendary trance musician, DJ and producer has made his name well-known, even though his genre of music is typically associated with young ravers and more urban listeners. Watch as Van Dyk takes Art of Life on a tour of his hometown, the former East Berlin, and shows how he has drawn from the city's war-weathered rhythms to gain inspiration for his songs. Watch Van Dyk tour Berlin E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"This month Art of Life looks at motorbike, planes, DJs and Rock idols .\nMonita visits the Ducati factory in Bologna, meets Moto champ Casey Stoner .\nIron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson talks about his passion for flying .\nDJ Paul Van Dyk takes us on a tour of his favorite parts of Berlin .","id":"51b9a2d46dac43952e713874a5769be5ae350626"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The most compelling action during Michigan's primary Tuesday will be on the Republican side. The Democratic Party has stripped the state of its delegates for moving up its primary date so early, and top-tier Democratic candidates have taken their names off the ballot, except for Sen. Hillary Clinton. The struggling auto industry has been a drag on Michigan's economy. In many ways, the Republican battle for Michigan will be similar to last week's New Hampshire contest. The primary is open, and any registered voter -- including independents and Democrats -- can participate. Sen. John McCain won New Hampshire with the help of independent voters, and he is campaigning hard to re-create that success in Michigan. In 2000, McCain defeated then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Michigan primary. In that vote, more than half -- 52 percent -- were either independents or Democrats. Among Republican voters, McCain lost to Bush 29 percent to 66 percent. In that contest, almost three out of every 10 voters identified themselves as members of the religious right. Overall, Michigan is a swing state, producing narrow margins of victory for presidential candidates and statewide officeholders. However, voting trends favor the Democrats. Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, is a Democrat, as are the state's two U.S. senators -- Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. The Democratic presidential nominee has carried Michigan in the last four elections. Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 standard bearer, won Michigan 51 percent to 48 percent over President Bush. The state's economy is powered by the automotive industry, which has experienced its fair share of struggles. Michigan's unemployment rate, 7.4 percent, is higher than the national average of 5 percent. Region by region . Wayne County, in the southeastern corner of the state, contains the economically depressed Detroit, Michigan's largest city. Detroit is predominantly black and solidly Democratic. North of Wayne County are the more-affluent suburban counties of Oakland and Macomb, which have grown in population in the last two decades. These two counties have been the state's central political battleground in recent elections. West of Wayne is the \"university belt,\" home to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State University in East Lansing. The area also includes the industrial cities of Saginaw and Flint, where unions remain strong, as well as Jackson and Bay City. The state's capital, Lansing, and the sparsely populated upper peninsula are also part of this region. The southwest part of the state is dominated by Grand Rapids, Michigan's second-largest city. Grand Rapids is traditionally Dutch-American and has many Christian conservatives and generally votes Republican. The area also contains smaller industrial cities and farming communities. The economy of the sparsely populated north and northwest is based on agriculture, tourism and timber. It traditionally votes Republican. Endorsements . The Detroit Free Press has endorsed McCain. \"While the Free Press differs with McCain on a number of issues, the Arizona senator is a smarter, more tested and pragmatic leader who has shown since 2000 that he knows how to build bipartisan alliances around issues,\" the newspaper said in an editorial. The Detroit News also endorsed McCain, citing his fiscal conservatism and command of military and foreign affairs, over Michigan native Mitt Romney. \"Other GOP contenders, most notably former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, are capable figures with impressive resumes and a solid grasp of the issues. But McCain's longtime presidential ambitions are at last aligned with the needs of the nation,\" the newspaper said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Independents, Democrats can vote in Michigan's open Republican primary .\nNo Democratic delegates at stake, and most top-tier candidates aren't on ballot .\nEconomic woes top concern for Michigan primary voters .","id":"d670da295571f998bd0864540e2acd109d077131"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A search is under way for a pregnant 20-year-old Marine who has been missing from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, since December 14. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she went missing on December 14. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach could give birth at any time, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told the Jacksonville, North Carolina, Daily News on Monday. The sheriff's department said Lauterbach's mother said that her daughter, of Montgomery, Ohio, had witnessed an incident at Camp Lejeune and was to testify about it. Sheriff's department officials said evidence causes them to be concerned about Lauterbach's disappearance, WITN reported. The Marine's car was found Monday at Jacksonville's bus station, Brown told the Daily News, and her cell phone had been found at Camp Lejeune's front gate on December 20. Her mother reported her missing on December 19, and told the sheriff's department \"that she was very suspicious that something bad may have happened to her daughter,\" the department said in a news release. Watch Lauterbach's mom say what raised her concerns \u00bb . Investigators told the Marine Corps Times that a withdrawal from Lauterbach's bank account was made on December 14 and said there was \"suspicious activity\" on the account 10 days later. December 14 was also the last time Lauterbach's cell phone was used, authorities told the Marine Corps Times. The Raleigh News and Observer, citing Brown, reported that the woman's mother said her daughter phoned home or her relatives up to 12 times a week and the mother became concerned when she did not hear from her daughter for five days. A Facebook page established to help find Lauterbach says she was last seen December 14 in Jacksonville. \"Call mom!!! You know the number,\" the page says. \"All of us love you and we miss you. Please come home!\" The page contains pleas for contacts from fellow Marines and friends of Lauterbach in Ohio. Lauterbach is a personnel clerk assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps said. She joined the service on June 6, 2006. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lance corporal due to give birth at any time, sheriff says .\nMarine's car found Monday at bus station .\nMother reported Marine missing on December 19 .\nSheriff: Marine was to testify about incident at base, according to mother .","id":"f2f2246150d06734b2fab694a39bd8d693c7d255"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The head of Iraq's main humanitarian group said an 18-year-old approached him with a baby suffering from leukemia. The desperate mother said she'd do \"anything\" for treatment for her child -- and then offered herself up for sex. Baha, 12, waits for treatment in an Iraqi Red Crescent center after shrapnel pierced his left eye. Said Ismail Hakki breaks down in tears as he recalls that story. Leukemia can be treatable to a degree in much of the world, but not in Iraq. The baby died two months later. \"It shook me like hell,\" said Hakki, the president of the Iraqi Red Crescent. \"All my life I've been a surgeon. I've seen blood; I've seen death. That never shook me -- none whatsoever. But when I see the suffering of those people, that really shook me.\" The plight of Iraq's children is nearing epidemic proportions, he said, with mothers and fathers abandoning their children \"because they're becoming a liability.\" The parents don't do it out of convenience, they do it out of desperation. Watch the plight of Iraq's children \u00bb . \"When you become so desperate, you tend to just throw everything up and go,\" Hakki said. \"Every time I look at those children, I ask myself first, 'What crime have those children committed?'\" Hakki says Red Crescent has the monumental task of treating and feeding more than 1.6 million children under the age of 12 who have become homeless in their own country. That's roughly 70 percent of the estimated 2.3 million Iraqis who are homeless inside Iraq. How to help the Iraqi Red Crescent . With 95,000 volunteers and 5,000 employees, the Iraqi Red Crescent is the last line of defense for the country's poor, sick and displaced. They try to blend in as best they can, with Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds working in the neighborhoods distinct to their ethnicities. Six employees of the Iraqi Red Crescent have been killed over the last four years. Eight have been wounded, including six left disabled by the severity of their wounds. Hakki says the spike in numbers of abandoned children is especially alarming, the result of sectarian violence and drastic socio-economic problems. The majority of parents in Iraq, he says, leave their children with a single relative who often has about 20 to 30 children to look after. Some parents just leave their kids altogether. Many of the families are living in areas without basic needs, like water and electricity, and there are no jobs available. \"It's a desperate situation,\" he said. \"Children are becoming a liability for both the father and the mother.\" The greatest concern is the ripple effect it will have in the long term -- an entire generation lacking basic life skills, surviving with no education, no income and no families. See wounded Iraqi children get help in neighboring Jordan \u00bb . \"The trauma of what's happening to those children is enormous,\" he said. \"If somebody is injured by a bullet or shrapnel, it takes a week or two and he's fine. ... The psycho-social injury is pretty deep and can take months, if not years, to heal. \"That's the task -- the mammoth task -- the Iraq Red Crescent is facing.\" The group gets some financial support from the central government. It's also negotiating with the U.S. Embassy, he said, to see if it can offer financial aid. But funds are low. Just recently, the group closed 18 camps for the winter and is trying to house those thousands of people in abandoned government buildings. At a waiting room at an Iraqi Red Crescent treatment center in Baghdad's Mansour district, CNN came across several young children in desperate need of care. But they were among the lucky ones -- if that term can even be applied -- because their parents remain with them. Baha, a 12-year-old boy, was waiting to see a doctor, recalling the exact date -- January 16, 2004 -- he lost his left eye. \"I want my eye to get well,\" he said. Baha was with his father in a market when someone opened fire on U.S. soldiers. When the soldiers fired back, shrapnel hit his eye. Despite what happened, this brave boy still goes to that same market. \"I'm not afraid,\" he said. Across the room, 3-year-old Saja lightened the mood in the room. \"Iraqis, we are still brothers!\" she sang. She giggled, laughed and darted around, bringing smiles to all who saw her. Yet, she couldn't see most of what was around her. She's blind in one eye and losing sight in the other -- the result of shoddy medical care. Her father, Dia'a, said he heard about the Iraqi Red Crescent from television and others who had been treated here. He said he can't afford to travel outside the country for medical treatment for his girl. This clinic, he said, has given him \"a ray of hope that I had lost.\" He, too, expressed despair over the plight of Iraq's youngest generation. \"Our children are suffering. All they talk about is weapons and bombs,\" he said. \"They are children. We are older; our hair turns gray. What happens to them hearing all the explosions and bombs? \"We can't make them feel better because we are down.\" That's a sentiment that haunts the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent. \"There are times I get up in the middle of the night and I say, 'Oh my God, how are we going to solve it? God help me to help those kids!'\" E-mail to a friend . CNN.com's Wayne Drash contributed to this report in Atlanta.","highlights":"Head of Iraqi Red Crescent says parents abandoning their kids at alarming rates .\nSometimes he wonders: \"Oh my God, how are we going to solve it?\"\nThe greatest concern is the long-term effect on an entire generation .\n\"Trauma of what's happening to those children is enormous\"","id":"3cc0409612242093f34ea1d8ca1679f434955cff"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition forces found 26 bodies buried in mass graves and a bloodstained \"torture complex,\" with chains hanging from walls and ceilings and a bed connected to an electrical system, the military said Wednesday. Twenty-six bodies were found in mass graves near a \"torture complex\" discovered by coalition forces. The troops made the discovery while conducting an operation north of Muqdadiya, Iraq. From December 8 to 11, the troops who found the complex also killed 24 people they said were terrorists and detained 37 suspects, according to a statement issued by Multinational Division North at Camp Speicher in Tikrit. The moves were part of an operation called Iron Reaper that has been in progress across northern Iraq for the past few weeks. The complex was in an area thought to be an al Qaeda in Iraq haven and operating base, the military said. Iraqis had told the military about the site during an earlier operation. \"Evidence of murder, torture and intimidation against local villagers was found throughout the area,\" the military statement said. Ground forces first found what appeared to be a detention facility, which was one of three connected to the torture complex, Multinational Division North said. One of the facilities appeared to have been a headquarters building and a torture facility, it added. As the area was cleared, the bodies were found. Eventually, 26 bodies were uncovered in mass graves next to what were thought to be execution sites, the military said. The bodies are believed to have been dead between six and eight months, according to a gruesome military video shot at the scene. Some had their hands tied behind their backs. Identification is proving to be a challenge because of advanced decomposition. Photos given to the news media show a filthy bed wired to an electrical system, with an outlet hanging from wires on the wall. In the video, troops point out rubber hoses and boxing gloves, a ski mask and a blood-covered sword and knives. Other still photos show an entrance to the underground bunker and barbed wire stretched outside it. A short distance away from the complex, troops found a bullet-riddled Iraqi police vehicle. Some of the bodies may belong to Iraqi police, according to the military video. The operation netted nine weapons caches, which have been destroyed, the military said. They included anti-aircraft weapons, sniper rifles, more than 65 machine guns and pistols, 50 grenades and a surface-to-air missile launcher and platform, the statement said. Also found were mines, pipe bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar tubes and rounds and 130 pounds of homemade explosives. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Military says some of the 26 bodies may belong to Iraqi police .\nComplex believed to be an al Qaeda in Iraq haven .\nCoalition forces say they made the discovery during operations in northern Iraq .\nMilitary: Evidence of torture and murder against local villagers found .","id":"a67c4eaf797da7df18a715cd30c6cf11db96c954"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's foreign ministry Wednesday rejected concerns raised by the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief that the country's nuclear weapons \"could fall into the hands of an extremist group in Pakistan or in Afghanistan.\" Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief. fears for Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Mohamed ElBaradei's comments to Al-Hayat newspaper were \"irresponsible\" and \"unwarranted,\" foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said at a news briefing on Wednesday. \"Pakistan rejects the statement by Dr. ElBaradei, Director General IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), hinting at the possibility of its nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists,\" according to a ministry statement. \"As head of the IAEA, which is a U.N. body, he has to be careful about his statements which ought to remain within the parameters of his mandate. \"His remarks also ignore the fact that the strategic assets of Pakistan are fully secure and under multilayered safeguards and controls exercised by the National Command Authority.\" In an interview published in Al-Hayat Tuesday, ElBaradei said that Pakistan's recent political instability makes it more sensitive to susceptible to problems in other Muslim countries. \"The effects of any new war in the Middle East and the Islamic world could have repercussions, not only in Iran, but what I fear most is the effect in Pakistan, a nation with many internal problems,\" ElBaradei said. \"I fear a system of chaos or extremist regime in this state, which has 30 or 40 nuclear weapons.\" Pakistan has been in a state of political upheaval since the country's opposition challenged President Pervez Musharraf's tight grip on power, pushing him to step down as military chief and lift the emergency rule he had imposed in early November. The country further spiraled into chaos after the December 27 assassination of leading opposition figure and former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. In response to the IAEA director-general's comments, Pakistan's foreign ministry stressed in its statement that ElBaradei, \"on several occasions, has been briefed about the structure and control mechanisms put in place to ensure complete safety of our nuclear assets.\" \"Pakistan is a responsible nuclear weapon state. Our nuclear weapons are as secure as that of any other nuclear weapon state. We, therefore, believe statements expressing concern about their safety and security are unwarranted and irresponsible. \"Pakistan attaches great importance to IAEA and has extended cooperation and assistance to the Agency on many important issues towards the fulfillment of its mandate. Our civilian nuclear program is under IAEA safeguards and we have always fully complied with IAEA obligations,\" the ministry said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pakistan rejects fears its nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of extremists .\nMohamed ElBaradei, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief, voiced his worries Tuesday .\nElBaradei: I fear chaos in this state, which has 30 or 40 nuclear weapons .\nPakistan: Our nuclear weapons as secure as those held by other nuclear states .","id":"58456413c8bd03a8ce70eb0061af07c6a9824fc3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After expressing condolences and outrage over events in Pakistan, presidential candidates turned their discussion toward whose foreign policy credentials were better. Hillary Clinton, then U.S. first lady, meets with Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan in 1995. In a campaign that had been drifting toward economic issues, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the turmoil in Pakistan could refocus voters on who is best qualified to deal with crises in other parts of the world. \"My theme has been throughout this campaign that I am the one with experience, the knowledge and the judgment. So, perhaps it may serve to enhance those credentials,\" said Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. Locked inside a tough three-way battle for the Democratic nomination in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Clinton has spent a year calling herself the most experienced, most qualified candidate in the field. She stressed her ties with Bhutto and the tragedy of her death. \"This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime, and it certainly raises the stakes high for what we have to expect from our next president,\" the New York senator said. Watch how the assassination is resonating on the campaign trail \u00bb . Sen. Barack Obama's camp, which has spent a year pushing back on criticisms that he lacks experience, insisted they welcome the renewed talks on foreign policy and called attention to Clinton's \"yes\" vote on the Iraq war. \"She was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq which we would submit is one of the reasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Al Qaeda, who may have been players in this event today. So that's a judgment she'll have to defend,\" said Obama adviser David Axelrod. The Clinton campaign said the suggestion that her vote caused unrest in Pakistan is baseless, adding that this is a time to focus on the people of Pakistan and not politics. When asked about Axelrod's remarks late Thursday, Obama told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that, \"This is one of those situations where Washington is putting a spin on it. ... He in no way was suggesting Hillary Clinton was somehow directly to blame for this situation.\" The Illinois senator added that \"it's important for us to not look at this in terms of short-term political points scoring.\" Watch the showdown on foreign policy \u00bb . But the candidates all reacted, in part because of the gravity of the event, in part because they are just days away from the January 3 Iowa caucuses. Conversation quickly moved from condolences to campaign issues. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani talked terrorism, connecting the attack in Pakistan to the September 11, 2001, attacks. \"America feels a connection because of the attacks that took place here,\" he said. McCain, who along with Giuliani scores best on national security, bluntly challenged Giuliani's foreign policy experience. Watch how the GOP candidates are reacting \u00bb . \"He did a great job post-9\/11 in handling a post-crisis situation, but I don't know how that provides one the credentials to address national security issues,\" he said. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he would call on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to step down. \"What is in U.S. interest is for there to be a stable, democratic Pakistan that is fighting terrorists. Right now, we have the worst of all worlds,\" he said Friday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" But Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said calling for Musharraf to step down wouldn't be a good idea. \"I hope that we as candidates out here don't start lobbying these ideas that get plenty of attention but are not very sound,\" Thompson told CNN. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said he called Musharraf and \"urged him to continue this democratization process.\" Democratic hopeful Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Bhutto's death was a \"genuine tragedy.\" Watch how the Democrats are responding \u00bb . \"Ladies and gentleman, the stakes are incredibly high. They are incredibly high. If Pakistan falls into complete turmoil, martial law is declared again, you end up with a state that is being run by a dictator; ladies and gentleman that does not bode well for Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, India,\" he said. The shift in focus might not play out well for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose foreign policy credentials have been under a microscope since he admitted to journalists that he was unaware of a major report on Iran's nuclear weapons program. He appeared to make another minor gaffe Thursday when he seemed to suggest incorrectly that Pakistan was currently under martial law. Later Thursday, Huckabee told CNN that \"it was not that I was unaware it was suspended, two weeks ago, lifted. ...The point was, would it be reinstated, would it be placed back in? All of the aspects of martial law have not been completely lifted even now. There's still a heavy hand Musharraf has used.\" If voters see a high-stakes drama in Pakistan, that could resonate at the polls. Most of the candidates said they didn't want to turn the assassination into a talking point, but it is just a week before the Iowa caucuses, and world events not only change the conversation -- they can change a campaign. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Candy Crowley, Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"Discussion on campaign trail turns to foreign policy, national security, terrorism .\nCandidates trying to portray themselves as the one with the most experience .\nRichardson says he would call on Musharraf to step down, Thompson disagrees .\nMcCain challenges Giuliani's foreign policy experience .","id":"da040b67082b56436ccc8479a4e435cbf892a1f2"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I was 14 at the time. Lebanon's civil war was in full flood. One afternoon the shells began raining down on our neighborhood in Beirut. A Lebanese woman and her son run through west Beirut in 1989 during fighting between rival forces. We ran from school screaming. Forget the book bags, classmates, homework. Just run. Out of breath, my knees giving way, it seemed to take forever to reach our local shelter -- a dark humid room at the back of our apartment block. The memory of that terrifying afternoon receded -- until recently. After more than a decade of relative peace and reconstruction, the bombings and assassinations have returned to Beirut. Every time I hear of a new explosion, I think of a frightened child sitting in darkness. In 1988, I watched the last throes of Lebanon's civil war firsthand -- and like millions of Lebanese, sad, frustrated and often fearful. See a timeline of Lebanon's recent history \u00bb . Now I watch from another continent, but I find those same emotions resurfacing. The conspiracies, the car bombs, the threatening rhetoric and political deadlock are eerily familiar. The actors are like shadows from a long gone past. They are grayer perhaps -- those who have avoided assassination. But the cast in Lebanon's tragedy has changed little in two decades. Then, as now, a presidential election is the setting, and the struggle where religion and clan play the main roles threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years. See bios of Lebanon's major players \u00bb . In 1988, the president's term was coming to an end and the warring factions were unable to agree on a new candidate. Militias prevented parliament members from reaching the assembly building. Compromise was nowhere in sight. The West had abandoned Lebanon to the manipulation of its neighbors. Syria had its choice for president; Israel had its own allies -- a foil for growing Muslim radicalism. The country was awash with weapons. In his last act as president, Amin Gemayel named fellow Christian and Army Chief Michel Aoun as prime minister. At a stroke, he shattered the convention that a Muslim hold that position. Muslims refused to serve in the Cabinet and the country ended up with two governments. Aoun famously declared: \"I am prime minister and six ministers in one.\" Aoun's \"War of Liberation\" against Syria turned into defeat. Then, he turned on fellow Christians of the Lebanese Forces in the \"War of Elimination.\" When that failed, the Syrians drove Aoun to take refuge at the French Embassy. In August 1990, I came to CNN as a World Report panelist. I tried to explain Lebanon's chaos, the bewildering array of factions and the horrors of civil war for ordinary civilians. I had seen people killed in front of me; children orphaned in seconds, parents burying their infants in oversize white coffins. So when I was offered the opportunity to stay at CNN, I gratefully accepted the chance to escape the anarchy. But almost as I left, the civil war was being laid to rest. The various factions had fought each other to a standstill; Arab governments, supported by the West, helped negotiate a new constitutional framework overseen by Syrian influence. Peace came to Lebanon, but it would be five years before I returned. In 1995, I went back and was stunned. I kept looking around for checkpoints manned by militants. I couldn't believe that I could go anywhere without being harassed or kidnapped by one faction or another. No longer did identity -- Christian, Muslim or Druze -- define where Lebanese could go. People mixed freely in chic coffee shops and smoked the hubble-bubble, laughing at the same jokes. It was as if Lebanon's divisions had been wiped away by some magic eraser. Downtown Beirut, once rocked by explosions and pitted with bullet holes, was rocking to Lebanese pop music. The dusty sandbags had given way to boutiques carrying the latest European fashions and deluxe hotels. Lovers had returned to Beirut's Corniche, overlooking the Mediterranean, for romantic strolls at sunset. But the agreement that ended the civil war was more a truce than a real settlement -- and was overseen by a \"pax Syriana.\" As anti-Syrian sentiment grew, so did political tensions. On Valentine's Day 2005, the Corniche was once again rocked by an explosion. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed. The symbolism left me speechless. On the day of love, Lebanon was thrown back into its most hateful history. It had been widely expected that Hariri would run for office again and demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Suspicion fell on Damascus, which vehemently denied involvement. On March 14, Martyrs' Square became a human sea of demonstrators: Muslims, Druze and Christians alike, demanding the \"truth.\" But Hariri's death also exposed the fault lines that had broken Lebanon a generation previously. Even after it withdrew its troops, Syria still had allies in Lebanon. One was Hezbollah, accused of the suicide attacks that had killed scores of U.S. Marines in Beirut more than 20 years previously. Another was Gen. Michel Aoun; now back from exile, the same Michel Aoun who had defied Syria in 1989, but who now made common cause with Hezbollah against his fellow Christians. Earlier this year I visited Martyrs' Square. The spirit of the Cedar Revolution had evaporated. The place looked like a morgue. Anti-government Hezbollah squatters had brought life there to a standstill. As I passed through, business owners stood silent in the sun and shook their heads at me in despair. I wondered if they sensed my disappointment, my pain at watching Beirut bleed again. Lebanon's political actors now find themselves re-enacting scenes from the final act of the civil war 19 years ago. Once again, the term of the president is approaching its end; there is no agreement on his successor. Suspicion and fear are the political currency of the day. And the questions haunts me: Will the country's brief renaissance that so amazed me in 1995 be snuffed out by the old curse of sectarian rivalries? E-mail to a friend . CNN's Joe Sterling, David Ariosto, Saad Abedine and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN's Octavia Nasr: Will Lebanon's brief renaissance be snuffed out?\nNasr says Lebanon's key power players haven't changed since 1980s .\nNasr: Current struggle threatens to set Lebanon back 20 years .","id":"c71748bb246a2b05e676862b75b38fa03bf6646e"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Seven Manchester United supporters were taken to hospital after violence flared before the 1-1 Champions' League draw against Roma in Italy. Manchester United supporters were segregated inside the Olympic Stadium for the Champions tie. British Embassy officials in Rome said five fans received stab wounds while two others, including a 16-year-old boy, needed treatment for being drunk, the Press Association reported. None of the stab victims is understood to have serious injuries following the clash between the rival fans outside the Stadio Olympico. An embassy spokeswoman said: \"Seven Manchester United supporters were taken to hospital after fighting broke out on the Pont Duca d'Aosta bridge which fans cross over the river to get to the stadium. \"Five are receiving treatment for stab wounds while two others, one who was a 16-year-old boy, were understood to be drunk. \"Their injuries are not thought to be serious and most of them will be discharged in the next couple of hours. One person may be kept in overnight for observation. \"The situation in the stadium is now fine and everything is running smoothly.\" The embassy had warned travelling fans beforehand not to use the Pont Duca d'Aosta bridge because it was habitually used by Roma's notorious Ultras - a following of hardcore fans. Roma coach Luciano Spalletti condemned the latest violence. \"It's difficult to give a comment on what has happened,\" said Spalletti. After watching a video replay of the ugly scenes, Spalletti added: \"These people are sick.\" The trouble marked the second consecutive game between Roma and Manchester United in the Italian capital which has been marred by violence. Eighteen United fans needed hospital treatment in April after clashes on the terraces in Rome and outside the ground. United boss Sir Alex Ferguson had hoped tonight's game would pass off peacefully but the British Embassy in Rome had warned supporters faced a \"real danger of attack\" by the Ultras. The 1,200 British supporters who made the journey were largely shepherded into the stadium two hours before kick-off, with clear segregation in place in the less than capacity crowd. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Seven Manchester United supporters taken to hospital before game in Rome .\nBritish Embassy officials in Rome said five of the fans received stab wounds .\nEmbassy spokeswoman said that the injuries were not thought to be serious .","id":"800f8dc06596c30444526bf31dd0db7504391a82"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- An intense manhunt was under way Monday for Chester Stiles, a 37-year old man whom police say is a suspect in the videotaped rape of a 3-year-old girl four years ago. Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, of Nevada is being sought as a suspect in the videotaped rape of a 3-year-old girl. Also Monday, Stiles' former girlfriend told CNN she believes she put him in contact with the girl. Tina Allen said she is \"disgusted\" and \"mortified\" at her role in bringing them together. Nye County Sheriff Tony De Meo said Friday the girl has been found and is safe. He said the child's mother was cooperating with authorities. De Meo addressed Stiles directly: \"Turn yourself in to your local law enforcement agency. Understand this: Law enforcement not only has a long arm but a long memory. You will not be forgotten by members of this agency or any other law enforcement agency.\" Stiles' former girlfriend said she is stunned by the allegations. Watch Allen describe her first impression of Stiles \u00bb . Allen said she and Stiles had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for 10 years and that he was good with her children. \"He said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be,\" Allen said. Allen took Stiles to a crowded apartment where her son and daughter lived. Also living in the apartment were a family friend and her 3-year-old daughter, who allegedly was victimized by Stiles. \"I'm disgusted. I'm ashamed, embarrassed, mortified,\" Allen said. \"I regret every, every step I ever took; I feel bad for the baby.\" Todd Allen, Tina Allen's son, told CNN he recognized his old apartment from scenes in the video. He said his mother and Stiles spent time together there. Todd Allen said nobody realized the child may have been abused. \"She's what you'd expect a little girl in elementary school to be like,\" he said. He said he never witnessed Stiles physically assault anyone. \"But I have seen him verbally and mentally assault many people,\" Todd Allen told CNN. Looking back, Tina Allen said there were some warning signs. She said Stiles hit her once but she didn't file a police report. She said she blames herself. \"How could I not know? Why couldn't I have recognized something? Why are all these people going through this torture now because of me?\" Allen asked. Allen ended her relationship with Stiles a few months ago. She said she believes it will be difficult for police to find him. \"He will hide out in mountains if that's what it takes, he will hide out in a crowd, he'll find somebody who hasn't heard anything and stay there,\" she said. \"He has skills. He knows how to hunt, I mean hunt with a gun, a knife, a bow.\" Allen said Stiles stopped by her house last week for a friendly visit before his name was linked to the videotape. She said his appearance had changed. She said his hair was longer and he had put on weight. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, is a former animal trainer, authorities said. De Meo said the FBI also is seeking him in a separate matter involving state charges of sexual assault and lewdness with a minor under 14. The man who claimed to have found the tape in the desert and held it for at least five months before handing it over to authorities turned himself in Sunday to Nye County officials. Darren Tuck, a Nevada resident who allegedly showed the tape to others before giving it to police, faces a possible sentence of 10 years to life for exhibiting pornography and another one to six years for possession of child pornography, according to De Meo. Tuck's attorney, Harry Kuehn, said last week on CNN's \"Nancy Grace\" that his client had been \"wracked by indecision\" as to what to do with the tape once he realized what it was. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Chester Stiles' ex-girlfriend says she's \"disgusted\" she helped him meet child .\nStiles sought by police as suspect in 3-year-old girl's videotaped rape .\nEx-girlfriend Tina Allen says he seemed good with kids when she dated him .\nAllen says the girl lived in same apartment with her children .","id":"3b0ed227dc7e5292e302183282d8bbe23d7b1db2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On a videotape released Sunday, American al Qaeda member Adam Yahiye Gadahn renounces his U.S. citizenship, destroys his passport and cites U.S. President Bush's upcoming trip to the Middle East. \"American jihadist\" Adam Gadahn, originally from California, in a video released in September 2006. The 50-minute tape -- titled \"An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance\" -- was released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's video production wing and was provided to CNN by www.LauraMansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism. In it, Gadahn renounces his citizenship to protest the imprisonment of Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, a blind Egyptian Muslim leader serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; and John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, and others. Gadahn displays his passport to the camera, rips it in half and says, \"Don't get too excited -- I don't need it to travel anyway.\" Though Gadahn speaks mostly in English, he references Bush -- who is to travel this week to the Middle East -- only in Arabic. \"We raise an urgent appeal to our mujahedin brothers in the Muslim Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula in particular, and the region in general, to be prepared to receive the crusader butcher Bush on his visit to Muslim Palestine and the occupied peninsula at the beginning of January,\" he said. \"They should receive him not with roses and applause, but with bombs and booby-traps.\" The video also refers to the Annapolis Conference, indicating it was produced after last November 27, when the conference was held. National Security Council Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the U.S. president would not be deterred. \"His comments are indicative of an al Qaeda ideology that offers nothing but death and violence,\" Johndroe told CNN in a written statement. \"President Bush will travel to the region to stand with the mainstream governments who want liberty and justice for their people.\" The self-proclaimed American jihadist, also known as Azzam the American, is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, with a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to his capture. Gadahn was indicted in 2006 on charges of treason and offering material support for terrorism, the first American charged with treason since World War II. Gadahn, who grew up in rural California, embraced Islam in the mid-1990s and moved to Pakistan. Since October 2004 he has appeared in at least eight al Qaeda videos in which he speaks in English and praises the terrorist network. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Adam Gadahn in videotape tears up U.S. passport, speaks in Arabic and English .\nTape was released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's video production wing .\nOriginally from California, Gadahn talks about Bush's upcoming trip to Middle East .\nGadahn is on the FBI's Most Wanted List with $1 million reward for information .","id":"1e713005e16983f75222235967c0cbeb0b944f80"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- During the 1960 presidential election, Theodore Sorensen helped then-Sen. John F. Kennedy draft a speech addressing Kennedy's Catholicism and the separation between church and state. At the time, many questioned whether Kennedy, who would go on to become the nation's first Roman Catholic president, would be influenced by the Catholic church. Theodore Sorensen helped write John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech on Catholicism. Speaking to CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider, Sorensen discussed Kennedy's famous 1960 speech and compared it to the speech on faith in politics delivered Thursday by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who would be the first Mormon in the White House if he is elected. Question: Did Kennedy's 1960 speech win him the presidency? Sorensen: Well, he obviously didn't lose it, nor did he free the country from the curse of anti-Catholicism. The hate mail still poured into his office. The vicious picket signs were still seen out on the campaign trail, and, indeed, on Election Day. According to a University of Michigan survey, more people voted against Kennedy because of his religion than any other reason. Nevertheless, that speech, which was nationally broadcast and frequently rebroadcast, certainly took a lot of the poison out of the anti-Catholic issue and reassured all reasonable people. Watch Sorensen discuss why Kennedy gave his speech \u00bb . Q. Could President Kennedy have delivered the speech Romney gave on Thursday? Sorensen: No. Mr. Romney's position on many of the issues are very different than JFK's. JFK wanted to particularly stress that he believed in the separation between church and state. He believed that no one needed to worry about a Catholic bishop or a cardinal dictating to him as a president, and that freedom of religion included freedom for those to go to any church or not to go to any church at all. So, Romney emphasized the role of religion in public life more strongly than JFK did or would have. Q. Romney seemed to differ quite strongly with Kennedy on the privacy of religion, didn't he? Sorensen: Yes, he did. In fact, Romney felt compelled for some reason to define his personal views of Jesus Christ. Kennedy said, as you noted, his personal views of religion were totally his business and not the business of the American people. Q. Romney made the statement \"freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.\" Do you think Kennedy would have agreed with that? Sorensen: I don't think anyone would disagree strongly with that. There were some lines in the Romney speech that echoed the Kennedy speech. As an old speechwriter, I would congratulate Mr. Romney. It was a pretty good speech. I think he touched all the bases he wanted to touch. Q. Romney discussed his views of Jesus Christ, something that Kennedy avoided. Why did Kennedy avoid discussing his religious views? Sorensen: Because [Kennedy] began the speech by saying his private religious beliefs -- his relationship with God or Jesus Christ or anything else -- was not a matter of public discussion. He did not think the election should be based on -- as he said, it's not what kind of church I believe in, the question is what kind of country do I believe in. Q. Kennedy's speech in 1960 is widely viewed as being successful. Do you think Romney's speech is likely to be viewed as a success? Sorensen: I assume so. I don't think Mr. Romney should be denied the presidency because of his religion. Just as I don't think Senator [Barack] Obama should be denied because of his race. Or that Mrs. [Hillary] Clinton should be denied the presidency because of her gender. This country is in deep, serious trouble, and thoughtful citizens surely are going to make up their minds based on the major issues confronting the country and the major qualities of the candidates and not on such superficial tests as religion, race, or gender. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ted Sorensen helped draft Kennedy's 1960 speech on Roman Catholicism .\nGOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivers speech on faith in politics .\nKennedy, Romney views on religion differ greatly, Sorensen says .\nSorensen says Kennedy viewed religion as more of a private matter .","id":"360ae10bc8bd30a2aca7bc6b7000e138af63adb1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Boeing 777 is the mainstay of many airlines' long-haul fleets and has never been involved in a fatal accident during its service history. British Airways aircrew fly the Royal Standard from the flight deck of the Boeing 777 aircraft. The aircraft first entered service on June 7, 1995, with more than 900 suppliers from 17 countries coming together to provide the more than three million parts needed in its construction, according to the Boeing Web site. Since its inaugural flight, Boeing has extended the 777 family to five commercial passenger models and a freighter version, collectively making more than two million flights. The aircraft seats between 301 and 368 passengers in a three-class configuration and can fly distances up to 17,500 kilometers. The 777 has also won a number of design awards, as well as setting a number of records and firsts. On November 9 and 10, 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner set a new world record for distance traveled non-stop by a commercial jetliner. The 777-200LR set a record distance of 21,601 km on a route traveling eastbound from Hong Kong to London Heathrow. The flight lasted 22 hours and 42 minutes. The achievements was recognized by the U.S. National Aeronautics Association, The Federation Aeronautique Internationale and the Guinness Book of Records. The Federation e\u00e9ronautique Internationale recognized the Boeing 777 in April 1997 for achieving a speed and distance record for airplanes in its size and class. The Boeing Web site claims the 777 set the \"Great Circle Distance Without Landing\" record, traveling 20,044 km, and it set the record for \"Speed Around the World, Eastbound,\" traveling at an average speed of 889 km per hour. According to Boeing the aircraft reached 500 deliveries by 2005 -- faster than any other twin-aisle commercial airplane in history. Boeing prides itself on the 777's landing gear, which it claims is the largest ever incorporated into a commercial aircraft. Each main landing gear is fitted with six wheels, while the nose gear has two. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The Boeing 777 aircraft first entered service on June 7, 1995 .\nFirst airplane U.S. (FAA) approved for extended-range twin-engine operations .\nEngineers designed, electronically pre-assembled the 777 using computers .\nIn 2005, a Boeing 777 set a new world record for distance traveled non-stop .","id":"50e996059a005d15e3e89b5a3c3695309671ed34"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- A major donors conference to raise funds for the Palestinians has gone beyond expectations, with donors pledging $7.4 billion to help build a Palestinian state, organizers said Monday. France's Nicolas Sarkoxy, left, welcomes Tony Blair and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. Other delegations at the Paris meeting are offering aid in kind, such as the International Monetary Fund, which said it would provide monitoring of the Palestinians' promised reforms to reassure donors that their money would be used efficiently. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called the pledge of money a \"vote of confidence\" in the Palestinians. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the support of donors needed to be repaid in the coming months with steps to create a lasting settlement. \"Over the next few months, we have to show people our capability of making the difference on the ground,\" said Blair, who co-hosted the conference in his new role as envoy for the so-called Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. The Paris conference focuses on short-term priorities for the Palestinians, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said those include providing immediate support for the Palestinian people -- particularly those living in Gaza -- and stabilizing the Palestinian economy. Watch CNN's Jim Bittermann explain the conference's aims \u00bb . It follows on the heels of last month's peace talks in the U.S. in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowed to negotiate a final-status agreement by the end of 2008. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would donate $300 million, and the United States was expected to pledge more than $500 million. Central to the Palestinians' request for aid is a three-year reform plan that the Palestinians prepared for the conference. The plan, which covers 2008 to 2010, centers on economic development and government reform. The World Bank praised the plan, calling it a \"promising effort\" to link policy-making, planning and budgeting. But in a report released Monday, the World Bank pointed out the reforms would succeed in helping Palestinians only if they were accompanied by both donor aid and Israeli actions. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke of taking such actions, saying Israel is committed to meeting its responsibilities under the Middle East road map, especially regarding the contentious issue of settlements. Livni said an agreement had been reached with the European Union to provide training for Palestinian police. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians didn't lack will or determination but resources. He promised donors that Palestinians would work hard to create a modern country in control of its security. \"We are at a historic stage today, and the destiny of our region and peace depends on this,\" said Abbas, who requested the conference be held. Abbas earlier had requested $5.6 billion in aid over the next three years. Sarkozy repeatedly told the conference he is a \"friend of Israel,\" but he urged the Israeli government to withdraw troops from the West Bank, freeze settlements, reopen institutions in East Jerusalem and help the isolated population of Gaza. The World Bank's report detailed the challenges facing attempts to revive the Palestinian economy, which has become almost totally dependent on foreign aid. The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer for its people, as private-sector jobs dry up. The World Bank said wages for public sector employees account for almost half of the government's expenditures. With public investment having nearly ceased, the World Bank said, almost all government funds in the past two years have been used to pay salaries and cover operating costs. Staffing also has gone up in the health and education sectors, the World Bank said, leaving little money for pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, teaching and learning materials, and overall maintenance. The World Bank said the reforms would only succeed if they include Gaza, where 40 percent of the Palestinian population lives. Gaza has been subject to a wide-ranging crackdown since Hamas took power in June; its borders are closed, fuel imports are restricted, and there are strict limits on all imported goods. \"The continued entry of humanitarian goods has mitigated the impact of the closures on Gaza's population, but has not been sufficient to offset the collapse of the private sector there,\" the World Bank report said. Unemployment across the Palestinian territories stands at nearly 23 percent, the World Bank said, but in Gaza, 33 percent of the population is out of a job. It predicted the figures would rise if the restrictions continue. A report Monday from the U.N. Development Program spotlighted the pressures on private Palestinian businesses, especially in Gaza, where it said the private sector \"is on the verge of collapse with no scope for recovery\" unless Israeli restrictions are lifted. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Donors pledge $7.4 billion to help build a Palestinian state .\nNEW: IMF offers to monitor Palestinians' promised reforms .\nPalestinian aid conference organizers hail event as a new beginning .\nTony Blair says donors need to be repaid with steps to create a lasting settlement .","id":"ccc7f6a2139593c47f6b5880f1e3eef9e7a69734"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Tom Lantos, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, died Monday due to complications from cancer, his office said. Lantos was 80. Rep. Tom Lantos represented his Northern California district for 14 terms. He died at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, surrounded by his wife, Annette, daughters Annette and Katrina and many of his 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, according to his office. Lantos' life was \"defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family,\" said his wife, Annette, his childhood sweetheart, in a statement the House of Representatives released. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that she was \"quite devastated\" by the death of her \"dear, dear friend.\" She called him \"a true American hero\" and \"the genuine article.\" \"He's going to be really, really missed,\" she said. Rice described Lantos as \"the embodiment of what it meant to have one's freedom denied and then to find it and to insist that Americans stand for spreading the benefits of freedom and prosperity to others.\" Lantos, who was serving his 14th term in the House, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in December. He announced last month that he would not seek a new term. \"It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress,\" Lantos said in a statement at the time. \"I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.\" Watch Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid remember Lantos \u00bb . The lawmaker is the only Holocaust survivor to have served in Congress. The Hungarian-born Lantos came to the United States in 1947 after surviving a forced-labor camp in his Nazi-allied homeland. He escaped and was sheltered in a Budapest safe house set up by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who was credited with saving tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. He arrived in the United States after being awarded an academic scholarship to study, according to his congressional Web site. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Washington in Seattle and later earned a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, the site said. As a lawmaker, Lantos was an outspoken human rights advocate. He supported the 2002 congressional resolution that authorized President Bush to launch the invasion of Iraq but later became an outspoken critic of the conflict. He was the latest of more than a dozen members to announce plans to leave the House at the end of the year, most of them Republicans. His San Francisco-area district is solidly Democratic, and he won re-election with more than three-quarters of the vote in 2006. \"Chairman Lantos will be remembered as a man of uncommon integrity and sincere moral conviction -- and a public servant who never wavered in his pursuit of a better, freer and more religiously tolerant world,\" House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri said in a statement. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Secretary of state calls Rep. Tom Lantos \"a true American hero\"\nLantos was only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress .\nCalifornia congressman disclosed last month he was suffering from cancer .\nLantos had said he would not seek re-election to 15th term in House .","id":"f4f90d4ff5af3e3648055673e040f0f43ae076d2"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- All vehicles were banned from the largely Shiite city of Amara Wednesday after three car bombs ripped through a market district, killing at least 27 people and wounded 151, officials said. Iraqis gather at the site of a car bomb in the city of Amara on Wednesday. The blasts detonated in close succession in a commercial area in the central section of Amara, the provincial capital of Maysan province and a city that has been the scene of fighting between rival Shiite factions. Baghdad was also hit by violence on Wednesday. A car bomb there killed five Iraqi civilians and wounded 15 others, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. The incident occurred in a Christian section of the largely Shiite New Baghdad district. Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, head of the Interior Ministry's National Command Center, confirmed the casualty figures in the Amara bombing. He and a committee were headed to Amara to investigate the incident. He said the ministry fired the city's police chief in the aftermath of the attack. Maysan Gov. Adil Muhawdar Radhi announced the vehicle ban, which he said will be in place through Thursday. He said additional security measures have been put in place in the city. The first bomb, in a car parked in a commercial area, detonated about 9:30 a.m. As onlookers gathered, the second one exploded in a nearby garage a few minutes later. It was followed by a third bomb in the garage a few minutes after that. Ambulances and police raced to the scene. News footage showed burning vehicles and black smoke, and the clothing of victims scattered beside pools of blood. Iraqi state television showed hospitals packed with people. Al-Forat, an Iraqi TV station affiliated with the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq political movement, reported that most of the casualties were women and children. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a statement, denounced the attack. \"The targeting of unarmed civilians today in the markets of Amara town by car bombs -- that is another ring in the chain of conspiracy against the Iraqi people that is aiming to destabilize the security and stability in this province,\" which he said endured cruelty under the Saddam Hussein regime. Maysan, which borders Iran, has been under Iraqi security control much of this year after control was transferred from the British military. It was not immediately known who was responsible for the blasts, but the violence is a reminder of the intense fighting between the Mehdi Army -- the militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- and the Badr Brigade, the militia of the SICI, which condemned the bombings and blamed \"Saddamists and Takfiris.\" The two movements are bitter rivals and have been in the middle of local power struggles in Iraq's southern provinces and other Shiite areas. Watch how Shiite groups have been vying for power \u00bb . Britain, which has been in command of the south since the Iraqi war began, has been working to withdraw its troops from the region, which, despite this latest violence, has always been more stable than Baghdad and other outlying regions. Britain's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the British military will transfer security control of the southern province of Basra to Iraqi forces on Sunday. Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraq's government spokesman, confirmed the date and said the Maysan attacks will not affect the handover. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: All vehicles banned in city of Amara through Thursday, provincial governor says .\nDeath toll continues to rise as Interior Ministry reports 151 wounded .\nState television reports that many of the casualties are women, children .\nAmara has been scene of fighting between rival Shiite factions vying for power .","id":"6c9ec6b9d3e936d2394f74354d577fdfcdd985a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kenya has enjoyed a reputation as one of East Africa's most stable nations since achieving independence from the UK in 1963. Residents of the Mathare slum in Nairobi shout at demonstrators during violent clashes. But a booming tourism industry, impressive economic growth -- currently six percent a year according to The Economist -- and decades of peace in a region scarred by conflict have served to disguise widespread poverty, violent crime and corruption and simmering ethnic tensions. Tribal bonds remain stronger than national identity in Kenya, with the country's 36 million people claiming allegiance to around 40 different tribes. Last week's election pitched incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, a member of Kenya's largest Kikuyu tribe, against opposition leader Raila Odinga of the Luo tribe. The Kikuyu make up about 22 percent of Kenya's population. Mostly originating from Kenya's central highlands, the Kikuyu have long wielded strong economic and political power within the country. Kenya's first post-independence leader, Jomo Kenyatta, president from 1964 until 1978, was a Kikuyu. Kibaki, a government minister from 1965 until winning power as head of the Party of National Unity in elections five years ago, also enjoys the support of Kenyatta's successor, Daniel Arap Moi, a member of the Kalenjin tribe who ruled Kenya for 24 years from 1978 to 2002. The Luo make up around 13 percent of the population, mostly in the west of the country. But they also form a sizeable community in some of Nairobi's most notorious slums, such as the vast Kibera shantytown where Odinga enjoys strong support and where some of this week's fiercest violence has occurred. Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement is also backed by many members of the Luhya tribe, Kenya's second largest ethnic group, after Odinga promised to make a leading Luhya his deputy if elected. This week's violence came as election officials declared victory for Kibaki with 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent for Odinga in the closest presidential vote in Kenyan electoral history. But the result has been questioned by international election observers, throwing the country's political future into doubt. Kibaki's first election success in 2002 -- declared free and fair by international observers -- was hailed at the time as a step forward for Kenyan democracy. However, his term has been dogged by allegations of corruption and graft. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kenya's 36 million population made up of around 40 tribal groups .\nPresident Mwai Kibaki belongs to the influential and powerful Kikuyu tribe .\nChallenger Raila Odinga's Luo tribe forms sizeable group in west, Nairobi slums .\nKenya dogged by poverty, violent crime, corruption, simmering ethnic tensions .","id":"438a2046f4465fb1f6dab1cb327ef9ca86a4cc0d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the days after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, it will be tempting to reach two hasty conclusions: that she was Pakistan's last great hope and that her geo-politically crucial country has revealed itself to be inherently hopeless. Irshad Manji is a controversial Muslim feminist and activist from Toronto, Canada. On each front, I take a different view. While far more liberal and democratic than Gen. Musharraf, Bhutto disappointed moderate, modern Pakistanis with her adherence to feudal politics. Writing to me through my Web site, American feminists say they are \"aching\" over the loss of \"our dear, sweet, brave Benazir.\" I understand the sentiment. But \"brave\" is not the word used by Pakistani women from whom I've also heard. They're hurting more over Bhutto's \"self-imposed\" conformity. \"She never realized her potential,\" a woman from Karachi tells me. \"And not because she was killed but because when she had the chance, she did not effectively challenge the backward mindset that has now led to her demise.\" For example, during Bhutto's time in office, Pakistan didn't defy the anti-female rape and adultery laws. Those notorious ordinances, known as Hudood, took their inspiration from tribal politics masquerading as Islam. Watch Manji argue on CNN why Bhutto's legacy is mixed \u00bb . Imagine the opportunity: Bhutto could have championed a purer faith by tackling corrupt cultural practices. In so doing, she might have created allies among conservatives, who can be persuaded that although Islam is God-given, culture is man-made. Last year, a media campaign to strike down the Hudood Ordinances achieved this fine balance. But not because of her. And that, say many progressive Pakistanis, amputates Bhutto's legacy. The fact that cruel laws against women can be publicly debated at all should suggest that Pakistan has hope anyway. An exceptional leader can tap into it. History tells us so. There was a time when Pakistan's democratic politicians stuck it to the feudal fanatics. Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was once heckled by a religious fundamentalist. \"You drink alcohol!\" shouted the critic. \"Yes,\" retorted the elder Bhutto, \"but I don't drink the blood of the people!\" His response captured the spirit of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder. In 1947, Jinnah exuded high hopes for his people: \"You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques, or to any other place of worship in the State of Pakistan. \"You may belong to any religion or caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the state. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens of one state... You will find that in due course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense ... but in the political sense as citizens of the state.\" Jinnah meant every word of his unconventional vision because he, himself, lived as a maverick. He adored his non-Muslim wife, and his sister often appeared with him on the campaign trail. Her visibility attested to Islam's embrace of women as partners of men. In the months ahead, the people of Pakistan will need to recall Jinnah's vision. It may be of comfort know that they're not alone. Countless Americans are now asking about their founders' intentions, desperate to re-discover the better angels of their country after eight years of George W. Bush. Still, Pakistan must avoid America's enduring mistake. The United States lapsed into profound divisiveness following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Many would argue that today's politics of polarization can be traced to the unresolved trauma of the King-Kennedy murders. For Pakistan, it's high time to transcend both trauma and tribalism. I pray that in death, Benazir Bhutto will be the catalyst for a deeper democracy than she ever advocated in life. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Manji says Bhutto disappointed some because she adhered to feudal politics .\nDuring Bhutto's time in office, writer says, she did not defy anti-rape laws .\nPakistan must \"transcend both trauma and tribalism,\" Manji says .","id":"73818f6c987b3604b8bc92c4fb03bc68af196b77"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi King Abdullah has pardoned a rape victim who had been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison in a case that sparked international attention, a Saudi newspaper has reported. The case cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic law. Al-Jazirah newspaper quoted a Saudi Justice Ministry official saying King Abdullah issued a royal pardon Monday -- the same day that the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, begins in Saudi Arabia. The victim's husband told CNN he has not received an official letter regarding her pardon, but considers it to be legitimate since it was announced in an official Saudi newspaper. He thanked King Abdullah for the pardon, saying: \"This fatherly care and noble gesture will help (in) lifting the emotional and psychological stress and suffering that our family has been enduring.\" \"This is not something new because we know that the King was always generous in dealing with his people and the entire world,\" the husband said. \"This week, we have two holidays to celebrate; the Eid and this great news of the pardon.\" Saudi sources told CNN that the king's pardon was not related to the beginning of the Hajj nor the Eid al-Adha festival that follows, which is normally when the Saudi monarch issues amnesty for prisoners. Watch how Arab media is reporting the story. \u00bb . Saudi Arabia's Justice Minister Abdullah Bin Mohammad al-Sheikh told al-Jazirah newspaper that the king felt the pardon would be in the best interests of the Saudi people, and the decision did not reflect any lack of confidence in the Saudi justice system. The White House welcomed King Abdullah's decision, but National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe stressed that \"this is obviously a matter for the Saudi Arabians and King Abdullah.\" A Saudi court ruled the 19-year-old had an \"illegitimate relationship\" with a man who was not her husband, and that she was raped after she and the man were discovered in a \"compromising situation, her clothes on the ground.\" The rape took place in Qatif in March 2006 when the woman was engaged to be married. The case has drawn international attention, provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under strict Islamic law in Saudi Arabia. The woman was meeting with a man -- described by the woman's attorney as a former friend from whom she was retrieving a photograph -- when they both were abducted last March. Seven men, convicted of abducting the pair and raping her, were sentenced from two to nine years in prison. Abdul Rahman al-Lahim, the lawyer who represented the woman, faced a disciplinary hearing for \"insulting the Supreme Judicial Council and disobeying the rules and regulations\" of the judiciary. The hearing has been postponed. The woman's husband has been outspoken in his support for his wife. He called a Lebanese TV show to defend her, when a former Saudi judge claimed on the program that she \"spoil(ed) their marital bed\" by meeting an unrelated male \"in secret\" and admitted her guilt. Al-Lahim has said he hopes the case changes the Saudi justice system. \"We want to highlight the rape crimes in Saudi Arabia and the way they are handled and sentenced in court,\" he added. \"This is a new era for all of us.\" He said that the rape case had elicited a fierce response, including calls for his beheading. U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that King Abdullah \"knows our position loud and clear\" on the case. Under Saudi law, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, Saad Abedine and Isha Sesay contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Sources say pardon unrelated to Hajj nor subsequent Eid al-Adha .\nNEW: Justice minister says king felt pardon in best interests of Saudi people .\nReport: King Abdullah pardons rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes .\nA Saudi court had ruled the 19-year-old had an \"illegitimate relationship\"","id":"f06d91f46326752b02cdc48e8fa472dcc38a0846"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Claims by Diana's former butler that he knew a mysterious \"secret\" about the late princess have been trashed by the coroner in her inquest. Diana's former butler has given conflicting information at the enquiry into her death. The coroner said the information was already in the public domain and some of it was even mentioned in one of Paul Burrell's own books. Considered the first star witness of the inquest, Burrell's appearance Tuesday was delayed after the coroner asked him to retrieve the last letter the princess gave him. Monday, the ex-butler -- once described by the princess as \"her rock\" -- told the inquest the letter contained a \"secret,\" which he claimed he could not remember. After returning to London from his home in northern England Tuesday, Burrell said the letter was not there, but at his home in Florida. He then handed the coroner a note that he said contained the supposed secret. The coroner revealed that what Burrell referred to was that Diana was planning to buy property to live in part of the time and that the location may have been in the United States or South Africa. The coroner said the revelation is \"fairly and squarely in the public domain\" and that some of the information appeared in Burrell's book \"The Way We Were.\" Explaining the apparent discrepancies in his testimony, Burrell said he was confused by the cross-examination, which he described as \"horrid\" and \"disgraceful.\" The questioning of the former butler is expected to continue Wednesday. Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, died in a Paris tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997, along with their driver, Henri Paul. They had driven away from the Ritz Hotel in a black Mercedes with paparazzi chasing behind. There has been speculation that the couple had planned a big announcement the night they died. Photographers have testified they had heard rumors Diana would say she was getting engaged to Fayed or having a baby. Watch report on claims about Diana's marriage plans \u00bb . Burrell did not take the stand until Tuesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the inquest heard from Diana's former lawyer, who said the princess had claimed Queen Elizabeth was planning to abdicate in April 1996 and allow Prince Charles to be king. Maggie Rae said at the inquest that Diana also believed there was a plot to seriously injure her in an accident. Rae said the claims came at a meeting with her legal team at Kensington Palace in which the princess also made clear her belief that the succession of the English crown should skip a generation to her son, William. The morning's evidence also heard that Britain's top police officer had advised the queen against allowing Diana to go on holiday with Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Dodi. In a note from Chief Superintendent Dai Davies, head of the Royal Protection Squad, that was read out to the court, it was stated that he and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon believed that the planned holiday was \"unwise.\" Al Fayed -- a successful businessman and owner of the London luxury store Harrods -- was considered a controversial figure at the time. Diana defied the advice and went on the trip. It was during this holiday on the tycoon's luxury yacht in the French resort of St. Tropez that she met Dodi Fayed. During her testimony, Rae also gave an insight into the princess's lifestyle, which she described as \"odd\" and \"lonely.\" She said she did not believe Diana's claims of a conspiracy against her. \"I remember one occasion when she told me about her weekend and she had been alone in those rather silent set of apartments. She had heated her own food in the microwave,\" Rae told the court. \"I thought she lived in a very odd environment. I thought she was quite lonely.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"Claims by Diana's butler that he knew \"secret\" about her trashed by coroner .\nPaul Burrell asked to testify about the last letter the late princess gave him .\nCoroner revealed Burrell's \"secret\" was Diana planned to buy property abroad .\nBut coroner said the revelation is \"fairly and squarely in the public domain\"","id":"c54bee6384d58517757ad5a8a30ea6dc59980a07"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Princess Diana's relationships with two Muslim men provoked an outburst from her mother, who called her daughter \"a whore\", Paul Burrell, the princess's former butler, told an inquest Monday. Diana once referred to her former butler Paul Burrell as \"my rock.\" Burrell, who returned to Britain from his home in Florida to give evidence, was the first star witness of the London inquest, now in its fourth month. His role as confidant to Diana, who died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and hotel security chief Henri Paul, meant his testimony was eagerly anticipated. Burrell, whom the late princess once called \"my rock,\" cast doubt on whether Diana was ready to marry Fayed. According to Burrell, the princess was still \"holding a candle\" for former boyfriend and heart surgeon Hasnat Khan -- who she called \"her soulmate\" -- when she started dating Fayed \"on the rebound.\" Burrell told the inquest that Diana asked him to listen in on a conversation in June 1997 with her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, who died in 2004 and who was critical of her relationship with Muslim men. \"She called the princess a 'whore' and she said that she was messing around with 'effing Muslim men' and she was 'disgraceful' and said some very nasty things,\" Burrell said. He agreed that, as a result of such calls Diana, decided not to talk to her mother again. The inquest, which began in October and is expected to last another two or three months, aims to uncover the facts surrounding the deaths of the Princess and Dodi and determine their cause of death -- whether by accident or otherwise. Asked earlier in the day if he believed that Fayed was \"the one,\" Burrell said \"no, I did not have that impression.\" He also cast doubt on claims that Fayed and Diana were engaged or on the cusp of engagement, saying: \"I find that difficult to believe.\" Asked to explain himself, Burrell said: \"Because this was only a 30-day relationship and the princess had just finished a long-term relationship with someone (Khan) she cared deeply about. I knew that because I was there and I saw it.\" Diana's 18-month relationship with Khan ended around the same time she started seeing Fayed in July 1997. Burrell said Diana had asked him at one point to investigate how a private wedding with Khan might take place, given that Khan is Muslim. Watch report on claims about Diana's marriage plans. \u00bb . Khan had not proposed to the princess, Burrell said, adding that Khan was \"the man she loved more than any other.\" He said he spoke to Diana about the possibility that Fayed would give her a ring shortly before her death. Burrell said he suggested to the princess that she wear it on the fourth finger of her right hand, rather than the left, as is customary with engagement rings. \"I need marriage like a bad rash,\" Burrell claimed Diana told him. Last month at the inquest Lady Annabel Goldsmith, a friend of Diana, said the princess had remarked that she needed another marriage \"like a rash on my face.\" Burrell also indicated that the ring was not an engagement ring, as the Fayed family has maintained. Fayed family spokesman Michael Cole testified last week that Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, was certain the couple had planned to marry. Lawyers at the inquest asked Burrell whether he knew whether a special announcement had been planned for the Monday following the fatal car crash. There has been speculation the couple planned to announce special news, such as an engagement. But Burrell said he knew nothing of such a plan. He said he had actually looked at Diana's schedule for that day and found only mundane items, and nothing to indicate she planned a special announcement. Burrell also told the inquest he did not believe Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's, husband was involved in Diana's death. Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi and the owner of Harrods department store, has long claimed that senior members of the royal family -- specifically the queen's husband, Prince Philip -- ordered the pair be murdered. He also claims that Diana was pregnant at the time of her death. But Burrell said that he knew Prince Philip very well and that he could not have been behind the deaths. \"I can tell you that is not Prince Philip's nature, \" he said. \"Plus the princess was the mother of his grandchildren. Why would he want to harm her? It's not possible.\" The inquest has seen and heard about correspondence which Prince Philip sent to Diana, with some witnesses claiming that he wrote cruel and hurtful letters. But other correspondence shown to the jury appeared to be friendly and was affectionately signed, \"Pa.\" Burrell explained that Philip could sometimes come across as terse because he says what he thinks. \"Prince Philip doesn't mix his words,\" Burrell said. \"He says it as it is, but he is not a nasty man. Prince Philip isn't known for his diplomacy. He was fond of the princess.\" Burrell worked for the British royals for 21 years and became close to Diana after her separation from Prince Charles. He has written two books about his time with the princess. In his second book, Burrell told of a letter from Diana which indicated she feared for her life. The princess wrote that Prince Charles planned \"'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury.\" One of Diana's close friends, however, testified last month that she believed the letter could have been forged. Lucia Flecha de Lima said on December 18 that Burrell was capable of imitating the princess's handwriting. Lawyers questioned Burrell about the date of the letter. Burrell said it was written in October 1996, two months, after Diana and Charles divorced -- yet the letter refers to Charles as \"my husband.\" Burrell responded that Diana always referred to Charles that way, even after the divorce. The inquest has revealed that Diana was a prolific letter-writer who also received a lot of correspondence. Witnesses, including Burrell, recall that the princess kept the letters in her desk, with the more important ones stored in a special box. Burrell testified that after Diana's death, her mother, Frances Shand-Kidd, worked every day for a week shredding the papers from Diana's desk. He said he expressed concern about the shredding during a meeting he had with the queen on December 19, 1997. It was at this meeting that Queen Elizabeth told Burrell: \"There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge.\" That comment, which has been widely reported, was meant to warn him to be careful, Burrell said, and was not a warning about any one person or group of people. At the same meeting Burrell also told the queen that he had taken some of Diana's belongings to keep safe. The details of the conversation emerged when Burrell stood trial for their alleged theft in 2002, causing the case against him to collapse. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Emily Chang and Heidi Berger contributed to this report.","highlights":"Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler, gives evidence at inquest .\nDescribes phone call in which Diana's mother called her daughter\"a whore\"\nBurrell says Queen Elizabeth's husband was not involved in Diana's death .\nAlso claims that Diana told him: \"I need marriage like a bad rash\"","id":"2757ff294ae08e977ed6a2b6e1854210f28f12c9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S., Turkish and Iraqi leaders all held talks Monday about Kurdish rebels using northern Iraq as a launchpad for cross-border attacks into Turkey. Turkish troops patrol near the border with Iraq on Monday. President Bush chatted by phone with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while separately two senior Iraq national government figures met with the head of the country's Kurdish region. The diplomatic moves came after Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish separatist targets in northern Iraq on Saturday and Sunday as well as last week. Bush and Erdogan talked about the dangers of the Kurdish separatist rebels along the Turkish-Iraqi border, the White House confirmed. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said they discussed their common efforts to fight terrorism, and the importance of the United States, Turkey and Iraq working together to confront the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Bush has vowed to help Turkey fight PKK rebels. The PKK has spent two decades fighting for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, with some of its attacks launched from inside northern Iraq. The United States and European Union consider the group a terrorist organization. Last week, Turkey's ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, said his country's maneuvers against Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq were based on intelligence provided by the United States. In the Kurdish Iraq city of Sulaimaniya, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, and Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who is Sunni Arab, met with Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani. Iraqi Kurdish officials, while critical of the PKK, have denounced the Turkish bombing campaign. Last week, Barzani snubbed visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in protest of the attacks. \"We have vehemently condemned the bombardment. The bombing targeted safe and secure areas and innocent people. Several people were either killed or wounded,\" Barzani said on Monday at a press conference with the others. \"We held consultations with President Jalal Talabani and we will continue our consultations with other concerned parties to put an end to these aggressions and put to an end the shelling of villages.\" The three Iraqi officials also dealt with national unity. They signed a \"memorandum of understanding\" to deepen relations further with their three parties: Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and al-Hashimi's Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab entity. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kathleen Koch, Talia Kayali and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report .","highlights":"Bush: U.S., Turkey and Iraq must unite against PKK Kurdish separatists .\nIraqi Kurds are critical of both PKK and air attacks against them .\nTurkey bombed alleged PKK sites in northern Iraq over the weekend .\nPKK has spent 20 years fighting for autonomy in Turkey; uses Iraq as a base .","id":"6a004c991c482f664ab8ac78df0bda26860b1c7a"} -{"article":"SAN JOSE, California -- Top-seed Andy Roddick easily defeated Delray Beach winner Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-2 6-4 in the headline match at the ATP tournament in San Jose on Thursday night. A pumped up Roddick needed little over an hour to dispatch teenager Nishikori. Roddick needed just 63 minutes to defeat the 18-year-old Japanese who won his first ATP title on Sunday and was on an eight-match winning run. But American number one Roddick imposed his quality from the start by taking a commanding 3-0 lead and breaking Nishikori's serve before the youngster won a game. Roddick, who has won twice in San Jose, repeated the break later in a feisty opening set which came to a head in the seventh game. Roddick barked at the young player as they exchanged shots at the net. Nishikori held his cool, did not respond, and just walked away. \"I didn't understand a word he said,\" Nishikori said. But when pressed he acknowledged that he did in fact understand what Roddick had shouted at him but just did not want to repeat it before the press. But Roddick had no trouble repeating what he had said. \"I told him to stick me with it the next time. I just let him know that he needs to finish it. I had no problem with it. But it was a monologue.\" Roddick duly rounded off the set in the next game and broke Nishikori's service in the fourth game of the second only for his youthful opponent to break straight back. But as Nishikori served at 4-5 to stay in the tournament he made two crucial errors. He missed an easy slam shot that would have given him the advantage at deuce and then saw his saw his volley go wide that gave Roddick the match. \"I made too many easy mistakes,\" Nishikori said. \"I didn't take advantage of the many chances I had. But overall I was happy with the way I played.\" In the early evening match, James Blake, beaten by Nishikori in the Delray Beach final, overcame first-serve problems to beat Jesse Levine 6-4 6-4 to move onto the quarterfinals. The second-seeded New Yorker, ranked ninth in the world, will face Robby Ginepri in the quarterfinals. \"I thought I played well,\" Blake said. \"I felt comfortable and although I had a slow start I was able to put pressure on Jesse.\" In afternoon matches, John Isner beat third-seeded German Tommy Haas 4-6 7-6 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. Isner, the ATP Tour's second-tallest player at six-foot-nine, will next face Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Haas, ranked 26th in the world, was three match points from winning the second set in a tiebreaker before the 106th-ranked Isner rallied to win. Fifth-seeded Mardy Fish also advanced, beating Germany's Denis Gremelmayr 6-7 6-3 6-3 to make the quarterfinals for the second week in a row. Fish will face Roddick in the quarterfinals. Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun beat American lucky loser Wayne Odesnik 6-4 6-4. Lu will face fourth-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek in the quarterfinals. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Top seed Andy Roddick reaches last eight of ATP tournament in San Jose .\nThe American defeats Delray Beach winner Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-2 6-4 .\nSecond seed James Blake also advances but third seed Tommy Haas is out .","id":"69159eadf4dcb2b7850f3a4db6454f8209f33e3a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Several Marines who were involved in the November 2004 offensive in Falluja, Iraq, are now the focus of an investigation into allegations that civilians were intentionally killed during the operation, several Pentagon officials have confirmed. Members of the 1st U.S. Marines Expeditionary Force operate in Falluja, Iraq, in November of 2006. No one has been charged in the probe, which is based on what one official told CNN were \"credible allegations\" from a former Marine. That Marine volunteered the information during an employment polygraph test administered by the U.S. Secret Service. Several sources familiar with the probe say the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is conducting the investigation. The allegations first surfaced on a Web site, defendourmarines.com, posted by Nathaniel Helms, a military journalist who wrote a book about the Marines in Falluja. The Web posting includes an account from a Marine who alleges eight captured Iraqis were gunned down following a firefight. The weeklong anti-insurgent offensive in Falluja began on November 7, 2004. It was called Operation New Dawn, and it sparked intense fighting involving airstrikes and house-to-house searches. There were reports of civilians being killed in the crossfire at that time. The allegations are the latest involving Marines and civilian deaths in Iraq. Seven Marines and a Navy medic were charged with killing an Iraqi civilian in Hamdaniya in April 2006. One Marine will serve eight years in a plea deal; another Marine withdrew his guilty plea, saying he acted under orders. Four Marines were charged with murder in the 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Four officers are accused of failing to investigate and report the deaths properly. Haditha was a target of Marine operations to root out insurgents. Both U.S. military law and international law of armed conflict prohibit the killing of unarmed captured prisoners, whether or not they are combatants. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Several Marines are the focus of 2004 Falluja civilian death investigation .\nAllegations from former Marine called \"credible\"\nSources: Naval Criminal Investigative Services conducting the probe .","id":"c6129a4c1fbd5680f512da18fb60a19a74f4959e"} -{"article":"BABAHOYO, Ecuador (CNN) -- At least 10 people have died and thousands have been left homeless after torrential rains inundated large parts of Ecuador, officials said Thursday. A man grabs on to a piece of wood as a boat passes him on a flooded street this week in Puerto Inca, Ecuador. Authorities said the rains, which began a week ago, were the worst in a quarter century. Civil defense officials said more than 10,000 families have been affected. Los R\u00edos -- north of Guayaquil -- was the hardest hit of nine provinces affected, civil defense officials said. In Los R\u00edos province, five people died when an ambulance drove into a hole at the side of a street at dawn Thursday. A newborn boy, his parents, a doctor and a driver were killed. Streets also were flooded in the capital of Quito. Watch the scenes of devastation in Ecuador \u00bb . On Wednesday, President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency and ordered 2,000 members of the army and the police to help rescue workers. Correa increased by $25 million the $10 million he already had allocated for the emergency efforts. He also directed another $88 million to municipalities. Once the crisis has eased, an emergency fund will give seed and fertilizer to help farmers whose fields were washed away, Ecuador's government said. There also have been reports of livestock drowning. Cristina Medina, a spokeswoman for the Ecuadorean Red Cross, said provinces most heavily affected were along the Pacific coast, where drinking water was often in short supply. In some towns, high waters forced entire neighborhoods to evacuate, Medina said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At least 10 people have died in torrential rains in Ecuador, officials say .\nAuthorities say the rains are the worst in a quarter century .\nCivil defense officials say more than 10,000 families have been affected .\nEcuador's president declares state of emergency, orders army, police to help .","id":"1fe7d16db2c7a742dc1bcf04bfb8e285e7909f03"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Italian tennis players Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali have been banned by the ATP for betting on matches. Top Italian player Potito Starace has been suspended for six weeks for betting on matches. The country's top player Starace -- 31st in the ATP rankings -- has been suspended for six weeks from January 1 and fined $30,000 (20,890 euros) for making five bets totalling around 90 euros two years ago. Bracciali, world ranked 258, has been banned for three months and fined $20,000 (13,930 euros) for making around 50 five-euro bets between 2004 and 2005. The Italian Tennis Federation (FIT) confirmed the news on its website, www.federtennis.it. However, they denounced the penalties as disproportionate, saying the players never bet on their own matches. \"Injustice is done,\" the statement said. \"These penalties are absolutely, excessively severe compared to the magnitude of the violations carried out by the two players.\" The federation said the two were not aware of the ATP's betting regulations, and that they stopped placing the bets as soon as they learned it was against the rules. Another Italian player, Alessio Di Mauro, became the first player sanctioned under the ATP's new anti-corruption rules when he received a nine-month ban in November, also for betting on matches. Starace and Bracciali said they were scapegoats for a larger match-fixing scandal.\"It's disgusting,\" said the 26-year-old Starace. \"The ATP doesn't know where to turn. It's all a joke.\" Bracciali said the two had been \"sacrificed.\" \"That's why they came after us,\" the 29-year-old said. \"We are not champions and we don't count in the upper echelons.\" ATP officials could not be reached for comment on Saturday. Concerns about match-fixing have risen since August, when an online betting company reported unusual betting patterns during a match between fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina. The company, Betfair, voided all bets and the ATP has been investigating. Davydenko, who retired while trailing in the third set, denies wrongdoing. Since then, several players have said that they had been approached with offers to fix matches in exchange for money. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Italian tennis players Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali banned by the ATP .\nThe pair have been suspended for betting on matches, although not their own .\nStarace suspended for six weeks while Bracciali is banned for three months .","id":"e0ddf766661004eb3ff337d95e249073410f0755"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The sole survivor of the crash that killed Princess Diana has told a court he still cannot remember the incident but does not support the conspiracy theories surrounding it. Bodyguard Trevor Rees and the back of Princess Diana's head are seen shortly before the car crash. Bodyguard Trevor Rees, formerly known as Trevor Rees-Jones, was the front-seat passenger in the Mercedes that carried Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul. He sustained serious injuries in the August 31, 1997 crash and testified that he received anonymous phone calls and letters after the accident, threatening him to keep quiet. He said the caller told him to keep quiet, saying, \"We know who you are, we know where you are, and we know where you live.\" Rees said he didn't take the calls or letters seriously. A lawyer also asked Rees about a supposed encounter with a woman in which he told her, \"If I remember, they're going to kill me.\" Rees said he didn't recall the conversation and found it unlikely he ever made the remark. Rees, who still has a visible scar from the accident over his left eye, told the court he remembers nothing new about the crash, which, he has said, was an accident. He has said the last thing he remembers that night was leaving the Ritz Hotel in Paris, and that his next memory is more than a week later, in his hospital bed, when his parents told him everyone else in the car was dead. Rees suffered major injuries to his lower jaw, the base of his brain, and his pulmonary system and has had several surgeries and hospitalizations, some of which al Fayed paid for. Rees also testified that he did not support the allegations by Dodi Fayed's father, Mohamed al Fayed, that British security services were behind the crash. He denied the security services paid him to change his story. At the time of the crash, Rees was working for al Fayed's security team and was assigned to guard Dodi Fayed. He was also protecting the princess because she was Fayed's companion on the trip. He no longer works on al Fayed's security team. Rees has said what was once a good relationship with his former employer has broken down, largely because he does into support al Fayed's conspiracy theories about the crash. \"I am not a part of any conspiracy to suppress the truth at all,\" Rees testified. \"All I have ever done is given the truth as I see it.\" In 2000, Rees published a book, \"The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor,\" offering his account of the events surrounding the crash. He said al Fayed tried unsuccessfully to stop the book's publication in England. Rees told CNN he wrote the book to give a definitive account of what he remembered and knew, but also to counter al Fayed's accusations that his unprofessionalism caused the accident. Rees also said proceeds from the book helped pay his legal bills. During the morning session, Rees testified that he had two flashbacks in the months after the crash, but his psychiatrist told him they were false memories. In the first, Rees said, he recalled hearing the voice of a woman -- apparently Diana -- calling out, \"Dodi\" from the back seat of the car. In the second flashback, Rees said he recalled seeing a paparazzi motorbike next to the car. Lawyer Ian Burnett then read from a letter written by Al Fayed to Lord Stevens, who investigated the crash for the British police. In the letter, Al Fayed says Rees is lying about losing his memory. \"He knows the detail which the security services are so eager to suppress,\" Al Fayed wrote, alluding to his belief that the crash was part of a murder plot. Rees testified that he was not lying about his memory loss: \"I have no memory of -- after leaving the back of the hotel, that's my last true memory.\" Rees also said claims the couple visited a jeweler's in Monte Carlo to buy an engagement ring in late August 1997 were untrue. British authorities hold an inquest whenever someone dies in suspicious circumstances. A judge, who is also called a coroner, holds hearings to determine how the person died, but he will not determine blame or apportion guilt. Although Diana and Dodi Fayed died in Paris, a British coroner must still investigate because their bodies were returned to Britain. The inquest does not involve driver Henri Paul because his body remained in France. British authorities had to wait to begin the inquest until after French authorities concluded their investigation, which lasted from August 1997 to late 2003. The inquest then began but immediately adjourned so that British police could do their own report, which was needed for the British inquest. The British police inquiry took almost three years and concluded in December 2006. The inquest then resumed in October 2007 and is expected to last four to six months. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Teresa Martini contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dodi Fayed's bodyguard says can't remember crash that killed Princess Diana .\nNEW: Trevor Rees received anonymous threatening phone calls, letters after crash .\nPrincess Diana, boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul all died in accident .\nRees was a bodyguard employed by Dodi Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed .","id":"dd37d70b837b24247e9abafe8fb5bc5fae5de464"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stranded in the snowy California woods for three days after losing their way while searching for a Christmas tree, a father and his three children fashioned a \"Help\" sign out of twigs on a nearby unpaved road, according to the helicopter pilots who found them. Lexi and Joshua Dominguez exit a helicopter Wednesday, shortly after being found. The four sought shelter from the heavy snow in a culvert and removed their sodden socks in an effort to stay warm and dry while they waited for rescue, the pilots said. Frederick Dominguez said that during the three-day ordeal, he and his children slept inside a log for warmth and ripped apart their shirts to wrap their wet, freezing feet. \"You just go to survival mode,\" he said. \"Every parent would do that. You would do anything, sacrifice yourself, because these are your kids.\" Dominguez and his children -- Christopher, 18; Lexi, 14; and Joshua, 12 -- were reported missing Monday night by Dominguez's former wife and the children's mother, Lisa Sams, according to police in Paradise, California, a town of 27,000 people about 90 miles north of Sacramento. Watch the family talk about their \"scary\" ordeal \u00bb . \"I'm glad I'm home. Praise God,\" Dominguez told reporters after exiting a chopper at the search command post. \"It was awful.\" Asked how he survived, he replied, \"Jesus Christ.\" Dominguez said he used branches and sticks to spell out the word \"Help\" near the culvert, where the three slept the last two nights -- at times sleeping with their feet inside each other's shirts to help stave off frostbite. He said his daughter was the first to hear a California Highway Patrol helicopter overhead. He said he ran though several feet of snow barefooted to wave it down. \"When they turned around, man, I was just praising God and saying, 'Thank you Lord, thank you Lord,' because I knew we had made it,\" he said. Police vehicles equipped with snow chains rumbled up mountain roads to help conduct the search, which also involved a snowmobile and dogs. More than 80 searchers scoured the woods Wednesday until the four were found about 1 p.m. (4 p.m. ET). Officer Steve Ward said he was piloting the helicopter out ahead of bad weather when he spotted Dominguez coming out of the culvert and waving. \"We were very lucky that we just saw this guy at the last second.\" Paramedic Flight Officer Dave White, who was with Ward, said that after the two shut down the helicopter and waved the family over, all four came running. \"The little girl was in tears,\" he said. White said the family was found north of where ground crews were searching. The pilots could see the \"Help\" sign they had made with twigs on a nearby four-wheel-drive road, he said. Christopher Dominguez told CNN's Anderson Cooper the family got lost Sunday searching for a tree, which they had chopped down but later abandoned. He said they didn't have food, heavy coats or other provisions to help prepare for the cold nights. \"We weren't prepared at all,\" he said. \"We just thought we were going to go up to the mountains, get our tree and go back home. It didn't turn out that way.\" After the family failed to locate their vehicle, he said, snow and darkness began to fall. At that point, Lexi Dominguez said, \"I started freaking out.\" \"It was really, really scary,\" she said. \"I just remember walking and walking and being like, we're not going to make it,\" Lexi said. And as they huddled for warmth, Christopher Dominguez said, his sister sang songs to help pass the time until help arrived. \"We were all just happy, happy to be rescued,\" Christopher Dominguez said late Wednesday, huddled with his siblings under blankets in their home. \"I feel good, just happy to be home,\" said Joshua Dominguez. \"Because I didn't think we were going to make it.\" All four appeared to be in good condition as they were brought by chopper to the command post and taken to ambulances. Wendy Wilson, the children's aunt, told CNN the two younger children had some frostbite on their toes and a touch of hypothermia, but were expected to make a full recovery. Butte County Search and Rescue dispatcher Madde Watts said, \"They had angels with them, for sure.\" The search riveted those in Paradise and beyond. Mayor Alan White, whose son played soccer on the same team as Joshua last year, said he and many others in and around Paradise have cut Christmas trees in the same place where the family vanished. When winter weather sours there, he said, people in the woods can get lost quickly. \"If you're 50 feet from your car, you might not be able to find it,\" he said. Although police found the family's car, it offered no clues as to where they might have gone. The inaccessible area is beyond the reach of cell phones, authorities have said. Paradise High principal Mike Lerch said students had volunteered to help in the search. \"This is a good family,\" he said. Christopher Dominguez had graduated from the school a few months ago, Lerch said, and Lexi is a sophomore there. Joshua attends Paradise Intermediate School. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Joshua, 12, \"happy to be home. ... I didn't think we were going to make it\"\nFamily sought shelter from snow in culvert, warmed each other's frostbitten feet .\nFrederick Dominguez and his 3 children set out Sunday to cut Christmas tree .\nMore than 80 people searched for them Tuesday in heavy snow .","id":"6e3028e9ae17ab59abc7732fe840468ac9dcb60c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Oscar said yes to \"No Country for Old Men\" and to European actors on Sunday night. Actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard and Javier Bardem toast their success. \"No Country,\" the Coen brothers' brutal tale of a man pursued by death and the law across the bleak moonscapes of West Texas, won best picture at the 80th Academy Awards. The four acting awards, meanwhile, went to Europeans: Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton. The Coens also won best director and best adapted screenplay, and Bardem, who played cattle-gun-armed killer Anton Chigurh, won best supporting actor. Producer Scott Rudin shared the best picture award with the brothers. \"We're very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox, so thank you very much,\" Joel Coen said in accepting the directing award. He observed that the pair didn't think they were doing much different work now from when, as a child, Ethan Coen \"got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called 'Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go.' \" Watch the best of the winners' backstage remarks \u00bb . The Coens, who have been known for their arch style and oddball humor in films such as \"Fargo,\" \"O Brother, Where Art Thou\" and \"The Big Lebowski,\" received some laughs for Ethan Coen's laconic acceptance speeches. After the pair won for adapted screenplay, Ethan Coen gave a brief thanks. Upon winning the directing award, he expanded on his speech slightly, sort of: \"I don't have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thank you,\" he said. Day-Lewis was more effusive in his thanks after winning best actor for his performance as a misanthropic oilman in \"There Will Be Blood.\" \"My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town,\" the British actor said as he accepted the award. \"I've been thinking a lot about fathers and sons in the course of this, and I'd like to accept this in the memory of my grandfather, Michael Balcon, my father, Cecil Day-Lewis, and my three fine boys, Gabriel, Ronan and Cashel,\" he added. See the complete list of winners . As he accepted his first Oscar, Bardem, one of Spain's top actors, thanked his directors and reflected on his role as a creepy killer with a bad haircut. \"Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think that I could do that, and to put one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head,\" he said. Watch \"No Country\" win best picture \u00bb . It was his second career nomination. His other came for \"Before Night Falls\" (2000), in which he played Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. In a mild surprise, French actress Cotillard won her first Academy Award for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in \"La Vie en Rose.\" Early handicappers had bet heavily on veteran Julie Christie, a previous Oscar winner who played a woman falling victim to Alzheimer's in \"Away from Her.\" But Cotillard, who's received raves for her performance as the French singer, had been considered a strong contender for best actress. \"I'm speechless now ... I ... I ... thank you life, thank you love,\" Cotillard exclaimed. \"And it is true, there are some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much!\" The actress has appeared in dozens of films in her native France, but she may be most recognizable to American audiences for her performances in \"A Very Long Engagement\" (2004) and \"Big Fish\" (2003). In a highly competitive race, Swinton nabbed the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal as lawyer Karen Crowder in the legal drama \"Michael Clayton.\" \"I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this. Really, truly, the same shape head and, it has to be said, the buttocks,\" the British actress said, examining her new Oscar. \"And I'm giving this to him because there's no way I'd be in America at all, ever, on a plane if it wasn't for him.\" See Swinton on the red carpet \u00bb . Swinton beat out 83-year-old Ruby Dee, who had been considered a sentimental favorite for her first Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category, playing Mama Lucas to Denzel Washington's drug kingpin Frank Lucas in \"American Gangster.\" Swinton also beat Cate Blanchett (as a mid-'60s take on Bob Dylan in \"I'm Not There\") and Amy Ryan (a difficult working-class mother in \"Gone Baby Gone\"). The Academy Awards opened with host Jon Stewart joking about the recently ended writers strike -- which forced a cutback in the Golden Globes and threatened the Oscars as well -- and commenting on the bleakness of the best picture nominees. \"Tonight we look beyond the dark days to focus on happier fare: This year's slate of Oscar-nominated psychopathic killer movies,\" Stewart joked. \"Does this town need a hug? What happened? 'No Country For Old Men,' 'Sweeney Todd,' 'There Will Be Blood'? All I can say is, thank God for [the comedy \"Juno's\"] teen pregnancy. I think the country agrees.\" Check out Oscar prep photos \u00bb . \"Juno\" has been the little movie that could all season. The film, which cost a relatively paltry $7.5 million, was the only best picture nominee to top $100 million at the box office, ensuring it a rooting interest from moviegoers. Star Ellen Page received plaudits for her performance as the title character, and screenwriter Diablo Cody -- famously a former stripper -- has become one of Hollywood's \"it\" scribes. Cody won best original screenplay. \"This is for the writers. I want to thank all the writers. I especially want to thank my fellow nominees because I worship you guys and I'm learning from you every day,\" Cody said. The first award of the evening, for costume design, went to \"Elizabeth: The Golden Age.\" The best animated feature went to \"Ratatouille,\" a computer-animated Pixar film directed and written by Oscar winner Brad Bird (\"The Incredibles\"). The rat-turns-chef movie beat out \"Persepolis,\" based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, and \"Surf's Up,\" a computer-animated film about penguins. \"The Counterfeiters\" from Austria took the best foreign-language film. The movie is based on a true story about a counterfeiter who, after being sent to a concentration camp, was employed by the Nazis to fake other countries' currency. Best original song was awarded to \"Falling Slowly\" from \"Once.\" It beat out three songs from \"Enchanted,\" the Disney film about an animated princess come to life. The Oscars were spread around. \"No Country\" picked up four, \"The Bourne Ultimatum\" earned three (one for its rapid-fire editing) and \"There Will Be Blood\" received two: Day-Lewis' acting award and Robert Elswit's cinematography honor. But nobody had any doubt what film was considered the evening's big winner. \"There's nothing like it, and especially with these two guys,\" producer Rudin said backstage with the Coens of their unusual Western. \"I'm incredibly proud, and I think it's the best movie we have been involved with. I loved it from the first minute I saw it.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"No Country for Old Men\" wins four awards, including best picture and director .\nFour acting awards go to Europeans: Cotillard, Day-Lewis, Bardem and Swinton .\nBest original screenplay is awarded to former stripper Diablo Cody for \"Juno\"\nHost Jon Stewart jokes about the recently ended writers strike .","id":"24d2f15f65bfb5608c75d19ba07fc410aab4d9c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The death of a passenger last week aboard an American Airlines flight underscores the importance of taking precautions before flying, a travel health industry representative said Monday. An American Airlines passenger complaining that she was having trouble breathing died on a flight last week. Jill Drake, a marketing representative for MedAire, Inc., said its physicians last year advised 74 airlines on how to handle more than 17,000 in-flight medical events. Flight attendants with sick passengers call Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, a level-one trauma center where emergency room physicians and a service able to translate 140 languages are on call to answer questions from any of 2 million airline passengers flying at any given time, she said. \"Very rarely\" does the call result in a diversion, a decision made not by the doctor but by the pilot who must consider a number of variables beyond the passenger's health, she said. The pilot must weigh weather conditions, remaining fuel and proximity to an airport. As of 1 p.m. (3 p.m. ET) Monday, MedAire had fielded 110 calls, \"which is a very busy day for us,\" she said. On average, the company gets about 50 in-flight calls from commercial airliners for an entire day, and an additional 25 or 30 calls related to events that occur at airport gates or aboard yachts and commercial ships, she said. Airlines contracting with MedAire include Continental, Southwest and British Airways. American has its own in-house medical team. Drake said MedAire's doctors documented 97 onboard deaths in 2007, down from 110 in 2006. The top categories of in-flight illness are fainting, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory issues such as shortness of breath, heart problems ranging from arrhythmias to arrest and orthopedic problems, such as broken bones, Drake said. By law, U.S.-based commercial airlines must carry automatic external defibrillators, oxygen and medical kits. Some airlines choose to carry extra, non-mandated medications. If a passenger already has breathing problems, airplane travel will only worsen the condition because cabins are typically pressurized at 8,000 feet, said Drake. Her advice to anyone not feeling 100 percent: \"Do not travel.\" And anyone with a medical condition who travels should pack any critical medications in a carry-on bag, she said. Though flight attendants are trained to handle on-board emergencies, \"they are not medically trained,\" she said. \"To think that they are going to be able to assist your every need, that's quite a high expectation.\" Hydration and moderation are key, and passengers should carry water and a snack, she said. Vacationers often return home from tropical locales sunburned and, in some cases, drunk. \"Altitude amplifies the buzz,\" Drake said. \"You have a couple of cocktails in Denver, you feel it a little bit more than in Omaha.\" Denver's altitude is 5,280 feet; Omaha's is 1,040 feet. Flying in a fresh cast can also prove dangerous. \"Your arm could expand and it could cut off your circulation,\" she said, noting that the risk is reduced with older casts, which have typically already expanded to accommodate any swelling. Though the FAA began demanding that airlines carry certain medications more than 30 years ago, the list was tiny. During the 1990s, overseas airlines began carrying more sophisticated equipment, and pressure increased for U.S.-based airlines to follow, said Dr. Russell Rayman, executive director of the Aerospace Medical Association, which has roughly 3,000 members including physicians, research scientists and flight nurses. Congress held hearings and then required airlines carry more robust kits and defibrillators by 2004. American Airlines was among the first to do so, said Dr. David McKenas, who served for 10 years as the airline's corporate medical director until 2002. He lauded the defibrillator as \"so good it's like 100 cardiologists in a box.\" The machine will only work if the patient's heart is fibrillating, a condition where the contractions become so irregular it loses its ability to pump blood efficiently. American Airlines buys its kits from Banyan International Corp., which describes itself as \"the nation's leading provider of emergency medical kits.\" Each of the nine-pound, $250 kits includes aspirin, alcohol swabs, nitroglycerine tablets, antihistamines, IV tubing, a stethoscope, a blood-pressure gauge, a bronchodilator, syringes, gloves, saline solution, epinephrine, dextrose, a manual resuscitation bag, alcohol pads and shears. Oxygen comes in several forms aboard planes. The oxygen that flows into masks stored above individual seats is not medical oxygen and would not suffice for a passenger in an in-flight medical emergency, said Rayman. Flight attendants have portable bottles of oxygen that they are to use for themselves in the event of a cabin decompression. \"It could be used if there is a medical emergency on board, but that's not its purpose,\" he said. More oxygen is stored in the cockpit for the pilots. Though MedAire keeps track of its clients' medical air incidents, Rayman criticized the FAA's failure to do so. \"There is no central repository where these things can be archived and then retrieved,\" he said. \"They don't want to report it because it just doesn't look good. It's not good P.R., you could say.\" He said even an anonymous registry would serve a useful purpose. \"We're concerned for safety on the flight,\" FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said. \"Once someone leaves the aviation system, there is no way for us to track the outcome.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Flight attendants call hospital with 24\/7 staff, multi-lingual staff who give advice .\nPilots, not doctors, decide whether to divert a flight due to passenger illness .\nU.S.-based commercial airlines carry defibrillators, oxygen and medical kits .\nA passenger died last week aboard an American Airlines flight .","id":"698329cc7a8d796d7635bf59d2435aa22c1a38e6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Wednesday signed a sweeping energy bill that he said would help the country become \"stronger, cleaner and more secure.\" President Bush on Wednesday signs a bill raising auto fuel economy standards for the first time in decades. The bill -- approved overwhelmingly Tuesday by the House of Representatives -- raises automotive fuel economy standards for the first time in more than three decades, requiring a corporate average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also boosts federal support for alternative fuel research and energy conservation efforts. A Republican filibuster in the Senate removed provisions that Bush objected to that would have eliminated tax breaks for oil companies and a requirement that electric utilities produce a portion of their power from alternative sources. The current fuel-economy standards of 27.5 miles per gallon for passenger cars and 22.2 for light trucks were established in 1975. The new bill sets a single average standard for manufacturers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Tuesday's bill was \"a great, wonderful first step for an energy revolution that starts in America and ripples throughout the world.\" But Reid said Democrats would continue pushing to shift federal tax breaks away from fossil-fuel producers and into renewable energy research -- one of the party's top priorities when it took control of Congress in January. House opponents such as Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, complained that the bill will undo many of the efforts made to foster increased production of fossil fuels in an energy bill passed in 2005. \"I understand the consequences of elections. I understand there's a new majority,\" said Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. \"I do not understand how what made sense two years ago doesn't make sense today.\" Barton called the legislation a \"no-energy\" bill and \"a recipe for recession,\" arguing its mandated conservation measures would raise prices for fuel, homes and appliances for consumers. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"New law raises auto fuel efficiency standards .\nIncrease to fleet average of 35 miles per gallon is first in 32 years .\nSenate majority leader calls bill a \"great, wonderful first step\"","id":"b531a8ba685e8d461d0a491f35c9970c3dddf3dd"} -{"article":"MOUNT AIRY, Maryland (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday stressed the role of faith-based groups in the fight against AIDS, calling the struggle one of conscience and morals on the eve of World AIDS Day. Activists call for more AIDS funding in front of the White House, draped with a giant red AIDS ribbon. Bush was speaking at Calvary United Methodist Church in Maryland after meeting with representatives of religious and community groups. \"Faith-based groups like these are the foot soldiers in the armies of compassion,\" he said. \"They are helping to defeat this epidemic one soul at a time.\" More than 33 million people worldwide have HIV -- the virus that can lead to AIDS -- according to the United Nations. That includes 2.5 million children younger than 15. Watch a report on living with HIV \u00bb . More than 2 million people have died of AIDS this year -- including 330,000 children. Bush is asking Congress for an additional $15 billion to continue and expand the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program approved by Congress after he announced it in his 2003 State of the Union address. On Friday, he announced plans to visit sub-Saharan Africa early next year to see the program at work. He renewed his call for lawmakers to continue funding it. \"Now the time has come for the United States Congress to act again,\" he said. \"I'm confident they will.\" The White House says the program -- which targets countries hardest-hit by the disease -- has treated more than 1.3 million people with AIDS. Increased funding would boost that number to 2.5 million, while expanding AIDS prevention programs and offering care to millions more with AIDS. Despite some successes, the program has been criticized for requiring that participating groups emphasize abstinence education. At the White House, about 40 people carried signs in support of more AIDS funding. Before speaking, the president, along with First lady Laura Bush, participated in an hourlong faith-based roundtable discussion at the church. Among others, the president met with Martha Chilufya, founder of the Mututa Memorial Center in Zambia. The center works with faith-based and other caregivers to serve more than 150 patients. Laura Bush and daughter Jenna visited the center in June. Bush said the first lady will join him on his trip next year. A giant red ribbon -- the international symbol for AIDS awareness -- was hung from the north portico of the White House Friday morning \"to represent the continued battle against HIV\/AIDS and to affirm the matchless value of every life,\" the White House said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Larry Lazo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bush: Faith-based groups are \"helping to defeat this epidemic one soul at a time\"\nWorld AIDS Day is Saturday .\nMore than 2 million people have died of AIDS this year .\nBush wants to expand the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief .","id":"5b0e686b4679910743337ce02b36dd71a5caf5eb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 12-year-old boy should get a say in whether he gets circumcised, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled. The court sent the parental custody dispute back to the trial court \"to resolve the factual issue whether M agrees or objects to the circumcision.\" \"M\" is the child at the center of a long-running custody dispute between James and Lia Boldt, who divorced in 1999. Soon after, the father began studying Judaism and later converted. He also started teaching his son about the faith. By then, James had parental custody and told his ex-wife the boy would convert as well, and that to do so, he would have to have the circumcision procedure. The mother objected, saying the child had been raised in the Russian Orthodox faith while the couple was married. Because the two sides disagreed, and were living in neighboring states, the conflict dissolved into ongoing personal and constitutional dispute. James Boldt said that as a Jew and the primary caregiver, he has a First Amendment right to practice his faith as he sees fit for his child. Lia Boldt countered her son does not want to go through with the circumcision, and that it is an invasive, irreversible, and potentially dangerous medical procedure. The state high court seemed especially reluctant to address the issue, saying normally such disputes \"are considered private family matters.\" But the justices noted \"these parties cannot or will not resolve this matter without resort to the courts.\" So rather than offer a definitive ruling, the justices ordered both sides to go to the actual source of the conflict. \"In our view, at age 12, M's attitude regarding circumcision, though not conclusive of the custody issue presented here, is a fact necessary to the determination\" of whether the mother can press her objections to the procedure, wrote Chief Justice Paul De Muniz for the six-member panel. \"Forcing M at age 12 to undergo circumcision against his will could seriously affect the relationship between M and his father, and could have a pronounced effect on father's capability to properly care for M.\" There was no initial reaction to the decision from the parents or their attorneys. The case is James Boldt v. Lia Boldt (S054714). E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Case part of parental custody dispute .\nFather converted to Judaism after splitting with wife .\nFather wanted son to convert after getting custody .\nRussian Orthodox mother says son doesn't want procedure .","id":"980e6db610d9882443d61e36d955f02d983d3e76"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who rescued a co-worker from the jaws of a crocodile in northern Australia also accidentally shot him in the process, police said. A mature saltwater crocodile in the the murky waters of the Adelaide River, near Darwin in the Northern Territory. The two men were collecting crocodile eggs by a river bank in Australia's Northern Territory Tuesday when a crocodile grabbed Jason Grant by the lower right arm, a spokeswoman for the area police told CNN. The second man, Zac Fitzgerald, shot the crocodile, causing it to let go of Grant's arm. But a second shot that Fitzgerald fired struck Grant in the upper right arm, said Northern Territory police spokeswoman Katie Fowden. Grant, who is in his late 20s, was flown to a hospital for treatment of both the bullet and the crocodile wounds. His injuries were not life-threatening, Fowden said. The two men are workers at a crocodile farm in Darwin, the capital city of the Northern Territory. They were collecting the eggs legally, police said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report .","highlights":"Man rescues co-worker from jaws of crocodile in northern Australia .\nHe shot crocodile, causing it to let go of man's arm, second shot hit man's arm .\nThe two were collecting crocodile eggs by a river bank in the Northern Territory .\nWounded man's injuries were not life-threatening .","id":"6c18984d8f30ce196e9399200dd15e373e699267"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Four active-duty U.S. soldiers -- three of them elite Army Rangers -- have been arrested and charged with planning to rob drug traffickers. A courtroom sketch shows David White, left, Stefan Champagne, center, and Carlos Lopez. Wearing street clothes, Rangers Carlos Lopez, 30, and David Ray White, 28, and Army medic Stefan Andre Champagne, 28, appeared in federal court Friday. They're charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and with carrying firearms in connection with that conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman ordered them held in custody until a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Another Ranger, Randy Spivey, 32, is scheduled to appear in court Monday. \"It is a sad day when members of one of America's most elite corps of soldiers, the Army Rangers, are alleged to have become involved in criminal activity,\" U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the case. \"These men were trained to defend the people and principles of this country, not to use their skills to steal cocaine from drug dealers at gunpoint.\" Lopez, White and Champagne were arrested Thursday at a storage facility in Sandy Springs, Georgia, a suburb just north of Atlanta, by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who had set up a sting operation. Spivey was apprehended at Camp Frank D. Merrill, an Army Ranger training center in Dahlonega, Georgia, on Friday, the ATF said. Dahlonega is about 60 miles north of Atlanta. Lopez, White and Champagne were to commit the robbery while Spivey covered for them back at the camp, where the men are stationed, according to an affidavit filed with U.S. District Court. All four were to get a cut of the spoils of the robbery, the affidavit from ATF Agent Brett Turner says. The investigation began in November, when the ATF \"became aware\" that some soldiers were interested in robbing drug dealers of their cocaine, Turner says. He posed as a disaffected security guard for the drug traffickers who wanted to \"rip them off.\" The first try to set up the \"robbery\" failed, but a second attempt earlier this month succeeded, leading to the arrests at the storage facility and, a day later, the Ranger camp. A subsequent search found that Lopez, White and Champagne were carrying semiautomatic pistols and had an AR-15 assault rifle and a field pouch with 15 magazines of ammunition for it in their vehicle. Agents also found a ski mask, binoculars and a Taser among the items the men brought with them. The four soldiers face minimum mandatory sentences of 10 years in prison each for the drug conspiracy and an additional five years, consecutive, for the weapons allegation. The Army Rangers are an elite light infantry fighting force capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 18 hours. They became a permanent presence in the U.S. military in the 1970s. From the Colonial Era until that time, Rangers were activated for specific missions or conflicts and then deactivated when their work was completed. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Arrests made after ATF agents set up a sting operation .\nAffidavit: ATF \"became aware\" some soldiers wanted to rob dealers of their cocaine .\nThe investigation began in November .\nThe Army Rangers are an elite light infantry fighting force .","id":"e00f05efe2038fffc8eaa1e8eecbe9445a9483e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Armenian President Robert Kocharian declared a state of emergency Saturday night after a day of clashes between police and protesters, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said. Opposition supporters wave an Armenian flag during a protest rally in Yerevan, Armenia, on Saturday. The protesters claim last month's presidential election was rigged. The state of emergency will \"hopefully bring some order\" to the capital, Yerevan, said Salpi Ghazarian, assistant to the Armenian foreign minister, who spoke to CNN early Sunday. The state of emergency could last until March 20, she said, but the government hopes \"that it will be lifted sooner.\" The clashes began when authorities used force to clear Freedom Square of thousands of demonstrators who had camped there for the past 10 days, according to a U.S. Embassy official. Ghazarian said the authorities \"moved in\" because \"they thought that there were arms there, and it turned out that they were right.\" Watch a report on clashes between police and the opposition \u00bb . The embassy official estimated that the demonstrations in Freedom Square grew to as many as 60,000 Armenians at times over the last 10 days. As of early Sunday morning, Freedom Square was empty, Ghazarian said, but the protesters were demonstrating in a main square elsewhere in the city. Watch Ghazarian discuss the situation in Armenia \u00bb . \"What is happening on the streets of Yerevan is people protesting what they consider to be unfair elections,\" Ghazarian said. \"After the president was forced to declare a state of emergency, things have quieted down. There are a couple of burning cars, and there are a few hurt people,\" she said. \"We're convinced that this will come to an end soon.\" She did not elaborate on the number of people injured or the extent of their injuries. Witnesses told CNN that Saturday morning's action by Armenian riot police was bloody, but the U.S. official said there were no confirmed deaths or serious injuries. An Armenian woman interviewed by CNN said there was \"huge chaos\" when police moved in. \"These are innocent people,\" she said. \"They just want their freedom. They just want to be heard. They are being beaten up, some people have horrible wounds.\" She asked that CNN not use her name because she feared for her safety. As night fell Saturday, the sounds of gunfire could be heard from the direction of the protesters' gathering, and tracer fire could be seen in the sky, according to another Yerevan resident, who also asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety. The man said his wife saw two demonstrators hit by a police car earlier in the day. The car initially did not stop, he said, but the protesters surrounded the car, dragged the officers out and burned the vehicle, he said. The officers were able to escape, he said, but he did not know the condition of the protesters who were struck. The protests began soon after the February 19 presidential election. Opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian lost to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, a political ally of outgoing President Kocharian. The opposition party immediately accused the government of vote fraud and demanded that the results be voided. Ghazarian said Sunday that the government had reached out to the opposition. \"We are hoping with the help of the international community, the opposition, the leader of the opposition, will come and enter a political dialogue rather than continuing this debate on the streets,\" she said. Haroutiun Khachatrian, editor of the Noyan Tappan News Agency, told CNN that riot police arrested several hundred people in the square Saturday morning, including many opposition party officials. Ter-Petrosian was there but was not arrested, he said. The opposition vowed to pursue its claims through legal means. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitored last month's Armenian election and concluded that it was mostly in line with international standards, although it did include some criticism in its report. The U.S. Embassy has warned the several hundred Americans living in Yerevan to stay at home and avoid the downtown area where the demonstrations have been taking place, the U.S. official said. Armenia, population 3 million, is a former Soviet republic east of Turkey, south of Georgia and north of Iran. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Protest moves after crackdown at Freedom Square .\nOrder sought after protests over last month's election turn violent .\nDemonstrators say the election was fraudulent .\nState of emergency could last until March 20, official says .","id":"9ce109dc50fe4eca8b2d0c926d5dbd1df5f49187"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Nearly 3 million gallons of sewage spilled into San Francisco Bay when a pump failed at a waste treatment facility, the Marin County Sheriff's Department told CNN on Friday. Attempts are being made to contain Thursday night's 2.7 million-gallon sewage spill. The 2.7 million-gallon spill occurred Thursday night. A pump failed at the South Marin Sanitation District's waste treatment facility in the town of Mill Valley, said Lt. Doug Pittman. The waste was released into Richardson Bay, an inlet of the large bay on the east shore of Marin County, he said. See the spill from the air \u00bb . The sewage and storm water was partially treated, according to Greg Renick of the California Office of Emergency Services. In addition to the pump failure, he said, an alarm that would have alerted workers at the facility to the spill also failed. The accidental release occurred between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to a statement from Marin County's emergency operations center. But the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin didn't report it to the state until 11:16 p.m., Renick said. The state Office of Emergency Services notified local offices in the bay area within an hour of receiving the report, he said. The Marin County Department of Environmental Health was conducting tests Friday to determine how far the contamination had spread, Pittman said. Boaters were being warned to avoid the Richardson Bay area, and residents were told to avoid contact with the water. The California Department of Fish and Game has had a boat and personnel on the water since early Friday, and has found no sign of sick or distressed wildlife resulting from the spill, agency spokesman Steve Martarano said. Marin County is just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Chuck Afflerbach contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Sewage was partially treated, Office of Emergency Services says .\nThe 2.7 million-gallon spill occurred Thursday night, Sheriff's Department says .\nPump and alarm failed at Marin County waste treatment facility .\nArea being tested; boaters advised to avoid Richardson Bay area .","id":"bbec538b4453859ee9c772c4de8f0eb28acd87c4"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A massive anti-Mafia sweep that stretched from New York to Sicily has not only cut off the head of the Gambino crime family but lopped off \"the shoulders and chest\" too, prosecutors said Thursday. John \"Jackie the Nose\" D'Amico, shown in 1992, is one of 62 people indicted. Sixty-two members of the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno families face 80 charges, ranging from money laundering to illegal gambling and murder. \"These charges strike at the very core of the Gambino family,\" said Benton Campbell, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The Gambino family profited from extortion within the New York construction industry and its labor unions, according to the charges. Watch the perp walk \u00bb . Several companies allegedly paid a \"mob tax\" in return for \"protection\" and \"permission to operate,\" said Gordon Heddell, inspector general of the U.S. Department of Labor. Other charges involve an alleged illegal gambling ring, said Richard Brown, Queens County district attorney. Nicholas Corozzo -- a reputed captain in the Gambino family -- was involved in a sports gambling enterprise that relied in part on toll-free telephones, Brown alleged. Meanwhile, four members of the Gambino family are charged with eight crimes involving murder, according to the indictment. Those charges include the felony murder of Jose Delgado Rivera, who was shot and killed in an armored truck during a robbery in 1990. \"Today we are able to bring closure to crimes from the past that have never been forgotten,\" Campbell said. He said the crimes span back over three decades. Watch feds say they've 'cut off the head' of crime family \u00bb . Key to the Gambino arrests Thursday was a member of the Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force who infiltrated the Gambino family and recorded hundred of hours of conversations, said John Milgrim, a spokesman for the attorney general. Forty-five of those charged are already in custody, police said. Arrests were made in New York City; Long Island, New York; and New Jersey. \"It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks of society,\" New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said of organized crime. \"We will not rest until organized crime is a distant memory.\" In addition to the arrests in the New York area, police in Italy detained 77 people in connection with organized crime. Those arrests netted important members of a powerful clan in Sicily linked to Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who was believed to be the successor of the boss of bosses, Bernardo Provenzano. Watch the prosecutor explain why authorities acted now \u00bb . Police say that in his attempt to rise to power, Le Piccolo tried to mend fences with New York-based Mafia families after those ties were broken during the bloody Mafia wars of the 1980s. Those families included the Gambinos of New York and the Inzerillos of Italy. Provenzano was arrested two years ago in Corleone. \"It is evident that the intent of the Mafia in Palermo was to re-establish a dialogue through the Inzerillo family in the U.S,\" Francesco Messineo of the Italian Police said. \"A dialogue that was never interrupted because the relationship between the American and the Italian Mafia is historic, based on long tradition. But there was certainly an attempt to re-establish that connection.\" Investigators believe mob clans wanted to collaborate on illegal commercial ventures such as money laundering and drug trafficking. Italian officials said the arrests were aimed at preventing these illegal activities, but they warned that other Mafia clans in Sicily oppose the return of the Inzerillo family to the island, and therefore were concerned about a new Mafia war. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Deborah Feyerick and Alessio Vinci contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dozens of people face charges, ranging from money laundering to murder .\nGambino family accused of profiting from extortion .\nSeveral companies allegedly paid a \"mob tax,\" Department of Labor official says .\nPolice in Italy also make 77 arrests in connection with organized crime .","id":"c4e0587d1b8fcc06c2cc5cfcec42a34d314fbe44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saddam Hussein let the world think he had weapons of mass destruction to intimidate Iran and prevent the country from attacking Iraq, according to an FBI agent who interviewed the dictator after his 2003 capture. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in an unknown location in Iraq after his capture in 2003. According to a CBS report, Hussein claimed he didn't anticipate that the United States would invade Iraq over WMD, agent George Piro said on \"60 Minutes,\" scheduled for Sunday broadcast. \"For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong, defiant Saddam. He thought that (faking having the weapons) would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq,\" said Piro. During the nearly seven months Piro talked to Hussein, the agent hinted to the Iraqi that he answered directly to President Bush, CBS said in a posting on its Web site. \"He told me he initially miscalculated ... President Bush's intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998 ... a four-day aerial attack,\" Piro said. \"He survived that one and he was willing to accept that type of attack.\" \"He didn't believe the U.S. would invade?\" Correspondent Scott Pelley asked. \"No, not initially,\" Piro answered. Once it was clear that an invasion was imminent, Hussein asked his generals to hold off the allied forces for two weeks, Piro said. \"And at that point, it would go into what he called the secret war,\" the agent said, referring to the insurgency. But Piro said he was not sure that the insurgency was indeed part of Hussein's plan. \"Well, he would like to take credit for the insurgency,\" he said. Hussein had the ability to restart the weapons program and professed to wanting to do that, Piro said. \"He wanted to pursue all of WMD ... to reconstitute his entire WMD program.\" Hussein said he was proud he eluded U.S. authorities who searched for him for nine months after the U.S.-led invasion, Piro said. \"What he wanted to really illustrate is ... how he was able to outsmart us,\" Piro said. \"He told me he changed ... the way he traveled. He got rid of his normal vehicles. He got rid of the protective detail that he traveled with, really just to change his signature.\" Hussein was hanged in 2006. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CBS: Hussein claimed he didn't think the U.S. would invade Iraq over WMD .\nFBI agent says Hussein lied about having WMD to intimidate Iran .\nBut the Iraqi dictator said he wanted to start the WMD program again, agent said .\nHussein was captured in 2003 and hanged in 2006 .","id":"7eaaa5bfe35344ee85eeb871a4d31cd31b12965b"} -{"article":"\u2022 The twins get a check-up (2\/26\/08) \u2022 VIDEO: Nancy Grace introduces on set 2-14-08 \u2022 The twins go out for a stroll (2\/11\/08) \u2022 The twins at 3 months (2\/4\/08) \u2022 The twins in January (1\/21\/08) \u2022 VIDEO: First video of Nancy Grace's twins E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pictures of Nancy Grace's twins .\nJohn David and Lucy Elizabeth were born November 4, 2007 .\nCome back to this site for regularly updated pictures!","id":"9cce7373a54faccf5b5d1232c82afab9b29ab6b9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hispanics are described as the largest minority group in the United States, as a burgeoning force in the electorate and as an untapped frontier of the business market. Yet these descriptions belie the complexity of the 44 million people to whom they refer. Susana Clar, with daughters Vanessa (left) and Virna (center), says the labels \"Hispanic\" and \"Latino\" are limiting. Even the terms used to name them -- Hispanics, Hispanic-Americans, Latinos, Latino-Americans, the Spanish-surnamed -- too tightly package the people categorized by those definitions, some observers say. \"We are mixed and we are many things,\" said Phillip Rodriguez, a documentary filmmaker. Many of his films, such as \"Los Angeles Now\" and \"Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream,\" explore the experience and identity of Latinos in the United States. Latinos \"very often don't share language, don't share class circumstances, don't share education; it's very difficult to speak about them as one thing,\" he said. From a census standpoint, being of Hispanic or Latino origin means a person identifies himself in one of four listed categories: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or \"other Spanish, Hispanic or Latino\" origin. In the latter more open-ended category, respondents can write in specific origins, such as Salvadoran, Argentinean or Dominican. According to a Pew Hispanic Center\/Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2002, that is how most Latinos choose to identify themselves. When asked which terms they would use first to describe themselves, 54 percent said they primarily identify themselves in terms of their or their parents' country of origin. About one quarter choose \"Latino\" or \"Hispanic,\" and 21 percent chose \"American.\" But the broader terms -- Latino, Hispanic -- are the ones tossed about when the media want to discuss a \"trend among Latinos,\" or when a politician appeals to the \"Hispanic vote.\" The U.S. government came up with the term \"Hispanic\" in the 1970s to generally refer to people who could trace their origin to Spanish-speaking countries. The term \"Latino\" refers to origins from Latin America, which includes non-Spanish speaking countries like Brazil. The terms are often used interchangeably, which is a point of some contention in the wider community. But do the terms carry meaning among the people to whom they refer, or are they merely governmental designations? \"That's the way you call our people,\" Susana Clar, 52, said of the terms. She and her family emigrated from Uruguay nearly two decades ago, and she works as a vice president in her daughter, Vanessa Di Palma's, Salt Lake City, Utah-based communications firm. \"Either you are Latino [or] Hispanic. I'm fine with that, but I think that we are so much more than that,\" Clar said. Manuel Baez, 49, a native of the Dominican Republic who owns an insurance agency in Tampa, Florida, laughingly answered the question of how he identifies himself. \"Manuel or Manny,\" he said, adding, \"We're being put together in this package and that's too hard,\" he said, stressing that he didn't like labels. He continued, \"Dominican-American really represents who I am, instead of Dominican or Latino.\" He never uses Hispanic to identify himself because \"I am mixed,\" Baez said. \"Hispanic doesn't go with me because I don't believe that Spain was the best thing for Latin America.\" \"For me...there is no such thing as a Latino identity,\" said Suzanne Oboler, professor of Puerto Rican and Latino studies at John Jay College at the City University of New York. \"There's certainly a cultural understanding... [And] a political identity,\" she said, noting that the many different groups will join on particular issues such as immigration and wages. But she stressed that it was not a homogenous group. \"Not all Latinos speak Spanish, for example. Not all Latinos are going to vote Democratic... All Latinos are not immigrants.\" Others, such as Carl J. Kravetz, a longtime veteran of Hispanic marketing, said similarities among the different subsets of Latinos do show a Latino identity, one partly fused through the group's experience in the United States. Kravetz heads a Los Angeles-based Hispanic advertising agency called cruz\/kravetz: IDEAS. The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies embarked on a Latino cultural identity project last year -- when Kravetz was the organization's chairman -- to better understand a group of consumers they felt could not be adequately reached through the traditional Spanish-language market. There is \"very definitely a Latino identity,\" Kravetz said. It is drawn along parallels in values and ways of thinking and regardless of country of origin, the group tends to \"cluster\" in a few areas, he said. Those areas include interpersonal relationships (Latinos tend to emphasize family; individuality is not as important), perceptions of time and space (they have longer time horizons and have a relaxed sense of privacy), and spirituality (religion and spirituality have a strong influence on Latino life and perception of the world). David Chitel, the founder of New Generation Latino Consortium, a group of advertising and media companies, also said there are definite cultural ties among Latinos, particularly between those born in the United States. So much so, he said, that he and others coined the term \"new generation Latinos\" to refer to them. \"We're talking about people that have grown up here in the U.S. in Latino households, most likely with their parents speaking Spanish at home, eating certain foods at home, certain values and traditions that are instilled in them, from music to religious beliefs to the importance of family, these sorts of things,\" Chitel said. \"And it creates very much an identity that is Latino.\" Chitel said this group of U.S.-born Latinos should be reached with culturally nuanced media, in the same way the African-American market functions. Still, some chafe at the labels. \"Every time it comes up it just kind of annoys me and makes me mad,\" Anna Rivas, of Boulder, Colorado, said of her background. Her parents emigrated from Mexico before she was born, but she said she's never identified with the Mexican culture. \"On a regular basis I get asked where I'm from,\" she said. \"And I'll usually reply, 'My parents are from Mexico.' And I don't say, 'I'm Hispanic or Latino, or I'm from Mexico,' because I'm not.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"There are more than 44 million people of Hispanic origin in the U.S.\nThe community includes diverse national origins, generations, languages .\nSome observers say enough similarities exist to project a communal identity .","id":"1b37e549bbcec859711e5b2ef310e94deed4dc95"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy has moved the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and other ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon, Pentagon officials said Thursday. A file image of the USS Cole, which the U.S. Navy moved to the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon. The deployment comes amid a political standoff over Lebanon's presidency, but the Navy would not say whether the events are linked. \"It's a group of ships that will operate in the vicinity for a while and as the ships in our Navy do, the presence is important,\" Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday. \"It isn't meant to send any stronger signal than that,\" he said. \"But it does signal that we're engaged and we are going to be in the vicinity, and that's a very important part of the world.\" The Cole was badly damaged by an al Qaeda bombing during a port call in Yemen in 2000, killing 17 sailors. It returned to service in 2002. The destroyer and two support ships are close to Lebanon but out of visual range of the coast, Pentagon officials said. Another six vessels, led by the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau, are close to Italy and steaming toward the other three, the officials said. Mullen would not say whether the deployment has anything to do with the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary vote on a new president, which was postponed for a 15th time earlier this week. But he said the vote was \"important,\" and Washington was waiting for it to take place. And a Bush administration official told CNN the decision to move ships to the region was a message to neighboringSyria that \"the U.S. is concerned about the situation in Lebanon, and we want to see the situation resolved.\" \"We are sending a clear message for the need for stability,\" said the official, who was not authorized to speak for publication. The ships \"should be there a while,\" the official added. Lebanon's pro-Western majority in parliament and the pro-Syrian opposition have battled for power over the last three years. The country has been without a president since November, when pro-Syrian leader Emile Lahoud's term expired and parliament was unable to agree on a replacement. Despite general agreement among the factions to award the post to army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman, disagreements over how to share power in a future Cabinet have kept the issue from coming up for a vote. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri's office announced Tuesday that the next planned session has been pushed back to March 11. Berri's office said the Arab League needed more time to break the deadlock. Lebanon has been wracked by a sometimes-violent power struggle since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose supporters blamed Damascus for his killing. The resulting outcry eventually drove Syrian forces out of Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the 1970s. E-mail to a friend . CNN Correspondent Zain Verjee contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. Navy makes move amid a political standoff over Lebanon's presidency .\nThe presence is important,\" says chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff .\nLebanon's pro-Western majority in parliament struggles with pro-Syrian opposition .","id":"da780ee614304d195bde3b7549313c02990d072e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton got her campaign back on track with projected wins in the Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries. Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed victory in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. Delegate-rich Texas and Ohio were considered must-wins for her campaign. Obama, who claimed victory in Vermont, had won 12 straight contests since Super Tuesday on February 5. Texas also held Democratic caucuses Tuesday, but it was too close to declare a winner. \"For everyone here in Ohio and across America who's been ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up -- this one is for you,\" Clinton said before supporters in Columbus. \"You know what they say,\" she said. \"As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well, this nation's coming back and so is this campaign.\" Obama congratulated Clinton on her victories but downplayed his losses. CNN's political team weighs in on the results \u00bb . \"We know this: No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead as we had this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination,\" Obama told supporters in Texas. Sen. John McCain swept all four Republican contests on Tuesday to become his party's presumptive nominee. Read about McCain's victory . McCain won primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, giving him more than the 1,191 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination. \"I am very, very grateful and pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a great sense of responsibility, that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States,\" McCain told supporters Tuesday night. Watch McCain claim victory \u00bb . Mike Huckabee dropped out of the Republican race after the results came in. \"It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been, but now what must be -- and that is a united party,\" Huckabee told a crowd in Dallas. Watch Huckabee bow out \u00bb . McCain is slated to go to the White House on Wednesday to receive the endorsement of President Bush, according to two Republican sources. The Arizona senator's campaign -- his second run for the White House -- was largely written off for dead last summer amid outspoken opposition from the party's conservative base, a major staff shakeup and disappointing fundraising. But McCain said earlier Tuesday that he was confident he would emerge as the presumptive nominee by the end of the night. McCain overwhelmingly won moderates and conservatives in Ohio, but he lost the evangelical vote to Huckabee, according to exit polls. Obama's campaign pressed to extend voting by one hour in two Ohio counties. See county-by-county results in Ohio . \"Due to reports of ballot shortages in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, we requested a voting extension in those counties,\" said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. A judge ruled to keep parts of Cuyahoga county open an extra hour. In Texas, Clinton held a two-to-one advantage over Obama with Hispanic voters, while Obama had the overwhelming advantage with black voters in the state's Democratic primary, according to CNN's exit poll. See county-by-county results in Texas . Eighty-three percent of blacks voted for Obama, while 16 percent supported Clinton, according to the exit poll. Meanwhile, 64 percent of Hispanics backed Clinton, while 32 percent went for Obama. Early exit polls indicate a distinct \"age gap\" in both states. Obama appealed most strongly to younger voters while older voters favored Clinton. Among Ohio Democratic primary voters aged 17 to 29, 65 percent went for Obama, and 34 percent went for Clinton. Among those age 60 and older, Clinton led Obama 67-31 percent. The same pattern held true in early exit polling from the Texas Democratic primary. Among voters aged 18 to 29, Obama led Clinton 61-39 percent, and among voters 60 and older, Clinton led Obama 63- 36 percent. Poll workers in Collin County, near Dallas, estimated that nearly three-quarters of the Democratic voters would participate in the Democratic caucuses to be held after the polls close. In an unusual system, the 193 delegates that Texas will send to the Democratic National Convention will be split between Obama and Clinton according to the results of both the primary and the caucuses. State party officials say the dual primary\/caucus system promotes participation in the party. Both Clinton and Obama have encouraged supporters to do the \"Texas two-step\" and vote in both events. Obama came into the day with momentum on his side. He had 1,378 pledged delegates and superdelegates to Clinton's 1,269. Neither candidate is close to the 2,025 needed to win the Democratic nomination. Allocate delegates yourself and see how the numbers add up \u00bb . Former President Bill Clinton said in February that if his wife won Ohio and Texas, she'd go on to win the nomination. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Rachel Stratfield, Mary Snow, Mark Preston and Sasha Johnson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton wins in Ohio, Texas, CNN projects .\nNEW: McCain clinches GOP nomination; Huckabee drops out .\nNEW: Clinton wins Rhode Island; Obama wins Vermont .","id":"e24cdc200182d698a34f564ba71f4948ce6760e5"} -{"article":"MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) -- The top three Democratic presidential candidates face off in a Monday night debate in South Carolina, with the hearts and minds of African-American voters on the line. Sen. Barack Obama addresses Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina share the stage at Myrtle Beach's Palace Theatre as the nation honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday. The debate, put together by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, comes five days before the Democratic primary in South Carolina, where almost half of the Democratic primary voters are African-Americans. These voters will be crucial to the outcome of Saturday's primary in South Carolina. They now appear to be leaning heavily toward Obama, who if elected, would become the country's first black president. Having a debate on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in South Carolina \"is very fitting,\" said David Bohrman, CNN senior vice president and Washington bureau chief, who is executive producer of the debate. \"Perhaps a debate on Martin Luther King Day in South Carolina should be made a must-stop on the road to the White House every four years.\" A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday suggested that nearly 60 percent of black registered Democrats were backing Obama as the presidential nominee, with 31 percent supporting Clinton. That's a major shift from October, when African-Americans backed Clinton over Obama, 57 percent to 33 percent. What appears to have changed is Obama's electability. \"There's been a huge shift among African-American Democrats from Clinton to Obama. African-American Democrats used to be reluctant to support Obama because they didn't think a black man could be elected. Then Obama won Iowa and nearly won New Hampshire. Now they believe,\" Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst, said. \"Obama's lead over Clinton among black men is more than 50 points, and among black women, once a Clinton stronghold, Obama has an 11-point advantage,\" said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. Entrance polls from Saturday's Nevada Democratic caucuses match what appears in the CNN poll. Eighty-three percent of black voters questioned before they entered the caucuses said they were backing Obama, with 14 percent supporting Clinton, who if elected, would become the country's first woman to win the presidency. These kinds of numbers could spell trouble in South Carolina for Clinton, who's coming off victories in the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucuses. But Clinton holds a special relationship with many in the black community, thanks to her efforts in support of civil rights and to the popularity of former President Clinton with African-Americans. Both Democratic front-runners were reaching out to African-American voters Sunday. Obama, who often refers to King in his speeches, spoke at Atlanta, Georgia's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the late civil rights leader once preached. Watch Clinton, Obama reach out to black voters \u00bb . Obama recalled the legacy of discrimination against African-Americans but challenged the audience at the historic black church to take a look at a few lingering prejudices among some within the community. \"And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community,\" Obama said, citing homophobia, anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiment. Obama told the congregation Sunday morning that if King could forgive his jailers, \"surely we can look past what divides us in our time.\" Obama's visit to the city coincided with his endorsement Sunday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which cited his \"appeal across many of the lines that have divided America,\" adding that \"both Clinton and Obama would make very good presidents, [but] Obama is the person; this is his time.\" Georgia voters head to the polls February 5. In New York, Hillary Clinton spent Sunday morning at another historic black church, Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, where she picked up the endorsement of its pastor, the Rev. Calvin Butts. Butts said outside the church: \"A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to elect someone who has proven through time to me and to this community and this country that she has the experience to make things happen, and the vision to return us to a place of prosperity.\" Clinton also sounded a conciliatory note Sunday. \"I have the highest regard and admiration for my friend and colleague Sen. Barack Obama. I am honored to be running with him,\" she said. \"I hope that this election remains focused on the big challenges that confront us.\" After a distant third-place finish in the Nevada caucuses, Edwards on Sunday made light of his performance. On CNN's \"Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer,\" Edwards said he hopes \"what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,\" admitting, \"I got my butt kicked.\" Edwards would like to rebound in South Carolina, his native state. He won the primary there in 2004 when he was making his first bid for the White House. But he's running a distant third in most recent surveys in South Carolina, behind Obama and Clinton. On Sunday, Edwards sounded a cautious note, saying South Carolina was important but just one \"part of the long process. ... We will see how it goes.\" Also on \"Late Edition,\" the House majority whip, Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, cited the timing of the debate to help put the spotlight on issues important to blacks. Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American in Congress, was instrumental in having Monday's debate held in South Carolina. \"When we were dealing with the dates of the primary, we tried to work in the symbolism that it would have to all of the world, for that matter, to have this debate on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday celebration,\" Clyburn told Blitzer, who is the moderator of the event. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Rebecca Sinderbrand, Chris Welch and Josh Levs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Congressional Black Caucus Institute, CNN host Democratic debate tonight .\nFront-runners vying for African-American voters ahead of South Carolina primary .\nSen. Barack Obama visits former church of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta .\nSen. Hillary Clinton picks up pastor's endorsement at Harlem church .","id":"42483672c204aebcf7ba6e7d6ca4c628fe9a69e7"} -{"article":"RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination was her own fault, the country's president, Pervez Musharraf, said in an interview on U.S. television. Bhutto sits on stage at a campaign rally minutes before her assassination. \"For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone -- nobody else. Responsibility is hers,\" the former general told CBS' \"60 Minutes\" on Sunday. Bhutto was killed December 27 in Rawalpindi, south of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, while she was standing in an armored moving car after rallying supporters for now-postponed parliamentary elections. Her head was above the roof and unprotected at the time of the attack. The cause of her death is not clear: a bomber blew himself up near Bhutto's limousine and videotape showed a gunman present, though no autopsy has been carried out. Asked if Bhutto could have been shot, Musharraf said, \"Yes, absolutely, yes. Possibility.\" He has said he welcomes an international investigation. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, rejected criticism that his government did not do enough to provide security to Bhutto, who was seeking to regain the post of prime minister. He noted that she had already survived one assassination attempt and \"was given more security than any other person.\" Asked about the hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, widely rumored to be in the remote border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Musharraf said, \"There is no proof whatsoever that he's here. We are not particularly looking for him, but we are operating against this -- and al Qaeda and militant Taliban. And in the process, obviously, it is combined. Maybe we are looking for him also.\" And Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, told CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" that, \"If we knew where he was, we would have taken him out.\" Durrani added that Musharraf's comment about \"not specifically looking for Osama\" means that the Pakistani military is \"totally focused on destroying al Qaeda and the Taliban network and not just one person.\" About Bhutto's death, he noted only that the investigation is not completed \"and we should not jump to conclusions.\" Still, he added, \"if she had not come out of the vehicle, the protected and armored vehicle, maybe we would have seen her smiling face again today.\" Though Musharraf's popularity at home has plummeted, he retains support from GOP presidential contender Sen. John McCain. \"I think he's a good man,\" the Arizonan told NBC's \"Meet the Press.\" \"But I think he's made mistakes, don't get me wrong. And we've got to move forward with these elections and have them free and fair. \"But I can work with him. He understands the threat to his country that the Taliban and al Qaeda present. And radical Islamic extremists. He's a very smart man. He'd be one of the first to go. They've tried to kill him nine times, OK? Nine times they've tried to kill Musharraf. He's not their favorite guy.\" The New York Times reported Sunday that the Bush administration is considering expanding covert operations in the western part of Pakistan to shore up support for Musharraf's government and to find bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson of New Mexico told CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" that, though he had not heard details of the plan, \"it sounds like a strategy that makes sense.\" He added, \"We have got to take whatever action is needed.\" Richardson has called for Musharraf to step down and has called for free and fair elections. \"What we need to do is ask Musharraf, push him, push him to step aside for the good of the country, because he is widely unpopular,\" he told CNN. Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate from New York, said Saturday that she would try to persuade Musharraf to share the responsibility for safeguarding his country's nuclear weapons with a delegation from the United States and perhaps Great Britain. Meanwhile, detectives from Britain's Scotland Yard on Sunday once again examined the white Land Cruiser that Bhutto was riding in when she was assassinated, Pakistan's state-run news agency said. The Associated Press of Pakistan said the detectives also watched videos of Bhutto's last moments three times, and looked at bird's eye view photographs of Liaqat Bagh park taken from a building that overlooks the Rawalpindi public site. The team of five detectives arrived in Pakistan Friday after Musharraf agreed they should work alongside Pakistani agencies to determine how Bhutto was killed and who was responsible for her death. On Saturday, the team spent more than two hours at the park. Musharraf said he expected the Scotland Yard investigators to help \"solve all the confusion\" surrounding the case. Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, wants a United Nations inquiry into his late wife's assassination. The Pakistan interior ministry say the former leader died when she hit her head on the lever of her car's sunroof after ducking for cover after a suicide bomb attack on her convoy. However, supporters of Bhutto insist she was shot prior to the explosion -- a view that some say is supported by video footage of the moments before the blast. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: British counter-terrorism experts re-inspect Bhutto's vehicle .\nNEW: Bhutto's assassination was her own fault, says Musharraf in interview .\nNEW: He blamed her for standing up outside the safety of an armored car .\nBhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, wants a U.N. inquiry into his late wife's death .","id":"3501c83d3dab4a2e4d2142522a4bf1510a64422a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas couple charged with killing the little girl known as \"Baby Grace\" now face capital murder charges, after a Texas grand jury upgraded the charges on Wednesday. Riley Ann Sawyers was moved from Ohio to Texas by her mother. Prosecutors said they have not decided whether to seek the death penalty against the girl's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, and Trenor's husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II. Two-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers was beaten to death and her body was disposed of in Galveston Bay. Riley's body was found October 29 by a fisherman on an uninhabited island in the bay. It was wrapped in black plastic bags and stuffed in a blue, plastic bin. Her identity was not known at first, and police dubbed her \"Baby Grace.\" Police sketches of the child were widely distributed, and Sheryl Sawyers, the girl's paternal grandmother, contacted police from her Ohio home to say the drawing resembled her granddaughter. DNA testing confirmed the child's identity. Trenor, 19, and Zeigler, 24, were initially charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence. But since the initial charges were filed last month the investigation has continued and police have gathered additional evidence, in addition to confirming Riley's identity, said a statement released Wednesday by Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk. Based on that, the grand jury was asked to upgrade the charges, he said. A three-hour hearing was held Wednesday in which grand jurors heard testimony from five witnesses, including police and FBI investigators and the medical examiner. The grand jury deliberated for only three minutes Wednesday before upgrading the charges, Sistrunk said. Trenor told police Riley had been beaten and thrown across a room and that her head was held under water before she died July 24. She said the couple hid the girl's body in a storage shed for one to two months before putting it in the plastic container and dumping it into the bay. A medical examiner said Riley's skull was fractured in three places that would have been fatal injuries. Trenor and the girl moved to Texas from Ohio in May to be with Zeigler, who Trenor had met online. Sistrunk said the investigation is continuing, and a decision on whether to seek the death penalty will not be made until its conclusion. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Grand jury upgrades charges against girl's mother and mother's husband .\nPresented new evidence, jury took just 3 minutes to vote for tougher charges .\nRiley Ann Sawyers, initially known as Baby Grace, was beaten to death .\nProsecutors haven't decided whether to seek death penalty for couple .","id":"964589248c2d95ac3c734ad71283ca22ae4ecedf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Saudi lawyer who represented a woman kidnapped and raped by seven men said his license to practice has been reinstated. A protest appeared in India in November against the Saudi sentence. Lawyer and human rights activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem told CNN's Nic Robertson that the Justice Ministry has reinstated his license. Al-Lahem had previously told CNN that the Saudi judge revoked his license as punishment for speaking to the media about his client's case, which attracted international attention. His client, an engaged teenager, was raped by seven men who found her alone with a man unrelated to her. She has said she was meeting with the man to retrieve a photograph. The attack took place in Qatif in March 2006. The seven rapists were sentenced to two to nine years in prison but she also was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for having violated the kingdom's strict Islamic law by being alone with an unrelated man. The woman's sentence provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabian law. Under Saudi law, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. In challenging what he said were his suspension and disbarment, al-Lahem said he had received threats on his life from the religious right. Last month, Minister of Justice Abdallah bin Mohammed al-Sheikh, in a phone call to a Saudi Television newscast, said the lawyer's license had never been revoked. \"Such decisions are made through institutions in the kingdom,\" he said. \"The punishment of the lawyer or any lawyer does not come from a reaction; it comes from a carefully examined procedure within a special council in the ministry.\" He said the council charged with deciding law license revocations had not issued any decisions in the case. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Saudi lawyer Abdul Rahman al-Lahem says his license to practice is reinstated .\nAl-Lahem says license revoked because he publicized rape victim's conviction .\nSaudi minister last month denied license was ever revoked .\nRape victim was convicted of being alone with an unrelated man .","id":"6b72550a663bcb7a64e242ede6da53b1f585ea71"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN is taking an in-depth look at contemporary Russia as part of the \"Eye on Russia\" series. We asked you to share your photos of Russia and tell us about your experiences in the country, and photos and stories poured in of beautiful places and ordinary places, and of hopes for Russia's future in the 21st century. Anna Glubokina, 27, jumped at the opportunity to send photos of her country. A business analyst in Moscow, she has traveled through Russia and collected photos along the way. Murray Gillis took this image of an ice sculpture during a trip to Gubkinsky, Russia. \"I think that Russia is like a mountain river: fast, dangerous and beautiful,\" Glubokina said. \"You will never know what is waiting for you in the future. But I love Russia very much. I will never be bored here. I know that tourists like Russia, because of its astonishing churches and palaces, because of Kremlin and Red Square, because of its great scenery.\" Many of those who sent us photos were originally from other countries, like Justin Goney, originally from Urbana, Ohio. He now lives in Helsinki, Finland, but spent 14 months teaching English in Moscow. At the small Soviet-style grocery store where he sometimes shopped, he would tell the store clerk what he would like to purchase, rather than get the items himself. The 26-year old said he thinks there are more tourists in Russia now than there would have been during Soviet times. He said he has very vivid memories of what it was like seeing the country on TV as a child. \"I guess that's sort of a defining element of who I am is growing up during the Reagan presidency and seeing the end of the Cold War on TV,\" Goney said. Arturo Fortun, originally from Bolivia, has lived in Russia for six years. He said the Russian people will take time to become accustomed to democracy. He said life is different there, but after a time, your impressions may change. \"It's like a constant adventure,\" he said. \"You cannot take anything for granted.\" Volker Kleensang, of Hamburg, Germany, frequently visits Kaliningrad, Russia, a former German territory that lies between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. Physically separated from the rest of Russia, Kaliningrad has a different character than other parts of the country, Kleensang said. \"Many people from Kaliningrad, they still use the old German name. For me it's a sign that they say, 'We are Russian, but we are more and more European-oriented than the people from Moscow or St. Petersburg.'\" Craig Dillon of Queenstown, New Zealand, visited the country after winning a contest through a New Zealand vodka company. He said he had a choice of taking an $8,000 prize or a trip to Moscow, and out of curiosity, he took the latter. It was his first trip out of the region, and he said it was a \"major eye opener\" to see the gap between the rich and poor: \"Fast cars power past a begging woman on the streets of Moscow.\" On a more mundane note, he visited a Russian McDonald's and found that the food was much the same as anywhere else. The only thing he noticed about edible items was that the water had a slightly different taste. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Eye on Russia is part of a CNN series looking at contemporary Russia .\nCNN.com asked readers to share their photos, views of Russia .","id":"c96bdfc0463d994ddc858ad358fe59371be79352"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin Thursday citing an alleged claim of responsibility by al Qaeda for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a DHS official told CNN. An Italian news agency says al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri began planning Bhutto's killing in October. But such a claim has not appeared on radical Islamist Web sites that regularly post such messages from al Qaeda and other militant groups. The source of the claim was apparently Italian news agency, Adnkronos International (AKI), which said that al Qaeda Afghanistan commander and spokesman Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid had telephoned the agency to make the claim. \"We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,\" AKI quoted Al-Yazid as saying. According to AKI, al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri set the wheels in motion for the assassination in October. One Islamist Web site repeated the claim, but that Web site is not considered a reliable source for Islamist messages by experts in the field. The DHS official said the claim was \"an unconfirmed open source claim of responsibility\" and the bulletin was sent out at about 6 p.m. to state and local law enforcement agencies. The official characterized the bulletin as \"information sharing.\" Ross Feinstein, spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, said the U.S. intelligence community is monitoring the situation and trying to figure out who is responsible for the assassination. \"We are not in a position to confirm who may be responsible,\" Feinstein said. Feinstein said that the intelligence community \"obviously analyze(s) open source intelligence,\" but he would not say whether the community believes the claim has any validity. For now, he said, there is \"no conclusion\" as to who may be responsible. Earlier, DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said Bhutto's assassination had not prompted \"any adjustments to our security posture.\" \"Of course, we continue to closely monitor events as they unfold overseas,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI, Department of Homeland Security issue bulletin Thursday .\nBulletin says two al Qaeda associates made claim to news agency .\n\"We terminated the most precious American asset,\" associate says .\nDHS official says the claim has not been confirmed .","id":"085dc5d706487da983655043b144952956cb3c5b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate was called to order for 11 seconds on Wednesday as the last political scuffle of the year between the White House and the Democratic-led Congress played out. Democratic senators will hold short \"pro forma\" sessions over the holiday break to prevent recess appointments. Nearly all the senators left the Capitol for the Christmas holiday last week, but Democrats are keeping the Senate in session to block President Bush from making any recess appointments -- a constitutional mechanism that allows the president, during congressional recesses, to fill top government posts for up to one year without Senate confirmation. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, opened and then immediately gaveled the Senate session to a close. He spent 57 seconds in the chamber. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced December 19 that he would keep the Senate open with a series of \"pro forma\" sessions through mid-January. Talks had just broken down with the White House on a deal that would have allowed the president to make dozens of those appointments if he agreed not to appoint one controversial official, Steven Bradbury, as the permanent head of the influential Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. Bush declined to accept the Democrats' offer, and Reid refused to approve Bradbury because of concerns about his involvement in crafting legal opinions for the administration on interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects. Similar sessions were conducted over the Thanksgiving recess. Webb also did the duty Friday, but he won't be the only senator tasked with presiding over the shortened sessions. Other Democrats -- including Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chuck Schumer of New York -- will share the duty. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ted Barrett and Vandana Kilaru contributed to this report .","highlights":"Democratic senators will hold short \"pro forma\" sessions over the holiday break .\nSessions usually under one minute long .\nMove prevents President Bush from making recess appointments .\nBush refused to withdraw one controversial nominee after Democratic offer .","id":"1c1dc1da2f6ba045478e25e91c8e1b039ce4cc67"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday proposed a temporary, broad-based tax relief package aimed at spurring the nation's slowing economy. \"We can provide a shot in the arm\" to the economy, President Bush said Friday at the White House. During remarks at the White House, Bush, flanked by economic advisers, said the nation's economy is at risk for a downturn and Congress must act to head off trouble. \"This growth package must be big enough to make a difference in an economy as large and dynamic as ours,\" Bush said. \"By passing a growth package quickly, we can provide a shot in the arm to keep a fundamentally strong economy healthy, and it will help keep economic sectors that are going through adjustments, such as the housing market, from adversely affecting other parts of our economy.\" Watch more of Bush's tax outline \u00bb . It should equal about 1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, or roughly $140 billion, he added. Bush said the economy will continue to grow but at a slower rate. The president offered no specific details of the proposed package, but he did insist that it include tax incentives for business, \"including small businesses, to make major investments in their enterprises this year.\" Bush also said the economic package must include \"rapid income tax relief\" for consumers to \"lift our economy at a time when people otherwise might spend less.\" Although Democratic leaders in Congress expressed general support for Bush's remarks, other Democrats on Capitol Hill met the president's proposal with suspicion. Two Democratic leadership aides made it clear Friday that the growth package would not win support from Democratic leaders unless it includes relief for low and middle income earners. \"We want to include people who pay taxes, not necessarily income taxes -- a lot of lower income people pay payroll taxes,\" said one aide. Another source stated flatly, \"We're not going to pass a bill in the House that doesn't include low-income people.\" Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said he was disappointed that Bush did not include stimulus-spending measures aimed at helping the disadvantaged such as extending unemployment benefits. Schumer said such spending initiatives would jump-start the economy faster than tax cuts alone. \"I think if we avoid any of the ideological fights, we could actually pass something so that it would take effect on March 1,\" Schumer said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, expressed agreement with Bush on \"the need to provide assistance immediately,\" saying in a statement that \"we must invest our resources in such a way that injects confidence and consumer demand, promotes economic growth and creates jobs.\" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said, \"I also agree that our focus must be on finding temporary measures that will do the job effectively.\" Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, agreed that \"we must act swiftly to boost the economy\" but stressed the need to help families who \"are struggling every day to pay their bills, heat their homes and pay their mortgages.\" Bush's remarks came a day after talks on the subject with Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's call for a fiscal stimulus package to help an economy beset by plummeting stock prices and a credit and mortgage crunch. Bush said Friday he was encouraged by his discussions with lawmakers. \"I believe there is enough broad consensus that we can come up with a package that can be approved with bipartisan support.\" Existing income tax cuts supported by the Bush administration are due to expire in 2010, and the president called on Congress to make them permanent. \"Unless Congress acts, the American people will face massive tax increases in less than three years,\" Bush said. \"This tax increase would put jobs and economic growth at risk.\" Watch experts explain how to goose the economy \u00bb . The proposed stimulus package comes as a leading gauge of future economic activity was released Friday by the Conference Board. The December report showed a decline for a third straight month for the U.S. leading index -- down two-tenths of a percent. The report cited housing permits for the largest negative contribution to the index. See chart showing Americans' recession fears \u00bb . On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average of stock prices dropped more than 300 points after reports of slowing growth and massive debt write-offs by Merrill Lynch. The brokerage giant reported a nearly $10 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 and wrote off more than $11 billion in bad mortgage debts. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers stressed the importance of whom any relief package would target. \"It needs to go to people who are going to spend it,\" Summers said Friday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"That means particularly those who rely on tax refunds -- those receiving benefits, those whose incomes have been hurt by the downturn.\" Bernanke told the House Budget Committee on Thursday that he does not believe the economy will enter a recession, but he said he expects growth to proceed at a slow pace this year and possibly into early 2009. He said Congress needs to take decisive action to boost the economy. \"To be useful, a fiscal stimulus package should be implemented quickly and structured so that its effects on aggregate spending are felt as much as possible within the next 12 months or so,\" Bernanke said. But he said any package should be \"explicitly temporary\" to avoid running up the government's long-term debt. Bernanke stopped short of suggesting that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent, telling lawmakers he supports \"the law of arithmetic.\" \"What comes in at least has to equal what goes out at some point,\" he said. In 2001, Americans received checks from the government designed to stimulate the economy. Individuals received $300 and families $600. Twenty to 40 percent of the checks were spent within days. Consumers saved one-third of the money, and two-thirds went back into the economy within two quarters, officials said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Democratic leadership aides say bill must help low-, middle-income earners .\nPresident calls for broad-based tax relief for consumers, businesses .\nBush says he's encouraged by talks with Congress, hopeful of agreement .\nBush says his tax cuts due to expire in 2010 should be made permanent .","id":"da90eb668bfc66a5e70b2e6631a5ec1c9ffb2413"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- More than 150 people have abandoned a sinking cruise liner that collided with an iceberg in Antarctic waters, a Chilean navy captain told CNN. The ship sent out a distress call at around 10 p.m. ET Thursday. Passenger ship Explorer reported problems near the South Shetland Islands, south of Argentina. The area is in a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom. Capt. Carlos Munita of the Chilean navy said they received a distress call from the Explorer, saying the vessel had hit an iceberg around 10 p.m. ET Thursday. He added a Norwegian rescue ship had arrived at the scene. Tour companies describe the Explorer as a passenger ship which runs tours between South America and Antarctica. Some 154 people are reported to be on board ship, which carries a Liberian flag, including 100 passengers. However the nationalities of those on board is not yet known. Passengers and crew have been evacuated onto lifeboats, but the captain and the first officer are reported to have stayed on board. \"The great majority of people, including all the passengers, have been safely taken off the Explorer and are now being recovered by the first of the vessels to arrive on scene in response to the distress call,\" Dave Jardine-Smith, head of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) search and rescue team in England said. \"The passengers and crew from the Explorer have not been in lifeboats very long,\" Jardine-Smith said. \"They should be, hopefully, in good condition. We are told that there are no injuries.\" Earlier, Mark Clark, a spokesman for the MCA told the Press Association five ships were on their way to help the sinking vessel. \"She hit something and is taking on a serious amount of water, that is all we know.\" The temperature in the area is said to be at around minus 5C, with a sea temperature at around minus 1C, forecasters told the Press Association. Stephen Davenport, senior forecaster with MeteoGroup, said:\"It wouldn't take long for hypothermia to set in at that kind of temperature in the sea. \"They do get very bad storms down that way, and gale force winds especially, because there is no land in the way,\" he told PA. Lt. Matt Alex from the US Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center said the boat is owned by Gap Adventures, based in Toronto, Canada. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"150 passengers evacuated from a ship after it struck object in Antarctic waters .\nShip, named Explorer, was expected to sink, British coastguards said .\nPassengers in lifeboats, captain and first officer remain on board .","id":"717b1934db9eb0d7e5e2aef75cd54b29a6530a59"} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- After witnessing the rapid devastation of a Cayman Island coral reef where he had been diving since childhood, Todd Barber was moved from horror to action. He gave up a six-figure salary as a marketing consultant and dedicated his life to restoring the world's ocean reef ecosystems. \"I had been following this reef since I had been 14; it was where my first dive was,\" recalls Barber. \"When that one little tiny reef was lost, that sparked something in me. If we lost one and it took that tens of thousands of years to get here, how fast is this happening?\" Barber had caught a small glimpse of a larger global issue -- the destruction of the world's coral reefs -- and it scared him. According to the Nature Conservancy, if the present rate of destruction continues, 70 percent of the world's coral reefs will be destroyed by the year 2050. Not only are they home to 25 percent of all marine fish species, but the organization states that 500 million people rely on coral reefs for their food and livelihoods. So Barber and his father, a marine biologist and fellow diver, sat down to devise a solution to \"put the reef back.\" What started as a basic idea to shape concrete around a beach ball led to three years of research, testing and prototyping with the help of friends and college professors. Watch as Barber explains his passion for saving reefs \u00bb . \"Our goal was to mimic nature, not dictate nature,\" says Barber. \"And that meant that I couldn't come up with an idea; I had to design something that would fit exactly what the reef required.\" The result was what Barber calls a \"Reef Ball.\" Made of concrete engineered to last more than 500 years, Reef Balls are circular structures with a hollow center that serve as a base habitat upon which a natural reef can grow. Portable, inexpensive and environmentally friendly, according to Barber, Reef Balls can be built anywhere and are used to mimic and rehabilitate all forms of oceanic reefs, such as mangrove, oyster and coral reefs. They can also help control erosion and stabilize shorelines. Watch as an organization in Tampa tries to restore habitats for oysters \u00bb . To manufacture and place Reef Balls in marine habitats around the world, Barber established The Reef Ball Foundation in 1993. Today, the non-profit organization works with environmental agencies, universities, community groups and corporations and empowers others to build and restore their local marine ecosystems. \"[Reefs] have an incredible bearing on human life,\" says Barber. \"Without conserving these resources, they're going to be all gone before we even know what we've lost.\" According to Barber, marine conservation isn't just about Reef Balls, but they're one important tool. \"It's about saving natural reefs. It's about changing our behaviors,\" says Barber. \"It's better to save the reef that you have than to build a new one.\" Since its inception, the Reef Ball Foundation has placed Reef Balls in more than 59 countries. \"For me, personally, the satisfaction comes from diving on a Reef Ball and seeing that the environment has been rehabilitated; that the reef is actually there,\" says Barber. \"And that our grandkids will be able to see the same thing.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Most coral reefs are in danger, according to estimates from the Nature Conservancy .\nThe group says 500 million people rely on coral reefs for food .\nReef Balls are concrete spheres upon which a natural reef can grow .\nThe objects also help control beach erosion and stabilize shorelines .","id":"e493fe7f282adb10c6b9af18d41f0181f17341e5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Valerie Gooding is in the top five most powerful businesswomen in Europe as named by the Financial Times. She runs global health and care organization BUPA and under her leadership it has grown to over 8 million customers in over 190 countries and record revenues. CNN's Todd Benjamin spoke to her in London and began by asking her why there are so few women at the top. She said it goes beyond family issues. Gooding: Women sometimes don't put themselves forward for things. And one of the things I think about and talk about a lot is that women often lack confidence to go for the next job, the top job. They sometimes don't wish to compete or they don't think they're good enough for the next thing. Benjamin: Why do you think that is? Gooding: Partly a lack of role models, partly it may be conditioning from a very early age about what the role of women is in society and the family, in work. But also I think there is still -- I don't like to call it a glass ceiling, but I think there is still an unseen barrier for women, which is that, if you ask most business people, would they like to promote more women, they would all say yes, they'd love to: \"Where are these women, I want to promote them,\" will be the answer. But often they don't really automatically think of a woman first for a top job. Benjamin: And what advice would you give to women who want to try and make it to the top? Gooding: Well, first of all, to learn as much as you can and to make sure you've got the right experience, the right qualifications, and to enjoy each job for its own interest and job satisfaction. But I think another piece of advice I would give to women is not to be afraid to put themselves forward and say what it is they want, because I think one thing that happens with women, which perhaps is a gender difference, is that women often hang back and think \"I will be noticed for my results, everybody will see how great I am because I've delivered these exceptional outcomes\". But actually life isn't like that, you have to tell people about your results and your achievements, and men are often better at doing that than women are. Benjamin: What do you think separates good leadership from great leadership? Gooding: Well, I think good leaders should be judged on their results. And I think of a good leader you should be able to say \"she transformed the business,\" \"she upped the performance,\" \"she exceeded the expectations of the stakeholders.\" I think of a great leader I would go to that old Chinese saying, \"of a great leader the people will say \"we did it ourselves\"\". Benjamin: Do you think that women in general as managers are more inclusive than men? Gooding: No, I don't. In fact, I sometimes find these gender differences, when sort of represented in the business environment, are actually just not very useful. I think men and women have very different styles of leadership as individuals and I don't think it goes down to straightforward gender divide. Because I have seen women who are more autocratic and more leading from the front and more dictatorial, and I've equally seen men who are very consultative. So, I don't just think it divides that way. Benjamin: You clearly love what you do. What is it about business that you think is such a buzz? Gooding: It's the constant challenge, there's always something new, there's a new competitor, there's a new pressure, there's a new opportunity, there's a new challenge, I think that's what keeps us all going. I think it's the thrill of the chase, basically. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Valerie Gooding, CEO of BUPA, speaks to CNN's Todd Benjamin .\nBUPA has over 8 million customers in 190 countries .\nValerie is one of FT's top five most powerful businesswomen in Europe .","id":"e510fc72b8ef595e45f1a510d0cad761ae1bd032"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- A fire charred the top of two of three wings of the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino on Friday, causing no major injuries but forcing visitors and employees to evacuate, authorities said. The recently remodeled Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, is shown after and before the fire. A bit over an hour after it began, the fire was fully contained, according to the fire departments in Las Vegas and Clark County. Firefighters would remain at the hotel until \"the fire is completely knocked out,\" said Clark County Fire Chief Steven M. Smith. Watch the fire chief explain the situation \u00bb . That would be at least through the afternoon, he said. It was mainly an exterior fire, although there might have been slight damage to some rooms, he told CNN after a news conference. The cause of the fire was unknown. Welders had been working on the roof. See where the hotel is located \u00bb . No one was trapped, and there were no reports of major injuries, said Ed Cagalo of the Clark County Fire Department. The 32-floor building was completely evacuated. The blaze was reported about 11 a.m. Black smoke and flames poured from the fire, which roared through the building's exterior stucco and foam until firefighters were able to get on the roof and knock down the flames. Watch the fire burn \u00bb . Most of the damage was to the top floor of the building. Falling debris ignited parts of an exterior ledge four floors below. \"High-rise fires are never easy to fight. As you can see with it being outside, our firefighters actually had to hang out the windows to try and cut the fire off. We directed our fire streams at an angle so we could make contact with the fire. ... It wasn't an easy fire at all,\" Smith said. Watch the chief talk about the firefighting efforts \u00bb . He urged motorists and pedestrians to avoid the area. Earlier, the smoke was visible from more than a mile away, CNN producer Darian Billington said. Billington said traffic was backed up on the Strip, and crowds of people were gathering to watch the blaze. \"It was horrible, there was fire everywhere,\" a hotel worker who watched the flames from a parking lot told CNN affiliate KVBC. Four U.S. Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters with rescue crews were put on standby at Nellis Air Force Base during the afternoon to assist in any rescue efforts, but were not needed, a Nellis spokeswoman said. The hotel has more than 3,000 rooms, including 211 penthouse suites, and conference rooms. The more expensive rooms are on the top floors. The hotel was built in 1996 for $344 million. It is in the heart of the resort corridor. The Monte Carlo, a subsidiary of MGM Mirage, has about 3,000 employees. In 1980, a fire across the street at the MGM Grand Hotel, now Ballys, killed 84 people and injured nearly 700. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Fire doused on the top floors and roof of Monte Carlo resort .\nFire chief: Firefighters had to hang out the windows to try to cut the fire off .\nThe 32-floor building was completely evacuated .\nNo major injuries have been reported, and no one was trapped .","id":"564e02cb944ea00c02f9832ab968441b5c67332e"} -{"article":"PELLA, Iowa (CNN) -- A senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted Friday that the former Arkansas governor had \"no foreign policy credentials\" after his comments reacting to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto raised questions. During an event Friday in Pella, Iowa, Huckabee said the crisis sparked by Bhutto's death should lead to a crackdown on illegal immigrants from Pakistan. The Huckabee official told CNN that when he said that, Huckabee was trying to turn attention away from scrutiny of his foreign policy knowledge. Huckabee's foreign policy credentials have been under a microscope since the candidate admitted that he was unaware of an intelligence report that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program earlier this month. \"In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday, it's interesting that there are more Pakistanis who have illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border,\" Huckabee said Friday. Americans might \"look halfway around the world and say, 'How does that affect me?' ... We need to understand that violence and terror is significant when it happens in Pakistan, [and] it's more significant if it can happen in our own cities. And it happens if people can slip across our border and we have no control over them.\" \"The immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds, it's about people who could come with a shoulder-fired missile and could do serious damage and harm to us,\" Huckabee said, \"and that's what we need to be worried about.\" The Huckabee official said he told Huckabee that his reaction to the crisis in Pakistan will be the story for the next several days, and until he is \"briefed and up to speed\" on Pakistan, a good place for Huckabee to draw the line is on illegal immigration. Watch a report about the 'surprising tactic' \u00bb . \"Why does Rudy Giuliani get more credentials on homeland security than you do? You've been a governor,\" the Huckabee campaign official said he told the candidate. The campaign official admitted that Huckabee's tough immigration talk is also aimed at helping him win male GOP voters in Iowa -- a bloc the official concedes the campaign has been losing ground with. Huckabee said 660 Pakistanis entered the country illegally last year. When asked by a reporter the source for that statistic, Huckabee appeared unsure, saying, \"Those are numbers that I got today from a briefing, and I believe they are CIA and immigration numbers.\" The Huckabee campaign later said the figure came from a March 2006 report by The Denver Post. But the Border Patrol told CNN on Friday that it apprehended only \"a handful\" of illegal immigrants from Pakistan in 2007. The number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan deported or apprehended is not mentioned in the latest report from the Department of Homeland Security\/Office of Immigration Statistics. In 2005, the nation did not make the list of the top 10 sources of illegal immigrants. The previous year, Pakistan was the last country listed, but no specific numbers were given. Huckabee is the GOP front-runner in Iowa, according to most polls. A Los Angeles Times\/Bloomberg poll conducted December 20-23 and 26 has Huckabee leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 36 percent to 28 percent among likely caucus goers. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 7 percentage points. As the campaigns enter the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses on January 3, Romney has gone on the attack against Huckabee, particularly focusing on his record on illegal immigration issues while he was Arkansas governor. Huckabee's Friday comments on immigration came after he appeared to make another gaffe Thursday, when he seemed to suggest incorrectly that Pakistan was under martial law. Watch Huckabee's response to Bhutto's assassination \u00bb . While commenting on Bhutto's death during an Orlando, Florida, press conference, Huckabee told reporters that the United States' first priority should be to find the responsible parties. \"But the most urgent thing to do is to offer our sincere sympathies and concerns to the family and to the people of Pakistan, and that's the first thing we would be doing other than, again, trying to ascertain who's behind it, and what impact does it have on whether or not there's going to be martial law continued in Pakistan, suspension of the constitution,\" Huckabee said. \"Those are concerns that the United States certainly should have.\" Later Thursday, at an event in West Des Moines, Iowa, Huckabee told CNN that \"it was not that I was unaware it was suspended, two weeks ago, lifted. ...The point was, would it be reinstated, would it be placed back in? All of the aspects of martial law have not been completely lifted even now. There's still a heavy hand Musharraf has used.\" Conservative critics immediately pointed out that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lifted the country's state of martial law roughly two weeks ago. The slip \"ought to be really bad news for Huckabee,\" said the National Review's Jim Geraghty, writing on the magazine's Web site. \"I'm not sure how big assassination-related news will play in the first primary states. Still, I think those misstatements will exacerbate the Huck\/Not Huck divide in GOP circles.\" The National Review has endorsed Romney. But CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said the debate over whether Huckabee has command of the nuances of the Pakistan crisis would have little impact on his support. \"Mike Huckabee is a populist. His comments on Pakistan reflect a populist understanding of the crisis, which, is to say, not much,\" Schneider said. \"Sure, the political establishment is snickering, but I doubt that his misstatements bother his supporters much.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Dana Bash and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Aide admits that Huckabee has \"no foreign policy credentials\"\nNEW: Campaign official suggested tying Pakistan crisis to immigration issue .\nHuckabee appeared not to know that martial law had been lifted in Pakistan .\nGaffes will have little effect on support for populist candidate, analyst says .","id":"dfd0cea6589cb8be40538b9f165781fbc2c7d796"} -{"article":"KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- President Bush drew parallels between the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the potential costs of pulling out of Iraq in a speech Wednesday. President Bush draws parallels Wednesday between the cost of pulling out of Iraq and \"the tragedy of Vietnam.\" \"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left,\" Bush told members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, at their convention in Kansas City, Missouri. \"Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields,' \" the president said. The White House billed the speech, as it did next week's address to the American Legion, as an effort to \"provide broader context\" for the debate over the upcoming Iraq progress report by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad. Bush also sought to shore up the perception of his support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, after voicing some frustration with him on Tuesday. \"Prime Minister Maliki's a good guy -- good man with a difficult job and I support him,\" Bush said. \"And it's not up to the politicians in Washington, D.C., to say whether he will remain in his position. Watch Bush reiterate his support for al-Maliki \u00bb . Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said Bush had drawn the wrong lesson from history: . \"America lost the war in Vietnam because our troops were trapped in a distant country we did not understand supporting a government that lacked sufficient legitimacy with its people,\" Kennedy said in a statement. Sen. Joe Biden, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, invoked his own Vietnam analogy in a statement released after the speech: . \"It's the president's policies that are pushing us toward another Saigon moment -- with helicopters fleeing the roof of our embassy -- which he says he wants to avoid.\" Biden said Bush continues to cling to the premise that Iraqis will rally behind a strong central government, but he believes that will not happen. \"There's no trust within the Iraqi government; no trust of the government by the Iraqi people; no capacity of that government to deliver security or services; and no prospect that it will build that trust or capacity any time soon,\" Biden's statement said. But House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said more Democrats are \"bucking their party leaders\" in acknowledging progress in Iraq. \"Many rank-and-file Democrats have seen this progress firsthand and are now acknowledging the successes of a strategy they've repeatedly opposed,\" Boehner said in a statement. \"But Democratic leaders, deeply invested in losing the war, would rather move the goalposts and claim that a precipitous withdrawal is the right approach despite the overwhelming evidence of significant progress.\" Former presidential adviser David Gergen said Bush ran the risk of doing as much harm as good for his case. \"By invoking Vietnam he raised the question, 'if you learned so much from history, how did you ever get us involved in another quagmire?' \" Gergen said. Gergen said he did agree with Bush in one respect, though: \"He's right, initially when we pulled back in Vietnam there were massive killings.\" On Tuesday, Bush had expressed frustration with the pace of progress toward political reconciliation in Iraq, saying if the Iraqi government doesn't \"respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government.\" Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday shot back at criticism of his government, including pointed remarks from a U.S. senator who called his administration \"nonfunctioning\" and urged Iraq's parliament to turn it out of office. Speaking at a press conference in the Syrian capital of Damascus, al-Maliki characterized such comments as \"irresponsible\" and said they \"overstep the bounds of diplomatic and political courtesy.\" Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh told CNN that al-Maliki was referring to comments made Monday by Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, who called on Iraq's parliament to turn al-Maliki's \"nonfunctioning\" government out of office when it returns in two weeks. Levin said al-Maliki's government was \"too beholden to religious and sectarian leaders\" to reach a political settlement that would end the country's sectarian and insurgent violence. In his speech, Bush said withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened today's terrorists by compromising U.S. credibility, citing a quote from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that the American people would rise against the Iraq war the same way they rose against the war in Vietnam. \"Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price to American credibility, but the terrorists see things differently,\" Bush said. President Bush has frequently asked lawmakers -- and the American people -- to withhold judgment on his troop \"surge\" in Iraq until the report comes out in September. It is being closely watched on Capitol Hill, particularly by Republicans nervous about the political fallout from an increasingly unpopular war. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would wait for the report before deciding when a drawdown of the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq might begin. Bush's speeches Wednesday and next week are the latest attempts by the White House to try to reframe the debate over Iraq, as public support for the war continues to sag. A recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans -- 64 percent -- now oppose the Iraq war, and 72 percent say the Petraeus report will have no effect on their opinion. The poll also found a great deal of skepticism about the report; 53 percent said they do not trust Petraeus to give an accurate assessment of the situation in Iraq. In addition to his analogy to Vietnam, Bush referred to previous conflicts in Asia in talking about the war against terror in Iraq. \"There are many differences between the wars we fought in the Far East and the war on terror we are fighting today,\" Bush said. \"But one important similarity is that at their core, they are all ideological struggles. \"The militarists of Japan and the Communists in Korea and Vietnam were driven by a merciless vision for the proper ordering of humanity. They killed Americans because we stood in the way of their attempt to force this ideology on others.\" Bush said history proved skeptics wrong about Japan's ability to become a free society and will prove those who want to withdraw from Iraq wrong. \"In the aftermath of Japan's surrender, many thought it naive to help the Japanese transform themselves into a democracy. Then, as now, the critics argued that some people were simply not fit for freedom,\" Bush said. \"Today, in defiance of the critics, Japan ... stands as one of the world's great free societies.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Kennedy: Bush drawing wrong lesson from history .\nPresident says withdrawing from Iraq will embolden terrorists .\nSpeech is latest White House attempt to try to reframe the debate over Iraq .","id":"dbceded6ea7d8a0944ab3f44263f688f644a5c37"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- They prefer the darkness and calm of early morning when their targets are most vulnerable, still sleeping or under the influence. They make sure their prey -- suspected killers and other violent fugitives -- know what they're up against. U.S. Marshal supervisory inspector James Ergas takes aim during a computer-simulated attack. \"When they wake up to a submachine gun and flashlight in their face, they tend not to fight,\" says James Ergas, the supervisory inspector for the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. The U.S. Marshals Service is the nation's oldest law enforcement agency and best known for protecting federal judges, transporting federal prisoners and protecting witnesses. Less known is the cutting-edge work of the agency's six regional task forces in capturing suspects. The task force in Atlanta is located in a nondescript warehouse office park. In 2007, the investigators from the Southeast task force arrested more than 3,000 suspects; only once did the Marshals exchange gunfire, Ergas says. Watch Ergas blast bad guys in simulated attack \u00bb . \"This is the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of the Marshal Service,\" says Eugene O'Donnell, a former prosecutor and New York City police officer who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. On any given day, Ergas and his force are tracking 10 to 15 suspected killers roaming the Southeast, while also searching for other violent offenders. Already this year, they have been involved in a number of high-profile searches: Gary Michael Hilton, the suspect charged in the killing of Meredith Emerson who disappeared while hiking in northern Georgia; a fugitive Marine wanted in connection with the killing of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach in North Carolina; and suspects wanted in connection with the killings of two suburban Atlanta police officers. But most of the time they're chasing suspects outside of the glare of the media spotlight. \"Our mandate is to track violent fugitives -- murderers, armed robbers, rapists and fugitives of that caliber,\" says Keith Booker, the commander of the task force. Watch Booker describe their mission \u00bb . One suspect currently being hunted is Charles Leon Parker who has been on the run since the 1980s after being accused of molesting his stepdaughters. The Marshals were brought in recently, Booker says, after Parker allegedly called one of his victims and said, \"I wanted you to know I saw you and your daughter, and she sure is beautiful.\" O'Donnell says it takes highly trained, high energy, \"really special people\" to do such work day in and day out, especially when they're up against \"some of the most dangerous individuals in the country.\" \"It's not an exaggeration to say they're the front of the front line,\" O'Donnell says. \"It's not going to get any more challenging than this in law enforcement.\" To make sure they are well prepared, the Atlanta office is equipped with a locker full of high-powered weaponry; a high-tech operations center, complete with flat screen TVs, where they communicate directly with investigators in the field; a two-story house for training; and a 300-degree computer simulator that puts the Marshals into real life danger scenarios. In one demonstration, Ergas steps into the simulator and responds to reports of shots fired at a workplace. A woman rushes to a victim on the ground, as Ergas barks out commands. Moments later, a man rounds the corner. He too tends to the victim. Suddenly, the gunman runs into the corner and Ergas opens fire with his Glock. The suspect hits the ground. Watch Ergas say there's no better training than the simulator \u00bb . A split second later, another gunman emerges, and Ergas blasts him too. Think of it as Wii on steroids. \"These are things you cannot get on a range,\" Ergas says. There are 50 different scenarios the simulator can create, with a technician able to change each scenario. A trainee can use a shotgun, rifle, Glock 22 or Glock 23. The guns shoot a laser and each shot is traced. Sometimes, the simulator jams the guns to see how one responds to the situation. After each training session, the person is debriefed about why he or she opened fire or didn't fire at all. Each shot is analyzed, because in the real world a law enforcement officer is held accountable for every bullet that comes out of his or her gun. It helps investigators train for situations they could face on any given day, at any given moment, Ergas says. \"No one wants to shoot anyone,\" Ergas says. \"Even officers that may not have pulled the trigger will be affected by shooting and killing someone.\" O'Donnell says the fact the task force rarely engages fire with suspects and that they have such rigorous training, \"underscores you can teach tactics.\" \"This is a model,\" he says. Booker says it helps having a coordinated team of armed officers with shields and big guns, as well. \"We overwhelm them with surprising speed and force,\" he says. \"That's what keeps us safe, and that's what keeps them safe.\" His message for those still out there? \"We'll pull all of our collective knowledge and resources and investigative techniques to hunt them down and take them into custody,\" Booker says. \"We won't stop until our job is finished.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S. Marshals Southeast task force tracks 10-15 suspected killers a day .\nSome are high-profile cases, but most are searches that go under media radar .\nCommander: \"Our mandate is to track ... murderers, armed robbers, rapists\"\nOffice captured 3,000 suspects last year; only once were shots fired, chief says .","id":"305a7272b28da5bc5574487ca0a09f48b852788c"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Check out these seven truly amazing destinations and plan the best place for your great escape. The Farm at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand is the best place for an adrenaline rush. GIRL'S GETAWAY: Ojai Valley Inn & Spa -- Ojai, California . Why it's great: This Spanish Colonial hideaway offers 308 rooms -- many with fireplaces and private terraces with mountain views. (No wonder Kate Walsh celebrated her wedding here.) What to do: Activities range from hiking and horseback riding to the more esoteric (take a watercolor class or customize your own massage oil.) Watch what stars pack for trips \u00bb . Bring it back: Honey lip balm from a local bee farm; pixie tangerines (some of the sweetest fruits in this valley). Book it: ojairesort.com . HIP SIGHTSEEING: Haymarket Hotel -- London, UK . Why it's great: Haymarket manages to capture the cool, contemporary buzz of today's London to a tee. It's where Posh and Becks stay when they cross the pond and where Jude Law drops by for dinner. All 50 guest rooms are spacious and done in a bold color scheme. What to do: Shop at OG2 the new shop from of-the-moment designer Duro Olowu, whose vintage prints draw clients like Sienna Miller; visit Eco, a Green store opened by Colin Firth in Chiswick; or head to the Fashion and Textile Museum, spearheaded by designer Zandra Rhodes. For London's hottest new table, return to Haymarket's Brumus. Bring it back: Blue-suede weekend bag at Conran; new Lulu Guinness jewelry collection (we love the glamour-girl charm); colorful candles or twist tumblers from Nina Campbell. Book it: firmdale.com . SHOPPING SPREE: Villa Mangiacane -- Tuscany, Italy . Why it's great: You'll feel as if you stumbled onto a Bernardo Bertolucci set at this retreat, with its sculpture garden and gnarled olive grove. The 26 guest rooms are located in two villas, but romantics should stay in the 16th-century main villa, whose loggia is decorated with historic frescoes. You can request to have dinner in a new spot each night (try the dreamy vineyard). What to do: Florence is a short drive away -- spend the day shopping at the city's hottest fashion emporium, Luisa via Roma, and Loretta Caponi for exquisite lingerie, then head to the roof of Hotel Continentale, where the Ferragamos go for sunset cocktails. Bring it back: In Florence, find hand-finished leather gloves from the family-run Madova shop; soaps from the historic Santa Maria Novella pharmacy; a bottle of Mangiacane wine (the property produces Merlot and Chianti). Book it: steinhotels.com\/mangiacane . LAZY BEACH TIME: Rosewood Mayakoba, Mexico . Why it's great : Located on the super-hot Riviera Maya, which has drawn the likes of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Rosewood Mayakoba has 128 suites, which are actually freestanding villas with luminous bathrooms and private plunge pools. It's also eco-minded: Building materials are indigenous, and guests can navigate the property's network of freshwater canals via electric boats. What to do: Visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum; have dinner in the beach town of Playa del Carmen (try the hip Glass Bar\/ Di Vino); snorkel in underwater caves (cenotes); or book a treatment at the Rosewood's spa, which occupies its own little island. Bring it back: A string hammock from Tulum for lounging; beauty products, like scented candles and linen spray, made with local ingredients, such as tropical wood and coconut, from chic eco-retreat (Coqui Coqui). Book it: rosewoodmayakoba.com . COZY WEEKEND: Winvian -- Morris, Connecticut . Why it's great: When it comes to throwing the ultimate weekend get-together, this new 113-acre resort is the place. The heart of the property is a restored colonial farmhouse, filled with antiques, but guests stay in 18 lavish cottages -- each boasting a unique design scheme and at least one open fireplace. One pick: Stable, a duplex with a sunken bathtub. What to do: Plenty of outdoor activities, like hiking and antiquing, but you may want to stick close to Winvian's spa (facials with top U.K. aesthetician Eve Lom's products) and fabulous restaurant (the chef trained under Alain Ducasse). Bring it back: Furniture from the historic town of Woodbury (once home to American antiques dealer Wayne Pratt); a first edition from a nearby antiquarian book dealer, like Nutmeg Books in Torrington; maple syrup tapped at a local farm. Book it: winvian.com . ADRENALINE RUSH: The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand . Why it's great: This luxe lodge is situated on a 6,000-acre sheep and cattle farm in Hawke's Bay, one of the country's premier wine regions. It offers 24 suites, spread among several cottages (all have private decks with sweeping views). What to do: There's no end to the activities, whether you love the beach (surfing) or the countryside (hiking). Ask the lodge to arrange sporting expeditions with an expert guide, a helicopter excursion, or a trip to local wineries. And don't miss the stunning seaside golf course, designed to make the most of the natural topography. Bring it back: Sheepskin slippers (locally made from merino wool); a bottle of sauvignon blanc (Hawke's Bay is known for it). Book it: capekidnappers.com . SURFING AND SAMBA: Fasano -- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . Why it's great: Rio tops current hot lists, and there's no better place to soak up the vibe than at the new Fasano. Located in a prime spot overlooking Ipanema beach, the hotel has 82 rooms, ten suites and three mini apartments -- all designed by Philippe Starck -- and boasts a 1950s bossa-nova ambience. What to do: Sip Rio's best caipirinhas, the national cocktail, at Club Chocolate; spend a day at Posto 10 (the city's chicest beach); or for authentic samba music, head to Carioca a Gema (but never before 11 P.M.). Bring it back: A teeny Isabel Capeto bikini and matching sarong; a CD by Gilberto Gil; loose Thai pants from the outdoor Ipanema hippie market. Book it: fasano.com.br E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"You can enjoy the same posh places as the stars .\nOjai Valley Inn & Spa in California is great for weekend getaway .\nLearn to samba at Fasano in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil .\nShop your heart out in Villa Mangiacane in Tuscany, Italy .","id":"9814600b03458475607fa2e4e9f1637138b7c9bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Vietnamese woman caught cooking a tiger carcass was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, state media reported Thursday. There are reportedly only about 100 tigers, prized by so-called medicine men, left living in Vietnam. A Hanoi court convicted Nguyen Thi Thanh, 41, for \"violating regulations protecting rare wild animals.\" She was arrested last September after police raided a house that she rented in the capital city of Hanoi and found dead tigers, bear arms, monkey bones and elephant tusks. Officers found Thanh and three accomplices cooking tiger carcasses, the Thanh Nien daily reported. The three men received suspended sentences, ranging from 24 to 30 months, the daily said. The woman told police she sold the animals' bone marrow for 6.5 million Vietnamese dong ($400) per gram to traditional medicine men, according to reports at the time. Such medicine men think tiger bones and other parts can cure arthritis and other joint ailments, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Tigers are universally threatened, with only about 100 still living in Vietnam, the World Wildlife Fund said. The southeast Asian country has banned trafficking in endangered animal parts. Last year, the Vietnamese government unearthed 38 cases of illegal trafficking that involved 503 endangered animals, local media said at the time. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Vietnamese woman caught cooking a tiger carcass jailed for two and a half years .\nNguyen Thi Thanh, 41, convicted for violating regulations protecting rare wild animals .\nPolice found dead tigers, bear arms, monkey bones and elephant tusks in her flat .","id":"d16bff688345742ee8a1762cb6b82b49e4a065dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN.com reader Kristy O'Connor took a prenatal yoga class with Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams and says she was \"in awe of his devotion and attention to Michelle.\" Reader Dena Michnowih says she came across Ledger in Brooklyn, New York, teaching his young daughter Matilda her right from her left, and was enchanted. Heath Ledger is pictured with crew of the 2005 film \"Lords of Dogtown\" and members of the Zephyr skating team. CNN.com asked readers to share their memories of Ledger, who was found dead in a New York apartment Tuesday, January 22. Famous for his roles in the films, \"The Patriot\" and \"Lords of Dogtown,\" Ledger was widely acclaimed for his portrayal of the homosexual cowboy Ennis del Mar in 2005's \"Brokeback Mountain.\" CNN.com readers describe meeting Ledger in person, and call him humble and kind. Below are a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. Donal Logue, actor, of Los Angeles, California I met Heath eight years ago while working on \"The Patriot.\" He became a star while we were sequestered away in a small town in South Carolina based on the strength of the dailies going back to Los Angeles. Heath was a fantastically kind and sweet young man. He surrounded himself with his friends from Australia and never forgot any of us he ever worked with. I last saw him in Australia when he called my name on a Melbourne street and introduced me to Michelle, his (then) pregnant [girlfriend]. I have great memories of going for runs with him or watching a bootleg copy of a Parker and Stone's musical called \"Cannibal! The Musical of the Donner Party Tragedy.\" Heath must have been in a place of great pain and sadness to be split from his wife and child. He was sensitive and unfairly victimized in his native country by the unfortunate Australian custom called the \"tall poppy syndrome\" in which an Australian, the second he or she achieves global success, is immediately and arbitrarily accused of losing all of their humanity. Not true. He was a sweet person, and less importantly, an unbelievably talented actor. Maybe the best of his generation. Dan Bova of Larchmont, New York Once when I was driving in Brooklyn, I got a flat tire. As I was jacking up my car, this deep voice from behind me said, \"Need a hand?\" It was Heath Ledger. I couldn't believe it. He helped jack up my car and change the tire. He was really good with tools! R. of Perth, Western Australia I grew up with Heath around the speedway racing circuit. I remember the night he was a little boy and his Dad was racing speed cars at Claremont Speedway (my dad was in the race, too). His dad was coming 3rd then in the final corner, the two lead cars spun out and Heath's dad Kim took the lead and won the State Title race. Heath was standing a couple of rows in front of me with his mum and sister and they were all so excited, jumping up and down and cheering. He was about as happy as a little boy could be watching his dad become a champion. I remember that night because in the years that followed, I saw his parents marriage break up and it was like there was this moment in his childhood of pure joy that I witnessed. Later Heath would pit crew for Graham Jones, and I crewed for my dad and brother. Heath and I were both the youngest on our crews so that meant our job was to take the fiberglass bonnets over to the hoses and wash the mud off after each race really dirty work but he managed to stay cleaner than the rest of us. Crystal Davis of Toronto, Ontario I met Heath in L.A. at a mall a year or so ago. I was staring at him working up the nerve to ask for an autograph. He saw me, started laughing and walked towards me. He said I was white as an \"egg\" and asked if he could do anything. I said, No thanks ... yes I forgot to ask for the autograph. He touched my shoulder and told me to take it easy and walked away. He looked back several times and smiled. What a great memory I have of him. My prayers go out to his family and friends. Dena Michnowich of Glen Cove, New York I was walking in the lower east side of Manhattan one day and I noticed a really cute man holding his little daughter on his shoulders. She looked just like him. He told her that they had to make a right and asked her to point them in the right direction, which she did. I soon realized that it was Heath Ledger and I got really excited. I was walking right up to them as they were waiting to cross the street. When I got close, I waved and he smiled at me. He was so handsome I got the chills. I could also sense that he had a very sweet spirit. It was a very special moment for me. I'm so sad to hear that he died. Leanne Scorzoni of Staten Island, New York I worked as a nanny for a number of years in Manhattan, and I ended up having a toddler class with my charge and Heath, Michelle and baby Matilda. The couple was so polite and laid back at first I didn't recognize who they were. They were genuinely interested in their child, her development, and treating the rest of us (including staff) with respect. He will be sorely missed. Michael Williams of Perth, Western Australia I met Heath Ledger many years ago while I was working at a local fast food outlet here in Perth Western Australia. He came through to order and I was amazed at how polite, kind and friendly he was. He stopped to sign autographs while he waited knowing that to the people asking him he was somewhat of a hero. He did all this with the great Australian attitude that he had and a smile on his face, he was one superstar that took stardom well and in his stride, I for one feel thankful that I have met this great person. I send my deepest sympathy to his family and say to them that you do not mourn his passing alone; the people of Perth share your grief. Tracy Kimball of Rock Hill, South Carolina I met Heath Ledger in 1999 while he was filming \"The Patriot\" in South Carolina. I was a reporter for a daily newspaper there and he was at a press conference about the movie at Historic Brattonsville, a Revolutionary-era plantation. He was so very kind and was more than happy to sign my newspaper. The media was flocking around Mel Gibson, but seeing a new young and dashingly gorgeous guy standing off to himself, I approached him and asked for his autograph. He flashed that smile, grabbed my pen and used my back to sign the newspaper I was holding. We had a conversation, but I don't remember it because I was so enamored. I had never heard of him before because the only American movie he had filmed was \"Ten Things I Hate About You,\" which I had not yet seen. I went back to the paper where I worked and wrote a story about the new hot Aussie star that would surely become hugely successful in America. His death really saddens me. He was such a talented actor and a new dad. Having a child the same age as his daughter, it makes me even sadder to think of her missing her father. Amanda Olmstead of Penticton, British Columbia I met Heath when he was filming \"Brokeback Mountain\" in my hometown of Fort Macleod. He was a down to earth man with amazing talent. His portrayal of Ennis del Mar was life-changing for many of my friends. I am truly saddened by his death. Kristy O'Connor of Sydney, Australia My heart goes out to Heath's family and little Matilda, I met Heath one time at a prenatal yoga class in Sydney with Michelle and was in awe of his devotion and attention to her. He was a true gentleman and I'm sure an amazing father. To make assumptions as to how or why he died is to bring more pain to an already devastated family. Adrian K. of Perth, Western Australia I met Heath one night on the town in Perth. The one-degree of separation rule in Perth made him a friend of a friend. We had a brief and quiet chat. What struck me was his calm in the face of his monstrous burgeoning celebrity. With both of his feet planted firmly on the ground, he seemed to be facing the publicity with stoic resolve. Goodnight, Heath. You were a good bloke. \"A sad fan\" in Chicago, Illinois I was an extra in the movie \"Dark Knight,\" which filmed in Chicago this past summer. I spend an entire weekend on set with Heath. He was rather quiet most of the time between takes, but seemed to be a nice, likeable guy. It was great to watch him work, as he was very committed to his craft. His death is a great loss. Kelly Fishburne of West Palm Beach, Florida I met Heath Ledger while working in Atlanta. We both were taking a CNN tour. He was silly, smiling all the time and we spoke about horses and riding lessons. He was also talking about the movie the Patriot he filmed with Mel Gibson. He had to do lots of riding. He was down to earth and so very talkative. Just a normal guy, hanging out. A real gentleman. Jessi Lee of Central, South Carolina I really enjoyed Heath's acting. His best movie was my favorite movie of 2005, \"Lords Of Dogtown.\" Heath played the somewhat obnoxious Skip Engblom, but thinking of all the other actors who could have taken the roll, I don't think anyone could have done it better. Even two of the original Zephyr shop boys themselves. Tony Alva & Stacy Peralta, said when Heath came in & did the voice he would use in the film, it was like hearing Skip from the past. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"I-Reporters share tales of meeting Heath Ledger in person .\n\"He was really good with tools,\" says Don Bova; Ledger helped him change a tire .\nI-Report: Share your photos, memories of actor Heath Ledger .","id":"c85a7eb698c39c7465d1fe4ebbb50447329b5497"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of Blackwater USA on Sunday rejected a mounting series of reports suggesting the private contractor's security guards opened fire on innocent Iraqi civilians last month. Blackwater CEO Erik Prince said Sunday that guards \"definitely\" faced insurgent fire September 16. \"There was definitely incoming small arms fire from insurgents\" in the September 16 incident in Baghdad, founder and CEO Erik Prince told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on \"Late Edition.\" There was no \"deliberate violence,\" committed by Blackwater employees, he added. Still, when asked whether it is possible someone with Blackwater \"screwed up\" in the incident, Prince replied, \"Certainly it's possible.\" He said he expects the FBI investigation to provide many answers. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi officials continue discussing Baghdad's demand that Blackwater be expelled from Iraq within six months, The Associated Press reported Sunday. American officials are also coming up with ways to fill the security gap if Blackwater is forced to leave, AP reported. Blackwater guards, protecting U.S. officials in Iraq, face dangerous circumstances every day and have navigated the vast majority of those situations without any violence, Prince told CNN. The guards just try to do their jobs, and are \"not trying to make any trouble,\" he said. The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater guards of opening fire without provocation on civilians in a crowded area in Baghdad on September 16, killing 17 and wounding 27. Survivors told FBI investigators Blackwater guards shot at civilians presenting no threat. Watch a Blackwater witness describe his account \u00bb . The first U.S. soldiers to arrive on the scene after the incident told military investigators they found no evidence contractors were fired upon, a source familiar with a preliminary U.S. military report told CNN. The soldiers found evidence suggesting the guards fired on cars attempting to leave and found weapon casings on the scene matching only those used by U.S. military and contractors, the military source said. But Prince on Sunday told CNN, \"In the incident reports I've seen, at least three of our armored vehicles were hit by small arms fire, incoming, and one of them damaged, which actually delayed their departure from the traffic circle while they tried to rig a tow. \"So there was definitely incoming small-arms fire from insurgents.\" He added, \"I guarantee our guys weren't shooting at each other.\" And he said the traffic circle is very big, so those first soldiers on the scene would have needed \"almost a battalion to secure that entire area, to do a thorough crime scene type investigation.\" \"So the jury is still out. We'll see what the FBI report comes up with, but I'm confident that the kind of people we have out there are proven military professionals,\" Prince said. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh accused Blackwater of \"a deliberate crime against civilians,\" and said the company \"should be tried in court, and the victims should be compensated.\" A Philadelphia law firm has filed suit in federal court against Blackwater on behalf of the families of three Iraqis killed and one wounded in the in the incident, which occurred in and around Baghdad's Nusoor Square. The suit claims Blackwater \"created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life.\" Prince called the lawsuit \"politically motivated\" for \"media attention,\" and rejected the depictions of his company. \"In Baghdad, the most dangerous city in the world, to say that it was a callous, rampant, evil action, you know, when the guys get it right 99 out of 100 times and don't have to use any force or any violence at all, I think they are doing very well,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Erik Prince: \"There was definitely incoming small arms fire from insurgents\"\nThere was \"no deliberate violence,\" he said, during September 16 shooting .\nIraqi government says Blackwater guards killed 17, fired without provocation .\nAP: Blackwater may be expelled from Iraq within six months .","id":"5f299d74b492be5e53e6bcf3a54d3c8a4b418a97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mine exploded Monday on a road in southern Somalia, killing four people -- three members of the medical humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres and a journalist. Ongoing violence in Somalia has devastated the capital Mogadishu. The incident occurred Monday along a road in Kismayo, the group said. Victor Okumu, 51, a Kenyan doctor; Damien Lehalle, 27, a French logistician; and a Somali driver named Billan were the MSF workers who were killed. Another member of the team was slightly wounded, the group said in a posting on its Web site. \"The exact circumstances of this fatal incident are not yet clear,\" the posting said. Also killed was journalist Hassan Kafi Hared, 36. The remote-controlled mine erupted as he was walking to a news conference in Siyad Village in northern Kismayu, said the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). He was working for the government-run Somali National News Agency and a Somali Web site called gedonet.com. He is survived by a wife and three children. \"This is a targeted attack and we declare that this brutal killing on the journalist and the aid workers is an attack on the society itself,\" said NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman, in a news release. \"We demand that transitional government and the authorities in Kismayu to identify the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice\" he said. The medical humanitarian organization said it was evacuating remaining international members of it staff from Kismayu. Hared is the second journalist to be killed this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The first, 38-year-old Norwegian reporter Carsten Thomassen, died Jan. 15 in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. In a written statement, a representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he condemned the killings and \"demands a thorough investigation by the authorities.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Journalist and two doctors were among those killed .\nRemote-controlled mine went off in southern Somalia .\nSomali driver also died in the attack .\nJournalist is the second to die in conflict situation this year .","id":"5a4e46a4e18d31d1ef4d1087b1643a349f10dd14"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Cocaine-abusing celebrities are glamorizing the use of narcotics and encouraging more young people to use illegal substances, the United Nations drug control agency has warned. Model Kate Moss faced allegations of cocaine use in 2005 but was never charged for over the claims. The annual report from the International Narcotics Control Board warns that treating stars \"leniently\" by allowing them to get away with drug crimes undermines faith in the criminal justice system and has a damaging effect on adolescents. \"They get more lenient responses by the judiciary and law enforcement, and that is regrettable,\" Professor Hamid Ghodse, a member of the INCB, told the UK's Press Association Wednesday. \"There should not be any difference between a celebrity who is breaking the law and non-celebrities. \"Not only does it give the wrong messages to young people, who are quite impressionable, but the wider public becomes cynical about the responses to drug offenders,\" Ghodse said. Watch Ghodse explain how celebrity offenders are being given an easy ride \u00bb . Last month, acclaimed singer Amy Winehouse was questioned by police after a video emerged which appeared to show her smoking crack. Last fall she was arrested and fined in Norway for possessing marijuana. Winehouse was due to appear in a Norwegian courtroom to contest the drug charges at the end of February. The hearing was postponed indefinitely, PA said, after the court approved a request from Winehouse's lawyer. Watch how celebrity drug scandals affect children \u00bb . Supermodel Kate Moss also faced cocaine-snorting allegations in 2005. The Crown Prosecution Service later said she would not be charged over the claims. Despite losing modeling contracts in the wake of the revelations, she later won fresh jobs and remains one of the world's top models. Singer Pete Doherty, the former boyfriend of Moss, also has had a well-publicized drug abuse problem but has so far managed to avoid jail time. Earlier this month he was named by music magazine NME as its Hero of the Year. And Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda were open about their marijuana habit. The former Beatle was arrested for possession in 1980 in Japan. After 10 days in jail, he was released without charges. The report found that Britain, along with Spain and Italy, have some of the highest rates of cocaine abuse in the world. The report also expressed concerns on rising opium production in Afghanistan. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.N. says celebrity drug use encourages adolescent substance abuse .\nReport says leniency towards celebrities hurts criminal justice system .\nReport finds Britain, Italy, Spain have among highest rates of cocaine use .","id":"b6b7cbc40f51483708d53416719205f36c06f6df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Colorado prosecutor Friday asked a judge to dismiss the first-degree murder charge against Tim Masters, who spent nine years in prison until new DNA evidence indicated someone else might have committed the crime. Tim Masters, center, walks out of a Fort Collins, Colorado, courthouse Tuesday with his attorney David Wymore. Court papers filed by District Attorney Larry Abrahamson cited \"newly discovered\" evidence, but took pains to state that evidence didn't clear Masters. \"While the newly discovered DNA evidence does not exonerate Timothy Masters, it clearly warrants a complete re-examination of all the evidence related to the murder of Peggy Hettrick,\" the court papers state. The motion seeks dismissal of the charges \"in the interest of justice.\" It points out the DNA testing used to uncover the new evidence wasn't available when Masters was investigated and tried. On Tuesday a judge threw out Masters' 1999 murder conviction, and he was freed -- also \"in the interest of justice.\" Although the motion signals that Abrahamson is dropping the Masters case, he did not rule out future prosecution. In a statement, the prosecutor cautioned: \"Contrary to news reports, the DNA testing results only suggest that there may be others, along with Timothy Masters, who should be investigated. These test results do not provide us with enough information to completely exonerate anyone.\" Abrahamson said he has asked Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to appoint a special prosecutor to continue the investigation of Hettrick's slaying. The attorney general will announce his decision early next week, Abrahamson said. Masters, 36, has been investigated for Hettrick's murder since he was 15. He has insisted he had nothing to do with her death, and no physical evidence ties him directly to the crime. Watch Masters describe his anger at police \u00bb . A jury convicted Masters 12 years after the discovery of Hettrick's stabbed and sexually mutilated corpse in a field near his trailer. Among the evidence jurors considered were a collection of knives found in Master's bedroom, gruesome sketches and testimony from a prosecution expert that he fit the psychological profile of a killer. Masters' defense team said he was framed, and that police and prosecutors sat on evidence that could have raised doubt about his guilt. The significance of Friday's motion to dismiss is largely procedural, but Abrahamson indicated earlier this week that it might be unnecessary to try Masters again. \"In light of newly discovered evidence revealed to me on Friday,\" Abrahamson said in a statement a week ago, \"I will be moving as expeditiously as possible to make the determination of whether all charges against Timothy Masters will be dismissed.\" Abrahamson also has vowed to review all \"contested convictions\" in which advances in DNA testing may prove useful. He said he wanted to examine the legal discovery process and that he had met with the Fort Collins police chief and his officers \"to discuss the critical flow of information with assurance that all information is available to our office and the defense.\" Special prosecutor Don Quick filed a motion earlier this month citing four instances in which police and prosecutors should have handed over evidence to Masters' original defense team. See the key players in the case \u00bb . Among them was a police interview with a plastic surgeon who said it was improbable that a teen could have made the meticulous cuts necessary to remove Hettrick's body parts. Also, according to Quick's motion, police failed to divulge that a renowned FBI profiler warned police that Masters' penchant for doodling gruesome horror scenes did not tie him to the crime. Investigations into how police and prosecutors handled the case continue. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: D.A. seeks dismissal of Tim Masters murder case .\nMasters was released Tuesday; conviction was tossed .\nMasters convicted in 1999 of murder, sexual mutilation of 37-year-old woman .\nHe spent nearly nine years in prison .","id":"7c0bda3744be6f7d95eef695e59a4e4001455a35"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The announced pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears -- the 16-year-old children's television star and younger sister of beleaguered pop star Britney Spears -- is casting new light on how states deal with the thorny issue of consensual sex among teens. Jamie Lynn Spears, shown in September, stars in the popular Nickelodeon series \"Zoey 101.\" Spears, the star of Nickelodeon's \"Zoey 101,\" told OK! Magazine that she's pregnant and that the father is her 18-year-old boyfriend. There has been no public talk of criminal prosecution in the case. Consensual sex between the two may well have been legal, depending on where and when it took place. But critics of the nation's statutory rape laws say that laws that are ignored in some cases can be used to put other teens in prison and land them on sex-offender registries. Watch CNN's Sunny Hostin on what the law says \u00bb . \"You have a disturbing disparity in how these laws are enforced,\" said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. \"I have no problem at all with nailing adults who sleep with children, but I have a problem with the prosecution of teenagers in consensual relationships. \"What this case should focus the nation on is having a more evenhanded approach to these cases.\" Watch a psychologist talk about how Spears' pregnancy could lead to parents talking to their kids about sex \u00bb . In Louisiana, where Spears lives, it is a misdemeanor for someone age 17 to 19 to have consensual sex with someone age 15 to 17 if the difference between their ages is more than two years. In California, where she sometimes tapes her television show, it's a misdemeanor to have sex with someone younger than 18 if the offender is less than three years older. Someone more than three years older could be charged with a felony. According to OK! Magazine, which first reported the news Tuesday, Spears said the father of her baby is longtime boyfriend Casey Aldridge. Turley said most states have similar laws but rely on prosecutors to be selective in enforcing them. But that's a recipe for legal problems, he said. The issue drew international attention when a Georgia teen was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. In 2005, Genarlow Wilson was tried for the rape of a 17-year-old girl at a hotel-room party. While he was found not guilty of that charge, he was convicted of aggravated child molestation for the act with the 15-year-old -- even though he was less than two years older. Georgia law, which has since been changed, required a mandatory 10-year sentence on the charge of aggravated child molestation and required Wilson to register as a sex offender when he was released. Under the revised Georgia law, the act now would be a misdemeanor. Now 21, Wilson was released from prison in October -- after serving more than two years -- when the state Supreme Court ruled his sentence was \"grossly disproportionate to his crime.\" \"The current laws leave too much to prosecutorial discretion,\" Turley said. \"We saw in the Wilson case how prosecutorial discretion can lead to grotesque results.\" He said statutory rape prosecutions of teens are more common in Southern states and small towns than they are elsewhere in the country or in big cities. B.J. Bernstein, Wilson's attorney, argued throughout his case that Wilson was imprisoned for an act that, while perhaps morally questionable, probably is going on among teens everywhere. \"If you prosecuted, even with misdemeanors, all those cases, you'd clog up the justice system with kids having sex,\" she said. \"It's a social issue -- and it may be something that parents don't want to happen or wish wouldn't happen at that age -- but it shouldn't be a crime.\" Spears, who turned 16 on April 4 and says she is 12 weeks into her pregnancy, told the magazine she plans to raise her child in Louisiana, \"so it can have a normal family life.\" Nickelodeon released a statement saying the network respects Spears' decision \"to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Experts say there is a disparity in how statutory rape laws are applied .\nJamie Lynn Spears is 16, and her boyfriend -- the father of her child -- is 18 .\nThere has been no talk of criminal prosecution involving the couple .\nExperts: Attorneys choose when to prosecute, leading to unfairness .","id":"f19b17438e69527f376e5d9efc74d19fbac6f755"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India -- Police covered up the murder of a British teenage girl in Goa last month to protect the tourist industry, a state minister and local media said Monday. Scarlett Keeling stands on Anjuna beach in Goa a few days before her death. Officers had initially said Scarlett Keeling had drowned on Anjuna beach after taking drugs, but changed their story when the 15-year-old's mother protested and a second autopsy suggested she had been raped and murdered. A suspect in the case was arrested Sunday but Fiona MacKeown said she did not believe he was the man who killed her daughter. \"This is a clear case of murder and it has gone out of proportion because the police tried to cover it up,\" Francisco X. Pacheco, Goa's Tourism Minister told Reuters.com. Indian media suggested the cover-up was an attempt to protect Goa's tourism industry. \"They should have arrested this man a long time ago and this issue would have got diluted, but now because of the tainted image of some police officers in the case, things have gone out of hand,\" Pacheco said. Police said they were investigating allegations of a cover-up and the actions of junior officers. \"There are certain things under my scrutiny and I have taken cognizance of all these issues, specially these officers,\" Kishan Kumar, a senior police officer overseeing the probe told Reuters. Keeling's mother said she also believed police were trying to cover up the truth behind her daughter's murder, and that they had arrested Samson D'Souza, 29, to make it look like they were making progress in the case. \"We've had an awful lot of contact with people that have been in this situation before, and they've warned us to be careful (that) the police will try and find someone immediately to try and put a front on it that they're actually doing something,\" Fiona MacKeown told BBC radio on Monday. Kumar described D'Souza as a \"local Anjuna boy\" who was a bartender at Liu's, a beachfront bar. He said police had confirmed D'Souza's role in Keeling's rape and were now trying to find evidence that he killed the teenager. \"We have sufficient evidence to show that he was involved in rape,\" Kumar told CNN. \"So far as murder is concerned, we are investigating further.\" Scarlett and her family arrived in November for an extended vacation in Goa, known for its white sandy beaches and dance music scene. Beachfront shacks house the bars that fuel the nightlife. MacKeown said Scarlett was left in the care of a trusted male friend and his aunts while the rest of the family traveled to an adjoining Indian state, but she told the BBC that she has had no contact with the family since her daughter's death. The mother said Monday she sent a letter to Goa's chief minister asking for India's Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the case. Goa is popular with Western tourists but several tourists have died from drug overdoses in recent years while women have been attacked and sexually assaulted. The Times Of India said 126 foreigners have died in Goa over the last two years and in January this year a 30-year-old British woman was raped. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Tess Eastment contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indian police covered up murder of UK girl in Goa, state's tourism minister said .\nPolice arrest one man over the death of the 15-year-old .\nMother of Scarlett Keeling says she thinks police have arrested wrong man .","id":"eb2fe21af9629392d61a4fabe6cad72130525f2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mine exploded Monday on a road in southern Somalia, killing four people -- three members of the medical humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres and a journalist. Ongoing violence in Somalia has devastated the capital Mogadishu. The incident occurred Monday along a road in Kismayo, the group said. Victor Okumu, 51, a Kenyan doctor; Damien Lehalle, 27, a French logistician; and a Somali driver named Billan were the MSF workers who were killed. Another member of the team was slightly wounded, the group said in a posting on its Web site. \"The exact circumstances of this fatal incident are not yet clear,\" the posting said. Also killed was journalist Hassan Kafi Hared, 36. The remote-controlled mine erupted as he was walking to a news conference in Siyad Village in northern Kismayu, said the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). He was working for the government-run Somali National News Agency and a Somali Web site called gedonet.com. He is survived by a wife and three children. \"This is a targeted attack and we declare that this brutal killing on the journalist and the aid workers is an attack on the society itself,\" said NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman, in a news release. \"We demand that transitional government and the authorities in Kismayu to identify the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice\" he said. The medical humanitarian organization said it was evacuating remaining international members of it staff from Kismayu. Hared is the second journalist to be killed this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The first, 38-year-old Norwegian reporter Carsten Thomassen, died Jan. 15 in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. In a written statement, a representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he condemned the killings and \"demands a thorough investigation by the authorities.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Journalist and two doctors were among those killed .\nRemote-controlled mine went off in southern Somalia .\nSomali driver also died in the attack .\nJournalist is the second to die in conflict situation this year .","id":"eebebdc4fa08a6e927ab958a39d91f888550afec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bus carrying members of a Marine Corps Reserve unit overturned at an Alabama military base Sunday, leaving 23 Marines injured, four of them critically, the military said in a news release. A bus overturned Sunday in Alabama, injuring 23 Marines, the military said. The passengers, members of E Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion, 4th Marine Division, had been taking part in a training exercise at Fort Rucker, an Army post outside Ozark, Alabama. They were departing the range at 9:20 a.m. when the accident occurred. The unit is made up of reservists from Tallahassee, Florida, and Bessemer, Alabama. The injured were from First and Headquarters Platoons out of Bessemer, a Birmingham suburb. By mid-afternoon, 11 of the injured had been released to their unit from the hospital. Pictures of the wreck were provided to the news media by the military. Ozark is about 175 miles south of Birmingham. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bus carrying Marine Corps Reserve unit overturned at Alabama military base .\n23 Marines have been injured; four critically, the military says .\nE Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion, 4th Marine Division, was involved .\nThe accident happened Sunday morning, officials said .","id":"94b15ad6efcd6d47dfcc242135be481fceb7f634"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite the obvious claims of younger rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, few can really argue with the 96 football journalists who voted Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite as the 2007 World Footballer of the Year. Brazilian genius Kaka fully deserves winning the 2007 World Footballer of the Year award. The prestigious Ballon d'Or award is widely regarded as the most prestigious individual prize in football and Kaka's inclusion on its coveted roll of honor is a testament to the 25-year-old Brazilian's current standing in world football. When AC Milan defeated Liverpool in the Champions League final in Athens, avenging their heartbreaking loss to the same team in Istanbul two years previously, it enabled Kaka to fulfill his dream of holding aloft Europe's premier trophy -- a winner's medal he fully deserved after a sublime 90-minute performance. Kaka's stock for both club and country has risen steadily since his move to the San Siro from Sao Paulo for a fee of just $8.5 million in the summer of 2003. Unlike many a Brazilian sporting genius, Kaka did not hone his skills on the beach or the streets of a favela shanty town. He was born into a comfortable middle class Brasilia family, where football was not the only hope of a bright future. However, it soon became clear that this particular boy had a very special skill and he was signed by Sao Paulo, after his family had moved there, at just eight years of age -- making his first team debut as an 18-year-old. Kaka's progress was soon picked up by his national team coach and Felipe Scolari named the graceful midfielder in his 23-man squad for the 2002 World Cup finals, earning him a winners' medal despite playing only 19 minutes of the tournament in a group match against Costa Rica. A year later, and Kaka was on his way to Milan. Within a month he had made the starting line-up and his 10 goals helped the Rossoneri lift the Scudetto and the European Super Cup. Throughout his career, Kaka has always possessed the innate ability to score goals -- his record for both club and country sees him average roughly a goal every three games. Yet to describe Kaka merely as a goalscoring midfielder would be doing him a massive injustice. Tall, elegant and blessed with astonishing skill, Milan and Brazil utilize Kaka's ability superbly. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti soon recognized Kaka's genius, changing his team's system to a 4-4-1-1, playing the Brazilian behind a main target man. With Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso holding the central midfield area, Kaka has a license to roam in behind the lone striker, be it Filippo Inzaghi, Ronaldo or Alberto Gilardino. And Kaka does this with devastating effect, running at the opposition with pace and power, finding defense-splitting passes or shooting from range with deadly accuracy be it from a dead-ball situation or open play. The fly in the ointment for Milan comes in the shape of their poor form this season. Although they have already reached the last 16 of the Champions League, the club are floundering in Serie A and face the unthinkable prospect of not qualifying for next season's competition unless they win the trophy. Real Madrid have coveted Kaka for the last two years -- expect the world transfer record to be smashed if Milan don't secure a place among Europe's elite. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kaka deservedly named World Player of the Year for the first time in his career .\nThe Brazilian beats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the journalists' vote .\nThe 25-year-old averages one goal in three games for both AC Milan and Brazil .","id":"504ed83e41a6a861927345f7a027ba53ad02237a"} -{"article":"JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Christina Laurean has told authorities she was attending a Christmas party on the night her husband allegedly killed pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, according to police. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, wanted for murder, may have fled to his native Mexico. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean is charged with first-degree murder. He remains at large, and authorities say he may have fled to Mexico. Also, an affidavit obtained Thursday by CNN states that Christina Laurean knew about the death one day before reporting it to authorities. The Marines were assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing December 19. Authorities say she was killed four days earlier. A warrant allowed authorities to search Western Union records. Authorities said in the accompanying affidavit that Cesar Laurean and his wife received a transfer of money between December 10 and January 12. The affidavit provided no other details. Authorities requested the search warrant and all accompanying documents be sealed. The FBI says Laurean may have fled to his native country of Mexico. Cesar Laurean, 21, is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He mailed at least one letter from Houston, Texas, since his disappearance, CNN affiliate KPRC in Houston reported Thursday. According to the affidavit, Christina Laurean, 25 -- who also is a Marine -- went with her husband to a Jacksonville attorney on January 10, and the lawyer told Cesar Laurean he could face the death penalty. The next day, Christina Laurean reported Lauterbach's death to the Onslow County Sheriff's Office, where she appeared with an attorney and a sergeant from her former chain of command. She turned over to deputies several notes from her husband that she said she found at their home. In the notes, Cesar Laurean said Lauterbach committed suicide and he buried her. Lauterbach, 20, had accused Cesar Laurean of raping her and was to testify at a military hearing not long after her disappearance. According to a co-worker, she feared Cesar Laurean, although the military said she told prosecutors she did not. Lauterbach's allegations involved two encounters -- one on or about March 26 and one approximately two weeks later, the Marines told CNN. Lauterbach received two protective orders, one of which was in effect when she died. Christina Laurean on January 11 told authorities her husband had denied the rape allegations and said he was not the baby's father, according to the affidavit. In the document she says her husband told her: . Dubois contends the facts show probable cause exists to show that Cesar Laurean \"committed murder.\" The detective said he doesn't believe Lauterbach committed suicide, especially because she had told people she wanted the child. Christina Laurean told police she was at a Christmas party for her husband's Marine unit during the late afternoon and evening of December 15, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told CNN. Her husband did not attend the party, she told authorities. Lauterbach's charred remains and those believed to be of her unborn child were found in a fire pit in the Laureans' backyard. Police have said blood spatters were found throughout the Laurean home on walls and ceilings, and evidence showed someone tried to clean them up and paint over them. DNA testing is being conducted to see if Lauterbach's unborn baby was fathered by Cesar Laurean, Brown said, adding there was no rush on the part of detectives to get those results. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Cesar Laurean's arrest. Anyone in Mexico with information is asked to contact the legal attache at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Meanwhile, authorities have discovered the weapon likely used to kill Lauterbach, a spokesman for the Onslow County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Authorities have said the woman died of blunt force trauma to the head. A man who had rented a room to Lauterbach, Sgt. Daniel Durham, told investigators he found a note from her December 14 -- the day she was last seen -- saying she was tired of the Marine Corps life and was leaving. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Woman says husband didn't show up at a party on suspected date of killing .\nNEW: DNA testing under way to see if Cesar Laurean fathered the victim's child .\nAccused Marine and his wife spoke to lawyer after pregnant Marine slain .\nMarine fled the next day, is believed to have headed to native Mexico .","id":"42176b852f897ae19ef0cf39d598878c8ff0bced"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each accused the other of borrowing portions of their presidential campaign speeches Monday. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, left, on the stump with Sen. Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign accused Obama of borrowing from a close supporter, and the Illinois senator responded by saying his own words have been used by Clinton. On a conference call with reporters, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said it was clear Obama had \"lifted rhetoric\" from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Late Monday, Clinton followed up with a swipe of her own. \"If your whole candidacy is about words, then they should be your own words,\" Clinton said in Madison, Wisconsin. \"That's what I think.\" Obama downplayed the significance of the accusation. \"I've written two books, wrote most of my speeches. So I think putting aside the question ... in terms of whether my words are my own, I think that would be carrying it too far,\" Obama said. \"Deval and I do trade ideas all the time, and you know he's occasionally used lines of mine,\" Obama said. Obama said he also used some of Deval's words at a Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Wisconsin. \"I would add I've noticed on occasion Sen. Clinton has used words of mine as well,\" said Obama. \"As I said before, I really don't think this is too big of a deal.\" Obama campaign officials said Clinton had a pattern of borrowing from some of her rival's signature phrases, including \"Yes, We Can\" and \"Fired Up, Ready to Go.\" They circulated a YouTube video and list of these alleged instances to reporters. The Clinton campaign earlier pointed to similarities between the words of Obama and Patrick that have raised eyebrows and attracted traffic on YouTube. A central passage in a speech Obama gave Saturday -- aimed at convincing voters that his campaign is not just about lofty rhetoric -- is adapted from one that Patrick used in his 2006 campaign, the Obama campaign said when asked about it. The controversy is lost on the Massachusetts governor, who endorsed Obama. Obama's campaign had Patrick call the New York Times over the weekend and issue a statement. \"Senator Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language,\" Patrick said in the statement. \"The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Senator Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did.\" Watch a comparison of Obama's and Patrick's speeches \u00bb . The Obama campaign also confirmed comments chief strategist David Axelrod -- an adviser on Obama's Senate campaign and Patrick's gubernatorial run -- made to the New York Times about the speeches. \"They often riff off one another. They share a world view,\" Axelrod told the Times about Obama and Patrick. \"Both of them are effective speakers whose words tend to get requoted and arguments tend to be embraced widely.\" Responding to attacks from Clinton that he offers words while she offers action, Obama has been arguing that words matter. Saturday night at a gala for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Obama said to frequent applause, \"Don't tell me words don't matter! 'I have a dream.' Just words. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' Just words. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Just words, just speeches!\" In 2006, Patrick, fending off attacks from his rival Kerry Healey, told a crowd, \"Her dismissive point, and I hear it a lot from her staff, is all I have to offer is words. Just words. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' -- just words. Just words. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' -- just words. 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' -- just words. 'I have a dream' -- just words.\" Clinton has argued that while Obama provides rousing speeches, she has the stronger grasp of the issues and the knowledge of how to use the presidency to start making changes from \"day one.\" Speaking last week at a General Motors plant in Ohio, she said, \"There's a big difference between us -- speeches versus solutions, talk versus action. You know, some people may think words are change. But you and I know better. Words are cheap. I know it takes work.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Josh Levs, Rebecca Sinderbrand and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Phrase in Obama speech similar to that of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick .\nClinton: \"If your whole candidacy is about words, then they should be your own\"\nObama downplays significance, says: \"Clinton has used words of mine as well\"","id":"62ac534bf7e3e897b2726dddf2b7b6f7723362d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Whoever killed six people in a Memphis, Tennessee, home may still be on the loose, police said Tuesday. They asked the community for help in solving the slayings. Police and fire units responded Monday after six people were killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Police found six people -- two men, two women and two boys -- dead in a home in a north Memphis neighborhood Monday, said Memphis police Lt. Joe Scott. Three other children who were wounded in the home were taken to a hospital. Scott did not release the names of the victims. He said there was no sign of forced entry into the home, and evidence at the scene indicated that the killer or killers left the house. Detectives were trying to determine the day of the killings, which could have occurred as early as Saturday, Scott said. He said police had not developed a suspect and need people to come forward with information. \"We need the community's help,\" he said. \"These were children that were brutally killed. We know that there are people out there that heard things, saw something. This is a stain on our community. We really need the community's help to solve this.\" The four dead adults were shot and the two dead children were stabbed, sources told CNN affiliate WMC-TV. The wounded children -- a 7-year-old boy, a 10-month-old girl and a 4-year-old whose gender wasn't immediately known -- were transported to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. They were treated for gunshot wounds, said hospital spokeswoman Jennilyn Utkov, who said she did not have any additional information about their conditions. At least one of the wounded children also was stabbed, police told the Commercial Appeal newspaper. The newspaper reported Tuesday that two of them were in very critical condition and one was in serious condition. A neighbor told CNN Tuesday that he heard gunshots coming from the house Saturday night. \"I heard about six or seven shots,\" said Wayne Bolden, a landscaper who said he lives across the street from the home where the killings occurred. \"I did not call the police because you always hear shooting in this neighborhood. Now I wish I would have called.\" He said he did not see any movement at the home the next day. The two cars, a van and a passenger car, never moved. Monday, he saw many police cars at the home and heard about the killings, he said. Bolden said a family that included a man, a woman and five or six children moved into the home about five months ago. \"I did not know him by name,\" Bolden said of the man. \"But the kids were always out playing, and he would barbecue outside on his front porch.\" A prayer service was held for the victims Tuesday morning at the family's nearby church, said Keith Norman, senior pastor at First Baptist Church. He said he had been asked by the police to counsel the family members of the victims. Another prayer service was scheduled for 6 p.m., he said, and some of the victims' family members are expected to attend. \"There are multiple families affected by this,\" said Norman, who said he did not want to speak about what led to the killings. \"We are just praying for the family members and trying to help them get through this.\" Police do not know what was behind the violence, the Commercial Appeal newspaper reported. \"We just don't know the motive or cause of death, but we do have four adults and two children [dead],\" Memphis police Lt. Jerry Guin told the paper. Rob Robinson told the Commercial Appeal that he was the landlord for the brick, single-family house that rented for $550 per month. \"They were very nice, very polite to me,\" Robinson told the paper of the residents. \"It's kind of surprising, actually. I've never had any trouble with them, no damage to the property. They paid their rent and even helped with repairs and stuff.\" Neighbor Leo Baker told WMC-TV he has lived nearby for 10 years but did not know the residents of the home. \"It's sad you come home to find out something like this has gone on,\" Baker said. \"It's kind of sad, and scary too.\" Video footage showed emergency vehicles on the scene, with people embracing in rainy weather outside police tape surrounding the home. \"I've been on a scene where there were one or two or three [victims], but I don't remember anything this large,\" Guin told the Commercial Appeal. The newspaper reported that the shooting appeared to be the city's deadliest mass killing since 1973, when 28-year-old David Sanders randomly shot and killed five people before being shot dead by police. In 2000, police said firefighter Frederick Williams confessed to a shooting in Memphis in which four people were killed -- his wife, a sheriff's deputy and two fellow firefighters. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Police believe killer or killers left the Memphis house where 6 people slain .\nNeighbor says he heard shots Saturday night, didn't call police .\nPolice: Four adults, two kids killed; 3 other children wounded .\n7-year-old, 4-year-old, and 10-month-old hospitalized .","id":"4ff05ae8454ad482f81911c5e4275b63466bea35"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Four men have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of NFL player Sean Taylor, authorities announced Friday evening. Police have more than one confession in the case and the individuals will be charged with murder, said Robert Parker, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department. The suspects were identified as Venjah K. Hunte, 20; Eric Rivera Jr., 17; Jason Scott Mitchell, 17; and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18. Additional arrests are possible, Parker said. \"The key to solving this case was citizen's tips,\" he said. Taylor, 24, died Tuesday, a day after he was shot during an apparent burglary at his Miami home. The police investigation revealed the suspects thought the house was empty, Parker said. \"They were certainly not looking to go there and kill anyone,\" he said. \"They were expecting a residence that was not occupied, so murder or shooting someone was not their initial motive. ... Their obvious motive was to go there and steal the contents of the house.\" The men knew Taylor lived at the house, Parker said. At 1:45 a.m. Monday, Taylor's girlfriend, Jackie Garcia, called 911 and said someone had been shot. Authorities have said she told police she was hiding under the bedding during the attack. Garcia did not see what happened and could not provide a suspect description, Parker told reporters on Wednesday. Police said Garcia and Taylor were awakened by noise in the living room, and that Taylor got up and locked the bedroom door, but the door was kicked in and two shots were fired, one striking him in the leg. Garcia tried to call 911 but was unable to, and used her cell phone instead, police said. There was no evidence the line had been cut, Parker said Wednesday. A break-in was also reported eight days earlier, Miami-Dade police said. A police report said someone forced a window open and left a kitchen knife on a bed. Several drawers and a bedroom safe were searched during the break-in, according to the report. Taylor was home unexpectedly because of an injury, his former attorney, Richard Sharpstein, told reporters Tuesday. \"I think he was surprised or they were surprised to find him there,\" he said. Taylor spent four years with the Washington Redskins, but had been out with a sprained right knee. He did not play in Sunday's game against Tampa Bay. Taylor was a first-round pick in the 2004 draft, according to his team's web site. He played at the University of Miami, where he was an All-American in 2003, and was also a high school standout in the city. Dubbing him \"the prototype NFL free safety,\" the Redskins credited Taylor's team-leading tackling prowess for sending him to his first Pro Bowl after 2006. He was regarded as one of the hardest hitting players in the league. Taylor recorded 257 tackles (206 solo) during his brief career, two sacks and seven interceptions. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police say they have more than one confession in the case .\nNEW: Investigation reveals the men thought the house was empty, police say .\nWashington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died Tuesday .\nTaylor shot during an apparent burglary at his Miami home .","id":"16e86dc5e3fe27875ee927741542536ea7b7553b"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- Humble woodcutter Mohammed Sultan Nafeek's teenage daughter moved to Saudi Arabia to work as a housemaid to support her family after they were displaced by the 2004 tsunami. Now she is on death row, and all he can do is pray. Razeena Mohammad (left) and Mohammad Sultan Nafeek, parents of Rizana Nafeek. Rizana, who was 17 when she started work in Saudi Arabia, was convicted of killing a 4-month-old baby boy in her care just two weeks into her job. Nafeek says the child died accidentally, choking on milk. His daughter was sentenced to beheading in a case rights groups say underlines the vulnerability of many of the 1.5 million Sri Lankans who work abroad -- nearly 400,000 of them in Saudi Arabia alone. \"Our family was suffering hardship, and so our daughter volunteered to go and work abroad to send money home,\" Nafeek told Reuters by telephone from his modest home in Mutur in Sri Lanka's war-torn northeast. After the December 2004 tsunami forced them from their home, the family was displaced again by renewed civil war between the state and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Nafeek visited Saudi Arabia with Sri Lanka's deputy foreign minister this month in a bid to secure clemency and met with relations of the dead child's parents but came away empty handed. Under Saudi law, a pardon is the gift of the family of the victim, and so far the parents of the dead child have refused to meet either the family or Sri Lankan officials. \"The cops told us: 'Go and pray to Allah. If you can get the forgiveness of the parents, your daughter will be free,' \" he said. \"So I am praying all the time.\" \"If we had been able to meet the parents, we are sure they would have been willing to forgive our daughter after seeing our situation.\" The Sri Lankan government is investigating the agency that sent Rizana to work abroad when she was technically still a child but remains hopeful she will be pardoned or exonerated. \"I am fairly confident,\" said Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila. \"We have spoken to tribal leaders of their particular tribe, we have spoken to area officials... It is they who will now have to speak (to the parents).\" \"His Excellency the President (Mahinda Rajapaksa) has been following this case very keenly. This is an exceptional case because of her tender age,\" he added. Rights groups accuse the government of failing to protect its expatriate workers -- one of the main sources of foreign-exchange revenues for the $23 billion economy -- with legal aid. They also decry Saudi Arabia's legal system. \"This case raises many troubling questions about the treatment of children and foreigners in Saudi Arabia's criminal-justice system,\" Human Rights Watch said in a statement issued overnight. \"International law prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18.\" Saudi Arabia executed four Sri Lankans convicted of armed robbery earlier this year, and did not inform Sri Lankan authorities beforehand. Sri Lanka reinstated its own death penalty in 2004 after the murder of a high court judge, but it has been dormant since 1976. There is no indication any of the dozens of convicted murderers, rapists and drug smugglers on death row in Sri Lanka and effectively serving life prison terms will actually be executed. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Girl convicted of killing baby in her care in Saudi Arabia when she was 17 .\nNafeek says the child died accidentally, choking on milk .\nGirl's family displaced by December 2004 tsunami, renewed civil war in Sri Lanka .","id":"ad55d2f13db6732edcd716e09f527ed2df39946f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is expected to plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges involving an illegal dogfighting operation, according to one of his attorneys. Leah Perry, who sent this photo of son Bobby and dog Rosie, thinks Vick should not be allowed back on the field. The plea deal may include prison time, but the NFL has not yet decided what football sanctions, if any, it should impose on Vick, a spokesman said. We asked CNN.com readers whether they thought Vick would -- or should -- play professional football again as well as their opinions on the case. Below is a selection of those responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. Stephanie King of Arlington, Washington Michael Vick is a disgrace. For anyone thinking he should be let off easy for admitting his guilt -- think again. The only reason he did that was because he knew the evidence against him was so great. Remember only shortly ago he was stating vehemently that he \"only owned\" the property and had no idea what was going on there. It wasn't until the eyewitness accounts were brought to light that he \"apologized.\" One cannot be \"sorry\" for torturing and killing animals. As you know it's been proven that those with the ability to do so also have a stronger chance of being abusive to humans. How can we allow someone like that to be a role model for children? If we do we're degrading our society and shame on us. Patricia Reese of Paola, Kansas Yes, I think Mr. Vick should be allowed to play football again. He is a talented individual and it would be a shame to waste that talent. I also believe he should be able to rebuild his life. However, as part of his restitution to society, I believe he should contribute at least 40% of his salary for what could have potentially been his maximum jail sentence to the Humane Society to help abused and abandoned animals. Debbie Clayton of Greensboro, North Carolina He should never be allowed to play [in the] NFL or earn a dime associated with the NFL. He should be made to work so many hours per week, every week, at minimum wage at an Animal Shelter. Jeff Wise of Atlanta, Georgia Why not give him a chance to play again? Seriously how many chances has the NFL given to Ricky Williams? Smoking pot is against the law, but he's been given a number of chances, and STILL isn't banned from the NFL! Jeremy Montgomery of Mount Laurel, New Jersey I think that Vick should not be allowed to step on the field again and any endorsement deals revoked. What he did was reprehensible. He is in a spotlight where he should be held at a higher standard for a role model. Josh Hebert of Loganville, Georgia He should take whatever punishment our government gives him, but when he has done his time (if he does do time) he should be able to continue playing football. The charges against him are not football related in any way. Angela Ziegler of Cleveland, Ohio The NFL needs to \"step up to the plate\" and be the man that Michael Vick is not. Allowing him in their league gives a signal that animal abuse is OK with them. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer started as an animal abuser! Want him as your role model or a spokesman? Kelly Koch of Holland, Michigan The NFL and all sponsors should refrain from any future contact with Michael Vick. I, for one, will boycott those with future dealings with him. John Robinson of Redmond, Washington Pro athletes are constantly getting in trouble with the law. Unless we make a policy that all players who are convicted of a felony are banned from the league, then Vick should be allowed to play after a suspension. Randy Jonson of Stamford, Connecticut Until I know the depth of the gambling angle it's hard to be certain. Dog fighting is brutal but if it's only dog fighting\/killing, he should get whatever the feds give him and be able to return to football once his debt is paid. Bill Saray of Derby, Connecticut Vick should never play again. He wasn't the best QB to begin with. Anyone with such a blatant disregard for life -- animal or human -- is not worthy of the position in life he was given. Playing in the NFL is not a right. As such, the league should ban him permanently, while society should shun him publicly. If only scarlet letters were still around. Todd Morrison of Howell, Michigan Mr. Vick should be judged of his crime. Not by his fame, nor his race. He should be prosecuted as a person. I believe Mr. Vick's NFL playing days should be determined by the NFL commissioner with consideration of the NFL's personal conduct policy. This is how everyone should be treated in America. Everyone is equal regardless of popularity, fame, and race. Lance G. of Dearborn Heights, Michigan First off, I am an African-American ... this is NOT a race issue. I wish the ignorant people here in the U.S. would get off that tip. This is not an issue to raise the \"race\" card. Even his so-called homies (who were all black) turned on him. Vick ... committed a felony and now he has to pay for it. He should have chosen a better hobby in life than dog fighting. As for playing football ... he should be banned from the league for at least 2 to 3 years, including his jail time. Leah Perry of Chelmsford, Massachusetts I don't think Vick should be allowed to play football, nor should he get off easy. After he serves his sentence, I think he should work at the MSPCA [to] make him see what cruelty to animals really looks like in all aspects. Steven Todd of Fort Wayne, Indiana I think Michael Vick will play football again, though at what level is anybody's guess. I do not think he should be banned for life. He may have gambled, but not on the game as Pete Rose did. A suspension is in order and I think a year would be fair, but a prison term and suspension would put him out of football for up to three years, and who knows what kind of QB he will be after this ordeal and so long an absence? Jennifer Runyan of Fayetteville, North Carolina I think the whole Michael Vick case is disgusting. The NFL needs to ban him permanently. He shouldn't be able to use the obscene amount of money he makes to torture innocent animals. Kids looked up to him and how many of them will think that abuse is OK now? I don't think he deserves to play ever again. I applaud the people sending Michael Vick jerseys into the Atlanta Humane Society to use cleaning the kennels, now that's appropriate! Watch what a dog thinks of his Vick jersey . Debbie Connor of Whitesville, Kentucky No, he should not be granted the right to play pro football again! He was given the \"Golden\" key to a life of fame and riches and he blew it away. He should be working for the road department, picking up \"Road Kill\" off the streets! Julio Hernandez of Kalamazoo, Michigan He needs to be banned from the NFL forever. These \"men\" are role models for the youth of this country. What kind of message would we be sending to them if we were to let him play in the NFL again? Not a good one, I can tell you that much. He's through. And if he's not, I certainly won't be watching any Falcons games, or for that matter any team he may eventually play for. Nichelle Williams of Woodbridge, Virginia If Imus is going to return back to the air ... then Vick should return to the field. You violate some people or beings; you apologize, let the air clear and go on with business as usual! John Brandon of Old Hickory, Tennessee To make a long story short -- my family will never watch a game with Michael Vick in attendance. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Michael Vick to take plea deal on dogfighting charges .\nNFL expected to announce how the case will affect his career .\nCNN.com readers shared their thoughts on Vick's future, send your I-Report .","id":"160228fe18f272761b969b08622ba868ad65b206"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Leaving school at 16 is not normally the route to success. But Richard Branson did just that, setting up a magazine and then entering the record business. Now his brand is behind more than 300 companies -- from cola to trains, from phones to planes making Virgin a global name. Soon Virgin will reach galactic proportions. In 2009 Richard Branson hopes to take tourists into space. CNN's Todd Benjamin caught up with the billionaire in London and asked what drives him to create such a diverse enterprise. Branson: What drives me to create a lot of different businesses is simply a feeling that we can, most likely, do it better than other people in particular areas. We won't create a business if somebody else is doing it really well, the only time we'll create one is if it's not being done well. Benjamin: How would you describe your own personality? Branson: I love people, I love to learn. I never went to university so I see my life as one long university education I never had. I'm very inquisitive, hence the fact we've gone to 350 different businesses, which is quite unusual for a western company. Benjamin: You run your companies as a series of independent companies. What do you look for in your key lieutenants? Branson: Number one, the Virgin brand is absolutely paramount, they must do nothing to damage the reputation of the brand. And the second thing is to look after their team of people. Benjamin: Your headmaster when you left high school said to you ''Branson, congratulations, I predict you'll either go to prison or become a millionaire.'' What was it in your character that you think made him make that observation? Branson: Well I suspect the fact that at age 13 I'm writing him letters on how he could organize the catering better and how the school could save money, and if they save money they could then put it into better facilities for the students. And I managed to persuade him to give me a study to start my magazine and it was only when he actually finally came to me and said \"Look, you're either going to have to do your school work or your magazine,\" that I said \"Well, goodbye. I'm off to do the magazine, but thanks very much.\" Benjamin: In your autobiography you write about being four-years-old and your mother stops the car and makes you get out and what does she make you do? Branson: We were on the way to my grandmother's house in Devon, and I think about three miles before we got there she made me get out and told me to find my own way to my grandmother's house. Basically, her approach was to try and get us to stand on our own two feet and she went to extreme measures sometimes to do so. Benjamin: Without your persona do you think the Virgin brand could have ever become what it became? Branson: I think the particular Virgin brand perhaps needed me, in the past, to get out there and be adventurous, and therefore to give the brand an adventurous feeling; take on the big guys, which we did, and beat the big guys and that's what's created the Virgin brand. I think now if my balloon pops, or the space ship just continues to go into space, or whatever, I think the brand is strong enough to withstand all that and it'll continue to grow. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, talks to CNN's Todd Benjamin .\nBranson left school at 16 to work on a magazine he had set up .\nHe is now responsible for over 300 businesses under the Virgin brand .","id":"7ebb75bc91aa51d53b06fdbed7feb52d42612065"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- As a look, it is about as quintessentially French as it gets. All the same, from the New Year enjoying a cigarette while you sip on your cafe au lait will become a thing of the past. From January 1 it will be illegal in France to smoke in cafes as well as clubs, casinos and hotels. France is extending its ban on smoking to include bars, discotheques, restaurants, hotels, casinos, as well as its fabled cafes. In a country renowned for its fondness for romance, smoking has never quite shaken off its romantic associations with smoky Left Bank cafes and waifish Parisienne beauties clutching on a Gauloises. In spite of the health dangers, about 13.5 million people smoke out of a population of 60 million with around 26 percent of 15 year olds estimated to smoke, according to 2002 figures from the World Health Organization. A smoking ban was first introduced in France in February this year to cover workplaces, schools, airports and hospitals. The new restrictions will only apply to the inside of premises, meaning smokers are still free to light up on the terraces. Even so, enforcing the ban may prove tricky in a country well known for its cafe culture. To soften the blow, the authorities have agreed to an amnesty over the New Year holiday and will not fully enforce the new arrangements until Wednesday. After that time, any smoker caught will face a fine of \u20ac450 ($662), while hotel and bar owners who fail to prevent smokers from lighting up on their premises will be fined \u20ac750 ($1,100). France has lagged behind many of its European neighbors in bringing in legislation to curb smoking in public places. Ireland became the first European country to introduce a comprehensive smoking ban in 2004. Since then Italy, Spain, Belgium and Britain have followed suit with similar bans. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Smoking ban in France extended to bars, clubs, restaurants, cafes from Jan 1 .\nSmoking ban first introduced in February 2007 for public buildings, workplaces .\nAbout 13.5 million people in France smoke out of a population of 60 million .\nSimilar bans now exist in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Britain .","id":"a84e31bf36290e557a3080ad297177b6f18cdf84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The toddler whose body washed ashore in Texas last month has been tentatively identified as a 2-year-old girl, and her mother and a man identified as her boyfriend were arrested Saturday, the Galveston County Sheriff's office said Sunday. Police believe two-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers may be \"Baby Grace.\" Investigators believe the child they dubbed \"Baby Grace\" is actually 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, the Galveston County Sheriff's office said Sunday. DNA analysis is still in progress to confirm that identification. The child's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, and a man identified as Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, were arrested Saturday on charges of injuring a child and tampering with physical evidence, the sheriff's department said. The couple lives in Spring, Texas, a Houston suburb about 75 miles north of Galveston. Their bonds were set at $350,000 each. The arrests followed searches conducted Saturday after a November 7 tip, the sheriff's department said. Deputies and FBI agents plan to release more information at a news conference Monday, Galveston County Sheriff's Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said. The girl's grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, of Cleveland, Ohio, told CNN affiliate WKYC that Riley Ann has been missing since June. Watch Sawyers family describe their fears before child was identified \u00bb . On October 29, a fisherman discovered the body in a blue Sterilite plastic container on an uninhabited island in Galveston's West Bay. Police dubbed the dead girl \"Baby Grace,\" and asked the public for help in identifying her. A medical examiner said the child's skull was fractured, and a forensic dentist estimated her age at 2 to 3 years. In composite sketches, the girl is wearing a pink skirt and matching top -- clothing authorities said she was wearing when she was found. The other sketch, a close-up rendering of the child's face, shows a fair-skinned toddler with long blond hair. \"She is more to us than just a case number, more to us than just an unidentified body. She is very much a human being,\" Tutoilmondo said last month. \"She is someone's child, someone's grandchild, someone's cousin, someone's best friend, and to us, that is the most important part about this case.\" \"We have adopted the name of Baby Grace because, there again, that is part of the emotional part of this case for us,\" he said, holding a tiny sneaker identical to one of those the child was wearing when she was found. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Hank Bishop contributed to this story.","highlights":"Woman, boyfriend arrested after a tip led to search .\nPolice believe child found dead in box is Riley Ann Sawyers, 2 .\nBody of little girl was found in box that washed ashore last month .\nPolice asked public for help identifying girl they dubbed \"Baby Grace\"","id":"c43c7253f38ff2cd79770034ed9af3567cfaa811"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Four suspects indicted on murder and burglary charges in the slaying of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor begin their journey through the courts on Wednesday. A grand jury identified Eric Rivera Jr. as the shooter in the death of NFL star Sean Taylor. Court documents say the youngest is alleged to have fired the fatal shot. He is identified as Eric Rivera Jr., 17. He appeared briefly on Wednesday morning before a judge in Miami, Florida. Rivera has been indicted as an adult and Judge John Thornton found probable cause to support charges of first degree felony murder and burglary with assault or battery with a firearm. Three other suspects -- Venjah K. Hunte, 20, Jason Scott Mitchell, 19, and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18 -- appeared Tuesday in court via videoconference. They wore thick green vests, which defense attorneys said were suicide safety smocks. They were ordered held without bail at the Pre-Trial Detention Center in Miami, Florida, where Corrections Officer Janelle Hall said they are under suicide watch. All four suspects are expected to make initial appearances later this morning before Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy. Watch CNN's Rick Sanchez speak to attorneys for two of the suspects \u00bb . Rivera was armed during the alleged burglary, and \"during the course of the commission of the offense ... discharged a firearm and as a result of the discharge, death or great bodily harm was inflicted upon Sean Maurice Taylor, a human being,\" the indictment says. The four men were arrested Friday, officials said. Taylor, 24, died a day after he was shot during an apparent burglary at his home. Miami-Dade police investigators said they believe the burglars thought the house was empty. Thousands of mourners attended Taylor's funeral Monday at Florida International University's arena. See photos from the funeral \u00bb . Police said Taylor and his girlfriend, Jackie Garcia, were awakened by noise coming from the living room early November 26. Taylor got up and locked the bedroom door, but the door was kicked in and two shots were fired, police said. One struck Taylor in the leg. Garcia and the couple's 18-month-old daughter were not hurt. Authorities have said Garcia told police she was hiding under the bedding during the attack, did not see what happened and could not provide a suspect description. A break-in had been reported at Taylor's residence eight days earlier. A police report from that incident said someone forced a window open and left a kitchen knife on a bed. Several drawers and a bedroom safe were searched during the break-in, according to the report. Taylor spent four years with the Redskins, earning his first Pro Bowl selection in 2006. He suffered a sprained right knee in a November 11 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and had not played since. The 2004 first-round draft pick played at the University of Miami, where he was an All-American in 2003. He was regarded as one of the hardest-hitting players in the NFL. E-mail to a friend . CNN's John Couwels, Kim Segal, and Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 17-year-old alleged shooter appears in Miami courtroom .\nNEW: Eric Rivera Jr. will be tried as an adult .\nThree adult suspects in Sean Taylor slaying on suicide watch .\nTaylor died after being shot in home invasion last week .","id":"a4601415eafb5264a4bdc273de3a16365aefb35b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Football will pay its tribute to the legend of Manchester United's Busby Babes on Wednesday in moments of remembrance on the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster. A memorial stone recalls the place of the Munich air disaster in Kirchtrudering near Munich. Eight players lost their lives on February 6, 1958, when Flight 609 ZU crashed on the third attempt to take off after re-fuelling in Germany as United returned from knocking Red Star Belgrade out of the European Cup. Sir Matt Busby's side, back-to-back English champions and well positioned for a hat-trick attempt, were arguably on course to become the best United team. The United players killed at Munich were Geoff Bent, aged 25, Roger Byrne(28), Eddie Colman (21), Mark Jones (24), David Pegg (22), Tommy Taylor (26), Liam Whelan (22) and 21-year-old Duncan Edwards who died in hospital 15 days after the crash. They and the other 15 people who lost their lives will be remembered with a commemorative service at Old Trafford while a short ceremony, organised by supporters, will also take place at the memorial site in Kirchtrudering, on the outskirts of Munich. In keeping with tradition, United supporters will also gather under the memorial plaque at Old Trafford where the clock is fixed at the exact time of the final fateful take-off attempt. Later in the day, a minute's silence will take place ahead of England's friendly with Switzerland at Wembley as a further mark of respect. As he bows his head during this week's Munich commemorations, survivor Harry Gregg's mind will understandably flash back to that snow-laden runway, but only briefly. The 75-year-old Ulsterman prefers not to remember the afternoon he lost so many friends among the victims, but instead the days when the dream of the 'Busby babes' was still vibrant and alive. Goalkeeper Gregg, hailed a hero in the wake of the crash after returning to the wreckage to pull out survivors, is adamant those are the times which always burn brightest in his memory. \"I was part of something that was a very, very beautiful thing at that time,\" said Gregg, who cost United a record 23,000 pounds sterling when he joined from Doncaster Rovers two months before the disaster. \"I'll always be proud of that. The fact there's going to be a minute's silence after 50 years is a tribute to the people I played with, but one must remember as well there were other people on board that aircraft, a lot more people. \"I want the minute's silence to be over and then I want to remember the happy times, that's what I want the world to remember, that's what I want the families to remember.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Football pays tribute on the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster .\nEight Manchester United players died when plane crashed on take-off .\nA total of 23 people were killed as Utd returned from cup tie in Belgrade .","id":"91d43f137b3d928561fb62b200ae40aee4a34b73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The presidents of Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression agreement late Thursday, aiming to halt cross-border hostilities between the two African nations. Chad President Idriss Deby, right, and Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, left, shake hands after signing the pact. The signing came after nearly two full days of talks in Dakar, Senegal, between Sudan President Omar al-Beshir and Idriss Deby, the president of Chad. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade facilitated the talks, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with officials from both nations and witnessed the signing of the agreement at about 10 p.m. \"The idea is to get the governments of Sudan and Chad to normalize their relations with each other and to halt any action that would allow for the cross-border movement of rebel factions or armed factions of either side that could hurt the other country,\" said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq. Each country accuses the other of supporting armed rebel groups that cross the border to attempt to destabilize the government. The rival nations' armies have skirmished several times. The United Nations says refugees and armed groups have been regularly crossing the border between the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and Chad. They allegedly include many of the rebels that attacked N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, in early February. As recently as Thursday, just hours before the agreement was signed, Chad issued a communique saying rebels from Sudan had crossed the border. Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow Deby's regime. The United Nations says the swelling number of Darfur refugees and other displaced people living in eastern Chad is causing serious strain on the region. Kingsley Amaning, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Chad, said more than 10,000 people from Darfur, in Sudan, have fled into 12 official refugee camps in eastern Chad. They join some 240,000 Darfurians who have lived in Chad since 2004 because of fighting in their homeland and an estimated 180,000 displaced Chadians also living there. The number of displaced Chadians is growing because of the recent fighting there, Kingsley said. Haq said the United Nations, which has peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region, will work to assure Sudan and Chad carry out the terms of Thursday's deal. The countries have signed several peace agreements in the past, only to see renewed violence flare up. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sudan, Chad presidents sign agreement aiming to halt cross-border hostilities .\nSigning came after nearly two days of talks between presidents of Sudan and Chad .\nEach accuses other of supporting rebels that attempt to destabilize the government .\nJust hours before agreement, Chad claimed rebels from Sudan had crossed border .","id":"ab2d99eedfd685ce685fa44e735695c27e946683"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Larry Craig filed an appeal Monday in his continued legal fight stemming from a bathroom sex sting this summer. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, initially said he would resign at the end of September but then changed his mind. The Idaho Republican wants the Minnesota Court of Appeals to overturn a judge's decision refusing to let him withdraw a guilty plea to misdemeanor charges stemming from his arrest in June. \"From the outset Senator Craig has maintained that he is innocent of any illegal conduct at the Minneapolis airport,\" Craig's lawyer, Billy Martin, said in a written statement. \"Like every other citizen, Senator Craig has the constitutional right to make every effort to clear his name.\" Martin called the judge's decision \"a manifest injustice.\" In an interview Sunday with Boise, Idaho, TV station KTVB, Craig said \"we don't know what the appellate court will say to me,\" according to the station's Web site. Watch Craig discuss his chances on the appeal \u00bb . \"Honestly, the appeals courts tend to defend the courts below them. It is my right to do what I'm doing. I've already provided for Idaho [the] certainty that Idaho needed, I'm not running for re-election. I'm no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights.\" The appeals process could take months to complete, court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said. Craig entered a guilty plea after his arrest in a men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for allegedly propositioning a plainclothes police officer for sex. Craig originally said he would resign from the Senate on September 30 if he could not get the guilty plea withdrawn. He later postponed his decision until the judge ruled. After an October 4 ruling against him, Craig changed course, saying he would not resign and would continue to pursue his legal options. \"I am innocent of the charges against me,\" he said at the time. The Idaho lawmaker's decision not to resign has created a political headache for the Senate's Republican leadership. When news of the arrest first surfaced, GOP leaders called for an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. They later applauded Craig's decision to resign. And when Craig announced that he would continue to serve in the Senate, GOP leaders did not appear pleased. \"It's embarrassing for the Senate. It's embarrassing for our party,\" said Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who leads the GOP's Senate campaign committee, on the day of the judge's decision. \"I think it's best for the U.S. Senate, it's best for certainly his party, that he just keeps his word.\" Romney accused . In an interview taped Sunday with NBC's Matt Lauer, Craig complained that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney \"threw me under the campaign bus\" when news of his arrest came out. \"He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again,\" Craig told Lauer in the interview set to run Tuesday night, according to MSNBC.com. Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, called Craig's behavior \"disgraceful\" and urged the senator to resign when news of the arrest broke in August. Craig was Romney's Senate liaison before resigning from the campaign. Romney spokesman Kevin Madden defended the presidential candidate's response. \"Gov. Romney simply believes that a public office is a public trust,\" Madden said. \"He believes when a public official enters a guilty plea, they have broken that public trust and should step aside for the sake of their constituents.\" Also in the Lauer interview, Craig and his wife, Suzanne, denied that their marriage is a cover for his homosexuality, according to MSNBC.com. \"People know me and know that I would never do that,\" said Suzanne Craig, MSNBC.com reported. \"That's almost like selling your soul for something.\" The senator has denied he is gay. \"I love this woman very, very much,\" Larry Craig said, according to MSNBC.com. \"The day I found her, I fell deeply in love. And we're heading toward our 25th anniversary.\" When she learned the story was going to break, Suzanne Craig said, \"I felt like the floor was falling out from under me. ... And I felt like almost like I was going down a drain for a few moments,\" according to MSNBC.com. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Scott Anderson and Alexander Romney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Larry Craig files appeal to get guilty plea in sex sting withdrawn .\nCraig criticizes Mitt Romney for quickly calling for his resignation .\nThe Idaho Republican was GOP presidential candidate's liaison to the Senate .\nCraig stepped down from Romney campaign when news of his arrest broke .","id":"df9c4e1b8698581720b28c71f1e98f82bd6ea6e6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Queen Elizabeth helped launch Heathrow's $8.6 billion new Terminal 5 on Friday as part of the British airport's rejuvenation plan to maintain its status as one of the world's most important transport hubs. A general view of the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport prior to its official opening on Friday. The British monarch, who also opened Heathrow's first passenger terminal in 1955, was present under strict security a day after a man carrying a backpack was arrested for running onto a runway at the airport. The first flights from the new terminal are scheduled for March 27. Its opening has come after 15 years of planning and construction by its owners BAA -- and protests by local residents and environmental groups. It is part of a strategy which could lead to passenger numbers almost doubling to 122 million a year, with a sixth terminal and a third runway in the pipeline despite some vociferous opposition. Spanish-owned BAA, which also runs Gatwick and Stansted in Britain, also plans to eventually demolish Terminals 1 and 2 and replace them in a project called Heathrow East. Watch Queen Elizabeth meet airport staff. \u00bb . Residents were once told by BAA that there would be no fifth terminal, but the company is planning to forge further ahead despite the concerns of environmental groups. \"Terminal 5 stands as a monument to the binge-flying culture this Government has done so much to encourage,\" Greenpeace transport campaigner Anita Goldsmith told the UK Press Association. \"It's part of an obsession with expansion which can only mean more flights, more emissions and more climate change.\" Richard Dyer of Friends of the Earth added: \"If the Government is serious about tackling climate change, the opening of Terminal 5 must mark the end of airport expansion in Britain. \"Further expansion of Heathrow would be environmentally irresponsible and isn't necessary for the economy of London.\" However, business groups welcomed the expansion at Heathrow. \"Thriving, growing airports are vital to help maintain Britain's economic competitiveness,\" Neil Pakey, chairman of the Airport Operators' Association, told PA. \"Domestic air links to Heathrow are particularly valuable for the regional economies, and this new terminal will undoubtedly provide them with a much-needed boost. The passage of the current Planning Bill must ensure that this is the last airport which has to endure such an absurdly protracted planning process.\" See British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh's views on the terminal. \u00bb . Visit London chief executive James Bidwell said: \"T5 will provide visitors to London and the UK with a spectacular first impression and alleviate the pressure experienced at Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. \"The terminal's smoother check-in process and state-of-the-art baggage management system will certainly better the tourist experience and should help improve the airport's international reputation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Queen Elizabeth opens Heathrow Airport's $8.6 billion new Terminal 5 .\nThe new building took more than 15 years to complete following protests .\nLaunch a day after security scare at one of world's busiest international airports .\nA lone man ran onto a Heathrow runway carrying a backpack on Thursday .","id":"a1d7a119707506100920e1a6f0d9cbf4d4e7c838"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A young man carrying what turned out to be a hairbrush died Monday night in a hail of bullets fired by New York police. Khiel Coppin's brother Joel Coppin spoke briefly with reporters saying, \"We want justice.\" Authorities were responding to a 9-1-1 call his mother made about a \"family dispute with a gun,\" police said. In the background of the call, played at a news conference Tuesday, 18-year-old Khiel Coppin can be heard saying, \"I've got a gun, I've got a gun,\" New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told CNN. The teen put an object under his shirt and told his mother around the time she phoned 9-1-1 that he was going to say he had a gun, said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The teen told her, \" 'I'm prepared to die,' \" Kelly told reporters. When authorities arrived at the Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, the teenager had something stuffed under his shirt and several times showed a knife to police. \"Shoot me, kill me,\" he shouted, according to Kelly. \"Come get me. I have a gun. Let's do this.\" Coppin ignored repeated commands to stop and get on the ground. Witnesses said the teen appeared to be holding an object underneath his shirt and pointed it at the officers. Coppin continued to approach officers, as they ordered him to stop, said Kelly. Twenty shots were fired; Coppin was struck eight times, Kelly said. \"This was a terrible tragedy for Khiel's family, no doubt about it,\" said Kelly. But the commissioner stressed that officers reasonably believed they were about to receive fire. Kelly said the teen's mother reported he had not taken his anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication. Police have not recovered a gun and do not believe that Coppin was armed, Kelly said. A reporter asked Kelly if it's possible the young man was goading police to shoot him, a phenomenon known commonly in law enforcement circles as suicide-by-cop. \"That's certainly a possibility,\" said Kelly. \"The boy didn't have no gun, he had a brush on him,\" said Andre Wildman, a neighbor who told CNN that he saw the shooting. Listen to mother's 911 call \u00bb . Another neighbor, Wayne Holder, said police should be required to see a weapon before opening fire on a suspect. \"At least see a gun before you start to discharge it,\" Holder said. Police \"don't even have to see it, [if] they think you got one, you're going to get shot.\" Coppin was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday, the medical examiner's office said. The Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network is expected to hold a news conference on Tuesday about the shooting. Police said they were investigating whether Coppin had a history of mental illness and whether his mother had tried to have him hospitalized earlier Monday. The shooting came a year after unarmed groom Sean Bell, 23, was killed hours before his wedding in a shooting involving New York police. In 1999, unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, 22, died when police in the Bronx shot him 19 times. Bystander Dyshawn Gibson described Monday's shooting to CNN affiliate WABC-TV. \"He dropped the brush,\" Gibson said. \"He put his hands up. Police just started firing.\" Coppin was seen pacing around the apartment prior to the shooting, according to an initial police statement issued Monday night. \"He began screaming from the window at his mother and the police,\" the police statement said. \"At some point, the male climbed out of the window and began crossing the sidewalk toward the police.\" That's when police began firing, a police spokesman said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jennifer Rizzo, Janine Brady and Alina Cho contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Official: Unarmed teen hid object under shirt, shouted, \"Kill me.\"\nNew York Police Commissioner: Police feared being fired upon .\nPolice confirm Khiel Coppin, 18, was carrying hairbrush under shirt .\nPolice say he ignored orders to halt; cops fired 20 shots, killing the teen .","id":"acd2b851b367bf62dd603ebff5670ffa9c853a8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Amazon rainforest is so vast and full of life that even its defenders don't know exactly what it is they are protecting. In the past 40 years, roughly 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been wiped out. \"The wealth of biodiversity is so immense, we cannot even estimate the amount we don't know,\" says Cl\u00e1udio C. Maretti, Brazil-based director for conservation for the World Wildlife Fund. \"Every new expedition you do to the Amazon, you might find one new species of fish. Every other, you might find some new bird or frog.\" The Amazon rainforest, which encompasses an area nearly as large as the continental United States and stretches across nine countries, is considered the world's richest and most varied natural habitat, with several million species of insects, plants, birds and fish calling it home. It also plays an important role in regulating Earth's temperature as its dense vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen into the air. But the Amazon has been under pressure from outside forces for decades. In the past 40 years, roughly 20 percent of the rainforest has been wiped out. Maretti says an additional 17 percent has been degraded to varying degrees. \"We have been deforesting at enormous rates,\" Maretti says. The chief drivers of this deforestation are large-scale business interests involved in logging, mining, agriculture and, especially, cattle ranching. Some of this activity is sanctioned by the government; much of it is not. Greenpeace estimates as much as 80 percent of the logging is illegal. The Amazon rainforest is just one of many habitats around the world threatened by encroaching development or natural resource extraction. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that 50,000 square miles of forest -- more than three times the size of Switzerland -- are lost each year because of clearing and degradation. The threat is particularly acute in the more tropical areas of South America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Cambodia, for example, lost nearly 30 percent of its primary forests from 2000 to 2005, according to FAO. Vietnam lost close to 55 percent of its primary forests, FAO found. And Nigeria lost nearly 56 percent of its primary forests over the same period, the worst rate of forest loss in the world, according to FAO. The destruction of the Earth's oldest and richest forests is not a new phenomenon, but the rate of destruction has increased in recent decades. \"Worldwide, one-half of all forests we've lost in the last 10,000 years has occurred in the last 80 years. Half of that was destroyed in the last 30 years,\" says Scott Paul, Forest Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace. Paul says the chief driver of forest destruction is the buying and selling of forest products and farm products in the international market, not to meet local needs. \"The timber market, and also for agriculture, mining: When it plugs into the international economic system, that's when you've got to watch it,\" he says. Paul would like to see a certification system so that consumers know the source and conditions under which the product they're consuming was harvested. \"If you buy wine and cheese, we can tell the region and the year. But forest products have always been cut in remote and distant areas and thrown in a pipe and spit out on the other side. There is no way to determine if something came from a well-managed forest or an illegal forest where there is slavery, murder, drug trade, etc.,\" he says. While the story of the world's old-growth forests would appear to be one of unremitting destruction, forests lost to logging and agriculture are actually growing back in some areas, such as the northeast region of the United States and parts of Europe. This thrills some wildlife advocates who would like to see the restoration of exiled or decimated species. \"Northern New England is the only place in the eastern United States where you have the potential for large-scale wilderness where wolves, lynxes, cougars, woodland caribou and salmon rivers could be restored,\" according to Michael J. Kellett, executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods. \"We could literally have almost the entire ecosystem of the Maine woods as it once was.\" With large-scale agriculture all but gone from New England and logging companies concentrating their attention elsewhere, Kellett's biggest fear is that real estate development could begin to carve up the vast forests of Maine. His proposed solution: create a national park. In Brazil in recent years, the government reportedly has stepped up efforts to slow the Amazon's destruction. Last October, Brazil said the rate of deforestation plunged 41 percent because of the enforcement of environmental laws. Environmental groups say the drop also was caused by the fall of soy prices and the rise of Brazil's currency against the dollar, making the country's exports more expensive. The World Wildlife Fund's Maretti is hopeful that Brazil, with international help, will be able to protect even more of the Amazon, an area he considers among the most vital natural habitats in the world. \"We do have strong civil society. We do have more governance,\" Maretti says. \"But we certainly need support from abroad. I don't believe Brazil can do this job alone.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"UN: More than 50,000 square miles of forest lost each year .\nMost trees cut down for international sale .\nSome forests making comeback in U.S., Europe .","id":"b9f5a02386adb698ae71cadd3fd1825fa7b998db"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States imposed stiff sanctions against Iran on Thursday, targeting two Iranian military groups and a number of Iranian banks and people it accuses of backing nuclear proliferation and terror-related activities. \"What this means is that no U.S. citizen or private organization will be allowed to engage in financial transactions with these persons and entities,\" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. \"In addition, any assets that these designees have under U.S. jurisdiction will be immediately frozen.\" Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made the announcement in a brief appearance before reporters on Thursday morning. Rice accused Iran of \"pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to a nuclear weapon; building dangerous ballistic missiles; supporting Shia militants in Iraq and terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories; and denying the existence of a fellow member of the United Nations, threatening to wipe Israel off the map.\" Watch Rice tell why sanctions are being imposed \u00bb . \"Many of the Iranian regime's most destabilizing policies are carried out by two of its agencies: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the IRGC, and the Quds force, an arm of the IRGC,\" she said. She said the sanctions were being imposed \"because of the Revolutionary Guard's support for proliferation and the Quds force support for terrorism.\" The United States also designated three Iranian state-owned banks for sanctions, two of them \"for their involvement in proliferation activities\" and the other \"as a terrorist financier,\" Rice said. \"Iran funnels hundreds of millions of dollars each year through the international financial system to terrorists,\" Paulson said. \"Iran's banks aid this conduct using a range of deceptive financial practices intended to evade even the most stringent risk management controls.\" The Revolutionary Guard Corps, he said, \"is so deeply entrenched in Iran's economy and commercial enterprises, it is increasingly likely that, if you are doing business with Iran, you are doing business\" with the corps. \"We call on responsible banks and companies around the world to terminate any business with Bank Melli, Bank Mellat, Bank Saderat, and all companies and entities\" of the corps, Paulson said. The move marks the first time the United States has attempted to punish another country's military through sanctions. Previous sanctions imposed by the United States have been tied to Iran's nuclear program. The United States has been working with other world powers to halt what they believe is Iran's intent to develop a nuclear arsenal. Iran says it is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful reasons. Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, said last month that Iran's declared nuclear material has not been diverted from peaceful use and criticized U.S. rhetoric regarding Iran. The Quds Force is blamed by the U.S. military for training and arming Shiite militias in Iraq and smuggling highly lethal explosives into Iraq, where they are used to attack coalition forces. Iran denies the charge. \"If the Iranian government fulfills its international obligation to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activity, I will join my British, French, Russian, Chinese and German colleagues, and I will meet with my Iranian counterpart any time, anywhere,\" Rice said. \"We will be open to the discussion of any issue. But if Iran's rulers choose to continue down a path of confrontation, the United States will act with the international community to resist these threats of the Iranian regime.\" Last month, representatives of world powers announced that unless a November report shows a \"positive outcome\" of talks with Iran about its uranium enrichment program, they will move ahead with plans for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on the country. The U.N. Security Council has repeatedly demanded that Iran suspend enrichment of uranium and has imposed limited sanctions on Tehran for refusing to comply. The European Union is weighing its own unilateral sanctions. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kathleen Koch and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. puts sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard, banks, individuals .\nRevolutionary Guard accused of supporting nuclear proliferation .\nGuard's Quds force said by U.S. to support terrorism .\nSanctions mean financial assets of Revolutionary Guard, others, are frozen .","id":"c26f356dc536e5797ba550be6e27a95059f1ce53"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Not only is Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi the first woman to hold a ministerial post in the United Arab Emirates, the first female minister of economy in the Gulf, and the first to start a Middle Eastern BB marketplace, but she's also the first minister - anywhere in the world - to launch her own perfume line. Member of Sharjah royal family and one of Forbes' 100 most powerful women, Sheikha Lubna took the post of minister for economy and planning of United Arab Emirates in 2004. Her background is in IT and before the government appointment worked at the Dubai Ports Authority where she gained the \"Distinguished Government Employee Award\" in 1999 for developing a documentation system that reduced cargo turnaround from one hour to ten minutes. In 2000, Sheikha Lubna founded Tejari, the first Middle Eastern business-to-business marketplace. As a result of Tejari (Arabic for commerce) 70 percent of Dubai's government purchases are made online, while only 30 percent of bureaucrats were web-literate before its launch. One of the cornerstones of Sheikha Lubna's work has been to allow for foreign ownership, so when John Defterios met up with her, he began by asking her about her upcoming strategy. Sheikha Lubna: We are looking with scrutiny at the companies a lot at the moment and we have several sectors. We will evaluate each sector, from the service side, finance, accounting. And any sector that we believe we need further development in terms of economic growth, then we will focus on that: on increasing the acquisition or the ownership of the foreign company. Defterios: If you look at the Middle East, specifically within this Gulf region, it's quite a radical change to open up specific sectors to majority foreign ownership. Is this society in the region ready for this move? Sheikha Lubna: Interestingly, the United Arab Emirates is host to 80 percent of its population coming from outside. We host 200 nationalities, so for us, the contribution to the economy has already started over 15 years ago with the existence of the expatriate community. So in many ways I think the openness is only a natural path: it's an organic path to continue the openness that exists. Foreign direct investment is not your own wealth. When you have your own wealth, you have a tendency to be complacent sometimes, because it's your money and you may not think you need to actually strengthen your infrastructure. However, if you look at foreign direct investment, it mandates you to be much more transparent, you have to be very diligent about your work, and it also creates new knowledge coming into the country and you can create more development through employment. Defterios: It's interesting, you read the front line of the DP World, P&O acquisition and the furor it created in the United States particularly within Congress. What are the lessons, not just from the UAE perspective, but the lessons learned from both sides during that whole process? Sheikha Lubna: First of all, I think it is important to understand, in this global world, there is a circulation of funds and there is excess of wealth that has to go somewhere. Liquidity of markets sometimes means you invest internally or you invest abroad. We've learned a lesson being in the oil crises earlier that you need to diversify your money and look into investment abroad. And we've seen this where the UAE invests in the Far East, Australia, Asia as well as in Europe and the United States. What's more important to understand is that if you're going to lock up your interest in terms of selling either because of protectionism or a particular idea in your mind that I don't want to sell to this particular organization versus another, there are other places. Defterios: That's not a veiled message your saying, that's pretty forthright this comment. Sheikha Lubna: But it's a message to all of us. If today I lock up my investment opportunity here, money will not come to me, money will go somewhere else. When I have investment coming from abroad, it creates confidence in this country that 'I am a global image'. So when I say it, I am not directing this as a message to a particular country. I am saying all countries are equal when it comes to regulation, when it comes to responsibility, when it comes to strategy in terms of attracting foreign funds and wealth coming to the country. So that's really a lesson that's very very critical. Defterios: A number of firsts: the first to start a B2B marketplace; the first female minister within the country, an economy minister; and the first to launch a perfume range as well. What is it all about? Trailblazing, setting examples, being an entrepreneur? How would you describe what you're doing here? Sheikha Lubna: Everybody laughs about the perfume. One, I think the United Arab Emirates, since inception (it's not from today but from the founder late Sheikh Zayed) has always given equal opportunities for women. But it's up to us as women to decide what is it that we can push, and what it is that we can do and not do. In my personal belief you need a bridge, you need a door opener for women. And sometimes women do not want to take the risk. Sometimes they are shy of achieving what they should be achieving. I had the opportunity and I had the trust from the government and the community, so to me, it is setting the example internally for the young women, and men by the way. Be it in technology, or economy or e-commerce. Defterios: And the perfume line is the exclamation point? Sheikha Lubna: A young woman, actually a perfume creator, who sells exclusively to Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai, decided to create a perfume with my name. So I had two mandates from her. One, I had to smell it, otherwise if it doesn't smell good I'm not going to take it as a name. So one, I had to actually agree to the scent of the perfume. And it's an Arabic perfume by the way. And second, my mandate was that I would only launch it with my name for her, if she gives 20 percent of its sales and revenue to the Friends of Cancer Patients. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sheikha Lubna was first female minister in the United Arab Emirates .\nOpenness to foreign ownership is the \"natural path\", she says .\nIf countries \"lock up\" interest due to protectionism there are other places to go .","id":"94a9883a283e94c3ad53069d98517b08e8853447"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal agents have determined New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer used a high-priced call-girl ring at least eight times in recent months, and agents had him under surveillance twice this year, sources familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. Sources say New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer used a call-girl service eight times in recent months. Spitzer announced his resignation Wednesday, two days after reports of his connection to the Emperors Club VIP became public. He has not been charged with a crime. He told reporters Wednesday, \"I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work.\" The resignation will take effect Monday. Watch Spitzer say he will resign \u00bb . The sources said the investigation began when New York's North Fork Bank notified the Treasury Department about suspicious transfers of money from Spitzer's bank accounts. That investigation led agents to the alleged organizers of the prostitution ring, four of whom were charged in a criminal complaint last week, the sources said. A grand jury in New York is likely to hear evidence in the case soon, said Kathleen Mullin, an attorney who said she represents one of the ring's employees. Mullin would not identify her client, but said she was not the woman identified only as \"Kristen\" linked to Spitzer in court papers. She said her client and other women who worked for the Emperors Club have been asked to testify before the grand jury. Asked if her client had any encounters with Spitzer, Mullin said, \"We have no information regarding the governor.\" Wiretaps on suspected members of the ring, authorized in January, yielded more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages and another 6,000-plus e-mails, according to court papers. In those intercepts, the organizers told clients how to arrange and pay for their trysts, a federal agent's affidavit states. The affidavit identified clients by number, with Spitzer designated \"Client 9,\" a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN this week. Sources familiar with the investigation said federal authorities Wednesday were trying to clamp down on leaks of the investigation's details. See a timeline of the investigation \u00bb . The affidavit states \"Client 9\" paid $4,300 for 2\u00bd hours with a call girl he arranged to meet at Washington's Mayflower Hotel, with some of that a deposit on a future session. Court papers state he also paid for train tickets, cab fare, mini-bar and room service charges for Kristen -- a 5-foot-5, 105-pound brunette he arranged to meet the night of February 13. Kristen is a 22-year-old would-be singer from New Jersey, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The newspaper said Ashley Youmans -- now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre -- was identified in court documents as Kristen. Dupre has not been charged with a crime. She made a brief appearance Monday in U.S. Magistrate Court as a witness against four people charged with operating the Emperor's Club, the Times said. In an entry on her MySpace page, Dupre says she left \"a broken family\" and \"abuse\" in 2004, eventually settling in Manhattan \"to pursue my music career.\" \"I am all about my music, and my music is all about me,\" she writes on her MySpace page. \"It flows from what I've been through, what I've seen and how I feel.\" Dupre's mother, Carolyn Capalbo, told the Times she and her daughter were close, adding that \"she obviously got involved in something much larger than her.\" Spitzer, whose squeaky-clean image as a corporate corruption-buster made him a rising Democratic star, testified to the House Financial Services Committee the next day about the effect of the mortgage meltdown. He took a state plane from Buffalo, New York, to Washington and back to New York, his office confirmed Tuesday. Sources told CNN that FBI agents had Spitzer under surveillance at the Mayflower that night -- and on an earlier occasion, on January 26, when no prostitute showed up. His resignation is unlikely to affect decisions about whether he will face prosecution, the sources said. His attorneys were negotiating Wednesday with the U.S. attorney's office in New York in an effort to avoid criminal charges, a source told CNN. But in a statement issued after the governor's resignation, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said no agreement had been reached between his office and the governor \"relating to his resignation or any other matter.\" The resignation could be a factor in the U.S. presidential race. Spitzer was a superdelegate, one of nearly 800 party leaders and officials who cast their votes at the Democratic National Convention. They are free to vote for any candidate they wish. Spitzer was a political ally of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is currently in a tight race with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to win the Democratic nomination. A candidate must get 2,024 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination. With the race so close, superdelegates could play a larger role in determining the Democratic presidential candidate than in past elections. According to two sources who spoke Tuesday with CNN, Spitzer hit the federal radar when a bank reported to the Internal Revenue Service that a significant amount of money had been suspiciously transferred from one account to another. Late last year, upon investigating the movement of money that the bank initially reported, the IRS found that the accounts were connected to Spitzer, the sources said. The IRS contacted the FBI, which joined the case to investigate the possibility of government corruption. Federal law requires a banking institution to file a suspicious activity report when the institution suspects a transaction is linked to a federal crime. More specifically, banks are required to report to the IRS any transactions totaling $5,000 or more if the transactions \"involve potential money laundering or a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.\" The act requires businesses to keep documents that are useful for identifying and investigating money laundering. After receiving the IRS report last year, the FBI Corruption Squad linked the account transfers to a prostitution ring, according to sources. The FBI criminal division joined the probe to look into the prostitution ring, while the federal corruption team continued its investigation into Spitzer. Legal experts not involved in the case have said Spitzer could face some type of money-laundering charge, such as structuring a financial transaction to evade federal bank reporting requirements by breaking up a large transaction into smaller ones. Sources tell CNN that prosecutors have considered pursuing a structuring charge, but have run into some difficulty. And Richard Smith, a former Justice Department official, said structuring charges are \"fairly difficult to prove.\" \"You are going to have to prove that he withdrew sums of money with the intent to evade the reporting requirements, to conceal the fact that he is withdrawing the money,\" said Smith, the former deputy chief of the Justice Department's fraud section. \"Because if the money was withdrawn, it appears if his lawyers are correct, in a manner that he didn't conceal anything, it begs the question whether or not they can prove the reckless intent that he withdrew this money in small sums to avoid the reporting requirement.\" Spitzer also could face charges related to the Mann Act, which makes it a federal offense to transport someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. But sources tell CNN that the government is less interested in pursuing charges for prostitution than on following the money. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Kristen\" identified as aspiring singer Ashley Youmans, 22 .\nSpitzer resigns Wednesday, two days after he is linked to call-girl ring .\nBank notified Treasury Department about suspicious transfers of money .\nSpitzer could face charges of money laundering, legal experts say .","id":"9c02ebeda5d84859eb36070de7e8a9517ac3fee6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, CNN's Arwa Damon describes the hardships faced by Iraqi women. Her documentary airs this weekend on CNN and CNN International. Nahla's husband returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. He was killed in a bomb blast in 2007. BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The pain here is choking -- it's a dark, suffocating sorrow. \"They took my husband away in front of me. I found his body in the morgue a few days later. He had multiple bullet wounds and his eyes had been gouged out,\" one woman tells me, forcefully twisting a tissue in her hands as if it somehow could ease her agony and erase the chilling memory. She didn't want her story told, too afraid that she would meet the same fate as the man she loved. Her husband's body bore the \"signs of torture.\" How many times has that phrase been used? It's such a common phrase it's as if what really happened gets glossed over: skin scraped off their bodies, fingernails ripped out, horrifying screams of pain before death. How many times have we reported death tolls from one horrific bombing or another and not been able to get across that these are lives that literally were blown apart? No matter how hard we in the media try, Iraq remains a nation filled with untold tragedies, the scope of which so often is overwhelming. And no matter how hard Iraqis try to shield themselves and those they love from the horrors here, more often than not they fail. Yet they keep fighting. See the sacrifices of Iraq's women \u00bb . Nahla works at a radio station and is one of those women. She's tall, slender, elegantly dressed and has a firm handshake. I look at her and it's nearly impossible to imagine what she's been through. \"This numbers game, you always think that you are exempt from the numbers,\" Nahla tells me, referring to the daily death toll. \"You're pained by them, but you are outside of them.\" Watch Nahla's struggle to live on \u00bb . On April 14, 2007, her world shattered. There was an explosion on a bridge in the capital and 10 people were killed. Her husband, Mohammed, was one of them. \"And with it, I am motionless,\" she says. \"Truly, life was in color and now it is in black and white. I feel like it is a game of musical chairs we used to play with others. ... One time you are hit with the chair; another time, someone else is. Now, my son and I are out of the game completely, completely.\" The image of the man she loved, tall and proud, is of a doctor who moved his family back to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein because he believed his country needed him. He was a father who doted on their 6-year-old autistic son. Also etched into her memory is the image of his charred body, melted together with nine others, a twisted pile of black, scorched flesh. Yet Nahla's voice is calm as she speaks, only breaking at the very end of our conversation, when the pain, buried so deep, rises to the surface. She couldn't suppress her gut-wrenching dry sobs. I don't know how many times I have heard stories like hers after nearly five years of war here, and yet I still get chills. I can't stop being in awe -- nor can I stop looking at these women in amazement. Life in Iraq has forced people to confront horror that would leave many of us paralyzed. Watch a divorcee forced to live amid squalor with her kids \u00bb . Where do they find the strength to keep going? Some don't and choose to live out their lives as hollow shells, just waiting for this wretched existence to be over. But so many others refuse to be beaten down, refuse to allow the horror that is Iraq to win and kill their spirit. \"If I want to see Baghdad again from before the war, I have to do my part while the other person will do his part and the other person will do his part,\" says Dr. Eaman, a children's doctor, as her bright smile seems to shine unnaturally in Baghdad's grim atmosphere. \"This is the dream, and I wish everybody would believe it and it will happen, I'm sure, and this is what is keeping me here,\" she continues. \"I have been attacked by three insurgents and was going to be kidnapped.\" She now lives at the hospital, choosing to disassociate herself from her 8-year-old son to keep him safe. Watch why \"I must help my people\" \u00bb . \"I wish I can have him with me, live with me, you know, raising him, and just show him how to do things more than anything else,\" Eaman says as she laughs and apologizes for her tears. She knows she chose to live with that pain because she believes other children need her more. \"Iraq is my life, is my country. Being a woman and knowing what other [countries] look like, I want to make a change. I want to make a change for the future for a lot of people.\" Yanar is another fighter, petite with curly dark hair and a commanding presence. \"You have been beaten, pushed, kicked and blindfolded,\" Yanar says, describing today's Iraqi woman. \"You cannot see, you cannot hear, but you are kicking back. It's not OK to be like that. You kick back and you fight for what you deserve ... you should not be turned into a prisoner.\" She started the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq to act as a watchdog to help safeguard women's rights amid war and conflict. She is another woman who exhibits jaw-dropping courage. Go inside Iraq with CNN's Arwa Damon \u00bb . She left her family and her comfortable life in Canada and came to Baghdad to build growing support for women's rights. She lives a life that at times sounds more like a James Bond movie -- having to constantly move because of death threats -- than that of a mother of a 9-year-old. \"At many stages I had to change my house so my address is a secret; nobody knows where I am other than 10 very close allies,\" Yanar says nonchalantly, as if what she is saying is completely normal. But in Iraq it is -- it's a country where a person's parameters of what they accept as being \"normal\" have to shift to survive. \"What brings me here,\" Yanar says, \"it is that everybody that I love, all the people that I love have been crushed.\" She adds, \"This cannot happen, should not happen, cannot be allowed to happen.\" What we as journalists cannot allow to happen is for these voices to go unheard. No matter how hard it is for us to find them -- literally navigating roadblocks and checkpoints or spending days chasing down someone -- the voices of the innocents caught in war must be heard. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iraqi woman perseveres because \"all the people that I love have been crushed\"\nCNN's Arwa Damon reveals stories of horror, tragedy among Iraq's women .\nDoctor says she wants all Iraqis to do their part: \"I wish everybody would believe\"\nOne woman's husband was killed in 2007; his melted flesh is etched in her mind .","id":"37ab3a49bb7732e145a24e70e6f077469ca1dbd3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is \"ready to cooperate\" with the government and is committed to pursuing a dialogue with the ruling junta, according to a statement the United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar read Thursday on her behalf. Activists display a portrait of detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar. \"It is my duty to give constant and serious considerations to the interests and opinions of as broad a range of political organizations and forces as possible,\" Ibrahim Gambari said, reading the statement from Suu Kyi. On Friday Suu Kyi was able to meet with three executive members of her National League for Democracy and a party spokesman -- the first time they have met in more than three years. Members of her party said Suu Kyi was \"very optimistic\" about prospects of the process for reconciliation, the Associated Press reported. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has said she will continue to be \"guided by the policies and wishes\" of the opposition political party she heads -- the National League for Democracy. In the statement, Suu Kyi also welcomed the appointment of Aung Kyi as the minister of relations, a position the junta created last month to be a liaison between government and Suu Kyi, whom the junta has under house arrest in Yangon. She has been confined to her home for the better part of almost two decades. Aung Kyi -- viewed as a moderate -- was appointed as the liaison officer amid international pressure following September's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. As many as 110 people are believed to have been killed in the violence, including 40 Buddhist monks. Video smuggled out of the country showed unarmed protesters being beaten by the military regime's security forces, and one man -- believed to be a Japanese journalist -- was shot and killed at close range. The protests were sparked by a huge fuel price increase imposed by the military government, and quickly escalated. Myanmar's military junta said in mid-October that it had detained more than 2,900 people during the crackdown. Many of them are still believed to be in custody. Suu Kyi described her October 25 meeting with the liaison officer as \"constructive,\" said the statement read by Gambari. \"I look forward to further regular discussions.\" Gambari said he will return this week to New York to brief U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the five-day trip to Myanmar, also called Burma. The situation in the secretive Asian nation is not what it was \"a few weeks ago,\" said a U.N. statement released in conjunction with the end of Gambari's trip. \"We now have a process going which would lead to substantive dialogue between the government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,\" the statement said. \"The sooner such a dialogue can start, the better for Myanmar.\" During his trip, Gambari met with Myanmar's prime minister, Gen. Thein Sein, and other government officials, as well as Suu Kyi, the United Nations reported. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Aung San Suu Kyi says she's committed to pursuing a dialogue with the ruling junta .\nSuu Kyi meets with three executive members of her political party .\nCrackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators set off international outrage .\nAs many as 110 people were killed in the September violence .","id":"fa67b52d4597e227947776fd40a4b16f402ed12d"} -{"article":"PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- The sole survivor of a plane crash that killed two Americans and a Panamanian pilot was awake and talking Wednesday, a doctor said. Francesca Lewis, 13, apparently fell out of the plane or was ejected on impact, her mother, Valerie Lewis, told CNN on Wednesday. The girl endured two days in the rugged mountains of Panama, in frigid temperatures and heavy rain, before rescuers stumbled upon her in the wreckage on Christmas Day. \"She's doing all right,\" Valerie Lewis said. \"She is having tests done at the hospital right now, and so far things seem good -- kind of miraculous. \"The fact that she so far doesn't seem to have any major damage seems incredible.\" Dr. Alexander Quidano at the Mae Lewis Medical Center in Boquete, Panama, said Francesca was in stable condition, awake and speaking. She was being treated for a fractured arm and several cuts, but tests, including a CAT scan, were under way to make sure nothing else was wrong, Quidano said. Francesca apparently was disoriented when her rescuers saw her under a wing of the wrecked plane, her mother said. She thought she was at home and wondered why an airplane wing was in her house, her mother said. Rescuers carried the girl on a stretcher for three and a half hours in torrential rain over rugged terrain to a helicopter. \"We're so relieved to have her with us,\" her mother said. The small plane disappeared Sunday in a mountainous area of Panama. Authorities found the bodies of pilot Edwin Lasso, American businessman Michael Klein and Klein's 13-year-old daughter, Talia, about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to a statement posted on the Web site of Panama's civil protection agency. Francesca and Talia were friends. Watch latest from school the girls attended \u00bb . Rescuers planned to retrieve the three bodies Wednesday, said Thomas Mesa, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Panama City. Klein, a 37-year-old hedge fund manager, was vacationing with the two girls when they took the flight Sunday to photograph a volcano in Chiriqui province, about 285 miles west of Panama City. Authorities think the small single-engine Cessna ran into bad weather. Radio contact with the flight was lost about noon Sunday. Authorities and hundreds of volunteers spent the last two days searching the dense jungles and mountainous terrain, but heavy rain in the area had hampered recovery efforts. \"I just want to thank all of the people that cared so much about trying to help us,\" Valerie Lewis said. \"So many people tried to help, and at great effort and sacrifice, and through the Christmas holiday. \"I mean, the most important family holiday, people were giving up that to go and trudge through the mud. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. We really appreciate everything that was done.\" Klein was president and CEO of eGroups Inc. in 1999 and 2000, when Yahoo! acquired the company, merging it with its own e-mail services and changing its name to Yahoo! Groups, which now serves more than 100 million users worldwide. \"My heart goes out to everyone,\" Valerie Lewis said. \"We all have been through a tremendous trauma together.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Girl, 13, was disoriented when found under wing, mother says .\nNEW: Lack of major injuries \"seems incredible,\" mother says .\nNEW: Rescuers carried girl 3.5 hours over mountains in heavy rain .\nGirl was only survivor in Panama crash that killed three .","id":"cafb6a9801a85984042abcd7e552d1e129dff4cf"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan election officials on Monday disqualified opposition party leader and former former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from participating in January parliamentary elections. Election officials say Nawaz Sharif's previous convictions bar him from standing for reelection. A spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League told CNN Monday that Sharif had been barred by the election commission because of a previous criminal conviction. Sharif filed paperwork for his candidacy last week, although he had left open the possibility that he would boycott the election in protest of a state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf. Sharif, an outspoken critic of Musharraf, who ousted him from power in 1999, had said he wanted to keep all options open. Sharif returned to Pakistan last month, ending seven years in exile in Saudi Arabia. He had first returned in September, but Pakistani authorities deported him within hours of his arrival. Sharif was convicted of terrorism, hijacking and tax evasion after Musharraf seized power in 1999. He was released in 2000 in exchange for agreeing to 10 years of exile in Saudi Arabia. He retained his Pakistani citizenship, but has not been allowed to travel to Pakistan or directly take part in Pakistani politics. Musharraf, who quit as military leader and took office for a third term last week, has pledged to lift the state of emergency by December 16. He was criticized of using the emergency to crack down on political rivals and to purge the judiciary of those likely to block the approval of his reappointment as leader. E-mail to a friend . -- CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif has his candidacy papers rejected .\nHad submitted nominations papers for Pakistan's parliamentary election .\nReturning officer in Lahore upheld ineligibility objections from other candidates .","id":"12a24b1aba082a5fd0687a14015e1e58090ed9c6"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- AC Milan's Brazilian midfielder Kaka has been named European player of the year, lifting France Football's Ballon d'Or award. Kaka has already claimed all of the game's major prizes. His success comes two years after his fellow countryman, Barcelona's Ronaldinho, claimed the award . The 25-year-old Kaka was a major factor in AC Milan's triumphant Champions League campaign. The runner-up was Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo with Barcelona's Argentinian midfielder Lionel Messi finishing third. \"This is very special for me - it culminates an astonishing year for me,\" Kaka said. \"It's the top prize around and the only way to win something like this is to play for a team like AC Milan. It's great to be part of a team that wins.\" At 25 years old, he has already won all the game's major prizes, individually and collectively. He was part of Brazil's 2002 World Cup winning squad, although he was limited to just 19 minutes as a substitute against Costa Rica. He was top scorer in last season's Champions League, helping Milan to avenge their loss to Liverpool in the 2005 final. He won the Italian domestic title in his first season at Milan having joined from Brazilians Sao Paulo for$ 8.5 million, a sum that Milan president Silvio Berlusconi then described as peanuts. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Brazilian Kaka is named European player of the year .\nThe AC Milan player is chosen ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester Utd .\nArgentine Lionel Messi of Barcelona finishes third .","id":"c8ebf6f48257a704202c7b6df238bc1cbfa838d7"} -{"article":"BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- European leaders agreed Friday to send an 1,800-strong security force to maintain stability in Kosovo, although they stopped short of backing independence for the province. French soldiers at the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo last month. Kosovo is expected to declare independence from Serbia early in the new year. Serbia, however, insists the region should remain autonomous within its borders. Speaking at the end of a one-day summit of European heads in Brussels, Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister currently holding the European Union presidency, said that sending the security mission was a \"political decision.\" The police and security force is expected to be deployed to the Balkan state ahead of an announcement of independence. \"This is the clearest signal that the EU could possibly give that it intends to lead on the whole issue of Kosovo's future, its status and its role in the region,\" Socrates said. According to CNN's Robin Oakley in Brussels, European leaders are trying to balance an obvious readiness to back Kosovan independence with incentives to Serbia, which is seeking membership of the EU. EU leaders are deeply conscious of their failure in the early 1990s to move early enough to prevent the bloodletting in the Balkans over the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, he said. Although most EU leaders support Serbia becoming a member state to boost stability in the Balkans, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said that Serbia's membership is dependent on it recognizing Kosovo's independence and handing over war criminals. Socrates confirmed to CNN that any fast-tracking of Serbia into the EU could only be considered if it agreed to hand over Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general wanted at the The Hague for suspected war crimes. Two years of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo ended in failure earlier this week, when talks mediated by Europe, the United States and Russia ended without an agreement. The disputed province is dear to the Serbs, Orthodox Christians who regard it as Serbian territory. But it is equally coveted by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Muslims who have a 90 percent majority. Since 1999 the United Nations has been running the province with NATO peacekeepers, who still number 16,000. Oakley said the EU mission to Kosovo would help to ease the handover from the U.N. to local authorities. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"European leaders agree to send 1,800-strong security force to Kosovo .\nKosovo expected to declare independence from Serbia in new year .\nSerbia insists region should remain autonomous within its borders .","id":"48e858dcb8dd62aad328f2c5f7fa052893d7304b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of Chileans may have to sleep in the streets Wednesday night after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rattled the north part of the country, killing at least two people, injuring dozens and destroying hundreds of homes. Valentina Bustos shot this photo Wednesday of earthquake damage at a hotel in Antofagasta, Chile. \"There are more than a thousand, 1,200 houses, at least, that were totally flattened, and others in bad shape,\" Tocopilla Mayor Luis Moyano said in an interview that aired on Radio Cooperativo. Tocopilla, Chile, north of Santiago, is about 35 km (21 miles) from the quake's epicenter. \"Tonight, people are going to have to sleep in the street, because there are a great number of houses that are uninhabitable,\" said Moyano. Places that could be used as shelters, such as schools and gyms, were damaged in the quake, the mayor said. Moyano put the number of people without shelter at 4,000. Tocopilla's population is 24,000. Moyano described going through the damaged city and running into people asking, \"Mayor, my house collapsed. What do I do? Mayor, I don't have water. What do I do?\" \"It gets to you,\" he said. Paula Saez with the aid organization World Vision told CNN she was on a treacherous drive attempting to reach Tocopilla. \"There's no electricity and there's a lot of landslides\" covering the road in spots, she said, and the highway was spotted with holes. Once in Tocopilla, Saez said, she was prepared to offer tents, blankets and medicine to citizens and assess additional needs. The government's Office of National Emergency reported that two women had died and others were injured in the city. Officials identified one of those killed as 54-year-old Olga Petronila Ortiz Cisternas. The other fatality was an 88-year-old woman. Watch what a 7.7 earthquake can do \u00bb . Municipal official Ljubica Ukurtovic, in an interview with Chilean TV station TVN, said that \"approximately 100 people\" had sought treatment at a Tocopilla hospital. The quake collapsed a roadway tunnel, temporarily trapping about 50 construction workers. See where the quake struck \u00bb . High-level government sources said the workers had been rescued. Repair work on the 793-meter (2,600-foot) Pedro Galleguillos tunnel, completed in 1994, began on October 1 and was to be finished early next year. Tocopilla is about 1,245 km (780 miles) north of Santiago and the quake was felt in Peru and Bolivia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor was centered at a depth of 60 km (37 miles), the USGS said. A tsunami warning was issued for the South Pacific coast after the quake hit, but was canceled within an hour. Chile has been the scene of hundreds of strong earthquakes throughout history, including the largest one of the 20th century on May 22, 1960. The quake that struck southern Chile that day registered a magnitude 9.5 and launched a tsunami that caused damage as far away as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines. Nearly 6,000 people died as a result of the quake and its tsunami. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck southern Chile on January 25, 1939, killed 28,000 people. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake in what was then southern Peru but is now northern Chile killed 25,000 people in 1868. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Tocopilla mayor: More than 1,200 homes flattened, shelters damaged .\nDozens of workers freed from collapsed roadway tunnel, officials say .\nChilean Navy is moving heavy equipment into the area to help with rescue .\n7.7 quake north of Tocopilla happened at 12:40 p.m. (10:40 a.m. ET)","id":"1522da440cb538c8fc60f254efcb65e8378065a1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- No charges will be brought against a 10-year-old boy accused of accidentally starting an October wildfire that scorched more than 38,000 acres north of Los Angeles, California, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Firefighters battle the Buckweed Fire October 22, 2007. \"There is no evidence of intent on the part of the minor,\" the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a written statement issued Tuesday afternoon. \"The district attorney's office is referring the matter to the Department of Children and Family Services for evaluation of the minor's situation to determine if other intervention is necessary.\" The boy had faced possible charges in juvenile court after admitting to sheriff's deputies that he had started the Buckweed fire by playing with matches, investigators said. The blaze eventually destroyed 21 homes and 42 other structures. The fire started October 21 in the Agua Dulce community north of Los Angeles. It was one of nearly two dozen wind-whipped wildfires that swept across southern California in late October, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from homes near Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino and leaving 14 people dead. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"There is no evidence that the boy intended to set the fire, prosecutors say .\nHe had faced possible charges in juvenile court after admitting to setting blaze .\nThe boy was playing with matches; the blaze destroyed 21 homes .\nThe Buckweed fire started October 21 north of Los Angeles .","id":"0b40c6061cfd6a745886150c46eb75a7f43b4efa"} -{"article":"JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Police believe they have found the remains of a missing Marine buried in the backyard of the prime suspect in the case and blood spatter evidence inside his home, authorities said Friday evening. Investigators search for the body of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach Friday. Tests found the \"trace of violent activity in the house\" and \"evidence of an attempted cleanup,\" said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown. Investigators are treating the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach as a murder, Brown added. Lauterbach, 20 -- who was eight months pregnant -- was reported missing from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, by her mother December 19. Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, whom Lauterbach had accused of rape, is the suspected killer, and is being sought, Brown said. He confirmed that Laurean had left a note, but did not divulge what it said. Investigators told CNN, however, that Laurean left a note to his wife saying Lauterbach had committed suicide and that he buried the body. \"Evidence now is saying what he's claiming happened did not happen like he said it happened,\" Brown said. Authorities searching Laurean's home found a cavity in his backyard earlier Friday. A preliminary investigation indicated a \"suspicious situation,\" prompting police to secure the scene and wait for daylight Saturday. Watch authorities search for a grave \u00bb . \"We think that we have found what would be the skeletal remains [of Lauterbach],\" Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson told reporters. While authorities will not know for sure until Saturday, \"there are certainly some strong indicators that there are human remains\" buried in the cavity, he said. \"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand if there's a cavity out back and blood on the inside, that's probably going to be a key location for where this crime may have taken place,\" Brown said. He also hinted that investigators have uncovered more twists in the case. \"I do think this case is going to be a bizarre ending, and when I say bizarre, more than just a death and a burial.\" Brown stunned reporters earlier in the day by opening a press conference with the announcement: \"She is dead, and she is buried.\" Watch Brown describe the cavity \u00bb . Laurean, a 21-year-old from Nevada, is believed to have left the Marine base about 4 a.m. Friday, driving a black Dodge pickup with North Carolina license plate TRR1522, Brown said. He repeatedly refused to meet with investigators, finally telling them that his attorney wouldn't let him. The sheriff was downcast at a midday news conference. \"These cases, investigations, become personal. I just want to cry,\" he said. \"I'm telling you, at this point, I'm down, way down.\" Watch sheriff announce that Marine is dead \u00bb . Mary Lauterbach reported her daughter missing after being unable to contact her. She said she last spoke to her December 14. In a handwritten note, the Lauterbach family in Vandalia, Ohio, mourned their loss. \"We would like to thank everyone for their prayers in this time of grieving,\" the note said. \"Maria has been a gift for her family and friends. The outpouring of love from family, friends, neighbors and the general community has been very touching. \"Please understand that the family needs time alone to deal with this tragedy. We wish to thank everyone for their love and concern.\" \"They're having a very difficult time dealing with this,\" said Peter Steiner, a Kentucky psychiatrist who is Maria Lauterbach's uncle and Mary Lauterbach's brother. \"They remained hopeful, and really, although everyone knew it was a possibility, it was very difficult when it became apparent.\" Brown said a witness came forward Friday morning with a statement and evidence that convinced authorities Lauterbach was dead. Brown wouldn't name the witness, or describe Lauterbach's cause of death, except to say she died \"from an injury.\" Asked whether the witness was in protective custody, Brown said the person does not feel the need for protective custody, as Laurean likely left the county and possibly the state. A source close to the investigation told CNN the witness is Laurean's wife. Lauterbach's relatives believe the pregnancy was the result of the alleged rape, Steiner said. A reporter who asked military officials why Laurean hadn't been taken into custody after Lauterbach reported the alleged rape was told there were indications that Lauterbach and Laurean carried on \"some sort of friendly relationship\" after she filed the complaint against him. \"The information developed over the last 24 hours leads us to believe that she still had some kind of contact\" with him, said Paul Ciccarelli, agent in charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service at Camp Lejeune. Because of that, Laurean wasn't considered a flight risk, he said. Steiner disputed that, saying his niece had no relationship with Laurean. Ciccarelli also said the rape investigation is still active. Watch police face unanswered questions \u00bb . Lauterbach disappeared before she was able to testify at an Article 32 hearing -- a kind of military grand jury -- about the sexual assault. Earlier Friday, Brown said a Marine who returned to North Carolina from California -- Sgt. Daniel Durham, 20, in whose home Lauterbach had been living for a short time -- was questioned, but does not appear to have any link to the death. Lauterbach had rented a room in Durham's home, off the base, because she had been subjected to repeated harassment by the Marines after reporting the alleged rape, Steiner said. Her car had been keyed and an anonymous person had \"slugged\" her in the face, he said. Lauterbach's cell phone was found on a roadside near Camp Lejeune on December 20. Her car was found Monday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant and had apparently been there since December 15, Brown said. A bus ticket to El Paso, Texas, was bought in Lauterbach's name on the same day, but Brown said it was never used. See a timeline of the case \u00bb . Investigators have said a withdrawal from Lauterbach's bank account was made on December 14, and there was \"suspicious activity\" on the account 10 days later. Lauterbach and her mother last spoke about 2:30 p.m. the day Lauterbach disappeared, Steiner said. At the time, she had experienced some contractions. \"She was ready to have that baby.\" His niece \"was an energetic, very athletic, beautiful young lady. She was a person that we're all dearly, dearly going to miss,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Tests find \"trace of violent activity in the house,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Investigators: Suspect left a note saying Marine had committed suicide .\nNEW: Source: Witness who came forward Friday is suspect's wife .\nOfficial: We think we have found Lauterbach's skeletal remains .","id":"730655d5d1f29496344388805a891c3e3fd2a64e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators with bomb-making components in their luggage and on their person were able to pass through security checkpoints at 19 U.S. airports without detection, according to the Government Accountability Office. Passengers pass through security at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. GAO officials are expected to testify about the investigation Thursday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The investigators reported that most of the time security officers followed Transportation Security Administration policies and procedures, but investigators were able to take advantage of \"weaknesses in TSA procedures and other vulnerabilities.\" \"These weaknesses were identified based on a review of public information,\" the planned GAO testimony says. Investigators concluded that if they had attempted the same test at other airports, they would have evaded detection. But the GAO did not detail the weaknesses because they \"are sensitive security information.\" The investigators obtained the bomb-making components at local stores and over the Internet for less than $150, according to testimony. Watch a tester point out a TSA mistake \u00bb . The GAO said its investigators also tested the devices that could be built with the components they smuggled and discovered that \"a terrorist using these devices could cause severe damage to an airplane and threaten the safety of passengers.\" The GAO investigators devised two types of devices: an \"improvised explosive device\" made of a liquid explosive and a low-yield detonator, and an \"improvised incendiary device\" that could be created by combining commonly available products prohibited in carry-on luggage. The GAO said it found the instructions for creating the devices \"using publicly available information,\" including Internet searches. According to the testimony, a transportation security officer barred one of the investigators from bringing an unlabeled bottle of medicated shampoo through the checkpoint. But the security officer allowed a liquid component of the improvised explosive device to pass through undetected, although that item is prohibited by the TSA. In another test, the investigator put coins in his pockets to assure he would get a secondary inspection. But the officer, using a hand-wand and a pat-down, failed to detect any of the prohibited items the investigator was carrying. The GAO said it had briefed the TSA on its findings \"to help them take corrective action.\" In testimony to be provided to the same congressional committee, TSA chief Kip Hawley defends the administration's policies and procedures, saying that the screening checkpoints are but one of a \"multilayered approach to security.\" \"We recognize that, despite our efforts to make each layer as strong as possible, a concerted effort may target any one layer,\" according to the testimony. \"Our ongoing success is a result of the tremendous power in the reinforced, multiple layers. Truly, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts -- and together, they are formidable.\" Hawley sketches for members of Congress 19 security steps the TSA employs before, during and after checkpoint screening. \"Each and every one of these 19 security layers is important and strong in its own right,\" he says. \"Linked together, they are effective and daunting.\" Although it would not discuss the specific nature of its recommendations, the GAO said it recommended establishing special screening lines based on risk and passengers with special needs. The TSA should introduce more \"aggressive, visible and unpredictable\" measures to detect concealed items and develop new technology for screening at checkpoints. Hawley's said the TSA concurs with the GAO's recommendations and specifically discussed several \"new technology\" items that he said were \"greatly improving our effectiveness in detecting prohibited items.\" Among the new technology, he said, were whole body imagers, bottled liquids scanners, hand-held explosives scanners and advanced technology X-rays. And, he added, \"our pursuit of new technology is not limited to what I described today.\" He also said the TSA is constantly conducting covert tests of the screening process, including detection of prohibited liquids and IEDs. \"The nation's aviation system remains secure,\" he said, \"but requires ongoing improvement and vigilance to stay ahead of the threat of terrorism.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"GAO: Investigators took advantage of \"weaknesses in TSA procedures\"\nGAO: Those \"weaknesses\" were not detailed for security reasons .\nGAO said terrorists using same items could seriously compromise a flight .\nTransportation Security Administration: Checkpoints only part of total security .","id":"399877dd5e90d151e29ad67fdeb6fa093632e0e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The orgy of violence that has greeted Kenya's disputed election result has led to hundreds of deaths and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. But away from the tragic human cost, the unrest has also provoked concerns about the stability of the east African country's economy, until now seen as a model for the region. Businesses have been destroyed and looted and supply routes disrupted after the opposition accused incumbent president Mwai Kibaki of election fraud after he was declared winner Sunday. Investors are watching events closely in the country, fearful of how it could affect one of Africa's few economic success stories. And the early signs have been worrying. The equity market on the Nairobi Stock Exchange lost 40 billion Kenyan Shillings ($591 million) in value on its first day of New Year trading Wednesday, the Kenyan financial newspaper Business Daily Africa reported. And business leaders said that the government was losing around 2 billion Shillings ($29.5 million) a day in lost revenue as a result of the political violence, the paper reported. \"We do seem to be in a new place, there's a lot of uncertainty about where we go from here. And a lot depends crucially on how long-lasting this is,\" said Razia Kahn, an analyst specializing in Africa at Standard Chartered bank. Kenya has attracted a large number of multi-nationals and is home to one of the world's fastest growing stock exchanges. Its relative economic success has been helped in part by its thriving tourist sector, with visitors attracted by its abundant wildlife and pristine beaches. Provisional figures for 2006 from the Kenya's tourist board said the country had received 1.5 million visitors for the year, a growth of 5.2 per cent. However, fears that the tourist industry could take a heavy hit from the unrest grew with the British Federation of Tour Operators announcing Thursday it was suspending all holidays to the country departing up to and including this Saturday. Watch an aid worker describe fears that crisis may resemble Rwanda's \u00bb . British tourists already in the country have been advised by the British Foreign Office to stay indoors and to stay away from the major cities. There are also worries about the knock-on effect for the region, since around 40 percent of Kenya's exports go to other African nations, Kahn said. Of even greater concern is the effect on Kenya's lucrative agriculture industry. Exports of tea, coffee, vegetables and flowers are big earners for the country, with agriculture making up about a fifth of the total economy. There have been media reports of tea and coffee auctions being halted by the violence as well as widespread disruption to transport routes as rioters blockade major roads across the country. Arun Shah, who runs a coffee import business based in London, told CNN his livelihood depended on a stable Kenya. \"We have had absolutely reliable supply,\" he said. \"We have had reliable quality and the quantities that we need for our trade.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Boulden in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Kenya's once-stable economy faltering due to violence following disputed election .\nEquity market on Nairobi Stock Exchange lost $591 million on first day of 2008 .\nBusiness leaders say the government losing $29.5 million a day in revenues .\nThriving tourist industry also hit, with British tour operators calling off flights .","id":"67fc9fa49a2c443dcbab030b9c6247a662716bc9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fantasy author Terry Pratchett has admitted that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease -- but says he plans to continue writing his multi-million selling Discworld books. Terry Pratchett, whose books have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide in 33 languages. Pratchett, 59 -- whose books have, according to his Web site, sold more than 45 million copies worldwide in 33 languages -- suffered what he called a \"phantom stroke\" earlier this year. In a statement titled \"an embuggerance\" on the Web site of Discworld illustrator Paul Kidby, Pratchett says that he has been diagnosed with what he terms \"a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's.\" \"I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news,\" says Pratchett, who has a strong following among fans of fantasy fiction. \"All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers,\" he continues. \"Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet.\" Pratchett adds that work is continuing on his next book \"Nation\" and that the \"basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals.\" In a P.S. he adds that \"I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. \"I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do', but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.\" Pratchett's Discworld novels, of which 36 have been published to date, are set in a fantasy universe through which the author satirizes modern-day life. He says in a statement on his own Web site that the series \"started out as a parody of all the fantasy that was around in the big boom of the early '80s, then turned into a satire on just about everything, and even I don't know what it is now.\" Pratchett, who began writing while a provincial newspaper journalist in the 1960s, received the Order of the British Empire \"for services to literature\" from the Prince of Wales in 1998. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Multi-million selling writer has \"a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's\"\nTerry Pratchett says work continuing on books, plans to honor commitments .\nDiscworld novels are set in a fantasy universe but satirize modern day life .\nReceived the Order of the British Empire from the Prince of Wales in 1998 .","id":"8a44f223fc67ed0d5f946517f77c2291d6c4a027"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi forces detained the suspected leader of a terrorist cell network believed to be funded by Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter, who is wanted by Iraqi authorities on terrorism charges, the U.S. military announced Monday. Raghad Hussein is currently living in Jordan under the protection of the royal family. The raid happened Sunday in Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. It was carried out by Iraqi forces, advised by U.S. Special Forces, the military said. The network, believed to be funded by Raghad Hussein, has been \"linked to a series of attacks on coalition forces\" using rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs, the military said. \"These attacks have claimed the lives of numerous Soldiers and Airmen,\" a military statement said. Other leaders of the network have been detained in previous raids, the military said. The international police organization Interpol last year issued an alert to authorities across the world that Raghad Hussein is wanted by Iraqi authorities. The Iraqi government has issued an arrest warrant for the 38-year-old daughter of the late Iraqi leader on charges of inciting terrorism and crimes against life and health. Interpol -- based in Lyon, France -- issued a Red Notice in the case. That is a request to police anywhere to help track her down and extradite her to Iraq. She has been living in Jordan under the protection of the royal family. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iraqi forces detain the suspected leader of a terrorist cell network .\nCell is believed to be funded by Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter, Raghad .\nRaghad, wanted in Iraq on terrorism charges, currently living in Jordan .","id":"a3906e4f27942e2742d5cc9a3241980e338e0d30"} -{"article":"PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton became visibly emotional at a New Hampshire campaign event Monday after a friendly question from a voter. Sen. Hillary Clinton's eyes welled with tears as she spoke in New Hampshire Monday. At the close of a Portsmouth campaign stop, Marianne Pernold-Young, 64, asked Clinton: \"How do you do it? How do you keep up ... and who does your hair?\" Clinton said she had help with her hair on \"special days,\" and that she drew criticism on the days she did not. Then she added: \"It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do. \"You know, I have so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards,\" she said, her voice breaking a bit. The audience applauded. \"This is very personal for me, it's not just political, it's [that] I see what's happening, we have to reverse it,\" she said emotionally, adding that some \"just put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. \"But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us ready and some of us are not. Some of us know what we will do on day one, and some of us really haven't thought that through enough.\" \"So as tired as I am and I am. And as difficult as it is to try and keep up what I try to do on the road, like occasionally exercise and try to eat right -- it's tough when the easiest food is pizza -- I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation. So I'm going to do everything I can and make my case and you know the voters get to decide.\" Watch Clinton become emotional as she's answering a question \u00bb . The New York senator is under pressure after some weekend surveys show opponent Barack Obama with a sudden almost double digit lead, with less than a day to go until the New Hampshire primary. At a New Hampshire campaign event, presidential rival John Edwards told reporters he was unaware of Clinton's emotional reaction and would not respond to it. But he did say, \"I think what we need in a commander in chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are a tough business, but being president of the United States is also a very tough business. \"And the President of the United States is faced with very, very difficult challenges every single day, difficult judgments every single day.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Clinton begins talking about how others have criticized her, gets emotional .\nShe was with mostly female voters in New Hampshire on a campaign stop .\n\"It's not easy,\" she told them .\nThe New York senator is trailing Sen. Barack Obama in polls .","id":"1e9f089602e8ab42ae65e273d866b53bdf9501bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As the war in Iraq reaches its five-year anniversary this week, two of the world's leading humanitarian groups issued extensive reports Monday describing a crisis of huge proportions with little reason for hope. Iraqi women mourn the death of their relative outside the morgue in the restive city of Baquba, Iraq, on March 12. \"Despite claims that the security situation has improved in recent months, the human rights situation is disastrous,\" Amnesty International says in its report, titled \"Carnage and Despair: Iraq Five Years On.\" In a summary of the report, Amnesty writes that \"a climate of impunity has prevailed, the economy is in tatters and the refugee crisis\" keeps escalating. The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a report titled \"Iraq: No Let-up in the Humanitarian Crisis,\" writes, \"Despite limited improvements in security in some areas, armed violence is still having a disastrous impact. Civilians continue to be killed in the hostilities. \"The injured often do not receive adequate medical care. Millions of people have been forced to rely on insufficient supplies of poor-quality water as water and sewage systems suffer from a lack of maintenance and a shortage of engineers.\" The Bush administration and many Republican lawmakers, including presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, have frequently praised successes in Iraq in recent months, noting improvements in security in key areas. They attribute that in part to the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq ordered by President Bush last year. Vice President Dick Cheney described the five year U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in a news conference Monday during a visit to Baghdad. \"This week marks the fifth anniversary,\" said Cheney. \"It has been a difficult, challenging, but none the less successful endeavor.\" Democrats, including presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have said the government failed to use the downturn in violence to achieve the steps it was supposed to make possible. Sen. John McCain met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday where he stressed the United States' commitment to Iraq. \"We recognize that al Qaeda is on the run, but they are not defeated. Al Qaeda continues to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a democracy. So we know there's still a lot more work that needs to be done,\" he said. Amnesty writes, \"Key political benchmarks have yet to be realized.\" Both Amnesty and the Red Cross slam the Iraqi government for failing to grapple with the critical needs of their populations. Amnesty also says the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led Multi-National Forces are responsible for some nightmarish circumstances. \"Civilians are also at risk from Multi-National Forces and Iraqi security forces, with many killed by excessive force and tens of thousands detained without charge or trial,\" Amnesty writes in its summary. \"The death penalty was reintroduced in 2004 and hundreds of people have been sentenced to death. At least 33 people were executed in 2007, many after unfair trials.\" In its report, Amnesty says the Iraqi government \"has failed to introduce practical measures to deal with the gross and serious human rights violations perpetrated by its security forces. There appears to be no serious willingness to investigate properly the many incidents of abuses, including killings of civilians, torture and rape, and to bring those responsible to justice. \"The government has also been unable to reign in Shiite militia groups, such as the Mehdi Army, or to rid the Interior Ministry of death squads. The fact that the government is divided along sectarian lines has serious repercussions on its effectiveness and bodes ill for the future.\" The two reports cite a litany of concerns, including severe widespread poverty, a lack of food and water, and broken families left to scrounge for whatever they can find to get by. Both reports describe a situation that shows no sign of clear improvement. Amnesty also says conditions for women have worsened with the rise of fundamentalist religious groups. Many women \"have been forced to wear Islamic dress or targeted for abduction, rape or killing.\" The group notes a study by the World Health Organization in 2006\/2007 that found 21 percent of Iraqi women had experienced physical violence. Amnesty adds that the \"predominantly Kurdish region of northern Iraq has been more stable with fewer acts of violence, and has seen growing economic prosperity and foreign investment. However, here too there continue to be serious human rights violations, including arrests for peaceful political dissent, torture, ill-treatment, the death penalty and the killing of women in so-called honor crimes.\" The Red Cross says that despite the struggles in Iraq, the organization \"has been able to help hundreds of thousands of the neediest Iraqis.\" The group called for a \"renewed effort\" to \"address the needs of everyday Iraqis.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Amnesty International and The Red Cross released reports Monday .\nAmnesty report: \"A climate of impunity has prevailed; the economy is in tatters\"\nAmnesty says conditions for women have worsened with rise of religious groups .\nVice President Dick Cheney describes war as success with challenges .","id":"768682d2f556e103bad77ad7aaa0660181747d1c"} -{"article":"NAPA, California (CNN) -- If Barrett Wissman were in the ministry, his arts festivals would be sunny outposts on a fast-widening mission field. His Tuscan Sun Festival opens Saturday in Cortona, Italy. An all-new Singapore Sun Festival opens October 18. And a secret known to missionaries everywhere is clearly in sway at the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley, which has just concluded its second year: Bonding with the locals. With quick fervor, local leaders, the hospitality industry and those all-important vintners of Napa have embraced their festival. When symphony conductor St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve mentioned last year that he'd like to get married there, Tatiana and Gerret Copeland of the Bouchaine wine estate threw the ceremony for them in the vineyards. See images from a maestro's marriage in the vineyards of Napa during this year's Festival del Sole \u00bb . \"It's a mission in my life to have more and more people enjoy and love the arts,\" Wissman says in an interview sandwiched between Den\u00e8ve's presentation of the Grieg piano concerto and Prokofiev's \"Romeo and Juliet\" suite with the Russian National Orchestra. Watch highlights and comments from Barrett Wissman and the artists of Festival del Sole \u00bb . \"One of the reasons that we have these festivals -- engage local communities and have music, literature, art, film, cuisine, wine, all these subjects -- is we attract different people who like each one. And then get them to like something else. Today, our goal in education in the arts is to get everybody involved.\" Wissman is uniquely positioned to \"get everybody involved.\" More than a priest or even a bishop in this arts-mission field, he's a cardinal in the industry, the chairman of IMG Artists, a major player in world artists' representation. IMG's roster includes violinists Joshua Bell and Itzhak Perlman, mezzo-soprano Fredericka von Stade, flutist James Galway, guitarist Christopher Parkening, the Joffrey Ballet and composer Jay Greenberg, among many others. Wissman has just announced a new managing director for IMG in North and South America, Elizabeth Sobol. She is, herself, a co-producer of a new festival in Boca Raton, Florida, and architect of a highly publicized new joint venture for IMG with Gorfaine-Schwartz, the agency representing trumpeter-composer Chris Botti, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, singer-songwriter James Taylor and Hollywood film composer John Williams. No matter how far-flung the festivals and events, Wissman stays near his roots. \"I'm a pianist,\" he says, \"a concert pianist. I still play, I play from time to time in the festivals. So I'm a musician, I come from the arts.\" In the case of Napa's Festival del Sole, Wissman has a co-founder, San Francisco-based attorney Richard Walker, who has a specialization in artists' management. Watch an audio slide show in which Richard Walker talks about the atmosphere of the festival \u00bb . Having worked with Mikhail Pletnev's Russian National Orchestra, Walker says, since its inception in 1990 as the first symphonic entity founded after the Soviet Union's collapse, he emphasizes the stylistic range demanded in festival work. And Walker echoes Wissman's interest in making these festivals oases in the itinerant lives of world-traveling artists. \"The events that surround the musical performances,\" Walker says, \"are attended by the artists, themselves -- a time of camaraderie for them because they see each other and spend time enjoying each other's company.\" As if on cue, two world-class pianists, Polish-Hungarian Piotr Anderszewski and French-born Jean-Yves Thibaudet, are seated at the same table at a gala post-concert dinner held by Far Niente wine estate on a cloudless night in a circular arbor crowded with honeysuckle. Thibaudet jumps up at one point to accompany violinist Bell in Manuel Ponce's \"Estrellita,\" watched by composer Marco Tutino and cellist Nina Kotova. Read about Joshua Bell's recent win of the $75,000 Fisher Prize . \"We are located in a wonderful hotel,\" says conductor Den\u00e8ve, the newlywed whose base of operations is Glasgow where he is music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. \"Wonderful swimming pool, actually it's a great way to socialize and get to know more and more the fellow artists because usually you are engaged and just have one or two nights.\" Thibaudet places a similar premium on these festivals' sense of community for artists. \"When we have concerts,\" he says, \"we just come into town, we play and we leave. Usually there won't be any other soloists, there's only you. So we never get to meet each other during the year.\" And it appears that the Napa community couldn't be happier than to find these major concert and recording artists \"working the valley.\" In a kind of vine-roots, if not grassroots, effort, the wineries have jumped with endearing eagerness into what Walker terms a \"friendly competition\" for whose after-concert gala can be the most opulent. They lay on rich dinners set at starlit tables, some by glowing pools, others on cricket-chirpy hilltops and still others under chandeliers hung high in some of the most honored wine-making facilities in the country. One of the venues for the festival this year has been the Medieval-looking Castello di Amorosa, another the renovated Lincoln Theatre in Yountville. Wineries participating in special events around an intensely proud sponsorship of the festival have included Far Niente, the Copelands' Bouchaine Vineyards, Darioush Winery, Clos Pegase, Robert Mondavi Winery, Peju Province Winery, Pine Ridge Winery and St. Sup\u00e9ry Vineyards and Winery. Many of these are festival-funding partners, joined by Domaine Chandon, Blackbird Vineyards, Dalla Valle Vineyards, Plumpjack Winery, Folio Winemakers' Studio, Gargiulo Vineyards, Swanson Vineyards and COPIA, a nonprofit center of wine-making culture in the valley. The vintners, themselves, seem to enjoy the chance to mingle in the common interest of the festival and in the company of these artists they seem to be tying onto their hearts like vine tendrils in their fields. Margrit Mondavi is a welcome guest one evening at Far Niente, as are Tatiana and Gerret Copeland of the Bouchaine house. Florence's Maria Manetti Farrow, whose ranging Villa Mille Rose is an influential olive oil estate, seems to be everyone's fondest table mate and every artist's favorite dinner companion. Resort partners include Auberge du Soleil, Calistoga Ranch, Solage Calistoga, the Carneros Inn and Silverado Resort. Walker, in fact, estimates that the Napa festival -- which with Cortona and Singapore is produced by the nonprofit Del Sole Foundation for the Arts and Humanities -- could cost as much as $10 million to stage, if the many in-kind services provided by hoteliers, wineries and others were totaled in cash. The \"rehearsals\" for all this, if you will, took place in Cortona, where Wissman and Charles Letourneau, executive producer, have staged several years of festival events in what Wissman likes to call \"a magical, Fellini-esque feel.\" When he looked for a spot in the United States to base a sister festival, \"Napa was the perfect place,\" close to the metropolitan pace of San Francisco but removed enough to shelter artists and audiences in peace. Wissman looks across a long, candlelit table amid shadowy great barrels of Bouchaine wine. French conductor Den\u00e8ve has Tatiana Copeland's dinner guests in stitches with his tale of how he proposed to his new wife on the glass floor high atop the Canada's National Tower in Toronto -- \"My God, it was frightening!\" \"One has to lead,\" says Wissman, Cortona's Saturday opening already occupying his thoughts. \"When doing something important. No matter what your job is, no matter what your work is, you have to lead.\" E-mail to a friend . Official sponsors of the 2007 Festival de Sole include Auberge Resorts, Bouchaine Vineyards, Boucheron, Grove Street Winery\/Peter Paul Wines, Napa Valley Vintners and XOJet.","highlights":"Next in a growing series of arts festivals opens Saturday in Cortona, Italy .\nNapa Valley's Festival del Sole staged more than 50 events in nine days .\nWineries engage in friendly rivalries, throwing lavish after-concert galas .\nInternational artists cite chances to meet each other, community among lures .","id":"2806f716e41ce224a3862eb2bc50e214bc5037d8"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- Goals from Juninho and Sidney Govou gave Lyon a 2-0 home win over Valenciennes and enabled the six-time champions to stay four points ahead at the top of the French league. Juninho opened the scoring for Lyon five minutes before the break. Brazilian midfielder Juninho nudged in a Karim Benzema cross five minutes before the break and Govou lobbed in the second three minutes from time. Lyon, who are at home to German champions VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League group stage on Wednesday, have 31 points from 13 matches. Second-placed Nancy celebrated their 40th anniversary with a 1-0 win over Girondins Bordeaux. Nancy, who have a game in hand, scored in the 29th minute when midfielder Chris Malonga headed in a cross from Youssouf Hadji. Bordeaux stay fourth with 22 points from 13 games after their first away defeat of the season. Third-placed Stade Rennes slumped to a 1-0 home defeat against Monaco, who had only picked up a point from their six previous league outings. Frederic Piquionne headed home from a Nene corner kick for the visitors two minutes into the second half. Troubled Paris St Germain clinched a 2-1 victory at Racing Strasbourg thanks to a Rodrigo own goal and 20-year-old midfielder Loris Arnaud's effort after 19 minutes. Olympique Marseille were held to an embarrassing goalless draw by Lorient and remain third from bottom. Coach Eric Gerets said:\"The public have a right to be unhappy as the level of play in the second half wasn't worthy of Marseille. \"Taking the match as a whole you can have a harsh judgement. We made a few chances in the first half but we had a problem constructing moves from the back. \"In the second half we should have lost the match with the counter-attacks. \"We have to look at ourselves in the mirror, fight and work.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lyon beat Valenciennes 2-0 to stay four points clear on top of the French table .\nNancy stay second by beating Bordeaux 1-0 .\nThird-placed Rennes flop to a 1-0 home defeat against struggling Monaco .","id":"49d1a193a2c477f5861b593f06681b35b0e49573"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Solid support from registered Democrats and women in New Hampshire were crucial Tuesday as Sen. Hillary Clinton rebounded from her third-place finish in last week's Iowa caucuses. Sen. Hillary Clinton has spent the past few days saying she has the experience to change Washington. She narrowly defeated Sen. Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary, with 39 percent of the vote to Obama's 37. \"Last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice,\" the New York senator said after her victory. \"Now let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me.\" Forty-three percent of self-styled independents said they voted for Obama, and 31 percent said they backed Clinton. Independents made up 43 percent of all voters polled. Addressing his roaring supporters after the race was called, Obama congratulated Clinton. But he was a candidate determined to draw a distinction between Clinton and himself. \"But the reason our campaign has always been different, the reason we began this improbable journey almost a year ago, is because it's not just about what I will do as president,\" he said. \"It is also about what you, the people who love this country, the citizens of the United States of America, can do to change it. That's what this election is all about.\" But Clinton was ahead of Obama 45 percent to 34 percent among those who said they were registered Democrats. Those voters made up a majority -- 54 percent -- of all respondents. Clinton also claimed the majority of women's votes, according to the polling. That's in contrast to last week's Iowa caucuses, in which Obama surprised observers by stealing the female vote from Clinton. Analysts say that shift among female voters was crucial to the Clinton turnaround. \"If I had a single word, the word would be 'women,' \" said CNN political analyst Bill Schneider. \"She got the women back.\" And Schneider said the support of union voters that put Clinton over the top. \"Union voters have her a 10 point lead,\" he said. CNN projected former Sen. John Edwards to finish third. College graduates, who made up 29 percent of the electorate, opted narrowly for Clinton -- 38 percent to Obama's 37 percent, according to the polling. Those polled who called themselves very liberal, and moderate, went with Clinton over Obama -- although by less than 2 percentage points in each -- and those who said they are somewhat liberal were evenly split. Pundits also were citing the role of former President Bill Clinton in helping his wife recover from what pre-primary polls were suggesting was a deficit of 9 percentage points to Obama in New Hampshire. The former president spent Tuesday in Hanover -- home to Dartmouth College -- where Obama had been expected to win handily. \"They dispatched him to the area that Obama was surging,\" said CNN analyst Donna Brazille, who managed former Vice President Al Gore's campaign in 2000. \"I think it had the effect of tamping down Obama support and giving Senator Clinton a real reason to come back in this race.\" New Hampshire was considered crucial to Clinton's campaign. If Obama had been able to sweep Iowa and New Hampshire -- after months of Clinton being considered the front-runner among Democrats -- it could have given him powerful momentum going into future primaries. \"Age is also playing a big factor -- older voters are overwhelmingly outnumbering younger voters -- a proportion that is clearly benefiting Clinton,\" Schneider said. \"Sixty-seven percent of Democratic primary voters are over the age of 40, and they are breaking heavily for Clinton over Obama.\" Over the past several days, Clinton has trumpeted her experience, saying that she has delivered change as both first lady and as a senator. After losing to Obama in last week's Iowa caucuses, it was unclear whether she could overcome what appeared to be Obama's ability to electrify American voters who had previously taken a sour and skeptical view of politicians and the political process. The duel between the Obama and Clinton campaigns grew especially testy Monday and Tuesday. She said she had more experience than he, and was therefore more qualified. He accused her of representing the status quo of Washington. And on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton criticized the media for not pressing Obama more fully on Iraq, and accused the Illinois senator of shifting his position to reflect changing attitudes about the war in Iraq. Then, there was an issue unto itself -- Hillary Clinton's almost-tears. Clinton's eyes welled up this week while responding to a voter's question about her health and appearance. Pundits and voters alike questioned whether Clinton's emotions were sincere or faked as part of some strategy to diminish criticism that she is too steely, too cold. In front of the crowd of mostly female New Hampshire voters, an admittedly fatigued Clinton responded to a question by saying: \"This is very personal for me, it's not just political, it's [that] I see what's happening, we have to reverse it.\" Her voice broke, and she was then applauded by the crowd. Polls indicated the show of emotions fared well with male voters, according to CNN's John King, but turned off some female voters. Edwards was followed in votes by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sen. Barack Obama has electrified younger voters .\nSen. Hillary Clinton has maintained favor with voters older than 40 .\nCNN has projected Sen. John Edwards will finish in third place .","id":"d603649af5260edbbe0474bcbb2e83e7340372d3"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is \"urgently dispatching\" a special envoy to Myanmar, a statement from his office said Wednesday, following reports of violent clashes in that country between security forces and protesters. Protests at the crackdown have taken place overseas, including one outside the Myanmar embassy, London. \"He calls on the senior leadership of the country to cooperate fully with this mission in order to take advantage of the willingness of the United Nations to assist in the process of a national reconciliation through dialogue,\" said a U.N. statement. The envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, is scheduled to lead a briefing on the situation in Myanmar for the U.N. Security Council Wednesday afternoon. \"Noting reports of the use of force and of arrests and beatings, the secretary-general calls again on authorities to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar,\" Ban's statement said. There's been no official word yet if the military junta ruling Myanmar will accept the offer from the U.N. secretary-general. Speaking at the Labour Party conference Wednesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown underscored that any trampling on human rights would not be accepted. \"The whole world is now watching Burma and this illegal and oppressive regime should know that the whole world will hold it to account,\" he said. U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly's annual session Tuesday before the crackdown, said his administration would impose stiffer sanctions against the country's military regime. \"The United States will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers. We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights, as well as their family members,\" he said. \"We will continue to support the efforts of humanitarian groups working to alleviate suffering in Burma (the country's traditional name) and urge the United Nations and all nations to use their diplomatic and economic leverage to help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom.\" His comments were echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, also at the U.N. General Assembly. \"I'm deeply concerned about the situation in Burma and Myanmar, and I would like to appeal for the peaceful, spontaneous demonstrations which are expressing just political and social concerns that they not be repressed by force in any way,\" Sarkozy said. Soe Aung, National Council of the Union of Burma spokesman, called for the world to take action. \"There should be some action -- decisive action -- taken by the international community. At least there should be an urgent meeting of the Security Council level,\" he said. Aung also commented that the demonstrators do not seem content to back down. \"The monks are very determined that they are going to go ahead with the demonstrations unless their demands are met,\" he said. Such demands include an apology from ministry authorities for the mistreatment of monks in central Myanmar, a reduction in the price of gasoline -- which originally sparked protests in late August -- and the release of protesters detained since demonstrations began, Aung said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad. \"We are concerned about the situation, particularly now, because we see a worsening of the political situation and that is affecting the well-being of the people of Burma. \"We have urged Mr. Gambari and he plans to visit Burma as soon as possible,\" Khalilzad said, referring to Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. special envoy to Burma. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.N. to send special envoy to Myanmar amid reports of crackdown .\nWorld leaders condemn events in Myanmar, call on regime to desist from force .\nUK PM Brown underscores that any trampling on human rights not acceptable .\nPres. Bush says Tuesday that the U.S. will increase sanctions .","id":"241c3bfcde3e19fb8f0e5d0273ccb06155a2d86b"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Buses that carry women only are experiencing a smooth ride with passengers in Mexico's capital. A woman rides on a bus exclusively for female passengers last month in Mexico City. Fans of the new service call their daily commutes more pleasant now that bus rides steer clear of too-close-for-comfort contact with men. \"We're not just talking about sexual harassment, about rapes or about incidents of violence,\" said Ariadna Montiel, director of the Network of Passengers' Transportation for the Government of the Federal District. \"But also about touching, staring, which is what generally occurs on public transport.\" The single-sex service, which started in January, is available on four major lines in the city, and it's expected to expand to another 15. Other plans include replacing male drivers with women. One woman described the service as \"excellent,\" saying it's \"more comfortable too because it doesn't make as many stops.\" Another passenger said she feels more comfortable and safer. Last year, the government received seven complaints of sexual abuse aboard the city's buses, which provide 200 million rides each year, officials said. Authorities said that a single complaint is enough to justify taking such measures. Juan Flores, who has driven buses in Mexico City for 15 years and now steers one for women only, said he even notices a difference. \"I feel more tranquil, I work more peacefully and the interior of the bus is cleaner,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mario Gonzalez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers on female-only buses describe their commutes as more pleasant .\nSeven complaints of sexual abuse aboard Mexico City buses made last year .\nSingle-sex service is available on four major lines in Mexican capital .","id":"cc8898d831bb770da703c284d4a811f16cb4035b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kuwait's leader dissolved parliament on Wednesday and called for early elections, after the Cabinet resigned this week following a power struggle with the government. Kuwait's emir has dissolved parliament following conflict between the Cabinet and govenrment. The emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, said he was forced to dissolve parliament to safeguard Kuwait's national unity, citing the fragile political situation in the region and his primary concern for internal security and stability. New elections have been set for May 17, according to Kuwait's state-run news agency, KUNA. According to Kuwait's constitution, elections must be held within 60 days of dissolving parliament. Kuwait's parliament, made up mostly of opposition politicians, has been locked in a feud with the government which it accuses of corruption and abuse of power. Parliament has continuously called for some government members to be investigated, which is what prompted the Cabinet to resign this week. Al-Sabah said he tried to get lawmakers and government ministers to reconcile their differences, but they only inflamed the situation through their statements to the media. E-mail to a friend . CNN Senior Arab Affairs Editor Octavia Nasr contributed to this report .","highlights":"Kuwait's leader dissolves parliament and calls for early elections after conflict .\nCabinet resigned earlier this week after a power struggle with the government .\nThe emir said he was forced to act to safeguard Kuwait's national unity .\nNew elections have been set for May 17 according to state-run news agency .","id":"e5685719d330bf84ed7691a9a591e04e6a6226b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators have found the bodies of three small children and the father who allegedly abducted them from their home in Columbus, Georgia, two weeks ago, the FBI said Wednesday. Eddie Harrington threatened to kill his children before disappearing with them, police say. \"It is my sad duty to report that deceased bodies of these children and Eddie Harrington were located this afternoon,\" said FBI Special Agent Gerald Green. A coroner would confirm the identities, he added. The remains were discovered in a wooded area of Columbus by a person walking nearby, Green said. Watch the FBI say the bodies were in a car \u00bb . Eddie Harrington, 28, whom police described as depressed, took the children March 5, police said. Before he left, Harrington sent a letter indicating his intent to kill his twin 23-month-old girls, Aliyah and Agana Battle, and his son, Cedric Harrington, 3, officials said. The day before Wednesday's grisly discovery, the children's mother told CNN's Nancy Grace that Harrington had threatened them before. \"He's just told me he'll do anything to keep me at that time, and he said that he was going to take them and ... kill himself and the kids,\" Agena Battle said. \"But then later on, he told me that it was just to prove to me that, you know, what he'll do for me.\" Battle also described the moment earlier this month when she knew something was wrong. \"I got home and I realized that the kids weren't there, and Eddie wasn't there either, and when I looked on the dresser and read the note, that's when I realized that my kids are in trouble,\" she said. A week ago, a tearful Battle publicly begged her boyfriend not to harm the children. \"I am asking the public to please help me. I want my children home where they belong, with me,\" she said at an FBI news conference. \"Please, if you see Eddie, the car or the children, please call 911. Please help me and keep them in your prayers.\" Watch the mother's tearful plea \u00bb . A child abduction alert was issued in Georgia after the children disappeared. \"We have great concern for the safety of these children,\" Green said at the time. It was unclear what sparked Harrington's decision to take the children, authorities said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Children's mother says Eddie Harrington had threatened the kids before .\nHarrington was last seen in Columbus, Georgia, March 5 .\nPolice say he was depressed, threatened to kill kids .\nHe took twin girls, 23 months, and boy, 3, from their home .","id":"bc868bcd37d2463875c4c685c582449069992a76"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- On a good day, Keri Christensen spends the day watching her children. She prepares their meals, gets them ready for school and helps them with their homework. Keri Christensen was nearly a victim of a roadside bombing in Iraq when the convoy in front of hers was hit. But this housewife and mother of two is far different than most of the women living in her Denver, Colorado, suburb. She's an Iraqi war veteran, among the first women in the United States to be classified as combat veterans. Even though she's been home from the war for more than 2\u00bd years, she's now fighting another battle -- this one with depression, nightmares, sleeplessness and anger. She says all of it is caused by her time in Iraq. \"I start feeling those feelings of 'I'm not worthy. I can't raise my family,' \" Christensen said. Women have made up about 11 percent of the military force in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past six years, according to the Department of Defense; that's an estimated 180,000 women in the war zone. The figure dwarfs the 41,000 women deployed during the Persian Gulf War and the 7,500 who served during the Vietnam War, mostly as nurses. Unlike past wars, women are assigned to combat support roles. Many are seeing violence firsthand in an unconventional war. Watch CNN's Randi Kaye report on female veterans \u00bb . As a member of the National Guard, Christensen transported tanks in Iraq. She says she was shot at and was nearly a victim of a roadside bomb when a convoy in front of hers was hit. \"You have this fear, 'Oh, my God, I still have to go through there,' \" she recalled. \" 'Am I going to make it?' \" Christensen says that she was sexually harassed by a superior while serving in Iraq and that the harassment added to the pressure created by just being in a war zone. \"I just know it took a big toll on me because I was trying to deal with it myself. Just trying to be a soldier,\" Christensen said. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that women are reporting signs of mental health issues when they return home at a higher rate than their male counterparts. The VA diagnosed 60,000 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Of those, 22 percent of women suffered from \"military sexual trauma,\" which includes sexual harassment or assault, compared with 1 percent of men. Christensen, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, says she doesn't like leaving her comfort zone. She doesn't drive more than two miles from her home. \"When I get outside my familiar safe territory, I start to feel overwhelmed,\" Christensen said. \"It gets foggy. Not sure where I'm really going. Something comes over me where I don't feel like I have control over it.\" \"PTSD is actually something that shows up over time, and so the natural recovery process doesn't happen,\" said Dr. Darrah Westrup, who counsels female veterans at the VA-run Women's Health Clinic in Menlo Park, California. \"So three months out or so, you find yourself still not sleeping, still with nightmares, still having intrusive thoughts,\" Westrup said. Westrup says another factor contributing to poor mental health is the high amount of sexual trauma reported by women screened by the Veterans Administration. She says many women have trouble reporting the trauma to their superiors out of fear of retribution. \"When you are in a war zone, your survival depends on people watching your back and on unit cohesion,\" Westrup said. \"The same individuals who attacked you are those who will be protecting you, or you'll be fighting alongside the next day.\" Christensen receives counseling and group therapy sponsored by the VA. However, the military has said there is no merit to her claims that she suffered military sexual trauma. Like many who suffer from post-traumatic stress, Christensen still has her ups and downs. She says she's just working to get past the feelings of guilt, shame, loss of control and low self-esteem. \"I don't think we'll ever be the same. I think that you can learn to cope with it, and that's what I'm learning right now,\" she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Dept. of Veterans Affairs diagnosed 60,000 veterans with PTSD .\nWomen have comprised 11 percent of military force in Iraq and Afghanistan .\nVA: 22 percent of women, 1 percent of men suffered sexual trauma in military .\nExpert says women afraid to report sexual harassment for fear of retribution .","id":"c6369011986d295ce197e7304e14b207dab4c0aa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It wasn't Tibet's subzero temperatures that nurse practitioner Arlene Samen found so chilling on a 1997 medical trip, but the haunting stories she was told about mothers and newborns on the brink of death after childbirth. Arlene Samen, right, helps provide childbirth education and equipment to those in need through One H.E.A.R.T. \"When I came to Tibet I heard of so many tragic stories of women dying -- no access to care in remote areas, no history of trained birth attendants, and no knowledge about pregnancy and childbirth,\" Samen recalls. It is a problem that stretches well beyond Tibet's borders. According to the World Health Organization, more than 500,000 women worldwide die each year as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and nearly 7 million babies are either born dead or die within 28 days of their life. Almost all these deaths occur in the developing world. Upon her return from Tibet, and in association with the University of Utah Health Services Center, Samen, 54, created One H.E.A.R.T. (Health Education And Research in Tibet) to combat the high infant and maternal mortality rates in Tibet and around the world. Through One H.E.A.R.T., Samen's mission is to reach remote areas where women have limited access to a safe delivery, distribute the organization's training model, and debunk any fears toward safe, sanitary birthing practices. \"It's not uncommon for babies to die from basic things like not cleaning their mouth out to breathe,\" says Samen. \"In surveys we've done, more than 50 percent of babies that died were born alive. This is due to lack of education.\" Watch Samen talk about the organization's work \u00bb . Since 1998, One H.E.A.R.T has worked to set up centers that teach and educate local nurse practitioners, villagers and expectant mothers on how to deliver and care for newborn babies. A huge part of the organization's instruction includes hands-on birthing demonstration and distribution of community-tailored birth kits. \"I witnessed deliveries where the infant did not even have a blanket,\" says Samen. \"I put a kit together with very simple items and anyone, anywhere can use this kit to keep infants and mothers alive during and after childbirth.\" Watch home video of Samen in Tibet, where she delivered a baby \u00bb . The birth kit typically includes a sterilized razor blade, a clean sheet, three towels for the baby, three fleece blankets, a string to tie around the umbilical cord, gloves for the person delivering the baby and soap for hand washing. Over the last 10 years, Samen's team has supplied more than 3,400 safe birthing kits to pregnant women and has trained more than 1,000 people in life-saving techniques. For 2008, One H.E.A.R.T.'s education outreach program has targeted Nayarit, Mexico, a mountainous terrain in Mesoamerica and the native land of more than 50,000 indigenous Cora and Huichol Indians. This past February, accompanied by a team of doctors and translators, Samen spent three days embedded within Nayarit's Santa Theresa communities, using an instructional newborn doll for childbirth training sessions and discussing safe birthing techniques and procedures. \"The traditional birth attendants told us they don't like to bring the women to the hospital because there's a fear of C-section and complications. [The women] would rather die than to come in and get help,\" Samen says. Watch Samen describe the rigors of bringing a child birthing center to a remote area of Mexico \u00bb . \"I found that really astounding and would like to look into that further to see if there's ways that we can cross that barrier and really help them so that they don't have that kind of fear.\" Samen lives in Salt Lake City, but currently spends several months of the year in Tibet. Future plans for One H.E.A.R.T. include training local partners on the ground in Nepal and Ecuador. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Utah nurse practitioner helps fight high childbirth mortality rates in Tibet .\nOne H.E.A.R.T. conducts birthing demonstrations, distributes birth kits .\nGroup is working in Mexico this year; future plans include Nepal, Ecuador .","id":"c4e4f565d15f76b1e367d4fc2e7a2648c3cd395c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two graduate students were found shot to death Thursday night in an apartment a block off the Louisiana State University campus, officials said. LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe briefs reporters on the fatal shootings of two international graduate students. No suspects have been identified in what police are investigating as a double homicide. Neighbors told police three strange men were seen in the area. The bodies of Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both Ph.D. candidates from India, were found inside Allam's apartment at the Edward Gay complex near the LSU band's practice field. The complex houses graduate and married students. A task force of LSU campus police and the Baton Rouge Police Department is investigating, university Chancellor Sean O'Keefe said. \"If anybody can find them, they can,\" O'Keefe told reporters Friday. Watch O'Keefe discuss \"a tragic situation\" \u00bb . O'Keefe said campus police responded to a 911 call at 10:37 p.m. and encountered \"a very, very tragic scene.\" Both men had been shot in the head. One was bound with phone cable and the other was lying near the door. The apartment was cluttered and items were strewn about, so it has been difficult to determine whether anything was taken, O'Keefe said. Emergency text messages were sent to students and faculty across the LSU campus late Thursday, but the campus remained open on Friday. O'Keefe said officials decided against a campus lockdown after police determined that the slayings were not part \"an escalating pattern.\" People were warned in the text messages to use caution, but not all of the 8,000 students who had signed up for them received them, O'Keefe said. Officials are looking into what went wrong. The Associated Press reported that Allam's pregnant wife found the bodies and called 911. Although police have indicated they suspect the slayings occurred during a home invasion robbery, O'Keefe told reporters no motive has been determined. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pregnant woman reportedly found husband, other man dead in apartment .\nSlain students were international Ph.D. candidates .\nApartment is on edge of university campus .\nIn text-message alert, campus officials urge students to be careful .","id":"32fe9f0f2eedaf63c9fd0314ab92c4b46297e260"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Danish authorities said Tuesday they have arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a \"terror-related assassination\" of a cartoonist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed sparked rage in the Muslim world two years ago. The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked widespread outrage in the Muslim world two years ago. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said police arrested a 40-year-old Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisians. The Danish citizen is charged with a terrorism offense, the intelligence service said, and the Tunisians will be deported. Police have not yet released the names of the three. The operation took place in the Aarhus area of western Denmark at 4:30 a.m. local time following lengthy surveillance, the intelligence service said. The target of the plot, the intelligence service said, was the cartoonist for the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jullands-Posten, which first published the controversial drawings in September 2005. The paper identified the cartoonist as Kurt Westergaard. Watch how threats have targeted cartoonists \u00bb . \"Not wanting to take any undue risks [the intelligence service] has decided to intervene at a very early stage in order to interrupt the planning and the actual assassination,\" the statement by Jakob Scharf, the agency's director general, said. \"Thus, this morning's operation must first and foremost be seen as a preventive measure where the aim has been to stop a crime from being committed.\" The uproar over the cartoons ignited after the Danish newspaper published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed. Some Muslims believe it is forbidden by the Quran to show an image of the prophet. Demonstrations erupted across the world in early 2006 after other newspapers reprinted the images months later as a matter of free speech. Some turned deadly. Many protesters directed their ire at Denmark, prompting the closure of several Danish embassies in predominantly Muslim countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan. Westergaard's cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse. Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist. \"Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me,\" Westergaard said in a statement posted on the newspaper's Web site. \"However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness.\" CNN's Paula Newton said the arrests reinforced growing fears in Europe that radical Islam was trying to suppress free speech. \"More and more Europeans feel that Islam is a threat to their way of life,\" Newton said. A recent Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum showed a majority of Europeans believed relations between the West and the Muslim world were worsening. According to the poll this sentiment was strongest held among Danish. Westergaard remains under police protection and does not know whether it will continue. \"I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life,\" he said. \"It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life.\" Carsten Juste, the paper's editor-in-chief, said staffers have been \"deeply worried\" for several months. \"The arrests have hopefully thwarted the murder plans,\" he said on the newspaper's Web site. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report .","highlights":"Danish police say several arrested for plotting \"terror-related assassination\"\nAgency reports that suspects include two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin .\nNewspaper says the target was its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard .\nProphet Mohammed drawings sparked protests in the Muslim world two years ago .","id":"41698f361bcf6415f711719ed0c2f6817205c091"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- Colleen Hiltbrunner spent two years researching her dream trip to South Africa. But she wasn't looking for the perfect safari lodge. She was hunting for the right cosmetic surgeon. When she told her family, it wasn't an easy sell. \"South Africa? You're going to get some kind of witch doctor,\" she recalls her father saying. \"But I told him they perfected some of the first heart surgeries down there. To me, South Africa had the most reputable surgeons.\" Hiltbrunner, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, traveled to Johannesburg in 2004 for a face-lift, upper arm lift and eyelid surgery. And she and her husband -- who hadn't taken a vacation in 20 years -- went on a luxury safari, included in the package by medical-travel agency Surgeon and Safari. \"Medical tourism\" may sound strange, but patients are discovering they can get some cosmetic surgeries abroad for less than the U.S. price. And many surgeries include sightseeing packages. The roster of countries in which hospitals and surgeons are marketing their services to foreigners is growing. South Africa, Argentina, Thailand, Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Singapore have become major players. Robert Painter, a travel writer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, journeyed last year to Argentina for dental surgeries -- and tango lessons: \"If I'm going to be stuck somewhere for two weeks at a time, twice, Buenos Aires has got to be the best possible place,\" he says . Painter's procedures were organized by Plenitas, a medical-travel facilitator in Buenos Aires, which booked him at a hotel with a dance studio in the back. He wasn't the only guest getting surgery: \"While I was there, there was a young lady who was also having implants -- though not of the dental type.\" Cost-cutting pros and cons . Cosmetic, or elective, procedures aren't covered by insurance, so cost remains the motivating factor for most medical tourists. Surgeries in many countries cost half or even one-fifth what they would in the U.S. -- including airfare, hotel and excursions. \"A full face-lift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $1,250 in South Africa,\" a 2005 article in U-Daily, the University of Delaware's online news service noted. Faith Richter, of Hope Sound, Florida, got a face-lift in Bangkok, Thailand. Her trip was organized by New York City's Med Journeys. \"In the U.S., it would have cost $20,000 for the procedure alone, with no time in the hospital,\" she says. In Bangkok, Richter was in the hospital four days, and the total cost of her 19-day trip, including sightseeing and airfare for two, was $10,600. Painter estimates he saved $18,000 on his surgeries. \"Cost was the primary factor,\" he says. \"The only factor.\" Medical costs abroad are less than in the U.S. for many reasons -- favorable exchange rates, lower salaries and fewer medical lawsuits, which means lower malpractice-insurance costs. But the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery warns against low-cost surgery. \"Get bargains on your shoes and laundry detergent, not on your face,\" says spokesman Tony Staffieri. \"Researching the quality of doctors should be a patient's primary consideration, but it isn't always,\" he says. \"Some people think 'tummy tuck and shopping.' This is not makeup; it's somebody cutting you.\" Some medical professionals fear that patients will overlook the severity of invasive surgeries and fail to ask the right questions. More casual attitudes toward plastic surgery -- spurred by lunch-break Botox treatments and same-day liposuctions, paired with temptingly cheap alternatives and vacation packages -- increase the risk of bad outcomes. Even stateside, cosmetic surgery can have tragic results. \"First Wives Club\" author Olivia Goldsmith died during a chin-tuck in 2004, and this year Kanye West's mother, Donda, died after a tummy tuck and breast reduction. However, a 2004 study published in the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, found that \"deaths occurring at office-based surgery facilities (in the U.S.) are rare -- less than a quarter of a percent.\" Quality surgeons . Medical tourism experts counter criticism by saying that cheaper prices don't necessarily mean lower quality of care. \"In general, it is the hospitals and facilities that have justifiable claim to 'world-class' status or to meeting or exceeding U.S. standards that are competing for patients from the United States and other countries,\" says Jeff Schult, author of \"Beauty from Afar: A Medical Tourist's Guide to Affordable and Quality Cosmetic Care Outside the U.S.\" The authors of a 2006 \"New England Journal of Medicine\" article confirm the high standards of internationally accredited hospitals: \"We doubt (...) that the average U.S. hospital can offer better outcomes for common complex operations.\" \"Almost 80 percent of the doctors we use have been trained in the U.S. or U.K.,\" says Tim Wallace, vice president of sales and marketing for Med Journeys. \"It gives the American consumer a degree of confidence.\" Richter, a registered nurse, agrees that standards are high abroad. \"After the surgery, the nurses were there for me 100 percent,\" she says. \"At home, we're so understaffed and overburdened, and inundated with paperwork.\" When Painter visited U.S. dentists, \"I felt like I was being processed for a home loan,\" he says. \"In Argentina, I had three dentists working on me at once.\" While medical tourism continues to increase in popularity, it's still not mainstream. When Richter left for Bangkok, she \"didn't tell a soul, not even my seven children, who are almost all in the medical field. They would have had a stroke. \"At Thanksgiving, though, they were all saying, 'You really do look good.'\" E-mail to a friend . LifeWire provides original and syndicated content to web publishers. Neil Edward Schlecht writes about travel, food and wine. He lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut.","highlights":"Tummy tuck tourism is on the rise as companies make arrangements .\nMost cosmetic procedures not covered by insurance .\nPrices overseas are cheaper .\nCompany: 80 percent of doctors they use are trained in U.S.","id":"f040d657ee146cd131d34aeb31d6728b4f996666"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists have discovered the remains of a rodent the size of a small car which used to forage the South American continent. The 1-ton creature is believed to have been about 3 meters in length and 1.5 meters tall. The fossilized skull of the new giant rodent . The giant rat's skull, which measures an impressive 53 centimeters in diameter was found by Andr\u00e9s Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco, two scientists from Montevideo, Uruguay. The two paleontologists stumbled upon the fossilized remains in a broken boulder in San Jose along the coast of Uruguay. By looking at the size ratios of the skulls and bodies of existing rodents, scientists determined the bodyweight of the rodent must have approached 1,000 kilograms or a ton, making it the world's largest rodent to have been discovered to date. The relatively small size of its teeth however, suggests it fed mainly upon soft vegetables and fruit. \"We can give an educated guess that the rodent would have been 3 meters long -- assuming that it was similar to a Capybara (the largest rodent alive today) and taking it into account that large mammals generally have relatively smaller heads. It's tail probably was closer to the one of capybara or guinea pig (very short) and not like a rat,\" Ernesto Blanco says. The scientists believe the rodent, named Josephoartigasia monesi, roamed the earth about four million years ago at the same time as other giant creatures, such as terror birds, saber-toothed cats, ground sloths and giant armored mammals. During this period, the now arid region was forested and rich in vegetation. The largest living rodent is the capybara, a 50 kilogram guinea pig found in South America. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rodent the size of small car discovered in Uruguay .\nScientists say the rodent must have weighed 1,000 kilograms .\nSmall size of its teeth suggests it fed mainly upon soft vegetables and fruit .","id":"1823e1e750046606e4be0e8710f1d74998783e41"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Rawalpindi's police chief stopped doctors at the hospital where Benazir Bhutto died from conducting an autopsy, according to a lawyer on the hospital's board. In a video released Sunday, Benazir Bhutto, far right, appears through the sunroof before shots ring out. It was a violation of Pakistani criminal law and prevented a medical conclusion about what killed the former prime minister, said Athar Minallah, who serves on the board that manages Rawalpindi General Hospital. However, the police chief involved, Aziz Saud, told CNN that he suggested an autopsy be done, but that Bhutto's husband objected. The revelation came on Monday after new videotape of Bhutto's assassination emerged, showing her slumping just after gunshots rang out. The tape provided the clearest view yet of the attack and appeared to show that Bhutto was shot. That would contradict the Pakistan government's account. Read Bhutto's full medical report . A previously released videotape showed a man at the right of her vehicle raising a gun, pointing it toward Bhutto, who was standing in her car with her upper body through the sunroof. He fired three shots, then there was an explosion. In the video that emerged on Sunday, Bhutto was standing, and her hair and scarf appeared to move, perhaps from the bullet. Bhutto fell into the car, then came the blast. Watch new tape showing apparent gunman \u00bb . These images seem to support the theory that Bhutto died at the hands of a shooter before a bomb was detonated, killing another 23 people. Doctors at Rawalpindi General Hospital declared the 54-year-old dead hours after Thursday's attack, but the cause of her death has been widely debated. Pakistan's Interior Ministry announced on Friday that Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when she fell or ducked into the car as a result of the shots or the explosion and crashed her head onto a sunroof latch. See the likely sequence of events \u00bb . Bhutto's family and political party maintain that the government is lying, and insist she died from gunshot wounds. Bhutto's husband, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday, called for an international investigation into his wife's death, saying the new video proves the Pakistani government \"has been trying to muddy the water from the first day.\" \"Everything is now very clear that she was shot,\" Asif Ali Zardari said. Zardari also called on the U.S. government to push for an international probe. \"I want them to help me find out who killed my wife, the mother of my children,\" he said of the Bush administration. Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry, said the government's conclusion on Bhutto's death was based on \"absolute facts, nothing but the facts\" and \"it was corroborated by the doctor's report.\" But Minallah issued an open letter on Monday and released the doctors' clinical notes to distance them from the government statement, and he also talked to CNN. In the letter, Minallah said the doctors \"suggested to the officials to perform an autopsy,\" but that Saud \"did not agree.\" He noted that under the law, police investigators have \"exclusive responsibility\" in deciding to have an autopsy. Minallah told CNN that he was speaking out because the doctors at the hospital were \"threatened.\" \"They are government servants who cannot speak; I am not,\" he said. He did not elaborate on the threats against the doctors. He said the lack of an autopsy has created \"a perception that there is some kind of cover-up, though I might not believe in that theory.\" \"There is a state within the state, and that state within the state does not want itself to be held accountable,\" Minallah said. Cheema said the government had no objection to Bhutto's body being exhumed for an autopsy if the family requested it. Her widower has said the family was against exhumation because it did not trust the government. Minallah said the family could not have prevented an autopsy at the hospital without getting an order from a judge. The three-page medical report, which was signed by seven doctors, described Bhutto's head wound, but it did not conclude what caused it. It noted that X-ray images were made after she was declared dead. The wound was described as an irregular oval of about 5 centimeters by 3 centimeters above her right ear. \"Sharp bones edges were felt in the wound,\" it read. \"No foreign body was felt in the wound.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: New video proves Bhutto shot, widower says .\nDoctors claim Pakistani police prevented an autopsy on Benazir Bhutto .\nLawyer Athar Minallah said the move violated Pakistani criminal law .\nPolice chief Aziz Saud said he suggested autopsy but Bhutto's widower objected .","id":"6fae638166ee95509fbab3b28ac1c0ba0b088c79"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It was an image that got the nation talking: Two giggling young women in oversized sunglasses robbing a bank. The \"Barbie Bandits\" helped their hometown earn the dubious distinction as the nation's bank robbery capital. Here one of the so-called \"Barbie Bandits\" is captured on surveillance video at a surburban Atlanta bank. Atlanta's FBI field division topped Los Angeles in reporting the most bank heists, with 350 for the 12 months ending September 30, 2007, according to the FBI, which annually names areas most prone to bank robberies. The Los Angeles area was No. 2 with 338 heists, followed by Philadelphia with 316. Just Thursday, two suspects overpowered a security guard at an Atlanta, Georgia, bank, took his gun, robbed the bank and fled with money in hand, police said. Eventually, police shot one of the suspects in an exchange of gunfire. Two more armed bank robberies took place in metro Atlanta Friday. The FBI says violent crime is up across the nation, especially in major metro areas like Atlanta. So it's no surprise Atlanta has become a prime target for bank robberies, FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett told CNN. Watch Hotlanta or Heistlanta? \u00bb . \"This goes hand in hand with those figures,\" Emmett said. Atlanta's rapid growth over the last decade has also been a factor. A recent Atlanta Business Chronicle article reported that metro Atlanta has 26 more banks than in all of North Carolina -- roughly one bank for every 3,500 people in the region. See photos of bank heists in metro Atlanta \u00bb . \"We would attribute a lot of that [bank robberies] to the growth and the fact that the banking industry has matched that growth with an increase in bank branches throughout the area,\" Emmett said. Atlanta's rise in bank heists comes just as Los Angeles has aggressively countered once out-of-control bank robberies. Los Angeles has gone from more than 500 bank robberies in the mid-2000s to this year's 338, the FBI stats show. According to the FBI, its Atlanta field division reported 350 bank robberies in the last year -- the most notorious of which were the \"Barbie Bandits\" and \"Grandpa Bandit\" robberies. The FBI says 122 of the heists were armed robberies, or robberies where a weapon was visibly used. Emmett said many more of the robberies were what law enforcement officers classify as \"note jobs\" -- where a robber gestures as if he or she has a gun on them in a demand note handed over to the teller. Also factored into the total number of robberies were ATM heists and a record nine armored car robberies. Those armored car robberies are particularly disturbing to Emmett. \"Anyone that would confront an armored car courier knowing that he's already armed and in somewhat of a defensive posture, that mindset is very troubling for law enforcement,\" he said. While Emmett said there is no \"typical\" bank robber, he said he has seen some trends, most notably that they are often people battling drug addictions. He also said bank robbers are often repeat offenders. Two recent high-profile cases in Atlanta seem to confirm that. Two women dubbed the \"Barbie Bandits\" were arrested after working with a bank employee to rob a Bank of America in the Atlanta suburb of Acworth. They both later admitted to police to having drug addiction problems. Recently apprehended 69-year-old Bobby Joe Phillips, dubbed the \"Grandpa Bandit,\" is suspected to have robbed seven banks in Tennessee and the Atlanta area and had a criminal history. Emmett says typically very little money is taken in a bank heist. Joe Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association, agrees, saying \"the average is $2,000 to $3,000. It's not as big a payoff as most people think it is.\" With the holidays in full swing, authorities are steeling themselves for a spate of bank robberies with robbers looking for quick holiday cash. \"I would make the assumption that a large part of it is the increased [financial] pressures this time of year,\" said Brannen. The FBI advises banks to be extra vigilant this time of year and to keep a close eye on jittery individuals donning gloves, hats and sunglasses. But Brannen says profiling people like that can be problematic. \"We've chosen not to go there. Here in Atlanta, lots of people wear head coverings for religious purposes. This is a free and open society,\" he said. He said customers want to come into a bank unimpeded -- that 99.9 percent are just customers, not bank robbers. Brannen says banks do all they can to balance convenience for their customers and the bank's need for security. \"There is no good, magic solution.\" he says. Emmett said as long as metro Atlanta continues to grow, so will the number of bank robberies. \"This is something that is part of growth. We have more banks. We have more people. We're a big city now.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Atlanta surpasses LA, Philadelphia as city with most bank heists .\nFBI says it's the result of rising violent crime and increased number of banks .\nFBI: Expect more bank robberies around holidays .\nBank official says most robbers get away with just $2,000 to $3,000 .","id":"00be40289d0aea65afd2da6431db8a9fc8efc9c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Disgraced former NFL star Michael Vick declared that \"I am not the bad person or the beast I've been made out to be\" in a letter to a judge asking for leniency. Michael Vick wrote he was \"forever a changed man.\" \"I have been talked about and ridiculed on a day to day basis by people who really don't know Michael Vick the human being. They only knew the football player which is unfair,\" Vick said in a handwritten letter released this week. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson sentenced Vick on Monday to serve 23 months in prison for financing a dogfighting ring and helping to kill pit bulls that did not fight aggressively. Vick wrote the judge that he had accepted responsibility for his actions, would pay restitution and never again use \"a single dollar that I have earned for anything but to help people.\" Read letters from Vick, his mom, sports stars \u00bb . The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback said he grew up not knowing the severity of the crime of dogfighting and asked Hudson for \"a second chance.\" Other letters supporting Vick were sent by his mother, his seventh-grade teacher and children he had met since becoming a star and one of the NFL's most highly paid players. Brenda Vick Boddie said her son fell victim to friends who took advantage of Vick's inability to \"say no.\" \"PLEASE Your HONOR give my baby Michael another chance. [H]e's never been in trouble with the law before, PLEASE! PLEASE! one more chance,\" she pleaded in her own handwritten letter. Former Falcons teammate Warrick Dunn, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and two sporting legends -- former home-run king Hank Aaron and former two-time boxing heavyweight champion George Foreman -- also wrote letters on Vick's behalf. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Michael Vick wrote five-page letter to judge seeking leniency .\nFormer NFL star said he was wrong and promised to make amends .\nVick's mom, Atlanta mayor and sports legends also sent letters to judge .\nVick sentenced Monday to 23 months in prison in dogfighting case .","id":"50dc0ca6cbbd4f9c3761fbb3ad9e7d7ba85bd9b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Steven Spielberg led the FBI straight to a stolen $700,000 Norman Rockwell painting someone snatched from a Missouri gallery. It was in his collection in California. The original of this Norman Rockwell reproduction was found in the collection of Steven Spielberg last year. Spielberg wasn't the thief, and he doesn't know who took Rockwell's \"Russian Schoolroom\" -- an oil of 16 pupils looking at a bust of Lenin. All the A-list director knows is he paid about $200,000 for the 16 x 37 canvas in a legitimate purchase. The FBI says its just one example of how pilfered art lands in respectable places. And it was an uncommon ending for stolen art -- someone found it. Recovering masterpieces happens in less than 5 percent of cases, said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, the FBI's Art Theft Program manager. Usually, expensive pieces go missing. No one knows who took them. No one gets prosecuted, and everyone wonders, \"Why steal something you can't turn to cash quickly?\" Art thieves do a simple risk versus reward evaluation, said Corine Wegener, associate curator of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Thieves know that \"even if they receive only a fraction of the work's market value, the cash gained was at low risk of death or injury -- museums can be a relatively soft target,\" said Wegener, who's teaching a University of Minnesota class this month on art theft. But it could be years -- or never -- before the thief sees even a small payoff. In 1990, robbers took $300 million worth of certified masterpieces -- among them Rembrandt's \"Storm on the Sea of Galilee\" and Vermeer's \"The Concert\" -- from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. No one's seen them since. On Sunday, robbers made off with one of the biggest art hauls in European history, grabbing four paintings worth an estimated $163 million from the E.G. Buehrle Collection in Zurich, Switzerland. They took works by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. See what robbers grabbed in Switzerland \u00bb . \"These paintings are extremely valuable on the open market, but they'll never go onto the open market. So at the same time they're both priceless and worthless,\" said Charles Hill, the former chief of Scotland Yard's art and antiques unit. \"Some thieves may buy into the myth that a wealthy but unscrupulous collector will contact them and offer to take the art off their hands,\" Wegener said. \"When this doesn't happen, the thieves often try to ransom the art back to the museum or the insurance company.\" One London art dealer, who said he has handled stolen works, told CNN on condition of anonymity that an insurance company would rather get art back at a fraction of its original price than pay the owner its insured value. Watch how art thieves operate \u00bb . Ransoming art to an insurance company through an intermediary adds \"up to 10 percent of the market value, which ... given the art market, is quite a lot of money,\" the dealer said. David Vuillaume, secretary general of the Swiss Museums Association, told Time magazine that ransom may be what the thieves behind the Swiss heist want. \"We are thinking that maybe in a week or two there will be a ransom demand. But we just have to wait and see,\" Time quoted him as saying. The museum has offered $90,000 reward for information leading to their recovery, Time reported. Options for art thieves . Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, which operates a database to help recover lost and stolen art, said ransom or reward are unlikely to bring results. \"It is very seldom that people have been able to undertake a ransom,\" he said. \"This gang might think that a reward has been offered, and that they'll get the reward.\" But in fact, \"the reward won't be paid unless someone is arrested, or there is proper criminal intelligence,\" and that's unlikely to happen, Radcliffe said. He said the thieves may just be patient, willing to get their payoff decades later. Or the art may move through an underground network, gradually increasing in value, before being slipped back onto the legitimate market. Take Spielberg. He bought \"Schoolroom\" in an above-the-board transaction. \"Usually, these pictures will change hands in the criminal underworld at a fraction -- 1 percent or less -- of their true market value,\" Radcliffe said, before someone tries to get them back into the international market. In such an effort, the seller may hope the work has been forgotten over time or they may disguise it as a copy or student re-creation. \"They may try and sell them not as being by Degas, but as being a copy, or school, or by a follower of one of the great artists. And that is the ways in which they try and get them on the market,\" Radcliffe said. The original thieves rarely face justice, the FBI's Magness-Gardiner said. \"The stolen items turn up years, sometimes decades, after the theft,\" she said. \"Because a work of art does not require a title document in order to be transferred from one owner to another, a stolen object easily enters the legitimate stream of commerce. \"It is impossible to trace them back to the original thief in most cases. Even if the original thief can be identified, there is also a statute of limitations on prosecution for theft,\" Magness-Gardiner said. What happens to stolen art? Even if the art is recovered, original owners may not get it back. While museum pieces are likely to go back to their collections, private owners may not be so lucky. \"Russian Schoolroom\" remains in Spielberg's possession while courts determine the rightful owner, a spokesman for the director said. But art stolen from a Los Angeles mansion and sold in Sweden remains with its Swedish purchasers, according to a case file posted on the Web site of the Los Angeles Police Department's Art Theft Detail. Even though the thief was caught, \"the Swedish government refused to return the paintings, claiming that according to Swedish law, the auction buyers had purchased the paintings in good faith,\" according to the Web site. In the case of Rockwell's \"Russian Schoolroom,\" someone took it from a gallery in Clayton, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, in 1973, according to an FBI synopsis of the case. In 2004, The FBI's Art Crime Team found out that the piece had been for sale at a New York Rockwell exhibition 15 years earlier and posted a picture and description of the painting on its art recovery Web site. Spielberg's staff learned of the search and told the FBI that Spielberg had it in his collection in Los Angeles. He had purchased it from a legitimate dealer in 1989, an FBI press release said. The agency also determined the painting was auctioned in New Orleans in 1988, but it has yet to determine who took the painting or its whereabouts from 1973 to 1988. Whoever took \"Russian Schoolroom\" from the suburban St. Louis gallery in 1973, or the masterpieces from the Boston museum 1980, or the works lifted in Zurich this week, shouldn't be mistaken for a high-society, tuxedo-wearing, \"Thomas Crown Affair\" kind of thief, Radcliffe said. \"These people are the worst sort of criminal. They are just like the criminals who traffic individuals or sell children, or murder. \"They are thoroughly unpleasant people. There is no romanticism in anyway that should be connected to it.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Paula Hancocks and Teresa Martini contributed to this report.","highlights":"Stolen art can be lost for decades .\nSoft targets like museums entice thieves, experts say .\nStolen Rockwell found in Steven Spielberg's collection decades after theft .\nNothing glamorous about art thieves, expert says .","id":"28b0e5240a7c3088fc62a70628b146bb40b6b853"} -{"article":"MACAU, China -- Pete Sampras rolled back the years to upset current world number one Roger Federer in an exhibition match in Macau on Saturday. Sampras enjoyed the spoils of victory in Macau after two previous defeats to Federer. Federer had one the two previous clashes in an Asian series in straight sets but was handed a 7-6 6-4 defeat in the finale. American ace Sampras downplayed his victory, noting Federer was coming off a long season and that he was helped by his big serve and the fast indoor carpet surface. He had only aimed to win one set during the three-match series. \"Let's not get carried away,\" he said at a news conference. Sampras ruled out a comeback from retirement, telling the audience after the match, \"I had my time in the 90s.\" Federer tried to put on a positive spin on the loss, saying he wasn't embarrassed to lose to his idol, but still showed some disappointment. \"It's been tough beating my idol the last two times. I'm happy that he got me at least once,\" he said, but adding, \"I hope we can do it again in the future. I'd like to get him back.\" The two players have won a combined 26 Grand Slam titles, but Sampras, 36, retired five years ago after winning the U.S. Open in 2002. Federer is coming off another outstanding season in which he won three grand slams and last week's Masters Cup in Shanghai. \"I'm sort of surprised. This guy can play tennis, you know,\" the Swiss player said after his loss Saturday. Federer beat Sampras 6-4 6-3 in Seoul on Tuesday and edged the American 7-6 7-6 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. In Macau, Federer was never able able to force a break point on the powerful Sampras serve, but had set points at 6-5 and 8-7 in the tiebreak. But Sampras saved both and a run of three points, capped by a forehand winner, gave him the opener. The ninth game of the second second proved vital as a forehand error by Federer gave Sampras a break point which he gratefully took with another fine forehand. Sampras closed out the match as a Federer backhand return sailed long. Federer said he thought Sampras could still beat the world's top five players on a fast surface. Sampras then predicted that Federer could beat his record of most grand slam wins (14) \"if not next year, pretty soon.\" \"He's a great, great player. He's got things in his game that I couldn't do,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pete Sampras beats world nunber one Roger Federer in exhibition in Macau .\nSampras wins 7-6 6-4 but rules out comeback to main ATP tour .\nFederer had won their two previous exhibition matches on Asian tour .","id":"44bdf9aa9712197110017fca533785653210f1ea"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Alex Trebek, the long-time host of the popular television quiz show \"Jeopardy,\" suffered a minor heart attack at his home Monday night. Alex Trebek has hosted \"Jeopardy!\" for 23 years. Trebek, 67, was recovering at a local hospital, and it was not clear when he would be released, a representative of the show said. He is expected to resume taping the show in January. The representative added that Trebek did not have any previous known condition that would have led to the heart attack. Trebek, 67, is a native of Sudbury, Ontario. He has hosted \"Jeopardy!\" since 1984. Prior to becoming \"Jeopardy!\" host, he served as emcee for a number of game shows, including \"High Rollers,\" \"The Wizard of Odds\" and \"Battlestars.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Alex Trebek suffered heart attack at home Monday .\nTrebek has hosted \"Jeopardy!\" for 23 years .\nTrebek is recovering at L.A. hospital .","id":"879e68a2b78b3cf3f5c2581bbf6093871143ed7b"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Archaeologists have discovered what they think are ruins of an Aztec pyramid razed by vengeful Spanish conquerors in what is now one of Mexico City's most crime-ridden districts. Construction workers unearthed ancient walls in the busy Iztapalapa neighborhood in June, and government archeologists said Wednesday they believe they may be part of the main pyramid of the Aztec city, destroyed by conquistador Hernan Cortes in the 16th century. Iztapalapa, now infamous for violent crime and drug dealing, has grown into a sprawling, poor district of the capital, obscuring the ruins. \"We knew the general location but couldn't explore because it's a big urban area,\" said government archeologist Jesus Sanchez, who is director of the site. Iztapalapa's ruler, Cuitlahuac, nearly annihilated Cortes and his Spanish troops in 1520 in what became known as the Sad Night. After eventual victory, Cortes destroyed the city. Sanchez hopes he has found the city's main pyramid just below the neighborhood's central plaza and garden. He and his team will spend more than a year investigating before deciding whether to excavate. Mexico City is littered with pre-Hispanic ruins. In October, archeologists in the city's central Zocalo square unearthed a 15th century Aztec altar and a 12-ton stone idol just yards from choking downtown traffic. The Aztecs, a warlike and deeply religious people who built monumental works, ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Ruins of an Aztec pyramid uncovered in Iztapalapa neighborhood, Mexico City .\nIztapalapa is a sprawling, crime-ridden district .\nThe Aztecs ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean .","id":"980051ddbf137ec06e7aeead2acb598bae388520"} -{"article":"KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- Hundreds of angry protesters, some waving ceremonial swords from trucks equipped with loud speakers, gathered Friday outside the presidential palace to denounce a teacher whose class named a teddy bear \"Mohammed\" -- some calling for her execution. An undated amateur photo of Gillian Gibbons, who has been found guilty of insulting religion. The protesters, which witnesses said numbered close to 1,000, swore to fight in the name of their prophet. Gillian Gibbons, 54, was given 15 days in jail late Thursday after she was convicted of insulting religion. She was cleared of charges of inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs, her lawyer, Ali Ajeb, said. Ajeb said they planned to appeal the sentence, which begins from the date she was detained, Nov. 25. Including Friday, she has 10 more days in jail. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was \"extremely disappointed\" that the charges were not dismissed. Meanwhile senior British lawmakers were en route to Khartoum to try to secure Gibbons' early release. The two members of the House of Lords were set to arrive in Khartoum about 5 a.m. Saturday (9 p.m. Friday ET), Time magazine reporter Sam Dealey told CNN, citing British and Sudanese sources. They will meet with government ministers and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, he said. Sources close to the British government and the Republican Palace in Sudan say it is expected that a deal will be reached, and Gibbons will be released, Dealey said. Visas for the two, he said, were granted \"in record time ... by Sudanese standards.\" Friday's demonstrations began as worshippers spilled out of mosques in the capital after Friday prayers. They marched to the palace, which is on the same street as Unity High School, where Gibbons taught grade school students. Those who named the bear were 7 years old. A heavy police presence was maintained outside the school, but no demonstrators were there. Watch men brandish knives, shout \u00bb . Armed with swords and sticks, the protesters shouted: \"By soul, by blood, I will fight for the Prophet Mohammad.\" Western journalists who attempted to talk to the protesters were ushered away by men in plain clothes. Gibbons is being held in a women's prison in the Omdurman district of Khartoum, and she will be deported at the end of her prison term, British consular officials told CNN. British Embassy staff said they were giving the teacher -- from the northern British city of Liverpool -- full consular assistance. In leaflets distributed earlier this week by Muslim groups, the protesters promised a \"popular release of anger\" at Friday's protests. The leaflets condemned Gibbons as an \"infidel\" and accused her of \"the pollution of children's mentality\" by her actions. Omer Mohammed Ahmed Siddig, the Sudanese ambassador to Britain, was summoned for a second time to meet with the British foreign secretary late Thursday after the court's ruling. Miliband also spoke to the Sudanese acting foreign minister for 15 minutes on the telephone during the meeting, the British Foreign Office said. \"Our priority now is to ensure Ms. Gibbons' welfare and we will continue to provide consular assistance to her,\" Miliband said in a statement. The Foreign Office said there would be further talks with the Sudanese government Friday. Gibbons was arrested Sunday after she asked her class to name the stuffed animal as part of a school project, the Foreign Office said. She had faced charges under Article 125 of Sudan's constitution, the law relating to insulting religion and inciting hatred. She could have received a sentence of 40 lashes, a fine or jail term of up to a year, according to the Foreign Office. British newspapers condemned Gibbons' conviction, with the Daily Telegraph calling for the recall of the British ambassador from Khartoum and sanctions against the heads of the Sudanese government. Watch a report on reactions to the verdict \u00bb . In an editorial, the tabloid newspaper, The Sun, said Gibbons' jailing was a \"grotesque insult to Islam\" and called Gibbons \"an innocent abroad.\" Four vans filled with riot police were waiting outside the courthouse at Thursday's hearing, but there were no disturbances. Staff from Gibbons' school, including director Robert Boulos, were present. Defense counsel later confirmed that the complaint against Gibbons came from Sarah Khawad, a secretary at the school. Gibbons has been working at the school, popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates, since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, Boulos said. He said Gibbons asked the children to pick their favorite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some demonstrators demand execution of Gillian Gibbons, 54 .\nGibbons found guilty of insulting religion, sentenced to 15 days in jail .\nTeacher arrested after her class named teddy bear \"Mohammed\"","id":"45b9fb89ac2724f2d7de56b2f8c9397bca03326e"} -{"article":"DUBAI (CNN) -- A court in Dubai sentenced two men Wednesday to 15 years in prison for the rape and kidnapping of a 15-year-old French boy. Veronique Robert, mother of the 15-year-old French-Swiss teen, speaking outside a court in Dubai. The boy's mother, Veronique Robert, was visibly upset after the sentence was read and promised to appeal. Robert, a French journalist, brought the case to the media's attention in recent months in an effort to shed light on what she deemed to be injustices in the pro-Western emirate of Dubai. Robert said Wednesday's sentence was too lenient for a crime that she believes is tantamount to attempted murder because one of her son's attackers was knowingly HIV-positive at the time of the rape. She refrained from asking the death penalty for her son's attackers, but said she hoped the sentence would be much longer. A spokesman for the Dubai government, Habib al Mulla, told CNN the sentence was in accordance with international standards and was not lenient. \"Today's verdict has proven that the system is efficient and is fair to all parties involved,\" al Mulla said. The case began in July, when the two men, 36 and 18, kidnapped and raped the French teenager at knifepoint. Robert contacted French diplomats, who took up the allegations with Dubai authorities. Al Mulla said police action was swift and arrests were made within 24 hours. But Robert has said the case was botched from the start, beginning with her son's examination by a doctor who said her son was gay. Homosexuality in Dubai is illegal, and the teen could have faced as much as a year in prison. Robert's son has since returned to France and was not in court for Wednesday's sentencing. Robert has also said Dubai authorities repeatedly concealed evidence -- confirmed in court papers -- that one of the attackers was HIV-positive. Robert said her son, who is still awaiting test results to find out whether he has the virus, could have gotten treatment much sooner had they known. Dubai authorities deny any evidence was concealed. The case has shed light on Dubai's attitudes toward rape and homosexuality, which some Western observers have said is outdated. Al Mulla, however, said Wednesday's sentencing and the government's handling of the case proves the country's system works. \"It's today's verdict which proves that there is a system,\" al Mulla said. \"The system is working properly. However, if there is any room for any improvement in the system, we'll definitely look into it, consider it, and if there's any room for improvement, we'll implement it.\" The mother has already filed suit in courts in Paris and Geneva, Switzerland seeking compensation from Sheikh Khalifa, president of the United Arab Emirates, and the prime minister and vice president of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum. She is also suing others, including the Dubai police chief. Robert started a Web site over the summer, boycottdubai.com, demanding better treatment for children who suffer sexual assault there. At a press conference last month, she proclaimed, \"We are here because I just would like first justice for my son; and second for every girl and boy who was raped and even had no chance to speak.\" Robert said she will drop all her pending cases if the government sets up rape clinics, recognizes the status of rape victims, and takes precautions after rape against sexually-transmitted diseases. In the wake of Wednesday's verdict, Robert said a Dubai government official told her the emirate plans to open its first rape clinic, which she said was a small victory. The government has not yet officially announced its plans to open such a facility. Al Mulla told CNN that Dubai believes a reception center for rape victims is \"a good solution.\" \"We are considering it,\" he said, regarding Robert's request. \"We believe it's good. It's good for the victims, and it's good for the whole system.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN correspondent Wilf Dinnick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dubai court sentences two men to 15 years for rape, kidnapping of 15-year-old boy .\nOne of the attackers was knowingly HIV-positive at the time of the rape .\nFamily of the French victim says this makes attack akin to attempted murder .\nFamily say case investigation botched, want more severe sentence .","id":"b427165e1be5e9b6e6067fc5f6591c02bfb93333"} -{"article":"SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) -- Chile called home its ambassador in Peru on Monday, as a dispute flared over disputed maritime territory between the South American neighbors. They have bickered over the rich Pacific coast fishing waters for years, and Peru published a new map on Sunday that pushes its bid to negotiate a new sea border. Chile's government protested the move and said it was calling home its ambassador in Peru, Cristian Barros, for consultations. \"We feel that this type of publication (map) and this position certainly make more difficult a fluid bilateral relationship with the Peruvian government,\" spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber said on Monday. \"Chile will continue to fully exercise its rights and competencies over Chilean territory,\" he said. Peruvian President Alan Garcia said in June his country would take Chile to the International Court at The Hague to resolve the case. Peru's foreign minister, Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, sought to downplay the row. \"It is an absolutely common diplomatic practice in novel situations like this that garner attention that ambassadors are called (back to report),\" he said. \"The channels of dialogue and communication must be kept open, and the countries must work toward a positive agenda,\" Garcia Belaunde said. The sea border, set in the 1950s, starts close to the land border and cuts due west across the ocean. But Peru says it was non-binding and rob it of 14,630 square miles (37,900 sq km) of fishing waters. Its proposed border is a southwestern sloping line that follows the diagonal land border into the Pacific Ocean. Analysts say Peru will have its day in court and the Hague is the only venue for the issue to be resolved, unless something happens to escalate the debate. \"The only thing that could happen, which would be very worrisome, would be if some autonomous group carried out some kind of act of sovereignty (in those waters) now that Peru officially claims them. That would be a shame,\" said Ricardo Israel, a political analyst in Chile. Chile defeated Peru in the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific and seized a chunk of mineral-rich territory from its northern neighbor. The two countries have strong economic ties but relations are still rocky. The dispute over their sea border has bubbled anew over the past two years and comes in addition to less serious disputes over the origins of everything from a dessert and a fruit to pisco, a grape liquor. Peru and Chile are the world's top producers of fish meal, a cattle feed, and fishing is one of the engines of Peru's economy. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Peru's foreign minister sought to downplay the row .\nSea border dispute has bubbled anew over past two years .\nLess serious disputes involve dessert, fruit and a grape liquor .","id":"a9a2880bd65c6b3835d19987ebcbd3d09010a0c3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush vetoed an expansion of the federally funded, state-run health insurance program for poor children for a second time Wednesday, telling Congress the bill \"moves our country's health care system in the wrong direction.\" In his veto message, President Bush calls on Congress to extend funding for the current program. In his veto message, Bush said the bill is almost a duplicate of the proposal he spiked in October. \"Because the Congress has chosen to send me an essentially identical bill that has the same problems as the flawed bill I previously vetoed, I must veto this legislation, too,\" he said in a statement released by the White House. The bill would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program by nearly $35 billion over five years, the same as the measure Bush vetoed October 3. Track recent and historical presidential vetoes \u00bb . The president had proposed adding $5 billion to the program and said the version he vetoed would have encouraged families to leave the private insurance market for the federally funded, state-run program. Democratic leaders said the new version addressed Republican objections by tightening restrictions on illegal immigrants receiving SCHIP benefits, capping the income levels of families that qualify for the program and preventing adults from receiving benefits. Though the measure had strong bipartisan support, it fell short of the two-thirds majorities needed to override a presidential veto in the House and Senate. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Democrats were more interested in scoring political points with the veto than in reaching a compromise with Republicans. \"We could have resolved the differences in his program in 10 minutes, if the majority had wanted to resolve the differences,\" Boehner said. \"This has become a partisan political game.\" The program currently covers about 6 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid -- the federal health insurance program for the poor -- but who can't afford private insurance. Democrats wanted to extend the program to another 4 million, paying for it with a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes. \"What a sad day that the president would say that rather than insuring [millions of] children, 'I don't want to raise the cigarette tax,' \" said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She called for a January 23 vote on whether to override the veto. Meanwhile, Bush called on Congress to extend funding for the current program to keep the 6 million now covered on the rolls. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"President Bush: Measure is \"essentially identical\" to the proposal he vetoed before .\nBill would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program .\nBush: Measure \"moves our country's health care system in the wrong direction\"\nProgram covers 6 million children whose parents don't qualify for Medicaid .","id":"0c67e8d5a91f3c7d9c53e29b8d0a25cf8db21b54"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mohammed Alshaya owns more high street brands than most fashion addicts could stuff in their closets. Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of Alshaya's retail division, tells MME he sees a new mindset in the Gulf . Topshop, Coast, NEXT and River Island are just some of the big names he's imported from the United Kingdom to shopping centers in the Middle East. As chief executive of M.H. Alshaya, he knows what sells: tried and tested Western brands that will appeal to local shoppers. And his empire is not limited to clothing. In the past month, he's taken Mothercare and The Body Shop to Central Eastern Europe. With the addition of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, M.H. Alshaya now operates in 16 markets including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Poland and Russia. John Defterios spoke with Mohammed Alshaya, and started by asking him for his thoughts on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plans for a single currency. (JD): I would imagine as a retail operation you'd be a huge proponent of a single currency within the GCC. Is it realistic within the next 4 to 5 years? (MA): I think it can be, as long as there is a will of the leaders to get together and decide. It is a huge leap towards efficiency, conciliation, getting closer between the six countries. One single Central Bank that governs and regulates is much better than the current six, I believe. (JD): Have you ever done any calculations of what impact it would have on your back office operations? (MA): Not yet, but it will be great, I think. (JD): You're one of the largest retail operations throughout the Arabian Peninsula. With all this growth that we're seeing right now, it must have a direct impact on the retail sector. What sort of annual growth are you experiencing? (MA): We're experiencing close to 25 percent annual growth, if not 30 percent in some cases, like in Dubai. (JD): Do you have any sort of concerns that this is going to be a bubble like the 1970s where the money was not deployed correctly? It seems different from my vantage point, do you share that view? (MA): There is a new generation of people from the region that are leading businesses and strong leadership in the government that have mitigated any concern. And if you see now the statistics, the Gulf is the seventh largest economy in the world. In ten, in 15 years time, it will be the fifth. So I see a new mindset, a new attitude. (JD): One of the other things I wanted to ask you about is your moves into other countries. The Alshaya group is very well known throughout the Arabian Peninsula, but you're moving into other markets, into Eastern Europe, specifically into Russia. Do you have the expertise to go into these markets? (MA): Well, yes. We have the expertise, and the expertise is by really retaining good management, and traveling with them into new markets. I'm not going to open shops myself. We have a very strong team in Russia; Russians that are taking our investment into good projects like Starbucks which we opened two months ago, two stores. We acquired a business there. So we have plans like Mothercare, Bodyshop, NEXT. (JD): So you can basically move this group into any city and have that potpourri of offers? (MA): We have the software. We have the software to launch the retail portfolio into a new market. (JD): Obviously you're a family business. You feel quite strongly about preserving culture and the family structure, and the need for family businesses to create jobs, because they represent 75 percent of all turnover in the Gulf. (MA): We have a social responsibility toward our people. We have to make sure we have jobs for them if the government is not going to compete, and is going to take away some of the people who would be relevant to our business. Another issue that might challenge us to do that is the wealth creation -- whether (potential employees) would be attracted to be in a department store selling or in a coffee shop making coffee -- that, we will see. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"MME speaks with Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of M.H. Alshaya's retail division .\nRetail division seeing annual growth of 25 percent, up to 30 percent in Dubai .\nGroup taking Starbucks, Mothercare, Body Shop into Eastern Europe, Russia .\nOn GCC single currency: It is a huge leap towards efficiency, conciliation .","id":"bc1c4d12aabdcecab3d87c6f9a898e41c7cd3821"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two U.S. Air Force F-15s escorted two Russian Bear long-range bombers out of an air exclusion zone off the coast of Alaska, U.S. military officials said Wednesday. Two U.S. Air Force F-15s were dispatched to meet the Russian bombers. U.S. radar picked up the Russian turbo-prop Tupolev-95 planes about 500 miles off the Alaska coast. The U.S. fighters from Elmendorf Air Force Base were dispatched to meet the bombers and escorted them out of the area without incident, the officials said. The United States maintains the air exclusion zone off the coast of Alaska, barring unidentified aircraft or aircraft that don't file flight plans inside that area. The last case of Russian aircraft approaching the U.S. coastline or ships in the Pacific was in February. Then, four Bear bombers flew near the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, with one of them flying about 2,000 feet from the Nimitz's deck. Russia's Defense Ministry said at the time there was no violation of flight regulations during the incident. A ministry official described the flights as standard operating procedure for air force training. Meanwhile, U.S. military officials say the incidents are not a concern. They say it's the Russian military flexing its ability and presence. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S. radar picks up the Russian planes about 500 miles off the Alaska coast .\nThe Russians entered an air exclusion zone .\nThey are escorted out of the area without incident .\nRussian planes last came near the U.S. coastline in February .","id":"7b76a0b5e6006587b65ad70ac2e4953ca1e2d4d1"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Jeffrey Jamaleldine took a bullet to his chin that blew out much of his jaw and nearly killed him while deployed in Iraq last year. The sacrifice is just part of his job, he says, and he'd go back to Iraq in a second if asked. Jeffrey Jamaleldine left Germany for college in America. In 2006, he joined the U.S. Army. That is something that troubles his family, especially his father. Jamaleldine served in the U.S. Army as a German citizen, one of an estimated 20,500 \"green-card warriors\" in the military. Last month, Jamaleldine was awarded U.S. citizenship, but he's keeping his German passport. Bashir Jamaleldine says his son is fighting an unjust war for an America that went too far when it invaded Iraq five years ago -- a sentiment shared by the majority of Germans. He wishes his son would get back to his \"German roots.\" \"It would satisfy me more. Why he's more American than a German, I don't know,\" he says. Of his son's time in Iraq, the father says, \"He went there to receive this bullet. If he would not have gone there, he wouldn't have been wounded; he wouldn't be in the hospital; he wouldn't be treated by a doctor. He would be living in peace with his family.\" Shaking his head with his son at his side, he adds, \"He is more American than German.\" Jeffrey Jamaleldine, a 31-year-old U.S. Army scout who proudly wears a Stetson hat and spurs on his boots, laughs. He says he and his dad have had countless arguments over his decision to join the U.S. military, but the two never budge from their positions. See his shattered jaw and debate with his dad \u00bb . \"He hears what I'm saying, but there's just no coming through,\" he says. The father came to Germany from Africa years ago. He says his son should be devoting his energy to fighting hunger and poverty in Africa, not fighting in Iraq. The son agrees with his father on one thing: His love for America is unwavering. Jeffrey Jamaleldine moved to the United States to go to college in Missouri at the age of 18 and immediately fell in love with the United States and its culture. \"You can go from rags to riches there. People still believe in that. It is not something that has gotten lost,\" he says. And when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, happened, he felt it was time for him to do something. \"A small group of people [terrorists] -- I felt -- had a big influence on our way of life and that literally pissed me off,\" he says. By accident, he says he found out that with his green card, he could join the U.S. military. And in 2006, he did just that. Read why a \"green-card\" Marine would die for America . Last year, he paid a heavy price for his patriotism. Pinned down in a firefight with insurgents in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Jamaleldine was shot in the face. \"I felt like I got hit by Mike Tyson,\" he says, pointing to a two-inch long scar on his left cheek. The left side his jaw was shattered and now doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany are reconstructing his facial bones. \"Part of the projectile is still stuck in the right cheekbone,\" Dr. Edward Vanisky says. \"But if it doesn't cause you any problems, we'll just leave it in there.\" While many Americans would consider Jamaleldine a hero, most in his home country don't. Germans largely oppose the Iraq war. The criticism doesn't bother him. Watch why a German would fight for U.S. \u00bb . He says even after getting wounded on the battlefield, he would go fight for America again if ordered back to Iraq. \"I still don't want to die, I love life, I enjoy life,\" he says. \"But I would still make the sacrifice to go to Iraq again if I am called. If I have to go, I will -- to stand up for what I believe in,\" he says. His father looks on in disbelief as he listens to his son, now an American citizen. But Jeffrey Jamaleldine says joining the military was never about that, it was about defending American ideals. \"If we have people who want to change those ideals or take them away,\" he says, \"then there are people like me or my platoon who stand up and fight for those ideals.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Soldier was one of more than 20,000 \"green-card warriors\"\nJeffrey Jamaleldine's dad wonders why his son is more \"American than German\"\nJamaleldine went to college in the U.S. and fell in love with the American dream .\n\"You can go from rags to riches there. People still believe in that,\" he says .","id":"8a0976b5b0811c919669e8aed7274e1d0fa14679"} -{"article":"COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- Oprah Winfrey delivered her \"favorite\" candidate in the presidential race something his campaign hoped for Sunday: the largest crowd yet of any event in the race to '08, according to the Obama campaign. Oprah campaigned with Obama this weekend in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Although exact figures were not immediately available, campaign officials estimated more than 30,000 people packed into Columbia, South Carolina's Williams-Brice stadium to hear the talk-show queen explain why she believes Obama is the man with the \"vision\" for America. \"Dr. King dreamed the dream. We get to vote that dream into reality by supporting a man who knows not just who we are but who we can be,\" she told the crowd. South Carolina is one of the first states in the nation to hold its presidential primary, making it key to the success of any presidential candidate. Winfrey gave a similar speech Saturday in the first stop of a two-day, three-state tour with her fellow Chicagoan. She discussed on Sunday stepping out of her \"comfort zone\" by entering the political scene on behalf of a candidate, and praised Obama's \"ear for eloquence and tongue for unvarnished truth. We need politicians to tell the truth and be the truth.\" Watch what issues are important to Iowans \u00bb . She also said Obama would bring \"a sense of statesmanship\" to the White House. Watch Winfrey endorse Obama \u00bb . After extensive thank-yous to his wife Michelle and to Winfrey -- and acknowledging that the crowd was largely there to see Winfrey, not him -- Obama launched into his stump speech. \"I am running because of what Dr. King called 'the fierce urgency of now,' \" he said. Covering ground from the Iraq war to the economy to health care, he said, \"there is such a thing as being too late -- and that hour is almost upon us.\" His campaign worked the crowd, passing out cards to sign up supporters and verifying that those who showed up are registered to vote. They handed out cards asking fans to provide their mailing addresses and phone numbers. The cards also featured an \"optional\" pledge to vote for Obama on January 26. In his speech, Obama did not mention his chief rival by name. But he clearly referred to Sen. Hillary Clinton, saying that if he gets the Democratic nomination, his Republican competitor won't be able to say he ever \"supported the Iraq war.\" Watch how Winfrey's campaigning could give Obama a boost \u00bb . Clinton was among the Democrats who supported a resolution authorizing force in Iraq in 2002, though in a speech on the Senate floor she said she believed supporting the resolution could ultimately make war itself less likely. Obama was not in the Senate at the time, but gave a speech opposing the possibility of war with Iraq. Clinton has held a lead over Obama in South Carolina, where the Democratic primary consists largely of African-American voters. Clinton had a star of her own on the campaign trail for her Sunday in South Carolina -- her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who addressed a church in the morning. Check out some other celebrities who are endorsing candidates \u00bb . \"She has the best combination of mind and heart and strength of leadership and feeling for ... the problems of ordinary people of anybody I've ever worked with,\" the former president said Sunday. Clinton was on the campaign trail with her mother and daughter. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Peter Hamby and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Largest crowd yet in the race to '08, said Obama campaign .\nNEW: Officials estimate more than 30,000 people attended event in S. Carolina .\n\"Oprah-bama\" hit Iowa on Saturday; South Carolina, New Hampshire on Sunday .","id":"69788d586d71bf36d2818ca097308747f6ab25ab"} -{"article":"KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- In an effort to shut down Khartoum's Unity High School, a disgruntled former employee alerted Sudanese officials that a British teacher had allowed her class to name a teddy bear \"Mohammed,\" a British source and Sudanese presidential palace source told Time magazine's Sam Dealey. An undated amateur photo shows Gillian Gibbons, who was jailed for allowing children to name a teddy bear \"Mohammed\". Gillian Gibbons, 54, was convicted last week of insulting religion and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her from her prison sentence on Monday and she later left on a flight for England. The two sources said Sarah Khawad was fired as the school's secretary in November after an employment spat and threatened to shut down the school. The sources said Khawad did not appear to have a vendetta against Gibbons, but hoped that by bringing the teddy bear incident to the education minister's attention, he would close down the school for anti-Islamic teachings. Watch Time magazine's Sam Dealey's report on the pardon \u00bb . The private school was shut down after the controversy came to light last week. It is unclear if it will reopen. Although there is no ban in the Quran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's founder, some Muslims consider likenesses highly offensive. The sources said they have confirmed the account with Gibbons. Defense attorneys confirmed that it was Khawad who launched the initial complaint against Gibbons, not a parent as originally thought. Khawad also testified at Gibbons' trial. Before approaching Sudan's education minister, the two sources said Khawad tried to enlist two parents, who were also teachers at the school, to join in her protest against the teddy bear's name, but they declined. Gibbons had been working at the school -- popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates -- since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, said the head of Unity High School, Robert Boulos. She had asked her class of 7-year-olds to come up with a name for the toy as part of a school project, he said. Classmates took turns taking the teddy bear home with them, accompanied by a diary with the bear's name written in the front of it, he said. She was taken into custody on November 25 and tried days later in a Sudanese court. She was cleared of other charges of inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. Gibbons had initially faced the possibility of 40 lashes and a six-month jail term for insulting Islam. The incident sparked a diplomatic row, with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband calling on his Sudanese counterpart to dismiss the charges. Two British lawmakers, both Muslims, traveled to Khartoum to help secure her release. It also resulted in angry protests in Khartoum, with some calling for the British woman's execution. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Disgruntled ex-employee said teacher let class name teddy \"Mohammed\"\nSources: Sarah Khawad trying to shut down Khartoum's Unity High School .\nBriton Gillian Gibbons convicted of insulting religion released from jail .\nGillian Gibbons taken to British Embassy in Khartoum to await flight home .","id":"82e9c77478dfed129ceca1a152ba54e20f7f5a88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Debra Lafave, a former Florida middle school teacher convicted of having sex with a student, was arrested Tuesday for \"inappropriate but non-sexual contact\" with a teenage coworker, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. Debra Lafave was arrested after talking with a teenager. She is not allowed to have contact with anyone under 18. The association violated the terms of Lafave's probation, which forbade her to have contact with anyone under 18, the sheriff's office said. She was released on her own recognizance. Lafave and her mother, Joyce Beasley, had no comment as they left the jail. \"I can only characterize this as somewhat of a bizarre and unusual violation,\" said Lafave's attorney, John Fitzgibbons. Lafave, 27, pleaded guilty in November 2005 to having sex with a 14-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years under house arrest and seven years of probation. Lafave was also required to register as a sex offender and abide by numerous conditions. She was arrested after corrections officers interviewed a 17-year-old girl, who worked at a restaurant where Lafave had been employed since January 2006, according to the violation report from Florida's Corrections Department. Watch Lafave's ex-husband discuss the allegations \u00bb . The teenager told the officers that Lafave discussed \"non-work related issues such as family problems, friends, high school, personal life, boyfriend issues and sexual issues in both private one-on-one conversations\" with her and in group settings, according to the report. \"I would characterize this simply as 'girl talk,' or 'guy talk,' if you will, among fellow employees, that all of us do every day,\" Fitzgibbons said. \"This is it. There's no more, there's no less. ... I would describe it as simply a workplace friendship.\" The co-worker will turn 18 on January 2, Fitzgibbons said. Lafave refused to make a statement regarding the allegations, the document said. She was ordered to quit the restaurant job and now works as a receptionist in her mother's barber shop, the report said. Lafave says she suffers from bipolar disorder and is receiving treatment. Fitzgibbons said his client has done everything required of her, living with her parents and leaving only to go to work. She has done so well on two years of house arrest, he said, that he has been planning to ask that the third year be waived. Fitzgibbons said he still intends to make that request, and hopes Lafave's arrest will not hurt that effort -- \"I would hope that the court would be understanding.\" \"She's really tried hard, so it's upsetting to her,\" he said of the arrest, but noted it was \"unheard of\" for someone on probation for a sexual offense to be released on her own recognizance. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Debra Lafave's probation forbids her to have contact with anyone under 18 .\nFlorida's Corrections Department: Lafave talked with 17-year-old coworker .\nThe two discussed family problems, sexual issues, report says .\nLafave was ordered to quit the job because of the allegations .","id":"e1b904fd0a3f74c3e01831acb6d4a67c0d1b642b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Delta Air Lines and American Airlines announced Thursday the cancellations of hundreds of flights so the companies can conduct inspections on bundles of wires in some of their jets. Delta cancellations will affect flights up until early Friday, according to a statement from the airline. The cancellations will affect flights through Friday, according to statements by both companies. A spokeswoman for Delta earlier said 325 flights would be canceled Thursday, but later said 275 flights were cut. \"Delta apologizes in advance for any inconvenience this may cause and is working to proactively contact and reaccommodate affected customers. Customers should call ahead to check flight status,\" a Delta statement said. Wednesday, American Airlines canceled 318 flights, said company spokesman Tim Wagner. The airline canceled 132 of its estimated 2,300 flights scheduled for Thursday, Wagner said, about 6 percent of the daily schedule. The cancellations forced dozens of people to spend the night in the atrium of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. They slept wherever they could -- on couches, on the floor, some on non-moving baggage carousels. Kelly said the airline rebooked flights and covered the cost of hotel and food for passengers on canceled flights. It was initially believed that Delta's MD-90 planes were part of the inspection but it was determined that the MD-88 planes were the only ones that needed to be inspected, a spokeswoman said. The airline said the checks are voluntary and are expected to be completed by week's end. American Airlines, meanwhile, is examining wiring secured to its MD-80 aircraft. In Atlanta, the cancellations caused grousing among passengers who missed job interviews, connecting flights and the comfort of their beds, CNN affiliate WXIA reported. \"They told us 6:45 (p.m.). Then they told us 7:30. Then 8, so on and so forth and they just canceled,\" passenger Fred Billizon told WXIA. \"So they had about 200 people just waiting on flights. And that's not a lot of happy people.\" This latest round of inspections was prompted by questions raised by the FAA and American safety officials about how a certain bundle of wires is secured to the MD-80 aircraft. The MD-80 is the workhorse of the American fleet. American's Web site says the aircraft accounts for 300 of the airline's fleet of 655 jets. The jet debuted in 1980 from McDonnell-Douglas, which was purchased by rival Boeing in 1997. Boeing discontinued production of the aircraft in 1999. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Delta cancelations only related to MD-88, not MD-90s .\nNEW: 275 Delta flights were canceled Thursday for safety inspections .\nAmerican Airlines canceled 318 flights Wednesday to inspect MD-80 aircraft .\nAmerican cancels 132 of its estimated 2,300 flights scheduled for Thursday .","id":"1cecb5f24805afcc15eb5cfa0500130f107c8bcb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four crew members died and one was missing in the frigid waters off Alaska's Aleutian Islands after their fishing vessel sank Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. A crew member of the Alaska Ranger is taken on board the Coast Guard Cutter Munro. The Seattle, Washington-based Alaska Ranger was in 10-foot seas and winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour when it reported water was leaking into its steering gear compartment about 2:50 a.m. Sunday. The trawler had 47 people on board, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane, a Coast Guard spokesman. Four of those had been confirmed dead by late morning, Lane said. One person is still unaccounted for, said another Coast Guard spokesman, Lt. Eric Eggen. Watch a report from Lt. Eggen \u00bb . The 180-foot processing trawler was about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, in the remote Aleutian Islands, when the crew reported being \"overwhelmed by water\" and abandoned ship, Eggen said. Most of the crew had survival suits to protect them from water that was near-freezing, said Cmdr. Todd Trimpert, a Coast Guard spokesman. No cause of death was immediately known for the four crew members who died, but \"certainly, they were in the water a long time,\" Trimpert said. \"Without a survival suit, generally your survival time is less than 30 minutes,\" he said. The company that owned the ship, The Fishing Company of Alaska Inc., identified the four who did not survive as Captain Eric Peter Jacobsen, Chief Engineer Daniel Cook, Mate David Silveira and Crewman Byron Carrillo. \"They were incredibly brave, hard-working men,\" the company said. \"Our hearts are broken.\" A nearby ship, the Alaska Warrior, rescued 25 crew members while the Coast Guard retrieved the rest of the crew, the company said. \"We do not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered,\" the company said. \"We will do everything possible to find out what occurred with the hope that something can be learned that will be of value to the fishing community.\" Amy Roman, a niece of Daniel Cook, told CNN affiliate KING-TV that her uncle \"died how he wanted to. \"If you're a fisherman, you want to die out at sea,\" she said. \"If you're a true fisherman, this is how you want to go.\" Survivors were being taken aboard the Coast Guard cutter Munro. A helicopter and a C-130 transport plane were also taking part in the effort, the Coast Guard reported. The sinking left an unknown amount of diesel fuel on the surface of the Bering Sea, Lane said. The fishing industry is perennially among the most deadly in the United States. In 2005, 48 fishermen died, up from 38 the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That made it the nation's most dangerous occupation for the year, with a fatality rate of 118.4 per 100,000 -- nearly 30 times higher than the rate of the average worker. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Four crew members of Seattle-based Alaska Ranger died, Coast Guard says .\nOthers were rescued, but one person is still unaccounted for, spokesman says .\nBoat was about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor in remote Aleutian Islands .","id":"d3da69405b687367de6260d74db8726423b6884a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON, Illinois (CNN) -- Ty Ziegel peers from beneath his Marine Corps baseball cap, his once boyish face burned beyond recognition by a suicide bomber's attack in Iraq just three days before Christmas 2004. Ty Ziegel, a Marine, was badly wounded in Iraq. He battled the VA over disability benefits when he returned. He lost part of his skull in the blast and part of his brain was damaged. Half of his left arm was amputated and some of the fingers were blown off his right hand. Ziegel, a 25-year-old Marine sergeant, knew the dangers of war when he was deployed for his second tour in Iraq. But he didn't expect a new battle when he returned home as a wounded warrior: a fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs. \"Sometimes, you get lost in the system,\" he told CNN. \"I feel like a Social Security number. I don't feel like Tyler Ziegel.\" His story is one example of how medical advances in the battlefield have outpaced the home front. Many wounded veterans return home feeling that the VA system, specifically its 62-year-old disability ratings system, has failed them. Watch Ziegel display his model skull \u00bb . \"The VA system is not ready, and they simply don't have time to catch up,\" Tammy Duckworth -- herself a wounded veteran who heads up the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs -- told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in March. VA Acting Secretary Gordon Mansfield said cases like Ziegel's are rare -- that the majority of veterans are moving through the process and \"being taken care of.\" He also said most veterans are fairly compensated. \"Any veteran with the same issue, if it's a medical disability, ... it is going to get the same exact result anywhere in our system,\" he said. More than 28,500 troops have been wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom, including about 8,500 that have needed air transport, according to the U.S. military. See photos of these Iraq war heroes \u00bb . A recent Harvard study found that the cost of caring for those wounded over the course of their lifetime could ultimately cost more than $660 billion. In Ziegel's case, he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Once he got out of the hospital, he was unable to hold a job. He anticipated receiving a monthly VA disability check sufficient to cover his small-town lifestyle in Washington, Illinois. Instead, he got a check for far less than expected. After pressing for answers, Ziegel finally received a letter from the VA that rated his injuries: 80 percent for facial disfigurement, 60 percent for left arm amputation, a mere 10 percent for head trauma and nothing for his left lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture. \"I don't get too mad about too many things,\" he said. \"But once we've been getting into this, I'm ready to beat down the White House door if I need to.\" \"I'm not expecting to live in the lap of luxury,\" he added. \"But I am asking them to make it comfortable to raise a family and not have to struggle.\" Within 48 hours of telling his story to CNN this summer, the Office of then-VA Secretary Jim Nicholson acted on Ziegel's case. The VA changed his head trauma injury, once rated at 10 percent, to traumatic brain injury rated at 100 percent, substantially increasing his monthly disability check. Duckworth, the Illinois VA chief, knows exactly what Ziegel and other severely wounded vets are going through. She lost both her legs when a rocket-propelled grenade struck her Blackhawk helicopter on November 12, 2004. Her right arm was also shattered. Watch how Duckworth's wounds changed her life \u00bb . She told CNN she received \"incredible care\" at Walter Reed for 13 months, but soon realized the transition to the VA wouldn't be as smooth. \"I started worrying about the fact that maybe this country won't remember in five years that there are these war wounded,\" Duckworth said. Garrett Anderson with the Illinois National Guard, for example, has been fighting the VA since October 15, 2005. Shrapnel tore through his head and body after a roadside bomb blew up the truck he was driving. He lost his right arm. The VA initially rejected his claim, saying his severe shrapnel wounds were \"not service connected.\" Watch Anderson describe \"my arm was hanging there\" \u00bb . \"Who would want to tell an Iraqi or Afghanistan soldier who was blown up by an IED that his wounds were not caused by his service over there?\" said Anderson's wife, Sam. After pressure from Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the VA acted on Anderson's case. He has since been awarded compensation for a traumatic brain injury. \"It upsets me that the VA system operates in a way that it takes people of power -- and who you know and what you know -- to get what you want,\" said Anderson, who is now retired. When asked about Anderson's case specifically, the VA's Mansfield said such cases make him \"more dedicated\" to fixing the system. In July, President Bush and a commission appointed to review the care of veterans returning from war announced the need for a complete overhaul of the disability ratings system, which dates back to World War II. The VA is now considering action on the commission's recommendations. Ziegel eventually won his battle. Still he feels for so many others he believes are getting cheated by the system. \"We're feeding the war machine, but you never think of the war machine that comes home and needs, you know, feeding back home,\" he said. His family hopes they don't have to fight the VA again. In August, Ty Ziegel's brother, 22-year-old Zach Ziegel, was deployed to Iraq. \"I want to make the VA system better because if he has to go through anything I went through, that's really going to upset me. That'll make my fuse real short and hot,\" Ty Ziegel said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ty Ziegel lost an arm, part of his skull when he was attacked in Iraq .\nVA initially rated his brain injury at 0%, meaning he got no compensation for it .\nAnother vet: VA rejected his claim, saying his wounds were \"not service connected\"\nZiegel: \"I want to make the VA system better\"","id":"9b7836ba179053fecec671168589694bd4ba08f1"} -{"article":"CNN Student News -- June 29, 2007 . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks for checking out our latest summer edition of CNN Student News, where today's show, all about tech. I'm Carl Azuz. A college professor has found a way for his students to listen to his lectures even when they're not in the classroom. And we talk to students and experts to find out some of the ways technology is being used in schools. First Up: Gadget Gifts . AZUZ: It's better to give than to receive. You've probably heard it a hundred times. But when that gift is for a techie, there's a gaggle of gadgets to go through. So how do you know which present to pick? Reynolds Wolf is here to help with the breakdown on some cool tech toys. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN REPORTER: Are you searching for that perfect gift, but you are just a little bit stumped? Well, no worries. Brian Cooley from CNET.com is here to help us out, steer us clear and hopefully give us some great ideas. And I know you have some great ideas for us. BRIAN COOLEY, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, CNET.COM: Look at these beauties. First of all, for gaming, you know the Nintendo Wii is hot, but you can't find one? The Nintendo DS Light is a pretty good placeholder. The dual screen that it's known for, they've slimmed it down from its original DS. And of course that great legacy of all those great Nintendo games. And pretty cheep. For $130 or less you can get one of these. That's very affordable. Check out this music player, Reynolds. It's gonna be the next kind of iPod. It's from SanDisk. It's called the Sansa Connect. That little bump is a WiFi antenna. This can connect wirelessly to the Internet or to other devices like it to share music, download music and stream Internet radio. That is really the future of iPod-like devices. If you want to give a phone, but you also want to give a music player, this one does both. NOKIA's 5300 Music Express is a great music player. It's not an iPod, but it's not bad. Transport controls and volume buttons out here tell you that it's something different. And then for a camera, I like this very flat Sony T100. It's pocket-size, which is very hot these days. Nice slide-down door. 8 mega pixels, image stabilization and a great big screen for sharing photos. WOLF: Brian Cooley of CNET.com, thank you so much. COOLEY: You bet. (END VIDEO CLIP) Shoutout . GEORGE RAMSAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! When did the first iPod debut? If you think you know it, shout it out. Was it: A) 1997, B) 1999, C) 2001 or D) 2003? You've got three seconds -- Go! If you guessed C, you've got the right tune. The popular portable players first made the scene in the fall of 2001. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Tech in the Classroom . AZUZ: Whether it's an iPod, Sony, Samsung or Zune, it seems like you can't go anywhere these days without seeing people plugged in to some type of MP3 player. And if you're on a college campus, you might think students walking around with their ear buds in are listening to music. But don't be fooled. They could just be studying up for class. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AZUZ: Walk around any college campus and those famous white earplugs seem to be everywhere. But sometimes the playlist isn't quite what you'd expect. Lectures on Computer Science instead of American Idol. Not so much Sum 41 as History 101. Some teachers have used the audio iPod in their lessons, but at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Jim Foley hopes to transfer his visual Web lectures to the video iPod. PROFESSOR FOLEY, USER INTERFACE DESIGN TEACHER: The students who did Web lectures earned grades that were about 10% better -- we did that three years ago. AZUZ: As MP3 players become essential parts of students' lives, they have the potential to rival the laptop as learning tools in the classroom. With a graduate student's help, Foley records lectures before class, so that students can raise questions when they arrive. Students from Foley's User Interface Design course say they find it valuable to review lectures when convenient. KATHY PHAM, STUDENT IN PROFESSOR FOLEY'S USER INTERFACE DESIGN CLASS: It takes 15 minutes to walk from one side of campus to the other side of campus. And to be able just to download the mp3 to my iPod and just walk across campus, would be very beneficial. SCOTT GILLILAND, STUDENT IN PROFESSOR FOLEY'S USER INTERFACE DESIGN CLASS: A lot of people can't get to a full desktop computer whenever they need to listen to the lectures, and it's nice to be able to take them with you. AZUZ: Although students show enthusiasm towards MP3 players, there are limitations because they're small. FOLEY: The screen resolution is smaller and navigating between pages will be a little bit slower than on the computer because on the computer I just use the mouse. With the iPod I have to use the scrollwheel and scroll around. AZUZ: Like the laptop, the MP3 player is a popular and revolutionary way to gather and disseminate information. Regardless of what teachers decide to use, players and laptops will remain allies. Besides, you need a laptop to operate an iPod and vice versa. (END VIDEO CLIP) Podcast Promo . AZUZ: And if downloading lectures isn't enough, we've got another cool thing you can do with an MP3 player: watch CNN Student News! That's right, you can download our Podcast at CNNstudentnews.com or at iTunes. So you won't miss out on the news when you're on the go. Now and Then . RAMSAY: With cell phones, thin is in. But you had to flex some muscle to handle its oversized ancestor. An iPod can hold your whole music library. But a vintage Walkman let you jam out one cassette at a time. Microchips keep getting smaller and smaller. But old school computers took up a lot more space. And game controllers have buttons for every possible move. But the retro version? One button, one joystick, tons of fun. Learning with Technology . AZUZ: It's not just slimmer cell phones and smaller computers. Advances in technology are changing the world we live in all the time. And one of the places where those changes are taking place is schools. So we talked to some students and experts to hear what they have to say about teaching with tech. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRINA DAVIS, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION: We started off, when we were first starting to integrate technology, kind of at that basic level. MATTHEW LEWIS, JUNIOR, GREENSIDE HIGH SCHOOL: We of course use laptops and computers. Each teacher is assigned a laptop. And also, we have computer labs and a media center with computers inside. DON KNEZEK, CEO, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION: Certainly just dropping technology into a learning environment doesn't necessarily improve it unless you are sure that the activities that you are doing align with the expectations that you have for learning. AMMARAH MAHMOUD, JUNIOR, SALEM HIGH SCHOOL: I think many careers today require for people to know how to use technology, so it's important to learn that in school . KNEZEK: So you can't convince me that a student without basic fundamental technology skills is on equal footing for employment. MAHMOUD: I don't think schooling should be technology dependent, because I think that, at the same time, we shouldn't rely on something that doesn't have a mind of its own. KNEZEK: You can certainly abuse technology. You can abuse the printed word. You can abuse access to external resources. Certainly if teachers and school leaders and parents use the same standards that they would use for any resource for technologies, then we're in fine shape. LEWIS: I can see people in the future having something where you just scan, and all of your, you know, personal information comes up and everything about you can come up on a screen, and I think that's really cool. DAVIS: Customization, very innovative, lots of gaming, lots of 3-dimensional spaces and just social spaces that feed on the needs of young learners. (END VIDEO CLIP) Goodbye . AZUZ: And that is the last word in this special edition of CNN Student News. We'll see you back here soon for our next summer show. And of course we thank you for watching everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Get a glimpse at the next generation of gadgets .\nHow the teaching role of MP3 players is growing .\nWhat officials say about tech on campus .","id":"9483ae6d83dd71a96e91eee727a9ce7c0f3cf6ab"} -{"article":"ALGIERS, Algeria (CNN) -- Rescuers are sifting through the rubble of the United Nations headquarters in Algiers hoping to find survivors after a powerful bomb ripped off the building's facade and leveled nearby U.N. offices. Rescuers and bomb experts search for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building. It was one of two suspected car bombs that struck Algiers within 10 minutes of each other. The death toll is unclear: the official government count is at least 26, but hospital sources in Algiers told CNN affiliate BFM-TV that 76 people were killed in the two blasts. A statement from the United Nations said 45 people were reported killed. Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni blamed a militant Islamic group with ties to al Qaeda for the attacks, which also targeted a building housing Algeria's Constitutional Council and Supreme Court. In a posting on an Islamist Web site, the group al Qaeda Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility. CNN could not immediately corroborate that claim, but the Web site is known to carry messages, claims and videos from al Qaeda and other militant groups. In the posting, the bombers were identified as Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Othman and Abdel Rahman Abu Abdel Nasser al-Asimi. It said two trucks were filled with \"no less than 800 kg (1,763 pounds) of explosives.\" The group called the operation \"another successful conquest and a second epic that the knights of faith have dictated with their blood, defending the wounded Islamic nation and in defiance to the Crusaders and their agents, the slaves of America and the sons of France.\" At least 10 U.N. staffers were among those killed, according to U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe. The offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees -- located across the street from the U.N. headquarters -- were leveled by a blast that struck about 9:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) Tuesday. \"Our offices are basically destroyed now, nothing works,\" UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said from its Geneva headquarters. Watch his full interview . He said rescuers are working into the night trying to get to the trapped U.N. workers. \"It's a very serious situation still with the U.N. in Algiers,\" he said. In a strongly worded statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he called \"an abjectly cowardly strike against civilian officials serving humanity's highest ideals under the U.N. banner.\" \"The perpetrators of these crimes will not escape the strongest possible condemnation -- and ultimate punishment -- by Algerian authorities and the international community,\" Ban said in the written statement. He said he has sent senior advisers and other top U.N. officials to head to Algiers to assist in the investigation and rescue effort. Most of those killed in the coordinated attacks were victims of the first suspected car bombing near the Constitutional Council -- which oversees elections -- and Supreme Court in the Algiers neighborhood of Ben Aknoun, according to the state-run Algeria Press Agency. That blast struck a bus outside the targeted building, killing many of those on board, the news agency reported. One man said he heard the first blast then the second exploded in front of him. \"I saw the trees falling and the glass shattering in front of me. I had to run away from the car,\" he said. Zerhouni said the attack was the work of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the same group that took responsibility for an attack in April in downtown Algiers that killed 33 people. That group also uses the name al Qaeda Islamic Maghreb after merging with al Qaeda earlier this year. It abandoned small-scale attacks in favor of headline-grabbing blasts after it joined with al Qaeda. CNN International Security Correspondent Paula Newton said the merger combined the expertise of Algerian guerrillas with the operational ability of al Qaeda in North Africa, enabling the group to penetrate the usually extensive security in high-profile areas of Algiers. She said the group's goal is to destabilize countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, which it sees as enemies of the Islamic state. Zerhouni said police interrogations of GSPC members arrested in the wake of the April attack revealed that Algeria's Constitutional Council and Supreme Court were on a list of GSPC targets. Algeria, which has a population of 33 million, is still recovering from more than a decade of violence that began after the military government called a halt to elections which an Islamist party was poised to win. Tens of thousands of people died in the unrest. Although the country has remained relatively peaceful, recent terrorist attacks have raised fears of a slide back to violence. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two bombs explode in Algerian capital near government and U.N. buildings .\nAlgeria blames group linked to al Qaeda .\nOfficial death toll is 26, but some sources say as high as 76 .\nU.N. officials say five of its staff killed and 14 missing .","id":"ea29e498c303964fc39c856ddf7037d5dfbc93fb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four people said to have acted on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front have been indicted on a charge of setting fire to an agriculture research building on the Michigan State University campus more than eight years ago, authorities announced Tuesday. Three Detroit, Michigan, residents and a Cincinnati, Ohio, resident were named in conspiracy and arson counts for a fire at a campus facility that housed federally funded plant genetic research. Officials said the December 31,1999, fire on the East Lansing campus caused more than $1 million in damage to facilities and the loss of research records. They also are accused of setting fire the next day to commercial logging equipment near Mesick, Michigan, in order to sabotage lumbering activity. \"This investigation has been ongoing for almost a decade, and it should be a reminder to all that the FBI does not allow the passage of time to thwart our ability to apply our full resources to a case,\" said FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena. Michigan State Police Chief James Dunlap called the case \"a significant act of domestic terrorism.\" \"This was more than an attack on a building and the destruction of valuable property,\" MSU President Lou Anna Simon said. \"It was an assault on the core value of free and open inquiry at a research university.\" Officials said those named in the indictment are Marie Mason, 46, of Cincinnati; and Frank Ambrose, 33, Aren Burthwick, 27, and Stephanie Fultz, 27, all of Detroit. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"3 Michigan residents and an Ohio resident named in conspiracy, arson counts .\nThey are said to have set fire to an agriculture research building at Michigan State .\nFire nine years ago caused $1 million in damage and loss of research records .\nMichigan State Police chief called fire 'a significant act of domestic terrorism'","id":"e1aad9da59a32a4443010b092eba1b68725c8467"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Efraim Diveroli's father hoped his son would become a doctor or lawyer. Efraim Diveroli, 22, is doing his \"patriotic\" duty as an arms dealer, his grandfather says. What he got instead is a 22-year-old international arms dealer who faces a congressional inquiry for allegedly selling old Chinese ammunition to the U.S. military to equip allies in Afghanistan. Diveroli is president of AEY Inc., a South Florida company which, according to U.S. government documents, has done more than $10 million of business with the U.S. government since 2004. The papers also reveal the company struck it big in 2007 with contracts totaling more than $200 million to supply ammunition, assault rifles and other weapons to the Afghan National Army and police. The company's contract said it would get the ammunition from Hungary. But Army investigators found what the Afghan military got included corroded ammunition made in China as long as 46 years ago. The New York Times reported Thursday that AEY shopped stockpiles and ammo dumps in old Soviet bloc allies, from Albania to Kazakhstan. Albania was a big customer for Chinese armaments in the 1960s and '70s, the Times reported. Angelo Diveroli, Efraim's grandfather, told CNN affiliate WPLG-TV that his grandson is being targeted by \"jealous competitors\" in the international arms market. Since he was a boy, the grandfather said, Efraim Diveroli has known his way around weapons. Read the WPLG story . \"He's a genius about anything to do with weapons,\" the 72-year-old says. \"Ever since he was a little boy, I would take him to gun shows and he could identify every model of guns. People would ask: How can he do that so young? He has a gift, I would tell them.'' Michael Diveroli, Efraim's father, told CNN affiliate WFOR-TV that he wished his son had turned his intellect elsewhere. He said Efraim was \"a boy genius\" who is \"hard to control.\" Read the WFOR story . \"I would prefer he became a nice Jewish doctor or lawyer rather than an arms dealer,\" WFOR quoted Michael Diveroli as saying. Watch how father says son runs his own show \u00bb . But his son seem to have a good idea of the circles he was running in. \"What goes on in the Albanian Defense Ministry,\" the New York Times quoted him as saying. \"Who's clean? Who's dirty? Don't want to know about it.\" On a MySpace page Efraim Diveroli last updated in 2005, he says \"I probably grew up way to (sic) fast.\" But in a hint of where the then-19-year-old's future was heading, he wrote, \"I definately (sic) have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up alot (sic) of my time.\" The MySpace page also hints of his need for thrills. \"I'm one of those guys who needs to be entertained and having lots of fun all the time so if your (sic) also an undiagnosed case of ADD look me up,\" it says. He lists the weapon-heavy films \"Heat\" and \"Scarface\" among his favorites. A CNN search of Diveroli's Florida criminal record shows arrests, but no convictions, on offenses from misdemeanor battery to felony possession of stolen property. He has yet to appear in court on a March 3 arrest for driving under the influence. For now, relatives say Efraim Diveroli is out of the country. CNN attempts to contact him have not been successful. His grandfather told WPLG that Diveroli is now in Turkey or Albania doing his \"patriotic\" duty. \"He's all over the world getting what the military needs,\" Angelo Diveroli says. But in a MySpace message exchange with Radar magazine, a person thought to be David Packouz, a 25-year-old who was AEY's vice president, refers to Efraim Diveroli as \"my former scumbag partner\" and says he is motivated by money. \"Efraim Diveroli has a serious psychological illness called 'extreme greed,' \" Radar quotes him as writing in a report on its Web site. Packouz would not discuss AEY with CNN on Friday, saying he had no comment \"because of the ongoing investigation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"22-year-old arms dealer faces congressional inquiry .\nCompany supplied ammunition made in China decades ago .\nCompany's contract called for bullets made in Hungary .\nGrandfather says dealer, 22, had \"gift\" for weaponry .","id":"6897f34c8e510dc95524dbfceefe20717776f761"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who is accused of trying to board an Air Jamaica flight at Orlando International Airport with apparent bomb-making materials was taken into custody Tuesday. Witnesses say the man arrested Tuesday was \"rocking left and right and up and down.\" Officials said Kevin Brown, a Jamaican national, was acting strangely and caught the attention of an air safety officer at the Florida airport. Brown was arrested on charges of carrying a weapon or explosives onto a plane, according to the FBI. The bureau said Brown, who is in his early 30s, had baggage that concealed two galvanized pipes, end caps, two containers of BBs, batteries, two containers with an unknown liquid, a laptop and bomb-making literature. \"He looked rather crazy,\" a passenger told CNN affiliate WKMG. \"He was rocking left and right and up and down.\" Transportation Safety Administration officials said Brown caught the eye of a \"behavior identification officer\" about noon Tuesday as Brown approached a ticket counter for his planned flight to Jamaica. Lee Kair, the TSA's federal security director in Orlando, said the materials in his bags posed no danger to other travelers. Initial record checks indicate that Brown was in the United States legally, the FBI said. The FBI and the Orlando Police Department are investigating, Kair said. Airport officials say several ticket counters were shut down during the incident and 11 flights were delayed. Airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell said Air Jamaica, Air Canada, West Jet and Frontier flights were among those delayed. \"Things are slowly returning to normal,\" Fennell said, adding that the terminal where Brown was apprehended was operating normally by 3 p.m. Kair said that behavior identification officers like the one who spotted Brown are plain-clothes officers trained to watch for suspicious behavior at airports. \"When people are doing things that are deceptive, they exhibit behaviors that are involuntary,\" he said. \"Our officers are very well trained to identify these behaviors.\" Brown is scheduled for an initial appearance in federal court in Orlando on Wednesday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: FBI: Kevin Brown accused of carrying a weapon or explosives onto a plane .\nThe Jamaican national tried to board an Air Jamaica flight at Orlando airport .\nOfficial says suspicious items posed no immediate danger to other travelers .\nSome ticket counters were shut down, and 11 flights were delayed .","id":"c0846f0148c9fd60433c8d2bf85e3437b49f9ec4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An A380 superjumbo bound for Sydney came loose from a tow truck and partially rolled onto grass at Singapore airport. Singapore Airlines was the first carrier in the world to operate the double-decker aircraft. No-one was injured in the incident involving the world's biggest airliner, a Singapore Airlines spokesman said, but passengers were taken off so the plane could be repositioned and inspected for any damage. A truck being used to push back the plane in preparation for the flight \"experienced some form of failure\" causing it disconnect from the aircraft, a Singapore Airlines spokesman said. \"As a consequence of the failure on the truck, the aircraft ... came into contact with the grass verge off the airport tarmac. The aircraft was not under its own power at the time,\" he said. \"It is too early at this time to know the cause of the incident but Singapore Airlines will investigate this quickly, and is filing reports with the appropriate Singapore authorities,\" the spokesman said. An airline spokesman told CNN's Richard Quest that four wheels had ended up on the grass. All four tires had now been replaced. \"As far as Singapore Airlilnes is concerned, the plane is ready to fly again,\" Quest said. The airline made arrangements for as many customers as possible to continue on their journey from Changi Airport to Sydney aboard a Boeing 747-400. Most passengers departed for Sydney on a new flight early Friday morning, while some others flew to alternate destinations such as Melbourne and Brisbane on existing flights. \"The remaining customers, about 10 of them, have left, or will be leaving, for Sydney today,\" the spokesman said. Singapore Airlines received its first A380 in October last year to become the first carrier in the world to operate the double-decker aircraft, which it is currently using for the Singapore-Sydney route. Changi Airport, which is home to the Singapore Airlines A380 fleet, has declared itself ready to handle the plane. It widened and lengthened existing runways and widened runway shoulders to allow the plane to maneuver. Airports around the world have had to make changes to accommodate the A380, such as enlarging runways and gates and bringing in vehicles which can tow the plane and lift high enough to reach its upper decks. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Four wheels of A380 superjumbo roll onto grass at Singapore airport .\nTruck being used to push the plane experienced \"some kind of failure\"\nNo-one injured in the incident; passengers transferred to other flights .\nSingapore Airlines was first carrier in the world to operate the A380 .","id":"dfbb5a2d5844f89537141a2b5a48040e68327010"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Dalai Lama Friday rejected a series of allegations from the Chinese government, saying he does not seek the separation of Tibet and has no desire to \"sabotage\" the Olympic games. Chinese authorities have blamed followers of the Dalai Lama for instigating the unrest that has swept Tibet. Issuing a statement while traveling in New Delhi, India, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists called on China \"to exercise wisdom and to initiate a meaningful dialogue with the Tibetan people.\" Beijing has blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for violence that erupted amid protests for Tibetan independence earlier this month, but China has drawn international criticism for its crackdown on the protests that began peacefully. President Bush said Friday he \"urged restraint\" during a phone conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier this week, and noted \"that it's in his country's interest\" for the government to have representatives \"sit down again with representatives of the Dalai Lama.\" Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, appearing with Bush at the White House, also called for meetings between the two sides. \"It's absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet. That's clear-cut. We need to be up-front and absolutely straight about what's going on. Shouldn't shilly-shally about it,\" Rudd said. Tibet's government in exile has said the death toll from the protests has reached about 140 over the past two weeks, but China's government restrictions have made it difficult to confirm that number. Chinese authorities put the death toll at 19 and said most of those killed were \"innocent victims\" -- Han Chinese targeted by Tibetans. \"I am deeply saddened by the loss of life in the recent tragic events. I am aware that some Chinese have also died. I feel for the victims and their families and pray for them,\" the Dalai Lama said in his written statement Friday. He added that there is an \"urgent need to seek a peaceful and mutually beneficial solution through dialogue. Even at this juncture I have expressed my willingness to the Chinese authorities to work together to bring about peace and stability.\" He noted repeatedly that he is not a \"separatist.\" \"Chinese brothers and sisters, I assure you I have no desire to seek Tibet's separation. Nor do I have any wish to drive a wedge between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples,\" he wrote. Instead, protesters seek \"meaningful self-rule\" while remaining a part of China, he added. And, he said, \"despite my repeated support for the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities, with the intention of creating a rift between the Chinese people and myself, the Chinese authorities assert that I am trying to sabotage the games.\" The protests -- which began on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising -- have threatened to overshadow Beijing's role as host of the Summer Olympic Games in August. In his statement, the Dalai Lama complained the Chinese state-run media's coverage \"of the recent events in Tibet, using deceit and distorted images, could sow the seeds of racial tension with unpredictable long-term consequences. This is of grave concern to me.\" China's state-run media, however, have accused some Western news agencies -- including CNN -- of distorting coverage of the riots to make China look bad and the protesters look like innocent victims. A headline Friday on the English Web site of China's official Xinhua news agency read \"'Anti-CNN' Web site reflects Chinese people's condemnation.\" The article offered a link to a site in which Chinese bloggers criticize CNN's coverage. In a statement, CNN said, \"We have provided comprehensive coverage of all sides of this story,\" adding that the network's \"reputation is based on reporting global news accurately and impartially.\" Read the full statement . Earlier this week, China offered some media organizations -- not including CNN -- a carefully managed tour of Tibet's capital, but ran into a public-relations roadblock when a group of Buddhist monks began screaming protests at a holy shrine. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Dalai Lama: \"I have no desire to seek Tibet's separation\"\nDalai Lama: Protesters seek \"meaningful self-rule\" while remaining a part of China .\nViolence erupted amid protests for Tibetan independence earlier this month .\nBush says he \"urged restraint\" during a phone call with China's president .","id":"0aa0562353120d93357dc00a05ff4d2bc0312715"} -{"article":"YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Montana (CNN) -- The gray wolf was officially removed from the Endangered Species Act's \"threatened\" list Friday after three decades -- a decision that has stoked controversy among environmentalists and ranchers. Federal officials estimate there are 1,500 gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park. It means the wolves can be shot and killed once they step out of Yellowstone National Park as soon as the affected states establish a hunting season. However, state Fish and Wildlife officials can shoot the animals whenever they deem the wolves to be a problem. The government delisted the wolves -- which were eliminated from Yellowstone decades ago before being reintroduced in the 1990s -- because they are now thriving in the park that is dominated by bison, elk and bighorn sheep. \"They're back here in the Northern Rockies; they're back here in Yellowstone,\" said Doug Smith, a biologist for the National Park Service in Yellowstone. \"That's something to celebrate given their history of human hatred.\" But not everyone is happy about the animal being removed from the endangered list. Conservationists believe hundreds of gray wolves straying from Yellowstone in search of prey could soon be killed by hunters and ranchers. Watch rancher say no wolf is \"sacred\" \u00bb . \"We're not ready to pop the champagne corks and have a party,\" said Doug Honnold, the managing attorney for Earthjustice, a non-profit environmental law firm based in Oakland, California, that has threatened to sue the government. \"My biggest fear is we're going to go backwards instead of forwards.\" It wouldn't be the first time. In the early 20th century, wolves were the targets of a massive government extermination campaign. \"It's harder to find an animal more persecuted than wolves. ... We did wolf extermination with a vengeance,\" said Smith. But attitudes began to change in the 1980s. Elk and bison populations increased dramatically because there was no natural predator to keep their numbers in check. In 1995, Smith led a team to bring wolves back to the Rocky Mountain landscape. They transplanted dozens of wolves to Yellowstone from Canada. See photos of Yellowstone's animals \u00bb . The project has been regarded as an overwhelming success. There are now more than 1,500 wolves across Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, according to the government. That number convinced federal wildlife officials to remove them from the endangered species list. Federal officials require each of the three states to maintain a population of 100 wolves, meaning a total of 300 wolves across all three states. The states have actually pledged to keep the population higher than that, at a rate of 150 wolves per state. \"We did a thorough analysis,\" said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. \"The consensus [for recovery] is a population of 300 wolves and 30 breeding pairs.\" He added, \"The wolf population is fully recovered. We have more wolves than we ever predicted and we have fewer problems than we ever predicted.\" Earthjustice says that's not nearly enough to ensure a viable population and they want to stop the delisting. \"We're going to have hundreds of wolves die needlessly,\" said Honnold. But many ranchers in the region just don't understand the fuss about the animals. They have complained for years that the wolves eat their livestock. \"There's nothing about a wolf that's sacred,\" said Bruce Malcolm, a cattle rancher and Republican member of Montana's House of Representatives. He said he's lost nearly two dozen cows to the wolves in recent years. \"I would have preferred that they never came here,\" he said. If there's a winner with the controversy, it's Yellowstone. The wolves have pushed up attendance by more than a 100,000 visitors per year, according to a park study. Smith, who has dedicated his life to the wolves, is philosophical about the debate. \"No one says living with wolves is easy,\" said Smith. \"Living with wolves is a compromise.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Gray wolves officially no longer considered endangered .\nEnvironmentalists fear hundreds of wolves could soon be killed by ranchers .\nRancher tells CNN the animals threaten his way of life .\nFederal Wildlife official: \"The wolf population is fully recovered\"","id":"fd5ae29a3ed2e9093c12dcbb12fcb5c67217b0f5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Democratic-led Congress yielded to President Bush on Saturday and approved legislation to temporarily expand government's power to conduct electronic surveillance without a court order in tracking foreign suspects. President Bush demanded Congress expand his surveillance authority before leaving for vacation. Civil liberties groups charged the measure would create a broad net that would sweep up law-abiding U.S. citizens. But the House of Representatives gave its concurrence to the bill, 227-183, a day after it won Senate approval, 60-28. The action came amid warnings of possible attacks on the United States. \"After months of prodding by House Republicans, Congress has finally closed the terrorist loophole in our surveillance law -- and America will be the safer for it,\" declared House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. \"We think it is not the bill that ought to pass,\" said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. But he conceded he and fellow Democrats were unable to stop the measure in this national security showdown with the White House. \"Protecting America is our most solemn obligation,\" Bush said earlier in the day in urging Congress to send him the bill so he could sign it into law. Watch Kelli Arena's report on what some call an intelligence gap \u00bb . The measure would authorize the National Security Agency to intercept without a court order communications between people in the United States and foreign targets overseas. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Secret court ruling prompted push for updating the program .\nPresident Bush had urged the House to pass the bill without delay .\nMeasure expands government's power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects .","id":"4df7a53f5e24347a53d5bf3b8c92bef21561f2c4"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro is taking over leadership of a country whose government believes its citizens are not working hard enough. Raul Castro was chosen Sunday to take over Cuba's presidency from his brother, Fidel Castro. The state-run newspaper recently ran an article headlined \"Work: Option or necessity?\" The writer pointed out that, judging by the number of people in the streets during the day, many Cubans don't seem to be on the job. They have few motivations to buckle down: Salaries average about $15 per month on the island, and Cubans get monthly food rations even if they don't work. Watch a report on the realities in Cuba \u00bb . \"There is a strong desire to protect and to gradually increase the incomes and savings of the population, particularly of those least favored,\" said Raul Castro, 76. The black market is so widespread that Cubans have coined a special term for breaking the law to make ends meet: \"resolver\" -- literally, \"to resolve.\" See Cuba through I-Reporters' eyes \u00bb . The new president, who took the reins of power Sunday from his ailing brother, Fidel, 81, has said the country must become more productive. \"The country's priority will be to meet the basic needs of the population, both material and spiritual, based on the sustained strengthening of the national economy and its productive basis without which, I'll say it again, development would be impossible,\" Raul Castro said in a speech Sunday. Cubans, too, are calling for reforms, though not all of them related to productivity. In a recent video that has made the rounds on the Internet, a student poses tough questions to the president of Cuba's National Assembly, asking why Cubans cannot travel freely to resorts -- a practice derided by critics as \"tourist apartheid.\" Though such a public display of discontent is rare, the video echoed sentiments often voiced in private for years, particularly since the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 and, with it, the loss of billions of dollars in subsidies. Cuban officials counter that Cubans are not granted access to the nation's most luxurious spots because they do not have the foreign exchange brought by the tourists and needed to run the country's social programs, such as free health care and education. With a new president steering the island nation for the first time in 49 years, some Cubans have allowed their expectations to rise. \"I think those expectations are really very large indeed and it'll be the Achilles heel, potentially, of this new government if it doesn't attack them with some vigor,\" said Hal Klepak, a professor of history and warfare studies at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. Indeed, Castro has promised to move within a few weeks to improve efficiency by cutting some of the red tape that can frustrate the most fervent of revolutionaries. But Wayne S. Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington and chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982, predicted Sunday in an editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Raul Castro will not break strongly from his brother's policies. \"Rather, we will see a peaceful transition and the existing system remain largely intact,\" Smith predicted. Still, changes are inevitable, he said. \"Raul Castro has called for a nationwide debate on the country's economic future and for Cubans to propose reforms in group discussions. \"He has also called for new proposals to raise productivity, including discussion of more private ownership of land. The Cuban people want change, want reforms that will bring about a better way of life.\" Smith credited the younger Castro's leadership over the past 1\u00bd years, while serving as acting president, with having already resulted in \"a greater openness, and open criticism of certain government programs.\" But the degree of change remains uncertain, as does the possibility that \"even from the shadow Fidel will try to discourage reforms,\" he said, adding \"the prognosis, nonetheless, is hopeful.\" See a timeline of Castro's rise to power \u00bb . The U.S. government's former man in Havana recommended current politicians exert pressure on the island with a light touch. \"We could accomplish far more by reducing tensions and beginning a meaningful dialogue,\" he said. \"Raul Castro has several times suggested such a dialogue. Why not take him up on it? We have disagreements, yes, but how do we resolve them without talking?\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Morgan Neill contributed to this story.","highlights":"Cuban President Raul Castro says the country must become more productive .\nCastro has promised to improve efficiency by cutting some red tape .\nExpectations rise as a new president leads Cuba for the first time in 49 years .\nRare public displays of discontent show frustrations faced by Cubans .","id":"166fe0c3d3f400a48ec5fd716c675384512f152c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have discovered the oldest piece of gold jewelry ever found in the Americas, an academic journal reported Tuesday. A gold and turquoise necklace, made 4,000 years ago, was found in a burial site near Lake Titicaca. A team found the gold necklace near Lake Titicaca in Peru, according to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It's 4,000 years old -- 600 years older than any other gold jewelry discovered in the Western Hemisphere. The anthropologist who discovered the gold, Mark Aldenderfer, told CNN on Tuesday night that he sensed the importance of his find after noticing a glint while excavating a site with human remains. \"It appeared to be gold. That's when I knew we had something special,\" he said. \"This was a complete shock.\" He found the necklace about seven years ago, he said, but researchers kept quiet for fear that looters would raid the site. They also wanted to allow time for chemical analysis before announcing their discovery on Tuesday. Video footage from Peru shows a necklace of nine gold tubes separated by 10 stones. The find is important, Aldenderfer said, because it signals the early emergence of a desire for status among people who lived as relative equals without a formal leadership system. The Andean people of that time, Aldenderfer said, had recently settled down after many generations as hunter-gatherers. Formal kings would not emerge for hundreds of years. The person who wore the gold necklace may have sought to distinguish himself with a status symbol, Aldenderfer said. The artifact is in the custody of the National Institute of Peru and may be displayed in a museum, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A team finds the gold necklace near Lake Titicaca in Peru .\nFind is important because it signals the emergence of societal status systems .\nThe artifact is in the custody of the National Institute of Peru .","id":"69e313e0e6e7603f96a3783cb7d1ada68ace288f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales plans to sign legislation Friday scheduling a May 4 referendum on a new constitution, the Bolivian Information Agency reported. Bolivians celebrate Thursday in La Paz after Congress decides to call for a referendum on a new constitution. The move comes after the Bolivian Congress decided Thursday in a raucous session to let people nationwide vote on the controversial plans. The proposed constitution would strengthen the country's indigenous majority but has faced fierce opposition from nonindigenous Bolivians, including those in four provinces whose governors have declared autonomy. Hundreds jammed streets Thursday outside the congressional building in La Paz to prevent opposition legislators from entering. Video footage broadcast on CNN en Espa\u00f1ol showed people pushing, shoving and hitting others. Watch as the crowds block the opposition \u00bb . Congress made its decision to hold a referendum \"with a reduced presence of opposition lawmakers,\" the Bolivian news agency said. Opposition legislators decried the move as \"illegal,\" the agency said, but supporters of Morales welcomed it. \"Now it is the Bolivian people who will decide with their vote whether to approve or reject the new constitution,\" said Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, according to the Bolivian Information Agency. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bolivian Congress decides to let people vote on new constitution on May 4 .\nProposed constitution would strengthen Bolivia's indigenous majority .\nBolivian President Evo Morales is set to sign the legislation .\nOpposition lawmakers with \"reduced presence\" in Congress decry move as \"illegal\"","id":"21ff7b91537b3ab2e73dff1f982a669b8658b0e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A B-2 stealth bomber crashed early Saturday morning local time in Guam, according to the Air Force. A B-2 stealth bomber taxis at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in a 2005 photo. Two pilots who were aboard during the crash, at Andersen Air Force Base, ejected from the bomber and were in good condition afterward, according to an Air Force statement. The pilots were from the 509th Bomb Wing. The military didn't release their names. Emergency responders were on the scene of the crash. A board of officers will investigate its cause. The crash is the second in three days of an Air Force craft. Watch smoke rise from crash site . An Air Force fighter pilot was killed Wednesday after two F-15C jets collided during a training exercise over the Gulf of Mexico. The planes were from the 33rd Fighter Wing, a combat-flying unit out of Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Air Force says 2 pilots in good condition after ejecting from plane .\nEmergency responders on scene of crash at Andersen Air Force Base .\nCrash is the second in three days involving an Air Force craft .","id":"963cbc7820b42eaa7b7a82d178c6a387a70a6a3c"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Okay, you've decided what model of car you want to buy. And you know, more or less, how much you want to spend -- or how much you can afford. You've kicked tires, talked to salesmen, taken a few shiny new numbers for a test-drive and you're ready to make the deal. If you eat in your car you may want to consider fabric or leather protections. Except, you're not quite done. You still need to decide whether to buy any of those \"extras\" that your salesperson will always suggest. Some of these extras have real value and are probably worth adding. Others ... maybe not so much. The list of \"extras\" offered by most dealers, may include paint sealant, fabric protection\/leather care, extended warranties, extended 'one price' service contracts, rust\/underbody coatings and anti-theft systems, to mention a few. We wanted to know which of these new car extras were worth it and which ones a consumer can do without. To get to the bottom of it, we thought we would consult an expert -- David Bennett, Manager of Automotive Programs for AAA. As it turns out, like most things in life, the answer often just comes down to what's best for you, depending on your own situation, budget or locale. Let's address these add-ons one by one: . Paint sealant . \"I think that most paint jobs on cars are pretty good these days, so in most cases you probably don't need that anymore,\" said Bennett, who offered one caveat. \"But that can depend on what part of the country you live in -- what the climate is, whether you get a lot of snow and ice, and what the road crews put down on the road -- whether it is salt, or if it is something that is less harmful to the paint. But generally, as long as you keep your car washed, and wash that salt off of it, and get it waxed regularly, that paint should last without getting the 'add-on' sealer at the dealership. Also, if you get a chip or a ding, get it fixed so the rust doesn't get a chance to set in and spread.\" Fabric \/ leather protection . These extras are fairly self-explanatory -- the dealer \"treats\" the upholstered or leather seating with a \"protection\" product that make the seats more resistant to stains or scuff marks. \"This can be a good purchase, but the first question you should ask before buying it is, 'What kind of lifestyle do I lead?' suggests Bennett. \"Do you have a lot of kids and are they prone to spill things? Or is your vehicle mostly going to be occupied by adults?\" Do you eat in the car with some regularity? If so, and you're just too darn messy for your own good, a stain protection might be a good way to go. \"Also, look at exclusions in the plan,\" advises Bennett. \"If you're a smoker, and the plan excludes burn holes from cigarette ashes, and you're not diligent about making sure your ash is always short, that might not be a good purchase because of that exclusion. Each of these policies or plans is probably offering something different, and you need to read all of the exclusions before making that purchase, because it might not be a good one for you.\" If you want to save some cash, one option would be to forego the protectant and just make sure you clean your seats regularly with a good upholstery cleaner or leather cleaner. To remove spots from a leather seat, use a good leather cleaner and work it into the spot with a soft cloth. If the spot still remains, let it sit for a few hours. Repeat, as they say, if necessary. It's also a good idea , to use a leather conditioner regularly on leather seats to restore moisture and to maintain its appearance. Rustproofing . This is when the dealership applies various rust-inhibiting chemicals, waxes or sealers to the vehicle's undercarriage. It can also be applied to other rust-prone areas. Rustproofing treatments sometimes include a guarantee over a certain number of years. Keep in mind that some guarantees require annual \"checkups\" to re-apply the sealers or rust inhibitors to any areas where the rustproofing may have been damaged. \"I don't think this is necessary in most cases,\" opines Bennett. \"The way most vehicles are constructed today, they are not nearly as prone to underbody rusting as they used to be in the old days -- even in the north, where they get a lot of snow.\" LoJack Car Security System \/ Anti-theft systems: . The folks at LoJack Car Security Systems report that a vehicle is stolen every 25 seconds in the U.S. Using a car alarm is one way to protect your vehicle. But if you want to go the more high-tech \"tracking\" route, using a security system like LoJack may give you more peace of mind. The LoJack System, includes a small radio frequency transceiver hidden in up to 20 different places in the vehicle. The System uses a code that is tied into the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Then, when you report that your car has been stolen, the state police crime computer can match code against the state VIN database. This automatically activates the LoJack System in the vehicle -- emitting an inaudible signal. Then, police cruisers and aviation units that have the LoJack tracking system can identify the vehicle's location, track it and recover it. LoJack claims that over 200,000 vehicles have been recovered worldwide using their system, with over 100,000 of those in the U.S. \"Whether or not this is a purchase you should make depends on various factors. If you live in a high-crime area, a system like this could provide you with peace of mind,\" advises Bennett. \"But even if you live in a safe, low-crime district, your car can still be stolen from a busy downtown street or parking garage,\" he notes. One caveat: Some car owners may not want their car back after it has been stolen, especially if it has been seriously vandalized, or if it has been driven so hard that it causes some mechanical problems. Another thing to consider is that owners of GM vehicles that come with its patented OnStar system, probably won't need a theft tracking program, says Bennett. \"Because the system allows OnStar operators to track the location of the vehicle if it is stolen. So if you buy a GM car with the OnStar system, you may want to pass on a LoJack or similar tracking system.\" Extended warranties . \"This really does depend on how long you plan to keep the vehicle, because most of these extended warranty plans don't kick in until the manufacturer's warranty expires,\" advises Bennett. \"And these days, those manufacturers warranties are three or five years, sometimes longer. \"So if you plan on selling the car after three or five years, it probably doesn't make sense to buy the extended warranty.\" Some warranties offer transferable policies, which let you \"sell\" the warranty along with the vehicle. Others allow you to \"return\" the warranty for a pro-rated refund. Bennett also explains that not all warranties are created equal. \"They usually have three levels of warranties: A basic extended warranty will just cover the powertrain, for example; while a better one will cover the powertrain plus some other components that are listed -- or an 'exclusionary' extended warranty may say it covers everything except those items that are listed. At the top end, the best warranty just covers everything, but that is also the most expensive.\" Bennett gives an example of one manufacturers warranty. \"For a 2007 Buick, the basic manufacturers warranty is five years or 100,000 miles for the powertrain coverage, and the corrosion warranty is six years or 100,000 miles. In fact, that's the same warranty GM offers on their Chevy and Cadillac brands.\" \"That's a pretty good warranty, so if you plan on only keeping your vehicle for five years or less, the extended warranty is probably money you don't need to spend.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"GM owners won't need LoJack because cars come with OnStar option .\nSmokers considering fabric protection should check for policy exclusions .\nBut generally, as long as you keep your car washed you don't need sealant .\nSome warranties offer transferable policies that let you \"sell\" it with car .","id":"8180a77657661e975e3fac6c7fdbd8de97fd160e"} -{"article":"CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (CNN) -- When meeting Jeff Donohoo, it's not immediately apparent he is a 36-year-old man living with autism. In fact, unless you get him talking about the Atlanta Braves -- one of his true passions in life -- he is a very quiet person. Jeff Donohoo, 36, at work in the kitchen at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Early on, his younger brothers and sister didn't know, either. \"Since they grew up with him, they just knew Jeff was Jeff,\" said Nancy Donohoo, his mother. \"They didn't think of him as weird or anything.\" But when friends started to notice Donohoo was different, Nancy Donohoo was quick to explain to a group of 10-year-olds why. \"Jeff has a social problem, not a mental problem,\" she explained. \"He's very smart. He reads encyclopedias ... he just doesn't know how to talk to people.\" From then on, friends who visited the house always made an effort to interact with Donohoo, through a high-five or a simple \"hello.\" Today, it's unlikely Donohoo will be the first to say hello in a group setting, but interacting with people is easier for him than it once was. See how Donohoo copes every day \u00bb . Questioned about his childhood, his most elaborate response is \"yeah\" or \"no.\" But when the topic is the Braves, it's hard to get him to stop talking about the latest statistics or his favorite player, Mark Teixeira. Asked how long he's been a Braves fan, there was little hesitation: \"All my life.\" He's come a long way since he was a child. Then, just teaching Donohoo to talk was a challenge in itself, Nancy Donohoo said. \"There was no eye contact, so I would hold his face in front of me, and say the word I wanted him to say.\" Donohoo entered the first grade as a special education student. It was the first year special education was offered in his family's hometown of Florence, Alabama. He carried on with special education until the sixth grade, when he was mainstreamed, or put in classes with children without disabilities. Explainer: Understanding autism \u00bb . For most of Donohoo's childhood, his mother had suspicions about his condition. \"When he was little, I had watched a 'Marcus Welby' show, and they had an autistic child on there. But he was very passive; he sat in the corner and just hit things,\" Nancy Donohoo said. \"Jeff was wild. He was the opposite, so I just assumed he couldn't be autistic. But he had a lot of those mannerisms.\" It was Donohoo's freshman year of high school when Nancy and Bill Donohoo learned what was wrong with their son. \"There was a doctor in Huntsville that dealt a lot with hyperactive children,\" Nancy Donohoo said. \"He said, 'I'm going to give you this sheet of paper; these are all the symptoms of autism.' \" The list had 19 symptoms, and Nancy Donohoo was instructed to circle the ones her son had. She circled 17. The diagnosis didn't change how Nancy Donohoo dealt with her first-born son. In fact, the doctor said she already was doing all the right things, working to socialize Donohoo. Today, Donohoo, living with his parents, finds comfort in strict routine. He wakes each day at 5 a.m. to make himself breakfast and prepare for work. At 6, Nancy Donohoo drives her son to Memorial Hospital, where he's entering his 16th year of service with the cafeteria. Ollie Fort\u00e9 is Donohoo's supervisor, and has worked with Donohoo almost since the beginning. \"He's very valuable to us at this department. He's dependable, on time, no attendance problems,\" said Fort\u00e9. \"We love Jeff.\" After work, at 2:30 p.m., Donohoo rides with his mother to the YMCA, where he works out for about three hours. Then it's back home, where he fixes himself dinner and spends hours online looking up Braves statistics, or reading a number of baseball-related books from his personal library. This cycle repeats on days Donohoo works at the hospital. On his days off, the schedule is equally strict, with little variation. He'll still go to the YMCA, and he'll also make the occasional trip to the bookstore, adding to his collection of baseball-related literature. Sudden changes to daily plans are still a challenge. \"If he's made his plans to do something tonight,\" said Bill Donohoo, \"and we come and say, 'We're going to get something to eat. Do you want to go?' that upsets his plans for what he's going to do that night.\" Physical contact is also difficult. \"He doesn't like to be touched,\" Nancy Donohoo said. \"He doesn't freak, but he doesn't like it. He stiffens up. He'll want to give you a hug, but he still has a hard time.\" The many challenges aside, Donohoo has a fine appreciation for things like cooking. In addition to preparing his own meals, he also enjoys baking. \"He loves desserts -- he loves sweets,\" Nancy Donohoo said with a laugh. \"He's a little heavy, but we're working on that.\" Nancy and Bill Donohoo have endured the challenges, and they acknowledge their son will never be fully independent. But one can tell they couldn't be prouder of him. \"It's rewarding today, because he's come so far, but it was a long road,\" Nancy Donohoo said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jeff Donohoo, 36, is an adult living with autism .\nDonohoo lives in Tennessee with his parents and works at a hospital .\nHis autism was diagnosed during his freshman year of high school .\nDonohoo's mother: \"It's rewarding today, because he's come so far.\"","id":"6c498fd6de7ad5e5006732655050c1d97cc2af68"} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Omar bin Laden has a message for his father, Osama: \"Find another way.\" Omar bin Laden says he last saw his father in 2000 when the son decided to leave al Qaeda. The son of the most-wanted man in the world spoke Sunday to CNN in a quiet, middle-class suburb about an hour outside Cairo, Egypt. Omar bin Laden, who works as a contractor, said he is talking publicly because he wants an end to the violence his father has inspired -- violence that has killed innocent civilians in a spate of attacks around the world, including those of September 11, 2001. \"I try and say to my father: 'Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it's not good to use it for anybody,' \" he said in English learned in recent months from his British wife. He said that's not just his own message, but one that a friend of his father's and other Muslims have expressed to him. \"They too say ... my father should change [his] way,\" he said. Watch whether Omar bin Laden thinks his father will ever be caught \u00bb . He said he hasn't spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with his father's blessings. He said he has no idea where his father is, but is confident he will never be caught because locals support him. Asked if his father might be living along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he said, \"Maybe, maybe not.\" \"Either way, the people there are different,\" he said. \"They don't care about the government.\" Now, he and his wife are preparing to launch a movement far different from the one his father, Osama bin Laden, launched. They are pursuing a movement for peace. At first glance, Omar bin Laden appears to have little in common with the man who has eluded international efforts to find him. The 26-year-old's hair is bound in neat braids, he drives a Jeep and is married to a British national twice his age. But the physical resemblance quickly sinks in, even without the long beard his father favors. It is a resemblance he doesn't avoid. \"Being Osama's son, I don't hide it. I don't hide my name,\" he said. \"I am proud by my name, but if you have a name like mine you will find people run away from you, are afraid of you.\" He said he doesn't consider his father to be a terrorist. When his father was fighting the Soviets, Washington considered him a hero, he said. \"Before they call it war; now they call it terrorism,\" he said. He said his father believes his duty is to protect Muslims from attack. \"He believes this is his job -- to help the people,\" he said. \"I don't think my father is a terrorist because history tells you he's not.\" However, Omar bin Laden -- who was 14 when he began training in al Qaeda camps -- said he differs greatly with his father over the killing of civilians. Was 9\/11 a just attack? \"I don't think 9\/11 was right personally, but it happened,\" he said. \"I don't think ... [the war] in Vietnam was right. I don't think what's going on in Palestine is right. I don't think what's going on in Iraq is right. \"If we make what is right and not right, we will make a very big list,\" he said. He said he left al Qaeda because he did not want to be associated with killing civilians. He said his father did not try to dissuade him from leaving al Qaeda. \"I told him I was going, and wanted to try life and see what it was like outside because, from a young age I was with my father, and I only saw and heard my father and his friends. My father told me, 'If this is what your choice -- your decision -- is, what can I tell you? I like you to be with me, but this is your decision.' \" So father and son went their separate ways. But there has been no running from the bin Laden name, not after the events of September 11. On that day, Omar bin Laden was in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers were from. Asked if, upon learning of the news, he knew his father had been behind it, he replied, \"Yeah, maybe.\" He said he felt sadness for those killed. \"I don't think 9\/11 was right personally,\" he said. \"I don't agree with 9\/11 or with any war where only civilians are dying.\" Asked why he did not protest more strongly his father's role in the killing of civilians, he said it is up to the religious clerics close to his father to tell Osama bin Laden to change tactics in the name of Islam. And even if that most unlikely scenario were to occur, he said, al Qaeda would not stop. \"My father doesn't have the power to stop the movement at this moment.\" Sitting by his side throughout the hour-and-a-half interview was his wife, Zaina. The two are organizing a multi-month horserace through North Africa in the name of peace, set to kick off this year. But getting sponsors to line up behind the name bin Laden has been difficult. \"It would probably have been easier to do a race without having Omar's name, but then the race would just be a race, it wouldn't be a race for peace,\" his wife said. Omar bin Laden said his relationship with his father was limited. He is the fourth of 11 children born to his father's first wife, and he is one of 19 children Osama bin Laden has fathered. \"Most of the time he busy, so busy, all the day he's busy [with] his friends. He was working a lot.\" Omar bin Laden is now undertaking perhaps an impossible task: trying to rebrand the name they share. But he said he is not looking for approval from his father. \"My life, I take care of my life,\" he said. \"My father he take care of his life.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bin Laden's son, Omar, says his father should change his ways .\nOmar bin Laden split with his father in 2000; says he hasn't heard from him since .\nOmar bin Laden says he doesn't believe his dad is a terrorist .\n\"I don't think 9\/11 was right personally,\" the son said .","id":"fdb54e157f8f4e5a479dbc6288587e52fffde33f"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese couple tried to name their baby \"@,\" claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday. The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words. \"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him',\" the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming. While the \"@\" symbol is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word \"at\" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out \"T\" sounds something like \"ai ta,\" or \"love him,\" to Mandarin speakers. Li told a news conference on the state of the language that the name was an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialisation and the Internet break down conventions. Another couple tried to give their child a name that rendered into English sounds like \"King Osrina.\" Li did not say if officials accepted the \"@\" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals, foreign languages and symbols that do not belong to Chinese minority languages. Sixty million Chinese faced the problem that their names use ancient characters so obscure that computers cannot recognize them and even fluent speakers were left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript of the briefing on the government Web site (www.gov.cn). One of them was the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name had a rare \"rong\" character that gave newspaper editors headaches. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Chinese couple try to name baby \"@\"\nFather claims character translates as \"love him\"\nOfficials have not revealed if the name has been allowed .","id":"fc8f0e54e2627ebe705735f0565d77ca64579d92"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Do you live in one of the nation's worst cities for road rage? If you live in a major metropolitan area on either coast, chances are you do. If you live in the Midwest or northwest, odds are that you don't. Miami ranks as the worst city for most aggressive drivers for the second straight year in a nationwide study of driver habits followed by New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington. But if road rage is a \"cultural phenomenon\" as one of our experts suggests, how best do we go about combating driver frustration across the nation? Traffic black spots . The nation's roads are peppered with traffic black spots, junctions where car snarls elicit road rage in even the most mild-mannered drivers. Southern California has the San Diego (I-405) Freeway, and the nation's busiest junction, where U.S. 101 meets it to the north of Los Angeles. Miami and the East Coast have I-95, which snakes from the world's busiest cruise port up to Maine. The District of Columbia and the Beltway are infamous for gridlock. I've spent three very nervous hours getting to Chicago's O'Hare Airport from the city center (before missing my flight). Traffic by definition is worst in major metropolitan areas -- if your farming community is gridlocked, you'd better be grousing at your local council meetings -- but it is the increase in traffic that leads many to suggest it's just going to get worse. Traffic levels are rising seemingly as fast as home foreclosures in Los Angeles and Miami. In these areas, it's not only the rise in number of drivers, but the rising age of drivers. AAA points out that seniors are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. That suggests drivers should adjust their habits accordingly. AAA has launched its Lifelong Safe Mobility campaign to help seniors adjust to more crowded roads and perhaps more aggressive drivers. The facts and remedy . When the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety studied more than 10,000 incidents of road rage and violent aggressive driving committed in the 1990s, it found that at least 218 people were killed and another 12,610 injured when drivers got angry. Many of these aggressors are males aged 18 to 26. The AAA Web site offers a three-step plan to avoid becoming the victim of aggressive driving: . \u2022 The first tip is \"don't offend,\" which includes cutting off other drivers, driving slowly in the left lane, tailgating and gesturing to other drivers. \u2022 The agency then warns to \"not engage,\" which advises steering clear of trouble, not making eye contact and getting help, by calling 911, in the event of experiencing dangerous, aggressive driving. It then asks at-risk drivers to \"adjust their attitude,\" which involves \"forgetting winning\" (for the drivers to whom driving is a Darwinian survival of the fittest), or putting themselves in the other drivers' shoes. \u2022 Finally, they recommend that, if you think you have a road rage problem, seek professional help. Other people's actions . So the wife and I were looking for sofas. It was a Sunday morning and, with me behind the wheel, we were dawdling around quiet streets trying to find one of those seemingly ubiquitous furniture warehouses. Soon, the wife pointed one out but we were almost past it. I hit the brakes and quickly pulled in, then realized that a Mercedes M-Class had pulled in right behind me. A large, squat tattooed guy jumped out and started shouting, about 10 feet from my car. \"I have children in the car, I had to slam on the brakes, [how dare] you brake so quickly,\" he said, getting real mean. I appreciated I'd probably braked quickly and that it was bad driving on my part. However, as his tirade continued, I very calmly asked why he was setting such a bad example for his young children by following another driver off the road, then shouting and swearing. The man continued his harangue before climbing back into his vehicle and driving away. The next time you're fulminating in your front seat about another's aggressive driving, remember that your driving will almost inevitably elicit the same response in someone else. And don't swear in front of your kids or set a bad example for them. 'Cultural phenomenon' Dr. Leon James is a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and Web master of DrDriving.org. He is also the co-author of \"Road Rage and Aggressive Driving\" with this wife, Diane Nahl. James began studying driving psychology about 20 years ago after his wife told him her mother thought he took turns too fast. Over a period of self-study, he said he was amazed by the mistakes he made and the aggressive thoughts he experienced toward other drivers. He recorded them via his \"Speakaloud\" method. Using his method on students, he discovered that road rage is a \"cultural phenomenon.\" \"We call the back seat of the car the 'road rage nursery', where [young children] pick up all the driver's bad habits,\" James said. \"It's a cultural temper tantrum.\" James said \"local norms\" can play a part. For example, Florida drivers yell at each other more than in California, where verbal interplay can be interpreted as road rage in a criminal court. But, in the main, it's \"drivers trying to deal with their emotions in stressful situations.\" James said that, in his studies, an awareness gap exists in aggressive drivers: When asked about drivers' habits, respondents suggested that about 85 percent of other drivers drove aggressively, while just 35 percent said they themselves drove aggressively. If you feel your blood boiling frequently behind the wheel, classes like James' are sprouting all over the nation. Addressing road rage . In an ideal world, an increase in drivers would automatically be met by an improvement in infrastructure, and fewer road-rage-inducing distractions. Another Utopian ideal is for everyone else to drive more considerately. One look at our nation's crumbling roads tells us that this fantasyland clearly doesn't exist. Instead of looking outside your car at road conditions or the habits of other drivers, the answer to aggressive driving, most likely, lies within the confines of your own cabin. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Traffic snarls blamed for causing much of road rage .\nRoad rage worse in big cities on East, West coasts .\nAAA: Don't engage the angry driver, dial 911 for help .\nProfessor: Back seat is \"road rage nursery\"","id":"b000d4eac990440e136dc1e655a03d5669531d9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a television interview, the mother of a man charged in the murder of an Auburn University freshman repeatedly says she's sorry about the suffering the victim's family is enduring. Courtney Larrell Lockhart was arrested Friday in Phenix City, Alabama, about 35 miles from Auburn. \"I never thought Courtney would do this. I never, never thought,\" Courtney Larrell Lockhart's mother Catherine Williams told CNN affiliate WRBL on Saturday. \"But I'm sorry for that family and I'm sorry. I'm just sorry,\" she said. \"I got nothing else to say. I'm just sorry for the loss of that family.\" Police announced Saturday that they had arrested Lockhart, 23, of Smiths, Alabama, in connection with the shooting death of Lauren Burk, 18, of Marietta, Georgia. Watch the mother cry and apologize \u00bb . Lockhart faces charges of capital murder during a kidnapping, capital murder during a robbery and capital murder during an attempted rape, police said. Also, Lockhart is facing robbery charges in the Phenix City, Alabama, area, said William Clanton of the Phenix City Police Department. Clanton did not know how many robberies Lockhart was suspected of committing. Lockhart is being held in the Russell County jail, but is expected to be moved to Lee County soon, where Auburn University is, Clanton said. Burk was found shot Tuesday night on North College Street, a few miles north of campus. She died later at a hospital. Minutes after police responded to a call reporting an injured person and found Burk, they received a report of a car -- which turned out to be Burk's -- on fire in a campus parking lot. Authorities believe gasoline or another accelerant was used to ignite Burk's car, Auburn Assistant Police Chief Tommy Dawson said Friday. Police were investigating whether a gas can found in downtown Auburn was related to the case. Memorial services for Burk were held Saturday and Sunday at a Marietta church and synagogue. A campus-wide memorial service will be held Monday. A memorial service was held Sunday in Athens, Georgia, for another slain university student Eve Carson, the Athens Banner Herald reported. Carson, 22, the student body president for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was found shot to death in a suburban neighborhood not far from campus about 5 a.m. Wednesday. Her car was found Thursday, in another neighborhood to the west, about a block or two from where she lived with roommates. On Saturday, police released two surveillance photographs of a \"person of interest\" taken by an ATM camera in the Chapel Hill area, Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said. The person appeared to be using one of Carson's ATM cards and was driving a vehicle that was possibly hers. Curran called the photographs the \"biggest break\" in the case, which he said still appears to be random. Reminders of the popular student president appeared on the jerseys of the university's men's basketball team Saturday night as they took on Duke University's Blue Devils in Durham, North Carolina. The top-ranked Tar Heels wore jersey patches that read \"Eve.\" Many of Duke's fans donned small light-blue ribbons as a show of support. There was a moment of silence for Carson before tip-off. The ribbons and moment of silence say \"a heckuva lot about Duke University,\" UNC Coach Roy Williams told reporters after the game. The Tar Heels won 76-68. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Courtney Larrell Lockhart's mother says she's sorry for suffering of victim's family .\n\"I never thought Courtney would do this,\" mother tells television station .\nLockhart charged in Tuesday slaying of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk .\nLockhart is being held in the Russell County jail, authorities say .","id":"1064c47f3d7f0efa03368fe7eb01dd0836017339"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A cult member who spent several months holed up in a cave with dozens of other people anticipating the end of the world claimed Wednesday that two women died and were buried inside. An above-ground kitchen used by the doomsday cult in the Penza region during the summer. The former cave-dweller, Vitaly Nedogon, relayed his claims to Russian TV journalists, according to Anton Sharonov, a spokesman for the administration of Penza, a region southeast of Moscow. The official said Nedogon did not report the information to police or authorities. Once the rest of the apocalyptic sect leaves the cave, investigators will move in to try to confirm Nedogon's report, Sharonov said. Nedogon and others left the cave, said to be near the village of Nikolskoye, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the Russian capital, about a week ago, after part of its ceiling collapsed. He claimed two women died at different times during the cult's seclusion, which began in November 2007. One woman died of cancer and the other from excessive fasting, he told the media. \"However,\" Sharonov told the Russian news agency Interfax, \"the Penza regional administration is of the view that these deaths must be proven legally, which is possible only if all the people leave the cave so that investigative officials can examine it.\" Sharonov said those who remain in the cave told Penza officials during negotiations that they would come out by the Russian Orthodox Easter, on April 27. He said officials believe 11 people are left in the cave, but only nine will be alive if Nedogon's report is true. According to Interfax, Penza Deputy Governor Oleg Melnichenko, who is leading the local effort to resolve the situation, said he was unaware of any deaths in the cave. The cave ordeal began when Kuznetsov, the group's leader, told his followers to hide themselves to await the end of the world, which he predicted would take place in May. They had threatened to commit mass suicide if authorities tried to intervene. Thirty-five sect members are believed to have entered the cave initially, Interfax said. E-mail to a friend . From CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow.","highlights":"Claims that one woman died from cancer, another from fasting in cult's cave .\nRussian cult leader told followers world would end in May .\nSect members threatened to commit suicide if authorities tried to intervene .","id":"d79f1e9a2ddfcb61d80c944de53daebd4b5c7f6e"} -{"article":"GREENCREEK, Idaho (CNN) -- It was just 2\u00bd years ago when Elaine Sonnen found out that her 16-year-old son, Richard, had been planning a Columbine-style attack at his high school. Richard Sonnen spent 16 months in mental health institutions after plotting to kill his high school classmates. It would be a fitting payback to his high school classmates who Richard said relentlessly bullied him. \"I always wanted to get back at them,\" Richard Sonnen said of his classmates. \"I always wanted to strangle them. ... I was always mad. I was always angry and I would come home and cry to mom and dad.\" Both Richard and Elaine Sonnen spoke to CNN at the 45-acre family farm. Unlike Columbine and recent school shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, Elaine Sonnen did see the warning signs in her son and was able to stop him. Elaine and her husband, Tom, adopted Richard from a Bulgarian orphanage when he was just 4\u00bd years old. \"I mean, we just loved him, and he was just a big sparkle of life,\" she said. But only a few months after they brought him home, they began to see another side of their son. He was angry and unpredictable. Elaine Sonnen says that at age 6, Richard told her he wanted to kill her. She said he would shake with anger to the point that he'd scream at her, telling her he wanted to destroy her. \"People thought he was just the greatest kid in the world. Very polite, well-mannered, caring,\" Elaine Sonnen remembered. \"At home, he could be anywhere from just a really helpful kid to a monster. A terrifying monster.\" Mother says son had 'two' personalities \u00bb . In junior high, he said, \"evil\" classmates started picking on him. Boys and girls, he said, bullied him until he couldn't take it anymore. \"I always wanted to get revenge,\" he said. By the eighth grade, Richard was put on anti-psychotic medications. He had been diagnosed as bipolar and was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and other disorders. In 1999, when the Columbine shootings happened, the Sonnens feared that Richard might do the same thing one day. \"We stopped and looked at each other and said, 'This could be Richard; some day this could be him,' \" Elaine Sonnen said. Years later, during his junior year in high school, they were right. Fed up with the bullies, Richard says, he felt like an outcast and started looking for a way to get even. Secretly, he began reading books about Columbine in his school library. The shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, became his heroes. \"They planned it out so perfectly and so meticulously ... that I just, wow, you know,\" he said. \"They're my gods.\" Watch a preview of \"Campus Rage\" \u00bb . He even created a hit list of the classmates he planned to kill at Prairie High School in Cottonwood, Idaho. \"My plan was to set around bombs around the school. ... I analyzed a lot of where everybody sat and where everybody did their thing,\" he said. \"I had pinpoints of where I wanted to go, where I wanted to do it.\" Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack, who consulted on a 2002 federal government study of school shootings, said it found that most school shooters often had feelings of anger, sadness and isolation as well as homicidal and suicidal thoughts. \"We see a young man who obviously is telling us how depressed he was, how angry he was and how much he looked up to people who we know are very disturbed and very dangerous, and how close he came to killing people,\" said Pollack, who watched CNN's interview with Richard. Elaine Sonnen found out about her son's plan during a conversation with him. She ordered him to write down the names of the eight students he wanted dead and then gave the list to his caseworker the next day. Later, he added a teacher and his mother and sister to the hit list. She took immediate action and had her son committed to an Idaho mental institution. Over the next 16 months, he received treatment at several mental health facilities throughout Idaho. \"There, I opened up. I felt better. I moved on with myself,\" Richard said. \"They felt at that point ... they had done everything they could do for him,\" Elaine Sonnen added. \"He was doing great. He could make it on his own. They had no question.\" In January 2007, after almost a year and a half in mental institutions, Richard Sonnen started a new life at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. He was taking a cocktail of three anti-psychotic drugs to help him function. \"[For] the first time in 12 years, I was able to hold my son,\" said Elaine Sonnen. \"So I knew he was on the road to be well.\" Everything seemed to be looking up, but in April 2007, three days after the Virginia Tech massacre, Richard's mother received a call from police. They told her Richard had made about four threats to carry out shootings at Lewis Clark State College and Lewiston High School. Police told her Richard planned to go home, get some guns and go back to school to pull off a sniper attack from a clock tower on the college's campus, she said. Police took him into protective custody and searched his apartment for clues. But, in the end, he was released because, authorities say, they didn't have enough evidence to charge him with a crime. Richard said the whole incident was a big misunderstanding. He said he was telling people about his high school plot and never threatened his college or local high school. But his mother doesn't believe his version of the story. \"No. I believe he made those threats,\" she said. \"I still believe it.\" Richard, now 19, signed an order banning him from campus for one year. Today, he lives on his own in Washington state. He's still on medication but not seeing a psychiatrist. Since he's over the age of 18, his mom can't force him to go. Is Elaine Sonnen still afraid of her son? \"Yeah, at times, I'm very afraid,\" she said. \"Because he still has a lot of anger towards me.\" She said the signs are still there, and she fears what could happen if he ever stops taking his medicine. \"He's not getting the help and the insight from a professional that could see the signs,\" she said. \"Because as a person with a mental illness, you have skewed thinking.\" Even though Richard calls her the \"greatest person in the world,\" Elaine Sonnen protects the family by keeping an alarm on her son's bedroom door when he comes home to visit. So why are Richard Sonnen and his mother, Elaine, speaking out now? In the wake of the Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech shootings, Richard wants young people experiencing the same symptoms he had to seek out help. His mother wants parents and authorities to listen for warning signs and to act fast and decisively. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At age 6, Elaine Sonnen says, her son, Richard, wanted to kill her .\nFed up with bullying, Richard says he plotted to kill eight classmates .\nElaine immediately sought mental help for her son after learning of his plan .\nRichard spent 16 months in mental institutions and now lives on his own .","id":"87b5f1f872c849ec239bad4ccf487d048d4274b2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A leading humanitarian group says Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq are pulling displaced people into their movements because governments and international entities are failing to adequately address their plight. Two Shiite militiamen take up combat positions during recent clashes with Iraq security forces. Refugees International underscored that development in a report issued Tuesday titled \"Uprooted and Unstable: Meeting Urgent Humanitarian Needs in Iraq.\" The report says the United States, the government of Iraq and the international community aren't doing enough to address the daily problems faced by the 2.7 million internally displaced Iraqis, who have fled homes in war-torn regions to other places in Iraq. Those people find themselves unemployed in their new locations and many times unable to access food and health care. \"As a result of the vacuum created by the failure of both the Iraqi government and the international community to act in a timely and adequate manner, non-state actors play a major role in providing assistance to vulnerable Iraqis,\" the report says. Social services are being provided by \"militias of all denominations\" that want to build their groups, with Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement using a Hezbollah model to set itself up \"as the main service provider in the country.\" Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group labeled a terrorist group by the United States, has built a large base of support with its social service network. \"Similarly, other Shiite and Sunni groups are gaining ground and support through the delivery of food, oil, electricity, clothes and money to the civilians living in their fiefdoms. \"Not only do these militias now have a quasi-monopoly in the large-scale provision of assistance in Iraq, they are also recruiting an increasing number of civilians to their militias -- including displaced Iraqis,\" the report said. The report says al-Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army, has resettled displaced Iraqis \"free of charge in homes that belonged to Sunnis.\" \"It provides stipends, food, heating oil, cooking oil and other non-food items to supplement the Public Distribution System rations which are still virtually impossible to transfer after displaced Iraqis have moved to a new neighborhood, though it is easier for Shiites to do so,\" the report says. Refugees International visited a Sadrist office in Baghdad's Ur district and observed residents providing \"clothing, milk, oil, rice, sugar, clothes and fuel for heating and cooking when supplies are available.\" The Sadrists also adjudicate legal disputes among citizens and give stipends to families of displaced people and slain or jailed Mehdi Army fighters. The report says Sunni militias also play a similar role in helping needy and displaced Sunnis, though there is less organized help. \"Sunni militias also handle the distribution of key items such as heating gas. As Sunnis in Baghdad get virtually no electricity or other services from the government, they rely on local militias and warlords to secure their areas and manage what services they can obtain.\" The displaced have joined \"awakening\" groups -- the \"U.S.-backed militias\" dominated by Sunnis. Those groups provide security duties, such as guarding checkpoints, and many of them have been getting paychecks from the United States. The U.N. refugee agency says the displacement crisis caused by the war in Iraq is the most significant in the Middle East since the population changes that occurred during the 1948 creation of Israel. Along with the 2.7 million internally displaced people, there are more than 2 million Iraqi refugees -- mostly in Syria and Jordan. The report slams the government of Iraq as being \"unwilling\" and \"unable\" to address such humanitarian issues -- \"lacking both the capacity and the political will to use its important resources to address humanitarian needs.\" \"The little assistance provided by the government is perceived by most as being biased in favor of the Shiite population, especially when it comes to the delivery of government services such as electricity or food ration cards from the Public Distribution System,\" the report says. The report adds that the \"international community has largely been in denial\" about the dire humanitarian situation in Iraq. \"Only recently has the United Nations issued a common humanitarian appeal for Iraq, recognizing the nature of the situation and the need for all agencies to step up and address humanitarian needs.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Humanitarian group says Shiite, Sunni militias recruiting displaced Iraqis .\nMuqtada al-Sadr's group using Hezbollah as model, report claims .\nUnited States, Iraq, global community not doing enough for displaced, report adds .","id":"9ea6d6a5cae86243c1c8899f7bab76e874c73b38"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Presidential candidates have been wooing voters in Iowa for months, but who wins Thursday may simply come down to where the caucus-goers live, where they meet and the weather. Iowa is a mixed bag politically, and one of the most evenly divided states in the nation. But the candidates will likely watch two regions more closely than others. The central part of the state -- including industrial Des Moines -- is Iowa's most Democratic area. Western Iowa, on the other hand, is home to the most Republicans -- especially the rural counties in the northwest. The Mississippi River city of Davenport is expected to be one of the most significant battlegrounds, with Linn County -- dominated by the university town of Cedar Rapids -- also attracting lots of attention from both parties. Past Iowa caucuses have been nail-biters for the candidates. Democrat Al Gore won the state by a margin of just 0.3 percent in 2000, while President Bush carried it in 2004 by 0.7 percent. In fact, Bush was the first GOP presidential candidate to carry Iowa in 20 years. Important endorsement . The support of Iowa's largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register, may also play a role in Thursday's caucuses. The paper's presidential endorsements began in 1988 and have become a highly sought-after prize in Iowa presidential politics. George W. Bush was the Register's pick in 2000 and went on to win Iowa, the GOP nomination and the White House. Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole won the state in 1996 and 1988 after receiving the paper's support. Democratic candidates haven't had as much success with the Register's endorsement. John Edwards finished in second place in Iowa in 2004, while Paul Simon was also a close second in 1988. The paper endorsed Sen. John McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton for their respective parties' nominations. The candidates have to appeal to voters with strong opinions. On the Republican side, 37 percent of participants in the 2000 Iowa GOP caucuses identified themselves as members of the religious right and 73 percent described themselves as conservatives. Meanwhile, 56 percent of the participants in Iowa's 2004 Democratic caucuses described themselves as either very or somewhat liberal. About 37 percent said they were moderates. The weather . Iowans who take part in the caucuses must traditionally brave freezing temperatures and lots of snow. Presidential candidates know bad weather may affect how many people turn out, but 1972 was the only time rough winter conditions played a role in the caucuses, according to Drake University's Hugh Winebrenner -- the nation's leading expert on Iowa caucus history. Caucus-goers that year encountered heavy snowdrifts from a blizzard the previous day. Temperatures dipped below zero across most of the state. The weather forced about one-fourth of Iowa's 99 counties to postpone their Democratic caucuses up to two days after the scheduled date. The forecast for Thursday is much better. Temperatures will be in the 20s during the day and dip just below that as the caucuses begin, according to the Des Moines Register. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The central part of Iowa is the state's most Democratic area .\nWestern Iowa is home to the most Republicans .\nSupport of Iowa's largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register, highly sought .\nWeather may affect how many people turn out .","id":"a3cb529364dbdcd2af9e30ecfe56898be375870b"} -{"article":"AMSTERDAM, Holland -- Ajax lost ground on Dutch league leaders PSV Eindhoven after being held to a 2-2 draw at Vitesse Arnhem on Sunday. Ajax's Leonardo, front in blue, duels for the ball with Sebastien Sansoni and Abubakari Yakubu of Vitesse. The Amsterdam side led 2-1 with two goals in four minutes just after half-time from Urby Emanuelson and Luis Suarez following Mads Junker's early opener, but Harrie Gommans rescued a draw. Ajax are now five points adrift of PSV, who beat Excelsior 2-1 on Saturday, with Heerenveen, Feyenoord and Groningen just one point further back. Feyenoord were held 1-1 at home by Groningen on Sunday, with Marcus Berg putting the visitors on course for a 13th win of the season until an own goal by Mark-Jan Fledderus on the stroke of half-time gave the Rotterdam side a point. At the other end of the table, Heracles registered their first away win of the season with a 5-0 thumping of fellow strugglers Venlo. Relegation-threatened Sparta Rotterdam and NEC Nijmegen both picked up vital victories. Sparta won 2-1 at sixth-placed Twente Enschede as goals from Yuri Rose and Charles Dissels on 28 and 51 minutes kept the visitors above of second-bottom Nijmegen on goal difference. NEC won 2-0 at home to ninth-placed Utrecht, the club's first victory since early November, as Jhonny van Beukering and Brett Holman netted in the second half. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Second-placed Ajax held 2-2 at home by Vitesse Arnhem in Dutch Eredivisie .\nThe Amsterdam side now trail league leaders PSV Eindhoven by five points .\nPSV defeated Excelsior 2-0 on Saturday to open up six-point gap at top .","id":"f489b07406c653968a0ed21c00e28c9124e4a49b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Queen Elizabeth helped launch Heathrow's $8.6 billion new Terminal 5 on Friday as part of the British airport's rejuvenation plan to maintain its status as one of the world's most important transport hubs. A general view of the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport prior to its official opening on Friday. The British monarch, who also opened Heathrow's first passenger terminal in 1955, was present under strict security a day after a man carrying a backpack was arrested for running onto a runway at the airport. The first flights from the new terminal are scheduled for March 27. Its opening has come after 15 years of planning and construction by its owners BAA -- and protests by local residents and environmental groups. It is part of a strategy which could lead to passenger numbers almost doubling to 122 million a year, with a sixth terminal and a third runway in the pipeline despite some vociferous opposition. Spanish-owned BAA, which also runs Gatwick and Stansted in Britain, also plans to eventually demolish Terminals 1 and 2 and replace them in a project called Heathrow East. Watch Queen Elizabeth meet airport staff. \u00bb . Residents were once told by BAA that there would be no fifth terminal, but the company is planning to forge further ahead despite the concerns of environmental groups. \"Terminal 5 stands as a monument to the binge-flying culture this Government has done so much to encourage,\" Greenpeace transport campaigner Anita Goldsmith told the UK Press Association. \"It's part of an obsession with expansion which can only mean more flights, more emissions and more climate change.\" Richard Dyer of Friends of the Earth added: \"If the Government is serious about tackling climate change, the opening of Terminal 5 must mark the end of airport expansion in Britain. \"Further expansion of Heathrow would be environmentally irresponsible and isn't necessary for the economy of London.\" However, business groups welcomed the expansion at Heathrow. \"Thriving, growing airports are vital to help maintain Britain's economic competitiveness,\" Neil Pakey, chairman of the Airport Operators' Association, told PA. \"Domestic air links to Heathrow are particularly valuable for the regional economies, and this new terminal will undoubtedly provide them with a much-needed boost. The passage of the current Planning Bill must ensure that this is the last airport which has to endure such an absurdly protracted planning process.\" See British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh's views on the terminal. \u00bb . Visit London chief executive James Bidwell said: \"T5 will provide visitors to London and the UK with a spectacular first impression and alleviate the pressure experienced at Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. \"The terminal's smoother check-in process and state-of-the-art baggage management system will certainly better the tourist experience and should help improve the airport's international reputation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Queen Elizabeth opens Heathrow Airport's $8.6 billion new Terminal 5 .\nThe new building took more than 15 years to complete following protests .\nLaunch a day after security scare at one of world's busiest international airports .\nA lone man ran onto a Heathrow runway carrying a backpack on Thursday .","id":"499fdb9bf024f6fbfd605792594372df22ec12f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Coca Cola was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola. It was put on sale at the nearby Jacobs' Pharmacy for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. An international organization, The Coca-Cola Company's first soda fountain sales to Canada and Mexico were recorded in 1897. Its first international bottler -- in Panama -- was established in 1906. The company entered China in 1927 and its 100th country -- Sierra Leone -- in 1957. Today, The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company with the most extensive distribution system in the world, operating in more than 200 countries across the world. The company currently has over 400 different brands under its control, and is one of the most recognizable names in the commercial world. The Coca-Cola Company, including the bottling entities it owns, employs approximately 71,000 people. More than 58,000 of those employees work for the company outside of the U.S. They are the largest private-sector employer across all of Africa. And in South Africa, for every one job created by the Coca-Cola system, 16 jobs are created in the informal retail sector. The company was placed in the top 25 places to work by Essence magazine and was named Wal-Mart's International Supplier of the Year in 2006. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1886, by a U.S. pharmacist .\nToday it is the largest beverage company in the world .\nThe company has operations in over 200 countries, employs 55,000 people .","id":"9f49bf7ded4308f1601e4723d594d7c3b4883b32"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A 24-year-old gang member was arrested Thursday in connection with a shooting at a Los Angeles bus stop in which eight people were wounded, city officials said. Bystanders express shock after a shooting at a bus stop in Los Angeles Wednesday. Billy Ray Hines is believed to have fired into a crowd of people at the bus stop. Hines was apprehended Thursday afternoon as he was walking down the street, about a half-mile from the scene of the shooting, Police Chief William Bratton told reporters. Hines will face 10 counts of attempted murder -- one for each of the eight victims, and two more for what authorities believe to be his two intended victims, who were still being sought Thursday, Bratton said. Authorities are also seeking the gun used in the incident, he said. The shootings took place Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of Central and Vernon avenues, in an area where police are concerned about gang violence. Five of the victims were children. An 11-year-old girl was shot in the chest, and another girl, age 11, was shot in the right arm. Three boys were wounded -- ages 10, 12 and 14. One was shot in the leg, one in the buttocks and the third in the ankle, police said. One man was wounded in the leg and another in the ankle, and a woman was shot in the face. \"While no one died yesterday, the bullets unleashed shot through the core of the entire community,\" Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in announcing the arrest Thursday. \"The decent people of this community responded with force.\" Watch mayor, authorities discuss arrest of gunman \u00bb . Witnesses came forward after the incident to identify the gunman as Hines, Bratton said. The shooting was believed to stem from a dispute between the gunman and the two intended victims, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Billy Ray Hines is believed to have fired into a crowd, police say .\nEight people, including five children, were shot, authorities say .\nShooting happened Wednesday near a middle school, but not on school grounds .\nHines will face 10 counts of attempted murder, police say .","id":"6bd843fe975d42b0f2d5eedb1a02d918e4a397f5"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian space officials say the crew of the Soyuz space ship is resting after a rough ride back to Earth. A South Korean bioengineer was one of three people on board the Soyuz capsule. The craft carrying South Korea's first astronaut landed in northern Kazakhstan on Saturday, 260 miles (418 kilometers) off its mark, they said. Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew -- South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko -- was satisfactory, though the three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry. Search helicopters took 25 minutes to find the capsule and determine that the crew was unharmed. Officials said the craft followed a very steep trajectory that subjects the crew to gravitational forces of up to 10 times those on Earth. Interfax reported that the spacecraft's landing was rough. This is not the first time a spacecraft veered from its planned trajectory during landing. In October, the Soyuz capsule landed 70 kilometers from the planned area because of a damaged control cable. The capsule was carrying two Russian cosmonauts and the first Malaysian astronaut. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Soyuz capsule lands hundreds of kilometers off-target .\nCapsule was carrying South Korea's first astronaut .\nLanding is second time Soyuz capsule has gone awry .","id":"00aa8e3ba59f5fe71a096a5549f80faece10aa83"} -{"article":"LAFAYETTE, Tennessee (CNN) -- James Kruger was watching election results Tuesday night in Lafayette, Tennessee, when a warning appeared on his TV screen: A tornado was headed straight toward his town. Then the lights went out. James Kruger survived after Tuesday night's storm blew his house away above him in Lafayette, Tennessee. He put on sweat pants, grabbed a flashlight, drank a shot of whiskey, \"and then I heard this noise,\" Kruger said Thursday. He headed for a door, \"and all of a sudden I heard the glass breaking and it was sucking,\" he said. \"When I tried to shut the door, [it] seemed like the door was lifting up. So I just dove and I lay flat on the floor.\" Lying there, everything in the house flew over him, scraping and banging his back, Kruger said. Then the chaos stopped. \"I was laying in the dirt. There was no floor. No nothing.\" Watch Kruger tell his story \u00bb . The house was gone, but Kruger says he believes there's reason why he survived. \"I think God was holding my leg, beating my ass, teaching me that I hadn't been doing everything he wanted me to do,\" he said. Pam Whitaker was volunteering at a hospital in Lafayette that night as dozens came in with injuries from the tornadoes and storms that raked across the South. Whitaker was cleaning one man's feet to check for cuts when the patient told her the address of a house that had been destroyed. \"I just went white. I said, 'That's my house!'\" Whitaker recalled Thursday. \"And he said, 'Hon, you don't even have a toothpick or splinter left.' \" Watch Whitaker describe her frightening night \u00bb . Kruger, Whitaker and others across the region tried Thursday to put their lives back together in a swath of the South where tornadoes killed at least 56 people. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak in the United States in more than 20 years. The storms ripped apart houses and trapped residents of university dorms and a retirement home in debris. The trail of death stretched across four states, with four fatalities in Alabama, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and 32 in Tennessee. Macon County, Tennessee, which includes Lafayette, was one of the worst-hit areas, with 14 deaths and overwhelming damage. Whitaker lost her home and everything in it, including the money from cashing her disability check. She had 15 cents left, she said Thursday, and was staying at a National Guard shelter. \"We don't have a home to go to,\" Whitaker said. \"I don't know where we're going to end up.\" In some cases, there was almost no warning before the severe weather hit. James Baskin of Jackson, Tennessee, said he was driving when a twister \"just picked us up and threw us.\" Everyone in the car was injured, including his daughter's friend, who suffered a broken collarbone. \"We'll get through it. Nobody's dead. That's the biggest thing,\" Baskin said. Watch tornado survivors' stories \u00bb . President Bush said Wednesday he had called the governors of the affected states to offer help and to tell them that \"the American people hold those who suffered up in prayer.\" The Federal Emergency Management Agency was deploying teams to the area, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. \"We're going to keep watching this,\" he said. See a map of where the storms hit \u00bb . In Sumner County, Tennessee, two victims were found outside a house the storm had blown away, said Jay Austin, the county's primary death investigator. Elsewhere in the area, a mother was found dead in a creek bed about 50 yards from where her house stood. Her baby was discovered alive 250 yards away. The child was taken to a local hospital, Austin said. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said the storm's power had left him stunned. \"I don't think that I have seen, since I've been governor, a tornado where the combination of the intensity of it and the length of the track was as large as this one,\" said Bredesen, who flew over the disaster area Wednesday. \"That track had to be 25 miles long. [The twister] didn't skip like a lot of them do. ... It's just 25 miles of a tornado sitting on the ground.\" Also in Jackson, a tornado trapped Union University students and retirees in collapsed buildings, said Julie Oaks, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. \"It looks like a war zone,\" said university President David Dockery. \"Cars and trucks [were] thrown from one side of the campus to the other.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed, Mark Bixler, David Mattingly and Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Tennessee man describes diving to the floor as his house blows away .\nThe tornado death toll in the South stands at 56 .\nTornado outbreak was deadliest in the U.S. in more than 20 years .\nDeaths include 32 in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky, four in Alabama .","id":"bf0ea0373655184f69fb01b9aa833d21e7188e9e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The daughter of a man who died after falling four stories at Shea Stadium said her father was not sliding down the escalator when the accident happened, as police reported. A statement from the New York Police Department on Tuesday said witnesses saw 36-year-old Antonio Nararainsami of Brooklyn sitting on the banister of the escalator when he lost his balance and fell. Nararainsami's daughter, Emily, told CNN affiliate WABC on Tuesday that her father was walking down the escalator, not sliding on its banister, as fans left the stadium after the New York Mets-Washington Nationals game. She said she and another relative saw what happened. \"He wasn't moving or nothing; he was just walking down. I guess he tried to say something to us or something, and I guess he just lost his balance and flipped over,\" she said. Nararainsami died at Booth Memorial Hospital about 25 minutes after the 10 p.m. incident. Police are investigating the death as an accident. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police said man lost his balance on an escalator as fans left the stadium .\nHe died about 25 minutes later at Booth Memorial Hospital .\nPolice are investigating the death as an accident .","id":"e1afe080ecf3565b0103214c21f49e8b03741024"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Heather Mills presented \"less than candid\" testimony about her life with former Beatle Paul McCartney during her divorce case and made more money during their marriage than before, according to a ruling released Tuesday. McCartney's lawyer Fiona Shackleton, left, pictured after it is alleged Mills threw water over her. Mills represented herself during the proceedings and was a \"less than impressive witness\" on her own behalf, Judge Hugh Bennett wrote in awarding her \u00a324.3 million ($48.6 million) -- far less than the \u00a3125 million she had sought from McCartney in the dissolution of their four-year marriage. \"Having given in her favor every allowance for the enormous strain she must have been under and in conducting her own case, I am driven to the conclusion that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid,\" Bennett wrote. Mills emerged from the court Monday angry about the judge's treatment of her. She said the judge and attorneys acted like they were part of a \"club.\" Blog: Did Mills pour water on McCartney's lawyer? A summary of Bennett's decision was released Monday, but Mills had sought to keep the full ruling under wraps. Britain's Court of Appeals ruled against her Tuesday, and her lawyer, David Rosen, said she accepted the decision. See a list of expensive celebrity divorces \u00bb . \"She as a mother has strived to protect her child and felt there were certain issues and matters in the judgment which affected that,\" Rosen said. Mills opposed the full ruling's publication because it contained private details about her and her 4-year-old daughter with McCartney, Beatrice. Watch Mills react to Monday's decision \u00bb . Bennett had good things to say about Mills in his judgment, commending her strength in the face of disability. Mills lost her left leg below the knee in a 1993 traffic accident. But he discounted many of the arguments the former model made about her personal wealth before and after her 2002 marriage to McCartney. He ruled that Mills earned far less before marriage than she claimed, and far more while married -- and at several points in his decision, he wrote that Mills' ideas about their marriage were \"make-belief.\" \"I find that, far from the husband dictating to and restricting the wife's career and charitable activities, he did the exact opposite,\" Bennett wrote. McCartney, meanwhile, presented balanced evidence and was a consistent witness, he wrote. \"He expressed himself moderately though at times with justifiable irritation, if not anger,\" the judge wrote in a glimpse of the emotions aired behind closed doors. Read the full ruling (.pdf file -- Adobe Acrobat required) Bennett found Mills failed to produce financial records to back up statements about money she claimed to have in the bank before marriage, which she said amounted to more than \u00a32 million. In one instance, the judge pointed out McCartney's company loaned Mills money to buy a home in Hove, England -- money that she would not have needed had she had such an amount in the bank. And Bennett found that Mills' income actually improved during the marriage. In one year, she earned \u00a31 million ($2 million) from a single modeling contract, he wrote. And he quoted Mills' 2002 book, \"A Single Step,\" in which she wrote that her charity work and public speaking roles had expanded \"to such an extent that it has left little time for anything else.\" \"She is a kindly person and is devoted to her charitable causes,\" the judge wrote. \"She has conducted her own case before me with a steely, yet courteous, determination.\" The couple met in 1999, a year after the death of McCartney's wife of 30 years, Linda. The judge said McCartney continued to grieve for his late wife well into his marriage with Mills -- and he suggested Mills misrepresented her case because she had been star-struck. \"The wife for her part must have felt rather swept off her feet by a man as famous as the husband,\" he wrote. \"I think this may well have warped her perception leading her to indulge in make-belief. The objective facts simply do not support her case.\" Bennett discounted Mills' claims that she was anything more than a loving and devoted wife in helping McCartney. \"The wife's evidence that in some way she was the husband's 'psychologist,' even allowing for hyperbole, is typical of her make-belief,\" the judge wrote. Mills and McCartney failed to agree on a divorce settlement in six days of hearings in February, leaving the judge to decide the terms. Bennett's 58-page decision concluded that \u00a324.3 million was enough for Mills to live comfortably and take care of their daughter's needs. McCartney had proposed a \u00a315.8 million settlement. The judgment included \u00a335,000 a year for Beatrice, \u00a3600,000 for Mills and \u00a32.5 million for her to purchase property in London. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Judge: Heather Mills \"a less than impressive witness\"\nPaul McCartney's ex-wife received nearly $50M payout in divorce ruling .\nRuling follows collapse of ex-Beatle's four-year marriage to former model .","id":"05fa6152f08a3d64745030124428775768ee3afd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man at the center of a mysterious case of exposure to the deadly biological agent ricin has been arrested, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Wednesday. Ricin was found in a room in this Las Vegas, Nevada, extended-stay hotel in February, police say. Roger Bergendorff was taken into custody Wednesday morning in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kolko said. Bergendorff, 57, was hospitalized with what was diagnosed as ricin exposure after the agent was discovered in his hotel room off the Las Vegas Strip. Tests conducted by the FBI determined that the substance contained 2.9 percent active ricin. Its preparation was characterized as \"crude,\" according to the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas. According to a press release from the Department of Justice office, a search of Bergendorff's hotel room turned up \"an 'Anarchist's Cookbook,' a collection of instructions on poisons and other dangerous recipes, including instructions on the preparation of ricin,\" two semiautomatic pistols, a rifle and a pistol with a silencer. \"FBI searches of Salt Lake City [Utah] storage units rented by Von Bergendorff resulted in the discovery of castor beans, various chemicals used in the production of ricin, a respirator, filters, painter's mask, laboratory glassware, syringes and a notebook on ricin production,\" the Justice Department release said. Bergendorff is charged with possession of a biological toxin, possession of unregistered firearms and possession of firearms not identified by serial number, according to the U.S. attorney's office. If convicted of all charges, he would face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of $750,000. Bergendorff is scheduled for an initial court appearance at 3 p.m. Wednesday. It is illegal under federal law to possess a biological agent and toxin unless it is used for bona fide research or other peaceful purpose, U.S. Attorney Gregory Bower said in a written statement. Bergendorff's cousin, Thomas Tholen of Riverton, Utah, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City this month, accused of failing to report production and possession of ricin. Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste of castor bean processing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can come in the form of a mist or pellet and can be dissolved in water or weak acid, the agency said. Bergendorff was hospitalized February 14 in Las Vegas after he complained of difficulty breathing. He slipped into a coma and awoke March 14. Bergendorff, 57, is an artist who neighbors said had lived in his cousin's basement before moving to Las Vegas. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kevin Bohn, Karan Olson and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Roger Bergendorff is charged with possession of toxin, firearms .\nHe was hospitalized for ricin exposure after it was found in hotel room .\nHis cousin is charged with failing to report production and possession .","id":"8f80054060e5c2dde57666b5e3bddf6b70b34f3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Lonely Planet author says he plagiarized or made up portions of the popular travel guidebooks and dealt drugs to supplement poor pay, an Australian newspaper reported Sunday. Lonely Planet publishes more than 500 titles and employs 300 authors, according to its Web site. Thomas Kohnstamm, who has written a book on his misadventures, also said he didn't travel to Colombia to write the guidebook on the country because \"they didn't pay me enough,\" The Daily Telegraph reported. \"I wrote the book in San Francisco [California],\" he is quoted as saying in the Telegraph. \"I got the information from a chick I was dating -- an intern in the Colombian Consulate.\" The 32-year-old Seattle, Washington, native also claims he accepted free travel, which is a violation of the company's policy. Kohnstamm has worked on more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, including its titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Chile and South America. An e-mail from Lonely Planet said Kohnstamm's book were being reviewed, the newspaper reported. \"If we find that the content has been compromised, we'll take urgent steps to fix it. Once we've got things right for travelers as quickly as we can, we'll look at what we do and how we do it to ensure as best we can that this type of thing never happens again,\" the e-mail said, according to the newspaper. The book's publisher, Piers Pickard, told the paper that an \"urgent\" review of Kohnstamm's books did not reveal any inaccuracies. The Lonely Planet series publishes 500 titles, updated every two to four years, and employs 300 authors, according to the company's Web site. It sells more than 6 million guides a year, the newspaper reported. Kohnstamm's book, \"Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics and Professional Hedonism,\" is set for release next week. On his MySpace page, Kohnstamm says the book \"is about the decision to abandon Manhattan to try to make it as a travel writer and the good, the bad and the really surreal that I experienced on the road.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Author tells paper he got data for Colombia guidebook \"from a chick I was dating\"\nAuthor's works include guides on Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, paper reports .\nLonely Planet tells paper it wants to ensure \"this type of thing never happens again\"\n\"Urgent\" review of author's books reveals no inaccuracies, publisher tells paper .","id":"f63877ffefceaf9a2a13a9277f4d861f9b9b8a73"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- The chairman of the Samsung Group plans to resign, according to a report published Tuesday by Yonhap, the South Korean news agency. Chairman of the Samsung Group Lee Kun-hee has been indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust. The decision of Lee Kun-hee to step down comes a few days after his indictment amid an investigation into corruption allegations. Lee was indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust. Samsung is South Korea's largest conglomerate. It has annual sales of nearly $160 billion and accounts for 18 percent of South Korea's economic output. The company's exports -- valued at about $70 billion -- account for a fifth of all South Korean exports. Lee was indicted for breach of trust in connection with a plan to transfer control of the company to his son, a prosecutor said. He was also indicted for tax evasion. Investigators started looking into Samsung in January, after a former company lawyer said the company created slush funds worth $200 million. Last week, however, a prosecutor said an investigation found no evidence supporting an allegation that the company bribed government officials and prosecutors. Samsung has apologized for \"causing concerns\" and said it would outline plans for reform this week. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Samsung Group chairman, Lee Kun-hee, plans to resign, Yonhap reports .\nLee's decision comes a few days after his indictment amid corruption investigation .\nLee was indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust .\nProsecutors say indictment relates to a plan to transfer control of the firm to his son .","id":"e1e0fbee1f5df559fda3830710afb660f33cb7b5"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- An Indonesian court has sentenced the alleged military commander of an al Qaeda-linked terror network to 15 years in prison. Abu Dujana is suspected of plotting attacks on the Australian Embassy and J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta. Abu Dujana is the alleged leader of the military wing of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group that is thought to be linked to al Qaeda. It aims to create a Muslim \"superstate\" across much of Southeast Asia. Dujana, a slight, wiry man, is accused of direct involvement in the Bali nightclub bombings of 2002 that killed more than 200, mostly Western, tourists. He is also suspected of plotting subsequent attacks on the Australian Embassy and J.W. Marriott hotel, both in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Furthermore, authorities say Dujana is behind the violence in Poso, on Indonesia's eastern Sulawesi island. Fighting between Muslims and Christians periodically breaks out in the region and sometimes turns deadly. Police have accused Jemaah Islamiyah of sending armed militants to Poso. The court found Dujana guilty Monday of illegally possessing firearms and explosives, and of harboring suspected terrorists. His lawyers said they may appeal the sentence. After his arrest last June following a four-year hunt, Dujana admitted to CNN that he was Jemaah Islamiyah's military chief. But he said that happened only after the attacks on Western targets. He described Jemaah Islamiyah to CNN as \"an underground organization,\" saying \"it will continue to exist and continue to move on with its plans\" to create an Islamic state under Sharia law despite his capture. \"When a part of it is cut off ...there will be a replacement, it's only natural,\" he said. Dujana denied being involved in the Marriott Hotel attack. He told CNN that he helped fugitive suspect Noordin Top plan the attack, meeting him both before and after the devastating blast that killed 12 people and injured 150. \"It's true, I did have a meeting with Noordin before the Marriott bombing but that doesn't mean I was involved in the attack,\" he said. \"In that meeting, we're just aligning our views with each other -- there was absolutely no discussion about planning any bombing.\" In his CNN interview, Dujana was quick with messages of hate, calling all Westerners legitimate targets because of the actions of leaders like U.S. President George W. Bush and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who he says are not giving Muslims the chance to be in power. Dujana studied in Pakistan and fought in Afghanistan from 1988 to 1991. He told CNN that he met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan during the fight against Soviet occupation. At the time, bin Laden was a field commander and he was an ordinary soldier, he said. Dujana said bin Laden was well respected then and helped him and others realize that it was permissible to kill people to defend Islam. \"I didn't read it in the Quran,\" he said. \" It's based on the teachings of our teachers, clerics, especially what Osama bin Laden first said.\" \"Because of America's arrogance, many in the Muslim world know, believe, it's permissible to kill American soldiers. It's halal; it's permitted,\" he said. The court declared Jemaah Islamiyah a terrorist organization Monday and ordered it to pay 10 million rupiah ($1,088). Around the same time Dujana was captured last June, authorities also apprehended Jemaah Islamiyah's leader, known simply as Zarkasih. A verdict on his case is expected soon. Last week, two other top Jemaah Islamiyah leaders -- Dr. Agus Purwanto and Abdur Rohim -- were brought to Indonesia following their arrest in Malaysia. Both are being investigated for their possible role in fomenting violence in Poso. Terrorism expert Sidney Jones says Abdur Rohim is believed to have replaced Zarkasih as Jemaah Islamiyah leader. \"It is another major blow to Jemaah Islamiyah, but difficult to tell what the impact will be,\" Jones told CNN via e-mail last week. \"It could embolden a more militant faction. [It] could also lead to some serious reassessment within the organization about its future.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kathy Quiano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indonesian court sentences Abu Dujana to 15 years in prison .\nDujana is the alleged leader of the military wing of Jemaah Islamiyah .\nDujana is accused of direct involvement in the Bali nightclub bombings of 2002 .\nAfter his arrest last June, Dujana admitted he was Jemaah Islamiyah's military chief .","id":"7d66246dc75062c5616067bbb379962c3934e52f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's been 30,000 years since Neanderthals walked the earth, but now we can hear what they sounded like, according to a Florida anthropologist. Neanderthal man apparently sounded like a frog croaking or a human burping when talking. Robert McCarthy of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton reconstructed Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate their voice with a computer synthesizer. The result is a single syllable that sounds strange and unremarkable: part croaking frog, part burping human. But McCarthy says that's because Neanderthals lacked the \"quantal vowels\" modern humans use. \"They would have spoken a bit differently,\" McCarthy said at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Ohio this month. \"They wouldn't have been able to produce these quantal vowels that form the basis of spoken language.\" New Scientist magazine discussed McCarthy's findings and linked to his vocal simulation on its Web site. Listen to Neanderthal man speak . McCarthy used 50,000-year-old fossils from France to make his reconstruction, New Scientist said. He plans to simulate an entire Neanderthal sentence, the magazine reported. To reconstruct the vocal tracts, McCarthy teamed with linguist Phil Lieberman, who worked in the 1970s to deduce the dimensions of a Neanderthal larynx based on its skull. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Anthropologist reconstructs Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate their voice .\nResult sounds like a part croaking frog or a human burping .\nPlan is to eventually simulate an entire Neanderthal sentence .","id":"09e62b334425ef4eee26be483a625858c91340eb"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia military contractor tricked law enforcement agencies into buying faulty stun grenades, ultimately leaving three FBI agents injured, federal prosecutors announced Monday. \"Flash-bang\" grenades were relabeled and sold to police after the Navy deemed them faulty, an indictment says. Pyrotechnic Specialties Inc. is accused of relabeling and selling \"flash-bang\" grenades that the U.S. military rejected after its personnel were injured. The company also mixed defective grenades with others that had been fixed \"to camouflage the defective devices from receiving personnel\" at the FBI, the indictment says. Last week's indictment alleges that company officials bribed a federal official and paid for a visit to a strip club. The officials are accused of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and defrauding the government. Watch how the grenades work \u00bb . The company, known as PSI, did not immediately respond to calls for comment. The indictment names three company officials -- CEO David J. Karlson, sales representative F. Brad Swann and production manager Daniel Ramone -- as taking part in the conspiracy. The indictment does not say whether they still hold those titles. PSI had a multimillion-dollar contract with the Defense Department to provide stun or \"flash-bang\" grenades, referred to as \"MK141 diversionary charges\" in the indictment. From 1996 to 2007, the Navy awarded three contracts to PSI for the MK141, according to the indictment. The devices are designed to produce a bright flash and loud bang, disorienting their targets. They're considered nonlethal weapons, though they can be dangerous. The indictment alleges, \"On or about March 2003, a flaw in the original Navy design of the MK141 diversionary charge became apparent.\" A plastic piece would sometimes crack, which \"could result in a hazardous situation to those in close proximity.\" \"Improper detonation could, and did, cause serious injuries to personnel using the device,\" according to the indictment. The indictment says that the Department of Defense issued a \"stop work order\" on the devices, and PSI \"developed a procedure to correct the defect\" that cost about $3.72 per unit. PSI officials later engaged in a scheme to sell the defective devices by claiming that they had met the department's standards, the indictment alleges. The defendants sold and attempted to sell the devices \"to the Department of Defense and to federal law enforcement agencies, as well as to state and local law enforcement agencies,\" the indictment says. At one point, some of them prematurely detonated, \"causing serious injuries\" to three FBI agents who were on a SWAT team investigating a kidnapping, the indictment says, adding that the interior of their government vehicle was damaged. \"To further implement the scheme and artifice to defraud, the defendants provided gratuities and additional compensation to a Department of Defense employee,\" the indictment adds. The devices were sold to more than a dozen FBI offices between 2003 and 2004, as well as to the San Rafael Police Department in San Rafael, California, and the Orange County Sheriff\/Coroner's Department in Santa Ana, California, the indictment says. The Department of Defense said it could not comment because the case is under investigation. \"Our understanding is that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is supporting the FBI in this investigation,\" Lt. Geraldine Carey of Marine Corps Systems Command said in a written statement. Carey added that it is \"against DOD policy to discuss matters under investigation prior to the requested official or government agency receiving a formal report.\" According to the company's Web site, PSI supports \"the U.S. and many foreign military services with custom compositions, pellets and devices.\" Automotive airbag products are atop the list of commercial products it manufactures, according to the Web site. The company employs 160 people at its manufacturing facility near Byron, Georgia, the Web site says. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Scott Zamost and Abbie Boudreau contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indictment accuses Georgia company of relabeling stun grenades .\nDevices sold to at least 12 FBI offices; Defense Department declines comment .\n3 company officials charged with money laundering, defrauding the government .\nIndictment: FBI agents injured when stun grenades detonated prematurely .","id":"32e769b0ced3ffbf79f695af69a2401897156c8c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The U.S. government paid more than $1.7 million in defense contracts over the last decade to companies owned by leaders of Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect, with tens of thousands allegedly winding its way back to Jeffs and his church. The Pentagon had contracts with three companies with ties to Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect. In fact, some of the deals were made after Jeffs was named to the FBI's \"Most-Wanted List\" and remained in place while he was on the run. CNN has learned that between 1998 and 2007, the United States Air Force and Defense Logistics Agency purchased more than $1.7 million worth of airplane parts from three companies owned by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which practices polygamy. Those companies are Utah Tool and Die, Western Precision and NewEra Manufacturing. Today, the companies all operate under the name NewEra Manufacturing, a company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that says it supplies precision components \"for the aerospace, military, medical, recreational and other commercial entities.\" \"It was my understanding that Western Precision was paying roughly $50,000 a week into the coffers of the church,\" former sect member Richard Holm said. \"It would have been close to $200,000 a month.\" Holm said he helped build Western Precision. A court affidavit signed by a man whose father was the president of Western Precision makes similar allegations. \"During 2003, the amount being sent to the storehouse and the FLDS was around $100,000 per month,\" John Nielsen said in the October 26, 2005, affidavit. \"I have personal knowledge that checks sent to the FLDS Church\/Warren Jeffs by [Western Precision] are payable to the FLDS Church and\/or Warren Jeffs.\" Private investigator Sam Brower, who monitors the sect, said money earned through business dealings with the U.S. government was used to build Jeffs' compounds across the country, including the one recently raided in Eldorado, Texas. More than 400 children, including teenage girls, were removed from that ranch amid claims of child abuse and forced marriage and motherhood. Watch a mom plead: 'We need our children' \u00bb . Brower says dozens of companies tied to FLDS are working on contracts with federal or local governments. The Pentagon would confirm only it had contracts with three. A man who answered the phone at NewEra Manufacturing said it had no comment. The companies have not been charged with wrongdoing. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell emphasized that point. \"The Department of Defense awards contracts on the basis of who can most effectively meet our requirements for supplies or services at the most reasonable cost to the taxpayer,\" he said. \"We do not consider religious affiliation or marital status when selecting vendors, but illegal activity is certainly cause for termination of a contract and perhaps even debarment, which could prevent a contractor from doing business with department ever again.\" He added, \"However, DoD is not aware of any criminal allegations against anyone managing the companies in question.\" Bob Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who now works with a contractor for the Pentagon, said the department does background checks before signing contracts. \"The DoD is obviously abiding by the law, and if we want them to look deeper and discriminate on religious or other activities we need to tell them.\" But he added, \"If there was a direct line between Jeffs and this company, and his name was associated with a contract, then that should have come to attention of those that were bidding contract.\" It's unclear whether Jeffs' name was on any contract, but other senior members of his church were managing the companies. What might taxpayers think of it all? \"They're just going to shake their head and say here's another example of our tax money going down the drain to support this polygamist in Texas who abuses children and women,\" Maginnis said. \"They'll be appalled and rightly so.\" Jeffs is serving time in Utah after his 2007 conviction for being an accomplice to rape, charges related to a marriage he performed in 2001. He also faces trial in Arizona on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy. See a timeline of Jeffs' life \u00bb . The Mormon Church, which gave up plural marriage more than a century ago, has no ties to Jeffs' group. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pentagon bought airplane parts from companies tied to Warren Jeffs .\nContracts continued even after Jeffs was on FBI \"Most-Wanted List\"\nPentagon defends contracts, stands by them as appropriate .\nRetired Army colonel says nothing illegal happened, but people will be \"appalled\"","id":"43d42fe40ada4406377bc3b45c123a75552c21a0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday addressed issues ranging from the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church to the easy availability of pornography to the \"alarming decrease\" in Catholic marriages in the United States. The pope arrives to address U.S. bishops in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He spoke at a prayer service with U.S. bishops at Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Roman Catholic church in North America. Benedict said the sexual abuse of children by priests has caused a \"deep shame\" and called it \"gravely immoral behavior.\" \"Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed ... their obligations,\" he told the bishops. Responding to the situation has not been easy and was sometimes very badly handled, the pope admitted. Watch the pope address the issue \u00bb . \"It is vitally important that the vulnerable are always shielded from souls who would cause harm,\" he said. The pope then turned his attention to a different concern involving kids. \"What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?\" he asked. Benedict urged the media and entertainment industry to take part in a \"moral renewal.\" Earlier Wednesday, President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and more than 13,500 spectators welcomed Benedict in an elaborate ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. In remarks greeting the pope to the White House, Bush called the United States \"a nation of prayer.\" Bush was interrupted by applause as he said, \"In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred and that each of us is willed.\" Benedict responded by praising the role of religion in the United States. \"From the dawn of the republic, America's quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the creator,\" he said. Watch Benedict talk about his hopes for the trip \u00bb . Earlier, a U.S. Marine Corps band performed the national anthem of the Holy See as well as \"The Star-Spangled Banner.\" A fife and drum corps in Colonial costumes also played tunes, including \"Yankee Doodle,\" and soprano Kathleen Battle sang \"The Lord's Prayer.\" The day, with perfect spring weather, was also the pontiff's 81st birthday. After the ceremony concluded, the crowd, led by Battle, serenaded Benedict with \"Happy Birthday\" as he smiled from a White House balcony. Watch a priest who has known Benedict for years tell what he's like \u00bb . Guests on the South Lawn included Catholic clergy, ecumenical representatives, Catholic schoolchildren, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Sisters of the Poor and Knights of Columbus. Event planners faced an enormous demand for tickets for what White House press secretary Dana Perino called \"one of the largest arrival ceremonies ever held at the White House.\" Following the ceremony, Bush and the pope had a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office. The pope left the White House at about noon in his distinctive \"popemobile.\" His massive motorcade moved slowly down the wide avenues of the U.S. capital to the Vatican Embassy, where the pope is staying. Crowds of enthusiastic spectators waved U.S. and Vatican flags and screamed as the pontiff rode past. A smiling Benedict arrived Tuesday at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to cheers from a crowd of invited guests. The pontiff was greeted by Bush, the first lady and their daughter Jenna, each of whom shook his hand. It was believed to be the first time an American president has greeted a world dignitary on arrival at Andrews. It marks Benedict's first visit to the United States as pope. Watch how the pope's visit could affect the presidential campaign \u00bb . Security will be tight during the six-day visit, with 27 state, local and federal agencies protecting the pope as he meets with religious leaders, celebrates Mass at two baseball stadiums and makes his way around in the popemobile. Benedict faces no specific threats, according to the FBI, but a March audio message from Osama bin Laden mentioned the pontiff. The centerpiece of the trip's Washington leg will be Thursday's Mass at Nationals Park, a new baseball stadium where 46,000 people will gather to see the pope. Everyone must go through metal detectors on entering, and nearby roads and bridges will be closed. Temporary flight restrictions will be in place over the stadium, and a 1\u00bd-mile section of the adjacent Anacostia River will be closed during the Mass. Benedict will travel to New York on Friday and address the U.N. General Assembly, linking the visit to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He'll celebrate Mass on Sunday morning at Yankee Stadium. Where will the pope be? \u00bb . One of the stated goals of the pope's visit is to energize the U.S. Catholic community with its estimated 70 million members. Three years after succeeding Pope John Paul II, Benedict is likely to also address the church's relationship with other faiths, the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the upcoming U.S. presidential election, said John Allen, a CNN Vatican analyst. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pope tells bishops abuse of children was \"gravely immoral behavior\"\nPope, president discuss Middle East, Latin America, says White House .\nSix-day, two-city visit to U.S. marks Pope Benedict XVI's first as pope .\nPope will celebrate Mass at stadium Thursday, travel to New York on Friday .","id":"cec3e977a612e1481913d63934cfe578b9bcf3be"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- The U.S. military in Japan has charged a Marine with rape and other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the alleged sexual assault of 14-year old girl in Okinawa. A civic group member protests against Hadnott near the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on February 13. Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, has been charged with the rape of a child under 16, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping, the Marines said Friday. No dates for the court-martial have been set. In February, Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl dropped the allegations against him, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation to see if Hadnott violated codes of military justice. It held him at a Marine facility. The rape accusation against Hadnott stirred memories of a brutal rape more than a decade ago and triggered outrage across Japan. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda deplored as \"unforgivable\" the allegations against Hadnott. The incident also led to tight restrictions, for a time, for American troops and their families at the U.S. base on Okinawa. The U.S. military in Japan also formed a sexual assault prevention task force after the incident. More than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, most of them on Okinawa. The troops were placed there under a security alliance after Japan was defeated in World War II and was renounced its right to a military. The U.S. military presence has at times bred resentment among some Japanese, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiments boiled over in 1995 after three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"No date set for the court-martial .\nU.S. military charges Marine after girl dropped charges in February .\nMost of U.S. troops in Japan are stationed in Okinawa .","id":"2572185d9544f23c4ad02aeac1ae8ab7828fb4be"} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- After a weekend of playing defense about his \"bitter\" comments, Sen. Barack Obama went on offense Monday against his Democratic rival and the presumptive Republican nominee. Sen. Barack Obama participates Sunday in the Compassion Forum at Pennsylvania's Messiah College. Obama mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton for throwing back a shot of whiskey in front of TV crews over the weekend and said she must think she's \"doing me a favor\" by attacking him and toughening him up for a fall race against Republican Sen. John McCain. \"I'm sure that Sen. Clinton feels like she's doing me a favor because she's been deploying most of the arguments the Republican Party will be using against me in November and so it's toughening me up. I'm getting run through the paces here,\" Obama told The Associated Press' annual meeting. Clinton has been hitting Obama hard after he referred to some small-town Pennsylvanians as \"bitter\" people who \"cling to guns and religion\" at a fund-raiser last week. Obama later said the remarks were badly phrased but accurate. Watch Obama try to clarify his comments \u00bb . On Sunday, Clinton called the comments \"elitist, out of touch and frankly, patronizing,\" and added, \"You know, the Democratic Party, to be very blunt about it, has been viewed as a party that didn't understand and respect the values and the way of life of so many of our fellow Americans.\" Obama opened his remarks to the AP making light of what is being called \"bitter-gate.\" \"I know I kept a lot of you guys busy this weekend with the comments I made last week. Some of you might even be a little bitter about that,\" he said to soft laughter. But his offensive began Sunday night when he mocked Clinton for acting like \"Annie Oakley ... packin' a six-shooter\" in her attempts to connect with gun owners. He was referring to Clinton's efforts over the weekend to appeal to Second Amendment supporters by hinting that she has some experience of her own pulling triggers. \"I disagree with Sen. Obama's assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration,\" she began. \"You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,\" she said. Asked Sunday when she last fired a gun or attended church services, Clinton said the query was \"not a relevant question in this debate.\" Watch Clinton face questions on gun use \u00bb . Obama blasted Clinton Sunday shortly before the two appeared at Faith in Public Life's Compassion Forum at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. \"Shame on her,\" he told a Steelton crowd. \"I expected this out of John McCain,\" Obama said in a decibel higher than his everyday stump tone. \"But I've got to say, I'm a little disappointed when I start hearing the exact same talking points coming out of my Democratic colleague, Hillary Clinton. She knows better. Shame on her.\" Watch Obama target Clinton \u00bb . On Monday, he attacked her for what happened at an Indiana campaign stop over the weekend. Saying too many candidates are giving voters only rhetoric, the senator from Illinois added, \"They'll promise you anything. They'll even give you a long list of proposals. They'll even come around with TV crews in tow and throw back a shot and a beer.\" With the national media present, Clinton drank a beer and chatted with voters. After ordering her beer, the bartender asked, \"You want a shot with that Hillary?\" After some deliberation, Clinton settled on a shot of Crown Royal, a Canadian whiskey. Responding to Obama's remarks, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said, \"With all due respect, this is the same politician who spent six days posing for clich\u00e9d camera shots that included bowling gutterballs, walking around a sports bar, feeding a baby cow and buying a ham at the Philly market (albeit one that cost $99.99 a pound). Sen. Obama's speeches won't hide his condescending views of Americans living in small towns.\" Clinton heard a few boos Monday as she continued to criticize Obama. \"I understand my opponent came this morning and spent a lot of his time attacking me,\" she said at the same forum where Obama launched his assault. The crowd responded with audible grumbles, and a few in the hall shouted, \"No!\" Clinton continued, \"I know that many of you, like me, were disappointed by the recent remarks he made.\" Watch as CNN's Candy Crowley offers a recap of the 'bitter' dispute \u00bb . This time, a louder, sustained chorus of \"No!\" emanated from the audience. \"I am well aware that at a fundraiser in San Francisco he said some things that many people in Pennsylvania and beyond Pennsylvania have found offensive,\" she said. Again, she was met with jeers, which the Clinton campaign said came from Obama supporters. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Peter Hamby and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Barack Obama makes fun of Hillary Clinton for drinking a shot in front of media .\nNEW: Clinton's verbal attacks on Obama met with boos from audience .\nClinton has accused Obama of being out of touch, elitist for remarks at fundraiser .\nAt fundraiser, Obama said some Pennsylvanians bitter and clinging to guns, religion .","id":"3cc7c9639fb87922cfac315fbb55641e671a3d99"} -{"article":"BERLIN. Germany -- Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi fired Schalke up to joint second in the Bundesliga, while Bayern Munich have a golden chance to put one hand on the league title if they beat Stuttgart on Sunday. Kuranyi's early goal was enough to give Schalke a vital victory over Champions League rivals Hamburg. Kuranyi's 15th league goal of the season -- after just two minutes -- gave Schalke the three points with a 1-0 win in Hamburg to go level on 54 points with Werder Bremen, who shared a thrilling 3-3 draw at Karlsruhe. After Schalke sacked coach Mirko Slomka a fortnight ago, caretaker coach Mike Bueskens was delighted with the victory over their rivals. \"I am very, very pleased with the win,\" he said. \"We beat a direct competitor for a Champions League place and the early goal worked very well for us. Hamburg played well, but they didn't take their chances.\" Schalke and Bremen, who remain second on goal difference, are now nine points behind Bayern with four games left. A Bayern win will send them 12-points clear with a vastly superior goal difference and only a mathematical miracle would prevent them being crowned German champions for the 21st time. But Bayern are without internationals Miroslav Klose and Philipp Lahm against Stuttgart, while Oliver Kahn is a huge injury doubt for the clash against Stuttgart who welcome back Mario Gomez back from injury. The draw in Karlsruhe was a blow to Bremen, who were shocked by an early goal when home striker Sebastian Freis drilled home his 15th minute shot. Werder hit back when midfielder Diego equalised eight minutes later and former Schalke midfielder Mesut Oezil scored his first goal of the season to put Bremen 2-1 ahead on 29 minutes. But Freis added his second on 59 minutes before Kapllani put Karlsruhe ahead only for Bremen striker Boubacar Sanogo to level the scores in the 86th minute. \"It was a very entertaining game and the fans got their money's worth,\" said Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf. \"But we can't be happy with the result, because it was possible for us to keep the pressure on.\" Further down the table, striker Mike Hanke gave Hanover an early goal at home to Hertha Berlin before Czech striker Jiri Stajner enjoyed the simplest of tap-ins to make it 2-0 after 26 minutes. But Berlin clawed a goal back with a second-half penalty to make it 2-1 before Lukasz Piszczek equalised in the 66th minute to make it 2-2. At the bottom of the table, Slovakian striker Marek Mintal netted a first-half goal for Nuremberg and Russian striker Ivan Saenko made it 2-0 against Arminia Bielefeld after 39 minutes with a superb strike. But Bielefeld hit back as Artur Wichniarek and Markus Bollmann scored second-half goals to make it 2-2. Energie Cottbus pulled themselves further from the relegation battle with a 2-1 win over Hansa Rostock, while Duisburg have gone bottom of the table with a 1-1 draw against Bochum. On Friday night, mid-table sides Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1 while on Sunday Bayer Leverkusen can break into the top five if they beat Wolfsburg at home. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kevin Kuranyi's early goal gives Schalke a 1-0 home victory against Hamburg .\nSchalke now level in second position with Bremen, who draw 3-3 at Karlsruhe .\nBayern Munich will all but clinch the title with a win over Stuttgart in Sunday .","id":"374ae10f9cbb0719c889321f880a0671892336e4"} -{"article":"(This Old House) -- Unless you're a perfect caretaker of your lawn (and, really, who is?), prepare for another round in the turf wars this summer. You'll have to deal with a full frontal assault from the dandelions, of course. And an attack from the crabgrass. But you'll face more stealthy opponents, too: root-chomping grubs and microscopic mildew that turn the grass from green to gray or brown. \"If a lawn is neglected, or cared for in a hit-or-miss way, it gets weak,\" says This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook. \"And that's when weeds, insects, or fungal diseases become a major problem.\" Little wonder that last year almost 50 million homeowners bought products to fight these invaders. But as in most battles, the best defense is a strong offense: doing everything right to cultivate healthy turf. That means giving it up to an inch and a half of water per week; aerating and dethatching annually so water and nutrients can get down to the roots; mowing with a sharp blade to the right height (ask your local garden center what's best where you live); and fertilizing in spring and fall. So promise yourself -- and your turf -- you'll do that this year. In the meantime, here's how to conquer the most common turf problems you're likely to confront this summer. Fungal disease . Symptoms: Circular patches of yellow-to-brown grass; or blades with tiny red threads. Culprits: Powdery mildew, brown patch, dollar spot, and fusarium patch; or red thread. These fungal diseases can take hold of stressed turf. Solutions: Though lawns will generally recover from small areas of infection, if a fungus is progressively marching across your yard, look for a fungicide with the active ingredient thiophanate-methyl and follow the directions. For an organic fix, search out a corn-gluten mix that will cure brown patch and weaken most other fungi. Then nurse your lawn back to health by practicing good lawn-care habits: Avoid excessive shade (prune back trees and large shrubs, if necessary) and too many applications of fertilizer, herbicides, or pesticides. Carefully monitor your turf's moisture intake and never water in the evening. Weeds . Symptoms: Fast-growing and unruly greenery that quickly overtakes surrounding grass. This Old House: What type of grass is right for your yard . Culprits: Crabgrass or broadleaf weeds such as dandelion, purslane, henbit, and chickweed that commonly pop up where soil is compacted and grass hasn't completely taken root. To check for compacted soil, stick a screwdriver into the ground; it should slide in easily. Solutions: The first step is to eradicate any foreign invaders. The best approach is to pull them out by hand using a weeder or a hoe. This will also loosen the soil in affected areas. Or use a liquid herbicide in a hand sprayer to spot-treat an infestation. If weeds are too plentiful to be pulled, check your garden center for a \"weed-and-feed\" blend of granular fertilizer and herbicide that will kill weeds without harming turf types commonly grown in your area, or look for an organic fertilizer with corn gluten. Be sure to follow the directions on the box exactly, as some formulas must be applied during a dry spell or need a 24-hour breather with no foot traffic. From here on out, mow up to twice a week during the beginning of summer when grass grows swiftly, and raise the mower blade an inch during hot or dry periods. Water well as the summer heats up, and your turf should naturally overtake the weeds. In the fall, open up compacted soil poke holes with a pitchfork over a small yard, or rent a power aerator for large yards and overseed the lawn. You may want to follow up with a pre-emergent herbicide next spring. Insects . Symptoms: Brown turf that becomes loose enough to lift like a mat. Culprits: White grubs, a catch-all name for root-chomping beetle larvae, including june bugs, Japanese beetles, and masked chafers. To be sure that's what you've got, cut a square foot of infected turf and roll it back, looking for pale, half-inch- to inch-long C-shaped bugs. If you find more than six, treat the turf. This Old House: Meet the good bugs . Solutions: Grubs are the biggest threat to lawns, and pesticides formulated with imidacloprid are proven effective. For an organic fix, spread powdered milky spore or lay down beneficial nematodes-microscopic worms that will feed on the grubs if they're present. With nematodes, timing the application with their life cycle is critical, so be sure to follow the directions on the box exactly. Both milky spore and nematodes can be ordered from some garden centers or online (gardensalive.com). Symptoms: Irregular-shaped patches of brownish-yellow grass. Culprits: Chinch bugs, gray-black, quarter-inch-long insects that suck moisture from grass and are most likely to attack St. Augustine and zoysia grasses in the South and Kentucky bluegrass in the North. To spot them, bury an empty coffee can, with both ends removed, at the edge of the affected area and fill it with water. The bugs will seek out the moisture, then float to the top. If you see more than 10 after 20 minutes, you should address the problem. Solutions: Chinch bugs live on the surface, among thatch, so dethatching will reduce their numbers. To eradicate them completely, look for an appropriate insecticide with a pyrethroid ingredient. Longer-term, overseed with chinch-bug-resistant grasses. Symptoms: Patches of thin lawn with blades chewed off at the base. Culprits: Sod webworms and tropical sod webworms, hairless cream-to-gray spotted caterpillars that grow into small, buff-colored moths at maturity. The tropical species that thrive in warm southern climates cause the most harm. To check for webworms, mix two tablespoons of mild detergent with two gallons of water; pour it over the infested turf. Any larvae will float to the top. Solutions: You can try flooding your lawn to drown them. Or choose an appropriate insecticide; in an organic product, look for the ingredients azadirachtin or spinosad. With extreme cases of tropical webworm infestation you may need to replace the turf with a resistant grass mix. TIP: If dogs regularly make a pit stop of your lawn, keep a hose or water bucket nearby. Dog urine is high in nitrogen, which can \"burn\" turf, creating a good-sized yellow patch. The best fix is immediate action: Flush the area ASAP with water to dilute it. Once badly burned, grass won't come back on its own-you'll have to rake out the dead stuff and reseed. This Old House: What to do when your yard is bowser's bathroom E-mail to a friend . Get 2 Free Trial Issues . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2008 THIS OLD HOUSE VENTURES, INC.","highlights":"A good corn-gluten mix cures brown patches and weakens most fungi .\nBrown patches are often indicative of bug problems .\nDog urine is high is nitrogen, so flush affected areas with water .","id":"89a7bb5a0b120c5b50e9145c8f8f9bea3a90371a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A pair of tornadoes struck suburban Washington on Sunday, mangling trees and stripping siding off several homes, the National Weather Service confirmed. No injuries were immediately reported. The first tornado hit St. Charles, Maryland -- about 30 miles south of Washington -- just after 2 p.m. It uprooted several trees, many of which fell onto cars and homes. The strongest wind from that touchdown was 80 mph -- enough force to blow out windows. A second tornado followed about 30 minutes later outside Hyattsville, Maryland -- about 10 miles northeast of the capital. The high-speed winds, peaking at 100 mph, hit the George E. Peters Adventist School especially hard, tearing off a portion of the roof and flinging it and mounds of debris into the parking lot. A nearby construction trailer was also knocked over. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"First tornado hit St. Charles, Maryland, about 30 miles south of Washington .\nSecond tornado struck 30 minutes later outside Hyattsville, Maryland .\nNo injuries were immediately reported .","id":"49d4ad731a44b7576e3e3271b1eee2f0219883c2"} -{"article":"IP-455 Press Release 8 February 2008 The findings of a Scotland Yard inquiry into how Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died after being attacked during a political rally in Rawalpindi were presented to the Government of Pakistan today. The bomb explodes near Bhutto's vehicle following a political rally in Rawalpindi. The conclusions of the inquiry were outlined in a detailed report handed over to interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz by Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne, accompanied by a senior official from the British High Commission, during a meeting in Islamabad. The text of the executive summary of the report is as follows: . On the 27th December 2007, Mohtarma Benazir BHUTTO, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), died as a result of being attacked in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Following discussions between the Prime Minister and President Musharraf, it was agreed that officers from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) should support the investigation into Ms Bhutto's death. The primary focus of the Scotland Yard team was to assist the Pakistani authorities in establishing the cause and circumstances of Ms Bhutto's death. The wider investigation to establish culpability has remained entirely a matter for the Pakistani authorities. The SO15 team was led by a Detective Superintendent Senior Investigating Officer, and comprised two forensic experts, an expert in analysing and assessing video media and an experienced investigating officer. The team arrived in Pakistan on 4th January 2008 and spent two and a half weeks conducting extensive enquiries. During the course of their work, the team were joined by other specialists from the United Kingdom. The UK team were given extensive support and co-operation by the Pakistani authorities, Ms Bhutto's family, and senior officials from Ms Bhutto's party. The task of establishing exactly what happened was complicated by the lack of an extended and detailed search of the crime scene, the absence of an autopsy, and the absence of recognised body recovery and victim identification processes. Nevertheless, the evidence that is available is sufficient for reliable conclusions to be drawn. Within the overall objective, a particular focus has been placed on establishing the actual cause of death, and whether there were one or more attackers in the immediate vicinity of Ms Bhutto. The cause of death . Considerable reliance has been placed upon the X-rays taken at Rawalpindi General Hospital following Ms Bhutto's death. Given their importance, the x-rays have been independently verified as being of Ms Bhutto by comparison with her dental x-rays. Additionally, a valuable insight was gained from the accounts given by the medical staff involved in her treatment, and from those members of Ms Bhutto's family who washed her body before burial. Ms Bhutto's only apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head. The UK experts all exclude this injury being an entry or exit wound as a result of gunshot. The only X-ray records, taken after her death, were of Ms Bhutto's head. However, the possibility of a bullet wound to her mid or lower trunk can reasonably be excluded. This is based upon the protection afforded by the armoured vehicle in which she was travelling at the time of the attack, and the accounts of her family and hospital staff who examined her. The limited X-ray material, the absence of a full post mortem examination and CT scan, have meant that the UK Home Office pathologist, Dr Nathaniel Cary, who has been consulted in this case, is unable categorically to exclude the possibility of there being a gunshot wound to the upper trunk or neck. However when his findings are put alongside the accounts of those who had close contact with Ms Bhutto's body, the available evidence suggests that there was no gunshot injury. Importantly, Dr Cary excludes the possibility of a bullet to the neck or upper trunk as being a relevant factor in the actual cause of death, when set against the nature and extent of her head injury. In his report Dr Cary states: . \u2022 \"the only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb-blast.\" \u2022 \"in my opinion Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb-blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle.\" Given the severity of the injury to Ms Bhutto's head, the prospect that she inadvertently hit her head whilst ducking down into the vehicle can be excluded as a reasonable possibility. High explosives of the type typically used in this sort of device, detonate at a velocity between 6000 and 9000 metres per second. This means that when considering the explosive quantities and distances involved, such an explosion would generate significantly more force than would be necessary to provoke the consequences as occurred in this case. It is also important to comment upon the construction of the vehicle. It was fitted with B6 grade armour and designed to withstand gunfire and bomb-blast. It is an unfortunate and misleading aspect of this case that the roof escape hatch has frequently been referred to as a sunroof. It is not. It is designed and intended to be used solely as a means of escape. It has a solid lip with a depth of 9cm. Ms Bhutto's injury is entirely consistent with her head impacting upon the lip of the escape hatch. Detailed analysis of the media footage provides supporting evidence. Ms Bhutto's head did not completely disappear from view until 0.6 seconds before the blast. She can be seen moving forward and to the right as she ducked down into the vehicle. Whilst her exact head position at the time of the detonation can never be ascertained, the overwhelming conclusion must be that she did not succeed in getting her head entirely below the lip of the escape hatch when the explosion occurred. How many people were involved in the immediate attack? There has been speculation that two individuals were directly involved in the attack. The suggestion has been that one suspect fired shots, and a second detonated the bomb. All the available evidence points toward the person who fired shots and the person who detonated the explosives being one and the same person. \u2022 Body parts from only one individual remain unidentified. Expert opinion provides strong evidence that they originate from the suicide bomber. \u2022 Analysis of the media footage places the gunman at the rear of the vehicle and looking down immediately before the explosion. The footage does not show the presence of any other potential bomber. \u2022 This footage when considered alongside the findings of the forensic explosive expert, that the bombing suspect was within 1 to 2 metres of the vehicle towards it rear and with no person or other obstruction between him and the vehicle, strongly suggests that the bomber and gunman were at the same position. It is virtually inconceivable that anyone who was where the gunman can clearly be seen on the media footage, could have survived the blast and escaped. The inevitable conclusion is that there was one attacker in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle in which Ms Bhutto was travelling. In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device. At the time of the attack this person was standing close to the rear of Ms Bhutto's vehicle. The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury. John MacBrayne QPM Detective Superintendent Counter Terrorism Command 1st February 2008 E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Scotland Yard releases report into assassination of Benazir Bhutto .\nOnly apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head .\nUK experts all exclude the injury being a wound as a result of gunshot .\nInjury consistent with her head impacting upon the lip of vehicle escape hatch .","id":"ab3c9bac8bcfef89da719c4aba8ea4eee71e4daf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Storms that killed two people in northern Georgia spread Saturday night into South Carolina, where possible tornadoes downed trees, blew roofs off homes and broke power lines, weather forecasters said. There was heavy damage in Prosperity, South Carolina, where residents reported seeing a tornado touch down, said Newberry County sheriff's Capt. Todd Johnson. Prosperity is 40 miles northwest of Columbia. A woman was severely injured when a tree fell on her trailer, trapping her inside, Johnson said. About 56,000 customers remained without power Sunday morning after storms swept through Savannah knocking out power while the coastal Georgia city was in the midst of its St. Patrick's Day celebrations, said Carol Boatwright of Georgia Power. Damage was reported Saturday night in the counties of Newberry, McCormick, Edgefield, Lexington, Aiken and Kershaw. \"We have numerous reports of tornadoes touching down. There is a lot of damage, and we are unable to respond to all of the calls,\" a dispatcher for the Aiken County Sheriff's Department said. Meanwhile, the storm danger passed in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. A Friday night tornado packing winds of up to 135 miles per hour cut a path 6 miles long and 200 yards wide through downtown in less than 30 minutes. Watch a flyover of a damaged area in Georgia \u00bb . There was heavy damage to many structures, including the CNN world headquarters. On Saturday, windows were still popping out from a high-rise nearby. Heavy rain and hail passed through in the afternoon. Watch video of storm damage in Georgia \u00bb . Two people died in northern Georgia on Saturday as waves of dangerous thunderstorms pounded the area, and storms continued into Saturday night. A possible tornado destroyed mobile homes in Jefferson County, and another possible tornado was reported in Clarke County, where Athens is located, the weather service reported. A woman died and her husband was seriously injured when a tornado leveled their home in the Live Oak community, just north of Aragon, Polk County officials said. Aragon is about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Watch damage in Polk County \u00bb . Aragon police were assessing damage when they found the house about 12:30 p.m., Polk County Police Chief Kenneth Dodd said. The part-brick, part-frame home was reduced to rubble. The injured man was taken to a Rome, Georgia, hospital, Dodd said. Five dead dogs were found in a nearby field, and other injured animals were taken to an animal control agency, he said. A family across the street from the couple's home lost part of their roof. Another person was seriously injured elsewhere, said Thomas Wilson, Polk County's 911 director. The second fatality was in Floyd County, about 7 miles southeast of Lindale in the Wax community, where a possible tornado struck about 4:30 p.m., said Scotty Hancock, the county emergency management director. Watch damage in Floyd County \u00bb . The National Weather Service estimated that 20 homes were destroyed in the area. Damage was also reported in Taylorsville and Cartersville, about 40 miles northwest of Atlanta, and suspected tornado touchdowns were reported in Gainesville in Hall County, near Homer in Banks County and near Maysville in Jackson County. A tornado was also reported in northern Forsyth County, sheriff's Capt. Michael Honiker said. At least one structure fire was reported, he said. Hail nearly 3 inches in diameter was reported in Dawsonville, the National Weather Service said. There were 41,000 people without power statewide Saturday evening, according to Georgia Power. Saturday's severe weather followed an EF-2 tornado, with top winds of up to 135 mph that ripped through downtown Atlanta on Friday night. There were no fatalities, and only one serious injury was reported. Rain, wind and hail caused additional power outages Saturday in the Atlanta area and triggered delays of more than an hour for flights leaving Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to an airport spokesman. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Audrey Irvine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sheriff: Possible tornado caused heavy damage in Prosperity, South Carolina .\n\"We are unable to respond to all of the calls,\" dispatcher says .\nDeaths reported in Polk and Floyd Counties in Georgia on Saturday .\nSaturday's storms followed EF-2 tornado that tore through Atlanta on Friday .","id":"eb8b1cf7cf4ab7ad23ef6094cfe69348563aecc8"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi report on last month's shootings involving security contractor Blackwater USA called the incident \"pre-meditated murder\" and is calling for $8 million in compensation for each of the 17 Iraqis who died, a senior Iraqi government official said Monday. Lawyer Hassan Jabbar lies in a hospital after being injured in a shooting involving Blackwater contractors. The results of the Iraqi investigation into the shootings is complete and will be presented to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government for review, the official said. The report calls for the payments to go to the families of each of those killed in the shootings, he said. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday that the Iraqi commission investigating the shootings has accused the company's guards of firing indiscriminately and without provocation on citizens and violating the rights of Iraqis. Blackwater said its contractors \"acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack,\" and \"the civilians reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were, in fact, armed enemies, and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire.\" The September 16 shooting also left 27 other people wounded, al-Dabbagh said. Seven vehicles were also destroyed in the incident, which occurred around Nusoor Square in western Baghdad. Al-Dabbagh said the commission, formed September 22, determined there was no evidence the Blackwater convoy was under direct or indirect fire. \"Not even a stone was thrown at them,\" al-Dabbagh said. He added the contractors violated the rules of conduct and regulations for private security firms operating in Iraq. \"They must be held accountable according to the law,\" he said. However, security contractors have immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation. Watch how supervision has been tightened on contractors \u00bb . Blackwater security contractors were guarding a State Department convoy. The company is one of a number of private security contractors in Iraq. Last month's shooting has sparked fury in both countries and led to a series of new steps reviewing the role of U.S. contractors in Iraq. The Iraqi-American joint committee met for the first time Sunday to begin reviewing security operations. It plans to issue a report offering recommendations to the Iraqi and U.S. governments. Border crossings reopen . Five border crossings between Iran and Iraq's Kurdish region have been reopened, an Iraqi Kurdish regional government spokesman said. Iran closed its border with the Iraqi region nearly two weeks ago to protest the U.S. military's incarceration of an Iranian arrested September 20 in Sulaimaniya. The U.S. military maintains that Mahmoud Farhadi was posing as a businessman with a trade delegation and was in charge of Zafar Command, one of three units of the Ramazan Corps of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani blasted the United States for the arrest, saying Farhadi is an Iranian civil servant who was on an official trade mission in the region. The U.S. military has long accused Quds Force agents of training and equipping Iraqi insurgents, an allegation Iran vehemently denies. Other developments . CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Not even a stone was thrown at them,\" Iraqi official says of Blackwater guards .\nIraq says 17 Iraqis killed by Blackwater guards in Baghdad square .\nBlackwater, Iraqi officials have starkly different accounts of what happened .\nIraqi panel is calling for $8 million per victim in the September 16 shooting .","id":"e944a5cbd4265e43f422c172b930a60b7de190cc"} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton denied Tuesday he had accused Sen. Barack Obama's campaign of \"playing the race card\" during an interview Monday. Bill Clinton is facing tough questions Tuesday over an interview with a Delaware radio station. A recording of the former president making the comment is posted on the WHYY Web site. It says he made the comment in a telephone interview with the Philadelphia public radio station Monday night. Clinton was asked whether his remarks comparing Obama's strong showing in South Carolina to that of Jesse Jackson in 1988 had been a mistake given their impact on his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. \"No, I think that they played the race card on me,\" said Clinton, \"and we now know from memos from the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.\" Listen to the full interview . \"We were talking about South Carolina political history and this was used out of context and twisted for political purposes by the Obama campaign to try to breed resentment elsewhere. And you know, do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you really got to go some to try to portray me as a racist.\" After the phone interview, a stray comment of his on the issue was also recorded before he hung up: \"I don't think I should take any s*** from anybody on that, do you?\" Watch Bill Clinton respond to controversy \u00bb . But outside a Pittsburgh campaign event Tuesday, a reporter asked Clinton what he had meant \"when you said the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?\" Clinton responded: \"When did I say that and to whom did I say that?\" Watch more of the Clintons on the trail in Pennsylvania \u00bb . \"You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your games today,\" Clinton added. \"I said what I said -- you can go back and look at the interview, and if you will be real honest you will also report what the question was and what the answer was. But I'm not helping you.\" Clinton did not respond when asked what he meant when he charged that the Obama campaign had a memo in which they said they had planned to play the race card. Meanwhile, at a Pittsburgh press availability on Tuesday, Obama was asked about Clinton's charge that his campaign had drawn up plans to use \"the race card.\" \"Hold on a second,'' he said. \"So former President Clinton dismissed my victory in South Carolina as being similar to Jesse Jackson and he is suggesting that somehow I had something to do with it?\" Watch Obama's full comments \u00bb . \"You better ask him what he meant by that. I have no idea what he meant. These were words that came out of his mouth. Not words that came out of mine.'' Clinton commented just before the South Carolina primary that \"Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand, CNN political producers Alexander Marquardt, Ed Hornick and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill Clinton in interview Monday: Obama camp \"played the race card on me\"\nOn Tuesday he denied he had accused Obama's campaign of it .\nClinton: \"When did I say that and to whom did I say that?\"\nA recording of former president's comment is posted on WHYY Web site .","id":"ef96a6c54daaf4fef676a69305e26fa1d4788bdd"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- A fight between Ugandan and Libyan presidential guards sparked chaos during a ceremony attended by the heads of state from 11 African nations on Wednesday. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni attend the opening of the mosque. Several of the guards to the visiting heads of state from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Mali, Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti sustained serious injuries in the fight, which included punches, kicks and the drawing of guns. No leaders were hurt in the melee, though several were knocked over. Several journalists also were caught up in the fracas and suffered injuries or lost their grips on cameras and recorders. The incident occurred at the opening of a massive Gadhafi National Mosque in Kampala, a structure begun by the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1972 and completed with financing from Libya, according to African media reports. Minutes after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his host, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, jointly unveiled a plaque to mark the event, the Libyan guards pushed away the guards of other delegations at the mosque's entrance. The Ugandan guards -- who had traded hostilities with the predominantly-Arab Libyan guards at every joint event since Gadhafi's arrival in the country Sunday -- reacted with fury and fought back. Museveni briefly lost his balance when a hefty Libyan guard pushed him to a wall. Another Libyan guard pushed Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who also lost his balance but was caught by his own guards. The vice president of Tanzania was knocked over by fighting guards as he was taking his shoes off to enter the mosque. Guards to the rest of the visiting presidents and prime ministers kept their respective leaders out of the fray, with some drawing their guns as the dignitaries looked on in disbelief. Some leaders -- notably those from Somalia, Burundi and Djibouti -- were visibly uneasy as guns were drawn on all sides. By the time the fight was over more than six minutes later, about a dozen presidential guards were left bleeding from compound fractures and the Libyan and Ugandan protocol officials traded bitter accusations of disrespect and racism. \"What are your people up to? Do you want to kill our leader?\" a Libyan protocol official said to his Ugandan counterpart. The Ugandan official, who declined to be named, shouted back, \"Why do think you're superior? What makes you think Uganda has any ill intention against Gadhafi?\" The Ugandan official said Museveni's guards were simply doing their job as security for the host country and had a right to respond when the Libyan guards pushed them back. It has taken 36 years to complete the giant mosque on a hill in the heart of Kampala. It used to be a colonial fort named after British Capt. Frederick Lugard. The mosque can accommodate as many as 17,000 people at one time, according to the engineers, who call it the largest mosque in sub-Saharan Africa. Many Muslims interviewed said the mosque's opening evoked sweet memories of Amin, the deceased dictator. \"It is a great day and thanks be to Allah for the completion,\" said Salim Abdul Noor, 39. \"This should remind us that while Amin is demonized as Africa's worst dictator, there are many things he did for this country that successive governments largely depend on, and much of the completed installations and structures like this beautiful mosque was Amin's dream, may Allah rest him in peace.\" The Swedish vice president of the European Islamic Conference, Adly Abu Hajar, 57, said the mosque heals rifts in a religion introduced to Uganda in 1844 by Arab slave traders. \"I find this complex has brought unity among Muslims in Uganda. There have been so many factions, but this attraction has brought them together, identifying themselves with a common home.\" The fight prompted a crisis meeting by Ugandan security authorities, after which invited diplomats from mainly the European missions in Uganda expressed dismay. \"It's disgrace. It shows there is something wrong yet unknown between the two parties,\" said the head of one European mission in Kampala, who declined to be named. The police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, and the head of the army, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, declined to comment on the fight. But Capt. Edison Kwesiga, the spokesman of the Ugandan Presidential Guard Brigade, confirmed their hostile relationship with the Libyans. \"It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of any visiting head of state. We have to do our job using any means. But our Libyan brothers always want us to fail. True, it's not the first time they come and act as you see,\" Kwesiga said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ugandan officer reports tensions with Libyan leader's guards during visit .\nLeaders gathered for opening of massive mosque in Kampala, Uganda .\nAbout a dozen presidential guards seen bleeding from compound fractures .","id":"d9ec8c3e50de1d5af4524c26c6819e17b64090aa"} -{"article":"KARBALA, Iraq (CNN) -- A female suicide bomber apparently targeting Shiite worshippers killed at least 40 people and wounded at least 65 in Karbala on Monday, according to an Interior Ministry official. Iraqi security forces gather around the site of a car bomb explosion in Baghdad on Monday. The incident occurred one-half mile from the Imam Hussein shrine of Karbala. Karbala is a Shiite holy city, and the Imam Hussein shrine is one of Shiite Islam's holiest locations. The shrine marks the burial spot of Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, who was killed in battle nearby in 680. No more information was immediately available about the blast southwest of the capital city, Baghdad. Earlier Monday, in Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol, killing one officer and wounding another, the Interior Ministry told CNN. A short time later, another roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, wounding four bystanders, a ministry official said. The first attack took place about 8:30 a.m. in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, where law enforcement officials have come under frequent attacks in recent weeks. Also Monday, two American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, officials said. The incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. as the soldiers were \"conducting a route-clearance combat operation north of Baghdad,\" according to a news release. The names of the soldiers were not immediately released. Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in the Iraqi capital Monday on an unannounced visit. Cheney told reporters that the five years in Iraq since the war's start has been \"well worth the effort.\" He said he met with top Iraqi officials. He appeared at a news conference with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to the country. Cheney began a trip to the Middle East on Sunday with an official itinerary that listed stops in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and the West Bank, according to the White House. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 2 U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad on Monday, U.S. says .\nNEW: Other roadside bombs in Baghdad kill one police officer, injure four people .\nDeath toll rises to 40 in explosion in Karbala, official says; 65 injured .\nExplosion was near holy shrine for Shiite Muslims, burial spot of Hussein bin Ali .","id":"b6072611b97e8c19ba2d7e0dfce153f046dd629d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For two weeks in 1976, Nadia Comaneci was probably the most recognizable person on the planet. Comaneci scored seven perfect 10s in Montreal in 1976. Just 14-years-old and standing less than five feet tall, the elfin Romanian was the undisputed star of that year's Games in Montreal after becoming the first gymnast in history to score a perfect 10. Comaneci finished up with three gold medals and -- just to prove that her initial effort had been no fluke -- seven perfect scores. Her initial performance on the uneven parallel bars was greeted with uproar as the three-digit scoreboard, struggling to cope with what had been considered an unachievable feat, flashed up 1.00. Comaneci finished with four perfect 10s and the gold medal on the bars, but it was on the balance beam, one of gymnastics' most dangerous disciplines, that Comaneci truly dazzled. Seemingly fearless, Comaneci pirouetted and back-flipped her way to two more perfect 10s and her second gold. Her final perfect score came in the floor routine as she also collected first place in the overall competition. Comaneci's transformation into an international celebrity -- she appeared on the front covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated in the same week -- had been as unexpected as it was sudden. Yet Comaneci had been working towards the Olympics ever since she had been picked out as a gymnast of rare talents as a six-year-old growing up in the industrial town of Onesti. The reality of life as an Olympic champion at home in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania however, was not easy. Constant surveillance Comaneci was honored as a Hero of Socialist Labor on her return home, yet the regime -- terrified that Comaneci would defect after enjoying her taste of western celebrity -- kept its greatest star under constant surveillance. Four years later, a very different Comaneci returned to Olympic competition in Moscow. As an 18-year-old, she was four inches taller, 20 pounds heavier and suffering from sciatica -- a teenage starlet already starting to fade. Still, Comaneci was able to retain her gold medal on the balance beam, and collected another one in the floor exercises. But she was also involved in one of the bitterest incidents of the Games when she was controversially beaten in the all-round competition by the Soviet gymnast Yelena Davydova. It took the judges 28 minutes to decide the result and, ultimately, it was a lower score from the Soviet judge -- perhaps reflecting the worsening relations between the Soviet Union and its formerly loyal satellite -- that denied Comaneci her second straight gold in the event. Comaneci retired in 1984, traveling to Los Angeles that year as a team coach, yet she found it difficult to adjust to a life out of the spotlight. In 1989, a few weeks before the collapse of the Ceausescu regime, she defected to the United States, finally settling in Norman, Oklahoma to run a gymnastics school after marrying U.S. gymnastics star Bart Conner in 1996. In 2000 Comaneci was named as one of the athletes of the century by the Laureus World Sports Academy. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Olympic gymnast record: 5 gold medals, 3 silver medals, 1 bronze medal .\nThe first gymnast in history to score a perfect 10 .\nComaneci was honored as a Hero of Socialist Labor .\nGymnast born on November 12, 1961 in Onesti, Romania .","id":"2cf81cee664ebcb027a48259e34e512a79aceecb"} -{"article":"(This Old House) -- Unless you're a perfect caretaker of your lawn (and, really, who is?), prepare for another round in the turf wars this summer. You'll have to deal with a full frontal assault from the dandelions, of course. And an attack from the crabgrass. But you'll face more stealthy opponents, too: root-chomping grubs and microscopic mildew that turn the grass from green to gray or brown. \"If a lawn is neglected, or cared for in a hit-or-miss way, it gets weak,\" says This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook. \"And that's when weeds, insects, or fungal diseases become a major problem.\" Little wonder that last year almost 50 million homeowners bought products to fight these invaders. But as in most battles, the best defense is a strong offense: doing everything right to cultivate healthy turf. That means giving it up to an inch and a half of water per week; aerating and dethatching annually so water and nutrients can get down to the roots; mowing with a sharp blade to the right height (ask your local garden center what's best where you live); and fertilizing in spring and fall. So promise yourself -- and your turf -- you'll do that this year. In the meantime, here's how to conquer the most common turf problems you're likely to confront this summer. Fungal disease . Symptoms: Circular patches of yellow-to-brown grass; or blades with tiny red threads. Culprits: Powdery mildew, brown patch, dollar spot, and fusarium patch; or red thread. These fungal diseases can take hold of stressed turf. Solutions: Though lawns will generally recover from small areas of infection, if a fungus is progressively marching across your yard, look for a fungicide with the active ingredient thiophanate-methyl and follow the directions. For an organic fix, search out a corn-gluten mix that will cure brown patch and weaken most other fungi. Then nurse your lawn back to health by practicing good lawn-care habits: Avoid excessive shade (prune back trees and large shrubs, if necessary) and too many applications of fertilizer, herbicides, or pesticides. Carefully monitor your turf's moisture intake and never water in the evening. Weeds . Symptoms: Fast-growing and unruly greenery that quickly overtakes surrounding grass. This Old House: What type of grass is right for your yard . Culprits: Crabgrass or broadleaf weeds such as dandelion, purslane, henbit, and chickweed that commonly pop up where soil is compacted and grass hasn't completely taken root. To check for compacted soil, stick a screwdriver into the ground; it should slide in easily. Solutions: The first step is to eradicate any foreign invaders. The best approach is to pull them out by hand using a weeder or a hoe. This will also loosen the soil in affected areas. Or use a liquid herbicide in a hand sprayer to spot-treat an infestation. If weeds are too plentiful to be pulled, check your garden center for a \"weed-and-feed\" blend of granular fertilizer and herbicide that will kill weeds without harming turf types commonly grown in your area, or look for an organic fertilizer with corn gluten. Be sure to follow the directions on the box exactly, as some formulas must be applied during a dry spell or need a 24-hour breather with no foot traffic. From here on out, mow up to twice a week during the beginning of summer when grass grows swiftly, and raise the mower blade an inch during hot or dry periods. Water well as the summer heats up, and your turf should naturally overtake the weeds. In the fall, open up compacted soil poke holes with a pitchfork over a small yard, or rent a power aerator for large yards and overseed the lawn. You may want to follow up with a pre-emergent herbicide next spring. Insects . Symptoms: Brown turf that becomes loose enough to lift like a mat. Culprits: White grubs, a catch-all name for root-chomping beetle larvae, including june bugs, Japanese beetles, and masked chafers. To be sure that's what you've got, cut a square foot of infected turf and roll it back, looking for pale, half-inch- to inch-long C-shaped bugs. If you find more than six, treat the turf. This Old House: Meet the good bugs . Solutions: Grubs are the biggest threat to lawns, and pesticides formulated with imidacloprid are proven effective. For an organic fix, spread powdered milky spore or lay down beneficial nematodes-microscopic worms that will feed on the grubs if they're present. With nematodes, timing the application with their life cycle is critical, so be sure to follow the directions on the box exactly. Both milky spore and nematodes can be ordered from some garden centers or online (gardensalive.com). Symptoms: Irregular-shaped patches of brownish-yellow grass. Culprits: Chinch bugs, gray-black, quarter-inch-long insects that suck moisture from grass and are most likely to attack St. Augustine and zoysia grasses in the South and Kentucky bluegrass in the North. To spot them, bury an empty coffee can, with both ends removed, at the edge of the affected area and fill it with water. The bugs will seek out the moisture, then float to the top. If you see more than 10 after 20 minutes, you should address the problem. Solutions: Chinch bugs live on the surface, among thatch, so dethatching will reduce their numbers. To eradicate them completely, look for an appropriate insecticide with a pyrethroid ingredient. Longer-term, overseed with chinch-bug-resistant grasses. Symptoms: Patches of thin lawn with blades chewed off at the base. Culprits: Sod webworms and tropical sod webworms, hairless cream-to-gray spotted caterpillars that grow into small, buff-colored moths at maturity. The tropical species that thrive in warm southern climates cause the most harm. To check for webworms, mix two tablespoons of mild detergent with two gallons of water; pour it over the infested turf. Any larvae will float to the top. Solutions: You can try flooding your lawn to drown them. Or choose an appropriate insecticide; in an organic product, look for the ingredients azadirachtin or spinosad. With extreme cases of tropical webworm infestation you may need to replace the turf with a resistant grass mix. TIP: If dogs regularly make a pit stop of your lawn, keep a hose or water bucket nearby. Dog urine is high in nitrogen, which can \"burn\" turf, creating a good-sized yellow patch. The best fix is immediate action: Flush the area ASAP with water to dilute it. Once badly burned, grass won't come back on its own-you'll have to rake out the dead stuff and reseed. This Old House: What to do when your yard is bowser's bathroom E-mail to a friend . Get 2 Free Trial Issues . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2008 THIS OLD HOUSE VENTURES, INC.","highlights":"A good corn-gluten mix cures brown patches and weakens most fungi .\nBrown patches are often indicative of bug problems .\nDog urine is high is nitrogen, so flush affected areas with water .","id":"b037b44fc06a2d89d95dc7b4453b87371a34fe2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The most compelling action during Michigan's primary Tuesday will be on the Republican side. The Democratic Party has stripped the state of its delegates for moving up its primary date so early, and top-tier Democratic candidates have taken their names off the ballot, except for Sen. Hillary Clinton. The struggling auto industry has been a drag on Michigan's economy. In many ways, the Republican battle for Michigan will be similar to last week's New Hampshire contest. The primary is open, and any registered voter -- including independents and Democrats -- can participate. Sen. John McCain won New Hampshire with the help of independent voters, and he is campaigning hard to re-create that success in Michigan. In 2000, McCain defeated then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Michigan primary. In that vote, more than half -- 52 percent -- were either independents or Democrats. Among Republican voters, McCain lost to Bush 29 percent to 66 percent. In that contest, almost three out of every 10 voters identified themselves as members of the religious right. Overall, Michigan is a swing state, producing narrow margins of victory for presidential candidates and statewide officeholders. However, voting trends favor the Democrats. Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, is a Democrat, as are the state's two U.S. senators -- Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. The Democratic presidential nominee has carried Michigan in the last four elections. Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 standard bearer, won Michigan 51 percent to 48 percent over President Bush. The state's economy is powered by the automotive industry, which has experienced its fair share of struggles. Michigan's unemployment rate, 7.4 percent, is higher than the national average of 5 percent. Region by region . Wayne County, in the southeastern corner of the state, contains the economically depressed Detroit, Michigan's largest city. Detroit is predominantly black and solidly Democratic. North of Wayne County are the more-affluent suburban counties of Oakland and Macomb, which have grown in population in the last two decades. These two counties have been the state's central political battleground in recent elections. West of Wayne is the \"university belt,\" home to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State University in East Lansing. The area also includes the industrial cities of Saginaw and Flint, where unions remain strong, as well as Jackson and Bay City. The state's capital, Lansing, and the sparsely populated upper peninsula are also part of this region. The southwest part of the state is dominated by Grand Rapids, Michigan's second-largest city. Grand Rapids is traditionally Dutch-American and has many Christian conservatives and generally votes Republican. The area also contains smaller industrial cities and farming communities. The economy of the sparsely populated north and northwest is based on agriculture, tourism and timber. It traditionally votes Republican. Endorsements . The Detroit Free Press has endorsed McCain. \"While the Free Press differs with McCain on a number of issues, the Arizona senator is a smarter, more tested and pragmatic leader who has shown since 2000 that he knows how to build bipartisan alliances around issues,\" the newspaper said in an editorial. The Detroit News also endorsed McCain, citing his fiscal conservatism and command of military and foreign affairs, over Michigan native Mitt Romney. \"Other GOP contenders, most notably former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, are capable figures with impressive resumes and a solid grasp of the issues. But McCain's longtime presidential ambitions are at last aligned with the needs of the nation,\" the newspaper said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Independents, Democrats can vote in Michigan's open Republican primary .\nNo Democratic delegates at stake, and most top-tier candidates aren't on ballot .\nEconomic woes top concern for Michigan primary voters .","id":"b1ea881f21e2b58e247b5894d4f259cf86b4d1dd"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four U.S. soldiers died in a roadside bombing in Iraq on Sunday, military officials reported, bringing the American toll in the 5-year-old war to the grim milestone of 4,000 deaths. Troops emerge from a bunker after receiving the \"all clear\" Sunday following a truck bombing in Mosul. The four were killed when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device while patrolling a neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq reported Sunday night. A fifth soldier was wounded in the attack, which took place about 10 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). The U.S. milestone comes just days after Americans marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the war. \"No casualty is more or less significant than another; each soldier, Marine, airman and sailor is equally precious and their loss equally tragic,\" Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, the U.S. military's chief spokesman in Iraq, said. \"Every single loss of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is keenly felt by military commanders, families and friends both in theatre and at home,\" Smith said. Of the 4,000 U.S. military personnel killed in the war, 3,263 have been killed in attacks and fighting and 737 in non-hostile incidents, such as traffic accidents and suicides. Eight of the 4,000 killed were civilians working for the Pentagon. Many of those killed over the years, like the four soldiers slain on Sunday in Baghdad, have been targeted by improvised explosive devices -- the roadside bombs that have been described as the weapon of choice for insurgents and a weapon that has come to symbolize Iraq's tenacious insurgency. The existence of the Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization has been developed to counter the threat of IEDs in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. The group calls IEDs the \"weapon of choice for adaptive and resilient networks of insurgents and terrorists.\" Watch how IEDs have become deadly staple in Iraq war \u00bb . Meanwhile, estimates of the Iraqi death toll range from about 80,000 to the hundreds of thousands, with another 2 million forced to leave the country and 2.5 million people displaced within Iraq, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. President Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq on March 19, 2003, after months of warnings that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was concealing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and efforts to build a nuclear bomb. U.N. weapons inspectors found no sign of banned weapons before the invasion, and the CIA later concluded that Iraq had dismantled its weapons programs in the 1990s. Hussein's government fell in early April 2003, and Iraq's new government executed him in December 2006. The news of the 4,000 mark came on the same day that Iraq's national security adviser urged Americans to be patient with the progress of the war, contending that it is \"well worth fighting\" because it has implications about \"global terror.\" \"This is global terrorism hitting everywhere, and they have chosen Iraq to be a battlefield. And we have to take them on,\" Mowaffak al-Rubaie said Sunday on CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.\" \"If we don't prevail, if we don't succeed in this war, then we are doomed forever,\" he said. \"I understand and sympathize with the mothers, with the widows, with the children who have lost their beloved ones in this country. \"But honestly, it is well worth fighting and well worth investing the money and the treasure and the sweat and the tears in Iraq.\" Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee. The conflict is now widely unpopular among Americans: A CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll out Wednesday found only 32 percent of Americans support the conflict. And 61 percent said they want the next president to remove most U.S. troops within a few months of taking office. In the weekly Democratic radio address Saturday, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey said President Bush \"took us to war on the wings of a lie.\" Menendez said that the war has depleted the resources and morale of the U.S. military; diverted national attention away from the war in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda is regrouping; and hurt the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The Iraq war has not made Americans safer, Menendez said, but has instead hurt the U.S. economy. The senator called for a \"responsible new direction\" regarding Iraq. CNN learned last week, from several U.S. military officials familiar with the recommendations but not authorized to speak on the record, that senior U.S. military officials are preparing to recommend to Bush a four- to six-week \"pause\" in additional troop withdrawals from Iraq after the last of the \"surge\" brigades leaves in July. \"If the conditions on the ground dictate that we have to have a pause, then we will have to have a pause,\" al-Rubaie said. The return of all five brigades added to the Iraq contingent last year could reduce troop levels by up to 30,000, but still leave approximately 130,000 or more troops in Iraq. Al-Rubaie emphasized Sunday that any drawdown of U.S. troops \"has to be based on the conditions on the ground.\" \"It depends on the development and the growth and the equipment and the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, and the preparedness of the Iraqi security forces,\" he said. \"This should not be a purely political decision. It should be also a technical, military and intelligence decision.\" But there has been too much \"foot-dragging on key governance questions in Iraq,\" Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said on CNN on Sunday. \"It seems to me you put off those troop withdrawals, you send exactly the wrong message to the Iraqis.\" On Wednesday, Bush will visit the Pentagon to be briefed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chaired by Adm. Michael Mullen. The American troop level in Iraq \"depends on the negotiations that we are engaged in now between the government of Iraq and the United States government,\" al-Rubaie said. When conditions warrant the withdrawal of American troops, the Iraqis will say \"'Thank you very much, indeed,' \" al-Rubaie said. \"A big, big thank you for the United States of America for liberating Iraq, for helping us in sustaining the security gains in Iraq ... and we will give them a very, very good farewell party then.\" Responding to recent remarks from U.S. presidential candidates that Iraqis are not taking responsibility for their own future, al-Rubaie said Iraqis are making political and security gains. \"Literally by the day and by the week, we are gradually assuming more responsibility,\" he said, noting that Iraqis have taken responsibility for security in many provinces. Other developments: . \u2022 U.S. troops raided a suspected suicide bomber cell in Diyala province on Sunday, killing a dozen militants, half of whom had shaved their bodies -- which the U.S. military says indicates they were in the final stage of preparation for a suicide attack. Diyala province stretches north and east of Baghdad and has been a major front for U.S. troops fighting militants. \u2022 Several mortars landed in Baghdad's International Zone on Sunday, according to the Interior Ministry. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said there were no major casualties. Watch smoke rise from the Green Zone \u00bb . \u2022 A suicide car bomb exploded at a fuel station Sunday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in northwest Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 12 others, the Interior Ministry said. \u2022 A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside the main gate of an Iraqi military base in Mosul, killing at least 10 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 35 people, including 20 soldiers, Mosul police said. The U.S. military put the death toll higher, at 12. \u2022 A mortar round landed in a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, killing seven people and injuring nine others, a ministry official said. Six more mortar rounds landed in other Baghdad neighborhoods Sunday night, killing three people, the Interior Ministry said. \u2022 In southeastern Baghdad, gunmen riding in at least two cars opened fire on a crowded outdoor market, killing at least three people and wounding 17 others, the Interior Ministry said. \u2022 A suicide bomber detonated a small truck rigged with explosives outside a local Awakening Council leader's house just east of Samarra on Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding 13 others, a Samarra police official said. Awakening Councils are largely Sunni security groups that have been recruited by the U.S. military. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: As Iraq war enters sixth year, American death toll rises to 4,000 .\nNEW: Four U.S. soldiers killed when their vehicle was hit by an IED .\nAt least 30 Iraqis died Sunday; 80,000 to 150,000 or more killed since war's start .\nIraq security adviser said Sunday that Iraq war is \"well worth fighting\"","id":"d80e6a3be826df05df00a87f49cc426fd597f085"} -{"article":"ADELAIDE, Australia -- World record-breaking wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist has announced he will retire from cricket at the end of the Australian summer. Adam Gilchrist takes a spectacular catch off Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the third Test against India. The 36-year-old chose Australia Day to make his decision public, coming at the end of the third day of the fourth and final Test against India in Adelaide. Gilchrist said he would retire from Tests at the end of the current match, and then hang up his gloves in one-day internationals after the upcoming tri-series with Sri Lanka and India. \"It is with great pride and happiness that I make the decision to retire from Tests and one-day internationals,\" he said in a statement on Saturday. \"I've come to the decision after much thought and discussion with those most important to me. \"My family and I have been fortunate to have had an amazing journey full of rich experiences throughout my career and are sincerely grateful to all who have helped make this stage of our lives so fulfilling. \"I am now ready and excited to move into the next phase of my life which will, of paramount importance, include much more time with my family.\" Gilchrist broke the world record for the most wicketkeeping dismissals in Tests with 414 on Friday, overtaking South Africa's Mark Boucher in his 96th outing in the five-day game. Boucher, by comparison, played in 109 Tests. Gilchrist took over the gloves from Ian Healy -- third on the list with 395 dismissals from 119 Tests -- in November 1999, and went on to establish himself both as a wicketkeeper and as a batsman of brutal hitting capabilities. He has scored 5,556 runs to date, at an average of 47.89, with a highest score of 204 not out and having made 17 centuries. He has been similarly prolific in 277 one-dayers, scoring 9,297 runs at an average of 36 and reaching three figures 15 times. Gilchrist's revelation came as Australia put themselves in a strong position to win the series against the touring Indians, reaching 322-3 at stumps. Captain Ricky Ponting, whose team lead 2-1, was unbeaten on 79 after adding an unbroken 81 for the fourth wicket with Michael Clarke (37). Resuming the day on 62-0 in reply to India's imposing first innings of 526, Matthew Hayden and Phil Jaques took their opening stand to 159. Jaques was the first to fall, bowled by India captain Anil Kumble for a patient 60 off 159 deliveries. Hayden, on his return after missing the defeat in Perth due to a hamstring injury, reached his 30th Test century before being bowled by 19-year-old seamer Ishant Sharma for 103 off 200 balls. Ponting, who came in at first drop, added another 55 with Mike Hussey before the left-hander was also castled by fast bowler Irfan Pathan for 22 to leave the home side teetering a little at 241-3. But Ponting, who has struggled for form so far in the series, ground out his 40th half-century in Tests and Clarke provided able support to take Australia through to the close of play with no further loss of wickets. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Adam Gilchrist to retire from cricket at end of this Australian summer .\nThe wicketkeeper set new world record of 414 Test dismissals on Friday .\nHe has played 96 Tests for Australia and 277 one-day internationals .\nAustralia reached 322-3 on third day of final Test against India, Gilchrist's last .","id":"05216d3837745866d393f0e07be7ba801dc330f6"} -{"article":"ANAHEIM, California (CNN) -- As he fixes a broken sliding glass door at an apartment in Anaheim, California, Eduardo Gutierrez worries about his parents in Mexico. Eduardo Gutierrez can't send money back to his parents in Mexico due to rising costs and less work. He can no longer afford to send the $200 to $300 a month he had been sending back home to support his ailing father. \"I kind of feel bad that I can't help my parents,\" said Gutierrez, a legal immigrant who has worked in the United States for 20 years. \"I try. But I can't these days, and it's a tough situation.\" Gutierrez said he earns $18.50 an hour as a glazier, installer and fixer of glass in all shapes and sizes. But with the U.S. economy sagging, his hours have shrunk, even as his gas and grocery bills have skyrocketed along with other expenses. He's struggling just to support his wife and three children. Watch bad times in the U.S. felt in Mexico \u00bb . Bank of Mexico, Mexico's equivalent to the Federal Reserve, says stories like these are becoming more common. Deceleration in the U.S. construction industry resulted in $100 million less in \"remittances\" -- money from workers in the U.S. to their relatives in Mexico -- in January this year, the most recent available stats. The overall figure went from $1.7 billion in January 2007 to $1.6 billion this January, according to Bank of Mexico. The slowdown in such money has been a consistent theme over the last year. The World Bank says remittances received by people in Mexico nearly ground to a halt in 2007, growing at a rate of 1.4 percent, compared with more than 20 percent annual growth from 2002 to 2006. \"The slowdown in Mexico is partly due to the weak job market in the United States, especially in the construction sector,\" the World Bank says on its Web site. A poll, released Wednesday, of 5,000 Latin American adults living in the United States found that only 50 percent of respondents were still sending money on a regular basis to loved ones, down from 73 percent in a similar poll conducted in 2006. The poll was conducted in February by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund. See the rise of immigrants from Latin America \u00bb . What does that mean to families in Mexico counting on the payments to survive? CNN caught up with Gutierrez's father in Tejaro, Mexico, a hardscrabble farming town of about 5,000 people. A gray-bearded man in a wide-brimmed hat, 77-year-old Camilo Izquierdo was feeding white goats that poked their heads through a makeshift fence. He and his wife have 13 children, seven of whom have moved to the United States for work, including Eduardo Gutierrez. The dad used the money from his oldest son to supplement his farming income and to help pay for diabetes medication. \"He says things are getting too expensive over there,\" the father said. \"He says things are worse there in California than over here.\" His livestock has always been his lifeline. Izquierdo used to have 140 goats, but he began selling off his livestock to make ends meet. A drought made feed more expensive, and now he's down to just 40 goats, with little money left for his medicine. \"I am sick and have been sick for quite some time. The medicine keeps getting more expensive. I just don't know what to do anymore.\" Back in California, Eduardo Gutierrez says that in addition to shrinking hours and rising food costs, gas prices are burning up his paycheck as he drives his truck to jobs spread out over hundreds of miles in Southern California. He estimates that just driving to and from the jobs is costing him $400 to $500 a month in gas. Gas calculator: How much do you need to work to pay for your gas? \u00bb . \"I've been here over 20 years, and I saw the recession back in the '90s,\" Gutierrez said. \"But this is worse, as far as I can tell. This is really bad.\" Gutierrez says his financial situation could be more desperate, like those from his hometown who are now unemployed in California. When he visits his home in Mexico, he doesn't reveal everything about just how dire the situation is. \"Every time I go down there, a lot of people ask, 'How is my son doing?' \" Gutierrez said. \"I don't want to say they're out of a job or anything like that.\" He added, \"I say they're doing all right. But that is just a lie. They are doing bad right now. A lot of people are doing bad.\" He said he knows lots of legal U.S. residents who have moved back home to Tejaro or the state of Michoacan. He also said the tighter border controls have convinced other Mexicans without legal U.S. paperwork not to try to not sneak across the border to make money for their families. \"I mean, who wants to risk his life just to make a living?\" Gutierrez asked. He said he hopes the U.S. economy picks back up and people begin renovating their homes again soon. On this day, as he finished fixing the sliding glass door, he got on his knees like a kid playing marbles and used a hand brush to sweep every last metal shaving and screw into a dust pan. \"I don't know what's going to happen,\" he said of the U.S. economy. \"Hopefully, things turn around a little better.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Remittances to Mexico fell $100 million in January, according to Bank of Mexico .\n\"I kind of feel bad that I can't help my parents,\" immigrant in U.S. says .\nPayments to loved ones back home have slowed during U.S. economic woes .\nFather in Mexico: \"He says things are worse there in California than over here\"","id":"a204e3551445183cf53ae355e532a2db731c0c30"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Captain Javier Zanetti saved Inter Milan's unbeaten Serie A record as he rifled home a stunning late volley to earn a 1-1 draw against second-placed Roma at the San Siro on Wednesday. Zanetti celebrates his late strike as Inter retained their unbeaten Serie A record with a 1-1 draw against Roma. Roma captain Francesco Totti had given the visitors a deserved first-half leadbut Zanetti's strike two minutes from time maintained Inter's nine-point lead at the top. Roma needed to win to breathe new life into the title race but they were dealt a cruel blow as French defender Philippe Mexes was sent-off late on for two bookings in quick succession. Inter capitalised and they have now lost only once in their last 65 league matches. The home side had the first clear-cut chance of the match and were within centimeters of taking the lead when Hernan Crespo met a cross from Patrick Vieira with an acrobatic volley, but saw his effort cannon back off the post. The defending champions were made to pay for that miss on 38 minutes as the visitors orchestrated a sublime goal. Neat footwork from Macedonia international Mirko Vucinic released Max Tonetto down the left and his pin-point cross was flicked home at the near post by Totti from six meters out as he stole in front of defender Cristian Chivu. Inter center-back Nicolas Burdisso should have restored parity in first-half stoppage time but his header from Luis Figo's corner flew over the bar. Figo himself had a great chance on 54 minutes but after having time to set himself up for an attempted volley, he skewed his effort so badly that it did not even go out of play. After Mexes' dismissal 10 from time, Inter laid siege to Roma's goal. Goalkeeper Doni had to be alert to tip over Crespo's header three minutes from time but he could do nothing about Zanetti's volley a minute later. Meanwhile, AC Milan slipped to fifth place as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Catania. Brazilian teenager Pato gave them the lead early in the second half with a skimming long-range shot but substitute Gionathan Spinesi's header earnt the Sicilians a point. Fiorentina are up to fourth after they defeated Livorno 1-0 at home thanks to a goal from Senegal forward Ndiaye Papa Waigo. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Javier Zanetti scores a late goal to earn Inter Milan a 1-1 draw against Roma .\nThe result keeps Inter nine points clear and retains their unbeaten league run .\nAC Milan slipped to fifth position as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Catania .","id":"047e7bc4c7ea5f7df08d4efc443ac8a3479649f1"} -{"article":"GLASGOW, Scotland -- Jean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo both scored twice to fire leaders Rangers to a 4-0 win at Hearts, their 10th consecutive Scottish Premier League victory. Jean-Claude Darcheville scored two first-half goals as Rangers cruised to a 4-0 victory at Hearts. Hearts found themselves ripped apart by a rampant Rangers side, who sent out a clear message to rivals Celtic by maintaining their four-point advantage at the summit. Darcheville claimed the opener after 25 minutes, cutting inside from the left and squeezing his shot inside the far post from a tight angle. The same player added a second two minutes before the break, scoring from close range after a Barry Ferguson corner was not cleared. Darcheville was withdrawn for Novo at the interval, but if Hearts thought the departure of the Frenchman meant some much-needed respite, they were sadly mistaken. Novo was on the pitch for seven minutes when he helped himself to a goal of his own. Charlie Adam set up the shot with a low ball across goal and all that was required from the striker was to bundle home from close range. The same two players combined again to supply Rangers with their fourth goal with 69 minutes gone. Adam was again the provider and this time Novo produced a cheeky back-heel finish from five meters. Meanwhile, goals by Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras gave Celtic a hard-fought 2-1 win at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Australian international McDonald's 25th goal of the season right on the interval gave the champions the lead and his Greek team-mate bulleted an Aiden McGeady cross past goalkeeper Michael Fraser on the hour mark. But the final minutes were needlessly fraught for Celtic after Caley striker Marius Niculae took advantage of Scott Brown's misplaced pass to pull a goal back in the 70th minute. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rangers remain four points clear in Scotland after a superb 4-0 win at Hearts .\nJean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo both net twice for the league leaders .\nCeltic remain second in the table following 2-1 victory against Inverness Caley .","id":"dee467e11f253e70ec843c45fb373da06eace6be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of the telephone numbers used to report claims of abuse at a polygamist sect's Texas ranch was previously associated with a Colorado woman whom authorities have named a \"person of interest,\" a court document says. Rozita Swinton, 33, has been arrested in a case that is not directly related to the Texas raid. The telephone calls in late March prompted authorities to raid the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, where 437 children were removed. The ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy. Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was arrested this month on a charge of making a false report to police. The charge relates to an incident in February, but the Texas Rangers have said she is a person of interest in connection with the ranch calls. In the February incident, Swinton is accused of calling authorities using the names \"Dana Anderson\" and \"April,\" reporting abuse by male relatives, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. Authorities have not clearly said that they think Swinton made the March phone calls that prompted the raid. But the affidavit says she is \"known to make false reports of sexual abuse to the police and other agencies.\" Watch how a hoax may be behind the ranch mystery \u00bb . Calls were made to a Texas family shelter March 29 and 30 from a female identifying herself as Sarah Barlow, the affidavit says. The caller said she was 16, had a baby about 8 months old and was pregnant again. She said that her 49-year-old husband was physically and sexually abusive toward her and that they were living at the YFZ Ranch. The phone calls were made from a prepaid cell phone with no available records, according to the affidavit. However, it has been used in other cases linked to Swinton, the document says. Although Texas officials said they have not found the woman who made the calls, they said they have found evidence that girls as young at 13 are forced into marriages with older men at the ranch. The FLDS has denied that any abuse takes place at the ranch. The woman identifying herself as Sarah Barlow also called a battered women's shelter in Snohomish County, Washington, using another phone number, the affidavit says. That phone number was traced to Swinton's address, the affidavit says. On April 10, the woman called the Washington shelter again and was put on the line with a Texas deputy. She said she felt that she would be punished for the trouble she had caused, was worried that her baby might be taken away and was angry with a woman she had contacted March 29 for prompting the raid by law enforcement. During that conversation, the affidavit says, the woman used terminology common to the FLDS, referring to her \"sister wives,\" for instance. The phone number used in the Washington call was traced to the Colorado Springs apartment where Swinton lives, the affidavit says. The number was also used to call a Utah organization for women escaping polygamy and an abuse counseling center in Fort Myers, Florida, phone records showed. Swinton pleaded guilty to a charge of false reporting in June 2007 and was under a 12-month deferred sentence, the affidavit says. At a custody hearing last week, a Texas judge ruled that the state will temporarily retain custody of the 437 children removed in the raid. Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening, laboratory workers at San Angelo Coliseum completed taking DNA samples from mothers and children, said Janice Rolfe, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. She did not say how many samples were taken. About 100 of the seized children from whom swab DNA samples had already been taken were bused Tuesday from the San Angelo Coliseum to group foster homes, the Texas Department of Health and Family Services said. On Wednesday, workers in Eldorado continued to take voluntary DNA samples from adults who live on the YFZ Ranch, Rolfe said. Rolfe said that at least 54 samples from adults have been taken there. The DNA samples will be sent to Laboratory Corporation of America, based in Burlington, North Carolina. It could take longer than a month to get results. Judge Barbara Walther, who last week ordered the DNA testing of the children and ordered that they remain in state custody, signed an order this week authorizing the children's move to foster care, officials said. At a meeting Wednesday afternoon, Walther and the state's Child Protective Services Division agreed that 18 mothers with breast-feeding babies that are 1 year old or younger will be allowed to stay with their children in the homes where the children are placed. Also, 23 mothers with 28 children ages 1 to 2 years will be allowed to stay in the same towns as their children. The remaining children, 2 to 18 years old, will be split up into available homes. The original order signed by Walther called for every effort to keep siblings together, especially in the case of small children. Rod Parker, a spokesman for the FLDS families, blasted the action in a news conference from his Salt Lake City, Utah, office. \"The CPS department of Texas is afraid of due process,\" he said. \"They would lose in a fair fight in this case, and that is why you're seeing them move so quickly, and that is why you're seeing them move unilaterally.\" He said the court ignored motions asking that the children be placed with their relatives. The FLDS launched a Web site this week to promote its side of the issue. The site, captivefldschildren.com, contains photos and videos taken inside the ranch during the raid. The site says donations are needed to help cover the \"massive litigation costs associated with these lawsuits.\" A link on the Web site allows online donations. E-mail to a friend . CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen and journalist Cheryl Getty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rozita Swinton, 33, was arrested this month on charge unrelated to ranch .\nBut Texas Rangers have said she is a \"person of interest\" in sect case .\nCourt record: Swinton is connected with phone number that brought attention to sect .\nCaller identified herself as a 16-year-old girl who claimed abuse by sect member .","id":"054891b9199a73152564cc5be925250ea282bb00"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian police have killed a drug trafficker who the government says is one of the most sought-after fugitive outside the country's rebel leaders. Victor Manuel Mejia Munera was a drug lord with ties to paramilitary groups, the Colombian government says. Victor Manuel Mejia Munera and two bodyguards were killed Tuesday when police tracked them down on a farm in the northwestern province of Antioquia, according to a statement on the Colombian presidency Web site. Three people also were arrested, according to the statement. Mejia Munera was wearing an American-style, desert-camouflage uniform when he was killed, said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. Mejia Munera also had short- and long-range weapons with ammunition, the presidential statement said. \"This is a great strike of the Public Force against the criminal structures of the country,\" Santos said, warning that drug traffickers who do not turn themselves over to the government will \"end up in the jail or in a tomb.\" In terms of the country's most-wanted list, Mejia Munera was one of Colombia's most sought-after criminals and ranked just below the leaders of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the statement said. The leftist guerilla group, which goes by its Spanish acronym FARC, holds about 750 hostages in the jungles of Colombia and has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running civil war involving government forces, drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries. Mejia Munera is not alleged to have ties to FARC, but he had been involved with a right-wing paramilitary group known as United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, according to the U.S. State Department. Mejia Munera and his brother, Miguel Angel Mejia Munera, known as \"Los Mellizos,\" or \"the Twins,\" have been accused of running major drug rings in Colombia. The brothers also have faced narcotics-trafficking charges in the United States. Santos initially told reporters that police had killed Miguel Angel Mejia Munera. The Colombian presidency later said the slain drug lord was actually Victor Manuel Mejia Munera. Fingerprints confirmed that the dead man was Victor Mejia Munera, Colombian-based Caracol Radio reported. The brothers sometimes exchanged identities, the radio station said, and identity documents belonging to Miguel Mejia Munera were found near Victor Mejia Munera. In 2004, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia indicted the twins on narcotics-trafficking charges. The U.S. Justice Department at one point offered a $5 million reward for \"true and effective information\" on the whereabouts of a dozen suspects it wanted extradited to the United States. One of the 12 men wanted was Miguel Mejia Munera. The State Department said Wednesday there was no reward for Victor Mejia Munera. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control reported that the brothers have been involved in narcotics trafficking since the early 1990s, when they were guarding ships carrying cocaine from western Colombia to Mexico. \"Over time,\" OFAC said in a news release last year, the brothers \"rose through the ranks to lead their own narcotics trafficking organization.\" \"Recent reports indicate that Los Mellizos may be funding their own illegal armed groups to facilitate their narcotics trafficking activities,\" the release said. The Colombian prosecutor general's office had indicted Victor Mejia Munera for his role in a 2004 paramilitary massacre of 11 farmers in Tame in the eastern Colombian province of Arauca, according to the State Department. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Weapons, ammunition found with dead drug lord, Colombian government says .\nNEW: Defense minister warns drug dealers will \"end up in the jail or in a tomb\"\nVictor Manuel Mejia Munera linked to paramilitaries, also wanted in the U.S.\nThe slain man was originally thought to be brother Miguel Angel Mejia .","id":"82a94cf607660eb67aac057e3f5028c4cae75abf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some Democrats say they fear their party's method of picking a nominee might turn undemocratic as neither presidential candidate is likely to gather the delegates needed for the nomination. The Democrats' superdelegate system is supposed to avoid turmoil at the party's conventions. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are running neck and neck toward the party's August convention in Denver, Colorado. Most projections show neither getting the necessary 2,025 delegates in the remaining nominating contests before then. Party rules call for the votes of superdelegates -- 800 or so party officers, elected officials and activists -- to tip the balance. The party instituted the system to avoid the turmoil that a deadlocked race would create at a convention. But even some superdelegates are questioning the system, as the party heads toward the conclusion of a race in which they might determine the outcome. \"It's not the most democratic way of doing things,\" said Maine superdelegate Sam Spencer. Watch the scenario for a \"civil war\" in the Democratic Party \u00bb . At least two organizations have launched petition drives to reflect how the vote went in primaries and caucuses. MoveOn.org, which has endorsed Obama, is trying to get 200,000 signatures this week and plans to run an ad with its petition in USA Today. And Democracy for America, headed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's brother Jim, said it will deliver signed petitions to all the superdelegates. While pledged delegates are allocated with the understanding they'll vote the way their state went in its primary or caucus, superdelegates are free to vote however they want. And even if they pledge their support to a candidate, they're free to change at any time. Clinton already has 234 superdelegates and Obama has 157. But Obama has a sizable lead in pledged delegates, 1,096 to 977, and is on a roll, having won all eight nominating contests since Super Tuesday. See which states pledged delegates come from \u00bb . If the superdelegates were to tip the balance against the popular vote, the turmoil would last long beyond the convention, longtime Democratic Party strategist Tad Devine said. \"If a perception develops that somehow this decision has been made not by voters participating in primaries or caucuses, but by politicians in some mythical backroom, I think that the public could react strongly against that,\" Devine said. \"The problem is [if] people perceive that voters have not made the decision -- instead, insiders have made the decision -- then all of these new people who are being attracted to the process, particularly the young people who are voting for the first time, will feel disenfranchised or in some way alienated,\" he said. Superdelegates were established in 1982 to bring more moderate Democrats back to conventions, where their attendance had been dropping since the 1950s, and to relect the party's mainstream more accurately. \"[Superdelegates] are the keepers of the faith,\" said former San Francisco, California, Mayor Willie Brown. \"You have superdelegates because this is the Democratic Party. You don't want the bleed-over from the Green Party, the independents and others in deciding who your nominee will be.\" Devine was part of the first campaign to benefit from the roles of superdelegates -- that of former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984. Mondale's 1984 campaign went into the party convention with too few delegates to secure the nomination against the campaigns of former Sen. Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson. Mondale had received more votes, but Hart had won more states. Mondale was able to line up the superdelegates going into the convention and avoid a fight on the convention floor. Each campaign actively is trying to encourage the unpledged delegates to pledge to their side. Jason Rae, a 21-year-old Wisconsin superdelegate, said he's gotten calls from former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from Hillary Clinton's camp, and Obama's wife, Michelle, visited with him during a campaign stop Tuesday in Wisconsin. Rae said he hasn't yet decided how he'll vote in Wisconsin's primary on Tuesday. Crystal Strait, a party activist from California, said she's received calls from Clinton herself and daughter Chelsea but she remains uncommitted. Massachusetts superdelegate John Walsh said he'll stay loyal to Obama despite the fact that the senator lost the primary in Walsh's state. So will fellow Massachusetts superdelegates Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry. Among Clinton's committed superdelegates are Harold Ickes Jr., her husband's former deputy chief of staff; Terry McAuliffe, who led her husband's 1996 re-election campaign and is chairman of her campaign; and her husband. Whether those superdelegates stay committed to their candidates, even if it means tipping the outcome of the race against the pledged delegate lead or the popular vote, could split the party. \"It's in a total contradiction of the way the Democrats have set up their primary process, with all this proportional representation,\" said CNN political analyst Amy Holmes. \"The whole point of it was that no one could walk away with the elites. And if this is decided by superdelegates, I think the Democratic Party morally is going to be looking at each other and say, 'What did we just do?' \" Devine said it could hurt the party in the general election. \"I think it will hurt us particularly because so many of the policies that we're saying we will pursue in government as Democrats are based on fairness, whether it's the tax policies that we advocate or the social programs we want to advance, there's a fairness component in all of that,\" he said. \"People need to believe, I think, that our process is fair as well, if they want to believe that our policies will be fair.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Campbell Brown, John Helton and Ed Hornick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Democrats' system includes about 800 superdelegates -- party officials, leaders .\nUnlike elected delegates, superdelegates can vote for any candidate they choose .\nSome says they fear superdelegates could tip balance against the popular vote .\nIf such a thing happens, some say voters will feel alienated, disenfranchised .","id":"58bf14c936eb7e9a6561599014fefd77ef6c457e"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- It all started with the flush of an automatic toilet. The terrifying sound marked the beginning of a two-year nightmare for Sarah Teres as she desperately tried to potty train her daughter Molly. Molly graduated from Potty School four days before her brother, Archer, was born. \"It was awful\" Teres said. \"We tried everything including bribery and threats.\" Teres, the mother of three from Andover, Massachusetts, hoped her middle child would be toilet trained by the time she was 2\u00bd. Two years later, the girl was still in diapers, refusing to use the bathroom. \"I was going crazy,\" Teres admitted. \"She wouldn't poop. She would hold it for days.\" At wits end, Teres enrolled Molly in the Toilet Training School at Children's Hospital Boston. \"By the time the children come in with their families, it has become a power struggle,\" explained Dr. Alison Schonwald, a pediatrician who supervises the \"poop school,\" as it's affectionately called by staffers. \"The kids kind of dig in their heels and put a line in the sand.\" Health Minute: Watch more on the perils of potty training \u00bb . The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that most children show signs they're ready to potty train between 18 and 24 months. Doctors suggest a child may be ready to start trying if he's staying dry for at least two hours at a time during the day, walking to and from the bathroom, asking for a diaper change and asking to use the potty. For some kids, the toilet training process can take more than a year, or longer. The six-week program at Children's Hospital is one of a handful around the country. Kimberly Dunn, a pediatric nurse practitioner, has worked with some of the 450 young graduates over the years. She said most of the kids admit they are afraid to use a toilet. \"Oftentimes, the parents come in and they want to know why they're afraid,\" Dunn said. \"You could ask the kids until they're blue in the face and you hardly ever find out why.\" Dunn meets with a half-dozen children once a week. She uses books, music and art to help the students overcome their fear of using the toilet. She helps them set small, realistic goals. For instance, she said, week one involved just sitting on the toilet for five minutes. She encourages positive reinforcement and simple rewards such as extra playtime with Mom or Dad. While Dunn works on the kids, psychologist Elaine Leclair, an instructor at the Harvard School of Medicine, offers frank advice to the parents in a separate room. \"I just say, 'Step back.' They hate to hear me say this, but I say whatever you're doing now is not working. You really need to try something different,\" Leclair said. She said many parents come to the sessions angry and anxious. \"They come in feeling extremely discouraged, very isolated thinking they are the only ones in the world who have this problem.\" Teres acknowledged that's how she felt. \"Imagine my surprise to find out there were thousands of kids who had this problem.\" After years of hiding her daughter's toilet training troubles from family and friends, the group parenting sessions allowed Teres to open up about her frustrations. \"It was like going to Betty Ford,\" joked Teres, who felt she had exhausted all her other options. A majority of the children who attend the Children's Hospital class are dealing with constipation issues often caused by delayed toilet training. Teres learned that her daughter had a medical condition called encopresis. Experts call it a symptom of chronic constipation and say it occurs when a child resists having a bowel movement. Youngsters like Molly are sometimes given laxatives or other medications to help encourage them to go. Schonwald, the author of \"The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Potty Training,\" doesn't want parents to be discouraged during the process. \"No one goes to college in diapers, right? Everyone will get through this time, as awful as it might feel if you're struggling.\" She suggested achieving success during potty training has to do with the approach. \"There are three things you cannot make a child do: eat, sleep or poop. We find that by decreasing the pressure and expectations that children feel more confident.\" Schonwald reminds parents that toilet training \"is not a chore, so keeping it positive from the very beginning is the most important thing.\" If a child isn't using the toilet by the age of 4, she recommends talking with a pediatrician. Schonwald also said setbacks during potty training are normal. \"All developmental skills come in spurts with periods of regression.\" After a setback, Schonwald advises parents to give their child positive messages that they can succeed by saying, \"So you had some accidents today. We'll try again tomorrow.\" Four months after graduating from \"poop school,\" Teres is relieved to report that Molly is fully toilet trained. \"You would never know this was an issue,\" said Teres. \"She even used an automatic flush toilet the other day. I waited to see her reaction and she was OK.\" E-mail to a friend . Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News. Linda Ciampa of Accent Health contributed to this report.","highlights":"Most children show they're ready to potty train between 18 and 24 months .\nMom resorted to hospital's potty school when daughter was in diapers at 4\u00bd .\nSix-week program uses creative methods to get kids comfortable with a toilet .\nToilet training process can take more than a year, or longer for some kids .","id":"5574fe023e3127f0c206ac89eb06abf5a7400438"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Who would win in a fight: a police-killing, rampage-driven thug or a superhero encased in a technologically superior suit of armor? \"Grand Theft Auto IV,\" released Tuesday, could give \"Iron Man\" a run for its money this weekend. The answer could come this weekend when video game enthusiasts find out whether \"Grand Theft Auto IV,\" expected to set sales records in the gaming world this week, will steal glory and revenue from a different entertainment empire: the movies. As the hype for \"GTA IV\" continues to grow and reviews scream perfection, some speculate that the game will put a dent in Marvel Studios' opening weekend box office for \"Iron Man.\" \"GTA IV\" is the ninth incarnation of a video game in which the user acts as a criminal roaming a city. The series has faced criticism for being too violent, because users are allowed to beat, stab, shoot and kill citizens and police officers. \"Iron Man\" is a movie based on the Marvel comic book superhero who creates an impressive suit of armor to save his life and help save the world. \"GTA IV\" was released Tuesday at midnight and is expected to gross about $400 million in the first week. See what makes this violent game so popular \u00bb . Edward Woo, a research analyst specializing in media and interactive entertainment at Wedbush Morgan Securities, said the game's release date and widespread reach could negatively affect opening box office numbers for \"Iron Man.\" \"People on Friday or Saturday might find themselves at home playing this game instead of at the Cineplex,\" Woo said. \" 'Iron Man' will still have a pretty good release, but intuitively, I think it's got be impacted when both share a similar audience and genre.\" Because of the time element the game requires of its faithful -- between 30 and 40 hours to finish depending on skill level -- the question is whether gamers will put down their controllers for a couple of hours and go for a change of scenery. Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore said he isn't worried. \"It's crazy to think that young males can't carve out two hours for 'Iron Man,' \" he told EW.com. \"It's going to be a great week to be a young guy.\" Watch why violence in the game concerns some people \u00bb . This weekend won't be the first time analysts have speculated about video games damaging box office numbers. Last year, with $170 million in launch day sales and $300 million in its first week, \"Halo 3\" was blamed by some for the poor box office performance of \"The Heartbreak Kid,\" starring Ben Stiller. Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of \"GTA IV\" publisher Rockstar Games, predicted that with 6 million preorders worldwide, the game will bring in more than $400 million. \"GTA IV\" has a chance of surpassing the movie \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End\" as the highest-grossing entertainment title in its first week of sales, and that's across all genres. Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told the Financial Times this month that movie executives told him, \" 'Iron Man' the movie is going to get killed by 'Grand Theft Auto,' the game. \"I don't think I've ever heard of that before,\" he said. The video game market is growing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent this year, but the movie industry isn't seeing as much of an increase, Woo said. Overall, video game sales as a whole have eclipsed box office sales, he said, but the movie industry catches up when it comes to DVDs. Ebullient reviews touted the game as \"The Godfather\" of video games because of its cult-like following. Andrew Reiner, who reviewed \"GTA IV\" for Game Informer, a well-known destination for all things gaming, scored it as a 10.0\/10.0 under the title of \"Perfection.\" \"I now know how film critics felt after screening 'The Godfather,' \" his review began. \"GTA IV\" is a \"landscape-changing event that doesn't come around very often,\" Reiner said. It seems the feelings have translated to the regular consumer too. Gamers from Norway to Britain to America echoed similar sentiments on gaming message boards. D.J. Brotherson from Winnipeg, Canada, said he enjoyed the game so much, he wanted to skip work and keep playing all night, saying it was unlike any game he had ever played. \"The story line is very well-written,\" he said, adding that the game \"plays like an interactive Martin Scorsese movie.\" \"Today, I was as excited as I was when I was 5 years old and I just got my first Nintendo Entertainment System on Christmas Day.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"GTA IV\" released Tuesday, expected to gross $400 million in first week .\n\"Iron Man\" opens this weekend, expected to take in $50 to $60 million .\nAnalysts say game release could hurt weekend ticket sales .\nGame reviewer calls \"GTA IV\" game \"Perfection\"","id":"e88be1fa30cb6557d422788b5c469b7ba7ca8bfc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former police officer convicted of murdering his girlfriend and their unborn child tearfully apologized to her family Monday in front of the jury that will decide whether he lives or dies. Bobby Cutts Jr. weeps openly as his mother describes his childhood during a sentencing hearing. \"It was a nightmare that will continue to haunt me for the rest of my days,\" said Bobby Cutts, Jr., 30, reading from a prepared statement at the penalty phase of his murder trial. \"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm asking you to spare my life.\" Cutts was convicted on February 15 of the murder of girlfriend Jessie Marie Davis and the aggravated murder of the unborn girl Davis had planned to name Chloe. Chloe's slaying, which jurors found occurred during the commission of another crime, makes Cutts eligible for the death penalty . \"To imagine that I was responsible for the death of Jessie, the mother of my children and my unborn daughter, is beyond any words that I can express,\" Cutts said. \"Words cannot bring them back, nor can they erase the pain I've caused, but I want to apologize.\" Watch Cutts' tearful apology \u00bb . He thanked Davis' family for taking care of the other child he had with Davis. Blake was 2\u00bd at the time of his mother's murder in June 2007. \"I pray that you find peace and you someday find room for forgiveness,\" he said. Earlier, Cutts' mother, Renee, Jones, had told jurors, \"I don't know what I would do without him.\" She described Cutts as a former honor student who loved his job as a police officer. \"He was my firstborn, my only son,\" Jones testified tearfully. \"He means so much to me,\" she continued. \"He used to call me three, four times a day.\" Watch Cutts react as his mother pleads for his life . Cutts' punishment is being decided by the same jury of six men and six women who found him guilty. All the jurors are white; Cutts is African-American. Cutts' sister, father and one of his school teachers also testified. Judge Charles E. Brown ordered jurors to return early Tuesday for attorneys' closing arguments. When the arguments conclude, jurors will begin their deliberations. If jurors do not agree on the death penalty, Cutts could receive a possible sentence of life in prison without parole or become eligible for parole in 20, 25 or 30 years. Jones, was the first witness called to the stand by the defense. She said her son was a good youngster who was active in sports, Scouts and his church. \"I never had any trouble out of him,\" she said as Cutts teared up at the defense table. She said Cutts' relationship with his father deteriorated after the parents split. A former teacher described Cutts as a social child given the nickname \"Gobble\" by his classmates. He was helpful in class, often volunteering to pick stray crayons up from the floor. His father testified that he gave Cutts the nickname \"Gobble\" because as an infant he resembled \" a little Butterball turkey.\" He said Cutts was a \"gifted child\" in school. He blamed himself for the break up of his marriage, saying his drinking and gambling contributed to it. Cutts' own personal life was rocky, according to testimony. Davis was nine months pregnant when she disappeared in June 2007. Her body was found in a northeastern Ohio park after a 10-day search that brought national media attention . He is Blake's father, as well as the father of the unborn girl, Chloe. According to testimony, Cutts, 30, rolled Davis' body in a comforter and dumped it in a park, leaving toddler son Blake in the house alone at the crime scene in a soiled diaper. \"Mommy's in the rug,\" Blake told police, according to testimony. During the guilt phase of the trial, Cutts sobbed on the witness stand as he admitted killing Davis and Chloe. But Cutts insisted that their deaths were an accident. \"I didn't mean to hurt her,\" Cutts testified, clasping a handful of tissues. \"This isn't real,\" he said he kept telling himself. Prosecutors discounted Cutts' story, claiming he buckled under the financial pressure of child support, killed the mother of his child and then created a cover story to try to get away with it. On the stand, Cutts said he went to pick up his son, Blake, and became agitated when Davis, 26, wasn't moving fast enough to get the boy ready. He said he tried to leave her house, but she grabbed him to keep him from leaving, and he accidentally elbowed her in the throat. Cutts told the jury he performed CPR on Davis and then tried to revive her with bleach. When he realized Davis was dead, Cutts said he panicked and put her in the back of his truck, so Blake wouldn't have to see his mother. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Ex-cop apologizes, asks jury to spare him .\nBobby Cutts Jr. faces the death penalty for murders of girlfriend, unborn child .\nCutts also could receive life sentence, with or without parole .\nSame jury that found Cutts guilty is hearing penalty phase of trial .","id":"62f05476ec5198ceb345ce4f45d7d0e70f499ad7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescue teams on Friday found the wreckage of a plane that crashed Thursday night in the mountains of Venezuela, but none of the 46 people aboard survived, a searcher said. \"The impact was direct. The aircraft is practically pulverized,\" firefighter Jhonny Paz told Globovision, a privately owned Venezuelan television station. \"There are no survivors.\" There was no word on the cause of the crash. Witnesses saw the Santa Barbara Airlines plane go down, according to Antonio Rivero, Venezuela's national director of civil protection. Harsh weather and rough terrain in the Andes Mountains likely will make the job of emergency workers difficult, Rivero said on a state-run television station. The plane went missing while flying from Merida to the international airport near Caracas, an official said. The pilot did not check in with controllers 20 minutes into the flight, as scheduled, suggesting the plane encountered problems shortly after takeoff. Nelson Marquez, chief of civil defense for Merida, said the plane was carrying 43 passengers and three crew members. Media reports said the Santa Barbara Airlines plane was supposed to land about 7 p.m. local time Thursday. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Guillermo Arduino and Adrian Criscaut contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Searcher says plane \"practically pulverized\" in Venezuela mountains .\nPlane with 46 people on board crashes in the Andes Mountains .\nAircraft was flying from Merida to airport near Caracas .\nThere were no survivors, official says .","id":"8cc719f761556a81a71c2dd1b703749c2059df10"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man dressed as a priest caught at Amsterdam's airport with three kilos of cocaine under his vestments claimed to police that his packages contained \"holy sand\", Dutch police said. Security officials conducting a normal security check at Schiphol airport last year. Police stopped the man at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport as he was transiting on a flight from South America, Robert Van Aapel, a spokesman for the Dutch Royal Military Police told CNN by phone Saturday. \"He refused to be searched saying that he was a religious person and it was not allowed,\" Van Aapel said. \"However, this is normal procedure so our officers insisted. They asked him again and after the second time they carried out the search and discovered the man had packs strapped to his legs below his priest's clothes. He told us they contained holy sand,\" he said. He said the man, who is aged around 40 and a Bolivian national, was arrested Thursday after arriving in to the airport on a flight from Lima, Peru. He was attempting to transit on a flight to Milan when he was apprehended with the cocaine, worth around \u20ac105,000 ($155,000). The Bolivian appeared in court Friday on charges of drug smuggling, Van Aapel said. Dutch police are trying to establish if the man is a real priest after he claimed to be a senior member of the clergy in the Bolivian capital La Paz, he added. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police: Man stopped at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport dressed as a priest .\nInitially refused to be searched, saying that he was a religious person .\nFound to have $155,000 worth of cocaine strapped to his legs under his vestments .\nOfficers trying to establish whether the man, on flight from Peru, is a priest .","id":"2d89b0d0827a0a1e9e855de7717407cdff63b1f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two anti-whaling activists who were seized by a Japanese whaling vessel two days ago have been handed over to Australian government officials on a ship in the Antarctic, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Thursday. Australian citizen Benjamin Potts and British citizen Giles Lane, both members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, jumped on board the Yushin Maru No. 2 Tuesday to deliver a letter saying the vessel was violating international law and Australian law by killing whales. The anti-whaling group accused the crew of the Japanese vessel of kidnapping the men based on a video that showed Potts and Lane tied to the ship's railing. In the video, Japanese fishermen pace back and forth in front of them. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith Wednesday did not answer questions about whether the men would be charged for their actions, stressing instead that the immediate priority was to retrieve them. \"I'm not going to give a running commentary on who's done what to whom and the various allegations and counter allegation,\" he said. Smith said the Japanese government -- which formally approached Australia to assist in the transfer -- did not lay out any conditions for the transfer, in which the men were brought on board the Australian ship, the Oceanic Viking. Watch the anti-whaling activists board the Japanese vessel \u00bb . Capt. Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd, had said earlier that the men were seized by the Japanese crew and assaulted. Watch Watson describe the incident \u00bb . Sea Shepherd claims Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research, which is backing the operations, had said it would release the two activists if Sea Shepherd agrees to stop interfering in its whaling operations. The group says it will not agree to that demand. The Japanese Fisheries Agency said Thursday it would readily hand over the two men. But the agency charged that the Sea Shepherd members were the terrorists. At a news conference earlier, the agency released pictures of broken bottles they claim group members threw at the ship. They also released a photo of the two activists relaxing and drinking tea aboard the Yushin Maru. \"For some time, for 10, 15 minutes, I understand, they were tied to a GPS mast,\" Tomohiko Taniguchi of Japan's Foreign Ministry told CNN. \"The Japanese crew members feared that two crew members from Sea Shepherd might do something violent.\" He said Potts and Lane boarded the vessel without permission. Watson said the two boarded only after attempts to contact the ship by radio were unsuccessful. Japan has been hunting whales in the Antarctic and apparently plans to kill as many as 1,000 this winter. The killings are allowed under international law because their main purpose is scientific. \"We regard them as poachers,\" Watson said. E-mail to a friend . CNN Correspondent Kyung Lah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two anti-whaling activists handed over to Australian government officials .\nJapan contacting Australia to help secure release of activists, reports say .\nSea Shepherd Conservation Society says ship's crew kidnapped 2 of its members .\nThe activists boarded the Japanese whaling vessel to deliver a letter .","id":"41431356e1e7c6f94057b262cd284987f9edb184"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has been chosen to become chief of U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday. Gen. David Petraeus has been the commander in Iraq for more than a year. Petraeus would replace Adm. William Fallon, who said last month that he was resigning. Fallon said widespread, but false, reports that he was at odds with the Bush administration over Iran had made his job impossible. In addition, Gates said, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the Multinational Corps-Iraq -- the No. 2 position in Iraq -- is being nominated to fill Petraeus' post. Odierno has been home from Iraq for only a couple of months but has agreed to return, Gates said. The plan is for Petraeus to leave Iraq in late summer or early fall, Gates said, to ensure a smooth transition and plenty of time for Odierno to prepare. \"We expect to move the paperwork on these nominations to the White House and to the Senate very quickly,\" Gates said. \"Because of the complexity of this series of moves, I respectfully ask the Senate to move on them expeditiously, hopefully by Memorial Day, so the families and we can plan appropriately.\" Odierno was in line for a Pentagon desk job as Army Vice Chief just over a year after helping Petraeus implement the \"surge\" in U.S. troops in Iraq. The Pentagon says Petraeus will stay in Iraq long enough to make the first recommendation on further troop cuts after the surge is over. Watch the challenges ahead of Petraeus \u00bb . Gates said the generals' promotions reflected an endorsement of the current course in Iraq. \"The course certainly that Gen. Petraeus has set has been a successful course. So, frankly, I think staying that course is not a bad idea. I would say it's a good idea,\" Gates said. Watch Gates nominate Petraeus \u00bb . Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in East Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, has its headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Gates said Odierno is well known to troops in Iraq, to military leadership and to Iraqis, and \"I believe, in most parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, personal relationships make a difference.\" \"I believe that this arrangement will probably preserve the likelihood of continued momentum and progress,\" Gates said. The defense secretary said he expects to easily win Senate approval for the nominations once they are made by President Bush. He said he had spoken with Sens. Carl Levin, D-Michigan; John McCain, R-Arizona; and John Warner, R-Virginia, and \"I don't really anticipate any problems.\" In a press release Wednesday, McCain praised the move. \"Both of these great generals have served our country with skill and distinction, and I am pleased that they will continue to do so in positions of high responsibility,\" McCain wrote. Gates acknowledged that Fallon's \"decision to step down was unexpected.\" \"I had intended that Adm. Fallon probably stay on for a third year. His second year would have ended in February,\" he said. \"So I'm faced with a critical combatant command where a commander is needed -- and a commander who knows what's going on in the region.\" Asked whether he was using Petraeus \"almost as a finger in the dike\" because of the shortage of Army generals with expertise in counterinsurgency warfare, Gates admitted that there are few Army officers with experience in and knowledge of Iraq. Odierno served as commander of the 4th Infantry Division, the unit that captured former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Petraeus was picked in January 2007 to replace Gen. George Casey as the chief commander in Iraq and won Senate confirmation that month. He previously served as head of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and as a commander in Iraq, and he was one of the main writers of an Army manual on counterinsurgency efforts. He was seen as the logical choice to replace Fallon. In his new post, he will oversee U.S. forces in all the Middle East, not only Iraq and Afghanistan. \"I recommended him to the president because I am absolutely confident he is the best man for the job,\" Gates said. In testimony to Congress this month, Petraeus said Iranian agents have played a \"destructive role\" in Iraq by backing Shiite militants, called \"special groups\" by the United States. The U.S. believes that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force is behind the support for militants. \"Unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq,\" Petraeus testified. Last month, in an interview with CNN's Kyra Phillips in Baghdad, Petraeus acknowledged some \"friction\" between himself and Fallon in the past year, but \"actually, over the last six months or so, our relationship was really very, very good.\" \"There was friction in the beginning. He has a different job than I have,\" Petraeus said. \"There can be understandable differences of your take, if you will, on a situation. As they say in politics and government 101, where you stand on an issue sometimes depends on where you sit in the organization, and we sit in different chairs.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gates says changes \"will probably preserve ... momentum and progress\"\nPetraeus would oversee all forces in Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan .\nPetraeus would take over for Adm. William Fallon, who resigned .\nCentral Command position is subject to Senate confirmation .","id":"50872fa30632af8f4c65fb9f952ea8e1b13043c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ever find yourself struggling to craft the perfect sentence for a loved one who's, um, serving a sentence? Now, you have a friend in the greeting card business. Terrye Cheathem has created a line of greeting cards geared toward prison inmates. A Los Angeles, California, lawyer has come up with a series of cards geared toward prison inmates, a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population. Some express simple good wishes: \"We are all praying for you while you do your time.\" Others celebrate holidays: \"You had the choice to be 'naughty or nice.' And you chose ... Now you have to do your time. But, Christmas won't be the same without you here.\" Others dole out tough love: \"When you called last time, I was not very sympathetic. I guess that I have heard your promises to change too many times. Please - stop promising to change. Just do it.\" Creator Terrye Cheathem said the cards let family members say \"Look, things need to be different when you get out.\" She came up with the idea a few years ago while looking -- without success -- for a birthday card to send her brother-in-law, who was serving an 11-month sentence. \"There are so many people who have mixed feelings about communicating with their loved ones in prison,\" Cheathem said Thursday. \"They are unhappy, oftentimes profoundly embarrassed. People don't know what to say.\" So she created Three Squares Greetings to capture the sentiments for a captive audience -- one that seems to be getting larger each year. More than 2.3 million people were in jails or prisons in the United States at the beginning of 2008, according to a study released last month by the Pew Center on the States. The center is a private organization that advocates for alternative programs to alleviate prison populations. For the first time in the nation's history, the center says, more than one in 100 Americans are behind bars, a higher proportion than any other country. Cheathem is selling her cards online and through stores. She also wants jails and prisons to carry cards designed for inmates to send their relatives. \"They're 'Thank You' cards,\" she said. \" 'Thank you for visiting,' 'Thank you for bringing the kids,' 'Thank you for coming to court.' \" Like many, bookstore owner James Fugate was at first reluctant to carry the line in his Los Angeles shop, Esowon Books. \"I have some issues of being nice to criminals,\" Fugate said. \"And in my 20 years in business, I've seen some relatives who don't seem to realize the gravity of what (their family members) have done.\" Fugate said he changed his mind when he realized that most of the cards carried messages asking inmates to turn their lives around. Cheathem understands the hesitation of shoppers and sellers. \"I can't think of any other product that anyone wants to receive and certainly no one wants to be in the position to buy one,\" she said. \"But there is a need for this.\" Cheathem points to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, Michigan. He was charged this week with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct of office. He was released on a $75,000 bond. \"I have a card that says, 'I'm sorry to hear about your arrest,' \" she said. \"Right now , there are probably 50 people or more who would send it to him.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New series of greeting cards is geared toward prison inmates .\nStudy shows the U.S. prison and jail population is rapidly growing .\nCard creator is selling her cards online and through stores .","id":"4a403faad8116c40f4cb960d3ffad081106341ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some people might call 17-year-old Joshua Hanson one the luckiest people on the planet. Others might call him crazy. I-Reporter Joshua Hanson offered a look at the Mark IV helmet from his \"Legendary Limited Edition Halo 3.\" Hanson waited more than eight hours outside a Woodbury, Minnesota, video game store on Monday evening to be the first in his town to buy one of the most anticipated video games in history -- \"Halo 3.\" Watch Hanson buying the game amid cheers \u00bb . The final chapter in Microsoft's acclaimed video game series hit shelves at the stroke of midnight Monday in similar stores across the nation. The Xbox 360 game is expected to shatter entertainment sales records within its first 24 hours of release. Hanson is not alone in his loyalty to the game, and his belief in \"Halo's\" power to entertain and inspire. We asked other CNN.com readers for their take on \"Halo 3.\" Some offered comparisons to \"Star Wars\" and \"Harry Potter,\" while others discussed compelling new graphics and features. Below is a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. Curt Otto of Springfield, Virginia I waited in line for two-and-half hours to get this game at midnight. I purchased the Legendary Edition of this game at a hefty $130! Totally worth it! Although I haven't slept since yesterday and I'm currently at work and very tired, I would do it all over again for \"Halo.\" This is the GREATEST game ever crafted by the hand of man. If you own a 360, buy this game. If you don't own a 360, buy one and go buy this game! The single player is incredible and the online multiplayer is MIND BLOWING! Totally worth $130!!! Tony Nash of Buffalo, New York I've been playing \"Halo\" since the very first game came out in 2001. After getting the brand new Box with a copy of \"Halo\" and throwing myself into the game, I quickly realized this wasn't a standard gaming experience. It was something much, much more. The game had a great attitude and unique art style. Along with great audio and environments that brought the worlds to life. It also had the most addictive, natural, and fun game play I've ever experienced. It also contained a well written, downright intriguing story. Getting together with friends to play the multiplayer portion of the game only cemented this title's epic status. Then came November 2004, when, of course, a friend and I were in the lines for the Midnight release of \"Halo 2.\" It is no joke; \"Halo\" is more than just a game. Now, I plan on \"finishing the fight\" as soon as I leave work. I had \"Halo 3\" pre-ordered for about a month before it came out. Hey, after all, it's good to keep the kid inside you alive and well! Cody Chmelik of Clearwater, Florida \"Halo 3\" is the most anticipated event since the trial of O.J., but the only difference is that \"Halo\" isn't disappointing. \"Halo 3\" was the best game I have ever played. The levels are choreographed perfectly, the players look real and the game play is phenomenal. I recommend this game to players of all ages. Wayne S. of Colorado Springs, Colorado \"Halo\" is not just a game, it's a lifestyle, a booming culture of millions of Xbox fans who eat, sleep and live \"Halo.\" \"Halo\" has jumped started the major league gaming industry and will continue to do so with \"Halo 3.\" I will be getting my copy of \"Halo 3\" at midnight and plan on playing it for days straight. I have played the beta and let me tell you: This is the best video game of the year by far and will be played by the masses for years to come just like \"Halo 2.\" Brian Baker of Beatrice, Nebraska I am 30 years old, and for my 30th birthday my wife pre-ordered \"Halo 3\" for me as a birthday present. The 6 month wait for the present\/game didn't bother me one bit. The story that is \"Halo\" is something that people can easily identify with. The late '70s to late '90s had Luke Skywalker and the alpha-male heroes of \"Star Wars.\" The Generation X, Y and Z now have an alpha-male hero of their own in the Master Chief that they can relate to, or use to associate different attitudes and help instill values of patriotism. In this case, patriotism is not for just a country, but an entire planet and species. I am a very patriotic person, a veteran and a father and see the values that may hide below the surface in this Trilogy, which is why I'm a \"Halo\" fan. Jarrod Leda of Tarentum, Pennsylvania Despite the hype, I am very excited for this [new game]. Some question why \"Halo\" got so big, as there are other good shooters very similar to it. I think, like \"Star Wars\" before it, it just got things right. And now, it's become iconic: the characters, the universe, it's something everyone who loves games can talk about and share. The game allows things that most other games would not; the physics and mechanics of the engine are great. And it plays flawlessly on X-box live. I can't wait. Vivek Patel of Albany, New York \"Halo\" can be compared to \"Harry Potter\" in that when you start reading or playing you have to finish. The third installment gamers will wait in line for hours; even bleed to finally finish the fight that was started years ago. To me \"Halo 3\" isn't even advertised that much, and they will achieve their records by sheer popularity. Alessandro Miglio of Walnut Creek, California The \"Halo\" franchise is like a budding \"Star Trek\" phenomenon. There are a lot of hardcore fans, like myself, who are not just really into the games, but read all the books and comics that expand the universe. We even write tons of theories and fan fictions with all the potential created by the \"Haloverse.\" I consider myself a \"Trekkie\" of \"Halo,\" loud and proud. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Halo 3\" achieved a milestone million pre-orders 2 months before its release .\nThe game, an Xbox 360 exclusive, went on sale Tuesday at midnight .\nCNN.com asked readers to share their early reviews of \"Halo 3\"\nI-Report: Share your own pictures, video and reviews of \"Halo 3\"","id":"6f6964470c122807573653173b45b8e00bb59696"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six U.S. troops were killed in Iraq on Monday, making 2007 the deadliest for the American military in the Iraq war. The grim record came despite lower death rates in recent months, which were not enough to offset death tolls that topped 100 during three months in the spring. Four soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in northern Iraq's Tameem province; another died in combat in Anbar province. A sailor was killed in Salaheddin province \"as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion while conducting operations,\" the military said. According to a CNN count of Pentagon figures, 853 U.S. service members have died so far in 2007. The next highest death toll was in 2004, when 849 were killed. The total number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq stands at 3,856, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department. The high number of deaths this year corresponds with the U.S. troop buildup called the \"surge\" and a crackdown on insurgents in and near Baghdad. Monthly death tolls were highest in the first part of the year: 83 deaths in January, 81 in February and 81 in March. Numbers peaked in the next three months, with 104 deaths in April, 126 in May and 101 in June. The numbers have dropped from that level since -- with 78 in July, 84 in August, 65 in September, 38 in October and 12 so far in November. Civilian deaths have also dropped in recent months, U.S. and Iraqi authorities say. The Iraq war began in March of 2003 and in that year there were 486 U.S. military deaths. In 2004, major offensives were responsible for many fatalities, including the massive operation in Falluja in November and fighting between U.S. troops and Shiite militants in Najaf. The number of deaths in 2005 was 846 and in 2006 it was 822. The U.S. military also announced on Tuesday that it intends to release nine detained Iranians in Iraq \"in the coming days,\" a move that dovetails with the American hope that Iranian authorities are honoring a recent pledge to stop Iranian help to insurgents in Iraq. \"These individuals have been assessed to have no continuing value\" and don't pose a \"further threat\" to Iraqi security, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith. Two of them are from the \"Irbil 5\" detained in January. Irbil is the largest city in the Kurdish area of Iraq. The U.S. military had accused the five Iranians arrested in Irbil of having links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard-Quds Force, a military unit accused of aiding insurgent activity -- including the distribution of roadside bombs. Smith said Tuesday that materials for roadside bombs \"do not appear to have arrived into Iraq after the Iranians have made their pledge to stop arming, funding and training extremists.\" \"We hope in the coming weeks and months to confirm that Iran has indeed honored its pledge through further verification that the flow of ammunitions and other lethal aid has indeed stopped,\" said Smith, who noted that Iran, Iraq and the United States plan to hold another round of security talks. Last month, Gen. David Petraeus, the top-ranking U.S. military official in Iraq, told CNN the Iranian ambassador had given assurances to his Iraqi counterpart that such training and supplying of insurgents would end. Meanwhile, a Kurdistan Regional Government official on Tuesday confirmed to CNN that two Iranian consulates had been established in the region, offices created in the wake of the arrests in Irbil. At the time of the arrests, Iran insisted the arrested officials were \"diplomats\" working in a diplomatic mission, while Iraq's Foreign Ministry and the U.S. military said it was a \"liaison\" office which did not have diplomatic status. One of the new consulates is in a building in Irbil that had been closed down during the January raid, the Kurdistan official said. Also Tuesday, the U.S. military reported that U.S. and Iraqi troops found 22 corpses buried in Iraq's Lake Tharthar region. The Iraqi Army and local security forces \"are investigating the mass grave to determine the identities of the deceased and the causes of death for notification of their families,\" the military said. Lake Tharthar is in both Anbar and Salaheddin provinces and northwest of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi troops have been conducting an operation in the same region since Sunday to target al Qaeda in Iraq. So far, they have found and destroyed two car bomb facilities and a number of weapons caches and detained 30 men. The military also said that coalition troops on Tuesday killed eight people described as terrorists and detained 10 suspects in operations targeting al Qaeda and foreign militant networks in central and northern Iraq. The military also said an operation involving Iraqi forces in the Tikrit area on October 30 led to the detention of 39 \"suspected insurgents\" and the discovery of a torture cell, a mobile hospital, car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and a Katyusha rocket. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sailor's death brings Monday's U.S. death toll in Iraq to six .\nU.S. military says nine detained Iranians to be released in \"coming days\"\nU.S. and Iraqi troops find 22 bodies in mass grave .","id":"75c6e27a38b72bb9f75fa2b8e45e933bae10dac5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police have arrested a man in the killing of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk, who died this week, according to the Auburn, Alabama, assistant police chief. Courtney Larrell Lockhart, 23, of Smiths, Alabama, is charged with capital murder during a kidnapping, capital murder during a robbery, and capital murder during an attempted rape, Tommy Dawson said Saturday. The Phenix City Police Department took Lockhart into custody on Friday, police said. Phenix City is about 35 miles southeast of Auburn. Burk, 18, from Marietta, Georgia, was found shot on North College Street, a few miles north of campus, on Tuesday night. She died later at a hospital. Minutes after police responded to the call reporting an injured person and found Burk, they found a car -- which turned out to be Burk's -- on fire in a campus parking lot. Dawson told reporters Friday that authorities think gasoline or another accelerant was used to ignite Burk's car, and police were investigating whether a gas can found in downtown Auburn was connected. Police want to investigate every possible lead, Dawson said. Authorities were still on patrol in the east Alabama campus, he said. The university's Web site said a campus-wide memorial service will be held Monday. The site carried a message from Burk's father, James, which said: \"The Burk family was so proud to have Lauren as an Auburn University student. We want to extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation for Auburn University, the city of Auburn and the Auburn Police Department. We feel very close to your community. We appreciate what everyone is doing for us and Lauren.\" Also on Friday, police released pictures of a 2001 Honda Civic similar to Burk's car. Authorities asked anyone who thinks they might have seen the car on Tuesday to contact them. Police are continuing to interview people, Dawson said. A student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill -- Eve Carson, 22, of Athens, Georgia -- was also shot to death this week, on early Wednesday. Authorities in Chapel Hill said Friday they had been in contact with Auburn police but did not believe the two cases were connected. Watch CNN's Nancy Grace discuss the two killings of college women from Georgia \u00bb . Burk's family, in a statement read Friday to reporters by family friend Kathy Singleton, expressed their gratitude for the thoughts and prayers offered, but asked for privacy \"so that they may grieve for their loss as well as celebrate Lauren's life.\" Those wishing to honor Burk could do so by donating to her favorite charities, Singleton said -- The Invisible Child and the American Kidney Foundation. Donations can be made at any Wachovia Bank to the Lauren Burk Memorial Fund. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Courtney Larrell Lockhart, 23, charged with three counts of capital murder .\nAuburn University student Lauren Burk found shot Tuesday, died at hospital .\nBurk's car found minutes later engulfed in flames in campus parking lot .","id":"9aa6463127d1efcba4403a185b29849a3688db8d"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- How many closets does it take to make a \"Desperate Housewife\" happy? Just one, if it's anything like Parker's. We got a guided tour--and learned a lot more about the fashion-savvy star than her taste in shoes. \"I love my new name. In Texas people are formal, so now it's 'Mrs. Parker.' I feel old! But I love it.\" Best dress . A \"gorgeous 1950s-style cocktail dress by Gustavo Cadile is my absolute favorite. It's fun, but classic too,\" says Parker. Treasured keepsake . A clutch that belonged to her aunt: \"She was the glue of our family. It's so beautiful and so impractical -- nothing fits in it.\" Watch what else is in her closet \u00bb . First Christmas gift from Tony Parker . A necklace designed by Monique Lhuillier. \"It's his Spurs number. I love it.\" Loves, but doesn't know what to do with . A \"quirky lip-shaped purse by Judith Leiber. I can't figure out how to wear it!\" Fashion faux pas . \"One time, my mom and aunt Didi were helping me clean out my closet. Aunt Didi had taken off her jacket. I grabbed it and was like, 'What is this? Who would give me this ugly thing?' And she was like, 'That's mine!' \" Go-to outfit . \"A thermal top, a scarf, and I'm not just saying this because she's my friend, but I love my Victoria Beckham DVB jeans. She sent me three pairs--they're perfect.\" First splurge . \"I'd always wanted Uggs, but I always had the impostors--the Muggs, the Thuggs, the everything but. I still wear [them].\" Owns in multiples . \"Christian Louboutin espadrille wedges. They're so high! I have them in every color. I've sprained my ankle walking on the cobblestones in Paris wearing them. They're a beautiful pain.\" Cool freebie . \"Richard Tyler mules. I did a photo shoot and they said I could keep them. I simply could not believe someone would give me a $300 pair of shoes. I was fascinated!\" Most expensive item . \"My hot-pink crocodile Herm\u00e8s Birkin bag. Robert Verdi, my stylist, told me, 'Wear it with everything--even to bed. This is going to be handed down in your will.' \" E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Desperate Housewives\" actress Eva Longoria Parker gives peek into closet .\nSays she has Christian Louboutin espadrille wedges in every color.\nHer most-expensive item is a hot-pink crocodile Herm\u00e8s Birkin bag .","id":"97eda06b374f07cd9495962465775bde7d44da31"} -{"article":"LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (CNN) -- A vast underground vault storing millions of seeds from around the world took delivery of its first shipment Tuesday. The inside of one of the vaults at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean. Dubbed the \"Doomsday Vault,\" the seed bank on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean is considered the ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections, protecting them from a wide range of threats including war, natural disasters, lack of funding or simply poor agricultural management. Norwegian musicians performed Tuesday as part of an elaborate opening ceremony marking the opening of the vault, located 130 meters (427 feet) inside a frozen mountain. Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, placed the first seeds inside the vault, followed by other dignitaries. The inaugural shipment represent 268,000 distinct samples of seeds, with each sample containing a hundred-plus seeds and originating from a different farm or field around the world. In all, the shipment of seeds secured in the vault Tuesday weighed approximately 10 tons, filling 676 boxes. The shipment amounts to a 100 million seeds in total, ranging from major African and Asian food staples like maize, rice, and wheat to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is paying to collect and maintain the seeds. Watch as \"Doomsday\" seed vault opens \u00bb Eventually the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, as it is officially known, will hold as many as 4.5 million distinct samples of seeds -- or some 2 billion seeds in total -- encompassing almost every variety of most important food crops in the world, the Global Crop Diversity Trust said. The Norwegian government paid to build the vault in a mountainside near Longyearbyen, in the remote Svalbard islands between Norway and the North Pole. Building began last year. The United Nations founded the trust in 2004 to support the long-term conservation of crop diversity, and countries and foundations provide the funding. \"The seed vault is the perfect place for keeping seeds safe for centuries,\" said Cary Fowler, executive director of the trust. \"At these temperatures, seeds for important crops like wheat, barley and peas can last for up to 10,000 years.\" The vault's location deep inside a mountain in the frozen north ensures the seeds can be stored safely no matter what happens outside. \"We believe the design of the facility will ensure that the seeds will stay well-preserved even if such forces as global warming raise temperatures outside the facility,\" said Magnus Bredeli Tveiten, project manager for the Norwegian government. The vault sits at the end of a 120-meter (131-yard) tunnel blasted inside the mountain. Workers used a refrigeration system to bring the vault to -18 degrees Celsius (just below 0 degrees Fahrenheit), and a smaller refrigeration system plus the area's natural permafrost and the mountain's thick rock will keep the vault at at least -4 C (25 F). The vault at Svalbard is similar to an existing seed bank in Sussex, England, about an hour outside London. The British vault, called the Millennium Seed Bank, is part of an scientific project that works with wild plants, as opposed to the seeds of crops. Paul Smith, the leader of the Millennium Seed Bank project, said preserving the seeds of wild plants is just as important as preserving the seeds of vital crops. \"We must give ourselves every option in the future to use the whole array of plant diversity that is available to us,\" Smith told CNN. The idea for the Arctic seed bank dates to the 1980s but only became a possibility after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources came into force in 2004, the Norwegian government said. The treaty provided an international framework for conserving and accessing crop diversity. Svalbard is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections around the world. The Norwegian government says it has paid 50 million Norwegian Kroner ($9.4 million) to build the seed vault. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Becky Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections has opened in Norway .\nThe vault received inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds .\nNorwegian govt. built vault in glacial mountain between Norway and North Pole .","id":"99a6049d67c1cee35f9703ccb8e6f62a4928295a"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- White students at a South African university tricked black residence hall workers into eating stew containing urine, prompting a march Wednesday in which five people were arrested, university officials said. Students protest against a racist video on the campus of Free State University in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The white students made a video of the incident, which they staged in reaction to the university's efforts to integrate its residences, according to a statement from the University of the Free State. The protesters on Wednesday included black and white students who later marched to the residence where the video was made and demanded that it be shut down, witnesses said. The video surfaced on Tuesday but was made in September, the university said. In the video, white male students at Reitz Residence are seen encouraging at least three black female housekeepers to participate in what the students call the \"Reitz Fear Factor,\" an apparent reference to the television show in which contestants eat live worms or compete in other feats. Watch excerpts of video that sparked outrage \u00bb . In one scene from the video, a student mixes what looks like a beef stew in a plastic bowl and adds garlic and other items. Then he tells the camera he will add the \"special ingredient.\" The student then urinates into the mixture, which he later stirs up and puts in a microwave. Other students can be heard laughing on the tape. The next scene shows a different student urging at least three housekeepers to drink cups full of the stew, saying, \"This is our dorm's 'Fear Factor.' We want to see who has the best 'Fear Factor.'\" On the video, the student does not tell the women that there is urine in the mixture. The women, on their knees, spit the stew into buckets after tasting it. Some appeared to vomit, but the women also laughed during the incident as the student urged them on. Next, the women struggle to run in what appears to be a race. The video is put in slow-motion as the theme from \"Chariots of Fire\" plays. Finally, one of the students awards a large bottle of whiskey to one of the women, telling her she has won the \"Fear Factor.\" At the end of the video, a message appears on the screen in Afrikaans saying, \"That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration.\" University officials and human rights groups in South Africa denounced the video. \"The executive management of the [university] condemns this video in the strongest possible terms as a gross violation of the human dignity of the workers involved,\" said UFS Rector Frederick Fourie in a statement posted on the university's Web site. \"We have immediately started with a most urgent investigation into this matter,\" he added. Later Wednesday, Fourie met with the employees seen in the video and apologized to them, a statement from the university said. Counseling is being provided for the workers, it added. The students involved in the video have been identified and will be suspended, Fourie said, and charges against the men will be filed with the South African Police Service. Two of the students in the video are still enrolled at the university but had been barred from the campus in Bloemfontein, according to the university. Two others completed their studies last year. The students seen in the video have not made any public comment since the video surfaced. \"I am deeply saddened that students apparently see nothing wrong in producing such an offensive and degrading video. I have publicly said several times that the UFS is not a place for racism,\" the rector's statement said. \"The fact that it is openly linked to the integration process in UFS residences is also most disturbing,\" Fourie said. A spokeswoman in Free State province for the Democratic Alliance -- an opposition party which says it puts equal rights for all South Africans at the center of its policies -- called the video \"shocking and inhumane.\" \"It looked like they were willing [participants] but they didn't know what purpose the video served. ... It was quite humiliating at the end to see the quite senior ladies on their knees eating the meat,\" said spokeswoman Liana Van Wyk, the South African Press Association reported. Helen Zille, the Democratic Alliance's leader, Wednesday asked the South African Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation into racial tensions at the university. \"The abhorrent footage of students abusing university workers is a fundamental infringement on the victims' constitutional right to have their dignity respected and protected,\" Zille said in a statement posted on the group's Web site. \"This incident is symptomatic of racial tensions that have been simmering at the campus for some time over the issue of hostel [residence] integration,\" she said. Fourie acknowledged in his statement that \"the university is going through a difficult time with its efforts to racially integrate its residences and to create a new residence culture based on diversity, respect, human dignity and human rights.\" He added, \"These kinds of actions make it all the more important that we succeed with establishing such a new institutional culture on the campus. I appeal to all staff and students to remain calm and to act in the best interests of the university.\" The university, a research center, is one of South Africa's oldest; founded in 1904. It has more than 25,000 students, according to its Web site, and uses a parallel-medium instruction in English and Afrikaans for its full range of undergraduate and graduate programs. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kim Norgaard contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video made of incident surfaces, brings campus protest .\nVideo made to protest residence hall integration, university says .\nWhite males urinated into stew, served it to black workers .\nVideo makers told workers they were playing \"Fear Factor\"","id":"adcb3e7b4bef0f9efe7a838b56131ca99b587743"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tornado swept through parts of Tupelo, Mississippi, on Thursday, damaging trees, power lines and overturning a 18-wheel truck, a law enforcement official said. iReporter Graham Hancock saw damage Thursday at the Tupelo Furniture Market in Tupelo, Mississippi. \"Just a little earlier this morning, we began to get reports of damage starting from the west side of Tupelo,\" said Chief Deputy John Hall of the Lee County Sheriff's Department. Hall said the storm moved north across the city to the Mall at Barnes Crossing. Nearby on U.S. 45, an 18-wheel truck was overturned, he said. There were no reports of injuries, and Hall said authorities were assessing damages. Watch as a Tupelo resident describes the storm \u00bb . Jeff Snyder, general manager for the Mall at Barnes Crossing, said the shopping center sustained \"minor property damage.\" Terry Anderson, executive director of Tupelo Regional Airport, said the facility had minor damage, including some broken windows. He said the airport was closed for about 10 minutes while the taxiway and runway were cleared. No flights were delayed, he said, and the airport is \"up and running.\" Mark Waddle, who works at the airport, said he saw the storm form. \"It was real small at first,\" said Waddle, an employee at the airport's Budget Car Rental counter. \"All the clouds were twirling around.\" Waddle said he watched as the tornado touched down near the airport. \"It looked like it hit some kind of transformer because the whole sky lit up blue,\" he said. \"Then it kind of blew through the Tupelo airport. ... It was blowing so hard the trees were touching the ground.\" Waddle said he was not aware of any significant damage to the airport apart from overturned trash cans and debris in tree branches. \"All of the people and all the vehicles and everything are fine up here at the airport,\" he said. Bobbye Jones, who works at the Mississippi Department of Transportation in Tupelo, said the roof blew off the lab at the agency. She said fallen tree branches also had damaged vehicles outside her office. \"Everything just got real dark,\" Jones said. . A tornado watch, which denotes favorable conditions for tornadoes, is in effect until late Thursday afternoon for parts of northwestern Alabama.","highlights":"NEW: Tornado watch in effect for parts of northwestern Alabama .\nLaw enforcement official reports tornado damage in Tupelo, Mississippi .\nStorm damages trees, power lines, overturns 18-wheeler on U.S. 45 .\nNo injuries reported in Mississippi town .","id":"bf7cc4e7872b7471a8ef858b8aa45eca090171da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One thing Saudi people should not have to worry about is money. Oil money is paying for Saudi Arabia's growth but it is also the main cause of rising prices . The kingdom is awash in cash which keeps pouring into the world's largest oil producer as prices rise. Last year alone, Saudi is estimated to have raked in about $200 billion from oil. It is this influx of money which is paying for Saudi Arabia's economic growth -- but it is also the main cause of rising prices across the country. \"There is no free lunch. If you want to grow at that base, you have to swallow a price every once in a while in the form of high inflation,\" said Abdulrahman Al Harithi, CEO of investment bank, MENA Financial Group. Saudi people are certainly paying the price. Inflation is currently running at 9.6 percent -- a 30-year high. At the beginning of the year, rental costs went up nearly 17 percent. In March, the cost of fuel and water increased almost 16 percent and other everyday staples also saw double digit gains. The kingdom's business community is also concerned about the adverse effects of inflation. A recent survey of Saudi Arabia's business confidence by financial services company, SABB, found that while confidence remains robust, over half of respondents were concerned that inflation would lead to rising business costs. Prices in the kingdom will continue their upward trend, according to the analysts at SABB. What's more, there is not much the Saudi government can do to combat it. The riyal, like many other Gulf currencies, is pegged to the U.S. dollar and while the Gulf is booming, the U.S. is heading towards recession. As the economic fortunes of the two countries continue to diverge it is hard to see what can be done to combat inflation. The main problem is that whenever the U.S. Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, like it did this week, the kingdom must follow suit. In a booming economy like Saudi's, low interest rates push prices through the roof. The government is studying whether remedies like a minimum wage could ease the pain but some in the kingdom, like Al Harithi, say there is no quick solution. \"Honestly, I don't' think there is an answer for such a question. I don't think there is a magical formula that could fix this issue,\" he told CNN. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Last year, Saudi Arabia brought in around $200 billion from oil .\nThe huge profits are fueling growth but inflation is at a 30 year high .\nFood and water costs have rocketed by 16 percent .\nThe Saudi government is looking at remedies like a minimum wage .","id":"62785b99e4007fad95ce55d427046e14aef476a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man, incensed that a 6-year-old girl chose to walk through a path reserved for upper caste villagers, pushed her into burning embers, police in north India said Wednesday. She was seriously burned. Dalits, or \"untouchables,\" are victims of discrimination in India despite laws aimed at eliminating prejudice. The girl is a Dalit, or an \"untouchable,\" according to India's traditional caste system. India's constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country. The girl was walking with her mother down a path in the city of Mathura when she was accosted by a man in his late teens, said police superintendent R.K. Chaturvedi. \"He scolded them both and pushed her,\" Chaturvedi said. The girl fell about 3 to 4 feet into pile of burning embers by the side of the road. The girl remained in critical condition Wednesday. The man confessed to the crime and was charged with attempted murder, Chaturvedi said. The assault took place in India's Uttar Pradesh state, about 150 km (93 miles) south of Delhi. The state is governed by Mayawati, a woman who goes by one name and is India's most powerful Dalit politician. Her Bahujan Samaj Party seeks to get more political representation for Dalits, who are considered so low in the social order that they don't even rank among the four classes that make up the caste system. Hindus believe there are five main groups of people, four of which sprang from the body of the first man. The Brahmin class comes from the mouth. They are the priests and holy men, the most elevated of the castes. Next is the Ksatriyas, the kings, warriors and soldiers created from the arms. The Vaisyas come from the thighs. They are the merchants and traders of society. And the Sudras, or laborers, come from the feet. The last group is the Dalits, or the \"untouchables.\" They're considered too impure to have come from the primordial being. Untouchables are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells. They use different entry ways, coming and going from buildings. They number about 250 million in India, about 25 percent of the population, according to the Colorado, U.S.-based Dalit Freedom Network. \"Dalits are seen to pollute higher caste people if they come in touch with them, hence the 'untouchables,'\" the group says on its Web site. \"If a higher caste Hindu is touched by, or even had a Dalit's shadow fall across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.\" Recent weeks has seen a rise in violence against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN, reported Wednesday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Girl pushed into pile of burning embers by man in his late teens .\nMan charged with attempted murder .\nAssault took place in India's Uttar Pradesh state .","id":"62fcd4ca096a182c292ae3609444bbc7af15eab6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that the most important thing he could achieve as president would be to deal with Iraq and the threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan while improving \"our influence around the world.\" Sen. Barack Obama, in his first interview since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, speaks with Wolf Blitzer. In his first interview since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Obama said he thinks the United States' influence around the world has been diminishing. \"The world wants to see the United States lead. They've been disappointed and disillusioned over the last seven, eight years,\" he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview on \"The Situation Room.\" \"I think there is still a sense everywhere I go that if the United States regains its sense of who it is and our values and our ideals, that we will continue to set the tone for a more peaceful and prosperous world.\" Watch the full interview with Obama \u00bb . Obama said he thinks the way the war in Iraq has been handled has kept the United States from focusing on key issues like energy policy, global warming and the economy. Americans want to succeed, he said, \"but we're going to have to make some investments and ensure that the dynamism and the innovation of the American people is released.\" \"It's very hard for us to do that when we're spending close to $200 billion a year in other countries, rebuilding those countries instead of focusing on making ourselves strong,\" he said. Obama downplayed headlines and stories, such as the cover of Time magazine, that have declared him the Democratic presidential nominee. \"I don't want to be jinxed. We've still got some work to do,\" he said. Watch an analysis of some of Obama's comments \u00bb . Obama predicted that he and Sen. Hillary Clinton would probably split the remaining contests and said Clinton would win the upcoming primary in West Virginia by a \"big margin.\" Obama won North Carolina by a 14-point margin Tuesday. Clinton squeaked out a win in Indiana by 2 points. In the days after those contests, some top Democrats have called on Clinton to step aside. Obama deflected a question about a potential joint ticket with the New York senator, saying it's too early to start thinking about running mates. \"Sen. Clinton has shown herself to be an extraordinary candidate. She's tireless, she's smart, she's capable, and so obviously she'd be on anybody's short list to be a potential vice presidential candidate,\" he said. \"But it would be presumptuous of me at this point ... to somehow suggest that she should be my running mate.\" Watch viewer responses to question: Should Obama offer Clinton the No. 2 spot? \u00bb . Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and a co-chairman of Clinton's campaign, commented Thursday on the possibility of a joint ticket. \"I think what she's interested in being the nominee of the party. ... We're fighting hard for it. This woman has been working tirelessly through this campaign. ... Hillary has earned the right to do whatever she wants to do.\" Obama said he's ready for what would be the next phase if he becomes the nominee: a matchup against Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate. Obama said he was offended when McCain said last month, \"It's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.\" \"I think it's disappointing because John McCain always says, 'Well, I'm not going to run that kind of politics,' and then to engage in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy on Hamas has been no different than his,\" Obama said. \"And so for him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.\" When asked to respond to McCain supporters -- such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- who have said Obama is not ready to be commander in chief, the senator from Illinois said he thinks what people are looking for is \"good judgment.\" \"I think I've consistently displayed the kind of judgment that the American people are looking for in the next president,\" he said. Watch Obama say why he's qualified to be president \u00bb . Romney responded later on \"The Situation Room,\" saying \"The truth of the matter is just as I said, that he doesn't have a record of accomplishments in the private sector or in the governmental sector ... hasn't pushed a major piece of legislation. \"He seems like a charming guy who's very well-spoken. But in terms of actually having led, actually having accomplished something, actually having a kind of leadership that America needs at a critical time with our economy ... he's untested. ... Frankly, Sen. McCain is someone who is tested and very proven,\" he added.","highlights":"Obama says he thinks U.S. influence has been diminishing .\nCandidate downplays notion that he is already the Democratic nominee .\nObama says it's too early to discuss potential running mates .\nClinton camp says she's \"fighting hard\" to be nominee, not running mate .","id":"afdbd1bc7c79a936601b3c6cae4622464641d3a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Battling blustery weather, a Lufthansa Airlines flight scraped its wing on the ground during a landing attempt in Hamburg, Germany, over the weekend. Internet footage of the Lufthansa A320 as it attempts a landing Saturday at Hamburg, Germany. The plane recovered and landed safely the second time around, the spokesman said. Dramatic amateur video of the incident that appeared on the Internet showed the Airbus A320 teetering as it tried to land during the brutal winter storm on Saturday. As it nears the tarmac, one wing visible scrapes the ground. Watch the plane try to land as a passenger describes experience \u00bb . \"As we were about to touch down, a gust of wind pressed the left wing towards the ground,\" a Lufthansa pilot identified only as Oliver A. said in a statement. \"We pulled up immediately. A maneuver we practice in training very often.\" The airline said the pilot has been flying for Lufthansa for 17 years. Watch as plane avoids crash \u00bb Airline spokesman Wolfgang Weber said the left winglet, a fin at the end of the wing scraped the ground after a gust of wind tipped the plane. Damage to the plane was minimal and not structural. He said the plane is already back in service. \u2022 Were you on board? Send us an iReport E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Amateur video of the moment the Lufthansa flight scraped its wing .\nStrong winds blamed for the near miss at Hamburg airport .\nThe plane recovered and landed safely the second time around .","id":"2a2a0fd7b85ec6f9145761795bae420d7eb84f44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An explosion destroyed a home in suburban Pittsburgh on Wednesday, killing an elderly man and severely injuring his grandchild, authorities said. A house exploded Wednesday, killng one person and injuring a second, in the Pennsylvania borough of Plum. The explosion was reported about 1:30 p.m. on Mardi Gras Drive in Plum Borough, about 15 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Several neighboring homes were damaged, fire officials said. Richard Leith, 64, was babysitting his grandchild in the home, according to John J. Smith, an investigator with the Allegheny County medical examiner's office. Both were transported to local hospitals, though Leith died later in the afternoon. The condition of the child, who was treated at Children's Hospital, was unknown, Smith said. Leith's autopsy would be conducted on Thursday, he added. It is unclear what caused the explosion. Dave Heiser, a neighbor, told CNN that he was home when he heard the explosion. \"I thought my house blew up. My windows were blown out. I went outside and debris was falling from the sky,\" he said. Watch the neighbor describe hearing the blast \u00bb . He said he ran three houses down and saw a woman running with a little girl and screaming. \"The little girl was apparently in the house when the explosion happened and was blown outside,\" Heiser said. \"That house was leveled to the ground. There is nothing left.\" Several families who were displaced by the explosion were directed to Red Cross officials to make arrangements for shelter Wednesday night, authorities said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials: 1:30 p.m. explosion kills grandfather, severely injures grandchild .\nIt's unclear what caused the blast, authorities say .\nInvestigator: 64-year-old Richard Leith died at hospital .\nNeighbor says he saw a woman running down street with a little girl after blast .","id":"f3d07208d0059d738fc7788a4ce813309b677d7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dutch tourist says she recently spotted missing 4-year-old Madeleine McCann at a French restaurant near Montpellier, McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said Wednesday. A handout photo, released September 16, 2007, of missing child Madeleine McCann. The tourist said she recognized Madeleine from the many media reports about the child's May 3 disappearance and may have even seen the well-publicized defect in the little girl's eye, Mitchell said. \"She and a friend saw a child that they immediately took to be Madeleine,\" said Mitchell. \"They actually called out her name. \"A man who was with the child scooped the child up and took her out of the cafe before the girls could take a photograph with their mobile phones,\" he said. Mitchell said there is a surveillance tape of the girl in the L'Arche restaurant and Madeleine's parents are hoping to be able to use it to determine if it is their missing daughter. Mitchell explains how the sighting came about \u00bb . But The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed police official, is reporting that investigators have determined it was not the missing child. Police watched the closed-circuit video footage, and despite the child looking like Madeleine, it was not her, said the official, who did not want his name published because he is not authorized to speak to media about the case. Madeleine disappeared May 3, days before her fourth birthday. Her parents, who were vacationing with her in Portugal, have said she disappeared from their room at a resort while they dined in a nearby restaurant. Despite a global search and the attention of celebrities like Virgin Chairman Richard Branson, author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham, there have been no major breaks in the case. Portuguese investigators in September named the McCanns official suspects in their daughter's disappearance. The McCanns deny involvement, saying they believe Madeleine may have been abducted by pedophiles and taken to North Africa. A few months ago, there was a reported sighting of Madeleine in Belgium, but nothing came of that report. Last year, excitement grew when a video surfaced of a Moroccan woman carrying a child on her back who looked very similar to Madeleine. Authorities determined that it was the woman's child. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Madeleine McCann possibly seen at roadside restaurant near Montpellier .\nAP: Police say girl on surveillance tape is not Madeleine .\nMan takes girl from restaurant after Madeleine's name called, spokesman says .\nMcCann has been missing since May 3; her parents named official suspects .","id":"2b8840981769a4a8f93d2e82e609ab169165cd3c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said Thursday that the nation is breaking relations with Colombia \"in solidarity with the Ecuadoran people.\" Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said the nation is breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia. The move comes after the Organization of American States passed a resolution Wednesday in hopes of easing tensions stemming from an attack by Colombian military on a rebel camp in neighboring Ecuador on Saturday. Since that attack, Ecuador has broken off relations with Colombia, and Venezuela says it has moved troops to its border with Colombia. Ortega made his televised remarks in Managua, where he was flanked by Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa. Colombian forces killed at least 17 members of the leftist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on Saturday. FARC is estimated to be holding at least 700 hostages in the jungles of Colombia and has been accused by the United States of being a terrorist organization. \"This rupture of relations isn't with the people of Colombia,\" Ortega said. \"We are breaking with the terrorist policies that the government of [Colombian President] Alvaro Uribe is practicing.\" In its resolution, the OAS called the attack \"a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ecuador and of principles of international law.\" It ordered a commission, headed by OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza and composed of four ambassadors designated by him, to visit both countries to investigate the matter, \"and to propose formulas for bringing the two nations closer together.\" Colombian officials have apologized for taking their attack against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia into Ecuador but said it was necessary to counter a threat to their national security. Colombian officials also said they discovered evidence after the attack that Ecuadoran and Venezuelan government officials were collaborating with the group -- namely that Chavez allegedly gave $300 million to the rebels and that a senior Ecuadoran official met with them. \"[They] are making things up and there's no limit to what they'll make up,\" Chavez said at a news conference on Wednesday. Correa has said his country would only be satisfied when the OAS issues a \"clear condemnation\" against Colombia for the raid. OAS foreign ministers are to meet March 17 in Washington \"to examine the facts and make the pertinent recommendations,\" the resolution concluded. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that he saw little chance of war erupting between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Learn more about the countries \u00bb . Gates added that the United States would not need to assist its Colombian allies should armed conflict break out. \"My personal view is that there is relatively little likelihood of a military conflict between them, and my further impression is that the Colombians can take care of themselves,\" he said at the Pentagon. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: President Daniel Ortega said move \"in solidarity\" with Ecuador .\nOn Saturday, Colombia's military attacked a rebel camp in Ecuador .\nU.S. official: Small chance Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador will fight .","id":"4b23ce1db7253bf118b493c9bea7d6899012cc88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five young men died Saturday when the car they were in drove off the end of a private airstrip near Ocala, Florida, became airborne for 200 feet and slammed into an oak tree, authorities said. The 2008 BMW was split in two in the violent wreck. All of the victims died at the scene. \"This had to be the worst vehicle crash that I have ever seen during my career,\" said Randy Robinson, a spokesman for the Emergency Medical Services Alliance with 27 years on the job. The 2008 BMW was split in two in the wreck, which happened at 3:45 a.m., said Lt. Mike Burroughs, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol Troop B. He told CNN the victims -- 18 to 20 years old and all from the area -- were declared dead at the scene. Burroughs said it was not clear how the car got onto the private Greystone community airstrip -- the same one actor John Travolta uses for his aircraft -- but the car was driving north on Runway 36, which is 1.5 miles long. \"It is evident that the driver of the vehicle saw he was approaching the end of the runway,\" Burroughs said. \"He attempted a braking maneuver and the vehicle slid sideways off the end of the runway.\" The car flew through the air for 200 feet, he said, and struck an oak tree 15 feet off the ground, splitting the vehicle in two. Three of the occupants were ejected -- one landing 40 feet away, Burroughs said. The engine block of the BMW was completely dislodged and wreckage from the car was found over a 200-square-foot area, the FHP spokesman said. It was not known if the victims were wearing seat belts and the agency was awaiting the results of toxicology tests from the medical examiner's office to find out if alcohol or drugs played a role, Burroughs said. The airstrip's private taxiways back up to homes in the Jumbolair and Greystone gated communities. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The car was driving on a runway at 3:45 a.m. when the driver hit the brakes .\nThe 2008 BMW flew through the air for 200 feet and struck an oak tree .\nAll of the victims were declared dead at the scene .\nThe car was split in two by the force of the crash .","id":"c220780a60f76cdd1f6fd9a84abac736c3ee8ace"} -{"article":"GREENSBURG, Kansas (CNN) -- There are still piles of bricks and rubble on countless streets in Greensburg, Kansas, a year after a tornado demolished more than 90 percent of the town. On May 4, 2007, a ferocious twister blasted Greensburg, Kansas, killing 11 people in the town of 1,400. Yet what is happening in the city's rebuilding process may not only re-invent Greensburg but provide a model for \"green\" building everywhere. Just a week after the deadly tornado hit May 4, 2007, a similar idea sparked in the mayor, a representative from the governor's office and a nonprofit expert from a nearby town. The concept: If the whole town had to be rebuilt anyway, why not be bold and build it as a global example of conservation, energy efficiency and creativity? Daniel Wallach, the nonprofit specialist, soon got the green light to help residents and businesses start over in a project known as Greensburg GreenTown. \"Kansas is known for being very conservative,\" Wallach said. Watch how the town went green \u00bb . \"My first order of business was to listen. What I heard were a lot of concerns about politicization and being associated with 'tree huggers.' I helped frame it with the people here in such a way they saw, this is their movement,\" he said. Fifth-generation Greensburg resident Anita Hohl joined the staff of Greensburg GreenTown as a Web specialist. \"I was pretty green to begin with. I used to get teased about being a tree hugger. Now it's 'the thing!' This has really brought us so much closer together. What you can accomplish when just a few people are working toward the same goal is amazing,\" she said. Her farming grandparents instilled the virtue of being energy-efficient. \"My grandma always put her clothes on the line, did her own gardening and re-used everything,\" Hohl said. Hohl and her husband, a daughter, a son, four cats, a dog and two birds are among the Greensburg residents in \"FEMAville,\" a cluster of mobile homes set up as temporary housing. The family hopes to break ground soon for their new house and move in by Thanksgiving. Although they have made the best of the cramped quarters, she says, there are some challenges. \"It sort of feels like living in a cheap motel! But it's a lot better than it could be. It's nice to have a place to be,\" she said. From the start, the GreenTown staff knew that getting the business community on board with the green plan was vital. And in rural America, there is no business that's more of a bedrock than the John Deere dealership. In Greensburg, that dealership has been in the Estes family for four generations. Their facility was wiped out by the twister. \"The building was a total loss. And we saved only 13 pieces of machinery out of 220 on the lot,\" Kelly Estes said. \"The FEMA guy said he had never seen anything like it. Steel twisted into brick, and then the miles per hour needed to pick up combines that weigh 25,000 pounds and move them half a mile in the air,\" he said. Kelly and his brother Mike decided to rebuild in town to the highest green-building standard. The U.S. Green Building Council establishes a rating system for efficient buildings called LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The Greensburg facility is aiming for LEED platinum, the most demanding standard. There is one wind turbine on their new property, a 100-foot structure designed to generate 5 kilowatts of electricity. It is providing power for the construction site. Although \"green\" may be viewed as trendy and new by some, Mike Estes knows that it is not for show. \"We're looking at saving money here; truthfully, we are. We're running a business. If we can't make this make sense, why would we do it?\" he asked. And he says the non-political approach of the city in encouraging energy efficiency has helped. \"I don't think it's red or blue to be green; I think green is green, and green makes sense. And green saves you green!\" he said with a laugh. Being a model for the world in energy efficiency is a major goal of Greensburg GreenTown. But there is another even more urgent aim: keeping this rural town from disappearing. The lack of jobs in many small towns means that after teenagers graduate from high school, they have to leave to find other opportunities. \"The average age of people living in rural communities is in their 50s,\" Wallach said. \"There are very few folks in the communities under that age, because there are just no jobs. Families have been split up for decades.\" So in addition to the long-term goal of Greensburg's pre-tornado businesses from leaving, people hope to attract new green trade as well. The city wants to open a biodiesel facility as one of its first green newcomers. Another long-term goal is to have 100 percent renewable energy. It is probable that the greatest contribution would come from large wind turbines. \"The timing of all this is, in some ways, almost spooky,\" Wallach said. \"It's like the world was ready for this to happen, for a town to be completely re-imagined. The tragedy was terrible. But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Greensburg rebuilds \"green\" after tornado demolished 90 percent of the town .\nLong-term goal is to have 100 percent renewable energy .\nThe city hopes to open a biodiesel facility as one of its first green newcomers .\nNonprofit expert says terrible tragedy \"also provided an incredible opportunity\"","id":"9c7687a36469fc0e2203edb31f303274a611fb12"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They're big, strong, and fierce -- and they wear little blue booties. The police dogs in Duesseldorf, Germany are now patrolling the pavement in protective shoes that their police-officer handlers strap onto their paws. The reason? Too many glass shards left by beer drinkers in the city center, said Andre Hartwich, a spokesman for police in Duesseldorf. \"We wondered how can we protect our dogs' feet against glass,\" said Hartwich. \"We looked on the Internet and found these shoes.\" Beer drinkers along the Rhine River and in the city's Altstadt, or Old Town, often discard beer bottles on pebbled walkways. Broken glass poses a problem for the police force's 20 German Shepherds and Belgian Shepherds, Hartwich said. In addition, hooligans and vandals leave behind glass shards around New Year's Eve and during the city's famous Carnival celebrations. So what's a dog to do? Their handlers shelled out 60 euros -- $89 -- for shoes that are also worn by dogs who walk on ice in Alaska. Dogs need a month of training to get used to wearing the shoes, Hartwich said. \"We have to condition the dogs to the shoes,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police dogs in Duesseldorf, Germany are now wearing protective shoes .\nGlass shards left by beer drinkers in the city center are the reason .\nDuesseldorf police force has 20 German and Belgian Shepherds .\nDogs shoes cost \u20ac60 ($89) and are also worn by dogs who walk on ice in Alaska .","id":"8ab7fe3b19bb45c977cb74ed675579a20611ad9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A group of native Hawaiians occupied the grounds of the old Hawaiian monarchy's royal residence Wednesday, vowing to stay and do the business of the kingdom's government. A member of the protest group Hawaiian Kingdom Government unlocks the palace gate. \"It is through a greater realm than ours\" that the group took this action, said Mahealani Kahau, elected leader of the group, called Hawaiian Kingdom Government. \"Today and every day, we will be here to assume our role.\" Group members left the palace grounds Wednesday afternoon, but vowed to return Thursday morning, The Honolulu Advertiser reported. \"We'll be here at 6 o'clock in the morning,\" Kahau told the newspaper. The group is one of several in Hawaii that reject statehood and seek to return to the constitutional monarchy that effectively ended in 1893 when a group of politicians, businessmen and sugar planters -- aided by the U.S. minister to Hawaii -- overthrew the kingdom's government. The monarchist groups say that the kingdom was overthrown and annexed into the United States illegally. Hawaii's office of the attorney general did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday's action. The staff of Iolani Palace, built in 1882 and now operated as a museum, shut down the building to visitors. The 60 or so protesters occupied the grounds, chaining the gates and stationing guards there to explain to visitors the purpose of the action. The group later reopened the gates, but remained on the grounds and the building was kept closed. \"It saddens my heart to have to turn away visitors,\" said palace staff member Cindy Ascencio, who added that although she, too, is a native Hawaiian, she does not understand the actions of the group. Ascencio also said that the group appeared peaceful and she was not concerned about security. Jose Carrion, a visitor to Hawaii from Puerto Rico, told Honolulu's KHON-TV that he was \"disappointed\" he wouldn't be able to visit the ornate palace and \"learn about the culture of the Hawaiians.\" \"We wanted to come here precisely because we thought we'd learn something about the history of Hawaii and the last queen and the monarchy,\" said Carrion, who said he had reservations for the visit. \"But we're leaving tomorrow so we won't get to see the palace.\" But Carrion also said he \"kind of understood\" the actions of the group. Puerto Rico and Hawaii, along with Guam and the Philippines, were annexed into the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Guam and Puerto Rico remain territories of the United States. The Philippines gained independence after World War II, and Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. Although the monarchy was not overthrown until 1893, its fate effectively was sealed six years earlier when the same group that forced the overthrow imposed a new constitution on King David Kalakaua, who was forced to sign it under threat of arms. The document dramatically reduced the authority of the monarchy and instituted voter requirements that limited voting to wealthy businessmen and Hawaiian landowners, barring 75 percent of the native Hawaiian population and all Asians. When Queen Lili'uokalani ascended the throne after the death of her brother in 1891, she began work on a new constitution that would have effectively reversed the 1887 document. With the help of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii, the elite group that had changed the constitution in 1887 opposed the queen's actions. Two years later, under threat of U.S. troops, she yielded her authority, saying, \"Until such time as the Government of the United States shall ... undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.\" The queen was later imprisoned in Iolani Palace for eight months for her participation in an attempted 1895 revolt, until she relinquished her claim to the throne in return for her release. She died in 1917 at 79. In 1993, the U.S. Congress approved, and President Clinton signed, an apology to the people of the Hawaiian Islands. The document \"acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum.\" Although it was used as a seat of government for decades after the deposition of Lili'uokalani, the palace fell into disrepair. When the last of the government office moved out and into new facilities adjacent to the palace in 1969, restoration work began. It opened to the public in 1978. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Group does not recognize Hawaii as a U.S. state .\nPalace used by rulers of Hawaiian kingdom; now a tourist attraction .\nPeaceful protesters eventually unlock gates, leave grounds .\nProtesters vow to return Thursday morning .","id":"dfedf6786976733d8e33e7848ea8a7aa735bbcab"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The United Nations' anti-drugs chief has denounced celebrities such as pop star Amy Winehouse and supermodel Kate Moss, saying that their alleged drug use was helping devastate West Africa. Amy Winehouse's battles with her addiction are well-documented. \"Coke-snorting fashionistas are not only damaging their noses and brains -- they are contributing to state failure on the other side of the world,\" wrote Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime. The comments, published in an opinion piece in the British newspaper The Observer, was the second time in two weeks that the United Nations has criticized celebrity drug use. A report last week by the International Narcotics Control Board said that drug laws should not be disproportionately applied. And letting celebrities get away with drug use creates a perception among youth that those offenders are treated leniently. Read about the earlier warning from the United Nations drug control agency . Costa, in his piece, said the cocaine used in Europe passes through impoverished countries in west Africa where governments haven't been able to mount an effective fight against the drug traders. \"In the 19th century, Europe's hunger for slaves devastated west Africa,\" he said. \"Two hundred years later, its growing appetite for cocaine could do the same.\" The drug trade, Costa said, has corrupted the governments of some countries, and created addicts in a continent where treatment facilities are rare. \"Amy Winehouse might adopt a defiant pose and slur her way through 'Rehab' (her Grammy Award-winning hit) but does she realize the message she sends to others who are vulnerable to addiction and who cannot afford expensive treatment?\" he said. Winehouse's battles with her addiction are well-documented. The singer -- whose song \"Rehab\" describes her reluctance to enter a rehabilitation center -- checked herself into one on January 24 after the leak of a home video that showed her smoking something in a glass pipe. What was in the pipe was unknown. Scotland Yard has said it is looking into the video. Winehouse scooped up five statues at the Grammy Awards last month, including the best record and song of the year for \"Rehab.\" Winehouse's spokesman, Chris Goodman, called Costa a \"ludicrous man.\" \"Amy has never given a quote about drugs or flaunted it in any way,\" Goodman told the newspaper. \"She's had some problems and is trying to get better. The U.N. should get its own house in order.\" Costa also took model Kate Moss to task, contrasting her alleged actions to those of singers Bob Geldof and Bono who have campaigned against poverty in Africa. Bob Geldof is best known for organizing a series of benefit concerts, including Live Aid. Bono, the frontman for U2, has taken on a campaign to get Western nations to write off the debt they are owed by some African countries. \"For every rebel with a cause, there are 10 others without a clue,\" Costa wrote. \"While some well-meaning pop idols and film stars might rage against suffering in Africa, their work is being undermined by the drug habits of careless peer such as Kate Moss.\" Three years ago, London's Daily Mirror newspaper printed photos it said showed the Moss using cocaine. She later issued a statement where she apologized to \"all the people I have let down\" and said she took \"full responsibility\" for her actions. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.N. anti-drugs chief denounces celebrities Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss .\nMaria Costa says their alleged drug use is helping devastate West Africa .\nThe U.N. has spoken out on the issue twice in two weeks .\nWinehouse's spokesman says the U.N. should \"get its own house in order\"","id":"825f58580dd78cdcc7fbc10a00807e043c7b4468"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- A fight between Ugandan and Libyan presidential guards sparked chaos during a ceremony attended by the heads of state from 11 African nations on Wednesday. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni attend the opening of the mosque. Several of the guards to the visiting heads of state from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Mali, Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti sustained serious injuries in the fight, which included punches, kicks and the drawing of guns. No leaders were hurt in the melee, though several were knocked over. Several journalists also were caught up in the fracas and suffered injuries or lost their grips on cameras and recorders. The incident occurred at the opening of a massive Gadhafi National Mosque in Kampala, a structure begun by the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1972 and completed with financing from Libya, according to African media reports. Minutes after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his host, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, jointly unveiled a plaque to mark the event, the Libyan guards pushed away the guards of other delegations at the mosque's entrance. The Ugandan guards -- who had traded hostilities with the predominantly-Arab Libyan guards at every joint event since Gadhafi's arrival in the country Sunday -- reacted with fury and fought back. Museveni briefly lost his balance when a hefty Libyan guard pushed him to a wall. Another Libyan guard pushed Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who also lost his balance but was caught by his own guards. The vice president of Tanzania was knocked over by fighting guards as he was taking his shoes off to enter the mosque. Guards to the rest of the visiting presidents and prime ministers kept their respective leaders out of the fray, with some drawing their guns as the dignitaries looked on in disbelief. Some leaders -- notably those from Somalia, Burundi and Djibouti -- were visibly uneasy as guns were drawn on all sides. By the time the fight was over more than six minutes later, about a dozen presidential guards were left bleeding from compound fractures and the Libyan and Ugandan protocol officials traded bitter accusations of disrespect and racism. \"What are your people up to? Do you want to kill our leader?\" a Libyan protocol official said to his Ugandan counterpart. The Ugandan official, who declined to be named, shouted back, \"Why do think you're superior? What makes you think Uganda has any ill intention against Gadhafi?\" The Ugandan official said Museveni's guards were simply doing their job as security for the host country and had a right to respond when the Libyan guards pushed them back. It has taken 36 years to complete the giant mosque on a hill in the heart of Kampala. It used to be a colonial fort named after British Capt. Frederick Lugard. The mosque can accommodate as many as 17,000 people at one time, according to the engineers, who call it the largest mosque in sub-Saharan Africa. Many Muslims interviewed said the mosque's opening evoked sweet memories of Amin, the deceased dictator. \"It is a great day and thanks be to Allah for the completion,\" said Salim Abdul Noor, 39. \"This should remind us that while Amin is demonized as Africa's worst dictator, there are many things he did for this country that successive governments largely depend on, and much of the completed installations and structures like this beautiful mosque was Amin's dream, may Allah rest him in peace.\" The Swedish vice president of the European Islamic Conference, Adly Abu Hajar, 57, said the mosque heals rifts in a religion introduced to Uganda in 1844 by Arab slave traders. \"I find this complex has brought unity among Muslims in Uganda. There have been so many factions, but this attraction has brought them together, identifying themselves with a common home.\" The fight prompted a crisis meeting by Ugandan security authorities, after which invited diplomats from mainly the European missions in Uganda expressed dismay. \"It's disgrace. It shows there is something wrong yet unknown between the two parties,\" said the head of one European mission in Kampala, who declined to be named. The police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, and the head of the army, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, declined to comment on the fight. But Capt. Edison Kwesiga, the spokesman of the Ugandan Presidential Guard Brigade, confirmed their hostile relationship with the Libyans. \"It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of any visiting head of state. We have to do our job using any means. But our Libyan brothers always want us to fail. True, it's not the first time they come and act as you see,\" Kwesiga said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ugandan officer reports tensions with Libyan leader's guards during visit .\nLeaders gathered for opening of massive mosque in Kampala, Uganda .\nAbout a dozen presidential guards seen bleeding from compound fractures .","id":"8bd6dc9f3ebb23fe20f74c1956184064b5b95509"} -{"article":"BARCELONA, Spain -- Barcelona's Argentina striker Lionel Messi will be out of action for six weeks after tearing a muscle in his left leg during Tuesday night's 1-0 Champions League victory over Celtic. Messi is helped off the pitch after injuring his left thigh during Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Celtic. The Catalan club confirmed on Wednesday that Messi will miss both legs of Barcelona's Champions League quarterfinal encounter. It will also be a race against time for the 2007 World Player of the Year runner-up to be fit for the semifinals if Barcelona get past an opponent who will be named after the draw on March 14. Messi picked up the injury after 34 minutes during Barcelona's victory over the Scottish side, which booked their spot in the last eight by easing through 4-2 on aggregate. It is third time in the last three years that Messi has had the same injury, the last occasion being on December 15 against Valencia, which ruled him out of the 'El Clasico' derby the following week against Real Madrid. In addition to his chronic problems with his left thigh, Messi has had four other significant injuries in the last two years which have caused him to miss a month or more. Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has been forced to defend the club's medical services in the wake of Messi's latest injury. \"To doubt that they are doing their best is an insult. The medical staff and the club in general are working to prevent these sort of problems. They are working hard but there is always a player that can be injured,\" said Dutchman Rijkaard. Messi's injury reopens the door for Thierry Henry to claim his place in the starting lineup. The Frenchman has rarely impressed since his big-money move from Arsenal to the Spanish giants last summer. Rijkaard also has other options to replace Messi on the right flank in the shape of Portuguese international Deco or teenage Mexican winger Giovanni Dos Santos. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Barcelona striker Lionel Messi is ruled out for six weeks with a thigh injury .\nThe Argentine sustained the injury in Tuesday night's 1-0 victory over Celtic .\nIt is third time in the last three years that Messi has suffered the same injury .","id":"a7f6d4487a3ba7c4fc29e9b410820891f4c4f086"} -{"article":"JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- The remains of an adult and a fetus were found Saturday in a shallow grave in the backyard of the primary suspect in the death of a pregnant Marine, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown announced. Investigators search for the body of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach on Saturday. An arrest warrant has been issued for Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean in the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. He is charged with first-degree murder, although authorities have not positively identified the body as hers. \"This is consistent with what we were looking for: A pregnant lady who is the victim Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child,\" Brown said. The body was charred, and the fetus was in the victim's abdomen, Brown said, describing the scene in gruesome detail. The fetus was developed enough that the \"little hand was about the size of my thumb. The little fingers were rolled up,\" he said. \"One of the things that will probably stick with me for a long time, and forever, is that little hand, the way those fingers were turned, that had been burned off the arm. That is bizarre. That is tragic. And it's disgusting.\" Watch Brown describe the scene \u00bb . The remains were taken to the Onslow County medical examiner's office. They will next be sent to the chief medical examiner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for DNA testing and comparison with dental records. Lauterbach, 20, disappeared, when she was eight months pregnant, from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in mid-December, not long before she was to testify at a military hearing about her rape accusation against Laurean. Laurean is believed to have left the base at 4 a.m. Friday, and a nationwide manhunt is under way. Watch authorities search for a grave \u00bb . Lauterbach's relatives believe her pregnancy was the result of the alleged rape, said Lauterbach's uncle, Peter Steiner, a Kentucky psychiatrist. Investigators told CNN that Laurean vanished four hours before his wife, Christina, approached Brown with a note from her husband claiming that Lauterbach had committed suicide and he buried the body. \"We believe our suspect has fled the state of North Carolina; removed himself as far from here as he can get,\" Brown said Saturday. Watch Brown describe the cavity where the body was found \u00bb . Brown said Friday that blood spatter evidence was found inside Laurean's home, even on a ceiling. There was evidence of \"an attempted clean-up,\" including an attempt to paint over the blood spatter, he said. \"Evidence now is saying what he's claiming happened did not happen like he said it happened,\" Brown said of Laurean. Lauterbach's mother, Mary Lauterbach, reported the young woman as missing from Camp Lejeune on December 19. Mary Lauterbach said she had not talked with her for five days. Watch police face unanswered questions \u00bb . Laurean, 21, of Nevada, is believed to be driving a black Dodge pickup with North Carolina license plate TRR1522. Laurean repeatedly refused to meet with investigators, finally telling them that his attorney wouldn't let him. The sheriff described him as \"dangerous,\" especially if cornered. Military officials said Laurean was not taken into custody after Lauterbach reported the alleged rape because there was information the two carried on \"some sort of friendly relationship\" after she filed the complaint against him. \"The information ... leads us to believe that she still had some kind of contact\" with him, said Paul Ciccarelli, agent in charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service at Camp Lejeune, this week. Because of that, Laurean wasn't considered a flight risk, he said. Steiner disputed that, and said his niece had no relationship with Laurean. Ciccarelli also said the rape investigation is still active. See a timeline of the case \u00bb . On Friday, authorities questioned Lauterbach's roommate, Sgt. Daniel Durham, but said he had no apparent ties to her disappearance or death. Authorities have not released any details from that interview. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Lavandera contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The discovery is \"consistent with what we were looking for,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean is charged with first-degree murder .\nSheriff says blood found in house, even on ceiling .\nMissing pregnant Marine had accused suspect -- a fellow Marine -- of rape .","id":"b27ad09982665477dacdb7d06a33134bf064dd8d"} -{"article":"BELGRADE, Serbia (CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade is evacuating all nonessential personnel following Thursday's attack on the building by a crowd of protesters, a spokesman for the embassy told CNN Friday. Serbian riot police stand in front of the damaged U.S. Embassy in Belgrade on Friday. The U.S. ambassador, Cameron Munter, is staying, officials said. The embassy was closed Friday, and a handful of riot police holding shields stood outside the building, its outer walls blackened from fires set the night before and some of its windows smashed. It will remain closed until Monday or Tuesday so officials can assess the damage, said Bill Wanlund, the embassy's spokesman. He said embassy staff were still in a heightened state of alert but there were no specific threats against any staff members. The United States has warned the Serbian government that it has a responsibility to protect its assets. A top U.S. diplomat was asked during an interview on CNN if the Serbian government \"gets\" the warning. \"They'd better get it, because they have a fundamental responsibility to protect our diplomats and our embassy and to protect American citizens,\" said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns. \"What happened yesterday in Belgrade was absolutely reprehensible.\" Watch Burns' angry comments on Belgrade attack \u00bb . Thursday's violence erupted after demonstrations by thousands of Serbs against Kosovo's declaration of independence. The anger directed against the United States and other countries for recognizing the breakaway province as a nation sparked attacks on Western embassies and shops by hundreds of people. Burns said there was an \"insufficient\" number of security people guarding the U.S. Embassy at a demonstration everyone knew would take place. He said security \"melted away\" as \"the mob attacked our embassy.\" \"This kind of thing should not happen in a civilized country. It doesn't happen in the United States of America. It doesn't happen in most world capitals. So the Serb government needs to reflect seriously about the responsibility it has under the Vienna Convention,\" he said. Burns, the third highest ranking diplomat in the State Department, said he told the Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, and his government that the U.S. \"would hold them personally responsible for the safety of our people.\" \"They assured me that they would have adequate security on the ground today and for every day to come. We will hold them to that commitment,\" Burns said. Demonstrators only managed to break into one U.S. embassy building, which Wanlund said was rarely used by staff. He said the protesters didn't manage to get any documents or embassy materials. Only Marines and security guards were present at the embassy when the angry mob of about 100 approached the walls. In addition to the U.S. Embassy, the protesters attacked other Western interests including the embassies of Britain and Germany, as well as a McDonald's restaurant and a Nike shop. \"One might understand the emotion, but not the violence, and that's what the Serb government needs to remember,\" Burns said. Burns, who is stepping down in March, has long been involved in trying to resolve tensions in the former Yugoslavia. The situation was complicated by Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence by Serbia's predominantly Albanian region of Kosovo. Kosovo is revered historically by Orthodox Christian Serbs but also is claimed as separate and distinct by its ethnic Muslim Albanians. The wisdom of recognizing Kosovo independence has been questioned by many observers, who say the United States won't recognize other unilateral declarations of independence. Some opponents of Kosovo's independence say recognition is a bad precedent if it's unilateral and not done in a bilateral, diplomatic setting. They say it will give others the incentive to stage their own breakaway nations. Burns said every situation has its unique set of circumstances, as does Kosovo, which was the victim of ethnic cleansing policies by the Slobodan Milosevic regime in 1999. NATO troops fought Serbia in an air war then and pushed Serbian forces out of the region. Since then Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and with security supplied by NATO forces. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S.: An event like embassy attack \"should not happen in a civilized country\"\nU.S. warns Serbia of responsibility to protect U.S. diplomats, building .\nEmbassy evacuating nonessential personnel; ambassador will stay in Belgrade .\nNo embassy documents taken during Thursday attack and fire, spokesman says .","id":"905891c3a21e76ad63d63dfe55e569a4cab25583"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's giant pandas are believed to be safe after Monday's earthquake, but concern is growing over how they will get their next meals. The giant pandas' primary food source is bamboo. Authorities confirmed Tuesday that captive animals in two of China's major panda reserves were alive, according to Xinhua, China's official news agency. The Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center in southwest Sichuan province is home to about 86 giant pandas, who were reported safe Tuesday. Staff and critters at neighboring Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center were also reported safe, according to a spokesperson for the Atlanta Zoo, which has two pandas on loan from the wildlife reserve. Concern arose in the international wildlife community over damage to the animals' habitat, as authorities continued assessing the scope of damage in the Sichuan province. The mountainous, densely wooded region is the natural habitat for most of the 1,200 giant pandas living in the wild, making it an obvious location for research bases like Wolong and Chengdu. Giant pandas roam the forest in \"open cages\" that are meant to provide them with a safe, natural environment that will prepare them for release. With the safety of the pandas confirmed, the animals' caregivers are left to determine how resources like food and medical supplies will reach the bases, which contain breeding facilities and triage centers. Bamboo, the pandas' primary source of food, is a major agricultural product in the region, but whether it can be supplied to the pandas despite infrastructure damage is open to question. \"Wolong is hard to access under normal conditions, so the heavy road damage makes it even harder,\" said Kerry Zobor, spokesperson for the World Wildlife Fund. Zobor said WWF had confirmed the safety of staff based in Beijing, but had not received word on the conditions in Wolong. She said the WWF was also concerned about members who had been touring the country when the earthquake struck. So far, the group has not been located. Scientists in the United States are hopeful that Chinese researchers will adapt to the situation facing them. David Wildt with the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington says that scientists in Wolong have overcome threats to the giant panda population before. In the late 1990s, the captive giant panda population was in decline, with more animals dying than were born, Wildt said. Thanks to a collaborative effort with American scientists, the Wolong staff was able to reverse the trend. \"Our Chinese colleagues are very perceptive when it comes to addressing problems,\" said Wildt, who has visited Wolong many times as part of the Smithsonian's affiliation with the research base. \"Because of their efforts, the population is on the rise today.\" Wildt said that Chinese scientists have also addressed the issue of alternative food sources before. \"Artificial diets in the form of protein biscuits have been created for giant pandas. They're not a complete substitute, but they meet the needs of a basic high-fiber diet,\" said Wildt, who has worked with two pandas that the Smithsonian has on loan from Wolong. \"Right now, we're mostly concerned about the staff. If the staff is fine, then the animals will be fine,\" Wildt said.","highlights":"Report: Chinese authorities confirm that captive giant pandas are safe .\nConcerns grow over road accessibility to the reserves .\nScientist: Alternative foods exist in the event of depleted bamboo stocks .","id":"626460b8ec58252c82ff5513aa754190332780aa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton received the most votes in two pivotal Democratic primary contests Tuesday, scoring wins in Texas and Ohio that were considered critical to keeping alive her White House hopes. Sen. Hillary Clinton is the winner in Ohio and Texas primaries, but trails in the Texas caucuses. With 99 percent of precincts reporting in Ohio, Clinton had 54 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for Sen. Barack Obama. The race was closer in Texas where, with 99 percent of precincts in, Clinton had 51 percent to Obama's 48 percent. A complicated formula in Texas that weighs delegates more heavily in highly populated areas and includes a caucus that was still being tallied Wednesday afternoon meant the delegate count there remained unclear. Obama was leading Clinton in the caucus vote 56 percent to 44 percent with 38 percent of the state counted, party officials said. The party will split 67 delegates between the candidates in proportion to the final caucus results. Watch an I-Report video from a Democratic caucus \u00bb . A final tally was not expected until Thursday afternoon, officials said. Regardless, the two wins were crucial for Clinton, who would have found it difficult to continue the race if Obama won big Tuesday. \"For everyone across America who has been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you,\" Clinton said to a cheering crowd in Columbus, Ohio. Watch Clinton thank backers \u00bb . After a month of losses to Obama, Clinton had been expected to do well in Ohio -- where the blue-collar workers who have consistently supported her throughout the campaign make up a large chunk of the Democratic base. But with polls showing the Ohio contest neck-and-neck in the days leading up to the primary, Clinton got a boost from female voters and those who only recently made up their minds. According to CNN exit polling, 59 percent of the voters in the state's Democratic primary were women. Those female voters favored Clinton over Obama, 58 percent to 40 percent. In the past week, Clinton sharpened her attacks on Obama -- questioning whether he has enough experience to lead the nation and attempting to cast doubt on his opposition to international trade agreements that many in Ohio feel have led to job losses. Poll results suggest it may have worked. Among those polled, 64 percent of those who decided their vote in the last three days chose Clinton. Clinton was believed to need strong performances in Tuesday's contests in Ohio and Texas to halt Obama's momentum in the race and stay alive in the hunt for the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination. As early returns were counted Tuesday, Obama ran a string of consecutive victories to 12 with a lopsided win in Vermont. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he led Clinton 59 percent to 39 percent. But Clinton snapped that streak in Rhode Island. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had taken 58 percent of the vote to Obama's 40 percent. Speaking in San Antonio, Texas, Obama told supporters he expected to hold a similar delegate lead over Clinton after Tuesday's races to the one he held before. \"We know this -- no matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead we had this morning and we are on the way to winning this nomination,\" he said to cheers and chants of his trademark phrase, \"Yes we can.\" Watch an excerpt of Obama's speech to supporters \u00bb . With Texas' delegates still to be awarded, Clinton had picked up 22 delegates after results in Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont were tallied. Obama entered the day holding a lead of just over 100 delegates, with 1,369 pledged delegates and superdelegates to Clinton's 1,267, according to CNN estimates. In Ohio, harsh weather and balloting problems stretched the polling well into the evening. With polls slated to close at 7:30 p.m., state elections officials decided to extend voting until 9 p.m. in northern Ohio's Sandusky County. The area was hit by freezing rain for much of the day, and ballot shortages were reported in the Cleveland and Columbus areas -- also causing the polls to be open until 9 p.m. Texas, with its 193 Democratic delegates, and Ohio, with 141, were the biggest prizes in Tuesday's contests. There were 15 Democratic delegates at stake in Vermont and 21 in Rhode Island. 'Texas two-step' Texas' results may not be as easy to measure as counting votes. In what pundits have been calling the \"Texas two-step,\" the state's Democratic Party held a primary election, in which 126 delegates were awarded, and a post-election caucus in which another 67 are at stake. It's possible for the loser of the primary to win more delegates with a strong showing in the caucuses. Texas' method of awarding delegates in the primary -- with more delegates coming from large population centers like Houston, Dallas and Austin -- further complicates the matter. As polling places closed Tuesday, Texans reportedly lined up in bigger-than-expected numbers for the caucuses -- in some places lining up in parking lots and overflowing buildings where caucuses were held. Party officials Wednesday said 1.1 million voters participated in the caucuses. A CNN I-Reporter in Houston said there were hundreds of people at his polling place -- he said he waited more than an hour just to sign in. At an Austin caucus, about 800 people showed up -- far outstripping expectations and causing organizers to stand on tables and yell to organize caucus-goers, one voter said. Clinton supporters had said a strong performance would keep her campaign alive. Weeks ago, former President Clinton predicted his wife would need wins in Texas and Ohio to stay in the race. \"If Hillary Clinton gets out a small win in Ohio and Texas, it will be like Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow,\" said political adviser and Clinton supporter Paul Begala, referring to the six more weeks of winter the groundhog is said to predict. The Obama campaign, however, said the arithmetic of the delegate count will make it difficult for Clinton to overcome Obama's lead. \"They've had a really bad run and they have to rationalize continuing,\" said Obama spokesman David Axelrod. \"We've won more popular votes and more delegates, and they have to give some rationale for staying in this race.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Obama leads Clinton 56 percent to 44 percent in tally of Texas caucuses .\nClinton wins Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island primaries .\nObama wins Vermont, leads race in total delegate count .","id":"31d0ed7b1b8f65c6479fb35683d72de21d70796a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. border officers found a wire between two fences along the U.S.-Mexican border that, when stretched taut, could have seriously harmed or even decapitated Border Patrol agents, Congress was told Wednesday. The wire was about 4 feet high when pulled tight, or about neck level for an agent on an ATV, officials say. \"It was configured in a way so that, if it was pulled, it would take off the head of a Border Patrol agent riding in an open car,\" Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a House budget hearing. The wire was discovered Saturday when authorities monitoring a surveillance camera saw two people on the north side of the border east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, in the San Diego sector. Border Patrol agents sent to the area found a thick metal wire tied to a secondary fence. The wire stretched across the border road and led into Mexico through a hole in the primary fence, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. When pulled tight, the wire would be about 4 feet high -- about neck level for an agent riding on an all-terrain vehicle, CBP said. Officials said they suspected that drug or illegal immigrant smugglers were involved. No arrests were made on either side of the border. The wire was removed, and no injuries or damage took place, CBP said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The thick metal wire stretched across the border road and led into Mexico .\nAgents discovered it Saturday after a surveillance camera spotted suspicious activity .\nOfficials say they suspect that drug or illegal immigrant smugglers are involved .\nNo arrests have been made on either side of the border .","id":"b03ee4df6492038d0a1d99a1717d8ad8ccc06db3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama claimed a significant victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, telling supporters \"we are hungry for change.\" Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, celebrate his South Carolina win. The Illinois senator earned more than twice the vote that rival Sen. Hillary Clinton did, 55 percent to 27 percent, unofficial returns showed. Former Sen. John Edwards was third with 18 percent. \"Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina,\" Obama said to supporters Saturday. Watch a recap of Obama's big win \u00bb . A win in South Carolina was considered crucial for Obama, who won Iowa but finished second to Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada. See what the results mean \u00bb . \"I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina,\" he said. \"The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders,\" Obama said. \"It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white. \"It's about the past versus the future.\" Watch Obama speech . With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had 55 percent of the vote. Clinton was second with 27 percent, followed by Edwards, with 18 percent. Obama's victory capped a heated contest in South Carolina, the first Democratic primary in the South and the first with a largely African-American electorate. Obama, who is hoping to become the the nation's first African-American president, did well with black voters, who made up about half of Saturday's electorate, according to exit polls. Black voters supported the Illinois senator by a margin of more than 4-to-1 over his nearest rival, exit polls indicate. Among white voters, Obama took about a quarter of the vote, with Clinton and Edwards roughly splitting the remainder, according to exit polls. Clinton congratulated Obama and said she was excited to move forward to the Super Tuesday contests on February 5. \"Millions and millions of Americans are going to have the chance to have their voices heard and their votes counted,\" she told supporters at Tennessee State University. Watch Clinton speak to supporters \u00bb . Edwards also looked ahead to the next contests. \"Now the three of us move on to February 5, where millions of Americans will cast their vote and help shape the future of this party and help shape the future of America,\" he said. Watch Edwards rally supporters \u00bb . \"Our campaign from the very beginning has been about one central thing, and that is to give voice to the millions of Americans who have absolutely no voice in this democracy.\" Clinton beat Obama only among elderly voters, according to exit polls. Among voters 65 and older, Clinton beat Obama 40 to 32 percent. But Obama handily defeated Clinton in every other bracket, and overall garnered 58 percent of the vote among 18 to 64-year-olds while 23 percent of those voters picked Clinton. And half of those polled said both candidates shared blame for the rancor between the two camps. Of those who said one of the contenders was more to blame than the other, 21 percent blamed Clinton, and 6 percent said Obama. \"It's fairly obvious it's not going to be over February 5,\" Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Edwards was born in South Carolina and won the state's primary four years ago, when he was making his first bid for the White House. See voters head to the polls in South Carolina \u00bb . Edwards had touted his native status, and as the Clinton and Obama camps have squabbled, Edwards continued to talk about the issues and suggests he's the only adult in the field. Watch Edwards reach out to voters \u00bb . \"I'm keeping moving no matter what, but I feel good about how things are moving right now here today,\" Edwards told reporters Saturday morning. \"I feel there's a lot of energy behind my campaign.\" On January 15, Edwards pledged, \"I'm in this for the long haul. We're continuing to accumulate delegates. There's actually a very narrow margin between Sen. Obama, Sen. Clinton and myself on delegates.\" The state Democratic party estimated that more than 530,000 Democrats turned out for Saturday's primary, as compared with 445,000 voters who showed up to vote last weekend in the state's Republican primary. The Democratic numbers topped the GOP turnout for the first time since 1992, when 445,000 Republicans turned out to renominate President George H.W. Bush. Obama attracted more than 290,000 votes -- nearly matching the total turnout of the 2004 Democratic primary. \"This is an enormous turnout,\" CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. \"Democrats are wildly motivated in this election.\" As South Carolina's Democratic primary voters went to the polls Saturday, almost half of them had made up their minds more than a month ago, according to exit polls. In the 2004 primary, nearly a quarter decided either the day of the primary or in the three days prior who they would support, but this year, only 10 percent of this year's voters waited until Saturday to choose. Another 10 percent decided only in the last three days, and 32 percent decided in the last month. Forty-seven percent made up their minds at least a month ago, more than double the percentage of 2004. The early exit polls were taken from a sampling of 1,269 voters statewide. Following a rough campaign between Clinton and Obama, the two camps toned down the rhetoric in the past two days, returning to the issues and concentrating their firepower on the Republicans rather than on each other. \"I think they [the Republicans] should be gracious and just say, \"We have messed this thing up so much we are just going to quit and ... we shouldn't be re-elected,' but I don't think that is what they are going to do,\" Clinton said. South Carolina is the last big test for the Democrats before Super Tuesday, February 5, when nearly two dozen states will hold either primaries or caucuses -- including such delegate-rich states as California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Florida holds its primary on Tuesday but no Democratic delegates are being awarded there because the national party is penalizing the state for moving its primary up earlier in the year. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Bill Schneider, Peter Hamby, Alexander Mooney, Suzanne Malveaux and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Blowout win for Obama in South Carolina .\nClinton finishes ahead of Edwards, CNN projects .\n47 percent decided on vote at least a month ago, exit polls indicate .\nEdwards: \"I feel good about how things are moving right now\"","id":"ad9abc78fb2de88267b854f2aed110e2a5b8c3f1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jamiel Shaw was just three doors from his house on March 2. His father told the 17-year-old high school football star to be home before dark. That is exactly what he was trying to do when, just before dusk, gunshots rang out. Gang members pulled up in a car and asked Shaw if he was in a gang. Shaw didn't have time to tell them \"no.\" He was mowed down before he could answer, police say. His dad heard the shots from inside his house and immediately called his son's cell phone to warn him to stay away. But within seconds, the father realized what had happened. \"I just ran down there,\" Jamiel Shaw Sr. told CNN. Watch dad describe hearing \"pow, pow\" \u00bb . His son was wearing the same shirt his dad had pressed for him that morning. \"He was laying on the ground and his face was so peaceful. I knew he was dead.\" \"For three hours, I was just completely blacked out walking.\" More than 7,500 miles away, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw was serving her second tour in Iraq. Her commanding officer called her into his office and told her to sit down next to the chaplain. He then informed her that her son had been killed on the streets of Los Angeles. \"I freaked out,\" she said. \"I wanted to run out of the room. I was screaming and kicking. I was shouting, 'No.'\" Anita Shaw is now back in Los Angeles to bury her son. Police announced Tuesday that an arrest had been made in the shooting. Pedro Espinoza, a 19-year-old member of the Hispanic 18th Street Gang, was charged in the killing and could face the death penalty if convicted, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Espinoza is scheduled to be arraigned March 25. Espinoza was released from jail -- where he was held on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon -- one day before the incident. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton Tuesday called on the community to help police locate a second suspect who was with Espinoza at the time of the shooting. Hundreds of family members and friends gathered Tuesday at West Los Angeles Cathedral to remember Shaw, a standout running back and sprinter at Los Angeles High School who had good grades and stayed out of trouble despite his rough neighborhood. Among the schools recruiting him was Stanford University. Watch as family, friends remember Shaw \u00bb . Blue-and-white flowers -- his school colors -- adorned his casket, and photos of Shaw over the years were displayed at the service. Eric Clapton's \"Tears in Heaven\" played as mourners entered the church. \"He was a Christian and I thank God for that because I know he's in a better place,\" his mom said, trembling as she sobbed. \"He'd just try all the time to do the right thing. He was so good.\" Shaw is one of several innocent victims in a horrifying three-week spate of gang-related shootings around Los Angeles. A man was gunned down as he held a 2-year-old baby in his arms. A 13-year-old boy was shot to death last week as he went to pick lemons from a tree. In another incident, a 6-year-old boy was critically wounded when he was shot in the head while riding in the car with his family; two gang members have been arrested in connection with that shooting, according to police. \"I think what is particularly unnerving for all of us is just the random nature of these shootings,\" Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said last week. Bratton and Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner met with community members from the South Side of Los Angeles over the weekend to try to calm tensions between black and Hispanic communities. Among those in attendance were Shaw's parents and his younger brother. Bratton acknowledged some neighborhoods are rife with underlying racial tensions that have \"taken too many young lives.\" He said he is in the process of hiring 1,000 new police officers to help combat inner city gang violence. Watch Bratton describe an \"always underlying tension\" \u00bb . \"There's no denying that some of the crime in this city is a direct result of hatred, animosity, racial animosity, ethnic differences,\" Bratton said. \"We must all work to the best of our ability to try to prevent that.\" \"None of it is right,\" said Garner. \"We can't get so incensed that we lose focus that it's going on on both sides.\" He added, \"Wrong is wrong.\" The killing of Shaw has rallied his neighborhood. Dozens of people gathered outside his home for a vigil last week and placed candles, flowers and blue-and-white balloons at a makeshift memorial. One sign read, \"We love you! Jamiel Shaw.\" On the online social networking site Facebook, more than 100 people have joined a page called \"Good people live in our hearts forever RIP Jamiel Shaw.\" \"Loved you lots babyboi! Still do! I know many, many, many people who are missing you right NOW!!!\" wrote Christina Stewart on the Facebook wall. Another person, Harley Lally, wrote, \"Football will never be the same without you. I miss you every Sunday, and every time I step on that field.\" Shaw, a junior, carried the ball 74 times for 1,052 yards this season, with an average of 14.2 yards per carry, according to MaxPreps Web site. The longest of his 10 touchdowns went for 75 yards. He passed the ball one time all year in the last game of the season -- the last game of his career. It was a 60-yard touchdown strike. Watch mom's Thanksgiving message to son from Iraq \u00bb . But he will be missed for more than his football. The beloved player with the big smile meant so much more. The father and son years ago had made a pact: Keep focused, stay away from drugs and gangs, and get into college on an athletic scholarship. In return, the dad promised to do everything for his son, nicknamed \"Jas,\" to make that happen. Breaking down in tears, the father said, \"I guaranteed 'Jas.' That's why it hurts so much -- because I told him, 'I promise you, if you sacrifice these years, I'll sacrifice with you.'\" Watch Jamiel Shaw Sr. ask mourners to make a difference \u00bb . The dad said more must be done to combat gang violence. \"It's a gang problem and they have nothing in their heart for people.\" Shaw's mother, the Army sergeant, compares the gang members who killed her son to those she's fighting against in Iraq. \"To me, they're terrorists.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kara Finnstrom, Paul Vercammen and Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Arrest made in killing of Jamiel Shaw, athlete killed outside his L.A. home .\nPolice: Gang members had asked him if we was in a gang .\nShaw didn't have time to tell them \"no,\" according to police .\nHis mother was on duty in Iraq when she got the news .","id":"75cc16a7ba1970ba791da4ba43e6220f37f47697"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Handsome, articulate and lightning fast -- McLaren's Lewis Hamilton can now add two more words to his list of qualities: very rich. Lewis Hamilton will be able to afford a lot more champagne in the future. The Briton is set to become one of the most marketable sport stars in the world -- perhaps second only to Tiger Woods -- and earn more than a billion dollars if he can maintain the buzz created by his first season in Formula One, experts say. On Sunday he started his second season in perfect fashion, easily winning the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The 23-year-old signed a five-year contract with McLaren worth an estimated $140m in January. It leaves him lagging along way behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who is paid an estimated $50m a year for driving, but it is through endorsements that he stands to reap a greater windfall. Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre for Brand Analysis and UK Superbrands and CoolBrands Councils' chairman, said Hamilton was the most marketable driver because he was a breath of fresh air. He had helped drive up race attendance and television fewer figures dramatically in his first season. \"He is young, mixing with the right people everyday -- rappers, film stars -- and a lot more articulate than Kimi Raikkonen,\" Cheliotis said. \"He is also the first black driver and it does have a bearing, much like Tiger Woods in golf. He is also the most marketable because he is going to be the best, much like Michael Schumacher.\" Pippa Collett, Sponsorship Consulting's managing director, said Hamilton was certainly the most marketable driver in the short term. His performance meant he was the dominant member of a group of \"young turks\" -- Nelson Piquet Jr, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen -- who had great potential. Collett said in terms of the media Hamilton's performance, friendliness, English speaking background and professionalism were key assets. If he could maintain these he would earn more than Schumacher -- the sport's first billionaire driver. Indeed, Schumacher set an example which Hamilton would be wise to follow. He was the first driver to win personal sponsors after Ferrari allowed him to sign a $10m annual deal with a German bank to place its logo on his cap. The German also actively pursued the development of his own retail range, which included caps -- he sold hundreds of thousands at $30 a pop -- and even a branded vacuum cleaner. Collett said Schumacher's manager, Willi Weber, was very good. \"Schumacher was a nice guy but not very charming. However, he was very professional and you knew he would turn up,\" Collett said. Cheliotis agreed Hamilton would earn considerably more than Schumacher, and that there would be a big gap between his earnings and that of the other drivers. However, there were pitfalls. Lewis had already made the mistake of saying he was moving to Switzerland to avoid the limelight when it was all about avoiding tax, Cheliotis said. \"He said that and then turned up at every awards night for a month.\" Cheliotis said appearing arrogant, being caught out by the tabloid press, endorsing a brand and then using another and over selling himself could also damage his value. \"The big danger with someone like Hamilton is that he is so in demand and that he has so many sponsors it leads to brand confusion. There is a danger of being one of 50 sponsors and not getting any value.\" Collett said Hamilton needed to develop his \"life-time brand\". While Raikkonen may not be a media darling he had developed an \"Iceman\" image, which was just as important in the long term. English footballer David Beckham, whose performance had dropped off, had successfully developed a life-time brand that would out last his playing career. Collett said Hamilton's one weakness may be his father, Anthony. \"His dad is his manager. Your brand positioning is as an individual... having your dad around too much could affect your brand.\" Collett said Hamilton would have to be wary of bad press, but a little bit of young turk behaviour could enhance his image as long as he continued to excel. \"I think that is part of the glamour... some of that and continued brilliant performances will make his life very easy.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Experts say Lewis Hamilton is set to earn more than Michael Schumacher .\nDavid Beckham's \"life-time brand\" provides valuable lessons .\nA little bit of scandal is good for the bank balance .\nRaikkonen's \"Iceman\" persona allows sponsors to find perfect match .","id":"fe9d63d0ed719a42735cadaf10e76416545f680c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's giant pandas are believed to be safe after Monday's earthquake, but concern is growing over how they will get their next meals. Questions remain about whether infrastructure damage will harm the giant pandas' supply of bamboo. Authorities confirmed Tuesday that captive animals in two of China's major panda reserves were alive, according to Xinhua, China's official news agency. The Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center in southwest Sichuan province is home to about 86 giant pandas, who were reported safe Tuesday. Staff and critters at neighboring Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center were also reported safe, according to a spokesperson for the Atlanta Zoo, which has two pandas on loan from the wildlife reserve. Concern arose in the international wildlife community over damage to the animals' habitat, as authorities continued assessing the scope of damage in the Sichuan province. The mountainous, densely wooded region is the natural habitat for most of the 1,200 giant pandas living in the wild, making it an obvious location for research bases like Wolong and Chengdu. Giant pandas roam the forest in \"open cages\" that are meant to provide them with a safe, natural environment that will prepare them for release. With the safety of the pandas confirmed, the animals' caregivers are left to determine how resources like food and medical supplies will reach the bases, which contain breeding facilities and triage centers. Bamboo, the pandas' primary source of food, is a major agricultural product in the region, but whether it can be supplied to the pandas despite infrastructure damage is open to question. \"Wolong is hard to access under normal conditions, so the heavy road damage makes it even harder,\" said Kerry Zobor, spokeswoman for the World Wildlife Fund. Zobor said the WWF had confirmed the safety of staff members based in Beijing but had not received word on the conditions in Wolong. She said the WWF was also concerned about members who had been touring the country when the earthquake struck. The group has not been located. Scientists in the United States are hopeful that Chinese researchers will adapt to the situation facing them. David Wildt with the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington says scientists in Wolong have overcome threats to the giant panda population before. In the late 1990s, the captive giant panda population was in decline, with more animals dying than were born, Wildt said. Thanks to a collaborative effort with American scientists, the Wolong staff was able to reverse the trend. \"Our Chinese colleagues are very perceptive when it comes to addressing problems,\" said Wildt, who has visited Wolong many times as part of the Smithsonian's affiliation with the research base. \"Because of their efforts, the population is on the rise today.\" Wildt said that Chinese scientists have also addressed the issue of alternative food sources. \"Artificial diets in the form of protein biscuits have been created for giant pandas. They're not a complete substitute, but they meet the needs of a basic high-fiber diet,\" said Wildt, who has worked with two pandas that the Smithsonian has on loan from Wolong. \"Right now, we're mostly concerned about the staff. If the staff is fine, then the animals will be fine,\" Wildt said.","highlights":"Report: Chinese authorities confirm that captive giant pandas are safe .\nConcerns grow over road accessibility to the reserves .\nScientist: Alternative foods exist in the event of depleted bamboo stocks .","id":"1744093a3fea8b8de0777b1a228c3ba3e515d48e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Red Cross President and CEO Mark W. Everson has stepped down after revelations he was \"engaged in a personal relationship with a subordinate employee,\" the organization announced Tuesday. Mark W. Everson says he is leaving his post, effective immediately, for \"personal and family reasons.\" The Red Cross Board of Governors asked for and received Everson's resignation after it \"concluded that the situation reflected poor judgment on Mr. Everson's part and diminished his ability to lead the organization in the future,\" the Red Cross said in a statement on its Web site. Everson, 53, said in a written statement that he was leaving the $500,000-per-year job \"for personal and family reasons, and deeply regret it is impossible for me to continue in a job so recently undertaken.\" Everson -- who is married and has two children -- joined the Red Cross as president and CEO last May. The organization became aware of Everson's relationship with a female Red Cross employee 10 days ago, Chief Public Affairs Officer Suzy C. DeFrancis told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I think the board acted very quickly,\" she said, adding that the woman remains in her job. About Everson, DeFrancis said, \"We're grateful for his service.\" The board of governors on Tuesday appointed Mary S. Elcano, general counsel and five-year Red Cross employee, as interim president and CEO. Everson had worked in the Bush administration from August 2001 -- including serving as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service -- until he was hired by the Red Cross. \"This is flabbergasting, that's all I can say. It's completely contrary to his public persona that he evidenced while he was at the IRS,\" said Suzanne Ross McDowell, a Washington-based attorney who served on an advisory committee to the IRS division that deals with tax-exempt organizations. \"From the standpoint of exempt organizations on the non-profit sector, it's just another news story that we would rather not see,\" she said. \"It's got nothing to do with the Red Cross,\" said Ira Milstein, a New York lawyer specializing in corporate governance who has worked with the organization and was impressed with Everson. \"He was a team player and a good leader. To have him fall off a cliff like this is just sad.\" A search committee has been formed to begin the process of finding Everson's permanent replacement, the organization said. The job has been a challenging one. Marsha J. Evans resigned as president in 2005, after the Red Cross response to Hurricane Katrina came under fire. Four years earlier, Bernadine Healy quit the post after the organization was criticized for mishandling donations intended for victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and collecting vast quantities of blood that was not needed and ultimately thrown out. Healy told reporters she \"had no choice\" about her resignation. Meanwhile, DeFrancis acknowledged Tuesday that, 14 years after a court ordered the agency to improve its collection of blood, it has yet to meet federal safety and quality-control requirements. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Red Cross says it became aware of the relationship 10 days ago .\nRelationship allegedly involves a subordinate female Red Cross employee .\nBoard \"concluded that the situation reflected poor judgment on Mr. Everson's part\"\nEverson: I \"deeply regret it is impossible for me to continue\"","id":"4929479f70e89deb22539e7d2caa6c33bbb0a14f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canada's House of Commons voted Thursday to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan until 2011, with the stipulation that NATO send reinforcements to the volatile Kandahar province. Canadian soldiers walk along a track at the Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan last month. Most of Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are in Kandahar as part of the NATO-led mission to stabilize the war-torn country. Their presence has sparked controversy in Canada, with the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party calling for an immediate troop withdrawal. Supporters of the mission argued that Canadians have made progress in providing schools, health care and clean water for thousands of Afghans. They said the improving conditions would be impossible without troops ensuring a secure environment for aid workers and local residents. \"The military needs to be there,\" said Harold Albrecht, a conservative member of Parliament. \"The military provides the civil order we would expect from police here.\" The Canadian mission in Afghanistan was to end next February. It has claimed the lives of 80 soldiers and a diplomat, according to The Associated Press. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has endorsed a panel's recommendation to keep troops in place only if another NATO nation dispatches additional troops to Kandahar. Canada wants a minimum of 1,000 reinforcements, The Globe and Mail reported. Thursday's motion, passed with a 198-77 vote, brought Harper's Conservative party and the opposition Liberals together on the issue. Other parties, however, noted that the cost of maintaining a troop presence in Afghanistan has not been disclosed to Parliament or the public. \"We must provide clarity to the Canadian people,\" said Nathan Cullen of the New Democratic Party. \"We believe it to be wrong for our country.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Troops to stay until 2011, with the stipulation that NATO contribute more forces .\nMost of Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are in Kandahar province .\nThe Canadian mission in Afghanistan was to end next February .\nCritics say the cost has not been disclosed to Parliament or the public .","id":"4dd3bb1fe7a5b0d42f0df8d9e62b81c673475420"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They're big, strong, and fierce -- and they wear little blue booties. The police dogs in Duesseldorf, Germany are now patrolling the pavement in protective shoes that their police-officer handlers strap onto their paws. The reason? Too many glass shards left by beer drinkers in the city center, said Andre Hartwich, a spokesman for police in Duesseldorf. \"We wondered how can we protect our dogs' feet against glass,\" said Hartwich. \"We looked on the Internet and found these shoes.\" Beer drinkers along the Rhine River and in the city's Altstadt, or Old Town, often discard beer bottles on pebbled walkways. Broken glass poses a problem for the police force's 20 German Shepherds and Belgian Shepherds, Hartwich said. In addition, hooligans and vandals leave behind glass shards around New Year's Eve and during the city's famous Carnival celebrations. So what's a dog to do? Their handlers shelled out 60 euros -- $89 -- for shoes that are also worn by dogs who walk on ice in Alaska. Dogs need a month of training to get used to wearing the shoes, Hartwich said. \"We have to condition the dogs to the shoes,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police dogs in Duesseldorf, Germany are now wearing protective shoes .\nGlass shards left by beer drinkers in the city center are the reason .\nDuesseldorf police force has 20 German and Belgian Shepherds .\nDogs shoes cost \u20ac60 ($89) and are also worn by dogs who walk on ice in Alaska .","id":"32f0c7b0845e88c7ff34bb9d358a86e029dc2261"} -{"article":"BARCELONA, Spain -- Barcelona are ready for twice world player of the year Ronaldinho to move on, said club president Joan Laporta. Ronaldinho is expected to leave Barcelona this summer after struggling for form last season. Laporta told the Catalan TV3 station that the Brazilian midfielder, who struggled with injuries and poor form last season, needed new challenges in his career. \"When the wheel turns, it's normal that the key figures leave,\" Laporta said. \"I would like Ronaldinho to be given a great send-off so that he is remembered for all he has given us and that if he didn't do any more it was because the circumstances wouldn't allow it. \"Last year, we thought that it might be the year to sell him, but given his enthusiasm and the appreciation that a club like Barcelona needs to have, we decided to let him stay on. Things haven't turned out the way he wanted them to.\" Laporta recognized that it might not be easy to sell Ronaldinho, who suffered a series of injury and fitness problems this season and made the starting line-up in only 13 of 38 league matches. Ronaldinho last played for Barcelona in the 2-1 loss at home to Villarreal on March 9, has suffered muscle pain in his right leg been out of action ever since. AC Milan showed an interest in signing him and his brother Robert De Assis said personal terms had been agreed. But the clubs failed to reach agreement over a transfer fee. After a second successive season without a trophy Barcelona announced on May 7 that Rijkaard would leave at the end of the season and be replaced by former player Josep Guardiola. \"We decided that if Frank did not continue then we would choose Guardiola because Pep possessed the necessary humility,\" said Laporta. \"We didn't think about coaches like Mourinho or (Rafa) Benitez, who are both great coaches, but aren't right for Barcelona. So we told Rijkaard that when he left Guardiola would take his place.\" Barca's arch-rivals Real Madrid, who lifted another Spanish title this season, have signed their first newcomer for the next campaign by paying a reported 10 million euros ($15.5 million) for Argentine defender Ezequiel Garay from Racing Santander. Marca newspaper said the 21-year-old Argentine had signed a six-year contract. Meanwhile, reports that Real could be making a move for Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo were dismissed by coach Bernd Schuster. \"I prefer to spend my time talking about things that have some bearing to reality,\" he told a press conference. Marca had reported that Real were still interested in buying Ronaldo who has put off all talk of his future until after the Champions League final.","highlights":"Barcelona are ready to let Brazilian international Ronaldinho leave the club .\nClub president Joan Laporta says that Ronaldinho needs new challenges .\nBarcelona have already replaced coach Frank Rijkaard with Pep Guardiola .","id":"607ce3caeeac56d7c4250aaa161871535cd1251e"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two bombings in separate Iraq provinces on Monday killed eight U.S. troops, the U.S. military said. A boy with a machine gun weeps Monday at the site of a suicide bombing in Kanan that killed a sheik. A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in Diyala province, which has been a major front in the war during the \"surge\" of U.S. troops fighting insurgents near the capital. Earlier in the day, at least five U.S. soldiers on foot patrol were killed and three others wounded in a suicide bombing in Baghdad. In addition, suicide bombers killed five Iraqis in two bombings in Diyala province Monday morning, including a sheik who helped battle Sunni extremists and his 5-year-old niece. Watch new suicide tactics in Iraq \u00bb . Four U.S. soldiers died at the scene Monday's Baghdad blast and one more died later of wounds, the military said. They were with Multi-National Division-Baghdad. An Iraqi interpreter also was wounded in the explosion, the officials said. Initial reports indicate the bomber was wearing an explosive vest. \"Five soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the Iraqi and American people. I ask you remember these fallen heroes and their families as well as their wounded brethren in your thoughts and prayers,\" said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff for Multi-National Division-Baghdad. \"We remain resolute in our resolve to protect the people of Iraq and kill or capture those who would bring them harm.\" The explosion marks the deadliest attack against the U.S. military since five soldiers were killed January 28 in a roadside bombing in Mosul. Troops killed a Saudi insurgent whose network was responsible for that attack. Earlier, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said one person was killed and eight people were wounded in a suicide bomb attack targeting a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad. It is not clear if the U.S. and Iraqi reports are about the same incident. Monday's attacks would bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to 10. A total of 3,983 military personnel have died in the nearly 5-year-old war. The attack came after a bomber near Baquba targeted the leader of a security group assisting U.S. troops. The teen suicide bomber killed a sheik and a 5-year-old, a day after she went to the sheik's Kanan home claiming to need help finding her husband, police and family members said. The female suicide bomber, 18, blew herself up at the sheik's home Monday morning, police said. The tribal leader was the head of a local citizens group that has been working with U.S. forces to rout out insurgents. The largely Sunni security groups are known as Awakening Councils. Kanan is east of Baquba, situated in the volatile Diyala province, which has been a major front for the \"surge\" of U.S.-led troops targeting militants near Baghdad. According to one of the sheik's cousins, the teen bomber went to the sheik's house Sunday to ask him for help finding her husband -- thought to be kidnapped or detained. The 18-year-old was told to return Monday, the cousin said. She returned Monday and staged the attack, killing the sheik, his 5-year-old niece and one of his security guards, police said. The attack reflects both the growing use of females as suicide bombers in Iraq and the targeting of Awakening Councils, which are also known as Concerned Citizens Groups or Sons of Iraq. The grass-roots groups, which are sometimes led by former insurgents, have drawn more than 90,000 volunteers to their ranks, military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory said Sunday. Since November, there have been at least five attacks carried out by female suicide bombers, including a twin bombing at Baghdad pet markets last month that killed almost 100 people. Insurgent groups, particularly al Qaeda in Iraq, are increasingly using women as suicide bombers because they are less likely to be searched, the U.S. military has said. About an hour after the attack at the sheik's home, another suicide bomber approached Iraqi security forces in Muqdadiya and blew himself up as the forces began shooting at him. The blast killed two civilians and wounded 20 others, including two police officers, authorities said. Muqdadiya also is in Diyala province. In other developments: . \u2022 A suicide car bomb exploded Monday outside an upscale hotel in Sulaimaniya, killing two people and wounding at least 32 others, police said. The blast occurred at the Sulaimani Palace hotel, located in the center of the city. It is in northern Iraq's Kurdish region and is a common stop for visiting government officials, businessmen and contractors. \u2022 Two bombings in Baghdad on Monday killed an Iraqi and wounded nine others, an Interior Ministry official said. A parked car bomb exploded near an outdoor market in Shaab, a Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding seven others. A roadside bomb exploded on a highway near a U.S. military patrol in eastern Baghdad, wounding two bystanders. \u2022 Coalition troops north of Baghdad killed five insurgents and detained 19 people in raids, the U.S. military said Monday. The Sunday raids were part of coalition forces' \"untiring efforts to remove al Qaeda from Iraq,\" said Lt. Col. Maura Gillen, a Multi-National Forces-Iraq spokeswoman. \u2022 Several U.S. troops may have been sickened by dirty water intended for hygiene use and supplied to bases around Iraq between 2004 and 2006, according to a Pentagon report released Monday. However, the Department of Defense inspector general's report points out that because the water was not monitored, it is impossible to tell for sure if it was dirty and if it contributed to the troops getting sick. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jamie McIntyre, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jonathan Wald contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Roadside bomb kills 3 U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in Diyala province .\nEarlier, at least 5 U.S. soldiers on foot patrol die in Baghdad suicide bombing .\nBaghdad blast marks deadliest attack on U.S. troops since January 28 .\nFemale suicide bomber kills sheik, 5-year-old niece and guard at Iraqi home .","id":"7fb19f75d5d3feefeababf62d2ac91bf684a8038"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government has released to CNN more than 100 photographs of a Halloween party that temporarily threatened to derail the nomination of a top Department of Homeland Security official. ICE chief Julie Myers poses with a costume contest winner at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement party. The images included several digital photos that the official had ordered erased because they were deemed to be inappropriate and offensive. At the party, Julie Myers, then-acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the Department of Homeland Security, gave an award for \"most original costume\" to an employee wearing prison stripes, a wig with dreadlocks and face-darkening makeup. Immediately after posing for a photo with the winner, Myers later told Congress, she recognized that she made an error in judgment and ordered the photos deleted from the camera. Myers said she did not know the employee was wearing skin makeup, but ordered the photos destroyed because she did not think that \"recognizing an escaped prisoner in any way was beneficial to the agency's goal of treating everyone in our custody with dignity and respect.\" This week, in response to the Freedom of Information Act request filed by CNN on November 6, ICE released 113 official photographs of the party, including all of the deleted photos, which technicians were able to electronically restore. An ICE spokeswoman denied the photos were suppressed until after Myers' job was secure, saying ICE responded in an \"efficient time frame\" to the FOIA request. News of the photos' existence infuriated some members of Congress, who said they should have been made aware of them earlier. \"It is too bad that these photos surfaced too late to have dealt with her nomination, perhaps, in a different way,\" said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, who last November put a \"hold\" on Myers' confirmation because of the hubbub. Watch what congressmen think about party photos \u00bb . Myers was confirmed on December 20. As an assistant secretary of Homeland Security, she leads ICE, the agency charged with enforcing immigration law in the nation's interior. The agency has more than 15,000 employees, including 6,000 investigators. McCaskill said she believed the photos would have affected the confirmation. \"This is such brutally bad judgment that, to me, it indicates that the leadership of this division is flawed,\" she said. Rep. Bennie Thompson, whose committee oversees ICE, said Wednesday he is upset both by the photos and by ICE's failure to give the photos to Congress in November. \"I was satisfied [with Myers' explanations and apology] until I found out that these pictures existed,\" Thompson said. An ICE spokeswoman denied that there was any intentional effort to mislead Congress. \"We had asked that they be destroyed, and as far as we knew, that was the case,\" spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. Myers was \"frank and honest about every aspect of that situation from the very beginning,\" she said. An estimated 50 to 75 employees attended the October 31 costume party at ICE headquarters in the District of Columbia. A poster advertising the contest said costumes should be tasteful and \"office appropriate.\" Myers declined to talk to CNN Wednesday, but in written comments to Congress last November, she offered the following account of the incident: . She and two other ICE officials served as judges of the costume contest, and she had \"very limited interaction\" with the employee in the prisoner costume, who \"was present at the [judging] table for less than half a minute before he moved on. \"I was not aware at the time of the contest that the employee disguised his skin color,\" she wrote. Nonetheless, after posing for a photo with the employee, she realized it was inappropriate. \"Although I did not know that this individual had disguised his race, I determined that I had made an error in judgment in recognizing an escaped prisoner at this party,\" she wrote, and she instructed her chief of staff to direct the official photographer to delete the photos. In an internal e-mail that was sent at 3:05 p.m., shortly after the party was to end, the ICE public affairs director, Wendy Burrell, said, \"Please make sure that the photos of the most creative (single male entry) are destroyed. They may not be used in any publication, Web site, compilation disk, you name it. Not just not used. Please erase all.\" Myers said she was \"shocked and horrified\" to learn the next day that the employee had used skin-darkening makeup. The employee was counseled, and Myers sent out a note to all agency employees expressing regret over the event, agency spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said in November. \"It is now clear that, however unintended, a few of the costumes were inappropriate and offensive,\" Myers wrote. She reminded employees of their responsibility to complete diversity training and said managers should distribute and discuss ICE's diversity policy statement during staff meetings. The employee who donned the inmate costume was placed on two weeks of administrative leave, counseled by a supervisor and returned to full duty. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Partygoer used make-up to darken skin, went as escaped prisoner .\nActing Immigration chief judged costume contest .\nCongress told photos destroyed before Julie Myers' confirmation hearings .\nCNN got photos through Freedom of Information Act request .","id":"4a70f83728ee66801be719df00060cda4c25817f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hazardous materials teams are still cleaning up a toxic chemical spill from a train derailment in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Saturday that forced 3,000 people from their homes. Lafayette Police Sgt. Billy Soileau carries Ke'Iveion Solomon 2, as he helps evacuate children Saturday. \"Hazmat says that clean up is moving quickly and on track,\" Lafayette police said Sunday in a statement. Two train cars leaked highly corrosive hydrochloric acid after the six-car train jumped the tracks Saturday about 2:30 a.m. CT (3:30 a.m. ET), according to police. The chemical spill caused a toxic cloud to form above the site. Lafayette authorities evacuated about 3,500 homes and businesses -- including a nursing home -- within a mile of the derailment location. Watch traffic detoured from cloud \u00bb . The Red Cross opened a shelter at Carencro High School for residents to stay Saturday night, while another 40 to 50 families were put up at hotel rooms, police said. Residents will be allowed to return home once the spill is contained and no longer dangerous, said Joe Faust, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, which operates the train cars. Hydrochloric acid is a clear, colorless solution of hydrogen chloride in water often used in metal cleaning and electroplating. Exposure to it can irritate the skin, said Lt. Craig Stansbury of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office. People exposed to the substance are urged to seek medical attention. Residents outside the evacuation area were advised to close windows and doors and turn off air conditioning to avoid any contamination. Lafayette is about three hours west of New Orleans.","highlights":"Train cars leaked corrosive hydrochloric acid after a Saturday derailment .\nChemical spill caused a toxic cloud to form above Lafayette site .\nExposure to the chemical can irritate skin .\nLafayette authorities evacuated about 3,500 homes and businesses .","id":"dcfc0e6ff732124026991e89d50727876f50351f"} -{"article":"If you're like us, you eat out more than ever -- and, as nice as it is to not have to cook, those meals out can actually feel like work. How do you navigate the minefields of huge portions, hidden fats, and sky-high sodium levels? Olive Garden's Venetian Apricot Chicken has 448 calories and 11 grams of fat. You shouldn't have to resign yourself to paying for restaurant meals with a future cardiac risk. You just need to know where to go to find healthy, fresh food. To that end, we went out into the world of sit-down restaurants, looking to separate the (whole) wheat from the chaff. Backed by an advisory panel of experts in healthy dining, we sifted through 43 chains with more than 75 locations across the country and, frankly, were astonished by how many restaurants made no nutritional information available. Health.com: Meet Health's experts . But judge we did those brave (and progressive) enough to share their numbers. What you hold in your hands are the 10 that stood at the top of the heap. Uno's Chicago Grill . If you haven't been to your local Uno's recently, you're in for a great surprise. Sure, its famous deep-dish (read high-fat) pizzas still hold court, but nutrition has become the word of the day with a completely transfat-free menu and plenty of grilled entrees (including antibiotic-free chicken). Adding to the healthy variety: whole-grain pasta and brown rice, organic coffee and tea, and flatbread pizzas that have half the calories of deep-dish ones. Plus, you can add a salad to your pizza for half-price because, according to the menu, \"We want you to get some greens in your diet.\" Now that's a blue-ribbon commitment to health. Another reason Uno's is at the top of our list: You know what you're eating. In the lobbies of most of the restaurant's locations, there are Nutrition Information Centers that detail ingredients, fat and sodium contents, and calories and fiber of every item, in addition to gluten-free options. Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look at Health magazine's restaurant choices \u00bb . \u2022 Danger zone: Deep-dish pizzas can pile on the fat. \u2022 We love: The Penne Bolognese -- just 16 grams of fat (well within the daily recommended max of 65 grams of fat for a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet). Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes . Can a buffet-style restaurant -- that symbol of American overindulgence --possibly be one of the healthiest restaurants in the country? It can in this case, because this salad-soup-and-bakery eatery (Southern California locations are named Souplantation, everywhere else they're called Sweet Tomatoes) uses produce so fresh that it's guaranteed to have been \"in the ground\" 24 hours before it's in a refrigerated truck on its way to the restaurant. At the salad bar you'll find seasonal vegetables like squash and bell peppers, freshly tossed and prepared salads, and a great range of nonfat dressings. San Marino Spinach With Pumpkin Seeds and Cranberries, anyone? This is paradise for vegetarians, vegans, and anyone who's looking for a low-sodium, low-fat, high-nutrient meal outside the home. \u2022 Danger zone: Plate overload -- after all, it's all-you-can-eat. \u2022 We love: The Tomato Spinach Whole Wheat pasta, a delicious combo of whole grains and veggies. Mimi's Cafe . This cozy caf\u00e9-style restaurant transforms normally less-than-healthy foods into better -- and still tasty -- options: a half-pound cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce (that's right, no bun); the cutely named Naked French Market Onion Soup, served without cheese. Another thing to love is the way that Mimi's clearly steers you toward its healthy options. Its \"Lifestyle Menu\" points you to low-carb picks like the fish of the day served with fresh steamed veggies. Also, Mimi's keeps portions small, so you can get away with occasionally having one of their more indulgent entrees like the Sweet & Sour Coconut Shrimp (608 calories). Health.com: Healthiest fast-food restaurants . \u2022 Danger zone: The \"Comfort Classics\" page of the menu, with throwbacks like rich (super-high-fat) Chicken Cordon Bleu. \u2022 We love: Chicken & Fruit -- grilled chicken and a garden salad, plus wedges of fresh orange, honeydew, watermelon, and cantaloupe. P.F. Chang's China Bistro . Take the best aspects of Asian cuisine -- a combination of fresh vegetables and protein -- surround them with healthy influences such as whole-grain brown rice, wild-caught, sustainable Alaskan salmon, and all-natural chicken, and you have a recipe for delicious, healthy dining. Wok-based cooking (which requires less oil) using soybean oil keeps fat contents low, and less sodium in the sauces rounds out P.F. Chang's healthy take on Chinese food. Special credit goes to their nutritional information being based on the whole entr\u00e9e, not a single serving like at most places. Health.com: Eat out, without gaining a pound . \u2022 Danger zone: Traditional, fat-dense items such as Lo Mein Beef. \u2022 We love: Carb-free vegetarian lettuce wraps -- wok-seared tofu, red onions, and water chestnuts with mint and lime, set in lettuce cups. Bob Evans Restaurants . You wouldn't think a restaurant that prides itself on sausage could muscle its way into the top five healthiest restaurants in the country. But Bob Evans scores high on its dinner menu, which has plenty of low-carb, low-fat entrees and alternatives for children and adults (chicken tenders that are grilled instead of fried, potato-crusted flounder, and salmon stir-fry). Look for sides like steamed broccoli florets and fresh fruit, and enjoy old-fashioned family meals in a modern, nutrition-forward way. \u2022 Danger zone: Breakfast, where bacon and sausage are kings. \u2022 We love: Healthy options on the kid's menu, like slow-roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and glazed baby carrots, and fruit and yogurt dippers for dessert. Ruby Tuesday . If we'd done this survey in 2004, Ruby Tuesday might have won the blue ribbon for printing all its nutritional content right on the menu. It was revolutionary, and, frankly, it didn't last. But the healthy ethos survived in the chain's ingredients: organic greens, hormone-free chicken, transfat-free frying oil, and better-for-you beverages including Jones organic teas and made-to-order drinks like all natural lemonades (think real fruit and juice). It's easy to find the good stuff -- it's highlighted -- and the offerings range from a chicken wrap in a whole-wheat tortilla to broiled tilapia. Health.com: The best independent restaurants . \u2022 Danger zone: Comfort-food entrees like Gourmet Chicken Potpie, which piles more than half your daily calories on the plate. \u2022 We love: That they've even healthied-up the burgers, offering veggie-and turkey-versions. Romano's Macaroni Grill . This Italian eatery puts its entire menu's nutritional content online, so you know before you go what to steer clear of -- mainly, the massive baked pastas. But what pushed Macaroni Grill onto our best list is its \"Sensible Fare\" menu, with entrees like Simple Salmon, a grilled fillet sided by grilled asparagus and broccoli. Grazie for whole-wheat penne available as a substitute in any dish. And bravo for including a grilled skinless chicken breast with steamed broccoli and pasta on the kid's menu. \u2022 Danger zone: Heavy entrees like spaghetti and meatballs with meat sauce. \u2022 We love: The delicious Italian sorbetto and biscotti: just 330 calories and 4 grams of fat. Chevy's Fresh Mex . Chevy's makes a big deal out of the \"fresh\" in its name, and with good reason -- no cans in the restaurant, fresh salsa blended every hour, fresh avocados smashed every day for guacamole, and watch-them-made tortillas. All oils are trans fat-free, and the Mexican-style fare has lots of healthy options including Grilled Fish Tacos. Health.com: America's not-so-healthiest restaurants . \u2022 Danger zone: Sodium counts. To get below 1,000 milligrams, you'll need to get those Chicken Fajitas with no tortillas, tomalito, rice, sour cream, or guacamole. \u2022 We love: Fresh fish of the day, grilled and served on a skillet with homemade salsa. Olive Garden . Like Macaroni Grill, this Italian eatery has great-for-you options, as long as you keep your wits about you (again, avoid the baked pastas!). Use the olive-branch icon on the menu to find low-fat \"Garden Fare\" items such as Venetian Apricot Chicken. Even the fries aren't a disaster, because they're done in trans fat-free oil. You can grab some whole-grain goodness, too, by choosing the whole-wheat linguine at dinner as a substitute for any pasta. \u2022 Danger zone: The non-olive-branch entrees. Olive Garden provides no nutritional information on anything else on the menu. \u2022 We love: The low-fat Capellini Pomodoro (644 calories and 14 grams fat). Denny's . Yes, the home of the Lumberjack Slam and Moons Over My Hammy offers lots of skinny options to counter its fatty mainstays. \"Fit-Fare\" dishes such as the grilled-chicken-breast salad, and tilapia with rice and veggies, each have less than 15 grams of fat. Denny's also posts full nutritional information on its Web site. Its use of trans fats to cook its French fries kept it from landing higher on our list, but the rest of the fried food is trans fat-free. \u2022 Danger zone: Breakfast specials, especially the Meat Lover's Scramble, which is as bad for you as it sounds. \u2022 We love: The online nutritional chart has Weight Watchers Food Exchange Values. E-mail to a friend . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2007 . Additional reporting by Brittani Tingle.","highlights":"Health magazine names Top 10 chain restaurants for fresh, healthy food .\nWriters looked at 43 chains with more than 75 locations across the country .\nExperts' favorite: Uno's Chicago Grill, with trans fat-free menu, many grilled entrees .","id":"ace7f6d9e984397bda16bf441019f1584f036b2a"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The office of Muqtada al-Sadr accused Iraqi and U.S. forces of attacking Sadr City on Friday, just hours after the Shiite cleric called for calm in the wake of the assassination of one of his top aides in the southern city of Najaf. Iraqi Sadrists march Friday in the Najaf funeral procession of Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri, top aide to Muqtada al-Sadr. Witnesses and media in the heavily Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, home to the cleric's power base in the capital, reported heavy fighting between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. The witnesses said U.S. aircraft had been bombarding the area for hours, and media reported rockets slamming into houses and many casualties. Witnesses and al-Sadr's office said mosques were making loudspeaker announcements about Mehdi Army attacks on U.S. military armored vehicles. U.S. troops working in support of Iraqi soldiers killed two snipers, two other men firing rocket-propelled grenades and \"multiple others from a nearby building where soldiers were taking RPG and machine gun fire,\" the U.S. military said in a statement. At the same time -- about 9 p.m. -- at least six roadside bombs damaged vehicles in a U.S. Army convoy that was transporting barriers for a group of Iraqi Army soldiers establishing a checkpoint, the military said. Afterward, the military said, the Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were attacked by small-arms, machine-gun and RPG fire from buildings overlooking the road. The soldiers fired back at their attackers, killing at least four of them. More explosions from the buildings indicated possible arms and munitions stored there, the military said. But the small-arms attack continued until the U.S. forces fired two rounds from an M1A2 Abrams tank, killing two more attackers. Not long afterward, the U.S. Air Force, operating an unmanned aerial vehicle, fired a Hellfire missile at three men spotted setting roadside bombs, killing all three. Maj. John Gossart, executive officer of the American unit involved, said that no U.S. or Iraqi troops were seriously hurt. Earlier, al-Sadr issued remarks about the killing of Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri, who was shot outside his house in Najaf's Adala neighborhood after returning from Friday prayers. \"The hands of the occupiers and their collaborators have treacherously reached our beloved martyr Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri,\" al-Sadr wrote in a statement on the Web. Al-Nuri is one of 17 people killed over 24 hours in airstrikes, fighting and attacks in areas wracked in recent weeks by fighting among Shiites. The assassination prompted an immediate vehicle ban in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, anger among mourners and an intensification of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued a statement deploring the killing and ordering an investigation. Al-Sadr issued remarks about the killing in a statement on a Web site. Spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi emphasized that the cleric is not accusing anyone in particular of the killing but believes that the killers \"are the ones who are following the occupiers' steps and don't want stability for the country.\" But al-Obeidi called the killing an \"act of provocation\" after the \"siege of Sadr City.\" He was referring to the battles since Sunday involving members of al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and Iraqi security forces dominated by a rival Shiite political movement, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. That fighting started with an offensive in Basra and spread to other Shiite regions, including Sadr City and the Babil provincial capital of Hilla. The al-Nuri assassination prompted officials to expand the daily curfew in Hilla. Police said a ban on all outside movement that usually begins at 11 p.m. and ends at 8 a.m. will instead start at 8:30 p.m. Violence continued Friday in several places in Iraq. Suicide bombings killed at least four people -- three of them police -- and wounded 15, officials said. The first bombing was in Ramadi, the provincial capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar province west of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. At least three national police officers were killed and five wounded, the official said. The second attack took place at a checkpoint about 20 km (12 miles) north of Baiji, according to police, who said the bomber and one other person were killed and 10 were wounded. The casualties were members of a local Awakening Council who were manning the checkpoint, police said. The suicide bomber was driving a pickup carrying sheep. Awakening Councils, or Sons of Iraq, are made up of Sunnis who have turned on al Qaeda in Iraq. Also, at least three people were killed and five wounded in a mortar attack on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, an Interior Ministry official said. The Palestine Hotel -- across the Tigris River from the International Zone, the heavily guarded seat of U.S. power in Baghdad -- is in the path of many of the rockets and mortars aimed at the zone. The U.S. military has blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militants for recent mortar and rocket attacks in Baghdad and International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Unmanned aerial vehicles targeted and killed six suspected insurgents in Basra on Friday and six \"heavily armed criminals\" in northeastern Baghdad on Thursday night, the U.S. military said. Watch the Baghdad drone attack \u00bb . The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have consistently said they have not been targeting specific groups in their recent battles in Shiite areas. Iraqi and U.S. government officials say they differentiate between Mehdi Army members obeying al-Sadr's seven-month cease-fire pledge and \"gangs,\" \"criminals\" or \"outlaws\" who aren't obeying al-Sadr's orders. The intra-Shiite fighting in Iraq that has killed hundreds of people in the past two weeks has involved two main movements: members of the Mehdi Army militia loyal to al-Sadr, and Iraqi security forces dominated by the chief political rival of the Sadrists, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. Many of those security forces had been integrated into police and army units from the council's Badr Brigade militia. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Yousif Bassil and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. troops kill two snipers, two other men firing rocket-propelled grenades .\nArmy says U.S., Iraqi patrol came under fire setting up checkpoint .\nMuqtada al-Sadr blames U.S., calls for calm after top aide killed in Najaf .\nMortar attack kills three at Palestine Hotel across from International Zone .","id":"6f12c9d47e70bfa86d72685d018ddd1161157e8e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Taliban in Afghanistan -- whose government was toppled by U.S.-led forces after the September 11 attacks in 2001 -- has strengthened its military and technical capabilities even while suffering heavy combat losses, says a State Department report released Wednesday. Afghan policemen stand Wednesday outside the ruins of a house destroyed during clashes with Taliban insurgents. \"The Taliban-led insurgency remained a capable, determined, and resilient threat to stability and to the expansion of government authority, particularly in the Pashtun south and east,\" according to the \"Country Reports on Terrorism 2007.\" The Taliban's information operations have become \"increasingly aggressive and sophisticated,\" and their ability to obtain al Qaeda support and recruit soldiers from the Taliban base of rural Pashtuns is \"undiminished,\" the report says. But new civilian-military counterinsurgency approaches in the east, particularly Nangarhar, have begun to yield successes, the report says. The Taliban is funding its terror activities with money from supporters in neighboring Pakistan and from narcotics trafficking and kidnappings. Kidnappings of foreigners have increased, the report says. The group also has increased its use of improvised explosive devices, and suicide bombings have become more frequent and more deadly, it says. Quoting U.N.-compiled figures, the State Department said terrorists launched about 140 suicide-bomb attacks in 2007. The number of terror attacks in Afghanistan increased from 969 in 2006 to 1,127 last year, and the number of people killed, injured or kidnapped as the result of terrorism rose from 3,557 in 2006 to 4,673 in 2007, the report says. In the face of attacks by the Taliban and related groups on coalition forces and others, Afghanistan has struggled to build a stable, democratic government. However, it has taken steps to build strong relationships with neighboring Pakistan and address problems such as poverty that help fuel terrorism, the report says. The Program for Strengthening Peace and Reconciliation has persuaded more than 5,000 Taliban members and other insurgents to stop their lives of violence, it says. The shifting situation in Afghanistan prompted the top U.S. military officer to say in early April that he is \"deeply concerned\" about the situation there, and that maintaining troops in Iraq is harming overall U.S. military capabilities. \"The Taliban is growing bolder, suicide attacks are on the rise, and so is the trade in illegal narcotics,\" said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States needs more troops to hold areas of southern Afghanistan -- the region of highest concern -- and to train local army and police personnel. The two men testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The United States recently sent an additional 3,500 troops to Afghanistan, but commanders in the region would like 10,000 to 12,000 more, Gates said. He said he doubted NATO would make up the difference. Although 25 NATO allies and 13 other countries have contributed forces, the bulk of the recent fighting in Afghanistan has been done by U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops. Canadian troops are based in the southern province of Kandahar, once a Taliban stronghold. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"State Department report: Taliban military, technical capabilities stronger .\nTaliban called a determined threat to Afghan stability .\nFunding comes from Pakistan supporters, narcotics trafficking, abductions .\nNumber of terror attacks increased from 969 in 2006 to 1,127 last year .","id":"b32b72e5cf9e133e5be33eccbb2dc9ab5578ae84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He's been described as the Richard Branson of Asian airlines. And he certainly knows a thing or two about building a brand. Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia, spoke to CNN's Andrew Stevens in The Boardroom. In just five years, Tony Fernandes has built Air Asia from a bankrupt local carrier to the region's biggest budget airline -- 18 million passengers will fly the airline this year. CNN's Andrew Stevens talked to Fernandes in Macau to find out why, at the age of 37, he would leave a comfortable job in the music industry to start a new business in the cut-throat, not to mention high risk, aviation industry. Fernandes: Well there's a fine line between brilliance and stupidity, so the second point in a statement that Richard Branson's made is how to become a millionaire, start with a billion and start an airline. Now I was the other way around, I didn't have a billion. So I think that was one of the things, that I didn't have a lot to lose. And I thought I was young enough. I got tired of the corporate life, I got tired of corporate politics. And I saw a business opportunity. Everyone likes to fly. And I think the key number that got me going was only six percent of Malaysians flew. I started looking at the prices of tickets, and to travel from one part of Malaysia to another it was almost someone's one month salary. So that drove me. But I didn't want to be there, you know, at 55, and say I should've done it. Life is about risks, life is about not being afraid to fail. Stevens: But at the time, airlines were going into bankruptcy, oil prices were going through the roof, people were too scared to fly globally, didn't you think, \"oh my god I've made the worse decision of my life?\" Fernandes: No, I knew Malaysians very well. You put a price low enough, they'd risk their lives. I think also when you start a business the most important thing is does the market want it. And I knew the market wanted it. If that's there, everything is surmountable because people power is strong. Stevens: You like to pluck people from all different walks of life, from all different professions. How do you meld them all together? What's the philosophy underlying this? Fernandes: Well I think, first is that everyone plays a part. There is no hierarchy. Everyone is valuable. I make all my senior management carry bags and things so they appreciate that. Stevens: Do they? Fernandes: Oh yes, they do. Some try to shirk their duties, but it's very hard when they see the CEO doing it -- they have to do it. The second is that everyone's got ability, it's how you bring the best out of them. And that's a very motivating thing. If you see someone who's carrying a bag suddenly flying a plane. That's a very powerful motivator. You can do all the theory and books and promise people the world but when they see it in reality, boy that's a powerful thing to see. Stevens: When Air Asia started, you were known to go down, roll up your sleeves, and really get in with your staff at all levels, do you still have time to do that? Fernandes: I have less time, but I still do it. I think it's fundamental to running my company, because, unless you get down to the floor and see what's happening, you won't make effective decisions. I do it for two reasons. One is, to see what's going on, and to make sure if I'm making the right decisions. And the second thing is, I still want to discover these raw diamonds. Stevens: What's the best piece of business advice you've ever been given? Fernandes: Focus and discipline. Stay focused and disciplined. Stick to a plan, stick to a vision. You change but the vision's still the same. And that came from Conor McCarthy of RyanAir. He has taught me about discipline and focus and I think that's been a really good lesson for me. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia, talks to CNN's Andrew Stevens .\nHe turned Air Asia into the region's biggest budget airline .\nFernandes is known for joining in with staff at all levels .","id":"0ae5e35dc2844afc251d082d8d5ef4be8edce58c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Aruban authorities questioned Joran van der Sloot in the Netherlands about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the Aruban prosecutor's office said Friday. Joran van der Sloot awaits transfer from the Netherlands to Aruba in November. He later was released. It happened less than a week after a Dutch television program aired video footage showing the young man saying he was with the missing Alabama teenager when she died. During the two-hour interview with Aruban investigators, van der Sloot again denied any role in Holloway's vanishing, the prosecutor's office said in a written statement. Van der Sloot said that he was under the influence of marijuana when he was secretly videotaped saying that he was with Holloway when she died, and that he arranged for a friend to dump her body in the ocean, the statement said. On the video, which aired Sunday, van der Sloot also says that he wasn't sure Holloway was dead before a friend disposed of her body. Patrick van der Eem, a man who feigned friendliness toward van der Sloot, recorded the conversations on hidden cameras installed in the Range Rover he was driving, according to the report that aired Sunday. Watch how the video has renewed interest in the case \u00bb . Shortly after the video was made public, an investigative judge said that enough evidence exists to reopen the inquiry against the Dutch college student, but denied a prosecution's request that van der Sloot be detained. Hans Mos, the Aruban prosecutor, is appealing that decision, and a three-judge panel will rule on it \"after this weekend,\" Mos said. Watch Holloway's father say van der Sloot should 'come clean' \u00bb . Earlier this week, Dutch authorities executed several search warrants at van der Sloot's current and former residences, a source close to the investigation said. They took a hard drive and a laptop computer, the source said. Van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, told CNN that the video did not show a \"confession\" and said that van der Sloot is innocent. The college student is willing to answer \"any questions\" investigators ask, Tacopina said. Earlier this week, he told ABC that much of what was on the video is \"easily disprovable based on corroborative evidence. ... The fact of the matter is he still is not responsible. The evidence -- not Joran, the evidence -- says he's not responsible for Natalee's death.\" Holloway, 18, was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving an Oranjestad, Aruba, nightclub with van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe and his brother, Satish. Mos dropped charges against the three men in December, saying he couldn't be sure of a conviction. See a timeline of the case \u00bb . Holloway was visiting Aruba with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama. Holloway failed to show up for her flight home the following day, and her packed bags were found in her hotel room. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"The two-hour interview takes place in the Netherlands .\nJoran van der Sloot again denies any role in Natalee Holloway's disappearance .\nSays he was under the influence of marijuana when he was secretly videotaped .\nFootage shows van der Sloot saying he was with Holloway when she died .","id":"ffb817ce85d7c19720ebbf0b43b01d0da61e9c06"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine pleaded guilty Friday to abusive sexual contact with a child under 16, bringing to a close a criminal case that stoked outrage in Japan, a Marine spokesman said. Protesters turned out in March after the rape allegations surfaced. The Marine pleaded guilty to charges Friday. Staff. Sgt. Tyrone L. Hadnott was sentenced to four years of confinement, said First Lt. Judd Wilson, a Marine spokesman in Okinawa, Japan. The Marine Corps withdrew several other charges, including rape of a child, kidnapping and making a false official statement, Wilson said. Japanese police arrested Hadnott in February on charges alleging that he raped a 14-year-old junior-high school student. He saw her while riding his motorcycle, offered to give her a ride and later assaulted her at a park, the police said then. The case stirred outrage at the highest levels of the Japanese government. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda deplored the incident as \"unforgivable.\" The Japanese Foreign Ministry lodged an official protest with the U.S. government. And Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said the offense \"violates the rights of women\" and that \"this is a crime that we should not accept.\" The Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl withdrew her allegations, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation. The Marines charged Hadnott with rape of a child, abusive sexual contact, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping. More than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, most of them on Okinawa. The U.S. military presence has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiments boiled over in 1995, after three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women. The Marine Corps said in a statement on Friday that it does not tolerate sexual assault. \"We remain committed to maintaining an environment that rejects sexual assault and attitudes that promote such behaviors,\" the statement said.","highlights":"U.S. Marine pleads guilty to abusive sexual contact with a child under 16 .\nStaff. Sgt. Tyrone L. Hadnott is sentenced to four years confinement .\nThe Marine Corps withdrew several other charges, including rape of a child .","id":"9bfd6a5beb4e8dec59ba6d805dc9349a401da51d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo missed an early penalty as Manchester United earned a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium on Wednesday night. Cristiano Ronaldo sent his penalty attempt wide as United failed to take an early lead at the Nou Camp. The Portugal winger, the top scorer in this season's competition, spurned the chance to net for the 39th time overall this campaign and give United a vital away goal. The 23-year-old hit the stanchion high outside goalkeeper Victor Valdes' left-hand post in the third minute after Gabriel Milito handled his header from a Paul Scholes corner. It was United's best chance in a game dominated by the home side, who had the best of possession with some silky moves but failed to find the killer pass in the final third of the pitch. United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar made a string of saves, especially in the second half, but was not often seriously tested. Barcelona were boosted by the return of Argentina forward Lionel Messi, who started alongside Samuel Eto'o up front, with Thierry Henry on the bench after also being cleared following an illness. Messi picked out Samuel Eto'o in the 13th minute only for midfielder Scholes -- making his 100th Champions League appearance -- to make a vital interception. Barcelona pressed forward again in the 21st minute and Rafael Marquez got clear of his marker but his header failed to trouble Van der Sar, who was back in the side following a groin injury. Then Yaya Toure showed good skill for the home side and sent a good cross into the area that was turned away by Van der Sar. Ronaldo felt he should have had another penalty in the 30th minute when he was bundled over by Marquez after Xavi had carelessly lost possession, but Swiss referee Massimo Busacca allowed play to continue. Eto'o rattled in a shot after 34 minutes but Wes Brown -- who passed a late fitness test to replace the ill Nemanja Vidic in central defense -- made a vital block. Brown partnered Rio Ferdinand, with England midfielder Owen Hargreaves operating as a makeshift right-back. Deco, starting his first game for Barcelona after two months out with injuries, then failed to test Van der Sar with a free-kick in the 38th minute. Marquez was booked in the 44th minute after tripping Ronaldo as he attempted to surge forward, meaning the Mexican is suspended for next Tuesday's second leg at Old Trafford. Ronaldo sent his effort from an acute angle wide of the post. After the break, Messi saw his effort blocked in the 47th minute and then Van der Sar tipped over defender Gianluca Zambrotta's long-range effort. Messi beat three United players but Ferdinand cut out his low cross from the right, then he played in a superb ball for Eto'o -- who lashed his shot against the side-netting. Deco tested Van der Sar with a low drive, then the Dutchman easily dealt with a 20-yard effort from Xavi. Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard took off Messi in the 62nd minute, replacing him with teenager Bojan Krkic, who scored the winner in the first leg of the quarterfinal against Schalke. A foul on the Serbian-born Spaniard drew a yellow card for Hargreaves in the 73rd minute, then United boss Alex Ferguson bolstered his midfield by bringing on Nani for England forward Wayne Rooney -- who had started up front with Carlos Tevez. Rijkaard responded by replacing Deco with Henry in the 77th minute, and the French forward forced a scrambled save by Van der Sar with a long-range shot on 83. Ferguson brought on veteran winger Ryan Giggs for Tevez soon after, then Van der Sar denied Andres Iniesta and also dived to comfortably save Henry's free-kick from 35 yards. Barcelona continued to press until the final whistle, but still could not create a clear-cut opportunity. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Manchester United earn 0-0 draw away to Barcelona in first leg of semifinal .\nUnited's top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo misses penalty in the third minute .\nBarca dominated Champions League tie but could not breach United's defense .\nGoalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar made several saves but not seriously tested .","id":"dc7f4527bf654918c7a4bb19179949ecd5982c0f"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's Force 47 told reporters in Bogota Monday -- a day after surrendering -- that \"the solution is not through war. There must be dialogue.\" Nelly Avila Moreno, center, alias Karina, is escorted by soldiers after surrendering. Nelly Avila Moreno, 45, whose nom de guerre was Karina, said she and her longtime male companion made the decision jointly to abandon the FARC group, based in the jungle, at 5 a.m. Sunday. She said pressure from Colombian soldiers had been key to their decision, and she called on her fellow rebels to follow her example. \"I invite them to change the sensibility that is among the guerrillas,\" she said, seated by her companion, who said nothing during the news conference. She also had a message for the Colombian people: \"It is important to do something for peace in Colombia, and that need to do something is precisely one of my motivations.\" After 24 years with the FARC, Karina said she wants to reintegrate with society. \"At this moment, what I am thinking about is reuniting with my family and with all of society,\" she said. Karina said she had had no contact with the group's leaders for the past two years. During that time, she said, \"I was trying to stay alive.\" She said she knows nothing about the group's leaders, because \"everything in the FARC is very compartmentalized.\" Still, she did hear through the news media about the killing by another member of FARC of Ivan Rios, a member of the group's central high command. \"We suffered a very strong blow,\" she said. She acknowledged that news led her to worry about the possibility that one of her fellow guerrillas might consider doing the same thing to her. \"A person has a lot of combatants alongside, but you don't know what each one is thinking,\" she said. Asked about news reports of guerrilla operations she may have participated in, Karina admitted to nothing. \"They accuse me of a lot of things I wasn't part of,\" she said. But Miguel Antonio Paez told CNN en Espanol that he remembers well the woman who, with a band of guerrillas, stopped the bus he was on in 2004 in northwest Colombia, ordered him and the other passengers off and the bus be burned. \"The commander of that guerrilla group -- a dark-haired woman, tall, with one eye missing -- called herself Karina,\" he said. \"She ordered me tied up. Here, I have the marks from the wires, and there, while I was tied up, she lopped off my penis and testicles and I remained castrated for all my life.\" Asked specifically about the killing of the father of President Alvaro Uribe in 1983, she said she did not know who carried out the act, and added, \"I don't have my hands stained in that deed.\" She said that with her surrender have come new fears about possible retribution from FARC loyalists, who consider her a traitor. Wearing a red sweatshirt and what appeared to be a diamond earring in her left ear, she said she once believed the FARC would rule Colombia. \"I once dreamed of that,\" she said. Gen. Mario Montoya, chief of the army, said two Colombian air force helicopters were sent Sunday to pick up Karina and her companion, who had given authorities their general location. \"With this, we have given a confounding strike to the FARC structure,\" particularly to Front 47, which at this point is practically dismantled,\" he said. Since the killing of Rios, 45 members of the group have laid down their arms and accepted a government plan for reinstallation into society, he said. \"We want to send a message to all members of FARC who persist in the mountains,\" he said. \"To tell them, what Karina has done is the road all the members of FARC should go down. If they don't, we are going to continue combating them. Today, more than ever, I invite them to lay down their arms, take the plan. We don't want them dead. We want them alive.\"","highlights":"Rebel \"Karina\" and her male companion surrender .\nKarina was a commander of Colombian rebels .\nShe says, \"The solution is not through war. There must be dialogue\"\nShe says she fears possible retribution from FARC loyalists .","id":"c60e77736087bc85b372a28b4724aae6dcf0b052"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Al Qaeda is still operating within Pakistan's mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and the United States lacks a \"comprehensive\" plan for meeting its national security goals there, said a U.S. government study released Thursday. A Pakistani policeman watches over a border area in February 2008. Despite the United States providing $10.5 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan, a key U.S. ally, the Government Accountability Office said it \"found broad agreement ... that al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven\" in Pakistan's Federally Administrated Tribal Areas. Of the $10.5 billion in U.S. aid, more than half -- $5.8 billion -- was specifically provided for the tribal region, the GAO said. Furthermore, the report said, \"No comprehensive plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in FATA has been developed, as stipulated by the National Security Strategy for Combating Terrorism [in 2003], called for by an independent commission [in 2004] and mandated by congressional legislation [in 2007].\" \"Our report does not state that the U.S. lacks agency-specific plans; rather, we found that there was no comprehensive plan that integrated the combined capabilities of Defense, State, USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development], the intelligence community,\" GAO said. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said intelligence indicated that Osama bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda leaders, who had been based in Afghanistan before the attacks on New York and Washington, were operating in the tribal region. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has denied that claim and has said that U.S. military missions there would violate Pakistan's sovereignty. So, since 2002, the United States has \"relied principally on the Pakistan military to address U.S. national security goals\" in that region, the GAO report said. Of the $5.8 billion the United States provided for aid in the tribal region, 96 percent of it reimbursed Pakistan for military operations there, the agency said. Two of the eight lawmakers who commissioned the GAO report, Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said it indicated a failing on the part of the Bush administration. \"The Bush administration has had six years to come up with a plan to get Osama bin Laden and his group, but it is still flying by the seat of its pants,\" Menendez said in a statement. \"We've dumped 10 billion American taxpayer dollars into Pakistan with the expectation that the terrorists will be hunted down and smoked out, but al Qaeda has been allowed to rejuvenate in the area that is supposed to be locked down,\" he said. Harkin called the report's findings \"appalling.\" \"The White House must propose a strategic policy in this area and follow it, especially when we have this new opportunity to forge a fresh strategic relationship with the new civilian government in Pakistan,\" he said in a statement. The Defense Department said it agreed with the report's findings, according to letters attached at the end of the GAO report, but the State Department disagreed with them, saying there was a comprehensive plan in place. A letter from Kathleen Turner, a spokeswoman for the office of the Director of National Intelligence, said that office and the National Counterterrorism Center concurred with the report's assessment that the United States has not met its national security goals in the tribal region but maintained that there was a plan in place. USAID said that it generally agreed with the report's recommendation for a comprehensive plan but that work in the tribal areas should be guided by the Pakistani government's own FATA Sustainable Development Plan from 2006. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Al Qaeda has \"succeeded in establishing a safe haven,\" GAO says .\nReport says there is no comprehensive U.S. plan for reaching security goals .\nDemocratic critic says report is \"appalling,\" blames administration .","id":"e0953e2de7cf286ac1d87a41c62e37f21b7c7564"} -{"article":"(GameTap.com) -- Everyone wants to be more physically fit, but the toughest thing is finding motivation -- the motivation to get started, the motivation to keep going, the motivation to push yourself to the next level. A man tries out the Wii Fit at a Nintendo launch party in Central Park, New York City. Wii Fit doesn't try to motivate you with before and after photos. It doesn't try to motivate you with testimonials from fitness gurus. It doesn't even offer you three easy payments. But it does entice you to get into shape by making working out look like fun. And that it does very well. In fact, Wii Fit might be some of the most fun you can have by just more or less standing still, which must make it about as mass market friendly as any video game product ever was. Wii Fit requires a Wii, of course, and it comes bundled with a balance board. But the entire setup doesn't take up much space, and the board is no eyesore, either. Unlike a bathroom scale that's usually squirreled away in a closet or shoved into the corner of a bathroom, looking at it doesn't make you feel guilty. Designed to fit in with Japanese living rooms, where space is usually at a premium, the balance board is sleek and elegantly designed. iReport.com: Send us your Wii Fit review . It conveys cool Asian style with a streamlined appearance. It's something you wouldn't mind having in your living room at all. One thing about Nintendo: They know how to make hardware that's rugged but easy on the eyes. Getting started with Wii Fit is a snap, but you might have to get some bad news out of the way first. The balance board connects to the Wii through a Wi-Fi connection. You stand on it and use the Wii remote to record your height and age. The balance board then registers your weight. From those figures, Wii Fit calculates your body mass index (BMI), a standard metric many doctors use to determine a person's overall fitness, which you can track over time. Oddly, however, there's no easy way to just use the scale to see your weight without recalculating your BMI each time. The Wii Fit-ness program is organized into 48 activities divided among four general areas: yoga, aerobics, strength training, and balance games. You can choose to work through all four in one session or just concentrate on one. If you've never tried yoga before, working through the 15 positions here are as good an introduction as any. All of them are done with at least one foot on the balance board, so Wii Fit can measure how centered you keep your body. Yoga is a great way to stretch muscles and joints out and to work on overall flexibility. As meditative as this physical activity would seem, you'll feel the burn even before you reach any of the advanced forms. Once you're loosened up a little with yoga, you might move on to aerobics. The majority of these nine activities are basically variations of hula hooping, jogging in place, and simple step aerobics. The one exception is rhythm boxing, which you unlock later on. By turning these aerobic challenges all into minigames, Wii Fit entices you to keep working on them to earn better scores and ratings. With the hula hoop, for example, you have to stand on the board and grind your hips to keep a virtual hoop twirling. Later, you have to \"catch\" tossed hoops, and then keep them all twirling, too. Wii Fit sets a mellow, steady pace for all its aerobic challenges, but it still manages to make your heart pump. If just the words \"push\" and \"ups\" makes you break out in a sweat, then you've probably already surmised that strength training contains some of the most physically demanding Wii Fit workouts. The torso twist and rowing squat are easy, but push-ups, planks, and even the lunges will show you what you're made of. The push-ups in particular make you work extra hard. You do push-ups with your two hands on the board, but because it's 17 \u00bd inches wide, people over six feet tall or with broad shoulders might find themselves with their hands positioned inside their shoulder width. While it's certainly a worthwhile goal to build up to, it's difficult to snap off a set of push-ups from that position. The balance games require you to just apply pressure to the board through your feet. Skiing slaloms and ski jumping are fairly straightforward, but you can also walk a tightrope or try to float down a river inside a giant bubble. All of these are simple and fun, and they really do make you aware of how well you maintain good posture and keep your balance. However, they are also short and very limited in the variety of levels and layouts. Could you do all these exercises and balance activities right now without Wii Fit? Sure you could. But would you? That's where the Wii Fit balance board comes in. Just like the Wii itself, it just looks like something you'd like to try out. But once you take that first step onto it, you might find yourself on the way to becoming more fit. READ about video games. WATCH video game news. PLAY complete, original console, arcade and PC games - FREE! Visit GameTap.com. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 2007 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company, or its licensors. Patent pending. All Rights Reserved. GameTap is part of the TURNER YOUNG ADULT NETWORK.","highlights":"Entire 'Wii Fit' setup doesn't take up much space, and the board is no eyesore .\nWii Fit calculates your body mass index (BMI), a metric many doctors use .\nProgram organized into 48 activities divided among four general areas .\nPeople over 6 feet tall or with broad shoulders may find some activities difficult .","id":"8b6f228661fd5f3170dc2c2e6b353e1d6c3859ec"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Police imposed a curfew in Jaipur on Wednesday, a day after near-simultaneous bomb attacks in the ancient Indian city killed at least 63 people and wounded more than 200. Indian women mourn the death of their relatives in the May 13 serial blasts in Jaipur. Vasundhara Raje, chief minister of Rajasthan -- the state of which Jaipur is the capital -- blamed an \"unnamed international terror group\" for the attack, but said it was too early in the investigation to specify which one. H.G. Ragavendhra, Jaipur's superintendent of police, told CNN that police found nine newly-purchased bicycles at the scene, and think they were used to carry the explosives. The owner of the bike shop is helping police draw a sketch of the person who purchased them. Police have also picked up six suspects and were questioning them. Jaipur, known as the \"pink city\" for its rose-colored forts and palaces, is a popular tourist attraction. The majority Hindu city of 2.7 million people has a sizable Muslim population. The day-long curfew, authorities said, was meant to prevent \"communal violence.\" It was intended to prevent large crowds from gathering at the blast site and hampering the investigation, said Jaipur police director Kanhaiya Lal. Also, tempers could flare as mourners spend the day carrying bodies to their home villages and to crematoriums, he said. Home ministry officials suspect the Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJi) of being behind the attacks, according to CNN's sister network CNN-IBN and the Press Trust of India. No one has claimed responsibility. In the past, officials have blamed attacks within its borders on \"foreign\" Islamic extremist groups fighting against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. It is a term that is commonly understood to refer to Pakistan. Kashmir has been the source of bitter dispute and two wars between India and Pakistan. Both control parts of the region, which is predominantly Muslim. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks. See the aftermath of the explosions. \u00bb . Raje told reporters Wednesday that the military had been placed on alert and security tightened around the borders of the state, the western edge of which lies next to Pakistan. She also took to task the central government, saying it had provided no advance warning about the possibility of such an attack. Furthermore, Raje said, the central government left a state-proposed organized crime bill unapproved for two years. The bill would have allowed local police more leeway to interrogate suspects plotting attacks, she said. On Tuesday evening, eight bombs tore through crowded markets and a packed Hindu temple in Jaipur's walled city. The blasts went off within a 12-minute span and within 500 meters (0.3 miles) of each other. Police defused a ninth bomb. The Jaipur blasts bear an eerie resemblance in its pattern to a deadly attack two years ago in India's financial capital, Mumbai. In July 2006, more than 200 people were killed when seven explosions targeted commuter trains in Mumbai, formerly Bombay. In that incident, the explosions went off within a span of 11 minutes. Both attacks used RDX, one of the most powerful kinds of military explosives, and ammonium nitrate, an oxidizing agent in explosives. And both attacks took place during the evening hours and on Tuesdays. The Jaipur blasts occurred near the temple on a day when devotees pray to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey king. Nearby markets and bazaars that were also targeted were filled with tourists and locals. In the Mumbai attack, the blasts were timed to go off during the height of rush hour. And authorities said the bombs all appeared to have been planted on trains that left the Churchgate station -- used daily by thousands of commuters in the metropolis of more than 11 million people. Indian officials blamed Pakistan's intelligence services and a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, for the attack. Pakistan, which banned Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in 2002, denied any involvement. The Jaipur blast has one more element in common with yet another deadly attack: the use of bicycles. Just as on Tuesday, assailants used bombs strapped to bicycles in an attack at a mosque in the western Indian city of Malegaon in September 2006. At least 33 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in that explosion, which took place on a Friday -- when the mosque is filled with Muslim worshippers. That attack was also blamed Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. Authorities have not connected the Jaipur blast to any previous attacks. HuJi -- or the Movement of Islamic Holy War -- is considered a terrorist organization by the United States. It is banned in neighboring Bangladesh, where it is accused of carrying out several attacks, including a foiled plot to kill the country's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2000. And it has been blamed for several attacks inside India, including one at the American Center in Calcutta that killed five policemen in 2002. India ranks among the countries where terrorism is most common, the U.S. State Department said. \"The conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, attacks by extreme leftist Naxalites and Maoists in eastern and central India, assaults by ethno-linguistic nationalists in the northeastern states, and terrorist strikes nationwide by Islamic extremists took more than 2,300 lives this year,\" the agency said. CNN's Tess Eastment and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police impose a curfew in Jaipur day after bomb attacks kill at least 63 people .\nLocal Indian official blames \"unnamed international terror group\" for blasts .\nBombs explode within 12 minutes of each other, 200 people also wounded .\nPolice suspect bicycles may have been used to carry the bombs .","id":"2f482e021caf07e2f07baf111c36d1587758f188"} -{"article":"DELHI, India (CNN) -- India is on high alert after a series of near-simultaneous explosions killed at least 60 people and wounded 150 others in a top tourist spot, government and local officials told CNN-IBN. An injured man rests at Swai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur. Bicycles and rickshaws were strewn about the streets, with pools of blood nearby, in the northwestern city of Jaipur. Motorcycles, pieces of which were found at nearly every bomb site, appear to have been used in the attacks, said Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Indian government officials -- including Minister of State for Home Affairs Shriprakash Jaiswal -- were quick to label it a terrorist attack. The eight explosions started at about 7:30 p.m. (1400 GMT) and detonated within 12 minutes of each other, police said. The bombs exploded within about 500 meters (0.3 mile) of each other in Jaipur's old city, which is frequented by tourists. See the aftermath of the explosions. \u00bb . An ninth bomb was defused, according to H.G. Raghavendra, a Jaipur city official. He described all the bombs as \"medium intensity.\" \"There is no reason to panic,\" he told CNN-IBN. \"Everything is under control.\" One blast struck near Hanuman Temple, which was crowded with Hindus worshipping Hanuman, the religion's monkey god. Another struck near a market area inside Jaipur's walled city where tourists and locals frequent restaurants and shops. Jaipur, known as the \"pink city,\" is about 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of India's capital, New Delhi. Many of the casualties were taken to SMS Hospital, the largest government hospital in Jaipur. People gathered outside the hospital to hear news about friends and relatives; the hospital issued an urgent appeal for blood donations. The state of Rajasthan, where Jaipur is located, was placed on alert, local officials said. Delhi police officials said they too were on high alert after the blasts and were receiving regular updates from Jaipur on developments in the investigation. The Deputy Chief Minister for the state of Maharashtra, R.R. Patil, said the entire state was also on high alert. Mumbai is in the state of Maharashtra. The attack was immediately condemned by the United States. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the attacks were \"quite clearly an act intended to take innocent lives.\" He told reporters at his daily briefing that Washington was still collecting information, and could not \"offer insight into who may be responsible.\" According to the U.S. State Department, India ranks among the countries where terrorism is most common. \"The conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, attacks by extreme leftist Naxalites and Maoists in eastern and central India, assaults by ethno-linguistic nationalists in the northeastern states, and terrorist strikes nationwide by Islamic extremists took more than 2,300 lives this year,\" the agency said. It said India's counterterrorism efforts \"are hampered by outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems,\" and described the country's court system as \"slow, laborious, and prone to corruption.\"","highlights":"Eight quickfire explosions kill at least 60 people in northwest Indian city .\nBombs explode within 12 minutes of each other, 150 people also wounded .\nExplosions within a small radius in Jaipur's old city, popular with tourists .\nMotorcycles appear to have been used in the attacks, state minister says .","id":"dc8ce4207b91a323bf6e2fbab889efeed22aa428"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Korea's new president has pledged to donate his salary to the underprivileged. South Korean leader Lee Myung-Bak says he would donate his salary to help the underprivileged. Lee Myung-Bak made the pledge during an unscheduled meeting with reporters Sunday in the press room of his presidential office, the state news agency reported. The president said he would donate his salary during his entire five-year term. Lee is a former CEO of an engineering and construction company with a vast personal fortune. As mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2004, Lee donated his salary to the children of street cleaners and firefighters. \"I promised to spend my whole salary earned as a public official on public welfare,\" Lee told reporters. \"My plan to donate the presidential salary to the underprivileged is an extension of that promise.\" The news agency did not say how much the president earns in a year. During the election campaign, Lee, 66, vowed to donate his entire personal fortune of more than 30 billion won ($30.2 million) to the poor. He said at the time he would keep only a retirement house in Seoul. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"South Korean leader Lee Myung-Bak says he will donate his salary to help the poor .\nWhile mayor of Seoul, he donated salary to children of street cleaners and firefighters .\nLee is a former CEO of an engineering and construction company .","id":"22a9005fe99c5dd536a4f41de4eb59d4f633ef9e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Forbes' list of the world's wealthy has named Warren Buffett the richest person on the planet, surpassing his friend and philanthropic partner Bill Gates who had held the title for 13 consecutive years. American investor Warren Buffett has been named world's richest person. The American investor and philanthropist is worth an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago thanks to surging prices of Berkshire Hathaway stock, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's billionaires. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is now ranked as the world's third richest person. At $58 billion, his net worth is up $2 billion from a year ago. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu was named the world's second richest man, with a net worth of around $60 billion, up $11 billion since last March. For the first time, Forbes' rich list named more than 1,000 billionaires from around the world, with 226 newcomers. The total net worth of the group is $4.4 trillion, up $900 billion from 2007. Watch who's up and who's down \u00bb . This year's survey finds an increasing number of the world's richest coming from emerging markets, including China, India and Russia. Two years ago, 10 of the top 20 billionaires were from the United States. This year, there are only four. India is now home to four of the 10 richest people in the world, the highest number for a single country. But the United States still holds the top spot as the country with the most billionaires -- Americans account for 42 percent of the world's billionaires and 37 percent of the total wealth, according to Forbes. With 87 billionaires, Russia is now in second place, overtaking Germany, with 59 billionaires, which had held that position for six years. It is also a record-breaking year for young billionaires, with Forbes listing 50 billionaires under the age of 40. Check out the youngest billionaires \u00bb . Over half of them are self-starters, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and India's Sameer Gehlaut, who started online brokerage Indiabulls. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, age 23, was called \"quite possibly the world's youngest self-made billionaire ever.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Forbes crowns American investor Warren Buffett as world's richest person .\nAfter 13 years on top, Microsoft's Bill Gates drops to number three position .\nRussia replaces Germany as No. 2 country with 87 billionaires .\nFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may be youngest self-made billionaire in history .","id":"1b00b2d2edef396855ad392f08a6e74550af569b"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's midnight on the streets of Atlanta, and bar owner Rufus Terrill patrols his neighborhood with a rolling crime fighter of his own creation. Meet \"Bum-bot,\" as Terrill describes it; others in his neighborhood call it simply, \"Robocop.\" This former BBQ smoker is armed with a water gun to chase off bums and drug dealers in downtown Atlanta. It's a barbecue smoker mounted on a three-wheeled scooter, and armed with an infrared camera, spotlight, loudspeaker and aluminum water cannon that shoots a stream of icy water about 20 feet. Operated by remote control, the robot spotlights trespassers on property down the street from his bar, O'Terrill's. Using a walkie-talkie, Terrill belts out through the robot's loudspeaker, \"That's private property. You guys need to get out of here.\" Terrill is chasing out unsavory-looking characters from a street corner that resembles a drug dealer's dream at night. More than 20 suspicious people were seen huddling in the dark in the front driveway and side parking lot on this night. Some were seen openly making drug deals. Watch \"Bum-bot\" in action \u00bb . But during the day, it's where young children frolic on a nearby playground at a the Beacon of Light Daycare Center in downtown Atlanta. It has become a nightmare for day care operator Lydia Meredith. \"This whole square is enveloped with homeless people and drug dealers, defecating, urinating, prostituting -- the whole nine yards. And the overflow of that behavior, we get to cleanup every morning,\" she says. Meredith says people often toss used syringes and condoms onto the playground. Terrill, an engineer by trade, is also a board member at the day care center. Tired of cleaning up after the shady characters, he decided to take action. That's when he built his downtown Darth Vader of sorts. \"He's a neighborhood vigilante,\" says Meredith, \"and when he came up with this -- you know, I call it Robocop -- I said, 'Praise God.' \" The daycare center is a block from a homeless shelter. Meredith has a security guard at the center who leaves in the early evening. \"They know when the guard leaves,\" she says. \"They know when the cleaning crew leaves and then here comes the drug dealers to prey on the homeless people.\" Anita Beatty, the director of the shelter, is suspicious of the barbecue-smoker robot. \"I just think the whole 'Robocop' spraying people is a little freaky. We really need some police protection in this neighborhood. I think it's confusing the issue. I think the issue is homeless people. They are being confused with the folks who prey on them and sell them drugs,\" she says. Atlanta police patrol the area, but say it's difficult to stay on top of the large number of people who roam the streets in the area late at night. Police Major Lane Hagin says the robot is definitely a different crime-fighting idea. \"There's no problem with the robot going up and down the street or being visible or any of the other things it does -- with the exception of spraying water on people.\" Hagin adds, \"Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens.\" So far no one has filed charges against Terrill or the robot. But one homeless man who declined to give his name followed Terrill and his robot down the street and laughingly told him, \"I know about you. I can sue you for assault.\" Terrill says he's not hurting anyone and often sprays the water to the side of loiterers as a ploy to get them to move on. He's also not about to back down. \"If you're throwing condoms out on the side of the playground, if you're throwing needles, you're throwing crack pipes out there, I'm not going to let those kids be out there like that. I'm going to stop you.\" Terrill bought his bar four years ago knowing nothing about the restaurant business. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006. He's had ongoing problems with people breaking into his bar and stealing things, but it was the day care center problems that spurred him on to create the robot. Some of Terrill's bar patrons say they've seen a difference in the neighborhood. Susanne Coe lives nearby. \"I've seen a marked change simply with this robot that doesn't have any power of arrest. It does scare people and to be honest with you I'm grateful for it,\" she says. On this night, as Terrill and his robot make their way to the street corner, he shines the robot's spotlight on the parking lot of the daycare center. One by one, the shadowy figures stand up, walk away and saunter down the street. \"Ninety-nine percent of the time, when I go up there and once I turn the spotlight on and I talk to them through the speaker, they leave,\" he says. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Atlanta bar owner converts BBQ smoker into robot to chase off drug dealers, others .\n\"Bum-bot\" is armed with a water gun and loudspeaker .\nCops frown upon spraying water at bystanders, say it could be assault .","id":"9b43472077873c45e7f278418885ad028eb993e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A video showing the last moments of a Polish immigrant, who died after Canadian police shot him with a stun gun at Vancouver International Airport, has been made public. This image from video shows an agitated Robert Dziekanski, left, before police used a stun gun on him. Robert Dziekanski, 40, was traveling to join his mother, who lives in British Columbia, when he ended up spending about 10 hours in the airport's arrivals area, The Canadian Press said. The video shows Dziekanski, who had never flown before, becoming agitated. It then shows Mounties purportedly shocking Robert Dziekanski with a Taser device after confronting him. Dziekanski did not speak English. The recording was captured by bystander Paul Pritchard on October 14 and was in police hands until he threatened legal action and it was returned to him last week, The Canadian Press reported. Watch as police stun man with Taser \u00bb . \"Probably the most disturbing part is one of the officers uses his leg and his knee to pin his neck and his head to the ground,\" Pritchard told CBC News. The dead man's mother, Zofia Cisowski, told CBC News that Tasers should not be used by police. \"They should do something because that is a killer, a people killer.\" The incident is being investigated by police, Canada's national police complaints commission and by the coroner, CBC News reported. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Man died after Canadian police shot him at Vancouver Airport on October 14 .\nPolish immigrant became agitated after being left waiting at airport for 10 hours .\nFlight was first time he had been on a plane; he spoke no English .\nIncident, captured on video by a bystander, is being investigated by authorities .","id":"281347d0e99bc099d6991a6a60e30dc13d558216"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Monday, Eliot Spitzer was a rising star in the Democratic Party -- his squeaky-clean image as a corruption buster led to his being mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate and possibly even a future White House contender. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer arrives with his wife Monday for a press conference. Now, after federal investigators have linked the New York governor to a top-dollar prostitution ring, political advisers are split over whether Spitzer has any political future at all. \"There's no way he can survive it,\" said Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant and adviser to former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. \"All the facts aren't out there, but as they're being reported, there's no way you can survive. \"Not only is he a hypocrite, he may also end up being a charged felon.\" On Monday, Spitzer publicly apologized for an undisclosed personal matter. He did not specifically mention the prostitution sting, nor did he resign. Watch Spitzer's apology \u00bb . The apology came four days after federal prosecutors announced the arrests of four people in an international prostitution ring that charged clients up to $5,500 an hour. A source with knowledge of the probe said that wiretaps in the case identify Spitzer as an unnamed client who met a prostitute on February 13 at a Washington hotel. Many political professionals said they were stunned by Monday's developments regarding Spitzer, a man who once made a name for himself going after organized crime and Wall Street corruption as New York's attorney general. \"Obviously, the facts are going to come out in the next several days and the story will be told,\" said Robert Zimmerman, a political adviser and Democratic National Committee member. \"But if the facts are as we suspect, it's very hard to imagine him staying in office.\" But James Carville, a CNN political analyst and onetime adviser to former President Bill Clinton, said Spitzer could hold on to his position if the scandal remains strictly about sex -- or if it's revealed that his political enemies were responsible for leaking the story. Carville mentioned other high-profile politicians who have weathered sex scandals, including Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after his arrest in a men's room sex sting, and his own former client, President Clinton. \"All of us remember the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the immediate rush to judgment,\" he said. \"A lot of people said, 'How could Bill Clinton survive a scandal like that?' Yet, he managed to survive. \"If it's not a financial or monetary thing involved, I don't know.\" Watch a discussion of Spitzer's political future \u00bb . On a more personal level, Dina Matos, the estranged wife of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey -- who resigned after an alleged affair with a male political aide -- said Spitzer should step down whether he thinks he can salvage his political career or not. McGreevey, who announced he is gay and is now attending an Episcopalian seminary, and Matos are in the midst of divorce proceedings. Matos said \"was very difficult for the family\" when her husband tried to hang on to the governor's office for several months after stories about the relationship with the aide surfaced. \"I thought Gov. Spitzer was going to announce his resignation today,\" Matos told CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"By not doing so, he's only prolonging the pain and and anguish and humiliation for his wife and family.\" Watch responses to the question: Will Spitzer have to resign? \u00bb . If Spitzer resigns, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would complete his term in accordance with the New York state constitution. Paterson, 53, is the highest-ranking African-American elected official in New York state. Paterson, who is legally blind, is a leading advocate for the visually and physically impaired. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"N.Y. governor, a hard-charging ex-prosecutor, falls far amid link to prostitution .\n\"There's no way he can survive\" scandal, GOP consultant and adviser says .\nEx-Bill Clinton adviser: He has a chance if scandal's enemy-driven or only about sex .\nEstranged wife of ex-N.J. governor says Spitzer should resign to spare family grief .","id":"703d248cce913a6036347aabd2ba011a7f660bf4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mormon leader Gordon B. Hinckley died Sunday night at age 97, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced. Gordon B. Hinckley, 97, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Sunday. Hinckley had \"been in failing health for some time and his passing is due to age,\" said church spokesman Bruce Olsen. \"He was speaking in public as late as two to three weeks ago and had a full schedule in his office as late as last week.\" Hinckley became president of the Salt Lake City-based church in 1995, at age 84, and had been a member of its top leadership since the 1960s. Mormon church presidents serve for life. The church has about 13 million members worldwide and has experienced 5 percent annual growth in recent years. He died about 7 p.m. Sunday with his family by his side, church officials said. \"His life was a true testament of service, and he had an abiding love for others,\" said U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican and fellow Mormon. \"His wit, wisdom, and exemplary leadership will be missed by not only members of our faith, but by people of all faiths throughout the world.\" Hinckley married Marjorie Pay at the Salt Lake City temple in 1937. They had five children, 25 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. Marjorie Hinckley died in 2004. \"I've been blessed so abundantly that I can never get over it,\" Hinckley told CNN's Larry King in 2004. \"I just feel so richly blessed. I want to extend that to others, whenever I can.\" Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Mormon church. President Bush awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. Watch Hinckley receive medal, share his views \u00bb . According to a church statement, Hinckley was the most-traveled president in the church's history, visiting more than 60 countries. He also oversaw a massive temple-building program, doubling the number of temples worldwide to more than 100. Hinckley spent 70 years working in the church and is considered the architect of its vast public relations network. He worked to defuse controversies over polygamy and to promote full inclusion of nonwhites. Mormons believe the president of the church is a living prophet and apostle. They considered his words divinely inspired, including his views on homosexuality and the role of men and women in the home. \"We are not anti-gay. We are pro-family, let me put it that way,\" Hinckley told King in 2004. \"We love these people and try to work with them and help them. We know they have a problem. We want to help them solve that problem.\" In an earlier interview with King, Hinckley laid out his views on family structure. \"Put father at the head of the house again,\" he said. \"A good father, who loves his wife and whose wife loves him, and whose children love him ... and let them grow together as good citizens of the land.\" A church body known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles becomes its governing body upon the death of a president. It will choose a successor after Hinckley's funeral. No arrangements have been announced, Olsen said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Matt Smith, Ed Payne and Ninette Sosa contributed to this story.","highlights":"Hinckley was president of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1995 .\nThe Church will choose a successor after Hinckley's funeral .\nHinckley died at about 7 p.m. with his family by his side .","id":"517b86691dda04f41123354c1b7a7bfe1290eadc"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Arizona Sen. John McCain, whose White House aspirations went into a nose dive last summer, clinched the Republican Party's presidential nomination Tuesday night with a sweep of GOP contests in four states. \"I am very, very grateful and pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a great sense of responsibility, that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States,\" McCain told supporters in Texas. CNN estimates that McCain has amassed 1,195 delegates to the GOP's September convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, four more than the 1,191 needed to claim the party's nomination. \"Now, we begin the most important part of our campaign: to make a respectful, determined and convincing case to the American people that our campaign and my election as president, given the alternative presented by our friends in the other party, is in the best interest in the country that we love,\" McCain said. \"The big battle's to come,\" he said. \"I do not underestimate the significance nor the size of the challenge.\" Watch McCain address supporters after sweeping Tuesday's contests \u00bb . McCain's last leading rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, bowed out of the race after his projected losses in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont and urged his supporters to back the Arizona senator in November. \"It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been but now what must be, and that is a united party,\" Huckabee said. Watch as Huckabee ends his presidential bid \u00bb . Claiming the title of presumptive nominee will give McCain a head start on the general election campaign while Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are still locked in a battle for their party's title, said Alex Castellanos, a GOP strategist and CNN contributor. Allocate delegates yourself and see how the numbers add up \u00bb . \"Tomorrow, he can get started,\" Castellanos said. \"He'll have the [Republican National Committee] behind him. He'll have a broad base of financial support. It's a big step. Meanwhile, it looks like the Democrats are engaged in the land war across Russia, so he's got a big advantage now.\" Both Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, and Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois, called McCain on Tuesday night, campaign officials said. Obama told McCain he looks forward to running against him in the fall, campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said. McCain is slated to go to the White House on Wednesday to receive the endorsement of President Bush, according to two Republican sources. The Arizona senator's campaign -- his second run for the White House -- was largely written off last summer amid outspoken opposition from the party's conservative base, a major staff shakeup and disappointing fundraising. But the former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war rebounded with wins in January's primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, the state where his first presidential bid foundered. \"There were times, obviously, when my political campaign was not viewed as the most viable in America, as you probably know,\" he told reporters in San Antonio earlier Tuesday. \"In fact, I was reminded of the words of Chairman Mao, who said it's always darkest before it's totally black.\" McCain's fortunes also rebounded as U.S. commanders in Iraq credited the 2007 launch of a campaign to pacify Baghdad and its surrounding provinces with a sharp decline in American and Iraqi casualties. The senator had been one of the most outspoken advocates of the shift and has blasted his potential Democratic rivals for calling for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from the widely unpopular war. \"This is a man with a lot of trials in his life,\" said former Education Secretary William Bennett, a CNN contributor. \"He's had a lot of downs; he's been up, and this is a big up.\" McCain has been turning his fire on the Democrats, for whom Tuesday's races in Ohio and Texas are seen as pivotal. See scenes from Tuesday's voting \u00bb . But Democrats have been pounding McCain over his January comment that he would be satisfied if U.S. troops remained in Iraq for 100 years, as long as the insurgency there died down. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has attacked his reputation as a reformer over the past week, accusing McCain of trying to evade federal spending limits by opting out of public financing after using the promise of federal funds to obtain a bank loan and automatic ballot access for his primary campaign. Dean told CNN on Tuesday that McCain \"really is the focus of what we're doing now, in terms of his ethics problems and his problems with the war and his problems with the huge deficits that they've run up on the Republican side.\" In 2000, McCain upset then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary by touting \"straight talk\" and his record as a Republican maverick. Bush came back in South Carolina amid a divisive and bitter campaign that left McCain denouncing leaders of the party's religious conservative wing as \"agents of intolerance,\" and Bush went on to win the presidency. Since then, McCain has enraged conservative leaders by opposing Bush's signature tax cuts, co-sponsoring the campaign finance reform law that now bears his name and supporting a controversial White House-backed plan to offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. But their support was spread among a fractured GOP field, and their main standard-bearer, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, quit the race after a disappointing showing in February's Super Tuesday primaries. Exit polls in Texas and Ohio found that about three-quarters of Republicans would be satisfied with McCain as their nominee, however. Those surveys found that the economy was the top issue for GOP voters in both states -- and by a wide margin in Ohio, which has seen a sharp decline in manufacturing jobs in the past decade. Although national security issues are a strong suit for McCain, Castellanos said he might need some help if a weakening economy is the central issue in November. \"It's never been Sen. McCain's strength,\" Castellanos said. He said McCain would need to make the case that \"I'm going to grow this economy; Barack or Hillary, they're going to grow government.\" McCain had amassed 1,047 delegates before Tuesday, according to CNN estimates. At stake in Tuesday's contests were 256 delegates, allocated on a winner-take-all basis by statewide or congressional district results. E-mail to a friend . CNN correspondent Dana Bash and political editor Mark Preston contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN projects McCain wins Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont .\nHuckabee withdraws from race for GOP nomination .\nCNN: McCain had amassed 1,047 delegates before Tuesday .\nMcCain campaign was largely written off last summer .","id":"7b361feeebfb078b80831d40d2ad8640c361e049"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Austrian investigators Monday released more details about the elaborate underground cellar where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years, along with three of their children. Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children. Investigators believe Fritzl planned to build the cellar as early as 1978, shortly after, according to his daughter, he began raping her at age 11 or 12, said police spokesman Franz Polzer. The 73-year-old Austrian began building the dungeon as part of an addition to his home that year, and simply added the hidden space -- which was not recorded in any building plans -- Polzer said. It took Fritzl until 1983 to finish the addition, Polzer said. Investigators recently discovered another door to the dungeon prison, which was blocked by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) steel and concrete door that Fritzl probably stopped using when he later constructed an electronic door for a second entrance, Polzer said. Fritzl, who police believe was the only one with access to the cellar, had to travel through an elaborate maze to get to the prison. \"You would have to open up a total of eight doors, and ... (for the) last door which would go into this space (where the family was imprisoned), you would also have to use electronic opening apparatus,\" Polzer said. \"We will have to find out perhaps later from now if perhaps there are other spaces we haven't discovered yet, and perhaps maybe there is something else interesting.\" Fritzl was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in the dungeon under the Fritzl home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children -- six of whom survived. Three of the children were adopted by Josef Fritzl and his wife after he concocted the ruse that Elisabeth had left the babies on their doorstep. The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel more than two weeks ago, when one of the children still in the dungeon, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions. The father agreed to take her to a hospital, the first time she was allowed out of the prison where she had spent her entire life with her mother and two brothers. Dr. Albert Reiter, who is treating Kerstin, said Monday that while her condition is still \"grave,\" it \"has improved somewhat.\" \"She has become more stable, but despite that we have to continue to keep her under sedation and give her respiratory help,\" Reiter said, noting it is not clear how long she will be kept under sedation. Elisabeth and her two sons were reunited with her mother, Rosemarie, who police say knew nothing about the basement prison. They were also reunited with the three children that Josef had taken from Elisabeth. The reunited family is living in secluded quarters at a psychiatric clinic, where they are finding a daily routine and adjusting to sunlight -- something the two boys had never seen -- according to the clinic's chief doctor. \"The mother and the smallest child have, in just the last couple of days, increased their sensitivity to light,\" Dr. Berthold Kepplinger said. \"So we have been able to equip them with protective sunglasses.\" Five-year-old Felix is \"getting more and more lively,\" Kepplinger said. \"He's fascinated by everything that he sees around him -- the fresh air, the light, and the food -- all of these things are helping them,\" he said. \"Slowly the color of their skin is changing back to a more normal (shade).\" He also said the family members are still getting to know each other and live together as a family. Kepplinger praised Elisabeth for having provided a daily living routine for her children during their captivity. He said the family is getting into a new routine in which the mother and the grandmother make breakfast for the family, and the children make their beds. However, he said there is a noticeable difference between the pace of life of the children held in captivity and that of those who grew up in Fritzl's home. He said the mother, Elisabeth, takes breaks and naps several times a day. The health of the family members is satisfactory and hospital staff have been able to let more and more light into the rooms where the family is staying, Kepplinger said. Kepplinger said the children, after being confined to a small space their entire lives, are finding it increasingly easy to be in larger spaces. Initially the dungeon where Fritzl held his daughter was only 35 square meters. In 1993, around the time Elisabeth was pregnant with her fourth child, Fritzl decided to add to the dungeon, building another room that increased the entire living space of the family to about 55 square meters. On Wednesday or Thursday, prosecution authorities will attempt to question Fritzl -- who is no longer talking to police following his initial confession, state prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said. A warden at the St. Poelten jail, where Fritzl is being held, told CNN that Fritzl appears to be doing well, but he is refusing to go on walks outside the building where he is detained. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Hospitalized incest daughter's condition is grave but stable, police say .\nFritzl imprisoned and raped daughter, also fathered her children, police say .\nWife of Josef Fritzl was too scared to question him, her sister says .\nFritzl's wife focused on keeping family healthy, according to her sister .","id":"7d8e196095e4561ee4f01c650101f5591fce4a8d"} -{"article":"BASRA, Iraq (CNN) -- The man, blindfolded and handcuffed, crouches in the corner of the detention center while an Iraqi soldier grills him about rampant crimes being carried out by gangs in the southern city of Basra. Iraqi authorities say this man has confessed to killing 15 girls, including a 9-year-old. \"How many girls did you kill and rape?\" the soldier asks. \"I raped one, sir,\" the man responds. \"What was her name?\" \"Ahlam,\" he says. Ahlam was a university student in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra. The detainee said the gang he was in kidnapped her as she was leaving the university, heading home. \"They forced me, and I killed her with a machine gun, sir,\" he says. The suspect, who is unshaven and appears to be in his 20s or 30s, was arrested by Iraq security forces after they retook most of Basra in April. CNN was shown what authorities say was his first confession. On it are the names of 15 girls whom he admitted kidnapping, raping and killing. The youngest girl on the list was just 9 years old. Basra turned into a battleground between warring Shiite factions vying for control of the country's oil-rich south after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Basra's streets teemed with Shiite militias armed with weapons, mostly from Iran, according to the Iraqi forces and the U.S. military. Watch a mom describe her three sons killed \u00bb . For four years after the invasion, Basra was under the control of British forces, but they were unable to contain the violence and withdrew in September last year. Women bore the brunt of the militias' extremist ideologies. The militants spray-painted threats on walls across Basra, warning women to wear headscarves and not to wear makeup. Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something \"un-Islamic.\" In the wasteland on the outskirts of Basra, dotted with rundown homes, the stench of death mixes with the sewage. Local residents told the Iraqi army that executions often take place in the area, particularly for women, sometimes killed for something as seemingly innocuous as wearing jeans. Militias implemented their own laws with abandon, threatening stores for displaying mannequins with bare shoulders or for selling Western music. Many store owners are still too frightened to speak publicly. But the horrors of militia rule are now surfacing as some residents begin to feel more comfortable speaking out. Inside her rundown home, Sabriya's watery eyes peer out from under her robe. She points to the first photo of one of her sons on the wall. \"This one was killed because he was drinking,\" she says. She draws her finger across her neck and gestures at the next photo. \"This one was slaughtered for his car.\" \"This one the same,\" she adds, looking at the third. Her three sons, her daughter and her sister were all killed by the hard-line militia. Her sister was slaughtered because she was a single woman living alone, Sabriya says. \"They came in at night and put a pillow on her face and shot her in the head,\" she says. Sabriya lives on what was once dubbed \"murder street\" for the daily killings that happened there last year. On the day CNN visited, dozens of young men sat where there used to be piles of bodies. Sheik Maktouf al-Maraiyani shudders at the memory. \"Every day, we would find 10 or 15 of our men killed,\" he says, adding sorrowfully \"one of them was my son.\" His son was 25 years old. Now, \"murder street\" is part of a citywide effort to get Basra back on its feet. In a project funded by U.S. forces, Sheikh Maktouf and others are being paid $20 a day and upwards to clean up trash. Watch the transformation of 'murder street' \u00bb . Basra may be part of the country's oil-rich south, but it wallows in its own sewage and trash. The stench of filth is impossible to escape. The effort also helps with the massive unemployment plaguing the city. British forces officially handed over responsibility of Basra to Iraqi forces in December. \"The situation was so bad because the security forces were controlled by the militias,\" says Brig. Gen. Aziz al-Swady, who commands the 14th Iraq Army Divison. To help curb the violence, British troops have returned to the city, adopting the U.S. approach of embedding with Iraqi units as advisers. The Iraqi prime minister also has flooded the city with additional troops, bringing in soldiers from western Iraq along with their American advisers. \"Now the citizens have started to trust the Iraqi security forces,\" said al-Swady. The biggest difference is that residents are starting to leave their homes, something unthinkable just a few months ago. At one of the parks in the city this past weekend, a father named Al'aa was out with his three young children and his wife. \"It's the first time that we have dared to come here in two years,\" he said. The park was once often used for executions. Everyone, residents and soldiers alike, knows the battle for Basra is not over. Militias still lurk in the shadows, and the security gains may not last without economic gains. \"The most important thing, our government must focus on finding jobs, different jobs for these people,\" says Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Azawi.","highlights":"Residents of Basra have begun telling stories of militia massacres .\nMom says one son was killed for drinking alcohol, two others slain for their car .\nAuthorities: Man admits to killed 15 girls, including one 9 year old .\nDad in park says, \"It's the first time that we have dared to come here in two years\"","id":"ae03390949407f55c8d8f794896af3020d180b12"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama raised more than $40 million from more than 442,000 donors in March, his presidential campaign announced Thursday. Sen. Barack Obama greets campaign volunteers during a stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wednesday. More than 218,000 of the donors were giving for the first time, the campaign said. The figures are estimates, a campaign spokesman said. \"We're still calculating.\" Sources in Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign said the New York senator raised $20 million in March. Impressive as the $40 million figure is, it is well below the $55 million Obama raised in February. Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, raised about $35 million in February. Political analysts say this kind of fundraising power catches the attention of voters. \"They add to the so-called 'bandwagon effect' -- the sense that Obama is building, that he's going to be the nominee,\" said Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report. With its March totals, the Obama campaign has raised approximately $234 million, which surpasses the Democratic record of $215 million that 2004 nominee Sen. John Kerry raised in that presidential primary season. Obama is $25 million shy of President Bush's presidential primary fundraising record of $259 million, set in his uncontested campaign in 2004. Obama raised $194 million through the end of February. Official fundraising tallies for March are due to the Federal Election Commission by April 20. Clinton raised $156 million through the end of February. The Clinton campaign said Thursday morning it would not release March figures until required to file its FEC report, two days before the critical Pennsylvania primary April 22. But later, campaign sources provided the figures, which show March to be Clinton's second-highest fund-raising month for the campaign. A Clinton spokesman downplayed the importance of Obama's fundraising total. \"We knew that he was going to out-raise us. He has out-raised us for the last several months,\" Howard Wolfson said after Obama's figures were released. \"We will have the resources that we need to compete and be successful in the upcoming primary states.\" Wolfson also said he expected Clinton's tax returns to be released soon. Clinton pledged March 25 she would release her returns within a week. Sen. John McCain, the expected Republican nominee, raised $11 million in February. He has not announced his March total. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Rob Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Clinton raised $20 million in March, campaign sources say .\nClinton camp says her tax returns will be released soon .\nMore than 442,000 donors contribute to Sen. Barack Obama's, campaign says .\nNumber is below record $55 million Obama raised in February .","id":"4160464d3fcba547cb1664e54ce51ad06f78b773"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- We all want to live forever. But, chances are, you'd rather forego a legacy altogether than have your name be synonymous with a goofy flub like a spoonerism or a dim-witted word like \"dunce.\" You can find a saint under tawdry in the dictionary. For the following eponyms, we ask: Did these word-inspiring folks really deserve their drag through the linguistic mud? 1. Dunce . Dictionaries don't play fair, and John Duns Scotus is proof. The 13th\/14th-century thinker, whose writings synthesized Christian theology and Aristotle's philosophy, was considerably less dumb than a brick. Unfortunately for Scotus, subsequent theologians took a dim view of all those who championed his viewpoint. These \"Scotists,\" \"Dunsmen,\" or \"Dunses\" were considered hairsplitting meatheads and, eventually, just \"dunces.\" 2.(slipping a) Mickey . When you have to drug somebody against their will (hey, you gotta do what you gotta do), it just wouldn't sound right to slip 'em a Ricardo, a Bjorn, or an Evelyn. It's gotta be a Mickey. At the turn of the 20th century, Mickey Finn was a Chicago saloon owner in one of the seediest parts of town -- and he fit right in. Finn was known for serving \"Mickey Finn Specials,\" which probably included chloral hydrate, a heavy sedative. After targeted customers passed out, Finn would haul them into his \"operating room\" and liberate them of all valuables (including shoes). Never a Host of the Year candidate, this Mickey seems to have thoroughly earned his legacy, so don't hesitate to use it the next time you drug and rob your own customers. 3. Spoonerism . Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844--1930) was famous for his muddled one-liners. And though it's hard to know which ones he actually said, lines such as \"I have a half-warmed fish\" and \"Yes indeed, the Lord is a shoving leopard\" still prove that the sound-switching flub is pretty charming as far as mistakes go. The spoonerism has even been used as a literary technique by poets and fiction writers, giving Spooner little reason to roll over -- or otherwise inarticulately protest -- in his grave. 4. Lynch . Although several Lynches (not including David) have been investigated by inquisitive etymologists, Virginia native Charles Lynch (1736--1796) is most likely the man behind the murderous word. Lynch was a patriot, a planter, and a judge. But when he headed a vigilante court to punish Tories (British loyalists) during the American Revolution, he decided to play the roles of jury and executioner, too. Lynch has more than earned his besmirched name. In fact, he did half the besmirching himself by egotistically referring to his actions as \"lynch law\" and \"lynching.\" 5. Shrapnel . While battling Napoleon's army, English General Henry Shrapnel (1761--1842) noticed that original-flavor cannonballs just weren't massacring enough enemies for his liking. So, to get more shebang for his shilling, he filled the cannonballs with bullets and exploding charges. These \"shrapnel shells,\" or \"shrapnel-barrages,\" were pretty darn effective, and later designs proved even more successful in World War I. Shrapnel didn't get much credit for the \"innovation\" during his lifetime, but he ultimately contributed to enough death and misery that he pretty much deserves to be synonymous with a violent, metallic byproduct of combat. 6. Draconian . A Lexis-Nexis news search shows that folks are still talking about \"draconian policies,\" \"draconian penalties,\" and, most frighteningly, \"draconian sex rules.\" Though Athenian lawgiver Draco is not entirely confirmed to have existed, if he were real, then around 621 B.C.E., he instituted two time-honored traditions: 1) writing laws down and 2) making laws that were batcrap-insane . They include ascribing the death penalty to such atrocities as being lazy, whizzing in an alley, and stealing an apple. Apparently, he justified his measures with a sort of non-logic along the lines of, \"Jaywalkers deserve to die, and I can't do anything worse to mass murderers. So what're you gonna do?\" 7. Boycott . In a nutshell? Boycott got boycotted. Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832--1897) was a retired English army captain who claimed his unwanted fame in 1880 when the Irish Land League decided to punish him for not lowering his rents. This then-new strategy, which was a mere paragraph in the Russian-novel-size saga of Irish land reform, was a kind of systematic shunning in which Boycott was cut off from servants, supplies, mail, and lifestyle free of death threats. He might have been an evil landlord, but if Boycott could see just how successful his name became, he'd probably be a very sad, regretful, evil landlord. 8. Tawdry . The story of St. Audrey (also known as St. Etheldreda) is a classic example of how bad names happen to good people. St. Audrey was the daughter of the king of East Anglia (then the Norfolk section of Anglo-Saxon England), who lived a monastery-founding, self-abdicating life. But, when she died of the plague in 679, she was sporting a pretty nasty-looking tumor on her neck, which gossipmongers blamed on her penchant for wearing audacious necklaces in her youth. After her death, silk scarves called \"St. Audrey laces\" were sold in her honor at Ely's annual St. Audrey's Fair. Then the British tendency for dropping letters and syllables took over, and Audrey became \"tawdry.\" It was a short trip from there to the dictionary, and tawdry has been synonymous with gaudy ever since. 9. Chauvinism . Nicolas Chauvin was an early 19th--century French soldier who was so patriotic and nationalistic, he gave patriotism and nationalism a bad name -- or at least a new name. A slave to the cult of Napoleon, Chauvin shed his fair share of blood for the emperor. How did Napoleon show his appreciation? By giving Chauvin a ceremonial saber, a ribbon, and a pittance of a pension. Later, however, French dramatists began basing \u00fcber-patriotic characters on Chauvin, which paved the way for the soldier's ultimate reward: a dubious spot in the English language. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some awful words named after real people .\nTawdry named for St. Audrey who wore audacious necklaces .\nDraconian came from lawyer who wanted lazy put to death .\nGeneral Henry Shrapnel built more deadly cannonballs .","id":"72b396634cc46f29b5ef146a61073ee7e7fa3cdc"} -{"article":"CHARLESTON, South Carolina (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry on Thursday endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, saying the senator from Illinois is a \"candidate to bring change to our country.\" \"Barack Obama isn't just going to break the mold,\" said Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate four years ago. \"Together, we are going to shatter it into a million pieces.\" The senator from Massachusetts made the announcement in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Charleston, South Carolina, 16 days ahead of the state's Democratic primary. Kerry said he was stirred by the way Obama \"eloquently reminded us of the fact that our true genius is faith in simple dreams and insistence on small miracles.\" Watch Kerry explain why he's picking Obama \u00bb . The endorsement could be seen as a blow to former Sen. John Edwards, who was Kerry's running mate in the 2004 election. Edwards also is vying for the Democratic presidential nomination this year. The endorsement shouldn't come as a surprise to Edwards, who was publicly critical of Kerry's campaign after the earlier election. Following news of the endorsement, Edwards released a statement saying he respects Kerry's decision. \"When we were running against each other and on the same ticket, John and I agreed on many issues,\" Edwards said. \"I continue to believe that this election is about the future, not the past, and that the country needs a president who will fight aggressively to end the status quo and change the Washington system and to give voice to all of those whose voices are ignored in the corridors of power.\" Kerry made an oblique reference to the other candidates in the race \"with whom I have worked and who I respect\" in his speech Thursday. \"They are terrific public servants, and each of them could be president tomorrow, and each would fight to take this country in the right direction, but I believe that more than anyone else, Barack Obama can help our country turn the page and get America moving by uniting and ending the division that we have faced,\" he said. A source suggested senator's support for Obama will be a big boost because Kerry \"remains one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party and [has] an e-mail list with millions of addresses.\" In an e-mail sent to the JohnKerry.com community Thursday, the former presidential candidate said the next president of the United States \"can be, should be, and will be Barack Obama.\" A Kerry spokesman said Obama will be sending out a note to Kerry's e-mail list, which was created during the 2004 run and numbers 3 million. Obama on Wednesday picked up endorsements from two key unions in Nevada, which holds its caucuses January 19. Atlanta, Georgia, Mayor Shirley Franklin recently announced her endorsement of Obama, and sources said Thursday that Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota also would back the senator from Illinois. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Candy Crowley and Mark Preston contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Barack Obama will bring the country together, Sen. John Kerry says .\nKerry was the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 .\nJohn Edwards, also running for the '08 Democratic bid, was Kerry's running mate .\nObama picked up key endorsements from unions in Nevada this week .","id":"b9b09b290cdf4d74cb64684a6cae8b6832645607"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Those battling global warming by promoting biofuels may unintentionally be adding to skyrocketing world food prices, creating what one expert calls \"a silent tsunami\" in developing nations. The rising prices are \"threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger,\" Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations' World Food Program, said on the agency's Web site Tuesday. Sheeran is one of the experts attending a Food summit hosted Tuesday by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, aimed at determining ways to boost food supplies and identify deterrents. Also attending the meeting are scientists and representatives from the European Union and Africa. On the Web site, Sheeran said the increase in food prices is \"a silent tsunami that respects no borders.\" \"The world's misery index is rising ... as soaring food and fuel prices roll through the lives of the most vulnerable,\" she said Friday. The crisis is forcing the organization to look for cuts in aid to some of its recipients, she said. Soaring food prices have triggered violence in some developing countries, and biofuels are bearing at least part of the blame. Producing fuel from plant crops is supposed to be greener than drilling for oil, and biofuels generally burn cleaner, too. But the global biofuels industry now stands accused of a list of side effects that are said to be damaging lives, especially of the world's poorest people. \"The drive for more biofuels means more investment is going into those crops, meaning less land and less investment going in for food crops, causing a massive conflict and resulting in rising prices, which is having a huge negative impact, especially on developing countries,\" said Clare Oxborrow, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth. See why tortilla makers are blaming biofuel for increasing food prices \u00bb . Critics also say that in Africa, Asia and South America, people are being driven from their land and forests are being cleared to make room for the booming biofuel industry. The International Food Policy Research Institute says the use of cereals for industrial purposes like making biofuels has risen by a quarter since 2000. Brown said in an article posted on the 10 Downing Street Web site, \"We now know that biofuels intended to promote energy independence and combat climate change are frequently energy-inefficient. \"We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support. If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets,\" he said. \"We must also do more to explore the links between climate change and food, and particularly their impact on the livelihoods and vulnerability of the very poorest, who are likely to be most affected by climate change.\" The meeting he convened, Brown said, is a precursor to the G8 summit of industrial nations, to be held in July, and a special U.N. summit in September. He urged prompt action. \"With one child dying every five seconds from hunger-related causes, the time to act is now,\" Brown stressed. The World Health Organization views hunger as the No. 1 threat to public health around the world, responsible for a third of child deaths and 10 percent of all disease. Douglas Alexander, Britain's International Development secretary, announced Tuesday that Britain has set aside a 455 million-pound [$900 million] aid package to address the food crisis. His agency manages Britain's aid to poor countries with the goal of eliminating extreme poverty. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Phil Black contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prices mean 100 million people could go hungry, U.N. official says .\nSoaring food prices have triggered violence in some developing countries .\nExpert says focus on biofuels means less focus on food crop .\nWorld Health Organization views hunger as main threat to public health .","id":"9e49d58fa5ab7f3e4356cb61337605ac007c49ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gasoline prices set a record for the 16th consecutive day Wednesday. A gallon of gas cost an average of $3.62, according to AAA, and much more in some markets. Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister says a boost in U.S. production would startle the world market. All three presidential candidates have weighed in on the issue, and President Bush on Tuesday addressed it during a news conference. John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. division of Royal Dutch Shell, addressed rising gasoline prices during an interview Wednesday with John Roberts on CNN's \"American Morning.\" ROBERTS: What do you say to people who are in this budget crunch of trying to fill up the family car? HOFMEISTER: I say we need more gas to be produced in this country. I've been saying that for three years, ever since I took this position [as president of Shell]. If the U.S. set a goal to produce 2 to 3 million barrels more a day in this country, we would send a shock around the world that would immediately say to the speculators, hey, U.S. is serious. President [Bush] said something yesterday about this. I didn't hear him, but I think that's good news. But we should set a specific target. The presidential candidates should be out there on the postings saying let's increase domestic production by 2 to 3 million barrels a day. That would be something that would put money back into this country, jobs back into this country, and it would bring more supply toward the Americans who need it. ROBERTS: The president is advocating more drilling on U.S. territory. Isn't it true that globally we're starting to reach a peak in production and that within maybe a decade or two oil production will begin to decrease? HOFMEISTER: Well, I think there is some argument [that] with convenient, easy oil we will peak sometime in the next decade. I think Shell sees that coming, but in terms of total oil supply to the world, we're a long way from reaching peak oil because it doesn't take into account unconventional oil. I think the president brings up a good point in that we could, we have the available domestic supplies off the coast of Alaska as well as [the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge]. Shell has won $2 billion worth of high bids for the Chukchi Sea -- that's a few years off before we could begin production. But let's remember there's more than 100 billion barrels of untouched oil and gas in this country that is subject to a 30-year moratorium. Now, there's only one body in this country that can set a 30-year moratorium, and that's the U.S. government. ROBERTS: Sen. Hillary Clinton wants to slap you with a 50 percent tax on what she calls windfall profit, profit above a certain level. Is that a good idea? HOFMEISTER: Look at our revenues and our income for the last quarter. If we had made $7.8 million on $114 million of revenue, nobody would call that excessive, because that's 7\u00bd percent. We made $7.8 billion profit on $114 billion revenue -- same 7\u00bd percent. So to me that is not an excessive number when banks and pharmaceuticals and IT companies earn a whole lot more. Watch Hofmeister defend Shell's profits \u00bb . ROBERTS: Would it hurt you if she put in place this tax on the windfall profits? HOFMEISTER: Sure it would. It would slow down investment. Taxing the oil companies was tried in the '80s. It drove us to do imports, which is exactly the problem we have today. ROBERTS: Where is the top of all this? How high can the price of a barrel of oil go? How high will the cost of a gallon of gasoline go? HOFMEISTER: I heard somebody say the other day it's as long as a piece of string. We don't know. ROBERTS: The president of OPEC said $200 a barrel. HOFMEISTER: Yeah, well, there are some countries out there subsidizing the cost of their energy to their consumers and industries to compete with America -- or against America -- because they think America won't solve the problem. ROBERTS: You're saying you have no idea where the top is. HOFMEISTER: We don't know. But we should produce more oil in this country. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S. should produce 2 million to 3 million more barrels a day, says John Hofmeister .\nPlenty of oil waiting to be drilled by unconventional means, he says .\nShell's $7.8 billion profit not excessive, company president says .\nExecutive says he can't predict how high price of oil will go .","id":"47fe0e2bba8206014fb53a7d5247efd1e316e087"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's a neighborhood of shotgun houses painted a rainbow of colors, a community of artists, workaday folks and students where everyone knows everyone's name. Destruction in Atlanta's historic Cabbagetown district, which many artists call home. Saturday morning, people were out walking their dogs, sipping coffee and taking a look at who was hit the worst in Atlanta's Cabbagetown district. It appeared Friday night's 130 mph tornado had delivered its wrath randomly -- some houses were perfectly intact while others were flooded and smashed. \"It's a sad thing,\" said 56-year-old Bertha Wise, standing next to a splintered tree that had buried her car and blocked a side-door to her yellow and cobalt-blue house. A sign advertising her hand-crafted art, which she sells from her home, hung slightly askew. \"I was cooking dinner and the lights started to flicker,\" she said. \"There was no warning. My door flung open and papers went flying. By that time, there was nowhere to go.\" Without a basement, she hunkered down and hoped for the best. But Wise fared well compared with her neighbors in this historic neighborhood, which has gone from crime-ridden to cool in recent years. A few blocks down, a woman named Rebecca -- too distraught to speak with a reporter -- carried what belongings she had left out of her rental home, which had been split in half by a giant oak tree. Watch residents describe the storm's quick arrival \u00bb . She wasn't at home at the time, her landlord Mark Rogers told CNN, which was a good thing for her safety. But in the early morning hours, looters got there before she had and took almost everything. Looting was a problem throughout the neighborhood, many said. See photos of the damage \u00bb . A few doors down from her, Pastor Richard Davis stared up at the tire-size hole in the roof of his Eastside Christian Community Pentecostal Church. He has been preaching in its single room for 10 years. \"Yes...well, that is something isn't it?\" he said, then gestured to the church's bathroom -- a brick yellow outhouse. \"That's still here though. We'll be OK.\" He plans to give a sermon on Palm Sunday and ask his parishioners to pray hard that lack of insurance won't force him to close his doors. Steven and Laura Powell, thinking they were in store for a short lightning storm, were startled by the storm's quick escalation. They were frightened when they spotted the storm beginning to circulate in the distance from their tiny home, and rushed to scoop up their sleeping 5-week-old Audrey. Bundled in a soft pink onesie, Audrey was still sleeping Saturday morning as her parents walked the neighborhood, amazed that their home had not been damaged -- and that their daughter had snoozed through the entire ordeal. \"I just put myself on top of [Laura] and the baby and we got under the strongest beam in the house,\" said Steven Powell. \"I thought that if a tree came crashing through, I'd take the brunt of it.\" Cabbagetown's houses were built for the workers at the local Fulton Cotton Mill. The mill closed and the neighborhood slid into decay. The renaissance of Cabbagetown began when the mill buildings were converted to the trendy Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts and the artists and urban pioneers moved in. In addition to hitting the houses, Friday night's tornado seriously damaged the top floor of the lofts. Remarkably, nobody was hurt. Cabbagetown residents remember when the under-construction lofts survived a five-alarm fire in 1999 -- and say they plan to rebuild and survive this disaster as well. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some homes damaged, others unscathed in Atlanta's Cabbagetown district .\nThe community of shotgun-style homes is home to artists and students .\nNeighbors surveyed damage Saturday and offered help to each other .\nChurch is damaged, says pastor, but he plans to give Palm Sunday sermon .","id":"f54f84affaebd1d86011ad31adbf9fac4754a8f2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A member of the group dubbed the \"Jena 6\" is facing misdemeanor assault charges after a fight at his Texas high school Wednesday, police said Thursday. Bryant Purvis was arrested after a fight Wednesday at his Texas high school, police said. Bryant Purvis, 19, was arrested after the incident at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas. Carrollton police Sgt. John Singleton told CNN the altercation does not appear to be racially motivated. School officials contacted police about the fight Wednesday morning. An 18-year-old student told authorities two males approached him and asked if he had flattened the tires of \"their homeboy's\" car, according to an affidavit supporting the arrest warrant. The student said he didn't, but the two told him they didn't believe him and walked away. Purvis, he said, approached him from behind immediately afterward, then grabbed him with one hand and began to choke him. \"Purvis continued to choke [the student] and told him, 'Don't you ever mess with my car again,'\" the affidavit said. \"Purvis then pushed his head into the seating area of the bench,\" causing the student to strike his left eye, then walked away. The affidavit said that in a written statement, Purvis wrote, \"I walked over to him and grabbed him by his neck, then told him not to mess with my car anymore, then I left.\" Police reported the student had marks on his neck and bruising on his eye. A municipal judge set Purvis' bond at $1,000, and he was transferred to the Denton County Detention Facility, Singleton said. Purvis is one of six former students in Jena, Louisiana, accused of being involved in the beating of a white student. He initially was charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, but charges against him were reduced in November to second-degree aggravated battery. He is awaiting trial in that case. Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and the five others accused in the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker. After his arraignment in November, Purvis told reporters he had moved to another town to complete high school. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bryant Purvis, 19, is facing misdemeanor assault charges, police say .\nFight involving Jena 6 teen does not appear to be racially motivated, official says .\nPurvis allegedly choked a teen who he thought flattened friend's car tires .\nTeen, whose bond is $1,000, is still awaiting trial in the Jena 6 case .","id":"bc4992871e25e6584936af456ad4b819dcc52f27"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A group of Nigerian rebels who wrote a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, stating that they attacked two oil pipelines Monday, have asked for former President Jimmy Carter and actor George Clooney to help solve issues in the oil-rich Niger-delta. Military policemen patrol the creeks of the Omadino community in Warri South district of the Niger Delta. In a letter written by a group called Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, the group said they attacked two pipelines they believed are owned by Chevron Corp. and Shell oil. A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell said its pipeline was damaged last week. The attack will temporarily cut shipments by 169,000 barrels a day as workers try to repair the damage, the spokesman said. The pipeline is owned jointly by Shell and Nigerian, French and Italian oil companies, the spokesman said. Chevron spokesman Kurt Glaubitz told CNN that \"No Chevron pipelines have been vandalized in Nigeria.\" There was no immediate comment from the Nigerian government. In the letter the group called themselves \"commandos\" and stated that their aim was \"the crippling of the Nigerian oil export industry.\" Watch how Nigeria attacks help hike gas prices \u00bb . \"Today's attack was prompted by the continuous injustice in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria where the root issues have not been addressed by the illegal and insincere government,\" the letter stated. The letter stated that two other letters had been sent to Bush and also actor George Clooney, and the group also asked for President Jimmy Carter to help. Clooney is one of the United Nations' Messengers of Peace, and has campaigned for an end to the long-standing conflict in Darfur, as well as further humanitarian relief efforts in the region. Carter is currently in the Middle East, where he has met with the exiled militant Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal, on what he calls a \"study mission\" to support peace, democracy, and human rights in the region. \"MEND is prepared for talks and will prefer Ex President Jimmy Carter to mediate. Mr. Carter is not in denial as the rest of you who brand freedom fighters as terrorists,\" the letter stated. \"The ripple effect of this attack will touch your economy and people one way or the other and hope we now have your attention.\" The organization also said they attack was in response to one of the arrest of one of their members, Henry Okah, who was arrested last year and according to local reports, is charged with treason. Since late 2005, MEND militants have carried out numerous attacks on Nigeria's oil sector and abducted dozens of foreign workers, releasing nearly all of them unharmed. In the past the organization has said it had ratcheted up its attacks to redress what it says is the unequal distribution of the nation's oil wealth. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nigerian rebels write to U.S. President George W. Bush, say they attacked oil pipelines .\nAppeal for former U.S. President Carter, actor George Clooney to help mediate .\nGroup say they attacked two pipelines believed owned by Chevron Corp., Shell oil.\nAdds that their aim was \"the crippling of the Nigerian oil export industry\"","id":"271416bf0f15c52a4417339de78dcecf378b3950"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sin Hwa Dee began operations in the 1970s as a cottage industry in the former soya sauce-producing enclave of Kim Chuan Road, in the Paya Lebar area of Singapore. Mr. and Mrs. Chng Kee started out producing soya and oyster sauces, bean paste and plum paste in the 1970s. It was founded by the late Mr. Chng Kee, a former soya salesman, who ran the business with his wife, a soya production operator. Together they sold mainly soya and oyster sauces, bean paste and plum paste in bulk under the Sin Hwa Dee label to the restaurant, hotel and catering industries. In 1990, the company began producing the preserved fruits and vegetables used to make the traditional Lunar New Year dish of Yu Sheng. One of Sin Hwa Dee's factories is dedicated exclusively to the production of Yu Sheng products, while another factory produces noodles for the restaurant and catering industries. Mr. Chng's daughter Jocelyn first decided to introduce the company's products to the foreign market when she attended the SIAL exhibition in Paris in 1992, noting that there was a clear interest in Asian food. Sin Hwa Dee's first premix, the Laksa Paste, was launched into the food services market under the CHNG Kee's label in 1994, followed by the Kung Bo Sauce, the Black Pepper Sauce and their famous chicken rice mix. In 1996, the company invested heavily in equipment and technology to produce sauces and premixes in bottles for the retail market under the CHNG Kee's label. In 2005, Sin Hwa Dee moved into their own building, CHNG Kee's Foodlink, located in Senoko South Road, north of Singapore, with a production team of over 75 employees producing more than 20 tons of sauces per day. Today, their clientele includes Singapore Airlines, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, hotels such as the Ritz Carlton, Conrad International Centenniel, Raffles Hotel, Hilton Hotel, Marriott Hotel, and restaurants such as Lei Garden and Crystal Jade.","highlights":"Sin Hwa Dee founded by former soya salesman and soya production operator .\nOne of Sin Hwa Dee's factories dedicated exclusively to Yu Sheng products .\nIn 2005, Sin Hwa Dee moved into their own building, CHNG Kee's Foodlink .","id":"0add6b43e18072837f0bef41031d6f92f740d625"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Striking Hollywood writers will be back at their keyboards Wednesday after voting overwhelmingly to end a 100-day walkout that essentially shut down the entertainment industry. Writers Guild of America member Steven Binder shows his approval as he votes Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California. More than 92 percent of the Writers Guild of America members who cast ballots Tuesday in Los Angeles and New York voted to end their work stoppage over residuals for writing in the digital age, including new media and the Internet. The new deal is for three years. \"The strike is over. Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work,\" said Patric Verrone, president of the WGA's West chapter. Michael Winship, president of WGA's East guild, said, \"The success of this strike is a significant achievement not only for ourselves but the entire creative community, now and in the future.\" WGA members walked off the job November 5 after talks broke down over how writers are paid for the use of their material on the Internet and DVDs, among other issues. \"It is not all that we hoped for, and it is not all we deserve,\" Verrone said when a tentative deal was announced Saturday. But he added, \"This is the best deal this guild has bargained for in 30 years.\" Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press, \"At the end of the day, everybody won. \"It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry.\" The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents production companies and media conglomerates, has had no comment on the agreement. The vote meant that the Academy Awards ceremony on February 24 will be the usual scripted gala, the AP reported. \"I am ecstatic that the 80th Academy Awards presentation can now proceed full steam ahead,\" without \"hesitation or discomfort\" for the nominees, Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which stages the Oscars, told the AP. As long as the strike continued, the traditional Oscars spectacular was in doubt since many Hollywood stars would not cross WGA picket lines. It's unclear how soon new episodes of scripted programs will start appearing, because production won't begin until scripts are completed, the AP reported. It will take at least four weeks for producers to get the first post-strike episodes of comedies back on the air; dramas will take six to eight weeks, the AP said. Verrone said the WGA achieved two of three goals through negotiations with the studios. Watch Verrone explain what he thinks the strike accomplished \u00bb . The first goal relates to writers' \"jurisdiction\" in new media, Verrone said, meaning that any content written by guild members specifically for new media, such as the Internet or cell phones, will be covered by their contract. The second goal relates to reuse of content in new media, Verrone said. The agreement bases payment for reuses on a distributor's gross formula for residuals, \"so that when they get paid, we get paid,\" he said. It is the \"first time in our history that a new delivery system pays on a residual formula superior to the prior existing system,\" Verrone said. The third goal, which Verrone said the guild did not achieve, was to shore up writers' shares of the revenue from animation and reality television. \"Giving up animation and reality was a heartbreaking thing for me personally,\" he said. \"But it was more important that we make a deal that benefited the membership, the town as a whole, that got people back to work and that solved the biggest problems in new media.\" E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 92 percent of writers vote to end 100-day walkout and return to work .\nWriters Guild of America strike began November 5 .\nIssues in walkout included handling of writers' work for new media such as Internet .\nReport: February 24 Oscar show will go on as usual .","id":"7060e3feb685bda7b5102e1cc8e9b35da37ca2a1"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Senior Vatican Analyst John L. Allen Jr. is following the pope during his U.S. trip. Pope Benedict XVI asked pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on Sunday to pray for the success of his U.S. trip. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The official motto of Pope Benedict XVI's April 15-20 visit to the United States, the first of his papacy, is \"Christ our Hope.\" Based on the frequency with which papal spokespersons have struck a different note, however, its unofficial motto might well be, \"This is not a political event.\" Here's a typical example from early April: \"The pope is not coming to get mixed up in the local political process,\" said Italian Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the pope's ambassador to America, in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. \"His presence is about something more universal and, at the same time, more personal.\" Fear that Benedict's visit might be read through the lens of party politics reflects a key fact of electoral life in America: The \"Catholic vote\" matters. To take the most obvious example, if a few heavily Catholic counties in Ohio had gone the other way in 2004, pundits would today be handicapping the re-election of President John Kerry. America's almost 70 million Catholics, representing a quarter of the country's population, are diverse and divided. They don't all agree with official church positions, and although Catholics were once reliable Democrats, today they're not clearly aligned with either party. That's a key reason why states with large Catholic populations, such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, are considered crucial battlegrounds. Already in the 2008 race, Catholics have made themselves felt. On the Democratic side, they're the biggest single reason Sen. Hillary Clinton is still afloat. So far, the more Catholic a state, the better Clinton has done. With her back to the wall not long ago in Ohio and Texas, Clinton decisively outpolled Sen. Barack Obama among Catholic Democrats. In Ohio, Clinton won the Catholic vote by a margin of 63 percent to 36, while in Texas it was 62 percent to 38. Clinton is now hoping that Catholics will come through for her again in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary. The state's 3.87 million Catholics represent more than 30 percent of the population, and Clinton is clinging to a lead despite Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey's endorsement of Obama. Casey is a hero to pro-life Catholic Democrats, and his backing is apparently helping Obama narrow the gap. Clinton does better than Obama among Latinos, who are disproportionately Catholic. She's also winning Catholic \"Reagan Democrats,\" meaning socially conservative blue-collar voters. Obama's recent gaffe, telling a crowd in San Francisco, California, that small-town Americans were \"clinging to guns or religion\" out of economic frustration, may help cement that advantage. Once the Democrats settle on a candidate, the Catholic vote seems wide open in November. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, appeals to many Catholics because he's pro-life and has a moderate stance on immigration. Yet his willingness to remain in Iraq for \"100 years\" is at odds with the church's opposition to the war. Either Clinton or Obama could make a strong appeal to Catholics on peace-and-justice issues, yet both are out of sync with Catholic teaching on issues such as abortion, stem-cell research and gay rights. Both sides are expected to court Catholics aggressively. The McCain campaign recently formed a \"National Catholics for McCain Committee\" led by former Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, along with a \"who's who\" of prominent Catholic conservatives. Obama has his own \"National Catholic Advisory Council,\" led by Casey and former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer, both pro-life Democrats. Clinton likewise has top-drawer Catholic advisers. Pope Benedict's trip is unlikely to offer a decisive boost to either side. He'll probably strike pro-life notes that Republicans can exploit, but he'll also likely accent peace, concern for the poor and the environment, issues that generally skew to the Democrats. Watch as CNN's Rosemary Church speaks with Vatican analyst John Allen about the pope's visit \u00bb . Any political fallout may thus depend on what happens to the pope's message once it's swept up into the sausage grinder of American spin. Benedict XVI usually speaks not in sound bites but in carefully crafted paragraphs, which sometimes leaves the door ajar for competing explanations of what he really means. One can expect a \"war for the microphone\" among Republican and Democratic operatives, each looking to exploit pieces of the pope's message. In a tight race, movement of even a few percentage points among Catholics could be decisive. One sign the Democrats understand what's at stake is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has arranged an April 16 conference call with reporters to comment on Benedict's trip -- in effect, not wanting President Bush, and by extension the Republicans, to claim a monopoly on the pope. All this makes the political implications of the pope's presence difficult to anticipate. The best advice boils down to that classic broadcast clich\u00e9: \"Stay tuned!\" E-mail to a friend . John L. Allen Jr. is CNN's senior Vatican analyst and a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.","highlights":"Papal representatives stress Benedict's U.S. trip is \"not a political event\"\nBut Catholic vote still matters in U.S. politics, as 2004's close Ohio vote showed .\nObama's \"guns and religion\" gaffe may help Clinton with blue-collar Catholics .\nOnce Democrats settle on a candidate, Catholic vote seems wide open in November .","id":"04fbd3088e8610dd4d5bea709e7cc5ee3e53710d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canada's House of Commons voted Thursday to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan until 2011, with the stipulation that NATO send reinforcements to the volatile Kandahar province. Canadian soldiers walk along a track at the Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan last month. Most of Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are in Kandahar as part of the NATO-led mission to stabilize the war-torn country. Their presence has sparked controversy in Canada, with the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party calling for an immediate troop withdrawal. Supporters of the mission argued that Canadians have made progress in providing schools, health care and clean water for thousands of Afghans. They said the improving conditions would be impossible without troops ensuring a secure environment for aid workers and local residents. \"The military needs to be there,\" said Harold Albrecht, a conservative member of Parliament. \"The military provides the civil order we would expect from police here.\" The Canadian mission in Afghanistan was to end next February. It has claimed the lives of 80 soldiers and a diplomat, according to The Associated Press. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has endorsed a panel's recommendation to keep troops in place only if another NATO nation dispatches additional troops to Kandahar. Canada wants a minimum of 1,000 reinforcements, The Globe and Mail reported. Thursday's motion, passed with a 198-77 vote, brought Harper's Conservative party and the opposition Liberals together on the issue. Other parties, however, noted that the cost of maintaining a troop presence in Afghanistan has not been disclosed to Parliament or the public. \"We must provide clarity to the Canadian people,\" said Nathan Cullen of the New Democratic Party. \"We believe it to be wrong for our country.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Troops to stay until 2011, with the stipulation that NATO contribute more forces .\nMost of Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are in Kandahar province .\nThe Canadian mission in Afghanistan was to end next February .\nCritics say the cost has not been disclosed to Parliament or the public .","id":"b198f0356c0f0cb09aba4d7d5541dd7c5ce91678"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Some drivers would say that the United States is a crazy quilt of speed limits, with an emphasis on the \"crazy.\" A sign indicating the highest speed limit in the country stands by Interstate 10 outside of the West Texas town of El Paso. Since 1995, states have been free to set their own maximum speed limits, leading to long debates on safety standards. To some folks, the speed limits are just insane -- either too low or too high, depending on their views about what makes driving safe. Advocates of low speed limits won't find much to like about Texas. True to its frontier roots, it stands out as the land of the fast getaway. The top rural speed limit is normally 70 mph, but in 2006 it set a maximum daytime speed of 80 miles per hour, the highest speed limit on the country, on more than 500 miles of rural interstate in its southwest corner. This includes parts of Interstate 10 between Kerrville and El Paso and of I-20 between Monahans and the I-10 interchange. The speed limit for rural roads in Montana is 75 mph. As a result, it takes just three hours to travel the 228 miles from Billings to Butte at the posted speed. But that's much slower than a Montana driver could have made the trip in early 1999. At that time there was a six-month speeders' honeymoon when the state had almost no control over rural speeds, partly as a result of an unfavorable court ruling. St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands is at or near the other end of the spectrum. In the U.S. territory the speed limit is 20 mph in the city and 30 out in the country. When it comes to accident rates, though, you would be far better off on a Montana interstate than competing with the island's frenetic drivers on the way to Paradise Point. Nationwide, maximum speeds range from 60 miles per hour in Hawaii to 75 in most of the West. Meanwhile, much of the eastern Midwest and the Northeast has opted for maximum speeds of 65 mph, although Michigan and Indiana chose the 70 mph standard more common to the South and the Great Plains states. So if you are cruising west along I-90 out of Ohio, you can enjoy the increase in speed across 150 miles of Indiana before Illinois' lower speed limit -- or its state police -- reins you in. As you continue west, interstate speed limits bump up to 70 in Iowa, and then you can maintain a steady 75 from Nebraska through to the California line, where interstate speeds drop off to 70 again. Should you choose to detour into Oregon, you're back down to 65. From a highway safety standpoint, the patchwork of speed limits at least seems to make sense. Speeds are slower in more populous Eastern states and faster in the wide-open West, although the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety argues that some of the new, higher speed limits out West and elsewhere are costing lives. It estimates that deaths on interstates and freeways have increased 15 percent due to the higher speed limits. But some researchers are skeptical about the link between accidents and high speeds on rural highways, if not on city streets and rural two-lanes. They point to the lower fatality rates on European highways, even though the speeds are generally higher. The maximum legal speed is roughly 80 mph in Poland, Austria, France and a few other countries. There is no speed limit on much of Germany's autobahn, although some sections are restricted to about 80 mph or less. Ironically, the new regime of U.S. speed limits has helped researchers make sense of whether higher rural speed limits are dangerous. Political scientist Robert Yowell, a professor at Northeast Lakeview College in Texas, examined what happened after states began setting higher rural speed limits in 1995. With the federal 65 mph limit gone, it was possible to compare the accident rates before and after the new limits went into effect. The results were clear: \"By and large, across the 50 states, there was no discernible effect from the higher limits,\" Yowell said. \"Two or three states actually had a decrease in fatalities.\" Once speed limits are raised on interstates, drivers are more likely to get off the more dangerous two lanes and use the faster routes, Yowell said. Furthermore, the motorists traveling the fastest on the higher-speed interstates tend to be good at that kind of driving. The less competent drivers at high speeds tend to drive more slowly. While Yowell admits most states are well-intentioned, he's \"not willing to accept that speed limits are solely a function of safety,\" he said. \"They are a function of revenue generation as well. There have been cases of judges saying communities have to raise their speed limits because they were obviously being used to raise revenues and that's not a proper use of the law.\" In part, Yowell looks to differences in political cultures to explain the great continental divide in speed limits. \"It may be that certain states have a different approach to questions involving personal liberty versus collective safety,\" he said. His research doesn't surprise Jim Baxter, president of the Waunakee, Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association. His organization had lobbied heavily for an end to the federal limits. Baxter's rule of thumb for computing the right speed limit is the traffic engineering standard known as the 85th percentile speed. That's the speed that 85 percent of motorists drive at or below. But it tends to be well above the speed limits that most jurisdictions set. With the speed limit set at that level, traffic tends to move smoothly, reducing the risk of accidents, Baxter said. If you put the limit below that speed, some vehicles are traveling far more slowly than the fastest drivers, creating the most dangerous conditions of all. Baxter argues that most drivers naturally tend to drive at speeds that suit the road conditions and their driving skills. St. Thomas is a case in point, albeit an extreme one. With its congestion and rugged terrain, the island is bereft of performance cars; many of the vehicles are older pickups, aging Japanese compacts and SUVs. The treacherous conditions restrict speeds far more effectively than any local law. As Joe Aubain, executive director of the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce, puts it, \"Even if you wanted to go a whole lot faster, you couldn't,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S. drivers face patchwork of speed limits across the nation .\nParts of Texas have speed limits of 80 miles per hour .\nSome researchers skeptical of link between accidents, high speeds .","id":"0f60442453e038c6bbe3aa525bedf2a97f459e04"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- His name is \"Average\" and the story of his desperate flight from the wreckage of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is an increasingly common one. Math teacher Mawise Gumba fled Zimbabwe and found his qualifications mean little as a refugee. The tall 34-year-old, slouching exhausted in a Johannesburg church that has become a de facto transit camp, is one man in a tide of migrants washing up in South Africa. \"There is nothing for me there in our country any more. I had no job and I could not afford anything. Even when I was working life was tough,\" he said. \"It's hard for everyone ... I thought it was better for me here,\" said the former store clerk, whose dusty jeans and boots tell of a long and difficult journey. The tale told by Average -- whose name is not unusual in Zimbabwe -- is depressingly familiar to a people who have watched their once prosperous land spiral into economic disaster. When Mugabe's government, facing inflation of close to 5,000 percent, ordered companies to halve prices of basic goods and services a month ago -- effectively demanding that they operate at a loss -- Average lost his job as the supermarket chain he worked for cut staff. Facing the prospect of homelessness and hunger in his own country, he joined the estimated 4,000 Zimbabweans who head south to South Africa, most of them illegally, every day. Mugabe, 83 and in power since the country's independence from Britain in 1980, has been accused of running Zimbabwe's economy into the ground while implementing a draconian crackdown aimed at keeping power. His decision to launch violent seizures of white-owned farms seven years ago is partly blamed for soaring unemployment and the highest inflation rate in the world. Average scraped together his last salary, some money he made from trading sugar bought at a discount from the supermarket where he worked, and funds borrowed from friends to secure a visitor's visa and bus ticket to Johannesburg. A friend who promised to meet him on arrival failed to show up, leaving him stranded without a place to sleep. On Wednesday evening he walked into the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg and joined a long queue of people waiting for shelter and food. The church's homeless shelter has become a virtual refugee camp for 800-900 Zimbabweans and a smaller number of migrants from other countries. \"Over the past three years, and more so over the past couple of months, I have noted an exponential increase in the number of people we have from Zimbabwe,\" Bishop Paul Verryn said. Outside his office the line of people waiting for help grew. Many of the new arrivals were asleep in their seats. \"We offer them a place off the streets, where they are protected and have warmth from the inclement streets of Johannesburg,\" Verryn said. At sunset the refugees crowd into the building and lay out reeking blankets. \"People just sleep anywhere they can find a space to sleep. Some people sleep on the steps here, in the corridors and others in the foyer and in the meeting rooms,\" said 27-year-old Walter Rusike from Harare. The commerce graduate and his wife and two children share a meeting room with other families and have been at the shelter for four months. Average said he hoped to get accommodation for a few days until he finds his friend, work or both. \"I have a diploma in stores management and store control, a certificate in security and a driver's licence. I think maybe I will be able to find some work with my qualifications. Anything will be better than the situation I was in,\" he says. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"His name is \"Average,\" he fled wreckage of President Mugabe's Zimbabwe .\nOne of the 4,000 who flee hunger, homelessness into South Africa a day .\nOnce-prosperous nation now an economic disaster with 5,000 percent inflation .","id":"79b423b90af6b3381ebfa34a7382ca472bdb5b35"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three U.S. soldiers were killed and 31 others wounded in two rocket attacks Sunday afternoon in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Mehdi Army militiamen celebrate after attacking an Iraqi Army vehicle in Baghdad's Sadr City on Sunday. Earlier Sunday, fighting between U.S. troops and the Mehdi Army militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr left at least 20 dead and 52 wounded in Baghdad's Sadr City, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. The U.S. military said it had no information about the Sadr City fighting. Sunday's violence came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded al-Sadr disband his Mehdi Army and threatened to bar al-Sadr's followers from the political process if the cleric refused. Watch a report from the front line in Sadr City \u00bb . \"A decision was taken yesterday that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army,\" al-Maliki said. Sunday's American fatalities bring the death toll of U.S. troops in the Iraq war to 4,022; that toll includes eight civilian contractors working for the Pentagon. Nearly 30,000 others have been wounded in action. An attack involving a \"couple of rounds\" of fire on the International Zone, also known as the Green Zone, killed two soldiers and wounded 17 others about 3:30 p.m., a military official said, declining to give the specific location of the attack for security reasons. A separate attack about 30 minutes earlier killed one soldier and wounded 14 at a U.S. military outpost in Rustamiya in southeastern Baghdad, the military said. Responding to al-Maliki's comments, a spokesman for al-Sadr, Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, said that any effort to bar Sadrists from participation in politics would be unconstitutional -- and that any decision to disband the Mehdi Army is not the government's to make. \"It is up to the side that established it,\" he said. Al-Maliki spoke in an exclusive interview with CNN after a weeklong military offensive against what Iraqi officials called gangs and militia members in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Hundreds were killed or wounded in the fighting across Iraq, which reportedly ended when Iranian and Iraqi Shiite officials held talks in Iran with al-Sadr. Asked about Iran's role in ending the Basra conflict, al-Maliki attributed the cease-fire to the work of his security forces. Haidar al-Abadi, an Iraqi lawmaker who belongs to al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said last week that Iranian officials participated in the discussions, and another source close to the talks said the Iranians pressured al-Sadr to craft an agreement. \"I am not aware of such an attempt,\" al-Maliki said Sunday. \"What happened on the ground and the breakdown in the structure of this militia is what made Muqtada al-Sadr issue his statement to withdraw his militants from the streets. What happened was something to save Muqtada, not to help us.\" Watch al-Maliki talk about issues that concern Iraq \u00bb . In northern Iraq, security forces detained a suspect Sunday and were searching for others in connection with the kidnapping of 42 college students, authorities said. Gunmen seized the male students in northern Iraq before releasing them several hours later, according to a military spokesman and police in Nineveh province. None was harmed, according to the U.S. military. Gunmen stopped two buses loaded with students who were on their way to college, but one bus managed to escape, police said. Four students on the bus that escaped were wounded by gunfire, police said. Students on the other bus were released Sunday afternoon after coalition military forces spotted the bus during an air patrol on the western outskirts of Mosul, according to a U.S. military news release. The kidnappers fled the vehicle after it was stopped, according to a military press release. Other developments . \u2022 A Christian priest was shot and killed in eastern Baghdad's Wihda neighborhood around noon Saturday, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. The priest was identified as Father Yousif Adel. He belonged to St. Peter and Paul's Assyrian Orthodox Church. \u2022 At least two people were killed Saturday and 16 others wounded when a bomb exploded in a minibus in eastern Baghdad's Beirut Square, the official said. \u2022 President Bush is planning to address the nation Thursday morning about the Iraq war, sources said. Bush is expected to address the administration's decision to reduce combat tours of duty from 15 months to 12 months, Republican and Democratic sources said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Nic Robertson, Jomana Karadsheh and Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rocket attacks kill 3 U.S. troops, wound 31 .\nPrime minister to ban Sadrists from politics if Mehdi Army not disbanded .\nOne arrested in kidnapping of a busload of college students, police say .\nInterior Ministry official says militia fighting U.S. troops in Sadr City .","id":"3e5a3a2dddee7ebebe57c12d0ace97a24cbabd72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama defended himself and his wife Sunday against suggestions that they are insufficiently patriotic. Sen. Barack Obama defended himself and his wife against recent suggestions that they are not patriotic. After a town hall meeting in Lorain, Ohio, a reporter asked Obama about \"an attempt by conservatives and Republicans to paint you as unpatriotic.\" The reporter cited the fact that Obama once failed to put his hand over his heart while singing the national anthem. Obama replied that his choice not to put his hand on his heart is a behavior that \"would disqualify about three-quarters of the people who have ever gone to a football game or baseball game.\" The reporter also noted that the Illinois senator does not wear an American flag lapel pin, has met with former members of the radical anti-Vietnam War group, Weather Underground, and his wife was quoted recently as saying she never felt really proud of the United States until recently. Asked how he would fight the image of being unpatriotic, Obama said, \"There's always some nonsense going on in general elections. Right? If it wasn't this, it would be something else. If you recall, first it was my name. Right? That was a problem. And then there was the Muslim e-mail thing and that hasn't worked out so well, and now it's the patriotism thing. \"The way I will respond to it is with the truth: that I owe everything I am to this country,\" he said. The first-term senator from Illinois has been the subject of various debunked rumors since launching his presidential campaign -- allegations that he is a Muslim, that he took his oath of office on a copy of the Quran and that he attended a radical Islamic school while living in Indonesia as a boy. \"You will recall that the reason I came to national attention was a speech in which I spoke of my love of this country,\" said Obama. He and his wife, Michelle, had already explained her comments. \"She simply misspoke,\" he said. \"What she was referring to was [that] this was the first time she has been proud of politics in America. Watch what Michelle Obama said \u00bb . \"That's true of a lot of people who have been cynical and disenchanted. And she's spoken about how she has been cynical about American politics for a very long time, but she's proud of how people are participating and getting involved in ways that they haven't in a very long time.\" About not wearing an American flag lapel pin, Obama said Republicans have no lock on patriotism. \"A party that presided over a war in which our troops did not get the body armor they needed, or were sending troops over who were untrained because of poor planning, or are not fulfilling the veterans' benefits that these troops need when they come home, or are undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary? \"That is a debate I am very happy to have. We'll see what the American people think is the true definition of patriotism.\" Obama did not respond to the question about the Weather Underground, a group whose members bombed the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon during the 1970s. Last week, the New York Sun reported that as an Illinois state senator in 2001, Obama accepted a $200 contribution from William Ayers, a founder of the group who was not convicted for the bombings and now works as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But the paper said that, in a statement, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, William Burton, said, \"Sen. Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence ... But he was an 8-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost 40 years ago is ridiculous.\" Former first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton has said repeatedly that she is a stronger candidate because she has already shown she can withstand conservative attacks. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Obama responds to question about attempts to paint him as unpatriotic .\nObama cited for not wearing American flag lapel pin, among other things .\nObama: \"There's always some nonsense going on in general elections\"\nClinton has said she has shown she can withstand conservative attacks .","id":"c623e4914c04811d354fa137e3bf7a00980ef7d7"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Six Italian men were shot dead in the German city of Duisburg on Wednesday in an execution-style killing linked to a mafia feud. Police remove a body from the scene. Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the shootings appeared to be linked to a feud between two mafia clans in the southern region of Calabria, home to the 'Ndrangheta organized crime group. Here are some key facts about the group: . ORIGINS: . -- The Calabrian \"Honored Society\", known as \"'Ndrangheta\", in the Calabria region of south Italy is the equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia. -- 'Ndrangheta began as a defense network for impoverished rural peasants against aristocratic landlords. Members emigrated to Canada and the United States, and were discovered running an intimidation scheme in Pennsylvania mining towns in 1906. HOW DOES IT WORK? -- They are known as \"The Honored Society\", Fibbia or Calabrian mafia. Instead of the pyramid structure of bosses used by other mafia, The 'Ndrangheta\" uses families based on blood relationships, inter-marriages, or being a Godfather. Each group is named after their village, or after the family leader. TWENTIETH CENTURY EXPANSION: . -- When Calabria began the process of industrialization and urbanization in the late 20th century, the 'Ndrangheta became interested in drug trafficking, weapons sales and public works and construction. THE PRESENT: . -- In 2004, authorities uncovered an international drugs trafficking network involving gangs in South America, Australia, and Europe. Drugs from Colombia were destined for countries such as Greece and Bulgaria. -- Italian officials estimated at the time that 80 percent of Europe's cocaine had arrived from Colombia via Gioia Tauro's docks in Reggio Calabria. -- Italian anti-organized crime agencies have estimated that the 'NDrangheta earns about $30 billion annually, mostly from illegal drugs, but also from ostensibly legal businesses such as construction, restaurants and supermarkets. -- There are believed to be about 100 'Ndrangheta families in Calabria, who have become more successful than their Sicilian counterparts because their family ties are closer. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Six young Italians found shot in the head in western German city of Duisburg .\nFive were dead when authorities arrived, one died later .\nThe victims were between 16 and 39 years old, police say .\nPolice believe the killings may be linked to organized crime in Italy .","id":"d5ef1fb6f2df20e46fb032b9e318bc8555283e78"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An elementary school at the center of a civil rights battle, a hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and a hangar that once housed U.S. Navy dirigibles are on this year's National Trust for Historic Preservation's endangered list. Sumner was the centerpiece of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. The 11 sites represent the country's architectural, cultural and natural heritage, and \"reflect extraordinary periods of American history,\" National Trust Director Richard Moe said. The sites were chosen from about 70 nominees by the member-supported nonprofit group. Founded in 1949, it aims to protect significant buildings and locales, now protected under the 1966 Historic Preservation Act. Of the roughly 200 places listed by the organization in the past 20 years, the National Trust says only six have been lost. Moe said the list is designed to raise awareness. \"The 11 represent the different kinds of historic places in different parts of the country. It's a representative list,\" said Moe, who leads the organization of nearly 300,000 members. Endangerment doesn't necessarily mean the building is in the potential path of a bulldozer, according to Moe. Lack of funding can be just as serious, as the case of the California state parks demonstrates. The sites are listed in alphabetical order: . Boyd Theater, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Art Deco movie palace known as the Sameric was closed in 2002 and is for sale. A local group, Friends of the Boyd, is trying to save the 1928 theater, the last of its kind in Philadelphia. Only a few elaborate theaters from that era have survived, and the Boyd was the only one built in the downtown area. Moe said a \"sympathetic developer\" could restore the theater. California's park system The largest state park system in the United States suffers from chronic underfunding, including $1.2 billion worth of deferred maintenance, the National Trust said. The problem is worsening because of California's budget crisis. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger submitted a budget proposal this year that would have closed 48 parks, but the National Trust said the revised budget restored $11.8 million of the $13.3 million in cuts he requested. Current funds cover only 40 percent of maintenance and operations, which means irreplaceable historic and cultural resources remain endangered, the National Trust said. The system includes 278 parks, 1.5 million acres and 295 miles of ocean front. Many parks house historic buildings such as the 1820s-era Franciscan La Purisima Mission complex near Lompoc. Charity Hospital and adjacent neighborhood, New Orleans, Louisiana Charity Hospital, once the main trauma center for southeastern Louisiana, was closed after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005. The building was declared unsalvageable, according to Donald R. Smithburg, chief executive of Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division, which operates university hospitals. There are plans to demolish nearly 200 homes in the Mid-City neighborhood to accommodate construction of two new hospitals. Alternate locations for the new hospitals are available, and Charity Hospital could be rehabilitated, according to the National Trust. Great Falls Portage, Great Falls, Montana This National Historic Landmark is one of the best-preserved landscapes along the Lewis and Clark Trail, but a massive coal-fired power plant is planned in the area. \"Development abutting the Great Falls Portage, an undeveloped rural area under panoramic blue Montana skies, will irreparably harm the cultural and visual landscape,\" the National Trust said . Hangar One, Moffett Field, Santa Clara County, California The hangar was built in 1932 to house U.S. Navy dirigibles. It is a cavernous, 200-foot-tall, dome-shaped structure sitting on more than 8 acres. A 2003 inspection revealed carcinogenic PCBs leaking from the hangar's metallic exterior, the National Trust said. PCBs were widely used in electrical transformers. The Navy transferred Hangar One to NASA in 1992. Although the Navy remains responsible for environmental remediation, it is not required to preserve the building. Lower East Side, New York The Lower East Side in southeast Manhattan was home for immigrants and the working class in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it is becoming gentrified. Development threatens historic churches, theaters, schools and tenements, \"a unique architectural type which, by the sheer numbers who lived in such a building, had an impact on more Americans than any other form of urban housing,\" the National Trust said. Michigan Avenue Streetwall, Chicago, Illinois This 12-block stretch of historic buildings along Michigan Avenue between 11th and Randolph Streets dates back to the early 1880s. The streetwall is a collection of notable buildings by architects including Adler & Sullivan, Louis Sullivan, D. H. Burnham and Holabird & Roche, the National Trust said. Although the stretch was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2002, the National Trust says its historic character is threatened by the inappropriate addition of large-scale towers that retain only small portions of the original buildings or their facades. Peace Bridge Neighborhood, Buffalo, New York The bridge and neighborhood, which has homes and buildings dating to the 1850s, includes two parks on the National Register of Historic Places that are part of Frederick Law Olmsted's park system. The Public Bridge Authority proposes to expand the bridge and build a 45-acre plaza that would destroy more than 100 homes and businesses, many of which are eligible for inclusion on the National Register, the National Trust said. According to the organization, the PBA has refused to \"properly consider\" other sites. The Statler Hilton Hotel, Dallas, Texas When the Statler Hilton opened in downtown Dallas in 1956, it was considered the most modern hotel in the country. Today, the vacant building sits on a desirable parcel of real estate. The Statler Hilton faces pressure from encroaching development that may lead to demolition. The National Trust says a sympathetic developer is needed to restore and reopen the hotel. Sumner Elementary School, Topeka, Kansas Sumner was the centerpiece of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. The court's decision that \"separate educational facilities are inherently unequal\" helped launch the civil rights movement by declaring school segregation unconstitutional. Vizcaya and the Bonnet House, Florida The development of out-of-scale buildings and corresponding zoning changes will ruin the vistas surrounding Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami and the Bonnet House Museum and Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, the National Trust said. Such development could set a precedent for high-rise structures, it added.","highlights":"National Trust for Historic Preservation releases list of 11 endangered sites .\nList includes urban neighborhoods threatened by development, gentrification .\nSchool at center of Brown v. Board of Education makes list .\nThe National Trust hopes the list will draw awareness to the endangered sites .","id":"e1a36c50adadc5db9ffe6fd2c5e275d522902193"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Panama City Beach, Florida, police are looking for a hotel security guard accused of raping an Alabama student and throwing her off a sixth-floor hotel balcony, a police spokesman told CNN. Police released this photo of Shawn Wuertly, who worked as a hotel security guard in Panama City Beach, Florida. The 18-year-old woman from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, remains hospitalized, but her injuries are not life-threatening, Lt. Dave Humphreys said. The incident happened early Monday at the Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort in Panama City Beach during spring break. Police have issued an arrest warrant for Shawn Wuertly, 29, who worked as a security guard at the resort, Humphreys said. He is wanted for attempted felony murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment. Wuertly had been questioned by police regarding the attack, but they lacked the evidence to hold him, the spokesman said. The police investigation has found that the suspect had seen the girl \"several times\" at the hotel and had \"taken a liking to her at some point,\" Humphreys said. Around 1 a.m. on Monday, the suspect grabbed the woman and pulled her into an unoccupied room on the sixth floor, using his key to get in, Humphreys said. She said he sexually assaulted her and, after a brief altercation, threw her over the balcony, the police spokesman said. She hit two smaller roofs on her way down, which likely saved her from more serious injuries, before she came to rest in a second floor stairwell, Humphreys said. After his initial questioning, Wuertly told police he was leaving for Tennessee and would return on Wednesday. Wuertly has an outstanding arrest warrant, something that police did not discover until after he was released. \"Obviously no one checked his warrants because he has an outstanding warrant in Indiana,\" Humphrey said, noting that police are \"not happy and will address that.\" CNN's calls to the hotel's manager regarding Wuertly's outstanding warrant were not returned. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police in Panama City Beach, Florida, looking for hotel security guard Shawn Wuertly .\nHe's suspected of raping teen staying at hotel, tossing her from 6th-floor balcony .\nVictim remains hospitalized; injuries not life-threatening, police say .\nWuertly was questioned by police earlier, released for lack of evidence .","id":"bad69c9a3c7d84a4717705a3063dd7367243772b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former ABC News chief national security correspondent John McWethy died from injuries in a Colorado skiing accident, a coroner said Thursday. John McWethy, right, shares a laugh in 2002 with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington. A witness said McWethy, 61, was skiing fast on an intermediate trail Wednesday at Keystone Ski Resort when he lost control and slammed into a tree, said Joanne L. Richardson, the Summit County, Colorado, coroner. McWethy died while being treated for blunt-force injuries at Summit Medical Center, Richardson said. \"He just missed a turn and slid sideways is what we're surmising,\" she told CNN. McWethy was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, she said. With his wife, Laurie, McWethy recently had moved to Boulder after nearly 30 years as an ABC News correspondent, so he could enjoy Colorado's ski trails, according to a statement from ABC News President David Westin. \"He was doing something that he truly loved,\" Weston said. \"But he deserved many more years doing it than he was given.\" Friends and former colleagues described McWethy as an outstanding reporter who also cherished life outside work. \"He always knew without exception what so many in the powerful business of TV news fail to learn until it's too late: In the end, all we have is our families and our friends and our self-respect as news reporters,\" said CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, who worked as a producer with McWethy for three years. Both Starr and former CNN producer Chris Plante admired McWethy's coolheaded reporting from the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, when a hijacked airliner punched a huge, fiery hole in the building's massive facade. \"He was unflappable even in the most extreme situations because he was always centered by his love for his family and the knowledge that the television news business and all of this Washington hoo-ha was not 'real life,' \" Plante said. \"Unlike so many, he really did have a handle on what life was for. And the last moments of his life are proof of that.\" College classmate Bob Steele wrote about McWethy's \"mighty\" skepticism of authority in an article published online for the Poynter Institute. While they attended Depauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, Steele said McWethy \"challenged the University President and his policies. He protested against the Vietnam War.\" Steele wrote that McWethy considered \"why\" to be \"the most powerful word in the English language.\" Len Ackland of the University of Colorado's Center for Environmental Journalism told The Denver Post that his longtime friend \"was a very humble guy.\" Ackland told the paper that McWethy \"didn't talk about himself much. He was the kind of journalist who didn't want to be out front. It was always about the story, not about him. He was the kind of guy you enjoyed sitting down to have a beer with.\" McWethy left behind two sons, Adam, 28, and Ian, 24, according to the Post. His wife, who was with McWethy at the time of the accident, told the Post her husband was a good skier who enjoyed living in Colorado. \"He loved it here,\" she told the paper. \"I think he loved the beauty of its nature, the open spaces, the wildlife, everything.\" In his statement, Westin said, \"He was one of those very rare reporters who knew his beat better than anyone, and had developed more sources than anyone, and yet, kept his objectivity.\" After working as a reporter for U.S. News & World Report, McWethy joined ABC News in 1979, going on to cover conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo and Liberia, according to the ABC News Web site. McWethy was the network's primary reporter assigned to Secretaries of State James Baker, George Shultz, Warren Christopher and Lawrence Eagleburger, ABC said, and he had traveled to more than 50 countries. McWethy was honored with at least five national Emmys during his time at ABC and also received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and an Overseas Press Club Award, according to ABC News' Web site. \"For three years I watched one of the finest news reporters do what so many in television still cannot do to this day: be a reporter first, foremost and always,\" Starr said. Colleagues said he'll be missed. \"Everyone that knew Jack is trading stories today,\" Plante said. \"There is nothing but a sense of unambiguous loss on the part of all of his friends, colleagues, competitors and even the uniformed military officers that he covered as a reporter.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ex-ABC News reporter John McWethy, 61, dies in Colorado ski accident .\nMcWethy was wearing helmet at time of crash, coroner says .\nReporter died doing \"something he truly loved,\" says ABC president .\n\"Unflappable\" reporter \"really did have handle on what life was for,\" ex-colleague says .","id":"4b40ad1f0e59b139e9a1466859ee08a048ca8d2c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Record oil prices, the sub-prime mortgage mess and slumping stock markets are hardly music to the ears of investors. In tough economic times like these, investors seek out safe, stable investments such as guaranteed government bonds or CDs. Yet a growing number are being wooed by the sweet sounds, and profits, of something new -- investment funds specializing in high-end musical instruments. The Stradivarius violin -- only about 700 are believed to exist -- is the premier investment instrument. Talented musicians want them, but can't afford them -- one fetched $3.5 million at auction. Enter Nigel Brown, winner of The Queen's Award for Enterprise and Chairman of the NW Brown Group, a financial services company. He brings musician and investor together. \"What happens is, a musician comes along to see me, having fallen in love with an instrument,\" Brown says. \"Then, what I do is to pull a syndicate of people together to buy this instrument so that the musician can then have the use of it ...\" Down the road, the musician can buy the instrument from the investors. They split the profits if its value appreciates. That's how violinist Matthew Trusler got his $2 million Stradivarius. Brown loved Trusler's playing and funded the instrument himself. \"They are just the most fantastic violins that were ever made,\" Trusler says, clutching his. \"This one was made in 1711 ... and it's been around for 300 years and it's a really wonderful violin.\" Not everyone is convinced a Stradivarius is such a great deal -- particularly modern instrument makers. \"I think if you can get hold of one of the very best Strads, not just any Strad ... I think they probably give you, as a player, something special,\" says violin-maker Andreas Hudelmayer. \"But if you can't have one of the very few best, you are just as well off with a new instrument.\" His reasoning? The cost of insuring a Stradivarius for just a couple of years would pay for a new, top-quality violin, Hudelmayer says. Even so, the reality is that old violins are attracting those looking for alternative investments. A new hedge fund called the Fine Violins Fund is dedicated to top-range instruments. The latest studies show exclusive violins are earning a steady 3.5 percent a year since 1850. That beats U.S. Treasury bonds over the same timeframe, with their 2.19 percent average yield. Of course, you have to be in the investment game for the long haul. \"They've proved to be fantastic investments,\" says Simon Morris, director of Beare's -- a broker and appraiser of high-end violins, violas and cellos. \"For many of the musicians that bought say in the 1960s, they've been the best pension plan they could've had. \"Like anything, you have to purchase well and sell well. You can't just go and buy any old thing.\" But for these investors, the financial return is only part of the investment. \"The fact they make a financial gain is of course gratifying at the end of the day, but it is mostly the support of the musician,\" says Brown. \"They like being able to go along to a concert and hear their instrument performed by their artist.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Investors are being wooed by funds specializing in high-end musical instruments .\nThe Stradivarius violin is the premier investment instrument .\nA new hedge fund called the Fine Violins Fund is dedicated to top-range instruments .","id":"c17a30b4c0f8f58e3afa6279a39470f65a179f6b"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Buses that carry women only are experiencing a smooth ride with passengers in Mexico's capital. A woman rides on a bus exclusively for female passengers last month in Mexico City. Fans of the new service call their daily commutes more pleasant now that bus rides steer clear of too-close-for-comfort contact with men. \"We're not just talking about sexual harassment, about rapes or about incidents of violence,\" said Ariadna Montiel, director of the Network of Passengers' Transportation for the Government of the Federal District. \"But also about touching, staring, which is what generally occurs on public transport.\" The single-sex service, which started in January, is available on four major lines in the city, and it's expected to expand to another 15. Other plans include replacing male drivers with women. One woman described the service as \"excellent,\" saying it's \"more comfortable too because it doesn't make as many stops.\" Another passenger said she feels more comfortable and safer. Last year, the government received seven complaints of sexual abuse aboard the city's buses, which provide 200 million rides each year, officials said. Authorities said that a single complaint is enough to justify taking such measures. Juan Flores, who has driven buses in Mexico City for 15 years and now steers one for women only, said he even notices a difference. \"I feel more tranquil, I work more peacefully and the interior of the bus is cleaner,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mario Gonzalez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers on female-only buses describe their commutes as more pleasant .\nSeven complaints of sexual abuse aboard Mexico City buses made last year .\nSingle-sex service is available on four major lines in Mexican capital .","id":"6f579aad2d1f601b17e01057cd4b5e4942627230"} -{"article":"MILAN, Italy -- European Super Cup winners Milan were brought back down to earth at the San Siro on Monday, as Fiorentina held them to a 1-1 draw in Serie A. Kaka (right) wheels away in celebration after scoring his penalty against Fiorentina. Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu earned the visitors a point with a 56th-minute header after Milan playmaker Kaka had scored from the penalty spot in the 27th minute. Milan, who beat Genoa 3-0 in their opening league game, join Fiorentina as one of seven teams with four points in the league table. Mutu scored against the run of play from Mario Alberto Santana's cross. Earlier, Fiorentina defender Dario Dainelli had conceded a penalty when he tripped Massimo Ambrosini in the area. Filippo Inzaghi wasted a golden chance to win the match in the 71st minute when Kaka slid the ball across the front of Fiorentina's goal. However, the Italy forward somehow managed to miss the ball and an open net. Fiorentina could have won it late on but midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic hit the post. \"I am always angry when we don't get the maximum points, but in this case we did everything we possibly could,\" said Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti. \"We tried to win and ran quite a few risks, but so soon after our last game it was understandable we had some difficulties.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Super Cup winners AC Milan are held to a 1-1 home draw by Fiorentina .\nBrazilian Kaka gave Milan the lead with a penalty after a foul on Ambrosini .\nAdrian Mutu equalised for Fiorentina with a header from Santana's cross .","id":"7551f8e13485bb1738c16eccad343a14a47b2903"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two hours before his scheduled execution Thursday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted the death sentence of Samuel David Crowe, his lawyer said. Samuel David Crowe's death sentence was changed to life in prison by Georgia authorities, his attorney says. Crowe was convicted in 1988 of murdering Joseph V. Pala, the retail manager at Wicks Lumber Company in Douglas County. Crowe admitted to the crime. The board's ruling means Crowe's sentence will be changed to life without the possibility of parole. The board did not give a reason for its decision. When attorney Ann Fort called Crowe with the news, he was quiet. \"He was really shocked and relieved but very somber about it. He takes very seriously the deep harm that he caused when he committed this crime,\" she said. Crowe had a cocaine habit that his attorney says he kicked in prison. He spent his time behind bars counseling other inmates, teaching some of them to read and writing to people outside of prison who had drug habits. \"He didn't want them to go down the path he did,\" Fort said. As for the Pala family, they are devastated. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Pala's widow, Fran Pala, and his daughter, Lisa Pala-Hansen, were too upset to address the parole board. A representative spoke to the board on their behalf, the newspaper said. Crowe had been scheduled to be executed by injection at 7 p.m. ET Thursday at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, 45 minutes south of Atlanta. He would have been the 19th inmate in Georgia executed by injection. William Earl Lynd was executed by injection the first week in May. He was the first inmate to die in the state since September, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the three-drug combination represented cruel and unusual punishment. Lynd was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 1988. The U.S. Supreme Court had effectively halted all executions in the country last September, when it agreed to consider whether the three-drug combination used by most states violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Death penalty opponents have argued that if inmates are not given enough anesthetic, they could be conscious enough to suffer excruciating pain without being able to express it because of the paralyzer. Their claims are supported by medical studies. Of the 24 death sentences the Georgia board has considered, Crowe's is the third it has commuted. Also this week, Mississippi executed murderer Earl Wesley Berry by lethal injection. Berry confessed to abducting Mary Bounds in 1987, beating her to death and then dumping her body in a rural road. The courts rejected Berry's attorneys' arguments that he should be spared because he was mentally retarded. CNN's Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Attorney says inmate was shocked, relieved, somber .\nNEW: Victim's family too devastated to address parole board .\nSamuel David Crowe's death sentence was changed to life in prison Thursday .\nCrowe admitted killing a store clerk in 1988 in Georgia .","id":"257d8d38863175ec9401d0532963fb71a47f0734"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Air crash investigators are trying to work out why a Boeing 777 landed short of the runway at London Heathrow airport, skidding on grass and ripping apart sections of the aircraft. I-Reporter Alex Quinonez took this image of a casualty being taken by medics from Heathrow Airport. An investigator who has been briefed on the incident told CNN the plane's captain \"is claiming there wasn't power when he needed it.\" Passenger Paul Venter told the UK Press Association: \"The wheels came out and went for touchdown, and the next moment we just dropped. I couldn't tell you how far.\" London ambulance services said 17 people suffered minor injuries, and the number could increase as several others are still being assessed. Images showed the Boeing 777 -- BA flight 38 from Beijing, China -- grounded on tarmac after touching down several hundred meters short of the airport's south runway, close to a perimeter road, with its emergency chutes deployed and white fire-fighting foam covering the engines. The undercarriage, left wing and left engine of the aircraft were severely damaged, as if it had skidded across the ground. At least one of the plane's wheels had been torn off. The most visible damage was to the left wing, which was covered in mangled metal where it meets the fuselage. Tire tracks hundreds of meters long could be seen in the grass behind the plane, which was surrounded by fire engines and other emergency vehicles. Eyewitness Neil Jones said the plane had made a \"very, very unusual approach\" to the airport and sounded louder than usual, PA reported. \"You could see the pilot was desperate, trying to get the plane down. The aircraft hit the grass and there was a lot of dirt. The pilot was struggling to keep the plane straight. I think he did a great job.\" Read passenger and eyewitness accounts of the crash landing . The BBC said an unidentified Heathrow worker told the broadcaster that he had spoken to the pilot. The pilot said, according to the worker, that the plane's electronics had failed and that he was forced to glide it to the ground. The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch will lead the inquiry into the crash landing. A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is also heading to London, accompanied by representatives from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Adminsitration. Jerome Ensinck, a passenger aboard the flight, said there had been no indication that the plane was making an emergency landing. \"There was no indication that we were going to have a bad landing,\" he said. \"When we hit the ground it was extremely rough, but I've had rough landings before and I thought 'This is the roughest I've had.' \"Then the emergency exits were opened and we were all told we should go through as quickly as possible, and the moment I was away from the plane I started to realize that the undercarriage was away, and we had missed the runway. \"I feel lucky at the moment, but I think now I realize I've had a close call. If we had hit the runway, it would have been worse.\" In a statement, British Airways said all 136 passengers and 16 crew members had been evacuated from the plane with six minor injuries taken to hospital. BA chief executive Willie Walsh praised the actions of the crew. \"We are very proud of the way our crew safely evacuated all 136 passengers on board,\" Walsh said in a statement. \"The captain of the aircraft is one of our most experienced and has been flying with us for nearly 20 years,\" he added. Walsh also said that an investigation was being conducted by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and that it would be inappropriate to speculate about likely causes. Airport authorities said Heathrow's southern runway had been closed, but the northern runway remained open. But the incident immediately led to major delays for passengers. Some incoming flights were being diverted to other airports on a flight-by-flight basis, according to Heathrow's Web site. A spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said there was nothing to suggest the incident was terror-related. The Boeing 777 is the mainstay of many airlines' long-haul fleets and has never been involved in a fatal accident. However, the aircraft involved in Thursday's incident appeared to have had a fortunate escape, having approached Heathrow over heavily-populated west London suburbs before its crash landing. CNN's Richard Quest, who covers the airline industry, said it appeared the damage happened after the plane touched down. The incident occurred at 12:42 p.m. (7:42 a.m. ET) as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was due to leave Heathrow for a visit to China and India. His flight was delayed but his jet was not directly involved, PA said. \u2022 British Airways has set up helpline numbers for friends and relatives concerned for passengers involved in the incident: . From within UK: 0800 389 4193. From outside UK: +44 191 211 3690 E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Beijing to London jet lands short of runway at Heathrow Airport .\nNEW: Investigator says pilot talked of not having power .\nPassenger: We just dropped. I couldn't tell you how far .\n136 passengers evacuated from plane; 17 minor injuries reported .","id":"aa596e10dfe78dd875a7e15bfd53138bc8bde471"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Every day, five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves. Before the Iraq war began, that figure was less than one suicide attempt a day. A U.S. soldier patrols the streets of Baghdad in January. The dramatic increase is revealed in new U.S. Army figures, which show 2,100 soldiers tried to commit suicide in 2007. \"Suicide attempts are rising and have risen over the last five years,\" said Col. Elspeth Cameron-Ritchie, an Army psychiatrist. Concern over the rate of suicide attempts prompted Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, to introduce legislation Thursday to improve the military's suicide-prevention programs. \"Our troops and their families are under unprecedented levels of stress due to the pace and frequency of more than five years of deployments,\" Webb said in a written statement. Watch CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre on the reasons for the increase in suicides \u00bb . Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, took to the Senate floor Thursday, urging more help for military members, especially for those returning from war. \"Our brave service members who face deployment after deployment without the rest, recovery and treatment they need are at the breaking point,\" Murray said. She said Congress has given \"hundreds of millions of dollars\" to the military to improve its ability to provide mental health treatment, but said it will take more than money to resolve the problem. \"It takes leadership and it takes a change in the culture of war,\" she said. She said some soldiers had reported receiving nothing more than an 800 number to call for help. \"Many soldiers need a real person to talk to,\" she said. \"And they need psychiatrists and they need psychologists.\" According to Army statistics, the incidence of U.S. Army soldiers attempting suicide or inflicting injuries on themselves has skyrocketed in the nearly five years since the start of the Iraq war. Last year's 2,100 attempted suicides -- an average of more than 5 per day -- compares with about 350 suicide attempts in 2002, the year before the war in Iraq began, according to the Army. The figures also show the number of suicides by active-duty troops in 2007 may reach an all-time high when the statistics are finalized in March, Army officials said. The Army lists 89 soldier deaths in 2007 as suicides and is investigating 32 more as possible suicides. Suicide rates already were up in 2006 with 102 deaths, compared with 87 in 2005. Cameron-Ritchie, the Army psychiatrist, said suicide attempts are usually related to problems with intimate relationships, but they are also related to problems with work, finances and the law. \"The really tough area here is stigma. We know that soldiers don't want to go seek care. They're tough, they're strong, they don't want to go see a behavioral health-care provider,\" Cameron-Ritchie said. Multiple deployments and long deployments appear to exact a toll on relationships, thereby boosting the number of suicide attempts, she said. Traditionally, the suicide rate among military members has been lower than age- and gender-matched civilians. But in recent years the rate has crept up from 12 per 100,000 among the military to 17.5 per 100,000 in 2006, she said. That's still less than the civilian figure of about 20 per 100,000, she said. The \"typical\" soldier who commits suicide is a member of an infantry unit who uses a firearm to carry out the act, according to the Army. Post-traumatic stress disorder also may be a factor in suicide attempts, Cameron-Ritchie said, because it can result in broken relationships and often leads to drug and alcohol abuse. \"The real central issue is relationships. Relationships, relationships, relationships,\" said U.S. Army Chaplain Lt. Col. Ran Dolinger. \"People look at PTSD, they look at length of deployments ... but it's that broken relationship that really makes the difference.\" To reduce suicides, the Army said it is targeting soldiers who are or have been in Iraq for long periods and teaching them to notice signs that can lead to suicide. That training came too late for Army Specialist Tim Bowman. The 23-year-old killed himself in 2005 after returning from Iraq. \"As my family was preparing for a 2005 Thanksgiving meal, our son Timothy was lying on the floor, slowly bleeding to death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,\" said his father, Mike Bowman, in testimony to a House Veterans' Affairs committee hearing in December. \"His war was now over.\" He said veterans return home to find an \"understaffed, under-funded, under-equipped\" Veterans Affairs mental health system. \"Many just give up trying,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Average of 5 soldiers per day tried to commit suicide in 2007, Army figures show .\nSen. Jim Webb introduces legislation to improve care for soldiers .\nArmy psychiatrist says soldiers must overcome stigma of treatment .\nPsychiatrist: \"We know that soldiers don't want to go seek care\"","id":"a0dff972172125f32b79977a47b0d250be8f71e4"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A German woman held hostage in Iraq since February has been freed, but her son was still being held, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Wednesday. An image taken from a video issued in April shows Hannelore Marianne Krause and her son Sinan. The woman, Hannelore Marianne Krause, was taken to Germany's embassy in Baghdad after being taken captive with her adult son 155 days earlier. Steinmeier said he was \"very relieved\" Krause was released on Tuesday, yet there still remains \"a great deal of uncertainty\" about her son, who \"remains in captivity.\" \"Rest assured we will do everything in our power to reach her son, Sinan,\" the foreign minister said. In early March, Iraqi militants holding Krause and her son hostage demanded that Germany withdraw its troops from Afghanistan to ensure their safety. As part of NATO's Afghanistan force, Germany sent about 3,000 troops in the relatively peaceful northern part of the country. German troops also help train Iraqi soldiers and police, but not in Iraq. The Arrows of Righteousness group posted video clips on the Internet, threatening to kill the two in 10 days if Berlin did not comply. CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video. In it, the woman identified as Krause urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to heed the demands. A passport with Krause's name was shown in the video. While sitting next to her son, Krause tells Merkel, \"These people want to kill my son in front of my eyes, and then they'll kill me, if the German troops did not withdraw out of Afghanistan.\" She and her son clutch each other and cry as they speak while three militants, two armed with large assault rifles, stand behind the pair. \"They are not joking, and they'll kill us. I am very tired. Please help me. Take any decision or we will be killed.\" Reading a prepared statement, one of the militants says, \"We have warned you. Otherwise you will not see their bodies.\" \"Muslims are all one nation, and have one religion. It is not acceptable that Germany leads the coalition troops in Afghanistan, and attacks the secured villages and claim it is not fighting in Iraq.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.","highlights":"German foreign minister says woman was released after 155 days .\nGermany will continue efforts to free her adult son, who remains in captivity .\nIn video, militants had demanded that German troops leave Afghanistan .","id":"faac3a6337907b1552b7068c8701cae665c4885c"} -{"article":"SANTIAGO, Chile (CNN) -- Nearly 100 former Chilean soldiers and secret police will be prosecuted on charges they tried to cover up the disappearance and deaths of 119 people during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a judge ordered Monday. Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, pictured in 2000. The disappearances occurred between 1974 and 1975, during what was known as \"Operation Colombo,\" which targeted Pinochet's opponents. Chile's military government published information outside the country to make it seem that the victims had died fighting guerrillas. Chilean magistrate Victor Montiglio based his order on an investigation that says 60 victims were illegally arrested by the Office of National Intelligence (DINA) and kept in detention centers before they disappeared. DINA's former director, retired Gen. Manuel Contreras, has already been sentenced to 250 years in prison in other cases involving human rights violations. He found out about Montiglio's ruling in his prison cell. Minister of Justice Carlos Maldonado said the former soldiers will be taken to military compounds after they appear before Montiglio on Tuesday. The civilian suspects will be jailed in the Santiago Uno and Punta Peuco penal facilities, which are outside Santiago, he said. A U.S. backed-coup toppled democratically elected President Salvador Allende in 1973, after which Pinochet took power. In March 2008, a court in Chile sentenced 24 former police officers for their roles in kidnappings, torture and murders that happened just after the coup, Chile's Judicial Authority said. Thousands of Chileans were victims of the national crime wave. Pinochet, whose reign lasted from 1973 to 1990, was widely blamed for encouraging subordinates to kidnap, torture and kill people with suspected leftist ties, such as journalists and union members. Years after he left power, courts indicted Pinochet in two human rights cases, but judges threw out the charges on the grounds that he was too ill to stand trial. Pinochet died in 2006. CNN's Alberto Pando contributed to this report.","highlights":"Chilean judge orders prosecution of 98 former Pinochet soldiers, agents .\nOrder is related to investigation of 60 people who disappeared in 1970s .\nHundreds were killed or disappeared during Augusto Pinochet's rule .\nSuspects are expected to appear in court in Chile on Tuesday .","id":"c741b211364d761605050776064a506d24378d10"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama told Florida's Cuban-American community Friday that his Cuba policy would be based on \"libertad\" and freedom for the island nation's people. Sen. Barack Obama speaks at a Cuban Independence Day event in Miami, Florida, on Friday. \"My policy toward Cuba will be guided by one word: 'libertad,' \" he said, using the Spanish word for liberty at an event celebrating Cuban Independence Day in Miami, Florida. \"The road to freedom for all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba's political prisoners, the right of free speech, a free press, freedom of assembly, and it must lead to elections that are free and fair,\" Obama said. \"That is my commitment. \"I won't stand for this injustice; you will not stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba. That will be my commitment as president of the United States of America,\" he said. Watch Obama call for freedom in Cuba \u00bb . Obama also said the policy for Cuba and the rest of Latin America would be guided by \"the simple principle that what's good for the people of the Americas is good for the United States.\" \"After eight years of the failed policies of the past, we need new leadership for the future,\" he said. \"After decades of pressing for top-down reform, we need an agenda that advances democracy, security and opportunity from the bottom up.\" Obama called for looser restrictions on travel to Cuba so Cuban-Americans can visit family members relatives as well as allowing larger money transfers to the island, two positions that are popular within the Cuban-American community. Obama, however, may lose votes among Cuban-Americans if they think he is willing to talk with Ra\u00fal Castro, the president of Cuba who recently took over leadership of the island nation from his brother, Fidel Castro. Speaking in Miami on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, blasted Obama for changing his positions on normalization with Cuba and for wanting to \"sit down unconditionally for a presidential meeting with Ra\u00fal Castro.\" \"These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba's dictators: There is no need to undertake fundamental reforms; they can simply wait for a unilateral change in U.S. policy,\" McCain said. \"I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime. Watch McCain blast Obama's position on Cuba \u00bb . \"My administration will press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections. The embargo must stay in place until these basic elements of democratic society are met,\" McCain said. But Obama said McCain had misrepresented his position. \"John McCain's been going around the country talking about how much I want to meet with Ra\u00fal Castro, as if I'm looking for a social gathering; I'm going to invite him over and have some tea. That's not what I said, [and] John McCain knows it,\" he said. Obama also faulted McCain for pursuing what he called the failed Cuba polices of President Bush. \"Now, I know what the easy thing is to do for American politicians. Every four years, they come down to Miami, they talk tough, they go back to Washington, and nothing changes in Cuba. That's what John McCain did the other day,\" Obama said. \"He joined the parade of politicians who make the same empty promises year after year, decade after decade. \"Instead of offering a strategy for change, he chose to distort my position and embrace George Bush's and continue a policy that's done nothing to advance freedom for the Cuban people. That's the political posture that John McCain has chosen, and all it shows is that you can't take his so-called straight talk seriously.\" Republicans have been able to count on the support of southern Florida's Cuban American community by maintaining a no-compromise stance against Cuba's Communist regime. And with a 70 percent turnout rate, Cuban-Americans have been a powerful force in Florida and thus, because of Florida's role as a swing state, national politics. Watch how Obama is wooing Cuban Americans \u00bb . Younger Cuban-Americans, however, are beginning to question their community's alliance with the GOP. \"In reality, all they give to Cuban-Americans is lip service, and I think Cuban-Americans of my generation, Cuban-Americans of previous generations, are tired of the lip service,\" said Giancarlo Sopo, who is backing Obama. But despite Democratic efforts to reach out to Cuban Americans, \"the reality is, there is no change,\" says Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican who has represented his South Florida district for eight terms. Obama, Diaz-Balart said, may even help Republicans unite Cuban-Americans behind the GOP banner once again. \"This community is steadfast. It's solid. It understands the value of freedom,\" Diaz-Balart said.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Obama says Cuba policy will be based on liberty for Cuban people .\nNEW: Democratic front-runner accuses Sen. McCain of distorting position .\nObama calls for looser restrictions on travel, fund transfers to Cuba .\nMcCain argues for continuation of hard line policy against communist regime .","id":"a062b8ba08369be2364a863020a28de63a3cbf86"} -{"article":"MUGELLO, Italy -- Italian Valentino Rossi's resurgence continued on Saturday, as the five-time MotoGP champion took pole position at his home race in Mugello. Rossi gives the thumbs up after taking his first pole position of the season at his home race in Mugello. The 29-year-old has struggled since winning his last title in 2005 but is back at the head of the field this season on his Fiat Yamaha and has won the last two races. A lap of one minute 48.130 seconds was enough to see him take his first pole position of the season ahead of Dani Pedrosa in second and fellow-Italian Loris Capirossi in third -- the 50th pole of his career and 40th in MotoGP. \"For sure we will try to keep this winning streak going. I was quite worried after practice because we had some problems but the team modified the bike and it is faster now,\" said Rossi. \"My last pole position was a long, long time ago -- I can't even remember when it was, so I am very happy. Loris is behind me and with two Italians on the front row the crowd will be very special here.\" Rossi is three points ahead of Repsol Honda rider Pedrosa and his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo going into Sunday's race with reigning champion Casey Stoner a further 28 points back on his Marlboro Ducati. Rossi's time bettered the previous record pole time by Spaniard Sete Gibernau by more than 0.8 seconds, and that marker was posted two years ago on a more powerful bike. In fact, the top seven finishers all beat Gibernau's lap, achieved on a 990cc bike as opposed to the 800cc versions of today.","highlights":"Valentino Rossi claims pole position for Sunday's Italian MotoGP in Mugello .\nA lap of one minute 48.130 seconds enough to give Rossi first pole of season .\nYamaha rider Rossi three points ahead of Honda's Dani Pedrosa in standings .","id":"f11102404d23702fe398b1d690d13418703e617a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Sharon Stone said in a statement Saturday that she \"could not be more regretful\" of her comments this month regarding the earthquake in China, in which she suggested that the quake was an act of \"karma.\" Sharon Stone made the controversial remarks before she hosted a charity auction at the Cannes Film Festival. \"Yes, I misspoke,\" said the statement released by Stone's publicist and entitled \"In my own words by Sharon Stone.\" \"I could not be more regretful of that mistake. It was unintentional. I apologize. Those words were never meant to be hurtful to anyone,\" Stone said. \"They were an accident of my distraction and a product of news sensationalism.\" Stone said Saturday that she was issuing the statement to set the record straight about the comments she made to a reporter at the Cannes Film Festival. The statement drew fire from citizens and government officials. \"There have been numerous reports about what I said in Cannes. I would like to set the record straight about what I feel in my heart and end all of the understandings,\" she said. \"They're not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a friend of mine,\" Stone said on camera at the time, discussing the Chinese. \"And then all of this earthquake and all this happened and I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice, that bad things happen to you?\" Qin Gang, spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said Stone \"should do more to promote understanding and friendship between nations.\" French fashion house Christian Dior said it would drop Stone from its advertisements in China after her May 22 remarks. \"We absolutely disagree with her hasty comments, and we are also deeply sorry about them,\" Dior said in a statement from its Shanghai, China, headquarters. But Stone said she was \"deeply saddened by the pain that this whole situation has caused the victims of the devastating earthquake in China.\" As of Friday, the death toll from the May 12 magnitude-7.9 quake stood at 68,858, with another 18,618 missing.","highlights":"Sharon Stone had suggested that deadly earthquake might be karma .\nActress issues statement \"to set the record straight\" regarding remark .\nStone says comments were product of \"news sensationalism\"","id":"62481fda7e7b9714b994617909349550707fe8a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal made light work of his heavy schedule and a recurring foot problem to reach the last 16 of the French Open on Friday. Rafael Nadal inspects his blistered foot during his third-round victory against Jarko Nieminen. The world No. 2 crushed Finnish 26th seed Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 6-3 6-1 in his fourth successive day of action on the Paris clay, following frustration this week with bad weather. He will play fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco after his 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-1 win over 15th seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia. Third seed Novak Djokovic was also untroubled in a later third round match to see off Wayne Odesnik of the United States 7-5 6-4 6-2. Nadal will be hoping for some time to let his blistered foot recover, needing treatment during the match against Nieminen for a problem that saw him beaten in the second round of the Rome Masters earlier in the claycourt season. He is bidding to become the second man after the legendary Bjorn Borg to win four successive titles at Roland Garros, but has already vented his anger at the ATP Tour for scheduling four top-level clay events in as many weeks. Watch Nadal talk about his tournament hopes \u00bb . Nadal showed little signs of tiredness as he cruised past Nieminen in less than two hours to extend his winning record at the tournament to 24 matches. His opening victory against Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci took two days due to torrential rain, then on Thursday he saw off another qualifier in straight sets when he beat Frenchman Nicolas Devilder. In other third round action on Friday, Spain's Nicolas Almagro again showed his clay court pedigree with a 6-3 6-7 6-3 7-5 win over Britain's 10th seed Andy Murray. Almagro, who has won two titles on clay this season, was made to work hard by Murray, but recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the third set to win seven games in row and take command. He will now play 145th-ranked Frenchman Jeremy Chardy who ended the run of 30th seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in straight sets. Latvia's Ernests Gulbis continued his fine run as he defeated Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-3 7-5 6-2 to set up a clash with home hope Michael Llodra who beat Italy's Simone Bolelli in straight sets. In second-round action, France's Florent Serra completed a hard-fought 6-4 6-3 6-7 7-6 win over Victor Hanescu of Romania and will next face American Bobby Ginepri.","highlights":"Three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal into last 16 of the French Open .\nSpanish world No. 2 crushes Finnish 26th seed Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 6-3 6-1 .\nSecond seed next faces Fernando Verdasco who beat Mikhail Youzhny .\nThird seed Novak Djokovic later joins Nadal in the fourth round at Roland Garros .\nNicolas Almagro of Spain puts out 10th seed Andy Murray of Britain .","id":"13943ef2d9c3b737c9a900f0cdb32a9c39121e6f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven players involved in last week's Champions League final have been excused from England's trip to Trinidad and Tobago for their friendly international on Sunday. Only Jermaine Defoe (second right) of the England players congratulating John Terry will travel to Trinidad. Coach Fabio Capello confirmed that of the men involved in Moscow last week, only Manchester United central defender Rio Ferdinand, who has links with the Caribbean, and Chelsea full-back Wayne Bridge, who did not get onto the pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium, will be part of his 22-man squad for the final game of the season. Chelsea's John Terry, who opened the scoring in Wednesday's 2-0 win over the United States at Wembley, is one of those given a holiday along with Wayne Rooney, Wes Brown, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Owen Hargreaves. England squad: . Goalkeepers: David James (Portsmouth), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Joe Lewis (Peterborough). Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), Stephen Warnock (Blackburn), David Wheater (Middlesbrough), Jonathan Woodgate (Tottenham). Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), David Beckham (LA Galaxy), David Bentley (Blackburn), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham). Forwards: Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Ashley Young (Aston Villa), Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Dean Ashton (West Ham), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth).","highlights":"Seven players have been cut from the England squad for friendly in Trinidad .\nThe seven players had all appeared in the Champions League final last week .\nHowever, Manchester United central defender Rio Ferdinand will be playing .","id":"0c25e0cd62589fde1b378606febbcc5a2bafc770"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A federal grand jury indicted a man arrested last week in connection with a mysterious case of exposure to the deadly biological agent ricin, prosecutors said. Authorities found ricin, weapons and an anarchist manual in Roger Von Bergendorff's Nevada hotel room. Roger Von Bergendorff, 57, was indicted on charges of possession of a biological toxin, possession of unregistered firearms and possession of firearms not identified by serial number, said Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bergendorff was hospitalized for two months with suspected ricin poisoning, and was discharged before his arrest. His initial court appearance was last week, Collins said, and he did not enter a plea. An arraignment is scheduled for May 2. Bergendorff was hospitalized in February complaining of breathing difficulties. Two weeks later, Thomas Tholen, a cousin who went to Bergendorff's Las Vegas hotel room to recover his belongings, discovered what turned out to be ricin. Authorities also said a search of the room found four guns, the book \"Anarchist's Cookbook,\" a collection of instructions on poisons and other dangerous recipes and castor beans, syringes and beakers. Ricin is extracted from ground-up castor beans. Tholen was charged earlier in April with failing to report the commission of a crime. A federal grand jury indicted him for allegedly concealing the knowledge that production and possession of a biological agent -- a felony -- was being committed. Bergendorff previously lived in Tholen's home in Riverton, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. After the ricin was discovered, the FBI searched that home as well as storage units Bergendorff used in Utah. Authorities said FBI agents searching the storage units found castor beans, chemicals used in the production of ricin, a respirator, filters, laboratory glassware, syringes and a notebook on ricin production. If convicted as charged, Bergendorff would face a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Roger Von Bergendorff indicted on ricin possession charges .\nBergendorff had been hospitalized with suspected ricin poisoning .\nAuthorities found ricin, guns in Bergendorff's Nevada hotel room .\nThomas Tholen, Bergendorff's cousin, also faces charges .","id":"a86bc16fad35d84e988af4cc64bf14877337d47e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has warned against outside influences in next month's run-off election, likening one American diplomat to a \"prostitute\" and threatening to oust another from his country. Robert Mugabe tries to stir voters with a blistering speech criticizing the U.S. and Britain. \"Zimbabwe cannot be British, it cannot be American. Yes, it is African,\" said Mugabe, whose speech Sunday was quoted Monday in The Herald, the state-run newspaper. \"You saw the joy that the British had, that the Americans had, and saw them here through their representatives celebrating and acting as if we Zimbabwe are either an extension of Britain or ... America. You saw that little American girl [U. S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer] trotting around the globe like a prostitute...\" Mugabe went on to say that U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee would be expelled from the country if he \"persisted in meddling in Zimbabwe's electoral process,\" the newspaper reported. The fallout from Zimbabwe's stalled election has brought international criticism, with Frazer taking the most emphatic stance. In April, Frazer accused Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades, of \"trying to steal the election\" and \"intimidating the population and election officials as well.\" The first election was March 29. An announcement of the winner of the presidential election was delayed for weeks as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed he had won. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, after a long delay, ruled that neither candidate had won the required majority of votes, and scheduled a runoff election for June 27. Since the March balloting, there have been numerous reports from Tsvangirai's party and church groups about kidnappings, torture and other violence, including the deaths of opposition party members. They say the violence targets opponents of Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. At about the same time Sunday that Mugabe was giving his campaign speech, Tsvangirai was speaking at a funeral. Tsvangirai spoke harshly as he stood near the casket of a man he claimed was killed by Mugabe's supporters. Watch Tsvangirai address mourners \u00bb . \"This is a clear testimony of the callousness of this regime,\" said Tsvangirai to a funeral procession of hundreds gathered outside the capital city of Harare. \"They can kill us. They can maim us. But we are going on the 27th of June, our hearts dripping with blood, to vote him out of office.\" Mugabe denies his supporters were responsible for election-related violence.","highlights":"Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe likens U.S. diplomat to prostitute .\nMugabe warns U.S. and Britain to keep out of Zimbabwe .\nMorgan Tsvangirai attends funeral and accuses Mugabe supporters of murder .","id":"0f937bcc8cd07bab2d5aa9a4492d3c2430063b67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Serie A champions Inter Milan have confirmed the dismissal of coach Roberto Mancini, opening the way for former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to replace him. Mancini guided Inter Milan to the Italian league title for three successive seasons. Ironically, the 43-year-old Mancini, who guided Inter to three successive Italian league titles, is now the favorite to take Mourinho's former job at Stamford Bridge. Inter -- who won the first of their three titles in 2006 because those above them were demoted or deducted points over the matchfixing scandal -- released a statement about the sacking. \"Inter Milan have informed Roberto Mancini that he has been relieved of his role as coach, especially because of his comments that he was not going to stay after the end of the season following the Champions League tie against Liverpool on March 11,\" read their statement. Mancini, however, rescinded those comments the following day declaring that he had made them in the heat of the moment following Inter's elimination from the competition, losing 3-0 on aggregate. Inter's reasons for sacking Mancini appear less credible after club president Massimo Moratti announced that the coach had changed his mind about leaving at the end of the season. \"I've had a talk with Mancini, who confirmed to me that he wanted to stay at Inter next year to see out his contract. He wants to win the Champions League for us next season,\" Moratti said on March 12. \"Mancini's words surprised me, I didn't expect it and even less so I believe the people close to him.\" Mourinho, nicknamed 'The Special One' for guiding Porto to the Champions League in 2004 and then Chelsea to two Premier League titles, would not come cheap, but the exit of Mancini has cost Inter dear too as his contract, which runs till 2012, will leave him 24 million euros richer as compensation. However, Mancini was unable to make Inter into viable Champions League contenders despite the three Serie A titles. Mancini is the ninth coaching casualty under Moratti, following Ottavio Bianchi, Roy Hodgson, Luigi Simoni, Mircea Lucescu, Marcello Lippi, Marco Tardelli, Hector Cuper and Alberto Zaccheroni.","highlights":"Serie A champions Inter Milan confirm dismissal of coach Roberto Mancini .\nMancini allegedly fired for comments made after defeat to Liverpool in March .\nFormer Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho favorite to take over at the San Siro .","id":"a6c0617d92807f05f02d767261c45b616382e499"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- She's faced the glare of public life since she was a girl, but Chelsea Clinton must contend with renewed press scrutiny as she increasingly assumes a role in her mother's campaign for president. Chelsea Clinton accompanies her mother to the polls on Super Tuesday in Chappaqua, New York. The former first daughter always has been off-limits to the media, especially while she was growing up in the White House. But pressure to burst this protective bubble is likely to grow as the soon-to-be 28-year-old campaigns across the country for Sen. Hillary Clinton, even heading to Hawaii -- Sen. Barack Obama's home turf. Chelsea Clinton will spend three days there to strum up last-minute votes before the state's Tuesday caucuses, said a source from her mother's campaign. In the rough-and-tumble world of politics, her parents always have been protective of her -- including most recently after a TV correspondent's comment that the Clinton campaign found inappropriate. Watch how controversy goes with the last name \u00bb . \"Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is being pimped out in some weird sort of way?\" MSNBC correspondent David Shuster said this month about her reputed calls to superdelegates. Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson excoriated Shuster and called his remarks \"beneath contempt\" and disgusting. The senator from New York even sent a damning letter to NBC and demanded \"appropriate action.\" \"I am a mom first and a candidate second, and I found the remark incredibly offensive,\" she said. (Shuster was suspended indefinitely for the remark, made February 7 when he was a guest host for Tucker Carlson. MSNBC said Thursday that the suspension will end February 22.) Even a fourth-grader apparently can't get through to the press-shy Chelsea Clinton. Scholastic News \"kid reporter\" Sydney Rieckhoff was in pursuit of a story as she questioned presidential candidates last month on the campaign trail in Iowa, according to The Associated Press. Approaching Chelsea Clinton, she reportedly asked, \"Do you think your dad would be a good 'first man' in the White House?\" But Clinton wasn't talking. \"I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you're cute,\" she said, according to the AP. During a campaign stop at the Luckie Food Lounge in Atlanta, Georgia, in mid-January, one supporter asked Clinton to reveal something that nobody else knew about her. She responded she would love to -- if all the cameras weren't around. Clinton has proven to be an effective campaigner for her mother, according to a campaign source, saying there's a strong correlation between her visits and improved performance. At this point, the campaign has become a fight for delegates, and even narrowing a loss has a big impact, a source said. This election cycle, Clinton campaigned for her mother in California, the first state where the senator won the youth vote. A rural congressional district in Nebraska where she campaigned reportedly outperformed others in the state. Politicians protecting their children from the spotlight is hardly new. The Bushes complained when daughters Jenna and Barbara became fodder for late-night comics and media outlets. Vice President Dick Cheney also has been reticent when it comes to his daughter Mary, who had a child with her lesbian partner. During a debate with Cheney in 2004, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards broached the topic, saying, \"I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter.\" Cheney responded, \"Let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much. ... That's it.\" But the vice president later slammed Sen. John Kerry for his remarks about Mary Cheney when asked about homosexuality during a debate with President Bush. The vice president said Kerry was \"out of line;\" wife Lynne Cheney called him \"not a good man.\" These exchanges show that as Chelsea Clinton's public persona rises, so too will questions about why she doesn't make herself available to reporters. The Clinton campaign said Chelsea Clinton is trying to reach as many people as possible and has \"appeared in dozens of venues in more than 20 states.\" But she's still not granting interviews. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Trisha Henry, Frank Sesno, Rebecca Sinderbrand and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Chelsea Clinton steps up her role in her mother's campaign .\nThe Clintons have always shielded their daughter from the media spotlight .\nEx-first daughter, who soon turns 28, will campaign in Hawaii for Tuesday caucuses .","id":"4f45a0576d353fa9b5b9d1c8e3cc0e6a1cd4897b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A shadowy figure in the back seat of an SUV in surveillance photos is a second \"person of interest\" in the slaying of the University of North Carolina student body president, police said Monday. Investigators say a second male appears in the back seat in this ATM photo, which has been colorized. Police on Saturday released photos taken by an ATM camera that show a young man driving a sport utility vehicle possibly using one of student Eve Carson's ATM cards in the Chapel Hill area. A large, shadowy form appears in the back seat of the vehicle, which police say may have been Carson's. Carson, 22, was found shot to death early Wednesday in a suburban neighborhood near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. Her Toyota Highlander was found the next day in another neighborhood to the west, close to where she lived with roommates. \"We do believe there is a second unidentified male seated in the rear seat,\" the Chapel Hill Police Department said in a statement. \"We have been exploring ways to enhance the quality of this photo in an effort to learn more about this person.\" Police have not identified the pictured driver, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a vintage Houston Astros baseball cap. Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said Saturday that Carson's killing \"feels like a random crime.\" The medical examiner told police that there were no injuries to Carson's body besides gunshot wounds and no signs of sexual assault, Curran said. On Sunday, more than 1,000 people crowded the First United Methodist Church in Carson's hometown of Athens, Georgia, for her funeral, the Athens Banner-Herald reported. The University of North Carolina will hold a memorial service for Carson after students return from this week's spring break, Chancellor James Moeser said in a statement on the school's Web site. On Saturday, the school's top-ranked men's basketball team wore reminders of the popular student president on their jerseys as they took on Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Watch as students remember the slain campus leader \u00bb . The North Carolina players wore patches on the jerseys that simply read \"Eve,\" and many of Duke's fans donned small light-blue ribbons as a show of support. A moment of silence for Carson also was held before tipoff. The UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees has pledged $25,000 to the Crime Stoppers program in the area for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible in Carson's slaying. Carson was a student member of the board. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"ATM photo shows driver, shadowy figure in back seat of SUV .\nDriver appears to be using one of student Eve Carson's ATM cards .\nCarson was found shot to death early Wednesday near campus .\nCarson was student body president at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .","id":"f6d43a207c2b3c48e787087b345c23d2fb1dc92f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton on Thursday sharpened her attacks on Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama as she faces what even her supporters admit are must-win situations in Texas and Ohio in the weeks ahead. At a campaign stop at a General Motors Corp. plant in Youngstown, Ohio, the senator from New York accused Obama of caving in to special interests. \"My opponent says that he'll take on the special interests,\" she said. \"Well, he told people he stood up to the nuclear industry and passed a bill against them. But he actually let the nuclear industry water down his bill -- the bill never actually passed.\" Clinton was referring to a 2006 bill that Obama drafted after an Illinois nuclear power plant was found to have released radiation into surrounding groundwater. Obama's original bill would have required power plants to notify the public and government officials when any radiation was released, but subsequent versions had less stringent reporting requirements, The New York Times reported. The bill was never voted on by the full Senate. Clinton also accused Obama of supporting \"billions of dollars of breaks for the oil industry\" by voting for an energy bill she opposed and said he did not support the workers of a Maytag Corp. plant that closed in his home state of Illinois. Watch Clinton attack Obama \u00bb . Reacting to Clinton's charges, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said his candidate \"doesn't need any lectures on special interests from the candidate who's taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any Republican running for president.\" \"Sen. Clinton may have said that attacks and distortions are the 'fun' and 'exciting' part of the campaign, but they're exactly what everyone else in America is tired of,\" Burton said. In recent days, Clinton has challenged Obama's ability to deliver on his rhetoric. \"There's a big difference between us -- speeches versus solutions, talk versus action,\" she said. \"Speeches don't put food on the table. Speeches don't fill up your tank or fill your prescription or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night.\" Her remarks in Ohio echo statements she made a day earlier in McAllen, Texas, when she said, \"I am in the solutions business. My opponent is in the promises business.\" Clinton was set later Thursday to hold events in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. Obama was to be in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and had no public events scheduled. CNN contributor and Clinton supporter James Carville said the senator must do well in the March 4 Ohio and Texas primaries if she is to stop Obama's momentum. Carville said he thought Clinton could still win the nomination. \"You know, this thing is close. Not all the Democrats have been heard from. ... If anybody can do this, I think she can,\" said Carville, a major force behind President Clinton's successful 1992 campaign. Clinton's aggressive stance may be in reaction to Obama's momentum after he won eight contests in a row -- including victories by wide margins in Tuesday's primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Watch how the so-called Potomac primaries put Obama on a roll \u00bb . In those contests, Obama also outpolled Clinton among demographic groups she had carried earlier -- women, lower-income voters and Latinos. Clinton is banking on those groups to carry her to victory in Texas and Ohio. The wins in the Potomac primaries gave Obama a lead over Clinton in the delegate count for the first time -- 1,253 to 1,211, according to CNN calculations. \"In my neighborhood, you know, you had to win games if you wanted to brag,\" said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and Obama supporter. \"And I think right now, Barack Obama is ahead in delegates. He's ahead in states. He's ahead in the popular vote. He's winning. \"Sen. Clinton has got to win some of these contests, you know, to get to the finals.\" Neither Clinton nor Obama is likely to pick up the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination outright before the primary season ends in June, mainly because Democrats divvy up each state's delegates in proportion to the candidates' share of the popular vote. Watch an outlook of the Democratic race \u00bb . The Democratic nomination likely will be decided by the roughly 800 superdelegates, which include party officers, elected officials and activists. Obama's camp argues the superdelegates should support the candidate with the most popular support, as indicated by a majority of pledged delegates going into the convention. Clinton's campaign, on the other hand, says the superdelegates should support the candidate they think will be the best nominee in the general election as well as the best president. Watch how the campaigns are fighting for superdelegates \u00bb . MoveOn.org, an influential liberal activist group, on Thursday said it would launch a petition drive calling on the superdelegates not to go against the popular vote. \"The worst thing for the party and democracy is if all these new voters feel like the nomination was brokered in a backroom somewhere. The superdelegates have got to let the voters decide,\" MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser said in a statement. MoveOn.org has endorsed Obama. In a possible indication that Clinton is going to fight for every delegate, her camp on Thursday announced that daughter Chelsea Clinton would be dispatched to Hawaii to campaign before the state's primary Tuesday. Watch how each campaign is fighting for delegates \u00bb . However, Chelsea Clinton may face an uphill battle there since Hawaii is Obama's native state. Bill Clinton on Thursday was scheduled to campaign in Wisconsin, which also holds its primary Tuesday. Recent polls in that state have shown a tight race between the two Democrats. A Strategic Vision survey conducted February 8 through Sunday finds Obama ahead of Clinton 45 percent to 41 percent, a lead outside the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points. Carville said Clinton could recover from a loss in Wisconsin. \"It certainly would be preferable for her to win Wisconsin, but I don't put it in the same category as I would put Texas and Ohio on March 4,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Peter Hamby and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Spokesman says Obama \"doesn't need lectures on special interests\"\nSen. Hillary Clinton accuses Sen. Barack Obama of caving to special interests .\nClinton has challenged Obama's ability to deliver on his rhetoric .\nClinton supporter James Carville says she must win in Texas, Ohio on March 4 .","id":"e0127487aee3a00fe164d72eb697221079518471"} -{"article":"GEROLSTEIN, Germany -- Mineral water company Gerolsteiner have decided to drop their sponsorship of the German ProTour cycling team, which expires at the end of the 2008 season. German rider Stefan Schumacher is a member of the Gerolsteiner team. Gerolsteiner, who have been team sponsors since 1998, said there was a change in marketing strategy. Gerolsteiner has invested around $12 million annually in the team, which includes riders Stefan Schumacher, Fabian Wegmann, Markus Fothen and Robert Foerster. Gerolsteiner said on Tuesday they were no longer reaching their targeted audience through cycling because it was changing from being solely a producer of mineral water to a supplier of nonalcoholic drinks. Gerolsteiner team chief Hans-Michael Holczer was deeply upset by the news. \"There were tears in my eyes,\" said Holczer. The German Cycling Federation (BDR) said they would help the team to find a new sponsor. \"It is not an entirely unexpected decision. After such a long collaboration, you notice changes in your partner,\" said Holczer, who will begin the hunt for a new sponsor. \"We have one of the best teams on the market with a national and international reputation.\" The T-Mobile cycling team has fired rider Lorenzo Bernucci after his positive doping test at the Tour of Germany last month. Bernucci violated the team's code of conduct and was removed from T-Mobile's roster at the Spanish Vuelta, the team said on Tuesday. He tested positive for a non-amphetamine appetite suppressant. Bernucci is licensed by the Monaco cycling federation, which will be responsible for further investigation and possible additional sanctions, T-Mobile said. He tested positive on August 15 for the substance sibutramine, an appetite suppressant sold under various brand names, such as Reductil and Ectiva. The world governing body of cycling, UCI, informed T-Mobile of Bernucci's positive test. Bernucci told team management that he had been using Ectiva for four years and had purchased it over the counter at a pharmacy in Italy, not knowing it been added to the list of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency, T-Mobile said. According to UCI rules, a first violation for sibutramine -- if it is determined that it was not intended as a performance enhancer -- can result in anything between a warning and a one-year suspension. \"We do not know if this was an attempt at performance enhancement or just poor judgment,\" T-Mobile team chief Bob Stapleton said. \"But we know it is unacceptable that riders take any medication without the approval of the team doctor. It's a clear violation of our code of conduct and we act now on that basis.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The Gerolsteiner company is ending its sponsorship of the Pro Tour team .\nThey have been team sponsors since 1998 and their contract ends next year .\nStefan Schumacher and Davide Rebellin are leading team members .\nT-Mobile have fired Lorenzo Bernucci after a positive dope test .","id":"2f3af8decce1c0a6cd22b21df96acd40b14bb62b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Negotiations between the United States and Libya that could result in compensation for past acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Libya are under way, a senior State Department official said Friday. The wreckage of Pan Am 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland; the bombing killed 270 people in 1989. U.S. and Libyan officials met Wednesday and Thursday, the official said. The nations hope to hammer out a deal in which Libya would \"resolve all outstanding claims in good faith\" and offer \"fair compensation\" to victims and their families, he said. \"We are just at the beginning of this process. The goal is to get something that is fair and comprehensive,\" the official said. The official said that any agreement would cover about eight acts, including the 1989 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground; and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle disco in Berlin, Germany, that killed two people and injured at least 120, including 40 Americans. Outstanding terrorism claims have been a problem for Libya in its attempts to normalize relations with the United States and to begin development of its oil resources. Libya has expressed disappointment that it has failed to reap any political and economic benefits promised by the U.S. government and others after Libya renounced terrorism and stopped development of weapons of mass destruction. And some of the largest U.S. oil companies are eager to begin exploration and development of Libya oil fields, among the 10 largest in the world. The new negotiations and development of an agreement would ideally fulfill all outstanding lawsuits against Libya and allow investment to move forward. A joint U.S.-Libyan statement said, \"Both parties affirm their desire to work together to resolve all outstanding claims in good faith and expeditiously in the establishment of a fair compensation mechanism.\"","highlights":"Nations hoping for deal in which Libya would compensate terrorism victims .\nEights acts would be covered in possible agreement .\nLibya has tried to normalize relations with U.S. by renouncing terrorism .\nU.S. oil companies want to explore and develop Libya's oil fields .","id":"13a366f303e6ea2f07c353a9f5fb49a44840f808"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have produced aerial photos of jungle dwellers who they say are among the few remaining peoples on Earth who have had no contact with the outside world. Indigenous Brazilians are photographed during an overflight in May, reacting to the sights over their camp. Taken from a small airplane, the photos show men outside thatched communal huts, necks craned upward, pointing bows toward the air in a remote corner of the Amazonian rainforest. The National Indian Foundation, a government agency in Brazil, published the photos Thursday on its Web site. It tracks \"uncontacted tribes\" -- indigenous groups that are thought to have had no contact with outsiders -- and seeks to protect them from encroachment. More than 100 uncontacted tribes remain worldwide, and about half live in the remote reaches of the Amazonian rainforest in Peru or Brazil, near the recently photographed tribe, according to Survival International, a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of indigenous people. \"All are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed or decimated by new diseases,\" the organization said Thursday. Illegal logging in Peru is threatening several uncontacted groups, pushing them over the border with Brazil and toward potential conflicts with about 500 uncontacted Indians living on the Brazilian side, Survival International said. Its director, Stephen Cory, said the new photographs highlight the need to protect uncontacted people from intrusion by the outside world. \"These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist,\" Cory said in a statement. \"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.\" The photos released Thursday show men who look strong and healthy, the Brazilian government said. They and their relatives apparently live in six communal shelters known as malocas, according to the government, which has tracked at least four uncontacted groups in the region for the past 20 years. Watch a report on the tribe \u00bb . The photos were taken during 20 hours of flights conducted between April 28 and May 2.","highlights":"The photos are published on the National Indian Foundation's Web site .\nGovernment: Men appear strong and healthy, live in communal shelters .\n\"Uncontacted tribes\" are thought to have had no contact with outsiders .","id":"ee36a8b5db09b9e9a6d462116539ffc095d5c017"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, formed Saturday near the coast of Belize, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Tropical Storm Arthur could make its way across the Yucatan and re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm made its way over land and was expected to weaken, but the center said the storm could re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico and regain intensity Sunday. At 11 p.m., the center of Arthur was over the southern Yucatan Peninsula, about 80 miles (125 km) west of Chetumal, Mexico, and about 120 miles (195 km) south-southeast of Campeche, Mexico. It was moving west at about 7 miles (11 km) per hour. The storm's maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph (65 km\/hr), with higher gusts, mainly over water east of its center. Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 260 miles (415 km) from the center of the storm, forecasters said. The government of Belize issued a tropical storm warning for the nation's coast, and the government of Mexico issued a tropical storm warning from Cabo Catoche south to the border with Belize. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area -- in this case, within the next six to 12 hours. The storm was forecast to dump up to 10 inches of rain over Belize, up to 15 inches in isolated areas, the hurricane center said. The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season begins Sunday. On Thursday, Tropical Storm Alma, the first one of the year in the eastern Pacific, formed near the west coast of Central America, according to the National Weather Service. The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression and dissipated over the high terrain of Central America. The federal government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted this month that the Atlantic season would be more active than normal, with up to 16 named storms and up to five major hurricanes of Category 3 or above. The noted Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team predicted this year that there would be 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes. The team calculated a 69 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coast. A survey released this week found that 50 percent of 1,100 adults surveyed in Atlantic and U.S. Gulf Coast states did not have disaster plans or survival kits. \"Nearly one in three said they would not prepare their home until a storm is within 24 hours of landfall,\" Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center, said Thursday. \"Now is the time to buy all that stuff,\" he said upon the release of the survey by polling firm Mason-Dixon.","highlights":"NEW: Storm could re-emerge into Gulf of Mexico and regain intensity .\nStorm's maximum sustained winds near 40 mph .\nStorm forecast to dump up to 10 to 15 inches of rain over Belize .\n2008 hurricane season begins Sunday .","id":"d3b3bcf90226a694361cb27f1a4d481c79b7368a"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Imams delivering their Friday sermons in Iraq are denouncing the shooting of a Quran, the holy book of Islam, by a U.S. soldier. Col. Ted Martin kisses a copy of the Quran before presenting it to tribal leaders Saturday. \"If we were strongly united from the beginning, that silly-minded American soldier wouldn't have used the Quran as a target,\" said Sheikh Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samarie, delivering a sermon at Um al-Qura Sunni Mosque in Baghdad. The U.S. military and President Bush have apologized, but it did not stem the violent protests in Afghanistan and calls from both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis for the soldier to be severely punished. Muslims around the world were angered when it came to light last week that an American staff sergeant -- a sniper section leader -- had used a Quran for target practice in Iraq. Imams at mosques in the largely Sunni cities of Falluja and Mosul, and in Baghdad, condemned the act. The Baghdad mosque prayer was broadcast live on state TV. \"This soldier put the head of his state in embarrassment that he had to apologize to the prime minister. We call upon this soldier to be punished. This act, we reject and we stand against it,\" al-Samarie said. He said if a similar incident happened again, \"the world will turn upside down and things will not go back to how they were.\" Watch residents of Baghdad protest \u00bb . Sayyed Muhanned al-Mossawi, a Shiite imam at al-Hakma mosque, said: \"We condemn and denounce the criminal act by the American soldier in Radhwaniya in tearing the Holy Quran and using it as a shooting target.\" Friday's prayer service is the most important Muslim event of the week. The U.S. commander in Baghdad issued a formal apology Saturday and read a letter of apology from the shooter. Watch the U.S. military formally apologize \u00bb . The sergeant has been relieved of duty as a section leader, officially reprimanded by his commanding general, dismissed from his regiment and reassigned to the United States, the U.S. military said. Iraq's most powerful Sunni Arab party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has demanded the \"severest of punishments\" for the American soldier. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"We condemn and denounce the criminal act,\" Shiite imam says in Friday sermon .\nSunni imam calls soldier \"silly-minded American\" who embarrassed leader .\nAmerican staff sergeant had used a Quran for target practice in Iraq .\nFriday prayers most significant event of the week for Muslims .","id":"e5e837f2cc75fc44ebf826822aa4c9dc59344b8b"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- On the question of whether recent immigrants assimilate as quickly as previous waves, many Americans exhibit short fuses -- and even shorter memories. Ruben Navarrette Jr. notes that immigrants have been criticized throughout history for not assimilating. They have convinced themselves that, instead of adapting to the customs of this country, new arrivals -- most of whom come from Asia or Latin America -- expect the rest of us to accommodate them. They go ballistic over little things -- Mexican flags, taco trucks, libraries that offer bilingual story time, or having to \"press one for English.\" Yet, even as they look down on new immigrants, many Americans look back fondly upon their immigrant ancestors. Legend has it that when grandpa arrived from Ireland, Germany, Italy or Poland, he jumped off the boat, immediately draped himself in the American flag, ripped out his native tongue, and abandoned his culture -- all while singing \"Yankee Doodle Dandy.\" Germans did not move to Milwaukee and make beer and cheese. The Irish did not settle in Boston and join organizations like the Hibernian Society to preserve their heritage and culture. And even while Americans complain about how the current crop of immigrants aren't like their predecessors, they miss the irony: At the time, there were people who said the same thing about their ancestors; the Germans were thought to not be like the English, the Irish weren't like the Germans, the Italians weren't like the Irish etc. And the Chinese weren't like anyone who had come before them, and so they were labeled \"unassimilable\" by the Tom Tancredos of that era. Some things never change. When I was growing up in Central California, which is home to a large population of immigrants from Southeast Asia, thousands would gather to celebrate Hmong New Year. The local newspaper would do a feature. And, in the days that followed, someone would write an angry letter to the editor complaining that these people weren't melting into the pot. Yet, there is more melting going on than one might think, according to a new report from the Manhattan Institute. Billed as the first annual Index of Immigrant Assimilation, the study was written by Duke University Professor Jacob Vigdor. It measured three kinds of assimilation: economic (employment, education, homeownership, etc.); cultural (intermarriage, English proficiency, family size, etc.); and civic (citizenship, military service, political participation, etc.). Far from discovering that recent immigrants are ducking the assimilation process, the study found that \"immigrants of the past quarter-century have assimilated more rapidly than their counterparts of a century ago, even though they are more distinct from the native population upon arrival.\" Of course, individual groups still fall behind in some categories. Chinese and Indian immigrants have low levels of cultural assimilation. Mexican immigrants have low levels of economic assimilation. And Canadian and Indian immigrants have low levels of civic assimilation, since few of them become citizens. But, overall, the news is good. After more than 200 years, America still does an excellent job of assimilating immigrants. Even if a particular group tried to resist the process, they wouldn't stand a chance. Assimilation happens, whether the immigrants are ready or not. Those are the facts. Of course, fear doesn't listen to facts. That is something else that hasn't changed. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist. Read his column here. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Navarrette: Americans perceive new immigrants as not assimilating .\nAmericans think ancestors got off the boat waving the Stars and Stripes, he says .\nThat leads to resentment of current wave of immigrants, he says .\nBut a recent study says new immigrants are joining the mainstream .","id":"1317a869cc1d6d534a93eaad67fb6550aa155ae6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australia leg-spinner Stuart MacGill has announced he will quit international cricket at the end of the ongoing second Test against West Indies. MacGill will retire after 10 years of Test cricket, in which he has taken 207 wickets. The 37-year-old made his Test debut against South Africa 10 years ago and has since gone on to take 207 wickets at an average of 28.28 over 43 Test matches. \"Unfortunately now my time is up,\" MacGill said. \"I am incredibly lucky that as well as providing me with amazing opportunities off the field, my job allows me to test myself in one of Australia's most highly scrutinised sporting environments. \"Bowling with some of crickets all time greats such as Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee has made my job a lot easier. I want to be sure that exciting young bowlers like Mitchell Johnson enjoy the same privilege,\" he added. MacGill took the only wicket to fall on a rain-interrupted third day of the Test in Antigua. He had Ramnaresh Sarwan brilliantly caught at slip by Michael Clarke for a well-constructed 65, but otherwise drew blank on a frustrating day for the tourists. The ever dependable Shivnarine Chanderpaul (55 not out) and Dwayne Bravo (29 not out) took the West Indies to the close on 255 for four wickets. They were replying to Australia's 479 for seven declared and with only two days remaining a draw looks the likely outcome in MacGill's farewell appearance. Australia won the first Test in Jamaica by 95 runs.","highlights":"Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill has announced he will quit Test cricket .\nThe 37-year-old made his Test debut 10 years ago and has taken 207 wickets .\nMacGill took only wicket to fall in rain-interrupted third day of second Test .\nShivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo compile unbroken stand of 73 .","id":"f856ca4cd15992e0e88ae9113bf31b2a5ab55072"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- An Indonesian businessman known for publicity stunts dropped 100 million rupiah, or about $10,700, from an aircraft Sunday to promote his new book. Bank notes are dropped from a small airplane Sunday to promote Tung Desem Waringin's new book. Tung Desem Waringin circled eight times over a soccer field in the city of Serang, about 40 miles west of Jakarta, emptying bag after black bag of cash. Below, men snatched bills from the hands of young ones. Giddy schoolchildren jumped up and down in excitement, holding up notes they picked up. One man held a blue cap that he had stuffed with money. Another sat in a corner of the field, massaging his feet after a madcap dash for cash. Watch Waringin make it rain \u00bb . The stunt was to promote Tung's book \"Marketing Revolution,\" said Fajar Ramdani, the media coordinator for the event. Tung initially wanted to pull the stunt over the capital of Jakarta, but police, fearing large crowds and potential chaos, did not grant him permission, local media reported. Three years ago, the 42-year-old motivational speaker rode a horse along Jakarta's main streets dressed as one of the country's most celebrated war heroes to launch his first book. The book went on to become a best-seller. Millions of people in Indonesia live on fewer than $2 a day. The publicity stunt was expected to generate a tremendous response because the country is grappling with rising food and fuel prices. CNN's Kathy Quiano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indonesian businessman circles soccer field eight times, dumping bags of cash .\nMen snatch bills from youngsters; one man stuffs blue cap with money .\nBusinessman wanted to pull stunt over Jakarta, but police feared chaos .\nAuthor once rode on horseback through Jakarta, dressed as war hero .","id":"438e8eaa1c64cb59288f9954355d0100181d19a2"} -{"article":"WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- She found her husband on their bed in a pool of his own vomit, dead from an accidental overdose of drugs he received from an online pharmacy. These pills were sent to CNN's Drew Griffin, even though he was never seen by a doctor. Every night before her husband went to bed, he would open a prescription bottle of the muscle relaxant Soma and swallow the eight or nine pills it took for him to fall asleep, said the woman. She spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because she wants to protect her husband's identity and not embarrass his family. The drugs arrived at their doorstep every week. She thought they were being prescribed by a treating physician. Her husband had been in a car accident and suffered back pain, and Soma was the one drug that could relieve the aches. She was wrong. The drugs were purchased online without a doctor's visit. She says that her husband had become an addict -- and that the Internet sites that sold him the drugs were his pushers. \"Absolutely,\" she said. \"That's exactly what they are.\" \"These pharmacy people that are doing this and these doctors that are doing this, they don't give a dadgummit about people. It's just the almighty dollar; that's all it is.\" Rusty Payne, a spokesman with the Drug Enforcement Administration, agreed. The abuse of pharmaceuticals \"is one of the biggest drug problems we are dealing with,\" he said. \"The Internet is the biggest culprit,\" Payne said. About $39 million in cash, bank accounts, property and computers were seized in 2007 as a result of Internet drug investigations, he said. In 2004, the figure was $11.9 million. The DEA has formed an initiative with Google, Yahoo! and AOL to warn people about buying drugs online. Between 2005 and 2007, Payne said the official warning popped up nearly 80 million times. A CNN investigation shows just how easy it is to purchase prescription drugs online without a legitimate prescription, revealing a growing new battle in the war on drug abuse. Watch why 'I wanted to end it' \u00bb . To prove it, a CNN investigative reporter went to linepharmacy.com, which advertises a long list of prescription drugs for sale. The site sent back an e-mail saying \"all orders made are still subjected to Doctor's evaluation.\" The reporter placed two orders for anti-depressants with the site: one for Prozac, the other for Elavil. A health survey on the site was already filled in. The reporter submitted a credit card and a shipping address. Within 24 hours, the Prozac had arrived at the reporter's front door. The Elavil arrived two days later. Both prescription bottles had a doctor's name and pharmacy on the label. Watch woman describe online drug 'Christmas' sales \u00bb . The reporter had neither seen a doctor nor talked to a doctor on the phone. In fact, he hadn't even heard of the doctor listed on the bottle. Carmen Catizone, the executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which works to implement and enforce uniform pharmaceutical standards, said prescription drugs are the new crack and heroin, and Internet sites that sell them are the new drug dealers. Except narcotics, Catizone said, \"you can order virtually any drug in the world by simply clicking a mouse and going to various Web sites that exist out there.\" His group blames unscrupulous doctors for writing prescriptions without ever seeing the patients or even reviewing their medical records. It has created a list of nearly 80 sites selling online drugs that it recommends people not use. It is illegal in every state for doctors to prescribe medicines to patients whom they do not know across state lines. It is also illegal in most states for pharmacies to ship prescriptions to where they have no license to operate. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy has tried to lobby Congress, asking for some federal oversight or federal prosecution to stem the tide of illegal Internet pharmacies. But Catizone says legislators gave the board a chilly response: \"'Show us the dead bodies,' and if that was me or my family, that's a pretty sad statement for our legislators to give.\" It is unknown just how many people have died from overdoses related to these online drug sales. It is also unknown how many people have tried to commit suicide with drugs bought online, as Nancy Fitzpatrick of Washington state tried to do earlier this year. She showed CNN her prescription for Soma. The drugs were delivered by a pharmacy in American Fork, Utah, and prescribed by a doctor in Long Island, New York. \"I wanted to end it, I wanted to die,\" \"Fitzpatrick said, describing how she swallowed about 130 pills after she fell into a deep depression. Fitzpatrick, the sister of CNN investigative producer David Fitzpatrick, says she had no contact with the doctor or the pharmacy. Read about a sister found, an abuse uncovered . The doctor, Kareem Tannous, lives in a $4-million estate on Long Island and runs three health clinics. When confronted about the prescriptions in front of his Valley Stream, New York, clinic, Tannous hustled to his car and drove off without answering any questions. Workers inside Roots Pharmacy in American Fork, Utah, also refused to answer questions about why Fitzpatrick's prescriptions from Tannous were filled. The office in the small foothill town has a bolted security door and closed-circuit security cameras. The workers inside refused to even open the door or provide the name of the owner. In the reception area on the first floor, dozens of boxes of Federal Express envelopes were waiting to be filled. While CNN cameras rolled, one of the workers emptied a large clear plastic trash bag filled with empty wholesale prescription drug bottles. Most of the containers were labeled Carisoprodol, the generic name of the muscle relaxant Soma. \"They need to be stopped,\" Fitzpatrick said of the doctors and pharmacies involved. \"It just boggles my mind that it's so simple.\" CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN reporter gets drugs online without ever seeing a doctor as part of investigation .\nWidow describes losing her husband to overdose of drugs bought online .\nExpert says online pharmaceutical industry needs better regulation .\nWoman tells CNN she tried to commit suicide after falling into deep depression .","id":"470618f9fd48a5d134a44b5de166b625f596a0b3"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- At a debate in front of thousands of labor union activists Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic presidential rivals blasted him for his remarks about Pakistan. Last Wednesday, the Illinois senator said that if it were necessary to root out terrorists, he would send U.S. forces into Pakistan without the country's approval. \"You can think big, but remember, you shouldn't always say everything you think if you're running for president, because it has consequences around the world,\" Sen. Hillary Clinton said during a 90-minute Democratic presidential forum in Chicago sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Chicago is Obama's hometown, and Clinton's statement drew boos. The New York senator responded, \"We don't need that right now.\" Despite the frosty reception, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd joined Clinton in criticizing Obama. He said Obama's stance could undermine Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler, who has been a U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda. \"While General Musharraf is no Thomas Jefferson, he may be the only thing that stands between us and having an Islamic fundamentalist state in that country,\" Dodd said. \"So while I would like to see him change, the reality is, if we lose him, then what we face is an alternative that could be a lot worse for our country.\" Obama jumped into the fray. \"I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism,\" he said. \"If we have actionable intelligence on al Qaeda operatives, including [Osama] bin Laden, and President Musharraf cannot act, then we should,\" Obama said. \"That's just common sense.\" He also said Americans had the right to participate in the debate over such a key aspect of American foreign policy. But Clinton countered by saying that while U.S. forces might have to pursue action inside Pakistan \"on the basis of actionable intelligence,\" it was \"a very big mistake to telegraph that and to destabilize the Musharraf regime, which is fighting for its life against the Islamist extremists who are in bed with al Qaeda and the Taliban.\" \"Remember, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. The last thing we want is to have al Qaeda-like followers in charge of Pakistan and having access to nuclear weapons.\" Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware responded later in the debate, noting that the strategy Obama outlined was already U.S. policy. \"Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts,\" Biden said. \"It's already the policy of the United States -- has been for four years -- that there's actionable intelligence, we would go into Pakistan.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sen. Hillary Clinton booed when she criticizes Sen. Barack Obama at debate .\nClinton, Sen. Chris Dodd slam Obama's stance on Pakistan .\nObama: U.S. should go into Pakistan if intelligence warrants it .\nDebate sponsored by AFL-CIO drew thousands of labor activists .","id":"751e8f720d24c57e79cf63d9a3f72cd80c5d9619"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military is promising action to address conditions in a barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a soldier's father posted images on YouTube showing a building that he said \"should be condemned.\" A soldier battles overflowing sewage in the Fort Bragg barracks shortly after coming home from Afghanistan. \"This is embarrassing. It's disgusting. It makes me mad as hell,\" Ed Frawley said of the building where his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, had to live upon his return this month from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan. Frawley said Monday that Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody called him to say he shares Frawley's anger and that \"there's no excuse.\" Cody said he would not want his own sons or any troops to return to such conditions, Frawley said. Frawley's 10-minute video shows still photos from throughout the building, which appears to be falling apart and filled with mold and rust. Paint -- which Frawley said is lead-based -- is chipping. Ceiling tiles are missing. A broken drain pipe allows sewer gas into the building, while another one has tissues stuffed into it in an apparent effort to stop the gas from coming in. Photos from the communal bathroom show some of the most disgusting images. In one, a soldier stands in a sink to avoid what Frawley describes as 3 inches of sewage water that filled the floor when toilets overflowed. Watch the run-down conditions that soldiers have been living in \u00bb . At times, \"sewage water backs up into the sinks in the lower floors of these barracks,\" Frawley said in his narration. \"The soldiers have to tell one another who's taking a shower when they turn the sinks on, or the person taking the shower gets scalded with hot water.\" Frawley said the Army promised to have new barracks ready when his son's unit, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, returned. \"The conditions depicted in Mr. Frawley's video are appalling and unacceptable, and we are addressing the concerns he expressed,\" said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, in a written statement. \"Our paratroopers are our most valuable resource, and our commitment is to their well-being. Our actions now must represent the best we can do for our soldiers.\" \"Fundamentally, we acknowledge these conditions are not adequate by today's standards,\" he added. \"The images in Mr. Frawley's video are alarming, and our soldiers deserve the best conditions we can provide as an institution.\" Watch an interview with Frawley \u00bb . Officials at the base invited the media into the barracks and acknowledged that there are serious problems. Earnhardt said the building had been mostly unused during the 15 months Frawley and his unit were away. Fort Bragg has a massive construction project under way to create housing, but it is behind schedule, Earnhardt said. The buildings used by the 82nd Airborne are about 50 years old, he said. Earnhardt said the incident with the overflowing toilet took place the first day after the unit's return and has been addressed. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is among government officials who have responded to the video. In a written statement, she called living conditions in the barracks \"unacceptable\" and said the situation \"must be immediately corrected.\" Ed Frawley said he is \"hoping no one gets fired. I just want to see it get fixed.\" \"They have the slowest contractors in the world,\" he said, adding that people in jail live \"in better conditions.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike Phelan, Sarah Carden and Mary Lynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video shows moldy, rusty building with paint chipping; broken drain pipe .\nPicture: Soldier in a sink to prevent 3 inches of sewage water from overflowing .\n\"This is embarrassing. It's disgusting,\" soldier's father says .\nArmy Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody: \"There's no excuse\" for conditions .","id":"6a985a1090f146976d33c8b33342320a65a50211"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ecological and conservation groups are praising a move by the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new restrictions on rat poisons to help reduce the threat of accidental exposure to children and wildlife. The rules say only farmers, livestock owners and certified rodent control employees can buy rat poison in bulk. \"We are very happy that the EPA has done all it can to get these products off of the consumer market,\" said Michael Fry, director of conservation advocacy for the American Bird Conservancy. \"By putting these restrictions in place, they are allowing a compromise to be made between themselves and organizations who have been working on this problem for a long time.\" The EPA's new measures, which were handed down Thursday, require that rat poisons be kept in bait stations above ground and in containers that meet agency standards. Loose bait, such as pellets, and the four most hazardous types of pesticides, known as \"second-generation anticoagulants,\" will no longer be sold for personal use. Under the new restrictions, only farmers, livestock owners and certified rodent control employees will be allowed to purchase rat poison in bulk. Bags larger than 8 pounds will no longer be sold at hardware and home-improvement stores. Children who come into contact with highly toxic pellets can experience terrible symptoms from digesting them. They include internal bleeding, nosebleeds, hair loss and extensive bruising. Between 2001 and 2003, rat poison was responsible for nearly 60,000 poisonings, according to a study done by the American Association of Poison Control Centers. About 250 of these yearly exposures result in serious injuries or death. The EPA said it believes the restrictions will not only keep the products out of children's hands, but also reduce the ecological and wildlife risks associated with exposure to rat poison. Bait blocks that are typically placed on the ground use fish and other flavors that attract endangered species, including mountain lions. \"In California, almost every animal tested by the National Wildlife Service had residues of rodenticides,\" said Fry. \"The rat baits are also very lethal to scavengers, because the toxins remain in the rodent's body long after they initially die.\" Although the EPA is receiving considerable praise for the initiative, this isn't the first time the agency has worked to combat the threat of rat poison. In 1998, the EPA established two standards for rat poison. The agency required manufacturers to include an ingredient that made the poison taste bitter and use an indicator dye that would make the ingestion of pesticides more recognizable. But regulations were revoked in 2001 after the agency came to a mutual agreement with manufacturers to rescind the requirements. \"We determined that the dye wasn't effective in keeping children from being accidentally exposed and the bittering agent actually resulted in a loss of efficiency in controlling rodents,\" said Steven Bradbury, director of the agency's Division of Special Review and Re-registration. \"In our decision Thursday, we felt that we needed an approach that would stop children coming in contact with the pesticides in the first place. That ultimately led to the implementation of bait stations,\" Bradbury said. The decision to revoke the requirements led the West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. and the Natural Resource Defense Council to file a lawsuit three years later. Both organizations saw the retraction as a way to make it easy for consumers to purchase unsafe rodenticides over the counter. According to the West Harlem group, inner-city housing and park departments such as the New York City Housing Authority could continue laying rat baits in public areas that were easily accessible to children. \"Studies show that the number of poisonings in minority children is much higher than others,\" said Aaron Colangelo, a staff attorney at the Natural Resource Defense Council. \"Not only do we have an environmental health issue, but an environmental justice issue as well.\" New York State Health Department studies showed that 57 percent of children hospitalized for rat poisoning were black and 26 percent were Latino. The EPA said it is working to reduce those numbers in upcoming years with regulations like the ones it introduced this week. \"We were frustrated that the EPA dragged their feet for three years before finally taking some productive steps,\" said Colangelo. \"But, from our perspective, they are finally starting to do what needs to be done in order to protect children.\" After June 4, rat poison manufacturers will have 90 days to comply with the EPA's guidelines. They will then have the opportunity to design new bait stations and formulas for their poisons. All new products should be registered and certified by June 2011.","highlights":"EPA says new regulations will reduce rat poison exposure to children, wildlife .\nEnvironmental groups laud efforts to keep rat poison off consumer market .\nNew restrictions prohibit sale of loose pellets, bulk bags for personal use .\nBait blocks for rats that are used in the wild can attract endangered species .","id":"4640d2f968f31bcf384d8253e055611b10f4a38b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Suspected Islamic insurgents fired mortar rounds at a plane carrying Somalia's transitional president, but no one -- including Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed -- was harmed, a presidential spokesman said. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, pictured late last month during a visit to France. The attack happened while the plane was about to take off from Mogadishu's airport Sunday around 11 a.m. local time, spokesman Hussien Mohammed Huubsireb said. \"Al-Shaabab has actually tried to harm to president, but thank God nobody was hurt,\" Huubsireb said. Al-Shaabab is an Islamic militia that is trying to seize control of Somalia. It is a splinter group of the Islamic Courts Union, which ousted Somalia's transitional government in 2006. The ICU was deposed in December of that year following Ethiopia's military invasion. Bloody battles between Al-Shaabab and the Ethiopian-backed government forces in Mogadishu have forced residents to flee the capital. More than 40,000 displaced civilians have taken shelter in dozens of makeshift settlements west of Mogadishu, described by the United Nations as \"precarious conditions.\" Sunday's mortar attack is the second assassination attempt on Ahmed. The president survived a car bombing in September 2006 outside Somalia's parliament in Baidoa that killed at least eight others. Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has been more frequently targeted by the Islamic insurgents seeking to destabilize the government. Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting. Somalia's current transitional government is trying to maintain control of the capital, with the help of the better-equipped Ethiopian forces. But the presence of the Ethiopians has united various Islamic militant groups in Somalia, including Al-Shaabab, who are trying to oust the Ethiopian forces and gain control of Mogadishu. The United States classified Al-Shaabab as a terrorist organization in March, partly because of what Washington says is the group's close ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda militant group.","highlights":"Suspected Islamic rebels fire at a plane carrying Somalia's transitional president .\nPlane attacked as about to take off from Mogadishu, no injuries reported .\nAttack is the second assassination attempt on Ahmed after car bomb in 2006 .\nSomalia in chaos since 1991, when warlords deposed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre .","id":"22e0c9ba3465840583a5fd79714d2f7663c7e3a1"} -{"article":"PICHER, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Powerful storms killed 22 people in three states over the weekend, including an Oklahoma mother who died while huddling over her child, authorities said. Her son survived with facial injuries. Teresa Bland, left, comforts Betty Bayliss among the debris in Picher, Oklahoma, on Sunday. Emergency management agencies in two states reported deaths in four counties. There were six people killed in Ottawa County, Oklahoma; 13 in Newton County, Missouri; one in a small community just east of Carthage in Jasper County, Missouri; and one in Purdy in Barry County, Missouri. The severe weather moved into the Southeast, killing at least one person in Laurens County, Georgia. Watch how the storm hit one Georgia town hard \u00bb . The deadly Midwest tornado -- at times, a mile wide -- blew winds estimated at up to 175 miles per hour, tracking a total of 63 miles from Oklahoma to southwest Missouri, according to the National Weather Service. The storms spawned five twisters in Oklahoma and two in neighboring Arkansas. Possible tornadoes also were reported Sunday evening in the coastal Carolinas, according to the weather service. No injuries or fatalities were immediately reported. An official surveying the damage in the Midwest said it looked like a \"war zone.\" \"It's just horrific. It's devastating to all of us,\" said Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, who declared a state of emergency in Ottawa County. \"It appears the search and rescue part of the mission is over and now we're in the cleanup phase.\" Sherri Mills was in the small Oklahoma town of Picher -- northeast of Tulsa -- trying to find family pictures inside the wreckage that had been a friend's home. Mills said her friend was not home when the tornado struck. See scenes from the devastation \u00bb . \"Thank God she wasn't here,\" said Mills, standing in front of the piles of brick and wood. \"[She] lost everything. This was a two-story big brick home.\" Another man in Picher said he was home with his family when the storm hit. He said he was blown around inside the home and was lucky to be alive. \"We got down on the floor and huddled up together, and we weren't in there thirty seconds when it hit the house,\" the man said. \"We ended up right there under that door. At least I was under the door. My wife, two granddaughters, and my daughter was all there, just bunched up against each other.\" Watch a longtime pilot say he's never seen such destruction \u00bb . President Bush pledged federal support. \"Mother's Day is a sad day for those who lost their lives in Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia because of the tornadoes,\" Bush told reporters in Waco, Texas. \"We send our prayers for those who lost their lives. The federal government will be moving hard to help.\" Aboard Air Force One, Bush contacted Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and spoke with Henry after arriving at the White House. Bush did not specify what support the federal government would provide. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison also were in touch with the governors and planned to tour the disaster areas Tuesday. \"We will partner with our state counterparts to ensure that we bring the full complement of federal resources to their aid as needed,\" Paulison said. Lisa Janak, spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said one person was killed in Dublin, just south of Macon. And the nearby town of Kite, with about 200 residents, was \"significantly damaged,\" she said. Earlier, Janak said there were reports that the town was \"gone,\" but added later that those claims were exaggerated. Perdue declared a state of emergency Sunday in six counties in Georgia. Watch how a severe storm took Georgia by surprise \u00bb . Authorities fear there may be additional casualties in Missouri, said Susie Stonner, spokeswoman with the state Emergency Management Agency in Jefferson City, Missouri. A twister touched down in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday and killed six people in Ottawa County, according to emergency officials. Another 150 were injured and an unknown number of people were missing. No other information was available about the Oklahoma mother who died while huddling over her child. Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said the town enlisted firefighters from surrounding areas who went house-to-house in a 20-block area, sifting through rubble and searching for survivors. \"It looks like a war zone,\" she said. \"Some homes have fallen in, some homes have lost roofs and some are now just slabs.\" Freelance journalist Mike Priest went to a heavy-hit neighborhood in Picher on Sunday, surveying an area where almost all the houses were leveled. All the residents had evacuated leaving behind, cars, clothes and even their pets, Priest said. \"As you can see some people's pets have been left behind and they are fighting over some food,\" he said, shooting footage of the scene. \"Just total devastation. Houses wiped all the way down to the foundation. You can see what used to be a house in the driveway. The storm was incredibly, incredibly strong right through here.\" CNN's Lee Garen, Susan Candiotti and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"15 dead in Missouri, 1 killed in Georgia, six in Oklahoma, officials say .\nStates of emergency declared in Oklahoma, Georgia counties .\nStorm system struck Midwest, then continued into the South .\nPresident Bush has pledged federal support, has talked to states' governors .","id":"10dafcc21761c60f8fc5bd832daf8f21cf0fc66d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brendon Pelser said he saw pure terror in the faces of his fellow passengers after an engine fell from a wing as it took off from Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday. Men were sweating profusely, women were crying. \"There was fear on their faces,\" Pelser said. \"Everyone started panicking.\" But the pilot of Nationwide Airlines' Boeing 737 Flight CE723 was able to fly long enough to dump fuel and make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport. Including crew, 100 hundred people were on the plane that departed at 3:50 p.m. on an hourlong flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. No one was injured. The jet had only been in the air about 10 minutes before the engine fell. \"We heard something crash and bang, the plane veering left and right. A person on the right side said the engine was missing -- had broken clean off,\" said Pelser. Watch Pelser describe how the flight crew told passengers to \"prepare for the worst\" \u00bb . \"They flew us in very slowly. We were all prepared for the worst. We went into the fetal position, head between the legs,\" he said. \"Then we hit the runway.\" \"I did kind of pray. I didn't want to die. I'm not really ready to die,\" the 33-year-old said. An object had been sucked into the engine as the nose wheel lifted from the ground and officials are trying to identify it. The engine-to-wing supporting structure is designed to release an engine \"when extreme forces are applied,\" to prevent structural damage to the wing, Nationwide said on its Web site. The airline described the incident as a \"catastrophic engine failure.\" As the nose wheel lifted from the ground, \"the captain heard a loud noise immediately followed by a yaw of the aircraft (sideways slippage) to the right,\" the airline said in a news release. The flight instruments showed the No. 2 engine on the right side had failed, it said. Pelser said he spent the night in Cape Town, then flew back to Johannesburg where he lives, on the same airline. Nationwide said the engine had undergone a major overhaul in March 2005 at \"an approved Federal Aviation Authority facility in the U.S.A.\" and had flown only 3,806 hours since then. \"These engines typically achieve 10,000 hours between major overhauls,\" Nationwide Airlines' press release stated. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nationwide Airlines pilot dumped fuel until he landed plane Wednesday .\nAn object was sucked into the engine as the nose wheel lifted from the ground .\n100, including crew, were on the plane; no one was injured .\nPlane passenger: \"Everyone started panicking\"","id":"75da85a72e0028e1b07c65f6b771a1eaa20b4e04"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The nation's largest publicly owned utility company may be vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to a new report. In 2007 President Bush visited the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which supplies power to almost 9 million Americans, \"has not fully implemented appropriate security practices to protect the control systems used to operate its critical infrastructures,\" leaving them \"vulnerable to disruption,\" the Government Accountability Office found. Simply put, that means a skilled hacker could disrupt the system and cause a blackout. Rep. James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, fears the problem is much larger than just the TVA. \"If they are not secure, I don't have a great deal of confidence that the rest of our critical infrastructure on the electric grid is secure,\" he said. The TVA operates 52 nuclear, hydroelectric and fossil-fuel facilities in the southeastern United States. Among the government watchdog agency findings: . \u2022 The TVA's firewalls have been bypassed or are inadequately configured . \u2022 Passwords are not effective . \u2022 Servers and work stations lack key patches and effective virus protection . \u2022 Intrusion-detection systems are not adequate . \u2022 Some locations lack enough physical security around control systems. The GAO recommends 73 steps to correct the problems in its report to Congress. In September, CNN first aired dramatic footage of a government experiment demonstrating that a cyber attack could destroy electrical equipment. The experiment, dubbed \"Aurora,\" caused a generator to fall apart and grind to a halt after a computer attack on its control system. The test was conducted by scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory. In October, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. told Congress that 75 percent of utilities had taken steps to mitigate the Aurora vulnerability, but Langevin said it now appears that Congress was misled. A congressional audit of the electric reliability corporation's claim cast doubt on the assertion that most utilities were taking steps to fix the problem. \"It appears that they just made those numbers up,\" Langevin said. \"It is not acceptable. It is outrageous.\" He said the result is there is now no clear picture of how vulnerable utilities are to cyber attacks. The electric reliability corporation -- a nongovernmental group that oversees the power system and comprises members of the industry and some consumers -- told CNN it regrets the confusion. Experts told CNN that Cooper Industries is the only manufacturer of hardware that can close the Aurora vulnerability. The company estimated it would need to sell about 10,000 devices to fix the problem nationwide. It has sold just over 100, it told CNN. Langevin said the federal government may need new powers to require utilities to take corrective actions to close cyber security gaps, and he will press to give those powers to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The congressman is chairing an Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology subcommittee hearing Wednesday afternoon. Representatives of the TVA, the GAO, the federal commission and the electric reliability corporation are to appear before the subcommittee.","highlights":"A hacker could disrupt Tennessee Valley Authority system, causing blackouts .\nTVA supplies power to almost 9 million Americans .\nCongress was told 75 percent of utilities fixed problems to combat attacks .\nRepresentative: no clear picture of how vulnerable utilities are to cyber attacks .","id":"9166b4c77e919f7a7cc457f9df981512dea3694f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs are used by the military to provide nutritious and compact meals for the troops. The meals spark memories good and bad, for those who ate them in the military and even for some civilians who used them during disasters, when food was not readily available. Harald Schweizer was 19 when this photo was taken in the summer of 1968 in Vietnam. He is holding a C ration. CNN.com readers shared their stories and memories of MREs and C rations. Some of the responses have been edited for clarity and length. Here is a selection: . Michael Reimers of Gresham, Oregon MREs are the fancy ones. We had C rations. Probably left over from WWII! For my 21st birthday in 1982 I was on border patrol at the Czech border and my friends snuck in two beers and made a cake for me out of what was available. They took a fruitcake that was in something like a tuna can tin and they mixed hot chocolate mix with grape jelly to make the frosting and added a candle and two German beers and we were in business out in the woods. It was very cool being with all my buddies and them doing that for me. Ronald Mervyn of Burton, Michigan I served in the army from April 1985 to February 1988. MREs were not all that bad. I liked the chicken ala king, the dehydrated potatoes patty and the chocolate chip cookies the best. They were all edible. I wish I could have brought some home to share with family and friends. Steven Carrigan of Salina, Kansas I served in the U.S. Marine corps. Did I eat MREs? You bet and a lot of them. They get the job done but always needed a bit of spicing up, Tabasco sauce that someone would bring to the field, usually. Cold weather affected them more than anything. Nothing worse than getting the beans and franks in cold weather. The beans would be semi-hard and the franks rock solid. The preservative that they are in gels up and looks like petroleum jelly. Had to carry them next to your body to get them warm. To me the worst one was the chicken ala king, disgusting. The desserts were always good. Some guys had recipes that you could mix together two or three MREs and have a pretty good meal if you had heat and the time to cook it. Even though I thought I left them behind when I left the military, I still have them in the car during the winter and when I do ice fishing. They are great in a pinch. Annette Sweet of Leavenworth, Kansas This is a different side of life all together; I believe the best memories were how to heat your MRE before they came out with the heating pouch. Spaghetti, wow that was a good one, the best way to serve it was to take your MRE cheese, a mini bottle of the Tabasco that came in the pack and mix it all together and place on the hood of your Humvee on a hot day or by the heater on a cold day. Umm good. Now, the worst ever that I believe they came out with was the loaf, I can't even say whether it was meat or vegetables but it really left a very heavy feeling in the pit of your stomach. You can never forget the ham slices; unfortunately they forgot to slice it, it was about \u00bd inch thick filled with gristle and very salty, very hard to digest. The different assortments of all the MREs were, as I call them, Charms candy, hard as a rock and stuck to your teeth; Tootsie roll, huge and didn't taste like chocolate; Chicklet gum, send you straight to the throne; the peanut butter and crackers, well, a bit oily but I considered a keeper. Oh, by the way, they did have real coffee. I believe it was Tasters Choice, not sure though. And fruit loaf, what can you say about a loaf? Once a loaf, always a loaf, and staying with tradition of blended items, you mixed a pack of the powered cream they gave you for the coffee in with just a smidgen of water and you had peaches ala mode. I never went hungry, but sometimes I never was full. I have retired now and have come to appreciate what is good food. It's being a civilian, sitting at a real table, with silverware, plate and glass, looking back on where I came from and knowing that I can't go back in body but in spirit. From a retired soldier, just keeping it real. To all my comrades that came before me, with me and after me, God Bless you and thank you for all that you do. Suzanne Yeltnuh of Ahwatukee, Arizona I was a victim of Hurricanes Jeanne, Frances and Wilma. We had no power for 21 days and the stores were out of food. I stood in lines for hours for ice and MREs and was very thankful. I actually think they are very good! Now that I moved to Arizona, at least I don't have to worry about hurricanes!Watch as civilians taste MREs . Clarence Ragland of Tucson, Arizona I not only had MREs, but I also had their predecessor, the C ration! C-rats, as they were called, came with a can opener called a P-38, and were OK. The MRE has come a long way since its inception, and the chicken ala king was one of the best. Still have some at home, although I retired from the Air Force in 2000. Megan Sterrett of APO, New York While I was in the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, I sent an MRE to my children so they could see what they were like. My daughter, who was in the second grade, took it in to school for show and tell. One of the girls in the class declared that she would rather eat sand, to which my daughter replied, \"Well you can chose to eat this or choose to die.\" It's always interesting to get a child's perspective on things. You never know what they will come up with.Explore the history of U.S. combat rations . Gary Burton of Clarksville, Tennessee My father served in Vietnam and related this story to me about the old C rations they were served to eat. He said the canned sponge cake was an \"acquired taste,\" so instead of eating it, they opened a petcock valve on the nearby helicopters and filled the cake and tin with aircraft fuel. When lit, the sponge cake would burn for hours and allow the men to heat the rest of their meal with it. David Hollingsworth of Baltimore, Maryland I was a member of the 18th Airborne Corps F.A. b 5\/8th Artillery in August 1990; among the first troops from Fort Bragg to deploy in that area. MREs were considered pretty OK meals to eat until my unit was linked in a special mission with the French troops. Their rations were of something that came off of our dinner tables. (Real food!) We would trade them every night for food until they realized what the big fuss was all about. I know real sardines and things of that nature might not sound as appetizing as other foods. However, compared to the MREs we were eating, the French troops' food was a delicacy to most. Mark Grocki of Birmingham, Michigan I have not served in the military, but I have eaten MREs on backpacking trips through Michigan provided to me by a friend's cousin who serves in the Marines. I've always looked forward to them, and have found the entrees like Mexican rice, beef stew, and ham and cheese omelets rather tasty. The crackers and various snack items are good on the go, too, but don't drink the water from the heating element! When asked by other people, \"What do they taste like?\" I have only one word for them. \"Freedom.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN readers recall good and bad memories of MREs .\n\"They get the job done but always needed a bit of spicing up\"\nMeat-vegetable-loaf \"left a very heavy feeling in the pit of your stomach\"\nCanned sponge cake an \"acquired taste\"","id":"81e50c6cdbea4e55af6307d653135ef395b6d7fe"} -{"article":"DERBY, England -- Substitute Emmanuel Adebayor struck his second hat-trick against Derby this season as Arsenal ran riot with a 6-2 Premier League victory at Pride Park. Arsenal players celebrate Robin Van Persie's goal in their comfortable 6-2 victory over Derby. The Gunners, 5-0 winners at The Emirates earlier in the season, made sure of third place in the table with a rousing second-half display against relegated Derby, who move closer to being the Premier League's worst-ever side. Arsene Wenger's side led 2-1 at the break after goals from Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie either side of a Jay McEveley effort. Theo Walcott was on target too, but the second half belonged to Togo international striker Adebayor, who struck three times to take his season's tally to 30 in all competitions, with Rob Earnshaw grabbing a consolation for the hosts in this eight-goal thriller. Bottom side Derby, now 30 league games without a victory, began the more purposefully and Emanuel Villa only just failed to connect Tyrone Mears' inviting low cross . Then Mile Sterjovski's drive took a major deflection off Alex Song to wrong-foot goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, making his first league start for Arsenal, only for the ball to creep past the right-hand post. The Gunners struggled to find their rhythm early on and were fortunate not to go behind when Villa's bullet header flew just over. Derby were made to pay for those early misses when Darren Moore's 25th minute mistake presented the ball to Niklas Bendtner, who played a one-two with Robin Van Persie before coolly slotting the ball into the left corner. However, Derby soon scored the equalizer they deserved. Robbie Savage's inswinging free-kick landed on the six-yard line and Jay McEveley reacted first to hook the ball home. The home side's joy was short-lived though, when Derby's defensive frailties were exposed again as Van Persie as given all the time in the world to chest down Kolo Toure's floated pass and volley home in style. Adebayor replaced Van Persie for the second-half and Arsenal immediately looked intent on adding to their goals tally. Twice Kolo Toure, playing at right-back, fired over, the second opportunity created by Cesc Fabregas' brilliant backheel. There was nothing goalkeeper Roy Carroll could do to deny Adebayor Arsenal's third goal. Walcott took advantage of Alan Stubbs' slip to cut the ball back to Emmanuel Eboue, who gave Adebayor an easy finish. Walcott should have made it four when he was put through by Bendtner but the teenager fired wide with the goal at his mercy. By now it was looking all too easy for the Gunners as they toyed with home side, creating chances at will -- but against the run of play Derby reduced the deficit to just a single goal when substitute Robert Earnshaw stroked the ball home. Yet within a minute the two-goal cushion was restored, Gael Clichy pinging a pinpoint pass to Walcott wide on the left before the youngster cut inside and curled into the top-right corner. Adebayor grabbed another poacher's goal, sliding to convert another Clichy assist with 10 minutes remaining before he wrapped up his hat-trick from an acute angle in added time. With two games remaining, Arsenal are four points behind Manchester United and Chelsea, still with an outside chance of lifting the Premier League title. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Emmanuel Adebayor hits hat-trick as Arsenal thrash Derby 6-2 at Pride Park .\nThe result follows Arsenal's 5-0 win against bottom side earlier this season .\nArsenal are four points behind Man United and Chelsea with two matches left .","id":"59fa6c3439d216272cc845d35627f8eb11b08a6d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some 220 square miles of ice has collapsed in Antarctica and an ice shelf about seven times the size of Manhattan is \"hanging by a thread,\" the British Antarctic Survey said Tuesday, blaming global warming. Scientists say the size of the threatened shelf is about 5,282 square miles. \"We are in for a lot more events like this,\" said professor Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Scambos alerted the British Antarctic Survey after he noticed part of the Wilkins ice shelf disintegrating on February 28, when he was looking at NASA satellite images. Late February marks the end of summer at the South Pole and is the time when such events are most likely, he said. Watch aerial footage of the area \u00bb . \"The amazing thing was, we saw it within hours of it beginning, in between the morning and the afternoon pictures of that day,\" Scambos said of the large chunk that broke away on February 28. The Wilkins ice shelf lost about 6 percent of its surface a decade ago, the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement on its Web site . Another 220 square miles -- including the chunk that Scambos spotted -- had splintered from the ice shelf as of March 8, the group said. \"As of mid-March, only a narrow strip of shelf ice was protecting several thousand kilometers of potential further breakup,\" the group said. Scambos' center put the size of the threatened shelf at about 5,282 square miles, comparable to the state of Connecticut, or about half the area of Scotland. See a map and photos as the collapse progressed \u00bb . Once Scambos called the British Antarctic Survey, the group sent an aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to examine the extent of the breakout. \"We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage,\" said Jim Elliott, according to the group's Web site. \"Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble -- it's like an explosion,\" he said. \"Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened,\" David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey said, according to the Web site. \"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread -- we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.\" But with Antarctica's summer ending, Scambos said the \"unusual show is over for this season.\" Ice shelves are floating ice sheets attached to the coast. Because they are already floating, their collapse does not have any effect on sea levels, according to the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey. Scambos said the ice shelf is not currently on the path of the increasingly popular tourist ships that travel from South America to Antarctica. But some plants and animals may have to adapt to the collapse. \"Wildlife will be impacted, but they are pretty adept at dealing with a topsy-turvy world,\" he said. \"The ecosystem is pretty resilient.\" Several ice shelves -- Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and Jones -- have collapsed in the past three decades, the British Antarctic Survey said. Larsen B, a 1,254-square-mile ice shelf, comparable in size to the U.S. state of Rhode Island, collapsed in 2002, the group said. Scientists say the western Antarctic peninsula -- the piece of the continent that stretches toward South America -- has warmed more than any other place on Earth over the past 50 years, rising by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit each decade. Scambos said the poles will be the leading edge of what's happening in the rest of the world as global warming continues. \"Even though they seem far away, changes in the polar regions could have an impact on both hemispheres, with sea level rise and changes in climate patterns,\" he said. News of the Wilkins ice shelf's impending breakup came less than two weeks after the United Nations Environment Program reported that the world's glaciers are melting away and that they show \"record\" losses. \"Data from close to 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges indicate that between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 the average rate of melting and thinning more than doubled,\" the UNEP said March 16. The most severe glacial shrinking occurred in Europe, with Norway's Breidalblikkbrea glacier, UNEP said. That glacier thinned by about 10 feet in 2006, compared with less than a foot the year before, it said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Marsha Walton contributed to this report.","highlights":"A large chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica broke away last month .\nOnly a narrow strip of ice is protecting the shelf from further breakup .\n\"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly,\" scientist says .\nIce shelves are floating ice sheets attached to the coast .","id":"2eff3ba44cfaefbff89ebc764828ae9e4d477c9b"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A woman who died after she was hit by a spotted eagle ray leaping from the water off the Florida Keys suffered \"multiple skull fractures and direct brain injury,\" a medical examiner said Friday. The dead spotted eagle ray lies on the deck of a boat in Florida. Judy Kay Zagorski, 55, of Pigeon, Michigan, died Thursday of \"blunt force craniocerebral trauma\" after the ray hit her when she was in a boat, Monroe County medical examiner Michael Hunter determined. He gave no indication in the preliminary report whether the blow from the ray itself or her head hitting the deck, or both, killed her. \"It's just as freakish of an accident as I have heard,\" said Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. \"The chances of this occurring are so remote that most of us are completely astonished that this happened.\" Zagorski was on the boat with her father and other family members and friends. She was seated or standing in the front of the vessel as it was traveling about 25 mph out of a channel, Pino said. \"The ray just actually popped up in front of the vessel,\" he said. \"The father had not even a second to react. It was too late. It happened instantly and the woman fell backwards and, unfortunately, died as a result of the collision.\" The accident happened off the coast of Marathon Key, about 2\u00bd hours' drive south of Miami. Zagorski was taken to the Fishermen's Hospital in Marathon, where she was pronounced dead. Watch marine officers work around dead ray on boat \u00bb . Pino said he had seen rays leap into the air, but added, \"it's very rare for them to collide with objects.\" Watch experts explain why eagle rays leap \u00bb . The spotted-eagle ray weighed about 75 to 80 pounds and had a 6-foot wingspan, Pino said. Watch officials investigate eagle ray collision \u00bb . Florida Fish and Wildlife said eagle rays \"are not an aggressive species, but they do tend to leap from the water.\" Spotted eagle rays can have a wingspan of up to 10 feet and can weigh 500 pounds, it said. Learn more about eagle rays \u00bb . Television personality Steve Irwin was killed when a ray's barb pierced his heart in September 2006. A month later, an 81-year-old Florida man, James Bertakis, survived after a ray leaped from the water and stung him in the heart, according to the Orlando Sentinel. He spent five weeks on a ventilator and his recovery took several months, his sons told the Detroit Free Press in his former home state of Michigan. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Woman suffered brain injury, multiple skull fractures, medical examiner rules .\nSpotted eagle ray leaps from water, strikes woman on boat, officials say .\nVictim was 55-year-old woman from Michigan .\nSpotted eagle ray weighed 75 to 80 pounds, official says .","id":"74698ee383888faf5a49b32ecb8211b888270b76"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- Top-seeded Maria Sharapova was a shock casualty at the French Open on Monday when she crashed 6-7 7-6 6-2 against fellow Russian Dinara Safina in Paris. Ecstasy: Safina releases her emotions after her comeback win over Maria Sharapova in the French Open last 16. Bidding for the only Grand Slam title she has yet to win, new world No. 1 Sharapova twice blew big leads in the second set. Sharapova's customary screeches reached maximum volume as the match slipped away, and the noise seemed to annoy fans. They whistled and booed Sharapova as she left Court Suzanne Lenglen after the match, and she didn't acknowledge the crowd. \"I can't please everyone. It's not in my job description,\" she said. \"I'm an athlete, and I go out there and fight my heart out. They paid the ticket to watch me, so they must appreciate me on some level, right?\" Sharapova won five consecutive games in the second set to go ahead 5-2, and held a match point serving in the next game. She also led 5-2 in the second tiebreaker before losing five consecutive points, then unraveled down the stretch, losing the final four games and 10 of the last 12 points. It was the latest setback for Sharapova on clay, her least-favorite surface. \"On this stuff, things happen in a hurry,\" she said. \"It was all in her hands,\" Safina said. \"Then suddenly it changed.\" Safina, the younger sister of two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin, duplicated her upset of Sharapova in the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2006. She received a congratulatory text from her brother and said she hopes to join him as the winner of a major title. \"A dream of all our family,\" she said. \"Once we do this, we can put the racket on the wall and say we did everything we could. But to get to his level, I still have to work a little bit harder.\" The No. 13-seeded Safina's next opponent will be No. 7 Elena Dementieva, who won another all-Russian matchup against No. 11 Vera Zvonareva, 6-4 1-6 6-2. Trailing Sharapova 5-3 in the second set, Safina saved match point with a backhand winner, then broke two points later when Sharapova pushed a forehand wide. In the second tiebreaker, Sharapova double-faulted for 5-4 and then hit three errant backhands. That evened the match, but the momentum favored Safina. Sharapova's customary squeals during rallies became more intense during the sixth game of the final set, and she screamed at herself after points. \"Just trying to pump myself up,\" she said. \"I was trying to get angry about something. I just started playing tentatively.\" She erased three break points before conceding the game with a forehand into the net. That gave Safina a 4-2 lead, and she closed out the victory, falling to her knees with glee when Sharapova socked a wild forehand on match point. It was latest in a series of memorable victories over the past month for Safina. She was the last player to beat recently retired Justine Henin, a four-time French Open champion. That upset came on clay in early May at Berlin, where Safina went on to win the biggest title of her career. \"She's a really tough opponent on this surface,\" Sharapova said. \"I came very close, but it didn't go my way for some reason.\" In other fourth round ties, Russian fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was leading Belarussian 16th seed Victoria Azarenka 6-2 2-2 while Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Estonia's Kaia Kanepi were 3-6 6-3 when play was halted.","highlights":"Top-seeded Maria Sharapova was a shock casualty at the French Open .\nWorld No. 1 crashed 6-7 7-6 6-2 against fellow Russian Dinara Safina .\nSafina, the 13th seed, faces another Russian Elena Dementieva in last 8 .","id":"79a6d24f452d8c1cef47ab224fd2083b0d08324c"} -{"article":"GUDDA, India (CNN) -- In Gudda, a village with very little, residents are literally beaming. Just two years ago, villagers had never seen light after dark, unless it came from the moon. Then, solar light arrived and changed everything. Children in Gudda stand on rooftops near a solar panel. Solar power first arrived two years ago. \"When the lanterns first arrived, the villagers asked, 'What is this?' \" says Hanuman Ram, the local solar engineer. \"I explained to them how it worked. Then slowly, as people saw it, they said, 'Wow, what a thing this is!' \" There are no real roads that lead to the tiny village in the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India, home to about 100 families. There are only thin strips of tar dotted with massive potholes that force vehicles into thick brush. Other times, cars have to maneuver over just dirt. There is no electricity -- power lines don't extend out here. Water is scarce, too. At the village well, women balance jugs of water on their heads, deftly evading the livestock that saunters along. Visit the sites of Gudda with CNN's Arwa Damon \u00bb . It's a simple lifestyle of farming, tending to goats, caring for children and carrying out household chores -- a daily routine that hasn't changed much over the centuries. That's why light transformed Gudda. Villagers could play music at night. Children could study well past sundown. Watch villagers smile as they light their solar lamps \u00bb . As Yamouna Groomis kneads dough for her family's evening meal, she blows through a pipe every once in a while to keep a flame burning in an outdoor clay pit. Her days used to end when the sun went down. She smiles as she proudly flicks on a solar lamp. \"When I saw this light coming on for the first time, I was very happy,\" she says. The light is powered by a solar panel on her roof that charges a battery. Panels can be seen on almost every rooftop in Gudda. See where Gudda is located \u00bb . Ram, the man credited with the transformation, doesn't have a high school degree. But he did attend an institution about an hour away called Barefoot College, established 35 years ago with an emphasis on helping India's rural population find solutions for their problems among themselves. The college, in part funded by the Indian government, trains villagers all over India who have little or no education, giving them a range of skills to change their lives. The entire campus, which has amenities such as a library, meeting halls, open-air theater and labs, uses solar power. On a recent visit to the main college campus, a group of village women were hard at work making solar cookers, which can boil a liter of water in eight minutes. They are part of the \"Women Barefoot Solar Cooker Engineers Society\" -- six women who came together and started their own business. Barefoot College serves an outlying community of 125,000 people. In a nearby village, women flock to a water desalinization and purification plant set up by the college and maintained by Barefoot graduates. The station, powered by solar panels, provides the area with a rare commodity: clean drinking water. At the local store in Gudda, owner Ram Swarup puts his solar panels to maximum use. He says the solar lights have allowed him to increase his business by a third. The panels also have powered up the only DVD player and television in the village. Partly paralyzed by polio, Swarup never dreamed that he would have so much in life. He says it took courage -- and light. The villagers say that they now feel empowered -- less reliant on a far-off government. Even the village's engineer is amazed. At Ram's house, the solar lamps flicker to life. He smiles as he says that before, he didn't even know what artificial light was, and now, he's a solar power expert. \"I never saw light before,\" he says. \"How could I think that I could bring light here?\" Like most of the Barefoot graduates, he was selected to attend the college by his village elders. Now, every night when the lights flicker on, he says, he feels great. With the extra earnings he's made as a solar engineer, he's made another of his childhood dreams come true. He purchased his favorite instrument, a harmonium, and now the family can gather around every night and listen to his music. He says he hopes his daughter, now 14 years old, will follow in his footsteps and become a solar engineer. Ram's 80-year-old mother, meanwhile, beams with pride about her son's accomplishments: \"I just wanted him to do something good for the village.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Residents had never had light after dark until two years ago .\nWhen villagers saw solar lights in action, their reaction was \"Wow\"\nNearby college helps India's poorest of the poor solve problems .\nVillager describes seeing light for first time: \"I was very happy\"","id":"50f2041a2bed7f316d3254192c4158095eeec2e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tom Cruise expounds on his beliefs in Scientology in a 2004 video that made its way onto the Internet this week. Tom Cruise appears with his wife, Katie Holmes, at a movie premiere earlier this month. \"I think it's a privilege to call yourself a Scientologist, and it's something you have to earn,\" Cruise says at the beginning of the video. Cruise says he's \"driven ... by the opportunity to really help, for the first time, change people's lives. I'm absolutely, uncompromisingly dedicated to that.\" The video was shown at a 2004 Scientology ceremony honoring Cruise for his humanitarian work. Church of Scientology officials said it can be viewed at any of its churches, but it created a stir this week when what the church calls a pirated and edited version appeared on YouTube. The video has since been taken off YouTube, but an interview portion remained available on the celebrity Web site gawker.com on Thursday. Watch snippets of Cruise video \u00bb . \"The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried To Suppress\" is the title of gawker.com's presentation. \"You have to watch this video,\" the site says. \"It shows Tom Cruise, with all the wide-eyed fervor that he brings to the promotion of a movie, making the argument for Scientology,\" which it calls \"the bizarre 20th-century religion. Watch \"Showbiz Tonight\" discussion of Cruise video \u00bb . Cruise talks over a repetitive guitar-riff soundtrack, and appears to be answering questions, though an interviewer is not seen or heard. A second part of the video, made available to CNN by the publisher of a new unauthorized biography of Cruise, shows Cruise accepting Scientology's Freedom Medal of Valor award and exchanging military-like salutes with Scientology chairman David Miscavige to audience applause. The publisher denies leaking other parts of the video to the Web. In the video by the publisher, Cruise also salutes a portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, cited on the church's Web site as the founder of \"the only major religion founded in the 20th century.\" Hubbard's biography cites his accomplishments as everything from mariner and horticulturalist to author and humanitarian. In the video, Cruise puts emphasis on the latter role. A Scientologist \"has the ability to create new realities and improve conditions,\" Cruise says. On its Web site, the Church of Scientology highlights its humanitarian work, from anti-drug campaigns in places from Minnesota to Taiwan to teacher training in India. The Web site defines Scientology as \"the study of truth.\" Cruise embraces that in the video. \"If you're a Scientologist, ... you see things the way they are,\" Cruise says. He also says he finds peace in the religion. \"The more you know as a Scientologist, you don't become overwhelmed by it,\" according to Cruise. The unauthorized biography of Cruise is by author Andrew Morton. A Cruise spokesperson and the Church of Scientology have disputed the book, saying Morton did not seek their comment. \"Accuracy and truth were not on Morton's agenda,\" according to a church statement. Morton denies that and says Cruise, who he calls \"a towering figure on the international scene,\" and his faith are worthy of scrutiny. \"Tom Cruise has done remarkable work for his faith over the past few years,\" Morton said. \"If it wasn't for him the Church of Scientology would be a shadow of what it is today.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Brad Lendon, David Mattingly and Don Lemon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientology membership a privilege that's earned, Cruise says .\n2004 video part of ceremony honoring Cruise for humanitarian work .\nScientology defined as \"study of the truth\"","id":"de6ed8db6d639706f2c5015c699fc578e4aa43ec"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In what he called a \"defining moment for our nation,\" Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday became the first African-American to head the ticket of a major political party. Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday told supporters he will be the Democratic nominee. Obama's steady stream of superdelegate endorsements, combined with the delegates he received from Tuesday's primaries, put him past the 2,118 threshold, CNN projects. \"Tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another -- a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,\" he said. \"Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.\" Watch Obama say he'll be the nominee \u00bb . Obama's rally was at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota -- the same arena which will house the 2008 Republican National Convention in September. Speaking in New York, Sen. Hillary Clinton, congratulated Obama for his campaign, but she did not concede the race nor discuss the possibility of running as vice president. \"This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight,\" she said. Watch Clinton congratulate Obama \u00bb . There were reports earlier in the day that she would concede, but her campaign said she was \"absolutely not\" prepared to do so. Two New York lawmakers also told CNN on Tuesday that during a conference call Clinton expressed willingness to serve as Obama's running mate in November. Watch the latest on a possible joint ticket \u00bb' One source told CNN that Clinton told those on the call that if asked by Obama, she would be interested in serving as his running mate. One of the lawmakers said Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, has been pushing the idea privately for several weeks. The Clinton campaign maintains the New York senator merely said she would do whatever is in the party's best interest, and that her comments Tuesday are no different than what she has been saying for weeks. Clinton said she would meet with supporters and party leaders in the coming days to determine her next steps. She also asked people to go to her Web site to \"share your thoughts with me and help in any way that you can.\" Watch what could be in store in Clinton's future \u00bb . CNN has projected that Clinton will win the primary in South Dakota and Obama will take Montana. Those states marked the final contests in the primary season. Obama praised Clinton's campaign. He has been speaking favorably of the New York senator as his focus has turned toward the general election and his battle against John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. \"Sen. Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight,\" he said. Diving into general election mode, Obama turned his attacks to McCain, saying it's \"time to turn the page on the policies of the past.\" \"While John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign,\" he said. \"It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.\" Earlier Tuesday night, McCain portrayed himself as the candidate of \"right change.\" \"No matter who wins this election, the direction of this country is going to change dramatically. But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change, between going forward and going backward,\" he said in Kenner, Louisiana. CNN's Candy Crowley, Jim Acosta, Suzanne Malveaux, Paul Steinhauser and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton says she's not making any decisions tonight .\nNEW: CNN projects Clinton wins South Dakota; Obama takes Montana .\nObama passes delegate threshold .\nClinton tells New York lawmakers she would be Obama's No. 2 .","id":"8abb66a9697a8c59348fcc79de126691e394bded"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that it is investigating an incident in which a panel separated from the wing of a Boeing 757 while it was in flight last week. iReporter and Flight 1250 passenger Paul Shepherd took this photo of the damage through the aircraft's window. The incident occurred Saturday on US Airways Flight 1250 from Orlando, Florida, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the NTSB said in a statement. The separation occurred over Maryland. The aircraft landed in Philadelphia about 30 minutes later, and none of the 174 passengers or six crew members aboard was injured. The panel, on the trailing edge of the upper side of the left wing, broke loose and struck several windows toward the rear of the aircraft, causing the outer pane of one window to crack, the agency said. Pressurization of the cabin was not compromised. The wing panel has not been located. NTSB investigators are using a computer program to pinpoint the area where it might be and will notify local authorities that an aircraft part may be there, the statement said. The plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have arrived at the NTSB laboratory in Washington, the agency said, and are being evaluated. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating US Airways flight .\nPlane was en route from Orlando, Florida, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania .\nWing panel struck several windows, cracking the outer pane of one .\nPlane landed in Philadelphia about 30 minutes after the incident with no injuries .","id":"11ec3be451b57e4312b44eeabb3ae441435c662e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On video, Joran van der Sloot says he \"didn't lose a minute of sleep\" over knowing Natalee Holloway's motionless body had been taken out to sea and dumped. Joran van der Sloot awaits transfer from the Netherlands to Aruba in November. He later was released. In the video that aired Sunday on Dutch television, van der Sloot, a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Holloway, told a man he was with the Alabama teen on an Aruban beach when she apparently died and that a friend of his with a boat disposed of Holloway's body. \"He went out to sea and then he threw her out, like an old rag,\" van der Sloot told Aruban businessman Patrick van der Eem January 16. Van der Eem recorded their conversations on hidden cameras installed in the Range Rover he was driving, according to the Dutch TV report. Watch van der Sloot on hidden camera \u00bb . On the tapes, van der Sloot also says that he wasn't certain Holloway was dead before his friend dumped her body in the ocean. \"No, but it didn't look good,\" he said, when van der Eem asked him if he checked her pulse or other vital signs. \"I wasn't [expletive] sure, but from the time it happened to the time he came, she wasn't doing anything any more.\" Aruba's chief prosecutor, Hans Mos, called the account that aired \"very impressive\" and announced he was reopening the investigation. Van der Sloot later said the statements were lies, and on Monday his attorney said the video contains \"no admission of a crime.\" In the video, van der Sloot says Holloway and her friends begged him to go out with them the night of May 29, 2005. The Dutch student said he and two friends -- brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe -- met the women at a bar in Oranjestad. When they arrived, he said, the women appeared to have been drinking heavily and some were using cocaine. Holloway was in Aruba with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama. After declining an invitation from Holloway to dance on stage with her, he agreed to drink a shot of liquor from her navel as she lay on the bar, he said. About 1 a.m. May 30, he said, she left the bar with him and the Kalpoes, telling her friends she would meet them at their hotel before their planned return flight the next day to the United States, he said. The three men previously told authorities they then drove to the beach with Holloway, leaving her there when she told them she wanted to stay. But van der Sloot gave a different account in the hidden-camera footage. He said he wanted to have sex with Holloway, but she told him she did not want to go to her hotel. Instead, she said, she wanted to see sharks, he told the informant. The two brothers then used their car to drive van der Sloot and Holloway to the beach by the hotel and left them, van der Sloot said. He and Holloway then had sex, he said. But as they were caressing each other, she started shaking, then said nothing, he said. \"All of a sudden, what she did was like in a movie,\" he said. \"She was shaking, it was awful. ... I prodded her, there was nothing.\" He said he panicked and, when she did not appear to be alive, shook her but was unable to resuscitate her. He said he carried her body to a stand of trees, walked to a pay phone near the pool of the hotel and, instead of using his cell phone, called a friend who owned a boat that was tied up at a nearby dock. Upon the friend's arrival, the two men carried Holloway's body to the boat, and the friend told van der Sloot to go home, he said. The student then walked back to his house, where his father was asleep when he arrived about 15 minutes later, he recounted. He estimated the time at 2:30 or 3 a.m. Van der Sloot said the boat owner showed up at his house later in the morning and told him he had taken the body out less than a mile from land and dumped it overboard. He added that the incident with the woman has not bothered him. \"I didn't lose a minute of sleep over it,\" he said. The video footage shows van der Sloot is \"not innocent,\" Holloway's mother said Monday. \"Once people see the video, there are no more questions; there is no one that could walk away from this believing that he is innocent,\" Beth Twitty told ABC. Twitty described the video as a source of \"comfort,\" saying \"it means everything.\" \"I felt that it put an end to my nightmare,\" she said. \"The nightmare is not knowing, and I feel as if now, I can begin the mourning and the healing process for losing a child.\" She added, \"Not knowing is the absolute cruelest thing that a person can endure.\" Van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, told ABC Monday that \"there's no confession, there's no admission of a crime by Joran on any of these tapes.\" He said much of what was in the video is \"easily disprovable based on corroborative evidence. ... The fact of the matter is he still is not responsible. The evidence, not Joran, the evidence, says he's not responsible for Natalee's death.\" Tacopina added, \"I'm certainly not asking at this point for anyone to believe Joran. ... Clearly his credibility is zero.\" Last week, van der Sloot called the Dutch television program \"Pauw & Witteman\" and acknowledged having made the comments but said they were lies. \"That is what he wanted to hear, so I told him what he wanted to hear,\" van der Sloot said. A judge denied a prosecution request that van der Sloot, the son of a lawyer, be detained in the Netherlands, where he is a student. The judge did determine that sufficient reason exists to reopen the inquiry against van der Sloot. Watch CNN's Frederik Pleitgen report on the new video \u00bb . Mos said that on Tuesday he will appeal the judge's decision barring Van der Sloot's arrest and said that a three-judge panel will have eight days to rule on it. In a statement, the Office of the Public Prosecutor on Sunday cautioned the report does not necessarily solve the case. \"There is a big difference between the reality of a courtroom and the reality of a television screen,\" it said. Watch a CNN legal analyst discuss the Holloway case \u00bb . On Monday, Tacopina said at least two points of his client's story could be disproved. He said the Aruban coast guard had checked the pay phone where van der Sloot said he had called his friend, and the records show that \"there's no such call.\" Also, Tacopina said, the friend whom his client names in the video met van der Sloot two months ago, and the friend wasn't in Aruba in May 2005. He also has never owned a boat, the attorney said. Van der Eem told ABC he befriended van der Sloot by pretending to be a gangster after meeting him in a casino. \"Why did I want this? It's obvious. Everybody was looking for the truth. For her mother,\" he said. In the interview with ABC, van der Eem became emotional himself while saying that van der Sloot talked about Holloway's death \"without any emotions.\" Van der Eem, who ABC reported once spent a year in prison on drug charges, said he and van der Sloot smoked marijuana on long car rides over the course of several months. Van der Eem told the network he pretended to invite van der Sloot into a drug operation to gain his trust. He approached reporter Peter R. de Vries' television show, telling them he had gained van der Sloot's trust, and the program outfitted an SUV with hidden video cameras. Van der Eem has been paid about $35,000 by the show -- which has a format similar to the U.S. show \"America's Most Wanted.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Suspect says on hidden camera Holloway appeared to have died on beach .\nLawyer: Facts disprove client's videotaped story of Natalee Holloway's death .\nHolloway's mom says video leaves no doubt about daughter's death .\nReport: Hidden camera captures suspect saying Holloway's body was dumped .","id":"eed527dece78deffed54a7cdd8516c4d57a90011"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. has restored Fulbright scholarships to seven Gaza-based students, saying it erred last week when it rescinded the awards because of travel restrictions that Israel imposes on the Palestinian territory. Student Hadeel Abukwaik, 23, says she hopes to have an exit visa to leave Gaza for the U.S. by August. In e-mails to the students on Sunday, the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said the United States was working with Israeli authorities to let them leave the Hamas-ruled zone to study at American universities. The scholarships were reinstated after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed outrage about the initial decision, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday. McCormack said the initial decision was partly the result of a \"faulty decision-making process\" by the State Department. \"The secretary saw it when it got to her level. She said, 'Fix it,'\" McCormack said. \"We hope that it has been fixed and that we are working with the Israelis to get these exit permits so that these individuals, again, can have a visa interview.\" Watch how the students learned about the scholarship loss \u00bb . U.S. officials had said the scholarships were rescinded because Israel had denied them exit visas. But McCormack said Monday that U.S. authorities did not take up the matter with Israel until after the matter became public. Israel, which has been criticized for banning hundreds of students from leaving Gaza to study abroad, said it considers each application individually. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev indicated Sunday that his country would be willing to grant the students visas. \"This can happen,\" Regev said. \"No one has to pressure Israel on this issue. We have an interest. A real interest.\" Citing security concerns, Israel imposed an embargo on the movement of people and goods from Gaza after Islamic militant group Hamas took over the territory last year. Palestinians can leave Gaza only with Israeli permission. Hamas has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist, and Israel, the United States and the European Union have designated it a terrorist organization. McCormack said the seven Gaza Fulbright students must be interviewed by Israeli authorities before they can get visas to the United States. \"Should they have a successful visa interview -- and by law I can't prejudge an outcome of a visa interview -- then they would be able to come to the United States and pursue their program,\" he said. If the seven are allowed to leave, it would be the first time Israel has let students do so from Gaza since January, according to Palestinian advocacy group Gisha. One of the Gaza Fulbright scholars, Hadeel Abukwaik, 23, said she \"laughed like crazy\" from sheer joy when she received Sunday's e-mail. \"I was really hoping for this, but I didn't want to want it too much,\" the software engineering student said by phone Monday. \"I didn't want to be disappointed again. \"This is really good news.\" Fulbright scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and leadership potential under the U.S. government-funded Fulbright program, which was started in 1946. The scholarships allow U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to study and teach abroad to promote the \"mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries of the world.\" More than 279,000 participants have been chosen for Fulbright scholarships. Abukwaik said the e-mail she received Sunday gave no indication about when the students might be able to travel. She is waiting to hear back from several universities, including ones in California and Florida. She said academic programs start in August and she hopes to have a visa to leave Gaza by then. CNN's Atika Shubert in Gaza City and Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: State Department says U.S. erred when it rescinded scholarships .\nU.S. tells students it is trying to persuade Israel to let them leave Gaza .\nU.S. cited Israeli travel restrictions on territory when it rescinded awards last week .\nIsraeli spokesman indicates his country would be willing to grant visas .","id":"803c0dc8b3d2eb528fd084b613dfc29d98151d72"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Police in Tibet have arrested 16 Buddhist monks and are seeking three more for their alleged involvement in one bombing and two attempted bombings, authorities in Tibet told state-run media. Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers are shown in the streets of Lhasa, Tibet, on March 14. All three cases occurred in Tibet's Mangkam county during the first half of April, according to the Tibet Autonomous Regional Department of Public Security. The suspects confessed, police said, saying they had listened to foreign radio and were following separatist propaganda from the Dalai Lama, China's Xinhua news agency reported. CNN could not confirm whether the suspects confessed. The Dalai Lama has said he does not advocate violence or a separate and independent Tibet. He has said he wants a genuine autonomy that preserves the cultural heritage of Tibet. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama and his followers for violence that erupted March 14 amid anti-Chinese demonstrations in Tibet. Some protesters advocated independence from China while others demonstrated against the growing influence of ethnic Han Chinese in Tibet and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations. The Chinese authorities cracked down on the protests, which began peacefully on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising. Widespread violence broke out across China's Tibetan region, especially in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, following a week of protests by hundreds of Buddhist monks. \"Real Buddhists should learn Buddhist scriptures by heart, love their country and their religion, abide by the law, and bring happiness to people,\" said Dainzin Chilai, vice-chairman of the China Buddhist Association and vice-chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Tibet Autonomous Region. \"They should not involve themselves in cruel killing and sabotage.\" Both groups Chilai represents are affiliated with the Chinese government. The unrest resulted in the deaths of at least 18 civilians and one police officer, according to government figures. It also injured 382 civilians and 241 police officers and led to the looting of businesses and home and the burning of shops and vehicles. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140. At the time of the unrest, roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces, demolishing military trucks and pushing back riot police, a witness told CNN, and Tibetans seemed to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.","highlights":"Arrests tied to three bombings in April, police tell Xinhua .\nChina says suspects confessed; CNN could not confirm .\nLhasa, Tibet was site of deadly unrest in March .","id":"d4fb4cca753c0f5586bd93bb124b0491711396d9"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Workers using blowtorches accidentally started a weekend fire at Universal Studios, Los Angeles County spokeswoman Judy Hammond told CNN Monday. The fire burns buildings and movie sets at Universal Studios on Sunday. The fast-moving, early morning blaze destroyed several movie sets and the King Kong exhibit. It also damaged a video vault but copies of reels and videos are kept at another location, said Ron Meyer, chief operating officer of Universal Studios. \"Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost,\" he said. \"The video library was affected and damaged, but our main vault of our motion picture negatives was not.\" While firefighters were battling the blaze Sunday, a pressurized cylinder exploded at Universal Studios on Sunday, injuring two firefighters, officials said. Eight other firefighters were injured during much of Sunday as they fought back enormous flames. Universal Studios officials resumed normal business hours Monday, including the studio tour. The fire destroyed an area called New York street, which includes movie set-style buildings designed to look like the cityscape of New York City. Hours after the blaze was reported, the roughly two-block area appeared charred and resembled a \"disaster movie,\" said Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge. LaBonge said he could see the smoke from his Silver Lake home Sunday morning. \"It looked like a bomb had exploded,\" he said. The fire began around 4:45 a.m. and was contained initially by 9 a.m. Throughout the morning, large plumes of black smoke rose as the fire burned the vault containing hundreds of videos, said Meyer. The set of \"The Changeling,\" a film recently directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, was \"completely destroyed,\" Meyer said. Another area called \"Courthouse Square\" also was destroyed, he said. Numerous movies have been shot in that area, including several scenes of the 1985 hit \"Back to the Future.\"","highlights":"Workers using heating tools started Sunday's fire, an official told CNN .\nThe blaze destroyed movie sets and a King Kong exhibit .\n10 firefighters were injured .","id":"723443b1c16e2276a1aa03259a600044e86c2538"} -{"article":"DORCHESTER, England (CNN) -- Englishman John Webber thought nothing of the small, shiny cup, passed down from his junk dealer grandfather and stashed under a bed for years, until appraisers said it was an ancient Persian artifact. The ancient Persian gold cup, thought to date from the third or fourth century B.C., fetched $100,000 at auction. The 5\u00bd-inch gold cup, which experts have dated to the third or fourth century B.C., fetched $100,000 at an auction in Dorchester, southern England, Thursday. The identity of the winning bidder wasn't immediately known. The relic features the double faced ancient Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors who always looked to both the future and past and is often associated with beginnings and endings. The cup has two faces with braided hair and entwined snake ornaments at the forehead. Webber's grandfather, William Sparks, was a rag and bone man, the British term for a junk dealer, Duke's said, who established the iron merchants Sparks and Son in Taunton, Somerset, in southwestern England, in the 1930s. Sparks acquired the cup along with two other pieces, also up for auction, in the 1930s or 1940s, the spokeswoman said. Watch CNN report on the auction \u00bb . Before he died, Sparks gave the items to Webber, who didn't realize their value, the spokeswoman said. \"Because he mainly dealt in brass and bronze, I thought that was what it was made from,\" Webber told the Bournemouth News and Picture Service. \"I put it in a box and forgot about it. Then last year I moved house and took it out to have a look, and I realized it wasn't bronze or brass. \"I sent it to the British Museum, and the experts there hadn't seen anything like it before and recommended I had it tested at a laboratory. So I paid quite a bit of money for it to be examined by a lab the museum recommended. And they found the gold dated from the third of fourth century B.C.\" Webber, who is in his 70s, said he remembers the cup from when he was a small boy. \"It's been quite exciting finding out what it was,\" he told the agency. Webber brought the items to Duke's at the start of the year for potential sale, because he wanted to \"realize some money,\" the auction house spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Duke's Auction House, which is selling the cup, said the cup is believed to be from the Archaemenid empire in ancient Persia. The other two items are a second century B.C. round gold mount with a figure, probably of ancient Greek hero Ajax, who besieged Troy, and a decorated gold spoon with an image of a Roman emperor. \"He had a good eye for quality over the years,\" said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, \"and anything interesting he'd put aside.\" Scientists analyzed trace elements of a gold sample taken from the cup to determine its age, and analysts from Oxford University concluded that they are consistent with Archaemenid gold and goldsmithing, Duke's said.","highlights":"Gold cup stashed under bed for years is $100,000 ancient Persian artifact .\nSmall urn went under the hammer at auction in southern England Thursday .\nArtifact acquired by junk dealer, grandfather of current owner, in the 1930s or 1940s .\nExperts say it is believed to date from the third or fourth century B.C.","id":"b30a8f4dbb4f8375a8a9c2ccb4f658cc66dca0f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From a country which brought the world brands like Sony and Toyota, there's another name that's crept quietly to global prominence. Hello Kitty, the moon-faced cat with a bow in her hair and no mouth. Shintaro Tsuji, CEO of Sanrio, famous for its Hello Kitty brand, speaks in The Boardroom. She's one of 450 characters developed by Japan's Sanrio Group, but she's by far most popular -- the embodiment of what's known in Japan as Kawaii, or the culture of cute. Her image adorns some 50,000 objects, from cute, of course, to downright crazy. But there's nothing cute about the numbers. Hello Kitty is responsible for more than half of Sanrio's billion dollar annual turnover. Her creator and founder of Sanrio is the effervescent 79-year-old Shintaro Tsuji. He told The Boardroom's Andrew Stevens what he thinks is the marketing secret behind a cultural icon. Tsuji: Selling something which people want to buy is one of the ways of doing business. But I thought, goods that I want are also something other people want. So we wanted to make goods which people want to send to somebody else as a gift. The idea is that goods are for social communication purposes and that has been accepted worldwide. In addition, to give Hello Kitty goods as a present is very thoughtful. Our three concepts of friendship, cuteness and thoughtfulness have been reaching out to people. It conveys the importance of being friendly. Such gestures are necessary for the Japanese nation. You care about other people by sending some gifts. Those concepts have been accepted worldwide. Stevens: My first question to you is Sanrio has developed something like 450 characters. Why it is Hello Kitty has stood out so much more than the others? What is the secret of its success? Tsuji: At first we were using characters which were created by outsiders, such as cartoonists or artists, but in this case we had to pay the royalty. So we decided to create our own characters. We hired many artists and asked them to create various characters. According to our own research, the most popular animal character was a dog then a white cat and the third one was a bear. Snoopy already existed as a dog character -- that's why we went for the second most popular character. We asked the artists to design a character based on a white cat. Stevens: Let me just ask you a question about your life, growing up. Reading your autobiography, you lost your mother when you were 13 years old. You went to live with your auntie. And you describe your life; your childhood, has been a quite lonely. How do you think that has shaped you in your business life? Tsuji: I felt that the most important thing in your life is to have someone whom you can open up your heart to and talk about anything; to have many friends whom you can talk with your heart is the most blessed thing in your life. Then I asked myself how can you make friends -- in what way people can make a friend with those people. That is not just to avoid behaving, which makes people uncomfortable. But do something, which makes people happy. In this way people can make friends. For example, when people are ill, you can say something to them, or when people did something for you, you say thank you to them. For those kinds of occasions, you send a small present rather than an expensive gift. It is important to show your appreciation since you are able to make good friends in this way. This idea has formed as a business. As a result, Hello Kitty was created. Hello Kitty has become known among everybody and it means that people are becoming friends. I am pleased with this phenomenon. Stevens: What, in your business career, is the most important lesson you think you've learnt? Tsuji: A good company means that, first of all, its sale increases each year and secondly it makes profits each year. This is what people call a quality company. But this is not my main concern. Obviously, a company shouldn't lose money. A company cannot contribute to a society easily. But for me, it is important to establish a company, which has a good reputation. Stevens: Much easier said than done, how do you remain true to your original ideas, though, because there are so many pressures from shareholders among other people to make those profits? Tsuji: The company shareholders actually say \"Make more profits or dividends.\" But what I always say to them at the general assembly is that the shareholder should be someone who truly values my company and is proud of having my company's share. According to newspapers, there are companies which make a profit by polluting the environment or breaking laws. But this is not acceptable by our standard. I bet the company staffs want to have an increase in the wages. But I want my staffs to be proud of themselves, in particular, when their children ask them where they are working. In my view, that is very important. Stevens: What advice would you give to someone starting out their own company in 21st century? Tsuji: It is not only about making profits or establishing a huge corporation. A bigger country doesn't mean a better country. Having a larger military capacity doesn't mean a better thing. It will be ideal to establish a company which is a value to the world. It's not just about the money. So I would say \"How about creating companies which people appreciate?\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Shintaro Tsuji, CEO of Sanrio speaks to Andrew Stevens in The Boardroom .\nSanrio's most famous character is Hello Kitty, a moon-faced cat .\nHello Kitty is responsible for more than half of Sanrio's billion dollar turnover .","id":"f874dc1da36d2c45a65f78dc0dc9dcdf5846c3c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. President George Bush railed against the government of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe Monday, calling intimidation of opposition figures \"deplorable.\" Leading opposition figure Artur Mutambara was arrested following his criticism of President Robert Mugabe. \"The continued use of government-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe, including unwarranted arrests and intimidation of opposition figures, to prevent the Movement for Democratic Change from campaigning freely ahead of the June 27 presidential runoff election is deplorable,\" Bush said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in neighboring South Africa. Zimbabwean authorities Sunday arrested an opposition leader on charges stemming from his criticism of the government and its handling of the recent presidential election, an official with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change told CNN. Police in Harare surrounded the house of student activist-turned-opposition politician Arthur Mutambara and arrested him on charges of contempt of court and publishing falsehoods, MDC official Romualdo Mavedzenge said. While Zimbabwe authorities have arrested dozens of MDC supporters and activists over the past two months, Mavedzenge said \"this is the highest profile MDC official (arrested) since the March 29 election.\" Mutambara is president of an MDC faction that split from the main party headed by Morgan Tsvangirai. After Tsvangirai's party won the majority of seats in parliament, the two leaders agreed to join forces in parliament under Mutambara's leadership. Both charges stem from an opinion piece written by Mutambara in which he criticized President Robert Mugabe for the way the March 29 elections were handled. Raphael Khumalo, chief executive of The Sunday Standard, which published the article, was arrested last month on charges of publishing falsehoods. Bush said Mugabe's government is failing on multiple levels. \"We call on the regime to immediately halt all attacks and to permit freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and access to the media,\" Bush said. \"We urge the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, the United Nations, and other international organizations to blanket the country with election and human rights monitors immediately.\" Zimbabwe's election commission said Tsvangirai won the March presidential election, but didn't win a majority of the vote, forcing this month's vote. The MDC contested the results, saying Tsvangirai won outright, but decided to take part in the runoff and not cede the election to Mugabe.","highlights":"Bush: Continued use of government-sponsored violence deplorable .\nOpposition unable to campaign freely ahead of June 27 presidential runoff election .\nPolice arrest student activist-turned-opposition politician Arthur Mutambara .\nBush: Mugabe's government is failing on multiple levels .","id":"60fc2801c429858cc0a87e547f1c30e34a7a96f3"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A massive blast targeting the Danish Embassy in Pakistan Monday killed at least six people and wounded as many as 18, authorities said. The scene of devastation in Islamabad Monday after a suicide car bomb attack near the Danish Embassy. The blast left a four-foot deep crater in the road. Confusion lingered about the attack in the capital city of Islamabad and the number of casualties. Police at the scene said a suicide car bomber pulled up next to the embassy at about 1 p.m. and detonated explosives. But Senior Superintendent of Police Ahmad Latif told CNN that authorities could not immediately label it a suicide attack. Likewise, a medical worker told CNN the explosion killed eight people, including a young child and at least one foreign national. But Latif put the number of fatalities at six and said none of the dead were foreigners. Among the wounded, he said, was a Brazilian citizen of Pakistani descent. Watch Pakistan's foreign minister respond \u00bb . Authorities differed on the number of wounded as well, with figures ranging from five to 18. No embassy official was seriously hurt, Latif said. It is not uncommon for preliminary casualty figures to vary: police cautioned that the numbers could rise. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller condemned the act. \"My immediate reaction is that you can only condemn this,\" said Stig Moeller. \"It is terrible that terrorists do this. The embassy is there to have a cooperation between the Pakistani population and Denmark, and that means they are destroying that. They're destroying the Pakistanis' ability to connect with Denmark. It is completely unacceptable.\" Watch the aftermath of the deadly attack \u00bb . The blast, heard more than two miles away, sheared off the embassy's front wall and kicked in its metal front gate. The impact blew out the building's windows and also damaged the offices of a non-profit organization. The Danish and the EU flag, knocked off their staff, hung limply from a spot on the embassy balcony. Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told reporters at the scene that police are beefing up security at embassies and foreign missions throughout the city. \"I just want to assure everybody that the government will do everything to protect the diplomatic missions and also the security and safety of the citizens of Pakistan,\" he said. The explosion was the first deadly attack in Islamabad since a bomb was hurled over a wall surrounding an Italian restaurant on March 15. That explosion killed a Turkish woman and wounded 12 people, including four U.S. FBI agents. After Monday's attack, dozens of cars -- blanketed with dirt kicked up by the blast -- littered the street, their windows knocked out. Rescue workers carried away a bloodied person, covering his body with a blanket. Pieces of shoes and tattered clothing lay amid the rubble. Police said the attack targeted the embassy. Danish embassies in predominantly Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, have been the scene of protests since Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons that Muslims say insult their prophet. In February, several newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial cartoons of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, after Danish authorities arrested several people who allegedly were plotting a \"terror-related assassination\" of the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard's cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse. He said he wanted his drawing to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist. Islam generally forbids any depiction of the prophet -- even favorable ones -- fearing that it may lead to idolatry. Two years ago, demonstrations erupted across the world after some newspapers printed the same cartoons. Some protests turned deadly. The protests prompted Danish officials to temporarily close the embassy in Islamabad. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Monday's blast. In the past, authorities have blamed Islamic militants for carrying out attacks inside Pakistani cities. The country experienced a month-long lull in attacks after a new government took office in March and set on a course to negotiate with militants. But since then, attacks have picked up again. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suicide car bomber targeted Danish embassy in capital, Islamabad .\nDiffering accounts put death toll at between eight and six people .\nMedical worker says a child and at least one foreign national died in blast .\nDanish embassy scene of protests last year over Muhammed cartoons row .","id":"d885b755dab03a11c7e3b19455b82859a6e1f76b"} -{"article":"DURHAM, North Carolina (CNN) -- An operation to remove a malignant tumor from Sen. Edward Kennedy's brain was successful, and the Democrat should suffer no permanent damage from the procedure, his surgeon reported Monday. Sen. Edward Kennedy, right, leaves a Boston hospital with his son Patrick on May 21. The patient himself expressed satisfaction. \"I feel like a million bucks,\" Kennedy said after the surgery, according to a family spokesperson. \"I think I'll do that again tomorrow.\" Kennedy's doctor's statement focused on the 3\u00bd-hour operation, which was performed at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. \"I am pleased to report that Sen. Kennedy's surgery was successful and accomplished our goals,\" Dr. Allan Friedman said in a written statement issued after the procedure. \"Sen. Kennedy was awake during the resection, and should therefore experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery.\" Friedman called the resection \"just the first step\" in Kennedy's treatment plan, which is to include radiation and chemotherapy, to be carried out at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Paging Dr. Gupta Blog: Mapping Ted Kennedy's brain . The 76-year-old Massachusetts senator, patriarch of one of the leading families of American politics, said in a written statement earlier that he expected to remain in the hospital for about a week after surgery. He is also expected to undergo radiation and chemotherapy. During such surgery, doctors locate the areas of the brain responsible for key attributes such as movement and speech, and map them to ensure they avoid cutting in those areas. They then attempt to resect as much of the tumor as they believe they can safely remove. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain possible treatment \u00bb . During such operations -- which Friedman and the Duke hospital are known for -- surgeons typically ask a patient to identify objects in pictures or make a certain movement, such as squeezing a hand to make sure areas of the brain involving speech and movement are not being impaired. Kennedy, a senator since 1962, suffered a seizure May 17 while walking his dogs at his home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. Three days later, Kennedy's doctors at Massachusetts General said preliminary results from a brain biopsy showed a tumor in the left parietal lobe was responsible for the seizure. Friedman is chief of the division of neurosurgery and co-director of Duke's Neuro-Oncology Program, according to the hospital's Web site. He is responsible for more than 90 percent of all tumor removals and biopsies conducted at Duke, the Web site says. A tumor in the left parietal lobe could affect the senator's ability to speak and understand speech as well as the strength on the right side of his body, said CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Hear iReporter describes what gave him strength through brain cancer battle . Gupta said such tumors don't usually metastasize or spread to other parts of the body. \"What they do do -- and I think that's a concern to people -- is that they grow, and sometimes they invade other normal parts of the brain. That is the big concern here,\" he said. Malignant glioma is the most common primary brain tumor, accounting for more than half of the 18,000 primary malignant brain tumors diagnosed each year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. An expert explains potential complications \u00bb . Kennedy is the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated while seeking the White House in 1968. Though his own attempt to seek the presidency failed, Edward Kennedy has built a reputation as one of the most effective lawmakers in the Senate. Kennedy's Monday statement focused on the current presidential race as well his surgery. \"After completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president,\" he said. Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, described Kennedy as a \"giant\" of the Senate when the tumor was diagnosed. \"I think you can argue that I would not be sitting here as a presidential candidate had it not been for some of the battles that Ted Kennedy has fought,\" Obama said. \"He is somebody who battled for voting rights and civil rights when I was a child. I stand on his shoulders.\" Obama's rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, said Kennedy's courage and resolve made him one of the greatest legislators in Senate history. \"He's a fighter. There isn't anybody like him who gets up and goes out and does battle on behalf of all of us every single day,\" Clinton said. \"I know he's a fighter when it comes to the challenges he's facing right now.\" Sen. John McCain, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, also offered his thoughts and prayers for Kennedy's family. \"I have described Ted Kennedy as the last lion in the Senate. And I have held that view because he remains the single most effective member of the Senate,\" McCain said. President Bush said in a statement he would keep the senator in his prayers. \"Laura and I are concerned to learn of our friend Sen. Kennedy's diagnosis. Ted Kennedy is a man of tremendous courage, remarkable strength and powerful spirit. Our thoughts are with Sen. Kennedy and his family during this difficult period,\" he said. Kennedy had surgery in October to clear his carotid artery in hopes of preventing a stroke. Until the seizure, the powerful Democrat appeared in fine health. He suffers chronic back pain from injuries suffered in a 1964 plane crash. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and correspondent Dan Lothian contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Kennedy should not have any \"permanent neurological effects\" from surgery .\nNEW: \"I feel like a million bucks,\" senator reportedly says after surgery .\nChemotherapy and radiation will follow surgery in North Carolina, statement says .\nKennedy expected to stay at Duke hospital for about a week .","id":"9ce486aae2ad61c78b2e44d2617276a470c9f600"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Retired Adm. William Fallon resigned in March as leader of the U.S. military's Central Command after reportedly clashing with President Bush. Retired Adm. William Fallon told CNN he resigned to maintain confidence in the military chain of command. During an interview Tuesday on CNN's American Morning,\" Fallon denied a magazine article's assertion that he had been forced to resign over his opposition to a possible war with Iran. CNN's Kyra Phillips asked Fallon about his resignation and about U.S. policy regarding Iraq and Iran. Kyra Phillips: How were you informed that this was it? Who called you? Fallon: The story is -- the facts are that the situation was one that was very uncomfortable for me and, I'm sure, for the president. One of the most important things in the military is confidence in the chain of command. And the situation that developed was one of uncertainty and a feeling that maybe that I was disloyal to the president and that I might be trying to countermand his orders, the policies of the country. ... The fact that people might be concerned that I was not appropriately doing what I was supposed to do and following orders bothered me, and my sense was that the right thing to do was to offer my resignation. Watch Fallon break his silence \u00bb . Phillips: Do you feel you were pushed out? Fallon: What was important was not me. It wasn't some discussion about where I was with issues. It was the fact that we have a war in progress. We had a couple of hundred thousand people whose lives were at stake out in Iraq and Afghanistan and we needed to be focused on that and not a discussion on me or what I might have said or thought or someone perceived I said. That's the motivation. Phillips: [Esquire magazine writer] Tom Barnett made it appear that you were the only man standing between the president and a war with Iran. Is that true? Fallon: I don't believe for a second President Bush wants a war with Iran. The situation with Iran is very complex. People sometimes portray it or try to portray it in very simplistic terms -- we're against Iran, we want to go to war with Iran, we want to be close to them. ... The reality is in international politics that [there are] many aspects to many of these situations, and I believe in our relationship with Iran we need to be strong and firm and convey the principles on which this country stands and upon which our policies are based. At the same time demonstrate a willingness and openness to engage in dialogue because there are certainly things we can find in common. Phillips: Would have you negotiated with Iran? Fallon: It's not my position to negotiate with Iran. I was the military commander in the Middle East. I had responsibility for our people and their safety and well-being. It's the role of the diplomats to do the negotiation. Phillips: So when talk of the third war came out, a war with Iran, the president didn't say to you, \"This is what I want to do,\" and did you stand up and say, \"No, sir. Bad move\"? Fallon: It's probably not appropriate to try to characterize it in that way. Again, don't believe for a second that the president really wants to go to war with Iran. We have a lot of things going on, and there are many other ways to solve problems. I was very open and candid in my advice. I'm not shy. I will tell people, the leaders, what I think and offer my opinions on Iran and other things, and continue to do that. Phillips: Do you think that cost you your job? Fallon: No, I don't believe so at all. It's a confidence issue of do people really believe the chain of command is working for them or do we have doubts, and if the doubts focus attention away from what the priority issues ought to be, then we've got to make a change. Phillips: We talk about your no-nonsense talk and the fact that you had no problems standing up to the president. Your critics say that Admiral Fallon is a difficult man to get along with. Are you? Fallon: You probably could ask my wife about that. She would have a few things to say. I think that what's really important here is that when I was asked to take this job about a year and a half ago, I believe it was because we were facing some very difficult days in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the region. I had some experience in dealing with international problems. I certainly had a lot of combat experience, and I was brought in in an attempt to make things better. That's what I went about doing. Again, there are things that are important and other things in life that are less so. A lot of the issues that became points of discussion to me were not really important items. The important items were the people, what they're doing, how to get this job done, how to get the war ended and get our people home. Phillips: Hillary Clinton [and] Barack Obama talk about pulling troops out by next year. John McCain says, no, we've got to stay the course. What is the best course for Iraq right now? Watch what the candidates say about war policy \u00bb . Fallon: I believe the best course is to retain the high confidence we have in General Dave Petraeus and his team out there. Dave has done a magnificent job in leading our people in that country. Again, this situation is quite complex -- many angles. There's a very, very important military role here in providing stability and security in this country, but that's not going to be successful, as we know, without lots of other people playing a hand. The political side of things in Iraq has got to move forward. That appears to be improving. People have to have confidence in their futures. They want to have stability. They would like to be able to raise their families in peace. They would like to have a job. They would like to look to tomorrow as better than today. It takes more than the military, but the military is essential to provide stability and security. The idea we would walk away from Iraq strikes me as not appropriate. We all want to bring our troops home. We want to have the majority of our people back and we want the war ended. Given where we are today, the progress that they've made particularly in the last couple months, I think it's very, very heartening to see what's really happened here. The right course of action is to continue to work with the Iraqis and let them take over the majority of the tasks for ensuring security for the country and have our people come out on a timetable that's appropriate to conditions on the ground.","highlights":"Former Central Command chief William Fallon denies president sought third war .\nFallon: Concern for confidence in chain of command led to resignation .\n\"There are many other ways to solve problems\" besides war, he says .\nFallon: Best course in Iraq is to maintain confidence in Gen. David Petraeus .","id":"162e54974cad1d0e067a97e37175951c26f13a0e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton on Saturday will officially suspend her campaign for the presidency and \"express her support for Senator Obama and party unity,\" her campaign said Wednesday. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she will let her supporters and party leaders decide her course. The Clinton campaign said she will make the announcement at \"an event in Washington, D.C.,\" where she will also thank her supporters. Sen. Barack Obama and Clinton were in Washington on Wednesday to each address the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The candidates ran into each other at the AIPAC conference and had a brief chat, Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass said. \"She's an extraordinary leader of the Democratic Party and has made history alongside me over the last 16 months. I'm very proud to have competed against her,\" Obama told the Israel lobbying group. Obama became his party's presumptive nominee Tuesday and will be looking to unite Democrats divided by the long and contentious primary season. \"I am very confident how unified the Democratic Party is going to be to win in November,\" he said in a Senate hallway Wednesday. iReport.com: Obama\/Clinton -- dream team or nightmare? Some say that putting Clinton on the ticket might fit the bill for uniting Democrats. Clinton lavished her opponent with praise Tuesday, saying he ran an \"extraordinary race\" and made politics more palatable for many. Watch how the primary played out \u00bb . Prominent Clinton backer Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, thinks the New York senator could have been \"far more generous\" during her speech Tuesday night after it was clear that Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination. Rangel, the senior member of the New York congressional delegation and an early supporter of Clinton's presidential campaign, said Wednesday that Clinton should have been more clear about what her plans are. \"I would agree that after the math was in before her speech, that she could have been far more generous in terms of being more specific and saying that she wants a Democratic victory,\" Rangel said on MSNBC. \"I don't see what they're talking about in prolonging this,\" Rangel added. \"There's nothing to prolong if you're not going to take the fight to the convention floor. ... I don't know why she could not have been more open in terms of doing up front what she intends to do later.\" But with some Democrats clamoring for her to join Obama on the ticket, and with the Democratic National Convention -- and thus, the official anointment -- still more than two months out, the senator from New York gave no hint as to her plans. See VP prospects' pros, cons \u00bb . She again invoked the popular vote, saying she snared \"more votes than any primary candidate in history,\" but primaries come down to delegates, and according to CNN calculations, Obama has her beaten, 2,156 to 1,923. Even the White House seemed convinced of Obama's victory. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that President Bush congratulated Obama on becoming the first black nominee from a major party. She said his win shows that the United States \"has come a long way.\" Clinton vowed to keep fighting for an end to the war in Iraq, for universal health care, for a stronger economy and better energy policy, but she didn't indicate in what capacity she would wage these battles. That, she said, would be up to her supporters and the party brass. See what lies in store this fall \u00bb . The party's best interests were high on the minds of party leaders Wednesday, as Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and DNC Chairman Howard Dean called on Democrats to focus on the general election. \"To that end, we are urging all remaining uncommitted superdelegates to make their decisions known by Friday of this week so that our party can stand united and begin our march toward reversing the eight years of failed Bush\/McCain policies that have weakened our country,\" said a statement from the four. Billionaire businessman Bob Johnson, a close Clinton adviser and friend, said on CNN's \"American Morning\" on Wednesday that Obama could best forge party unity by offering Clinton the vice presidential slot. A day after the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana, Johnson sent a letter to House Majority Whip James Clyburn to lobby the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Clinton as Obama's running mate. Saying Clinton would \"entertain the idea if it's offered,\" Johnson said, \"This is Sen. Obama's decision. If the Congress members can come together and agree as I do that it would be in the best interest of the party to have Sen. Clinton on the ticket, they carry that petition to Sen. Obama.\" Watch how the world reacted to Obama's win \u00bb . \"This is not a pressure. This is elected officials giving their best judgment,\" said Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television. Johnson's letter to Clyburn says, \"You know as well as I the deep affection that millions of African-Americans hold for both Senator Clinton and President Clinton.\" It continues, \"But most important, we need to have the certainty of winning; and, I believe, without question, that Barack Obama as president and Hillary Clinton as vice president bring that certainty to the ticket.\" Watch Johnson urge Obama to pick Clinton \u00bb . Johnson is one of many influential Clinton supporters who have raised the prospect of her joining Obama on the ticket. They say she has solid credentials and wide appeal, exemplified by her popular support in states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, which will be crucial to a Democratic victory in the fall. Obama and Clinton spoke by phone for a few minutes Wednesday. He told her he wants to \"sit down when it makes sense\" for her, said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs. Clinton said that would happen soon, Gibbs said, but he also said Obama did not raise the issue of the vice presidency. Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe confirmed that there had been \"absolutely zero discussions\" on the matter. The Clinton campaign issued a statement saying she was open to becoming vice president. \"She would do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain,\" the statement said. CNN's Alexander Mooney and Ed Hornick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton will suspend presidential campaign Saturday, sources say .\nObama, Clinton spoke by phone Wednesday, but VP slot was not discussed .\nRangel says Clinton could've been \"far more generous\" on Tuesday night .\nObama says he's \"very confident\" he can unite Democrats by November .","id":"03a0cef9c902928979ef731616fb96bd1fb10f9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. Navy ships loaded with supplies for victims of Myanmar's cyclone will sail away from the country's coast on Thursday, after the ruling junta refused for three weeks to allow them to deliver aid. U.S. ships steam in formation off the coast of Myanmar on May 23. Adm. Timothy Keating said the USS Essex group would leave the shores of Myanmar, also known as Burma, on Thursday, but that he would leave several heavy lift aircraft in Thailand to assist international relief efforts. \"We have made at least 15 attempts to convince the Burmese government to allow our ships, helicopters and landing craft to provide additional disaster relief for the people of Burma, but they have refused us each and every time,\" Keating said in a statement Wednesday. Cyclone Nargis made landfall early last month, killing more than 77,000 people in the southeastern Asian country, according to a United Nations estimate. Some 55,000 others are missing, the United Nations said, and as many as 500,000 to 600,000 people, mainly in the Irrawaddy Delta region, have had to be relocated. The White House issued a statement Wednesday saying more than a million victims have yet to receive assistance. Watch a discussion of Myanmar's handling of the crisis \u00bb . \"I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta,\" Keating said. Myanmar leaders did grant permission for U.S. planes to deliver aid, a total of 106 plane-loads of supplies worth more than $26 million. Transportation cost about $6.8 million, it said. But the junta never gave permission for the United States to distribute the aid directly to the storm victims, prompting questions about whether some of the assistance went astray. Last weekend, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon guided a conference of 52 donor nations in Myanmar, where countries pledged in excess of $100 million to help Myanmar recover -- and said they are willing to open up their wallets further once aid groups are granted access to the worst-affected areas. The country's government had asked for $11 billion in assistance, saying that the relief phase of the disaster was already over and that it needed the money for reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. More than a month after the cyclone struck, more than 1 million people affected have received help, Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday. She added that aid has reached nearly half of the people in the Irrawaddy Delta. However, she said, \"There remains a serious lack of sufficient and sustained humanitarian assistance.\" On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the United States would continue to push to get emergency supplies to the country's victims. \"We are not going to abandon those ... people,\" McCormack said. Of the Navy ships leaving the area, he said, they \"are needed elsewhere and there is no rational expectation at this point we will be effectively able to use those assets in an humanitarian relief operation.\" \"Our folks will do the forensics on that to see if there are any lessons learned,\" McCormack said. \"We think that to the extent that there has been significant loss of life that we as well as others could have reduced that number had we been allowed to act more quickly with a large-scale intervention.\" CNN's Charley Keyes and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. ships to leave area Thursday, admiral says; some planes will stay .\nNEW: Adm. Timothy Keating says he's frustrated that aid was refused .\nMyanmar junta leaders did not grant permission for U.S. Navy ships to deliver aid .\nU.S. will keep pushing efforts to get emergency supplies to victims, despite rebuff .","id":"6f64897fc65e1ba7531a4830a7d935ab15d8bec6"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Hyundai Chairman Chung Mong-koo escaped a prison sentence for embezzlement after a South Korean court ruled Thursday to instead impose a suspended five year sentence, according to a company spokesman. Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-Koo, center, leaves the High Court after his trial in Seoul in June. In February, the 68-year-old executive was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of embezzling money from the South Korean conglomerate. He appealed that verdict and on Thursday the company said Chung will now only be required to undertake community service. Chung was accused of funneling $106 million in company money into a slush fund to seek favors from the government and with breach of trust for incurring more than $300 million in damages to the company. Hyundai is the world's sixth-largest automaker and a pillar of South Korea's economy. Chung spent two months in jail after his arrest last April before being released on $1 million bail. He admitted using affiliated companies to set up slush funds, but said he knew no details of the arrangements. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Eunice Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hyundai Chairman Chung Mong-koo has escaped prison for embezzling .\nSouth Korean court ruled instead to impose a suspended five year sentence .\nIn February, the 68-year-old executive was sentenced to three years in prison .\nChung was accused of placing firm's money in fund to earn government favors .","id":"0d7383a44955b41c5a472151a35a842751f0004c"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The remains of two U.S. contractors who were kidnapped in Iraq have been found, FBI officials said Monday. The bureau identified the two as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, abducted on January 5, 2007, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Missouri, who was captured on November 16, 2006. Withrow worked for Las Vegas, Nevada-based JPI Worldwide Inc., and Young worked for Crescent Security Group. The FBI said it had notified the families of the contractors. Meanwhile, four U.S. soldiers died Sunday night in a roadside bombing in Iraq, military officials reported, bringing the American toll in the 5-year-old war to 4,000 deaths. The four were killed when a homemade bomb hit their vehicle as they patrolled in a southern Baghdad neighborhood, the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq said. A fifth soldier was wounded. The grim milestone comes less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the start of the war. \"No casualty is more or less significant than another; each soldier, Marine, airman and sailor is equally precious and their loss equally tragic,\" said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the U.S. military's chief spokesman in Iraq. \"Every single loss of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is keenly felt by military commanders, families and friends both in theater and at home.\" Of the 4,000 U.S. military personnel killed in the war, 3,263 have died in attacks and fighting and 737 in nonhostile incidents, such as traffic accidents and suicides. Eight of those killed were civilians working for the Pentagon. The numbers are based on Pentagon data counted by CNN. Check out a company that makes headstones for fallen U.S. troops \u00bb . President Bush made remarks about lives lost in Iraq at the State Department on Monday. \"One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come,' \" he said. \"I have vowed in the past and I will vow so long as I'm president to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain; that, in fact, there's an outcome that will merit the sacrifice that civilian and military alike have made.\" Also Sunday, at least 35 Iraqis died as the result of suicide bombings, mortar fire and the work of gunmen in cars who opened fire on a crowded outdoor market. Nearly 100 were wounded in the violence. Estimates of the Iraqi death toll since the war began range from about 80,000 to the hundreds of thousands. Watch an Iraqi family talk about faith in a war zone \u00bb . Another 2 million Iraqis have been forced to leave the country, and 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes within Iraq, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Many of the Iraqis and U.S. troops killed over the years, like the four soldiers slain Sunday in Baghdad, have been targeted by improvised explosive devices -- the roadside bombs that have come to symbolize Iraq's tenacious insurgency. Watch how the bombs have become a deadly staple \u00bb . The Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization has been developed to counter the threat of roadside bombs in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. The group calls such bombs the \"weapon of choice for adaptive and resilient networks of insurgents and terrorists.\" Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee. Senior U.S. military officials are preparing to recommend to Bush a four- to six-week pause in additional troop withdrawals from Iraq after the last of the so-called surge brigades leaves in July, CNN learned last week from U.S. military officials familiar with the recommendations but not authorized to talk about them. The return of all five brigades added to the Iraq contingent last year could reduce troop levels by up to 30,000 but still leave about 130,000 or more troops in Iraq. Also Monday, the U.S. military said six people killed in a weekend attack were \"terrorists\" and not members of an American-backed militia, as initially reported. Those first reports suggested the area of Saturday's helicopter strike may have been a Sons of Iraq checkpoint. Such groups are generically referred to as Awakening Councils -- largely Sunni security forces that the U.S. military have recruited. A police official in the north-central city of Samarra said the helicopter mistakenly hit a Sons of Iraq checkpoint, killing the six. But the U.S. military said that it believes those killed were not part of the Sons of Iraq. \"I can tell you that two of these individuals were fiddling with something on the side of the road and trying to hide themselves under a blanket when they heard the helicopter,\" said Maj. Bradford Leighton. \"The location of the checkpoint was not at or near any known Sons of Iraq checkpoint.\" A joint Iraqi-U.S.-led coalition force is investigating the deaths. Other developments . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Remains found of two U.S. contractors who were abducted in Iraq, FBI says .\nU.S. death toll at 4,000 after four soldiers die when roadside bomb hits vehicle .\nAt least 35 Iraqis killed in attacks Sunday .\nPeople killed in U.S. weekend strike were \"terrorists,\" not allies, U.S. says .","id":"2fddefe691f7849048548a15f6533339d4a25bfd"} -{"article":"DORCHESTER, England (CNN) -- Englishman John Webber thought nothing of the small, shiny cup, passed down from his junk dealer grandfather and stashed under a bed for years, until appraisers said it was an ancient Persian artifact. The ancient Persian gold cup, thought to date from the third or fourth century B.C., fetched $100,000 at auction. The 5\u00bd-inch gold cup, which experts have dated to the third or fourth century B.C., fetched $100,000 at an auction in Dorchester, southern England, Thursday. The identity of the winning bidder wasn't immediately known. The relic features the double faced ancient Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors who always looked to both the future and past and is often associated with beginnings and endings. The cup has two faces with braided hair and entwined snake ornaments at the forehead. Webber's grandfather, William Sparks, was a rag and bone man, the British term for a junk dealer, Duke's said, who established the iron merchants Sparks and Son in Taunton, Somerset, in southwestern England, in the 1930s. Sparks acquired the cup along with two other pieces, also up for auction, in the 1930s or 1940s, the spokeswoman said. Watch CNN report on the auction \u00bb . Before he died, Sparks gave the items to Webber, who didn't realize their value, the spokeswoman said. \"Because he mainly dealt in brass and bronze, I thought that was what it was made from,\" Webber told the Bournemouth News and Picture Service. \"I put it in a box and forgot about it. Then last year I moved house and took it out to have a look, and I realized it wasn't bronze or brass. \"I sent it to the British Museum, and the experts there hadn't seen anything like it before and recommended I had it tested at a laboratory. So I paid quite a bit of money for it to be examined by a lab the museum recommended. And they found the gold dated from the third of fourth century B.C.\" Webber, who is in his 70s, said he remembers the cup from when he was a small boy. \"It's been quite exciting finding out what it was,\" he told the agency. Webber brought the items to Duke's at the start of the year for potential sale, because he wanted to \"realize some money,\" the auction house spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Duke's Auction House, which is selling the cup, said the cup is believed to be from the Archaemenid empire in ancient Persia. The other two items are a second century B.C. round gold mount with a figure, probably of ancient Greek hero Ajax, who besieged Troy, and a decorated gold spoon with an image of a Roman emperor. \"He had a good eye for quality over the years,\" said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, \"and anything interesting he'd put aside.\" Scientists analyzed trace elements of a gold sample taken from the cup to determine its age, and analysts from Oxford University concluded that they are consistent with Archaemenid gold and goldsmithing, Duke's said.","highlights":"Gold cup stashed under bed for years is $100,000 ancient Persian artifact .\nSmall urn went under the hammer at auction in southern England Thursday .\nArtifact acquired by junk dealer, grandfather of current owner, in the 1930s or 1940s .\nExperts say it is believed to date from the third or fourth century B.C.","id":"e35ec8afe496d466d673ac67d80ec5c21b163410"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former member of the radical 1970s group Symbionese Liberation Army is back in custody after a clerical error miscalculated her prison release date, a California Department of Corrections spokesman said Saturday. Sara Jane Olson wipes away a tear at a Los Angeles courthouse in 1999. Sara Jane Olson was freed Monday. But her earliest release date is now March 17, 2009, Chief Deputy Secretary Scott Kernan said, calling the error \"an aberration.\" \"Our department immediately rearrested her, and she will serve her full sentence,\" Kernan said. He described Olson as cooperative and said the arrest took place \"without incident.\" She will serve the year at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California. \"The department is sensitive to the impact such an error has had on all involved in this case and sincerely regrets the mistake,\" Kernan said. Watch explanation for mistaken release \u00bb . An investigation is under way to find out how the error happened, he added. Olson had served about six years behind bars for her role in incidents in 1975: the attempted bombing of two police cars and the shooting death of a customer during a bank robbery. Prosecutors said she was part of an SLA plot to murder Los Angeles police officers by planting bombs under their squad cars. One of the cars was parked outside a crowded Hollywood restaurant. The bombs did not go off, and no one was hurt. The SLA is best known for its 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. A parole board hearing in 2004 reduced the sentence related to the attempted bombing charge, but \"an administrative error failed to take into account\" the second-degree murder charge for the shooting death, Kernan said. David Nickerson, one of Olson's attorneys, said he and co-counsel Shawn Chapman Holley intend to file a petition with Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday. Olson cannot be treated as \"yo-yo\" in regard to the law, he said. Chapman Holley called her return to custody \"ridiculous.\" \"It's like they make up all new rules when it comes to her,\" Chapman Holley told The Associated Press. \"It's like we are in some kind of fascist state.\" The administrative error was verified late Saturday morning, Kernan said, after a thorough review of Olson's case. He said \"concerns\" about her release date prompted the review. Olson was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday night, Kernan said. Olson had been granted interstate parole and was on her way to Minnesota, where she lived for more than two decades as a fugitive before she was arrested in 1999, Nickerson had said. From the Los Angeles airport, authorities took Olson to her home in Palmdale, California, where she remained until she was arrested midday Saturday, when the review was completed, Kernan said. Originally named Kathleen Soliah, Olson fled California after authorities began looking for her and then changed her name and lived for more than two decades as a fugitive before she was arrested in 1999 in Minnesota. She had married and was raising three daughters. Many residents rallied to Olson's cause and helped post bail for her. But one group in California, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, denounced her release. \"She needs to serve her full time in prison for these crimes and does not deserve time off for working in prison,\" the group said. \"After participating in one killing and attempting two more, she managed to elude authorities and live a guilt-free middle class life for decades. Criminals who attempt to murder police officers should not be able to escape justice simply because they have good lawyers.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Irving Last contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sara Jane Olson's attorney says she cannot be treated as \"yo-yo\"\nEx-Symbionese Liberation Army member freed Monday after serving about six years .\nCalifornia Department of Corrections says clerical error led to release .\nHer earliest release date is now March 17, 2009 .","id":"b4aa207f0723ae8a731dbc07ecdb03a68a42031f"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Artist Robert West is proud of his connection to the Pullman Company. His grandfather, Allen Parrish, was a Pullman Porter and helped inspire some of his train paintings. Robert West paints his latest project in his Atlanta, Georgia, studio. \"When I was growing up, we would often take grandfather to work at the train station. I became impressed and mesmerized with trains through this experience. This passion ultimately led me to become a full-time railroad illustrator,\" West said. The Pullman Company was one of the largest employers of African-Americans in the 1920s and '30s. It hired them as porters in railroad sleeping cars to assist railroad passengers and make up beds. These jobs were once highly regarded in the black community because they offered the opportunity to travel and better pay and security than most jobs open to blacks at the time. West says trains have an important place in African-American history -- from symbolism in Negro spirituals to a real conveyance for the mass migration of blacks moving to the North in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. \"Trains have so long symbolized hope, freedom and power -- what better metaphor could there be to represent our struggle and our assimilation into mainstream American life,\" West said. Many of West's paintings depict historical scenes with the now defunct Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, because that's where his grandfather worked for many years. Watch award-winning artist on trains and history \u00bb . West paints other trains, including the Steam, Gas turbine, Electric, as well as first through sixth Generation Diesel Electric Locomotives. He wears a conductor's hat as he works. \"I think it's important that all the cultures in the United States look back at our history by way of the railroads,\" West said. \"It was through our contributions to the railroads, that also pushed us forward as a nation and as a human race.\" West has been drawing and painting trains since the age of 2. In 1973, he decided to make railroad illustrating a profession. Through the years his work has won several awards in shows of national and regional scope. \"I'm probably more of a visual historian more than anything else, because I conduct weeks, months, sometimes years of research prior to doing a painting,\" he said. West has painted more than 500 original works, which have sold across the United States and around the world. Train enthusiasts are his largest market. \"When one looks at my paintings, I like for them to not only feel a sense of joy, but to feel good about times when times were happier, kinder, and gentler,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Robert West was inspired by family history to paint trains .\nArtist's grandfather was a Pullman train porter .\n\"Visual historian\" does a lot of research before painting .","id":"a65ecd71682863f7b12ca11ab8ac23b39ae302c4"} -{"article":"KIEV, Ukraine (CNN) -- A planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe poses no threat to Russia, President George Bush said Tuesday, responding to concerns that the U.S. might use interceptor missiles for offensive purposes. President Bush, with President Viktor Yushchenko, praised Ukraine's democratic and military reforms. \"The missile defense system is not aimed at Russia,\" Bush said at a news conference in Kiev following talks with the Ukrainian president. \"It's viewed as an anti-Russian device. Well, it's not.\" His comments came before he left Kiev for a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, that is expected to highlight divisions over the plan. The summit begins Wednesday. Russia and some European countries have expressed concerns about the missile defense system. While Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to host parts of the system, others in Europe share Russian concerns that the defensive shield could be used for offensive aims. Outside the U.S. Embassy in Kiev on Monday, protesters gathered to denounce Bush's visit. They chanted, thrust signs into the air -- one reading, \"Yankee Go Home\" -- and burned an effigy of Bush in the street. Watch the demonstration \u00bb . The U.S. has tried to dissuade opposition over the plan. Washington offered to allow Russian monitors at the missile sites and to negotiate limits to the system over time. The United States also told Russia the system would not be operational until Iran test-fires a missile that could threaten Europe. Many European countries don't believe the U.S. assertion that the system is needed to guard against imminent threats from Iran or North Korea. Europe is dependent on Russia for at least 40 percent of its oil and is reluctant to upset the Kremlin. The issue will likely be divisive at this week's three-day NATO summit, where Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to make a rare appearance. Putin normally declines invitations to attend. Bush is slated to meet Sunday with Putin in the Russian resort city of Sochi on the Black Sea, according to RIA Novosti. It will be the last meeting between the two men before the outgoing Russian president steps down, the Russian news agency reported. Russia also is unhappy with NATO's eastward march. The alliance has already welcomed former Soviet republics such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Bush is pushing hard for Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO as well. Before leaving Tuesday for Bucharest, Bush said that Russia will not be able to veto Georgia's or Ukraine's inclusion into NATO. Bush said that both countries should be able to take part in NATO's Membership Action Plan, or MAP, which is designed to help aspiring countries meet the requirements of joining the alliance. \"I strongly believe that Ukraine and Georgia should be given MAP,\" Bush said. \"And there's no tradeoffs, period.\" The U.S. president further said he was working \"as hard as I can\" to ensure the two countries are accepted into the MAP and that Russia will have no power to block their inclusion. In remarks last month, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe that NATO \"has long made clear that any decision regarding membership is between NATO and the country concerned, and not subject to veto by any third party.\" Russia is not a NATO member but works with the alliance via the NATO-Russia Council. Russia's concerns also align with those of some NATO members who oppose welcoming Georgia and Ukraine into the fold. Pifer said last month that NATO should strive to maintain good relations with Russia, but \"should not allow Moscow a veto, either explicit or tacit, over relations between the alliance and third countries.\" Allowing Russia a say, Pifer said, \"would encourage those in Russia who wish to reassert a Russian-led post-Soviet bloc rather than develop a relationship of cooperation and full partnership with Europe and the West.\" Bush said he phoned Putin recently to reassure him on both issues. \"NATO is an organization that's peaceful. NATO is an organization that helps democracies flourish. And democracies are good things to have on your border,\" Bush said he told Putin. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said his country should be able to start the NATO membership process. \"We are not speaking about joining NATO; we are only speaking about MAP,\" he said at the news conference. \"Why should Ukraine be deprived of that sovereign right, since the principle of open doors is the basic principle for NATO?\" Bush added that Ukraine already contributes to NATO missions, specifically in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. Ukraine also has demonstrated a commitment to democracy, he said. Responding to a reporter's question, Bush denied that the United States might ease off on membership plans for Ukraine and Georgia if Russia acquiesces on the missile shield. Both issues threaten to destabilize NATO, said Jane Sharp of the Center for War Studies at King's College London, but she has heard particularly sharp criticism of the missile defense plan. \"Somebody in the UK Ministry of Defense said to me, 'We are being dragged along on this missile defense thing to the American trough like pigs with rings in our noses,'\" Sharp said. \"It's a nuisance for Europeans, and I think they are irritated with the Czechs and the Poles for trying to do deals with the Americans.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Bush: Russia can't veto Georgia's, Ukraine's inclusion in NATO's MAP program .\nEuropean countries share doubts that system is designed to deter Iran, North Korea .\nU.S. president says he will push for Ukraine, Georgia to join NATO .\nAnalyst says both issues threaten to destabilize NATO .","id":"215a2a64c7bd36360f76ec5e159690de07d7d959"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police Tuesday arrested two Moroccan men suspected of having links to Islamic terrorism, Spain's Ministry of Interior said, including one man wanted in connection with attacks in Casablanca in 2003. Mohamed El Bay is thought to have been trying to buy weapons and explosives. The arrests were made in Melilla, a Spanish enclave of about 68,000 people on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, with Spanish Civil Guards acting on international arrests warrants issued by Morocco, the ministry said in a written statement. Moroccan authorities have linked one of the suspects, Ali Aarass, to the Casablanca bombings in May 2003 that killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers. He is suspected of Islamic extremist activities during the past 16 years, the Spanish statement said. The other man, Mohamed El Bay, is wanted for alleged involvement with a terrorist network that Moroccan police broke up last February, when they arrested 30 people suspected of plotting attacks against Moroccan government targets, it said. Moroccan police seized numerous weapons in the February raids and later contacted European police for help in locating other suspects in the group. Morocco authorities believe El Bay may have been in charge of contacting Central European arms smugglers to get weapons and explosives for the alleged plot in Morocco, the Spanish statement said. Spanish police searched the homes of both suspects in Melilla and seized documentation, it said. Spain has arrested more than 300 suspected Islamic extremists since the Madrid train bombings of 2004 that killed 191 people, although not all of the suspects remain in jail. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two men arrested in Spanish enclave of Melilla, near Morocco .\nOne accused of involvement in bombing that killed 33 in Casablanca .\nThe other is believed to have been trying to buy arms .\nArrest warrants were issued after Morocco broke up terror network last February .","id":"39074eb06df4966d1e06f76ad2f0713b31335fe5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Monday said the black church, not him, had been subjected to attacks in the 2008 presidential campaign. Speaking before the National Press Club, Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor sought to give insight into the black church and clarify some of his remarks that have sparked a firestorm. Earlier this year, some of Wright's sermons, circulated and widely discussed on the Internet and on television, became an issue in the Democratic presidential race because of the former pastor's ties to Obama. Wright is a retired pastor from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, where Obama worships. In one sermon, Wright said the U.S. had brought the September 11 attacks upon itself and said \"America's chickens are coming home to roost.\" Asked to explain those remarks, Wright said, \"Have you heard the whole sermon? ... No, you haven't heard the whole sermon. That nullifies that question.\" Watch as Wright explains his 9\/11 comments \u00bb . Wright said those who heard the entire sermon would have known that he was quoting the ambassador from Iraq and keeping in line with biblical principles. \"Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic principles,\" he said. Watch as Wright questions his critics' patriotism \u00bb . Wright shot back at the notion that Obama has walked away from him, saying the candidate \"distanced himself from some of my remarks. ... He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was un-American.\" Obama, when asked what he could do to keep Wright's latest comments from dragging him down, replied: . \"I think people will understand that I am not perfect and that there are going to be folks in my past like Rev. Wright that may cause them some concern -- but that ultimately, my 20 years of service and the values that I've written about and spoken about and promoted are their values and what they're concerned about. And that's what this camp has been about and what it's going to continue to be about.\" Wright said sound bites from his sermons were taken out of context and said the black religious tradition, despite its long history, is in some ways \"invisible to the dominant culture.\" The theology of the black church is a \"theology of liberation, it is a theology of transformation and it is ultimately a theology of reconciliation,\" he said. Wright's remarks came a day after he addressed an audience of 10,000 at a dinner sponsored by the Detroit chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Watch as Wright answers his critics at the NAACP event \u00bb . Reiterating some of the same points from that dinner, Wright said, \"Being different does not mean one is deficient -- it simply means one is different, like snowflakes.\" Wright said reconciliation means \"we embrace our individual rich histories.\" He said it also means rooting out \"any teaching of superiority, inferiority, hatred or prejudice\" and recognizing that each person \"is one of God's children ... no better, no worse.\" \"Only then will liberation, transformation and reconciliation become realities and cease being ever-elusive ideals,\" he said. At the height of the Wright controversy, Obama gave a speech on race relations, rejecting his ex-pastor's controversial comments but saying he could not repudiate the man himself. \"I'm not here for political reasons,\" Wright said Sunday. \"I am not a politician. I know that fact will surprise many of you because many in the corporate-owned media have made it seem as if I had announced that I'm running for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office. \"I've been running for Jesus a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet.\" Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, weighed in on the controversy Monday, saying he does not think Obama and Wright share the same \"extremist views.\" Watch McCain comment on Wright \u00bb . McCain on Sunday broached the topic of Wright unprompted for the first time despite previous suggestions the issue would be out of bounds in the presidential race. McCain said his shifting stance was justified because Obama told \"Fox News Sunday\" the controversy surrounding his ex-pastor was \"a legitimate political issue.\" The senator from Arizona last week told the North Carolina GOP not to run an ad linking the state's Democratic candidates for governor -- Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue, both Obama supporters -- to Wright. But on Monday, McCain said he would no longer get involved in such matters. \"I will not be a referee,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The Rev. Jeremiah Wright seeks to explain theology of black church .\nWright says criticisms come from those who have not heard his whole sermons .\nNEW: Obama: \"Folks in my past like Rev. Wright\" may cause some voters concern .","id":"3cae0d9bcf97b5d182b20a31aaea3f41cd7bf599"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Preliminary results of an investigation show that Tuesday's massive power outage in Florida was caused by human error, Florida Power and Light President Armando Olivera said Friday. A field engineer was diagnosing a switch that had malfunctioned at FPL's Flagami substation in west Miami. Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Olivera said. \"This was done contrary to FPL's standard procedures and established practices,\" he said. Standard procedures do not allow the simultaneous removal of both levels of protection. \"We don't know why the employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays,\" he added. A fault occurred during the diagnostic process, and because both levels of relay protection had been removed, the fault caused an outage ultimately affecting 26 transmission lines and 38 substations, Olivera said. Find out more about power grids and blackouts \u00bb . One of the substations affected serves three of the generation units at Turkey Point -- a natural gas unit and both of the plant's nuclear units. Both the nuclear units automatically shut down due to an under-voltage condition, he said. Also affected were two other generation plants in FPL's system. The total impact to the system was a loss of 3,400 megawatts of generating capacity. The error affected 584,000 FPL customers, Olivera said. Another 500,000 non-FPL customers also lost power. That translates to about 3 million people. See photos of the blackout's impact \u00bb . The employee has been suspended with pay as the investigation continues, he added. \"The employee realized something had gone wrong, but I think it's fair to say the employee didn't recognize the extent or magnitude of the problem,\" Olivera said. The affected region ranged from Miami to Tampa, through Orlando and east to Brevard County, home to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. See a map of the affected areas \u00bb E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A field engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Florida Power and Light says .\nFPL: Actions were contrary to standard procedures and established practices .\nThe employee has been suspended with pay as the investigation continues .\nAbout 3 million people lost power Tuesday .","id":"6a9ead70f9423e494c466189bc6d907071547f42"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Zimbabwe's capital of Harare was quiet Saturday night after polls began closing for elections that will decide the future of longtime President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe campaigns in the capital of Harare last week. Results were not expected until Sunday. The main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, alleged widespread irregularities and promised to release its own election results, defying a government order. Critics of the government have predicted that the elections will be rigged or marred by fraud, though the government has promised that they will be \"free and fair.\" At a news conference in Harare, Movement for Democratic Change Secretary-General Tenda Biti said that some of the party's agents have been chased away from polling stations. The party also said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission claimed to have lost the accreditation for agents at 19 stations and refused to let them in. Biti said there was a \"massive\" deployment of soldiers and police at most stations. Journalists inside the country reported a heavy presence of the army and police but disagreed with Biti's description of it as \"massive.\" Police said they were investigating the bombing of a house in Harare belonging to a parliamentarian candidate from Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party. The bombing happened early Saturday, and it was not immediately clear whether it was connected to the elections, police said. No one was inside the home at the time. The Zimbabwean government has denied CNN and other international news organizations permission to enter the country to report on the elections. Read about reporting on the elections. The elections are posing one of the toughest challenges to Mugabe's 28-year rule. Two candidates, both from different factions of the opposition party, stand a good chance of unseating him. One opposition contender is Movement for Democratic Change founder Morgan Tsvangirai, who fought hotly contested challenges against the president in 2000, 2002 and 2005. The other is Mugabe's former finance minister, Simba Makoni. He was a member of the Zanu-PF party until he announced his bid to unseat Mugabe and the party kicked him out. Voter turnout was high after the polls opened at 7 a.m. (1 a.m. ET), journalists reported, but it tapered off throughout the day. Shortly before polls closed at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. ET), \"there was a rush of people to put in their last-minute votes\" in some places, media rights activist Reyhana Masters said. Biti also said police were assisting many voters in casting ballots. The opposition has spoken out against \"assistance\" in the voting booth, calling it an intimidation tactic, but Mugabe passed a presidential decree this week that said police could help those voters who are elderly or infirm. Watch Zimbabweans worry their vote won't count \u00bb . The government has warned the opposition not to release its own election results, saying that doing so is the role of the electoral commission and could spark violence of the kind seen in Kenya after elections there late last year. Some Zimbabweans reported irregularities in Saturday's voting. Eddie Matsangaise of the Zimbabwe Exile Forum said he had heard that the names of long-dead white colonialist leaders were on voter lists, but voters who thought they were registered were turned away. Iden Wetherell, editor of the newspaper Zimbabwe Independent, said the opposition had found large numbers of voters registered at one address where there isn't a building. Voter confusion was also a problem. The elections are not just for president but also for parliamentary, senate and local council seats, meaning voters have to cast a number of ballots in a limited amount of time. Limited voter education means many registered voters were not told which ward to go to and may turn up at the wrong polling stations. Watch claims of dead voters still on the rolls \u00bb . The absence of international media and independent observers has heightened critics' concerns. The United States this week warned of a possible unfair election, and New York-based Human Rights Watch warned this month that the elections were likely to be \"deeply flawed.\" Human Rights Watch said in a report that Zimbabwe's electoral commission is partisan toward Zanu-PF and lacks both expertise and resources to run the elections properly. An MDC official said this week that leaked correspondence from the electoral commission showed it had asked for 3.3 million more ballots than there are registered voters, including 250,000 extra postal ballots for soldiers and police. Tenda Biti, the opposition's secretary-general, said it was an indication of fraud. A hero of the country's civil war against the white Rhodesian government, Mugabe became the country's first black prime minister in 1980. But nearly three decades later, he has consolidated his rule over all aspects of Zimbabwean life, and the country does not appear better for it. His country was once revered for offering its citizens some of the best education and health care in Africa, but now, schooling is a luxury and Zimbabwe has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world. Zimbabwe was once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa, but now it is difficult to get even basic food supplies. Inflation has skyrocketed to more than 100,000 percent while food production and agricultural exports have dropped drastically. Watch reasons for meltdown of Zimbabwe's economy \u00bb . Part of the economic freefall is traced to Mugabe's land redistribution policies, including his controversial seizure of commercially white-owned farms in 2000. Mugabe gave the land to black Zimbabweans who he said were cheated under colonialist rule, and white farmers who resisted were jailed. In 2005, Mugabe launched Operation Clean Out the Trash, in which he razed slum areas across the country. Mugabe denies mismanagement and blames his country's woes on the West, saying that sanctions have harmed the economy. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Robyn Curnow in Beitbridge, South Africa, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Zimbabwe's main opposition alleges widespread irregularities in election .\nOpposition party says it will release its own election results Sunday .\nPresident Mugabe faces two challengers who have good chance of winning .\nInflation is rampant in Zimbabwe, once called the breadbasket of southern Africa .","id":"9a15663058028878027f6aa039fb3185c2ff52c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Netherlands has rejected an asylum plea by a gay Iranian teenager trying to escape possible persecution in his homeland. Mehdi Kazemi believes he will face persecution if he is made to return to Iran. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, had originally sought asylum in Britain, where he was taking classes on a student visa, because, he said, his boyfriend had been executed in Iran after saying he and Kazemi had been in a gay relationship. Britain's Home Office rejected his request, prompting Kazemi to flee to Netherlands. Tuesday's decision by the Council of State -- the highest administrative court in the Netherlands --means Kazemi could face deportation to Britain, which he fears will send him back to Iran. Council spokeswoman Daniela Tempelman said the council decided it must comply with the Dublin Regulation and return Kazemi to Britain. Watch how teenager has lost his right to remain. \u00bb . Under the Dublin Regulation, European Union member nations agree that an application for asylum submitted in any EU country would be handled by that country alone. The regulation seeks to ensures that an asylum seeker is not redirected from nation to nation simply because none will take responsibility. Kazemi's initial appeal for asylum in the Netherlands, made in October, was rejected. He then appealed unsuccessfully to a regional court in December. His last appeal was to the Council of State in January. Tempelman said that in order for the Dutch court to consider Kazemi's asylum application, he needed to prove that Britain did not handle his asylum application properly, but he wasn't able to prove any wrongdoing on the part of the British government. Kazemi now has exhausted his chances for appeal in the Netherlands and, according to Tempelman, could be returned to Britain on a short notice. The British government about six months ago accepted the Dutch request to take him back. Kazemi's lawyer will have the option of taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights to request an \"interim measure\" that could allow Kazemi to stay in Europe until further notice. \"If anybody signs his deportation papers and says, look, he's got to be deported to Iran, that means they have signed his death sentence,\" said Kazemi's uncle Saeed, who asked CNN to withhold his last name over safety concerns. Gay rights activists in Europe and Iran are also researching Kazemi's case. \"When Britain is prepared to send a young man back to possible execution, that is inhumanity on a monumental scale,\" said Peter Tatchell, an activist for gay campaign group OutRage. \"And I hang my head in shame, as a British citizen.\" In a written statement, Britain's Home Office said that even though homosexuality is illegal in Iran and homosexuals do experience discrimination, it does not believe that homosexuals are routinely persecuted purely on the basis of their sexuality. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iranian teenager loses appeal to remain in the Netherlands .\n19-year-old had sought asylum in UK but is to be sent home .\nMehdi Kazemi says he will face persecution in his homeland .","id":"83cb0c7e79d4c71703e1bd5fc346fe68be8b8b13"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The building in Amstetten, eastern Austria, seems innocuous enough. But it is underneath this family home --- now known as \"the house of horror\" -- that a woman was held for nearly 24 years by her father and repeatedly raped, giving birth to seven children as a result. The bathroom used by the woman, who was held captive for more than two decades, and her three children. Now the first images have begun to emerge of the series of rooms in which 73-year-old man Josef Fritzl says he imprisoned his daughter, and three of her surviving children, in a basement 50-60 meters square that he converted himself. Police and authorities who have been down into the cellar after Fritzl gave them the electronic combination -- say that the rooms are very low, less than five-and-a-half feet high. The rooms included a sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a bathroom, all of which are said to be \"very dark, narrow and damp,\" reports CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen. Watch a report on details of the case \u00bb . Elisabeth Fritzl has told officers that conditions were \"dire\" and that she and her children had little food and clothing. None had seen the light of day during their entire time in captivity, she told police. One photograph shows the white-tiled walls and floors of the bathroom and some token attempts to introduce some semblance of normality. A small child-like cutout of a yellow snail has been stuck over the sink, while a large plastic elephant sits atop the green bathroom cabinet. Above that, as elsewhere in the bathroom, droops a small plastic plant. Other accoutrements of everyday life litter the scene, including a hot water bottle, a small wooden chair and a towel. What looks like a wooden glass-framed door has been painted red; through the doorway is the bath itself, crammed in next to a toilet with a green seat. Above the bath is what looks like a large image of a flower, aside other decorations that appear to have been put on the walls. But the overwhelming sense from the images is one of grimness. The only evident light in this windowless room comes from the small bulb set into the bathroom cabinet; despite the whiteness of the walls, floor and bathroom fittings, it is a room that cannot hide its oppression as one of the few rooms that the three children, if reports are correct, have ever known. Other pictures convey the grimness of the dungeon still further. A narrow corridor, just over the width of a floor tile, leads down from what seems to be a kitchen area to sleeping quarters. A table in the foreground appear to have a cloth over it; a dressing gown hangs from the hook. But the spartan conditions and cramped conditions cannot belie the rooms' true purpose. A third image shows a corner of the dungeon with a wooden wall and construction materials piled up in a heap. A set of tiles has been fixed to the wall in what seem to be two sides of a doorway, blocked by what looks like a white rectangular board. Police at a press conference Monday said that this image showed the exit from the dungeon, controlled on the other side by an electronic keyless lock. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Austrian father confesses he held daughter prisoner for nearly 24 years First images emerge of the cellar dungeon in which she, three children held The rooms include a sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a bathroom .\nPolice are still trying to understand the purpose of all the rooms in the cellar .","id":"5eb63517219a5d2aeebd21aa66d9b69c52cfb208"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She'll never forget the day her 17-year-old son, John, asked her permission to enlist in the U.S. military. \"Mom, I owe this to my country.\" Samantha Schroeder of Chester, Maryland, worries about her 19-year-old son, John, who is deploying to Iraq. Now, at age 19, her son is a Marine preparing to deploy to Iraq. \"He doesn't care if you do or don't understand his choice; he isn't concerned with political views, religion or race. His greatest concern is doing the job he is asked to do with skill and pride, protecting those abroad and at home and standing up to the standards he has set for himself,\" Samantha Schroeder said. iReporters shared an array of stories about how the Iraq war has affected them over the past five years. One man said he met his wife, a fellow service member, while serving in Iraq. Others described the pain of having fathers so far away, especially when new children are born. Some military wives said they often keep their true feelings to themselves, fearing that they would affect their husbands' morale in the field. See photos, hear stories of sacrifice \u00bb . Below are a selection of responses from iReporters, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. Angela Fritz of Fort Hood, Texas \"Having [my husband] gone is the worst kind of pain. It is the burden I chose to bear but am not happy to. On the outside, I have to stand strong. I have to support my country and my husband, regardless of what I feel. That is the Army way. I am so proud of him for having the courage to step up and serve his country. On the inside, I am angry and worn thin. Of course, I want my husband home, but it's so much more than that now.\" Samantha Schroeder of Chester, Maryland \"I am the mother of a 19-year-old Marine. He joined while still in his senior year. When he came to me to sign his enlistment papers, I was hesitant. No, I was downright, 'Not in a million years.' He was only 17. How could I give him permission? Just wait, I asked, and think about it some more. He looked at me with a mixture of fear in thinking I might not sign and anger in knowing I didn't understand. And what he said next has stuck in my head through all his training, and now he leaves in a week for Iraq. He told me, 'Mom, I owe this to my country.' ... \"Now, as he prepares for Iraq deployment, I am a little better prepared for what the future holds mentally. But to me, he and most of the men who will accompany him are so young. They still seem like boys to me, but I know they are men. Willing to serve their country. I remember 9\/11 like it was yesterday, and I also remember the fear that was on that seventh-grader's face when he was bused home early that day and watched the events unfold on the TV. And now he stands as a Marine, willing to sacrifice his everyday freedoms to assure we are safe here at home.\" Katherine Shigekane of Virginia Beach, Virginia \"The Iraq war has changed our lives in many ways. My husband has been serving in the Navy for 16 years, and since March 2003, he has been on four different deployments. Our lives have been affected in many ways. Our wedding plans were changed due to the invasion. He missed most of my first pregnancy. He was able to be home for the birth of our twins but left again when they were a year old and was gone until after their second birthday. He is now gone again. ... As a family I think we have learned to appreciate the time we do spend together.\" joshM \"While serving in Iraq with the United States Marines, I met my wife. She is in the United States Army. We met while on R&R in Qatar. We did long distance for the remaining time that we had left of our deployment and then another year while I was still stationed in Cherry Point, North Carolina. She is still stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. After I separated from the Marines as a corporal, I moved to Kentucky to be with her. We are now happily married, and she is on her third tour to Iraq. So even though the news shows all the bad things of war, some good really does come from it.\" ChristopherM \"I am a soldier in the U.S. Army. I am a 20-year-old combat veteran. I returned home this past summer and enrolled in college with hopes of going to law school. Unfortunately, with future deployments likely to postpone my schooling, I will be in college long past traditional college years. That is just a minor nuisance compared with the fact that relating to my family and friends is infinitely more difficult since I've returned. I find myself zoning out and going back to the war during family functions and when I'm out with my friends, I apparently talk in my sleep about the war and occasionally sleepwalk.\" Sierra Derrick of Waymart, Pennsylvania \"This is the second time my husband is deploying to Iraq, and trust me, it only gets harder!! The first time, I was 17 years old, two months pregnant and a brand-new bride. (We got married literally the day before he left.) Now, exactly four years later, we are in the same situation, although things are a little different. Together we have two amazingly beautiful little boys, Connor and Carson, ages 3 and 1. Needless to say, he is their hero as well as mine. \"The impact that this war has had on our family has been extraordinary. We are so incredibly proud of him in ways that civilian families couldn't comprehend. We have been brought closer because of these deployments, and the support we have is absolutely phenomenal. \"In that sense, I believe it has been worth it.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"iReporters share their thoughts on how the Iraq war has affected their lives .\n\"Having [my husband] gone is the worst kind of pain,\" one woman says .\nWife: Invasion changed wedding plans, hubby missed most of first pregnancy .\niReport.com: Tell us how the war has impacted you and your family .","id":"4a1de02b50578df33ea7b0cb384bdd6aaf4ee119"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Videos of the chaos and horrified reactions after the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings were shown to jurors Thursday in the trial of three men charged with conspiracy in the case. Smoke and dust fill the platform area at Liverpool Street Station on July 7, 2005, after a bomb exploded. One of the videos shows the explosion of a train seconds after it leaves the Liverpool Street Station heading for Aldgate East. As dust and smoke fill the tunnel, people on the platform rush away, and police head toward the blast. Another shows bystanders running and ducking for cover after one of the bombers detonated his rucksack on the No. 30 bus. Riders on a nearby bus jump from their seats. Four bombs were detonated on underground trains at Liverpool Street, Russell Square and Edgware Road, and on a double-decker bus at Tavistock Square. Fifty-two people and the four bombers were killed, and at least 900 people were injured. Watch commuters flee as the bombs explode \u00bb . Links to the edited videos were posted on the Web site of London's Metropolitan Police, and were played in Kingston Crown Court where Mohammed Shakil, 31, Waheed Ali, 24, and Sadeer Saleem, 27, are accused of aiding the bombers . A series of videos show three of the bombers -- Siddique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay -- practicing their moves in various locations on June 28, 2005. The fourth bomber was Hasib Hussain. One video shows Tanweer and Khan meeting Lindsay outside Luton Station, where the three linger near the ticket counter and one of them stands in line. Security cameras also captured images of the three men at other blast locations. Two weeks after the July bombings, an attempted second wave of bombings struck other trains and a bus, but the devices failed to explode properly. More than a dozen people were arrested afterward. Metropolitan Police said some clips were not released, to protect the identities of members of the public. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jurors see video evidence in the trial of three men charged with conspiracy .\nOne video shows explosion seconds after train leaves Liverpool Street Station .\nVideos also show three of four suspects in London transport bombings .","id":"ddedfc2a349fb607ed7efeda1660e9807454ddb7"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Political powerbroker Tony Rezko, whose links to presidential contender Barack Obama dropped him into the national spotlight this year, was convicted of money laundering, fraud and bribery charges by a federal jury Wednesday. Tony Rezko, left, leaves federal court with his family Tuesday during deliberations in his corruption trial. Rezko -- who has contributed thousands to the campaigns of the Illinois senator and other Democrats -- was accused of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking Illinois state business. He was convicted of 16 of 24 charges, including 12 counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of aiding and abetting bribery and two counts of money laundering. He was acquitted of attempted extortion. Testimony at Rezko's trial in federal court brought up ties between Obama and Rezko, with a witness putting Obama at Rezko's house for a party where the guest of honor was Iraqi-British businessman Nadhmi Auchi. Obama has said he doesn't recall ever meeting Auchi, who was convicted of fraud in France. Amid the controversy, Obama acknowledged he had accepted contributions from Rezko and bought a strip of land from Rezko, a Chicago real-estate developer. Obama, who has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case, has vowed to give up the contributions, and called the purchase a mistake. He has already donated to charity at least $80,000 in campaign contributions linked to Rezko. Obama won enough delegates Tuesday to clinch the Democratic Party's nomination for president.","highlights":"Illinois political power broker Tony Rezko convicted in corruption case .\nRezko was accused of demanding kickbacks for state business contracts .\nRezko made contributions to Obama campaign, sold him land .","id":"1cce8238a161fda411022c350d2b9a49072f366f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mychal Bell, a black teenager accused of beating a white classmate and who was the last of the \"Jena 6\" behind bars, was released from custody Thursday after a juvenile court judge set his bail at $45,000. Supporters surround Mychal Bell on Thursday after his release at the LaSalle Parish courthouse. Bell's release followed an announcement from LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, who said he would not appeal a higher court's decision moving Bell's case to juvenile court. Wearing a blue striped golf shirt and jeans, Bell walked out of the LaSalle Parish courthouse a week after an estimated 15,000-plus demonstrators marched through Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- to protest local authorities' handling of the teens' case. \"We do not condone violence of any kind, but we ask that people be given a fair and even chance at the bar of justice,\" the Rev. Al Sharpton said outside the courthouse. \"Tonight, Mychal can go home, but Mychal is not out of the juvenile process. He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him,\" he said. \"Let America know -- we are not fighting for the right to fight in school. We're not fighting for the right for kids to beat each other. We're fighting to say that there must be one level of justice for everybody. And you cannot have adult attempted murder for some, and a fine for others, and call that equal protection under the law. Two wrongs don't make one civil right.\" Demonstrators at last week's march were protesting how authorities handled the cases of Bell and five other teens accused of beating fellow student Justin Barker. Many said they were angry that the students, dubbed the Jena 6, were being treated more harshly than three white students who hung nooses from an oak tree on Jena High School property. The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters said they should have been charged with a hate crime. Bell's attorney Lewis Scott said the teen was moved from jail to a juvenile facility earlier Thursday. Walters said his decision not to appeal was based on what he believed was best for the victim in the case. \"While I believe that a review would have merit ... I believe it is in the best interest of the victim and his family not to delay this matter any further and move it to its conclusion,\" Walters told reporters. Watch the Rev. Al Sharpton discuss the teen's release \u00bb . He said last week's march, which included Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, did not influence his decision. Bell, now 17, was the only one of the Jena 6 behind bars. His bond previously was set at $90,000. A district judge earlier this month tossed out Bell's conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in juvenile court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell's battery conviction in mid-September. Prosecutors originally charged all six black students accused of being involved in beating Barker with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. Walters reduced charges against at least four of them -- Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw -- to battery and conspiracy. Bryant Purvis awaits arraignment. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile. Wednesday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced that Louisiana State Police officers will protect the families of the Jena 6 and investigate any threats they have received. A white supremacist Web site posted the names and addresses of the six black teens after last week's march, calling on followers to \"let them know justice is coming.\" Thursday, the FBI said it had been made aware of allegations of threats. \"Threats are taken seriously, and as these investigations are ongoing we cannot comment further,\" said Sheila Thorne of the FBI's office in New Orleans, Louisiana. The December 4 attack on Barker came after months of racial tension, including at least two instances of fighting in the town, sparked originally when three white teens hung the nooses. Walters has said there was no direct link between the hanging of the nooses and the schoolyard attack, and defended the prosecutions ahead of last Thursday's peaceful march. Blanco defended the prosecutor Wednesday, saying, \"He has a solid record and is highly respected among his peers.\" Walters also addressed the stress and notoriety the town has been subjected to, saying the only way he and other residents \"have been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community.\" He also suggested that some kind of \"disaster\" was averted when thousands of marchers came to Jena last week. \"I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened,\" Walters said. \"The Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly,\" he said, without explaining exactly what he meant. Soon after the district attorney spoke, a local reverend took issue with his comments. \"Obviously, we are serving two different gods here,\" the Rev. Donald Sidley said. \"My Bible says that we should do -- we should be loving, love your neighbor as yourself. \"For him to try and separate the community like he is and then using Christ Jesus to influence the people that Jesus is working on their side, well, that's -- that's absurd. ... God is god of the human race,\" said Sidley, of the New Evergreen Church. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bell released from custody after juvenile court judge sets bail at $45,000 .\nProsecutor won't appeal ruling in Bell case .\nBell and five other black teens are accused of beating white student Justin Barker .\nBeating followed white students hanging nooses from a tree on school grounds .","id":"0612042c0c7d5cf6459f5435402919673c8c552f"} -{"article":"KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- Sudan's entire state apparatus has been mobilized \"to plan, commit, and cover up crimes\" in the war-torn area of Darfur, a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said Thursday. The United Nations estimates 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur. The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, made the observation in a progress report to the U.N. Security Council into its probe of crimes in Darfur and the status of two men indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan. He said the Sudanese government \"has taken no steps to arrest\" the men, one of whom is now in charge of the government's humanitarian affairs. The other is a militia leader. \"For the last five years the whole Darfur area has been a crime scene. Girls are raped, schools are bombed. ... And they are covering up these crimes,\" Moreno-Ocampo said at a news conference at the United Nations Thursday. The court says Darfurians are attacked in their villages and in camps, citing rapes, bombings of schools and arrests of community leaders. \"Crimes being committed today in Darfur cannot be denied, or minimized. Decisions to commit crimes, to deny crimes, to disguise crimes are taken at the highest level. Denial of crimes, by the authorities that vowed to protect Darfurians, is an additional harm to the victims,\" the report said. The ICC cases are against Ali Kushayb, a militia leader, and Ahmad Harun, former minister of state for the interior in Sudan, who is now in charge of humanitarian affairs for the Sudanese government. Both face charges of murder, rape, forced displacement and other offenses during the Darfur crisis, which the United States characterizes as a genocide. Harun's present role gives him power over how and whether aid agencies can deliver food, medicine and shelter to victims of chronic violence and deprivation in Darfur. \"He attacks the people he has the responsibility to protect,\" the International Criminal Court said in a statement. \"He hampers the delivery of relief to the victims. He is involved in obstructing deployment of the peacekeepers.\" Alleged crimes in the region stem from a brutal counter-insurgency campaign the Sudanese government conducted after rebels began an uprising in the Darfur region of western Sudan in 2003. The authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur on a campaign of killing, torture and rape, according to the United Nations, western governments and human-rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw strength. About 300,000 people have died in Darfur, the United Nations estimates, and 2.5 million have been forced from home. In 2005, the Security Council cleared the way for possible war crimes prosecutions by the International Criminal Court, a permanent tribunal set up to handle prosecutions related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court is based on a treaty signed by 106 nations -- excluding Sudan. Prosecutors are investigating offenses in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Once the court indicts someone, authorities in one country or another have the power to detain the indicted person for trial at The Hague. That has not happened in the case of Harun and Kushayb. An arrest warrant for Harun charges that he was involved in the murder, rape, torture and forced displacement of civilians. The court also says he encouraged such illegal acts in public speeches during his tenure as minister of state for the interior. The criminal court says Kushayb led several thousand militia members and personally participated in attacks against civilians. An arrest warrant outlines numerous cases of murder, rape and inhumane acts. In Sudan, however, senior government leaders told CNN that reports of atrocities in Darfur were exaggerated. \"Yes, there has been a war and some people have died, but it's not like what has been reflected in the media,\" said Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid. Musa Halil, an adviser to Sudan's president, has been accused by the United States of leading a militia responsible for atrocities. And the U.N. Security Council has frozen his assets. Yet he denies any wrongdoing. \"There is no genocide,\" he told CNN. \"Most people came to the refugee camps because of the pressure and were used there for political marketing.\" Others told a different story. In Darfur, eyewitnesses spoke of government airplanes and helicopters attacking defenseless civilians just four months ago. They said the government struck in coordination with militiamen riding horses and camels -- a classic pattern that has unfolded around Darfur in recent years. More than 115 people were killed in that attack, they said, and nearly 58,000 people fled. CNN's Nic Robertson contributed to this report .","highlights":"International Criminal Court: Sudan \"taken no steps\" to arrest Darfur war criminals .\nOne suspect now in charge of humanitarian affairs for Sudanese government .\nAllegations stem from 2003 counter-insurgency campaign by Sudanese government .\nUnited Nations estimates about 300,000 people have died in Darfur region .","id":"cbe1f7ee7f5d619093684cc123e3908e39d79c92"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A high school valedictorian's plans to study medicine at a California state university have run headlong into the federal government's attempts to return him and his family to Armenia. Arthur Mkoyan, 17, was 2 years old when his family came to the United States. \"I haven't been in Armenia since I was 2, so I don't really know anything about the place,\" said Arthur Mkoyan, 17. \"All I've seen is just videos my mom has watched on the Internet.\" Mkoyan's long-term plans were turned upside down one morning in April when two immigration officers arrived at the door of his family's house. \"They took both of my parents, and they released my mom because she had to take care of us, since me and my brother are minors,\" he recalled. \"But instead they took my dad away to a detention center in Arizona.\" Mkoyan, who has a grade-point average above 4.0 -- extra credit for Advanced Placement classes makes that possible -- is set to graduate next week from Bullard High School in Fresno, California. Watch students from Arthur's school talk about his case \u00bb . Ten days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport him and his family to the Armenian capital city of Yerevan, the same city his family fled in fear 16 years ago. Back then, Mkoyan's father, Ruben Mkoian (he and his son spell their last names differently), was a sergeant in an Armenian equivalent of a department of motor vehicles, according to a court document. \"He was approached with a bribe to register stolen vehicles. He refused. A co-worker took the bribe. Mkoian reported the incident to the chief of the DMV, who told him to mind his own business,\" the document states. \"Subsequently, he and his family were subjected to attacks he believed were attempts to silence him about corruption at the DMV.\" In what the family considers one such attempt, their house was set on fire in 1992. That led the father to send his family to Russia and then to the United States, Arthur Mkoyan said. They arrived in the United States in 1995 on six-month tourist visas, according to Virginia Kice, a public information officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The family settled in Fresno, where Mkoian worked as a truck driver and his wife worked in a jewelry store. They set about living their lives, which soon included a younger brother for Arthur. But after the visas expired, the family's application to remain in the United States was denied. In 2002, an immigration judge ruled that they had no legal basis to remain in the country, Kice said. After their application to the Board of Immigration Appeals was rejected, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year denied their petition for a hearing. The court was unpersuaded by the father's assertion that he might still be subject to reprisal if he were to return. \"Mkoian's fear that Armenian officials would be unable or unwilling to protect him seems unfounded because he provided little evidence that they were unable or unwilling to protect him in the past,\" the appeals court said. To Kice, it's a simple matter of enforcing the law. \"I would remind people that this family had ample access to due process,\" she said. \"The case has been in litigation for more than 10 years. Immigration experts on every level determined that they had no legal basis to be in the United States.\" She noted that the government agreed to delay their deportation so Arthur can graduate with his class. Arthur's schoolmates at Bullard are shocked that his academic achievements haven't helped his case. \"It's really hard to get good grades in this school,\" freshman Alex Stewart told affiliate KGPE. \"It's a challenging school, so to get a 4.0, you really gotta try.\" Still, a longer-term reprieve remains possible, if unlikely. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, may attempt to pass a \"private bill\" that would allow the family to remain in the United States. \"Our office is looking into the case,\" said Scott Gerber, a spokesman for the senator. But the odds against it are long. There is \"almost no chance\" that the family's quest for a private bill will succeed, said Daniel Kowalski, editor-in-chief of Bender's Immigration Bulletin. \"Very few are being passed,\" he said. In fact, of the 21 private immigration bills introduced last year, none was enacted. In 2006, 117 were introduced, and none was enacted; in 2005, 98 were introduced, and four were enacted. But the filing itself would buy the family time, since it suspends any efforts to deport the family until the bill's fate is determined. Arthur appeared undaunted. He appealed to a reporter to publicize his e-mail address (artmkoyan@gmail.com) so he can forward any letters of support to Feinstein. Meanwhile, the academic skills he has displayed in Fresno may not easily translate to college in Armenia. Arthur said he understands only a few words of Armenian.","highlights":"Arthur Mkoyan, 17, and his family are set for deportation 10 days after graduation .\nThe family says they left Armenia in 1992 fearing for their lives .\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement says the family has no legal basis to stay .","id":"42be47d5986a9a55b413eb57359d2d8c51b59024"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After months of stalemate, the Senate late Tuesday passed a huge government spending bill that includes billions of dollars requested by President Bush to continue the war in Iraq. White House officials have said President Bush would sign off on the spending plan if the Iraq money was added. The roughly $555 billion bill -- which passed 76-17 -- also preserves thousands of earmarks for lawmakers who will deliver them to constituents just in time for the holidays. The final vote came at about 11 p.m. ET Tuesday -- after hours of debate that included two more attempts by Senate Democrats to tie war funding to a plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Those efforts failed, as have dozens of others in the House and Senate since Democrats took control of Congress last year. Earlier, members voted to add $40 billion for the war in Iraq that had been removed by the House -- which passed the spending bill on Monday. The plan also includes $30 billion for troops in Afghanistan. Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who co-sponsored the push to reinstate the Iraq money, called its approval \"a very powerful bipartisan message of support for our men and women serving in Iraq.\" White House officials have said Bush would sign the spending plan if the Iraq money was added. In the weeks leading up to the vote, Bush had repeatedly pushed members of Congress to approve a military spending bill that did not place troop-withdrawal requirements on the military in Iraq. The bill wraps together 11 of the 12 government spending bills for 2008 -- except for that of the Department of Defense, which was already funded. Facing a president determined to keep spending in check and a unified Republican minority in the House and Senate, Democrats have been stymied at nearly every turn in their attempts to increase spending on their domestic priorities. Fearing a politically dangerous government shutdown, Democratic leaders ultimately gave in to Bush's top line number and trimmed $22 billion from the measure. But Democrats stemmed their losses somewhat by shifting some funding from the president's priorities to their own. And they added billions more above Bush's top line in \"emergency\" funding for veterans health care, California fires, border security and more. The government spending watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, which scrambled Monday to pore over the nearly 1,500-page bill that was made public late Sunday night, said it has identified almost 9,000 earmarks worth $7.4 billion. Many of the earmarks avoided normal congressional scrutiny and were \"airdropped\" -- or slipped in without going through normal committee consideration -- into the final bill, the group said. But Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, chairman of the budget-writing appropriations committee, said the spending plan represents a dramatic decrease in pork-barrel projects from the one approved by Bush two years ago -- when Republicans controlled Congress. \"The total dollars that are earmarked is reduced -- hear me now -- by 43 percent,\" Byrd said Tuesday from the Senate floor. \"That ain't chicken feed.\" Arguing for a plan that would have begun pulling troops from Iraq within 90 days, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, became emotional as he called the Bush administration's efforts in Iraq \"a continuing quagmire.\" \"The best way to end this charade and protect our troops and our national security is to put the Iraqis on notice that they need to take responsibility for their future,\" Kennedy said. \"Unless there's a binding timeline for the redeployment of our troops, the Iraqis will not feel the need to make the compromises essential for a political solution.\" The measure now goes back to the House for approval in its revised form. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she expects the bill to pass the House, although she will vote against it because of the war funds added in the Senate version. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The roughly $555 billion budget measure passed 76-17 .\nDemocrats failed to tie war funding to plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq .\nBill has nearly 9,000 earmarks worth $7.4 billion, watchdog group says .\nMeasure now goes back to House for approval in its revised form .","id":"9f997964709283520a65d2ce75de7c8b154ce351"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli would be remembered as the greatest female cyclist of her generation even if she had never been an Olympic champion. Longo-Ciprelli: Fourth time lucky in Atlanta in 1996. For much of her career, the Olympic gold was the one honor to elude the French rider. Misfortune, it seemed, was to be her fate every four years, regardless of how many world championships she won in between. In 1984 the first women's Olympic road race coincided with Longo-Ciprelli's rise to dominance in the sport. Well-placed going into the final lap, she appeared set to challenge in the sprint, only to be knocked off in a collision. By 1988, Longo-Ciprelli was a three-time road race world champion, as well as a double winner of the women's Tour de France, and the clear favorite for gold in Seoul. But a broken hip a month before the Games derailed her preparations. Although she recovered enough to ride the road race, she could manage just 21st place. Tactical error More disappointment followed in Barcelona in 1992 as Longo-Ciprelli paid the price for a tactical error. With three kilometers to go, she raced away from the peloton and crossed the line in celebration. But she had failed to realize that Kathy Watt, an unheralded Australian, had slipped away from the lead group apparently unnoticed with a lap to go, and finished 20 seconds further in front. Four years later, in Atlanta, Longo-Ciprelli, finally cracked her Olympic jinx. At 37, Longo-Ciprelli was no longer the dominant presence she had once been, but she still possessed the ability to raise her performance for the biggest races, as she had proven by winning her fourth road race world title in 1995. Her preparations were typically unorthodox -- while her rivals were acclimatizing to the Atlanta heat, Longo-Ciprelli trained alone in the mountains of Colorado, arriving just two days before the race. The race itself was run in a sudden downpour, which sent many riders crashing and skidding and had the rest struggling to stay on their bikes. Unruffled, Longo-Ciprelli broke clear with two other riders and then launched her gold-winning solo attack 11 kilometers from the finish. Longo-Ciprelli was back for her fifth and final Olympics in Sydney in 2000 at the age of 41, this time claiming bronze in the time trial -- and event in which she had also won silver in 1996. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Cyclist's Olympic record: 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals, 1 bronze medal .\nCyclist was born October 31, 1958, in Annency, France .\nBy 1988 Longo-Ciprelli was a three-time road race world champion .","id":"57da930302d81b46438b0f715a5218b7174a5611"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For years, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout made millions of dollars delivering weapons and ammunition to warlords and militants, officials say. On Thursday, Bout and his associate, Andrew Smulian, were arrested in Thailand after a series of events that officials said could have come straight out of a spy novel. The men's capture involved law enforcement agencies from at least five countries, including two undercover agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration posing as Colombian rebels. Bout and Smulian are accused of conspiracy to provide surface-to-air missiles and other weapons to Colombian rebels, said Michael Garcia, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In a complaint filed by a DEA agent, they are said to have conspired to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The U.S. Department of State designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 2003. \"This marks the end of the reign of one of the world's most-wanted arms traffickers,\" Garcia said of Bout. \"Someone will undoubtedly write a book about this case someday, and I can tell you that it will read like the very best work of Tom Clancy, only in this case, it won't be fiction,\" said Michael Braun, assistant administrator and chief of operations for the DEA. Secret meetings . The operation began in January, when Smulian began meeting with two men who claimed to represent FARC but who were actually confidential sources working for the DEA. The men expressed interest in buying millions of dollars worth of weapons. At meetings in the Netherlands Antilles, Denmark and Romania, Smulian discussed the details and logistics of the arms deal with the two agents. At one meeting, the agents were given a digital memory stick containing an article about Bout and documents containing photos and specifications for 100 surface-to-air missiles and armor-piercing rocket launchers. Smulian explained that a delivery system was in place that would allow the weapons to be air-dropped into Colombia, and he told the men that it would cost $5 million to transport the weapons. During one meeting, Smulian introduced the DEA sources to Bout over the phone. After that conversation, Smulian told one of the sources that the weapons were ready in Bulgaria. Smulian and Bout set up a face-to-face meeting with them to finalize the deal, and that is what happened Thursday. The arrests were made Thursday afternoon. The charges against Bout and Smulian cover the period from November through February, according to a written statement from the U.S. attorney's office and the DEA. The United States plans to pursue the extradition of Bout from Thailand, the statement said. There was no mention of Smulian's fate. Bout and Smulian are charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, each could get a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, the statement said. 'I'm not a diamond guy' Intelligence agencies around the world have tracked Bout for years. Although some of his work has been legitimate, most has not. He has made deliveries to Africa, Asia and the Mideast using obsolete or surplus Soviet-era cargo planes. Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who speaks multiple languages, has what is reputed to be the largest private fleet of Soviet-era cargo aircraft in the world, according to U.S. officials. He acquired the planes shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in 2005. At that time, the U.S. Treasury announced that it was freezing the assets of Bout and his associates, who are all tied to former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Taylor is being tried on war crimes charges by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Intelligence officials said Bout shipped large quantities of small arms to civil wars across Africa and Asia, often taking diamonds in payment from West African fighters. A 2006 article in Foreign Policy magazine said that although Bout served many third-world leaders, he also aided organizations such as the United Nations. \"He made countless trips for the United Nations into the same areas where he supplied the weapons that sparked the humanitarian crises in the first place,\" the article charged. It said Bout probably committed multiple violations of U.N. arms embargoes. British intelligence officials found evidence in Afghanistan that Bout had shipped arms to the Taliban and al Qaeda, as well as circumstantial evidence that he shipped weapons technology into Iraq. And the U.S. government said it received information that Bout profited $50 million from supplying the Taliban with military equipment when they ruled Afghanistan. Bout, who is said to be the inspiration for Nicolas Cage's arms dealer character in the movie \"Lord of War,\" told CNN in 2002 that he never sold arms to the Taliban or al Qaeda. He also denied providing weapons and missile-guidance technology to Iraq. Bout said that his air transport company is legitimate and that he ferried a variety of cargo to Africa and to Afghanistan since 1992. He denied that any of it was done illegally or that he was paid in \"blood diamonds\" from Africa. \"It's a lie,\" he said. \"I never touched diamonds in my life, and I'm not a diamond guy, and I don't want to go into that business.\" Some reports at the time claimed that Bout flew into Afghanistan just before September 11, 2001. But Bout told CNN that the last time he was in Afghanistan was 1996 and that he never met terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: The United States wants Viktor Bout extradited from Thailand .\nBout, associate are accused of conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian rebels .\nBritish officials say Bout shipped arms to the Taliban and al Qaeda .\nRussian is said to have inspired Nicolas Cage role in movie \"Lord of War\"","id":"bc639974d283826b3b928bf90f0951652db71fd4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A Colombian sculptor has created a mystery at London's Tate Modern gallery by refusing to reveal how she seemingly managed to crack open a concrete floor. \"Shibboleth\" is Colombian artist Doris Salcedo's first public commission in the United Kingdom. The work by Doris Salcedo begins as a hairline crack then widens and deepens as it snakes across the full 167 meters (548 feet) of the former power station's Turbine Hall. Salcedo said \"Shibboleth,\" a statement about racism, took her more than a year to make but has revealed little else about its construction. She apparently created it elsewhere and spent the past five weeks installing it in the Tate, on the south bank of the River Thames. She refused to say how she managed seemingly to crack open a concrete floor. \"What is important is the meaning of the piece. The making of it is not important,\" she said. Asked how deep the crack goes, she replied: \"It's bottomless. It's as deep as humanity.\" Visitors meanwhile are warned not to trip on the crack. Tate director Nicholas Serota insisted the work was no optical illusion. \"This sculpture has been made in the most painstaking, meticulous way by Doris and her team before it was slowly inserted into the Turbine Hall,\" he told the Press Association. \"It has taken five weeks of work here with very considerable disruption to the hall. It's not an illusion - it's there, it's real. \"From the Tate's point of view, there were only two questions: could we realize it in the way Doris envisaged? And once the piece was created, would it damage the structural integrity of the building forever? \"The answer to the first was yes, and to the second was no.\" He declined to elaborate further. The installation will be removed next April by filling in the crack. Serota said: \"There is a crack, there is a line, and eventually there will be a scar and that scar will remain. It will remain as a memory of the work and also as a memorial to the issues Doris touches on.\" The artist said the work of art represents the gap between white Europeans and the rest of humanity. Wire mesh is on show because it is \"the most common means of control used to define borders and divisions.\" Salcedo said of the work: \"It represents borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred. \"It is the experience of a Third World person coming into the heart of Europe. \"For example, the space which illegal immigrants occupy is a negative space. And so this piece is a negative space.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Work by Colombian sculptor at London's Tate Modern is crack in concrete floor .\nDoris Salcedo refuses to reveal how she created the huge work of art .\n\"Shibboleth\" represents gap between white Europeans and the rest of humanity .","id":"304002bc095b57d14b728ccfb8d704ef39f28813"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Armenian President Robert Kocharian declared a state of emergency Saturday night after a day of clashes between police and protesters, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said. The protesters claim last month's presidential election was rigged. The state of emergency will \"hopefully bring some order\" to the capital, Yerevan, said Salpi Ghazarian, assistant to the Armenian foreign minister, who spoke to CNN early Sunday. The state of emergency could last until March 20, she said, but the government hopes \"that it will be lifted sooner.\" The clashes began when authorities used force to clear Freedom Square of thousands of demonstrators who had camped there for the past 10 days, according to a U.S. Embassy official. Ghazarian said the authorities \"moved in\" because \"they thought that there were arms there, and it turned out that they were right.\" Watch a report on clashes between police and the opposition \u00bb . The embassy official estimated that the demonstrations in Freedom Square grew to as many as 60,000 Armenians at times over the last 10 days. As of early Sunday morning, Freedom Square was empty, Ghazarian said, but the protesters were demonstrating in a main square elsewhere in the city. Watch Ghazarian discuss the situation in Armenia \u00bb . \"What is happening on the streets of Yerevan is people protesting what they consider to be unfair elections,\" Ghazarian said. \"After the president was forced to declare a state of emergency, things have quieted down. There are a couple of burning cars, and there are a few hurt people,\" she said. \"We're convinced that this will come to an end soon.\" She did not elaborate on the number of people injured or the extent of their injuries. Witnesses told CNN that Saturday morning's action by Armenian riot police was bloody, but the U.S. official said there were no confirmed deaths or serious injuries. An Armenian woman interviewed by CNN said there was \"huge chaos\" when police moved in. \"These are innocent people,\" she said. \"They just want their freedom. They just want to be heard. They are being beaten up, some people have horrible wounds.\" She asked that CNN not use her name because she feared for her safety. As night fell Saturday, the sounds of gunfire could be heard from the direction of the protesters' gathering, and tracer fire could be seen in the sky, according to another Yerevan resident, who also asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety. The man said his wife saw two demonstrators hit by a police car earlier in the day. The car initially did not stop, he said, but the protesters surrounded the car, dragged the officers out and burned the vehicle, he said. The officers were able to escape, he said, but he did not know the condition of the protesters who were struck. The protests began soon after the February 19 presidential election. Opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian lost to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, a political ally of outgoing President Kocharian. The opposition party immediately accused the government of vote fraud and demanded that the results be voided. Ghazarian said Sunday that the government had reached out to the opposition. \"We are hoping with the help of the international community, the opposition, the leader of the opposition, will come and enter a political dialogue rather than continuing this debate on the streets,\" she said. Haroutiun Khachatrian, editor of the Noyan Tappan News Agency, told CNN that riot police arrested several hundred people in the square Saturday morning, including many opposition party officials. Ter-Petrosian was there but was not arrested, he said. The opposition vowed to pursue its claims through legal means. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitored last month's Armenian election and concluded that it was mostly in line with international standards, although it did include some criticism in its report. The U.S. Embassy has warned the several hundred Americans living in Yerevan to stay at home and avoid the downtown area where the demonstrations have been taking place, the U.S. official said. Armenia, population 3 million, is a former Soviet republic east of Turkey, south of Georgia and north of Iran. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Protest moves after crackdown at Freedom Square .\nOrder sought after protests over last month's election turn violent .\nDemonstrators say the election was fraudulent .\nState of emergency could last until March 20, official says .","id":"fab941df6ecc8251b49d28715504baf4ac31dcf9"} -{"article":"BUCHAREST, Romania (CNN) -- France has agreed to send a battalion of troops to eastern Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman has said. Canadian NATO-led soldiers walk patrol near Kandahar, Afghanistan. James Appathurai told reporters at a briefing that the move will help NATO meet Canada's requirement that it send more troops to the volatile southern province of Kandahar, where Canadian troops are based. Canada agreed this month to extend its commitment of about 2,500 troops until 2011 so long as NATO contributes more troops to Kandahar. There is a \"clear unity in the alliance\" that the mission in Afghanistan must succeed, Appathurai said. Though 25 NATO allies and 13 other countries have contributed forces, the bulk of the recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops. Appathurai also said Thursday that he did not expect NATO applicants Georgia and Ukraine to be put on a membership action plan this summit but, he said, the general sense in terms of membership for the two countries is not \"whether, but when.\" Further discussions regarding those two countries is to resume Thursday, he said. U.S. President George W. Bush has pushed for the admission of Ukraine and Georgia to the military alliance. However, Russia -- which is not a NATO member -- has expressed concerns about the former Soviet republics joining NATO, which has already made members of other former Soviet countries Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Appathurai also said a general consensus could not be reached on Macedonia's bid, because of Greece's objections. Greece has threatened to veto Macedonia's bid if its northern neighbor does not agree to change its name. Athens has long argued that the name Macedonia implies territorial claims on its northern province of the same name -- the birthplace, also, of Greece's most revered ancient warrior, Alexander the Great. The name issue must be resolved by the two countries, Appathurai said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"French move will help NATO meet Canada's Kandahar commitment .\nCanada agreed to extend commitment as long as other NATO members helped .\nThe bulk of recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, UK and Dutch troops .","id":"92dec9732f4244771770150d82cd6086f40e5621"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A top Iraqi political figure -- who also is an imam at a prominent Shiite mosque in the capital -- urged the abolition of militias Friday and decried violence and pervasive corruption in Baghdad's Sadr City. Sheikh Jalal al-Din Ali al-Saghir is a parliament member and a representative of the most influential Shiite cleric. Sheikh Jalal al-Din Ali al-Saghir, speaking at Buratha Mosque, blamed the corruption on followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Saghir is the most senior representative in Baghdad of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, arguably the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq. As a member of Iraq's parliament, Al-Saghir represents the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, part of the ruling United Iraqi Alliance. His political group dominates the Iraqi security forces and has been fighting members of a rival Shiite group, al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. He said the Supreme Council, part of the ruling United Iraqi Alliance, once had an armed group called the Badr Brigade that is now a renamed non-military organization. He repeated Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call for all armed groups not affiliated with the government to disband. \"We said from the beginning, and since 2003, the necessity of laying down the weapons by all, and the weapons should be in the hand of the state,\" al-Saghir said. He praised Iraqi security forces' efforts in Basra, the southern Shiite city where al-Maliki launched an offensive in March. The cleric said al-Maliki freed the region of gangs. \"We can say that the Iraqi security forces have made a great change in terms of establishing the security and imposing the law,\" al-Saghir said, adding that effective security must be imposed to ensure the fairness of this autumn's provincial elections. \"The elections will be tomorrow,\" he said, meaning soon. \"How can we respect ourselves as politicians, political parties and officials within the government? How can we respect ourselves by saying we conduct honest elections while there are gangs controlling areas or provinces?\" Meanwhile, Sadrist cleric Suhail al-Iqabi delivered a fiery sermon in the eastern part of Baghdad as hundreds of Sadr City residents sat on the street performing Friday prayers. Al-Iqabi said an \"act of genocide\" is taking place in the town. Speaking to hundreds of worshippers chanting pro-Sadr slogans, al-Iqabi accused the government of holding a grudge against Sadrists and the people of Sadr City \"who are facing genocide in every sense of the word, cutting off the water, electricity and shelling the innocent civilians, killing women and children and detaining women.\" His sermon included a prayer asking God to strengthen al-Sadr's Mehdi army and \"sharpen their weapons.\" \"What the prime minister stated in his press conference, all that he said that was so far from reality, the nonsense and false accusations he used to cover up his huge failure leading the nation's affairs,\" al-Iqabi said. \"... We call on all politicians, journalists, intellectuals, civil society institutions, tribal leaders and clergy to visit Sadr City to witness the crimes committed by the occupier and government forces.\" In Sadr City, nearly 1,000 civilians and fighters are thought to have been killed since late March in fighting between security forces and Shiite militants. However, al-Saghir said there has been \"good security progress.\" Watch as fighting destroys a school \u00bb . \"I believe the coming days will witness many developments which will lead to the protection of this city from these gangs,\" he said. He urged people who have grievances to make their voices heard through the political process. He decried those who arm themselves under the pretext of sectarianism or occupation. Al-Saghir emphasized what he called corruption in Sadr City and the role of Sadrist followers in promoting it. He noted that imams from the Supreme Council were booted from several mosques and replaced by politically correct imams, and he said companies have to pay off the Sadrists to get contracts. He said fuel tanker drivers face the risk of losing their trucks to fire or theft if they don't pay off political groups. Meanwhile Friday, a U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad after a roadside bomb struck the soldier's vehicle, the military said. The soldier was part of a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad when a roadside bomb struck the patrol vehicle at about 6:15 p.m. local time. The soldier's name is being withheld until family has been notified, the U.S. army's public affairs department in Baghdad said. Also Friday, the U.S. military said one of the two suicide bombers who struck a wedding convoy this week in northern Iraq was a woman \"imitating pregnancy.\" The military blamed the Sunni militant group al Qaeda in Iraq for Thursdays' attack that killed 35 people and wounded dozens more in Balad Ruz, a town northeast of Baghdad in the volatile Diyala province. The U.S. military announced Friday that a U.S. Air Force drone crashed in southern Iraq, and investigators suspect mechanical failure. The MQ-1 Predator drone was used mainly for reconnaissance, the military said. On Thursday, Iraqi lawmakers were in Iran to confront officials there with evidence of Tehran's support for militias and outlaws in Iraq, Iraqi officials said. Iran's state-run news agency IRNA confirmed the delegation was in Tehran. Parliament members from the ruling United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition, intended to discuss how the training and arming of militias is harmful for Iraq -- and for Iran as a neighbor, said Sami al-Askari, an adviser to al-Maliki. Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said the delegation intended to provide evidence, confessions and pictures indicating that Iran is supplying weapons and training fighters inside Iraq. Bush administration officials have said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force has provided training and weapons for militants in Iraq. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jomana Karadsheh, Shirzad Bozorgmehr and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Shiite cleric, also a prominent political figure, speaks against violence .\nU.S. military: Woman who detonated bomb pretended to be pregnant .\nU.S. drone crashes in southern Iraq, military says .\nIraqi lawmakers in Tehran to show evidence of Iran's support for militias .","id":"d2ed554726c632af6e2130a580964a261f8c2e60"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal drug investigators have taken over the inquiry into the January 22 death of actor Heath Ledger in a New York apartment, a law enforcement source told CNN Thursday. Actor Heath Ledger, 28, died January 22 at an apartment in Lower Manhattan. Ledger, 28, an Oscar-nominated Australian actor, died of an accidental overdose of six types of medication, according to the New York City medical examiner's office. The medical examiner's office said Ledger \"died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine.\" Oxycodone and hydrocodone are pain medications; diazepam -- also known as Valium -- is used to treat anxiety; temazepam is a sedative used to induce sleep; alprazolam -- known by the trade name Xanax -- is an anti-anxiety agent. Doxylamine, an antihistamine, can be obtained over the counter as a sleep aid. The law enforcement source said the federal drug investigators are trying to determine if the drugs were prescribed legally, and are looking at two doctors -- one based in California and another in Texas. Ledger's first American film was the teen comedy \"10 Things I Hate About You\" in 1999. He passed up several scripts before taking a role in the Revolutionary War drama \"The Patriot\" in 2000 and \"A Knight's Tale\" in 2001. He also played a supporting role in \"Monster's Ball.\" But Ledger was perhaps best known for his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in \"Brokeback Mountain,\" Ang Lee's film about two cowboys who had a secret romantic relationship. The role earned Ledger a best actor Oscar nomination. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Brian Vitagliano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Law enforcement source says federal drug officers are looking into death .\nLedger died of an accidental overdose January 22 .\nSource: Investigators trying to determine if drugs were prescribed legally .\nDEA is looking at two doctors -- one in California and one in Texas .","id":"84ab5256295369509813877f5000bb7e01e7f641"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Twenty-four people, including eight children, were injured in an apparent gas explosion at a Harlem apartment building, the New York Fire Department said. The explosion blew out some of the windows in the five-story building. John Rodgers, a spokesman for New York-Presbyterian Hospital, said Sunday that four of the eight children were from the same family. The conditions of all those injured were not immediately known. One child was in critical condition and the three others were in serious condition, New York Fire Department Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said. All four had burn injuries. One of the injured is an infant. A firefighter was also injured, but was in stable condition Saturday evening. He apparently was struck by falling debris, Scoppetta said. About 200 firefighters responded to the scene of the blast on West 119th Street in Harlem. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the five-floor building after the explosion. The 4 p.m. ET blast blew some of the building's windows out, according to firefighters. Watch rescue workers tend to injured \u00bb Although the blast was still under investigation, Scoppetta said the cause appeared to be a gas leak. New York police said the blast was at the rear of the structure. Residents who assisted in pulling the injured out of the building said some kind of restaurant was being operated on the bottom floor of the building. Scoppetta refused comment on those reports, citing the ongoing investigation. An emergency room worker at Harlem Hospital Center said the facility received five to six people from the explosion about 4:30 p.m., but would not provide an update on their conditions. The building, which has 20 apartments, was evacuated, as were apartment buildings on both sides, Scoppetta said. Building inspectors will examine them to determine their structural integrity. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Caleb Silver, Jim Acosta and Richard Davis contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Four of the eight injured children came from same family, hospital says .\nOne child in critical condition, three in serious condition with burn injuries .\nAbout 200 firefighters were at the scene in Harlem .\nResidents say some sort of restaurant was being operated in bottom of building .","id":"0e3f2fa30b711144fd8e49dedd6c248542a9083c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- ZipRealty is a full-service residential real estate brokerage firm which uses the Internet, proprietary technology and employee real estate agents to provide home buyers and sellers with value-added online service. ZipRealty's Web site provides users with access to comprehensive home listings data. ZipRealty's Web site provides users with access to comprehensive local Multiple Listing Services home listings data, as well as other relevant market and neighborhood information. Its proprietary business management system and technology platform help to reduce costs, allowing the company to pass on savings to consumers. ZipRealty was launched on August 29, 1999. Three weeks later, on September 21, the company celebrated the acceptance of its first real estate offer. ZipRealty completed its initial public offering on November 10, 2004. It currently operates in 34 major metropolitan areas in 19 states and the District of Columbia with over 2,000 sales agents.","highlights":"ZipRealty uses Internet, proprietary technology, employee real estate agents .\nWeb site provides users with home listings, market and neighborhood info .\nZipRealty completed its initial public offering on November 10, 2004 .","id":"67ab697c3e2d707e3b7d070199b065b1541c8925"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. health officials said Wednesday they have found a contaminant in a blood-thinning drug produced by Baxter Healthcare Corp. that has been linked to more than a dozen deaths in the United States. The drug can keep potentially life-threatening blood clots from forming in the veins, arteries, and lungs. In early February, the Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation and then a recall of some forms of the product. The scrutiny began after a spike in reports of health problems associated with heparin, a drug made by Baxter from pig intestines at plants in China and Wisconsin. Though the cause of the problems has not been determined, FDA investigators found \"a heparin-like compound -- that is not heparin -- present in some of the active pharmaceutical ingredients\" in both facilities, said Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The contaminant, which made up 5 percent to 20 percent of each sample tested, \"reacts like heparin in some of the conventional tests used for heparin,\" which explains why it was not picked up, she told reporters in a conference call. No causal link between the contaminant and the adverse events has been established yet, Woodcock said. She added that it was not clear whether the contaminant was added accidentally, as part of the processing or deliberately. It also was not clear whether the contaminant was introduced in the company's plant in Wisconsin or the one in China, Woodcock said. Though she said the exact structure of the contaminant has not been identified, \"it is similar to heparin glycans.\" Glycans are polysaccharides, a complex class of carbohydrate. She added it was unclear whether other heparin products used outside the United States might also contain the product. Later this week, the agency will release recommendations on how manufacturers and regulators can screen for the contaminant, she said. Last year, pet food made in China was found to be tainted with an ingredient that replaced more expensive protein and that initial tests did not identify as a contaminant. Asked if the heparin contamination could be a similar case, Woodcock said, \"It's possible.\" Doctors have used the blood-thinner for 60 years with \"no history of any problems whatsoever,\" said the FDA commissioner, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach. Its intravenous use can keep potentially life-threatening blood clots from forming in the veins, arteries and lungs. Von Eschenbach said it would be \"disingenuous\" to expect the agency would be able to inspect \"every institution in every case.\" Over the last fiscal year, the agency reported having inspected more than 1,000 foreign plants, a record. Since the agency issued its report that 19 deaths had been linked to the drug since January 1, 2007, it has received word of another 27 deaths, \"but many of those do not fit our definition of this type of event,\" Woodcock said. In all, the FDA has received 785 heparin-linked reports of adverse events -- including difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating and plummeting blood pressure that can lead to life-threatening shock. \"They're continuing to come in fairly rapidly because there has been a lot of reporting of this,\" she said. In a written statement, Baxter said its tests have suggested \"that the root cause may be associated with the crude heparin, sourced from China, or from the subsequent processing of that product before it reaches Baxter.\" Meanwhile, Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC, which supplies the company with the active pharmaceutical ingredients, issued a statement saying it is working with the FDA, Baxter and outside experts to identify the cause of the adverse events. \"Thus far, no conclusions have been reached about the root cause,\" it said. \"It is premature to conclude that the heparin active pharmaceutical ingredient sourced from China and provided by SPL to Baxter is responsible for these adverse events.\" It said that its voluntary recall of suspect product was being made as a precaution. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"FDA investigators find \"a heparin-like compound -- that is not heparin\"\nTests did not pick up the contaminant because it reacts like heparin .\nFDA: It's not clear whether the contaminant was added accidentally or deliberately .\nAt least 19 deaths have been linked to the drug since 2007 .","id":"71537a701b69838dcb68ae310c7b3bfb375c1344"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton met privately Thursday night at the Washington home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a key supporter of Clinton's presidential campaign, Feinstein said Friday. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak Wednesday at the AIPAC meeting. She left them in her living room with nothing other than water and comfortable chairs for what she called a positive meeting. No one else was in the room, and no one is giving details of what was discussed. \"They talked. I went upstairs and did my work,\" Feinstein said Friday. \"They called me when it was over. I came down and said, 'Good night, everybody; I hope you had a good meeting.' \"They were laughing, and that was it.\" The meeting began at 9 p.m. and lasted about an hour, Feinstein said. \"I think the opportunity to sit down, just the two of them, was positive,\" she said. It was the two Democratic candidates' first meeting since Obama became the party's presumptive nominee Tuesday. \"They talked about how to come together and how to unify this party and move forward because what we have at stake in November is so important,\" Robert Gibbs, the Obama campaign's communication director, said Friday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Watch Gibbs explain the secret meeting \u00bb . \"And what unites us as a party far exceeds what might divide either of these two candidates.\" A joint statement from the candidates said only, \"Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama met tonight and had a productive discussion about the important work that needs to be done to succeed in November.\" Gibbs would not say whether the senators discussed the possibility of Clinton becoming Obama's running mate.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democratic superdelegate from Nevada, said Friday that he told Clinton he intended to support Obama. But he didn't shed any light on whether Clinton would have a place on the ticket. \"Hillary is going to endorse Barack [on Saturday],\" Reid said on \"American Morning.\" \"She's a very good woman. She's been a great senator. And she's going to be a great help to us in this [election], no matter what role she has in the campaign.\" On Thursday, reporters on Obama's press plane learned that the candidate was not aboard when it departed Virginia, where he had been campaigning. Aides said staff members had \"scheduled him some meetings\" in Washington. The meeting originally was believed to be at Clinton's Washington home. \"It wasn't at her house, and it was not at Dick Cheney's undisclosed location,\" Gibbs said jokingly. Also Thursday, Clinton thanked supporters in an e-mail and pledged to help Obama capture the White House after eight years of Republican control. Clinton also plans to thank supporters Saturday at a Washington event. \"I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Sen. Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise,\" the e-mail read. \"This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Sen. Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Sen. [John] McCain and the Republicans.\" Read Clinton's message to supporters (PDF) Clinton plans to suspend her campaign within days, her campaign said. By suspending instead of dropping out, Clinton technically would remain a candidate, entitled to keep statewide pledged delegates and district-level delegates. Democrats nationwide have coalesced around Obama since he received enough delegates to win the nomination Tuesday evening. The New York Democratic congressional delegation embraced Obama's candidacy Thursday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. iReport.com: Should Obama pick Clinton? On Friday, Democratic leaders in New York, including state legislators and City Council members, endorsed Obama at New York's City Hall, sources said. Obama earned enough delegates Tuesday to clinch the nomination, but Clinton did not concede defeat that night. Instead, she asked supporters to visit her Web site and give her advice on how to proceed. Obama has named Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, and former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to a vice presidential selection team led by former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson. CNN's Ted Barrett and Candy Crowley contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Talks end with laughter, host Sen. Dianne Feinstein says .\nNEW: Aide to Sen. Barack Obama calls private meeting \"cordial\"\nNEW: Sen. Hillary Clinton to endorse Obama on Saturday, top Senate Democrat says .","id":"83989da5142972bb45c7f1e25ea60c6b101a9987"} -{"article":"TACOMA, Washington (CNN) -- At a time when she really needed a miracle, Annamarie Ausnes found one in an unusual place. Sandra Andersen, right, donated a kidney to Annamarie Ausnes. Last fall, Ausnes, 55, was one of nearly 75,000 Americans in need of a kidney. Today, she is recovering from a successful kidney transplant -- thanks to her local Starbucks barista. Sandra Andersen only knew Ausnes as her upbeat morning customer who always ordered a short cup of coffee. What Andersen didn't know was that Ausnes suffers from a genetic kidney disease called polycystic kidney disease. When both of her kidneys began failing, she was placed on a kidney transplant waiting list. \"I was kinda losing a little hope,\" said Ausnes. Her next step would be dialysis. \"I'd read the statistics. People have been waiting on dialysis for many, many years before a donor comes forth. I felt like the control was being taken away from me,\" Ausnes said. \"But I did have control over one thing, and I knew how to pray. And I just started praying for someone; for God to please send me an angel.\" Andersen recalls one particular morning last October when her customer's normally cheerful demeanor had changed. \"I could tell that she just wasn't feeling real well,\" said Andersen. \"So I asked her what was wrong.\" Across the counter, Ausnes confided in her barista: Her kidneys were failing rapidly and no one in her family was a match. Without hesitation, Andersen said she would test for her. Ausnes remembers the moment vividly. \"She threw her hands up in the air. She said, 'I'm testing. I'm going to test for you.' And it was a complete shock to me.\" Even more so because Andersen didn't even know Ausnes' name. Andersen can't explain it either. \"I just knew in my heart, I can't tell you why. I knew I had to find out as much info as possible,\" recalls Andersen. Watch Ausnes recall how she met her \"miracle donor.\" \u00bb . After getting her blood tested, she signed a release to become an organ donor and began an interview process to move forward. Then the day came when she was able to break the good news to Ausnes. \"She walked in to get her short cup of coffee. I said, 'I'm a match,' and we both just stood there and bawled,\" said Andersen. \"From that day forward we knew this was gonna happen.\" On March 11, Andersen and Ausnes underwent a kidney transplant at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington. The surgery was successful. \"We are doing well!\" Ausnes said Monday night. \"We're moving slower but we feel good. I talk to Sandie every day, and sometimes I sit here and bawl because of what she's gone through for me.\" Watch how Andersen's gift became 'A kidney named Rose.' \u00bb . Andersen says her kidney started working faster in Ausnes than the hospital expected. \"Annamarie is doing better than me! I'm just trying to do too much,\" laughs Andersen, explaining why she's tired. \"We're just excited to get together for lunch sometime soon!\" Watch Andersen and Ausnes describe the best kind of donor \u00bb E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Nearly 75,000 Americans need a kidney transplant .\nAnnamarie Ausnes told her story to a worker at her regular coffee shop .\nThe barista, Sandra Andersen, tested and found out she was a potential donor .\nBoth are doing well after a transplant procedure on March 11 .","id":"cc432e8a26891d7fcb62b112f868e994532a7ba7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- English football fans hoping to travel to Moscow for this month's Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea face spiraling costs and an anxious wait for visas amid a simmering diplomatic row between the UK and Russia. Chelsea fans hoping to follow their side to Moscow face hefty expenses and an anxious wait over visas. Upwards of 50,000 fans are expected to travel to the May 21 match from the UK, defying expensive flights and warnings about a shortage of accommodation in the Russian capital -- one of the world's most expensive cities. But there were fears on Thursday that Russia's stringent visa requirements for British citizens could further complicate matters for fans. In a statement, the Russian Embassy in London pledged to fulfil its obligations to enable all fans with tickets to the game to travel. But it also criticized the UK government for tightening restrictions on Russians traveling in the opposite direction, imposed following the apparent murder of the exiled Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. \"If we had an agreement similar to the one Russia has in place with EU, most problems could have been avoided,\" the statement said. The embassy also criticized the UK for imposing \"cumbersome\" visa requirements on supporters of the Russian side, Zenit St. Petersburg, which could reach the UEFA Cup final in Manchester on May 14, including biometric tests, online-only applications and interviews with consulate officials. But there was speculation as well on Thursday that Moscow may be prepared to temporarily lift some visa requirements in a gesture of good will. The UK's Times newspaper quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying that Russian authorities would waive the need for visa applicants to produce a letter of invitation in the case of ticket holders. UEFA communications director William Gaillard praised Russia's flexibility on Wednesday and said a simplified visa application procedure could be in place by the end of the week. \"The Russians have shown great flexibility and hopefully within the next 48 hours we will be announcing a more simplified procedure for visas to make it easier for fans to get to Moscow,\" Gaillard told the UK's Press Association. Manchester United Chief Executive David Gill said on Wednesday that those traveling on official club packages were assured of a visa. \"If you are on an organized trip, your ticket will be your visa. The actual specifics and fine details will be addressed in the next day or so and then we will communicate with the fans. \"Everyone recognizes in order for it to be a showcase, which it clearly will be, you have to ease entry into the country while not totally doing away with what the Russian authorities require.\" But Gill warned that demand for tickets would leave many fans disappointed: \"We could sell well over 100,000 tickets for this final, so there will be a lot of disappointed people.\" Both United and Chelsea have each received around 21,000 tickets for the match. But with officially allocated tickets expected to be snapped up by season ticket holders and loyalty scheme members, many more fans are expected to travel to Moscow independently. Flights from London to Moscow on the day of the match, returning the following day were available for around $1,600 over the internet on Thursday. But the British foreign office Web site advised Thursday that there were no hotel vacancies in Moscow and warned supporters that they would not be able to find a room on arrival. Meanwhile, UK sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe urged fans to be on their best behavior in Moscow, warning that trouble could derail England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. \"I was really impressed and pleased that the European champions final will be an all-English final but that brings some responsibilities for the teams involved and their supporters,\" Sutcliffe told PA. \"It should be a great advert for the Premier League and for English football but it will also be the place everyone will be looking at if anything goes wrong. \"If that happened it would not only be damaging for the two teams participating but could also have a big impact on the reputation of our game at a time when we are trying to encourage football nations to support our World Cup bid.\" With the match due to kick off at 2245 local time, the British foreign office Web site advised supporters \"not to let alcohol spoil their Champions League final experience,\" pointing out that smoking and drinking in Red Square are illegal. \"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is providing detailed information for those fans who are traveling,\" said minister for Europe Jim Murphy. \"So I encourage those who are going, to look at the specific travel advice on how to enjoy a trouble-free and successful visit to Moscow.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"English fans face spiraling expenses, visa anxiety ahead of European Cup final .\nThe Russian Embassy criticizes UK for tightening Russian visa requirements .\nUp to 50,000 Chelsea and Manchester United fans expected to go to Moscow .","id":"ef024e4ca04bd445d2915e7fe5c2c3c9b6f723a2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A woman who helped raise a child with her female partner in Vermont before the pair split can visit the girl in Virginia even though that state doesn't recognize same-sex unions, a court ruled Friday. Janet Jenkins with Isabella, the daughter she helped raise with former partner Lisa Miller. Virginia's Supreme Court ruled that Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller's civil union in 2000 gave Vermont, and its law on same-sex unions, jurisdiction over their subsequent custody and visitation disputes. Miller moved to Virginia with the child in 2003, and a Vermont court granted Jenkins visitation rights. But Miller took the case to a Virginia court, which ruled that Jenkins had no such rights there. The case was considered by legal experts to be the first conflict between two state courts over a major legal question arising from same-sex unions. Jenkins' attorney, Joseph Price of the Washington law firm Arent Fox, said Friday's ruling \"just affirms the old principle that when these kinds of custody and visitation disputes begin in one state, that's where they should remain.\" \"You can't shop them around to another state,\" Price said. \"Virginia really had no choice but to enforce judgments and judicial orders from Vermont.\" Vermont is one of the few states that allow same-sex partners to enter into a civil union. Two years after Vermont recognized Miller and Jenkins' relationship, Miller gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination. The relationship deteriorated, and Miller and the baby moved to Virginia. A Vermont court later granted Miller a dissolution of the civil union and granted custody of the child to her and visitation rights to Jenkins. Miller then asked the courts in Virginia -- which does not recognize same-sex unions or marriages -- to take jurisdiction of the dispute. A Virginia state judge eventually ruled that Jenkins had no \"parentage or visitation rights.\" The Virginia high court ruling Friday returned the case to Vermont's control, meaning Jenkins can visit the girl, who is now 6. Miller's attorney, Mathew Staver, said he was \"disappointed the state sidestepped the larger legal questions.\" \"This case shows that one state is not an island in the same-sex marriage dispute, and underscores having state laws that protect traditional one-man, one-woman marriages,\" said Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, a law firm that fights on behalf of what it calls \"traditional families.\" Miller said in 2005 that she was doing what was best for her daughter and was no longer a lesbian. \"I am Isabella's mom. I did conceive her; I birthed her,\" she said. \"I'm raising her. And in my opinion, Isabella needs to stay with me 100 percent of the time, because I am the only person that she identifies as a mom.\" Miller lives with Isabella in Winchester, Virginia. Jenkins did not offer an immediate reaction to the ruling but said in 2005 that she was only fighting for her rights as a parent. \"Justice will be served for Isabella,\" she said. \"I believe that. And I'll do whatever it takes. I'll be with her for as long as I can, or I'll be without her for as long as I have to, but I'm her mom. \"She's born here [in Vermont]. She's always here.\" Price said Jenkins, who lives in Fair Haven, Vermont, was supposed to visit Isabella last weekend, but Miller didn't appear with the girl. Friday's ruling comes a week after the California Supreme Court's refusal to delay its recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Massachusetts also allows same-sex marriages; Vermont and three other states permit civil unions, and 12 other states give gay and lesbian couples some legal rights. Virginia amended its constitution in 2007 to decree that marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman.","highlights":"Virginia ruling gives Vermont court jurisdiction over case .\nJanet Jenkins and Lisa Miller were in civil union in Vermont but later split .\nMiller moved to Virginia with child; Vermont court allowed Jenkins visitation .\nMiller got Virginia court to block visitation; Friday's ruling overturns that .","id":"dfc606b97c43ac249d72cff2fe812213987a37a2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top military and civilian leaders of the U.S. Air Force were forced out Thursday over the handling of nuclear weapons, the Defense Department secretary said. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, left, and Secretary Michael Wynne have stepped down. Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne resigned over the department's concern over two incidents, including the August flight of a B-52 bomber that flew across the country with nuclear weapons. \"Focus of the Air Force leadership has drifted\" in terms of handling nuclear weapons and equipment, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. In August, a B-52 bomber flew from North Dakota to Louisiana with the crew unaware that six nuclear-tipped missiles were on board. Four officers were relieved of duty afterward, including three colonels. Gates also cited this year's discovery that components designed to arm and fuse nuclear warheads were accidentally shipped to Taiwan in 2006. Watch Gates talk about the firings \u00bb . Critics also cite last month's news that the Air Force's 5th Bomb Wing failed a defense \"nuclear surety\" inspection -- despite having months to prepare and being under close scrutiny after the previous incidents. The inspection found deficiencies in the wing's ability to protect its part of the nation's nuclear stockpile. The resignations come after a report on a Navy admiral's investigation that criticized the Air Force's reactions to the incidents. Gates said the report \"depicts a pattern of poor performance\" in which Air Force brass didn't act to improve security after mishaps and Air Force personnel handling nuclear weapons consistently failed to follow existing rules. Air Force leaders \"not only fell short in terms of specific acts, they failed to recognize systemic problems, to address those problems or, when beyond their authority to act, to call the attention of superiors to those problems,\" Gates said. The investigation found that although the Taiwan incident didn't compromise the integrity of the U.S. nuclear force, it represented \"a significant failure\" by the Air Force to ensure sensitive military components, Gates said. Gates said the report concluded that erosion in the branch's command and oversight standards helped lead to the incidents, and that they could have been prevented if the oversight programs had functioned correctly. He said he asked for the resignations after consulting President Bush. Sen. Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Service committee, welcomed Gates' decision. \"Secretary Gates' focus on accountability is essential and had been absent from the office of the Secretary of Defense for too long,\" Levin said. \"The safety and security of America's nuclear weapons must receive the highest priority, just as it must in other countries.\" Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, also welcomed the resignations. Markey said he's long been concerned about what he called a series of dangerous Air Force missteps in handling nuclear weapons. \"The magnitude and frequency of these errors indicate a deep-seated problem within Air Force culture, practice and training,\" Markey said. \"The entire Department of Defense should immediately recommit itself to ensuring the safety and security of our nuclear stockpile before one of these mistakes has lethal consequences.\" A senior military source said the August nuclear weapons incident was the straw that broke the camel's back but that other leadership issues also factored into Moseley's and Wynne's resignations. A previous investigation into the B-52 flight uncovered a \"lackadaisical\" attention to detail in day-to-day operations at the air bases involved, an Air Force official said in October. Maj. Gen. Dick Newton, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, said the investigation found \"a failure to follow procedures\" by \"a limited number of airmen\" at the two bases. Newton defended the procedures themselves. Wynne is not the first secretary of a military branch to resign since Gates became Defense secretary. In March 2007, Gates announced the resignation of Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey in the wake of reports of substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. CNN's Jamie McIntyre and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Leadership has drifted\" regarding nuclear weapons, Defense secretary says .\nResignations come after report criticizing bomber flight, mistaken device shipment .\nReport criticizes U.S. Air Force's reactions to incidents .","id":"087ac92e2ca469b5ca6277950e63b2f0706d0de2"} -{"article":"BELGRADE, Serbia (CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade is evacuating all nonessential personnel following Thursday's attack on the building by a crowd of protesters, a spokesman for the embassy told CNN Friday. Serbian riot police stand in front of the damaged U.S. Embassy in Belgrade on Friday. The U.S. ambassador, Cameron Munter, is staying, officials said. The embassy was closed Friday, and a handful of riot police holding shields stood outside the building, its outer walls blackened from fires set the night before and some of its windows smashed. It will remain closed until Monday or Tuesday so officials can assess the damage, said Bill Wanlund, the embassy's spokesman. He said embassy staff were still in a heightened state of alert but there were no specific threats against any staff members. The United States has warned the Serbian government that it has a responsibility to protect its assets. A top U.S. diplomat was asked during an interview on CNN if the Serbian government \"gets\" the warning. \"They'd better get it, because they have a fundamental responsibility to protect our diplomats and our embassy and to protect American citizens,\" said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns. \"What happened yesterday in Belgrade was absolutely reprehensible.\" Watch Burns' angry comments on Belgrade attack \u00bb . Thursday's violence erupted after demonstrations by thousands of Serbs against Kosovo's declaration of independence. The anger directed against the United States and other countries for recognizing the breakaway province as a nation sparked attacks on Western embassies and shops by hundreds of people. Burns said there was an \"insufficient\" number of security people guarding the U.S. Embassy at a demonstration everyone knew would take place. He said security \"melted away\" as \"the mob attacked our embassy.\" \"This kind of thing should not happen in a civilized country. It doesn't happen in the United States of America. It doesn't happen in most world capitals. So the Serb government needs to reflect seriously about the responsibility it has under the Vienna Convention,\" he said. Burns, the third highest ranking diplomat in the State Department, said he told the Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, and his government that the U.S. \"would hold them personally responsible for the safety of our people.\" \"They assured me that they would have adequate security on the ground today and for every day to come. We will hold them to that commitment,\" Burns said. Demonstrators only managed to break into one U.S. embassy building, which Wanlund said was rarely used by staff. He said the protesters didn't manage to get any documents or embassy materials. Only Marines and security guards were present at the embassy when the angry mob of about 100 approached the walls. In addition to the U.S. Embassy, the protesters attacked other Western interests including the embassies of Britain and Germany, as well as a McDonald's restaurant and a Nike shop. \"One might understand the emotion, but not the violence, and that's what the Serb government needs to remember,\" Burns said. Burns, who is stepping down in March, has long been involved in trying to resolve tensions in the former Yugoslavia. The situation was complicated by Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence by Serbia's predominantly Albanian region of Kosovo. Kosovo is revered historically by Orthodox Christian Serbs but also is claimed as separate and distinct by its ethnic Muslim Albanians. The wisdom of recognizing Kosovo independence has been questioned by many observers, who say the United States won't recognize other unilateral declarations of independence. Some opponents of Kosovo's independence say recognition is a bad precedent if it's unilateral and not done in a bilateral, diplomatic setting. They say it will give others the incentive to stage their own breakaway nations. Burns said every situation has its unique set of circumstances, as does Kosovo, which was the victim of ethnic cleansing policies by the Slobodan Milosevic regime in 1999. NATO troops fought Serbia in an air war then and pushed Serbian forces out of the region. Since then Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and with security supplied by NATO forces. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S.: An event like embassy attack \"should not happen in a civilized country\"\nU.S. warns Serbia of responsibility to protect U.S. diplomats, building .\nEmbassy evacuating nonessential personnel; ambassador will stay in Belgrade .\nNo embassy documents taken during Thursday attack and fire, spokesman says .","id":"a1abb9ce1c76a6c390233d8ec934cfb34bc35215"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's been a year since Steve Irwin, the environmentalist and TV host best known as the \"Crocodile Hunter,\" died. He was killed September 4, 2006, by a stingray barb to the chest while filming an underwater documentary off Australia's northern coast. Joseph Krygier shot this photo of a memorial in August 2007 at the Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Australia. Irwin's death prompted a global outpouring of grief from fans, children and hundreds of early I-Report contributors, who shared photos, videos and memories with CNN shortly after he died. A year since, we asked CNN.com readers what they think his legacy will be, and how they are remembering him this year. Here is a selection of their responses: . Carol Shahan of Wilmington, Delaware In April, my Girl Scout Service Unit held an encampment. The event lasted Friday-Sunday and over 350 girls and leaders attended. Our theme was \"Crikey! Let's go camping -- a tribute to the conservation legacy of Steve Irwin.\" The girls learned about how they can help conserve their part of the world and contributed funds to the Wildlife Warriors through a coin drive. Patrick Rodrigue of Montreal, Quebec We met Steve and his wife and small entourage at an elephant safari park in Bali, Indonesia, in June 2004 during our honeymoon. We were having lunch when we saw him at the table next to us. He was on vacation and he still came over to our table to say \"Hello Mates!\" and pose for a picture. Helen Osada of Hong Kong I never get tired of watching Steve Irwin and his family on Animal Planet even though they are all reruns. He had real charisma unlike most other wildlife enthusiasts. And that he shared so much with us including his family says a lot about his generosity. His death was a great loss to us all. I really miss him. Melissa Amundsen Wells of Greensboro, North Carolina Steve Irwin taught my daughter and myself that all animals deserve respect and protection, not just the furry cute ones. Every animal on the planet has a unique purpose and he conveyed that better than anyone else. His love for his work was a real inspiration to my whole family. We miss you Steve. Mirad Maglic of Sarajevo, Bosnia In my opinion, his unorthodox style, love for all things living and dedication to wildlife preservation made Steve a hero with a legacy that compares to what Elvis did for the rock music. I just hope that others will follow in his tracks, just as his wonderful daughter is doing. Donna Beckum of Orab, Ohio It was a great honor to watch Bindi's show several times this past weekend. She is sure a chip off the ol' block! I will never forget Steve and his remarkable quest. I will continue to watch Bindi and all of the \"Crocodile Hunter\" episodes that are rerun. You just never get tired of watching them. I pray that God blesses Terri and her children and that Bindi continues to carry on where her daddy left off. Steve Irwin was an icon and certainly made a difference. He will never be forgotten! John Hock of Alpharetta, Georgia Met him in March of '06. He was on his motorbike in the zoo with his son on the front of the bike. He had is hat and sunglasses on. We were over by the camels. I yelled \"Steve ...\" He said \"G'Day\" to me. Then he was off to the pens behind the crocoseum. Even that brief meeting had an effect on me. To meet someone larger than life is an honor. Michael Yang of Singapore Steve and Terri have been a big part of my life. I can't believe a year has flown by so fast. I was very sad at the misfortune of a stingray barb directly in Steve's heart. Without a doubt, Steve has helped make the world a better place both for people and animals. Jenna Barnaby of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ... I can't believe it's only been a year. I was so sad when he died and so upset about the unfairness of it all that it feels like he's been gone so much longer. I miss him and think I always will. Denise Cole of Union Lake, Michigan The one and only time I saw Steve Irwin on television my thoughts were \"You can't do that to wildlife and not get killed.\" I was not surprised by his death at all. I am sorry that his wife is a widow and his children are without a father. They are obviously doing OK though and that is GOOD. Kim DiBiase of Fort Myers, Florida My children now ages 9 & 11 grew up with Steve. My son who is 11 is a know-it-all with anything that has to do with animals due to his love of watching Steve since he was 4 years old. He knows every single type of snake and where they live. Steve's show was one of the few children's shows I could watch with the kids over and over. We miss him more than you could know and feel for his family. Only the good die young. Patrick L. of Montreal, Quebec Steve Irwin will be remembered for his courage in dealing with dangerous animals, his skill as an entertainer and his humanity. Few people take the risks Steve did in dealing with dangerous animals; even fewer manage to do this type of job with the flair and heart that was visible from watching Steve at work. Steve was one of a kind and he will be missed. Tim Pope of Cumming, Georgia The man was reckless and a bad example for kids. He went out of his way to dramatize his product by courting danger and taking chances. Hopefully, the way he died will keep more intelligent kids from thinking that jumping on a crocodile's back is a great sport. I don't say this to detract from or denigrate him, but his installation in the heroes' pantheon sends a bad message. Sakthivel Subramanian of Frankfurt, Germany I remember him as brave man with a kind heart for animals (reptiles) with which he lived his lifetime! I'm praying to God for his soul to rest in peace. Liz Cook of Plainville, Massachusetts One of our first \"encounters\" with Steve Irwin was through a Wiggles video that my children own. He had such an unusually bright spirit. We watched a special last night that included his trip to Belize and it was amazing to see how he fired my children's imagination and enthusiasm for the animals he encountered on his trip! They could not believe he didn't take it personally when he was injured by the iguana he was chasing! He is one of those rare souls that make it almost impossible to believe he is really gone ... so vivid, so warm, so BIG in spirit. Our best to his family on this sad anniversary. Jason Epperson of York, Pennsylvania Editor's note: Epperson sent a poem tribute to Irwin. The first letters of the lines spell out \"Steve Irwin.\" South Australia I was born, Trekked my camera thru brush and thorn! Endangered species I adore, Venomous and fanged all the more! Earned my fair share of smiles, In wrestling snakes and crocodiles! Ray of nature pierced my heart, Was chosen then to depart! Into new unseen worlds I go Nature's next great adventure show . \"Crikey!\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin died one year ago today .\nWorldwide vigils, memorial services after his death .\nCNN.com asked readers for their thoughts on the anniversary .\nShare your own memories and stories through I-Report .","id":"99ec57979392a7f9c1a24158d5e1262cdf113f45"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration said Friday its officers at a Texas airport appear to have properly followed procedures when they allegedly forced a woman to remove her nipple rings -- one with pliers -- but acknowledged the procedures should be changed. The woman involved -- Mandi Hamlin -- told reporters earlier Friday she was humiliated by last month's incident, in which she was forced to painfully remove the piercings behind a curtain as she heard snickers from male TSA officers nearby. The incident occurred at the Lubbock, Texas, airport. The officers \"rightly insisted that the alarm that was raised be resolved,\" the TSA said in a statement posted on its Web site Friday afternoon. \"TSA supports the thoroughness of the officers involved as they were acting to protect the passengers and crews of the flights departing Lubbock that day.\" However, \"TSA has reviewed the procedures themselves and agrees that they need to be changed,\" the statement said. \"In the future, TSA will inform passengers that they have the option to resolve the alarm through a visual inspection of the article in lieu of removing the item in question.\" Hamlin and her lawyer, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, said they want a public apology from the agency, as well as a guarantee that future passengers with piercings will be treated with dignity and respect. Allred pointed out that TSA's Web site says passengers with piercings can undergo a pat-down inspection if they do not want to take their piercings out -- an option she said Hamlin was never offered. \"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary,\" Allred told reporters at a news conference. \"Last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon.\" She said if an apology was not forthcoming, \"Mandi is going to have to consider her legal options.\" Attempts by CNN to reach Allred for a response to the TSA statement Friday afternoon were unsuccessful. TSA said in its statement it acknowledges \"that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets (the) situation in which she found herself. We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again.\" The incident occurred February 24 as Hamlin, 37, was preparing to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth from Lubbock, where she had been visiting her elderly great-uncle. Hamlin said she also has navel and ear piercings and has never set off a metal detector or been singled out for additional screening at an airport. She did not set off the metal detector at Lubbock International Airport, but was pulled to the side for additional screening, Allred said. A hand wand used by a TSA officer beeped when it was waved over her breasts. Hamlin told the officer she had nipple piercings, Allred said, and that officer called over another officer, who told her she would need to remove them. \"Ms. Hamlin did not want to remove her nipple piercings,\" Allred said, reading from a letter she sent TSA. \"After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove. In addition, once removed, the pierced skin may close up almost immediately, making it difficult and painful to reinsert the piercing.\" More officers were called over, and the group grew to four male and two female TSA officers, according to Hamlin. Also, a small crowd of onlookers had started to gather. The officers insisted that Hamlin remove the nipple rings, Allred said. \"She felt humiliated by the scene that the TSA officers were making,\" Allred said. \"With tears streaming down her face, she again asked to show the piercings to a TSA officer instead of having to remove them. She was told, however, she would not be allowed to fly unless she removed them. Had she been told that she had a right to a pat-down, she would have chosen that option.\" She eventually was taken to a private area behind a curtain to remove the piercings, Allred said. One came out easily, but the other would not, and she called to an officer that she was having trouble and would need pliers. She was handed a large pair, Allred said. \"As Ms. Hamlin struggled to remove the piercing, behind the curtain she could hear a growing number of predominately male TSA officers snickering in the background,\" Allred said in the letter. \"Mandi Hamlin was publicly humiliated. ... Clearly, this is not how passengers should be treated.\" Watch the passenger demonstrate removing the jewelry \u00bb . Afterward, Hamlin underwent another scan, but realized she had forgotten to remove her navel ring. She offered to remove it, Allred said, but an officer told her it was not necessary because he could see it. Hamlin wondered why a similar visual inspection of her nipple rings would not have sufficed, Allred said. \"I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone,\" Hamlin told reporters. \"I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated and scared. No one deserves to go through this.\" In a statement earlier Friday, the TSA said it \"is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body. Therefore, we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm that we discover.\" TSA included in its statement a picture of a prototype training device it will use to simulate a \"bra bomb\" in training and testing its officers. Hamlin said she had to visit the person who originally pierced her nipples to get the rings reinserted, and said the process was excruciatingly painful because of the scar tissue that had formed. \"People who are pierced should not be snickered at, should not become the object of ridicule, should not be singled out for special and uneven and unequal treatment,\" Allred said. \"They should be respected just like everybody else.\" She said she had received a call from TSA's public affairs office Friday morning. \"We hope that means they're going to jump on this and do something about it,\" she said. \"We want TSA to do the right thing now. We're going to give them the opportunity.\" Hamlin said she will continue to fly but will avoid the Lubbock airport. The next time she visits her great-uncle, she said, \"I will be driving.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: TSA backs officers who made passenger remove nipple rings .\nNEW: Agency acknowledges that procedures need to be changed .\nAgent using handheld metal detector at Lubbock airport found piercings .\nWoman says she heard male agents snicker as she removed rings .","id":"ca5c0c816376354b82a4a7b9fa9a31b655e2d2cd"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesia has temporarily grounded all Adam Air flights starting Wednesday because it says the discount airliner \"failed to implement quality standards for its aircraft.\" Officers examine an Adam Air plane which halted suddenly in the middle of the runway in Surabaya in February 2007. \"The operational specification of Adam Air will be revoked. In effect, Adam Air will not be allowed to operate any airplanes effective 12 a.m. Wednesday, 18 March 2008,\" according to a statement from Indonesia's civil aviation chief, Budhi Muliawan Suyitno. A year ago, a Garuda Airlines plane overshot the runway in Jakarta, careened into a rice patty field and burst into flames, killing more than 20 people on board. On January 1, 2007, Adam Air Flight 574 crashed, killing all 102 people on board. A day after the crash, there were reports that 12 survivors had been found. But those 12 survivors, it turned out later, were from an Indonesian ferry that sank four days earlier. For more than a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared off the radar screens, Indonesian authorities scoured the mountainous terrain of western Sulawesi province and the Java Sea for any sign of the missing aircraft, but found nothing. The suspension will last for three months, according to Bambang Ervan, a spokesman for Indonesia's Air Transport Directorate. Adam Air's permit was revoked because it \"failed to implement quality standards for its aircraft, including pilot training and supervision in accordance with standard operational procedures,\" Ervan said. The directorate sent a letter to Adam Air regarding its decision, but has not received a reply. Adam Air CEO Adam Suherman told CNN the airline is not surprised by the Air Transport Office's announcement. He said the airline had to suspend its operations Tuesday morning because one of its main investors pulled out, causing the airliner financial problems. Indonesia's aviation authorities recently issued a report outlining a road map to safety, acknowledging that their track record on safety is unacceptable. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration lowered its rating of Indonesia's safety record and the European Union banned all Indonesian airliners. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kathy Quiano in Jakarta and Arwa Damon contributed to this report .","highlights":"Accident-plagued low-cost carrier Adam Air will no longer be allowed to fly .\nIndonesian government will revoke airline's license on Wednesday .\nThe airline \"failed to implement quality standards for its aircraft\"\nIt has had more than one major accident in last year, one killing 102 people on board .","id":"e9787bf9462b12b7dfc0b562510a551e7d07b4d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Author Arthur C. Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for \"2001: A Space Odyssey\" to an early proposal for communications satellites, has died at age 90, associates have said. Visionary author Arthur C. Clarke had fans around the world. Clarke had been wheelchair-bound for several years with complications stemming from a youthful bout with polio and had suffered from back trouble recently, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. He died early Wednesday -- Tuesday afternoon ET -- at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, Chase said. \"He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90, but in this case it was his final visit,\" he said. In a videotaped 90th birthday message to fans, Clarke said he still hoped to see some sign of intelligent life beyond Earth, more work on alternatives to fossil fuels -- and \"closer to home,\" an end to the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and ethnic Tamil separatists. \"I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka as soon as possible,\" he said. \"But I'm aware that peace cannot just be wished -- it requires a great deal of hard work, courage and persistence.\" Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick shared an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay for \"2001.\" The film grew out of Clarke's 1951 short story, \"The Sentinel,\" about an alien transmitter left on the moon that ceases broadcasting when humans arrive. As a Royal Air Force officer during World War II, Clarke took part in the early development of radar. In a paper written for the radio journal \"Wireless World\" in 1945, he suggested that artificial satellites hovering in a fixed spot above Earth could be used to relay telecommunications signals across the globe. He is widely credited with introducing the idea of the communications satellite, the first of which were launched in the early 1960s. But he never patented the idea, prompting a 1965 essay that he subtitled, \"How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time.\" His best-known works, such as \"2001\" or the 1953 novel \"Childhood's End,\" combined the hard science he learned studying physics and mathematics with insights into how future discoveries would change humanity. David Eicher, editor of Astronomy magazine, told CNN that Clarke's writings were influential in shaping public interest in space exploration during the 1950s and '60s. Watch how Clarke stands among sci-fi giants \u00bb . \"He was very interested in technology and also in humanity's history and what lay out in the cosmos,\" Eicher said. His works combined those \"big-picture\" themes with \"compelling stories that were more interesting and more complex than other science fiction writers were doing,\" he said. Tedson Meyers, the chairman of the Clarke Foundation, said the organization is now dedicated to reproducing the combination of imagination and knowledge that he credited the author with inspiring. \"The question for us is, how does human imagination bring about such talent on both sides of the brain?\" he asked. \"How do you find the next Arthur Clarke?\" Clarke was knighted in 1998. He wrote dozens of novels and collections of short stories and more than 30 nonfiction works during his career, and served as a television commentator during several of the Apollo moon missions. Though humans have not returned to the moon since 1972, Clarke said he was confident that a \"Golden Age\" of space travel was just beginning. Watch Clarke talk about sci-fi vs. reality \u00bb . \"After half a century of government-sponsored efforts, we are now witnessing the emergence of commercial space flight,\" he said in his December birthday message. \"Over the next 50 years, thousands of people will travel to Earth orbit -- and then, to the moon and beyond. Space travel and space tourism will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic destinations on our own planet.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Arthur C. Clarke dies in Sri Lanka at age 90, aide says .\n\"2001: A Space Odyssey\" was perhaps his best known work .\nHe and Stanley Kubrick shared Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay .\nClarke had lived in Sri Lanka since the 1950s .","id":"ed8a7d5b06b4b5415725e624a15ab5ada7146894"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Court proceedings in the trial against Tariq Aziz, one of the best-known faces of Saddam Hussein's former regime in Iraq, and several co-defendants have ended after being in session only briefly Tuesday. The trial of Tariq Aziz, pictured here in a Baghdad courtroom in July 2004, has begun. The trial, which is to resume May 20, was delayed because one of the defendants, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, also known as \"Chemical Ali,\" was not present because he was ill. Iraqi procedural codes require that all defendants be in court for the first session. Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman read a U.S. medical report signed by three doctors that said al-Majeed is in critical condition after suffering a heart attack two weeks ago. He has been released from the hospital but still requires daily treatment and doctor visits. The report said that traveling to court from his detention facility could worsen his health. He cannot walk up stairs or sit in court for long hours, it said. He will need three weeks to recover and may need some sort of surgery, the report said. It added he is diabetic and suffers from \"acute heart failure.\" Treatment includes clearing of the arteries followed by either open heart surgery or stents in the arteries, but neither option is available at this time, the report said. Ali Hasan al-Majeed, who was a top Baathist official during the Saddam Hussein era, is awaiting execution after being convicted of genocide in connection with the killing of Kurds during the Anfal campaign in the late 1980s. Aziz, al-Majeed and six others are now facing trial for having a role in the execution of 42 Iraqi merchants in 1992. A former deputy prime minister, Aziz was the first to be called into court, followed by six other defendants. Aziz appeared frail, walked slowly with a cane, and was coughing and blowing his nose. He was sitting in the seat Saddam Hussein used during his appearances in court and was represented by a private attorney. The court was sorting out which defendants did not have attorneys present. This is the fourth major trial of former Hussein regime officials since his government was overthrown. The most prominent was the 2006 trial that led to the execution of Hussein and three lieutenants for a crackdown in the Shiite town of Dujail in which more than 140 men allegedly plotting Hussein's assassination were executed. Aziz's lead attorney, Badie Aref -- who was an attorney for Hussein in that trial -- is charged with contempt of court in Iraq and has been in Jordan since a warrant for his arrest was issued last year. He said he would return to Baghdad for this trial only if he were assured he would not be arrested. Meanwhile, amid a swirling, blanketing sandstorm, fierce fighting in Baghdad Tuesday saw U.S. troops kill 32 \"enemy forces\" in a gunbattle, according to the U.S. military. Iraqi authorities reported 16 people were killed in a residential area in the same clash. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said the fighting was in the predominantly Shiite Sadr City neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. Five suspected insurgents dressed in Iraqi army uniforms attacked the home of a human rights worker in Diyala on Tuesday, killing the resident of the home and an Iraqi soldier who lived in the neighborhood, according to the U.S. military. Two Iraqi civilians also were injured in the small-arms attack. \"Attacking civilians in their homes is both criminal and barbaric,\" said Major Peggy Kageleiry, spokeswoman for the military's Multi-National Division - North. Insurgents have been attempting to exploit the harsh conditions, which have curtailed flights coming into Baghdad International Airport. Sandstorms make it easier for militants to screen their activities and harder for U.S. air power to be deployed effectively. A U.S. military spokesman said fighting began around 9:30 a.m. when militants fired at a U.S. patrol and wounded an American soldier. When the soldier was being evacuated, a U.S. vehicle was struck by two roadside bombs and peppered with small-arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. That left two more soldiers injured. Three more soldiers were wounded in the fighting. Soldiers used a \"combination of weapon systems available, including a guided multiple launch rocket (GMLR) system\" to fight the insurgents and killed at least 28 militants in a four-hour long battle, the military said. Lt. Col. Steven Stover, spokesman for Multi-National Division-Baghdad, said three GMLRs were launched, at 11:23 a.m., 1:03 p.m. and 1:37 p.m. Officials with Iraq's Interior and Health Ministry told CNN 16 people were killed and 45 people were wounded when U.S. rockets hit at least three houses in a residential area in Sadr City around 1:15 p.m. Two children and a woman were among the dead and four children and five women were among the wounded, they said. Asked if he was aware of reports of civilian casualties from the strikes, Stover said, \"If there were civilian casualties, I sincerely regret them. \"The rockets struck militants firing from buildings, alleyways and rooftops. It was these militants who initiated the engagement by attacking U.S. soldiers. Our soldiers have a right to defend ourselves.\" Two U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday in separate incidents in northwest Baghdad, the military said. The first soldier died from wounds suffered from insurgent small-arms fire at about 8:50 p.m. local time in northwest Baghdad, according to a U.S. military public affairs office. The second soldier died at about 10:15 p.m. when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised explosive device. The names of both soldiers were being withheld until their families could be notified. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Christine Theodorou, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tariq Aziz, former Iraqi deputy PM, appears in court over executions .\nHe and five others charged with execution of 42 merchants .\nThis is the fourth major trial of ex-Hussein officials since invasion .\nViolence continues in Baghdad as U.S. troops kill insurgents in gunbattle .","id":"4b6f2532f6bb4cf4ae341e4fb72d384ef58f0f42"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eos Airlines, the all business-class carrier, has declared bankruptcy and stopped operations Sunday. The New York-based airline reconfigured 220-seater Boeing 757s to 48 seats that could extend into fully flat beds. The seats also allowed passengers -- or \"guests\" as they airline prefered to describe them -- to sit face-to-face to dine or hold business meetings. The tickets carried a hefty price tag -- up to $9,000 roundtrip from New York to London -- but the luxuries were aimed toward more discriminating business travelers. The privately-held airline, in a news release Sunday, said it had secured additional financing. But \"some issues arose that prevented the parties from moving forward,\" it said. The airline immediately began the process of eliminating the positions of most of its employees. \"There are times in business when even though you execute your business plan and even though your employees do their jobs beautifully, external forces prevent you from controlling your own destiny,\" Eos CEO Jack Williams said in a statement. The airline becomes the latest in a number of small carriers that have gone out of business in recent month. Analysts blame the high cost of fuel, a slowing economy and a credit crunch. Other carriers that have declared bankruptcy recently include Skybus and ATA airlines. Eos asked passengers to contact their credit card companies or travel agents to find out how to obtain refunds for unused tickets. It said frequent-flier program participants will not be able to redeem their points. Any value related to membership will be determined by the bankruptcy court. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New York-based business class airline Eos declares bankruptcy .\nLuxury carrier charged up to $9,000 roundtrip from New York to London .\nAnalysts blame high fuel costs, slowing economy, credit crunch for industry problems .","id":"46102a68e2927f930c1c2bd117ca714d188cd1ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Austrian investigators Monday released more details about the elaborate underground cellar where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years, along with three of their children. Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children. Investigators believe Fritzl planned to build the cellar as early as 1978, shortly after, according to his daughter, he began raping her at age 11 or 12, said police spokesman Franz Polzer. The 73-year-old Austrian began building the dungeon as part of an addition to his home that year, and simply added the hidden space -- which was not recorded in any building plans -- Polzer said. It took Fritzl until 1983 to finish the addition, Polzer said. Investigators recently discovered another door to the dungeon prison, which was blocked by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) steel and concrete door that Fritzl probably stopped using when he later constructed an electronic door for a second entrance, Polzer said. Fritzl, who police believe was the only one with access to the cellar, had to travel through an elaborate maze to get to the prison. \"You would have to open up a total of eight doors, and ... (for the) last door which would go into this space (where the family was imprisoned), you would also have to use electronic opening apparatus,\" Polzer said. \"We will have to find out perhaps later from now if perhaps there are other spaces we haven't discovered yet, and perhaps maybe there is something else interesting.\" Fritzl was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in the dungeon under the Fritzl home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children -- six of whom survived. Three of the children were adopted by Josef Fritzl and his wife after he concocted the ruse that Elisabeth had left the babies on their doorstep. The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel more than two weeks ago, when one of the children still in the dungeon, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions. The father agreed to take her to a hospital, the first time she was allowed out of the prison where she had spent her entire life with her mother and two brothers. Dr. Albert Reiter, who is treating Kerstin, said Monday that while her condition is still \"grave,\" it \"has improved somewhat.\" \"She has become more stable, but despite that we have to continue to keep her under sedation and give her respiratory help,\" Reiter said, noting it is not clear how long she will be kept under sedation. Elisabeth and her two sons were reunited with her mother, Rosemarie, who police say knew nothing about the basement prison. They were also reunited with the three children that Josef had taken from Elisabeth. The reunited family is living in secluded quarters at a psychiatric clinic, where they are finding a daily routine and adjusting to sunlight -- something the two boys had never seen -- according to the clinic's chief doctor. \"The mother and the smallest child have, in just the last couple of days, increased their sensitivity to light,\" Dr. Berthold Kepplinger said. \"So we have been able to equip them with protective sunglasses.\" Five-year-old Felix is \"getting more and more lively,\" Kepplinger said. \"He's fascinated by everything that he sees around him -- the fresh air, the light, and the food -- all of these things are helping them,\" he said. \"Slowly the color of their skin is changing back to a more normal (shade).\" He also said the family members are still getting to know each other and live together as a family. Kepplinger praised Elisabeth for having provided a daily living routine for her children during their captivity. He said the family is getting into a new routine in which the mother and the grandmother make breakfast for the family, and the children make their beds. However, he said there is a noticeable difference between the pace of life of the children held in captivity and that of those who grew up in Fritzl's home. He said the mother, Elisabeth, takes breaks and naps several times a day. The health of the family members is satisfactory and hospital staff have been able to let more and more light into the rooms where the family is staying, Kepplinger said. Kepplinger said the children, after being confined to a small space their entire lives, are finding it increasingly easy to be in larger spaces. Initially the dungeon where Fritzl held his daughter was only 35 square meters. In 1993, around the time Elisabeth was pregnant with her fourth child, Fritzl decided to add to the dungeon, building another room that increased the entire living space of the family to about 55 square meters. On Wednesday or Thursday, prosecution authorities will attempt to question Fritzl -- who is no longer talking to police following his initial confession, state prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said. A warden at the St. Poelten jail, where Fritzl is being held, told CNN that Fritzl appears to be doing well, but he is refusing to go on walks outside the building where he is detained. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Hospitalized incest daughter's condition is grave but stable, police say .\nFritzl imprisoned and raped daughter, also fathered her children, police say .\nWife of Josef Fritzl was too scared to question him, her sister says .\nFritzl's wife focused on keeping family healthy, according to her sister .","id":"ee6568a8880e61a498aab80c41f70939d567c991"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- An Indian woman accused of being a witch was tied to a tree and beaten by a mob, with television footage of the incident aired in India on Friday. Villagers tied the woman to a tree after a man accused her of practicing black magic. Nishant Tiwari, a police official in northeastern India, said a journalist who filmed the beating called him Thursday to report the incident, which took place in the village of Dumaria in central eastern Bihar state. He arrived to find the woman tied to a tree, her hair partially cut and her complexion ruddy from being slapped. She had no serious injuries. \"I was appalled at what I saw because people should be more socially responsible than to do this,\" Tiwari said. Authorities arrested six people, including the man who admitted to hiring her services as a witch. They were due to appear before a magistrate on Friday. Ram Ayodhya, who could face up to seven years in prison for his role in the attack, told police he was justified in beating the woman, Tiwari said. Graphic content warning: Villagers beat woman \u00bb . Ayodhya said he paid her to use magic and prayer to improve his wife's health. When his wife's condition deteriorated, Ayodhya accused her of performing black magic, Tiwari said, and a crowd soon gathered and tied her to the tree. The woman seen being attacked is expected to testify when the suspects appear before the magistrate. Tiwari said he was disturbed by the fact that a journalist filmed the incident before contacting authorities. \"The media filmed the incident, then called the police -- instead of the police first,\" Tiwari said. CNN's partner network, CNN-IBN, reported that the incident took place close to the local police station. It reported that there had been other such occurrences of mob justice in the state. In Bhagalpur district in August 2007, a man caught trying to snatch a woman's chain was beaten up, with police looking on, and later tied to a motorcycle and dragged around by a police officer. In September, in Lucknow's Wazirganj area, an angry mob beat a man to death after a 2\u00bd-year old girl was allegedly found sexually assaulted and murdered in his house. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Indian woman accused of being witch is tied to a tree and beaten by a mob .\nJournalist filmed incident, aired on Friday, and then called the police .\nPolice say woman's hair partially cut and she was slapped, but no serious injuries .\nSix arrested, including the man who admitted to hiring her services as a witch .","id":"8f462be265750ebbf85a6ad8ef28cb39c59f826e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Croatia held off a furious late onslaught from Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria to win 1-0 in their opening Group B match in Vienna on Sunday. Emmanuel Pogagtetz, left, fouls Croatia striker Ivica Olic to concede the match-winning penalty. The Croatians took the lead in the fourth minute when midfielder Luka Modric coolly slotted home from the penalty spot after Emmanuel Pogatetz clumsily body-checked striker Ivica Olic in the area. Slaven Bilic's team dominated the first half, and should have gone further ahead in the 35th minute but Olic's strike partner Mladen Petric blazed over the bar with a left-foot volley after beating the offside trap to run on to Vedran Corluka's cross. Austria's main threat had come from set-pieces, but they were not able to capitalize on a string of corners. However, the home players kept battling in the second half and squandered a series of chances to level the score in the final 15 minutes. Martin Harnik fired over the bar on 78 as Croatia scrambled to clear the danger, then substitute Ivica Vastic had a powerful header well saved by goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, who then kept out another low effort by the veteran midfielder. Pletikosa also had to deny a driven shot from Umit Korkmaz, who also came off the bench, while another substitute in Roman Kienast flicked a header just wide from a free kick in the third minute of time added on. Croatia went into the tournament as one of the outside bets, having qualified top of their group ahead of Russia with a victory away to England which eliminated the British team. However, their chances of success were dealt a massive blow when top scorer Eduardo da Silva was ruled out of the tournament due to a broken leg. None of Croatia's strikers managed to score in the warmup matches, and the Arsenal forward's goal-poaching ability was sorely missed on Sunday. The winning goal came after Modric and Olic combined down the left wing from a throw-in, and Pogatetz clearly impeded the striker well away from the Austria goal. The Middlesbrough defender was booked for protesting the referee's decision, but he could have no complaints with the ruling. Austria are the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams at the tournament in 92nd place, but showed great courage against a 15th-seeded Croatia side stacked with attacking talent. But they joined fellow co-hosts Switzerland in losing their opening match, following the Czech Republic's 1-0 victory on Saturday. Croatia next play Germany on Thursday, when Austria take on Poland. Coach Bilic was delighted to start with a victory, but was not so impressed with his team's performance. \"Some players were overwhelmed by playing at a great tournament but we started off with the best possible way -- with a win,\" Bilic told reporters. \"In the first 35 minutes we played excellently, of course the early lead contributed to that. \"They exerted more pressure in the second half and I'm sure that is not to do with a lack of strength from our players. But we confined ourselves to our penalty area too early. \"The last 15 minutes or so when they play all or nothing, you can do that -- but we started in the 60th minute or so. I didn't think the players were happy when they got back in the dressing room. I turned on the CD player and said they should sing because they won.\" Austria coach Josef Hickersberger was left frustrated by his side's failure to take their chances. \"This was the worst possible start you can have in an opening match of a major tournament,\" he said. \"We took some time to recover, during the first 30 minutes we were nervous. \"For the rest of the match we were playing the way we should have been playing. We even dominated in the second half of the match. We had good opportunities but unfortunately we weren't able to score a goal, so we are empty-handed. In our remaining games we need four points to go through.\" Austria: Jurgen Macho; Sebastian Proedl, Emanuel Pogatetz, Martin Stranzl; Joachim Standfest, Rene Aufhauser, Andreas Ivanschitz, Jurgen Saumel, Ronald Gercaliu; Martin Harnik, Roland Linz. Croatia: Stipe Pletikosa; Ivan Corluka, Robert Kovac, Josip Simunic, Danijel Pranjic; Darijo Srna, Niko Kovac, Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar; Ivica Olic, Mladen Petric.","highlights":"Croatia beat Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria 1-0 in opening Group B match .\nLuka Modric scores fourth-minute penalty after striker Ivica Olic is fouled .\nAustria battle back in the second half but miss a series of late chances .\nCroatia next play Germany on Thursday, while Austria take on Poland .","id":"b21258342db561f79656c3c75f2e8c8244dd6178"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security will bypass environmental and land-management laws to build hundreds of miles of border fence between the United States and Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday. A border fence stands at Juarez, Mexico. More than 360 miles of fence are supposed to be finished by year's end. \"Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation,\" Chertoff said. \"These waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward.\" Chertoff cited a congressional requirement that 361 miles of fence be completed by the end of the year. He also pointed out that Congress had given him the authority to bypass laws. But the executive director of the Sierra Club, an environmental group, said the move \"threatens the livelihoods and ecology of the entire U.S.-Mexico border region.\" \"Secretary Chertoff chose to bypass stakeholders and push through this unpopular project on April Fools' Day. We don't think the destruction of the borderlands region is a laughing matter,\" said Carl Pope. The Sierra Club says the waivers will affect a range of federally protected lands, including national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, forests and wilderness areas. The Sierra Club says the waivers themselves are unconstitutional and has asked the Supreme Court to rule on the question. This is the fourth set of waivers issued by the department, and is the most sweeping. Chertoff's orders Tuesday affect two areas. First, the department proposes to place fencing, towers, sensors, cameras, detection equipment and roads along a 470-mile stretch of the border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Second, it plans to integrate a concrete wall into proposed levee reinforcements along a 22-mile section of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County, Texas. The department said it is committed to working in an environmentally sensitive manner and cooperating with resource agencies so it does as little damage as possible. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Sierra Club says border waivers are unconstitutional .\nHomeland Security chief: Waivers will enable security projects to move forward .\nEnvironmental, land-management laws will be bypassed for U.S.-Mexico fence .\nMichael Chertoff says Congress has given him the authority to bypass laws .","id":"c7b97c7c2ca7b9bedff4978dd3cae9aaef8f8100"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government has charged an international arms dealer with conspiring to sell a rebel group millions of dollars in weapons \"to be used to kill Americans in Colombia,\" federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. Viktor Bout is accused of selling missiles, rockets and other weapons to FARC, a Colombian rebel group. Viktor Bout, who was recently captured in Thailand, had agreed to sell the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) surface-to-air missiles, armor-piercing rocket launchers, \"ultralight\" airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other weapons, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. There was no immediate public response from Bout, who remains in custody in Thailand. Federal authorities unsealed an indictment charging Bout with four terrorism offenses: conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to kill U.S. officers or employees, conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile, and conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. FARC is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Justice Department officials said they are seeking Bout's extradition to the United States. The indictment alleges that Bout made agreements with FARC between November 2007 and March of this year. In their news release, federal prosecutors said Bout agreed to sell weapons \"to two confidential sources\" working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, who had \"represented that they were acquiring these weapons for the FARC, with the specific understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack United States helicopters in Colombia.\" The news release also refers to a \"covertly recorded meeting in Thailand on March 6, 2008.\" \"With the unsealing of this indictment, we are one step closer to ensuring Bout has delivered his last load of high-powered weaponry and armed his final terrorist,\" DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Loenhart said in the news release. Attorney General Michael Mukasey last month singled out Bout as a leading example of a new breed of organized crime leaders who operate across international boundaries to amass wealth without regard to political ideology. \"Viktor Bout has long been considered by the international community as one of the world's most prolific arms traffickers,\" U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in the news release Tuesday. Bout's assets in the United States were frozen in 2004 after he allegedly shipped weapons to Liberia in violation of U.S. government restrictions.","highlights":"Viktor Bout offered to sell surface-to-air missiles, rockets to FARC .\nArms dealer captured in Thailand. U.S. seeks extradition .\nU.S. says Bout is an example of a new breed of organized crime leaders .","id":"bdbeb9265050f2a4ce200c3802775694b7dc20e6"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican government has ordered 2,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in response to a wave of drug-related violence that is blamed for 200 deaths since January, officials announced Thursday. Mexico has ordered troops to move near Juarez, shown here with El Paso, Texas, in the distance. The troops are expected to depart Friday. The majority will be near the northern border of Mexico, in Juarez. Juarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Officials said the violence in Mexico has increased in large part to competing drug cartels. \"In this battle we will show that no criminal group is capable to resist the strength of the Mexican government,\" Interior Minister Juan Mourino said at a news conference Thursday. Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan said 2,026 soldiers, 180 military tactical vehicles, three airplanes and more than a dozen drug detection devices would be employed in the military operation. \"Violence, and this needs to be stressed, generates organized crime of drug trafficking,\" said Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora. \"It's not in any way a sign of strength, but a sign of weakness, deterioration and decomposition.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN en Espanol's Ariel Crespo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials: 2,000 troops to go to border in response to wave of drug violence .\nMajority of troops will be near the northern border of Mexico, in Juarez .\nViolence has increased in large part to competing drug cartels .","id":"42e93d5aef7547b8169f1f6c7735d0265a030580"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- The chairman of the Samsung Group announced his resignation Tuesday, just days after his indictment amid an investigation into allegations of corruption. Chairman of the Samsung Group Lee Kun-hee has been indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust. \"I sincerely apologize and will do my best to take full legal and moral responsibility,\" said Lee Kun-hee, who was indicted last week on charges of tax evasion and breach of trust. \"It grieves me for I still have many things to do.\" At least four other executives will leave their jobs at Samsung, which has annual sales of nearly $160 billion and accounts for 18 percent of South Korea's economic output. Samsung also outlined several reforms Tuesday. Investigators started looking into the conglomerate in January, after a former company lawyer said the company created slush funds worth $200 million. The probe led prosecutors to indict Lee and several other executives, but the prosecutors said an investigation found no evidence to support an allegation that the company bribed government officials and prosecutors. Samsung's exports -- valued at about $70 billion -- account for a fifth of all South Korean exports. The conglomerate outlined several reforms it plans to implement. \"We do not think that Samsung's renovation is complete with what we have declared, and known that this is just the beginning,\" Samsung said in a statement. \"If there are any other things we should mend, we positively will.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee announces resignation, apologizes .\nLee's decision comes a few days after his indictment amid corruption investigation .\nLee was indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust .\nProsecutors say indictment relates to a plan to transfer control of the firm to his son .","id":"6e7a607934780f0011aa4e84509314efe15c2685"} -{"article":"YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Residents in this sprawling river delta city hacked their way through downed trees and trudged through knee-deep swirling brown waters Monday as they tried to pick up the pieces of their lives after a deadly cyclone ravaged the southeast Asian country over the weekend. The powerful storm toppled this tree in Yangon, Myanmar, on Saturday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it has released 200,000 Swiss Francs (about $190,000) to help with the aftermath. \"I think one of the biggest needs right now is to stave off disease,\" said spokesman Eric Porterfield. \"We will be helping with the distribution of clean drinking water and setting up shelters.\" Working with the Myanmar Red Cross agency, the International Red Cross is distributing drinking water, plastic tarps to cover roofs and blankets, among other items. The tropical cyclone, packing winds of up to 150 miles (241 km) per hour, slammed into Myanmar over the weekend, killing as many as 350 people. \"We believe hundreds of people are dead,\" said Khin Maung Win with the Democratic Voice of Burma -- a broadcast media group run by opposition expatriates. \"The entire lower Burma is affected. In some areas, entire villages disappeared.\" The activist group opposed the military rule in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The ruling junta declared a state of emergency in five regions: the city of Yangon, Irrawaddy, Pegu and the states of Karen and Mon. All flights to Yangon, the former capital, were canceled. Learn more about Myanmar \u00bb . Cyclone Nargis tore off roofs, uprooted trees and downed power lines. The storm ripped through the sprawling river delta city of Yangon for more than 10 hours -- from Friday night until Saturday noon, said Burma Democratic Concern. Watch the cyclone hammer Yangon \u00bb . By Sunday, many parts of the city were without electricity. Phone connections were also down in most areas, making it difficult to assess the extent of the damage. \"Most Burmese with whom we've been in touch report they lost their roofs, although so far everyone we have been able to contact reports that they and their families are safe,\" said a Yangon-based diplomat who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Earlier Monday, an editor for an independent Myanmar newspaper based in Thailand told CNN that people in the Southeast Asian nation were angry over the response to the disaster by the ruling military junta. \"People are very angry with the slow response coming from the military government,\" said Aung Zaw of Irrawaddy news magazine. Zaw said communication was down across large areas of the country. He also said the casualty figures could rise. \"Very few people have access to these areas to estimate damage and how many people have been killed.\" Listen to Irrawaddy journalist discuss the situation in Myanmar \u00bb . Pictures from inside the country showed a cyclone-ravaged region with tin huts crushed under trees. Bicyclists navigated around large branches that littered the deserted roads. A man with his pant legs rolled up waded through knee-deep water and strained to clear massive limbs that were blocking the entrance to a house. \"The cleanup is beginning, but this will take a long time,\" the diplomat said. \"The damage around town is intense.\" See photos of the destruction \u00bb . \"Fuel is not easily available. International emergency assistance would be needed within seven days. There is no food for eating,\" Win said. Food prices -- already on a dramatic rise -- climbed further. Long lines could be seen at gas stations in Yangon. Many of the stations were operating on generators. At one gas station more than 100 buses lined up to refill. \"International emergency assistance would be needed within seven days,\" the diplomat said. The junta has scheduled a May 10 referendum on a new constitution for the country, which came under sharp criticism from many nations for using force to suppress pro-democracy protests last year. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kocha Olarn, Raja Razek and Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Red Cross approves $190,000 in aid for cyclone victims .\nFood, fuel scarce; emergency assistance needed, sources say .\nCyclone Nargis hits Myanmar's former capital of Yangon over weekend .\nState of emergency has been declared in five regions by ruling military junta .","id":"c087e2af172aed145b177c9a1a68029205bc732a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester City have sent representatives to Brazil in the hope of persuading Ronaldinho to sign for them. A move to City could make Ronaldinho the Premier League's highest paid player. City chairman Garry Cook told BBC Radio Five Live on Sunday that Ronaldinho's Spanish club Barcelona had given City permission to speak to the player about a move to Eastlands. \"We have people in Brazil,\" said Cook. \"We are nowhere near completing a deal It's a tenuous stage and I don't want to give too much away, but Barcelona gave us clearance to talk to him. \"Ronaldinho wants to show that he is one of the greatest footballers in the world. The Manchester City fans would love to see him kick off the new season with us and I am holding out hope on that happening.\" City owner Shinawatra Thaksin is thought to be ready to provide \u00a350 million ($98.47 million) for new manager Mark Hughes to sign players, with around $29.5 million set aside to bring in Ronaldinho, who could well become the English Premier League's highest paid player. Shinawatra, who sent previous manager Sven-Goran Eriksson packing at the end of last season, despite a marked upturn in the team's fortunes, said last week: \"Ronaldinho - you know, he is a great player. Whatever the club in your heart, you would want to see this player in England, wouldn't you? \"It is not a risk. Sponsors will contribute. It will not damage our wage structure.\" New manager Hughes knows that he will be expected to produce instant results. Shinawatra said: \"I am 59 next birthday, so I am not a man who can wait for many years to see my dreams come true.\" Ronaldinho had a poor season in Spain but City's owner said:\"Ronaldinho is 28. He has much still to offer, he is a star. You need a combination of new players, existing players, quality, young and old. \"I admit also you need a player who is more than just winning the match. You need a star who can play on the pitch, but who can achieve much more for the club. Ronaldinho is that player. \"I am hearing good things about his hunger. I have spoken to his brother (and agent). Ronaldinho wants the new challenge, the chance to play his best football again, to return to the days when he was really, really famous. The magic is still in his boots. Let us hope we can bring him.\" City also expect to snap up another top Brazilian, striker Jo from CSKA Moscow, within the next seven days.","highlights":"Manchester City step up efforts to sign Brazilian Ronaldinho .\nClub representatives visit South America to talk to him .\nCity also expect to signe Brazilian striker Jo from CSKA Moscow .","id":"40e79de5b7a27d7161b147725936d1d47e45c8f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Australian man and his daughter have created a furor after going on television to admit an incestuous relationship which has produced two children. John Deaves and his daughter Jenny pictured in the 60 Minutes interview. John Deaves, 61, appeared on the 60 Minutes show with daughter Jenny, 39, and their child -- nine-month-old Celeste, Melbourne's The Age newspaper reported. Last month Judge Steven Millsteed banned the couple from having sex with each other, but released them on a three-year, $460 good behavior bond. Court transcripts also revealed their first child died in 2001 from a congenital heart disorder. The couple told 60 Minutes that they fell in love in 2000 when they \"discovered each other later in life.\" Deaves had left the family home when Jenny was a baby, and did not see her again for 30 years. What do you think of the couple's relationship? However, the Age reported Deaves' former wife, Dorothy, disputed their claim that they were virtual strangers when they fell in love. \"They were in contact all the time,\" she said. \"His youngest daughter [from his second marriage] didn't even know they were together and she is really traumatized -- she is hurting terrible.\" Deaves' first wife and Jennifer's mother, Joan, said children deserved a better chance in life than one that originated from incest. Watch video report on incest couple. \u00bb . \"I just think that the whole relationship is dreadful,\" she told News Ltd. \"These incestual [sic] relationships produce children and the children have problems and it's not fair to kids.\" Professor Freda Briggs, of the University of South Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that a good behavior bond would not stop the pair from having more children. \"My controversial suggestion was that in these sorts of circumstances judges should be able to persuade them one way or another,\" she said. \"For the mother for example to have her tubes tied or the father-cum-grandfather to be sterilized.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Father and daughter reveal incest on Australian television show .\nCouple have had two children, with one dying soon after birth .\nJudge bans couple from having sex to prevent another pregnancy .","id":"e878909ace599352d3d578796968bbd52cb299bd"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Turkish troops fired artillery shells into northern Iraq on Wednesday nearly a week after Turkey completed its eight-day ground offensive targeting Kurdish militants, an Iraqi official told CNN. Turkish troops patrol near the border with Iraq during the February offensive. Jabbar Yawer, spokesman for Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government security forces, said at least 16 rounds were fired on Dashti Barzji -- an uninhabited area in Iraq's Irbil province located about 12 miles from Iraq's border. Irbil is one of the three provinces compromising Iraq's Kurdish region. The Turkish military in Ankara had no immediate comment about the report. Yawer said Turkish helicopters were seen in the area during the strike but said that the choppers were not involved in the attack. The border conflict has wider implications for the Middle East and Asia, with the United States concerned that prolonged cross-border fighting would serve to destabilize the region, where Kurdish separatists pose challenges to power in Iran and Syria, as well as Turkey \u00bb and Iraq \u00bb. The Turkish military for months has been conducting cross-border airstrikes and artillery fire in northern Iraq against members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK -- militants who have been launching attacks against Turkey from bases in northern Iraq. Turkish troops launched a ground offensive on the evening of Feb. 21 \"to prevent the region from being used as a safe haven by the terrorists and to contribute to the internal peace and stability of Iraq in the long run.\" It was the first significant Turkish ground offensive into Iraq since the 2003 overthrow of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and it ended after Iraqi and U.S. officials urged Turkey to make the foray as brief as possible. A total of 240 rebels, 24 troops, and three village guards were killed, the Turkish military said. The PKK has spent two decades fighting for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, with some of its attacks launched from inside northern Iraq. Turks regard the PKK militants as terrorists and point to indiscriminate PKK attacks against civilians as well as police and military targets over the years. The United States and the European Union also label the PKK a terrorist organization. U.S. officials have shared intelligence with Turkey. The Iraqi government opposes the PKK presence, but it views the Turkish military incursion as a violation of its sovereignty. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad and Talia Kayali in Atlanta contributed to this report .","highlights":"Turkish troops fire artillery shells into northern Iraq .\nAt least 16 rounds fired on uninhabited area in Iraq's Irbil province .\nLatest action comes a week after Turkey completes eight-day ground offensive .","id":"470708aab0fe600a27423bf4a2f8c9860fe5f64b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The UK's Prince Harry has been serving on the frontline in Afghanistan and seen combat, but his deployment will be reviewed after the news was leaked by a U.S. Web site, the UK Ministry of Defense confirmed Thursday. He was deployed 10 weeks ago and his fellow soldiers were sworn to secrecy. \"At the end of the day I like to sort of be a normal person, and for once I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get,\" the 23-year-old prince said in a recent interview. Harry is third in line to the British throne and serves with the Blues and Royals. The information had been kept secret for security reasons, said Gen. Richard Dannatt, the chief of Britain's General Staff. Because of the unique circumstances of the deployment. CNN, as well as other news organizations, chose to honor an embargo requested by the military. The prince is a member of a group called Joint Tactical Air Control, or JTAC. He holds the rank of cornet -- equivalent to a second lieutenant -- and serves as a forward air controller. Watch Prince Harry on the front lines in Afghanistan \u00bb . His duties include calling in airstrikes and air support when necessary, guaranteeing the accuracy of bombing on the ground and guarding against incidents of friendly fire. \"As far as I'm concerned, I'm out here as a normal JTAC on the ground and not as Prince Harry,\" he said. Harry is the younger son of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the late Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. The military confirmed his assignment after a U.S. Web site broke the news blackout -- and Dannatt expressed displeasure at the report. Watch how a top secret operation deployed Prince Harry \u00bb . \"I am very disappointed that foreign Web sites have decided to run this story without consulting us,\" Dannatt said in a written statement. \"It was my judgment that with an understanding with the media not to broadcast his whereabouts, the risk in (deploying him to Afghanistan) was manageable. \"Now that the story is in the public domain, the Chief of Defence Staff and I will take advice from the operational commanders about whether his deployment can continue.\" Last year, the military ruled Harry could not be sent to Iraq because publicity about the deployment could put him and his unit at risk. But Dannatt said the experience has demonstrated \"that it is perfectly possible for Prince Harry to be employed just the same as other Army officers of his rank and experience.\" \"His conduct on operations in Afghanistan has been exemplary,\" the general said. \"He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same risks as everyone else in his battle group. In common with all of his generation in the army today, he is a credit to the nation.\" Watch Prince Harry on the front lines \u00bb . Shortly after the news of the prince's deployment broke, several Islamist Web sites posted messages alerting their \"brethren\" in Afghanistan to be on the lookout for the royal soldier. \"O brothers of monotheism, if you find anyone with unusual security in his battalion, know that this could be the Prince Harry. We ask God that he gets caught on your hands,\" one such posting read. Several members of the British royal family have seen combat over the past century. Harry's grandfather, Prince Phillip, served aboard warships in World War II; his great-grandfather -- King George VI -- took part in the World War I naval battle of Jutland; and Prince Andrew, Harry's uncle, flew Navy helicopters during Britain's 1982 war with Argentina over the Falkand Islands. Harry's brother, Prince William, is also an army officer. But as second in line for the throne, he is specifically barred from combat. The last sitting British monarch to lead troops in battle was George II, who defeated a French force at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Prince Harry's Afghanistan deployment is being reviewed .\nNEW: Breaking of a news embargo puts the prince at risk, military says .\nNEW: Islamist Web sites have alerted militants to capture the prince .\nMinistry of Defense says Prince Harry was deployed in December .","id":"16e8cb520c874af6825d4661f6127a67efd4b6f6"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday tried to allay Iranian fears over a planned U.S.-Iraq security pact, saying his government would not allow Iraq to become a launching pad for an attack on its neighbor. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, greets Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday. \"Iraq today doesn't present any threat as it used to be in the times of the former regime,\" al-Maliki told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a Sunday meeting between two leaders, according to a statement from the prime minister's office. \"Today's Iraq is a constitutional state based on the rule of law, and it seeks to develop its relations with the regional countries based on cooperation and mutual respect,\" al-Maliki said. Earlier, Iran's state-run news agency IRNA quoted the Iraqi leader as saying that \"Baghdad would not allow its soil to be used as a base to damage the security of the neighboring countries, including Iran.\" His remarks come as the United States and Iraq are trying to reach a bilateral agreement on how long the U.S. military will remain in Iraq and what role it will play in Iraq's security. But al-Maliki media adviser Ali Hadi said negotiations between Iraq and the United States are in their \"very early stages\" and were not part of Sunday's talks. Watch Ahmadinejad and al-Maliki sit down for talks \u00bb . \"The treaty is purely an Iraqi-American treaty. The Iranians have nothing to do with it,\" Hadi said. \"We will not discuss the progress or the key elements of agreements or disagreements with them because this is an Iraqi issue.\" The proposed U.S.-Iraqi pact has triggered street protests in Iraq, where many suspect the deal could lead to the establishment of permanent American bases, a long-term presence of U.S. troops and a weakening of Iraqi government control over those troops. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia was the target of a U.S.-backed Iraqi clampdown in Basra and Baghdad recently, has called for weekly protests against the agreement. Al-Maliki and Ahmadinejad met Sunday afternoon, with Ahmadinejad calling on Iraq's neighbors and the United Nations to help restore security and stability to Iraq, IRNA reported. And al-Maliki thanked Ahmadinejad for his call for an end to longstanding U.N. sanctions against Iraq that date back to the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Iran has long called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003. Meanwhile, the United States has accused Iran of arming and training \"criminal\" Shiite militias in Iraq and of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, allegations the Iranians deny. It is al-Maliki's third visit to Iran since he became prime minister more than two years ago. The two countries, which are neighbors, both have Shiite Muslim majorities, and al-Maliki's ruling coalition is dominated by Shiite religious parties long backed by Iran. Adnan Pachachi, a leading Sunni Arab member of Iraq's parliament, told CNN he wanted al-Maliki to call on Iran to stop supporting armed factions in Iraq. \"I think this has to stop,\" Pachachi told CNN. \"I hope that Mr. Maliki will make it absolutely clear that Iraqis of all parties, of all sectarian origins and ethnic origins, are strongly opposed to Iran's attempt to interfere in Iraq's affairs.\" Pachachi, a former foreign minister, said al-Maliki's predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, allowed Iraq's security forces to be dominated by sectarian and ethnic militias, and that U.S. troops should remain until those influences are weeded out. \"In the long run, it is in the interest of the United States to have a secure Iraq and armed forces and security forces of Iraq with undivided loyalty and allegiance to the state and not influenced by sectarian affiliations or party loyalties,\" he said.","highlights":"Iraq's prime minister in Iran trying to calm fears over any U.S.-Iraq security pact .\nNuri al-Maliki visiting Tehran, where he is meeting with top officials .\nAl-Maliki says Iraq will not be used as a launching pad for U.S. attacks on Iran .","id":"38673348ff28676905791fe3e8db2bbda814d974"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The man accused of trying to sneak bomb-making materials on a flight from Orlando to Jamaica admitted he planned to build a bomb after he landed, according to an FBI agent. Witnesses say the man arrested Tuesday was \"rocking left and right and up and down.\" The man said he planned to \"detonate the device on a tree stump in Jamaica, but later told us he was going to show friends how to build explosive devices like the kind he saw in Iraq,\" FBI agent Kelly Boaz said in a court affidavit. The first court appearance for the man, Kevin Brown, was postponed Wednesday to allow government officials time to look into whether he suffers from mental illness. U.S. Army officials said Brown was in the service from September 1999 through December 2003, when he received an honorable discharge. Although his record did not show a deployment to Iraq, he received an Army commendation medal in 2003 for serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, officials said. His court-appointed attorney declined to comment. Brown, a Jamaican national, was arrested Tuesday on charges of \"carrying a weapon or explosive on an aircraft,\" the FBI said. He was taken into custody after an air safety officer noticed him acting strangely as he waited to board an Air Jamaica flight, federal authorities said. He appeared in court Wednesday but government officials asked for the delay, saying there were indications Brown might have a history of mental illness. A new hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Transportation Safety Administration officials said a \"behavior identification officer\" noticed Brown acting strangely around noon Tuesday as he approached a ticket counter. Officials said Brown, who is believed to be in his early 30s, had checked baggage that contained two galvanized pipes, end caps, two containers of BBs, batteries, glass bottles containing nitromethane, a laptop, bomb-making literature and one model rocket igniter. Boaz, a member of law enforcement bomb squad, said the items could have been used to make bomb. \"The items found in Brown's baggage constitute an incendiary device,\" Boaz said in court papers. \"The nitromethane was in a breakable container and the model rocket igniter would act as the wick.\" Initial record checks indicate Brown was in the United States legally, the FBI said. According to the bureau, he was living on the streets in Orlando, \"sleeping in the open.\" Federal investigators said he seems to have been living in several places, sometimes with relatives, and they don't know his home town. \"It appears to be an isolated incident, but our investigation is continuing,\" the FBI's David Couvertier told CNN. As part of the probe, officials are looking at whether Brown has ties to any organized group, he said. The FBI is being aided by Orlando police. Airport officials said several ticket counters were temporarily closed during the incident, and 11 flights were delayed. Airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell said Air Jamaica, Air Canada, West Jet and Frontier flights were among those delayed. E-mail to a friend . CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti and Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Kevin Brown was honorably discharged from the Army .\nBrown admitted he planned to build a bomb after he landed, court documents say .\nFBI: Brown was arrested for carrying a weapon or explosives onto a plane .\nBrown tried to board flight at Orlando airport Tuesday .","id":"914a0163e25ecccb635b601837cc4dd552c66ce0"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- A police officer was killed Friday morning in a motorcycle accident as Sen. Hillary Clinton's motorcade made its way through downtown Dallas, police said. The Dallas Police Department said Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada-Tirado was traveling southbound on the Houston Street viaduct when he struck a curb, lost control of the motorcycle and went down. Lozada-Tirado was transported to Methodist Central Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A Dallas police officer since December 1988, Lozada-Tirado was married with four children, according to police. CNN affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas\/Fort Worth reported he was 49. There were no other vehicles involved in the accident, police said, and the motorcade was able to continue to the site without further incident. Clinton said she called the Dallas police chief and would contact the officer's family at an appropriate time. The Democratic presidential candidate said she is \"greatly heartsick over this loss of life in the line of duty.\" \"I just want to express my deepest condolences to the family and to the Dallas Police Department on this tragic, tragic loss,\" she said. \"I am certainly grateful for all they do for me and more importantly what they do for the citizens of cities like Dallas.\" Watch Clinton offer her condolences \u00bb . Clinton is attending rallies Friday in Texas and Ohio ahead of those states' primaries on March 4. In the past 18 months, there have been two fatal accidents involving motorcycle officers escorting President Bush. On August 27, Germaine Casey, an officer from Rio Rancho, New Mexico, died when his motorcycle crashed as the motorcade approached the airport in Albuquerque. The 40-year-old had been the lead motorcycle in the motorcade when the crash occurred. On November 21, 2006, Steve Favela, a Honolulu police motorcycle officer, crashed on wet roads in Hawaii while part of the president's motorcade. Favela, 30, died of his injuries a week later. Two other officers were injured in the crash. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Sasha Johnson and Mike Roselli contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Dallas police Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada-Tirado dies in motorcycle accident .\nOfficer was part of Sen. Hillary Clinton's motorcade in Dallas .\nClinton says she is \"greatly heartsick over this loss\"","id":"851c7314af56b6f47742970e11696948323dfe94"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tornado pummeled Pensacola, Florida, Thursday, severely damaging a church with an attached day care center, destroying homes and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power, the mayor said. Christy Fayard took this photo of an overturned car in the parking lot of a store Thursday in Pensacola, Florida. \"We had about 15 or 20 minutes notice from the weather service that Doppler radar indicated that there was, in fact, a rotation in this one severe thunderstorm,\" Mayor John Fogg said. \"We aren't used to tornadoes in this area.\" The day care center next to the Greater Little Rock Baptist Church \"took a direct hit,\" but the children already had been moved to a safer location, said Glenn Austin, spokesman for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Video showed frantic, tearful parents rushing into the building to get their children. Christie Fayard said she and her co-workers saw the tornado from their building about two miles away. \"We took cover. We just went to a break room and let it pass,\" said Fayard, who is the sister of CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera. After the storm passed, Fayard left work and saw a vehicle overturned in a Target store parking lot. \"We had ample warning,\" Fayard said. \"I think the local media did a great job [warning people].\" Another Pensacola resident who saw the twister pass said it made a frightening noise. \"It sounded creepy, like a bunch of cars were driving over my house,\" Leeann Franzonne told The Associated Press. The tornado was spotted about 9 a.m. and dissipated about 40 minutes later, Austin said. It moved roughly from southwest to northeast, with the biggest apparent damage in the southwest, where older suburbs are located. The twister followed a skipping pattern, sporadically receding into the clouds and then touching down again. Watch where the storm ripped through Pensacola \u00bb . It battered many buildings downtown, blew the roofs off sections of Cordova Mall northeast of downtown, and damaged Pensacola Junior College, where classes were canceled for the rest of the day. See more photos of the violent storm \u00bb . Four houses were destroyed and more than 80 were damaged, according to Escambia County officials. Several people were taken to hospitals in the Pensacola area, with what seemed to be minor injuries, Austin said. Four people were treated for minor injuries at Baptist Hospital, and released, said spokeswoman Candy McGuyre. \"Here at the sheriff's office, we were evacuated down to the basement at one point,\" Austin said. Officials have a system in place to deal with hurricanes, but not tornadoes, Fogg said. Still, shelters were quickly set up Thursday for the homeless, he said. At least 6,800 homes and businesses were without power, according to Gulf Power spokesman John Hutchinson, who advised that it may take some time to restore electricity because of the continuing storms. More stormy weather may be on its way. Florida's emergency management officials issued a statement warning residents and visitors in north Florida that storms and isolated tornadoes were expected during the evening and overnight through Friday. Earlier Thursday, two people died in their mobile home when high winds from a possible tornado hit northeastern Missouri, CNN affiliate KMBC reported. Other tornadoes struck the southwestern part of the state but did not cause much damage, KMBC added. Wednesday night, two tents were blown down at Tulsa, Oklahoma's, Oktoberfest, sending 21 people to hospitals, Tina Wells, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Emergency Medical Services Authority, told The Associated Press. Oktoberfest organizer Michael Sanders said he and about 2,000 other people went into a beer garden tent as a light rain started to fall on the festival. \"Soon as I got in there, within seconds, without warning, there was this huge gust of wind ... and the tent started collapsing,\" Sanders said. The thunderstorms damaged about 25 mobile homes and travel trailers in a mobile home park near Oologah, northeast of Tulsa, the Oologah-Talala Emergency Medical Services District said. None of the five injuries reported was believed to be life threatening, officials said. Trees and power lines were down throughout the area. Four victims had been in one mobile home that was destroyed, AP reported. Wind gusts in Kingfisher County reached 86 mph, Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis told the AP. A tornado damaged six homes in a rural area near Mount Vernon, Missouri, Lawrence County Sheriff's Lt. Brad Delay said. Delay said he followed the tornado in his patrol car. About 4 inches of rain brought flash flooding and high stream levels in Kansas City, Missouri, CNN affiliate KMBC reported. A teenage boy was swept away by water rushing through a culvert, but he managed to pull himself to safety before rescuers arrived, KMBC reported. Flooding from the same storm system is threatening the autumn harvest in Iowa, where high water also ruined farmers' first plantings in the spring, CNN affiliate KETV in Omaha, Nebraska, reported. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least four people hurt in Pensacola, Florida .\nTornado hits day care, but children OK, sheriff's spokesman says .\nStorm skips over high school, hits mall, official says .\nTornado kills couple in Missouri, CNN affiliate says .","id":"f29f04e8f0615b768dd756c4387e87e27b7b4c2d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- American basketball is planning to create up to five new European franchises who would compete for the NBA Championship, according to a report by Sports Illustrated. NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant may soon be seen on a regular basis in Europe. The astonishing claims come hard on the heels of plans by the football's English Premier League to play matches overseas and underline the growing trend of globalization in major sports leagues. This was further evidenced by Super Bowl champions New York Giants playing a regular NFL season game against the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London, but the NBA's leaked plans go far beyond that. A report on the Sports Illustrated Web site, says NBA commisioner David Stern will reveal his proposals on the eve of the All-Star Game in New Orleans this weekend. The plans are understood to include the formation of a European division with five new teams in major markets. The teams would play a full 82-game schedule and compete for the NBA championship. It is not the first time that Stern has entertained the concept of overseas expansion. He broached the idea in 2003, saying at the time that the league would look into European expansion within a decade. Those plans were scrapped, however, with the NBA instead focusing on developing its relationship with China and other emerging basketball markets. The number of European and overseas players has steadily increased in the NBA and basketball enjoys a particularly high profile in Spain, France, Italy, Greece and the Balkans. The NBA has played regular-season games in Japan and Mexico, and played exhibition contests this season in London and Rome. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is doubtful for Sunday's All-Star game with a damaged finger. Bryant, who dislocated his right pinkie last week, scored 29 points in 35 minutes in Wednesday's 117-92 win at Minnesota. Bryant sat out the fourth quarter and had the finger X-rayed after the game. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The NBA is planning a European division of up to five teams claims a report .\nSports Illustrated say commissioner David Stern will announce expansion plan .\nNBA has previously played exhibition games in overseas countries .","id":"8451164e86012e6dbf2fd39f7e6ca784ff9f3624"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber caught fire Friday after a landing at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, U.S. military officials said. A sweep-wing B-1 bomber, similar to this one, caught fire after landing Friday in Qatar, the U.S. military says. The crew evacuated safely, the officials said. They said the fire began while the plane was taxiing after landing about 9:10 p.m. at al-Udeid, the headquarters of U.S. military air operations for the Middle East. Officials said the fire on the bomber was contained. A military board of inquiry has been appointed to investigate the incident, they said. The officials said initial reports said the plane crashed at the headquarters of the U.S. military's air operations for the Middle East. The B-1B Lancer is widely used by the U.S. military to bomb targets over Iraq and Afghanistan. Learn more about B-1 bombers \u00bb . It carries a host of satellite and laser-guided bombs and is able to remain over targets for long periods of time to assist in close-air support for troops on the ground. In December 2001, a B-1 crashed while returning from a bombing run over Afghanistan to a British base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Originally designed to speed nuclear bombs into Cold War Russia, the B-1 was retooled to become a long-range bomber able to carry more conventional bombs, allowing it to hit more targets over a wider area. Al-Udeid, about 20 miles south of Qatar's capital of Doha, has the military's longest runway in the Middle East. About 3,300 U.S. troops, mostly Army, are stationed at the base. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Bomber burned after landing at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar .\nNEW: Crew was able to evacuate aircraft safely, military says .\nAl-Udeid Air Base has the military's longest runway in the Middle East .","id":"18765fda59852b1c13eb226a2da9ab0979739f44"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The fighting that erupted in Baghdad's Sadr City last month has killed 925 people and wounded 2,605, a top government official said Wednesday. Iraqis mourn outside the Sadr City hospital Wednesday after several people were killed in clashes. Most of the casualties consist of civilians and \"criminal elements attacked by us,\" said Tahseen al-Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Baghdad security crackdown called Operation Enforcing the Law. Civilians are being caught in the crossfire because militants \"use the population to cover themselves,\" al-Sheikhly said. The number of Iraqi civilians killed and wounded nationwide continued to increase during April. According to Iraq's Interior Ministry, 969 civilians died and 1,750 were wounded during April. In March, the total was 923 civilians killed and 1,358 wounded -- a sharp increase over February, when 633 died and 701 were wounded. Despite Shiite militants' calls for the Iraqi government to honor a cease-fire, al-Sheikhly said, the crackdown on insurgents will end when the insurgency ends. \"I don't think there is a timetable for all this. I can't tell that this will end tomorrow or the day after,\" he said. The attacks \"will end when those aspects of violence end.\" He echoed sentiments expressed earlier in the day by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who said the government will not accept the existence of a nongovernment armed force. Word of the casualties came as the U.S. military said its highest death toll in seven months reflected an effort by Iraqi militants to reassert themselves after weeks of government crackdowns. Watch how civilians are dying in the urban fighting (graphic content) \u00bb . Three U.S. soldiers in Iraq were killed Wednesday in two roadside bombings, the U.S. military said. The first incident occurred about 1 a.m. during a walking patrol in northern Baghdad, the military said. The other two died about 4:50 p.m. when an improvised explosive device detonated in southern Baghdad, the military said. Names of the soldiers were withheld pending notification of their relatives. Another U.S. soldier died Wednesday in a bombing in the northern Iraqi province of Ninevah, according to the military. The deaths bring the April death toll for the U.S. military to 50, the highest monthly tally since September. Most of the deaths occurred in and around Baghdad, and most were combat-related. Since the war in Iraq began, in March 2003, 4,062 U.S. service members have died. Over the past several weeks, militants have increased mortar and rocket attacks against civilian, government and military targets, said Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq. \"These indirect fire attacks have killed some 40 people in Baghdad, with some 370 others injured,\" he said. Troops \"are responding appropriately to these lethal attacks. As we do so, we use precision strikes and take precaution to limit the damage,\" Bergner said. \"We have said all along this will be a tough fight.\" A member of the American-backed militia Sons of Iraq was killed Wednesday, and four others -- three of them also Sons of Iraq members -- were wounded, when an improvised explosive device detonated near the town of Hawija, Iraq, the U.S. military said. The Sons of Iraq members were returning from a meeting when the explosion occurred, the military said. The wounded were taken to a hospital in Hawija, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk. U.S. and Iraqi troops have clashed with Shiite militants in Sadr City, a sprawling, crowded Shiite slum. Many of the militants are loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia. Much of the fighting has been between the Mehdi Army and U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces, which are dominated by a rival Shiite group, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The fighting intensified March 25, when the Iraqi government announced a crackdown on \"criminal elements\" in Basra, a Shiite stronghold in southern Iraq. The fighting soon spread through southern Iraq's Shiite heartland and into Shiite neighborhoods in the capital. There also has been violence in areas dominated by Sunnis, such as Nineveh and Anbar provinces. Skirmishes in Sadr City were aggravated this month when al-Sadr aide Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri was shot outside his home in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Al-Sadr suspended the activities of his militia in August. U.S. military commanders cited the suspension as a major reason for a decline in violence in Iraq. Another factor, commanders said, was last year's troop escalation, dubbed the \"surge.\" Al-Sadr issued a cease-fire for his followers March 30. Fighting in Sadr City waned but remained intense, the U.S. military said. The cleric has intermittently appealed for calm and threatened to rescind his cease-fire order in recent weeks. Al-Maliki has threatened to boot al-Sadr's supporters from parliament if the Mehdi Army does not stand down. An adviser to al-Maliki said this week that the government would halt its assault on militias if the groups hand in their weapons, turn in wanted militia members and refrain from interfering in the affairs of the Iraqi government and security forces. Al-Sadr has rejected the offer, saying al-Maliki hasn't kept his end of the present cease-fire -- under which, the cleric's supporters said, the Iraqi government would free nonconvicted prisoners belonging to the Sadrist movement and discontinue attacks on al-Sadr's followers. Last week, al-Sadr threatened to wage \"open war\" on U.S. troops if attacks do not cease. He issued a separate statement Friday to emphasize that his militia would target \"occupiers\" and not Iraqis. In that statement, al-Sadr also said he would not accept the long-term agreement that the United States and Iraqi governments are crafting to replace the U.N. mandate for multinational forces in Iraq. The mandate expires in December. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 3 U.S. soldiers killed in 2 roadside bombs; total U.S. death toll at 4,062 .\nGovernment attacks on militants will stop when insurgency stops, official says .\nOfficial: Civilians killed because militants \"use the population to cover themselves\"\nIraqi security forces, Shiite militants have been fighting in Sadr City for weeks .","id":"fba410776268aaf447802e66ac94e4af54f7cb7a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has confirmed that he expects AC Milan target Ronaldinho to leave the Nou Camp at the end of this season. Brazil forward Ronaldinho is expected to join Italian club AC Milan during the summer transfer window. The Brazilian's agent has had talks with the former European champions, but Barcelona have yet to agree a fee for the player. Rijkaard, whose own position is under some doubt after a poor domestic season, told Catalan television channel TV3 that Ronaldinho may feature in Barca's final Spanish league home match against Real Mallorca on May 11 if he recovers from injury. \"Yes, it could be then,\" said the Dutchman. \"He could yet play in the last game of the season in the Nou Camp. If he is to play again, he has to be fit,\" added Rijkaard. When asked whether former Paris St Germain star Ronaldinho would leave in the summer, Rijkaard replied: \"You would have to think so. \"I don't want people to forget what he's done for this club. I hope that he leaves with his head held high and that he demonstrates to the world of football just who he is.\" Ronaldinho has been sidelined by injuries several times this season, with his latest problem a hamstring complaint which has kept him out since the start of April. \"One must remember everything the way it happened. I did not over-protect him. He is a player that never caused any problems,\" Rijkaard said, denying suggestions that he had fallen out with the two-time former World Player of the Year. When asked about his own job, Rijkaard said he was waiting for talks with the Barca board. \"I am very excited and want to complete my task. Then we shall see. The club has always helped me a lot, but we will have to see what is best for everyone,\" he said. Barcelona's only hope of winning silverware this season is in the Champions League, with the club taking on Manchester United in the second leg of the semifinals at Old Trafford on Tuesday night. United held on to draw the first leg 0-0 at the Nou Camp last Wednesday after Cristiano Ronaldo missed an early penalty for the English champions. \"It is a difficult place to go and they have a strong team, but I believe we can qualify. United are a team that will not be afraid. They play like they know and have a strong mentality and a lot of talent,\" Rijkaard. \"They do not complicate things. They will go forward more than in the Nou Camp and that could give us chances. Defending is not our style. We need to worry only about the way we play.\" United may be missing England striker Wayne Rooney and Serbia defender Nemanja Vidic. Both sat out Monday's training session after suffering injuries during Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Premier League title rivals Chelsea. Vidic, who missed the first leg because of a stomach problem, lasted just eight minutes at Stamford Bridge before being stretchered off after being accidentally kneed in the face by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. Rooney injured his hip before scoring the equalizer -- his 18th goal this season -- and was replaced in the 63rd minute by Cristiano Ronaldo. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard confirms he expects Ronaldinho to leave club .\nThe Brazil forward has been in talks with AC Milan but no fee has been agreed .\nRijkaard says Ronaldinho may make a farewell outing if he recovers from injury .","id":"31494e5d6eda2042c4793ae68cea4b8304dfa0ad"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona -- New England's failure to protect star quarterback Tom Brady proved the decisive factor as the Patriots flunked their chance of a perfect 19-0 season and Super Bowl glory. Brady is sacked by defensive end Michael Strahan in the third guarter of the Super Bowl. Brady has weaved his magic behind an all but impregnable offensive line all season but not on Sunday as he was sacked five times in the 17-14 defeat to the New York Giants. \"They have some great pressure schemes, obviously some great pass rushers,\" Brady said. \"Once we kind of got the idea of what we were doing, I thought we handled it much better, but we didn't get the ball in the end zone enough.\" Coming in, Brady had been sacked a career-low 24 times this season playing behind a line that produced three Pro Bowlers in Koppen, left tackle Matt Light and left guard Logan Mankins. Throw in right guard Stephen Neal and right tackle Nick Kaczur, and Brady played most of his record-breaking season not having to worry much about getting hit by bloodthirsty defenders. \"I like when I don't get touched,\" Brady said earlier in the week. Then, disaster struck -- in the form of an all-out, pressure-packed swarming defensive attack by the Giants -- in the worst possible setting. It was the first time Brady had been sacked as many as five times since the New York Jets did it on Sept. 21, 2003. New England had no answer for the Giants' bulldozing defense. \"If I could tell you, we'd have it fixed,\" running back Kevin Faulk said. \"At the same time, they outplayed us.\" They sure did, and left Brady wondering what hit him. Brady simply had no time to find Randy Moss and his other targets on a regular basis against the Giants. With 19 seconds left in the game and the Patriots facing a do-or-die scenario, Brady was sacked for the final time when Jay Alford pulled him down at New England's 16-yard line. Brady was left with nothing to do but try two straight desperation heaves to Moss to no avail. \"I think their intensity from the beginning snap to the end of the game was really higher than ours,\" Moss said. \"We just couldn't meet that intensity.\" With help from their linemen, the Patriots set NFL records for points scored and total touchdowns, while Brady broke the league mark for TD passes and Moss set the record for scoring receptions. That high-powered offense was held to a season-low 14 points in the Super Bowl -- mostly because it couldn't get time. \"They played well defensively,\" coach Bill Belichick said. \"They've been able to rush. They led the league in sacks, they rushed all year. They are a good defensive football team. They played well.\" \"We all could've done things better tonight,\" Brady said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"New England quarterback Tom Brady sacked five times in Super Bowl loss .\nBrady floored for the final time in dying moments of match in Phoenix .\nPatriots were aiming for a record 19-0 season at the Super Bowl .","id":"564bdb9bbcd2276bdfbdce6eb1e2058f0921bd82"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Marine who survived being burned over more than 95 percent of his body in Iraq and established a charity to help burned children has died, the military has announced. Sgt. Merlin German was 22. He was severely wounded February 21, 2005, en route to Camp Ramadi when his Humvee hit a roadside bomb. He was not expected to survive, but he was transported to Germany and then to Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, which has the U.S. military's top burns unit. He spent nine months in intensive care and underwent more than 100 operations. German moved out of the hospital into his own home after 17 months of treatment. He founded Merlin's Miracles, a charity that aims \"to assist burned children and their families to take vacations, trips, outings or anything the families needed to make life a little easier,\" according to its Web site. German died April 11 at Brooke Army Medical Center of complications after surgery. \"He beat all odds and then on top of that continued to serve as an inspiration and motivator for others,\" said Dr. Evan Renz, a critical-care surgeon who treated German. \"It is very difficult to describe the sense of loss. He endeared himself to all he came in contact with. It's really impossible to describe, except to say: Imagine the loss of dear family or friend.\" Renz remembers being impressed with German from the start. \"This young man was clearly showing us signs he was going to fight through this from the very first minute,\" he said. \"There was consensus he was going to be a someone who would probably break some of the previous expectations about survivability. If someone was going to survive, he was going to be that individual.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Barbara Starr and Larry Shaugnessy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sgt. Merlin German was burned over more than 95 percent of his body in 2005 .\nHe spent nine months in intensive care and underwent more than 100 operations .\nGerman founded Merlin's Miracles, a charity to help burned children .\n\"He endeared himself to all he came in contact with,\" doctor says .","id":"acbacec078274c02aeae06061357d02d950fec33"} -{"article":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- He's no Julia Child, but Honduran President Manuel Zelaya showed Tuesday he can attack a cantaloupe and U.S. government claims in a single motion. President Manuel Zelaya chews on a slice of Honduran melon to demonstrate its safety. \"It's not in our fruit,\" he said about last week's report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that some Honduran cantaloupes may be contaminated with salmonella. \"It's not true what they are saying. Logically, we believe it is an error.\" Then, the 55-year-old father of four asked the viewers of CNN en Espa\u00f1ol to indulge him as he engaged in a show-and-tell demonstration. \"Permit me a second,\" he said as he stretched his left arm across the tabletop and outside the view of the camera, then pulled into view a box of fruit. \"Here I have the box of melons that we are exporting to the United States; here are the protective bags,\" he said. Zelaya lifted a cantaloupe from the box, placed it in front of him, then grabbed a knife and a fork. \"Permit me to make a demonstration,\" he said, then cut open the fruit, sliced off a chunk, put it in his mouth and chewed vigorously. \"I eat this fruit without any fear,\" he said with his mouth full. \"It's a delicious fruit. Nothing happens to me!\" Though the symptoms of salmonella infection -- nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps -- typically do not occur for several hours after eating tainted food, the point was made. The demonstration came three days after the FDA said it had linked 50 cases of salmonella in 16 states and nine in Canada to melons from Agropecuaria Montelibana, a grower and packer in San Lorenzo, Honduras. Though there have been no reports of fatalities, 14 people have been hospitalized in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, the FDA said. While the company has continued exporting to Europe and Central America and has received no reports of illness, the daily export of 45 containers of melon to the United States has halted, a company official said Monday. As a result, some 1,500 workers have been laid off, most of them single mothers, and company losses have exceeded $3 million, company officials said. The FDA alert advised U.S. grocers, food-service operators and produce processors to remove from their stock any cantaloupes from the company. The agency also recommended consumers throw away any cantaloupes determined to be from the company. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Elvin Sandoval contributed to this story.","highlights":"President Manuel Zelaya says Honduran fruit has no salmonella .\nTo prove his point, he eats some publicly \"without any fear\"\nFDA links 50 cases of salmonella to Honduran grower .\n1,500 workers laid off, grower reports losses in excess of $3 million .","id":"04327bc3e426eee01ed61d369fd52415aa300ddc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al-Jazeera broadcast on Thursday an audiotape on which a voice identified as Osama bin Laden declares \"Iraq is the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine.\" Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden spoke on a video released by al Qaeda in September. The voice calls for the people of neighboring countries \"to do their best in supporting their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq.\" \"My speech to you is about the siege of Gaza and the way to liberate it,\" he said. \"The Gaza siege is a direct result of Annapolis,\" he adds, apparently referring to the site of November's summit in Annapolis, Maryland, where Israeli and Palestinian leadership agreed to work toward a two-state solution. The voice also calls on \"Muslims in the neighboring countries\" to support the \"mujahedeen in Iraq.\" The broadcast comes a day after another statement attributed to the al Qaeda leader condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet, Mohammed. \"This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and the reckoning for it will be more severe,\" the speaker in the five-minute audio recording says. The speaker said Muslims have not responded by mocking Jesus, whom they consider a prophet as well. \"The laws of men which clash with the legislation of Allah the Most High are null and void, aren't sacred and don't matter to us,\" he said. The speaker dismissed claims of free speech in his statement, citing European countries' laws against denying the existence of the Holocaust. Bin Laden also said in his earlier message that \"the crownless king in Riyadh\" -- Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah -- could have prevented the publication of the cartoons \"if it mattered to him.\" \"If there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions,\" he said. Though the voice sounds like bin Laden, CNN has not been able to confirm that it is him. However, a radical Islamist Web site reported earlier Wednesday that a statement from bin Laden was coming soon. The notice appeared on Al-Ekhlaas, known for carrying statements and videos from al Qaeda and its allies. Analysis of previous statements has indicated that bin Laden was the speaker, and a U.S. intelligence official said there was no reason to think the recorded voice was not bin Laden's. Bin Laden, who was behind the terrorist network's September 11 attacks, has been in hiding since the U.S. assault on Afghanistan that followed those strikes. His last public statement was an audio message issued in December, when he urged his followers in Iraq to continue battling U.S. troops there. Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The latest statement included no date reference beyond the cartoon controversy, which began in late 2005 when a Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons about Islam, including one that depicted Mohammed wearing a turban resembling a bomb. Violent protests erupted in early 2006 after other European newspapers reprinted the images as a matter of free speech. Some Muslims believe it is forbidden by the Quran to show an image of the prophet at all, and others were offended that the cartoon by artist Kurt Westergaard appeared to depict Mohammed as a terrorist. Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terror. Several newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial cartoons in February after Danish authorities arrested several people who were said to be plotting a \"terror-related assassination\" of the cartoonist. That sparked violent protests in three Afghan cities this month, with Muslim students burning flags and chanting anti-Western statements. The message said the publication of the drawings in question \"came in the framework of a new crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role.\" Pope Benedict is scheduled to visit the United States next month, with scheduled stops at the White House, the United Nations and Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers stood until al Qaeda's attack. Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne of the New York City Police Department said the department \"has been working closely with the United States Secret Service to provide the highest level of protection possible\" during the Pope's visit to New York. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Octavia Nasr and Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Al-Jazeera broadcast says tape in Bin Laden saying, 'Iraq is perfect base'\nNEW: That base is ideal \"to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine,\" he says .\nNEW: Bin Laden allegedly urges support for \"mujahedeen brothers in Iraq.\"\nThe identity of the speaker cannot be independently determined .","id":"b1f3d2adb48370e5ecadff8e6e3baff407b01f0e"} -{"article":"Editor's note: \"Glenn Beck\" is on Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET. Glenn Beck says to always question conventional wisdom. NEW YORK (CNN) -- \"The people who survived the Great Depression were the ones who had money to buy when everybody else was selling.\" -- My grandfather . I learned a lot from my grandfather, but that might have been the greatest lesson he ever taught me. He wasn't just talking about managing money, he was talking about managing life -- and his words have stuck with me since I was a child. A few years back, I was taking a theology course and the professor recommended only the books whose authors he agreed with. I read those books, but I also asked that professor which books he thought had it completely wrong -- and I read those too. Then I made up my own mind. After all, following the herd is fine until they all run off the side of a cliff together. Less than a year ago, a recession was the last thing on anyone's mind. In fact, over the summer, as I was questioning the conventional wisdom, I read an article on my television show that quoted a financial expert as saying, \"It is the strongest global market that we've seen in the history of measuring these things.\" That's when I realized how fast the herd was approaching the cliff. But with predictions of a recession now more common than Fed rate cuts -- and that's saying something -- maybe now it's time to look at a worst-case scenario. After all, considering all sides of an issue, no matter how extreme they may be, doesn't make you a crazy person; it makes you an educated one. So to understand what a real meltdown could look like, I turned to Nouriel Roubini, chairman of RGE Monitor and professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business. He's also a former adviser to the U.S. Treasury Department. Professor Roubini recently laid out what he called the \"12 steps to financial disaster.\" Unfortunately, they were really complicated, and I have severe ADD, so I've boiled them down into five phases that even a rodeo clown like me can understand. I think of these like our military's \"DEFCON\" -- or defense readiness condition -- scale, except that this countdown could end in the meltdown of your bank account: . \u2022 DEFCONOMY FIVE . How you'll know we're here: The housing downturn turns into a free fall, making it the worst collapse in our country's history. That not only triggers massive numbers of foreclosures and lost household wealth, but it also sets off another large wave of bank write-downs. Odds we get here: Roubini told me that it's \"extremely likely, even unavoidable\" that we hit this stage because \"the excess supply of new homes in the market is like we've never seen before.\" Prices, he believes, \"need to fall another 10 to 20 percent before that clears.\" \u2022 DEFCONOMY FOUR . How you'll know we're here: Americans upside-down on their mortgages and unable to pay their home equity loans begin defaulting on other debt, like credit cards, car loans and student loans. In addition, bond insurance companies lose their perfect credit ratings, forcing already troubled banks to write down another $150 billion. Odds we get here: High. Roubini says that 8 million households are already upside-down on their mortgages and he thinks we could see that number go to between 16 million and 24 million by the end of 2009. A lot of those people, he believes, will simply walk away from their homes and send their keys back to the bank. \u2022 DEFCONOMY THREE . How you'll know we're here: Some banks begin to crack under the pressure of continuing write-downs and mounting defaults by consumers. A national or large regional bank finally collapses, triggering hedge fund failures and general chaos on Wall Street, potentially leading to a 1987-style market crash. Odds we get here: Very good. Roubini says that we'll likely socialize the losses, \"effectively nationalizing the mortgages or the banks.\" It would be, he told me, \"like Northern Rock (the large bank in England that was recently taken over by the British government) times three.\" He thinks the stock market will head south throughout the year as fears about a severe recession are confirmed. \u2022 DEFCONOMY TWO . How you'll know we're here: Most forms of credit (both to consumers and businesses) become virtually nonexistent. That results in a \"vicious circle\" of additional write-downs, stock market losses, and bank collapses, which leads to even less credit being available. Odds we get here: Good. Roubini says that credit conditions are becoming worse everyday across a variety of markets and won't be getting better anytime soon. Without extra credit available, people might have to actually (gasp!) live within their means. \u2022 DEFCONOMY ONE . How you'll know we're here: Welcome back to 1929. A full economic meltdown results in a complete failure of the underlying financial system. What will be known to future generations as \"The Greater Depression\" has arrived. Odds we get here: Not likely. Roubini believes that this will be a \"very painful and severe recession\" that could last for 18 months or more, but it will be more like 1981 than 1929. Families may be eating soup again, but at least it'll be in their own kitchens. Now, do I think any of what you just read will happen? I have no idea, and that's exactly the problem. I'm not an economist or a stockbroker; I'm just a guy trying to make the best decisions I can, and picking the brains of real experts helps me do that. But I do know one thing for sure: Depressions aren't advertised in advance. Last time around we went from the Roaring '20s to bread lines in a matter of just a few years. Anyone who says that can't happen again either doesn't know history, doesn't understand how interconnected the world's economies have become, or is lying to you. While that doesn't mean you should panic, it does mean you should prepare -- something my grandfather would've done a long time ago. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Glenn Beck lays out the DEFCONOMY scale .\nBeck ponders: Will the economy collapse into \"The Greater Depression\"?\n\"Maybe now it's time to look at a worst-case scenario,\" he says .\nThen again, maybe not: Be prepared is the key .","id":"d7eaf2e5ca91bf54c05ead867e5e90728d44e218"} -{"article":"JENA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Thousands of protesters clogged the tiny town of Jena, Louisiana, Thursday to show their indignation over what they consider unjust, unequal punishments meted out in two racially charged incidents. Officers lead Al Sharpton, center, through Jena, Louisiana, during Thursday's protest. They swarmed over the grounds of Jena High School, where nooses were hung from a tree in early August 2006, about three months before six black teens known as the \"Jena 6\" were accused of beating a white classmate. While the tension was palpable, news broke Thursday afternoon that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ordered a hearing within 72 hours to determine if the only one of the six still behind bars can be released. The order has \"got to be good,\" Mychal Bell's attorney, Bob Noel, told CNN. \"It means we have a day in court. Any day in court is going to be a good day.\" Earlier, there was an aura of a pilgrimage at the site where the controversial tree once stood before school administrators had it removed. Many people touched the ground and some retrieved a lump of dirt, said CNN's Eric Marrapodi. He said the part of the town he was in was ill-prepared for the crowds -- no water or toilets were available. In the background, groups shouted \"Black power\" and \"No justice, no peace.\" The estimated 15000 to 20,000 demonstrators shut down the town of 3,000 in central Louisiana. Many residents left for the day, and government agencies, businesses and schools were closed. Sgt. Tim Ledet of the Louisiana State Police said protesters in buses were still bringing people to town at midday because of the gridlock, but many protesters got off and walked into town on foot. \"There is just no room to maneuver in this small town,\" he said. Jena resident Terry Adams disagreed with any accusations that there might be a black-white divide in the area. \"We are not a racial town. We get along with each other, we get along fine. This is something that got out of proportion. It really has.\" Jena's racial tensions were aggravated in August 2006, when three white teens hung the nooses the day after a group of black students received permission from school administrators to sit under the tree -- a place where white students normally congregated. The guilty students were briefly suspended from classes, despite the principal's recommendation they be expelled, according to Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. A member of the LaSalle Parish School Board -- which had a role in supporting suspension instead of expulsion -- insisted the board is not prejudiced. The panel felt it took the appropriate action, Jonny Fryar said. \"I talked to one of the parents, who called me and said their son thought it was a prank and naive to the fact of what it meant and he was sorry,\" he said. \"I hate to see people label us as something we are not. Because we have black students and white students playing football together. They shake hands, get along. This is an unfortunate incident. We hope that the community can heal.\" Although Washington acknowledged the FBI and other investigators thought the noose incident bore the markings of a hate crime, a decision was made not to press federal charges because the case didn't meet federal criteria. The students were under 18 and had no prior records, and no group such as a Ku Klux Klan was found to be behind their actions. On December 4, about three months after the nooses were discovered, six teens, dubbed the Jena 6, were accused of beating classmate Justin Barker. The six -- Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Jesse Ray Beard -- were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy, according to LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters. Bell, the only one of the six who remains in jail, was to be sentenced Thursday after convictions for aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to do the same, but both charges have been vacated, awaiting further action by the district attorney. Charges for Bailey, Jones and Shaw also were reduced to battery and conspiracy when they were arraigned, while Purvis still awaits arraignment. The charges for Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile. Tina Jones, Purvis' mother, condemned Walters. \"I hope that the D.A. will wake up and realize that he's doing the wrong thing, and to release these kids,\" she said. \"It's not equal. The black people get the harsher extent of the law, whereas white people get a slap on the wrist per se. So it is not equal here.\" Jones maintained that her son was not involved in the beating, but watched from a railing, and was not arrested that same day. \"We have a long fight ahead of us, and we'll keep fighting until justice prevails in Jena,\" the mother said. Purvis, who accompanied her, was asked how he's faring. \"I'm doing pretty good. I hope there is a pretty good outcome of what's taking place today,\" he said. Watch an interview with one of the Jena 6 and his mom \u00bb . President Bush, who was asked about the rally at a news conference, said, \"The events in Louisiana have saddened me. I understand the emotions. The Justice Department and the FBI are monitoring the situation down there. \"All of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice.\" He advised whoever is elected next year to \"reach out to the African-American community.\" Hundreds of college students from historically black schools such as Howard University in Washington traveled to Jena, along with civil rights activists such as Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who helped organize the event. Martin Luther King III also attended, saying, \"This is about justice for the six young men.\" Sharpton called Jena the beginning of the 21st century civil rights movement. \"There's a Jena in every state,\" Jackson told the crowd in Jena on Thursday morning. JoAnn Scales, who brought her three teenage children on a two-day bus journey from Los Angeles, California, to Jena, made the same point. \"The reason I brought my children is because it could have been one of them\" involved in an incident like the one in Jena. \"If this can happen to them [the Jena 6] , it can happen to anyone,\" Scales said. Ondra Hathaway was on the bus with Scales. \"If this young man [Bell] was railroaded to do time as an adult, how many more people has that happened to?\" she said. Jackson said on CNN's \"American Morning\" on Thursday that the charges against the black youths, their possible jail terms if convicted and their bail amounts are \"excessive.\" Punishing the teens with probation would have been sufficient, Jackson said. Bails for the Jena 6 were between $70,000 and $138,000, and all but Bell have posted bond. Bell, 17, has been in prison since his arrest. The judge has refused to lower his $90,000 bail, citing Bell's record, which includes four juvenile offenses -- two simple battery charges among them. Bell was 16 at the time of the attack; 17 is the legal adult age in Louisiana. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Susan Roesgen, Tony Harris, Kyra Philips, Eric Marrapodi and Eliott McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Third Circuit Court of Appeal orders hearing within 72 hours on teen's fate .\nNEW: Police estimate up to 20,000 protesters in Jena, population 3,000 .\nCrowds touch ground where oak tree from which nooses were hung once stood .\nJena 6 is a group of teens charged with beating a white classmate .","id":"1fcce9f667de2a14d76aaa6cdb3f1e6f7900e463"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has completed a notable awards double after being named Player of the Year by the English Football Writers' Association for the second year in a row. In-form Cristiano Ronaldo has won both major English awards for the 2007-08 season. The Portugal winger followed up his second successive victory in the Professional Footballers' Association awards, where he was voted Player of the Year by his peers on April 27. He topped the writers' poll ahead of Liverpool striker Fernando Torres and Portsmouth goalkeeper David James. The 23-year-old, who has scored 38 goals in all competitions this season, emulated the feat of Barcelona's former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry -- the last man to collect the FWA award twice in a row, in 2003 and 2004. \"Ronaldo's award is no surprise after his brilliant form this season and incredible goal-scoring record -- 38 at the moment -- and he is, of course, essentially a winger,\" said chairman of the FWA, Paul Hetherington. \"Cristiano was an overwhelming winner and, given his age, he has the potential and ability to dominate this award for years in an unprecedented way.\" Ronaldo has this season has helped take United to within touching distance of a second successive Premier League title with two matches to play, and into a Champions League final against Chelsea in Moscow on May 21. He will receive his award at the FWA's gala dinner at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on May 15. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Cristiano Ronaldo wins English writers' award for second year in a row .\nHe headed off Liverpool's Fernando Torres and Portsmouth's David James .\nManchester United winger also retained his Player of Year award from peers .\nPortugal star, 23, has dominated UK awards for the past two seasons .","id":"892f75a4d31560b60aa588faa6f4bf51322b8c18"} -{"article":"BUCHAREST, Romania (CNN) -- France has agreed to send a battalion of troops to eastern Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman has said. Canadian NATO-led soldiers walk patrol near Kandahar, Afghanistan. James Appathurai told reporters at a briefing that the move will help NATO meet Canada's requirement that it send more troops to the volatile southern province of Kandahar, where Canadian troops are based. Canada agreed this month to extend its commitment of about 2,500 troops until 2011 so long as NATO contributes more troops to Kandahar. There is a \"clear unity in the alliance\" that the mission in Afghanistan must succeed, Appathurai said. Though 25 NATO allies and 13 other countries have contributed forces, the bulk of the recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops. Appathurai also said Thursday that he did not expect NATO applicants Georgia and Ukraine to be put on a membership action plan this summit but, he said, the general sense in terms of membership for the two countries is not \"whether, but when.\" Further discussions regarding those two countries is to resume Thursday, he said. U.S. President George W. Bush has pushed for the admission of Ukraine and Georgia to the military alliance. However, Russia -- which is not a NATO member -- has expressed concerns about the former Soviet republics joining NATO, which has already made members of other former Soviet countries Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Appathurai also said a general consensus could not be reached on Macedonia's bid, because of Greece's objections. Greece has threatened to veto Macedonia's bid if its northern neighbor does not agree to change its name. Athens has long argued that the name Macedonia implies territorial claims on its northern province of the same name -- the birthplace, also, of Greece's most revered ancient warrior, Alexander the Great. The name issue must be resolved by the two countries, Appathurai said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"French move will help NATO meet Canada's Kandahar commitment .\nCanada agreed to extend commitment as long as other NATO members helped .\nThe bulk of recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, UK and Dutch troops .","id":"acf12bd8d1142648b1b522a3a925e14e48b8f068"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spent their last debate before next week's Super Tuesday contests pointing out differences on Iraq, health care and the economy -- but without all of the finger-pointing that's marked their campaigns. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton struck a mostly cordial tone during the debate. The exchange was in sharp contrast to previous debates because of the absence of political sniping, yet was one of the most substantive policy discussions yet in the race for the nomination. On Iraq, Obama said he'd be more able to end the war because he opposed it from the beginning. He said Clinton's vote to authorize the use of force there would undermine her efforts to bring it to an end. \"I think it is much easier for us to have the argument when we have a nominee who says, 'I always thought this was a bad idea -- this was a bad strategy,' \" he said. Clinton defended her vote, saying she was told by the White House that it would be used initially to return weapons inspectors to see whether Saddam Hussein had an active weapons program. See where they stand on Iraq . \"I believe strongly that we needed to put inspectors in,\" the New York senator said. \"That was the underlying reason why I at least voted to give President Bush the authority, put those inspectors in, let them do their work, figure out what is there and what isn't.\" Watch reaction to Clinton's thoughts on Iraq \u00bb . Both Obama and Clinton said they support ending the war. On health care, Obama defended a plan he says would make insurance affordable to everyone who wants it, but not require everyone to buy it. The Illinois senator said his proposal would require that all children be covered and allow young people to remain on their parents' health insurance up to age 25 -- but would not require adults to purchase care. Watch candidates discuss their differences \u00bb . \"Every expert who looks at it says there won't be anybody out there who wants health care who will not be able to get it,\" he said. Watch the rivals discuss health care \u00bb . Clinton, who as first lady spearheaded her husband's ultimately failed health care reform effort in the early '90s, argued that any health plan should offer universal coverage. \"It is so important that as Democrats, we carry the banner of universal health care,\" she said. See where the candidates stand on health care . Clinton noted her experience pushing her husband's plan, saying she's best suited to hammer out the details of a new plan and create \"a coalition that can withstand the insurance and the prescription drug companies.\" The pair praised former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who dropped out of the Democratic race this week. Both are vying for his supporters. See what the candidates had to say, in their own words \u00bb . The Democratic race remains close going into Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states -- including California and New York -- will vote. Obama won the season-opening Iowa caucuses, then finished second to Clinton in every contest until last week's South Carolina primary -- which he won with a commanding 55 percent of the vote in a three-way race. Clinton scored victories in the New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucuses. She also was the top vote-getter in Florida and Michigan, although no Democrats campaigned in those states and their delegates to the nominating convention will not count because of a squabble between state and national party leaders over the timing of the primaries. Thursday's debate differed from the last time the two took to a stage together -- at a contentious January 21 debate in South Carolina in which the front-runners peppered each other with sharp attacks. In contrast, on Thursday the two smiled, laughed at each other's jokes and repeatedly complimented the other when they agreed. What does the debate's cordial tone mean? \u00bb . Obama got laughs when asked about how he might counter Republican charges against \"tax-and-spend liberal Democrats.\" \"Well, first of all, I don't think the Republicans are going to be in a real strong position to argue fiscal responsibility, when they have added $4 trillion or $5 trillion worth of national debt. I am happy to have that argument,\" he said. Clinton drew cheers when she responded to a question about how a Clinton could promote change after decades of a Clinton or Bush in power. \"It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush,\" she said. Watch Clinton make a jab at Bush \u00bb . The longest and loudest applause line of the night came when CNN's Wolf Blitzer noted that many Democrats have said they'd like to see a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket in November. Neither ruled out the possibility of selecting the other as a running mate. Watch the rivals discuss joining forces \u00bb . \"The debate was a rallying debate for Democrats,\" said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. \"Democrats like both of them, they continue to like both of them, and they want to vote for both of them.\" Schneider said the cordial tone probably helped both candidates. Obama continued momentum from his victory in the South Carolina primary and high-profile endorsements, including Sen. Ted Kennedy and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Clinton probably maintained her perceived status as the front-runner. \"I'm not sure that he turned the election around,\" Schneider said. \"He is the challenger here -- he's got to persuade people they don't want to vote for her.\" The debate, sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico.com, was held at Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre, where the Academy Awards are handed out. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Clinton and Obama supporters thronged outside the venue -- cheering and waving signs. The numerous actors, directors and musicians in the audience included Stevie Wonder, Pierce Brosnan, Rob Reiner, Jason Alexander, Isaiah Washington, Diane Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Quentin Tarantino and Christina Applegate. Mike Gravel, the other Democratic presidential candidate still in the race, was not invited to participate in the debate because he did not meet certain criteria, including support in national polls. In a CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted January 14-17, Gravel received less than 1 percent. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Debate focuses on health care, Iraq, economy .\nClinton, Obama keep it cordial, draw comparisons to ex-Sen. John Edwards .\nClinton pushes experience, Obama pushes judgment .\nCandidate Mike Gravel didn't meet criteria, wasn't invited .","id":"c8caeb08b05cc56e1ac29146793ceb07e4c0de69"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea will open its market to most U.S. beef, a senior government official said Thursday, according to state media. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the South Korean capital in protest at the deal . South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef in 2003 amid concerns over a case of mad cow disease in the United States. The ban closed what was then the third-largest market for U.S. beef exporters. It resumed limited imports last year -- allowing boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age -- but that re-opening was subject to interruptions and closed altogether in October 2007. A deal that South Korea and the United States struck last month bans the import of high-risk materials, like tonsils, brains, spinal cord marrow and a section of the small intestine, Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun said Thursday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. These parts pose the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans. The ban will be lifted within a few days, once the government's new import rules have been published. The pending resumption of U.S. beef imports hasn't been without political costs for President Lee Myung-bak. He apologized to the nation last week for failing to fully understand concerns about mad cow disease. In downtown Seoul, thousands of people have regularly staged protests, chanting \"We don't want crazy cows,\" since the deal to revive beef imports was announced. And the main opposition party has taken up the fight. \"We will be forced to make a critical decision if the government pushes through its plan to announce resumption of beef imports,\" said Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, Yonhap reported. \"If the government and the ruling party ignore this warning, we will come up with every possible measure to stop them.\" The opposition has already filed a suit to suspend implementation of new beef import terms, according to Yonhap. Lee's ruling Grand National Party (GNP) is working to soothe tensions, saying that American beef is safe to eat and that adequate safety precautions have been taken. \"The government has tried its best to free the public from unnecessary concerns, and sufficient countermeasures have been prepared,\" said Lee Hahn-koo, the party's chief policymaker, Yonhap reported. When South Korea and the United States reached the deal in April to re-open the South Korean market, they removed the major obstacle to U.S. congressional approval of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Lee urged the National Assembly this month to ratify the agreement as soon as possible to provide fresh impetus to the sluggish Korean economy, saying it will create 300,000 jobs. But the opposition has promised to fight the FTA until the beef pact is nullified. In 2003, the United States exported $815 million pounds of beef and beef variety meats to South Korea. The U.S. beef industry has lost up to $4 billion since the market closed, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation.","highlights":"South Korea to open market to most U.S. beef says government official .\nBan began in 2003 amid concerns over a case of mad cow disease in the U.S.\nNew agreement bans the import of high-risk materials, like tonsils and brains .\nThousands of S. Koreans have regularly staged protests against U.S. beef imports .","id":"ed7ed4440f5f7082230ae745d240350a4f20b8b7"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- In a recent commentary, I wrote that, as a Mexican-American, the ugliness of the immigration debate offends me -- not as a Mexican, but as an American. Ruben Navarrette Jr. lists 10 things U.S.-born Hispanics find distasteful about the immigration debate. A woman wrote in and asked me to be more specific: Just what was it about the immigration debate that was so ugly? She came to the right place. After nearly 20 years of writing opinions and insisting that I don't speak for all Hispanics, in recent months, I've heard from hundreds of Hispanics who -- appreciative of my middle-ground approach to the immigration issue -- insist that I can speak for them anytime. So, with the authority vested in me, I'll now share some of what other Hispanics are saying. It's not far off from what Janet Murguia had to say. As president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States, Murguia recently delivered an important speech to the National Press Club. The topic: the immigration debate and what she called a wave of hate sweeping the land -- one that isn't limited to illegal immigrants, but which is now affecting all Hispanics regardless of where they were born, what language they speak or what flag they salute. The way Murguia sees it, immigration is \"on the verge of becoming one of the largest civil rights issues of our generation.\" And, Hispanics are playing the pi\u00f1ata. Murguia was right on the button. To borrow a phrase, it's getting ugly out there. And U.S.-born Hispanics see it as plain as day. Here are 10 things they find distasteful about this debate: . \u2022 The hypocrisy. We have two signs on the U.S.-Mexican border: \"Keep Out\" and \"Help Wanted.\" \u2022 The racism. With lightning speed, the debate went from anti-illegal immigrant to anti-immigrant to anti-Mexican. \u2022 The opportunism. Too many politicians are trying too hard to portray themselves as tough on illegal immigration. \u2022 The simple solutions. \"Build A Wall.\" \"Deport All Illegals.\" A quick rule of thumb: If it fits on a bumper sticker, it's not a workable policy. \u2022 The naivet\u00e9. People ask why Mexico won't help stop illegal immigration. Hint: Last year, Mexicans in the United States sent home $25 billion. \u2022 The profiling. Dark skin and Spanish surnames shouldn't be proxies for undocumented status. Been to Arizona lately? \u2022 The meanness. Nazi-produced Internet video games let players shoot illegal immigrants crossing the border. Fun stuff. \u2022 The amnesia. Americans think grandpa was welcomed with open arms and that he plunged into the melting pot. Whatever. \u2022 The buck-passing. Americans love to blame Mexico for their choices, yelling across the border: \"Stop us before we hire again.\" \u2022 The double standard. The same folks who have zero tolerance for illegal immigrants easily tolerate those who hire them. Some of this is painfully familiar, recalling earlier versions of this debate as it played out a hundred or two hundred years ago. Hispanics are the new Germans, the new Irish, the new Italians. But it's also ugly. It was then. It is now. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist. Read his column here. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette shares what Hispanic readers are saying to him .\nHe lists 10 things he says they find ugly about the immigration debate .\nHypocrisy, racism are two items they find distasteful, columnist says .","id":"25b7adf8bfe43c2953a874b18c7766370158638a"} -{"article":"BASEL, Switzerland -- Turkey suffered a blow when Emre Belozoglu was ruled out of Wednesday's critical Group A clash against Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland after tearing a hamstring in training. Emre misses Turkey's critical Group A clash against Switzerland after tearing a hamstring in training. \"Unfortunately, Emre is not going to play tomorrow,\" said Turkey coach Fatih Terim ahead of the game at Basel's St Jakob-Park Stadium. \"He had an MRI and results have shown that there's an edema of two to three centimetres. \"Not having Emre is a problem for us because his role is not that simple to cover by another player. But then again Switzerland will not have their injured captain Alexander Frei.\" Turkey will be sweating on the return of defensive duo Servet Cetin and Gokhan Zan, who will be given until the last minute to prove their fitness. \"They have both had a hard time but they are really devoted to the team,\" said Terim. \"We will make a decision on whether they will play tomorrow.\" Terim, whose side lost 2-0 against Portugal in their opening game, remains confident that his team can still qualify from the group stage. \"Everyone is aware of how important this game is,\" he said. \"We are confident in ourselves and I believe we will succeed in this tournament. For us, the game against Portugal wasn't the key but this one is. \"Of course, every team wants to begin a competition with a win but it didn't happen but that doesn't mean that we can't do well. In Euro 2004, we started with a defeat and then we did well.\" Failure is not an option for Switzerland coach Kobi Kuhn, either. \"You never consider the possibility of a defeat,\" he said. \"We are aware that if we lost tomorrow, then the tournament for us would be reduced to just one game, against Portugal. \"We have a young team that has a future but we are going to win tomorrow.\" Kuhn, whose side lost 1-0 to the Czech Republic in their first encounter, knows his men will face tough opposition, though. \"Turkey are 12th in the world ranking and we are quite a bit away from there,\" he said. \"But you can see that this is a strong team on its merits. We will have to fight hard to beat them.\" The last time both teams met was in a qualifying play-off for the 2006 World Cup, when Switzerland prevailed on away goals. The game was, however, marred by violent incidents involving players from both sides following the final whistle although Kuhn believes any ill feeling has passed. \"This issue is almost three years old now and as in everyday life football evolves very quickly,\" he said. \"This thing is over and done with.\" Switzerland will have all their players available with the exception of Frei, who has been ruled out for the tournament having sustained a knee injury in his team's opener. \"Frei cannot play,\" said Kuhn. \"But he is very important for us and he will remain with the team as he is such a big support for us.\"","highlights":"Midfielder Emre misses Turkey's Group A tie against co-hosts Switzerland .\nTurkey sweating on the return of defensive duo Servet Cetin and Gokhan Zan .\nSwiss captain Alexander Frei ruled out of rest of tournament with knee injury .","id":"771c125e3b0c54f1c3367b2857f15d689f081163"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One suspect has been charged and police are hunting for another in connection with the killing of University of North Carolina student Eve Carson, police said Wednesday. Demario James Atwater, 21, was arrested early Wednesday at a residence in Durham, North Carolina. Authorities were watching the home after receiving a tip that Atwater was inside. He was charged with first-degree murder in Carson's death. Atwater is believed to be the man in a convenience-store photograph released by police. A second suspect, Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr., 17, is being sought in Carson's death, police said. He also faces a first-degree murder charge. Lovett could be armed and dangerous, police told CNN affiliate WRAL. Police believe Lovett was the man seen in a surveillance-camera photo possibly using Carson's card at an ATM, Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said. The pictures showed a young man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap. There also appeared to be a large, shadowy form of another person in the back seat of the vehicle, which may have been Carson's SUV. Police believe Atwater was in the back seat, Curran said. He would not comment on whether physical evidence links the two suspects to the crime. Atwater was taken to a hospital as part of the evidence collection process, he said, and brought back to make an initial court appearance. \"As encouraging as the developments today are, we are still a community in grief,\" Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy told reporters at a news conference announcing the arrest. \"We also still must offer comfort to a family in mourning, Eve's family.\" Carson, 22, was found shot to death about 5 a.m. March 5. The medical examiner told police that her body showed no signs of sexual assault or other injury, Curran said. Carson's killing \"feels like a random crime,\" Curran said Saturday. On Sunday, more than 1,000 people crowded the First United Methodist Church in Carson's hometown of Athens, Georgia, for her funeral, the Athens Banner-Herald reported. The UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees had pledged $25,000 to the Crime Stoppers program in the area for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible in Carson's slaying. Carson was a student member of the board and student body president. The young woman was a pre-medicine student who was double majoring in political science and biology. She received the university's prestigious Morehead Scholarship and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, according to UNC. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Demario James Atwater, 21, charged with first-degree murder .\nPolice are also seeking Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr., 17 .\nEve Carson was the popular student body president at the university .\nPolice had released photos of person using victim's ATM card .","id":"4ad70f84c363e5b594da00983e2b40600f12ca54"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ohio congressman David Hobson is the latest Republican to announce his exit from the House of Representatives, telling constituents Sunday he would step down in 2008 after nine terms. Rep. David Hobson, shown in February, was the lone Republican on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's Mideast trip this year. Hobson, 71, is a senior member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Pentagon. He has represented his district, which includes parts of the Dayton and Columbus areas, since 1991. His fellow Ohio Republican, House Minority Leader John Boehner, praised his \"effective leadership and dry wit\" in a statement issued Sunday evening. \"During the remainder of his term, I am certain that Dave will continue to represent his constituents with the same energy and dedication that have been the trademarks of his tenure in the U.S. House,\" Boehner said. \"I look forward to continuing our close work over these next 14 months, and when the 111th Congress begins, I'll be eager to work beside a new Republican from Ohio's 7th District.\" Hobson is the 12th GOP House member to announce retirement ahead of the 2008 elections, when the Republican Party will be seeking to reclaim the congressional majorities it lost to Democrats in 2006. Another Republican representative, New Mexico's Heather Wilson, has said she will run for the Senate seat being given up by Sen. Pete Domenici -- one of five Republicans retiring from the Senate in 2008 rather than seeking a new term. \"Ohio's 7th Congressional District is a strong Republican seat that will continue to elect candidates that fight to keep taxes low, the economy strong and the nation secure,\" said Rep. Tom Cole, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. \"We will be working with local activists and party leaders to send a candidate that fights for those same values back to Congress in 2008.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jessica Yellin and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rep. David Hobson tells constituents he will step down in 2008 after nine terms .\nHobson is a senior member of a House Appropriations defense subcommittee .\nGOP will be seeking to reclaim the congressional majorities it lost in 2006 .","id":"cbb5654e979eb27e0af71068cd4e4e5191df35ee"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The man whose investigation of President Clinton provided reams of tabloid fodder is now working to help crack down on photographers working for the very publications his efforts once filled. Photographers surround singer Britney Spears' car in Los Angeles, California, in October. Kenneth Starr -- the independent counsel whose open-ended investigation of a Clinton land deal veered into an intimately detailed report on the president's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky -- is helping California lawmakers craft laws to crack down on celebrity-hunting packs of paparazzi. Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich contacted Starr, now a law school dean at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Local governments in Los Angeles and West Hollywood are also part of the effort to curb what they call a dangerous and expensive problem. \"Just imagine you're a motorist driving down the street and Britney Spears parks next to you; all of a sudden you're swarmed by these people,\" Los Angeles city Councilman Dennis Zine said. \"They've got cameras; they're jumping on the hood of my car. \"You don't know if you're getting carjacked. You don't know what's happening.\" The idea of a \"safe zone\" around celebrities has been kicked around by L.A.-area lawmakers for years. The push became more intense in the wake of multiple mob scenes around pop star Spears last year, including a virtual siege of her Studio City, California, home and similar scenes during her trips to hospitals. Starr has been in contact with the officials but is \"not ready to publicly comment\" on any plan he may have, according to a Pepperdine spokesperson. Lawmakers have set no timetable for when they'd like to have laws drafted. Police Chief William J. Bratton has argued that there's no need for new laws to deal with the problem. But Zine and others argue that police resources are stretched thin by the current state of things, citing $25,000 shelled out last year for a police escort for Spears. To some, Starr -- the man vilified by liberals for a lengthy and costly Clinton investigation that turned up Clinton's personal foibles but no major wrongdoing in the Whitewater land deals -- seems an odd partner for politicians in the notoriously left-leaning Los Angeles area. \"The irony is that he was so criticized, so vilified by Hollywood liberals 10 years ago during the Monica Lewinsky impeachment saga,\" said David Mark, a senior editor at Politico. \"Now he's kind of aligned himself with a lot of Malibu residents who probably disagree with him politically.\" But Zine, who has been a prime backer of laws curbing the \"Pap Packs,\" said Starr's expertise will be valuable as lawmakers try to strike a balance between public safety and First Amendment freedom of the press concerns. \"I have a lot of respect for Ken Starr,\" Zine said. \"We don't want to violate any rules. We don't want to violate the Constitution. \"We believe that the Constitution needs to be upheld [but] at the same time, we need to protect our celebrities.\" CNN's Carol Costello contributed to this report.","highlights":"Southern California governments band together to fight celebrity chasers .\nMalibu mayor asked for former independent counsel's help drafting law .\nLos Angeles police chief says no new laws are needed .\nSome officials say situation is stretching police resources thin .","id":"bde6b7e505c05a15a9afe44739e7f016ce169735"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Responding to recent accidents linked to pilot fatigue, federal safety officials hope reduce airline pilots' logging 14-hour days. The FAA currently allows pilots to log 14-hour workdays, which the NTSB says contributes to accidents. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a report out Tuesday that pilot fatigue was a probable cause in a runway landing accident during bad weather in Michigan last winter. There were no fatalities. The Federal Aviation Administration currently allows a 14-hour workday with eight hours of logged airtime. \"It's a critical issue; it's an insidious issue. Many times, the pilots themselves don't even recognize that they are fatigued when they get into that cockpit,\" NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said. And Rosenker made the same points about air traffic controllers more than a year ago, in April 2007. In a letter to the FAA, Rosenker said that four other plane incidents \"provide clear and compelling evidence\" that controllers are sometimes operating while fatigued because of their work schedules and poor use of rest periods. \"That fatigue has contributed to controller errors,\" Rosenker wrote in 2007. \"Fourteen hours is still a very long day,\" NTSB board member Debbie Hersman said. Her conclusion is backed by 40 years of airline accident statistics compiled by the FAA and cited Tuesday at an NTSB hearing. \"After a duty period of about 10 to 12 hours, the number of observed accidents increased exponentially,\" NTSB staff member Malcolm Brenner said. In February, the cockpit crew of a passenger plane operated by Mesa Airlines failed to answer air traffic controllers for 18 minutes, missed the flight's destination in Hawaii and continued for another 15 miles at 21,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. The investigation has shown that \"both pilots unintentionally fell asleep during cruise flight,\" NTSB staff member Jena Price said during a presentation to the safety board. The crew of Go! Flight 1002 eventually answered concerned calls on the radio from ground controllers, turned around and safely landed. The NTSB report called for analysis of sleep quantity, sleep quality, performance, errors and incidents traced to schedules that disrupt sleep patterns, perhaps while stretching workloads to the maximum allowed. \"They cannot just keep pushing pilots until they drop,\" said the head of the Air Line Pilots Association, Rory Kay. He said during a break in the NTSB hearing that \"pilot pushing\" is an issue. \"We are in tough economic times, we're being asked to do more with less, and we have to support the pilot when he makes the determination that it's time to call it quits,\" he said. After reviewing some possible remedies against fatigue in the cockpit, board members unanimously approved the proposal to the FAA, which would be responsible for developing guidance for the airlines to carry out. The FAA plans to hold a symposium on fatigue management next week with representatives from the aviation industry. \"I want the FAA to have a complete overhaul of the flight time\/duty time regulations\" that presently allow a 14-hour day with eight hours of flight time, Kay said.","highlights":"Federal Aviation Administration currently allows pilots to work a 14-hour day .\nNTSB said pilot fatigue has contributed to plane crashes and near-crashes .\n\"They can't just keep pushing pilots until they drop,\" pilots group president said .\nFAA plans to hold a symposium on fatigue management next week .","id":"abc4744227c6bf0ddbf64cac2269bd4c6d02938b"} -{"article":"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) -- President Bush told the 2008 graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Wednesday that the \"only way America could lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves.\" President Bush and Air Force Academy graduate Michael Riddick of Aiken, South Carolina, celebrate graduation. Speaking on a cloudy day at Falcon Stadium, the president compared the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to America's earlier conflicts, particularly World War II. \"Our nation is once again contending with an ideology that seeks to sow anger, hatred and despair: the ideology of Islamic extremism,\" he said. \"In today's struggle, we are once again facing evil men who despise freedom and despise America and aim to subject millions to their violent rule. \"We assumed this obligation before,\" he said, referring to the rebuilding of Germany and Japan after World War II, a conflict that saw the loss of more than 400,000 American lives. Watch more of Bush's speech \u00bb . \"Germany and Japan, once mortal enemies, are now allies of the United States. And people across the world have reaped the benefits from that alliance,\" he said. \"Today, we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq. ... We'll lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.\" But today's wars differ from those of the past, Bush acknowledged, and not only because of modern technology that allows \"greater precision\" in warfare. \"One challenge is that in the past, in Germany and Japan, the work of rebuilding took place in relative quiet,\" he said. \"Today, we're helping emerging democracies rebuild under fire from terrorist networks and state sponsors of terror. This is a difficult and unprecedented task -- and we're learning as we go.\" The measure of success in war has changed, he said. \"In the past ... there were public surrenders, a signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship, victory parades in American cities. Today, when the war continues after the regime has fallen, the definition of success is more complicated.\" Nonetheless, he said, in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a clear definition of success: when those countries are rid of al Qaeda, when they are economically viable, when they are democracies that can govern effectively and when they are strong allies on the war on terror. \"These successes will come,\" he told the class. \"And when they do, our nation will have achieved victory, and the American people will be more secure. \"","highlights":"President Bush speaks at U.S. Air Force Academy graduation Wednesday .\nBush: \"Only way America could lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves\"\nHe compares the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to America's earlier conflicts .\nSuccesses in Iraq and Afghanistan \"will come,\" he told the class .","id":"f7e5e75031e9f099564ed046bd822ef1bedb3188"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's economy is booming and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's visit there this week highlights the U.A.E.'s ambitions to join in on this growth. CNN's John Defterios (JD) sits down with Shaukat Aziz (SA), former Prime Minister to Pakistan to talk about the emerging relationship. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz . Aziz is an expert in global banking who worked in the Middle East for a number of years as an official for Citigroup. He was an influential player in the process of creating a free trade agreement between Pakistan and China, after visiting the country in 2005. Shaukat Aziz talks about the growing ties between China and the Middle East, and gives us inside knowledge on doing business in China. (SA): I think the two economies are complementary. China is a global economy which is growing rapidly. It has one of the highest growth rates in the world, and it is expanding its footprint all over the world. Dubai and the U.A.E. is clearly a hub for South Asia, the Middle East, and the whole region. They are a trading center, they are a financial center, and they don't compete directly with China, in fact both economies will compliment each other. I think the U.A.E. Prime Minister's trip will help to further reinforce this and get the two countries closer together, in trade, in financial flows, in linking capital markets and many other initiatives. (JD): Trade has been growing 30 to 40 percent over the last four years. But can it move beyond hard Chinese goods going into the Gulf? (SA): Of course it can. I think the nature of Dubai is such that it has now become the clearing house for goods from all over the world. And buyers go to Dubai and look for the best product at the best price. So, if China, being a large country, can bring its products to Dubai, it will help both countries. May I also say that I see China evolving as an exporter of capital, not just goods because China is running huge surpluses. Their reserves are at an all time high. So they are looking for investments too, and you see now a trend in Chinese companies to buy companies overseas. A trend in Chinese companies to invest overseas because they want, once they go global, they want production facilities all over the world. So the design and the research and development will be done in China, the components will come from China, but the manufacturing could move across the world. This trend is already started and I think this will all go well for both countries. (JD): Lets take it a step further. Do you see Chinese investment funds or Sovereign Funds and U.A.E. sovereign funds going out together to acquire companies in the near future? (SA): Sure, there have been situations where both have participated in different companies. (JD): But separately. (SA): Separately, but I think they could join too. But the real issue on sovereign funds is being represented in certain quarters as if this is something which is unhelpful to the global economy. In my view, in an era of globalization we must open up our markets for investments and let anybody come along in line with the rules of that country. May I say that the sovereignty of any country is a very robust concept. And if a foreign sovereign fund or investor comes along and buys a bank in a particular country, the countries sovereignty is never jeopardized. But, if you have good regulators and good policies, because even in a deregulated environment, regulation is necessary. Deregulation does not mean abdication by the government, so if your regulatory regime is sound, you don't have to worry. Sovereign funds have demonstrated that they have helped promote economic activity, help save certain companies, banks as a case in point. And it's a win-win for both sides. So I think this question of their role is over stated. (JD): Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah went to visit China when he came into power in early 2006. Is itinevitable that U.S.-European Allies in the Gulf turn to the East now and look for new partnerships in an East-East equation? (SA): This is the fastest growing economy in the world. It is absorbing foreign investment, it is exporting investment. It is the largest producer of goods and services now, in terms of growth rate. So Saudi Arabia, naturally, the largest economy in the Middle East by a long margin, needs to link up a country like China. I think it is not geo-politics which is driving it. It is economic necessity. It is tapping into growth. Saudi companies are investing in China. I know that in the energy sector Aramco has gone in for joint ventures and maybe SABIC too, and that is to me a very positive development. Because it is showing that capital looks for opportunities and if there is return China is not far enough. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Shaukat Aziz, former Pakistani Prime Minister talks with John Defterios .\nAziz sees compatibility between Middle Eastern and Chinese economies .\nChinese surpluses may allow exporting of capital for overseas manufacturing .\nAziz believes regulated foreign investment does not put sovereignty at risk .","id":"9a8ee7eb582f293c617eecab5f37374d9400bb04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bangladesh police have detained or arrested more than 18,000 people in the last 11 days in a crackdown on crime they say is aimed at improving security ahead of December elections. People arrested by Bangladesh police in their latest round-up arrive at a jail in Dhaka. Human rights groups decry the actions as politically motivated. The round-ups began May 28, days after the two main political parties said they would not cooperate with the military-backed caretaker government on organizing the elections. Police told CNN that by Saturday 16,916 arrests had been made, while local media reported another 1,548 were arrested Sunday. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said hundreds of their party members had been taken into custody. \"The timing and targets of the arrests are a dead giveaway they are politically motivated,\" Brad Adams of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement. \"It's obvious that they are paying the price for the political parties' refusal to accept the government's conditions to participate in the elections.\" The government rejects the allegations. The detentions, it said, are part of a planned sweep to rid the country of criminals. \"Our IGP [Inspector General of Police, or chief of police] categorically said this special drive was being conducted to create a congenial atmosphere before the general election,\" said Kamrul Ahsan, a spokesman for Bangladesh Police. \"It is not politically motivated,\" he said. \"The intention is not to harass anybody politically.\" The crackdown began after the Awami League and the BNP said they would not cooperate with the government to develop a roadmap toward democracy unless it first releases the parties' leaders. The two women who head the parties -- Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the BNP -- are in police custody on corruption-related charges. Hasina is charged with bribe-taking. Zia is being held on charges of graft for improperly awarding a multi-million dollar government contract. The current political crisis in the Muslim-majority South Asian country of 150 million can be traced, in large part, to the lingering animosity between the two women, political observers say. Their rivalry runs so deep that the women are known in the country as the \"Battling Begums.\" Begum is an honorific given to women of rank in the country. Since the country's independence in 1972, the Awami League or the BNP has ruled Bangladesh for all but eight years. Both women have served as prime minister at one point or another. After its last stint in power ended in 2006, the BNP handed over rule to a caretaker government to conduct elections, as mandated by the country's constitution. But the Awami League refused to recognize the neutrality of the interim government. Hasina accused Zia of stocking it with BNP backers. Supporters and party members took to the streets in months of deadly clashes. To stem the tide of violence, a military-backed government took control in January 2007 and imposed an indefinite state of emergency. It also postponed elections until it said it could clean up the country's graft-ridden politics. The caretaker government adopted the Emergency Powers Rules. The rules allowed authorities to arrest people without a warrant as long as there was reasonable suspicion that he or she was connected to a crime, Human Rights Watch said. A wave of detentions followed. By some estimates more than 90,000 people were detained before some were released and others charged with crimes. Among those arrested were more than 150 top politicians, including Hasina and Zia -- leading to the current political stalemate. The government wants to hold elections in the third week of December, and said the crusade on crime is part of its plan to ensure trouble-free balloting. The political parties allege the arrests are intended to pave the way for the election of pro-government candidates. They want their leaders set free before they sit down and talk with the government about a roadmap toward a successful election. They also threatened to organize mass movements to secure their leaders' release. \"It's kind of an impasse,\" said Taleya Rehman, founder and executive director of the Bangladesh-based non-profit Democracy Watch. \"The government is conducting political dialogue with small parties. But they are of no significance. They need the two major parties.\" On Monday, the government announced it was releasing Hasina from custody on medical grounds so she can go abroad for treatment. A similar release for Zia was also expected. Party members say the government's move is a ploy to sideline the pair from the elections by sending them out of the country. Hasina has a damaged ear resulting from a bombing attack that targeted her four years ago. Zia is believed to have arthritis. Meanwhile, the detentions continue -- almost 1,800 a day. In addition to political party members, the crackdown has also swept up several journalists. \"That actually makes the arrests suspicious in some people's minds,\" said Sultana Kamal, executive director of the legal aid group, Ain o Salish Kendro (Law and Adjudication Center). \"If you just arrest any Tom, Dick and Harry saying this person may have arms, then people will legitimately raise questions about the mode of the whole operation.\"","highlights":"Bangladesh police have detained or arrested 18,000 people in 11 days .\nHuman rights groups decry the actions as politically motivated .\nRound-ups began after parties refused to cooperate with military government .","id":"a745e5a95be983cde00f3d472062c0627db3113c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World No. 3 Maria Sharapova has blasted the ruling body of women's tennis over its demands for top players ahead of this month's Italian Open in Rome. Maria Sharpova is furious after being threatened with a $300,000 fine by the WTA. The Australian Open champion is furious after being threatened with a $300,000 fine if she does not participate in a publicity event before the Tier 1 tournament. \"I want all my fans to know that the WTA Tour is forcing me and several of the other top players to do a four-hour commercial shoot for WTA Tour marketing materials,\" Sharapova told her Web site. \"They want me to do this shoot on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday of the Rome tournament after flying 12 hours from Los Angeles. \"I have set my own personal rules when it comes to doing shoots and I never do shoots before tournaments because they are mentally draining and I want to just focus on my tennis. \"Now the WTA is telling me if I don't do this shoot they will fine me over $300,000. As you can see the WTA Tour loves to fine players. \"To be honest, I would love to do this and help promote the tour as much as possible, but to force me to do this shoot the day before a Tier 1 tournament is just not right.\" The 21-year-old will be returning to action in the event starting May 12 after skipping Russia's Fed Cup semifinal against the United States last weekend. She was beaten by Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston in her last outing two weeks ago. Sharapova also made a statement explaining her absence from the German Open in Berlin starting on May 5. \"The WTA Tour makes many players enter tournaments that they know the players will not be playing,\" she told her Web site. \"I informed the WTA several months ago that if I played Charleston, I would have to pull out of Berlin. \"Now they are forcing me to give an injury for the reason why I am pulling out or they will give me an additional fine on top of the $125,000 fine already given me. I am a very giving person but I refuse to give any more of my money to the WTA Tour. \"So I want everyone to know that apart from getting sick the past few days, I am healthy and I am looking forward to playing Rome.\" Meanwhile, top seed Vera Zvonareva has reached the final of the Czech Open in Prague, beating Slovenian fourth seed Katarina Srebotnik 6-2 6-4 on Saturday. The Russian will next play either third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or seventh-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova as she seeks to clinch her first title this season on Sunday. In Morocco, second seed Gisela Dulko of Argentina reached Sunday's final of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem after beating French fourth seed Aravane Rezai 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 in Fez. Top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain will face Greta Arn of Hungary in Saturday's other semifinal. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"World No. 3 Maria Sharapova unhappy with ruling body's publicity demands .\nWTA wants top players to participate in four-hour photo shoot before Italian Open .\nRussian says she was threatened with $300,000 fine if she does not take part .\nThe Rome top-tier tournament begins on May 12 .","id":"698cdb1268d4da1240d7f540bd4a5af4e229d00f"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine accused of raping a 19-year-old Japanese woman last year was found guilty Thursday of \"committing wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts,\" the U.S. military said, but he was acquitted of rape. The sentencing hearing for Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean, 20, is scheduled to begin on Friday. Dean is among four Marines under court-martial in the case. The others are Sgt. Lanaeus J. Braswell, 25; Gunnery Sgt. Carl M. Anderson, 39; and Gunnery Sgt. Jarvis D. Raynor, 34, the military said. Local media reported that the four men met the woman in a restaurant in Hiroshima on October 14, 2007, then allegedly attacked and raped her in a car in nearby parking lot. Japanese authorities investigated but decided in November not to file charges. Dean also was found guilty of conspiracy to commit indecent acts and two minor charges. He was acquitted of conspiracy to kidnap or rape. The case is similar to a recent alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl involving a U.S. Marine on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. That case sparked outrage and stirred memories of an earlier rape committed by U.S. servicemen. Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, was charged last month with the rape of a child under 16, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping, the military said. In February, Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl dropped the allegations, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation to see if Hadnott violated codes of military justice. The military is holding him at a Marine facility. More than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, most of them on Okinawa, which accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's total area. The U.S. military presence has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiment boiled over in 1995, after three American servicemen were convicted in the kidnapping and gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women.","highlights":"Sentencing to begin Friday for Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean .\nDean is among four U.S. Marines charged in alleged gang assault of teenager .\nCharged Marines range in age from 20 to 39 .\nU.S. military has bred resentment among locals .","id":"708c903fbf6a7c3c84f84ff34496eb0cb51f44e4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The remnants of Tropical Storm Erin turned central Oklahoma into a wash basin Sunday, with rescuers on helicopters plucking people from flood waters and rooftops and ferrying them to safety. A flood victim hangs precariously during a rescue flight Sunday. Two people died and at least two others were hurt, said Michelann Ooten, a spokesman for the state's emergency operations center in Oklahoma City. A middle-aged man who had stopped to help another person wound up drowning in his vehicle near Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and an elderly woman in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, who had sought protection in her storm cellar drowned there, Ooten said. The injuries occurred when either straight-line winds or a tornado destroyed a house in Watonga, she said. \"I'm certain there are many more injured,\" she said. \"This is all courtesy Erin, the new four-letter word,\" she said. Officials were searching for three other people who had been traveling together near Carnegie, Oklahoma, and were reported missing, she said. In Kingfisher, Oklahoma, the storm dropped five to 11 inches of rain in a short period of time, causing Kingfisher Creek to rise 25 feet and overflow its banks, said Capt. Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. \"It's the highest it's ever been,\" West said. \"There's about 200 to 300 people that are displaced out of their homes.\" By 6 p.m. floodwaters in Kingfisher had begun to subside, but the storm system had not yet exited the state, Ooten said. Flood warnings were issued until midnight for parts of eastern Oklahoma, she said. The helicopter rescue operation got under way Sunday morning, after authorities got a call alerting them that a pickup truck containing two passengers had been swept from a bridge over Kingfisher Creek, West said. First, a helicopter dropped life vests to the couple, whose pickup truck was nearly obscured by the water. Soon afterward, their truck was simply swept away, and the pair were left to fend for themselves in the water until the rescue helicopter approached. First, a rescuer grabbed the woman and pulled her toward the skid on which he was positioned. For a few seconds, she held on as the helicopter rose, but lost her grip and fell back into the water. The helicopter circled back for a second effort, which this time proved successful. The drama from the town of about 14,000 residents 35 miles northwest of Oklahoma City unfolded live on national television. \"When the lady fell, I was kind of surprised, I hated to see that,\" said West, who watched the rescue on television. \"We were able to get back around, get her picked up.\" Like his partner, the man also fell, was picked up again and taken to safety. The rescue work then focused on removing people stranded atop the roofs of vehicles and buildings. Time and again, the pilots positioned their helicopters inches above choppy water as rescuers helped men and women grab the skids. Residents of nearby Apache, Oklahoma, faced similar floods, which caught most people off guard, said Lt. Bobby Claborne of the Apache Fire Department. \"We never thought we'd have a tropical storm in our area,\" he said. No evacuation plans were initiated until early Sunday, \"but it was a little late\" by then, he said. For several hours, thousands of people were without power in El Reno, which had been inundated by more than six inches of rain in just a few hours. And some vehicles were trapped on Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma, said Capt. Ken Brown, the state police operations commander in El Reno. \"Two different semis were overcome by water and required fire rescue to get the drivers from their vehicles,\" he said. Boats and other watercraft were enlisted in the rescue effort. West said the flooded areas have sustained extensive damage -- \"not only to homes and businesses and automobiles, but to these agricultural areas.\" \"We have a lot of roadways that will be damaged from this,\" he said. \"There's going to be a lot of debris that floated in. And you know, road crews are going to have to get out and clear those.\" Meanwhile, floods around the upper Midwest washed away roads and bridges, killing four people,The Associated Press reported. Floods killed two in Minnesota when their car drove off the road and they could not escape their vehicle. In Vernon County, Wisconsin, a mudslide was triggered by a foot of rain, the AP said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rains destroying homes and stranding people in Oklahoma .\nDramatic helicopter rescues caught on tape .\nOfficials were searching for three other people who are missing .\nErin is \"the new four-letter word\" in Oklahoma, said emergency official .","id":"26a1bafbde5cc970d5aee024dc8ef418587018a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A college student who survived a boat sinking with four others said Monday that a safety officer who died on their boat was a hero for staying behind and pushing him out. Texas A&M student Steven Guy, left, and instructor Steve Conway talk about their boat capsizing. Steven Guy, a Texas A&M University sailor, said Roger Stone saved him and another sailor by helping them to safety. \"He is my hero,\" Guy said. \"He saved me. If it wasn't for him, I would not be here.\" The group never saw Stone after he pushed the two men out of a hatch in the boat, the mariners said. Stone, the boat's second safety officer, was found dead by the Coast Guard on Sunday afternoon. The two men said they spent a day in open water after their vessel sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The survivors -- four university students and a safety officer -- told the Coast Guard they were forced off their sailboat after it took on water and capsized early Saturday. The five survivors were found and airlifted to land around 2 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard said. The group had to get out of the rapidly sinking sailboat so quickly, they could get only four safety vests for five people, safety officer Steve Conway said Monday. They had to huddle in the water to keep each other afloat, he said. Watch the rescue and see Conway describe the ordeal \u00bb . \"With five people and four life jackets, we had to watch the person without the life jacket closely,\" he said. \"These young men did a tremendous job. They pulled themselves through. They had a fierce will to live.\" R. Bowen Loftin, CEO and vice president of Texas A&M at Galveston, expressed condolences to the Stone family in a letter posted along with status updates on the school's Web site. \"We hope they can take some comfort in knowing all five survivors of this tragic accident credit Mr. Stone with heroic efforts that were instrumental in making possible their survival,\" Loftin said on the site. \"We now know that Roger Stone died a hero in the classic sense of the word.\" Conway said that as the group huddled in the water, they saw rescue jets go by three times before they were spotted. \"It is really discouraging when a plane comes out and flies over and leaves,\" he said. Coast Guard Lt. Justo Rivera, who was flying the aircraft that rescued the men, told CNN affiliate KHOU that a flashlight helped save them. While conducting search patterns, Coast Guard members spotted the light through their night vision goggles, Rivera said. It was being held by one of the men. He said that because the Coast Guard was searching such a vast area, the flashlight was \"instrumental\" in the rescue. \"It's your proverbial needle in a haystack,\" Rivera told KHOU. During the 26-hour wait, the group was nibbled by curious reed fish and circled by a fish with triangular fin that extended from the water like a shark's fin. \"They bumped up against us and kind of nibbled on our clothes,\" Conway said. \"You don't know how big the thing is and how hungry it is. I was always aware of the risk of sharks.\" The group's sailboat, named the Cynthia Woods, was one of about two dozen boats heading from Galveston, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, for the annual Veracruz Regatta race, which began Friday.","highlights":"Sailors say Roger Stone stayed behind to get others to safety .\nThe five survivors were found and airlifted to land around 2 a.m. Sunday .\nSafety officer Steve Conway: Sailors all \"had a fierce will to live\"","id":"6832312991fe5d87d0e300374ec7a699a921f06a"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- The legend of Jack Daniel reaches all the way back to the moment he was born. Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly when that was. Jack Daniel believed the more memorable his image, the more memorable his whiskey. Some records show that Jasper Newton \"Jack\" Daniel came into the world on September 5, 1846. His tombstone, however, says 1850. Strange, because his mother died in 1847. All of this might not normally matter, but Jack's birth date is important to his overall legend, which proudly proclaims him \"the boy distiller.\" So perhaps it's best we begin when Jack was first introduced to whiskey, which we know was early in life. Leaving home at a young age, Jack struck out on his own with nothing more than a handful of items valued at $9. He ended up at the home of Dan Call, a preacher at a nearby Lutheran church and the owner of a general store. There, Reverend Call also happened to sell whiskey that he distilled himself. Jack quickly became determined to learn the craft. In fact, many storytellers claim the boy wonder bought the still from Call and began pursuing the business full-time at the ripe age of 16. If that legend is true, then Jack began selling his own Tennessee whiskey only three years later; the famous black labels on the company bottles proudly pronounce, \"Established and Registered in 1866.\" In reality, no documents support that myth. Jack may have been a teenage moonshiner, but he didn't register his business with the federal government until 1875. And by then, Jack would have been the more booze-appropriate age of 29. The maker makes his mark . Whatever legends exist, one thing is certain: Jack Daniel had a brilliant mind for marketing. Even as a youngster, Jack understood that if people remembered him, they would remember his whiskey. To that end, he decked himself out in a formal knee-length coat, a vest, a tie, and a wide-brim planter's hat, and was never caught out of \"uniform\" again. Jack also established the Jack Daniel's Silver Cornet Band -- a 10-member outfit solely devoted to promoting his whiskey across the countryside. With uniforms and instruments from the Sears & Roebuck catalog and a specially designed wagon for traveling, Jack made sure the band played every saloon opening, Fourth of July celebration, and political rally around. But perhaps Jack's most brilliant decision concerned how to present his whiskey. From the beginning, Jack had been one of the first sellers to stencil his distillery name on his whiskey jugs. Next, he upgraded to round, custom-embossed bottles. But when a glass salesman showed him a prototype square bottle in 1895, Jack realized he'd stumbled upon something unique. The new bottles not only stood out from the crowd, but also had a shape that would prevent them from rolling around and breaking during transport. In addition, the square look reinforced the idea that Jack was a square dealer who put honest work and high standards first. Whatever effort Jack Daniel put into his marketing, he never let quality slip. In 1904, the distiller decided on a whim to enter his whiskey in the taste competition at the St. Louis World's Fair. It came as little surprise when he won. Lucky No. 7 . Perhaps Jack's greatest coup was the name he gave his high-quality product -- Old No. 7. Naturally, nobody seems to know why. The official historian at the Jack Daniel Distillery today says it's the most oft-asked question on factory tours. As you might imagine, many theories have been advanced. Jack had seven girlfriends. Jack believed the number seven was lucky. Jack was honoring a merchant friend who owned seven stores that distributed Jack's liquor. Jack misplaced a batch of whiskey for seven years and, upon finding it, labeled it \"Old No. 7.\" None of these stories, however, makes as much sense as the less-than-sexy explanation from Jack Daniel biographer Peter Krass. Simply put, Jack was originally assigned a district tax assessment number of 7. But when the IRS consolidated districts within Tennessee, they arbitrarily reassigned him the number 16. Jack didn't want to confuse his loyal consumers, and he certainly didn't want to bend to the government, so he began labeling his bottles \"Old No. 7.\" More than 125 years later, this act of defiance still makes his labels stand out. Jack without Jill . Jack Daniel never married. Some say it's because he was married to his work; others say it's because he never found a girl who measured up to his high standards. Or perhaps it's just that he was too busy catering to the greater Lynchburg population -- throwing elaborate Christmas feasts, hosting exquisite costume parties in his second-story ballroom, and donating money to every church in Moore County. But by all accounts, Jack was quite a ladies' man. He was a perfect dance partner, a polite conversationalist, and a fantastic gift-giver. Unfortunately, he also gravitated toward girls young enough to be his daughter (or even granddaughter). Once, Jack even asked for a woman's hand in marriage, but her father denied him -- partly because Jack enjoyed keeping his own legend alive and always hesitated to reveal his true birth date. When Jack proposed, her father made it clear that any man unwilling to disclose his age was \"a little too old for such a young girl.\" The early bird gets the gangrene . Hard as it might be to believe, in the end, the great distiller actually died from getting to work too early. As the story goes, one morning in 1906, Jack arrived at his office before anybody else. He tried to access the company safe, but had a terrible time remembering the code. After a few frustrating minutes, he kicked the safe as hard as he could. He badly bruised his left foot and immediately began to walk with a limp. The limp only grew worse with time, and he later discovered the injury had led to blood poisoning. Then came gangrene, then amputation, and then, five years later, death. It's not the happiest ending for the story, or the clearest cut, but it is the best, because it adds to the mystery and mystique of Jack Daniel. As they say, where facts cannot be found, legends fill the empty space and that's perfectly fine for the keepers of the company flame. After all, as Jack himself believed, the more memorable his image, the more memorable his whiskey. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"To this day, nobody knows exactly when Jack Daniel was born .\nDaniel's \"uniform\": formal knee-length coat, vest, tie, and a wide-brim planter's hat .\nOrigin of \"No. 7\": Daniel was assigned a district tax assessment number of 7 .\nDaniel died from complications of gangrene from an injury to his foot .","id":"9c5d5d672c2549a594b801897a27dde1492e11d5"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The search is back on for words to the Spanish national anthem. Spain's basketball team: Able to hum the national anthem, but not sing words. The lack of lyrics in Spain's anthem has long created awkward moments for winning Spanish athletes at the Olympics. They stand on the podium silently or hum along while winning athletes from other nations sing when their anthem is played during their moment of triumph. With the summer Olympic Games fast-approaching, the Spanish Olympic Committee stirred the lyric-writing impulses of Spaniards by sponsoring a competition to provide words for the anthem. The contest drew 7,000 entries, and an expert panel selected a winner. The committee announced plans for renowned Spanish tenor Placido Domingo to sing the lyrics on Monday. Then, suddenly, the committee discarded the winning lyrics. \"Once Spaniards heard these lyrics, they sparked a lot of controversy, even rejection,\" Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, told a packed news conference this week. The now-discarded winning lyrics had begun with, \"Viva Espana,\" or \"long-live Spain,\" and critics complained that phrase harkened back to the right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who led a military uprising in 1936 against the elected government and won a Civil War, ruling Spain until his death in 1975. \"You have to consider that many Spaniards don't consider the national anthem as their own. It was played a lot under Franco,\" said Margarita Saenz-Diez, a journalist. Spain is now a democracy, but many still bristle at the military march that's served for more than two centuries as the national anthem. Spain is made up of many different peoples, and five languages are spoken across the country. The Catalans in the northeast and the Basques in the north already have their own national songs with lyrics. Getting agreement on any lyrics to the national anthem is no easy task and would ultimately have to be approved by Parliament. The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee conceded he doesn't know when there will be lyrics for the anthem, and many here say there isn't enough time to get lyrics approved before the Aug. 8 start of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Yet the search goes on. \"We will continue with the idea of an anthem with lyrics,\" Blanco said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Al Goodman contributed to this report .","highlights":"Approaching Olympic Games creates impetus to find words for Spain's anthem .\nPanel rejects winning song because of controversial lyrics .\n7,000 Spaniards competed to find words for anthem .","id":"c32fa9084fe8cd565890a940794e505d5f7ba4c2"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- As an aspiring ballerina, 9-year-old Brooke Burns took an aggressive approach to makeup. \"I would borrow my mom's red Borghese lipstick and smear it on like a clown!\" she says. \"For sexy eyes, there is nothing better than this drugstore black liner.\" Nowadays, the 29-year-old Burns, a single mom, tries to pass along subtler application tips to her 7-year-old daughter. \"I taught her 'a dab'll do ya,' \"says the actress, who stars in the ABC comedy \"Miss Guided.\" \"She's going to wear it anyway, so she might as well have some experience.\" Did you pick up any makeup tricks working as a model? One of my favorites is putting white pencil on the inside of the bottom eyelid for that very awake look. At night if I'm in a hurry, I'll just put on a lot of mascara and black pencil all the way around the inner rim. It's a totally sexy eye in a minute and a half. What's the one makeup item you can't live without? I'm in love with Revlon Color Stay foundation. I can do anything in that makeup and it stays. Plus, it has sunscreen in it and gives me a really natural glow. It covers everything. You alternate between being a blonde and a brunette. Which do you prefer? My natural color is dark blond, but right now I like being a brunette. I did a movie last summer and they dyed my hair platinum -- I hated it. I have a big personality, and I think big personality plus blond hair makes me come across as glib. With dark hair, people look at your face more. Before, it was all about the hair. How do you keep color-treated hair healthy? I've never found a conditioner that makes my hair feel as amazing as Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Nurturing shampoo by L'Or\u00e9al. My hairdresser used it on me one time, and now I'm obsessed. I also use a new color from Paul Mitchell -- it's called Fudge Brownie -- that's incredible. So many people comment, \"Your hair looks so healthy!\" Have you always had great hair? No. I totally had big hair in high school. I was a big user of the hot rollers and teasing. And I had mall bangs. I also wore my hair in a bun a lot because of all the dancing I did. I wasn't really popular in high school. No one will believe you if you say you weren't popular. \"Olive Oyl\" was my nickname. I was totally gangly and a foot taller than all the boys. It was not attractive. Clearly you've come a long way. What's your secret? I think it's very important to take care of your skin. Obviously the No. 1 thing is sunscreen. All my life I have used Oil of Olay as my daytime moisturizer because my mom did. I also use their foaming face wash. It's the best makeup remover ever. And in the morning I use Olay Age Defying Daily Renewal cleanser because it has these tiny microbeads that are great for exfoliating. People go, \"You have such great skin!\" and I'm, like, \"Thank God I'm not spending $150 on products.\" I'm sure that stuff is great, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Miss Guided\" star Brooke Burns likes being a brunette .\nActress explains why \"Olive Oyl\" was high school nickname .\nHer daytime moisturizer is same that her mom used .","id":"41b5dd6064864c16fbde9b46d37c9f7d9a56e705"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge Monday and unfurled a \"Free Tibet\" banner, a likely precursor to large protests when the Olympic torch arrives Wednesday in San Francisco, California. Members of Students for a Free Tibet climbed the bridge to place these banners, said the group's spokesman. The banner read, \"One World. One Dream. Free Tibet.\" Those who climbed cables from which the bridge is suspended are members of Students for a Free Tibet, said group spokesman Tenzin Dasang. The three were arrested along with four others at the site. All seven were charged with felony conspiracy and misdemeanor nuisance, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mary Ziegenbein. The climbers also were charged with misdemeanor trespassing. Watch protesters and banner hung from bridge \u00bb . The incident forced the closure of one northbound lane of the bridge. The climbers -- who were on the bridge for about three hours -- came down voluntarily about 1:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. ET) after workers with the Golden Gate Bridge District began cutting down their banner, Ziegenbein said. Dasang said he has heard of many people planning to protest in San Francisco against China's human rights record. \"We want it to be peaceful. But it will be large,\" said Dasang, 22, during a phone interview in which he said he was near the bridge. \"I heard from Tibetans that now live all over the U.S. and even abroad who are coming here.\" The Olympic flame is on a 130-day journey that will take it through 23 cities on five continents and then throughout China, culminating at the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing August 8. The San Francisco protest comes the same day as a demonstration in Paris, France, disrupted the torch relay many times. In Paris, police had to cut the Olympic torch relay short Monday amid protests against China's human rights record, French police said. The torch was scheduled to travel 17 miles, past Paris City Hall, but that stop and others were called off after the protests. The torch made it through about 10 miles of its scheduled journey. It was then driven by bus to its final destination, where it was displayed again during a public ceremony at a stadium. Authorities had to play hide-and-seek with the Olympic torch during much of the route, placing it on a bus at least twice during a sometimes chaotic relay route. China has come under international criticism because of its crackdown last month on protesters calling for democratic freedoms and self-rule in Tibet and neighboring Chinese provinces. Protesters have said more than 100 people have died in the crackdown, but Beijing denies that and has accused supporters of the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the violence. U.S. and other Western leaders have called on China to provide civil rights and freedoms to those in Tibet and to enter peaceful discussions aimed at resolving the crisis. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Protesters arrested after hanging \"Free Tibet\" banner from bridge .\nThe climbers come down voluntarily after three hours .\nEarlier in day, protests in Paris, France, cut short Olympic torch relay .\nChina faces international criticism over crackdown on protests seeking Tibet self-rule .","id":"b2d3ba739af767da7aa25c3ba8e1d186168c3394"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The world's wildlife has declined by 27 percent since 1970 because of the human impact on the environment, the World Wildlife Fund said Friday. These two adult frilled-neck lizards are threatened species and are bred in captivity in Australia. The WWF's latest Living Planet Index shows terrestrial, freshwater and marine species all suffered declines in their populations between 1970 and 2005, with freshwater species experiencing the biggest drop. The index is included in a report called \"2010 and Beyond: Rising to the Biodiversity Challenge,\" which the WWF prepared for an international biodiversity conference in Germany later this month. \"No one can escape the impact of biodiversity loss because reduced global diversity translates quite clearly into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters, and greater effects from global warming,\" said James Leape, director-general of WWF International. The Living Planet Index measured 4,000 populations of 1,477 vertebrate species, which the WWF says is a good indicator of overall biodiversity trends. Terrestrial species in both temperate and tropical areas fell by an average of 25 percent during the 35-year period, the WWF said. Marine species fell by 28 percent in the same period, with a dramatic decline between 1995 and 2005, the WWF said. \"Many marine ecosystems are changing rapidly under human influence, and one recent study estimates that more than 40 percent of the world's ocean area is strongly affected by human activities while few areas remain untouched,\" the WWF report said. Freshwater species in both temperate and tropical regions fell by 29 percent between 1970 and 2003. The WWF said that is especially significant because despite covering only about 1 percent of the total land surface of the planet, inland waters are home to more than 40,000 vertebrate species. In tropical regions, freshwater species were especially hard-hit; the index shows they suffered a 35-percent drop between 1970 and 2000. The WWF said it had insufficient data to chart tropical freshwater species beyond 2000 and temperate freshwater species beyond 2003. The causes of the declines are varied but ultimately stem from human demands on the biosphere, such as consumption of natural resources or the displacement of ecosystems, the WWF said. The dominant threat to marine life is overexploitation -- harvesting or killing animals or plants beyond the species' capacity to replace itself, the WWF said. Overfishing is one example. Overexploitation is also a threat to terrestrial species, according to the report, which cites the hunting of tropical forest mammals. Overharvesting of timber is also a major factor, it said. Invasive species, whether introduced deliberately or not, are another threat, especially in freshwater ecosystems, where they are thought to be the main cause of extinction among endemic species, the WWF said. Pollution and overall climate change are other factors causing a loss of biodiversity, it said. The WWF called on governments attending this month's conference to take urgent action to reduce the rate of loss by 2010. It wants governments to establish protected areas, particularly those areas important for food security, water supply, medicine, and disaster mitigation, and to commit to zero deforestation by 2020.","highlights":"The world's wildlife has declined by 27 percent since 1970 because of humans .\nWWF: Terrestrial, freshwater, marine species all under threat .\nPollution and overall climate change are other factors causing loss of wildlife .","id":"519fd9b5c5ca82979cdfee3c990c3590838d93c7"} -{"article":"COLORADO CITY, Arizona (CNN) -- A 16-year-old girl in Arizona has alleged sexual abuse in a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints community, sources in Arizona told CNN Friday. Warren Jeffs is the jailed leader of FLDS groups in Arizona, Utah, Texas and elsewhere. Authorities are investigating calls made by a teenage girl alleging abuse in her home by a male relative, according to the sources, who said the calls were similar to those made last week to Texas authorities from the polygamist sect's ranch in Eldorado, Texas. The Texas calls prompted a law enforcement raid in which more than 400 children were taken into state custody. The sources told CNN the Arizona calls came from a teenager in an FLDS household. Church members openly practice polygamy in Colorado City and in Hildale, Utah -- two towns straddling the Arizona-Utah state line. Warren Jeffs, the 52-year-old leader and \"prophet\" of the 10,000-member sect, was convicted in Utah last year on two counts of being an accomplice to rape, charges related to a marriage he performed in 2001. He faces trial in Arizona on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy. Critics of the sect say it forces girls as young as 13 into arranged marriages. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Authorities investigate calls by girl alleging abuse by male relative .\nCalls reportedly similar to those that sparked raid at Texas polygamist ranch .\nArizona polygamist sect also led by jailed \"prophet\" Warren Jeffs .\nMore than 400 children removed from sect's compound in Texas .","id":"60f518dff20b2936b104035b1fd9584dd7d16def"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com's Wayne Drash writes about his maniacal love for University of Memphis basketball. Memphis, North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas play in the Final Four this weekend. Drash says the Memphis team can help heal the city's old wounds. CNN.com's Wayne Drash, left, says he's been hooked on University of Memphis basketball since he was a kid. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- My love for University of Memphis basketball is completely irrational. I never went to school there and have no affiliation with the university. But I bleed Tiger blue. My dad used to take my brothers and me to Memphis games as a kid, and I've been hooked ever since. We once bought tickets from a scalper for six bucks apiece against arch-rival the University of Louisville in the 1980s. My dad complained we paid too much. But then we moved in seventh grade. I became an even bigger fan after we left the city. I'd huddle over my AM radio, hooked up with a coat hanger wrapped in aluminum foil as an antenna. More than 350 miles away, I managed to pick up the then-Memphis State games through the crackle and static of the radio. Memphis basketball was my only way to remain connected to my youth and the city that I loved. That was 1985, the last time Memphis made the Final Four. Is your team in the Final Four? Send your iReport celebratory photos . Back then, Memphis was led by a phenom named Keith Lee. He was best known for a sweet baseline jumper as soft as the nylon nets he swished. He was also known for his giant Afro. He was listed as 6 feet 10 inches. The joke was if you included his wild hairdo, he was 7-4. When my parents were away at work, sometimes I'd sneak into my mom's cabinet, steal her mousse and then put it in my hair. Then this white kid would go out back and shoot hoops for hours, hair sticking straight out like I stuck my finger in a socket. It was the only way I could be like Lee, my hero and idol. Back then, Memphians would rank Lee right up there with Elvis Presley as the city's most popular icons. Many still do. And that's the thing about Tiger basketball. In a place where race has often divided so much of it, Memphis basketball has helped unite the city. As a boy, white and black kids would crowd the basketball court at Tiger games to try to snatch the players' sweatbands as they raced into the locker room. Up until I graduated from high school, the sweatbands of Phillip \"Doom\" Haynes and Baskerville \"Batman\" Holmes sat on my shelf in my room. Like a fan of any team, there have been good and bad times over the years. But sometimes the pain of being a Tiger fan is that much greater. Tragedy and heartbreak are part of it, such as when Holmes killed his girlfriend and then himself in 1997. Other players, such as Aaron Price and A. Maceo Battle, have died far too young along the way, furthering the pain of being a fan. Larry Finch -- who as a black player brought together the city and took Memphis to its only national championship game in 1973, and later became one of its greatest coaches -- has lived much of the past few years in a rehabilitation center after suffering severe strokes. In some ways, that's what makes Memphis basketball so special. Memphis players embody the real life of so many Americans, many faced with extreme hard times. Some succeed; some don't. Others, such as Finch, keep on fighting. I don't find it an accident that Memphis is now seeking history the same week of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. \"I think Dr. King would find this a source of joy,\" the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the team this week, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper. A city that has seen so much pain, so much heartache, has something huge to celebrate -- all revolving around young college kids and a bouncy orange ball. The adage is that sports often have the ability to transcend the moment. This is one of those times. To get to the championship game Monday night, Memphis must first get past UCLA, the same team that defeated it in that 1973 title game. While much of the rest of the nation has the team pegged to lose, the Tigers -- for one shining moment -- have a chance to do something really special. They'd have it no other way. As for me? I won't be listening on my old radio, but this weekend I might just try sporting that 'do like Keith Lee. The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the writers. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"University of Memphis basketball has brought together whites, blacks, fan says .\nMemphis team has a chance to do something really special in Final Four, he says .\nMemphis players embody struggle and aspirations of many Americans, fan says .","id":"b82546b760716f0a2b26606b07af0fe0dd61d6ff"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Toss that basic black and indulge in a fashion fantasy this year. We asked the four gorgeous stars of ABC's new TV show \"Cashmere Mafia\" to take part in a little experiment: If you could slip into a different guise for a day, what would it be? Frances O'Connor in Zac Posen silk gown, Jos\u00e9 and Mar\u00eda Barrera rhodium-plated earrings with Austrian crystals. Frances O'Connor glams it up . Understated when it comes to her own style and buttoned up in banker stripes as Zoe on Cashmere Mafia, Frances O'Connor, 40, has been hankering for an infusion of pure glamour. \"I love the idea of wearing a dress that's a work of art in itself,\" says the actress, who slipped easily into a red-carpet fantasy with a mouthwatering cherry-hued gown by Zac Posen. O'Connor's \"safety first\" approach to fashion means living mostly in simple Marc Jacobs pieces, but it's a sensibility that doesn't offer much in the way of frippery -- which suits her just fine. \"I don't like to stand out too much,\" says the willowy Anglo-Aussie beauty. Still, Posen's fluttering cascades of silk offer both a role reversal and a respite. \"A fantasy has to move you to feel like a different person,\" she says. \"That's fun for a day. Then I like to put my jeans back on and go home.\" Lucy Liu relives the forties . Few decades enthrall Lucy Liu like the 1940s. \"I like the idea of updating a traditional silhouette from that era in a fresh way,\" says Liu, whose character, Mia, reigns over a New York publishing fiefdom in power looks by Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Rachel Roy. Despite its abstract floral print, the ruffled organza dress by Christian Lacroix would seem right at home on the cover of a World War II-period glossy, yet Liu imbues it with a distinctly modern verve. \"There was something really elegant and erotic about women back then, with their girdles and cinched-in waists,\" she says. On the set the 39-year-old star relishes watching costume designer Patricia Field work her sartorial sorcery with a swirl of offbeat textures and trimmings. \"The other day my character was wearing a gold lam\u00e9 striped dress with a coffee-hued belt, black leggings and green earrings. It's contagious,\" says Liu, who finds herself mixing -- and not matching -- more freely these days. Miranda Otto indulges in gems . Famous for playing a Middle Earth maiden in the Lord of the Rings movies, Aussie actress Miranda Otto found herself dressing a little like one offscreen too, in muted, ethereal garb. But her arctic complexion and fiery tresses are the perfect canvas on which to throw splashes of drama. \"Shooting Cashmere Mafia [the 40-year-old beauty plays steely hotelier Juliet] has made me lust for accessories,\" she says. Presto: Otto is resplendent in scads of jewelry. \"Wearing stacks of the stuff makes it more interesting,\" she adds. There's just one catch to donning such beguiling accents: \"My 2-year-old daughter, Darcey, wants everything.\" Bonnie Somerville goes for fifties bombshell . Bonnie Somerville longs for the bygone days when women were perennially polished. \"In the fifties you'd never leave the house without your hair done, your face on, and a nice dress. Me, I have my staple uniform of jeans, tank tops and flats.\" To resolve her clothing ennui, the actress chose a dazzling yellow Lela Rose number that is equal parts Bond Girl and Palm Beach socialite. \"It's something I never thought I could wear for daytime,\" says the Brooklyn, New York-bred singer and actress who plays Cashmere's trendy cosmetics exec, Caitlin. A skinny metallic belt gives the look more of a now vibe. \"On the show, with everything we wear, Patricia Field says, 'Put a belt on it!'\" says Somerville, 33. \"Now I'm buying belts in my real life, which I never did before.\" E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Each actress in \"Cashmere Mafia\" has own style .\nLucy Liu likes 1940's silhouettes .\nMiranda Otto wears scads of jewelry .\nBonnie Somerville is wearing belts on and off screen .","id":"7990fde4a924299fab79f6c8e2b447ee5ffcd1fc"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Record the CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Autism is a World when it airs commercial-free on Monday, March 31, 2008 from approximately 4:00-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.) Program Overview . For years, Sue Rubin says she was \"her own worst nightmare.\" Sue has autism, and until age 13, she was unable to communicate or control her unusual behavior. Now in her late twenties, Sue has become a disabled-rights advocate and a college student with a top IQ. In the Academy Award-nominated documentary Autism is a World, filmmaker Gerry Wurzburg and CNN take a rare look at autism through the words of a young woman who lives with it. Grade Levels: 9-12, college . Subject Areas: Health, Social Studies, Technology, Current Issues . Objectives: The CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Autism is a World and its corresponding discussion questions and activities challenge students to: . Curriculum Connections . Health . Standard 1. Knows the availability and effective use of health services, products, and information . Level IV [Grade: 9-12] . Benchmark 5. Knows situations that require professional health services in the areas of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation . Standard 3. Understands the relationship of family health to individual health . Level IV [Grade: 9-12] . Benchmark 1. Understands methods to facilitate the transition from the role of a child to the role of an independent adult in the family . Standard 4. Knows how to maintain mental and emotional health . Level IV [Grade: 9-12] . Benchmark 2. Knows strategies for coping with and overcoming feelings of rejection, social isolation, and other forms of stress . Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education (Copyright 2000 McREL) is published online by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) (http:\/\/www.mcrel.org\/standards-benchmarks\/), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO 80014; Telephone: 303\/337-0990 . Social Studies . Standard VIII. Science, Technology and Society: Students will examine the relationships among science, technology and society. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/) are published by the National Council for the Social Studies (http:\/\/ncss.org\/). Discussion Questions . 1. How old is Sue Rubin? What type of disability does she have? What symptoms does she display? What is \"mental retardation\"? How does mental retardation differ from autism? Why do you think that Sue was thought to be mentally retarded when she was younger? What was her life like before she could communicate? How did she interpret sounds? How does Sue feel about having been perceived as retarded? 2. How does Sue say she learned to communicate? What type of device does she use to communicate? How did Sue's life change once she learned how to communicate? Based on what you've observed in the program, what gains has Sue made over the years in terms of managing her autistic behaviors? 3. How would you describe Sue's relationships with her parents and grandparents? What challenges did Sue's parents face when raising Sue during her early years? According to the program, what measures have Sue's parents taken to help foster their daughter's growth and development over the years? In the program, Sue states, \"When I wasn't able to communicate, I was considered a non-person, but I was treated well -- intellectually, socially, culturally and personally.\" What do you think that she means? Why do you think that Sue considers herself lucky to have the family that she has? 4. Do you think that it is important for Sue to live independently? What types of personal, financial and governmental assistance does Sue need to live in her own home? What are Sue's greatest short-term and long-term concerns about maintaining her independent lifestyle? How would you describe Sue's relationships with the different members of her support team? What skills and attributes do you think that a person needs to have to work well with a non-verbal autistic person? 5. In what ways is Sue similar to people her age who are not autistic? Do you think that Sue has the same capacity to experience emotions as non-autistic people? Explain. How does Sue's disorder impact her ability to express emotions? 6. According to Dr. Margaret Bauman, what is autism, and what parts of the brain can it affect? According to the program, why did Sue respond so quickly to facilitated communication after having been \"lost in autism\" for 13 years? Why are plastic spoons important to Sue? Why does Sue like to run water over them? In the show, Sue states that solitude is her \"best friend\" and her \"worst enemy.\" What do you think that she means? 7. What college does Sue attend? Why did she select this school? What challenges has she faced while at college? How do you think that these challenges compare to the ones that many non-autistic college students face? What is Sue's academic major? What type of work does she hope to do after she graduates? How does attending school impact Sue's ability to manage her autism? 8. To what audience did Sue deliver a speech about living with autism? Why do you think that writing the speech was an \"arduous process\" for Sue? Sue states that the goal of her speech was to \"enlighten individuals to the potential of their own voices.\" What do you think that she means? Why do you think that Sue has chosen to pursue this goal? 9. Do you know someone that is autistic? How has autism impacted this person and the lives of his or her loved ones? What symptoms of autism does he or she have? How do these symptoms compare to the ones displayed by Sue? 10. Why did Sue decide to make this documentary? Why do you think that this documentary is titled Autism is a World? Based on what you now know about Sue and what it's like for her to live with autism, how would you describe Sue's character? What are her greatest strengths? 11. What are your thoughts and feelings regarding Autism is a World? What insights or lessons about autism did you learn as a result of watching this program? 12. Having watched Autism is a World, do you have any follow-up questions you'd like to ask Sue? Suggested Activities . 1. What are Autism Spectrum Disorders? Inform students that, though the field of autism research is continuing to evolve, much has been learned about the disorder since the mid-1940s, when Dr. Leo Kanner published his first paper identifying autistic children, and Dr. Hans Asperger described a milder form of autism that became known as Asperger syndrome. Autism is considered a \"spectrum disorder\" because the number and intensity of symptoms can greatly vary among those with autism. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which are also known as \"pervasive developmental disorders,\" can often be detected by the age of three. ASD is an umbrella term that includes the following diagnoses: . Divide your students into five groups and assign each group a different ASD from the list above. Instruct each group to conduct research to learn about the symptoms, characteristics and differentiated diagnoses associated with its assigned disorder. Then, have groups prepare presentations of their findings that include a brief mock case study to illustrate how the disorders might manifest in a child. After the presentations, challenge students to identify the common traits associated with all autistic disorders. (All people with ASD have impaired communication, problems with social relationships and like to engage in repetitive motions.) Ask students: . Following the discussion, refer students back to Autism is a World to make a list of the symptoms and behaviors that Sue Rubin displayed during the program. Then ask students: Based on what you know about Ms. Rubin, where would you say that her disability falls within the spectrum of autistic disorders? 2. Treating Autism . Point out to students that, although autistic symptoms in children may lessen with age, autism is a lifelong disorder. There are various types of therapies available for treating autism, including behavior modification, sensory integration, medications and dietary interventions. However, because the nature and severity of autistic symptoms and behaviors can vary, no one approach works for every person. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, most professionals agree that early intervention is important and that most individuals with ASD respond well to highly structured, specialized programs. After you have shared this information, pair students and assign each pair one of the following ASD treatment approaches: . Biomedical Treatments . (CNN does not endorse any specific medication. The information provided here is meant as an overview of the types of medications sometimes prescribed.) Instruct each pair to investigate the philosophy, protocols and benefits and drawbacks associated with its treatment method. Have pairs deliver presentations of their findings. (If possible, have the students who are presenting behavior modification approaches demonstrate the techniques, and have the students who are speaking about medications and dietary interventions include graphics that depict how the treatments are thought to affect the different parts of the human body.) Following the presentations, pose the following questions for class discussion: . Extension: Have students draw upon thier research to create an informational brochure about ASD for parents and local mental health providers. Keywords . Sue Rubin, autism spectrum disorders, pervasive developmental disorder, mental retardation, non-verbal, disability, relationships, self-abusive behaviors, motor skills, emotions, learning, language, communication system, sensory integration, echolalia, independent living, HUD, support services, Whittier College, intelligence, neurobiology, Dr. Margaret Bauman, advocate, documentary E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Learn about autism spectrum disorders (ASD)\nExamine different treatment approaches for ASD .\nCreate an informational brochure about ASD for parents and mental health providers .","id":"504f6f6e1aea6bb73c728d12a1342faa6828aace"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- We asked five stars for their innermost thoughts on perfume, then chose the season's best new scents . Beyonce: \"I'll stick with one scent for five or six years. I'll wear it all the time.\" Beyonc\u00e9 . What was your first perfume? 273 by Fred Hayman. I wore it when I was a teenager. My mom used to wear it, and I stole it. (Fred Hayman 273, $55\/2.5 fl. oz.; fragrancenet.com) What images would pop into your head if you smelled it now? Getting ready, curling my hair, putting my makeup on, going out to a party. And my mother, my childhood, my house. What does your house smell like? Vanilla. Warm and sweet. I have a lot of Diptyque candles around the house. Even when I'm away, I have someone burn them. I like having the scent in my pillows. (Diptyque Opopanax candle, $55; bergdorfgoodman.com) You're the face of Emporio Armani Diamonds, which has rose and raspberry notes. What's it like? Soft, sweet and comforting. Yesterday I had a day off, which is rare, and I took a long bath. When I got out, I was by myself and knew I would be all day, but I still sprayed it on. (Emporio Armani Diamonds, $50\/1.7 fl. oz.; at Macy's) What other scents do you like? My favorite scent is my mother's cooking: her yams and her soul food. They smell like love, like being full and happy. How about men's cologne? I like [anything by] Creed. (Creed Original Santal, $110\/1 fl. oz.; neimanmarcus.com) Emmy Rossum . What fragrance did your mom wear while you were growing up? Lanc\u00f4me Tr\u00e9sor. It still reminds me of watching her get ready to go out at night. (Lanc\u00f4me Tr\u00e9sor, $81\/3.4 fl. oz.; lancome-usa.com) What was your first perfume? I got Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds for my sixth birthday. I felt so sophisticated! I'd put my mom's red lipstick on my lips and cheeks, wear her high heels and spray the fragrance all over myself and the house. (Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, $65\/3.3 fl. oz.; perfumania.com) Which kind of fragrances are you usually drawn to? I like ones that are clean, feminine, and not so famous that they are immediately recognizable. I [rarely] tell anyone what scent I wear -- it's a woman's most precious sensual secret. Can you let us in on some of your all-time favorites? My favorite is Miss Dior Ch\u00e9rie. It's classic and feminine, but flirty. I wear it to lunch, to dinner parties, to the beach, skiing and to big occasions like the Oscars, when I want to feel especially glamorous. (Miss Dior Ch\u00e9rie, $65\/1.7 fl. oz.; at Nordstrom) What men's scent do you like? Angel Men. It's masculine and very appealing without being too strong. (Thierry Mugler Angel Men, $102\/3.4 fl. oz.; bloomingdales.com) Which kind of smells are you attracted to for soaps, shampoos, lotions and home fragrances? I like traditional Johnson's No More Tears baby shampoo and K\u00e9rastase products. I like vanilla and pomegranate for soaps. My favorite candle is Jo Malone Wild Fig & Cassis. Do you wear perfume when you're acting? Always, especially during intimate kissing scenes! I wear something that is sensual but not too obvious. Sarah Jessica Parker . How is your new fragrance, Covet, different from Lovely, the first one you helped create? Lovely is very polite. It's the girl you marry, and Covet is the girl you date, you know? Covet is fun, slightly wanton, desperate. It's for a stop-at-nothing-to-get-what-you-want kind of a girl. (Sarah Jessica Parker Covet, $52\/1.7 fl. oz.; macys.com) What was the first scent you wore? Love's Baby Soft. (Love's Baby Soft body spray, $12\/1.5 fl. oz.; at drugstores) If you got a whiff of it right now, what memories would it trigger? It would be seventh grade and not having enough disposable money. It would be Fiorucci, a shirt tied in a knot at the waist, and the Yankees. It would be fighting with my brothers and sisters before school and my mother yelling at me, and not finishing my homework on a Sunday night. Do you wear fragrance every day? Without question. For some women, it's lip gloss or mascara or covering a blemish. I can do without all of that. But the idea of not putting on perfume is shocking to me. Where do you apply it? I love walking into a closet and smelling lingering aroma, so I always spray my clothes. And at the end of the bottle, when the atomizer no longer reaches the tiny little dribble that is left, I unscrew the top and pour the remainder onto a T-shirt or my dress. What's your favorite men's scent? I really love Old Spice and Guerlain Vetiver for men. (Guerlain Vetiver, $74\/4.2 fl. oz.; saks.com) What home fragrance do you love? There's nothing better than a blue Rigaud candle. (Rigaud Ch\u00e8vrefeuille candle, $75; gracioushome.com) Do you have a favorite flower or fruit scent? I love a peony when it's really in season, and I love lemons. Gwyneth Paltrow . Do you wear perfume every day? Not if I'm just in sweatpants around the house. But if I go out, I always squirt something on. It completes the look. Are you always attracted to the same kind of scents? It depends on my mood. [Sometimes] I like things that are a little more spicy. I really like Black Orchid, Tom Ford's perfume. Something a bit sexy. Tom Ford Black Orchid, $65\/1.7 fl. oz.; neimanmarcus.com. You're the face of Est\u00e9e Lauder Pleasures. How would you describe that fragrance? It's floral and feminine, a sitting-in-your-garden kind of scent. (Est\u00e9e Lauder Pleasures, $45\/1.7 fl. oz.; at Macy's) What perfume did your mom wear when you were a kid? She wore Quadrille by Balenciaga, and they don't make it anymore. I always go online trying to find bottles [stashed] in someone's basement to give to her as a present because she's almost out of it. Has your taste in scents changed since you became a mom? No, but when I was pregnant I couldn't tolerate the smell of anything, whether it was garlic, orange juice or perfume. Now do you avoid scents that might overwhelm little noses? I just don't overdo it. A little spritz goes a long way. What are some other, non-perfume fragrances you love? I love the smell of lilies and paperwhites. I also burn these tea-scented candles from Mariage Fr\u00e8res. The best shampoo I've ever found is Japanese -- it's called Molto Bene B: Oce. It's so good for dry hair like mine. (Mariage Fr\u00e8res Th\u00e9 Rouge candle, $65; aedes.com; Molto Bene B: Oce Shampoo SE, $16\/8.1 oz.) What scent do you love on men? Ocean water. I like natural scents. Victoria Beckham . How would you describe Intimately Beckham? It's a white-flower fragrance with a lot of tuberose, which is my favorite flower. It's fresh and sexy in a fashion-y way. I think it's a happy smell. (Intimately Beckham, $42\/1.7 fl. oz.; ulta.com) Does it remind you of anything? White flowers remind me of my grandmother: timeless and gorgeous. Everything I wear I would like to think of as timeless as well. I still wear dresses I bought 10 years ago. So you like florals? I love rose, tuberose and orange blossom. I'm a real girlie girl -- I love perfume, makeup and hair products. I think I know how girls want to smell. Do you wear different scents for different moods? For me it's more about the weather and what you're wearing and who you're with. Intimately Beckham is light, and perfect for warm weather. That's why we came up with Intimately Beckham Night (coming next year), which is slightly heavier. How involved was David in creating the fragrance? He was hands-on. He's masculine, but he's in touch with his feminine side too. He loves clothes and beauty products and aftershave. Which men's scents does he like? David and I both love Miller Harris. (Miller Harris Feuilles de Tabac, $120\/3.4 fl. oz.; bigelowchemist.com) What was your first fragrance? Coco Chanel. If I smelled it today, it would take me back to being 14, just when I was first really getting into fashion. (Chanel Coco, $110\/3.4 fl. oz.; at Nordstrom) What scent did your mom wear? Poison by Christian Dior. It was so distinctive. It instantly reminds me of the eighties -- all that hair and those big dresses. (Dior Poison, $43\/1 fl. oz.; drugstore.com) Any other favorites? I love Jo Malone's grapefruit smells. And I have to say, nothing looks better in the bathroom than a bottle of Chanel No. 5 -- that's the ultimate. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Additional Reporting By Kwala Mandel; Alysia Poe; Suzanne Zuckerman .","highlights":"Perfumes trigger strong memories for stars .\nBeyonc\u00e9 says her house smells like Vanilla .\nParker: \"Idea of not putting on perfume is shocking to me\"","id":"ef42653bf9337de184e74be0160b807a41b526fd"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council failed to reach a consensus when it met to consider condemning an attack that killed eight people at a prominent Jewish seminary as an act of terrorism. Ambulance workers put one of the casualties from the seminary attack into an ambulance. The council said Libya -- a new, nonpermanent member -- blocked the statement on Thursday night. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said the attack on the school was no different than Israeli military offensives against militants in Gaza. But Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said he saw no connection between Thursday's shooting and Israel's operations in Gaza. \"This is not a story of retaliation,\" he said. \"These people have been terrorizing Israel for years, have been carrying out suicide bombings and indiscriminate attacks for years.\" A gunman broke into the Jewish seminary about 8:30 p.m., spraying automatic-weapons fire, authorities said. Most of the victims were students in their teens and 20s, medical officials said. At least nine others were wounded before an off-duty Israel Defense Forces officer fatally shot the gunman, Jerusalem District Police commander Aharon Franko said. The gunman was carrying an AK-47 and a pistol -- and had time to swap weapons during the massacre. Police are trying to identify the gunman and figure out how he managed, while drawing little notice, to enter the large three-story school in a bustling residential neighborhood. \"There was no alert or warning about this attack,\" Franko said. Watch the immediate aftermath of the attack \u00bb . A first responder said the bodies were on the floor of the study hall surrounded by holy books. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Video from Thursday's scene showed a frantic crowd of rescue workers carrying bloodied victims into ambulances. Dozens of police officers were scouring the campus and streets around the yeshiva in case there were other gunmen. Outside the school, scores of Israeli men gathered from surrounding neighborhoods, demanding justice for the attack. Authorities are calling the incident at west Jerusalem's Merkaz Harav yeshiva an act of terrorism. The school is one of the largest seminaries in Israel, with about 500 students in the yeshiva and 200 in an advanced graduate program. \"Israel is at the forefront of the struggle against terrorism and will continue to defend its citizens, who are exposed to this threat on a daily basis,\" Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. \"Israel expects the nations of the world to support it in its war against those who murder students, women and children, by any means and with respect for neither place nor target.\" President Bush backed Israeli leaders in a statement issued Thursday, saying, \"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Merkaz Harav yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation.\" But Libya's Dabbashi compared the attack with \"bloodshed in the Palestinian territory.\" \"For us, the human lives are the same. We judge the incident itself,\" Dabbashi told reporters after the Security Council meeting. \"When we have to condemn the killing of the Israeli civilians, we also have to look at what's happening in Gaza.\" Jerusalem security increased . Security was bolstered, with thousands of additional officers across Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, authorities said. Meanwhile, celebratory shooting took place in Gaza City after the news of the attack, with hundreds chanting and clapping in the streets. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the killings. \"The Palestinian Authority condemns any attack on innocent civilians,\" Abbas' office said in a written statement. The shootings came just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with both Israelis and Palestinians, announced that peace talks will resume between the two sides. Abbas suspended peace negotiations last week after fierce fighting broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, but he agreed to resume negotiations after meeting with Rice. Israel will continue peace talks with the Palestinians regardless of the attack in Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said Thursday. Israel conducted a large-scale operation in Gaza to hunt down Palestinian militants who have been firing dozens of rockets into Israel. At least 70 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed during the operation, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Militants also fired at least 25 rockets toward Israel, wounding at least two civilians. \"This operation came directly after the attack committed inside Gaza. This operation is a normal response,\" said Fawzi Barhoom, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. Watch Barhoom's reaction to the attack \u00bb . Gillerman said the Security Council should condemn the attack. \"They are so, so quick sometimes to criticize Israel for defending itself. I would like to see those members convene as we speak in order to condemn this in the strongest possible terms.\" Thursday's attack was the worst inside Israel since April 17, 2006, when a suicide bombing outside a falafel restaurant in Tel Aviv killed nine people. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack. Attacks in Jerusalem are rare. Eight people were wounded August 10 in the Old City when a Palestinian resident grabbed a security guard's gun and fired; and four Israeli security guards were wounded May 26 when two Palestinian gunmen began firing in east Jerusalem. All three of the assailants were killed. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ben Wedeman and Atika Shubert contributed to this report.","highlights":"Off-duty Israel Defense Forces officer fatally shot attacker .\nGunman went into Jewish seminary in Jerusalem with little apparent notice .\nPolice spokesman: \"There was no alert or warning about this attack\"\nThe violence comes a day after announcement of renewed peace talks .","id":"26d0a5624f3ee7605833c641da5d88e2259b1162"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A retired U.S. Army colonel pleaded guilty Tuesday to awarding contracts in Iraq to a Kuwait-based firm in exchange for gifts. Levonda Selph of Virginia admitted accepting $4,000 in cash and a $5,000 vacation to Thailand from the unidentified contractor, which was awarded $12 million in contracts to operate Defense Department warehouses in Iraq. She pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy. She was secretly indicted on those charges in October; the charges weren't disclosed until her court appearance Tuesday. Under terms of a plea agreement, Selph could receive up to 33 months in jail. She promised to repay the government $9,000 and to cooperate in an ongoing investigation. Prosecutors said Selph was a lieutenant colonel at Camp Victory in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 when she led a committee that awarded the warehouse contracts. The Justice Department said she will be free until her sentencing October 14 but will not be allowed to leave the country.","highlights":"Former U.S. Army colonel pleads guilty to bribery and conspiracy .\nLevonda Selph admits accepting cash, vacation from contractor .\nProsecutors: In exchange for gifts, Selph steered contracts to firm .\nContracts let company operate Defense Department warehouses in Iraq .","id":"7e43e9a2c67829721ff9f68147285c579e2c8a70"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- On March 30 the Open Skies treaty went into effect, liberalizing air travel between the U.S. and Europe. But how will the ease of restrictions on transatlantic routes affect business travelers? Under Open Skies, European and U.S. airlines will be given unlimited access between Europe and U.S. points. The treaty puts an end to the exclusive arrangement granted to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and American Airlines to fly transatlantic out of London Heathrow. But with the airport currently operating at almost-maximum capacity, new flights will be severely limited. As a result competition is fierce for Heathrow slots, with airlines paying as much as $60 million to get their hands on them. For each flight that is added, another less lucrative service is scrapped. Airlines are giving priority to high-yield business routes to and from Heathrow. While European carriers are now allowed to fly from any point within E.U across the Atlantic, the U.S. domestic market remains closed to them. Operators in Europe hope that a second phase of the Open Skies deal will mean a relaxation of restrictions on European airlines' investment in U.S. carriers and the ability for European airlines to compete in the U.S. domestic market. The issue is pending in U.S. Congress. If the U.S. doesn't deliver, there is a clause in the agreement that states the Open Skies treaty -- phase I included -- can be torn up. Industry experts foresee some fare wars in both economy and business-class. Service options are also likely to improve as competition intensifies. U.S. airlines will vie with BA, the dominant carrier at Heathrow, that currently has flights to 24 U.S. cities. The biggest challenge to the incumbent airlines operating out of Heathrow will come from carriers in the SkyTeam alliance, that includes Air France and KLM, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines News, and Continental Airlines. Before Open Skies, the SkyTeam alliance offered no transatlantic routes to and from Heathrow. By summer they will offer 10 percent of these flights. SkyTeam carriers will be located for the first time in Terminal 4. Given the size of the market for U.S.-London flights, airlines will continue to offer services from Gatwick, London's second-busiest airport. Open Skies will intensify competition for ailing U.S. airlines on what has been their most profitable route. Analysts expect to see consolidation between U.S. airlines as they combine international networks to beat competition. One advantage U.S. airlines can offer is opportunity for connecting flights to other European cities as well as on to Asia and the Mideast. European carriers on the other hand, cannot operate domestic flights within the U.S. New flights and new airlines . Oneworld Alliance . British Airways will shift its Dallas and Houston services from Gatwick to Heathrow and its Warsaw operation to Gatwick. Flights to Detroit and Harare will be axed. In June, the airline will also launch services between Continental Europe and New York. Operated by subsidiary OpenSkies, the daily flights will fly from either JFK or Newark to Brussels or Paris CDG using Boeing 757s from its existing fleet. In the future, OpenSkies plans to fly to other business centers, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, and Geneva. BA will also commence business-only flights between New York and London City Airport next year using Airbus A318 jets in a 32-seat layout. SkyTeam Airline Alliance's new transatlantic flights starting between March 30 and June 2008 . \u2022 Air France in joint venture with Delta: daily service to Los Angeles \u2022 Continental: twice-daily service to Houston and twice-daily service to Newark Liberty International (EWR) from May 29 2008 \u2022 Delta in joint venture with Air France: daily service to Atlanta and twice-daily service to New York JFK \u2022 Northwest in joint venture with KLM: daily service to Detroit, daily service to Minneapolis and daily service to Seattle. Slots were secured as a result of Air France ditching four daily rotations from London to Paris Charles de Gaulle and KLM dropping three of its slots to Northwest from Eindhoven and Rotterdam. Non-aligned airlines . Aer Lingus launched services from Dublin to Washington DC, Orlando and San Francisco last year. This followed agreement between the Irish and U.S. governments that the airline could begin operations before others. Low-cost airline Ryanair is considering setting up a separate long-haul carrier that would fly ultra-low-fares between secondary airports in Europe and U.S. such as Stansted and Baltimore-Washington International. Virgin Atlantic has decided to wait to see if Open Skies Phase II is adopted before starting new flights to New York from non-UK cities. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Biggest challenge to Heathrow incumbents will come from SkyTeam alliance .\nNew flights start this year from Air France, Continental, Delta and Northwest .\nBA will launch services between Continental Europe and New York in June .","id":"2137ee3e39b5c0d12e17bbd1e10eb75495a3a83b"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Police found three men dead in a car parked outside a spa Monday morning -- the latest in a string of suicides involving detergent, officials said. According to local media reports, more than 60 people have committed suicide across Japan in the last month by mixing detergent and other chemicals, and inhaling the hydrogen sulfide gas that results. A passerby discovered the bodies of the three men in Tamioka, north of Tokyo, police said. In western Japan, police found a 21-year-old man with a plastic bag over his head Monday. A police officer in Suma, where the body was found, said authorities found detergent containers by the foot of the man. They suspect the man may have inhaled the toxic gas after mixing them in the bag. Earlier this month, police in Japan had asked Internet service providers to take down the recipe for the detergent mix. Even before the spate of recent suicides, Japan had one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. In early May, police evacuated about 350 people from their homes on the island of Hokkaido after a neighbor mixed detergent and chemicals to kill himself. The two most recent cases did not require the evacuation of the neighborhoods where they occurred. In some cases, officials had to order residents to leave because the resulting gas from the detergent mix can sicken people. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police found three men dead in a car parked outside a spa Monday morning .\nMore than 60 people have committed suicide across Japan in the last month .\nPolice say string of 'detergent suicides' encouraged by Internet sites .\nJapan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world .","id":"31defcc44013caae59c0bdbcedd16be150413bd5"} -{"article":"SYDNEY, Australia -- Eamon Sullivan regained the 50-meter freestyle world record with a 21.41 seconds swim at the Australian Olympic trials in Sydney. Sullivan had lost his 50m freestyle record to Frenchman Alain Bernard four days ago. He took the record back from Frenchman Alain Bernard, who recorded 21.50 seconds at the European championships four days ago. Sullivan had held the record with 21.56, set in Sydney in February. After missing out on Bernard's 100m record late on Wednesday, Sullivan said he hoped to improve his 50m time in Friday's final. \"I came in a bit more relaxed tonight, having got the 100m final out of the way last night and getting into the team for Beijing. \"It's sweet to get the record back off Alain after missing out on the 100m world record last night and after he broke the 50m record so quickly after I did it. \"I know I have another swim left so there's always another chance. I hope I can go faster in the final, but I like to think I can take a couple of a hundredths of a second leading into a final, so we'll see.\" Sullivan missed Bernard's 100m world record by just two-hundredths of a second in qualifying in 47.52 seconds for the Olympics. Libby Trickett broke the women's 100m freestyle world record with a 52.88 seconds swim. Trickett, formerly Libby Lenton and competing for the first time under her married name, beat the 53.30 mark set by Germany's Britta Steffen in Budapest on August 2, 2006. It is the second time Trickett has broken the 53-second barrier, but her previous time of 52.99 at the Duel in the Pool in Sydney last year was not ratified by FINA because she was swimming against American superstar Michael Phelps. \"I can't tell you how much I wanted to break that record ever since doing it in the Duel in the Pool in April last year. I just wanted it so badly,\" Trickett said. \"To see it officially up there on the scoreboard is just amazing. All my events are very important to me, but the 100m freestyle holds a special place in my heart and to know that four years ago I was going 0.8 seconds off, that is just awesome.\" \"I've come so far, it's been an amazing journey, but I am just so happy to be part of this team. We have some fantastic girls coming through and it's going to be great for our relay team.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Eamon Sullivan regains the 50-meter world freestyle record in Sydney .\nSullivan sets the new mark of 21.41 seconds in the Australian Olympic trials .\nFrenchman Alain Bernard recorded a time of 21.50 seconds four days earlier .","id":"db73dc3466e4e92672d716c1eb2ac9430ac69951"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers launched assaults across Iraq over the past 24 hours, killing 11 police recruits and six civilians, including a 7-year-old. Iraqi and U.S. troops conduct a joint patrol Monday in the northern city of Mosul during a push against insurgents. Also, the U.S. military said it killed an al Qaeda in Iraq leader in northern Iraq. The violence erupted as a peace agreement was taking hold in Baghdad's Sadr City, for weeks the scene of battles between Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias. A suicide bomber exploded his vest outside the house of an Awakening Council leader, Sheikh Mutleb al-Nadawi, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Baquba in Diyala province, the military command in Diyala said. Al-Nadawi was in the house and escaped injury, but a 7-year-old was killed and two of al-Nadawi's bodyguards were wounded. Awakening Councils are the U.S.-backed Sunni groups that oppose al Qaeda in Iraq. A mortar round landed on a busy outdoor market in Balad Ruz, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Baquba. Three civilians were killed, and nine were wounded. A bomb exploded Tuesday inside a minibus in southeastern Baghdad's Rustumiya district, killing two passengers and wounding five, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Insurgents also attacked a minibus filled with police recruits Monday in Baaj, a Nineveh province town near the Syrian border, killing 11 people, according to Mosul police. Iraqi security forces arrested 15 people in connection with the attack. Backed by U.S. soldiers, Iraqi forces have been conducting an offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul and the rest of Nineveh province. American-led coalition troops killed a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader east of Samarra in northern Iraq on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. Meanwhile, the agreement forged to end the weeks of fighting in the capital's Sadr City is taking hold, government officials and witnesses said. Thousands of soldiers and police officers have moved deep inside the restive neighborhood without resistance from Shiite militia members who have been fighting Iraqi and U.S. troops. The troops have been clearing mines and soon will begin the process of confiscating weapons, officials said. No violence has been reported in the area since Monday. Much of the earlier fighting involved the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and security forces dominated by a rival political party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The latter is the leading party in the government's United Iraqi Alliance bloc. The agreement, hammered out between the United Iraqi Alliance and the Sadrists, is intended to clear the neighborhood of weaponry and outlaws and restore stability to the area. Tahseen al-Sheikhly, civilian spokesman for Baghdad's security plan, said there has been great cooperation among residents, Sadrist supporters and government forces. Gen. Qassim Atta, the military spokesman of Baghdad's security plan, said Tuesday that checkpoints and patrols have been established and coalition forces are ready to help Iraqi troops, but they have not entered Sadr City. Elsewhere in Baghdad, the trial of Saddam Hussein-era officials Tariq Aziz, Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- also known as Chemical Ali -- and six others resumed Tuesday. They are facing charges in connection with the executions of 42 Iraqi merchants in 1992. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attack on Awakening Council official leaves 7-year-old dead .\nAl Qaeda in Iraq leader is killed, U.S. military says .\nMinibuses attacked in Baghdad, Nineveh province .\nTrial of Saddam Hussein-era officials resumes .","id":"3f6308f2f5b6ccdb89d7b6abe1b9490cc30b8e5f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Not only is Tetsuya Kumakawa the greatest ever Japanese ballet dancer, he is one of the best the world has ever seen. His athletic grace has won him fans wherever he has performed, and his dedication to the art continues to bring ballet to new audiences. Capable of soaring leaps and flawless turns, Tetsuya \"Teddy\" Kumakawa has thrilled audiences the world over. Founded in 1998, his K-Ballet company has built on the success he acheived at the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden, London. Born in Sapporo on Hokkaido -- Japan's North Island -- in 1972, Kumakawa took up ballet after seeing his eight year-old cousin, Hironao perform at school in Sapporo. Like any 10 year old boy, his new hobby had to compete with other activities -- he also enjoyed kendo, baseball and drawing -- but it was ballet that he really fell in love with. From a young age Kumakawa had been keen to see the world and the arrival of foreign guest tutors at his school only reinforced those desires. But it was Swiss ballet teacher Hans Meister's visit to Hokkaido that proved to be a turning point in Kumakawa's nascent career. Meister encouraged him to travel and recommended that he attend the Royal Ballet School (RBS) in London or the Canadian National Ballet School. Kumakawa was just 15 years old when he left home to take up a place at the RBS. Less than two years later, in January 1989, he won both the Gold Medal and the newly established Prince Takamado Prize at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. He was without question the star of the competition, producing soaring leaps in a performance from 'Don Quixote'. In the spring of 1989 he turned professional, becoming the first Asian dancer to join the Royal Ballet Company (RBC) -- his first solo part was the leading mandolin player in \"Romeo and Juliet.\" In June he won the Classical Ballet Prize at the Eurovision Young Dancer of the Year competition held in Paris. Kumakawa experienced a meteoric rise through the ranks of the RBC. He quickly became a Soloist, dancing the Act 1 pas de trois in Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' and completed a memorable performance as the Bronze Idol in La Bayad\u00e8re -- a cameo role that showcased his extraordinary jumping ability. The following season he was chosen for the role of the Fool in the premiere of Kenneth Macmillan's 'The Prince and the Pagodas'. In 1991 he was promoted to First Soloist and was a Principal dancer by 1993. So developed a mutual love affair between Kumakawa, his new fans and his adoptive city. \"I was so pleased to participate in British culture,\" he told The Japan Times in 2004. By the age of 26 'Teddy', as he had become known to his friends in the UK -- 'kuma' means 'bear' in Japanese -- had danced the full repertoire of classical and modern roles at the RBC. The man who had wowed London audiences with his acrobatic jumps and audacious turns was about to leap into a new chapter of his life. In 1998 he left the Royal Ballet to found his own company -- the K-Ballet -- back home in Tokyo. It was a highly controversial move at the time. Not only had he upped sticks in the middle of a season, he also took five of the Royal Ballet's star male performers with him to Japan. The British Press and the ballet fraternity were not impressed. Greeted as a returning hero in his native country, Kumakawa took on the roles of leading dancer, teacher, artistic director and company manager simultaneously. But despite the formidable workload and responsibility the new K-Ballet flourished, fostering a wider interest in Japanese ballet. In 2004, Kumakawa established the K-Ballet School. The same year, the K-Ballet became the first Japanese ballet company to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. A career-threatening knee injury, suffered whilst on a K-Ballet tour of Japan in May 2007 has temporarily sidelined Kumakawa from performing. But he expects to be back on stage next year, delighting audiences with virtuoso performances once again. In the meantime, Kumakawa -- who continues to enjoy pop star status in Japan -- continues to pass on his expertise to a new generation of dancers. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The greatest Japanese dancer is known as \"Teddy\" to friends and fans .\nExperienced a meteoric rise through the ranks at the Royal Ballet, London .\nControversially left the Covent Garden stage to form his own company .","id":"068d37f7a1ee822245dbf9d0d8ddfc281919d7ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least three tornadoes caused massive damage in Virginia and injured more than 200 people on Monday, officials said. This Suffolk, Virginia, house was destroyed by an apparent tornado Monday. At least 200 were injured in Suffolk where a twister destroyed several homes and businesses, said Bob Spieldenner of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. The storm hit the 138-bed Sentara Obici Hospital, though Spieldenner said the facility was still operational and accepting patients. A second tornado struck Colonial Heights -- about 60 miles northwest, near Richmond -- injuring at least 18 people, he said. A third twister damaged several homes near Lawrenceville, about 70 miles south of Richmond, said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, which confirmed all three tornadoes. Gov. Tim Kaine declared a Virginia-wide state of emergency as hazardous weather continued through the central part of the state. The Suffolk twister touched down just before 4 p.m. ET and plowed its way east into Norfolk, damaging scores of homes, stores and cars and downing dozens of trees and power lines, Jackson said. Watch as a witness describes the tornado form \u00bb . Video footage from the scene showed roofs torn off homes, cars flipped over, trees snapped in two and a caved-in section of a newly constructed shopping center. Furniture, fences and mounds of other debris were tossed in streets, parking lots and lawns. Watch the storm's massive destruction from the air \u00bb . A tornado warning over the area remained in effect Monday evening. Jeff Judkins, the city's emergency management coordinator, said there also were reports of people trapped inside cars. It's the worst damage he's seen in the area, he said. An emergency shelter will be established by Monday night, Suffolk spokeswoman Dana Woodson said. Officials initially reported a fatality, but later determined that it was unrelated to the storm, she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Injuries in Suffolk, where a tornado destroyed homes and businesses .\nA second tornado struck Colonial Heights injuring at least 18, an official said .\nVideo shows roofs torn off, cars flipped, trees snapped in half .\nA third twister damaged several homes near Lawrenceville .","id":"bb1e2c23f3fc6edb0ee4bed365cb5567c87a5aa9"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- In the words of Vice President John Nance Garner, the vice presidency \"isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss.\" Vice President Aaron Burr is best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. That may be true, but the characters who've held the job are definitely worth a few good pages of trivia. Join mental_floss in toasting seven backup plans that made this country great. 1. Chester Arthur: James Garfield's V.P. Chester Arthur took office under the thickest cloud of suspicion. As a lieutenant in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political machine, Arthur held one of the most lucrative positions in government: collector for the port of New York. For seven years, Arthur raked in approximately $40,000 annually (about $700,000 today), running a corrupt spoils system for thousands of payroll employees. With so much money and power, Arthur developed an affinity for fancy clothes and earned the nickname \"the Gentleman Boss.\" But his luck didn't last. President Rutherford Hayes eventually stepped in and fired him from the post. Even with the kickback scandal and claims that he'd been born in Canada (which should've disqualified him for the vice presidency), Arthur still managed to get elected on James Garfield's 1880 ticket. After Garfield passed away 199 days into his presidency, Arthur didn't hesitate to sign the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. Much to the chagrin of Conkling, the Act revamped civil service by effectively killing the same patronage system that made Arthur very, very rich. In cleaning up civil service, Arthur also cleaned up his reputation, and he exited the White House a hero. 2. Henry Wallace: Franklin Roosevelt's second V.P. Henry Wallace was a dedicated devotee of Eastern mysticism. While serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1930s, he allegedly sent his guru to Mongolia under the pretense of collecting grasses that could withstand drought. In reality, Wallace was diverting funds to help his guru hunt for evidence that Christ had visited Asia. But it wasn't Wallace's spiritual beliefs that landed him America's No. 2 job. Wallace was a big Franklin Roosevelt fan and supported his entire platform, which is why Roosevelt handpicked him as his third-term running mate in 1940. Wallace wasn't popular with the Democratic Party, but when Roosevelt made it clear he wouldn't run without him, the party acquiesced. As vice president, Wallace made many international goodwill trips. Most famously, he traveled to the Soviet Union, where he experienced a political transformation that resulted in him becoming an avowed Soviet apologist. His communist leanings did nothing for his image, especially once he became secretary of commerce under President Truman. In 1948, Wallace unsuccessfully ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket, espousing views that sounded shockingly Marxist. He even described corporations as \"midget Hitlers\" attempting to crush the labor class. But nobody can say Wallace didn't know how to own up to his mistakes. In 1952, he recanted his support of the Soviet Union in a magazine article called \"Where I was Wrong.\" By then, however, his political career was over. Wallace spent the rest of his life conducting agricultural experiments on his farm in New York. 3. William Rufus de Vane King: Franklin Pierce's V.P. William R. King was sworn into office in Cuba, becoming the only executive officer to take the oath on foreign soil. King had gone to Cuba to recuperate from tuberculosis and severe alcoholism, but it didn't work. He died in 1853 after being vice president for just 25 days. That might not be the most memorable thing about King, though. It's widely rumored that the former V.P. was homosexual. Further still, he's suspected of being James Buchanan's lover. Neither King nor Buchanan ever married, and they lived together in Washington for 15 years before Buchanan became president. Of course, King's predilection for wearing scarves and wigs only fanned the rumors. President Andrew Jackson used to call him \"Miss Nancy,\" and Aaron Brown, a fellow Southern Democrat, dubbed him \"Aunt Fancy.\" 4. Richard M. Johnson: Martin Van Buren's V.P. Despite his credentials as a war hero and a Kentucky senator, Vice President Richard M. Johnson was never accepted in Washington. Perhaps that's because he dressed like a farmhand, cursed like a sailor, and made no secret of his three black mistresses, who were also his slaves. The first mistress bore him two daughters before she passed away; the second tried to run off with a Native American chief, but Johnson captured and resold her; and the third was the second one's sister. Johnson attempted to introduce this third mistress into polite society, but the couple wasn't well-received. With the support of Andrew Jackson, Johnson landed the vice presidency under Martin Van Buren in 1836. After four years of public relations disasters, Jackson withdrew his support. Nonetheless, Van Buren kept Johnson on his ticket, and the two lost their re-election bid in 1840. 5. Aaron Burr: Thomas Jefferson's V.P. No story on vice presidents would be complete without Aaron Burr -- best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. After the incident, Burr went back to presiding over the Senate. From there, he plotted a treasonous conspiracy to become emperor of the western United States and Mexico. The plan could have worked, but one of Burr's co-conspirators ratted him out. He was tried in 1807 before the Supreme Court, which found him not guilty, mainly because he hadn't actually committed the treason yet. A free man, Burr turned his sights on Florida. He went to France and tried to convince Napoleon Bonaparte to help him conquer the swampland, but that plan foundered, too. Although his political high jinks often failed, Burr consistently found success with the ladies. After his wife died in 1794, Burr remained a bachelor for 40 years, making the acquaintance of several eligible socialites. He enjoyed flirtations with Philadelphia debutantes, as well as a widow named Dolley Payne Todd -- later known as Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison. At age 76, Burr married a wealthy widow of ill-repute and plundered her fortune. Citing numerous infidelities on his part, she filed for divorce and was actually granted it. Unfortunately for her, it came through on the day Burr died. 6. Andrew Johnson: Abraham Lincoln's 4th V.P. Andrew Johnson took his 1865 vice-presidential oath drunk as a skunk and belligerent as hell. Having grown up dirt poor, Johnson felt the aristocracy in Washington had abused his kinfolk. Glassy-eyed and smelling of whiskey, he reminded Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and pretty much everyone within hearing distance that they owed their positions to \"plebeians\" such as himself, then kissed the Bible and staggered away. Needless to say, his address was poorly received. The New York World opined, \"To think that one frail life stands between this insolent, clownish creature and the presidency! May God bless and spare Abraham Lincoln!\" Unfortunately, God didn't. The South surrendered six days before Lincoln's assassination, leaving Johnson to handle Reconstruction -- a job he bungled so completely that Congress moved to impeach him. Incredibly, Johnson avoided being booted out of office by just one vote. 7. John Cabell Breckenridge: James Buchanan's V.P. By all accounts, John C. Breckenridge was a Kentucky gentleman in the grandest sense. He had an impressive career as a lawyer and a representative in the Kentucky House. More notably, at age 36, he became the youngest vice president in history. But, like Aaron Burr, things took a turn for Breckenridge when he was charged with treason. In September 1861, only a few months after his vice presidential term had ended, Union and Confederate forces invaded his home state of Kentucky. Breckenridge cast his lot with the Confederates, and the federal government promptly indicted him. Breckenridge headed south and became Jefferson Davis' secretary of war. But when the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, Breckenridge was forced to go on the lam. He hid for the next two months in Georgia and Florida before escaping to Cuba. Breckinridge, his wife, and their children spent the next four years in exile, wandering through Canada, England, Europe, and the Middle East, until President Andrew Johnson issued a General Amnesty Proclamation on Christmas in 1868. The following March, Breckenridge returned to the country with his family, but his name wasn't officially cleared until 1958, when a Kentucky circuit court judge dismissed his indictment. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Chester Arthur maintained lucrative employment as the collector for port of NY .\nAndrew Johnson took his 1865 vice-presidential oath drunk and belligerent as hell .\nAaron Burr tried to conspire with Napoleon to conquer Florida, but failed .\nBoth Aaron Burr and John Breckenridge were charged with treason .","id":"7c72b57e65ddefc77362ed64f7dbc0aebb87ac81"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 19-year-old woman whose hospitalization exposed a shocking Austrian incest case is recovering well and wants to see the ocean and a pop concert, her doctors and a family lawyer said Wednesday. Dr. Albert Reiter, who treated Kerstin, is confident Kerstin will make a full recovery in time. She and other children who were held captive for years are slowly adapting to modern life, they said. Kerstin Fritzl, whom doctors placed in an artificial coma after she was admitted to a hospital in April for multiple organ failure, is now well enough to speak, stand and walk with assistance, her doctors said. Doctors said that \"little novelties\" such as seeing a cloud go by are now big events for the former captives. Kerstin has said she wants to see the ocean and go to a concert by British singer Robbie Williams, said Dr. Berhold Kepplinger, director of the clinic where the family is living. He described how excited Kerstin was to hear Robbie Williams songs in her hospital room and said she was moving around to the music so much that doctors had to quiet her down. It was then, Kepplinger said, that doctors became confident Kerstin can become fully healthy and develop normally. Her immune system has improved, and she is continuing to have physiotherapy, including strengthening exercises, he said. Watch doctors describe what happened when the teen opened her eyes \u00bb . The two parts of her family -- those who were locked in a basement, like Kerstin, and those who lived above ground, apparently unaware of the abuse of their mother and siblings -- are getting to know each other again, the doctors and the family's lawyer said. \"We are so glad that things have turned out so positively so far,\" said lawyer Christoph Herbst, who appeared at a news conference at a hotel near Amstetten, west of Vienna, where Kerstin and her family are recovering. Kerstin is the oldest daughter of an incestuous relationship between Elisabeth, 43, and Elisabeth's father, Josef Fritzl, 73, according to police. He is awaiting trial. Police say he confessed to holding Elisabeth captive since 1984 and raping her repeatedly, fathering seven children with her. Six of the children survived. Kerstin fell unconscious in April, and Elisabeth convinced her father that she needed urgent medical attention. Kerstin was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, where staff grew suspicious and called police, who opened an investigation and uncovered the abuse. Kerstin was suffering from kidney, lung, and liver failure when she arrived at the hospital, said Dr. Albert Reiter, director of the hospital. Doctors were able to turn her health around, but they kept her in a coma with artificial respiration for weeks, he said. Doctors started reducing Kerstin's medication May 12, allowing her to emerge from the coma, he said. Three days later, she opened her eyes and smiled at her carers, he said, and doctors were soon able to take the breathing tube from her throat. Her mother was at Kerstin's bedside regularly, and doctors credited that with helping Kerstin's health improve. On Sunday, Kerstin finally met with other family members and was able to say hello to them, he said. Kerstin and the rest of the family were also able to move into an apartment at a regional clinic nearby. \"It was a special moment where, walking, we were able to support her and cross the threshold into a new house and into a new life,\" Reiter said. Kerstin and two of her brothers, ages 18 and 5, had spent their entire lives trapped in the cellar with their mother, never seeing daylight. A television was their only contact with the outside world. The other three children Josef Fritzl fathered with Elisabeth were taken as infants to live above ground with Fritzl and his wife, who says she had no idea her daughter was being held captive. In recent weeks, the wife and the three children have had several meetings with Kerstin and the others formerly held in the basement. The doctors said that all are receiving therapy and are getting to know each other. \"It is clear that [the two sides] have a different temper of life,\" Kepplinger said. \"These different ways of living, the two parts of the family, still have to come to some agreement.\" Still, the entire family is \"very happy\" to be reunited, Herbst said. \"This is an incredible drawing-near to each other. There is incredible joy among them,\" he said. \"It is wonderful to see the way they are living together.\" He appealed to the public and the media to give the family privacy. There continues to be \"big ambivalence\" about the \"grandfather issue,\" as Kepplinger called it, and therapists are helping the family members cope with the complicated relationship they have with each other and with Fritzl, who is now behind bars.","highlights":"Daughter of Austrian incest victim reunited with family, expected to make full recovery .\nKerstin Fritzl, 19, has spent her entire life in cellar .\nThe dungeon was uncovered after she was taken to hospital with illness .\nJosef Fritzl, 73, has allegedly confessed to incestuous relationship with teen's mom .","id":"37a335b36b8d2472825c4624e5449b995726b7a3"} -{"article":"In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Keith Oppenheim is covering the controversy in Irving, Texas over authorities' efforts to find illegal immigrants. IRVING, Texas -- I certainly don't think I look like a cop. With a blue blazer, and scruffy khakis I take into the field, I have that look of a reporter who's trying to dress up just enough to be professional, but no more. Protesters in Irving, Texas, demonstrate against a program that checks the immigration status of anyone arrested. So, it came as a surprise to me when I learned some Latino men, day laborers who were standing around and hoping to get some work, thought I was a federal immigration officer. \"You thought I was from immigration?\" I asked one. \"Si\", the man replied. My producer, Patricia Pedraza, translated the rest. \"The fear is with both immigration and the police. Now you cannot trust absolutely anybody.\" In Irving, Texas, a Dallas suburb of about 200,000 people, right next to the big airport, an estimated 40 percent of the city is Latino, and anecdotally, we're told there are a lot of undocumented workers here, people who are in the U.S. illegally, but clearly don't view themselves as criminals. \"They take innocent people, they think we're all the same,\" another undocumented worker told me. The fear is a reaction to what's called the Criminal Alien Program. Since September of last year, Irving police started to refer anyone arrested in their community to federal authorities, who check their immigration status. \"It's only for people who have violated Texas laws, and are arrested and brought into the Irving jail,\" said Larry Boyd, Irving's police chief. As a result, referrals for deportations have shot up to 1,600, more than 40 times the number from the year before. Statistics from police show that while some of those referrals were for people who committed serious crimes, the majority were a result of misdemeanors and traffic warrants. Many sources told me that a growing number of Latinos here are afraid to drive. The risk is being caught with a suspended license, going to jail and getting deported. See the effect the program has had on Irving \u00bb . But if some in the Latino community are lying low, advocates for immigrants are speaking out -- accusing the city and police of targeting Latinos without cause. \"We believe the Criminal Alien Program is fundamentally wrong,\" says Carlos Quintanilla, an activist. \"That there is racial profiling going on.\" The city's mayor, Herbert Gears, disagrees. He says police are not taking on the role of immigration officers. \"We will make sure people are being treated fairly,\" he said. \"That people aren't being pulled over because of the color of their skin.\" As I spent more time in Irving, I came to realize that outside the large Latino community, there is broad support for the program. \"You have to start somewhere,\" said Sheik Shah, an Irving resident who emigrated to the U.S. from India and is now an American citizen. \"Because right now, we have so many loopholes for people to come in here and work illegally.\" Some were more direct. I read from two tall stacks of printed e-mail addressed to the City Council, which were overwhelmingly supported the Criminal Alien Program. One read: \"Please help deport all illegals. What part of illegal do they not understand?\" Another: \"Thank God some people are doing something about this invasion.\" In the end, Irving is in the middle of a profound disagreement, between those who feel it's wrong to refer people to immigration authorities for nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors, and those who believe illegal immigration has gone too far -- that something has to be done. As Irving City Council member Beth Van Duyne told me: \"We need to know who is in our city. If you're committing a crime, we need to know who you are. I don't think that's too much to ask.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Illegal immigrants say they fear new crackdown .\nAuthorities running immigration checks on all people arrested in Irving .\nDeportations up sharply since crackdown began .","id":"da894eb6e5cc104f90ac65e8a124bfcfbfc6578d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Ohio distributor is recalling about 6 million Chinese-made tire valve stems after concluding that some of them were improperly made and could increase the risk of accidents. An Ohio distributor is recalling 6 million Chinese-made car tire valve stems. Tech International, the part's Johnstown, Ohio-based distributor, estimates that just 8,600 of roughly 6 million of those valves are defective. The valve is a replacement snap-in tire valve -- Model No. TR413 -- manufactured between July and November 2006. It was imported by Tech International from manufacturer Shanghai Baolong Industries Co. in Shanghai, China, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the recall, the rubber part of the valve may crack after being in use for about six months, causing a gradual loss of tire pressure. Continuing to drive on underinflated tires can cause them to burst, possibly leading to crashes. Tech International told the NHTSA that the company doesn't have records of the final purchasers of the valve stems. According to the company, the defect was identified after \"a small number\" of the valves were reported by customers and one distributor to have failed. The samples were shipped to China, and, in March, Baolong concluded that some valves could be defective. \"The cause of the defect is likely improper mixing of the rubber compound in the manufacturer's facility,\" Tech International wrote in a letter to the transportation safety authority.","highlights":"Ohio-based distributor says valves aren't working properly, could cause accidents .\nTech International estimates that just 8,600 of 6 million are defective .\nSnap-in tire valve, Model TR413, was made between July and November 2006 .\nContinuing to drive on underinflated tires can cause them to burst .","id":"b7697e424512e656efe5f2aca17bc33cfe0a2b20"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- It takes a truly adventurous actress to pull off a razored Mohawk, a platinum pixie and a Louise Brooks bob, but we'd expect nothing less from the ever provocative Selma Blair, who experimented with all three looks in under a year. Selma Blair says she works with hairstylists and makeup artists who \"have a vision.\" \"I have no fears when it comes to my hair or clothes,\" proclaims the 36-year-old star of NBC's upcoming mom-and-daughter sitcom \"Kath and Kim\" and July's action flick \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army.\" Makeup, however, is an entirely different matter for the self-declared \"poor applier,\" who sticks with basics like nude lipstick and pink blush, and ducks whenever she sees a liquid liner. \"I avoid anything difficult,\" she says. Blair's signature look: \"A rosy cheek, a smudgy eye, a lot of mascara--I look like a doll that has too much makeup on, and I love it!\" Have you always been a beauty chameleon? In high school I would mess with my hair and makeup all the time. I used to wear a shirt that said \"Ms. Clairol\" because I changed my hair color so much. I was blond for a long time, then what my mom called \"barnyard red.\" Do you still dye it yourself? Only when I have to cover up stray grays. And I'll just use whatever color I find in the grocery store that looks good on the box, like Preference by L'Or\u00e9al--because I'm worth it [laughs]. But for my platinum hair, I went to Sheri at Rom\u00e1n Salon in L.A. She was a saint. I had just dyed my hair dark brown, so she had to very slowly strip out all the color so that my hair wouldn't burn off. And the cut--are you keeping it short? I tend to like my hair whatever way it's not, so now I miss it being long. I think I'm more approachable with long hair. When it's short, I come across as being artsy and weird. What's your typical makeup look? I used to wear a lot of red lipstick, and when I got a pimple, I'd cover it up with eyeliner to turn it into a beauty mark. But everything has changed since I hit 35. I'm at an age where any makeup that's meant to look \"slept in\" really looks like I slept in it. That's for youngsters! Now less is more. I don't like to wear concealer or anything. I'd rather have uneven skin than feel like my face is cracking from too much foundation. Then you must be serious about your skin care. I go to a spa in L.A. called Kinara for its Skin Care BootCamp. You go once a week for 12 sessions and they'll look at your skin and tell you how to get it in better condition. They really helped me a lot. I also stay out of the sun. Any thoughts on Botox or plastic surgery? I wanted to get Botox once to make me feel younger. But I don't really have [enough wrinkles] to justify it yet. As for going under the knife, I can't say I wouldn't, but I haven't thought too much about it. Best beauty product? Egyptian Magic cream is my saving grace for everything. It works for my friend's baby's bottom, and I can also use it instead of Chapstick. So what's next? I'm really excited about having a perma-tan and wearing long highlighted hair extensions for my role on \"Kath and Kim.\" And I've been gaining weight for the part by eating a little bit more of what I want and not moving around as much. I've already put on 15 pounds, and I'll probably gain another 10. It'll be a whole new me! Will this be your most drastic transformation? Actually I wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie. They were glued on every day by a really handsome guy, but ripping them off every night was definitely outside my realm of comfort. After those bosoms, I didn't mind being flat-chested anymore! Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Actress Selma Blair wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie .\nShe's gained at least 15 pounds for her role on \"Kath and Kim\"\nShe considered Botox but says she doesn't have enough wrinkles for it yet .\nBlair experimented with three completely different looks in less than a year .","id":"2292d4348e59aafbe93f3040af23fdff448a6cac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Census-takers are fanning out across Sudan this week in a landmark headcount meant to determine how to divide power and wealth in the war-weary African nation. A south Sudanese soldier keeps watch, with the threat of civil war still high in the war-torn country. The census is a key component of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a 22-year civil war which killed 2 million people and displaced an estimated 4 million others. The war pitted a government dominated by Arab Muslims in northern Sudan against black Christians and animists in the south. Delays in starting the census were among the reasons cited when southerners withdrew last year from a government of national unity. They rejoined the government two months later, but tension and occasional fighting near the disputed territory of Abyei has threatened to reignite the civil war. \"God forbid, that's a distinct possibility,\" said Andebrhan Giorgis, senior policy adviser for Africa for the International Crisis Group, a non-profit organization that seeks to prevent and resolve crisis. \"It's quite worrisome.\" North-south tensions have worsened even as international attention has focused more on persistent violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where roughly 300,000 people have been killed since 2003 in a campaign of killing, rape and displacement that the U.S. calls genocide. Results from the national census, which began Tuesday, will be used to establish electoral districts and determine political representation in a national assembly, Giorgis said. \"It's an important milestone,\" he told CNN on Wednesday. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudan also hailed the census as vital, in a statement Tuesday. The census is key to establishing voting districts in advance of national elections scheduled for 2009. It is also critical in determining how oil wealth is to be shared between the north and south, who have a history of animosity and mistrust. It's unclear how census-takers will operate in Darfur - and how accurately they will be able to count the population there, Giorgis said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Census-takers fan out across Sudan this week in a landmark headcount .\nCount will be used to determine how power is shared in the war-torn country .\nNorth-south tensions continue to simmer, threatening the return of civil war .","id":"8ed7e0c5e15275537f2c1d5d945e95709d7dc6bf"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Ethnic fighting once again engulfed Kenya's western Rift Valley on Sunday as witnesses and Red Cross officials reported brutal attacks by members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe on other ethnic groups. Police attempt to secure a street in Naivasha, where violence flared on Sunday. The violence spread to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha on Sunday, where the Red Cross said there were reports of people being burned alive in their homes. Kenya's main opposition party and the Red Cross said as many as 30 people were killed. Ethnic killings continued in the nearby Rift Valley town of Nakuru, where another 47 people have died since the latest wave of violence began on Thursday, according to the opposition Orange Democratic Movement. The opposition death toll is much higher than police figures, which do not include Sunday's violence in Naivasha. Police say 31 people have died in the Rift Valley region since last Thursday. Watch CNN's Zain Verjee report on the violence \u00bb . In a statement released Sunday, ODM leader Raila Odinga condemned reports of 30 people being burned alive in their Naivasha homes and blamed the Kibaki government for fomenting the violence in the region. \"I condemn this murderous and evil act in the strongest terms possible,\" he said. \"What is now emerging is that criminal gangs, in a killing spree, working under police protection, are part of a well-orchestrated plan of terror.\" It is a dramatic turn of events, considering Odinga was shaking Kibaki's hand three days ago after the two met under the auspices of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Many had hoped Thursday's meeting, arranged by Annan who is mediating peace efforts, would bring an end to the outbreak of bloody ethnic battles that followed last month's contested presidential vote. But it seems to have had the opposite effect. Odinga blamed Kibaki's government for orchestrating the Rift Valley violence \"to try to influence mediation efforts\" and \"to divert (attention) from election malpractice to security and violence.\" \"After stealing the elections from Kenyans, Kibaki now wishes to deny them justice and peace,\" Odinga said. A Red Cross official said the agency had received reports of a non-Kikuyu family burned to death in their house in Naivasha. Television footage showed a man in the back of a police vehicle covered in blood with a large machete wound on the side of his head. Kenyan police dispersed large gangs and cleared rocks littering the streets of the lakeside town, which is dominated by Kikuyu. Tree branches, heavy boulders and oil drums littered the streets of Naivasha's town center as the Kikuyu gangs erected temporary road blocks, CNN correspondent Zain Verjee reported. She said the atmosphere was tense as the gangs checked cars to identify rival tribes. Verjee said there was a heavy police presence on the outskirts of the town. Some shops remained open but the town center was almost deserted except for the roaming gangs. It was a similar situation in Nakuru on Sunday, where ODM member the Rev. Mike Brawan said members of the Kikuyu tribe \"are flushing out the non-Kikuyus from their houses.\" He said Kikuyus are going house-to-house, attacking civilians who are not members of the tribe, as well as looting and burning their property. Police, he said, \"are not doing much.\" Brawan said he saw homes burned and people hacked to death in the violence. \"They just die with a lot of pain,\" he said. It is estimated -- depending on the source -- that between 500 and 1,000 people have been killed in the violence that followed the December 27 election in which Kibaki kept his post. Odinga, the OMD candidate for president, and his supporters claim the election was rigged. International observers noted some irregularities in the voting. Fighting, centered in western Kenya and Nairobi's slums, broke out between tribes loyal to Kibaki and Odinga after Kibaki was declared the winner of recent elections. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Zain Verjee and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Red Cross reports people being burned alive .\nEthnic fighting kills 47 people since Thursday in western Kenya, opposition says .\nViolence follows meeting between President Kibaki and opposition leader .\nMore than 500 people have been killed in violence that followed the election .","id":"6b22be31a2cefb2fdd302b8ff788335f23f5dbad"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Flight attendant Sheela Joshi is 5 feet, 4 inches and 148 pounds. Air India has strict weight parameters that all attendants must meet. When they don't, the airline grounds them. Her employer, Air India, says she is too fat to fly. Joshi, 50, has been an air hostess -- as they are still called in India -- for the national airline for 26 years. But she's been grounded because the airline has done away with its wiggle room on weight. Until two years ago, Air India allowed an attendant's weight to vary within 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms) of a specified limit. It has since put in place strict weight parameters that all attendants must meet. When they don't, the airline grounds them without pay until they shed the excess pounds. The airline says that someone who is Sheila's age, height and weight should weigh 143 pounds (65 kilograms). She misses the mark by 5 pounds. \"It's very demoralizing,\" Joshi told CNN. \"And ... it's quite humiliating.\" \"Weight is always on my mind,\" she added. \"They can tell you, 'You look overweight. Please go.'\" Joshi and 12 other grounded attendants sued the airline for weight discrimination. Air India fought back, saying the employees knew the job requirements when they signed up and didn't express concern. Watch airline defend its position \u00bb . Furthermore, it said, appearance and physical fitness are vital parts of an attendant's job. \"(A) safety concern is also there,\" said Air India's lawyer, Rupinder Singh Suri. \"Because it's a high action job. And in case of emergencies, the person has to accelerate and move at a very, very fast pace.\" Weight used to be a consideration for airlines in the United States, as well. Then, a series of weight-discrimination lawsuits forced carriers to do away with it. Now \"most airlines want candidates with weight proportionate to height,\" according to the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Outlook Handbook. In the India case, the airline hasn't deemed any of the attendants medically unfit -- just over the weight limit. Their attorney contends the move is actually about getting rid of older, well-compensated women in favor of younger ones who will do the job for less money. \"They have spent their entire life working for Indian airlines,\" said lawyer Arvind Sharma. \"They were small girls when they came in now. They are 45-plus and they feel bad.\" The Delhi High Court recently sided with Air India in the case. Joshi's attorney has vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, Joshi and some of her colleagues say they aren't taking any chances. They are going on diets to get airborne again.","highlights":"Until two years ago, Air India allowed an attendant's weight to vary within 6.6 pounds .\nWeight-discrimination lawsuits forced U.S. carriers to do away with weight limits .\nIn India, the attendants are not deemed medically unfit -- just over the weight limit .","id":"686caba1039a286aca406e0bbac00aebb198fda5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Turkey snatched a last-gasp winner to eliminate Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland and keep their own quarterfinal hopes alive with a 2-1 victory in rain-drenched Basel on Wednesday night. Patrick Mueller, left, and Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio battle for the ball with Arda Turan of Turkey. Arda Turan scored with a deflected effort in the third minute of time added on to set up a Group A finale against the Czech Republic on Sunday to determine who takes the second quarterfinal place behind Portugal. The Turks came from behind after Hakan Yakin gave the Swiss a 32nd-minute lead, with substitute striker Semih Senturk heading a 57th-minute equalizer through the hands of goalkeeper Diego Benaglio. The St Jakob Park stadium had been flooded by a deluge early in the match, with the downpour continuing until just before half-time. The treacherous conditions made defending a nightmare for both teams, and Arda almost put Turkey ahead in the 29th minute with a farcical effort. With minimal visibility in the heavy rain, Benaglio punched a vicious free-kick by stand-in captain Nihat Kahveci onto the head of the 21-year-old winger -- but the ball bounced to safety off the outside of the post. However, it was the Swiss who adapted the better and they took the lead through the veteran Yakin. He was on hand to awkwardly steer home from close range with his weaker right foot after Eren Derdiyok -- who like Yakin is of Turkish origin -- beat the offside trap to collect a long pass from defender Philippe Senderos. Derdiyok calmly check inside the defense in the penalty area and sent a low cross towards Yakin -- who had to wait anxiously at the far post as the ball was held up in a huge puddle of water. Yakin had earlier been denied by Turkey goalkeeper Volkan Demirel, who also did well to tip a swerving free-kick by Tranquillo Barnetta around the post. Yakin also missed an even easier chance than the goal he scored in the 34th minute when he stabbed the ball wide of the post following a superb right-wing cross by Valon Behrami which cut out the defense and goal custodian. Turkey, sensing a lucky escape, came out after the break with renewed purpose and posed a greater threat as the pitch slowly drained of the excess water. Semih justified his second-half introduction when he rose highest to meet Nihat's superb inswinging cross from the left flank, and Benaglio could only palm the powerful header into the back of the net. Tempers flared as both sides went in search of the victory, but there was no repeat of the violent scenes that followed Switzerland's World Cup playoff victory against the Turks in November 2005. Volkan made another superb save from Yakin, and Turkey held off the Swiss onslaught before Arda cut in from the right and fired a shot from just outside the penalty area which clipped the heels of Patrick Mueller and looped over the helpless Benaglio. \"I did wish for rain to stop. I did pray to God for that,\" Turkey coach Fatih Terim told reporters. \"We couldn't predict mud in the middle of the summer. \"It's not easy to come back from a goal down at the European Championship, considering we hit the woodwork once. But we fought a lot in the second half and we created many opportunities.\" He added: \"Tonight we reminded everyone a little bit about Turkey. Against the Czech Republic, we will be unforgettable.\" Defeat was a bitter blow for Switzerland, whose fellow co-hosts Austria will also be eliminated on Thursday if they lose to Poland in Vienna. \"Of course the disappointment is huge,\" Switzerland coach Koebi Kuhn said. \"But I can't blame it on any player or anyone else. We lost twice unluckily.\"","highlights":"Turkey eliminate Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland with 2-1 win in rain-hit Basel .\nMatch marred by torrential downpour which left the ground waterlogged .\nArda Turan scores deflected winner in the third minute of time added on .\nTurks must now beat Czech Republic in final Group A match to qualify .","id":"3c84e13d5941fdbe626183cdf1dca9b5df6c8f92"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's former king said Wednesday he is not going to leave his country even though the monarchy has been abolished. Gyanendra came to power in 2001 following the assassination of King Birendra and his family. Ex-King Gyanendra, 60, made remarks to reporters before departing the Narayanhiti royal palace in Kathmandu. He will live as a civilian in the former Himalayan kingdom that was made a republic last month, and he will reside in a summer palace on a forested hilltop outside the capital. A few hundred journalists crammed into the opulent palace's lobby entrance to hear Gyanendra's remarks. It was a chaotic and undeferential scene replete with pushing, shoving and scuffling -- even while the former monarch was speaking. While the former king spoke, reporters looked around at the lavish furnishings, including a huge crystal chandelier, stuffed tigers, stuffed rhino heads mounted on the walls and paintings of previous monarchs. Gyanendra, who expressed his \"love\" for \"independent Nepal,\" said all of his property will remain in the country and that he has no property outside the nation. \"I have no intention or thoughts to leave the country,\" he said. \"I will stay in the country to help establish peace.\" The monarchy's end after 239 years of rule was the culmination of a two-year peace process in which Maoist insurgents in Nepal gave up their armed struggle, joined mainstream politics and won the most seats in April's election for the Constituent Assembly. The assembly is tasked with rewriting the constitution, deciding the country's future political system and governing the nation. Gyanendra, who noted that the country is going through a \"serious\" stage now, said he accepts the new reality of a republic and reflected on the actions of the monarchy. \"I have done all I can to cooperate with (the government's) directives,\" he said, and added that \"the monarchy in Nepal has always been with the people of Nepal in good times and bad times.\" Gyanendra came to power in 2001 when his brother, King Birendra, and his family were massacred in the palace by the crown prince, who later shot himself. Gyanendra on Wednesday denied rumors that he had played a role in that event. The ex-monarch also discussed events of 2005, when he he took over the civilian government to take on the Maoist insurgency, an unpopular move that sparked protests. He said he hopes people \"understand\" he didn't intend to infringe on any of the rights of the people. He left the palace by a side entrance with pro-royalists and pro-republicans gathered outside to see his departure. His car had to stop momentarily as journalists took pictures of him. Gyanendra's royal scepter and a crown of peacock feathers, yak hair and jewels remain in the palace and have been handed over to the government. -- From CNN's Dan Rivers and Manesh Shrestha .","highlights":"Former king will live as a civilian in a summer palace outside capital .\nGyanendra: Will stay in the country to help establish peace .\nLeft palace by side entrance while officials gathered outside to see his departure .\nAssembly tasked with rewriting the constitution, deciding future political system .","id":"7f5fd7614f32586747f65545bebba418c3679d12"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nothing says true love like releasing a caged butterfly, don't you think? Wayne Rooney and Coleen McLoughlin are to be paid $5 million for the picture rights to their wedding. The butterflies are reported to be the piece-de-resistance of England's most anticipated celebrity wedding of the year. Wayne Rooney, the best English footballer of his generation, and Coleen McLoughlin, his High School sweetheart, were to marry in an estimated $10 million ceremony in Italy Thursday. As they kiss, guests are apparently meant to open boxes and release the butterflies. The moment has been pilloried widely in the British media, tacky and over the top they all think, but is it just sour grapes? It has been a long and, at times, bumpy road for the couple to the altar. One littered with fierce criticism from the British press, which has enjoyed nothing more than lampooning Rooney and McLoughlin for being 'common.' The Daily Mail once even asked: \"Is this Britain's ghastliest couple?\" Rooney has been dubbed \"Shrek\" and \"Mr Potato Head\" due to his looks and his background as the son of a school dinner lady who grew up on a council estate is often referred to in a disparaging way. McLoughlin, meanwhile, has been subjected to page upon page of bitter stories about her weight, shopping sprees and her lack of closeness to Victoria Beckham. There has also been fierce criticism over the fact she has managed to become a millionaire in her own right. It's all down to Rooney apparently, and nothing to do with her appearing to be quite a decent person, who did well at school and has cleverly managed to parlay some of her fame into various media and advertising projects. Anyone who has seen her television show -- Coleen's Real Women -- can see she is a decent, bubbly person, who is very good at putting people at ease. Much to the media's fury, the couple have sold the rights to cover the wedding to OK magazine for a record $5 million. However they're not pocketing all the cash themselves, with an undisclosed sum from the fee to be donated to the Claire House children's hospice in Cheshire -- where McLoughlin's disabled foster sister Rosie is cared for. The queen's grandson, Peter Phillips and his bride Autumn Kelly, recently received $1m from Hello magazine to cover their wedding but they didn't receive an eighth of the opprobrium now directed at the more generous, but lower class, Rooney and McLoughlin. Moreover, in lieu of presents, Rooney and McLoughlin have also asked guests to donate money to the Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool. The wedding might be over the top, with a private yacht and luxury jet for guests (they are covering the guests' costs), expensive plonk and a $200,000 wedding dress, but at least the couple have worked hard for what they have. Their success despite a working-class background appears to be the greatest source of frustration for critics. It's just not on that someone who wasn't born into privilege and didn't go to a posh school can enjoy their wealth. That would be ugly. If anything, the couple's relationship and success is a triumph over adversity. They have known each other since McLoughlin was 12, but she spent two years fending off Rooney's entreaties to go out on a date. He finally got his chance when he saw her struggling to fix a broken bicycle chain. He rode over to help, popped the question again and got a yes. Surely they should be congratulated for creating their own modern fairytale complete with butterflies? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"English football star Wayne Rooney and sweetheart marry in lavish ceremony .\nGlen Scanlon says media have launched bitter attacks on the couple .\nWorking-class background appears to be critics' greatest annoyance, he says .","id":"186210bbc060c272ff9a2412ec2e711a3e4a5e6e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nothing says true love like releasing a caged butterfly, don't you think? Wayne Rooney and Coleen McLoughlin are to be paid $5 million for the picture rights to their wedding. The butterflies are reported to be the piece-de-resistance of England's most anticipated celebrity wedding of the year. Wayne Rooney, the best English footballer of his generation, and Coleen McLoughlin, his High School sweetheart, were to marry in an estimated $10 million ceremony in Italy Thursday. As they kiss, guests are apparently meant to open boxes and release the butterflies. The moment has been pilloried widely in the British media, tacky and over the top they all think, but is it just sour grapes? It has been a long and, at times, bumpy road for the couple to the altar. One littered with fierce criticism from the British press, which has enjoyed nothing more than lampooning Rooney and McLoughlin for being 'common.' The Daily Mail once even asked: \"Is this Britain's ghastliest couple?\" Rooney has been dubbed \"Shrek\" and \"Mr Potato Head\" due to his looks and his background as the son of a school dinner lady who grew up on a council estate is often referred to in a disparaging way. McLoughlin, meanwhile, has been subjected to page upon page of bitter stories about her weight, shopping sprees and her lack of closeness to Victoria Beckham. There has also been fierce criticism over the fact she has managed to become a millionaire in her own right. It's all down to Rooney apparently, and nothing to do with her appearing to be quite a decent person, who did well at school and has cleverly managed to parlay some of her fame into various media and advertising projects. Anyone who has seen her television show -- Coleen's Real Women -- can see she is a decent, bubbly person, who is very good at putting people at ease. Much to the media's fury, the couple have sold the rights to cover the wedding to OK magazine for a record $5 million. However they're not pocketing all the cash themselves, with an undisclosed sum from the fee to be donated to the Claire House children's hospice in Cheshire -- where McLoughlin's disabled foster sister Rosie is cared for. The queen's grandson, Peter Phillips and his bride Autumn Kelly, recently received $1m from Hello magazine to cover their wedding but they didn't receive an eighth of the opprobrium now directed at the more generous, but lower class, Rooney and McLoughlin. Moreover, in lieu of presents, Rooney and McLoughlin have also asked guests to donate money to the Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool. The wedding might be over the top, with a private yacht and luxury jet for guests (they are covering the guests' costs), expensive plonk and a $200,000 wedding dress, but at least the couple have worked hard for what they have. Their success despite a working-class background appears to be the greatest source of frustration for critics. It's just not on that someone who wasn't born into privilege and didn't go to a posh school can enjoy their wealth. That would be ugly. If anything, the couple's relationship and success is a triumph over adversity. They have known each other since McLoughlin was 12, but she spent two years fending off Rooney's entreaties to go out on a date. He finally got his chance when he saw her struggling to fix a broken bicycle chain. He rode over to help, popped the question again and got a yes. Surely they should be congratulated for creating their own modern fairytale complete with butterflies? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"English football star Wayne Rooney and sweetheart marry in lavish ceremony .\nGlen Scanlon says media have launched bitter attacks on the couple .\nWorking-class background appears to be critics' greatest annoyance, he says .","id":"03392835ea832d7940082c421a21778c70701ff0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Croatia sent out a message of intent to the other Euro 2008 finalists as they stunned highly-fancied Germany 2-1 in Klagenfurt to secure a place in the quarterfinals. Ivicia Olic celebrates Croatia's second goal in their superb 2-1 victory over Germany. Darijo Srna and Ivica Olic struck the goals as Croatia, who had only ever beaten Germany once before, produced arguably the first major upset of the tournament. Lukas Podolski pulled a goal back late on for Germany with his third strike in two games to set up a nail-biting finale, but there was to be no way back for Joachim Loew's team, who finished with 10 men following the 90th-minute dismissal of substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger . Both sides came into the game having won their opening matches, although Germany had looked far more impressive in seeing off Poland than Croatia had in defeating Austria. However, it was Slaven Bilic's side who turned on the style at the Worthersee Stadion as they took control of Group B with two wins out of two. A frantic start to the match promised much but for all their huffing and puffing, neither side were able to create anything resembling a chance in the opening 20 minutes as defences held firm. The ball did find its way into the back of the net in the 22nd minute when Germany striker Mario Gomez slotted home past Stipe Pletikosa but the offside flag had already gone up against the Stuttgart man. The deadlock was broken for real just two minutes after that incident though, when Croatia went ahead through Srna. Danijel Pranjic sent over a superb cross from the left and Srna nipped in front of marker Marcell Jansen to slide the ball in at the far post, giving veteran Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann no chance. Croatia had a gilt-edged chance to make it 2-0 in the 30th minute, but Niko Kranjcar wasted it. Ivan Rakitic chipped a pass into the area which was flicked back towards the penalty spot by Olic, but the in-rushing Kranjcar was unable to cap a well-worked move as he blazed over. Germany knew they needed to step up through the gears and they finally made Pletikosa earn his keep with two efforts in rapid succession. The first saw Pletikosa push away a thunderous Michael Ballack free-kick, before the Spartak Moscow custodian awkwardly deflected away a Christoph Metzelder effort with his knee. Metzelder then headed a Torsten Frings corner just over from close range as the Germans stepped up their efforts for an equalizer before the break. However, Loew's side very nearly found themselves two goals behind in the 43rd minute, and they needed a fine reaction stop from Lehmann to deny Kranjcar, who chested down Olic's pass and smashed in a first-time volley. Having seen his side let off the hook, Loew opted for a more adventurous approach in the second half as he sacrificed full-back Jansen for jet-heeled winger David Odonkor during the interval. Aside from a Ballack shot over the crossbar though, Croatia looked fairly comfortable at the start of the period and also had a decent effort of their own with Luka Modric firing in a shot that Lehmann gathered, although not before seeing it squirm through his hands first. However, Lehmann's next task was to pick the ball out of the back of his net as Croatia stunned the Germans with a second goal in the 62nd minute. A Rakitic cross from the right took a deflection off Podolski before arrowing goalwards and although Lehmann, who had begun to come out for the initial cross, managed to dive backwards and get a hand on it, the ball struck his near post before rebounding back out to Olic, who had the easy task of slotting home. Germany looked for an immediate response but aside from a Schweinsteiger shot that fizzed across the face of goal, they were still finding it difficult to create chances against a well-organised Croatia backline. Loew's side earned themselves a lifeline with 12 minutes to go though when Podolski lashed home a shot on the half-volley after the ball had fallen kindly to him in the box. Germany could not build on that goal, though, and their final hopes of getting anything out of the match all but disappeared when Schweinsteiger was given a straight red card for shoving Jerko Leko in the final minute of an absorbing encounter. \"I want to especially congratulate my players, not only for the fight they showed but for playing an excellent match,\" said a delighted Bilic. \"There is no other way to beat the Germans than to play well. They're still a great team, though, and still one of the favorites for the title.\" Ballack said the Germans had to recognize they must improve. \"Our movement was not fluid enough throughout the match and as a consequence we eked out few chances. \"We played below our level in all departments. Now we absolutely have to win our last match against Austria,\" said the Chelsea midfielder.","highlights":"Croatia stun favorites Germany 2-1 in their Group B encounter in Klagenfurt .\nDarijo Srna and Ivica Olic both on target as Croatia make it two wins from two .\nLukas Podolski pulls goal back for Germany with his third strike in two games .","id":"e2b96982b60cbd10b39c1db4282023d0ac1f3f2a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Britain's Princess Eugenie has been reprimanded by her school after being caught frolicking naked on college grounds, it was reported Saturday. Princess Eugenie is sixth in line to the British throne. The 18-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah Ferguson, was apprehended for her involvement in end of term \"high jinks\" at the exclusive Marlborough College, west of London, the UK Press Association said. A royal source told the Press Association, \"It was nothing more than high jinks at the end of term in May. A group of them were reprimanded and that's the end of the matter.\" The tabloid Sun newspaper reported that a college staff member woke to playful shrieks and found several young women dancing around without clothes. It said there was no suggestion boys were present or that drugs were involved but claimed a pupil said the students had been drinking. Princess Eugenie, the sixth in line to the British throne, is studying art, history of art and English at the $46,000-a-year college, PA said. It said the princess was expected to be among guests celebrating the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday. A spokesman for the princess made no comment about the claims, PA reported.","highlights":"Britain's Princess Eugenie reprimanded for naked school frolic, reports say .\nSixth in line to British throne involved in end of term \"high jinks,\" insiders say .\nPrincess due to attend queen's official birthday celebrations .","id":"31310358d02c98abba71916e8cb4ef7477a2d82a"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- It takes a truly adventurous actress to pull off a razored Mohawk, a platinum pixie and a Louise Brooks bob, but we'd expect nothing less from the ever provocative Selma Blair, who experimented with all three looks in under a year. Selma Blair says she works with hairstylists and makeup artists who \"have a vision.\" \"I have no fears when it comes to my hair or clothes,\" proclaims the 36-year-old star of NBC's upcoming mom-and-daughter sitcom \"Kath and Kim\" and July's action flick \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army.\" Makeup, however, is an entirely different matter for the self-declared \"poor applier,\" who sticks with basics like nude lipstick and pink blush, and ducks whenever she sees a liquid liner. \"I avoid anything difficult,\" she says. Blair's signature look: \"A rosy cheek, a smudgy eye, a lot of mascara--I look like a doll that has too much makeup on, and I love it!\" Have you always been a beauty chameleon? In high school I would mess with my hair and makeup all the time. I used to wear a shirt that said \"Ms. Clairol\" because I changed my hair color so much. I was blond for a long time, then what my mom called \"barnyard red.\" Do you still dye it yourself? Only when I have to cover up stray grays. And I'll just use whatever color I find in the grocery store that looks good on the box, like Preference by L'Or\u00e9al--because I'm worth it [laughs]. But for my platinum hair, I went to Sheri at Rom\u00e1n Salon in L.A. She was a saint. I had just dyed my hair dark brown, so she had to very slowly strip out all the color so that my hair wouldn't burn off. And the cut--are you keeping it short? I tend to like my hair whatever way it's not, so now I miss it being long. I think I'm more approachable with long hair. When it's short, I come across as being artsy and weird. What's your typical makeup look? I used to wear a lot of red lipstick, and when I got a pimple, I'd cover it up with eyeliner to turn it into a beauty mark. But everything has changed since I hit 35. I'm at an age where any makeup that's meant to look \"slept in\" really looks like I slept in it. That's for youngsters! Now less is more. I don't like to wear concealer or anything. I'd rather have uneven skin than feel like my face is cracking from too much foundation. Then you must be serious about your skin care. I go to a spa in L.A. called Kinara for its Skin Care BootCamp. You go once a week for 12 sessions and they'll look at your skin and tell you how to get it in better condition. They really helped me a lot. I also stay out of the sun. Any thoughts on Botox or plastic surgery? I wanted to get Botox once to make me feel younger. But I don't really have [enough wrinkles] to justify it yet. As for going under the knife, I can't say I wouldn't, but I haven't thought too much about it. Best beauty product? Egyptian Magic cream is my saving grace for everything. It works for my friend's baby's bottom, and I can also use it instead of Chapstick. So what's next? I'm really excited about having a perma-tan and wearing long highlighted hair extensions for my role on \"Kath and Kim.\" And I've been gaining weight for the part by eating a little bit more of what I want and not moving around as much. I've already put on 15 pounds, and I'll probably gain another 10. It'll be a whole new me! Will this be your most drastic transformation? Actually I wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie. They were glued on every day by a really handsome guy, but ripping them off every night was definitely outside my realm of comfort. After those bosoms, I didn't mind being flat-chested anymore! Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Actress Selma Blair wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie .\nShe's gained at least 15 pounds for her role on \"Kath and Kim\"\nShe considered Botox but says she doesn't have enough wrinkles for it yet .\nBlair experimented with three completely different looks in less than a year .","id":"ec0e9a0c77bbb4bba73ef5177413c666e691850d"} -{"article":"HANNOVER, Germany -- Germany maintained the pressure on the Czech Republic in the race for top spot in Group D with a comfortable 4-0 win against Cyprus in Hannover. Lukas Podolski celebrates his goal as Germany cruised to a 4-0 victory over Cyprus. Both sides have already qualified for EURO 2008 but Germany showed no sign of letting up as Bayern Munich pair Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski struck either side of half-time to build on Clemens Fritz's second-minute opener. Thomas Hitzlsperger added the fourth in the 82nd minute as Germany claimed their eighth win in the group to move level with the Czech Republic on 26 points. Germany were quick out of the blocks and celebrated their first goal after less than 120 seconds. Podolski's determination paid off and he pulled the ball back from the goalline for Fritz to score with a far-post header. Klose added the second on 20 minutes, accepting a pass from the selfless Fritz in a central position and firing in from eight meters out. Podolski was Germany's main threat, and he finally got the goal an excellent performance warranted when he turned in Klose's low cross from the right eight minutes into the second half. The impressive Podolski turned provider for the final goal eight minutes from time, making a determined run to the goalline before squaring for Hitzlsperger, whose simple tap-in completed the scoring. Meanwhile, Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky was among the goals for the Czech Republic as they beat neighbors Slovakia 3-1 in Prague to remain top of the group by virtue of their head-to-head with Germany. Germany conclude their qualifying campaign at home to Wales on Wednesday while the Czech Republic travel to Cyprus. Meanwhile, the Netherlands secured their place in the finals with a narrow 1-0 win over Luxembourg in Group G. Danny Koevermans scored the only goal for the Dutch two minutes before half time to seal their place in the finals alongside Romania -- who remain top of the group having already qualified, despite losing 1-0 to Bulgaria in Sofia. Spain beat Sweden 3-0 with goals by Joan Capdevila, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Ramos, while Northern Ireland maintained their slim chance of catching Sweden by beating Denmark 2-1. David Healy scored the winning goal to set a European Championship qualifying record of 13 goals, overtaking Davor Suker's 12-goal mark. Northern Ireland must now beat already-qualified Spain in Las Palmas on Wednesday and hope that Latvia can win in Sweden on the same night, if they are to reach the finals. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Germany beat Cyprus 4-0 in Hannover as they keep pressure on the Czechs .\nLukas Podolski scores and produces a superb performance for the Germans .\nThe Czech Republic remain top of the group after defeating Slovakia 3-1 .","id":"02311be4aab97a81d2262963896b975c27f6503d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- It's been five years since Carrie Bradshaw journeyed to Paris in search of true love on the series finale of \"Sex and the City.\" She appeared to have found it in the arms of Mr. Big, and she returned to New York -- and her now-settled friends -- ready for a new start. Sarah Jessica Parker was a driving force in creating the \"Sex and the City\" movie. Then came the inevitable cry: That's it? What happens next? Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Carrie, wanted to find out as well. But the situation had to be right, she said, which prompted a cascade of rumors as plans for a movie came together, fell apart and came together again. Now that the movie is out, Parker -- who's a producer of the film as well as one of its stars -- talked about the journey to making a big-screen \"Sex and the City\" with \"Showbiz Tonight\" anchor A.J. Hammer. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: I think a lot of fans, maybe a lot of people, and those of you among the cast, didn't think this day would actually ever come ... but here we are. So how are you feeling deep inside, Sarah? Sarah Jessica Parker: I feel extraordinarily privileged. I've spent the last two years cobbling this movie together. ... It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of professional experience and one really shouldn't be greedy enough to ask for it twice. Watch the cast talk about the thrill of \"Sex\" \u00bb . I have to say that, this last six, eight months, was better than those seven years [the show aired] and I think it's because we all recognize how lucky and unique those seven years were and that this is a story that you don't get to tell twice. It has been, I must say, worth every obstacle and dead end, and fit and start, and every moment that was seemingly impossible. It has been a dream. CNN: And I imagine sitting down for the first time in that room together for the table read, which was, from my understanding, the first time you all actually were in the same room [together] regardless of how much you kept in touch. Tell me a little bit about that moment. Parker: I started putting [the] script back together in April of 2006 ... and that [table read] was a really extraordinary day, because just the perfunctory details of getting people to a table read were complicated. Kim [Cattrall] had been away and Kristin [Davis] had been away and Chris [Noth] had been [doing] his other job, and this magnificent script had arrived and had been everything we hoped for and more. It was basically like being in an alternate universe for about three hours. ... It was a kind of reunion that is very, very special, because you really want to be there. It's not the reunion where you're forced by your parents to meet your aunts and uncles that you see rarely. It's the reunion that you want. I think even more so was that first day on [the] set. When we thought, good God, [writer\/director] Michael Patrick [King] and I are actually making this movie, like we got it done, we're here, we're doing it -- what a privilege. CNN: I think we as fans and viewers actually got a sense of what that feeling was like when we saw you all together on \"Oprah,\" because the energy was ... palpable. ... But we're talking about the perceived drama around this whole project. (Rumors have abounded about friction between the stars.) One of my producers said while we were watching the TV, \"Are they going to sit near each other?\" \"Why are they putting Chris in the middle of all of them?\" Hearing that, does it make you mad? Parker: I find it slightly -- it's not that I'm mad. I expect better from people. I think it's really beneath me, to keep defending myself. I have a 35-year career. I have an impeccable character, I really pride myself in my work ethic and the way I treat people. And I think Kim would say the same and Cynthia would say the same. And I love Kim, and I wanted her to be in this movie. We couldn't have done it without her, we couldn't have done it without Kristin, we couldn't have done it without Cynthia [Nixon], nor could we have done it without Chris. Watch Cattrall address the rumors \u00bb . You know, this is a story that people like to tell about women. Why? I don't know. Is it that interesting? Probably not. So once again I just have to say it doesn't define the experience. Nobody can take the experience away. It's far more interesting for me to talk about my affection for this cast than to start to deny a sad old beaten tale. CNN: You seem to have what goes on in the media in perspective -- and you have to, being at the game as long as you've been. To that end, one of the things that I've always admired about you and [husband] Matthew [Broderick] and I think a lot of people do, is how you've managed your public or your private life while being in the glare of the spotlight. ... Now I know one of the main reasons you guys are able to make it work is because you don't talk about your private lives, which is great and I applaud that. That said, is there something that you can tell me about what it is about your relationship that enables you to make it work separate from that? Parker: I wouldn't make any proclamations about why I have a marriage that, to me, is successful. I would just say that we've chosen to live in a city where we are not the most interesting people. This is a city that is about industry and finance and publishing and architecture and the arts and education and academia, and the movie industry fits into it in some small way, but there are a lot of people of important interest and I think that it's a conscious choice to live in a place where we're bumping up against humanity. We run to the market on our own, we take the subway, and we integrate into our city, and we become a part of the fabric and I think it's really been to our benefit and certainly to our son. Does it mean that we are not scrutinized and that we don't have paparazzi every single day at our house? No, but it is a city where you can't live behind a gate, you can't drive up in a car and be protected. You walk out the door and it is what it is. So you reconcile those things and you make the best choices you can. CNN: Is it the end of \"Sex and the City\"? What does your gut tell you? Parker: My gut tells me it's up to you and your colleagues and the critics and the people who show up. The future is dictated not by us at this point, and I think Michael Patrick and I have been so focused at getting this movie up on the big screen, that we haven't thought about the future. Doing this was more than we could have asked for. So anything beyond that is really kind of out of our hands in a perfectly wonderful way.","highlights":"Sarah Jessica Parker: \"Sex and the City\" \"has been a dream\"\nRumors of friction? \"Beneath me to keep defending myself\"\nMarriage to Matthew Broderick works because pair lives normal N.Y. life .","id":"a18b463219c663ef55a0cbbf81ae489cdf877b62"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Starting a legitimate business is hard, boring work. There's paperwork to fill out, employees to hire, and all sorts of other drudgery, not to mention the biggest hurdle of all: providing a product or service for which customers are willing to pay. President Ulysses S. Grant foiled a gold scam. In all likelihood, it would be much easier to just stumble upon some clever scam to line your pockets. Or so it would seem. As many aspiring scam artists quickly learn, when a business scam fails, it tends to fail in rather grand fashion. Just ask any of these four teams of not-so-smooth operators. A corny sea story . Xenothemis and Hegestratos may not have been the world's first white-collar criminals, but they were certainly noteworthy for their incompetence. In 360 B.C., the pair stumbled upon what seemed like a killer plan to make some quick cash. Shipping was extremely risky at the time, and boats went down at sea with alarming frequency. To exploit this uncertainty, Xenothemis and Hegestratos devised a plan in which they would receive a cash advance to ship a load of corn from Syracuse to Athens. Due to the dangers associated with shipping, the buyer would take on full risk if the shipment didn't make it to Athens, so if the boat sank Xenothemis and Hegestratos could keep their cash. Instead of loading the ship with expensive corn, the conniving pair made a plan to sail an empty ship out to sea for a few days, then sink it and escape in lifeboats. Since the boat itself was insured, this plot seemed airtight, and the potential profit was great. Unfortunately, though, the boat's other passengers allegedly caught wind of the scheme during the attempting scuttling of the ship. These passengers were understandably a bit peeved at Hegestratos' attempts to drown them for his own financial gain. Hegestratos panicked and jumped overboard, at which point he drowned. Unable to sink the ship by himself, Xenothemis had to sail on to the port, at which point the buyer, Protos, wanted to know why his shipload of corn was empty. A legal battle followed, and although the verdict has been lost by history, it's safe to say that the late Hegestratos regretted the scam. When Friday went black . Despite his prowess as a general, Ulysses S. Grant's presidency didn't go so smoothly. Ones of its most notable scandals occurred in 1869, when a group of speculators upended the U.S gold market. The plan started when financier James Fisk and robber baron Jay Gould formed a group of speculators with the goal of cornering the gold market, which would give the group the ability to manipulate the price. Of course, one can only corner the market if there's a fixed quantity of gold available. Otherwise, the government could just sell large quantities of gold, and the cornering effort would be an expensive failure. In an effort to avoid this fate, Gould and Fisk brought President Grant's brother-in-law Abel Corbin into their fold. Using Corbin's influence to get an audience with the President, the pair would argue to Grant that selling gold was a terrible idea that the government should avoid at all costs. The wily pair also used their influence at the White House to secure a position as assistant treasurer of the United States for Daniel Butterfield, who would warn them if the government started to sell gold. With their connections in place, Fisk and Gould started buying up gold in September 1869, quickly driving the price of gold up by around 30 percent. Once Grant and his advisors got wise to the situation, though, the government quickly sold off $4 million in gold to break the corner, effectively killing the inflated prices on September 24. As investors scrambled to get rid of their overpriced gold, the price plummeted sharply, and many involved in the scam lost huge amounts of money. Fisk and Gould managed to avoid big losses due to their connections in the treasury, but what would be known as Black Friday didn't earn them a huge windfall -- and significantly harmed the American economy. Bad moves . If you've ever hired movers, you know it can be pretty pricey. Erik Deri, the founder of Woodinville, Washington-based Nationwide Moving Systems, understood that most movers were expensive, so he drummed up business by offering super-cheap quotes to frugal clients. The customers were ecstatic to find a mover who could get their belongings to a new home so cheaply. That is, until the price went up. Deri's movers would load the company's vans with all of a customer's worldly belongings, then a foreman would inform the client that they'd have to pay an inflated price to actually get their stuff to their new digs. The price hikes weren't small, either; one man's estimate stated he could move for $3,000 but was later revised to $16,000 after loading. According to authorities, if customers balked at these demands, the movers would threaten to unload their boxes and furniture into the street...and then charge them an unloading fee. If things got really sticky, Nationwide's trucks could just take off with all of the clients' possessions. Deri supposedly paid cash bonuses to employees who successfully strong-armed customers into forking over the premiums. In the end, though, Deri learned that you can't scam that many customers and hope to get away with it. In 2005 he was found guilty of 27 counts of extortion and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and extortion. Three of his accomplices were also convicted in connection with the moving racket. Deri was sentenced to seven years in prison, after which he'll face deportation to his native Israel. Fools for gold . Bre-X Minerals Ltd. was a small Canadian mining company that made a big announcement in 1995. Geologists had discovered gold on a site Bre-X owned near Busang, Indonesia. Not just a little gold, either -- at least 30 million ounces, possibly as much as 200 million ounces. Given the high prices of gold, such a deposit would have been worth tens of billions of dollars. Bre-X's stock price shot through the roof; shares went from being valued at a few cents to over $280 Canadian. In fact, the deposit seemed so rich and so large that a small company like Bre-X could not possibly handle it all without some help. In 1997, the Indonesian government convinced Bre-X to take on an American firm as a partner to help extract the gold. When this firm, Freeport-McMoRan, started sampling the soil at the deposit site as part of its due diligence, it reached a confusing conclusion: there wasn't any gold in the soil. Subsequent examinations by independent auditors reached the same conclusion. The \"natural\" gold that in the original samples Bre-X had taken was mostly river gold from other regions or shavings off of gold jewelry. Although the company's market cap had climbed to $4.4 billion, this report quickly destroyed Bre-X's value. Share prices dropped 97 percent in a day following the announcement, the company was soon removed from the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and Bre-X quickly went bankrupt. Amazingly, no one ended up in jail from this scam, but you should still probably be wary if anyone offers to sell you an enormous gold mine on Borneo. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"When a business scam fails, it tends to fail in rather grand fashion .\n360 B.C. scam: Sink ship and collect insurance on goods .\nPresident Grant foiled a gold speculation scam .\nMoving company founder goes to prison for bait-and-switch pricing .","id":"aa966ac9e3611ac2cef8d3fb9ceb3b58c150e238"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Three people were killed and at least 84 were injured Saturday morning when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck northeastern Japan, Japanese officials said. The quake struck at about 8:43 a.m. north of Sendai, Japan. Another five people were missing, national police said. Officials said the earthquake led to the buckling of highways and caused some bridges to collapse. Bullet trains were also stopped in the affected areas. Two nuclear power plants in the region were not affected, officials said. Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said one man was killed when he was buried in a landslide in Fukushima Prefecture and the other was struck by a truck as he rushed out of his house in Iwate Prefecture. Officials have not yet released details of the third death. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda sent priority orders for rescue operations, Machimura said. The quake, which struck at about 8:43 a.m. (11:43 p.m. GMT Friday), was centered 100 km (60 miles) north of Sendai in southern Iwate prefecture. The Japanese Meteorological Agency said several strong aftershocks followed the initial quake. The Iwate government office said it had received reports that eight children and a teacher were injured by breaking windows at a preschool and that the earthquake produced landslides in some areas. The Miyagi fire department said there had been some injuries caused by falling furniture, and some bus passengers were injured when the vehicle bounced on a bridge. Two houses collapsed, the fire department said. East Japan Railway suspended Shinkansen bullet trains in the Tohoku region, and many other train lines in the region suspended operation as well. Expressways in Miyagi were also closed. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that operations at nuclear power plants in Fukushima prefecture were not affected, Kyodo said. There were no tsunami warnings issued after the quake. Local governments, fire departments and police were working to gather damage reports. CNN's Junko Ogura and Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three people dead, at least 84 injured after earthquake hits Japan .\nU.S. Geological Survey reports 7.0 magnitude quake on Japanese island of Honshu .\nQuake struck at around 8:43 a.m. Saturday .","id":"5215d4e6e945ba390786f1720cc5a8abf92c32fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 19-year-old woman whose hospitalization exposed a shocking Austrian incest case is recovering well and wants to see the ocean and a pop concert, her doctors and a family lawyer said Wednesday. Dr. Albert Reiter, who treated Kerstin, is confident Kerstin will make a full recovery in time. She and other children who were held captive for years are slowly adapting to modern life, they said. Kerstin Fritzl, whom doctors placed in an artificial coma after she was admitted to a hospital in April for multiple organ failure, is now well enough to speak, stand and walk with assistance, her doctors said. Doctors said that \"little novelties\" such as seeing a cloud go by are now big events for the former captives. Kerstin has said she wants to see the ocean and go to a concert by British singer Robbie Williams, said Dr. Berhold Kepplinger, director of the clinic where the family is living. He described how excited Kerstin was to hear Robbie Williams songs in her hospital room and said she was moving around to the music so much that doctors had to quiet her down. It was then, Kepplinger said, that doctors became confident Kerstin can become fully healthy and develop normally. Her immune system has improved, and she is continuing to have physiotherapy, including strengthening exercises, he said. Watch doctors describe what happened when the teen opened her eyes \u00bb . The two parts of her family -- those who were locked in a basement, like Kerstin, and those who lived above ground, apparently unaware of the abuse of their mother and siblings -- are getting to know each other again, the doctors and the family's lawyer said. \"We are so glad that things have turned out so positively so far,\" said lawyer Christoph Herbst, who appeared at a news conference at a hotel near Amstetten, west of Vienna, where Kerstin and her family are recovering. Kerstin is the oldest daughter of an incestuous relationship between Elisabeth, 43, and Elisabeth's father, Josef Fritzl, 73, according to police. He is awaiting trial. Police say he confessed to holding Elisabeth captive since 1984 and raping her repeatedly, fathering seven children with her. Six of the children survived. Kerstin fell unconscious in April, and Elisabeth convinced her father that she needed urgent medical attention. Kerstin was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, where staff grew suspicious and called police, who opened an investigation and uncovered the abuse. Kerstin was suffering from kidney, lung, and liver failure when she arrived at the hospital, said Dr. Albert Reiter, director of the hospital. Doctors were able to turn her health around, but they kept her in a coma with artificial respiration for weeks, he said. Doctors started reducing Kerstin's medication May 12, allowing her to emerge from the coma, he said. Three days later, she opened her eyes and smiled at her carers, he said, and doctors were soon able to take the breathing tube from her throat. Her mother was at Kerstin's bedside regularly, and doctors credited that with helping Kerstin's health improve. On Sunday, Kerstin finally met with other family members and was able to say hello to them, he said. Kerstin and the rest of the family were also able to move into an apartment at a regional clinic nearby. \"It was a special moment where, walking, we were able to support her and cross the threshold into a new house and into a new life,\" Reiter said. Kerstin and two of her brothers, ages 18 and 5, had spent their entire lives trapped in the cellar with their mother, never seeing daylight. A television was their only contact with the outside world. The other three children Josef Fritzl fathered with Elisabeth were taken as infants to live above ground with Fritzl and his wife, who says she had no idea her daughter was being held captive. In recent weeks, the wife and the three children have had several meetings with Kerstin and the others formerly held in the basement. The doctors said that all are receiving therapy and are getting to know each other. \"It is clear that [the two sides] have a different temper of life,\" Kepplinger said. \"These different ways of living, the two parts of the family, still have to come to some agreement.\" Still, the entire family is \"very happy\" to be reunited, Herbst said. \"This is an incredible drawing-near to each other. There is incredible joy among them,\" he said. \"It is wonderful to see the way they are living together.\" He appealed to the public and the media to give the family privacy. There continues to be \"big ambivalence\" about the \"grandfather issue,\" as Kepplinger called it, and therapists are helping the family members cope with the complicated relationship they have with each other and with Fritzl, who is now behind bars.","highlights":"Daughter of Austrian incest victim reunited with family, expected to make full recovery .\nKerstin Fritzl, 19, has spent her entire life in cellar .\nThe dungeon was uncovered after she was taken to hospital with illness .\nJosef Fritzl, 73, has allegedly confessed to incestuous relationship with teen's mom .","id":"e7297f59909379c8eb07ea9bc2377b5e3980073d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Police closed streets near London's Canary Wharf financial district on Saturday after an unexploded German flying bomb from World War II was found on a construction site. WWII bombs are unearthed across Europe, often during building excavations, such as this one in France. Bomb disposal experts were called in to make the V1 missile safe after it was unearthed close to the east London complex that houses 80,000 office workers during the working week, police said. At weekends the area is busy with shoppers and visitors. Police closed several roads around the site in Millharbour, a road in the former docklands. \"Ambulance, fire and police are there and the building site has been evacuated,\" a London police spokesman said. The area was cordoned off, he said. Thousands of V1s, nicknamed \"Doodlebugs\", were fired at the capital during the war, with the docks a prime target. Hundreds of unexploded bombs from the war are buried across the country, according to government figures. They are unearthed from time to time, often during building excavations. Canary Wharf's tenants include Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, the Independent newspaper group and Reuters. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Unexploded German WWII V1 bomb unearthed on London construction site .\nPolice closed streets near London's Canary Wharf financial district .\nBomb disposal experts were called in to make the V1 missile safe .\nHundreds of unexploded bombs from the war are buried across the country .","id":"6c5f775006a225e617c1fa4cf0c439579e1443a2"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has warned that veterans he commanded in his country's liberation war will take up arms again to prevent the opposition party from taking power. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says war veterans do not want the opposition in power. Mugabe -- Zimbabwe's only leader since that struggle ended in 1980 -- faces a June 27 runoff with Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mugabe told supporters that Tsvangirai would turn the country back over to white control if he won the runoff. The veterans he led in a successful effort against a government dominated by the white minority were not prepared to recognize a Tsvangirai victory, Mugabe said. \"They said they got this country through the barrel of gun, so they cannot let it go by a ballot,\" Mugabe said Thursday at a campaign rally in Murehwa. Tsvangirai was arrested twice Thursday. He was released Friday, but police impounded his two campaign buses. In the general election on March 29, the opposition won a plurality in parliament. Weeks after the election, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced that Tsvangirai won a plurality against Mugabe but that he failed to get the needed majority, making a runoff necessary. Human Rights Watch issued a report this week declaring the presidential election to be dead on arrival because of violence and intimidation by Mugabe's followers -- including war veterans - against opposition supporters. Mugabe, at a rally in Chikomba District -- about 120 miles (200 km) south of Harare -- seemed to support that conclusion. Learn more about Zimbabwe \u00bb . \"These areas, where the party lost on March 29, need to be cleansed and I am confident this would be done on June 27 when we go to the polls.\" Mugabe said the MDC was a party \"for whites and not blacks.\" He also said the party was created and funded by the British. \"You saw the whites after the March elections running around thinking that they would repossess the farms,\" Mugabe said. \"They thought they had won.\" He said the opposition would not be allowed to \"give it back to whites.\" \"Guard your country jealously,\" Mugabe told supporters. Meanwhile, Zimbabwean authorities put more pressure on opposition figures Thursday, seizing a top leader and accusing him of treason. Police and the MDC confirmed Tendai Biti's arrest and the charges he will face. Biti, secretary general of the MDC, was arrested when he arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe, from South Africa. Zimbabwe's national police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told CNN that Biti would be charged with treason and the communication of false information. The treason charge relates to a document published by the MDC before the March 29 vote which, the state alleges, contains subversive statements authored by Biti.","highlights":"President Robert Mugabe says war veterans will fight to prevent change .\nOpposition party's No. 2 facing treason charge after return to country .\nMDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was detained twice Thursday .","id":"46ce664a42eac4474d25c435a28790ec25137603"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Iowa Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry received an emotional welcome home July 25 -- more than a year and a half after leaving for Iraq. More than 600 soldiers marched on the field at Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo, Iowa, in front of thousands of friends and family members. I-Reporter Myke Goings captures Iowa National Guard soldiers celebrating their return from Iraq. The unit served 17 months in Iraq, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said Master Sgt. Duff McFadden of the Iowa National Guard. Two soldiers were killed in action, both by a roadside bomb, Radio Iowa reported. I-Reporter Myke Goings captured the emotion of family members and soldiers on camera as well as the tributes to the soldiers around town. His wife works with Sara Barnard, who reunited with her husband Tim at the ceremony. \"You could see the excitement of the look on her face as she finally found him in the group,\" Goings said. \"To do that with everyone in camouflage was amazing.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"More than 600 soldiers returned to Iowa from service in Iraq on July 25 .\nThousands of friends and relatives welcomed them back at ceremony .\nI-Reporter Myke Goings documented the event .","id":"693d73ab049f7d8f3c897922b3f7269a96a1a4fa"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Graeme Le Saux played more than 400 matches for Blackburn, Chelsea and Southampton, winning a Premier League title and 36 international caps. CNN's Don Riddell talks to the former England star about homophobia and racism in the game. Graeme Le Saux, pictured here playing for Chelsea, endured homophobic abuse throughout his career due to false rumors he was gay. Don Riddell: Graeme, you're happily married with two children but during your football career everyone thought you were gay and the experience was pretty miserable. Graeme Le Saux: The culture of football back in the 80s was very different, something I found very hard to relate to and subsequently I found myself a little bit isolated and ostracized from certain people. That eventually led to rumors being spread that I was gay. In the context of modern life that's not defamatory but in terms of the dressing room culture that existed then -- and to an extent now -- it was very difficult for me to deal with and had the potential to damage my career. I think that the joke very quickly got out of hand. And I think where I was at fault was that I was probably a little sensitive about it, because I could actually see the potential of this sort of thing to get out of control. And it did. We played in a game at West Ham and the terraces started singing something particularly defamatory about me and I remember being, you know, really, really shocked that it got to that level so quickly. DR: And that carried on as well and the most notable incident is the one involving Robbie Fowler. Tell me about that? GS: It all culminated in a game that we played at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool and Robbie Fowler, he stood in front of 40,000 people and he bent over and invited me to perform a homosexual act upon him... That's the politest way I can put it! That really was the point at which it couldn't get any worse. It wasn't just people singing on the terrace, it was a colleague -- an international colleague -- humiliating you in front of all those people, an international audience. He will maintain to this day that it was just a laugh but that is exactly the point. If you look at anything like this, whether it is racism or homophobia or whatever, as if it is just a laugh that can be a very serious issue. I'm all for a good laugh but when you offend someone and you are damaging relationships then it goes way beyond being a laugh and you can't hide behind that as an excuse. DR: It's thought that only one professional soccer player in the world has ever declared himself to be gay. That was the Englishman Justin Fashanu and he committed suicide a decade ago. John Amaechi became the first gay player to be associated with the NBA last year, but such declarations are extremely rare. In many cases homosexuality remains pro sport's last taboo. GS: It's such a terrible reflection on a sport that has so much positive impact across the globe that there is still this issue about gay people within the sport. If you look at so many other professions in terms of business and politics, across the board the gay community is represented but in football it still isn't and I find that disappointing. There may not be many gay players in the game but the sport should be grown up enough to be able to support those people in the football environment. DR: Football's obviously made great strides, certainly in Britain, in the last 10 years with regards to racism, but how much prejudice is there generally in the game? Do you think we'll ever be free of it? GS: I think there's always going to be an undercurrent of prejudice. But ultimately I think it's important for any business really to be responsible, inclusive and representative of its employees. And football is in a very privileged position and can lead by example. And so I hope that, you know, the people in authority really make some serious attempts, I suppose to create parity between all walks of life. DR: We've come across a couple of black footballers who say that fans who shout racist abuse aren't really racist, they are just trying to put us off our game. How much do you buy into that approach? GS: Well, I can't speak for individual black players! But sometimes I think the perception of people it is not happening to is different to the individual. It used to baffle me when I first started playing that you'd have Chelsea fans being racist to black players from the opposition but there would be three or four black players on the Chelsea's team. And if you spoke to them or confronted them about it, they would be like, \"Oh yeah, but we know them... they are, you know, they are fine.\" And it's like, well how do you pick the bones out of that? Because there is just no logic. But then you know prejudice is built on ignorance. You know it really is. I think that sometimes you know individuals have to take responsibility for themselves and actually take a step back and look at what they are doing and not use ignorance as an excuse and say, \"Well, would I like to be on the receiving end of this sort of abuse?\"","highlights":"Graeme Le Saux says an \"undercurrent of prejudice\" exists in football .\nEx-England star endured homophobic abuse amid false rumors he was gay .\nLe Saux says football needs to do more to tackle prejudice, homophobia .","id":"48e4930e3c380330b609f460f11520be0e29d5fd"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's new government has converted its deposed king's opulent palace into a museum and unfurled the national flag on Sunday as a symbolic move to signify the end of monarchy. The Narayanthi Royal Palace has been converted into a museum. \"The national flag is fluttering in the hands of the people in the royal palace now,\" said Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at a ceremony at the former palace Sunday. Ex-King Gyanendra, 60, left Narayanhiti Royal Palace on Wednesday. He will live as a civilian in a summer palace on a forested hilltop outside the capital. Gyanendra's departure came following the declaration of the former Himalayan kingdom as a republic last month. The monarchy's end after 239 years of rule was the culmination of a two-year peace process in which Maoist insurgents in Nepal gave up their armed struggle, joined mainstream politics and won the most seats in April's election for the Constituent Assembly. The assembly is tasked with rewriting the constitution, deciding the country's future political system and governing the nation. Gyanendra came to power in 2001 when his brother, King Birendra, and his family were massacred in the palace by the crown prince, who later shot himself. Gyanendra last week denied rumors that he had played a role in that event.","highlights":"Nepal's new government converts deposed king's palace into museum .\nNational flag unfurled over building in symbolic end to monarchy .\nHimalayan kingdom was declared a republic last month .","id":"53f3e11ada213ff55b987692a2eb0c9b6d890d5e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A suspected arms dealer accused of conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian guerrillas was extradited Friday from Spain to the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said. Kassar is accused of conspiring to sell weapons to FARC rebels. Monzer al Kassar had been wanted for decades before he was arrested in an undercover operation in Spain last year. Justice Department officials say he has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed combatants since the 1970s. He left Spain aboard a private plane accompanied by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents and arrived in New York at 11:30 a.m. local time Friday (1530 GMT), a DEA spokesman said. He is expected to appear before a federal magistrate in Manhattan before the end of the day. Kasser was arrested in Madrid a year ago by Spanish police working with undercover DEA officers posing as members of the FARC. The U.S. accuses Kassar and two other men of conspiring to sell millions of dollars' worth of weapons to FARC, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization. The weapons included surface-to-air missile systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of machine guns, and millions of rounds of ammunition, according to a federal indictment. A Spanish court last week approved his extradition on four counts, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals. The two co-defendants, Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, were both previously extradited to New York from Romania to face the same terrorism charges. All three could face life in prison. Kassar had told journalists before he was arrested that he had retired from arms dealing, but the U.S. says he had been involved since the 1970s, providing weapons and military equipment to armed factions in Nicaragua, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere. CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report .","highlights":"U.S. Justice Department says accused arms dealer extradited to the U.S.\nMonzer al Kassar was arrested in Spain last year .\nU.S. accuses him of trying to sell millions of dollars of weapons to guerrillas .\nHe is also accused of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals .","id":"d2ee859acf7e35bea229f968d53240c2f1c2845c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A big part of being president is making decisions, and one of the key decisions a would-be president can make is who he or she marries. Cindy McCain has a master's degree in special education. She is part owner of her father's business. It's not like deciding whether to press the nuclear button, but first ladies in the United States can wield enormous influence in politics and in society. They're not elected. They're not paid. There's no precise job description. But whether it's an elegantly dressed Jacqueline Kennedy giving Americans a tour of the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt speaking on civil rights or Hillary Clinton saying \"I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies,\" first ladies are praised, criticized, adored and scorned -- but never ignored. The two women poised for the job, 54-year-old Cindy McCain, wife of Republican Sen. John McCain, and 44-year-old Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, come from strikingly different backgrounds. Watch the different styles of potential first ladies \u00bb . McCain is the only child of a wealthy Arizona businessman, James Hensley, founder of Hensley & Co., a major distributor of Budweiser beer. Her stake in the business is estimated to be at least $100 million. She refused to release her full tax returns, saying \"I am not the candidate,\" but later provided summary pages of her 2006 taxes without details. Cindy McCain has a master's degree in special education. She met John McCain in 1979 when he was the U.S. Navy's liaison to the Senate. He was 18 years older than she. He divorced his wife and married Cindy in 1980. The McCains have four children, including a daughter adopted from an orphanage in Bangladesh. A tall, striking blonde with blue eyes, Cindy McCain has had health issues including a near-fatal stroke in 2004 and a battle with prescription drugs that she says is behind her. In an interview with CNN, McCain said her priority in life is charity. \"I've been internationally involved in many, many things,\" she said. \"Land mine removal, children's health care, poverty around the world -- and I will continue that.\" On the campaign trail, always dressed impeccably, she stays \"on message\" but did take a swipe at Michelle Obama after her statement, \"For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country.\" \"I don't know about you,\" McCain said in February, \"...I'm very proud of my country.\" Michelle Obama has a blunt style and a wry, quirky sense of humor that goes over well with supporters. She doesn't mince words. In an interview with CNN, she said, \"I think race is always -- still, in this country, it's always on the table.\" Michelle Obama was raised in a working-class family in Chicago, Illinois, but educated at some of America's elite universities: Princeton and Harvard Law School. She was hired by a top-flight law firm in Chicago and met Barack Obama when she was assigned to mentor him. They married in 1992 and have two young daughters. Michelle Obama cuts an impressive figure -- tall, slim and dressed in Jackie-Kennedy-like sheath dresses. If her husband is elected, she will make history as the first African-American first lady. She has given insights into her husband's domestic behavior: He doesn't pick up his socks. Cindy McCain praises her husband as a fighter who won't give up. Will we learn more of substance? Their husbands offer starkly different views of what they would do in office and Americans often look to their first ladies as a window into the thinking of the president. We're all ears.","highlights":"First ladies can wield enormous influence .\nMichelle Obama, Cindy McCain have sharply different backgrounds .\nBut both are well-educated and successful in their own careers .","id":"d4d44650eb77504fd01a730c0ccc7e6cdfcc578a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 82nd birthday Saturday with a parade and military ceremony known as \"Trooping the Color.\" Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends the Derby Festival at Epson Downs horse race course on June 7. The queen's birthday is actually April 21, but she officially celebrates it every year on a Saturday in June when good weather is more likely, according to Buckingham Palace. During the ceremony, which is open to the public, the queen inspects the troops. They then march past the queen, who rides in a carriage back to the palace. The Royal Air Force then conducts a colorful fly-past over Buckingham Palace while the queen and her family watch from the balcony. The queen has attended Trooping the Color every year of her reign except for one -- 1955, when a national rail strike canceled the event, the palace says. The ceremony gets its name from a tradition where colors of the battalion were carried, or \"trooped,\" down the ranks so they could be seen and recognized by the soldiers, Buckingham Palace says.","highlights":"Queen's April birthday is celebrated in June to enjoy good weather .\nParade, military ceremony will mark royal birthday .\nTroop inspection, flyover by Royal Air Force, part of ceremonies .","id":"3695132378151f89d210da575bfef0a3f29aa051"} -{"article":"CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN) -- Floodwaters inundated Iowa City and the University of Iowa arts campus on Sunday despite what one official called a \"Herculean effort\" to hold back the water with sandbags. Residents surround Lt. Tobey Harrison at a Cedar Rapids checkpoint as they wait to see their homes Sunday. \"We've had the [National Guard] working next to prisoner inmates, sandbagging,\" said David Jackson, the university's facilities manager. \"Students, faculty and staff, leaders of the university, the president of the university -- out sandbagging.\" Some 500 to 600 homes were ordered to evacuate and others faced a voluntary evacuation order through the morning, said Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey. The Iowa River in Iowa City crested at 31.5 feet and was expected to remain at that level until Monday, city and state officials said Sunday. Classes at the university have been suspended until next Sunday, according to its Web site. \"All of our theaters, our music building, Clapp Recital Hall, our fine arts building [the] new Art Building West designed by Stephen Holl, has taken on significant water as well,\" said Sally Mason, president of the university. \"Fortunately we were able to save all the art,\" she said. The art was placed in crates shipped out of state last week. \"We anticipated the worst a week ago.\" At least 8 feet of water rushed through the campus, officials said. Among the school's 30,000 students, Ann Barber told CNN she has been sandbagging for nearly seven days. \"It's very hard to watch the devastation of our university,\" she said. This month's severe weather has trampled towns from North Dakota to Indiana. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says more than 11 million Midwesterners will be affected by flooding and tornadoes. Meanwhile, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, some of nearly 20,000 displaced residents began to return home Sunday as water there receded. People lined up for about a block in one part of the city waiting for a special wristband to allow them access to their homes. The flooding there caught many people by surprise. \"We didn't think it would get this high,\" said Tina Fleischacker, whose Cedar Rapids home was soaked. \"We moved everything upstairs and it's gone. It's gone. We left with the clothes on our backs.\" About 36,000 Iowans, most in Cedar Rapids, evacuated their homes due to the state-wide flooding. At least 472 people spent Saturday night in 18 shelters set up across the state, according to Dave Miller, the administrator of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. In Iowa City, the water is expected to drop no more than 3 feet by Saturday, said John Benson, spokesman for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. \"There's that moment of 'phew,' but then there's that realization that the water will be going down very slowly,\" Bailey told reporters. She urged residents to be careful when returning to their homes and businesses, and asked them to abide by a 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. \"Water flows are still dangerous,\" she said. \"We need people to be patient. We will get them into those homes and businesses as soon as possible.\" Iowa has been inundated with heavy rains in recent weeks that have caused several major rivers that feed into the Mississippi -- including the Cedar, Des Moines and Iowa Rivers -- to flood their banks. The flooding in the Midwest is \"some of the worst\" to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina inundated the Gulf Coast nearly three years ago, FEMA administrator David Paulison said Sunday on CNN. The scenarios are much different, but \"the aftermath is similar,\" he said. \"The fact [is] that we have a lot of people whose homes have been destroyed.\" The agency has received more than 12,000 disaster assistance applications from the hardest-hit states -- Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin. Starting Tuesday, the American Red Cross will set up kitchens in Iowa to serve up about 100,000 meals to residents each day. The agency, which is housing 720 flood victims in 30 shelters, plans to spend about $15 million on Midwest relief efforts. Iowans are very concerned about how they will afford to rebuild. \"Most of the people here ... do not have flood insurance,\" said Steve Doser, director of a shelter in Cedar Rapids. \"A couple people told us ... that they were told they didn't need flood insurance, 'Don't worry about it, you're in a 500-year [plain],' \" he said. \"Now they don't have anything.\" Iowa Gov. Chet Culver estimates agricultural damage could reach $1 billion, exceeding the costs of the big flood in 1993. He praised the strength and resilience of the people of Iowa and vowed to rebuild the state, noting that \"will take a long time.\" There have been 16 storm-related deaths since May 25 in Iowa, 12 of them from recent tornadoes, Culver said Sunday. Four Boy Scouts were killed last week when a twister touched down at a camp in Iowa. Culver has declared 83 of the state's 99 counties disaster areas. More than 3,300 Iowa National Guard troops have been deployed to help primarily with sandbagging and staging resources, Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis of the Iowa National Guard said Sunday. That number is expected to rise to 4,000 by Monday, he said. Of those troops, 750 are stationed in Des Moines helping to shore up levees with sandbags along the Des Moines River amid fears that the historic flooding that has hit other parts of the state could soon take its toll on the Iowa capital. Early Saturday, rising waters breached a levee on the Des Moines River, prompting emergency officials to evacuate 270 homes in Des Moines' Birdland Park neighborhood, a state emergency official said. A high school in the neighborhood was also flooded. CNN's Jim Acosta and Julian Cummings contributed to this report.","highlights":"About 500-600 homes evacuated in Iowa City on Sunday .\nSome 36,000 Iowans, most in Cedar Rapids, have been evacuated .\nAgricultural damage estimated at $1 billion or more .","id":"c193cecd478fa204b16500ece25bf25b75bc5265"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Helicopters were bringing 2,000 Mexican troops into the U.S.-Mexican border city of Juarez on Friday to quell a wave of drug-related violence blamed for 200 deaths since January, the city's mayor said. Mexico has ordered troops to move near Juarez, shown here with El Paso, Texas, in the distance. \"Two rival drug cartels tried to push each other out of the city,\" Jose Reyes Ferriz told CNN. Among those killed were about 20 police officers representing the state, the military and the federal and city governments, he said. \"Many [people] say the drug cartels targeted specifically the heads of the police departments,\" he said. \"The violence got extremely bad in the city.\" He said no uninvolved civilians have been injured. \"The two rival drug cartels in Mexico, one's from the Gulf, one's from the Pacific -- and Juarez being right down the middle, they tried to push the other one out of the area,\" he said. Watch police clash with suspected drug smugglers \u00bb . Juarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The majority of the troops will be based in the city. Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan said Thursday 2,026 soldiers, 180 military tactical vehicles, three airplanes and more than a dozen drug detection devices would be used in the military operation. Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora stressed that the violence that goes along with drug trafficking is \"not in any way a sign of strength, but a sign of weakness, deterioration and decomposition.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ariel Crespo contributed to this report.","highlights":"The majority of the troops will be based in Juarez, Mexico .\nJuarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas .\nDrug-related violence has claimed some 200 lives since the beginning of the year .\nMayor: Two rival drug cartels tried to push each other out of the city .","id":"b599d61b0c28b86dc92c7af4d40814ece8279500"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The director of Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday defended giving away an estimated $85 million in hurricane relief supplies, blaming Louisiana officials for turning down the stockpiles. A New Orleans charity keeps goods in trash bags in an empty church. FEMA never told it about the free items. \"We still have quite a few left if Louisiana needs those,\" David Paulison said. \"But we did find out, we did ask Louisiana, 'Do you want these?' They said, 'No, we don't need them.' So we offered them to the other states.\" A CNN investigation revealed last week that FEMA gave away 121 truckloads of material the agency amassed after 2005's Hurricane Katrina. The material was declared surplus property and offered to federal and state agencies -- including Louisiana, where groups working to resettle hurricane victims say the supplies are still needed. Paulison told CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" his agency distributed more than 90,000 \"living kits\" to people in Louisiana whose homes were destroyed or damaged by Katrina. The kits included cleaning supplies, mops, brooms, pots and pans. After CNN reported on the giveaway, Louisiana officials asked that the supplies be redirected to the state, which originally passed on them. John Medica, director of the Louisiana's Federal Property Assistance Agency, told CNN he was unaware Katrina victims still needed the items because no agency had contacted his office. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, an outspoken critic of FEMA's response to the hurricane, told CNN the supply giveaway was \"just a shame.\" \"It's just another example of the failings of the federal bureaucracy,\" said Landrieu, who wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week to request an explanation. \"We're still trying to fix it. It's going to take a lot more work.\" Paulison said much of the stockpile included \"things we don't normally store -- refrigerators, stoves, coolers, diapers, things like that.\" States, meanwhile, were requesting those items, he said. \"It didn't make any sense for FEMA to sit on this much stuff and supplies we normally don't even keep. We have plenty of supplies in place if we have another disaster. We can duplicate that type of commodities and get them for people in need,\" he said. The agency's chief spokesman, James McIntyre, had declined a request for an on-camera interview and told CNN the giveaway was \"not news.\" Paulison said the story \"just really missed the mark\" -- that the supplies given away were not exclusively for Katrina victims, but were \"donated from disasters all around the entire country.\" But e-mails from McIntyre and from the General Services Administration, which manages federal property, contradict Paulison's account. In an e-mail sent in April, McIntyre told CNN \"in many cases, items were purchased in the field by FEMA.\" And in a phone interview with CNN, McIntyre said, \"That is property that was purchased in response to Katrina. We purchased most of that equipment because of the catastrophic nature of that disaster.\" General Services Administration spokeswoman Viki Reath wrote the supplies given away were \"surplus from the Katrina and [hurricane] Rita disasters... some purchased by FEMA, some donated by foreign countries and federal government agencies.\" McIntyre said FEMA's storage costs were running more than $1 million a year, and that GSA officials wanted to tear down the Fort Worth, Texas, warehouses in which the stockpiles were being kept. CNN's Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FEMA chief: Louisiana said it didn't want the supplies .\nCNN story revealed last week that FEMA gave away 121 truckloads of supplies .\nKatrina supplies were declared surplus property, offered to federal, state agencies .","id":"06f290a163e81c46437ca61b5fd13741d7db11f2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured, according to medical examinations detailed in a report released Wednesday by a human rights group. A U.S. serviceman with his dog watches a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003. The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan. The detainees were never charged with crimes. \"We found clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering,\" said Dr. Allen Keller, a medical evaluator for the study. In a 121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses. The report is prefaced by retired U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in 2003. Watch why a rights group says there's evidence of torture \u00bb . \"There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes,\" Taguba says. \"The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account.\" Over the years, reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo prompted the Bush administration to deny that the U.S. military tortures detainees. Since only 11 detainees were examined \"the findings of this assessment cannot be generalized to the treatment of all detainees in U.S. custody,\" the report says. However, the incidents documented are consistent with findings of other investigations into government treatment, \"making it reasonable to conclude that these detainees were not the only ones abused, but are representative of a much larger number of detainees subjected to torture and ill treatment while in U.S. custody.\" Four of the men evaluated were arrested in or taken to Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003 and later were sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for an average of three years before being released without charge, the report says. The other seven were detained in Iraq in 2003 and released within a year, the report says. All the subjects told examiners that they were subjected to multiple forms of torture or ill treatment that \"often occurred in combination over a long period of time,\" the report says. While the report presents synopses of the detainees' backgrounds based on interviews with them, the authors did not have access to the detainees' medical histories. Therefore, there's no way to know whether any of the inmates may have had medical or mental problems before being detained. Among the ex-detainees was an Iraqi in his mid-40s, identified only as Laith, whom U.S. soldiers took into custody in October 2003 and who was released from Abu Ghraib in June 2004. According to the report, Laith was subjected to sleep deprivation, electric shocks and threats of sexual abuse to himself and his family. \"They took off even my underwear. They asked me to do some movements that make me look in a very bad way so they can take photographs. ... They were trying to make me look like an animal,\" Laith told examiners, according to the report. According to the report, Laith said the most \"painful\" experiences involved threats to his family: \"And they asked me, 'Have you ever heard voices of women in this prison?' I answered, 'Yes.' They were saying, 'Then you will hear your mothers and sisters when we are raping them.' \" The examiners concluded in the report that \"Laith appears to have suffered severe and lasting physical and psychological injuries as a result of his arrest and incarceration at Abu Ghraib prison.\" Another detainee, Youssef, was detained by U.S. soldiers nearly seven years ago when he tried to enter Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan without a passport, the report says. He initially was held in an Afghan prison, where he describes \"being stripped naked, being intimidated by dogs, being hooded and being thrown against the wall on repeated occasions,\" the report says. A few months later, he was taken to the Guantanamo Bay facility, where he was subjected to interrogators who would enter his cell and force him to lie on the floor with his hands tied behind his back to his feet, the report says. Youssef said the interrogators wanted him to confess of involvement with the Taliban, the report says. Based on its investigation, the report calls on the U.S. government to issue a formal apology to detainees subject to torture and ill treatment by the military since fall 2001 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. The rights group also demands that the Bush administration: . \u2022 \"Repudiate all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment\"; . \u2022 Establish an independent commission to investigate and report publicly the circumstances of detention and interrogation at U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay; . \u2022 Hold individuals involved in torturing detainees accountable through criminal and civil processes; and . \u2022 Monitor thoroughly the conditions at U.S.-run prisons all over the world. CNN Radio contributed to this report.","highlights":"Report reveals medical evidence of torture, including beatings and electric shock .\nStudy calls on U.S. government to issue a formal apology to tortured detainees .\nRights group gives list of demands to Bush administration .","id":"46210bd0b15cd5bba64751d873674766decb2677"} -{"article":"GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- A truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas leaders will take effect Thursday and last for six months, Hamas officials said Tuesday. Palestinian Hamas security men stand to attention at a training academy in Gaza City last week. Israeli officials, however, stopped short of confirming that a cease-fire agreement has been reached. \"It's still early to announce an agreement of calm,\" Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement. \"When it starts, if it starts, it's hard to say how long it will last. The test will be how it's implemented.\" Hamas senior official Mahmoud Zahar and Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya announced the Egyptian-brokered agreement at a news conference in Gaza. They said it will begin at 6 a.m. Thursday (11 p.m. Wednesday ET). On Sunday, Israel gradually will start to open its border crossing terminals, the Hamas officials said. Asked about initial reports of a cease-fire, one Israeli official would not confirm whether an agreement had been finalized but said any truce would involve a sequential process. Watch what truce may mean in Gaza \u00bb . The official said Israel would reopen some of its terminals along the Gaza border after calm had been established. He said Israel is still calling for the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit as part of a broader cease-fire. Gaza militants kidnapped Shalit in June 2006. Egypt has been trying to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel for months. Militants in Hamas-controlled Gaza have pummeled Israel with thousands of rocket and mortar attacks, prompting Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory. Referring to the Egyptian mediation efforts, Barak said, \"It's important to exhaust the possibility. \"The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is prepared for any developments, but it is important to attempt to achieve a period of calm to bring back the peace and quiet for the [Israeli] people who live around Gaza in Sderot and Ashkelon and to try and renew negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit.\" Militants in Gaza have launched more than 2,300 mortars and rockets since the start of 2008, more than the 2,000 launched in all of last year, according to Israeli military figures. While most of the attacks do not result in casualties, three Israelis have been killed in rocket and mortar strikes in recent weeks. The Israeli military responds to the attacks by carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza that target militants, but many times lead to civilian casualties -- further inflaming the Palestinian leadership. Israel also has restricted supplies of gasoline, diesel and electricity to Gaza, limited the amount of food and other goods entering the strip and made it virtually impossible for manufacturers and farmers in Gaza to export anything to the outside world. Hamas seized control of Gaza last year after routing Palestinian security agencies under the control of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement. The ouster forced Abbas to dissolve the Fatah-Hamas unity government, but Fatah still controls the West Bank. Representatives from the rival factions met recently in Senegal for talks aimed at restoring the political and territorial split. Earlier this month, Abbas called for \"national unity\" talks with Hamas with the goal of producing new elections for the Palestinians, who elected a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government in a U.S.-backed vote in 2006. Meanwhile, Abbas' Western-backed government is working toward a peace agreement with Israel. The Bush administration has said it wants the two sides to reach an agreement by the end of the year. CNN's Shira Medding contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Hard to say how long any cease-fire will last, Israeli defense minister says .\nIsrael has not confirmed cease-fire pact .\nIsrael will begin to open Gaza border crossings Sunday, Hamas says .\nHamas took control of Gaza a year ago .","id":"cfba701dad16c47e0f7b97b8a6b043d25f740085"} -{"article":"FLINT, Michigan (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama Monday proposed spending billions to revitalize the nation's economy, a plan the campaign of his likely Republican opponent said would slow economic growth with higher taxes. Sen. Barack Obama wants to spend $60 billion on America's infrastructure. During an economic speech in Flint, Michigan, Obama promised to spend billions to improve America's education, infrastructure, energy and health care systems. To improve America's competitiveness, the senator from Illinois said he wants to spend $10 billion on childhood education, $150 billion over 10 years on developing alternative energy and $60 billion over 10 years to build \"21st century infrastructure.\" Obama said he would pay for these programs by ending the war in Iraq, reducing government waste, charging polluters for greenhouse gas emissions and ending the Bush tax cuts for wealthy individuals. During his speech in Michigan, a state hard hit by the decline of the American automobile industry, Obama also rejected protectionist trade polices that many unions say would help protect American jobs, saying \"it is impossible to turn back the tide of globalization.\" Watch Obama call for America to compete in the global economy \u00bb . Obama said he disagreed with those who want to \"build a fortress around America; to stop trading with other countries, shut down immigration, and rely on old industries.\" \"Not only is it impossible to turn back the tide of globalization, but efforts to do so can make us worse off,\" Obama said. \"Rather than fear the future, we must embrace it. I have no doubt that America can compete -- and succeed -- in the 21st century.\" A McCain spokesman attacked Obama's plan, saying the Democrat's \"agenda to raise taxes and isolate America from foreign markets will not get our economy back on track or create new jobs.\" \"To help create jobs in America, we need to lower taxes and open up foreign markets to American goods,\" said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. \"Americans cannot afford Barack Obama's 'change' that takes us back to the failed policies of the past.\" But Obama said now was the time to commit to long-term investments in America's future and blasted McCain for wanting to continue President Bush's economic policies, saying \"there is a clear choice in this election. Instead of reaching for new horizons, George Bush has put us in a hole, and John McCain's policies will keep us there. I want to take us in a new and better direction. \"I reject the belief that we should either shrink from the challenge of globalization or fall back on the same tired and failed approaches of the last eight years,\" he said. \"It's time for new policies that create the jobs and opportunities of the future -- a competitiveness agenda built upon education and energy, innovation and infrastructure, fair trade and reform.\" The two campaigns have been sparring over who would be a better steward of America's ailing economy, and both candidates have been reaching out to blue-collar voters, many of whom backed Republican President Ronald Reagan over the Democrats, in part, because of cultural issues. \"I believe that there are stark differences between myself and Sen. Obama. ... And I believe that the same appeals that President Reagan made to the so-called Reagan Democrats will succeed there,\" McCain said during a campaign stop in Arlington, Virginia. Watch McCain vow to win Reagan Democrats \u00bb . A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Thursday suggested voters favor Obama over McCain to handle the economy 50 percent to 44 percent. The poll, conducted June 4-5, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.","highlights":"Sen. Obama offers plan to spend $10B on schools, $60B on infrastructure .\nDemocratic presidential candidate would spend $150B on renewable energy .\nObama rejects protectionist trade polices, says U.S. workers can compete .\nSen. McCain's campaign says higher taxes to pay for programs would hurt economy .","id":"1c0fbe7e6758334d83d145580688e7aa1c549c53"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia -- UEFA have confirmed that Slovakian referee Lubos Michel will take charge of Wednesday's Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow. Michel refereed the 2003 UEFA Cup final when Jose Mourinho's Porto beat Celtic. Michel, 40 last week,is remembered by Chelsea fans for controversially awarding a goal to Liverpool against the Londoners in the semifinals of the 2005 competition. Chelsea's manager at the time Jose Mourinho always insisted that Luis Garcia's shot did not cross the line. Michel is regarded as one of the top referees in the world and officiated at Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup, including the tense Germany v Argentina game in the first knock-out round. He also refereed the 2003 UEFA Cup final when Mourinho's Porto triumphed over Celtic. Michel speaks English, Russian, German and Polish as well as his native language. Michel will be supported at the Luzhniki Stadium by the assistant referees who have partnered him at major tournaments - Roman Slysko (34) and Martin Balko (36). The fourth official will be Vladimir Hrinak (44), also from Slovakia. Meanwhile, senior police officers from Manchester traveled to Moscow on Monday to help prevent fan violence from marring the final. Manchester police will serve in an advisory role as Russian authorities prepare for Wednesday's match. \"A number of my officers and I have flown out to Moscow to meet local police and help draw up arrangements to police the fixture,\" said chief superintendent Janette McCormick. \"Although GMP officers have no powers of arrest abroad and ultimate responsibility for policing the game lies with the Russian authorities, we have been gathering intelligence on potential and known troublemakers and GMP officers will be in Moscow in an advisory role,\" McCormick added. As Manchester United flew out on Monday, plain-clothed intelligence officers were stationed at Manchester Airport to target known or potential troublemakers from heading to the Russian capital. Ban orders imposed on fans with soccer-related convictions will be rigorously enforced in the next two days to prevent them from flying to Moscow. \"As with all operations like this, we are sending out a clear message to people intending to travel to commit violence to think again,\" said police chief inspector Robert Tinsley, who is based at the airport. The airport is expecting 20,000 more passengers than usual to be flying to Moscow. The British embassy in Moscow have announced that their consular section will stay open on May 21 and 22 to help English fans arriving for the final. \"The consular department will extend their working hours on Wednesday and Thursday to support English citizens coming here to watch the Champions' League final,\" the embassy press service said. The press service report added that a 24-hour telephone \"hot line\" would be organized by the embassy.","highlights":"Lubos Michel will referee Wednesday's Champions League final in Moscow .\nFellow-Slovakians Roman Slysko and Martin Balko will be his two assistants .\nVladimir Hrinak will be fourth official at the Manchester Utd v Chelsea clash .","id":"820c917dada8b32be365eaeec9edc1ca5833cfcd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Kimi Raikkonen has lambasted McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for the pit-lane accident that ended both of their races at the Canadian Grand Prix. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen is far from happy after Lewis Hamilton pushed him out of the Canadian Grand Prix. Hamilton's McLaren rammed into the back of world champion Raikkonen's Ferrari as the Finn and Robert Kubica, the race's eventual winner, were waiting at a red light after the safety car was forced into action on lap 17. Raikkonen, while claiming not to be angry, was clearly far from impressed. \"There's not much I can say. My race was ruined by Hamilton's mistake. \"Obviously, anyone can make mistakes, as I did two weeks ago in Monaco, but it's one thing to make a mistake at 200 hundred [miles] per hour but another to hit a car stopped at a red light. \"I'm not angry because that doesn't achieve anything and does not change my result. I am unhappy because I had a great chance of winning.\" Raikkonen, who has failed to score points in the previous two races, said he had to start winning again. \"There is still a long way to go in the championship and it is still very close and we have everything we need to regain the ground we have lost.\" Ferrari team sporting director Stefano Domenicali said Hamilton had made a \"serious mistake.\" \"I think the penalty imposed by the FIA [Hamilton was given a 10-place grid penalty for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours] is in line with it, even if it does not restore what was a lost opportunity for us. \"Kimi was in an excellent position to fight for the win\" Hamilton, for his part, was apologetic. \"I don't know what happened to be honest,\" Hamilton said. \"I was comfortably in the lead, it was looking like an easy win. Then I went in for the pit stop. It was not a good stop and I saw the two guys in front of me battling in the pit lane. \"I saw the red light but by that time it was a bit late. It was not exactly a racing incident as such, it was unfortunate. It was one of those things. It is different to if you crash into the wall and you are angry. It is not like that. I apologize to Kimi for ruining his race.\"","highlights":"Kimi Raikkonen lambasts McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for pit-lane accident .\nFinn says his race was 'ruined' after Hamilton didn't see red light .\nHamilton was given a 10-place grid penalty for the French Grand Prix .","id":"faf3821150b0c63290cbbddd7a8b54900995ea5a"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The British Foreign Office has warned its nationals -- traveling to or living in the United Arab Emirates -- about the increased threat of a terrorist attack. In 2006 over one million Britons visited the United Arab Emirates, according to the UK Foreign office. The alert, posted on its Web site, urged Britons in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom to be vigilant -- especially in public places -- because of a \"high threat of terrorism.\" The UAE is among the most moderate Gulf states and is home to thousands of expatriates. \"We believe terrorists may be planning to carry out attacks in the UAE,\" the Foreign Office statement read. \"Attacks could be indiscriminate and could happen at any time, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers such as residential compounds, military, oil, transport and aviation interests.\" By Monday, the U.S. State Department had not issued any warnings about the UAE. The UAE, slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Maine, is in the midst of a building boom to position itself as one of the world's premier tourist destinations. It is already home to the world's largest mall, the world's largest tower, and -- despite being in the Middle East -- boasts the largest indoor snow park in the world. According to the British Foreign Office, more than a million British visitors traveled to the UAE in 2006, while over 100,000 British nationals live there. The country is an ally in the United States' \"war on terror,\" and its ports host more U.S. Navy ships than any port outside the U.S., according to the U.S. State Department. Two of the attackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington came from the UAE. And it was among a handful of countries that recognized the fundamentalist Taliban regime before the September 11 attacks.","highlights":"UK Foreign Office: Terrorists may be planning to carry out attacks in the UAE .\nIt added that attacks could be \"indiscriminate and could happen at any time\"\nU.S. State Department has not issued any warnings about the UAE .\nUAE is a key ally in the United States' \"war on terror\"","id":"1de0cae2832cf41f49e6fad8254247c789dfabd2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will address the West in a new message, according to a banner ad from the group's production wing posted on Islamist Web sites known to carry messages from al Qaeda and bin Laden. This image accompanied a message from Osama bin Laden in November. \"To the western nations, soon, God willing, A new speech by the Lion of Islam Sheikh Osama Bin laden, The reasons of the struggle in the 60th anniversary of the Israeli Occupation,\" the banner reads. It was not known whether the message would be audio or video or when it might be posted. In the past, messages were available from an hour to two days after the initial posting. Bin Laden's last message came March 20, when in an audiotape he called Iraq \"the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine.\" In an audiotape released the previous day, bin Laden condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet, Mohammed.","highlights":"Banner ad on Islamist Web sites says al Qaeda leader will release message soon .\nIt is not known exactly when the message will come .\nBin Laden's last communication was an audiotape released March 20 .","id":"6c6e51ef20def117ed9114ed8d8480b3a100f1c3"} -{"article":"GLADSTONE, Illinois (CNN) -- Residents of this small town in Illinois, like many others who live along the banks of the surging Mississippi River, raced against the clock Tuesday to erect a makeshift levee as rising floodwaters threatened. Residents of Gladstone, Illinois, work with the National Guard to create a makeshift levee. \"I'm not moving, not moving my business,\" said Byron Sebastian, a longtime resident of Gladstone, Illinois, who also serves on the city council. \"We've got a lot of good people here helping to try to save this part of town.\" Gladstone is one of many towns under threat Tuesday after rising waters breached a 300-foot area of a levee near Gulf Port, Illinois, before 5 a.m. Levees all along the mid-Mississippi were being topped with sandbags Tuesday as the river, fed by its flooded tributaries, continued to rise. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich called up 1,100 National Guard members to assist in sandbagging efforts, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. She also said inmates are helping on the levees and others are bagging sand in correctional institutions. \"We were very, very disappointed that this levee broke today,\" said Thompson. \"It's a very powerful river, and it can be hard to harness.\" With the help of the National Guard, Sebastian and his fellow residents hustled Tuesday to build a barrier between Gladstone and the encroaching floodwaters. Even though Gladstone is about four miles from the banks of the Mississippi, the rising floodwaters have submerged homes and created rivers where crop fields once stood. The muddy townspeople worked with anxious resolve, cracking the occasional joke, as they filled bags with sand and dirt and loaded them onto ATVs. On the receiving end were members of the Illinois National Guard, who piled up the sandbags as the tops of cornstalks rose above the waters behind them. \"Threats can happen in all shapes and forms, so we are trying to help out,\" said National Guardsman Capt. Lanny Finn, whose unit previously served in Iraq. \"We'll be here for as long as we're needed.\" Sebastian, who lived through floods in 1993, said he never thought he'd have to experience them again. \"We thought that was bad, but this is a lot worse than it was in '93,\" said Sebastian. \"Now we got some lakefront property.\" Elsewhere in Illinois, authorities closed the Great River Bridge on U.S. 34, which connects Illinois to Iowa over the swollen Mississippi, as authorities evacuated about 400 people in Henderson County. The sheriff of Henderson County, where the Mississippi River borders the entire western edge of the county, said authorities are still concerned about the communities of Gulf Port, Carman, Lomax and Dallas City. Watch aerial views of the rising Mississippi \u00bb . \"It's been an uphill battle from the start, and the levee just broke loose,\" he said. Sheriff John Jefferson of Hancock County, Illinois, said water was \"very, very close\" to the top of some areas of the county's two levees. \"We've had to evacuate some areas already, but the areas that have not been evacuated yet, we're just keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that the levee will hold,\" he said. In two of the county's communities, Rio Vista and Pontoosuc, power has been shut off in all but 20 residences, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said. Missouri also began to feel the force of the surging Mississippi Tuesday, as water began to top multiple levees east of Highway 79, forcing authorities to suspend sandbagging efforts at a levee near Foley, officials said Tuesday. In Northwest Missouri, towns and cities along the Mississippi River were bracing for flooding later this week as swollen waters head downriver. Communities at high risk of record flooding include Quincy, Illinois, and Hannibal, Missouri, according to National Weather Service modeling. Moderate flooding is possible later in the week in Alton, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. The floods began heading downriver Monday to Illinois and Missouri, relieving Iowa somewhat after two weeks of natural disasters that killed 17 people, displaced 38,000 and caused more than $1 billion in crop damages. \"The good news is the floodwater is receding in much of the state,\" said David Miller, administrator for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division. \"The bad news is we're still in a flood fight.\" President Bush said he and a team will travel to Iowa this week. State and federal officials also plan to meet there this week to decide the best way to house displaced residents, said Bill Vogel, a federal coordinator with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Washington, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said the flooding has devastated his state's corn crop. Floods prompted farm-equipment manufacturer John Deere to idle two plants in Waterloo, Iowa, he said. Watch a farmer boat through his fields \u00bb . \"Across eastern Iowa, the flooding rivers have washed out railroad lines; Mississippi barge traffic has come to a halt and [flooding has] closed major roadways,\" said Harkin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. \"Thousands of Iowa businesses, large and small, have been impacted.\" Harkin said Iowans \"are a resilient and resourceful people,\" but will need \"generous federal assistance\" to recover. FEMA has set up six disaster recovery centers in Iowa and has provided nearly $4 million in assistance, state and federal officials reported. So far, 24 counties are under federal disaster declarations, making residents eligible for individual aid, Lt. Gov. Patty Judge reported. By Tuesday afternoon, residents of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the Cedar River inundated more than 400 city blocks, were beginning to return home as the rivers lessened, said Lu Barron, a Linn County supervisor. \"We're doing pretty good,\" she said. \"People are getting into their businesses, and getting into their homes.\" she said. She estimated that thousands of people had returned to their homes after authorities inspected them to make sure they were safe. The death of one woman whose body was found in her car Monday was determined unrelated to the floods, said Courtney Greene, a spokeswoman for the governor's office and the state Emergency Operations Center. Amtrak service from Chicago, Illinois, to St. Paul, Minnesota, and to Kansas City, Missouri, was disrupted by the flooding. CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Towns rush to build makeshift barriers to hold back rising floodwaters .\nNEW: Record flooding anticipated for towns in Illinois, Missouri .\nHigh water forces officials to close U.S. 34 span between Iowa, Illinois .\nFEMA sets up 6 centers in Iowa; 24 counties declared disasters .","id":"b8c755b8921f7917d161605d2ef404d9551f3846"} -{"article":"(Oprah.com) -- If you heard there was a weapon proven to prevent most crimes before they happen, would you run out and buy it? World-renowned security expert Gavin de Becker says this weapon exists, but you already have it. He calls it \"the gift of fear.\" One chapter in Gavin's book \"The Gift of Fear\" has stuck with Oprah since she first read it. The story of a woman named Kelly begins with a simple warning sign. A man offers to help carry her groceries into her apartment -- and instantly, Kelly doesn't like the sound of his voice. Kelly goes against her gut and lets him help her -- and in doing so, she lets a rapist into her home. \"We get a signal prior to violence,\" Gavin says. \"There are preincident indicators. Things that happen before violence occurs.\" Gavin says that unlike any other living creature, humans will sense danger yet still walk right into it. \"You're in a hallway waiting for an elevator late at night. Elevator door opens, and there's a guy inside, and he makes you afraid. You don't know why, you don't know what it is. Some memory of this building -- whatever it may be. And many women will stand there and look at that guy and say, 'Oh, I don't want to think like that. I don't want to be the kind of person who lets the door close in his face. I've got to be nice. I don't want him to think I'm not nice.' And so human beings will get into a steel soundproof chamber with someone they're afraid of, and there's not another animal in nature that would even consider it.\" For weeks, Nicole had a funny feeling that something odd was going on in her apartment. \"My gut started feeling like something just wasn't right,\" she says. \"I would come home, and there would be just weird lights on in my house -- lights that I didn't even remember turning on in the first place.\" Then one day, Nicole noticed a UPS delivery box where it shouldn't be. \"I'm like, 'How did this brand of box get on my back balcony?'\" Nicole began to feel uneasy -- but continued to brush it off. \"I would just come home, you know, and almost feel nauseous,\" she says. \"I kept trying to justify it saying, 'Okay, it is in my head.'\" Nicole's funny feeling eventually escalated into full-fledged panic attacks, which Gavin says were her intuition's way of telling her that something was wrong. \"And intuition records everything. So when she started getting panics attacks, her intuition is saying, basically, 'You're not going to listen? Okay, I'll ramp it up. I'll give you panic attacks. You want sleepless nights? I'll give you sleepless nights.'\" Nicole eventually did listen to her intuition, starting with a simple test. \"I dropped a tank top behind the door as I was leaving for work, thinking that when I come home that night, I'm going to peek my head around the corner. If [the tank top] had been pushed to the side, it would have been obvious that the door was opened.\" When Nicole got home, she says the tank top had moved. Caught on camera . The next day, Nicole says she set up a hidden camera to try and find out what was going on in her apartment. Once she came home, Nicole says she plugged the camcorder into her laptop. \"And the first thing I see is this man's head peeking around the corner into my house,\" she says. \"What I felt at that point was just complete terror. I'm sitting there watching this video --this story unfold -- and this person comes in my house, is looking around, going through my things, looking through my laundry, holding up my lingerie.\" As Nicole continues to watch in horror, the intruder undresses himself and puts her lingerie on. \"So this person is in my clothes, proceeds to start pleasuring himself -- just very, very graphic things happening right there in my house with my belongings. And he finishes up, takes off my clothes -- and puts them exactly back as I had left them -- puts his clothes back on, checks to make sure nobody's outside the door and leaves.\" After watching the tape, Nicole says she ran around her apartment, screaming hysterically. She says she had never seen the man in the tape before. \"Initially, I took my cell phone, called my boyfriend at the time, screaming hysterically. All I could say was, 'He's in my house. He's in my house.' Even picking up the phone, dialing, was difficult.\" Two weeks later, police found the man -- 39-year-old Shawn Rogers, a computer consultant with a young son and a wife at the time. Police were unable to charge Rogers with anything more than trespassing ... until he came back to Nicole's apartment to steal her camera. Police were able to charge Rogers with burglary, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Dangerous behavior . When Nicole found the UPS box on her balcony, Gavin says this was a warning sign. Gavin applauds Nicole for listening to her intuition and says that quieting her fear could have caused the situation to escalate. \"He's already into behavior of wanting to get caught,\" he says. \"You don't come back again and again and again and not want to get caught.\" Gavin says like Nicole, the intruder's intuition was probably trying to tell him something too. \"Offenders as well can see what's happening in their lives. And talk about not listening to it -- he's in someone's apartment doing something sexual with their clothes on -- that's something to listen to.\" Because the intruder had a job and a family, Gavin says his behavior was not only reckless, but dangerous as well. \"When people do listen, they can stop what's almost fate,\" Gavin says. \"There's a great line that Carl Jung said. He said, 'What we do not make conscious emerges later as fate.' If he made it conscious, if he could talk to someone about it, if he could tell someone, he could get better also. But he didn't, and it does mean escalation. If she discovered him, that's dangerous. If he came in when she was there, that's dangerous.\" Your feelings are warnings . Doris, who says she endured years of sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, appeared on \"The Oprah Show\" after leaving her husband. Unfortunately, her battle didn't end there -- two months after she left him, Doris's ex-husband abducted her at gunpoint and raped her. After the show, Oprah spoke with Doris again to ask if her she had sensed any warning signs the night she was abducted. \"As I was coming home from work, it was just a very eerie, strange feeling as I drove up,\" Doris says. \"It was darker than normal in my driveway, and there was a trash can sitting where I normally park right in the middle. \"I thought, 'Hmm, this is strange.' Because my mother lives with me, and she'll turn on the lights when it gets dark. It did give me a little eerie feeling -- the hairs on the back of your neck kind of stand up. But still, I didn't listen to my instincts.\" Gavin says that \"eerie feeling\" is exactly what he wants women to pay attention to. \"We're trying to analyze the warning signs,\" he says. \"And what I really want to teach today and forever is the feeling is the warning sign. All the other stuff is our explanation for the feeling. Why it was this, why it was that. The feeling itself is the warning sign.\" From \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2008 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Security expert Gavin de Becker says fear can be a gift .\nSays humans only animal who senses danger and walks into it .\nTwo victims recall feeling uneasy before crime happened .","id":"dc7e18d14b8ad29abbd79f554324ec7b8ba8b9c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman who gave birth to a stillborn boy was left distraught after she discovered his body was kept in a jar for four years by the hospital. Jo-Ann Burrows believed for years that her son had been cremated before making the grim discovery about his fate. The mother-of-five is now taking legal action against the hospital authorities in Hampshire, southern England, the UK's Press Association reported Thursday. PA reported that Ms Burrows had daughter Ellie in April 2004 at the Hythe Birthing Centre, in Hampshire, but gave birth to the stillborn twin two days later at home. She said that an ultrasound scan taken the previous December had not revealed that she was carrying a twin, according to PA. After the stillbirth, Ms Burrows, 44, was taken to the Princess Anne maternity hospital in Southampton, also in southern England, where she gave her consent for the body to be cremated. PA reported that she has spent the past four years asking for the funeral papers and ashes. The 44-year-old is now organizing a naming ceremony and funeral for the stillborn, whose twin sister survived. Ms Burrows was quoted in her local newspaper, the Southern Daily Echo, as saying: \"This experience has made me suicidal, if it wasn't for my friends and family I wouldn't be here. \"I kept asking for my baby's funeral papers because I was always worried that he might be in a jar somewhere. I still couldn't believe it when I found out.\" She was informed through her solicitor in February that the hospital still had the baby and has now filed a medical negligence claim against Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust. It claims the Trust failed to \"exercise reasonable care and skill when performing the ultrasound and also focuses on Ms Burrows' repeated requests for confirmation of the cremation,\" PA reported. A Trust spokeswoman told the news agency: \"Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust confirms that legal proceedings have been brought against it by Ms Jo-Ann Burrows. \"The chief executive has already written to Ms Burrows apologizing for shortcomings in the treatment provided to her and, in particular, for the circumstances which led to Ms Burrows' second twin not being cremated in 2004 as they had previously advised and for the distress this discovery may have caused.\"","highlights":"Woman's stillborn baby kept in jar for four years by hospital .\nJo-Ann Burrows believed for years that her son had been cremated .\nThe mother-of-five is now taking legal action against the hospital authorities .","id":"a7fc90db6c296663b1b7fc057451dfd45019342d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andre Berto claimed the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight title when he halted Miguel Rodriguez in the seventh round in Memphis. Berto took the WBC belt vacated when Floyd Mayweather retired. Berto (22-0, 19 KOs) picked up the WBC belt that became vacant when Floyd Mayweather retired. Rodriguez's record dropped to 29-3 with 23 KOs. Berto floored Rodriguez with an uppercut in the seventh round and when Rodriquez went down a second time referee Lawrance Cole intervened at 2:13. Dane Mikkel Kessler knocked out Dimitri Sartison in the 12th round in Copenhagen, to become World Boxing Association supermiddle champion . Kessler (40-1) dominated throughout in front of an enthusiastic home crowd at the Brondby Hall. Sartison, who was born in Kazhakstan but grew up in Germany, suffered his first loss after a 22-0 start in his pro career. Kessler won the WBA title in November 2004 by stopping Manny Siaca of Puerto Rico. He also lifted the the WBC super middleweight crown two years later when he knocked out Markus Beyer of Germany in the third round. But he surrendered both belts when Joe Calzaghe of Wales ended his unbeaten run in Cardiff last November. Britain's Amir Khan was floored before successfully defending his Commonwealth lightweight title with a fifth round stoppage of Michael Gomez in Birmingham. Khan, who has won all 18 of his fights since turning professional after winning a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, knocked Gomez down in the first round but found himself on the canvas in the second in a brief but rugged contest. Khan said: \"This was one of my toughest fights but I learned from my mistakes. I will watch the video and work on them and continue my journey to the world title.\" Khan was on target with a powerful right uppercut in the first round and a combination of punches floored Gomez, who retaliated in the second round. A left hook over the top of a jab put Khan down and he had to take a standing count and looked unsteady on his legs for several seconds afterwards. Gomez landed a damaging hook to the ribs in the fourth but early in the fifth Khan put his opponent down again with a powerful body shot. Gomez began to take a lot of punishment and referee John Keane stopped the contest. Gomez looked disappointed but appeared to be all but out on his feet.","highlights":"Andre Berto wins the vacant WBC welterweight title .\nHe halts Miguel Rodriguez in seven rounds .\nMikkel Kessler becomes WBA super-middleweight champion .\nAmir Khan successfully defends the Commonwealth lightweight title .","id":"7f22fbc4fd81e50c632c5853856965aa4d0065d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michelle Obama, wife of Sen. Barack Obama, is honing her message for the fall, aides say. Sen. Barack Obama and wife, Michelle, have been thrust into the public eye. \"Michelle wrote her own stump (speech). And you know, she's refining it now I think as we're going into the general election,\" said senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. \"We have an opportunity for her to kind of step back and think about the message she wants to deliver. So she's really working on it as we speak.\" Her new speeches will include more details about her family and humble upbringing on Chicago's South Side, aides said. Michelle Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, was a vice president at the University of Chicago and landed a job as a health care executive making $275,000 a year. But along with her success has come criticism -- that's she's too angry, too negative and too sarcastic. Now, the woman who would become the first black first lady is trying to connect with voters on a more personal level. Watch experts weigh in on how Michelle Obama is perceived \u00bb . On Wednesday, she made an appearance as a guest co-host on ABC's \"The View,\" and later this week, she and her husband will grace the cover of Us Weekly. The magazine is headlined \"Michelle Obama: Why Barack Loves Her,\" and includes details about her love for Target, \"Sex and the City\" and her daughters' recitals. Asked Wednesday while on \"The View\" if she's going through a makeover, she said she realizes \"I wear my heart on my sleeve\" and that \"it's a risk you have to take.\" She said she thinks people will change their perception of her as they see her family more. Michelle Obama's spokeswoman, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, said earlier there is no \"image makeover\" in the works. Watch what Michelle Obama would be like as first lady \u00bb . \"She has staff engaged in simply part of the process of growing to a general election campaign and putting a strategy together to help people get to know her,\" Lelyveld said. \"It's what you do as you move from primary voters to general election voters.\" Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a first ladies historian, said it's important for Michelle Obama to define herself before others define her. \"One comment made off-hand ... might be easily misinterpreted by the opposition,\" he said. Michelle Obama saw that in February when a Republican ad used a snippet from a campaign event in which, referring to record voter turnout in the Democratic primaries, she said, \"for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.\" Obama's campaign says she was just excited about the grassroots support, but her words still provided fodder for her husband's opponents. The day after the comments, Cindy McCain, wife of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, introduced her husband saying, \"I don't know about you, if you heard those words earlier -- I am very proud of my country.\" Michelle Obama has been a vocal advocate for her husband while on the campaign trail, delivering sometimes impassioned speeches on his behalf. Robin Givhan, fashion editor with the Washington Post, said people see Michelle Obama in different ways. \"Some people will see confidence, and others might see cockiness. I think some people will see strength. Others might see arrogance,\" she said. \"She comes across as someone who is extraordinarily independent and very much a force to be reckoned with.\" Behind the scenes, she maintains that independence. According to the campaign, Michelle Obama picks out her own clothes. She received a lot of attention for the sleeveless purple dress and pearls she wore the night her husband became the presumptive Democratic nominee. Beyond her style, though, a sense of dignity may be what most defines a first lady. It's a job that requires the ability to strike a balance between queen and commoner. Exactly how Michelle Obama refines her approach on the stump remains to be seen, staffers said. \"We'll see,\" Jarrett said. \"She's learned a lot of stories along the way from the American people, I think she may incorporate some more of the stories that she's heard that resonate with what she's seeing in terms of the direction that people want the country to take. But the rest is up to her. We'll see what she comes up with.\" CNN's Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Michelle Obama refining her speeches to emphasize family, upbringing .\nShe has been criticized for coming across as angry, unpatriotic .\nShe is co-hosting on \"The View;\" also on cover of Us Weekly .\nHer spokeswoman says this is not an \"image makeover\"","id":"309ae632df7b88a9569d81fa91aff3b9fb03529e"} -{"article":"Brazilian coach Zico is leaving Turkish club Fenerbahce, after failing to reach an agreement over a new contract. Zico guided Fenerbahce to a league and Super Cup double intheir centenary year . Fenerbahce recently suspended negotiations over a fresh deal with Zico because of reportedly high demands by the Brazilian. The Anatolia press agency published a club statement which said: \"The contract of Arthur Antunes Coimbra (Zico) has now come to an end. \" We would like to thank him for the successful work he has done with the club, and wish him all the best for the future.\" Last season Zico led Fenerbahce to the quarterfinals of the Champions League where they were defeated by Chelsea. Reports claimed that after that achievement Zico sought a new annual salary of $4.9 million. He has been earning $2.9million.. Zico, 55, joined the club in July 2006 on a two-year deal and he guided them to a league and Turkish Super Cup double in 2007, their centenary year. Spanish media reports have said that Fenerbahce have lined up current Spain coach Luis Aragones as a replacement. Aragones has led Spain to the semifinals of the Euro 2008 finals .","highlights":"Coach Zico is leaving Turkish club Fenerbahce .\nHe has been unable to reach agreement over a new contract .\nMedia reports suggest that Spain coach Luis Aragones will replace him .","id":"732304a0901ff14d023d4361c1d41a85724808f3"} -{"article":"OMAHA, Nebraska (CNN) -- Dozens of calls flooded the Omaha Police Department's 911 emergency line after a gunman opened fire inside the city's Westroads Mall, with witnesses calling in tones that ranged from almost matter-of-fact to near terror. Police make their presence known at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, Thursday. \"I haven't seen anything. I'm hiding in a clothes rack,\" a woman said after a dispatcher asked her for a description of the shooter. \"I mean, there's been like 50 gunshots.\" In one of the recordings, provided to CNN by the police department, a rapid burst of three gunshots can be heard, followed by two more a moment later before the line goes dead. A dispatcher asked one caller to move away from a woman shouting in the background. \"Oh Lord God help us,\" the woman can be heard screaming. Hear some of the 911 calls \u00bb . \"She said there is a bunch of people shot,\" the caller says. Robert Hawkins, 19, killed six employees and two customers of Von Maur department store on Wednesday before turning his AK-47 rifle on himself. Two employees remained hospitalized Thursday, one with critical injuries and one in serious condition. A woman who called 911 before ducking into a security office in the store said she heard the gunman demand that a vault be opened near the store's customer service area. Police have not described the shooting as a robbery attempt, saying Thursday they don't know why Hawkins chose the store as a target. The caller described the shooter as having \"a very large gun\" and said he came out of an elevator on the store's third floor and began firing shots into the air. \"I heard the gunshots and I got down as soon as possible because I've got kids,\" she said. Later, she told the dispatcher she'd moved into the security office -- where she appears to have seen Hawkins' dead body on a surveillance camera. \"Oh my gosh! It looks like the gun is laying over by customer service -- it looks like he might have killed himself,\" she said, breaking into tears. \"I see him laying by the gun!\" Police said Thursday that Hawkins had had \"some mental health problems,\" including thoughts of suicide. He had lost his job and recently broken up with his girlfriend, according to a family friend. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"I'm hiding in a clothes rack,\" a caller says .\nA rapid burst of gunshots can be heard in another call before the line goes dead .\nRobert Hawkins killed six employees and two customers before taking his own life .\n\"I see him laying by the gun,\" a woman tells the dispatcher .","id":"509b9f69b376e4acb8da49d53198699b1e779ea7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australia's cricketers will pay tribute to Jane McGrath at their one-day international against West Indies in St Vincent on Tuesday. Jane McGrath died on Sunday at the age of 42. The English-born wife of former Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath, died on Sunday, aged 42, after a long battle with cancer. The McGraths had two children, James, who is eight, and Holly six. The Australian players will wear pink ribbons and batsmen will use pink grips on their bats. The color pink represents the McGrath Foundation, an organization set up by the McGraths to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. The McGraths were recognized for their charity work this year when they were appointed as Members of the Order of Australia. Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: \"Jane was a wonderful person who fought and maintained grace and dignity during her long-term illness.\" Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: \"Jane was an inspiration, whose legacy will continue to benefit so many others.\" Former Australia captain Steve Waugh, best man at the McGrath's 1999 wedding, said: \"Courage is often associated with feats on a sport field but the true meaning of it lies elsewhere and someone like Jane best exemplifies that.\"","highlights":"Australia's cricketers are to pay tribute to Jane McGrath .\nThe 42-year-old wife of fast bowler Glenn McGrath, die on Sunday .\nShe had had a long battle with cancer .\nThe players will wear pink ribbons, the color of the McGrath Foundation .","id":"c292860b41f7c9131458cdc44a79febef38ad8a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Alabama man whose wife died during a honeymoon scuba diving trip off the coast of Australia almost five years ago has been charged in her death. Tina Watson, background right, lies motionless after she drowned in 2003 while diving in the Great Barrier Reef. An Australian coroner ruled Friday that there was enough evidence to put Gabe Watson on trial for the death of Tina Watson, who was 26 when she drowned in October 2003 while diving around a historic shipwreck in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Watson, 31, told police that his new bride appeared to panic 45 feet underwater and that he \"looked into her eyes and saw her eyes were wide open, but there was no response,\" Townsville Coroner David Glascow said in his inquest findings. Glascow, however, cited what he said were inconsistencies in Watson's statements to investigators. The coroner said he was \"unable to conclude that Tina's death was an accidental drowning.\" Watch Tina Watson's family demand justice \u00bb . The couple married just 11 days earlier in Birmingham, Alabama. They left their home in Hoover, Alabama, for their Australian honeymoon two days later, the coroner said. As possible evidence for the husband's motive, Glascow pointed to a statement by the woman's father that Watson asked her to maximize her life insurance and make him the beneficiary shortly before the wedding. The insurance company confirmed that Gabe Watson inquired about her life insurance policy after her death, the coroner said. The coroner noted that Watson, through his lawyers, contended that police had made a judgment that he killed his wife before they began their investigation and that they tailored their investigation to fit their theory. Glascow said he saw no evidence of police rushing to judgment. \"It appears certain that at some point in time, investigators considered some of Gabe's explanations lacked credibility, and it further appears to me that investigators gave Gabe the opportunity to clarify matters which may have caused concern,\" the coroner said. The husband was an experienced diver, and his new wife was considered a novice, the coroner said. They were diving on the Yongala shipwreck about 42 miles off the coast of Townsville in the state of Queensland, Australia.","highlights":"Gabe Watson has been charged with 2003 death of his wife during honeymoon .\nTina Watson died while scuba diving in Australia's Great Barrier Reef .\nCoroner unable to conclude that Watson's death was accidental .","id":"6db7e70883f0241081833487c421bab86fdac26e"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepalese authorities Thursday detained at least 650 Tibetan exiles protesting against China's policies in the province ahead of this weekend's Olympic torch relay in Tibet, security officials in Kathmandu said. A protester is grabbed by Nepalese police during a demonstration in Kathmandu. Police also arrested and charged three local Tibetan community leaders with organizing the protest, after seizing them from their homes Thursday morning. It is the largest single-day round-up of Tibetan protesters in Nepal since the demonstrations broke out in March following China's bloody crackdown on protesters in Tibet. It is also the first time that Nepalese authorities have charged any Tibetan exiles in connection with the protests. Nepalese police forcefully dragged some of the protesters to awaiting vans and drove them to police stations across the capital. Tibetan exile groups said 900 protesters were detained Thursday. Authorities said the three arrested leaders -- two women and a man -- were responsible for the near-daily protests since March and will be held for 90 days under Nepal's public security act. \"They have been arrested for damaging the diplomatic relations between Nepal and China,\" said civilian security officer Jaya Mukunda Khanal. The two women arrested and charged for organizing the protests were Ngwang Sangmo, president of Tibetan Women's Association, and Tashi Dolma, vice president of the association. Also charged was Kelsang Chung, director of the Tibetan Reception Center, which helps Tibetan refugees in Nepal emigrate to India, where the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, lives in exile. While they are the first Tibetan exiles formally arrested, protesters have previously been detained and released hours later. The crackdown comes days before the Olympic torch relay in Tibet. The torch relay wrapped up in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Wednesday, and will continue in Tibet's capital of Lhasa on Saturday, according to China's Olympic Web site.","highlights":"Nepalese authorities arrest at least 650 Tibetan exiles over China protest .\nPolice forcefully dragged some of the protesters to awaiting vans .\nProtestors voice opposition to China's policies in Tibet .","id":"e51e06234b3f49da16fec69aaee6fb9cd09cb1d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The son of a man who died from intestinal problems says he now wonders whether his father's wife might have poisoned him. Betty Johnson Neumar is shown at her booking. She is charged with hiring a hit man to kill her husband. Betty Neumar, 76, was charged by North Carolina authorities last month with one count of solicitation of murder in the July 1986 death of Harold Gentry, one of her five dead spouses since the 1950s. Since the arrest, authorities have launched an investigation into the deaths of her previous husbands, including John Neumar Sr., her fifth husband. Neumar's son appeared on \"Nancy Grace\" on Wednesday along with Jay Almond, a news editor with the Stanly News and Press in North Carolina. \"It wasn't long after my father married her that he started being sick,\" Neumar said. He said he learned of his father's death when he read it in a local newspaper. Betty Neumar has not been charged in connection with that death or her other three husbands. \"She has only been charged in one state,\" her attorney Charles Parnell said. \"I want to remind everybody she has only been charged in North Carolina, and obviously, she is presumed to be innocent. There is nothing with the other states because there are no charges at this particular time.\" Here is an edited transcript of the show: . Neumar: You know, actually, murder almost never crossed my mind until the Gentry case came up. In fact, we did not know she was married all this time. We just thought that she was married one time and she was a widow lady who married my father. Well, it wasn't long after my father married her that he started being sick and everything. And he was never sick a day in his life [before then]. And I figured something was wrong because he put -- such a wedge became between our families that shouldn't have existed. We were so close. And the longer she was married to him, the less we had to do with him and the more time it seemed like he was sick but she wouldn't let us know about it. In fact, when he did die, I read about it in the newspaper and didn't even know he was dead. And when I went to the funeral home, she already had him cremated. Grace: Had him cremated? Neumar: Correct. Grace: Mr. Neumar, what was the cause of death of your father? Neumar: Well, it's a complicated thing, and I'm not very good with these technical terms and all. But from what the doctors say, it was some type of stomach and bowel and, you know, intestine problem and everything, which I've been told later by some people that the symptoms that he had could be caused by arsenic poisoning. Grace: John, when you first met her, didn't you tell me you believed at that time she was a widow, a one-time widow that married your father? Neumar: Right. That was correct. We were told that her husband just passed away, and my mother had passed away a couple years before that. And we -- you know, we just figured it was a widow and a widower getting married. Grace: How did she meet your father? Neumar: A friend of his went up there to where she had a salon to get haircutting. My father, he went to go up there and get his haircut because I think his barber had retired. So he went up there to get his haircut, and that's where he met her. Grace: And how long after they met did they marry? Neumar: You know, I'm bad with time frame, but I'd say, I think within a year or something like that [1989]. Grace: Quick courtship. Neumar: Right. ... Jay Almond, news editor: The information I have is based on an investigation that the Stanly County Sheriff's Office is running, and information there is that the D.A.'s office and the Stanly County sheriff have gathered evidence from witnesses saying that Betty Neumar solicited to commit murder to her husband, Harold. Thomas Harold Gentry was shot to death in Norwood home near the back door inside the home. He was found by friends or family members -- I believe friendly members sent there by his employers. He didn't report to work. ... And [they] discover him there dead, and then the investigation there ensues but did not lead to anything enough to press charges against anyone. Grace: .. Jay, what can you tell me about this woman? What is her background? Almond: She's a 76-year-old widow ... and she's been married four other times. She initially was inviting to family members, but then sort of became more of a wedge in the family and has gone from there, got colder and -- with previous family members.","highlights":"Son says his dad got sick shortly after he married wife two decades ago .\nAuthorities launch probe into deaths of five husbands of Betty Neumar .\nSon says he learned of his dad's death in newspaper, body was cremated .","id":"42474528588bac3a27842671a3fa940fed450552"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday morning that child rapists cannot be given the death penalty, effectively reserving the punishment only for murderers. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin said the court's ruling falls in line with other decisions on the death penalty. The 5-4 decision stems from a Louisiana case in which Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to die in 2003 for the sexual assault of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Proponents of Louisiana's law, which allowed child rapists to be eligible for the death penalty, say that besides murder, no crime is more deserving of the death penalty than child rape. Kennedy would have been the first rapist in 44 years to be executed for a crime in which the victim was not killed. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said \"evolving standards of decency\" forbid capital punishment for any crime other than murder. CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, spoke with CNN's Heidi Collins outside the Supreme Court about the impact of the ruling. Collins: This is a huge decision here. What do you make of it? Toobin: It was just high drama in the court today. It's always dramatic at the end of the Supreme Court term. Here it was literally life and death, one of the big open questions in constitutional law about the death penalty: Can you execute someone for a crime other than murder? Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on so many cases, decided this case, it was 5-4. ... He didn't diminish the seriousness of the crime, but he said the risks of expanding the death penalty are simply too great. He pointed out that there are more than 5,000 child rapes every year in the United States. All of them would raise the possibility of the death penalty. There are only a handful of states -- I think it was six -- that allow the death penalty for child rape. Forty-four states and the federal government say no. He said there is a national consensus that this is not an appropriate punishment. So, this really rules out not just the death penalty for child rape, but any crime other than murder. So it's a major, major decision. See more about the reach of the decision \u00bb . Collins: A national consensus except those six states. It's interesting when you look at the court of public opinion. How do you think this decision is going to go down in public? Toobin: Well, I think it's a tough call because support for the death penalty nationwide in the past 10 years has actually been going down. But child rape is such a horrendous crime and all of us have such a natural revulsion towards it that you're never going to get a lot of support for any sort of reduction in sentence. But I think, given the fact that this is a Supreme Court that said no death penalty for murderers under 18, no death penalty for the mentally retarded, this decision is consistent with a certain restriction on the death penalty, which is reflected in the court but also in a kind of national change that's going on. Collins: And in Sean Callebs' piece that we had, I don't know if you heard it. Toobin: I saw it, yeah. Collins: One woman, who actually brought up a very interesting point, when you think about all of this and when you think about the child, the victim, she said, you know, if they know they're going to die for this crime, why would they leave a living witness? Toobin: Justice Kennedy made precisely that point in the opinion. He said, allowing the death penalty here would create a perverse incentive for child rapists to murder their victims. He also pointed out what a difficult moral choice it would put child victims in testifying, giving children literally the power of life and death in their testimony over their attackers. That is something that he wanted to relieve children of -- that burden. Collins: Will they always have to testify? Toobin: Yeah, pretty much. There have been rare examples ... if a child, for example, is simply too young to testify. There are horrible cases of rapes of babies and things like that. But by and large there has to be some sort of testimony from a child. It can be in a noncourtroom setting. It can be sort of in a deposition, not in front of the jury. But you do have to have the child testify. Collins: It's just such a tough decision all around. 5-4 on that one, very interesting.","highlights":"Toobin: Ruling falls in line with recent court decisions on death penalty .\nJustice Kennedy, in decision, said it would not be fair to place burden on child victim .\nPublic support for executions down in recent years, Toobin said .","id":"5932d9c8f1da55bad396197ebae0853c515180a5"} -{"article":"YUSUFIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- Female suicide bombers, who often slip through security checkpoints untouched because of cultural norms, are taking a more deadly toll than ever across Iraq. A female suicide bomber struck northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing 16. But the U.S. Army has created a solution with \"Daughters of Iraq,\" a program that trains Iraqi women to find female suicide bombers. Women carried out eight bombings in all of 2007, according to the U.S. military. Halfway through 2008, the number of female suicide bombers is 20. A suicide attack carried out by a woman on Sunday in Baquba killed at least 16 people and wounded another 40. \"Daughters of Iraq\" is a spinoff of \"Sons of Iraq,\" which employs Iraqi men to run checkpoints and is credited with taking much of the steam out of the insurgency. The goal of the women's program is twofold: to protect against female suicide bombers, and to provide much-needed income to Iraqi women with few chances for employment. In the town of Yusufiya, southwest of Baghdad, some 30 women are being trained to search other females at security checkpoints -- something men are forbidden to do under Iraqi cultural norms. In mid-May, a female suicide bomber killed an Iraqi army officer in this town. \"When he came out to meet her to help her with a problem she was having, she detonated the vest and killed him and injured some of his soldiers,\" said Michael Starz, a U.S. Army captain. The women will work two or three days a month, making up to $300, an Iraqi military officer explained to applicants. In a community, where families struggle to survive, that's good money. Watch how \"Daughters of Iraq\" works \u00bb . The women come from small farming communities. Many of them are widows with numerous children and almost no income. Such is the story of Fawzia, who has six children to support. Her husband was shot to death when his car broke down. \"I am ready (to work) as long as it helps me financially,\" she said. \"I have five children in school.\" Having women work in this tradition-bound society is a social revolution, according to Fatima, a volunteer leader, told CNN's Jill Dougherty. \"Many women would like to do it but their parents would not agree because it's a rural society and it's shameful for girls to go outside the home.\"","highlights":"Halfway through 2008, the number of female suicide bombers is 20 .\n\"Daughters of Iraq\" trains Iraqi women to find female suicide bombers .\nWomen will work two or three days a month, making up to $300 .","id":"daacc676fc659bfd147d11b1409ab42615a2f169"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators looking for the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes will focus on farms in Mexico and Florida, federal health authorities said Friday. Since April, more than 500 people have contracted the same strain of salmonella, linked to raw tomatoes. The tracebacks \"have taken us from point of consumption all the way back to certain farms in Mexico and Florida,\" said Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration. The agency will send teams of investigators to farms in both locations this weekend as well as to the pathways from those farms in an attempt to determine where the contamination occurred, he said. The tomatoes may not have been contaminated on a farm, he stressed; the contamination could have occurred in a packing shed, warehouse, supplier chain or distribution center. \"We are going to all of those places to see if there are any problems that could indicate how or why these tomatoes got contaminated,\" he said. The reported advance in the investigation came as the toll mounted, with 552 people identified as having contracted the strain of Salmonella Saintpaul since April in 32 states and the District of Columbia. It is one of the biggest outbreaks of tomato-caused illness in history, officials said. See where the cases have been reported \u00bb . Though the number of reported victims has risen dramatically in recent days, that does not signify a large number of new infections, Acheson said. Instead, he credited improved surveillance and laboratory identification of previously submitted strains for the increased number. The bulk of the new reports were in Texas, which tallied 265 cases, according to Ian Williams, chief of the OutbreakNet Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 53 of the victims, whose ages range from 1 to 88 years, have been hospitalized. The victims are almost evenly split between males and females. Though no deaths have been officially attributed to the outbreak, a man in his 60s in Texas who had cancer also had the infection, which may have contributed to his death, Williams said. The outbreak began April 10, and the latest case was reported June 10.","highlights":"FDA: Tomatoes suspected in salmonella outbreak traced to farms in Mexico, Florida .\nTomatoes may have been contaminated after leaving the farm .\nOutbreak stands at 552 cases since April in 32 states, District of Columbia .","id":"7a02e707b139791920fb13115d6132541fff7d97"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congress passed a $300 billion farm bill over President Bush's veto for a second time Wednesday, a step made necessary by a clerical error when the original bill passed. Congress overrode President Bush's second veto of a $300 billion farm bill. The Senate voted 80-14 to approve the measure over Bush's objections, following a 317-109 vote in the House of Representatives. Both votes were well above the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, which Bush delivered Wednesday morning. Congress overrode an earlier veto of the farm bill last month, even though lawmakers had discovered that 34 pages were missing in the version originally sent to the White House. In spiking the latest version, Bush said he objected to its continued subsidies for the wealthy and its use of budget gimmicks to hide a $20 billion increase in spending. But Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the measure actually saves the government $110 million. \"This bill does not add to the deficit or debt, because this bill is paid for,\" he said. \"That is not my claim. That is the finding of the Congressional Budget Office.\" The discovery of the missing section, Title III, prompted concerns from House Republicans that the override vote was improper. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the sections of the bill that were originally sent to the president had become law after Congress voted to override Bush's first veto. But to put Title III into effect, Congress re-passed the entire legislation, including the missing pages, and resent it to Bush. The House voted 306-110 at the end of May. The Senate voted 77-15 for the bill at the beginning of June. Two-thirds of the $300 billion in spending for the farm bill will go for nutrition programs such as food stamps. Another $40 billion will go toward farm subsidies, and $30 billion is allocated for payments to farms to keep land idle and other environmental programs. After vetoing the latest version of the farm bill, Bush scolded Congress on Wednesday for not \"modifying certain objectionable, onerous and fiscally imprudent provisions. ... I am returning this bill for the same reasons as stated in my veto message.\" When he vetoed the first version of the farm bill, Bush said it \"continues subsidies for the wealthy and increases farm bill spending by more than $20 billion, while using budget gimmicks to hide much of the increase.\" The president said it would hurt efforts to improve American farmers' access to overseas markets. Congress has passed one other bill over Bush's objections: legislation for a $23 billion water project that the president vetoed in 2007. CNN Capitol Hill producer Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Senate votes 80-14 to approve measure over Bush's objections .\nPresident Bush vetoed $300 billion farm bill for second time .\nBush says bill is too generous to wealthy farmers .\nVersion originally sent to White House had 34 pages missing .","id":"db1972f0204c7a9c292f4c85e8838251cb26625e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Luke Russert, son of journalist Tim Russert, was part of a panel Wednesday that discussed youth voting on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Luke Russert says dinner table political discussions were part of his upbringing. Besides the youth vote, Russert discussed his father's death, his upbringing and his own future in journalism and political commentary. Tim Russert, 58, was the host of NBC's \"Meet the Press\" and one of America's leading political journalists. He died of a heart attack after collapsing at the network's Washington bureau on June 13. The following is an edited version of the show's transcript. Watch video of the discussion \u00bb . Larry King: How did you learn of your dad's passing? Luke Russert: I was in Florence, and I was at an Italian sports bar watching the Italy versus Romania game, and I got a call from my dad's secretary that said he had fainted, and could I get in touch with my mother. Luckily, I was right across the street from the hotel where my mom was. I ran up to her room and said, \"Dad has fainted.\" And we kind of learned in increments of what exactly happened. So it was basically about a half-hour after first hearing that he fainted that we actually knew he collapsed and had a heart attack. And at first, I was upset that I was so far away and removed. And I really wanted to be there. But in reality, it was really a blessing to be an ocean away, because it allowed my mother and me to have some real private time to collect our thoughts, to grieve in private, and not be inundated with all the media coverage and all the phone calls. So, you know, it was something that -- it was difficult, but to have that little cocoon, I think my mother and I really used it to our benefit. King: Must have been a long flight back. Russert: It was. It was a long nine-hour flight. But my mother has been so strong through this. And my family has been there for me every step of the way. My girlfriend has been wonderful. So I can't thank everybody enough. And obviously this happened, but it has made it a lot easier to have such good friends at NBC and all through Washington and my family personally. King: Were you brought up talking politics? Russert: I was. It was always something that was always talked around the dinner table with my father and my mother from a very young age. One of my earliest memories is being a young toddler and remembering Ronald Reagan's face on television. My dad was watching a press conference, most likely at that time on CNN. And it was just something that I always grew up around. And we also talked a lot of sports. We talked a lot of culture. But politics was something that I guess has been engrained in me at a very, very young age. King: Did he pick the brains of you and your friends? Russert: He did. We would actually have some fun discussions where I would assume the role of who his guest would be on Sunday and try to answer the questions that he threw at me. And sometimes, if I could answer a question pretty well, he'd say, \"That question's too easy, I've got to get rid of it.\" So sometimes, I was a guinea pig for politicians. But it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed doing it. And he would also pick the brains of some of my friends. Some did pretty well, and some didn't. But he was always kind to all of us. King: When did you first vote? Russert: I first voted when I was 18, which would have been 2004. And I registered at the same time I registered for the Selective Service, which I think they do here in the District of Columbia. So I've been a registered voter since 2004, and that's the first time I cast an official ballot. King: How did it feel to vote? Russert: It felt great. It kind of felt like you became a man or at least an adult in some capacity. That your decision -- your decision -- became part of the country and its leadership. And I'll never forget the way I voted was I was in college my freshman year, 2004, so I had to go by absentee ballot. And I was going to meet my father in South Bend, Indiana, for the Notre Dame\/Boston College game. And I said, \"Dad, I'd rather you bring the ballot personally so it doesn't have to go through the mail, send it up to me in Boston.\" So he brought the ballot, and I filled out my absentee ballot in a South Bend, Indiana, hotel room, and he brought it back and put it right in the FedEx for me. King: We have an e-mail question for you from David in Cary, North Carolina. \"Luke, my condolences,\" it said. \"You've shown great strength and character in recent days. Any chance we'll see you reporting or doing commentary about the 2008 election?\" Russert: Oh yes, you just might. It's something that I'm definitely interested in. I think that I will probably be part of the peacock network. But you never know. I still have the sports show on XM Radio and Carville, and I kind of go into politics. But I wouldn't mind. King: What if CNN made a bid for you? Russert: I'd be your assistant, Larry? King: You got it. You could come to work for us. I think I can speak for management. In fact, they'll probably talk to you tomorrow based on just how well you're handling yourself tonight. Russert: Well, I appreciate it. Everyone has been so kind. I'd love to have the opportunity to come out here and talk about something that is important to me. And it was important to my father, which was young people getting involved. That really is the important issue tonight. Not me. That's important.","highlights":"Luke Russert says he learned of his father's death while he was in Italy .\nHe thanks family, friends for helping him get through trying times .\nPolitics \"was just something that I always grew up around,\" he says .\nHe says it \"felt great\" to vote for the first time, urges young people to get involved .","id":"6defcdfd6995661fd681dc15163d67f6a5d6727b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first pictures from NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, which successfully touched down near Mars' north pole Sunday, showed a pattern of brown polygons as far as the camera could see. The Mars Phoenix Lander took this image of the planet's surface at its landing site Sunday. \"It's surprisingly close to what we expected and that's what surprises me most,\" said Peter Smith, the mission's principal investigator. \"I expected a bigger surprise.\" The landing on the Red Planet's arctic plains -- which ended a 296-day journey -- was right on target, a feat NASA's Ed Weiler compared to landing a hole-in-one with a golf ball from 10,000 miles. The landing -- dubbed the \"seven minutes of terror\" -- was a nerve-wracking experience for mission managers, who have witnessed the failure of similar missions. In mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, they celebrated the lander's much-anticipated entry. \"It was better than we could have imagined,\" Barry Goldstein, project manager for the Phoenix mission, told CNN. Watch the celebration at mission control \u00bb . The Phoenix's 90-day mission is to analyze the soils and permafrost of Mars' arctic tundra for signs of past or present life. The lander is equipped with a robotic arm capable of scooping up ice and dirt to look for organic evidence that life once existed there, or even exists now. \"We are not going to be able to answer the final question of is there life on Mars,\" said principal investigator Peter Smith, an optical scientist with the University of Arizona. \"We will take the next important step. We'll find out if there's organic material associated with this ice in the polar regions. Ice is a preserver, and if there ever were organics on Mars and they got into that ice, they will still be there today.\" The twin to the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, Phoenix was supposed to travel to Mars in 2001 as the Mars Surveyor spacecraft. They were originally part of the \"better, faster, cheaper\" program, formulated by then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin to beef up planetary exploration on a lean budget. But Polar malfunctioned during its descent into Mars' atmosphere in 1999 and crashed. An investigation concluded that as many as a dozen design flaws or malfunctions doomed the spacecraft. The failure of that mission, as well as another spacecraft called the Mars Climate Orbiter the same year, led to NASA to put future missions on hold and rethink the \"better, faster, cheaper\" approach. Mars Surveyor went to the warehouse. Watch the challenges the mission faced \u00bb . But all was not lost. In 2003, Smith proposed a plan to re-engineer the Mars Surveyor and fly it on a mission to look for signatures of life in the ice and dirt of Mars far North. Mars Phoenix, literally and figuratively, rose from the ashes of Surveyor. Engineers set to work, testing and retesting the onboard system to ferret out and fix all the flaws they could find. iReport.com: Send your photos, video of space . \"We always have to be scared to death,\" Goldstein said. \"The minute we lose fear is the minute that we stop looking for the next problem.\" The team was concerned about the Phoenix landing system. NASA had not successfully landed a probe on Mars using landing legs and stabilizing thrusters since the Viking missions in the late 1970s. The other three successful Mars landings -- Pathfinder in 1997 and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2004 -- used massive airbags that inflated around the landing craft just before landing to cushion the impact. Learn about NASA's past missions to Mars \u00bb . The Phoenix doesn't have airbags because the lander is too big and heavy for them to work properly. Its landing site was targeted for the far northern plains of Mars, near the northern polar ice cap. Data from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft indicate large quantities of ice there, likely in the form of permafrost, either on the surface or just barely underground. \"Follow the water\" has become the unifying theme of NASA's Mars exploration strategy. In 2004, the rover Opportunity found evidence that a salty sea once lapped the shores of an area near Mars' equator called Meridiani Planum. Astrobiologists generally agree that it's best to look for life in wet places. CNN's Kate Tobin contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Mars Phoenix Lander landed on Mars on Sunday .\nPhoenix mission is to analyze planet's soils to find signs of life .\nExperts weren't optimistic about a smooth landing .\nGetting lander on Mars was dubbed the \"7 minutes of terror\"","id":"24716f5a39d23dafbe9a9df8fa002788d14d020b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Fayetteville, North Carolina, are investigating the death of a pregnant soldier whose body was found Saturday morning in a motel, police said. Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, 23, was a dental specialist from Cold Springs, Kentucky, according to a statement from Fort Bragg, where Touma was assigned to the 19th Replacement Company. Fayetteville police found her body late Saturday morning when they responded to a call about a strong odor coming from one of the rooms. The body was sent to the state Medical Examiner's office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to determine the cause of death. Touma, who was seven months pregnant, arrived at Fort Bragg on June 12. In five years with the Army, she had served with the U.S. Army Dental Activity Clinic in Bamberg, Germany, and in Fort Drum, New York, before her assignment to Fort Bragg. Touma is the second pregnant service member to die in North Carolina in recent months. The remains of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach and her fetus were found beneath in a fire pit January 11 in Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean's backyard. Watch how police found body \u00bb . Authorities said Laurean killed Lauterbach on December 14, 2007, and used her ATM card 10 days later before fleeing to Mexico. He was taken into custody after he walked up to a roadblock set up by a local anti-kidnapping task force investigating another case. Laurean is awaiting extradition to North Carolina.","highlights":"Authorities in North Carolina are investigating death of pregnant servicemember .\nSpc. Megan Lynn Touma was found dead Saturday in motel room .\nTouma is second N.C.-based pregnant solider found dead in recent months .","id":"ab3c98cf7833b842898a568d872e45ceb2f7dda9"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Saturday marks one year since Hamas' defeat of Fatah in the fierce struggle for control of Gaza. CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman has been covering the region for over 15 years. He reports from Gaza on daily life and reality over the past year in this fractious land. CNN's Ben Wedeman reports on the past year in Gaza, where people are safer but out of food, gas, and patience. GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- \"If you take pictures, I'll kill you! I'll kill you!\" screamed a masked Fatah gunman, pointing his AK-47 assault rifle at my cameraman, Joe Duran. \"Calm down! Calm down!\" I shouted back at him, turning to Joe to tell him to put the camera down. Joe and I had ducked into a fruit and vegetable shop in Gaza City. We had been covering the funeral of a Fatah gunman killed in a clash with Hamas rivals when our third gunbattle of the day had broken out. The gunman left, much to everyone's relief, and I put my small video camera on the floor and pressed the button to record the constant roar of machine gun fire, which went on for more than half an hour. Earlier in the day, Joe and I were on a street corner videotaping Hamas militiamen when a jeep full of Fatah irregulars opened fire, just down the street from an elementary school. As guns blazed, schoolchildren ran for cover. I watched as shopkeeper Khadar Aliyan slammed shut the doors of his grocery store, the expression on his face one of fear and utter exasperation. \"I'm going home,\" he told me. \"I'm afraid. We're done for. It's never been this bad.\" It was violence like this, which we witnessed on December 2006, that reached a climax in the second week of June 2007. When it ended on June 14, 2007, with Hamas roundly defeating Fatah, Gaza went quiet. And quiet -- relative quiet, that is -- has been Hamas' biggest accomplishment since. No longer do you worry about being kidnapped. Gunbattles, though they can happen, are much less common. After last June's takeover (or coup d'etat, as Fatah supporters call it), Hamas quickly imposed law and order, tried to reacquaint Gaza's drivers with long-forgotten traffic regulations, launched a municipal cleanup campaign, and forced the release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who had been held in captivity for almost six months. Chaos-weary Gazans applauded all of these initiatives. But the honeymoon ended quickly as reality sank in. Since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, and even more so since last year's takeover, Israel has tightened its siege of Gaza. Israel has restricted supplies of gasoline, diesel and electricity to Gaza, limited the amount of food and other goods entering the strip, and made it virtually impossible for manufacturers and farmers in Gaza to export anything to the outside world. Israeli officials say these measures are intended to pressure Hamas, which is on the U.S. government list of terrorist groups, to stop its members and other factions from firing mortars and rockets into Israel. Israel Defense Forces reports that 1,500 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza in 2007, and 2,383 in the past six years. As a result, almost all of Gaza's factories have shut down and thousands of workers have lost their jobs. Between 70 and 80 percent of the population is dependent on food supplied by the United Nations Refugee Works Agency, set up after more than 700,000 Palestinians became refugees after the war that resulted in Israel's creation in 1948. Life in Gaza, never easy, in the last year has become a grinding daily struggle to make ends meet. For the vast majority of Gazans, it means they must spend much of their time trying to secure basic commodities. Such as cooking gas, which comes from Israel. In the past, when supplies were plentiful, it was sold from the back of trucks and donkey carts. Not anymore. When there are supplies, people flock to a few distribution centers. One is a hot, crowded compound north of Gaza City, where the stench of gas is so strong you shudder with fear that someone will light a cigarette and the whole place will go up in flames. People have to wait for their cooking gas for hours some claim days, in the hot sun. There I met a woman who identified herself as Um Wadi'a (the mother of Wadi'a), who at 2 p.m. told me she had been waiting since 5 a.m. She said she had run out of cooking gas three days before. Typical of so many people here, she blamed both main Palestinian factions for her woes. \"Hamas hasn't done anything for us, nor has Fatah,\" she said. \"All those people want is to sit comfortably on their thrones.\" In Gaza City, long lines of immobile cars and trucks wind around the block from gas stations, their owners waiting, surprisingly patiently, for supplies to arrive. The only other option is to go in search of black market gasoline, much of it smuggled through tunnels from Egypt. It goes for more than $10 a liter, which comes close to almost $50 a gallon. It is now common for families to divide up responsibilities for the day. One family member will go in search of cooking gas, another will join the line for gasoline or diesel, another for whatever else is in short supply. To get around the shortages, some motorists mix their fuel with cooking oil, a practice that isn't particularly good for the motor. Many people complain that it's unhealthy -- but it works. Others, like electrical engineer Wasim Khazandar, are thinking completely outside the box. Wasim has invented an electric car, which he is more than happy to show off. He's already received dozens of orders from motorists weary of the search for fuel. Beyond material concerns, there are worries here that Hamas has a barely concealed hardline Islamist agenda, and one often hears complaints that the group is intolerant of any form of dissent or criticism. One man who can testify to that is Ibrahim Abu Al-Naja, the most senior Fatah leader to remain in Gaza after most fled to safety in Ramallah. Abu Al-Naja is from the Fatah old school, a grizzled veteran of the group's wars in Lebanon. He told me earlier this year Hamas security officials showed up at his home late at night, bound his hands, put a blindfold on him and dragged him to their headquarters, where they shaved his head and cut off his moustache, then released him without apology or explanation. He makes no excuses for Fatah's dismal track record of corruption and mismanagement when it ran Gaza, but says the crisis that began with Hamas' rise to power is nothing short of a catastrophe. \"Our people has been transformed,\" he said, \"into a desperate people, who must search for food, for the minimum of survival. It's as if we returned to 1948, dependent on gifts and assistance and relief.\" Despite all the difficulties of life under Hamas, despite all the grumbling, the men who run Gaza are as confident today as they were a year ago that they will weather the crisis and emerge stronger. Last Wednesday I went to see Ahmed Yusif, a senior adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. \"Whatever the Israelis think,\" said the U.S.-educated Yusif, \"whatever pressure they put on us, it's not going to make us buckle or give concessions. \"This is part of the Palestinian struggle for more than 60 years living in the refugee camps,\" he said. \"We don't always enjoy a good life. It's the toughness and the suffering [that] are part of the struggle.\" Others here don't quite see it that way, like a man I met in Gaza's old market who would only identify himself as Abu Khalid. I asked him if he was better off today than a year ago. He laughed, cursed Israel, Hamas, Fatah, the United States, the European Union and the rest of the world, then made the following suggestion: \"Let them open a market in Gaza so we can sell some of our children [in order to] feed the rest.\"","highlights":"Wedeman describes violence, gunbattles, fear before Hamas .\nReports on encounters with assault rifles, children running from gunfire last year .\nNow, it's safer but Gazans desperate for gas, cooking fuel, jobs .\nOne woman: \"Hamas hasn't done anything for us, nor has Fatah\"","id":"831005755f85012c882f17c3b3699b34a7febb7b"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- With polls closed for a Zimbabwe runoff that opposition politicians and international observers call a sham, alleged torture victims who support former candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said Friday that they back his decision to pull out of the race. Many of the injured being treated at a private hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe, asked not to be identified. \"It's a good move by my president, Morgan Tsvangirai,\" said a 26-year-old Movement for Democratic Change activist who said he was forced to stand on hot coals and had boiling water poured on him about a week ago. \"There's no use going for an election.\" The man, who displayed a large, pale, blistered patch on his back, asked not to be identified -- as did others being treated at a private hospital in Harare -- for fear of further attacks by gangs supportive of President Robert Mugabe. All of the victims said they were taken to \"torture bases\" by the gangs, made up of young men and soldiers. In the March 29 election, MDC officials said their polling showed Tsvangirai clearly defeating Mugabe, who at 84 is the only president Zimbabwe has had since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. But after delaying the release of results for more than a week, the country's electoral commission -- which is made up of Mugabe appointees -- said that although Tsvangirai got more votes, he didn't top the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. MDC supporters had already reported violence against them by police, military members and other supporters of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. But in the weeks leading up to the runoff, the reports increased in frequency and intensity. More than 70 people were killed in attacks since the election, according to the MDC. Mugabe's supporters have claimed that those attacks were against his party members, a claim international observers, including the United Nations, have disputed. Watch victims say they were taken to torture camps \u00bb . Tsvangirai and other party leaders were repeatedly arrested by police or detained on their way to political rallies. And reports of beatings and other intimidation tactics were common in areas where the MDC had made strong showings in the election. \"Mostly for the rural people -- the police would come in for the Zanu-PF, so the area was very tense,\" said a municipal worker at the hospital, who said he was kicked and had burning plastic poured on his skin about three or four days ago. \"Everyone was beaten. Whether Zanu-PF or MDC. There was chaos in the country.\" George Charamba, a spokesman for Mugabe, insisted that the vote was \"free and fair.\" Charamba denied that any pressure was being used. Asked about images from Zimbabwe showing what is reported to be violence against members of the opposition, he responded, \"I thought we are long past the age where we could consider pictures as not lying. It's very, very easy for anyone to stage-manage a demonstration, and a violent one at that.\" Last weekend, Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff, saying there was no way the result would be legitimate. He has spent much of the time since living in the Dutch Embassy in Harare in fear for his safety. Early Friday, the municipal worker said he was considering whether to heed Tsvangirai's call for his supporters to not vote in the election, but the question may be moot. The gangs took his identification card and threw it into a fire, he said. Another man and a woman treated for broken hands at the hospital said they were tortured and had boiling water poured on their genitals for being MDC supporters. The man said he was forced to drink sewage. Meanwhile, Mugabe laughed and mugged for reporters from Zimbabwe's state-run media as he cast his ballot at a high school. \"Very optimistic, upbeat ... and hungry,\" he said when asked how he was feeling.","highlights":"Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters back his withdrawal from runoff .\nSome say they were taken to \"torture bases\" by supporters of Mugabe .\nA man and a woman being treated for broken hands said they were tortured .\nMugabe laughed and mugged for reporters as he cast his ballot at a high school .","id":"0590a8c653b7d332d9df195dcf3ce014abb4eff7"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's opposition party said four of its activists and the wife of Harare's mayor -- an opposition member -- have been killed by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, just days ahead of next week's presidential runoff. President Robert Mugabe says war veterans will take up arms again if Tsvangirai wins. Thursday's report came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Mugabe of sponsoring efforts to starve, beat and kill supporters of his opponent Morgan Tzvangirai so he can win the election. Rice was speaking on the same day that Tendai Biti, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's secretary-general, was charged with treason after being held in jail without charges for a week. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. His arrest and treason charges have been criticized by African and international leaders who characterize it as a ploy by Mugabe supporters to intimidate the opposition party before his June 27 runoff against Tsvangirai. A spokesman for the MDC blamed Mugabe's Zanu-PF party for the five most recent deaths, saying they brought to 70 the number of MDC party members killed since a bitterly contested election three months ago. The body of the mayor's wife, 27-year-old Abigail Chiroto, was found in a mortuary close to the couple's house north of Harare. She had been beaten so severely with rocks and iron bars that her face was almost unrecognizable, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. Watch CNN's Nkepile Mabuse report on the violience \u00bb . Chiroto was kidnapped, along with her 4-year-old son, on Tuesday. Some of her kidnappers wore military uniforms, Chamisa said. Chiroto's son was released unharmed. Her husband, Emmanuel Chiroto, is an MDC member who was recently elected mayor of Harare. He was not home at the time of the kidnapping. Also Thursday, the MDC said that four other activists were found dead in Chitungwiza. The victims' bodies showed evidence that \"they were heavily tortured until they died,\" an MDC statement said. \"It's unbelievable the way people are being killed or murdered,\" Chiroto said. \"It's almost mass butchering.\" Police confirmed the deaths of the activists but did not link the victims to any political party. Mugabe's party denied any part in the deaths, saying MDC officials made such accusations frequently. \"They are claiming anyone who dies. They phone CNN,\" said Bright Matonga, a Zanu-PF spokesman. \"Whenever someone dies in the hospital, they rush to claim them.\" Matonga said Harare was run by a commission. \"There is no MDC mayor in Zimbabwe,\" he said. \"There is no newly elected mayor in Harare.\" Learn more about Zimbabwe \u00bb . In New York, Rice convened a meeting about the situation in Zimbabwe at the United Nations on Thursday. \"Mugabe is increasing violence against [the] opposition. ... President Mugabe has squandered the promise of the very nation that was hailed as the jewel of Africa,\" Rice said at a roundtable discussion attended by representatives from many international governments. \"Clearly we have reached a point where broader, stronger, international effort is needed,\" she added. On Friday, a magistrate judge will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed with a trial against Biti. The judge also will determine whether Biti will be granted bail or will continue to be jailed until the trial. Biti was charged Thursday with treason, communicating false information prejudicial to the state, bringing the office of the president into disrepute and causing disaffection among armed forces, according to a journalist who was in the Harare courtroom. He denies all the charges. Watch Biti arrive for his court hearing \u00bb . Biti, wearing a red jacket and looking exhausted, held his head in his hands as the proceedings took place in the packed courtroom. \"I think that one must express very serious objection to the manner in which this whole case is being handled,\" said Tsvangirai, who was in court. \"The accusations are frivolous.\" Three of the charges stem from a document titled \"The Transitional Strategy,\" which Biti is said to have written ahead of the March 29 election. Biti is denying that he wrote the document, and his lawyers described it as \"doctored.\" The fourth charge of communicating falsehoods alleges that Biti announced that Tsvangirai had won the March presidential election by an outright majority, meaning no runoff vote would be needed. In recent weeks, opposition groups and churches have reported numerous cases of kidnappings, torture and other violence in the country targeting opponents of Mugabe. Zanu-PF members have been suspected of being behind the acts. Zanu-PF claims that the MDC is behind the violence. It said MDC members attacked the mayor of Kadoma, a city 140 km (87 miles) southwest of Harare. It also accused MDC activists of causing millions of dollars damage to private business. Last week, Mugabe warned that veterans he commanded in his country's liberation war nearly three decades ago would take up arms again if Tsvangirai won. Watch an ad vilifying Tsvangirai \u00bb . The MDC is using word of mouth and file-sharing sites such as YouTube to disseminate its campaign advertisements, claiming that they are banned by state media. The group sent advertisements to supporters via e-mail, asking them to forward them to their friends and relatives. \"Since the regime has denied the MDC access to state media, please send the adverts to as many people as you can,\" the e-mail says. \"A new Zimbabwe is near. The dictator is finished. Let's finish it!\" Mugabe has been Zimbabwe's only leader since the war ended in 1980 but is blamed for the economic collapse of a country once considered a regional breadbasket. Zimbabweans increasingly are unable to afford food and other essentials, with agriculture paralyzed by land reform and the world's highest rate of inflation. Police have arrested Tsvangirai several times in the weeks leading up to the runoff, most recently on Saturday, with 11 other officials and supporters from his party. South African President Thabo Mbeki met Mugabe and Tsvangirai on Wednesday in the hope of quelling tensions. Mbeki was visiting in his capacity as mediator with the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, the South African government said Wednesday. He is under domestic and international pressure for his perceived conciliatory stance toward Mugabe, but the South African leader recently said he would continue his quiet diplomacy despite recent events. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"Harare mayor's wife found bludgeoned to death, opposition says .\nMayoress one of five people found murdered Thursday, according to MDC .\nGovernment strongly denies any involvement in latest deaths .\nU.S. says President Mugabe sponsors efforts to kill opposition supporters .","id":"f79341438eed40986c3219b67a3b5d87eb6c018a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama decisively defeated Sen. Hillary Clinton in North Carolina Tuesday, but Clinton's narrow victory in Indiana will likely send the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on to the next round of primaries. Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, greet supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. As polls closed in Indiana, Clinton had a double-digit lead over Obama, but by the end of the evening, Clinton's lead had shrunk, dragging the race out until early Wednesday. A clear winner did not emerge until 1:15 a.m. Wednesday -- seven hours after the polls closed -- because results were slow to come in from Lake County, a Chicago suburb in northwestern Indiana with several precincts that went strongly for Obama. By Wednesday morning, all absentee ballots had been counted in Lake County and the final results showed Obama had taken the county by 12 percentage points. There were 115 delegates at stake in North Carolina and 72 in Indiana. Because Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally, Obama added four delegates to his lead, according to CNN estimates. Obama earlier claimed a decisive victory in North Carolina. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Obama held a 14-point lead over Clinton. Watch analysis of NC, IN primaries \u00bb . \"Some were saying that North Carolina would be a game-changer in this election. But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington,\" Obama told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. Watch Obama thank his supporters \u00bb . Obama took an overwhelming 91 percent of the black vote in North Carolina, according to exit polls, while Clinton claimed only 6 percent. Clinton took 59 percent of the white vote compared to 36 percent for Obama, according to the polls. Clinton told her supporters in Indianapolis, \"it's full-speed on to the White House.\" Watch Clinton greet her supporters \u00bb . Clinton made a strong pitch to blue-collar workers in Indiana. She pulled a majority of the votes in rural and suburban Indiana during Tuesday's primary. In CNN exit polling, Clinton took 53 percent of the vote in suburban areas, compared with 47 percent for Obama of Illinois. She took 68 percent of the rural vote compared with Obama's 32 percent. In all, 1,738 voters were polled. Clinton had pitched herself as the candidate best-suited to turn around a flailing economy and consciously courted working-class voters in the state -- even driving a pickup truck up to a gas pump once to help promote her proposed temporary rollback of federal tax on gasoline. \"I believe that Americans need a champion in their corners,\" she said at a rally in Indianapolis. \"For too long we've had a president who has stood up and spoken out for the wealthy and the well-connected, but I don't think that's what Americans need. \"Standing up for working people is about the American dream and about the Democratic Party; standing up for the middle class is who we are and what we can be if we stick together.\" Eighty-nine percent of Indiana voters said they have been affected by what they called a recession. Clinton had a slight edge when voters were asked who is most likely to improve the economy -- taking 49 percent to Obama's 47 percent. The candidates now turn their attention to the upcoming contests in West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon. According to early exit polls, half of Clinton's supporters in Indiana would not vote for Obama in a general election matchup with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Watch what the exit polls show \u00bb . A third of Clinton voters said they would pick McCain over Obama, while 17 percent said they would not vote at all. Forty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama in November. Obama got even less support from Clinton backers in North Carolina, where 45 percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for him over McCain. Thirty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for McCain while 12 percent said they would not vote. Obama voters appear to be more willing to support Clinton in November. In Indiana, 59 percent of Obama backers said they'd vote for Clinton, and 70 percent of Obama backers in North Carolina said vote for her against McCain. Obama on Tuesday said he didn't agree with those who said his party would not be able to unite. \"Tonight, many of the pundits have suggested that this party is inalterably divided -- that Sen. Clinton's supporters will not support me, and that my supporters will not support her,\" he said. \"I'm here tonight to tell you that I don't believe it. Yes, there have been bruised feelings on both sides. Yes, each side desperately wants their candidate to win. But ultimately, this race is not about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain. \"This election is about you -- the American people -- and whether we will have a president and a party that can lead us toward a brighter future.\" Obama currently leads in pledged delegates and in states won, and he is ahead in the popular vote, if Florida and Michigan are not factored into the equation. Those states are being penalized for moving their primaries up in violation of party rules. With neither candidate expected to win the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination by June 3, the end of the primary season, the final decision will most likely fall to the 796 superdelegates: Democratic governors, members of Congress and party officials. Watch how superdelegates could come into play \u00bb . Both candidates have spent the past two weeks shuttling between Indiana and North Carolina, each arguing to crucial working-class voters that their rival is out of touch when it comes to the pocketbook issues that are dominating the campaign. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Dan Lothian and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Final votes counted in Indiana's Lake County; Obama dominates .\nClinton wins squeaker in Indiana; Obama cruises in North Carolina .\nObama says he does not believe his party is \"inalterably divided\"\n187 delegates were at stake in Tuesday's primaries .","id":"8db6225f67580d64a196f2f3197386a6be950a09"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration hailed North Korea's declaration of its nuclear program as a success for the multilateral diplomacy it engaged in through the six party talks with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Workers remove fuel rods on the reactor floor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility this year. In fact, North Korea's confessions of many of its nuclear sins -- and its shutdown of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon -- are the closest the international community has come to curbing North Korea's nuclear program. As a result of Pyongyang's handover of the 60-page declaration document -- and Friday's expected destruction of the cooling tower at Yongbyon -- President Bush ordered some sanctions against North Korea lifted and instructed the State Department to remove the reclusive communist nation from U.S. lists of enemies and nations that support terrorism. But as important as what the document says is what it doesn't say. There is no mention of how many weapons North Korea has or where they are hidden. Nor did North Korea admit to a suspected uranium enrichment program or what nuclear secrets it may have shared with Syria. Both issues are reduced in the declaration to \"concerns\" Pyongyang promises to address down the road. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have pledged a robust verification process to double-check North Korea's claims. And North Korea has promised to allow U.S. inspectors access to the Yongbyon facility and to interview its nuclear experts. But it is far from clear whether Pyongyang will allow the kind of intrusive inspections of its entire nuclear arsenal that the United States will need to get a complete picture of North Korea's program. Congressional Republicans not so sure about Pyongyang . The stiffest opposition to the deal is coming from conservative Republicans. Once considered President Bush's strongest allies in confronting North Korea's nuclear ambition, they feel that the Bush administration has let North Korea off the hook, especially when it comes to its enriched uranium program and suspected proliferation to Syria. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed \"profound disappointment\" over Bush's announcement that North Korea would be coming off the lists of enemies and state sponsors of terrorism. And Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, the top Republican on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, accused President Bush of sacrificing its principles for a foreign policy success. \"A decision seemingly has been made that it is more important for the White House to reach a legacy agreement than to get to the bottom of North Korea's nuclear efforts,\" Hoekstra said. \"Lifting sanctions and removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism flies in the face of history and rewards its brutal dictator for shallow gestures.\" Rep. Ed Royce, R-California, called North Korea's declaration late and incomplete, alleging that North Korea built a nuclear facility for Syria, considered a terrorist state by the United States, while the nuclear negotiations were ongoing. That, he said, was proof that Pyongyang can't be trusted. \"How do you have a meaningful declaration of your nuclear program without saying how many bombs you have?\" Royce asked. \"This is a signal to other proliferating regimes that nuclear weapons will be rewarded without ever having to give them up.\" Democrats, who once criticized Bush for not talking directly to North Korea about its nuclear program, are cautiously supportive of the deal. Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the North's submission of a declaration \"encouraging.\" Even former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, praised the Bush administration, saying \"engaging our enemies can pay dividends.\" But Kerry added, \"historians will long wonder why this administration did not directly engage North Korea before Pyongyang gathered enough material for several nuclear weapons, tested a nuclear device and the missiles to deliver them.\" Are we headed down the same road with Iran? In his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush termed Iraq, North Korea and Iran the \"axis of evil,\" saying they were \"arming to threaten the peace of the world.\" Fourteen months after delivering that speech -- and after dictator Saddam Hussein released a 12,000-page declaration that it had no weapons of mass destruction -- U.S. forces invaded Iraq. But no such program was found, nor were stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction. More than five years into the war, the United States is still battling al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents there. Six-party talks with North Korea began in 2003, after North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Progress was limited until 2007, when North Korea agreed to shut down Yongbyon and allow international monitors back into the country for monitoring and verification. Progress has been even more limited for the third member of the \"axis of evil,\" Iran. The Bush administration has joined the other members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, France, China and Russia, along with Germany -- in offering Iran a set of political and economic incentives similar to the ones North Korea was given in exchange for suspending its uranium enrichment program. But the United States has refused to sit down with Iran until that suspension takes place. The U.N. Security Council has passed three resolutions imposing sanctions against Iran, and the United States has worked with some success to isolate Iran from the international financial community. But unlike North Korea, which is isolated and desperately in need of international aid, Iran is rich in oil and a powerful force in the Middle East. And it's only getting richer and more immune to sanctions as oil prices skyrocket. And Iran seems to be running out the clock and waiting to try its luck with a new U.S. president. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has pledged to engage Iran in direct talks to try to curb its nuclear ambitions. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has taken a much tougher line, refusing to rule out military action to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. With the coming change in the U.S. administration, U.S. officials, diplomats and other Iran experts believe that it would be at least eight months to a year before the United States and Iran could seriously think about talking. Meanwhile, by its own admission, Iran continues to perfect its nuclear technology. If the North Korean experience can serve as a lesson for the next U.S. president, that lesson may well be that the longer the United States waits to talk to Iran, the higher the cost will be to get Tehran out of the nuclear business.","highlights":"Just as important as what the nuclear declaration says is what it doesn't say .\nNorth Korea didn't admit to uranium enrichment or sharing secrets with Syria .\nMany Republicans say Bush administration has let Pyongyang off the hook .\nU.S. may be headed down the same road with Iran .","id":"e386d9ed70bac668fa6048b572f445d9b7b62f75"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The last of six Texas A&M University mariners who went missing in the Gulf of Mexico was found dead Sunday afternoon, the Coast Guard said. The other five crewmates were rescued earlier in the day. Members of the Texas A&M Offshore Sailing Team are shown in this photo from the team's Web site. The deceased mariner was identified by the university as Roger Stone, the vessel's second safety officer. The survivors -- four university students and a safety officer -- told the Coast Guard they were forced off their sailboat after it took on water and capsized. \"The flooding was so fast that the thing flipped over,\" Coast Guard Capt. William Diehl told CNN. The sailboat, named Cynthia Woods, was one of about two dozen boats heading from Galveston, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, for the annual Veracruz Regatta race, which began on Friday. Diehl said the boat was well-stocked with safety equipment -- including emergency radio beacons, life rafts and ring buoys -- but the crew could only manage to find four life jackets after the boat tipped over. \"The survivors told us that [when] they went into the water, they had four life jackets among the five, and they huddled together and they exchanged the life jackets among them so that they could stay afloat,\" Diehl said. Communication with the boat was lost about midnight Friday, and the boat missed its 8 a.m. radio check the next morning, the Coast Guard reported. A sailboat matching the description of the missing 38-foot boat was found overturned about 5:15 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. The five survivors were found several hours later about 23 miles south of Freeport, Texas, according to the Coast Guard's press release. They were lifted to safety by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter around 2 a.m. local time and taken to University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for treatment. The search for the missing crew member involved two Coast Guard helicopters, a Falcon jet, a Marine Corps C-130 -- which has night-vision capabilities -- and the Coast Guard cutter Manowar. All of those on board the capsized sailboat were experienced sailors, Diehl said. \"They were very well trained,\" Diehl said. \"Obviously [they were] the more senior cadets at the university here, and they had very experienced safety people on board.\" When rescuers retrieved the capsized boat's hull, Diehl said the keel was missing. \"That's the part that keeps the sailboat balanced in the water,\" he said. \"And from talking to the survivors this morning, that's where the flooding started for them.\" The 725-mile Veracruz regatta began on Friday and boats are expected to arrive in Veracruz on Wednesday and Thursday.","highlights":"Deceased mariner identified by the university as Roger Stone .\nCoast Guard rescues five sailors reported missing .\nTexas A&M sailboat was taking part in regatta from Galveston to Veracruz, Mexico .\nBoat's six-person crew missed 8 a.m. radio check Saturday .","id":"e35669d4530ea55bc8f0e451268cab9e9eaeab92"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After wrapping up the longest presidential primary campaign in modern history, Sen. Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she is ready to turn her attention back to being the junior senator from New York. Sen. Hillary Clinton is greeted with cheers as she returns to the Senate after a two-week vacation. \"I look forward to being back with this great team,\" she said as she returned to the Senate at the end of a two-week vacation, taken after she conceded the 17-month-long primary contest to Sen. Barack Obama. The second-term New York Democrat pledged to \"immerse myself in there,\" pointing to the chamber. She had just emerged from the party's weekly luncheon, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called \"one of the most emotional caucuses\" he's ever attended on Capitol Hill. He said the New York senator entered the event to a sea of high fives, cheers and a standing ovation from her Democratic colleagues. Clinton said the opportunity to run for the Oval Office allowed her to \"immerse myself in the extraordinary resilience and resourcefulness that is the American people.\" Watch Clinton being greeted with cheers \u00bb . \"I come back with an even greater depth of awareness about what we have to do here in Washington,\" she said. \"So many of the concerns that people have expressed to me over the course of this campaign are ones that they can't individually solve. They can't even really take it on just at the state or local level.\" Clinton said that in addition to working \"very hard to elect Sen. Obama our president,\" she plans to campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates. \"We have been unfortunately stymied by the stalling tactics\" of Republicans, she said, noting the need for 60 votes to get any legislation passed in the Senate. \"It's going to be up to the Democratic Party, and particularly the Democratic Senate, to make progress on everything from health care and the economy to ending the war in Iraq,\" she said. \"I look forward to being back with this great team that we have here and doing everything I can to make that happen.\" Clinton said she is not spending time on the possibility that she may be asked to fill the No. 2 spot on Sen. Barack Obama's presidential ticket. \"You know, it is not something that I think about,\" she said. \"This is totally Sen. Obama's decision, and that's the way it should be.\" But she made clear, as she tried to do in her ultimate concession speech June 7, that her supporters should not stray toward John McCain, no matter any hard feelings left over from a bruising primary. \"Anyone who voted for me has very little in common with the Republican Party,\" she said. Thursday night, Obama and Clinton are set to meet with key donors in Washington. The next day, the two will appear jointly in Unity, New Hampshire, a small town on that state's western border where the two candidates tied in the January primary. \"This is going to be a symbolic event that I hope will rally the Democratic Party behind the nominee,\" she said. Obama said he looked forward to working with Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, on his campaign for the White House. \"Bill Clinton is one of the most intelligent, charismatic political leaders that we have seen in a generation, and he has got a lot of wisdom to impart,\" Obama said Tuesday. \"We are going to be working very closely with him and Sen. Clinton to make sure that we not only win in November, but we actually govern in a way that delivers on the promise of universal health care, good jobs and good wages, clean energy, lower gas prices, the things that are really going to make an impact on people's lives,\" he said. Watch Obama discuss Clintons' role \u00bb . Obama said the senator's presidential campaign had \"enhanced\" her stature in a way that would bolster her efficacy in the Senate. \"She garnered not just votes but passion and support of so many millions of people,\" Obama said. \"She's going to be a force to be reckoned with not only in the Senate, but hopefully, if I'm successful in the White House, she's going to be one of my key partners in making sure that were moving forward on issues like healthcare that she cares so deeply about.\" At an event in Riverside, California, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said Clinton is probably returning to the Senate with greater political clout. \"I think, if I had to guess, that the fact that the she ran an honorable and incredibly long and dedicated campaign for the nomination of her party would indicate to me that she would probably return to the United States senate with enhanced prestige and enhanced influence,\" McCain said. He also praised Clinton for her work on military matters since joining the legislative body in 2001. \"I think that Sen. Clinton has already attained a position of leadership in the United States Senate,\" he said. \"She works hard at her job. She is a very important member of the Armed Services Committee, and I have worked together with her on a variety of national security issues.\" McCain is working hard to persuade Clinton supporters to back his campaign. CNN's Bob Costantini, Lisa Desjardins, Alex Mooney and Peter Hamby contributed.","highlights":"NEW: Obama says he's looking forward to working with Clintons .\nJunior senator from New York returns after a two-week vacation .\nClinton promises to \"immerse myself\" in the Senate chambers .\nClinton, Obama to campaign together in Unity, New Hampshire, on Friday .","id":"d3ca193f45aef9aa766d52fbc58d6b8f1658ee60"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince William has helped the U.S. Coast Guard bust a drug smuggling boat carrying cocaine worth a minimum of $80 million. Prince William has helped bust a speed boat smuggling $80 million worth of cocaine. William, who is serving in the Royal Navy, helped make the bust last weekend when he spotted a speedboat found to be carrying nearly a ton of cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. William, 26, was one of the crew members aboard a helicopter attached to the frigate HMS Iron Duke who spotted the ocean-going speedboat hundreds of miles northeast of Barbados, the defense ministry said . The 50-foot-long power boat raised suspicions because it was a small vessel far out to sea and resembled a \"go-fast\" boat commonly used for drug smuggling, the ministry said. The boat's location suggested it was en route to Europe or North Africa, it said. The chopper's crew informed the ship's captain about the boat, and U.S. Coast Guard personnel who were on the frigate then boarded the boat. They found 45 bales of cocaine weighing a total of 900 kilograms (just under a ton), the defense ministry said. The cocaine has a minimum street value of $80 million, the ministry said. The bust went smoothly with no violence, defense officials said. Navy crew detained the five men on the boat, which was in poor condition and later sank. William is in the middle of a two-month attachment with the Royal Navy as part of his continued experience with various branches of the military. The prince, who is called sub lieutenant Wales in the navy, is also expected to spend time aboard a mine hunter and submarine during his attachment, which ends August 1. William's vessel, the Iron Duke, is a patrol boat which supports overseas British territories in the event of a hurricane and carries out counter-narcotic operations. William completed a four-month attachment with the Royal Air Force earlier this year and received his pilot's wings on graduation in April. He learned to fly three different aircraft during the attachment and is known as Flying Officer Wales within the RAF. William is already a second lieutenant in the British Army, where he serves in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. The attachments are designed to give the prince, who as king will be the head of the armed forces, experience with the military.","highlights":"Prince William has helped the U.S. Coast Guard bust a drug smuggling boat .\nBoat carrying cocaine with a street value of at least $80m, officials say .\nPrince William helped spot the boat hundreds of miles northeast of Barbados .","id":"1ca9bf09bf534add02b7cfe6ebae6d17cde66286"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic initiative that would have taxed the windfall profits oil companies have enjoyed due to rising energy prices, with the minority leader calling the proposal a \"gimmick.\" Record energy prices have led to record profits for oil companies. The measure failed to achieve the 60 votes required by Senate rules to proceed. The vote was 51-43. Six Republicans, including three seeking re-election in November, broke ranks to support the bill. Two Democrats -- Sen. Mary Landrieu of oil-producing state Louisiana and Majority Leader Harry Reid, who voted no to be able to bring the measure back to the floor under Senate rules -- voted against the measure. Along with placing a special tax of 25 percent on oil companies, the bill would have permitted lawsuits against the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil-producing cartel, and suspended deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Profits from renewable energy sources would be excluded from the tax. \"We're not afraid, on this side, to go after Big Oil when they are not doing the right thing,\" said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York. \"And we are not afraid to go after OPEC because they are a cartel that squeezes us. \"We're not afraid to do some strong tough things that will -- some in the short run, some in the longer run -- that will bring down the price, the all too high price, of gasoline.\" Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, said the measure was needed to \"wring out\" speculators he blamed for driving the price of crude oil to more than $130 a barrel in recent weeks . But Senate Republicans insisted the new taxes ultimately would hurt consumers and cut American oil supply, saying Democrats simply were playing election-year politics. The bill is \"pure and simple a pathetic attempt to even call itself an energy plan,\" said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, \"Hitting the gas companies might make for good campaign literature or evening news clips, but it won't address the problem. This bill isn't a serious response to gas prices. It is just a gimmick.\" The Kentucky Republican added, \"They are hoping the idea of going after energy companies will create the illusion of action after a week in which they themselves fought for a bill that would make the problem worse. What a political charade.\" As the average cost of gas edged above $4 a gallon, high prices are definitely on the minds of voters. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Tuesday shows 40 percent of respondents are more concerned about the cost of gasoline than long lines at the pump, which occurred during the energy crisis of the 1970s. But 55 percent of those surveyed are more worried about the long lines and rationing. The poll results reflect telephone interviews with 1,035 adults on Wednesday and Thursday. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. CNN's Ted Barrett, Lisa Desjardins, Matt Smith, Virginia Nicolaidis and Scott J. Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Measure fails to get 60 votes needed to proceed .\nBill would have added 25 percent supplemental tax on windfall profits .\nDemocrats say legislation shows they are willing to take on Big Oil .\nMinority leader calls the bill \"a gimmick\" and \"political charade\"","id":"c296e88117bef515bd9b36ad560223df3fd2b84c"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Five Europeans rescued Saturday after an Indonesia diving trip went wrong had to fight off a Komodo dragon while they were waiting to be found, according to reports. Rescued diver Kath Mitchinso embraces fellow diver Ernest Lewandowsky as they arrive on Flores island. The group was found at Mantaolan, on the island of Rinca off the Komodo National Park, after going missing Thursday. The divers -- three Britons, a Frenchman and a Swede -- spent two nights on the deserted island, which is home to the large Komodo dragon, before rangers found them Saturday. Frenchman Laurent Pinel, 31, said the group had to fight off one dragon with rocks and scavenged for shellfish as they waited to be rescued, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. \"On the beach a Komodo dragon came amongst us [Friday] afternoon,\" Pinel said, describing how the group had to pelt the dangerous reptile with rocks to scare it away. \"We had nothing to eat. We ate some kind of mussels scraped from the rocks,\" Pinel told the newspaper. The husband of one of the other divers said he was told they were in good condition, although dehydrated. \"I'm just so relieved,\" said Mats Kohler, husband of Helena Neva Lainen. They are both from Sweden. An official said they were being taken to a hospital for examination. Searchers using boats located the missing divers at 11 a.m. Saturday (11 p.m. ET Friday), the official said. They arrived at a hospital in Labuan Bajo, on the western tip of the island of Flores, about two hours later, an official said. Watch a report on the discovery of the missing group \u00bb . They were one of two groups of divers who entered the water off Komodo National Park on Thursday and were supposed to be gone for an hour, said an employee of the dive company, Reef Seekers. The second group came back after the hour passed, but the first group failed to resurface, she said. Earlier, an official with the Komodo Divers Association said the group that returned comprised six snorkelers. Among those who went missing was one of the owners of the dive company, Kathleen Mitchinson, the employee said. The seas that the divers were in are known to be dangerous because of their strong tides, and that's one theory being investigated in the divers' disappearance, the employee said.","highlights":"Five European divers battled Komodo dragon before rescue .\nGroup found at Mantaolan, on the island of Rinca off Komodo National Park .\nMissing divers included three Britons, one Frenchwoman and a Swede .","id":"c5e11ee4c2f0ae511bd0e1fae2978d070b1efc15"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a \"significant escalation\" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday. An Iranian flag flies outside the building containing the reactor of Bushehr nuclear power plant, south of Tehran. White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker. Hersh told CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and \"do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program,\" Hersh said. \"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program,\" Hersh said. The new article, \"Preparing the Battlefield,\" is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran. He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. Watch Hersh discuss what he says are the administration's plans for Iran \u00bb . \"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment,\" White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN. \"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations,\" CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops. \"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else,\" Crocker said. Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran. He said the program resulted in \"a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos\" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people. The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said \"all options\" are open in dealing with the issue. Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work. U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons. Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers. The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said. In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would \"cost them heavily.\" In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with \"the respect they deserve.\" \"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations,\" said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action. Journalist Shirzad Bozorghmehr in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Yorker article says Congress authorized up to $400 million for covert ops in Iran .\nJournalist Seymour Hersh says program is being staged from Afghanistan .\nU.S. officials decline comment, deny the U.S. is launching raids from Iraq .\nIranian general says troops are building graves for invaders in the event of war .","id":"1fc2d1ecf1ffdc2f0b642b686e1c21de53a4fd28"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Monday signed a bill that will pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the remainder of his presidency and into spring 2009. President Bush on Monday said the men and women of the armed forces deserve \"our unflinching support.\" The supplemental spending bill provides nearly $162 billion in war funding without the restrictions congressional Democrats vowed to put into place since they took control of Congress nearly two years ago. After signing the bill, Bush said the men and woman of the armed services are owed \"our unflinching support, and the best way to demonstrate that support is to give them the resources they need to do their jobs and to prevail.\" Bush also said he appreciated that \"Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed to provide these vital funds without tying the hands of our commanders and without an artificial timetable of withdrawal from Iraq.\" Watch as Bush thanks Congress \u00bb . \"This bill shows the American people that even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together to stand behind our troops and their families,\" Bush said. He also touted the success of the \"surge\" strategy he implemented last year. \"Our troops have driven the terrorists and extremists from many strongholds in Iraq. Today, violence is at the lowest level since March of 2004,\" he said. \"As a result of this progress, some of our troops are coming home, as a result of our policy called 'Return on Success.' We welcome them home.\" White Houses spokeswoman Dana Perino called the bill a victory for the president. \"Because we have seen success in the surge, perhaps Congress decided that it was OK to allow the commander in chief to be able to move forward as he saw fit,\" said Perino, noting the $162 billion was the same amount that the president had requested. The supplemental spending bill also contains a new GI Bill that expands education benefits for veterans who have served since the 9\/11 attacks, provides a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits and more than $2 billion in disaster assistance for parts of the Midwest that have been hit by record floods. The signing comes two weeks before the deadline that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had established for the funds. Gates said he would consider laying off Defense Department employees to balance the Pentagon's books if legislation was not signed by July 15. Watch a progress report from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq \u00bb . House Democrats had tried to include restrictions on war funding when they drafted the bill, but they were unable to overcome procedural hurdles that Republicans put up. A compromise version of the supplemental bill was later negotiated between Democratic and Republican leaders that included the war funding along with the GI Bill, unemployment benefits and disaster relief -- three top legislative priorities for the Democrats that Bush and congressional Republicans originally resisted. \"At a time when 2 million men and women have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and when our troops have had to endure multiple deployments, stop-loss policies, insufficient equipment and an unclear strategy, giving them the opportunity to fuel our future economy is the least we can do,\" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said of the GI Bill after the Senate sent it to the president's desk Thursday night. Congressional Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives and Senate after the 2006 midterm elections in large part to due to displeasure over the Iraq war. But Democrats -- lacking the 60 votes to overcome GOP filibusters in the Senate, let alone the two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate to override a presidential veto -- have been unable to pass significant restrictions on war funding because Republicans, for the most part, have stuck with Bush on the war.","highlights":"NEW: White House spokeswoman calls bill a victory for President Bush .\nBush signs supplemental spending bill with $162 billion for wars .\nLegislation funds Iraq and Afghanistan wars through spring 2009 without restrictions .\nBill also contains veteran education and unemployment benefits and disaster relief .","id":"6556c64821ece8123c130b27285efe9619c3c7fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama defended his patriotism Monday, telling a crowd in Independence, Missouri, that his \"deep and abiding love for this country\" is the reason he is running for president. Sen. Barack Obama's speech on patriotism comes days before the Fourth of July. \"At certain times over the last 16 months, I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged -- at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears and doubts about who I am and what I stand for,\" he said in President Harry Truman's hometown, just days before the Fourth of July. Obama vowed to never question the patriotism of others in the campaign, adding \"I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.\" Obama has been defending his patriotism ever since the beginning of the primary season, when he was first criticized for not wearing a flag pin -- which he now does much more frequently -- and when false rumors began circulating that he did not say the Pledge of Allegiance. Watch excerpts of Obama's speech \u00bb . A widely distributed photo also seemed to show him failing to place his hand over his heart during a rendition of \"The Star-Spangled Banner.\" Obama's wife, Michelle, also was criticized about her patriotism, after telling an audience at a campaign event, \"For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country.\" Obama's campaign said she was just excited about the campaign's grassroots support, but her words still provided fodder for her husband's opponents. At his appearance Monday, Barack Obama appealed to unity. \"Given the enormous challenges that lie before us, we can no longer afford these sorts of divisions,\" he said. \"None of us expect that arguments about patriotism will, or should, vanish entirely; after all, when we argue about patriotism, we are arguing about who we are as a country, and more importantly, who we should be. \"But surely, we can agree that no party or political philosophy has a monopoly on patriotism. And surely, we can arrive at a definition of patriotism that, however rough and imperfect, captures the best of America's common spirit.\" Obama said that for him, \"patriotism starts as a gut instinct, a loyalty and love for country that's rooted in some of my earliest memories.\" Obama described how as he grew up, his patriotism matured to something that \"would survive my growing awareness of our nation's imperfections: its ongoing racial strife; the perversion of our political system that were laid bare during the Watergate hearings; the wrenching poverty of the Mississippi Delta and the hills of Appalachia.\" Obama said he learned that \"what makes America great has never been its perfection, but the belief that it can be made better.\" Patriotism, he said, must involve the willingness to sacrifice. He called attention to the service of John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate. McCain's campaign has been calling on Obama to condemn comments from retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who said this weekend that McCain's service in Vietnam did not necessarily mean that he was qualified to serve as commander-in-chief. Read about what Clark said . Clark is a military adviser for Obama. In his speech Monday, Obama did not directly address Clark's comments, but after calling attention to McCain's service, he said \"no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters of both sides.\" \"We must always express our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform. Period,\" he said. Just as Obama was finishing his speech, his campaign released a statement about Clark's remarks. \"As he's said many times before, Sen. Obama honors and respects Sen. McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by Gen. Clark,\" Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. Meanwhile, McCain's campaign announced Monday it was launching a new Truth Squad to defend the Arizona senator's military record. Leaders of the latest group include McCain's fellow Vietnam prisoners of war Air Force Col. Bud Day and Marine Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, along with former Navy pilot Carl Smith, who served with him. McCain said Monday he was proud of his record of service. Watch McCain's response to Clark's comments \u00bb . \"The important thing is that if that's the kind of campaign that Sen. Obama and his surrogates and his supporters want to engage in, I understand that,\" he said. \"But it doesn't reduce the price of a gallon of gas by one penny. It doesn't achieve our energy independence or make it come any closer ... and it certainly doesn't do anything to address the challenges that Americans have in keeping their jobs, their homes and supporting their families.\" Obama was to follow up Monday's speech on patriotism with an address Tuesday about faith and remarks later in the week on service. He will spend his Fourth of July in Butte, Montana, campaigning with his family. McCain on Monday was campaigning in Pennsylvania, a battleground state in the general election. He was scheduled to speak with reporters in Harrisburg before holding a town hall meeting in Pipersville. McCain leaves for Colombia on Tuesday and will travel to Mexico later in the week. His campaign on Monday unveiled his new campaign airplane, a Boeing 737-400. The aircraft shares its name -- the \"Straight Talk Express\" with McCain's campaign bus, which has been a staple of the candidate's 2000 and 2008 campaigns. The 95-seat plane -- with seats for the candidate, his staffers and the press -- has the \"Straight Talk Express\" logo emblazoned on its fuselage. CNN's Tasha Diakides and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama vows to never question the patriotism of others in the campaign .\nNEW: Obama camp: \"Of course [Obama] rejects yesterday's statement\" by Clark .\nNEW: McCain's campaign launches a Truth Squad to defend his military record .\nMcCain unveils new campaign airplane .","id":"32ba61f4513f7ec21cedb6ddd2a8a93260f8cd56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bangladesh police have detained or arrested more than 18,000 people in the last 11 days in a crackdown on crime they say is aimed at improving security ahead of December elections. People arrested by Bangladesh police in their latest round-up arrive at a jail in Dhaka. Human rights groups decry the actions as politically motivated. The round-ups began May 28, days after the two main political parties said they would not cooperate with the military-backed caretaker government on organizing the elections. Police told CNN that by Saturday 16,916 arrests had been made, while local media reported another 1,548 were arrested Sunday. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said hundreds of their party members had been taken into custody. \"The timing and targets of the arrests are a dead giveaway they are politically motivated,\" Brad Adams of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement. \"It's obvious that they are paying the price for the political parties' refusal to accept the government's conditions to participate in the elections.\" The government rejects the allegations. The detentions, it said, are part of a planned sweep to rid the country of criminals. \"Our IGP [Inspector General of Police, or chief of police] categorically said this special drive was being conducted to create a congenial atmosphere before the general election,\" said Kamrul Ahsan, a spokesman for Bangladesh Police. \"It is not politically motivated,\" he said. \"The intention is not to harass anybody politically.\" The crackdown began after the Awami League and the BNP said they would not cooperate with the government to develop a roadmap toward democracy unless it first releases the parties' leaders. The two women who head the parties -- Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the BNP -- are in police custody on corruption-related charges. Hasina is charged with bribe-taking. Zia is being held on charges of graft for improperly awarding a multi-million dollar government contract. The current political crisis in the Muslim-majority South Asian country of 150 million can be traced, in large part, to the lingering animosity between the two women, political observers say. Their rivalry runs so deep that the women are known in the country as the \"Battling Begums.\" Begum is an honorific given to women of rank in the country. Since the country's independence in 1972, the Awami League or the BNP has ruled Bangladesh for all but eight years. Both women have served as prime minister at one point or another. After its last stint in power ended in 2006, the BNP handed over rule to a caretaker government to conduct elections, as mandated by the country's constitution. But the Awami League refused to recognize the neutrality of the interim government. Hasina accused Zia of stocking it with BNP backers. Supporters and party members took to the streets in months of deadly clashes. To stem the tide of violence, a military-backed government took control in January 2007 and imposed an indefinite state of emergency. It also postponed elections until it said it could clean up the country's graft-ridden politics. The caretaker government adopted the Emergency Powers Rules. The rules allowed authorities to arrest people without a warrant as long as there was reasonable suspicion that he or she was connected to a crime, Human Rights Watch said. A wave of detentions followed. By some estimates more than 90,000 people were detained before some were released and others charged with crimes. Among those arrested were more than 150 top politicians, including Hasina and Zia -- leading to the current political stalemate. The government wants to hold elections in the third week of December, and said the crusade on crime is part of its plan to ensure trouble-free balloting. The political parties allege the arrests are intended to pave the way for the election of pro-government candidates. They want their leaders set free before they sit down and talk with the government about a roadmap toward a successful election. They also threatened to organize mass movements to secure their leaders' release. \"It's kind of an impasse,\" said Taleya Rehman, founder and executive director of the Bangladesh-based non-profit Democracy Watch. \"The government is conducting political dialogue with small parties. But they are of no significance. They need the two major parties.\" On Monday, the government announced it was releasing Hasina from custody on medical grounds so she can go abroad for treatment. A similar release for Zia was also expected. Party members say the government's move is a ploy to sideline the pair from the elections by sending them out of the country. Hasina has a damaged ear resulting from a bombing attack that targeted her four years ago. Zia is believed to have arthritis. Meanwhile, the detentions continue -- almost 1,800 a day. In addition to political party members, the crackdown has also swept up several journalists. \"That actually makes the arrests suspicious in some people's minds,\" said Sultana Kamal, executive director of the legal aid group, Ain o Salish Kendro (Law and Adjudication Center). \"If you just arrest any Tom, Dick and Harry saying this person may have arms, then people will legitimately raise questions about the mode of the whole operation.\"","highlights":"Bangladesh police have detained or arrested 18,000 people in 11 days .\nHuman rights groups decry the actions as politically motivated .\nRound-ups began after parties refused to cooperate with military government .","id":"1146cfc5981ce23511ac1bac5f3957c30bebc7b8"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- About 220 Zimbabweans congregated outside the U.S. Embassy in Harare on Thursday, seeking refuge from election-related violence, embassy spokesman Mark Weinberg said. People seeking refuge sit on a curb and sidewalk outside the U.S. Embassy in Harare on Thursday. By evening, embassy officials were moving \"most of the women and children into safe houses,\" and were trying to get water and blankets for the growing crowd, Weinberg said. Some of the refuge-seekers, identifying themselves as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, said militia members supporting President Robert Mugabe's party destroyed their homes or were hunting them because of their affiliation, according to a journalist at the scene. CNN is not identifying the reporter for security reasons. The journalist said the refuge-seekers, some holding their possessions, sat outside the building Thursday afternoon, waiting to be addressed by a U.S. Embassy official. A few of the people had bandaged wounds, according to the reporter. \"The people I can see right now look very miserable, dejected, confused,\" the reporter said. Watch the refuge-seekers wait outside the embassy \u00bb . The MDC has said its members were targeted by supporters of Mugabe during the weeks surrounding March's presidential election and last week's runoff. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 runoff, citing violence, intimidation and allegations of vote-rigging. That left Mugabe as the only runoff candidate, allowing him to claim re-election. Tsvangirai himself fled to South Africa for a short time in March during the campaign season, saying he feared for his safety. He also sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare on June 22, shortly after announcing he was withdrawing from the runoff. He returned to his Harare home this week, a Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Several Western nations denounced the violence and declared Mugabe's runoff victory illegitimate. Reports of violence have continued after the runoff. On Monday, the MDC claimed that a politician from the party was abducted at gunpoint outside a courthouse in the city of Mutare. The assailants, who the MDC said wore military outfits, took Naison Nemadziva, a lawmaker who recently won a seat in parliament against a member of Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. The MDC claimed in a press release that the kidnapping was by supporters of ZANU-PF and that police had not been able to find the lawmaker. This week, a resolution from the African Union in Egypt called for negotiations between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, and some European Union officials have called for a coalition government in Zimbabwe with Tsvangirai as its leader. But Tsvangirai this week said the \"conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe ... are not conducive\" to negotiations with Mugabe. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday said Mugabe \"has blood on his hands\" after the violence leading to the runoff and should step down. Mugabe has been Zimbabwe's only leader since its independence from Britain in 1980, when it was called Rhodesia.","highlights":"Embassy spokesman: Officials exploring housing options for refuge-seekers .\nU.S. Embassy in Harare: 220 Zimbabweans seeking refuge from violence .\nPeople in crowd say they've been driven from homes by supporters of ruling party .\nCountry in political crisis since disputed vote in March, presidential runoff last month .","id":"e060abdb2a5e2ce6152ca0ed53703a9d17b2df36"} -{"article":"EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois (CNN) -- A man suspected of bludgeoning eight people to death is a methamphetamine addict with a history of fighting with police, an investigator said as the suspected spree killer made his first court appearance. Suspected spree killer Nicholas Troy Sheley, 28, did not enter a plea during his first court appearance. Nicholas T. Sheley, 28, is being held on $1 million bail in one slaying as police and prosecutors prepare additional charges in connection with a week-long killing spree in two states. Sheley, 28, appeared in an Illinois courtroom on Wednesday via closed-circuit television, but did not enter a plea. He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ronald Randall, 65, whose body was found behind a grocery story in Galesburg. Other charges include aggravated battery, vehicle hijacking and vehicle theft. Watch Sheley's perp walk \u00bb . Sheley, who wore a green-and-white striped jail jumpsuit, said little except to answer \"yes, sir,\" to a series of questions from Judge Edward Ferguson. Authorities say Sheley's alleged burst of violence spanned 300 miles until he gave up without a fight when police confronted him as he smoked outside a bar in Granite City, Illinois, on Tuesday night. Map: See where the bodies were found \u00bb . Additional charges are being filed in a second Illinois county which encompasses two other towns where police believe Sheley killed five people, authorities said. Authorities also suspect Sheley in connection with the slayings of an Arkansas couple in Festus, Missouri. All eight victims, which include a child, died from blunt-force trauma to the head, officials said. Sheley's capture ended an intensive manhunt, which included a $25,000 reward offer. Sheley had stopped at Bindy's bar, a popular cop bar in a Granite City shopping center. Two patrons who recognized him from news reports called police. Bar owner Bill Watson told CNN Sheley came in, drank a glass of water and went to the restroom. When he returned from the restroom, Sheley asked for a lighter but was told he had to go outside to smoke. He was outside smoking when authorities arrived and arrested him. As bar patrons celebrated Sheley's arrest, a family member of one of the victims called and thanked them for their assistance, Watson said. \"It really hit home and made us realize really what this guy was all about,\" Watson said. New of Sheley's capture calmed nerves in small towns from the Chicago to St. Louis areas. Police conducting a welfare check Sunday at an apartment in Rock Falls, Illinois, found four people dead, including the child. Sheley was a \"known associate\" to at least one of the Rock Falls victims, state police said. Rock Falls is across the Rock River from Sterling; both are in Whiteside County. The following day, Monday, authorities found Randall's body in Galesburg, about 80 miles south of Rock Falls, and obtained an arrest warrant naming Sheley. The couple found dead in Festus, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, was in town for a graduation, authorities said, and were last seen at a Comfort Inn there. Sheley is not believed to have had a prior relationship with the couple, police said. During the hunt for Sheley, the St. Louis County Police Department issued a bulletin describing him as an \"extremely dangerous\" methamphetamine addict. \"He has stated to his ex-wife that he has more killing to do,\" the bulletin said. According to a Tuesday affidavit by FBI Special Agent Susan Hanson, Sheley invaded a home in Sterling, Illinois -- just a mile from Rock Falls -- on June 14. A woman inside the home told police the man was Sheley, it says. Sheley then took off to Iowa where he made a phone call in Sterling on Saturday and then went to Missouri, according to the affidavit. A gas station attendant in Galesburg, less than 60 miles from where the call was placed near Davenport, Iowa, told police that he saw Sheley, who appeared to have blood on him, at the gas station, the affidavit stated. A stolen truck belonging to Randall, the victim in Galesburg, was recovered Sunday in Festus, near an Anheuser-Busch distribution plant, authorities said. CNN's Ismael Estrada, Susan Roesgen and Lee Garen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspected spree killer described as meth addict .\nNicholas T. Sheley, 28, did not enter a plea at first court appearance .\nPolice say ex-con tied to eight killings over past week in Illinois, Missouri .\nAll eight victims died of blunt-force trauma to head, authorities say .","id":"aef2a80ff67e87a8c165a481ede2a643128f4aa7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Paris court has ordered eBay to pay $63 million damages to luxury goods company LVMH for allowing copies of its goods to be sold on the Web auction site. Louis Vuitton took eBay to court for selling a range of fake luxury goods online. The fashion company -- home to brands including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci and Marc Jacobs -- complained it had been hurt by the sale of fake products on eBay. Pierre Godet, an adviser to LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, said the court's decision was \"an answer to a particularly serious question, on whether the Internet is a free-for-all for the most hateful, parasitic practices.\" eBay said LVMH was trying to crack down on Internet auctions because it was uncomfortable with its business model, which puts sellers rather than brands in control. \"If counterfeits appear on our site, we take them down swiftly,\" eBay spokeswoman Sravanthi Agrawal said. \"But today's ruling is not about counterfeits. Today's ruling is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers every day.\" She said eBay intended to appeal the ruling. The case pit two pillars of their industries -- one old, one new -- in a country whose courts often challenge Internet companies on matters protected elsewhere by freedom of speech. The ruling faulted eBay for \"guilty negligence\" for not doing enough to prevent fake goods from being sold on its site. The court also ruled that eBay was responsible for the \"illicit sale\" of perfumes from the LVMH empire, which can be sold only through the brands' \"selective distribution networks.\" The court barred eBay from running ads for the perfume and cosmetic brands or face a fine of $79,000 per day. Heather McDonald, partner at law firm Baker Hostetler, said: \"eBay has policies and procedures in place where they will intervene in an action between a buyer and seller if there's a problem, and they profit directly on the basis of every item that is sold on their Web site. \"This gives them an affirmative obligation to take steps to make sure that illegal goods aren't sold, and they certainly have the ability to do that. \"They have been able to make sure that you can't buy a handgun and they have been able to make sure that you cannot buy pornography or prescription narcotics or other medicines on eBay. \"They have the ability to do this, they have just chosen not do and to rest the entire burden of policing eBay on the shoulders of the trademark and copyright holders whose rights are being infringed here.\"","highlights":"Paris court orders eBay to pay $63 million in damages to luxury group LVMH .\nThe group sued eBay over sale of fake luxury goods online .\nBrands affected include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi and Givenchy .\neBay said LVMH was trying to protect uncompetitive commercial practices .","id":"d4eaedd7f1055f95e9cafa21e870d049f5df8526"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of South Koreans were demonstrating Saturday on the streets of the capital to protest the government's decision to import what they say is unsafe U.S. beef. South Korean protesters protest against government's policy on U.S. beef imports on Saturday. South Korean police estimate that the crowd in Seoul is about 50,000. No clashes were reported between the protesters and riot police, although ongoing protests have at times turned violent. South Koreans have protested regularly since April when the government announced it would resume importing beef from the United States after a five-year ban. That ban was instituted over a case of mad cow disease in the United States in 2003. The widespread public protests essentially paralyzed the government of President Lee Myung-bak, who replaced seven top aides this month and plans to reshuffle his Cabinet. Tens of thousands of auto workers in South Korea went on strike Wednesday to oppose the government's lifting of the ban. After a series of negotiations, Seoul and Washington came up with a revised agreement on June 21 -- one that limits imports to cattle younger than 30 months old. Animals older than 30 months old are considered at a greater risk for mad cow disease, which can be transmitted to humans. The revised agreement also excludes the import of certain parts believed more susceptible to mad cow disease. The initial deal would have allowed the import of all U.S. beef imports. Scientists believe mad cow disease spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The U.S. banned recycled feeds in 1997. Eating meat products contaminated with the illness has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady in humans. Until the 2003 ban, South Korea was the third-largest market for U.S. beef exporters. South Korea's new pro-U.S. president agreed to lift the import ban in April before a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush. But the move provoked a backlash over health concerns spurred in part by false media reports about risks, along with a sense that South Korea had backed down too easily to American pressure. The government has vowed to get tough with the rallies. In Washington, the White House announced that Bush would visit South Korea on August 5-6 before heading to the Beijing Olympics. Bush had originally been expected to go to Seoul next week when he visits Japan for the G-8 summit, but the trip did not materialize amid the protests. CNN's Sohn Jie-ae contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tens of thousands of South Koreans protest imports of U.S. beef .\nBeef imports largely banned since 2003 when mad cow disease found in U.S.\nProtests essentially paralyzed the government of President Lee Myung-bak .","id":"ec9531cd58e385f0da60e23b2855a3c5ece3f270"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hollywood star Will Smith led a crowd of 46,664 in a chorus of \"Happy Birthday\" to Nelson Mandela on Friday at a party for the South African prisoner, president and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Nelson Mandela had a smile and a message. Smith introduced Mandela to the London crowd celebrating Mandela's life with the words \"The one, the only, the birthday boy, Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandelaaaaaaaaaa.\" London was the scene of a concert 20 years ago to celebrate Mandela's 70th and to raise awareness of his imprisonment. Mandela told cheering fans, \"Your voices carried across the water to inspire us in our prison cells far away. Tonight, we can stand before you free. \"We are honored to be back in London for this wonderful occasion. \"But even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete. \"Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all.\" Watch Mandela at the party \u00bb . As Mandela walked on stage, Smith led the crowd in a chorus of \"Happy Birthday.\" Proceeds from the concert in London's Hyde Park will go toward the 46664 Campaign, which Mandela founded in 2003 to raise awareness about the impact of AIDS, especially in Africa, and to promote HIV-prevention measures around the world. The name of the charity represents Mandela's prison number when he was incarcerated at Robben Island. Organizers put 46,664 tickets up for sale. The finale of the concert was scheduled as Queen, Amy Winehouse and Jerry Dammers performing \"Free Nelson Mandela,\" a 1980s hit from the Specials that quickly became an anti-apartheid anthem, but pretty much every act joined them on stage. Dammers was also one of the driving forces behind the London concert in 1988 to awareness of Mandela's long imprisonment by the South African authorities. The former South African president turns 90 on July 18. Watch the crowd celebrate \u00bb . Speculation surrounded whether Winehouse would perform after being hospitalized with lung problems last week. More than a dozen African artists, including Johnny Clegg and the Soweto Gospel Choir, performed. Smith, music legend Quincy Jones and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton were among the stars introducing acts. Other guests at the concert included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former U.S. President Clinton, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and actor Robert De Niro. Mandela served as his country's first democratically elected president from 1994 to 1999. In recent years, he has campaigned on behalf of HIV and AIDS awareness and has long called the battle against AIDS a basic human right. In 1964, a court sentenced Mandela to life in prison for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. He spent the first 18 years at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town, South Africa, and later spent time at Pollsmoor prison and Victor Verster Prison, closer to the mainland. While in prison, Mandela became recognized as the most significant black leader in South Africa, and he became a potent symbol of resistance in the anti-apartheid movement. Mandela consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom. South African President F.W. de Klerk released Mandela in February 1990 after 27 years in prison. Mandela was elected president of the African National Congress the following year, and in 1994, he was elected president of his country.","highlights":"Celebrities, statesmen gather in London to celebrate Mandela's 90th birthday .\nMandela at outdoor concert in his honor in London's Hyde Park .\nCrowd of 46,664 sing \"Happy Birthday\" led by Will Smith .\nPerformers include Amy Winehouse, Queen, Annie Lennox, Simple Minds .","id":"b171bad51c8ec09118fd553347c41d9301f195ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mining company has found what may be the largest gold deposit ever found in the British Isles, the company's chairman said Tuesday. The price of gold is at historic highs, making new prospects very valuable. Drill samples indicate more than 1 million ounces of gold may lie below what is now rolling Irish countryside, said Richard Conroy, the chairman of Dublin, Ireland-based Conroy Diamonds and Gold. With the price of gold near historic highs, the find could be worth as much as $300 million on the market, Conroy told CNN. The company has been working for 10 years to find gold in a 1,500-square kilometer (600-square-mile) area spanning the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he said. The site where the company found the gold is near Clontibret, a village in the northern part of Ireland, he said. \"I think it's a major development in Ireland that we now have a significant gold resource,\" Conroy said. \"It's the largest amount of gold, the largest number of ounces, that's ever been reported in Ireland, or indeed in either Britain or Ireland.\" The price of gold is currently around $900 an ounce on global commodities markets. Factoring in costs for mine construction and operation, Conroy said, the gold near Clontibret could fetch roughly $300 million. The company now plans to do more drilling at the site and conduct feasibility studies before moving ahead, he said. An analyst cautioned, however, that the reported amount of gold is still only an estimate. \"Until you've actually mined the stuff, there's always a moderate level of uncertainty,\" said William Tankard, a senior analyst at metals consultancy GFMS in London. One million ounces, if confirmed, would be significant for both Conroy and Ireland, Tankard said. Ireland has small precious metal deposits but nothing as large as Conroy's reported find, Tankard said. Conroy said only one gold mine is currently active in Ireland. \"By no means is it world-leading, but a million ounces is certainly worth thinking about,\" Tankard said. Tankard added that the quality of the gold -- including grade and how concentrated it is -- will also affect its value.","highlights":"Company finds what may be largest gold deposit found in Britain or Ireland .\nMore than one million ounces of gold may lie below rolling Irish countryside .\nWith price of gold near historic highs, find could be worth as much as $300m .","id":"1df14bd442bd39ed653aa77a1e77105d4b321db0"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's most powerful Sunni Arab political party on Monday said a U.S. soldier's desecration of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, requires the \"severest of punishments,\" not just an apology and a military reassignment. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond apologizes after a U.S. soldier admitted using the Quran for target practice. The Iraqi Islamic Party, the movement of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, condemned what it said was a \"blatant assault on the sanctities of Muslims all over the world.\" An American staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader used a Quran for target practice on May 9. The U.S. commander in Baghdad on Saturday issued a formal apology and read a letter of apology from the shooter. The sergeant has been relieved of duty as a section leader \"with prejudice,\" officially reprimanded by his commanding general, dismissed from his regiment and redeployed -- reassigned to the United States. But the Iraqi Islamic Party -- which said it reacted to the news \"with deep resentment and indignation\" -- wants the \"severest of punishments\" for the action. \"What truly concerns us is the repetition of these crimes that have happened in the past when mosques were destroyed and pages of the Holy Quran were torn and used for disgraceful acts by U.S. soldiers,\" al-Hashimi said. \"I have asked that first this apology be officially documented; second a guarantee from the U.S. military to inflict the maximum possible punishment on this soldier so it would be a deterrent for the rest of the soldiers in the future.\" A tribal leader said \"the criminal act by U.S. forces\" took place at a shooting range at the Radhwaniya police station on Baghdad's western outskirts. After the shooters left, an Iraqi policeman found a target marked in the middle of the bullet-riddled Quran. Read how the soldier could have provoked a crisis . Copies of the pictures of the Quran obtained by CNN show multiple bullet holes and an expletive scrawled on one of its pages. On Saturday, Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, appeared at an apology ceremony flanked by leaders from Radhwaniya. Watch as the U.S. formally apologizes \u00bb . \"I come before you here seeking your forgiveness,\" Hammond said to tribal leaders and others gathered. \"In the most humble manner, I look in your eyes today, and I say please forgive me and my soldiers.\" Another military official kissed a Quran and presented it as \"a humble gift\" to the tribal leaders. Hammond also read from the shooter's letter: \"I sincerely hope that my actions have not diminished the partnership that our two nations have developed together. ... My actions were shortsighted, very reckless and irresponsible, but in my heart [the actions] were not malicious.\" Hammond said, \"The actions of one soldier were nothing more than criminal behavior. I've come to this land to protect you, to support you -- not to harm you -- and the behavior of this soldier was nothing short of wrong and unacceptable.\" The soldier reportedly claimed he wasn't aware the book was the Quran, but U.S. officials rejected his assertion. Tribal leaders, dignitaries and local security officials attended the ceremony, while residents carried banners and chanted slogans, including, \"Yes, yes to the Quran\" and \"America out, out.\" Watch as villagers protest the Quran incident \u00bb . Sheikh Hamadi al-Qirtani, in a speech on behalf of all tribal sheikhs of Radhwaniya, called the shooting \"aggression against the entire Islamic world.\" The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq also condemned the shooter's actions and the U.S. military's belated acknowledgment of what happened. \"As the Association of Muslim Scholars condemns this heinous crime against God's holy book, the constitution of this nation, a source of pride and dignity,\" the group's statement said, \"they condemned the silence by all those who are part of the occupation's agenda and holds the occupation and the current government fully responsible for this violation and reminds everyone that God preserves his book and he [God] is a great avenger.\"","highlights":"Iraqi Islamic Party calls Quran incident \"blatant assault\" on Muslim holy book .\nU.S. soldier used Quran for target practice, military investigation found .\nU.S. commander in Baghdad has issued formal apology .\nSoldier relieved of duty, will be reassigned after sending letter of apology .","id":"d4f57e3c18c38696345fb7a3d76a151bb9c5123b"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday defended an increase in export taxes on grains that has riled many farmers, and she called on them to respect the law in protesting her policies. President Cristina Fernandez: Calls on rally Wednesday to support her policies. \"All my life I have soldiered in this party, which always believed in social justice, in the redistribution of income, which caused us to win and lose elections,\" she said in a nationally televised address from the presidential palace. \"But we were always respectful of the popular will.\" Fernandez, of the center-left Peronist movement, made her plea for comity a day after massive demonstrations in various cities blocked traffic and paralyzed much of the country. In a concession to her critics, Fernandez said the increase in taxes on exports of grains that she instituted in March by decree will be debated by Congress. But there is little likelihood that the Congress will order major changes, since her party controls both houses. But Hilda Duhalde, an opponent of Fernandez, was not persuaded. \"It's true that they have a majority in both houses, but we have to put white on black and watch out for the small- and medium-sized producers, who are the ones suffering,\" she said. Argentina raised export taxes in March by more than 10 percent. Fernandez has said growers have benefited from rising world prices and the profits should be spread to help the poor. Farmers have countered that they need to reinvest the profits and that the higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living. Fernandez said she was open to dialogue, but a dialogue that does not countenance the blocking of roads or other disruptions to the lives of Argentines. \"Democracy for the people, not the corporations,\" she said. She called on Argentines to take to the Plaza de Mayo Wednesday in a show of support for her policies. \"It doesn't matter what party, place or sector you're from,\" she said. \"What is important is not where you're from, but where you are going -- what kind of country do we want?\" To those who do not agree with her policies, she had other advice. \"If they want to change the economic model, what they should do is organize a political party, participate in elections and win them,\" she said. CNN's Carolina Cayazzo contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Cristina Fernandez appeals for dialogue, respect in national address .\nFernandez says profits from higher food prices should be spread among poor .\nFarmers say higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living .","id":"28bbbf57c580be154f0602cbfe8b63603ef5a3a4"} -{"article":"SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- The three Americans rescued Wednesday after more than five years in captivity in the jungles of Colombia appear to be in good health, doctors said Thursday. Keith Stansell, left, Marc Gonsalves, center, and Thomas Howes sit in an aircraft after being rescued Wednesday. \"They're very resilient, they're very stress-hardy and they're doing very well, and so I think that certainly is a good-news story,\" said Col. Carl Dickens, a psychologist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell arrived there late Wednesday on an Air Force C-17 to undergo a battery of medical tests and debriefings. All three are U.S. government contractors who were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in February 2003 when their plane crashed in a remote region of the country. They will begin reuniting with their families Thursday. \"They are very grateful, very excited to be home,\" said Air Force staff Sgt. Daryl Bradley, who accompanied the three men on the flight Wednesday from Colombia to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Watch CNN's Brian Todd report on the hostages' return \u00bb . \"They can't wait to see their families, can't wait to see the differences in the United States, and they're just absolutely pleased to be home.\" Learn about the freed hostages \u00bb . A plane the men were on crashed in February 2003 in a remote region of Colombia. They were among 15 hostages, including ex-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, rescued Wednesday in a Colombian military operation. Read how the military faked out the rebels . The FARC still holds more than 700 hostages in camps scattered throughout the jungle. Bradley, who is a paramedic, earlier said all three Americans appeared to be in good medical condition. Marc Gonsalves' father said he would see his son Thursday. \"We have a lot to talk about,\" George Gonsalves told CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"There's been a lot of things that have happened, and I'm sure there's a lot of things that have happened with him that we'd certainly like to exchange a little conversation for about two or three hours anyway.\" Keith Stansell said he was on the beach when his stepfather called with the news of his father's release. \"I didn't even know what to do,\" he said. \"I just started freaking out -- screaming, yelling. I ran as fast as I could off the beach.\" Watch the Stansell family eagerly await the former captive's return \u00bb . His sister, Lauren, said she was at home when the phone rang with the news. \"I knew when I heard the other voice that she had good news. I knew it was good news about Dad,\" she said. Amanda Howes said she learned about her uncle Thomas Howes' release from a bulletin on her computer at a TV station, where she works in Boston, Massachusetts. \"A news alert crossed on the bottom of the screen, I click on it and it's this wonderful news,\" she said. \"I literally screamed with enjoyment. I started shaking. Of course, everyone was like ... 'What's the hot news tip?' \" Adm. James Stavridis, head of the U.S. military's Southern Command, has kept a picture of the hostages on his desk since taking his post in 2006 and said their release has been one of his top priorities. \"You could hear the cheers throughout the building when we announced the success of the rescue,\" he said. Watch the hostages land on U.S. soil \u00bb . The U.S. government considers the FARC a terrorist group and has refused to negotiate with it while publicly urging the rebels to release the Americans. The FARC, which has fought a long-standing and complicated conflict with Colombia's government and right-wing paramilitary groups, defends the taking of captives as a legitimate act of war. Background on FARC \u00bb . Before news of the rescue broke Wednesday, U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said he had mentioned the three Americans in talks with government officials during his visit to Colombia -- part of a three-day trip to Latin America -- and that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had briefed him on the planned raid Tuesday night. \"It is great news,\" McCain said. \"Now we must renew our efforts to free all of the other innocent people held hostage.\" Months after the men's capture, a Colombian journalist filmed the three at a rebel camp, where FARC commanders branded them CIA spies and prisoners of war. A few months ago, family members saw footage of their loved ones from a captured rebel video. \"It's been a long haul here,\" George Gonsalves said at the time. \"It has been a very trying experience, to say the least, not knowing how he is doing, what he is doing.\" The video showed Marc Gonsalves brushing bugs away from his face and Stansell staring silently into the camera. Only Howes spoke, giving details about his will and telling his wife that he was proud of her. \"You think every year is going to be the year,\" George Gonsalves said. \"That is what I thought last year and certainly I'll hope for that this year.\"","highlights":"NEW: Three Americans had medical tests; doctors say they are healthy .\nEx-hostages and relatives express joy at rescue operation .\nMarc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell U.S. government contractors .\nColombian rebels captured three men in 2003 when their plane crashed .","id":"05850904cabf491c9ab7c0e0d85fd932eb8c0bb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Ohio distributor is recalling about 6 million Chinese-made tire valve stems after concluding that some of them were improperly made and could increase the risk of accidents. An Ohio distributor is recalling 6 million Chinese-made car tire valve stems. Tech International, the part's Johnstown, Ohio-based distributor, estimates that just 8,600 of roughly 6 million of those valves are defective. The valve is a replacement snap-in tire valve -- Model No. TR413 -- manufactured between July and November 2006. It was imported by Tech International from manufacturer Shanghai Baolong Industries Co. in Shanghai, China, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the recall, the rubber part of the valve may crack after being in use for about six months, causing a gradual loss of tire pressure. Continuing to drive on underinflated tires can cause them to burst, possibly leading to crashes. Tech International told the NHTSA that the company doesn't have records of the final purchasers of the valve stems. According to the company, the defect was identified after \"a small number\" of the valves were reported by customers and one distributor to have failed. The samples were shipped to China, and, in March, Baolong concluded that some valves could be defective. \"The cause of the defect is likely improper mixing of the rubber compound in the manufacturer's facility,\" Tech International wrote in a letter to the transportation safety authority.","highlights":"Ohio-based distributor says valves aren't working properly, could cause accidents .\nTech International estimates that just 8,600 of 6 million are defective .\nSnap-in tire valve, Model TR413, was made between July and November 2006 .\nContinuing to drive on underinflated tires can cause them to burst .","id":"df79c0f955e4ccf51ad45780f865e334d3577bf5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British mercenary Simon Mann has been jailed for 34 years for his part in plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Simon Mann was arrested after a plane carrying him and about 60 mercenaries landed in Zimbabwe. The former British military officer confessed to trying to topple long-time ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo - but denied being the plot's leader. The goal of the plot was to install exiled opposition leader Severo Moto who is currently in Spain awaiting trial on charges of arms trafficking, and to gain access to the former Spanish colony's oil wealth. During the trial, Mann testified he was a \"junior\" in the organization which plotted to overthrow the tiny west African country's president in 2004, and that Lebanese businessman Eli Calil was the man in charge. \"Eli Calil was known as the cardinal -- the cardinal -- which I think says it all,\" Mann told the court. Watch Mann's reaction to his sentences \u00bb . Footage of the proceedings was broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 News, which says it has the only camera in the courtroom. As Mann's trial progressed last month, South Africa rejected Mann's allegation that it had given its tacit support for the coup plot. \"South Africa will never, tacitly or expressly, support the use of mercenaries to bring about fundamental political changes in any country in our continent or elsewhere in the world including Equatorial Guinea,\" the government said in a statement. Mann testified that several governments, including Spain and the United States, welcomed the idea of a coup. Mann is a former British army commando who was arrested four years ago after a plane carrying him and about 60 mercenaries landed in Zimbabwe. The government of Equatorial Guinea said the group was on its way to overthrow its president. Mann said at the time they were going to guard a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A Zimbabwe court convicted Mann of trying to buy weapons illegally. He served four years in jail there before being extradited to Equatorial Guinea's capital of Malabo earlier this year to face charges of leading an abortive coup. Mann testified that his former friend Mark Thatcher -- the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher -- was a main partner in the plot. Thatcher was arrested along with Mann in 2004, and he pleaded guilty in South Africa the following year to unwittingly bankrolling the plot. He escaped jail time by paying a fine. Thatcher admitted giving $275,000 toward the charter of a helicopter, saying he thought was for commercial purposes and discovered only later it was to be used by mercenaries. But Mann said Thatcher paid $350,000 for a helicopter and a plane which he knew would be used in the plot, and that he attended meetings about the plan with Calil in London. Calil, Mann said, initially asked him to assassinate President Obiang and talked about the possibility of staging a guerrilla war. Mann testified he refused both requests, considering them unethical, but he did agree to help stage a coup. Though he said Thatcher was a top figure in the plot, Mann testified that even Thatcher was under Calil in the group's hierarchy. Mann, appearing in a gray prison outfit, emphasized that he was not the man in charge. Mann's defense lawyer took 45 minutes to question Mann, Channel 4 reported, in contrast to the four hours of prosecution questioning Mann faced. Mann smiled often in the footage shown by Channel 4 and even stuck his tongue out playfully at the camera. After his stint in the British army, Mann was affiliated with the South Africa-based mercenary firm Executive Outcomes. The firm described itself on its now-defunct Web site as a \"military advisory service\" that had played a \"crucial\" role in ending two African civil wars.","highlights":"NEW: British mercenary Simon Mann jailed for plotting a Equatorial Guinea coup .\nMann testified he was \"junior\" in organization that plotted attempted coup .\nMann implicated former friend Mark Thatcher in 2004 plot during testimony .","id":"ffb8b9be838da033f6f3383f324d425556723147"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student body president who was killed this year was shot several times, including in her head, according to her autopsy report released Monday. Unsealed warrants show Eve Carson was abducted and then shot by both men. Eve Carson, 22, was found slain on March 5. Carson's autopsy report lists six gunshot wounds, but says two were probably from the same bullet, according to North Carolina's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Carson's death shocked the community and drew national attention. An estimated 10,000 people turned out for a service remembering her. Her autopsy -- released after a North Carolina newspaper filed a court motion to have it unsealed -- describes wounds to various parts of Carson's body. It says shotgun wounds to her head and hand \"most likely represent a single shot with the hand acting as an intermediate target.\" One of the other four wounds was also a gunshot to her head. A separate, handwritten summary of the medical examiner's report says Carson was \"shot multiple times\" and found lying on her back, with one arm bent behind her head. The autopsy says sexual assault testing was done. It does not say whether any sign of sexual assault was found. Two suspects, Demario James Atwater, 22, and Lawrence Alvin Lovette, 17, have been charged with first-degree murder. Lovette's attorney said the warrants against the suspects rely on hearsay. Atwater's attorney cautioned against \"any rush to judgment.\" Court documents released Friday say Carson was kidnapped from her apartment and forced to provide her abductors with ATM access to her bank account before she was shot to death in the early hours of March 5. The documents -- applications for search warrants -- say a confidential informant told police in the days after the death that Atwater had told her he and Lovette had entered Carson's home through an open door and forced Carson to accompany them in her car. The informant said she had talked with Atwater after a picture was displayed on television showing someone attempting to use Carson's ATM card at a convenience store two days after Carson's body was found. The informant said the two men drove Carson to an ATM, obtaining her PIN number from her. \"The CW [informant] learned that Carson was forced into the back seat with Atwater, and Lovette drove Carson's vehicle,\" the court documents said. \"That information is consistent with video footage taken from an ATM camera on that date.\" The witness told police Atwater said the two got about $1,400 from Carson's account. Bank records show that was approximately the amount taken from the account over a two-day period, the documents said. And the informant said that both suspects shot Carson, according to one of the affidavits. \"This information was corroborated by crime scene search information that two separate weapons were used in the homicide,\" the documents said. The documents said police believe Carson was subjected to a sexual assault \"of an unknown nature\" and asked for a search warrant to collect DNA swabs from the suspects. But Orange County, North Carolina, District Attorney Jim Woodall told CNN Friday the collection and testing done on Carson's body was routine, and authorities do not believe she was sexually assaulted. Prosecutors had fought to keep her autopsy sealed. Following a motion by the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, prosecutors agreed to allow the report's release. Carson, a native of Athens, Georgia, was a pre-medicine student double-majoring in political science and biology. She was a recipient of the university's prestigious Morehead Scholarship and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, UNC has said.","highlights":"Autopsy: There were shotgun wounds to Carson's head and hand .\nReport lists six gunshot wounds, but it says two were probably from same bullet .\nWarrant shows she was kidnapped from her home and robbed .","id":"d70dcffc2c07e08cc121d7126ada53dbc479626e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim came out of hiding Monday, and says he has damaging evidence that proves senior members of the government faked evidence for sodomy charges against him. Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says he has proof sodomy charges against him were fabricated. \"I have new evidence about the fabrication of evidence against me in 1998,\" Anwar told CNN Monday. \"I totally reject these malicious attacks.\" Anwar was the heir apparent to former premier Mahathir Mohamad until 1998, when he was sacked and charged for corruption and sodomy. The sodomy conviction was overturned, but the corruption verdict was never lifted, barring him from running for political post until this year. In the CNN interview, Anwar rejected the sodomy charges and also said he had evidence of threats on his life that caused him to go into hiding at the Turkish embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Listen to Anwar Ibrahim defend himself \u00bb . CNN could not immediately reach members of Malaysia's ruling party. The ruling party, National Front Coalition, has led Malaysia since the country declared independence in 1957. Anwar's opposition party has gradually chipped away at the National Front's power. Recently Malaysian police have said they are investigating a new sodomy charge against him, Anwar said. The new charges were also false and were fabricated to usurp his political gains, Anwar said. \"I will challenge these attacks on every ground,\" Anwar said.","highlights":"Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim came out of hiding Monday .\nSays he can prove government members faked evidence for sodomy charges .\nAnwar also says he has evidence of threats against his life .","id":"4dc0cef39980df6382f9aee5e150e904fe62965e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Tuesday ordered the makers of certain antibiotics to add a \"black box\" label warning -- the FDA's strongest -- to alert patients of possible tendon ruptures and tendonitis. Cipro is one of the drugs for which the FDA will require a \"black box\" label warning about tendon problems. \"The new language will strengthen the existing warnings,\" said Dr. Edward Cox, director of the FDA's Office of Antimicrobial Products. The FDA is requiring the label warnings and a medication guide for fluoroquinolone drugs, which include Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, Noroxin and Floxin. The consumer group Public Citizen asked the FDA in August 2006 to put the \"black box\" warning on Cipro and other fluoroquinolones, and also to warn doctors. Earlier this year, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit to force the FDA to take those actions. Public Citizen said Tuesday it was \"pleased\" with the FDA's order but added \"there is still more that the FDA must do.\" \"The FDA is silent on our request that it also send a warning letter to physicians clearly describing possible adverse reactions, such as tendon pain, so that patients can be switched to alternative treatments before tendons rupture,\" the group said. \"We are troubled that the FDA is not doing everything within its power to prevent more people from needlessly suffering disabling tendon ruptures.\" When asked about the lawsuit and why it didn't order the \"black box\" label warning until now, Cox stressed that the FDA included warning information with the drugs from 2001 until 2004, and updated the information last year. Dr. Gupta explains more on antibiotic risks \u00bb . \"There has been ongoing work to update the labeling of the fluoroquinolone drug products,\" Cox said. \"We have been working on this issue and making progress over time.\" The companies that make the fluoroquinolone drugs will be required to submit label safety changes and the medication guide within 30 days of receiving the notification from the FDA or provide a reason why they do not believe such labeling changes are necessary, Cox said. Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc., which holds licenses for Cipro and Avelox, said it would make the changes requested by the FDA but defended the drugs as \"well-tolerated and effective in all approved indications.\" Schering-Plough markets Cipro and Avelox in the United States under agreement with Bayer. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which markets Levaquin in the United States, also said it would abide by the FDA's request. Merck & Co., the maker of Noroxin, said it, too, would update the drug's label. But Merck noted it has stopped promotion of Noroxin because of the widespread availability of its generic form. Oscient Pharmaceuticals (Factive), Daiichi Sankyo (Floxin) and Dipomed (Proquin) did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment. The fluoroquinolones drugs can increase the risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture -- which is about 1 in 100,000 -- by three to four times, according to the FDA's Dr. Renata Albrecht. \"This risk is further increased in those over age 60, in kidney, heart, and lung transplant recipients, and with use of concomitant steroid therapy,\" the FDA said in a statement. Albrecht said that sometimes patients have no symptoms before they experience a rupture in their tendon -- commonly their Achilles tendon. \"Sometimes it's been reported on the first day of taking a fluoroquinolone ... a sudden snap or popping sound that is tendon rupture with no preceding warning,\" she said. Normally, she added, that patients experience some pain or inflammation \"a week or two before the patient will rupture.\" Public Citizen, founded in 1971 by consumer activist Ralph Nader, said more than 400 cases of tendon rupture and more than 300 cases of tendonitis in patients using fluoroquinolones were reported between November 1997 and December 2007. \"Because only a small fraction of cases are typically reported to the FDA, the actual number of ruptures and other tendon injuries attributable to the antibiotic is much higher,\" the group said. The FDA would only say that it has received \"hundreds\" of reports of tendon problems linked to fluoroquinolones, without being more specific, citing the ongoing lawsuit. But Cox said \"the FDA continues to receive a considerable number of reports on tendon adverse effects.\" Patients should stop taking fluoroquinolone antibiotics at the first sign of tendon pain, avoid exercise and contact their doctor, the FDA said. Cox said the FDA would not require companies to send letters to doctors alerting them about the connection between tendon problems and the antibiotics. \"It is possible under REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy] to ask for a letter [to doctors],\" Cox said. \"Certainly for sponsors that would choose to go forward with a letter, we'll be happy to work with them.\"","highlights":"NEW: Consumer group pleased with order but says FDA must do more .\nThe FDA ordered its strongest warning to be put on certain antibiotics .\nThe \"black box\" label will alert patients of possible tendon problems .\nRelevant drugs include Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, Noroxin and Floxin .","id":"6cb082c504e00c93686ff1e9287a84ba13c12b79"} -{"article":"UNITY, New Hampshire (CNN) -- The day began with a kiss. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama leave Washington on Friday for a rally in New Hampshire. Sen. Barack Obama, on the tarmac at Reagan Washington National Airport, reached out to shake Sen. Hillary Clinton's hand and leaned down to kiss her cheek. It went on from there. Wearing a tie that matched her suit, he put his hand on her back, guiding the way up the plane steps. They sat side-by-side for the flight up to Manchester, New Hampshire, chatting amiably. One overheard conversation was about the plane. Clinton had used it during the primary season. They hopped on a souped-up bus for the 1\u00bd-hour ride to Unity, New Hampshire. The honorary mayor of Unity introduced the pair, admitting that he was a Republican who voted for John McCain in the primary. He didn't seem so sure about the general election. They walked onstage to the tune of \"Beautiful Day.\" Arms around each other's waists, they smiled and waved at the crowd. Every camera angle had UNITY signs, big and little, in the backdrop. She said she wants to help elect him president. He gave an ode to Hillary: \"She rocks.\" Watch more from Unity \u00bb . One woman stood at the back, periodically yelling, \"Hillary for VP!\" A few others, older women, stubbornly held up tattered Hillary For President placards. But the vast majority cheered her, \"Thank you, Hillary!\" and him, \"Yes, we can!\" They held new signs for the new times: \"UNITY FOR CHANGE.\" As the dynamic duo glowed onstage, a Clinton staffer circulated through the press corps with word that Hillary and Bill Clinton had gone online to give the maximum contribution allowed by law to the Obama for President campaign. It was the picture-perfect day of togetherness that Barack Obama had wanted. It was not entirely believable, but politics is the art of pragmatism.","highlights":"Sens. Clinton and Obama hold a unity rally in Unity, New Hampshire .\nCrowley: A \"day of togetherness that Barack Obama had wanted\"\n\"It was not entirely believable, but politics is the art of pragmatism,\" Crowley adds .","id":"19fe2a8e0bef37b495afcc83c2f46b60c56039bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital is investigating how up to 17 babies in a neonatal intensive care unit received overdoses of the blood thinner heparin. One of the babies died. Officials at Christus Spohn Hospital South say corrective action was taken after the discovery of the overdoses. The infant was one of 17 who may have received a more concentrated form of heparin than was prescribed, Christus Spohn Hospital South said in a statement. Heparin is an anticoagulant often used to clean the IVs of patients and prevent blood clots from forming in the lines. It came into the public spotlight last year when newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid nearly died after receiving an overdose at a Los Angeles hospital. Nursing staff at the Corpus Christi hospital discovered the problem Sunday -- two days after the medication is believed to have been first administered, according to Bruce Holstien, president and CEO of Christus Spohn Health System. The hospital said it took corrective measures after the discovery. A preliminary investigation concluded that \"the medication error occurred during the mixing process within the hospital pharmacy,\" Holstein said in a statement. The baby who died \"was seriously ill, and we do not know at this time what role, if any, the higher than expected concentration of heparin played in this baby's death,\" Dr. Richard Davis, chief medical officer for the health system, said Tuesday. \"Our deepest sympathy goes out to this family,\" he said. Twelve of the 16 other babies remain in stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit, which cares for ill newborns. Three have been discharged, and one is critical and unstable as that baby has been since admission to the unit, Davis said. In November, Quaid's 12-day-old twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were undergoing intravenous antibiotic treatment for a staph infection at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. According to standard procedure, nurses were supposed to clean the infants' IV lines with Hep-Lock, a drug containing a small dose of heparin, to allow the lines to flow freely. However, instead of the 10 units of heparin they were supposed to receive, the twins received 10,000 units -- 1,000 times the prescribed amount. The babies survived, apparently with no permanent injury, Quaid later told members of a House committee on government oversight, although there is no way to know whether they will show any long-term effects.","highlights":"One baby dies in Texas hospital's neonatal intensive care unit .\nHospital says medication mix-up apparently occurred in hospital pharmacy .\nUp to 17 babies receive too-concentrated form of blood thinner heparin .\nLast year, Dennis Quaid's twins given overdose of heparin at Los Angeles hospital .","id":"503c6aaeaf0e61372a896ebe1fdf2a2492844fe4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Gina Gershon is demanding a retraction from Vanity Fair after the magazine reported \"high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip\" that former President Clinton \"has been seen visiting\" her in California. Actress Gina Gershon \"is extremely offended\" by the Vanity Fair article, her lawyers say. The lengthy article by the magazine's national editor, Todd Purdum, mentioned the actress along with several other women rumored to be associated with Clinton, all anonymously sourced. \"Todd Purdum's insinuation is a lie, and it is irresponsible journalism,\" said Gershon's publicist, Mara Buxbaum. \"We are demanding a retraction.\" A letter sent by Gershon's attorneys to Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, obtained by CNN, demanded a published correction and retraction and threatened possible litigation for defamation. The actress appeared in 1995's \"Showgirls\" and the more recent \"P.S. I Love You.\" Gershon \"is extremely offended by the false and defamatory inference that she engaged in an adulterous relationship with the President,\" the letter says, adding that the actress has been in the same room with Clinton three times, always in the presence of at least a dozen people. \"It is apparent that Vanity Fair was intent upon publishing unsubstantiated rumors, and that it avoided learning the true facts so that the truth would not get in the way,\" the letter says. \"Such conduct is reckless and malicious, giving rise to substantial liability for defamation.\" In a statement, Vanity Fair denied that the article indicates any \"improper relationship\" between Clinton and Gershon. \"The story merely examines the concerns of some of Clinton's aides about reports of his behavior,\" the magazine said. \"We don't believe that any correction is warranted.\" Purdum's article, \"The Comeback Id,\" quoted multiple anonymous sources questioning the former president's behavior since leaving the White House. The article suggested that Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart bypass surgery and said there were reports of Clinton \"seeing a lot of women on the road.\" Clinton issued a tirade against Purdum on Monday when asked by Huffington Post writer Mayhill Fowler what he thought of \"the hatchet job somebody did on you in Vanity Fair,\" according to a recording of the exchange posted on the Huffington Post's Web site. \"[He's] sleazy,\" Clinton responded. \"He's a really dishonest reporter.\" Clinton said that he had not read the article but that he was told that \"there's five or six just blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy.\" Calling Purdum a \"scumbag,\" Clinton said \"he's one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy -- can't help it.\" Purdum \"didn't use a single name, he didn't cite a single source in all those things he said,\" the former president said, adding that the article was \"part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. \"Anytime you read a story that slimes a public figure with anonymous quotes, it ought to make the bells go off in your head,\" he said. Jay Carson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's campaign, said late Monday that \"President Clinton was understandably upset about an outrageously unfair article, but the language today was inappropriate, and he wishes he had not used it.\" Purdum, a former New York Times reporter who covered the Clinton White House and is married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, defended his article on CNN's \"The Situation Room\" on Monday afternoon, saying he was \"very careful to say there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper.\" \"I reject the notion that I'm making an insinuation,\" Purdum said. \"But I'm very comfortable quoting the people I quote because I know who they are, and I know that they are very senior people who have known President Clinton for a very long time and work for him at very high levels.\"","highlights":"Gina Gershon accuses Vanity Fair reporter of \"irresponsible journalism,\" lying .\nMagazine stands by article and refuses to run a correction .\nFormer president called reporter \"a scumbag\" but later apologized .","id":"e4007135fdafe84907e2b018da3a4c7ab853c251"} -{"article":"BIG SUR, California (CNN) -- Thousands of people living in Paradise are fleeing their small northern California town Wednesday as wildfires charge into the area, officials said. A fire captain looks at the fire burning in southern Santa Barbara, California, on Tuesday. More than half the town's 26,000 residents have been evacuated as firefighters struggled to battle growing wildfires in the area, authorities said. Residents of the nearby town of Concow had already been told to leave their homes. As of 10 a.m. about 14,000 people had been evacuated from Paradise, said Chuck Rough, director of the emergency operations center in the town. \"We don't have much containment,\" said Rough, who said thick smoke in the area had made it impossible to fight the fire by air Tuesday. \"Today we are holding our breath literally and figuratively.\" The blaze -- one of several in Butte County -- has already torched 40 homes. It's just one of the 1,780 wildfires that have scorched more than 614,000 acres in the state in the last few weeks. Most of the fires have been caused by lightning strikes. There were still 323 active fires Wednesday that were being battled by about 20,000 federal, state and local firefighters, authorities said. The fires near Paradise, which is about 90 miles north of Sacramento, California, threatened thousands of homes, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. Residents streamed to shelters in the area, some not knowing if their homes had been destroyed, said Jeannine Olson, a volunteer nurse at Neighborhood Church in the nearby city of Chico. Olson said the church shelter was filled to capacity with about 150 people, and 20 more were living in their cars in the church parking lot. \"People are a little scared and are wondering what is going on,\" she said. \"But people here are trying to handle this the best they can.\" Wind gusts of more than 40 mph pushed the fire dangerously close to many residential communities in the area, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. Watch TV crew driven into fire \u00bb . \"We were lucky that the winds did not pick up last night as it was predicted,\" he said. \"But there are still some immediate threats.\" Watch what's left of burned home in Big Sur \u00bb . Conditions seemed to be getting a little bit better in the fight against a wildfire near the central California coastal community of Big Sur. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos of the fires . The mandatory evacuations in that area had been downgraded to an advisory Tuesday, according to local and federal fire officials. But the Basin Complex Fire was only 27 percent contained Wednesday, according to federal fire authorities. It has torched more than 86,700 acres, and containment is not expected until the end of the month. Watch why fires could be related to global warming \u00bb . The nearby Indians Fire, in the Ventana Wilderness, was 97 percent contained after burning more than 81,000 acres, the U.S. Forest Service said. Further south, in coastal Santa Barbara County, the Gap Fire, which has burned 9,710 acres, was 55 percent contained, the Forest Service said.","highlights":"NEW: Half of Paradise's 26,000 residents have been forced to evacuate .\nNEW: The blaze has torched 40 homes in the area, officials say .\nWind gusts, high temperatures make task harder for firefighters .\nMore than 614,000 acres have burned in California in past few weeks .","id":"5b97a507eed113ce329e8c85078fb53033bbe567"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Lawmakers in Nepal will vote Saturday to pick the country's first president since it became a republic. Nepal became a republic after the deposal of King Gyanendra Shah earlier this year. The country's newly elected Constituent Assembly abolished a 239-year monarchy following elections in April. But with no one party winning a majority of the seats, it is unclear who may become president. The position is largely ceremonial. But a president will swear in whoever is picked as the new prime minister. The three main political parties continued to negotiate over whom to name president. The Nepali Congress wants outgoing prime minister and party president Girija Prasad Koirala for the position. The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) wants its leader. But the Maoists -- which won the largest number of seats but fell short of a majority -- do not favor either of the two men. They want a non-political figure as president. Journalist Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lawmakers in Nepal to to pick the country's first president since it became a republic .\nUnclear who may become president as no party had a majority in recent elections .\nMaoists, who won most seats, want a non-political figure as president .","id":"145a118e355e3a92383b41307a5b473a7c77a8bb"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Argentine farmers are planning their next move after the country's president announced plans to fund a public works program with revenues from a controversial agrarian export tax. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has rejected demands for the repeal of an export tax. Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, said the organization's directory board will meet Friday to discuss what steps it plans to take in response to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's announcement. \"We call on farmers across the country to stay calm but to stay on the alert,\" the organization said on its Web site Tuesday. The 44 percent export tax, which applies to soybeans, wheat, corn and sunflower seeds, has caused a three-month-old standoff between the government and farmers. Argentina is the world's second-largest corn exporter and third-largest soybean exporter. On Monday, farmers suspended roadblocks that had snarled traffic across the country, though reports indicated that groups in some rural areas were still blocking roads Tuesday. Kirchner has argued that the tax, which was implemented March 11, pays for increases in seniors' pensions and financial assistance for the poor. She has rejected the farmers' demands for a repeal of the export tax as \"extortion.\" Monday marked the first time Kirchner revealed details of how the government plans to use profits from the tax, which has generated about U.S. $1.5 billion, to lift people out of poverty. \"It is impossible to attack the problem of the poor without distribution of revenue and without touching extraordinary profits,\" she said in a televised address. Kirchner said the Social Redistribution Program will include the construction of 30 hospitals and more than 300 health-care centers, as well as investments in the country's rural roads and in housing. In an apparent criticism of the farmers, she lamented \"the reaction of some who refuse to contribute in the redistribution\" to \"those who have least.\" She apologized, however, at the close of her speech for offending anyone. Analysts suggested that the tax was a \"strong attack\" on on the farmers and their arguments against it. Claudio Loser, a visiting senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue policy analysis center, said it could result in Argentine society being \"less sympathetic to the farmers,\" noting that it was \"surprising\" that the government didn't come up with the plan until the tax was three months old. Loser, who is from Argentina, also predicted that a continuation of the tax would provoke farmers into not investing. Externally, the standoff has had a two-pronged effect on Argentina, he said. \"The conflict has resulted in a loss of market for Argentina,\" he said, as other countries have gone elsewhere for products. Loser also said foreign investors may be more reluctant to invest in Argentina now. CNN's Carolina Cayazzo and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Argentine president says export tax will fund massive public works program .\nFarm leaders urge calm as they plan response to president's announcement .\nThe 44 percent tax has caused a 3-month standoff between farmers, government .\nAnalyst suggests president's plan could turn public tide against farmers .","id":"1f6309c88c5711b2b579e3c0cf699c44d3b56d16"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- An Illinois man was charged with possession of a potentially deadly neurotoxin commonly found in puffer fish after the FBI led a raid at his home Monday. Edward F. Bachner, 35, of Lake in the Hills, was charged with one count of illegal possession of a toxin, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. district court. Bachner is listed as the corporate secretary of Rosetta Wireless Corp. in Naperville, in suburban Chicago. Bachner was arrested after accepting a small amount of tetrodotoxin delivered by an undercover federal official at his home, the FBI said. Tetrodotoxin is a neurotoxin that in large doses can cause paralysis and death. It's often linked to consumption of puffer fish, a delicacy from the Indian and Pacific oceans that can prove fatal if not prepared properly, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Bachner, using the alias Edmond Backer, attempted to purchase 98 milligrams of tetrodotoxin through the Web site of a New Jersey chemical company, according to the FBI. Bachner claimed he was a doctor working for Illinois-based EB Strategic Research, which does not exist. The quantity of the toxin requested alarmed an employee at the chemical company, who alerted authorities, the FBI said. Bachner appeared before a magistrate judge at the federal court in Rockford and is being held without bond until his next court appearance. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. Calls late Monday to Bachner's home and business went unanswered.","highlights":"FBI: Edward Bachner tried to buy 98 milligrams of tetrodotoxin through the Web .\nNeurotoxin, commonly found in puffer fish species, can cause paralysis and death .\nBachner was arrested after accepting a small amount from an undercover official .\nIf convicted, the 35-year-old faces 10 years in prison .","id":"d8304c60e76a4b16053e74c50abd886dcdf7397c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- California's director of adult prisons is recommending against \"compassionate release\" for a terminally ill former Manson family member, a spokeswoman said. Susan Atkins is led from a Los Angeles grand jury room after her indictment in the 1969 \"Manson murders.\" Suzan Hubbard, director of the Division of Adult Institutions, decided that Susan Atkins' request should not be sent to the sentencing court for consideration, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Hubbard's recommendation is advisory and will not necessarily prevent Atkins' release. The court -- not the department or the state Board of Parole Hearings -- has the final say on whether Atkins should be released, Thornton said. \"They're the only ones legally who can recall the sentence,\" she added. Atkins, 60, was convicted in the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and four others. She had been incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California, but has been hospitalized since mid-March. Her request is now before the Board of Parole Hearings, which is conducting an independent investigation and will hear the case during its monthly public meeting, Thornton said. The next meeting is scheduled July 15. Atkins had been held for years at the Corona prison, which earlier determined that she met the criteria for compassionate release under the law, and sent her request to the corrections department. The Board of Parole Hearings will receive public comment, discuss the request in closed session and then announce its recommendation. The board also can decide whether to refer the request to the sentencing court. The court, based in Los Angeles, can either grant or deny Atkins' request. It also can recall her life sentence and resentence Atkins to a lesser term, allowing for her to be paroled. In 2007, the department received 60 compassionate release requests, Thornton said. Ten were approved. Citing privacy rules, prison officials would not disclose the nature of Atkins' illness. Her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, has been quoted as saying she has terminal brain cancer, according to a blog called Manson Family Today. She also has had a leg amputated, the Los Angeles Times has reported. Atkins, known within the Manson family as \"Sadie Mae Glutz,\" has been in prison since 1971 and has been denied parole 11 times. She is California's longest-serving female inmate. Tate and three houseguests were slain in August 1969 by killers who burst into her Benedict Canyon home. A teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his cottage on the property also was killed. According to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins stabbed Tate, who was 8\u00bd months pregnant, and wrote the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. The following night, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were slain in their home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The two-day crime spree sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles. All of the killers remain behind bars. Atkins also was convicted in the earlier murder of music teacher Gary Hinman. Atkins, like family leader Charles Manson, received a death sentence. Her punishment was changed to life in prison when the California Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. Atkins is a born-again Christian, according to a Web site maintained by her husband. During her incarceration, the site says, Atkins has worked to help at-risk youth, victims of violent crimes and homeless children. Last month, authorities dug for buried bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police became aware that testing had indicated humans might be buried there. Nothing was found, police said.","highlights":"Decision puts case in parole board's hands, spokeswoman says .\nSusan Atkins is serving life sentence for role in Manson family murders of late 1960s .\nWeb site quotes Atkins' husband as saying she has terminal brain cancer .","id":"d47e5724a866cf365428dbded7740555e5f80f2b"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Bertha -- the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season -- increased in strength Monday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center. A satellite picture from 5:45 a.m. ET Monday shows Hurricane Bertha over the Atlantic. While Bertha's power may fluctuate over the next day, it is expected to begin gradually weakening by Wednesday, the center's 11 p.m. ET advisory said. Bertha's became a major -- or Category 3 -- hurricane Monday afternoon. A Category 3 has wind speeds of 111 to 130 mph. As of 11 p.m. ET, Bertha was 695 miles (1,115 km) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and about 1,085 miles (1,745 km) southeast of Bermuda. The eye was moving toward the west-northwest at about 12 mph. Its maximum sustained winds were clocked at 120 mph (195 km\/hr), up from the 115 mph mentioned in a 5 p.m. advisory. The hurricane is expected to turn to the northwest and decrease its forward speed in the next 24 to 48 hours, the center said. There is a very small chance Bertha will make landfall in the United States. Bermuda could be affected by the hurricane this weekend. See Bertha's projected path \u00bb . \"It is still way too soon to determine whether or not Bertha will affect Bermuda,\" the center said. The storm formed Thursday in the far eastern Atlantic, off the coast of Africa, near the southern Cape Verde Islands. It strengthened into a hurricane early Monday. Learn more about hurricanes \u00bb . The first tropical storm of the season, Arthur, formed May 31 near the coast of Belize and dumped heavy rain on Central America and southern Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Bertha's winds increase from 115 mph to 120 mph .\nBermuda could be affected by the hurricane this weekend .\nLikelihood of storm making landfall in U.S. is very small .\nBertha is the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season .","id":"0a078513cee66db2ccaaca1b7b0755c96f0c5c8a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A group of anonymous software developers said they will soon start selling a program that will allow iPhone owners to use the hugely popular device on cell phone systems around the world and not just with AT&T. Apple's iPhone is yet to go on sale outside the U.S. Apple's iPhone, released in the United States two months ago, was engineered to operate for the first two years only on the AT&T system through an exclusive arrangement between Apple and AT&T. It has not yet been sold outside of the U.S. Los Angeles software consultant Brett Schulte, who is not affiliated with the developers, demonstrated the software for CNN Friday evening. An iPhone that had the new software appeared to work on the T-Mobile system just seconds after Schulte replaced the AT&T SIM card with a T-Mobile SIM card. \"It's completely software hacked,\" Schulte said. \"There's no case opening required. It's not required to do any kind of disassembly.\" It took Schulte about two minutes to unlock the iPhone. The developers would not give CNN their last names, saying \"We don't want to be hounded.\" The said they would start selling the software, which they haven't yet priced, as soon as their online payment and customer service systems are ready. They're also waiting for more information from their lawyers. Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock told CNN her company has no comment. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said he couldn't speculate on the legality of unlocking the phone, but he added, \"When you sign up, you're signing a two-year contract. You're obligated to pay the bill.\" \"When people buy the iPhone it's clear from our materials it's designed to operate exclusively on AT&T,\" Siegel said. Schulte, however, said it is possible to buy an iPhone without being contractually obligated to AT&T. The developers recently created a Web site -- iPhoneSIMfree.com -- but there is very little information on it and no direct way for anyone to purchase the software. Internet records showed they bought the domain name less than two weeks ago. Two members of the group, who identified themselves only as \"John\" and \"Liu,\" told CNN in a phone interview that a core group of six people on three continents worked to unlock the iPhone as a hobby. They said they are fans of Apple products who thought the iPhone should be made accessible to people who cannot use AT&T. \"I'm not in America and I can't use it,\" said Liu, who would not reveal the country in which he lives. \"It's not fair.\" Asked if he thought modifying the iPhone was legal, he said \"That's a very good question. I truly believe it is.\" John and Liu said they have not been contacted by either Apple or AT&T, but said that could change the moment their software goes on sale. Earlier this month, a teenager figured out a way to unlock the iPhone, but his method required disassembly of the unit. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Software developed enabling Apple's iPhone to be used on any phone network .\nDevice can currently only be used on AT&T network in the U.S.\nAnonymous developers plan to start selling program soon .","id":"f0d93bdd383762936746b48f7e67ffe72cfb1ede"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Susan Atkins, a terminally ill former Charles Manson follower convicted in the murder of actress Sharon Tate, on Tuesday was denied a compassionate release from prison. Susan Atkins, Califorina's longest-serving female inmate, is shown in her most recent mug shot. Atkins, 60, has been diagnosed with brain cancer and has had a leg amputated, her attorney said. In June, she requested the release, available to terminally ill inmates with less than six months to live. The California Board of Parole Hearings' decision -- posted Tuesday on its Web site -- came after a public hearing on Atkins' request. It means the request will not be forwarded to the Los Angeles Superior Court that sentenced Atkins. The court would have had the final say on Atkins' release. Her attorney, Eric P. Lampel, called the parole board's decision \"unfortunate.\" \"[The board] ignored the vast majority of evidence presented,\" Lampel said. \"There was a huge amount of pro-compassionate release testimony from many witnesses. It apparently fell on deaf ears.\" Known within the Manson Family as Sadie Mae Glutz, Atkins and four others were convicted in connection with the deaths of five people, including Tate, in August 1969. According to historical accounts of the murder, Atkins stabbed Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and scrawled the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with director Roman Polanski. By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down and rejected her pleas for mercy, stabbing the pregnant woman 16 times. Atkins' request roused long-dormant memories of the two-day killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles and left seven people dead. It polarized those who were involved in the case -- and even those who weren't -- over whether she should die behind bars. Atkins told a 1993 parole board that Tate pleaded for her unborn child's life as she held her down. \"She asked me to let her baby live,\" Atkins said. \"... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her.\" Three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager visiting the home's caretaker in his cottage out back. Atkins was also convicted in the earlier murder of music teacher Gary Hinman. One of the first people Atkins confessed to was Virginia Graham, who shared a cell with her before investigators determined the Manson Family was responsible for the murders. Graham said last month she believed Atkins should die in prison. \"She showed that poor woman absolutely no mercy, none,\" Graham said. \"So why should anybody show her mercy at this time?\" Sharon Tate's sister, Debra, has staunchly opposed Atkins' release. \"She will be set free when judged by God,\" Debra Tate has said. \"It's important that she die in incarceration.\" Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said Monday he was strongly opposed to the release, saying in a letter to the board it would be \"an affront to people of this state, the California criminal justice system and the next of kin of many murder victims.\" Cooley noted in his letter that Atkins was initially sentenced to death, like others in the Manson Family, including its leader, Charles Manson. Their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty laws as they were written at the time. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he was also opposed to releasing Atkins. \"I don't believe in [compassionate release],\" the governor told reporters. \"I think that they have to stay in, they have to serve their time.\" Even if Atkins is dying, Schwarzenegger said, \"Those kinds of crimes are just so unbelievable that I'm not for the compassionate release.\" Earlier, Suzan Hubbard, director of adult prisons in California, also recommended against granting Atkins' request. Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Atkins and other members of the Manson Family, said he supported her release, if only to save the state money. Through Monday, the cost for Atkins' medical care since she was hospitalized March 18 totaled more than $1.15 million, and the costs for guarding her hospital room are more than $308,000, said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton. Terminally ill inmates rarely are allowed compassionate release, records show. In 2007, 60 such requests were made to the department, Thornton has said. Ten were approved. Atkins, who has been incarcerated since 1971, is California's longest-serving female inmate. According to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, she is now a born-again Christian. During her incarceration, the site says, Atkins worked to help at-risk youth, violent crime victims and homeless children, among others. The Web site does not mention Atkins' illness. Lampel said last month Atkins is paralyzed on one side. \"She can talk a little bit,\" Lampel said. \"She can't sit up in bed without assistance, and obviously she can't walk around because she's an amputee.\" Atkins has expressed remorse for her crimes. \"I know the pain I caused Mrs. Tate,\" she said at a parole board hearing in 1985. ln May, authorities dug for buried bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police became aware that testing had indicated human remains might be buried there. Nothing was found, authorities said. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"Manson follower, 60, terminally ill, expected to die within six months .\nSusan Atkins is bedridden, can barely speak .\nAtkins stabbed pregnant victim Sharon Tate 16 times .\nAtkins, who was convicted of five 1969 murders, has brain cancer .","id":"38649fdccec39afa649297349b2ad2e5e1a39d82"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sunday some people are using her controversial reference to Robert F. Kennedy's assassination to suggest that she meant something \"completely unthinkable.\" Sen. Hillary Clinton says her supporters urge her to stay in the race until it is over. Her campaign also accused the rival Obama campaign of \"inflaming\" the situation and purposely taking her words out of context. But the Obama campaign said it was not trying to \"stir the issue up.\" In an editorial in the New York Daily News, the Democratic presidential hopeful also acknowledged her dwindling chances of winning the nomination, saying she is aware of \"the odds\" against her. Headlined \"Hillary: Why I continue to run,\" the editorial began with an explanation of her reference to the assassination when she was speaking to the Argus Leader newspaper in South Dakota. She said she was pointing out that presidential primary campaigns have continued into June. \"Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different -- and completely unthinkable,\" she wrote. Watch Hillary's camp insist the remark had nothing to do with Obama \u00bb . Clinton said the newspaper's editor and Bobby Kennedy Jr. issued statements arguing that was the meaning of her remark. No other member of the Kennedy family has issued a public statement on the matter. \"I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful -- particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week,\" she said, in a reference to Sen. Edward Kennedy's diagnosis with brain cancer. \"And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused. \"But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for -- and everything I am fighting for in this election.\" Some people -- particularly a number of bloggers -- have suggested she was imagining the possibility that Sen. Barack Obama, the likely nominee, could be assassinated. After Clinton's initial remarks to the newspaper were reported, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying the comment \"was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign.\" But Obama himself later said, \"I don't think that Senator Clinton intended anything by it,\" and that \"we should put it behind us.\" Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, in an interview Sunday, criticized the Obama campaign's first move. \"It's unfortunate -- a hyped-up press over Memorial Day weekend, the Obama campaign inflaming it, tried to take these words out of context,\" he told \"Fox News Sunday.\" Asked about the remark by Obama himself, McAuliffe responded, \"That's great, but Friday they were all part of this process. The press secretary came out and attacked Senator Clinton and got it going so the story would be around for three days.\" Howard Wolfson, a Clinton adviser, told CBS' \"Face the Nation\" that the Obama campaign's first statement critical of Clinton was \"unfortunate.\" But Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod told ABC's \"This Week\" that \"we take her at her word,\" and he added, \"We're beyond that issue now, so certainly we're not trying to stir the issue up.\" The program's host, George Stephanopoulos, noted that a member of Obama's staff sent to the media Saturday a \"searing commentary\" by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann slamming Clinton for her remark. \"Mr. Olbermann did his commentary and he had his opinion,\" Axelrod responded, adding, \"As far as we're concerned, this issue is done.\" On another front, Axelrod slammed Clinton for suggesting she leads Obama in the popular vote. Clinton has been making that argument, based on figures that include Florida and Michigan, even though Obama took his name off the ballot in Michigan and neither candidate campaigned in Florida. The Democratic Party discounted both states' primaries before they took place. \"It would take some very tortured math and tortured logic to say that she's ahead in the popular vote,\" Axelrod told ABC. He added, \"This isn't 'American Idol,' OK? This is a nominating process. We have rules. We elect delegates state by state.\" In her column, Clinton said she believes she can still \"win on the merits.\" \"I am not unaware of the challenges or the odds of my securing the nomination -- but this race remains extraordinarily close, and hundreds of thousands of people in upcoming primaries are still waiting to vote,\" she wrote. She added that her parents \"did not raise me to be a quitter -- and too many people still come up to me at my events, grip my arm and urge me not to walk away before this contest is over.\" She also said she is running \"because I believe staying in this race will help unite the Democratic Party. I believe that if Senator Obama and I both make our case -- and all Democrats have the chance to make their voices heard -- in the end, everyone will be more likely to rally around the nominee.\" She repeated her vow to campaign for Obama if he gets the nomination, and wrote, \"No matter what happens in this primary, I am committed to unifying this party.\" Obama was in Middleton, Connecticut, where he was standing in for the ailing Edward Kennedy who was scheduled to deliver the commencement at Wesleyan University. Watch Obama tell graduates they have an obligation \u00bb . The theme of Obama's speech was service, and the senator asked graduates to volunteer their time at home and abroad to fight poverty, preserve peace and protect the environment . \"But I hope you'll remember, during those times of doubt and frustration, that there is nothing naive about your impulse to change this world,\" he said. \"Because all it takes is one act of service -- one blow against injustice -- to send forth that tiny ripple of hope that Robert Kennedy spoke of.\"","highlights":"Barack Obama denounces remark, then says to \"put it behind us\"\nHillary Clinton's camp says Obama intentionally stoking controversy .\nClinton says in editorial she knows the odds are against her getting nomination .\nObama mentions Robert Kennedy in imploring Wesleyan graduates to volunteer .","id":"d86d9a4e0b39556578f24ff54ed82716f0375fdb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea's apparent cooperation with nations seeking to end its nuclear weapons ambitions -- six years after a deal collapsed and two years after testing a bomb -- may lead to questions about why it would play ball now. Some signs show North Korean leader Kim Jong Il does intend to drop his nuclear weapon program, experts say. One school of thought: The communist nation, in desperate economic straits, has long been willing to drop its program for better relations with the United States. But mistakes on both sides interfered, according to Jim Walsh, a national security analyst. North Korea could be trying to achieve survival through deceit, intending to keep its nuclear weapons as blackmail for better treatment, analysts suggest. But those making a case for North Korea's sincerity, Walsh said, would say it must \"do the things economically that [it needs] to do to avoid collapse.\" \"Having nuclear weapons when the regime is collapsing won't do them much good,\" said Walsh, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. North Korea, following a 2007 agreement with five nations including the U.S., handed over a declaration of its nuclear program on Thursday. The nation also took steps to disable a reactor that officials acknowledge helped extract plutonium to build nuclear weapons. On Friday, it destroyed the reactor's cooling tower -- significant because the tower would take a year or longer to rebuild. Watch the tower being demolished. \u00bb . After North Korea's declaration, President Bush said Thursday that he intends to move North Korea from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism. Down the line, North Korea would receive economic and energy assistance if the U.S. and other nations agree it is complying with other efforts to dismantle its nuclear program. North Korea has been heavily sanctioned in the past because of its nuclear program. Stephen Hadley, the U.S. national security adviser, told reporters Thursday that the terror list was one incentive for North Korea to drop its nuclear ambitions. \"I think it is important to them not to be on a list that says 'enemies' and not to be on a list that says 'supporters of terror,'\" Hadley said. Walsh said North Korea has been weakened by sanctions and its lack of arable land, leading to a population unable to feed itself. \"It can't grow enough food,\" Walsh said. \"And they've got to attract foreign investors.\" He said North Korea was better off in the days of the Soviet Union, when it had an ample amount of communist nations with which to trade. But the Soviet Union collapsed, and many other nations turned away from communism, leaving North Korea increasingly isolated. \"Geostrategically, North Korea was growing weaker, and everyone around them was growing stronger,\" Walsh said. In 1994, North Korea pledged to the U.S. that it would freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for international aid, including help building two power-producing nuclear reactors. By 2000, however, North Korea was complaining that not all the aid was coming as promised. In 2002, the U.S. accused North Korea of working on a secret nuclear weapons program, and the U.S. said North Korea admitted doing so. Countries including the U.S. halted oil supplies, and North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It conducted an underground test of a nuclear weapon in 2006. Walsh said both sides haven't fully lived up to previous agreements. The U.S., he said, promised normalized trade at one point but didn't follow through. Jon Wolfsthal, senior fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' international security program, said North Korea has been \"remarkably consistent\" regarding its reactions to U.S. positions. \"When we've engaged them directly, they have responded. And when we have reduced our commitment, to our engagement ... they have responded negatively,\" Wolfsthal said. Wolfsthal said China -- which provides oil and food aid to North Korea -- has been instrumental in getting North Korea to cooperate. \"China has gone from being an uninvested ... mediator to being a true participant in this process -- from a country that originally wanted to help the U.S. and North Korea work out their differences to a state that has worked to convince North Korea to meet its obligations,\" Wolfsthal said. Wolfsthal said he believes China was embarrassed by North Korea's nuclear test, and shifted course. \"I think that over time, the United States has helped China see that North Korea's unpredictable behavior destabilizes their own backyard,\" he said. Walsh and Wolfsthal said another theory has it that North Korea is only playing with negotiators and intends to keep its nuclear program and weapons as a security blanket. Expanding on that possibility, Wolfsthal said North Korea leader Kim Jong Il could keep the country's nuclear arsenal but agree not to produce any more nuclear weapons. \"Everybody's speculating. None of us has met Kim Jong Il,\" Wolfsthal said. Walsh said the West doesn't have hard evidence to determine North Korea's intentions. \"But so far, the evidence is pretty strongly on the side of North Korea wanting a real bargain,\" Walsh said.","highlights":"North Korea's negotiations driven by economic need, desire for survival, experts say .\nChina, embarrassed by nuclear test, has prodded North Korea, expert says .\nDeceit possible, experts say, but nation's best interest is to be on West's good side .","id":"d10d57811499caa54276d3e14f89c45cb1a8958f"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy. A shopper displays a $500 million Zimbabwean bank note. The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday. As high as they are, though, the bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges. The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar. Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980, with the official inflation rate now at 2.2 million percent. Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the new notes are for \"the convenience of the banking public and corporate sector\" in light of price hikes. \"The RBZ has noted with concern the unjustifiable and incessant general increases in prices of goods and services. It is therefore appealing to the business community to follow ethical business practices as well as take an interest in the plight of the general public,\" Gono said in a statement dated Friday. Zimbabwe started issuing large bank notes in December, starting with denominations of $250,000. In January, the government issued bills in denominations of $1 million, $5 million, and $10 million -- and in May, it issued bills from $25 million and $50 million up to $25 billion and $50 billion. The new bills are actually bearer checks and have an expiration date of December 31. Zimbabwe has not had formal currency since the introduction of bearer checks as a temporary measure in 2003. \"The RBZ is fighting a losing battle,\" economist John Robertson said in Harare. \"As long as the inflation remains high, cash shortages will persist. There is need to address the inflation by increasing production so that too goods do not [cost] a lot of money.\"","highlights":"New bills officially come into circulation Monday .\nBills aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can only buy four oranges .\nGideon Gono: Notes for \"convenience of the banking public and corporate sector\"\nThe new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar .","id":"66646c49afb65308491ec8ca6db79aa76263cc69"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Misha Di Bono zips around town in her Infiniti sport-utility vehicle, breezy and unconcerned about the price of gas. Misha Di Bono says people used to make fun of her rolling billboard. She gets $500 a month and free gas. That's because she gets $500 a month -- plus free gas -- for turning her car into a rolling billboard for Jobing.com, the online recruiting company she works for. \"People used to tease me about the 'Jobing' mobile, and now they're like, 'Oh, we'll get Misha to drive,' \" she said, standing next to her decal-covered car. Jobing.com might be the most extreme example of how companies are helping employees during the current gas crunch. But with gas averaging more than $4 a gallon, more and more companies are trying to figure out incentives to help ease the pain at the pump for their employees. Watch a rolling billboard for your company \u00bb . \"There's no question companies are feeling the pinch,\" said John Challenger, the chief executive officer of global outplacement company Challenger, Gray and Christmas. \"It's an important issue because no company wants to lose its people.\" His firm recently surveyed about 100 human resources executives at white-collar and blue-collar companies. The survey found that 57 percent of the companies offer programs to help ease commutes. The most popular option was reducing the work week from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days. Twenty-three percent of the companies polled have such an option, Challenger said. Calculator: How much do you need to work to pay your gas? \u00bb . \"We're at a watershed time of how people go to work,\" he said. \"Maybe the gas crisis will be the real trigger.\" Other incentives: Twenty percent of the companies offer carpools, and 18 percent pay for the cost of public transportation. Only 14 percent of the companies offer telecommuting options, the poll found. The survey reports that companies had seen a recent jump in carpooling of 43 percent and a 23 percent increase in the use of public transportation. Still, 31 percent of the companies saw no increase in their employees' commuting behaviors. See gas prices around the country \u00bb . Some of the companies have had the incentives for years, but it's taken the soaring gas prices for employees to look more closely at the programs. \"It's something that is much more important than two years ago,\" Challenger said. \"It's hard to get away from, because you're constantly going back to the gas station.\" He added, \"It's hitting people's radar screens now.\" One company offering generous commuting benefits is online giant Yahoo, which rewards employees who organize carpools, ride bikes to work and take company shuttles to and from offices. Yahoo rewards these green-conscious commuters with free movie tickets, lunches, massages and other benefits. iReport: How is your company helping you . The company recently hired an \"employee transportation coordinator\" to help devise even more incentives. \"We've really been listening to our employees to make sure we help them find ways to make the cost of the commute a little less excessive,\" said Barbary Brunner, a Yahoo vice president. But it is the Jobing.com vehicle that is most eye-popping. Company spokesman Joe Cockrell says the company started the rolling billboard cars in 2001, but only three executives took part in it. But now, 60 percent of its 270 employees nationwide drive the cars. Watch a shift from marketing ploy to employee benefit \u00bb . \"This year, for the first time, we've had a long waiting list for our wrap,\" Cockrell says. \"It's basically a huge sticker that goes on your car and should last in theory about three to four years.\" It costs the company about $3,000 to $4,000 to turn the cars into rolling billboards. They do have rules: The car can't be older than three years, and employees must take a driving safety course and have clean driving records. Once the cars are wrapped, employees shouldn't flip the bird at other drivers. The company did have to \"unwrap\" one employee's car because he got too many speeding tickets. Cockrell says the program has proved to be a huge win-win. \"These are mobile billboards, and wherever our employees go, so does that billboard.\" Di Bono, who works in community relations, says she loves it, too. She says the cost of filling her tank has doubled in recent years. Now, her company pays her to drive her car. \"They pay for everything,\" she said. \"They pay for me to go to all my appointments and anything I want to do on my own time.\" She added, \"You'd be a fool not to take advantage of it.\" Although many people across the nation are seeking help from their offices, an iReporter in West Virginia recently stopped using his company car and began using his old clunker again. Maurice Alouf's company paid for his V-8 Chrysler sedan, but he says it guzzled gas on his 80-mile round-trip commute. The company didn't offer a gas allowance, and it was costing him more than $60 a week to fill up. So he dusted off his 50-mile-per-gallon Geo Metro. \"It's not fun,\" he said. \"I'd like to keep driving [the Chrysler], but I can't.\"","highlights":"Woman gets paid $500 extra a month, plus free gas, for turning car into billboard .\n\"People used to tease me,\" says Misha Di Bono .\nSurvey finds companies are looking at ways to help ease commuting costs .\nCEO: \"We're at a watershed time of how people go to work\"","id":"7fbd6d867def06f6ae4c051562dc36ab8d0038c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Radovan Karadzic's arrest after a decade-long hunt is the equivalent of catching Europe's Osama bin Laden, the U.S. diplomat who brokered peace in Bosnia says. Radovan Karadzic, seen here in 1995, has been arrested after a decade-long hunt. Richard Holbrooke, who negotiated the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, led the chorus of congratulations from around the globe telling reporters it was \"a historic day.\" \"One of the worst men in the world, the Osama bin Laden of Europe, has finally been captured. A major, major thug has been removed from the public scene.\" \"He was at large because the Yugoslav army was protecting him. But this guy in my view was worse than Milosevic [Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic]... he was the intellectual leader,\" Holbrooke told CNN. Watch Holdbrooke talk about the arrest \u00bb . David Miliband, Britain's Foreign Secretary, said it would \"pave the way for a brighter, European future for Serbia and the region.\" The White House released a statement congratulating the government of Serbia, and thanked the people who arrested Karadzic on a bus in Belgrade for their \"professionalism and courage.\" Paddy Ashdown, the former international administrator in Bosnia, told the BBC that it was a \"longed hoped for day.\" \"The four years that I was working with NATO to try and catch him were peppered by rumors of where he was -- in this cafe, on that mountain, in this valley.\" Watch Karadzic's lawyer slam arrest \u00bb . Ashdown also told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that it was a \"major breakthrough for the Balkans region.\" \"Karadzic was accused of being the architect of the worst war crimes that have been perpetrated in Europe since the Nazis. \"It is a major credit to Serbia and at last brings the prospect of justice for Bosnia,\" Ashdown said. The arrest brought Serbia's hopes of joining the EU one step closer to realization, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana lauding the news. \"This ... gives us immense satisfaction. The new government in Belgrade stands for a new Serbia, for a new quality of relations with the EU.\" Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's Foreign Minister, said the arrest was proof Serbia was \"serious when it comes to her European fate.\" However, Serb Radical Party Secretary General Aleksandar Vucic said it was \"horrible\" news and that the country was \"on its way to disappear.\" Karadzic, 63, is accused of leading the worst acts of brutality Europe has seen since the Nazi campaigns of World War II. He is wanted over he deadly siege of Sarajevo, which left an estimated 10,000 people dead, and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.","highlights":"\"Karadzic's arrest is the equivalent of catching Europe's Osama bin Laden\"\nFormer U.S. peace broker in Bosnia says arrest is an \"historic day\"\n\"Major breakthrough for the Balkans,\" Former international administrator says .","id":"5c243b51bf4de7f6974338d71ac26317254007bb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ghana international Michael Essien has followed goalkeeper Petr Cech in agreeing a new five-year contract with English Premier League side Chelsea. Michael Essien has made a big impression on new Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. The midfielder, who is in China for the start of the club's pre-season tour, is now tied to the London outfit until the summer of 2013. The 25-year-old has made 143 appearances since moving to Stamford Bridge from French club Lyon in a $49 million transfer in August 2005, scoring 14 goals in total and helping Chelsea win the league title that season. Essien's decision to commit his long-term future to the club is a boost for new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, who allowed veteran holding midfielder Claude Makelele to join Paris St Germain on Monday. \"I have not been here long but it is clear to me that Michael Essien is one of the best midfield players in the world,\" Scolari said. \"I have always admired him and it is good news for me and for Chelsea that he signs for so long.\" The Accra-born Essien, who started his career in France with Bastia in 2000 before moving to Lyon three years later, was also pleased with the deal. \"I am really pleased to have extended my career with Chelsea,\" he said. \"I am very happy here. We have a great team and fantastic fans who have always made me welcome. \"With the addition of the new manager, I am feeling very positive about the season ahead.\" Chelsea announced on Monday that Czech Republic goalkeeper Cech signed a new five-year deal, while England full-back Wayne Bridge committed himself to four more years last week. Scolari is still seeking to keep England midfielder Frank Lampard, who has ended talks over a new deal and now appears to be resigned to waiting until his contract runs out before joining Inter Milan following the upcoming season. The Brazilian has so far added only Portugal playmaker Deco to his midfield ranks. His first match in charge will be Wednesday's friendly against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, one of the three games the team will play in China. Striker Didier Drogba, who has been linked with moves to AC Milan and Barcelona, is not among the touring squad due to a recurring knee problem. Khalid Boulahrouz, meanwhile, completed his transfer from Chelsea to Stuttgart on a four-year contract with the Bundesliga club. The Netherlands central defender was released Monday by Chelsea and arrived in Stuttgart's training camp in Austria shortly before midnight after passing a medical exam in Stuttgart. The deal between Stuttgart and Chelsea was completed Tuesday. Details were not given. The Dutchman played for Hamburger SV for two seasons before going to Chelsea in 2006. He was loaned to FC Sevilla last season. Boulahrouz's departure came a day after 35-year-old former France international Claude Makelele signed a two-year deal with Paris-Saint Germain after joining from Chelsea on a free transfer.","highlights":"Ghana international Michael Essien signs new five-year contract with Chelsea .\nMidfielder follows Petr Cech and Wayne Bridge in agreeing long-term deals .\nThe 25-year-old has made 143 appearances since joining from Lyon in 2005 .\nDutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz leaves Chelsea for Stuttgart on 4-year deal .","id":"56b79c03a77d5261382e4705f3537396473f55cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Marius Kloppers was born in South Africa on August 26, 1962. Marius Kloppers, CEO of BHP Billiton . He obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a PhD in Materials Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. He began his career in South Africa, working in petrochemicals with Sasol and in materials research with Mintek. After receiving an MBA from Insead in France, he worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co in the Netherlands. Kloppers joined Billiton Group in 1993 as a core member of the team that created the Group's aluminum business, assuming a variety of operating and functional positions including General Manager, Hillside Aluminum, and Chief Operating Officer, Aluminum. Prior to the formation of BHP Billiton, he also acted as Chief Executive Samancor Manganese and Group Executive of Billiton Plc, responsible for its coal and manganese businesses. He played a central role in the merger of BHP and Billiton, as Chief Marketing Officer and then Chief Commercial Officer before being appointed Group President, Non-Ferrous Materials and an executive Director of BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc in January 2006. Kloppers was appointed Group Executive and Chief Executive Non-Ferrous in July 2007 and has been Chief Executive Officer of BHP Billiton since October 2007. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife Carin and their three children, Noni, Reuben and Gabrielle.","highlights":"He began career in petrochemicals and materials research in South Africa .\nWas core member of team that created Billiton's aaluminumbusiness .\nHe has been Chief Executive Officer of BHP Billiton since October 2007 .","id":"7382d171d71d3219c5ad0a13ea0ac92ac6b6998b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- With Sen. Hillary Clinton beside him, Sen. Barack Obama emphasized the challenges women in his family had overcome as he reached out to female voters at a fundraiser Thursday. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appears together during a fundraiser in New York Thursday. The New York event was the third in which the former rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination have appeared together this week. In an attempt to close any remaining rifts with Clinton's backers, Obama has asked his supporters to help Clinton retire her roughly $22 million of campaign debt. Obama and Clinton have appeared together five times since Obama secured the Democratic presidential nomination in June. During the \"Women for Obama\" event, the Illinois senator recounted how his mother, a single mom who put herself through school, once had to \"swallow her pride\" and accept food stamps to feed her family. He also recalled how his grandmother worked her way from secretary to the vice president of a bank. \"But I also saw how she ultimately hit a glass ceiling -- how men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her,\" he said. Obama highlighted the struggles of his wife to balance the responsibilities of her job and parenting -- and admitted that he was somewhat complicit in the situation in which most of the parenting duties fall to his wife. Watch Obama talk about the women who shaped him \u00bb . \"As the son, grandson and husband of hard-working mothers, I don't accept an America that makes women choose between their kids and their careers,\" Obama said. \"We take it for granted that women are the backbone of our families, but we too often ignore the fact that women are also the backbone of our middle class. \"And we won't truly have an economy that puts the needs of the middle class first until we ensure that when it comes to pay and benefits at work, women are treated like equal partners,\" he said, urging a commitment to equal pay for women. He urged \"standing up for paid leave, and paid sick leave, because no one should be punished for getting sick or dealing with a family crisis.\" Later on Thursday, Obama traveled to Fairfax, Virginia, to unveil a plan meant to increase women's economic security. The plan includes a tax credit of up to $1,000 for families, an increase in the minimum wage and tax cuts to help working women pay for child care, among other provisions. Clinton, who introduced Obama, urged her supporters to back the Illinois senator, saying, \"It is critical that we join forces. The Democratic Party is a family -- sometimes dysfunctional.\" Watch Clinton make her case for Obama \u00bb . \"We shared this remarkable journey, and I could not be prouder to have this opportunity in front of so many of my friends and supporters to express my confidence in his candidacy and my commitment to ensuring that he will take the oath of office come next January 2009,\" she said. Obama, in turn, praised Clinton for her historic presidential run, saying, \"While this campaign has shown us how far we have to go, we also know that because of what Hillary accomplished, my daughters and yours look at America and themselves a little differently today.\" Watch why Obama and Clinton are appearing together \u00bb . Despite the public calls for unity, some of Clinton's supporters have been hesitant to fall in behind Obama. With Clinton's debt yet to be paid off, some of her supporters are balking at the idea of donating to Obama -- especially if he does not choose her to be his running mate. \"I certainly know there are lots of people who are withholding their money,\" said Lynn Forester de Rothschild, one of Clinton's \"Hill-raisers\" who raised over $100,000 for the former first lady. Watch why some Clinton backers are balking \u00bb . \"This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like him. I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him,\" Rothschild said. That sentiment may be sending some Clinton fans into Sen. John McCain's court. According to a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released last week, the number of Clinton supporters who say they plan to defect to the Republican presidential nominee's camp is down from a month ago -- but numbers of those who say they plan to vote for Obama are also down. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, spent two days in New York this week with disaffected Clinton supporters. \"It's not unexpected that they wouldn't just automatically shift over to Obama, because they're not the typical Democratic supporters that just automatically shift over,\" she said. \"They need to be wooed. They need to be won over.\"","highlights":"Democratic nominee pledges to make it easier to balance work and family .\nObama urges equal pay, help with child and health care, paid sick leave .\nSen. Clinton joins Sen. Obama at \"Women for Obama\" fundraiser .\nMany Clinton supporters still are not ready to back Obama .","id":"ef1a5fa8dbba16e4d7ef3fc8cd540c2f55691fc8"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday discussed a \"general time horizon\" for any American troop withdrawals from Iraq, al-Maliki's office said. Sen. Barack Obama rides in a helicopter Monday with Gen. David Petraeus in Baghdad, Iraq. Obama -- who has made ending the Iraq war a cornerstone of his run for office -- engaged in what were described as productive talks with al-Maliki during a trip to Iraq. The Iraqi government has been pushing for the United States to set a general timetable to spell out troop withdrawals. Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi also met with Obama Monday and told reporters afterward they discussed the security agreement. \"I told Sen. Obama (that) Iraqi and American negotiations regarding this are ongoing, and today new Iraqi-American negotiations on this agreement have started with Iraqi written proposals and have a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq,\" he said. The Bush administration has opposed timetables for troop withdrawals. But al-Maliki and President Bush last week agreed to a \"general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals\" on troop cuts. The prime minister reiterated that principle with Obama, according to a statement from al-Maliki's office. \"Developments of the situation and the circumstances is what will decide the presence of foreign troops in Iraq, but without keeping open-ended dates,\" al-Maliki said, according to a statement from his office. \"With the developments on the ground, we can set a vision and clear horizons regarding this issue, and this is a view both sides agree on in the ongoing negotiations.\" Al-Maliki's office quoted Obama as saying he is \"supportive and committed to preserving the gains achieved by the Iraqi government\" under al-Maliki's leadership and that he admires the prime minister's courage. Obama has proposed withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi government's \"vision\" is that most U.S. combat troops would be out of Iraq by 2010. Asked if that stance is part of the current negotiations, al-Dabbagh said, \"No. This is the Iraqi vision.\" iReport.com: Tell us the most important thing the next president needs to know about Iraq . A German magazine on Saturday quoted al-Maliki as saying he backed Obama's proposal, but al-Dabbagh has said that his remarks \"were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.\" In a statement Sunday, the magazine, Der Spiegel, said it \"stands by its version of this interview.\" In the magazine interview, al-Maliki did not indicate that he was endorsing Obama over Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. McCain does not think American troops should return to the United States until Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining a safe, democratic state. He has been a strong advocate of the \"surge\" -- the 2007 escalation of U.S. troops -- and has said troops should stay in Iraq as long as needed. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- who's been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for McCain -- on Monday criticized Obama's push to remove troops in 16 months as an \"arbitrary timetable based on politics versus a plan based on the actual results on the ground.\" \"One of the reasons I'm supporting [McCain] -- he has made it clear he would rather lose an election than lose a war. He's made it very clear -- let's listen to the commanders on the ground,\" Jindal said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" McCain last week chided Obama for laying out his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before talking to Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. troops in Iraq. Obama met with Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, in Baghdad on Monday. He also met with Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab who is one of Iraq's two vice presidents; Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq; British Maj. Gen. Barney White Spunner, commander of Multi-National Division South East; and Maj. General Abdul Aziz, the Iraqi army's 14th Division commander. Obama's stop in Iraq marks his second visit to the country. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's trip abroad began in Kuwait and Afghanistan and will go on to Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Germany, France and Britain. The senator from Illinois first visited Iraq in 2006. See the stops on Obama's trip \u00bb . Obama arrived Monday afternoon in the southern city of Basra, according to U.S. Embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello. Obama is traveling with Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and is an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. Obama has said that if he's elected, he would commit more troops to Afghanistan and would order the military to end the war in Iraq, which he has called a \"dangerous distraction\" from the Afghan battle. Obama spent Saturday and Sunday in Afghanistan, where he met with U.S. troops at three bases and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- a leader the Democratic senator has criticized for doing too little to rebuild the war-torn nation. Watch Obama meet Karzai, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan \u00bb . The fight in Afghanistan recently has become a more pressing issue on the political radar. More coalition forces have died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May, June and so far in July. Last week, in a major address laying out his foreign policy position, Obama said, \"As should have been apparent to President Bush and Sen. McCain, the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was.\" He said part of his strategy would be \"taking the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.\" CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Frederik Pleitgen and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Barack Obama, Iraqi prime minister reportedly hold \"productive\" talks .\nSens. Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel accompany Obama on trip .\nObama has talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday .\nObama says part of his strategy is \"taking the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan\"","id":"1ba0f66a7f4f23171634a3455893f4d5b8b94db4"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Lawmakers in Nepal will vote Saturday to pick the country's first president since it became a republic. Nepal became a republic after the deposal of King Gyanendra Shah earlier this year. The country's newly elected Constituent Assembly abolished a 239-year monarchy following elections in April. But with no one party winning a majority of the seats, it is unclear who may become president. The position is largely ceremonial. But a president will swear in whoever is picked as the new prime minister. The three main political parties continued to negotiate over whom to name president. The Nepali Congress wants outgoing prime minister and party president Girija Prasad Koirala for the position. The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) wants its leader. But the Maoists -- which won the largest number of seats but fell short of a majority -- do not favor either of the two men. They want a non-political figure as president. Journalist Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lawmakers in Nepal to to pick the country's first president since it became a republic .\nUnclear who may become president as no party had a majority in recent elections .\nMaoists, who won most seats, want a non-political figure as president .","id":"3131e8ba238a31d83cad00bc7b02933b0a3587b3"} -{"article":"TOYAKO, Japan (CNN) -- President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott \"would be an affront to the Chinese people.\" President Bush speaks with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda at a Sunday news conference in Toyako, Japan. Speaking to reporters ahead of this week's summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan, Bush said he did not need to skip the ceremony to show his position on religious freedom and human rights in China. He said if he failed to attend the Games it would \"make it more difficult to be able to speak more frankly with the Chinese leadership.\" Bush said he would raise concerns when he meets Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Olympics, but he was also \"looking forward to cheering the U.S. athletes.\" He said it was good for them \"to see their president waving that flag.\" Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda also said he would attend the opening ceremony despite concerns about human rights in China that prompted some other European leaders to boycott the event. Bush and Fukuda took questions from reporters at the picturesque lakeside resort of Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido, where the G-8 summit will begin Monday. Watch Bush, first lady arrive in Japan \u00bb . Bush said he and Fukuda discussed the United States' recent decision to lift some sanctions against North Korea and remove the communist nation from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terror. Bush assured Japan that the issue of North Korea's past kidnappings of Japanese citizens will not be ignored by the United States. He told Fukuda that he was \"fully aware of the sensitivity of the issue in your country\" and that \"the United States will not abandon you on this issue.\" North Korea has admitted to abducting 11 Japanese citizens -- to teach its spies Japanese language and culture -- but had insisted the abduction issue was resolved. Holding a book about a young Japanese girl abducted by North Korea, Bush said as the father of two girls he \"can't imagine what it would be like to have a daughter disappear.\" Bush said North Korea's recent destruction of a water-cooling tower at its now-defunct nuclear facility and its declaration outlining its plutonium program are positive steps, but there are \"more to be taken.\" Lifting sanctions would not weaken the pressure on North Korea to be forthcoming on the abduction issue or in nuclear negotiations, the U.S. president said. Bush said North Korea remains the most sanctioned nation in the world and that \"delisting did not get rid of their sanctions.\" Fukuda, who is chairing the G-8 meetings, said global warming would be high on the agenda but that he could not predict what might result from this week's talks. Fukuda said he believes the United States \"has not lost its sense of direction\" on the issue. \"Our views are gradually converging,\" he said. Bush said the United States \"will be constructive\" in the global warming talks \"but if China and India do not share that same aspiration, we're not going to solve the problem.\" Bush said the United States and Japan leads the world in research on clean technologies. He said Japan's advances in battery technology will some day mean that Americans \"will use batteries in cars that look like cars, not golf carts.\" As world leaders began arriving for the summit, more than 1,000 people protested in northern Japan against the event. Demonstrators urged leaders to take urgent measures to stop global warming, grant indigenous people greater rights, combat world poverty and battle discrimination. Watch police tangle with protesters \u00bb . Soaring oil and food prices and possible steps against Zimbabwe were also likely to be high on the agenda at the summit. With fewer than 200 days left in his term, Bush says he will press other G-8 leaders to follow through on their commitments from earlier summits, but has warned there is nothing he or anyone else can do in the short term about oil prices. Bush's main economic goal at the summit may be defensive, said David Gergen, former adviser to presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. \"What's essential in this summit for George W. Bush is to make sure the world economy does not spin downward,\" he said. Bush has downplayed what he and other G-8 leaders can accomplish on the economic front. \"One thing we need to make clear when I'm with our partners is that we're not going to become protectionists, that we believe in free trade and open markets,\" Bush said Wednesday. A former administration official who served on the National Security Council under Bush says the G-8's purpose is not to come up with quick solutions. \"This is not a meeting of heads of state that leads to a treaty. It's really kind of public opinion shaping and trying to get people to agree that issues are important,\" said Michael Green, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.","highlights":"Bush defends decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony .\nBush spoke as G-8 leaders arrived in Japan ahead of summit starting Monday .\nClimate change expected to be focus of three-day summit .\nG-8 leaders also expected to discuss global economy, Zimbabwe .","id":"112bc4ab4b6e7d6dd35fc33cd946fbfc4c9356d6"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Old cars don't die, they just get resold. Check out a vehicle history report to make sure your new used car won't blow smoke down the highway. If you're buying a used car, whether from a dealer or someone who put an ad in the paper, you'll want to know as much about it as you can. Even without anyone trying to deceive you, the vehicle may have problems you can't see from a simple visual inspection or even a short test drive. A vehicle history report prepared by a third party is one way to know what you're getting. Combining information from state DMVs (Departments of Motor Vehicles) and RMVs (Registry of Motor Vehicles) as well as police reports and other sources, a vehicle history report can give you a comprehensive overview of where the car's been. Here are some things to look for -- or look out for -- when you get a report on a vehicle. None of these things is necessarily a reason not to buy a car, but you shouldn't make a decision without asking about anything you see on a vehicle history: . Many owners . The more garages a car's been in, the less likely it's been lovingly cared for all its life. Not everyone is as responsible about car care as you are. Rental cars and former taxis, for example, will often have undergone a lot of abuse, although they tend to be quite inexpensive. Location, location, location . Some parts of the country are more car-friendly than others. Winter storms (with their accompanying salted roads) can be rough on cars, as obviously can floods, excessive heat or even sea air. Cars that have been where these are common may have hidden damage. Name and description . Be sure the car in the report is the same as the car you're looking at. Carefully reviewing the vehicle description is one way to avoid various types of vehicle fraud, like VIN cloning. A cloned vehicle involves using a vehicle identification number (VIN) from a legally owned, non-stolen vehicle to mask the identity of a similar make\/model stolen vehicle. Reports, should include detailed descriptions of the vehicle, so you can make sure the car you're reading about is the same as the one you're looking at. Suspicious markings . Keep an eye out for records of body work that might indicate a prior unreported incident. Vehicle history reports, like those from CARFAX, can be very comprehensive. In the case of CARFAX, the company's database contains more than five billion records from thousands of public and private sources, including all DMVs in the United States and Canada and thousands of vehicle inspection stations, auto auctions, fleet management and rental agencies, automobile manufacturers, and fire and police departments.","highlights":"If a car has a lot of previous owners, it's more likely to be not-well cared for .\nA car from the north would be more affected by damaging winter storms .\nVIN cloning is a type of fraud where stolen cars use fake legitimate numbers .\nBody work could indicate an unreported accident .","id":"3b1d3309825780556178569cd40d880a793f8da7"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- President George W. Bush called India's prime minister Thursday to push a proposed nuclear partnership that sparked an unsuccessful no-confidence vote against the Indian leader this week, a White House spokesman said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a confidence vote despite opposition to the nuclear deal. \"Both leaders expressed their desire to see the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible,\" Gordon Johndroe said. The phone call took place two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh narrowly survived the no-confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament. The vote was sparked by concerns from the opposition that India was kowtowing to the U.S. The tentative deal was announced in 2006 and signed by Bush and Singh a year ago. Under the agreement, which will need to be approved by the U.S. Congress, India would have access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology for its civilian nuclear power plants. That would happen even though New Delhi, which tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998, has declined to join international non-proliferation agreements. In return, India has promised that it would not transfer the fuel and equipment to its weapons program, and it would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect at least 14 of its 22 nuclear plants. The plan would also expand U.S.-Indian cooperation in energy and satellite technology. The plan was approved by India's Cabinet last year, and does not have to be ratified by the parliament. The leaders of India's two communist parties -- which hold about 60 seats in Parliament -- have accused Singh of surrendering India's sovereignty to the United States with the deal. A no-confidence vote would have forced Singh to resign, and required the government to hold early elections unless a new coalition could have been formed. The Congress Party-led coalition has governed India since 2004. Tuesday's 275-256 vote was so crucial to the survival of Singh's government that five members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to cast votes -- under the watchful eyes of their jailers. Shortly after Singh survived the vote, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino praised the deal as \"a good one for everybody.\" \"It's good for India because it would help provide them a source for energy that they need, one that is nonpolluting and one that doesn't emit greenhouse gas emissions,\" she said. \"And we think that we can move forward with this. If their legislature lets it move forward, then we can do the same here and then we'll be able to get this wrapped up.\"","highlights":"President Bush calls India's PM to push a proposed nuclear partnership .\nIndian government won confidence vote in face of anger over U.S. nuclear deal .\nFive members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to vote .","id":"c977693b405a89cec98e53b05199e608fd6adeca"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Twenty-nine people convicted of various crimes, ranging from murder to being a public nuisance while drunk, were hanged in Iran, state TV said. A convicted Iranian drug dealer is hanged from a crane in the southern city of Shiraz in September. Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported earlier that 30 people would be put to death. It was not immediately clear if the last person's life was spared. The Iranian judiciary's statement said that all 30 were convicted of various crimes, which included: murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships -- relationships between men and women who are not married to each other. Kidnapping and using weapons while committing a crime were also among the charges. The statement also said that 20 of the convicts were convicted of drug and alcohol dealing, armed robbery and smuggling arms. The judiciary statement said that the convicts had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them. The verdicts were final with their sentences carried out on Sunday. The judiciary said the hangings should serve as a warning to those who are contemplating committing such crimes, the agency reported. The statement also said that several other individuals are currently awaiting trial and their sentences will be carried out as soon as the verdicts are pronounced by the courts. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. Iran's government launched a campaign March 20 to increase public security and bring the crime rate down. Police cracked down on alleged drug dealers, whom they called criminal gang members, and alleged habitual criminals who use guns in the commission of their crime. Alleged weapons smugglers and people who break social and religious laws, including adulterers, were also targets. National television showed scenes of what were described as criminals being paraded publicly in chains as a deterrent to others. The wave of arrests has now subsided, as officials are now prosecuting the alleged criminals and sentencing those convicted. Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Twenty-nine convicts were hanged, according to Iranian state TV .\nConvicts were found guilty of murder, rape, armed robbery and other charges .\nJudiciary said hangings should serve as warning to those contemplating crimes .","id":"c84e272a80fa95f863e016bc54df0841fd83fc12"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. government Thursday announced its highest penalty for coal mine safety violations, $1.85 million, for a collapse that killed six miners in Utah last year. Supervisory Mining Engineer Joe Zelanko on Thursday describes the earth movements at Crandall Canyon mine. Insufficient pillar support and activity in areas that should not have been mined caused the August Crandall Canyon mine collapse, federal investigators found. The government fined the mine operator, Genwal Resources, $1.34 million \"for violations that directly contributed to the deaths of six miners last year,\" plus nearly $300,000 for other violations. The government also levied a $220,000 fine against a mining consultant, Agapito Associates, \"for faulty analysis of the mine's design.\" The mine's owner had insisted that earth movement detected at the time of the collapse had caused the disaster. But investigators found instead that the collapse caused the earth movement. \"It was not -- and I repeat, it was not -- a natural occurring earthquake,\" said the government's top mine safety official, Richard E. Stickler. Stickler, the acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said, \"pillars failed under excessive load and ejected coal very violently.\" Stickler also said the mine's operator \"was taking more coal than allowed from the barrier pillars and the floor.\" \"This dangerously weakened the strength of the roof support,\" Stickler said. In addition to the six miners killed in the initial cave-in August 6 in northwest Emery County, three would-be rescuers died 10 days later in a subsequent collapse. The bodies of the six miners killed in the initial collapse were never recovered. Richard Gates, the lead investigator for the government, said the pillars in the mine \"simply were not large enough to support the load.\" That resulted in a \"catastrophic failure of pillars over a broad area,\" as large as half a mile, he said. University of Utah scientists said in June that the collapse was not the result of an earthquake. \"As seismologists, we're as certain as we can be that the seismic event registered as a magnitude-3.9 shock was due to the collapse of the mine and not a naturally occurring earthquake,\" said Walter Arabasz, director of the university's Utah Seismograph Stations, in a written statement. Earlier this year, a Labor Department report criticized Mine Safety and Health Administration officials for approving plans for a risky mining technique, known as retreat mining, that was in use before the collapse. In the process, miners remove pillars of coal that support the roof of a chamber one by one, allowing the roof to collapse behind them. Mine owner Bob Murray repeatedly denied in the days after the disaster that his company practiced retreat mining at Crandall Canyon. He later admitted that the practice had been used at the mine but said it was not being done at the time of the disaster.","highlights":"Feds: Violations by Utah mine's operator led to 2007 collapse that killed six .\nBad design, improper mining led to Crandall Canyon collapse, feds say .\nMine operator fined more than $1.5 million .","id":"f51cff1d73cd0f3954376d7b3eab1d5b2ccb354c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian newspapers, an archbishop and civil liberties campaigners expressed shock and revulsion on Monday after photographs were published of sunbathers apparently enjoying a day at the beach just meters from where the bodies of two drowned Roma girls were laid out on the sand. Photographs of the dead Roma girls on a beach caused outrage in Italy. Italian news agency ANSA reported that the incident had occurred on Saturday at the beach of Torregaveta, west of Naples, southern Italy, where the two girls had earlier been swimming in the sea with two other Roma girls. Reports said they had gone to the beach to beg and sell trinkets. Local news reports said the four girls found themselves in trouble amid fierce waves and strong currents. Emergency services responded 10 minutes after a distress call was made from the beach and two lifeguards attended the girls upon hearing their screams. Two of them were pulled to safety but rescuers failed to reach the other two in time to save them. Watch why the photos have generated anger \u00bb . The Web site of the Archbishop of Naples said the girls were cousins named Violetta and Cristina, aged 12 and 13. Their bodies were eventually laid out on the sand under beach towels to await collection by police. Photographs show sunbathers in bikinis and swimming trunks sitting close to where the girls' feet can be seen poking out from under the towels concealing their bodies. A photographer who took photos at the scene told CNN the mood among sunbathers had been one of indifference. Other photos show police officers lifting the bodies into coffins and carrying them away past bathers reclined on sun loungers. \"While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away,\" Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported. Corriere della Sera said that a crowd of curious onlookers that had formed around the bodies quickly dispersed. \"Few left the beach or abandoned their sunbathing. When the police from the mortuary arrived an hour later with coffins, the two girls were carried away between bathers stretched out in the sun.\" The incident also attracted condemnation from the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crecenzio Seppe. \"Indifference is not an emotion for human beings,\" Seppe wrote in his parish blog. \"To turn the other way or to mind your own business can sometimes be more devastating than the events that occur.\" Recent weeks have seen heightened tensions between Italian authorities and the country's Roma minority amid a crackdown by Silvo Berlusconi's government targeting illegal immigrants and talk by government officials of a \"Roma emergency\" that has seen the 150,000-strong migrant group blamed for rising street crime. That has provided justification for police raids on Roma camps and controversial government plans to fingerprint all Roma -- an act condemned by the European Parliament and United Nations officials as a clear act of racial discrimination. Popular resentment against Romanies has also seen Roma camps near Naples attacked and set on fire with petrol bombs by local residents. In a statement published on its Web site, the Italian civil liberties group EveryOne said Saturday's drowning had occurred in an atmosphere of \"racism and horror\" and cast doubt on the reported version of events, suggesting that it appeared unusual for the four girls to wade into the sea, apparently casting modesty aside and despite being unable to swim. \"The most shocking aspect of all this is the attitude of the people on the beach,\" the statement said. \"No one appears the slightest upset at the sight and presence of the children's dead bodies on the beach: they carry on swimming, sunbathing, sipping soft drinks and chatting.\" CNN's Jennifer Eccleston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Italian outrage over photos of sunbathers at a beach where two Roma girls drowned .\nPhotos showed girls' bodies lying on sand covered in beach towels .\nNewspapers report beach goers eating lunch, sun bathing as bodies carried away .\nIncident occurred amid heightened tensions between authorities, Roma minority .","id":"a98f1a0258f641788e570264b79e5c816f80054f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congress voted to halt planned cuts in Medicare payments to doctors Tuesday, overriding President Bush's veto in a battle that pitted health insurers against physicians. President Bush says he objects to the bill because it takes choices \"away from seniors to pay physicians.\" The new law stops a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, part of a scheduled cost-saving formula that went into effect July 1. The money for the doctors will be taken from the government-subsidized Medicare Advantage program, which the Bush administration strongly supports. Bush spiked the bill Tuesday, telling lawmakers they would be \"taking choices away from seniors to pay physicians.\" \"I urge the Congress to send me a bill that reduces the growth in Medicare spending, increases competition and efficiency, implements principles of value-driven health care and appropriately offsets increases in physician spending,\" he said in his veto message. The Senate voted 70-26 to enact the law over Bush's objections, the third time in his presidency that Congress has overridden his veto. The margin in the House of Representatives was a lopsided 383-41, well beyond the two-thirds majority needed. The American Medical Association lobbied heavily for the bill, warning that its members could be forced to curtail seeing Medicare patients if the cuts went into effect. But insurers, which receive government subsidies to offer Medicare Advantage plans, warned that 2 million seniors could lose health benefits if it passed. A total of 21 Senate Republicans joined 47 Democrats and two independents in the override vote. Supporters broke a GOP-led filibuster of the bill last week, aided by the dramatic return of Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy's vote came in his first appearance on the Senate floor since surgery to remove a brain tumor in early June. Though he did not vote Tuesday, Kennedy praised his colleagues for overriding the \"misguided\" veto. \"It's a great vote, and a great day for America's seniors,\" he said in a written statement. Those Republicans who opposed the bill argued that it would roll back many of the changes made to Medicare in 2003, when Congress created privately run, government-subsidized prescription drug coverage and expanded the role of private insurers in other coverage. \"These are not pro-patient policies,\" said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona. \"Rather, the bill reduces access, benefits and choices for Medicare beneficiaries.\" But critics of the 2003 reforms say Medicare Advantage subsidies end up costing more than the government would pay to cover the same people through regular Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will reduce federal spending by $12.5 billion by 2013, largely by reducing Medicare Advantage enrollment. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said the bill also made \"vital improvements\" by supporting rural health care and lowering fees for mental health care. \"Today, we can stand up for Medicare,\" she said. \"We did it last week, when we came together and voted for this measure by a veto-proof margin, and I believe we can do it today by overriding that veto.\" Congress had passed only two bills over Bush's objections: a $23 billion water-project legislation that the president vetoed in 2007 and a $300 billion farm bill he spiked in May. The Medicare system pays for the health care of roughly 40 million elderly Americans. Rising health care costs have made Medicare a growing part of the federal budget, and the stress on the system is increasing as more baby boomers reach retirement age. While the debate was raging over the bill, the AMA said the cuts could lead to a \"meltdown\" of the government's health care system for the elderly. A recent survey by the group found that 60 percent of physicians will be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can take on if the cuts go into effect. \"We stand at the brink of a Medicare meltdown. ... For doctors, this is not a partisan issue; it's a patient access issue,\" AMA President Nancy Nielsen said in a statement after last week's Senate vote. The AMA ran radio and TV ads over the July Fourth congressional recess targeting 10 Republican senators, seven of whom are up for re-election. The AARP, the nation's largest organization of retired people, and other groups also are weighing in against the cuts. Gerald Harmon, a family physician who practices in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, said the cuts could lead to doctors taking fewer Medicare patients, making it difficult for the program's elderly patients to get the care they need. \"This Medicare access problem is a real issue, not just a political football,\" said Harmon, who said 35 percent of his patients were eligible for Medicare. \"It affects your dad when he's sick. It affects my patients in my practice. This has to be addressed.\" CNN's Elaine Quijano and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: House votes 383 to 41 to override President Bush's veto .\nNEW: Senate votes 70-26 to enact the law over Bush's objections .\nMedicare payment bill sent to Bush after Senate filibuster battle .\nBill would stop 10.6 percent cut in what Medicare pays doctors .","id":"d69d50059c96bd729e9e4c54eee7901d43c0181d"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Thirty people convicted of drug and other criminal charges will be hanged on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday. A convicted Iranian drug dealer is hanged from a crane in the southern city of Shiraz in September. The 30 had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them, Iran's judiciary said in a statement. The verdicts are final, and the sentences will be carried out Sunday, according to Fars. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. The U.S. executed 42 people in 2007, according to Amnesty International. The Iranian judiciary's statement said that all 30 were convicted of crimes including murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships -- relationships between men and women who are not married to each other. Kidnapping and using weapons while committing a crime were among the charges. The statement said that 20 of the people were convicted of drug and alcohol dealing, armed robbery and smuggling arms. The judiciary said it will provide more details later as to the crimes committed by those condemned and added that the hangings should serve as a warning to those who are contemplating committing such crimes. Others are awaiting trial, and their sentences will be carried out as soon as the verdicts are pronounced by the courts, the judiciary said. The judiciary asked the public to notify the authorities if they have any information that might lead to arrest and convictions of criminals. Iran's government launched a campaign March 20 to increase public security and bring the crime rate down. Police cracked down on drug dealers, whom they called criminal gang members, and habitual criminals who use guns in the commission of their crime. Alleged weapons smugglers and people who break social and religious laws, including adulterers, were also targets. National television showed scenes of what were described as criminals being paraded in chains as a deterrent to others. The wave of arrests has subsided, as officials are now prosecuting the suspects and sentencing those convicted. Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"The condemned include people convicted of drug and alcohol offenses .\nIran executed 317 people in 2007, compared with 42 executions in U.S.\nIran's government announced a crackdown on crime in March .","id":"379692c378381f092c0bae0516ea8abc5bdb98b8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate voted Wednesday to move forward on a bill meant to crack down on oil speculators. Democrats say speculation in oil futures is a significant reason why oil prices have risen this year. But Republicans vowed to block the Senate from taking up any other measure until the Democratic leadership agrees to vote on other energy-related issues. Republicans want to offer up to 28 amendments to the bill on a wide range of energy topics, including increasing domestic oil production. The Democrats want to limit them to two amendments. \"This is not some arcane subject; this is the biggest issue in the country,\" said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. \"It's on the floor now. We say, let's deal with it. We're not afraid to vote on their amendments, they shouldn't be afraid to vote on ours. Let the Senate work its will on the No. 1 issue in the country.\" The Republicans said they would not prevent the Senate from taking up the housing bill passed earlier in the day by the House, although a final vote on that bill is not expected before the end of the week. Democrats oppose Republican measures to lift bans on offshore drilling and oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. See how gas prices have risen across the country \u00bb . Republicans say the process would not be fair unless they can offer all of their amendments. Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, accused the Republicans of wanting to score political points rather than pass legislation. \"The problem with our Republican colleagues is that they want to debate, not act. ... Even when they are offered what they want, they say no.\" Menendez suggested there was bipartisan support for measures meant to limit speculation, encourage conservation and provide tax credits for renewable energy. \"Why would you not move forward on the items that you have consensus?\" he asked. The disagreement between Republicans and Democrats could result in Congress leaving Washington for its monthlong recess in August without passing any measures to lower gas prices, which are averaging above $4 a gallon at the pump. Experts have said lifting bans on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore would not affect the oil market for several years, but Republicans have argued that the psychological effect of opening more areas for oil exploration would bring prices down. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, one of the main sponsors of the bill, pleaded for Republicans to help \"wring excessive speculation\" from the oil markets. He says speculation is responsible for 71 percent of the increase in a price of a barrel of oil this year. Some analysts say speculation has added between $40 to $60 dollars to a barrel of oil. But other experts have questioned the extent to which speculators -- rather than basic market principles of supply and demand -- have driven up the price of oil. Wednesday morning, a barrel of light, sweet crude was priced around $128 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from the $147 a barrel record set July 11 and the lowest price since June 5. Dorgan said ending speculation in the oil market would be a sensible first step toward lowering gas prices that both sides of the aisle could agree to. Republicans \"have come up with a hundred excuses why they don't want to do that,\" he said. But Republicans say they want the opportunity to offer \"real\" solutions that will lower energy prices, which includes more drilling to expand domestic production. See what factors are driving up the price of oil \u00bb . \"The Republicans know that American people want us to do something real, something big, something important about the price of gasoline,\" said Sen. Pete Dominici, R-New Mexico. \"And the only thing that we can do that is important is to release large quantities of crude oil and natural gas that are owned by American people and that have been locked up for 27 years in moratoria.\" Dorgan, however, said the Republicans are trying to suggest Democrats are against additional domestic oil production, noting that there are millions of acres of federally controlled land and off-shore drilling sites that are open to exploration but have not been used by oil companies. \"It's a false choice that the minority side says we should drill and that the majority side doesn't,\" Dorgan said. The bill in the Senate would provide more resources and authority to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to detect and punish speculation. It would help stop speculators from using foreign markets to manipulate the price of oil in the United States, require more transparency in oil markets and limit the trading of market players who do not intend to receive the oil they purchase. CNN's Ted Barrett, Debra Krajnak and Scott Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill would allow regulators to crack down on speculation in oil markets .\nGOP wants to add 28 amendments to bill; Democrats want to allow two .\nRepublicans say Americans want \"real\" answers, which includes more drilling .","id":"88b0d86cd06cd05a090f6a6c3a3ed17bf5f96df3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 19-year-old girl whose hospitalization exposed a shocking Austrian incest case has woken from her coma, a development that could shed new light on what occurred in the basement were she was held captive for decades. Fritzl initially confessed to raping his daughter and having seven children with her. Doctors placed Kerstin Fritzl in an artificial coma in April after she emerged for the first time from the cellar where she was held captive from birth by her father Josef. Kerstin, along with six other children, was born from Josef Fritzl's incestuous relationship with his daughter Elisabeth, now 43, whom he raped repeatedly during the 24 years she was imprisoned beneath his home. Police say Fritzl, 73, has confessed to holding his Elisabeth captive and fathering seven children, six of whom survived. Kerstin was admitted to hospital in Amstetten, west of Vienna, in an unconscious state after Elisabeth persuaded Fritzl that she needed medical attention. Suspicious medics alerted police, who opened an investigation. Detectives began investigating the case after hospital officials started inquiring about the girl's family history. Kerstin and two of her brothers, aged 18 and 5, had spent their entire lives trapped in the cellar with their mother, never seeing daylight, a television their only contact with the outside world. Another three children Fritzl fathered with Elisabeth were taken to live above ground with Fritzl and his wife, who says she had no idea that her daughter was being held captive. A seventh child died shortly after birth. Elisabeth and her children have been treated at a secure medical unit since their release. Officials at hospital in Amstetten, Austria, did not release any more information about Kerstin Fritzl's condition. A news conference on the case is scheduled for Wednesday.","highlights":"Daughter of Austrian incest victim wakes from induced coma .\nKerstin Fritzl, 19, spent her entire life in cellar .\nThe dungeon was uncovered after she was taken to hospital with illness .","id":"3b46e80db81819fdcb8b8044941f64d0fa5abd11"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi representatives will meet with the International Olympic Committee on Monday to try to reach an agreement that would allow now-banned Iraq to participate in next month's games, an official said Friday. Iraq fans cheer during an Olympic qualifying soccer match against Australia in November. Jassim M. Jaffer, Iraq's minister of youth and sports, told CNN he is \"optimistic that we will participate.\" Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh and the ministry's adviser, Basil Abdul Mahdi, are on their way to Lausanne, Switzerland, to meet with IOC officials, Jaffer said. The IOC barred Iraq from participating in the Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China, citing what it said was government interference with Iraq's Olympic movement. The IOC's charter does not allow political interference. The ban stems from the Iraqi government decision in May to suspend the country's existing Olympic committee and form a new entity. Watch an official explain the decision \u00bb . But even as government representatives traveled to Switzerland, Jaffer said Iraq was considering legal action against the IOC. \"We will revert to international courts with a complaint against the IOC ... to get Iraq's rights and the rights of the athletes,\" Jaffer said. On Friday, another Iraqi government official said the country was doing what it could to reverse the ban, but acknowledged that \"chances are slim\" for a change. Basam Ridha al-Husseini, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told CNN the government has been in \"heavy negotiations\" with IOC officials through the Asian Olympic Committee. \"The Iraqi government will not give up on our participation, which is still needed by our people,\" he said in a phone interview from Dubai. \"We are doing our best to stop the ban. ... The chances of that are slim, but we will persevere and hope it will happen.\" Repeated attempts by CNN to reach the IOC press office in Switzerland for comment were unsuccessful. But on Thursday, IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said the IOC in June suspended Iraq's national Olympic committee after the government removed elected officials and put in people not recognized by the IOC. She said the IOC had proposed to the Iraqi government that officials come to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, \"to discuss possible solutions.\" \"We're extremely disappointed with the situation,\" Moreau said. \"The athletes have been ill-served by the government in Iraq.\" Iraq missed a Wednesday deadline for the entry of athletes to compete in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting, Moreau said. She said there is a chance that track and field athletes could compete if the original committee is reinstated. The deadline for the track team to register is at the end of the month. Jaffer, Iraq's sports minister, told CNN on Friday that the IOC's decision was \"unjust\" because it did not take into consideration the Iraqi government's reasons for the May suspension. The minister called on the IOC to come to Iraq and talk to the sports federation to investigate the political interference accusations, and then act accordingly. \"Looking at this from far away, without going into the details, not reading the Iraqi government's reports, not hearing Iraq's side of the story and accusing Iraq of many things is really unfortunate,\" he said. Several Iraqi athletes were to travel to China for the games' start in August. Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussain cried for hours after hearing the news of the ban on Thursday, which arrived in the form of a letter to Iraqi officials. \"She hasn't stopped. It's like finding out that a close relative has died,\" said her coach, Yousif Abdul Rahman. Abdul Rahman attempted to console Hussain by assuring her that she could compete in the 2012 Olympics. Watch Hussain react to the news \u00bb . \"In this horrible situation,\" she said, \"who can say I'll even be alive in 2012?\" Al-Husseini said Iraq had the right as a sovereign nation to suspend the Olympic committee, which he accused of documented corruption. It was not clear where the committee's funds were going and they \"could be ending up in the hands of terrorists,\" he said. \"We are satisfied with the decision ... stand by it and we are not going to change an order by [Prime Minister] al-Maliki and the Cabinet. ... Never,\" he said. He was asked whether Iraq would consider doing what Yugoslavia did in the 1992 Winter Olympics when it was banned -- sending individual athletes and not raising the national flag. Al-Husseini said that would be an option, but al-Maliki rejected it. Al-Husseini said that Iraq had been banned from taking part in the 1990 Olympics during the Saddam Hussein-era because of the invasion of Kuwait. The 1990 ban, enacted by the Olympic Council of Asia, actually was a ban on participation in the Asian Games, a regional Olympics-related event. Iraq participated in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the first Games held after the Kuwait invasion. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Morgan Neill contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqi officials head to Switzerland to make case to International Olympic Committee .\nIOC said Thursday Iraq was banned from summer games, which start next month .\nIOC charged political interference, cited Iraq's suspension of its Olympic committee .\nIraqi official says he's \"optimistic\" Iraq will be allowed to take part in games .","id":"786d56f09dae2902696b680395353986051a1139"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two teenage girls from Great Britain will fly home Thursday after spending a year behind bars in Ghana for drug-smuggling, the British High Commission in the west African country said. The girls were stopped by customs officials at Accra trying to smuggle drugs back to Britain. Ghanaian police arrested the teenagers, identified as Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, in July 2007 as they prepared to board a British Airways flight to London. When officials searched their laptop bags as part of departure formalities, they found about 13 lbs (6 kg) of cocaine. The girls, now 17, were 16 at the time of their arrest. They faced a maximum sentence of three years. UK media have named the girls as Yatunde Diya and Yasemin Vatansever of north London. In January, a juvenile court in Ghana sentenced the pair to nine months in jail for trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country. At the time, a British Foreign Office spokesman said the teens would not have to serve the full sentence because they had already spent more than six months in custody. But soon afterward, Ghanaian authorities changed their minds. The girls were housed in a correctional home for girls in the country's capital, Accra. Fair Trials International, a UK-based group that provided legal assistance to the pair, called the girls \"pawns in a larger operation.\" Authorities in Ghana had said a man paid the girls \u00a36,000 (about $11,700) to fly to Ghana to retrieve the laptop bags containing the drugs from two of his associates, according to the country's national news agency. Those men have not been caught. \"The girls have served their full sentences, but the men who groomed them and lured them to Ghana remain free to target other vulnerable young women,\" said Catherine Wolthuizen, Fair Trials' chief executive, in a statement this week. Ghana and other West African countries have become a transit point for drugs headed to Europe. The girls were arrested in a joint Britain-Ghana drug detection operation, the UK's customs agency said Wednesday. CNN's Laura Maestro contributed to this report .","highlights":"British teens jailed in Ghana on drugs charges, due to fly home to UK Thursday .\nPair, both 16 at time of arrest last July, sentenced to nine months in prison .\nUK legal aid group says girls had been targeted, were \"pawns in a larger operation\"","id":"bf1a3fd65fdd6e91ccec0663d80fa567eada14df"} -{"article":"PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Cambodia has sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council to call attention to its continuing standoff with Thailand over an ancient border temple on disputed land. Cambodian soldiers stand guard near Preah Vihear temple, close to the Thai border. The country is not asking for U.N. intervention, said Information Minister Kheu Kanharith. Rather, the letter that Cambodia's permanent mission in New York submitted to the chairmen of the Security Council and the General Assembly is meant to draw attention to a crisis that entered its sixth day Sunday. The two countries agreed to meet Monday to defuse tensions -- even as each side continued to amass more troops to the site of the Preah Vihear temple. Both Cambodia and Thailand lay claim to the 11th century temple, which sits atop a cliff on Cambodian soil but has its most accessible entrance on the Thai side. The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962. Thailand claims, however, that the 1.8 square mile (4.6 sq. km) area around it was never fully demarcated. Thailand further says that the dispute arose from the fact that the Cambodian government used a map drawn during the French occupation of Cambodia that places both the temple and the surrounding area in that country's territory. Earlier this month, the United Nations approved Cambodia's application to have the temple listed as a World Heritage Site -- places the U.N. says have outstanding universal value. The decision re-ignited tensions, with some in Thailand fearing it will make it difficult for their country to lay claim to disputed land around the temple. Opposition parties in Thailand used the issue to attack the government, which initially backed the heritage listing. A Thai court overturned the pact, prompting the resignation of Thailand's foreign minister, Noppadon Pattama. He had endorsed the application. Cambodia, meanwhile, is preparing for general elections on July 27. And Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since the mid-1980s, has portrayed the U.N. recognition as a national triumph. The current flare-up began Tuesday, when Cambodian guards briefly detained three Thais who crossed into the area. Once they were let go, the three refused to leave the territory. Cambodia claims Thailand sent troops to retrieve the trio and gradually built up their numbers. Thailand denies the charge, saying its troops are deployed in Thai territory. Each side has asked its troops to withhold fire unless they are fired upon. So far, the only casualty has been a Thai soldier who was injured Tuesday by a landmine -- possibly left over from the time the Khmer Rouge occupied the area. The Khmer Rouge, a radical communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, won power through a guerrilla war. It is remembered for the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Cambodians. -- Journalist Soeum Yin contributed to this report .","highlights":"Cambodia: Letter to Security Council meant to 'draw attention to crisis'\nThe two countries agreed to meet Monday to defuse tensions .\nBoth Cambodia and Thailand lay claim to 11th century Preah Vihear temple .\nThe International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962 .","id":"a0bd3047a6de80e3924843f1961ce28347c6a548"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"The Dark Knight\" opened early Friday to huge crowds and rave reviews. Colorado teen Christina Perez says she painted her face like the Joker as a tribute to Heath Ledger. Much of the praise has gone to Heath Ledger's dark and disturbing portrayal of the Joker. Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose before the movie was finished. iReporter Chelsea Itson, a 23-year-old student, went to the 12:15 a.m. showing in Perrysburg, Ohio, and couldn't sleep afterward. \"It still has me kind of jittery,\" she told CNN. Itson saw the first \"Batman\" movie, but wasn't a big fan of the series, or Heath Ledger, but said her friend wanted to go. iReporter hasn't been to sleep since seeing film \u00bb . \"It was completely different from Jack Nicholson [as the Joker],\" she said. After the movie, she said, the audience was silent. \"I've never left a movie shaking before,\" she said. Christina Perez, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and her friends went to the theater four hours early to make sure they got a good seat. \"There was already a line going along the side of the theater, but we managed to get good seats anyway,\" she said. The 17-year-old says she's more of a Heath Ledger fan than a Batman fan, and she wore Joker make up as a tribute to him. \"I thought he was amazing. I felt really sad that he died while filming this, his role was so amazing,\" she said. Jessica Lang, 15, of Mankato, Minnesota, said she wasn't expecting much from the movie and pretty much went only because her brother and some friends wanted to go. \"It was amazing, there were no words for it, it was so good, it was probably the best movie I've ever seen,\" she said. Jenni Smith went to the 3 a.m. showing in Las Vegas, Nevada, even though she had to be at work that day. She and her friends went straight to bed after work Thursday, then got up at 1 a.m. \"I'm a big comic book fan, and I've been reading comic books since I was 5. And I'm also a big movie fan, and we tend to go to a lot of movie openings.\" Her friend Mario Carrillo also dressed up as the Joker, and she made a custom shirt for the event. \"One of the things I just really love is the energy of the crowd on opening day. I find that people are more willing to laugh out loud and cheer. ... It's worth staying up for,\" the 32-year-old publications manager said. Below is a sampling of iReporters' impressions of \"The Dark Knight.\" Some have been edited for length or clarity: . sanjeeva7 of Alpharetta, Georgia: Believe the hype. The Dark Knight lived up to the hype, especially Heath Ledger's role as The Joker. I really felt he was crazy. One of the best villain portrayals of all time and well deserving of an Oscar nomination. Geno Walker of Charlotte, North Carolina: \"Unless you hate yourself, you should go see this movie immediately. Stop reading this right now and go to the nearest movie theater. It doesn't even matter if the show has already started. Buy a ticket, walk in halfway through, sit down and wait for the next showing to start. See it soon and see it often. You'll love yourself more if you do.\" mrRG: \"A haunting experiment into the human psyche is the only way I can describe the unequivocal depth that Ledger was able to reach with this portrayal of one the most evil characters ever brought to the screen. It was definitely Bale's story, but the late Heath Ledger's movie. sonnyjc9: Wife and I watched this yesterday 17 July here in Bangkok, Thailand. Heath Ledger is AWESOME as the Joker. 154 minutes of pure entertainment, and you will be giggling to yourself from Heath's performance. It is sad to think he will never reprise this role, but what a farewell. Must see. Zandz: We went to the premiere of this movie last night and thought the movie was only good. However, Heath Ledger did an excellent job portraying the the Joker. The way Heath Ledger plays the Joker is different than how Jack Nicholson plays the character. Both have their unique styles -- Nicholson's Joker was more comical, but Ledger's was more dark (while trying to be funny). The makeup artists also did a great job on this Joker's face.","highlights":"iReporters got up early, stayed up late to see \"The Dark Night\"\nChristina Perez got to the theater four hours early .\n\"Best movie I've ever seen,\" Jessica Lang said .\nSend your review: Share photos and videos .","id":"090d322e93af624203dbd5dc83403170071c9e6a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States needs a new law requiring that the president consult with Congress before going to war, a blue-ribbon panel led by two former secretaries of state said Tuesday. James Baker, left, and Warren Christopher led a panel that recommended a new War Powers Act. The current War Powers Resolution is \"ineffective, and it should be repealed and it should be replaced,\" James Baker said in a joint appearance with Warren Christopher, announcing the results of the study they led. The recommendation follows failed efforts by Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the war in Iraq or to put conditions on President Bush's conduct of it. Congress passed a joint resolution to authorize armed force against Iraq in 2002, but some Bush opponents say it should not have been interpreted as a blank check for the United States to invade and occupy the Persian Gulf nation. Baker, who served in George H.W. Bush's administration, and Christopher, who served under President Bill Clinton, said their project was not prompted by any specific war, with Christopher adding that the commission had \"tried very hard not to call balls and strikes on past history here.\" \"We didn't direct this report at any particular conflict,\" Baker added. The existing law, the War Powers Resolution of 1973, has been regarded as unconstitutional by every president since it was passed as a response to the Vietnam War, Baker and Christopher said. It requires presidents to report regularly to Congress about ongoing conflicts, but the provision has been flouted. \"No president has ever made a submission to Congress pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since 1973,\" former Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican member of the committee, said Tuesday. The panel, formally called the National War Powers Commission, said a new law should be created requiring the president to consult with key members of Congress before sending troops into combat expected to last more than a week, or within three days of doing so in the case of operations that need to be kept secret. It should also make clear exactly who the president needed to consult. The panel suggests that the president talk to \"a joint Congressional committee made up of the leaders of the House and the Senate as well as the chairmen and ranking members of key committees.\" The new committee would have a permanent professional staff with access to intelligence information, Baker and Christopher said. Congress, in turn, would have to declare war or vote on a \"resolution of approval\" within 30 days, they said. If a resolution of approval failed, any member of Congress could introduce a \"resolution of disapproval,\" but it was not clear that such an act would stop a war in progress. Christopher was unable to say in the news conference what practical effect congressional disapproval would have. Baker said the commission had been in touch with the presidential campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as well as leaders of Congress. He declined to reveal what they thought of the proposal, but said: \"We haven't gotten a negative reaction.\" Congress has not officially declared war since 1942, when the United States entered formal hostilities with the Axis powers in World War II. But since then, presidents have sent troops into countries including Korea, Vietnam, Grenada and Iraq. The Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces, but gives Congress the power to declare war and approve military budgets. Baker and Christopher's group included both Republicans and Democrats and held seven meetings over 14 months.","highlights":"War Powers Act is \"ineffective\" and should be repealed, blue-ribbon panel says .\nFormer secretaries of state James Baker and Warren Christopher led the study .\nThey say the project was not prompted by any specific war .\nPanel proposes new law requiring president to consult with Congress .","id":"ed5179817cb8f597a760800fcdce2b8e64fd30dc"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Dubai has forgiven the nearly $7 billion Baghdad owes it, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced Sunday. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has promised to appoint an ambassador to Iraq. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan promised to \"put out these debts,\" appoint an ambassador to Baghdad, and \"help Iraq building the holy shrines that were targeted by the terrorists,\" al-Maliki said in a written statement. Al-Maliki and the sheikh met Sunday, the first day of a two-day official visit. Al-Maliki was accompanied by the Iraqi ministers of Interior, Commerce and Industry. \"Our biggest challenge is now the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the economic situation and to provide services to our citizens,\" al-Maliki said. Debt relief is a major issue for Iraq, and the United States has urged other nations to forgive Iraqi debt, most of which is held by Arab states, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said in late May. Also, the UAE Cabinet on Sunday nominated Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shehhi to be the country's ambassador to Iraq. Al-Shehhi, who previously served as the Emirates' ambassador to India, is to travel to Iraq after his nomination is confirmed. An official government source said the UAE intends to reopen its embassy in Baghdad by the end of the year. The United States and other nations have urged Arab countries to post ambassadors to Iraq, reopen embassies and forge closer relationships with Iraq's government. The UAE mission in Iraq hasn't been active since a UAE diplomat was kidnapped and released two years ago. The year before that, two Iraqis working for that mission were killed. No ambassador from an Arab country has been stationed permanently in Iraq since July 2005, when Egypt's ambassador, Dr. Ihab al-Sherif, was abducted from a Baghdad street and slain. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying it had killed al-Sherif because of Egypt's foreign policies and its alliances with the United States and Israel. The UAE's announcement Sunday came a month after its foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, visited Baghdad. During that visit, al-Nahyan extended the official invitation that brought al-Maliki to Dubai. Iraq's government said that al-Nahyan's one-day visit was the first to Iraq by a Gulf Cooperation Council foreign minister since the 2003 U.S-led invasion that toppled the regime of President Saddam Hussein. The Gulf Cooperation Council also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Prior to al-Nahyan's visit, only Syria and Jordan had sent foreign ministers to Iraq in the post-Saddam Hussein era. The Arab League's secretary-general has also visited. War and the Sunni-Shiite rivalry in Iraq and the Muslim world have slowed the Arab world's re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Iraq. Iraq's mixed population is mostly Arab with some Kurds and Turkmens, and mostly Shiite Muslim, with a Sunni Muslim minority. Most Arab countries -- including the UAE -- are Sunni-ruled. Iraq's government is Shiite-dominated and it is forging a close relationship with its neighbor, the non-Arab Shiite nation of Iran -- a development that concerns Arab nations wary of Iran's Islamic Republic government. Al-Maliki's government is seeking to develop close ties to all countries of the region. CNN's Caroline Faraj in Dubai and Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"President of United Arab Emirates agrees to cancel all Iraq's debts to the nation .\nWest has urged nations to forgive billions in Iraqi debt .\nUAE Cabinet nominates Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shehhi to be ambassador to Iraq .","id":"571a8023d0deed8c667dd41fed88290309e56927"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Shada's back aches more and more each day as she literally bears her family's burden. Clothed in a black robe, she strains under her husband's weight. Shada now carries her husband around the house. His legs were blown off in a bombing. Murtada, a 29-year-old taxi driver, was once a proud husband and father. But one morning last October, he kissed his family good-bye and set off to work. Within hours, their world was shattered. A bomb blew off both his legs above the knee. \"I lost consciousness for a bit. I knew I was wounded,\" he says. \"I was under the car. I saw my legs were severed, just flesh and skin. I was holding my legs, bleeding.\" Watch Shada strain to carry her husband \u00bb . Helpless, the daily burden is now on Shada. She carries Murtada when he needs to be moved. She can't even leave the house because of the constant care she provides her husband. \"I want to work, but I can't really because then who will stay with my husband?\" she says. \"Who will take him to the bathroom? My first concern every morning is my husband.\" See the struggles of Iraqi women \u00bb . The attack did to Murtada what roadside bombs, rocket fire, and sniper shootings have done to thousands of Iraqis. Since the war began, the estimates of wounded Iraqis have ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people. Go inside Iraq with CNN's Arwa Damon \u00bb . According to Iraq's Health Ministry, 25 percent of the wounded have lost at least one limb. Murtada is one of these grim stats, and his life is now a nightmare. He has stumps where his legs used to be and hasn't been able to get prosthetics. He moves around by lifting himself with his arms, riding in a wheelchair or being carried by his wife. Life has forced Shada to tap into a physical and emotional strength she did not know she possessed. Their 3-year-old son helps care for his father. One time, Murtada admits his thoughts turned dark. \"I was thinking, 'Is this really going to be my life?' And then I was thinking about my son and how I can't provide for him, and then I began thinking about poisoning myself.\" This small family lives in a small rented house in a Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad. Shada has endured many tough times amid war and conflict. Her brother was shot dead and her father died because of poor health care. Neighbors have helped the family financially, and Shada tries to make ends meet by selling gasoline on the street. But the circumstances have forced the man she relied on to rely on her. \"I look at him like a baby, with the needs of a baby,\" she says. \"Nobody but me can help him. I cannot go to the markets because of him. I am asking people for help because I cannot leave him alone in the house.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iraqi woman devotes herself to caring for injured husband .\nHer husband lost both legs in bombing, has been unable to get prosthetics .\n\"I saw my legs were severed, just flesh and skin,\" he says .\nWife: \"I am asking people for help because I cannot leave him alone in the house\"","id":"544d7c0cba7df38cc8dda8d0d91c6845cf5f52bb"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Senior Pakistani and Indian military officials met Tuesday to discuss a border clash in Kashmir, the first major skirmish between South Asia's nuclear rivals since a 2003 cease-fire. Indian army soldiers on the outskirts of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN that Pakistan \"made our point clear\" regarding the firefight, which he said began after Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control that separates Kashmir between India and Pakistan. But an Indian military spokeswoman, Capt. Neha Goyal, told CNN Pakistani troops crossed the Line of Control and \"started firing on our patrol,\" killing an Indian soldier. \"Our troops also retaliated and the Pakistan army troopers ran back,\" she said. Abbas said \"further action should be taken\" following Tuesday's \"flag meeting,\" but did not elaborate. The meeting took place along the Line of Control. Reports in India's media said four Pakistani soldiers were killed, but Pakistan's military \"strongly denied the report of any (casualties) on the Pakistani side.\" Pakistan's military also denied its forces crossed the Line of Control, saying the skirmish started when Indian soldiers tried to establish a forward post on Pakistan's side of the line. \"On Pakistan's' objection, Indian troops opened indiscriminate and unprovoked fire,\" a Pakistan military news release, posted on Monday, stated. \"The Indian fire was immediately responded to. The firing continued -- intermittently during the whole night.\" Pakistan said the Indian soldiers \"were forced to flee from the area leaving behind their weapons\" after the firefight. Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged periodic gunfire since May, but Monday's clashes appear to be a serious setback to the ongoing peace process between the two nations. India and Pakistan had announced a bilateral cease-fire all along their borders in November 2003 and the cease-fire had been holding on the borders until recently. Kashmir has been at the root of two wars between India and Pakistan, both of which tested nuclear weapons in 1998. An 18-year separatist campaign in the Indian-controlled portion of the largely Muslim territory has claimed more than 43,000 lives, according to government officials, although human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations put the toll at twice that number. India has long accused Pakistan of supporting the separatists in Kashmir, a charge Pakistan denies. India blamed militants from Pakistan for a suicide car bombing outside its embassy in Afghanistan that killed 58 people on July 7. A December 2001 attack on India's parliament that India blamed on the militants brought the two nations to the brink of another war, but they have expanded economic and cultural ties since the November 2003 cease-fire agreement. -- CNN's Aliza Kassim in Atlanta and Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan: Fighting began after Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control .\nIndia accused Pakistan of attacking one of its patrols, killing a soldier .\nFirefight took place across the Line of Control border in disputed Kashmir region .","id":"cbd3a0715a91ac8f651aa7b1f2c1fb37a2ef8a69"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Mad Men\" and \"Damages\" found themselves on top when the nominations for the 60th Annual Primetime Emmys came out Thursday morning -- but, again, there was no love for HBO's \"The Wire.\" Emmy nominee Jon Hamm stars as ad exec Don Draper in \"Mad Men,\" which earned 16 nominations. AMC's \"Mad Men\" and FX's \"Damages\" made Emmy history Thursday as the first basic-cable series to be nominated for best drama. The pair, which had made the 10-series Emmy shortlist, have been widely hailed by critics and have received good ratings for basic-cable series -- though \"Damages\" star Glenn Close said she hopes the Emmys help boost the show's audience. \"We need all the help we can get,\" she told The Associated Press. On the other hand, HBO's \"The Wire\" -- which concluded its fifth and final season this year -- once again came up empty in the best drama nominations. It did receive one nod, for writing. The series, though much praised and dissected by a hard-core group of fans, has received little recognition from the Emmys, with just one previous nomination -- also for writing -- in 2005. Check out some of the top Emmy nods this year \u00bb . Indeed, HBO has struggled to find a drama to take the place of the much-lauded \"The Sopranos,\" which won best drama last year after a storied run. \"Mad Men,\" which has made AMC into a player, was allegedly turned down by the cable giant, and shows such as the quickly canceled \"John From Cincinnati\" and \"Rome\" haven't had the same impact. On the other hand, \"In Treatment\" received a nomination for Gabriel Byrne's performance as a therapist, and the network's comedies, particularly \"Entourage,\" have performed strongly. Moreover, the network's short-form programming, such as the miniseries \"John Adams\" and the TV movie \"Recount,\" dominated their Emmy categories: \"John Adams\" led all nominees with 23 nominations, and \"Recount,\" about the 2000 presidential election battle, received 11. \"The network has made up for [its lack of drama series success] in other forms,\" Variety TV editor Michael Schneider told CNN. \"It's still the most nominated network and has the most nominated program.\" HBO led all networks with 85 nominations. Among broadcast networks, ABC led with 76 nominations. Among regularly scheduled TV series, \"30 Rock\" earned 17 nominations and \"Mad Men\" received 16. The 17 nominations for \"30 Rock\" were a record number in a single year for a comedy series. Newcomer \"Pushing Daisies,\" the whimsical series on ABC, received 12 nominations. Given that the show only aired nine episodes -- and hasn't been on the air in months due to the writers strike -- its recognition was a surprise, Schneider said. \"It was nice that voters still remembered it,\" he said. Along with \"Damages\" and \"Mad Men,\" nominees for best drama include \"Boston Legal,\" \"Dexter,\" \"House\" and \"Lost.\" Comedy series nominees are \"Curb Your Enthusiasm,\" \"Entourage,\" \"The Office,\" \"30 Rock\" and \"Two and a Half Men.\" Cable series dominated the dramatic acting nominations, with four of the six actors and three of the five actresses appearing on basic or pay cable. Best actor in a drama nominees are Byrne (\"In Treatment\"), Bryan Cranston (\"Breaking Bad\"), Michael C. Hall (\"Dexter\"), Jon Hamm (\"Mad Men\"), Hugh Laurie (\"House\") and James Spader (\"Boston Legal\"). \"Dexter,\" which originated on Showtime, earned a short run on CBS following the writers strike. The nominees for best actress in a drama are Close (\"Damages\"), Sally Field (\"Brothers and Sisters\"), Mariska Hargitay (\"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\"), Holly Hunter (\"Saving Grace\") and Kyra Sedgwick (\"The Closer\"). A number of familiar names were included among nominees for comedies. The nominees for best actor in a comedy are Alec Baldwin (\"30 Rock\"), Steve Carell (\"The Office\"), Lee Pace (\"Pushing Daisies\"), Tony Shalhoub (\"Monk\") and Charlie Sheen (\"Two and a Half Men\"). Only Pace is a newcomer. The nominees for best actress in a comedy are Christina Applegate (\"Samantha Who?\"), America Ferrera (\"Ugly Betty\"), Tina Fey (\"30 Rock\"), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (\"The New Adventures of Old Christine\") and Mary-Louise Parker (\"Weeds\"). Sarah Silverman earned three nominations, all for different programs: one for a guest shot on \"Monk,\" another for contributing to \"Jimmy Kimmel Live\" and a third for producing her own \"The Sarah Silverman Program.\" Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris and TV academy Chairman John Shaffner announced the nominations Thursday. Chenoweth was particularly bubbly, throwing in a non sequitur about once dating \"Survivor\" host Jeff Probst and declining to sing \"Happy Birthday\" because \"the Emmys can't afford me to sing that song\" due to licensing arrangements. Both Chenoweth (\"Pushing Daisies\") and Harris (\"How I Met Your Mother\") were nominated in supporting actor categories. Two highly rated shows, \"Grey's Anatomy\" and \"Desperate Housewives,\" were snubbed. \"Grey's,\" a regular nominee for best drama, was left off that list, though star Sandra Oh was nominated for best supporting actress. \"Housewives,\" which won six Emmys its debut season, was ignored in both best comedy series and best actress in a comedy series categories. Two guest stars did receive nominations. Stephen Colbert, nominated for individual performance in a variety or musical program, put everything in perspective. \"What an honor, unless I don't win,\" he told the AP. The Emmy Awards ceremony will be held September 21 and broadcast on ABC. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Mad Men\" and \"Damages\" earn best drama nominations .\nHBO miniseries \"John Adams\" receives 23 nominations .\nEmmys snub \"The Wire,\" \"Grey's Anatomy,\" \"Desperate Housewives\"\nCeremony will be broadcast on ABC on September 21 .","id":"4ca8b3cf75948dffea7b96e71bf1d9621107354b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Virginia judge on Tuesday approved an $11 million settlement from the state to the families of victims killed or injured in last year's Virginia Tech shootings. Parents of wounded Virginia Tech students comfort each other on Tuesday. The 24 victims included in the settlement were among the 32 killed by Seung-Hui Cho's April 16, 2007, shooting rampage. The settlement also compensates 18 people injured. \"The commonwealth has endeavored to meet the needs and concerns of the victims, including family members, through both monetary and non-monetary provisions,\" said Chief Deputy Attorney General William C. Mims. Of the remaining eight deceased victims, families of two chose not to file claims and two other claims are unresolved. The other four will be brought forward at a later date, Mims said. The settlement also includes provisions that allow the families to occasionally meet with the governor and Virginia Tech officials to review legislation and improvements made at the campus in response to the tragedy. The families had pursued wrongful death and personal injury claims against the state after an August 2007 report by an independent panel concluded that more timely and more specific information from university officials might have saved lives. University officials were criticized for not immediately warning students and staff after two students were found dead in a dormitory at 7 a.m. on the day of the killings. Police said they initially believed the two had been involved in a romantic dispute, but later determined they were Cho's first victims. It was almost 9:30 a.m. before authorities sent an e-mail to students and staff notifying them of the shootings and warning them to be cautious. About 9:50 a.m., Cho, 23, began shooting people in Norris Hall, an engineering and classroom building. While criticizing the university response, the panel -- which included former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge -- also said quicker action by school officials may not have made a difference. The report also noted that campus and state agencies might have taken a different approach to Cho had his middle- and high-school records followed him to Virginia Tech. Problems with Cho reportedly began to surface well before the shootings. The records detailed his mental health issues, including a tendency to react to depression with violence.","highlights":"24 victims included in settlement were among 32 Seung-Hui Cho killed in April 2007 .\nOf the other 8 victims, families of two chose not to file claims; two are unresolved .\nAgreement allows families to be updated on campus security improvements .","id":"98f04e49605f36e0236b206fcb26a1549a7c00c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities are searching for a female soldier, missing after a fire at her apartment near Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Fayetteville, North Carolina, police released this undated photo of 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc. Investigators Thursday morning found evidence of arson at the Fayetteville apartment of 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, 24. A neighbor, Roland Petty, told CNN affiliate WRAL-TV that he saw a man running from the area on Wednesday night and smelled smoke, although he didn't associate it with the building at the time. In a court filing for a protective order, Wimunc said that in May her husband had knocked her down, held a loaded gun to her head and then threatened to commit suicide, WRAL reported. Watch police at work at Wimunc's complex \u00bb . The court documents indicate that John Wimunc is a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, the station reported. A Camp Lejeune spokesman told WRAL that police had spoken to John Wimunc on Thursday about his wife's disappearance. \"I haven't seen any violence. I know [Wimunc's husband] was not living here anymore, but that's all I know,\" a neighbor told WTVD-TV, another CNN affiliate. Both stations reported that Holley Wimunc's car was still in the parking lot at the apartment. Her disappearance is considered a missing person case. Holley Wimunc's family, from Dubuque, Iowa, released a statement Friday saying they are \"still trying to absorb the impact of this week's stunning events.\" \"First and foremost, our concern is for our daughter, Holley -- that she will be found and restored to us,\" the James family wrote. \"When you read about or watch television news reports of incidents like this, you can hardly believe that it could happen to you. But it has -- we are so grateful for the thoughts, support and prayers of friends today -- something we're leaning on heavily right now.\" The family said they would not be making any further comments, citing the investigation. No one was inside the apartment at the time of the fire, police said. Wimunc is assigned to Charlie Company, Womack Army Hospital at Fort Bragg, police said. A statement from Fort Bragg said Wimunc is a nurse from Lafayette, Louisiana, who works at the hospital's mother and baby ward. \"Womack Army Medical Center staff is very concerned about our soldier and her safety,\" Col. Terry Walters, commander of WAMC, said in the statement. \"The staff and members of her unit are being supported by the command and with counseling available through our unit chaplains.\" The blaze comes nearly three weeks after the body of a pregnant soldier was found in a hotel near Fort Bragg. Spc. Megan Lynn Touma , 23, was seven months pregnant at the time of her death, authorities said. Investigators say they are treating Touma's death as a homicide.","highlights":"NEW: Missing soldier's family: You can hardly believe that it could happen to you .\nShe said in court filing her husband threatened her, WRAL reports .\nAuthorities were called to fire at 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc's apartment Thursday .\nFire, apparently arson, had gone out, but Wimunc was missing, police say .","id":"fb0003754a764d7f3252120de58b515d1f882556"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Army's official history of the Iraq war shows military chiefs made mistake after mistake in the early months of the conflict. Iraqis watch as a statue of Saddam Hussein is toppled in Baghdad in 2003. Failures to recognize the chaos engulfing the country and to send in enough troops to restore order after the 2003 invasion have long been highlighted by critics, but a new report shows the Army assessing itself. Frank opinions from officers serving in the 18 months from the start of war to Iraqi elections in January 2005 reveal there were concerns at the time, not just about assumptions made by planners but at decisions taken once U.S.-led coalition forces had control of Iraq. \"I flipped,\" Gen. Jack Keane, then the Army's deputy chief of staff, told the historians of his reaction to a June 2003 decision to transfer control of all coalition troops away from the land forces command that had been preparing for the mission. He recounted a conversation with Gen. John Abizaid, who succeeded the invasion's architect, Gen. Tommy Franks. \"I said, 'Jesus Christ, John, this is a recipe for disaster. We invested in that headquarters. We have the experience and judgment in that headquarters.\" Keane said it took the U.S. command between six and eight months to get the new headquarters up and running. During that time, troops in the field saw the mood of ordinary Iraqis turn against Americans and watched the insurgency take root. \"By the time we got a plan together to resource everything, the insurgents had closed that window of opportunity quickly,\" Col. David Perkins, a brigade commander in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, told the historians. \"What we started doing in September was probably a good idea to have done in April 2003.\" Franks, who would soon retire and be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said he ordered the transition to force the Pentagon to get leaders into the field to work with civilian occupation officials. \"That is a task that John Abizaid and I very simply laid on Washington and said, 'Figure it out. Do it fast. Get me a joint headquarters in here. We have a lot of work to do and [civilian administrator of Iraq] Jerry Bremer has a lot of responsibility and he needs help,' \" he recalled. The 720-page report compiled by the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, details the effects of having too few coalition troops on the ground when the reality after the fall of Baghdad was \"severely out of line\" with the anticipated conditions. Previous experience \"should have indicated that many more troops would be needed for the post-Saddam era in Iraq,\" historians wrote in the report, \"On Point II: Transition to a New Campaign.\" \"The coalition's inability to prevent looting, to secure Iraq's borders and to guard the vast number of munitions dumps in the early months after Saddam's overthrow are indicative of the shortage,\" the study found. About 150,000 U.S. and allied troops were in Iraq after the invasion, at a time when war planners were assuming that Iraq's government would remain functional after Hussein's ouster and that there would be no mass insurgency. \"These factors were in line with prewar planning for a quick turnover of power to Iraqis and a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces, leaving Iraqis to determine their own political future -- options that proved impossible to execute,\" the historians wrote in the report released over the weekend. \"We had the wrong assumptions, and therefore, we had the wrong plan to put into play,\" Gen. William Wallace, who commanded the Army's V Corps during the invasion, told the authors. But some of the most critical decisions were made between May and August 2003, which some participants called a \"window of opportunity that could have been exploited to produce the conditions for the quick creation of a new Iraq.\" Among those decisions were the frequently criticized dissolution of the Iraqi army and the order that barred former members of Hussein's Baath Party from public life as well as the change in plan over the joint headquarters.","highlights":"Army history of Iraq war's first two years says U.S. was unprepared for chaos .\nU.S.-led coalition didn't have enough troops after Saddam Hussein's fall, report says .\n\"This is a recipe for disaster,\" one general recalls saying of one decision .","id":"0130f10c1d700cf42cad5fd24b242667342c86be"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The inspector-general of the House of Representatives will investigate recent allegations of sexual misconduct among congressional pages, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the chamber announced. The House page program came under scrutiny after the Mark Foley scandal last year. Two pages -- usually high school juniors who serve Congress as messengers -- have been dismissed for allegedly having oral sex in public areas of their Capitol Hill dormitory. \"It wasn't kissing and hugging -- let me put it that way,\" said Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Florida, last week. \"It did go beyond that. There were not only a young male and female involved, but there were also observers and other page participants who were, let's say, enablers.\" To protest what they called lax oversight, Brown-Waite has resigned from the House Page Board, along with Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. Watch more on alleged page misconduct \u00bb . Brown-Waite said her resignation was meant \"to send a loud and clear message\" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders. Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Republican Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio issued a joint statement on the matter Wednesday. \"We expect the inspector-general to gather the facts and recommend the appropriate and necessary corrective actions to be taken by the House,\" it said. In 2006, Florida GOP Rep. Mark Foley was forced to resign after his sexually suggestive e-mails to male pages were made public. The House Ethics Committee later found that some people who knew about Foley's questionable communications chose to \"remain willfully ignorant\" rather than confront the matter. Then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, promised an overhaul of the program, which Pelosi pledged to pursue after Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the 2006 elections. \"Apparently Democrats didn't learn from the Mark Foley incident that pages need better supervision,\" Brown-Waite said. \"Apparently they haven't learned anything.\" No members of Congress are involved in the current controversy, and House Clerk Lorraine Miller, who administers the programs, said the students involved were dismissed. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two pages fired for alleged oral sex in public areas of Capitol Hill dorm .\nMale, female involved as were pages who were \"enablers,\" says lawmaker .\nTwo GOP lawmakers quit House Page Board in protest .\nInspector-general tasked with investigation, recommending \"corrective actions\"","id":"fb8431bc320c2c1a6c32699da0fdae228ed8d73b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Starbucks is closing more than two-thirds of its stores in Australia, days after announcing that hundreds of its American coffee outlets are also being shuttered. Starbucks announced plans to close 600 stores in the U.S. last week. The Seattle-based global coffee franchise said Tuesday that it will close 61 of its 84 locations in Australia by the weekend. The closures will mean that only 23 cafes will remain open in and around three major cities: Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Earlier this month, the company announced it would close 600 company-owned stores in the United States. Starbucks, named after the first mate in Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick,' was founded in 1971. It has more than 8,000 company-operated stores and another 6,800 licensed cafes in 44 countries. Starbucks has seen rising competition from privately-held Dunkin' Donuts and McDonalds recently, and welcomed founder Schultz back as CEO in January after a lackluster performance by the company in the latter half of 2007.","highlights":"More than 60 Starbucks cafes to close by August 3 .\nClosures follow news of more than 600 outlets to shut in U.S.\nMove by Seattle company will end 685 jobs in Australia, reports say .","id":"875d564015e85f88103edf0b36ce10e292334902"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A North Carolina man charged with killing a pregnant Fort Bragg soldier was the father of her unborn child, authorities said Wednesday. Sgt. Edgar Patino faces first-degree murder charges in the slaying of Megan Touma. Army Sgt. Edgar Patino is linked to two anonymous \"confession\" letters sent in what police believe was an attempt to derail the investigation into Megan Touma's death, police said. Patino, 27, was arrested at his Hope Mills, North Carolina, home Tuesday night without incident. Patino, who is stationed at Fort Bragg's JFK Special Warfare Training Center, faces first-degree murder charges in the slaying of Touma, 23, who was seven months pregnant. Touma's decomposing body was found in the bathtub of a hotel room near Fort Bragg on June 21. Authorities said Wednesday that they believe she died late June 13 or early June 14. Although her death has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Wednesday that the state medical examiner has not made a final determination of how she died. Watch officials discuss the case \u00bb . Patino has admitted being in Touma's hotel room June 13, and investigators found that the room's electronic key card was last used on that day, police said Wednesday. However, Patino has not admitted killing Touma. Patino wore red jail coveralls in his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon. He spoke only to answer the judge's questions, acknowledging that he understood he was charged with first-degree murder and that the charge carries a maximum penalty of death or life in prison without parole. He also requested that an attorney be appointed for him. Fayetteville, North Carolina, police Chief Tom Bergamine said Wednesday that Patino, who is married, was the father of Touma's fetus. Police also said evidence links Patino to a letter received June 25 by the Fayetteville Observer newspaper. In it, the writer claimed to have killed Touma and said more killings were planned. The letter was signed with a circular symbol similar to one used by the Zodiac killer in California in the late 1960s. At the request of police, the newspaper withheld information regarding the letters and delayed publishing a story for several days to allow police to conduct an investigation, Bergamine said. Police also received a similar letter. Fayetteville police Sgt. Chris Corcione said both letters were postmarked June 24 and sent from Fayetteville. Patino purchased a typewriter the day before the letters were sent, Corcione said. That typewriter is now in police custody. Police, however, stopped short of saying Patino wrote the letters, saying only that evidence links him to them. Two of Touma's friends, who are also female soldiers and asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said Touma and Patino had been stationed together in Germany and had dated. They said Patino had proposed to Touma in Germany, but when the two returned to North Carolina, she discovered that he was married. Police said Wednesday that Patino was a person of interest from the early days of their investigation. Corcione said his initial interview with authorities could be described as \"deceptive,\" and officials had little other contact with him until his arrest. Police have found no criminal record for him. \"We felt like from the beginning, there was no major concerns of a serial killer being out there,\" Bergamine said. Patino was being held without bail at the Cumberland County Detention Center, Bergamine said. Asked what police believe the motive to be, Fayetteville police Detective Joshua Carter said, \"Right now, the motive is going to be held close. There's still several months of investigation left to be conducted.\" \"I think one of the things that folks need to understand is that scientific evidence, things that have to go to the lab, they're going to take time,\" Bergamine said. \"This is not the world of television and 'CSI.' Things don't get settled within a hour.\" Touma, a five-year Army veteran, had served with the U.S. Army Dental Activity Clinic in Bamberg, Germany, and in Fort Drum, New York, before her stint at Fort Bragg. She is the second female soldier from Fort Bragg to die under suspicious circumstances since June. Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc was killed in early July. Her Fayetteville apartment was torched July 10, and her charred body was found nearby a few days later. Her husband, Marine Cpl. John Wimunc, was charged with arson and first-degree murder in connection with the death. Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, was charged with arson and felony accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, also had a homicide case involving a female service member this year. The charred body of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, was found in the backyard of another Marine stationed at the base, Cpl. Cesar Laurean. Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she died. Laurean, who has been charged with first-degree murder, was arrested in Mexico in April, but because he holds citizenship in the United States and Mexico, he cannot be immediately deported and must go through an extradition process. Authorities have said that if he chooses to fight extradition, it could take two years to return him to North Carolina. CNN's Marylynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Edgar Patino was arrested Tuesday, charged in death of pregnant soldier .\nPatino, also a soldier, was father of Megan Touma's unborn baby, police say .\nTouma's body was found in hotel bathtub on June 21 .\nFriends of Touma say she and Patino had dated, served together in Germany .","id":"53102b470b50905c033a90940fc6fa87190f7343"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canada announced Wednesday that it will dispatch a warship to Somalia's coast to protect U.N. aid ships from pirate attacks. The Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec will escort ships carrying food aid to Somalia. \"Canada is stepping up to the plate by tasking Ville de Quebec with the role of escorting World Food Programme ships to ensure their safe arrival at designated ports,\" Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said in a government news release. The United Nations hunger program praised Canada for answering its call for help, and said it hoped other governments would step forward to take over from Canada once it completes its mission in a few weeks. The HMCS Ville de Quebec is a 440-foot frigate armed with torpedoes, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons, and carries a twin-engine Sea King anti-submarine helicopter. Ville de Quebec, which can travel at speeds greater than 27 knots, will be dispatched after Somalia's transitional government formally authorizes the mission, the government's news release said. WFP asked the world's naval powers in mid-June to help its ships reach the more than 2 million people in need of aid. It put out the request weeks before French, Danish and Dutch warships ended their escort missions, which began in November. Pirate attacks on unescorted ships have been a growing problem in Somalia. Three European freighters were hijacked off the Horn of Africa in June, adding to the 27 other reported attacks this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy. WFP delivers 80 percent of its aid to Somalia by sea, and WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said that if there are no warships to escort the food supply, the program will have to rely on ground or air travel to deliver the food. But both are dangerous and expensive. The agency said that if there is no assistance from naval powers, piracy will increase, and so will death and malnutrition. Smerdon said that although Somalia's food crisis hasn't yet reached the devastation of the early 1990s, \"We're worried it will be.\"","highlights":"Canada to send 440-foot frigate to help aid reach ports safely .\nMission must be authorized by Somalia's transitional government .\n80 percent of U.N.'s food aid to Somalia sent by ship .\nHeavily armed pirates frequently hijack cargo ships off Horn of Africa .","id":"58776b77856719aff45f09e50d370f52c756dc10"} -{"article":"SHERMAN, Texas (CNN) -- A seventeenth person has died from injuries suffered in Friday's bus crash in northern Texas, a hospital spokeswoman said Sunday. The damaged bus is hauled from the crash scene on a flatbed truck Friday in Sherman, Texas. The driver of the bus, which was carrying dozens of Vietnamese people on a church trip, apparently lost control on northbound U.S. 75 early Friday. The bus smashed into a guardrail before rolling on its side and sliding into a gully. The accident happened near the Texas-Oklahoma state line. Twelve people were declared dead at the scene, and four others died at hospitals, officials said. Police estimated that, in addition to the deaths, 33 to 39 of the 54 passengers and the driver suffered mild to serious injuries. Watch what investigators are learning about the accident \u00bb . The bus was operating illegally, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun investigating the crash. On Friday, NTSB member Debbie Hersman told reporters that the right front tire of the bus had been retreaded, in violation of safety rules. The blown tire was the only one that was recapped, and it was the only one whose tread separated, she said. Asked what caused the Goodyear tire to lose its air, she said, \"we don't know the answer to that question; that's why we're here.\" The bus itself was made in 2002 by Motor Coach Industries. The trip to Carthage, Missouri, had been scheduled by the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church in Houston, though some of the passengers may have belonged to other churches, Hersman said. The 52-year-old driver had his commercial driver's license, but his medical certificate had expired, she said. Late Friday, police were assisting NTSB investigators with gathering evidence and mapping the scene, documenting the location of witness marks and scars on the highway and bridge rail over an overpass, she said. Preliminary evidence suggests that the bus hit a rail on the right side of the bridge and then traveled 1,809 feet before coming to a stop on its right side in the earthen median between the highway and a frontage road, Hersman said. \"As it dropped off the bridge rail, the bus rolled to the right ... where it came to rest.\" Watch as the fire chief describes the crash scene \u00bb . She noted that the bus was not equipped with seat belts, which are not required on motor coaches. In a written statement, motor carrier agency Administrator John H. Hill said investigators noted \"certain irregularities ... about whether the bus was operating under the name Angel Tours or Iguala Busmex. It is important to note that neither of these domestic entities is authorized to operate as a U.S. passenger carrier in interstate commerce at this time.\" He added that the agency identified Angel Tours \"as being a high-risk carrier due to safety violations detected during roadside safety inspections and was subjected to an FMCSA compliance review in May 2008.\" \"This review resulted in FMCSA placing Angel Tours' operations out of service,\" Hill said. \"To date, Angel Tours has not provided the agency with evidence of satisfactory corrective actions to the problems discovered and remains out of service.\" In addition, \"FMCSA has not granted Iguala Busmex authority to transport passengers because it has failed to fully comply with federal safety requirements.\" He said police have been asked to stop any of the companies' buses. Both companies are owned by Angel de la Torre. A man who answered the phone at Angel Tours office said the owner was meeting with his lawyers and was unavailable. Massage therapist Leha Nguyen, 45, was a passenger. She was traveling by herself on the bus when she departed Houston at 8:30 p.m. Thursday for what was to have been her fourth trip to Carthage, Missouri. After sandwiches were passed around, the group said prayers, and Nguyen began to drift off to sleep in her window seat next to an older woman, four rows behind the driver, she said. iReport.com: Were you there? Send photos, video . About 11:45 p.m., the bus passed Dallas, \"and as soon as we passed Dallas we were on the two-way freeway and I feel the bus ride a little bit fast and I have a feeling, not a safe feeling,\" she said. She added, \"I feel a little bit shaky, but I just let myself at peace and then go to sleep.\" Her sleep didn't last long. \"As I opened my eyes, I see the chair falling off and I was sitting right below the TV and I felt that somebody was laying on my leg and then right next to me there was a lady, she got her arm really crushed up and on top of her there was another lady, she cannot move.\" Although her head hurt, Nguyen -- who left Vietnam in 1975 as a refugee -- was in better shape than many of her fellow riders. She accepted an ambulance ride to the hospital, where she learned that her seatmate had died. Once her scalp was sewn up, she aided in translating for other Vietnamese patients whose English was not as good. CNN's Susan Roesgen contributed to this story from Sherman, Texas.","highlights":"NEW: Another passenger from bus crash in northern Texas dies of injuries Bus had a recapped tire on the right front, a federal investigator says .\nThe bus was operating illegally, federal agency says .\nSurvivor describes chaos during and after accident .","id":"1b1479bb6e290e86e4b2a1e862e06909a0a62f8e"} -{"article":"COPENHAGEN, Denamrk (CNN) -- What makes someone decide to become an actor? It sometimes seems as if the average Hollywood star is motivated mainly by the promise of a fat pay check. Connie Nielsen shot to fame playing Lucilla in \"Gladiator.\" Or perhaps they're drawn to the celebrity lifestyle. Maybe they crave the love of an adoring public, or perhaps they see the movies as a way to leave their mark on the world, to be immortalized on celluloid. For Danish actress Connie Nielsen it was something quite different. For her, being an actor means being an outsider. \"As an artist you actually do have to make a choice to be an outsider. If you're an outsider you have the freedom to say what people on the inside don't dare to say,\" she told CNN. So Connie Nielsen is not your typical movie star. As a 5-foot-10-inch blonde Scandinavian beauty she has the looks of a classic silver screen siren, but she has steadfastly resisted a career as Hollywood eye candy and rejected the lifestyle that goes with it. \"I absolutely refuse the fame part of my business,\" she says. \"I refuse even the money side of my business. I try to do as good work as I can do, I try to grow in my art and reach for truth,\" she says. Raised in Elling, a small coastal village in Denmark, she is fluent in seven languages and studied acting in France and Italy, making her screen debut in French comedy \"Par O\u00f9 T'es Rentr\u00e9? On T'a Pas Vu Sortir\" (U.S. title \"How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave\") in 1984. She appeared in more French and Italian movies before landing a role opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in \"The Devil's Advocate\" in 1997. But it wasn't until 2000, when she was cast in Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning \"Gladiator\", that Nielsen landed a role that really let her show her acting ability. As Lucilla, the sister of the villainous Emperor Commodus, Nielsen brought some much-needed subtlety to the swords-and-sandals epic and held her own sharing the screen with Joaquin Phoenix and Russell Crowe. The movie made Nielsen an international star and she scored other successes with \"One Hour Photo\" in 2002, and \"The Hunted\" in 2003. But while the success of \"Gladiator\" opened doors for her, it also meant she had to fight the kind of typecasting that would try to limit her to playing \"the love interest\" to a male lead who got all the good lines. Nielsen has in the past been critical of Hollywood for its lack of female roles, saying \"you think once you've shown what you can do, and your movies have been successful, that snap, you work. So to discover the difference between guys' roles and girls' roles made me plain mad. It's unjust.\" But Nielsen has refused to be pigeonholed, seemingly drawn to difficult roles in controversial movies. She appeared in French movie \"Demonlover\", which dealt with pornography, violence and corporate amorality, while more recent films have taken on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Danish drama \"Br\u00f8dre\" (U.S. title \"Brothers\") is about a soldier who returns from Afghanistan a broken man, unable to communicate his experiences from the conflict. Playing his wife, Nielsen put in a powerful performance that won her awards and served to highlight how Hollywood had underused her talents. \"The Situation\" in 2006 was billed as the first film to be made about the Iraq war and told the story of ordinary Iraqis caught up in the conflict, while \"Battle of Seattle\" examined how peaceful protests erupted into riots when the World Trade Organization met in Seattle in 1999. Of her choice of subject matter, Nielsen says that rather than making a political point she is trying to show the human aspects of the conflicts. But Nielsen makes it clear that her career is not the focus of her life and she stresses the importance of making time outside the movies. She is passionate about literature and art and she is currently dating Lars Ulrich, drummer of rock group Metallica. She had a son with him in 2007 and has another son from a previous relationship. \"I will always find something that I want to try and become better at. I always love to spend more time with my friends, more time with my family, my extended family. I always want to read more books,\" she says. Perhaps her commitment to her art, her interest in social issues and her disavowal of fame simply reflect her Danish upbringing, but there's no doubt that compared to many other Hollywood stars Connie Nielsen is a breath of fresh air.","highlights":"Connie Nielsen made her name playing Lucilla in Ridley Scott's \"Gladiator\"\nShe has appeared in movies dealing with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .\nNielsen speaks seven languages and is passionate about art and literature .","id":"137019bb8262f8ab776ec6367a0ae4b020fa638e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Radovan Karadzic, whose Interpol charges listed \"flamboyant behavior\" as a distinguishing characteristic, was a practicing psychiatrist who came to be nicknamed the \"Butcher of Bosnia.\" Twice indicted in 1995 by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Karadzic faces charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination, murder, willful killing, persecutions, deportation, inhumane acts, terror against civilians and hostage-taking. While president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Karadzic's troops were reported to have massacred over hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats during a campaign of \"ethnic cleansing.\" Early estimates of the death toll from the 3-year war ranged up to 300,000, but recent research reduced that to about 100,000. The U.S. State Department had a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. His arrest brings an end to more than 10 years as a fugitive. Watch CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour report on Karadzic's rise and fall \u00bb . Karadzic was born on June 19, 1945, in Petnjica, Montenegro. He studied psychiatry and medicine at the University of Sarajevo during the 1960s and took courses in psychiatry and poetry at Columbia University from 1974 to 1975. Karadzic, a Serb-Croat, in 1990 helped found the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), a party aimed at unifying Serbs into a common state, and became its president. Two years later, he became president of the newly declared Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later called \"Republika Srpska.\" During the next three years, he ordered Bosnian Serb forces to seize the majority of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also announced, according to his U.N. indictment, six \"strategic objectives\" for the Serbian people. They included the establishment of state borders between the Serbs and the other two ethnic communities, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats. Answering to him, according to the indictment, was Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. From May 1992, the indictment alleged, Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic's command targeted civilian areas of Sarajevo with shelling and sniping during a three-year conflict within the city. In July 1995, according to the U.N. indictment, troops under Mladic's command executed an estimated 7,000 Bosnian Muslim male prisoners in Srebrenica, a U.N. safe area, and then participated in a comprehensive effort to conceal the killings. The massacre is considered the worst in Europe since World War II. The indictment states that Bosnian Serb forces acted under Karadzic's direction and worked to \"significantly reduce the Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb populations\" in municipalities that were seized. Karadzic was last seen in public in September 1996, a year after the Dayton Peace Accords brought a formal end to the conflict and banned anyone accused of war crimes, including him, from office. He reportedly shaved his trademark bushy hair, grew a beard and donned priest's robes, moving from monastery to monastery in the mountains to avoid capture. CNN Correspondent Alessio Vinci said: \"He enjoyed protection from the local population, wherever he was hiding. Legend has it he disguised himself as a priest to take part in his mother's funeral. \"In 2002, after NATO launched one of its many failed raids to try to arrest Karadzic in Bosnia, I interviewed his mother. At that time she said: 'Serbs are righteous people and I can see that they support him, and that they adore him the way he is. They would lose their lives to protect him.'\" Despite years on the run, Karadzic wrote \"Miraculous Chronicles of the Night\" -- 1,200 copies of which sold out at the 2004 Belgrade International Book Fair. After his arrest was announced, Serb officials revealed the final chapter of his life on the run had seen Karadic reprise his medical role, working in a clinic in Belgrade under a false identity and heavily disguised by a white beard, long hair and spectacles. \"He moved freely throughout the city, and the fact that he even held a job at a medical practice and nobody knew about this contributes to the fact that his false identity was very elaborate,\" said Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic.","highlights":"Karadzic was a psychiatrist who came to be nicknamed the \"Butcher of Bosnia\"\nHe was the Bosnian Serb political leader during the 1992-1995 war .\nTroops under his leadership are reported to have massacred 100,000 people .\nHe was indicted by the U.N. tribunal for war crimes and genocide .","id":"1f738e018a3a193d04ec22612e4fe6b01b4969fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An estimated 125,000 Western lowland gorillas are living in a swamp in equatorial Africa, researchers reported Tuesday, double the number of the endangered primates thought to survive worldwide. Forest clearings draw large numbers of Western lowland gorillas searching for food. \"It's pretty astonishing,\" Hugo Rainey, one of the researchers who conducted the survey for the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told CNN Tuesday. The last census on the species, carried out during the 1980s, estimated that there were only 100,000 of the gorillas left worldwide. Since then, the researchers estimated, the numbers had been cut in half. WCS survey teams conducted the research in 2006 and 2007, traveling to the remote Lac Tele Community Reserve in northern Republic of Congo, a vast area of swamp forest. Acting on a tip from hunters who indicated the presence of gorillas, Rainey said that the researchers trekked on foot through mud for three days to the outskirts of Lac Tele, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the nearest road. \"When we went there, we found an astonishing amount of gorillas,\" said Rainey, speaking from the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though researchers did spot some gorillas, they based their estimate on the number of gorilla nests found at the site, Rainey said. Each gorilla makes a nest to sleep in at night. \"This is the highest-known density of gorillas that's ever been found,\" Rainey said. Watch a glimpse of gorilla life in African swamp \u00bb . Western lowland gorillas are listed as critically endangered, the highest threat category for a species. Their populations are declining rapidly because of hunting and diseases like Ebola hemorrhagic fever, whose symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding. Take a closer look at the Western lowland gorilla \u00bb . While the discovery in northern Congo indicates that the gorilla population remains stable in some areas, it is likely that gorillas will remain critically endangered because the threats facing the species are so great, Rainey said. iReport.com: Share photos and video of gorillas in zoos or the wild . \"We know very little about Ebola and how it spreads,\" he said. \"We don't even know the animal that spreads it around.\" The goal now, Rainey said, is to work with the Congolese government and donors to protect the areas in which the gorillas are known to be living. Western lowland gorillas, which are found in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria as well as the Republic of Congo, are the most numerous and wide-ranging of the four gorilla subspecies, each of which is threatened by extinction, the WCS says. See where the gorillas live \u00bb . Illegal hunting and habitat loss have also threatened the Cross River gorillas, found in the highlands of Cameroon and Nigeria. Only about 250 to 300 are estimated to remain in the world, the WCS says. War, habitat loss, poaching and disease are the major threats to the mountain gorillas, made famous by researcher Dian Fossey and the film \"Gorillas in the Mist.\" The mountain gorilla population is starting to recover after decades of conservation work. From a population of around 230 in the 1970s, the mountain gorillas now number around 700, the WCS says. Poaching and war have also threatened populations of Grauer's gorillas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Zaire. The WCS estimates their population to be around 16,000. News of the discovery of the Western lowland gorillas in northern Congo comes the same week as a report that almost 50 percent of the world's primates are in danger of extinction. Watch what gorilla expert thinks of find \u00bb . The report, also delivered to the Edinburgh conference, cites habitat loss and hunting as the greatest threats. The situation is especially dire in Asia, where the report says more than 70 percent of monkeys, apes, and other primates are classified as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. Conservation International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature issued the report.","highlights":"Researchers feared only around 50,000 Western lowland gorillas left worldwide .\nNow 125,000 primates have been discovered in northern Congo .\nPopulation declining rapidly because of hunting and diseases like Ebola .\nExpert: This is the highest-known density of gorillas that's ever been found .","id":"2bb7b7d5a229ccb9c9b5b4fa1475a54297fc0a25"} -{"article":"PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNN) -- A passenger train rumbling through the Czech Republic slammed into a collapsed overpass, causing the deaths of at least a half dozen passengers and the injuries of a few dozen more, according to a Czech News Agency account. An areal view shows the scene of the train accident in Studenka, 360 kilometers east of Prague. The EuroCity train, which was traveling about 140 kilometers, or 87 miles, an hour at the time of the accident, crashed around 10:30 a.m. near the Czech town of Studenka. It had been headed from the Polish city of Krakow to the Czech Republic capital of Prague, and was carrying people who were planning to attend an Iron Maiden rock concert, the state-run news agency said. Officials said the engine and its six passenger carriages derailed when part of a bridge under construction fell down as the train approached. At least six people were killed and 41 others were injured, officials said. Initial estimates said 10 people were killed and around 100 were injured. Zdenek Nytra, head of Moravian-Silesian firefighters, said rescuers extricated all survivors, according to the agency.","highlights":"Reports: Train crashed into a collapsed overpass, with up to 10 possibly dead .\nEuroCity train going from Polish city of Krakow to the Czech capital, Prague .\nIncident occured at around 0830 GMT, officials say .","id":"c136c209869b227e534aca60b6df7e0b26bce7fe"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Price of gas got you crying at the pump? Is it eating into your household budget? Well, get used to it. Gas in California, the second worst state, hits $4.59 per gallon for regular unleaded in this July 14 photo. That's the word on the streets as the price of a gallon of gasoline soars to record highs. With regional differentials pushing the price much higher in some places, drivers and small-business owners are finding it hard to cope. But which states' motorists get the best deal, and in which states do drivers pay the most to fill-up? Here come the numbers . Alaska has the highest gas prices in the nation, with a gallon of regular gasoline at $4.623, followed by California at $4.583 as of June 30. Hawaii, Connecticut and Washington make up the top five states with highest prices, with New York and D.C. not far behind at $4.292 and $4.160 respectively. Best states to buy gas? Missouri comes out top at $3.862 for a gallon of regular, followed by Oklahoma at $3.866, South Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas. Iowa, Kansas and Alabama are next in line. AOL Autos: Cars with 30+ MPG for $300 or less per month . Past prices . We use the term 'best states to buy gas' with this caveat: Back in June 2004, gas hovered at around $1.74 a gallon, according to figures from gasbuddy.com. Geoff Sundstrom, AAA's fuel price analyst, said the primary reasons for rising fuel prices are an increase in demand for petroleum products across the globe and a need for investment in refining infrastructure. \"Right now, it is almost impossible to know where oil and gas prices will be in six months to a year,\" he said. \"It's easy to assume that the world economy will continue to grow, we are very clearly at risk of an economic downturn and perhaps a severe economic downturn which could influence the demand side to the point where oil and gas prices may drop. \"In 10 to 20 years out, oil and gasoline will continue to be more expensive. But given what's happening in the markets right now, there is some potential that [the] demands side of the equation could fall off a cliff.\" AOL Autos: Consumer Reports on best fuel-efficient used cars . Why so expensive in California? Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California, says the primary reason behind the high price of gas in California is \"market segmentation,\" a marketing term that basically means California (along with many other states) has developed a \"boutique blend\" of fuel in a bid to uphold environmental or ecological standards. In California's case, this blend helps clear the state's notorious smog. \"We can't use gas they made for Iowa. We use a special blend with additives in it, an ethanol mix,\" Montgomery said. \"When you do that, you can only use refineries that make that gas [mix]. The refineries in California are a major supplier, but, when prices are high and there's not another supplier, we have to go where they make that mix.\" She pointed out that refineries in Oregon and Washington produce the gas product, and there is a pipeline to Alaska, but that the only other options are shipping in the blend from elsewhere in the nation or Asia, which is not cost-efficient. \"People have to figure out how to deal with this on a long-term basis. We've been telling motorists to carpool and here we are in summer, and prices have barely come down,\" she said. \"Usually we're about a month into a downturn, it's cyclical: Prices go up in spring and spike in May, which isn't happening this year. Prices may not come down a lot.\" Less misery in Missouri . Michael Right, vice president of public affairs for AAA Missouri, said his state is usually among the top three in terms of low gas prices. A contributing factor, he said, is that the state's per-gallon tax rate is the lowest in the nation. He said that most, if not all, states impose a tax on gasoline but few are as low as the 17 cents a gallon Missouri levies. And Missouri, unlike most other states, doesn't impose a sales tax on top of that. The state also benefits from good distribution via a crisscrossing network of pipelines which can, unusually, result in cheaper gas in rural areas than in major cities. The reason for this is the three types of gas used in the state. St Louis primarily uses reformulated gasoline. Conventional gas is sold in rural areas, and Kansas City uses low RVP (or low-emission) gasoline. Reformulated costs more than conventional gas, hence the higher cost in cities. \"In Illinois, it's not unusual to save 15 cents a gallon by crossing the river,\" Right said. AOL Autos: Best hybrid SUVs . Effects on station owners and operators . While the effects of soaring pump prices on consumers are well documented, owners and operators of service stations nationwide are also feeling the pain acutely. Dennis Decota, the executive director of the 135-year-old California Service Station and Automotive Repair Association and owner of a service station in Marin County, California, said high prices are \"extremely detrimental to business people. What it does is creates a financial hardship on customers, [leading to] less foot traffic to stores or repair facilities. It puts a strain on entire businesses; unbranded service stations are really at the end of their rope.\" Independent, unbranded stations have one retail philosophy: Offer the best price. They rely on oversupply by refineries which they buy at wholesale prices and sell cheaper than the branded competition, like Shell or Exxon (which have both announced they are quitting the service-station industry). But in the past six months, that supply curve has become inverted, which means owner-operators are paying more -- $37,000 a truckload -- for their gas than branded outlets. Decota noted some are losing as much as 15 cents a gallon on every sale. It's a hard time for the industry, he said. The blame for high oil prices is pretty evenly spread, Decota said. He did, however, point out that as a result of higher gas prices, California brought in $4.4 billion last year in sales taxes from its monthly sales of 1,300,000,000 gallons. In 2002, when gas prices averaged about $1.71 a gallon, it brought in $1.7 billion. DeCota advocates boosting refinery capacity from its current level of 88 percent to about 92 percent. He said refineries \"have their hands on the spigot. There is no shortage of crude. But if the government stepped up refinery capacity, that would put enough downward pressure to create competition among refineries. And my guys are going under.\" AOL Autos: 10 hot small cars .","highlights":"Price of a gallon of gasoline at record high national average of $4.086 on June 30 .\nAlaska has the highest gas prices in the nation, Missouri has lowest .\nFuel prices rising because of high demand for petroleum products worldwide .\nGas taxes and ability to access fuel determine state price of gasoline .","id":"bfbf2be3d5b9da8425253502393528d0f95d2b5d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that the crisis in Georgia should not be used to score political points, but his campaign has stepped up its attacks on Sen. Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials. Sen. John McCain says Russia's entry into the WTO should be reviewed. In response, Obama's top foreign policy aide suggested that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was willing to \"shoot from the hip\" and was acting irresponsibly by offering strong support for the Georgia government. On Wednesday, McCain continued his tough line against Russia, saying its potential membership in the World Trade Organization should be reviewed as a result of its actions in Georgia, as well its relationship with the G-8 nations, which represent the world's largest industrial economies. McCain also said that an international peacekeeping mission should be sent to Georgia and that NATO should re-consider adding Georgia and Ukraine, another former Soviet republic, to the alliance. Watch McCain call Georgia's position 'perilous' \u00bb . \"After the events of the past six days, no one should wonder why countries on Russia's periphery so ardently seek the security guarantees alliance membership represents,\" McCain said during a campaign stop in Birmingham, Michigan. Russia has strenuously objected to both nations joining NATO. After President Bush said Wednesday that he was ordering the U.S. military to help Georgia's citizens, Obama applauded the move. \"The situation is still unstable, and Russia must back up its commitment to stop its violence and violation of Georgia's sovereignty with actions, not just words,\" Obama said in a statement. \"The United States should now join our European partners in direct, high-level diplomacy with both Georgia and Russia to seek immediate implementation of a cease-fire, and to achieve a lasting resolution to this crisis.\" The crisis in Georgia started Friday, when Russia moved troops in into South Ossetia after the Georgian government moved troops into breakaway territory. South Ossetia has been largely autonomous since 1991, but separatists would like to break with Georgia and either declare independence or join North Ossetia, which is part of Russia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is heading to France and the Georgian capitol of Tbilisi, said Wednesday that she has been briefing both candidates on the conflict. Watch President Bush declare 'America's unwavering support' for Georgia \u00bb . When the crisis began last week, McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was out front in condemning the Russia actions and calling for a cease-fire. \"Today, we are all Georgians,\" McCain said Tuesday. Watch McCain declare 'we are all Georgians' \u00bb . When the crisis broke out last week, the Obama camp called \"for all sides to show restraint and to stop this armed conflict,\" echoing the statements from the White House and the European Union. As Russia planes bombed Georgian cities and Russian troops advanced into Georgia, Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, condemned Russia's actions and called for a cease-fire. Watch Obama condemn Russia's actions \u00bb . McCain said Wednesday that the crisis was not the time for partisan attacks. \"I know the people of Georgia have enjoyed an unprecedented period of prosperity and freedom. And I know that at this time they're suffering mightily,\" the Arizona Republican said. \"So maybe later on in the campaign, let's have a back-and-forth about who has comments or statements. Now, let's devote all our energy to helping resolve a situation which is fraught with human tragedy.\" But, despite McCain comments, the crisis in Georgia has dominated the political debate between the two candidates' campaigns in recent days. On Tuesday, Randy Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy adviser, attacked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's response to the situation in Georgia, saying his experience with the region amounted to a handful of paper statements. On the other hand, McCain's experience with Georgia runs deep, Scheunemann said, noting that McCain and the Georgian president were friends. \"There's a depth of knowledge, a breadth of knowledge and an extent of historical experience that doesn't compare between the two on Russia policy,\" Scheunemann said. \"You can't compare a 15-year historical record to three or four statements over the course of 15 months.\" But Susan Rice, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, said Tuesday that McCain's comments condemning Russia \"may or may not have complicated the situation.\" \"We cannot shoot from the hip,\" Rice told MSNBC on Tuesday. \"We cannot act on the basis of ideology or preconceived notions. When this crisis began, Barack Obama, the administration ... and all of our NATO allies took a measured and reasoned approach because we were dealing with the facts as we knew them.\" McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Wednesday that his campaign was disappointed that Rice had launched \"inflammatory and baseless\" political attacks \"during an international crisis when bipartisanship is needed most.\" In response, Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the Obama, said it was \"the absolute height of hypocrisy\" for the McCain campaign to \"play the victim\" after attacking Obama's \"strong and appropriate\" position on Georgia. Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst, said McCain could use the situation in Georgia to highlight one his inherent advantages over Obama: his experience. But McCain's strong position in defiance of Russia also has risks, Schneider said. \"Some voters may worry: Does he want to start a new Cold War? The risk for McCain is that he could overplay the issue and frighten war-weary voters whose priorities right now lie closer to home,\" Schneider said. CNN's Peter Hamby contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russia's participation in WTO, G-8 at risk because of Georgia, McCain says .\nMcCain says crisis should not be used to score political points .\nObama's response to crisis reveals foreign policy inexperience, McCain aide says .\nObama's top foreign policy aides say McCain willing to \"shoot from the hip\"","id":"de149988c9768a12f4a656f1d86efe42af51b4c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three aid workers have been shot over the last day in Somalia, two of them fatally, Somali media reports said. Somalis prepare Monday to bury murdered Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the U.N. Development Program. The first fatality was a Somali, Mohamed Mohamud Qeyre. He was the deputy director of the group Daryeel Bulasho Guud (DBG), funded by a German company and affiliated with the group Bread for the World. Qeyre was shot in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Friday night in what appeared to be a targeted attack, the reports said. He was shot by three gunmen outside the facility where aid distribution is coordinated. The gunmen may have been staking out the facility waiting for Qeyre to exit. The head of DBG, in Nairobi, Kenya, said he will suspend all aid operations in Somalia for the time being. The second fatality was a member of the Sodra nongovernmental organization, which is helping with humanitarian efforts in Somalia. Officials said it appears that Ali Baashi was also specifically targeted by gunmen. Earlier this week, the World Food Program said a truck driver carrying its relief supplies was killed -- the fourth WFP driver killed in Somalia this year. Ahmed Saalim was shot when fighting broke out between convoy escorts and militiamen at a checkpoint, the U.N. aid agency said. A growing percentage of the Somali population has become dependent on humanitarian aid. A severe famine swept the nation in 1991-1993, devastating crops, killing up to 280,000 people and displacing up to 2 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The situation has been exacerbated by drought, continual armed conflicts in central and southern Somalia and high inflation on food and fuel. Journalist Mohamed Amin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three aid workers have been shot over the last day in Somalia, two of them fatally .\nOne victim worked for aid agency, DBG, which has suspended operations .\nFour World Food Program drivers of relief supplies killed this year .\nSomalis dependent on humanitarian aid since 1993 famine, ongoing war, drought .","id":"45986f43dd61461844801c08c8753a71ccbf9083"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Passengers said they saw flames and then heard an explosion moments before a Spanair jet crashed on takeoff Wednesday at Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 153 people, according to local media. Medical personnel tend to an injured passenger at Madrid's Barajas airport. The Spanair Flight JK5022 was carrying 172 people. There were 19 survivors, including two infants, Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said. The 19 were being treated at a hospital, Alvaraez said. The severity of the injuries varies, but many of the injured have been treated for burns, Spanish Red Cross spokeswoman Olivia Acosa said. Watch as the wounded arrive at a hospital \u00bb . The flight was bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, two hours away. Local officials said one of the engines caught fire. The aircraft, an MD-82, has two jet engines, both at the rear. The burning plane came to rest in a gully about 2:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. ET). The crash sent up a plume of smoke visible from several kilometers away. At the time of the crash, weather conditions were hot and clear. Watch smoke rising from airport \u00bb . A survivor told Spain's ABC newspaper that she and other passengers heard an explosion as the plane was taking off. iReport: Send us your pictures, video, information. \"She said they could see the fire, ... and then it was not even a minute or so they heard [something] blow up,\" reporter Carlota Fomina told CNN. \"They were about 200 meters [660 feet] in the air, and then they were landing but not crashing. They were landing, like, little by little; it was not like they [fell] down suddenly.\" The MD-82 was carrying 162 passengers, four non-working crew members and six working crew members, Spanair said. After contacting families, the airline published the names of those aboard on its Web site. Watch as relatives of survivors start arriving at the airport \u00bb . Some of the survivors have serious injuries, while others have non-life-threatening injuries. Many of the injured were treated for burns, she said. The aircraft was carrying seven passengers from Lufthansa Flight 2554, according to the airline. Spanair, a low-cost airline that has a flight-sharing agreement with Lufthansa, is owned by SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Barajas Airport closed after the crash but reopened more than two hours later, allowing a limited number of takeoffs and landings, an airport official said. See a map of the airport \u00bb . Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero arrived at the airport Wednesday evening after cutting short a vacation. \"The government will do all it can to support the families in this difficult situation,\" he said. \"The whole government, logically, is affected, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy.\" The fatal crash was the first at the airport since December 1983, when 93 people were killed as two Spanish airliners collided. The airport, eight miles (13 km) northeast of central Madrid, is Spain's busiest, handling more than 40 million passengers a year. The United States National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigation team to Madrid because the aircraft is American-made, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said. Spanair has set up a local emergency number for family members and friends phoning from Spain: +34 800-400-200. CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman, Brian Todd and Kathleen Koch contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Local officials say one of jet's two engines caught fire .\nNEW: Two infants among 19 survivors, Spanish official says .\nNEW: Passenger list posted on Spanair Web site .\nMD-82 crashed while taking off from Madrid's main airport .","id":"e27256e1314f48219ceca70c273dd8429fc4ca4f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As horrified travelers watched, a Greyhound Canada bus passenger repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated a young man who was sitting and sleeping beside him, a witness said Thursday. Police investigate the scene near Portage la Prairie, Canada, on Thursday. \"There was a bloodcurdling scream. I was just reading my book, and all of a sudden, I heard it,\" Garnet Caton, who was sitting in front of the two men, said of the Wednesday night incident west of Portage la Prairie in Manitoba. \"It was like something between a dog howling and a baby crying, I guess you could say,\" Caton said. \"I don't think it will leave me for a while.\" Passengers exited the bus, and a trucker who stopped provided wrenches and crowbars to several of them so they could keep the suspect on the bus until police came, witnesses told Canadian TV. The suspect was seized with the help of negotiators, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Steve Colwell said. Watch Colwell discuss the case \u00bb . He said no formal charges had been filed, and he declined to identify either the man in custody or the victim, who were among 34 passengers. There was no immediate indication of what prompted the attack, Colwell said. He said he didn't know how many times the victim was stabbed. Witnesses described the weapon as a large butcher-type knife. Caton told The Associated Press that the victim appeared to be about 19 years old and had gotten on the bus in Edmonton. Colwell praised the \"extraordinary\" level-headedness and bravery of the bus driver and passengers. \"What you saw and what you experienced would shake the most seasoned police officer. And yet I'm told that each of you acted swiftly, calmly and bravely,\" Colwell said. \"As a result, no one else was injured.\" The police received a call reporting the attack at 8:30 p.m. By the time they arrived at the scene, everyone except the knife-wielder and his victim had left the bus, Colwell said. The incident ended about 1:30 a.m. The bus was traveling along the Trans-Canada Highway from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was about 45 minutes from its destination when the attack occurred, Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said in Dallas, Texas. Caton said the victim was sleeping with his head leaning against the window when the attack happened. Caton said he shouted at the other passengers, many of whom also were sleeping, to leave. Watch Caton describe what he saw \u00bb . \"Everybody got off the bus. Me and a trucker that stopped and the Greyhound driver ran up to the door to maybe see if the guy was still alive or we could help or something like that,\" Caton said. \"And when we all got up, we saw that the guy was cutting off the guy's head. ... When he saw us, he came back to the front of the bus, told the driver to shut the door. He pressed the button and the door shut, but it didn't shut in time, and the guy was able to get his knife out and take a swipe at us,\" Caton said. Caton told the AP that the attacker didn't sit near the victim when he first got on the bus, about an hour before the attack. \"He sat in the front at first; everything was normal,\" Caton said. \"We went to the next stop, and he got off and had a smoke with another young lady there. When he got on the bus again, he came to the back near where I was sitting. He put his bags in the overhead compartment. He didn't say a word to anybody. He seemed totally normal.\" Half an hour later, the attack began, Caton told the AP. \"There was no rage or anything. He was like a robot, stabbing the guy.\" The incident occurred on the first of two Greyhound Canada buses that were traveling together, Wambaugh said. The bus was carrying 37 passengers. As many passengers as possible among those not directly involved in the incident were transferred to the second bus, she said. Others were taken to a hotel in Brandon, where they were met by Greyhound managers and police, Wambaugh said. Once they are released, Greyhound will take them by bus to Winnipeg, and \"we will do whatever is required to help them, and that includes counseling,\" she added. Wambaugh declined to comment further. \"I don't want to compromise the investigation,\" she said. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police say suspect is in custody, no charges have been filed .\nAP: Witness says attacker seemed normal before slaying, appeared to be about 19 .\nMan repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated sleeping seat mate, witness says .\nTrucker helped passengers trap knife-wielding man on bus, witnesses say .","id":"8da9fddf6f4a0d798e454ee7b778ce0d7ce3c447"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A magnitude-5.4 earthquake shook the Los Angeles metropolitan area Tuesday, leaving residents rattled but causing no serious damage or injuries. Bricks and other debris clutter an alleyway in Pomona, near Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon. However, the temblor served as a warning to southern Californians who had not experienced an earthquake in some time: the \"Big One\" remains a possibility. \"This is a sample, a small sample,\" said Kate Hutton, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology. \"This is somewhere between small and moderate.\" She said there is a 5 percent chance the quake could be a precursor to a larger earthquake. After 24 hours, she said, that chance will drop to 1 percent. \"Every earthquake relieves some stress,\" Hutton said. \"It's usually only a drop in the ocean. In other words, the amount of stress released by this earthquake is minuscule compared to the amount that's built up and is building up for the Big One when it happens some day in the future.\" Watch Hutton say Tuesday's quake was a sign of bigger ones to come \u00bb . And when will that be? \"From a geologist's point of view, the answer has to be soon,\" she said. \"But geologists are used to thinking on millions of years and thousands of years time scale, so I don't think that gives any useful information for people, except be prepared at any time because it could happen at any time.\" A 5.4 magnitude quake is considered by the USGS to be \"moderate,\" which can cause slight damage to buildings and others structures. So far this year, 39 \"moderate\" earthquakes of between magnitude 5.0 and 5.9 have occurred in the United States, and 790 globally. The last moderate quake to strike California was a magnitude 5.4 in April in the northern part of the state. A magnitude 4.4 struck the greater Los Angeles area in August 2007. There is a 99 percent chance of California experiencing a quake of magnitude 6.7 or larger within the next 30 years, according to the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Geological Survey and the Southern California Earthquake Center and published in Science Daily in April. \"This earthquake reminds us to be prepared,\" said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. \"We were very fortunate that there were no serious injuries or property damage.\" He said he believes the state is \"as prepared as anyone can be. We have continuous discussions about that. We are fanatics about emergencies and to be ready.\" The largest earthquake in recent years in California was a magnitude 7.1 in 1999, Hutton said. But it was centered in the desert, near Twentynine Palms, in a sparsely populated area. Tuesday's quake struck about 11:42 a.m., according to the USGS. Its epicenter was about 2 miles southwest of Chino Hills and about 5 miles southeast of Diamond Bar. The epicenter was about 7.6 miles deep, making it a fairly shallow quake, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Meyers. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground. But most Southern California earthquakes tend to be fairly shallow, officials said. More than 30 aftershocks were recorded. Hutton said the largest was a magnitude 3.6. Los Angeles police said a downtown hotel sustained some structural damage, but no one was injured and the building was not evacuated. There were some unconfirmed reports of minor injuries. The White House was also monitoring the situation, said spokeswoman Dana Perino. Despite the absence of serious damage or injuries, some Los Angeles-area residents were left rattled. The quake was felt as far south as San Diego, California, and the USGS said it received reports of light shaking as far north as Rosamond, California, about 55 miles north-northeast of Los Angeles. Reports from those who felt the quake poured into CNN. Did you feel the quake? \"My house was like a fun house. Everything was moving,\" said Danny Casler, 28, of Huntington Beach. He said he was sleeping when his house began shaking, and some things fell in the living room. He said he ran out of the house in his boxer shorts. Attorney Kevin Crisp said he was on the phone with his law partner in Riverside, 65 miles away, who burst out, \"Big quake!\" Crisp said he felt it about five seconds later. \"This was very impressive. Long and very uniform. Really had the building going.\" He said doors were swinging on the hinges and bottles of wine were rolling back and forth on his shelf. \"It just started with a really strong jolt,\" said Wendy Criner. \"I ran and got my daughters from different rooms, and we squatted in the living room. I did have stuff fall off the shelf, some books in my daughters' room and some things in the kitchen.\" The quake knocked out a ground radar system at Los Angeles International Airport, but that has not interfered with operations, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Technicians were working to restore the system, which helps controllers monitor traffic on the ground. Also, tiles fell from the ceiling in one terminal as water flowed from a burst pipe. The calculation of the quake's magnitude fluctuated as seismologists reviewed the data. Initially classified as a magnitude 5.8, the quake's intensity was reduced to a 5.6 and then to a 5.4. Because the earthquake magnitude scale is exponential, a 5.8 magnitude quake is four to five times more intense than a 5.4. Two nuclear plants are in the vicinity of the quake's epicenter near Chino Hills, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The closest to the epicenter is in San Onofre, 50 miles south, but an NRC spokesman said, \"this is well below the threshold for any conceivable damage to the plants.\" \"In the U.S. particularly in California, buildings are generally built well enough that it takes about a 5.5 for there to be some damage, so we do have the potential for damage,\" said Don Blakeman, an analyst for the USGS. \"It depends on the structures [and] the ground the building is built on.\" He said he would expect objects to be knocked from shelves and some windows broken. \"It's kind of on the margin where you'll get some structural damage from these. We may find that some of the older homes and buildings that weren't retrofitted suffer more damage than the newer structures. \"I would expect some cracked buildings,\" he said. \"There is the potential for injuries, but hopefully we won't have too much of that.\" Blakeman's comments came before the quake's magnitude was dropped to a 5.4. However, he said afterward that the change does not affect his expectations, although obviously there is less potential for damage. Still, the quake jolted the nerves of many Californians. \"I've lived in California, I've lived through several of them,\" Margot Wagner of Santa Barbara told CNN. \"It's always a little unnerving.\" Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Few reports of damage or injury from \"moderate\" earthquake .\nNEW: Experts, officials say earthquake is a reminder to be prepared .\n11:42 a.m. PT quake's epicenter was about 32 miles east of Los Angeles .\nMore than 30 aftershocks were recorded, largest was 3.6 .","id":"d2e357c372891291bbdb4f496792ea9d5807cd3a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States and Britain praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's contribution to the war on terror while the Bush administration claimed no role in the leader's resignation Monday. Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf has until now stubbornly resisted pressure to quit. A senior State Department official familiar with the situation told CNN U.S. officials were in touch with Musharraf in the week leading up to the resignation. However, the official said, the United States made it clear that it would not get involved in the struggle between Musharraf and the newly elected Pakistani parliament. \"If he made a decision to go, or fight against it -- we didn't advise him either way,\" the official said. \"We really did keep our fingers out of this one.\" Musharraf is viewed as a keen ally of the West in the fight on terror, receiving billions in military aid from both and launching attacks on militant groups near the country's border with Afghanistan. Watch Musharraf resign \u00bb . \"President Musharraf has been a friend to the United States and one of the world's most committed partners in the war against terrorism and extremism,\" said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after Musharraf's announcement. \"We will continue to work with the Pakistani government and political leaders and urge them to redouble their focus on Pakistan's future and its most urgent needs, including stemming the growth of extremism, addressing food and energy shortages and improving economic stability,\" she added. \"The United States will help with these efforts to see Pakistan reach its goal of becoming a stable, prosperous, democratic, modern, Muslim nation.\" The Bush administration's main priority is a crackdown on Taliban and al Qaeda militants in Pakistan's tribal regions. The administration believes Pakistan's intelligence service is full of al Qaeda and Taliban loyalists, an accusation Pakistan denies. View a timeline of Musharraf's time in power \u00bb . \"There is a great deal of frustration on the part of the U.S. government with Pakistan's inability to follow through on what the U.S. sees as its clear commitments,\" said Robert Grenier, a former CIA counterterrorism official, now a managing director at risk consultation firm Kroll. \"It remains very much to be seen whether this new democratically-elected leadership will really be able to follow through in a sustained and coherent way,\" he said. \"They haven't demonstrated an ability to do that.\" The United States has stepped up missile strikes inside Pakistan, killing dozens of militants, and head of the Army, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, is now the United States' closest ally in power. But some experts warn that U.S. pressure could go too far. \"The U.S. military has to be extremely cautious,\" said Rick Barton, a director and adviser with the non-profit Center for Strategic and International Studies who is a former U.N. and U.S. official. \"It could actually be setting the torch to the kindling inside the country.\" Musharraf told the nation in a televised address Monday that he would step down -- nearly nine years after he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. \"I don't want the people of Pakistan to slide deeper and deeper into uncertainty,\" he said. Until now, Musharraf, 65, had stubbornly resisted pressure to resign. But his once-considerable power eroded significantly since February's election that pushed his party out of power. That pressure increased in the past few weeks as the new ruling party began making plans to impeach him. Only time will tell whether the power shift will benefit Pakistan, but \"it puts a lot more responsibility squarely on the government. There is no more excuse any more. They have to stand up and do things. They can't blame Musharraf,\" the State Department official said. The official said Musharraf isn't expected to try to undermine the government. \"I really don't think he has been a factor for six months,\" the official said. \"He hasn't been able to do that while he was in the presidency, and he won't be as well-positioned [out of the presidency] to interfere.\" Mohammedmian Soomro, the chairman of the upper house of the National Assembly, stepped into the president's role and will act as caretaker until a new president is chosen, which is expected to be in the next few weeks. Under Pakistan's constitution, the president is elected by a majority vote of Pakistan's four provincial assemblies and the two houses of the National Assembly. Since Musharraf's resignation, the United States hadn't yet spoken to the government under newly elected Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, who visited Washington late last month. In a statement released by U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, President George W. Bush said it was committed to a \"strong Pakistan that continues its efforts to strengthen democracy and fight terror.\" \"President Bush looks forward to working with the Government of Pakistan on the economic, political and security challenges they face.\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was strongly committed to its alliance with Pakistan following Musharraf's resignation. He praised Musharraf's economic and security achievements, described Pakistan as a \"vital friend\" and said Britain's aid program for the country would continue. Meanwhile, an Afghanistan government spokesman said Musharraf's resignation would be good for Afghanistan. The Indian government said in a statement that it had no comment to make. \"This is an internal matter of Pakistan.\" Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pervez Musharraf tells nationwide audience he will resign as president .\nU.S. and Britain praise Musharraf for his contribution to 'war on terror'\nBoth promise continued aid and support for Pakistan .","id":"2a17cad6a35f54ceab81d03772a75c58aa7147ef"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The two men who claimed to have found the carcass of Bigfoot have surfaced to say: Hey, it was just a joke. Matt Whitton has been fired from his job as a police officer because of his role in the hoax. Not everyone is laughing. In an exclusive interview with CNN affiliate WSB, the two hoaxers -- car salesman Rick Dyer and now-fired police officer Matt Whitton -- said the whole situation began as a joke and then got out of hand. \"It's just a big hoax, a big joke,\" Dyer said. \"It's Bigfoot,\" Dyer explained. \"Bigfoot doesn't exist.\" Whitton chimed in: \"All this was a big joke. It got into something way bigger than it was supposed to be.\" Watch the two men explain their \"joke\" \u00bb . At a news conference in California last week, the two men had stood by their claims that they had discovered Bigfoot's corpse and had it on ice. Scientific analysis would prove it, they said. Not quite. Now the two Georgia men admit that the hairy, icy blob was an Internet-purchased Sasquatch costume stuffed with possum roadkill and slaughterhouse leftovers. Whitton and Dyer say that when they came up with the hoax, they had no idea it would become a media circus. \"It got legs and ran. It's crazy now,\" Dyer told WSB. Co-hoaxer Whitton agrees: \"It started off as some YouTube videos and a Web site. We're all about having fun.\" \"Fun\" isn't exactly how Clayton County Police Chief Jeff Turner sees it. He has kicked Whitton off the police force. \"He lied on national TV,\" Turner says of Whitton, \"so a defense attorney now could say, 'How do we know you're not lying now?' \" Whitton and Dyer had announced that they had found the body of a 7-foot-7-inch, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature while hiking in the north Georgia mountains in June. They also said they had spotted about three similar living creatures. Still unclear is how much money Whitton and Dyer got out of the hoax. Steve Kulls, who maintains the SquatchDetective Web site and hosts a similarly named Internet radio program, first interviewed Dyer on July 28 for the radio program. On August 12, Kulls said, Dyer and Whitton \"requested an undisclosed sum of money as an advance, expected from the marketing and promotion.\" Two days later, after signing a receipt and counting the money, Dyer and Whitton showed the Searching for Bigfoot team the freezer containing what they claimed was the carcass: \"Something appearing large, hairy and frozen in ice,\" Kulls wrote on the Web site. It was, as many had suspected, an ape-like costume stuffed with entrails. After the news conference last week, Dyer and Whitton disappeared from view. The truth came out over the weekend. In a Web posting this week, Kulls wrote that \"action is being instigated against the perpetrators.\" The two hoaxers have hired attorney Steve Lister to represent them. \"There have been some threats made to them for both civil and criminal prosecution,\" Lister said. The attorney says the Bigfoot incident \"got out of hand.\" Dyer, asked whether he ever thought that the hoopla had become more than just a joke, implied that everyone should have known it was a hoax. \"Well, we told 10 different stories,\" he said. \"Everyone knew we were lying.\"","highlights":"Two men surface to say Bigfoot hoax was just a joke .\nMen say their idea of \"having fun\" turned into something bigger than expected .\nAttorney for men says incident \"got out of hand\"","id":"4b25022fda48e7f91ab1459f1a6dca501318672e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A slim majority of Americans think churches should stay out of politics, according to a new survey. John McCain, the Rev. Rick Warren and Barack Obama together for a CNN broadcast forum on faith. The survey suggests that for the first time in more than a decade, there has been a shift away from the view that religious groups should influence social and political issues. Fifty-two percent of poll respondents said churches should stay quiet, while 46 percent said churches should express political views. The biggest shift has come among Republicans, one of the authors of the poll said. \"Overall, the number of people who say churches should not endorse political candidates is up slightly, but among Republicans it is up 11 points, and among white evangelical Republicans it is up 19 points,\" said Greg Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. \"There is a slight uptick, from 40 percent to 46 percent, among people who are uncomfortable to have politicians talking about religion, but it is up 10 points among Republicans,\" he added. Four years ago, seven out of 10 conservatives approved of religious institutions expressing political views. But five out of 10 conservatives in Thursday's poll said it was appropriate. It seems that the more important social issues are to conservatives, the more likely they were to say that religion and politics should not mix. Among people who said gay marriage was a very important issue, the number saying houses of worship should keep out of politics doubled, from 25 percent to 50 percent. Among those who said it was not important, the number was essentially unchanged. Respondents were also more likely to say houses of worship should not meddle in politics if they considered the major political parties to be hostile to religion. The new figures bring Republican views into line with those of Democrats and independents. A 14-point gap between Republican and Democratic views on the subject in August 2004 fell to one point in the new survey. But Smith cautioned against reading the survey to mean basic conservative philosophy was changing. \"It appears to be frustration with the contemporary political landscape more than an underlying philosophical shift,\" he said. \"It is not the case the conservatives are uncomfortable with a political role for religion, but we do see increasing discomfort with churches getting involved with politics.\" \"Voting intentions among white evangelicals have not changed at all,\" Smith added. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain \"has a huge lead even among younger evangelicals.\" But social conservatives are lukewarm about McCain as compared to President Bush. Nearly seven out of 10 white evangelical Protestants and conservatives said they supported McCain; the number was slightly higher for Bush in August 2004. But four years ago, 57 percent of them said they backed Bush strongly. The number is 28 percent for McCain this year, with 40 percent saying they backed him, but not strongly. The number of people who think religious groups have too much influence over political parties grew -- for both Republicans and Democrats -- as did the percentage of people who are uncomfortable hearing politicians talk about how religious they are. Americans continue to see the Republican Party as more friendly to religion than the Democrats, although the Democrats closed the gap somewhat since reaching a low point in 2006. Other survey results showed little change from the past. Two out of three Americans continue to say churches should not endorse candidates for president, and most still feel a president should have strong religious beliefs. The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life by interviewing 2,905 adults nationwide by phone between July 31 and August 10. On Saturday, Obama and McCain answered questions that had religious overtones at a forum hosted by the Rev. Rick Warren. The pastor of Southern California's Saddleback Church is author of the best-selling book \"The Purpose-Driven Life.\" Asked when life begins, McCain was quick to say \"at the moment of conception.\" McCain's response was met with huge applause from the audience. \"I have a 25-year pro-life record in the Congress, in the Senate, and as president of the United States, I will be a pro-life president, and this presidency will have pro-life policies,\" he said. When Obama was asked about when life begins, the pro-choice candidate said that decision is \"above my pay grade.\" The response garnered criticism from liberal and conservative thinkers who said Obama tried to dodge the issue. Obama said although he's pro-choice and supports a woman's right to abortion, his goal is to reduce the number of abortions in America. \"On this particular issue, if you believe that life begins at conception ... and you are consistent, then I can't argue with you on that,\" he said. \"What I can do is say, 'Are there ways we can work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies?' \"","highlights":"Survey: Republicans change view more than others on church and politics .\nSmall majority of Americans think churches shouldn't endorse candidates .\nResearcher: Survey doesn't mean basic conservative philosophy is changing .","id":"62066d76f4ef9e06a1129551c41371bb5d2f7465"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Swedish wrestler who discarded his bronze medal in a protest during the presentation ceremony has been stripped of the award and disqualified from the tournament in Beijing. A disgruntled Abrahamian drops his bronze medal before leaving the arena during the presentation ceremony. The International Olympic Committee said it was also officially disqualifying Ara Abrahamian, 35, from his event, Greco-Roman wrestling. Abrahamian was beaten in the 84-kilogram class by eventual gold medal winner Andrea Minguzzi of Italy. He complained that \"blatant errors in judging\" caused him to lose the match and said he felt that he deserved the gold. The Swede shouted at the referee before confronting the judges. During Thursday's presentation ceremony, he took off his medal and left it in the center of the competition mat before walking off. The IOC said Abrahamian violated two rules of the Olympic charter, one that bans any sort of demonstrations and another that demands respect for all Olympic athletes. \"The awards ceremony is a highly symbolic ritual, acknowledged as such by all athletes and other participants,\" the IOC said. \"Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medalist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic Movement. It is also contrary to the spirit of fair play.\" Abrahamian never expressed regret or offered an apology, the IOC said. The international weightlifting federation was asked to consider further sanctions against him. His medal was the third stripped at the Beijing Games. On Friday, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su had his silver and bronze medals taken away after failing a doping test. Also expelled for doping violations have been Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do. Abrahamian's case is not the first of its kind. A weightlifter at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was stripped of his bronze medal after rejecting it during the medal ceremony. Ibragim Samadov, competing in the light heavyweight category for the Unified Team of the former Soviet Union, was upset with his performance and refused to have the medal placed around his neck and only accepted it in his hand. He then put it down and walked off. Samadov later apologized, but the IOC upheld its decision to disqualify him, and he was later banned for life by the sport's governing body.","highlights":"Swede Ara Abrahamian disqualified from Olympics, stripped of bronze medal .\nHe discarded the medal at the presentation ceremony in protest of judging .\nIOC says he violated rules banning demonstrations, requiring respect .\nHis medal was the third stripped at the Beijing Games .","id":"16c4a27e42066259797d93d5db0239bce0a15f18"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Fay made landfall in southwestern Florida early Tuesday, coming ashore at Cape Romano just south of Marco Island, the National Hurricane Center said. Satellite image shows Tropical Storm Fay along Florida's southwest coast at 11 p.m. ET Monday. Forecasters immediately dropped hurricane warnings for the storm as it never reached the 74 mph threshold necessary for hurricane status. It was the third landfall for the storm, which came ashore in western Cuba Sunday night and then again over Key West Monday afternoon. Voluntary evacuations were urged Monday evening on Marco Island, a community of about 12,000 people near Naples on southwestern Florida's coast. However, a CNN crew reported many people seemed to be staying and few had boarded windows there. At of 5 a.m. ET Tuesday, the storm was moving north-northwest at 9 mph (15 km\/hr) and was on the Florida coastline at Cape Romano, or about 55 miles (90 km) south of Fort Myers. Maximum sustained winds were near 60 mph (95 km\/hr), with higher gusts, and forecasters expected some strengthening prior to landfall. Tropical storm force winds extended up to 125 miles (205 km). iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video . Fay is expected to continue in a north-northeasterly direction throughout the day, passing near Orlando, and entering the Atlantic as a tropical depression off the coast of northeastern Florida early Wednesday. Watch wind, rain batter Key West \u00bb . A tropical storm warning wraps around the bottom of the Florida peninsula from Longboat Key on the Gulf Coast to Flagler Beach on the east. The Florida Keys from Ocean Reef to the west end of the Seven Mile Bridge are also included in the warning. Rainfall amounts up to 10 inches are expected across portions of southern and east-central Florida, with 4 to 8 inches elsewhere along the storm's path. Isolated tornadoes are possible over the Florida Keys and the southern Florida peninsula, the center said.","highlights":"NEW: Fay made landfall at Cape Romano just south of Marco Island .\nNEW: Hurricane warnings dropped as Fay's winds never reached 74 mph .\nIt was the third landfall for the storm, which came ashore in western Cuba Sunday .\nTrack Fay with CNN's Hurricane Tracker .","id":"8626e8d0c96f4d12eca92423e0c43c6ea3e53545"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Olympic champion Angel Matos of Cuba faces a life ban after kicking a referee flush in the face during his taekwondo bronze medal match in Beijing. Matos reacted in extraordinary fashion to being disqualified by Chelbat. Matos, who took gold in Sydney in 2000, was winning 3-2, with just over a minute left in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan's Arman Chilmanov. Matos lay down, awaiting medical attention, but was then disqualified by referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden for taking too much injury time. A furious Matos reacted by pushing a judge, then pushed and kicked Chelbat in the face. It left the Swede with blood pouring from his lip while Matos spat on the floor and was then escorted out of the arena. \"We didn't expect anything like what you have witnessed to occur,\" said World Taekwondo Federation secretary general Yang Jin-suk. \"I am at a loss for words,\" he told the Associated Press. Matos' coach, Leudis Gonzalez, is also in hot water for his angry reaction and claiming the Kazakhs had tried to fix the match. \"This is an insult to the Olympic vision, an insult to the spirit of taekwondo and, in my opinion, an insult to mankind,\" Yang added. Although the arena announcer said Matos and his coach were banned effective immediately, Yang said due process must be followed before officially banning the two. It was not the only controversial moment in the four-day taekwondo competition, which was marred by several protests against judging decisions. Earlier Saturday, China's double gold medalist Chen Zhong crashed out in the quarterfinals after initially being declared the winner. She was fighting Britain's Sarah Stevenson, who scored with a clear head kick -- worth two points -- in the final seconds of their bout. That would have put Stevenson ahead and into the semifinals, but the judges ruled Stevenson's kick wasn't solid enough for points, and Chen was declared the winner 1-0. After Britain protested, the result was changed to put Stevenson in the semifinal. She lost that to jeers from the partisan Chinese crowd, but later won a bronze medal match. It was the first time a match result has been overturned since taekwondo became an official Olympic sport. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cuba's Angel Matos kicks referee in the face during bronze medal match .\nMatos was furious with Sweden's Chakir Chelbat after being disqualified .\nMatos and his coach are facing life bans from taekwondo .","id":"f675d806e17d1920e6622d3a925367697c94e58e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Marine husband of a slain Fort Bragg soldier was charged with murder Monday and another Marine was charged with aiding the crime, a local police chief said. Fayetteville, North Carolina, police released this undated photo of 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc. Authorities have been searching for the missing soldier, Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, 24, since a fire torched her North Carolina apartment on July 10. Marine Cpl. John Wimunc and fellow Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden were initially charged with arson, but after police interviews Wimunc was charged with first-degree murder, said Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine. Alden was charged with felony accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, Bergamine said. Both were taken to Cumberland County's jail and held without bond, he said. Earlier, a witness found a charred body in woods, but Detective Jeff Locklear told reporters that police were still awaiting a positive identification from the medical examiner and could not say for certain it was Holley Wimunc. The lieutenant's father released a statement about the death Monday in which he said his daughter was a nurse at a military hospital and had two children. \"It is with profound sadness that our family just received the news from authorities that our beloved daughter Holley is dead,\" Wimunc's father said in a statement released to CNN affiliate WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina. \"Since last Thursday's shocking news about Holley's burned apartment and her missing person status, our family through the country has nonetheless been holding on to a thin thread of hope that she would be found alive.\" Military officials said both Marines were stationed at Camp Lejeune, which is about two hours away from Wimunc's Fayetteville home. Joe Lenczyk -- resident agent-in-charge for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- said Wimunc and her husband were estranged and lived apart. Wimunc is the second female soldier from Fort Bragg to die under suspicious circumstances in recent weeks. Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, 23, was seven months pregnant at the time of her death in June, authorities said. Investigators say they are treating that death as a homicide. Camp Lejeune also has had a suspicious death of a female soldier this year. Twenty-year-old pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach's charred body was found January in the back yard of another Marine stationed at the base. That suspect, U.S. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, was captured in April in Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Soldier's husband, Cpl. John Wimunc, charged with murder .\nMarine Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden charged with arson in connection with the crime .\nAuthorities have been searching for 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc since July 10 .","id":"835b6e4637bd2c3fe2644f2cefa00270e950ebdf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The relatives of a woman who died on the floor of a New York hospital say they plan to file a $25 million lawsuit against the city and the facility where Esmin Green died. Esmin Green's daughter, Tecia Harrison, says disciplinary action against hospital workers is not enough for her. Green's family is also calling for criminal charges against hospital workers, who they say failed to help her and then attempted to cover up the circumstances of her death. \"My sister was killed twice,\" said Brenda James, Green's sister. \"First, by those who neglected to offer her the needed health care. Secondly, she was killed by those who tried to cover up this criminal action.\" The family has retained a lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, to file the suit. Green, a Jamaican immigrant, had been involuntarily admitted to the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18 for what the hospital described as \"agitation and psychosis.\" Surveillance camera footage captured the mother of six sliding off of a chair and onto the floor of waiting room of the hospital's psychiatric emergency department, where she lay convulsing for more than a hour before anyone helped her. The footage appears to capture several employees passing by her as she lay on the floor struggling. The New York Civil Liberties Union said last week that the hospital falsified medical records for the timeframe covering Green's visit, describing her as awake and going to the bathroom when she is seen on the video. Watch Green's family after seeing video \u00bb . Seven workers, including doctors, nurses and security guards, have been fired or suspended since Green's death, the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation said. It's not clear whether any of the employees have appealed the disciplinary actions against them. The agency said it referred the matter to law enforcement and is cooperating with the investigation. \"We failed Esmin Green and believe her family deserves fair and just compensation,\" it said in a statement. Autopsy results have not been released. Green's daughter, who reluctantly watched the footage for the first time this week, says disciplinary action doesn't make up for her family's loss. \"Firing is not enough for me, for my brothers. They don't know this wonderful woman they took away from us,\" said Tecia Harrison, who traveled to New York from Jamaica to attend her mother's funeral Sunday. \"We want them to pay for it,\" she said. CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report .","highlights":"Family of Esmin Green says they will sue the city, hospital for $25 million .\nRelatives says hospital employees failed to render help, attempted to falsify records .\nSurveillance camera captured Green convulsing on floor for an hour before she died .","id":"aec90720358f66b9d149db8afd08fbb821e3aa52"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwean lawmakers on Monday narrowly voted for Lovemore Moyo as speaker of the parliament -- making him the first opposition lawmaker to hold the position in the country's history. Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC faction has a slim majority following parliamentary elections. \"This is historic as it ceases to be a rubber-stamping house,\" Moyo said after winning the position. \"It will ensure that progressive laws are passed. I promise to be professional.\" Moyo -- the national chairman of the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party -- received 110 votes while his only opponent, Paul Themba-Nyathi, received 98 votes. The speaker of the parliament is the fourth most powerful post in Zimbabwe. Themba-Nyathi represented the splinter MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, but he had support of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. The vote took place hours after Mugabe swore in lawmakers, five months after they were elected. Two members of the main MDC -- led by presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai -- were arrested as they arrived at the opening session, but they were released after a short time, according to a government spokesman. An MDC official said the arrests were part of the \"sinister agenda of this regime\" to \"tilt the balance of numbers in their favour during the voting for the speaker of parliament.\" One of those detained -- Shuwa Mudiwa -- appeared back in parliament, but the other member -- Elia Jembere -- was not seen, according to sources. Government spokesman Bright Matonga said Jembere had been accused of rape, but that he has been released from custody. A third member -- Elton Mangoma -- escaped an arrest attempt when other party members came to his rescue, MDC officials said. Attendance at the session of parliament is important since the membership is closely divided between the MDC and the Mugabe's ZANU-PF. The ruling ZANU-PF party lost its majority in the 210-seat parliament in elections in March, but vote recounts and political violence have delayed the body from convening until now. Final results gave 100 seats to an MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the party's presidential candidate. President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF got 99 seats. An offshoot of the main MDC party, led by Arthur Mutambara, won 10 seats. An independent candidate won one seat. Tsvangirai, who was locked in a bitter presidential contest with Mugabe, had objected to Mugabe's decision to convene parliament, saying it could \"decapitate\" power-sharing talks that have been on hold for the past two weeks. Still, Tsvangirai said he would attend the swearing-in ceremony. MDC party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said all MDC members elected to parliament were expected to attend \"except those few MPs who are still in hiding.\" CNN's Nkepile Mabuse in Johannesburg, South Africa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Moyo received 110 votes, opponent Paul Themba-Nyathi received 98 votes .\nThemba-Nyathi represented the splinter MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara .\nMDC's Shuwa Mudiwa and Elia Jembere arrested outside parliament building .\nRuling ZANU-PF party lost majority in 210-seat parliament in March elections .","id":"0033829349643e2964a8c3ce5fd997116ce43f7c"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Violent protests continued across Kashmir Wednesday, as the death toll from the past two days of demonstrations rose to 20, a senior police official said. Hindu protesters shout slogans against Jammu and Kashmir state governor N. N. Vohra. Three people critically injured in the protests died on Wednesday, adding to the already high tensions. Several thousand people joined the Wednesday morning funeral procession for one of the victims in old Srinagar city. The region -- which is split between India and Pakistan -- has been a flashpoint of violence between Hindus and Muslims for more than a month. The violence was triggered by the Hindu government's attempt to transfer land to a Hindu shrine. The latest round of protests was started on Monday by fruit growers who were upset that Hindu protesters had blocked a highway leading into India, preventing their crops from getting to market. It has spiraled into demonstrations against the deaths. A police official said 200 people have been injured in the two days of protests. A round-the-clock curfew in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, was lifted for several hours Wednesday to allow residents to buy essential commodities. During the curfew suspension, an angry mob attacked a policeman in Srinagar's old city, torching his motorbike. Speaking Wednesday, Kashmir's Indian-appointed governor N. N. Vohra made a fervent appeal for demonstrators to maintain calm. He expressed deep grief for \"the families who lost their near and dear ones in the unfortunate incidents.\" From Journalist Mukhtar Ahmad .","highlights":"Violent protests continue across Kashmir, death toll rises to 20 .\nThousands join funeral procession for one of the victims .\nProtesters angry over govt. decision not to transfer land to a Hindu shrine .\nState govt. revoked transfer after a week of violent protests by Muslims .","id":"3276a47234f0aa9eb7d4d06940ffb912be059454"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spec. Shaun Gopaul woke up at 4 a.m. on May 12, 2007, and waited at a battle position south of Baghdad for members of his company to pick him up. Sgt. Alex Jimenez, left, and Spc. Shaun Gopaul had served in the military together since 2005. One of those he expected to see was the larger-than-life figure of Sgt. Alex Jimenez, who cared so much about his fellow soldiers that he made sure every one was comfortable and who cared so much about the Iraqis he was fighting for that he learned Arabic on his own so he could talk with them. \"He was a good guy, you know. He had a big heart,\" Gopaul said. But Jimenez and the other soldiers never came. While he was waiting, Gopaul heard on the radio that Sgt. Alex Jimenez -- the first person he met in the company and also his best friend -- and other members of his company had been ambushed and captured by insurgents in a section of Iraq known as the Triangle of Death. Gopaul said Friday that during the time Jimenez and other members of the company were missing, he tried to keep upbeat and hoped that his best friend would come home safely. But on Friday the military confirmed they found the bodies of Jimenez and 19-year-old Pvt. Byron W. Fouty and returned them to the United States. \"In a way, I'm glad that he's home,\" Gopaul said. \"It's just not in the way that we wanted.\" The body of a third soldier who was captured -- Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, California -- was pulled from the Euphrates River in Babil province 11 days after the attack. After they began serving together in 2005, Gopaul said he and Jimenez were inseparable. When Gopaul arrived, Jimenez offered to let him bunk with him because many of the servicemen were younger than he. It was Gopaul's first tour in Iraq and Jimenez, who was on his second tour, took it upon himself to help new soldiers from Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Regiment -- nicknamed the polar bears -- learn the ropes. \"He grabbed all the new guys and put us where we needed to be and showed us how to do our jobs,\" Gopaul said. \"He saved our lives by showing us the right way to do things and where to be so we wouldn't be hurt.\" Jimenez, 25, even took it upon himself to start learning Arabic, Gopaul said. He studied the language until he eventually became fluent. Then, he taught the entire platoon and company so they would have an easier time talking to locals. \"It was awesome, because if we didn't have an interpreter we had him to help out,\" Gopaul said. During their free time the two soldiers wrote and sang music -- often reggaeton -- sometimes about being in the Army. Above all, Gopaul said, Jimenez was known for his sense of humor and always being there for anyone who needed it. \"I've been getting a lot of calls from a lot of people across different battalions who knew him and knew the size of his heart, Gopaul said. The last time he spoke to Jimenez, Gopaul was returning from time off and Jimenez called to let him know what was going on in Iraq and see how his good friend was doing. \"I told him 'I'll see you in a couple days,' \" Gopaul said. \"But that was it. I never saw him again.\" Gopaul said he has taken a 14-day leave from service and will go to visit members of the Jimenez family who live in New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Black ribbons of mourning replaced the yellow ribbons around the Jimenez home Thursday afternoon. A POW\/MIA flag that had been hanging from the home for more than a year was also replaced by a U.S. flag. \"This has all been pretty hard,\" Gopaul said. \"But one thing is for sure -- we'll never forget him.\"","highlights":"Shaun Gopaul, Alex Jimenez served together in military starting in 2005 .\nGopaul: \"He saved our lives\" by showing us what to do .\nBodies of Jimenez, another soldier found in Iraq after a year .\nJimenez learned Arabic and taught others so they could talk to locals .","id":"8d3bb51d711ce00e3fff53625a70923985573834"} -{"article":"MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- A roadside bombing in Somalia's capital killed 21 women who were cleaning rubbish from a southern Mogadishu street on Sunday morning, a hospital official said. Mogadishu residents gather around victims of the bomb attack along the city's Maka Al Mukarama Road. The bomb blast wounded another 46 people, most of them Somali women who had gathered to clean Maka Al Mukarama Road in southern Mogadishu's Kilometer 4 district, according to Medina Hospital director Dr. Dahir Dhere. \"It suddenly turned the area into a carnage, scattering body parts of the street cleaners into a large area,\" said witness Asha Ise Gedi. \"There were pools of blood everywhere. I have never seen such mass killing.\" \"They were innocent poor mothers or sisters,\" Gedi said. \"Why did they deserve this?\" It is unclear who is behind the attack. Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb Mohamed Dhere, who was recently fired by the country's prime minister, blamed the Islamic Courts Union for waging the attack. But the head of the Islamist insurgent group, Abid Rahim Ise Adow, denied any involvement and blamed Somalia's government for orchestrating the attack. The victims were participating in a program that allows Somali women to work as street cleaners in exchange for food. The United Nations' World Food Program organized the program, which began last year and is administered by Mogadishu's regional authority. Mogadishu has been the site of violence in recent months between Ethiopian troops and Islamist fighters. Somalia's current transitional government is trying to maintain control of the capital, with the help of the better-equipped Ethiopian forces. On Saturday, two-thirds of the Somali government ministers announced their resignations, blaming Prime Minister Nur Hassan Nur Ade's \"dictatorship,\" which they said included his firing of Mogadishu's mayor. Nur Ade said he suspects the mass resignations were aimed at weakening implementation of the peace agreement between Somalia's transitional government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. He said he had no plans to resign. The peace agreement, signed June 9 in Djibouti, calls for a cease-fire between Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, an opposition group that includes members of the Islamist Court Union which overthrew the government in 2006. The ICU was ousted from power later that year by Ethiopian forces, with the support of Somalia's transitional government. If followed, the peace deal would pave the way for a withdrawal of Ethiopian troops -- a major sticking point for Islamist fighters who oppose their presence. The agreement calls on the alliance to dissociate itself from armed groups still fighting the government and for all sides to allow \"unhindered humanitarian access and assistance\" to all Somalis. A joint committee led by U.N. officials will monitor the agreement's implementation. Ethiopian forces became embroiled in an Islamist insurgency after the Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia in December 2006 to overthrow the ICU leaders and reinstall the transitional government. As guerrilla attacks mounted, efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union-led peacekeeping mission faltered. Ethiopia's invasion had the blessing of Somalia's government and the United States, which accused the ICU of harboring fugitives from the al Qaeda terrorist movement. The conflict displaced hundreds of thousands of Somalis, further worsening a humanitarian crisis that dates back to the collapse of the country's last government in 1991. The situation has been exacerbated by drought, continual armed conflicts in central and southern Somalia, and high inflation on food and fuel prices. CNN's Alan Duke and journalists Mohamed Amin Adow and Abdi Nasir Mohamed contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mayor blames Islamist fighters for blast; Islamist fighters blame government .\nNEW: Women part of U.N. program in which they cleaned streets for food .\nMogadishu the site of violence between Ethiopian troops and Islamist fighters .\n11 ministers resign Saturday, prime minister has refused to step down .","id":"e43fc7e34d05a75894279f55935b25040a6d7017"} -{"article":"NAPLES, Florida (CNN) -- At least seven possible tornadoes were reported Tuesday in eastern Florida as Tropical Storm Fay battered parts of the state with high winds and heavy rain, the National Hurricane Center said. Fay tore through Barefoot Bay, Florida, south of Melbourne Tuesday. Fay could strengthen into a hurricane when it swings over Florida again Thursday, according to the center. \"This storm is going to be with us for a while,\" said Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. \"Looks like it could be a boomerang storm.\" A hurricane watch has been issued for Florida's east coast, from north of Flagler Beach to Altamaha Sound. At 5 p.m., the center of the storm was about 60 miles southwest of Melbourne, the hurricane center said. Fay was traveling north-northeast at 8 mph. Florida Power & Light reported more than 93,000 customers without power in 20 counties. Most of the outages -- 34,000 -- were in Collier County, where Fay came ashore earlier in the day. As many as 9,700 residents in Brevard County were without power Tuesday evening, according to David Waters, the county Emergency Operations Center spokesman. A Brevard County tornado that hit about 1:45 p.m. damaged more than 50 homes, leaving nine uninhabitable, according to the emergency operations center. Three people suffered minor injuries, officials said. Fay's maximum sustained winds remained near 65 mph, with higher gusts, forecasters said. A storm tracker in Moore Haven, near the west bank of Lake Okeechobee, reported winds up to 81 mph in the afternoon. \"Some fluctuations in intensity are likely this afternoon and tonight as Fay moves inland over Florida. Some strengthening is expected when Fay moves over the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday,\" according to the hurricane center. The storm was earlier buffeting Lake Okeechobee with high winds as it moved north and northeast through Florida, leaving a trail of flooding, broken trees and power outages. At midday, the hurricane center issued two tornado warnings -- for St. Lucie and Indian River counties, and tornado watches were in effect for several areas, most of them ending at 4 p.m. A possible twister hit Wellington in Palm Beach County, where the violent weather ripped a small barn off its foundation and left a horse standing unhurt on a concrete slab, authorities said. Dr. Bob Smith, an associate veterinarian at the Palm Beach Equine Clinic, said an 8-year-old quarterhorse named Onyx was in a stall, untied, when the suspected tornado hit about 2 a.m. It destroyed the structure \"and left the horse standing there unscathed,\" Smith said. iReport.com: Flooding, beached whale as Fay hits . When he came to work several hours later, a technician had rescued the horse, who was not visibly rattled, Smith said. \"She's just calm and cool,\" he said. \"She's fine.\" Smith said roof tiles flew off the veterinary clinic and broke car windows in a nearby parking lot. The storm also picked up a horse trailer and smashed it into another horse trailer, he said. A tropical storm warning remained in effect along Florida's east coast from north of Ocean Reef to Flagler Beach, including Lake Okeechobee. A tropical storm watch covered that coast north of Flagler Beach to Fernandina Beach. Fay is expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain over southern and east-central Florida, with possible maximum amounts of 15 inches. Three to 5 inches of rain were possible in the northwestern Bahamas. Steve Delai, deputy chief of Fire and Rescue for Palm Beach County, said he could not confirm a tornado had hit the southeast county, but the damage was \"consistent with a tornado.\" \"It's clear that the damage was in a very linear fashion,\" he said. Crist said 31 schools were closed in the region Tuesday as a precaution. All but four, including Brevard County, will be open Wednesday. \"Floridians should continue to monitor local news reports, stay calm and exercise common sense,\" he advised. \"Please remember to be cautious when testing generators and other hurricane-related equipment. \"In areas where the weather is getting worse, stay inside and stay off the roads and be safe,\" Crist added. Fay's landfall at Cape Romano south of Marco Island was the third for the storm, which came ashore in western Cuba Sunday night and then again over Key West Monday afternoon. Cindy Lou Corum, who lives in Palm Beach County, said her home was surrounded by water. See the path of damage in photos and videos \u00bb . \"I'm going to need a rowboat to get out of my house,\" she said. \"I may have to swim out.\" For residents in Punta Gorda, in southwest Florida, the storm and its trail of damage are a reminder of the devastation from Hurricane Charley in 2004. Irene Faust has lived in mobile homes up and down the Florida coast for 35 years. Her trailer in Punta Gorda was destroyed by Charley. Faust, who turns 82 on Thursday, said she learned from Charley and is urging others not to wait out the storm in their trailer. \"I'd say, get out of a mobile home, because it's like a cracker box,\" she said. iReport.com: Your images tell the story . Concern about Fay's strength also led school officials in Broward County to delay the start of the school year, which was supposed to begin Monday. Watch wind and rain batter Key West \u00bb . CNN's Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seven suspected tornadoes reported Tuesday in eastern Florida .\nForecasters: Fay will become a hurricane in Florida on Thursday .\nTens of thousands of people without power in southern Florida .\nTrack Fay with CNN's Hurricane Tracker .","id":"518daa3f4d9f4eb8d3e6dec7852c8b645d1ceb49"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reversed her opposition to a vote on offshore drilling on \"Larry King Live\" on Monday night, saying she would consider a vote if it were part of a larger energy package. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urges the release of oil from strategic reserves as a way to bring down gas prices. Pelosi and fellow House Democrats have staunchly opposed Republicans' request for a vote on the drilling. Some Republicans stayed in chambers after Congress adjourned for the session, making speeches on energy policies, in an attempt to get Democrats to come back for a vote. Reacting to Pelosi's remarks, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the speaker should call the House of Representatives back from its summer recess immediately if she is sincere about a vote on off-shore drilling. \"Our message to Speaker Pelosi is very simple: We are ready to vote on more energy production and lower gas prices right now, and we should not wait one more day to begin giving the American people the relief they expect and deserve,\" Boehner said. \"If you meant what you said last night, we welcome you and your Democratic colleagues to join us in our historic call to action on American energy.\" On Monday night, Pelosi said the vote would need to be part of a larger discussion that would include investing in renewable energy resources and releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Those options would help bring both immediate and long-lasting solutions to the energy crisis, she said. In her interview with King, Pelosi talked about what the government and country needs to do to avert the energy crisis and quickly bring down gas prices. The following is an edited version of the interview: . Larry King: OK, Madam Speaker, author of \"Know Your Power,\" why don't you bring [Congress] back? Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Well, it's interesting to hear Sen. [John] McCain talk about bringing Congress back. He wasn't even in Congress this last session when we really had two very important bills on energy -- one to give tax credit for wind, solar and other renewable resources, and another about hybrid cars and the rest. So he wasn't in to vote when were in session and now he's saying call it back in. And then one of the others said to the president, call Congress back in. And the president said no. The president said no. But the point is this: The American people are suffering. We have to do what is best for them. How do we bring down the prices at the pump? We have said to the president, the fastest way to do this if in 10 days the price can come down if you will free our oil. Over 700 million barrels of oil the president is sitting on of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. No. 1, free our oil. No. 2, they want to drill. If they want to drill, we have 68 million acres in the Lower 48 that they can drill in that are permitted and all the rest. Three, stop the speculation. Four, renew -- invest in renewable energy resources, which will bring a faster return than drilling offshore, which will take 10 years and produce 2 cents' reduction in 10 years off the price at the pump. And then use natural gas. Natural gas is so plentiful. It's better for the environment, and it is cheaper. So there are things that Congress can do, and we have voted on this over and over again. But the Republicans and the president have resisted. Instead, they have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas. Well, we can do that. We can have a vote on that. But it has to be part of something that says we want to bring immediate relief to the public and not just a hoax on them. King: Would you vote yes on a package that includes drilling? Pelosi: I would not. It depends how the drilling is put forth. But I don't -- that is not excluded, let me say it that way. It depends how that is proposed, if the safeguards are there. Now, mind you, 68 million acres -- 10 million more acres in Alaska where they can drill. But if there's -- if we can get some great things, in terms of renewable energy resources: a renewable electricity standard, wind, solar, biofuels and the rest in that context, because if you make a decision only to go with the offshore drilling, you are increasing our dependence on fossil fuels, and you will never free yourself of that addiction unless you invest in the renewable energy resources that are good for the environment, cheaper for the consumer and will reverse global warming. And the consumer is our first responsibility. The American taxpayer owns this oil offshore, by the way. Let me make this one final point. This oil is owned by the American taxpayers. The oil companies drill. We give them money to drill there. But we get very little in return. So I think as we have this debate, which is a very healthy one to have and I welcome it; we have to review and realign the relationship between our oil, Big Oil's profits and what it means to the consumer and the taxpayer. King: Do you expect -- do you suspect the oil companies of having a lot of clout here, influence over the Republicans? Pelosi: Of course. Yes, they rule. And that's what we'll find out. King: They rule? Pelosi: When we have this vote, when we really define it and where the choice is clear to the American people -- I mean, do you know what -- Exxon Mobil, their last quarter, their profits were historic. Last year, they were historic. They outdid themselves this year already in this second quarter. And they insist that we pay them to drill. They need an incentive to drill in order to make over $11 billion in one quarter. And it just doesn't make sense. We should be using that money to invest in renewable resources, tax credit for wind and solar, etc. and invest in the technologies that will develop the battery and the rest, instead of giving Big Oil more profits. King: Do you expect to get a big enough majority in the Senate and House for the Democrats to overcome anything and get through your proposals? Pelosi: Well, I hope we can do some of it before we even leave this session. I think we can -- hopefully, we can do something before December. I will not subscribe to a hoax on the American people that if you drill offshore, you're going to bring down the price at the pump. Even the president says that's not true. Ten years, two cents -- we're saying 10 days, bring down the price, if the president would free our oil from the Strategic Petroleum [Reserve] -- from our stockpile -- owned by the taxpayers, purchased by the taxpayers. In the next election, I know that we will strengthen our majorities, increase their numbers, and we will have a Democratic president in the White House, and we will be able to address more fully really what I think is the challenge to our generation -- energy security and global warming.","highlights":"NEW: House minority leader calls for immediate vote on offshore drilling .\nHouse speaker says she'd be open for a vote on drilling as part of a larger package .\nPelosi: Releasing oil from strategic reserves would quickly reduce gas prices .\n\"We should be using that money to invest in renewable resources,\" Pelosi says .","id":"a86f10b66912e0221e9ad4d44c37fc7f4e138ed2"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Thirty people convicted of drug and other criminal charges will be hanged on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday. A convicted Iranian drug dealer is hanged from a crane in the southern city of Shiraz in September. The 30 had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them, Iran's judiciary said in a statement. The verdicts are final, and the sentences will be carried out Sunday, according to Fars. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. The U.S. executed 42 people in 2007, according to Amnesty International. The Iranian judiciary's statement said that all 30 were convicted of crimes including murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships -- relationships between men and women who are not married to each other. Kidnapping and using weapons while committing a crime were among the charges. The statement said that 20 of the people were convicted of drug and alcohol dealing, armed robbery and smuggling arms. The judiciary said it will provide more details later as to the crimes committed by those condemned and added that the hangings should serve as a warning to those who are contemplating committing such crimes. Others are awaiting trial, and their sentences will be carried out as soon as the verdicts are pronounced by the courts, the judiciary said. The judiciary asked the public to notify the authorities if they have any information that might lead to arrest and convictions of criminals. Iran's government launched a campaign March 20 to increase public security and bring the crime rate down. Police cracked down on drug dealers, whom they called criminal gang members, and habitual criminals who use guns in the commission of their crime. Alleged weapons smugglers and people who break social and religious laws, including adulterers, were also targets. National television showed scenes of what were described as criminals being paraded in chains as a deterrent to others. The wave of arrests has subsided, as officials are now prosecuting the suspects and sentencing those convicted. Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"The condemned include people convicted of drug and alcohol offenses .\nIran executed 317 people in 2007, compared with 42 executions in U.S.\nIran's government announced a crackdown on crime in March .","id":"a34829c5a83a3ef39c34b57b65cc48c9bf11f14b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"I AM\" is a new CNN.com feature built on the belief that the labels we use for one another don't really reveal who we are. We present a collection of people who may surprise you. They not only defy their labels, but they've done it in very public and dramatic ways. This week, I AM presents four African-Americans who challenge conventional notions of blackness. But then defining what it means to be black has long been a matter of debate within the African-American community. The R&B singer, Billy Paul, once had a song called, \"Am I Black Enough?\" Well are they? You be the judge. Barbara Hillary -- At the age of 75, she became the first African American woman to reach the North Pole. Maurice Ashley -- Is the first and only African American to attain the coveted title of International Grand Master of Chess. Bliss Broyard -- Author of \"One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life -- A Story of Race & Family Secrets,\" learned her father was black just before his death. Marvin Perkins -- As an African American elder in the Mormon church, Perkins says he is one of the world's best kept secrets in the world.","highlights":"\"I AM\" is built on the belief that the labels we use for others, don't reveal who we are .\nMeet four African Americans who challenge conventional notions of blackness .\nCNN Presents: Black in America airs July 23 and 24, at 9 p.m. ET .","id":"05c6b2a21f9c0ffd5f0c76c9ce4c6d3d875fcf39"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain in August will be on the same stage for the first time in the 2008 presidential campaign. The Rev. Rick Warren says he makes no endorsements because he shepherds \"both sides of the flock.\" The Rev. Rick Warren has invited them to appear at a leadership and compassion forum in his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, on August 16. Warren, the author of the best-selling book \"The Purpose Driven Life\" spoke with CNN's Wolf Blitzer by phone Tuesday from Sao Paulo, Brazil. BLITZER: Pastor Warren, how did you do it? How did you convince both of them to show up? PASTOR RICK WARREN, SADDLEBACK CHURCH: Well, Wolf, they've both been friends for a long time. I knew both John and Barack before either of them decided to run for office, had talked with them. Both of them have helped me in the past with our peace plan and with -- they've sent messages to Saddleback at some of our conferences. And so I just thought let's -- you know, I might be the guy to get them together. So, I called them up and said, let's do it. And they said, well, we'll do it if you be the only questioner, if you don't have a forum, don't have a panel. And if you'll ask all the questions, then we'll do it. BLITZER: But they're not going to be together. They're going to be separate. These are going to be Pastor Warren and Barack Obama, followed by Pastor Warren and John McCain. But there's not going to be any interchange between the two of them, is that right? WARREN: Yes. I'm going to -- my plan is to bring them out on stage together at the beginning or at the end. But what I want to do is I want to let each of them talk without interrupting each other. And it's not a debate format. There will be plenty of time for debates. What I want to do is get people to know the real person like I know them without a time barrier and a buzzer and a time for rebuttal. Let them just speak what they need to say. BLITZER: The last time we spoke was right after you invited Barack Obama when he was still running for the Democratic presidential nomination. You got some criticism from a few fellow evangelicals out there. You called him in the interview with me an amazing, an amazing man, Barack Obama. Could you see yourself supporting him for president? WARREN: Well, I don't support anybody for president publicly. I never endorse. I never campaign. You know, as a pastor, I don't really think that's my role. I have to shepherd both sides of the flock. And I have a church full of Democrats and a church full of Republicans and a church full of independents. So, I think they're both amazing men. I've known them for a long time. They're both very, very different. They have both different theories of government, different theories of leadership, different approaches to life. And I -- what I do is I think, because I know them, I think I can set up an environment that people can actually say, oh, so that's what that guy's really like. And I think I can do that for both John and for Barack.","highlights":"The Rev. Rick Warren will play host to candidates at his church .\nWarren says he's friends with both and wants people to know them as he does .\nWarren is author of the best-selling book \"The Purpose Driven Life\"","id":"b3e6507640b009ed51c8c8f8be85d0b7fec5b579"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday the Bush administration is trying to \"blame the fire on the person who calls 911\" by suggesting he had a role in one of the costliest U.S. bank failures. Sen. Charles Schumer said the OTS \"ought to stop pointing false fingers of blame.\" Federal regulators with the Office of Thrift Supervision were \"asleep at the switch\" when it came to IndyMac's \"reckless\" behavior, the New York Democrat complained. The OTS announced Friday that it was taking over the $32 billion IndyMac and transferring control to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The OTS pointed the finger directly at Schumer for the failure, accusing him of sparking a bank run by releasing a letter that \"expressed concerns about IndyMac's viability.\" Watch what's next for IndyMac \u00bb . \"In the following 11 business days, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion from their accounts,\" the OTS said in a statement announcing the California-based lender's takeover on Friday. The statement included a quote from OTS Director John Reich saying, \"Although this institution was already in distress, I am troubled by any interference in the regulatory process.\" Schumer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, chairman of Congress' Joint Economic Committee and the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, rejected any suggestions of responsibility for IndyMac's collapse . \"OTS ought to stop pointing false fingers of blame and start doing its job to protect the future of the banking system, so that there won't be other IndyMacs,\" he said. Schumer's June 26 letter said he was \"concerned that IndyMac's financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers.\" In a Sunday news conference, he said everything in his letter was already known to the public. \"IndyMac was one of the most poorly run and reckless of all the banks,\" he said. \"It was a spinoff from the old Countrywide, and like Countrywide, it did all kinds of profligate activities that it never should have. Both IndyMac and Countrywide helped cause the housing crisis we're now in.\" The embattled Countrywide Financial Corp. was recently purchased by Bank of America. Schumer argued that the \"breadth and depth\" of the problems at IndyMac were \"apparent for years, and they accelerated in the last six months.\" But OTS, he said, \"was asleep at the switch and allowed things to happen without restraint. \"And now they are doing what the Bush administration always does: Blame the fire on the person who calls 911.\" The White House had no immediate response. Schumer said OTS is \"known as a weak regulator,\" and added, \"my job was to try and toughen them up and that's what I tried to do.\" IndyMac, with assets of $32 billion and deposits of $19 billion, is the fifth bank to fail this year. Between 2005 and 2007, only three banks failed. And in the past 15 years, the FDIC has taken over 127 banks with combined assets of $22 billion, according to FDIC records. IndyMac will reopen Monday with a new charter and a new name -- IndyMac Federal Bank.","highlights":"FDIC taking control of the $32 billion IndyMac .\nOTS accuses Sen. Charles Schumer of sparking a bank run .\nSchumer: IndyMac \"one of the most poorly run and reckless of all the banks\"\nSchumer rejects any suggestions of responsibility for IndyMac's collapse .","id":"6e930c55a62640d218e4b94f39cb7c83b6ad9117"} -{"article":"SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- The three Americans rescued after more than five years in captivity in Colombia say they are doing well but are \"overwhelmed with emotion,\" according to a statement released on their behalf. \"Words alone can never possibly express the thrill and excitement we feel to be back home in the United States of America with our families at our side,\" the Friday statement from Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell said. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had held the three U.S. government contractors since February 2003, after their plane crashed in a remote region of the South American country. They were among 15 hostages rescued Wednesday in a Colombian military operation. Watch Colombians celebrate success \u00bb . Also among the rescued hostages was French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who returned to France on Friday. She is undergoing medical tests at a Paris military hospital, The Associated Press reported. Watch Betancourt's joyous return to France \u00bb . Shortly after the plane crashed, FARC members killed contractor Tom Janis, according to employer Northrop Grumman, and Colombian army Sgt. Luis Cruz, according to the U.S. State Department. The three freed Americans are being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Learn about the former hostages \u00bb . \"For five-and-a-half long years, we all hoped and prayed this day would come,\" their statement said. \"Now that it has, we're just overwhelmed with emotion. The love and the joy we're all experiencing is beyond description. \"We want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the government and the armed forces of Colombia. The operation they conducted to rescue us was one for the history books -- something we will never forget for the rest of our lives.\" Colombian authorities unveiled details and a videotape Friday describing the mission, which involved tricking the leftist rebels into giving up their hostages. Watch video of the rescue \u00bb . Government agents had infiltrated the FARC leadership over several months. This week they talked the rebels into moving the hostages, saying a humanitarian group wanted to check on them. A helicopter carrying fake rebels picked up the hostages at a rendezvous point, ostensibly to take them to another rebel camp. It actually was a government helicopter, and the hostages were whisked to freedom without a shot being fired. Learn about FARC \u00bb . On Thursday, doctors at the Brooke Army Medical Center said the three Americans appeared to be in good health. Initial tests had for now ruled out the suspicion of infectious diseases, and although other medical tests are pending, \"everything really looks well,\" said Col. Jackie Hayes, a psychiatrist and the lead physician on the men's medical team. Hayes said patient confidentiality rules prevented him from commenting on reports that Gonsalves was suffering from hepatitis. Maj. Gen. Keith Huber, commander of U.S. Army South, said the contractors were in the second phase of a three-phase process designed to ease their transition back to normal life. \"They greeted me with a strong handshake and clear eyes and an incredible smile,\" he said.","highlights":"Three men, safe in Texas, express gratitude to Colombian military .\nEx-hostages said to be doing well, in reintegration process .\nFrench-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt undergoing medical tests in Paris .\n15 hostages freed Wednesday when Colombian agents tricked rebels .","id":"cd13c83364964da3b3659782e6ef0d2b3dc273b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cuba is more than a thousand miles from my home in New York, but it's a place close to my heart. Steve Kastenbaum talks with Salomon Leyderman outside the Adath Israel synagogue in Havana, Cuba. I went to Cuba to report on a country that appears to be on the cusp of a new era. My focus was the future of U.S.-Cuban relations and the reforms under Cuban leader Ra\u00fal Castro. But a vague notion of exploring my family history in Cuba resulted in the most memorable story of the entire journey. More than 15,000 Jews were living in Cuba in the 1940s and '50s. Today, there are about 1,500. My grandmother, the daughter of Russian immigrants, was born in Havana, and my grandfather came to Cuba when he was just 3 years old. His family left Germany in the 1920s. To me, they were as much Cuban as they were Jewish. Watch how everyday life has changed for Cubans \u00bb . My grandparents left Cuba in the late '40s so that their children would be born in the United States. The last members of my family to leave Cuba did so post-revolution, in the 1960s. I was eager to see what had become of the places they left behind. Slideshow: Learn more about the Jewish population in Cuba \u00bb . When Castro lifted restrictions on religion in the mid-'90s, the once-dilapidated building that houses congregation El Patronato came back to life. Today, it's a thriving center for the local Jewish community. When I arrived, the children's summer program was in full swing. A few dozen boys and girls were laughing and playing as they waited for lunch to be served. I wasn't prepared for the wave of emotions that overcame me. Had things been different, I could have been just like them. Slideshow: Experience more of Kastenbaum's explorations of Cuba \u00bb . My next stop took me to Habana Viejo. Jewish life in Cuba has its roots in Old Havana, where my great-grandparents settled. I walked the streets where they lived and stopped in at the only remaining kosher butcher in town. I passed the building that once housed the local synagogue where my grandparents were wed. Watch efforts to restore parts of Havana \u00bb . The current home of Adath Israel is a few blocks away. At the front door, Salomon Leyderman introduced himself to me as the oldest Jew in Cuba. He's 86. I took out some old family photos, and Salomon immediately recognized my great-grandfather, Salomon Sher. He shouted out in Spanish, \"they were tailors!\" I couldn't believe my ears. This 86-year-old man told me how my great-grandfather was highly regarded in the community, how he belonged to many social organizations and how after the revolution, he made it possible for many Cuban Jews to leave the island and join him in Miami, Florida. As he looked at a family portrait, Salomon began to cry. He recognized Luis Sher, my grandmother's brother. He said Luis gave him as a gift a suit to wear at his bar mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony marking a boy's transition into manhood. It took place more than 70 years ago, but he recalled the details as if it happened yesterday. Tears were flowing down my cheeks, too. The following day, I called my father in New York and handed the cell phone to the oldest Jew in Cuba. This time there were no tears, just laughter. After the call, Salomon looked at my sneakers and said they're good shoes. He told me he's a European size 42, and I should bring him a pair when I return. He then asked me to send him a card on Hanukkah and smiled. Steve Kastenbaum is a New York correspondent for CNN Radio.","highlights":"A CNN Radio correspondent explores his Jewish heritage in Cuba .\nHis grandparents left Cuba in the late 1940s .\nAn 86-year-old Jewish man remembered correspondent's family .","id":"328210eaa50ae54cc3d979958c1d2008faa27401"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Zealand warmed up for their Tri-Nations decider against Australia with a 101-14 rout of Samoa in a one-off rugby union Test on Wednesday in New Plymouth, running in 15 tries. Conrad Smith touches down for one of his two tries in the All Blacks win. Fullback Mils Muliaina scored three tries in the first half, center Conrad Smith and winger Richard Kahui touched down twice and nine other players added their names to the New Zealand scoresheet as the All Blacks beat a weakened Samoan team by a record margin. New Zealand led 47-7, seven tries to one, at halftime and added eight tries, including a penalty try, in the second spell to surpass their highest score against Samoa. The All Blacks had a 26-0 lead after 16 minutes and set their record score against Samoa -- surpassing the 71-13 in 1999 -- despite being held scoreless for periods of 18 minutes in the first half and 10 minutes in the second. It was the fifth time New Zealand had reached 100 points in a match, with the All Blacks' record being the 145-17 win over Japan at the 1995 World Cup. Samoa was forced to pick a severely under-strength side because many of its leading and most-experienced players are involved with European club sides. Most of the players who took the field Wednesday were young and Samoa-based and playing against the All Blacks for the first time. Although outgunned by an All Blacks team which overwhelmingly controlled territory and possession, Samoa played with great spirit and scored a try in each half. Flyhalf Uale Mai scored and converted his own try after 28 minutes and flanker Alafoti Faosiliva touched down off a break by Uale Mai four minutes before fulltime. \"What can you say? 100 points,\" Samoa captain Filipo Levi said. \"It shows the All Blacks are on fire at the moment. They've showed in the Tri-Nations competition that they're a very consistent team. \"For some of our boys it was a big step up from playing club rugby in Samoa but, having said that, it was a big learning curve.\" Flyhalf Daniel Carter converted six of the All Blacks' first-half tries, surpassing 2,000 points in first-class rugby, and his replacement Stephen Donald scored his first Test try and converted seven of New Zealand's eight second-half tries. The match was scheduled to help the All Blacks bridge the three-week gap between their most recent Tri-Nations clash with South Africa and their next, against Australia, at Brisbane on September 13. The Brisbane match will decide the outcome of the Tri-Nations tournament. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Zealand rout Samao 101-14 in rugby union Test in New Plymouth .\nAll Blacks run in 15 tries as they warm up for Tri-Nations decider against Australia .\nFlyhalf Dan Carter passes 2,000 first class points during match .","id":"b67b63d1da9cccd6e229d5755065d57dd1653feb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal investigators will declare the 2001 anthrax case solved on Wednesday, when they make public their case against government researcher Bruce Ivins, a government source familiar with the case told CNN on Tuesday. Ex-Army scientist Bruce Ivins, seen here in 2003, died from an apparent suicide last week. But the case will not be considered closed, because administrative details remain incomplete, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Before making the information public, the FBI is expected to share the evidence of Ivins' involvement with survivors and relatives of victims in the anthrax attacks, the source said. A lawyer for Maureen Stevens, the widow of Bob Stevens, the first victim of the 2001 attacks, said she was invited to the session and will attend. The tabloid photo editor died after inhaling anthrax that investigators believe was in a letter sent to American Media Inc., the publisher of the Sun and National Enquirer tabloids, at its offices in Boca Raton, Florida. Another source familiar with the investigation said Tuesday that in the fall of 2001, Ivins borrowed a machine that can convert wet anthrax, the kind used at Fort Detrick, into dry powder, which was found in the anthrax letters. Such machines, called lyophilizers, are not usually used at Fort Detrick, where Ivins worked, though they are easy to obtain. Experts said the report may have no significance. \"I wouldn't necessarily make the conclusion that, just because he had access to a lyophilizer and used a lyophilizer, that that provides a smoking gun, that he must be using this for sinister purposes,\" said Peter Hotez, chairman of microbiology at George Washington University in Washington. Richard Spertzel, a former biodefense scientist who worked with Ivins at the lab at Fort Detrick, said there was \"no way\" a lyophilizer could have created the fine anthrax spores used in the 2001 letters. Spertzel said a more advanced machine would have been needed, and that no one working at a U.S. government lab could have produced such high quality anthrax in secret. Ivins, who is expected to be blamed for the mailings of the toxin, which killed five people and sickened more than a dozen others -- died July 27 at a hospital in Frederick, Maryland, from an apparent suicide attempt two days earlier. No charges have been made public. He became a suspect after investigators found DNA evidence from the 2001 anthrax mailings on a flask used in his laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases, said a source who is familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Ivins had worked for decades in the biodefense lab at Fort Detrick, where he was trying to develop a better vaccine against the toxin. The FBI had traced the anthrax used in the attacks to the lab by using a new technology, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation said. Authorities were looking at whether Ivins may have released anthrax to test a vaccine he was working on, another official said. Some of the anthrax-laced letters, written in crude block letters, included the words, \"Take penacilin (sic) now,\" according to photographs released by the FBI. Since Ivins' death, suspicions about his involvement in the anthrax attacks have surfaced alongside questions about his sanity. At the time of his death, the 62-year-old scientist was under a temporary restraining order sought by a social worker who had counseled him in private and group sessions. She accused him of having harassed, stalked and threatened her with violence. The woman told the court in her complaint that Ivins had been treated at a mental health facility. Steven Hatfill, another government scientist who was named by the Justice Department as a \"person of interest\" in the attacks, was never charged. He sued the department, which settled the case in June. The skepticism in scientific circles about the strength of the case against Ivins heightens the importance of the government's unveiling of its evidence against the scientist, a former prosecutor said. \"I think the public and the survivors of the anthrax attacks are entitled to see the evidence before the grand jury,\" said Andrew McBride. \"And if there was a draft indictment and they were ready to indict Mr. Ivins, they ought to see that as well.\" CNN Producer Kevin Bohn contributed to this story.","highlights":"Source: Feds to declare anthrax case solved but not closed .\nBruce Ivins, 62, died last week as FBI prepared to charge him in 2001 attacks .\nAnother source says Ivins used a machine to convert wet anthrax into dry powder .\nAuthorities will make case public after sharing details with victims and relatives .","id":"e4c55cb4bb6e5418d8486fb7c9369b6c84b2716d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Oklahoma health officials said Friday they are searching for the source of a rare form of E. coli that has killed one person and sickened 116 others in the northeastern part of the state. The subtype of bacteria -- called E. coli 0111 -- is \"not normally found in this form of outbreak,\" said Leslea Bennett-Webb, director of communication for the Oklahoma State Department of Health. More than 50 people have been hospitalized and nine people -- six of them children -- have been placed on dialysis, she said. She said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, helped state officials determine the subtype, but said the cause of the outbreak remains unknown. \"The focus has been narrowed to the Country Cottage Restaurant located in Locust Grove,\" she said, noting that most of the people who became ill ate there between August 15 and August 23. Tests carried out on water from a well on restaurant property indicate the presence of bacteria, but \"we have not been able to confirm what kind of bacteria,\" said Skylar McElhaney, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. The Oklahoma Department of Health will analyze them and compare them with samples taken from victims, she said. \"We can't say for sure that it is tied to the water in any way, but we also cannot rule it out,\" she said. Symptoms of infection with the bacteria can include severe diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, vomiting and severe abdominal cramping, said Larry Weatherford of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Management at the restaurant, which has closed during the investigation, was working closely with health officials, he added. Meanwhile, the outbreak appears to be abating. \"While we believe we are seeing a downward curve in the number of people who have become ill, we still have many challenges with some patients who remain hospitalized,\" said State Epidemiologist Dr. Kristy Bradley. \"We continue to ask the public to be extra diligent in their hand washing and food preparation to minimize the possibility of additional persons becoming ill.\" The CDC estimates there may be about 70,000 E. coli infections each year in the United States.","highlights":"1 person dead, 116 ill in northeastern part of the state .\nFocus of investigation is restaurant in Locust Grove, Oklahoma .\nOfficials say this form of E. coli is \"not normally found in this form of outbreak\"\nOfficials say outbreak appears to be abating .","id":"544b165ad1d22a5dcbbab469a2aa7666c2868361"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- As Hurricane Gustav neared Louisiana's coast Monday morning, forecasters warned that the storm could stall over Louisiana and northeast Texas for several days, which would \"exacerbate the threat of heavy rains and inland flooding.\" Water from a canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, floods a road as Hurricane Gustav makes landfall Monday. Southern Louisiana's barrier islands and coast reported hurricane force winds and heavy rains from Gustav, which was centered about 80 miles south of New Orleans and about 20 miles south-southeast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 8 a.m. CT. Power went out about 6 a.m. in the western part of downtown New Orleans and in the French Quarter 10 minutes later, CNN correspondents Chris Lawrence and Anderson Cooper reported. The eye of Hurricane Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 9:30 a.m. CT, the National Hurricane Center said. Gustav's top winds weakened to 110 mph, downgrading it to a Category 2 storm, the hurricane center said. Watch water overflow banks of Industrial Canal \u00bb . Earlier predictions of a Category 4 storm, which would mean winds of at least 131 mph, and fresh memories of Katrina, which came ashore in 2005 with 127-mph winds, fueled the evacuation of 2 million residents from New Orleans and other parishes. But Gustav never regained the strength lost over Cuba, and by Monday morning hurricane center forecasters said its cloud pattern looked \"a bit more ragged.\" Watch New Orleans man explain his sad reason for staying \u00bb . The latest discussion published by the hurricane center forecasters said computer models show \"Gustav or its remnants slowing to a crawl\" over northeast Texas over the next three to five days. \"Such slow motion would exacerbate the threat of heavy rains and inland flooding,\" the forecasters said. Watch water spill over canal levee \u00bb . With hurricane-force winds extending 70 miles from the center, the islands and shoreline are already in reach of Gustav's fury. Sustained winds of 91 mph and gusts of 117 mph were measured in Southwest Pass, Louisiana, during the 4 a.m. hour, the hurricane center said. CNN's Ali Velshi was hunkered down in a house on Grand Isle, Louisiana, where only a handful of people remained. When high winds first kicked up about 3:15 a.m. Monday, the barrier island's electric power went out, Velshi said. A storm surge of at least 14 feet is expected there, he said.","highlights":"NEW: Eye of Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 9:30 a.m. CT .\nGustav stalling over northeast Texas would \"exacerbate\" inland flooding, warns NHC .\nHurricane Gustav's 110 mph winds downgrade it to a Category 2 storm .","id":"2577ef64a22c06cf63cb244abfad9ecc46603208"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- The leader of Nepal's former communist rebels was named as the country's new prime minister Friday. Prachanda is still the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, was elected four months after elections in which his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party in the 601-member constituent assembly. Prachanda received 464 votes of the 577 votes cast, while his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress party received 113 votes. Most of the parties in the assembly voted for the Maoist candidate. A simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister. Prachanda's victory became certain on Thursday when the third and fourth biggest parties in Nepal's assembly decided to back him. He will now lead a coalition government, although talks are ongoing on about the allocation of ministerial portfolios. The Maoists signed a peace deal with the government in November 2006, joined an interim parliament and government in 2007 and fought multi-party elections in April this year. The Communist Party of Nepal unexpectedly became the largest party in the elections, winning 220 of the 575 elected seats in the assembly. The assembly declared Nepal a republic in May and in July elected Nepal's first president, physician Ram Baran Yadav. Prachanda, 54, entered politics when he was 17 but went underground in 1981, making his first public appearance after 25 years in 2006. The Maoists launched an insurgency to abolish the monarchy in 1996 and the ten-year conflict claimed more than 13,000 lives. According to the peace deal agreed in 2008, the estimated 19,602 Maoist combatants would be integrated into the country's security structure, the process of which is yet to be worked out. Prachanda remains the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Besides completing the peace process, the new government has to face many challenges including inflation, lawlessness, impunity and ethnic aspirations.","highlights":"Prachanda, Communist Party of Nepal chairman, won 464 out of 577 votes .\nA simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister .\nAssembly declared Nepal a republic in May and July elected first president .\nThe post of president is largely ceremonial. PM has executive powers .","id":"2a73430dd3232ad3da7570a5ac133d7f29a6b6c6"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Gustav churned into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday night, still an \"extremely dangerous\" Category 4 storm threatening to blast the same region devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Saturday morning, Gustav was about 255 miles east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. Gustav, a Category 4 storm with 135 mph (220 km\/hr) top winds, was centered 485 miles (780 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the National Hurricane Center's 6 a.m. GMT (2 a.m. ET) advisory. That's only 15 mph slower than when the storm first crossed land in Cuba. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm could pick up even more strength as it enters the gulf's warmer waters. The Hurricane Center said Gustav is an \"extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane.\" In the United States, state and federal officials -- eager to prove they are ready -- urged residents to flee, and many of those residents obeyed, moving north by the tens of thousands, according to the governor of Louisiana, whose state was hit three years ago by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called Gustav \"the mother of all storms,\" saying its destruction could outstrip that from Katrina, which flooded much of his city and killed about 3,000 people. A hurricane watch remained in effect for the northern Gulf Coast from east of High Island Texas eastward to the Alabama-Florida border, including the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, the National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 36 hours. On its current track, Gustav would reach the northern Gulf on Monday. Thousands of anxious Cubans had boarded up their homes and sought safety from Gustav earlier as it slammed into the island nation. as it made landfall in western Cuba on Saturday night with sustained winds near 150 mph (240 kmh), the National Hurricane Center said. Some fluctuations, with an overall slight strengthening, is forecast for the next 24 hours, and forecasters said Gustav could become a Category 5 hurricane within that period. See Gustav's projected path \u00bb . Hurricanes are ranked 1 to 5 in intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A Category 5 is the highest classification, with sustained winds of more than 155 mph. A Category 4 has winds of 131 to 155 mph and can cause extreme damage. Anticipating the storm, about 10,000 Cubans evacuated Saturday to Cuba's mainland from La Isla de Juventud, or Isle of Youth, a province south of the nation's western end. The hurricane center said western Cuba could receive as much as 25 inches of rain. Residents sought refuge with family or friends, or went to a government shelter, CNN's Morgan Neill said. Cubans also headed to higher ground on the mainland, with many utilizing horse-drawn carriages and vintage cars. President Ra\u00fal Castro checked with the island's officials Saturday to be sure preparations were on track, Neill said. Cuba's western province of Pinar del Rio, currently under a hurricane warning, is the center of the nation's lucrative cigar industry. A hurricane warning remained in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, la Habana, Ciudad de la Habana, Isla de Juventud, Matanzas and Cienfuegos. A warning indicates that hurricane conditions will arrive in the next 24 hours. Gustav caused little damage on Grand Cayman on Friday night, according to an official at the Island's airport. As a tropical storm, Gustav blasted Jamaica with high winds and drenched it with heavy rain Thursday night into Friday. Four people were killed, the National Emergency Operations Center in Jamaica said, and the storm downed trees and damaged houses. \"It is total devastation everywhere,\" the councilor for the Manchioneal division, Alston Hunter, told the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper. \"Several residents are now crammed into disaster shelters here in east Portland, and the weather continues to make the situation worse.\" At least 51 people were killed in southwestern Haiti and eight were killed in neighboring Dominican Republic as Gustav roared through as a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday, officials there said. The hurricane center's five-day forecast places a landfall anywhere from Galveston, Texas, east to Mobile, Alabama. New Orleans, Louisiana, is at the center of the projected path. A hurricane watch remained in effect for the northern Gulf Coast from east of High Island, Texas, to the Alabama-Florida border, including the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, the National Hurricane Center said. A watch means hurricane conditions are possible within the specified area, generally within 36 hours. The Gulf Coast is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people when it slammed ashore August 29, 2005. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Hurricane Katrina victims living in government-issued trailers or mobile homes along his state's coast will begin evacuating this weekend. Gustav is the second major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna passed north of the Leeward Islands on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph), the hurricane center said. The center predicted gradual strengthening, and Hanna could be near hurricane strength Sunday. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gustav heads into Gulf after Category 4 hurricane slams into Cuba .\nAbout 10,000 Cubans flee to mainland, some in vintage cars, horse-drawn carriages .\nStorm expected to hit Gulf Coast on Monday or Tuesday .\nCoastal Mississippi and New Orleans residents getting out .","id":"8fbcaf3abc124b7baaa278d382411f43e7e48353"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Environmental Protection Agency advised employees last month not to answer questions from journalists, the Government Accountability Office or the agency's inspector general, according to an EPA e-mail made public Monday. California Sen. Barbara Boxer has said the EPA is becoming a \"secretive, dangerous ally of polluters.\" \"Please do not respond to questions or make any statements,\" the June 16 e-mail said, advising staff to direct questioners to senior staff members cleared to answer questions from outside the agency. Robbi Farrell, chief of staff of the EPA's compliance assurance division, sent the e-mail to 11 managers in the department. The e-mail was posted on a Web site of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group, an alliance of state and federal environmental professionals, labeled the communication a \"gag order.\" \"The order reinforces a growing bunker mentality within an EPA that is the subject of a growing number of probes into political interference with agency operations,\" the group said. EPA press director Roxanne Smith rejected that characterization, saying the e-mail was about efficiency, not secrecy. The memo was a response to a May 2007 audit by the Inspector General's Office that found the EPA did not respond earlier to IG reports on problems with water enforcement and other issues, The Associated Press reported. The audit, however, did not make any recommendations governing communication between staff and the Inspector General's Office. \"A senior staffer in the enforcement office sent out an e-mail to simply help her office efficiently respond to requests from the press, GAO and EPA's inspector general,\" Smith told CNN. \"There is nothing in the procedure that restricts conversation between enforcement staff, the press, GAO and the IG,\" she said, adding it is \"consistent with existing agency polices.\" Smith is one of the people to whom recipients of the memo were told to direct journalists' questions. In a written statement, the EPA's Office of Inspector General said it did not approve the language of Robbi's warning and advised, \"All EPA officials and employees are required to cooperate\" with the office. \"This cooperation includes providing the OIG full and unrestricted access to EPA documents, records, and personnel,\" the statement read. \"We are currently engaged in discussions with OECA [Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance] to assure that OIG and OECA interpretations are consistent in this matter.\" And Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who has long battled with the agency's administrator, Stephen Johnson, said the instructions showed that Johnson is \"turning the EPA into a secretive, dangerous ally of polluters, instead of a leader in the effort to protect the health and safety of the American people.\" Last week, Johnson denied a request to appear before two Senate committees to talk about whether the EPA's decisions comply with its staff's legal and technical recommendations. The committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, has asked the inspector general's office to assess the administration's claims of executive privilege as it tries to keep documents related to EPA decisions from Congress. Boxer chairs the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. She is expected to hold a news conference Tuesday to talk about what she calls \"political interference in recent EPA decisions\" and discuss \"apparent contradictions between the sworn testimony\" of Johnson and accounts given by other sworn witnesses.","highlights":"EPA e-mail told employees not to answer questions from its own inspector's office .\nWorkers also told not to talk to reporters or Government Accountability Office .\nWatchdog group calls e-mail a \"gag order\"; EPA official says it's not about secrecy .\nTuesday news conference to address whether EPA avoided giving public information .","id":"bc04e5a298854589044eb5a162f281f3e7e12c16"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. Begala is not a paid political consultant for any politicians or candidates. Click here for a rival view . Paul Begala says McCain's VP choice, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is completely unqualified to be president. (CNN) -- John McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls \"a checkup from the neck up.\" In choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he is not thinking \"outside the box,\" as some have said. More like out of his mind. Palin a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment. In choosing this featherweight, McCain passed over Tom Ridge, a decorated combat hero, a Cabinet secretary and the former two-term governor of the large, complex state of Pennsylvania. iReport.com: 'McCain pick might be a gimmick' He passed over Mitt Romney, who ran a big state, Massachusetts; a big company, Bain Capital; and a big event, the Olympics. He passed over Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator who is knowledgeable about the military, good on television and -- obviously -- a woman. He passed over Joe Lieberman, his best friend in the Senate and fellow Iraq Kool-Aid drinker. He passed over former congressman, trade negotiator and budget director Rob Portman. And he also passed over Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas. For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown that he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Begala: McCain's VP choice unqualified to be heartbeat from the presidency .\nChoice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is \"shockingly irresponsible,\" he says .\nBegala says choice makes McCain's age, health, and judgment central issues .","id":"8c3b7358950d0684a90736fc39d08340d3ec41ee"} -{"article":"(REAL SIMPLE) -- Whether you're hosting a formal party or just throwing together snacks for drinks with friends, we've got ideas for transforming carryout into crowd-pleasing cuisine. Everyone will assume your sink is stacked with dirty pots and pans. (And if you keep them out of the kitchen, they'll never know the truth.) Tiny-size pizzas . Start with: A large cheese pizza. (Ask for it unsliced and, if possible, slightly underbaked.) To make: Avoiding the crust, cut out mini pizzas with round cookie or biscuit cutters. Heat the rounds at 400\u00ba Fahrenheit for about 5 minutes. Top with slices of olives, marinated mushrooms, chopped prosciutto, an anchovy fillet, or fresh herbs (such as basil, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary, thyme, or oregano). Mediterranean bruschetta . Start with: Garlic bread from your favorite Italian spot. To make: Slather slices with prepared marinara or pesto sauce. Top with goat cheese or mozzarella, a marinated pepper, or an oil-packed sun-dried tomato, then toast in the oven. Also try: Hummus po' boys. Spread hot garlic bread with hummus and top with coleslaw or lettuce and tomato. Cap with more hot, crunchy bread. Real Simple: How to know when food is cooked just right . Chicken- or shrimp-boat hors d'oeuvres . Start with: Your favorite chicken or shrimp Chinese stir-fry. To make: Mound spoonfuls of stir-fry into the cuplike center leaves from a head of Boston lettuce. If desired, top the boats with chopped nuts or scallion slices. Also try: Asian-Mexican fusion. Roll the dish with rice and some soy sauce in a giant tortilla. Slice into single-serving pieces. Chicken pasta with blue cheese and walnuts . Start with: A golden-brown rotisserie chicken. To make: Toss thin slices of chicken with hot pasta, crumbled blue cheese, and chopped walnuts. Also try: Quick chicken salad. Stir Dijon mustard, mayo, and chopped onion and herbs into shredded chicken meat. Season with salt and pepper and spoon onto whole-grain bread for sandwiches. Real Simple: Pasta glossary . Antipasto platter . Start with: Assorted salad-bar treats. To make: Arrange Swiss and cheddar cheese cubes, prosciutto and salami slices, marinated vegetables (artichoke hearts, red peppers, mushrooms), mixed olives, and giant capers on a platter. Also try: Salad bar as personal sous-chef. Make it your source for julienned vegetables, grated cheese, and bite-size meats. Roasted duck, watercress, and brown rice salad . Start with: Half a Chinese Peking duck (1 order). To make: Shred the meat and toss it with take-out brown rice and a splash of dumpling dipping sauce (most restaurants will add it to your order at no charge). Top with chopped watercress and scallions. Also try: Duck crostini. Finely chop the meat and toss it with minced herbs, chopped onion, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Pile the mixture on tiny toasts. Real Simple: Easy fixes for 8 common kitchen mishaps . Spareribs, minimalist style . Start with: A few orders of Chinese take-out ribs. To make: Simply separate the spareribs, heat, and serve on simple white plates. Also try: Spareribs with crunch. The glaze on Chinese-style ribs provides the perfect glue for a crunchy coating. Separate the ribs and roll them in chopped peanuts or toasted sesame seeds. Serve hot on a scoop of fried or steamed rice. Trimmings . Start with: A bucket of chicken, some biscuits, mashed potatoes, and gravy -- all from your local KFC. To make: Heat the chicken and biscuits in a 350\u00ba F oven for 10 minutes, then place in napkin-lined baskets. Put the potatoes and gravy (request it on the side) in your best bowls. Also try: Chicken dippers. Serve slices of fried chicken with homemade sauce -- yogurt or sour cream with honey mustard stirred in to taste. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"You can feed great food to guests by fiddling with takeout .\nUse cookie cutter to cut bite-size pizzas out of large uncut pizza .\nSlice a rotisserie chicken and toss with blue cheese and walnuts .\nSpoon shrimp stir-fry into Boston lettuce leaves, top with chopped nuts .","id":"d1a86381ca59e3471d2863688229922f83218150"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's newborn twins have been published for the first time after a magazine bidding war which news agencies claim topped $14 million. Hola! magazine, the Spanish sister publication to Hello!, has also published images of the Jolie-Pitt twins. Hello! magazine, which won international rights to the images, and People magazine, which took U.S. rights, published the photographs in their latest editions, which hit newsstands Monday. The two publications, which have previously secured image rights to the couple's elder children, are believed to have shared the costs, The Associated Press reported over the weekend. The agency quoted an unnamed source, not authorized to speak about the deal, as saying the pictures had fetched $14 million. The images show the couple, newborns Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline and the rest of the Jolie-Pitt family -- Maddox, 7, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2. The twins were born by Cesarian section at the Lenval hospital in the French Riviera resort of Nice on July 12. Hello! magazine, which heralds its coverage as the \"biggest exclusive of the year,\" devotes 17 pages of coverage to the twins' arrival. In an interview published in the magazine, Jolie says: \"Wanting a big family is one of the things that brought Brad and I together.\" Pitt adds: \"When Ange and I were told we were having twins we burst into hysterics... We didn't see this one coming.\" Watch why the photos went for so much money \u00bb . Larry Hackett, the managing editor of People said that it was \"thrilled\" to have carried the images. People, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner. Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images, which organized the photo shoot, said that all the proceeds would go toward the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which earlier this year donated $1 million to help children in Iraq. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Magazines publish images of Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt twins for the first time .\nAP: Rights to images secured after $14M joint bid by Hello! and People magazines .\nVivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon born July 12 in Nice, southern France .","id":"313d98f4c6047ff556795b6da47e42e9f650946a"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner repeated her call this week to decriminalize personal drug use and crack down on traffickers and dealers. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says she doesn't like to \"condemn someone who has an addiction.\" \"I don't like it when people easily condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if he were a person who should be persecuted,\" she told a meeting of the National Investigation into the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, Psychopharmaceuticals and Illegal Drugs. \"Those who should be persecuted are those who sell the substances, those who give it away, those who traffic in it.\" A poll shows 2 percent of Argentines have tried cocaine, but some people believe decriminalization of drugs could result in wider drug use. Regardless, the Argentine government is pushing Congress to pass the decriminalization legislation by the end of the year. \"Decriminalization of the consumer should include what are called second-generation human rights, but at the same time there should be a strong policy of prevention, so that no one falls in the situation of consuming any substance,\" said Anibal Fernandez, the minister of security and justice. Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, said such policies have been adopted throughout Europe and other parts of Latin America. \"The evidence generally shows that the decriminalization of possession is not clearly associated with any increase in illicit drug use,\" he said. A few years ago, then-Mexican President Vicente Fox proposed decriminalizing possession of drugs combined with a crackdown on traffickers, but a harsh reaction from the Bush administration caused him to retreat, Nadelmann said. Brazil and Colombia have passed laws decriminalizing drug use in an effort to combat the spread of HIV among injecting drug users, he said. Politicians recognize that \"you basically need to get those people out of the underground and into health systems,\" Nadelmann said. \"This would be part of a growing number of countries in Latin America where there is, either for political or judicial reasons, a push toward decriminalization of personal possession, sometimes combined with initiatives to crack down harder on bigger drug traffickers,\" he said. \"It typically involves both lessening the criminal sanction for possession of cannabis while also providing for alternatives to incarceration for people addicted to drugs who are arrested for drug possession or other minor offenses.\" The concept has gained followers in the United States, too, he said, citing statistics that show two-thirds of Americans support drug treatment instead of jail time for first-time drug offenders. On Wednesday, Rep. Barney Frank announced a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, or almost a quarter-pound, of marijuana. \"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business,\" Frank said on Capitol Hill. \"I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.\" CNN's Javier Doberti contributed to this story.","highlights":"President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says addicts should not be persecuted .\nArgentine government wants Congress to pass legislation by end of year .\nMeasures could lessen sentences for users, crack down on dealers and traffickers .\nRep. Barney Frank proposes similar legislation this week on Capitol Hill .","id":"8c0934c689bbc9234dc51eff9d8d156aec106ca4"} -{"article":"DONETSK, Ukraine (CNN) -- A frail Irene Famulak clutched her brother on the airport tarmac, her arm wrapped around him in a tight embrace, tears streaming down their faces. It was the first time since 1942 they had seen each other, when she was 17 and he was just 7. Siblings Wssewolod Galezkij and Irene Famulak were separated in 1942 when Nazis took her to a labor camp. That was the night the invading Nazis came to take her away from her Ukrainian home. \"I remember it well because I kissed him good-bye, and he pushed me away,\" she said of her brother. \"I asked, 'Why did you do that?' And he said that he doesn't like kisses.\" \"The Nazis told my mother that I was being taken to work in a German labor camp for six months. But it was, of course, much longer. I was there for years.\" Both siblings survived the Holocaust and grew up on different sides of the Iron Curtain, not knowing the fate of the other. But after 66 years apart, Famulak, 83, was reunited with her long lost 73-year-old brother, Wssewolod Galezkij. They held each other close this time, cherishing the moment. Watch siblings hug for first time in seven decades \u00bb . \"I don't believe anyone has ever known such happiness. Now, I truly believe I can die satisfied,\" Galezkij said. Famulak made the long journey to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after being contacted by the American Red Cross. The organization told her they had located her only surviving sibling. Famulak said she spent World War II in a labor camp in Munich, Germany, working in the kitchens. She had been taken to the camp with her older sister. When it was liberated in 1945, Famulak stayed in Germany for several years, eventually emigrating to the United States in 1956. She never saw her parents again after that day in 1942 when Nazis separated her from her family. She and her brother still have no idea what happened to their mother and father. Some of their siblings lived through the war, but later died; others, they never heard from again after being separated. But her younger brother never gave up hope of tracking his sister down. He, too, was sent to a German labor camp, but after the war, he moved back to Ukraine, then a republic of the Soviet Union. See photos of the \"needle in haystack\" reunion \u00bb . Under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, information on lost relatives was kept sealed, and Galezkij said it wasn't until reforms in the late 1980s, followed by the Soviet collapse, that he started making progress in finding his sister. Even then, it took him more than 17 years to locate her in the United States. He broke down in tears as he spoke of his overwhelming happiness at finding her. \"When the Red Cross told me they had found her in America, it was such a joy,\" he said, sobbing. In fact, he had to be taken to the hospital because he was so overcome when he first learned she was alive. At this week's reunion, there was a doctor on hand at the airport as a precaution. Back in the United States, there were tears, too. Linda Klein, the director of the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center, said the volunteer who helped the siblings find each other got caught up in the emotion herself. \"When I showed her the picture, she stood there and wept,\" Klein said. \"She was beside herself.\" Klein's group has reunited 1,500 families since it began work in 1990. She said the former Soviet Union released records in 1989 of concentration camps it liberated, greatly helping organizers find information on Holocaust victims. The organization has 100 volunteers -- a third of them Holocaust survivors, Klein said. The group also helps families find information about their loved ones who died during the Holocaust. They have brought together more than 50 families this year. All of their work is free. She says it's often like \"looking for a needle in a haystack.\" \"We're playing beat the clock right now,\" she said, adding, \"It's about families that one day they were together and then they were apart.\" \"When a connection is made, there are just smiles all around.\" That was the case for this family in Ukraine. Years of trauma, of separation, of not knowing what happened to loved ones, have been replaced by celebration. In a picturesque orchard overlooking rolling fields, Galezkij, his wife and their neighbors laid out a feast for his American sister. As the vodka flowed, he told her how he had survived for a lifetime without her. \"He says he always thought he'd see me someday. He dreamt lots about me,\" Famulak said, as she sat next to her brother. \"And he wrote a song for me. When he went to sleep, he sang every night and cried.\" With that, Galezkij, weakened by illness and age, burst into song. But this time, he sang the words with pure joy. CNN's Michael Sefanov and Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Brother, sister meet for first time since 1942, when Nazis separated them .\nBrother in Ukraine never stopped searching: \"Now I truly believe I can die satisfied\"\nAn American Red Cross volunteer helped bring them together .\nEven after all this time, the siblings don't know what happened to their parents .","id":"70f210b63211c32ab22354506b7bd9b80ee194af"} -{"article":"ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- After rubbing shoulders with Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Charlize Theron and Charles Barkley at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, New York Post celebrity gossip columnist Cindy Adams jetted off to \"one of the dullest towns in America,\" according to her latest column, to sniff out politically-inclined celebs in St. Paul. \"I wouldn't know [Sarah Palin] from an Alaskan salmon!\" columnist Cindy Adams says. What does John McCain running mate Sarah Palin have in common with an Alaskan salmon? And who will win November? Just a few of the five questions we put to the woman famous for knowing famous people over dinner at the CNN Grill. CNN.com: First things first: Celebrity-wise, does the Republican convention compare to Denver? Adams: It doesn't. It can't compare, because Hollywood is very left-wing. And there were so many celebrities in Denver. Everywhere you looked, you fell over somebody who thought they were important. Here, not. CNN.com: Is that a good or bad thing? Adams: It makes for more excitement. It makes for more media attention. J.Lo, you got Spike Lee, you got Ashley Judd. They're all schlepping around thinking they're saving the world, see, thinking they're saving mankind. You don't have that here. CNN.com: What do you hope to accomplish by attending this convention? Adams: I would like to help McCain have a fine election. I would like to wave my flag. I'm a patriotic red, white and blue flag-waving American. If this is our system, then I want it to work. And I just want McCain to have an equal shot just like [Barack] Obama did. CNN.com: What are your thoughts on McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin? Adams: I don't know! I don't know this woman! I mean I wouldn't know her from an Alaskan salmon. None of us knew her. it's going to take six months to figure out what she does other than make mooseburgers! I do not know this lady. I'm sure she's wonderful. I'm not bright enough to have made a vice presidential pick. But it's going to take us six months to know who she is. Right now, I don't like the fact that she mispronounces \"I\"-raq and \"I\"-ran. If she would say Iraq and Iran, I would be happier. CNN.com: Any thoughts on who will win in November? Adams: Of course, I'm right here at the Republican Convention, and I'm picking up [on] what they're saying, obviously. I sort of think that when it finally gets down to it, not everybody in Middle America is going to press the lever for Obama. I just don't think he's ready. I sort of think there will be upset. But I'm picking up the vibes from the Republican convention.","highlights":"Gossip columnist says too many people \"thought they were important\" in Denver .\n\"I just want McCain to have an equal shot\" like Obama, Adams says .\nAdams also shares her thoughts on Sarah Palin and the election's outcome .","id":"dea4bf4a53b568dea8b3d5009a24d090485be8c9"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Twenty-nine people convicted of various crimes, ranging from murder to being a public nuisance while drunk, were hanged in Iran, state TV said. A convicted Iranian drug dealer is hanged from a crane in the southern city of Shiraz in September. Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported earlier that 30 people would be put to death. It was not immediately clear if the last person's life was spared. The Iranian judiciary's statement said that all 30 were convicted of various crimes, which included: murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships -- relationships between men and women who are not married to each other. Kidnapping and using weapons while committing a crime were also among the charges. The statement also said that 20 of the convicts were convicted of drug and alcohol dealing, armed robbery and smuggling arms. The judiciary statement said that the convicts had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them. The verdicts were final with their sentences carried out on Sunday. The judiciary said the hangings should serve as a warning to those who are contemplating committing such crimes, the agency reported. The statement also said that several other individuals are currently awaiting trial and their sentences will be carried out as soon as the verdicts are pronounced by the courts. According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. Iran's government launched a campaign March 20 to increase public security and bring the crime rate down. Police cracked down on alleged drug dealers, whom they called criminal gang members, and alleged habitual criminals who use guns in the commission of their crime. Alleged weapons smugglers and people who break social and religious laws, including adulterers, were also targets. National television showed scenes of what were described as criminals being paraded publicly in chains as a deterrent to others. The wave of arrests has now subsided, as officials are now prosecuting the alleged criminals and sentencing those convicted. Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Twenty-nine convicts were hanged, according to Iranian state TV .\nConvicts were found guilty of murder, rape, armed robbery and other charges .\nJudiciary said hangings should serve as warning to those contemplating crimes .","id":"3ffb4210cf832dc039ffe7522c47c6eb7a5e5ab5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The head of Pakistan's ruling coalition announced Thursday that the government will move to impeach President Pervez Musharraf. President Pervez Musharraf took control of Pakistan in a military coup in 1999. \"The coalition reaffirmed the resolve of democracy and democratic forces will work jointly to make a transition to genuine democracy,\" the head of Pakistan People's Party Asif Ali Zardari said, reading a joint communique with his coalition partners. Before pursuing impeachment proceedings, Pakistani lawmakers will demand Musharraf take a vote of confidence in the newly elected parliament, which he had vowed to do last year, Zardari said. \"The people of Pakistan gave a clear mandate in favor of democracy and democratic forces and voted for the change to oust Gen. Musharraf by defeating his ... party,\" Zardari added. \"In spite of his clear commitment that if his party was defeated in the election he would resign, he continues to cling to the office of the president.\" Watch an expert talk about the impact of a possible impeachment \u00bb . If Musharraf does not request a vote of confidence, the National Assembly will meet on Monday to consider impeachment proceedings, PPP spokesman Capt. Wasif Syed told CNN. Speaking a short time before Thursday's announcement, Syed said there are enough votes in parliament right now to impeach the president. But Musharraf may still have one card up his sleeve: he could move to dissolve parliament and dismiss the prime minister. Amid the political upheaval, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will replace Musharraf at the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday in Beijing, Pakistan's state-run news agency reported. Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 bloodless military coup, has seen his power erode significantly since he stepped down as the country's military ruler last year and since the opposition parties' victory in February's parliamentary elections. The new civilian government is under a lot of pressure to control Taliban and al Qaeda militants in its tribal region along the Afghan border. The CIA recently accused Pakistan's intelligence service of providing support for the militants who bombed India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan last month. Fighting on Thursday between Pakistani paramilitary troops and Taliban forces killed 25 Taliban and five soldiers along the Afghan border, an army spokesman told CNN. Asked about the situation, Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad -- an Islamabad-based political analyst -- told CNN on Wednesday that he believes Musharraf \"will fight back\" against any attempt to remove him from power. \"Before they impeach the president, he might pre-empt them by using article 58(2b),\" he said, referring to the constitutional article that gives the president power to dissolve parliament and dismiss the prime minister. Ahmad, a professor of international relations at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University, said any attempt to remove Musharraf would be a \"next to an impossible task\" because the president still has support. \"The army doesn't want him to be eliminated. The Americans are still favoring him,\" he noted. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan's government confirms move to impeach President Pervez Musharraf .\nMusharraf may still move to dissolve parliament and dismiss the PM .\nPM Yousaf Raza Gilani will replace Musharraf at the Olympic opening ceremony .\nMusharraf seized power in a 1999 military coup .","id":"c010d72bf64ac4e1c758b7f078aeed89bc57a9db"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Control tower tapes reveal that the pilot of presidential hopeful Barack Obama's plane told air traffic controllers there was an emergency when he made an unscheduled landing last month in St. Louis, Missouri. Barack Obama's plane had to make an unscheduled landing on July 7 in St. Louis, Missouri. On July 7 the Midwest Airlines MD-81 made an unscheduled landing during the flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Charlotte, North Carolina. The owner of the plane initially said the landing was not caused by an emergency. However the tapes, released to ABC News through a Freedom of Information Act request, contradict that report. ABC first reported on the tapes on Thursday. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown told CNN Thursday evening that preliminary information for incidents is often incomplete or incorrect. Watch what the tapes revealed \u00bb . According to the tapes, the pilot told an FAA air traffic controller that he had limited ability to move the plane's nose up and down. \"We have limited pitch authority at flight levels; we're descending to see if we can regain pitch authority,\" the pilot told the air traffic controller. \"At this time we would like to declare this an emergency and also have CFR (fire and rescue equipment) standing by in St. Louis,\" the pilot said. The pilot remained calm throughout the recording. Midwest Airlines acknowledged at the time that the pilot had detected a control problem in the pitch of the plane after an emergency evacuation chute opened in the aircraft's tail cone while in flight. Normally, the chute deploys only after landing and after the tail cone pops off. The pitch, or angle of the nose of an airplane, affects the pilot's ability to control the plane. The airline said the pilot had \"full authority of the aircraft.\" According to the tapes, the pilot said he regained control as the plane began to descend into St. Louis. \"We had a pitch authority problem, now that we have come down to a lower altitude it seems to have rectified itself. We do have pitch control of the aircraft at this time,\" he said. Fire trucks met the aircraft when it landed at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. After the plane landed, Obama told reporters the plane landed because of a mechanical problem and noted it marked the first time he had had to do so. \"Just thought we'd spice things up a little bit today,\" he joked. \"Anytime a pilot says that something's not working the way its supposed to, then, you know, you make sure you tighten your seat belt. Everything seemed under control, the pilots knew what they were doing.\" The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, said last month that there was no evidence of tampering. An \"examination of the hardware did not reveal any evidence of missing components, nor any evidence of tampering,\" the board said. CNN's Jeanne Meserve and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"On tape pilot says he has limited ability to move plane's nose up and down .\nABC obtained audio tape in Freedom of Information Act request .\nWhen incident occurred, officials had said it was not an emergency .\nPilot says on tape he was able to regain control during descent into St. Louis .","id":"343644770a597a2dfa7548ba165fa9c6bdc88245"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A helicopter crashed into an oil drilling platform off the coast of Dubai, killing all seven people on board, officials said Thursday. The helicopter which crashed was a Bell 212, the same model as pictured above. Among the victims were an American and a Briton, said Hanan Moussa of the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority. Also killed were two Indians, a Pakistani, a Filipino and a Venezuelan, Moussa said. The Bell 212 helicopter crashed Wednesday on the deck of an oil rig, then broke up and fell into the sea, said a spokesman for AeroGulf Services -- which operated the chopper. A fire broke out aboard the rig, located about 43 miles (70 km) off the coast of Dubai. The fire was quickly contained, the AeroGulf spokesman said. Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. CNN's Ammar Ben Aziz and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.","highlights":"Helicopter crashes into an oil drilling platform off Dubai, killing seven people .\nVictims were: American, British, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino and Venezuelan .\nBell 212 helicopter crashed on the deck of the oil rig .","id":"4b89e8a6a25de61d21a1fed20fb911cd4b1e4b47"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Air traffic delays began to clear up Tuesday evening after computer problems left travelers across the United States waiting in airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Flights at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were delayed Tuesday afternoon. Airports experienced hours of flight delays Tuesday afternoon after a communications breakdown at a Federal Aviation Administration facility, the administration said. The facility south of Atlanta had problems processing data, requiring that all flight-plan information be processed through a facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, overloading that facility. The two facilities process all flight plans for commercial and general aviation flights in the United States, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. Delays had begun to clear by 5 p.m. ET. By 6 p.m., the administration said minimal delays remained as the Salt Lake facility began processing requests closer to normal speed. \"The situation is pretty much resolved,\" FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said. At about 9:30 p.m. ET, most major airports were reporting flights departing on time or with less than 15-minute delays. Newark International was still reporting delays of up to 1 hour and 45 minutes and LaGuardia Airport in New York reported 45-minute delays -- although weather problems were cited as the main problem. John F. Kennedy International in New York and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International were reporting delays of up to 30 minutes, although both of those airports also had experienced thunderstorms and other weather-related difficulties. The administration said there were no radar outages and said it had not lost contact with any planes during the computer glitch. The roughly 5,000 flights that were in the air when the breakdown happened were not affected, just those that were waiting to take off. iReporter stuck in Philadelphia . \"This is really not a safety issue, this is an aggravation issue,\" CNN aviation expert Miles O'Brien said. Watch Miles O'Brien track the delays \u00bb . The problem appeared similar to a June 8, 2007, computer issue that caused severe flight delays and some cancellations along the East Coast. iReport.com: Are you stuck at the airport? iReporter Stephanie McCauley sat on the tarmac for more than an hour at Baltimore\/Washington International Airport on Tuesday on a flight bound for Albany, New York. \"It happens. It's just weird, because you're sitting, and you don't know if it's going to be 20 minutes or 2 hours,\" McCauley said. Cheryl Stewart, spokeswoman for Baltimore\/Washington International Airport, said that as of about 3:40 p.m., some flights were being allowed to take off, but the FAA was no longer accepting new flight plans. \"We're just kind of waiting for further word,\" Stewart said. On the FAA's Web site, delays were being reported at all 40 airports on the administration's primary flight information map. The worst delays were in the Northeast, Bergen said. Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports in Illinois were reporting delays of up to 90 minutes. The Web site, which normally lists the length of expected flight delays, was no longer listing that information Tuesday afternoon. The total number of flights affected was unknown, although it was believed to be in the hundreds. Mark Biello, a CNN photographer sitting on a delayed flight at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, said flights there were being cleared for takeoff one at a time. Watch Mark Biello at the airport \u00bb . \"They're releasing the planes but on a one-by-one basis, so it's really backed the whole system up, at least in the Atlanta area,\" Biello said. At Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania, iReporter Randy Hehn and his wife were on their way home to Denver, Colorado, after a trip to Europe. He said he'd left Stockholm, Sweden, 11 hours earlier. \"I don't really want to spend the rest of the evening in the airport; I'm hoping they get this fixed,\" Hehn said in a video posted on iReport.com. \"I see planes moving around, but I don't know. \"We're just coming back from Europe, we're really tired, and this is bad news.\"","highlights":"NEW: FAA says situation \"pretty much resolved\"\nFAA facility south of Atlanta, Georgia, having problems processing data .\nAll flight-plan information must be processed by facility in Salt Lake City, Utah .\nUnknown number of flights delayed by glitch .","id":"9b382d27692cb18aa61af350038b175b3ce75e2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Zealand police are investigating a \"serious allegation\" against four England rugby internationals following an alleged incident at their team hotel in Auckland. The England team are currently involved in a two match tour to New Zealand. Although Auckland police have yet to confirm the nature of the allegation, the Press Association reports that an incident is said to have taken place early Sunday in a private hotel room at the city's Hilton hotel following the team's defeat to New Zealand's All Blacks. In a statement the police said: \"Auckland City Criminal Investigation Branch is investigating an allegation involving up to four members of the England rugby team. \"The incident being investigated is alleged to have occurred early on Sunday, June 15, in a private room. Whilst an allegation was brought to the attention of police on Sunday evening, no formal complaint has been received. \"Investigating officers are receiving the appropriate level of co-operation from the England rugby team management.\" The Rugby Football Union (RFU) confirmed it was fully co-operating with the authorities over the matter. Rob Andrew, the RFU's elite director of rugby, said in a statement: \"The England rugby team has been informed by Auckland Police that an allegation has been made against four members of the England playing squad. \"Whilst no formal complaint has been made we are co-operating with the police and their enquiries. \"The players concerned have the complete support of all the players and the management. In the circumstances we are unable to make any further comment.\" The identity of the players has not been revealed. The England team is currently in Christchurch preparing for the second test against the All Blacks on Saturday.","highlights":"Auckland police have yet to confirm the nature of the allegation .\n\"Incident\" occured in a private hotel room after team's defeat to All Blacks .\nRFU: Players concerned have complete support of all players and management .","id":"59be27355e5b86754678f70254cfbb1e6dc8bf0c"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- About 50 students broke into a Dutch consulate compound in Indonesia Wednesday to protest a film by a Dutch lawmaker that many Muslims consider anti-Islamic. Protesters demonstrate against an anti-Islamic film in front of the Dutch embassy in Jakarta. The protesters tore off the gate of the embassy in the city of Medan and ripped down a flag, said Dutch Embassy spokeswoman Gonneke de Ridder. Local television carried pictures of police dispersing and rounding up demonstrators. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. The 15-minute film, \"Fitna,\" features disturbing images of terrorist acts juxtaposed over verses from the Quran to paint Islam as a threat to Western society. It has been posted on several Web sites, including Google Video and YouTube. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Beter Balkanende has said his government worried that Geert Wilders' film could provoke a violent backlash. The film has prompted protests in other parts of the Muslim world. Soon after its release last month, hundreds of angry Muslims rallied in Pakistan, where the government temporarily blocked access of YouTube over a trailer for Wilders' film. The protesters burned the Dutch flag and called on Pakistan to cut ties with the Netherlands. The Dutch government and others, including the European Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, have rejected the film. The OIC has 57 member states over four continents and claims on its Web site to be the second largest inter-governmental organization, after the United Nations. In its statement, it urged the international community to condemn the showing of the film and asked the Dutch government to prosecute the author of the documentary under Dutch law. Wilders has stood by his project. \"My intention was not to offend in any way, but to show the truth -- at least the truth as I see it,\" Wilders told CNN. \"And if the truth hurts and could be offensive, well, this of course is not my problem.\" Wilders is a member of the Dutch parliament from the conservative Party for Freedom and an outspoken critic of Islam. He said he has \"big problems\" with Islam's Prophet Mohammed, the Quran and \"everything that is stated inside this terrible book.\" The title, \"Fitna,\" translates in Arabic to \"strife\" or \"conflict\" of the type that occurs within families or any other homogenous group. The film opens with passages from the Quran, interspersed with graphic images of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States . The video also includes disturbing images of other terror attacks -- bloodied victims; beheadings of hostages; executions of women in hijab, the traditional Muslim attire; and footage, with subtitles, of Islamic leaders preaching inflammatory sermons against Jews and Christians. E-mail to a friend . From CNN's Kathy Quiano .","highlights":"Protesters break into Dutch consolate compound in Indonesian city of Medan .\nFlag pulled down, gate ripped off embassy, Dutch spokeswoman tells CNN .\nProtests prompted by a film juxtaposing images of terrorism with verses from Quran .\nFilmmaker Geert Wilders is a conservative member of Dutch parliament .","id":"ff10934c1dc127286575fb1a6b192da6da21f235"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's campaign rebuked Sen. Joe Biden on Tuesday, saying the Democratic vice presidential nominee had \"sunk to a new low\" by raising a debate over who cares more for special needs children. Sen. Joseph Biden embraces a supporter during a campaign stop in Columbia, Missouri, on Tuesday. The Republican camp's sharp response came after Biden said GOP advocates for children with birth defects should support stem cell research. During a campaign event in Columbia, Missouri, Biden did not mention his Republican counterpart by name but said, \"I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy ... and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect.\" Biden's support of stem cell research is at odds with the position taken by the Republicans' vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose 5-month-old son, Trig, has Down syndrome. Palin, an evangelical Christian, opposes stem cell research because it involves the use of human embryos, but her running mate, GOP presidential nominee McCain, does support stem cell research. \"Well, guess what, folks? If you care about it, why don't you support stem cell research?\" asked Biden, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama. Those comments brought a sharp response. \"Barack Obama's running mate sunk to a new low today, launching an offensive debate over who cares more about special needs children,\" McCain-Palin spokesman Ben Porritt said. \"Playing politics with this issue is disturbing and indicative of a desperate campaign.\" Biden spokesman David Wade insisted that the Delaware senator's comments were not directed at Palin. \"This is a clash of policies, not a clash of personalities,\" Wade said. \"We've heard not a dime's worth of difference between the McCain-Palin ticket and the Bush administration on medical breakthroughs that millions of parents and doctors believe could save lives and transform the quality of life for countless Americans.\" During her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin told parents of children with disabilities that she would be \"a friend and advocate in the White House.\" But the Alaska governor's support for the disabled has come under scrutiny since McCain chose Palin to be his running mate nearly two weeks ago. Before her run for the vice presidency, advocacy for special needs programs had not been a central part of her political campaigns or during her administration, despite her sister's autistic son. Watch more on Palin's budget priorities \u00bb . Palin signed a bill this year increasing special needs funding but frustrated some of the bill's co-sponsors by stepping in only at the last minute. Sonya Kerr, an Anchorage attorney specializing in disability rights, filed a lawsuit against the state and Palin, alleging that there are not enough services for kids with special needs, specifically a child with autism. \"I would say, welcome, Gov. Palin, to our reality and what we've been trying to deal with for a long time,\" Kerr said. \"I hope that it means that there will be support on a bipartisan basis for what people with disabilities need so we are not a bargaining chip in the political process.\" CNN's Deb Feyerick, Alexander Mooney and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.","highlights":"Biden says GOP advocates for special needs kids should support stem cell research .\nMcCain camp says Biden \"sunk to a new low\" with comments .\nGOP VP pick Palin has a son with Down syndrome, opposes stem cell research .\nBiden spokesman says vice presidential nominee did not target Palin .","id":"1997690ceabc952c3396cb2a30e9050241f6f6c7"} -{"article":"BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- Hurricane Dolly weakened to a tropical storm Wednesday night after it made landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, leaving a trail of battered buildings and flooding. Police patrol the streets of South Padre Island, Texas, on Wednesday as Hurricane Dolly approaches. By 9 p.m. CT, Dolly's sustained winds had dipped to about 70 mph with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. A Category 1 hurricane has winds of at least 75 mph. A tropical storm warning remained in effect from Brownsville to Port Aransas, Texas. Tropical storm warnings for other areas were lifted. The eye of the storm made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on South Padre Island, Texas, about 1 p.m. CT, tearing roofs off homes, flooding streets and sending residents scrambling for safety from wind gusts reaching 120 mph. By 2 p.m., the hurricane was downgraded to Category 1, but in many areas along the southwest coastal region, the damage was already done. Watch CNN's Gary Tuchman brace against Dolly's high winds \u00bb . At least one person was injured as sustained winds up to 100 mph downed power lines and tore observation decks off homes and condos, CNN affiliate KPRC reported. A 17-year-old fell from a seventh-story balcony, sustaining head injuries, a broken leg and a broken hip. He is alert and receiving treatment on the island while authorities wait for the first opportunity to get him to the mainland, KPRC reported. \"When we heard the first bang, I thought it was one of the air conditioners flying,\" said Jacqueline Bell, who lives on South Padre Island. \"Then we went outside, and we saw the debris, and we saw the neighbors leaving.\" CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said persistent rainfall could cause flooding upstream in the Rio Grande as long as the storm stalled over the mountains of Mexico. Watch Myers explain the threat of flooding upriver \u00bb . Myers said it could take two days for the rainwater to flow upstream and challenge the natural levees, which were holding for now. \"The levees are holding up just fine,\" said Johnny Cavazos, emergency coordinator for Cameron County, The Associated Press reported. \"There is no indication right now that they are going to crest.\" Even before Dolly made landfall, driving rain and wind gusts from its outer rings flooded streets and threatened to pour into homes while wind gusts shattered windows on the island popular with tourists. The 2,400 residents began bracing for the storm Tuesday night, when strong winds forced the closure of South Padre Island's causeway to the mainland. Officials said the causeway is closed any time winds reach 39 mph. Some chose to remain on the island and wait out the storm. Steven Murphy took shelter with his girlfriend in his 65-foot double-decker fishing boat, Murphy's Law, and hoped for the best. Read about why Murphy decided to wait out the storm . Murphy, who owns a charter fishing company with his brother on the island, lived through a more powerful hurricane, where he saw boats bigger than his tossed onto land. \"I had nightmares about that last night,\" he said from his boat Wednesday. He said the wind outside sounded like a tornado and added that he'd seen several items blow past the windows of his vessel. \"It's starting to tear it up real good,\" Murphy said. See images and videos from affected areas \u00bb . On the mainland, people in the path of the storm stacked sandbags around their homes, nailed plywood over windows and prepared generators to keep power going in the event of a blackout. iReport.com: Are you in Dolly's path? Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said that the storm downed trees and dumped 6 to 8 inches of rain but that emergency workers were ready to respond once the wind and rain died down. Ahumada said reports that the city's levees are in danger of breaching were exaggerated. Watch Mayor Ahumada explain the situation on the ground \u00bb . He said it would take 20 inches of rain to top nearly all of the city's levees, which had been reinforced to federal standards or above. \"People think we're facing a Katrina,\" he said. \"That's not the case.\" More than 13,000 customers were without power in Cameron County, where Brownsville is, utility company AEP Texas told The Associated Press. Dolly's arrival also had the military scrambling. The Navy moved 89 aircraft from its Corpus Christi post to other locations in Texas and New Mexico. See Dolly's projected path \u00bb . Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration for 14 counties before Dolly arrived. The declaration \"allows the state to initiate necessary preparedness efforts,\" according to a statement from Perry's office. More than two dozen state agencies and organizations, including the Red Cross, are on standby to help with evacuations and other needs. The National Guard has set up staging areas in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, officials said. As many as 1,200 National Guardsmen have been called to help, and 700 are deployed to targeted areas. An incident management team has been pre-positioned in South Texas, including six UH-60 helicopters, to provide support to first responders. CNN's Alex Walker, Barbara Starr and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Rains persist as Dolly weakens to tropical storm .\nHeavy rains and winds tore roofs off homes, flooded streets earlier in the day .\nEye of the hurricane reached South Padre Island, Texas, about 1 p.m. CT .\nBy 2 p.m., sustained winds had decreased from 100 mph to 95 mph .","id":"c676027eea6109621206e3864c4eea30912fe09f"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was released from a hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, a source close to the case told CNN. Jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, seen in September, has been hospitalized in Las Vegas. Authorities took Jeffs from an Arizona jail to a Nevada hospital on Tuesday after he saying he looked feverish and was \"acting in a convulsive manner, and looked in a very weakened state.\" Doctors there determined he should go to a larger facility, so Jeffs was flown to the Sunrise Medical Center in Las Vegas. Sheriff Tom Sheahan of Mohave County, Arizona said before Jeffs' release that his condition was not believed to be life-threatening. Further details about his release on Wednesday were unavailable. Sheahan said he is trying to get information about Jeffs' condition. Watch how authorities are mum about Jeffs \u00bb . Jeffs' attorney in Arizona, Michael Piccarreta, also declined comment on his client's hospitalization. The 52-year-old is the leader and so-called prophet of the estimated 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at its Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Texas, along with two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. The charges against Jeffs are Class 6 felonies under Arizona law, Piccarreta said, meaning that a judge -- upon conviction -- will determine whether the charges are misdemeanors or felonies. Other charges Jeffs initially faced in Arizona have been dismissed, said Piccarreta. In November, Jeffs was sentenced in Utah to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison after his conviction on two charges of being an accomplice to rape in connection with a 2001 marriage he performed between a girl, 14, and her cousin, 19. According to unsealed court documents, Jeffs refused food and drink for a month in January 2007 and developed ulcers on his knees from kneeling in prayer for hours as he awaited trial. On January 28, 2007, he attempted to hang himself in his cell, the documents said. In the days afterward while on suicide watch, Jeffs on separate occasions banged his head and threw himself against a wall. He has been in custody since August 2006, when he was arrested during a routine traffic stop after spending months on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives list. In April, authorities removed more than 400 children from the YFZ Ranch. Child protection officials said they found a \"pervasive pattern\" of sexual abuse on the ranch through forced marriages between underage girls and older men. In June, however, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove the children. The court also said the state lacked evidence to show that the children faced imminent danger of abuse. The children were returned to their families. CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Gary Tuchman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Warren Jeffs was released from a Las Vegas hospital on Wednesday .\nPolygamist sect leader flown to Las Vegas hospital from Arizona jail on Tuesday .\nCourt documents say Jeffs previously has tried to hurt, hang and starve himself .\nJeffs is leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .","id":"78e22dd79495204cf719e3728927241bb60b80e1"} -{"article":"DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) -- A defiant Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick addressed Detroit on Thursday night listing what he said the city had accomplished under his leadership just hours after announcing his resignation amid a sex and perjury scandal. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to resign from office, a prosecutor said Thursday. \"The city is much better shape than the city I received seven years ago,\" said Kilpatrick. \"We in Detroit have done amazing things together.\" During the speech Kilpatrick also jabbed city officials and Michigan's governor, telling them to continue to work for the people of Detroit as hard as they did to get him out of office. Kilpatrick told the crowd his marriage is better than it has ever been and kissed his wife to end the speech, an act that brought thunderous applause. Kilpatrick said he decided to step down so the city could continue to move forward. \"Sometimes standing strong means stepping down,\" Kilpatrick said. \"But Detroit you have set me up for a comeback.\" The embattled Kilpatrick pleaded guilty Thursday to charges resulting from a sex scandal and submitted his resignation to the governor -- effective in two weeks. Under a plea deal, Kilpatrick will serve four months in the Wayne County Jail and the rest of his five-year sentence on probation, said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. He will enter jail on the day of his formal sentencing, October 28, she said. Kilpatrick, 38, also agreed not to run for public office during his probation, to pay $1 million in restitution and to forfeit any future pension. He was accused of blocking a criminal investigation into his office and firing a police deputy to cover up an extramarital affair and other possible illicit activities. After the deputy, Gary Brown, lost his job, a mayoral bodyguard, Officer Harold Nelthrope, left his job voluntarily when the atmosphere became too tense, said his attorney in the whistle-blower suit trial. Walt Harris, another former mayoral bodyguard, filed his own whistle-blower suit, contending he was punished for supporting Nelthrope's reports of wrongdoing by Kilpatrick and his bodyguards. The city of Detroit paid $8.4 million to settle the lawsuits, but legal fees have pushed that figure to at least $9 million. Prompted by the judge to recount his wrongdoing, Kilpatrick admitted Thursday, \"I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit. ... I did so with the intent to mislead the court and the jury and to impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice.\" Watch Kilpatrick in court \u00bb . When Circuit Court Judge David Groner asked Kilpatrick if he understood that by pleading guilty he was giving up the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the mayor said, \"I think I gave that up a long time ago, your honor. Yes.\" Kilpatrick had faced eight felony counts. As part of the agreement, six counts related to misconduct in office were dropped, and a perjury count was changed to a second obstruction of justice charge. In a separate case against Kilpatrick, Groner on Thursday accepted a no-contest plea on an assault charge brought against the mayor in July after he allegedly shoved a police officer trying to serve a subpoena on a friend of Kilpatrick's who was a potential witness in his perjury case. Groner set an October 28 sentencing date for both cases. Also Thursday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm adjourned a hearing on whether to remove Kilpatrick from office after he notified her of his pending resignation. \"Today, this sad but historic story is coming to an end,\" Granholm said. \"It's very important for us as a state and as a city to turn this page together. There is much work to do. It is my profound hope that we can now write a new history for this great but embattled city.\" Watch Granholm call for a new chapter \u00bb . The governor set the hearing after the Detroit City Council voted in May to ask her to remove Kilpatrick, alleging he had misled the council by not revealing the affair when he urged it to approve settlements with the people who had filed the whistle-blower suits against the city. If Kilpatrick doesn't resign as promised, Granholm said the hearing would reconvene on September 22. The Detroit City Council president, who becomes mayor when Kilpatrick steps down September 18, vowed to make the transition as seamless as possible. Kilpatrick will be replaced in two weeks by City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr., who vowed Thursday to make the transition \"as seamless as possible.\"","highlights":"NEW: Kilpatrick tells officials to work as hard on city as they did to oust him .\nKwame Kilpatrick pleads guilty to charges resulting from a sex scandal .\nHe is to resign from office and will serve four months in jail .\nKilpatrick also agrees not to run for public office during his five-year probation .","id":"6c1a1cf59028ba2567b0a1941e510c40133da1c0"} -{"article":"To celebrate our 20th year of publication, Cooking Light wanted to know what places best fit our philosophy to eat smart, be fit, and live well. Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Zagat Survey, we ranked major metropolitan areas on 15 criteria. The result, we think, is a ranking of U.S. cities that best provide the resources people need to live healthful lives. Seattle appears to be a place where healthful living comes easily and naturally, Cooking Light says. \"Each city reflects the full spectrum of living well in its own unique way -- innovative restaurants and markets with nutritious local foods, abundant spaces for walking and other exercise, and a population that takes advantage of both,\" says senior editor Phillip Rhodes, who headed up the project. \"It's great to know that so many people all over the country have the tools they need to eat smart, be fit, and live well,\" Rhodes says. Click on each city link below to learn why the city made our list and find details about the healthiest restaurants, freshest markets, and liveliest activities in the area. 1. Seattle, Washington . An abundance of fresh local foods, walker-friendly streets, and inclusive attitudes helps make Seattle America's best city for healthy living. 2. Portland, Oregon . Life is good in our second-ranked city, thanks to its seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities, cutting-edge restaurants, and vibrant environmental consciousness. Watch more on Cooking Light's Top 20 \u00bb . 3. Washington, D.C. Our capital city sets an accommodating agenda with farm-fresh dining, diverse cultures, and ample opportunity for exploration on foot. 4. Minneapolis, Minnesota . In our fourth-ranked best city, lush parks and shimmering lakes provide a natural backdrop to a rich cultural landscape. 5. San Francisco, California . Our fifth-ranked city steps up with one of the world's most unforgettable settings--along with great cuisine and an energetic spirit. 6. Boston, Massachusetts . Strolling historic parks and swanning around the water are but two of the pastimes that make summer prime time to enjoy our sixth-ranked city. 7. Denver, Colorado . The Mile-High City ranked seventh on our list for an outdoorsy Western lifestyle that makes living well accessible and irresistible. 8. Milwaukee, Wisconsin . Our eighth-ranked city proves a worthy destination for food lovers, adventure seekers, and culture aficionados alike. 9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . In America's fifth-largest city, the historic past provides a backdrop for a present that's healthful and happening. 10. Tucson, Arizona . Tucson offers a taste of the authentic Southwest in a desert setting that's ideal for a warm winter getaway. 11. Baltimore, Maryland . Baltimore, it turns out, has lots of people who eat five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day--27 percent. 12. Colorado Springs, Colorado . Graced with bountiful trail systems, no wonder 91 percent of the city's population claims to be in good health. 13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . Skies, once dark with factory smoke, open above crystal-towered downtown Pittsburgh, bound on three sides by the rivers Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio. 14. St. Louis, Missouri . A love for local produce and healthful activities keeps this urban center well fed and on the move. 15. New York, New York . New Yorkers walk far more than most Americans, and they do it quickly. But they slow down for green markets--25 in Manhattan alone. 16. Atlanta, Georgia . Approximately 55,000 people gather on the Fourth of July at the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10k in the world. 17. Austin, Texas . You can't swing a yoga mat in Austin without hitting a cool place to exercise--whether it's inside a gym or outdoors in a natural, spring-fed pool. 18. Chicago, Illinois . The city's environmentally friendly mentality is one of the reasons why it is home to the 2007 Cooking Light FitHouse. 19. Las Vegas, Nevada . In our list, the city ranks third in restaurants rated \"extraordinary to perfection\" and third in nominations for James Beard awards. 20. Kansas City, Missouri . A recent study revealed Kansas City has the purest water of any major city in the country. E-mail to a friend . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2008 Cooking Light magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Cooking Light magazine marks 20th anniversary by naming top 20 U.S. cities .\n15 criteria were grouped into categories--eat smart, be fit, live well .\nSeattle tops list with lots of fresh local foods, pedestrian-friendly streets .","id":"e8bbd5a77edf96611a4b8efcfbc625ec65985e98"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A year ago Thursday, I-Report was born. CNN.com launched its I-Report initiative August 2, 2006, in an effort to involve citizens in the newsgathering process. Numerous milestones later, I-Report has grown and developed its ability to be an integral component of the network's coverage. Mark Lacroix photographed the collapsed bridge from his apartment window. On the eve of its anniversary, I-Reporters responded to yet another major news event: the deadly collapse of a bridge over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark Lacroix sent photos of the scene immediately after the disaster. As the story developed, he provided information about the situation to viewers live on television. Lacroix's photos were among the more than 450 I-Report submissions sent to CNN within the first 24 hours of the bridge's collapse -- the biggest response in one day to a single news event in I-Report history. CNN.com readers have long been submitting photos and video, as well as speaking with CNN reporters, during major breaking news events. (Check out our timeline of I-Report milestones) \u00bb . On April 16, Jamal Albarghouti sent cell phone video of the Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia, as the dramatic events were unfolding. More recently, when fireballs began exploding from an industrial gas facility in Dallas, Texas, in July, I-Reporters wasted no time in recording video as smoke and debris rose into the air. Justin Randall was in a convertible during the incident and tried to drive around blast debris on a highway. He sent video of the explosions, showing flames rising high into the air. During a steam pipe explosion in New York, Jonathan Thompson sent video of a powerful surge of steam rising from the ground and rescuers scrambling to secure the area. He followed up later that month by sending footage of repairs being made to the crater left behind. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"I-Report initiative launched August 2, 2006, on CNN.com .\nCitizen journalists have participated in CNN's newsgathering .\nMore than 6,000 I-Report submissions last month .","id":"4141e012912dbf29c5e792b8654a9a36094b468c"} -{"article":"St. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Cindy McCain praised her husband, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, as \"someone of unusual strength and character\" in a speech to the Republican National Convention on Thursday. Cindy McCain speaks at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night. \"You can trust his hand at the wheel,\" she said, adding: \"But you know what -- I've always thought it's a good idea to have a woman's hand on the wheel as well. So how about Gov. Sarah Palin!\" Delegates erupted in cheers at the mention of McCain's running mate, the governor of Alaska. Cindy McCain said her husband's run for the White House \"is not about us. It's about our special and exceptional country.\" She called Americans the most generous people in history, and said \"our hearts are still alive with hope and belief in our individual ability to make things right if only the federal government would get itself under control and out of our way,\" prompting cheers from the delegates. Watch Cindy McCain speak at the convention \u00bb . Cindy McCain wore jewelled pins reading \"USMC\" and \"Navy\" and a flag with a star in honor of her two sons in military service, Jimmy and Jack. She introduced a Rwandan genocide survivor she identified only as Ernestine to illustrate the importance of forgiveness, and said John McCain also exemplified the virtue. \"Forgiveness is not just a personal issue: it's why John led the effort to normalize relations with Vietnam; to retrieve the remains of our MIAs; to bring closure to both sides,\" she said. \"That's leadership -- national leadership. And it's leading by example,\" she said. \"This is a good man, a worthy man, I know,\" she said. \"I have loved him with all my heart for almost 30 years and I humbly recommend him to you tonight as our nominee for the next president of the United States.\" She left the stage to the strains of \"Johnny B. Goode,\" which McCain often uses on the campaign trail.","highlights":"Cindy McCain: America needs someone of unusual strength and character to lead .\nCindy McCain: \"Someone exactly like my husband\"\nMcCain served in Washington without becoming a Washington insider, she says .","id":"d80fa94dc14601e4b82321e2cf749d6915251a70"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Ike grew from a Category 1 into a menacing Category 4 storm in about six hours Wednesday as it fed on the warm waters of Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center said. An infrared image from a NOAA satellite shows Ike swirling in the Atlantic on Wednesday night. \"Ike is an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane\" with 135-mph sustained winds, the center said in its 11 p.m. ET advisory. Although it is likely to lose some strength during the next few days, Ike is forecast to regain Category 4 status by Monday, the center said. \"It is too early to determine what, if any, land areas might be affected by Ike,\" the hurricane center said. But the center's potential four- to five-day track for Ike puts it anywhere from north of Jamaica to the coast of South Florida on Monday. iReport.com: Are you in Ike's path? At 11 p.m. ET Monday, Ike was moving west-northwest through the Atlantic Ocean. The storm will be over open water for two days, forecasters said. Earlier Wednesday, Ike intensified into the fifth hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season when its winds reached 80 mph. But before Ike can reach into the Caribbean or threaten Florida, Tropical Storm Hanna was getting more organized in the Bahamas, according to the hurricane center. At 2 a.m., Hanna was about 325 miles east-southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas, with winds of 65 mph. Hanna was drenching the Bahamas and Haiti with torrential rains. Haitian officials put the nation's death toll in the wake of Hanna and Hurricane Gustav at 61, said Abel Nabaire, the deputy coordinator of the civil protection service. Eight of the country's 10 departments underwater, he said. More rainfall, up to 15 inches in some places, was possible in the Caribbean, the hurricane center said. Hanna was forecast to return to hurricane strength by Friday as it shot up the east coast of the southern U.S., with landfall predicted on the South Carolina or North Carolina coast late Friday or early Saturday. \"A hurricane watch may be required for a portion of the southeastern United States coast early Thursday and interests in this area should monitor the progress of Hanna,\" the hurricane center said. Florida could begin seeing rainfall from Hanna on Friday, forecasters said. Watch as Florida also keeps an eye on Hanna \u00bb . Swells from Hanna are expected to bolster the number of rip tides along the southeastern U.S. coast this week, the hurricane center said. iReport.com: Hanna makes waves in Bahamas . Hanna passed over the northern Haitian city of Gonaives on Tuesday night, leaving water more than 12 feet deep in some places, an official said. See Hanna's impact on Haiti \u00bb . Many people were still cut off amid floodwater. \"It's a very grim picture,\" Dr. Jean Pierre Guiteau of the Red Cross said Wednesday. \"We can't reach those people; they are standing on rooftops, waiting for help.\" In line behind Ike in the Atlantic is Tropical Storm Josephine, with top winds near 50 mph, the hurricane center said. Josephine was about 425 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands off western Africa.","highlights":"NEW: Ike goes from 80-mph winds to 135-mph winds in six hours .\nHanna to pound Bahamas, could regain hurricane strength .\nHanna expected to make U.S. landfall by Friday or Saturday .","id":"11e57b8ed79c4f4b110d81a5cd7152d42411c7a6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward. Bob Woodward's book, \"The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008,\" came out Monday. The program -- which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb -- must remain secret for now or it would \"get people killed,\" Woodward said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live. \"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have,\" Woodward said. In \"The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008,\" Woodward disclosed the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders. National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement reacting to Woodward's book, acknowledged the new strategy. Yet he disputed Woodward's conclusion that the \"surge\" of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq was not the primary reason for the decline in violent attacks. \"It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations,\" Hadley wrote. Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, wrote that along with the surge and the new covert tactics, two other factors helped reduce the violence. Watch Bob Woodward explain the strategy \u00bb . One was the decision of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to order a cease-fire by his Mehdi Army. The other was the \"Anbar Awakening\" movement that saw Sunni tribes aligning with U.S. troops to battle al Qaeda in Iraq. Woodward told Larry King that while there is a debate over how much credit the new secret operations should get for the drop in violence, he concluded it \"accounts for a good portion.\" \"I would somewhat compare it to the Manhattan Project in World War II,\" he said \"It's a ski slope right down in a matter of months, cutting the violence in half. This isn't going to happen with the bunch of joint security stations or the surge.\" The top secret operations, he said, will \"some day in history ... be described to people's amazement.\" While he would not reveal the details, Woodward said the terrorists who have been targeted were already aware of the capabilities. \"The enemy has a heads up because they've been getting wiped out and a lot of them have been killed,\" he said. \"It's not news to them. \"If you were a member of al Qaeda or the resistance or some extremist militia, you would be wise to get your rear end out of town,\" Woodward said. \"It is very dangerous.\"","highlights":"Program likened to WWII-era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb .\nAuthor discloses the existence of secret operational capabilities in latest book .\nNational security advisor disputes Woodward's conclusion about the Iraq surge .","id":"b55c390e81c5d1d4fa077338d9daaed8978f710b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Musician Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy performed at a concert sponsored by Rock the Vote on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Before Monday night's show in Denver, Colorado, Wentz answered five questions for CNN.com. Pete Wentz says it's great to see his young fans get energized about the election when they can't even vote. CNN.com: What have you been doing in Denver? Have you been having any fun? Wentz: I have had a little bit of fun, but I only came in yesterday so we've only been around a little bit. I think we'll go out a little bit tonight, but then I think we go back to California. Then we're going to watch most of the speeches and whatnot on TV and the computer. CNN.com: So what do the Democrats need to do to win the White House, do you think? Wentz: I actually learned this from the person I got tennis lessons from that Democrats or the Republicans need not only to win the White House but you need to maintain the majority in the government in general in order to get things moving. CNN.com: As you're meeting your fans, does it seem like people are pretty energized about this election? Wentz: Yeah ... people are pretty excited about it. ... I think [even] people that aren't even old enough to vote, which is what's pretty exciting. A lot of the times we're like, \"Well, some of the fans are really young, they can't even vote,\" but it's like they're gonna be voting in the next election. I'm personally excited when I see people who are so excited about it. iReport.com: Are you at the DNC? Share sights and sounds . CNN.com: Illinois -- home base for the band. What's the vibe that you're getting there in Illinois? Wentz: Well, Illinois's definitely pulling for Obama. I think that that is because of Chicago as a populace and also by virtue of Obama being from Illinois. And you know, hometown crowd's the best, you know what I'm saying? CNN.com: And who are you voting for? And Ashlee [Simpson]? Wentz: Well, probably the last thing my wife would do -- ever -- is tell me who she's voting for, to be honest with you. But my guess would be that she votes pretty similarly to me.","highlights":"Pete Wentz says band's home base of Illinois rooting for Sen. Barack Obama .\nRocker: \"I'm personally excited when I see people who are so excited about it\"\nWentz says wife Ashlee Simpson not likely to tell him who she's voting for .","id":"d46e1849cbbf875ccd018fd778fa6c433cab4694"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Journalist Bob Woodward describes in his new book a secret U.S. program to assassinate terrorists in Iraq. CNN's Michael Ware says, \"The U.S. subcontracted out an assassination program against al Qaeda ... in early 2006.\" Woodward, an associate editor of The Washington Post, says in \"The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008\" that the assassination program, not the 2007 increase in U.S. forces in the war zone known as \"the surge,\" is primarily responsible for the reduction of violence in Iraq. CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware cast doubt on Woodward's assertion Tuesday in a conversation with \"American Morning\" host John Roberts. Watch Larry King on his talk with Woodward \u00bb . John Roberts: What do you think of what Woodward is saying? Michael Ware: Let's say that these \"fusion teams,\" as they're being called, have come into effect. The first thing to say is, \"Well, about time.\" On the ground you've seen the lack of coordination as the left hand of one agency is not with the right hand of another agency within the American effort. But by and large, to suggest that anything like this being done now has been the major reason for the decline in violence is a bit rich. I mean, the U.S. subcontracted out an assassination program against al Qaeda way back in early 2006. And this was conceded by the then-chief of military intelligence in Baghdad and by [U.S.] Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad himself. That's what broke the back of al Qaeda. Then when America put 100,000-plus insurgents on the U.S. government payroll, including members of al Qaeda, that not only took them out of the field, but it also let them run their own assassination programs against the Iranian-backed militias. Roberts: So it sounds like assassination was a real part of the program here, but was that the only thing that worked? What about the addition of these troops and these neighborhood stations that were set up? Did it all kind of work together? Ware: It does work together. But the key to the downturn in violence that we're seeing now is not so much the surge of 30,000 troops in itself. What it's been is the segregation of Baghdad into these enclaves. It's been cutting a deal with Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Iranian-backed militia. And primarily it's been putting your enemy on your payroll -- the Sunni insurgents and many members of al Qaeda. That's what's brought down the violence. This is your American militia, the counterbalance to the Iranian militias. So if there's new teams out there with new technology, great. But they're riding the wave of previous success.","highlights":"Bob Woodward credits assassination teams in large part for lower violence in Iraq .\nCNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware says that's not all of it .\nCo-opting of insurgents and al Qaeda in Iraq had bigger impact, Ware says .\nDeal with Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iranian-backed militia, also key, Ware says .","id":"09b582acc63514f671628e1766ff7e99b258fe9a"} -{"article":"\"Everything can be improved.\" -- Ross Lovegrove . Designer Ross Lovegrove . Fiercely original and unapologetically innovative, Ross Lovegrove describes himself, somewhat reluctantly, as an industrial designer. \"It's not as grimy, it's not as deep and dark as that sounds,\" he says. Famous for his tactile and sensual fluid forms, he takes his inspiration from nature to create an organic minimalism that he calls \"fat free\" design. \"Nature is a very big part of my work and always has been. I've never seen it as a trend or a fashion,\" he told CNN. In the early 1980s, with Frog Design in West Germany, he worked on projects including Sony Walkmans and Apple computers. He later moved to Paris as a consultant to Knoll International. Since returning to London in 1986, Lovegrove has worked with a wide range of clients including Airbus Industries, Peugeot, Apple Computers, Issey Miyake, Olympus Cameras, Tag Heuer, Herman Miller, Japan Airlines and Toyo Ito Architects in Japan, as well as a host of top design brands. See some of Ross Lovegrove's designs. \u00bb . Away from his client work, one of Lovegrove's projects is the \"Car on a Stick,\" an electric bubble car that turns into an elevated streetlight at night. \"I'm interested in developing an aesthetic for the 21st century which comes from the intelligent use of resources, materials and structures,\" he says. Lovegrove's methods blend organic inspiration, a fresh approach to function, cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and cross-application of techniques. \"In my own work, I'll learn from doing a super-lightweight suitcase in Osaka,\" he says. \"Then I'll think, 'How can I use that super-lightweight technology to do the chassis of a car?' It's transfer and exchange of knowledge.\" His work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally and is held in permanent collections of various design museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), the Design Museum in London and the Vitra Design Museum Weil Am Rhein, Basel, Switzerland. .......................... What do you think of Ross Lovegrove's work? What do you make of his \"car on a stick\"? Share your views -- or read others' thoughts in the Just Imagine forum.","highlights":"Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove is known for his organic, flowing forms .\nHis designs range from pens to solar lights to airline interiors .\nLovegrove's work is held in design museums including New York's MOMA .","id":"c4afe4db222c094c40bb3f271e37e006bcbebf88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Randy Pausch, the professor whose \"last lecture\" became a runaway phenomenon on the Internet and was turned into a best-selling book, died Friday of pancreatic cancer, Carnegie Mellon University announced on its Web site. Randy Pausch emphasized the joy of life in his \"last lecture,\" originally given in September 2007. Pausch, 47, a computer science professor, delivered the lecture, \"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,\" at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007, a month after being told he had three to six months to live because his cancer had returned. The lanky, energetic Pausch talked about goals he had accomplished, like experiencing zero gravity and creating Disney attractions, and those he had not, including becoming a professional football player. He used rejections he was handed when he applied for jobs at Disney to comment on the importance of persistence. \"The brick walls are there for a reason ... to show us how badly we want something,\" he said. \"Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people.\" Watch what Pausch did for his wife \u00bb . Starting with a joke about \"a deathbed conversion\" -- \"I just bought a Macintosh\" computer -- the educator went on to say that one of his childhood dreams was to write an entry in the World Book Encyclopedia. \"I guess you can tell the nerds early,\" he added. An expert in virtual reality, Pausch did go on to write an encyclopedia entry on the subject. He discussed his fondness for winning stuffed animals at fairs, showed a slide of them, then -- pretending to be concerned his audience would think the image had been digitally manipulated -- produced them onstage. Donning silly costume items like a vest with arrows sticking out of it and a Mad Hatter's hat, he described working with students as a way to help other people achieve their dreams. He also played down his own importance, saying that after he got a Ph.D., his mother took to introducing him as \"a doctor, but not the kind who helps people.\" The lecture has been viewed more than 3.2 million times since it was posted on YouTube in December. Pausch co-founded the university's Entertainment Technology Center and was known for developing interdisciplinary courses and research projects that attracted new students to the field of computer science. He also spent his career encouraging computer scientists to collaborate with artists, dramatists and designers, Carnegie Mellon said. The university's president, Jared Cohon, described Pausch as \"a brilliant researcher and gifted teacher.\" \"His love of teaching, his sense of fun and his brilliance came together in the Alice project, which teaches students computer programming while enabling them to do something fun -- making animated movies and games,\" Cohon added. \"Carnegie Mellon -- and the world -- are better places for having had Randy Pausch in them.\" Pausch describes Cohon urging him to talk about having fun in his lecture, and telling him it's difficult because it's like asking a fish to talk about water. \"I don't know how not to have fun,\" he said. \"I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left.\" Pausch is survived by his wife, Jai, and three children.","highlights":"Randy Pausch was computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon .\nHis September 2007 \"Last Lecture\" became Internet sensation, best-seller .\nPausch's lecture celebrated living the life he always dreamed .","id":"e21871892c63ec9638bf1bd3c3a1c3ebdae88796"} -{"article":"(CNN Traveller) -- When the Roman Emperor Hadrian came to power in 117AD he inherited an empire that was overstretched militarily and creaking at the seams. A massive bust of Hadrian's head unearthed only last year is part of the exhibition at the British Museum. One of his first acts was to pull the troops out of Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, a fact that is sure to resonate with visitors to the British Museum\"s superb exhibition \"Hadrian: Empire and Conflict\" which opens on 24 July under the imposing classical dome of the Reading Room. Curator Torsten Opper says: \"No matter what our take is on the conflict in Iraq today, we can relate to Hadrian's decision. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, it wouldn't have mattered so much. Now it does.\" Hadrian was born in Rome to a noble family whose origins lay in Spain. One of the greatest of Rome's emperors, he consolidated imperial power, was a patron of architecture and travelled extensively across his lands. Though married, he also took a homosexual lover, Antinous, whose drowning in the river Nile on the very day Egyptians were celebrating the death in a similar manner of the god Osiris remains one of ancient history's great unsolved mysteries. The range of exhibits and their rarity means that this exhibition is going to be extremely well-attended. Visitors will, for example, be the first members of the public anywhere to see a huge head of the emperor that was dug up recently at Sagalassos in central Turkey and would have once crowned a statue that was over five metres high. \"A year ago, this was still lying buried in the ground,\" says Opper. \"It\"s proof that Roman history isn't done and dusted; that we are still able to rethink the past and evaluate it.\" The exhibition brings together 180 objects, from 31 sources in 11 different countries. \"It hasn't been an easy thing to do,\" adds Opper. \"Many of these objects leave huge gaps in their home collection and many are extremely delicate. This isn't an exhibition that can travel. People will only be able to view it for these three months.\" Many of the most delicate objects are also those that give the most dramatic insight into Hadrian's reign. Between 132AD and 135\/6AD the Jews of Judea rebelled against Roman rule. Some of the insurgents took refuge in a cave in the desert, called the cave of letters, in which they were trapped by Roman troops. Few made it out alive. The climatic conditions of the cave have preserved objects in astonishing condition. There is a letter written by Jewish leader Simon Bar Kokhba (enquiring about a delivery of supplies), as well as mirrors, a jewellery box and an astonishingly delicate glass plate, probably made in Alexandria, that somehow survived flight into the desert and the perilous climb up a cliff to the cave. Then there are three house keys, their wooden handles preserved, looking as if they would still open the locks for which they were made. Opper says: \"They\"re immediately touching -- these were used by people to lock their homes thinking they\"d be back in a week or two, but of course they weren't -- they all perished. And there are still many refugees now who still have keys to the homes they once lived in. It\"s a potent symbol of conflict.\" To the British Hadrian will always be associated with the wall that was built across northern England, an 117km rampart with a fortification every 1.6km. In schoolroom history this has traditionally been seen as a defence against the barbarian tribes to the north, but it wasn't necessarily so. \"The wall was a ruthlessly efficient symbol of oppression and in the end it broke the back of the local tribes,\" says Opper. Confirmation of this, perhaps, comes from two small writing tablets from the fortress of Vindolanda, the oldest surviving hand-written documents in the British Isles. In one an officer, presumably writing to a colleague who is taking over his post, derides the locals as the \"little British,\" not worthy of worrying about very much - brief, battered and faded the letter may be, but as an example of high-handed imperialism it is hard to beat. CLICK HERE to subscribe to CNN Traveller . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2008 INK PUBLISHING AND CABLE NEWS NETWORK, LP, LLLP, A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"London exhibition based on Roman Emperor Hadrian features new treasures .\nHuge bust of Hadrian's head discovered only last year a feature .\nEmperor inherited a shambolic Roman empire and rebuilt it .","id":"065378e265a6d5ff38b2e6748ba66490cf8670a9"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- One of the FBI's most wanted terrorists escaped a raid over the weekend, Kenyan police said Monday. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a suspected terrorist, is shown in photos released by the FBI. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, indicted in the United States for alleged involvement in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, managed to evade police in a raid Saturday morning in Malindi, along Kenya's coast, said police spokesman Eric Kiraithe. The United States calls Mohammed a senior al Qaeda operative in East Africa. U.S. officials accuse him of being an architect of the embassy bombings that killed 225 people. They also believe Mohammed was involved in attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel and airliner in Kenya in 2002. Kiraithe said Kenyan authorities received information from \"local intelligence networks\" that led them to conduct the raid, which involved no foreign intelligence officials. He said police know Mohammed had, in fact, been at the location they raided, because they found two passports under names Mohammed has used. Kiraithe did not say what countries the passports were from. A massive manhunt is under way for Mohammed in Malindi and surrounding areas, \"more intensive than ever before because we wouldn't want to miss him now,\" Kiraithe said. The U.S. offers a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his apprehension or conviction. Mohammed has escaped capture and attacks before. Early last year a U.S.-led air strike in Somalia failed to kill him. In 2003, Kenyan police said he escaped authorities. In December 2007, the U.N. Security Council amended a list of 25 al Qaeda suspects subject to sanctions, including Mohammed. The description of Mohammed offered numerous aliases and said he had \"reportedly undergone plastic surgery.\" The FBI description says Mohammed was born in the Comoros Islands, and has used birth dates indicating he was born in either 1972 or 1974. He also has citizenship in Kenya, the description says. It adds, \"Mohammed likes to wear baseball caps and tends to dress casually. He is very good with computers.\"","highlights":"Suspect indicted in U.S. for 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya, Tanzania .\nU.S: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is a senior al Qaeda operative in E. Africa .\nHe managed to evade police in a raid Saturday in Malindi, say Kenyan police .\nAuthorities received information about him from \"local intelligence networks\"","id":"5852e143b34cc30e94aed29193fc2e1dce37b1b1"} -{"article":"ARBIL, Iraq (CNN) -- Two United Arab Emirates based companies announced on Tuesday that they will be investing in the Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan. Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, called the project \"a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy.\" Four hundred and sixty one million square feet have been officially assigned to \"Gas Cities LLC,\" a joint venture between Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, both Sharjah-based companies, to establish a new venture: \"Kurdistan Gas City.\" Kurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings in an integrated city. The expected initial investment in basic infrastructure is estimated at $3 billion, with further foreign direct investment exceeding $40 billion during the operations phase. Work will start on the project, which is designed to promote private sector investment in a variety of gas-related industries, on September 21. Gas City is structured to hold over 20 varieties of world scale petrochemical and heavy manufacturing plants, and hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), served by state-of-the-art facilities. Mr Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said: \"Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have made a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy through their work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq thus far, we are making significant progress in spurring on economic growth and creating opportunity for our people.\" Hamid Jafar, Executive Chairman of Dana Gas, explained the importance of this achievement saying: \"The Kurdistan Gas City is an enormous step forward in Dana Gas' strategy across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.\" The Kurdistan Gas City is projected to generate job opportunities for nearly 200,000 Iraqi citizens in infrastructure, industrial projects, support services and other business activities. This is not the first project for Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, the two companies are committed to a service agreement signed in April 2007 with the Kurdistan Regional Government to build 180 kilometers of natural gas pipeline and two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plants, which are 80 percent complete. The project is on track and will start pumping 150 million cubic feet of gas per day in the coming weeks, rising to 300 million cubic feet by early 2009. Other companies from the UAE showed similar interest in Kurdistan Region \"Damac Properties\" one of the major private developers in the regions revealed on June 3 plans for a $16 billion residential, commercial and recreational project.","highlights":"Emirati companies making significant investments in Kurdistan .\nKurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings .\nWork will start on the project on September 21 .","id":"af76b4c33b65666487dcc07f75d37de03ff61207"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In Focus -- Gulf football interests . News of an English football deal sent the British media into a frenzy this week, when a private Abu Dhabi group announced a planned takeover of Manchester City. Sheikha Hanadi al Thani talks about the real estate bubble in Qatar . With the likes of Emirates, Etihad and Saudi Telecom, the Gulf has long had an interest in English football. Are they sound investments or a matter of prestige? MME investigates. Facetime with Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani, CEO, Al Waab City Real Estate Development . Since 2005 when the World Economic Forum named her the \"Young Global Leader of the Year,\" Sheikha Hanadi al Thani has become an inspiration to women across the Arab world. She founded the first firm in Qatar to conduct investment banking and is now the CEO of Al Wa'ab City, a property development that's set to open in 2010. She talks to MME about the real estate bubble in Qatar and being a businesswoman in the Gulf. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: Friday: 0815, 1845 Saturday: 0545 Sunday 0715 .","highlights":"On this week's MME we look at Gulf interests in English football .\nWe talk to Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani, CEO, Al Waab City Real Estate Development .\nAl Thani, who started the first investment bank in Qatar, talks about property .","id":"9918924dbaed44429c58ea3638c3847317b71127"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S., European Union and international security organizations Friday called for an end to fighting between Georgia and militant separatists that has dragged in Russian forces. Russia's Channel 1 shows heavy tanks purported to be on their way to South Ossetia. President George Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict in Georgia, the White House confirmed. Both men were attending the opening of the Summer Olympics in the Chinese capital and spoke during a luncheon hosted by Chinese President Hu Jintao. White House spokesman Tony Fratto did not provide any additional details. But Putin, according to his spokesman, said: \"There are lots of volunteers being gathered in the region, and it's very hard to withhold them from taking part. A real war is going on.\" White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: \"I want to reiterate on [President Bush's] behalf that the United States supports Georgia's territorial integrity and we call for an immediate cease fire. \"We urge all parties, Georgians, South Ossetians and Russians to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict. We are working on mediation efforts to secure a cease fire and we are urging the parties to restart their dialogue.\" The U.S. military was also reviewing plans for the possible evacuation of the more than 2,000 of its citizens in the Republic of Georgia, two military officials said Friday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his counterparts in the United States and Germany and the European Union's foreign policy chief that Georgia was the aggressor and should immediately withdraw its troops from South Ossetia. The EU and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are sending envoys to Georgia to secure a cease-fire, but a senior U.S. State Department official said the United States would only send a representative after a cease-fire is in place. The European Union said it was working with other parties \"towards a ceasefire in order to prevent further escalation of this conflict.\" EU spokeswoman Christina Gallach told CNN: \"We think it is not acceptable to see these scenes of bloodshed and destruction.\" OSCE chairman-in-office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said: \"The intense fighting in the South Ossetian conflict zone risks escalation into a full-fledged war. \"War would have a devastating impact for the entire region. I urge the Georgians, South Ossetians and Russians to cease fire, end military action and stop further escalation. We need to pull back from the brink of a full-fledged war.\" NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer issued a statement Friday saying he was seriously concerned about the recent events in the region, and he called on all sides to end armed clashes and begin direct talks. Watch more about NATO's attempts to help Georgia \u00bb . Carmen Romero, a NATO spokeswoman in Brussels, said NATO was in regular contact with Georgia's president and was talking to Russia. Britain also urged all sides to bring an immediate end to the violence. \"We are monitoring developments. We urge an immediate cease-fire in the fighting in South Ossetia and for a resumption of direct dialogue between all parties.\" Georgia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is now looking west and has ambitions of joining NATO. South Ossetia has longed for and sometimes fought for independence since the 1920s when the Soviet Government made it an autonomous region within Georgia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia broke away from Moscow in 1991 and South Ossetia voted overwhelmingly for its own independence. Violence has been mounting in the region in recent days, with sporadic clashes between Georgian forces and South Ossetian separatists. Georgian troops launched new attacks in South Ossetia late Thursday after a top government official said a unilateral cease-fire offer was met with separatist artillery fire. An emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Friday discussed the dramatic escalation of violence. The session ended Friday morning without a statement about the fighting. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"International organizations call for end to fighting in breakaway Georgia region .\nFighting in South Ossetia escalated Friday; Russian tanks moved to the region .\nPresident Bush: The United States supports Georgia's territorial integrity .\nGeorgia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, now has ambitions of joining NATO .","id":"c87e99f422b46c03ce77e7cd064bff87c076e1ed"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The shoe phone on TV's \"Get Smart\" wasn't just a sneaky spy gadget, it was a technological marvel: a wireless, portable telephone that could be used anywhere -- though it did require a dime to make a call. Today, almost everyone has a pocket-sized version that also takes photos, shoots video, sends e-mail and surfs the Internet. About the only thing it doesn't do is protect your feet. \"Get Smart\" comes to the big screen next week, along with a spate of new spy gadgets to help Maxwell Smart, Agent 99 and the other spies at CONTROL. The gadgets are just as goofy as they were in the original TV series, but because technology has caught up with the writers' imaginations, there's a big difference: many of the movie's doo-dads actually exist. \"Our favorite thing is to take something that does sort of exist and just exaggerate it a little bit,\" said Matt Ember, who co-wrote the script. The film shows a tiny iPod alongside spy-worthy stuff such as a two-way tooth radio and a digital \"spy fly\" -- all of which are available now. \"It's pushed to a level of success that perhaps it hasn't achieved in the real world, but it's real, it's out there, so that's fun\" added co-writer Tom J. Astle, a self-described science nut. Director Peter Segal said he originally couldn't believe such devices were real. \"I said, `That's too silly. I don't think people will buy it,\"' he recalled telling the writers. \"Then they Googled it and it came up as an actual thing.\" Astle and Ember saw the tooth radio in a magazine and thought it was a perfect fit for the film. \"That's an example of taking inspiration from the old series in spirit,\" Astle said. \"The inherent comedy of having a microphone in your mouth -- it's really close to your voice and it's easy to yell and be too loud.\" The inextricable link between gadgets and spy movies began with James Bond in 1962, said TV historian Tim Brooks, author of \"The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.\" The often-preposterous devices Bond used added levity to a genre that \"had always been deadly serious\" during the early years of the Cold War, Brooks said. Back in the day, \"Get Smart\" ratcheted up the goofiness level with bulletproof pajamas, a Bunsen-burner phone and other wacky gadgets that often didn't work. When the show debuted in 1965, the nation was future-focused and obsessed with the promise of technology. The show played on that obsession, Brooks said, introducing dozens of covert gadgets and props designed to make life easier for Cold War-era secret agents. A cigarette lighter doubled as a .22-caliber gun. A lipstick could record conversations or release poisonous gas. Then there was the famous shoe phone and the always-dysfunctional \"cone of silence\" that could (theoretically) keep conversations private, even in a crowded room. \"It's nothing that you would expect to find or would even make sense in real life, and that's the gag,\" Brooks said. \"It was part of what the show was about. You'd watch wondering what's next, where's the phone going to be next time. ... It was like a satire of our fixation with gadgets.\" The movie also takes liberties with some familiar devices, such as portable lasers, retinal scanners and a tricked-out Swiss Army Knife equipped with a flame-thrower and a mini crossbow. Despite living in a high-tech world, movie fans still love spy gadgets, the filmmakers said: Just look at the success of the Bond franchise, which will soon introduce its 22nd installment, and spy spoofs such as \"Austin Powers.\" Part of it is the undercover element, part of it is a cultural love for technology, and part of it is wishful thinking. \"Human beings are tool-users,\" Astle said. \"We would like to believe that our government -- the good guys -- have within their power tools and electronic gadgets that will protect us that are beyond what we could do.\" \"There is some reality to it,\" Ember said. \"We do have facial-recognition software, but on the other hand, I'm not allowed to bring shampoo on an airplane.\"","highlights":"New film \"Get Smart\" comes to the big screen next week .\nCo-writer says the film exaggerates many gadgets that can be bought online .\nThe original TV show debuted in 1965, when the nation was \"future-focused\"\nTV historian says the show was a satire of America's fixation with gadgets .","id":"aaca402152fbea1b16e14999374f6394520289a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In focus: The business of education . We talk to Pnina Rosenblum, the founder of the cosmetic company Pnina Rosenblum Lt. With rising unemployment, the MENA countries are investing more into education than any other emerging region. And Western universities are cashing in. Over 40 prestigious schools have set up alliances and campuses in the Middle East. For the universities it means higher revenues. For the students, it means a premier education close to home. Facetime: Pnina Rosenblum, Pnina Rosenblum Ltd . From a poor upbringing to a beauty queen, millionaire cosmetic mogul and member of the Knesset. Pnina Rosenblum has been an Israeli icon for decades. In 1989 Pnina launched a cosmetics company that generates $8 million a year. MME spent the day with Pnina to find out how she fought her way to fame and fortune. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: Friday: 0815, 1945 Saturday: 0545 Sunday: 0715 .","highlights":"MME looks at higher education in the Middle East .\n40 prestigious schools have set up alliances and campuses in the Middle East .\nWe talk to Pnina Rosenblum an Israeli icon and a cosmetics mogul .","id":"259d8cccfcb9b9edc00d757ec6efecde6fc06110"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canada announced Wednesday that it will dispatch a warship to Somalia's coast to protect U.N. aid ships from pirate attacks. The Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec will escort ships carrying food aid to Somalia. \"Canada is stepping up to the plate by tasking Ville de Quebec with the role of escorting World Food Programme ships to ensure their safe arrival at designated ports,\" Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said in a government news release. The United Nations hunger program praised Canada for answering its call for help, and said it hoped other governments would step forward to take over from Canada once it completes its mission in a few weeks. The HMCS Ville de Quebec is a 440-foot frigate armed with torpedoes, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons, and carries a twin-engine Sea King anti-submarine helicopter. Ville de Quebec, which can travel at speeds greater than 27 knots, will be dispatched after Somalia's transitional government formally authorizes the mission, the government's news release said. WFP asked the world's naval powers in mid-June to help its ships reach the more than 2 million people in need of aid. It put out the request weeks before French, Danish and Dutch warships ended their escort missions, which began in November. Pirate attacks on unescorted ships have been a growing problem in Somalia. Three European freighters were hijacked off the Horn of Africa in June, adding to the 27 other reported attacks this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy. WFP delivers 80 percent of its aid to Somalia by sea, and WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said that if there are no warships to escort the food supply, the program will have to rely on ground or air travel to deliver the food. But both are dangerous and expensive. The agency said that if there is no assistance from naval powers, piracy will increase, and so will death and malnutrition. Smerdon said that although Somalia's food crisis hasn't yet reached the devastation of the early 1990s, \"We're worried it will be.\"","highlights":"Canada to send 440-foot frigate to help aid reach ports safely .\nMission must be authorized by Somalia's transitional government .\n80 percent of U.N.'s food aid to Somalia sent by ship .\nHeavily armed pirates frequently hijack cargo ships off Horn of Africa .","id":"d076dbce6e84b20153db61c809d0f01f46ef1f45"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan has been forced from their home after a poisonous spider hitched a ride back with him and apparently killed their pet dog. The camel spider's bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals. Lorraine Griffiths and her three children, aged 18, 16, and 4, moved out of their house in Colchester, southeast England, and are refusing to return until the spider is apprehended, the UK Press Association reported. Griffiths told the East Anglian Daily Times that the spider appeared after her husband, Rodney, returned from a four-month tour of duty in Helmand province, the arid southern Afghan frontline in the fight against Taliban extremists. \"My son Ricky was in my bedroom looking for his underwear, and he went into the drawer under my bed, and something crawled across his hand,\" she told the paper. She said their pet dog Cassie confronted the creature, which they identified on the Internet as a camel spider, but ran out whimpering when it hissed at her. Watch the family that has been terrorized by the spider \u00bb . \"It seems too much of a coincidence that she died at the same time that we saw the spider,\" she said. The desert-dwelling camel spider, actually an insect rather than an arachnid, can run up to 25 kilometers (15 miles) an hour and reach 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. Its bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.","highlights":"UK family forced from home as poisonous insect hitches in from Afghanistan .\nCamel spider believed to have stowed away in soldier's luggage .\nFamily blames creature for death of pet dog Cassie .","id":"c74e983d24450ed9c4ba3a97e345bba707d26853"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A magazine photo spread of Taliban fighters posing in the uniforms of 10 French soldiers killed last month has sparked an angry response. One of the pictures in the French magazine Paris Match that has stirred controversy. The latest edition of Paris Match includes photos of the Taliban fighters and their commander, \"Farouki,\" wearing French uniforms, helmets and using French assault rifles and walkie-talkies. Farouki, aged 30-35, claims in the accompanying story to have led his group in the August 18 ambush which killed 10 French troops and injured a further 21 in the Sarobi District, 40 miles east of Kabul. It was the French army's single highest death toll in 25 years. He said the area was \"our territory\" and the attack was a \"legitimate\" part of its defense. Farouki said it did not need a lot of planning, with the French soldiers only spotted a short time before the assault. He said the soldiers had died for \"[George W.] Bush's\" cause and that if France did not return the rest of its troops home they would all be killed. Farouki said they would continue fighting till the last man. See more on Paris Match's Web site . French Defense Minister Herve Morin accused the magazine of helping the Taliban. \"Should we be doing the Taliban's promotion for them?\" he asked in the French daily newspaper Liberation. Joel Le Pahun, father of one of the killed soldiers, told the newspaper the pictures were \"despicable.\" Green MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit called them \"voyeurism.\" However, Paris Match editor Laurent Valdiguie defended the publication, saying it was \"legitimate\" given the importance of the story. The story's author, Eric de Lavar\u00e8ne, said only he and photographer V\u00e9ronique de Viguerie met the group and he asked his questions via their \"fixer.\"","highlights":"Photos of Taliban in the uniforms of dead French soldiers provokes outrage .\nMagazine Paris Match features photos of Taliban and their commander .\n10 French troops were killed and a further 21 injured in an ambush .","id":"0922357b2d0439cf4ba6ec9dc143e11a38b49d8a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This year's Forbes Rich List is notable for the absence of Bill Gates at the top. After 13 years as the world's richest man, he has finally been toppled by his friend Warren Buffett who has an estimate fortune of $62bn. The Middle East's richest man: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud . The list -- which is a run down of the 1,125 richest people on the planet -- estimates a person's total net worth in US dollars based on the closing stock prices of the stock exchanges on which their company is listed. The Middle East's richest man is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, the 51 year old Saudi who has an estimated net worth of $21bn. He ranks 19th in the list and is considered to be the most active and successful investor in the Middle East. He took his investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding, public on the Saudi stock exchange in July 2007. The company contains investments in well-known global companies such as Citigroup and News Corp. In the early 1990s, Alwaleed made a risky bet on Citigroup that paid off massively and has in recent years accounted for nearly half his fortune. Kuwaiti construction heir Nasser Al-Kharafi is the next richest in 46th place with an inherited fortune of $14bn. He heads M.A. Al-Kharafi & Sons, one of the largest diversified conglomerates in the Arab world. Americana, the company's lucrative food division is extremely successful and has exclusive franchise rights in the region for Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays and other big global brands. Faiza, his sister was the first woman president of Kuwait University. Naguib Sawiris, the eldest son of telecoms billionaire and Orascom Telecom founder Onsi Sawiris ranks next in 60th place with a net worth of $12.7bn. In addition to Orascom Telecom, his assets -- via European holding company Weather Investments -- include Italian phone company, Wind and leading Greek telecom companies Wind Hellas and Tellas. His brother, Nassef is in 68th place, with an estimated worth of $11bn and his father Onsi who serves as chairman of Orascom comes in at 96th place with $9bn. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The Middle East's richest man is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud .\nHe ranks 19th in the world in the Forbes Rich List .\nSeven other billionaires from the Middle East rank in the top 100 .","id":"c62ea6aaf31a7f5b6a7c2eac7780c86f9baed786"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Monsoon flooding has left 50,000 people homeless in Nepal and killed at least 74 people in northern India, according to officials. Monsoon rain has bought heavy flooding to southern Nepal, pictured, and northern India. The Nepalese army Thursday used helicopters to rescue residents in southeastern Nepal who were stranded on treetops and roofs after monsoon flooding forced more than 50,000 people from their homes. In northern India monsoon flooding destroyed mud huts and killed at least 74 people, officials said. The deaths were in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The latest casualties bring to more than 300 the number of people killed in India since the start of this year's monsoon season. Nepalese officials said at least four southern villages were inundated with water after the embankment on the Saptakoshi River burst Monday. Some 40,000 people were now living in government-run relief camps; others had gone to other villages to stay with relatives, authorities said. Nepalese Home Ministry officials said there were unconfirmed reports of deaths related to the flooding but authorities could not reach the affected areas to verify those reports. Police and army troops had been using elephants, boats and helicopters to rescue stranded villagers in Sunsari district, about 400 km (249 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, since Monday. Nepal amd India are in the midst of the annual monsoon season. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Heavy rains, flooding lash sourthern Nepal and northern India .\nIn Nepal, flooding has forced as many as 50,000 from their homes .\nIndia officials say at least 74 people have died in the state of Uttar Pradesh .","id":"6bb04883f35820a450ff821eda46a4002c0fc7e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mohammed Alshaya owns more high street brands than most fashion addicts could stuff in their closets. Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of Alshaya's retail division, tells MME he sees a new mindset in the Gulf . Topshop, Coast, NEXT and River Island are just some of the big names he's imported from the United Kingdom to shopping centers in the Middle East. As chief executive of M.H. Alshaya, he knows what sells: tried and tested Western brands that will appeal to local shoppers. And his empire is not limited to clothing. In the past month, he's taken Mothercare and The Body Shop to Central Eastern Europe. With the addition of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, M.H. Alshaya now operates in 16 markets including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Poland and Russia. John Defterios spoke with Mohammed Alshaya, and started by asking him for his thoughts on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plans for a single currency. (JD): I would imagine as a retail operation you'd be a huge proponent of a single currency within the GCC. Is it realistic within the next 4 to 5 years? (MA): I think it can be, as long as there is a will of the leaders to get together and decide. It is a huge leap towards efficiency, conciliation, getting closer between the six countries. One single Central Bank that governs and regulates is much better than the current six, I believe. (JD): Have you ever done any calculations of what impact it would have on your back office operations? (MA): Not yet, but it will be great, I think. (JD): You're one of the largest retail operations throughout the Arabian Peninsula. With all this growth that we're seeing right now, it must have a direct impact on the retail sector. What sort of annual growth are you experiencing? (MA): We're experiencing close to 25 percent annual growth, if not 30 percent in some cases, like in Dubai. (JD): Do you have any sort of concerns that this is going to be a bubble like the 1970s where the money was not deployed correctly? It seems different from my vantage point, do you share that view? (MA): There is a new generation of people from the region that are leading businesses and strong leadership in the government that have mitigated any concern. And if you see now the statistics, the Gulf is the seventh largest economy in the world. In ten, in 15 years time, it will be the fifth. So I see a new mindset, a new attitude. (JD): One of the other things I wanted to ask you about is your moves into other countries. The Alshaya group is very well known throughout the Arabian Peninsula, but you're moving into other markets, into Eastern Europe, specifically into Russia. Do you have the expertise to go into these markets? (MA): Well, yes. We have the expertise, and the expertise is by really retaining good management, and traveling with them into new markets. I'm not going to open shops myself. We have a very strong team in Russia; Russians that are taking our investment into good projects like Starbucks which we opened two months ago, two stores. We acquired a business there. So we have plans like Mothercare, Bodyshop, NEXT. (JD): So you can basically move this group into any city and have that potpourri of offers? (MA): We have the software. We have the software to launch the retail portfolio into a new market. (JD): Obviously you're a family business. You feel quite strongly about preserving culture and the family structure, and the need for family businesses to create jobs, because they represent 75 percent of all turnover in the Gulf. (MA): We have a social responsibility toward our people. We have to make sure we have jobs for them if the government is not going to compete, and is going to take away some of the people who would be relevant to our business. Another issue that might challenge us to do that is the wealth creation -- whether (potential employees) would be attracted to be in a department store selling or in a coffee shop making coffee -- that, we will see. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"MME speaks with Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of M.H. Alshaya's retail division .\nRetail division seeing annual growth of 25 percent, up to 30 percent in Dubai .\nGroup taking Starbucks, Mothercare, Body Shop into Eastern Europe, Russia .\nOn GCC single currency: It is a huge leap towards efficiency, conciliation .","id":"71f87a7cbda73f1c0656d811b0026437e4ee4aa0"} -{"article":"(CNN Traveller) -- Natural beauty, outdoor living and fine dining -- Wendy Saunt crams one week's activities into one memorable day. Sydney's Opera House is recognized instantly the world over, but there are plenty of hidden gems to be found. 08.00: Chinese food for breakfast might seem like something you would only do with a hangover, but yum cha -- think Chinese tapas on trolleys -- is a Sydney tradition. Head down to China Town in Haymarket and take your pick -- East Ocean (421-429 Sussex Street) is a favorite with Sydneysiders. 09.00: Walk off your breakfast with some shopping. You will see many international designers and a plethora of great home-grown ones too, from Sass & Bide to Collette Dinnigan. Sieve through the grand Queen Victoria Building (known as the QVB) and David Jones department store in town, then head east across Hyde Park -- stopping off at the art deco Anzac war memorial \u00ad-- towards Oxford Street, where there are some great boutiques. Sydney is also a good place to buy opals and pearls. 11.30: Continue east to the chi-chi 'old Sydney' suburbs of Paddington and Woollahra, where you will find some of the city's most beautiful architecture. Here the wrought iron balconies and the palm trees of the Victorian terrace houses lend the city a seductive, New Orleans feel. Stop for a coffee in one of the many fine coffee houses, then make your way up back up to Oxford Street and jump on the number 380 bus to Bondi. 12.30: For the best view of Bondi -- the quintessentialSydney beach -- get off the bus as it comes down the hill. From here, it is a short walk to Icebergs restaurant. From its vantage point on the coastal cliffs at the southern end -- overlooking the sweep of Bondi beach, the raging surf, and the gleaming white of the outdoor pool -- Icebergs is Sydney at its best. Tables at this renowned restaurant are hard to come by, so book ahead (www.idrb.com). After lunch, do the Bondi-to-Coogee coastal walk, which traces three bays -- Clovelly, Tamarama and Gordon's (a great snorkeling spot) -- and affords cliff-top views before finishing up, an hour or so later, at Coogee, a beach to the south. Once there, take your weary self down to Wylie's Baths, an outdoor sea water pool that has not changed since its inception in 1907, and get an al fresco massage (www.massagebythesea.com.au. From $25). 16.00: The best way to see the city -- which is laid out along the contours of a vast and beautiful natural harbor -- is from the air. Depending on your budget, you can take in the views from Sydney Tower (100 Market Street, $24.50), climb the Harbor Bridge (www.bridgeclimb.com, from $179), or charter a helicopter (www.sydneyhelicopters.com.au, from $180). If you want to see it from the 'ground', charter a yacht and join the harbor's fray (www.eastsail.com.au, from $625). 18.00: After a quick change, head down to Circular Quay for sun downers at the Opera Bar. With the Harbor Bridge to your left and the grand old Opera House to your right, it is easy to see why it is the place for evening drinks. House Brut is a steal at AUS$34 ($32); the bucket-sized portions of fries a snip at AUS$7 ($6.50). Do not be late, though -- the view here at dusk is enough to make you want to stay in Sydney forever. 19.00: While in the vicinity, see what is on at the Opera House -- there is a huge program, from world music to musicals too.(www.sydneyoperahouse.com). If that is not your scene, it is still worth taking a tour of the iconic building -- the last one is at 5pm, though ($32). 21.00: With Sydney famed for its cuisine, dining options are not in short supply. Billy Kwong's is one of the city's foremost places, dishing up vast portions of fresh, light and ever-so-tasty Chinese food in a tiny Shanghai tearoom-style restaurant (355 Crown Street, Surry Hills). For a taste of modern Australian, take a taxi to The Bathers' Pavilion, a seafood restaurant in the western suburb of Balmoral (4 The Esplanade, Balmoral Beach). Finally, Tetsuya's -- with its famed $195 10-course degustation menu -- is ranked by Restaurant magazine as the fourth best restaurant in the world (529 Kent Street, Sydney). To sit at its hallowed tables, you need to book several months -- possibly even a year -- in advance. 11.00: Still standing? Then hit the late-night bars. The Loft by the water (3 Lime Street, Kings Street Wharf, Sydney), Arthouse Hotel in the CBD (275 Pitt Street, Sydney), Ruby Rabbit in city's clubbing district (231 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst) and The Tilbury in one of Sydney's smartest suburbs (12 Nicholson Street, Woolloomooloo) are all good choices. And if you are at the latter, finish off your night with a pie at Harry's Cafe de Wheels (Cowper Wharf Road) -- another Sydney institution. CLICK HERE to subscribe to CNN Traveller . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2008 INK PUBLISHING AND CABLE NEWS NETWORK, LP, LLLP, A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"Chinese food for breakfast -- yum cha -- is a Sydney tradition .\nClimb the Harbor Bridge for great views of the city .\nDine at Tetsuya, ranked by Restaurant magazine as the 4th best in the world .","id":"fa5089d759a9fb810d28c140cf60e3a5fffff8ba"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice Department officials blocked liberals and people with Democratic Party ties from a highly selective program that funneled young lawyers into government jobs, according to an internal investigation released Tuesday. A bias against liberals existed in a Justice program meant to hire young lawyers, an investigation found. Esther Slater McDonald, a political appointee at the Justice Department, \"wrote disparaging statements about the candidates' liberal and Democratic Party affiliations on the applications she reviewed and ... she voted to deselect candidates on that basis,\" said the report by Inspector General Glenn Fine. McDonald, who has left the department, refused to be interviewed for the investigation. The report, the first official investigation to document politicization of the Justice Department during the Bush administration, is an offshoot of the larger investigation of Justice Department politics triggered by the furor over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. It found two of three members of a screening committee considered political views and experience when choosing new lawyers for the Justice Department Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program. The report found that McDonald and Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, engaged in misconduct, an administrative violation. The third member of the screening committee, career lawyer Dan Fridman, was cleared of any involvement in the politicization of the process. Elston was interviewed by the investigators, who asked him about the role of former Justice Department official Monica Goodling in politicizing the selection process. Elston told investigators he could not recall Goodling telling him to select lawyers who appeared to share Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' philosophy. Goodling testified before a House panel last year that she had told Elston he should identify such candidates. Goodling directed Elston to lead the selection committee in 2006. She and Elston have both left the Justice Department. She refused to be interviewed for the inspector general's report. As a result of the controversy, the hiring process was changed in 2007 to insulate hiring decisions from political considerations. Both Justice Department policy and federal law prohibit discrimination in hiring for career positions on the basis of political affiliations. The report did not find clear evidence that an earlier screening committee took political considerations into account. It says data from 2002 shows a disparity in the hiring of liberal and conservative candidates, but there were no complaints about the committee's work from 2003 to 2006, when Goodling put Elston in charge of the process. The report Tuesday is the first of perhaps several to be issued as the broad-ranging investigation into the role partisan politics has played in the Justice Department during the Bush administration. Goodling is expected to be a central figure in later inspector general reports examining efforts to increase the influence of conservatives in the department. The Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility, a separate watchdog office that monitors prosecutorial conduct, joined in the inspector general's investigation. CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Programs used to select young lawyers for summer interns and honors program .\nInvestigation stems from firing of U.S. attorneys in 2006 .\nMembers of selection committee screened out liberals and Democrats, report says .\nHiring process changed in 2007 to stop political bias from occurring .","id":"1f9aed77465301d7f3787a29555754a03728c4b7"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The storm called Hanna weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm Tuesday morning as maximum sustained winds eased down to 70 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. This satellite image from Monday shows Hanna over the southern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Despite the downgrade, Hanna dropped torrential rain on the eastern Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Haiti. Hurricane warnings remained in effect. Hanna's path and strength remain uncertain, but the latest forecast map from the National Hurricane Center predicts it still could make landfall as a major hurricane on the southeastern U.S. coast by Friday evening. Hanna's path early Tuesday appeared to be a \"meandering\" loop across Turks and Caicos, but atmospheric changes over the western Atlantic are expected to steer the storm northwestward over the next two or three days, according to forecasters. As of 5 a.m. ET, Hanna was a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale with sustained winds of 80 mph (129 kph) and gusts of up to 100 mph. iReport.com: Watch Hanna lash Turks and Caicos Islands . Three hours later, it was downgraded to a tropical storm as winds fell below the 74 mph threshold for hurricane status. It could return to hurricane status later Tuesday or on Wednesday, forecasters said. Hanna's line of fire could include the U.S. Atlantic coast from Miami, Florida, to Massachusetts, according to the hurricane center's long-range forecast map. Charleston, South Carolina, appears in the middle of this \"cone of uncertainty,\" with Hanna potentially making landfall there Friday. \"It appears that the center has been meandering,\" forecasters said. The history of hurricanes that have been where Hanna is now might argue against its heading toward the southeastern United States. None of the September storms that passed within 200 miles of Hanna's current location has gone there, with most heading into the Gulf of Mexico and others going to New England or Nova Scotia. Still, forecasters said, \"the model guidance is remarkably well clustered\" in support of its forecast path for Hanna. Meanwhile, forecasters were keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Ike, which was gaining strength in the mid-Atlantic and appeared headed for the Bahamas later in the week. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph Tuesday morning.","highlights":"NEW: As sustained winds fall off, system demoted to tropical storm .\nNEW: Hanna could return to hurricane level later in day, forecasters say .\nNEW: Tropical Storm Ike moving toward Caribbean Sea .\nHanna's path could include the U.S. Atlantic coast from Miami to Massachusetts .","id":"7237201bcb7291f2ededb818f901a451356db34b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A magazine photo spread of Taliban fighters posing in the uniforms of 10 French soldiers killed last month has sparked an angry response. One of the pictures in the French magazine Paris Match that has stirred controversy. The latest edition of Paris Match includes photos of the Taliban fighters and their commander, \"Farouki,\" wearing French uniforms, helmets and using French assault rifles and walkie-talkies. Farouki, aged 30-35, claims in the accompanying story to have led his group in the August 18 ambush which killed 10 French troops and injured a further 21 in the Sarobi District, 40 miles east of Kabul. It was the French army's single highest death toll in 25 years. He said the area was \"our territory\" and the attack was a \"legitimate\" part of its defense. Farouki said it did not need a lot of planning, with the French soldiers only spotted a short time before the assault. He said the soldiers had died for \"[George W.] Bush's\" cause and that if France did not return the rest of its troops home they would all be killed. Farouki said they would continue fighting till the last man. See more on Paris Match's Web site . French Defense Minister Herve Morin accused the magazine of helping the Taliban. \"Should we be doing the Taliban's promotion for them?\" he asked in the French daily newspaper Liberation. Joel Le Pahun, father of one of the killed soldiers, told the newspaper the pictures were \"despicable.\" Green MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit called them \"voyeurism.\" However, Paris Match editor Laurent Valdiguie defended the publication, saying it was \"legitimate\" given the importance of the story. The story's author, Eric de Lavar\u00e8ne, said only he and photographer V\u00e9ronique de Viguerie met the group and he asked his questions via their \"fixer.\"","highlights":"Photos of Taliban in the uniforms of dead French soldiers provokes outrage .\nMagazine Paris Match features photos of Taliban and their commander .\n10 French troops were killed and a further 21 injured in an ambush .","id":"38d13d78fedc889784ffb3cb213a758c758be145"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swiss police were scrambling Monday in search of three masked men who stole four Impressionist paintings worth about $163 million (180 million Swiss francs) Sunday in a heist police characterized as \"spectacular.\" Claude Monet's \"Poppies near Vetheuil\" was one of the famous paintings stolen by the armed robbers. The three men entered the E.G. Buehrle Collection -- among the finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world -- in Zurich, Switzerland, at around 4:30 p.m. CET (8:30 a.m. ET), police said. One of the men threatened personnel at the museum's front door with a pistol and forced them to the ground, police said, while the other two men went into an exhibition room and stole four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. Afterward, the three men loaded the paintings -- Monet's \"Poppies near Vetheuil,\" Degas' \"Count Lepic and his Daughters,\" Van Gogh's \"Blossoming Chestnut Branches\" and Cezanne's \"Boy in a Red Vest\" -- into a white car parked in front of the museum and then drove off, police said. Police said the men were wearing dark clothes and hoods, and one of them spoke German with a Slavic accent. They were all of average height, police said. There is a reward of $91,000 (100,00 Swiss francs) for information leading to the return of the paintings, police said. The Swiss art heist follows the recent theft in Switzerland of two paintings by Pablo Picasso, Bjoern Quellenberg, a spokesman for the Kunsthaus, a major art museum in Zurich, said. The 'dumbest' form of art crime \u00bb . The director of the Kunsthaus serves on the E.G. Buhrle private art foundation's council, Quellenberg said. In that theft, thieves stole the paintings, the 1962 \"Tete de Cheval\" (\"Horse's Head\") and the 1944 \"Verre et Pichet\" (\"Glass and Pitcher\") by Picasso. They were on loan from a German museum and valued at $4.5 million when they were stolen February 6, according to news reports. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Artworks worth $163M stolen in Zurich art heist .\nHaul includes pieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas and Monet .\nHeist follows recent thefts in Switzerland of artworks by Picasso .","id":"98fd4b91ec12241a96493471a3e21c9ab96ec523"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A humanitarian plane carrying 17 people -- most of them relief workers -- has crashed during a storm in a mountainous region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said Tuesday. File image of a Beechcraft 1900 aircraft. Search and rescue crews were not immediately able to land their helicopter in the area and determine whether anyone survived the crash in the east of the country, said Christope Illemassene, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the capital city of Kinshasa. But Air Serv International, the relief group that operated the plane, said an aerial survey has indicated that all the occupants on the Beechcraft 1900 plane died. The plane was on a routine flight from Kinsasha to the eastern city of Goma on Monday, with three stops, Illemassene said. Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane when it approached Bukavu, the last of its three intermediate stops. The weather in the area was stormy at the time, Illemassene said. Search and rescue crews spotted the plane's debris Tuesday, about 9.4 miles (15 km) northwest of the Bukavu airport, Illemassene said. \"We're anxiously waiting for results from the search and rescue operation,\" he said. \"We're really hoping the peacekeepers are able to land near the site and confirm whether there are any survivors.\" Air Serv International, based in the U.S. state of Virginia, is one of several groups that provides transport services to relief organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.","highlights":"Flight operators: Aerial survey indicates occupants on aircraft died .\nSearch and rescue crews not able to land their helicopter in the area, U.N. says .\nPlane was on a routine flight from Kinsasha to the eastern city of Goma .","id":"8cefdd23a829375abeb18b9bd44bb053a67dfdf8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flash floods and landslides triggered by a weekend tropical storm have killed at least 100 people in Vietnam, the country's news agency said Monday. Vietnamese villagers look at the rubble where 19 houses stood before a flash-flood ripped away the hamlet of Tung Chin in Lao Cai province. Forecasters fear additional casualties as more rain was expected Monday. The floods in the the country's northern mountain provinces damaged tens of thousands of homes, swept away thousands of cattle and submerged crops, the Vietnam News Agency said. More than two dozen people remained missing. Officials mobilized thousands of rescue workers to look for survivors and to carry relief to the areas hardest hit by the storm. Tropical Storm Kammuri struck the northern provinces on Friday. The southeast Asian country is prone to heavy rainfall during the May through September monsoon season. The resulting landslides and floods have killed hundreds in past years.","highlights":"Flash floods and landslides kill at least 100 people in Vietnam .\nDisasters triggered by tropical storm .\nForecasters fear additional casualties .","id":"3de916a84cae6c1dee0076f4e5d6e26fc95c3242"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanair MD-82 airliner was not on fire as it took off from Madrid's airport but lifted off slightly into the air, fell back to the ground and caught fire only after skidding off the side of the runway, a source familiar said Friday. The plane crash victims' bodies laid out at a makeshift morgue in Madrid. A total of 153 people were killed. Initially, there were indications that an engine might have caught fire as the plane was taking off, but the source said airport video shows the plane lifting off, veering sharply right and then dragging or skidding down the right side of the runway. There was a cloud of dust, the source said, followed by a fireball. Canary Islands regional President Paulino Rivero said after meeting with Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, that the latter had seen the video and described it as showing the plane using up all the runway as it tried to take off but then never reaching adequate altitude, The Associated Press reported. Eighty of the bodies recovered from the wreckage of Wednesday's fiery plane crash have been identified, Spanish authorities said Friday. Watch as Spain deals with tragedy \u00bb . Many of the bodies are so badly burned that fingerprint identification is impossible, and investigators will have to rely on DNA, officials said. Nineteen survivors remained hospitalized Friday. The plane was all but destroyed in the crash, a rescue worker said. When emergency crews arrived on the scene, \"you couldn't distinguish that there was an aircraft there, apart from the remains of the tail,\" Ergivio Corral said. \"If you didn't know it, you wouldn't have been able to say there was a plane.\" Watch moment of silence \u00bb . Authorities have handed over the remains of 35 victims to their families, officials said. Families of the victims are being housed in a hotel near the airport, and the government planned to brief them on the crash investigation Friday. The cause of the accident is still unknown, but Spanair spokesman Javier Mendoza said flight data recorders had been recovered. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos from the scene . \"One of them seems to be... a little bit damaged, but [investigators] are confident they could use the information,\" Mendoza said. \"But we have to wait for the downloading and the analysis\" before any conclusions can be drawn, he said. Witnesses reported that the plane banked violently to the right as it attempted to take off before slamming back to the ground and coming to a rest in a gully just off the runway at Madrid's Bajaras airport. Watch as the wounded arrive at a hospital \u00bb . The plane's departure had been delayed for nearly two hours due to a technical problem with the aircraft, Mendoza said, but it was not clear whether that fault was related to the crash. \"The heating problem was treated and corrected by Spanair maintenance personnel,\" he said. \"We have reviewed the details on this faulty situation with the inspectors of our civil aviation authority,\" he said, \"and we all come to the conclusion that was nothing abnormal in this resolution of that problem.\" Madrid observed five minutes of silence Thursday to honor the victims, and the country began three days of mourning. See a map of the airport \u00bb . The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carried 162 passengers, four non-working crew members and six working crew members, Spanair said. The aircraft was also carrying seven passengers from Lufthansa Flight 2554 on a flight scheduled to take more than two hours, airline spokeswoman Henriette Ellekrog said. Spanair, a low-cost airline that has a flight-sharing agreement with Lufthansa, is owned by SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Twenty-two of the passengers were children, two of them infants, Spanair said. After contacting families, the airline published the names of those aboard on its Web site. It was the first fatal accident at the airport since December 1983, when 93 people were killed as two Spanish airliners collided while taxiing for takeoff. The airport, which sits eight miles (13 km) northeast of central Madrid, is Spain's busiest, handling more than 40 million passengers a year. CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman, Claudia Rebaza, Cal Perry and Kathleen Koch contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video of Spanair MD-82 which crashed in Madrid shows plane got off the ground .\nVideo shows plane bursting into flames after runway skid, source says .\nDNA tests will be used to identify victims from Madrid air crash .\n153 people died when Spanair flight crashed Wednesday during takeoff .","id":"24611abacb038c28a84c76b10165e474ac0fdd7e"} -{"article":"Join Roland Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. Roland Martin says journalists don't serve the public if they push rumors. (CNN) -- Two recent stories are a prime example of how important it is for the media to confront the reality of rumors in the age of the Internet. One week before comedian Bernie Mac passed away, text messages and e-mails were flying all over the country with reports that he had died. I was in New York, and friends and colleagues from Chicago, Illinois, to Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, were saying they knew for sure that the 50-year-old comedian was dead. The rumor mill was so hot that his publicist had to release a statement making it clear that he was not dead, which was subsequently published by the Chicago Sun-Times. What makes this story important is that it was left to the publicist and the family to decide to quash the rumor with the truth, and it was our job in the media to go with the news because it was the latest information made available regarding his condition. Then there is the \"rumor\" of an affair by former North Carolina senator and two-time presidential candidate John Edwards. The story was broken by the National Enquirer after months of digging. Ultimately, a source came forward and was\u00ad likely paid for the information \u00adthat blew the lid off of the story; the tabloid's editor said \"you can assume\" the Enquirer paid for it. The story exposed Edwards as a liar for contending for two years that such an affair never happened. There has been a lot of hand wringing about why a major media outlet wasn't able to verify the story and run with it. The heated discussions even reached the point where Charlotte Observer editor Rick Thames told PBS' \"NewsHour with Jim Lehrer\" that since mainstream media no longer has the news cycle to itself, \"When rumor arises, we're going to need to address it. And, unfortunately, we may need to address it before we can determine whether it's true or not because it's having impact, as it was in this case.\" Sorry, Rick, I disagree. The most fundamental aspect of being a journalist is that we don't traffic in rumor and innuendo. None of us serves the public if we are in the business of pushing unverified stories into print or on the airwaves just so we can keep up with a rumor that is out of control. Running with such rumors has far-reaching implications. Just check out this month's Vanity Fair, where Bryan Burroughs has a great story on the collapse of Bear Stearns. The investment bank's demise, some conclude, was all a result of baseless rumors suggesting the company had cash problems, even though it was sitting on $18 billion. The rumors kept going and going\u00ad and when the story hit the airwaves, it spread like wildfire. In one week, Bear Stearns was no more, and former company executives are still trying to determine what killed the Wall Street behemoth. We should forget the nonsense about the competitive pressure to break the story. The rules are simple: Either you have the facts or you don't. If you do, you run with the story. If you don't, you leave it alone. The National Enquirer got the story because its reporters were able to confront Edwards as he was leaving the Beverly Hills Hotel room of the woman with whom he later admitted having an affair. Then the paper got its hands on what it said was a photo of the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee playing with a baby the Enquirer said was the child of the mistress. With other major media outlets turning up the heat, Edwards admitted the affair in an interview with ABC's Bob Woodruff. No media executive should be pulling his or her hair out, trying to figure out why they chose not to spread the rumor. If they had, and the facts didn't support the rumor, then we would all look like fools and that would have angered the public even more. We have an obligation to stick with the facts, and nothing else. And no matter what a blogger, Web site or tabloid paper has decided to run with, the day we choose to alter our standards, our credibility and integrity will be shot. In the end, as former ABC News anchor Max Robinson said in 1988, that's all we've got. Nothing is worth losing that, even getting the scoop on an affair involving a candidate whose political career is likely over. Roland S. Martin is an award-winning journalist and CNN contributor. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith.\" Please visit his Web site at http:\/\/www.rolandsmartin.com\/. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Mac, Edwards stories point out importance of confronting rumors, Martin says .\nMartin says rules are simple: If you have the facts, run with the story .\nMartin says journalists should stick to that, no matter what hits the Internet .\nThat's how journalists keep credibility and integrity, he says .","id":"4f3178963b84a0e3625f7486b045872c665073d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Americans rescued last week from captivity in the Colombian jungle left a medical center for their homes Saturday, hoping for some time out of the spotlight as they reconnect with loved ones. Left to right, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves address reporters before flying home Saturday. Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for more than five years -- left the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. \"There's family members that are waiting for us, and just imagine if you hadn't seen your family in 5\u00bd years,\" Stansell said, asking the media to allow the former captives some space. \"Let us go home and be family men again.\" \"We're going to come out and we're going to talk, but right now, what we want to do is rest,\" Gonsalves said. All three were headed home to Florida, and Stansell and Howes flashed their new Florida driver's licenses before they boarded a plane. The three men had been undergoing a reintegration process at the medical center. FARC had held the three U.S. government contractors since February 2003 after their plane went down in a remote region of the South American country. They and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt were among 15 hostages rescued on July 2 in a Colombian military operation. The three Americans arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center later that day. The three Americans urged the media not to forget the hundreds of other hostages still held by FARC. \"Don't forget the people that are still there,\" Stansell said. \"There are fellow hostages that are still there. Some have 10 years [as a hostage],\" he said. \"Right this minute, they're in chains, looking for food, and they're on the run. And their families haven't seen them in 10 years.\" It is estimated that FARC holds some 750 hostages. The leftist rebel group took up arms in 1964 and grew from a rag-tag band of 48 fighters to a self-styled \"people's army\" of more than 21,000 combatants in 2001, according to Colombian government figures. The government now estimates the FARC fighting force has dwindled to around 8,000 after a wave of desertions. On Saturday, the rescued Americans talked of looking forward to spending time with their relatives. \"We're going to go home now. We're going to rest, we're going to unwind for about a month and a half,\" Gonsalves said.","highlights":"Ex-FARC hostages leave Texas medical center 10 days after rescue .\nFreed men ask for privacy, saying they want to spend time with relatives .\nMen ask media to not forget about hostages who still held in Colombia .","id":"6ff0470115b556c80229f4305c23afa683c9f8da"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush condemned the escalated violence between Russia and U.S.-backed Georgia on Sunday, while Vice President Dick Cheney said aggression against Georgia \"must not go unanswered.\" President Bush chats with Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin at the start of the Olympic opening ceremonies. \"My administration has been engaged with both sides of this trying to get a ceasefire,\" Bush told NBC's Bob Costas in an interview in Beijing, China, where the president has attended Olympic events. Bush was filmed speaking to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during Friday's opening ceremonies and said Sunday that he \"was firm with Vladimir Putin\" and that \"this violence is unacceptable.\" Violence has continued to rage between Russia and the western ally since Thursday, when Georgia launched an operation to crack down on separatists in South Ossetia territory. Russia said it wanted to protect its peacekeepers already in South Ossetia following ceasefires in years past. But Georgia called it a full-on invasion. And while Russia has accused Georgia of a genocidal plot to cleanse the region of ethnic Ossetians loyal to Russia, Georgia accuses Russia of executing a long-planned war with the aim of taking control of the region -- including a key pipeline that carries Asian oil to Black Sea ports. \"I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia,\" Bush said of his talk with Putin. \"We strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia.\" Putin says he's concerned about the flood of refugees arriving in Russia from South Ossetia. Russian officials said more than 30,000 refugees have left South Ossetia and crossed into Russia over the past two days, Interfax reported. \"The actions of the Georgian authorities in South Ossetia are a crime, of course, primarily a crime against their own people,\" Putin said, according to Russian news agency Interfax. Meanwhile, Cheney talked to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Sunday, telling him that Russia's aggression against Georgia \"must not go unanswered.\" Cheney's spokeswoman Lea Ann McBride said the vice president spoke to Saakashvili to express \"the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.\" Georgia withdrew its forces Sunday and offered a ceasefire, which Russia refused. \"The vice president told President Saakashvili that Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community,\" McBride said. Saakashvili has called on the United States and the world community to stop the \"intervention and invasion of my sovereign country.\" \"I think the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world,\" he told CNN. \"I think the U.S. has lots of leverage. And I think there are lots of diplomatic means that it could be done through.\" Two senior officials have told CNN the United States sent envoy Matt Bryza to the region to help with mediation.","highlights":"NEW: Bush says he was \"firm\" with Putin and that the \"violence is unacceptable\"\nVice President Dick Cheney said Russian aggression \"must not go unanswered\"\nViolence has continued to rage between Russia and western ally Georgia .","id":"4be9a7e5e9115eb681541c4a8d247ac84f0eb774"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- There's no question \"Tropic Thunder\" takes chances. Ben Stiller, left, and Robert Downey Jr. are among the stars of \"Tropic Thunder,\" a Hollywood satire. Tom Cruise almost unrecognizable as a foulmouthed, foul-mannered movie executive? Check. Mockery of action heroes, Method actors and gross-out comedians? Check. Challenging stereotypes at every opportunity? Absolutely. But casting Robert Downey Jr. as a black man? Well, that might be a bit much. Or maybe not. In \"Tropic Thunder,\" a comedy about self-absorbed Hollywood types making a \"Platoon\"-style war movie, Downey plays Australian actor Kirk Lazarus, a multiple Oscar-winning performer who gets so involved in his roles that he forgets to come out of them. He's a man constantly looking for ways to transform himself for his art. So, cast as a black man in the war movie, Lazarus decides to dye his skin surgically. Downey -- no slouch as an actor himself -- has often been seen as one who immerses himself fully in his roles. That kind of dedication prevented the character from coming off as offensive, said Ben Stiller, who directed, co-wrote and stars in \"Tropic Thunder.\" \"I give all the credit to Robert,\" Stiller told CNN. \"I felt he really was so committed to that character, the guy that was playing that guy, that as an audience you bought his sincerity. Very few people, I think, could pull that off.\" Brandon Jackson, who plays hip-hop star turned actor Alpa Chino (say it fast), agreed. \"Robert was black the whole time. My mom came on the set and she thought it was Don Cheadle,\" he told CNN. \"I'm serious. That's how black he was.\" Watch Jackson talk about working with Downey \u00bb . The movie, which also stars Stiller as struggling action star Tugg Speedman and Jack Black as gross-out king Jeff Portnoy, features some testy altercations between Downey's Lazarus and Jackson's Chino. Lazarus gets so involved in his role that even when it's clear filming has wrapped for the day, he sticks with it -- which irritates Chino to no end. \"To me the most important thing was Alpa Chino has to give him a beat down and tell him that what he's doing is crazy the whole time,\" Downey said. \"Otherwise it's just demeaning to Brandon's character. And if it's demeaning to an actual black man in the movie ... I would have run for the hills.\" Jackson said he would have challenged the movie if the material was offensive. But, he said, \"Tropic Thunder\" is a long way from the days when white performers would don blackface as a way of exploiting black stereotypes. Since then, he said, the playing field has leveled: The Wayans brothers played \"White Chicks\" in the film of the same name, and Eddie Murphy has played several ethnicities in his films, including Jewish and Chinese characters. \"If we're all gonna play ball, let's all play ball,\" Jackson said. \"I believe in fairness. If we can punch you, punch back. And funny is funny.\" iReport.com: Will you see 'Tropic Thunder'? Stiller, of course, is no stranger to testing comedy limits. The actor, writer and director, known for films such as \"Meet the Parents\" and \"Zoolander,\" has performed or created roles that strike a delicate balance between sympathetic and distasteful -- and sometimes fall too hard on one side of the line. He co-wrote \"Tropic Thunder\" based on an idea he had in 1987, when many of his friends were making war movies, he recalls in the film's production notes. While Stiller was making \"Empire of the Sun,\" his colleagues were in boot camps training for their military roles -- and would emerge talking about the boot camp as if they'd become part of a real military unit. \"This sort of self-important, self-involved thing seemed funny to me,\" he said in the notes. \"I just couldn't figure a way to make that into a movie.\" Not immediately, anyway. But after several years, Stiller and his colleagues worked out a story that not only mocked actors, but filmmaking in general. In \"Thunder,\" after the studio threatens to shut down the big-budget production, the frustrated director (played by Steve Coogan) refuses to stop, and takes his cast deep into a Southeast Asia jungle to shoot \"guerrilla style.\" There they encounter danger in the form of drug lords. \"Tropic Thunder,\" which already has received praise from Newsweek's David Ansen and The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt, has also earned its share of knocks. The most serious have come from advocacy groups for the disabled, which are planning to picket Monday's Los Angeles premiere. In the film, Speedman has made a bid for an Oscar by playing \"Simple Jack,\" a developmentally disabled character. Other characters in \"Tropic Thunder\" dismiss Speedman's attempt to play what they refer to as a \"retard.\" Representatives of the Special Olympics, the Arc of the United States, the National Down Syndrome Congress, the American Association of People with Disabilities and other groups met with studio executives last week to discuss the film, but DreamWorks did not make any changes. \"We are asking people not to go to the movie and hope to bring a consciousness to people about using derogatory words about this population,\" said Peter Wheeler, a spokesman for the Special Olympics, according to Reuters. In a statement Sunday, Chip Sullivan, a DreamWorks spokesman, said the movie was \"an R-rated comedy that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses and makes its point by featuring inappropriate and over-the-top characters in ridiculous situations.\" In the statement, Sullivan added that the film was not meant to disparage or harm people with disabilities and that DreamWorks expected to work closely with disability groups in the future. In junket interviews for the film, Stiller said that screening audiences definitely found \"Tropic Thunder\" funny. \"You go out there and put your best foot forward in terms of what you think you're doing, of what you think is the right idea,\" he said. \"If people are accepting it the way that you intended, and you feel that from a general audience ... then stand behind it.\" Downey trusts that after years of making themselves known as actors who can skillfully walk that fine line between funny and offensive, audiences will accept the film's satire -- his role in particular. \"I just hope at this point, with whatever little we've done to brand ourselves as entertainers, that you give us a little slack,\" he said. CNN entertainment correspondent Kareen Wynter contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Tropic Thunder\" pushes boundaries at every opportunity .\nFilm has taken knocks from groups for the developmentally disabled .\n\"Thunder\" casts Robert Downey Jr. as Method actor playing black man .\nDowney, other cast members don't believe character is offensive .","id":"de3ba4e29501a10effcbb5a61e7b9c0ab3721669"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials in some Gulf Coast states spent the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday gearing up for what could be the biggest threat to the region since Katrina hit in 2005. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin attends a ceremony Friday honoring Hurricane Katrina victims. Hurricane Gustav is poised to pass near or over the Cayman Islands on Friday night and over western portions of Cuba on Saturday. It may approach the U.S. Gulf Coast by Tuesday morning as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said Friday. \"Today, on that third anniversary, we've got to be thinking about the future,\" Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said. \"As we pray for the best, we're going to prepare for the worst,\" Barbour announced Friday that Hurricane Katrina victims living in government-issued trailers or mobile homes along his state's coast will begin evacuating this weekend to prepare for the Gustav's possible arrival. The process will begin Saturday, with notices going out to people living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers or mobile homes, as well as people living in more permanent structures known as \"Mississippi cottages,\" he said. Watch the Gulf Coast states prepare for Gustav \u00bb . The evacuation will begin in Harrison and Hancock counties on Sunday morning, Barbour said. Evacuation in Jackson County will begin Monday. About 4,300 families live in FEMA trailers or mobile homes, and 2,800 live in Mississippi cottages, the governor's office said. He said he would urge people living in privately owned mobile homes to evacuate as well. President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana on Friday, freeing up federal aid and allowing FEMA to coordinate relief efforts. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency and urged residents to update their evacuation plans. He said residents in certain southern parishes could be asked to leave Friday or Saturday. In Plaquemines Parish, where Hurricane Katrina roared ashore as a Category 3 storm days after its initial landfall in Florida, Parish President Billy Nungesser called for a mandatory evacuation beginning at noon Saturday. Residents of the community of Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish were urged to begin voluntary evacuations Friday afternoon, and voluntary evacuations for Jean Lafitte, Crown Point, Barataria and areas outside the levee protection system are recommended beginning at noon Saturday, the parish said in a news release. St. Bernard Parish, which was beginning transport Friday for those who would need assistance, said it expected to call a mandatory evacuation Saturday afternoon. In New Orleans, which has yet to fully recover from Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin on Thursday urged residents living in FEMA units to make evacuation plans in case city officials order them to leave. Watch Sean Callebs report on if New Orleans is prepared \u00bb . \"Travel trailers are unsafe during heavy winds,\" he said. \"As we continue to monitor and prepare for the possibility of Hurricane Gustav, I want all of our citizens to make certain they have a plan for leaving the trailers when advised to do so.\" As of early this week, there were 2,829 FEMA trailers in Orleans Parish, the mayor's office said. The city has designated 17 sites for people without transportation to board buses that would take them out of the city in the event of a mandatory evacuation. The city also arranged with Amtrak for more than 7,000 seats to evacuate the elderly by train, said Jerry Sneed of City Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Signs of mobilization were apparent at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where nearly every departure gate had long lines of elderly people in wheelchairs. Rental car counters normally attended by tourists were filled with relief workers from the Red Cross and the Fire Department of New York's Disaster Assistance Response Team. The DART team consisted of retired New York firefighters, jovial men with graying hair and larger waistlines. Many are volunteers assisting the Red Cross who were in New York during the September 11 attacks and wanted to give back. The 40-member DART team of heavy-equipment operators, truck drivers and registered nurses was headed to Alexandria, Louisiana, to set up an evacuation shelter. After the storm, the team will feed, shelter and re-supply people in the areas affected by Gustav. \"Whatever small way you're able to help, it's a great feeling,\" said Kevin Wallace, a 23-year FDNY veteran who's helped after six disasters. \"Whatever they need us to do, we do.\" All 2,500 inmates in Orleans Parish would be bused out from state and local facilities, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said this week that hundreds of officers will be posted in the uptown, downtown, Central City and West Bank areas to ensure an adequate law enforcement presence in the event of an emergency. During Katrina, many New Orleans officers were accused of leaving their posts as widespread crime and looting permeated the city. Sixty-seven officers were fired for it, Riley said. In addition to the police department's actions, at least 1,500 Louisiana National Guard members arrived in New Orleans on Friday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his concerns for New Orleans are twofold. First, he was worried about areas of potential weakness in the levee system, which he said the Army Corps of Engineers monitor closely, and second, rainfall. \"You can build levees that are 100 feet high; it's not going to keep the rain out of the city. A very, very intense period of rain could flood the city, because the pace of the rainfall could exceed the ability to pump out of the city,\" he said. The only thing to do was prepare, he said. \"We evacuate; we protect the integrity of the levees; we continue to strengthen the levees; that's part of a total system of really driving down the risk to the people of New Orleans,\" he said. The Louisiana National Guard has requested 20 helicopters from eight states to replace its helicopter air assault battalion, which is now serving in Iraq with its 20 UH-60 Black Hawks. The Guard is asking for UH-60 helicopters for search and rescue, as well as CH-47s, Chinooks, which could drop large sandbags if the levees are breached. A 40-person aviation headquarters unit also is being requested and probably will be provided by the Arkansas National Guard to handle air traffic control and communications for any air operations that might be needed. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry pre-emptively declared an emergency in 61 Texas counties. He said also the state had agreed to take into its shelters several thousand Louisiana residents, should they evacuate. CNN's John Couwels, Chris Lawrence, Barbara Starr, Eric Marropodi and Kim Segal contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Disaster response teams arrive in New Orleans as elderly fill airports .\nMississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says evacuations will begin Sunday in two counties .\nGrand Isle area of Jefferson Parish urged to begin voluntary evacuations .\nTexas Gov. Rick Perry pre-emptively declare emergency in 61 counties .","id":"d23090b75384c925e7f20b1ec5218394b52eae38"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal regulators announced $7.1 million in fines against American Airlines on Thursday over maintenance issues and problems with its drug- and alcohol-testing programs. American Airlines was fined for allowing aircrafts to fly while they knew they needed repairs. \"The FAA believes the large total amount of the fine for these violations is appropriate because American Airlines was aware that appropriate repairs were needed, and instead deferred maintenance,\" the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement announcing the decision. \"In intentionally continuing to fly the aircraft, the carrier did not follow important safety regulations intended to protect passengers and crew.\" American can still appeal the fines, the FAA said. The FAA also found the airline maintained inadequate drug- and alcohol-testing programs and failed to inspect safety lighting on a \"timely\" basis. The Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier said Thursday evening that it disagreed with the findings and called the penalties \"excessive.\" \"In accordance with FAA procedures for handling these matters, we have requested to meet with the FAA after we have had time to thoroughly review their findings, so that we may discuss the issues,\" the airline said in a written statement. \"Since these matters are ongoing with the FAA, we will not have any further comment at this time.\" Nearly $4.5 million of the proposed fines stem from American's continued operation of two MD-83 jetliners in December 2007 after pilots reported problems with the autopilot systems, the FAA said. The two planes were flown a combined 58 times before the problems were corrected -- and one flew 10 times after an FAA inspector notified the airline that it had wrongly deferred needed repairs. In one incident, the autopilot disconnected during a landing on December 21, the FAA said. \"American technicians did not check for the actual problem, and instead deferred maintenance using an inappropriate MEL (minimum equipment list) item. The plane flew another 36 passenger-carrying flights during December 21-31.\" The problem was later traced to a piece of radio gear separate from the autopilot, the FAA said. Meanwhile, a different MD-83 flew four flights without a fully functioning autopilot after American mechanics put off repairs. Regulators also accuse American of operating planes without timely inspections of their emergency lighting systems. In April, American canceled more than 3,000 flights to conduct inspections of wiring bundles in wheel wells of its 300 MD-80 jets, snarling air traffic for five days. The FAA ordered American and several other airlines to examine the wiring, which had the potential to start fires or cause landing gear to malfunction.","highlights":"NEW: American asks to meet with FAA, calls fines \"excessive\"\nAirline accused of not having timely inspections of emergency lighting systems .\nTwo planes flew combined 58 times before problems corrected .\nAirline also fined for \"past deficiencies\" regarding drug and alcohol testing.","id":"98008fdd5ea99bc7c437d6e1aa86c750bf667415"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee are expected to ask a federal judge Monday to shut down Web sites they allege scam customers trying to buy Olympic tickets, according to court documents. The Web site www.beijingticketing.com is accused in a lawsuit of scamming Olympic ticket buyers. The IOC and the USOC filed lawsuits on July 22 against several Web sites -- primarily www.beijingticketing.com and www.beijing-2008tickets.com -- for illegally using Olympic trademarks to dupe customers into giving them credit card, passport and banking information. Lawyers for the IOC and USOC are expected to petition U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White on Monday to permanently shut down several sites listed in the lawsuit. The lawsuit names the company XL & H Ltd, known as Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality Ltd. and six other Web sites believed to be fraudulent. Several consumers who purchased tickets from the site contacted the USOC when they did not receive tickets, despite numerous calls and e-mails to the Web sites founder, according to a USOC press release. The scam has hit Olympic fans in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, England, Japan, China and Norway, according to media reports. Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates told local media that relatives of the country's softball team had been victims of the site. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the New South Wales Government set up a hotline for those duped out of tickets. The hotline has received hundreds of calls from around the globe with consumers detailing losses as high as $57,000. The IOC and USOC successfully secured a restraining order on July 23 in federal court in Phoenix, Arizona, that shut down www.beijing-2008tickets.com, according to court documents. That site is now shut down and no contact information is available. The site www.BeijingTicketing.com priced tickets for Friday's Olympic opening ceremony at about $2,000, with events such as swimming selling for between $300 and $500. The site is the first entry that comes up for a Google search for \"Olympic tickets,\" second only to the authorized dealer of Olympic tickets, www.cosport.com. The Web site ww.beijingticketing.com site lists a London phone number, which rang unanswered. The site lists an office address in Arizona. The site boasts tickets for nearly every Olympic event, with some events showing sell-outs already. The site also looked to assure ticket buyers of its authenticity with a note at the bottom of the site. \"Beijing 2008 Ticketing is a well known tickets agent and a trusted market place for buyers to find book Olympic tickets,\" the note stated. \"We assure 100% guaranteed tickets delivery.\"","highlights":"USOC, IOC claim fake ticket sites have bilked customers using their trademark .\nSites www.BeijingTicketing.com and www.beijing-2008tickets.com named in suit .\nOne site claims \"We assure 100 % guaranteed tickets delivery\"","id":"fd13c81373473f862d0f3559ffbc2a03fa95f492"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Celebrity chef Bobby Chinn has tried his hand at a number of things. Chinn's face for television: Picking up his Asian TV Award in 2007. English boarding school taught him that food could be an awful experience; Wall Street taught him that creativity was more important than money and a stint as a stand-up comedian taught him that you can't always get it right. Half Chinese, half Egyptian, Chinn's grandmothers were his first introduction to the variety and pleasure that food can bring. While his palate was subdued by the meals he was given at school in England when he was a boy, his meandering route to becoming a chef came some time after attaining a degree in Finance and Economics. Moving to New York after graduating he worked on Wall Street. \"You didn't produce anything at the end of a day and you didn't breathe fresh air, you didn't know what the weather was like outside because you were on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It's like the dungeon of capitalism where time and money met,\" he told CNN's Talk Asia. Chinn escaped \"the dungeon\" after a year and a half to the sunny climes of California, but it wasn't to laze around. An addiction to high-octane and challenging environments saw Chinn explore the possibility of being a stand-up comic. \"I was always afraid to talk in front of the class and now I am trying to make them laugh\" he told CNN. \"One day you are really funny and then you go to another gig the same night and nobody laughs and then at the same time you are living a life of poverty. When you are bombing as a comic I don't think there can be a worse life.\" While finding out the hard way how funny, or not, he was, Chinn was working front-of-house in restaurants, nurturing his love of food. His break came when Hubert Keller from San Francisco restaurant Fleur de Lys took him on as a volunteer in his kitchen. \"He gave me a job and after one week he said 'OK, you can stay.' And then when you work with one really great chef, then I think you can work anywhere,\" he said. After also training with chefs in France, Chinn made his own mark on the culinary world when he opened his first restaurant in Vietnam in 1995, and at first found the going tough. \"Supplies were not consistent, the language barrier, the taste barrier, the hygiene barriers. Those are very taxing on a person like me with very little patience.\" A high-energy chef and now a TV celebrity who presents \"World Caf\u00e9 Asia\" -- he won an Asian Television Award in 2007 -- Chinn is aware that being flavor of the month on TV is transitory. \"It is just a machine that feeds on people like me and then spits me out when my time is done. You just have to go with the flow.\"","highlights":"Half Chinese, half Egyptian, Chinn made his name as a chef in Vietnam .\nWorked on Wall Street and as a stand-up comic before becoming a chef .\nHas published cook books and has own cookery show called 'World Cafe Asia'","id":"ad275932d9fb03762cc781e06955fb088e165ad9"} -{"article":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Fay, stalled near Cape Canaveral, Florida, soaked portions of east-central Florida late Wednesday, and the National Hurricane Center said it could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of the state. Streets are flooded Wednesday in Port St. Lucie, Florida, in a photo from iReporter Bethany Schulstrom. As of 11 p.m. ET, the storm was just off the coast of central Florida about 35 miles southeast of Daytona Beach, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving slowly but could make landfall again in northern Florida Thursday, the hurricane center said. It would be the fourth time the storm makes landfall. Fay has come ashore in Florida twice after making landfall in Cuba. NASA reported receiving 21 inches of rain from the storm Wednesday, said Craig Fugate, Florida's emergency management director. Forecasters said they received an unofficial report of 22 inches northwest of Melbourne, Florida. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has asked President Bush to declare an emergency in the state to free up federal funding. The storm \"is producing historic flooding across a large portion of Brevard County,\" Crist wrote in a letter to Bush. \"Fay has and will continue to produce copious amounts of rain over a large portion of northeast Florida as the storm turns westward on August 21. \"Fay remains a significant threat,\" Crist continued, noting that tornadoes have touched down in seven counties. The governor pre-emptively declared a state of emergency last week. As of 11 p.m. ET, Fay the storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km\/h), and it was expected to move slowly toward the northwest overnight, according to a hurricane center advisory. \"This general motion is expected tonight with a gradual turn to the northwest and west-northwest on Thursday,\" the National Hurricane Center said. \"On this track, Fay is forecast to move very slowly across northern Florida on Thursday.\" Fay could make its fourth landfall Thursday along the Florida coast, possibly in the Jacksonville-Daytona Beach area, forecasters said. \"The storm continues to be a threat to this community,\" Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said. \"Looks like the worst is still ahead.\" Peyton said Jacksonville had set up shelters should people need them. Storm tides of 1 to 3 feet above normal are possible along the Florida's east coast, to the north of the center of Fay, the hurricane center said, adding that isolated tornadoes are possible over portions of northeastern Florida and southeast Georgia. The storm forced NASA to close for a second day because of \"potential wind threat,\" NASA said on its Web site. The agency was to announce Wednesday night whether it would also be shut Thursday. The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday afternoon that it was moving several ships and aircraft in anticipation of Fay's arrival in northeast Florida. Naval Air Station Jacksonville has evacuated 24 P-3 Orion aircraft to bases in Maine and Ohio. On the southeast coast of Florida, Fay flooded hundreds of homes in St. Lucie County, authorities said. Rescuers were using airboats and other means Wednesday to pick up stranded residents. Earlier in the day, the county's Public Safety Department said that as many as 8,000 homes might be affected in two low-lying areas but later scaled the number back. Crist announced the first known storm-related death. A 54-year-old man died from carbon monoxide fumes as he tested two gasoline-powered generators in his home in Highlands County, northwest of Lake Okeechobee in eastern Florida, Crist said, quoting the county's medical examiner. Crist said he wasn't sure when the man died, but the medical examiner received the body Monday. The severe flooding in St. Lucie County took authorities by surprise. Meg Defore said that the first floor of her home was 14 feet above ground but that water had reached the top of her doors. She left in a small boat. Near the north fork of the St. Lucie River, water gushed down streets and lapped at the doors of parked cars. iReporter Bethany Schulstrom, 16, said water was up to people's knees in the streets of Port St. Lucie. \"They sent a warning to everyone not to leave [their homes] because the snakes are coming out of their holes and there's fish everywhere,\" she said. A tropical storm warning, meaning that tropical conditions and winds of 39 to 73 mph are expected within a day, was in effect from Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County north to Altamaha Sound in Georgia. A tropical storm watch, meaning that those conditions are expected within 36 hours, remained in effect from north of Altamaha Sound to the Savannah River. In Melbourne, where a 50-year-old rainfall record was shattered, residents have been warned of an alligator swimming in the streets, according to CNN affiliate WKMG-TV in Orlando. CNN's John Zarrella and Barbara Starr contributed to this report .","highlights":"Rainfall could reach 30 inches in some areas, forecast says .\nAirboats help rescue people in flooded homes in St. Lucie County .\nKennedy Space Center will remain closed for a second day .\nTrack Fay with CNN's Hurricane Tracker .","id":"f9fedde4734d8ac3431c0ed5d338efcd799b1aea"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- Five of Bolivia's nine states staged a civic strike Tuesday, protesting against President Evo Morales and demanding a larger share of the country's natural gas revenues. Members of Santa Cruz's Juvenile Union burn wood during protests Tuesday in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Officials in Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija -- states in the wealthy, eastern lowland known as the \"Media Luna,\" or half-moon -- and Chuquisaca, also in the eastern part of the country, instructed residents not to leave their homes until the end of the one-day strike, Bolivian newspaper El Diario reported. The five departments contain much of the Andean country's natural gas deposits, and their leaders are asking for natural gas revenue that Morales has earmarked to increase funding for pension plans, the five regions said in a statement on the strike posted on Santa Cruz's Web site. They said they were \"sorry that the inflexibility of the government forced the prefectures to take this type of resolution.\" Confrontations between government supporters and pro-autonomy groups in a Santa Cruz neighborhood appeared to be the day's most violent. Police fired tear gas three times at demonstrators. In the other four departments where the strike was being observed, there were no disturbances. The 24-hour strike was called by civil committees of the departments to demand that the government give back the money it has collected by taxing hydrocarbons in order to fund the pension plan. The president of Santa Cruz's civic committee, Branco Marincovick, said the tax is constraining regional development. The government condemned acts of violence during the day and said that the strike was limited. The strike comes nine days after Morales garnered more than 67 percent of votes in a recall referendum, which he had proposed in May to break a power struggle long simmering between him and the conservative leadership in the Media Luna states. Despite the solid show of support for Morales, the vote also endorsed the leaders in Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and Tarija, making it impossible to reach a solution to the stalemate. Morales, a former labor organizer and the country's first indigenous president, was elected in 2005 on promises to reform Bolivia's constitution for the benefit of its indigenous majority. But his proposals have been hampered by his rivals in the Media Luna states. Since taking office, all four have pushed for greater autonomy, saying the individual departments have the right to control their own affairs, including increased access to gas revenues. In speaking about the revenues earmarked for increased pensions, Morales emphasized that it was for the good of the people, a refrain he often uses. \"Some authorities believe that this money is theirs, and it is not so, this silver is of the people and should benefit the people,\" the president said last year, shortly after he announced the measure. Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonpartisan think-tank, said Morales' overwhelming victory at the polls strengthens his hand at achieving his goal of redistributing wealth. Less than one percent of landowners in Bolivia own two-thirds of the country's farmland, he said in an article published in The Nation magazine. \"Bolivia is South America's poorest country, with 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line, and 38 percent in extreme poverty,\" he said. \"The voters have overwhelmingly decided that they want their government to do something about that. This should be possible, even if it means redistributing some of the country's most important natural resources.\" CNN's Gloria Carrasco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Five of Bolivia's 9 states demand larger share of nation's natural gas revenues.\nPresident has earmarked gas profits to increase funding for pension plans .\nPolice fire tear gas three times at demonstrators in Santa Cruz .","id":"bbe84a85e38aac4e2cff76da7ce4ed349474db25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actor and filmmaker Joe Pantoliano, known for his role as Ralph Cifaretto on the HBO series \"The Sopranos,\" attended the Democratic National Convention on Monday to raise awareness about people living with mental illness. Joe Pantoliano has met with the Obama and McCain camps to promote mental health and recovery. Pantoliano, founder and president of the eight-month-old advocacy organization No Kidding, Me Too, released a teaser of his new film about various forms of mental illness. At the CNN Grill, he answered five questions for CNN.com. CNN.com: What are you doing out here in Denver? Pantoliano: I've always been fascinated by the political process ever since I was a kid. ... I always love the festive partying, the camaraderie, the working for the candidate, whether it was somebody in the 3rd Ward where I lived in New Jersey in Hoboken or a senator or a congressman or even when a president would come. I remember when President Kennedy came down to Hoboken in '61 and I was only 10 years old. I was with the Kennedys tonight. CNN.com: Are you a Barack Obama supporter? Pantoliano: I'm advocating my organization. I'm going to the [Republican National Convention} next week. I'm speaking on mental illness and the miracles of recovery; that's what the movie is about. I've met with the Obama chief of staff and the Obama people; I've met with McCain people. Mental illness is on the tip of their minds. CNN.com: Who are you voting for? Pantoliano: I don't know yet. Watch how celebrity endorsements can backfire \u00bb . CNN.com: Where are the hot spots in Denver? Where are people hanging out? Pantoliano: Here, the CNN Grill. It's all they're talking about. I really like Denver. The security is less kinetic [than] it was four years ago. That whole fear thing that this administration has played on our nerves; I think I have post-traumatic stress over that. What happened was I became addicted to the news. iReport.com: Are you in Denver? Share sights, sounds . CNN.com: Do you think that coming out to a convention helps you make up your mind better than sitting in your living room? Pantoliano: I'm an independent. I can be inspired tonight by Michelle Obama's speech, and then something happens next week, so I'm going back and forth. I'm a flip-flopper. The difference that I see between the Republicans and the Democrats are that the Democrats really are a force of what the melting pot of our society is. Obama really represents that. Obama represents what America is today. CNN's Michael Senzon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pantoliano is co-founder of the advocacy group No Kidding, Me Too .\n\"Sopranos\" actor has new film about mental illness .\nHe says he has met with Obama and McCain camps to discuss issue .\nPantoliano hasn't decided whom to vote for in November .","id":"45884af9aff9abf54fec27f510c3f9ed000fc6e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The New York Times has rejected an essay that Sen. John McCain wrote defending his Iraq war policy. Sen. John McCain wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, but the paper said it could not publish it as written. The piece was in response to an op-ed from Sen. Barack Obama that was published in the paper last week. In an e-mail to the McCain campaign, Opinion Page Editor David Shipley said he could not accept the piece as written, but would be \"pleased, though, to look at another draft.\" \"Let me suggest an approach,\" he wrote Friday. \"The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans. It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece.\" Read McCain's rejected piece . In a statement released Monday, The New York Times said it is \"standard procedure on our Op-Ed page, and that of other newspapers, to go back and forth with an author on his or her submission.\" \"We look forward to publishing Senator McCain's views in our paper just as we have in the past. We have published at least seven Op-Ed pieces by Senator McCain since 1996. The New York Times endorsed Senator McCain as the Republican candidate in the presidential primaries. We take his views very seriously,\" the statement said. McCain's rejected op-ed was a lengthy critique of Obama's positions on Iraq policy, particularly his view of the surge. \"Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history,\" wrote McCain, criticizing Obama's call for an early withdrawal timeline. \"I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the 'Mission Accomplished' banner prematurely.\" Watch why the piece was rejected \u00bb . Obama's July 14 essay had taken shots at McCain for not further encouraging the Iraqi government to take control of the country. \"Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition -- despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq's sovereign government,\" Obama wrote in his op-ed. \"They call any timetable for the removal of American troops 'surrender,' even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.\" Read Obama's essay . Shipley, who was President Bill Clinton's senior speechwriter from 1995 to 1997, had advised the McCain campaign that \"the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq. \"It would also have to lay out a clear plan for achieving victory -- with troops levels, timetables and measures for compelling the Iraqis to cooperate. And it would need to describe the senator's Afghanistan strategy, spelling out how it meshes with his Iraq plan.\" He added that he hoped the parties could \"find a way to bring this to a happy resolution.\" McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Monday the Arizona senator's position will not change based on the \"demands of the New York Times.\" \"John McCain believes that victory in Iraq must be based on conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables,\" he said. \"Unlike Barack Obama, that position will not change based on politics or the demands of the New York Times.\" The newspaper endorsed McCain for the Republican presidential nomination in January, shortly before the New York primary. In February, after it became clear McCain would be his party's presumptive nominee, the paper published a thinly sourced report that McCain once had a close relationship with a female lobbyist. McCain said he was disappointed in the New York Times piece. The paper said that it stood by its reporting and that \"the story speaks for itself.\" McCain's campaign sent out fundraising appeals based on the article. The article \"is particularly disgusting -- an un-sourced hit-and-run smear campaign designed to distract from the issues at stake in this election,\" McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, wrote in a e-mail to supporters. \"We need your help to counteract the liberal establishment and fight back against the New York Times by making an immediate contribution today,\" the e-mail said in text that linked to an online contribution form on the McCain campaign's Web site.","highlights":"NEW: Paper says rejection part of standard back-and-forth procedure .\nJohn McCain writes essay in defending his Iraq policy .\nNew York Times suggests McCain submit piece that mirrors Barack Obama's .\nPaper: Obama's essay had new information, McCain's critiqued Obama's positions .","id":"59e60ba3c7ea5f5991db8ed4afd368c69e697dde"} -{"article":"CERN, Switzerland (CNN) -- Scientists Wednesday applauded as one of the most ambitious experiments ever conceived got successfully underway, with protons being fired around a 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel deep beneath the border of France and Switzerland in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe. Scientists applaud during the switch on operation of the Large Hadron Collider. The Large Hadron Collider -- a $9 billion particle accelerator designed to simulate conditions of the Big Bang that created the physical Universe -- was switched on at 0732 GMT to cheers and applause from experts gathered to witness the event. While observers were left nonplussed by the anticlimactic flashing dots on a TV screen that signalled the machine's successful test run, among teams of scientists involved around the world there were jubilant celebrations and popping champagne corks. In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions. Skeptics, who claim that the experiment could lead to the creation of a black hole capable of swallowing the planet, failed in a legal bid to halt the project at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Others have branded it a colossal waste of cash, draining resources from its multinational collaborators that could have been spent on scientific research with more tangible benefits to mankind. Sound off: What do you think of the experiment? French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the project as a major achievement for Europe. \"The repercussions of this scientific investment without precedent in the history of humanity will be essential not only for the intimate knowledge of our universe, but also for the direct applications in fields as varied as intensive calculation or even medicine,\" he said. Watch as Big Bang experiment gets underway \u00bb . The collider will operate at higher energies and intensities in the next year, potentially generating enough data to make a discovery by 2009, experts say. They say the experiment has the potential to confirm theories that physicists have been working on for decades including the possible existence of extra dimensions. They also hope to find a theoretical particle called the Higgs boson -- sometimes referred to as the \"God particle,\" which has never been detected, but would help explain why matter has mass. The collider will recreate the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, when there was a hot \"soup\" of tiny particles called quarks and gluons, to look at how the universe evolved, said John Harris, U.S. coordinator for ALICE, a huge detector specialized to analyze that question. Since this is exploratory science, the collider may uncover surprises that contradict prevailing theories, but which are just as interesting, said Joseph Lykken, theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. \"When Columbus sails west, he thought he was going to find something. He didn't find what he thought he was going to find, but he did find something interesting,\" said Lykken, who works on the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of six experiments inside the collider complex. Why should the layperson care about this particular exploration? Years ago, when electrons were first identified, no one knew what they were good for, but they have since transformed our entire economy, said Howard Gordon, deputy research program manager for the collider's ATLAS experiment. \"The transformative effect of this research will be to understand the world we live in much better,\" said Gordon, at Brookhaven National Laboratory. \"It's important for just who we are, what we are.\" Fears have emerged that the collider could produce black holes that could suck up anything around them -- including the whole Earth. Such fears prompted legal actions in the U.S. and Europe to halt the operation of the Large Hadron Collider, alleging safety concerns regarding black holes and other phenomena that could theoretically emerge. Although physicists acknowledge that the collider could, in theory, create small black holes, they say they do not pose any risk. A study released Friday by CERN scientists explains that any black hole created would be tiny, and would not have enough energy to stick around very long before dissolving. Five collider collaborators who did not pen the report independently told CNN there would be no danger from potential black holes. John Huth, who works on the collider's ATLAS experiment, called such fears \"baloney\" in a recent interview, and noted that in normal physics, even if the black hole were stable, it could just pass through the Earth without being detected or without interacting at all. \"The gravitational force is so weak that you'd have to wait many, many, many, many, many lifetimes of the universe before one of these things could [get] big enough to even get close to being a problem,\" said Huth, professor of physics at Harvard University. CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this story .","highlights":"Startup has been eagerly awaited by 9,000 physicists around the world .\nIt's the largest particle accelerator in the world and costs about $9 billion .\nLawsuits allege it could generate black holes that could eat the Earth .","id":"265ad4cbd8cbad94527db327a39c2d8f33db33ce"} -{"article":"Like nearly everything else Clinton-related this week, Hillary Clinton's convention speech remained a question mark until the last minute. The overriding goal for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night was to redirect her supporters toward Barack Obama. Its content was a mystery to even some of her closest advisers, who told CNN hours before the speech they weren't sure it was finished quite yet. It was a work in progress until the very end -- and one of its strongest rallying cries appeared nowhere in the prepared text. \"That is our mission, Democrats -- Let us elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden,\" the New York senator told a capacity crowd waving signs that said \"unity\" on one side and bore either Clinton's or Obama's name on the other. So far, the Democratic convention has been dominated by news of the Clintons. What would Hillary Clinton say Tuesday night? And what would her husband, former President Bill Clinton, say Wednesday night? Would daughter Chelsea introduce her mother onstage, fueling visions of another Democratic dynasty? And what will happen Wednesday, when the convention roll call will either provide the \"catharsis\" Clinton predicted it might -- or reopen primary season wounds? Watch Clinton's entire speech \u00bb . The overriding goal for Clinton Tuesday night was to redirect the energy and emotion of her strongest supporters to the presumptive nominee's campaign -- if not for his political future, for her own. If the rank-and-file believe a schism in the party generated by her supporters cost Democrats the election, it could sabotage any potential White House plans for her. She pushed for her loyalists to back her primary season rival with language that echoed her stump speech about forgotten Americans: . \"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?\" she asked. \"Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?\" Read what analysts say about Clinton's speech . She gave Obama the seal of approval on health care, an issue that made for some of her toughest language on the trail. \"I can't wait to watch Barack Obama sign a health care plan into law that covers every single American,\" she said. There were a few notable gaps. There was little on foreign policy. There was no unequivocal statement that Barack Obama is qualified to be commander in chief and ready to lead from Day One. McCain advisers noted soon after the speech, there was no mention of the candidates' differing stands on abortion -- one issue which might have been expected to resonate with those women who supported Clinton and have been slow to warm to Obama. But Clinton's language about what was at stake this November could have been lifted from a speech by any of the most passionate Obama supporters. \"Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance,\" she told the crowd. \"I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come Election Day. And think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that had such a big impact on your life and on the life of our nation.\" Clinton has not addressed whether another presidential campaign is possible anytime in her future, but some of her senior advisers have been less reticent. There's no way to tell whether their predictions come from inside knowledge or wishful thinking, but senior Clinton aides like former campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe and former campaign communications director Howard Wolfson have told reporters this week that they expect her to make another run for the White House in eight years -- after a two-term Obama presidency. If that happens, Tuesday night may have marked the first speech of her 2016 campaign.","highlights":"Crowley: Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered with her speech at the Democratic convention .\nGergen: This was \"perhaps her finest hour in politics\"\nCastellanos: Call it the \"lesser of two evils\" speech .","id":"54e68f9b7cdd209c09b2a47feef62b9082346031"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Relatives of a woman killed in a Spanish airline crash were erroneously given the remains of another victim, and then were asked by authorities to return them, CNN partner network CNN+ reported Thursday. The victims of the crash were first laid out at a Madria convention center. A Madrid judge has opened an investigation into the error, and judicial sources say the initial indication is that the mixup occurred not in the proper identification of the victim, but in delivering the wrong remains to the family in question, CNN+ reported. The family Wednesday received an urn numbered 104, and were told it contained the ashes of their loved one, Pilar Gonzalez Ferreira, who died in the crash. But as the family was preparing to leave Madrid, officials called to tell them about the error and asked for the return of urn 104, CNN+ reported. Instead of urn 104, the family was supposed to have received urn 134, which actually contains the remains of Pilar Gonzalez, CNN+ reported, citing judicial sources and another family which also lost a relative in the crash. The Spanair MD82 jet crashed last week at Madrid's airport as the plane was trying to take off, killing 154 people. The aircraft, bound for Spain's Canary Islands, managed to rise only slightly before coming down quickly to the right of the runway, its tail section hitting the ground first, just off the asphalt. Then the out-of-control plane skidded and bounced at least three times as it careered 1,200 meters (3,840 feet) across uneven terrain and exploded, coming to rest in a gully, a top official of the investigative commission told a news conference in Madrid on Tuesday. Many of the bodies were badly charred from the fire, and authorities have used DNA samples to carry out numerous identifications. By Thursday, 126 victims had been identified, CNN+ reported. Just a few dozen families are still waiting to receive the remains their loved ones. Most are gathered at a Madrid hotel near the airport. Nineteen people initially survived the crash, but one died in hospital last weekend. Fourteen survivors remain hospitalized in Madrid; one had returned to her native Sweden for further hospitalization there, and another was in a hospital in the Canary Islands. Two other survivors, including a six-year-old boy, were released from hospital earlier this week.","highlights":"Relatives of Spanair crash victim given the wrong remains, CNN+ reports .\nInitial probe finds family given the wrong urn, not the body was wrongly identified .\nSpanair flight crashed during take off last week from Madrid airport .\n154 died, 18 survivors still in hospitals, two injured released from hospital .","id":"3b5e3dff560e2233e8370c87e9d92461200f8bd4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan this year than in any year since the U.S. invaded the country following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Soldiers at a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Thursday honor the victims of September 11, 2001. According to numbers CNN has compiled from military statements, 112 American troops have died in Afghanistan in 2008, compared with 111 in all of 2007. The death toll has sparked concern among the U.S. military and its allies. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional committee Wednesday that the U.S. is \"running out of time\" to win the war in Afghanistan. Mullen said the U.S. needs better nation-building initiatives and a stronger cross-border strategy with Pakistan to ensure victory over Islamic militants in the poor Asian country. \"We can't kill our way to victory, and no armed force anywhere, no matter how good, can deliver these keys alone. It requires teamwork and cooperation,\" Mullen told the House Armed Services Committee. In addition to those killed in Afghanistan, the military also includes troops who died outside the country if they were part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the war launched nearly seven years ago in and around Afghanistan. The broader count includes two Americans who died in Djibouti in 2008. The 2007 count includes two Americans who died in Ethiopia, two in the Philippines, one in Mali, one in Pakistan and one at sea near the Horn of Africa. According to CNN numbers, 585 Americans have died in the course of Operation Enduring Freedom, 506 of them in Afghanistan. The numbers include hostile and nonhostile incidents. Both the U.S.-led coalition and the NATO command announced three more deaths Thursday -- a British soldier in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday and two others in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday. The nationalities of the latter two have not been disclosed. The British death brings the country's toll to 118. Other countries, including Canada, Germany, France and Spain, also have lost troops in Afghanistan.","highlights":"CNN numbers: 112 Americans killed this year, compared with 111 last year .\nOperation Enduring Freedom has killed 585 Americans since 2001 .\nNumbers include those who died outside Afghanistan as part of Enduring Freedom .","id":"242c51d129c998a2585feee12e109a2058eb7c2b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rare images of an African animal so elusive that it was once believed to be mythical have been released. One of the first pictures of the elusive okapi was taken by camera trap. The okapi is a shy animal related to the giraffe, with zebra-like stripes on its rear. It is native to the tropical rainforests of Africa but is now known to live only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Okapis were last seen in the DRC 50 years ago, and the images are the first to capture the animal in the wild. \"To have captured the first-ever photographs of such a charismatic creature is amazing,\" said Noelle Kumpel, manager of the Bushmeat and Forests Conservation Program at the Zoological Society of London, which took the pictures. \"Okapi are very shy and rare animals, which is why conventional surveys only tend to record droppings and other signs of their presence.\" The okapi's face and long legs resemble those of the giraffe, their closest-living relative, but they look more like horses with long necks. The average height of their shoulders is 1.6 meters (5 feet, 3 inches), the ZSL says. They have a short, dense, velvety coat and dark prehensile tongue long enough to clean their own eyelids and ears. The new pictures show the okapi in the foliage of the DRC's Virunga National Park, where decades of economic collapse and armed conflict have threatened the diverse wildlife. In one image, an okapi looks curiously toward the camera amid the green trees and groundcover. Its large ears, dark nose, and zebra stripes are clearly visible. The next shot shows the okapi walking away from the camera, giving a clear view of its striking black-and-white stripes on its rear legs. A third image released by ZSL was taken at night and gives a vivid side view of the animal. \"The photographs clearly show the stripes on their rear, which act like unique fingerprints,\" said Theirry Lusenge, a key member of ZSL's survey team in the DRC. \"We have already identified three individuals, and further survey work will enable us to estimate population numbers and distribution in and around the park, which is a critical first step in targeting conservation efforts.\" ZSL said the images prove the okapi still thrives in the park despite threats to its survival, which include poaching, deforestation, military camps inside the park, and the influx of refugees at the park's borders. The animal's exact status is still a mystery, however, and it remains under threat, the ZSL said. Okapi meat reportedly poached from the park is now regularly on sale at the nearby town of Beni -- and if hunting continues at the same rate, okapi could become extinct within the park within a few years, the ZSL said. The Virunga National Park is one of only three protected areas the okapi are known to inhabit, the ZSL said. The ZSL's study of the okapi is part of a larger EU-funded conservation project in the park. Though focused on okapi, the study has also managed to find other species including shrews and duikers, a kind of antelope, a ZSL spokeswoman said. The study involved 18 cameras set up around the park by the ZSL and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation, the spokeswoman said. The announcement comes a month after another group of researchers reported finding thousands of previously-unknown gorillas in the neighboring Republic of Congo. The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society said in August they had found 125,000 Western lowland gorillas living in a swamp in northern Congo, adding significantly to the existing worldwide population of the threatened species. Okapi were well known by Africans for centuries but the animal remained elusive, thanks to its acute hearing and effective camouflage, according to The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa. Nineteenth-century explorers sometimes caught a fleeting glimpse of the okapi's striped backside as it ran through the forest, leading to speculation that it was a kind of zebra, the National Zoological Gardens says. It was known to the pygmy as a sacred animal. Still, the okapi remained unknown to the Western world until the early 20th century, when British explorer Harry Johnston went to Congo and sent a complete skin and skull back to Britain, the ZSL said.","highlights":"African animal so elusive it was once believed to be mythical is photographed .\nOkapi is shy animal related to the giraffe, with zebra-like stripes on its rear .\nAnimal is now known to live only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .","id":"5ce92746bc1f4f5cbb25956c1289ffcd7f50f07e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Russian bombers have landed at a Venezuelan airfield where they will carry out training flights for several days, the Russian defense ministry said Wednesday. Russia's Tupolev TU-160, pictured here in 2003, is a long-range strategic bomber. The Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers landed at Venezuela's Libertador military airfield and \"will spend several days carrying out training flights over neutral waters, after which they will return to the base,\" the ministry added. NATO fighters followed the bombers on their 13-hour flight over the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic, the defense ministry said. It said the Russian flights were carried out in strict accordance with international rules governing airspace above neutral waters, and that the aircraft did not violate the borders of other states. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said such joint exercises between nations are not unusual. \"We exercise all around the globe and have joint exercises with countries all over the world. So do many other nations.\" The U.S. will monitor the Russian-Venezuelan training, said Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified as they are not authorized to speak on the information. On Monday, Russia announced it might hold joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean. The declaration came amid increased tension between Russia and the United States over Russia's invasion last month of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a U.S. ally that aspires to join NATO. On Monday Russia denied any link between that announcement and the conflict in Georgia, although Russia has criticized U.S. support for Georgia. Russia has also objected to the missile defense system agreement, signed between the United States and Poland and the Czech Republic in August, that places a ground-based ballistic defense facility in the two eastern European nations. Russia has said the deal threatens its security, while the United States has said that the system is to guard against rogue states such as Iran. Earlier this month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose comments have frequently antagonized Washington, said it would welcome the Russian air force, according to Russian news agency Novosti. \"If Russian long-range bombers should need to land in Venezuela, we would not object to that either. We will also welcome them,\" Chavez said on September 1, according to Novosti. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this story .","highlights":"Moscow: Russian bombers using Venezuela airfield to train over neutral waters .\nRussian defense ministry spokesman: NATO fighters followed bombers .\nNews agency: Venezuelan president says he'd welcome Russian air force .\nMove comes amid growing tension between Washington and Moscow .","id":"2f32a9eebbfa707a264d82a3bef5557f6b3b5f20"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Reese Witherspoon, the Academy Award-winning actress, is honorary chairman of the Avon Foundation and is employed by Avon Products as its global ambassador. Reese Witherspoon says she wants to banish the myth that young women are not at risk for breast cancer. (CNN) -- Every three minutes in the United States, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. As a woman, a mother, and a daughter, I find that statistic terrifying. I was never na\u00efve about breast cancer, but hearing this statistic put it all into perspective. Women close to me have battled the disease and are now soldiers in the greater fight against it. But the moment I heard \"every three minutes,\" I felt vulnerable and scared as I realized that anyone is susceptible. The only way for me to ease my fears was to take action. I needed to educate myself and others on this disease. As the Honorary Chair for the Avon Foundation, I had resources at my fingertips. I had access to an entire organization that is dedicated to giving back to women and educating people. So I started asking, \"What do I need to know?\" It was through that curiosity that I found out the most important fact in breast cancer: Early detection saves lives. According to the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade, there is a 97 percent five-year survival rate when breast cancer is caught before it spreads to other parts of the body. When breast cancer first develops, there are usually no symptoms, which is why women need to perform self-exams regularly and contact their doctor upon noticing even the smallest change. Of course talking about breast cancer and breast health is a personal thing. I too am a private person but encourage all women to break through their reservations and talk to their doctors and physicians. We must also banish the myth that young women are not at risk for breast cancer. At the Avon Walk in Washington, I met young survivors who were diagnosed in their 20s, an age when most women are graduating from college and just starting their lives as full adults. Watch Reese and Larry at the Avon Walk \u00bb . Women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam by a health professional at least once every three years and women 40 and older should have an exam every year. I am passionate about fighting this devastating disease. I fight for my mother, myself, my children and future generations of women, so one day we will not have to be afraid of breast cancer. I began my fight by learning important first steps in breast cancer detection, and will not end my fight until every woman can stand together saying we are breast cancer free. More than anything else, I have faith -- faith we will find a cure. I saw this commitment in the faces of the women in Washington -- in the faces of the women walking and the women and men who stood on the sidelines encouraging the 3,500 participants to the finish line. I was cheering right along with them, screaming for action to find a cure. Avon's next walk will take place in New York City on October 4 and 5.","highlights":"\"Every three minutes\" statistic made Witherspoon feel \"vulnerable\" and \"scared\"\nOscar-winning actress: Young women are not exempt from the disease .\nWitherspoon emphasizes importance of early detection and regular screenings .","id":"57a373fa7d17600396fcee99164e79c0edccad14"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Barack Obama is in excellent health, according to a statement from his doctor, released by the campaign. Besides being an \"intermittent smoker,\" Sen. Barack Obama is in excellent health, his doctor says. Obama, 46, last saw Dr. David Scheiner in January 2007, shortly before he declared he was running for president. Scheiner, who has been Obama's primary doctor since 1987, observed that the Illinois senator's diet, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol were all healthy. \"In short, his examination showed him to be in excellent health,\" Scheiner said. Obama \"exercised regularly, often jogging three miles. His diet was balanced with good intake of roughage and fluids. ... On physical examination, his blood pressure was 90\/60 and pulse 60\/minute,\" Scheiner wrote. The Illinois senator has been an \"intermittent\" cigarette smoker who has \"quit on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success.\" Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, released his health records last week. McCain's doctors also described him as being in \"excellent health,\" despite a history of skin cancer, and said there appears to be no physical reason why the 71-year-old candidate could not carry out the duties of the office. Obama released a one-page statement from his primary care physician. He did not release any medical records or make his doctors available to the media. By contrast, McCain made more than 1,000 pages of medical documents available to journalists, including CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Four of McCain's doctors held a conference call with reporters after the records were made available. McCain has had four malignant melanomas removed. Three of them -- on his left shoulder, left arm and left nasal wall -- were limited to the top skin layer and were not invasive. They were removed in 1993, 2000 and 2002. But a fourth melanoma proved to be invasive and was removed from his left lower temple in 2000, said Dr. John D. Eckstein, an internist who has been overseeing McCain's treatment for 16 years at the Mayo Clinic's campus in Scottsdale, Arizona.","highlights":"Senator's weight, blood pressure and cholesterol are all healthy, doctor says .\nObama is an \"intermittent smoker,\" doctor says .\nObama has quit smoking several times, is currently using Nicorette gum .\nGOP presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain released records last week .","id":"9b087c5572cc091c519625d37d1a614b97b8ed30"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S.-led forces captured two men believed to be senior al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, including one suspected of planning the 2006 kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, a military statement said. Jill Carroll, seen here in an interview following her 2006 release, was held for nearly three months in Iraq. Coalition forces captured the suspects in Baghdad on August 11 and 17, according to the statement. The suspects were identified as Salim Abdallah Ashur al-Shujayri, also known as Abu Uthman, and Ali Rash Nasir Jiyad al-Shammari, also known as Abu Tiba. Abu Uthman is suspected of masterminding Carroll's abduction, the statement said. Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted in January 2006 and freed unharmed in March of that year. Both men are suspected of overseeing car or suicide bombings targeting Iraqis with the intent of inciting sectarian violence, the statement said. Abu Tiba is suspected to have been in charge of as many 15 al Qaeda in Iraq \"attack cells,\" providing them with money, weapons and explosives, according to the statement. The men were also suspected of being connected to other kidnappings, the statement said. \"The capture of Abu Tiba and Abu Uthman eliminates two of the few remaining experienced leaders in the AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] network,\" the statement said.","highlights":"Abu Uthman suspected of masterminding Jill Carroll's 2006 kidnapping .\nUthman and another al Qaeda in Iraq suspect captured this month, military says .\nCarroll, a U.S. journalist, was abducted in 2006 but released unharmed weeks later .","id":"b5211115ff68e12e759a474a02d3b163211af563"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police have arrested a man in the killing of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk, who died this week, according to the Auburn, Alabama, assistant police chief. Courtney Larrell Lockhart, 23, of Smiths, Alabama, is charged with capital murder during a kidnapping, capital murder during a robbery, and capital murder during an attempted rape, Tommy Dawson said Saturday. The Phenix City Police Department took Lockhart into custody on Friday, police said. Phenix City is about 35 miles southeast of Auburn. Burk, 18, from Marietta, Georgia, was found shot on North College Street, a few miles north of campus, on Tuesday night. She died later at a hospital. Minutes after police responded to the call reporting an injured person and found Burk, they found a car -- which turned out to be Burk's -- on fire in a campus parking lot. Dawson told reporters Friday that authorities think gasoline or another accelerant was used to ignite Burk's car, and police were investigating whether a gas can found in downtown Auburn was connected. Police want to investigate every possible lead, Dawson said. Authorities were still on patrol in the east Alabama campus, he said. The university's Web site said a campus-wide memorial service will be held Monday. The site carried a message from Burk's father, James, which said: \"The Burk family was so proud to have Lauren as an Auburn University student. We want to extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation for Auburn University, the city of Auburn and the Auburn Police Department. We feel very close to your community. We appreciate what everyone is doing for us and Lauren.\" Also on Friday, police released pictures of a 2001 Honda Civic similar to Burk's car. Authorities asked anyone who thinks they might have seen the car on Tuesday to contact them. Police are continuing to interview people, Dawson said. A student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill -- Eve Carson, 22, of Athens, Georgia -- was also shot to death this week, on early Wednesday. Authorities in Chapel Hill said Friday they had been in contact with Auburn police but did not believe the two cases were connected. Watch CNN's Nancy Grace discuss the two killings of college women from Georgia \u00bb . Burk's family, in a statement read Friday to reporters by family friend Kathy Singleton, expressed their gratitude for the thoughts and prayers offered, but asked for privacy \"so that they may grieve for their loss as well as celebrate Lauren's life.\" Those wishing to honor Burk could do so by donating to her favorite charities, Singleton said -- The Invisible Child and the American Kidney Foundation. Donations can be made at any Wachovia Bank to the Lauren Burk Memorial Fund. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Courtney Larrell Lockhart, 23, charged with three counts of capital murder .\nAuburn University student Lauren Burk found shot Tuesday, died at hospital .\nBurk's car found minutes later engulfed in flames in campus parking lot .","id":"6b75abea2de5c9c9952af0427ccec78910ac811f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cheri Morgan spent about half-an-hour in line at a Houston-area gas station on Thursday before evacuating the city. iReporter Cheri Morgan says drivers were panicking Thursday at a Houston, Texas, gas station. \"Everyone was driving crazy and they really need some kind of traffic flow at the gas stations. It's wild,\" she said. \"Everybody's rushing and panicking. I could have stayed, but I thought it was best to just get out of there.\" Morgan said it took her about five hours to make the 200 mile drive to San Antonio -- a trip that normally only takes about three hours. Ike is expected to make landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas, which is home to many of the country's oil refineries. That's led to a scramble at gas stations as people try to fill up before the storm hits. iReport.com: Are you in Ike's path? People were filling up their cars and their gas cans at a Sam's Club in College Station, Texas, iReporter Kyle Norton told CNN.com. \"The lines were a tad ridiculous,\" the 30-year-old banker said. Norton said his 2002 Dodge Ram pickup was on empty, so he had no choice but to wait in line for an hour. Despite the long lines, Norton said gas was about $3.49, which is pretty normal for the area. He said a friend had to go to four different stations before he could find one that still had regular unleaded. iReporter Jeremy \"Clete\" Terrell said the lines also were long at the Costco in Alpharetta, Georgia. \"I was getting gas and realized that everybody else was too,\" he said. iReporter Curtis McNeely said a Kangaroo Express station in Evansville, Indiana, imposed a 10 gallon limit. \"It's causing paranoia more than anything,\" he said adding that people are returning to the gas station to fill up multiple times. A spokeswoman for the company that runs the Kangaroo Express chain says it's imposed a limit at its 1,660 stores because gas supplies are tight. Several stations in Ocala, Florida, were limiting sales if they still had gas to sell, iReporter Christine Bailey said. Canadian Ian McIntosh said gas prices jumped 57 cents per gallon overnight in Milton, Ontario. \"This stuff's in the tanks, it's just sitting in the gas stations, they're using this as a windfall event,\" the retired teacher said. McIntosh said he heard prices were going up on the news, so he and his wife got gas last night -- along with many other residents of the Toronto suburb. \"A gas station that would normally have three or four cars -- you had 15 cars and you had to line up to get to the pumps,\" he said. Rumors that gas would jump to $6 a gallon caused a panic in Sylva, North Carolina. iReport.com: Police called in at mountain gas station . Lines were a half-mile long Thursday night at the stations that stayed open, and police were called in to maintain order, iReporter April Brendle said. \"Supposedly there was a fight at one station,\" she said.","highlights":"Long gas lines reported as Hurricane Ike approaches .\nGas prices jumped overnight in Canada .\nPolice had to restore order at North Carolina gas stations .\nAre you in Ike's path? Send photos, videos .","id":"259cc1db3d4c814dafc02ed071327f65a7b9eaad"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition troops on Monday formally handed over security control of Iraq's Anbar province -- once the hub of the country's Sunni insurgency, to Iraqis on Monday. A U.S. soldier on patrol in Ramadi's market earlier this year. U.S. troops will remain in the province to support Iraqi forces. President George W. Bush described the transfer as a major victory against al-Qaeda extremists who once held sway in the area. \"Today, Anbar is no longer lost to al Qaeda -- it is al Qaeda that lost Anbar,\" he said in a statement. Once dominated by Sunni insurgents, Anbar has been the scene of many attacks on U.S.-led troops in Iraq. Now a bastion of tribal opposition, it is also the scene of an internal Sunni political struggle between the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of Iraq's main Sunni parties, and the Awakening movement, the first anti-al Qaeda in Iraq movement established in the country. More than 25,000 U.S. troops serve in the sprawling Anbar province west of Baghdad; most of them Marines. They will remain for the time being but will shift their mission to supporting Iraqi forces, when needed . The transfer is a \"major progress\" for all of Iraq, said Brigadier Gen. David Perkins, the spokesman for the Multi-National Force in Iraq. The transfer ceremony took place in Ramadi, the capital of the western province, and was attended by Iraqi officials and U.S. military brass. Watch U.S., Iraqi officials perform transfer \u00bb . \"We are all well aware of what the security situation was in Anbar even a year ago,\" Perkins said. \"And the fact that that has been able to be turned around, that the Iraqi citizens that live there want to stand up on their own, [that] they want to take control of the province on their own ... it's a major progress not only for Anbar, but for all of Iraq.\" Anbar is the 11th of Iraq's 18 provinces to revert to local security control, but is the first Sunni-dominated one. The move comes amid a big drop in violence in Iraq and calls from Iraqis for the United States to come up with a troop withdrawal timetable. The other provinces that have transitioned to Iraqi security control are Duhuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish region, and Karbala, Najaf, Qadisiya, Muthanna, Thiqar, Basra, and Maysan in the Shiite south. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Arwa Damon in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Coalition troops hand over security control of Iraq's Anbar province to Iraqis .\nAnbar was once the hub of the country's Sunni insurgency .\nMore than 25,000 U.S. troops serve in Anbar, west of Baghdad .","id":"3bb1cda1e01cb6e14f6190ced3b1ec3f7ef50de9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five years ago, Robert Rogers was driving home with his family from a wedding when a flash flood took his wife and four children from him in an instant. Robert and Melissa Rogers with their four children before they died in August 2003. Rainfall from a torrential downpour swept the Rogers' minivan off a Kansas highway. As water filled the van, Rogers kicked out a window in a last-ditch effort to save his family. Instead, he and his wife, Melissa, and daughter, Makenah, were sucked out of the van. Hours later, the bodies of children Zachary, 5, Nicholas, 3, and Alenah, 1, still buckled in their car seats, were found inside the van. Rogers survived. Instead of falling into despair, he became a minister dedicated to honoring his family by preaching messages of hope in the face of adversity. \"It was a huge choice of faith,\" Rogers told CNN. \"It was a determination to live life to honor God, to honor my heavenly family, and to make something productive out of it and not just to wallow in my pity.\" Watch the story of the Rogers family tragedy \u00bb . Rogers' mission manifests itself in a variety of ways. In the past five years, he estimates he has told the story of his loss at least 400 times to more than 120,000 people. The message behind his story is to live life with no regrets by embracing your family and faith. \"People have responded to me that they want to change the way they live their life. They want to have a personal relationship with God and they want to get right with their spouse and children,\" he said. In addition to his speaking tours, Rogers has established a ministry dedicated to serving orphans across the world. Rogers also traveled to Haiti and tsunami-ravaged parts of Asia to minister and deliver aid to orphans. Watch Rogers talk about his ministry \u00bb . His mission is to establish five orphanages in five continents to symbolize the five family members he lost. One, called Melissa's House, already exists in Russia, where eight orphan teens live with a married couple, and another is under construction in Rwanda. \"We dedicated it in honor of Melissa because she loved being a mom and I hope she is a role model to these girls,\" Rogers said. Since that fateful day five years ago, Rogers has begun to heal. He is married with one child and another on the way. More than anything, he hopes his story will inspire others to live each day to its fullest. \"We are not guaranteed the next five seconds,\" Rogers said. \"Life is very fragile and I hope my stories and inspirations are compelling people to live that life of no regrets.\" CNN's Kyra Phillips contributed to this report .","highlights":"Robert Rogers' wife and four children died in flash flood five years ago .\nRogers chose not to \"wallow in pity\" and became a minister with a message of hope .\nHis mission is to establish five orphanages in five continents to honor his family .\nOne named after his wife, Melissa, exists in Russia, another planned in Rwanda .","id":"7afbe903f1f7cdc1af509583649babf481d01729"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Members of a Russian doomsday cult barricaded themselves in a cave to wait out the end of the world as the cult's leader underwent psychiatric exams Thursday, Russian media reported. The cult, which calls itself the \"true Russian Orthodox Church,\" believes the world will end in May. The cult leader is in police custody awaiting proceedings on charges that he set up an organization \"whose activity is associated with violence on citizens and instigation to refuse to perform their civil duties,\" according to the state-funded Itar-Tass news agency. Four children are among 29 cult members holed up in a ravine in Russia's Penza region, where they apparently dug a cave. One of the children in the cave is 18 months old, reported Itar-Tass. Temperatures in the cave are below 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius), the Russian news agency reported. The cult members have refused law enforcement requests to come out or release the children, and they have threatened to commit suicide if police resort to force, according to Russian state television. The cult, which calls itself the \"true Russian Orthodox Church,\" believes the end of the world will come in May 2008. Prosecutors announced Thursday they are opening criminal proceedings against the cult's leader, Father Pyotr Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov, 43, is \"under the supervision of investigators,\" Olig Troshin, a Penza prosecutor, told Itar-Tass. A law enforcement source in Penza told the Russian news agency Interfax that Kuznetsov \"is being examined by psychiatrists.\" Several clergymen, police officers and agents of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations are outside the cave. \"It is obviously some kind of insanity,\" Mitropolitan Kirill, a high-ranking Russian Orthodox Church official, told Russian television. \"It is perhaps even a medical case. A very dangerous phenomena is happening in Russia's religious life.\" He added, \"What we're seeing in Penza right now is a most vivid example of what could happen to a country, to a society, if this society is deprived of proper religious education.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four children, one 18 months old, are among cult members holed up in cave .\nCult leader to face charges he set up a violent organization, news agency reports .\nNews agency: Cult members have threatened to commit suicide if police use force .\nThe \"true Russian Orthodox Church\" believes end of the world is coming in May .","id":"79d625a3311f4ff11598a3ae4fca63103e84e9a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six people were killed and 13 wounded in the shelling of South Ossetia by Georgian forces, South Ossetian officials said Saturday, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. Officials of the breakaway Georgian region said the shelling was part of a Georgian military operation, Interfax reported. Georgia initially suggested Russian peacekeepers were to blame, drawing heated denials from the Russian Defense Ministry, which called the allegation \"dirty informational provocation.\" Later, however, Mamuka Kurashvili, the commander of Georgian peacekeeping operations, told reporters that four people were wounded when several Georgian villages were fired upon from South Ossetia, and Georgia \"had to return fire.\" Women, children and the elderly were being evacuated from the conflict zone because of fears that Georgia would continue military operations against the region, according to the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee as reported by Interfax. South Ossetia's government held a special session on the violence, the Russian news agency said. \"If Georgia continues provocative actions, we will announce the recruitment of volunteers not only in the North Ossetia but in the entire North Caucasus and also carry out general mobilization in South Ossetia,\" South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity told Interfax. Georgia, located on the Black Sea coast between Russia and Turkey, has been split by Russian-backed separatist movements in South Ossetia and another region, Abkhzia. Accusations often fly on both sides, and the South Ossetian leadership has alleged that Georgian troops stage attacks to create a pretext for military action. South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia in the early 1990s after a bloody war there between ethnic Georgians and Ossetians. The region's independence is not internationally recognized. Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian troops participate in a mixed peacekeeping force there and have maintained a fragile peace broken occasionally by fighting. On Friday, as reports of the shelling began, Russia expressed \"its most serious concern about the escalation of tensions in South Ossetia.\" Moscow said it was taking measures to prevent escalation of the conflict as it urged both Georgia and South Ossetia to look for diplomatic ways to calm the situation.","highlights":"Georgian official said South Ossetia had fired on Georgian villages first .\nWomen, children, elderly being evacuated from the conflict zone .\nGeorgia split by Russian-backed separatist movements in South Ossetia .","id":"ea6c4267f17d55f1bd9f0950c31ef59565bdc30b"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's inflation rate has soared in the past three months and is now at 11.2 million percent, the highest in the world, according to the country's Central Statistical Office. Zimbabwe's inflation rate has soared to a world high. Official figures dated Monday show inflation has surged from the rate of 2.2 million percent recorded in May, despite the government's price controls. The country's finance minister confirmed the new figure in an interview but said the rising inflation rate was not confined to Zimbabwe alone. \"While our case has been aggravated by the illegal sanctions imposed by the Western powers, rising food prices are a world phenomenon because of the use of bio-fuel,\" said Samuel Mumbengegwi. \"But we will continue to fight inflation by making sure that prices charged are realistic.\" In February, the price of a loaf of bread in the country was less than 200,000 Zimbabwe dollars. On Monday, that same loaf of bread cost 1.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. Analysts have said the Zimbabwean government's official inflation rate figures are conservative. Last week, one of Zimbabwe's leading banks, Kingdom Bank, said the country's inflation rate was now more than 20 million percent. The locally-owned bank predicted tougher times ahead for Zimbabwe in the absence of donor support and foreign investment in an economy that has been in freefall for almost a decade. Once considered the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has been in the throes of an economic meltdown ever since the country embarked on a chaotic land reform program that has decimated commercial agriculture. Analysts say the crisis has worsened following President Robert Mugabe's disputed reelection in the June 27 presidential run-off. His challenger Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the race over widespread allegations of violence and voter intimidation. The economic crisis has destroyed Zimbabwe's currency and made it difficult for Zimbabweans to buy basic commodities, electricity, fuel, and medicines. Many Zimbabweans have left the country amid rising unemployment and deepening poverty. Last week a summit in South Africa of regional African leaders failed to persuade Zimbabwe's political parties to agree to form a government of national unity, which observers view as the best way to end Zimbabwe's record recession.","highlights":"Zimbabwe's inflation rate soars to 11.2 million percent .\nA loaf of bread costs 1.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars .\nOfficial rate is world's highest but some analysts fear it may be more .\nZimbabwe officials blame international sanctions and rising global food prices .","id":"851d02b689bec14607574096bb77b9acf53c15ee"} -{"article":"(Oprah.com) -- On any given day here at \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 69 very talented, extremely detail oriented, high-energy, hardworking women and men all doing their jobs and doing them well. I love a few of them, I like a lot of them, I despise one of them. She is the Magneto to my Wolverine, the Saruman to my Frodo, the Dr. Octopus to my Spiderman. I call her The Tinkler. It's a typical Tuesday; the office is humming along. I'm answering e-mails, writing cover lines, scheduling a dental appointment here, partial highlights there, kicking myself for not getting sushi at lunch. The sun is shining, the color printer is working -- my life is good. I mosey into the ladies' room, glance at the mirror, remind myself that fluorescent lights make everyone look as if they're in the final stages of tuberculosis, and head for a stall. And then I see it: The seat, even the floor, is covered in little yellow droplets. The Tinkler strikes again. To date, I have been able to deduce only four things about her: . 1. She is female. 2. She attacks between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. 3. She works alone. 4. She was raised in a barn. I've been her victim more times than I can count, and it has turned me from a happy-go-lucky columnist into a bitter, paranoid germaphobe. She has become the bane of my existence. We live in a world where our soldiers lack sufficient body armor, where Rupert Murdoch is blurring the line intended to keep the business and political interests of media owners from influencing the presentation of news, where the White House still refuses to respond to questions they promised to answer as soon as the Scooter Libby case was closed, where studies indicate that worrying you're going to get sick will actually get you sick -- and yet I am devoting an entire column to The Tinkler. Any shrink worth his or her salt will tell you that it is a mistake to think of your colleagues as family. But what is a family if not a group of people who care about you and irritate you and show up for cake on your birthday and look at pictures of your kid even when they don't feel like it and think it wouldn't kill you to put on a little makeup and a pair of heels once in a while? I've been earning a paycheck for 30 years. Whether rinsing conditioner off a Lhasa apso during my stint as shampoo girl at Mr. Whiskers Pet Boutique or breathing on the chicken breast I was about to serve a rude diner during my waitressing days, I've always found that the people I work with matter to me. Their moods, their opinions, their style influence my life. They've appreciated me, humiliated me, surprised me, and antagonized me. I've gotten flowers and I've gotten fired (and I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to deserve either), but I've never experienced anything like The Tinkler. \"Dammit!\" I say upon encountering her latest Jackson Pollock imitation. Pat, Suzan, and Valerie each come out of their stalls to see what's wrong. I point in horror. Pat groans, Suzan moans, Val throws up her hands in disgust, and we fall into silence. Then I rally, \"At least we know it's not one of us.\" But everybody else is a suspect. \"It can't be Sudie,\" Suzan volunteers. My eyes narrow. \"What are you basing this on?\" I ask. \"I've seen her,\" she answers, \"she always heads straight for the paper seat protector.\" \"And,\" Valerie adds, \"we can cross Mamie off the list -- it happened twice while she was in Sweden.\" Sixty seconds ago, the four of us were editors; now we are FBI profilers. \"She probably likes to burrow into small spaces,\" Pat conjectures. \"This never happens in the big, wheelchair-accessible stall ...\" \"It's very primitive, as if she's marking her territory. This is clearly a hostile gesture,\" Suzan declares with authority. We're finally getting somewhere. \"So, really,\" I say, \"we just need to be on the lookout for an aggressively mean-spirited, mole-like cavewoman who is not confined to a wheelchair .. is that right?\" Val is the first to realize that we're losing our minds. \"I'm out of here,\" she says, and exits the ladies' room. Later, I complain to J.J., poor, naive little J.J .. She tells me that it can't be any of us, that the toilet is somehow to blame. I leave J.J. in her special world -- a place where troubles melt like lemon drops and Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone -- and resume writing my column. Gina drops by and reads over my shoulder. Suddenly she has an epiphany: \"It's you!\" she announces, pointing at me like she's Javert accusing Jean Valjean of stealing silver candlesticks. \"Think about it,\" she says. \"What better way to cover your tracks than writing an outraged piece on the subject?\" I kind of like that Gina believes I am an evil genius, and I don't have the heart to tell her that I once refused to sit my daughter on the lap of a department store Santa Claus because I had no idea who else had been sitting there. Another day, another bathroom break. \"Steer clear of the third stall,\" Yeun warns as she dries her hands and heads for a meeting. Jennifer emerges from door number four to see what exactly's going on behind door number three. She is appalled yet philosophical. \"Believe it or not, every place I've ever worked has had a Tinkler -- maybe sharing a ladies' room just sends certain people into a passive-aggressive snit. It's the dark side of office life.\" Lately, my daydreams bear a striking resemblance to one of those black-and-white Sherlock Holmes movies: The entire team sits, sipping brandy in an ornate drawing room. \"I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you here today,\" I begin in an inexplicable British accent. \"Well, my friends, one of you is The Tinkler.\" The research department averts their eyes. The art department fidgets nervously. An intern gasps. \"And,\" I go on, \"nobody is leaving this room until I reveal the person who refuses to work and play well with others.\" My assistant, Polly, looks up. \"You mean you've figured out the identity of The Tinkler?\" she asks, filled with an admiration for my powers of reasoning that she has never once expressed in real life. \"It was elementary, dear Watson. I merely -- \" but before I can unmask The Tinkler or explain why I refer to Polly as dear Watson, the lights suddenly go out ... I could go on, but I'm bored silly whenever someone feels compelled to relay every nanosecond of a dream. Suffice it to say that I usually wind up in the arms of Tyrone Power. As for The Tinkler? She's still on the lam. There are lots of days when I find myself wishing life were closer to a gorgeous movie from the '40s -- women wore fabulous hats and pearl chokers, and I don't think they actually went to the bathroom back then. They were too busy dancing with Fred Astaire and smoking unfiltered cigarettes to schlep to an office every day. Now, some of us are running the offices, but it seems we've brought a few low-grade lunatics along for the ride -- and they're wreaking havoc in the ladies' room. Where have you gone, Edith Wharton? I'm not asking for cloth napkins and classical music. I don't need a mint on my pillow. I just want a bit of common courtesy, a modicum of civility, a touch of class, or, failing all that, a good supply of Lysol. By Lisa Kogan from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" April 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2008 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Women's bathroom is defiled by The Tinkler .\nColumnist tries to figure out who's guilty of peeing on seat .\nDecides she is \"aggressively mean-spirited, mole-like cavewoman\"\nWriter yearns for modicum of civility, a touch of class, or supply of Lysol .","id":"f2d00c8c396698becc18fd2b41ba595c7a3e1cc6"} -{"article":"BOISE, Idaho (CNN) -- Firefighter Jonathan Frohreich had never heard of The Wildland Firefighter Foundation, much less its founder, until recovering from severe work-related injuries last month. Vicki Minor's Wildland Firefighter Foundation has granted more than $1.5 million in aid to more than 500 families. As he lay in his hospital bed in Sacramento, California, Vicki Minor put her hand on his shoulder. \"She introduced herself and told me that she was there to help,\" recalls Frohreich, who had been in a helicopter crash that killed nine of his colleagues. \"She just said, 'Anything.' She was there to do anything for me.\" Since 1999, Minor has dedicated herself to providing emergency assistance and ongoing support to injured and fallen wildfire fighters and their families nationwide through her Wildland Firefighter Foundation. Wildland firefighters are called into action when the United States' vast natural resources are threatened by fire. For Frohreich, Minor's foundation supplied lodging and food for family and friends who visited his bedside. It also provided emergency funds for medical and other expenses, arranged for Frohreich to meet with firefighters who carried him to safety, and brought his fallen comrades' family members to a bereavement ceremony. \"She means everything,\" Frohreich said. \"She's one of the best things to ever happen.\" Minor first became involved with the wildland firefighter community 21 years ago after witnessing a wildfire for the first time. \"I had never seen anything like it,\" Minor recalls of the blaze in the mountains of Idaho. \"All those firefighter units mobilized in camps that cropped up. It was like an invasion, and I was mesmerized.\" Minor started a fire camp commissary, providing dry goods, clothing and necessities to the firefighters. But it wasn't until tragedy struck in 1994 at Storm King Mountain, Colorado, where 14 firefighters perished in a single day, that Minor was overcome with a need to assist the families. The Storm King fire was a turning point. \"Fighting fire is much like fighting a war. There's no time to tend to the injured, or tend to the dead. The fire doesn't stop raging,\" Minor said. \"I looked up at the heavens and I said to those kids, 'Help me help your families.' \" Grieving wildland families, like those of fallen soldiers, tend to be young and scattered throughout the country, often enduring their sudden loss in isolation from their firefighting community. Taking cues from a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Minor spearheaded fundraising efforts for the erection of the Wildland Firefighters Monument in Boise, Idaho, which contains markers \"for almost every wildland firefighter that has fallen,\" Minor said. \"I had seen and felt the healing of those combat veterans that would touch a name of their friend,\" Minor said. \"Our wildland firefighters had nothing like that to process their grief. I wanted to create a place where our families could congregate, reach out in solidarity and comfort to honor their fallen and injured.\" Watch Minor describe the sculptures in the firefighter monument \u00bb . Since 1999, the foundation has continued to grow, assisting more than 500 wildland firefighters and their families with more than $1.5 million in emergency funds and services, including communication support; travel and lodging for the injured and fallen; and emotional and benefit counseling and advocacy. Watch Minor describe how her foundation takes action to aid wildfire fighters \u00bb . \"There is a need for these families to be taken care of, and a long-term need,\" Minor said. \"But most of it is to maintain that home until benefits come in.\" When survivors suddenly lose their income and don't know how to apply for the compensation they're entitled to, Minor's foundation steps in to guide them, often fighting for them when benefits are delayed or denied. Watch Minor explain why her foundation fights for firefighters and their families \u00bb . Minor says she hopes the wildland firefighters know \"we have their back.\" \"I hope that they feel they can go on and fight that fire and know that we'll take care of their family and their friends.\"","highlights":"Vicki Minor's foundation helps injured and fallen wildfire fighters and their families .\nThe Wildland Firefighter Foundation has assisted more than 500 families since 1999 .\nMinor led fundraising efforts to build a monument for fallen wildfire firefighters .","id":"70c6ca3234f9b1221c8aea7671dd78e1ca9d9139"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The New York Giants' unlikely win over the New England Patriots is already being called one of the biggest shockers in Super Bowl history, and the amazing catch David Tyree made to set up the game-winning touchdown won't be forgotten anytime soon. Pint-sized Giants fans, Luka and Kristian Radovich, celebrate after Plaxico Burress' game-winning catch. CNN.com reader Michael Heitman, of Baxter, Tennessee, will remember Super Bowl XLII for more than the 17-14 score. \"Our 13-month-old daughter took her first steps during the second half. Apparently, so did the Giants offense. Congrats to the Giants from a Cowboys fan,\" he said. David Marks, of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, said it was \"one of the best football games I'd ever seen,\" but said watching the game with his family had some drawbacks. \"I was not able to enjoy the commercials as much because my mom wouldn't stop yakking away,\" he said. \"She's 80 years old and I didn't want to say anything at first -- you don't know how much longer you have your mom at that age. But finally after a quarter and a half, I had to ask her to pipe down.\" Watch some of the pre-game festivities \u00bb . Dan Nash, of Santa Monica, California, didn't have that problem. \"It would be nice to see the GAME a little more,\" he said adding that \"every 10 seconds (or less), we're watching ads! Kickoff ... three ads. Punt ... three ads. Flag on the play ... two ads.\" Here is a sampling of our readers' reaction to the game: . Russell Giuliano of Middletown, New Jersey I have seen every Super Bowl, and this was the best ever, even better than No. 3 with Namath. Dave Viscusi of Schenectady, New York That was one of the best Super Bowls\/Super Bowl parties I have ever been to. We made 4 different kinds of pizza (BBQ chicken, cheese, sausage and peppers), boneless buffalo wings, BBQ ribs, chips of all kinds, apple martinis, some beer and topped off the Giants victory with some CHAMPAGNE! GO G-Men ... Eli deserves every ounce of credit he gets for this Super Bowl ... Way to throw it right in the arrogant Patriots' face! Ricardo Gomez of Buenos Aires, Argentina I'm a big Pats fan, and I was sad to see that last play when Manning escapes the Pats' defense and throw that pass, the one that put the GIANTS OFFENSE so close to the touchdown. Anyway, I think Pats are still the best team in the league, and I was there that snowy night when Brady got us to the Super Bowl at the last second with (Adam Vinatieri kicking) that amazing field goal! So GO PATS! GO!!! Irving Horowitz of Princeton, New Jersey There are three sport moments in my life that I will take to my grave with a broad grin and deep pleasure: The first was the Bobby Thompson home run for the New York (Baseball) Giants in 1951 to defeat the Dodgers; a varsity game while I was at Hobart & William Smith when, as a member of the faculty and staff, we defeated a first-class varsity team in 1962 and I made the winning basket with 28 seconds on the clock (I have the press clippings to prove this); and the biggest thrill of them all: Watching the New York (Football) Giants win Super Bowl XLII against the New England Patriots. When Bob Tisch spoke of \"this win is for all Giant fans who, for the past 30 years, supported the team at Giants Stadium, and before that at the Yankee Stadium, and for those who still remember being part of the Giants at the Polo Grounds,\" I felt that he spoke directly to me. After all, I am actually about a year or two older than the franchise ... Wow! 2008 is already a good year -- a good omen for America. Monique Mondesire of Bronx, New York I'm a 26-year-old female who really doesn't put much thought into sports, but that was the best Super Bowl game I have ever seen in my life. I had faith that it would happen, but the way it happened was priceless. I'm very proud to be a New Yorker and a new Giants fan. To all the New Yorkers that lost their bets yesterday, in the words of Don Corleone, \"Never go against the family.\" Lisa Ciacci of Brooklyn, New York As a die-hard Cowboys fan, I may have been the most unlikely N.Y. Giants fan last night. I could not be happier for this team. They played their hearts out in quite possibly the best game I have ever watched. Eli Manning came of age before our very eyes and proves once again that he is truly a class act. I hope this loss haunts the Patriots forever. They weren't good enough to beat the Giants last night nor will they ever be. This city will surely explode at tomorrow's parade -- it's good to be in New York! GO GIANTS! E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ultimate Super Bowl party: Four kinds of pizza and a Giants' win .\n\"It's good to be in New York,\" reader says .\nOne fan's daughter took first steps in second half .\nI-Report: Have a story to share? Send it to us .","id":"86eaa90c419d5ed93341248fecd8c25d820f2b82"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Three weeks after an apparent misunderstanding sparked a confrontation, deadly Hindu-Christian riots continue unabated in the remote east Indian state of Orissa. Police officers chase away a protester in Mangalore, India, Monday. By Tuesday, about 20 deaths had been reported, said Praveen Kumar, the superintendent of police in the worst-affected Kandhamal district. The latest casualty is a police officer who died after an armed mob of about 400 to 500 mostly Hindus torched a police station in the district on Monday, Orissa state police said. Orissa's Director General of Police G.C. Nanda the policeman died when the mob opened fire at officers fleeing the burning building. The attack, he said, may have been in retaliation for arrests that police made in the ongoing communal fighting. Watch more about the riots in India \u00bb . The attack came two days after police fired on a crowd to prevent it from attacking Christian residents. Between three and six people died in the shooting, CNN's sister network CNN-IBN reported. The violence spread to southern India over the weekend when vandals attacked 14 churches in an hour in the state of Karnataka Sunday, the network said. The Christian community in the Karnataka -- numbering about 2.5 million -- said right-wing Hindus are targeting them for opposing the violence in Orissa. By Tuesday, police had arrested about 140 people in connection with the riots, said Karnataka's Inspector General of Police A.M. Prasad. Sixty of them -- all Hindus -- were arrested for the church attacks, Prasad said. The rest, mostly Christians, were charged with disturbing the peace, he said. Orissa has historically been a tinderbox of Hindu-Christian tensions. Some Hindu groups view the work of Christian missionaries in the state with suspicion. They accuse missionaries of bribing or forcing Hindus into converting. The seeds for the current conflict were planted on August 23, when Hindu leader, Laxmananda Saraswati, and four others were killed in Kandhamal after 20 to 30 gunmen barged into a Hindu school and began shooting, the Orissa chief minister's office said. The authorities have not determined who killed Saraswati, but after the incident they detained five people who are Christians, said Sukanta Panda, spokesman for the chief minister. The government says the killings may have been the work of Maoist rebels -- investigators have many unanswered questions -- but some hardline Hindus blamed a Christian minority. They took to the streets in anger, rampaging through predominantly Christian neighborhoods, ransacking shops and torching houses. They chopped down trees to block roads, making it difficult for police to reach trouble spots. A Christian orphanage was set on fire. A 20-year-old woman, who was teaching children inside, burned to death. Christian residents fought back, and the clashes spread. Authorities imposed a night curfew in many towns and deployed state and federal forces in the troubled areas, Kumar -- the police superintendent -- said. Both sides said the violence has left Christian churches and Hindu temples razed to the ground. This is not the first time the simmering anger has boiled over in the state with deadly consequences. In 1999, a Hindu mob burned to death an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two children while they slept inside their car. And last Christmas, clashing groups killed four people and burned several churches in the same Orissa district -- Kandhamal. Maoist rebels, who claim to be fighting for the poor and the dispossessed, have been battling the Indian government in an insurgency that has resulted in thousands of casualties since the late 1960s. Some Christians accept the Maoist theory, saying the rebels have also struck against hard-line Hindus because they associate them as being closely aligned with the government. But Hindu groups insists that Christians were behind Saraswati's death. Unlike Orissa, Karnataka has until now been spared the large-scale clash between Christians and Hindus. But now, many in the Christian community fear their calm and prosperous state may become another battleground between the two religions, CNN-IBN said. CNN's Harmeet Singh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Orissa state has historically been a tinderbox of Hindu-Christian tensions .\nViolence spread to southern India with churches attacked in Karnataka state .\nLatest casualty was a policeman who died after a Hindu mob torched a police station .\nAttack came 2 days after police fired on a crowd to prevent it attacking Christians .","id":"a1841cf61c53937fffc54c0e81d8f7cfcad2f0c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hillary Clinton's campaign has apologized for \"inappropriate\" language used by her husband in response to what it called an \"outrageously unfair\" article about the former president. Bill and Hillary Clinton campaign in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Monday. The article, by Vanity Fair magazine's national editor Todd Purdum, suggested that Bill Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart bypass surgery and said that there were reports of Clinton \"seeing a lot of women on the road.\" Purdum quoted four anonymous former Clinton aides saying that another of his former assistants had conducted \"what one of these aides called an intervention\" about the reports of philandering. A writer for the Huffington Post, Mayhill Fowler, asked Clinton on Monday what he thought \"about that hatchet job somebody did on you in Vanity Fair,\" according to a recording of the exchange posted on the Huffington Post's Web site. Listen to Clinton call the reporter a \"scumbag\" \u00bb . \"[He's] sleazy,\" Clinton responded. \"He's a really dishonest reporter.\" Clinton said he had not read the article but that he was told that \"there's five or six just blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy.\" Watch Larry King panel debate Bill Clinton's response \u00bb . Calling Purdum a \"scumbag,\" Clinton said \"he's one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy -- can't help it.\" Purdum \"didn't use a single name, he didn't cite a single source in all those things he said,\" said the former president, who added that the article was \"part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for [Barack] Obama.\" He said readers should be wary of news accounts that rely on unnamed sources. \"Anytime you read a story that slimes a public figure with anonymous quotes, it ought to make the bells go off in your head,\" he said. Late Monday, Jay Carson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's campaign, said that \"President Clinton was understandably upset about an outrageously unfair article, but the language today was inappropriate and he wishes he had not used it.\" Purdum, a former New York Times reporter who covered the Clinton White House and is now married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, defended his article on CNN's \"The Situation Room\" Monday. He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he was \"very careful to say there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper.\" Watch CNN's Wolf Blitzer interview Purdum \u00bb . \"I reject the notion that I'm making an insinuation,\" Purdum said. \"But I'm very comfortable quoting the people I quote because I know who they are, and I know that they are very senior people who have known President Clinton for a very long time and work for him at very high levels.\" In his article, Purdum quotes a Johns Hopkins cardiologist -- who was not involved in Clinton's health care -- who says that the former president's bypass surgery could have affected his mood, perhaps even causing depression. And on CNN, Purdum quoted \"some people who work for him\" saying that Clinton \"seems to be angry all the time.\" Purdum added he himself believes there's evidence the former president is acting in a different manner. \"I think there's a good deal of evidence that he is quite a bit angrier than he used to be,\" he said. \"He's clearly very angry at the media, and he's very angry at the way he sees Sen. Clinton's campaign has been treated.\" \"I don't suggest that anyone can say -- except perhaps his own doctors over time -- with certainty that [the surgery] has affected President Clinton,\" he said. \"But again, this article involves reporting with a whole bunch of people who have worked for Bill Clinton over many years. And this is one of the things they raised with me. I didn't go raising this.\" Clinton's office issued a rebuttal of Purdum's article that decried his use of \"one doctor who has never examined President Clinton.\" \"This theory is false and is flatly rejected by President Clinton's doctors who say he is in excellent shape and point to his vigorous schedule as evidence of his exceptional recovery,\" the rebuttal said. Watch analyst James Carville's take on the article \u00bb . The lengthy article hits newsstands later this week, though Vanity Fair has already posted a copy on its Web site. The posting prompted a blistering response from Carson, who called the piece \"journalism of personal destruction at its worst.\" \"A tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece, published in this month's Vanity Fair magazine regarding former President Bill Clinton repeats many past attacks on him, ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground,\" he said. Purdum last year wrote an article about efforts by Sen. John McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, to draw in the party's more conservative voters. CNN's Alex Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill Clinton called author of Vanity Fair article a \"scumbag\" and \"real slimy guy\"\nClinton campaign spokesman says former president now wishes he hadn't said it .\nArticle quotes anonymous Bill Clinton aides discussing his anger, reports of women .\nAuthor Todd Purdum says he hasn't accused Clinton of doing anything wrong .","id":"5d221c86fdadca378eeaabc39c881cc74efcff07"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince William is starting a two-month attachment with the Royal Navy on Monday, part of the future king's continued experience with various branches of the military, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday. Prince William and his father, Prince Charles, at his graduation from the Royal Air Force in April. William, 25, will spend the first part of his attachment on a basic sea safety course training in sea survival, firefighting and ship damage repair, according to the ministry. If William passes the course, as expected, he will join the HMS Iron Duke in the Caribbean, the department said. The ship's function is to support overseas British territories in the event of a hurricane and to carry out counter-narcotic operations. The prince, who will be called Sub Lieutenant Wales in the Navy, is expected to spend time aboard a frigate, a mine hunter, a submarine and helicopters during his attachment, which ends August 1, the Ministry of Defense said. William completed a four-month attachment with the Royal Air Force this year and received his pilot's wings upon graduating in April. He learned to fly three different aircraft during the attachment and is known as Flying Officer Wales within the RAF. William is also a second lieutenant in the British Army, where he serves in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. The attachments are designed to provide the prince with military experience for when he becomes head of the armed forces as king. \"When he becomes king, he needs to know his armed forces -- instinctively be very familiar with them -- and so he is doing this visit to the Royal Navy,\" said Rear Adm. Bob Cooling, the assistant chief of naval staff. William's father, Prince Charles, had a five-year career in the navy in the 1970s. Charles served on the guided missile destroyer HMS Norfolk and two frigates before qualifying as a helicopter pilot and joining a naval air squadron that operated from the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes. Prince Charles spent his last nine months in the navy in 1976 in command of the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington. William's uncle Prince Andrew served 22 years in the Royal Navy as a helicopter pilot, seeing active service during the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982. Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, William's grandfather, spent more than 13 years in the Royal Navy. He saw active service throughout World War II and was in Tokyo Harbor when Japan surrendered.","highlights":"Britain's Prince William begins two-month attachment with Royal Navy on Monday .\nWilliam has completed attachment with the Royal Air Force .\nThe future king is a second lieutenant in the British Army .\nExperience will prepare him for when he becomes head of armed forces as king .","id":"7a49f5bc1d336309f57076bceba91885ee5368b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Parma have signed AC Milan's 18-year-old Alberto Paloschi in a co-ownership deal, the Serie B club announced on their Web site on Wednesday. Paloschi scored with his first touch when he made his debut as a Milan sub in February. Paloschi made an instant impact when he made his debut for Milan in February, scoring against Siena with his first touch as substitute. He scored twice in seven appearances last season but his prospects of regular first team football this season diminished sharply after the signings of Andrei Shevchenko and Ronaldinho. Parma were relegated from Serie A last season.. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has said that that Italy full-back Massimo Oddo could be leaving soon. Galliano told Gazzetta dello Sport: \"Lyon are interested in our full-back and anything is possible.\" The 32-year-old former Lazio right-back is likely to lose his first team spot to new signing Gianluca Zambrotta from Barcelona. Oddo was in Italy's World Cup winning squad in Germany in 2006 but was not chosen for the Euro 2008 finals in June. Lyon already have an Italian at left-back in Fabio Grosso, who was also a World Cup winner in 2006.","highlights":"Alberto Paloschi is moving from Milan to Parma in a co-ownership deal .\nThe 18-year-old scored with his first touch in his Milan debut in February .\nLyon are interested in signing Milan right-back Massimo Oddo .","id":"dd46893fd318dce4e209f9a335612659ebf8fd24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A JetBlue flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was diverted Saturday when a fight broke out after someone was smoking in the bathroom, federal officials said. A JetBlue plane was held in North Carolina for two hours while passengers were interviewed. One passenger aboard JetBlue Flight 455 was taken into custody at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina after the plane landed about 5:45 p.m. A federal Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said one person was injured in the face by what may have been a punch. She said the fight involved three people who are thought to be related. According to the airline, there were 88 people and four crew members aboard the jet. The flight had been scheduled to leave Boston at 1 p.m. but did not take off until 3:11 p.m., spokeswoman Alison Eshelman said. Eyewitnesses said the scuffle was between two brothers, one of whom was angry that his brother had smoked on a plane. One passenger interviewed by CNN affiliate WFOR said the fight left one of the men bloody. \"I saw the guy holding his head with the blood coming out,\" Mike Rocha said. The jet was held at the North Carolina airport for about two hours while FBI investigators interviewed passengers.","highlights":"Witnesses said fight broke out after someone was smoking in bathroom .\nOne person taken into custody at Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, airport .\nWitness: \"I saw the guy holding his head with the blood coming out\"\nPlane held two hours in North Carolina while FBI interviewed passengers .","id":"acda8749fba5e9553e9f47cef89ef85eae5ad4e3"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Darryl Mathis waits in his Pensacola, Florida, home for the body of his 24-year-old son to return home from Iraq. Mathis, a military veteran himself, was seething with anger Thursday as he spoke about the death of Army Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson. An unnamed U.S. soldier is accused of killing Army Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson in Iraq on Sunday. Dawson, and Sgt. Wesley Durbin, 26, are said to have been shot and killed by another U.S. soldier on Sunday at a base south of Baghdad. Darryl and his wife, Maxine (Dawson's stepmother), say the military has told them nothing about the incident: no details on his death, no information at all. His voice shakes as he says he believes that the military has let him down. \"I'm very disappointed -- very,\" he said. \"If I would get a straight answer, if they would actually tell me what's going on, I would have something to work on; but right now, I have nothing to work on. Everything I'm getting, I'm getting from the media.\" His wife sobs as she says her stepson's death was foreshadowed by a phone call he made to her from Iraq. \"He said that he was more shaky sometimes of the soldiers than of the enemy, because of the young guys over there.\" She said she asked him, \"What in the world do you mean? You're afraid of your own soldiers?\" \" 'These kids are trying to fight a war they know nothing about. ... They're jumpy. ... They're more scary than the enemy,' \" she said he told her. \"And I said, 'Oh, God,' \" said Maxine Mathis. On any given day, CNN receives dozens of detailed news releases from the U.S. military, including those announcing U.S. military casualties. In the cases of Dawson and Durbin, there was no mention of their names, and the releases were terse. \"A multi-national division center soldier died this morning of non-combat related causes,\" the first release read. \"The cause of death is under investigation.\" A second release came later in the day. \"A second multi-national division center soldier died this morning of non-combat related causes. The solider died of wounds September 14 at a coalition forces combat Army support hospital,\" it read. \"The incident is under investigation.\" Inquiries Thursday from CNN were met with a news release that a press officer said had been drafted Wednesday. However, the release had not been e-mailed to reporters Wednesday, as is customary. After naming the two soldiers and giving their rank and unit, it reads, \"A U.S. soldier is in custody in connection with the shooting deaths. He is being held in custody pending review by a military magistrate. The incident continues under investigation.\" The release gives no other details. The U.S. military is classifying the death of Sgt. Dawson as \"non-hostile,\" something Dawson's father finds puzzling. \"I don't know. I really don't know,\" he said. \"I just can't get it together with that. I had never heard that before. 'Non-hostile' in a war zone?\" Lt. Col. Paul Swiergosz is a public affairs officer for the area in Iraq where the incident took place. He says the \"non-hostile\" death classification was given \"because the deaths were not the result of hostile enemy action.\" But details on what happened remain scarce. After asking, CNN received an e-mail press release from Gen. Tony Cucolo, commanding general of the Third Infantry Division that a press officer said had been drafted on Wednesday. The release, however, had not been e-mailed to reporters, as is customary. \"We do know one soldier, a fellow noncommissioned officer, allegedly opened fire and mortally wounded his squad leader and fellow team leader,\" reads the statement. A spokesman at Fort Stewart in Georgia said, \"A soldier has been taken into custody. The incident is under investigation, and that is all I can say.\" The spokesman would not even confirm information in his commanding general's press statement. Maxine Mathis says she is stunned at how her stepson's death has been handled by the military. She says the Army assigned someone to help the family with anything they needed once they found out Darris had been killed, but she and her husband don't know how he died. She said her husband asked the liaison officer whether it was true that Darris had been killed by another U.S. solider. She said the officer denied it, insisting he didn't know anything else. Darryl Mathis continues to express his disappointment in the lack of information from the military about his son, amid rumors his son's body could be home by Saturday. \"I don't even know where he's at, at this time,\" he said. Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America, said he thinks the way the military classifies deaths in Iraq is an attempt to keep the public combat numbers down. \"There is a clear and long-standing record, regarding the classification of causalities in Iraq to minimize combat losses. And we're seeing people wounded and killed that would have well been considered casualties from hostile action in previous conflicts. It's an attempt to conceal the actual cost of this war in terms of casualties,\" Muller said. \"The Department of Defense has announced the death of every service member who has given their life in operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom,\" said a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck. \"We have been open and transparent on the numbers of casualties suffered in these operations.\" Mathis says his son wanted to come home to his wife and four young children and was in the process of applying for a transfer. \"Last I spoke to him was last week Monday. He called every Monday, and said he was checking his paperwork. He said he was going to call me back once he found out. That was the last I heard from him.\" Mathis' wife cannot stop sobbing. \"We don't know why, we don't know why,\" she says \"All we know is that our son died a useless, needless death. That's all we know.\" CNN's Mike Mount and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Army Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson and another soldier were killed in Iraq this week .\nAnother U.S. soldier is being held in connection with the killings .\nDawson's father says he can't get a \"straight answer\" from the U.S. military .\nThe U.S. military has classified the death as \"non-hostile\"","id":"20b11518df6520f552d691d5f6c0d02755d11809"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Gov. David Paterson of New York has told state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states and countries where they are legal, his spokeswoman said Wednesday. The governor's legal counsel told state agencies in a May 14 memo to revise policies and regulations to recognize same-sex marriages performed in California and Massachusetts as well as Canada and other countries that allow gays and lesbians to marry, said Erin Duggan, the governor's spokeswoman. The memo informed state agencies that failing to recognize gay marriages would violate the New York's human rights law, Duggan said. The directive follows a February ruling from a New York state appeals court. That decision says that legal same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions are entitled to recognition in New York. \"This was in direct response to a court ruling,\" Duggan told CNN. \"Just to make sure all the state agencies are on the same page.\" See what rules your state has about same-sex unions \u00bb . Duggan says that the court's decision was consistent with the findings of several lower courts in New York State. The governor's legal counsel sent the memo one day before the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage in that state. Court officials in California counties may begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on June 17, state officials said Wednesday. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in 2004, and gay couples need not be state residents there to wed. However, then-Gov. Mitt Romney resurrected a 1913 law barring non-resident marriages in the state if the marriage would be prohibited in the partners' home state. Subsequent court and agency decisions have determined that only residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Mexico may marry in Massachusetts, unless the parties say they plan to move there after the marriage. New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut permit civil unions, while California has a domestic-partner registration law. More than a dozen other states give same-sex couples some legal rights, as do some other countries.","highlights":"Memo: Failing to recognize gay marriages would violate New York's human rights law .\nThe directive follows a February ruling from a New York state appeals court .\nMassachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in 2004 .","id":"51fe083191bb5568bf6a5fea1610a8e19663d7b2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's been five days since Hurricane Ike smashed into the Texas coast, but people are still struggling mightily with its effects. Flags of the United States and Texas fly where homes stood in Gilchrist, Texas, before Ike's wrath came ashore. From the destroyed coastline, to far inland where evacuees are seeking shelter, to communities in the Midwest where the storm dumped flooding rains, CNN's affiliates are reporting on the rebuilding of lives. Galveston, Texas Wrecked homes and possessions strewn around the ubiquitous sludge were the sights awaiting residents of Galveston, some of whom were allowed to check their property on Wednesday, KHOU reported. Paula Munoz said although the damage to the family's El Rey restaurant was worse than she could have imagined, they still planned to rebuild. \"We spent 10 years paying off this place,\" she told KHOU. \"We'll rebuild, and we'll do it here. Where else would we go? This is our life.\" But there was some relief for Maria Patina, who was worried she had lost everything. When she saw her house was standing, she rushed inside, grabbed a statue of Jesus and said: \"Thank you, God.\" Read KHOU's report on going back to Galveston . Crystal Beach, Texas Frank and Dee Ann Sherman huddled in the attic of their beachfront home in Crystal Beach as Hurricane Ike ripped the house apart -- washing walls out to sea and lifting up what remained only to smash it down, KHOU said. Watch the Shermans tell their amazing survival story \u00bb . Somehow the roof stayed on and they survived, but they are not being allowed back into the ruins, not even to retrieve the ashes of their dead daughter. The couple said they were frustrated with complaints by people better off than them. \"We see all of these people that are crying and moaning because they got some mud on their floor or their lights are out in Houston,\" Frank Sherman told KHOU. \"We don't see anything about our friends that died in Crystal Beach and about the fact that our world is totally devastated. I'm 60 years old and I have to start my life all over again.\" Read how the Shermans contacted KHOU when they found they couldn't escape . Brazoria County, Texas Patty Smith fled Brazoria County and evacuated to Austin before the storm. She still does not know whether she has a home to return to, KVUE said. \"It's like a nightmare. You look at your house when you pack up to leave and you're like 'Am I going to see this again'?\" she said. Right now she's now relying on donations and just making it through each day. \"We don't even know if we're going to have the money to pay our bills. It's that bad. My husband hasn't been able to work since we left,\" she said. Read KVUE's report on how Austin residents and workers are trying to help . Austin, Texas Parents still staying at the Austin Convention Center are trying to stay strong for their kids, News 8 reported, but they say it is getting harder. Watch Homeland Security boss discuss plans to help evacuees \u00bb . William Jones said the hardest part was trying to talk to his two daughters about their home. \"I just tell them the truth and keep it simple,\" he said. \"I don't try to sugarcoat it, so they know this is a real serious situation, but it's just hard on everybody right now,\" he told the station. Read what young victims are telling News 8 . San Antonio, Texas Kevin Green's mind was on laundry as he spent another day in a shelter in San Antonio, Texas, after getting out of Houston to avoid Ike. \"I've been washing these clothes out and putting them on every day,\" he told KSAT. The Salvation Army said there would be enough clothes to hand out to evacuees, but there were concerns about making sure distribution was fair, KSAT said. Read KSAT report on how a planned clothing donation was stopped . Cincinnati, Ohio Tempers are running hot in Cincinnati even as hundreds of energy workers try to get the power back on, WLWT reported. Resident Betty Ruark told the station she was \"really teed off\" that houses either side of her had power, but she still needed a generator just to make coffee. \"They're right here a week after you pay your bill to read your cotton-picking meter for next month,\" she said. \"They're threatening to cut you off if you don't pay it, but could they care less that they don't got the electric on. It don't make sense, you know?\" Duke Energy told WLWT that some repairs were helping only a small number of homes but that it hoped to have service back to normal by Sunday. Read WLWT's report on how people are getting upset . Carlisle, Ohio Police in Carlisle are enforcing a night-time curfew to prevent looting and other crime while the power is out, officials told WLWT. The action was taken because of problems elsewhere in the area hit by the storm, the station said. Residents told WLWT they didn't like the strict rules but were for the measure if it kept crime down. Read WLWT report on the action on Carlisle . Albuquerque, New Mexico A family who fled Galveston has given up on ever going home, instead deciding to make Albuquerque their new base, KOAT reported. Linda Sanchez and her two children thought they'd be able to ride out the storm and immediate aftermath in Houston but when Ike took out the power and the water they decided to head to more family in New Mexico. \"It's better when you know someone around you,\" Sanchez told KOAT. Read how KOAT is trying to help the Sanchez family .","highlights":"The effects of Hurricane Ike are still being felt across the United States .\nCNN affiliates report on how communities are struggling to recover .\nFrom Texas to Ohio, people are still battling homelessness and power outages .","id":"8af047c2d83a91e8b745adfcaa7c282dfe1030a2"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- When Susana Trimarco's daughter Marita Veron was 23, she vanished from their hometown in Argentina, a suspected victim of a human trafficking and prostitution ring with links throughout Latin America and Europe. Marita Veron, who is missing, hugs her daughter Micaela. Police believe Marita was forced into sexual slavery. Trimarco, 54, has spent the past 6\u00bd years searching for her daughter, often putting herself at risk. While chasing down leads on Marita's whereabouts, she's entered dark and dangerous brothels and confronted pimps and politicians who, she says, are complicit in her daughter's disappearance. She has won accolades throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States for her work. But Marita is nowhere to be found. \"Marita is a wonderful and caring girl. My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe,\" Trimarco said. On April 3, 2002, Veron left her house in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman early for a doctor's appointment. She was wearing a turquoise shirt, blue jeans and old white sneakers. As she left the house, she told her mother, \"Don't worry. I'll be back soon.\" Those were the last words the two exchanged. The investigation that has followed has led police and Trimarco to believe that she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution, either in rural Argentina or Spain. So far, a series of random clues has failed to provide any concrete information on Marita's whereabouts. Now, art is imitating life on Argentina's airwaves. Trimarco's story has become the basis of one of Argentina's most popular nighttime soap operas, \"Vidas Robadas,\" or \"Stolen Lives.\" Watch art imitate activism \u00bb . The program premiered in March on Telefe, one of Argentina's largest television networks, to a lukewarm response. But as the storyline and characters evolved and word started to spread, the audience grew, and it became water-cooler television. \"Stolen Lives\" attracts more than 2 million viewers nightly, a considerable feat considering Argentina's population is only 40 million. The show's plot centers on widowed anthropologist Bautista Amaya (played by Facundo Arana) and Rosario Soler (Soledad Silveyra) -- the mother of a young kidnapped girl, based on Trimarco -- who team up to unravel an underground prostitution ring. \"With every performance, I try to display the inner feelings of this woman who is suffering, to transmit her grief,\" Silveyra said. \"As an actress, I feel an enormous responsibility.\" The usual telenovela themes of love, passion and revenge are ever present in \"Stolen Lives,\" but the show strives to expose an issue that has remained in the dark in Argentina until recently. Human rights groups in Argentina estimate that 800 women have gone missing at the hands of human traffickers since 2007. Worldwide, about 800,000 people are trafficked across borders annually, according to the U.S. State Department. \"I am delighted that the show has been able to bring this topic to light, because no one ever talked about human trafficking in Argentina before,\" Trimarco said. \"Stolen Lives\" is the latest in a series of recent Argentine telenovelas that dissect important social issues while also aiming to entertain. One of the most important was the 2006 hit \"Montecristo,\" which examined crimes against humanity committed by Argentina's military during the 1970s and 1980s. Local versions of \"Montecristo\" are produced in nine countries around the globe, including Turkey, Portugal, Mexico and Russia. \"With these types of telenovelas, we are able to bring something entirely new to the public debate. And because we take a take a fictional and not a journalistic approach, we are able to attract and keep more viewers,\" Telefe programming director Claudio Villarruel said. \"Montecristo\" helped reunite children of Argentina's Dirty War who \"disappeared\" with lost family members. The Dirty War happened from 1976-83, when the government carried out a secret campaign to purge the country of those it considered to be dissidents. \"Stolen Lives\" is making a similarly strong impact. Trimarco established a foundation in her daughter's honor, Fundacion Maria de los Angeles, last year in Tucuman. It counts U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Earl Wayne and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner among its supporters. According to Trimarco, the foundation has rescued 360 women and children from trafficking networks, and leads on missing people continue to pour in. Argentina passed its first national law against human trafficking this year, a law that Trimarco lobbied hard to get passed. Meanwhile, praise rings from home and abroad. In May, \"Stolen Lives\" was declared a show of \"social interest\" by the Buenos Aires City legislature. In 2007, Trimarco received the U.S. State Department's \"International Women of Courage Award\" from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a ceremony in Washington. Later this year, Trimarco will travel to Spain to speak about human trafficking with lawmakers from the European Union. \"It's just like Condoleezza Rice told me: My screams are being heard all over the world,\" she said. Trimarco travels around Argentina constantly, educating people about human trafficking, and following up on clues about Marita. She is also raising Marita's daughter, Micaela, 9. With all the publicity surrounding the case and the success of \"Stolen Lives,\" Trimarco has herself become a target. Her accusations of political and police involvement have led to death threats, she says. Still, she remains committed to the cause and says that collaborating with the producers of \"Stolen Lives\" to tell her story has helped give her the strength to continue searching for her daughter. \"I'm content, because my pain is now serving a purpose,\" she said.","highlights":"Argentine woman vanished in 2002; it's believed she was forced into prostitution ring .\nArgentine soap opera, based on Marita's mother's search, probes human trafficking .\nMom: \"My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe\"\nMother Susana Trimarco's foundation tries to save women, children from sex slavery .","id":"dfcacd955a9168b2cf599c57a539dbfce43ea2a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An earthquake shook southern Iceland on Thursday, reportedly causing injuries and damaging roads and buildings. A seismograph at the Institute of the Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, shows earthquake activity. The 6.1 magnitude temblor struck about 3:46 p.m. (11:46 a.m. ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was about 50 km (31 miles) east-southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, and was about 10 km (6.2 miles) below the Earth's surface. It was unclear exactly how many people were injured or the severity of their injuries, Olli Tynes, a journalist with Reykjavik's Channel 2, told CNN. A hospital in a town near the epicenter was also reported damaged, and some wings have had to be evacuated, he said. There were no reports of fatalities, but \"great material damage,\" Tynes said. Roads and bridges in the area have been closed. The Associated Press, quoting civil defense authorities, reported 15 to 20 people from Selfoss, near the epicenter, were taken for medical treatment. Iceland's emergency management agency has swung into action, and rescue crews were headed to the area most affected by the quake. Tynes said he has been speaking to residents of the towns closest to the epicenter. \"They said they thought the world was coming to an end,\" he said. \"They thought they were going to die.\" There have been no reports of homes collapsing, as most homes in Iceland are built to withstand earthquakes, he said. Alti Mar Gylfason said he had received reports of damage to the road that rings the island nation. The quake was felt nationwide, he said. \"It was a little bit like you're sleeping in a waterbed, you know ... everything floats around,\" he said, adding that people poured out of buildings into the street. \"This is not something we experience on a normal basis.\" Although Iceland is seismically active, its last major quakes were on June 17 and June 21, 2000, with quakes of 6.5 and 6.4, respectively. The temblors damaged homes and buildings, but caused no serious injuries.","highlights":"Strong earthquake shakes southern Iceland on Thursday afternoon .\nU.S. Geological Survey says quake was 6.1 magnitude .\nEpicenter 50 kilometers (30 miles) east, south-east of the capital Reykjavik .\nResidents near epicenter told to check on relatives .","id":"f2463954bc7215d8a1f98cf0d85f280fd2affa58"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- An American sailor fatally shot two female sailors before shooting himself Monday inside a U.S. military barracks in Bahrain, the Navy said. The alleged shooter, a male, survived the self-inflicted gunshot and was in critical condition at a military hospital in Bahrain, the Navy said. The man was under heavy security. The motive for the shootings is unclear, but the Navy said the incident was not terror-related and it involved only U.S. military personnel. The shootings occurred about 5 a.m., the Navy said in a news release. The base was closed for about an hour after the shootings. A Navy spokesman in Bahrain refused to provide any other details about the incident. Naval Support Activity Bahrain supports the U.S. Fifth Fleet, whose operations span about 7.5 million square miles across 27 countries. Included in the fleet's area of responsibility are the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean. The support base is located just outside Manama, the capital. Bahrain, a U.S. ally, is an island nation in the Persian Gulf, wedged between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Barbara Starr and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sailor shoots two female colleagues, then self, Navy says .\nIncident occurred at U.S. Navy support facility in the country .\nNavy says incident was not terror-related .\nBase supports U.S. Fifth Fleet, whose operations span 27 nations .","id":"0e7a92a6f06e94cdd613860d4a3f4b92a06a2b43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 100 countries attending a conference in Dublin, Ireland formally adopted a treaty Friday to ban cluster bombs -- a large, unreliable and inaccurate weapon that often affects civilians long after the end of armed conflict. Cluster bombs are usually air-dropped shells that eject multiple small bomblets to kill enemy soldiers. A document released by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs says the countries agreed never to use cluster munitions or the explosive bomblets they contain. The countries also agreed never to develop, acquire, retain or transfer cluster munitions. Countries attending the 11-day conference agreed to the treaty Wednesday but formally signed it Friday. The accord calls for a total, immediate ban of the weapons, strong standards to protect those injured by them, contaminated areas to be cleaned up as quickly as possible and for the weapons to be immediately destroyed, he said. Thomas Nash, coordinator of the CMC campaigning organization, said Wednesday: \"This is a great achievement for everyone who has been working hard to see the end of 40 years of suffering from these weapons.\" Though some of the biggest makers of cluster bombs, including the United States, Russia, China and Israel, were not involved in the talks and have not signed the accord, organizers predicted that those nations would nevertheless be pressured into compliance. \"Take the United States,\" Nash said. \"Almost all of its allies are here. They've decided to ban these weapons. That's going to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the United States to ever use these weapons again, either on its own or in joint operations.\" The agreement requires the destruction of stockpiles of the weapons within eight years, he said. Cluster munitions, which break apart in flight to scatter hundreds of smaller bomblets, are what the International Committee of the Red Cross calls a \"persistent humanitarian problem.\" Most of a cluster bomb's bomblets are meant to explode on impact, but many do not. Estimates show the weapons fail to explode on impact between 10 and 40 percent of the time, the Red Cross says. That means unexploded bomblets lie scattered across a target area, often exploding only when handled or disturbed -- posing a serious risk to civilians. Last week, Acting Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Stephen D. Mull called it \"an absolute moral obligation\" to rid a battlefield of unexploded ordnance after the battle. But he also predicted that the United States would not agree to any ban. \"We think that it is going to be impossible to ban cluster munitions... because these are weapons that have a certain military utility and are of use,\" Mull said. \"The United States relies on them as an important part of our own defense strategy.\" Instead, he urged that the weapons be regulated \"to take humanitarian considerations into account\" and that \"technological fixes\" be pursued that would render them harmless after a battle. During the 34-day war in Lebanon in 2006, the United Nations estimated that Israel dropped 4 million bomblets, 1 million of which may not have exploded, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. More than 250 civilians and bomb-disposal operators have been killed or injured by them in southern Lebanon since the war ended. Cluster bombs were also used in the 1999 war in Kosovo. Lt. Col. Jim Burke, a military adviser to the Irish Defense Forces said they quickly became a major killer of civilians. In more than 20 countries, according to the ICRC, cluster bombs have created lasting \"no-go\" areas, rendering them as dangerous as minefields. Laos is the most affected country. Millions of bomblets dropped during the Vietnam War continue to kill civilians more than three decades later. Still, militaries consider cluster bombs important for use against multiple targets dispersed over a wide area, such as tanks or military personnel moving across the landscape. A single bomb containing hundreds of submunitions can cover more than 18 square miles. CNN's Jacqueline Clyne contributed to this report.","highlights":"111 countries formally agreeing treaty banning cluster bombs .\nU.S. not attending and not expected to agree to banning cluster bombs .\nControversial weapons often don't explode but stay dangerous for civilians .","id":"2905a15c5947042e42f4b52dc201d24822af20f1"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesia will withdraw from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at the end of the year, the country's energy minister told foreign journalists Wednesday. Indonesia has become a net importer of oil due to declining production levels. Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the move follows declining oil production levels in Indonesia that have left the country a net importer of oil. \"In the future, if our production (comes) back again to the level that gives us a status as a net oil exporter, then I think we can go back to OPEC again,\" he said. \"But today we decided that we are pulling out of OPEC.\" It was not immediately clear what effect Indonesia's decision will have on global oil prices. However the move was not unexpected. Indonesia, which joined OPEC in 1962, is the only southeast Asian country in the 13-nation oil cartel. Oil production there has steadily decreased in the last decade because of disappointing exploration efforts and declining production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Since 1996, total production has dropped by 32 percent. The country's current output quota for crude oil as set by OPEC is 1.45 million barrels a day -- well above its production capacity. In 2006, Indonesia imported more oil than it exported. CNN's Kathy Quiano contributed to this report .","highlights":"Indonesia to withdraw from OPEC at end of the year, energy minister says .\nPurnomo Yusgiantoro says Indonesia more of an oil consumer than producer .\nLow production means Southeast Asia's only OPEC member is net oil importer .","id":"808a3d788317af05686ee71a71d2fbc5c19267bc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Navy admiral engaged in sexual relations in the White House in 1990 with a federal employee whom he falsely told he was a widower, according to a report released Friday by the Defense Department. Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem was demoted and fired from his post as director of the Navy staff. In March, when the report was submitted to Pentagon officials, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem was demoted and fired from his post as director of the Navy staff. Stufflebeem told investigators he couldn't remember the name of the woman he had an affair with. He also lied when he told investigators he did not engage in sexual relations with the woman, identified as \"Jane Doe,\" the Defense Department's inspector general's report said. Jane Doe, who was then unmarried and working for a federal agency, told the investigators the allegations were true, the report said. Her supervisor and Stufflebeem's superiors supported her testimony. Stufflebeem was convicted April 18 of making false official statements to investigators. After the hearing, called an admiral's mast, he requested retirement. Jane Doe told investigators that she and Stufflebeem began their affair on an overseas trip in 1989, that the married admiral told her he was a widower who was raising his children as a single parent and that they had sexual relations several times, including once in a White House room reserved for \"military aides with overnight duties.\" She also told investigators that Stufflebeem came to her home on the day in August 1990 when she learned he was married and that she called him \"scum,\" shut the door in his face and never spoke to him again. Read the report (PDF) \"We found Ms. Doe to be an extremely credible, candid and articulate witness who willingly participated in our interview with the knowledge and support of her husband,\" the report said. By contrast, the report said, Stufflebeem's testimony was \"inconsistent with the weight of the evidence,\" and \"it did not appear Stufflebeem's misstatements in these areas of testimony were inadvertent.\" At issue was Stufflebeem's removal from his post as a presidential aide in 1990. Stufflebeem testified that he initiated the request to leave his White House post because of \"close family personal problems.\" But his superiors testified that he was removed from the post because of his relationship with the woman -- and that he admitted the affair. Jane Doe's supervisor told investigators that when she learned of the affair from Doe, she confirmed Stufflebeem's marital status and told Doe what she'd learned. \"Ms. Doe's reaction, according to the supervisor, was one of complete surprise and shock,\" the report said. The supervisor also said that she telephoned Stufflebeem's immediate supervisor to tell him of the affair and that when she called a few weeks later to follow up, the supervisor told her that \"everybody in town knew Boomer was f'ing some bimbo at the [federal agency].\" Stufflebeem, however, denied to investigators that he had a sexual relationship with Jane Doe, although he admitted to one kiss and said he had an \"inappropriate relationship\" with her because he told her about his marital problems. \"I did not have sex with this woman,\" he said during one of two interviews with investigators. Although he told investigators he could not remember the woman's name, he testified that he \"had to live with shame for a long time\" after the \"inappropriate relationship\" ended, that he was \"racked with guilt\" and \"had a terrible time getting myself right with my family.\" \"So I have had a great 18-year career since I left the White House,\" he said, according to the report. \"If this is the end of it, then I still leave a rewarded individual, thankful for the blessings that I have had.\" Investigators found Stufflebeem's remarks inconsistent. \"In our view, comments regarding guilt, shame, and the end of a distinguished naval career are incongruous with a physical relationship limited to one kiss,\" they wrote in the report. This year, according to the report, the inspector general's office provided Stufflebeem with its preliminary findings: that he'd provided \"false and misleading testimony\" regarding the nature of his relationship with Jane Doe, his inability to recall her name and his representation to her of himself as a widower. Stufflebeem responded with a vehement denial. \"[I] find it extremely regrettable, in a case that has such far reaching implications for my career, that you have chosen to question my integrity,\" he wrote in a February 15 letter. \"The unfortunate truth in this case is that, as a result of lack of evidence to substantiate the allegation of a sexual relationship and in lieu of investigating the underlying allegations, you have chosen to accuse me of being untruthful as I defended myself against these allegations.\" Stufflebeem further castigated the investigators because, at that time, they had chosen not to interview Jane Doe \"in deference to Ms. Doe's privacy,\" according to the report. Doe \"readily agreed\" to testify when they contacted her after Stufflebeem's rebuttal. \"Ms. Doe confirmed that she and Stufflebeem had an extensive physical relationship which began on an overseas trip and lasted intermittently for approximately eight months,\" the investigators wrote. \"The relationship included sexual intercourse on approximately one dozen occasions, to include intercourse during overseas travel, in the White House and in her home.\" Doe also said Stufflebeem told her that his wife had died of breast cancer, that a woman who answered the phone when she called his home was the children's nanny and that he continued to wear his wedding ring \"for his daughters who missed their late mother.\" According to the report, the investigation began when investigators received an anonymous letter containing \"significant\" details about the affair. Investigators had received another such letter in 1999, but it contained no detail and was not investigated. Stufflebeem became well known in the initial months of the war in Afghanistan, when he often conducted on-camera television briefings as a Pentagon spokesman. He was then deputy director for global operations on the Joint Staff. He was commander of the 6th Fleet from May 2005 to September 2007. During that time, he was deputy commander of Naval Forces Europe, joint force maritime component commander in Europe, commander of strike and support forces for NATO, and allied commander with Joint Command Lisbon. CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adm. John Stufflebeem told investigators he couldn't remember name of mistress .\nStufflebeem lied to mistress that his wife had died of cancer .\nStufflebeem was demoted and fired from his post as director of the Navy staff .\nReport: Investigators received anonymous letter with \"significant\" details of affair .","id":"5a1bec30205b6938392f3119366e27d15b4849e8"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two U.S. customs agents were arrested on charges they helped smuggle drugs and other contraband through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The DEA says two customs officials at JFK International Airport helped smuggle drugs and contraband. Customs supervisor Walter Golembiowski and officer John Ajello face narcotics, bribery and conspiracy charges in the case, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Golembiowski and Ajello regularly solicited and accepted bribes to allow contraband to pass through undetected, the DEA said. Two airport workers and two others were also charged with importing counterfeit goods. Some of those items included Rolex, Cartier and Chanel watches and designer sunglasses, the DEA said. On several occasions, Golembiowski was captured on audio and video taking bribes to aid his co-conspirators in bringing in illegal drugs and counterfeit goods. \"Smuggling any kind of illegal commodity raises troubling issues at a time of deep concern over national security,\" said Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. \"The threat is heightened when a government official accepts bribes to help smugglers breach our borders.\" The arrests came as a result of a lengthy sting operation by a state, local and federal task force. Prosecutors said numerous recorded meetings and phone calls captured the suspects talking about plans to smuggle hashish, ecstasy and other illegal items. The investigation has led to the indictment and prosecution of more than 20 people -- \"from distributors to overseas sources of supply\" -- and the seizure of more than 600 pounds of imported hashish and other drugs from the United States and France, according to the statement.","highlights":"DEA says two agents regularly accepted and solicited bribes .\nThey and four others allegedly smuggled illegal contraband and drugs .\nInvestigation has led to the indictment and prosecution of more than 20 people .\nArrests follow a lengthy investigation by state and federal authorities .","id":"7ff39e1220c0f084434786ed145e15c6abe48def"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The crib in Ellen Darcy's Boston home has sat empty for more than a year. And in suburban Washington, Laura Teresinski has prepared a nursery for a baby that may never arrive. Guatemala has announced it will conduct a case-by-case review of every pending foreign adoption case. They and thousands of prospective parents, eager to adopt children from abroad, have found themselves in an emotional legal limbo since two of the most popular countries for international adoptions -- Guatemala and Vietnam -- recently halted their programs. Now would-be mothers and fathers around the United States wonder what will become of their quest to adopt a child -- a pursuit that can fray nerves, cost up to $30,000 and span several years. Guatemala announced this month that it would conduct a case-by-case review of every pending foreign adoption case. That put on hold the adoption plans of about 2,000 American families. The crackdown comes amid reports that some in Guatemala coerce mothers to relinquish their children for adoption -- or steal the children outright and present them as orphans. Similar accusations have arisen in Vietnam. After the United States accused adoption agencies there of corruption and baby-selling, Vietnam said in April that it would no longer allow adoptions to the United States. \"My husband and I were absolutely devastated,\" Teresinski said. \"Adoptive parents have put a lot of emotional energy and a lot of financial resources in the process.\" Vietnam's decision affects several hundred families. Families in the United States adopted 4,728 children from Guatemala and 828 from Vietnam last year. The halt in adoptions from those two nations unfolds against the backdrop of a dramatic rise in international adoptions in the United States. The number of foreign-born children adopted by U.S. families more than tripled from 1990 to 2004, when it reached a high of 22,884, though the figure has declined slightly each year since. In 2007, the U.S. granted visas to 19,613 children so they could join an adoptive family in the United States, according to U.S. State Department figures. About 70 percent of those children came from four countries: China, Guatemala, Russia and Ethiopia. A few other countries have also halted foreign adoptions at various times, including Kazakhstan and Togo. Yet the suspensions in Vietnam and Guatemala have had the biggest impact -- they're two of the 10 countries that send the most children to adoptive homes in the Unites States. Fear of fraud stirs heartache . For Darcy, the review seems more detrimental than helpful. Her adopted daughter, Carolina, remains in a Guatemalan foster home with three dozen other babies. Darcy worries that keeping Carolina, now 15 months old, in a foster home will harm her early development. \"She's not getting one-on-one care by a consistent caretaker,\" Darcy said, adding later, \"Nobody is looking at this as a violation of the kids' human rights except for these (American) parents.\" Guatemala, which until now has had little to no oversight of its foreign adoptions, has the highest per capita rate of adoption in the world. Nearly one in 100 babies born in Guatemala wind up living with adoptive parents in the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. While adoptive parents in the United States undergo rigorous screening, adoptions in Guatemala had been processed by notaries responsible for determining whether the babies were relinquished voluntarily. They also arrange foster care and handle paperwork -- notaries in Latin America tend to have more legal training than notaries in the United States. Both Guatemalan and U.S. officials fear the system leads to practices such as paying birth mothers for children or, in some instances, coercion. Officials in both countries say gaps in regulations and the high sums of money at play -- adoptions can cost up to $30,000 -- may have created unintended incentives in a country where the State Department estimates that 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. The Guatemalan government has said its review could take a month or longer. As for the American families, they can only wait. \"I think it's overkill,\" said Darcy, who was matched with Carolina last March and was approved to adopt the girl last winter -- typically one of the last steps before the actual adoption is complete. \"No adoptive parent wants to adopt an abducted child -- a child that wasn't voluntarily relinquished -- but to keep them as hostages is unacceptable,\" Darcy said. Guatemala plans reforms . U.S. officials say they sympathize with the parents, but that reviews like the one in Guatemala are in the best interest of the children. \"We feel for them, it's a tough situation,\" said a State Department official who is not authorized to speak on the record. \"(But) they'll have the comfort of knowing American parents in the future who adopt from Guatemala will get children from a system that has all the safeguards in place so that children are not exploited,\" the official said. In the past, Guatemala required birth mothers to sign a document in court saying they were relinquishing their child. They were not required to reveal their reasons. Now the government may require the presence of the birth mother and child. The goal is to verify identification and make sure the mother is giving up her child voluntarily. Cleaning up Guatemala's adoption system is a step toward complying with the standards of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, an international agreement that governs adoptions from one country to another. About 70 nations have signed the convention, which seeks to ensure legitimate foreign adoptions. The United States joined the international convention last year, and rules governing adoptions from one signatory nation to another took effect April 1. The United States has stopped issuing visas to Guatemalan children after that date, blocking their travel to America -- at least until concerns are addressed. \"We're not pointing fingers at American parents,\" the State Department official said. However, the review and changes in Guatemala will ensure that it \"does not become a fertile ground for (wrongful) practices on any person, particularly children, who have not been orphaned.\" To offset corruption, the U.S. Embassy has added its own requirement: That birth mothers appear with the baby to request a visa for the baby. In August, officials also began requiring two DNA tests to confirm the identities of mother and child. Still, the Guatemalan solicitor general's office has identified at least 80 cases of adoption irregularities, including baby stealing and false DNA tests. And the Guatemalan chief prosecutor's office recently launched a criminal investigation into the two laboratories contracted to take DNA samples from birth mothers and children. 'Serious irregularities' in Vietnam . Similar concerns of corruption recently emerged in Vietnam, where investigators had found \"serious adoption irregularities,\" according to a report by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Documents had been forged or altered, the embassy said, and some parents were paid, tricked or forced into giving up their children for adoption. In some cases, the embassy said, children were offered for adoption without the knowledge or permission of their parents. The Vietnamese government has denied the accusations. Even so, it said in April that it would terminate its adoption agreement with the United States, saying it won't accept applications after July 1. The program is scheduled to end September 1. Parents in the United States who were matched with an adoptive child in Vietnam before July 1 will be allowed to adopt that child. Prospective parents who had invested time and money, but had not been matched with an adoptive child, appear to be out of luck. Private adoption agencies insist that nearly all adoptions from Vietnam are problem-free, and they want the adoptions to continue. \"It's hard to let go, because we know we can advocate for these children and make a real difference,\" said Linda Brownlee, executive director of the nonprofit Adoption Center of Washington, which places children for adoption from Russia, China, Cambodia and Vietnam. She hopes the United States and Vietnam reach an agreement so that adoptions can continue. \"Without it, I think children are going to be harmed. They are going to die needlessly, and there is going to be trafficking,\" Brownlee said.","highlights":"Guatemala and Vietnam say corruption, baby-stealing at heart of crackdown .\nNearly one in 100 babies born in Guatemala are adopted by U.S. parents .\nCrackdown puts children's well-being at risk, adoption advocates say .","id":"7551503e7e57bd519913b0df90ca1e80d5305b05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities have re-arrested three men in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in Aruba in 2005, based on new evidence in the case, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Natalee Holloway disappeared while on an Aruba vacation in 2005. Brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were arrested in Aruba at the same time authorities in the Netherlands picked up Joran Van der Sloot at the request of the Aruban government, the statement said. Van der Sloot is attending school in Holland. The three had previously been arrested in 2005, Aruban prosecutors noted in a statement, but a court released them, citing insufficient evidence. They are now charged with \"involvement in the voluntary manslaughter of Natalee Holloway or causing serious bodily harm to Natalee Holloway, resulting in her death,\" the statement said. Watch interview with Holloway's father \u00bb . Van der Sloot, now 20, and the Kalpoes, now ages 24 and 21, were the last people seen with Holloway, 18, as she left Carlos n' Charlie's nightclub in Oranjestad, Aruba, about 1:30 a.m. on May 30, 2005. All three men have maintained their innocence in her disappearance. View a timeline of the case \u00bb . No information was immediately available about what the new evidence was that led to the arrests. Aruban prosecutors said a team of detectives from the Netherlands has been reviewing the Holloway case at the request of authorities in Aruba, and had been on the island as late as last month to complete the investigation. The Kalpoe brothers were being interrogated by Aruban police Wednesday, Aruba prosecutor Dop Kruimel told CNN. They will appear before a judge Friday for a preliminary arrest hearing, in which the judge determines whether the arrest was credible, she said. The judge can then authorize their being detained for eight more days, meaning police have that much time to produce evidence. The suspects then go before a judge again, she said. Van der Sloot was arrested in Arnhem, the Netherlands, by Dutch police, Kruimel said. Aruban authorities have asked for him to be extradited to Aruba within eight days. Because they were not familiar with the case, Dutch police were not questioning Van der Sloot, she said. He will be questioned when he is brought back to Aruba, she said. However, he will appear before a judge Thursday in Arnhem. When CNN called the Kalpoe household, the person who answered the phone hung up. Earlier, Van der Sloot's mother, Anita Van der Sloot, told CNN her son had not been arrested, but had only reported to a police station in the Netherlands for questioning Wednesday after receiving a letter asking him to do so. Anita Van der Sloot said she had spoken to her son briefly from her home in Aruba. She said a Dutch attorney was with him, and she expected him to appear before a judge and be released Thursday. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, said in a statement, \"The family is always hopeful when a step in the right direction is made in the case.\" Beth Holloway was refusing interviews for now, said spokeswoman Sunny Tillman. She previously was known as Beth Holloway-Twitty, but has returned to using Holloway after a divorce earlier this year. Natalee Holloway was visiting Aruba with a group of about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, when she went to Carlos n' Charlie's that night in 2005. The group had planned to leave for home the following day, and Holloway's packed bags and passport were found in her hotel room after she failed to show up for her flight. Her disappearance triggered an exhaustive search and investigation and a media sensation in the United States, Aruba, the Netherlands and beyond, but Holloway has never been found. Aruban authorities have been criticized for their handling of the case. At least 10 men, including Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes, have been arrested and identified as suspects either in Holloway's disappearance or in an alleged cover-up. All were questioned and released. Legal experts, however, have said differences in the U.S. and Aruban systems should be taken into account. Aruba's criminal justice system is based on Dutch law and a descendant of the Napoleonic code. In Aruba, authorities' reasonable suspicion that someone knows about or is involved in a crime is enough to make an arrest, while magistrates investigate and judges determine a suspect's guilt or innocence. There are no jury trials. Aruban authorities, meanwhile, have suggested that Holloway may have overdosed on drugs or died of alcohol poisoning. Beth Holloway and Natalee Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, filed a lawsuit last year against Van der Sloot and his father, Aruban judge Paulus Van der Sloot, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The Van der Sloots were served with the suit while on a trip to New York. However, a judge in August 2006 dismissed the suit, saying New York was an inconvenient forum in which to consider it. It was unclear whether Holloway's parents have pursued legal action elsewhere. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kimberly Segal and Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Via representative, Holloway family expresses hope about developments .\nThree men re-arrested in Natalee Holloway case, prosecutors say .\nOne young man arrested in Holland, two brothers picked up in Aruba .\nThey were the last people seen with Holloway before she vanished in 2005 .","id":"c34a0cbf6db61323766fc86b1b89b399ff6b0666"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The founder of the Free Burma Coalition accused Myanmar neighbors China and India on Thursday of failing to do their share of \"heavy lifting\" in aiding victims of the Myanmar cyclone. A young survivor waits for relief supplies by a makeshift house in Bogaley. Maung Zarni, a visiting research fellow at Oxford University, said both nations could do more in trying to persuade the Myanmar junta to allow international aid workers and equipment into the country. Zarni also slammed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), for the same reason. \"The latest episode involving the junta's handling of the cyclone victims in Burma really calls into question the meaning and the usefulness, the value of ASEAN,\" he added. The organization of 10 nations promotes economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region. \"China isn't doing its share of heavy lifting, and the same can be said about India as well,\" Zarni said. \"China is a country on the rise, and it can really repair its tarnished reputation around Tibet if it puts pressure on the regime and says, 'This is unacceptable, even to Chinese standards.'\" Zarni was referring to critics of last fall's Chinese crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, led by Tibetan monks. He directed most of his criticism toward Myanmar's military rulers, who he said are solely concerned with their own security and political ambitions, while neglecting the cyclone victims. The government has been bitterly criticized for being too slow in responding to the May 2 disaster, then blocking large-scale, international emergency aid. The government has relented somewhat in the past few days. The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis rose Thursday, with Myanmar state television reporting more than 40,000 fatalities. Many believe the toll will be much higher. Watch scenes of widespread destruction \u00bb . Referring to Myanmar's 75-year-old top leader, Than Shwe, Zarni complained, \"His major number one concern is his own personal and family security, and also other officers who are caught in a system where fear and rewards are manipulated to whip them in line.\" The government's response to the cyclone is complex, and has \"psychological, institutional and personal dimensions,\" which have produced an \"institutionalized madness,\" Zarni said. The Irrawaddy newspaper, which covers Myanmar and Southeast Asia, said a team of ASEAN experts would arrive in Yangon on Thursday to assess the scale of the disaster and requirements for aid. ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Wednesday that the Myanmar government had agreed to grant visas to an \"emergency rapid assessment team.\" The Myanmar government also agreed to accept 160 relief workers from India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand, the newspaper said.","highlights":"Founder of dissident group: China, India need to be more persuasive with junta .\nMaung Zarni questions usefulness of ASEAN regional group over disaster .\nActivist criticizes Myanmar junta for not doing more to help victims .","id":"d07a61368a195444b14bd4b382e0fc3d64890b22"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- The atmosphere was tense in Cape Town on Friday after xenophobic violence that has left more than 40 dead in Johannesburg spread to South Africa's largest city. Immigrants from Mozambique line up in Primrose, South Africa, to board buses back home. Clashes overnight resulted in one death and 15 arrests and the evacuations of 420 foreign nationals, a police official in Cape Town said. \"Crowds of people went on a rampage, looting and carrying out acts of violence,\" said Cape Town Police Superintendent Billy Jones. They were charged with public violence and are to appear in court Monday. One foreign national, a Somali, died when he was run over by a vehicle as he tried to escape the angry crowds, Jones said. Twelve people suffered minor injuries. He said Friday was tense but calm, with state and local police stationed throughout the area. Jack Bloom of the opposition party Democratic Alliance told CNN on Friday that government troops were helping police ward off violence in Johannesburg. Aid workers and volunteers were providing tents, food and supplies at the police stations. Bloom estimated that about 2,000 foreigners had sought haven at those locations. It was the first violence in the coastal city since a wave of xenophobia began about two weeks ago in Johannesburg, resulting in at least 42 deaths. The foreign nationals were transported from the city after angry crowds formed at a public meeting seeking to calm tensions, Jones told CNN. They were being housed at community centers and churches. The attacks in South Africa have forced thousands of immigrants to flee, prompting neighboring Mozambique to declare a state of emergency on Friday. Desperate stories of those fleeing violence . The country's Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi said the decision was taken after about 10,000 Mozambicans fled from South Africa. CNN's Robyn Curnow reported long lines of people -- including many from Zimbabwe and Mozambique -- waiting for buses in Johannesburg to take them home. Bloom, from Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, said the attacks on foreigners who fled to South Africa for a better life has become a \"humanitarian crisis.\" South African President Thabo Mbeki has approved the deployment of the army to help stop the attacks, which have drawn condemnation from South African officials and other African leaders. About 28,000 people have been displaced by the violence, Hangwani Malaudzi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Safety and Security said. And more than 400 have been arrested for crimes ranging from murder, to causing a public disturbance, he said. The country has also seen a disturbing throwback to the 1980s apartheid-era lynching tactic of \"necklacing,\" which was widely used in the townships at the time. Used on suspected informants, the \"necklace\" is a car tire, filled with petrol, put around the person's neck and set alight. The victims are mainly immigrants and refugees from other parts of Africa, including Zimbabwe, where a devastated economy has sent at least two million people across the border in search of a better life. Some say the attacks stem from a long-standing feeling among locals that the number of immigrants in South Africa results in shortages of jobs and essential needs. Inadequate housing, a lack of running water and electricity, the rising prices of food, and escalating crime -- nearly 20,000 people were slain in South Africa last year -- add to the resentment. Watch analysis of reasons behind xenophobic attacks \u00bb . According to South Africa's latest census, the country has about 45 million people. The South African Department of Human Affairs estimates that more than 4 million people reside in South Africa illegally, but that figure is based on a 10-year-old study and some feel the number of immigrants in South Africa is much higher. Some say that millions have recently fled to South Africa from Zimbabwe because of violence there since the county's stalled election. A presidential run-off between long-time leader President Robert Mugabe and his opposition challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, is scheduled for June 27 in Zimbabwe -- three months after the initial vote. Zimbabwe also is in the midst of an economic collapse, with nearly 80 percent unemployment.","highlights":"Violence in Johannesburg spreads to Cape Town, resulting in one death .\nMozambique declares state of emergency to assist people fleeing S. Africa .\nAttacks on foreigners in South Africa have left more than 40 people dead .\nPolice, military in first joint operation raid three hostels .","id":"aa68dee4bc246e5aae9507342f8520a2a301a310"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan and a co-defendant lost another legal round at the Supreme Court on Tuesday and will remain in prison on federal racketeering and fraud convictions. Ex-Gov. George Ryan walks out of a Chicago, Illinois, courthouse after his April 2006 conviction. Ryan and businessman Larry Warner claimed they did not receive a fair trial, but the justices, without comment, refused to intervene in the case. Justice John Paul Stevens refused last fall to grant bail for the 74-year-old Ryan, a move that would have kept him out of jail to file more appeals. The disgraced ex-governor reported to a federal prison in Wisconsin in November to serve a 6\u00bd-year sentence. The men were convicted in April 2006 for fraud in a case stemming from bribes paid for various state licenses. Their lawyers claimed the trial judge improperly removed two jurors while deliberations in the case had commenced, but a federal appeals court upheld the convictions. Ryan, a Republican, served as governor from 1999 to 2003. He retired following investigations into political corruption in his administration. He also was noted for issuing a moratorium on capital punishment in his state in 2000 over concerns innocent inmates might be executed. The case decided Tuesday is Warner and Ryan v. U.S. (07-977).","highlights":"George Ryan, co-defendant claim they didn't get fair trial in 2006 .\nJustices refuse to intervene in case, give no reason why .\nThe men were convicted on charges related to bribery .\nRyan, a Republican, served as Illinois governor from 1999-2003 .","id":"87ef15064035db73cb29f5cec2f0442f2c527ef0"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- A rebel group that has been attacking oil pipelines in southern Nigeria claimed responsibility on Monday for another strike and said it killed 11 government soldiers in fighting that followed the sabotage. A fire burns following an attack on a pipeline in Nigeria in December 2006. The Nigerian military confirmed an attack on an oil pipeline and an explosion, but called the claim that 11 soldiers were killed a \"lie\" and \"pure propaganda.\" The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, issued a statement saying it \"successfully sabotaged another major trunk pipeline\" belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company in the country's Rivers State. \"Minutes after the sabotage, our fighters encountered a military gunboat which opened fire blindly on the advance guard. We flanked them in a counter-attack and killed in close combat all the drunken soldiers numbering eleven, collecting their weapons, ammunitions and bullet-proof vests before using dynamite to sink the gunboat with its dead occupants,\" MEND said. MEND also said they found two \"traumatized, adolescent girls\" who were gang-raped by Nigerian soldiers. \"They were dropped off in the neighboring village by our men who have since returned safely to camp,\" the statement said. The military had no immediate response to that claim. Analysts say that one reason for record high gas prices in the United States is a spate of attacks on oil pipelines in Nigeria, the fourth largest supplier of oil to the United States. Exxon and Shell are two of several companies that had been extracting two million barrels of oil a day in Nigeria. Yet rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent -- meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days. The rebel group hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the Niger Delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. MEND has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment. The Nigerian government has proposed a peace summit to find a solution to the region's problems, but an immediate resolution does not appear in sight.","highlights":"Rebel group claims responsibility another strike on a gas pipeline .\nMEND group say it killed 11 government soldiers in fighting following sabotage .\nGroup says pipeline belongs to Shell Petroleum Development Company .","id":"a577b934e210ef7dce07390711f03db8bb2e005a"} -{"article":"(REAL SIMPLE) -- With soaring gas prices and travel costs, the cheapest route to whisk yourself away this summer is through a good book. Ten top-selling authors share their favorite lazy-summer-day reads. \u2022 One-day reads . Augusten Burroughs \"The Member of the Wedding,\" by Carson McCullers \"A slender 163 pages, but it inhales all the light, matter, and gravity in the vicinity. Stunningly evocative and gorgeously written, this truly magnificent book will replace your entire life for one perfect day.\" Jackie Collins \"Whacked,\" by Jules Asner \"She's a first-time author, married to director Steven Soderbergh, and this delicious tale of revenge -- set in L.A. -- rocks!\" Nelson Demille \"The Prince,\" by Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli \"It's, well...Machiavellian. A great help if you're dealing with a summer landlord or a difficult au pair.\" Janet Evanovich \"The Concrete Blonde,\" by Michael Connelly \"A classic in Connelly's Harry Bosch detective series -- and one of my favorites.\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"The Principles of Uncertainty,\" by Maira Kalman \"Gorgeous and touching. A quirky year-in-the-life as told by one of our most wonderful illustrators -- short in words, but rich in little visual pleasures.\" Philippa Gregory \"Dragonwyck,\" by Anya Seton \"A gothic novel set in 1844 America. At times it's utterly ridiculous, but it is truly haunting. Think an American Jane Eyre at high speed. A great book to gulp down in a day.\" Sophie Kinsella \"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,\" by Mark Haddon \"Its hero, an autistic 15-year-old, is one of the most poignant in contemporary literature.\" James Patterson \"No Country for Old Men,\" by Cormac McCarthy \"The only thriller I have ever read that also qualifies as art, at least in my mind.\" Jodi Picoult \"The Third Angel,\" by Alice Hoffman \"I inhale anything Alice writes, but this stunning book is among her loveliest. Once I started it, I didn't put it down.\" Danielle Steel \"Change of Heart,\" by Jodi Picoult \"Anything by Jodi Picoult.\" \u2022 Books for a long weekend . Augusten Burroughs \"The House of Mirth,\" by Edith Wharton \"The only thing more delicious than spending a weekend reading The House of Mirth is reading it in the grass or on the sand. Mosquitoes will leave you alone. It will not rain. This is Edith Wharton. Nature bends.\" Jackie Collins \"The Great Gatsby,\" by F. Scott Fitzgerald \"Jay Gatsby is so charismatic, sexy, and mysterious, and I love him. Good to share with a guy in bed!\" Nelson Demille \"The Gold Coast,\" \"by me\" \"What can I say? Read it on the beach and attract favorable comments.\" Janet Evanovich \"The Two Minute Rule,\" by Robert Crais It's Crais, for crying out loud! Who wouldn't want to spend a weekend with Robert Crais?\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,\" by Anne Fadiman \"The heartbreaking true story of an immigrant Hmong child's epilepsy and the American doctors who tried to 'cure' her (not realizing that traditional Hmong families see epilepsy as something of a blessing). A story of moral and cultural complexity.\" Philippa Gregory \"Lottery,\" by Patricia Wood \"A hugely feel-good novel that had me laughing out loud at the hero's rise to happiness from absolute despair.\" Sophie Kinsella \"The Tenderness of Wolves,\" by Stef Penny \"A gripping, atmospheric murder story set in the snowy wastes of Canada, with some wonderful descriptions of an extreme landscape. I never knew I could be so riveted by snow!\" James Patterson \"Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge,\" by Evan S. Connell \"Astonishingly different points of view, in two books, from a wife and a husband, on the history of a family's life in Kansas City.\" Jodi Picoult \"Skeletons at the Feast,\" by Chris Bohjalian \"A Bohjalian novel is guaranteed to be rich in character and gorgeous writing. This latest, based on a real journal, delves into the history of World War II.\" Danielle Steel \"Become a Better You,\" by Joel Osteen . \u2022 Books to savor all summer . Augusten Burroughs \"Tennessee Williams, Flannery O'Connor, and Tillie Olsen. Spend the entire summer with them. It doesn't matter what you read or which order you read them in. The wisdom and heartbreak centers of your brain will be electrified. I do not have the words to tell you what a fine summer you will have and how much you will never regret it.\" Jackie Collins \"The Godfather,\" by Mario Puzo \"You can re-reread it all summer and it will still seem fresh and so true. The characters jump off the page.\" Nelson Demille \"Of Human Bondage,\" by W. Somerset Maugham \"Not for the beach, but for rainy days and quiet summer nights. One of my favorites.\" Janet Evanovich 65 Years of Little Golden Books \"Pictures, smiles, happy endings -- a trip back to simpler times.\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"The Treasury of Oz,\" by L. Frank Baum \"If by some miracle I had a summer to sit and read, I would treat myself to rereading the most delightful books of my childhood -- the Oz books. Baum sent plucky Dorothy back to Oz more than a dozen times after The Wizard of Oz, and her wondrous adventures just get better. If you can borrow a 10-year-old to share this experience with, all the better!\" Philippa Gregory \"History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe,\" by Rodney Bolt \"This takes you into the fictional heart of Shakespeare's England, suggests a wonderfully imaginative explanation of the genius of the Bard's plays, makes your head spin with possibilities -- and makes you wonder who did write all those wonderful plays.\" Sophie Kinsella Jane Austen: The Complete Novels \"Austen is a perennial delight.\" James Patterson \"One Hundred Years of Solitude,\" by Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez \"Absolutely magnificent magical realism, and probably my favorite novel ever.\" Jodi Picoult \"Sadly, the only books I'll be savoring all summer are college information guides, since I have a senior in high school next year.\" Danielle Steel \"Danielle Steel :)\" \u2022 Books to dip into and out of . Augusten Burroughs The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson \"We know Emily Dickinson lived in olden days and she was a poet and seldom left her home. But read one of her poems -- any one will do -- and you'll see the evidence of a glittering genius. You will be amazed by what one brilliant woman can accomplish alone in her bedroom without e-mail, a telephone, or a best friend.\" Jackie Collins \"Anything by Elmore Leonard. Short, smart, hilarious.\" Nelson Demille \"The Atlantic Book of British and American Poetry,\" edited by Edith Sitwell \"Sitwell picked the best of the best in the English language. Excellent with a bottle of wine on the porch or the patio.\" Janet Evanovich \"Disney Princess The Ultimate Sticker Book\" \"Stick Snow White and Cinderella on the pages and make up your own stories.\" Elizabeth Gilbert \"Meditations,\" by Marcus Aurelius \"I keep a copy by my bed. And the fact that the ruminations of a second-century Roman emperor bring me comfort, delight, and inspiration is a clue to how timeless this is. Even those of us who aren't governing empires can benefit from these musings on courage and decency.\" Philippa Gregory \"Sappho: A New Translation,\" translated by Mary Barnard \"It sounds fearfully heavy, but it is absolutely contemporary in feel. A friend who teaches a course in Sappho sent me one poem: 'Don't ask me what to wear.' This is a poet who lived thousands of years ago, yet her work will make a modern woman laugh with recognition.\" Sophie Kinsella \"The Portable Dorothy Parker,\" edited by Marion Meade \"I adore her wit and dark humor.\" James Patterson \"Nine Horses,\" by Billy Collins \"Collins makes writing accessible poetry seem easy.\" Jodi Picoult The Best American Short Stories \"I am a sucker for this collection and keep a copy of the 2007 edition, edited by Stephen King, in the guest room of our lake house.\" Danielle Steel \"Anything religious.\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Jackie Collins recommends \"Whacked,\" by Jules Asner, a tale of revenge set in L.A.\nJames Patterson picks the thriller \"No Country for Old Men,\" by Cormac McCarthy .\nFor a long weekend, Danielle Steele likes Joel Osteen's \"Become a Better You\"\nSophie Kinsella: \"[Jane] Austen is a perennial delight\"","id":"c9414bf55859cb9ca7e925a4a09b416b6f66446a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama received key endorsements Friday from a top former Clinton administration official and two former Democratic senators. Robert Reich, a former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, endorsed Sen. Obama Friday. Robert Reich, a former Clinton cabinet member and longtime friend of the former president, formally endorsed Obama's White House bid, saying that \"my conscience won't let me be silent any longer.\" \"Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama's strike me as even more so,\" Reich wrote on his blog. He served as the Secretary of Labor from 1993-1997 and is currently a professor at Brandeis University. \"His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding,\" Reich continued. \"His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers ... He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming.\" Reich, whose relationship with the Clintons dates back to their law school days at Yale, has long been a critic of the New York senator's White House bid. Shortly before the Iowa caucuses in January, he wrote that voters would have a choice \"between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who's walked the walk.\" \"I don't get it,\" he wrote then. \"If there's anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it's Barack Obama. HRC's [Hillary Rodham Clinton's] campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything.\" Reich also criticized Bill Clinton earlier in the year over the former president's sharp attacks on Obama in South Carolina. \"Bill Clinton's ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former president, his legacy, or his wife's campaign,\" he wrote in January. \"Nor are they helping the Democratic Party.\" Asked to respond to Reich's endorsement, Clinton spokesman Mo Eleithee said, \"Didn't he endorse him last year?\" Reich is the latest former Clinton administration official to announce his support for Obama. Last month, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who held several positions under Bill Clinton, also came out in support of the Illinois senator. Clinton supporter and CNN political analyst James Carville later called that an \"act of betrayal.\" Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced that former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and David Boren of Oklahoma endorsed the Illinois senator, and agreed to serve on the campaign's national security policy team. Nunn served 25 years in the Senate and was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1987 to 1995. He said Obama is \"our best choice to lead the nation.\" \"I believe that he will bring to the White House, high principles, clear vision and sound judgment,\" he added. Boren -- who served in the Senate from 1979 to 1994 and is the longest-serving Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence -- was one of Bill Clinton's top choices to replace Les Aspes in 1994 as U.S. Secretary of Defense. He said Obama is a person of \"sound and good judgement.\" Obama responded to the endorsements in a statement, saying the two \"will be important sources of advice and counsel for our campaign in the months ahead.\" Watch more from the campaign trail \u00bb . The endorsements come just four days before Pennsylvania's April 22 primary. At stake: 158 delegates. Also on Friday, Clinton accused Obama of \"complaining\" about Wednesday night's debate in Pennsylvania and hinted her rival might not be equipped to handle the rigors of the Oval Office. Watch more from Wednesday's debate \u00bb . Obama said Thursday that Clinton was \"in her element\" at the debate, telling a North Carolina crowd she \"took every opportunity to get a dig in.\" \"That's her right to kind of twist the knife in a little bit,\" he said, before adding that he understands why she's using what he calls the tactics of the GOP. Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . Clinton told an interviewer Friday morning on WTXF in Philadelphia that \"being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House.\" \"When the going gets tough you can't run away,\" she said of Obama. Meanwhile, Obama faced more criticism Friday -- this time from Sen. John McCain. McCain's campaign is crying foul over what it characterizes as repeated distortions from Obama. The most recent dustup comes after Obama criticized McCain earlier Friday for comments the Arizona senator made in an interview on Bloomberg Television. \"John McCain went on television and said that there has been quote 'great progress economically over the last seven and a half years,' \" Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd. \"John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush. Now, how could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, Pennsylvania, say we've made great progress?\" The McCain campaign immediately took issue with the comment, noting the Arizona senator also said he knows families are facing \"tremendous economic challenges.\" \"American families are hurting and Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest,\" McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. The McCain campaign has long argued Obama has a habit of twisting McCain's words. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Alexander Mooney, Rebecca Sinderbrand, Ed Hornick, Peter Hamby and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Obama receives endorsement of former Clinton official Robert Reich .\nReich: \"My conscience won't let me be silent any longer\"\nEx-Sens. Sam Nunn and David Boren also endorse the Illinois senator .\nClinton lashes out at Obama; McCain campaign calls Obama \"recklessly dishonest\"","id":"f12cda150b96acfa1499b2afb0a81029545abadf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- All sides involved in the controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells in research claimed vindication Tuesday after two teams of researchers reported having reprogrammed human skin cells to act like the stem cells, which have the potential of morphing into other cells and thereby curing disease. President Bush has twice vetoed bills that would have eased limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research. People who believe that life begins at conception liken the destruction of the embryonic stem cells to killing and therefore oppose their use in research. The new research, they said, shows that alternatives are available. \"By avoiding techniques that destroy life, while vigorously supporting alternative approaches, President Bush is encouraging scientific advancement within ethical boundaries,\" the White House said Tuesday in a written statement on the new research. Bush has twice vetoed bills that would have eased restrictions on the use of federal funds for research involving embryonic stem cells. Watch Bush state why he opposes the use of stem cells . In August 2001, he limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to lines that had already been created. But some researchers say those cells are not useful. \"The president believes medical problems can be solved without compromising either the high aims of science or the sanctity of human life,\" the White House statement said. \"We will continue to encourage scientists to expand the frontiers of stem cell research and continue to advance the understanding of human biology in an ethically responsible way.\" Watch a Harvard expert talk about what's next in stem cell research \u00bb . \"This breakthrough provides further evidence that the most promising avenues of stem cell research are also the most ethical,\" concurred Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, a physician. \"Politicians should note that the scientific community is moving rapidly without the assistance of laws requiring the taxpayer-funded destruction of human life.\" He added, \"This breakthrough helps vindicate President Bush's policy and his vetoes of Congress' short-sighted and outdated approach to stem cell research. History will note the wisdom of President Bush's refusal to set a dangerous precedent that could not be easily undone.\" And Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said he believes \"that the current stem cell policy has been very important in driving the discovery of ethical and successful ways for scientists to find treatments and cures. \"What has too often been missing from this important debate is a simple fact of modern science: Encouraging medical research and protecting the sanctity of life are not mutually exclusive goals.\" The methods described in the papers about the new research \"should continue to be pursued and strongly promoted, as they should help to steer the entire field of stem cell research in a more explicitly ethical direction by circumventing the moral quagmire associated with destroying human embryos,\" said the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a posting on its Web site. But those views were not shared by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who has pushed for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and said he will continue to do so. \"Our top researchers recognize that this new development does not mean that we should discontinue studying embryonic stem cells,\" he said in a written statement. \"Scientists may yet find that embryonic stem cells are more powerful. We need to continue to pursue all alternatives as we search for treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's and spinal cord injuries.\" He added that Tuesday's announcement \"reiterates the need for federal support for medical research and again points out the president's misplaced priorities in vetoing the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill which included a substantial increase for the National Institutes of Health.\" A lead author of one of the landmark studies, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, urged that reprogrammed cells not wholly supplant embryonic stem cells in research. \"I don't like the idea of pulling the plug,\" he told reporters in a conference call. He added that Tuesday's advances in reprogramming cells would not have been possible without the advancements in embryonic stem cell research over the past decade. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Teams report reprogramming human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells .\nBush: advance is \"within ethical boundaries\"\nHarkin: \"We need to continue to pursue all alternatives\"","id":"7359741b0e60b4402f069963a26c7aa766f45e7c"} -{"article":"AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- Josef Fritzl, who Austrian police say has confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven of her children, twice holidayed in Thailand while she remained trapped in a cellar below his house, according to German media reports. Josef Fritzl appeared in court after admitting raping his daughter and fathering her seven children. Germany's Bild newspaper quoted a holiday companion, identified only as Paul H, who said he and 73-year-old Fritzl traveled to Thailand together twice and spent time in each other's homes. \"He went [to Thailand] without his wife; apparently she had to look after the children. ... Once he had a very long massage from a young Thai girl at the beach. He really loved that,\" Paul H told the newspaper, which featured video of Fritzl laughing and receiving a massage in Thailand on its Web site. \"Once I saw how Josef bought an evening dress and racy lingerie for a very slim woman in Pattaya [Thailand] on the beach. He got really angry when he realized I saw him. Then he told me that he has a girlfriend on the side. The items were meant for her. He told me not to tell his wife.\" Watch footage of Fritzl on vacation at a Thai beach resort \u00bb . The pair had also ventured to Oktoberfest. Paul H said he had visited Fritzl's house three times, the last in 2005. \"We sat out on the terrace and had a really nice evening. ... The kids were well-behaved, however; they had a great respect for their father. They were never allowed downstairs into the cellar, but we never thought anything of it,\" he told Bild. \"Now that I think of the dungeon down there, I feel really sick in the stomach.\" Paul H said Fritzl was a DIY \"genius,\" constantly extending and building on to the house. Meanwhile, family members at the center of the incest and imprisonment case have held an \"astonishing\" reunion, medical officials said. \"They met each other on Sunday morning,\" clinic director Berthold Kepplinger said Tuesday. \"And it is astonishing how easy it worked, that the children came together, and also it was astonishing how easy it happened that the grandmother and the mother came together.\" Investigators say Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a cellar for 24 years. He raped her repeatedly, they say, and eventually fathered seven of her children. Elisabeth and two of her children were reunited Sunday with three of her other children and her mother, Kepplinger said Tuesday. The three children and her mother lived in the home above the cellar. Elisabeth's eldest child, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, remains in hospital. A seventh child died years ago, shortly after birth. Fritzl told police he burned the infant's body in a furnace. The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel a week ago, when Kerstin fell seriously ill with convulsions and was hospitalized. Austrian police Wednesday denied reports that they were investigating possible links between Fritzl and the unsolved murder of a woman. Franz Polzer, director of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said Fritzl had owned an Austrian hotel near where a woman was found murdered decades ago. However, they were not investigating the incident at this stage. Meanwhile, an Austrian girl who was held prisoner in a basement for eight years said the family faced a long period of adjustment. See how Austrians are troubled by the case \u00bb . Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped on her way to school in March 1998. She escaped from a bunker below the house of Wolfgang Priklopil in a suburb of Vienna in August 2007. Priklopil killed himself by throwing himself under a train only hours later. \"Although they are now in a secret location, I believe it might have been even better to leave them where they were, but that was probably impossible,\" she said of the Fritzl family Tuesday. \"Yes, because that was of course the environment they were used to, and now they're somewhere else. Pulling them abruptly out of this situation, without transition, to hold them and isolating them to some extent, it can't be good for them.\" Officials said Tuesday that DNA testing had confirmed Fritzl fathered the children. His DNA also was found on a letter sent to the Fritzl family that was made to look like it was from his daughter, Elisabeth, Polzer said. See inside the 'House of horrors' \u00bb . Authorities said Fritzl sent other letters over the years, leading the family to believe that Elisabeth was a runaway who had abandoned three of her children on their doorstep. He dictated at least one of the letters to his daughter, they said. Authorities said it did not appear that Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, knew about her husband's activities. Reports have surfaced in The Times of London and Austria's Presse that Fritzl was convicted of sexual assault in the 1960s, but there is nothing in his record to confirm this, said District Governor Hans Heinz Lenze. He added, however, that records were expunged after a certain number of years. Prosecutors were checking archives to find the information, said Gerhard Sedlacek, prosecutor for the state of Poelten. The Times of London quoted a 50-year-old neighbor who said that when he was 10, he remembered \"how we children were afraid to play near Mr. Fritzl's house because of the rumors that he had raped a woman and spent some time in jail for it.\" Watch a report of how the case unfolded. \u00bb . Fritzl led police to the cellar Sunday. A day later, he confessed to raping his daughter, now 42, and keeping her and their children in captivity, police said. Fritzl was able to convince social service workers, friends and family that Elisabeth had run away in 1984, when she was about 18. The father, who police described as an authoritarian figure, forbade anyone from entering the cellar. In the cellar with Elisabeth were Kerstin and two sons, aged 5 and 18. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Phil Black, Nadine Schmidt and Eileen Hsieh contributed to this story.","highlights":"Incest dad twice holidayed in Thailand while daughter remained in cellar .\nAustrian family terrorized by decades of incest meet for the first time .\nJosef Fritzl kept daughter imprisoned under home for 24 years, police say .\nFritzl, who appeared in court Tuesday, has admitted guilt and faces 15 years| .","id":"b10c71f49dbeabad23325d625e8e7b8529429607"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The fiery leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant movement assured Lebanon on Monday that his movement will cooperate in the country's political life. Supporters carry posters of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Hassan Nasrallah said: \"We don't want to have control over Lebanon, or to have governance over Lebanon or to impose our ideas over the people of Lebanon, because we believe Lebanon to be a special and diverse country that needs the collaboration of everyone.\" Nasrallah spoke a day after Lebanon's parliament elected Michel Sleiman the country's president after a six-month vacancy in the position. Nasrallah, speaking at a packed stadium, told his followers: \"I renew my appeal and invitation for a true national partnership with no eliminations or impositions. The national unity government is not the victory of the opposition against the pro-government. It is the victory of all Lebanese.\" He said Sleiman's election \"renews the hope amongst the Lebanese people to a new era and a new start.\" \"I must say that there are deep wounds from our side and theirs, we are both in front of two choices; either to expand the wounds and add salt to them or try to cure them for the sake of Lebanon and we prefer the second choice.\" The parliament had tried 19 times to vote on a new president, but failed because of disagreements over how to share power in a new Cabinet. Lebanon's Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition reached a deal last week aimed at ending an 18-month political crisis that pushed the country to the brink of civil war, and paved the way for Sleiman's election. The agreement, reached in Doha, Qatar, calls for a consensus government in which the Cabinet would be comprised of 30 posts -- 16 for the majority, 11 for the Hezbollah-led opposition and three set aside for the president to nominate. The seat allocation had been a key sticking point for the opposition, which wanted to ensure it had the power to veto major decisions. With 11 Cabinet posts, it will have that power. In exchange for the veto power and a redistricting plan ahead of next year's elections, Hezbollah agreed to end its sit-in protest that has paralyzed downtown Beirut since late 2006. In his speech, Sleiman expressed gratitude to Qatar and to the Arab League for helping broker the deal. Sleiman was the consensus candidate, and is viewed as a neutral party by Lebanon's political factions. The nation's previous presidents have been seen as either pro-Syrian or pro-Western. In his 10 years as chief of the army, Sleiman also is believed to have unified the splintered military. However, he inherits a nation grappling with divisions. Lebanon's elected, pro-Western government has long been locked in a power struggle with Hezbollah. In public statements and demonstrations in recent years, Hezbollah threatened to use its power and popularity to oust the Sunni-led government, triggering fears of a new civil war that could further destabilize the volatile region. The election helped end a political crisis that deteriorated into violence this month. That crisis was defused when the Lebanese government gave in to two key Hezbollah demands -- lifting a government ban of Hezbollah's telecommunications system and reinstating the chief of security at Beirut's airport. \"The performance of the opposition proved that it did not organize a coup, but only wanted the illegal government to withdraw its two decisions,\" Nasrallah said. \"I promise that the opposition's representation in the government will not be monopolized by Hezbollah, Amal and the Change and Reform bloc. We will give other opposition parties shares - and unfortunately we must speak of shares - even if it is at the expense of Hezbollah's shares.\" Hezbollah has been linked to numerous terrorist attacks against U.S., Israeli, and other Western targets and the United States lists it as a terrorist organization. But many in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East -- particularly Shiites -- view Hezbollah militants as freedom fighters.","highlights":"Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says Lebanon needs collaboration of everyone .\nNasrallah praises election of Michel Sleiman as president after six months .\nElection comes after Hezbollah and government agreed power-sharing deal .\nSleiman is considered a consensus president in the divided country .","id":"c5a1e04f5f84d406ffedfc2f312c314d1bc03c46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Children from a polygamist sect who one mother says are \"hurting very badly\" in state custody are likely to be returned to their parents, a CNN legal analyst says. FLDS member Margaret Jessop says her children \"feel betrayed by adults.\" A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday that the state had no right to remove hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints' ranch in Eldorado on April 3, based on the suspicion that a few were being sexually abused. A sect mother who has four children in state custody said the matter has not been fully resolved because an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court is possible. \"I'm very grateful, but I'd like to see the children in my arms before I rejoice greatly,\" Margaret Jessop said on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Watch Jessop react to the ruling \u00bb . But a permanent reunion of families is likely, said Jeffrey Toobin, CNN senior legal analyst. \"Based on this ruling I think it's clear that if it stands, all these kids are going back with their mothers,\" Toobin said on CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0.\" Jessop and other FLDS parents said they had been permitted visits with their children in foster care. Zavenda Young said two of her children were sent to Waco, Texas, and two to Hockley, 148 miles away. \"They're in Boys and Girls Country in Hockley. And it's just a -- it's an institution,\" she told host Larry King. Their father, Edson Jessop, said the experience has been rough on the children. \"You can see it's a lot of stress on them,\" he said. \"Every time we leave, they go through that trauma again. It's enough to rip your heart out.\" \"They feel betrayed by adults, and they're hurting very badly,\" Margaret Jessop added. The Texas Child Protective Services Department's Web site says the agency has been \"coordinating with many professional service and government agencies to ensure the safety, health and comfort of the children and women in Eldorado.\" A statement from the agency Thursday said it's working out a response to the court ruling. \"Child Protective Services has one duty -- to protect children,\" the statement said. \"When we see evidence that children have been sexually abused and remain at risk of further abuse, we will act. ... We will work with the office of the attorney general to determine the state's next step in this case.\"","highlights":"More than 400 children likely to return to families, CNN's Jeffrey Toobin says .\nMother says she'll wait until children are with her before she rejoices over ruling .\nParents say children have suffered from separation .\nAgency that took children says it's considering next move .","id":"8a5035d3527c4db4357dd1db9fb2712008dccea9"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- There is an old adage which goes something like this: \"The cheap man always pays more in the long run.\" Consumer Reports analyzed the cost of ownership across the 300 models in their database. Consumer Reports magazine recently reached a similar conclusion when it announced the results of a study that compared the cost of ownership of more than 300 cars. Consumer Reports noted that a car with a cheaper sticker price can often cost consumers more in the long run when compared to a higher-priced alternative. The report, which appeared in Consumer Reports' Annual April Auto Issue, was based on a comparison of the 300 models in the Consumer Reports database. In short, the report concluded that a car's sticker price is one of many factors that should be taken into account when trying to decide between two cars in the same class. For example, at about $17,500, a Mitsubishi Lancer is priced $5,000 less than a Mini Cooper. But when factoring in the total costs of ownership for each vehicle, the Lancer could cost drivers about $3,000 more to own over the first five years, according to the study. And the purchase price of a Toyota Highlander is about $3,000 more than a V6 Ford Explorer -- but the Explorer's total cost of ownership is an extra $6,500 over those five years. The study took into account such factors as depreciation, fuel costs, interest paid on the car loan, insurance, maintenance, repair costs and sales tax. Online subscribers to www.ConsumerReports.org can compare the costs for one, three, five and eight years of ownership. \"We think this information is valuable for consumers who have shopped around, and settled on a couple of different cars they like, and then have to decide on one or the other,\" noted Cliff Weathers, Consumer Reports' deputy editor, autos. \"We're giving this information to the consumer to use as a tool to help them make that decision, a tie-breaker, if you will. \"If they're trying to decide between a Pontiac Solstice and Mazda Miata, for example, they can go to our Web site and find out which one will cost less to own over that five-year period. And in this particular case, the answer would be the Miata -- which was one of the least expensive cars to own of all the cars evaluated in our survey.\" Depreciation was factored into the estimates based on the assumption that the vehicle will eventually be traded in when buyers make their next car purchase. \"Depreciation is the factor that accounts for the highest cost of ownership,\" Weathers explained. \"Depreciation accounts for 48 percent of the cost of ownership over the first five years.\" Different models depreciate faster, and more significantly, than others. In order to calculate depreciation for this owner-cost comparison, Consumer Reports started with the price that a typically-equipped model generally sells for. If a particular model often sells at a largely-discounted price that was also factored in. Consumer Reports then deducted the wholesale trade-in value of the car at the end of the period, based on data from their Used Car Price Service, Weathers explained. In those cases when Consumer Reports didn't have depreciation data for a new model, it used estimates based on comparable vehicles. The Fuel Factor . The second-biggest factor in cost-of-ownership, after depreciation, is fuel costs, which account for 21 percent of the total ownership costs. \"Fuel economy can really make a big difference,\" Weathers said. \"If you have a car that gets 25 miles per gallon, and another car that gets 19 miles per gallon, that's a potential difference of thousands of dollars over five years, if you're driving 12,000 miles a year.\" Consumer Reports calculated fuel costs by assuming that the vehicles would be driven 12,000 miles a year -- the average annual mileage reported by those who responded to Consumer Reports' annual reader survey. Consumer Reports then applied the national average price of regular gas as of December 2007 or, if applicable, the price of premium or diesel fuel. Fuel costs were an especially big factor with SUVs, the comparison revealed. Drivers who buy a Dodge Nitro could pay more than $10,000 to fill up the tank over a five-year period, for example. But the fuel costs for a similar-sized, more fuel-efficient Toyota RAV4 V6 would be $2,000 less during that period. Consumer Reports' comparison also concluded that interest paid on car loans accounts for about 12 percent of five-year ownership costs. That figure is based on a five-year loan, with a 15 percent down payment, using the average interest rate of 6.86 percent reported by Bankrate.com in December 2007. Auto insurance accounts for about 11 percent of total ownership costs over five years, according to the Consumer Reports comparison. Car insurance costs can vary depending on several factors such as the driver's age, location, and driving record. Auto insurance costs, in some cases, dramatically boosted the ownership costs of models that otherwise boasted reasonable ownership costs. As an example, Weathers compared the difference in auto insurance rates for Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and a similarly-priced Acura TL. \"Insurance for the Lancer can cost you $2,500 a year or more, based our 2007 figures,\" notes Weathers. \"Meanwhile, the annual car insurance rates for the Acura TL can cost as little as $900.\" Maintenance & Repairs . Surprisingly, maintenance and car repairs account for only four percent of the cost of ownership, Weathers said. The maintenance and repair cost figures used in Consumer Reports' cost of ownership comparison were based on information gleaned from more than a million respondents in its annual Car Reliability Survey. One notable conclusion reached in the Consumer Reports study is that Lexus models have relatively high maintenance and repair costs -- primarily due to maintenance alone, even though Lexus owners reported excellent reliability. The Lexus ES350 racks up an average of $2,300 in maintenance and repair in the first five years. Meanwhile, owners of a comparable Lincoln MKZ can expect to pay only half that much. Another interesting tidbit discovered in the comparison is that the Range Rover is the most expensive vehicle on average for five and eight years when it comes to maintenance and repairs, costing about $2,000 in the fifth year alone. Meanwhile, the comparable Toyota Land Cruiser costs only $600 in that year to maintain and repair. Some might be surprised to hear that the sales tax on the purchase price of the vehicle accounts for as much of the cost of ownership as maintenance and repairs. For its study, Consumer Reports used the national average of 4.83 percent in 2007. With hybrid cars being a hot topic in the auto industry, Consumer Reports was also interested in the cost of owning one of those fuel-sipping vehicles. The report concluded that Toyota Prius hybrid actually costs less to own than similar conventional models. Specifically, the sale price of a Prius is about $7,500 higher than a similarly-sized Chevrolet Cobalt, but the total cost of ownership over five years is almost $2,000 less - due primarily to its much lower fuel costs, although the amount of depreciation was a factor as well. Weathers pointed to another interesting finding: \"There are some vehicles, namely BMW, that are very inexpensive to own over first five years, because all of the maintenance is paid for during that period, under the warranty,\" he says. \"But if we take it forward, the cost of maintenance and repairs over the next three years after that is going to be more expensive.\" For more information on this study, visit www.ConsumerReports.org. To compare vehicle prices and specs for yourself, check out the AOL Autos Compare Cars tool. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A car with a cheaper sticker price can often cost consumers more in the long run .\nReport based on comparison of the 300 models in Consumer Reports database .\nSecond-biggest factor in cost-of-ownership, after depreciation, is fuel costs .\nMaintenance and car repairs account for only four percent of the cost of ownership .","id":"3f33d4cb25cd121619ba99eeb02709b72716d622"} -{"article":"Join Roland Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 11:10 a.m. Wednesday. If you're passionate about the topic, he wants to hear from you. Roland Martin says the three presidential candidates will never be \"regular folks.\" (CNN) -- Can we all just stop the silly nonsense over who is an elitist and whether an \"average American\" will occupy the White House? Listening to the punditry today, you would think folks who revel in the comedy of Larry the Cable Guy or Katt Williams really would have a shot at the White House. It's totally absurd. So, Sen. Barack Obama is all of a sudden an elitist because he went to Columbia and Harvard? And Sen. Hillary Clinton is an elitist because she went to Yale? Do you actually think Sen. John McCain isn't an elitist? He went to an exclusive college -- the Naval Academy, and that is one of the hardest places to get into. (You can't even apply unless a member of Congress recommends you.) Karl Rove, who tries to portray himself as the common man but is just another rich Republican, has called both Democratic candidates elitists. Well, his former boss, President George W. Bush, went to Yale. So did Bush's dad, former president George H.W. Bush, and his granddaddy, former Sen. Prescott Bush. All three Bushes also were members of the super elite organization Skull and Bones. The younger Bush later went to Harvard. He walked into the governor's mansion and the presidency on the strength of his name and his dad's money and connections. Sounds like an elitist to me! But no, we're supposed to be fooled by the cowboy boots, folksy charm and him removing brush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch (don't forget the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where all the \"regular\" folks hang out). Surely you recall when Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court? Those same conservative voices decrying the elitist Democrats were blasting her because she went to little old Southern Methodist University, that unremarkable -- their view -- university in Dallas, Texas. (By the way, that will be the home of the George W. Bush Library.) You can bet a pitcher of beer that had she graduated from Harvard, Yale or Princeton, she wouldn't have been derisively referred to as too plain and not educated enough by the elitists in the Republican Party. And let's stay with the Supreme Court for a moment. Where did its members go to school? Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- Undergrad and law school, Harvard. Justice John Paul Stevens -- Undergrad: University of Chicago. Law school: Northwestern. Justice Antonin Scalia -- Undergrad: Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Law school: Harvard. Justice Anthony Kennedy -- Undergrad: Stanford University and the London School of Economics. Law school: Harvard. Justice David Souter -- Undergrad: Harvard; Magdalen College, Oxford; Oxford University. Law school: Harvard. Justice Clarence Thomas -- Undergrad: Holy Cross. Law school: Yale. Justice Ruth Ginsburg -- Undergrad: Cornell. Law school: Harvard (attended); finished at Columbia. Justice Stephen Breyer -- Undergrad, Stanford; Magdalen College, Oxford. Law school: Harvard. Justice Samuel Alito -- Undegrad: Princeton. Law school: Yale. That's pretty much an elite list of schools. We have deluded ourselves into thinking the person elected to the White House is really and truly like the rest of us. All three candidates don't know what it's like to face the daunting health care challenges millions of Americans are confronted with daily. Each are members of the U.S. Senate, and they have the best health care money can buy for life -- we pay for it! While your pension plan is shot to hell, their plan will NEVER be underfunded. The members will see to that, courtesy of taxpayer dollars. Forget how many times Obama bowls gutter balls, Clinton tosses back shots of whiskey and McCain talks about how he's a regular guy. Each, courtesy of their $169,300 annual salary, makes far more than the average American. And when it comes to wealth, Clinton gets to enjoy the $100 million she and her husband raked in since he left the White House (even their hefty book advances dwarf regular authors). McCain's wife, Cindy, runs one of Anheuser Busch's largest beer distributors and is worth more than $100 million. They will never be living paycheck-to-paycheck. Obama is the poorest of the three, but he did earn more than a million bucks courtesy of his best-selling books, \"The Audacity of Hope\" and \"Dreams from My Father\" after delivering his 2004 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. How many average Americans wouldn't mind having a million dollars in their savings account? Bottom line: The narrative about our presidential candidates being just regular folks is a tired myth that gets repeated each and every day. And their efforts to show that they are \"just like us\" are really pathetic. You don't have to go duck hunting, be seen buying milk at the grocery store for your family or having a beer at the local bar to show that you're \"one of us.\" Just do what rich and highly educated folks do when they are in politics: Advance policies that will at least allow me to keep a few more dollars in my pocket and be able to afford a home. One more thing: Don't buy fully into the nonsense tossed out by some of the loudest voices on television, radio and in print who decry these \"elitists\" and trumpet that they are for the blue collar, middle-class worker in middle America. Many of them pull down multimillion-dollar salaries and run into these same candidates on Martha's Vineyard and in the Hamptons when they all vacation. They, too, will pull every favor they have to get their children in the posh private schools and Ivy League institutions. Yes, we even have elitists in the media. Who would've thunkit? E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Martin: All three candidates are well-educated, wealthy -- not \"average\"\nTheir efforts to show that they are \"just like us\" are pathetic, he says .\nBut that's OK, Martin says, if they advance good policies .","id":"e6f451d6667f142a64818a9d05dbc49115e7cbf9"} -{"article":"TILCARA, Argentina (CNN) -- Carmen Salva's mission may be ambitious, but her belief is simple: \"It's never too early to start caring for the land you live in and grow up in.\" Carmen Salva: \"It's a great joy to know that I am preparing a new generation to respect the environment.\" That's why on Saturdays, Salva and a group of 60 to 100 students, parents and teachers can be found venturing into the high altitude of their northern Argentina mountains, trash bags in hand and llamas in tow. They're part of Esperanza de Vida (Hope for Life), Salva's youth environmental group that is out to clean up the surroundings, one plastic bottle at a time. Salva, 49, was born and raised in the Jujuy province of northern Argentina, an area known for its rich culture and spectacular vistas -- \"the reason why most people fall in love with it,\" says Salva. But despite its beauty, Salva says there's no real environmental consciousness in her community. \"We have a lot of issues to work on -- the problem of water contamination; there's so much trash,\" Salva says. \"We can't just think that it will take care of itself.\" Salva, who has been a teacher in Jujuy for 20 years, says the environmental issues aren't recent ones. Ten years ago, she and her students noticed a lot of trash outside the school. \"The parks surrounding the school were littered with plastic bottles and beer bottles,\" recalls Salva. They began volunteering with a government program, collecting and bagging waste in the area. But the program waned after a year, and students and teachers could no longer continue their environmental efforts. \"Our city had no formal recycling program or even knowledge of why it was important to learn about fresh water, forestation, and the importance of recycling,\" says Salva. So Salva began Esperanza de Vida in 1997 to organize and lead young participants in \"making our streets and our environment cleaner.\" \"I believe that change begins with the youth,\" says Salva. \"They will teach future generations how to care for nature and everything that surrounds us.\" At first, the group's activities were limited to cleaning parks near and around the school. But the organization's efforts have expanded well beyond the immediate area, and other Jujuy schools have joined in. About 150 people now take part, including about 80 children. Salva says her students are deeply impacted by the \"Pachamama\" concept, or caring for Mother Earth. She and fellow teachers have noticed their students apply as much energy and commitment to the weekend environmental activities as they do to their general subjects. \"Some even wait by my house on Saturday for the program to begin,\" beams Salva. The group convenes early in the morning to hike together into the mountains, where they work for hours, picking up trash and separating recyclables. Watch Salva talk about her program's impact on the students and their environment \u00bb . \"We have long days and we accomplish a lot. It gets tiring because it's a lot of walking and sometimes there are cliffs,\" says Salva. \"[But] the students enjoy it a lot. They're making changes while having fun.\" On an average Saturday cleanup, it's not unusual for the group to collect roughly 60 bags of trash for recycling, clearing thousands of bottles from the mountains. The llamas help carry the heavy load down from the mountains. \"The children call them the little eco-llamas.\" Watch Salva discuss another way the llamas help her group in the mountains \u00bb . The local government has also pitched in, helping to provide transport of the collected recyclables to the drop-off center, located nearly 50 miles from Tilcara. Salva says the group is making strides, raising awareness throughout her community, continually adding new volunteers, and implementing new projects. Carmen says the children are even teaching their parents to care for the environment around them. Watch Salva and her group in action in the mountains \u00bb . \"It's a great joy to know that I am preparing a new generation to respect the environment,\" says Salva. \"Their children's children will have another mentality, and [our] goal will be accomplished.\"","highlights":"Teacher in Argentina started youth group to help clean up the environment .\nAbout 150 people take part, including about 80 children .\nOn an average Saturday, they often collect about 60 bags of trash for recycling .\nLlamas help carry the thousands of bottles down from the mountains .","id":"39622c01625247af942a6439699ff529db1d54d0"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Sixty-four cases of measles have been diagnosed in the United States this year, the most in seven years, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles is a respiratory disease whose familiar symptom is red blotches on the skin. In all but one of the cases, the people who contracted measles had not been vaccinated. Some were too young to have gotten the shots, which are administered from 12 to 15 months of age. The CDC released the statistics Thursday to \"serve as a reminder that measles can and still does occur in the U.S. Ongoing measles virus transmission was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but the risk of cases and outbreaks from imported disease remains,\" the organization said in a news release. Interactive: More about measles \u00bb . In 54 of this year's cases the victims imported the measles from other countries, the CDC said. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said many of the imported cases came from European nations and Israel. Watch more on the measles outbreak \u00bb . \"Many people have forgot about measles in the United States,\" she said Schuchat at a news conference Thursday. \"It is very important for travelers heading off to Europe to make sure their immunizations are up to date.\" The cases were reported in nine states, it said, and cases are being treated in Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan and New York. Measles is a viral disease that can be deadly if not treated. The 64 patients ranged in age from 5 months to 71 years. Fourteen patients were hospitalized but no deaths were reported. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CDC: 64 confirmed measles cases in nine states since January .\n64 patients ranged in age from 5 months to 71 years .\n63 of the 64 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status .\nHighest number reported for same time period since 2001 .","id":"02927c88776bcc84fc883435a5037b4c8ca70e83"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Human rights and freedom of the press in China, the detention of terrorist suspects by the United States and Russia's treatment of political dissent are the focus of scrutiny in Amnesty International's annual report, released Wednesday, which looks at the state of human rights around the world. Amnesty International protestors outside the US Supreme Court in January dressed as Guantanamo Bay detainees. The 398-page report comes 60 years after the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Amnesty says governments still need to act on their promises. \"The biggest threat to the future of human rights is the absence of a shared vision and collective leadership,\" the organization said in a statement. Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general, said that in particular, \"the human-rights flash points in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Myanmar demand immediate attention.\" The report, the group said, \"reveals a world riven by inequality, scarred by discrimination and distorted by political repression.\" According to its count, people are tortured or subject to other ill treatment in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to express themselves freely in at least 77 countries. Of the 150 countries and regions listed in the report, Amnesty paid particular attention to China, the host of this summer's Olympic Games. The group said growing numbers of human rights activists were imprisoned or harassed in China in 2007, with ethnic and religious minorities -- including Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners and Christians -- repressed or persecuted. Death penalty statistics in China are difficult to assess, Amnesty said, but based on public reports, the group estimated that at least 470 people were executed in 2007. Amnesty also noted the repression of free speech in China and said censorship of the Internet and other media intensified last year. \"The Chinese authorities maintained efforts to tightly control the flow of information,\" the report said. \"They decided what topics and news stories could be published, and media outlets were sometimes required to respond within minutes to government directives. The authorities continued to block Web sites and to filter Internet content based on specified words and topics.\" Around 30 journalists and at least 50 others are known to be in prison for posting their views online, Amnesty said. Amnesty also criticized the death penalty in the United States, where 42 people were executed last year. It noted New Jersey's decision in December to abolish the death penalty made it the first U.S. state in more than 40 years to do away with executions. As it has in previous annual reports, Amnesty criticized the detention of hundreds of foreign nationals at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. \"The USA must close Guantanamo detention camp and secret detention centers, prosecute the detainees under fair trial standards or release them, and unequivocally reject the use of torture and ill-treatment,\" Amnesty said. The group noted that Guantanamo detainees are held indefinitely, most of them without charge and without recourse to U.S. courts. Most detainees there are held in isolation in maximum-security facilities, heightening concerns for their physical and mental health, Amnesty said. In fact, more is written on the United States than any other country listed in the report. Asked about that at a press conference Tuesday, Khan said, \"We certainly devote a lot of time to Sudan, to China, to Zimbabwe and other countries. But we look to the U.S. to provide leadership around the world. Governments around the world look to the United States as a role model for their own behavior.\" In a lengthy section on Iraq, Amnesty noted that thousands of civilians, including children, were killed or injured in ongoing sectarian violence during 2007. \"All sides involved in the fighting committed gross human rights violations, some of which amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity,\" the report said. Abductions, torture and murder, with bodies left in the street, occur daily, and the violence has caused 2 million Iraqis to flee to Syria, Jordan and elsewhere, Amnesty said. U.S. forces held some 25,000 detainees \"without charge or trial,\" the group said, and 33 people were executed, \"some after grossly unfair trials.\" In Afghanistan, conflict and insecurity aggravated by drought and floods contributed to \"large-scale displacement\" of people throughout the year. \"At least 6,500 people were estimated to have been killed in the context of the conflict,\" the report said. \"Violations of international humanitarian and human rights law were committed with impunity by all parties, including Afghan and international security forces and insurgent groups.\" Russia must show greater tolerance for political dissent, Amnesty said. \"The Russian authorities were increasingly intolerant of dissent or criticism, branding it 'unpatriotic,' \" the report said. \"A crackdown on civil and political rights was evident throughout the year and in particular during the run-up to the State Duma [parliament] elections in December.\" The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions in 15 judgments relating to the recent conflict in Chechnya, Amnesty said. There were fewer reported disappearances in the Chechen Republic in 2007 than in previous years, Amnesty said, but continued human rights violations made people reluctant to report abuses. The report also criticized human rights conditions in Iran, Gaza and Myanmar. Human rights conditions in Zimbabwe continued to decline in 2007, the report said, \"with an increase in organized violence and torture and restrictions on the rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression.\" Members of the main opposition party, the MDC, along with other human rights defenders, were arrested, and many were tortured while in custody, Amnesty said. Some 4 million people required food aid because of the nation's deteriorating economy, and victims of forced evictions in 2005 continued to live in \"deplorable conditions\" while President Robert Mugabe's government failed to remedy their situation. \"Human rights problems are not isolated tragedies, but are like viruses that can infect and spread rapidly, endangering all of us,\" Khan said. \"Governments today must show the same degree of vision, courage and commitment that led the United Nations to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years ago.\"","highlights":"Amnesty International's annual report \"reveals a world riven by inequality\"\nMore written on United States than any other country .\nReport also notes situation in Zimbabwe, Darfur, Iraq, Iran, Gaza .\nAt least 81 countries subject people to torture, ill treatment, report says .","id":"3ee31d8987c07ba4ea9423d39c5e333525316958"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A judge has declared a mistrial in the retrial of six men accused of plotting terrorist acts with al Qaeda. Narseal Batiste, the group's alleged ringleader, testified he wasn't serious about the terrorism threats he made. The decision comes after 13 days of deliberation and marks the second time government prosecutors have failed to convince a jury that the six defendants were guilty of terror-related charges. It is unclear whether the government will pursue a third trial against the defendants. The first trial ended in a mistrial last December after nine days of deliberations left a jury hopelessly deadlocked on the six defendants. A seventh was acquitted. The defendants are known as the \"Liberty City 7\" because authorities say the men operated out of a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City housing project. After their arrests in June 2006, federal officials said the homegrown terror plot may have included as its possible targets the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago -- the tallest building in North America -- as well as the FBI's Miami offices and other sites. E-mail to a friend . CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge declares mistrial in the retrial of Miami terrorism case .\nMen accused of plotting to target Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices .\nDefendants faced up to 70 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy charges .\nFirst trial ended in a mistrial in December, also because of a hung jury .","id":"f8ddc6d36f378757d27a244529f8fe11672baa41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent was killed Saturday when he was struck by a car driven by a suspected narcotics smuggler, officials said. Luis Aguilar, 32, who was assigned to the Yuma, Arizona, border patrol station, died Saturday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said in a statement. \"Agent Aguilar's death serves as another stark reminder of the risks our front-line agents and officers face each day,\" Basham said. Aguilar was trying to place spike strips in the path of two vehicles believed to have illegally entered the country from Mexico when one of the vehicles hit him, agent Michael Bernacke, a spokesman for the agency's Yuma sector, told The Associated Press. Both vehicles drove back across the border into Mexico, the AP said. The fatal incident occurred in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area near Andrade, California, Basham said. Andrade is just over the California state line from Arizona. The area is popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts but also is frequently used by smugglers carrying people or drugs, the AP said. Aguilar is survived by his wife and two children, along with his brother, who is also a border patrol agent, a Homeland Security Department statement said. \"I am outraged by this tragic loss,\" said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Saturday. \"I have spoken to the Mexican ambassador, who gives me both his condolences and deep assurance that their government will be resolute in tracking down the perpetrators and bringing them to swift justice.\" Federal, state and local authorities are working with Mexican police and military authorities to apprehend the suspected killers, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Officials: Luis Aguilar, 32, was placing spike strips to stop the smugglers .\nBorder agents believe two cars involved had entered the U.S. illegally .\nThe incident occurred over the California state line from Arizona .\nBoth vehicles drove back across the border and into Mexico .","id":"4e97228ceef1be54ab9151fc6759017e6a54a18d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Colorado woman is being pursued as a \"person of interest\" in connection with phone calls that triggered the raid of a Texas polygamist ranch, authorities said Friday. Rozita Swinton, 33, has been arrested in a case that is not directly related to the Texas raid. Texas Rangers are seeking Rozita Swinton of Colorado Springs, Colorado, \"regarding telephone calls placed to a crisis center hot line in San Angelo, Texas, in late March 2008,\" the Rangers said in a written statement. The raid of the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, came after a caller -- who identified herself as a 16-year-old girl -- said she had been physically and sexually abused by an adult man with whom she was forced into a \"spiritual marriage.\" The release said a search of Swinton's home in Colorado uncovered evidence that possibly links her to phone calls made about the ranch, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \"The possibility exists that Rozita Swinton, who has nothing to do with the FLDS church, may have been a woman who made calls and pretended she was the 16-year-old girl named Sarah,\" CNN's Gary Tuchman reported. Swinton, 33, has been charged in Colorado with false reporting to authorities and is in police custody. Police said that arrest was not directly related to the Texas case. Authorities raided the Texas ranch April 4 and removed 416 children. Officials have been trying to identify the 16-year-old girl, referred to as Sarah, who claimed she had been abused in the phone calls. FLDS members have denied the girl, supposedly named Sarah Jessop Barlow, exists. Some of the FLDS women who spoke with CNN on Monday said they believed the calls were a hoax. While the phone calls initially prompted the raid, officers received a second search warrant based on what they said was evidence of sexual abuse found at the compound. In court documents, investigators described seeing teen girls who appeared pregnant, records that showed men marrying multiple women and accounts of girls being married to adult men when they were as young as 13. A court hearing began Thursday to determine custody of children who were removed from the ranch. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Texas Rangers pursue Rozita Swinton regarding phone calls to a crisis center .\nNEW: Search of Swinton's home reveals evidence that possibly links her to the calls .\nPolice arrest the woman for making a false report to police in a separate case .\nPhone calls prompted Texas raid, but officers then got a second search warrant .","id":"0e649ccabaf0e650e9757ee256c2749d37486ba6"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington joined the Mt. Vernon Boys & Girls Club in New York at the age of 6 and remained an active member for the next 12 years. The actor credits his early years spent at the club with changing the direction of his life. Since 1994, he has served as a volunteer national spokesman for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, appearing in public service announcements on television and in print. He's also a member of the group's board. Denzel Washington says America's leaders need to pay attention to the crisis affecting our children. (CNN) -- With the political season in full swing, much is at stake for America. The economy is in a downward spiral. We have an energy crisis. Our jobless rate is on the rise. These are the subjects that generate headlines and much debate among the candidates. But there is an underlying problem that we as a nation have not addressed, a situation that should concern any American with an eye on the future, regardless of party affiliation. It is the crisis affecting our children: . \u2022 Nearly 30 percent of this year's freshman class will drop out of high school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That number jumps to 40 percent in some urban areas. \u2022 The obesity rate for our kids has gone up by as much as 300 percent since 1980, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, triggering a host of health-related problems, from diabetes to heart disease. \u2022 Young people account for more than 20 percent of violent crimes in the United States, according to statistics cited by Duke University's Center for Child and Family Policy. Violent juvenile crime peaks between 3 and 4 p.m., at the end of the school day. These facts are grim enough. Factor in persistent patterns of poverty, gang activity, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy, and you have a generation of Americans that will be unprepared -- indeed, unable -- to meet the challenges posed by a complex world. We expect our leaders to lead. But as citizens, we shouldn't simply sit back and hope that politicians stand up to the test. We can participate in the political process, advocating for policies that will benefit the health, education and well-being of young Americans, because we must do a better job of preparing our youth to lead. It is daunting to think about solving such a widespread crisis. But there are youth-serving organizations that can and do play a key role in effecting positive change -- places such as Boys & Girls Clubs, with a long track record of helping young people turn things around, get an education, lead healthy lives and become effective leaders. I know, because I was one of those kids. Club staff taught me right from wrong and made the lesson stick. They planted the seeds early on that led me to envision myself as a high school graduate, a college graduate and an achiever in whatever field I chose. Boys & Girls Clubs do this today for millions of kids, offering everything from homework help to career exploration, performing a daily miracle that turns hope into opportunity. Urging children and the adults in their lives to \"Be Great,\" these clubs communicate the idea that there is potential for greatness in every child. This powerful call to action reminds us that we can all play a role in helping youth realize their dreams. So I ask you to join me in this effort. There are many ways to help: . \u2022 Volunteering at a local youth organization. \u2022 Leading by example. \u2022 Donating to charities that make a difference. In partnership with government, schools, community leaders and parents, we can create a network and culture in which everyone embraces the importance of a positive future for our youth. But right now, with Election Day fast approaching, ask your local, state and national candidates what they are doing to help our young people become tomorrow's leaders. Ask them to make children a top priority and tell them that you hold them accountable. If we all become advocates for our children, elected officials might just take action. We can do better. And if we care about our nation's future, we must do better. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Denzel Washington: In a year of many issues, children are key priority .\nWashington: Voters need to hold politicians accountable for helping young people .\nEducation, crime, obesity are all issues relating to youth, Washington says .\nThere are many ways to help, including Boys & Girls Clubs, he says .","id":"9eccfcc231c7c0d65cb0c333cb3d1731a5fe2f3f"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Thousands of protesters demonstrated against China's human rights record and its crackdown in Tibet after the Olympic flame arrived in San Francisco Tuesday. Pro-Tibetan demonstrators shout outside the Chinese consulate in San Francisco Tuesday. Chanting and waving flags, the protesters ended their march at the Chinese consulate, where they sat in a dense group, holding flags and banners, as police watched from nearby. \"Stop killing,\" one sign read, while another said, \"No human rights, no Olympics.\" The protests came after passionate demonstrations in London and Paris in which protesters tried to snuff the torch's flame and dozens were arrested. Meanwhile, the Olympic flame was being kept in an undisclosed location in advance of Wednesday's planed 6-mile relay in San Francisco. Watch how the city is preparing \u00bb . The run is the only U.S. appearance for the flame, wrapping up the first week of a 23-city global tour. Beijing organizers have said the monthlong international relay will not be stopped despite the protests, but some International Olympic Committee members have suggested an early end should be considered. The IOC's executive board will discuss the torch relay \"in general\" Thursday or Friday, but there is no proposal on the agenda to end the global tour early, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. Watch the flame get the red-carpet treatment \u00bb . The official Beijing Olympics Web site, controlled by the Chinese organizers, gives little indication of any torch relay disruption. It characterizes the demonstrators as \"a small number\" of Tibetan separatists. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama and his followers for violence that erupted in March amid protests for Tibetan independence. China has drawn international criticism for its crackdown on the demonstrations, which began peacefully on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising. China's Foreign Ministry Tuesday reacted forcefully to the torch relay protests. \"We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and the law of Britain and France,\" China spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. \"Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world.\" The flame will return to China in May to begin a relay through the host nation, ending in Beijing with the August 8 opening of the Olympic Games. One of the San Francisco torchbearers has dropped out of Wednesday's relay because of fears of protests, a torch relay spokesman said. David Perry, spokesman for the San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay, said he did not want to release the name of the person. \"I understand anyone that might feel that they don't want to expose themselves to something more than protest,\" Perry said. On Monday, three protesters scaled San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and raised a large banner. Those who climbed the cables from which the bridge's deck is suspended were members of Students for a Free Tibet, said group spokesman Tenzin Dasang, 22. They unfurled a banner that read: \"One World. One Dream. Free Tibet.\" The three climbers, along with four people on the ground, were charged with felony conspiracy and misdemeanor nuisance charges, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mary Ziegenbein. The climbers also were charged with misdemeanor trespassing. The Golden Gate Bridge protest came on the same day that thousands of protesters forced an abrupt halt to the flame's passage through Paris after 10 miles of the 17-mile planned route. Some stops were skipped and the flame was transferred from the torch back to the lamp to be carried on a bus several times to avoid protesters. Protesters pierced the thick security bubble surrounding the torchbearers, at times getting their hands on the torch itself. The Paris demonstrations were similar to those Sunday in London, where at least 36 people were arrested, according to London Metropolitan Police. Protesters cited China's actions in Tibet, its policies on the Darfur region of Sudan and the lack of civil rights and freedoms for the Chinese people. But other demonstrators, bearing Chinese flags, turned out in support of the Chinese government, and many others were spectators there just to see the torch. An Olympic committee member suggested Monday that the public relations nightmare that has followed the Olympic flame on its way to the Summer Games in Beijing may make 2008 the last time such an ambitious global torch relay is attempted. Follow the torch relay itinerary \u00bb . International Olympic Committee member Richard Kevan Gosper, who is also chairman of the IOC's press committee, told reporters he was always opposed to a global tour for the flame. \"I'm a firm believer that we had the right template in the first place, that the torch simply should go from Olympia, Greece, to the host country,\" Gosper said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Thousands march to the Chinese consulate ahead of Wednesday's run .\nTorchbearer drops out, fearing protests, official says .\nSan Francisco, California, is only U.S. venue on 23-city global tour .\nDemonstrators protest China's Tibet policy in cities along route .","id":"ddf109b3de6022a4ecd62ee2cd31d2c2ac51035b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leading jockey Frankie Dettori may have spent most of his life on a diet, but when it comes to his favorite pastimes food is right up there with racing. Around five years ago Dettori met Michelin-starred chef Marco Pierre White and asked him where he could go out with his young family to eat. \"I couldn't answer the question,\" Marco Pierre White told CNN, \"and that's how Frankie's was born. That simple.\" They opened their first restaurant in London in 2004. Now there are four in London, one in Shanghai and one in Dubai. This March, a cookbook followed: \"Frankie Dettori's Italian Family Cookbook.\" This is his favorite recipe. Enjoy! Frankie: \"My father loved this particular dish as, although it's vegetarian, it has the meaty and slightly smoky texture of a good steak. To this day it makes me think of childhood Sunday lunches.\" Parmigiana di Melanzane \/ Aubergine Parmigiana . INGREDIENTS . 1 kg aubergines . extra virgin olive oil . Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper . 2 garlic cloves, chopped . 3 x 400g cans of good quality tinned tomatoes, sieved and chopped . a small handful of fresh basil leaves . a large handful of finely grated Parmesan . 1\u00bd kg fresh Mozzarella, cubed . Preheat the oven to 180 C\/350 F\/Gas Mark 4. Cut the aubergines in \u00bdcm strips, lengthwise. Sprinkle each slice with salt and layer on a plate. Cover with a plate of the same size and add a heavy weight on top (such as a large bottle of water) so that water can be squeezed out of the aubergines. Set aside for 2-3 hours. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and fry until slightly golden. Add the tomatoes and basil, and cook over a medium heat for 25 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season to taste. Remove the weight from the aubergine, thoroughly rinse the slices and pat dry. Generously cover the bottom of a large frying pan with olive oil and place over a high heat. In batches, brown the aubergine slices on both sides, lowering the heat and adding oil as required. Drain the slices on kitchen roll as you go along. Cover the bottom of a 23cm x 30cm ovenproof dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce; add a layer of aubergine slices, then top with a handful of the cheeses. Ladle some tomato sauce over this and continue layering, finishing with one of tomato sauce and a sprinkling of cheeses. Bake for 15-20 minutes to heat through and melt the Mozzarella, then set aside for a few minutes to cool. Cut into squares and serve warm. Serves 8 . Preparation time: 3 hours . Cooking time: 50 minutes . Courtesy: Harpercollins Publishers E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Frankie Dettori's favorite recipe from his new cookbook: Aubergine Parmigiana .\nLeading jockey spends many months dieting but when \"off-duty\" loves food .\nOpened first of \"Frankie's\" restaurants in 2004, now chain of six worldwide .\nReleased Italian family cookbook with chef Marco Pierre White in March, 2008 .","id":"bd92eab23374d95ac4430e2e1a8bf7561c662309"} -{"article":"MIDDLESBROUGH, England -- Middlesbrough have confirmed that midfielders Fabio Rochemback and Gaizka Mendieta and striker Dong Gook Lee have all been released. Middlesbrough have decided against taking up the option of re-signing Brazilian midfielder Fabio Rochemback. The Premier League club had an option to extend Brazilian Rochemback's deal by another two years, but manager Gareth Southgate has decided to let him go. \"We both feel that the time is right for Fabio to have a fresh challenge,\" Southgate said. \"He is a talented footballer and I think he's just had his best season for us, while it was fitting that he should bow out against Manchester City on Sunday with probably his best performance in a Middlesbrough shirt.\" The 26-year-old joined Boro from Barcelona in 2005 and played 91 games for the Teesside club. He signed off in style by scoring a thumping long-range free-kick in Sunday's 8-1 victory over City. Rochemback, who netted seven times for Boro, played a major role in helping the club reach the 2006 UEFA Cup final, a year after appearing in the final during a loan spell with Sporting Lisbon -- where he is expected to move back to this summer. Mendieta, 34, was one of football's costliest players when he joined Lazio from Valencia for 48 million euros in 2001, but he disappointed and joined Barcelona and then Boro on loan. The former Spain midfielder joined permanently on a free transfer in 2004, but has not played for the first team since December 26, 2006. \"It was a difficult situation for a player of Gaizka's caliber to find himself out of the first team reckoning,\" added Southgate. \"I made it clear to him that he did not figure in my plans but he decided to stay and try to get back into the first team. \"That didn't work out but his attitude to training was always excellent and he was a good influence on some of our young reserve team players.\" South Korean international Lee joined Boro on a free transfer from Pohang Steelers in January 2007. He scored only twice in 11 starts and 18 appearances as a substitute and has not appeared for the first team since early February. Southgate is still hopeful of persuading goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer to sign a new contract at the Riverside. The 35-year-old Australian joined Boro from Bradford City in a $3 million deal in February 1997 and has played nearly 450 games for the club. His deal runs out this summer and he has so far refused to sign an extension, prompting reports of interest from a host of European clubs. \"We are talking to Mark. I'd like him to stay. His experience is important but he has real drive and determination that is still increasing,\" said Southgate. \"He is the one in our dressing room that can truly say he has played at the highest level -- in World Cups, in Europe, in cup finals and so on. \"We have to negotiate and see where we go, but players have to want to stay here and we have to want to keep them. \"Mark has been here a long time so he has to decide if he needs a fresh challenge, whether what we are trying to do is going to excite him, whether he feels he is going to be appreciated here.\" Southgate also confirmed they have offered striker Tom Craddock and right-back Tony McMahon one-year extensions to their current deals, which run out this summer. Brazilian Rivaldo has changed his mind about retiring and says he will play for Greek club AEK again next season. The 36-year-old had decided to quit after AEK were denied the title because Olympiakos were awarded three points for a game they lost after the opposing team fielded an ineligible player. \"The truth is that at the end of the championship, I felt great disappointment and a (sense of) injustice, but the love and support I have received from fans and the team have contributed to my final decision ... I have decided to stay at AEK next season,\" Rivaldo said in a statement on the club's Web site. Olympiakos lost 1-0 on February 3, but Greek sports authorities gave them the points because Apollon played Roman Wallner who had turned out for two other clubs during the season. Apollon's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected on April 21. Olympiakos finished the season with 70 points, two ahead of AEK, for their 11th title in 12 years. Rivaldo, who has played at AC Milan and Barcelona and starred in Brazil's 2002 World Cup victory, spent three seasons at Olympiakos from 2004. He moved to AEK last year after a contract dispute. Tottenham midfielder Jamie O'Hara has signed a new three-year contract with the club. The 21-year-old made his debut this season and went on to score two goals in a total 25 appearances. \"He has come a long way in a short space of time so I congratulate him and this new contract is recognition of his efforts,\" said manager Juande Ramos. \"Jamie is an example to all the young players at the club in that reaching the first team can be achieved through hard work and giving the best of yourself.\" However, Tottenham goalkeeper Radek Cerny has left the club. The 34-year-old Czech international, who was on loan from Sparta Prague, has joined ambitious Championship club Queens Park Rangers on a two-year contract.","highlights":"Middlesbrough release midfielders Fabio Rochemback and Gaizka Mendieta .\nThe Premier League club decide not to take up option on Rochemback's deal .\nRivaldo changes mind about retirement and will continue at AEK next season .","id":"d84440effc748f9220c7dde068962e803f566bc7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English club Birmingham City have released a statement to explain why co-owner and managing director were interviewed by police in a corruption probe. Birmingham co-owner David Sullivan was interviewed by police on Wednesday night. The Premier League outfit temporarily suspended share trading on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday morning after David Sullivan -- who owns the club with David and Ralph Gold -- was questioned and bailed by officers from City of London's economic crime unit along with MD Karren Brady. The club released a statement on Thursday afternoon to \"clarify the situation\" before trading resumed at 1300 GMT. \"The City of London Police investigation is focusing on payments to a football agent and two players dating back to 2002-03,\" it said. \"There is absolutely no allegation that any director of the company or the club itself has benefited financially from any of this activity. \"In so far as there may be any implications for the company, these are not considered material to its financial affairs and they are in relation to the payment, or possible non payment of PAYE and National Insurance contributions. The club and its directors are co-operating fully with the police in this investigation and will continue to do so.\" Birmingham was raided by the unit last month as part of an ongoing investigation into corruption in English football. The club said at the time that the inquiries related to an unrelated third party. Birmingham released a statement on Wednesday night confirming that Sullivan and Brady \"willingly attended\" the interviews \"by long-standing appointment.\" \"Birmingham City Football Club is fully committed to helping the police with their inquiries,\" read a statement on the club's Web site. Police confirmed that they questioned a 59-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting and that they were released on bail, the UK Press Association reported on Thursday. A London Stock Exchange statement read: \"At the request of the company trading on Aim for the under-mentioned securities has been temporarily suspended from 7.30 a.m., pending an announcement.\" Shares in the company had been selling for 35.5p until the announcement half an hour before the start of trading, PA reported. Sullivan, 59, was in 2004 named Britain's 68th richest man by the Sunday Times, with assets of more than $1 billion. He made his fortune through pornography and newspapers. Brady, 39, became Britain's youngest managing director when Birmingham floated on the stock market in 1997 and is married to professional footballer Paul Peschisolido. She is also non-executive director of Channel 4, Mothercare and Sport England. PA reported that she made no comment as she left her home in Knowle, Solihull, shortly before 8 a.m. today. Dressed in a dark suit, Brady left the gated property at the wheel of a black 4x4 Porsche. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Birmingham say police investigation involves agent and two footballers .\nClub temporarily suspend shares amid corruption probe by the English police .\nCo-owner David Sullivan and managing director Karren Brady both interviewed .\nPolice raided City in March as part of investigation into corruption in football .","id":"e2866f596c85b0191ce812260d23855c70a01192"} -{"article":"DOUGLAS, Arizona (CNN) -- It's a tale of homeland security concerns blocking wildlife management, and the hue and cry that ensues. This photo, taken by Warner Glenn in 1996, is believed to be the first of a live jaguar in the United States. When most people think of jaguars, they think of the jungles of Central and South America, not the remote desert ranges between the United States and Mexico. That region is known as mountain lion country, and that's what rancher Warner Glenn thought he was tracking when he saddled up his mules on a summer day 12 years ago near Douglas, Arizona. Glenn has hunted mountain lions for 60 years, since he was eight years old. But Glenn was stunned when he saw what his hunting dogs had chased up to a high mountain perch. The rancher took what's believed to be the first photo of a live jaguar in the United States. But it wasn't his last. In 2006, some 40 miles away, Glenn and his hunting party again cornered a jaguar -- a different one. Jaguars, an endangered species, have a breeding population in northern Mexico. Scientists believe there are no more than 120 left in the wild there. It's believed that since 1910, the cats are only visitors north of the border. They have been virtually unstudied here until recently. But Glenn and other conservationists worry that the possible return of breeding jaguars to the United States could be stopped in its tracks. The reason: the border fence. Last month the Department of Homeland Security waived 30 environmental laws to finish 470 miles of the fence by the end of the year. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress that the agency continues to talk to some 600 landowners along the border to get their input. But in order to comply with the congressional mandate, he said, there is no time to deal with \"unnecessary delays caused by administrative processes or potential litigation.\" \"We are currently in a lawless situation at the border,\" says Chertoff. \"I feel an urgency to get this tactical infrastructure in. And although we're going to be respectful of the environment, we're going to be expeditious.\" Two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, have filed appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming the waivers are unconstitutional and set a dangerous precedent. \"National security and environmental protection do not have to be at odds with each other,\" says Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Matt Clark. \"If we can drop this arbitrary deadline for constructing the fence and go through the proper procedures, then there are inevitably ways to minimize environmental impact, but as it is now it's throwing all of those laws out the window.\" Mountain lion tracker Jack Childs also worries about the impact of the fence on local wildlife, especially the jaguar. Childs captured the first video of a live jaguar in the late summer of 1996, a few months after Warner Glenn. Watch Childs and Glenn talk about efforts to preserve the jaguar \u00bb . \"I knew historically there had been a few jaguars sighted in Arizona but in the last hundred years never in any numbers.\" His encounter sparked a passion for the big cats. Along with wife Anna and biologist Emil McCain, he created the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project. See images of the controversy \u00bb . Childs and McCain hike into remote mountain areas where the jaguars roam and have placed more than 50 motion sensor cameras near the border. They've taken 69 photos of three different jaguars since 2001, including several of the same cat Childs first saw in 1996. He has nicknamed that cat Macho B. A jaguar's spots are like fingerprints -- each cat has a unique set. One of the spots on Macho B resembles a Pinocchio cartoon figure, and that's how they identify him. \"We spend a lot of time walking along the border during the daytime, and we actually find his tracks going through the fence, so we know for sure that he crosses back and forth,\" says Childs. \"A fence like that is going to inhibit wildlife movements and migrations back and forth. It's not going to effectively stop human traffic. They've got wire cutters and torches.\" See where the jaguars have been spotted \u00bb . Childs says the fence also has an impact on wildlife because drug runners and human traffickers have been pushed up into the mountain areas to avoid the fence in the lowland valleys. \"It's impacting the animals number one, what's going on down there. It's almost brought my wildlife study to a stop because they (the traffickers) are tearing down my cameras as fast as I'm putting them up because they think we're taking pictures of them.\" The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finds itself in a unique position. Its mission is wildlife and habitat protection, but it must uphold another federal agency's mission to override environmental concerns. Bill Radke, manager of the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge, says the Border Patrol is trying to work with his agency. \"The hope is that by working with Border Patrol that we can meet the national security mandate and at the same time protect the wildlife,\" says Radke. \"Border Patrol is putting up camera towers but are putting them up on areas that are off the refuge. They're working on barriers but not barriers that would impede wildlife and large animals like jaguars.\" At 6 foot 6, with steely blue eyes, dressed in leather chaps astride his mule, rancher Warner Glenn is every inch the American cowboy. And he is a man forever changed by his encounters with the jaguar. He has written a book, \"Eyes of Fire,\" about his experience. He says he'd like to \"invite Mr. Bush to come out on a mule\" so he can see \"what's going on here in these mountains.\" For Glenn, the cat represents all that is wild about the Southwest. \"It would be a loss to me that maybe my granddaughter or my daughter wouldn't be able to see one like I have. It's just an animal that's a beautiful, magnificent cat and they're having a little bit of trouble surviving. But they're doing it, and I would hate to see us do anything that would cause the survival of that cat to go backwards. \"I'm a livestock rancher, but I wouldn't mind donating a few calves to that jaguar, so to speak.\" Biologist Emil McCain agrees. \"They are part of our natural heritage. They are part of the American West. They are part of the American wild as much as the bald eagle or the grizzly bear, and the jaguar is really special because it is such an elusive and beautiful creature [that] it evokes a sense of imagination and curiosity about the natural world.\" Though the jaguar is elusive, conservationists say the animal is caught -- in the political crossfire at the border. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"It is believed that jaguars in northern Mexico total no more than 120 .\nConservationists worry that border fence could prevent return of breeding jaguars .\nHomeland Security officials have waived laws to make sure fence is completed .\nAgencies look for solution that enhances security while preserving wildlife .","id":"4ebd9195bc8c12272b6281a5a610a7b5fb49b8cd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The presidents of Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression agreement late Thursday, aiming to halt cross-border hostilities between the two African nations. Chad President Idriss Deby, right, and Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, left, shake hands after signing the pact. The signing came after nearly two full days of talks in Dakar, Senegal, between Sudan President Omar al-Beshir and Idriss Deby, the president of Chad. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade facilitated the talks, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with officials from both nations and witnessed the signing of the agreement at about 10 p.m. \"The idea is to get the governments of Sudan and Chad to normalize their relations with each other and to halt any action that would allow for the cross-border movement of rebel factions or armed factions of either side that could hurt the other country,\" said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq. Each country accuses the other of supporting armed rebel groups that cross the border to attempt to destabilize the government. The rival nations' armies have skirmished several times. The United Nations says refugees and armed groups have been regularly crossing the border between the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and Chad. They allegedly include many of the rebels that attacked N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, in early February. As recently as Thursday, just hours before the agreement was signed, Chad issued a communique saying rebels from Sudan had crossed the border. Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow Deby's regime. The United Nations says the swelling number of Darfur refugees and other displaced people living in eastern Chad is causing serious strain on the region. Kingsley Amaning, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Chad, said more than 10,000 people from Darfur, in Sudan, have fled into 12 official refugee camps in eastern Chad. They join some 240,000 Darfurians who have lived in Chad since 2004 because of fighting in their homeland and an estimated 180,000 displaced Chadians also living there. The number of displaced Chadians is growing because of the recent fighting there, Kingsley said. Haq said the United Nations, which has peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region, will work to assure Sudan and Chad carry out the terms of Thursday's deal. The countries have signed several peace agreements in the past, only to see renewed violence flare up. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sudan, Chad presidents sign agreement aiming to halt cross-border hostilities .\nSigning came after nearly two days of talks between presidents of Sudan and Chad .\nEach accuses other of supporting rebels that attempt to destabilize the government .\nJust hours before agreement, Chad claimed rebels from Sudan had crossed border .","id":"4bd37aa7004cd1fdf1ccb506d2159a2cf26995e0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government has charged an international arms dealer with conspiring to sell a rebel group millions of dollars in weapons \"to be used to kill Americans in Colombia,\" federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. Viktor Bout is accused of selling missiles, rockets and other weapons to FARC, a Colombian rebel group. Viktor Bout, who was recently captured in Thailand, had agreed to sell the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) surface-to-air missiles, armor-piercing rocket launchers, \"ultralight\" airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other weapons, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. There was no immediate public response from Bout, who remains in custody in Thailand. Federal authorities unsealed an indictment charging Bout with four terrorism offenses: conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to kill U.S. officers or employees, conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile, and conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. FARC is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Justice Department officials said they are seeking Bout's extradition to the United States. The indictment alleges that Bout made agreements with FARC between November 2007 and March of this year. In their news release, federal prosecutors said Bout agreed to sell weapons \"to two confidential sources\" working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, who had \"represented that they were acquiring these weapons for the FARC, with the specific understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack United States helicopters in Colombia.\" The news release also refers to a \"covertly recorded meeting in Thailand on March 6, 2008.\" \"With the unsealing of this indictment, we are one step closer to ensuring Bout has delivered his last load of high-powered weaponry and armed his final terrorist,\" DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Loenhart said in the news release. Attorney General Michael Mukasey last month singled out Bout as a leading example of a new breed of organized crime leaders who operate across international boundaries to amass wealth without regard to political ideology. \"Viktor Bout has long been considered by the international community as one of the world's most prolific arms traffickers,\" U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in the news release Tuesday. Bout's assets in the United States were frozen in 2004 after he allegedly shipped weapons to Liberia in violation of U.S. government restrictions.","highlights":"Viktor Bout offered to sell surface-to-air missiles, rockets to FARC .\nArms dealer captured in Thailand. U.S. seeks extradition .\nU.S. says Bout is an example of a new breed of organized crime leaders .","id":"29b87dc549b8c64b35517e684e79b1da6316bd88"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief presidential campaign strategist is quitting his post amid criticism of his public relations firm's contacts with the Colombian government over a pending free-trade deal, Clinton's campaign announced. Mark Penn will continue to advise Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Mark Penn and his political consulting firm will continue to advise the New York senator's Democratic presidential bid, but Penn will give up his job as chief strategist, campaign manager Maggie Williams said. \"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign,\" Williams said. Clinton did not answer reporters' questions about Penn's exit during a campaign stop in New Mexico on Sunday. Penn is CEO of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller and is president of Penn, Schoen and Berland, his political consulting firm. Friday, he acknowledged he had met with the Colombian ambassador to the United States earlier in the week in his role as Burson-Marsteller's chief to discuss the pending U.S.-Colombia trade pact, which Clinton has criticized on the campaign trail. Penn called the meeting \"an error in judgment that will not be repeated,\" and apologized. That prompted Colombia's government to fire the company Saturday, calling the remarks \"a lack of respect to Colombians.\" Clinton and top aides were sharply critical of rival Democrat Barack Obama in February when reports indicated that his top economic adviser had suggested to a Canadian official that Obama was not as supportive of changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement as the Illinois senator claimed to be on the campaign trail. Penn said Friday that Clinton's opposition to the U.S.-Colombia pact, which the Bush administration is trying to push through Congress, \"is clear and was not discussed\" during his meeting with the ambassador. And Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said Penn's meeting was \"not in any way done on behalf of the campaign.\" But Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell -- a key Clinton backer in his state's April 22 primary -- suggested Sunday that Penn needed to go. \"I think you've got to make it very clear for someone who is a consultant, who you are representing and who you are not representing, and I would hope that Mr. Penn, when he talked to the Colombians, made that clear. And it doesn't sound to me like he did, and that's something the campaign should take into question,\" Rendell told NBC's \"Meet the Press.\" Sources in the Clinton campaign said that Penn realized this weekend that he needed to step aside, and that Clinton was disappointed that he had met with the Colombians. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mark Penn is CEO of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller .\nPenn met with Colombia ambassador over trade pact .\nColombia fired Penn's company on Saturday .\nPenn will continue to have advisory role in campaign .","id":"d2f2fe0b8797b416bae71305c9d1c874e2fdd0cc"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Thousands of protesters demonstrated against China's human rights record and its crackdown in Tibet after the Olympic flame arrived in San Francisco Tuesday. Pro-Tibetan demonstrators shout outside the Chinese consulate in San Francisco Tuesday. Chanting and waving flags, the protesters ended their march at the Chinese consulate, where they sat in a dense group, holding flags and banners, as police watched from nearby. \"Stop killing,\" one sign read, while another said, \"No human rights, no Olympics.\" The protests came after passionate demonstrations in London and Paris in which protesters tried to snuff the torch's flame and dozens were arrested. Meanwhile, the Olympic flame was being kept in an undisclosed location in advance of Wednesday's planed 6-mile relay in San Francisco. Watch how the city is preparing \u00bb . The run is the only U.S. appearance for the flame, wrapping up the first week of a 23-city global tour. Beijing organizers have said the monthlong international relay will not be stopped despite the protests, but some International Olympic Committee members have suggested an early end should be considered. The IOC's executive board will discuss the torch relay \"in general\" Thursday or Friday, but there is no proposal on the agenda to end the global tour early, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. Watch the flame get the red-carpet treatment \u00bb . The official Beijing Olympics Web site, controlled by the Chinese organizers, gives little indication of any torch relay disruption. It characterizes the demonstrators as \"a small number\" of Tibetan separatists. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama and his followers for violence that erupted in March amid protests for Tibetan independence. China has drawn international criticism for its crackdown on the demonstrations, which began peacefully on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising. China's Foreign Ministry Tuesday reacted forcefully to the torch relay protests. \"We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and the law of Britain and France,\" China spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. \"Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world.\" The flame will return to China in May to begin a relay through the host nation, ending in Beijing with the August 8 opening of the Olympic Games. One of the San Francisco torchbearers has dropped out of Wednesday's relay because of fears of protests, a torch relay spokesman said. David Perry, spokesman for the San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay, said he did not want to release the name of the person. \"I understand anyone that might feel that they don't want to expose themselves to something more than protest,\" Perry said. On Monday, three protesters scaled San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and raised a large banner. Those who climbed the cables from which the bridge's deck is suspended were members of Students for a Free Tibet, said group spokesman Tenzin Dasang, 22. They unfurled a banner that read: \"One World. One Dream. Free Tibet.\" The three climbers, along with four people on the ground, were charged with felony conspiracy and misdemeanor nuisance charges, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mary Ziegenbein. The climbers also were charged with misdemeanor trespassing. The Golden Gate Bridge protest came on the same day that thousands of protesters forced an abrupt halt to the flame's passage through Paris after 10 miles of the 17-mile planned route. Some stops were skipped and the flame was transferred from the torch back to the lamp to be carried on a bus several times to avoid protesters. Protesters pierced the thick security bubble surrounding the torchbearers, at times getting their hands on the torch itself. The Paris demonstrations were similar to those Sunday in London, where at least 36 people were arrested, according to London Metropolitan Police. Protesters cited China's actions in Tibet, its policies on the Darfur region of Sudan and the lack of civil rights and freedoms for the Chinese people. But other demonstrators, bearing Chinese flags, turned out in support of the Chinese government, and many others were spectators there just to see the torch. An Olympic committee member suggested Monday that the public relations nightmare that has followed the Olympic flame on its way to the Summer Games in Beijing may make 2008 the last time such an ambitious global torch relay is attempted. Follow the torch relay itinerary \u00bb . International Olympic Committee member Richard Kevan Gosper, who is also chairman of the IOC's press committee, told reporters he was always opposed to a global tour for the flame. \"I'm a firm believer that we had the right template in the first place, that the torch simply should go from Olympia, Greece, to the host country,\" Gosper said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Thousands march to the Chinese consulate ahead of Wednesday's run .\nTorchbearer drops out, fearing protests, official says .\nSan Francisco, California, is only U.S. venue on 23-city global tour .\nDemonstrators protest China's Tibet policy in cities along route .","id":"0269d39abbea3edadd225fa97d818f5a789b4c72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Skybus Airlines announced Friday it is shutting down its passenger flights -- becoming the third airline this week to cease operations. Skybus Airlines joins ATA and Aloha Airlines, which announced shutdowns earlier this week. The low-cost carrier couldn't overcome \"the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment,\" the company said Friday. \"These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.\" Skybus, an Ohio-based airline founded in 2004, will cease operations effective Saturday. Earlier in the week, ATA Airlines and Aloha Airlines announced they would shut down flights as both companies work through bankruptcy filings. ATA, an Indiana-based low-cost charter airline, filed for Chapter 11 status Wednesday as a result of financial problems \"following the loss of a key contract for our military charter business,\" the company said. The company started operation in 1973. Hawaii-based Aloha Airlines announced Sunday it would shut down its passenger operations this week after filing for bankruptcy protections last month, concluding 61 years of service. In its bankruptcy filing, Aloha said it was unable to generate enough revenue from its inter-island passenger flights because of below-cost fares by competitors Mesa Air Group's go! airline. The company said it was forced to match the competitor's fares during an unprecedented increase in the cost of jet fuel. Skybus said all flights Friday would be completed; passengers with reservations for Saturday and beyond were told to seek refunds from their credit card companies. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Low-cost carrier cites high price of jet fuel .\nATA and Aloha also closing after bankruptcy filings .\nSkybus says passengers can seek refunds from credit card firms .","id":"394f20c9bee9bc8d0e6a65bac48de57bd9f4733d"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Authorities have arrested a U.S. sailor on suspicion of robbery and murder in the death of a Japanese taxi driver. The U.S. military handed him over Thursday at Yokosuka Naval Base, south of Tokyo. A Yokosuka police spokesman identified the sailor as Olatunbosun Ogbogu, a 22-year-old Nigerian national. Taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi, 61, was found dead March 19 of stab wounds to the neck about a mile from the base in Yokosuka. The presence of U.S. in Japan has sparked controversy this year amid reports linking service members to crimes. In March, the U.S. military said it plans to court martial four Marines accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in Hiroshima last year. Authorities are also investigating allegations that a member of the U.S. military raped a Philippine woman on the island of Okinawa. And a U.S. Marine was detained in the rape of a 14-year-old girl until the girl dropped the allegations. As Ogbogu was arrested, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, met with Japan's foreign minister. \"We're dealing with human beings that do criminal acts from time to time,\" Schieffer told reporters afterward. \"And I think justice is going to be done in this matter because we've been able to work so closely together.\" Watch the U.S. ambassador to Japan discuss the case \u00bb . The U.S. military presence in Japan has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiments boiled over in 1995 after three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Japanese police arrest U.S. sailor for allegedly killing a Japanese taxi driver .\nU.S. Navy presence in Japan has been marred by reports of rape and crime .\nIn 2006, U.S. civilian military staffer jailed for nine years for raping two women .","id":"6e63c8b1ae01ab91b4832222edaf4bb461b6c568"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In \"Street Kings,\" Keanu Reeves' bad-boy cop Tom Ludlow may not play by the rules, but the film sure does. Keanu Reeves, second from left, and Forest Whitaker are shifty cops in \"Street Kings.\" The movie is textbook Cop Noir. Directed by David Ayer, who wrote \"Training Day\" and directed \"Harsh Times,\" from a script that originated with \"L.A. Confidential\" novelist James Ellroy, it's a story both men have told before and will doubtless return to again. Too bad that story -- the one about the constant struggle with an impure world, betrayal, disillusionment, retribution, all that jazz -- isn't told with much originality this time around. As Ludlow, a detective with a special LAPD vice squad, Reeves shoots first and asks questions much, much later. In his field the bad guys are easy to spot, and if Tom has to get his hands dirty, well, then he'll be careful to wipe away the residue before he calls it in. He works from the gut. We have Ludlow's number from the beginning: He wakes up, vomits, cleans his gun, and knocks back a couple of miniature bottles of vodka. Then he crashes a kidnappers' den and puts down four gangsters before they know what's hit them. \"Don't worry,\" he tells the distraught little girls caged up in the back. \"I'm a cop.\" It's probably superfluous to add that he's still nursing a grievous hangover from the wife who died in flagrante with a person unknown two or three years ago. It's also probably superfluous to mention that Internal Affairs (headed by Hugh Laurie) is beginning to sniff around Ludlow's unit. In particular, IA is talking to his ex-partner Washington (Terry Crews), a revelation that sends Ludlow reaching for his baseball bat. Before he can put Washington straight, though, his old pal is gunned down before his eyes by a couple of punks. Can Ludlow cover up his own potentially incriminating presence at the scene and still track down the cop killers? Hell, yes, even if he has to alienate everyone in the department before he's through. Reeves doesn't do much \"acting\" as such, but he doesn't need to: His performance is clean and spare, in synch with Ayer's clipped economy, and he has a doleful quality that goes some way to redeem a nasty and wretchedly na\u00efve character. Alcoholism doesn't appear to have thrown off Ludlow's aim any, but it must have dulled his reasoning. A broody, intuitive detective should be able to piece together this boilerplate mystery without too much head-scratching, but Ludlow never stops to look even two steps ahead. (I guess he's not a James Ellroy fan.) But what he lacks in insight he makes up for in sheer determination, not to say blood-lust. In a neat touch, when it's time to cool off his public profile for a spell, the rogue cop is transferred to a desk in the complaints department -- surely his idea of purgatory, and, obviously, an utterly pointless occupation. Forest Whitaker boosts the energy level as Ludlow's paternalistic mentor, boss, and No. 1 fan: \"You're the tip of the spear,\" he tells him. \"Who else is going to hold back the animals?\" Violent and cynical and a shade or two overdetermined, \"Street Kings\" ably demonstrates the pitfalls embedded in the pragmatics of \"a necessary evil,\" or anyone who sets himself up as a law unto himself, but ultimately it can't conceive of a better alternative. After all, the rest is politics, a game that even the most hard-boiled anti-hero would never lower himself to enter. And, besides, he's seen it before. \"Street Kings\" is rated R and runs 107 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Street Kings\" has been done better before, says CNN.com's Tom Charity .\nMovie stars Keanu Reeves as rogue cop who finds self in awkward position .\nFilm is adequate, but no surprises for those who've seen \"Training Day\"","id":"355875856932fd634aaf7c6b26155403aaf15904"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Texas authorities are investigating \"the safety of children\" at a ranch occupied by about 400 followers of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, officials said Friday. An aerial view taken last year shows some living quarters at polygamist leader Warren Jeffs' Texas ranch. Authorities have sealed off the 1,900-acre ranch near Eldorado and no one is allowed to enter or leave, officials with Child Protective Services and the Department of Public Safety said. The people living at the ranch are cooperating, authorities said. Escorted by police, social workers entered the compound in south central Texas at 8 p.m. Thursday after receiving \"a referral,\" said Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. Watch police seal off the compound \u00bb . Child Protective Services \"is conducting an investigation into safety issues of the children who live within the compound,\" she said. Meisner would not provide details about the referral but did say officials responded \"within days\" of receiving it. As of Friday morning, Meisner added, her agency had \"not determined that there is a safety issue with these children.\" Several law enforcement agencies are assisting with the investigation, said Tela Mange, of the Texas Department of Public Safety. \"The people at the ranch have been cooperative and they are providing the investigators with everyone they want to talk to,\" she said. Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) bought 1,900 acres near Eldorado four years ago and built the ranch, which they call the YFZ Ranch. It is now home to as many as 400 members who relocated from their Arizona and Utah compounds. Jeffs, the 52-year-old leader and \"prophet\" of the 10,000-member church, was convicted in Utah last year on two counts of being an accomplice to rape, charges related to a marriage he performed in 2001. He still faces trial in Arizona on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy. State and local law enforcement agencies set up roadblocks around the ranch Thursday evening, preventing journalists from seeing what was happening on the property, according to Randy Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success weekly newspaper. \"This came totally out of the blue,\" Mankin said. There were no indications of any violence around the ranch, he said. When CNN crews have visited the ranch, it was guarded by armed men equipped with night vision gear and other high-tech surveillance tools to prevent intruders. When CNN flew over the ranch in a small plane last year, the crew saw a massive temple, the three-story housing units where Jeffs' chosen followers live, the water tower, the school and community center, the dairy and cheese factory and a massive concrete mill. The FLDS church openly practices polygamy in two towns straddling the Arizona-Utah state line -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona., but members living on their Texas ranch rarely venture into Eldorado, four miles to the south. Critics of the sect say it arranges marriages for girls as young as 13, and that competition for brides may be reduced through exiling young men. If male followers are excommunicated, the critics claim, their wives and children can be reassigned to someone else. Jeffs is now being held in the Mohave County Jail in Kingman, Arizona, where he will be tried on charges of being an accomplice to incest and sex with minors. In November ,Jeffs was sentenced to 10 years in jail after being convicted of two charges of accomplice to rape. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: State Child Protective Services agents interviewing children .\nNEW: No one permitted to enter or leave 1,900-acre Texas compound .\nRanch home to hundreds of followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs .\nJeffs in Arizona jail awaiting trial; sentenced to 10 years in prison last year .","id":"999523913d281ab57977d79b644f3879ac4d2e37"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Georgian leaders may be blaming Russia for the conflict raging in South Ossetia, but former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said Thursday \"there is no doubt\" that Georgia provoked the clash. Mikhail Gorbachev told CNN's Larry King that Russia called extra troops into Georgia to stem violence. Gorbachev told CNN's Larry King that Russia moved additional forces into South Ossetia in response to \"devastation\" in the South Ossetia city of Tskhinvali. \"This was the use of sophisticated weapons against a small town, against a sleeping people. This was a barbaric assault,\" said Gorbachev, the last president of the former Soviet Union. But Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who also appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Thursday, said he was \"profoundly shocked\" that Mikhail Gorbachev would use a television appearance \"for basically vindicating lies and deceptions.\" Last week, Georgia said it launched an operation into South Ossetia after a cease-fire was broken with artillery fire from Russian separatists that killed 10 people including civilians and peacekeepers. It accused Russia, which also has peacekeepers in the region, of backing the separatists. Hours later, the Russian news agency Interfax reported that Russian authorities said 10 Russian peacekeepers had been killed and 30 wounded in an attack by Georgians. \"Western television didn't show what happened in Tskhinvali,\" Gorbachev said. \"Only now they're beginning to show some pictures of the destruction. So this looks to me like it was a well-prepared project. And with any outcome, they wanted to put the blame on Russia.\" Watch Gorbachev discuss \"barbaric assault\" \u00bb . He called Georgia's claims that Russia is attempting to dismantle its democracy \"all lies from beginning to end.\" In response, Saakashvili expressed disappointment with the sentiments from Gorbachev, who he said he once respected. \"This is the man, Mr. Gorbachev, who helped to, you know, bring down KGB kingdom. And he is the one who is, you know, justifying what the KGB people are doing right now in my country,\" Saakashvili said. \"Shame on him. Shame on you, Mr. Gorbachev, for perpetuating the very regime you helped to defeat and you fought against as the head of the Soviet Union.\" Gorbachev also said the United States is jeopardizing its fragile relationship with Russia by backing Georgia. Watch Gorbachev discuss U.S.-Russia relations \u00bb . \"There is a chance for our two countries to develop a new agenda for cooperation so as to promote both U.S. and Russia interests, and the interests of other countries, and the interests of stability, particularly in the hotspots in different continents,\" said Gorbachev, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 1990.","highlights":"NEW: Georgian president criticizes Gorbachev for \"vindicating lies and deceptions\"\nGorbachev says Russian called up forces in response to violence in Tskhinvali .\nGeorgia says Russia backed separatists who broke cease-fire and sparked violence .\nThe former president says U.S. is jeopardizing ties with Russia by backing Georgia .","id":"5f7424604ec11358dc6fdfa47732f90422949041"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- At least 19 schoolgirls died when fire erupted in their dormitory west of the capital, Kampala, late Monday, say police and school officials. Villagers surround the gutted school building Tuesday. Authorities also found the bodies of two adults in the ashes of the blaze at Buddo Junior School in Mpigi. The school's headmaster said 42 girls survived. Police said they were investigating the cause, but children who lived in the dorm said they heard an explosion shortly before the fire broke out. There were conflicting reports of the doors of the living quarters being barred, trapping the children inside. School officials insisted that the doors weren't locked, while girls who lived there said they were. Mpigi is about 60 kilometers west of Kampala. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"19 schoolgirls and two adults die in primary school dormitory fire, police say .\nSchool denies pupils' claim that dormitory door was locked from the outside .\nPolice investigate cause of blaze at school 60 kilometers from Kampala .","id":"fdb2b65b9cb99b7d52559ae647cae293cb5910d3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States believes that some members of Pakistan's spy service provided support for the deadly bombing last month of India's Embassy in Afghanistan, a U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN Friday. The Indian Embassy in Kabul was badly damaged in the July 7 bombing. Pakistan strongly denied the allegation Friday, but Afghanistan and India have previously accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack which killed 58 people including an Indian defense attache. The official told CNN the evidence was not strong enough to draw a firm conclusion but there is a \"strong suspicion\" the Taliban was behind the attack, and that some unspecified aid came from Pakistan's Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. The official would not say how the intelligence was gathered, but he said the evidence was presented to senior Pakistani officials by a top CIA official, Deputy Director Stephen Kappes. The New York Times, sourcing U.S. government officials, reported Friday that the United States intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack in Kabul. Pakistani Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the report \"unfounded and malicious\" and an \"effort to malign the ISI,\" -- Pakistan's Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence. The bombing killed 58 people. \"The ISI is a very disciplined organization, manned by military officials. It has played the most crucial role in the war on terror and apprehended members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and those linked to the attack on mainland America on 9\/11,\" Abbas said. Abbas said \"despite our insistence, no evidence has been provided to us about these allegations.\" Afghanistan claims Pakistan informally supports militants operating from havens in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions near the porous 1,500-mile border the two countries share. Earlier this month, Afghan lawmakers directly accused Pakistan's ISI in connection with a string of attacks in Afghanistan. Among these were the Kabul strike and an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai at an April 27 military ceremony. A senior Afghan government official said the charges were based on phone intercepts of conversations of plotters in Kabul with ISI officers in Pakistan. A U.S. government official, who would not comment on the specifics of the New York Times story, said, \"We've long noted the troubling reports of a relationship between the ISI and the Taliban, and the incident at the Indian Embassy seems to fit the pattern of those reports.\" India has previously blamed militants from Pakistan for the July 7 car bombing at the embassy. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain, and Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI, firmly denied the agency's involvement in the attack. Watch Pakistan deny the allegations \u00bb . \"There seems to be a bit of sensationalism in this story,\" Hasan said. He said the government has regularly denied claims that ISI is involved with militants in Afghanistan and noted that Pakistan has been cooperating in the fight against terrorism. Gul said the claims are \"preposterous\" and \"totally false,\" and cautioned that the CIA has been proven to be wrong about intelligence in the past. The New York Times report also sourced the U.S. officials as saying \"there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas.\" Pakistan and Afghanistan have a tumultuous past. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, religious schools in Pakistan helped train fighters who battled the Soviets. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996 and imposed fundamentalist rule, Pakistan was one of the few countries that recognized the regime diplomatically. It dropped its support after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Washington and New York. Pakistan also has a troubled history with India, and in the past India has accused the ISI of supporting militant separatists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which has been the root of two wars between them.","highlights":"U.S. intelligence points to Pakistan agents involved in attack on Indian Embassy .\nPakistan denies its spy agency helped plan bombing that killed 58 .\nMaj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the report was an \"effort to malign the ISI\"\nIndia and Afghanistan both accuse Pakistan of role in the attack .","id":"f974fe1b3777ffc5756322c0bb3f31a9b23ec09a"} -{"article":"The mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor has died of a suspected heart attack, The Press Association reported Wednesday. Gloria Taylor outside London's Central Criminal Court with Damilola's older brother Tunde in 2006. Gloria Taylor, 57, collapsed while walking with her husband Richard in south-east London Tuesday, the agency reported. Efforts to revive her at hospital failed and she was pronounced dead moments later, according to London police headquarters Scotland Yard. Damilola, 10, bled to death after being attacked on his way home from Oliver Goldsmith Primary School in November 2000. He staggered 100 yards with blood pouring from a sliced artery in his leg after being stabbed. Nigerian-born Damilola had been in Britain for only a few months when he was attacked while walking home from an after school computer club. Damilola's killing was front-page news in Britain, and prompted soul-searching on topics ranging from the deprivation of inner cities to school bullying. A year after their son's death, the Taylors established the Damilola Taylor Trust, aimed at improving the lives of underprivileged young people. The trust offers scholarships for medical students from poor backgrounds, and also set up the Damilola Taylor Center, in Peckham, south-east London, which provides sports and community activities. At the time, Gloria said the trust aimed to provide hope and opportunities for Britain's \"downtrodden and underprivileged youth\". \"Damilola lost his life because of enormous problems in this society. Our son wanted to be a doctor. \"He was a leader, and we are sure he would have been extraordinary. We would like the trust to heal many of the ills faced by today's youth,\" The Guardian newspaper reported her saying at the time. In August 2006, two teenage brothers were convicted of his manslaughter and given eight-year youth custody sentences. Danny and Ricky Preddie, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing, were convicted at a retrial. The conviction came after three trials and two police investigations, parts of which were strongly criticized, The Guardian reported. PA quoted a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman as saying: \"Police were called at about 7.45pm on April 8 by London Ambulance Service to reports of a woman taken ill on the street in Shooters Hill. \"Local officers and London Ambulance Service were in attendance and a woman in her 50s was taken by ambulance to hospital suffering a suspected heart attack and was pronounced life extinct at 8.29pm. \"A post-mortem examination will take place in due course. \"The incident is being investigated by local borough officers and is currently being treated as non suspicious.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor dies of suspected heart attack .\nGloria Taylor, 57, collapsed while walking with her husband Richard Tuesday .\nDamilola, 10, was stabbed in 2000, death prompted soul-searching in Britain .","id":"2930e1a7ac24bce649bfbf5f5971e74515e38a0a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A smiling Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States on Tuesday afternoon to start the six-day, two-city journey that will take him from the White House to the halls of the United Nations. The papal plane, Shepherd 1, touched down at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to cheers from a crowd of invited guests gathered for the event. After he stepped off the plane, Benedict did not kiss the ground, as his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often did during visits. The pontiff was greeted by President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and their daughter Jenna, each of whom shook his hand. Watch the arrival \u00bb . It was believed to be the first time an American president has greeted a world dignitary on arrival at Andrews. \"It had the look and feel of a monumental and historic event,\" CNN's Brian Todd reported. This is the first U.S. papal visit since the attacks of September 11 and Benedict's first visit to the United States. There will be a welcoming ceremony for the pope on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday. Benedict is to speak before meeting with U.S. cardinals and bishops. Where will the pope be? \u00bb . One of the stated goals of the pope's visit is to energize the U.S. Catholic community, which has an estimated 70 million members. Three years after succeeding Pope John Paul II, Benedict is likely to address the sex scandal within the Catholic Church, the church's relationship with other faiths, the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the upcoming U.S. presidential election, said John Allen, a CNN Vatican analyst. The fallout from the sex scandal has had a serious impact on the U.S. Catholic Church in terms of its finances, its moral authority and the demoralization of Catholics. During the flight from Rome to Washington, the pope told reporters aboard that he was ashamed of the problem. Watch the pope express his shame about the scandal \u00bb . 'Intense' security . Meanwhile, security preparations were under way in the air, on land and in the water. Twenty-seven state, local and federal agencies will protect the pope as he meets with religious leaders, celebrates Mass at a baseball stadium and makes his way around the capital in his distinctive \"popemobile.\" There are no specific threats against Benedict, according to the FBI, but a March audio message from Osama Bin Laden mentioned the pontiff. The centerpiece of the Washington leg of the U.S. visit will be Thursday's Mass at Nationals Park, a new baseball stadium where 46,000 people will gather to watch the pope. Everyone will go through metal detectors on their way in, and nearby roads and bridges will be closed. Temporary flight restrictions will be in place over the stadium. Watch how Washington is preparing for papal visit \u00bb . A 1\u00bd-mile section of the adjacent Anacostia River will be closed during the Mass. The Coast Guard will patrol the river in boats with machine guns mounted on their bows. \"I am worried about a terrorist attack,\" said Lt. Lynda LeCrone of the Coast Guard. \"We are here to detect, deter and defend against waterborne attack on this highly publicized event. ... We can use force.\" The pope will be making his way around parts of Washington in the popemobile, a Mercedes Benz modified with bulletproof glass surrounding a seating area from which the pope can wave to bystanders along his route. The vehicle, one of three popemobiles in the Vatican motor pool, arrived in the United States last week. It will be driven by a Secret Service agent. The agents have been training with the vehicle. \"We try best-case scenarios and also try worst-case scenarios so our staff will know how to react,\" said Secret Service Special Agent Renee Triplett, who oversees Secret Service training. Benedict will travel to New York on Friday and address the U.N. General Assembly, linking the visit to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He'll celebrate Mass Sunday morning at Yankee Stadium. Still a mystery . Despite three years as the head of the Catholic Church, the pope remains a bit of a mystery to many American Catholics. \"I think most American Catholics may not know a whole lot about him,\" Allen said. \"He's not the sexy media icon that John Paul II was, but what they've seen, by and large, they've liked.\" Of American Catholics polled by the Pew Research Center, 74 percent give Pope Benedict a favorable rating. But the survey points out that he's not as highly regarded as his predecessor. See other meetings between popes and presidents \u00bb . For one, their personalities are different. John Paul was known for his charisma. Benedict is known as an intellectual and introvert. \"He doesn't quite get the same energy from crowds that John Paul II got,\" said Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. \"John Paul II was extroverted and got energy talking to people, and the present Holy Father loses energy. He has to rest between all these encounters.\" The energy factor is partly due to age. Benedict turns 81 this week. When John Paul became pope, he was only 58 and was able to keep a much more rigorous schedule traveling around the globe. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Jim Spellman and Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Washington for six-day U.S. visit .\nNEW: President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna greet pontiff .\nSecurity tight for first papal visit since September 11 attacks .\nBenedict will also visit New York; will celebrate Mass in both cities .","id":"f5f7571a69e96c1d288d939861b7216c2bdc0ae4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eight Florida teenagers -- six of them girls -- will be tried as adults and could be sentenced to life in prison for their alleged roles in the videotaped beating of another teen, the state attorney's office said Thursday. The teenagers seen in a video assaulting a 16-year-old could face life in prison. The suspects, who range in age from 14 to 18, all face charges of kidnapping, which is a first-degree felony, and battery, said Chip Thullbery, a spokesman for the Polk County state attorney. Three of them are also charged with tampering with a witness. Everyone involved in the case was under a gag order imposed by a judge. The only attorney for the teens who has been publicly identified did not return calls from CNN, and his assistant cited the gag order as the reason. The teens are scheduled for their first appearance in court Friday. The video shows a brutal scene: The 16-year-old victim is punched, kneed and slapped by other girls. She huddles in the fetal position, or stands and screams at her attackers, but the assault continues. Authorities say the eight teens said they were retaliating for insults posted on the Internet by the attack victim. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called the March 30 attack \"animalistic.\" \"I've been involved in law enforcement for 35 years, and I've seen a lot of extremely violent events, but I've never seen children, 14 to 18 years of age, engage in this conduct for a 30-minute period of time and then make these video clips,\" he said. Police say the teens planned to post the video on YouTube. Watch the disturbing video \u00bb . The victim, a 16-year-old from Lakeland, Florida, was hospitalized, and still has blurred vision, hearing loss, and a swollen face, her mother told CNN on Wednesday. The video shows only girls doing the beating; Judd said the boys acted as lookouts. The idea of girls administering a vicious beating so they can post the video online may seem shocking, but it's becoming an increasingly common scenario, according to experts and news reports. Watch why more teens are putting fights online \u00bb . A search for \"girl fight\" on YouTube gets thousands of results, and a suggestion to also try \"girl fight at school, boy girl fight\" and other search terms. There's at least one Web site devoted exclusively to videos of girls fighting. In 2003, 25 percent of high school girls said they had been in a physical fight in the past year, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The figure for boys was 40.5 percent.) A Justice Department report released in 2006 showed that by age 17, 21 percent of girls said they had assaulted someone with the intent to cause serious harm. Frank Green is executive director of Keys to Safer Schools, a group that studies and tries to prevent school violence. He said he's not sure whether girls have actually become more violent, or whether there's just more awareness of their fights. \"In one respect, girls have always been more vicious than boys,\" Green said. \"Their violence is of a personal nature.\" He said boys usually have some focus and a concrete goal when they fight. \"But girls want to cause pain and make the other girl feel bad,\" he said. Judd, the Polk County sheriff, said an important part of the plan in the Lakeland attack was to post the video of the beating on YouTube to humiliate and embarrass the victim. \"It's the next stage of cyberbullying,\" psychologist Susan Lipkins said. \"They want to show what they're doing.\" \"Our kids are being peer pressured, in another sense of a trend, to put these shock videos out there at other peoples' expense,\" said Talisa Lindsay, the victim's mother. \"And I hope that it doesn't come to the point where there's more people's lives that are being affected by having to take a beating for entertainment, or possibly being killed.\" Watch mother describe how the victim is doing \u00bb . The suspects didn't have a chance to post the video online before police moved in and seized it, Judd said. The Sheriff's Department made it public, and it wound up on YouTube anyway. Judd recognizes the irony. \"In a perverted sense, we were feeding into exactly what the kids wanted,\" he said. \"But according to Florida law, [the video] is public record, and it's going to be in the public domain whether we agree with that or not.\" Judd said the suspects showed no remorse when they were arrested and booked. \"They were laughing and joking about, 'I guess we won't get to go to the beach during spring break.' And one ... asked whether she could go to cheerleading practice,\" he said. Lipkins, the psychologist, says there's a \"disconnect between their actions and their thoughts.\" \"They think the entire society is doing it, and they think it's funny. So they put it on YouTube. And I don't think they expect kids to get really hurt, and they also don't expect to get really caught.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eight Florida teens to be tried as adults in videotaped beating case .\nVideo shows 16-year-old girl punched by other girls .\n21 percent of girls age 17 say they've assaulted someone, the Justice Dept. reports .\nThe teens have \"disconnect\" between thoughts and actions, psychologist says .","id":"5f02aa32bd1dc95e47355755398e31550b232f8a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The following are excerpts from the Heather Mills-Paul McCartney divorce ruling, issued by the Honorable Mr. Justice Bennett. Dollar figures are based on the current exchange rate of approximately two dollars per British pound: . Heather Mills' case \"boils down to the syndrome of 'me, too,' \" said the judge. On Mills' finances: . \"I have to say I cannot accept the wife's case that she was wealthy and independent by the time she met the husband in the middle of 1999. Her problem stems from the lack of any documentary evidence to support her case as to the level of her earnings. I do not doubt her commitment to charitable causes ... [but] I find that the wife's case as to her wealth in 1999 to be wholly exaggerated. The assertion that she was a wealthy person in 1999 is, of course, the first step in her overall case that her career, which in 1999 she says was one producing rich financial rewards, was thereafter blighted by the husband during their relationship. It is therefore connected to the issue of 'compensation.' \" On her stature as \"business partner\": . \"In my judgment the picture painted by the husband of the wife's part in his emotional and professional life is much closer to reality than the wife's account. The wife, as the husband said, enjoys being the center of attention. ... I am prepared to accept that her presence was emotionally supportive to him but to suggest that in some way she was his 'business partner' is, I am sorry to have to say, make-belief.\" On gifts to Mills from McCartney: . \"[McCartney] asserted (and there is no dispute) that he made substantial capital payments to the wife over and above an annual allowance of \u00a3360,000 ($720,000) per annum. He lent her monies in respect of his purchase and renovation of [the house] Angel's Rest. In 2002 and 2003 he gave her cash totaling \u00a3500,000 ($1 million). He lent [Heather's sister] Fiona Mills \u00a3421,000 ($842,000) to buy a property and purchased a house for [Heather's relative] Sonya Mills for \u00a3193,000 ($386,000). In 2005 he purchased jewelry for the wife worth \u00a3264,000 ($528,000).\" On some paintings in Angel's Rest: . \"[Mills] asserted in her cross-examination of the husband that some 30 paintings done by [McCartney], which are hanging in Angel's Rest, were given to her by the husband. The husband strongly disagreed. The husband told me that when the wife bought Angel's Rest she had nothing to hang on the walls and so he lent her 30 of his own paintings. He told me they were his, that he may leave them in trust for Beatrice and his other children, and that he wants them back save for the flower photographs and the Isle of Man stamp design, both given to the wife by the husband. The husband, I find, was generous towards the wife but his generosity did not extend to giving her 30 valuable paintings (of his own creation.) I accept the husband's evidence. In my judgment he is entitled to have them back.\" On the size of McCartney's fortune: . \"It is unnecessary in the instant case to arrive at a precise figure for the total wealth of the husband, given its enormous size. As he has always accepted, he can pay any sum which the court considers appropriate as for financial provision for the wife. Nevertheless I find that the husband's total wealth amounts to approximately \u00a3400 million ($800 million). I reject the wife's case that he is worth \u00a3800 million ($1.6 billion). There is absolutely no evidence at all to support that figure or any figure anywhere near it.\" On living style: . \"In my judgment the wife's attitude, ... her open offers, her oral and written evidence, and her submissions is that she is entitled for the indefinite future, if not for the whole of her life, to live at the same 'rate' as the husband and to be kept in the style to which she perceives she was accustomed during the marriage. Although she strongly denied it her case boils down to the syndrome of 'me, too' or 'if he has it, I want it too.' ... It must have been absolutely plain to the wife after separation that it was wholly unrealistic to expect to go on living at the rate at which she perceived she was living.\" On Mills' future: . \"The wife's case is that her earning capacity is now zero. The wife, as I have said, blames the husband for his attitude towards her working during the marriage. That I have found to be a false case. ... The wife would say she is at a severe disadvantage. I think she overplays her hand. ... I have no doubt that, despite the very adverse publicity in the last 2 years or a little under, the wife does have an earning capacity. She has earned her living since the age of 17. I have found that her association with the husband advanced, not stultified, her career.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Judge on Heather Mills: Level of premarital wealth \"exaggerated\"\nMcCartney gave Mills several hundred thousand dollars each year .\nJudge: Mills' case \"boils down to ... 'if he has it, I want it too' \"","id":"9177e5ac94f038749e8d4eb526a65461e0f6df4c"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- There have been presidential daughters almost as long as there have been presidents. (George Washington had no children.) President Warren Harding made child-care payments to his mistress for years until his death in 1923. What these women did -- both under the influence of and independent from their influential fathers -- make fascinating stories. Here are five you might not have heard: . 1. Sarah Knox Taylor Davis . She packed a lot of drama into her 21 years. The second daughter of future U.S. President Zachary Taylor, Sarah also was the first wife of future Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Her parents gave her the middle name Knox after Fort Knox, in pre-state Indiana, where her military father was stationed and where she was born in 1813 or 1814. Sarah was often called Knox or Knoxie. The life of an army brat was certainly more dangerous in the early 19th century. During Taylor's posting in Louisiana, Sarah and her two sisters came down with \"bilious fever,\" now thought to be malaria. Sarah survived, but her older and younger sisters died. The Taylors were stationed at Fort Crawford (now Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin) in 1832, when Sarah met and fell in love with a young officer named Jefferson Davis. Zachary Taylor opposed the relationship, and accounts vary as to why --because he didn't want his daughter to continue to be exposed to the hardships of army life, or because he and Davis didn't get along. Or both. Davis was transferred, so he and Sarah conducted a long-distance relationship for two years. They even planned their wedding by mail. The ceremony took place in June 1835, in Louisville, Kentucky. Sarah's parents did not attend. Once again there is disagreement over why they were absent. The newlyweds immediately headed south, and they visited Davis's relatives in Louisiana. Sarah, mindful of the family tragedy the last time the Taylors traveled those parts, wrote home, \"Do not make yourself uneasy about me, the country is quite healthy.\" But while staying with Davis's oldest sister at \"Locust Grove\" in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, the couple fell ill with malaria. Jefferson Davis recovered, but Sarah died, barely three months into her marriage. Mental Floss: 5 memorable White House weddings . 2. Elizabeth Harrison Walker . Her life straddled the Gilded Age of her father, President Benjamin Harrison, and the Television Age, when accomplished women were just beginning to enter in numbers into the mainstream of public life. Elizabeth was born in 1897, four years after her father left office. A widower with two children by his first wife, Harrison had married Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, and Elizabeth was the couple's only child. She was just 4 when her father, the last of the bearded presidents, passed away. If Elizabeth's dynastic 1921 marriage to James Blaine Walker -- grandnephew of her father's secretary of state and onetime Republican presidential nominee James G. Blaine -- was conventional, much of the rest of her life was not. By the time of her wedding, she had received several academic degrees, including a law degree from New York University Law School, and was admitted to the bar in New York and Indiana at age 22. After her marriage, she began publishing a monthly newsletter, \"Cues on the News.\" Geared toward women, it offered economic and investment tips, and was distributed nationally by banks. Her expertise led to appearances on radio and, later, television, where she spoke on economic issues pertaining to women. She died in 1955, at the age of 58. Mental Floss: Quiz: Post--White House lives of presidents . 3. Margaret Woodrow Wilson . Thirty years before the Beatles went to India to sample and popularize its spiritual wonders, another musician and political activist, Margaret Woodrow Wilson, had already been. It was the final chapter in the peripatetic life of the eldest of President Woodrow Wilson's three daughters. Margaret was born in 1886, in Gainesville, Georgia. During her father's presidency, both of Margaret's sisters had White House weddings. So when their mother died in 1914, it fell to the unmarried eldest Wilson sister to become White House hostess. The president's remarriage a year later allowed Margaret to pursue her passion -- music. She studied piano and voice at the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore. In 1915, she made her singing debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in Syracuse, New York. During World War I, she gave recitals that benefited the Red Cross and performed at Army camps. In 1918, she began nearly a year's stay in France, singing before Allied troops. The experience led to a breakdown, the loss of her singing voice, and the end of her musical career. Mental Floss: Why do we sing the National Anthem at sporting events? With the war over and women gaining the right to vote, Margaret became an advocate of a style of local participatory democracy in which neighborhood schools would become community centers. The annual $2,500 stipend bequeathed by her father upon his death in 1924 was not enough for her live on, so Margaret entered the advertising business. A speculation in oil stocks went sour, and as the 1920s ended, she ceased being a public figure. In the 1930s she discovered the writings of Sri Aurobindo, a contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi's, whose philosophy for ending foreign rule in India was grounded in yoga and meditation. Eventually she followed her guru east. When a New York Times reporter found Margaret in Aurobindo's ashram in Pondicherry, India, in 1943, she had been living there four years. At the ashram she was known as Dishta. She died there in 1944 at the age of 57 of uremic poisoning. 4. Elizabeth Ann Christian Blaesing . Probably the only advantage to being the child of one of America's worst presidents was not having his last name. Warren G. Harding had no children with his wife, but a married man with two mistresses is bound to leave a legacy. Elizabeth Ann was the daughter of Nan Britton, who as a teenager began a six-year affair with Harding, which lasted until his death in 1923. Elizabeth Ann was conceived on a couch in Harding's Senate office and was born in 1919. On the birth certificate, Britton wrote Christian as the baby's last name. Until his inauguration in 1921, Harding made child-care payments to Britton in person, but always refused to meet Elizabeth Ann. After he entered the White House, Secret Service agents delivered the payments. But when Harding died, the money stopped. In 1927, after Harding's widow refused to continue child support, Britton published The President's Daughter. The tell-all book became a bestseller. As the years passed, the story of Nan Britton and the president's \"love child\" faded, along with memories of Harding's inept presidency. As an infant, Elizabeth Ann was adopted by Britton's sister and brother-in-law for the sake of appearances. As an adult, she married Henry Blaesing. They lived quietly in Glendale, California, and raised three sons. Elizabeth Ann gave one of her first interviews, to The New York Times, in 1964. In it she revealed that her mother was living secretly nearby. Nan Britton died in 1991, \"evidently so forgotten by history that no obituary was published,\" the Los Angeles Times later wrote. Elizabeth Ann died in 2005. 5. Margaret Truman Daniel . The helicopter parent is nothing new. But that pesky parental hovering can whip up a lot of dust when Dad is straight-talking President Harry S Truman. Born in 1924, Margaret was Harry and Bess Truman's only child. Like Margaret Wilson, she began her career as a singer. She was studying history and international relations at George Washington University when her father became vice president in January 1945. Less than three months later, Franklin Roosevelt died and Harry Truman became the 33rd president. After intensive musical training, Margaret made her singing debut in 1947 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on a nationally broadcast radio program. She began touring the country, appeared on radio and television, and signed a recording contract. Then came her infamous 1950 concert in Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall, in which her father played a role perhaps larger than hers. \"Paul Hume, the music critic of The Washington Post, while praising her personality, said that 'she cannot sing very well,' added that 'she is flat a good deal of the time' and concluded that she had no 'professional finish,' \" The New York Times recalled at the time of Margaret's death last January. \"Incensed, President Truman dispatched a combative note to Mr. Hume, who released it to the press... It said, in part, 'I have just read your lousy review . . . I have never met you, but if I do, you'll need a new nose.'\" (Read the review and President Truman's response here.) The episode didn't seem to impact her career, but her professional singing days were numbered anyway. Margaret would become a radio and television personality, co-hosting the 1950s radio program, \"Weekday,\" with Mike Wallace. She acted in summer stock. And in 1956 she married New York Times editor Clifton Daniel, with whom she had three sons. But Margaret still had other media to conquer. She became a prolific author, writing several non-fiction books, including biographies of her parents. And she penned 13 mystery novels, beginning with \"Murder in the White House.\" For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"President Harding's illegitimate daughter was conceived on couch in Senate office .\nReview of Harry Truman's daughter prompted presidential threat against reporter .\nPresident Taylor's daughter married future president of an enemy power .\nWoodrow Wilson's daughter followed a guru to India .","id":"f12e4bbb07211de7d43b4e331dc73404aa804562"} -{"article":"EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Hibernian have named former striker Mixu Paatelainen as their new manager in succession to John Collins -- who resigned last month in frustration at the lack of funds available to buy new players. Paatelainen was a popular playing figure in the distinctive green of Hibernian. The Finn, who enjoyed two playing spells with the Scottish Premier League club, joins from Finnish side TPS Turku. The 40-year-old, who also played for Dundee United, Aberdeen, St Johnstone and St Mirren in Scotland -- as well as Bolton and Wolverhampton in England, confirmed he is relishing the challenge of his new job. \"I am very happy to take up this opportunity,\" Paatelainen said. \"Everyone knows of my great affection for this club and I believe my desire to see teams play exciting, attacking and intelligent football fits well with the club's philosophy. \"I will bring energy, hard-work and leadership to the squad. I am also committed to working with players, as individuals and groups, to help them to improve. \"If I can help one player improve, the team is better. If I can help all players improve, we are much better.\" Capped 70 times by Finland, Paatelainen helped Turku finish third in the Veikkausliiga last year. Compensation for his release has been agreed. His two playing stints with Hibernian were from 1998-2001 and 2002-2003, either side of a spell with French side Strasbourg. Paatelainen may know some of the Hibernian players who have come through the youth set-up, having been involved in coaching of the club's youngsters during his second playing spell. Hibernian chairman Rod Petrie said: \"We are delighted Mixu has agreed to take up the challenge and opportunity of managing Hibernian. We are convinced that he was the strongest candidate, and he impressed us a great deal during his interview. \"He has a clear vision of the type of football he wants to play, has strong ideas on man-management and demonstrates excellent leadership qualities. I am sure he will further enhance his growing reputation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Scottish club Hibernian appoint Finn Mixu Paatelainen as their new manager .\nThe 40-year-old replaces John Collins, who resigned from his post last month .\nPaatelainen was a popular figure during two different playing spells with Hibs .","id":"d8dc5c93ed7677ae66f16945459bc51d6448f6df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bus carrying high school band students tipped over Saturday on Interstate 94 northwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota, killing one person. The bus that was carrying school band members rests upright after it crashed Saturday in Minnesota. Three people were critically injured, authorities said. A second bus traveling with the one that crashed wasn't affected, according to a report posted on the Web site of the Pelican Rapids School District. The students from Pelican Rapids High School were returning from a band trip to Chicago, Illinois, when the accident happened near Albertville, Minnesota, the Minnesota Highway Patrol said. Forty-eight people, including the driver, were on the westbound bus that tipped over about 6 a.m., the Minnesota Highway Patrol said. Everyone on that bus was taken to hospitals for treatment or evaluation, the school district said. Watch rescuers work at the scene \u00bb . Pelican Rapids is in west-central Minnesota. The cause of the accident is being investigated. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Bus carrying high school students tips over on Minnesota interstate .\nOne person killed, three critically injured, authorities say .\nTwo buses from Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, were on way home from Chicago, Illinois .","id":"7241f8fe0e37c45db9684006a3fe1850c38f1287"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iceland and Sweden plan to take in about 200 Palestinian refugees from Iraq who have been living in refugee camps along the Iraqi-Syrian border, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. More than two dozen refugees stranded at the Al Waleed refugee camp for the last two years will be headed to Iceland in the next few weeks, the agency said. In addition, 155 Palestinians in the Al Tanf refugee camp have been accepted for resettlement in Sweden, it said. Many Palestinians living in Iraq have gotten caught up in the violence that has engulfed the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and have had to flee their homes. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that out of the estimated 34,000 Palestinians who lived in Iraq since 2003, about 10,000 to 15,000 remain. The UNHCR says about 2,300 Palestinians \"are living in desperate conditions along the Iraq-Syria border.\" They are, the UNHCR says, \"unable to return to Iraq or to cross the borders to neighboring countries.\" It says the Al Waleed camp has 1,400 people and Al Tanf about 900. \"UNHCR has repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians but with few results. Few Palestinians in the border camps have been accepted for resettlement or offered shelter in third countries; 223 Palestinians left to non-traditional resettlement countries such as Brazil and Chile. \"Some urgent medical cases were taken by a few European countries, but this is a very small number out of the 2,300 Palestinians stranded in the desert,\" the UNHCR said in a statement. It noted that Sudan has made an offer to take in some of those Palestinians, and said \"UNHCR and Palestinian representatives are finalizing an operations plan that will enable this to take place.\" Refugees International recently asked the United States government to intervene and resettle the Palestinians in the United States instead of Sudan, which itself is engulfed in sectarian fighting and whose government has been condemned for atrocities. \"The Palestinians being resettled in Sudan is obviously not an ideal or preferred solution,\" State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper told CNN last month. \"But we accept the judgment of the UNHCR that it is preferable to the Palestinians continuing to be stranded in the border area in extremely dire circumstances.\"","highlights":"Some 200 Palestinian refugees from Iraq will go to Iceland, Sweden .\n2,300 Palestinians \"are living in desperate conditions along the Iraq-Syria border\"\nPlans under way to send some refugees to war-torn Sudan .","id":"23839b7d4d1065dd29f14199953d70b814e7ae69"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police tightened security at airports across Pakistan Thursday after receiving reports of a possible suicide attack at the international airport that serves Islamabad. Pakistan's capital was rocked by a suicide attack on the city's Marriott Hotel at the weekend. Officers emptied the parking lot at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, on the outskirts of Islamabad, said Parvez George of the country's Civil Aviation Authority. Flights were going out of the airport, but police cleared the terminal building of the large crowds that usually gather to see relatives arrive or depart, George said. Muhammad Asghar of Islamabad Police told CNN that authorities placed the airport on high alert after intelligence reports indicated it was under threat of an attack. The country's capital city is on edge since a deadly blast Saturday night at the Marriott Hotel. The explosion killed more than 50 people, including two U.S. military personnel and the Czech ambassador to Pakistan. The bombing wounded more than 250 and sparked a fire that left the hotel in ruins. On Thursday, the Danish intelligence service said one of its employees, Karsten Krabbe, was among the victims of the blast. Krabbe, a 53-year-old married father of two, was a security adviser at the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, which was targeted by a suicide bomber in June. That attack killed six people and wounded more than 20. \"Karsten Krabbe lost his life in a cowardly and ruthless terror attack,\" the Danish intelligence service said in a statement. Reacting to the Saturday's attack, the U.S. government barred employees from major hotels in several Pakistani cities, the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan said. The Embassy in Islamabad added Lahore on Wednesday to a list of three other cities in which U.S. personnel are no longer allowed to visit or stay in major hotels. The Embassy took the measures because of general security concerns, said spokesman Lou Fintor Thursday. He did not comment on a specific threat. In addition to the hotel restriction, the Embassy temporarily suspended visa and other routine consular services for Thursday and Friday. It said it will make available emergency services for U.S. citizens who need passports or are arrested. And an advisory reminded Americans in Pakistan to avoid crowds and demonstrations and to keep a \"low profile.\" It said Americans should vary times and routes while traveling to avoid setting patterns. And it said a travel warning issued on August 7 still stands: U.S. citizens should defer nonessential travel to Pakistan due to continuing security concerns. -- CNN's Zein Basravi and Reza Sayah, and Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report .","highlights":"Benazir Bhutto International Airport on high alert .\nIntelligence reports indicated airport was under threat of an attack .\nOfficers combed through the airport compound looking for explosives .\nDanish intelligence says one of its employees was killed in Marriott hotel attack .","id":"dfc1f57db9df6e3b675c03108d51b19e63d7c783"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- When the Emperors Club VIP said it was sending Kristen, a call girl it described as a \"petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds,\" Client 9 was pleased. Ashley Alexandra Dupre writes on her MySpace page: \"I have been broke and homeless.\" \"Great, OK, wonderful,\" he told the escort service's booking agent, according to a federal affidavit. Client 9, later revealed to be New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, was caught arranging the liaison on a federal wiretap. It was the beginning of the end for him. For the woman at the heart of the prostitution scandal, it was just another step on what she calls an \"odyssey\" of degrading abuse and high aspirations. Court documents reportedly identified Ashley Youmans -- now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre -- as Kristen, the high-priced prostitute who met with Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on February 13. Dupre is a 22-year-old would-be singer from New Jersey, the New York Times reported Wednesday. She has not been charged with any crime. Watch a report from Dupre's apartment building \u00bb . Dupre made a brief appearance Monday in U.S. Magistrate Court as a witness against four people charged with operating Emperor's Club VIP, the prostitution ring, the Times said. Spitzer announced his resignation Wednesday as governor of New York, two days after reports of his connection to the Emperors Club VIP emerged. Dupre told the Times she's mostly gone without sleep since the case became public. \"I just don't want to be thought of as a monster,\" Dupre told the newspaper. She revealed little else in the interview, but her MySpace page offered some insight into her background. Dupre writes that she left home at 17 to begin \"my odyssey to New York.\" \"It was my decision, and I've never looked back,\" she writes. \"Left my hometown. Left a broken family. Left abuse. Left an older brother who had already split. Left and learned what it was like to have everything, and lose it, again and again. \"Learned what it was like to wake up one day and have the people you care about most gone. I have been alone. I have abused drugs. I have been broke and homeless. But, I survived, on my own. I am here, in NY because of my music.\" Watch Kyle Youmans describe his sister as \"tough\" \u00bb . In her profile, Dupre says she moved to Manhattan to pursue her music career. \"I am all about my music, and my music is all about me,\" she writes on her MySpace page. \"It flows from what I've been through, what I've seen and how I feel.\" The page includes a picture of Dupre with the slogan \"what destroys me, strengthens me.\" It also features a song titled \"What we want\" recorded by Dupre, with lyrics including \"I know what you want, you got what I want, I know what you need, can you handle me?\" On the MySpace page, Dupre lists singers Etta James, Aretha Franklin and Celine Dion, as well as her brother, as her influences. She also offers some advice for those experiencing hard times. \"I made it. I'm still here and I love who I am. If I never went through the hard times, I would not be able to appreciate the good ones,\" Dupre writes. \"Clich\u00e9, yes, but I know it's true. I have experienced just how hard it can be. I can honestly tell you to never dwell on the past, but build from it and keep moving forward.\" Her brother, Kyle Youmans, told CNN he would not comment on the case or how his sister earns money, but he said she is \"the best sister you could have.\" \"I'm sticking by my sister, doing everything so she'll be fine,\" Youmans said. \"She'll make it through.\" The family is \"holding together\" since the Spitzer scandal became public, he added. Dupre's mother, Carolyn Capalbo, told the Times that she and her daughter were close, adding that \"she obviously got involved in something much larger than her.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.","highlights":"New York Times: Court documents identify the woman as Ashley Alexandra Dupre .\nShe has not been charged with any crime .\nDupre writes on her MySpace page that she abused drugs and has been homeless .\n\"She'll make it through,\" her brother says .","id":"fe19482a81fd91431a0399f5db38325b67e94caf"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Some 43 years after a Beatles concert was -- according to popular belief -- banned by Israel, Paul McCartney has announced he'll perform there in September. Paul McCartney says he's looking forward to playing a concert in Israel next month. The show, which will be held September 25 in Tel Aviv, had been rumored for months. Promoters are saying it will be one of the biggest concerts ever held in Israel, and they hope it will encourage other top stars to come to Israel. A web site offering tickets for the concert put prices at 1,500 shekels and 490 shekels or between $426.86 and $139.44 U.S. dollars. Israelis \"will finally get the chance to experience a night of music and history they have been waiting decades for,\" a news release on McCartney's Web site announced Wednesday. Two plane loads of equipment will be arriving with around 100 McCartney production people. The concert will cost around $10 million to produce and the organizers said they are hoping to make a profit. In the mid-1960s, when the Fab Four from Liverpool, England, ruled the music charts, a concert in Israel was proposed. It never happened. The long-told story maintained that Beatlemania was deemed too potentially injurious to Israel's youth. A more recent theory, however, blamed the ban on a tiff between competing concert promoters. Whatever the reason, Israelis never got to experience The Beatles live. Earlier this year, Israel's ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, visited Liverpool and apologized to The Beatles for the \"misunderstanding.\" In a letter Prosor wrote: \"There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform.\" McCartney and Ringo Starr are the only surviving Beatles. John Lennon was slain by a deranged gunman in 1980; George Harrison died of cancer in 2001. McCartney is billing the Tel Aviv show his \"Friendship First\" concert. \"I've heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and experiencing it for yourself is another,\" McCartney said in the news release. \"We are planning to have a great time and a great evening. We can't wait to get out there and rock.\"","highlights":"Former Beatle Paul McCartney to play in Tel Aviv, Israel, in September .\nBeatles concert was banned by Israel in mid-1960s .\nStories differ as to why Fab Four were banned by Israel .","id":"60d6cc423cf345dd2282a122675652e47bdae48e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday tried to paint Sen. John McCain as a candidate who is out of touch with the middle class. Sen. Barack Obama speaks about the economy at a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday. Speaking about Friday's presidential debate, Obama accused McCain of not addressing working families. \"We talked about the economy for 40 minutes, and not once did Sen. McCain talk about the struggles that middle class families are facing every day,\" Obama said at a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan. The economy took the lead in Friday night's presidential debate, as both candidates highlighted their plans to bring the United States out of what some are describing as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. McCain on Sunday brushed off Obama's latest line of attack, saying he has \"bigger things to worry about.\" \"Who does he think I was talking about when I said 'people on Main Street'? Who did he think I was talking about, about the necessity of helping the American taxpayers and income -- and Americans who are out there working and trying to keep their jobs?\" he said on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"I've got bigger things to worry about than that.\" The Republican presidential candidate did address \"Main Street\" in the debate Friday night, saying that \"we've got to fix the system\" because \"Main Street is paying a penalty for the excesses and greed in Washington, D.C., and on Wall Street.\" Still, Obama's campaign pointed out that McCain didn't specifically say \"middle class,\" during the debate. McCain's campaign said Sunday that during the Michigan event, Obama \"ignored his [Obama's] record of opposing middle class tax relief, opposing a competitive tax rate, and opposing a plan to incentivize new battery technology.\" The campaign said Obama's \"talk about the middle class is much different than his record.\" During the debate, McCain repeatedly said Obama \"doesn't understand\" key issues the country is facing, but at campaign events this weekend, Obama blasted McCain as the candidate who \"doesn't get it.\" Watch the candidates' plans for the upcoming week \u00bb . \"The truth is, through 90 minutes of debating, John McCain had a lot to say about me, but he had nothing to say about you. Not once did he say the words 'middle class.' Not once did he talk about working families. I think Sen. McCain just doesn't get it,\" Obama said Sunday. The Obama-Biden campaign continues that argument in a new ad that will begin airing nationally on Monday. The ad says when it comes to the economy, McCain \"doesn't get it.\" \"Number of minutes in debate: 90,\" the announcer says as the words are typed across a blank screen. \"Number of times John McCain mentioned the middle class: Zero.\" The 30-second spot, \"Zero,\" includes portions of Friday night's debate where Obama suggested McCain has followed President Bush on economic policy. Watch the ad \u00bb . A recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll found when it comes to the economy, 47 percent of voters questioned said Republicans are more responsible for the current economic problems, while 24 percent said Democrats are more responsible. In response to the latest ad, the McCain campaign blasted Obama's tax policy. \"John McCain repeatedly pointed to Sen. Obama's vote in favor of higher taxes on families making just $42,000 a year, and his proposal for $860 billion in lavish new government spending which is a crushing burden on middle class families and the Main Street economy,\" spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement Saturday. \"If he was honest, Barack Obama knows he was unable to debate the merits of supporting higher taxes on the middle class, and bloated government spending during a looming economic crisis -- it's simply indefensible.\" The McCain campaign is referring to a June 5, 2008, vote on a resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 70) meant to outline the Senate's budget priorities through 2013, but the measure had no practical effect. According to a CNN review of the resolution, it assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts pushed by President Bush will expire in that time, which McCain says amounts to a tax increase. Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden voted \"yes\" on the resolution. McCain did not vote. However, the Democrats offered their own cuts in the 48-page resolution, which called for several tax cuts and breaks, including rolling back the alternative-minimum tax and the so-called \"marriage penalty.\" According to an analysis by the independent Tax Policy Center, the tax plan Obama has proposed during the campaign would increase taxes in 2009 on the wealthiest 20 percent of households, while offering tax cuts for the other 80 percent. CNN's Kristi Keck and Emily Sherman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Barack Obama criticizes John McCain for not saying \"middle class\" in debate .\nMcCain says that's what he meant by \"Main Street\"\nObama campaign has new ad saying McCain \"doesn't get it\"\nMcCain campaign slams Obama on tax policy .","id":"81976e59f94c2fff12dc78eee8d90723aaed4898"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan lawmakers have directly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of involvement in a string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, blasting their neighbor as \"the largest center for breeding and exporting terrorism.\" The recent attack by a suicide bomber on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed more than 40 people. A Pakistani official Tuesday bristled at the accusation, saying that Afghan lawmakers were making allegations without proof. \"We are not an irresponsible nation and we don't blame our failures on others,\" said a senior official with Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). \"If they want to engage in this kind of game, let them be.\" The Afghan Cabinet made the scathing indictment in a resolution Monday, saying Afghanistan would boycott a series of meetings with Pakistan unless \"bilateral trust\" is restored. In recent weeks a wave of attacks carried out by Islamic militants have killed scores of people in Afghanistan, including an assault on a military outpost Sunday that killed nine U.S. soldiers, as well as a suicide attack on the Indian Embassy a week ago that killed 58 people. The two incidents, along with an assassination attempt against Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a military ceremony on April 27, are \"indicative of the attempts by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) to once again occupy Afghanistan and to perish the true right of the people of Afghanistan for national sovereignty,\" the resolution said. Afghanistan regularly accuses Pakistan's intelligence service -- which once had strong ties with the Taliban -- of orchestrating attacks inside its borders. Pakistan has repeatedly denied involvement, including in the incidents that the resolution cited. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said there is no indication that \"foreign agents\" were responsible for the embassy attack. The senior ISI official said Tuesday that if Afghanistan has proof that Pakistani intelligence agents were involved in the attacks, that proof should be presented and the ISI will act on it. The official said that the Pakistani government could also blame incidents in Pakistan, like recent attacks in Karachi and Hangu, on others. But without proof, he said, it would be irresponsible. Pakistan and Afghanistan have a tumultuous history that dates back several years. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, religious schools in Pakistan helped train fighters who battled the Soviets. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996 and imposed fundamentalist rule, Pakistan was one of the few countries that recognized the regime diplomatically. It dropped its support after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. But Afghanistan claims that Pakistan continues to informally support the militants, who operate from havens in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions near the porous 1,500-mile border the two countries share. Adding fresh ammunition to the suspicions, the Rand Corp. -- a U.S. think tank -- released a report last month that said some members of Pakistan's intelligence service and its paramilitary corps were helping insurgents in Afghanistan. The study, funded by the U.S. Defense Department, alleged that members of the two agencies often tipped off militants to the location and movement of coalition forces trying to rout them. It also said personnel within the agencies trained fighters at camps in Pakistan, financed them and helped them cross the border into Afghanistan. The Pakistani military denied and denounced the report, calling it a \"smear campaign\" designed to \"create doubts and suspicion in the minds of (the) target audience.\" Relations between the two countries are strained to such a point that Karzai has threatened to send troops across the border to take on the militants. \"The people of Afghanistan and the international community have come to the reality that Pakistan intelligence institutions and its army have become the largest center for breeding and exporting terrorism and extremism to the world and particularly to Afghanistan,\" Monday's resolution said.","highlights":"Afghanistan: Pakistan is \"largest center for breeding and exporting terrorism\"\nAttacks carried out by Islamic militants have killed scores of people in Afghanistan .\nPakistan intelligence service often accused of orchestrating attacks .\nPakistan: Afghan lawmakers making allegations without proof .","id":"33256f425874aa89e0f098884c01ee144475286e"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates have hijacked a Thai cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast, the Kenya Seafarers Association said Thursday. The ship, the MV Thor Star, was hijacked Tuesday with 28 Thai crew members on board, said Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for the association, which acts on behalf of merchant vessels in the region. The Thai-flagged ship is owned by Bangkok-based Thoresen Thai Agencies. Pirate attacks are frequent in the waters off Somalia, a notoriously unsafe area for unescorted vessels. Earlier this month, Canada announced it was dispatching a warship to the area to protect U.N. aid ships after more than two dozen reported pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia this year.","highlights":"MV Thor Star, was hijacked Tuesday with 28 Thai crew .\nCargo ship hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast .\nHeavily armed pirates frequently hijack cargo ships off Horn of Africa .","id":"6d94f7f790a07b7d38ee1cec6b0a1e1b1ec66a81"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three more members of a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs are facing sexual assault charges, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday. The latest charges come two months after Warren Jeffs and five followers were indicted in Texas. On Tuesday, a Texas grand jury indicted the three male members of Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints compound outside Eldorado, Abbott said. Each faces one felony count of sexual assault of a child. Two of them also face felony bigamy charges. The identities of the men were not released because they had not been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon. In July, the Schleicher County grand jury indicted Jeffs and four of his Texas FLDS followers on child sexual assault charges. Jeffs was charged with sexually assaulting a child under 17. A fifth follower was charged with failure to report child abuse. The charges stem from a state and federal investigation into the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch. In April, child welfare workers removed more than 400 children from the compound, citing allegations of physical and sexual abuse. After a court battle, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned in June, saying that the state had no right to remove them and that there was no evidence to show the children faced imminent danger of abuse on the ranch. Jeffs, 52, is the leader and \"prophet\" of the estimated 10,000-member FLDS, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at the YFZ Ranch and in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line: Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Jeffs, who is facing a sentence in Utah of up to life in prison and is awaiting trial in Arizona, could face another life sentence in Texas if convicted on the latest charge. In Utah, he was convicted on accomplice to rape charges for his role in the marriage of a sect member to a 14-year-old. He faces similar charges in Arizona. His attorney in Arizona, Michael Piccarreta, has questioned the motives of Texas authorities. He said in July that the state's investigation into Jeffs and his followers is an effort \"to cover themselves up on the botched attack on the ranch in Texas.\"","highlights":"Three members of a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs indicted .\nTexas attorney general: Members of FLDS facing sexual assault charges .\nEach faces one felony count of sexual assault of a child .\nIn July, a grand jury indicted six other members of the sect .","id":"b83585ce80b87099e8452a01dbcf06549290359e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York appeals court Thursday overturned terrorism convictions for a Yemeni cleric and his personal assistant, saying they did not receive a fair trial. Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Moayad and Mohammed Mohsen Zayed, were sentenced in 2005 to 75 and 45 years in prison, respectively, after being convicted of conspiring to provide material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations. They now can have new trials under a different judge. The lawyer for al-Moayad, Robert Boyle, said, \"I'm extremely gratified at the court's decision. I believe it is legally and factually correct. I hope my client, who is elderly and not in good health, will be given the opportunity to return to his family in Yemen.\" The three-judge panel was unanimous in its decision, citing evidentiary errors that likely influenced the outcome of the trial. The judges found that certain pieces of evidence presented by prosecutors were prejudicial and had the effect of denying al-Moayad and Zayed a fair trial. Zayed and al-Moayad were arrested in 2003 in a sting operation that culminated in Germany. The government's case relied largely on secretly videotaped conversations between the defendants and a pair of undercover FBI informants at a Frankfurt hotel in 2003. One of the informants, Mohamed Alanssi, testified that al-Moayad boasted about giving money, weapons and recruits to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The charges were brought in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly collected terrorist funds at the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn. Now that the appeals court has vacated the convictions, prosecutors have the option of appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court if they feel there is a constitutional issue. They can retry the case or move to dismiss. Al-Moayad, who is in his 60s, is incarcerated at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, as is Zayed. Boyle said he had called the prison and as of 4 p.m. Thursday was still waiting to speak to his client. CNN's Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mohammed Ali al-Moayad, aide were convicted of supporting terrorism .\nCourt says prejudicial evidence denied pair a fair trial .\nAl-Moayad, Zayed may be retried or cases may be dismissed .\nWitness said al-Moayad boasted about giving money to Osama bin Laden .","id":"d6a9bc3f37a5b71548289cd4c261dbb6a4f93009"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The commander for NATO forces in Afghanistan said Wednesday that more military presence is \"needed as quickly as possible.\" U.S. troops are seeing an increased threat in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan says. Gen. David McKiernan said the additional military capability is needed because of \"an increased number of fighters\" coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan's lawless tribal regions. \"It's a significant increase from what we saw this time last year,\" he said at the Pentagon. \"We're facing a tougher threat right now, especially in the east where we have the U.S. division,\" he said. \"And so the additional military capability [is] needed as quickly as possible.\" He said what's necessary includes \"boots on the ground\" as well as support such as \"helicopters, increased intelligence assets, logistics, transportation and so on.\" Just over a week ago, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that a Marine battalion will head to Afghanistan in November and an Army brigade in January, but no more forces will be available for deployment to Afghanistan until spring or summer of 2009. The week before Gates' announcement, McKiernan had asked for four more brigades -- three more than the one approved to go in January. Three brigades add up to as many as 12,000 troops. The defense secretary, speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, expressed caution about adding too many troops in Afghanistan. \"I think we need to think about how heavy a military footprint the U.S. ought to have in Afghanistan,\" he told the committee. Instead, Gates said, there should be a focus on increasing the size of the Afghan army. McKiernan, who took command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force earlier this year, said his request of an additional 3,500 people to train the Afghan army and police is still under review. McKiernan noted that he is \"cautiously optimistic\" regarding Pakistan's military operations against Taliban and al Qaeda fighters inside its borders. \"What we're seeing is Pakistani leadership taking on a deteriorated militant sanctuary in the tribal areas that has deteriorated over last several years,\" he said. McKiernan said it is \"probably too early\" to see if Pakistan's military clampdown in its tribal areas has had any effect on stemming militant activity in Afghanistan. \"We're watching those very closely to see if there's a cause and effect with the strength of the insurgency on the Afghan side of the border,\" he said. \"But we think that's a positive step that they are taking on those militant sanctuaries.\"","highlights":"More foreign fighters entering Afghanistan from Pakistan, general says .\n\"We're facing a tougher threat,\" so more troops needed \"as quickly as possible\"\nU.S. Gen. David McKiernan commands NATO forces in Afghanistan .\nMcKiernan has sought three more brigades of U.S. troops than one promised .","id":"c2fb74c069df07ab1633014e1d32c3c408478685"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before heading out for a trio of well-publicized meetings with foreign dignitaries Tuesday, Sarah Palin received a briefing from the director of national security, Adm. Michael McConnell. Gov. Sarah Palin is in New York to meet with leaders from around the world. The appearances with world leaders, taking place on the sidelines of the United Nation's General Assembly meetings in New York, come as the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain tries to convince voters that Palin is ready for the world stage. Palin's top foreign policy adviser informed reporters of the meeting at a small briefing after Palin's visits with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The adviser, Stephen Biegun, formerly a top member of the National Security Council under President Bush, characterized the intelligence briefing as \"routine\" and said it was the sort of meeting that \"is standard for candidates for the vice president and president.\" Biegun said several officials were present to brief Palin. Although Palin held photo-ops with the leaders, she refused to take questions from any reporters. The Alaska governor initially said that no reporters would be allowed to sit in on her meeting with Karzai. She planned to allow in only photographers and one television crew, but she changed her position after at least five U.S. news networks protested. CNN does not send cameras into candidate events where editorial presence is not allowed. Nonetheless, Biegun said, \"these are relationships that she intuitively understands are very important for the next president and vice president of the United States.\" In those get-togethers, Palin kept the focus primarily on energy issues and the growing influence of Russia, according to Biegun. Palin found Kissinger particularly engrossing; their meeting had been scheduled to last 30 minutes, but the two met for nearly an hour and a half. \"In talking to Dr. Kissinger,\" Biegun said, \"she certainly had a lot of questions about how the United States can develop a cooperative relationship with Russia, what are some of the unique challenges to the current state of Russia's political development, and having been in particular, some of the recent developments we've seen with Russia: backsliding democracy, Russia's incursion into Georgia.\" Asked about her meetings with Karzai and Uribe, Biegun said Palin \"liked them very much\" and \"established a great personal rapport.\" With Karzai, Palin chatted for half an hour about McCain's desire to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. With Uribe, she listened for about 20 minutes as the president discussed the country's security situation and its handling of guerrillas. According to Biegun, \"rather than make specific policy prescriptions, she was largely listening, having an exchange of views, and also very interested in forming a relationship with people she met with today.\" Biegun is helping prepare Palin for her debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden on October 2 in St. Louis, Missouri. He would not say what specific topics Palin was concentrating on in her study sessions. James Hoge of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Palin meetings are meant to \"show, just as [Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack] Obama did when he went to Germany and gave a speech in Berlin, that she is comfortable on the international scene, that she can hold her own in conversations with foreign leaders. Watch what's on Palin's agenda \u00bb . Democrats warn that Palin's carefully scripted photo-ops, some of which will include McCain, could backfire by bringing attention to the holes in her r\u00e9sum\u00e9. \"The big risk that they run with this strategy of having her meet with these leaders individually is that they end up with three days of stories about how she doesn't have foreign policy experience,\" said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist and CNN contributor. But Republicans point out that Palin is just following in the footsteps of other national candidates such as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, former governors who needed to beef up their international policy credentials. \"The first thing you do is burnish their foreign policy credentials. You buy them a Rand-McNally, you meet with generals, you get a lot of flags on the stage, and you give a big speech on foreign policy to display you have some command of the world,\" said Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor. As a 44-year-old governor who just got her passport last year, she has had to fend off accusations that she is not up to speed on foreign policy. In a recent interview with ABC, she admitted that she has never met with a head of state. Asked last week for specific skills she could cite to rebut critics who question her grasp of international affairs, she replied, \"I am prepared.\" \"I have that confidence. I have that readiness,\" Palin told voters at a town-hall meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. \"And if you want specifics with specific policies or countries, you can go ahead and ask me. You can play 'stump the candidate' if you want to. But we are ready to serve.\" McCain stepped in, pointing out that as governor of a state that has plenty of oil and gas, Palin was familiar with energy. She knows it to be \"one of our great national security challenges,\" he said. He also cited her nearly two years as commander of Alaska's National Guard. \"I believe she is absolutely, totally qualified to address every challenge as the next vice president of the United States,\" McCain said. CNN's Peter Hamby and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Palin meets with world leaders on sidelines of U.N. world summit .\nMeeting with Kissinger stretches into an hour and a half .\nPalin debates Sen. Joe Biden next week in St. Louis, Missouri .\nPalin has had to defend herself against charges she lacks foreign policy experience .","id":"72b6f208bededdd41541f22b909ed82af493eb08"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday froze the U.S. assets of eight members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which it has deemed a narco-terrorist organization. The Treasury's action, termed a \"designation,\" also prohibited Americans from conducting business with FARC. \"Today's designation exposes eight 'International Commission members' of the FARC,\" said Adam Szubin, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. \"Through their service to the FARC as international representatives and negotiators, these persons provide material support to a narco-terrorist organization.\" The organization, comprised of Colombian leftist rebels, is best known as FARC, its Spanish acronym. The eight in Tuesday's designation represent the FARC in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico and Canada, the Treasury Department alleged. \"As representatives of the FARC and members of its International Commission, these individuals work abroad to obtain recruits, support and protection for the FARC's acts of terrorism,\" the department said in a written statement. \"Some are also themselves violent criminals.\" One, Jairo Alfonse Lesmes Bulla, was arrested in August for allegedly plotting the assassinations of some South American officials, Treasury said. Bulla represents FARC in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, according to the department. Another, Orlay Jurado Palomino, who represents FARC in Venezuela, is wanted in Colombia on charges of kidnapping, rebellion and terrorism, the department said. And Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazos, who represents FARC in Brazil, was arrested in August 2005 at the request of Colombia on charges of rebellion, the Treasury statement said. A fourth, Nubia Calderon de Trujillo, was recently granted asylum by Nicaragua, the department said. The other four are Ovidio Salinas Perez; Jorge Davalos Torres; Efrain Pablo Rejo Freire; and Liliana Lopez Palacios, according to the Treasury statement.","highlights":"Treasury Department targets members of Colombia rebel group .\nThe group, known as FARC, has been deemed a narco-terrorist organization .\nAction also prohibits Americans from doing business with FARC .","id":"2aadd878ccfc15b3d28a69841db932a69f6e6aa7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At 51 years of age, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has come a long way. As part of the Kashubian minority living in the Gdansk Region, he was born to working-class parents -- his father a carpenter and his mother a nurse. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was elected in November 2007. As a student of History at the University of Gdansk in the late 1970s, a period of growing discontent with the Communist regime in Poland, he became actively involved in the creation of the opposition Students' Solidarity Committee, founded in reaction to the murder of student activist Stanislaw Pyjas by the State Security Service. Despite his anti-communist activities, he successfully finished his studies in 1980 and joined the Independent Solidarity Trade Union movement. When the Communists imposed martial law in 1981 he continued with his underground activities, writing pamphlets about the ideas of liberal economist Friedrich Hayek and the concept of private property. His heroes became former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. With the fall of Communism in 1989, the Solidarity Movement splintered. Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity Leader was elected President, while Tusk went on to co-found the KLD (Liberal and Democratic Congress Party) with other well-known figures. The Party stood for among other things: free market economy, privatization, individual freedom of Polish citizens and Polish accession to the EU. The following year, during the 1991 Parliamentary elections, the KLD won 37 seats in the lower house of the Polish Parliament. Not being able to follow up on their success in the 1993 elections, the KLD merged with the larger Democratic Union Party (UD) to form a new party called Freedom Union (UW). Tusk soon became Deputy Chairman and in the 1997 elections, he was voted into the Senate. In 2001, Tusk formed the Civic Platform Party (PO), winning seats in that year's parliamentary elections and becoming Deputy Speaker in parliament. But the Civic Platform was not able to sustain its success in the 2005 elections. Tusk and his party lost both the presidential and parliamentary elections to Lech Kacczynski's PiS (Law and Justice Party). This setback was not to last as Tusk triumphed over Jaroslaw Kaczynsky's PiS in the October 2007 elections and became prime minister of Poland. Tusk's economic policies are pro-business: less bureaucratic hurdles and state interference making it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses. He is also trying to woo back more than a million Poles who left the country to work in other European Union countries after it joined the EU in 2004. Tusk is a keen footballer, viewed in his youth as a promising striker. He is married to historian Malgorzata and has two children, Kasia and Michal.","highlights":"Involved in anti-communist activities as a student in Gdansk .\nIn 1989 Tusk co-founded the KLD (Liberal and Democratic Congress Party)\nIn 1997 he was voted into the Polish Senate .\nBecame prime minister of Poland after 1997 parliamentary election .","id":"69db4c23aa0faad362a41f20befe238563e03354"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a column appearing in Newsweek, world affairs expert and author Fareed Zakaria said he thinks it would be best for Republican presidential hopeful John McCain if Gov. Sarah Palin bowed out as his vice presidential running mate. \"For him to choose Sarah Palin to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible,\" says Zakaria. Zakaria says McCain did not put the country first in making his V.P. choice, and he says Palin is not qualified to lead the United States. CNN spoke to him about his commentary titled, \"Palin is ready? Please.\" CNN: What did you initially think when Sarah Palin was announced as the Republican vice presidential nominee? Zakaria: I was a bit surprised -- as I think most people were. But I was willing to give her a chance. And I thought her speech at the convention was clever and funny. But once she began answering questions about economics and foreign policy, it became clear that she has simply never thought about these subjects before and is dangerously ignorant and unprepared for the job of vice president, let alone president. Watch Zakaria slam Sarah Palin \u00bb . CNN: You don't think she is qualified? Zakaria: No. Gov. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly -- nonsense. Just listen to her response to Katie Couric's question about the bailout. It's gibberish -- an emptying out of catchphrases about economics that have nothing to do with the question or the topic. It's scary to think that this person could be running the country. Here is their exchange: . Katie Couric: Why isn't it better, Gov. Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess? Gov. Sarah Palin: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the -- it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that. CNN: But Dan Quayle wasn't very qualified and that didn't seem to matter, did it? Zakaria: This is way beyond Dan Quayle. Quayle was a lightweight who was prone to scramble his words, or say things that sounded weird, but you almost always knew what he meant. One of his most famous miscues was to the United Negro College Fund when he said, \"What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all.\" Now he was trying to play off a famous ad that the group used to run, \"A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.\" And he screwed it up in a funny way. But read Gov. Palin's answers and it does appear that she doesn't have any understanding about the topic under discussion. CNN: But she has a lot of supporters. Zakaria: Look, I'm not saying that she is not a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. It is just we are talking about a person who should be ready to lead the United States at a moment's notice. She has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. CNN: Does it make you concerned about Sen. McCain as a president? Zakaria: Yes, and I say this with sadness because I greatly admire John McCain, a man of intelligence, honor and enormous personal and political courage. However, for him to choose Sara Palin to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. He did not put the country first with this decision. Whether it is appropriate or not, considering Sen. McCain's age most people expected to have a vice presidential candidate who would be ready to step in at a moment's notice. The actuarial odds of that happening are significant, something like a one-in-five chance.","highlights":"Fareed Zakaria says John McCain did not put country first with his choice .\nPalin should bow out saying she wants \"to spend more time with her family,\" he says .\nZakaria: This is \"hell of a time\" for Palin to start thinking about national, global issues .","id":"dbab58215a337dbab8f418c6945c319d1845bd63"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared victory Thursday in an election to lead the ruling Kadima Party, putting her on a path that could make her Israel's first female prime minister in 34 years. Kadima candidate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is the chief Israeli negotiator with the Palestinian Authority. Livni won with 43.1 percent of the vote, claiming a 431-vote margin of victory over Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, the Kadima Party said. Mofaz announced Thursday he will take a \"time out\" from politics and will resign his seat in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. But he indicated he does not intend his departure from front-line politics to be permanent. Livni's election marks a stunning rise for the 50-year-old, who entered the Knesset less than 10 years ago. \"It's a leap of faith for the people,\" analyst Avi Shavit said. \"They decided to trust a candidate they don't know much about.\" She may owe her victory over Mofaz, a former general, to her reputation for clean hands in a party losing its leader to allegations of graft. \"Kadima members are more concerned about the corruption threat inside Israel than the security threat from Hamas and Iran,\" Israeli columnist Gil Hoffman said. As new leader of the ruling party, Livni will try to form a coalition government and become prime minister after the departure of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been dogged by allegations of corruption. Olmert plans to inform the Cabinet on Sunday that he will resign, said Mark Regev, his spokesman. He has congratulated Livni and pledged to help make a smooth transition, according to Regev. Livni told reporters Thursday that she intends \"to bring together Kadima factions and to go on this new path together.\" Watch Livni at the ballot box \u00bb . Her slim margin of victory stood in contrast to exit polls that had shown her with a commanding lead over Mofaz and other rivals. Mofaz telephoned Livni to congratulate her on the victory, according to Israel Radio. Livni said she hoped to ensure stability in Israel's government. \"We need to face complicated threats. We need to face security threats. We need to move forward, and there is economic instability,\" she said. Livni has about 42 days to form a coalition government. If she fails, there could be early elections that could see another party leader elected as Olmert's successor to the prime minister post. There are many possible scenarios that could take place in the following months. Ehud Barak -- leader of the Labor Party, which holds the most parliamentary seats among Kadima's coalition partners -- could pull out of the coalition. That could force early elections, or force the government to take on new coalition partners who could restrict Livni's ability to negotiate with the Palestinians. If elections are called, Barak, a former prime minister, could vie for the top spot -- but polls show he may not have enough support. Some observers think that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud Party, could steal the show in the end. Whoever succeeds Olmert as prime minister will be handed a set of daunting challenges, including determining the fate of Israel's talks with the Palestinians, its fledgling indirect talks with Syria and its tough talk on Iran's nuclear aspirations. Livni, who is more widely known outside Israel than her main challenger, is the chief Israeli negotiator with the Palestinian Authority as the two sides work toward a peace deal. She refuses to be tied to the Bush administration's vision of a peace deal by the end of this year. \"We want to reach an agreement which at the end of the agreement we can find the words 'end of conflict,'\" she said. \"And in doing so, it takes time.\" To her supporters, she is squeaky-clean and a welcome change to Olmert, whose resignation comes amid mounting corruption charges. \"She's very honest, very sincere and I hope she's going to do whatever she says,\" one of her supporters said. \"We have to give her a chance and I'm willing to do it.\" CNN's Paula Hancocks and Michal Zippori contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Runner-up, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, resigning from Knesset .\nLivni claims victory in vote for leadership of ruling Kadima party .\nWin could make her Israel's first female prime minister in 34 years .\nLivni beat Mofaz by a narrow margin .","id":"78c48eca0267156fb6eef4c2d9da5b70919d2235"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tokyo may not be traditionally beautiful and it has few historic sights, but it is undeniably spectacular. You'll want to walk around the city, feeding off the incredible energy, rubbernecking at the skyscrapers and marveling at the sheer \"Tokyoness\" of it all. Get to Tsukiji fish market by 5 a.m. for an unforgettable experience. Ginza is the most stylish stretch of the city-- all flagship stores and pricey restaurants. It's a great place to window shop and tech-heads shouldn't miss the Sony Building, where they can get excited over the latest gadgets and marvel at a whole floor devoted to the PlayStation. For something more traditional, visit the Kabukiza Theatre. The ornate theater only dates back to 1949, but Kabuki plays have been around for at least 400 years. There are two performances a day and shows can last up to five hours, but you can buy tickets for a single act. Down by the Sumida River the Tsukiji fish market is an absolute must see -- unfortunately, you absolutely must see it at around 5 a.m. The early morning auction sees a rowdy crowd of restaurateurs battling to outbid each other for the best of the day's catch. Visitors aren't officially allowed, but as long as you don't get in the way and don't take any flash photos, your presence will be tolerated. Shibuya is the futuristic Tokyo that's inspired countless sci-fi films. The intersection in front of Shibuya Station is a sprawl of gleaming office blocks adorned with illuminated billboards and surrounded by relentless surging crowds. In the north of Shibuya, the Meiji Shrine Inner Gardens contain some 125,000 trees and shrubs, providing a suitably peaceful setting for the Shinto Meiji-jingu Shrine. Like Shibuya, Shinjuku is a bustling entertainment hub and virtually a city in itself. A world away from the bright lights of Nishi Shinjuku, and the red lights of Kabukicho, Golden Gai is an atmospheric ghetto of alleyways crammed with ramshackle bars, evoking a bygone Tokyo of the 1960s. Traditionally Tokyo's straight-laced business district, Marunouchi has recently developed into one of the city's most exciting areas, with swanky department stores, upmarket restaurants and sophisticated bars. You can find all of those inside the vast Shin-Marunouchi building. The glass and steel Tokyo International Forum is a glittering post-modern masterpiece that functions as a convention center and art gallery, housing various shops and eateries. Nearby, the Imperial Palace East Gardens are an immaculate oasis in the historic and geographical heart of the city. The gardens are open all year but the Imperial Palace itself is only open to the public on 2 January and 23 December, the Emperor's Birthday. If the streets of Tokyo aren't enough of an adrenaline rush, head to the Suidobashi area of Kanda, where Korakuen Amusement Park and La Qua boast high-octane thrill rides. La Qua's Thunder Dolphin is an unbelievable roller coaster that loops among rooftops and takes a short cut through the center of a Ferris wheel. For thrills of a more sophisticated nature, the Mori Art Museum on the 53rd floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower combines contemporary art with fantastic views, while Ueno Park is home to Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of Western Art, both highly recommended. Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . ...................... Do you agree with our Tokyo picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best.","highlights":"Stylish Ginza is the place to go for flagship stores and quality restaurants .\nGet yourself to the Tsukiji fish market for 5 a.m. to see it in full swing .\nThe Meiji Shrine Inner Gardens provide a beautiful setting for the Shrine itself .\nMori Art Museum is a winning combination of modern art and stunning views .","id":"e1cacfb3827c96ed975488a0f3627cabe5d182ba"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The Somali government has asked Russia to intervene against pirates who have seized a Ukrainian cargo ship, the Somali ambassador to Russia said Wednesday. The U.S. Navy released this observance photo of the MV Faina, which is loaded with weapons and tanks. But the Russian navy issued a statement later in the day saying it had no intention of using force against the pirates, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. \"The questions of freeing the ships and crew are being dealt with in line with the corresponding international practices,\" Interfax quoted Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo as saying. \"For understandable reasons, the use of force would be an extreme measure because it could threaten the life of the international crew of the ship.\" The pirates took over the MV Faina last week off the coast of Somalia and are demanding a $20 million ransom for the ship's cargo of 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms. The ship is anchored within Somalia's 12-mile territorial limit. \"The government and the president of Somalia are allowing the Russian naval ships to enter our waters, and fight against pirates both in the sea and on the land, that is, if they would have to chase them,\" Amb. Mohamed Handule said at a news conference in Moscow. \"We think that this issue of piracy has exceeded all limits. It is very dangerous that pirates are now laying their hands on arms -- not just for Somalia, not only for the navigating, but for the entire region in general,\" he added. \"Right now, pirates are controlling the sea in this area, but just imagine if they get control of the land too.\" The announcement raised concern among some officials monitoring the situation. Watch Russian warships move to confront pirates \u00bb . \"We may have bad news,\" said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association. Mwangura said some of the Ukrainian crew's family members are concerned for their loved ones' safety and have called him to see if he can communicate with the pirates. He urged negotiations to continue. \"For the safety of the crew members,\" Mwangura said, \"let the ship owners talk with the pirates.\" Watch Mwangura talk about the rise in pirating \u00bb . A Russian navy ship sailing toward the Faina is in the Atlantic Ocean and \"still has a bit of water to get here,\" said U.S. Navy Lt. Stephanie Murdock, who is stationed in nearby Bahrain. \"There is no estimated time of arrival yet.\" The U.S. Navy has several ships in the area monitoring the situation. \"There have been no changes today,\" Murdock said. The Navy has not communicated with the Russian ship but will work out coordination when it arrives, Murdock said. The Russian ship Neustrashimy is headed to the region solely to protect Russian shipping, according to the Russian navy spokesman. \"The navy command has been stressing that the Neustrashimy, from the Baltic Sea Fleet, has been given the task of arriving in the area of Somalia and guaranteeing for a certain time the safe seafaring of Russian ships in the area with a high risk of pirate attacks. The essence of the mission is to prevent the seizure of Russian ships by pirates,\" Dygalo said. Handule, the Nigerian ambassador, seemed to criticize the United States for not taking action. \"Ships of more than 10 countries are now close to our shores, but we are not satisfied with the results of their activities,\" he said. Citing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1816, Handule said, \"We are inviting all countries, all states who have possibility to support Somalia to fight against ... pirates. We are especially inviting Russia and giving special status to Russian warships to fight, to help Somalia.\" The latest developments came two days after three pirates were killed when they started shooting at each other, according to Mwangura, the Kenya maritime official. The shootout centered on a disagreement between moderate and radical pirates aboard the ship, Mwangura said. The moderates wanted to surrender, but the radicals did not. The pirates hijacked the ship off the coast of Somalia September 25. The Faina had been headed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa after departing from Nikolayev, Ukraine, and was seized not far from its destination. The Faina is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, and its crew includes citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, the Navy said. Abdi Salan Khalif, commissioner of the coastal town of Harardhere, told CNN the pirates told a group of town elders that one crew member had died of high blood pressure problems. Attacks by pirates have increased dramatically in the waters off Somalia's northern coast in the past year, prompting the U.S. and other coalition warships to widen their patrols in the region. Three ships were hijacked on August 21 in that area, the \"worst number of attacks\" in a single day in many years, Capt. Pottengal Mukudan of the International Maritime Bureau told CNN. After the spate of attacks, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain announced that it would begin patrolling a newly established shipping corridor in the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to protect international shipping. Canada also sent a warship through the end of September. The International Maritime Bureau said in April that 49 pirate attacks on ships were reported in the first three months of 2008, compared with 41 for the same period last year. It recorded 263 pirates attacks last year, up from 239 the year before and the first increase in three years.","highlights":"NEW: Somalia wants Russian warships to intervene; Russia rules out using force .\nPirates captured Ukrainian MV Faina, loaded with weapons, off Somalia's coast .\nOfficials fear weapons will get into terrorists' hands .\nShips from 10 countries, including U.S., in region; Somalia fed up with inaction .","id":"0fbf368e42ee268d0ed54582264d462d51a7eb2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It used to be called \"the love that dare not speak its name\" -- particularly in Hollywood, where the revelation of homosexuality was believed to be a career-killer. Clay Aiken recently announced he was gay on the cover of People magazine. Now, out gays and lesbians are as casually visible as the cover of People magazine, which has recently run stories on Ellen DeGeneres' wedding to Portia de Rossi and Clay Aiken's decision to discuss his sexuality. So, in a time when self-declared bisexual Tila Tequila can have a highly rated MTV show on looking for a partner of either sex, Lindsay Lohan talks about her relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson and \"Star Trek's\" George Takei can have a very public wedding with his longtime partner, is coming out still a big deal? Publicist Howard Bragman, author of the forthcoming \"Where's My Fifteen Minutes\" (Portfolio), says that it is. \"Every person that comes out is another barrier coming down,\" Bragman, who is openly gay, told CNN.com. Acceptance by the mainstream public, he observes, is easier but by no means automatic, particularly when issues such as gay marriage are at stake. \"I look at it as a long-term process. The revolution is over -- now it's an evolution.\" Watch \"American Morning's\" Lola Ogunnaike look at changing attitudes \u00bb . Bragman was around when a performer revealing his or her homosexuality could still shock. He helped guide Dick Sargent when the \"Bewitched\" star came out of the closet in 1989, and remembers when it was difficult to get support for movies such as \"Philadelphia,\" the 1993 film that won Tom Hanks an Oscar as a lawyer dying of AIDS. Now, he observes, there are gay actors -- \"How I Met My Mother's\" Neil Patrick Harris may be the most notable -- playing straight roles, something that would have been almost unthinkable even a few years ago, since studios have often been nervous casting known gay performers in straight roles. \" 'We'll buy Hanks as a gay man but not the opposite,' \" Bragman describes the industry thinking. Indeed, there are now more gay characters in prime-time television than ever. Shows such as \"Ugly Betty,\" \"The Office\" and \"Grey's Anatomy\" feature gay or bisexual characters, and this fall, five more will hit the airwaves, bringing the total to 16, according to a study by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). \"It's certainly positive that there is such a dramatic increase,\" GLAAD's president, Neil Giuliano, told CNN. \"Number one, it reflects society, and the fact that we are more visible, and it also makes good television. Portrayals are almost more honest and real.\" Peter Sprigg, vice president of policy for the conservative Family Research Council, doesn't agree. \"I'm convinced that for the most part, these characters are placed on television for propaganda purposes, in order to persuade people to be more accepting of homosexual conduct,\" he told CNN. \"In that sense, the result for society is likely to be negative.\" But Bryan Batt, the gay actor who plays the closeted Salvatore Romano on the Emmy-winning \"Mad Men,\" says that viewers are more accepting of gay characters today, though concerns linger. \"Yes, I did think maybe this going to hurt me career-wise [to come out], but I come from Broadway and a lot of theater background. So, you know, no one really cares ... you don't have to be straight to act straight. You don't have to be gay to play gay,\" he told CNN. Watch Batt talk about the challenges of a gay actor \u00bb . But, he adds, \"There is, I think, a little bit of homophobia. I do believe that through education and seeing good, honest, positive gay role models, it will just educate. I think we are producing generations now of youth that do not judge people; they don't judge people on their race or their religion or their sexuality.\" April Woodard, a correspondent for \"Inside Edition,\" told CNN Headline News' \"Showbiz Tonight\" that rejection may have been on Aiken's mind. The singer, a born-again Christian, had long declined to talk about his sexuality, and with a strong Middle American fan base, may have been afraid of a backlash. \"There are definitely going to be some people in the South where he lives that aren't going to agree with it, and some of the Christians are not going to agree with his lifestyle and even having a child out of wedlock,\" she said. For his part, Aiken -- who recently became the father to a newborn son -- told People that coming out \"was the first decision I made as a father. I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things. ... I've never intended to lie to anybody at all. The fans, if they leave, they leave. But if they leave, I don't want them hating me.\" Bragman believes Aiken will be more successful than ever. \"I'm sure, anecdotally, you'll have people not buying the next Aiken album because he's gay, but it will be statistically insignificant. If you're a fan, you're a fan,\" he said. Aiken and other gay celebrities have generally received support from their colleagues and the public. \"Heroes\" star Kristen Bell, who is straight, told CNN that \"[Aiken] shouldn't really have to acknowledge it.\" \"What surprises and saddens me is that it still is big news,\" she said. But Bragman observes that the decision to come out remains intensely personal. \"It's not a career move -- it's a personal move,\" he said. \"[It's saying,] 'I need to do this for me.' \" There are still many performers and industry notables, he says, who threaten to sue if their sexuality is revealed. Others live gay social lives but don't talk about their sexuality -- the so-called \"glass closet.\" And, as Bragman notes, gay stars are generally from the second tier: \"There are still no A-list movie stars out of the closet, there are still no superstar athletes,\" he said. \"It's great to see how far we've come,\" he said. \"[And] we all long for the day when it's a nonstory. But we're not there yet.\"","highlights":"Stars such as Clay Aiken admitting they're gay not shocking anymore .\nGay characters more prominent on TV than ever .\nStill, challenges remain: privacy, industry concerned about earning power .","id":"fa63a1de6e9f16a60f4db756c20cce20ada19a2b"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish authorities have arrested 13 people in connection with blasts that killed 17 people in Istanbul last week, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said Saturday. Video from last week's bombing in Istanbul shows bloodied people being loaded into ambulances. Of those arrested, 10 were sent to judicial court, Atalay said in a televised news conference. He described the attack as the \"work of the bloody separatist group,\" but did not identify a group by name. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which went off within minutes of each other in Istanbul's crowded Gungoren community. About 154 people were wounded, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler, who called the blasts \"an act of terror,\" said last week that the explosive devices were placed 15 meters (49 feet) from each other. The first was a stun grenade that was detonated to draw attention before the second blast went off, he said. The other, a bomb, had been placed in a trash can. Turkey -- a candidate for European Union membership -- has pushed its anti-terror campaign on multiple fronts. Tensions between Turkey \u00bb and Kurdish rebels have risen over the Kurdistan Workers' Party's increasing attacks and Turkey's subsequent crackdown. The rebels, known as the PKK, have waged a decades-long battle for an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey's southeast. Last month, 86 people -- including former military officials, journalists, politicians and businessmen -- were indicted on charges of being involved with an alleged terror group called Ergenekon, which aims to topple the Turkish government. The arrests and indictments dramatize the sharp and serious political tensions between the country's Islam-rooted ruling party -- the Justice and Development Party, or AKP -- and its outspoken critics from the nation's secularist population.","highlights":"Attack was conducted by \"bloody separatist group,\" Interior minister says .\n2 explosions, minutes apart, hit residential area in Turkey's largest city Sunday .\nThose arrested were responsible for earlier bombing June 15, says minister .","id":"7890546606d341c9570b4e9aa96936b25b4fdd31"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The recent snowstorm in China, which has stranded hundreds of thousands of people across the country and killed dozens, is related to the La Nina phenomenon, according to a Chinese weather expert . Suzhou, China, is blanketed by the most snow the city has had in 25 years, according to I-Reporter Susan Arthur. La Nina is the opposite of El Nino, which follows El Nino and occurs every few years. During La Nina, sea temperatures over eastern equatorial Pacific are lower than normal. La Nina enhances Arctic weather systems and causes a cold winter in Asia, including in China. As warm and moisture air from the south meets cold air in the north under freezing temperatures, snow forms. \"The warm air is very active this year,\" said Li Weijing, deputy director-general of the National Climate Center of China. As a result, persistent snowstorms occur in central and western China, paralyzing the transport and electricity systems. The current storm, which hit just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday -- China's busiest shopping season -- has shut much of the nation down. China's transportation system and power grid have been paralyzed this week. The storm also has cost the nation's economy $4.5 billion, according to figures released Wednesday by the Civil Affairs Ministry. Watch how Nanjing is coping with the unusual weather \u00bb . The winter precipitation had caused at least 49 deaths due to collapsed roofs and treacherous travel conditions, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and local officials said. More than 177 million Chinese were expected to travel by train, and 22 million more by plane, for the February 7 Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. China uses a color system for its snowstorm warning: . The current once-in-50-years snowstorm calls for the red warning, the first time such a warning has been issued since the system launches. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Clarence Fong contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"The warm air is very active this year\", said Li.\nCurrent snowstorm calls for the first-ever, most severe red warning .\nHundreds of thousands of people have been stranded, dozens killed .","id":"14fcaef3a144b1f60726e365a4aeccd39e9f2bc1"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Over the centuries, people have had some very good reasons to dress up like a member of the opposite sex. After record-setting Olympics athlete Stella Walsh died in 1980, it was revealed that she had indeed been a man. And I'm not talking about people who live this way out of personal preference, or those who dress up for theater and entertainment. Here are just five examples. 1. Cross-dressing to join the army . Until recently, women have rarely been allowed to serve as soldiers. So what was a gal to do if she wanted to serve her country? Naturally, disguise herself as a man and join the troops. At least 400 Civil War soldiers were women in drag. These included Union Army soldier \"Frank Thompson\" (also known as Sarah Edmonds), whose small frame and feminine mannerisms (rather than causing suspicion) made her an ideal spy, as she could spy on the Confederates disguised as... a woman! She wasn't the first woman to don a male disguise and join the army, though. During the Revolutionary War, women fought as men on both sides. Hannah Snell, for example, joined the British army to find her husband, who had walked out on her to enlist. Once her true sex was discovered (thanks to a pesky groin injury), she became a national celebrity in Britain, and made a post-war career of performing in bars as the \"Female Warrior.\" Mental Floss: The Confederacy's plan to conquer Latin America . 2. Cross-dressing to keep a royal family together . With all the power play that went on in the court, the French royal family would go to great lengths to avoid sibling rivalry. In one of the more extreme cases, Philippe I, Duke of Orleans (1640-1701), was raised as a girl to discourage him from any political or military aspirations. This would make things easier for his brother, the future King Louis XIV. Philippe wore dresses and make-up, enjoyed traditionally feminine pursuits, and was even encouraged towards homosexuality. A girly man he might have been, but he married twice and even had a mistress. When necessary, he could even lead an army into battle. (This is the nation, after all, that gave us that famous cross-dresser Joan of Arc.) A brave commander, he would go into battle wearing high heels, plenty of jewelry and a long, perfumed wig. One of his wives claimed that Philippe's biggest fear when going into battle was not bullets, but the possibility of looking a mess. He avoided gunpowder (with the black smoke stains) and didn't wear a hat, to avoid ruining his hair. Mental Floss: 11 weird & wonderful wedding rings . 3. Cross-dressing to win Olympic glory . Dressing in drag has been part of the Olympics (on and off) since ancient times, when women were banned from the bulk of the Games. The Greek historian Pausanias of Damascus said that if a spectator was uncovered as a woman in male disguise, she was duly escorted off the premises... and thrown off a cliff. In later Games, the athletes started performing naked, and the crowd was also ordered to disrobe. It has been suggested that this was to ensure that they were all men. In the modern Olympics, there has been less disrobing -- and not much cross-dressing, either. Gender tests have been normal procedure since 1966 (for athletes, not spectators), so they couldn't really get away with it. Before that time, one of the strangest -- and most controversial -- cases was Polish sprinter Stanislawa Walasiewicz (aka Stella Walsh), who set 11 world records in her career, winning the 100-meter Olympic finals in 1932 with what one official described as \"long man-like strides.\" After she died in 1980, however, it was revealed that she had indeed been a man. So had he deliberately set out to fool everyone all that time? Perhaps not. Walasiewicz had a condition known as \"mosaicism,\" which gave her male chromosomes. Did they give her an unfair advantage? It is difficult to say. However, if she tried out for the Olympics today, she would not be allowed to compete as a woman. Mental Floss: 13 medal-worthy Olympic stories . 4. Cross-dressing to commit espionage . There have been many instances of cross-dressing spies (including Sarah Edmonds, mentioned above), but one of the most impressive deceptions in history was carried out by Shi Pei-Pu, a singer with the Beijing Opera (in which, traditionally, all roles are played by men). In 1964 he disguised himself as a woman to seduce Bernard Boursicot, an attache in the French Foreign Service. Their affair lasted 20 years (on and off), during which Boursicot passed several official documents to Shi, believing that \"her\" safety was at risk if he didn't participate. After they were separated in 1965, Shi came back into Boursicot's life by claiming to be pregnant, and even revealed a baby boy. They later lived as a family. The happy couple was eventually arrested for espionage in 1983, and Shi's secret was revealed, Crying Game style, to the stunned Boursicot. But how did they have this romance for so long without Bousicot knowing the truth? Officially, they rarely made love, and always did it hurriedly and in darkness -- something that Boursicot always ascribed to Shi's demure Chinese upbringing. One theory, however, is that he always knew the truth, but played dumb to conceal his homosexuality. (He later came out.) The affair was the basis for the play \"M. Butterfly.\" It was filmed in 1993, starring Jeremy Irons and former Beijing Opera player John Lone (better known for the title role in the film \"The Last Emperor\"). 5. Cross-dressing to get rowdy . Hindu women in India have traditionally lived inhibited lives, tending the home for their families. But on one night each year, in the city of Jodhpur, they come to life at the so-called \"Festival of Fun.\" Dressed as noblemen, complete with turbans and large fake mustaches, they walk the streets in gangs, brandishing sticks, beating any males who are foolish enough to be out there. The festival celebrates an ancient domestic dispute between the Hindu god Shiva and his wife Ganwar. While the women sing devotional songs asking the goddess to return to her husband, they also take this as their only opportunity to do what they long to do all year: behave like men. Their husbands, respecting the tradition, let them go wild. It sounds like fun (as long as you're not a clueless male who forgot to stay at home that night), but one thing concerns me: if a woman's disguise is especially good, does she risk being mistaken for a man and beaten up by her friends? For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Cross-dressers have: Spied, joined armies, won Olympic medals, been royalty .\nAt least 400 U.S. Civil War soldiers were women in drag .\nSpy disguised himself as woman to seduce attache in French Foreign Service .\nHindu women in Jodhpur, India, \"go wild,\" dressing as men once each year .","id":"c011bb3bbacd03e78835dd1c00342a1e4b466826"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- A Sri Lankan government minister narrowly escaped injury Thursday when a suicide bomber in a car detonated explosives, police said. File image of Maithripala Sirisena taken in May, 2007. Two of the minister's bodyguards were hurt in the blast, which occurred in a southern suburb of the capital city, Colombo. The minister, Maithripala Sirisena, heads the agriculture department. He is also the secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a partner in the ruling coalition. Authorities blamed the attack on Tamil Tigers rebels. The fighting in Sri Lanka pits government forces in a country dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic group against rebels from the Tamil minority. The rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are fighting for the creation of an independent nation, citing discrimination by the Sinhalese. On Monday, a suicide bombing blamed on rebels killed at least 27 people, including a prominent politician and his wife. Another 60 were wounded. That bombing took place in Anuradhapura, the capital of Sri Lanka's North Central province.","highlights":"Minister's bodyguards hurt in blast in southern suburb of Colombo .\nMaithripala Sirisena heads the agriculture department .\nAuthorities blamed the attack on Tamil Tigers rebels .","id":"b3fe558375557990a10b9eaffb80545a80cc7c5a"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Fighting raged in Afghanistan over the weekend, with a suicide bombing slaying six people, a NATO-led soldier and an Afghan police officer dying in an \"altercation,\" and troops killing several insurgents in battles, authorities said. Fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces continues to rage in Afghanistan. The suicide bombing on Sunday killed six people in a bazaar in Spin Boldak, located in Kandahar province, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Monday. Along with the deaths, at least 17 people were wounded, and ISAF condemned the assault. Four of those killed were Afghan border police officers, ISAF said. The location is in southern Afghanistan. The ISAF soldier and an Afghan police officer were killed after seven people were apprehended in connection with a roadside bombing in Paktia province on Sunday that targeted an Afghan National Police and ISAF patrol. The location is in eastern Afghanistan. \"The detained civilians were then transferred to the ANP station at the Jaji District Center. While at the district center, there was an altercation during which an ANP officer and one ISAF soldier were killed,\" ISAF said in a Monday news release. The U.S.-led coalition on Monday reported fighting between U.S. and Afghan troops and insurgents over the last two days -- Sunday in Kandahar province and Saturday in Helmand province. \"Several insurgents\" were reported killed in both incidents. Two insurgents died in fighting on Friday in another southern region -- Zabul province, the coalition said on Monday.","highlights":"Militants kill eight people and injure at least 17 in latest attacks .\nInsurgents killed a coalition soldier in eastern Afghanistan .\nSoldier's name and nationality held until family members could be notified .","id":"5fc40588d893f872511998f65d8acad13e567831"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince William has helped the U.S. Coast Guard bust a drug smuggling boat carrying cocaine worth a minimum of $80 million. Prince William has helped bust a speed boat smuggling $80 million worth of cocaine. William, who is serving in the Royal Navy, helped make the bust last weekend when he spotted a speedboat found to be carrying nearly a ton of cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. William, 26, was one of the crew members aboard a helicopter attached to the frigate HMS Iron Duke who spotted the ocean-going speedboat hundreds of miles northeast of Barbados, the defense ministry said . The 50-foot-long power boat raised suspicions because it was a small vessel far out to sea and resembled a \"go-fast\" boat commonly used for drug smuggling, the ministry said. The boat's location suggested it was en route to Europe or North Africa, it said. The chopper's crew informed the ship's captain about the boat, and U.S. Coast Guard personnel who were on the frigate then boarded the boat. They found 45 bales of cocaine weighing a total of 900 kilograms (just under a ton), the defense ministry said. The cocaine has a minimum street value of $80 million, the ministry said. The bust went smoothly with no violence, defense officials said. Navy crew detained the five men on the boat, which was in poor condition and later sank. William is in the middle of a two-month attachment with the Royal Navy as part of his continued experience with various branches of the military. The prince, who is called sub lieutenant Wales in the navy, is also expected to spend time aboard a mine hunter and submarine during his attachment, which ends August 1. William's vessel, the Iron Duke, is a patrol boat which supports overseas British territories in the event of a hurricane and carries out counter-narcotic operations. William completed a four-month attachment with the Royal Air Force earlier this year and received his pilot's wings on graduation in April. He learned to fly three different aircraft during the attachment and is known as Flying Officer Wales within the RAF. William is already a second lieutenant in the British Army, where he serves in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. The attachments are designed to give the prince, who as king will be the head of the armed forces, experience with the military.","highlights":"Prince William has helped the U.S. Coast Guard bust a drug smuggling boat .\nBoat carrying cocaine with a street value of at least $80m, officials say .\nPrince William helped spot the boat hundreds of miles northeast of Barbados .","id":"f0e361a4d732decbe805fe6a28c10549b3ca0113"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Bryan Batt, who plays the closeted art director Salvatore Romano in the Emmy award-winning cable TV series \"Mad Men,\" has acted in nine Broadway and nine Off-Broadway productions, such as \"Sunset Boulevard,\" \"Beauty and the Beast,\" \"Jeffrey\" and \"Starlight Express.\" Batt, who is 45, has been acting for 23 years. He spoke to CNN.com about being an openly gay actor. \"We have to work toward acceptance on all levels,\" says actor Bryan Batt, who is openly gay. (CNN) -- There was once a time when the revelation of one's homosexuality in Hollywood was thought to be a career-killer. Now, out gays and lesbians such as TV host Ellen DeGeneres and pop singer Clay Aiken are featured on the cover of People magazine. There are also more gay characters on prime-time television shows than ever before. But even with greater acceptance by the mainstream public, is coming out still a big deal? To shed light on the issue, CNN recently spoke to Bryan Batt, 45, about his experience as an openly gay actor in Hollywood. CNN: Has being openly gay affected your career? Batt: I came from the stage; much of my experience has been on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage. Being gay never really posed a problem. In the Broadway community, it's always been a little more accepted. There's something different with film acting and TV acting. You're in someone's home -- it's more intimate. When I look at someone, I really don't care about whom they're sleeping with or what they're doing. I'm thinking they either have talent or no talent. But people are really obsessed with wanting to know about the ins and outs of people's private lives. It's still like high school. Batt plays both straight, gay roles \u00bb . CNN: When did you come out? Batt: My real Broadway break was in \"Starlight Express.\" At that time, I was toying with [coming out]. It's harder to live a lie than to try to hide your natural instincts and your natural longings just to conform to what other people think you should be. I've heard of people doing it in Hollywood. It's a very sad and difficult choice. I think it's a personal journey, and I think people on their own time will figure it out. Clay Aiken is still really very, very young; he has to deal with his own issues. Thank God, when it was my time, no one was pushing me; no one was trying to force me. It was on my own terms intimately with my mother and brother. It went wonderfully. My mother said, \"No matter what, you're my son. I'm going to love you.\" Not one of my family or friends turned their back on me. I was fortunate, but it was still a very difficult thing to do, and I was fearful. Afterwards, it was like the heaviest weight was taken off my back; all those years worrying for nothing. But not everyone is as lucky; some people are shunned and kicked out of their homes and families, which is criminal. Just this year, I was asked to host a fundraiser for The Point Foundation, a wonderful group that provides full college scholarships to gay and lesbian students of merit who have suffered such treatment by their families and cannot afford tuition and the necessary funds for higher education -- an inspiring organization. I only told my mother and my brother after I was cast in \"Jeffrey,\" a play by Paul Rudnick that was the first AIDS comedy. I said to myself, if I get this, I've just got to sit down and talk with my family. My partner and I have been together 19 years, and that was the same time he told his parents. A good parent knows; they love and accept. What most good parents want for their children is for their child to be happy and healthy and be good contributing members of society. CNN: Are there barriers to what openly gay actors can do today? Batt: It's just like any prejudice, once you let go of any prejudice they all have to go. They're not based on facts, just on stereotypes. I really think yes, there might be some homophobia in Hollywood, but it's based on what will sell. Hollywood is a huge industry, a multibillion-dollar business. If actors who are gay will get ratings and will sell, they will get cast. There are always going to be people who look at people who are different and who disapprove [of them] either through fear or through ignorance. We have to work toward acceptance on all levels. How long ago were the civil rights movement and the women's movement? And, still today, women don't make the same amount of money as men do for doing the same job. CNN: What's your view of the character you play, Salvatore Romano, in \"Mad Men\"? Batt: The character basically is clearly gay to a 2007 audience, but no one in the world of 1960 is suspicious whatsoever. What a great role to play. This season, I'm married. I get stopped all the time on the street, and I get asked, \"When is your character coming out?\" What is he coming out to in 1962? I asked to get married this season. I thanked [series creator] Matthew Weiner, and he said, \"You asked.\" It provides another wonderful level to the character. That is what happened then and unfortunately still happens today. [In a recent episode, the \"Gold Violin,\"] the scene with my wife, it was just so poignant and painful, someone said to me that what she loved about the episode was that we clearly did love each other. We were like the gold violin, we were beautiful but we just didn't make music . CNN: What would you like to see Hollywood do? Batt: Continue to reward good work and put positive role models out there. The one thing about \"Brokeback Mountain\" -- it was a beautifully filmed and acted film depicting a tortured relationship. The reason I thought the movie was so great is people walked away thinking, \"Why couldn't they just be together?\" The more positive or interesting the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters, the better. They should show people who are living their good, healthy, responsible, productive lives as role models who just happen to be gay. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the subject.","highlights":"Actor Bryan Batt, who's openly gay, plays a closeted man in TV series \"Mad Men\"\nHomophobia that still exists in Hollywood is based on what will sell, Batt says .\nHe believes positive, interesting portrayals of gays and lesbians are beneficial .","id":"37021bdeab99868d4e336da109890f3f10e89461"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three aid workers have been shot over the last day in Somalia, two of them fatally, Somali media reports said. Somalis prepare Monday to bury murdered Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the U.N. Development Program. The first fatality was a Somali, Mohamed Mohamud Qeyre. He was the deputy director of the group Daryeel Bulasho Guud (DBG), funded by a German company and affiliated with the group Bread for the World. Qeyre was shot in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Friday night in what appeared to be a targeted attack, the reports said. He was shot by three gunmen outside the facility where aid distribution is coordinated. The gunmen may have been staking out the facility waiting for Qeyre to exit. The head of DBG, in Nairobi, Kenya, said he will suspend all aid operations in Somalia for the time being. The second fatality was a member of the Sodra nongovernmental organization, which is helping with humanitarian efforts in Somalia. Officials said it appears that Ali Baashi was also specifically targeted by gunmen. Earlier this week, the World Food Program said a truck driver carrying its relief supplies was killed -- the fourth WFP driver killed in Somalia this year. Ahmed Saalim was shot when fighting broke out between convoy escorts and militiamen at a checkpoint, the U.N. aid agency said. A growing percentage of the Somali population has become dependent on humanitarian aid. A severe famine swept the nation in 1991-1993, devastating crops, killing up to 280,000 people and displacing up to 2 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The situation has been exacerbated by drought, continual armed conflicts in central and southern Somalia and high inflation on food and fuel. Journalist Mohamed Amin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three aid workers have been shot over the last day in Somalia, two of them fatally .\nOne victim worked for aid agency, DBG, which has suspended operations .\nFour World Food Program drivers of relief supplies killed this year .\nSomalis dependent on humanitarian aid since 1993 famine, ongoing war, drought .","id":"6d84a33340136642526de48759977a983d529b6f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: you're sat down for the Football World Cup final, or a long-awaited sequel to the \"Sex and the City\" movie and you're watching all the action unfold in 3-D on your coffee table. The future of television? This image is an impression of what 3D holographic television may look like. It sounds a lot like a wacky dream, but don't be surprised if within our lifetime you find yourself discarding your plasma and LCD sets in exchange for a holographic 3-D television that can put Cristiano Ronaldo in your living room or bring you face-to-face with life-sized versions of your gaming heroes. The reason for renewed optimism in three-dimensional technology is a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona. Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university's Optical Sciences department, told CNN that scientists have broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory. \"This is a prerequisite for any type of moving holographic technology. The way it works presently is not suitable for 3-D images,\" he said. The researchers produced displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes. To create television sets the images would need to be changing multiple times each second -- but Peyghambarian is very optimistic this can happen. He said the University of Arizona team, which is now ten-strong, has been working on advancing hologram technology since 1990 -- so this is a major step forward. He believes that much of the difficulty in creating a holographic set has now been overcome. \"It took us a while to make that first breakthrough, but as soon as you have the first element of it working the rest often comes more rapidly,\" he said. \"What we are doing now is trying to make the model better. What we showed is just one color, what we are doing now is trying to use three colors. The original display was four inches by four inches and now we're going for something at least as big as a computer screen.\" There are no more great barriers to overcome now, he said. The breakthrough has made some long-time researchers of the technology believe that it could now come to fruition. Tung H. Jeong, a retired physics professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago who had studied holography since the 1960s told NJ.com; \"When we start talking about erasable and rewritable holograms, we are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV ... It has now been shown that physically, it's possible.\" And what might these holographic televisions look like? According to Peyghambarian, they could be constructed as a screen on the wall (like flat panel displays) that shows 3-D images, with all the image writing lasers behind the wall; or it could be like a horizontal panel on a table with holographic writing apparatus underneath. So, if this project is realized, you really could have a football match on your coffee table, or horror-movie villains jumping out of your wall. Peyghambarian is also optimistic that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. He said progress towards a final product should be made much more quickly now that a rewriting method had been found. However, it is fair to say not everyone is as positive about this prospect as Peyghambarian. Justin Lawrence, a lecturer in Electronic Engineering at Bangor University in Wales, told CNN that small steps are being made on technology like 3-D holograms, but, he can't see it being ready for the market in the next ten years. \"It's one thing to demonstrate something in a lab but it's another thing to be able to produce it cheaply and efficiently enough to distribute it to the mass market,\" Lawrence said. Yet, there are reasons to be optimistic that more resources will be channeled into developing this technology more quickly. The Japanese Government is pushing huge financial and technical weight into the development of three-dimensional, virtual-reality television, and the country's Communications Ministry is aiming at having such technology available by 2020. Peyghambarian said there are no major sponsors of the technology at present, but as the breakthroughs continued, he hopes that will change. Even if no major electronics company commit themselves, there is hope that backers could come from outside of the consumer electronics industry, he said. \"It could have some other applications. In training it's useful to show people three-dimensional displays. Also it would be good to show things in 3-D for defense command and control and for surgery,\" he said.","highlights":"Researchers have created the first rewritable and erasable holographic images .\nHolographic televisions could come out of the wall or up from a table .\nThe 3-D hologram technology could have uses in surgery or in the military .","id":"48b48a53f0a6865d42a08eba26ab2d7c1ddc0488"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Bryan Batt, who plays the closeted art director Salvatore Romano in the Emmy award-winning cable TV series \"Mad Men,\" has acted in nine Broadway and nine Off-Broadway productions, such as \"Sunset Boulevard,\" \"Beauty and the Beast,\" \"Jeffrey\" and \"Starlight Express.\" Batt, who is 45, has been acting for 23 years. He spoke to CNN.com about being an openly gay actor. \"We have to work toward acceptance on all levels,\" says actor Bryan Batt, who is openly gay. (CNN) -- There was once a time when the revelation of one's homosexuality in Hollywood was thought to be a career-killer. Now, out gays and lesbians such as TV host Ellen DeGeneres and pop singer Clay Aiken are featured on the cover of People magazine. There are also more gay characters on prime-time television shows than ever before. But even with greater acceptance by the mainstream public, is coming out still a big deal? To shed light on the issue, CNN recently spoke to Bryan Batt, 45, about his experience as an openly gay actor in Hollywood. CNN: Has being openly gay affected your career? Batt: I came from the stage; much of my experience has been on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage. Being gay never really posed a problem. In the Broadway community, it's always been a little more accepted. There's something different with film acting and TV acting. You're in someone's home -- it's more intimate. When I look at someone, I really don't care about whom they're sleeping with or what they're doing. I'm thinking they either have talent or no talent. But people are really obsessed with wanting to know about the ins and outs of people's private lives. It's still like high school. Batt plays both straight, gay roles \u00bb . CNN: When did you come out? Batt: My real Broadway break was in \"Starlight Express.\" At that time, I was toying with [coming out]. It's harder to live a lie than to try to hide your natural instincts and your natural longings just to conform to what other people think you should be. I've heard of people doing it in Hollywood. It's a very sad and difficult choice. I think it's a personal journey, and I think people on their own time will figure it out. Clay Aiken is still really very, very young; he has to deal with his own issues. Thank God, when it was my time, no one was pushing me; no one was trying to force me. It was on my own terms intimately with my mother and brother. It went wonderfully. My mother said, \"No matter what, you're my son. I'm going to love you.\" Not one of my family or friends turned their back on me. I was fortunate, but it was still a very difficult thing to do, and I was fearful. Afterwards, it was like the heaviest weight was taken off my back; all those years worrying for nothing. But not everyone is as lucky; some people are shunned and kicked out of their homes and families, which is criminal. Just this year, I was asked to host a fundraiser for The Point Foundation, a wonderful group that provides full college scholarships to gay and lesbian students of merit who have suffered such treatment by their families and cannot afford tuition and the necessary funds for higher education -- an inspiring organization. I only told my mother and my brother after I was cast in \"Jeffrey,\" a play by Paul Rudnick that was the first AIDS comedy. I said to myself, if I get this, I've just got to sit down and talk with my family. My partner and I have been together 19 years, and that was the same time he told his parents. A good parent knows; they love and accept. What most good parents want for their children is for their child to be happy and healthy and be good contributing members of society. CNN: Are there barriers to what openly gay actors can do today? Batt: It's just like any prejudice, once you let go of any prejudice they all have to go. They're not based on facts, just on stereotypes. I really think yes, there might be some homophobia in Hollywood, but it's based on what will sell. Hollywood is a huge industry, a multibillion-dollar business. If actors who are gay will get ratings and will sell, they will get cast. There are always going to be people who look at people who are different and who disapprove [of them] either through fear or through ignorance. We have to work toward acceptance on all levels. How long ago were the civil rights movement and the women's movement? And, still today, women don't make the same amount of money as men do for doing the same job. CNN: What's your view of the character you play, Salvatore Romano, in \"Mad Men\"? Batt: The character basically is clearly gay to a 2007 audience, but no one in the world of 1960 is suspicious whatsoever. What a great role to play. This season, I'm married. I get stopped all the time on the street, and I get asked, \"When is your character coming out?\" What is he coming out to in 1962? I asked to get married this season. I thanked [series creator] Matthew Weiner, and he said, \"You asked.\" It provides another wonderful level to the character. That is what happened then and unfortunately still happens today. [In a recent episode, the \"Gold Violin,\"] the scene with my wife, it was just so poignant and painful, someone said to me that what she loved about the episode was that we clearly did love each other. We were like the gold violin, we were beautiful but we just didn't make music . CNN: What would you like to see Hollywood do? Batt: Continue to reward good work and put positive role models out there. The one thing about \"Brokeback Mountain\" -- it was a beautifully filmed and acted film depicting a tortured relationship. The reason I thought the movie was so great is people walked away thinking, \"Why couldn't they just be together?\" The more positive or interesting the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters, the better. They should show people who are living their good, healthy, responsible, productive lives as role models who just happen to be gay. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the subject.","highlights":"Actor Bryan Batt, who's openly gay, plays a closeted man in TV series \"Mad Men\"\nHomophobia that still exists in Hollywood is based on what will sell, Batt says .\nHe believes positive, interesting portrayals of gays and lesbians are beneficial .","id":"2316db24be5862d953aecc6307a9ab2daadb5124"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Sunday that it is buying troubled Wall Street firm Bear Stearns, amid deepening fears that Bear's demise could have sent shockwaves across already shaky financial markets. The deal to buy Bear Stearns is worth an estimated $236 million. The deal values Bear Stearns at $236 million, or just $2 a share. Shares had closed at $30 on Friday, down 47 percent that day. \"Effective immediately, JPMorgan Chase is guaranteeing the trading obligations of Bear Stearns and its subsidiaries and is providing management oversight for its operations,\" said a statement released Sunday by JPMorgan. Shareholders must approve the deal, which is expected to close by the end of June. JPMorgan is taking immediate responsibility for Bear's trading obligations and assuming \"management oversight\" of the firm's operations. The deal has already been approved by the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the statement. The Fed is providing special emergency financing for up to $30 billion in Bear Stearns assets. \"JPMorgan stands behind Bear Stearns,\" said Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan. \"Bear Stearns clients and counterparties should feel secure that JPMorgan is guaranteeing ... risk,\" he continued. The fast-track deal is expected to close by the end of June, the statement said. Bear Stearns was on the brink of financial collapse Friday when JPMorgan and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said they would provide the brokerage a short-term loan. Bear was dealing with a classic \"run on the bank.\" The firm's short-term creditors refused to lend the firm any more money and simultaneously demanded repayment of outstanding debt. The one-two punch overwhelmed Bear's cash position. With the global credit crisis worsening, the Fed -- along with officials from the Treasury Department and other government agencies -- took the dramatic action to prevent the investment bank from going under and igniting widespread panic through the financial markets. Watch a discussion on the impact on global markets \u00bb . Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday that talks about how to rescue Bear had continued throughout the weekend. He defended the Fed's bailout on Friday as \"the right decision\" and said the Bush administration was ready to take other actions to bring stability to the financial markets. He would not say what might have happened had the government failed to step in. \"I'm not going to speculate about what-ifs,\" he said. \"I'm just going to say our clear priority right now -- our number one priority, everything we're doing in the economic arena -- is to minimize instability, minimize spillover into the real economy.\" Bear Stearns has approximately 14,000 employees worldwide. The deal marks an inglorious chapter for 85-year-old Bear Stearns, a storied Wall Street firm the unraveling of which has been fast and furious. Rumors that Bear Stearns was on the verge of collapse started buzzing around Wall Street trading desks last Monday. Chief Executive Alan Schwartz -- who took over as CEO in early January from longtime chief Jimmy Cayne -- appeared on television on Wednesday afternoon to reassure the markets that the firm was stable. But by Thursday night, Bear was in a severe crunch. Some firms that trade with it effectively stopped offering it credit because they feared that Bear was running short of short-term funding, or liquidity. \"The past week has been an incredibly difficult time for Bear Stearns,\" said Alan Schwartz, president and CEO of Bear Stearns. \"This transaction represents the best outcome for all of our constituencies based upon the current circumstances.\" White House spokesman Tony Fratto told CNN on Sunday that Paulson has briefed U.S. President George W. Bush on the Federal Reserve's role in helping to facilitate the purchase. \"We appreciate the actions taken by the Federal Reserve this evening,\" said Fratto. \"Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke are actively engaged in addressing issues affecting our financial markets. Secretary Paulson has kept the President briefed on recent developments.\" Shares of Bear Stearns opened last week at $69.75 and traded as high as $159 last year. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Acquisition values Bear Stearns shares at $2; shares closed Friday at $30 .\nU.S. Fed providing financing for up to $30 billion in Bear Stearns assets .\nBear Stearns was facing \"run on the bank\" on Friday .\nDeal, if approved by shareholders, will close in June .","id":"9d3c4fe9982621dfb6d3884f27d3372d0763e5a7"} -{"article":"ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor and violated state ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report concluded Friday. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is under investigation for the firing of her public safety commissioner. \"Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,\" the report states. Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten from the state police force was \"likely a contributing factor\" to Monegan's July dismissal, but Palin had the authority as governor to fire him, the report by former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower states. The investigator's report states Palin's efforts to get Wooten fired broke a state ethics law that bars public officials from pursuing personal interest through official action. Watch what led to investigation \u00bb . The lawyers representing both Sarah and Todd Palin issued a three-page attack on the investigative report, including the contention that Ethics Act violations can only involve financial motives and financial \"potential gain, or the avoidance of a potential loss.\" \"Here, there is no accusation, no finding and no facts that money or financial gain to the Governor was involved in the decision to replace Monegan,\" the lawyers said. Any abuse of power, they said, was on the part of the Legislative Council members, not the Palins. \"Sen. French and Sen. Green may have abused their government power by using public money to pursue a personal vendetta against the Governor, and then agreeing to pursue the PSEA attack against an administration that would not cave in to outrageous union demands.\" \"Put bluntly, Branchflower completely misapplied the Ethics Act and has instead sought to create a headline to smear the Governor,\" the lawyers wrote. Monegan has said he was fired in July after refusing pressure to sack Wooten, who had gone through an acrimonious divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister. View a timeline of the investigation \u00bb . Monegan said he was \"relieved\" by the findings. \"I believed and had the opinion that I was terminated because I did not fire Wooten,\" he told CNN. \"Now these findings say that that's what happened, so I feel relieved.\" Palin and her husband, Todd, have consistently denied wrongdoing, describing Wooten as a \"rogue trooper\" who had threatened their family -- allegations Branchflower discounted. \"I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family reasons,\" Branchflower wrote. The Branchflower report states Todd Palin used his wife's office and its resources to press for Wooten's removal, and the governor \"failed to act\" to stop it. But because Todd Palin is not a state employee, the report makes no finding regarding his conduct. The bipartisan Legislative Council, which commissioned the investigation after Monegan was fired, unanimously adopted the 263-page public report after a marathon executive session Friday. About 1,000 more pages of documents compiled during the inquiry will remain confidential because they involve private personnel matters, according to the council's chairman, state Sen. Kim Elton. \"I believe that these findings may help people come to a conclusion on how they should vote\" in the presidential election, Elton said. McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said Palin would cooperate with the Personnel Board investigation. The Palins' lawyer has said an investigator named by that board wants to question them in late October. Stapleton called the investigation \"a partisan-led inquiry\" run by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, but hailed its finding that Monegan's firing broke no law. \"Gov. Palin was cleared of the allegation of an improper firing, which is what this investigation was approved to look into,\" she said. Stapleton went on to say that the Legislature exceeded its mandate in finding an ethics violation. \"Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact.\" Rep. John Coghill, a Republican who criticized the handling of the investigation, said it was \"well-done professionally.\" He said Palin \"bumped right against the edges\" of the state's ethics laws but that he would give \"the benefit of the doubt to the governor, though, at this point.\" Palin originally agreed to cooperate with the Legislative Council inquiry, and disclosed in August that her advisers had contacted Department of Public Safety officials nearly two dozen times regarding her ex-brother-in-law. But once she became Sen. John McCain's running mate, her advisers began painting the investigation as a weapon of Democratic partisans. Ahead of Friday's hearing, Palin supporters wearing clown costumes and carrying balloons denounced the probe as a \"kangaroo court\" and a \"three-ring circus\" led by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The state senator managing the probe, Sen. Hollis French, fueled those complaints with a September 2 interview in which he warned the inquiry could yield an \"October Surprise\" for the GOP. But Palin's lawyers already had begun pushing for the state Personnel Board to launch its own investigation, calling it the proper legal venue for the matter. \"The report speaks for itself,\" French told CNN Friday night. CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Report: Palin violated state ethics law .\nNEW: McCain campaign denounces affair as \"partisan-led inquiry\"\nLegislative panel investigating July dismissal of public safety commissioner .","id":"c1a3afea716e2add08a9fa62e70d5bc62765d266"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Lewis Hamilton has escaped punishment after allegations of erratic driving behind the safety car in the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend. Vettel ran into the back of Webber when they were racing behind Hamilton. The FIA ruled that Hamilton would suffer no penalty after inquiring into the accident when Sebastian Vettel crashed into Mark Webber in Fuji. Vettel's original 10-place penalty on the Chinese Grand Prix starting grid was replaced with a reprimand. The stewards studied film of the incident, including amateur video footage, before announcing their verdict. They said: \"Having heard the explanation of all concerned and viewed both the original film of the incident which was available to stewards at Fuji as well as the new film, what has become apparent is the view clearly expressed by all drivers and team managers alike that the conditions at Fuji were exceptionally bad and worse than those experienced when the race starts behind the safety car. \"Because of those views, the stewards accept that it may be inappropriate to impose the penalty normally applied for an offence such as this. \"In the circumstances the stewards will reduce the penalty imposed on Vettel to a reprimand. \"The involvement of Lewis Hamilton in this incident has also been considered in the light of evidence given by him, his team manager and in particular all other parties present and no penalty is imposed upon him.\" The 22-year-old British rookie, who drives for McLaren-Mercedes, leads the race for the world championship by 12 points, with two rounds left, and there had been speculation that he might lose some of those points if the FIA found him culpable. Hamilton had strengthened his title bid with a superb victory at Fuji in appalling conditions which twice saw the safety car deployed. As the field trailed behind the safety car on the second occasion, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Vettel drove into the back of Red Bull's Mark Webber, causing them both to retire. The drivers, who were lying in second and third places behind Hamilton a the time of the accident, both criticized Hamilton for driving erratically and slowing up and down. The incident was missed by television cameras but footage, taken from the grandstand, was shown on the YouTube Web site. It appeared to show Hamilton pulling over to the right-hand side of the track and slowing down markedly, in turn forcing Webber to slow down, which caught Vettel on the hop. Webber said: \"It definitely contributed to Sebastian hitting me up the back because he (Hamilton) wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing, clearly. \"He spoke in the drivers' meeting about how good a job he was going to do and he did the opposite. Still, we know for next time,\" added the Australian. Webber stressed, however, that he had not complained to the stewards about the incident. On Friday he issued a statement saying: \" I would just like to make it clear that, although I criticized Hamilton's driving in yesterday's FIA Press Conference, at no time have I made any official complaint about anyone's driving following Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.\" Hamilton, speaking at practice for the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, had protested his innocence before the verdict was announced. \"I had a good weekend, I didn't put a foot wrong. I didn't do anything to put anyone else in danger,\" he said. \"I've come away to China and all of a sudden I'm going to be punished for something. \"I just think it's a real shame for the sport. Formula One's supposed to be about hard, fair competition. That's what I've tried to do this year, just be fair. \"There's been some real strange situations this year where I'm made to look the bad person and, by the looks of it, this weekend be given a penalty. \"If this is the way it's going to keep going, it's not somewhere I really want to be.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lewis Hamilton is cleared of erratic driving in the Japanese GP .\nThe FIA probed a crash between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber .\nHamilton had been ahead behind the safety car .","id":"ca05c303244402cb9e69549734c94a9a751e9fbd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari has won the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday. Former Finland President Martii Ahtisaari twice worked to find a solution in Kosovo. \"Ahtisaari is an outstanding international mediator,\" said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. \"Through his untiring efforts and good results, he has shown what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts.\" The committee cited Ahtisaari's \"significant\" part in establishing Namibia's independence and his \"central\" role in solving the question of the Indonesian province of Aceh in 2005. Watch as Finland celebrates the announcement \u00bb . Ahtisaari twice worked to find a solution in Kosovo -- first in 1999 and again between 2005 and 2007. He also worked with others this year to find a peaceful solution to the problems in Iraq, the committee said. Ahtisaari and his group, Crisis Management Initiative, also contributed to resolving other conflicts in Northern Ireland, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa, the committee said. \"The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to express the hope that others may be inspired by his efforts and his achievements,\" Mjoes said. The committee awards the peace prize annually according to guidelines laid down in the will of its founder, Alfred Nobel. He specified the prize should go to whoever \"shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.\" The prestigious prize includes a medal, a personal diploma, and 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.4 million) in prize money. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore shared last year's prize with the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. The committee plans to award the prize to Ahtisaari on December 10 at Oslo City Hall in Norway. The peace prize is one of five Nobel prizes awarded annually. The others -- for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature -- were announced this week and will be awarded in Stockholm, Sweden later this year.","highlights":"Committee cited Ahtisaari's \"significant\" part in Namibia's independence .\nWorked with others this year to find a peaceful solution in Iraq .\nHelped broker a deal in troubled Indonesian province of Aceh in 2005 .\nAhtisaari left office in March 2001 .","id":"2fed461ab73a1efc76de55c7bdb5d6a43e196114"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 in magnitude struck southern Iran on Wednesday, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey. The citadel at the city of Bam, Iran in 2005, hit by a quake in 2003 when 30,000 people died. The quake demolished nearly 200 villages in Iran's Hormozgan Province, according to Iran's Press TV, citing the head of the provincial disaster management headquarters, Yasser Hazbavi. At least six people were killed and 46 others were injured, Hazbavi told Press TV. People panicked and fled buildings when the temblor struck in the quake-prone region around 3:30 p.m. Iranian time (1100 GMT), Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported. It also knocked out power to the region. See map of quake's epicenter \u00bb . The epicenter was located 35 miles (55 km) west-southwest of Bandar e-Abbas, Iran -- just across the narrow Strait of Hormuz from the United Arab Emirates -- according to USGS. Mehdi Rezapoor, head of the Iranian Seismological Center, said it was \"a medium-sized quake.\" Speaking on Press TV, Rezapoor had no details on damage, but said that based on the quake's strength, \"I don't think it was very extensive.\" The quake shook nearby Dubai, where CNN staff members said they felt the building they were in shake for about 15 to 20 seconds. \"From my office window at the Dubai Media City where all foreign media are located, I can see that a lot of offices have evacuated buildings,\" CNN Dubai Bureau Chief Samson Desta said. \"I can see up to perhaps 200 people who have taken refuge out in the streets, causing somewhat of a traffic jam.\" There was no evidence of any damage in Dubai, where there are a lot of high-rise buildings. Iran lies on a series of seismic fault lines and has experienced devastating earthquakes -- most notably in December 2003 when a 6.6 magnitude quake devastated the ancient city of Bam in southeast Iran, killing at least 30,000 people.","highlights":"Strong quake measuring 6.1 in magnitude strikes southern Iran .\nEpicenter located about 55 km west-southwest of Bandar e-Abbas, Iran .\nNEW: Quake destroys nearly 200 villages, according to Iran's Press TV .\nNEW: Head of provincial disaster management: At least 6 dead, 46 others injured .","id":"5474a9f81601abaa7ec81c6a9e1c5b7140acdc7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Wiggles have been officially wiggling for 17 years now, entertaining children with music, television, videos and films that have become modern classics. The Wiggles have been entertaining children with colorful, clean-cut songs since 1991. In Australia, their annual end of year national tour sells over 120,000 tickets, while their U.S. fans include John Travolta, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, John Fogarty, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Rock, Courtney Cox-Arquette and Cate Blanchett. And since 2003, in addition to their native English, they also wiggle in Mandarin and Spanish, reaching out to the Taiwanese and Latin American public, respectively. Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page met at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, where they were studying early childhood education and writing children's songs. Together with fellow musician Jeff Fatt, who played with Anthony in the popular 1980s band The Cockroaches, they formed The Wiggles and released a self-titled album on ABC Music in 1991. Fifteen years and 27 DVD releases later, they had been awarded with 17 Gold, 12 Platinum, 3 Double Platinum and 10 Multi Platinum Awards for sales of over 17 million DVDs and 4 million CDs worldwide. They have also been awarded with Highest Selling Children's Video Sales in 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999 at the ADSDA Awards. The Wiggles made their U.S. debut at the famous Wall Mart in June 1999, while performing in shopping mall parking lots. In 2003 they performed 12 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City and performed to over 250,000 people in November 2005. That year also initiated a series of amusement-park openings, from Wiggles World at Dream World on the Gold Coast of Australia, to a second Wiggly Play Centre to be launched in Dallas, Texas, USA.","highlights":"Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page studied early childhood education .\nEntertain children with music and visuals in English, Mandarin and Spanish .\nU.S. fans include John Travolta, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Rock, Cate Blanchett .","id":"be019561fa6ba2a4b00440d76fbb85d3c6f65a8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's reference to \"lipstick on a pig\" has Republicans demanding an apology and Democrats accusing Sen. John McCain of a \"pathetic attempt\" to play the gender card. Barack Obama used the \"lipstick\" line at a campaign event in Lebanon, Virginia, on Tuesday. McCain's campaign said Obama's remarks were offensive and a slap at Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin -- despite the fact that the Arizona senator himself used the phrase last year to describe a policy proposal of Hillary Clinton's. Obama shot back Wednesday and accused the McCain campaign of engaging in \"lies\" and \"swift boat politics.\" \"I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics,\" he said in Norfolk, Virginia. \"Enough is enough.\" Watch Obama deliver his harsh words \u00bb . The phrase \"swift boat\" comes from the 2004 presidential election, when the group \"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth\" launched an attack ad campaign against Democratic candidate John Kerry. Read more about what Obama said . Obama made his controversial \"lipstick\" remarks at a Virginia campaign stop late Tuesday afternoon. Watch what happens with politics and lipstick collide \u00bb . \"John McCain says he's about change too, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out George Bush -- except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics -- we're really going to shake things up in Washington,'\" he said. \"That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing.\" Watch how tensions are rising on the trail \u00bb . The crowd erupted in applause when Obama delivered the line. The Illinois senator then praised both McCain's \"compelling story\" and Palin's \"interesting story,\" and said his \"hat goes off\" to anyone who's looking after five kids -- \"I've got two and they tire Michelle and me out. ... \"That's why John McCain's campaign manager [Rick Davis] said this campaign isn't going to be about issues, this campaign is going to be about personalities.\" Within minutes, the McCain campaign announced a conference call focused on the remark, which they said was a deliberate reference to Palin's line: \"You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.\" Palin used the line in the opening remarks of her convention speech, and she frequently uses it on the campaign trail. In Iowa last October, McCain drew comparisons between Hillary Clinton's current health care plan and the one she championed in 1993: \"I think they put some lipstick on the pig, but it's still a pig.\" He used roughly the same line in May, after effectively claiming the Republican nomination. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told CNN the campaign saw a \"big difference\" between the two references: \"McCain was referring to a policy proposal. Obama was referring to [Alaska] Gov. Sarah Palin. It's obviously disrespectful and offensive. ... \"Who has been talking about lipstick lately? It was obvious. The crowd went crazy because of it.\" It wasn't the first time Obama used the line. In a phone interview with The Washington Post last September, he used it in reference to the situation in Iraq. \"I think that both Gen. [David] Petraeus and Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment,\" Obama told the Post. \"George Bush has given a mission to Gen. Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig.\" Other politicians have also used the phrase in recent years, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Rep. John Mica of Florida and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, among others. Torie Clarke, a former McCain adviser, even wrote a book called, \"Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game.\" Still, the McCain campaign says Obama's use was intentional, and they want an apology. \"Barack Obama's comments today are offensive and disgraceful. He owes Gov. Palin an apology,\" said Maria Comella, a McCain-Palin spokeswoman. Obama's campaign said \"enough is enough\" and accused McCain of running a \"dishonorable campaign.\" \"The McCain campaign's attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy -- the same analogy that Sen. McCain himself used about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan just last year,\" said Obama campaign senior adviser Anita Dunn. \"This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run.\" McCain ally Mike Huckabee took Obama's side on the issue, saying he didn't think it was a swipe at Palin. \"It's an old expression, and I'm going to have to cut Obama some slack on that one. I do not think he was referring to Sarah Palin; he didn't reference her. If you take the two sound bites together, it may sound like it,\" he said on Fox's \"Hannity and Colmes.\" \"But I've been a guy at the podium many times, and you say something that's maybe a part of an old joke and then somebody ties it in. So, I'm going to have to cut him slack.\" But McCain's campaign is not about to let the issue go. They released a Web ad Wednesday that plays Obama's lipstick comments, then asks, \"Ready to lead? No. Ready to smear? Yes.\" CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand, Sasha Johnson and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Barack Obama slams Republicans for \"lies\" and \"swift boat politics\"\nObama said Tuesday \"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig\"\nMcCain camp says line was an attack on Palin; Obama camp says it was not .\nMany politicians have used the line; former McCain adviser used it in her book title .","id":"c3b3169656ca5d86a3c23482dedc0b676ba421e1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- CNN's Lou Dobbs is no fan of the $700 billion bailout plan that went down to defeat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday. He spoke with Kiran Chetry of CNN's \"American Morning\" on Tuesday about how he thinks there are better ways to solve the financial problems plaguing the U.S. economy. Lou Dobbs: Americans \"don't want to hear this nonsense about $700 billion to bail out financial institutions.\" Kiran Chetry, CNN anchor: CNN's Lou Dobbs joins us this morning from Suffolk, New Jersey. You expressed delight I guess you could say, at the fact that it did go down yesterday in defeat. We saw the largest point-drop on Wall Street ever. What happens now? Lou Dobbs, CNN host of \"Lou Dobbs Tonight\": Well, what happens now is that it sounds like the same fools who brought you this effort are going to try again. Henry Paulson saying he's going to come right back, suggests he's not learning. And he's not paying attention to the Congress. These Congress people are all at home in their home districts, nearly every one of them and they're hearing an earful. The American people don't want to hear this nonsense about $700 billion to bail out financial institutions. Frankly, Kiran, they don't need it. Economist after economist, with whom I've spoken, CEOs, they acknowledge that there are far better ways to deal with the issues confronting our financial system than this bailout. And it's absolutely obscenely irresponsible of House Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, Treasury Secretary [Henry] Paulson, President Bush, Sen. Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate; for these people to be clucking about like hysterical -- so hysterically. It really must stop. And to hear there -- go ahead. Chetry: I was just going to ask you -- . Dobbs: Go ahead. Chetry: You say that there's other ways around this. One of the things that everyone keeps talking about is the fact that credit markets are frozen and there has to be some way to free that up so that everyday business from Wall Street to Main Street can continue. Do you buy that? Dobbs: No, not at all. And neither do most of the CEOs and economists with whom I'm speaking certainly. The real issue, they say, is liquidity. The Fed has injected more than half a billion dollars in liquidity into this banking system. Watch Lou Dobbs and economists discuss bailout effort \u00bb . What we are watching are business -- quote, unquote -- leaders who won't surface and put their faces before the American public who are hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. These are not leaders of moment. They are not leaders of great character or vision. Only Warren Buffett has had the courage to step forward. And that's after he puts $5 billion into Goldman Sachs. To watch our political leaders, they have no idea in the world, Kiran, what they're doing. Literally. And the arrogance with which this administration asks for, not only money, almost $1 trillion, and surely more in the months ahead. But the absolute power for Treasury Secretary Paulson. Give me a break. The American people want this stopped. Those Congressmen and women at home right now, in their districts, are getting an earful because this is an absurdity and it has to end. Chetry: So in one way, you're knocking Congress. But on the other way you're saying that, I guess the system works in that the brakes were pulled. Whether or not you agree with the reasons why it didn't go through. So, weren't they doing their job and showing leadership? Dobbs: Let me be clear, Kiran. I'm saying leadership -- I'm saying the Democratic leadership of this Congress was absolutely in the same situation as this president. They don't know what they're talking about. They're trying to ram this thing down the people's throats and Congress. And those House Republicans and House Democrats who voted against this bailout deserve a great, great expression of thanks from the American people. Absolutely. Chetry: What do you think if you were up there making decisions? What do you think we need to do? Dobbs: Well, the first thing we need to do is return to a traditional role of regulation. ... The problem here is not simply the housing market. ... But $700 billion and nothing in that bill deals with the foreclosure crisis, if you can imagine that. That's arrogance. That's stupidity. That is your leadership in Washington, D.C. Democratic leadership in Congress and Republican leadership in the White House. So that's an absurdity. The first thing that has to be dealt with is mitigating the foreclosure crisis, period. Secondly, in terms of instilling confidence in the banking system and in our credit markets, the first thing to do is to deal with those institutions that are wildly out of balance, whose balance sheets, frankly, are a joke. And the regulators who should have been tending to them over the years are also a joke. It's time to end the joke. That means aggressive regulation. It means aggressive intervention on an institution-by-institution basis. Chetry: All right. Well, they're going to take this up again today, or throughout the week as they try to figure out what the best course of action is. Maybe they should listen to you a little bit more. Dobbs: They'll be back Thursday. Chetry: Right. Dobbs: They'll be back Thursday to try this nonsense all over again, Kiran.","highlights":"\"Same fools\" who brought you this effort are going to try again, Dobbs says .\nHouse Republicans, Democrats who voted against bailout deserve thanks, he says .\nFar better ways to deal with financial problems than this bailout, Dobbs says .\nDobbs: First thing that should be addressed is mitigating foreclosure crisis .","id":"caaf22ada96d8cb2c22cf541093bed4d4d5a3ebf"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- After his father was diagnosed with dementia in 1996, Anthony Lazzara Jr. faced a difficult decision: He and his wife, Gail, either could place his father, Anthony Lazzara Sr., in a facility, or they could care for him themselves. Anthony Lazzara Jr. (right) and his wife, Gail (left), cared for Anthony Lazzara Sr. at home for eight years. Unable to afford a care facility, the Lazzaras brought him home. So began eight long years of caring for the World War II veteran and onetime truck driver as he slowly declined -- a burden borne largely by Gail, 56. She fed him, bathed him and changed his diapers on a daily basis while her husband, a truck driver, was on the road. Slowly, she says, her marriage began to crumble. \"I couldn't take my frustration out on my father-in-law,\" she says. Instead, she took it out on her husband. \"We almost ended up divorcing over the whole deal,\" says Anthony Jr., 56. Gail concedes she considered leaving, \"but I couldn't walk away from my father-in-law.\" Two years ago, the Lazzaras finally threw in the towel. A bed became available at a local Veterans Affairs facility, and the elder Lazzara was admitted. He remained there until April 2008, when he died at age 95. A difficult labor of love . As the Lazzaras can attest, the stress of caring for an elderly parent can overwhelm a relationship. Chauffeuring loved ones to appointments, handling their shopping, assuming their financial burden, even just living under the same roof can test even the most committed couples. In 2004, the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP reported that over 44 million Americans care for an adult family member or friend. Almost 80 percent of these are caring for someone older than 50. Although caring for a parent in their twilight years can be rewarding, it can also be a trial, says Beth Witrogen, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of \"Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal.\" \"Caregiving brings out the best and worst in us all,\" she says. Al Levi, 39, a Brooklyn, New York, occupational therapist, has experienced that kind of strain in his marriage. Levi says he has been at odds with his wife since his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago. \"I felt like my wife wasn't taking this seriously enough, and that if it would have been her parents, it would have been more important,\" he says. For a while, the Levis cared for Al's father at home, but eventually it got to be more than they could handle. Levi placed his father in a nursing home this past summer. But he says the ordeal has continued to strain his marriage. \"It's complicated,\" he says. 'Your best is good enough' Often, couples will harbor unreasonable expectations of what they can or should do -- together or individually -- to care for an aging parent. \"You have to accept that your best is good enough,\" Witrogen says. \"It may not be pretty, but you will get the job done.\" It's also crucial that couples communicate clearly and effectively, Witrogen says. Too often, one partner will fixate on solving the problem while neglecting to listen to the other's needs. In the Lazzaras' case, Anthony Jr. says he would search for care facilities for his father from time to time, but Gail was still left to shoulder most of the daily duties of care -- something her husband still feels guilty about. With their three children grown, \"it was her time to have and here she was taking care of my dad,\" Anthony Jr. laments. It wasn't until the Lazzaras finally found room for Anthony Sr. at the VA facility that they finally found some relief. \"We knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel,\" Anthony Jr. says. Balancing your needs . Although finding a balance between caring for an aging parent and maintaining a healthy marriage can be tremendously challenging, it can be done, experts say. Part of that solution is ensuring the aging parent gets proper care, says Leah Siskin, senior psychologist at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York. \"When the psychological needs of the care recipient are addressed, this can no doubt have a positive effect on the marital relationship of the caregivers,\" she says. It's also important that couples care for one another. Giuseppe Manca, a 58-year-old holistic healer in Manhattan, grew frustrated that he couldn't take a vacation with his wife for fear of leaving his live-in mother-in-law alone, even though she was in good health. So the couple decided to take weekend trips, making sure neighbors and loved ones were on standby in case of an emergency. The Lazzaras didn't have the luxury of traveling while Anthony Sr. was still alive. Although they say their marriage has stabilized since his passing -- Gail has been able to devote more time to her job coordinating a local volleyball league -- they admit that it could have crumbled. \"We nearly crashed and burned,\" Anthony Jr. says. How to cope . Author Witrogen offers the following tips for coping when a couple's \"for better or worse\" turns to the latter in caring for an elderly parent: . \u2022 Talk it out. Bring in a third party such as an attorney to provide objective perspective. Those short on money can invite clergy or a neighbor. \u2022 Make time for yourself -- and each other. It takes willingness, intention and time management, Witrogen says. \"Get out your day planners and schedule the time in. I suggest that couples schedule 'play dates,' even if for an hour.\" \u2022 Don't neglect your health. Sleeping enough, eating right and exercising displaces stress from your partner. \u2022 Set caregiving goals. \"Write down objectively what needs to be done,\" Witrogen says. Divide the duties equitably. LifeWire provides original and syndicated content to Web publishers. Ron Dicker, a Brooklyn-based journalist, frequently writes about relationship topics. He previously covered sports for the New York Times.","highlights":"The stress of caring for an elderly parent can overwhelm a relationship .\nCouples may have unreasonable expectations of what they can or should do .\nMore than 44 million Americans care for an adult family member or friend .\nAlmost 80 percent of these are caring for someone older than 50 .","id":"f66239cd6a6a7a2fa659e4f3051a8b33c731d759"} -{"article":"WAXAHATCHIE, Texas (CNN) -- Julie Quiroz clutches her teddy bear crying. \"Mommy,\" she says softly, as her mother wraps her arms around her and rubs her back. One of her brothers tries to console her. \"You're going to come back,\" he says. Julie Quiroz, a 13-year-old U.S. citizen, went back to Mexico when her mom was deported. The 13-year-old Quiroz begins to walk away to catch an airplane from Mexico to the United States. Within moments, she rushes back to her mother's arms. \"Mommy,\" she says again, tears streaming down her face. Quiroz is one of an estimated 3 million American children who have at least one parent who entered the United States illegally, according to the Urban Institute, which researches and evaluates U.S. social and economic issues. In Quiroz's case, she was born in Washington state, lived there her entire life and went to school there. But her mother, Ana Reyes, entered the United States illegally before Quiroz was born and U.S. immigration officials caught up with her last year on her birthday. Watch how deportation separates family \u00bb . \"I was there when they handcuffed her,\" Quiroz says. \"I was there when they took her down.\" Two of her brothers, who had come with their mother to the United States when they were young children, also were taken into custody. It was the start of a downward spiral for Quiroz. When her mother and brothers were deported, Quiroz and her 6-year-old, American-born sister had no choice but to return to Mexico City with them. Her seventh-grade year was spent in a classroom where she didn't understand the language. \"I never belonged there,\" she says. \"I'd just come home, sit down, cry. I'd say, 'Mom, I can't do it.' ... I can't read or write Spanish.\" She adds, \"I felt like there were no dreams for me.\" Stories like these are becoming more common, immigration analysts say, with American children caught in the middle of their mother or father's illegal status. A report last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association said these children face \"increasing risk of family separation, economic hardship and psychological trauma.\" \"It's really hard to imagine something that can be more traumatic than to be forcibly separated from their caregiver. That's the enforcement climate that we're operating in now,\" says Miriam Calderon, the associate director for education and children's policy at the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic advocacy group in the United States. Calderon says the nation needs to enforce immigration laws, but currently there is a lack of a \"consistent and comprehensive standard to ensure that children will be protected\" when undocumented parents are taken into custody. \"Until a major immigration reform is enacted, the country will continue to cope with challenges resulting from the presence of roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants in our workforce and in our communities,\" said Janet Murguia, the president of NCLR, before Congress in May. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it's simply enforcing the laws on the books. \"ICE agents and officers are sworn to uphold all of our nation's immigration and customs laws,\" ICE press secretary Kelly Nantel said in a written statement. \"We cannot pick and choose the laws we enforce. Parents make decisions that affect their families everyday. \"There are known consequences for violating our nation's immigration laws. It's unfortunate that parents choose to place their children in these difficult situations.\" For Quiroz, her journey from America to Mexico City took an unexpected turn when her plight caught the attention of Joe Kennard, a land developer and Christian philanthropist. Kennard reached out to Quiroz's mother and told her the teen could live with his family in Texas and enroll in school there. \"You can make all the arguments that [the mother] deserved what she got because she was an adult, she made the choice, she was here illegally,\" Kennard says. \"But why [punish] the children? They're innocent and they're born here and they're U.S. citizens.\" His group, Organization to Help Citizen Children, works with churches along the U.S.-Mexico border to provide support for children whose mother or father is deported to Mexico. Kennard hired a private tutor to get Quiroz up to speed for missing a year of schooling. \"She's conflicted because she knows that she's got to get an education and this is the only way to do it. But she also feels the love for her mother and that's the torture.\" Quiroz's mother then made the incredibly painful decision to implore her daughter to go to Texas, an unbearable decision for the teen to leave her family for her country and her future. Her older brother, Carlos Quiroz, was about 3 years old when his mom took him to the United States last decade. He misses his sister, but knows he can't return. \"I have to accept that ... and try to make it work,\" he says. Watch why Carlos Quiroz feels like an American \u00bb . He's working to get a job and hopes to enter college in Mexico. But his mind is still in the land he grew up in. \"I don't feel like I belong here. I feel like I was taken out of somewhere where I belonged,\" he says. \"My whole life is over there.\" His sister is now living in Texas, adjusting to eighth grade and all the changes around her. When she's alone, she says it still hurts. \"I want to be in my mom's arms,\" she says, choking back tears. The dream that keeps her going? She's determined to become a lawyer to fight for kids who are forced to endure painful separations. \"My mom only came here to make a better life,\" she says. \"I want to be a lawyer to help people in the same situation as me.\" CNN's Gregg Canes and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.","highlights":"3 million U.S. citizen children are believed to have one undocumented parent .\nJulie Quiroz, 13, was born in the U.S. but had to return to Mexico with her mom .\n\"I never belonged there ... I'd just come home, sit down, cry,\" she says .\nThanks to a philanthropist, Quiroz was able to come back to study; but without mother .","id":"d2e8dad10a691e5fab9e1c301a54de735dd4c315"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Have you ever wondered what your neighbors are carrying around in their car's trunk or SUV's cargo hold? I decided to find out -- by asking 100 strangers in a department store parking lot. Strollers, playpens, toys and diapers take up a lot of space, but a lot of parents still had organized trunks. The mission . To uncover the secret contents of the average American trunk and cargo hold. The stakeout . I spent two weekend afternoons at the Empire Center in Burbank, California, with my camera and notebook, approaching shoppers as they arrived or departed. I identified myself as a reporter for AOL Autos, and asked if I could see what they had in their trunk, and maybe take a picture. I hoped that I'd be able to see a trend in trunks. AOL Autos: Small cars with room in the trunk . The raw data My decidedly unscientific study yielded some interesting results. First of all, I discovered that even in a big city (Burbank is a suburb of Los Angeles), people are exceedingly nice if you are respectful and forthright. About 80% of the people I approached were kind, open and helpful, and gladly opened their trunks for a glance. The 20% who refused were either in a rush, guarded or shy -- but they were still remarkably polite. The second surprising thing was that the vast majority of trunks and cargo holds were clean and uncluttered. I really expected to discover overstuffed trunks, full of cast-off items and flea market finds. But even the most fully-used storage areas were tidy and organized. AOL Autos: Used fuel-efficient crossovers . Not surprisingly, people with small children tended to have the most crowded trunks and cargo holds. Strollers, playpens, toys and diapers take up a lot of space, but most families have discovered that clean, organized trunks make getting to your kids' supplies much easier and more efficient. AOL Autos: Best new cars for 2009 . Another trend I noticed was that athletic folks tend to use their car's trunk as a portable gym locker. I saw a lot of gym bags, sports equipment and sneakers. On a hot day, this was a bit of a mixed blessing; baked sneakers have a decidedly pungent odor. No one seemed to have a good solution to this problem. I would put a cabin air freshener, like the Little Tree, in my trunk if I regularly carried my tennis shoes. AOL Autos: Celebrity cars you can afford . For the non-athletic, the most common item I saw was the collapsible chair. One family had an entire beach setup in their trunk: four collapsible chairs, a beach blanket, a sun umbrella and an empty cooler, all neatly tucked against the back wall. They said that they always wanted to be ready for a beach day, should the opportunity arise. Some people were extremely proud of their trunks. One woman bragged that her brother taught her how to organize her tools, and that she had taken the organization to the next level. She had multiple storage boxes in her neat, clean trunk, each with a different set of useful items. AOL Autos: Most fun cars for under $20,000 . A few families were downright sheepish about the state of their cargo holds. They apologized in advance before opening the trunk, and said that they were in the middle of a project that had foiled their attempts at organization and cleanliness. I have to take them at their word; I'm not making a return trip to that hot parking lot to follow up. The conclusion . After two days pounding the asphalt, I'm pleased to report that I actually uncovered some useful information and some fun trivia. There are good reasons for keeping your trunk as empty as possible: . 1. Less junk in the trunk equals less weight, and less weight can mean greater fuel efficiency. 2. Under certain circumstances, shifting content in your trunk can adversely affect handling. 3. An empty trunk provides space for that roadside find or warehouse store bargain. How else are you going to get that pallet of pickled asparagus spears back to your garage? Here are a few tips that I picked up from the best (and worst) of trunks: . 1. Use boxes or containers in your trunk to keep your emergency kit organized and all together. 2. Purge non-essential items from your trunk on a regular basis. 3. Vacuum your cargo space whenever you wash your car so that whatever you put in your trunk doesn't get dirty and dusty. 4. Keep a few reusable shopping bags in your trunk so that you always have them when you get to the store. 5. Be sure to carry a few essential tools -- screwdrivers, wrench, tire-changing tools, a rubber mallet, etc. -- for emergency repair. 6. A cargo net or bungee cords will help keep your boxes and other items from rolling around in the trunk during hard cornering. Last, but not least, here's a list of the oddest items that I saw in any trunk: . \u2022. A machete, an axe and a hammer, wrapped in a colorful sheet (I didn't ask any questions). \u2022 A pair of old-school quad roller skates. \u2022 An ice scraper (odd because the temperature was 97 degrees in the shade) -- and we never get frost in Southern California. \u2022 A tube of Butt Paste -- a highly useful concoction that combats diaper rash. \u2022 Nothing. I can guarantee that this is the one thing you'll never find in my trunk.","highlights":"Reporter tries to uncover secret contents of average American trunk .\nUnscientific study finds vast majority of trunks are clean and uncluttered .\nAthletic folks tend to use their car's trunk as a smelly, portable gym locker .\nOne trunk includes machete, axe and hammer wrapped in sheet .","id":"4539ab5e3b32ff4eb25267a56368d567051d5478"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctors at the Technical University of Munich have conducted the world's first double-arm transplant on a 54-year-old farmer who had lost both his arms in an accident, officials said. After transplant surgery, this farmer has new arms. His condition \"is very good under the circumstances.\" The operation was conducted at the university's \"Klinikum rechts der Isar\" last week, the clinic said in a statement Friday, following several years of preparatory work. The man's condition \"is very good under the circumstances,\" the statement said. \"Now it is a matter of avoiding future wound healing disorders, infections, strong side-effects caused by the drugs and in particular any rejective reaction.\" A team of 40 people participated in the transplant surgery, conducted July 25 and 26. The donor matched the host in sex, age, skin color, size and blood group, the statement said. The transplant subject had lost both his arms at the upper arm level six years ago, and two attempts with artificial limbs had been unsuccessful.","highlights":"Technical University of Munich doctors transplant arms on 54-year-old farmer .\nFarmer had lost both his arms in an accident six years ago .\n40 people conduct operation; several years spent preparing for the surgery .\nDonor matched the patient in sex, age, skin color, size and blood group .","id":"02b501f3302ea6a83449667e944eadf4e7c56992"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 11:10 a.m. Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago-based radio host, he is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Please visit his Web site. Roland Martin says Americans need to rise above issues of race, age and gender when they vote. (CNN) -- One of the most intriguing conversations I had at either the Democratic or Republican convention was with a white labor leader from Ohio. I can't remember his name, but he made it clear that he is going all around the Rust Belt state looking his white union brothers and sisters in the eye and essentially shaming them into supporting Sen. Barack Obama for president. No, he's not saying vote for the black man for president because he's black. He said he's telling them that it's shameful that as Democrats, they agree with him on various political issues, but because of his skin color, they are refusing to cast ballots for him. \"We have gone to our black brothers and sisters for years to support our [white] candidates, and it's wrong for us to stand here and not support one of their own, even though we're Democrats,\" he barked. There is nothing more in-your-face than to hear someone speak truthfully to the inherent racism that is at play in this election. For all the talk about inclusion and the historic nature of this campaign, the true tribal feelings of so many people will come into play, whether we want to admit it or not. We are seeing remarkable bias playing strongly in this election. Exit-polling data in the primaries showed some evidence of bias when it came to age, race and gender, but the great concern is whether people are as honest in talking to pollsters as they are in the voting booth. Because Sen. John McCain is 72 and would be the oldest person to be sworn in as president, there is a lot of dialogue about how old this white guy is, and how wrong it is that he's running. Age questions also have been raised about the 47-year-old black guy from Chicago and whether he is too young and inexperienced to lead. While there is a lot of talk and excitement surrounding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin being named as the first woman on a Republican ticket, and what that may mean in terms of widespread female support coming the way of McCain-Palin, there are some voices who refuse to vote for a woman. We've also seen a number of prominent women -- including Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn and radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger -- who have questioned whether the 44-year-old white mother of five children should be vice president, considering she has five children, including a special needs child. It's wonderful to talk about the economy, immigration, the war in Iraq, health care and education, but we can't be na\u00efve to the reality that when voters go into that voting booth, they will, as one person told me during an interview, \"vote with their tribe.\" That was one of the arguments we heard during the Democratic primaries when Obama enjoyed overwhelming support from African-Americans -- to the tune of 90-plus percent -- while Sen. Hillary Clinton had major female support, largely white, in the range of 65 to 70 percent. So what do we do when it comes to our tendency to follow group identification? 1. Stop dancing around the topic. When you watch TV and hear folks talk about Wal-Mart moms or small, rural towns, they are talking about white Americans. These catch phrases never include African-Americans or Hispanics . 2. Confront bias where it is. Ask your friends, neighbors, co-workers and church members who they are voting for. When they give you the \"I really can't put my finger on it\" line, then press them. Hard. You know the real answer, so don't beat around the bush. The best folks to challenge Americans on their hang-ups regarding age, race and gender aren't the AARP, NAACP or NOW. It's Y-O-U. Don't give in to the \"That's the way I was raised\" mantra. When someone suggests that flags and faith show that a candidate isn't one of us, drill down. 3. Accept the fact that some people will not change. We all think that we have been gifted to the degree that our sane and logical arguments can get folks off their biased stumps. Some people just won't give in. Fine, move on. The goal is to rid our society of as much bias as possible. If someone is so hard-headed, then you have to go on to the next person and try to change them. It's critical that we be as honest as possible about the impact of race, age and gender in campaigns. A lot of people love to toss around the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote that he hoped one day people would be judged by \"the content of their character.\" But it's still a reality that skin tone, gender and our birth date means more than character to a lot of Americans. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Roland Martin says people talk about issues but conceal their biases .\nMartin: Race, age, gender issues affect support for Obama, McCain, Palin .\nAmericans need to be open about how \"tribal\" concerns influence them, he says .\nMartin: Let's stop dancing around the topics of race, age and gender .","id":"8a25813d4e2562f30a0f95b4673f5565ef2efc98"} -{"article":"BANGALORE, India (CNN) -- Two-year-old Lakshmi Tatma, an Indian toddler born with four arms and four legs, made her first public appearance Tuesday, a week after surgeons in India successfully removed her additional limbs. Doctors said Lakshmi was recovering well as she appeared Tuesday at a news conference. Lakshmi, wearing a plaster cast on her legs to keep her feet up and her legs together to help her wounds heal, was carried into a news conference Tuesday as her doctors announced she was being released from intensive care. \"She is coping very well,\" lead surgeon Dr. Sharan Patil said. \"She is being carried around by her mother and her father.\" Several of her doctors, all of them smiling, described her recovery over the past week \"very steady and good progress,\" one saying she is \"out of the woods\" as far as serious medical issues are concerned. Watch the recovering little girl meet the media \u00bb . The operation a week ago lasted 27 hours and involved a team of some 30 surgeons, all specialists in pediatrics, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and plastic surgery, working in eight-hour shifts. Lakshmi's extra limbs were part of a conjoined twin which stopped developing in the womb. It had a torso and limbs but no head, and was joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis. Doctors said that without the surgery, Lakshmi would have been unlikely to survive beyond early adolescence. The surgery involved the removal of the extra limbs and the repositioning of Lakshmi's organs. When Lakshmi was born into her poor, rural Indian family, villagers in the remote settlement of Rampur Kodar Katti in the northern state of Bihar believed she was sacred. As news of her birth spread, locals queued for a blessing from the baby. Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam Tatma, named the girl after the Hindu goddess of wealth who has four arms. However, they were forced to keep her in hiding after they were approached by men offering money in exchange for putting their daughter in a circus. The couple, who earn just $1 a day as casual laborers, wanted her to have the operation but were unable to pay for the rare procedure, which had never before been performed in India. After Patil visited the girl in her village from Narayana Health City hospital in Bangalore, the hospital's foundation agreed to fund the $200,000 operation. Planning for the surgery took a month, Patil said, and Lakshmi spent that month in the hospital. Many villagers, however, remained opposed to surgery and were planning to erect a temple to Lakshmi, whom they still revere as sacred. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Girl born with eight limbs makes first public appearance since surgery .\nSurgeons say Lakshmi Tatma, two, \"coping very well,\" making good progress .\nLakshmi released from intensive care Tuesday; appears at press conference .\nOperation lasted 27 hours and involved 30 surgeons working eight-hour shifts .","id":"0aa5fc5f877390e263bac75501497b4d817dcbc0"} -{"article":"CHARLESTON, South Carolina (CNN) -- Tropical storm Cristobal was forecast to move \"parallel and very close\" to the North Carolina coast Sunday morning, but the storm is not expected to make landfall along the eastern U.S. shores. Satellite image taken at 1:15 p.m. Saturday shows Tropical Storm Cristobal off the coast of the Carolinas. At 11 p.m. ET Saturday, the center of the storm was about 45 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and about 170 miles southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center said Cristobal was moving northeast at about 6 mph, with maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph and some higher gusts. \"The center of the tropical storm is expected to move parallel and very close to the coast of North Carolina for the next day or so,\" the NHC said. It is expected to dump between three and five inches of rain along the Carolina coast this weekend, it said. The storm had not strengthened beyond the 45 mph top winds measured earlier on Saturday, according to the NHC. A discussion posted online by NHC forecasters called Cristobal \"convectively challenged\" and predicted the storm would \"become absorbed ahead of an approaching cold front\" by late Monday. Although the center of the storm was forecast to remain off the coast through the weekend, tropical storm warnings were in effect from the South Santee River in South Carolina to the North Carolina-Virginia state line, including Pamlico Sound. Flood advisories were posted for coastal counties, and Wilmington, North Carolina, received 2\u00bd inches of rain Saturday, said Stephen Keebler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service there. Cristobal's winds were not expected to be a problem, Keebler said. \"It's some rain and a little bit of relief for the coastal areas and a lot of excitement, but that's about it,\" he said. The rain bands were weakening as they spun farther inland, providing little relief for parched areas near Interstate 95 in North Carolina, he said. Forecasters predicted up to 5 inches of rain along the North Carolina coast, with heavier amounts in some areas. Eastern North Carolina is under a moderate drought, and areas along South Carolina's northern coast are considered abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Officials have blamed the persistent drought for a massive wildfire that has burned more than 40,000 acres in eastern North Carolina since it began June 1 with a lightning strike. As Cristobal lurked offshore, the storm was keeping many boaters off the waters -- and surfers in the waves. On North Carolina's Outer Banks, surfers reveled in the waves as the storm churned offshore well to the south. Bradley Rose, a surf instructor at SandBarz in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, said the waves were a bit choppy. \"It looks pretty fun out there,\" Rose said. At the By the Sea Motel in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, out-of-state vacationers took to the beach, trying to photograph the outer rain bands of Cristobal, hotel manager Charlie Peterson said. Intermittent rain showers during the afternoon were not enough to chase them away, and there were even brief moments of sunshine. \"They've got their cameras set, and they think there is going to be lightning over the water and all,\" he said. \"They have never seen this.\" Elsewhere Saturday, Hurricane Fausto strengthened far off Mexico's Pacific coast, while Hurricane Bertha, located east of Cape Race, Newfoundland, was downgraded to tropical storm status. Neither of those storms currently threatens land. Bertha had blustered across Bermuda this week, knocking out electricity to thousands there.","highlights":"Tropical Storm Cristobal \"very close\" to North Carolina coast .\nStorm expected to dump three to five inches of rain along coast .\nCristobal evolved Saturday from a tropical depression on Friday .","id":"5409ab7bb553decc9cf81e6bfd4550e12b3cbb57"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Michelle Rhee says she runs at 100 miles per hour. As the chancellor of one of the nation's lowest-performing school districts, she says she has no choice -- too much bureaucracy to cut through, too many problems to fix after decades of neglect. Michelle Rhee says a sense of urgency has been missing for years in the District of Columbia's schools. Rhee closed 23 schools in her first year as the head of the District of Columbia's public schools, fired 36 principals and cut 15 percent -- about 121 jobs -- from the central office staff. And she's making no apologies. \"I think it's that sense of urgency that has been lacking for far too long in our public schools,\" Rhee told CNN as she began her second year on the job in late August. \"We are always going to put the best interests of kids above the rights, privileges and priorities of adults.\" Watch fighting for \"radical changes\" \u00bb . Rhee said \"radical\" changes are needed because only 12 percent of the District's eighth graders are proficient in reading and just 8 percent are proficient in math, but was quick to add that they're already seeing improvement. She highlighted gains in elementary reading and secondary level math and reading in the past year that outstripped all of the four prior years put together. An annual report card by Education Week, a newspaper that follows the nation's education system, earlier this year ranked the District's school system last, giving it a D+ overall and an F for student achievement in kindergarten through 12th grade. Those grades were based on data prior to Rhee's arrival. \"We need to see radical changes because the outcomes for kids that are happening right now are robbing them of their futures,\" said Rhee, a Democrat who supports President Bush's landmark education law known as No Child Left Behind. Watch Rhee describe telling employee: \"You need to find another job\" \u00bb . \"We have scores of kids in this city who don't have the advocates that they need in their lives who are able to maneuver and jockey through the public school system. And we can't allow those children to languish in classrooms where teachers are not performing.\" Her plan is ambitious: To completely transform the District's system within eight years for its 50,000 children. The plan focuses on top-down accountability, quantitative results like standardized test scores and, ultimately, working to close what she describes as \"the achievement gap between wealthy white kids and poor minority kids.\" \"I think it's absolutely possible within an eight-year period,\" she said. Watch D.C. schools need \"urgency\" \u00bb . Rhee, who is Korean-American, is operating in a largely African-American district. It is a district where 57 percent of the students qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. Rhee said when she first arrived on the job in 2007 she first heard whispers of: \"She's not from D.C., she's not African-American: Is she going to be able to relate to students and their families?\" \"I think that all dissipated quite quickly after I started getting out into the community and talking to people,\" said Rhee, a 38-year-old mother of two children attending local public schools. \"I think one of the things that comes across very clearly is the fact that I'm very passionate about this work. I'm very focused on it.\" But her plan to turn the failing school district on its head has met protest every step of the way, even from teachers. \"I think the people who view her aggressive actions as a positive thing, I think they are missing the boat because if it results in more chaos and more dysfunction, it's not the solution that we need,\" said Kerry Sylvia, a teacher at Cardozo Senior High School in her ninth year. Sylvia says the District has seen far too many superintendents over the years and fears Rhee is just another in the long list of those who come in touting their reforms and then leave. She does offer praise for Rhee holding teachers and administrators accountable for their lack of performance. However, she doesn't always care for Rhee's style, saying Rhee makes it seem like \"there's a lot of lazy teachers.\" \"She's pitting adults against children. She couches things in terms of 'I'm not here to keep jobs for adults. I'm not here to keep people's paychecks. I am here for the children,' \" Sylvia said. \"Well, guess what? I'm here for the children too.\" Before taking on her current role, Rhee founded The New Teacher Project, a non-profit organization that recruits quality teachers to high-poverty schools. Rhee holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University. One of the most controversial programs Rhee has introduced is a joint venture between D.C. schools and Harvard that pays middle school students cash -- up to $100 a month -- for good behavior and attendance. Rhee says such pilot programs have worked in other cities. She says the District's students have far too many bad incentives on the streets, from hustling to drug dealing, and need something to keep them focused. \"We're preparing them to understand that if you do the right thing, then good things will happen to you,\" Rhee said. Some in the District are skeptical, including Clarence Cherry, a fourth-generation Washingtonian and father of five. He calls the cash and Rhee's overall direction misguided and reckless. \"It's a very dangerous game that she's playing with,\" he said. But Cherry added, \"I want to give her an opportunity to prove to me as a parent that she genuinely ... is here for the kids.\" Others are fervent supporters of the new superintendent. Dr. Waheedah Shakoor, another teacher at Cardozo, has been in the District since 1979. He says he's been stunned at the amount of change that's happened in just one year under Rhee, from freshly painted walls to improved athletic facilities. \"Things that we've been asking for for many, many years have come to fruition within just the last 12 months,\" Shakoor said. Rhee is an appointee of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has backed her every move. \"I had the highest expectations of Michelle Rhee when she came into the job. She has exceeded every expectation,\" Fenty said. \"When you have a system that's been as underperforming as the District of Columbia public schools, you need to shake things up.\" Rhee says she'll continue to shake things, working at break-neck speed to improve the education and opportunity for her students and urban students across the country as fast as she can.","highlights":"D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee closed 23 schools, fired 36 principals in first year .\n\"We are always going to put the best interests of kids above the rights ... of adults\"\nCritic says Rhee has created \"more chaos and more dysfunction\"\nMayor backs his appointee, says when schools fail, \"you need to shake things up\"","id":"5a73298f5ede3851c55a99d20a8b9bf849712525"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli police divers found a suitcase Thursday containing human remains that are believed to be the body of a missing 4-year-old girl, an Israeli police spokesman said. French-Israeli girl Rose poses for a photograph with her mother, Marie Pizem. The suitcase was pulled out of the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, where police have been searching for Rose Pizem, Mickey Rosenfeld said. Two weeks ago, the girl's grandfather Roni Ron, 45, told police he stuffed her body in a suitcase and dumped it in the Yarkon River. The remains will be tested to confirm the identification of the body, and the tests could be completed within 24 hours, Rosenfeld said. \"The body was found in a very bad, severe condition, as you can imagine after being in the water for weeks,\" Rosenfeld said, explaining why the tests could not be completed sooner. Ron initially told police he accidentally killed Rose when he slapped her in a fit of rage but then changed his account. Police transcripts quote Ron as saying, \"I parked the car on the sidewalk. I opened the trunk, pulled out the suitcase and when I reached the banks of the river, I threw it. She's finished. I finished her. I saw the water seeping in and the suitcase slowly sinking.\" The family drama centers on Rose's mother, Marie-Charlotte Renault-Pizam, 23, and Ron -- her estranged husband's father -- with whom authorities say she has had two more daughters. Rose's father lives in France. Both the mother and grandfather are in custody. Renault-Pizam has denied any role in her daughter's disappearance. She told police she thought Ron sent Rose to an institution in France, although police, without elaborating, have said they have a telephone conversation that shows she knew the child's fate. Rose's great-grandmother, Vivienne Yaakov, reported the girl missing in late July, saying she had not seen her great-grandchild for about two months. Rose and her mother had been staying with Yaakov, who told police that Ron had taken the child and she never returned. Police searched Ron's apartment in mid-August and arrested him. The investigation has uncovered a twisted family love triangle that may have contributed to the girl's murder. The British media call the case Israel's Madeleine McCann, a reference to the 3-year-old child who disappeared May 3, 2007, while on vacation with her British family at the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. She has never been found. Rose was born in France in 2003. Her mother moved to Israel after a custody battle with Rose's father, Benjamin Pizem. Renault-Pizam had fallen in love with Ron on a previous trip to Israel with her father-in-law. Israel's minister of interior security, Avi Dichter, said everything would be done to find Rose and give her a proper burial. \"There is no doubt that as a society, Israel was not there for the child when she was in need of help,\" Dichter said. Benjamin Pizem told Israel's Haaretz newspaper that he still hopes Rose is alive. He described his father, from whom he is estranged, as manipulative and said more details may be uncovered. \"When I see him in videos, I see in his face, even if it's quite a neutral one, he has an expression that says, 'You don't know everything, and I'm manipulating all of you.' That's the reason why we think there's hope Rose is still alive.\"","highlights":"Israeli police divers on find suitcase with human remains inside .\nBody believed to be that of missing 4-year-old girl .\nDisappearance of Rose Pizam likened to that of Madeleine McCann .","id":"6f038b2dd4df9e2aed966e0fc91f4f84ab3e0041"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe admitted Wednesday that the symbol of the neutral Red Cross organization was used in a hostage rescue mission that freed 15 people from leftist rebels two weeks ago. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a bib worn by a man involved in the rescue in this official image. Uribe made the admission after CNN reported on unpublished photographs and videos that clearly showed a man wearing a Red Cross bib. Wrongly using the Red Cross logo is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. The man was a member of the Colombian military intelligence team involved in the daring rescue, Uribe said in an address carried on national TV and radio. The president said that as the constitutional head of the armed forces, he takes full political responsibility for what he described as a slip-up. \"This officer, upon confessing his mistake to his superiors, said when the [rescue] helicopter was about to land ... he saw so many guerrillas that he went into a state of angst,\" Uribe said. \"He feared for his life and put on the Red Cross bib over his jacket.\" However, the confidential military source who showed CNN the photographs that included the man wearing the bib said they were taken moments before the mission took off. Uribe said he was sorry for the mistake and has apologized to ICRC officials. There will be no official sanction against the man wearing the bib, he indicated. Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute a \"war crime\" under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law and could endanger humanitarian workers in the future, according to international legal expert Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association. The ICRC mission in Bogota said in a written statement that it \"noted\" Uribe's announcement. The ICRC mission in Bogota said in a written statement: \"As guardian of international humanitarian law, the ICRC reminds that the use of the Red Cross emblem is specifically regulated by the Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols. \"The Red Cross emblem has to be respected in all circumstances and cannot be used in an abusive manner. \"The ICRC as neutral and impartial must have the confidence of all the sides in the conflict in order to carry out its humanitarian work.\" Colombian military intelligence used the Red Cross emblem in a rescue operation in which leftist guerrillas were duped into handing over 15 hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the mission took off to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels to release the hostages to a supposed international aid group for transport to another rebel area. Ellis said the conventions were \"very strict\" regarding use of the symbol because of what it represented: impartiality, neutrality. Watch possible misuse of emblem \u00bb . \"If you use the emblem in a deceitful way, generally the conventions say it would be a breach. [Based on the information as explained to me,] the way that the images show the Red Cross emblem being used could be distinguished as a war crime, \" Ellis added. The unpublished video and photos of the mission, hailed internationally as a daring success, were shown to CNN by a military source looking to sell the material. CNN declined to buy the material at the price being asked; it was therefore unable to verify the authenticity of the images. Uribe and his top generals had categorically denied that international humanitarian symbols were used in the July 2 rescue mission that freed the prized hostages. The hostages had endured years of harsh captivity and deprivation in jungle camps since being captured or kidnapped. Some were held for as long as 10 years. The rescue ruse also included bogus communications, sent electronically and by human couriers, to convince FARC rebels that superiors were ordering them to hand over hostages to the group posing as aid workers for transfer to another rebel camp. Misuse of the Red Cross emblem is governed by articles 37, 38 and 85 of Additional Protocol One to the Geneva Conventions, the international rules of war. The articles prohibit \"feigning of protected status by the use of ... emblems\" of neutral parties and say that such misuses are considered breaches of international humanitarian law that qualify as a \"war crime.\" Colombia signed the Geneva Conventions in 1949. That prohibition was put in place to protect the neutrality of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations in an armed conflict and to guarantee their access to all sides. Use of those emblems by one side of a conflict, for example, could endanger aid workers because those on another side might no longer trust that symbols they see really represent those humanitarian organizations. Among the photos shown to CNN are some bearing a date stamp of July 2, taken at an unidentified landing site in the jungle alongside a farm house. In one of those photographs, about 15 members of a Colombian military intelligence-led team pose for a photo alongside a helicopter. One of the members, dressed in a dark red T-shirt or polo shirt, khaki cargo pants and a black-and-white Arab-style scarf, also wears a bib of the type worn by Red Cross workers. The bib bears the Red Cross symbol in the center of two black circles on a white background. In the space between the two black circles appear in capital letters the French words \"Comite International Geneve\" (International Committee Geneva). The same man is standing in the doorway of the helicopter, a Russian-made MI-17 painted white and orange, in another photo. In a third photo, he is pictured walking near the helicopter still wearing the bib. The same man pictured in the photos can be seen fleetingly in a heavily edited video of the rescue mission issued to the media by the Defense Ministry two days after the hostages were freed. In one frame, part of what appears to be the Red Cross bib is visible as the man wearing it stands in a jungle clearing alongside guerrilla commanders Gerardo Antonio Aguilar, alias Cesar, and Alexander Farfan, known as Enrique Gafas, who were captured in the operation. The red blur of a Red Cross can be seen and part of the two black circles of the emblem and the capital letters \"EVE\". Those are also the last three letters of word Geneve (Geneva), which appears on the official ICRC emblem and bib. In two other frames of the officially released video, the same man, dressed in the same clothes as in the pre-departure photos, can be seen still wearing the predominantly white bib tied at the sides. In those shots the ICRC logo is not visible. The unpublished video also reveals an emblem that bears the Spanish words \"Mision Internacional Humanitaria\" (International Humanitarian Mission) and a stylized red bird made up of wavy red lines above two curved branches of blue leaves. In the 3\u00bd-minute video of the operation issued by the military, emblems pasted on the side of the rescue helicopter cannot be seen. But in the unpublished video and photos shown to CNN, emblems measuring about one square meter (one square yard) are pasted onto the outside of the chopper. The same emblem appears on the Web site for Mision Internacional Humanitaria, which describes itself as a non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, that \"works to improve the processes of development to guarantee equality of opportunity for individuals and peoples.\" Although the site says the group is registered with the Spanish Interior Ministry and the regional Department of Justice, the site is littered with misspellings, and the telephone number that's listed is 000000000. CNN was unable to contact the group to verify its existence. The group's Web site could not be accessed early Tuesday. Additional video clips show how the emblems on the side of the helicopter were stripped off and burned once the rescue mission had been completed. The fate of the bib is not clear from the clips.","highlights":"NEW: .\nPresident Alvaro Uribe says one Red Cross symbol was used in hostage rescue .\nPhotos from military source show man wearing bib with Red Cross logo .\nSuch misuse of symbol could be violation of Geneva Conventions .","id":"9f5a789344f92ea35c2fba5f7bc83ad36ba64973"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- It's no surprise: Americans are super-opinionated, especially about the cities they live in and the places they visit. In fact, their feelings are so strong that in the 2008 America's Favorite Cities survey -- conducted by travelandleisure.com and CNN Headline News -- Americans voted more than 600,000 times on 45 characteristics of 25 cities, weighing in on things like shopping, food, culture and nightlife, as well as cleanliness and affordability. New Orleans earned No. 1 rankings for fine dining and live music. In 2007, there was a lot of cheering from cities that clinched the No. 1 spots, like Chicago, Illinois, (dining) and Austin, Texas, (best singles scene). But we also saw a lot of upsets -- upset people, that is. After all, someone had to come in last. Unfortunately for the proud people of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, America voted them dead last in the category of attractive people. And Los Angeles, California, took the prize for least friendly city, a category that most expected New York City to sweep. Notable changes . For the winners in each category, 2008 brought some surprises. New Orleans, Louisiana, elbowed New York aside as the best city for fine dining. Las Vegas, Nevada, took the No. 1 spot for best singles scene as former No. 1 Austin tumbled to No. 5. In the cleanliness category, Portland, Oregon, swept Minneapolis, Minnesota, out of first place this year. See all the America's Favorite Cities results -- and play the new AFC game, What's YOUR Fave? But other cities maintained their dominant positions. New York held its No. 1 ranking as the country's best spot for people-watching, while Charleston, South Carolina, was once again voted America's friendliest city. Find your vacation . There's plenty more to explore beyond the rankings. If you're in the market for a great destination, the Vacation Finder at travelandleisure.com can help you find the perfect city for your interests. Austin and New Orleans, for example, are rollicking destinations for live music, cheap ethnic food and vintage shopping. If something more high-minded is your style, check out Washington D.C. (No. 1 for museums) or New York (No. 1 for classical music). Travelers seeking the sophistication of cities paired with the exhilaration of the outdoors should head to Honolulu, Hawaii, (No. 1 for active\/adventure vacations), Portland (No. 1 for public parks and access to outdoors), or Denver, Colorado, (No. 1 for athletic\/active citizens). If you're planning a trip with the kids, Orlando, Florida, is still on top, but alternatives like San Diego, California, and Washington D.C. still rate high with travelers. Seekers of romantic getaways should try their luck in Honolulu, Charleston or San Francisco, California, which hold their own particular charms. And what happened at the bottom of the scale? Did Philadelphia rally voters and push themselves up the attractiveness scale? Did Angelenos take the criticism about being the least-friendly city to heart and begin using a kinder, gentler salute to fellow drivers on the freeway? Read on to find out. Here are the top three cities \u00bb in some of the categories, as voted by visitors. Visit travelandleisure.com for the full results, best and worst, for each city and category, as ranked by residents and by visitors. 'What's YOUR Fave?' You've voted on your favorite cities' characteristics, but what's America's Favorite City overall? Tell us! Vote for America's best in our new bracket game, What's YOUR Fave? Go to travelandleisure.com\/afc and each week for the next four weeks, we'll pit cities head-to-head. Your vote decides whether they move on to the next round or get eliminated!","highlights":"New Orleans elbowed New York aside as the best city for fine dining .\nPortland, Oregon, swept Minneapolis out of first place for cleanliness .\nNew York held its No. 1 ranking as the country's best spot for people-watching .","id":"e9d5e34f56b0db410efe86ec509056714c8ea33e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Residents living in single-family homes in some parts of coastal Texas face \"certain death\" if they do not heed orders to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike's arrival, the National Weather Service said Thursday night. Texans sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic Thursday on a highway from Galveston County into Houston. The unusually strong wording came in a weather advisory regarding storm surge along the shoreline of Galveston Bay, which could see maximum water levels of 15 to 22 feet, the agency said. \"All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide,\" the advisory said. \"Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death.\" The maximum water level forecasts in nearby areas, including the shoreline of Matagorda Bay and the Gulf-facing coastline from Sargent to High Island, ranged from 5 to 8 feet. But authorities warned that tide levels could begin rising Friday morning along the upper Texas coast and along the shorelines of the bays. The advisory summoned memories of the language used to describe 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. \"Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks ... if not longer,\" an advisory issued at the time said. \"The vast majority of native trees will be snapped or uprooted. Only the heartiest will remain standing.\" The Ike advisory follows comes on the heels of similarly urgent messages earlier Thursday from federal authorities, who warned of a \"massive storm\" that could affect roughly 40 percent of the U.S. Gulf Coast. \"Do not take this storm lightly,\" Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday afternoon. \"This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large; it is powerful; it carries a lot of water.\" Chertoff and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said their efforts were focused on evacuations as Ike moved northwest at 12 mph across the central Gulf of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph. Track the storm \u00bb . Chertoff also urged people not to succumb to \"hurricane fatigue,\" referring to concerns that authorities were overestimating Ike's potential impact. \"Unless you're fatigued with living, I suggest you want to take seriously a storm of this size and scale,\" he said Thursday. Houston Mayor Bill White said he's heard that people who live in areas under a mandatory evacuation order say they plan to stay in their homes. He strongly urged against it. \"If you think you want to ride something out, and people are talking about a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, then you better think again,\" White said. At 5 p.m. Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said a hurricane warning was in effect between Morgan City, Louisiana, and Baffin Bay, Texas. A warning means hurricane conditions are likely within 24 hours. Ike's forecast track was through Galveston and the Houston metro area as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. Currently a Category 2 storm about 700 miles across, Ike could make landfall near Galveston Island as early as Saturday morning. Watch CNN meteorologists track Hurricane Ike \u00bb . At 11 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 115 miles from Ike's center, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 275 miles. The storm was centered 445 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, and about 340 miles east-southeast of Galveston, and was moving west-northwest at near 10 mph. Watch: National Hurricane center predicts Ike's path \u00bb . Roughly 3.5 million people live in the hurricane's potential impact zone, FEMA Administrator David Paulison said Thursday. In Galveston, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas told the island's 60,000 people that they should leave. By 7:30 ET, the city had finished evacuating to Austin thousands of residents who needed assistance leaving because of age, disability or lack of reliable transportation. Mandatory evacuations remained in effect for low-lying coastal areas northeast and southwest of Galveston, in Chambers, Matagorda and Brazoria counties. Some Brazoria County residents said they didn't want to leave but realized it was in their best interest to do so. \"You don't have a choice when you have kids,\" Deborah Davis of Freeport told CNN affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston. Farther inland, about 100,000 residents in low-lying areas surrounding Houston began evacuating Thursday afternoon as Ike headed for the Texas coast, officials said. Watch Gov. Rick Perry warn residents of Ike's potential \u00bb . But the remaining 4 million residents were told they could stay home, even as government offices and schools prepared to close Friday in Houston in anticipation of the hurricane. \"We are only evacuating areas subject to a storm surge,\" said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the county's chief executive officer. \"Yes, we know you will lose electricity. But you're not in danger of losing your life, so stay put.\" Ships in port were told to leave, said Port of Houston spokeswoman Linda Whitlock. The area's two major airports, George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby, also halted all commercial flights. More than 1,300 inmates from the Texas Correctional Institutions Division's Stevenson Unit in Cuero were being evacuated to facilities in Beeville and Kenedy, Perry's office said, and 597 were transferred from the substance abuse Glossbrenner Unit in San Diego, in south Texas, to Dilley. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"Life-threatening floods expected in parts of coastal Texas, agency says .\nHurricane Ike could make landfall near Galveston Island as early as Saturday .\nAbout 100,000 evacuated from Houston; 4 million more told to stay .\nAll of Galveston Island ordered to evacuate; special needs evacuations completed .","id":"fceb0b7506d3fb53a18da3d86507b4320d65ed3e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Ohio death row inmate who says he is too overweight to be executed took his plea to the Supreme Court on Friday. Richard Cooey, 41, and an accomplice were convicted of the 1986 murders of two college students. Richard Cooey is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday and has exhausted most of his state and federal appeals. Gov. Ted Strickland earlier Friday denied the 41-year-old prisoner's clemency petition. Cooey murdered two college students in 1986. The justices were expected to decide whether he should receive a stay of execution, and whether to address the larger constitutional claims over when a convicted person is medically unfit for capital punishment. His lawyers have argued that the inmate-- at 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds -- is \"morbidly obese,\" and has gained about 70 pounds since his incarceration at age 19. Prison food and confinement in his cell for 23 hours a day, limiting his opportunities for exercise, contributed to his weight problem, his legal team said in recent court filings. Cooey also says regular medication he takes for migraines will weaken the effectiveness of an anesthetic used in the a three-drug cocktail administered during execution. He says his veins are weakened because of his health issues, and the lethal drugs would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. In 2003, one day before Cooey was scheduled to die, a judge stopped his execution on issues unrelated to his health claims. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Cooey waited too long to raise the medical issues, saying he \"knew of and could have filed suit over vein access prior to July 2005.\" Cooey and a then-17-year-old accomplice were convicted of the brutal murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery, students at the University of Akron. The men had been tossing concrete slabs onto Interstate 77, and one of them struck Offredo's car. Pretending to rescue the women, Cooey and Clinton Dickens took them to a remote field, according to prosecutors. There, the students were subjected to 3\u00bd hours of rape, torture, stabbings and fatal bludgeonings. Cooey had carved an \"X\" into the stomachs of both women, prosecutors said. Each man blamed the other for delivering the fatal blows, but both were convicted of murder. Dickens received a life sentence because of his age. Cooey tried to escape from death row in 2005, when corrections officials said he constructed a ladder from magazines and bedsheets in an effort to scale the barrier around an outdoor recreation area. At an August clemency hearing, Jon Offredo, brother of one of the victims, said, \"Our family has never gotten an apology from Richard Cooey. We've gotten blatant lies and excuses. Is an apology too much to ask? How could he commit such a heinous act and not feel regret?\" But Cooey's lawyer, Dana Cole, said his client is sorry for his crimes. The high court has not offered clear guidelines on what medical standards need to be met before an inmate is eligible for death. But in a case five years ago, the justices allowed inmates to at least make a claim that their specific physical or medical issues could be cause to block an execution. The high court had sided with a convicted Alabama killer who claimed his veins were so damaged from years of drug abuse that executioners might have to cut deeply into his flesh to administer the deadly drugs. Writing for the unanimous court, then-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court was not going to \"open the floodgates to all manner of method-of-execution challenges,\" as Alabama feared. \"Our holding is extremely limited.\" That inmate is still on death row. Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a data-resource group that opposes capital punishment, said the Supreme Court indicated that \"how you're going to be executed is a civil rights matter, the same as if you were discriminated [against] on the basis of race or gender or something like that.\" A Washington state killer was given a reprieve in 1994 after claiming he was too obese to hang. Mitchell Rupe at one time was more than 425 pounds, but weight-loss surgery in prison had reduced that to 275 pounds over the years. Subsequent legal efforts to execute him failed. He died in prison two years ago from a long illness. The Ohio case is Cooey v. Strickland.","highlights":"Richard Cooey, set to die Tuesday, has exhausted most state, federal appeals .\nJustices are expected to decide whether he should receive stay of execution .\nThey could also address constitutional claims about medical fitness for execution .\nCooey: Drug interaction, weakened veins would make punishment cruel, unusual .","id":"52a68e9f8f4d36a669e207d66273a2d773c05cac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Maoist insurgents killed a dozen soldiers and two civilians during an ambush in southeastern Peru, the military said Friday. The military blamed \"narco-terrorists\" of the Shining Path for the attack Thursday night in Tayacaja province as the soldiers were returning by truck to their counterterrorism base in Cochabamba Grande. The region is where most of the country's coca leaf and cocaine are produced. \"At the height of the place named Sajona Curve, terrorists detonated an explosive charge under a civilian truck carrying villagers, and immediately fired with long-range weapons on all vehicles,\" the military said in a statement. \"The military reacted immediately, engaging in a clash that lasted several hours,\" the statement said. \"This unfortunate act shows that the narco-terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso [Shining Path] is continuing in its bloodthirsty actions ... without discriminating among women and children.\" The Shining Path and the smaller Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement are blamed for the deaths of thousands of Peruvians. The rebels have been targets of a fierce government crackdown in the mountainous region of Peru.","highlights":"Ambush kills 12 soldiers and two civilians in southeastern Peru .\nPeru's military blames \"narco-terrorists\" of the Shining Path for attack .\nRebels have been targets of a fierce government crackdown .","id":"6f95a187921b94549a5467b3d39a71089412e9d9"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A tropical storm watch was issued Friday for Bermuda as Hurricane Bertha moved closer to the Atlantic island, causing swells and high turf on its beaches. A satellite picture from 5:45 a.m. ET Friday shows Hurricane Bertha over the Atlantic. As of 8 p.m. ET Friday, the center of Bertha was about 250 miles (402 km) southeast of Bermuda. The Category 1 storm was moving north-northwest at near 5 mph (8 km\/h). The National Hurricane Center said a gradual turn toward the north is expected Friday night and Saturday, followed by a continued slow motion toward the north or north-northeast on Sunday. \"On this track, the center of Bertha is expected to slowly pass to the southeast and east of Bermuda during the next couple of days,\" the agency said in an advisory. Bertha's maximum sustained winds are at near 90 mph (145 km\/hr), with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. See Bertha's path \u00bb . The Bermuda Weather Service issued a tropical storm watch for the island around midday, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible in the area, the hurricane center said. The center advised those on the island, a self-governing British colony, to monitor Bertha's progress closely. Bertha's intensity has fluctuated. At its peak Monday, it was a major Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 120 mph (193 km\/h). Its wind speed dropped to 75 mph (121 km\/h), barely hurricane strength, before picking up once again and reaching Category 2 intensity late Wednesday, with top sustained winds of 105 mph (169 km\/h). See how hurricanes are classified \u00bb . The storm formed July 3 off Africa near the southern Cape Verde Islands. It strengthened into a hurricane Monday. The first tropical storm of the season, Arthur, formed May 31 near the coast of Belize and dumped heavy rain on Central America and southern Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Bermuda Weather Service issues tropical storm watch .\nNEW: Hurricane Bertha's fringes expected to reach Bermuda on Saturday .\nThe Category 1 hurricane is causing large swells, high surf on Bermuda beaches .","id":"cce5f389bea063d8bb0e123361e1fbffeeed39ca"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Police in India have charged 63 people with murder in the beating death of a company boss who fired them. Labor minister Oscar Fernandes was criticized for saying Chaudhary's death was warning to management. The 63 were among 137 people police had rounded up by Wednesday -- two days after a mob of fired employees attacked L.K. Chaudhary, the chief executive of an Italian car parts manufacturing company. The others were charged with disturbing the peace in the Monday incident in Noida, located in the outskirts of the capital New Delhi. More arrests are likely, said R. K. Chaturvedi, the senior superintendent of police in Noida. The former employees of Graziano Transmissioni had gone to meet with company management over their reinstatement, said Noida police Inspector Manoj Pathak. The meeting turned violent, and the mob attacked Chaudhary with iron rods, Pathak said. On Tuesday, India's labor minister, Oscar Fernandes, drew sharp criticism after he said Chaudhary's death should serve as a warning to management, according to CNN's sister network in India, CNN-IBN. \"The workers should be dealt (with) with compassion and should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever that had happened in Nodia\" CNN-IBN quoted Fernandes as telling reporters. The minister later apologized, telling CNN his comments had been taken out of context. He said the murder of the boss could never be justified. The Italian Embassy said the company had, for several months, been facing \"violent forms of protest by self-proclaimed workers' representatives.\" \"The situation had been repeatedly brought to the attention of the competent Indian authorities, both at central and local level,\" it said in a statement. Business groups condemned the killing with the Confederation of Indian Industry calling it \"tragic, unwanted and gory.\" \"Such instances of industrial violence cannot be a solution to any problem and must not be tolerated,\" said Salil Singh, chairman of the group that promotes industrial growth. Meanwhile, authorities sought to appease businesses that police were aggressively investigating the case. \"The legal course will be followed and all culprits brought to book,\" Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said. \"This stray tragic occurrence would not be allowed to mar India's position as an investment-friendly destination.\" CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police in India charge 63 people with murdering company boss who fired them .\nMob of fired employees attacked chief executive of Italian car parts company .\nIndia's labor minister apologizes for saying death is warning to management .","id":"cf050fcb181715da14f7c6a017dda7ba54129dcf"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Terrorism, a slow economy and rising gas prices are issues that can keep American voters awake at night. Undecided voters gathered at Emory University, where Dr. Drew Westen studies how brains react to messages. Political strategists know that the most successful candidates are masters at capitalizing on fears such as these, and that can make a huge difference at the polls. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson was running for president against conservative Barry Goldwater when his campaign unleashed the \"daisy ad.\" It showed a little girl counting as she plucked a daisy, charmingly mixing up her numbers. Then a baritone voice takes over, counting down to an overwhelming nuclear explosion. It's followed with a warning that the stakes are too high not to vote for Johnson. The ad, which ran only once, was so chilling and effective, analysts say, it helped Johnson win the presidency by one of the widest margins in U.S. history. CNN recently gathered eight undecided voters to see how they would respond to attack ads and how the ads might affect their choices. They met at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where psychologist Drew Westen studies how brains react to candidates' messages. Westen, who wrote \"The Political Brain,\" said fear-based attack ads are effective because they tap into a voter's subconscious. \"Those kinds of gut-level reactions tell us things like, 'I don't feel like this person is telling us the truth,' \" Westen said. \"Unless someone is a really good con man, those reactions are extremely helpful. The conscious brain processes only a tiny percent of information.\" Westen and his business partner, Joel Weinberger, have created software, through their company ThinkScan, that looks into a voter's subconscious. The software does this by measuring people's reaction time to certain words after they watch attack ads. The undecided voters in CNN's group watched the ads and were then asked to identify the color of words such as \"weak,\" \"inexperienced\" and \"terrorist.\" If they hesitated, even for one-thousandth of a second, before they clicked on the color that corresponded with the word, Weinberger said, it meant the word had an impact. \"If the word is on their mind, if the word was activated, it will slow them down,\" Weinberger said. Westen predicted that the undecided voters would say they didn't like the ads and that the ads had no impact on them. He was right. The group watched Hillary Clinton's \"3 a.m.\" campaign ad, which was intended to make voters question Barack Obama's experience. Viewers said that the ad was fear-mongering and that it did not make them think Clinton was a stronger leader than Obama. But the data, Westen said, showed that their brains reacted differently. Voters had the greatest hesitation with words like \"weak\" and \"lightweight\" during the color test. Westen said this meant the ad made them question Obama's readiness. \"The purpose, too, is to make him seem scary, dangerous. 'You need to be afraid of this guy as president,' \" Westen said. \"That message unconsciously got through.\" The undecided voters also watched an ad attacking John McCain for saying the U.S. could be in Iraq for the next 100 years. After watching the ad, the group gave it a thumbs-down. But researchers said the data showed that it left them feeling McCain has poor judgment and is too close to President Bush. The results were identical when the same test was given to a much larger group of 100 voters. This happens because the ads trigger a response in the part of the brain called the amygdala, which experiences emotions such as fear. When it is aroused, it overrides logic, according to Westen. Despite the ability of attack ads to affect voters' subconscious thinking, Westen cautions that fear-based ads are risky because they can backfire. What advice does Westen have for presidential hopefuls? \"They should make voters feel inspired by them and worried about their opponent at the same time,\" Westen said. \"It works.\"","highlights":"Fear-based attack ads are sometimes used by candidates to influence voters .\nCNN gathered eight undecided voters to measure the impact of attack ads .\nPsychologist Drew Westen says fear-based ads appeal to voters' subconscious .","id":"84b3eb772f9fb921df105c24e8cde0a2e8732585"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Residents of a western Pennsylvania neighborhood can return home Sunday after a chemical leak forced them to evacuate the night before. Hundreds of residents were forced to flee Saturday after a chemical leak in Petrolia, Pennsylvania. Authorities surveyed the neighborhood in Petrolia and determined that no traces of the toxic chemical remained, said Freda Tarbell, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. A leak at the Indspec Chemical Corp. plant in Petrolia on Saturday formed a cloud affecting at least 2,000 residents -- some of whom fled their homes. Others huddled indoors with their windows shut, authorities said. Three people were taken to hospitals, but officials could not immediately say why. Watch why residents were asked to evacuate \u00bb . It was not immediately clear how many people were injured, though plant manager Dave Dorko said all employees and inspectors at the plant were safe and accounted for. Tarbell described the chemical as fuming sulfuric acid, which is also known as oleum. The plant uses the chemical during its production process, she said. The plant produces a chemical called Resorcinol -- essentially a strong glue used in the tire industry. The leak affected between 2,000 and 2,500 residents, Tarbell said. Some stayed the night with friends and relatives and some sought refuge in shelters. Others opted to stay indoors and \"shut their windows and doors to make sure the acid cloud was not entering their home,\" she said. Ed Schrecengost, a former Indspec employee, said firefighters showed up at his son's wedding reception, urging the guests to leave. \"It's about as dangerous as you can get,\" Schrecengost told CNN affiliate WPXI. \"It's a very fuming acid. A quart bottle of this material could fill a household in two seconds.\" Dorko said the leak was caused by an overflow from a tank. The material, he said, evaporates easily, creating a toxic cloud. CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Environmental official says area surveyed, no traces of chemical remain .\nToxic cloud forms Saturday after chemical leak at Pennsylvania plant .\nThree residents taken to hospital; extent of injuries not known .","id":"702c2aa8bae672c61d43b1a62707b224c5aff396"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sarah Palin: politician and mother. iReporters weigh in on the difficulty of balancing those two roles. iReporter Christina Walker says its very challenging to balance work and caring for her 1-year-old child. Since Sen. John McCain named Alaska Go. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick, she has been closely scrutinized by both the public and the media. Palin has served as governor of Alaska for almost two years. She also has five children, including a 4-month-old son with Down Syndrome and a 17-year-old daughter who is 5-months pregnant. Her choice to run as the Republican vice presidential nominee has drawn both praise and criticism from the left and right alike. Now iReporters are asking: Was it the right decision? Some feel that Palin's choice to run shows poor judgment. \"I think she made the wrong call. It's not her time,\" said Andy Stably of Salem, New Hampshire. \"Given her personal situation and her special circumstances, it does seem more important than the nomination she's accepting. I don't think that should be blanket statement for all moms. But the job she's about to interview for is the job of jobs, and it's going to require her to sacrifice what she has at home.\" Stably has children of his own, and his wife works full-time. He says this experience has helped shape his views on Palin: \"Doesn't everyone, male or female, think about the impact a job offer would have on their personal life before accepting the offer?\" \"It's not a sexist thing,\" said Jeanette Lee, who is raising a 15-month-old baby of her own. \"If my family was having these sorts of issues, I wouldn't be putting them in the spotlight and making them go through this publicly. For her to walk away from her baby with special needs just shows her character. I feel like she should pay more attention to her whole family.\" \"If her children were older, it wouldn't be an issue,\" Lee added. Others feel Palin's family situation would have a negative impact on her effectiveness as vice president. \"I want my president to be my president. It is a difficult, sometimes thankless, and emotionally devastating job that requires 100 percent resolve at all times,\" said Carlton Madden, from West Monroe, Louisiana. \"I think she has a lot on her plate ... I have no problem with a woman being president, but I'm going to hold her to the same standards I'd hold a man. If [Obama] had a pregnant teen daughter and a child with special needs, I'd have serious reservations about his ability to make a split-second decision, too.\" Christina Walker, of Austin, Texas, who has a 1-year-old daughter, says her experience as a mom has led her to the same conclusion. \"I opted to change my career path so I could spend more time with my child, and I'm trying to manage both the career and the child,\" she said. \"It's very challenging, and I'm not in nearly the type of stressful role that she would be in.\" But some think Palin's experience as a mom would only make her a better vice president. Carolyn Jasper of Shreveport, Louisiana, says Palin's experience as a mother makes her a better candidate because she knows what it's like to balance life and work and can understand the lives of \"regular\" Americans. \"I can tell you one thing about being a mom. You learn real quick how to work through all of life's huge problems and bring them down to a manageable size,\" said Jasper, who has three children of her own. \"I do think she'll be more capable of understanding what the regular American people need from their government because she is a mom and a family person.\" So is there a double standard at work? Some iReporters think so. \"Why aren't we questioning how Obama can raise his kids?\" asked Shawn Strode of Orlando, Florida. \"Mind you, having a Down Syndrome child is going to be more challenging, but are we assuming the dad can't step in and be a parent? We automatically assume that first ladies can be great parents and that it won't take away from the father being the president. I don't think it will affect her job that much.\" \"I'm a little tired of hearing about Bristol and her pregnancy,\" said Katy Brown, a freshman at Kent State University in Ohio. \"This has nothing to do with the campaign. It has nothing to do with how well Sarah Palin will lead the country. ...This just shows that they're a normal family.\" Lisa Stiles, of Richmond, Virginia, has been involved in grassroots campaigning for nuclear energy throughout her career and says Palin inspired her to consider running for office in the future. She thinks this discussion would never have come up if Palin was a man. \"Are people forgetting that she has a husband?\" Stiles asked. \"I would think people would be applauding the fact that such a reversal of traditional gender roles is possible.\" And Jordan Saver of Athens, Georgia, believes there is a different kind of sexism going on in the race: \"We're giving [Palin] credit for being a mother and a politician, but Barack Obama doesn't get credit for being a father and a politician,\" he said. \"It's reverse discrimination. But if they mentioned it, it would be seen as sexist.\" \"It's the wrong conversation to be having,\" added Kathryn Ova of New York City, who describes herself as a \"die-hard feminist.\" \"Our overall belief system of putting work ahead of family for both men and women is kind of dominating right now. It's coming up because she's a woman, but putting work ahead of family is a major issue regardless of gender.\"","highlights":"iReporters weigh in on Sarah Palin's roles of politician and mother .\nSome say she can't be both a good mother and a good vice president .\nOthers say Palin is being held to an unfair standard as a woman .\niReport.com: Is there a double-standard?","id":"3321c8eefb08f0c0e93c65f9f7ccd08d1e25d0b8"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Glenn Beck is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and also is host of a conservative national radio talk show. Glenn Beck has some lines McCain can use in tonight's speech to articulate his vision for change . NEW YORK (CNN) -- Campaigns are ugly. Watching the way politicians act makes you long for the respect and self-control of the Sopranos. Throughout, there are legitimate attacks and outright lies. Every once in a while, I get a call on my radio show from someone telling me that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim, who admitted it in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, and has a fake birth certificate. No, no, and no. As I tell them, there are legitimate reasons not to vote for Barack Obama, no need to make them up. But the newest target is Sarah Palin. Let's take a quick look at just a fraction of what she has faced in her first few days as John McCain's choice for vice president. iReport.com: Do you think Palin is being treated unfairly? \"Sarah Palin believes God told her to go to war with Iraq!\" There has been some hard-core journalistic malpractice on this one. The Associated Press ran this headline about a speech she gave at her church: \"Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'\" In the story, they omit the first part of the sentence they're quoting along with the entire previous sentence for good measure. Here are her actual words: \"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.\" Palin is clearly praying that we're doing the right thing in Iraq, something sensible for an introspective woman of faith concerned about the lives of our troops to do. She's not saying that she just received a text message from heaven's BlackBerry ordering her to launch missiles. Sorry to disappoint you. And for those of you who think politicians asking God for guidance is offensive, might I remind you of this famous politician's prayer: . \"Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.\" --Barack Obama . \"She has no experience!\" It's fair to assume that Barack Obama believed he was qualified to be in the White House when he announced he was running for president. At that point, he had been a U.S. Senator for 767 days. When Sarah Palin was announced as a vice presidential candidate, she had been the governor of Alaska for 634 days. While I'm sure those extra 133 days were filled with personal discovery, I can't imagine anyone seriously trying to make the case that Obama is experienced and Palin isn't. Unless, of course, you're Matt Damon, who said a Palin presidency would be a really \"scary thing\" because she has been \"governor of Alaska for...for less than two years!\" (Damon originally expressed his presidential preference for Obama in December 2006, when he had been a senator for less than two years.) More importantly, Palin's career has been filled with executive experience. She's the only one of the four in this race who has run a business, town, and\/or state (a state that gives her crucial energy experience in the middle of an energy crisis). When Obama's campaign complains that Palin would be one heartbeat away from the presidency, they should consider that their candidate would be zero heartbeats away. \"But Obama is running a huge campaign -- Palin was just a small town mayor!\" Believe it or not, this one was actually trotted out by Obama himself. \"My understanding is, is that Gov. Palin's town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think the budget is maybe $12 million a year. We have a budget of about three times that just for the month.\" Apparently, Barack missed that she's become the governor of Alaska in the interim. Why would he compare his current duties with her former duties? Well, since he announced his candidacy, Barack Obama has raised about $22 million a month. That's a large organization for sure, unless you are directly comparing it to Sarah Palin, who is handling state revenues that are about 61 times as large, or more than $1.3 billion per month. \"Palin only supports abstinence to be taught in sex-ed!\" This claim is usually followed by a super classy comment about her daughter and the use of contraception, but the premise is false. Palin hasn't said she doesn't want condoms discussed in sex-ed, calling their discussion \"relatively benign.\" \"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I am not anti-contraception. But, yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don't have a problem with that,\" Palin said. Hers is hardly an extreme point of view in America today. \"If she cares about children with special needs, then why did she cut spending on them by 62 percent?\" Actually, Palin almost tripled their funding in only three years from $26,900 per student to $73,840 per student. Incidentally, the amount of government money you spend on a specific group doesn't equal the amount you care for that group, but that's another story for another column. All of these represent just a small percentage of the bizarre collection of claims being thrown at Palin by her opponents and some in the media -- who are desperately hoping something will stick. I leave you with my favorite so far: The Internet rumors that she harbors racism against Eskimos. If true, she sure has a strange way of expressing it -- her husband, Todd, is half Yupik Inuit Eskimo. To balance that out, she must really love his other half. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Glenn Beck: Many of the things you've heard about Sarah Palin aren't true .\nBeck: She didn't say the Iraq war is a task from God .\nPalin has substantial executive experience in several jobs, Beck says.\nBeck: She doesn't oppose teaching contraception in sex-ed classes .","id":"a48b3d9f2f02de081b3fdab39a3e3107e3c24dcd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ambitious plans to build a revolutionary 420-meter shape-shifting skyscraper in Dubai have been unveiled by architects. The 80-story Dynamic Tower, described as the \"world's first building in motion,\" will also be the first skyscraper constructed from prefabricated units, according to a press statement released by New York-based architect David Fisher's Dynamic Group. Each floor would be capable of rotating independently, powered by wind turbines fitted between each floor. \"You can adjust the shape the way you like every given moment,\" Fisher said. \"It's not a piece of architecture somebody designed today and that's it. It remains forever. It's designed by life, shaped by time.\" Watch how the tower would spin and twist \u00bb . Apartments will sell for about $3,000 per square foot, making each unit range in price from about $4 million to $40 million. Work on the tower is to be completed by 2010, according to Dynamic's Web site. Fisher said that plans to build a second rotating skyscraper in Moscow were at an advanced stage and that the group intended to build a third tower in New York. He said developers and public officials in Canada, Europe and South Korea had also expressed interest in the project. But some have expressed skepticism. Fisher has never built a skyscraper before. He says he has teamed up with reputable architects and engineers in the United Kingdom and India. Although he has received a development license for construction in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, he has not disclosed the site of the building. The Moscow mayor's office said that it was looking into the project and that a decision had not been made. Fisher has called prefabricated construction techniques the \"future of architecture\" and says they will radically transform 4,000-year-old \"brick-on-brick\" building methods. By using preconstructed parts, Fisher said each story could be built in just seven days, resulting in environmentally cleaner building methods. He said that just 600 people on an assembly site and 80 technicians on the construction site would be needed to build the tower, compared with about 2,000 workers for a traditional project of a comparable scale. \"It is unbelievable that real estate and construction, which is the leading sector of the world economy, is also the most primitive,\" Fisher is quoted as saying on Dynamic's Web site. \"Most workers throughout the world still regularly use trowels that was first used by the Egyptians and then by the Romans. Buildings should not be different than any other product, and from now on they will be manufactured in a production facility.\" Dubai is experiencing a construction boom, with the Burj tower set to claim the title of the world's tallest building when it is completed in 2009. It is already home to the world's largest mall, and despite being in the Middle East, it boasts the largest indoor snow park in the world.","highlights":"Plans for revolutionary 420-meter rotating skyscraper in Dubai unveiled .\n80-story Dynamic Tower has been designed by architect David Fisher .\nAdvanced plans to build second tower in Moscow .\nTower will be built from prefabricated units; due to be completed by 2010 .","id":"cfdd2789ac2ccd81990912d156caa764532985f7"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Robert Mugabe's political rivals Saturday accused the Zimbabwean president of \"ambush\" in allocating key ministries to his own party in defiance of a power-sharing agreement aimed at ending political turmoil in the country. The opposition MDC accuses Mugabe of \"ambush.\" Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper reported that ministries inlcuding defense, justice, and media, were being placed in the hands of Mugabe's ZANU-PF. Party spokesman Bright Matonga said the move had cross-party support but the Movement for Democratic Change's Nelson Chamisa decried the move is an \"ambush\" that puts the power-sharing deal in jeopardy. Under the deal reached last month, Mugabe stays in office but shares power with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who became vice president. Arthur Mutambara, who leads a splinter MDC faction, became deputy vice president. \"The MDC dismisses ZANU-PF's unilaterally gazetted wish list of ministries, which is a betrayal of the wishes, expectations and aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans,\" the MDC said in a statement. \"It is a giant act of madness which puts the whole deal into jeopardy.\" The plan outlined in The Herald would give 14 government ministries to ZANU-PF and 13 to the MDC. Three ministries would go to Mutambara's faction. Among the ministries reportedly allocated to ZANU-PF are defense, home affairs, foreign affairs, justice and legal affairs, and media and information. Ministries given to Tsvangirai's MDC would include constitutional and parliamentary affairs, economic planning, health, labor, and sport, arts and culture, the paper said. Mutambara would oversee education, industry and commerce, and regional integration and international cooperation. The ministry of finance, the paper said, remains in dispute. The MDC accused the ZANU-PF of trying to undermine the work of former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who helped broker a deal to end months of violence following a disputed election. The paper said Mbeki was due to to go Zimbabwe to resolve the question of the finance ministry. Mbeki mediated the power-sharing talks that aimed to resolve the disputed March election. Tsvangirai won the most votes in March but not enough to avoid a runoff, according to the government's official count. Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 runoff days before the vote, saying Mugabe's supporters had waged a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters.","highlights":"MDC decries Mugabe move to allocate key ministries to his ZANU-PF party .\nDefense, justice, and media given to party, report says .\nMDC says move violates power-sharing agreement .","id":"7e746f6c103c401321aa4c55c891d3c7e09f102d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven years after devastating terrorist attacks brought death to New York's World Trade Centers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, the first permanent, on-site memorial is being dedicated Thursday at the Pentagon. An artist's rendering shows the New York 9\/11 memorial, with the museum entry pavilion between two pools. Official memorials at the other two sites are still years away. In New York, construction has begun on a complex that will include a memorial with a tree-shaded plaza and reflecting pools, and an underground museum with an entry pavilion. It's part of a bigger project, including new office towers and a transportation hub, whose target date has been repeatedly delayed. The goal is to open the memorial to the public by the 10th anniversary of the attacks, in 2011, and the museum by the year after. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stressed the importance of those dates and called progress \"frustratingly slow\" in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. \"The memorial must be completed by the 10th anniversary,\" Bloomberg wrote. \"No more excuses, no more delays.\" Watch and listen to Thursday's memorial services \u00bb . However, on CNN's \"American Morning\" Thursday, Bloomberg said quality is more important than speed of construction. \"We want to make sure what we build is the right thing, that 100 years from now people will look back and say, 'They built it well and built the right thing,'\" Bloomberg said. \"Nobody's going to remember if it took five years or 10 years. I'd like it to go faster. I've recommended we reduce the level of bureaucracy, but that's not our number one priority.\" Federal, state and local governments, as well as several agencies and private developers are involved in the planning and construction. \"It's a complex site, and there was an extensive public process involved in determining the plans for the site,\" Lynn Rasic of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum said Wednesday. \"And I think what's important now is that we look forward and do everything possible to meet the 10th anniversary date.\" iReport: How are you observing 9\/11? The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, says it's on board as far as the date for opening the memorial. Completion dates for the museum and pavilion are part of a review to be finished by September 30, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. \"We don't want to put any more false hopes, false dates out there in the public domain that can't be met. That's why they want to make sure this thing is a thorough review and we have realistic and achievable dates that we come out with,\" he said. Coleman said the Port Authority hasn't felt pressure from families of September 11 victims to speed up the process. \"What we're hearing from family members is that they want to see it done right, rather than rushed,\" he said. The memorial will feature two huge reflecting pools, with waterfalls flowing down their sides, where the iconic twin towers stood, according to the memorial's Web site. Engraved around the pools will be the names of those who died in the September 11 attacks as well as the victims of a 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Watch and listen to sights and sounds from 9\/11 \u00bb . The steel and glass entry pavilion will include two large steel columns salvaged from the twin towers. As visitors descend underground into the museum, they'll see the slurry wall, the bedrock that held back the Hudson River when the towers collapsed. The Pennsylvania memorial is also scheduled to be completed by the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It will center on the site where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers apparently wrested control of the plane from the hijackers. A plaza will surround the crash site, known as Sacred Ground. Plans call for a Tower of Voices, with 40 windchimes representing the 40 passengers and crew members who died. The Pentagon memorial, opening Thursday, includes a bench, a tree and a pool for each of the 184 people killed there when another hijacked airliner crashed into the building. Watch a victim's family tour Pentagon memorial \u00bb . The areas are arranged in order of the victims' ages, ranging from the youngest, 3-year-old Dana Falkenberg, to the oldest, John D. Yamnicky, 71, according to a Defense Department Web site. \"When we learned that there were five children who lost their lives that day, that's really what sparked the idea,\" designer Keith Kaseman said. To read the name of a person killed in the Pentagon, a visitor must look toward the building; if the victim was on board the airplane, the name can be seen by looking up. After dedication ceremonies, the memorial opens to the public at 7 p.m. ET. \"This place is really all about the visitor's thoughts, your interpretation,\" Kaseman said.","highlights":"World Trade Center memorial plaza scheduled to open in 2011, museum in 2012 .\nMemorial at Pennsylvania plane crash site also due to open in 2011 .\nPentagon memorial including benches, trees, pools is dedicated Thursday .\nWatch 9\/11 memorials in New York and Washington on CNN.com Live .","id":"80108d5b174413073b3dff2dfe5ec60942019d61"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A wildfire threatened to decimate historic Angel Island, the largest in the San Francisco Bay, and a Marin County fire official warned it could take up to four days contain the blaze. At 9:15 p.m. Sunday the fire was burning only on the southeast side of the island. The fire, which began about 9 p.m. Sunday, had consumed about 250 acres of vegetation near the top of Mount Livermore's 788-foot peak, Battalion Chief Mike Giannini said Monday. iReporter Bob Austrian, 45, of Tiburon, said he could see the blaze from his home about 4 or 5 miles from the island. He noticed the blaze at 9:15 p.m. Sunday. It \"started as a little red glow\" on the southeast side of the island and worked its way over the top and around the side of Mount Livermore, he said early Monday morning. Watch the island burn \u00bb . \"It's still ripping right now,\" Austrian said at 5 a.m., noting that the blaze posed \"quite a spectacle\" with the town of Belvedere in the foreground and the Bay Bridge that connects Oakland and San Francisco serving as a backdrop. Fire crews and equipment were being ferried to the island to battle the blaze, Giannini said. About 200 firefighters were already involved in the effort or en route, he said. None of the blaze is contained, and Giannini said he expects the firefighting effort to last for three to four more days. Austrian, who has visited the island at least a dozen times, said he's concerned that firefighters won't be able to douse the blaze. The island is mostly vegetation with a few historic buildings, foot trails and access roads. iReport.com: See, share images of the blaze . Even with the necessary manpower and firefighting resources, he said, it will be difficult to reach the actual blaze. \"It's just the saddest thing because there's no way to stop it,\" Austrian said. Fire officials said earlier that all of the park workers and campers on the island were safe. Angel Island -- a hilly grass- and forest-covered island -- is the largest in San Francisco Bay. The island was used as a quarantine station for immigrants suspected of carrying diseases starting in the late 19th century. It's now a place for hiking, biking, camping and boating.","highlights":"Blaze not contained, firefighting efforts could last four days, official says .\niReporter: \"It's just the saddest thing because there's no way to stop it\"\nBlaze burning vegetation near the top of Mount Livermore's 788-foot peak .\nAll park workers, campers are safe, fire official says .","id":"08f9e485197975daf87fb9537647d1aba0675fa1"} -{"article":"HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Even with Hurricane Ike more than 100 miles away, authorities began rescue efforts Friday, picking up more than 120 people stranded by rising seas along the southeast Texas coast. The U.S. Coast Guard rescues a person trapped in a car on Friday as Hurricane Ike hits Texas. Most of the rescues occurred in Galveston County, where rising water and other effects of the storm began hours before expected landfall early Saturday. Stranded residents have been airlifted from Crystal Beach, Bolivar Peninsula and other communities in the Galveston area. Many of those rescued were motorists stranded on flooded roads. In Surfside Beach, police waded through chest-high rushing water to rescue five people trapped in their homes. One man refused to leave, said Surfside Beach police Chief Randy Smith. Watch rescuers save a motorist from floods \u00bb . \"Some of them took convincing, some of them didn't,\" he said. Police also rescued another five people who waded out to meet the officers. About half of those rescues were done by helicopters out of several bases along the coast, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David Schulein. Three HH-65C helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Houston rescued more than 20 people and were continuing to fly round-the-clock rescue missions until weather grounds them, said Petty Officer Renee Aiello, a station spokeswoman. The Coast Guard helicopters from Air Station Houston could make their last flights Friday afternoon as rain starts to move in, Aiello said. Watch Ike begin to spill water into Texas \u00bb . \"We'll be out as long as the weather permits us,\" she said. \"We're still working.\" Some 37,000 people may need to be rescued after Hurricane Ike strikes, a U.S. military official said Friday. Texas already has asked for help, and the active-duty military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby, the official said. iReport.com: Commander briefs Coast Guard crews . Meanwhile, the Coast Guard and Air Force were unable to rescue 22 people aboard a freighter adrift in the Gulf of Mexico because of weather, the two military branches said Friday. \"Weather on scene deteriorated to a point that made the rescue impossible,\" the Coast Guard said in a statement issued Friday. First Lt. Lauren Johnson, an Air Force spokeswoman, confirmed the report. Aircraft were used in the effort, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard said. Coast Guard officials had said earlier they thought the best way to help the 584-foot freighter might be to let the storm push it to shallow water where it can drop anchor. Watch the captain of the freighter talk with CNN \u00bb . The freighter had been headed south from Port Arthur, Texas, and is loaded with petroleum coke -- a petroleum byproduct. The Coast Guard said in a news release it received a distress call around 4 a.m. from the Antalina, a Cypriot-flagged freighter. It said the vessel had \"lost main propulsion 90 miles southeast of Galveston\" and was unable to steer. Coast Guard Capt. Bill Diehl said the freighter had been \"in the direct line of the path of the storm and lost its engines.\" He said the Coast Guard is keeping radio communications with the freighter, and its news release said the Coast Guard is in hourly contact with the crew. There had been warnings for residents to evacuate beforehand, and Chief Petty Officer Michael O'Berry, interviewed by CNN, was asked why they didn't get out in time. Watch last-minute evacuees explain their change of heart \u00bb . He said he thinks the residents \"didn't understand, I guess, the strength of the storm. As it came about, they realized it's a lot stronger than they may have anticipated.\" CNN's Mike Ahlers, Jeanne Meserve and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Coast Guard helicopters airlift stranded residents from Galveston area .\nNEW: Many of those rescued were motorists stranded on flooded roads .\nCoast Guard, Air Force unable to rescue 22 people stranded on freighter .\nActive-duty military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby .","id":"d891465f99bcb7507795024c12503766919e7a41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Sen. John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, announced that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant, the news prompted a big response from the iReport.com community. iReporter Darla Jones, who had a child at a young age, said she sympathizes with the Palin family. Palin revealed Monday that her daughter Bristol is pregnant and plans to marry the father. The announcement followed Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby was actually Bristol's. iReport.com users posted dozens of stories and hundreds of comments in response to the news. Many iReporters said that the issue is a personal matter, while others believed that the pregnancy deserves public attention. Republican presidential candidate McCain was aware of Bristol's pregnancy before he chose Palin as his running mate, a top adviser to the Arizona senator said. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama said that families should be off-limits in presidential campaigns after learning of the news. \"Let me be as clear as possible,\" Obama said. \"I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits.\" iReporter Darla Jones of Roseburg, Oregon, who supports McCain, agrees that the media and public should leave Bristol and the Palin family alone. iReport.com: Were you married at a young age? \"I had a daughter very young,\" Jones wrote on iReport.com, explaining that being a young mother made it difficult to get jobs and complete her education. \"This should not affect the presidency in any way.\" Sabrina Lee also had a child at a young age, but believes that the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy merits attention. \"Personally, I have a right to know anything and everything about the next president and vice president,\" she wrote on iReport.com. \"I want to know the truth,\" Lee said. \"I feel as a voter I have the right to know everything about each nominee. This is just my opinion, but it's also my vote and it's precious.\" The Laveen, Arizona, resident said that she plans to vote for Obama. Although Lee said she was previously undecided, she decided to vote for Obama after McCain announced his running mate. \"Family values are a Republican platform,\" she said, describing the news of Bristol's pregnancy as \"a travesty.\" Alicia Summers of El Mirage, Arizona, agrees that the vice presidential candidate and her family deserve scrutiny. \"Did Palin really think she could come into a race at the 23rd hour and not be subjected to questions?\" she asked. iReport.com: See, share your thoughts on Sarah Palin . Summers, an Obama supporter, noted, \"the press only has two months to find out info about you that they took years to get on everyone else.\" She suggested that Palin drop out of the race out of respect for the privacy of her family. Graduate student Kristine Phillips also believes that Palin should withdraw. \"An unmarried 17-year-old pregnant daughter is not consistent with conservative principles,\" she wrote on iReport.com. Phillips, who describes herself as politically moderate, said conservatives' support of Palin is \"absolutely hypocritical.\" \"While I understand that Palin's role as a mother may or may not be debated here for the political sphere, this situation does call into question some of her policies during her role as governor and her character as a person,\" Phillips said. iReport.com: Read more from Phillips . Mark Swiger of Jonesboro, Georgia, urged iReporters to \"be professional and ethical by not bringing Sarah Palin's teenage daughter into politics.\" Swiger cited Obama and senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, who both asked the media and public to leave politicians' children out of the spotlight. Swiger, who is leaning toward McCain, said he usually votes based on moral issues. He believes that Bristol's pregnancy should have no bearing on her mother's political career. \"This is a moral line of decency that must not be crossed by Democrats, Republicans or human beings,\" he said.","highlights":"iReporters react to news that Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant .\nSabrina Lee questions McCain's judgment in picking Palin .\nDarla Jones sympathizes with the Palin family .\niReport.com: Share your thoughts on McCain's running mate .","id":"88f7ed8dd3621eecab21b01d36a50b0b94a872a5"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles fire officials say they're worried that nighttime winds could push two major wildfires, which already are blamed in two deaths, closer to pricey neighborhoods on the Pacific coast. Fire draws near homes in the Los Angeles-area community of Porter Ranch, California, on Monday. \"We are concerned about what will happen tonight when the winds pick up,\" Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas Barry said Monday. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday declared a state of emergency Monday in Los Angeles and Ventura counties because of the fires. Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, whose district covers the area where the fire is burning, called on President Bush to issue a federal disaster declaration for the area. At least two people have died because of the blazes, which have burned 8,000 acres in the hills and mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, fire and police officials said. One was identified as a man who died in a makeshift wood-and-cardboard shelter and appeared to be homeless. A dog's body also was found. The other victim was killed in a collision of motorists who were trying to exit a freeway that was closed because of one of the wildfires, a fire official said. No identity or age was available for either victim. \"Winds are causing fire conditions to change by the hour,\" Schwarzenegger said in a statement released Monday. \"Several thousand acres have already burned with minimal containment and more acres are threatened.\" iReport.com: Are wildfires affecting you? Residents downwind were warned to remain alert into the night. \"It can go from here to the ocean in a matter of two to three hours,\" said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, The Associated Press reported. Barry said investigators have not determined a cause for either blaze. Fire officials warned that strong winds, predicted to reach more than 60 mph after 11 p.m., could send fire roaring south down the Pacific coast near Highway 101. Officials have shut two freeways north of Los Angeles and authorities dispatched water-dropping helicopters and more than 200 fire engines as the blaze \"started to push toward the city,\" said John Tripp of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. About 350 police officers are on the scene, patrolling evacuated neighborhoods and warning residents ahead of the flames. Officials shut down part of Interstate 210, also known as the Foothill Freeway, and any residents north of the freeway were under a mandatory evacuation order. The fire jumped the interstate in one spot and headed toward the Lake View Terrace area. A portion of State Route 118, known as the Ronald Reagan Freeway, also was closed. The larger of the two fires has charred more than 3,500 acres in the Angeles National Forest, officials said. See video of the Angeles National Forest fire \u00bb . That fire destroyed several structures, including about 30 mobile homes in the Lopez Canyon area, said Los Angeles County fire inspector Sam Padilla. The mobile homes had been evacuated Sunday. The other fire, burning nearby, is expected to expand as the winds push the flames away from the center. In San Diego County, a wildfire that began on an explosives training range at Camp Pendleton had grown to more than 1,500 acres by nightfall and forced the evacuation of 1,400 homes, The AP reported. In northern California, a wildfire that started Sunday on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay had spread across 250 acres as of Monday morning but hadn't damaged any buildings in the historic state park, a Marin County fire official said. See video of the Angel Island fire \u00bb .","highlights":"NEW: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday declares a state of emergency .\nNEW: Officials warn fire could possibly reach ocean in matter of hours .\nWinds could push fires to pricey neighborhoods near coast, officials say .\nTwo deaths are connected to fires in Los Angeles, Ventura counties, officials say .","id":"44986484f11e65425a9e72f1d918edd61a3b510b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Krishna Rajarman's classmates and friends remembered him Tuesday as a mentor and scholar who preferred to go home on weekends to spend time with his younger brothers than party on campus. Krishna Rajarman, a Fulbright Scholar and honors student, was a junior at UCLA. \"We asked him, 'Why not stay a weekend because we might do something fun?' \" said Ashwin Bhongir, Krishna's roommate and childhood friend. \"He said, 'I want to be here for my brothers. I like to spend time with my brothers, it's important.'\" Krishna, a 19-year-old junior at UCLA, a Fulbright Scholar and an honors student, was found Monday fatally shot at his parents' home in suburban Los Angeles. Police said his father killed the teen, his two younger brothers, ages 7 and 12, his grandmother and mother. Karthik Rajaram, a 45-year-old unemployed financial services expert, then killed himself, police said. The six bodies were discovered in their neatly tended home in an upscale suburb 20 minutes outside Los Angeles on Monday. A neighbor called police to report that the wife had failed to pick her up to take her to her job. Inside the house, police also found letters from the father explaining that mounting financial pressure had led him to kill. Fraternity member Vim Mahadev remembered Krishna as a devoted L.A. Lakers fan who occasionally mentioned family problems, but nothing unusual. \"Nothing ever came up serious,\" said Mahadev. \"It was mostly his dad, about financial problems. But most of the time it was how he was his hero because he was intelligent and he always knew the right decisions to make. \"It's just so ironic.\" Krishna's friends Bhongir and Nahel Patel grew up around the Rajaram family and told CNN they never saw signs of family turmoil during their teenage years. \"I knew his family very well, and every time I went there, it was one of the most welcoming homes I've ever been to,\" said Bhongir. \"It was always a fun loving place to be.\" \"He was one of the most promising friends that I ever knew, he was literally the smartest person I've ever known,\" said Bhongir. \"He was going to make it.\" Bhongir and Nahel, both business economic majors at UCLA, said Krishna's father was a role model to them. Krishna had wanted to follow his father's footsteps in studies and career. The father received his MBA from UCLA in 1987, according to UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton. Police said he went on to work in a financial holding company and for major accounting firms, such as Price Waterhouse. As a freshman, Krishna joined the campus co-ed fraternity Delta Phi Beta, organized by South Asian students. Fraternity member Natasha Parikh said she was one of Krishna's closest friends. \"I just talked to him on Wednesday, and he was so excited about the new recruits we were having,\" she said. \"He was so excited about this year, and it's so painful that he can't be here to experience the rest of our time at UCLA.\" \"He really didn't talk about his personal life; I always saw him as a happy guy who never once said he was going through any major difficulty, so this has come as a complete shock.\"","highlights":"Krishna Rajarman went home on weekends to be with family rather than party .\nFriends say he was committed to mentoring his two younger siblings .\nPolice: Teen's father, jobless and in financial trouble, killed him and his family .\nFriend describes Krishna: \"He was literally the smartest person I've ever known\"","id":"4c0d40b45f4a0408afb4e9eb91ee14de76bdb03d"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Oprah has always said that mothers have the most difficult job on earth, and actress Jenny McCarthy is one mom who has never backed down from a challenge. Doctors removed Monica's uterus, ovaries, gallbladder and part of her colon, along with her legs and arms. Jenny has been an outspoken advocate for parents of children with autism since her son was diagnosed with the disease two and a half years ago. In her new book, \"Mother Warriors,\" Jenny tells the story of other moms fighting for their special-needs kids. So when Oprah heard about Monica, another mom fighting for her children, she thought Jenny would be just the person to get this mother warrior's story. After going through a painful divorce, Monica met Tony when she least expected it. Monica already had a 9-year-old daughter, but soon after she and Tony got engaged, they were thrilled to be expecting another bundle of joy. In August 2007, she had a C-section, and though she worried about complications, Monica delivered a healthy baby girl. But hours after Sofia was born, Monica began running a fever. No one was concerned at first -- Monica figured it was just hormones -- but three days later the fever hadn't broken, and Monica's abdomen was swollen and painful. iReport.com: What do you think about this story? Sound off on video . The doctors at Monica's hospital thought she might be infected with a deadly strain of bacteria. They flew her to a hospital in Boston where she was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating bacteria. Defying the odds, Monica survived, but many of her organs didn't. The doctors removed Monica's uterus, ovaries, gallbladder and part of her colon that same day. Within four weeks, Monica's infection had restricted the blood flow to her arms and legs. Her nurses cleaned her limbs every day, and she knew they were trying to keep her from seeing the damage. But Monica wanted to face the disease head on. \"I needed to know what I was up against. I didn't want to be shielded anymore,\" Monica says. Eventually, doctors told Monica they had to amputate both arms and both legs. The surgery sounded scary, but Monica was determined to put it behind her and get back to her daughters. \"I was frightened at first, but when they told me [my arms and legs] had to be amputated, it was: 'Do it. I've got to go home,'\" Monica says. \"[I thought,] 'I have a life to live and it's not here, and until you amputate, I can't move forward.'\" After her amputation, Monica spent two months in the hospital, where she underwent a total of 37 surgeries. As Monica grew stronger, Tony realized there was no reason to postpone their wedding any longer -- they got married in the hospital chapel in October, 2007. Monica spent the next two months going through grueling rehabilitation. \"She's a fighter,\" Tony says. \"If they told her two hours of physical therapy a day, she'd ask to double it up to four. She wanted to come home as soon as possible. They didn't think she'd ever walk again, but she made it happen.\" Right before Christmas, Monica got what she'd been waiting for. She was given the okay to go home to her husband and two daughters. A year later, Jenny visited Monica and her family at their home outside Boston, Massachusetts. \"I had a big aha! moment after spending six hours with her. Monica accepted what is. She looked down and said: 'Okay, this is the situation. I can't change this, so I might as well surrender to it,'\" Jenny says. \"When she does that, she is able to move forward in peace.\" Oprah.com: Jenny McCarthy answers parenting questions . Nurses and doctors say they expected a \"why me?\" breakdown from Monica while she was in the hospital, but it never happened. \"I did have moments of 'If God just left me one arm or one leg, life would be a little bit easier,' but that's not the way it went,\" Monica says. \"You make do with what you have. I could still love my girls. The bottom line was I am still here.\" Monica's not the only warrior in this family. Jenny calls Tony a daddy warrior because he always stood by Monica and their family. \"I actually considered not marrying him because I wasn't the person he agreed to marry,\" Monica says. \"But then I realized he loves me. He's here, and he's my heart. I'm still a woman, and I still have a heart and a mind, regardless of whether I have arms or legs.\" Tony says that there was never even a moment when he considered leaving Monica. \"She was the same person inside, so nothing had changed,\" he says. \"At one point, they went to bring in a preacher to give her last rights, and I turned him away and said: 'No, she's got a lot to fight for. She's not going anywhere, she'll be here for our family.' And she was. She is.\" Monica's family has been there for her too. When 9-year-old Madalyn found out about the surgeries, she took the news well. \"She'd been watching 'Dancing with the Stars,' and Heather Mills was on,\" Monica says. \"I told her, 'Well, I won't be doing back flips.' But she was excited and said, 'You can be bionic mom.'\" At Monica's house, she and Jenny had a mom-to-mom chat about the issues that mother warriors face. \"Within the autism community, one of the things that we, as mothers, miss so much is being able to caress our children, because they don't want to be touched,\" Jenny says. \"Do you experience that?\" Monica says she has similar moments of sadness. \"For a while, I really couldn't lift Sofia up,\" she says. \"I could hug Madalyn and have her hug me back, so that was good, but I miss being able to braid her hair, paint her fingernails, toenails -- the things that moms and daughters do.\" All mothers face frustrations, but Monica's come with tasks that used to be simple. \"I get frustrated about not being to do everything that I used to do,\" she says. \"Everything is different -- things as simple as picking up a pen or signing a paper for Madalyn at school.\" Monica hasn't let any of these obstacles stop her from living her life to the fullest. She does everything a mom would do, including paying the bills, which can take her up to three hours. \"It's the ultimate practice in patience,\" Jenny says. Oprah.com: Meet more inspirational moms! \"What good are you to your children if you're miserable? What are you teaching them? That you give up? That's not what I want to teach my kids,\" Monica says. \"I want my girls to know that their mother's a fighter.\" Monica's been adjusting to her new life for a little over a year, and she says her strength comes from her support system -- from family and friends to people at the hospital and rehab facility. There are more surgeries to come, she says, but she's taking it one day at a time. \"I've come to the realization that things are as they are, and you have to move forward. Life goes on,\" she says. \"There's no sense dwelling on it -- that just hurts too much and you don't live your life the way you want to. And with a wonderful husband and two great girls, life is fun.\" From \"The Oprah Winfrey Show,\" \"Actress Jenny McCarthy: Warrior Moms\" Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2008 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Monica was diagnosed with deadly, flesh-eating bacteria after C-section .\nDoctors amputated Monica's limbs, did 37 surgeries .\n\"She's a fighter,\" husband says of Monica's strength and determination .\nMonica now does everyday things for her two girls no matter how long they take .","id":"74050867f3fbe3043aba1f0ead4636a9ffd788ee"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles fire officials say they're worried that nighttime winds could push two major wildfires, which already are blamed in two deaths, closer to pricey neighborhoods on the Pacific coast. Fire draws near homes in the Los Angeles-area community of Porter Ranch, California, on Monday. \"We are concerned about what will happen tonight when the winds pick up,\" Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas Barry said Monday. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday declared a state of emergency Monday in Los Angeles and Ventura counties because of the fires. Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, whose district covers the area where the fire is burning, called on President Bush to issue a federal disaster declaration for the area. At least two people have died because of the blazes, which have burned 8,000 acres in the hills and mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, fire and police officials said. One was identified as a man who died in a makeshift wood-and-cardboard shelter and appeared to be homeless. A dog's body also was found. The other victim was killed in a collision of motorists who were trying to exit a freeway that was closed because of one of the wildfires, a fire official said. No identity or age was available for either victim. \"Winds are causing fire conditions to change by the hour,\" Schwarzenegger said in a statement released Monday. \"Several thousand acres have already burned with minimal containment and more acres are threatened.\" iReport.com: Are wildfires affecting you? Residents downwind were warned to remain alert into the night. \"It can go from here to the ocean in a matter of two to three hours,\" said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, The Associated Press reported. Barry said investigators have not determined a cause for either blaze. Fire officials warned that strong winds, predicted to reach more than 60 mph after 11 p.m., could send fire roaring south down the Pacific coast near Highway 101. Officials have shut two freeways north of Los Angeles and authorities dispatched water-dropping helicopters and more than 200 fire engines as the blaze \"started to push toward the city,\" said John Tripp of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. About 350 police officers are on the scene, patrolling evacuated neighborhoods and warning residents ahead of the flames. Officials shut down part of Interstate 210, also known as the Foothill Freeway, and any residents north of the freeway were under a mandatory evacuation order. The fire jumped the interstate in one spot and headed toward the Lake View Terrace area. A portion of State Route 118, known as the Ronald Reagan Freeway, also was closed. The larger of the two fires has charred more than 3,500 acres in the Angeles National Forest, officials said. See video of the Angeles National Forest fire \u00bb . That fire destroyed several structures, including about 30 mobile homes in the Lopez Canyon area, said Los Angeles County fire inspector Sam Padilla. The mobile homes had been evacuated Sunday. The other fire, burning nearby, is expected to expand as the winds push the flames away from the center. In San Diego County, a wildfire that began on an explosives training range at Camp Pendleton had grown to more than 1,500 acres by nightfall and forced the evacuation of 1,400 homes, The AP reported. In northern California, a wildfire that started Sunday on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay had spread across 250 acres as of Monday morning but hadn't damaged any buildings in the historic state park, a Marin County fire official said. See video of the Angel Island fire \u00bb .","highlights":"NEW: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday declares a state of emergency .\nNEW: Officials warn fire could possibly reach ocean in matter of hours .\nWinds could push fires to pricey neighborhoods near coast, officials say .\nTwo deaths are connected to fires in Los Angeles, Ventura counties, officials say .","id":"00dad5d893f836f53080de50e9b983ad2f9bcd22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tugboat on Saturday reached a disabled freighter carrying 22 people, hours after the ship rode out Hurricane Ike without power, Coast Guard spokesman Mike O'Berry said. O'Berry said the tugboat Rotterdam arrived shortly before 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). Repairs will be made aboard the Antalina, which has a broken fuel pump, while at sea, O'Berry said. The tugboat will then tow the ship to Port Arthur, Texas, where it will undergo additional repairs and eventually offload more of its cargo -- petroleum coke, a petroleum byproduct -- O'Berry said. The crew members aboard the Antalina, a Cypriot-flagged freighter, are all in good health, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Ron Labrec. The freighter suffered no major damage from the storm, said Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for the company that manages the ship. Aircraft from the Coast Guard and Air Force were sent Friday afternoon to try to rescue the crew of the freighter, which is loaded with petroleum coke, a petroleum byproduct. But high winds forced the military to abort the rescue, O'Berry said. The Coast Guard then instructed the freighter to contact it each hour. It also told told the crew to turn on the ship's emergency radio beacon so its position could be monitored, O'Berry said. Watch the Coast Guard conduct a rescue operation \u00bb . Onshore as well, rescuers found it too dangerous to respond to calls for help. In Liverpool, Texas, south of Houston, a family called for help around 1 a.m. Saturday when a tree crashed into their house, but authorities concluded that strong winds made it too dangerous to respond, said Doc Adams, Brazoria County's emergency management coordinator. \"You want to take care of people, and when you can't, it's tough,\" Adams said. \"Unfortunately, someone has to make the decision about whether the risk is worth the benefit. Are you willing to risk three or four lives to save one? It's not easy.\" Adams said he didn't know if anyone in the house was hurt. \"As far as I know, they're still there in the house with a tree over it,\" he said at about 3:40 a.m. The stranded freighter had been headed south through the Gulf of Mexico from Port Arthur, Texas, but \"lost main propulsion 90 miles southeast of Galveston\" and was unable to steer, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard received a distress call from the vessel at 4 a.m. Friday. The Antalina was \"basically adrift, at the mercy of the wind and sea currents,\" Coast Guard Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said at the time. \"We are in hell,\" one of the men aboard the freighter told CNN on Friday before the rescue was called off. The man said the winds around the ship were strong but that the freighter still had power. On Friday before the storm hit, authorities picked up more than 120 people stranded by rising seas along the southeast Texas coast. Most of the rescues occurred in Galveston County, where rising water and other effects of the storm began hours before landfall early Saturday. Stranded residents were airlifted from Crystal Beach, Bolivar Peninsula and other communities in the Galveston area. Many of those rescued were motorists stranded on flooded roads. In Surfside Beach, police waded through chest-high rushing water to rescue five people trapped in their homes. One man refused to leave, said Surfside Beach police Chief Randy Smith. \"Some of them took convincing, some of them didn't,\" Smith said. Police also rescued five other people who waded out to meet the officers. About half of those rescues were done by helicopters out of bases along the coast, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David Schulein. Three HH-65C helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Houston rescued more than 20 people and continued to fly rescue missions until weather grounded them Friday evening, said Petty Officer Renee Aiello, a station spokeswoman. Some 37,000 people may need to be rescued in the aftermath of the hurricane, a U.S. military official estimated Friday. Texas already has asked for help, and the active-duty military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby, the official said.","highlights":"NEW: Tugboat reaches stranded freighter .\nShip's crew of 22 endures night without power in Gulf of Mexico .\nCoast Guard, Air Force had to abandon rescue because of poor conditions .\nAuthorities onshore find it too dangerous to respond to calls for help .","id":"b490da9d0d0aeb310b6a84379189200b34ca1537"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia could have helped the United States prevent al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington if American officials had consulted Saudi authorities in a \"credible\" way, the kingdom's former ambassador said in a documentary aired Thursday. The comments by Prince Bandar bin Sultan are similar to the remarks this week by Saudi King Abdullah that suggested Britain could have prevented the July 2005 train bombings in London if it had heeded warnings from Riyadh. Speaking to the Arabic satellite network Al-Arabiya on Thursday, Bandar -- now Abdullah's national security adviser -- said Saudi intelligence was \"actively following\" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters \"with precision.\" \"If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened,\" he said. Watch Bandar's comments \u00bb . Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to Washington for nearly 22 years before he was replaced in 2005. A knowledgeable U.S. official told CNN that Bandar's comments should be taken \"with a grain of salt.\" On Monday, Abdullah told the BBC that Saudi Arabia had sent warnings to British authorities before the London subway bombings that killed 52 people -- the city's bloodiest day since World War II. \"We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain,\" Abdullah said. \"But unfortunately, no action was taken, and it may have been able to avert the tragedy.\" The September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. All but four of the suicide hijackers who carried out the plot were Saudi nationals, and after the attacks, the kingdom was widely criticized for having tolerated Islamic militancy. The Saudis have called the criticism unfair, pointing out that al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden's original grievance was against the country's ruling family, which invited U.S. troops into the kingdom after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. A string of attacks on Western compounds, oil installations and Saudi institutions between 2003 and 2006 were blamed on al Qaeda's followers. And Saudi officials say that since 9\/11, they have taken steps to ensure charitable donations do not fall into the hands of al Qaeda. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prince Bandar bin Sultan: U.S. did not engage Saudis in serious, credible way .\nAll but four of September 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals .\nU.S. official: Bandar's comments should be taken \"with a grain of salt\"\nBandar was the Saudi ambassador to Washington for nearly 22 years .","id":"7bdcea5310f665ee6ee9793ab0bcb046b2aef13e"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military announced Wednesday that coalition forces recently killed al Qaeda in Iraq's \"charismatic\" senior leader in northern Iraq. Abu Qaswarah was second only to Abu Ayyub al-Masri (pictured) in al Qaeda in Iraq leadership. Abu Qaswarah, also known as Abu Sara, was killed during an operation in Mosul on October 5, the military said. The Moroccan native was second-in-command to al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, according to the military. He had \"historic ties\" to al-Masri's predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and senior al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the military said. Abu Qaswarah -- who became AQI's senior leader in northern Iraq in June 2007 -- was the target of the military raid in Mosul earlier this month, the military said. Coalition forces tracked him down inside a building in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which \"served as a key command and control location for AQI,\" according to the military. \"Upon entering the building, forces were immediately fired upon,\" the military said. \"Coalition forces returned fire in self-defense, leading to the death of five terrorists. It was later determined that one of the five was positively identified as Abu Qaswarah.\" The U.S. military described Abu Qaswarah as a \"charismatic\" leader who rallied al Qaeda in Iraq's northern network after \"major setbacks to the terrorist organization across Iraq.\" Groups comprised mainly of former Sunni insurgents -- known as Awakening Councils or \"Sons of Iraq\" -- have turned against al Qaeda in Iraq, helping to diminish its presence in several parts of the country. The U.S. military credits them with playing a key role in bringing about the nationwide drop in violence that coincided with the \"surge\" of U.S. forces. Abu Qaswarah -- who trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan -- helped bring foreign terrorists into northern Iraq, where they carried out a spate of suicide attacks, according to the military. He also organized and led AQI's attacks in Mosul, including the \"failed attempt to destroy the Mosul Civic Center during the holy month of Ramadan,\" which took place in September, the military said. That attack, the military said, \"could have killed hundreds of innocent Iraqis.\" The military said Abu Qaswarah's death \"will significantly degrade AQI operations in Mosul and northern Iraq, leaving the network without a leader to oversee and coordinate its operations in the region.\"","highlights":"Abu Qaswarah killed during an operation in Mosul on October 5 .\nHe was second-in-command to al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri .\nCoalition forces tracked him down inside a building in the northern Iraqi city .\nU.S. military described Abu Qaswarah as a \"charismatic\" leader .","id":"ad757642bf85e69eee3461e0491b5720b2eea8b0"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A court in Dubai has sentenced two Britons to three months in prison for having sex on a public beach in the Muslim country. File image of one of the co-accused -- Vince Acors -- arriving at court in Dubai in September. After they complete their sentence, the pair will be deported. They also have to pay a 1,000 dirhams ($367) fine for public indecency. Police charged Michelle Palmer, 36, and Vincent Acors, 34, with illicit relations, public indecency and public intoxication after their arrest at a beach shortly after midnight on July 5. Both denied that they had intercourse. \"The public (prosecutor) failed to produce corroborative evidence against my clients concerning having consensual sex and committing indecent gestures in public,\" said the pair's lawyer, Hasan Mattar. He said the pair will appeal the verdict. Watch how case stirs up Dubai's bar scene \u00bb . The United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- where Dubai is located -- is home to thousands of expatriates and is among the most moderate Gulf states. Still, the oil-rich Gulf kingdom adheres to certain Islamic rules. More than a million British visitors traveled to the UAE in 2006, and more than 100,000 British nationals live there, according to the British Foreign Office. The country is in the midst of a building boom to position itself as one of the world's premier tourist destinations. It is already home to the world's largest mall, the world's largest tower, and -- despite being in the Middle East -- boasts the largest indoor snow park in the world. -- CNN's Caroline Faraj contributed to this report .","highlights":"The two Britons will be deported after they complete their sentence .\nThe pair were arrested at a Dubai beach shortly after midnight on July 5 .\nThey were charged with with illicit relations, public indecency, public intoxication .\nAlthough a relatively moderate Gulf state, Dubai adheres to certain Islamic rules .","id":"0ec4fb22f189f34e80f4e78812d04f0b40c9c57b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi Arabian blogger detained in December, ostensibly because he supported reform advocates accused by the Saudi government of backing terrorism, has been released, a fellow blogger posted Saturday. Web sites like this one pushed for Fouad al-Farhan's release. Ahmed al-Omran said on his blog, saudijeans.org, and later told CNN that he was awakened by a text message from the wife of Fouad al-Farhan, saying he had been released and was at home with his family. \"That's great news, and this is just how I wanted to start my morning,\" al-Omran wrote. He said he later spoke with al-Farhan for several minutes on the telephone. \"He sounded fine; he seems to be in good spirits,\" al-Omran said. \"He said he would have more to talk about later but not at this point. He said now he'd like to take some time to spend with his family, with his children that he hasn't seen for so long.\" Watch al-Omran describe his conversation with al-Farhan \u00bb . A Web site set up to call for al-Farhan's release said, \"Fouad is free. He is back home in Jeddah after 137 days in custody.\" The Saudi Interior Ministry said it had no immediate comment on the reports. In January, a ministry spokesman said al-Farhan was arrested December 10 \"because he violated the regulations of the kingdom.\" But in an e-mail posted on al-Farhan's Web site after his arrest, he told friends that he faced arrest for supporting 10 reform advocates the Saudi government accused of backing terrorism. In the e-mail, al-Farhan said a senior Interior Ministry official promised that he would remain in custody for three days at most if he agreed to sign a letter of apology. \"I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that,\" he wrote. \"An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is [a] liar when they accused those guys of supporting terrorism?\" Al-Farhan, who blogs at alfarhan.org, is one of the few Saudi Web commentators to use his own name, according to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. In January, the Bush administration expressed its concerns to the Saudi government regarding al-Farhan's detention at \"a relatively senior level,\" U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. \"The U.S. stands for freedom of expression,\" McCormack said at the time. \"Wherever people are seeking to express themselves, via the Internet or via other areas, whether in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the world, we stand with that freedom of expression, and that was our message to the Saudi government.\" The American Islamic Congress, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, launched an online letter-writing campaign aimed at freeing al-Farhan, whom it called \"the godfather of Saudi blogging.\" \"All he did was express his opinions in a very obvious way, and he didn't threaten anyone,\" al-Omran said. \"He was advocating against violence and terrorism.\" Al-Omran said al-Farhan had stopped blogging for a few months in late 2006, after the Interior Ministry ordered him to take down a blog he was operating, but he began again at a new site. He said al-Farhan told him he was treated well in jail. He also called al-Farhan's release a turning point for the blogging community in Saudi Arabia. \"It showed the community of bloggers in Saudi Arabia can come together and support this cause -- support his freedom of speech -- even those who didn't agree with some of the things he wrote,\" he said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Friend says blogger \"in good spirits\" and spending time with family .\nFouad al-Farhan detained in December by Saudi government for his blog .\nAl-Farhan was held because he supported reform advocates, a blog says .\nSaudi government accused him of supporting terrorism through his blog .","id":"01ffaf507a54d354ecbbe4a7658d60a2e553e1d8"} -{"article":"HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- Bobby Maxwell kept a close eye on the oil industry for more than 20 years as a government auditor. But he said the federal agency he worked for is now a \"cult of corruption\" -- a claim backed up by a recent government report. Bobby Maxwell, a long-time auditor of the oil industry, says his former agency is corrupt \"top to bottom.\" \"I believe the management we were under was showing favoritism to the oil industry,\" Maxwell told CNN. Maxwell is referring to a tiny agency within the Department of the Interior called the Minerals Management Service, which manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on federal lands. A report, conducted by the Interior Department's inspector general and released earlier this month, found that employees at the agency received improper gifts from energy industry officials and engaged with them in illegal drug use and inappropriate sexual relations. It looked at activities at the agency from 2003 through 2006. Maxwell said the report doesn't surprise him. The agency, he said, is corrupt \"top to bottom.\" Watch a failure to \"protect America's interests\" \u00bb . \"It sounds like they forgot they work for the government,\" he said. \"It's disgusting. ... There's no excuse for that. Those people should not be working in those positions at all. \"They crossed a lot of lines that should never have been crossed,\" he said. \"They lost all objectivity.\" Maxwell was in charge of keeping track of the millions in royalty payments owed taxpayers by oil and gas companies who explored and found oil on U.S. government lands. He estimates he and his team were responsible for saving the government close to $500 million in royalties, either underpaid or somehow skipped by oil and gas companies, over the years. He received the Interior Department's highest award in 2003 for his work. But not long afterward, his job was killed. He believes it was retribution for his cracking down on Big Oil and blowing the whistle on what he believes was a \"cult of corruption\" within the agency. The Interior Department denies that, saying his job was reorganized as part of routine restructuring. Just before he lost his job, he said, one of his superiors in Washington ordered him not to investigate why Shell Oil had raised its oil transportation costs. Maxwell said it jumped from 90 cents to $3 a barrel without adequate explanation. The government paid Shell to transport oil from offshore platforms. When asked why a government worker would tell an auditor not to investigate, he said: \"I believe it started from the top down,\" he said. Shell Oil told CNN it \"pays the same rate any shipper does\" and that it has \"never engaged in fraudulent transactions or entered into sham contracts as Mr. Maxwell alleges.\" Maxwell, a registered independent, said the shift in attitude at the agency began about seven or eight years ago, about the time the Bush administration came into power. He said he was discouraged from aggressively auditing oil companies. \"Laws and regulations were not applied, also not enforced,\" he said. The inspector general's 27-page summary says that nearly a third of the roughly 60 people in Maxwell's former office received gifts and gratuities from oil industry executives. Two received improper, if not illegal, gifts at least 135 times, the report says. It goes on to describe a wild atmosphere in which some staff members admitted using cocaine and marijuana. In addition, two female workers at the Minerals Management Service were known as the \"MMS chicks\" and both told investigators they had sex with oil industry officials they were supposed to be auditing. One e-mail from a pipeline company representative invited government workers to a tailgating party: \"Have you and the girls meet at my place at 6 a.m. for bubble baths and final prep ... Just kidding.\" Inspector General Earl Devaney said in a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne accompanying the report that it details \"a textbook example of improperly receiving gifts from prohibited sources.\" Maxwell is now retired from the government and teaches at the University of Hawaii. He said it was just a matter of time until the agency's behavior was exposed. He feels vindicated now in the wake of the inspector general's report, but is still disgusted by what he was happening at the Minerals Management Service. \"Their job is to protect United States taxpayers' interest. It's like they completely forgot that, like they just became part of the oil companies,\" he said. The Interior Department said it could not comment on Maxwell's specific allegations or removal, saying his former supervisor no longer works for the Interior Department either. Kempthorne said he was \"outraged\" by the disclosures in the inspector general's report and that the actions \"of a few has cast a shadow on the entire agency.\" But the department said there is no evidence taxpayers lost money as a result of unethical behavior between government workers and the oil and gas industry. Maxwell doubts that. The former auditor said he'd love to put all the government royalty records under his magnifying glass. \"I think the government should be transparent. We are for the people, by the people. This is the government. We're here to serve,\" he said. Maxwell has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Kerr-McGee Corp., an energy company involved in oil and gas exploration. In it, he claims the company defrauded taxpayers out of millions in oil royalty payments. The company denies the accusation. If Maxwell wins, the government would receive about $40 million in additonal revenue and Maxwell would be entitled to about a third of that.","highlights":"Whistleblower said oil regulators in bed with oil industry: \"It's disgusting\"\nDepartment of Interior said it can't comment on Bobby Maxwell's specific claims .\nMaxwell was auditor for 20-plus years, said he lost job due to scrutiny of oil giants .\nRecent report found the agency Maxwell worked for took improper gifts from oil reps .","id":"d8a9a4f335aee822d1cc979c90ae7b8341f7dde5"} -{"article":"ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- A suburban Washington man was bitten Monday by a rattlesnake that found its way into his luggage, a fire department spokesman said. An Eastern diamondback rattlesnake appears in a photo from the U.S. Geological Survey. \"He felt a sharp pain, brought his hand out and saw the bite,\" said Benjamin Barksdale, assistant chief and chief fire marshal of the Arlington County, Virginia, Fire Department. Andrew Bacas zipped his bag shut and called 911 at about 9:30 a.m. ET, the official said. \"He was conscious and alert but a little anxious,\" Barksdale said of the victim. The bite from the young Eastern diamond rattlesnake was not life-threatening, and the man is being treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, he said. \"We took the bag outside and used a [carbon dioxide] fire extinguisher to freeze the snake,\" killing it, Barksdale said. Bacas, a high school rowing coach, had been on a six-day trip to Summerton, South Carolina, with about 80 students, said Mike Krulfeld, director of student activities at Yorktown High School in Arlington. Krulfeld said he did not think the incident was a student prank. \"It's been rare to find a coach who is as well-liked and highly regarded as Andy. I would find it hard to believe they would do anything even in the name of a prank that would cause harm to him,\" Krulfeld said. The Web site of the school's crew team warned members to take precautions unpacking from the trip, adding, \"It's advisable to open bags and unpack outdoors.\" \"It got into his bag somehow at the location where they were staying,\" said Kay Speerstra, executive director of the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. \"Nobody noticed it until he was unpacking, and then he definitely noticed it.\" Speerstra said the snake was about 10 inches long and appeared to be a juvenile. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: High school rowing coach had been on trip with students to South Carolina .\nA 10-inch-long diamondback rattlesnake killed by blast from fire extinguisher .\nVictim treated at hospital; bite reportedly not life-threatening .","id":"617fd2aa85a843dec2d605daf7ad3717860c4f70"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said golden parachute payments would be banned and the salary deals of bankers \"clawed back\" as part of the government's $250 billion bailout of the financial sector. U.S. President George W. Bush announces his government's bank bailout plan. Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday of a $250 billion bailout plan to help stabilize the financial system. In Washington, Bush said the Treasury would buy into banks in return for shares using authority granted in the country's $700 billion bailout bill. However, Paulson stressed taxpayers would get a return on their money and banking excesses would be brought to an end. \"Institutions that sell shares to the government will accept restrictions on executive compensation, including a clawback provision and a ban on golden parachutes during the period that Treasury holds equity issued through this program,\" he said. The world's sharemarkets climbed again after European governments Monday announced bank bailouts worth more than $1 trillion and in anticipation of the U.S. bailout. Watch market prices . The Dow Jones industrial average surged 363 points in early trading after Bush and Paulson spoke before dropping back and eventually closing down by 76 points, or 0.82 percent. Bush said the measures taken in Europe were right, and had brought stability to the system. Watch the European Central Bank chief's assessment \u00bb . \"This new capital will help struggling banks to fill the hole filled by crisis during the time we are in,\" Bush said. \"This is a short-term measure to insure the viability of America's banking system.\" Watch Bush announce the plan \u00bb . He also announced that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would \"temporarily guarantee most new debt\" issued by banks. \"This will address one of the central problems plaguing our financial system -- banks have been unable to borrow money and that has constricted their ability to lend to consumer and businesses,\" Bush said. \"When money flows freely between banks, it will make it easy for Americans to borrow money for homes and cars.\" The government, through the FDIC, would also immediately and temporarily insure non-interest-bearing transaction accounts which were used mainly by small businesses \"to cover day-to-day operations.\" \"By insuring every dollar in these accounts, we will give small business owners piece of mind and bring greater stability to the banking system,\" Bush said. Governments have rushed to pump capital into banks after a series of large failures left the financial system teetering on the edge of insolvency. Banks have stopped lending to each other and customers for fear they will not be able to recoup debts and over concerns that many institutions are still hiding massive sub-prime mortgage losses. Watch Nobel prize winner praise UK plan \u00bb . Paulson said the government would get preference shares in return for its investment. \"Nine large financial institutions have already agreed to participate in this program. They have agreed to sell preferred shares to the US government, on the same terms that will be available to a broad array of small and medium-sized banks.\" Watch more on the bailout funding \u00bb . According to reports banking giants Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch would be among those to receive funding. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke said: \"I strongly believe that the application of these tools, together with the underlying vitality and resilience of the American economy, will help to restore confidence to our financial system and place our economy back on a path to vigorous, healthy growth.\" Markets in Europe saw big early gains drop back in afternoon trading. However, London's FTSE, the Paris CAC 40 and Frankfurt's DAX closed between 2.7 and 3.3 percent higher. Across the Middle East markets were up between 6.5 and 11 percent. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei 225 posted a record 14.15 percent gain. South Korea's KOSPI index gained 6.1 percent and Australia's All Ordinaries picked up more than 4 percent. Watch the Nikkei Index bounce back \u00bb . Jesper Koll, of Tantallon Capital Research in Tokyo, said: \"The system is starting to work. We can see that credit markets are starting to stabilize.\" Meanwhile Iceland's stock exchange reopened Tuesday for the first time since trading was suspended last Wednesday, with a value 76 percent lower than at its close value last week. Icelandic officials cautioned, however, that the new value reflected the absence of the three big banks that were nationalized last week and which represented 80 percent of Iceland's stock market. Taking that into account, exchange spokeswoman Kristen Johannsdottir said the market was down only 2 percent in early trading.","highlights":"U.S. President George W. Bush announces $250 billion bailout .\nHenry Paulson: Golden parachute payments and excesses will end .\nJapan's Nikkei closes Tuesday up 14 percent, a one-day record .","id":"3e507650c66dbd9b32b67bccb887d1593d61958e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush is \"a disgrace, frankly,\" film director Oliver Stone said Wednesday, two days before the release of his biopic on the 43rd U.S. president. Director Oliver Stone says he believes the timing was right for his upcoming film, \"W.\" Stone, who has endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president, seems to thrive on controversy, and his latest foray into filmmaking, \"W.,\" will likely hold true to form. In an interview with CNN's Kiran Chetry, Stone discussed the rationale behind the release date, his troubles securing financing for the film, and why he thinks President Bush's relationship with his father, President George H.W. Bush, played a role in the decision to invade Iraq. Kiran Chetry: We had a chance to see the screening of this movie and I want to ask you a little bit about the timing. This is coming out three weeks before our 2008 presidential election. Why did you want to it come out now? Oliver Stone: Those events are beyond my control. We made the movie as fast as we could starting last May. If I couldn't have completed it, it would have come out in January perhaps for the inauguration. It's not about this election. It's about the last eight years with one man, George W. Bush. It's his story, how he became the man that he is, how we elected him -- basically, if you start to think about it, where we are now as a country. Watch Stone discuss why he finds Bush \"fascinating\" \u00bb . Chetry: Is it an anti-war movie? Stone: Of course it's an anti-war movie, because I happen to be an anti-war person. That's not to say I'm a pacifist. I believe you fight for the right reasons. This man has us in three wars right now -- Iraq, Afghanistan, and basically, the war on terror. We have a foreign policy which is a very preventive one, a pre-emptive one. It's a Bush doctrine. It's a very dangerous place. Whoever wins the election, Obama or McCain, I think is going to live in the shadow of the events of these last eight years. This man ... will be around, his influence will be felt for 20 years, 40 years. Chetry: What did you want viewers of your movie to come away with? Stone: ... I can't control that. We made the movie to make people think, to make themselves feel, to walk in the shoes of George Bush and to understand him. This is not a job done with malice. This is a fair portrait of the man. I think it's empathetic. You care for him and your feelings for him. An activist said, \"I never thought I could feel something for George Bush. I came out of this movie feeling compassionate for him, and even more important, feeling compassion for our country and where we are now.\" Chetry: You had trouble getting financing because people felt it was too, I guess, sympathetic for the president. Stone: Not for that reason. No, I think that the issues that we had with the American corporations were essentially that it was an inconvenient subject. They thought, he's gone from office, and they don't want to know, and he's controversial, and blah, blah, blah. These are corporations -- large corporations. They're not going to take risks like this. So, the movie business you've got to make movies with risks, and unfortunately, America's moving away from that in all forms, not just movies. Chetry: It's very interesting. You had a soliloquy, a great monologue, by the character playing Vice President Dick Cheney ... about the rationale for Iraq. It was very detailed and it's safe to say you didn't have Dick Cheney's cooperation. Where did you compile some of these scenes, some of these dialogues from those scenes? Stone: [Writer] Stanley Weiser and myself did a lot of research. There's not much known about the first [George W.] Bush administration, the first few years. It's coming out gradually from [\"Price of Loyalty\" author Ron] Suskind and [\"The Bush Tragedy\" author Jacob] Weisburg, and it's coming out gradually. We're finding out about oil and the secret meeting. It is supposition. There are geopolitics involved. There are other issues at stake. We're trying to do justice. We allowed Cheney to speak for himself and [former Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld to speak for himself. And [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, by the way, is the guy that argues with Cheney in that scene. iReport.com: Will you see 'W.'? Chetry: You say President Bush changed the world. Is it something you believe is permanent? Stone: Put it this way: We have practically an $800 billion Pentagon budget every year. That's a huge amount -- the amount of the bailout right there. Are we going to be in a state of reaction in force for everything that happens? Is it an us-versus-them foreign policy? Of course, I'm very concerned about the Constitution and about the stripping of liberties, torture, Guantanamo. Do you want the whole list? This guy ... he's a disgrace, frankly. And his legacy is going to be a hard one to live down. But I hope we take steps in the positive direction. And I am an optimist. Chetry: Variety's review said Oliver Stone's \"W.\" feels like a rough draft, that it may behoove to make in 10 or 15 years. They say it lacks an ending because we don't have time as perspective. Did we need some more time? Stone: I think the film is quite satisfying in that it shows you the marks for Iraq. It ends at the moment he goes to war. We know how things turn out. It's not a film about those eight years. It's a film about the character of a man. There's a first act when he's in his 20s, a second act in his 40s and the third act when he's in his mid-50s. It's a character study and we get to the place at which we know the way he's going to behave. It's a father-son story because a lot of his actions are motivated by, let's call it, rivalry to be stronger than his father. And that's part of the reason he goes to Iraq.","highlights":"Director insists \"W.\" presents \"a fair portrait of the man,\" is empathetic .\nBush's \"rivalry to be stronger than his father\" helped prompt Iraq war, Stone says .\nStone says he is anti-war, has concerns about torture, \"stripping of liberties\"\n\"W.,\" a biopic of President Bush, hits theaters Friday .","id":"ec8b93e7b368048ce6ee73654489a14c5ee05488"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When news breaks, D.L. Hughley will be ready to mock it. D.L. Hughley starred in \"The Hughleys\" and \"The Original Kings of Comedy.\" CNN announced Wednesday that it will premiere a new, \"unconventional\" weekend show hosted by comedian D.L. Hughley. \"D.L. Hughley Breaks the News,\" as the show is currently titled, will feature Hughley's humorous take on the week's events. It will also include interviews with newsmakers and reporters, according to the network. \"D.L. Hughley Breaks the News\" is scheduled to debut Saturday, October 25. \"I am very excited for the opportunity to work with the network that I have watched for a very long time, and that to a large extent, has shaped my comedic view,\" Hughley said in a press release. \"CNN offers the perfect blend of news and information on a local, national and international level. What more can a comedian ask for?\" \"D.L. is a news junkie who is bursting with things to say about what is going on in the world -- most of them funny, all of them thoughtful, none of them predictable,\" said Jon Klein, president of CNN\/U.S. \"When you watch as much news as our audience does, there comes a time you just want to stop and laugh -- and that time will be Saturday nights at 10 on CNN.\" The show will resemble the late-night talk shows of Jay Leno and David Letterman more than Jon Stewart's \"Daily Show,\" according to Hughley. Hughley is known for his acting and his standup performances. The comedian spent four seasons on his own sitcom, \"The Hughleys,\" and was one of the stars of Aaron \"West Wing\" Sorkin's series, \"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.\" The performer was also one of the \"Original Kings of Comedy,\" along with Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer. CNN and CNN.com are units of Time Warner.","highlights":"\"D.L. Hughley Breaks the News\" premieres on CNN October 25 .\nComedian Hughley known for \"The Hughleys,\" \"Studio 60\"\nShow to feature interviews, comedic takes on the news .","id":"8db128b7c4de968670d89ca4fe14aab13d537e3f"} -{"article":"WHEATON, Illinois (AP) -- A gunman who took a dozen hostages in a suburban Chicago bank after wresting a gun from a police officer Friday died after shooting himself in the head, police said. Hostages were released Friday after a gunman killed himself in suburban Chicago, police say. The standoff began around 1:30 p.m., after a Wheaton police officer responded to a call of a hit-and-run accident near the bank. When the officer arrived, the suspect grabbed the officer from behind, held a knife to his throat and demanded his gun, Deputy Chief Thomas Meloni said. During an ensuing struggle, the officer was cut on a forearm and the suspect was able to take the gun and run the lobby of the Wheaton Bank & Trust, where he ordered everyone to the floor, Meloni said. Police in Wheaton, about 20 miles west of Chicago, did not immediately release the gunman's identity. As officers evacuated nearby businesses and homes and shut down streets and rail service, hostage negotiators talked to the gunman by phone. They were able to persuade him to release 10 hostages, leaving two behind, Meloni said. \"At one point the suspect began to close the blinds from inside the bank and he disconnected the phone contact with the hostage negotiators,\" Meloni said. Shortly afterward, about 4:15 p.m., officers heard a single gunshot and they rushed in, Meloni said. He said the man was dead of a single gunshot wound to the head. A spokeswoman for Central DuPage Hospital, Amy Steinbruecker, said the hospital treated and released the police officer who scuffled with the suspect for minor injuries. Television footage showed dozens of people running from the four-story bank building, which includes other businesses, with their hands above their heads. \"We locked our office door, turned off the lights, drew the blinds,\" said Donna Price, 52, of McHenry, who works in the office building. \"Then we heard a knock on the door and it was a SWAT guy. He told us to get out right now. \"I said, 'Let me get my purse.' He said, 'No, now.\"' Price said police held people in a stairwell of the building before ordering them out. \"We all had to put our hands up on the back of our heads and run,\" Price said from a convenience store across the street where more than 100 people were crowded.","highlights":"Gunman took a dozen hostages in a suburban Chicago bank Friday .\nPolice: Suspect held knife to officer's throat and demanded his gun .\nSuspect was found with a bullet wound to his head, officials said .","id":"808c2b04d94dd9179a001b02f6205afa144a5787"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama cautioned supporters Thursday against becoming complacent during the final days leading up to the election, noting he lost the New Hampshire primary despite a lead in the polls. After debating Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama says there's still plenty of campaigning to be done. \"For those of you who are feeling giddy or cocky and think this is all set, I just [have] two words for you: New Hampshire,\" the Democratic presidential nominee said during a fundraiser breakfast in New York. \"You know I've been in these positions before where we were favored and the press starts getting carried away and we end up getting spanked. And so that's another good lesson that Hillary Clinton taught me.\" About 10 hours after debating Sen. John McCain, Obama urged top campaign contributors at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan to not be overconfident, despite leading in a number of national polls. A CNN Poll of Polls calculated Wednesday showed him leading 51 percent to 42 percent. \"We've got 19 days,\" Obama said. \"We're going to have to work absolutely as hard as we've ever worked in our lives in order to just to get to the start of what is going to be a very difficult and very challenging but ultimately a very fulfilling four years where we can get this country back on track.\" Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . Hours later, Obama spoke to a crowd in Londonderry, New Hampshire, lashing out at McCain's debate tactics. \"Well, New Hampshire, last night we had a debate. I think you saw a bit of the McCain attack strategy in action,\" he said. \"But here's what Sen. McCain doesn't seem to understand: With the economy in turmoil and the American dream at risk, the American people don't want to hear politicians attack each other -- you want to hear about how we're going to attack the challenges facing middle-class families each and every day.\" Obama urged McCain to \"debate our genuine differences on the issues that matter\" rather than making the Arizona senator's campaign \"all about me.\" \"The truth is, this campaign is about you. It's about your jobs. It's about your health care. It's about your retirement. It's about your children's future,\" he added. Watch Obama discuss the economy \u00bb . McCain, speaking at an event in Downington, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, touched on his debate performance. \"We had a good debate last night. It was a lot of fun. ... I thought I did pretty well,\" he said to loud cheers. McCain reiterated his position for taking America forward as economists say a recession is all but inevitable. \"We can't spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change ... I'll take us in a new direction,\" he said. \"Our troubles are getting worse, our enemies watch and we have to fight, and that's what I'll do for you ... I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it.\" McCain also urged voters there to help him win Pennsylvania -- a state where a CNN Poll of Polls shows Obama leading his counterpart 50 percent to 40 percent. \"I need your vote. We will carry Pennsylvania. ... We need your help. ... It's a close race, my friends,\" he said. McCain also responded to Obama's assertions that his crowds are unruly and use dangerous language to describe the Illinois senator. \"I cannot tell you about how proud I am of you,\" he said. It was a line that he used in Wednesday night's debate. iReport.com: Obama survived knock-out punch . Obama and McCain are scheduled to speak Thursday night at the Alfred E. Smith dinner, a political tradition that dates back to 1945. It honors the first Catholic ever nominated for president and was begun by Francis J. Spellman, the archbishop of New York's Roman Catholic Archdiocese at the time. The Republican presidential nominee will also appear on the \"Late Show with David Letterman,\" after canceling an earlier appearance, which left the host fuming. Also Thursday, McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, sounded a note of triumph about Wednesday's presidential debate while campaigning in Bangor, Maine. \"They [Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden] look to the past because they'd rather run against the current administration, it sounds like, and that strategy though, thankfully, it's really starting to wear very very thin,\" Palin said. \"As John McCain reminded Barack Obama last night, if he wanted to run against George Bush, he had his chance four years ago. This year, the name on the ballot is John McCain -- and America knows that John McCain is his own man, he is the maverick.\" Though Maine has trended Democratic for nearly two decades, the McCain campaign is making a push in the state's rural 2nd Congressional District, which is allotted one electoral vote independent of how the state votes at large. Despite the McCain camp's efforts, the Republican National Committee has stopped running advertisements in the state. Palin later traveled to Elon, North Carolina. At an afternoon rally at Elon University, near Greensboro, Palin pressed the audience to stand firm against accusations of negative campaigning, and told them to pay \"close attention\" to Obama's record. \"It's not mean-spirited and it's not negative campaigning when you call someone out on their record,\" she said. \"So don't let anyone, don't let them make you believe that you're being negative or mean-spirited or unpatriotic or unfair when you are asking about somebody's record, OK?\" After the rally, Palin continued on to a fundraiser at a home in Greensboro. Biden is traveling to Los Angeles, California, taping appearances on \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" and the \"Ellen Degeneres Show.\" CNN political producer Ed Hornick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Palin in North Carolina: Pay \"close attention\" to Obama's record .\nObama to New Hampshire crowd: McCain has become \"all about me\"\nMcCain says \"I thought I did pretty well\" in Wednesday's debate .\nObama: I was ahead in New Hampshire, and we wound up \"getting spanked\"","id":"ce4e63913c098d552f9b55f38ac5c6ce02fdf359"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Glenn Beck is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and also is host of a conservative national radio talk show. Glenn Beck says Wall Street's troubles began with a wild craze for subprime mortages. NEW YORK (CNN) -- \"Greed is good.\" At least, that's what Michael Douglas' character Gordon Gekko claimed in the movie Wall Street. But, just like Gekko, the modern-day companies that followed that motto now find themselves wondering how everything could collapse so fast. You know the names by now: Countrywide Financial, Bear Stearns, IndyMac, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, AIG. And that's not even counting companies like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs that, while still in existence, have lost untold billions in market value and have laid off thousands of employees. Maybe greed isn't so good after all. Lehman was founded in 1844 when Henry Lehman, a German immigrant, opened a small shop in Montgomery, Alabama. His brothers joined him six years later and, by 1858 they were busy turning cotton provided by local farmers into a cash crop -- a business that didn't have anything to do with helping low-income families afford 27-bedroom McMansions. More than 150 years later, after surviving the Great Depression, Black Monday, the savings and loan crisis and the dot-com bust, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection. They had gone 14 years as a public company without ever reporting a single quarterly loss. Now they will never again post a profit. Bear Stearns' story is eerily similar. Founded in 1923. Survived every crisis. Never posted a quarterly loss until last year. Gone without a trace. So how did 235 years of rock-solid American finance disappear virtually overnight? Well, it's not as complicated as you think. If you replace all of the acronyms invented by the brainiacs on Wall Street with references to things that Main Street understands, it becomes a lot easier to see how it all happened. Here's a quick story I invented that does just that. (Note to any Wall Street executives who might be reading this: I know this simple little story isn't perfect, but let's remember that you're the ones who tried to make everything complicated and I'm the one who still has a job.) It's just before Christmas,1996, and as you watch overeager parents trample each other to buy Tickle Me Elmo dolls for their kids, you see an opportunity. \"This isn't a Tickle Me Elmo bubble,\" you think to yourself, \"this is a long-term trend. Every person in America will soon own a Tickle Me Elmo, maybe even two. It's the American dream.\" You approach your local banker about a loan and, naturally, he loves your idea. In fact, he loves it so much that for every $1 you have in your account, he's willing to lend you $34. Great deal, you think, as you max out your credit line and buy as many Tickle Me Elmos as you possibly can. Sales are easy at first. People are lining up to buy your dolls and the prices are going far higher than you ever thought. The only person happier than you is your banker. But the following year something unexpected happens: Kids stop asking for Tickle Me Elmos. You try to cut the price, but no buyers show up. You cut the price more, but your store remains empty. Panic sets in. You're pretty sure that this downturn is just temporary (after all, who wouldn't want a Tickle Me Elmo?) but you're quickly running out of cash. Your only option is to buy time and hope that Tickle Me Elmos start flying off your shelves again. You visit every bank in town and, using your piles of Tickle Me Elmo dolls as collateral (which, of course, you purchased with money you didn't have) you get as much new capital as possible. Soon that money is also gone. Even your friends and family refuse to give you any more loans. At the end of your rope, you go to your town council, which gives you a \"bridge loan\" to get you through the next few months (something that makes your Furby-selling competitors extremely upset). Unfortunately, no matter how much you borrow, there's still one nagging little problem: No one wants to buy your stupid Tickle Me Elmo dolls anymore. The longer you wait, the less they're worth. You sell some for pennies on the dollar, but pretty soon you can't even do that. Then things get even worse: News breaks that China is poisoning some Tickle Me Elmos before shipping them to the United States. Now your dolls are not just out of favor, they're toxic. You literally can't even give them away. Soon the rest of your money dries up, as do the people who are willing to lend you any more of it. Now you're out of cash; out of a job, and, if not for the pile of poisonous Tickle Me Elmo dolls in your basement, completely alone -- which sounds kind of like the CEOs of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. Believe it or not, this ridiculous story may be far from reality, but it's not that far off from describing what these financial and mortgage companies did to themselves. Just replace the Tickle Me Elmo references with the once popular, then discounted, now completely toxic subprime mortgages and you're pretty much there. When you cut through all the noise about \"bridge loans\" and \"discount windows,\" what you're left with is the fact that too many companies still own way too many Tickle Me Elmos that no one wants to buy. Giving those companies more money doesn't solve anything, it just buys time. Unless and until the underlying problem is fixed, no real turnaround can happen. But we all know that investors (and elected leaders worried about their careers this November) aren't all that patient. That's why the new chorus you're likely to soon hear will be from people arguing that the only way out of this mess is for the federal government to step in and purchase all of the toxic mortgages themselves. That would allow the companies with eyes bigger than their balance sheets to start over, with barely any repercussions whatsoever and without ever taking responsibility for their mistakes. Come to think of it, maybe greed isn't so bad after all. Would the government actually consider that idea? They already are. In fact, the only thing stopping politicians from \"rewarding\" us with a new government agency that will put billions more of our tax dollars at stake is, ironically enough, the election of new politicians. Disclaimer: Tickle Me Elmo is still an extremely popular, non-toxic product and, to the best of my knowledge, is not responsible for the credit crisis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Glenn Beck: Hundreds of years of Wall Street history vanished this week .\nMajor companies collapsed due to the subprime mortgage fiasco, he says .\nBeck: Firms still own too many toxic mortgages they can't sell .\nA new government agency could form to buy up mortgages, Beck says .","id":"805adcdd70e5025b62324cbe671347ef6e3789d7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who is the host of \"Fareed Zakaria: GPS\" on CNN at 1 p.m. ET Sundays. \"America will have to fight to attract capital and investment like every other nation,\" says Fareed Zakaria. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The crisis in global financial markets will top the agenda as finance ministers from the world's top industrialized nations and central bank governors meet in Washington. In an effort to breathe some life into economies around the world, the Federal Reserve, in tandem with five other central banks, lowered its key lending rate to 1.5 percent from 2 percent. However, the global financial crisis has sunk its teeth in to the point that analysts say the $700 billion bailout plan and coordinated rate cut were merely steps in the right direction, and it will take much more to really get credit moving. CNN spoke to world affairs expert Fareed Zakaria about the most recent developments. CNN: Is the economy as bad as everyone is saying? Zakaria: What is happening now is a deep, wrenching financial crisis unlike any we've seen since the 1930s. It's contributing to a broad slowdown of the American economy. The pain is spreading across the world. It's ugly. But the history of capitalism is filled with credit crises, panics, financial meltdowns and recessions. It doesn't mean the end of capitalism. CNN: Then why can't we just let the free markets resolve the current economic problems without the federal government getting involved? Zakaria: We just can't accept the downswings that used to be routine for Western countries in the 19th century, when we saw much less intervention by the government. Can you imagine the political fallout from 20 percent unemployment or 5 percent growth rates? The government must experiment with massive interventions in the market to ensure credit starts flowing smoothly again. These interventions have become part and parcel of modern capitalism. CNN: So what should the government do? Zakaria: That is the real question: How to regulate the markets so you get the maximum innovation and growth, but temper their wilder movements? The government will have to do this by trial and error. No one knows in theory what the perfect system would look like. In the short run, whatever it takes, including buying up mortgages, debt, equities. Clearly, America's financial system needs new, different and better regulations for the 21st century, and this crisis should help produce those. CNN: What does it mean for the United States? Zakaria: People around the world once saw the United States as the most modern, sophisticated and productive economy in the world. Now they wonder, was this all a house of cards? They listened to American policymakers with respect, even awe. Today, they wonder if these officials know what they are doing. This loss of credibility will have hard consequences. For decades, the United States has attracted massive amounts of capital -- 80 percent of the surplus savings of the world -- which has allowed it to live beyond its means. That era is drawing to a close. America will have to fight to attract capital and investment like every other nation. CNN: What can we do? Zakaria: We need to wake up and get serious about our challenges. We must address all these issues, and fast -- restore confidence, reform the system, return the country to fiscal sanity. We have the opportunity to remain the pivotal player in a richer, more dynamic, more exciting world. But we have to take a substantial shift in our approach.","highlights":"Zakaria: Credit crises, financial meltdowns, recessions aren't end of capitalism .\nGovernment must try massive market interventions to get credit to flow, he says .\nZakaria: America's financial system needs new, different and better regulations .\nWe must quickly restore confidence, reform system, return fiscal sanity, he says .","id":"1cf8fd8205104ddd4cdc5733c43beb970f07b77c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 11:10 a.m. ET Thursday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago-based radio host, Martin has said he will vote for Barack Obama in November. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland Martin says Gov. Sarah Palin talks tough but ducks a lot of difficult questions. (CNN) -- Do you know what was so great about Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan? They were three of the biggest trash talkers in the history of the NBA, but they had the game to back it up. Somebody should tell that to Gov. Sarah Palin. Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate has been running around the country, firing up her -- yes, her, and not necessarily McCain's -- loyal supporters by blasting Sen. Barack Obama for \"palling around with terrorists\" and demanding that the American people know exactly when he learned of the past of 1960s radical William Ayers. She has stoked the crowds by saying, \"This is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America.\" We all know what that is designed to do: Portray Obama as a foreigner who isn't as American as she. Or you. Or Joe Six-pack, the hockey mom, soccer mom, Wal-Mart mom, NASCAR dad and the other coded words she uses regularly. But what is truly pathetic is that Palin talks tough, but is really scared of facing her own issues. Since she is good at proclaiming that the American people need to know who Barack Obama is -- an attempt to paint him as a shady figure who might occupy the White House -- the American people deserve to hear Palin answer if her husband, Todd, a former member of the Alaska Independence Party, agreed with its founder, who wanted to secede from the union. Is there anything more anti-American than wanting to sever ties with the country? Send Roland Martin your questions and listen to his program on CNNRadio and CNN.com Live, Thursday at noon ET. It's critical that Palin answer questions about whether she disagrees with John McCain's criticism of the Bush administration's decision to remove North Korea from the terrorist nation list. She spoke in favor of it. McCain didn't. Are they on the same page or not? The American people deserve to hear from Palin as to why she didn't say a word to rebuke the hateful, pathetic and degrading comments made at rallies featuring her, such as when someone in the crowd called Obama a terrorist, someone else shouted, \"Off with his head\" and others suggested he is a traitor. Lastly, don't you think the self-described maverick needs to own up to what really happened with the firing of the commissioner in Alaska? She was declared by a special investigator to have been within her rights in firing the commissioner, but she was blasted for abuse of power and violating the state's ethics act. So what did she say in a conference call with Alaska reporters -- who were not allowed by the McCain camp to ask follow-up questions? That she was cleared of all wrongdoing, legally and ethically. That's right. She repeated over and over and over an absolute lie, and we are supposed to say, \"Hey, it's all fine. She winks at us. We love her hockey mom schtick. Don't worry about that abuse of power thing.\" Well, after having to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney being accused of beating the drum for war by berating and pushing our intelligence apparatus to match his political views on Iraq, don't you think we should really care about someone who has been accused in a report, authorized by Democrats and Republicans, of using their power and influence to get their way? Sure, her supporters will say she's talked to the \"media.\" She was questioned by Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and that self-described journalist -- yes, he really called himself that -- Fox's Sean Hannity. Palin has done interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, and local TV folks. But why is she so scared of NBC's Brian Williams? And why is she so fearful of CNN? Does she somehow think that our big guns like Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown are just too tough in asking questions? My goodness, Tina Fey has actually done more interviews about playing Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin has done about being Sarah Palin! Hmmm. McCain, Sen. Joe Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Cindy McCain and even McCain's 95-year-old momma and Palin's daddy have all done interviews with CNN, sharing their thoughts on the campaign. But Palin? Not a whisper. It's clear that Palin really isn't a true frontier woman. See, when you tote a gun, carry a big stick and spit fire, you aren't afraid to take on all comers. So, Sarah, if you want to talk big on the campaign trail to those audiences that don't talk back, go right ahead. But if you truly are the maverick politician you say you are, come on and talk to us soft, coddled, elitist journalists. Surely we aren't as tough as the moose you like to take down with your Second Amendment-protected hunting rifle. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Roland Martin: Gov. Palin talks tough on the campaign trail .\nMartin: Palin has ducked questions about many difficult issues .\nPalin has given only a limited number of interviews, Martin says .\nPalin hasn't been forthcoming on the Alaska ethics investigation, he says .","id":"b8a1fa608bfd9ca189a515f82165b32cca144f94"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Global markets were reeling Monday after a historic day on Wall Street that saw two famous names become the latest victims of the credit crunch. The leading U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and brokerage Merrill Lynch was the subject of a $50 billion buyout by Bank of America. The fate of other big name financial institutions remained in doubt and stock prices plunged in Asia, Europe and the United States. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 504 points down, or about 4.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite lost 3.6 percent, its worst single-session percentage decline since March 24, 2003. It left the tech-fueled average at its lowest point since March 17 of this year. In Europe, FTSE index in London declined 3.92 percent while the Paris CAC 40 was down 3.78 percent. It was the worst day for the index since the 9\/11 terror attacks in 2001. Major Asian indexes were closed but India's Sensex fell 5.4 percent, Taiwan's benchmark dropped 4.1, Australia's key index dropped 2 percent and Singapore fell 2.9. Check markets . The turmoil at Merrill Lynch and Lehman is bound to mean job losses in the already hard-hit financial services industry, but so far neither company has indicated how many will be cut. \"This crisis is clearly deeper than anybody had imagined only a short time ago,\" Peter Stein, an associate editor at the Wall Street Journal in Asia, told CNN. The chaos followed a roller-coaster weekend for a Wall Street already concussed by woes at other major financial firms and mortgage-financing titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sound off: What do you think? At one point the U.S. Federal Reserve was forced to step in, announcing plans to loosen lending restrictions to the banking industry in an effort to calm markets, while a consortium of 10 leading domestic and foreign banks agreed a $70 billion fund to lend to troubled financial firms. U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday he is confident that the markets are resilient and can deal with the latest financial blows. \"We are working to reduce disruptions and minimize the impact these financial market developments on the broader economy.\" Watch what went wrong \u00bb . He added: \"In the short run, adjustments in the financial markets can be painful for people worried about their investments and for employees of the firms.\" U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said eight years of Bush \"brought us the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.\" His Republican rival said John McCain said he was happy the federal government decided not to use taxpayer dollars to bail out Lehman Brothers. In an effort to calm market jitters, the European Central Bank on Monday said it has pumped $42.6 billion into money markets. The Bank of England in London also took steps, offering nearly $9 billion in a three-day auction. In another development, American International Group, the world's largest insurer, was reportedly struggling to secure billions of dollars in capital after months of seeing its share values slide. Police cordoned off Lehman's headquarters in New York on Sunday as staff, some in suits, others in casual clothes, left the building with cardboard boxes while tourists and onlookers gathered to watch the spectacle. The 158-year-old bank, which has weathered previous financial upheavals and saw its offices destroyed in the September 11 World Trade Center attacks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which grants protection while it works out a plan to pay back creditors. The collapse of Lehman came after shares declined 94 percent in the space of a year, prompting speculation over its fate. It took a turn for the worse Sunday when Bank of America and British bank Barclays, both viewed as potential \"white knights,\" pulled out of deal talks, sources told CNNMoney.com. Both Lehmans and Merrill have been caught with huge exposures to unsecured mortgages, the bad debts at the heart of the so-called credit crunch that has devalued the U.S. housing market and sent financial shockwaves worldwide. Analysis: Different rules for different names \u00bb . Lehman's collapse and the sale of Merrill reduces the number of independent firms on Wall Street to two -- Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs -- following the sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan at a bargain price earlier this year. \"Acquiring one of the premier wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies is a great opportunity for our shareholders,\" Bank of American Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ken Lewis said in a statement Monday. \"Together our companies are more valuable because of the synergies in our businesses.\" Like Lehman, Merrill Lynch has been suffering from bad real estate bets, and its stock price lost 27 percent last week -- shares are down 65 percent this year. Watch why Bank of America thinks Merrill is the opportunity of a lifetime \u00bb . Merrill, known for with its famous bull logo, has been an icon of Wall Street and investing. But billions of dollars in losses in the last year due to fallout in the U.S. mortgage market proved too much for the 94-year old firm. David Ellis of CNNMoney.com contributed to this report .","highlights":"U.S. investment banking giant Lehman Brothers to file for bankruptcy .\nMerrill Lynch agrees to be taken over by Bank of America .\nJob losses certain but numbers not yet known .\nNEW: Dow Jones suffered worst day since 9\/11; Asia, Europe markets tumbled .","id":"c8b357de91b738eeaef4f006089dc777f9d6e7f4"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: David Hawkins is Director of Public Policy and Research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a nonprofit organization that represents more than 11,000 high school counselors and college admission officers from across the country. He was the author of a report last month by the organization's commission on the use of standardized tests. David Hawkins says test scores shouldn't be used to rank college quality . ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- A recent controversy at Baylor University has brought new attention to the widespread misuse of standardized college admission tests to rank the quality of America's colleges and universities. The SAT and ACT have achieved nearly iconic status in America and throughout the world. As the late author and scholar Stephen Jay Gould noted, the tests are viewed by many as \"abstruse and mysterious,\" with powerful effects on public policy, social mobility, and even individual identity. Misuse of test scores as college ranking criteria creates undue pressure on admission offices to pursue increasingly high test scores and fuels the tests' disproportionate influence. Last June, Baylor University encouraged its already admitted first-year students to retake the SAT. The reward for students who retook the test was $300 in bookstore credits. Students who increased their score by more than 50 points got a $1,000 merit aid scholarship. If enough students retook the SAT and increased their scores, the gains might be enough to move Baylor up the rankings list. The scarce financial resources allocated for this plan are too badly needed elsewhere, particularly among low-income students in rural and urban areas around the country, to spend on an effort to raise a college's SAT profile. A Baylor spokesman told The Associated Press Thursday that the university \"goofed\" and would likely end the incentives. It's critical to understand that high SAT and ACT scores alone do not equate to merit. Last month, our organization's Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission issued a report calling for change in the way everyone involved in college admissions uses the tests. Test misuses feed the public perception that the scores are the most influential factor in college admission. For the past 15 years, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) research has shown that students' grades in high school, particularly grades in college preparatory courses, are by far the most important consideration in college admission decisions. One of the most pressing problems regarding the SAT and ACT scores is their misuse in the U.S. News and World Report college rankings formula. The SAT and ACT were designed to provide information about a student to colleges and universities and were never meant to be measures of college quality. Accordingly, the commission encouraged U.S. News and World Report to eliminate test scores as a measure of institutional quality. The U.S. News ranking formula includes a \"student selectivity\" score that constitutes 15 percent of a college's overall rank. SAT or ACT scores of enrollees make up 50 percent of the student selectivity score. In response to the NACAC report, U.S. News and World Report said, \"As long as standardized tests play an integral role in the college admissions process, U.S. News will use them as part of our ranking methodology.\" The situation at Baylor is a reminder of the inflated value assigned to the SAT and ACT in higher education. The fervor surrounding the rankings, as well as the lengths to which colleges go to increase them, are unfortunate distractions in higher education and admissions. The impression students and families get from the rankings is that higher test scores mean higher quality colleges. To borrow a phrase familiar to admission deans, many colleges recruit great students and then graduate great students. Is that because of the institution, or the students? Some credit undoubtedly should go to both. But is a college of lower quality because its students' SAT scores are lower than those of students at another college? Generally speaking, the ability of admission tests to predict success in higher education is much more limited than most people think. Colleges most often determine the utility of admission test scores by assessing how well they predict first-year grades. Colleges are wrong to place so much emphasis on test scores as measurements of their institutional worth when admission offices across the board consider the scores to be one among many indicators of a student's merit. As influential as the rankings have been with students and families, is it any wonder that colleges whose stakeholders often demand higher ranks go to such lengths to influence their position in the rankings? Misuse of test scores has real ramifications for students and families. For every student able to afford test-performance tutoring and fees for taking the test many times, there are many qualified students from under-served backgrounds who become discouraged that they will be unable to compete. For every college that raises its SAT or ACT profile for rankings purposes, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of qualified students who will never apply because artificially inflated test scores signal yet another barrier to higher education. It is critical to re-evaluate the varied uses of admission tests, and protect against their misuse in all forms. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Hawkins.","highlights":"David Hawkins: Admission tests are wrongly used to rank college quality .\nHawkins says Baylor University's incentives for test scores are a mistake .\nGrades are much more important than test scores in admissions decisions, he says .\nHawkins: U.S. News should drop SAT and ACT scores in rankings .","id":"ee44eadeedbf9fe47ee71f9412fb203dda4d2bd7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At 51 years of age, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has come a long way. As part of the Kashubian minority living in the Gdansk Region, he was born to working-class parents -- his father a carpenter and his mother a nurse. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was elected in November 2007. As a student of History at the University of Gdansk in the late 1970s, a period of growing discontent with the Communist regime in Poland, he became actively involved in the creation of the opposition Students' Solidarity Committee. This was founded in reaction to the murder of student activist Stanislaw Pyjas by the State Security Service. Despite his anti-communist activities, he successfully finished his studies in 1980 and joined the Independent Solidarity Trade Union movement. When the Communists imposed martial law in 1981 he continued with his underground activities, writing pamphlets about the ideas of liberal economist Friedrich Hayek and the concept of private property. His heroes became former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. With the fall of Communism in 1989, the Solidarity Movement splintered. Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity Leader was elected President, while Tusk went on to co-found the KLD (Liberal and Democratic Congress Party) with other well-known figures. The Party stood for among other things: free market economy, privatization, individual freedom of Polish citizens and Polish accession to the EU. The following year, during the 1991 Parliamentary elections, the KLD won 37 seats in the lower house of the Polish Parliament. Not being able to follow up on their success in the 1993 elections, the KLD merged with the larger Democratic Union Party (UD) to form a new party called Freedom Union (UW). Tusk soon became Deputy Chairman and in the 1997 elections, he was voted into the Senate. In 2001, Tusk formed the Civic Platform Party (PO), winning seats in that year's parliamentary elections and becoming Deputy Speaker in parliament. But the Civic Platform was not able to sustain its success in the 2005 elections. Tusk and his party lost both the presidential and parliamentary elections to Lech Kacczynski's PiS (Law and Justice Party). This setback was not to last as Tusk triumphed over Jaroslaw Kaczynsky's PiS in the October 2007 elections and became prime minister of Poland. Tusk's economic policies are pro-business: less bureaucratic hurdles and state interference making it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses. He is also trying to woo back more than a million Poles who left the country to work in other European Union countries after it joined the EU in 2004. Tusk is a keen footballer, viewed in his youth as a promising striker. He is married to historian Malgorzata and has two children, Kasia and Michal.","highlights":"Involved in anti-communist activities as a student in Gdansk .\nIn 1989 Tusk co-founded the KLD (Liberal and Democratic Congress Party)\nIn 1997 he was voted into the Polish Senate .\nBecame prime minister of Poland after 1997 parliamentary election .","id":"2752ca369e240be018b1fd0c59b13949992758a8"} -{"article":"(Coastal Living) -- Barefoot on the sandy shore of Catalina Island, Kim Francis shades her eyes from the sun and peers back to mainland California. \"I can't believe we're 22 miles from Los Angeles,\" she says, grinning. \"I may never go back.\" Paddlers can experience Catalina from the water's surface. Behind her, the rugged terrain of Two Harbors stretches over rolling hills crossed by winding paths. Near the ferry dock, the modest village (a gift shop, an activities booth and one restaurant) buzzes with visitors. They come here to Catalina's west end -- away from Avalon, the island's much larger settlement -- to hike and watch wildlife. Many have their first try at snorkeling and paddling, says kayak guide Jason Clarke. Adjusting his colorful mask and snorkel, Jason plunges from the 45-foot catamaran Garibaldi into Isthmus Cove and encourages a tour group to do the same. \"You won't find kelp forests like this just anywhere,\" Clarke says. \"And always cross your fingers for a dolphin.\" Paddlers can experience Catalina from the water's surface, with tours that visit secluded coves and mysterious caves, all open for exploration. A few strokes of the paddle separate kayakers from pelicans, sea lions and a bison, which watches from land. \"If his tail wags, the buffalo is in a good mood,\" says Rod Jackson, who helps run Hummer tours to see bison. \"But never get too close.\" The bison have been on the island since the 1920s, when they were brought in as film extras. Today, they number nearly 250 and are protected by the Catalina Island Conservancy. \"Sometimes we get a rebel,\" Jackson says, gesturing to a lone bison across from the area's only inn, The Banning House Lodge. Free hiking permits allow visitors to wander the island at will. Adrenaline junkies will want to tackle Boushay Trail, which climbs 1,800 feet to Silver Peak, the highest point west of Two Harbors. Those who make it to the top will be rewarded with sweeping Pacific views. And, like Kim Francis, they may not want to leave. Best of the west end . For comprehensive information about all of the businesses listed, visit visittwoharbors.com. Stay: The Banning House Lodge, a rustic 1910 bed-and-breakfast with 11 rooms, has no TVs, clocks or telephones. Some rooms provide views of Isthmus Cove and Catalina Harbor. (Room 11 has spectacular cove vistas.) Winter rates start at $89; call 310\/510-4228. To camp in the area, call 310\/510-8368, or to rent a cabin between November and April, call 800\/626-0720. Play: Visitor's Center; 310\/510-4205. Dive and Recreation Center; 310\/510-4272. For charter-fishing day trips to Two Harbors, call Afishinado Charters at 323\/447-4669 or visit fishcatalina.com. Dine: The Harbor Reef Restaurant and the Harbor Reef Saloon serve fresh seafood entr\u00e9es, steaks and unique cocktails. We recommend the signature Two Harbors \"Buffalo Milk\" -- a sweet (and strong) concoction of liqueurs, vodka and whipped cream; 310\/510-4215. E-mail to a friend . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright \u00a9 Coastal Living, 2008 .","highlights":"Two Harbors, on Catalina's west end, is much quieter than Avalon .\nPaddling tours visit secluded coves and mysterious caves .\nFree hiking permits allow visitors to wander the island at will .","id":"843235a2f727c26c82f801d44daf764328a40259"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette is a nationally syndicated columnist and a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Read his column here. Ruben Navarrette asks whether Obama's cool, calm demeanor will be a plus in negotiating with world leaders. SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Make no mistake, Barack Obama is one cool customer. Now, after the last debate, it seems all but certain that the Iceman cometh to the White House. Radio talk show hosts and rank-and-file Republicans spent the last few weeks pleading with John McCain to take the gloves off and take the fight to Obama. How's that working out, folks? In this week's match-up, Obama snatched the gloves out of McCain's hands and slapped him silly with them. I suppose the hope was that Obama would get rattled and make a mistake. But Obama doesn't get rattled or make many mistakes. I still have no idea what type of president Obama would make. But he's an extraordinary politician. In fact, he may even be better than Bill Clinton who, while he had the IQ and EQ, also had the burden of a legendary red-hot temper. Obviously, it takes a lot to get under Obama's skin. McCain sure tried. Maybe this is the guy we want negotiating with world leaders. Maybe after eight years of George W. Bush stubbornness, on the heels of eight years of Clinton emotiveness, we need to send out for ice. In a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 58 percent of those who watched the debate said Obama did the better job and 31 percent said that about McCain. That makes three skins for Obama. In earlier polls, 54 percent of those who watched thought Obama won the second debate, and 51 percent thought he won the first one. This week, McCain turned in his best performance of the debates, and the first 30 minutes -- with McCain bringing up Obama's problematic encounter with the now famous Joe the Plumber; and the quip about how he isn't Bush and how Obama should have run four years ago -- were near flawless for the Republican. iReport.com: Are you Joe the Plumber? Get out your plunger and share your thoughts . McCain put Obama on the defensive, and it showed. If McCain had been that aggressive throughout the first two debates -- firm but not necessary unlikable -- we might be looking at a different race right now. But, over the next hour, Obama regained his stride and eventually dominated the exchange. And, in the end, with his sarcastic crack about school vouchers -- \"Because there's not enough vouchers; therefore, we shouldn't do it, even though it's working. I got it.\" -- McCain was profoundly unlikable. So said the polls. In the CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 70 percent of debate watchers found Obama more likable. Only 22 percent said that about McCain. McCain's supporters wanted him to bring up some of the allegedly shady characters from Obama's circle of acquaintances that give some Americans pause and lead them to question the Democrat's values. There are good reasons to have that conversation, and bad ones. A friend and fellow journalist told me Obama's Chicago posse was important because it formed \"the political womb where the fetal Obama grew into a politician. ... That tells us who he is and what either he believes himself or is at least willing to tolerate as president.\" Frankly, that argument makes a lot more sense than what many of the Obama haters are saying about how these \"Friends of Barack\" prove he is a couple of flag pins short of being a full-blooded American. That's nonsense. For instance, with William Ayers -- the unrepentant domestic terrorist who Obama first claimed was just a guy who lived in his neighborhood but with whom we now know the Illinois senator had a more substantial relationship -- the issue isn't Obama's patriotism but his truthfulness. Still, it was obviously a mistake for McCain to bring up Ayers during the debate. The tactic backfired. In the CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 62 percent of debate watchers said Obama's connection to Ayers mattered to them \"not much\" or \"not at all.\" Only 23 percent said it mattered \"a great deal.\" McCain should leave it to the press to mine the question of whether Obama has been totally honest about his relationship with Ayers -- well, at least those in the press who haven't already sent in requests for tickets to the Barack Obama inaugural ball. As for McCain, he is an American hero who has given his life to public service, and the country is better for it. That record of service need not come to an end. He can still contribute and finish out his term in the Senate. But, unless the political wind changes -- and quickly -- a promotion to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue doesn't appear to be in the cards. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette.","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette: McCain tried to get under Obama's skin with attacks .\nObama remained cool and wound up ending strongly in the debate, he says .\nNavarrette says Ayers attacks backfired even though issue is legitimate .\nAmerica may need the cool-headedness of Barack Obama, he says .","id":"ed4e4f3129e897b2921c62c682568da988825d14"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police have recovered two of the four Impressionist paintings stolen earlier this month in a daring museum heist, police in Zurich, Switzerland said Tuesday. Claude Monet's \"Poppies near Vetheuil\" has been recovered by Swiss police. The Monet and van Gogh oil paintings were in good condition, police said, and the search continued for the other two -- a Cezanne and a Degas. A parking lot attendant at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich found the paintings Monday afternoon in the back of an unlocked white car, police said. It was not clear how long the car, an Opel Omega with stolen license plates, had been parked on the lot, police said. \"The two paintings, worth about 70 million francs($64 million), are in good condition and are still protected by the original glass covering,\" police said in a statement. Three masked men stole the four paintings in what police called a \"spectacular\" heist Feb. 11 at the E.G. Buhrle Collection -- among the finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world. One of the men threatened personnel at the museum's front door with a pistol and forced them to the ground, police said, while the other two men went into an exhibition room and stole four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. Afterward, the three men loaded the paintings into a white car parked in front of the museum and then drove off, police said. The paintings recovered Monday are Monet's \"Poppies near Vetheuil\" and van Gogh's \"Blossoming Chestnut Branches.\" Still missing are Degas' \"Count Lepic and his Daughters\" and Cezanne's \"Boy in a Red Vest.\" The four paintings are worth a total of about $163 million (180 million Swiss francs). A reward of $91,000 (100,00 Swiss francs) has been posted for information leading to the return of the paintings, police said. A Zurich police task force, which includes an art expert, had received tips from around the world, police said. The task force was looking into possible connections with other art thefts inside Switzerland and abroad. The Zurich heist followed the recent theft in Switzerland of two paintings by Pablo Picasso, said Bjoern Quellenberg, a spokesman for the Kunsthaus, another major art museum in Zurich. The director of the Kunsthaus serves on the E.G. Buhrle private art foundation's council, Quellenberg said. In that theft, thieves stole the 1962 \"Tete de Cheval\" (\"Horse's Head\") and the 1944 \"Verre et Pichet\" (\"Glass and Pitcher\") by Picasso. They were on loan from a German museum and valued at $4.5 million when they were stolen February 6, according to news reports. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police in Switzerland have recovered two artworks stolen earlier this month .\nMasterpieces stolen in Zurich art heist were worth $163 million .\nHaul included pieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas and Monet .\nThe van Gogh and Monet were found, the Cezanne and Degas remain missing .","id":"f64129014a4667d18408c34bf8c595c94e753cdd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his work on the economics of information and was on the climate change panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Stiglitz, a supporter of Barack Obama, was a member and later chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration before joining the World Bank as chief economist and senior vice president. He is the co-author with Linda Bilmes of the \"Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.\" Economist Joseph Stiglitz says federal regulators and executives helped create the Wall Street crisis. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Many seem taken aback by the depth and severity of the current financial turmoil. I was among several economists who saw it coming and warned about the risks. There is ample blame to be shared; but the purpose of parsing out blame is to figure out how to make a recurrence less likely. President Bush famously said, a little while ago, that the problem is simple: Too many houses were built. Yes, but the answer is too simplistic: Why did that happen? One can say the Fed failed twice, both as a regulator and in the conduct of monetary policy. Its flood of liquidity (money made available to borrow at low interest rates) and lax regulations led to a housing bubble. When the bubble broke, the excessively leveraged loans made on the basis of overvalued assets went sour. For all the new-fangled financial instruments, this was just another one of those financial crises based on excess leverage, or borrowing, and a pyramid scheme. The new \"innovations\" simply hid the extent of systemic leverage and made the risks less transparent; it is these innovations that have made this collapse so much more dramatic than earlier financial crises. But one needs to push further: Why did the Fed fail? First, key regulators like Alan Greenspan didn't really believe in regulation; when the excesses of the financial system were noted, they called for self-regulation -- an oxymoron. Second, the macro-economy was in bad shape with the collapse of the tech bubble. The tax cut of 2001 was not designed to stimulate the economy but to give a largesse to the wealthy -- the group that had been doing so well over the last quarter-century. The coup d'grace was the Iraq War, which contributed to soaring oil prices. Money that used to be spent on American goods now got diverted abroad. The Fed took seriously its responsibility to keep the economy going. It did this by replacing the tech bubble with a new bubble, a housing bubble. Household savings plummeted to zero, to the lowest level since the Great Depression. It managed to sustain the economy, but the way it did it was shortsighted: America was living on borrowed money and borrowed time. Finally, at the center of blame must be the financial institutions themselves. They -- and even more their executives -- had incentives that were not well aligned with the needs of our economy and our society. They were amply rewarded, presumably for managing risk and allocating capital, which was supposed to improve the efficiency of the economy so much that it justified their generous compensation. But they misallocated capital; they mismanaged risk -- they created risk. They did what their incentive structures were designed to do: focusing on short-term profits and encouraging excessive risk-taking. This is not the first crisis in our financial system, not the first time that those who believe in free and unregulated markets have come running to the government for bail-outs. There is a pattern here, one that suggests deep systemic problems -- and a variety of solutions: . 1. We need first to correct incentives for executives, reducing the scope for conflicts of interest and improving shareholder information about dilution in share value as a result of stock options. We should mitigate the incentives for excessive risk-taking and the short-term focus that has so long prevailed, for instance, by requiring bonuses to be paid on the basis of, say, five-year returns, rather than annual returns. 2. Secondly, we need to create a financial product safety commission, to make sure that products bought and sold by banks, pension funds, etc. are safe for \"human consumption.\" Consenting adults should be given great freedom to do whatever they want, but that does not mean they should gamble with other people's money. Some may worry that this may stifle innovation. But that may be a good thing considering the kind of innovation we had -- attempting to subvert accounting and regulations. What we need is more innovation addressing the needs of ordinary Americans, so they can stay in their homes when economic conditions change. 3. We need to create a financial systems stability commission to take an overview of the entire financial system, recognizing the interrelations among the various parts, and to prevent the excessive systemic leveraging that we have just experienced. 4. We need to impose other regulations to improve the safety and soundness of our financial system, such as \"speed bumps\" to limit borrowing. Historically, rapid expansion of lending has been responsible for a large fraction of crises and this crisis is no exception. 5. We need better consumer protection laws, including laws that prevent predatory lending. 6. We need better competition laws. The financial institutions have been able to prey on consumers through credit cards partly because of the absence of competition. But even more importantly, we should not be in situations where a firm is \"too big to fail.\" If it is that big, it should be broken up. These reforms will not guarantee that we will not have another crisis. The ingenuity of those in the financial markets is impressive. Eventually, they will figure out how to circumvent whatever regulations are imposed. But these reforms will make another crisis of this kind less likely, and, should it occur, make it less severe than it otherwise would be. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Joseph Stiglitz: Fed pumped too much money, aiding housing bubble .\nNew-fangled instruments hid overuse of borrowing, Stiglitz says .\nExecutives followed short-term interests and magnified risks, he says .\nStiglitz: Widespread changes needed to prevent future crises .","id":"9e31d0edc0ee4d0a4ea1a5d63926621a53740e49"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. troops or contractors who commit \"major and premeditated murders\" in Iraq while off-duty and outside U.S. facilities would fall under Iraqi jurisdiction, according to a copy of a draft U.S.-Iraq agreement obtained by CNN. Shiite demonstrators protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact Saturday in Baghdad. All other crimes -- including murders committed inside U.S. facilities or by on-duty forces -- would fall under American jurisdiction, according to the draft, which would govern U.S. troops' presence in Iraq. The issue of whether U.S. troops would remain immune from Iraqi prosecution has been a sticky one for negotiators crafting the Status of Forces Agreement draft, which Iraqi lawmakers are reviewing. The United States had preferred its troops and contractors retain immunity. The draft also calls for U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraqi cities by July 30, 2009, and out of the country entirely by December 31, 2011. The agreement allows for an earlier withdrawal or an extension of the U.S. forces' stay in Iraq, by agreement of both parties. It also allows the Iraqi government to \"request from the United States government to leave certain forces for training and for support purposes for the Iraqi forces.\" The governments have been trying to get a deal before December 31, when a U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq expires. Iraq's ruling Shiite parliamentary bloc said Sunday it needs more time before it can approve the draft. The United Iraqi Alliance bloc found several \"points\" in the draft that \"need more time for discussion, dialogue and amendments [to] some of its articles,\" according to the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, the most powerful party in the bloc. It was unclear what specific \"points\" the parliamentary bloc was questioning. Thousands of people marched in central Baghdad on Saturday to protest the draft U.S.-Iraqi security agreement. The political party of Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the rally. Watch marchers protest the agreement \u00bb . Baghdad had sought the power to arrest and try Americans accused of crimes that are not related to official military operations, plus jurisdiction over troops and contractors who commit grave mistakes in the course of their duties. The United Iraqi Alliance on Sunday night discussed the draft, which was presented by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose Dawa Party is also a member of the ruling bloc. Iraq's Political Council for National Security needs to approve the draft before al-Maliki sends it to his cabinet. The council includes the leaders of various political blocs -- including the United Iraqi Alliance -- as well as Iraq's president, prime minister, vice presidents, and speaker of parliament. If the cabinet passes the draft by a two-thirds majority, al-Maliki will submit it to the Iraqi parliament for approval. A senior Bush administration official said last week that the U.S. is examining \"contingencies\" in case the Iraqi government is unable to sell the status-of-forces deal to the country's various factions. If Iraq does not approve the deal, fallback options include \"a new U.N. Security Council resolution legally authorizing the extension of the U.S. footprint\" or an \"informal agreement between the United States and the Iraqis,\" the official told CNN last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Other points covered in the draft agreement include Iraqi ownership of \"all the buildings, facilities and structures that cannot be transported and are connected to the ground\" and used by American forces. Such facilities will be returned to Iraq when the agreement expires, it says. Further, the agreement requires the United States to immediately return to Iraq any \"historic or cultural site\" it discovers at facilities it is using. The agreement allows the United States to use whatever defensive systems it deems necessary in areas under its control. Yet it bars \"systems of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, nuclear, radiological, biological weapons and waste related to these weapons).\" The United States is to transfer control of Iraqi airspace to Iraq when the agreement goes into effect, although Iraq can ask for assistance for airspace control and surveillance. The agreement also covers environmental issues; the comings and goings of troops in and out of Iraq; movement of vehicles, planes and ships; and the movement of equipment in and out of Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is lobbying Iraqi leaders to pass the draft text of the agreement by the end of the year, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said last week.","highlights":"NEW: U.S.-Iraq draft: Troops committing murder in Iraq could face Iraqi prosecution .\nIraq's ruling United Iraqi Alliance found several \"points\" needing more discussion .\nRuling bloc did not make clear what issues they had regarding troop agreement .","id":"92a311988be162a12e7e1ed2316372b6793a576f"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thousands of people marched in central Baghdad on Saturday to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would extend the presence of U.S. troops in the country after the end of the year. Thousands staged a mass march through Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday to protest a planned U.S.-Iraq security deal. The political party of Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the rally. At one point, several speakers at a podium addressed the mass of people, urging the Iraqi government to reject the proposal. \"End the U.S. occupation of Iraq!\" one speaker shouted in English. Hazem al-Araji, a senior al-Sadr aide, told protesters their voices would be heard in America. \"Thanks to you, to these voices and the millions of voices, George Bush will hear these millions of calls in his 'Black House' -- in which you shouted out, 'No, no, America!'\" he said. Watch protesters wave flags, swarm street \u00bb . \"This talk and these words are that of the leader, Muqtada al-Sadr: Baghdad is free, free! America, get out. This voice does not reach the Green Zone. We want to hear everyone who is occupied in that area saying Baghdad is free, free, America get out!\" al-Araji exclaimed. Protesters clogged several streets in the capital, waving Iraqi flags and kicking up dust. The demonstration, the largest in Baghdad in several months, was largely peaceful. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in Washington on Thursday a draft status-of-forces agreement authorizing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq had \"been agreed upon by U.S. and Iraqi negotiators\" and was being reviewed by the two governments. A U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq expires December 31, and U.S. officials are examining \"contingencies\" in case the Iraqi government is unable to sell the status-of-forces deal to the country's various factions, a senior Bush administration official said this week. The same official said negotiations on the pact had finished and the text was final. The official said the \"final\" draft calls for U.S. troops to be out of Iraqi cities by June 2009 and out of Iraq by the end of 2011 unless the Iraqis ask the United States to stay. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said negotiators had also \"reached a compromise\" on the issue of U.S. troops remaining immune from Iraqi law -- an issue that was a major hurdle in the talks. Baghdad has sought the power to arrest and try Americans accused of crimes not related to official military operations, plus jurisdiction over troops and contractors who commit grave mistakes in the course of their duties. The United States has insisted its troops and contractors remain immune from Iraqi law. CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Proposed deal would extend U.S. troop presence in Iraq after end of the year .\nThousands of protesters urged Iraqi government to reject the proposal .\nU.N. mandate authorizing U.S. troops in Iraq expires December 31 .","id":"66aaf0fe331b60d0d461a586fde9f74e451f739e"} -{"article":"DUNN, North Carolina (CNN) -- Barack Obama's campaign announced Sunday the Democratic presidential candidate raised $150 million in donations in September, setting a new high-water mark in campaign fundraising. Barack Obama calls a prospective voter from a headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday. In a campaign video, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said a record 632,000 new donors gave to the campaign, with the average contribution under $100. More than 3 million donors have given so far. The Obama campaign raised $65 million in August. Regardless of the stunning haul, Plouffe told supporters the campaign still needed more money because of \"the slime that we're getting from the McCain campaign.\" Plouffe cited recent attack ads and automated phone calls in battleground states and said the campaign needed to have every resource to \"fight back.\" \"Their campaign is going to descend even more into the gutter,\" he said. Plouffe also said the campaign was expanding its reach to compete \"aggressively\" in West Virginia. Tightening polls in Georgia and North Dakota meant more money and resources could be sent to those two states in the remaining days, he said. \"We can't afford to make any cuts. We have to execute everything we think is required to win,\" Plouffe said of their battleground strategy. \"None of us can look back on the night of November 4 or the morning of November 5 and wished we had done something extra.\" The McCain campaign accepted $85 million in federal matching funds for the last two months of the campaign. The Obama campaign opted out of the matching funds program and is free to raise and spend as much money as it can. CNN's Paul Steinhauser and Sasha Johnson contributed to this report.","highlights":"September amount is biggest monthly fundraising total for a presidential campaign .\nObama campaign added 632,000 new donors in September .\nMcCain accepted $85 million in federal funds for last two months of campaign .","id":"a2454303758f0f74b8f00582145d852fd63ba279"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For a world-class shopping experience you should head to glitzy Ginza. As well as flagship fashion outlets, the area boasts one of the city's best department stores, Mitsukoshi (4-6-16 Chuo Dori). The real treat here, as at many Tokyo department stores, is the fantastic basement-level food hall (\"depachika\"). For the complete Mitsukoshi experience, there's an ever bigger store in Nihombashi. The \"Electric Town\" of Akihabara is tech-head's heaven. Next door is Matsuya, another big department store, and while you're in the area don't miss the Sony Building (5-3-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku). Your inner games geek won't be able to resist the entire floor devoted to the PlayStation. If you've ever wondered where Tokyo teenagers buy their wacky cyber-goth manga-inspired attire, the answer is Takeshita-Dori, a narrow street in Harajuku. On Sundays the street fills with fashion-conscious teens, dressed to impress. For the less adventurous, but more discerning shopper, Harajuku's main thoroughfare, Omotesando is lined with elegant boutiques, including Louis Vuitton, Prada and Loveless (3-17-11 Minami-Aoyama). Looking unlike any shop you've seen before, Loveless has three floors of hip Japanese clothing and a basement decked out like the dungeon of some deranged medieval aristocrat. Harajuku is also home to six-floor Kiddy Land (6-1-9 Jingu-mae), one of the city's best toy stores, with a huge selection of Hello Kitty products. The area around Shibuya Station is a buzzing epicenter of shopping activity. Among its highlights are Tokyu Hands (Takashimaya Times Square, 5-24-2 Sendagaya), a department store that sells everything you could ever need, and plenty of stuff you had no idea even existed (electrically heated pilllows anyone?). A Bathing Ape (1 - Rise Bld. 13-17 Udagawa-Cho) offers funky T-shirts and trainers in an art gallery-style space, and Mandarake (Shibuya Beam B2 31-2 Udagawacho) is the place to satisfy your manga cravings, should you have any. For more manga, and a glimpse into the future, you'll want to go to Akihabara. Also known as Electric Town, Akihabara is a district of electronics stores clad in illuminated signs. Visit after dark for the full \"Blade Runner\" experience. Yodobashi Camera sells everything from next generation cell phones to cameras that aren't yet available outside Japan. For something more sedate, Daikanyama is a refined area popular with in-the-know fashionistas, while Jimbocho is the city's used-book quarter. Marunouchi was once a drab business district but is fast becoming the city's hottest shopping area. Shin-Marunouchi (just opposite the Marunouchi exit of Tokyo Stations) is a huge building, with the lowest seven floors devoted to chic shopping. The basement \"depachika\" is a feast for foodies. Tokyo International Forum (5-1 Marunouchi 3-chome, Chiyoda-ku) is a vast space used for art exhibitions and as a concert hall. It also boasts excellent shopping and hosts a flea market every other Sunday. Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . ...................... Do you agree with our Tokyo picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best.","highlights":"Ginza offers world-class shopping - check out the food hall in Mitsukoshi .\nTakeshita-Dori is where teenagers pick up their \"cosplay\" costumes .\nOmotesando is lined with boutiques, including Louis Vuitton and Prada .\nAkihabara, or \"Electric Town,\" is the place to buy electronics and manga .","id":"6f044c2f59a947d305a6b61ea1465cce4fec4340"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Space travel, security threats and increasing passenger numbers are forcing major changes in the way airports are designed. Elegant space: the interior of the proposed Virgin Galactic spaceport in New Mexico . In fact, when discussing the future of the airport it is now appropriate to consider both conventional air travel hubs we are familiar with, as well as the imminent 'spaceports'. The rush of interest in setting up 'space tourism' companies has seen proposed spaceport projects in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Alaska and Wisconsin in the United States. Russia, Australia, Sweden and Portugal have also been rumored as potential spaceport locations. Meanwhile, the air travel industry is continuing to expand operations despite the challenges facing some airlines. And there are some radical new ideas being developed for future air and spaceports. See a picture gallery of futuristic airport and spaceport designs \u00bb . The adventurous views of Dave Evans, chief technologist at business solutions company Cisco Systems, highlight the types of changes we could soon see in airports and indeed the new features we may witness in spaceports. Speaking at a FAA\/NASA\/Industry Airport Planning Workshop in 2006, Evans suggested that pilots of the future could fly without hands and from the comfort of their own home (using brain-machine interfaces, in which the human brain actually exchanges electronic signals with a computer). He also said future airports would have virtual intelligence personnel to perform the jobs of many airport workers; and that people would be able to check-in remotely using a cell phone embedded with a RFID (radio frequency identification) chip. But what will these new airports and spaceports look like? Graeme Johns, who is an architect at British airport design company, The Design Solution, believes airports of the future will continue to expand, with bigger security and commercial areas. Johns, who is involved in projects in London (the new Heathrow T2 terminal), Delhi, Mumbai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Oman, said many new airports were being more adventurous with designs. \"I think there is definitely a move towards more avant-garde designs. People are trying to do things more site-specific rather than keeping to the same old formula. \"Definitely in the Middle East they throw everything at it, also in the Far East there are some large developments. They are all vying for transit passages,\" he said. Johns said one of the biggest challenges was balancing commercial space with operational space. \"There's lots of pressure to make larger security areas ... but a big thing for us is trying to move up the commercial side of airports.\" Future airports would likely include a better range of shops, he said. \"We are definitely looking at broadening the offering of shops and bringing in things that haven't traditionally been in airports,\" John said. If all of this isn't exciting enough for you -- then of course there are spaceports. Internationally renowned design company Foster and Partners won a competition to build Virgin Galactic's spaceport in New Mexico. Company founder Lord Norman Foster said the project was one of the most exciting and futuristic he had been involved in . \"This technically complex building will not only provide a dramatic experience for the astronauts and visitors, but will set an ecologically sound model for future spaceport facilities.\" And what will this magnificent new structure include? A tunneled entrance, a 'super-hangar' for the space-craft, and retaining walls that form an exhibition documenting the history of space exploration alongside the story of the region, are just some of the features. So whether or not you have the money to make the space flight, Virgin Galactic's spaceport is going to be a place well worth visiting.","highlights":"Airports are likely to see bigger security and commercial areas in future .\nFoster and Partners is building a spaceport in New Mexico for Virgin Galactic .\nThe Middle East and Far East are creating the most futuristic new airports .","id":"f622e590a590bcf9dd6df099cb8601f96b5a378b"} -{"article":"JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin charged into the culture wars Saturday in Pennsylvania, painting Sen. Barack Obama as a radical on abortion rights. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Saturday. The stop comes amid news that Palin violated Alaska ethics law by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report for the bipartisan Legislative Council concluded Friday. Ethics woes aside, Palin focused her attention on abortion -- an issue that rallies the conservative base but some say alienates independent and women voters. \"In times like these with wars and financial crisis, I know that it may be easy to forget even as deep and abiding a concern as the right to life, and it seems that our opponent kind of hopes you will forget that,\" Palin told a crowd in Johnstown. \"He hopes that you won't notice how radical, absolutely radical his idea is on this, and his record is, until it's too late.\" Palin has mostly avoided raising her opposition to abortion rights on the campaign trail since she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate, a fact she readily acknowledged in her remarks. Watch more of Palin's views on abortion \u00bb . But Palin said Obama's record on the matter is too extreme to be ignored, and she spent 10 minutes of her 30-minute speech discussing abortion. \"A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and that we need on this issue of life,\" she said. \"Obama is a politician who has long since left behind even the middle ground on the issue of life.\" Obama opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and disagreed with Supreme Court ruling to uphold the \"Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.\" He did not cast a vote on Prohibiting Funds for Groups that Perform Abortions amendment in 2007. Palin opposes abortion in all cases, including rape and incest, except when a mother's life is in danger, and said she believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned and the decision given to the states. McCain voted for the Prohibit Partial Birth Abortion bill in 2003 and \"yes\" for Prohibiting Funds for Groups that Perform Abortions amendment in 2007. He believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and also supports the Supreme Court ruling upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. Palin also talked about a remark Obama made about sex education while campaigning in Johnstown in March, when he told a voter he didn't want his daughters \"punished with a baby\" or \"punished with an STD\" if they were not educated about sex and made a mistake. \"So I listened when our opponent defended his unconditional support for unlimited abortions and he said he said that a woman shouldn't have to be 'Punished with a baby,' \" Palin said as the audience jeered at Obama. \"Ladies and gentlemen, he said that right here in Johnstown. 'Punished with a baby.' It's about time we called him on it.\" Obama is also in Pennsylvania Saturday -- campaigning in the heavily Democratic city of Philadelphia. During his four-stop swing around the city, Obama acknowledged McCain's efforts to \"tone down the rhetoric\" on the campaign trail. \"I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- Sen. McCain has served this country with honor, and he deserves our thanks for that,\" Obama told an early morning crowd assembled in the northern part of the city. Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . Ever since last weekend, when Palin first accused Obama of \"palling around with a terrorist,\" referring to 1960s radical William Ayers, rowdy crowds have called Obama a liar, terrorist and worse. At an event Friday in Lakeville, Minnesota, McCain referred to Obama as a \"decent person\" and praised him as a \"family man\" after two voters expressed fear over Obama being elected. Watch McCain tell voters not to be afraid of Obama \u00bb . But the Arizona senator was met by a sea of boos when asking the crowd to be more respectful toward Obama. When the crowd began to boo, McCain told them \"No, no. I want everyone to be respectful.\" Obama later dispensed with polite talk and pivoted to his main campaign trail argument that McCain is out of touch on the economy. \"Sen. McCain's campaign manager actually said that Sen. McCain wasn't talking about the market because there's just not much a candidate for president can say -- and they aren't sure what he'd say each day even if he did talk about it,\" Obama said. \"But here's the thing Philadelphia. They can run misleading ads, and pursue the politics of anything goes, they can try to change the subject. They can do that what they want to do because the American people understand what's going on -- but it's not going to work. Not this time.\" CNN's Peter Hamby, Ed Hornick and Sasha Johnson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sarah Palin, Barack Obama both campaign Saturday in Pennsylvania .\nPalin hammers Obama on the abortion issue in Johnstown .\nObama acknowledges McCain's efforts to \"tone down the rhetoric\"","id":"fbfd0a64e822f8b39464dba08b31826164837fbc"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A Thai court has found deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of corruption, and sentenced him in absentia to two years imprisonment. Thaksin Shinawatra lives in self-imposed exile in London. The case stemmed from a Bangkok land deal while Thaksin was in office. He was convicted of violating a law that bans ministers or their wives from conducting business with government agencies. Thaksin, who now lives in the United Kingdom, is unlikely to serve any jail time. He fled from Thailand in August just as he was to appear in court. In the land deal, Thaksin's wife, Pojama, is accused of using her husband's political influence to buy undeveloped land from a government agency for about a third of its estimated value. Watch more about the verdict \u00bb . The case is one of several corruption cases against Thaksin and his family that are winding their way through the legal system. The billionaire is accused of abusing the country's system of checks and balances and bending government policy to benefit his family's business. Thaksin has consistently denied that he or his family was involved in any wrongdoing. In August, Thaksin and his wife skipped a court appearance and fled to the United Kingdom rather than testify in the real-estate case. He said he did so because he did not think he would get a fair trial in Thailand. Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon, once owned the English Premier League Manchester City Football Club but sold his stake this year. His party won two landslide victories before he was deposed in a bloodless military coup in September 2006 after massive anti-government street protests. He returned to Thailand after his allies in the People Power Party won nearly half the seats in the lower house in December's parliamentary elections and formed the ruling coalition. In recent weeks, the country has seen daily demonstrations from anti-government protesters who want PPP leaders purged from the Cabinet. They have laid siege to the Government House -- the seat of the Thai government -- since August 26. The protesters -- led by the People's Alliance for Democracy -- contend that the PPP is trying to amend the constitution so Thaksin does not have to face charges. In September, Thailand's Constitutional Court stripped then-Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of his position, ruling that he had violated the constitution by appearing as a paid guest on a television cooking show. The PPP responded by picking Thaksin's brother-in-law as Samak's replacement -- further inflaming the protesters. CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra convicted of corruption, sentenced to jail .\nCourt rules Thaksin facilitated wife's purchase of Bangkok real estate in 2003 .\nThaksin, who lives in exile in UK, unlikely to serve time in jail .","id":"3ad1ea70283607005b803ed546cee00cdf534e31"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Eight people were killed and 101 were wounded in two explosions during a celebration of Mexico's independence day Monday night, a Mexican official said Tuesday. Wounded people get help after blasts Monday night during an independence day event in Morelia, Mexico. Two people remained in grave condition, said Roman Armando Luna Escalante, secretary of health in Michoacan state. Eleven of the wounded were children, Luna Escalante said. None of them are gravely injured. The explosions occurred around 11 p.m. near the governor's residence in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. The second blast happened shortly afterward a few blocks away. Officials would not say if they have any suspects or if any group has claimed responsibility. Some experts pointed to drug cartels or insurgents. \"It could be a warning to the federal government, which has put a lot of money and manpower to deal with drugs, which are very powerful there,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank on Western Hemisphere affairs. \"It could be leftist guerrilla groups that occasionally throw a bomb. \"The problem is that this is part of a real wave of violence that is consuming Mexico.\" Last week the bodies of 24 people, bound and shot execution-style, were found in Atlapulco, a town just south of Mexico City. Those killings Friday came roughly two weeks after tens of thousands of Mexicans marched on the nation's capital, calling for greater government action against the wave of violent crime. Non-governmental groups estimate there have been more than 1,500 killings in Mexico this year linked to organized crime. In late August, Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with the country's 32 governors to develop a plan to battle the rise in violent crime. Calderon, who was born in Morelia, condemned the attacks and said federal officials will redouble efforts to help state authorities investigate. More than 1,500 soldiers and federal police were maintaining order Tuesday, which marks the 198th anniversary of what Mexicans regard as their independence day. Festivities typically start the night before because on September 16, 1810, shortly before dawn, a priest in a village in the state of Guanajuato rang a church bell and called on Mexicans to fight for independence from Spain. The celebration in Morelia on Monday night was one of hundreds nationwide to celebrate that call for independence, which Mexico formally achieved in 1821.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll rises to eight in two blasts, official says; more than 100 wounded .\nNEW: Mexican president says federal officials will help investigate .\nExplosions occurred during independence day celebration in Morelia .","id":"2292d6aadbc6a98aab2bd2a0a12d3101303376a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of people turned out Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt for the funeral of politician Joerg Haider, a popular but polarizing figure who led right-wing Austrian politics for decades. Harald Scheucher, mayor of Klagenfurt, speaks in front of the coffin of Joerg Haider Saturday. Among those attending the service at the town's central Neuen Platz square were Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. Haider's widow sat in the front row with her two daughters, all of them dressed in black. \"Many people expected things of Joerg Haider that they themselves weren't able to fulfill, and he too expected things of people that he wasn't able to fulfill,\" Gusenbauer said at the funeral. \"Therefore his death, and the end of his life, may be a time to think about whether death's only consolation is that we can now reconcile things that seemed irreconcilable during his lifetime.\" Haider's coffin was draped in the yellow, red and white flag of the southern state of Carinthia, where he was governor, and topped with red roses. Haider, 58, died last Saturday in a car accident while driving out of Klagenfurt, the state capital. He had just passed another car on a highway when his car hit a concrete post and rolled over several times, police said. His spokesman said this week that Haider was drunk at the time of the crash. Besides being Carinthia's governor, Haider was also head of the right-wing BZO party (Alliance for the Future of Austria), which he founded in 2005 after years with the conservative Freedom Party. Haider came to prominence in 1986, when he became head of the Freedom Party while still in his 30s. A politician who projected youth and style, Haider appealed to many working-class Austrians, promising to cut their taxes and give money to those with children. Some older Austrians responded to his demands for strict law and order. But he drew widespread criticism both at home and abroad for his anti-immigrant stance and remarks considered anti-Semitic, and in 1991 he publicly praised Nazi Germany's employment policy. Asked in 2000 about the statement, Haider told CNN the quote was taken from a long speech and that he never praised the Third Reich. He called the remarks a mistake and publicly denounced Nazism. But Haider continued to draw attention for his controversial remarks. They included an address to veterans of the Waffen S.S., Adolf Hitler's elite soldiers, in which he praised their character. The address created an uproar after it was broadcast on German television. Haider said he had simply been speaking to elderly citizens of Carinthia who included some former Waffen S.S. members. Despite the controversy, Haider said he was not racist: \"You will not find any anti-Semitic position in our party program, and you will not find any anti-Semitic speech or statement by me.\" The policies of the Freedom Party drew international attention during the elections in 1999. Party campaign posters urged voters to stop the flood of immigration and used the term \"over-foreignization,\" the same word used by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1933 to criticize what he called Jewish influence in Germany. Haider told CNN he favored restricting immigration simply because of Austria's small size, but that he wanted to keep an open border for refugees. It was his family background, Haider said, that kept singling him out for criticism. Haider's parents were activists in the Nazi Party long before Austrian-born Hitler annexed Austria to Germany in 1938. Haider's father, Robert, volunteered for the S.A., the notorious brown shirts who terrorized Jews and others before the war. He then served in the German army. His biographer, Melanie Sully, said Haider felt a strong sense of loyalty to his parents and those in the war generation. \"He feels that what they sacrificed after the war in rebuilding Austria in very difficult circumstances needs to be honored and that they weren't all criminals,\" Sully told CNN in 2000. Under Haider's leadership, the Freedom Party made a strong showing in the 1999 elections, winning 27 percent of the vote and shaking up the traditional two-party system that had ruled Austria since World War II. When the two main parties in that election failed to agree on forming a government together, the Freedom Party was invited to share power. Haider retired as party leader after that but remained governor of Carinthia. When Haider formed the BZO party three years ago, he took with him a number of Freedom Party lawmakers. Haider was credited with helping the BZO make significant gains in last month's general elections alongside the Freedom Party, though Austria's two largest parties, the Social Democrats and the People's Party, came out on top. The vote reflected reflected public dissatisfaction with the two largest parties as well as support for the social populism, anti-European Union and anti-immigrant rhetoric of the BZO and Freedom Party. southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt .","highlights":"Thousands attend the funeral of right-wing politician Joerg Haider in Austria .\nChancellor: Many people expected things of Haider they themselves could not fulfill .\nHaider died last Saturday in a car accident, spokesman confirms he was drunk .\nHaider drew support from many but criticized for his praise of some Nazi policies .","id":"bcfeda1ba53ba2b9ff072dfb584928338d0cf740"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The discovery of millions of extra ballots proves that President Robert Mugabe intends to rig next week's elections in his favor, Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Sunday. President Robert Mugabe gestures during a pre-election rally in Harare on Saturday. Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, said that leaked correspondence from the election commission showed it had asked the company that is printing paper ballots to make 9 million. However, the African country has an electorate of 5.7 million registered voters, he said. Also, 600,000 postal paper ballots were requested for soldiers and police officers, Biti said. Postal ballots are usually requested for civil servants serving abroad, and the total number of soldiers and police in Zimbabwe add up to no more than 50,000, he said. \"Remember, when they stole this election away from us the last time, they stole it with 350,000 votes,\" Biti said. \"Six hundred thousand is double insurance. They cannot win a free and fair election in this country.\" The elections are slated for Saturday. Mugabe survived a hotly contested presidential challenge from MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 2002 amid widespread accusations of vote rigging. The president's other challenger this time is former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, who recently announced his bid to unseat Mugabe and was promptly booted out of the ruling party. Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch raised doubts about the elections, saying it was likely to be \"deeply flawed.\" \"As the elections near, all indications are that once again the people of Zimbabwe will not be able to freely exercise their civil and political rights and vote for the candidates of their choice,\" the nongovernmental organization said in a 48-page report. The elections are expected to provide Mugabe with the toughest challenge yet in his nearly 28 years of rule. The report said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was partisan toward the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and had neither the expertise nor the resources to run the elections properly. Watch Mugabe threaten to expel companies under British rule. \u00bb . That report brought derision from a Zimbabwean official. \"What qualifies them to do what they're doing -- policing the world and Africa in particular?\" asked Wilbert Gwashavanhu, political consul at Zimbabwe's embassy in Washington. \"Why don't they go to America and oversee how America holds its own elections?\" he said. \"Come on, give me a break! You can't judge the elections before they are held.\" No matter the final outcome of the election, the international community may never find out whether the vote proved to be free and fair. Independent news organizations are banned from Zimbabwe, and there are no credible monitors in place. Since 1980, the 84-year-old Mugabe has been the country's only ruler. But his odds of winning this time may be handicapped by Zimbabwe's dire economic situation. The rate of inflation reported in January was 100,000 percent, and food and fuel are in short supply, the Human Rights Watch document said. With more than three in four Zimbabweans unemployed, few could afford such food and fuel anyway. The country's downward economic spiral began in 2000, when Mugabe sanctioned the violent seizure of commercial farms, turning some of the land over to insiders and cronies. For his part, Mugabe remains defiant, blaming his country's economic woes on the West. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Zimbabwe's main opposition party says millions of extra ballot papers printed .\nMovement for Democratic Change secretary suspects elections will be rigged .\nPresident Robert Mugabe expected to face toughest challenge yet Saturday .\nMugabe, 84, has ruled the African country for nearly 28 years .","id":"e41b5047fa94c1e03fe7fdb2d6daa8b3a2244e64"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gas prices across the Southeast and Midwest soared over the weekend, and while many would blame Hurricane Ike, human nature may be a more likely scapegoat. iReporter Stacy Haynes said this Harriman, Tennessee, station was selling regular gas at $5.09 a gallon Saturday. Experts say that when a perception exists that gas is limited -- warranted or not -- consumers flock to the pumps even if officials implore them to stay calm. It's a combination of fear, desire, distrust and protectionism, experts say. \"When you have a perceived scarcity of any product, research shows the attractiveness of that product goes up,\" said Dr. Rao Unnava, marketing professor at Ohio State University. Grocery and department stores are keenly aware of the phenomenon, Unnava said, which is why sale flyers often declare things like, \"limit three items per customer\" or \"price valid only through Friday.\" Research shows that such advertisements can actually double or triple sales of a product, Unnava said. \"People don't feel comfortable with scarcity,\" he said. With gasoline, scarcity is a false perception, Unnava said. There is ample gas in the United States, even after Ike delivered 110-mph winds to Galveston and Houston, an area that's home to a significant portion of the nation's oil refineries. Gov. Rick Perry announced Monday that Texas' oil and gas industry \"dodged a bullet\" and that \"some of those refineries are actually back in operation as we speak.\" This isn't to say human nature alone drove the spike in gas prices; the oil market's supply side certainly played its part. Refineries, pipeline and oil platforms are still being assessed after Ike, but the damage apparently isn't as severe as predicted, said Gregg Laskoski, spokesman for the southern region of the American Automobile Association. Despite the rosier-than-expected outlook, prices spiked all over the nation after Ike struck the Gulf Coast -- about 6 cents a gallon Saturday, another 6 cents Sunday and about 5 cents Monday. Particularly hard hit was the central and eastern United States. From Sunday to Monday alone, 23 states saw the average price of gas jump about a nickel or more a gallon, according to AAA. iReport.com: Send, see photos of gas prices . In Tennessee, the price jumped about 17 cents to $4.12 Monday. In Georgia, the price climbed about 14 cents to $4.16. Michigan saw an almost 13-cent increase, and Indiana's gas went up 12 cents a gallon. See gas prices state by state \u00bb . Several factors drive these fluctuations, Laskoski said, including the method in which gasoline is delivered to a state. In Florida, he said, the price went up nominally (about 5 cents) from Sunday to Monday because the Sunshine State relies more heavily on gas shipped on boats out of Louisiana and Mississippi, he said. Though Georgia abuts Florida, it doesn't have as many ports and relies more on tanker trucks to deliver gas from the Galveston-Houston area, Laskoski said. Hear how man ran out of fuel looking for gas in Atlanta, Georgia \u00bb . Another factor, Laskoski said, is that Ike prompted many oil companies to shut down operations ahead of the storm. It could take up to two weeks to get some refineries operational again because it's not as simple as flipping a switch, he said. The hiatus in oil production has ripple effects, and retailers often raise prices in anticipation of gas shortages. Gas station owners earn only a few pennies of profit on each gallon of gas, Laskoski said, explaining that proprietors essentially use gas to lure consumers into convenience stores to buy cigarettes, beer and potato chips -- items that draw better profits. When supply is low and retailers are uncertain when they'll receive their next gas shipment, some proprietors actually raise their gas prices so they can keep their gas supply longer and maintain profits from their snacks and sundries. But while diminished refinery capacity helps drive prices upward, there is also an element of \"consumer behavior that goes beyond the norm,\" Laskoski said. \"When you have consumer behavior that's irrational, it's hard for retailers to schedule it,\" he said. Dr. Lars Perner, assistant professor of clinical marketing at the University of Southern California, said natural disasters often spawn irrational behavior. The media can also compound fears, he said. \"As soon as somebody starts running for the gas pumps, that's where the TV cameras go, so it does become a vicious cycle,\" Perner said. Even though everyone would be better off if consumers continued their normal patterns, people don't always trust their neighbors to cooperate. This is especially true with an \"emotional commodity\" like gas, Perner said. \"Because you can't count on other people doing that, your best bet is to go ahead and fill up yourself,\" he said. \"If people get excited, rationality tends to be reduced somewhat.\" Perner and Ohio State's Unnava both note that consumers are often reluctant to trust government officials so an appeal to remain calm might be met with suspicion rather than acquiescence. Memories -- whether they're of the calamitous response after Hurricane Katrina or of the gas shortages of the 1970s -- also play roles in a consumer's reaction to an event, the professors said. According to Unnava, \"It's all perception -- what you conclude from what you see around you -- that quickly sets up these behaviors.\"","highlights":"Perception of limited gas sends more people to the pumps, experts say .\nGas prices spiked across the nation after Hurricane Ike hit Gulf Coast .\nReduced supply after storm plays part, but so does consumer rush .\nProfessor: Consumers' fears, TV coverage lead to \"a vicious cycle\"","id":"f1f99f2d7cceca1bc25cafa8db37dbff0c9e0b3c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- There are few things in the world shrouded with as much secrecy as the super-yacht industry. Maritime mysteries: the design and building processes for super-yachts are tightly guarded secrets. The boats are built and kept in exclusive locations, they're owned by the notoriously inaccessible super-wealthy, and for most of us the closest we'll get to them is in the pages of glossy magazines. In a bid to gain a stronger insight into the super-yacht world I've organised an interview with Dr William Collier, the owner of Liverpool's G.L. Watson & Co - the oldest yacht design company in the world. The company formed in 1873 and in its time has produced four America's Cup yachts and more presidential and royal yachts than any other yacht designer. It seems the logical business to profile. But, there's a catch. In this industry 'loose lips' really do 'sink ships'... or at least destroy business, anyway. Collier can't tell me anything about the projects the company is working on, the people he's working for, or how much these ocean-going beasts cost to produce. \"We enter into very strict confidentiality agreements with our clients. We find it frustrating at times because we would like to approach people about doing a project because we have done a similar project - but we can't mention it. \"These guys can get into the press whenever they want. Unfortunately in the United Kingdom due to the nature of the press they have nothing to gain from having their personal property displayed for all to see,\" Collier told CNN. And when most of G.L. Watson & Co's business comes from client referrals, the company is wise not to jeopardize confidentiality agreements. Collier confirmed the company would have less than 100 clients on its books and it tries to manage several projects on differing scales at the one time. He said a usual workload was to have one 200-feet plus project, one around 100-150 feet and a few smaller projects on the go simultaneously. The 'smaller' vessels Collier refers to are often in the range of 60-80 feet long. Just tiny. Though Collier declines to comment on the net worth of his clients, I infer from the discussion that most of them are multi-millionaires, if not billionaires. This is certainly not a place for someone with shallow pockets. He said the current 'credit crunch' hitting many consumers was unlikely to have too much impact on his business. \"They would be generally insulated from that. Budget is always an issue for people but that is more because people don't like change. A lot of what we do is to protect the client's interests - to make sure they don't pay too much,\" he said. Collier said the company had two major strands: design and owner representation. While the first aspect is self-explanatory, the second involves the full management of entire building or restoration projects from the owner's point of view. The full process of building or restoring a boat usually took between three to five years and became quite an intimate affair, he said. \"We have a very close relationship with the clients. Inevitably because we are designing someone's ideal home we are finding out a lot about them and what they like and don't like. You get to know them very well.\" However, it's not all fairytales. The privileged position his job places him in also has its downfalls. \"Anyone who says these things go smoothly is lying,\" he laughed. Collier said although he had not experienced any disappointed clients, he had heard of cases where multi-million dollar vessels had not been to the satisfaction of the buyer. After buying the company in 2001 at a time when he had been personally working towards restoring a G.L. Watson & Co original, Collier -- a passionate sailor himself, said the market was changing. The company worked on both sailing and motor-powered yachts, and he said it was going back to the future in some respects. \"The company originally came very much out of a racing sailing design. From the 1880s it became more involved in cruise yacht design. What we are doing now is getting back into that big yacht market.\" He said there was a trend towards creating replicas or restorations with as many of the original materials as possible. \"People for many years have been restoring sailing yachts and in many instances they tend not to use original materials. But, people are becoming more educated in this market. \"Now, if people are going to do something in this market they want to do something special, something worthwhile,\" he said. One of the projects which Collier does detail is the Nahlin, a 296-foot 1930s G.L. Watson & Co original, which is set for restoration. After being returned to British waters only in 1999, Collier said the vessel would have a complete overhaul based on the company's archives of the original design, and it would become the \"biggest restoration project ever\". Collier said the company also planned to expand the range of services it provides to clients. Although there's plenty to look forward to at G.L. Watson & Co and business is flourishing -- Collier drops in a strong reminder that the job of pleasing wealthy clients does not open the door to excessive levels of wealth for himself. \"We are not yacht owners - we don't own these. We are here to produce them for orders.\" In fact, for one of the most glamorous industries in the world, Collier said there was plenty of hard graft done behind-the-scenes, and for him, a lot of travel to and from his Liverpool base. \"We don't always need to be in the Mediterranean! The lifestyle isn't always attractive.\"","highlights":"G.L. Watson & Co. is the oldest yacht design company in the world .\nThe company is bound to tight confidentiality agreements about its projects .\nThe restoration of 1930s vessel 'Nahlin' will be the biggest of its kind .\nMost yachts take three-to-five years to complete .","id":"7b6150fb6bca4c47a2c95236aae6d84b35c9f2a1"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police have launched an investigation after a young disabled sportsman traveled to Switzerland to commit suicide, UK media report. Daniel James, who played rugby for England under-16s, was paralyzed during match practice last year. Daniel James, 23, from Sinton Green in western England was paralyzed from the chest down in March 2007 when a rugby scrum collapsed on top of him during match practice, dislocating his spine, the UK's Press Association has reported. Worcestershire Coroner's Service, which is conducing an inquest into the circumstances of his death, states on its Web site that James died on September 12 after he \"traveled to Switzerland with a view to ending his own life. He was admitted to a clinic where he died.\" The inquest was adjourned on September 19 for reports. West Mercia police say that a man and a woman are helping the force with their enquiries. Assisting someone to commit suicide is illegal in the UK, as it is in most other European countries. What do you think of assisted suicide? James, who played rugby for England under-16s, was a university student at the time of his injury last year. He is believed to be the youngest person from the UK to have traveled to Switzerland to commit suicide. In a statement Friday, reported by PA, James' parents said that he had attempted to kill himself several times already. Watch why James opted for suicide \u00bb . \"His death was an extremely sad loss for his family, friends and all those that care for him but no doubt a welcome relief from the 'prison' he felt his body had become and the day-to-day fear and loathing of his living existence, as a result of which he took his own life. \"This is the last way that the family wanted Dan's life to end but he was, as those who know him are aware, an intelligent, strong-willed and some say determined young man,\" PA reported James' parents as saying. \"The family suffered considerably over the last few months and do wish to be left in peace to allow them to grieve appropriately.\" James' parents added that their son, \"an intelligent young man of sound mind,\" had never come to terms with his condition and was \"not prepared to live what he felt was a second-class existence\". Adrian Harling, the family solicitor, would not comment on the investigation, PA reported. More than 100 people from the UK who have committed suicide in Switzerland have traveled to the Dignitas Clinic in Forch. It is not known if James attended the clinic. Switzerland, along with Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, are the only European countries where authorities will not prosecute those who assist with suicide.","highlights":"Young rugby player, paralyzed after accident, commits suicide in Switzerland .\nPolice interview man and woman about the death of Daniel James, 23 .\nIt is illegal in UK and much of Europe to assist with suicide .\nAssisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg .","id":"15d0e33a61d1f5be8feeb5ee90d24e45a7e03dcb"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Eight people were killed and 101 were wounded in two explosions during a celebration of Mexico's independence day Monday night, a Mexican official said Tuesday. Wounded people get help after blasts Monday night during an independence day event in Morelia, Mexico. Two people remained in grave condition, said Roman Armando Luna Escalante, secretary of health in Michoacan state. Eleven of the wounded were children, Luna Escalante said. None of them are gravely injured. The explosions occurred around 11 p.m. near the governor's residence in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. The second blast happened shortly afterward a few blocks away. Officials would not say if they have any suspects or if any group has claimed responsibility. Some experts pointed to drug cartels or insurgents. \"It could be a warning to the federal government, which has put a lot of money and manpower to deal with drugs, which are very powerful there,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank on Western Hemisphere affairs. \"It could be leftist guerrilla groups that occasionally throw a bomb. \"The problem is that this is part of a real wave of violence that is consuming Mexico.\" Last week the bodies of 24 people, bound and shot execution-style, were found in Atlapulco, a town just south of Mexico City. Those killings Friday came roughly two weeks after tens of thousands of Mexicans marched on the nation's capital, calling for greater government action against the wave of violent crime. Non-governmental groups estimate there have been more than 1,500 killings in Mexico this year linked to organized crime. In late August, Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with the country's 32 governors to develop a plan to battle the rise in violent crime. Calderon, who was born in Morelia, condemned the attacks and said federal officials will redouble efforts to help state authorities investigate. More than 1,500 soldiers and federal police were maintaining order Tuesday, which marks the 198th anniversary of what Mexicans regard as their independence day. Festivities typically start the night before because on September 16, 1810, shortly before dawn, a priest in a village in the state of Guanajuato rang a church bell and called on Mexicans to fight for independence from Spain. The celebration in Morelia on Monday night was one of hundreds nationwide to celebrate that call for independence, which Mexico formally achieved in 1821.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll rises to eight in two blasts, official says; more than 100 wounded .\nNEW: Mexican president says federal officials will help investigate .\nExplosions occurred during independence day celebration in Morelia .","id":"7dbeb3d1fb877fb311244f72be8a09bf8c9fdeb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An animal rescue group on Sunday picked up a U.S. soldier's adopted dog from Iraq, ending the soldier's weeks-long struggle to send the animal to her Minnesota home. Sgt. Gwen Beberg adopted Ratchet after soldiers rescued him from a burning pile of trash in May. Operation Baghdad Pups, which said the U.S. military prevented its first attempt to take Ratchet the dog on October 1, picked up the animal in Baghdad with military clearance and flew it to Kuwait on Sunday. The dog is expected to be flown to Washington on Monday, and if a veterinarian determines it is healthy, sent to Sgt. Gwen Beberg's home state on Wednesday, Baghdad Pups publicist Larry Garrison said. Beberg, who adopted the dog after soldiers rescued it from a burning trash pile in May, tried to have the group fly Ratchet to the United States on October 1 as her deployment neared an end. But the military, which prohibits soldiers from adopting pets abroad and bringing them to the United States, confiscated the animal after Beberg put it on a convoy bound for Baghdad Airport, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which runs OBP. Ratchet and Beberg, 28, drew the attention of thousands of people who signed two online petitions -- linked through the SPCA's Web site -- urging the military to let Ratchet go to the United States. The military cleared OBP to take Ratchet on Wednesday, but not in time for the group's flight from Baghdad that day, the SPCA said. On Sunday, private security contractors took Ratchet from a base to the airport, where OBP -- which works with soldiers to help them bring adopted animals home -- put Ratchet on the charter flight to Kuwait, Garrison said. Northwest Airlines will donate the flights from Kuwait to Minnesota, Garrison said. The SPCA said Ratchet helped Beberg deal with her Iraq deployment, which started in September 2007 and is scheduled to end in November. \"She was absolutely miserable in the war and was really struggling to keep going every day. Ratchet turned it around for her,\" SPCA spokeswoman Stephanie Scroggs said last week. Beberg's mother, Patricia Beberg, in a statement released by the SPCA, said Ratchet \"was the savior of her [daughter's] sanity\" in Iraq. SPCA representatives said the military euthanizes some animals that it confiscates, and that Gwen Beberg worried that Ratchet would be killed. Beberg was thrilled to hear last week that the military would let OBP take Ratchet, the SPCA said. \"Your persistence and amazing work has astonished me throughout this whole thing,\" Gwen Beberg said in an e-mail to the SPCA, according to the society. Scroggs said one of Beberg's friends helped spread the news about Ratchet through blogs. One of the petitions, which had more than 65,000 signatures as of Sunday night, was started by a blogger, Scroggs said. The SPCA says although active-duty soldiers aren't allowed to adopt animals in the Middle East, many soldiers befriend animals in the course of their service there. Garrison said the program relies on donations, saying it generally costs $3,000 to $4,000 to bring a servicemember's animal to the United States. \"This isn't a one-time story This is a program making a difference for our soldiers,\" Garrison said.","highlights":"U.S. soldier adopted dog in Iraq; military prohibits such adoption .\nMilitary took dog during soldier's first attempt to send it home, group says .\nDog helped soldier cope with her deployment, group says .\nAnimal could be in Minnesota by Wednesday .","id":"701e41c3767d4375fe4afb291d9e054ea6a04c2f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Negative attacks are as American as apple pie. Since the early days of the republic, candidates attacked with a vigor that contemporary strategists would admire. In the 1800 presidential election, for example, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams criticized one another with a stunning ferocity on everything from foreign and domestic policy to private character and personal behavior. Later campaigns weren't much better. Critics of Andrew Jackson in 1836 accused him of murdering Indians. In 1884, Grover Cleveland was ridiculed for fathering an illegitimate child. William Jennings Bryan was characterized as a dangerous radical in 1896 who would ruin the economy. Despite these historical precedents, the 2008 campaign has reached all-time lows in the use of misleading and inaccurate political appeals. Even Karl Rove, the architect of negative ads in previous campaigns, has complained about the tenor of this year's campaign. John McCain broadcast an ad taking Barack Obama's words out of context and suggesting Democrats were trying to compare GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin to a pig. The McCain campaign ran another spot erroneously claiming Obama favored comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners. Democrats have not been above reproach either. After McCain secured the GOP nomination this spring, outside groups falsely claimed the Republican supported a 1,000-year war in Iraq and therefore was not worthy of the presidency. These misleading appeals suggest voters must remain vigilant about candidate, party, and group claims. Generally, the most misleading commercials have come from independent groups uncoordinated with the candidates. These organizations feel free to run emotional and inaccurate content designed to play on voter's fears and anxieties. Some of the worst ads in recent memory, such as the Willie Horton ad in 1988, have been broadcast by these kinds of groups. In past years, the only upside of attack ads was that they generally contained more issue content than other types of ads. Since reporters police campaign appeals, the ads generally stick to the issues and rely on factually-accurate information. Ad sponsors and candidates realize they will be held accountable for unfair ad content. However, commercials run this year represent a break with this general pattern. Attack ads broadcast in recent months have twisted the truth, lied about personal background, taken statements out of context, and clearly sought to manipulate voter sentiments. Most worrisome from a factual standpoint is McCain's claim that Obama will raise taxes on the middle class. Although Obama has pledged to increase income taxes on those earning more than $250,000, he has been careful not to make proposals that would raise taxes on the middle class for fear of being labeled a tax-and-spend liberal. McCain's tax claims have been condemned by leading editorial boards and surely will attract considerable attention in upcoming debates. With all the factual inaccuracies that have taken place, voters need to protect themselves from efforts at political manipulation. Non-partisan Web sites such as www.factcheck.org represent one source of unbiased information. They analyze ads and compile factual information in support of or in opposition to ad claims. Other trustworthy fact-checkers include ad watches and reality checks run by leading news organizations. These features dissect candidate claims in regard to accuracy, strategy, and impact. But the best thing for voters to do is to watch the candidate debates and judge for themselves. Study the statements and the factual bases of policy claims. Pay attention to how the candidates speak and what they say. Find out what non-partisan groups think and see what they have to say regarding the major issues. By the time the campaign is over, the presidential candidates are expected to have spent 55 percent of their overall budget on ads. Strategists put together spots very carefully and pre-test major messages on small groups of voters. Most of this money will be devoted to television spots. But increasingly amounts are being targeted on radio, direct mail, and Internet appeals. In the end, voters are going to have to decipher competing charges and counter-charges amid considerable noise from all sides. The 2008 election is unusual in having so many big issues on the agenda: the economy, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, health care, taxes, immigration, education and climate change. It is an election that truly matters because of the stark differences between the parties and the closeness of the campaign. Voters need to pay serious attention to the facts in order to make a wise choice. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Darrell West: Negative attacks have long history in U.S. politics .\nThis year's ads have hit new lows for distorting the truth, West says .\nAds against McCain and Obama have twisted their words, he says .\nWest: Voters should use fact-checking resources in media and on the Web .","id":"90062f4712d752122f89d8a4179fd7ca226c571f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"At this time, we need a leader.\" \"I would try to stop the war in Iraq because I think they should have a talk with them, not a big war.\" Trevor Dougherty is too young to vote, but is doing everything he can to make sure others do. \"I'd probably go for the drilling in Alaska. Nuclear power, I'd keep that in mind.\" These Americans sounding off on the issues and the 2008 presidential election have a lot to say, but they won't be saying it at the ballot box -- they're all too young to vote. In fact, most won't be voting for quite a few years. But that doesn't mean that they have no interest in the race for the White House between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. As evidenced in videos posted at iReport.com, they care a great deal. Several of these videos were put together by school classes, like Matt MacFarlane's 7th and 8th graders at Templeton Middle School in Templeton, California, who made a short video on the importance of voting. The students called for a \"person with integrity who knows right from wrong\", \"a person of vision who not only knows what is but also what can be,\" \"a person with a moral compass to help [set] a course for our nation,\" and \"a person who has the ability to unite and inspire us as we face challenging times.\" MacFarlane's students urged voters to consider their decisions carefully on November 4. \"What's at stake in this election?\" asked one student. \"Everything. We're counting on you.\" iReport.com: Watch the full video from Mr. MacFarlane's class . Some children took to portraying the candidates, complete with clothes and wigs, like the students of Cabot Middle School in Cabot, Arkansas. All of the presidential and vice presidential \"candidates\" gave speeches, with Secret Service, prospective first ladies and family members in tow. Most members of Gov. Sarah Palin's family were present, including a baby doll portraying Trig. This video was just a part of their learning experience about presidential elections. Library media specialist Jill Weir, who submitted the video to iReport.com, said that the students also participated in mock-campaigning, voter registrations, precincts and exit polling. iReport.com: The 'candidates' speak . A church youth group in Winter Haven, Florida, took a more humorous approach, putting together campaign ads from \"John McHinkle\" and \"Barack Yo Mama,\" featuring cameos from \"Sarah Mailin'\" and \"Joe Hidin'\". It was still a learning experience, though, said Pastor James Blewett, who posted two videos to iReport.com in which the pretend candidates teach lessons about dating and parental conflicts. iReport.com: Watch the campaign ad spoofs . Some iReporters decided to ask children directly what they thought about the election. \"I have a 6-year-old and he watches the debates with me,\" Vijay Sureshkumar of Seattle, Washington, said. \"He's interested in what's going on and that's what triggered me. Why don't I go around the neighborhood and ask the kids?\" The responses he got were both funny and thought-provoking. Some children saw the war as a major issue, one wanted more funding for education, and another said he was in favor of drilling for oil in Alaska. Some children seemed to be in favor of Obama, some for McCain, at least one liked both, and two of them started yelling at each other over which candidate was better. When asked about the candidates' families, one boy could easily name Obama's wife and daughters' names. When asked about McCain, he was a little fuzzier. \"He's been around for a long time. Like he's been around, [since] like 1966.\" iReport.com: Kids sound off on the election . Tony Stampalia of Utica, New York, had a similar idea, asking students in an elementary school class whom they would vote for, based purely on the pictures of the candidates. Stampalia said that it was a tie between McCain and Obama, with one child for Ralph Nader. Obama \"voters\" in the class voted for their candidate because \"he has a cool suit,\" \"because he has the hair,\" \"because he has a nice smile.\" One Obama voter mistook him for President Bush, while another wore an Obama button but said she was supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton. McCain \"voters\" in the class liked his blue shirt and tie, and thought he was \"cute.\" One liked his \"white hair.\" Another one found that McCain \"made people do good stuff,\" but admitted that Obama did the same. All the children seemed to agree that \"your vote counts.\" iReport.com: Children pick their favorite candidate . Of course, this is not quite the first election in which children were asked about their choice for president. The Scholastic Election Poll has been doing that for at least 68 years. Poll takers said their poll has reflected the outcome of the actual election all but twice since 1940. A quarter of a million students participated in the poll. This year, Obama won with 57 percent to McCain's 39 percent. In many videos on iReport.com, children and teenagers speak out for their candidate of choice. In one case, a 4th grader named Liam Coakley of Long Beach, California went the extra mile by setting up a lemonade stand for Obama. iReport.com: Lemonade stand for Obama . Trisha Prabhu, 8, of Naperville, Illinois, was so excited about Obama's candidacy that she told her mother Bhanu to make a video of her giving reasons to vote for him. iReport.com: Watch Prabhu's video . Trevor Dougherty of Ithaca, New York, said in a video: \"I'm 16 years old and in this presidential election, I cannot vote. That's why I'm begging you this November, if you can, to get out this November and vote.\" Trevor has been following the election very closely, and first submitted an iReport while en route to the Democratic National Convention. As part of the \"Voter Vlog Tag\" movement, Dougherty went out and registered voters in his hometown, then submitted the video evidence to iReport.com. \"Getting other people registered is a way to express myself and allow other people to be heard. iReport has helped me do all of this.\" iReport.com: Watch Dougherty register people to vote . Dougherty has iReported about many aspects of this campaign: the conventions, the debates and everything in between. He also rallied together a dozen members of the iReport community to speak about the importance of voting. iReport.com: Dougherty, iReporters urge others to vote . Although these young people aren't able to vote, the decisions made by the next president could certainly affect them.","highlights":"iReports show how interested young Americans are in the campaign .\niReports range from serious issues to silly spoofs .\nDoes your kid have something to say about the election? Tell us at iReport.com .","id":"440377a193d4ba121d0afe2a5c02cd33269cb84e"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- The co-star of \"27 Dresses\" discusses his personal style. \"I just feel dirty,\" says James Marsden. Not to be alarmed: There's nothing indecent going on here. James Marsden talks about his favorite kind of clothes and how his style has changed over the years. The 34-year-old is explaining what it feels like to be sporting facial hair for a film he's working on with Cameron Diaz. Yet even the newly grown whiskers can't hide the finely chiseled features of an actor who seems to have cornered the Hollywood market on hottie-who-loses-the-girl roles (\"Enchanted,\" \"Superman Returns\" and, of course, \"The Notebook.\") But the Oklahoma-bred star doesn't mind his wholesome image. \"That's really me,\" he says. \"I'm a little dorky -- awkward.\" However, his onscreen luck could be changing with his latest film, \"27 Dresses,\" a romantic comedy co-starring Katherine Heigl. Scruffy or not, we'll be watching. You've played a prince in \"Enchanted\" and the superhero Cyclops in the \"X-Men\" movies. Is that a big deal to your kids and their friends? My daughter, Mary, is only 2, and my son, Jack, is 7. He has a Cyclops action figure, but he's really into Spider-Man and Pixar movies -- Buzz Lightyear is his guy. No \"Superman,\" no \"X-Men.\" I think he just assumes that everyone at his school has a dad who's a big superhero. You also played Corny Collins, the TV dance-show host in \"Hairspray.\" What were you like in high school? That's when I came out of my shell and became more social -- people thought I was funny. I got into a whole preppy thing -- Duck Head shorts and Dockers. How would you describe your style now? Functional comfort. For a guy, it shouldn't ever look like you thought about it too much, like the clothes are wearing you. Whose clothes do you like? Paul Smith off the rack -- it's a slim cut, and I don't need to have it tailored. I always feel like an 8-year-old when I dress up in a suit, like, when can I take this thing off? But I wore a black Dolce & Gabbana suit to the premi\u00e8re of \"Hairspray\" that was like, OK, now I know what a great suit is. Classic, clean lines -- sharp, sharp, sharp. Do you change your style from coast to coast? In L.A. it's too easy to throw on a pair of American Apparel sweats, a T-shirt and running shoes and just wear those for days. In New York, I actually like looking nice. Maybe I'm just getting older, but young guys need to pull their pants up. Do you ever shop for your wife? I love shopping for dresses, and I actually do a pretty good job. When I was in New York, I went into J. Crew in Soho and got her a cool fifties type dress with tiny polka dots. Style-wise I'm good, but figuring out sizing is a different story. What do you find sexy on a woman? I like spaghetti straps for my wife -- she has great shoulders and a great neck. I love when she puts her hair up, because I can see the back of her neck, so delicate and vulnerable. It's the vampire in me. Or my obsession with cheerleaders -- their hair up in a ponytail. When I was young, I could never have that. Never got the cheerleader? Eventually -- my wife was a cheerleader. What does your wife find sexy on you? A button-front shirt with [baby] spit-up on the shoulder. That means a guy is taking care of the kids and is a good father -- that's sexy to a woman. The adult version of rose petals and champagne is if I let my wife sleep in and I get up to change the baby's diaper, feed the kids, and do the dishes. Who inspires you? Paul Newman. My middle name is Paul, and my grandfather once said I was going to look like Paul Newman. That stuck with me. Beyond being a good-looking guy, Newman is a great actor with a long career, and he's got a life. He's married with kids and lives in Connecticut, sells popcorn and marinara sauce, and gives the money to charity. Anyone else? George Clooney dresses like Gary Cooper might have. Cary Grant. \"A Streetcar Named Desire\"-era Marlon Brando. They all made it look effortless. Their clothes framed their personalities really well -- comfortable, classic, but sharp. These guys could pull off a great suit, or jeans and a T-shirt. Don't you agree that guys have it easy -- they are considered \"distinguished\" as they grow older? I don't think it's guy-specific. As women get older, they become more comfortable with themselves. Susan Sarandon is the poster woman for that. A lot of guys fantasize about being with women who are in their forties or fifties. So your advice is ...? Act your age. Dress your age. Look your age. That doesn't mean you can't have fun. And isn't it time you got the girl in one of your movies? There are a couple of things I need to do [onscreen]: One, get the girl; two, pack a gun. Don't you love my career philosophy? E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"In high school Marsden showed off his preppy side .\nWhile it's easy for him to throw on sweats, Marsden likes to dress up .\nActor says he is inspired by Paul Newman .\nMarsden: I can shop style for women, but size is a different issue .","id":"0929c47d2ac6ec9ee80067c881fc594d0ab74e40"} -{"article":"GALVESTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rescuers in Galveston, Texas, were going door-to-door Saturday to check on the estimated 20,000 people who failed to flee Hurricane Ike, which has slowed to tropical storm status. Park benches are strewn about in downtown Houston Saturday during Hurricane Ike. As of Saturday afternoon, the Galveston Fire Department had taken 27 people to a shelter in a high school on the coastal island, which was without electricity or water pressure. No casualties had been discovered so far in the search and rescue efforts, which have been hampered by heavy flooding and scattered debris. Galveston had ordered evacuation of the island, but Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said about 40 percent of the city's 57,523 residents chose to stay. LeBlanc said the island would be closed while authorities assess damages, including to the causeway, which was in \"bad shape\" because of debris and road damage. \"The road buckled in a number of places,\" LeBlanc said. \"Even if we opened it up you couldn't get through.\" LeBlanc said 17 buildings on the island had been destroyed by fires, potent winds and a strong storm surge. \"We are in a recovery mode,\" Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said in a press conference Saturday afternoon. \"This eye came right over us, stayed a while and went on, but it brought a lot of damage to our city.\" Ike was downgraded Saturday to a tropical storm 11 hours after it crashed ashore as a Texas-sized hurricane that walloped southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. In its wake, Ike -- which smashed into the coast as a Category 2 hurricane -- left four people dead, millions without power and destroyed homes and businesses along the Gulf Coast with powerful winds, rain and floodwaters. President Bush declared 29 Texas counties and parts of Louisianans major disaster areas, making federal funds available for recovery from the storm. View images of places hit by Ike \u00bb . Many people, like D.J. Knight of Pearlman, Texas, decided to ride out the storm at home, despite voluntary and mandatory orders issued across the region. \"The windows looked like they would explode,\" said Knight, a mother of two. \"It just wouldn't stop.\" Now, without electricity and surrounded by flooded roads and wreckage, Knight wonders whether it was worth enduring a sleepless night as the storm shook her home, located about halfway between Galveston and Houston. \"I didn't think it would be as bad as it was,\" she said. \"It was horrible.\" Knight is one of thousands waiting for assistance as the state rolls out the largest search and rescue operation in Texas history. See pictures of the storm's destruction \u00bb . Gov. Rick Perry dispatched a 1,000-strong search and rescue team, including state troopers, pilots and members of the National Guard. Lines of National Guard trucks and ambulances were deployed from San Antonio even as officials are trying to grasp the extent of damage and the number of Texans stranded by the storm. However, flooding and debris have impeded rescue efforts in some areas, adding to the uncertainty about how many Texans actually survived the storm. \"We're obviously concerned that there may be people we find who didn't get out and who are going to be in the rubble of what we uncover,\" said Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. \"We hope for the best, but I do want to prepare people for the fact they we may have some fatalities.\" Chertoff said 40,000 Texans were in 250 shelters, and that food and water would be distributed in about 20 coastal locations as rescue efforts continue. In Galveston, which bore the brunt of the storm, floods filled the historic district with 7 feet of water at the storm's peak, said Galveston County official Margaret Bunch. Watch how a spunky little girl braved the storm \u00bb . A foot of water flooded the city's main courthouse, where many people rode out the storm, she said. Wanda Collins' garage filled with 5 feet of water, ruining everything inside, including a 2002 pickup truck, two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a freezer and a washer and dryer. \"I have never in my life seen water like this,\" the 30-year Galveston resident said. Burle and Jamie Holmes also refused to leave their Galveston home despite a grim warning from the National Weather Service. Ike forced the couple and their dog, Trouble, into the attic, tossing their furniture like toys across the house. \"We lost everything,\" Jamie Holmes. Curfews are in place in Galveston until dawn Monday and in Houston's Harris County until 6 a.m. Sunday. Houston Mayor Bill White said his city appears to have avoided loss of life, but streets blocked by floodwaters, downed trees and power lines hampered efforts to determine the full extent of the damage. Authorities shut down downtown Houston, where the streets were littered with traffic lights and glass, for cleanup and damage assessment. The city's tallest skyscraper, the 75-story JP Morgan Chase Tower, was missing many of its windows. See iReporter's images of destruction \u00bb . White advised residents to drink bottled or boiled tap water as a precaution after a power outage reduced water pressure, but he said nothing indicated that the water supply was contaminated. Brennan's, a popular restaurant in downtown Houston for almost four decades, burned down Friday night as Ike battered the city. North of Houston, a 10 -year-old boy died when a falling tree limb hit him in the head, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said. The boy's father was cutting down a dead tree in the family's yard in preparation for Ike's heavy winds early Saturday. Nearly 2.6 million customers in Texas and Louisiana lack power because of Ike, the U.S. Energy Department said on Saturday. In Brazoria County, emergency management officials said the main power line for the Texas\/New Mexico grid was down. CenterPoint Energy said 90 percent of its customers were without electricity and it could take a month or more to get power restored to all of them. iReporter Jackie Hensler of Houston said her apartment building's power was restored quickly on Saturday morning after a stormy night. \"There are lots of trees down; they've been uprooted or snapped,\" she said after venturing outside. \"There's lots of debris in the streets, like boards and plywood from homes.\" Watch how the roof peeled off a building \u00bb . Hurricane Ike proved to be a huge storm system, 900 miles across at its largest. It remained a hurricane hours after crashing ashore over Galveston at 2:10 a.m. Its maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph, with higher gusts. It was expected to continue to weaken and move into western Arkansas by Saturday night. Track the storm \u00bb . The storm surge, however, was smaller than forecast. The greatest surge, of 15 feet, happened at Sabine Pass, near the Texas-Louisiana line. Authorities had predicted surges of 20 to 25 feet. Authorities in Orange County, Texas, on the Louisiana line, were using large dump trucks Saturday to rescue residents trapped on their roofs by massive flooding, a county judge told CNN. The city of Orange and the town of Bridge City were flooded, Beaumont emergency official Brad Peneffon said. Watch the storm surge in Beaumont \u00bb . Rescuers fanned out in boats Saturday in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, after the storm surge flooded 1,800 homes. Gas prices soared across the country amid fears the storm would disrupt fuel supplies. Ike hit a region that is home to about 25 percent of the United States' oil refining capacity, and the storm's progress across the Gulf of Mexico shut down crude oil collection from Gulf oil fields. The U.S. Department of Energy said 14 refineries were closed by the storm, along with two Texas strategic petroleum reserve sites. In Knoxville, Tennessee, Sean Kennedy expressed dismay at the difference a day made to gas prices. iReport.com: Evacuees, San Antonio mayor talk about Ike . \"I filled up my tank yesterday morning on the way to work for $3.59 a gallon,\" he said. \"This morning, gas prices at the same station were $5 a gallon for regular and $5.25 for premium.\" The Coast Guard said early Saturday that 22 people aboard a freighter that was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico were safe after the storm. Some good news came out of the region Saturday. About 175 miles west of Houston, a storm evacuee delivered a baby in the ladies' bathroom at a shelter in New Braunfels. \"The credit goes to the mother,\" said Dr. Mark Burns, who helped deliver the baby. \"She did a beautiful job with her delivery.\" CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Rusty Dornin, Sean Callebs, Rob Marciano, Gary Tuchman, Arthur Brice, Deb Krajnak and Elise Miller contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Wreckage impedes rescue efforts, adding to uncertainty about survivors .\nTexas woman wonders whether it was worth it to ride out storm in home .\nFour deaths in Texas attributed to Ike, now a tropical storm with 45 mph winds .\n2.6 million affected by power outages, U.S. Energy Department says .","id":"04423c63496f8b4418efdf5dd97053ac2e78469b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- John Darwin's wife said her husband faked his own death to avoid mounting debts and holed up in the family home for years, hiding from his own sons, according to UK media reports. Anne Darwin said her husband, believed by police and his sons to have been lost at sea five years ago, recently returned to the UK, faking amnesia, because he missed his now-adult children, according to The Daily Mirror. \"I didn't think he would get away with it but he had had enough of being dead,\" she is quoted as saying. John Darwin, 57, is being questioned by police in northeastern England following his arrest on suspicion of fraud, a spokesman for Cleveland, England, police said. Darwin walked into a police station in London last weekend -- five years after he was thought to have died after the remains of a canoe he paddled into the North Sea, off northeastern England, washed up on shore. Darwin was declared dead by a coroner in 2003, 13 months after his disappearance in March 2002. His wife, the paper reported, described how the prison officer and former teacher discussed faking his death just before he disappeared because of mounting debts. When John Darwin vanished she said she thought he was dead -- until, she is reported to have said, he turned up on the doorstep of the family home at Seaton Carew, northeastern England, one year later. \"I didn't even recognize him at first,\" Anne Darwin told the newspaper, adding that her husband looked thin, dirty and smelled dreadful. \"I was relieved he was alive, of course. But I was also very angry with him.\" She said that her husband stayed at the home on and off before he got a one-room apartment in another part of the large house so he could vanish if friends or family arrived, also disguising himself with a hat or limp when he went outside. But hiding away began to take its toll, Anne Darwin reportedly said, and the pair decided to leave Britain. Her husband traveled on a false passport to look at property in Cyprus and inquire about buying a catamaran in Gibraltar, she said, before they finally settled in Panama. She went to live there six weeks ago. She is believed to be in the United States after leaving Panama on a flight late Thursday, a Panamanian immigration representative has told CNN. Anne Darwin, the newspaper said, stated that it was always her plan to repay two insurance policies in her husband's name: one, a life insurance policy, for \u00a325,000 ($50,000); and another for \u00a3130,000 ($265,000), which was paid to their home loan company to pay off the mortgage in the event of her husband's death. The newspaper said she was not paid for her story and accepts she is likely to be arrested upon her return to Britain. Following his reappearance last weekend, John Darwin was initially reunited with his two sons, who released a joint statement saying their father claimed to have amnesia dating back to June 2000. But in a statement released by Cleveland police Thursday, the sons, Mark, 31, and Anthony, 29, said they were in an \"angry and confused state of mind\" and they wanted no further contact with their parents. After media reports Thursday that Anne Darwin had confessed to knowing her husband was alive, the sons said: \"If the papers' allegations of a confession from our mam are true, then we very much feel that we have been the victims in a large scam.\" \"In the short space of time following our dad's appearance in London on Saturday, we have gone through a rollercoaster of emotion,\" the statement said. \"From the height of elation at finding him to be alive to the depths of despair at the recent stories of fraud and these latest pictures,\" it added. \"How could our mam continue to let us believe our dad had died when he was very much alive? We have not spoken to either of our parents since our dad's arrest and at this present time we want no further contact with them,\" the statement said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Reports: Wife says he faked his death to avoid debts, hid in their home for years .\nJohn Darwin, 57, thought to have drowned at sea off northeastern England in 2002 .\nReappeared last week; being questioned on suspicion of fraud .\nSons of the couple say they are in an \"angry and confused state of mind\"","id":"5c400c2b78a6b358c8f4ae01bd698b267cd6d1d5"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Eric Hahn thought his financial situation was set after he was approved for a private student loan with an 8 percent interest rate to supplement his federal education loans. Eric Hahn, 21, estimates he will be in debt for the next five to seven years for his undergraduate tuition. Just a few weeks later, Hahn, 21, was forced to cash in his savings and investments so he could make his rent and tuition after finding out that the lender, MyRichUncle.com, had suspended its private student loan program. \"Due to continued disruptions in the capital markets, combined with the continued demand we have experienced this year, we are reaching funding capacity limits,\" a message on his cell phone said, mimicking a statement on the company's Web site. The sudden news left Hahn, a senior-year finance major, scrambling to find additional funding after maxing out his borrowing options from the federal government. Eventually, the country's leading student loan provider, Sallie Mae, approved him for a private loan at 12 percent. After he graduates, Hahn estimates it will take him anywhere from five to seven years to repay about $30,000 he will have borrowed by then. \"Money isn't cheap,\" said Hahn, who transferred to Georgia State University in Atlanta from the University of Connecticut last year because the tuition was less expensive. \"The process is time-consuming, and there's also the stress of having to liquidate my investments and wonder where I'm going to find money.\" About 8 percent of student borrowers rely on private loans, which tend to be costlier and stricter than federal loans, said Robert Shierman, executive director of the Institute for College Access and Success. In doing so, Hahn and others like him are getting a crash course in market volatility and its effects on the consumer's ability to find money. Watch how the current economic troubles affect consumers \u00bb . MyRichUncle.com is the most recent lender to suspend its private student loan program, joining the ranks of major financial institutions like Wachovia and Bank of America and companies specializing in student loans such as College Loan Corporation and Campus Door, which was backed by Lehman Brothers. MyRichUncle's president and co-founder, Raza Khan, told CNN: \"We are currently working with a number of investors so we can resume loan origination as soon as possible. \"Meanwhile, students and parents should not lose sight of the value of education. Funds do remain available -- we encourage families to do all the homework and research, and to make prudent decisions on borrowing,\" he added in a written statement. Since August 2007, 33 lenders have suspended private loans programs, according to the Web site FinAid.org, which tracks activity in the student loan market. Unlike federal lending programs, private loans rely on liquidity from investors. Even though private loans are considered strong by industry standards, they are feeling the effects of a turbulent capital market. \"The only reason lenders had to stop making the loans was that they ran out of liquidity,\" said financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz, who created FinAid.org. \"It's a contagion effect of the sub-prime crisis,\" said Kantrowitz. \"It's an overreaction that has affected the student loan market.\" With their strong resemblance to consumer loans, where lenders set the terms based on your credit score, financial advisers often recommended private loans as a means of last resort. But with rising tuition and increased enrollment putting a squeeze on the student aid market -- which disbursed about $60 billion in federal funds and $17 billion in private loans last year -- students are turning to private loans after they've exhausted all other avenues, or for expenses that federal aid won't cover. In response, Congress passed legislation this year to increase the maximum amount of federal loans that students can obtain. \"With federal student loan limits increasing, you can borrow now more than last year, regardless of income, assets, collateral or income,\" said Martha Holler, vice president of corporate communications of Sallie Mae. Despite the uncertainty in the capital market, many lenders, including Sallie Mae, are still able to offer private student loans by securing lines of credit and raising liquidity on their own. Holler says other options also exist, from scholarships for skills as random as skateboarding, to tuition payment plans -- an interest-free option that allows borrowers to make payments in monthly installments. But students like Hahn remain on the fringe. Even after being awarded an out-of-state tuition waiver, which lets him pay the same tuition as a resident from Georgia, he says he has borrowed all he can in federal loans. His parents, who are facing their own financial struggles, can't co-sign for a loan with a lower interest rate or better terms. Nevertheless, Hahn has accepted his fate. As school begins, he is returning his focus to his studies. \"It's a pain in the neck, but it is what it is,\" he said in a telephone interview in between classes Wednesday. \"The reason this all happened is due to the credit crisis and the housing crisis. So I guess the lesson is don't hop on what everyone else is doing.\" CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lender My Rich Uncle suspended its private student loan program on Friday .\nThe move left Eric Hahn, 21, scrambling to find alternative funding sources .\nThe company says it is working to resume loaning money as soon as possible .\nFinancial advisers say investors are pulling out even though loans considered strong .","id":"766f67f42da647bdf806c6c819840ec8dbfea5c4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States Agency for International Development, USAID, on Monday urged the Cuban government to think again about its refusal of direct U.S. assistance for hurricane victims. \"We call on the Cuban government to reconsider their decision on the United States offer, which we made with no preconditions and whose only objective was to get relief to people in dire need.\" USAID administrator Henrietta Fore said in a Monday afternoon conference call with reporters. Fore said the United States over the weekend had offered to begin relief flights as soon as Tuesday to Cuba, on civilian aircraft, delivering plastic sheeting, blankets and hygiene kits. The first flight would have brought aid worth $349,000. \"And while we wait for the Cuban government's reconsideration of the United States offer we will continue to implement other components of our $5 million assistance package,\" Fore added. The United State will immediately obligate approximately $1.5 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to reputable international relief organizations and nongovernmental organizations. Fore said she will be in Honduras on Tuesday to inspect hurricane damage and review aid needs there. Earlier in the day, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack gave the first information that United States had made a weekend offer -- and the Cuban government had refused -- of $5 million in hurricane relief. The United States on Saturday \"informed the Cuban government that the U.S. government is committed to providing up to $5 million in relief assistance to Cuban hurricane victims and that we could fly emergency relief supplies to Cuba as soon as the Cuban government authorized such assistance,\" McCormack said at his daily briefing. \"On the 14th of September, just yesterday, the Cuban government informed us they would not accept a donation from the United States,\" he said. The United States has temporarily suspended some restrictions on private aid groups, sending assistance and money to Cuba. And McCormack said Monday he United States had in recent days licensed agricultural exports to Cuba worth $250 million, including lumber for reconstruction.","highlights":"U.S. State Department says Cuba rejects $5 million in aid .\nIsland nation reeling from storms, including hurricanes Ike and Gustav .\nU.S. temporarily suspends some restrictions on groups sending aid to Cuba .","id":"24959a531f3f3b5db65f821e87eb1a62e2b0e5ae"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Reese Witherspoon, the Academy Award-winning actress, is honorary chairman of the Avon Foundation and is employed by Avon Products as its global ambassador. Reese Witherspoon says she wants to banish the myth that young women are not at risk for breast cancer. (CNN) -- Every three minutes in the United States, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. As a woman, a mother, and a daughter, I find that statistic terrifying. I was never na\u00efve about breast cancer, but hearing this statistic put it all into perspective. Women close to me have battled the disease and are now soldiers in the greater fight against it. But the moment I heard \"every three minutes,\" I felt vulnerable and scared as I realized that anyone is susceptible. The only way for me to ease my fears was to take action. I needed to educate myself and others on this disease. As the Honorary Chair for the Avon Foundation, I had resources at my fingertips. I had access to an entire organization that is dedicated to giving back to women and educating people. So I started asking, \"What do I need to know?\" It was through that curiosity that I found out the most important fact in breast cancer: Early detection saves lives. According to the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade, there is a 97 percent five-year survival rate when breast cancer is caught before it spreads to other parts of the body. When breast cancer first develops, there are usually no symptoms, which is why women need to perform self-exams regularly and contact their doctor upon noticing even the smallest change. Of course talking about breast cancer and breast health is a personal thing. I too am a private person but encourage all women to break through their reservations and talk to their doctors and physicians. We must also banish the myth that young women are not at risk for breast cancer. At the Avon Walk in Washington, I met young survivors who were diagnosed in their 20s, an age when most women are graduating from college and just starting their lives as full adults. Watch Reese and Larry at the Avon Walk \u00bb . Women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam by a health professional at least once every three years and women 40 and older should have an exam every year. I am passionate about fighting this devastating disease. I fight for my mother, myself, my children and future generations of women, so one day we will not have to be afraid of breast cancer. I began my fight by learning important first steps in breast cancer detection, and will not end my fight until every woman can stand together saying we are breast cancer free. More than anything else, I have faith -- faith we will find a cure. I saw this commitment in the faces of the women in Washington -- in the faces of the women walking and the women and men who stood on the sidelines encouraging the 3,500 participants to the finish line. I was cheering right along with them, screaming for action to find a cure. Avon's next walk will take place in New York City on October 4 and 5.","highlights":"\"Every three minutes\" statistic made Witherspoon feel \"vulnerable\" and \"scared\"\nOscar-winning actress: Young women are not exempt from the disease .\nWitherspoon emphasizes importance of early detection and regular screenings .","id":"5f322869d538831f6b467d117f0b2de383caf6d2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, Martin is a nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago, Illinois-based radio host. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Please visit his Web site. Roland S. Martin urges the candidates to stop with the lofty talk and simplistic solutions and be specific. (CNN) -- If you are a member of America's middle class in this presidential year, you are sort of like a blue-chip football recruit, lavished with praise, attention and adoration from fawning coaches and alumni who would love nothing better than to land the prized player to win the national championship. For \"Coach\" John McCain and \"Coach\" Barack Obama, the title to win is president of the United States, and like the big-time football coaches, they will say and do anything to make it happen. Tax cuts? Oh, absolutely, we don't want you to feel any more pain. Let the rich -- and the poor -- deal with carrying the burden. You want more jobs? Sure, we're going to force companies that send jobs overseas to make them stay at home because we know you need those long disappearing and high-paying manufacturing jobs that helped build this nation. Can't afford to send your kids to college? Don't sweat it. We've got tax credits, Pell grants, super-duper loans and all kinds of other options to make this a reality. Are they cutting back on health care at your job? No big deal. Coach McCain says he's got some nifty tax credits lined up to tickle your fancy and ignite your soul. Coach Obama? He's going to go for the whole enchilada by pushing for virtual universal health care. Oh, these guys are wonderful with their sales pitches. They have the ability to make every single one of you feel so special and loved; no one else is more important to them -- at that moment. I must admit, the pathetic pining and pandering for middle-class votes has turned so moronic that at times it drives me nuts. First, who in the world are we even talking about? If you listen to the candidates and their campaigns, those in the middle class could make upward of $200,000 a year, while some suggest middle class means earning as little as $20,000. I moderated a panel Tuesday for the National Black MBA Association and heard descriptions of the lower middle class, the middle class and the upper middle class. Someone even suggested that it's really about a \"state of mind.\" That's right. It boils down to how we feel and think. If that's the case, then you can have $5 million in the bank, but if you love your family, go to church and share the same values as others around you, you're middle class. Please, can we just stop with lofty talk and plain-spoken and simplistic solutions and be as specific as possible? There are really four fundamental issues affecting middle-class voters. Jobs . We've seen a loss of 600,000 jobs under President Bush, so how exactly will McCain and Obama create jobs? Is there anything in their past that shows they have the ability to do just that? I've heard \"drill, drill, drill!\" from McCain, and Obama says we're going to turn the old textile and steel mills into a green machine by targeting wind and other sources of energy. Housing . Congress is providing a backstop for Wall Street -- making billions available if cash is needed. What will McCain and Obama actually do to keep folks from losing their homes? Oh, I know a lot of people suggest that these middle-class folks should have read the fine print and not gotten in over their heads, but if something is good for Wall Street, why not Main Street? Health care . This is no joke, and a primary reason why Americans file for bankruptcy. I know. My appendix ruptured in 2000 while covering the Democratic National Convention, forcing me to spend five days in a Los Angeles hospital and accruing more than $70,000 in hospital bills. Yep, I didn't have health insurance. I was just a 29-year-old never-been-sick freelancer stuck out in the cold. The pressure of that led to falling behind on my mortgage, and the start of foreclosure proceedings. Bankruptcy was the only thing that saved me, and by the grace of God, my finances turned around, and this month, I'm making my final payment. McCain says a $5,000 tax credit for health care will help, but the problem with that is you have to pay the dough upfront, and then claim it on your taxes. But what happens when they want the money now? Obama says the answer is his health care plan, but that switch won't be flipped immediately. So what happens while the laborious debate takes place? I just wait for my MRI until Washington finishes debating and the special interests pick the plan to death? Education . For many Americans, education is a ticket to the middle class and beyond. Much of the time the candidates talk about vouchers. Look, that's not going to solve the education problem. What we should be hearing them talk about is the inequity of the school systems. Children living in wealthy school districts get tons of money and the best qualified teachers, while poorer districts are forced to make do with less qualified teachers and without computers or even basic amenities. The bottom line . Remember those blue-chip players? Today, they are telling a coach: If you want me to sign, promise that I'll start. No play, no sign. That's what middle-class Americans must tell the candidates. If you are unwilling to put your personal credibility and integrity behind your campaign pledges, then you don't get my vote. And if you give away your vote just because someone is a Democrat or Republican, or a man or a woman, or black or white, and you end up getting screwed in the end, you have no one to blame but yourself. So use the most powerful thing you have to demand real answers to your real problems from McCain, Obama, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin: your vote. The power is literally in your hands. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Roland S. Martin: Candidates offer anything and everything to snag middle class .\nMartin: \"Pathetic pining and pandering for middle-class votes ... moronic\"\nMartin: Jobs, housing, health care, education are the big middle-class issues .","id":"9292fe37c75335945e3f305d8c32363dc358cae0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- iReporters have a message for Richard Wright: Shine on, you crazy diamond. Jessica Schuette's tattoo reminds her of her late friend, who was a big fan of Pink Floyd. Wright, a founding member of epic rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. The keyboardist had been battling cancer and succumbed at his home in Britain. Wright is credited with writing some of the band's most well-known hits, such as \"The Great Gig in the Sky\" and \"Us and Them.\" Pink Floyd has thousands of devoted fans across the world, and the news of Wright's death inspired many of them to write into iReport to share how Richard Wright and the rest of the group touched and changed their lives. Jessica Schuette shared a photo of her Pink Floyd-inspired tattoo: a shimmering diamond above the words \"shine on.\" She got the tattoo in 2005 in memory of her best friend, who died in a car accident. \"This was her favorite song. I got this tattoo to remember her,\" Schuette said. \"If that doesn't say something about the impact that this band has had on people, I don't know what will.\" Pink Floyd touched the lives of Schuette and her friend even though they were never able to see one of the band's legendary live shows. Schuette, who is a dedicated Pink Floyd fan herself, pointed out that she's only 21 -- born 13 years after they released the epic album \"Dark Side of the Moon,\" and too young to have seen the band live when they were touring. iReport.com: Read more of Schuette's thoughts . Omar Pelea of Miami, Florida, hopes the tragedy of Wright's death will give Schuette and other fans their long-awaited chance to see the group live. He hopes the death will inspire the other members of Pink Floyd to begin touring again. Pink Floyd has not toured with lead singer and songwriter Roger Waters since 1981, although Rogers reunited with the band in 2005 for a concert at Live 8 in London. \"Now would be a good time for the remaining members to contemplate the fact that a reunion is running short on time,\" he said. \"There are bigger things in life than their differences. Perhaps they should put those differences aside and play for the world one last time.\" \"To me, Pink Floyd is the greatest band ever to play on this Earth,\" he added. iReport.com: Pelea compares Wright to the late George Harrison . Long-time Pink Floyd fan Pamela Keenan had the chance to perform some of the group's greatest works herself. She is a member of Endicott Performing Arts Center, a theatre company in Endicott, New York, that has performed its own adaptations of \"The Wall\" and \"Dark Side of the Moon.\" \"We had a band on the stage with us. We had images and films projected on the back of the stage and we had full choreography and vocals for all the songs from each album,\" she said. \"I listened to all of the music over and over again as a teen, but to be able to perform it in my 30s brought a new respect for the lyrics and the sheer musical genius.\" iReport.com: See a Pink Floyd-themed bike ride . Keenan described Pink Floyd as \"one of the greatest bands that's ever been in existence,\" but thinks the group is underrated by mainstream society today. \"Children aren't exposed to it anymore,\" she said. \"My kids are exposed to it because we did the shows -- and they love it.\" iReport.com: Keen recalls Pink Floyd stage show . \"I credit Pink Floyd for being a big part of my imagination,\" said Dean Spiegal, who creates psychedelic videos inspired by the group's music. \"Floyd was not a band, it was an experience. They did not make music for the people, they made music for their minds.\" iReport.com: Watch Spiegel's video tribute . And Eric Beck put it simply: . \"It changed my life. It changed my life,\" he said of \"Dark Side of the Moon.\" \"Rick Wright made a major contribution to my life. And I will forever be so grateful to him and the rest of the band.\" iReport.com: Beck shares his memories via webcam .","highlights":"Pink Floyd fans shared their memories of late keyboardist Richard Wright .\niReporters include theater company member who paid tribute to the band .\nJimi Lee remembers the first time he heard \"Dark Side of the Moon\"\nShare your memories of Pink Floyd and Wright at iReport.com .","id":"2deb97456ea55b72ae3dd5149b5a75c0aa11fc25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain is just holding on like a boxer before he gets knocked out, comedian Chris Rock says. Comedian Chris Rock told Larry King he's proud of Barack Obama's character. Rock, an avid supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, spoke with CNN's Larry King on Thursday. He said Obama is more grounded with your average American -- not somebody like McCain with \"12 houses.\" \"The other guy [McCain] can lose five houses,\" Rock said. \"I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house.\" Watch Chris Rock describe a beaten up McCain \u00bb . King began the interview by asking Rock about Thursday's economic bailout talks when Obama and McCain went to the White House for discussions with the nation's top leaders. KING: Obama and McCain at opposite ends of the table. What do you make of it? ROCK: What do I make of it? If this was a boxing match, McCain would be holding. KING: Holding on? ROCK: Yes. It's like he got hit really hard in the stomach like, 'OK. I can't let him go. He's going to knock me out.' So that's what appears to be going on right now. Just a hold. KING: Has the financial crisis affected you? ROCK: Larry, I drove a cab over here tonight. When it's over, I'm going to try to pick up some more fares. I'm losing everything, Larry. KING: Really downtrodden? ROCK: Yes, it's real bad. KING: Have HBO paid you already? ROCK: They have paid me, but the money is worthless now. Haven't you heard? Your money's worth nothing. KING: You must be ... proud that at this stage in our history a black man is running for president on a major ticket. ROCK: Um, you know what? I'm proud Barack Obama's running for president. You know? If it was Flavor Flav, would I be proud? No. I don't support Barack Obama because he's black. KING: I said just as a proud feeling. That's normal. ROCK: There's a proud feeling because of the character of the man. You know, I was -- I supported John Kerry and, you know -- and what's my man? Al Gore. KING: Al Gore. ROCK: But this guy seems to be a little bit more. He seems to have watched other peoples' mistakes and, you know, seems to have a little bit more going on. KING: From a comedic stand point, who is funnier, McCain or Obama? Seriously. Is Obama not -- it's hard to be funny about Obama? ROCK: No, no. It's weird. People ask me that all the time. ... McCain jokes are just easy jokes, like I don't want a president with a bucket list. That's like a McCain joke. Those jokes are easy. It's like you basically, you know, you know, take the dust off your Reagan jokes and tell them again. You know? But Obama, oh, this is a whole new set of jokes. I got to find a whole new move to the basket here. So I kind of hope he wins. KING: Didn't you introduce Obama at a rally? ROCK: I introduced Obama at the Apollo Theater not too long ago. I think Obama would be great. I mean, just look the big thing right now is the economy. And people are going broke. And here: The choice isn't Republican or Democrat. The choice is you got a guy that's worth $150 million with 12 houses against a guy who's worth a million dollars with one house. KING: Well -- . ROCK: The guy with one house really cares about losing a house, because he is homeless. The other guy can lose five houses and still got a bunch of houses. Does this make any sense? Am I the only one that sees this? KING: It's unique way of ... ROCK: I'm just saying, John McCain could lose half his houses. KING: You got a point. ROCK: And sleep well. KING: You and Bill Clinton were on Letterman on Tuesday. You had some problems with the tone of his endorsement of Barack Obama. ... Do you think Bill is hesitant about Barack Obama? ROCK: You know what? You know, he did a great speech in Denver. And Hillary's been on the campaign trail. Just at that moment, if you watched what happened on David Letterman, it appeared he was holding back. And when you tell a joke and everybody laughs, it is not because they disagree with what you're saying. So -- . KING: They get it? ROCK: Yes, they get it. The whole audience was in on it. But, you know, hey, the guy's in a weird position there. His wife ran for the thing and she didn't win. KING: The next night, on \"The Daily Show,\" Jon Stewart asked Clinton about the Letterman appearance and Clinton suggested that Obama supporters who questioned commitment are missing the point. ROCK: It was great. It was great. And you're right, [Obama] does need to get some of the votes that went to Hillary and all that. I don't understand any Democrat that voted for Hillary that doesn't support Obama. Because their views are pretty similar. You know what I mean? ... I understand people supporting Mr. McCain. But a Democrat that's going to just be mad is -- there's something kind of really messed up about that. KING: Have you always done political humor? ROCK: You know -- . KING: When you started, did you do politics? ROCK: I'm interested in the world. Jon Stewart does political humor. Bill Maher does political humor. I talk about stuff the way guys would talk about it at the barber shop. I don't belong on any panel on this show. You know what I mean? I don't deserve to be near Roland Martin and Anderson Cooper and all these guys. I try to talk about politics in a way a guy that works at UPS would understand. KING: You did a lot of Brooklyn stuff. ROCK: I do all sorts of stuff, Larry. All sorts of stuff. You know, I hope Obama wins just because, you know, the country needs it. The country needs a change. We kind of seen what this whole McCain thing is. And I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house. KING: I never thought of it that way. ROCK: It is that simple.","highlights":"Chris Rock tells Larry King that McCain is on the verge of getting knocked out .\n\"I hope Obama wins just because ... the country needs it\"\nRock says he can't support a guy like McCain with \"12 houses\"\nSays vote for the guy with one house, cause he's scared of losing it .","id":"901e2e21d271320f233e3d400003d420caeef715"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some experts are skeptical that anything could have stopped Robert Hawkins from going on a murderous rampage at an Omaha, Nebraska, shopping mall on Wednesday. A police car sits outside the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, on Thursday. \"This is not something that anybody can reasonably anticipate,\" said Don Greene, a former FBI agent who has written a book on mall security. \"If the people closest to him didn't see any indicators or signs that he was going to go off so drastically ... how is some public safety officer supposed to recognize this person?\" Greene asked. In fact, security at Omaha's Westroads Mall did find Hawkins' behavior suspicious before the shooting, Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said Thursday. Mall surveillance initially flagged Hawkins \"based on his actions\" when he entered the mall through the Von Maur store's main entrance on the second floor, Warren said. He said Hawkins exited quickly after entering, then re-entered within six minutes and appeared to be concealing something in a balled-up sweatshirt. He then went up the elevator to the third floor, and when he got there, he immediately began firing, Warren said. \"It doesn't appear as though there was an opportunity for intervention,\" he said. Shopping malls around the country were expected to review their emergency plans and consider additional security measures in light of Wednesday's shooting, which killed eight. Watch what experts say about keeping malls safe \u00bb . \"There is always a fear of copycats when something like this happens,\" said Malachy Kavanaugh, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers. He said malls would be considering whether to close some entrances, bring in additional officers, and make security more visible. There are 1,200 enclosed malls in the United States and about 50,000 shopping centers. Although some include police substations, most are patrolled by unarmed private mall and store security guards. Should these private security guards be armed? \"Absolutely not,\" said Greene. Greene said if a security officer were to pull a gun on an armed individual in a mall, it could result in \"the gunfight at the 'OK corral,' and then we might have 23 people killed instead of eight.\" \"These random events are very challenging to prevent and difficult to deal with when they occur. Law enforcement and security prevention measures, no matter how good, cannot forestall a tragedy such as this from happening,\" said a statement issued Wednesday night by the Simon Property Group, which operates regional and outlet malls across the United States. \"We do not disclose or discuss our enhanced security measures and\/or procedures that we have in place or may institute at any given time, some of which are visible to the public, with others intentionally less noticeable,\" the statement said. \"Disclosure of such information could potentially compromise our efforts to provide a safe and secure environment.\" Security expert Lou Palumbo told CNN one useful strategy was having trained law enforcement personnel watching people as they enter the mall. \"You start to observe the people coming into the mall area,\" he said. \"To let them in your door and then try to figure out what they're doing, you know, it's not as effective as catching them as they're coming in the door.\" The International Council of Shopping Centers has conducted focus groups with shoppers to test how they would react to even tighter \"airport style\" security measures, including bag checks and magnetometers. According to Kavanaugh, the results have shown that shoppers would accept the measures only if the national threat advisory system was raised to its highest level, red. Such extreme measures are \"in the mall industry playbook ... but it is something no one wants to do,\" said Kavanaugh. While some mall owners have increased training of security personnel and have upgraded their emergency systems, many security experts believe more should and can be done. Those experts suggest it's a matter of money. They say until shoppers start staying away, mall owners will not make significant changes. There are no national standards for security guards, and according to a 2006 study by the Police Foundation, only a few states require background checks, minimum hiring standards, or training. The study also notes that drills to test security staffs' knowledge of what to do in an emergency, when done at all, \"are seldom rigorous, seldom done with first responders, and are usually done without clear standards to measure their success.\" The report goes on to say that \"many malls do not even have plans to limit access to sensitive areas in times of heightened alert.\" Since that report was written, the International Council of Shopping Centers, in conjunction with George Washington University, has developed a DVD to train mall security guards. According to Kavanaugh, about 6,000 of the nation's estimated 20,000 mall security guards have participated in the course, including 10 at Westroads Mall, where Wednesday's shootings took place. The FBI and other federal agencies have reached out to private security firms to share information on best practices. The FBI also sends out alerts regarding possible threats to the private sector -- but warnings of possible terrorist plans are clearly of no help in anticipating an attacker like Hawkins. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Eliott McLaughlin and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"Malls expected to assess security arrangements in wake of Wednesday shooting .\nGunman at Omaha, Nebraska, mall killed 8 people and himself .\nSome security experts say such incidents are impossible to anticipate .\nStudy by Police Foundation says training drills for mall guards are inadequate .","id":"87c41a0c17143a88ea8234f102c100868fe86e58"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United Kingdom has MI-5, which roots out spies and terrorists in the British Isles. The RAND Corporation said one option would be for domestic intelligence to operate under the FBI. Canada has CSIS -- the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Now Congress is asking: Should the U.S. have its own domestic intelligence agency? On Monday, at the request of Congress, the RAND Corporation outlined the pros and cons of establishing a domestic intelligence agency. It also discussed different ways to organize a new entity, either as part of an existing department or as a new agency. But there's one thing you won't find in the report -- a recommendation on what to do. \"We were not asked to make a recommendation, and this assessment does not do so,\" the report says. Instead, says RAND's Gregory Treverton, the report provides a \"framework\" for policymakers to use when deciding whether and how to reorganize counter-intelligence efforts at home. RAND is a nonprofit think tank seeking to help improve policy and decision making through objective research and analysis. Collecting intelligence domestically always has been a sensitive issue, at least partially because of episodic abuses by the government, notably against civil rights leaders, unions, antiwar organizations or even communists and hate groups. But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks renewed calls for increased domestic intelligence to prevent future attacks. Critics said that in the lead-up to the attacks, the FBI devalued counterterrorism agents and failed to heed signs that an attack was imminent. \"If you didn't carry a gun, you didn't count so much,\" Treverton said. After the attacks, the FBI moved to transform its primary mission from law enforcement to counterterrorism intelligence and prevention. It now focuses on terrorism through its National Security Branch and the National Counterterrorism Center. The RAND report focuses on two options to the current system. In one, a new agency would be created using intelligence agencies from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence community. A second option is to create an \"agency within an agency\" in the FBI or DHS. The first option would result in an organization with a clear, unambiguous mission, and might be able to draw on a more diverse recruitment pool, such as linguists and historians who are not normally attracted to law enforcement. On the flip side, such massive reorganizations typically involve political compromises that could affect its performance. The second option -- an \"agency within an agency\" -- could involve less short-term disruption, but could be hindered by a \"lack of clarity of a single mission,\" the report says. RAND also suggests a range of actions short of reorganization that could improve domestic intelligence gathering, such as increasing resources, improving leadership and changing bureaucratic cultures. The report does not assess the FBI's performance since 9\/11, Treverton said, but he believes Congress should seek an independent assessment. A panel of experts that RAND convened guessed that the probability of a terrorist attack had decreased about one-third since the September 11, 2001. But \"they were not enthusiastic about alternatives\" to current counterterrorism organizations. In a cautionary note, the report says that while public acceptance of domestic intelligence activities is imperative, public attitudes about what is considered acceptable \"can both be fragile and shift significantly over time.\" \"Public demand for domestic intelligence is driven by the perceived threat, and those perceptions can change much more rapidly than the threat itself,\" the report says. For instance, immediately after the 9\/11 attacks, 49 percent of people surveyed were worried \"a great deal\" about more attacks. Two years later, that had dropped to 25 percent.","highlights":"Nonprofit think tank RAND outlines pros and cons at request of Congress .\nGroup says government could create new agency specifically for domestic intel .\nOther option includes agency operating under Homeland Security or FBI .\nSeptember 11 attacks renewed calls for domestic intel to help prevent future ones .","id":"3278325dee662b9637aaee18707530600a20acd4"} -{"article":"Founded in 1805 in Geneva, Pictet & Cie is today one of Switzerland's largest private banks, and one of the premier independent asset management specialists in Europe. Moreover, it is considered one of the leading independent asset management banks in Europe. Pictet & Cie is a partnership owned and managed by eight general partners with unlimited liability for the bank's commitments. \"Banque de Candolle Mallet & Cie\" was founded on 23 July 1805. It was run by two partner-managers, Jacob-Michel Fran\u00e7ois de Candolle and Jacques-Henry Mallet, and three limited partners, Jean-Louis Mallet, Paul Martin and Jean-Louis Falquet. Following a period of relative stagnation, marked by two world wars and the economic depression of the 1930s, Pictet & Cie began to develop extensively from the 1950s on. Despite the negative outlook in the aftermath of war, the western world experienced a period of prosperity and economic growth. Geneva became one of the world's leading diplomatic and financial centres. Since the turn of the millennium, the Pictet Group has experienced some significant changes and events, such as its continued strong growth, the Bank's Bicentennial in 2005 and, the following year, the inauguration of its new headquarters in Acacias, Geneva. The company boasts more than CHF 430 billion ($390 billion) in assets under management and custody as at end-September 2007. The Group employs over 2,800 people in the following locations: Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Barcelona, Florence, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Paris, London, Luxembourg, Rome, Turin, Montreal, Nassau, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pictet & Cie is one of Switzerland's largest private banks, founded in 1805 .\nManaged by eight general partners with unlimited liability for its commitments .\nIn 2007, Pictet boasts more than $390 billion in assets under management, custody .","id":"fa935d1c258d53b991cab9e0ae5a5dbdcc6dc34d"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- More than a dozen trucks loaded with fruits, spices and other goods Tuesday crossed the line dividing Kashmir as India and Pakistan opened a symbolic trade route in the disputed region for the first time in more than 60 years. Kashmiris watch as Indian trucks cross into the border town of Chakothi in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. To cheers and band music, the first trucks rumbled from the Pakistani side across a white bridge to a brightly decorated trade center festooned . Apple-laden Indian trucks heading the other way were also warmly welcomed. It is hoped the move will ease tensions in the troubled Himalayan region, which has been a conflict flashpoint between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan who both lay claims to the territory. \"Today, we have regained our lost market,\" said Ghulam Rasool Bhat, president of the Kashmir fruit growers' association. Watch more about the historic day \u00bb . \"We are sending the sweet Kashmir apple as the first consignment. This is sure to sweeten the relation between the two neighbors. The beginning of the trade between the two Kashmirs will further improve the relations and lead to a peaceful resolution of the bitter problem,\" he said. The trucks were subjected to thorough security checks before they crossed the bridge, one of the few crossing points in the heavily militarized 742-kilometer (460-mile) Line of Control, the de facto frontier that divides the region. Kashmir has been a major source of dispute between India, and Pakistan since the two countries were partitioned at the end of British rule in 1947. Muslim Kashmiris sided with Pakistan to the north, while the Hindu south joined India. For the past 18 years, Kashmir has been wracked by a bloody separatist campaign. Authorities say up to 43,000 people have died, but rights groups and non-governmental organizations put the death toll at twice that. Violence had dropped off since the countries began a peace process in 2004, but it surged after the state government in Indian-controlled Kashmir announced plans in June to donate land for a Hindu shrine. Muslim protests following the decision prompted a government U-turn that triggered Hindu demonstrations calling for it to be restored. Subsequent violence left 40 dead and hundreds wounded. It is hoped Tuesday's route opening will bolster the peace agreement and combat lingering mistrust between India and Pakistan. A bilateral cease-fire has been holding in the region for more than four years. A bus service connecting the divided Kashmir began amid much fanfare in 2005 but struggled under the weight of elaborate security checks and stifling bureaucracy. \"This is a great emotional moment, as it brings to mind my grandfather, who used to drive lorries on this road,\" said Muzhar Hussain Naqvi, who drove the leading Pakistani truck. CNN's Sara Sidner and Mukhtar Ahmad contributed to this report .","highlights":"Trade route between the two sides the first in six decades .\nA heavy military presence occupies strip of land known as the Line of Control .\nKashmir a source of bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 .\nTrade meant to bolster a 2004 peace accord between the South Asian rivals .","id":"75a06e3036cb1c5c0e7f6027818b335242fca3ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin vowed on Tuesday to use her executive experience to tackle government reform and energy independence if she and Sen. John McCain win this year's presidential election. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks with CNN's Drew Griffin Tuesday. \"It's going to be government reform because that, that is what I've been able to do as a mayor and as a governor, you, you take on the special interests and the self-dealings. Yep, you ruffle feathers and you have the scars to prove it,\" Palin said Tuesday in an interview with CNN's Drew Griffin. \"You have to take that on to give the American people that faith back in their own government. This is their government and we've got to put it back on their side,\" she said. Palin said she and McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, discussed the possibility of her working on the issue of energy independence if she becomes vice president. Watch Palin talk about potential plans for the vice-presidency \u00bb . \"That's been my forte as the governor of an energy producing state and as a former chair of the, of the energy regulator -- entity up there in Alaska,\" she said. \"[I] look forward to that and that's a matter of national security and, and our economic prosperity opportunities.\" Palin also said helping families with special needs children and cleaning up Wall Street were among the other \"missions\" she and McCain had discussed. Palin emphasized her executive credentials as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and governor of Alaska, contrasting them with what she said was Sen. Barack Obama's lack of leadership experience. \"We don't like to toot our own horn so we don't,\" Palin said. \"But, I have, I do have more experience than Barack Obama does. You know, he had served for his 300 days before he became a presidential candidate and that wasn't in, in executive office.\" Watch Palin say she has more experience than Obama \u00bb . Palin also apologized Tuesday for any misunderstanding caused when she referred last week to the patriotic values of \"the real America\" and \"pro-America areas of this great nation.\" Democrats and others criticized Palin for seeming to imply that some parts of the country are more patriotic than others. Palin denied that was her intention in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. \"I don't want that misunderstood,\" Palin said. \"If that's the way it came across, I apologize.\" The Alaska governor made the remarks at a fundraising event in North Carolina last week. \"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation,\" she told the crowd. On Tuesday, Palin also addressed Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden's comment that Sen. Barack Obama would be tested from the very beginning of his time in office. At a fundraiser Sunday night, Biden said that after taking office, \"it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. ... We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.\" Palin told Griffin that the comment points to the dangers of electing a relatively inexperienced person . \"We need to thank Joe [Biden] for the warning,\" Palin said. Watch Palin say the media gave Biden a pass \u00bb . Biden's point, according to a statement issued later, was that \"we need steady leadership in tumultuous times, not ... the stubborn ideology of John McCain.\" Palin stopped short of labeling Obama a socialist Tuesday, although she and others have previously called his tax policies socialist. \"I'm not going to call him a socialist, but as 'Joe the Plumber' has said, it looks like socialism to him,\" she said of Joe \"the plumber\" Wurzelbacher. The GOP ticket and their supporters have invoked Joe the Plumber numerous times ever since the Ohio man confronted Obama about his tax policy in an impromptu campaign moment. Palin said Wurzelbacher is representative of \"Jane the engineer and Molly the dental hygienist and Chuck the teacher.\" Obama defended his decision to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 a year while cutting taxes for people with lower incomes, telling Wurzelbacher that \"when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.\" Palin said the policy was \"not good for the entrepreneurial spirit that has built this great country,\" the economy or small businesses. Watch the entire interview with Gov. Sarah Palin \u00bb . Obama brushed off McCain and Palin's characterization on Sunday in Fayetteville, North Carolina. \"John McCain thinks that giving these Americans a break is socialism,\" Obama said. \"Well, I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that.\"","highlights":"NEW: If elected, Palin says she will address energy issues, government reform .\nNEW: Palin says she has more executive experience than Sen. Barack Obama .\nPalin says she did not intend to imply that parts of America more patriotic than others .\nPalin made the controversial remarks at a rally in North Carolina last week .","id":"64cd4c4be9b5049840a3731463c5640fe4c0c1e8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Getting \"out of this world\" with civilian space travel is not quite as simple as you may think. Ready for launch: video game programmer Richard Garriott shown in training for his space flight in October. Aside from the obvious financial limitations which restrict space tourism to the rich and the ridiculously rich, there are also significant training programs and testing to be completed before proceeding to lift-off. To gain a better insight into this training, well-known video game programmer and designer Richard Garriott, who is preparing for his own space adventure in October, is detailing in a blog what he and others have to go through in order to make it into orbit as a space traveler. Garriott has been in training since the beginning of the year and told CNN the first major thing to surprise him was the intensity of preparations. \"When I first came here in January, I thought nine months to get trained for this is going to be plenty of time. Of course, very quickly, I realized that I had signed up for a very complex task, something much more difficult that I had anticipated. I immediately knew that nine months was going to be a lot of work to get everything prepared for the flight. \"And now that I am so close to the flight, I am still feeling the pressure, I definitively have been working very long days and most nights,\" Garriott said. The training regime has three major strands: physical training, which includes preparation to acclimatize to the space environment; practical training for day-to-day living in space; and like any flight, be it 10 minutes or 10 days, training in safety procedures for emergency situations. Trainees generally spend nine months or more on and off-site to complete the requirements, which include everything from flight simulations to learning how to use the toilet. Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, the company sending Garriott into space, told CNN the training program is extensive, but does not exclude people from making the flight. \"Their total training program is a few months, but we tend to spread it out so they can fit it around their normal lives. They are not training to the same degree as the professionals.\" As long as space hopefuls are in reasonable health, they can usually go ahead with their adventure, he said. \"There's some fitness involved. There are certainly [medical] things that are not allowable in space, but they are generally more serious conditions.\" He said the major fitness issue with space travel was preparing for the change in \"Gs.\" \"The body is designed to live on one 'G,' so when you expose it to higher 'Gs' it has an effect. With the training and given the [short] length of the visits there's a minimal effect on the body.\" In his blog on the training process, Garriott said one part of the training was indisputably the worst. \"Hardest of all was the 'Spinning Chair of Ultimate Sickness.' I can't imagine that I will ever again voluntarily sit in a device designed to make you sick, or ride it as long as I can. Ugh, this is definitely my least favorite part of training!\" Despite such disturbing preparations, Anderson said much of the training, which takes place at Space Adventures' base in Star City, Russia, is centered upon general living in space. \"There's a few requirements about what you need to know to live in the space station ... how to eat, how to drink, and how to use the restroom, for example,\" he said. \"There's also a lot of simulation you go through ... there's preparation to acclimatize you to the space environment.\" Garriott said many of the procedures for living in space, or for emergencies, are very complex. \"There are a lot of technical details behind all the different systems we need to understand ... fire detection and alarms, plus procedures and equipment for dealing with fire emergencies; protective breathing apparatus in case of chamber decompression or malfunction; the toilet (everybody's favorite piece of space trivia!), including powering up the can for suction and waste removal; and lastly, onboard water sources.\" He admits the learning requirements had him preparing for exams by \"cramming like any good college kid.\" And the most fascinating part of the training? In Garriott's opinion, it was running in a hypobaric chamber, where the altitude was set at 10,000 meters (about 2,000 meters higher than Mount Everest). \"I felt no physical or mental problems, but I did notice an odd physiological issue that is quite hard to describe. Basically, it was possible to make a tennis ball-sized pocket in my mouth, but one which had no air in it as it was just a vacuum! \"By that I mean try to imagine creating a cavity inside your mouth without any air bubbles and by letting in no air through your lips or throat -- it's basically impossible at sea level because the air pressure outside your mouth pushes the air pocket closed,\" he said. \"However, at 10,000 meters the air is so much thinner that you can pull off this oral stunt without a hitch! Weird.\" It truly is.","highlights":"Richard Garriott will fly with Space Adventures into space in October .\nTraining involves physical, practical and safety preparation .\nGarriott says the toughest part is a spinning chair designed to make you vomit .\nLearning to go to the toilet in space is part of the training .","id":"f85fc22e210e4896cbb048e7d1e517559f3dcc08"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama will take a break from campaigning Thursday so he can visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii, an Obama spokesman said Monday. Sen. Barack Obama will take a break from campaigning so he can visit his ailing grandmother. \"Sen. Obama's grandmother Madelyn Dunham has always been one of the most important people in his life,\" spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. \"In the last few weeks, her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. It is for that reason that Sen. Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her,\" Gibbs said. The interruption will cause Obama to cancel Thursday events in Madison, Wisconsin and Des Moines, Iowa. He will do an event in Indianapolis, Indiana, Thursday morning before leaving and will return to the campaign Saturday, Gibbs said. Michelle Obama will fill in for her husband on Friday at previously scheduled events in Columbus and Akron, Ohio, his campaign said. Obama speaks about his grandmother often on the stump, describing her as an integral figure in his youth who struggled against the glass ceiling in to make a better life for him. \"She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life,\" he said in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. \"She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.\" He and his family traveled to Hawaii in August to visit her. The Obama team made the announcement after a busy day of trading attacks with Sen. John McCain on the Democratic presidential hopeful's readiness for office. Monday also marked the first time that Obama appeared with Sen. Hillary Clinton during the general election season. Clinton went to Florida, a state she won in the primary but whose delegates she could not claim, to urge her supporters to turn out for Obama on Election Day. Clinton called Orlando and central Florida \"the battleground of the battleground\" and practically begged the crowd to vote early. \"We are 15 days from the finish line and we cannot falter, we cannot stop, we cannot take a single vote for granted,\" Clinton said Monday. \"I am asking you to work as hard for Barack as you worked for me. If you made phone calls for me, make them for Barack. If you walked streets for me, make them for Barack. If you talked to your friends and neighbors for me, do it again for Barack. We cannot risk four more years of the same failed Republican policies.\" Earlier in the day, McCain told a crowd in Belton, Missouri, that the next president \"won't have time to get used to the office.\" He was addressing comments made Sunday by Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, in which he said Obama would be tested within the first six months of his presidency. \"We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars,\" McCain said. \"What is more troubling is that Sen. Biden told their campaign donors that when that crisis hits, they would have to stand with them because it wouldn't be apparent Sen. Obama would have the right response. The Obama-Biden campaign released a pre-emptive response after reading McCain's scheduled remarks. \"With our nation facing two wars and 21st century threats abroad, Sen. Biden referenced the simple fact that history shows presidents face challenges from day one,\" Obama spokesman David Wade said. \"After eight years of a failed foreign policy, we need Barack Obama's good judgment and steady leadership, not the erratic and ideological Bush-McCain approach that has set back our security and standing in the world.\" Earlier Monday, Obama denounced the \"say-anything, do-anything politics\" of McCain's camp, but said \"careless, outrageous comments\" won't distract him from addressing the nation's ills. Obama added that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, rejected some of the tactics when she spoke out against a flood of automated phone calls tying Obama to former radical William Ayers. The calls were reported in several battleground states. \"It's getting so bad that even Sen. McCain's running mate denounced his tactics last night,\" Obama said at a campaign event in Tampa, Florida. \"As you know, you really have to work hard to violate Gov. Palin's standards on negative campaigning.\" Sunday night, Palin told reporters traveling with her that if she had her way, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee would not be flooding battleground states with the automated phone calls, which she said the Obama campaign was using too. Over the next 15 days, Obama said Monday, he will continue his quest for the Oval Office while disregarding the divisive politics that he said McCain is endorsing \"to keep us from working together.\" The McCain campaign, meanwhile, continued its weekend assault on Obama's tax plan, which it called an attempt to \"spread the wealth.\" iReport.com: Send your questions for Sen. John McCain . Speaking at a campaign event in St. Charles, Missouri, a chorus of boos rang out as the Arizona senator described his take on the plan. \"He believes in redistributing wealth -- not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans. Sen. Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than in growing the pie.\" In Colorado Springs, Colorado, Palin also continued her line of attack from the weekend, but softened her tone in that she didn't call Obama's plan socialism. Watch Palin say Obama sounds like a socialist \u00bb . Over the weekend, Palin and Sen. Mel Martinez, a Cuban-American GOP senator from Florida, called Obama's plan socialism. Martinez compared the plan to the tax structure in communist Cuba. McCain has taken a softer tone. On Sunday, he dodged a question from Fox News' Chris Wallace about whether Obama was a socialist, but said his rival's tax plan was an effort \"to spread the wealth.\" \"That's one of the tenets of socialism,\" McCain said. Watch Obama defend his plan \u00bb . Obama's tax plan calls for tax relief for 95 percent of workers and their families. Though nonpartisan tax policy organizations agree that 40 percent of Americans don't pay income tax, many of those are lower-income earners who file payroll taxes through their employers. See the fact check . After receiving an endorsement from Colin Powell, a former Republican secretary of state and retired Army general, Obama asked if Powell and billionaire Warren Buffett -- No. 2 on Forbes magazine's 2008 list of richest Americans -- would have extended their backing if he was a socialist. Watch Obama explain Powell's influence \u00bb . Obama said he simply wants to give the middle class a tax cut. Powell came to Obama's defense after endorsing the senator from Illinois. Powell said he had grown tired of McCain's negative campaigning and that the American people would prefer to focus on issues like education, infrastructure and the economy. He specifically slammed Palin's allegation that Obama's tax plan is socialist, calling it misleading. iReport.com: What do you think about Powell's endorsement? \"For us to say that makes you a socialist, I think, is an unfortunate characterization that isn't accurate.\"","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Hillary Clinton urges Floridians to back Obama in appearance with him .\nObama will leave campaign trail Thursday after Indiana stop and return Saturday .\nRest of Thursday events canceled; Michelle Obama will stand in on Friday .\nMcCain references Biden comment that Obama will be tested with early crisis .","id":"2f3c585affad41251e389d78f272c78d12055694"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The parents of a Tennessee preacher shot to death by his wife convinced a judge to keep the convicted killer at home, but they couldn't keep her off the air. Mary Winkler describes her troubled marriage during a taped segrment of \"The Oprah Winfrey Show.\" Seven months in custody wasn't a long enough sentence for what she did, Mary Winkler said Wednesday in an exclusive, pre-recorded interview with Oprah Winfrey. \"There's no amount of time I think you can put on something like this. I was just ready for them to lock the door and throw away the key,\" she told Winfrey. Winkler had sought permission to travel to Chicago, Illinois, to appear live on \"The Oprah Winfrey Show,\" but the judge who presided over her trial would not give her permission to travel. Her in-laws, who are suing Winkler for wrongful death and are seeking to revoke her parental rights, also fought the television appearance. Watch Winkler's interview with Oprah \u00bb . Winkler was convicted earlier this year of the shotgun slaying of her husband, Matthew, at the time the minister of the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee. She told Winfrey that she killed her husband following years of abuse, including physical violence and being forced to dress \"slutty\" for undesirable sex acts. All she remembers, she said, is the \"boom\" as the shotgun went off. Winkler's account on the show was virtually identical to her testimony during her trial earlier this year. A jury of 10 women and one man found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors had been pushing for a first-degree murder conviction. She was released last month from a Tennessee mental heath facility. Winfrey said on the show that Matthew Winkler's parents did not respond to requests for an interview. Dan and Diane Winkler, who have filed a $2 million wrongful-death suit against Mary Winkler, are pitched in a bitter custody battle over the couple's three daughters. The grandparents are trying to terminate her parental rights and adopt the three girls. Mary Winkler's attorney, Steve Farese, said a hearing in the case is scheduled for next week . During the trial, Diane Winkler chastised Mary for never apologizing to them or his children. Mary Winkler told Winfrey she is sorry she killed her husband and she would like a chance to sit down with her in-laws, whom she loves, misses and prays for every day. Asked by Winfrey what she would say to them, Winkler said she couldn't hone it down to two or three sentences. \"Just when that time comes, my heart will tell me what to say,\" she said. In her interview with Winfrey -- for a show titled \"The wife who killed her minister husband\" -- Winkler said tensions began when her husband tried to put their crying 1-year-old daughter, Brianna, back to sleep by \"covering her mouth and nose.\" \"I don't think he had intentions of killing; he just tried to get her to pass out,\" Winkler said, recounting the events just prior to her husband's March 2006 death at the church parsonage in Selmer, Tennessee. Winkler, then 31 and a mother of three, said she was used to his temper, saying, he often \"would just get irate with the baby monitor and Brianna crying.\" \"That's just something that would set him off,\" she told Winfrey. After putting Brianna to bed, she returned to the bedroom where Matthew was \"and I just wanted to talk to Matthew. And there's just that awful -- awful sound,\" she said, referring to the shotgun blast. Asked what she wanted to say to her husband when she went back to the bedroom, Winkler said, \"Just to stop. Be happy. He had to be miserable the way he acted and to just stop being so mean and just relax and enjoy life.\" She said she doesn't remember retrieving the shotgun from the closet, but she remembers thinking the gun was not loaded and that she \"never in a million years would've dreamed that there would've been something in that.\" \"I was so afraid,\" she said, adding that she feared for her life and it was \"not realistic\" to try reasoning with her husband. She doesn't know if she was using the gun to intimidate him or to get his attention, she said. \"When I heard the boom, I just thought that it would've hit the ceiling, the window. And I just thought, 'Oh my goodness, he's going to think I meant to do that on purpose' and so I took out of there and took off running,\" she said. \"At some point, I just realized he wasn't chasing me and I just had to go back in and face the realization.\" The realization was that the shotgun blast had sent 77 pellets into her husband's back. An autopsy report indicated he survived for a few minutes, said Winfrey, who grilled Winkler on what she did next. \"He was bleeding and it was just instinct to wipe his mouth, but it just kept coming. I didn't know how he was hurt. I couldn't see anything wrong with him,\" she said. \"When you actually see somebody that's just died, they just change appearance in a matter of seconds. It was just terrible.\" Winkler told Winfrey she had never fired a shotgun before she killed her husband, but he had turned the weapon on her in the past. He also had threatened more egregious violence, she said. \"Did he say he would chop you up?\" Winfrey asked. \"Yeah, he would do it himself,\" Winkler replied. \"He would do what?\" \"Chop me into a million pieces\" Winkler never stood up for herself, nor did she tell anyone about her husband's allegedly abusive behavior, she said, because she wanted to maintain the image of a perfect couple. She used makeup to cover up bruises. Her father, Clark Freeman, recalled to Winfrey a time he confronted her about her injuries. She just hung her head and said, \"Everything's all right. Everything's all right.\" Freeman said. Her husband also sexually abused her, Winkler said. He made her wear platform shoes and wigs and made her perform \"sexual acts that I didn't want to do.\" She said she regrets never standing up for herself, she said. \"That's where I will always grieve the fact that I failed Matthew in not bringing it to his attention how bad it was,\" she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Wife says sentence for shooting preacher was too short .\nJudge wouldn't allow woman to travel for show; taped segment airs .\nMary Winkler convicted of manslaughter in shotgun slaying .\nShe is battling her in-laws for custody of her three daughters .","id":"ef90046d39faf6cbf69fa9c2115878469defdaff"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Graphic footage of death and destruction has been shown on China's state-run news networks in the days following the massive earthquake that hit southwest Sichuan province earlier this week. Such telling video has rarely been shown by domestic media so extensively and so quickly after a national disaster. CCTV, China's state-run television network, as well as some local TV stations, have interrupted their regular programming to provide 24-hour coverage of the disaster. Field reporters give live reports of search-and rescue operations. News about China's deadly earthquake is being updated around the clock -- tallying death tolls, the horrendous damage and the government's swift response. Footage shows Premier Wen Jiabao surrounded by grieving villagers, his arms tightly holding two young girls. \"Your sorrow is our sorrow,\" he assures them. \"As long as people are still alive, we can start all over again.\" Premier Wen traveled to the disaster areas within hours of the massive earthquake. Chinese television covered his movements while leading rescue operations and comforting people in distress. Wearing a hard hat, he was shown standing on rubble and consoling trapped survivors through a loud speaker. The message is compelling: This disaster is terrible but the government is doing everything it can. Such swift reaction and extensive news coverage has not been seen in previous disasters. When the Great Tangshan earthquake struck 32 years ago, the Chinese media kept the information secret for a long time, even though over 240,000 people were killed. In the early stages of the 2003 SARS outbreak, domestic media downplayed reports on the deadly epidemic, even as it spiraled out of control and spread globally. More recently, severe snowstorms hit southern China during Spring Festival, the nation's most important holiday. Local media initially downplayed the crisis, following the government's cue; Premier Wen Jiabao was later forced to apologize for the government's slow response. With the Beijing Olympics just three months away, China is in the spotlight. Wenran Jiang, acting director of the Chinese Institute at the University of Alberta, believes the nation has drawn lessons from its past experiences with disaster. \"China made mistakes before. They seemed to have learned their lessons from the earlier episodes and this one -- they probably want to manage it as well as they can.\" Watch latest report on rescue efforts \u00bb . Why China's new approach? Jiang notes that \"the media follow-up is quite transparent,\" in part because it \"is politically less sensitive covering such a natural disaster.\" Besides, Chinese officials see tangible benefits in allowing media transparency. By showing the leaders helping people and coordinating search and rescue efforts, he explains, \"the result is that the whole [of] China is being mobilized. The disaster has now become a rallying point of the country.\" Experts in the region note the stark contrast between China's open response in the aftermath of the earthquake and Myanmar's defensive, clumsy response in the aftermath of a deadly cyclone earlier this month. Unlike its southern neighbor, China appears open to accepting international help and providing accurate information. Chinese officials say they welcome offers of sympathy and international assistance. Aid groups have been on standby, ready to help as soon as the Chinese government gives the green light. Officials say that will come \"when the time is ripe.\" Today's more open, quick and aggressive reporting is a stark departure from China's poor performance in recent years.","highlights":"Graphic footage of death, destruction has been shown on state-run networks .\nTV stations have interrupted regular shows to provide 24-hour coverage .\nSwift reaction, extensive news coverage not seen in previous disasters .\nWhen earthquake struck 32 years ago, Chinese media kept information secret .","id":"80ebc22b63c9ddfbe168a7f7067dad090df7aacb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Rick Warren, often called America's most influential pastor, will be hosting Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain for what's being called the civil forum on the presidency. Rick Warren will be hosting the civil forum on the presidency . Warren, who heads up the country's fourth largest church, is also an author whose books have sold more than 30 million copies. The candidates will appear together at Warren's 20,000-member Saddleback mega-church in southern California where they each will be interviewed for an hour. Warren spoke with John Roberts on CNN's American Morning about what he hopes to accomplish at the forum. John Roberts: What do you want to hear from candidates Saturday night? Rick Warren: You know, John, we're going to look at four different segments. One is a segment on leadership. What is the personal character, competence, and experience of each of these guys. One section will be on what I call stewardship -- the role and responsibility of presidency, what they believe about the constitution, the role of America. We're going to look at a section on world view -- all of the minefield questions that no matter how you answer them, somebody's not going to like it. Then we're going to look at America's role internationally. How we've been a blessed nation and how should we bless others. Roberts: Are you going to ask them about issues like abortion and same-sex marriage? Pro-life advocates are hoping you do. There has been some criticism in some corners you have been soft-pedaling political issues that are central to evangelicals. Warren: I think everybody will be surprised. I'm going to ask all of the tough questions. I just intend to ask them in a civil way. This is called a civil forum, which means you can disagree without demonizing the opposition. I think everybody wants to hear questions not just about those \"moral issues,\" but also about a lot of other things, too. I'm trying to stake out a common ground for the common good. Roberts: When you take a look at the evangelical vote in 2004, George Bush captured more than 75 percent of people who identify themselves as either born again or evangelical. Our recent polling, CNN Opinion Research Corporation polls, found when it comes to John McCain, only 67 percent of evangelicals say they'll support him. Are you surprised at the shift? Warren: It's interesting to me. Both of these men have been around for some time. Obama's written two books. Still a lot of people say, I'd like to know the real person. What are they really like? I'm hoping that'll happen in this forum. Evangelicals have never been a monolithic voting base. Never. And the people who try to predict which way they're going to go in this election I think may be surprised after Election Day. You don't really know. I don't know, and I don't think anybody knows. Roberts: As you know, John McCain in 2000 during the primaries ran afoul of evangelicals when he criticized Pat Robinson. He's tried to repair the relationship. Has he gone far enough? Warren: The religious right, fundamentalists and evangelic evangelicals aren't synonyms for each other. I think John may have been talking about certain groups that he was worried about at that time. But he certainly rebuilt bridges among them today. It's just a question of whether they're going to vote on his issues or if they're going to vote on Obama's, and we'll see. Roberts: As for you yourself in the most recent edition of Time magazine on which you're the cover, they've suggested you're evolving into the \"superpolitical.\" Others have suggested you're becoming a spiritual entrepreneur. What do you make of the titles people are ascribing to you? Warren: When you try to line out a middle ground -- common ground for the common good of America -- you get pot shots from both sides. If I were just the left, I'd only get it from the right. If I were just the right, I'd only get it from the left. Because I believe in the monogood and don't happen to think either party gets it right all the time. I don't think anybody bats 1,000. I get it from both sides. That's to be expected.","highlights":"Those who think they can predict the evangelical vote may be surprised, Rick Warren says .\nPastor plans to ask candidates about America's role internationally .\nWarren: Forum won't just focus on \"moral issues,\" but try to find a middle ground .\nTough questions will be asked, but in a civil way, pastor says .","id":"d8d60a674734566dde9151812d0662ad43caf140"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama on Friday called for an economic plan for working families, saying, \"We cannot only have a plan for Wall Street. Sen. Barak Obama speaks at a campaign rally in Coral Gables, Florida, Friday. \"We must also help Main Street,\" he said. While \"tough new regulations on financial institutions\" are needed, the Illinois senator called for an emergency economic plan for working families. Obama spoke after meeting with his economic advisers in Coral Gables, Florida. Watch Obama call for help for Main Street \u00bb . Obama on Friday also backed administration and congressional leaders' efforts to develop a \"a more stable and permanent solution\" to the U.S. financial crisis. Watch Obama talk about how working Americans need help in this economy . Obama's statement came after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox met with congressional leaders to discuss a plan that would allow banks to get rid of bad mortgage-related assets that have been a drag on their balance sheets. \"What we're looking at right now is to provide the Treasury and the Federal Reserve with as broad authority as necessary to stabilize markets and maintain credit,\" Obama said. \"We need a more institutional response to create a system that can manage some of the underlying problems with bad mortgages, help homeowners stay in their homes, protect the retirement and savings of working Americans.\" After meeting with his economic advisors, Obama said his team would not present a detailed economic plan at this time, \"given the gravity of this situation, and based on conversations I have had with both Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke.\" Obama said he would not present his plan until the Treasury and Federal Reserve have presented theirs. \"It is critical at this point that the markets and the public have confidence that their work will be unimpeded by partisan wrangling, and that leaders in both parties work in concert to solve the problem at hand,\" Obama said. Later, Obama held a rally, at the University of Miami, which was disrupted by protesters who held up signs saying \"Blacks against Obama\" and \"Obama endorsed by the KKK.\" Obama said the protesters could stay and hold up their signs if they stopped shouting, but they were later escorted out after they continued to disrupt the rally. Obama spoke after Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Friday morning that he would establish a new agency to deal with the U.S. financial crisis that many experts say is the worst since the Great Depression. Watch McCain blast Washington corruption \u00bb . That agency, a Mortgage and Financial Institutions trust, would work with the private sector and regulators to identify institutions that are weak and fix them before they go broke. \"The underlying principle of the MFI or any approach considered by Congress should be to keep people in their homes and safeguard the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial system and capital markets,\" McCain told the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce in Wisconsin. McCain said the agency would be an early intervention program to help financial institutions avoid bankruptcy, expensive bailouts and damage to their customers. Obama, at the rally in Florida, lashed out at McCain's plan. \"This morning Sen. McCain gave a speech in which his big solution to this worldwide economic crisis was to blame me for it. \"This is a guy who spent nearly three decades in Washington and after spending the entire campaign saying I haven't been in Washington long enough ... he apparently now is willing to assign me responsibility for all of Washington's failure,\" he said. Wall Street witnessed the federal government take unprecedented steps this week to stabilize the economy, including the takeover of the insurance giant American International Group Inc. in exchange for an $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve. In his speech, McCain blamed the crisis on \"the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system\" and blasted Congress and the administration for not addressing the problems at the two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which he said \"led our housing system down a path where quick profit was placed before sound finance.\" McCain also blasted his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, for not working to clean up the \"corruption\" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fact Check: Did Obama 'profit' from Fannie and Freddie? \"We've heard a lot of words from Sen. Obama over the course of this campaign. But maybe just this once he could spare us the lectures and admit to his own poor judgment in contributing to these problems. The crisis on Wall Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence peddling, and he was square in the middle of it.\" Although action must be taken to avoid future panics, the Arizona Republican said that ultimately, the economy would have to grow to get through \"this tough time for America.\" McCain touted his economic plan, which includes tax cuts, and again said Obama would increase taxes on Americans who make as little as $42,000. McCain's charge that his opponent would raise taxes on those making $42,000 is misleading, however. The McCain campaign cites Obama's vote for a nonbinding 2008 budget resolution that outlines budget priorities through 2013 and assumed that President Bush's tax cuts would expire in 2011. Fact Check: Does Obama want to raise taxes? The Obama campaign says its economic plan would raise taxes only on those making over $250,000. The economic crisis has given Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, the opportunity to go on the offensive. Most Americans see Obama as more capable than McCain when it comes to the economy, polls indicate. The two campaigns have traded shots all week, most recently over the government takeover of AIG. As the economy has dominated the headlines, Obama has widened his lead over McCain, according to CNN's latest \"poll of polls.\" Obama gains in national polls .","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Obama says any recover plan must help workers and homeowners .\nMcCain repeats misleading charge against Obama on taxes .\nJohn McCain calls for agency to help weak financial institutions .\nMcCain blasts Barack Obama for not working to fix Freddie Mae, Freddie Mac .","id":"2ffa072b086f49c08ade87738c86e82509b1005f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tugboat on Saturday reached a disabled freighter carrying 22 people, hours after the ship rode out Hurricane Ike without power, Coast Guard spokesman Mike O'Berry said. O'Berry said the tugboat Rotterdam arrived shortly before 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). Repairs will be made aboard the Antalina, which has a broken fuel pump, while at sea, O'Berry said. The tugboat will then tow the ship to Port Arthur, Texas, where it will undergo additional repairs and eventually offload more of its cargo -- petroleum coke, a petroleum byproduct -- O'Berry said. The crew members aboard the Antalina, a Cypriot-flagged freighter, are all in good health, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Ron Labrec. The freighter suffered no major damage from the storm, said Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for the company that manages the ship. Aircraft from the Coast Guard and Air Force were sent Friday afternoon to try to rescue the crew of the freighter, which is loaded with petroleum coke, a petroleum byproduct. But high winds forced the military to abort the rescue, O'Berry said. The Coast Guard then instructed the freighter to contact it each hour. It also told told the crew to turn on the ship's emergency radio beacon so its position could be monitored, O'Berry said. Watch the Coast Guard conduct a rescue operation \u00bb . Onshore as well, rescuers found it too dangerous to respond to calls for help. In Liverpool, Texas, south of Houston, a family called for help around 1 a.m. Saturday when a tree crashed into their house, but authorities concluded that strong winds made it too dangerous to respond, said Doc Adams, Brazoria County's emergency management coordinator. \"You want to take care of people, and when you can't, it's tough,\" Adams said. \"Unfortunately, someone has to make the decision about whether the risk is worth the benefit. Are you willing to risk three or four lives to save one? It's not easy.\" Adams said he didn't know if anyone in the house was hurt. \"As far as I know, they're still there in the house with a tree over it,\" he said at about 3:40 a.m. The stranded freighter had been headed south through the Gulf of Mexico from Port Arthur, Texas, but \"lost main propulsion 90 miles southeast of Galveston\" and was unable to steer, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard received a distress call from the vessel at 4 a.m. Friday. The Antalina was \"basically adrift, at the mercy of the wind and sea currents,\" Coast Guard Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said at the time. \"We are in hell,\" one of the men aboard the freighter told CNN on Friday before the rescue was called off. The man said the winds around the ship were strong but that the freighter still had power. On Friday before the storm hit, authorities picked up more than 120 people stranded by rising seas along the southeast Texas coast. Most of the rescues occurred in Galveston County, where rising water and other effects of the storm began hours before landfall early Saturday. Stranded residents were airlifted from Crystal Beach, Bolivar Peninsula and other communities in the Galveston area. Many of those rescued were motorists stranded on flooded roads. In Surfside Beach, police waded through chest-high rushing water to rescue five people trapped in their homes. One man refused to leave, said Surfside Beach police Chief Randy Smith. \"Some of them took convincing, some of them didn't,\" Smith said. Police also rescued five other people who waded out to meet the officers. About half of those rescues were done by helicopters out of bases along the coast, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David Schulein. Three HH-65C helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Houston rescued more than 20 people and continued to fly rescue missions until weather grounded them Friday evening, said Petty Officer Renee Aiello, a station spokeswoman. Some 37,000 people may need to be rescued in the aftermath of the hurricane, a U.S. military official estimated Friday. Texas already has asked for help, and the active-duty military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby, the official said.","highlights":"NEW: Tugboat reaches stranded freighter .\nShip's crew of 22 endures night without power in Gulf of Mexico .\nCoast Guard, Air Force had to abandon rescue because of poor conditions .\nAuthorities onshore find it too dangerous to respond to calls for help .","id":"1080f37d7e221219c9d301f8afaabc83e43addb4"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Republican strategist Alex Castellanos was a former campaign consultant for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and has worked on more than half a dozen presidential campaigns. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and public affairs consulting firm that specializes in advertising. He has produced many Republican political ads and has clients such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Alex Castellanos says Barack Obama's change theme has buckled to \"top-down liberalism.\" (CNN) -- In theater, they say the second act is the hardest to write. It requires relentless focus and discipline. The writer must give himself fearlessly to one central idea and never waver, though temptation is the opposite: There are many paths a story can take. So it is in politics, as Barack Obama's campaign is learning. The clear campaign of change ran into trouble in Act II when it was tasked with explaining what change actually meant. Obama, as they say in show business, \"ran out of script.\" The wind in his sails stalled in the hot calm of August and he has yet to recover. After John McCain's improbable resuscitation to seize the GOP nomination, the Arizona senator's top aides briefed him about his exacting challenge: He would go into the conventions trailing Obama by at least 8 percentage points and then battle back through the fall to parity. Yet, as cooler days and hotter rhetoric mark the start of the fall finale, it is Obama who finds himself clawing back, forced to attack, launching uncharacteristic partisan and personal attacks against a McCain who has \"lost track\" of and is \"confused\" about how many houses he owns. How did the soaring campaign of change become grinding politics-as-usual and crash so thunderously to earth? The Obama campaign's clear message in the primaries was a bottom-up, organic populism that cast voters themselves as the agents of change. \"We are the change we have been waiting for,\" Obama told his supporters during the primaries. In return, they sang, \"Yes we can.\" This heady mix of populism and change swelled his campaign into a cause. In marketing terms, it is called \"voter as hero.\" Obama empowered his supporters, telling them they, not the old political establishment, could achieve anything. Bottom-up politics is one thing, however. Bottom-up government, another. When Barack Obama became the nominee of the national Democratic establishment, the candidate of hope ran into political reality: His party's canons of governing are the opposite of change. Barack Obama may believe \"change doesn't come from the top down, it comes from the bottom up,\" but the leadership of his party doesn't. The national Democratic establishment, from the Daily Kos and MoveOn.org to Pelosi and Reid in Congress, still believe in top-down big-government from Washington, especially if they get to run the factory. Politically, they are industrial-age dinosaurs . They believe the era of big government is back, not over. They would keep money and power in their hands, not devolve it to the average American. That was not something the Denver Democrats were eager to confess. Instead, they advocated a sly European-style socialism that would not speak its intent. \"Decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege,\" the Democrats offered during the first night of their convention. A big-government health-care factory run by Washington? That's change? Why not the same for food, clothing and shelter? But relax, Joe Lunchbucket, an even bigger public-sector industrial plant will impose no cost on your family. Obama's party promises not to tax you, just business -- the people who sell you your groceries and gasoline and sign your paychecks. As Fred Thompson noted in his GOP convention speech, \"They won't take any water out of your side of the bucket. Just the other side.\" This is not \"voter as hero\" but, instead, \"voter as victim.\" A heroic Washington has all the money, the power, and the answers. Same old, same old. So the candidate of change fell silent. And he sang change never again. Barack Obama could have spoken truth to power. He could have pledged to confront the Democratic Party establishment. He could have brought a more natural, organic era of bottom-up government, not just bottom-up politics, to a dated party clinging to a decaying philosophy of authority. But when the irresistible force of Obama's bottom-up politics met the immovable object of Democratic Party power, it was the dream, not the power, that conceded. \"Yes we can\" turned out to mean not \"Yes the people can\", just \"Yes Washington can.\" Too bad. It would have refreshed the Democratic Party and the country. This movie is not new: The candidate who runs to change the establishment doesn't. Instead, we see it change him. The hope for real change in Washington has been suffocated by an older generation's embrace. Now, Barack Obama finds himself trapped without a post-partisan message. Instead of challenging politics-as-usual, he sells the usual partisan politics: \"Bush-McCain\", he shouts from rooftops, sounding like every other Democrat in the chorus, pretending partisanship is fresh. The story? Bottom-up change ran into top-down liberalism. Old-fashioned liberalism won. That's Act II. Stand by for the play's end. This opinions in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Alex Castellanos: Obama's message was populism and bottom-up change .\nObama campaign taken over by Democratic establishment, he says .\nCastellanos: Democratic party champions big government and opposes change .\n\"Yes we can\" turned into \"Yes Washington can,\" Castellanos says .","id":"43ba8c49ed06c4732f3c67be1dcce1303c947eed"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India launched its first lunar mission on Wednesday, with hopes of achieving high-resolution images of the moon's topography and diving into the international space race. The spacecraft carrying India's first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, lifts off in Sriharikota on Wednesday. The unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1, or \"moon craft\" in ancient Sanskrit, came at 6:20 a.m. Wednesday (8:50 p.m. ET) from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. The two-year mission seeks high-resolution imaging of the moon's surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions, according to the Indian Space Research Organization. It will also search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical breakdown of certain lunar rocks, the group said. Despite the numerous missions to the moon over the past 50 years, \"we really don't have a good map of the moon,\" said Miles O'Brien, CNN chief technology and environment correspondent. \"The goal is to come up with a very intricate, three-dimensional map of the moon.\" The Chandrayaan-1 is carrying payloads from the United States, European Union countries Germany, Britain, Sweden and Bulgaria, and India plans to share the data from the mission with other programs, including NASA. Watch the launch of India's first lunar mission \u00bb . ISRO said on its Web site that the mission would lay the groundwork for future lunar missions and \"probe the physical characteristics of the lunar surface in greater depth than previous missions by other nations.\" \"It will also give us a deeper understanding about the planet Earth itself or its origins,\" a statement on the Web site said. \"Earlier missions did not come out with a full understanding of the moon and that is the reason scientists are still interested. This will lay the foundation for bigger missions and also open up new possibilities of international networking and support for planetary programs.\" Until now, India's space launches have been more practical, with weather warning satellites and communiations systems, The Associated Press cited former NASA associated administrator Scott Pace as saying. To date, only the U.S. Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon, according to AP. Critics of the mission have questioned its $80 million price tag, saying the money should have been spent by the government to improve education and fight poverty. But, \"there are scientists that would argue that there are plenty of things we don't know about the moon ... and India might have the know-how\" to find answers, said CNN's Sara Sidner in New Delhi. The United States and the Soviet Union dominated the field of lunar exploration from the late 1950s. The United States is preparing for its own mission slated for next spring -- the first U.S. lunar mission in more than a decade, according to NASA. Soviet spacecraft were the first to fly by, land on and orbit the moon. Luna 1, launched on January 2, 1959, and sped by the moon two days later. Luna 2 was launched on an impact mission on September 12, 1959, striking the surface two days later. Luna 9 launched on January 31, 1966, becoming the first craft to successfully land on the moon and send back data, touching down on the surface on January 31, 1966, and transmitting until February 3, 1967, when its batteries ran out. Luna 10 was launched March 31, 1966, entered lunar orbit on April 3, and operated for 56 days. But the United States' Apollo missions were the first manned missions to reach the moon, culminating with six missions that set down on the surface. The first, Apollo 11, left earth on July 16, 1969, and landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the lunar surface on July 20 while command module pilot Michael Collins orbited above. The astronauts returned safely to earth on July 24. Most recently India's fellow Asian nations, China and Japan, put lunar orbiters in place. Japan launched the Kaguya orbiter in October 2007, followed by China's launch of the Chang'e mission a few weeks later. Watch what is shaping up to be a new space race \u00bb . \"Each nation is doing its own thing to drive its research technology for the well-being of that nation,\" AP quoted Charles Vick, a space analyst for the Washington think tank GlobalSecurity.org, as saying. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Chandrayaan-1 is carrying payloads from the U.S., EU and Bulgaria .\nTwo-year mission seeks high-resolution, 3-D imaging of the moon's surface .\nChandrayaan-1 follows Japan and China's missions to the moon .\nChandrayaan means \"moon craft\" in ancient Sanskrit .","id":"ecff53265a68cecc9591e4e099b2937c5857e881"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- More than 1,300 pounds of explosives were packed into a construction truck that detonated outside an Islamabad hotel, killing 57 people, including two Americans and a diplomat, officials said Sunday. A truck burns at the gate to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad before a larger, deadly explosion Saturday. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the Saturday attack at the Marriott Hotel \"is the biggest attack, volume-wise\" in Pakistan in seven years. Two American military personnel who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were among those killed, the U.S. military said. A Lithuanian and the Czech Republic's ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, also were among the fatalities, police superintendent Sheikh Zubair said. The suicide truck blast injured 266 people, including 11 foreigners, according to Malik. Watch guards scatter after an explosion \u00bb . British Airways temporarily suspended its flights to Islamabad as a result of the security situation, according to an airline spokeswoman who did not want to be named. A Sunday night flight has been canceled, and the airline is reviewing its operations for later in the week. British Airways operates at least three flights a week to the Pakistani capital out of London's Heathrow Airport. At a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday, Pakistani authorities released security video of the blast, showing a small explosion inside the truck before the larger, deadly explosion. Watch the truck bomb caught on tape . In the video, a large truck crashes into the security gate, sending one security officer scurrying for safety. Then, as security guards approach the truck, the top of the vehicle explodes and the security guards flee. A small cloud of smoke appears above the truck, which is engulfed in flames minutes later. One of the security guards tries to put out the fire with a hand-held extinguisher, to no avail. The guards then walk away, and the camera freezes on the burning truck. Pakistani officials said the blast apparently disrupted electricity to the area, causing the closed-circuit television camera to malfunction. No arrests have been made in connection with the attack, Malik said Sunday, adding that militants in Pakistan's tribal regions are suspected of orchestrating the attack. \"I am not in a position to tell you who has done it, but [in] all the previous investigations, all the roads have gone to South Waziristan,\" he said. South Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven tribal areas where Taliban and al Qaeda militants are active. At the bombing site, video showed a deep crater in the pavement where the bomb detonated. More than a dozen cars were reduced to twisted steel. The crater was 24 feet deep and nearly 60 feet wide, Malik said. The blast also caused a natural gas leak that set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said. The blaze quickly engulfed the entire structure. Watch a witness describe walking over bodies \u00bb . Most of the fatalities appeared to be drivers, who were waiting with their cars outside the Marriott, and hotel security guards, Geo TV's Hamid Mir said. The hotel, where a standard room costs more than $300 per night, is near the compound that contains the Parliament building, the prime minister's house, the Supreme Court and the presidency. The blast occurred about 7:50 p.m., after the breaking of the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, Malik said. Trees were felled by the explosion, which occurred hours after newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari addressed a joint session of Parliament and promised to root out terrorism. Watch the scene the morning after the blast \u00bb . A few hours after the attack, Zardari addressed the nation on television, saying he knows the pain of terrorism after his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in December on the campaign trail. \"My heart cries tears of blood. I can understand your pain. I want to ask you to turn this pain into your strength,\" he said, describing extremism as \"a cancer, which we will finish.\" \"In the holy month of Ramadan, no Muslim can act in this way. These people are not Muslims,\" he said. \"I appeal to all democratic nations to help us get rid of this menace.\" The Marriott, a Western brand-name hotel, has been the site of attacks in the past. See where the attack occurred \u00bb . Malik said authorities had received a threat against Parliament two days ago. \"We had taken all security measures,\" he said. \"There was heavy security in the city.\" Located near the diplomatic section of the city and heavily guarded by police and the military, the hotel is popular among tourists and had been packed Saturday night. Any vehicle entering the facility is searched, its underside checked for bombs, before it is allowed to pass through heavy steel gates. Watch bombing victims rushed into hospital \u00bb . The British High Commission in Islamabad said six British nationals -- five adults and one minor -- were injured in the attack, including three commission members. A Pakistani staff member of the commission was also injured, it said. A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry said six Germans in the hotel were slightly hurt in the attack, and that all embassy personnel were accounted for. CNN's Zein Basravi and Reza Sayah, and journalist Tomas Etzler contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Truck loaded with more than a half-ton of explosives, official says .\nU.S. military says two Americans assigned to embassy among dead .\nPakistani president says of perpetrators: \"These people are not Muslims\"\nPolice: Ivo Zdarek, Czech Republic's ambassador to Pakistan, died in hotel bombing .","id":"0f11e7dff4c52690b4f664db30092f859216a1e6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A mother suspected of killing her four children, whose decomposing bodies were found in her home, told police they were possessed by demons, according to court records. Banita Jacks, 33, is charged with three counts of felony murder and one count of first-degree murder while armed. The victims, who range in age from 5 to 17 years, are thought to be her daughters. Their bodies were found when U.S. marshals served an eviction notice at Jacks' apartment in southeast Washington, D.C. Court documents say Jacks identified the victims as her daughters Brittany Jacks, 17; Tatianna Jacks, 11; N'kiah Fogle, 6; and Aja Fogle, 5. Earlier Thursday, Mayor Adrian Fenty said the bodies' decomposition has hindered their identification, although they were believed to be Jacks' children. Marie Pierre-Louis, Washington's chief medical examiner, said all four of the girls had been dead for at least 15 days. Jacks is being held without bail. Her next court appearance is scheduled for February 11. If convicted, she could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison. Jacks told police that her daughters were possessed by demons and that each died in her sleep during a seven- to 10-day period, court documents said. Aja died first, she told police, then N'kiah, Tatianna and Brittany. \"She said that as the first three younger children died, she placed them side by side in the room in which they died,\" according to court documents. She reported that all the deaths occurred sometime before the electricity in her house was disconnected, which records show was September 5, 2007, documents said. Jacks said she never tried to call authorities to remove the bodies \"because she didn't trust either agency and because she thought if she notified emergency personnel, that would cause her more problems,\" the documents said. She also said she had not fed her daughters food \"for a substantial period of time prior to their deaths.\" No one besides herself or the children had been in the home since May 2007, Jacks said. Pierre-Louis ruled the deaths homicides, according to a court document. Watch Pierre-Louis describe the condition of the bodies \u00bb . Preliminary findings are that Brittany was stabbed to death and that Aja died from blunt-force impact to the back of her head and possible ligature strangulation. Both Tatianna and N'kiah also had \"apparent ligature evidence\" on their necks that was \"somewhat more defined than that noted on Aja Fogle's neck,\" court documents said. However, the documents said, further tests are needed to confirm the causes of the deaths. All four children were wearing white T-shirts and were discovered in unfurnished bedrooms -- three in one and a fourth in another, the documents said. \"What appeared to be a metal steak knife\" was found next to the fourth. Also, the fourth body was found in a bedroom with hardwood floors, and a T-shirt with duct tape was found at the bottom of the bedroom door, filling the gap between the floor and the bottom of the door when it was closed. A witness told police they saw Jacks treat Brittany differently from her other children, sometimes withholding food from her while feeding the others, court documents said. In addition, the witness said Jacks once drove Brittany to Jacks' mother's home in Waldorf, Maryland, and left her there. Jacks' mother was not home, the witness said, and Brittany was left on the porch unattended for more than 10 hours. City officials are trying to determine how the children could have been dead for at least two weeks without anyone noticing their absence. Fenty said the city had determined that Jacks' children were \"in and out of the public school system\" and that the child welfare caseworkers and the metropolitan police had each had at least \"one contact\" with the family. Watch Fenty explain how a \"routine\" eviction became a death investigation \u00bb . \"There may be other contacts with the government ... in the case of the Jacks family,\" he said. He did not divulge further details. \"Somebody should have known that these young people were not in school or someplace,\" Councilman Marion Barry said Wednesday. The former Washington mayor represents the ward in which the bodies were found. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Larry Lazo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: One child appeared to be stabbed to death, another strangled .\nMother Banita Jacks, 33, told police her children died in their sleep .\nJacks faces 3 counts of felony murder, 1 count of first-degree murder while armed .\nOfficials trying to determine how kids' deaths, absences went unnoticed .","id":"812617fecf8dbea2ace50270782744f60ad1361d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy is having hundreds of its older F\/A-18 fighter jets inspected, including some flying operations over Afghanistan, for cracks in part of a wing assembly, officials said Friday. Inspectors looking at F\/A-18 fighter jets have found 15 with stress crack problems on the wings. Some 636 F\/A-18 A through D model Hornets in both the Navy and the Marine Corps are being inspected for stress cracks on a hinge connecting the aileron to the flaps on the back side of the wings, according to Navy spokesmen. Inspectors started looking at the planes Thursday and have found 15 aircrafts with the problem. A panel on the wing can be swapped out with a new one to get rid of the problem. The Navy is still looking at the hinge in question to see whether the problem is severe enough to ground the Hornets and come up for a permanent fix for the hinge. Navy officials said there are no immediate plans to ground the 636 planes. This month, a post-flight inspection of one F\/A-18 found a crack, and it was determined to be systemic enough to warrant an inspection of the older F\/A-18s, according to Navy officials. The Navy also flies the Super Hornet, a newer version of the F\/A-18. That plane is not part of this inspection. Navy flight operations around the world will not be interrupted because of the inspections, officials said.","highlights":"636 F\/A-18 A through D model Hornets being inspected for stress crack .\nInspectors started looking at planes Thursday and have found 15 with problem .\nNavy officials said there are no immediate plans to ground the planes .","id":"e5cf3d6f753003ca45550ffb2873699530fb3c9c"} -{"article":"SHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- Natalie Williams, a 21-year-old Special Olympics basketball player from Kentucky, says she's never really been treated like a true athletic star. But that was before she came to the Games in China, which has undergone a major change in its treatment of the mentally disabled. Hong Kong's Special Olympics team marches into the stadium during last week's opening ceremony. \"They are able to accept special needs people in a way that maybe some other countries do not,\" Williams says. Last week, organizers rolled out the red carpet for athletes arriving at the Special Olympics in Shanghai, China. Never before in the 39-year history of the Special Olympics has there been such an extravagant, star-studded opening ceremony. And everywhere in this city, there are billboards with the smiling faces of the mentally disabled promoting the Games. China spent millions ensuring the 7,500 competitors are cared for -- and more importantly accepted. Watch 'This is a highlight to their lives' \u00bb . That's quite a turnaround for a country whose leadership, less than 20 years ago, refused to even acknowledge any of their citizens were intellectually disabled. At the time, former Prime Minister Li Peng was quoted as saying, \"Mentally retarded people give birth to idiots.\" \"There's a long way to go -- there's a long way. But the good news is we're moving,\" says Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics. China's transformation is so far mostly from the top down, beginning with no less than President Hu Jintao whose presence at the Opening Ceremony was particularly notable. See photos of the opening ceremony \u00bb . Also notable was the president's visit to one of Shanghai's \"Sunshine Homes\" this month. The shelters are a direct result of this city winning the rights five years ago to host the Special Olympics. Back then, officials quickly realized their treatment of the city's 70,000 mentally disabled was woefully inadequate. Now there are 240 Sunshine Homes spread across this sprawling city, caring for about 15,000 of those most in need, like 25-year-old Chen Xiaohan. She still struggles to speak with strangers, but her parents boast of her many achievements since enrolling a year ago. Xiaohan can make her own bed, walk to school and is learning piano. But more notable, says her father, Chen Zhixiang, is the change in recent years in the way his daughter is treated by neighbors. \"If in the past you looked down on them and now you still look down, it only proves your thinking is bad. Now when our neighbors see her, they're very nice. They ask, 'Chen Xiaohan, how are you today?' There isn't any more discrimination.\" The Special Olympics may have been a watershed moment for China's mentally disabled, but perhaps a breakthrough came a few years earlier, when Special Olympian Judy Yang appeared in a splashy spread on the front cover of a mainstream teen-age magazine. Photogenic and well-spoken, Yang has been an unofficial ambassador of sorts and, after her magazine debut, she noticed a real shift in how the Chinese related to the disabled. \"A lot of people are accepting now. They're willing to be friends, to let their children play with one another, and they can learn from each other as well.\" That may be true in China's biggest, richest and most Western city, Shanghai, but in the countryside not much appears to have changed. Intellectually disabled children that are hard to manage are often locked in caged rooms. Humanitarian officials say stories of doctors recommending disabled children be killed at birth are common. In addition, programs like Sunshine Homes are almost unheard of outside of Shanghai and caring for the almost 13 million intellectually disabled in China remains a major challenge. Earlier this year, authorities exposed a human trafficking ring selling young men, many of them intellectually disabled, to work in brick kilns. \"Neglect and discrimination is still quite prevalent. People tend to be ashamed of children with disabilities. They tend to hide them away. They tend not to let them have access to schooling or education,\" says Yin Yin Nwe, the head of UNICEF in China. But Nwe is optimistic. As China's economy grows, she said she thinks the government will continue to devote more resources to the country's weakest and most vulnerable. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"China has undergone major change in attitude toward intellectually disabled .\nShanghai is hosting the Special Olympics to great fanfare .\nCity has opened special homes to help care for some of city's mentally disabled .\nHelping China's remaining 13 million intellectually disabled remains challenge .","id":"519373bff5fe740e30fd8a10026ff7e822432dac"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived Monday in Iran on his first official visit to the country, the Iranian Press TV reported. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, greets Bolivia's leader, Evo Morales, on Monday in Tehran. Morales is expected to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to \"review issues of mutual interest\" between the Islamic republic and the leftist South American nation, according to the national news agency IRNA. The Bolivian leader arrived in Tehran from Libya, where he met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Morales has described Iran and Bolivia as \"two friendly and revolutionary countries,\" Press TV said. \"The two countries are both energy producers and are staunchly opposed to U.S. hegemony.\" Morales, a former labor organizer and the country's first indigenous president, was elected in 2005. Like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with whom he maintains strong ties, Morales has sought to improve his relationship with Tehran.","highlights":"Bolivian leader to \"review issues of mutual interest\" with Iran's president .\nBolivian President Evo Morales has sought to improve ties with Iran .\nBolivia, Iran \"staunchly opposed to U.S. hegemony,\" Morales says .\nMorales met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi before Iran trip .","id":"3e0a592bb6e2bd6c645542cb4d21994c30f67e80"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan has been forced from their home after a poisonous spider hitched a ride back with him and apparently killed their pet dog. The camel spider's bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals. Lorraine Griffiths and her three children, aged 18, 16, and 4, moved out of their house in Colchester, southeast England, and are refusing to return until the spider is apprehended, the UK Press Association reported. Griffiths told the East Anglian Daily Times that the spider appeared after her husband, Rodney, returned from a four-month tour of duty in Helmand province, the arid southern Afghan frontline in the fight against Taliban extremists. \"My son Ricky was in my bedroom looking for his underwear, and he went into the drawer under my bed, and something crawled across his hand,\" she told the paper. She said their pet dog Cassie confronted the creature, which they identified on the Internet as a camel spider, but ran out whimpering when it hissed at her. Watch the family that has been terrorized by the spider \u00bb . \"It seems too much of a coincidence that she died at the same time that we saw the spider,\" she said. The desert-dwelling camel spider, actually an insect rather than an arachnid, can run up to 25 kilometers (15 miles) an hour and reach 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. Its bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.","highlights":"UK family forced from home as poisonous insect hitches in from Afghanistan .\nCamel spider believed to have stowed away in soldier's luggage .\nFamily blames creature for death of pet dog Cassie .","id":"a76bcc8a6ea58005f6699f52903c8059a365339e"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Officials on Monday announced the death of a second child who consumed contaminated milk powder. More than 1,200 others have been sickened, according to China's Health Ministry. Of that number, 340 infants are hospitalized and 53 are considered to be in serious condition. Government inspectors are testing baby formula around China and plan to release their results on Tuesday, said Li Changjiang, head of the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to the Xinhua news agency. The manufacturer, Sanlu Group, has recalled more than 8,200 tons of the tainted formula following reports of babies developing kidney stones, Xinhua said. Watch what Sanlu has done \u00bb . Sanlu, one of China's leading dairy producers, has also sealed off more than 2,100 tons of contaminated product, and another 700 tons still need to be recalled, the news agency said. It is not the first time Sanlu has been connected to a scandal involving tainted milk powder, according to China Daily. In 2004, at least 13 infants in the eastern Anhui province died of malnutrition after drinking milk powder that had little to no nutrition. The illegally manufactured milk was falsely labeled with the Sanlu brand, according to the paper. More than 170 other babies were hospitalized as a result of drinking the cheap milk powder. Chinese police have questioned 78 people -- including dairy farmers and milk dealers -- about the most recent contamination, a Chinese official told Xinhua Saturday. Sanlu would not say whether its employees are being investigated, Xinhua said. Testing by Sanlu found tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine, in 700 tons of its product, said Zhao Xinchao, the vice mayor of Shijiazhuang, the news agency reported. Zhao told the news agency that the suspects added water to the milk they sold to Sanlu to make more money, then added the chemical so the diluted milk could still meet standards. Inspectors found the chemical in Sanlu infant formula produced by one of the company's partner producers in northwest Gansu Province, an official said Sunday. Two of 12 samples randomly selected from the Sanlu milk powder produced by the Haoniu Dairy Company in Jiuquan City tested positive for melamine, said Xian Hui, the vice-governor of Gansu. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. The chemical is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Hundreds of Wal-Mart and Carrefour stores in China are pulling the Sanlu milk powder from their shelves, Xinhua said. This episode marks the latest in a string of tainted products produced in China. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled more than 150 brands of cat and dog food last year after finding that some pets became ill or died after eating food tainted with melamine, the same chemical found in the powdered milk. Two Chinese businesses, a U.S. company and top executives of each were indicted by a federal grand jury in February in connection with tainted pet food, which resulted in deaths and serious illnesses in up to thousands of U.S. pets, federal prosecutors said. In October 2007, regulators and retailers in the United States recalled at least 69,000 Chinese-made toys over concerns of excessive amounts of lead paint, which can cause hazardous lead poisoning. In November, shipments of the popular toy Aqua Dots were found to have been contaminated with a toxic chemical that turned into a powerful \"date rape\" drug if swallowed, causing some children who ate the craft toys to vomit and lose consciousness. And in February, a Maryland candy distributor pulled Pokemon-brand Valentine lollipops from store shelves after bits of metal were found in the sealed treats, authorities said. Officials on Monday announced the death of a second child who consumed contaminated milk powder. Of the more than 1,200 others who have been sickened, 340 infants were hospitalized, and 53 considered to be in serious condition, according to China's Health Ministry. Government inspectors were testing baby formula around China and plan to release their results on Tuesday, said Li Changjiang, head of the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to the Xinhua news agency. The manufacturer, Sanlu Group, has recalled more than 8,200 tons of the tainted formula following reports of babies developing kidney stones, Xinhua said. Sanlu, one of China's leading dairy producers, also has sealed off more than 2,100 tons of contaminated product, and another 700 tons still need to be recalled, the news agency said. Chinese police have questioned 78 people, including dairy farmers and milk dealers, about the contamination, a Chinese official told Xinhua Saturday. Sanlu would not say whether its employees were being investigated, Xinhua said. Testing by Sanlu found tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine, in 700 tons of its product, said Zhao Xinchao, the vice mayor of Shijiazhuang, the news agency reported. Zhao told the news agency that the suspects added water to the milk they sold to Sanlu to make more money, then added the chemical so that the diluted milk could still meet standards. Inspectors found the chemical in Sanlu infant formula produced by one of the company's partner producers in northwest Gansu Province, an official said Sunday. Two of 12 samples randomly selected from the Sanlu milk powder produced by the Haoniu Dairy Company in Jiuquan City tested positive for melamine, said Xian Hui, the vice-governor of Gansu. Ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation, health experts said. The chemical is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. The chemical was also involved in the massive pet food recall last year. Hundreds of Wal-Mart and Carrefour stores in were pulling the Sanlu milk powder from their shelves, Xinhua said.","highlights":"Government inspectors plan to release test results Tuesday; 2nd death announced .\nSanlu is one of China's leading dairy producers .\nMelamine found in 700 tons of Sanlu's product, Xinhua cites mayor as saying .\nIngesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, eye and skin irritation .","id":"1cedd9c817c5b7858b4d92a341800fcc6ac76a6a"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Everybody has a \"type.\" Personally, I like a man with a big schnozz -- bonus points if he's got a collection of acne scars a l\u00e1 Tommy Lee Jones. The \"OverEater\" is one of the nine types of men that women should avoid. My pal Annie likes preppy men -- but only after they've gone to seed and become a little bloated in the process. Suzanne has a weakness for thin Japanese guys who like indie rock music, while Maddy adores bike messengers of all shapes and sizes. But there are certain types of guys who should be NOBODY'S type. These guys are distinguished by one thing -- an overabundance of one or more very bad qualities. Here's your guide to boys to avoid: . 1. The OverSharer: The current Overshare Poster Boy is Phillip Nobel, who wrote a highly hide-chapping account of his extramarital affair for Elle. The Oversharer will broadcast intimate episodes from your relationship to his mother, your mother, his blog readers and anyone else he can rope into paying attention. 2. The OverThinker: One of the great things about dating men is that you aren't subjected to long, excruciating interrogations over what you really meant when you reassured him that no, he didn't look fat in those pants. However, though they're rare birds, there are guys who will want to spend hours dissecting even the most innocuous comment, examining it for tone, content and what you might've been implying. 3. The OverTalker: Your friends say they've never known you to be so quiet. That's because this man does enough talking for both of you (and then some). When you do finally eke out a sentence or two he interrupts and talks over you anyway. You have two choices -- accept the fact that you will never speak again or tell him goodbye. Your call. 4. The OverDresser: This dandy makes Gossip Girl's Chuck Bass look sloppy and mismatched. That he takes longer than you to get ready is strike one against him, but the fact that he matches his socks to his underwear and to his ascot drives him out of the park. 5. The OverEater: It's an irritating fact that men can eat more than women. The overeater doesn't care. Food is his first love and he'll push cannolis and baked ziti on you like a crazed Italian granny. Unless you don't mind a future spent in stretch-pants, you might want to give this dude a pass. 6. The OverReactor: Remember when Russell Crowe threw a phone at that hotel clerk who somehow displeased him? That's this guy. From the old lady who accidentally bumped into him at the grocery store, to the SUV that cut him off on the highway -- everyone in his path will hear his wrath. You, most of all. Do not walk away -- run. 7. The Over-The-Topper: He's the life of the party and thinks nothing of driving his motorcycle through the bar if he thinks it'll get a laugh. He's certainly cute, but he just never stops. He's always on. And that, will quickly turn into a turn-off. 8. OverAchiever: Picture the male version of Tracy Flick in the movie \"Election\" in perfectly fitted jeans, a crisp white oxford shirt and a copy of his (perfect, naturally) SAT scores in his wallet. Now imagine making love to him. You can't, can you? 9. The OverCompensator: Maybe he was the homeliest kid in his eighth-grade class, but that doesn't mean you need to sit through a monologue about how much money he makes, how jealous his friends are over his new BMW, and how he totally could date supermodels if he wanted to. Next! TM & \u00a9 2008 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"There are certain types of men who should be nobody's type .\nRun from the \"OverReactor\" -- you and everyone in his path will hear his wrath .\nThe \"OverCompensator\" brags about how much money he makes .\nThe \"OverTalker\" does enough talking for both of you .","id":"e32d758325278efad0a9a87448bafaf8971e3e85"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Russia announced Monday it might hold joint military maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean, and the United States said it is scrapping a once ballyhooed deal with Moscow on nuclear technology. The declarations come in the wake of increased tension between Russia and the United States over Russia's invasion last month of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a U.S. ally that aspires to join NATO. Russian ships will make a port of call in Venezuela later this year and the two nations could hold joint naval exercises for the first time, both sides said. Russia denied there was any link between Monday's announcement and the conflict in the Caucasus, although Russia has criticized U.S. support for Georgia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long antagonized Washington. \"This is a planned event unrelated to the current political situation and Caucasian developments,\" Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Monday. \"The exercises will not be targeted against any third party.\" The agreement on the Russian visit to Venezuelan ports was reached long before the conflict in the Caucasus broke out, he said. But he appeared to suggest Monday that Russia had proposed the joint naval maneuvers. \"If the Venezuelan side finds the proposal interesting and an agreement is reached, Russia and Venezuela may hold joint naval exercises in line with international practice,\" he said. Several hours later, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington is canceling the proposed \"123 Agreement\" with Moscow, which would have cleared the way for more trade of nuclear technology, services and goods between the two countries. He denied the pullout was directly linked to Moscow's actions in the Caucasus. \"Over a period of time, we've had some deep concerns about Russian behavior. And quite clearly the president has taken this action looking at the facts,\" he said. Both countries had accepted the agreement and it was awaiting congressional approval. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned in an exclusive interview with CNN last week that Russia would not be pleased at the collapse of the 123 Agreement, which is named after a section of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954. \"This would effectively kill any possibility for our cooperation to promote the Bush-Putin initiative on nuclear nonproliferation -- which is important for the entire world,\" he said. \"As I said, it wouldn't be our choice, but if the United States does not want to cooperate with us on one or another issue, we cannot impose ourselves on Washington.\" But experts say Congress was unlikely to have given the deal a green light, and that the White House was making the best of a bad situation. \"I think [the administration is] making a virtue out of a necessity\" by pulling out, said Russia analyst Jon Wolfsthal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, last week. On the possibility of Russian-Venezuelan naval exercises, Latin America expert Wayne S. Smith warned against reading too much into the proposal. \"The Russians have complained about U.S. warships operating in the Black Sea, which is an area of intense interest to them. It would not be surprising if they returned the favor by having joint exercises in the Caribbean,\" said Smith, a 25-year foreign service veteran who ended his State Department career as chief of the U.S. Interest Section in Havana. \"It's a way of saying: 'Two can play at this game. If you think you can send ships into the Black Sea without response, you are mistaken.' \" But he said the mere fact of Russian ships operating in the Western hemisphere would not necessarily be dangerous. \"The act itself is not. Having naval exercises? Fine, as long as both sides take it for what it is. It's not a threatening gesture, it's a message.\" Frank Mora, a Latin America expert at the National Defense University in Washington, said the announcement could be part of a complicated bargaining process, depending on whether relations improve between Moscow and Washington. \"Something tells me that soon enough something will happen to tone this down, and possibly this exercise with the Venezuelans could be used to pull back on this issue,\" Mora said. \"If things improve [the Russians] could pull back as a sign of commitment to improving the relationship. If tensions remain I see the possibility that this kind of exercise would occur.\" He said the Venezuelans have little to contribute to a military alliance with Russia. \"They have a couple of destroyers, a couple of old submarines, and frigates that can launch surface-to-air missiles -- not anything sophisticated or robust. This would not be a robust exercise. It would be more about indicating strategic cooperation.\" But he suggested that if the exercise does go ahead, it would be a sign of increased Russian confidence vis-a-vis the United States. \"They feel they are strong enough and bold enough to do something in our sphere of influence,\" he said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman appeared to shrug off the announcement. \"We exercise all around the globe and have joint exercises with countries all over the world; so do many other nations,\" he said. Chavez said Sunday that Caracas was prepared to receive the Russians in late November or December, according Venezuela's ministry of communications. But he indicated Venezuela might not be prepared for military exercises by then. \"We're only in the planning phase. We're not ready yet for the visit and the probable maneuvers to happen in September or October, or even November. So it could happen, if not at the end of November, then at the beginning of December,\" he said. Nesterenko said the Russian flotilla will include \"the heavy nuclear-propelled missile cruiser Pyotr Veliki and the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko.\" The announcement comes only days after a U.S. Navy command ship, the USS Whitney, arrived in the Georgian port town of Poti in what the United States called a humanitarian mission. The ship reached Poti on Friday. Russia said the fact that a military vessel is being used in a relief mission raises concerns. Russia has become a major supplier of arms to Venezuela since 2001. The two countries signed a series of deals worth $3 billion in 2006, including fighter aircraft, transport and attack helicopters, and assault rifles, according to Jane's, the defense intelligence publication. Chavez visited Moscow in July for his first meeting with new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko and Matthew Chance in Moscow and CNN State Department producer Charley Keyes in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pentagon downplays development, says cooperation happens across globe .\nMove comes amid U.S.-Russian tensions over ex-Soviet republic of Georgia .\nRussian official denies link to \"political situation and Caucasian developments\"\nRussia and Venezuela may hold joint naval exercises, both countries say .","id":"29d7cf6ac3cdb2832696eb124a2c70135b0d744f"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The head of China's quality watchdog is reported to have resigned over the tainted baby milk scandal that has killed four children and sickened nearly 53,000 others. The official Xinhua News Agency said Li Changjiang had quit with the approval of China's State Council. Li's agency is responsible for ensuring that China's food supply chain is safe. Monday's resignation came hours after the World Health Organization said the scandal had highlighted flaws in the country's entire food supply chain. The chemical melamine blamed for causing kidney stones and kidney failure has been detected in formula milk powder from 22 dairies across China. The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to baby milk powder, but tests have found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from China's two largest dairy producers, Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group, as well as Shanghai-based Bright Dairy. WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said on Monday quality issues could occur anywhere from the farm to the retail outlet. He said \"it's clearly something that is not acceptable and needs to be rectified and corrected,\" according to The Associated Press. Troedsson said the WHO was discussing with officials how to strengthen China's food quality system. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called milk manufacturers \"heartless\" and promised stricter laws to protect the public. China's Health Ministry said Sunday that about 13,000 children were hospitalized, while another 40,000 had undergone outpatient treatment for illnesses related to suspected melamine-tainted milk products. The scandal has spread beyond the mainland with melamine being found in three Chinese-made dairy products in Singapore. The country's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said tests on \"White Rabbit Creamy Candy\" showed that it was contaminated with melamine and it ordered stores to remove the product from shelves. Taiwan announced Monday it was banning the importation of all dairy products from China because of melamine contamination in milk supplies on the mainland, Taiwan's Health Ministry said Monday. And a second child in Hong Kong has been diagnosed with a kidney stones after drinking the tainted milk as worried parents continued to take their children for health checkups, the government said Monday, AP reported. The 4-year-old boy was in hospital in a stable condition, the Hong Kong government said in a statement. A three-year-old girl was sickened by a suspected melamine-tainted milk over the weekend -- the first known illness outside of mainland China. The Chinese premier visited Beijing hospitals and a supermarket Sunday to show his concern for the crisis. \"What we need to do now is to ensure that nothing like this happens in the future, not only in dairy products, but in all foods,\" he said. \"Manufacturers and owners of dairy companies should show more morality and social responsibility in these cases. They are heartless, so we have to create strict law and legislation. I'm sorry.\" Investigators arrested two brothers who sold milk used to produce the contaminated baby milk powder last week. They could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. The raw milk had been watered down and the chemical added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Watch CNN visit the company at the center of the scandal \u00bb . But anger has been directed not just at the producers accused of adulterating their milk to increase profits, but also at government regulators, Time magazine reported. \"Xinhua was quick to blame the dairy industry for their skewed rules, but what it didn't say was that the government also played a part in that ugly game,\" the magazine quoted a blogger, identified as sadmoon109, as saying. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition. Thousands of tons of the tainted milk powder have been recalled. Melamine is the same industrial contaminant from China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats last year. The chemical, a byproduct of plastic manufacturing, can be used to mimic high-protein additives. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . A senior dairy analyst said Chinese farmers were cutting corners to cope with rising costs for feed and labor. \"Before the melamine incident, I know they could have been adding organic stuff, say animal urine or skin,\" Chen Lianfang of Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant told Time. \"Basically, anything that can boost the protein reading.\" Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Head of China's quality watchdog resigns over tainted baby formula scandal .\nWHO representative said scandal shows up flaws in China's food supply chain .\nFour infants in China dead, 53,000 reported ill from tainted milk powder .","id":"00ae31ff5ede1de6cd39eccf36bae935c882527b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They first met in the autumn of 1979; she playing the role of the lovelorn terrorist, he dressed as a rather sloppy Ayatollah Khomeini. Pamela Stephenson first met Billy Connolly on the set of a comedy show in 1979. They married in Fiji in 1990. It may not have been love at first sight on the set of British comedy show \"Not the Nine O'Clock News,\" but love, marriage and children eventually followed. Australian comedienne, now psychotherapist, Pamela Stephenson, describes being captivated by Billy Connolly's wildman looks, his mane of grey hair and devil-may-care demeanor. She tells CNN's Revealed about her first impressions of her husband, his unique ability to keep audiences entertained and what she learnt about his addictions and childhood abuse while writing his best-selling biography, \"Billy.\" CNN: Take us back to the beginning. How did you meet Billy Connolly? Pamela Stephenson: I'm not quite sure what Billy's version of how we met is like because he was very drunk. I met him when I was a performer on \"Not The Nine O'Clock News\" and he was a guest. He was just shaggy and some kind of terrible beastie. But I was attracted to him immediately, maybe because he was so unusual. I think what I picked up on was his dichotomy -- that beastiness and the underlying sensitivity that he has. I think that's something that audiences relate to, you're aware of all the toughness, but underneath you just know that there's philosophy and this poetic, Celtic nature that speaks to people. Also his pain, his underlying sadness and the pain of his childhood ... when I first met him I think I connected with that. He played the Ayatollah Khomeini in a scene on \"Not The Nine O'Clock News\" and I played a demented fan singing a love song to him, it was in days when you could do stuff like that, I suppose. And then we did an interview, I pretending to be British TV personality Janet Street-Porter, with giant fake teeth which kept falling out. Of course, he could never keep a straight face; I thought he was dreadfully unprofessional because he just kept laughing, especially when my teeth fell out -- my fake teeth -- fell out. CNN: What's it like being married to him? PS: People always think that being married to Billy means that I get non-stop Billy Connolly concerts. It's not nearly as exciting as that, although he's adorable. But it's boring sometimes and he would say the same. There are moments when I wish he would go and make me a cup of tea, which he does very often. Actually, Billy is quite a quiet person. He's a little reclusive and I don't think it's necessarily his personality. With the highs he experiences on stage he needs to be very quiet when he's not. Billy Connolly takes CNN's Revealed on a tour of his home \u00bb . CNN: What made you write a biography of his life? Was it the first time he opened up about his childhood? PS: When I wrote \"Billy,\" it was the first time that Billy really looked at his childhood in a chronological order and with depth. It was a painful process, but cathartic. The book gave me the opportunity to understand a lot more about him. Just putting some of this together, the sexual abuse, for example, that he received from his father, the physical abuse he received from his aunts, helped me understand why there's a part of him that's very closed off. Watch Billy recall his troubled childhood \u00bb . His learning disability was never understood. Now we'd call it an attention disorder. In those days, he had difficulty concentrating, for which he was beaten and taunted at school. People told him he was stupid and to this day there's a part of him that thinks that's he's not as clever as other people and yet he is absolutely brilliant. He's incredibly well-read and very erudite. CNN: Can you tell us about Billy's problems with alcohol and drugs and how you helped him? PS: Billy was extremely famous in Scotland, and you know what happens, especially with people who don't think they are very worthy. As with Billy, they don't handle fame because they don't feel they deserve it and they'll turn to alcohol and drugs. It became very serious and by the time I met him he was on a very self-destructive path. At first, that was appealing to me, but later I realized I can't be with somebody like that because I don't want to watch him destroy himself. I didn't tell him, \"You've gotta clean up your act,\" I just said I can't deal with this. I discovered you can't make anyone stop drinking or stop taking drugs, you have to just protect yourself and if they want to jump on the good train, they will. Fortunately it worked. CNN: How would you describe Billy's style of comedy? PS: Billy doesn't have a style, because to have a style it would mean that there have to be other people with a similar way of working. He goes on stage and it's like he's got these comedy angels whispering in his ear. He makes this extraordinary connection with the audience, and of course he's very astute and funny about politics. He sees the funny side of all kinds of things -- human nature, human behavior, world events, politicians. He'll talk about that with such passion. It's what many of us think but don't want to say. Billy will see something on television or notice something on the street or he'll just think something and it'll go into his computer of a brain and it'll stumble out when he's on stage. See Billy Connolly perform on a recent tour of Ireland \u00bb . CNN: Is he the same person on and off stage? PS: He's honest and real. He's a man of the people, a working class hero. It's a clich\u00e9, but people know that he has struggled; they know he's come from the tough part of Glasgow. Billy just loves an audience, he loves speaking to people if they're nice to him, and they usually are. When he's finished his show, he doesn't go home. He stays in his dressing room and people will come and see him and he'll talk to them for another hour. CNN: He says he's getting more and more nervous when he goes on stage -- have you noticed a change? PS: I don't think he's getting more nervous. At his age, maybe he thinks that it should have become easier -- well, it's not going to become easier. It's incredibly tough to go on stage in front of four or five thousand people and sustain [their interest] by yourself. And one thing that really impresses me, again as a psychologist, is that I think he is really healing. I think that people really have the opportunity to just laugh like that and it's so good for you. I feel fantastic when I go to one of his shows and come out and I'm just sick with laughter. CNN: How does he feel when he comes off stage? He says it can be tough and envies the audience. They can go home and forget about it. PS: Most performers struggle with the letdown after a show, and Billy's no exception. It's tough because it takes time for adrenalin to leave the system. That's actually one reason why a lot of comedians turn to alcohol, because it's a depressant and takes you down. Now that Billy doesn't drink he's found another way -- he goes back to his hotel and stays quiet. Sometimes he likes to eat after the show but not very often. He will just want to veg out, watch TV. Playing his banjo is a great way for him to relax. Watch a rare performance of Billy on banjo \u00bb . He doesn't like me being around when he's touring because he just likes to do his thing. I want to have some food or go and do something. He becomes a bit of a hermit, and that's appropriate for someone who expends that amount of energy and brainpower on stage. CNN: Billy says he finds the routine of touring increasingly tough -- do you think he will stop soon? PS: When Billy's touring, he'll say, \"Oh I don't want to tour anymore, I've had enough it's too hard on the road.\" But the truth is, when he's not touring, he wants to go back. It's probably his happiest time. I have been a comedian so I know a little bit about what it's like to be on stage and know that when things are working fantastically, and you're getting that appreciation from the audience. It is an incredible high. It's pretty hard for me as a wife or us as a family or any of his fans or friends to match up to that kind of adulation and so, you know, he deserves it and I have to remind him that it is a lot of fun for him. CNN: How would you describe his dress sense? PS: Billy is a fashion maven. He spends most of his time in New York now so, you know, the New York \"Black is the new black\" is ... that's got to him a bit. He's influenced by Rock 'n' Roll and Vivienne Westwood and edgy stuff. But he just puts it together in his own unique way. He also takes great pride in his body. His closet is still extremely fun. It's far more colorful than mine. I have grey and black suits and things for work -- he loves colorful shirts. It will be a shame if he tones himself down, but I don't think that will happen. He borrows my clothes sometimes, if he sees something particularly mad. We used to say, \"First up, best dressed,\" which is the Glasgow expression for a particularly fun brooch or hat.","highlights":"Pamela Stephenson talks about marriage to Scottish comedian Billy Connelly .\nThey met on the set of British comedy show \"Not the Nine O'Clock News\"\nShe says writing his biography, \"Billy,\" helped her understand him better .\nStephenson: \"It's like he's got these comedy angels whispering in his ear\"","id":"493e1a795805fcf0de2aaed7e6cd66566d4e6972"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A diamond unearthed in the southern African nation of Lesotho could yield one of the largest and highest quality round polished diamonds, according to a statement Monday from company that found it. A mining company unearthed this 478-carat diamond in the southern African nation of Lesotho. Experts in Antwerp, Belgium who analyzed the 478-carat stone determined it to be of the highest color grading available for a white diamond, said a statement from Gem Diamonds Ltd., the company that found the stone. \"What makes it more remarkable is the color and quality of this stone,\" said diamond consultant Neil Buxton. \"It's a D color, which is the highest possible graded color you can get, and we believe there is a chance -- a very good chance -- of getting a 100-carat plus\" round stone with the highest color and clarity rankings. The company said such a stone would \"to the best of our knowledge\" be \"the first one in history.\" Watch more on the diamond \u00bb . The diamond, which was found in September, ranks as the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, but is not the biggest ever taken from the Letseng Mine, which is co-owned by Gem Diamonds Ltd. and the Kingdom of Lesotho, a country of 2.1 million that is surrounded by South Africa. Two bigger stones -- 603 and 493 carats -- were found in the mine in 2006 and 2007, respectively, the company said. A 601-carat diamond was mined there in 1960, it said.","highlights":"Diamond could yield one of the largest and highest quality round polished stones .\n478-carat stone determined it to be of the highest color grading available .\nDiamond found in Letseng Mine, in Lesotho .","id":"5d2bd08df8b8cc9c62bc438c060479dbebd1057c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Formula One is about putting on a 90-minute show every other weekend at locations the world over. McLaren's huge 'brand center' motorhome dominates the F1 paddock at all European grands prix. But getting that show on the road -- and in the air and on the sea -- is a remarkable feat of well-oiled logistics and organization. With an F1 team clocking up around 100,000 miles (160,000 km) between tests and grands prix, the need to have moving and packing down to a fine art is imperative. \"Once the calendar is released, we sit down with all the different departments,\" explained Toyota team manager Richard Cregan. \"We look at the dates for the freight, the dates for the trucks leaving, when we want to have the people there and when we want to have all the equipment there. Then we go away and arrange it.\" As F1 moves further away from its European heartland, more races -- such as next week's title shootout in Sao Paulo, Brazil -- are what are known as 'flyaways.' They are the responsibility of Formula One Management. Freight company DHL has specialized units in England and Italy to coordinate the transport of cars, equipment and fuel to all F1 tracks around the world by air, sea and land. Around 300 tonnes or 20,000 individual items of F1 material -- from race cars, replacement parts, pit equipment, TV equipment and the furnishings of the VIP Paddock Club -- are moved for each grand prix. Each team is allowed 22-24 tonnes of freight, plus their cars, which is packed in specially designed pods at a UK-based team's HQ and transferred to Stansted airport by road. Three chartered Boeing 747 freighters then fly to the destination and the next time the team sees its freight is at their allocated garage at the circuit. At the end of the race the process starts again in reverse, with a team packed up by around 10pm. Read more about F1 at The Circuit. If there are two weeks between races, as is the norm, the cars will return to the UK to be painted, re-built and polished. 'Double-headers,' races that take place only a week apart, rule this movement out -- then getting the cars from one circuit to the next is the sole focus. While last-minute deliveries can be made in under 24 hours, it takes seven weeks for equipment to travel by sea from Europe to Melbourne, Australia for the traditional season curtain-raiser. Cheaper sea freight has become more popular to move bulkier items such as heavy electrical cables. Bridgestone, the grid's tire supplier, are among those who have increased their shipping in recent years. \"We send about five-and-a-half tonnes by sea and we send this three months in advance of each race,\" said Williams race team coordinator Paul Singlehurst. \"It costs around $9,000 to send it by sea -- that's a fraction of the air freight cost. We've made some huge savings by doing this.\" The European races are a little more straightforward. Up to four $2m team-liveried articulated lorries are driven to continental grands prix, carrying up to 37 tonnes of equipment each for around 18,600 miles (30,000km) per year. Three trucks will also go to a two-car test session. They carry all the kit the team needs for the weekend, including the cars, engines, parts, tools, computers and radios. It takes two days to fully load the trucks after cleaning and maintenance checks, using an 80-page checklist. Nothing is left to chance. They leave a week before the next race, get to the circuit late on a Monday and by Thursday, the team's working area is ready for the drivers. It takes eight hours just to fit out the team's pit area at the circuit. Motorhomes, the standard of which is set by McLaren's gargantuan 'brand center', also travel to European races. They provide a place for drivers to debrief with their engineers, team members to refuel and corporate guests to be entertained. Renault's race team includes 15 engineers, 35 mechanics\/technicians, 15 'truckies', 11 motorhome\/catering personnel, two logistics personnel, 10 marketing and PR staff, three drivers, two managers and two physios. This is why motorhomes supply around 1,250 meals for the team and its guests during a race weekend. \"Obviously our sponsors' backing is crucial. It's not just a matter of having their name and logo on the car -- we have a marketing team that helps to service their needs,\" added Singlehurst. Occasionally, at places like Turkey, where the traffic between the circuit and downtown Istanbul is horrific, drivers can also spend their nights in the motorhomes. But normally, a fleet of about 20 vehicles is required to ferry team personnel between their hotel -- block-booked months in advance -- and racetrack all weekend. As far as Cregan is concerned, how a team performs during a race weekend can be influenced by its logistical set-up. \"Quite often you have very long days, you have people working late into the evening and it's an important part of our responsibility to create the atmosphere for people to be able do their job,\" he added. It takes a Herculean effort and millions of dollars to make sure 20 cars circulate for 90 minutes every two weeks. But you would never know it.","highlights":"F1 uses air, sea and land to transport huge amounts of freight to each race .\nTeams must meticulously coordinate their shipping plans each season .\nTeam trucks carrying cars and equipment cover almost 19,000 miles per year .","id":"a9e946a8ee4153ae7e45143941da7f61fd04321a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- People along the Texas coast were leaving home or planning to evacuate Thursday as Hurricane Ike churned toward them, slowly intensifying on its march west. Forecasters say the storm could slam into the Texas coast -- south of Galveston -- as a powerful Category 3 storm late Friday or early Saturday. Mandatory and voluntary evacuations were planned or underway in at least seven coastal counties. Aransas County, on the eastern coast of Texas, has ordered a mandatory evacuation of all nonessential government employees, becoming the latest county in the state to urge residents to flee. In Galveston, city officials ordered mandatory evacuations for part of the island town beginning at 7 a.m. Thursday. The rest of the town will be under a voluntary evacuation order. Only residents will be required to evacuate on the western end of the island. Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas defended that, saying current models call for Galveston to be hit with winds and rain only equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane. \"We do not intend to evacuate Galveston Island,\" she said. \"It's the last thing we want to do. Our job is to protect lives and property, [and] right now we feel that sheltering in place is the best action for our citizens to take.\" Farther up the Gulf Coast and closer to where the National Hurricane Center predicts a direct hit, Brazoria County ordered a mandatory evacuation to begin at 8 a.m. Thursday. Some other Texas localities have ordered mandatory evacuations, while others have left the decision to depart up to residents. As of 5 a.m. ET Thursday, the Category 2 storm -- with top sustained winds near 100 mph -- was about 620 miles east of Brownsville, Texas, and about 285 miles southeast of the Mississippi River, the hurricane center said. Track the storm \u00bb . Hurricane-force winds extended out up to 115 miles from the storm's center, and tropical storm-force winds extended out up to 255 miles forecasters reported. About 15,000 residents were leaving Galveston's Brazoria County Wednesday after a mandatory evacuation order was issued at 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET) governing one ZIP code -- 77541 -- and residents throughout the county with special needs. Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc issued a warning to residents of the city's West End, citing forecasters' estimates that the area could get tides of 6 feet above normal if the storm arrives there. The West End is the area of Galveston most susceptible to flooding, LeBlanc said. Other Brazoria residents were being allowed to remain as of 6 p.m. ET. In Matagorda County, southwest of Galveston, officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for all areas except the cities of Bay City and Van Vleck. The evacuation must be completed by at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) Thursday. Galveston is likely to experience a high tidal surge, officials said, urging people living in low-lying areas or mobile homes to get out soon. \"One of the things that the public has to understand if they decide to stay, there will be a period of time during this storm when they will absolutely be on their own,\" Brazoria County Sheriff Charles Wagner said. \"There will be no medical services; there will be no fire department; there will be no law enforcement, groceries, gasoline, drugs, electricity.\" The center issued a tropical storm warning from the Mississippi River's mouth to Cameron, Louisiana, and a hurricane watch from Cameron to Port Mansfield, Texas, about 60 miles south of Brownsville. Tropical storm warnings mean winds of 39 to 73 mph (63 to 118 kmh) are expected within a day, and a hurricane watch means winds of 74 and higher are expected within 36 hours. \"Hurricane Ike is now in the Gulf of Mexico and making its approach toward our coast,\" Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. \"The next few days will be crucial for residents to follow the direction of local leaders and to take the necessary steps to protect themselves and their families.\" Perry put 7,500 National Guard members on standby this week, his office said, and issued a disaster declaration for 88 counties. About 1,350 buses, several ambulances and paramedic buses were available to support evacuations. The vehicles were positioned near Houston, Matagorda County, Nueces County and Victoria County, the governor's office said. President Bush declared an emergency in the state, making federal funds available for the state to prepare for the storm. Corpus Christi officials also began the evacuation process for residents with special needs, supplying buses to transport them out of town. Voluntary evacuations were issued in San Patricio and Victoria counties and parts of Jackson County, according to the governor's office. More than 1,300 inmates from the Texas Correctional Institutions Division's Stevenson Unit in Cuero were being evacuated to facilities in Beeville and Kenedy, Perry's office said, and 597 were transferred from the substance abuse Glossbrenner Unit in San Diego, in south Texas, to Dilley. Naval air stations in Texas also began to prepare for Hurricane Ike's expected arrival. Naval Air Station Kingsville was to begin moving about 50 aircraft to El Paso, San Antonio and Fort Worth on Wednesday afternoon, the public affairs office there said. Naval Air Station Corpus Christi will also move about 75 aircraft to other Texas locations, its public affairs office said. Evacuations appeared to have saved lives in Cuba when Ike slammed into the island. Four deaths were reported from the storm, according to the Cuban government. The Cuban Civil Defense brought buses or trucks to take people to shelters. See the damage from the storm \u00bb . Cuban state television reported that two people were killed when they tried to remove an antenna, The Associated Press said. One man died when a tree crashed into his home, and a woman died when her home's roof collapsed, according to the AP. The storm shredded hundreds of homes and caused some dilapidated buildings in Havana's older areas to collapse, the AP reported. Watch as winds and waves pound Cuba \u00bb . The United States, which provided $100,000 in emergency aid to communist-run Cuba through private aid agencies after Hurricane Gustav hit the island August 30, said Tuesday that it was considering additional emergency aid for Cuba because of Ike. Also, the United States said it will lift restrictions on cash and humanitarian assistance sent to Cuba for the next 90 days. The move will allow nongovernmental organizations to provide assistance and cash donations. The storm pounded Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos chain, putting a strain on the British territory's tourism industry. Watch houses lie in heaps on Grand Turk \u00bb . Flooding and rains from Ike's outer bands have been blamed for 70 deaths in Haiti. Watch the devastating aftermath \u00bb . CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ike could swell to Category 3 when it hits Texas coast Saturday .\nMandatory evacuations ordered for residents with special needs in one county .\nHurricane-spawned tornado causes damage in Key Largo, Florida .\nTexans in low-lying areas and mobiles homes urged to get out .","id":"036e874958640111b8f46d096c7e58ba51b46187"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Don't you just hate the type of person who smugly informs you, \"I don't watch TV,\" like that's something to be proud of? They think they're so great with all their fancy book learning. What they don't realize is that TV isn't for dummies -- there's tons of educational programming available -- you just need to know what to watch. I mean, you can learn your ABCs with \"Sesame Street's\" Grover, how to make gnocchi with Mario Batali, and the ins and outs of prettying up your home with any number of programs on HGTV. Television is also a great romance resource. Think of all the great TV twosomes we've seen over the years -- Lucy & Ricky Ricardo, Judy & George Jetson, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag ... but not all TV personalities set such a sincerely loving example. It's also a good place to learn which type of guy you should avoid. Here are a few examples: . Chuck Bass (\"Gossip Girl\"): Few men can pull off lavender argyle, but Chuck Bass is definitely one of them. Moody and sinister, when Chuck Bass Types (CBTs) like you, it's as though you've been inducted into a secret society of two. It's you against the world and the CBT will bring out a dark side you might not have even realized you possessed. Whip smart with a caustic wit, he'll charm you all the while tucking away your secrets for use at a later date. And use them he will. Because when a CBT tires of you, he won't just say \"see ya,\" he'll decimate you. Hank Moody (\"Californication\"): Some boys take longer than usual to grow out of their Charles Bukowski-wannabe phase. Exhibit A is Hank Moody. Actor David Duchovny, playing what the tabloids would have you believe is an autobiographical role, has managed to hang onto his Bukowski-phase well into his forties. Drinking, partying, and resisting monogamy, Hank still manages to attract more ladies than hotter men half his age. Of course the only women drawn to Hank are either damaged girls with daddy issues or the type of dame who doesn't feel complete unless she has some mess to clean up after. If you see yourself dating a Hank Moody type, do not walk -- run -- to your nearest mental health professional. Vince Chase (\"Entourage\"): Those big blue eyes and that floppy mop o' hair... you can forgive him for making a stinker like \"Medellin,\" can't you? Sure, but do you really want to deal with someone who lives in a dude cocoon? Not only does he live with his brother and two best friends, he can't make any decisions without polling the group. On the upside, he's rich! On the downside, he's famous, which means other women are throwing themselves at him constantly. Vince might be fun for a fling, but forget about bringing him home to mama. Don Draper (\"Mad Men\"): Why is it when unattractive people are quiet we just assume they're stupid and\/or boring, but verbally challenged hot people get pegged as mysterious and smoldering? Mad Men's smokin' hot Don Draper actually is mysterious (and smoldering!), so I don't know what point I was trying to make (because I'm all distracted from the photos on his IMDB page)... oh, wait! The point I'm trying to make is that while Draper is indeed mysterious, he's also a liar, a cheat and a cad. So if a DDT tries to slip you his number, just say no and send it to me. What? Strictly for research purposes. TM & \u00a9 2008 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Learn about men NOT to date by studying male characters on TV shows .\n\"Gossip Girls\" Chuck Bass is charming type who decimates women .\n\"Mad Men\" Don Draper is a smoldering liar and cheat Aging party boy Hank Moody of \"Californication\" attracts damaged women .","id":"e75f32403e9a5f139b296d69109b4033d5ac51b8"} -{"article":"HIMACHAL PRADESH, India (CNN) -- Amar and Kundan Singh Pundir are brothers. Younger brother Amar breaks rocks in a mine for a living. Kundan farms their small piece of inherited land. They live in a beautiful but remote hillside village in the clouds of Himachal Pradesh, India. Kundar Singh Pundir, left, and his brother Amar, right, share Indira Devi, centre, as their wife. Both aged in their forties, the two brothers have lived together nearly their whole lives. They are poor and share just about everything: Their home, their work and a wife. \"See we have a tradition from the beginning to have a family of five to 10 people. Two brothers and one wife.\" Kundan says. They practice what is known as fraternal polyandry -- where the brothers of one family marry the same woman. Why? Tradition and economics. Life is hard here. The village is precariously perched on the side of a very steep hill about 6,000ft up. Most of the villagers survive off tiny plots of cropland. In this difficult terrain there isn't enough land to go around. So, instead of finding separate wives and splitting up their inherited property, the brothers marry the same woman and keep their land together. Wife Indira Devi says life with two husbands isn't easy. \"We fight a lot.\" But like any married couple they fight mostly over mundane stuff, except there are three spouses instead of two. \"Usually it's about chores, why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that?\" she says. Watch Sara Sidner's interview with the brothers \u00bb . One thing they agreed on was the need to have children; They have three. So how does a married trio deal with sex? \"We make shifts, change shifts and sleep on alternate days. We have to make shifts otherwise it won't work,\" Kundan says. \"To run our families we have to do this, overcome the hurdles as well and then we have to control our hearts from feeling too much,\" Amar adds. To outsiders their arrangement may seem odd, but in the village of about 200 it is the norm. Typically the marriages are arranged and women have two husbands. But some wives have three or four depending on how many brothers there are in a family. Polyandry is illegal in India but socially acceptable here. No one from the government seems to bother the villagers about the law. \"It's been going on for ages. My sister in law has two husbands, my mother in law also has two husbands,\" Indira says. And as to the question of which husband is the biological father of the children -- the Pundir's don't know and don't care. \"For me everyone is the same, my mother and my fathers are the same. My mother and my fathers are like God to me,\" 17-year old daughter Sunita Singh Pundir says. Even as modern society arrives in this ancient village through satellite dishes and mobile phones, the Pundirs say they want their age-old tradition to continue with their children. \"Absolutely,\" eldest son Sohna says. He and his younger brother have already discussed it and will marry the same woman. Daughter Sunita isn't so sure. \"I would like one husband,\" she says. But when asked if she will marry for love or tradition, Sunita's answer makes it clear the tradition of marrying more than one man will continue with the next generation. \"I will never leave our tradition even if I have to forgo love. I will never spoil my parents' reputation and my brothers.'\"","highlights":"Amar and Kundan Singh Pundir are brothers who share a wife .\nThe brothers have married the same woman to ensure their land isn't divided .\nPractice is illegal in India but common in their mountain village .","id":"bb86360ef2548b8fe13b2016f29b0fa1baa901eb"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Barack Obama sometimes gets ribbed for his outsized ideas, like the massive stage built in Denver, Colorado, to accept the Democratic presidential nomination. But an artist in Barcelona, Spain, may be about to outdo the candidate himself. Large-format sketches have long been a focus of artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's work. The artist plans to create a gigantic face of Obama sculpted from gravel and sand, which will cover nearly 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of Barcelona beachfront before the U.S. elections. \"The size of the piece is intrinsic to its value,\" the artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, said Saturday. He hopes it will be big enough to be seen on Google Earth. \"Obama's personality -- his youth, personal history and message of a new politics -- has fused with the historical moment to create someone larger than life,\" says the artist's dossier about the work, titled \"Expectation.\" The huge size also alludes \"to the global impact of this election,\" the dossier adds. iReport.com: What do you want to ask Sen. Obama? Rodriguez-Gerada, 42, is a Cuban-born American who grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey, near New York, and now lives in Barcelona. The artist, who has long focused on large-format sketches and other designs, said he had been planning to put an anonymous face on Barcelona's Mediterranean beachfront but shelved the idea. Then, six weeks ago, he decided it should be Obama's face. \"Everybody's doing work about Obama,\" he said. \"I was talking to my wife about the importance of this election internationally. It all came together.\" The idea, that is. The execution of the project is still a work in progress, but with a lot of help pouring in. The artist has created what he calls a \"vectored image\" from different photos of Obama, showing the candidate's face looking left over his shoulder. He will use 500 tons of material -- mainly gravel but also sand and possibly some soil in black, brown and white tones -- to create the image on a flat piece of land slightly raised and overlooking the Mediterranean, near downtown Barcelona. The artist and a Barcelona newspaper say the city has temporarily ceded use of the land for the project. The portrait of Obama's face will be 445 feet long by 264 feet wide (139.28 by 82.67 meters) and the artist hopes to have it done by late next week or no later than November 3, the day before the U.S. elections. The materials have been donated, along with bulldozers and their drivers. The crews will initially spread the materials along white lines, and other markers that will be laid out according to the sketch. Then, the artist's technical team will direct volunteers with garden rakes to put the final touches on the materials, making sure the various colors are spread properly on the ground in order to depict Obama's eyes, hair, cheeks and collar, according to the plans. Rodriguez-Gerada said he'll need to raise about $18,700 (15,000 euros) for other costs, such as rakes and gloves for volunteers, documentation, even portable toilets for the crew. He said it's his \"biggest work ever, in scale and complexity.\" He's a self-described political independent until recently, when he joined Democrats Abroad in Spain. But he added that the art project is his alone, without help from any political organization or campaign, and he won't be paid for it. Rodriguez-Gerada said this project also aims to address the issue of \"trying to find heroes with empathy for the problems of the world. We really need empathy from Barack Obama. There's a need to do positive things for the future.\" Obama's giant face would be environmentally friendly, with all natural colors, so the materials could be recycled, the artist said. Rodriguez-Gerada's not sure how long the face would remain in place in Barcelona, because the site is slated to be used for a new municipal building. But even if the face isn't permanent, it might be the start of outsized artistic images of Obama. Barcelona journalist Matt Elmore contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cuban-American artist plans to finish work before U.S. elections .\n500 tons of material will cover 2.5 acres of beachfront .\nDemocratic presidential candidate is \"larger than life,\" artist says .\nProject also aims to address issue of \"trying to find heroes\"","id":"7bf066e9fa3c6b5aaeaf0c0867aefc55c029fb9d"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have arrested four men in connection with the suicide truck bombing of a Marriott Hotel last month in Islamabad that killed more than 50 people, officials said Friday. More than 50 people died in last month's attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The men appeared Friday before a magistrate in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, police and Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency investigators said. Although they have not been charged, the magistrate is allowing police to hold them for a week while the investigation continues. The magistrate ordered them back to court on October 31. Authorities have not said how they believe these men are connected to the September 20 bombing. The men -- one of whom is a doctor -- were arrested at different times in different places, authorities said, but gave no additional details. They identified them as: Dr. Muhammad Usman and Tehseen Ulla Jaan, both from Peshawar; Ilyas Rana Muhammad, from a village near Faiselabad in Pakistan's Punjab province; and Hameed Afzal Muhammad, from Toba Taik Singh district, also in Punjab province. In addition to the dozens killed, some 250 people were wounded in the suicide truck attack, which sparked a fire that left the hotel in ruins. The hotel, located near the diplomatic section of Islamabad, had been popular among tourists visiting Pakistan. It was crowded the night of the bombing.","highlights":"Four arrested on suspicion of involvement\" in hotel blast in Pakistani capital .\nMore than people died in September 20 attack on Marriott hotel, 250-plus injured .\nAuthorities have not said how they believe the men are related to the blast .","id":"158d971eed0620519842ce4ca2a21f079303354b"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. and Pakistani troops exchanged fire Thursday along the Pakistani-Afghan border minutes after the Pakistani military fired shots at two American helicopters that were providing cover for the troops, a U.S. military spokesman said. Pakistan says it shot at two U.S. OH-58D helicopters like this one pictured in a U.S. Army photo. The U.S. Army OH-58D Kiowas, part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, were patrolling the Pakistani-Afghan border when the Pakistani military fired on them, NATO and U.S. officials said. The Pakistani military said the fire was warning shots, and President Asif Ali Zardari said it was flares. Both Zardari and the Pakistani military said the helicopters had crossed into Pakistani territory -- a charge U.S. officials denied. Rear Adm. Greg Smith of U.S. Central Command said the helicopters were providing cover for a small U.S. military unit accompanying an Afghan border police unit on a routine patrol. After the shots were fired at the helicopters, Smith told CNN, the U.S. troops fired \"suppressing rounds\" into a nearby hill to get the Pakistanis to stop. That prompted the Pakistani troops to stop firing at the helicopters and fire instead in the direction of the troops, he said. The U.S. troops then returned fire, Smith said. No injuries were reported in the five-minute incident. Smith and other U.S. officials said the helicopter crews did not fire back. But the Pakistanis disagreed, asserting in a written statement that the helicopters \"returned fire\" after the initial shots were fired. \"The helicopters passed over our border post and were well within Pakistan territory\" at the time that \"security forces fired anticipatory warning shots,\" the Pakistani statement said. After the shots were fired, \"the helicopters returned fire and flew back.\" The Pakistani statement did not mention exchanging fire with ground troops and did not identify the shots as flares, as Zardari did in New York in an appearance with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. \"They are flares,\" he said in response to a question asking why the Pakistani military was firing on NATO helicopters. \"Just to make sure that they know they crossed the border line.\" Asked if such warnings will continue, he replied, \"Sometimes the border is so mixed that they don't realize that they crossed the border.\" Rice, off camera, agreed that \"the border is very unclear\" and \"inhospitable.\" Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman reiterated the United States' stance that the two helicopters were over Afghan territory. \"The Pakistanis need to provide the U.S. a reason to why this took place,\" he said. The ISAF issued a news release saying that \"ISAF helicopters received small-arms fire from a Pakistan military checkpoint along the border near Tanai district, Khowst.\" \"At no time did ISAF helicopters cross into Pakistani airspace.\" The ISAF did not mention ground troops or say whether the helicopters returned fire. Both the ISAF and Pakistani military said they are working to resolve the issue. Last week, Zardari said Pakistan would not allow foreign nations to violate its sovereignty to pursue terrorists. \"We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism,\" he said in his first speech to Parliament as president. His remark followed a similar declaration from Pakistan's military chief, Gen. Parvez Kayani, who said this month that Pakistan's territorial integrity \"will be defended at all cost, and no external force is allowed to conduct operations.\" A senior defense official in the Pentagon said the Pentagon is trying to determine the details of Thursday's incident. \"What we don't know if this was just a case of trigger-happy members of the Frontier Corps,\" the official said, \"or whether in fact the Pakistani military does have orders to fire on our helicopters.\" \"We are confident our helicopters were on the Afghan side of the border, and we have no report they fired back,\" the official added. Top U.S. commanders will be talking to the Pakistani military about the incident to determine if there was a misunderstanding and to ensure it doesn't happen again, a U.S. official familiar with details of the incident said. The official said this is the first verified incident of U.S. troops being fired upon by Pakistani forces. There were at least two previous reports in recent days out of Pakistan about similar incidents, but the United States has said neither of those reports was true. Reza Sayah in Pakistan, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. says it returned fire after Pakistanis fired shots at American copters .\nPakistani president says military fired only flares .\nAttack comes after president, general warned foreign troops to stay out .\nPakistani, U.S. officials say they are working to resolve the issue .","id":"80af080f2b9d2c02bdc48c75cc213a136a6a63b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billionaire hedge fund manager T. Boone Pickens spoke about the beleaguered U.S. economy, a prospective bailout and natural gas Thursday, a day after reports that his energy-related hedge funds lost $1 billion this year. Billionaire T. Boone Pickens has reportedly lost about $270 million this year. Speaking to CNN's John Roberts, Pickens said he concurred with President Bush's Wednesday assessment that a \"distressing scenario would unfold\" in the U.S. economy without immediate intervention. The U.S. economy needs a quick solution, and the U.S. Treasury -- while capable in its own right -- could use help from someone like Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reportedly invested $5 billion this week in Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank. Roberts: By some estimates, your energy fund lost $1 billion. Personally, you may have lost almost $300 million. A lot of people say, \"Well, T. Boone Pickens has got a lot of money,\" but by some accounts, that's 10 percent of your net worth. That was a real hit. Pickens: That's a good hit. That's right. Watch Pickens discuss his, America's problems \u00bb . Roberts: What happened? Pickens: I turned the wrong direction, is what it was. You know, you win some and lose some. Some are rained out, you know. You wish this one had been rained out, but it wasn't. Roberts: I'm sure you saw the president's address last night, or at the very least you heard about it. The secretary of the treasury wants all the money up front. The government wants safeguards on it. They want to make sure there's protection for taxpayers. They want to limit executive compensation. Are you on board with all that? Pickens: I'm ready to go. I'd give [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson the money and tell him get it fixed. Roberts: You believe that his plan will work? Pickens: I do. I think it will work, yes. But I think it needs to work quickly. I think you've got to move on with it. I liked Warren Buffett's play into Goldman Sachs. Roberts: Five billion dollars the other day. Pickens: That's right. That showed good confidence and all. So that's another leadership opportunity. Roberts: In fact, you have said, Boone, that you would like to see Warren Buffett handle a lot of these illiquid assets that the government buys up in terms of their disbursement. Pickens: Can you imagine anybody better? Sure, that'd be great if he'd do it. I don't know whether he would or not. But you need to get somebody like Warren to do it. Roberts: You don't think they have the expertise at the Treasury Department to do it? Pickens: Oh, they do have. They may need some help. And that kind of help -- you can't pay for that kind of help. Watch Bush explain the government's plan \u00bb . Roberts: Let me turn to the energy issue. ... We've talked about your plan to wean America off of foreign oil, use natural gas, you know, get wind power going. You're also -- correct me if I'm wrong -- but you're going to be launching another series of ads here encouraging the presidential candidates to come forward with a plan to wean America off its dependence on foreign energy. Don't they already have a plan? Pickens: No. Neither one of them has a plan. The plan I want is to reduce imports of foreign oil. And we can do that one way. Natural gas is a resource we have in America. It is cleaner, it's cheaper, it's abundant and it's ours. So every gallon of natural gas you put in a tank, you will reduce foreign oil by one gallon. So it's a one-to-one trade-off every time. We could reduce foreign oil by 30 percent. I think we could do it in five to 10 years. Roberts: So what you've heard from them so far doesn't go far enough down the road? Pickens: No. Roberts: But also at the same time, Boone, you are heavily invested in natural gas and there are some people out there who say you're just promoting your business here. Pickens: Well, actually, John, I don't have any natural gas production to speak of. I mean, it's small. It's very small. Now, when I was with [Mesa Power LLP], Mesa was a big natural gas producer. But Boone Pickens is not a big natural gas producer. But I am in natural gas fueling on the West Coast. But all of that, every time you use a domestic fuel, you reduce foreign oil. It's that simple. And we can do it. And this is cheaper. Can you imagine, cheaper, cleaner, abundant and ours? You couldn't pick a better description of what you want to use.","highlights":"T. Boone Pickens on losing a reported $270 million: \"I turned the wrong direction\"\nPickens: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bailout plan will work, but do it fast .\nNatural gas better than oil -- it's \"cheaper, cleaner, abundant and ours,\" he says .\nPickens says he has only a \"very small\" stake in natural gas production .","id":"c130fa6f560ca20f96feb70fd52873d880f9b968"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- This month the U.S. government has introduced major changes that will affect millions of travelers to the U.S. who do not need a visa. Instead of filling in the green visa waiver form en route, short-term visitors must register their details online at least three days before they depart. The measure is designed tighten security and make it harder for terrorists who are citizens of the participating countries to easily obtain entry to the U.S. The new system, known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), does not become compulsory until January 12, 2009. But travelers are urged to prepare for the new rules in advance. ESTA applies to citizens from the 27 Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries that includes most of western Europe in addition to New Zealand, Japan, Brunei and Australia. Visitors are recommended to submit applications no later than 72 hours before departure in case further inquiry is necessary. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has assured travelers that the system can handle last-minute and emergency requests. Applications can be made at any time, even if travelers have no specific travel plans. And if itineraries change, information can be easily updated on the ESTA Web site. Once travelers are authorized, they can travel for up to two years or until their passport expires, whichever comes first. From mid-January, travelers who have not received approval may be denied boarding, delayed processing, or denied admission at a U.S. port of entry. Passengers must submit the same information that is currently required in the I-94 immigration form. This includes biographical data, travel information as well as questions regarding communicable diseases, arrests and convictions. Registration is possible through the U.S. government ESTA Web site. In most cases, eligibility for travel will be approved immediately. Applicants who receive an \"Authorization Pending\" response will need to check the Web site for updates. Applicants whose ESTA applications are denied will be referred to Travel.State.Gov for information on how to apply for a visa. ESTA does not change the rules for citizens from countries that require visas. But the U.S. is due to extend the visa waiver program and has signed agreements with eight countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea. Travelers are advised that ESTA does not guarantee entry into the United States. The final decision rests with the immigration official at the port of entry.","highlights":"New rules require visa-free visitors to the U.S. to register details before departure .\nThe process could take 72 hours but last-minute applications are possible .\nThe system, introduced this month, will become compulsory next January .\nOnce authorized, travelers can travel for up to two years or until their passport expires .","id":"4385dfb6c732f38bba3d95846255dae0ee492997"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is expelling the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States in response to a similar move by Venezuela, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. \"We have informed the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States that he will be expelled and should leave the United States,\" McCormack said. Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Friday two senior Venezuelan intelligence officials -- Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva -- and one former official -- Ramon Rodriguez Chacin -- of assisting leftist rebels in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with narcotics trafficking. \"Today's designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted and funded the FARC, even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents,\" said Adam J. Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement. The action freezes assets the three men may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits Americans from conducting business with them. The U.S. decision to expel the Venezuelan ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, is the latest move in an escalating diplomatic battle that pits the United States against two of Latin America's leftist leaders. It comes a day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he was expelling the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy. Chavez also said he was recalling the Venezuelan ambassador from the United States. \"He has 72 hours, from this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas, to leave Venezuela,\" Chavez told a crowd of supporters. \"When there's a new government in the United States, we'll send an ambassador. A government that respects Latin America.\" The president said he was making the moves \"in solidarity with Bolivia and the people of Bolivia.\" Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday accused the United States of fomenting a coup d'etat by rich eastern department landowners against him, and he called for the U.S. ambassador to leave for allegedly encouraging those protesters. For the past two weeks, the demonstrators in the country's richer eastern lowlands have been protesting Morales' plans to redistribute the country's natural gas revenues. \"Without fear of anyone, without fear of the empire, today before you, before the Bolivian people, I declare the ambassador of the United States persona non grata,\" Morales said Wednesday of Ambassador Philip Goldberg in a nationally televised speech. The United States called the allegations baseless and kicked out the Bolivian ambassador Thursday. The Bolivians \"made it very clear what their intention was and we took them at their word,\" McCormack said Friday. \"We take President Chavez at his word in this particular case, and we have reacted appropriately.\" Before expelling the U.S. diplomat from his country, Chavez also said Thursday that he had uncovered a U.S.-backed plot to remove him from power. \"It's the empire that's behind this,\" he told supporters in a televised address. \"They go around looking for a way to stop our revolution and, with it, to strike all the processes of change that are occurring in our Americas, in the Caribbean, in Central America.\" Chavez then played a four-minute tape of what he said were conversations among current and retired members of the Venezuelan military discussing whom they could count on to support a movement against the presidential palace. He said also that the presence of two Russian warplanes on Venezuelan soil for a training exercise \"is a warning\" to the rest of the world that Venezuela's allies include Russia.","highlights":"U.S. move on Venezuelan ambassador follows similar action by Caracas .\nVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelling the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela .\nU.S. Treasury Department also accuses Venezuelans of aiding Colombian rebels .\nU.S. in escalating diplomatic battle with Venezuelan, Bolivian leaders .","id":"e8130bb421fab0d7153976dd54f22cbc7b252c82"} -{"article":"Four alleged Venezuelan agents have been arrested in the U.S. and charged with trying to persuade a U.S. citizen to keep quiet about a growing international election scandal. Miami businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson . The U.S. Justice Department said the four wanted to prevent Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, a businessman from Miami, Florida, from talking to authorities. On August 4, Antonini Wilson flew in a privately chartered aircraft from Caracas, Venezuela, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where customs officers discovered $800,000 in cash in his possession. The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday the four men charged wanted to stop Antonini Wilson from revealing the origin of the $800,000. \"The complaint filed today outlines an alleged plot by agents of the Venezuelan government to manipulate an American citizen in Miami in an effort to keep the lid on a burgeoning international scandal,\" Kenneth Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a written statement. The agents, who worked for the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, wanted to ensure Wilson did not disclose \"the source and destination and the role of the government of Venezuela in the attempted delivery of the approximately $800,000,\" the statement said. The Justice Department statement does not say Chavez personally knew of the transaction, but says the office of the vice president and members of the Venezuelan Intelligence Directorate were aware of the matter. U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta in Miami said: \"Today's complaint alleges an effort by the agents of Venezuela to travel to the U.S. for the purpose of coercing our citizens to help conceal the true nature of a growing international scandal.\" Although documents did not identify which candidate was to receive the donation, federal law enforcement officials confirmed the funds were intended for the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who went on to win the election. The four men -- three Venezuelans and one Uruguayan -- made an initial court appearance in U.S. District Court in Miami on Wednesday afternoon. Those named in the complaint are identified as Moises Maionica, 36; Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez, 37; Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello, 40; Franklin Duran, 40; and Carlos Kauffmann, 35. Officials said Gomez remains at large. After Argentine customs found the $800,000 on Antonini Wilson, they seized the cash and sent him to Miami. Later, however, an Argentine judge issued an order for him to appear in court and, at the request of the Argentine government, Interpol issued an international wanted notice for him, U.S. State Department officials said. The officials said that on August 31, the Argentine judge requested Antonini Wilson's extradition. The request was delivered to the State Department on September 4, and Justice and State are currently reviewing the extradition request. The U.S. officials said they do not expect to take any further action while the Justice Department is pursuing its investigation and prosecution of the Venezuelan and Uruguayan nationals arrested in Miami. Antonini Wilson is not in custody, they added. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Alleged agents accused of trying to stop a U.S. citizen from talking to authorities .\nMiami-based Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson tried to enter Argentina with $800,000 .\nCash is believed to have been for Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner election campaign .","id":"aecf429fffc229c986755ced9da6933abc2a7e4a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.N. gunships battled rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, according to U.N. spokesman Michele Bonnardeaux. U.N. vehicles on Monday pass between lines of civilians fleeing fighting north of Goma, Congo. U.N. helicopter gunships, supporting national army forces on the ground, fired on rebels from the Congress for the Defense of the People in an effort to halt their advance on the village of Kibumba. CNDP is the French acronym for National Congress for the Defense of the People, a Congolese rebel group under renegade general Laurent Nkunda. The village of Kibumba is the location of a U.N.-administered internally displaced peoples camp, just 12 \u00bd miles (20 kilometers) north of the provincial capital, Goma, Bonnardeaux said. Renewed fighting erupted Sunday when the CNDP seized a major military camp and gorilla park, according to U.N. and park officials. The U.N. brokered peace accord in the area in January. On Monday, thousands fleeing Kibumba spurred violent demonstrations in front of the U.N. compound in Goma. The group was angry that a 17,000-person U.N. security force has been unable to protect them from renewed bouts of violence in the country, a U.N. spokesman told CNN. A U.N. spokesman said the U.N.'s mission in Congo was \"under attack\" on Monday. A mission staff member inside the U.N. compound, who did not want to give his name for security reasons, said U.N. security forces had returned fire in an attempt to disperse angry crowds near the U.N. compound. Gunshots could be heard as he spoke on the phone. He said the attack had resulted in several deaths. U.N. officials confirmed one dead in Goma as a result of Monday's demonstrations. The assault died down later in the day, a U.N. spokesman said, but people continued to pelt the building. It was unclear who was attacking, but the staff member told CNN the people were from a village that had been taken over by the CNDP, a Congolese renegade group led by Gen. Laurent Nkunda that seized a major military camp and gorilla park in a renewed bout of heavy fighting Sunday. Thousands of civilians were reportedly fleeing the fighting. Pictures from the region showed long lines of people walking along roads carrying their belongings. Watch how refugees line roads to get away \u00bb . Soldiers who abandoned the military camp were retreating in vehicles on a main road outside of Goma on Monday, angrily honking their horns at civilians who got in their way, The Associated Press reported. Bertrand Bisimwa, a spokesman for the rebels, told the AP that rebel fighters had moved to within 7 miles (11 kilometers) of Goma. The latest fighting comes after the collapse on Sunday of a tenuous week-old U.N.-brokered cease-fire between rebels and government forces. According to U.N. spokesman Nick Birnback, thousands of displaced civilians in the city of Goma were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, angry that a 17,000-person U.N. security force has been unable to protect them from the violence. \"The situation in Goma is very volatile,\" he said. \"But MONUC is taking all available measures to stabilize the situation.\" Watch more about the fighting \u00bb . The U.N. mission -- known by its French acronym, MONUC -- is in Goma, which is along Congo's border with Rwanda. Although the civil war in Congo -- once known as Zaire -- officially ended in 2003, recent fighting in eastern Congo between government forces and CNDP rebels under has caused tens of thousands to flee their homes, according to U.N. spokesman Michele Bonnardeaux. Watch ranger describe the violence \u00bb . The conflict and humanitarian crisis in Congo have taken the lives of 5.4 million people since 1998, and 45,000 people die there every month, according to an International Rescue Committee report in January. A senior U.S. State Department official said the United States is pushing hard for cooperation among Rwanda, Uganda and Congo over the situation in eastern Congo. The official said all countries, especially Congo and Rwanda, \"need to work together\" to rein in \"militia groups and other negative forces.\" Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer will travel to Congo and Rwanda to urge both governments to take action, the official said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement Monday calling on all parties \"to make every effort to restore calm among the affected populations.\" The attacks also coincided with the resignation of the U.N. military commander in Congo, Lt. Gen. Vicente Diaz de Villegas y Herreria. A U.N. statement on Monday indicated he stepped down for \"personal reasons.\" CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.N. helicopters attack rebels north of Goma to stop advancement .\nU.N. military commander in Congo resigns for \"personal reasons\"\nThousands of protesters attack U.N.'s eastern Congo HQ with rocks, stones .\nThe attack has resulted in several deaths, an official said .","id":"da65757d05c1d3c2be3d4229f7df20a07cb6a725"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Evidence consistent with human decomposition was found in the trunk of a car belonging to a Florida woman charged with killing her 3-year-old daughter, according to a forensic report released Friday. Caylee Anthony, 3, disappeared in mid-June but wasn't reported missing until a month later. \"Both odor analysis and LIBS results appear to be quite consistent with a decompositional event having occurred in the trunk of the vehicle,\" said the report from Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, noting that the results were preliminary. Testing indicates that the decomposition could be human, the report adds. Casey Anthony, who drove the car, was arrested this month and charged with first-degree murder and other charges in the disappearance of her daughter, Caylee. Caylee was last seen in mid-June, but Casey Anthony waited about a month before telling her family the child was gone. LIBS is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, one of the techniques used in chemical analysis. Testing was conducted on air and carpet samples from the vehicle. The tests indicated \"the presence of the five key major compounds associated with human decomposition,\" the report said. The tests also found \"an unusually large concentration of chloroform\" in the trunk, according to the Oak Ridge report. Chloroform can be used to render someone unconscious. However, trace amounts of chloroform were also found on a control carpet sample, the report said. Watch Nancy Grace report on the chloroform discovery \u00bb . The report also says evidence of possible decomposition was found on a hair located among debris in the trunk. The hair is \"microscopically similar\" to one recovered from Caylee's hair brush, the report said, but \"a more meaningful conclusion cannot be reached as this is not a suitable known hair sample.\" The report was released by prosecutors as part of the case's public record. Prosecutors said they would not comment further on them. Todd Black, a spokesman for Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, said the evidence does not link Casey Anthony to any criminal behavior. \"There's nothing in those reports that links Casey Anthony to any wrongdoing with her daughter, Caylee,\" he said. Casey Anthony was arrested October 14 in a traffic stop after a grand jury indicted her on seven counts of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to police. If convicted of the capital murder charge, she could face the death penalty or a life sentence. Police and prosecutors have said little about the case, but hundreds of pages of documents and investigative reports have been released. They indicate that Casey Anthony went to nightclubs, entered \"hot body\" contests and text-messaged her friends while her daughter was missing. Copies of cell phone and text records released to the public show that she hardly ever mentioned Caylee during the time just before and after the girl was reported missing. And in May, just before Caylee disappeared, her mother referred to the girl as \"the little snot head.\" Casey's mother, Cindy Anthony, called the sheriff in Orange County, Florida, on July 15, saying her daughter wouldn't tell her where Caylee was. Casey's brother, Lee Anthony, also pleaded with his sister to tell him where Caylee was, according to police documents. She told him she hadn't seen the child in \"31 days.\" When questioned, Casey Anthony gave conflicting statements to police, including some that were later disproved, accounting for the charges of providing false information. She claimed that she dropped Caylee off with a baby-sitter, but when police checked out her story, they learned that the address Casey Anthony supplied belonged to an apartment that had been vacant for weeks. The woman Casey Anthony named as her baby-sitter told police she did not know her. Investigators have said cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Casey Anthony's car and her parents' backyard. A neighbor told police Casey Anthony had asked to borrow a shovel. Preliminary air quality tests conducted by the FBI found evidence consistent with human decomposition and chloroform in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car, investigators previously said. Further analysis of Casey Anthony's computer found that she had visited Web sites discussing chloroform, as well as Internet searches of missing children. CNN Headline News' Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Preliminary lab tests say decomposition evidence could be human, report says .\nTests also find \"unusually large concentration of chloroform\" in trunk .\nCasey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in daughter's disappearance .\nLawyer's spokesman says evidence doesn't link Casey to any wrongdoing .","id":"bfd523b1a6be090768e69f4bdcedceb37876c59f"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have arrested four men in connection with the suicide truck bombing of a Marriott Hotel last month in Islamabad that killed more than 50 people, officials said Friday. More than 50 people died in last month's attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The men appeared Friday before a magistrate in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, police and Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency investigators said. Although they have not been charged, the magistrate is allowing police to hold them for a week while the investigation continues. The magistrate ordered them back to court on October 31. Authorities have not said how they believe these men are connected to the September 20 bombing. The men -- one of whom is a doctor -- were arrested at different times in different places, authorities said, but gave no additional details. They identified them as: Dr. Muhammad Usman and Tehseen Ulla Jaan, both from Peshawar; Ilyas Rana Muhammad, from a village near Faiselabad in Pakistan's Punjab province; and Hameed Afzal Muhammad, from Toba Taik Singh district, also in Punjab province. In addition to the dozens killed, some 250 people were wounded in the suicide truck attack, which sparked a fire that left the hotel in ruins. The hotel, located near the diplomatic section of Islamabad, had been popular among tourists visiting Pakistan. It was crowded the night of the bombing.","highlights":"Four arrested on suspicion of involvement\" in hotel blast in Pakistani capital .\nMore than people died in September 20 attack on Marriott hotel, 250-plus injured .\nAuthorities have not said how they believe the men are related to the blast .","id":"6f5ec209bf634b37f75d2e39e44dab3f796a4006"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Officials in the United States are looking into the recent arrest of an Iranian-American student in Tehran who was working on a research project on women's rights in Iran. Esha Momeni was arrested October 15 in Tehran, Iran, officials said. Esha Momeni, a graduate student at California State University-Northridge, was arrested October 15 in Tehran for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving, according to Change For Equality, an Iranian women's movement. \"We're seeking additional information about this case,\" State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday. \"We stand with all those in Iran who are working for universal human rights and justice in their countries.\" Momeni, who was born in Los Angeles, California, is a member of Change for Equality's California chapter. She arrived in Tehran two months ago to work on her masters thesis project on the Iranian women's movement, according to the group, which is in touch with Momeni's family in Iran. Momeni is being held in a section of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison that is managed by the Intelligence Ministry, the group said. Evin Prison houses many Iranian dissidents and political prisoners, and it is where four Iranian-Americans were held for several months last year. All have been released. Iranian officials had promised Momeni's family that she would be immediately released if the news of her arrest was not published, the organization said. \"While Esha's friends and colleagues were insistent about announcing the news of her arrest immediately, based on requests from her family this news was announced with delay,\" Change for Equality said on its Web site. Momeni's parents decided to release the information after they went to Iran's Revolutionary Court on Sunday -- five days after her arrest -- to inquire about her case, and they were told not to return until the investigation into her case has been completed, according to Change for Equality. The Momeni family returned to Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but Esha had gone back to the United States several years ago to study for her masters degree, according to a blog post from her journalism professor, Melissa Wall. A separate blog calling for her release (for-esha.blogspot.com) has been established and includes an interview with Wall, who describes her student as \"an exceptionally bright person, very creative and artistic.\" She calls herself \"shocked\" to hear of Momeni's arrest. \"I'm aware that such things happen in Iran, but I'm confident that they have nothing to fear from Esha's research project,\" Wall said. \"It is simply an academic exercise, not meant for publication outside of academic circles. I cannot image why she should be held in detention.\" On her personal blog, Wall said, \"She is a videographer who was simply interviewing Iranian women. She has broken no laws, has not done anything wrong.\"","highlights":"Esha Momeni was was working on her thesis on women's rights in Iran .\nShe was arrested for unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving October 15 .\nMomeni is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison .\nNews of arrest withheld because family was told she would be released .","id":"93456d2e7f067d518838df8cd7f32ee85289f4bd"} -{"article":"DECATUR, Georgia (CNN) -- Police quietly wait by the front door of the small, brick suburban Atlanta home as investigators tell 48-year-old Lajuana Robinson, a mother of nine, \"I'm going to have to put you in handcuffs.\" Investigators take a woman from her Decatur, Georgia, home after her arrest in a truancy case. She's charged with violating her parole in a truancy case because three of her younger children have missed hundreds of days of school combined. While students have always suffered the consequences of playing hooky, parents in DeKalb County, Georgia, are facing one of the more aggressive anti-truancy programs in the country, one where punishment can include time behind bars. DeKalb's program is one of a growing list targeting truancy in U.S. schools, said Jodi Heilbrunn, senior research and policy analyst at The National Center for School Engagement. \"Ten years ago, there weren't too many anti-truancy programs, but now they are springing up like rabbits,\" Heilbrunn said, and \"they come in many varieties.\" In some communities, a single school takes on its own problem. In others, like Jacksonville, Florida, and Niagara Falls, New York, the battle is system wide. And New Jersey is about to institute a statewide system, targeting six cities with the worst truancy problems. The DeKalb County program, started in May 2006, was designed to get children from the age of 6 to 16 back in class. If a child has 10 or more unexcused absences from school, parents are referred to an intervention program where they sign a contract agreeing to make sure their children get to class. If they fail to do that, they face the judge. According the county solicitor general's office, around 300 families have gone to court so far. Watch how a Georgia mother ends up in handcuffs \u00bb . Most of the parents who are cited are charged with educational neglect, said DeKalb County Solicitor-General Robert James. Most of those charged plead guilty and get probation, he said. The probation usually involves parenting classes, counseling, and follow-up visits for progress and attendance reports. Parents who violate their probation run the risk of thousands of dollars in fines, and up to 30 days in jail per count. \"We are putting parents in jail, or we are bringing them in orange jumpsuits not just because their children are not in school, but because they got a subpoena or summons to come to court, or to come to a diversionary program and they refused to do so. So this is more about accountability than anything,\" James said. James said it is critical in his county to keep kids in school. The Georgia Department of Corrections found that more than 60 percent of its inmates in 2007 didn't earn a high school diploma, and James quoted an internal survey that found 84 percent of inmates in DeKalb County's jail are high school dropouts. LaTara Tankersley-Jones and Craig Scott, investigators for the DeKalb County Solicitor-General's office, are tasked with locating \"truant\" parents and serving court-ordered summons. Jones and Scott, usually with assistance from local law enforcement, also must arrest parents who have not complied with a court-ordered probation or failed to show up to court in the first place. Scott said arrest is the least desirable option, but \"the bottom line is, we have a warrant and even if the children are there, you're going to have to come with us.\" Robinson was no stranger to the investigators. The county had intervened on behalf of her children before, even providing Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas presents last year. The mother had been ordered to be sure her children went to school and to attend parenting classes herself. She had done neither, investigators said, earning herself a night in jail and a face-to-face with the judge the next day. Judge R. Joy Walker presides over the Educational Neglect courtroom. On a recent Friday in October, she handled each of the 80 or so cases before her in a fast, firm, and efficient manner. One by one, each parent, mostly women, has an opportunity to explain to Walker why they are in her courtroom. Investigators Jones and Scott are there as well. They say they hear the same excuses over and over again. \"They can't get up, or they have so many things that are going on in their life that are preventing them from making sure that their kids go to school,\" Jones said. Walker agrees to probation for most of the parents in her court this day, including Angela Harris, who pleads guilty to 24 counts, one for each of the 24 days her child missed school. \"I have never in my 48 years been in trouble, so this is all new to me,\" she tells the judge. \"The state is offering you 24 months (of probation), but if you mess up I'm going to put you in jail,\" Walker replies. Walker has put 15 \"truant\" parents behind bars. Lajuana Robinson is released. But she'll have to return to court another day to explain why her children aren't in school. So far, the success of the DeKalb program has been limited. \"We have seen some small results,\" James said. Attendance has increased by 2 to 3 percent over the past year. \"I am not satisfied by that, but in a school system of over 100,000 kids, you are talking about 2,000 to 3,000 more children attending school than what we had the year before last,\" he said. James says that he has received some interest from neighboring counties about the program and he thinks it is only a matter of time before they adopt similar ones. \"We have a lot of parents who feel we should not be intervening in family business, but it's the law. In Georgia, in DeKalb County, attendance is the law, and we plan to enforce it.\"","highlights":"Georgia county operates aggressive program to keep kids in school .\n300 families have gone to court in truancy cases .\nFifteen \"truant\" parents have faced time behind bars .","id":"e82cc00daf7771c0b92386c369c4cb2e3018d304"} -{"article":"KAUHAJOKI, Finland (CNN) -- Police in Finland have identified the 10 victims in Tuesday's college shooting as eight female students, a male student and a male teacher. The bodies of the victims were also badly burned after being set on fire. The gunman -- identified by authorities as Matti Juhani Saari -- also died after turning the gun on himself. In addition, one woman was seriously wounded in the shooting. Finnish police had interviewed and released Saari a day before Tuesday's bloody rampage at a college in Kauhajoki in southwestern Finland, the country's interior minister said Tuesday. Finnish broadcaster YLE reported that police found a note at Saari's apartment saying he planned the attack since 2002 because he hated \"people and the human race,\" according to Jari Neulaniemi of the National Bureau of Investigation. Neulaniemi told YLE that the shooting took place in a single classroom. Nine of the victims were found in the classroom and one in the corridor, the report said. Authorities say they became interested in the 22-year-old student after he posted four videos on YouTube. One of them showed him firing a pistol at a shooting range. Saari did not directly threaten anyone in the videos, so there were no grounds for further action, national police Commissioner Mikko Paatero told YLE. However, Interior Minister Anne Holmlund suggested the government will investigate how the police handled the case. Watch as the people of Kauhajoki mourn the victims \u00bb . \"It's clear that we have to carefully go through what should have been done and if we could have avoided this situation in some way,\" The Associated Press quoted her as saying. Finnish President Tarja Halonen, speaking from the United Nations' annual General Assembly in New York, also raised concerns about the YouTube videos. \"We, parents and elderly people, have a little bit of feeling about the Internet,\" she said during an impromptu TV interview. \"It's like a strange planet for us. But it's not so. It's part of our world, so we have to step in.\" However she praised efforts by police, who she said \"were already on board\" by interviewing Saari. Authorities hoped that was enough to take care of any threat, but \"now we see that it was not,\" she said. The massacre in Kauhajoki, 290 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Helsinki, was Finland's second school shooting in less than a year and renewed calls for a review of the country's laws on gun ownership. Watch pictures from the scene \u00bb . \"We must considerably tighten them,\" Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told YLE during a visit to the town early Wednesday. \"We should consider whether to allow these small arms for private citizens at home. They belong on firing ranges.\" MTV-3's Foreign Editor Risto Puolimatka told CNN that Saari was issued with a temporary gun license last month. It was the gunman's first license, Puolimatka said. Authorities learned about the videos Friday but could not reach Saari until Monday, Paatero told YLE. Police also searched his home, YLE reported. Four videos of a man firing a pistol at a shooting range were posted by a \"Mr. Saari\" from Kauhajoki, where the college is based, according to his profile on video-sharing Web site YouTube. The profile also included a video tribute to the Columbine High School shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, at the top of the man's favorites list. The videos were posted over a three-week period this month. None was posted in the last week. Watch more about the YouTube videos \u00bb . The account was suspended within hours of the shooting, which began about 11 a.m. local time (0800 GMT.) Jukka Forsberg, a maintenance worker at the school, told YLE that the gunman was wearing a ski mask and walked into the building with a large bag. About 150 students were on campus Kauhajoki city's School of Hospitality in southwestern Finland. Forsberg said, \"I heard several dozen rounds of shots. In other words, it was an automatic pistol. I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning, and one managed to escape out the back door.\" Saari died Tuesday afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Tampere University Hospital, said medical director Matti Lehto. At least one other person suffered serious injuries in the shooting, he added. The incident comes almost a year after another school shooting left nine people, including the gunman, dead in the Finnish town of Tuusala. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eight females, two males killed after gunman rampaged through college .\nPM calls for tighter gun controls after shootings in southern Finland .\nGunman was issued with a temporary gun license last month .\nGovt. to probe the fact police interviewed gunman a day before the shootings .","id":"6a2372a02a0776850f8cd26e0467b756b64873ae"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Sarah Bliss is a writer for the Tufts Daily, the leading news source for Tufts University. This article was brought to CNN.com by UWIRE, the leading provider of student-generated content. UWIRE aims to identify and promote the brightest young content creators and deliver their work to a larger audience via professional media partners such as CNN.com. Visit UWIRE.com to learn more. SUNY at Canton in New York has provided a designated \"pet wing,\" home to a variety of animals. (UWIRE) -- As university residence halls seek to transition into more homey environments -- with additions like full kitchens and single-stall bathrooms -- pet ownership is still forbidden for the majority of dorm residents. But several universities, including MIT, have now added some pets to the \"acceptable\" list of dorm possessions. According to a recent article published by The Boston Globe, students at MIT who reside in four of the school's 11 undergraduate dormitories can bring cats with them to school, thanks to a policy implemented several years ago in an effort to curb students from housing forbidden animals. Other schools have jumped on the four-footed bandwagon: Stephen's College, a women's college in Columbia, Missouri, allows for many household pets, including dogs, provided that they are vaccinated and under forty pounds. And the SUNY at Canton in New York has provided a designated \"pet wing,\" home to a variety of small caged animals and cats since 1996. While animal companionship is largely viewed as a welcome addition to family homes, there are many roadblocks that have deterred Tufts from altering its pet policy. \"We don't have a policy that allows for dogs or cats or ferrets or monkeys -- you name it -- and ... the main reason is so many people have allergic reactions to animal dander,\" Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said. \"It's one thing in a family, where everyone agrees that this is what they want and no one has an allergic reaction to the animal. But in a residence hall, where there is no such communication or agreement, it's hard and people are affected.\" While Tufts students are currently not permitted to have more than a small fish tank in the dorm setting -- in addition to service animals -- this has not always been the case. During a failed experiment that ended around a decade ago, faculty members, residence directors and graduate teaching assistants were allowed to own pets in an attempt to encourage residence. \"We were trying to entice [people]to come live in the halls, and ... they wouldn't come unless you allowed the pets,\" Reitman said. \"In order to pragmatically get [them] to come in, we said 'Okay, let's do this.' Then people said, 'No, this isn't fair, I can't live here.' Not many students complained, but enough did.\" According to Dr. Margaret Higham, medical director of Health Services, the prevalence of allergies and asthma on campus would make a more lenient pet policy problematic. In addition, dorm cleanliness would be noticeably impaired by the allowance of pets, she said. \"Pets need to be taken care of ... Litter boxes need to be cleaned daily,\" Higham said. \"The dorm rooms were not built with the need to ventilate for that type of situation. And what about fleas? Once they are introduced, they would spread rapidly through all of the furniture. I do not see students being able to care for animals adequately in the dorm setting.\" Even without canines currently roaming the quad, there has been a modest history of animal neglect that calls into question a student's ability to provide for an animal properly. \"I think some fraternities in recent years did have animals,\" Reitman said. \"There were concerns or complaints when spring break came along, because there is this animal, not cared for ...the animal activists came in here and said, 'That's no way to treat an animal,'\" Reitman said. \"A residence facility -- be it a sorority, fraternity or residence hall -- is not necessarily a good fit for the animal.\" Reitman said he had reservations about allowing pets in designated residence halls, like MIT does. \"If you designate certain buildings as 'pet buildings,' you are taking that building, in essence, from people who don't want to live in that type of environment,\" Reitman said. \"You can't do that with very popular halls that go first in the lottery, because there would be no end to complaints about that. You just get into this equity political-pragmatics issue pretty quickly.\" \"Developing pet-specific dorms would be a huge logistical struggle,\" Higham said. \"Once pets have been in a specific room, that room is 'contaminated' with pet dander and will be 'allergic' for extended periods.\" But a number of studies have been released touting the psychological benefits of owning a pet, arguing that the relationship serves as a daily de-stress mechanism and source of increased happiness. While Reitman viewed the calming influence of a pet-owner bond as beneficial, he associated the necessity of pet companionship with two distinct groups, neither of which includes college students. \"I'll say the usefulness in ownership and responsibility for the aged and the young jumps off the page to me,\" Reitman said. \"For older folks ... the companionship and presence of the animal is life sustaining in a lot of ways,\" Reitman said. \"For young kids and teenagers, the responsibility of pet ownership is a great model for taking on a commitment. It's clearly needed, but probably a little less so in our middle years.\" Sophomore Kara Brown, who suffers from asthma, said it is a bad idea to allow pets in residence halls. \"I wouldn't love it if cats were allowed just because being anywhere near them makes me sick ... My breathing tubes start to close,\" Brown said. \"I also feel like people usually have too much going on to really take care of a pet, especially now in college when you are already doing so much that takes a lot of effort.\" \"I don't think it's fair to other people who are living in the dorms because everybody needs to agree that they want an animal in their dorm,\" junior Jenny Hong said. \"It's not only you and your roommate, but you're sharing a huge space with everyone else. It would also cause a lot of mess and possible destruction to school property.\" Still, Hong admitted that she wouldn't rule out the possibility of owning a pet if the policy changed. \"I would consider bringing a pet, but I would only go for small pets -- maybe a hamster or gerbil,\" she said. \"Never a cat, though, or a dog.\"","highlights":"Some universities adding pets to \"acceptable\" list of dorm possessions .\nStudents at MIT can bring cats, according to Boston Globe article .\nAllergens, fleas, mess listed as reasons for concern by one school dean .\nI feel students have too much going on to take care of a pet, student says .","id":"51723532be1c1b651f9dff62234d8035c985283f"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The mother of missing Florida toddler Caylee Anthony was arrested and charged Friday with forgery, fraudulent use of personal information and petty theft, the Orange County Sheriff's Department said. Casey Anthony was taken into custody Friday night at her parents' home in Orlando, Florida. The charges relate to Casey Anthony's use of \"some monies and checks in an account that did not belong to her and she knew that,\" Orange County Capt. Angelo Nieves said. Orange County Sheriff's Department officers ushered a handcuffed Anthony through a crowd of protesters that had gathered outside her parents' Orlando home. The protesters cheered as Anthony -- wearing a T-shirt with Caylee's picture and the words \"Have you seen me?\" -- was taken to a unmarked police car. The dramatic scene played out live on CNN Headline News' \"Nancy Grace.\" Watch Casey Anthony being taken into custody \u00bb . Anthony had been out on bail after being charged with child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation into her daughter's disappearance. On Thursday, a bounty hunter who had posted bond for Anthony said he planned to revoke the bond. Watch bounty hunter Leonard Padilla explain why he wants to revoke bond \u00bb . The new charges carry an initial $3,000 bail, Nieves said. Anthony reported her 3-year-old daughter missing in July, a month after the last known sighting of her. Law enforcement sources said DNA evidence suggested that a strand of hair in the trunk of a car linked to Casey Anthony was Caylee's. Nieves confirmed reports that tests had \"indicated human decomposition was present and located in the defendant's vehicle.\" After holding onto \"high hopes\" that Caylee could be found alive, Nieves said Friday, \"that hope is somewhat diminished.\" Anthony told police that a babysitter kidnapped Caylee, but police found inconsistencies in her story, according to police reports. Police learned of the car from Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony. At that time, Cindy Anthony told authorities that it smelled as if a dead body had been in the trunk. Cindy Anthony has since said she believes that her granddaughter is alive.","highlights":"Casey Anthony led out of parents' home Friday night past cheering crowd .\nShe is charged with forgery, fraudulent use of personal information, petty theft .\nAnthony already accused of child neglect, making false statements, obstruction .\nShe had been out on bail in disappearance of 3-year-old daughter, Caylee .","id":"3f9ac7fa4ee8126ec03a8aac122601ffccf4dc9c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- DJ and pop star Boy George has been denied a visa to enter the United States, his Web site said Tuesday. In 2007, George spent five days cleaning the streets of New York to fulfill a community service sentence. U.S. immigration authorities denied the visa because George, 48, faces trial in November in London on charges of false imprisonment relating to an April 2007 incident, according to a statement from Boy George's management, posted on his site. \"George is astounded at the decision and is having his lawyers here in the States look at it in the hope that someone will change their mind,\" the statement read. Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was charged in London last November with false imprisonment following a complaint from a 28-year-old man, police said. The incident happened in East London the previous April, police said. George is free on unconditional bail and is not barred from traveling as he awaits trial, his management said. His upcoming schedule includes a series of U.S. club dates in July and August. George is best known as the singer of '80s pop group Culture Club, with hits including \"Karma Chameleon\" and \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?\" He quit the band in 1987 and embarked on a short solo career before reinventing himself as a club DJ and launching a fashion label, B-Rude. In August 2007, George spent five days cleaning the streets of Manhattan to fulfill a community service sentence for falsely reporting a break-in at his New York home. George's management said the denial of his U.S. visa had nothing to do with that case.","highlights":"48-year-old Boy George on trial in London in November .\nPerformer faces charges of false imprisonment relating to 2007 incident .\nGeorge is free on unconditional bail and is not barred from traveling .\nDue to play series of U.S. club dates in July and August .","id":"c6da0a82c7b7dc2f02e99d39f59cbb5397d495c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ten people were killed Tuesday when a gunman rampaged through a Finnish college, police officials said. Officials say Matti Juhani Saari began firing in a classroom at the college before shooting himself. Over the course of 90 minutes, Saari fired a few shots at police, Finnish broadcaster YLE said. Jukka Forsberg, a maintenance worker at the school, told YLE that the gunman was wearing a ski mask and walked into the building with a large bag. About 150 students were on campus Kauhajoki city's School of Hospitality in southwestern Finland. Forsberg said, \"I heard several dozen rounds of shots. In other words, it was an automatic pistol. I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning, and one managed to escape out the back door.\" Smoke billowed from a building on campus, but officials could not immediately say what caused the fire. Watch pictures from the scene \u00bb . Tapio Varmola, who was visiting the school at the time, told CNN he was in a building about two blocks away when the shootings occurred. After the shootings, he said, he heard students shouting. Police came about 10 minutes after they were called, Varmola said. \"It took two hours to get this situation ended,\" he said. Saari, 22, died Tuesday afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Tampere University Hospital, said medical director Matti Lehto. At least one other person suffered serious injuries in the shooting, he added. Police had interviewed and released Saari on Monday after he posted violent videos on YouTube, authorities said. As Saari did not directly threaten anyone in the videos, there were no grounds for further action, national police Commissioner Mikko Paatero told YLE. Authorities learned about the videos Friday but could not reach Saari until Monday, Paatero told YLE. Police also searched his home, YLE reported. Four videos of a man firing a pistol at a shooting range were posted by a \"Mr. Saari\" from Kauhajoki, where the college is based, according to his YouTube profile. The profile also included a video tribute to the Columbine High School shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, at the top of the man's favorites list. The videos were posted over a three-week period this month. None was posted in the last week. Watch more about the YouTube videos \u00bb . The account was suspended within hours of the shooting, which began about 11 a.m. local time (0800 GMT). MTV-3's Foreign Editor Risto Puolimatka told CNN that Saari was also issued with a temporary gun license last month. It was the gunman's first license, Puolimatka said. Finnish President Tarja Halonen expressed her condolences from the United Nations, where she is attending the annual General Assembly. She also commented on the YouTube videos. \"We, parents and elderly people, have a little bit of feeling about the Internet,\" she said at an impromptu TV interview. \"It's like a strange planet for us. But it's not so. It's part of our world, so we have to step in.\" She praised efforts by police, who she said \"were already on board\" by interviewing Saari. Authorities hoped that was enough to take care of any threat, but \"now we see that it was not,\" she said. The school taught late teens and young adults, Jarkko Sipila of MTV 3 told CNN. \"It's more or less like an agricultural or professional school where people teach how to make food or how to cook in big kitchen, in industrial kitchens,\" he said. Kauhajoki, with a population of about 15,000, is about 290km (180 miles) from the capital, Helsinki. The incident comes almost a year after another school shooting left nine people, including the gunman, dead in the Finnish town of Tuusala. Before that shooting, the gunman, 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen, posted a video on YouTube titled \"Jokela High School Massacre 11\/7\/2007,\" identifying the date and location of the attack. \"All these memories are being brought back and people are asking the question, 'Why again?' \" Sipila said. Finland enjoys a strong tradition of hunting and has a high proportion of gun ownership, with 2 million firearms owned in a nation of 5 million people.","highlights":"Ten killed as gunman rampages through college in southwestern Finland .\nSuspected gunman dies in hospital after turning the gun on himself, officials said .\nPolice say the shooter was a student, no motive established .\nPolice probing videos posted on YouTube by alleged gunman .","id":"27143aad51cb950ca0932a938838dad9f23a7a57"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Police in India have charged 63 people with murder in the beating death of a company boss who fired them. Labor minister Oscar Fernandes was criticized for saying Chaudhary's death was warning to management. The 63 were among 137 people police had rounded up by Wednesday -- two days after a mob of fired employees attacked L.K. Chaudhary, the chief executive of an Italian car parts manufacturing company. The others were charged with disturbing the peace in the Monday incident in Noida, located in the outskirts of the capital New Delhi. More arrests are likely, said R. K. Chaturvedi, the senior superintendent of police in Noida. The former employees of Graziano Transmissioni had gone to meet with company management over their reinstatement, said Noida police Inspector Manoj Pathak. The meeting turned violent, and the mob attacked Chaudhary with iron rods, Pathak said. On Tuesday, India's labor minister, Oscar Fernandes, drew sharp criticism after he said Chaudhary's death should serve as a warning to management, according to CNN's sister network in India, CNN-IBN. \"The workers should be dealt (with) with compassion and should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever that had happened in Nodia\" CNN-IBN quoted Fernandes as telling reporters. The minister later apologized, telling CNN his comments had been taken out of context. He said the murder of the boss could never be justified. The Italian Embassy said the company had, for several months, been facing \"violent forms of protest by self-proclaimed workers' representatives.\" \"The situation had been repeatedly brought to the attention of the competent Indian authorities, both at central and local level,\" it said in a statement. Business groups condemned the killing with the Confederation of Indian Industry calling it \"tragic, unwanted and gory.\" \"Such instances of industrial violence cannot be a solution to any problem and must not be tolerated,\" said Salil Singh, chairman of the group that promotes industrial growth. Meanwhile, authorities sought to appease businesses that police were aggressively investigating the case. \"The legal course will be followed and all culprits brought to book,\" Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said. \"This stray tragic occurrence would not be allowed to mar India's position as an investment-friendly destination.\" CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police in India charge 63 people with murdering company boss who fired them .\nMob of fired employees attacked chief executive of Italian car parts company .\nIndia's labor minister apologizes for saying death is warning to management .","id":"89ed5628c5d916579cabeb7ce8c3267db7c7915e"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanair MD-82 airliner was not on fire as it took off from Madrid's airport but lifted off slightly into the air, fell back to the ground and caught fire only after skidding off the side of the runway, a source familiar said Friday. The plane crash victims' bodies laid out at a makeshift morgue in Madrid. A total of 153 people were killed. Initially, there were indications that an engine might have caught fire as the plane was taking off, but the source said airport video shows the plane lifting off, veering sharply right and then dragging or skidding down the right side of the runway. There was a cloud of dust, the source said, followed by a fireball. Canary Islands regional President Paulino Rivero said after meeting with Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, that the latter had seen the video and described it as showing the plane using up all the runway as it tried to take off but then never reaching adequate altitude, The Associated Press reported. Eighty of the bodies recovered from the wreckage of Wednesday's fiery plane crash have been identified, Spanish authorities said Friday. Watch as Spain deals with tragedy \u00bb . Many of the bodies are so badly burned that fingerprint identification is impossible, and investigators will have to rely on DNA, officials said. Nineteen survivors remained hospitalized Friday. The plane was all but destroyed in the crash, a rescue worker said. When emergency crews arrived on the scene, \"you couldn't distinguish that there was an aircraft there, apart from the remains of the tail,\" Ergivio Corral said. \"If you didn't know it, you wouldn't have been able to say there was a plane.\" Watch moment of silence \u00bb . Authorities have handed over the remains of 35 victims to their families, officials said. Families of the victims are being housed in a hotel near the airport, and the government planned to brief them on the crash investigation Friday. The cause of the accident is still unknown, but Spanair spokesman Javier Mendoza said flight data recorders had been recovered. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos from the scene . \"One of them seems to be... a little bit damaged, but [investigators] are confident they could use the information,\" Mendoza said. \"But we have to wait for the downloading and the analysis\" before any conclusions can be drawn, he said. Witnesses reported that the plane banked violently to the right as it attempted to take off before slamming back to the ground and coming to a rest in a gully just off the runway at Madrid's Bajaras airport. Watch as the wounded arrive at a hospital \u00bb . The plane's departure had been delayed for nearly two hours due to a technical problem with the aircraft, Mendoza said, but it was not clear whether that fault was related to the crash. \"The heating problem was treated and corrected by Spanair maintenance personnel,\" he said. \"We have reviewed the details on this faulty situation with the inspectors of our civil aviation authority,\" he said, \"and we all come to the conclusion that was nothing abnormal in this resolution of that problem.\" Madrid observed five minutes of silence Thursday to honor the victims, and the country began three days of mourning. See a map of the airport \u00bb . The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carried 162 passengers, four non-working crew members and six working crew members, Spanair said. The aircraft was also carrying seven passengers from Lufthansa Flight 2554 on a flight scheduled to take more than two hours, airline spokeswoman Henriette Ellekrog said. Spanair, a low-cost airline that has a flight-sharing agreement with Lufthansa, is owned by SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Twenty-two of the passengers were children, two of them infants, Spanair said. After contacting families, the airline published the names of those aboard on its Web site. It was the first fatal accident at the airport since December 1983, when 93 people were killed as two Spanish airliners collided while taxiing for takeoff. The airport, which sits eight miles (13 km) northeast of central Madrid, is Spain's busiest, handling more than 40 million passengers a year. CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman, Claudia Rebaza, Cal Perry and Kathleen Koch contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video of Spanair MD-82 which crashed in Madrid shows plane got off the ground .\nVideo shows plane bursting into flames after runway skid, source says .\nDNA tests will be used to identify victims from Madrid air crash .\n153 people died when Spanair flight crashed Wednesday during takeoff .","id":"ab31df1154e8c5667e5297838681b7b5a2ea4e71"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The man who authorities allege carried out the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people sent himself an e-mail saying he knew the attacker's identity, according to court documents released Wednesday. Former biodefense researcher Bruce Ivins killed himself in July, authorities say. Bruce Ivins, who authorities say killed himself in July as the Justice Department prepared to charge him in the anthrax case, is alleged to have sent the e-mail to himself last September. An FBI agent quotes the message in an affidavit accompanying applications for search warrants for Ivins' e-mail accounts. \"Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!!!! I finally know who mailed the anthrax letters in the fall of 2001. I've pieced it together! Now we can finally get this over and done with,\" the e-mail reads. In it, the former biodefense researcher says he plans on turning information over to his lawyer and that his lawyer would then give it to authorities. The e-mail does not say who Ivins believed was responsible. \"I'm not looking forward to everybody getting dragged through the mud, but at least it will be over,\" the e-mail reads. \"Finally! I should have it TOTALLY nailed down within the month. I should have been a private eye!!!!\" The documents -- which the Justice Department says are the last Ivins-related search warrants that had yet to be released to the public -- also contain new details about allegations that Ivins wanted to kill his co-workers. The details are in an account of a July 9 group therapy session during which Ivins allegedly said he was a suspect in the anthrax investigation. According to an FBI agent's account, Ivins was \"angry at the investigators, the government, and the system in general.\" \"He said he was not going to face the death penalty, but instead had a plan to kill co-workers and other individuals who wronged him,\" the account reads. \"He said he had a bullet-proof vest, and a list of co-workers, and added he was going to obtain a Glock firearm from his son within the next day, because federal agents are watching him and he could not obtain a weapon on his own.\" The FBI agent also alleges that Ivins said during the session that he had walked around the \"ghetto\" areas of Frederick, Maryland, near his home, late at night \"hoping that someone would try to hurt him so that he could stab them with a sharp pen.\" That description is similar to something Ivins allegedly wrote on YouTube referencing a winner of the television game show \"The Mole.\" Authorities said Ivins' YouTube message read: \"The least someone could do would be to take a sharp ballpoint pin or letter opener and put her eyes out, to complete the task of making her a true mole!\" General details of the therapy session have previously been reported. After the meeting, social worker Jean Duley contacted authorities and Ivins was taken into custody. He was released after being evaluated at two hospitals. Notes allegedly written by Ivins at the time of his hospitalization were found in the trash at his home after his death. According to the FBI, he wrote about the stresses in his life and the possibility of facing prison time. Ivins' attorney, Paul Kemp, maintains Ivins didn't carry out the attacks and says the new documents prove nothing. \"There is simply nothing new here, nothing that is proof against Dr. Ivins,\" Kemp said Wednesday. The anthrax probe continues, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said. \"We are working to close the investigation soon,\" Boyd said, adding that \"investigative efforts\" and \"administrative measures\" need to be finished. The anthrax attacks occurred less than a month after the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Letters filled with bacterial spores were sent to Senate Democratic leaders and news organizations. Those who died were Washington postal workers, a New York hospital worker, a supermarket tabloid photo editor in Florida and a 94-year-old woman in Connecticut. Scientists from inside and outside the FBI said they traced a strain of anthrax from the envelopes and victims to a batch of anthrax in Ivins' lab at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute in Fort Detrick, Maryland.","highlights":"\"I finally know who mailed the anthrax letters,\" Bruce Ivins allegedly wrote to himself .\nCourt documents reveal more details about allegations he threatened co-workers .\nIvins' attorney: Documents prove nothing .\nAuthorities say Ivins mailed anthrax letters that killed five people in 2001 .","id":"45a1816e00f1bf15675e7c1da1dc8c75c44dc22b"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- An air of anxiety clutches Bolivia this weekend amid high-stakes talks designed to end bloodshed and keep the country whole. Bolivian President Evo Morales says opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. The central government of leftist President Evo Morales, Bolivia's first leader from an Indian majority centered in the western highlands, is conducting talks with governors of largely white provinces in the east who want autonomy. Tension between the two sides erupted into violence that killed at least 30 people in September. In addition, differences about the country's future have threatened to split the country. Julian Torrico, a peasant leader, said he and other Morales supporters will storm the eastern city of Santa Cruz if the talks, which started Thursday, do not yield progress. \"We will go into Santa Cruz and respond with force because they have (marginalized) us and massacred us, so we will massacre them and we will take their land away from them,\" he said. Watch protesters march in Santa Cruz \u00bb . \"The fight here is between poor and rich. The government of Evo Morales took power by a majority and now these opposition governors don't want to let him govern,\" Torrico said. Anyelo Cespedes, president of the Santa Cruz Youth Union, which opposes Morales, said they don't want a dictatorship or a communist regime. \"We have our way of life and we don't want that changed,\" he said. The central government and eastern governors are discussing topics that include the distribution of natural-gas revenues, autonomy for several eastern provinces and the president's plan for a new constitution. Those negotiations may offer one of the final chances to reverse Bolivia's slide toward violent instability, according to Gonzalo Chavez, an analyst. \"This is probably one of the few opportunities that we're going to have to solve the problems of the country,\" he said. Four of nine provinces in Bolivia have declared autonomy from the central government in referendums this year. Morales, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and former Cuban President Fidel Castro, said the moves could cause Bolivia to disintegrate. The eastern opposition leaders have long opposed a decision of the Morales government to divert some revenue from oil and gas produced in the region to pay for government programs for the elderly. They have also opposed his plans to revise the constitution to give greater rights to the indigenous majority. The differences flared into violence with opposition protesters occupying government buildings and energy installations. Morales has said the opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. He expelled U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg on the grounds that he urged anti-government protesters to get violent, an assertion the United States has denied. \"This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces,\" Morales has said. Opposition leaders said they merely want their demands met. Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza of the Organization of American States arrived in Bolivia on Friday to encourage dialogue. He expressed optimism based on the \"preliminary results\" from the talks. Representatives of the Organization of American States and the 12-nation Union of South American Countries are among a group of international observers that has come to Bolivia for the negotiations. Ivan Canelas, a government spokesman, said the talks provide a critical opportunity to break an impasse that has split the country for months. \"We understand that making peace requires the suspension of all forms of pressure,\" he said. Gov. Mario Cossio of the eastern Tarija state said he and other opposition leaders hope to reach a final agreement. He said they hope \"to build a national agreement that Bolivia needs, that the Bolivians want.\" He said the goal is to \"give peace back to our country and give certainty to Bolivia.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul and Gloria Carrasco contributed to this story.","highlights":"Bolivian leaders plan to hold talks designed to bring peace to country .\nFour provinces in Bolivia have declared autonomy from the central government .\nAt least 30 people have died in September .","id":"1b2f8fdb94a089fee25f7d07923bdbd2f3c1acf0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pop star George Michael was cautioned by police in London after being arrested in public toilets on suspicion of possessing drugs, the UK's Press Association reported. George Michael has talked candidly about drug use in the past. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said a 45-year-old man had been arrested in the Hampstead Heath area of London on Friday. He was later released with a caution for possession of class A and class C drugs. The statement did not name Michael, but other sources confirmed his identity. Reports Sunday said Michael had been arrested following a tip-off to police from a suspicious toilet attendant, PA said. The 45-year-old, who has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, has talked openly about his use of drugs in the past. In an inteview with the BBC last year he admitted: \"I'm a happy man and I can afford my marijuana so that's not a problem.\" Last May he pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs and was banned from driving for two years after being found slumped behind the wheel of his car.","highlights":"George Michael cautioned after being arrested for drugs in London public toilet .\nPop star was released with a caution for possession of class A, class C drugs .\nPress reports claim police were tipped off by a suspicious toilet attendant .","id":"71a483178d64864769034b45e7ced8ce89e21b27"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to look into whether China's women's gymnastics team used underaged competitors, an IOC spokeswoman said Friday. China's He Kexin kisses her gold medal last week after winning the Olympic women's uneven bars. The committee asked the International Gymnastics Federation to clarify the situation, said spokeswoman Giselle Davis. She said she wouldn't call it a formal investigation. The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition at the Summer Olympics Games. Five members won medals in individual competitions. Yet commentators, bloggers and others have raised questions about whether about half the members of China's team were old enough to compete -- athletes must be at least 16 in the year the games take place. In women's gymnastics, younger teenage girls can have an advantage over older competitors due to their often smaller, more agile bodies and lighter frames. \"We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into what have been a number questions and apparent discrepancies on this case,\" Davis said. A top Chinese Olympic official said questions regarding the ages of the athletes have been dealt with previously. \"The eligibility of the athletes has already been investigated and authorized by the international federation and, if they hadn't been cleared, they wouldn't have participated in the games,\" said Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Committee. Chinese officials provided the Olympic committee with passports, showing that team members were of legal age, but numerous challenges have been made. The latest came from a blogger known as \"Stryde Hax.\" The blogger claims to have uncovered proof that Chinese gymnast He Kexin is only 14. Watch bloggers question China's gymnasts \u00bb . In Internet searches, \"Stryde Hax\" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. That would make her 14 -- too young to compete in the Olympic Games. CNN has not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appear to back up the claim. Other bloggers have joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994. \"According to online sports registration lists in China, half the team - He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan - would be under age,\" the Times reported in July. The International Gymnastics Federation, however, has said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct. Chinese gymnastics coaches defended their team Friday. \"Our athletes participating in these games all conform to the age regulations of the Olympics,\" said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams. \"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion,\" Huang said, referring to media inquiries. \"They shouldn't be suspicious.\" CNN's John Vause contributed to this story .","highlights":"Probe into Chinese gymnasts' age sought by International Olympic Committee .\nGymnasts must be at least 16 years of age to compete in Olympics .\nChinese officials defend team, have shown passports proving athletes are eligible .\nSpeculation intensified following team gold medal won by China's women .","id":"f583b6642924ffdf5ba4ee6970ba12c86945993d"} -{"article":"PARKER, Colorado (CNN) -- Matt Keil didn't wait for a call to serve his country. Six weeks after Tracy and Matt Keil married in 2007, he was hit by a sniper fire while serving in Iraq. He enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in 2000, and when the Iraq war started, Keil volunteered to go. Because he was single, he wanted to take the place of a parent, wife or husband who would otherwise be sent. \"I wanted to go over and serve my country,\" he recalled. After a year-long tour of duty in Iraq, Keil returned home to Colorado, where he met a young woman named Tracy who lived in the same apartment complex. He says he knew they were meant to be. \"I woke up one morning, and my roommate was gone. I called him up and asked him what he was doing. He said he was down by the pool hanging out,\" Keil said. \"I asked him if there were any hot girls down there, and he said, 'Yeah, there are.' \" And the rest is history. Matt and Tracy began dating and fell in love, but he was soon told that his unit was being sent back to Iraq. Even though he knew redeployment was part of his job, this time things were different. He and Tracy were engaged to be married. Watch their story of love interrupted \u00bb . At the time, the enemy in Iraq was growing stronger, and Keil's unit was headed to Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and a violent insurgent stronghold. Keil had been in Ramadi in 2004 and knew the mission would be dangerous. \"They were definitely built up a lot more on our second tour,\" he said. \"Fallujah had just ended, and a lot of fighters from Fallujah had fled to nearby cities, and that's what we were up against.\" Though their wedding plans were put on hold, Matt and Tracy decided to marry as soon as he could get a leave of absence. \"He got one of the earliest leaves you could take and came home in January,\" Tracy Keil remembered. \"The main reason we got married was, even though we planned on having a bigger wedding later, what if something happened?\" On February 24, 2007, six weeks after their wedding, something did happen. Keil, an infantry squad leader, was part of a major offensive to reclaim a portion of the city. His squad was ambushed, leaving 11 men severely wounded. After helping evacuate his wounded men, Keil and his men entered an abandoned house. He went to the roof to look out for any potential danger. \"I jumped up on the tallest part of the roof to lay a camel net on top of the stairwell to kind of hide us from sniper fire,\" Keil said. \"That's when I got shot right in the right side of the neck. Hit me like a ton of bricks.\" It wasn't until he was back at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington that the couple realized the severity of his injury. Tracy was abruptly informed of his condition while Keil was heavily sedated. \"A doctor came in, thought I knew and made a comment about being paralyzed from the neck down,\" Tracy Keil recalled. \"He didn't know that nobody had sat down to tell me. ... I just collapsed.\" When Keil awoke, a doctor informed him that the bullet had hit his spinal cord and explained that he had a \"Christopher Reeve-type injury.\" After the initial shock, Matt and Tracy began to understand the full implications. For Keil, who was independent and admits to being stubborn, that was hard to swallow. \"Realizing that my wife was going to be helping me eat, cleaning me up, doing things like that, it was kind of devastating,\" he admitted. But the newlyweds stayed optimistic and started focusing on the next steps. One of the most urgent issues was figuring out where they would live once Keil was out of the hospital. Tracy and her mother would bring Keil house-hunting. \"They would get me in a manual wheelchair and carry me up flights of stairs,\" Keil explained. But they quickly became frustrated by what they found. Every house they saw would have to be dramatically modified to meet Keil's needs. And that meant costs that he and Tracy could not afford. Then, in August 2007, when Keil was just a month away from being released from the hospital, his wife received news that would change this lives. This time the news was good. A friend of the couple's had submitted their story to Homes for Our Troops, an organization that builds specially adapted homes for disabled veterans. John Gonsalves, founder and president of Homes for Our Troops, and the organization had selected Matt and Tracy to receive a house built specifically to meet their needs. Best of all, it was free. \"It's one of the most life-changing events that's ever happened to us, especially after being injured,\" Keil said. \"We're going to be in this house that's fully accessible, has everything that it needs to take care of me, wide-open floor plan easy for Tracy to take care of me, and it's just an absolutely beautiful house.\" After breaking ground in April, Homes for Our Troops utilized hundreds of volunteers, donations and community outreach to build the house so it would be ready for the dedication ceremony September 27. Gonsalves, who started his career in construction, said he realized how many men and women would be returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with severe injuries and very specific needs. He wanted to volunteer with an organization that built homes designed for these disabled veterans. When he realized none existed, he started his own. He says he's frustrated by the lack of urgency in helping America's veterans. \"It just seems like this time around, we weren't really asked to do anything. It was kind of 'go about your lives,' and I'm thinking, how can everybody just put it in the back of their mind and go about their daily lives when our sons and daughters and mothers and fathers are in a faraway place putting their lives on the line?\" Gonsalves said. Homes for Our Troops spends an average of $250,000 on each home, and only 7 percent of the group's money goes to administrative overhead. The rest goes directly to helping disabled veterans. It gives people in the community an opportunity to give back through volunteering. The Keils' home is the 33rd project the organization has completed, and the group has 40 homes in the works. There are 3 million veterans receiving disability compensation, and more than 250,000 of those are 100 percent disabled, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. With two wars still being waged and hundreds of thousands of America's military men and women fighting, it's likely the need for these homes will increase. The home has given Tracy and Matt hope for their future together, and they look forward to giving back. \"This gives us security for our life,\" Tracy Keil said. \"This is where we can have our kids, and this is where we can raise our family.\" \"We're going to live in this house for the rest of our lives, and eventually when it's our time to pass, we're going to find a family to donate it to that really needs it,\" Matt Keil said. \"Our kids will be made well aware of that!\"","highlights":"Matt and Tracy Keil married after he was redeployed to Iraq .\nA sniper bullet hit Matt's spinal cord, paralyzing him from the neck down .\nHomes for Our Troops builds homes for disabled veterans to meet their needs .\nThe Keils' home is 33rd for the organization, which has 40 more in the works .","id":"970d07b5ddd665d792cc6e8338e9e7a7e0826d75"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Global activist and U2 frontman Bono attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York to push world leaders to join his ONE campaign in fighting disease, poverty, and hunger. He talked to CNN's John Roberts on \"American Morning\" about recent successes and what's next. Bono said politicians who love signing checks but not cashing hurt plans to help the world's poor. ROBERTS: All this talk has been about the economy collapsing, $700 billion bailout. Congress is absolutely absorbed with that. Did that in any way affect what you were trying to do this week? Are people more focused on this economy than in helping out developing nations? BONO: We got good news this week. I know normally I'm on your program with bad news -- the whingeing rock star -- but it's great. There's a disease, malaria -- it's 3,000 African kids die every day of mosquito bites. Sounds mad, but it's true. And people have committed and it looks like the funds are on the table so that that disease will be no more by 2015. That makes people like me punch the air and everyone who wears a ONE T-shirt and all our white band campaigners on college campuses all over the country -- it was a great day for them yesterday so we're celebrating that. I know it's extraordinary, that while you're having this meltdown on the markets, that people could even concentrate on this stuff, but I'm really grateful that they did. We had both [presidential] candidates make very powerful statements about the necessity for nonmilitary tools, for instance, in foreign policy. This is an America that both candidates want to show to the rest of the world -- the greatness of America. ROBERTS: So you're hearing what you want to hear from these candidates? BONO: Yeah. And you couldn't imagine a few years ago that you would have candidates so close to an election talking about this stuff, so yeah. Watch Bono say how he uses his star status on politicians \u00bb . ROBERTS: You were talking to Christine Romans outside the studio, who just did that piece for us a few minutes ago on what else could you do with $700 billion. What could you do with $700 billion? BONO: We wouldn't be asking for that kind of money. These are serious matters, people have lost their jobs. But I think the bill for the whole world -- so America would be like a third of it -- for $25 billion you could absolutely change the world. You could put kids in school, most kids in school. You could eradicate diseases like malaria, as we're saying. We could change the water supplies. But what's important is that people who want to change the world, want to see their country, they see it as a patriotic act to show the world innovation of America, technology of America, pharmacology of America. ROBERTS: For $25 billion, you could put every kid who's out of school in the world into school? That seems like a lot of people for $25 billion. Pretty good return on your investment. BONO: It's a great return on investment. You heard me on your program before talking about debt cancellation. Strangely Americans don't know that because of debt cancellation there are already an extra 29 million African children in school. That's incredible. Because people got out on the streets on the (RED) campaign and stuff like that, there's now 2.5 million Africans on AIDS drugs, which are expensive. So your country is turning for me in the right direction on these issues. ROBERTS: So you're hearing some of what you want to hear, particularly on the malaria issues. But the European Union had promised to increase aid by $50 billion between 2005 and 2010. It looks like they're going to fall $40 billion short. BONO: They are, but they're still ahead of America. That's the bad news. You don't want to get me into the ring. ROBERTS: Absolutely! Come on. BONO: We've had meetings with Sarkozy this week as well as talking with McCain and Palin and as well as always talking with the Obama campaign. We do keep up the pressure on the Europeans, but the Europeans are way ahead of America on aid, just to put it in context. But you're right. They're not coming through on all of it. We will torture them too. That's our job. ROBERTS: You talk a lot about these United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Let me go over a couple of those. It was supposed cut global poverty in half by the year 2015. Universal access to HIV\/AIDS treatment by 2010. Begin to reverse the incidence of malaria by 2015. How far along that road are we? BONO: The Millennium Development Goals are in a bit of trouble. It is astonishing to me ... ROBERTS: Whose fault is that? BONO: You know, politicians. They love signing checks, but they don't like cashing them. They love the photograph. These G-8 meetings, you'll see myself and my partner Bob Geldof arm-wrestling with politicians up against the wall. ROBERTS: You're very effective at doing that. You get access to a lot of places. I remember I was on a trip with President Bush once, and you walked on Air Force One. BONO: It's the absurdity of celebrity. I don't consider myself a celebrity in this sense, I think I'm an activist who knows what I'm talking about. But yeah, we get access, and we use it. It's true that there was a very ambitious plan signed up in 2005 that further committed what was decided in the year 2000, that we could actually across eight goals completely change the face of poverty and hunger in the world. And there was a $25 billion bill by 2010 that would enable them to do that. They haven't come through on that. And another day I'll tell you why, but today I'm punching the air because malaria will be no more by 2015. And it's Americans, people from the private sector -- Peter Chernin, Ray Chambers, all kinds of people, Bill Gates, your mayor of this city, [Michael] Bloomberg, is an amazing guy. He's working on this stuff. I just want Americans to know that side of their country because I'm a fan of America. And, again, you would have candidates, you know, like John McCain taking time out this week to talk to us, Barack Obama before. This is fantastic. ROBERTS: I was reading your blog on financialtimes.com. You've been writing all week, doing a great job too. You mentioned in one of your pieces you've been writing some lyrics. And I'm wondering where the lyrics are going. BONO: Statistics don't rhyme. Songwriting comes from such a different part of my brain and such a different part of who I am. ROBERTS: Are you writing about all this? BONO: No, it's strange. It's very strange. I used to work in a garage when I was a kid pumping gas, and I used to dream when I was pumping the gas about getting to rehearsals on a Saturday so I could be with my band and write songs. The work that I'm doing now, as we say, we're working like a dog, living like a shih tzu. We're spoiled people. We travel well, but we work. On these issues, because you're working for the world's poor, we work like dogs. But I find myself at times, sometimes I just wake up in the morning, and I just want to be back with my band in a rehearsal room. ROBERTS: You will be soon. New CD coming out next year. BONO: I'm not complaining about the work. This is the most inspiring thing I've ever been involved in in my life, and it's working. It really is working. And that's why I'm on your show this morning. I just want to thank Americans. ROBERTS: Good luck on the new CD coming out next year. We're looking forward to it.","highlights":"Bono says he's \"punching the air\" after plan to eradicate malaria won funding .\nGlobal activist says you can change the world with $25 billion investment .\nCampaigning is \"most inspiring\" work, but pop star also still loves playing with band .","id":"937717a38bf1a174febfd009a9bc991d54d3ce6e"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- A jury of nine women and three men -- none of them black -- was seated Thursday for the trial of O.J. Simpson on kidnapping and armed robbery charges. Judge Jackie Glass decided prosecutors had a \"race-neutral\" reason for dismissing the potential juror. The judge made no official mention of the jury's makeup, but prosecutors revealed in court that no blacks were on the jury. A black man and black woman, however, are among six alternate jurors. Defense attorneys had argued the prosecutors were deliberately trying to exclude blacks, but Judge Jackie Glass denied their challenges. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday in the case against Simpson and a co-defendant, Clarence Stewart. Prosecutors say Simpson and five other men stormed into a Las Vegas hotel room on September 13, 2007 to recover sports memorabilia that Simpson said belonged to him. Prosecutors say at least two men with Simpson had guns as they robbed a pair of sports memorabilia dealers. If convicted on all counts, Simpson faces a possible sentence of life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and has told CNN he was trying to get his property back. Four of five Simpson's original co-defendants have struck deals with the prosecution to testify against Simpson. One testified in a pre-trial hearing that \"O.J. Simpson wanted me to have a weapon.\" Another testified that Simpson \"wanted me to help him acquire some guns.\" An attorney for Simpson, Yale Galanter, has disputed that. \"O.J. Simpson did not know that there were guns in that room,\" Galanter said.","highlights":"NEW: Prosecutors revealed in court that no blacks were on the jury .\nNEW: Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday .\nFour of Simpson's original co-defendants have struck deals to testify against him .\nSimpson faces robbery, kidnapping charges .","id":"23557ef12896a2409199577ea2831f675ee0fb36"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has introduced a $1,000 note -- $10 trillion in the old value -- as the country battles to end cash shortages in the hyper-inflationary environment. Zimbabwe's currency is trading around Z$350 -- $35 trillion in the old value -- against U.S. dollar. However, analysts said the new note -- which can only buy a loaf of bread -- will not ease pressure on cash shortages because of the ever-increasing prices. \"It will not make even a small impact. What we need in Zimbabwe is a clear change of policies, start production and then inflation will start easing up,\" said John Robertson, an economic consultant. \"The zeros seem to be coming back no matter how often they slash them.\" In August, Zimbabwe slashed ten zeroes on the currency; two years earlier the country slashed three zeros. The zeroes keep bouncing back in the country that has an inflation rate of 11.2 million -- the highest in the world. Zimbabwe's agro-based economy has been on a free-fall for more than a decade now. The situation was exacerbated by the destruction of commercial agriculture in 2000 when President Robert Mugabe's government embarked on a violent land grab from white farmers and gave it to inexperienced black farmers. Mugabe denies that he is to blame for the country's economic collapse, citing economic sanctions that have been placed on Zimbabwe. Since 2000, Zimbabwe's currency has been depreciating against major currency. It is trading around $350 Zimbabwean dollars -- $35 trillion in the old value -- against the U.S. dollar.","highlights":"Z$1,000 note can only purchase a loaf of bread .\nZimbabwe's agro-based economy in free-fall for more than a decade .\nRobert Mugabe blames country's economic collapse on sanctions .","id":"b5b9281cd7c937fba6ccb79a7a3096a638118e3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedian George Carlin, known for pushing the envelope with his use of profanity and for pointing out the silliness and hypocrisy of human life, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71. iReporter Kevin Eckhoff met George Carlin at a show in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2004. iReporter Chris Sargent says, \"He could play with words and phrases in ways that would put the most highly regarded English professors and linguists to shame.\" CNN.com invited readers to share tales of meeting Carlin, and the impact he had on their lives. Below is a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. Melanie Phillips of Salem, Oregon: I met George Carlin in the early '70s at a performance he gave at Los Angeles Valley College. The large auditorium was filled to capacity so they closed the doors leaving about 40 people outside. When Carlin came up on stage he asked, \"Who are all those people staring in the windows?\" The host told him the fire marshal had locked them out. Carlin thought for a moment then asked, \"How many people are allowed to be on stage?\" The legal limit was 50. The comedian turned to the audience and said, \"Forty of you people in the first few rows come up on stage and give those people outside your seats.\" My friend and I ran up on stage and we all gathered in a circle around him, like at a campfire. For the next 90 minutes, Carlin did his entire act by taking our requests, \"Hippy Dippy Weatherman,\" \"Seven Words ...\" After the show was over, he passed through our little circle, shaking hands (including mine) as he quickly made his way off stage to avoid being swamped by fans. It was one of my most memorable experiences and a grand gesture for the 40 fans who had been locked out. Alexis Karlin of Boston, Massachusetts: When I was little my dad had this box car and one day he put a George Carlin tape in it and it got stuck. So for a year until the car died we listened to this George Carlin tape over and over and over again. ... I won't miss that car but I will miss George Carlin. Chris Sargent of Laurel, Maryland: Last night, the world's greatest comedian and champion of the First Amendment, George Carlin, died at the age of 71 from heart failure. He was one of the few things my father and I had in common, as I have fond memories of sitting in the living room with him, watching George on HBO, and laughing our a***s off. His gift was to make us think about everything. He could play with words and phrases in ways that would put the most highly regarded English professors and linguists to shame. Kevin Eckhoff of Jacksonville, Illinois: George was in classic form as he arrived for a show in late 2004 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis. This was my second time meeting George. He signed the photo from our first meeting, took this new photo, and then proceeded to begin signing my friend's albums. Before he started, he paused, fanned out the records, looked at each, and in his own special way said, \"You know, I go from city to city and you guys (autograph collectors) always have my records in such great shape. Just where the **** do you get these records in such pristine condition?\" We all busted out laughing. We'll miss you George! Thanks for a great memory.","highlights":"CNN.com readers share their memories of Carlin, his comedy .\nCarlin once invited fans to sit on stage so more people could see his show .\nAlexis Karlin says for a year, a Carlin tape was stuck in her dad's car stereo .\niReport.com: Share your tales, memories of comedy great George Carlin .","id":"22684f9429de788c4437ffcecc110c4e43138016"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sarah Palin did not visit troops in Iraq, a spokesperson for the Republican vice presidential nominee confirmed Saturday, as new details emerged about the extent of the Alaska governor's foreign travel. Gov. Sarah Palin's aide confirmed to CNN details of her foreign travel Saturday. In July of last year, Palin left North America for the first time to visit Alaskan troops stationed in Kuwait. Palin officials originally said her itinerary included U.S. military installations or outposts in Germany and Kuwait, and that she had visited Ireland. A Palin aide in Alaska had said Iraq was also one of the military stops on that trip. The Boston Globe, however, reported Saturday that in response to questions about the trip, Alaska National Guard officials and campaign aides said Palin did not go past the Kuwait-Iraq border. In addition, campaign aides also confirmed reports to CNN Saturday that Palin's time in Ireland on that trip had actually been a refueling stop. The Obama campaign -- which has increasingly accused the McCain campaign of deliberately lying in ads and on the stump -- was quick to highlight that story, along with a news report that explored whether the McCain campaign has been sending out wildly inflated crowd estimates. The McCain team has twice pointed to law enforcement as the source for those estimates -- but the same officials denied to Bloomberg News that they had provided the numbers cited by the Republican nominee's campaign. \"The McCain campaign said Gov. Palin opposed the bridge to nowhere, but now we know she supported it,\" said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor in a statement. \"They said she didn't seek earmarks, but now we know she hired a lobbyist to get millions in pork for her town and her state. They said she visited Iraq, but today we learned that she only stopped at the border. Americans are starting to wonder, is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?\" A Palin spokesperson also confirmed that the governor had visited Mexico on a personal vacation. She has also visited Canada. The Palin revelations Saturday are the latest in a series of barbs between the two presidential campaigns. McCain, appearing Friday on ABC's \"The View,\" was aggressively pressed on Palin's qualifications to be vice president as well as his new campaign ads that several independent fact-check groups have called misleading. Co-host Barbara Walters asked about Palin's reformist credentials, noting McCain has served in Washington for more than two decades and asking repeatedly, \"Who's she going to reform, you?\" McCain answered by saying Democrats have controlled Congress for two years, but then Walters quickly interrupted: \"But tell me who she is going to reform -- we aren't talking about the economy, we're not talking about housing; she was chosen to reform, who is she going to reform?\" Appearing somewhat frustrated, McCain said, \"The Democrat Party, the Republican Party, even an independent. She'll reform all of Washington.\" Walters, seeming somewhat exasperated, asked, \"How? What will she do? What is she going to reform specifically, senator?\" McCain said Palin had a strong record on vetoing earmark spending. Watch more of McCain's appearance on \"The View\" \u00bb . \"The fact is she was a reform governor, she took on an incumbent governor of her own party and defeated him. She sold the airplane and fired the chef,\" McCain said, referring to Palin's efforts to put her predecessor's state jet up for auction on eBay and her dismissal of the governor's personal chef. \"She sold the airplane at a loss,\" Walters interrupted. (The jet failed to draw sufficient bids on eBay and later was sold at a loss through an ordinary aircraft brokerage.) Also on Friday, both campaigns accused each other of engaging in lies, unfair attacks and gutter politics in a series of television ads and memos. McCain's campaign released a television ad, titled \"Disrespectful,\" that accuses McCain's Democratic rival of launching desperate attacks and smears against Palin. In the McCain ad, the announcer says the Obama camp had \"lashed out at Sarah Palin\" and dismissed Palin as \"good-looking\" as the Democratic nominee's face appears on the screen. The announcer also says the Democrats had said Palin was doing \"what she was told\" and had \"desperately\" called her a liar. \"How disrespectful,\" the announcer says. \"And how Gov. Sarah Palin proves them wrong, every day.\" Obama never made any of the statements the McCain camp released to support the ad, and the comment that Palin was \"good-looking\" was made by the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden, in a self-deprecating joke when he was asked what the obvious differences were between the two vice presidential nominees. Watch the McCain ad \u00bb . Biden repeatedly has said on the campaign trail that he respected Palin and that he thought she was qualified for the vice presidency. FactCheck.org pointed out the quote from an Obama adviser that Palin was doing \"what she was told\" was taken out of context. The quote is taken from the response of Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, in which he said Palin had misrepresented Obama's legislative record. \"Maybe that's what she was told\" about his voting record, Axelrod said. The Obama campaign, meanwhile, launched two television ads Friday. In one, the campaign paints McCain as being out of touch by showing pictures of him when he first entered the Senate in 1982 as disco music plays. The ad also highlights McCain's own admissions that he lacks computer skills and does not use e-mail. Watch the Obama ad attacking McCain \u00bb . In the second Obama ad, the candidate himself appears. \"We've heard a lot of talk about change this year. The question is, change to what?\" Obama asks. The ads come as Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, issued a tough memo to reporters that accused McCain and his campaign of turning to \"smears, lies and cynical attempts to distract from the issues.\" CNN's Peter Hamby, Ed Hornick and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report.","highlights":"New details emerge on Gov. Sarah Palin's foreign travels .\nCampaign now says she didn't visit troops in Iraq, only the border .\nQuestions surround the crowd size of a McCain-Palin event in Virginia .\nJohn McCain gets grilled on \"The View\" while defending Palin .","id":"58d946d675490dcf4677d0802d6b9b7726339f36"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Ten French soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting near the Afghan capital of Kabul after 100 insurgents attacked a patrol, authorities said. French soldiers patrol in Afghanistan in May 2008. French and NATO authorities confirmed the deaths and said 21 other soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Sarobi area in Kabul province, about 30 miles northeast of the capital. The clashes began late Monday afternoon and continued into Tuesday, when the casualties occurred, French officials said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his \"determination is intact\" to continue \"this battle against terrorism for democracy and liberty.\" \"The cause is just. It is an honor for France and its armies to defend them,\" said Sarkozy, who will travel Tuesday night to Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said. Last month, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern Afghanistan. U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch troops have been engaged in much of the combat in Afghanistan. The United States has been urging other countries in the NATO-led alliance to help ease the burdens of those troops on the front lines. About 1,670 French troops serve in Afghanistan under NATO's International Security Assistance Force, according to ISAF's Web site. Before this incident, a total of 12 French troops had died in several incidents during the Afghan war, mostly in combat. As for the latest fighting, NATO said the initial patrol -- which included Afghan forces -- had been \"reinforced with quick reaction forces, close air support and mobile medical teams.\" It said \"a large number of insurgents were killed.\" Gen. Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday that Afghan army forces rushed to the battle scene soon after the attack took place. He said 27 militants were killed and 14 were wounded in the fighting, and 13 of the bodies were recovered by the Afghan army. He said one of the dead militants was identified as a Pakistani national. The Taliban posted a Web statement saying its forces attacked an \"American\" convoy, killing 20 soldiers and destroying five military tanks. It also said foreign forces later Tuesday bombarded the region and killed five Taliban militants and several civilians. The fighting came after authorities tightened security on Monday in anticipation of militant attacks on the country's Independence Day. Several suicide bombers struck an American base about 12 miles from the border with Pakistan in Khost province on Tuesday, but U.S. and Afghan forces repelled the onslaught. Seven insurgents were killed in the attack on Forward Operating Base Salerno, including three suicide bombers who blew themselves up after forces from the base encountered them more than 3,000 feet from the base, ISAF said in a statement. U.S. and Afghan troops noticed the approaching militants by their \"special behavior,\" the spokesman said. Helicopters flew in to attack them, the force said. ISAF said it suffered no casualties. Gov. Arsallah Jamal of Khost province said four commandos -- presumably Afghans -- were wounded when the militants struck late Monday. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said 15 suicide bombers with small arms and machine guns entered the base and inflicted heavy casualties -- claims that the NATO-led force and Khost governor dismissed. That attack came after a suicide car bombing outside the same base killed 10 Afghan civilians and wounded 13 others Monday, the U.S. military said. Two other would-be bombers were killed before they could carry out attacks, Jamal said. Afghan forces stopped a second would-be car bomb near the base, performed a controlled detonation and detained a suspect, the NATO-led force said. This comes as a source from the Afghan Defense Ministry, who declined to be named, confirmed that Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani arrived in Kabul on Tuesday morning to meet with Afghan and NATO military officials. In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber struck a Canadian foot patrol on Tuesday in the Kandahar province district of Panjwayee, local police said. The bomber and an Afghan interpreter for NATO forces were killed and a NATO soldier and a child were wounded, police said. The attack occurred as troops chatted with villagers in the district's main bazaar. The Taliban, in a Web statement, said 11 foreign soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack. CNN's Ben Brumfield and Journalist Farhad Peikar contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 'This cause is just,' French President Sarkozy says .\nNEW: Sarkozy to travel to Afghanistan Tuesday night .\nNEW: Officials dismiss Taliban claim of 15 suicide bombers entering base .\n10 French soldiers killed as fighting flares around holiday .","id":"e237f558c1695d3c40119c815646bb6d14de0c89"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A former Colombian congressman who was held hostage in the jungle for more than eight years has escaped -- with the help of a former captor. Oscar Tulio Lizcano was kidnapped on August 4, 2000 near the Colombian town of Riosucio. Oscar Tulio Lizcano, his hair disheveled, appeared too weak to stand for long when he met the news media Sunday, hours after stumbling onto a military patrol -- and freedom. Lizcano suffered from hunger and disease in captivity and endured isolation in the company of leftist rebels who often would not let him talk, he and Colombian authorities said. \"Maybe my incoherence is for a lack of speaking,\" Lizcano told reporters. \"I was unable to talk with the guerillas who guarded me.\" Lizcano said he had little to read in the jungle except \"The Odyssey\" by Homer. He suffered from malaria and other illnesses and once ate nothing but hearts of palm for six or seven days, said Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian defense minister. \"This is big news for the whole family,\" said Lizcano's sister, Amparo Lizcano. \"We were waiting for the guerrillas to give our brother back alive before he died.\" The former congressman fled about three days ago with the assistance of one of his captors, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a leftist rebel force that has been fighting the government for more than 40 years in a war that also has involved right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers. Watch release of FARC hostage \u00bb . President Alvaro Uribe appeared on television Sunday with the ex-FARC rebel -- known by the alias \"Isaza\" -- and said the man will receive compensation and permission to resettle in France with his family. He said that's in keeping with a Colombian government policy that rewards rebels who desert and help hostages gain their freedom. Police officers and soldiers pinpointed the location of the FARC unit holding Lizcano several months ago, Santos said. They monitored the location for about five months and took steps to seal off possible escape routes, he said, as they planned a rescue operation using information gleaned help from a rebel who deserted October 2. Troops started that rescue operation Saturday -- only to discover that \"Isaza\" and Lizcano had decided on their own to escape. The two men wandered through the jungle for three days and nights before encountering a Colombian army patrol Sunday, said Santos, the defense minister. Lizcano was kidnapped on August 4, 2000 near the Colombian town of Riosucio. He and his former captor stumbled Sunday onto a patrol near the border of the states of Risaralda and Choco, in central Colombia, authorities said. The FARC holds an estimated 750 hostages in Colombia. Its members have justified hostage taking as a legitimate military tactic. The rebels have been battered this year by government raids that killed several top commanders, the death by apparent heart attack of their founder and a wave of desertions. Government commandoes tricked the FARC in July and freed their most prized hostage, the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in an elaborate ruse that also liberated three U.S. defense contractors and 11 other hostages. On Sunday, Lizcano offered words of encouragement to those hundreds who remain trapped in the jungle, captives of the FARC. \"Hold on. Hold on,\" he said. \"One day you will enjoy your freedom, too.\" -- CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report .","highlights":"Oscar Tulio Lizcano was kidnapped August 4, 2000 by Colombian leftist rebels .\nThe ex-congressman fled about three days ago with help from one of his captors .\nThe FARC holds an estimated 750 hostages in Colombia .","id":"cff9ad3308f6ed43c552402f6a4f95f3495166e2"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German federal police seized two suspected terrorists from a Dutch passenger aircraft at Cologne airport Friday shortly before it was due to take off for Amsterdam, officials told CNN. The arrests were made at Cologne's airport. A 23-year-old Somali national and a 24-year-old German citizen who had been born in Mogadishu were arrested on a KLM plane at 6.55 am local time (0455 GMT), a police spokesman said. Police said \"farewell\" letters had been found from the men that led them to suspect they were intending to carry out terror attacks. It was not revealed where the letters were found or how long the men had been under observation. Walter Roemer, press spokesman at Cologne-Bonn airport, said that the arrests had been \"very unspectacular\". He said federal police boarded the plane and arrested the two suspects, \"without them showing any resistance.\" The two had been among 40 passengers en route to Amsterdam. All those on board were asked to disembark while the suspects' luggage was identified. The plane took off for Amsterdam after a delay of one hour and 20 minutes. She said everyone was then forced to leave the plane, and there was a \"baggage parade\" to see whose bags belonged to whom. Watch more details on the incident. \u00bb . Amsterdam's Schipol airport Web site listed flight KL 1804, the scheduled morning flight from Cologne to Amsterdam, as having arrived at 9.17 am local time, one hour and two minutes after it was due to arrive. In September 2007, German authorities arrested three suspected militants planning what were described as \"massive\" attacks on American targets in Germany. German media said at the time that potential targets could have included Ramstein Air Base, the U.S. military's main installation in Germany, or the major international hub of Frankfurt Airport. Terrorism expert Sajjan Gohel told CNN the arrest showed Germany faces a major threat from extremists. Watch Gohel explain details behind the arrests \u00bb . \"This was a long term operation, there was a couple of individuals that the German intelligence agency was monitoring,\" he said. \"The feeling was that they had come back specifically with the purpose of planning and plotting a terrorist attack.\" CNN's Diana Magnay in Berlin contributed to this report . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police board KLM flight in Cologne early Friday to arrest suspects .\nTwo suspects said to be Somali man, 23 and German born in Somalia, 24 .\nPolice say \"farewell\" letters found from the men .","id":"9a083eb718131f6ee239f33359cf0a387febb153"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Ten South African ministers and the deputy president have resigned as President Thabo Mbeki prepares to leave office. South African President Thabo Mbeki announced his resignation in a televised address Sunday. His replacement, African National Congress Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, will be sworn in as South Africa's president Thursday. Mbeki announced he was resigning on Sunday, prompting threats from several Cabinet members to follow suit -- but the outgoing president urged them to stay in office, government sources said. The resignations, which include Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, will take effect Thursday when Mbeki steps down, a government statement said. \"All the ministers have expressed their availability to assist the incoming administration in the hand-over process and any other assistance that might be sought from them,\" the statement said. The finance minister's assistant told CNN that Manuel is willing to serve in the new government, if needed. Three deputy ministers have also tendered their resignations, a government statement said. A spokesman for South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, confirmed that it has named Motlanthe as its choice to succeed Mbeki. Motlanthe will stay in office until elections in the spring of next year, which ANC President Jacob Zuma is widely expected to win. Earlier this month, the ANC asked Mbeki to step down after a judge threw out the corruption, fraud and racketeering case against Zuma -- Mbeki's political arch rival. The judge called the case invalid and accused Mbeki's government of political interference. Mbeki -- who has been South Africa's president for nearly 10 years -- spoke of some of his achievements when he formally announced his resignation on Sunday during a televised address. Watch the significance of Mbeki \"falling on the sword\" \u00bb . \"I depart this office knowing that many men and woman in South Africa have worked to achieve better lives for all,\" Mbeki said. Under his leadership the country has had the longest period of sustained economic growth in the South Africa's history and has reached out to indigent people in an unprecedented way, Mbeki said. Mbeki said the country still has economic, corruption and crime challenges to face in the future. And he gave his vote of confidence to the country's next leader without naming who that leader would be. Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the African National Congress, announced Saturday that the party -- which Mbeki has been involved with since his teens -- had asked him to leave before his term was up. Mbeki agreed to do so, he said. Mantashe said the ANC made the decision \"for the citizens of South Africa, so there could be stability within the country\" and so the ANC movement could remain \"stable and unified.\" The case against Zuma -- who replaced Mbeki as ANC president last year -- was thrown out in September 2006, but the National Prosecuting Authority recharged him. Judge Chris Nicholson made no ruling on Zuma's guilt or innocence, and he could be recharged. Political observers doubted that would happen because of Zuma's popularity, particularly with the Communist Party and trade unions. Zuma has denied the charges. He said the case was politically motivated, and harmed his chances to become the ANC's presidential nominee. He could have faced at least 15 years in jail if convicted of accepting bribes from a company that got a contract in a multibillion-dollar arms deal. He also faced charges of having a corrupt relationship with his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for soliciting bribes for Zuma and using Zuma's political influence to benefit his businesses. Mbeki, 66, succeeded Nelson Mandela as South Africa's president in June 1999. Critics alleged he pushed for the corruption charges against Zuma. Mbeki recently brokered a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe's political rivals, who signed the agreement on Monday in an effort to put aside the violent past and end the crisis that has paralyzed Zimbabwe since disputed national elections in March. Under it, longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe remains president, while his perennial rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, has become prime minister and the coordinator of government affairs.","highlights":"10 S. African ministers, deputy president resign with President Thabo Mbeki .\nReplacement, ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, sworn in Thursday .\nMbeki quit after court case collapsed against longtime rival Jacob Zuma .","id":"4f88a57f0fb8f63c6f668a718d19d557fdd9381b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A nationally syndicated columnist, Martin has said he will vote for Barack Obama in November. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland S. Martin says Lifeway Christian Stores should be given hell for its actions against GospelToday. (CNN) -- In the 19 years that Teresa Hairston has published her magazine, GospelToday, she has never faced a major situation with Christian bookstores across the country that carry the publication. She's tackled any number of issues over the years,and has featured a number of celebrities and ministers, ranging from Yolanda Adams to Bishop T.D. Jakes to Kirk Franklin. But when the Atlanta, Georgia, entrepreneur decided to feature five female pastors on her cover this month, she says, Lifeway Christian Stores treated her like she had converted her Christian publication to something akin to the tastes of porn purveyor Larry Flynt. Apparently, the owner of Lifeway, the Southern Baptist Convention, wasn't too happy with Hairston telling the story of female pastors, because the women go against their 2000 decree that only men can serve in the role of reverend or pastor. According to Hairston, the Christian company didn't even give her the courtesy of a heads-up. \"We got an anonymous tip,\" she told me Tuesday on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and after checking it out, she discovered that the magazine had been removed from the shelves in all of Lifeway's 100-plus stores nationwide and had been placed behind the counter. \"They have never called me,\" Hairston said. \"Never sent an e-mail. Nothing. I had to go see my distributor to verify what they had done.\" The actions of Lifeway didn't stun me. I had seen this movie before. A few years ago, my wife was a longtime Lifeway teacher. She had taught at the company's teaching centers for years, but then one day, she was notified that she would have to take down her Web site and comply with their rules against female pastors or be dropped as a teacher. Her crime? Calling herself the Rev. Jacquie Hood Martin. It wasn't that she did so for the heck of it. She graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; was the first female staff pastor at Houston's Brookhollow Baptist Church\/the Church Without Walls, a Southern Baptist Convention church; and has been leading folks to the Lord all over the country for 20 years. She was angered by Lifeway's decision but made it clear that she didn't serve the bookstore or even the Southern Baptist Convention. She made a commitment to serving Jesus Christ and was not about to back away from her call to ministry because a male-dominated organization decided that its interpretation of the Bible calls for a woman not to be in the pulpit. So she cut them off and kept on calling herself the Rev. Jacquie Hood Martin. Religious folks will quickly say that Scripture is clear that women can't be pastors and lead men, yet Hairston says that when she featured Pastor Paula White on her cover two years ago, Lifeway didn't take any action against the magazine. Anyone who has served in a church or been a member of any faith knows that there are those who have strict interpretations of their faith's writings, while others have a different interpretation. I've heard Brookhollow's pastor, the Rev. Dr. Ralph Douglas West Sr., preach several sermons stating that what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy with regards to only men preaching was specific to that church and not a blanket ban. Second, there were instances where Paul wrote that his views were his own and not mandates from God. That is a doctrinal fight that any of us can have any time (and I love it how these same Bible thumpers ignore the biblical story of Deborah, who was a judge in the Old Testament -- and was over men). But what is a greater issue is that Lifeway clearly has no respect for freedom of the press. Here is arguably the top Christian bookstore in the country making a decision based on their teachings and applying it to a magazine. A spokesman for Lifeway Resources, which runs the stores, was quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week as saying of female pastors, \"It is contrary to what we believe.\" So does Lifeway and, by extension, the Southern Baptist Convention, fight vigorously for freedom of religion, but it doesn't give a hoot about the other freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution? I now wonder whether Lifeway makes it its business to cull through any number of magazines and search for stories that go against its doctrine and pull them from the shelves. This is the kind of nonsense that drives more people away from religion. I suppose it's fitting that this story would come out the same time as Bill Maher releases his religious documentary, \"Religulous,\" which skewers all the major religions for their dogma. I'm sure he feasted on positions of the Southern Baptist Convention. The conduct of Lifeway and the Southern Baptist Convention is shameful, and they owe Hairston an apology for their actions. Yet she's taken it in stride, saying that instead of giving the company hell, she'll \"give them heaven.\" I say, give them a lot of hell for this, because they deserve it for actions. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Lifeway stores put Christian magazine behind counter .\nMagazine featured female pastors on its cover .\nLifeway has no respect for freedom of the press, Martin says .\nLifeway, Southern Baptist Convention should apologize, he says .","id":"a21efae8eb68279e8ea05bb61db1ce13da64c55e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton said Thursday he thinks that Barack Obama will win big in the upcoming presidential election. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama chat at Clinton's Harlem office. \"I predict that Sen. Obama will win and win handily,\" Clinton said when asked his opinion on the state of the race. Obama smiled at Clinton's prediction, saying, \"There you go, you can take it from the president of the United States. He knows a little something about politics.\" The two men chatted with reporters in a photo-op at Clinton's Harlem office before sitting down for a private lunch. According to CNN's average of national polls, John McCain currently holds a 1-point lead over Obama, 46-45 percent. iReport.com: Still undecided? The poll of polls, released Thursday afternoon, is composed of the following five national general election surveys: Fox News\/Opinion Dynamics (September 8-9), NBC\/Wall Street Journal (September 6-8), American Research Group (September 6-8), Gallup (September 8-10), and Diageo\/Hotline (September 8-10). It does not have a sampling error. Clinton is scheduled to campaign for Obama in Florida once he wraps up some business with his Clinton Global Initiative. According to aides, the former president will do a mix of fundraisers and public appearances on behalf of the Democratic ticket throughout the fall. \"We're putting him to work,\" said Obama. \"I've agreed to do a substantial number of things, whatever I'm asked to do,\" Clinton said. Watch Clinton make his prediction \u00bb . The image of the two men meeting comes as a relief to many Democrats who have been hoping to put to rest the \"Clinton-Obama rift\" storyline. Both sides agreed a face-to-face meeting with the former president would go a long way toward putting the contentious primary season behind them. Hillary Clinton campaigned for Obama earlier in the week in Florida and will campaign in Ohio this weekend. Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, spoke Thursday with first responders in Parma, Ohio. He opened up the event by telling everyone he did not plan to talk politics. \"Let's pull together, let's say together. This is nothing to do with Democrats, Republicans -- it's about Americans,\" he said. Obama and McCain also put aside politics Thursday to commemorate the September 11 terrorist attacks. The two appeared together at ground zero in New York City to lay roses at the 9\/11 memorial and speak with first responders and family members of victims. They were joined by Cindy McCain and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. iReport.com: See photos from the scene . Later Thursday, Obama and McCain will share the stage briefly as they appear back-to-back at the ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum at Columbia University in New York. Meanwhile, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin headed home to Alaska after spending the week campaigning with McCain. The pair drew a crowd of more than 20,000 in the sturdily Democratic county of Fairfax, Virginia, on Wednesday. That was their largest crowd to date. After that event, Palin returned home so she could attend her son's deployment ceremony on Thursday. Track Palin enlisted in the U.S. army exactly one year ago. His brigade is going to Iraq. Watch more on Palin's return to Alaska \u00bb . Later Thursday, Palin will give her first television interview with a national media outlet since being named as McCain's running mate. The Alaska governor will spend two days with ABC's Charlie Gibson. The interview will be part sit-down, part walk-and-talk at various locations in Alaska. So far, Palin has taken no questions from reporters traveling with her on the campaign trail. An issue that could come up in the interview is the controversy that emerged this week over her per diem charges as governor. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Palin had billed the state a per diem for 312 days she spent at home, and requested reimbursement for plane rides and hotel rooms for her husband and children, including a $707 room when her daughter accompanied her on a trip to New York to attend a Newsweek forum. The paper noted that officials said the claims were justified under existing state regulations. The McCain campaign said that Palin had reduced yearly travel expenses by roughly 80 percent of the amount spent by predecessor Frank Murkowski. Palin's spokeswoman Maria Comella said the governor's top priority was \"creating accountability and transparency in government to root out waste and corruption.\" \"Gov. Palin is obviously expected to travel frequently around the state for community events and to meet with Alaskans. This is part of her job, and it's reasonable that her travel expenses, which were reduced dramatically from the previous administration, would be covered,\" Comella said in a statement. Palin is expected to rejoin McCain on the trail early next week. CNN's Sasha Johnson, Dana Bash and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Barack Obama, John McCain lay roses at ground zero .\nNew polls show both candidates with slim leads in key battleground states .\nBiden speaks with first responders in Parma, Ohio .\nSarah Palin back in Alaska for son's deployment ceremony .","id":"376aeeefe8de9f5ba4149115919fa7b9212b1400"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese officials in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region reported the death of a fourth baby Thursday in the country's expanding contaminated infant formula case. The tainted milk powder has already sickened more than 6,200 babies. Earlier in the day, authorities announced the arrest of 12 more suspects in the investigation, provincial police said. The arrests bring to 18 the number of people detained, according to the Hebei Public Security Bureau. Twelve of those arrested are involved in the collection of milk and the production of milk products, authorities said. Authorities accuse the other six of illegally selling the chemical added to the milk. More than 1,300 infants are hospitalized, said Li Changjiang, China's director of quarantine and inspection, on Wednesday. Their conditions include malnutrition, kidney stones and acute renal failure. Inspectors have been deployed across the country to test producers' inventories. Of China's 175 baby milk powder production companies, 66 have stopped production, Li said. Watch parents scramble for safe milk \u00bb . Two brothers who sold fresh milk used to produce contaminated baby milk powder were arrested by Chinese investigators Monday. They could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. The raw milk had been watered down and a chemical added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Investigators said the brothers confessed to watering down the raw milk and mixing in tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine. They said they did it to recover losses suffered when the factory rejected earlier milk shipments, the paper reported. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . The brothers are charged with producing and selling toxic and hazardous food, which carries a possible death penalty, the paper said. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. The chemical is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Watch CNN visit the company at the center of the scandal \u00bb . Thousands of tons of the tainted milk powder have been recalled, including pullbacks by Mengniu Dairy Group, China's largest milk producer, and the Sanlu Group. Chinese investigators have found melamine in nearly 70 milk products from more than 20 companies, Li said Wednesday. Products made by Sanlu had the highest concentration of the chemical. It is not the first time Sanlu has been connected to a scandal involving tainted milk powder, according to China Daily. In 2004, at least 13 infants in the eastern Anhui province died of malnutrition after drinking milk powder that had little to no nutrition. The illegally manufactured milk was falsely labeled with the Sanlu brand, according to the paper. The vast majority of the tainted formula was consumed domestically, but it is known to have been exported to Taiwan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Yemen, Chad and Burundi, according to Li. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said no Chinese baby formula has been allowed on the market in the United States. In a statement on its Web site, the FDA said it had reached out to all five companies making formula in the United States and none has used formula or source materials from China. This episode marks the latest in a string of tainted products produced in China: . CNN's Yuli Yang contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: 12 new arrests raises total number of people detained to 18 .\n4 babies have died; over 6,200 infants now known to be ill .\nChina's largest milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, recalls three batches of formula .\nOf China's 175 baby milk powder production companies, 66 have stopped production .","id":"fd9f034711d35dd0a592f281d438fad1a14d3459"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama engaged in a pointed exchange over al Qaeda in Iraq on Wednesday. Sen. John McCain questioned Sen. Barack Obama's way of handling the war in Iraq. McCain questioned whether Obama was aware of the al Qaeda base. Obama's response was: \"There was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.\" McCain was in Tyler, Texas, and Obama was in Columbus, Ohio. \"I understand that Sen. Obama said that if al Qaeda established a base in Iraq that he would send troops back in militarily. Al Qaeda already has a base in Iraq. It's called al Qaeda in Iraq,\" McCain said. \"It's a remarkable statement to say that you would send troops back to a place where al Qaeda has established a base -- where they have already established a base.\" McCain's comments come in response to remarks Obama made Tuesday night in a debate with Sen. Hillary Clinton. He was asked if the president would have the right to go back into Iraq in order to suppress an insurrection after downsizing the U.S. troop presence. Watch what Clinton and Obama said about the war \u00bb . \"I always reserve the right for the president ... to make sure that we are looking out for American interests,\" Obama said. \"And if al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad.\" A statement by McCain's press office Wednesday said, \"Is Sen. Obama unaware that al Qaeda is still present in Iraq, that our forces are successfully fighting them every day, and that his Iraq policy of withdrawal would embolden al Qaeda and weaken our security?\" Obama responded to the latest attacks from McCain, saying his comments were taken out of context. Obama said the question he was asked during the debate was a \"big hypothetical.\" \"I said, 'Well, I would always reserve the right to go in and strike against al Qaeda if they were in Iraq,' so you know, this is how politics works,\" Obama said at a rally in Columbus. \"McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying ,'Well let me give you some news Barack, al Qaeda is in Iraq,' like I wasn't reading the papers, like I didn't know what was going on.\" \"I said, 'Well first of all, I do know that al Qaeda is in Iraq. That's why I've said we should continue to strike al Qaeda targets. But I have some news for John McCain, and that is that there was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.\" Obama continued to blast Bush and McCain, saying, \"John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq.\" McCain in his statement said \"the Democratic presidential contenders deny progress and see only gloom and doom. Where is the audacity of hope when it comes to backing the success of our troops all the way to victory in Iraq? What we heard last night was the timidity of despair.\" The latest exchange comes as a new poll suggests McCain would pose a tough match for the eventual Democratic nominee. Obama is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Clinton trails by 97 delegates, but 370 delegates are up for grabs next Tuesday. Watch the shift in Clinton-Obama dynamics \u00bb . According to a Los Angeles Times\/Bloomberg poll, McCain would be in tight races with either of the remaining Democratic presidential candidates. McCain is statistically tied with Obama, 44 percent to 42 percent, and ahead of Clinton by 6 points, 46 percent to 40 percent. The poll's margin of error was plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. The poll also showed McCain with a 61 percent approval rating, a number higher than both Clinton's and Obama's in past polls. The Arizona senator holds a clear advantage on dealing with the war in Iraq, according to the poll, and holds a 9 point advantage on economic issues over Obama, despite having acknowledged that area is not his expertise. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Chris Welch and Alex Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"McCain questions whether Obama is aware of al Qaeda presence in Iraq .\nObama says there was no al Qaeda in Iraq until Bush, McCain decided to invade .\nMcCain statement: Comments during Democrats' debate were \"timidity of despair\"\nObama: McCain has followed \"George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq\"","id":"3493c8b804ce279314cd495ba50dbab25a2bf788"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Millions of poor American children have untreated tooth decay, some of them because they cannot find a dentist willing to treat them, a federal report issued Tuesday said. Only 1 in 3 children in Medicaid received any dental care over a year time span, according to a new report. \"Dental disease remains a significant problem for children aged 2 through 18 in Medicaid,\" the U.S. Government Accountability Office report concluded, referring to the federal\/state health program for poor people. According to the report, which used data from 1999 to 2004, about 6.5 million children enrolled in Medicaid had untreated tooth decay in 2005 and were nearly twice as likely as children with private health insurance to have untreated tooth decay. The GAO report was ordered after widespread publicity of the case of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old boy boy who died last year in suburban Washington when an untreated infected tooth led to a brain infection. Driver \"had extensive dental disease and his family was unable to find a dentist to treat him,\" the report said. The report said 14.8 percent of Medicaid recipients said their children had not gotten necessary dental care because their dentist refused to accept Medicaid, which typically pays providers less than private insurers. \"Clearly, the oral health care system failed this young man,\" said Dr. Jane S. Grover, first vice president of the American Dental Association in testimony Tuesday to the Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy. \"All of us -- practitioners, payers, parents and policymakers -- need to come together and make the system work for the most vulnerable among us,\" she said. The report found that, nationwide, only one in three children in Medicaid had received any dental care in the year before the survey was carried out, and one in eight reportedly had never seen a dentist. In comparison, more than half of children with private health insurance had gotten dental care during the prior year. \"Fundamental changes to the Medicaid program are long overdue to prevent the possibility of future tragedies like Deamonte and to ensure that all low-income children have the same access to oral health care services enjoyed by the majority of Americans,\" Grover said. Efforts are under way to fix the problem. She cited plans to open eight dental schools in addition to the 57 currently in existence and said a new job -- community dental health coordinator -- has been created. The coordinators will be trained to work in clinics and schools to ensure emergency care is provided to children, she said. \"If there had been a CDHC in the school that Deamonte Driver attended, we believe this tragedy could have been prevented,\" she said. \"Through a routine exam, a CDHC could have spotted a simple cavity, filled the cavity with a temporary filling, and made arrangements for care by a dentist,\" she said. The CDHC will also help families enroll in Medicaid and get transportation to appointments, she said. But even if the numbers of dentists increase, Congress must act to increase fees for those participating in Medicaid to match private rates, she said.","highlights":"About 6.5 million children enrolled in Medicaid had untreated tooth decay in 2005 .\nLast year 12-year-old Deamonte Driver died from complications of infected tooth .\nDentists often refuse to accept Medicaid, which often pays less than private insurers .\nMany Medicaid recipients say it's difficult to get dental care using Medicaid .","id":"507ec65de329a80480ef11e51bc8e6c1c677d3fd"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Consumers in Beijing's malls and shops are shunning the milk and poultry sections -- for good reasons. Poultry products, including eggs, may be contaminated with melamine through animal food. They are shocked and scared by the news headlines: some food produced in China is tainted with melamine. \"Of course I'm worried,\" says a woman shopping in Nanxiaojie Market. Stop eating eggs? \"That's not possible,\" she tells CNN. \"If there's a problem with eggs, it should be solved fundamentally.\" Chinese premier Wen Jiabao says China will take steps to win back consumers. \"We will use our actions and high quality of our food products to win the trust and confidence of Chinese people and people around the world,\" he told reporters at the end of a two-day summit of Asian and European leaders in Beijing last weekend. Watch more about the tainted food scandal \u00bb . \"Three minister-level officials have resigned and a government investigation is going on. Whoever is responsible must be brought to justice. We need to protect the Made in China brand,\" said Chinese analyst Victor Gao. But the problem could be more pervasive. The state-run Nanfang Daily published an investigative story saying that adding melamine into animal feed has become an \"open secret.\" The report said adding melamine into feed started in the aquatic farming industry five years ago, as a way of faking higher protein levels. Learn more about chemical melamine \u00bb . It then spread into other agro-industries such as poultry. Even more shocking is the allegation that the melamine added is from industrial waste material. CNN contacted the Ministry of Agriculture about the story, but got no immediate response. Two years ago, reports revealed pet food exported from China to the United States was spiked with melamine and had sickened and killed dogs. Several weeks ago, the food scandal spread to milk, biscuits and candies. Now, it is tainted eggs. So far, no illnesses or deaths have been linked to eggs. Tests in Hong Kong last week showed eggs exported by a Chinese company are contaminated with excessive levels of melamine. In recent days three other brands of eggs have also been found to contain the chemical. Small wonder egg sales at the Xinfadi, a wholesale market in Beijing, dropped by 10 percent this week, according to the state-run China Daily. Chinese officials say the source of the problem is melamine, an industrial chemical used to produce plastics and fertilizer. Melamine is high in nitrogen. Unscrupulous milk suppliers would water down milk and spike it with melamine -- but in amounts that allowed it to still pass quality tests. Agriculture experts speculate that eggs tainted with melamine may be the result of tainted feed given to hens. That begs the question: if melamine was in the animal feed, will it make into the meat, and into consumers' bodies? Ingesting melamine in large doses over an extended period of time could cause kidney stones and other illnesses, agriculture and health experts say. But taking in a small amount of melamine poses no such danger. \"If it's taken over a long period of time, maybe, but if it's ingested only for short period of time it does not pose harm on animals,\" says He Jiguo, a professor of food science and nutrition at the China Agriculture University. He says the animals that end up being slaughtered do not live that long and do not actually ingest enough melamine for it to build up in their systems. The dogs and cats that were sickened in the United States were probably eating treats and meals tainted with melamine over a long period of time, he explains. Until the situation is resolved, worried grocery shoppers in Beijing say they'll just have to eat fewer eggs and more bean-products, like soybeans.","highlights":"Chinese premier Wen Jiabao says China will try to win back consumers .\nMelamine is said to have been added to animal food products .\nReport: Adding melamine to feed started in aquatic farming 5 years ago .\nSome grocery shoppers say to eat fewer eggs and more bean-products .","id":"02d9e932600aaab304c025f704b20f0863c5329c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Monday blamed lobbyists, special interests and \"an ethic of irresponsibility\" in Washington for the financial crisis that has swept the country in recent weeks. Sen. Barack Obama said Monday there needs to be more oversight in Washington. The senator from Illinois sided with congressional Democrats, who say a government bailout of the financial sector must include government oversight. \"We cannot give a blank check to Washington with no oversight and accountability, when no oversight and accountability is what got us into this mess in the first place,\" Obama said. President Bush's top economic advisers this weekend presented a $700 billion plan to Congress to take control of \"illiquid assets,\" including bad mortgages. Bush urged Congress to pass the plan as is, but Democrats on the Hill already are circulating a counterproposal. Sen. John McCain, Obama's Republican rival for the presidency, said Monday that the government's proposal puts too much power into the hands of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. In a conference call Monday with reporters, McCain's top campaign officials refused to say how the senator from Arizona would vote on the plan because it is not yet clear what the final version will contain. At a campaign event Monday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Obama laid out the reforms he would pursue as president to avoid another economic crisis. Watch Obama talk about the crisis on Wall Street \u00bb . First, Obama said that he would reform \"our special interest-driven politics.\" He said members of his administration would not be able to use their position as a steppingstone for lobbyist careers. Watch what Obama says about McCain's role in the situation \u00bb . Obama said he would make the government \"open and transparent\" and put any bill that ends up on his desk online for five days before he signs it. Secondly, Obama said he would \"eliminate the waste and the fraud and abuse in our government.\" He pointed to fixing the health care system and ending the war in Iraq as ways to cut costs. Obama also said that he and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, would crack down on excessive spending from both parties and close loopholes for big corporations. Obama said he would pursue \"updated, common-sense regulations\" in the financial market. Earlier Monday, McCain told voters he was \"greatly concerned\" about the government's proposed rescue plan. \"Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person,\" McCain said at a town hall meeting in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate said that while he admires and respects Paulson, \"this arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable.\" McCain said a high-level oversight board should be created to shepherd the government's proposed $700 billion bailout plan. McCain criticized Obama for not putting up a plan to address the financial situation. \"At a time of crisis, when leadership is needed, Sen. Obama has simply not provided it,\" he said. Watch what McCain says about Obama's leadership \u00bb . Obama has said several times since the recent Wall Street crisis that, in meeting with top economists, he was encouraged to not roll out a specific plan for fear of overly politicizing the work of Congress on a government bailout of financial firms. He has, however, offered ideas for the plan -- including limiting pay for executives of businesses that are bailed out by the government and making sure the effort includes a specific plan for the money to be repaid. McCain on Monday proposed creating a bipartisan oversight board that would be able to \"impose accountability and establish concrete criteria for who gets help and who doesn't.\" The Republican presidential candidate said the board should be made up of \"qualified citizens who have no agenda.\" He pointed to Warren Buffett, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as potential board members. Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, supports Obama. Romney backs McCain, and Bloomberg is an independent. McCain also called for \"transparency and accountability\" on Wall Street and urged Congress to act quickly. The Bush administration's proposal to bail out the financial system is the centerpiece of what would be the most sweeping economic intervention by the government since the Great Depression. The plan would allow the Treasury to buy up mortgage-related assets from American-based companies and foreign firms with a big exposure to these illiquid assets. The aim is for the government to buy the securities at a discount, hold onto them and then sell them for a profit. The government's rescue plan follows a week of roller-coaster activity in the financial markets. In the lead-up to Bush's proposal, the country saw the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, a Bank of America buyout of Merrill Lynch and a government bailout of insurer American International Group Inc. CNNMoney.com staff contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Barack Obama lays out his plan to avoid another economic crisis .\nNEW: Obama: \"We cannot give a blank check to Washington with no oversight\"\nSen. John McCain expresses reservations about government's rescue plan .\nMcCain says there should be a bipartisan oversight board .","id":"3fd5c851a37d6a8baef719a8225249e9d4cf22a7"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates flew into Iraq on Monday to oversee a change of command of American forces. Robert Gates is greeted Monday at Baghdad International Airport by Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin. Gen. Ray Odierno will take over command Tuesday from Gen. David Petraeus, whose 20-month term in Iraq saw a significant decline in violence with the deployment of additional U.S. troops. U.S. forces are in \"mission transition,\" Gates said Monday, with some troops going home and others backing up Iraqis. \"There is no question we will still be engaged, but the areas in which we are seriously engaged will continue to narrow,\" Gates said during his flight to Iraq. \"The challenge for Odierno is how do we work with the Iraqis to preserve the gains we've already achieved and expand on them even as the number of U.S. forces are shrinking.\" Odierno is expected to set the stage for an eventual U.S. withdrawal. Petraeus will become the new chief of U.S. Central Command, in charge of American forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Gates, who is making his eighth trip to Iraq, said Petraeus played a \"historic role\" during his tenure. \"I think he would be the first to acknowledge that he has had a brilliant strategy,\" he said. \"But it has been the brigade commanders and company commanders and the soldiers and Marines and others on the ground who have actually made it work. \"We have lost a lot of lives, but it's really been an extraordinary effort of translations of a great strategy into a great success in a very difficult circumstance.\" At a dinner on the eve of the change-of-command ceremony, Gates presented Petraeus with the Defense Superior Service Medal. He also gave Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award -- the highest award given by the secretary of Defense to those not in uniform. \"I have never seen a working relationship like this,\" Gates told the two men. \"To find leaders to do what many considered impossible, you two are such men.\" Odierno will receive his fourth star on Tuesday in a separate ceremony ahead of the change-of-command ceremony. The defense secretary on Monday also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and told the Iraqi leader that he has seen a notable improvement in security since his first visit to the country nearly two years ago, according to a statement released by the prime minister's office. Gates said the cooperation between Iraqi security forces and coalition forces was responsible for the improvement in security, according to the statement, and al-Maliki praised the successes of the Iraqi armed forces. The prime minister said the gains have brought about a greater sense of normalcy in the country, allowing many internally displaced Iraqis to return to their homes. They also have spurred the economy, he said. The situation in Iraq is far different from that in past years, the prime minister noted. As Gates arrived in Iraq, three bombings -- two in Baghdad and one in Diyala province's Balad Ruz -- provided a rude counterpoint to that message. Two car bombs went off in central Baghdad. The blasts killed 12 people and wounded 36 in the commercial area of the Karrada district, an Interior Ministry official said. The U.S. blamed al Qaeda in Iraq, but gave a lower death toll, saying two \"possible\" car bombs killed six people and wounded 27. In Balad Ruz, a female suicide bomber detonated explosives at the house of a former U.S. detainee, killing at least 22 people and wounding 33, according to a Diyala security official. The U.S. military also blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for a car bombing Friday in Dujail, north of Baghdad. The Interior Ministry said at least 30 people were killed and 45 wounded; the U.S. said 31 were killed and 40 were wounded. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Defense Secretary Robert Gates says U.S. troops in midst of \"mission transition\"\nGen. Ray Odierno taking over command in Iraq from Gen. David Petraeus .\nOdierno expected to set stage for eventual U.S. withdrawal .","id":"8b9f76b55eb63f38b77e0223eaf9591a339b6db2"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The head of China's quality watchdog is reported to have resigned over the tainted baby milk scandal that has killed four children and sickened nearly 53,000 others. The official Xinhua News Agency said Li Changjiang had quit with the approval of China's State Council. Li's agency is responsible for ensuring that China's food supply chain is safe. Monday's resignation came hours after the World Health Organization said the scandal had highlighted flaws in the country's entire food supply chain. The chemical melamine blamed for causing kidney stones and kidney failure has been detected in formula milk powder from 22 dairies across China. The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to baby milk powder, but tests have found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from China's two largest dairy producers, Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group, as well as Shanghai-based Bright Dairy. WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said on Monday quality issues could occur anywhere from the farm to the retail outlet. He said \"it's clearly something that is not acceptable and needs to be rectified and corrected,\" according to The Associated Press. Troedsson said the WHO was discussing with officials how to strengthen China's food quality system. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called milk manufacturers \"heartless\" and promised stricter laws to protect the public. China's Health Ministry said Sunday that about 13,000 children were hospitalized, while another 40,000 had undergone outpatient treatment for illnesses related to suspected melamine-tainted milk products. The scandal has spread beyond the mainland with melamine being found in three Chinese-made dairy products in Singapore. The country's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said tests on \"White Rabbit Creamy Candy\" showed that it was contaminated with melamine and it ordered stores to remove the product from shelves. Taiwan announced Monday it was banning the importation of all dairy products from China because of melamine contamination in milk supplies on the mainland, Taiwan's Health Ministry said Monday. And a second child in Hong Kong has been diagnosed with a kidney stones after drinking the tainted milk as worried parents continued to take their children for health checkups, the government said Monday, AP reported. The 4-year-old boy was in hospital in a stable condition, the Hong Kong government said in a statement. A three-year-old girl was sickened by a suspected melamine-tainted milk over the weekend -- the first known illness outside of mainland China. The Chinese premier visited Beijing hospitals and a supermarket Sunday to show his concern for the crisis. \"What we need to do now is to ensure that nothing like this happens in the future, not only in dairy products, but in all foods,\" he said. \"Manufacturers and owners of dairy companies should show more morality and social responsibility in these cases. They are heartless, so we have to create strict law and legislation. I'm sorry.\" Investigators arrested two brothers who sold milk used to produce the contaminated baby milk powder last week. They could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. The raw milk had been watered down and the chemical added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Watch CNN visit the company at the center of the scandal \u00bb . But anger has been directed not just at the producers accused of adulterating their milk to increase profits, but also at government regulators, Time magazine reported. \"Xinhua was quick to blame the dairy industry for their skewed rules, but what it didn't say was that the government also played a part in that ugly game,\" the magazine quoted a blogger, identified as sadmoon109, as saying. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition. Thousands of tons of the tainted milk powder have been recalled. Melamine is the same industrial contaminant from China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats last year. The chemical, a byproduct of plastic manufacturing, can be used to mimic high-protein additives. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . A senior dairy analyst said Chinese farmers were cutting corners to cope with rising costs for feed and labor. \"Before the melamine incident, I know they could have been adding organic stuff, say animal urine or skin,\" Chen Lianfang of Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant told Time. \"Basically, anything that can boost the protein reading.\" Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Head of China's quality watchdog resigns over tainted baby formula scandal .\nWHO representative said scandal shows up flaws in China's food supply chain .\nFour infants in China dead, 53,000 reported ill from tainted milk powder .","id":"c1887adae038f8d5c5697e267a081dd7856e1cb4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Beijing Olympics has lost one of its major attractions after Maria Sharapova pulled out of the tennis tournament with a shoulder injury. Sharapova has treatment for a shoulder injury that has ruled her out of Olympics. The Russian world number three sustained the injury in beating Marta Domachowska of Poland at the WTA tournament in Montreal and immediately underwent an MRI scan to determine the extent of the problem. The result was not encouraging and Sharapova told her official Web site of her disappointment. \"I'm currently packing up real quick to hop on a plane to New York for a second opinion (on the injury) but I wanted to let you all know first that there is no chance of me competing in Beijing,\" she said. \"The timing is so unfortunate and this makes me more sad than anything.\" It is another shattering setback for 21-year Sharapova who started the year with a brilliant victory at the Australian Open but has since been struggling with injury and loss of form. Wednesday's match in Montreal was her first since a disappointing exit from Wimbledon. \"After the match I knew there was something seriously wrong with my shoulder,\" she added. Sharapova's appearance in the final grand slam of the season at the U.S. Open, which takes place almost immediately after the Beijing Games, must also be in serious doubt. Sharapova joins a growing list of Beijing casualties, including Athens silver medallist Amelie Mauresmo and fellow Frenchwoman Mary Pierce. Meanwhile, Vera Zvonareva will replace Sharapova in the Russian team for Beijing, spokesman Vladimir Kamelzon has confirmed.","highlights":"Maria Sharapova withdraws from the Bejing Olympics due to a shoulder injury .\nRussian star aggravated the injury in three-set win at Rogers Cup Wednesday .\nSharapova now a serious doubt for the final grand slam at Flushing Meadows .","id":"ad4ccc19383fe0b02fe0d72966db494994c1935e"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Unilever is recalling four batches of Lipton Milk Tea sold in Hong Kong and Macau after finding traces of the chemical melamine in the product, the company said Tuesday. Unilever Hong Kong Limited described it as a precautionary measure and said no other Lipton Milk Tea Powder products were affected. The announcement came a day after British confectioner Cadbury said it has recalled all of its Chinese-made candy products after preliminary tests showed they contained trace amounts of melamine. Some of the products were exported to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Nauru and Christmas Island, according to the company. They are the latest companies to get caught up in China's tainted milk scandal, which began earlier this month when authorities discovered melamine in powdered infant formula. Watch how scare affects companies outside China \u00bb . Contaminated milk has sickened nearly 53,000 children in China, killing four. Countries around the world have since banned the import of Chinese products containing milk, or have withdrawn products that contain milk from China -- such as chocolates -- amid worries they contain melamine. Authorities have arrested 40 people in connection with the milk scandal, including two brothers who could face the death penalty if convicted. Investigators suspect people watered down milk in an attempt to sell more of it, and added melamine in order to fool quality checks, Chinese authorities have said. The toxic chemical is used to bolster apparent protein levels in diluted or poor-quality milk. Others arrested include 19 managers of pastures, breeding farms and milk-purchasing stations. Chinese authorities have said those arrested were involved in a network that made and sold melamine. Authorities have implicated 22 Chinese dairy companies in the scandal. Melamine is the same industrial contaminant from China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats last year. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said a company in Taiwan, the King Car Food Industrial Company, had recalled seven instant coffee and milk tea products that were sold in the United States under the Mr. Brown brand name. They contain a non-dairy creamer found to be contaminated with melamine. The FDA also recommends that U.S. consumers not eat White Rabbit Creamy Candy, which in China has been found to contain unacceptable levels of melamine. The candy's maker, Guanshengyuan, has recalled its exports of White Rabbit Cream Candy.","highlights":"Unilever recalls four batches of Lipton Milk Tea sold in Hong Kong .\nUnilever Hong Kong describes it as a precautionary measure .\nChinese milk products have been contaminated with melamine .","id":"ad1bddd093be4af0de0f0d1c7ba720e32b849342"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elvis Presley may have left the building three decades ago, but he raked in more money last year than many living titans of the music industry . Singer Elvis Presley tops the Forbes list for the second year in a row, raking in $52 million last year. For the second year in a row, Presley topped the Forbes magazine's list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, hauling in $52 million last year. In comparison, the very-much-alive Justin Timberlake earned $44 million while another superstar, Madonna, made $40 million, the magazine reported Tuesday. The 30th anniversary of Presley's death boosted attendance and merchandise sales last year at his Memphis, Tennessee, home, Graceland. A long list of licensing deals, such as a Presley show on satellite radio, added to the earnings. The business magazine has been compiling its annual list of departed celebrities' earnings since 2001. Since 2003, the feature has coincided with Halloween. This year, the top 13 celebrities earned a combined $194 million in the last 12 months. The magazine says it talked to people inside the celebrities' estates and calculated their gross earnings from October 2007 to October 2008. Some celebrities are staples on the list, which is in its eighth year. Cartoonist Charles Schulz, who created Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the assorted cast of \"Peanuts\" characters, is second on the list. Schulz, who died in 2000, had posthumous earnings last year of $33 million, the magazine reported. He owes his constant presence to a steady revenue stream from the ongoing licensing of his characters, the magazine said. Schulz and Presley join Theodor \"Dr. Seuss\" Geisel (this year's No. 6), Beatles legend John Lennon (No. 7) and actress Marilyn Monroe (No. 9) as the only entertainers to make the list every year since its inception. Physicist Albert Einstein, best known for his theory of relativity, is fourth on the list. It is his third consecutive year making the Forbes rankings. Though he died in 1955, a franchise bearing his name -- Baby Einstein -- made big bucks last year selling educational books, DVDs, CDs, toys and other products. It plans to expand into the young-adult market this year. Australian actor Heath Ledger, who died of an overdose in January, made his debut on the list in third place. The magazine estimated his earnings at $20 million, thanks to the success of the movie, \"The Dark Knight,\" in which Ledger played the Joker. The movie grossed $991 million worldwide. Paul Newman, who died of lung cancer last month, also made his first appearance on the list, raking in $5 million. \"His income still largely stems from residuals from his classic pictures, as well as more recent productions,\" the magazine said. The legendary actor's line of natural and organic food products, Newman's Own, earned revenues of $120 million last year, but the earnings were not considered in the tally because Newman donated all profits to charity while he was living, the magazine said. Several entertainers from last year's list failed to make this year's cut, including composer, producer and Beatles guitarist George Harrison, rapper\/actor Tupac Shakur, \"Godfather of Soul\" James Brown, and reggae legend Bob Marley.","highlights":"Presley earned more than Justin Timberlake ($44M), Madonna ($40M) last year .\nCartoonist Charles Schulz, author Dr. Seuss still relevant among children .\nBeatles' John Lennon comes in at No. 7, but George Harrison drops off list .\nHeath Ledger debuts on list thanks to performance as Joker in \"The Dark Knight\"","id":"252edab978a42873298d6706d96409f6c1aad7cc"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- China can seem as impenetrable as it is imposing. Consider the numbers: it's the world's most populous nation (1.3 billion), where more than 100 cities have populations over a million. Fifty-six ethnic groups are spread across 22 wildly distinct provinces and five autonomous regions, in a landmass slightly larger than the U.S. The Tiananmen Gate at the entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing . Its history seems limitless and its traditions just as deep. But here and now, change is the only real constant -- and it is accelerating at a dizzying pace. (One thousand new cars hit the streets of Beijing every day.) How do you begin to fathom a country of such extremes? The futuristic cities glittering above timeworn villages; the great rivers and vast empty deserts; the radical new architecture juxtaposed with millennia-old monuments; the ceaseless push-and-pull between Confucianism, Communism, and commerce. Where do you even begin? Have no fear. Start here with Travel + Leisure's suggestions for where to go and what to see. Beijing: 2--3 days . China's political, historical and cultural capital demands at least three days -- for the familiar landmarks of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and also for Beijing's 21st-century architecture, such as the \"Bird's Nest\" Olympic National Stadium by Herzog & de Meuron and the glass-and-titanium dome that is the National Grand Theater. China's contemporary art scene finds its nexus in the galleries and caf\u00e9s of the Dashanzi Art District, home to the new Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Travel+Leisure.com: Tips for flying to China . Beijing's atmospheric hutong, or traditional alleyways, are fast disappearing; explore the bustling ones off Nanluoguxiang, near the 13th-century Drum and Bell towers. Then check out the Legation Quarter, a high-end restaurant, entertainment and cultural development set within the former American Embassy compound. And save a morning to stroll the manicured, 660-acre grounds of the Temple of Heaven, site of the circular Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the 15th-century apogee of Chinese ritual architecture. Travel+Leisure.com: Chinese taxi trips . The Great Wall . Numerous stretches of the Great Wall are easily accessible from Beijing (ask your hotel to arrange a car or bus tour). But avoid the tourist trap of Badaling and head to the slightly less trammeled Mutianyu section, a 90-minute drive northeast of the Forbidden City. Early morning is best; try Asia 1 on 1 for day trips. Travel+Leisure.com: Where to stay in China . Shanghai: 2--3 days . First stop: the riverfront promenade known as the Bund, with its Art Deco, Neoclassical, and Beaux-Arts fa\u00e7ades, bars and shops, and views of the space-age towers of Pudong. In People's Park you'll find the Shanghai Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Weekdays are the best time to wander among the pine trees and ponds of the 16th-century Yuyuan Gardens. Xintiandi was the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party; now this restored two-block district is defined by upscale shops and restaurants. The leafy, rustic French Concession is the favored destination for cutting-edge fashion and designs for the home. Shanghai's latest secret? Lane 248, a gritty, narrow street now inhabited by artsy caf\u00e9s and intimate boutiques, hidden behind Taikang Road. Travel+Leisure.com: China shopping tips and strategies . Guilin: 2 days . (Two hours by air from Shanghai.) With its sheer limestone peaks jutting up from the Li River, Guilin is straight out of a traditional Chinese landscape painting, and remains one of China's most breathtaking sights. Take in the view from Solitary Beauty Peak and marvel at the formations of the Reed Flute Cave. Spring and fall are best; avoid the heat of July and the crowds of the holiday seasons. Xi'an: 2 days . (Two hours by air from Beijing.) China's ancestral capital is renowned for its \"terra-cotta army,\" created during the Qin dynasty (221--207 B.C.): thousands of life-size clay warriors stand in formation as part of the funerary complex of China's first emperor, with much more yet to be excavated. You'll need at least two days here to take in the warriors, see the Shang dynasty bronze relics at the Shaanxi History Museum, walk along the Old City walls, and visit the Da Mai market. Datong: 2 days . (One hour by air or six hours by scenic train ride from Beijing.) Majestic Qing dynasty frescoes are the standout in the celebrated temple district. Nearby excursions include the awesome Buddhist sculptures in the Yungang Grottoes and the Hanging Temple of Mount Hengshan, which clings precipitously to the side of a cliff. Not far away are some especially beautiful eroded mud-brick ruins of the Great Wall. Hangzhou: 2 days . (Two hours by bullet train from Shanghai.) Fabled West Lake is the major draw here, with its elegant causeways, pavilions, gardens, and arched bridges. Hangzhou is also renowned as a culinary capital: local specialties include stuffed-beggar's chicken and fatty dongpo pork; sample both at the great Louwailou restaurant. Travel+Leisure.com: Must-try Chinese food . Suzhou: 1 day . (45 minutes by train from Shanghai.) Famous for its Ming- and Qing-dynasty gardens (don't miss the Garden of the Master of the Nets and the Humble Administrator's Garden), Suzhou was once called the Venice of the East for its canals. But smart travelers know the most picturesque waterways -- fringed by whitewashed houses and 1,000-year-old humpbacked bridges -- are in the village of Tongli, a 50-minute drive away. Kunming: 1 day . (Three hours by air from Shanghai.) This city is one of China's most pleasant, in climate-blessed Yunnan province. Visit the 15th-century Bamboo Temple and the 17th-century Golden Temple, stroll the pavilions and bridges of Green Lake, and savor the raucous energy of the Kundu Night Market. Dali: 1 day . (45 minutes by air from Kunming.) Like nearby Lijiang, Dali has a strong ethnic-minority flavor, a walled Old City with cobblestoned streets, and striking mountain scenery -- but without the same tourist mobs. Explore on foot, peek at the Three Pagodas, or go for a boat ride on Erhai Lake. Taiyuan: 1 day . (One hour by air from Beijing.) The capital of Shanxi province, Taiyuan is home to the Shanxi Provincial Museum, offering a superb survey of the region's 5,000-year history, and the Jinci Temple weaves a thread between Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. And 90 minutes southwest by car is Pingyao, a stunningly preserved walled city and veritable time machine that carries you back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2008 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Explore the traditional alleyways off Nanluoguxiang in Beijing .\nFrom Beijing, visit the slightly less trammeled Mutianyu section of the Great Wall .\nTake in the view from Solitary Beauty Peak in Guilin .","id":"d3ff3a09512d524c67e3997b5b0675d6191f4927"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A plane crash in eastern Guatemala on Sunday killed 10 people, including eight Americans, a Guatemalan official told CNN. A Cessna Caravan 208 carrying 14 people was en route from Aurora to El Estor when the pilot started making distress calls about engine failure about 45 minutes after takeoff, said Jose Carlos, Guatemala's director of civil aeronautics. The air traffic tower in Guatemala City lost communication with the plane at 9:45 a.m. The plane crashed in Zacapa, an agricultural hub about 115 kilometers (71 miles) east of Guatemala City, killing the pilot Monica Bonilla, co-pilot Luis Fernando LanFiesta and the Americans. Four other passengers were injured and taken to a local hospital. \"It seems like the pilot tried her best to make a safe landing in a open field, but was not successful,\" said Ricardo Lemus, a Zacapa firefighter at the scene of the crash told reporters. \"On impact, the aircraft was split into pieces.\" The charter flight was operated by Aero Ruta Maya.","highlights":"Cessna Caravan 208 was en route from Aurora to El Estor .\nPilot started making distress calls about 45 minutes after takeoff .\nPlane crashed in Zacapa, about 115 kilometers (71 miles) east of Guatemala City .","id":"a16b42f38170030b1b9b7eda8c316d943c588aac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The credit crisis has transformed the global financial landscape, bankrupting established names and prompting unprecedented interventions by governments and central banks to save others from collapse as they buckle under the weight of \"toxic debts.\" This timeline charts the key moments in that process. 2007 Feb. 7: HSBC announces losses linked to U.S. subprime mortgages. May 17: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said growing number of mortgage defaults will not seriously harm the U.S. economy. A trader at the New York stock exchange reacts to the fall of global stock markets . June: Two Bear Stearns-run hedge funds with large holdings of subprime mortgages run into large losses and are forced to dump assets. The trouble spreads to major Wall Street firms such as Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs which had loaned the firms money. Aug.: French bank BNP Paribas freezes withdrawals in three investment funds. Sept.: Crisis-hit UK bank Northern Rock admits financial difficulties as it asks Bank of England for assistance. Share prices fall as customers queue up to withdraw their money. Oct. 1: Swiss bank UBS announces losses liked to U.S. subprime mortgages. Oct. 5: Investment bank Merrill Lynch reports losses of $5.5 billion. Oct. 15: Cititgroup announces $6.5 billion third quarter losses. Oct. 24: Merrill Lynch announces losses to be over $8 billion. 2008 Jan: Swiss bank UBS announces fourth quarter losses at $14 billion. Jan. 11: Bank of America pays $4 billion for Countryside Financial. Jan. 15: Citigroup reports $18.1 billion loss in fourth quarter. Jan. 17: Merrill Lynch reports $11.5 billion loss in fourth quarter. Washington Mutual posts losses. Feb. 13: UK bank Northern Rock is nationalized. March: UK hedge fund Peloton Partners and U.S. fund Carlyle Capital fail. March 16: Bear Stearns, the U.S.'s fifth largest investment bank, collapses and is taken over by JP Morgan. April 1: German Deutsche Bank credit losses of $3.9 billion in first quarter. April 13: U.S. bank Wachovia Corp. reports big loss for quarter. May 12: HSBC writes off $3.2 billion in the first quarter linked to exposure to the U.S. subprime market. July 22: WaMu reports $3.3 billion loss for second quarter. Aug. 31: German Commerzbank AG takes over Dresdner Kleinwort investment bank. Sept 7: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively nationalized by the U.S. Treasury which places them into \"conservatorship.\" Sept. 9: Lehman Brothers shares plummet to lowest level on Wall Street in more than a decade. Sept 14: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy. Stock markets plummet; Central banks inject billions of dollars into money markets. Bank of America agrees to buy Merrill Lynch. Sept. 16: AIG Corp, the world's biggest insurer, bailed out by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Morgan Stanley and Wachovia enter merger talks. Sept. 17: Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) to merge with UK bank Lloyds TSB in an emergency rescue plan. Sept. 18: Federal Bank and other central banks inject billions into global markets to help ease the crunch. Sept. 22: Japan's Nomura Holdings buys Lehman's Asian operations for up to $525 million. Sept. 25: WaMu sold to JP Morgan. Sept. 27: HSBC announces 1,100 job cuts worldwide. Sept. 29: - U.S. Congress rejects $700 billion plan to bail out the U.S. financial system. - UK's Bradford & Bingley nationalized. Santander to buy deposits for $38.2bn - German bank Hypo Real Estate to be bailed out by banks and government. - Citigroup, the world's largest bank, says it will buy Wachovia. - Belgian giant Fortis is bailed out by Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. - Royal Bank of Scotland shares lose a fifth of their value. - Iceland part-nationalizes Glitnir, one of its biggest banks. Sept 30: - Belgian bank Dexia bailed out by France, Belgium and Luxembourg. - Swiss bank UBS announces small profit in third quarter. - Irish government guarantees safety of bonds, debts and deposits. Oct 1: US Senate passes amended $700 billion bail-out plan. Oct 3: - US Congress passes $700 billion bail-out, President Bush signs it into law. - Swiss bank UBS to cut 2000 jobs. - Dutch government nationalizes banking and insurance activities of Fortis. Oct 4-6: - Proposed Hypo Real Estate bailout collapses. - Chancellor Angela Merkel announces new plan for Hypo bailout worth $69bn. - Merkel also announces guarantee of deposits in German banks. - UK raises limit on guaranteed bank deposits from \u00a335,000- \u00a350,000. - EU leaders meet in Paris for emergency summit to discuss financial crisis. - Battle rages between Citigroup and Wells Fargo over purchase of Wachovia. - French bank BNP Paribas takes 75% stake in Fortis . Oct 6: - Danish government announces plan to guarantee bank deposits - Wells Fargo and Citigroup agree to legal standstill in battle for Wachovia. - Bank of America reports 68% profit drop, stock sale to raise $10bn. Oct 7: Icelandic bank Landsbanki nationalized; Icesave, Landbanki's internet bank, freezes UK customers' accounts. Oct 8: - UK Treasury freezes assets of Landsbanki in the UK; threatens legal action - UK Treasury announces \u00a3500 billion bank rescue package. - U.S., UK, China, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and ECB cut interest rates. - IMF forecasts \"Major global downturn\". Oct 9: Iceland nationalizes its biggest bank Kaupthing. Oct 10: Black Friday - G7 finance ministers meet in Washington and issue a five-point plan. - Nikkei falls almost 10%, biggest drop in 20 years. - FTSE falls more than 10%, closes at 8.85%; worst daily fall since 1987. - Oil prices fall to $80 a barrel. - Dow crashes nearly 700 points before regaining some lost ground. - Icelandic bank Kaupthing is nationalized. Oct 11- 12: - The Fed rubberstamps Wachovia takeover by Wells Fargo. - 15 EU leaders meet in Paris for emergency summit on crisis. - Gordon Brown urges them to adopt similar measures to UK bank rescue plan. - Leaders agree to guarantee loans between banks until end of 2009. - Germany, France and Italy to announce individual plans Monday. - Australia agrees to guarantee deposits for next 3 years. - New Zealand guarantees bank deposits for 2 years. Oct 13: - EU stock markets bounce back in response to EU leaders' bailout announcements. - UK bails out 3 banks: RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB at cost of $63 billion. - Bank of England loans $174 million to Icelandic bank Landsbanki to help repay UK depositors. Oct 14: - Iceland in talks with Russia to negotiate emergency loan of $5.44 billion after bank collapses. - U.S. follows UK lead by part-nationalizing banks. Oct 15: - European and Asian stock markets fall after initial upswing. - Southeast Asian nations agree to start fund to provide financial support to countries in crisis; World Bank commits $10 billion to the planned fund. - Russian stock market posts losses as RTS Index falls below 800 points. Oct 16: - Global markets fall on fears of global slowdown. - Citigroup delays merger of its Japanese brokerage units due to costs involved. - Swiss government bails out UBS with $59.2 billion. - Credit Suisse posts 1.3 billion-franc third quarter loss; raises $8.7 billion from investors. - Hungarian central bank gets cash injection from ECB to value of $6.7 billion. - EU leaders at Brussels summit call for complete overhaul of international financial system.","highlights":"Banking crisis has transformed the world's financial landscape .\nMany established names bankrupted or bailed out as a consequence of bad debts .\nAfter inital upswing, world stock markets fall once more .\nEU leaders at summit call for overhaul of international financial system .","id":"637fb45545c2867cb5e54463ee3f332b24133649"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate approved a controversial nuclear deal with India on Wednesday, clearing the way for the United States to export nuclear know-how to India after a ban lasting decades. President Bush, who supports the deal, meets with India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week. Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the deal would not only \"set the stage for a stronger U.S.-India relationship,\" but also would promote stability in India's troubled neighborhood. \"This agreement is indicative of a new era in Indian foreign policy, an era in which India will see all the world's powers as potential partners in efforts to address its own needs and the needs of others,\" Dodd said. \"I believe that this new era will bring increased stability and progress in South Asia.\" India and Pakistan have fought several wars since they became independent in 1947, and both countries have tested nuclear weapons. Wednesday's vote was 86-13. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, spoke against what he called flawed legislation before the vote. \"If we pass this legislation, we will reward India for flouting the most important arms control agreement in history, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and we will gravely undermine our case against hostile nations that seek to do the same,\" Harkin said. Before he voted against the bill, he said Congress had not debated the legislation properly. \"It was hustled through [the House of Representatives] without any hearings and without a vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee,\" he said. \"Here in the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee held just one hearing with just one witness who spoke in support of the agreement.\" Presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain voted for the bill. President Bush urged the Senate to pass the bill in a statement released before the vote. The bill \"represents a major milestone in the transformation of our nation's important relationship with India,\" the statement said. One senator had anonymously been using parliamentary rules to prevent the bill from coming to a vote, but the leaders of the Senate announced Tuesday night the vote would go ahead. The House of Representatives passed the bill without debate on Saturday. The next step is for Bush to sign it into law. The Indian nuclear market is a rich prize, and the agreement could open the way for U.S. companies to earn billions of dollars building nuclear power plants in India. The French government clinched its own nuclear trade deal with India on Wednesday when President Nicolas Sarkozy signed an agreement in Paris. That puts French companies in the running for some of the same contracts U.S. companies want. In exchange for access to U.S. nuclear technology, India would allow international inspections of its civilian -- but not military -- nuclear power plants. It would also promise not to resume testing of nuclear weapons. The United States banned nuclear trade with India after India exploded a nuclear device in 1974 and refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In an informal agreement between the two nations, the United States said it would halt any nuclear cooperation should India resume testing.","highlights":"Deal could let U.S. businesses earn billions building plants in India .\nPresident Bush backs the deal; he's expected to sign it into law .\nU.S. banned nuclear trade with India in 1974 .\nSen. Harkin, bill opponent: We're rewarding India for flouting nonproliferation pact .","id":"323d3a9650eef560ebc28eae746e84b624891856"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While Sen. Barack Obama says he'll visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the election, he's staying consistent with his plans to start withdrawing U.S. troops almost immediately should he become president. Sen. Barack Obama says he'll go to Iraq and Afghanistan before November. Obama says the need to withdraw troops is twofold: . \"One is to spur more action out of the Iraqis. ... But the second reason for withdrawal is the fact that we're spending $10 [billion] to $12 billion a month in Iraq,\" Obama said Monday while on a two-day swing through Michigan. \"The people here in Flint, Michigan, who I'm going to be talking to, would like to see some of that investment made here at home.\" Obama also expressed concern that the Bush administration would rush to make some sort of status of forces agreement that would be binding to the next administration. The war in Iraq is a key issue for voters in the United States, and Obama and Sen. John McCain offer vastly different solutions for how to handle it. Obama supports a phased withdrawal of troops. He says he'd remove all combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months of taking office if he becomes president. McCain does not think American troops should return to the United States until Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining a safe, democratic state. He has been a strong advocate of the \"surge\" -- the 2007 escalation of U.S. troops -- and says troops should stay in Iraq as long as needed. McCain says Obama is wrong for opposing the increased troop presence, and Obama says McCain's judgment is flawed. Obama spoke Monday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and told him he looked forward to seeing him in Baghdad before November. He also said he planned to visit Afghanistan before the election. Watch Obama say he's going to Iraq \u00bb . \"I emphasized to him how encouraged I was by the reductions in violence in Iraq, but also insisted that it is important for us to begin the process of withdrawing U.S. troops, making clear that we have no interest in permanent bases in Iraq,\" Obama said. \"I gave [Zebari] an assurance that should we be elected, an Obama administration will make sure that we continue with the progress that's been made in Iraq, that we won't act precipitously,\" he said. Obama said Zebari did not express concern about a withdrawal of American troops, saying, \"He did emphasize his belief that we've made real progress and, I think, was eager to see political accommodations between the factions follow up in the wake of this progress.\" About the same time Obama was speaking to his traveling press corps, McCain told reporters at a press conference at his Arlington, Virginia, headquarters that Obama \"is now is closing in on his 900th day since he visited Iraq.\" The Republican National Committee has a counter on its Web site that clocks the time since Obama's last visit to the country. \"The whole debate in this campaign should be about whether we're going to allow that surge to continue to succeed or we're again going to do what Sen. Obama wanted to do, and that is to set a date for withdrawal long ago without giving the surge a chance to succeed,\" said McCain, again criticizing Obama for not meeting directly with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. \"I don't know how you can draw conclusions such as Sen. Obama has without even sitting down and talking with our commander on the ground,\" he added. McCain sat down with the visiting foreign minister one day before Obama. Watch McCain talk with Zebari \u00bb . The senator from Arizona said they had a \"very good discussion about the challenges that have been overcome and the challenges that lay ahead,\" and he said there is \"no doubt\" that the surge has succeeded. There have been recent improvements in Iraq, where there are more than 150,000 U.S. troops. The number of deaths of U.S. troops there was at a five-year low last month, and Zebari said Saturday that the country has the lowest level of violence in the past four years. Military experts and Brookings analysts Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack triggered criticism last year when they returned from Iraq and argued that things were not as bad as they had seemed. Watch experts weigh in on Iraq \u00bb . \"I do think that there was a sense among the Democratic Party that the war, and the failure of the war, was going to be a major election issue for them that they could use against the Republicans,\" Pollack said Sunday on CNN. \"And so, when you had two Democrats coming back and saying, 'Look, there actually is progress there. This thing is not completely lost, and we ought to give it some more time' -- which is effectively all we were saying -- I think that this was a bombshell, because it wasn't what people had heard before.\" O'Hanlon said Sunday that they've seen continued progress, especially in the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces. He said Democrats are not rethinking their Iraq policy because, for many of them, \"this is the symbol of the Bush administration's failed foreign policy.\" \"This became the symbol of Bush administration arrogance and unilateralism. And then, for four years it went badly. So, given that backdrop, it's pretty hard for Democrats to come around to the idea that perhaps, by Bush finally letting professionals run this war instead of ideologues, that we have begun to rescue this situation. I think that's the simplest interpretation.\" CNN's Alexander Marquardt and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama says he'll visit Iraq, Afghanistan before election .\nRNC Web site has counter clocking days since Obama's last visit .\nMcCain, Obama offer vastly different strategies to deal with Iraq .\nAnalysts see improvement on the ground in Iraq .","id":"941f9ba5091a41a41338a0b5c06ef998ab76bf92"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives on Tuesday night passed an energy bill clearing the way for more oil drilling off U.S. coasts, but not nearly as much as Republican leaders wanted. The bill was passed by a vote of 236-189. Many Republicans opposed the bill because it would allow new oil drilling only between 50 and 100 miles offshore. Republicans generally want to allow new drilling starting 3 miles from shore. Republicans also objected to provisions repealing tax cuts for the oil industry and what they said was a lack of incentive for states to allow drilling on their land. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters Tuesday: \"The American taxpayers have been ripped off for years on offshore drilling. This bill changes that.\" Before the vote, Pelosi said the bill presented a choice between \"the status quo, which is preferred by Big Oil,\" and \"change for the future to take our country in a new direction.\" Fifteen Republicans voted for the largely Democrat-backed bill. Thirteen Democrats voted against it. The Senate, meanwhile, could vote on various energy proposals, including more offshore drilling, as early as this week. The House bill would require states to give their permission for drilling on their land. It also would offer incentives for renewable energy, require the government to release oil from its emergency reserve, and force oil companies to drill on federal lands they already lease from the government. Democratic leaders had previously opposed Republican-led efforts to repeal a 1981 law barring most offshore drilling. But they changed course over the August recess, saying their new plans would allow some expanded drilling. See where U.S. offshore drilling is banned \u00bb . But Republicans say the House bill wouldn't expand offshore drilling enough. Before the vote, Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, called the bill \"a charade,\" denying it would do what its backers claim. \"This is not 'yes' to drilling. This is 'yes, but,' \" he said. \"This is 'yes, but no drilling in Alaska, no drilling in the Eastern Gulf, no drilling inside 50 miles,' \" Pence said. \"This is 'yes, but no litigation reform that will prevent radical environmental attorneys from tying up leases even before a single shovel of dirt is turned.' \" Democrats and Republicans traded harsh words on the House floor Tuesday in the debate over the bill. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, said President Bush's \"idea of an energy policy is holding hands with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, embracing him with a big smooch.\" When the Republicans \"controlled Congress, [they] passed their own energy bill, signed into law by the president. We got into this mess,\" Weiner said. But Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, shot back that the Democrats' bill is a \"sham\" and a \"fraud.\" \"This is a bill designed to ensure Democrats' re-election, not designed to ensure affordable energy in America,\" Hensarling said. Hensarling also complained about how the bill was brought to the floor: \"No amendments, no substitutes, no committee hearings. Is this democracy? No.\"","highlights":"NEW: Bill passes by 236-189 vote .\nDemocrats' plan would expand offshore drilling, but Republicans not satisfied .\nSome Republicans fought proposal, saying too many areas still would be banned .\nRepublican representative: \"This is not 'yes' to drilling. This is 'yes, but' \"","id":"f4aefbd80d7ef7405e0a5bff75bb3e6c07565bf5"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The Chinese women's gymnastics team did not use underage competitors during this year's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the International Gymnastics Federation said Wednesday. Widespread reports claimed that gold medal winner He Kexin was only 14 years old. The federation said it has concluded its inquiry into the matter after it confirmed the gymnasts' ages through official documents that the Chinese Gymnasts Association provided. The documents included passports, identity cards and household registers. However, the organization intends to further investigate the ages of two gymnasts, Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun, who participated in the 2000 summer games in Sydney, Australia. The federation said it did not consider the explanations and evidence that Chinese authorities provided in regard to those athletes as satisfactory. The International Olympic Committee had asked gymnastics officials to clarify the situation after numerous commentators, bloggers and others questioned whether about half the members of China's team were old enough to compete. Watch tiny gymnasts work out \u00bb . Athletes must be at least 16 in the year the games take place. In women's gymnastics, younger girls can have an advantage over older competitors on account of their often smaller, lighter and more agile bodies. The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition at the Beijing games, and five members won individual medals. One of the challenges came from a blogger known as \"Stryde Hax.\" The blogger claimed to have uncovered proof that Chinese gymnast He Kexin is only 14. In Internet searches, \"Stryde Hax\" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. CNN was not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appeared to back up the claim. Other bloggers joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994. The International Gymnastics Federation, however, has said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct. Chinese gymnastics coaches also defended their team. \"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion,\" said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams, referring to media inquiries. \"They shouldn't be suspicious.\"","highlights":"Athletes met age requirements, international commission concludes .\nSome writers, others suspected girls were younger than rules allowed .\nChinese team won gold medal in Summer Olympics at Beijing .\nPassports, identity cards, household records examined .","id":"d836cfc526a2808fc7e37d04fa11bdb8efdfd221"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British police were told in March this year that missing girl Madeleine McCann may have been kidnapped by a pedophile ring which followed her three days before her abduction, according to reports. Madeleine McCann went missing in May 2007 after being left at a holiday apartment in the Algarve region. Britain's Daily Telegraph and The Sun newspapers both reported Thursday that an email released this week as part of the documents compiled by the Portuguese investigators probing Madeleine's disappearance revealed the connection to the ring. Madeleine was 3 when she disappeared May 3, 2007, while she was on holiday with her family at the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Her disappearance prompted headlines worldwide. According to the newspapers, the email was sent on March 4 by a London-based Metropolitan Police intelligence officer to Leicestershire police -- Madeleine's home county -- who then forwarded it on to investigators in Portugal more than a month later. In the email, which both newspapers printed a copy of, the officer writes that \"intelligence suggests that a pedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken. \"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken,\" the officer wrote. The Daily Telegraph reported the Portuguese police then asked Interpol to investigate. However, nothing appears to have come of the lead. Watch how Madeleine McCann may have been abducted to order \u00bb . Belgium has already featured in the case, with a reported sighting on the Dutch\/Belgian border last August already discounted. The case files, released by the Portuguese investigators this week after they shelved the investigation for lack of evidence last month, have provided a raft of leads for the media to report. On Tuesday, the documents revealed a previously undisclosed sighting of Madeleine in the Netherlands shortly after her disappearance. The possible sighting of Madeleine in May 2007 stemmed from a report by a Dutch shopkeeper, who told authorities she encountered a little girl in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She said the child identified herself as Maddie and said she was taken from her mother while on holiday. \"I start to ask where her mommy was,\" Anna Stam said. \"She couldn't tell me that. I wanted to give her a balloon, but she didn't want that. She only wants her mommy, she said. And she said that these people took her from her mommy.\" At one point, authorities had named the girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, as \"arguidos,\" or suspects, along with a British man living in Portugal, Robert Murat. But a spokesman for the Portuguese public prosecutor's office said authorities found no evidence of involvement by any of the three and were no longer considering them \"arguidos.\" After closing the case, police turned their case file -- containing up to 30,000 pages -- over to attorneys and private investigators working for the McCanns. The McCanns have vowed to keep searching for their daughter. .","highlights":"Portuguese police case file reveal more leads in Madeleine McCann disappearance .\nEmail from British police suggests Madeleine taken by pedophile ring .\nRing followed three-year-old girl before snatching her, reports claim .","id":"707b68175a98d495a9638577457bc8832decffe7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A neighborhood in east London was getting back to normal Saturday after British Army engineers detonated a large World War II bomb unearthed this week on a building site, officials said. Army engineers covered the bomb with sand to minimise the risk of an explosion. An Army bomb disposal team carried out a controlled explosion on the 2,200-pound German warhead at 5:55 p.m. (12:55 p.m. ET) Friday, London's Metropolitan Police said. Video of the blast showed brown dirt, debris and black smoke shooting into the air when the bomb went off. There were no reports of any injuries or damage to surrounding property after the blast, the police and Ministry of Defense said. The public was allowed back into the industrial neighborhood by Friday night, authorities said. Two subway lines and a rail line in the area, which were shut down after construction crews discovered the bomb Monday, were running normal service Saturday, transportation officials said. London's transit authority, Transport for London (TfL), said the police and army gave permission for its engineers to check the tracks less than an hour after the controlled explosion. The tracks were clear of debris and damage and services resumed at 7:13 p.m. (2:13 p.m. ET), TfL said. Contractors preparing a waterway near the site of the future Olympic Park discovered the bomb Monday. The Ministry of Defense said the bomb, which measured four feet by two feet, was the largest one found in the capital since 1975. The bomb was \"enormous,\" said Simon Saunders, a spokesman for the British Army's London district. At one point during the week the bomb started ticking, which suggested a timing device, Saunders said. Disposal experts put strong magnets next to the bomb to shut down the clockwork and the ticking stopped, he said. It's not uncommon for World War II-era bombs to be unearthed in Europe. In London, which suffered the aerial bombardment of the Blitz, bombs are uncovered two or three times a year, Saunders said. The London Blitz lasted from September 1940 until May 1941. German bombers attacked the city every day or night for the first two months, but the worst night was the last -- May 10, 1941, when 3,000 people were killed in London, according to the Museum of London. Much of the Blitz focused on east London. In all, more than 20,000 people were killed in the Blitz, short for \"Blitzkrieg,\" the German word for \"lightning war.\"","highlights":"British Army engineers detonate a large World War II bomb in London .\nMinistry of Defense: Bomb was the largest found in the capital since 1975 .\nDisposal experts used strong magnets to stop timer after bomb started ticking .","id":"c319070b5ca849570737f86a8fa38703a4517433"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Record the CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Notes from North Korea when it airs commercial-free on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.) Program Overview . CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour travels to North Korea as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra makes a historic visit to one of the world's most closed societies. She examines the tense standoff with the U.S. over nuclear weapons and provides a rare look inside a notorious, top-secret nuclear facility. Grade Levels: 9 -- 12, College . Subject Areas: U.S. History, World History, Current Events, Political Science, Government . Objectives . The CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Notes from North Korea and its corresponding discussion questions and suggested activities challenge students to: . Curriculum Connections . Social Studies . Standard VI. Power, Authority, and Governance: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/strands\/) are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/ncss.org\/). United States History . Standard 27. Understands how the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics . Level IV [Grade 9-12] . Benchmark 1. Understands U.S. foreign policy from the Truman administration to the Johnson administration . Standard 30. Understands developments in foreign policy and domestic politics between the Nixon and Clinton presidencies . Level IV [Grade 9-12] . Benchmark 5. Understands the influence of U.S. foreign policy on international events from Nixon to Clinton . Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education (Copyright 2000 McREL) is published online by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) (http:\/\/www.mcrel.org\/standards-benchmarks ), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO 80014; Telephone: 303\/337-0990. World History . Standard 44. Understands the search for community, stability, and peace in an interdependent world . Level IV [Grade 9-12] . Benchmark 11. Understands common arguments of opposition groups in various countries around the world, common solutions they offer, and the position of these ideas with regard to Western economic and strategic interests . Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education (Copyright 2000 McREL) is published online by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) (http:\/\/www.mcrel.org\/standards-benchmarks ), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO 80014; Telephone: 303\/337-0990. Civics . III. How Does The Government Established By The Constitution Embody The Purposes, Values, And Principles Of American Democracy? 4. Major responsibilities of the national government in domestic and foreign policy . IV. What Is The Relationship Of The United States To Other Nations And To World Affairs? 1. Nation-states . 2. Interactions among nation-states . 4. The historical context of United States foreign policy . 5. Making and implementing United States foreign policy . 6. The ends and means of United States foreign policy . 7. Impact of the American concept of democracy and individual rights on the world . The National Standards for Civics and Government (http:\/\/www.civiced.org\/index.php?page=stds) are published by the Center for Civic Education (http:\/\/www.civiced.org\/). Discussion Questions . 1. Who is the leader of North Korea? According to the report, how do North Koreans regard this leader? What aspects of his personality are revealed in the program? 2. According to the program, North Korea is a \"closed society.\" What does this mean? 3. How does the report describe the history of U.S.-North Korea relations? According to the report: What tensions currently exist between these two nations? What humanitarian and political concerns exist in North Korea? 4. Why do you think that North Korea invited the New York Philharmonic to play, and decided to open the Yongbyon nuclear facility to the media at this point in time? Why are these events historically and politically significant? 5. Who is Madeline Albright? When and where did she meet with Kim Jong-Il? How does she describe her visit with Kim Jong-Il? Why does Albright say that she is not surprised that Kim Jong-Il chose the New York Philharmonic for this \"cultural overture\"? 6. According to the report, why is the division of Korea an emotional issue for many Koreans? Who are Kim Cho Wun and Ji Hae Nam? To what countries did they defect, and why did they flee North Korea? What risks and sacrifices do you think that they assumed when they chose to defect? 7. According to the report: Why did New York Philharmonic President Zarin Mehta accept North Korea's invitation to play? Why was this performance controversial? What logistical hurdles did Mehta have to overcome to execute the trip? 8. What were some of the pieces of music that the New York Philharmonic played during its concert? Which of these pieces, if any, do you think were politically significant? Explain. If you were choosing the music for this performance, what pieces would you have selected, and why? 9. Following the concert, North Korea's nuclear negotiator, Minister Kim Gye Gwan, was quoted as saying that the concert was \"a political breakthrough; an act of courage by both nations.\" What do you think that he means? Do you agree with the minister? Why or why not? 10. What is \"cultural diplomacy\"? How do you think that cultural diplomacy differs from other forms of diplomacy? Give examples. According to U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, why is \"people-to-people diplomacy\" important to the future of U.S.-North Korea relations? 11. According to Amanpour, to what extent did the New York Philharmonic's concert impact U.S-North Korea relations? In your view, what actions, if any, might these two nations take to build upon the goodwill that was generated by the concert? 12. What did CNN's Christiane Amanpour observe during her visit to the Yongbyon nuclear facility? What impact, if any, do you think that this visit will have on U.S.-North Korea relations? 13. In your opinion, should the U.S. fulfill its commitment to remove North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism? State your rationale. 14. Prior to viewing this program, what preconceived notions, if any, did you have about North Korea? To what extent did Amanpour's report challenge or reinforce these perceptions? Explain. Suggested Activity . Point out to students that towards the end of World War II, Korea was divided by the Soviet Union and the United States at the 38th parallel, and that by 1948, North and South Korea had become independent nations. Generate a class discussion about students' knowledge of North Korea. Next, refer students to online resources to learn more about North Korea. Use the following questions to guide their research: . After students present their findings, ask: Do you think that peace talks between North and South Korea could benefit the two nations, as well as the international community? Explain. Given the cultural diplomacy represented by the New York Philharmonic's trip to Pyongyang, what do you think should be the next step in relations between the U.S. and North Korea? Challenge each student to write a brief for a North Korean, South Korean or an American diplomat that outlines a strategy for addressing the existing tensions among these parties. Have students present their documents to the class. Keywords . North Korea, Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il, secret state, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Yongbyon nuclear facility, defect, diplomacy, negotiations, United Nations .","highlights":"Examine the history of U.S.-North Korea relations .\nLearn about the New York Philharmonic's historic concert in Pyongyang .\nExamine North Korea's standoff with the U.S. over nuclear weapons .","id":"bd29f269b97d8a5bc0c4d2accf62b790e4f92364"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Glenn Beck is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and also is host of a conservative national radio talk show. Glenn Beck says the decisions Washington makes today could have fateful consequences for the future. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Dear America: . Happy 300th Birthday! It's 2076 and we've just invented the time-fax machine. (Actually, \"we\" didn't invent the time-fax machine, the State did -- they pretty much control everything now.) I'm faxing this back to you in 2008 because that seems to be the year we had the best chance to reverse our course and get back to the vision laid out by our founding fathers -- a vision that didn't include the government being in the insurance business. I don't have a lot of time (the State only gives us one 30-minute break per day) so let me give you some advice: Stop worrying so much about who runs the country and start worrying about who runs your towns, your states, and your Congress. I know you're all distracted by the presidential election, but for all the money and time poured into it, the truth is that you're choosing between two roads that will lead you to the same destination. Sure, one may be the Autobahn and the other a two-lane highway, but you'll end up at the same place either way. Decades of Republicans and Democrats alike have all chipped in to lead you to where you are today. Believing that one person, from either party, can change that by themselves is a big mistake. Presidents are like captains of a large ship: They can map out a course and shout out orders, but without the trust and hard work of the people who actually move the rudders, their commands mean nothing. In retrospect, the lack of trust and confidence you now have in your leaders was really the root cause of everything that's happened since. While our founding fathers designed a brilliant system of checks and balances, separation of powers and democratic elections, trust was the one thing they couldn't mandate in the Constitution. Unfortunately, it's also the foundation upon which everything else is built and once it began to erode, our whole house inevitably began to crumble. Looking back now, it's pretty obvious that our trust in government declined at about the same rate as our partisanship increased. People became so concerned about getting their party into power at any cost that the truth didn't even seem to matter anymore. That's probably one of the reasons why George Washington hated the idea of political parties so much. Here's what he said about them in his 1796 farewell speech: . \"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.\" I know that George had a habit for using big words, so allow me to translate into 2008 English: Political parties that put their own success over that of the country's will be the death of America. If you don't believe him yet, just wait a few more years...you're about to see firsthand how right he was. After all, if power corrupts, then the kind of absolute power gained by political parties (and feared by Washington) corrupts absolutely. The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking in terms of left and right and start thinking in terms of right and wrong. Demand the best leaders possible, and then demand the best out of them. Believe me, when you see what's coming your way, you'll realize how little the donkey and the elephant really ever mattered. Oh and while we're on politics, one quick thing that I'm sure you're curious about: Yes, Robert Byrd is still in the Senate. He's 159, but doesn't look a day over 91. Now, let's talk about the economy. Let me see if I have this right: Money and power made people greedy, so you decided to hand over a bunch of money and power to greedy politicians instead. Smart! After using that money to nationalize a bunch of banks, mortgage companies and insurance companies, they moved on to bigger things. The airlines came first -- we just couldn't live without them. Then it was the automakers (Detroit would've died), health care (they said they could manage it better), and eventually, the oil companies (I'm not sure where all of those \"windfall profits\" have gone). The idea behind it all (an idea that was eventually turned into law with the passage of the Securities Exchange Act of 2011) was to \"socialize losses\" by spreading them out among all taxpayers. The pain, our leaders argued, would be minimal that way. They were right. At least until the bills came due. See, we didn't actually have any of the money we were promising everyone; we were borrowing it. It didn't take long before so many of our tax dollars were going toward interest payments that we couldn't fund even the most basic of government programs without massive tax increases on everyone. People now work most of the year just to pay Uncle Sam (or, as we now call him, \"Comrade Sam\"). I hear the State censors coming, so let me leave you with a few other quick things: . \u2022 Good call on not worrying about protecting our borders. That works out really well for you in 2019. \u2022 You might want to spend a little less time worrying about carbon and a little more time worrying about Iran. We're now in a new mini-Ice Age but, believe me, Iran isn't using their nukes to warm any homes. (PS The International Atomic Energy Agency just revealed to you that Iran appears to be refitting their long-range missiles to carry nuclear payloads. Did you think they were joking or were you just too busy with lipsticks and pigs to notice?) \u2022 The currency of the future is energy. Those who have it are thriving and those who don't -- well, let's just leave it at that. Drill for all the oil you can, but you also better start seriously looking for some other options. In closing, remember this golden rule and you should be fine: Your Constitution will never fail you, but your leaders will. Be wary of anyone who tries to convince you that it's the other way around. Best wishes (you're going to need them), . Worker 2744A . PS It's not all socialist doom and gloom here in the future. We just thawed Ted Williams' cryogenically frozen body and he hit 87 home runs for the North Team! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Glenn Beck: America in 2076 could be a very scary place .\nBeck imagines a country that is controlled by an all-powerful state .\nPeople lost trust in government because of uncontrolled partisanship, he says .\nBeck: Bailing out industries amounts to socializing their losses .","id":"892ab5ea8bbec477bfa791d2d3823ce9a8225102"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A sheriff's deputy who killed six young people at a house party in Crandon, Wisconsin, apparently died after shooting himself three times in the head with a .40-caliber pistol, the state attorney general said. Tyler Peterson, a sheriff's deputy, shot and killed six people, police said. Initial reports that 20-year-old Tyler Peterson was killed by a police sniper's bullet were apparently incorrect, though it appears the sniper may have shot Peterson in the arm, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. Although the final forensic determination could take several weeks, the attorney general said that Peterson had his personal .40-caliber Glock when police found him. The three gunshots to the head came from a .40-caliber. \"The three gunshot wounds to the head included two nonfatal rounds with entry points below the chin, and one fatal shot that entered Peterson through the right side of the head,\" Van Hollen said. \"Each of the three head shots were fired while the gun was in contact with his skin, or extremely close to the skin,\" he said. \"These three head wounds are consistent with self-inflicted wounds, and not consistent with long-range rifle fire.\" The fourth gunshot wound, Van Hollen said, struck Peterson in the left bicep and appeared to have been fired from a rifle \"at some distance.\" Watch Van Hollen explain the shootings \"will never make sense\" \u00bb . Peterson was a Forest County sheriff's deputy and a part-time officer with the Crandon Police Department. According to Van Hollen, Peterson, while off-duty shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, entered a house where the seven young men and women had gathered. While there, Van Hollen said, Peterson apparently got into an argument with Jordanne Murray, accusing her of having a relationship with another person. \"The argument got heated, and Murray demanded he leave,\" the attorney general said. \"Peterson left, and returned minutes later,\" breaking down the door and opening fire with an AR-15 rifle, of the type he was issued by the Forest County Sheriff's Department. Police said Peterson fired about 30 rounds. Fewer than 20 minutes later, a patrolling Crandon police officer, after hearing gunfire, reported it and went to the house to investigate, Van Hollen said. The officer, Greg Carter, 21, reported seeing Peterson leave the house with a rifle. After momentarily losing sight of Peterson, Carter \"heard multiple rounds of gunfire\" and his windshield burst. Peterson escaped. Van Hollen said that Peterson apparently \"drove aimlessly around the northern part of the state\" for several hours, calling in false reports to police to throw them off. Peterson ended up at a cabin in the town of Argonne shortly before 8 a.m. He told friends about the shootings, handed over the AR-15 and two other rifles and left the cabin. After meeting with family members, he returned to the cabin around 9:15 a.m. Police arrived about 15 minutes later, Van Hollen said. Peterson was killed during a police shootout after police couldn't persuade him to surrender. All seven victims were students or graduates of Crandon High School, from which Peterson also was a graduate. In addition to Murray, the dead were identified as Aaron Smith, Bradley Schultz, Lindsey Stahl, Lianna Thomas and Katrina McCorkle. The sole survivor, Charlie Neitzel, 21, \"played dead\" after Peterson shot him three times, Van Hollen said. After Peterson shot him once, Neitzel begged him to stop. But Peterson fired again. Neitzel fell to the floor, was shot a third time and didn't move. \"Playing dead until Peterson left, Neitzel survived,\" Van Hollen said. Neitzel was the last person shot. Neitzel underwent surgery Tuesday and was in stable condition Tuesday night, a hospital employee said. The families of the six slain young people asked that media leave them alone in their grief, Van Hollen told reporters. But the families of the victims also wanted it known that they had met with Peterson's family. \"They hold no animosity toward them,\" Van Hollen said, conveying the families' wishes that the Peterson family be allowed space and time to heal. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Attorney general: Deputy shot himself twice in the chin, once in side of the head .\nForensic examination on deputy could take several weeks .\nShots to deputy's head \"consistent with self-inflicted wounds\"\nAfter killing six people at party, Peterson drove around, confessed to friends .","id":"d9eea0e631eac525f349c89eeb81826c65befa1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama blasted Congress for not passing a financial rescue package Monday, while Sen. John McCain's campaign accused Obama and Democrats of putting \"politics ahead of country.\" The House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion plan to bail out the financial system, putting a roadblock in front of the largest government intervention in the market since the Great Depression. The bill failed by a vote of 205 to 228, with 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans voting in favor and 95 Democrats joining 133 Republicans against. \"This is a moment of national crisis, and today's inaction in Congress as well as the angry and hyper-partisan statement released by the McCain campaign are exactly why the American people are disgusted with Washington,\" the Obama-Biden campaign said in a statement released shortly after the vote. The statement went on to say that every American \"should be outraged that an era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and Washington has led us to this point.\" Watch more on the vote \u00bb . Also after the vote, McCain touted his role in last week's negotiations on the bailout bill. \"I laid out principles\" including \"responsible oversight,\" transparency and a cap on so-called golden parachutes --the big bonuses Wall Street CEOs would receive despite their involvement in the economic crisis, he said from Des Moines, Iowa. \"I worked hard to play a constructive role.\" He said he was satisfied with the way the bill was written, though \"it wasn't perfect.\" Earlier, McCain's campaign accused Obama and Democrats of injecting politics into the American economy. \"From the minute John McCain suspended his campaign and arrived in Washington to address this crisis, he was attacked by the Democratic leadership: Sens. Obama and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid, Speaker Pelosi and others. \"Their partisan attacks were an effort to gain political advantage during a national economic crisis. By doing so, they put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families,\" Doug Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy adviser for McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said in a statement. \"Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain and refused to even say if he supported the final bill. ... This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country,\" Holtz-Eakin said. Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for the failure of the bill, which President Bush had urged Congress to approve. Obama had earlier Monday spoken with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and congressional leaders. Watch Pelosi say Democrats 'delivered' \u00bb . McCain and Obama had both said Sunday that they would probably vote for the legislation, as long as it included some key principles they had pushed for. McCain announced last week he was \"suspending\" his campaign events to focus on the financial crisis, but Democrats accused him of pulling a political stunt. iReport.com: Do you support a Wall Street bailout? The economy has dominated the campaign trail this month, and both candidates have been trying to convince voters that they will do a better job of getting the financial crisis under control. Earlier Monday, McCain told voters that Obama isn't being honest about his tax votes and said the Democrat is \"always cheering for higher taxes.\" iReport.com: Share your stories from the campaign trail . In response, the Obama campaign called McCain's remarks \"false attacks\" and an \"angry diatribe.\" \"Two times, on March 14, 2008, and June 4, 2008, in the Democratic budget resolution, he voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 per year. He even said at the time that this vote for higher taxes on the middle class was 'getting our nation's priorities back on track,' \" McCain said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. \"Then something amazing happened: On Friday night, he looked the American people in the eye and said it never happened. My friends, we need a president who will always tell the American people the truth,\" McCain said. McCain said a vote for Obama would \"guarantee higher taxes, fewer jobs and an even bigger federal government\" and charged that \"these policies will deepen our recession.\" Watch McCain slam Obama on spending \u00bb . Shortly after McCain finished his speech, the Obama campaign accused the Arizona senator of lying. \"Sen. McCain's angry diatribe today won't make up for his erratic response to the greatest financial crisis of our time. John McCain knows that the budget he's talking about didn't end up raising taxes on a single American, and the lie he told the American people today is all the more outrageous a day after he admitted that his health care plan will increase taxes on some families,\" Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said. In McCain's speech, the Republican presidential candidate was referring to votes on a resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 70) meant to outline the Senate's budget priorities through 2013, but the measure had no practical effect. According to a CNN review of the resolution, it assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts pushed by President Bush will expire in that time, which McCain says amounts to a tax increase. Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, voted \"yes\" on the resolution. McCain did not vote. However, the Democrats offered their own cuts in the 48-page resolution, which called for several tax cuts and breaks, including rolling back the alternative-minimum tax and the so-called \"marriage penalty.\" According to an analysis by the independent Tax Policy Center, the tax plan Obama has proposed during the campaign would increase taxes in 2009 on the wealthiest 20 percent of households, while offering tax cuts for the other 80 percent. Meanwhile, as Obama and McCain continue campaigning this week, their running mates will be focused on their upcoming debate. Palin and Biden face off Thursday in St. Louis, Missouri, in the only vice presidential debate of the election season. After McCain's rally, Palin headed to McCain's ranch near Sedona, Arizona, for what a top aide calls \"debate camp.\" Palin has already spent four days hunkered down in a Philadelphia hotel for debate prep with advisers. Biden was preparing for the debate in Delaware on Monday. CNN's Dana Bash and Alexander Marquardt contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Barack Obama criticizes Congress, statement from John McCain .\nMcCain's campaign says Obama \"failed to lead\"\nVP candidates' debate is Thursday in St. Louis, Missouri .\nJoe Biden, Sarah Palin spending much of the week in debate prep mode .","id":"3944fcb19ccd83d614dc29f79d867c7346f07dce"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- More than a dozen trucks loaded with fruits, spices and other goods Tuesday crossed the line dividing Kashmir as India and Pakistan opened a symbolic trade route in the disputed region for the first time in more than 60 years. Kashmiris watch as Indian trucks cross into the border town of Chakothi in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. To cheers and band music, the first trucks rumbled from the Pakistani side across a white bridge to a brightly decorated trade center festooned . Apple-laden Indian trucks heading the other way were also warmly welcomed. It is hoped the move will ease tensions in the troubled Himalayan region, which has been a conflict flashpoint between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan who both lay claims to the territory. \"Today, we have regained our lost market,\" said Ghulam Rasool Bhat, president of the Kashmir fruit growers' association. Watch more about the historic day \u00bb . \"We are sending the sweet Kashmir apple as the first consignment. This is sure to sweeten the relation between the two neighbors. The beginning of the trade between the two Kashmirs will further improve the relations and lead to a peaceful resolution of the bitter problem,\" he said. The trucks were subjected to thorough security checks before they crossed the bridge, one of the few crossing points in the heavily militarized 742-kilometer (460-mile) Line of Control, the de facto frontier that divides the region. Kashmir has been a major source of dispute between India, and Pakistan since the two countries were partitioned at the end of British rule in 1947. Muslim Kashmiris sided with Pakistan to the north, while the Hindu south joined India. For the past 18 years, Kashmir has been wracked by a bloody separatist campaign. Authorities say up to 43,000 people have died, but rights groups and non-governmental organizations put the death toll at twice that. Violence had dropped off since the countries began a peace process in 2004, but it surged after the state government in Indian-controlled Kashmir announced plans in June to donate land for a Hindu shrine. Muslim protests following the decision prompted a government U-turn that triggered Hindu demonstrations calling for it to be restored. Subsequent violence left 40 dead and hundreds wounded. It is hoped Tuesday's route opening will bolster the peace agreement and combat lingering mistrust between India and Pakistan. A bilateral cease-fire has been holding in the region for more than four years. A bus service connecting the divided Kashmir began amid much fanfare in 2005 but struggled under the weight of elaborate security checks and stifling bureaucracy. \"This is a great emotional moment, as it brings to mind my grandfather, who used to drive lorries on this road,\" said Muzhar Hussain Naqvi, who drove the leading Pakistani truck. CNN's Sara Sidner and Mukhtar Ahmad contributed to this report .","highlights":"Trade route between the two sides the first in six decades .\nA heavy military presence occupies strip of land known as the Line of Control .\nKashmir a source of bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 .\nTrade meant to bolster a 2004 peace accord between the South Asian rivals .","id":"e89362a648a198b998be6f04d2eef842b6113057"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A female suicide bomber in northern Iraq targeted buoyant soccer fans who had just watched their national team win a big match against China, authorities told CNN. At least 29 people were wounded when the bomber detonated her suicide vest in a marketplace in the Diyala province town of Qara Tappa, a predominantly Shiite Kurdish town with a Shiite Turkmen population. Col. Ragheb al-Omairi, spokesman for Diyala Military operations command, who confirmed the account, said police on foot patrols were also in the area of bombing. Twenty-five civilians and four police were wounded, with at least 12 of the civilians in critical condition. The match, which Iraq won 2-1, was watched avidly across the country by Iraqis of all stripes -- united by their love of soccer. The game was part of the Asian qualifier for the 2010 South Africa World Cup, and Iraq and China are part of Group 1, along with Australia and Qatar. The match was played in China. The top two teams in the round advance to another stage of qualifying for the World Cup. Iraq eliminated China from competition and is in the running to advance. Celebratory gunfire also rang out across Baghdad, and the Baghdad Operations Command put an urgent message on state TV asking people to be careful and avoid shooting to celebrate. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued congratulations to the team, which last year won the Asia Cup. The bombing underscored the tensions that persist in a country where violence has dropped. Twenty females have carried out suicide bombings in Iraq this year, many more than in previous years. According to the U.S. military, women carried out eight bombings in all of 2007. Authorities said that al Qaeda in Iraq is recruiting women and that more women are offering themselves up for missions. The officials said the women are desperate and hopeless, most have pre-existing ties to the insurgency, and their main motive is revenge for a male family member killed by U.S. or Iraqi forces in the war. \"We do see certain members of cells attempting to persuade women, specifically in many cases wives of those who have been killed as terrorists, to conduct suicide operations,\" U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling said recently. His area of operations includes Diyala province. Hertling's troops have targeted families of suspected female bombers in a bid to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls. Intelligence gathered from detainees indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women who are illiterate, who are deeply religious or who have financial struggles, often because they've lost the male head of the household. Women and girls always have played a role in the insurgency in Iraq, helping feed militants, hiding them in their homes and helping to sneak weapons around the country. They have proved to be highly effective in their operations, because women are not searched by men for cultural and religious reasons. The U.S. military has created a program called the Daughters of Iraq, analogous to the Sons of Iraq, across the Sunni regions of the country. The Daughters of Iraq are being trained to conduct searches of women. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Attack strikes people celebrating Iraq team's win in World Cup qualifier .\n29 wounded in predominantly Kurdish town in Diyala province .\nTwenty female suicide bombings in Iraq this year, a sharp uptick .\nInsurgent recruiters target troubled women, authorities say .","id":"b89fad28208c91b1fe71e5ee310c7c7c44b75144"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British Museum plans to display a statue of supermodel Kate Moss that it bills as the largest gold statue built since ancient Egypt. The statue of Kate Moss will be displayed in the British Museum in a gallery holding anicent Greek sculpture. Called \"Siren,\" the statue will be part of a group of major sculptures by leading British artists to go on display at the museum in October, the museum announced. The museum says the artist, Marc Quinn, claims it's the largest gold statue since ancient Egypt. His previous work included the marble sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant, which appeared on a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. The Kate Moss statue, weighing 50kg, will be displayed in a gallery of the museum that houses ancient Greek sculpture. The museum calls it a \"fitting setting\" for the statue of Moss, \"interacting with the great Greek beauties that surround it.\" Moss, whose slight frame was at the forefront of the waif look in the mid-1990s, is now nearly as well known for her celebrity lifestyle as her modeling career. The one-time girlfriend of British rocker Pete Doherty is a tabloid newspaper and celebrity magazine favorite, and now dates Kills guitarist Jamie Hince. She has recently mixed her modeling work with designing collections for the British clothing giant, Topshop. Other artists exhibiting include Damien Hirst, who most recently created a $100 million diamond-covered skull, and Angel of the North creator Anthony Gormley. The exhibit is expected to run from October 4 through January 25, 2009.","highlights":"Statue of Kate Moss billed as largest gold statue built since ancient Egypt .\nCalled \"Siren,\" the statue will be on display at the British Museum .\nMoss statue will be displayed in gallery housing ancient Greek sculpture .","id":"f4e712962ec839fcbdd5cab8cd8586b53d960f1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chinese language media often refer to Jay Chou as the \"small heavenly king,\" but the Taiwan born pop idol is more down-to-earth than the many accolades he receives suggest. At 29, Jay Chou is already a household name in many Asian countries. \"I think I tend to believe in myself. I don't know....maybe I was born to believe in myself rather than in others. That's why I like to complete my work on my own,\" the solo singer-songwriter and actor told CNN's Talk Asia. The 29-year-old has ridden his wave of inner belief to become one of Asia's biggest pop stars, and fostered an image of being something of an anti-hero, neither boastful nor too brash. His music mixes ballads with urban R&B beats, while he has also taken a march on Asian cinema, writing his own screenplays, directing and appearing in a number of hit films. Music remains his first love, having found success despite being naturally shy. He released his first album in 2000, and eight years and seven albums later he still believes he has plenty of material for songs left in him, breaking from the usual Mando- and Canto-pop themes of boy-meets-girl. In the past his lyrics have ventured into more considered and darker territory with a song about an abusive father and have taken on a variety of themes and genres. \"I think my music is quite different from the Western rap music culture. You won't find bad language in my music. I have this sense of responsibility to add an educational element in my music. That's why I would never write anything about suicide or whatever, because I think we all need the courage to deal with our lives,\" he said. Chou was brought up by his mother, a school teacher in Linkou in Taiwan. His parents divorced while he was at a young age. He began playing the piano as a 3-year-old, continuing to practice daily throughout his school days where despite being a diligent pupil he was academically average. While a so-so student he developed a way to express himself by focusing on playing the piano, and from it developed a self-reliant streak. \"I think my confidence belongs to the stage or when I'm standing in front of the screen. I'm like two different people on-stage and off-stage,\" he told CNN's Talk Asia. Chou's career was given a boost when he was spotted by Taiwanese entertainer Jacky Wu while backstage before a TV talent contest. Wu liked what he saw and introduced Chou to the music industry, at first as a songwriter for others. \"I never aimed to be a pop icon or whatever. My first album was actually a collection of songs that I wrote for other people. They didn't want them, so I made the album myself. The only aim I had was to be a singer-songwriter, not an idol,\" said Chou. Despite modest beginnings then he has reached idol status in many Asian countries, having appeared in front of crowds of tens of thousands of people across Asia and on the silver screen to millions. His huge exposure also ensures he's the sources of constant speculation from the media about his private life. \"I think showbiz in Taiwan, or even in the Chinese-speaking region, is quite different from showbiz in the U.S. The more low-profile and tight-lipped you are, the more the paparazzi runs after you. And I happen to belong in this category,\" he said.","highlights":"Multi-million album selling Taiwanese pop idol still lives with his mother .\nHas turned hand to acting and directing recently working with Chow Yun-Fat .\nCareer began when spotted at a talent competition .","id":"2b26846c249b46e3ec3482b5380c1be50da29adf"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With moments of silence punctuated by somber music, readings of names, and tears, Americans held solemn memorial services Thursday to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. President Bush comforts a mourner Thursday at the dedication of the Pentagon's 9\/11 memorial. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned to the Pentagon to help dedicate a memorial to victims of the attack there. \"Today we renew our vows to never forget how this long struggle began and to never forget those who fell first,\" said Rumsfeld, who despite his high office helped carry the wounded from the burning building seven years ago. \"We will never forget the way this huge building shook. We will not forget our colleagues and friends who were taken from us and their families. \"And we will not forget what that deadly attack has meant for our nation.\" Watch Rumsfeld speak \u00bb . Rumsfeld donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to help build the Pentagon memorial. President Bush followed Rumsfeld at the lectern. \"On a day when buildings fell, heroes rose,\" Bush said. \"... One of the worst days in America's history saw some of the bravest acts in America's history.\" Watch Bush speak \u00bb . After the ceremony, participants moved through the memorial, finding and touching the benches honoring loved ones, colleagues and fellow citizens. Earlier, a bagpiper walked alone across the Pentagon memorial playing \"Amazing Grace.\" Watch the bagpiper's moving solo \u00bb . Seven years ago, al Qaeda terrorists used hijacked airplanes to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- the twin symbols of America's financial and military might. Another hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. iReport.com: 'I just sat in my car and cried' At the Pentagon, the ceremony dedicated a memorial to the 184 victims killed when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building's west wall. An American flag was raised smartly to the top of a flagpole, then slowly lowered to half-staff, and a band played the national anthem. Watch and listen to Thursday's ceremonies \u00bb . At the White House, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, observed a moment of silence on the South Lawn at 8:46 a.m., the moment when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower of the World Trade Center. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced a moment of silence also at 8:46 a.m. Throughout the day's ceremonies, he was also to call for moments of silence to mark the time the second plane hit the south tower, the fall of the south tower, and then the fall of the north tower. Watch an audio slide show about that day \u00bb . \"We come each year to stand alongside those who loved and lost the most, to bear witness to the day which began like any other and ended as none ever has,\" Bloomberg said. Flanked by police officers, firefighters and other officials, Bloomberg quoted what he called an Irish proverb: \"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.\" Watch Bloomberg honor the victims \u00bb . Relatives then began to read the names of the 2,751 victims at the crash site, commonly called ground zero. Moments of silence were also observed at 9:03 a.m., the moment in 2001 that the south tower of the World Trade Center was struck by United Airlines Flight 175; 9:59 a.m., when that tower fell; and 10:29 a.m., marking the collapse of the north tower. The New York Stock Exchange observed a moment of silence before its opening bell sounded. In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, spoke for less than two minutes at a ceremony to remember the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, who perished after the hijacked plane went down in a field there. Watch Americans remember 9\/11 victims \u00bb . It is believed that the passengers and crew, aware of the fate of at least some of the other hijacked planes, fought back against the men who had taken control of their aircraft, leading to its crash. The services were held at a temporary memorial near the western Pennsylvania crash site. McCain and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Barack Obama, agreed to suspend campaigning for the day. Both candidates were to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the World Trade Center site at 3:30 p.m.","highlights":"NEW: Former defense secretary donated thousands for memorial .\n'On a day when buildings fell, heroes rose,' president says .\nDay 'began like any other and ended as none ever has,' New York mayor says .\nWatch 9\/11 memorials in New York and Washington on CNN.com Live .","id":"407f1d56cdeccb0e313c15ddaac53b186acdbf0c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Russian bombers have landed at a Venezuelan airfield, from which they will carry out training flights for several days, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Russia's Tupolev TU-160, pictured here in 2003, is a long-range strategic bomber. The Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers landed at Venezuela's Libertador military airfield and \"will spend several days carrying out training flights over neutral waters, after which they will return to the base,\" Interfax reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, a ministry spokesman, told Interfax that NATO fighters followed the bombers on their 13-hour flight over the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic. \"All flights by air force aircraft have been and are marked by strict conformity to the international rules on the use of air space over neutral waters,\" Drobyshevsky told Interfax. The U.S. will monitor the Russian training, said Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the information. On Monday, Russia announced it might hold joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean. The declaration came in the wake of increased tension between Russia and the United States over Russia's invasion last month of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a U.S. ally that aspires to join NATO. Russia on Monday denied any link between that announcement and the conflict in Georgia, although Russia has criticized U.S. support for Georgia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long antagonized Washington. Earlier this month, Chavez said Venezuela would welcome the Russian air force, according to Russian news agency Novosti. \"If Russian long-range bombers should need to land in Venezuela, we would not object to that either. We will also welcome them,\" Chavez said on September 1, according to Novosti. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this story .","highlights":"Russian bombers will use airfield for training over neutral waters, Interfax reports .\nRussian Defense Ministry spokesman: NATO fighters followed bombers .\nVenezuelan president had said he'd welcome Russian air force, Novosti reports .","id":"06e7e7aac441a7c3f22f21c15a1958f3384f46ce"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel agreed to release a notorious killer Sunday in order to bring closure to the families of three missing military men, a government spokesman said. An Israeli woman stands in front of posters of captured soldiers Sunday in Jerusalem. \"It's not an easy decision,\" Mark Regev told CNN. \"One of the people being released is a brutal murderer, a man that with his own hands killed infants -- a terrible crime, but this is a nasty business.\" He was referring to Samir Kuntar, the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel, who is hailed as a hero by Hezbollah. Kuntar was convicted for a 1979 attack in which he shot and killed an Israeli man in front of his 4-year-old daughter before smashing her head against a rock and tossing her into the sea. The victim's 2-year-old daughter was accidentally smothered by her mother, who tried to keep her quiet as they hid from the attackers. Kuntar was convicted for murdering both children in the attack, which the Palestine Liberation Front orchestrated to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty at Camp David the previous year. Kuntar is one of five Lebanese prisoners who Israel will release in exchange for two Israeli soldiers, Ehud \"Udi\" Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The Lebanon-based Shiite militant group kindapped the two in a July 2006 raid into northern Israel that left three other Israeli soldiers dead. Hezbollah never gave Israel any indication whether they survived the attack, which sparked a 34-day war, leaving the families in limbo. Before the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that the two soldiers are not alive, \"as far as we know.\" \"We'll have a final answer when they are returned,\" Regev said. Goldwasser and Regev are at the center of the landmark agreement, which has been years in the making, with both sides using the prisoners and intelligence as bartering chips. Under the deal, which the Cabinet approved 22-3 on Sunday, Hezbollah will also release information about Ron Arad, an Israeli navigator who has been missing since he was forced to eject from his plane over Lebanon in October 1986. \"We have an obligation, a moral obligation to their families to bring finality,\" Regev said. \"That if they are in fact no longer living, that their families can have a funeral, that they can have a grave, that they can know that this is over.\" Israel has repeatedly attempted to get information about Arad and other missing airmen by using Lebanese detainees as leverage. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the Arad family that Kuntar will not be released unless Hezbollah provides information on Arad. In addition to Kuntar and other Lebanese prisoners, Israel will also release Palestinian prisoners and return the remains of dozens of border infiltrators and eight Hezbollah members to Lebanon, according to a statement from the government. Israel will also provide information to the United Nations about four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Beirut during the 1982 Israeli invasion, the statement said. Earlier this month, Israel deported a Lebanese-born man who served six years in jail on charges of spying for Hezbollah. In exchange, Hezbollah handed over a brown coffin containing the remains of Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 war. The move was seen as a prelude to a possible prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah. CNN's Shira Medding and and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Israeli Cabinet agrees to swap prisoners for two captured soldiers .\nIsraeli prime minister says two soldiers most likely not alive .\nIsrael will release five Lebanese prisoners, including convicted killer .","id":"f96c780c6db5ca595fb0589ae38ba4e4bc9a29d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Since 2\u00bd-year-old Ava Zinna ended up in the emergency room this summer after an allergic reaction to peanuts, her mother, Tara, has worried about her daughter's food whenever they eat out. But when the family went to Blue Smoke restaurant Sunday afternoon in New York, someone had already asked to hold the peanuts. Ava Zinna ate an allergen-free meal at the Worry Free Dinners event on Sunday. The Zinnas took part in Worry Free Dinners, a series of monthly meals for people with food allergies. Sunday's 16-person barbecue -- complete with ribs, chicken, burgers and brownies -- was the first event aimed directly at parents and children affected by food allergies. \"When you're going into a restaurant environment, you're putting your child's safety and livelihood into other hands,\" Tara Zinna said. At the Worry Free Dinners event, \"not only was the food phenomenal, but it's wonderful to have an opportunity to interact with other families who are dealing with similar issues.\" The recent \"worry free\" meal event took place just days before the Food and Drug Administration's September 16 public hearing on food ingredient labels. Since 2006, food manufacturers have been required to clearly label products that contain any of the most common allergens -- milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat and soy -- but some allergy experts say the labels should be more explicit. Restaurant dining can be a terrifying experience for people with severe food allergies. When the meal arrives, there's often no way of knowing every single ingredient that went into it, or what else touched the plate and utensils used to serve it. You also have to pester the restaurant staff with special requests. But with Worry Free Dinners, everyone has some kind of experience with all of that, which helps build camaraderie, said Sloane Miller, who started organizing the events in April. Read more tips on how to manage food allergies \u00bb . \"People sit down and start chatting immediately like they're old friends,\" said Miller, known in the blogosphere as \"Allergic Girl.\" \"It's so nice to be with people that you don't have to explain [to] why you want something on the side.\" So far, Worry Free Dinners has catered to food allergy sufferers in New York -- there are about 12 million in America, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) -- but Miller is looking to take the concept to other cities. A common but mysterious condition . One out of every 17 children under 3 years old in America has a food allergy, and some will outgrow their sensitivities, said Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of FAAN. But allergies to peanuts, nuts, shellfish and fish tend to be lifelong, she said. As far as she knows, Worry Free Dinners is the first event series of its kind. Experts agree that allergies in general -- both food and inhalant -- are on the rise, but no one is sure why. Research on food allergies has been slow because \"for a long time, people thought this was a small problem,\" Munoz-Furlong said. The largest group of studies on the subject are in progress, including immunotherapy for people with peanut and milk allergies, she said. The majority of food allergy cases -- about 80 percent -- are \"cyclic,\" with mild symptoms that resemble those of pollen or dust allergies: sneezing, itchy eyes, and nasal congestion, said Dr. Alpen Patel, assistant professor of otolaryngology at Emory University. Other people experience nausea, vomiting and diarrhea consistently in response to certain foods. But for some people, ingesting something that even accidentally touched tree nuts or peanuts could result in anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that can lead to blocked airways, cardiovascular collapse, and even death. This is called a \"fixed food allergy,\" he said. After one severe reaction, he said, most people consistently avoid the offending food and do not experience another severe attack. But they also always carry a shot of epinephrine to self-administer immediately in case they experience signs of anaphylaxis. Enjoying food in spite of allergies . Miller has made a career of helping people with food allergies and other special dietary needs navigate their meals, whether at Thanksgiving or on a date, without feeling sick. She runs her own coaching practice, blogs and organizes Worry Free Dinners events under her umbrella organization Allergic Girl Resources Inc. She herself has dealt with allergies all her life -- as a baby she developed a rash when her mother switched from breast milk to cow's milk, and at age 2 she had a reaction to tree nuts. She has since learned that she also has some form of allergy to salmon, lemon grass, eggplant, some types of melons and most tropical fruits. But Miller, now 36, did not want her food allergies to prevent her from sampling the cornucopia of New York City restaurants. She developed relationships with restaurants that would accommodate her needs, and began organizing dinners for people who have similar allergy problems. \"It is both worry-free for the diner and worry-free for the restaurant,\" she said. \"Restaurants appreciate that I'm looking out for them as well ... I want to make it as easy as possible for them to have people like me come in all the time.\" Where everybody knows your name . So how does someone like Miller, who lives with food allergies plus a \"wheat\/gluten-free, processed sugar-free, lactose-free, soy-free, low processed food-free lifestyle,\" safely enjoy eating out? Miller calls it the \"Cheers\" experience. The first time she goes to a restaurant, she always calls ahead and talks with the restaurant management to make sure they can accommodate her before making a reservation. Once at the restaurant, she'll meet the manager and give him or her a card with a run-down of her special dietary needs. Often a chef will join Miller and the manager to discuss the menu. By this point, Miller says, everyone has been introduced by name. After the meal, Miller thanks the server, chef and manager, and tips the server generously. She'll often call the next day and thank the manager for helping her eat safely. On her blog, allergicgirl.blogspot.com, Miller finds no shortage of restaurant meals to recommend and photograph. She'll find creative alternatives to traditionally prepared foods that look no less appetizing than more familiar versions -- for instance, she recently had fish-free sushi made of potato tempura, sticky rice, avocado and sesame seeds. Not every restaurant will accommodate Miller's special needs -- she has been refused service at some restaurants. But in general, she's found that restaurants have become far more understanding than five years ago, if only because staff members have children with food allergies. \"That changes how they run their kitchen,\" she said. \"More and more people are touched by this, and do get it.\"","highlights":"Woman organizes dinners at restaurants for people with food allergies .\nIf you have a food allergy, call ahead and tell the restaurant management, she says .\n12 million Americans have food allergies, though some kids outgrow them .\nFood allergies are on the rise, but no one is sure why .","id":"b0b2948eac6b4e082bbd420da8dff3de6a187377"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Gangs of young men armed with machetes are roaming the streets in Kenya as post-election violence threatens to engulf the country. Horrific attacks are being reported, including the torching of a church where people who had sought refuge were burned alive. At least 148 people have been killed and about 75,000 have fled their homes since President Mwai Kibaki won a narrow victory, according to Kenyan government officials. The Associated Press reported a higher number -- about 275 -- have died since Saturday. Much of the violence is between supporters of Kibaki from the majority Kikuyu tribe and backers of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is from the Luo tribe. The ethnic violence, previously rare in Kenya, is reminiscent of the strife that led to the Rwanda genocide. In a particularly disturbing incident, a mob appears to have burned a church filled with Kenyans seeking refuge from the violence. The Red Cross told The Associated Press that at least 50 were burned to death at the church, some of them children. As many as 200 people were at the church, about 185 miles northwest of Nairobi, KTN reporter Tony Biwott told CNN. Watch as machete-wielding looters haul away goods \u00bb . Biwott said he counted at least 15 charred bodies, including children, in the burned church and an adjacent field. \"I'm sure there were more than 15 but I couldn't count the ones who were ashes,\" he said in a phone interview. The wounded sustained gunshot wounds, burns and cuts from a panga, a machete-like weapon, the Red Cross said. Watch smoke darken skies near a burned church . The national police commissioner has said in Kenyan society, churches are considered sacred and no one would expect such violence there. He said an investigation into the incident is under way. About 120 people are reported dead and over 1,000 injured countrywide, according to The Red Cross. Police and political backers of opposition leader Raila Odinga began clashing about four days ago as Odinga, of the Luo tribe, narrowly lost Kenya's presidential election to Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki is a member of Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. Violence broke out in several cities as frustration mounted during the slow hand-count of the ballots. Kibaki was re-elected with 51.3 percent of the vote, to 48.7 percent for Odinga. \"What we now witness is a cold and calculated plan to organize and engage in massacres,\" government spokesman Alfred Mutua said. Bringing in the New Year, Kibaki -- who rarely speaks to the press -- urged calm to the nation. \"It now is a time for healing and reconciliation amongst all Kenyans,\" he said. Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju said the government is committed to taking control. \"If the tear gas doesn't work then unfortunately they have to use live bullets,\" he told CNN. \"The president has been sworn in, the elections are over, the Kenyans have to accept the results, the opposition has to accept the results.\" Tuesday, international observers said the balloting fell short of international standards for democratic elections. Alexander Lambsdorff, the head of the EU Election Observation Mission in Kenya, cited discrepancies in vote counts, election observers being turned away from polling places and observers being refused entrance to the electoral commission vote-counting room. The violence also has displaced some 75,000 Kenyans inside the country, Mutua said. The government said Tuesday it will not allow any political rallies in the aftermath of the controversial election outcome. Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Movement had scheduled rallies for Tuesday, raising fears of more violence. Mutua said there was no intention to impose a state of emergency or curfew at this point, and said police are handling the violence well and with \"extreme restraint.\" However, he warned that police restraint would not last forever. The violence is rare for Kenya, which has enjoyed relative calm even as war and chronic political violence wracked neighboring countries, such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda. The United States has withheld congratulations for Kibaki, citing concerns of voting problems, even though Kibaki has claimed victory. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Red Cross: 120 people have been reported dead, 1,000 injured .\nInternational observers have called into question Kenyan election results .\nWitnesses: Mob set fire to church and burned people to death .\nThe vote was marred by allegations of vote-rigging by both of the main parties .","id":"4192ba32e5bf2064d0d1b06e8d5b80eb434c72c5"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Ten French soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting near the Afghan capital of Kabul after 100 insurgents attacked a patrol, authorities said. French soldiers patrol in Afghanistan in May 2008. French and NATO authorities confirmed the deaths and said 21 other soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Sarobi area in Kabul province, about 30 miles northeast of the capital. The clashes began late Monday afternoon and continued into Tuesday, when the casualties occurred, French officials said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his \"determination is intact\" to continue \"this battle against terrorism for democracy and liberty.\" \"The cause is just. It is an honor for France and its armies to defend them,\" said Sarkozy, who will travel Tuesday night to Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said. Last month, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern Afghanistan. U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch troops have been engaged in much of the combat in Afghanistan. The United States has been urging other countries in the NATO-led alliance to help ease the burdens of those troops on the front lines. About 1,670 French troops serve in Afghanistan under NATO's International Security Assistance Force, according to ISAF's Web site. Before this incident, a total of 12 French troops had died in several incidents during the Afghan war, mostly in combat. As for the latest fighting, NATO said the initial patrol -- which included Afghan forces -- had been \"reinforced with quick reaction forces, close air support and mobile medical teams.\" It said \"a large number of insurgents were killed.\" Gen. Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday that Afghan army forces rushed to the battle scene soon after the attack took place. He said 27 militants were killed and 14 were wounded in the fighting, and 13 of the bodies were recovered by the Afghan army. He said one of the dead militants was identified as a Pakistani national. The Taliban posted a Web statement saying its forces attacked an \"American\" convoy, killing 20 soldiers and destroying five military tanks. It also said foreign forces later Tuesday bombarded the region and killed five Taliban militants and several civilians. The fighting came after authorities tightened security on Monday in anticipation of militant attacks on the country's Independence Day. Several suicide bombers struck an American base about 12 miles from the border with Pakistan in Khost province on Tuesday, but U.S. and Afghan forces repelled the onslaught. Seven insurgents were killed in the attack on Forward Operating Base Salerno, including three suicide bombers who blew themselves up after forces from the base encountered them more than 3,000 feet from the base, ISAF said in a statement. U.S. and Afghan troops noticed the approaching militants by their \"special behavior,\" the spokesman said. Helicopters flew in to attack them, the force said. ISAF said it suffered no casualties. Gov. Arsallah Jamal of Khost province said four commandos -- presumably Afghans -- were wounded when the militants struck late Monday. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said 15 suicide bombers with small arms and machine guns entered the base and inflicted heavy casualties -- claims that the NATO-led force and Khost governor dismissed. That attack came after a suicide car bombing outside the same base killed 10 Afghan civilians and wounded 13 others Monday, the U.S. military said. Two other would-be bombers were killed before they could carry out attacks, Jamal said. Afghan forces stopped a second would-be car bomb near the base, performed a controlled detonation and detained a suspect, the NATO-led force said. This comes as a source from the Afghan Defense Ministry, who declined to be named, confirmed that Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani arrived in Kabul on Tuesday morning to meet with Afghan and NATO military officials. In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber struck a Canadian foot patrol on Tuesday in the Kandahar province district of Panjwayee, local police said. The bomber and an Afghan interpreter for NATO forces were killed and a NATO soldier and a child were wounded, police said. The attack occurred as troops chatted with villagers in the district's main bazaar. The Taliban, in a Web statement, said 11 foreign soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack. CNN's Ben Brumfield and Journalist Farhad Peikar contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 'This cause is just,' French President Sarkozy says .\nNEW: Sarkozy to travel to Afghanistan Tuesday night .\nNEW: Officials dismiss Taliban claim of 15 suicide bombers entering base .\n10 French soldiers killed as fighting flares around holiday .","id":"2c6876501ce80698d5e6ea49543c9f70c1cade6c"} -{"article":"DEUTSCHNEUDORF, Germany (CNN) -- Digging has resumed at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are almost 2 tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room, a prize taken from a Russian castle during World War II. Treasure hunters use modern technology to try to locate the lost Nazi gold. Heinz Peter Haustein, one of the two treasure hunters and a member of Germany's parliament, said: \"We have already hit a hollow area under the surface, it's filled with water and we are not sure if it is the cave we are looking for.\" Digging was stopped more than a week ago amid safety concerns, as authorities and the treasure hunters feared that the shaft might collapse and that the cave -- if it is there -- may be rigged with explosives or poisonous booby traps. At a news conference Friday, Christian Hanisch, the other treasure hunter, said that geological surveying equipment had located a possible cave about 30 feet under the surface containing \"precious metals that can only be either gold or silver. The instruments would not have reacted to any other metal like copper.\" See photos from hunt for lost Nazi gold \u00bb . Hanisch pointed out that his father, who was a navigator in the Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force, was one of the troops said to have been involved in hiding art, gold and silver as the Nazis realized that they would lose the war. He said that when his father died, he left coordinates leading to the spot in Deutschneudorf. \"It's not about getting the reward,\" Hanisch said at the site. \"I just want to know if my father was right and if my instincts were right.\" Haustein, who is paying for the expedition, said he hopes that finding the gold could lead to the Amber Room, whose interior is made completely of amber and gold. It was looted by the Nazis from a castle in St. Petersburg, Russia, after Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The room looked so majestic, many called it \"the eighth wonder of the world.\" It disappeared after the war, and today a replica stands in its place in St. Petersburg. Although parts of the Amber Room have resurfaced, the vast majority remains missing. Haustein has been looking for the room for more than 12 years. Watch hunt for Nazi gold at German mountain \u00bb . \"I am certain that large parts of the Amber Room are buried somewhere here,\" he said. He said he has collected much circumstantial evidence suggesting that the Nazis hid the Amber Room in old copper mines around Deutschneudorf, but he has no proof. Haustein said the Nazis began bringing valuables including art, gold and silver to the region around Deutschneudorf as early as summer 1944. Deutschneudorf is in Germany's Ore Mountains, and the mountain where the treasure hunters claim to have found the Nazi gold was a copper mine until the 19th century. Although the mine was shut down in 1882, geologists found evidence that soldiers from Hitler's Wehrmacht -- the German armed forces -- had been there. The machine guns, parts of uniforms and explosives are on display at the town's museum. Though both treasure hunters say they are certain they will find cultural goods, both admit that they fear disappointment. \"Of course, if you embark on something like this, you ask yourself: 'What if we find nothing again? What if I was fooled?' \" Haustein said. \"But every man has to go his own way, for better or for worse.\" If they do find the treasure, Haustein says, it would legally belong to Germany, although he would recommend that Germany give any Amber Room parts back to Russia. Treasure hunters have typically received rewards of 10 percent of the value of the goods found, but Hanisch says there are no laws dictating the reward amount. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Digging in search of lost Nazi gold resumed on Tuesday .\nTreasure hunters think 2 tons of treasure could be buried in mountainside .\nMen behind mission battle doubts: \"What if we find nothing again?\"","id":"fb423289895e45f715c5381415082f2428e85647"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- America's first female four-star general has been nominated, the Pentagon announced Monday. Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody was nominated to be America's first four-star female general. President Bush nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to serve as head of the Army's supply arm. By law women are excluded from combat jobs, the typical path to four-star rank in the military. \"This is an historic occasion for the Department of Defense and I am proud to nominate Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody for a fourth star,\" said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. \"Her 33 years of service, highlighted by extraordinary leadership and devotion to duty, make her exceptionally qualified for this senior position.\" The Senate must approve the nomination. Dunwoody, a native of New York, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1975 after her graduation from the State University of New York in Cortland. She also holds graduate degrees in national resource strategy and logistics management. She became the Army's top-ranking woman in 2005 when she received her third star and became deputy chief of staff for Army logistics. \"I am very honored but also very humbled today with this announcement,\" said Dunwoody. \"I grew up in a family that didn't know what glass ceilings were. This nomination only reaffirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career ... that the doors continue to open for men and women in uniform.\" The Army Materiel Command handles all material readiness for the Army. During her career, Dunwoody has been assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division and the Defense Logistics Agency. She served with the 82nd Airborne in Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. She has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, Master Parachutist Badge and the Army Staff Identification Badge. The first woman to become a general officer in the U.S. armed services was Brig. Gen. Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps, who achieved the rank in 1970 and retired the following year. Elizabeth Hoisington, the director of the Women's Army Corps, was promoted to brigadier general immediately after Hays. She also retired the following year. Maj. Gen. Jeanne M. Holm, the first director of Women in the Air Force, was the first woman to wear two stars, attaining the rank in 1973 and retiring two years later. In 1996, Marine Lt. Gen. Carol A. Mutter became the first woman to wear three stars. Mutter retired in 1999. Currently, there are 57 active-duty women serving as generals or admirals, five of whom are lieutenant generals or vice admirals, the Navy's three-star rank, according to the Pentagon.","highlights":"Bush nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to be head of Army's supply arm .\nBy law women are excluded from combat jobs, the typical path to four-star rank .\nDunwoody has served 33 years, and became Army's top-ranking woman in 2005 .\nThere are 57 active-duty women serving as generals or admirals .","id":"f841a8920db76a050ae7d72f30e84f0314bfaa60"} -{"article":"ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) -- Ambulances rolled into a Texas ranch that's home to members of a polygamist sect, as authorities continued their search Saturday night for possible victims of physical and sexual abuse. Authorities are seeking Dale Barlow, 50, seen in a mugshot from a 2005 arrest on child sex charges. The emergency vehicles were called for as investigators prepared to search the group's temple, law enforcement officials said. The sect is a rogue branch of the Mormon church, which forbids nonbelievers from entering its temples. Authorities wanted medical backup \"in case they're involved in sensitive areas that could escalate into a negative reaction,\" a law enforcement source said. A police helicopter also had begun circling the ranch Saturday night. Earlier, dozens more children and young women were removed from the compound. A total of 183 people, including 137 children, have been taken away since law enforcement officers raided the compound Thursday night, said Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the Texas Child Protective Services Division. The children -- most of them girls -- were being interviewed by special investigators, she said. \"We're trying to find out if they're safe,\" she explained. \"We need to know if they have been abused or neglected.\" Eighteen of the girls have been taken into state custody. Authorities believe that they \"had been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse,\" said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. The others were taken to a nearby civic center. Meisner described them as doing \"remarkably well.\" Watch a report on the latest developments \u00bb . Authorities continue to search the 1,900-acre YFZ ranch, occupied by followers of imprisoned polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, and at least one man is being sought by police. According to the search warrant, authorities are looking for Dale Barlow, 50, whom they suspect of having married and fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl. Watch an Eldorado neighbor talk about the raid \u00bb . Law enforcement agencies raided the ranch Thursday night after receiving a report Monday that a 16-year-old girl had been \"sexually and physically abused,\" Azar said. Watch buses take girls from compound \u00bb . The warrant cited an \"immediate need\" for authorities to have access to the 16-year-old and an 8-month-old child with either the last name of Barlow or the girl's last name. It instructs law enforcement officers to look for any records showing that Barlow and the girl were married and any evidence of them having a child. Barlow is in Arizona and does not know his accuser, his probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune. \"He said the authorities had called him [in Colorado City, Arizona], and some girl had accused him of assaulting her, and he didn't even know who she was,\" Bill Loader said. Barlow pleaded no contest last year to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor, The Associated Press reported. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years, according to the AP. His lawyer in that case told the AP he had not spoken to Barlow in a year. Jeffs, the 52-year-old leader and \"prophet\" of the 10,000-member church, was convicted in Utah last year and sentenced to 10 years on two counts of being an accomplice to rape, charges related to a marriage he performed in 2001. He faces trial in Arizona on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy. Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bought the land near Eldorado four years ago and built the ranch, which they call the YFZ Ranch. The letters are said to refer to the words Yearning for Zion. It is home to as many as 400 members who relocated from their Arizona and Utah compounds. State and local law enforcement agencies set up roadblocks around the ranch Thursday evening, preventing journalists from seeing what was happening on the property, according to Randy Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success weekly newspaper. \"This came totally out of the blue,\" Mankin said. There were no indications of violence around the ranch, he said. When CNN crews have visited the ranch, it was guarded by armed men equipped with night vision gear and other high-tech surveillance tools to prevent intruders. When CNN flew over the ranch in a small plane last year, the crew saw a massive temple, the three-story housing units where Jeffs' chosen followers live, the water tower, the school and community center, the dairy and cheese factory and a massive concrete mill. The church openly practices polygamy in two towns straddling the Arizona-Utah state line -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona -- but members living on their Texas ranch rarely venture into Eldorado, four miles to the south. Critics of the sect say that it arranges marriages for girls as young as 13 and that competition for brides may be reduced through exiling young men. If male followers are excommunicated, the critics claim, their wives and children can be reassigned to someone else. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ambulances called in as investigators prepare to search temple .\nNumber of people removed from ranch grows to 183, including 137 children .\nAuthorities served search, arrest warrants to members of polygamist sect .\nJeffs in Arizona jail awaiting trial; sentenced to 10 years in prison last year .","id":"92fe95a8e829a7eb7be8780cb9f3ad6f5f848d54"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 30-year-old dolphin at Sea World has died after colliding with another dolphin while performing aerial tricks, the Orlando, Florida, amusement park said Monday. The incident occurred about 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Discovery Cove area of the park, according to a statement by Sea World spokeswoman Becca Bides. The animals were in the center of the lagoon and not near guests, she said. The dolphin who died was named Sharky. The other dolphin, Tyler, is being watched by veterinarians but appears to be fine, Bides said. \"This is an unfortunate, random incident,\" Bides said in a written statement. \"While it is not unusual to have two animals performing aerial behaviors at the same time, we are reviewing the situation to ensure even such a random incident does not occur again.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Collision with another dolphin proves fatal to Sea World animal .\nDolphins were in center of lagoon, away from guests, when collision happened .\nPark statement calls collision \"an unfortunate, random incident\"","id":"b15a11d216a338d92e635539e48eac13b6a1e898"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They first met in the autumn of 1979; she playing the role of the lovelorn terrorist, he dressed as a rather sloppy Ayatollah Khomeini. Pamela Stephenson first met Billy Connolly on the set of a comedy show in 1979. They married in Fiji in 1990. It may not have been love at first sight on the set of British comedy show \"Not the Nine O'Clock News,\" but love, marriage and children eventually followed. Australian comedienne, now psychotherapist, Pamela Stephenson, describes being captivated by Billy Connolly's wildman looks, his mane of grey hair and devil-may-care demeanor. She tells CNN's Revealed about her first impressions of her husband, his unique ability to keep audiences entertained and what she learnt about his addictions and childhood abuse while writing his best-selling biography, \"Billy.\" CNN: Take us back to the beginning. How did you meet Billy Connolly? Pamela Stephenson: I'm not quite sure what Billy's version of how we met is like because he was very drunk. I met him when I was a performer on \"Not The Nine O'Clock News\" and he was a guest. He was just shaggy and some kind of terrible beastie. But I was attracted to him immediately, maybe because he was so unusual. I think what I picked up on was his dichotomy -- that beastiness and the underlying sensitivity that he has. I think that's something that audiences relate to, you're aware of all the toughness, but underneath you just know that there's philosophy and this poetic, Celtic nature that speaks to people. Also his pain, his underlying sadness and the pain of his childhood ... when I first met him I think I connected with that. He played the Ayatollah Khomeini in a scene on \"Not The Nine O'Clock News\" and I played a demented fan singing a love song to him, it was in days when you could do stuff like that, I suppose. And then we did an interview, I pretending to be British TV personality Janet Street-Porter, with giant fake teeth which kept falling out. Of course, he could never keep a straight face; I thought he was dreadfully unprofessional because he just kept laughing, especially when my teeth fell out -- my fake teeth -- fell out. CNN: What's it like being married to him? PS: People always think that being married to Billy means that I get non-stop Billy Connolly concerts. It's not nearly as exciting as that, although he's adorable. But it's boring sometimes and he would say the same. There are moments when I wish he would go and make me a cup of tea, which he does very often. Actually, Billy is quite a quiet person. He's a little reclusive and I don't think it's necessarily his personality. With the highs he experiences on stage he needs to be very quiet when he's not. Billy Connolly takes CNN's Revealed on a tour of his home \u00bb . CNN: What made you write a biography of his life? Was it the first time he opened up about his childhood? PS: When I wrote \"Billy,\" it was the first time that Billy really looked at his childhood in a chronological order and with depth. It was a painful process, but cathartic. The book gave me the opportunity to understand a lot more about him. Just putting some of this together, the sexual abuse, for example, that he received from his father, the physical abuse he received from his aunts, helped me understand why there's a part of him that's very closed off. Watch Billy recall his troubled childhood \u00bb . His learning disability was never understood. Now we'd call it an attention disorder. In those days, he had difficulty concentrating, for which he was beaten and taunted at school. People told him he was stupid and to this day there's a part of him that thinks that's he's not as clever as other people and yet he is absolutely brilliant. He's incredibly well-read and very erudite. CNN: Can you tell us about Billy's problems with alcohol and drugs and how you helped him? PS: Billy was extremely famous in Scotland, and you know what happens, especially with people who don't think they are very worthy. As with Billy, they don't handle fame because they don't feel they deserve it and they'll turn to alcohol and drugs. It became very serious and by the time I met him he was on a very self-destructive path. At first, that was appealing to me, but later I realized I can't be with somebody like that because I don't want to watch him destroy himself. I didn't tell him, \"You've gotta clean up your act,\" I just said I can't deal with this. I discovered you can't make anyone stop drinking or stop taking drugs, you have to just protect yourself and if they want to jump on the good train, they will. Fortunately it worked. CNN: How would you describe Billy's style of comedy? PS: Billy doesn't have a style, because to have a style it would mean that there have to be other people with a similar way of working. He goes on stage and it's like he's got these comedy angels whispering in his ear. He makes this extraordinary connection with the audience, and of course he's very astute and funny about politics. He sees the funny side of all kinds of things -- human nature, human behavior, world events, politicians. He'll talk about that with such passion. It's what many of us think but don't want to say. Billy will see something on television or notice something on the street or he'll just think something and it'll go into his computer of a brain and it'll stumble out when he's on stage. See Billy Connolly perform on a recent tour of Ireland \u00bb . CNN: Is he the same person on and off stage? PS: He's honest and real. He's a man of the people, a working class hero. It's a clich\u00e9, but people know that he has struggled; they know he's come from the tough part of Glasgow. Billy just loves an audience, he loves speaking to people if they're nice to him, and they usually are. When he's finished his show, he doesn't go home. He stays in his dressing room and people will come and see him and he'll talk to them for another hour. CNN: He says he's getting more and more nervous when he goes on stage -- have you noticed a change? PS: I don't think he's getting more nervous. At his age, maybe he thinks that it should have become easier -- well, it's not going to become easier. It's incredibly tough to go on stage in front of four or five thousand people and sustain [their interest] by yourself. And one thing that really impresses me, again as a psychologist, is that I think he is really healing. I think that people really have the opportunity to just laugh like that and it's so good for you. I feel fantastic when I go to one of his shows and come out and I'm just sick with laughter. CNN: How does he feel when he comes off stage? He says it can be tough and envies the audience. They can go home and forget about it. PS: Most performers struggle with the letdown after a show, and Billy's no exception. It's tough because it takes time for adrenalin to leave the system. That's actually one reason why a lot of comedians turn to alcohol, because it's a depressant and takes you down. Now that Billy doesn't drink he's found another way -- he goes back to his hotel and stays quiet. Sometimes he likes to eat after the show but not very often. He will just want to veg out, watch TV. Playing his banjo is a great way for him to relax. Watch a rare performance of Billy on banjo \u00bb . He doesn't like me being around when he's touring because he just likes to do his thing. I want to have some food or go and do something. He becomes a bit of a hermit, and that's appropriate for someone who expends that amount of energy and brainpower on stage. CNN: Billy says he finds the routine of touring increasingly tough -- do you think he will stop soon? PS: When Billy's touring, he'll say, \"Oh I don't want to tour anymore, I've had enough it's too hard on the road.\" But the truth is, when he's not touring, he wants to go back. It's probably his happiest time. I have been a comedian so I know a little bit about what it's like to be on stage and know that when things are working fantastically, and you're getting that appreciation from the audience. It is an incredible high. It's pretty hard for me as a wife or us as a family or any of his fans or friends to match up to that kind of adulation and so, you know, he deserves it and I have to remind him that it is a lot of fun for him. CNN: How would you describe his dress sense? PS: Billy is a fashion maven. He spends most of his time in New York now so, you know, the New York \"Black is the new black\" is ... that's got to him a bit. He's influenced by Rock 'n' Roll and Vivienne Westwood and edgy stuff. But he just puts it together in his own unique way. He also takes great pride in his body. His closet is still extremely fun. It's far more colorful than mine. I have grey and black suits and things for work -- he loves colorful shirts. It will be a shame if he tones himself down, but I don't think that will happen. He borrows my clothes sometimes, if he sees something particularly mad. We used to say, \"First up, best dressed,\" which is the Glasgow expression for a particularly fun brooch or hat.","highlights":"Pamela Stephenson talks about marriage to Scottish comedian Billy Connelly .\nThey met on the set of British comedy show \"Not the Nine O'Clock News\"\nShe says writing his biography, \"Billy,\" helped her understand him better .\nStephenson: \"It's like he's got these comedy angels whispering in his ear\"","id":"97ed47519371db40473f71f77a52a7beb5f0a7ef"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is writing a prequel to her best-selling series to be auctioned for charity -- but at just 800 words, it may lack some of the magic fans of the boy wizard might be hoping for. Autographed copies of J.K. Rowling's work have fetched millions of dollars at auction. Rowling's hand-written prequel, signed by the author, will be auctioned alongside works by other famous writers to raise cash for a dyslexia charity. Despite the brevity of the piece, experts believe it could fetch big money, since other autographed works by the blockbuster author have sold for millions of dollars. \"We never dreamed that J.K. Rowling would donate something so precious, and we're incredibly grateful,\" said Gerry Johnson, managing director of Waterstone's, the UK book chain organizing the auction. \"I can't begin to guess how much it will raise at auction.\" A previous 93-word storycard from Rowling, which referred to the book \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,\" sold in 2002 for $53,000. Rowling later produced seven hand-written copies of a new work, \"The Tales of Beedle the Bard,\" one of which sold for $3.9 million in 2007. \"Given the enormous interest we have seen in recent times for autograph work by J.K. Rowling, the prospects for her storycard are good to say the least,\" said Philip Errington, a specialist at Sotheby's auction house, which is helping to organize the sale. The card on which the story is written -- measuring 14.6 by 20.9 centimeters (5.75 by 8.25 inches) -- is signed \"JK Rowling 2008.\" The author signs off with the message: \"From the prequel I am not working on -- but that was fun!\" Alongside Rowling, 13 other authors invited to contribute to the June 10 auction include Margaret Atwood, Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby, and Tom Stoppard. A book featuring all 13 cards will go on sale in August. All profits from the book will benefit Dyslexia Action and English PEN, a writers' association, Waterstone's said.","highlights":"Author J.K. Rowling pens Harry Potter prequel for charity auction .\nAutographed 800-word piece will raise money for dyslexia charity .\nPrevious autographed Rowling pieces have raised millions of dollars .","id":"7d1ac9703ec57562903cb8238e356b04d7a01f72"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- It's been five years since Carrie Bradshaw journeyed to Paris in search of true love on the series finale of \"Sex and the City.\" She appeared to have found it in the arms of Mr. Big, and she returned to New York -- and her now-settled friends -- ready for a new start. Sarah Jessica Parker was a driving force in creating the \"Sex and the City\" movie. Then came the inevitable cry: That's it? What happens next? Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Carrie, wanted to find out as well. But the situation had to be right, she said, which prompted a cascade of rumors as plans for a movie came together, fell apart and came together again. Now that the movie is out, Parker -- who's a producer of the film as well as one of its stars -- talked about the journey to making a big-screen \"Sex and the City\" with \"Showbiz Tonight\" anchor A.J. Hammer. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: I think a lot of fans, maybe a lot of people, and those of you among the cast, didn't think this day would actually ever come ... but here we are. So how are you feeling deep inside, Sarah? Sarah Jessica Parker: I feel extraordinarily privileged. I've spent the last two years cobbling this movie together. ... It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of professional experience and one really shouldn't be greedy enough to ask for it twice. Watch the cast talk about the thrill of \"Sex\" \u00bb . I have to say that, this last six, eight months, was better than those seven years [the show aired] and I think it's because we all recognize how lucky and unique those seven years were and that this is a story that you don't get to tell twice. It has been, I must say, worth every obstacle and dead end, and fit and start, and every moment that was seemingly impossible. It has been a dream. CNN: And I imagine sitting down for the first time in that room together for the table read, which was, from my understanding, the first time you all actually were in the same room [together] regardless of how much you kept in touch. Tell me a little bit about that moment. Parker: I started putting [the] script back together in April of 2006 ... and that [table read] was a really extraordinary day, because just the perfunctory details of getting people to a table read were complicated. Kim [Cattrall] had been away and Kristin [Davis] had been away and Chris [Noth] had been [doing] his other job, and this magnificent script had arrived and had been everything we hoped for and more. It was basically like being in an alternate universe for about three hours. ... It was a kind of reunion that is very, very special, because you really want to be there. It's not the reunion where you're forced by your parents to meet your aunts and uncles that you see rarely. It's the reunion that you want. I think even more so was that first day on [the] set. When we thought, good God, [writer\/director] Michael Patrick [King] and I are actually making this movie, like we got it done, we're here, we're doing it -- what a privilege. CNN: I think we as fans and viewers actually got a sense of what that feeling was like when we saw you all together on \"Oprah,\" because the energy was ... palpable. ... But we're talking about the perceived drama around this whole project. (Rumors have abounded about friction between the stars.) One of my producers said while we were watching the TV, \"Are they going to sit near each other?\" \"Why are they putting Chris in the middle of all of them?\" Hearing that, does it make you mad? Parker: I find it slightly -- it's not that I'm mad. I expect better from people. I think it's really beneath me, to keep defending myself. I have a 35-year career. I have an impeccable character, I really pride myself in my work ethic and the way I treat people. And I think Kim would say the same and Cynthia would say the same. And I love Kim, and I wanted her to be in this movie. We couldn't have done it without her, we couldn't have done it without Kristin, we couldn't have done it without Cynthia [Nixon], nor could we have done it without Chris. Watch Cattrall address the rumors \u00bb . You know, this is a story that people like to tell about women. Why? I don't know. Is it that interesting? Probably not. So once again I just have to say it doesn't define the experience. Nobody can take the experience away. It's far more interesting for me to talk about my affection for this cast than to start to deny a sad old beaten tale. CNN: You seem to have what goes on in the media in perspective -- and you have to, being at the game as long as you've been. To that end, one of the things that I've always admired about you and [husband] Matthew [Broderick] and I think a lot of people do, is how you've managed your public or your private life while being in the glare of the spotlight. ... Now I know one of the main reasons you guys are able to make it work is because you don't talk about your private lives, which is great and I applaud that. That said, is there something that you can tell me about what it is about your relationship that enables you to make it work separate from that? Parker: I wouldn't make any proclamations about why I have a marriage that, to me, is successful. I would just say that we've chosen to live in a city where we are not the most interesting people. This is a city that is about industry and finance and publishing and architecture and the arts and education and academia, and the movie industry fits into it in some small way, but there are a lot of people of important interest and I think that it's a conscious choice to live in a place where we're bumping up against humanity. We run to the market on our own, we take the subway, and we integrate into our city, and we become a part of the fabric and I think it's really been to our benefit and certainly to our son. Does it mean that we are not scrutinized and that we don't have paparazzi every single day at our house? No, but it is a city where you can't live behind a gate, you can't drive up in a car and be protected. You walk out the door and it is what it is. So you reconcile those things and you make the best choices you can. CNN: Is it the end of \"Sex and the City\"? What does your gut tell you? Parker: My gut tells me it's up to you and your colleagues and the critics and the people who show up. The future is dictated not by us at this point, and I think Michael Patrick and I have been so focused at getting this movie up on the big screen, that we haven't thought about the future. Doing this was more than we could have asked for. So anything beyond that is really kind of out of our hands in a perfectly wonderful way.","highlights":"Sarah Jessica Parker: \"Sex and the City\" \"has been a dream\"\nRumors of friction? \"Beneath me to keep defending myself\"\nMarriage to Matthew Broderick works because pair lives normal N.Y. life .","id":"5caed8d5f911118b2a89f0b08b285fae18e10abf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The wife of missing adventurer Steve Fossett has asked a court to declare him dead. Steve Fossett and wife Peggy in a February 2006 photograph. Fossett was last seen in early September, flying a single-engine plane on a pleasure flight from a Nevada ranch. A month-long search for the plane was unsuccessful. \"As difficult as it is for me to reach this conclusion, I no longer hold out any hope that Steve has survived,\" wrote Peggy V. Fossett in court documents filed Monday with the Cook County [Illinois] Circuit Court. She asked that the will of her husband of 38 years be admitted to probate. At about 8:45 a.m. on September 3, the millionaire took off on what he said was to be a solo pleasure flight over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. He had planned to fly over the Nevada desert for two to three hours, and was expecting to return for lunch to the Nevada ranch, from which he departed. He was carrying a single bottle of water and had no parachute, lawyers for Mrs. Fossett said in the court documents. At 3 p.m., when he had not returned, a search began that ultimately included thousands of volunteers. It continued until October 2. \"No one involved in the search holds out any hope that Fossett is still alive,\" the petition said. Rick Rains, a sheriff's supervisor of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, said Fossett's plane was last spotted at 11 a.m. less than 20 miles from the ranch's airport. \"Given the timeline and the sighting of Fossett's plane, I believe he was within 20 to 25 miles of the ranch when he crashed,\" Rains said. But, he noted, \"the terrain is very difficult to search, with many areas where the crevices, deep ravines and closely grown trees make it impossible to see from the air what is on the ground.\" \"If Fossett was physically able to find water to survive on in the Nevada desert, he would have been physically capable of signaling searchers, by doing something as simple as crafting a large X of sticks or rocks, or by starting a signal fire,\" Rains said. In affidavits supporting his wife's petition, Fossett's doctor described the 63-year-old man as physically and mentally fit. Robert Keilholtz, a captain in the California Civil Air Patrol who was involved in the search, noted that the difficulty in finding wreckage was underscored by the fact that World War II-era plane wreckage was discovered last spring in the mountain range. In the search for Fossett, wreckage from eight other crashes was discovered, one of them from the 1960s, the lawyers said. Fossett made his money in the financial services industry, but is renowned for his daredevil exploits, which include nonstop, round-the-world trips aboard a balloon, a fixed-wing plane and a boat. At the time of his disappearance, Fossett was working on a project to build a single-man submarine and to build a vehicle capable of breaking land speed records by traveling at up to 800 mph, lawyers for his wife said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Steve Fossett missing since September solo flight over Nevada mountains .\nSingle-engine plane last seen 20 to 25 miles from departure point, sheriff says .\nPlane not found after month of searching .\nExperienced aviator would have signaled rescuers if alive, sheriff says .","id":"1410227a01322fd4ad6b7386615d2d4dae669bc8"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Vimlendu Jha is the founder and head of Swechha -- We For Change Foundation which is based in India's capital, New Delhi. \"For the rest of the world India is powerful, but for many residing in the countryside, India is still disempowered, hungry and naked.\" Swechha started out as an organization to combat the pollution of the city's main waterway, the river Yamuna. Today it deals with the environmental issues that affect several aspects of Delhi. Vimlendu leads volunteers and local children to key sites around the city to tackle the ecological problems, as well as to raise awareness of the issues. Follow his efforts in his blogs and video diaries. October 18, 2007 We traveled, along with 100-odd kids from one of New Delhi's most progressive schools, The Shri Ram School, to the rural part of our country, to Kempty Village in Uttaranchal. The purpose of the visit was to expose these young minds (ages 15-17) to the existence of another India. Most of us have an illusion of India becoming a powerful nation and it is on a phenomenal growth trajectory. We are not so much seen as a developing nation but a developed nation. One wonders what actually makes a country developed, when most of the parameters of development are skewed, as is the case of our country. For the rest of the world India is powerful, but for many residing in the countryside, India is still disempowered, hungry and naked. Up to 70 percent of Indians still live in villages. Most of the time these villages are neglected and are centers of poverty. Development around India's cities has brought a flood of people from the rural areas who come in search of jobs. This population comprises the \"urban poor\" which is more vulnerable than the rural poor. Imagine, India still has more than 260 million people (26 percent of the population) living below the poverty line. In the last 10 years, we have had at least 40,000 farmer suicides in the country -- indicative of the growing gap between the poor and the rich. The purpose of this trip was to learn, and unlearn, about village stereotypes or notions we live with. The village in Uttaranchal wasn't as extreme an experience as other remote villages of India, but it was indicative of the hardships that people live with. Another reason for the trip was to celebrate the simplicity and generosity of the villagers vis-\u00e0-vis we, the insecure urbanites, and also to understand their hardships, due to our over-consumption and false assumption that our wrongdoing does not necessarily influence the rural population -- when we know it does. For many students, it was a first-time, first-hand experience of a village. Some were overwhelmed with the beauty and many were saddened by the villagers' plight. The outing also gave them an opportunity to contribute in some way. Students worked in the fields, helped the villagers in agricultural work and breathed the clean air. It was a wonderful experience, aimed at understanding the gap between the two exisiting worlds; to bridge the gap between these two worlds. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Vimlendu takes a group of children to see a village in Uttaranchal .\nHis aim was to show them the differences between India's city and village life .\nMany of the children had never been to an Indian village .\nVimlendu says they were \"saddened by the villagers' plight\"","id":"b135c3ea4f51cc4874e8b877e1c29b313580d4e0"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- When -- after many visits to doctors and hospitals --- Tian Huiping's son was finally diagnosed with autism, the only advice she was given was to make use of a loophole in China's \"one-child\" policy that allows parents with disabled children to have one more. Tian Huiping considered suicide when she learned her son was autistic. Instead, she opened an autism school. Alone with her son after her husband divorced her, Tian became depressed and desperate enough to consider killing herself and her son, Yang Tao. \"I made a poison for me and my son,\" she said. But when she saw her boy smiling up at her happily, she says she couldn't do it. \"I thought, I have no right to end his life, and I cannot kill myself and leave him.\" From that horrible moment 18 years ago, there grew an incredible resolve -- the kind of dogged determination borne of a mother protecting her child. At one of the many hospitals she went to for help in Beijing, Tian came across a small brochure printed by the Taiwan Autism Association, explaining a few basic concepts on how to teach kids with autism. Watch mom describe being near suicide with autistic child \u00bb . She read it over and over again. \"I just tried to work a little bit with my son and another boy we lived with,\" she says. \"And it worked -- a little bit -- but I saw hope.\" She rented space in a kindergarten and opened her own school at first, with just six autistic children. She slept on the floor in a store room to save money. Two months later, the kindergarten closed her down. \"We didn't make enough money for them,\" she says. But the children had shown progress, even though the teaching was based on a few simple concepts in a few pages of a brochure. Soon, the word was out. And more parents with autistic children came to Tian looking for help, all of them with the same fears. \"If my son cannot go to school, what will happen with him? As a mother this is such a big worry.\" Fifteen years later, Tian and her Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism help more than 3,000 children a day through her school and its outreach program. Eighty children of all ages enroll in her school for an 11-week course with their parents -- many of whom travel hundreds of miles from small villages to get help for their children. The parents then return to their villages to try to educate the local population. Interactive: Autism 101 \u00bb . The Chinese government says there are only about 100,000 people with autism in the entire country, but unofficial estimates put the number between 1-2 million people, perhaps even more. Tian says her institute has a list of just 60 doctors nationwide who are capable of diagnosing autism. Fifteen years ago, she says there were just three. Because resources are scarce, the focus at her school is on teaching the parents how to educate their children. They first help parents to accept their child's disability and teach basic information about autism awareness. Programs are individualized for each child, with teachers working on verbal communication, managing tantrums and other early intervention methods. One of the parents is a woman named Fu Jing. It took three years and countless wrong diagnoses, before she finally learned why her son Ruoqi wasn't talking or playing with other kids, she said. When Fu leaned Ruoqi was autistic, her world collapsed. \"I thought about committing suicide with my son. I could not imagine the pain he would suffer when he grew up. All the unfair treatment from society and schoolmates,\" she said. \"As a mother, I felt so much pain.\" But now Fu is learning how to communicate with her son, how to raise him, even how to love him. \"The training here strengthens the acceptance of your kids. Honestly speaking, as an ordinary person, I get angry and even shout at him,\" she said. \"But here, they say we have to accept our kids as who they are. I feel that I have changed.\" There are no government programs to help parents with autistic children -- and there is no government help for Tian and her school. \"I'm not used to requesting anything from government,\" she says. \"We have grown up in such a situation.\" For the past three years, Stars and Rain has been working with Heartspring, a Kansas-based center for children with special needs. Teachers from Beijing have been sent to Wichita, Kansas, for training; and teachers like Connie Coulter have come to Stars and Rain. When she arrived in February, Coulter found a school with almost no resources and without access to the latest research. Some parents, she said, would come up to her and ask about a magic pill or vitamin \"to cure their child.\" \"In the villages where they're coming from, they're just viewed as basically throw-away children,\" she said. \"To tell [the parents] and be able to educate them, it was an exhilarating experience to talk to them about the basic understanding of autism.\" Coulter described her time at the school as a \"life-changing experience.\" \"There are things that they have taught me about value of family, the passion, the empathy, the sacrifice that I don't see as much in the United States,\" she said. It's a sacrifice these parents feel lucky to make -- because in China, if your child has autism and you want to help, there is almost nowhere else to turn. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"China estimates 100,000 people with autism; some say real number is 1-2 million .\nMom considered murder-suicide with autistic son; instead started autism school .\nThe school helps 3,000 children with autism every day despite no government aid .\n\"As a mother, I felt so much pain\"","id":"8abba7087df268f3e774a2d0d482ba971fa997bc"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Liv Tyler doesn't like to be bothered by her agents at night. But it's a good thing she took their call pitching her \"The Incredible Hulk.\" Liv Tyler plays Betty Ross, a colleague of Edward Norton's Bruce Banner, in \"The Incredible Hulk.\" \"My agent called me one night ... I had just put [son] Milo to bed. It was like 9 o'clock at night, and I always get grumpy with them when they call me really late,\" she told CNN. \"They said, 'Marvel would like to fly you to Los Angeles tomorrow. Will you get on a plane to come and meet for 'The Hulk'? And I said I can't come tomorrow, but I can come the next day.\" The flight turned out to be well worth it -- though Tyler said she was discombobulated by the speed of it all. \"I went and met with [director] Louis [Leterrier] and they offered me the part that day,\" she said. \"I was kind of floored because it just happened so quickly and I didn't get to read the script. ... [But] it was kind of a no-brainer.\" In the new \"Hulk,\" \"The Lord of the Rings\" actress plays Betty Ross, a former colleague of scientist and Hulk alter ego Bruce Banner (Edward Norton). She said working on the film brought back memories of her childhood watching the TV show starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. (Ferrigno has a cameo in the new film.) \"I loved the TV show when I was a kid,\" she said. \"I used to watch it all the time with my mom. It was our favorite show.\" Tyler, 30, said that she felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to the \"Hulk\" mythology, particularly since a 2003 film on the character met with mixed reviews. Watch Tyler, Norton and Leterrier on the latest \"Hulk\" \u00bb . \"Well, a lot of people would say -- even I said -- 'Oh, they're making \"The Hulk\"?' Didn't they do that already?\" she said. But she added, \"The fans love this so much ... and there's so much detail to the story, I always feel quite stressed about that, like I really want to do the part justice. ... I definitely feel that responsibility and want to do the best job that I can.\" CNN's KJ Matthews contributed to this report.","highlights":"Actress Liv Tyler says \"Hulk\" role came unexpectedly .\nTyler plays Betty Ross in new film version of Marvel superhero .\nTyler says she was huge fan of TV show with Bill Bixby .","id":"9a783db597afbab382791021b26ecf70c110aef7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iraq is raking in more money from oil exports than it is spending, amassing a projected four-year budget surplus of up to $80 billion, U.S. auditors reported Tuesday. Oil accounted for 94 percent of the Iraq's revenue from 2005 to 2007, a U.S. report says. Leading members of Congress, noting that Washington is paying for reconstruction in Iraq, expressed outrage at the assessment. One called the findings \"inexcusable.\" \"We should not be paying for Iraqi projects while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank, including outrageous profits from $4-a-gallon gas prices in the U.S.,\" said Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. \"We should require that U.S. taxpayers be reimbursed for the cost of large projects.\" Baghdad had a $29 billion budget surplus between 2005 to 2007. With the price of crude roughly doubling in the past year, Iraq's surplus for 2008 is expected to run between $38 billion and $50 billion, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The United States has put about $48 billion toward reconstruction since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, auditors reported. About $23 billion of that was spent on the oil and electricity industries, water systems and security. Iraq spent $3.9 billion on those sectors from 2005 through April 2008, according to the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. The ongoing fighting there, a shortage of trained staff and weak controls have made it difficult for the Iraqi government to spend its surplus on needed projects, the agency's report concluded. Levin, a Michigan Democrat, has been an outspoken critic of the slow progress of reconstruction and an advocate of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. His criticism Tuesday was echoed by Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican who is the former chairman and now a leading member of Levin's committee. \"Despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue in the past five years, U.S. taxpayer money has been the overwhelming source of Iraq reconstruction funds,\" Warner said in a joint statement with Levin. \"It is time for the sovereign government of Iraq, using its revenues, expenditures and surpluses, to fully assume the responsibility to provide essential services and improve the quality of life for the Iraqi people.\" In its written response to the audit report, the Treasury Department said U.S. officials are working with Iraqis to address the issue, \"and we believe progress is being made.\" \"The report shows Iraq's budget surplus is likely to grow significantly over the course of 2008, but it is equally important to realize that spending in Iraq is also increasing,\" Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Andy Baukol wrote to the GAO. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government submitted a $22 billion supplemental budget to the Iraqi parliament in July, including $8 billion in proposed capital expenditures, Baukol wrote. The issue raised the hackles of several members of Congress earlier this year -- particularly because Bush administration officials said on the eve of the war that Iraqi oil money would pay for reconstruction. In 2003, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told the House Appropriations Committee: \"We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.'' Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said Tuesday's report \"is going to make a lot of American families very angry.\" \"The record gas prices they are paying have turned into an economic windfall for Iraq, but the Iraqi government isn't spending the money on rebuilding,\" said Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Levin spokeswoman Tara Andringa said the senator hopes to tighten rules governing U.S. expenditures on Iraqi reconstruction efforts in the next Pentagon authorization bill. The Iraqi surplus has piled up even though the country's oil production has only recently matched prewar levels, according to the Brookings Institution's latest Iraq Index. The country spent about 80 percent of its $29 billion operating budget in 2007, including public services and salaries, but only 28 percent of its $12 billion investment budget, the GAO found. The export of crude oil accounted for 94 percent of Iraq's revenues from 2005 to 2007, the GAO reported.","highlights":"U.S. lawmakers upset over surplus, noting Washington is footing reconstruction .\nU.S. taxpayers should be reimbursed, senator says .\nReport says Iraq's budget surplus from 2005 to 2008 could hit $80 billion .","id":"a96943f14cefb56497dbe59e5e23d2aee1c5fe4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of a missing toddler on Monday was arrested in connection with an alleged theft from one of her friends, Florida authorities said. Monday's arrest of Casey Anthony, mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony, was her second relating to the theft case and her third since the child disappeared three months ago. The latest charges -- passing a forged check, fraudulent use of personal identification and petty theft, according to an arrest affidavit released by the Orange County Sheriff's Office -- related to a theft from Casey Anthony's friend Amy Huizenga, authorities said. Anthony and her missing daughter have garnered national headlines and served as fodder for nightly crime shows, which show pictures of the wide-eyed toddler during their coverage. Watch Nancy Grace with the latest on the arrest \u00bb . Caylee disappeared in mid-June, and her mother waited nearly a month before reporting the disappearance, authorities said. Since then, evidence has mounted that Caylee is dead, authorities said. Anthony was first arrested on July 16 after she told detectives lies about her daughter's disappearance, according to police. She was charged with child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. While out on bail, Anthony on August 29 was arrested on suspicion of forgery, fraudulent use of personal information and petty theft related to the Huizenga case. She remained in jail until early September, when her $500,000 bail was posted anonymously. Police have labeled Anthony a \"person of interest\" in the case of her missing daughter. Anthony initially said she didn't immediately report her daughter missing because she was conducting her own investigation. Later, she told police she gave Caylee to a baby sitter. But investigators said they soon learned that the address she gave them was an apartment that hadn't been occupied for months.","highlights":"Mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony charged with theft .\nArrest is her second relating to alleged theft from friend .\nAuthorities: Casey Anthony waited nearly a month before she reported girl missing .\nCasey Anthony is \"person of interest\" in disappearance, authorities say .","id":"4c000361b448426117193f2ec0793ddd180cd17a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As tens of thousands of people cheered Barack Obama's presidential victory at his home base in Chicago, Illinois, others were celebrating near his future house. People celebrate the victory of President-Elect Barack Obama outside the White House early Wednesday. At least 1,000 people gathered on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House late Tuesday night, shouting \"Obama! Obama!\" and \"Yes we can!\" Uniformed Secret Service officers were overheard, saying they'd never seen anything like it. In Boston, Massachusetts, thousands of people -- many of them college students -- hit the streets to celebrate the election of the country's 44th president. The sound of car horns could be heard across the city, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. iReport.com: See, share your reaction . Boston police said the celebrations were peaceful, but they closed some streets to control the crowds, WCVB reported. In Chicago's Grant Park, where police estimated at least 200,000 had gathered to hear Obama claim victory, the crowd erupted in cheers and screams after news organizations projected him the winner. Watch Obama address the crowd \u00bb . One of them, Brian Braddy of Chicago, said he is a Republican-turned-Democrat. \"I believe in [Obama] because he's younger, so he sees things differently, I hope,\" Braddy said. Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was also among the thousands in attendance at the Chicago celebration. \"It feels like hope won,\" Winfrey said. \"It feels like it's not just victory for ... Barack Obama. It feels like America did the right thing. \"It feels like there's a shift in consciousness. It feels like something really big and bold has happened here -- like nothing ever in our lifetimes did we expect this to happen. It feels like anything is now possible.\" In Harlem, New York, hundreds had gathered to watch election returns on a large screen in a plaza near the Apollo Theater. Many cheered or started making calls to relatives and friends when Obama's victory was announced. Many there said they couldn't believe an African-American had been elected president in their lifetimes. People were celebrating in the streets into the night in other cities, including San Francisco, California and Seattle, Washington. iReport.com: Obama win celebrated in Antarctica . In Atlanta, the Rev. Bernice King, youngest daughter of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., hailed the first African-American president-elect. When asked what Obama's victory meant to her, she said it meant \"that the work that my mother and father sacrificed for was not in vain.\" \"I was very touched tonight and moved to tears when I heard the announcement, and I know that this is something that my father would be proud of America for,\" King said. \"He would be proud of the many young people who turned out at the polls to make this possible, and it's a new dawning ... in America.\" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's main rival for the Democratic nomination for president, said Obama's win is a \"historic victory for the American people.\" See what people are saying about Obama's victory \u00bb . \"In quiet, solitary acts of citizenship, American voters gave voice to their hopes and their values, voted for change, and refused to be invisible any longer,\" she said. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said \"Americans spoke loud and clear and demanded change by electing Barack Obama as our next president.\" \"They understood his vision of a fairer and more just America and embraced it,\" Kennedy said. \"They heard his call for a new generation of Americans to participate in government and were inspired. They believed that change is possible and voted to be part of America's future. \"Barack Obama is my friend and tonight, I'm very proud to call him my president. I look forward to working with him and Joe Biden on the many challenges facing our country here at home and around the world.\" U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio congratulated Obama for \"an achievement that is an important milestone for our democracy.\" \"President Lincoln, the first and greatest Republican president, envisioned an America in which the blessings and opportunities of liberty were truly and equally available to all citizens, regardless of race or creed,\" Boehner said in a statement. \"The party of Lincoln stands together with all Americans tonight in heralding this historic achievement for freedom, and also in thanking Sen. John McCain for his decades of patriotism and service to our nation.\" CNN's Elaine Quijano, Alina Cho and Jason Carroll contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hundreds gather outside White House to celebrate Obama's victory .\nOprah Winfrey in Chicago: \"It feels like America did the right thing.\"\nMore than 200,000 gather in Chicago to hear Obama claim victory .\nHillary Rodham Clinton hails \"historic victory for the American people\"","id":"7b735ebd3a3d630ccad23d78433265db7e7339eb"} -{"article":"TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Russian forces appeared to be in control of two key Georgian cities early Friday, and there were reports of tanks on the move again. A woman outside a bombed apartment block in Gori, Georgia, on Thursday. Russia said Thursday that its withdrawal of Gori would be complete within hours, and the U.S. said it looked like the Russian military was gearing up to leave, but CNN's Michael Ware confirmed that Russian troops were comfortably in control of Gori in the early hours of Friday. The town was a base for the Georgian military and is near the breakaway South Ossetia province where the conflict began. Meanwhile, there are reports of Russian vehicles on the move towards Poti, a port city in the west of Georgia. Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said that more than 100 tanks and other vehicles are traveling in convoy between the cities of Senaki and Kutaisi. CNN has not independently confirmed the claim. \"I appeal for the help of every civilized person in the world to stop this uncivilized, barbarian, inhuman, treacherous, absolutely outrageous behavior, and to save innocent lives,\" Saakashvili said. He estimated that Russian soldiers control about one-third of his country and said his government has received 1,400 reports of brutal attacks. On Thursday, about 200 Russian troops were in Gori, just outside South Ossetia, the U.S. defense official said. A Russian general confirmed troops were in Gori, but said they should be withdrawn within hours. Watch Russian troops on the road to Tbilisi \u00bb . The U.S. official said there were also troops in Poti, having been put ashore in the Black Sea port several days ago. Russians have been accused of bombing targets in Poti, including a military installation and ships. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied Wednesday that there were Russian troops in Poti. But a CNN crew that tried to drive to Poti on Thursday found the road blocked by Russian soldiers. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has been charged with a major humanitarian mission to Georgia, warned that U.S.-Russian relations could be hurt \"for years to come\" but ruled out any U.S. military action in the region. The conflict in Georgia began late last week, when Tbilisi launched a military incursion into South Ossetia in an effort to rout separatist rebels. Watch some of the destruction in South Ossetia \u00bb . Russia -- which supports the separatists, many of whom claim Russian citizenship -- responded the next day, sending tanks across the border into the province. The conflict quickly spread to parts of Georgia and to Abkhazia, another breakaway region. Concern beyond Georgia's borders prompted European leaders, spearheaded by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to mediate a cease-fire deal and U.S. President Bush to offer humanitarian support. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in France. A senior State Department official familiar with the negotiations said she will be going to Tbilisi with a cease-fire document that allows Russia to keep some troops in Georgia, but it will not be the final version of the document. Watch the latest on Rice's mission \u00bb . International agreements signed in the early 1990s allow Russian peacekeepers to maintain a presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as part of a force including Georgians and South Ossetians. Analysts see the conflict as a gamble initiated by Georgia, which is seeking EU and NATO membership, to test the strength of its Western allies in the face of Russia's unwillingness to see the West encroaching on its doorstep. In five days of fighting, both sides accused the other of targeting civilians, with casualty reports in the thousands. Many more people have fled the fighting into Russia and Georgia, leaving heavily bombarded towns and cities deserted. Despite Tuesday's cease-fire deal, accusations of ongoing hostilities have continued on both sides, and Russia's incursion into undisputed Georgian territory has adding to confusion fueled doubts that a quick solution to the conflict can be found. Watch as a reporter is grazed by a bullet \u00bb . Russian Gen. Nikolai Uvarov said Russia had invaded Gori because it is Georgia's main military base and an arms munition storage there had been left unattended. iReport.com: Ask ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev about the crisis . Meanwhile, Russia's deputy chief of general staff, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said that a withdrawal plan to pull troops from the breakaway region had yet to be approved by Russia's defense ministry or its president, Dmitry Medvedev. During a Moscow visit by the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Lavrov said that Georgia's current borders were \"limited,\" an indication that the two breakaway regions may never agree to rejoin it. All three voiced their unity against what Abkhazian leader Sergey Bagapsh called \"those aggressors from Georgia.\" South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity compared Georgia's initial assault on the region's capital Tskhinvali, which prompted the Russian invasion, to Germany's attempt to seize Stalingrad during World War II. iReport.com: Are you reminded of past wars? Do you remember the Cold War? \"Tskhinvali has become the Stalingrad of the Caucusus,\" Kokoity said at a joint news conference. Saakashvili suggested earlier that Russia invaded his country to establish control over the former Soviet republic, where a major oil pipeline passes through. View a map of the region \u00bb . \"The fact that the biggest number of bombs fell on purely economic and civilian targets clearly indicated that was a premeditated thing and it had nothing to do only with Abkhazia or South Ossetia,\" Saakashvili said. Russian peacekeeping troops were also in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi, just outside Abkhazia. Video showed the Russians, clearly wearing the blue helmets that signify their peacekeeper status, at the official government residence in the town. iReport.com: How is the Russia-Georgia conflict affecting you? U.S. officials said Russia is thought to have 15,000 or more troops in the region, between 5,000 and 7,000 more than when the fighting began. Russia's Lavrov said Russia's operations were about \"peace enforcement\" in respect of Georgia, which \"violates all of its obligations.\" Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian military appears in control of two key Georgia cities .\nGeorgia says more than 100 tanks, vehicles moving between Senaki and Kutaisi .\nSource tells CNN draft peace deal could see some Russian stay in Georgia .\nConflict began when Georgia launched action against rebels in South Ossetia .","id":"c57bfef03060a921a3f2f5fa012c265f485b9622"} -{"article":"WATERTOWN, South Dakota (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama linked Sen. John McCain Friday with what he called \"the failed policies\" of the Bush administration, accusing the presumed Republican presidential nominee and the White House of \"bombastic exaggerations and fear-mongering\" in place of \"strategy and analysis and smart policy.\" \"What we've done over the last eight years does not work,\" the Democratic front-runner said. Obama accused McCain of supporting a track record from the Bush administration that included the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a longer and more expensive war in Iraq than was initially projected, the continued freedom of September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and the strengthening of Iran after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. \"The American people are going to look at the evidence,\" he said. \"We don't get a sense that this has been a wise foreign policy or a smart foreign policy or a tough foreign policy. This has been a policy that oftentimes revolved around a lot of bluster and big talk, but very little performance, and what the American people want right now is performance.\" In a speech at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, McCain defended his foreign policy positions, saying the United States has a realistic chance of success in Iraq after four years of costly mistakes. McCain called some of Obama's ideas \"reckless\" and questioned his understanding of America's standing in the world. Watch McCain take on Obama's comments \u00bb . \"It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies,\" the Arizona Republican said. \"That's not the world we live in. And until Sen. Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe.\" The verbal sparring took place a day after President Bush suggested in a speech before the Israeli Knesset that those who want to shift American policy to include direct talks with what he called \"terrorists and radicals\" were appeasers and delusional. Watch more of the controversy surrounding Bush's speech \u00bb . \"I don't take what Bush says personally, but I was offended by what is a continuation of strategy from this White House, now mimicked by Sen. McCain, that replaces strategy and analysis and smart policy with bombast, exaggerations and fear-mongering,\" Obama said. Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . \"The speech yesterday was not about an actual policy argument. It was about politics and scaring the American people, and that's what will not work in this election,\" he said. Obama said he would offer \"tough diplomacy\" to the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea \"without preconditions, although with preparation, and I would present to them very clearly what my expectations would be in terms of them changing their behavior.\" On Thursday, McCain spoke warily of Obama's willingness to meet with dictators and \"state sponsors of terrorists.\" \"I have some news for Sen. Obama,\" McCain told the NRA Friday. \"Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric ... will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional meetings will advance our interests.\" Speaking to reporters earlier, McCain said he disagreed with Obama's desire to talk with Iran's president. \"What you do, if you sit down face to face, as Sen. Obama wants to do, is you legitimize a regime that's dedicated to the extinction of Israel, supports terrorist organizations and is responsible for deaths of brave young Americans,\" McCain said. McCain also said he would not meet with representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian organization listed as a terrorist group by the United States and Israel, which won elections in 2006 and now controls Gaza while U.S.-friendly President Mahmoud Abbas controls the West Bank. Obama agreed with that position, calling Hamas a terrorist organization that has vowed to destroy Israel. But Obama said McCain and Bush have to answer for Iran's benefiting from the invasion of Iraq, Hamas' gaining control of Gaza and Iran's continued funding of terrorist organizations, all of which, he said, have affected U.S. security. \"That's the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country,\" he said at a Watertown, South Dakota, town hall meeting. \"Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double-down on.\" \"I am happy to have a debate with John McCain and George Bush about foreign policy,\" Obama said. \"I believe that there is no separation between George Bush and John McCain when it comes to our Middle East policy, and I think their policy has failed.\" In Kentucky, McCain said he would also welcome a debate about \"protecting America.\" \"No issue is more important,\" he said. \"Sen. Obama claimed all I had to offer was a quote 'naive and irresponsible belief' that tough talk would cause Iran to give up its nuclear program. He should have known better.\" CNN's associate political editor Rebecca Sinderbrand and political producer Ed Hornick contributed to this story.","highlights":"McCain blasts Obama's comments in NRA speech .\nObama slams Bush over attack \"that alienates us from the rest of the world\"\nHe blasts McCain for \"embracing\" Bush's attacks .","id":"9b202cb931e864ce0a2a8ee397e0e67eec43a538"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Grocery store shelves are bare. Food left in refrigerators has rotted in the absence of electricity. Houston and Galveston are hungry. Ashia Turner and her family, from Galveston, wait at a shelter for a bus that will take them to a hotel on Tuesday. The Houston Food Bank is \"utterly overwhelmed with people asking for help,\" its president, Brian Greene, said Tuesday. The food bank needs 500,000 pounds of food a day for the next six weeks to satisfy the \"staggering\" needs of Texans who have no food or water after the storm, he said. \"People don't grasp just how many people live here,\" said Greene, who was executive director of New Orleans' Food Bank when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. He lost his home in Katrina, and lived at the New Orleans food bank for weeks using a garden hose as a shower. Most of the Houston food bank's volunteers' homes were damaged and they don't have power. \"It's a very similar situation that I saw following Katrina: when the caregivers themselves [are] victims, it just becomes difficult on a far larger scale than you would think,\" he said. iReport.com: How are you getting by after Ike? He pointed out that while Katrina's devastation was spread over a greater area, more people have been affected by Hurricane Ike. Greene said the food bank normally distributes aid through local charities, churches and other faith-based organizations. But many were wiped out by the storm or are unable to function because of the lack of electricity or phone service. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said several times that they are constantly shipping two days' worth of food every day to make sure supplies do not wane. FEMA has established at least 60 distribution sites across the region to give away water, ice and food. There are long waiting lines at those stations crowded with thousands of people. iReport.com: Long lines for help . Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday issued an emergency order that authorized public utilities to lay temporary power lines to restore electricity to 1.5 million customers. Houston Mayor Bill White spoke at a 9 p.m. news conference about food distribution. \"If we could figure out how to get a big block of ice on your doorstep, we'd do it,\" he said. The city is working to get people refrigerated food, but he cautioned, \"There's a limited number of [FEMA] trucks\" that contain supplies. Fuel is being shipped back to the region, he said. Motorists should stop topping off their tank and only pump the amount of gas they need. Thousands of people remain in shelters throughout the state. FEMA said it was instituting a transitional sheltering program, allowing some evacuees who are unable to return home to stay in hotels or motels. FEMA will pay for the lodging directly to hotels and motels, the agency said. iReport.com: Ike evacuees get help in Austin . Galveston was so ravaged that city officials told the 15,000 to 20,000 people who stayed on the island during Ike to leave. For those who evacuated, the message was: Stay away. There's not enough clean drinking water and if people came back it would result in a \"downward spiral\" that officials cannot handle right now, Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said Monday. \"Sometimes the aftermath of the storm is worse than the storm itself,\" Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said Monday. \"There's nothing to come here for right now. ... Please leave.\" Watch how Ike wiped out neighborhoods \u00bb . In Houston, a curfew remained in place, banning citizens from the streets from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. iReport.com: Shattered Houston buildings . A bottled or boiled water advisory for the Houston area was not lifted as had been hoped -- with the exception of Bellaire, which gave the OK for its tap water Tuesday. Houston city officials said water in one location was being retested. Harris County, which includes Houston, said it had crews working to clear roads in downtown Houston, and said most streets were passable, while some were blocked because of glass and debris. \"Businesses are reopening gradually, and the situation is returning to normal,\" said a statement from the Harris County Homeland Security and Emergency Management. \"It's a tough situation on the coast,\" President Bush told reporters in a hangar at Houston's Ellington Field, where he had arrived to tour Houston and Galveston. \"It may be hard to imagine a better Galveston or a better Orange [County], or some of these other communities that have been affected, but I know, with proper help from the federal government and state government, there will be a better tomorrow.\" Watch what the feds are doing to keep aid flowing \u00bb . Bush said the federal government will pay 100 percent for debris removal and emergency preparedness measures that state and local governments have put in place, without requiring matching funds from the state. \"People have been moved out of their homes, and I know a lot of people are anxious to get back in,\" he said. \"I urge you to listen to state and local authorities before you come back.\" iReport.com: Facing the deadly storm . Leslie Johnson came home Tuesday to strewn boxes, water-stained walls and soggy, ruined furniture in her first-floor apartment in Bayou Vista, Texas. \"Nothing there is usable. Everything is damaged,\" she told CNN affiliate KTRK-TV in Houston, sitting on the steps outside her apartment in the small waterfront community in Galveston County. Inside, a television remained where it had been thrown face down on the floor, its wires still connected to a cabinet. \"I didn't think this would really happen, you know,\" she said, inhaling deeply. \"I thought it was just going to be like Rita, just a little bit of damage, everything will go back to normal. I never thought I would come back and it would look like this.\" The Texas coast bore the bulk of Ike's power, and areas lay in ruins Tuesday. At Crystal Beach, a resort community on the Bolivar Peninsula, swaths of land where houses had stood were reduced to debris-laden beaches, with only a few houses dotting the flattened landscape. See the aftermath of Ike \u00bb . Oak Island, north of the peninsula, looked like it had been \"bombed,\" said former Chambers County Auditor Jimmie Moorhead, according to the Houston Chronicle. \"I doubt there are any homes that are livable, and some are just cratered. I even saw someone's little pet goat [dead] in a tree,\" Moorhead told the newspaper. Chambers, which includes Oak Island, has sustained \"widespread damage,\" a message on the county's emergency telephone line said. The area has \"many unsafe things,\" no electricity and sewer problems, the message said, urging people not to return home. Ike's trail stretched into the Midwest, where roads were flooded and thousands of people were without electricity Tuesday. Ike dumped as much as 8 inches of rain over the weekend, according to The Associated Press. Some rivers in Missouri were more than 15 feet above flood stage and rising, and flooding already was occurring at several towns along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, including St. Louis, Missouri, the AP reported. Flooding had closed the street in front of the Gateway Arch and a casino on the St. Louis waterfront, the AP said. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Houston food bank needs 500,000 pounds of food a day for next 6 weeks .\nThousands still in shelters, 1.5 million without power in Texas .\nPresident inspects hurricane damage in Galveston, promises help .\nFloodwaters rising on Missouri, Mississippi rivers from Ike's weekend deluge .","id":"7ae97dc194180930b1cb7bcb06612df65710f51a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Pop star Britney Spears was resting at UCLA Medical Center on Thursday, her mother said, hours after police escorted her to the hospital from her Hollywood home. Britney Spears, left, and her mother Lynne Spears pose at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. A long convoy of police and a Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance transported the 26-year-old singer to the hospital after midnight, acting on what the Los Angeles Times reported was a \"mental evaluation hold.\" It was the second hospitalization for Spears this month. The police operation was planned far in advance and, according to the L.A. Times, followed a phone call to police from Spears' psychiatrist. Asked if her daughter was resting, mother Lynne Spears said \"Yes\" to a throng of reporters as she departed the medical center. Watch scene at Spears' home \u00bb . The pop star's father Jamie Spears and her manager Sam Lufti also appeared at the hospital, neither choosing to speak to reporters. The latest incident in the troubled performer's saga began about 12:55 a.m. on Thursday when the North Hollywood Police Department sent about eight officers to Spears' hilltop house in Studio City, California, according to a law enforcement official, who asked not to be identified because he's not authorized to comment publicly. See Spears timeline \u00bb . The group at Spears' house included plainclothes officers, motorcycle police, ambulance crews and some police \"brass,\" the official said. It took the better part of the day to arrange the transport plan, the officer said. On January 3, Spears was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she reportedly underwent a psychological evaluation. Watch how mental evaluations work \u00bb . Andrew Blankstein, a Los Angeles Times reporter who was at the scene of Thursday's incident, told CNN that a police convoy, stretching the length of a football field, accompanied the ambulance as it drove down Coldwater Canyon Boulevard -- in part to keep the paparazzi from getting too close. Watch police motorcade at Spears' home \u00bb . Spears was whisked out a side entrance to her house. \"You couldn't really see what was going on [when officers first swept into the residence] but on the police radio, there was some reference to 'The package is on the way out,' 'We're leaving now. Go, go, go,'\" Blankstein said. A few hours earlier, two officers were sent to investigate a report of a large group gathered outside the singer's home, said David Grimes, watch commander for the west division of the Los Angeles Police Department. The two officers found 20 to 25 people near the house around 11 p.m. Wednesday and they asked them to leave, he said. ABC-TV host Barbara Walters reported on Monday's \"The View\" that she had been contacted by Spears' manager and \"good friend,\" Lufti, who told her the pop star has seen a psychiatrist and \"is suffering from what he describes as mental issues which are treatable,\" according to The Associated Press. Watch experts discuss Spears' behavioral issues \u00bb . During Spears' earlier hospitalization, in addition to the psychological evaluation, she was examined for possible influence of alcohol or drugs. Police had been called to her home that night to mediate a custody dispute. A day later, a California court refused to grant Spears visitation rights with her two children -- Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1 -- at least until mid-February. Spears has been in a heated dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over custody of their sons. Federline, Spears' former backup dancer, holds primary custody of the children. Spears has been in trouble with the court earlier concerning her compliance with court orders in the custody case. After filing for divorce in November 2006, Spears was frequently seen enjoying Hollywood nightlife. Her behavior became increasingly erratic; in February 2007, she shaved her head as paparazzi looked on, then spent a month in rehab. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Troubled pop star resting, mom says, after large police escort .\nL.A. Times: Britney Spears placed on \"mental health evaluation hold\"\nHold prompted by call police got from Spears' psychiatrist, Times reports .\nIncident is second time in weeks the singer has been taken to a hospital .","id":"807114d1423f6e421882003361404438738ee313"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Two men accused of failed car bomb attacks in London and a car bombing at Glasgow International Airport last year went on trial Thursday. Mohammed Asha, a doctor, is accused of conspiracy to murder and cause explosions. Bilal Abdulla and Mohammed Asha, both doctors, are charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. Their trial at London's Woolwich Crown Court is expected to last up to 12 weeks. The case stems from the discovery in June 2007 of two explosives-filled Mercedes sedans in central London. One of the cars was parked across the street from a packed nightclub near Piccadilly Circus and the other was towed from an underground car park at Hyde Park. An ambulance crew notified police about the first car after they saw smoke coming from it. The second car was towed for a parking offense but drew suspicion because it smelled of gasoline. Officials said both cars cars were filled with fuel, gas canisters, and nails. Police managed to defuse them. The following day, with attention still focused on the averted attacks in the capital, a Jeep sped through the barriers outside Glasgow International Airport and slammed head on into the terminal. The Jeep, filled with propane gas, burst into flames and created a fireball. The driver and passenger jumped out of the car. One set himself on fire and later died in the hospital; the other was identified as Abdulla, an Iraqi doctor who had been practicing medicine in Scotland. Later that day, police arrested Asha as he was driving with his wife on a highway in Cheshire, England. Police said Asha, a doctor of Palestinian descent who grew up in Jordan, conspired with Abdulla to carry out the explosions. The incidents happened just days after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown took office. A third man charged in the case, Sabeel Ahmed, pleaded guilty in April to failing to disclose information about an act of terrorism. He was ordered to be deported to India.","highlights":"Men accused of failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow go on trial .\nBilal Abdulla and Mohammed Asha charged with conspiracy to murder .\nThe men, both doctors, also charged with conspiracy to cause explosions .","id":"39fa44e35aa12d6c006b9d13f329a5732f7e78b7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Virginia hasn't backed a Democrat for president in 44 years, but economic concerns and changing demographics are giving Sen. Barack Obama a chance to steal the once reliably red state from Republicans. Sen. Barack Obama waves as rain falls on a rally in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in late September. Polls earlier this year showed Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, leading Obama, his Democratic rival, in Virginia by a healthy margin. A Virginia Commonwealth University poll taken May 12-18 had McCain leading 47 percent to 39 percent. But as the financial crisis has shaken voters' confidence in the economy, Obama has begun to open a lead in the state, as he has done in other battleground states. The latest CNN poll of polls has Obama leading McCain 49 percent to 45 percent. A CNN\/TIME\/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted September 28-30 shows Obama with an even bigger lead over McCain, 53 percent to 44 percent. The CNN poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points. Polls show that voters have more confidence in Obama to handle the economic crisis than they do in McCain, and are more likely to blame Republicans for the recent turmoil than Democrats. Beside an advantage on the economy, Obama is also benefiting from a demographic shift that has reshaped Virginia politics. For the last 10 presidential elections, Republicans have been able to bank on Virginia delivering its 13 electoral votes to the GOP. President Bush won Virginia by 8 percentage points in both 2000 and 2004, and President Bill Clinton was never able to capture the state when he ran in 1992 and 1996. But the explosive growth of Northern Virginia in the last decade has changed the state's electorate. Drawn by government jobs in nearby Washington and high-tech jobs in the Dulles corridor, the growing population in Northern Virginia is more liberal than the mostly rural southern portion of the state, which has remained reliably Republican. In 2000, Bush carried Northern Virginia 49 percent to 47 percent, but in 2004, Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, carried the area 51 percent to 48 percent. Virginia \"is not as red as people think,\" said Doc Thompson, a conservative talk show host for WRVA radio. \"A third of the population in Northern Virginia is pretty liberal. A lot of people are buying into [Obama's] notion of change.\" Virginia Democrats have been able to exploit the changes in the electorate into statewide electoral success after years in which the Republicans had a virtual lock on the state. In fact, Virginia Republicans have not won a statewide race since Mark Warner, a former mobile phone company executive, captured the governorship for the Democrats in 2001 by emphasizing economic growth. Democrat Tim Kaine, who was Warner's lieutenant governor, succeeded Warner in 2005. And in what may have been the most surprising result of the 2006 election cycle, Democrat Jim Webb defeated the incumbent Republican George Allen in the race for one of Virginia's seats in the U.S. Senate. The trend favoring the Democrats is expected to continue this year, which is expected to help drive Virginia Democrats to the polls. The extremely popular Warner is almost certain to win this year's race against another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore, to replace Virginia's long-standing Republican senator, John Warner, who is retiring. (The two Warners are not related, and John Warner was unopposed in 2002.) A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in late September found Warner leading Gilmore by 30 points, and Warner's victory would give Democrats control of both of Virginia's seats in the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1970. While conservatives may be demoralized by Gilmore's poor showing, McCain may also face eroding support from Virginia conservatives for his recent proposals for the government to become heavily involved in the U.S. economy, said Thompson, the radio talk show host. During Tuesday night's presidential debate, McCain suggested that the government directly buy up to $300 billion in home mortgages to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Thompson said that proposal, along with his support for a $700 billion bailout package to help Wall Street firms that McCain voted for last week, are two signs that McCain is breaking from the free-market principles that Virginia conservatives support and not stopping \"the march toward socialism\" that has begun since the economic crisis started. \"They missed a real opportunity, certainly, in Virginia with my listeners who say they want someone who is fiscally conservative,\" said Thompson, who added that he's considering voting for a third-party candidate. \"They could have come out and said, 'no more spending.' \" CNN's Scott Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Poll of polls has Sen. Obama leading Sen. McCain 49 percent to 45 percent .\nRapid growth of suburbs around Washington has made Virginia more liberal .\nConservatives angered by McCain's support for bailout, mortgage buyouts .","id":"aff2075ae43a7367da888d2d5f12348531174325"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The California Public Utilities Commission banned texting on the job Thursday after it was shown that a Metrolink train engineer involved in last week's deadly collision near Los Angeles sent text messages from his cell phone. It was unclear what 46-year-old Robert Sanchez was doing at the time of the crash Friday. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating claims that he was sending text messages when his commuter train slammed into a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Twenty-five people were killed, including Sanchez, and at least 130 were injured. Investigators subpoenaed the phone records of the engineer and determined that he \"had sent and received text messages on the day of the accident, including some while he was on duty,\" according to an NTSB statement Wednesday. Investigators were trying to determine at what time the messages were sent. The commission's emergency order passed unanimously Thursday. In pushing for the ban, Commission President Michael Peevey said that cell phone use by engineers \"may have been a factor\" in train accidents this year in San Francisco and Sacramento, California. He did not elaborate on details of those incidents. Thursday's order is temporary until the state commission decides whether to make it permanent. Metrolink prohibits cell phone use by engineers on the job, but Peevey emphasized that there is no federal or California regulation barring cell phone use by engineers while trains are moving. The NTSB had determined that the brakes on the Metrolink train were not applied before the collision and that stop signals at the scene were working properly, said Kitty Higgins, an NTSB member assigned to the investigation. Metrolink has said its train, carrying about 220 passengers, failed to stop for a red signal. Watch expert tell what it's like to drive a train \u00bb . Twenty-four bodies were found at the scene after the head-on collision during rush hour Friday in the northwest Los Angeles suburb. A 25th victim, a man in his 50s, died at a hospital. More than 130 people were injured. The agency has said it also has been in contact with the two teenagers who told a local television station they were exchanging text messages with the engineer just before the crash occurred. Higgins said investigators have interviewed the Metrolink train conductor, who had worked with Sanchez since April. The conductor \"had no issues of his time working with the engineer and on how the engineer operated the train,\" she said. Watch as callers to 911 describe the crash \u00bb . The engineer took a two-hour nap during his midday break on the day of the collision, the conductor told investigators. Sanchez was a subcontractor who worked for another company.","highlights":"NEW: California Public Utilities Commission passed ban Thursday .\nPhone records show engineer texting during work hours on day of crash .\nEngineer Robert Sanchez was among 25 people killed in Friday's crash .\nInvestigators determined the brakes on train he was driving were not applied .","id":"b5d3d3c763090609d7148039f458b6309cc9d636"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jorge Fernandez strolls across the used-car parking lot littered with dozens upon dozens of sport utility vehicles the size of small tugboats. SUVs like these are having a tough time selling with gas prices at all-time highs. With gas at $4 a gallon, many have sat there since last summer. \"The cars are literally just sitting, and it doesn't matter how much you sell them for,\" Fernandez says of the SUVs and trucks nobody wants anymore. \"It's amazing. I've never seen it this bad -- ever.\" Fernandez, a wholesale auto dealer who has been in the business for more than 20 years, says SUV owners are hit especially hard. The really large ones with V-8 engines that can get as little as 12 miles per gallon in the city -- like the Cadillac Escalade, Ford Expedition and Chevy Suburban -- are dropping in value by the thousands. Watch the sinking value of guzzlers \u00bb . The No. 1 reason for the sales slump is soaring gas prices, says Peter Brown, the executive director of Automotive News, the trade newspaper for the North American car industry. For the first four months of this year, truck and SUV sales are down a collective 24.8 percent. SUV sales plummeted 32.8 percent while pickups dipped 19.9 percent, he says. \"If gas prices stay where they are at or continue to rise, the body-on frame SUV is an endangered species and the pickup truck as a personal car is an endangered species,\" Brown says. How do owners react when they're told their once-$40,000-plus vehicles are now worth less than half that? \"When they find out what you think their truck is worth, they think you're trying to rip them off or something,\" says Fernandez. \"Small cars are gone within a week; SUVs are sitting here since last summer.\" David Lavi, the owner of a Toyota Tacoma pickup, is feeling that pinch. He put his truck on the market several weeks ago in hopes of downsizing. He bought it brand new in 2006 when gas prices were much lower. \"Once I do sell it, I'm going to get a smaller car -- maybe a Nissan Maxima or something smaller,\" he says. He's hoping to get $23,000 for the fully loaded truck, which is higher than the estimated Kelley Blue Book value of $15,000 to $19,000 depending on how many amenities it has. \"No one has offered what I want,\" he says. Automakers have noticed this trend to downsize. Ford announced Thursday it was shifting production away from its longtime hallmark of pickups and SUVs in favor of smaller cars. In making the decision, Ford said it believes gas prices will remain in the range of $3.75 to $4.25 a gallon through the end of 2009. \"We saw a real change in the industry demand in pickups and SUVs in the first two weeks of May,\" Ford chief executive Alan Mulally said Thursday. \"It seems to us we reached a tipping point.\" Brown of Automotive News said he wouldn't be surprised if General Motors and other automakers follow suit. According to AAA, gas prices reached another all-time high Friday, with the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at $3.87. Seven states are now over $4 a gallon, AAA says. How much do you need to work to pay for your gas? \u00bb . Stories of owners ditching larger vehicles for smaller ones have started to become widespread. Owners say they're tired of spending as much as 80 to 100 bucks to fill up their tanks. Some CNN.com users recently shared their stories of buying used Geo Metros -- the oft-maligned, snail-sized car from the 1990s that gets gas mileage similar to a hybrid of today for a fraction of the sticker price. \"I used to be a car snob, and I used to be too vain to drive anything that doesn't shine,\" said Marci Solomon, an electrician who has a 100-mile commute to and from work. \"But now it's about, do I want to eat, or do I want to make it to work? I want to do both.\" But some auto experts caution owners against trading in their SUVs and trucks to save money at the pump because it may not be the wisest financial decision. Owners might owe $20,000 or more when the vehicle is now worth $12,000. It's similar to an upside-down mortgage, and it may not make sense to try a trade-in. \"What they might be doing is spending thousands of dollars to save hundreds,\" says Jack Nerad, the executive director of Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com. \"Because if you make a trade, you're most often going to spend more to make that move than you would just sucking it up and paying the extra gasoline prices.\" Back at the Los Angeles lot, Fernandez says he thinks the trend away from SUVs and pickups is here to stay. \"Just when you think that it's going to change any day now, it doesn't. It just continuously gets worse,\" he said. CNN's Wayne Drash and CNN Money's Chris Isidore contributed to this report.","highlights":"Car dealer says SUVs are tough sells now: \"I've never seen it this bad -- ever\"\nAAA says average gas price hit another all-time high Friday .\nTruck owner says he can't get the price he wants for his vehicle .","id":"8c53681ea74b9b40663352312b7db48bafd51ab1"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- An outraged sheriff in Illinois who refuses to evict \"innocent\" renters from foreclosed homes criticized mortgage companies Thursday and said the law should protect victims of the mortgage meltdown. Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart says too many renters are being evicted for landlords' problems. Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said earlier he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago. The county had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures. Many good tenants are suffering because building owners have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, he said Thursday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"These poor people are seeing everything they own put out on the street. ... They've paid their bills, paid them on time. Here we are with a battering ram at the front door going to throw them out. It's gotten insane,\" he said. Watch Dart slam mortgage companies \u00bb . Mortgage companies are supposed to identify a building's occupants before asking for an eviction, but sheriff's deputies routinely find that the mortgage companies have not done so, Dart said. \"This is an example where the banking industry has not done any of the work they should do. It's a piece of paper to them,\" Dart said. \"These mortgage companies ... don't care who's in the building,\" Dart said Wednesday. \"They simply want their money and don't care who gets hurt along the way. \"On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We're not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We're just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today.\" Dart said he wants the courts or the state Legislature to establish protections for those most harmed by the mortgage crisis. In 1999, Cook County had 12,935 mortgage foreclosure cases; in 2006, 18,916 cases were filed, and last year, 32,269 were filed. This year's total is expected to exceed 43,000. \"The people we're interacting with are, many times, oblivious to the financial straits their landlord might be in,\" Dart said. \"They are the innocent victims here, and they are the ones all of us must step up and find some way to protect.\" Watch sheriff announce he won't evict innocent tenants \u00bb . The Illinois Bankers Association opposed the plan, saying that Dart \"was elected to uphold the law and to fulfill the legal duties of his office, which include serving eviction notices.\" The association said Dart could be found in contempt of court for ignoring court eviction orders. \"The reality is that by ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out 'vigilantism' at the highest level of an elected official,\" it said. \"The Illinois banking industry is working hard to help troubled homeowners in many ways, but Sheriff Dart's declaration of 'martial law' should not be tolerated.\" Dart was undeterred Thursday. \"I think the outrage on my part with them [is] that they could so cavalierly issue documents and have me throw people out of homes who have done absolutely nothing wrong,\" Dart said. \"They played by all the rules. \"I told them, 'You send an agent out, you send somebody out that gives me any type of assurance that the appropriate person is in the house, I will fulfill the order.' iReport.com: How hard have foreclosures hit your neighborhood? \"When you're blindly sending me out to houses where I'm coming across innocent tenant after innocent tenant, I can't keep doing this and have a good conscience about it.\"","highlights":"NEW: Sheriff: 'I can't keep doing this and have a good conscience about it'\nSheriff Thomas Dart says he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County .\nIllinois Bankers Association opposes plan, says sheriff could be found in contempt .\nCook County on pace to exceed 43,000 foreclosure cases this year .","id":"ced3789873aa7495be81417d1b5cb97ceda4de96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In India he's an icon and to the rest of the cricketing world he's simply known as one of the greatest ever batsmen. One the game's greats, Sachin Tendulkar is more than just a player in India, he's an icon. Sachin Tendulkar picked up a bat at the age of 4 in Mumbai and from that day on fell in love with the game. \"The only thing that was on my mind was, 'I want to play for India one day,' and I was pretty sure and confident that one day I will,\" he told CNN in Mumbai. In fact he made his Test debut for India at the age of 16 facing Pakistan's fearsome bowling attack, just two years after making his first-class debut for Mumbai. Despite a baptism of fire in that first international match and getting hit on the mouth by a ball from Waquar Younis, he took his own game forward and has become known for the positivity of his play and the compact efficiency and brilliance of his shot-making. Making his first Test hundred at the age of 17 against England he has racked up the records in a 19-year career. In 2000 he became the first batsman to score 50 international hundreds, and is the highest scorer in One Day internationals. He joined an elite group in 2007 when he became only the third player to pass 11,000 runs in Test cricket. Nicknames in cricket are common, but only if you're a really exceptional player do you get one that's complementary. Tendulkar has joined that elite as the \"Little Master\" which sits nicely next to other great batsmen, Viv \"Master Blaster\" Richards and Brian \"The Prince\" Lara. But perhaps no higher praise came from Australian cricketing legend Donald Bradman who once said that Tendulkar was the only player that reminded him of himself. Like all sportsmen he's suffered from injury, and now 35-years-old, many are wondering if his best days are behind him. Playing for India against England and Australia last summer and at the beginning of 2008, many commentators thought that his normal aggression and daring were missing from his game. His form was also heavily criticized after the 2007 World Cup, and injury forced him out of the international series against South Africa. But for the man used to batting away tricky deliveries, this criticism gets a typical positive response: \"I'm not one to dwell on the past. I like to move forward and these challenges, these hurdles in between, they bring the best out of me. They motivate me even more.\" He's currently facing the challenges of the rapid-fire version of the game in the Indian Premier League (IPL), masterminded by Lalit Modi, that despite it's glitz and hype has been criticized for losing some of the finer points of the sport. \"It's so full of excitement. I personally don't feel that it's dumbing-down the game. It's just another version of cricket. If the game is going to be globalized in the form of IPL, then why not? It's better for cricket,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"India's best known cricketer is one of the games best-ever batsmen .\nStarted his international career when just 16-years-old .\nLeading run-scorer in One Day Internationals and holder of many other records .","id":"da1ade89ae49419b905fc4e933ee460c3852a363"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A professor who compared some victims of the al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center to Nazis was fired Tuesday by the University of Colorado's Board of Regents. Professor Ward Churchill wrote that some 9\/11 victims were \"little Eichmanns.\" Ward Churchill raised hackles with a 2002 essay that argued the September 11, 2001, attacks were a justified reaction to U.S. policies in the Middle East, and said the hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania had \"the courage of their convictions.\" But the regents said Churchill's firing was unrelated to the essay, which went largely unnoticed for three years. Instead, it cited \"deliberate and repeated research misconduct.\" A university investigation had found cases of plagiarism and falsification in previous papers by Churchill -- allegations that surfaced after his essay became widely known. \"The Board of Regents affirms that its decisions in this matter have been made solely on the basis of the allegations of research misconduct against Professor Churchill and have not been influenced or motivated by extrinsic considerations, Professor Churchill's political and social views or a desire to punish Professor Churchill for expression of his political or social views,\" the university announced. CU interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano recommended Churchill's dismissal in June 2006 after a university committee completed its investigation. Churchill's essay drew little notice until a 1,800-student college in upstate New York invited him to take part in a 2005 forum on prisons and Native American rights. The invitation was rescinded after criticism from then-New York Gov. George Pataki, then-Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and hundreds of relatives of those killed in the attacks created a media firestorm. The piece had called some of those who died in the World Trade Center \"little Eichmanns\" -- a reference to Adolf Eichmann, the Gestapo officer who was one of the chief architects of the Holocaust -- arguing they were \"a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire.\" Churchill, who had tenure, stepped down from his post as head of CU's ethnic studies department amid the flap but remained on staff. He had no immediate reaction to Tuesday's decision. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ward Churchill said 9\/11 attacks were justified reaction to U.S. Mideast policies .\nUniversity of Colorado says 9\/11 essay not reason he was fired .\nDismissal due to plagiarism, falsification in other papers, university says .","id":"b6f63616e69f57fe43d0f4181343c229228fb1a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A slaughterhouse that has been accused of mistreating cows agreed Sunday to recall 143 million pounds of beef in what federal officials called the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Officials said this is the largest recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 recall of 35 million pounds. Keith Williams, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman, said investigators have found no cases of illness related to the recalled meat. But Dick Raymond, the undersecretary of agriculture for food safety, said there was a \"remote probability\" that the meat from the Westland\/Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California, could cause illness in humans. The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States. The largest U.S. meat recall before Sunday came in 1999, when about 35 million pounds of product possibly contaminated with listeria were ordered off shelves. USDA officials said that was Class I recall, involving a known risk to human health. Sunday's action was a Class II recall, under which authorities say there is little risk of illness. Raymond said cattle that had lost the ability to walk since passing pre-processing inspections were slaughtered without an inspector having examined them for chronic illness -- a practice he said violated federal regulations and had been going on for at least two years. Watch video of cows being abused \u00bb . Federal regulations are aimed at preventing the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- the scientific name for \"mad cow\" disease. It's important to keep downed cattle out of the food supply because they also may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli or salmonella because the animals tend to wallow in feces and have weaker immune systems, according to AP. Raymond said the average age of the cattle involved is 5-7 years, meaning they were likely born long after a 1997 ban on ruminant feed, and that the incidence of BSE in U.S. cattle is \"extremely rare.\" \"We do not know how much of this product is out there at this time. We do not feel this product presents a health risk of any significance,\" he said. \"But the product was produced in non-compliance with our regulations, so therefore we do have to take this action.\" About 37 million pounds of the meat went to school lunch programs and other federal nutrition programs since October 2006, said Ron Vogel, of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. The recall dates back to February 1, 2006, and Raymond said \"the great majority\" of the meat has probably been eaten already. USDA officials have begun tracing the products covered by the recall, he said. \"A lot of this is fresh, raw product and with ground beef, etcetera, that has a very short shelf life and refrigerator life,\" he said. Most of the beef was sent to distribution centers in bulk packages. The USDA said it will work with distributors to determine how much meat remains, the AP reports. In January, the Humane Society of the United States accused Westland\/Hallmark of abusing \"downed\" cattle, releasing video that showed workers kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up their noses in an effort to force them to their feet for slaughter. Federal inspectors halted operations at the plant earlier this month after finding \"clear violations\" of USDA regulations. California prosecutors on Friday announced animal cruelty charges against two former employees of the plant. In a statement issued February 3, Westland Meat President Steve Mendell said the company was cooperating with the USDA and called the practices depicted in the humane society video as \"a serious breach of our company's policies and training.\" \"We have taken swift action regarding the two employees identified on the video and have already implemented aggressive measures to ensure all employees follow our humane handling policies and procedures,\" Mendell said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jen Pifer contributed to this report.","highlights":"About 37 million pounds of the meat went to school lunch programs .\nUSDA official: There is \"remote probability\" beef could cause illness in humans .\nWestland\/Hallmark Meat Packing Company employees accused of cattle abuse .\nHidden video shows animals unable to walk being dragged, carried by forklifts .","id":"551464626d03a4330dabae6cc0d2a961a4c6854c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police have arrested a 33-year-old man accused of killing his brother and five other people, including two children, at a Memphis, Tennessee, home. Jessie L. Dotson, who was recently released after serving 14 years in prison for murder, was captured Friday night. He faces six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cecil Dotson, his 30-year-old brother; Hollis Seals, 33; Shindri Roberson, 20; Marissa Rene Williams, 26; and two children, said Memphis Director of Police Larry A. Godwin at a news conference Saturday. Dotson will also be charged with the attempted murder of three other children -- ages 7, 4 and 10 months -- who received stab wounds and blunt force trauma, Godwin said. Dotson's brother Cecil was the father of all the children, The Associated Press reported. Those who survived the attack were under police custody at a hospital, according to the AP. The March 2 killings followed an argument between Jessie and Cecil Dotson, Godwin said. Jessie Dotson shot his brother dead and went on to kill the others to try to cover up the crime, he said. \"[Dotson] thought everyone in the home was dead,\" Godwin said. \"But as we all know, by the grace of God, three children had survived.\" Prosecutors said they are considering seeking the death penalty against Dotson. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jessie L. Dotson was recently released after serving 14 years in prison for murder .\nHe was captured Friday night and faces six counts of first-degree murder .\nFour adults and two children were found dead; three children survived .\nProsecutors say they are considering seeking the death penalty .","id":"d18243fb3919e08a39c96420ce2260faf78f53b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A passenger who landed at Tokyo's Narita airport over the weekend has ended up with a surprise souvenir courtesy of customs officials -- a package of cannabis. Sniffer dogs failed to find the cannabis after it had been slipped into a passenger's bag. A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong as part of an exercise for sniffer dogs on Sunday, Reuters.com reported. However, staff then lost track of the drugs and suitcase during the exercise, a spokeswoman for Tokyo customs said. Customs regulations specify that a training suitcase be used for such exercises, but the official had used passengers' suitcases for similar purposes in the past, domestic media reported. Tokyo customs has asked anyone who finds the package to return it.","highlights":"Customs official slips cannabis into passenger's bag to test sniffer dogs .\nCannabis slips through the net, with officials forced to ask for its return .\nCannabis hidden in bag of unwitting passenger from Hong Kong .","id":"bf78014519d01ed9b18525cadb983003696cb8c7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As a bill that would expand education benefits for veterans has become a flash point in the early sparring between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, some Republicans admit that the Democrats may have outmaneuvered them on the issue. Sen. John McCain has sided with President Bush on opposing a popular GI Bill in Congress. McCain has defended his opposition to the bill that would expand education benefits for veterans, saying it would hurt the military that he hopes to lead. The bill, which passed the Senate last week 75-22, would expand education benefits for veterans who served at least three years in the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks. A former Navy officer and prisoner of war during Vietnam, McCain says the bill would hurt military retention by 16 percent and be a disincentive for service members to become noncommissioned officers, which he called \"the backbone of all the services.\" Democrats cite the Congressional Budget Office, whose figures say the expanded benefits would boost enlistment by 16 percent. Watch more of McCain's comments \u00bb . \"I think John McCain has been outmaneuvered,\" said GOP strategist Ed Rollins, who had served as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign chairman. \"Sometimes in politics, there are intellectual issues and emotional issues.\" \"John McCain is going against veterans groups; he is going against a constituency that should be his. ... But I think he is on the wrong side of this issue,\" Rollins said. \"A lot of Republicans are voting for this, and I think to a certain extent as it moves forward there will be more and more. There will be tremendous pressure from veterans groups past and present and I think you will see a lot of bipartisan support for this as well.\" Over the weekend, Obama, who appears to be the likely Democratic nominee, again tried to tie McCain to Bush by noting that both of them oppose the GI Bill expansion. \"I revere our soldiers and want to make sure they are being treated with honor and respect,\" Obama said Saturday in Puerto Rico. \"I think the GI Bill is one way for us to do that, and I hope that John McCain and George Bush decide they believe the same thing.\" Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . Obama hasn't served in the military. \"It is really probably Barack Obama's shining moment in this campaign. The way he phrased this debate, the way he framed the issue,\" said Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic superdelegate who supports Sen. Hillary Clinton's run for president. Watch analysts weigh in on the issue \u00bb . \"Intellectually, John McCain may be right, the president may be right. Emotionally, you are on the wrong side, you can never win an emotional battle in an intellectual argument,\" Rollins added. Rollins also said that despite McCain's war hero status, history has shown veterans who run for president don't always capture the veteran vote. \"I think the bottom line here in the statistic that was astonishing to me is George Bush's father was a war hero lost the veterans' vote to Bill Clinton who ... did not serve in a war,\" Rollins said. \"Same way with Bob Dole, a war hero lost the vote.\" McCain, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Richard Burr of North Carolina, has introduced an alternative bill that would increase education benefits on a sliding scale based on an individual's years of service. The GI Bill was created in June 1944, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. It was designed to help educate and train military veterans returning from WWII. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 7.8 million of 16 million troops who served in WWII received educational or vocational training from the GI Bill. Soldiers, Marines and airmen, speaking at a Capitol Hill rally on April 29, said they are not given enough funds from the bill to cover college expenses as they were promised. Todd Bowers, who served two tours in Iraq, told a crowd of veterans, \"I came home proud, very proud of my service, with a Purple Heart on my chest and a Navy commendation medal with a 'V' for valor.\" \"But I didn't come back to the education I was expecting. I came back to three different types of student loans, two of which had gone to collections.\" Najwa McQueen said she joined the Louisiana National Guard in 2004 on what she thought was a promise to help pay for her college education. \"They kind of sell you a dream,\" she said after the rally. \"You think you're going to get all of this stuff, and in reality, you don't get that.\" CNN's Ed Hornick, Alexander Marquardt, Ed Henry, Eric Marrapodi, Mary Snow, Deirdre Walsh and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Senate passes an update to the GI Bill, extending education benefits to veterans .\nSen. McCain and President Bush oppose it, citing retention problems .\nEd Rollins: McCain's \"outmaneuvered\" and \"on the wrong side of this issue\"","id":"a9a8e2fb88b71ae5e859c62407ce81954c95af3e"} -{"article":"AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- Josef Fritzl, who Austrian police say has confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven of her children, twice holidayed in Thailand while she remained trapped in a cellar below his house, according to German media reports. Josef Fritzl appeared in court after admitting raping his daughter and fathering her seven children. Germany's Bild newspaper quoted a holiday companion, identified only as Paul H, who said he and 73-year-old Fritzl traveled to Thailand together twice and spent time in each other's homes. \"He went [to Thailand] without his wife; apparently she had to look after the children. ... Once he had a very long massage from a young Thai girl at the beach. He really loved that,\" Paul H told the newspaper, which featured video of Fritzl laughing and receiving a massage in Thailand on its Web site. \"Once I saw how Josef bought an evening dress and racy lingerie for a very slim woman in Pattaya [Thailand] on the beach. He got really angry when he realized I saw him. Then he told me that he has a girlfriend on the side. The items were meant for her. He told me not to tell his wife.\" Watch footage of Fritzl on vacation at a Thai beach resort \u00bb . The pair had also ventured to Oktoberfest. Paul H said he had visited Fritzl's house three times, the last in 2005. \"We sat out on the terrace and had a really nice evening. ... The kids were well-behaved, however; they had a great respect for their father. They were never allowed downstairs into the cellar, but we never thought anything of it,\" he told Bild. \"Now that I think of the dungeon down there, I feel really sick in the stomach.\" Paul H said Fritzl was a DIY \"genius,\" constantly extending and building on to the house. Meanwhile, family members at the center of the incest and imprisonment case have held an \"astonishing\" reunion, medical officials said. \"They met each other on Sunday morning,\" clinic director Berthold Kepplinger said Tuesday. \"And it is astonishing how easy it worked, that the children came together, and also it was astonishing how easy it happened that the grandmother and the mother came together.\" Investigators say Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a cellar for 24 years. He raped her repeatedly, they say, and eventually fathered seven of her children. Elisabeth and two of her children were reunited Sunday with three of her other children and her mother, Kepplinger said Tuesday. The three children and her mother lived in the home above the cellar. Elisabeth's eldest child, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, remains in hospital. A seventh child died years ago, shortly after birth. Fritzl told police he burned the infant's body in a furnace. The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel a week ago, when Kerstin fell seriously ill with convulsions and was hospitalized. Austrian police Wednesday denied reports that they were investigating possible links between Fritzl and the unsolved murder of a woman. Franz Polzer, director of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said Fritzl had owned an Austrian hotel near where a woman was found murdered decades ago. However, they were not investigating the incident at this stage. Meanwhile, an Austrian girl who was held prisoner in a basement for eight years said the family faced a long period of adjustment. See how Austrians are troubled by the case \u00bb . Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped on her way to school in March 1998. She escaped from a bunker below the house of Wolfgang Priklopil in a suburb of Vienna in August 2007. Priklopil killed himself by throwing himself under a train only hours later. \"Although they are now in a secret location, I believe it might have been even better to leave them where they were, but that was probably impossible,\" she said of the Fritzl family Tuesday. \"Yes, because that was of course the environment they were used to, and now they're somewhere else. Pulling them abruptly out of this situation, without transition, to hold them and isolating them to some extent, it can't be good for them.\" Officials said Tuesday that DNA testing had confirmed Fritzl fathered the children. His DNA also was found on a letter sent to the Fritzl family that was made to look like it was from his daughter, Elisabeth, Polzer said. See inside the 'House of horrors' \u00bb . Authorities said Fritzl sent other letters over the years, leading the family to believe that Elisabeth was a runaway who had abandoned three of her children on their doorstep. He dictated at least one of the letters to his daughter, they said. Authorities said it did not appear that Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, knew about her husband's activities. Reports have surfaced in The Times of London and Austria's Presse that Fritzl was convicted of sexual assault in the 1960s, but there is nothing in his record to confirm this, said District Governor Hans Heinz Lenze. He added, however, that records were expunged after a certain number of years. Prosecutors were checking archives to find the information, said Gerhard Sedlacek, prosecutor for the state of Poelten. The Times of London quoted a 50-year-old neighbor who said that when he was 10, he remembered \"how we children were afraid to play near Mr. Fritzl's house because of the rumors that he had raped a woman and spent some time in jail for it.\" Watch a report of how the case unfolded. \u00bb . Fritzl led police to the cellar Sunday. A day later, he confessed to raping his daughter, now 42, and keeping her and their children in captivity, police said. Fritzl was able to convince social service workers, friends and family that Elisabeth had run away in 1984, when she was about 18. The father, who police described as an authoritarian figure, forbade anyone from entering the cellar. In the cellar with Elisabeth were Kerstin and two sons, aged 5 and 18. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Phil Black, Nadine Schmidt and Eileen Hsieh contributed to this story.","highlights":"Incest dad twice holidayed in Thailand while daughter remained in cellar .\nAustrian family terrorized by decades of incest meet for the first time .\nJosef Fritzl kept daughter imprisoned under home for 24 years, police say .\nFritzl, who appeared in court Tuesday, has admitted guilt and faces 15 years| .","id":"9f48f21f5b0ce4eb621c6837106743a4d9b8f402"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German logistics giant Deutsche Post said Monday it was cutting 9,500 jobs as part of a major program to restructure its loss-making DHL delivery service in the United States. DHL's restructuring is expected to result in heavy job losses. Deutsche Post said it would discontinue its U.S. ground and air delivery operations based out of Wilmington, Ohio, following an outsourcing agreement with UPS. DHL Express will continue to operate between the United States and other nations, the company said in a statement. DHL's 9,500 job cuts are on top of 5,400 job cuts announced earlier this year. The statement said DHL was shutting down all ground hubs and reducing its number of stations to 103 from 412. The company said it was making the cuts to improve profitability and \"to prepare the company for the economic challenges ahead.\" DHL Express is owned by the German company Deutsche Post World Net. Officials in Ohio had been hoping to prevent layoffs. State senator Sherrod Brown sent a letter Sunday to DHL Express Chief Executive Officer John Mullen and urged employment officials in Washington for emergency funds to assist workers and communities affected. In May, Deutsche Post announced plans to outsource air services with UPS. Brown says the plan would mean shutting down DHL's hub in Wilmington and cutting at least 8,000 jobs. Brown testified at two congressional hearing this year that centered on the proposal. Prior to the announcement, Wilmington Mayor David Razik said he was preparing for the worst. \"Given the state of the economy and the world wide economic collapse we know it can't be good news,\" he told CNN Sunday night. \"Freight is down significantly, DHL is losing customers, they have laid off sales personnel in other locations. We really think it's certainly not going to be good for Wilmington.\"","highlights":"German owners of DHL announce 9,500 job cuts .\nOwner Deutsche Post says U.S. air and ground operations to wind up .\nOfficials in Ohio had hoped to prevent job losses .","id":"646df785949828d895020652ad0301afef17a96d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German logistics giant Deutsche Post said Monday it was cutting 9,500 jobs as part of a major program to restructure its loss-making DHL delivery service in the United States. DHL's restructuring is expected to result in heavy job losses. Deutsche Post said it would discontinue its U.S. ground and air delivery operations based out of Wilmington, Ohio, following an outsourcing agreement with UPS. DHL Express will continue to operate between the United States and other nations, the company said in a statement. DHL's 9,500 job cuts are on top of 5,400 job cuts announced earlier this year. The statement said DHL was shutting down all ground hubs and reducing its number of stations to 103 from 412. The company said it was making the cuts to improve profitability and \"to prepare the company for the economic challenges ahead.\" DHL Express is owned by the German company Deutsche Post World Net. Officials in Ohio had been hoping to prevent layoffs. State senator Sherrod Brown sent a letter Sunday to DHL Express Chief Executive Officer John Mullen and urged employment officials in Washington for emergency funds to assist workers and communities affected. In May, Deutsche Post announced plans to outsource air services with UPS. Brown says the plan would mean shutting down DHL's hub in Wilmington and cutting at least 8,000 jobs. Brown testified at two congressional hearing this year that centered on the proposal. Prior to the announcement, Wilmington Mayor David Razik said he was preparing for the worst. \"Given the state of the economy and the world wide economic collapse we know it can't be good news,\" he told CNN Sunday night. \"Freight is down significantly, DHL is losing customers, they have laid off sales personnel in other locations. We really think it's certainly not going to be good for Wilmington.\"","highlights":"German owners of DHL announce 9,500 job cuts .\nOwner Deutsche Post says U.S. air and ground operations to wind up .\nOfficials in Ohio had hoped to prevent job losses .","id":"efcd3ea5d9af29ba648aea49ce64eb1b8416efbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 19-year-old gunman who killed eight people and then himself Wednesday at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, left a suicide note, police said. Police have identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Nebraska. Five other people were injured, and two of them were in critical condition, hospital officials said. Chief Thomas Warren of the Omaha Police Department called the shooting \"premeditated,\" but said it \"appears to be very random and without provocation.\" Surveillance cameras may have captured the shooting, Warren said. \"We'll be here throughout the night; it's a very extensive crime scene,\" he said. Police identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins of Nebraska. They have recovered an SKS assault rifle and the suspect's vehicle. Debora Maruca Kovac, Hawkins' landlord who found the suicide note, said he wrote he was sorry for everything and did not want to be a burden to anyone any longer. Watch landlord describe phone call from shooter \u00bb . Hawkins said in the note he loved his friends and family, but \"he was a piece of s--- all his life, and now he'll be famous,\" she told CNN. She said Hawkins was a friend of her sons and \"reminded me of a lost puppy that nobody wanted.\" He came to live with her about a year and a half ago, telling her he could not stay with his own family because of \"some issues with his stepmother and him.\" She described Hawkins as well-behaved, although \"he had a lot of emotional problems, obviously.\" The shootings began about 1:42 p.m. Seven people were found dead at the scene by officers arriving six minutes later; two others, a male and a female, died after being transported to Creighton University Medical Center, said Fire Chief Robert Dahlquist. A Creighton spokeswoman said a second female was undergoing surgery and was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon. Three other people were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. One, a 61-year-old man who sustained a chest wound after being shot in the armpit, underwent surgery and remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit Wednesday night, said hospital spokeswoman Maggie O'Brien. Learn more about the victims \u00bb . The other two -- a 34-year-old man who was shot in the arm, and a 55-year-old man who fell and struck a clothing rack as he was trying to escape -- were treated and released, she said. Maruca Kovac told CNN that Hawkins left home Wednesday about 11 a.m., and called the house about two hours later, sounding upset. \"He just said he wanted to thank me for everything I'd done for him ... and he was sorry,\" Maruca Kovac said. He told her he had gotten fired from his job, she said. \"I said, 'Come home and we'll talk about it,' \" she said. \"He said, 'It's too late.' He said he'd left a note explaining everything.\" Witness Jennifer Kramer told CNN she heard at least 25 shots. Watch witnesses describe the ordeal \u00bb . \"He just kept firing,\" she said. She said she called 911 on her cell phone, whispering into it out of fear of being heard. A dispatcher told her other calls had been received and help was on the way, but she said it seemed to take \"a long time\" for them to arrive. \"It was just so loud, and then it was silence,\" she said. \"I was scared to death he'd be walking around looking for someone else.\" She said as she was being escorted out by police, she saw a man lying injured by the escalator where she had been previously. \"All of us were slightly confused because we didn't know what it was,\" said mall employee Charissa Tatoon about the first burst of gunfire. \"Immediately after that, there was a series of maybe 20 to 25 more shots up on the third floor. \"I was in the women's shoe department and there was a gentleman coming down the escalator that was very near the shoe department, and he was heard saying that he was calling 911, and immediately after that, the shooter shot down from the third floor and shot him on the second floor.\" Warren, the police chief, said the victims included five females and three males, not including Hawkins. \"We believe there was one shooter, and one shooter only,\" he said. Maruca Kovac said she was unaware Hawkins had any guns, although she said he knew a lot about them, as did his stepfather. \"When he first came to live with us, he was in the fetal position and chewed his fingernails all the time,\" she said. But she said she thought he was improving, as he had gotten a job, a haircut and a girlfriend. However, she said Hawkins and his girlfriend had broken up in the last couple of weeks, and he had taken it hard. She said late Wednesday that authorities were searching her house for evidence. \"My kids are devastated,\" she said. \"We're all in shock.\" Hawkins' former school district released a photo of a youth with glasses and long black hair. A spokeswoman said he attended Papillon-La Vista High School until he withdrew in March 2006. Witnesses described chaos and frantic shoppers running away from the Von Maur store, where the shooting began just before 2 p.m. \"You're in such shock, it's hard to think. I was hoping God would spare us,\" said a woman who was clutching a rosary in her trembling hand after the shootings. \"We had to put up our hands and follow the police to the outside.\" Others described scenes of horror as they fled the mall. See a map of where the shooting took place \u00bb . Some shoppers and mall employees hid in clothes racks, dressing rooms and bathrooms after hearing the shots. Most of the victims were shot inside the Von Maur store, Sgt. Teresa Negron said. Watch police talk about the shooting \u00bb . President Bush had visited Omaha Wednesday before the shooting. \"The president is deeply saddened by the shootings in Omaha, Nebraska, earlier today,\" White House press secretary Dana Perino said. \"His thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families this evening. Having just visited with so many members of the community in Omaha today, the president is confident that they will pull together to comfort one another as they deal with this terrible tragedy.\" As news of the shooting spread, people gathered outside the mall, checking on loved ones who were inside. The shopping center will be closed until at least Thursday, police said. The shooting was at least the fourth at a mall or shopping center so far this year, following incidents in Salt Lake City, Utah; Kansas City, Missouri; and Douglasville, Georgia. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Landlord says shooter called and told her: \"It's too late\"\nPolice: Surveillance cameras may have captured the shooting .\nPolice identify the shooter as Robert A. Hawkins, 19 .\nTwo of the wounded are in critical condition .","id":"084810519b9668f3f677deec54c6284ab2810e93"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- On November 11, Americans pay tribute to everyone who has served in the U.S. military. But why was this particular date chosen, and how does this holiday differ from Memorial Day? Origins of Veterans Day . World War I, also known as \"The Great War,\" was fought from 1914 to 1918. During this conflict, Great Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Japan, the United States and other countries, which formed the \"Allies,\" defeated the so-called \"Central Powers,\" which included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) and Bulgaria. On the \"eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month\" of 1918, German leaders signed an armistice, or a halt to hostilities, with the Allied powers. On that date, November 11, celebrations were held in New York City, Paris, London and in other cities around the globe. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson declared November 11 as \"Armistice Day,\" a day to observe the end of World War I. On June 4, 1926, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution asking President Calvin Coolidge to call upon officials to \"display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.\" Twelve years later, on May 13, 1938, Congress passed an Act making the 11th of November Armistice Day, a federal holiday. Initially, Armistice Day was supposed to honor veterans of World War I. But after the call to arms and human sacrifices during World War II and the Korean conflict, veterans' groups urged Congress to consider a day to celebrate U.S. veterans of all wars. On June 1, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day. Difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day . Veterans Day in the United States is a day to honor all Americans who have served in the U.S. military, both during wartime and in peace. Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring Americans who have died serving the nation, especially those who died in battle or from wounds received during armed conflicts. On Veterans Day, Americans thank the living veterans for their service to the country and recognize all who have served the country. Veterans Day Proclamation . The following is the text of President George W. Bush's 2008 Veterans Day Proclamation: . On Veterans Day, we pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of the men and women who in defense of our freedom have bravely worn the uniform of the United States. From the fields and forests of war-torn Europe to the jungles of Southeast Asia, from the deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan, brave patriots have protected our Nation's ideals, rescued millions from tyranny, and helped spread freedom around the globe. America's veterans answered the call when asked to protect our Nation from some of the most brutal and ruthless tyrants, terrorists, and militaries the world has ever known. They stood tall in the face of grave danger and enabled our Nation to become the greatest force for freedom in human history. Members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard have answered a high calling to serve and have helped secure America at every turn. Our country is forever indebted to our veterans for their quiet courage and exemplary service. We also remember and honor those who laid down their lives in freedom's defense. These brave men and women made the ultimate sacrifice for our benefit. On Veterans Day, we remember these heroes for their valor, their loyalty, and their dedication. Their selfless sacrifices continue to inspire us today as we work to advance peace and extend freedom around the world. With respect for and in recognition of the contributions our service members have made to the cause of peace and freedom around the world, the Congress has provided (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 of each year shall be set aside as a legal public holiday to honor America's veterans. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim November 11, 2008, as Veterans Day and urge all Americans to observe November 9 through November 15, 2008, as National Veterans Awareness Week. I encourage all Americans to recognize the bravery and sacrifice of our veterans through ceremonies and prayers. I call upon Federal, State, and local officials to display the flag of the United States and to support and participate in patriotic activities in their communities. I invite civic and fraternal organizations, places of worship, schools, businesses, unions, and the media to support this national observance with commemorative expressions and programs. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third. GEORGE W. BUSH . Sources: U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, Veterans Day, 2008: A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America .","highlights":"Use this information to learn about the history of Veterans Day .","id":"4ee40d2c930cb30788abfe1dffa5188f8707dc6a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York suspended all construction crane activity in the city Friday after a crane collapse on the Upper East Side killed two construction workers. Crane wreckage lies on Manhattan's Upper East Side on Friday in a photo by iReporter Michael Schuman. Acting Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri announced the suspension, in effect until Monday, and unveiled a $4 million plan to assess high-risk construction activities, including crane operations, and make recommendations to improve safety. \"This year we have seen an increase in accidents and injuries related to high-risk construction activities,\" LiMandri said. \"We must make sure that as construction activity in the city continues to increase, the department's ability to hold the construction industry to higher safety standards keeps pace.\" Friday's accident was the second deadly crane collapse in the city in less than three months. Seven people were killed and 24 were injured in March when a construction crane toppled, plowing through several residential buildings. Crane operator Donald Leo, 30, died in the initial collpase Friday morning. Construction worker Ramadan Kurtij, 37, died Friday afternoon of cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital. Another construction worker remained critically injured, a city official said. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the cranes in the two incidents were different types. \"Two crane collapses in a short period of time look like a pattern, but there's no reason to think that there's any real connection,\" he said. On a radio program Friday, Bloomberg vowed that an investigation would be conducted and changes would be made if necessary. \"I don't need any developer or union leader or anybody else telling me about the consequences of slowing things down,\" he said. \"Nobody wants this economy to grow more than me. But we're not going to kill people.\" The accident happened shortly after 8 a.m. Bridget Barrett, who lives two buildings away, said she was just leaving for work. \"We heard a loud crash as I was walking down my stairwell. I went to the front door of the building, and it was all white smoke everywhere,\" she said. \"The crane had fallen in the middle of the street and was on fire. There was water spewing out of the apartment building all over the place. And I dialed 911.\" See photos from the scene of the collapse \u00bb . Witnesses said the cab and the arm of the crane crashed more than 20 stories to the ground, smashing the penthouse on a building across the street and gouging chunks out of balconies all the way to the ground. \"It sounded like a large metal structure slowly falling on itself, sounded like a prolonged car accident,\" said iReport contributor Daniel Miranda, who lives a block away. \"Construction workers were peering over the edge. Some of them were crying out in grief.\" A pedestrian had minor injuries, Bloomberg said at a news conference, adding that nearby buildings with about 160 apartments were evacuated \"strictly as a precaution.\" Watch how latest crane collapse raises questions \u00bb . The collapse occurred a day after a building inspector rescinded a partial stop-work order that had been issued April 24. The order was issued after an inspection found that employees had been working without a permit and operating a crane in an \"unsafe manner,\" according to the city's Building Department. No other details were available. The collapse left a pile of wreckage at the foot of the Azure, an apartment building under construction at the northwest corner of East 91st Street and First Avenue, a mainly residential area on the city's Upper East Side. The falling crane also damaged the Electra, a 20-plus-story building on the southwest corner. See where the crane fell \u00bb . Michael Schuman, another iReporter, said he heard a loud crash, grabbed his camera and went to the scene, about five buildings away. \"I got there before the emergency vehicles. It looked like the crane had broken into three or four large pieces. I saw water pouring out of one of the apartments,\" Schuman said. Florence Diamond, a bus driver who was approaching the corner when the accident happened, said the crane's operator appeared to have been in the cab when the rig fell. Watch as Diamond describes what she saw \u00bb . \"I just saw all the crane come down in the middle of the street. It was like something out of a movie,\" Diamond said. \"I couldn't believe the crane had fell, and I also saw the guy that was operating the crane go down with it. It was just one guy.\" Appearing at news briefing with Bloomberg, New York Gov. David Paterson said that \"we're going to have to take a look at all these crane accidents.\" \"There's no need to speculate now on how this happened. That will all be investigated,\" he said. \"But certainly, these types of accidents are all too frequent.\" Barrett said she had worried about construction sites since the March crane disaster. \"It's just kind of baffling that this happened again,\" she said. \"I've seen that crane for the past couple months, and of course I thought about, 'What if it fell on my building or buildings around me?' I just kind of dismissed it because [I thought] there's no way that could happen after it had already happened once,\" she said. A construction worker at the site identifying himself only as Anthony said he didn't know what happened Friday, but he called it \"a scary thing.\" \"Everything goes through your head when you start seeing things like that happen,\" the worker said. \"You think about your family, your wife, your kids. Just, thank God, you know, whoever is alive is alive.\" CNN's Amy Sahba and Laura Batchelor contributed to the this report.","highlights":"NEW: City suspends all construction crane activity, unveils assessment plan .\nDeath toll rises after second construction worker dies of cardiac arrest .\nOne person remains critically injured in Manhattan crane disaster .\nCollapse comes less than three months after seven killed in similar accident .","id":"4d561280983bd4bcad47a0bb5e0f261a9a5a24e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Islamist fighters battling for control of Somalia have threatened to close Mogadishu's only airport, warning all airlines to stop flights into the Somali capital by early Tuesday. African Union peacekeepers keep guard recently at the international airport in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. \"Any plane which uses or lands at the airport, we will consider it a military plane and we will not be held responsible for what happens to it,\" the Al-Shaabab militia said in a Web posting. The statement said the airport would be closed at 1 a.m. Tuesday (6 p.m. ET Wednesday). The statement was posted on www.kataaib.net, a Web site frequently used by Al-Shaabab. A graphic posted along with the statement shows a plane about to land at Mogadishu's international airport. As the plane approaches, a man with a shoulder-fired missile appears and a red-circle target is placed over the plane. The Somali word for \"Warning!\" flashes at the same time. Nairobi, Kenya-based Daallo Airlines, which operates flights four times a week into Mogadishu, is \"monitoring the situation,\" the company's chief executive officer told CNN. \"We haven't received any warning directly,\" Howard Leedham said. He said he was made aware of Al-Shaabab's warning through the local media, and would not say if any of the four weekly flights would be canceled or rescheduled as a result. \"All I can say is we're monitoring the situation very closely,\" Leedham said. \"We have employees down there, and so we're monitoring the situation.\" Maj. Barigye Ba-Hoku, a spokesman for African Union forces in Somalia -- many of whom are based at Mogadishu's airport -- said he has not received an official warning from Al-Shaabab about the airport's closure, but \"we take the warning seriously.\" \"We have taken precautionary measures, but that's all we can do,\" Ba-Hoku told CNN. Al-Shaabab is an Islamic militia that has launched a bloody battle to seize control of Somalia and oust Ethiopian forces, which are helping Somali government forces try to rout the Islamic fighters. It is a splinter group of the Islamic Courts Union, which pushed out Somalia's transitional government in 2006. The ICU was deposed in December of that year following Ethiopia's military intervention. In its statement, Al-Shaabab said it has been forced to shut down the airport because it is being used by a variety of \"infidel forces,\" including Ethiopia, Burundi, and Uganda. Burundi and Ugandan forces make up the bulk of the AU mission in Somalia. Al-Shaabab also said U.S. and Israeli security officials \"regularly\" land at the airport. \"So based on all these issues, we -- Al-Shaabab fighters -- are notifying all business people in Mogadishu, particularly to those of the airlines, that the airport is officially closed from the date on 16th September,\" it said. Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Airline CEO says situation being monitored, doesn't comment on flights .\nAl-Shaabab militants threaten flights with statement, graphic on Web .\nAfrican Union forces spokesman says he's not received official warning .\nAl-Shaabab group is seeking to oust Ethiopian forces from Somalia .","id":"9f5fe6a098266496842e32e2228f2b159eeeafd9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congress enacted a $300 billion farm bill Thursday over President Bush's objections, but questions remain about whether a clerical error will keep the bill from going into effect. Congress voted to override President Bush's veto of a $300 billion farm bill. The Senate voted 82-13 to override the president's veto of the bill Thursday, a day after the House voted 316-108 to override the veto. Both override votes exceeded the two-thirds majority required by the Constitution. A portion of the bill, however, remains in legal limbo. Before the House override vote Wednesday night, lawmakers discovered that the version sent to the White House last week was missing a part. The discovery raises questions about whether that section of the bill, which dealt with authorized trade and food aid, would become law. The discovery of the missing section, \"Title III,\" prompted concerns from House Republicans that the override vote was improper. Democrats said the matter stemmed from a clerical error. But Republicans pounced on the \"fiasco,\" which they said would require a temporary extension of the current farm bill. \"What's happened here raises serious constitutional questions -- very serious,\" said Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. \"I don't see how we can proceed with the override as it occurred.\" However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the override votes in both chambers of Congress would allow the sections of the bill that were sent to the president to become law. \"So, the farm bill minus Title III would be enacted\" after the override votes, Pelosi said. \"But I'm optimistic that we will be able to get Title III as well, either on its own or by sending the full bill again.\" \"Obviously, we want the complete bill. But ... we have obviously consulted with those who are expert on the Constitution and congressional action and presidential signatures, vetoes and overrides.\" In order to start the process of Title III to become law, the House passed the entire farm bill again Thursday by a vote of 306-110. It is unclear what the Senate will do. It could pass the entire bill again, as the House did, or it could pass the portion not sent to the president as a free-standing bill. Two-thirds of the $300 billion in spending for the farm bill would go for nutrition programs such as food stamps. Another $40 billion would go toward farm subsidies, and $30 billion is allocated for payments to farms to keep land idle and other environmental programs. After vetoing the farm bill, Bush said it \"continues subsidies for the wealthy and increases farm-bill spending by more than $20 billion, while using budget gimmicks to hide much of the increase.\" The president said it would hurt efforts to improve American farmers' access to overseas markets. Congress has passed one bill over Bush's objections: a $23 billion water-project legislation that the president vetoed in 2007. CNN's Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Congress enacts most of farm bill over Bush's objections .\nNEW: Portions of bill sent to the president are now law, Pelosi says .\nSection of farm bill left out in version sent to President Bush .\nBush vetoed bill because he says it's too generous to wealthy farmers .","id":"c9d71715603fa3724005b8e82385e41b3f063710"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Iran has condemned the kidnapping of one of its diplomats in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, calling it an \"act of terrorism,\" an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said. Pakistani policemen inspect a bullet-riddled car of a kidnapped Iranian diplomat on Thursday. \"Pakistan should do its best to protect foreign diplomats and their residential places,\" the spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. At least four gunmen abducted Heshmatollah Attarzadeh near his home in Peshawar as he headed to work at the Iranian consulate, according to Pakistani police and Iranian diplomatic officials. His bodyguard, a Pakistani police officer, was shot and killed when the two men tried to resist, a Peshawar police official said. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also \"strongly condemned\" the attack, and informed Iran that the government \"will take all necessary measures for his safe and early recovery.\" Attarzadeh is a commercial attache for the Iranian consulate in Peshawar. It is the second attack targeting a foreign worker in Peshawar in two days. An American aid worker was shot and killed outside the Iranian consulate in Peshawar on Wednesday. Stephen Vance worked for a non-profit foundation funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development that helped find jobs for people in Pakistan's tribal regions, according to a statement from his employer, the Cooperative Housing Foundation International. \"Stephen had fully immersed himself in the community in which he worked,\" the statement said. \"He dressed traditionally and even sent his children to local schools.\" Vance, 52, a native of California, is survived by his wife and five children -- all of whom lived with him in Peshawar -- CHF International official Bill Holbrook told CNN. The attacks come less than three months after gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the senior U.S. diplomat in Peshawar, Lynne Tracy. She escaped unharmed. Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, an area rife with Islamic extremists and the site of recent clashes between security forces and militants. In late June, Pakistan's military launched an offensive in the province -- the biggest push against extremists in the tribal region since the civilian government took power in March. Islamic militants vowed to retaliate. Since then, militants have launched several deadly attacks. Pakistan's new government has tried to negotiate a deal with militants as part of its efforts to bypass military might and achieve peace through talks.","highlights":"Diplomat was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan .\nAuthorities believe he was kidnapped while traveling from his home to consulate .\nOn Wednesday, gunmen shot and killed an American aid worker in Peshawar .","id":"e1de8533e75800f7294700ad7d7f77416b846484"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush had a \"relaxed\" and \"friendly\" meeting with President-elect Barack Obama after he and first lady Laura Bush welcomed their successors to their future home Monday, a White House spokesman said. President Bush and Laura Bush welcome Barack and Michelle Obama to the White House on Monday. \"The president and the president-elect had a long meeting, described by the president as good, constructive, relaxed and friendly,\" White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. \"The president enjoyed his visit with the president-elect, and he again pledged a smooth transition to the next administration.\" Perino said the two discussed national and international issues but did not provide specifics of the conversation. Bush also gave Obama a tour of the White House's living quarters, including the Lincoln bedroom. Bush and Obama held a private meeting in the Oval Office, while the first lady gave incoming first lady Michelle Obama a tour of the residence. The president and president-elect walked together along the Colonnade by the Rose Garden before entering the Oval Office together. They briefly waved to reporters along the way. Obama and Bush were not expected to speak on camera after their meeting. The two met in the Oval Office for just over an hour. When President George H.W. Bush hosted President-elect Bill Clinton after the 1992 election, the two talked for nearly two hours. Monday's meeting was a historic formality, but it was also a time for serious talks. It marked the first time Obama has visited the Oval Office. Watch Bush welcome Obama to the White House \u00bb . Bush and Obama \"had a broad discussion about the importance of working together throughout the transition of government in light of the nation's many critical economic and security challenges,\" said Stephanie Cutter, spokeswoman for Obama's transition team. \"President-elect Obama thanked President Bush for his commitment to a smooth transition, and for his and first lady Laura Bush's gracious hospitality in welcoming the Obamas to the White House,\" Cutter said. A day earlier, a leader of Obama's transition team said the president and president-elect were expected to discuss \"a broad range of issues,\" focusing on the economy. \"It's clear that we need to stabilize the economy, to deal with the financial meltdown that's now spreading across the rest of the economy. The auto industry is really, really back on its heels,\" transition team leader John Podesta told CNN's \"Late Edition\" on Sunday. Podesta said Obama will push Congress to enact \"at least part\" of an economic package before he takes office in January, but said the problems Americans face need short- and long-term approaches. The president and president-elect also were expected to talk about national security and the war in Iraq. Go inside the Oval Office . Despite the negative tone of the campaign season -- in which Obama frequently campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\" -- Bush has pledged to do everything he can to make sure they have a smooth transition. iReport.com: What's your message for Obama? \"When I called President-elect Obama to congratulate him on his historic victory, I told him that he can count on my complete cooperation as he makes his transition to the White House. Ensuring that this transition is seamless is a top priority for the rest of my time in office,\" Bush said in his radio address this weekend. Podesta said cooperation with Bush administration officials has been \"excellent\" since Tuesday's election. Watch more on the transition to power \u00bb . Obama said he was \"gratified by the invitation\" to meet with the president and his wife. \"I'm sure that, in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there's going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president,\" he said at a news conference Friday. \"I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done,\" he said. Given their drastically different views on foreign policy, Mark Preston, CNN's deputy political editor, predicted an \"uncomfortable meeting at best.\" Watch CNN's Mark Preston talk about the meeting \u00bb . \"Let's not forget that Barack Obama ran against President Bush every day when he was taking on John McCain. While they will be cordial, I bet you it will be uncomfortable,\" Preston said. As the president and president-elect met in the Oval Office, Perino gave Robert Gibbs a tour of the White House press office. Gibbs was the communications director for Obama's presidential campaign. He has not officially been named the incoming press secretary, but he is widely considered the top contender for the position. Cutter said that after Laura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour of the residence, the first lady and her successor discussed raising daughters in the White House. \"Mrs. Obama was honored to finally meet the first lady, who was a gracious hostess,\" Cutter said.","highlights":"NEW: President Bush calls meeting with President-elect Obama \"constructive\"\nLaura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour while president, Obama met .\nBush and president-elect were expected to discuss \"broad range of issues\"\nObama campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\"","id":"136b0c53e39e233ccea72bc1855fcc6a5b5a6fa5"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- The light from the cell phone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina, reports said on Saturday. Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province. \"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work,\" a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given, told TN television news station. \"The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark... A family member got some cell phones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light,\" he said. Ricardo Molina, 39, Leonardo's brother, told La Nacion newspaper that the lights were out for an hour and his brother's anesthesia was wearing off. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Surgeons complete emergency appendix operation with light from cell phones .\nThe power went out in the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, central Argentina .\nThe hospital's generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work .","id":"629d8a7a68d3aebd127760d31077a01e8832c848"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil submitted his resignation Sunday as the country investigated alleged Pakistani ties to the terrorist attacks that killed 183 people in Mumbai. Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil addresses the media after a cabinet meeting with PM Manmohan Singh. The fallout from the attacks is damaging the tenuous relationship between India and Pakistan, said CNN's sister station in India, CNN-IBN. The Indian government is considering suspending the five-year-old cease-fire with Pakistan and perhaps even ending the dialogue process with the country, sources told CNN-IBN. Pakistani security officials told CNN that if tensions with India escalate, Pakistan may shift its military forces from the Afghan border east to prepare for any conflict. The 60-hour wave of violence began Wednesday night as gunmen surged into at least nine locations in Mumbai, killing at least 183 people and wounding about 300. The official death toll does not include at least 11 gunmen killed in battles with security forces. Authorities have said that some of the attackers, who arrived in Mumbai by boat, were from Pakistan. \"Yes, the captured terrorist was Pakistani, as the home minister and others have said. As far as the others, the accomplices, the investigation, the interrogation is under way and the details will become public very soon,\" said Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra. Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vowed Saturday to take action against any group within its borders if it is found to be involved with the attacks. Interpol had said it would send a delegation to India to aid in the investigation. But on Sunday, the international law enforcement agency was still waiting for official permission into the country, a spokesman said. \"We believe that time is of the essence in Interpol's getting to India in order to explore any potential international links with regard to the seized evidence as well as the fingerprints and DNA of the suspected terrorists,\" a statement said. The resignation of India's home minister could also slow down the agency's being allowed into India, the statement said. Officials say they found telephones and a global navigational device on an abandoned boat floating off the coast of Mumbai that was used by the terrorists, CNN-IBN reported. The television network showed photographs of a phone's call log that revealed calls had been placed to Pakistan. The boat had been hijacked, intelligence officials told CNN-IBN. Four crew members who had been on board were missing. The captain was found dead, face down with his hands bound behind his back. The targets of the attacks included luxury hotels packed with foreign tourists. The 105-year-old Taj Mahal hotel was the site of the attackers' final stand, as gunmen held hostages and refused to leave the facility. Victims share their tales of survival and escape \u00bb . The chairman of the company that owns the hotel told CNN that the company had been warned about the possibility of a terrorist attack before the massacre. The hotel heightened security as a result, the chairman of the Tata Group and Taj Hotels, Ratan Tata, said in a taped interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN's \"GPS.\" There were indications, though, that the hotel had relaxed security before the attack. \"It's ironic that we did have such a warning and we did have some measures,\" Tata said. \"People couldn't park their cars in the portico where you had to go through a metal detector.\" \"But if I look at what we had -- which all of us complained about -- it could not have stopped what took place. They didn't come through that entrance,\" he said. \"They came from somewhere in the back. They planned everything,\" he said of the attackers. \"I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen, they knew what they were doing.\" Watch the destruction left at the hotel \u00bb . The security response to the attacks has brought criticism and led to the resignation of Patil, the home minister. Patil, who had been widely criticized even before terrorists struck, submitted his resignation to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Home Ministry spokesman said. Singh accepted the resignation and immediately named Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to take over the Home Ministry post, according to a source in the prime minister's office. N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu -- a major Indian newspaper -- said Patil's departure was overdue. \"This man has been widely criticized for not being up to it and it was simply impossible that he could stay on after this,\" Ram said. The criticism of Patil was \"that he has been very slow, that they haven't delivered in the promise to improve intelligence.\" iReport.com: Share tributes to those lost . The toll from the attacks is expected to rise as authorities count the casualties inside the Taj Mahal hotel, whose burned-out lobby was littered with shards of glass. At least 18 foreigners were among the victims, including five Americans and eight Israelis. Indian authorities found five bodies Friday of hostages at the Chabad House, a Jewish community center. The carnage could have been worse, investigators said. \"We found bullets with them, hand grenades, bombs,\" said R. R. Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located. \"Based on our investigation, we believe they had planned to kill 5,000 people.\" President Bush spoke Sunday to Singh, the National Security Council said. Noting that U.S. citizens were among those killed, the president \"said that we would all be working together, with the international community, to go after these extremists,\" according to a statement from National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. India's major political parties Sunday held a five-hour meeting in which all involved pledged to find ways to strengthen security in the country and discussed a proposal to set up a federal investigation agency to look into the attacks, said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. CNN's Andrew Stevens, Mallika Kapur, Harmeet Shah Singh, Saeed Ahmed, Sara Sidner, Alessio Vinci, Reza Sayah and Paula Newton contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigns over attacks .\nReport: India considering suspending five-year-old cease-fire with Pakistan .\nOfficials link boat floating off Mumbai to attacks; calls placed to Pakistan .\nAt least 183 killed during attacks, according to federal officials .","id":"b6d52192104e5f9192b0a95f2604db738f23e64d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Spiritual leaders of New York's African-American Muslim communities lashed out Friday at a purported al Qaeda message attacking President-elect Barack Obama and, using racist language, comparing him unfavorably to the late Malcolm X. Ayman al-Zawahiri said Obama was the \"direct opposite of honorable black Americans\" like Malcolm X. The imams called the recorded comments from al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri \"an insult\" from people who have \"historically been disconnected from the African-American community generally and Muslim African-Americans in particular.\" \"We find it insulting when anyone speaks for our community instead of giving us the dignity and the honor of speaking for ourselves,\" they said in a statement read during a news conference at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center. The al Qaeda statement, an 11-minute, 23-second audio message in Arabic with subtitles in English, appeared on the Internet on Wednesday. Its authenticity has not been confirmed. The message said Obama represents the \"direct opposite of honorable black Americans\" like Malcolm X. Watch al Qaeda official criticize Obama \u00bb . The speaker also said Obama, former and current Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and \"your likes\" fit Malcolm X's description of \"house slaves.\" An English translation of the message used the term \"house Negroes,\" Malcolm X's term for blacks who were subservient to whites. The term refers to slaves who worked in white masters' houses. Malcolm X said those slaves were docile compared with those who labored in the fields. iReport.com: Should Obama react to comments? Malcolm X, the fiery African-American Muslim activist from the 1950s and 1960s, was an early member and leader of the Nation of Islam. He left that group in 1963 over disillusionment with its then-leader, Elijah Muhammed, but remained a Muslim. After months of death threats, he was assassinated in 1965 by members of the Nation of Islam, who shot him 16 times at close range. The three men who were convicted of the crime have been paroled. On Friday, Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, recalling Malcolm X's legacy, said that he \"stood for human rights and the principle of self defense ... international law. He would have rejected, and we who are Muslim African-Americans leaders reject, acts of political extremism.\" The Council on American-Islamic Relations also condemned Zawahiri's comments in a statement issued Thursday. \"As Muslims and as Americans, we will never let terrorist groups or terror leaders falsely claim to represent us or our faith,\" the statement said. \"We once again repudiate al Qaeda's actions, rhetoric and world view and re-state our condemnation of all forms of terrorism and religious extremism.\"","highlights":"U.S. Muslim leaders respond to comments reportedly made by al Qaeda official .\nOfficial said President-elect Barack Obama fit Malcolm X's definition of \"house Negro\"\nOfficial also denigrated Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice .","id":"81d6b723aad48b6b234611c56a4bff3b189fc740"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Warren Township, Ohio, man faces charges of felonious assault after authorities say he fired his rifle at two teens who were attempting to deface his McCain presidential campaign yard sign. Police say the man's sign is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs. Kenneth Rowles, 50, pleaded not guilty to the charge Monday, according to CNN affiliate WBNS. Bail was set at $10,000. Rowles told police he was sitting on his porch Saturday when a tan SUV pulled up and a black youth jumped out and ran toward his house, screaming, \"This is for Obama.\" He said another male was hanging out of the passenger window screaming the same thing. Rowles said he went inside, got his rifle and fired three shots to scare the youths away, according to a Warren Township police report. He told officers he believes that the men \"were the same two that have been destroying his McCain sign.\" Just hours before the shooting, Rowles called police and said that a car had stopped in front of his house and that a black male \"ran up and said something about Obama,\" according to the report, and \"damaged his sign again.\" One of the youths, 17-year-old Kyree Flowers, was shot in the arm, according to a police report. He and the second youth, Patrick Wise Jr., 16, told police they were in the car attempting to leave when Rowles fired at them. \"Kyree stated that he witnessed the homeowner trying to shoot Patrick but he was having trouble chambering a round,\" the police report said. The teens admitted that they had defaced the McCain sign several times, Warren Township police Lt. Don Bishop told CNN. Rowles' is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs, he said. Bishop said the teenagers probably will not be charged -- and are unlikely to damage campaign signs again, as the incident scared them. Warren Township is in Trumbull County not far from Cleveland, Ohio.","highlights":"Man pleads not guilty to charges of felonious assault .\nPolice: Youths admitted defacing McCain sign several times .\nIt is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs, police say .\nTeenagers probably will not be charged; one was shot in arm .","id":"41b83a899c56109dc873905c8b177d8dd9dfbfbf"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The swanky and exclusive super-yacht market is bracing itself for a storm -- off the water. Pondering his boats? Despite a softening of the super-yacht market, Roman Abramovich will likely keep his fleet. The industry has bucked trends of other sectors with massive growth in recent years, but, the current international financial woes mean the uber-rich are poised to leave the plain rich behind as the market tightens. With estimations that hundreds of billions, or even trillions, of dollars will be wiped from the assets of the world's wealthiest businessmen and women, the super-yacht industry is sure to be one market that suffers. Although it is reserved mainly for the wealthy, dire predictions for the super-yacht world should be of concern to many, given that Superyacht UK estimates the industry is worth more than \u00a3350 million and provides employment to over 3,500 people. So, could the credit crisis be enough to crunch the industry altogether? Superyacht UK's international development manager Tom Chant told CNN the answer was \"no\", but it could have an impact at the lower end of the market. Chant said there were some signs that demand was \"softening\" for smaller super-yachts -- boats in the range of 30 to 40 meters long and usually worth anywhere between \u00a31 million and \u00a35 million. \"There has been a softening of demand for smaller super-yachts. These people are usually immune to these sorts of things. But now, maybe it has finally filtered all the way to the top,\" he said. The softening in this area of the market could also affect re-sale prices, which until now had been very stable, he said. The lower to middle market received a further blow recently when UK super-yacht building company Devonport Yachts, announced its closure. However, at the other end of the scale, things aren't looking so worrisome. Recent figures suggest that the top end of the super-yacht market is holding firm -- at least for now. A Super-yachting Index compiled by The Luxury Institute with yacht broker and charter company Camper & Nicholson's International, found that new orders for yachts over 130 feet are up nearly 20 percent in 2008. \u2022 See pictures of the world's top super-yachts . These figures continue a longer-term trend within the market. Last year there were 254 new orders for super-yachts over 130-feet, up from 134 orders in 2005. This increase is even more drastic when looking back a decade to 1997. Then, there were just 241 yachts longer than 80 foot being built across the globe. By 2007 this number had soared to 916 vessels. Chant said the credit crisis wasn't an issue for the attendees of the Monaco Yacht Show in September. \"At the Monaco show we had the first news of the credit crunch really hitting then. People didn't really raise an eyebrow,\" he said. And despite the weakening in the lower end of the market, Chant said the 60 meter-plus category was still \"very strong\", with most of the build slots at major ship-builders still full. So, it seems likely the super wealthy owners such as Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, Microsoft's Paul Allen, and Oracle's Larry Ellison should be shielded. There's no greater evidence of this than Roman Abramovich's latest project. Reportedly named the Eclipse, the super-yacht is expected to be about 160 meters long and become the biggest on the planet. Although no firm details have been released about the project, rumors have included a \u00a3250 million price tag, and the inclusion of two helicopter pads. However, not all super-yacht owners possess the fortune Abramovich does, and those without such giant financial backing may be forced to leave the market. Chant said some owners of smaller vessels may look to share ownership or charter their vessel out more often in order to maintain possession. \"Chartering is the big way to make money ...it is a good way to get some money back,\" he said. Tim Wiltshire, director and sales broker at international yacht company Burgess Yachts, said the chartering market was expected to stay reasonably strong, although it could be affected by people wanting to spend less money on holidays. \"We certainly haven't seen a crash. We are looking at people being more concerned about how they spend their money, so we may see a price realignment. \"But the demand will be there. There are plenty of people on the planet that want to go boating. Some people may not want to buy and may charter instead,\" he said. So, if the financial crisis doesn't worsen too much in the coming six months, the lower end super-yacht owners may yet be able to stay in the market.","highlights":"The super-yacht industry is believed to be worth \u00a3350 million in the UK .\nSales of large super-yachts are steady while the smaller yacht market is softening .\nSuper-yacht owners can make money by chartering or sharing their vessels .","id":"9b22c12b5a6060dbc79e19cd7b55e1ec72054ac3"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A Japanese food corporation has recalled five products after determining they contained the chemical melamine that has been blamed for the deaths of four children and sickening thousands of others. Officials stresses though that there were no reports of anyone becoming ill from consuming the sweets, which were made with ingredients imported from China, according to a representative of Tokyo's Marudai Food. The recall was issued several days ago. Tests found a ratio of 37 milligrams of melamine per kilogram of the products, the company said Friday. Japan is the latest country to report products tainted with melamine after thousands of Chinese children fell ill. The illnesses were traced to infant formula to which the toxic chemical had been added in Chinese dairy plants. Nearly 53,000 children in China have been sickened by the formula or other products containing melamine. Four babies have died, and five Hong Kong children have suffered melamine-related illnesses. Dozens of countries have banned or recalled Chinese milk products. Watch how the scandal has spread beyond milk \u00bb . Hong Kong officials said Friday that a type of Heinz cereal and wasabi crackers were recalled after they were found to contain excessive melamine. Test results for another 40 samples of baby food are pending, said Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety. Earlier Friday, the maker of a widely distributed Chinese candy linked to the melamine scandal said it would stop selling the confection in China. The manufacturer, Guanshengyan, had already recalled exports of White Rabbit Creamy Candies, and food-safety authorities worldwide have pulled them from shelves. On Thursday, the European Union joined authorities worldwide in banning the import of Chinese milk products for children. Chinese authorities have arrested 18 people in a nationwide investigation. They include two brothers who face charges of selling contaminated milk; the brothers could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. Watch Chinese government reaction \u00bb . The raw milk used to produce powdered baby formula had been watered down, and the chemical melamine was added so it would pass quality checks, the newspaper said. Adding melamine makes a product seem to have a higher protein level. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. It is the same industrial contaminant that was found last year in pet food produced in China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats. Watch the fallout from the scandal \u00bb . Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition.","highlights":"Japanese company recalls 5 products after finding they contained melamine .\nChemical blamed for deaths of four children in China, thousands sickened .\nFood safety authorities around the globe pull candies from shelves .\nEU announces a ban on imports of baby food containing Chinese milk .","id":"69c8bcf38432888dea021a938d38f2d7192fdb01"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida TV anchor became an Internet sensation this week when she pressed Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden about whether Sen. Barack Obama's policies were Marxist. WFTV-TV anchor Barbara West tells Larry King she was doing her job as a reporter when she interviewed Sen. Joe Biden. Critics said WFTV-TV anchor Barbara West of Orlando had an agenda and was asking biased questions. Biden responded, \"Is this a joke?\" CNN's Larry King on Monday talked with West about the interview on \"Larry King Live.\" Larry King: Your recent grilling of Joe Biden has stirred up a lot of controversy. Let's take a look at part of it, and we'll get your comments. Watch. [Video clip begins] Watch as West interviews Biden \u00bb . Barbara West: You may recognize this famous quote. \"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.\" That's from Karl Marx. How is Sen. Obama not being a Marxist if he's intending to spread the wealth around? Sen. Joe Biden: Are you joking? Is this a joke? West: No. Biden: Or is that a real question? West: That's a question. Biden: He is not spreading the wealth around. He's talking about giving the middle class an opportunity to get back the tax breaks they used to have. I know this has been a pretty mean campaign. I was on a television station the other day and doing a satellite feed to a major network in Florida. And the anchor quotes Karl Marx and says in a sense, \"Isn't Barack Obama Karl Marx?\" You know I mean folks, this stuff you're hearing, this stuff you're hearing in this campaign, some of it's pretty ugly. [Video clip ends] . King: All right, Barbara, what were you getting to, since generally the redistribution of the wealth is a graduated income tax? West: Well, Larry, no, I don't believe that it is just a graduated income tax. I think a lot of people who are talking to me out on the street are saying they are very, very concerned that this idea of redistributing the wealth means taking it out of somebody's pocket who is a wage earner and putting it in somebody's pocket who refuses to work. And they're asking about. That's what they don't want. That is what they want to know, what does this really mean? My job as a journalist is to ask those questions and get those answers, and I don't believe I got answers at all. King: Was the implication in the question that Barack Obama is a Marxist? West: I was asking him to tell us about how Barack Obama's redistribution of wealth was different from that quote by Karl Marx, that's all I wanted to know. ... I'm not here to debate the issues. I am not a political pundit. ... I'm a journalist. Watch as West defends her questions \u00bb . And I -- my job is to ask tough, probing questions of the candidates. I had a very short time to be able to do that, only about four minutes. There were issues that I wanted to cover, including the issues about ACORN and the abuses that they've done with voter registration, particularly here in Florida, and Florida is such a key state. And also this issue of the redistribution of wealth, as well as Sen. Biden's comments about \"You mark my words, in six months, Barack Obama will be tested.\" King: I got you. West: But it was his caveat afterward that was the issue that I was questioning, and that is it may not be readily apparent as to what, as to whether or not the actions or whatever he does are in fact the appropriate ones. And so America, stand with him and trust him. King: I got you. West: I just wanted answers to those questions. King: The Orlando Sentinel reports that you are registered as a Republican; your husband is a Republican strategist. Is that true? West: Let me correct that. My husband did do consulting for the Republican Party back in the Clinton administration, and he also worked for Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was a very liberal Democrat at the time, and they were working together to shape the media message as far as the sex slave trade was concerned. He was sent by the Clinton administration to go to Europe and also South America to consult with local officials who were perceived as friends of America in fighting the war against drugs.","highlights":"TV news anchor attracts controversy with interview of Sen. Joe Biden .\nAnchor asks Biden how Sen. Barack Obama's polices aren't Marxist .\nWFTV's Barbara West says her job is to ask tough, probing questions .\n\"I don't believe I got answers at all,\" West tells CNN's Larry King .","id":"fba84ca439b9a2479af19899b1168c9ccef0a257"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In their first head-to-head debate, Sen. John McCain criticized Sen. Barack Obama as a candidate who \"doesn't understand\" the key issues the country faces, and Obama linked McCain to President Bush on several issues. \"I'm afraid Sen. Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy,\" McCain said Friday as the two traded jabs over Iraq. Obama shot back, \"I absolutely understand the difference between tactics and strategy. And the strategic question that the president has to ask is not whether or not we are employing a particular approach in the country once we have made the decision to be there.\" McCain drew from his experience overseas as he tried to portray himself as the more qualified candidate. \"Incredibly, incredibly Sen. Obama didn't go to Iraq for 900 days and never asked for a meeting with Gen. [David] Petraeus,\" he said. Watch McCain, Obama talk about fighting in Iraq \u00bb . McCain slammed Obama for not supporting the surge, an increase of about 30,000 troops to Iraq in early 2007. Bush sent the additional troops as part of a campaign to pacify Baghdad and its surrounding provinces. \"John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007,\" Obama shot back. \"You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong.\" Watch entire debate: Part 1 \u00bb | Part 2 \u00bb | Part 3 \u00bb . Obama repeatedly criticized the Bush administration and charged that McCain is an endorser of his policies. See scenes from the debate \u00bb . In describing his tax plan, Obama said, \"over time, that, I think, is going to be a better recipe for economic growth than the -- the policies of President Bush that John McCain wants to -- wants to follow.\" Obama also said the economic crisis is the \"final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Sen. McCain.\" Both candidates squeezed in a few cheap shots. Obama brought up McCain's jokingly singing a line about bombing Iran, and McCain jabbed Obama for his short-lived \"presidential seal.\" Immediately after the debate, both campaigns issued statements declaring their candidate the winner. Grade the candidates' performance in the debate . \"This was a clear victory for Barack Obama on John McCain's home turf. Sen. McCain offered nothing but more of the same failed Bush policies, and Barack Obama made a forceful case for change in our economy and our foreign policy,\" said Obama-Biden campaign manager David Plouffe. \"John McCain needed a game-changer tonight, and by any measure, he didn't get it,\" he said. iReport.com: Who do you think won the debate? McCain's campaign said \"there was one man who was presidential tonight; that man was John McCain.\" \"There was another who was political; that was Barack Obama. John McCain won this debate and controlled the dialogue throughout, whether it was the economy, taxes, spending, Iraq or Iran. There was a leadership gap, a judgment gap and a boldness gap on display tonight, a fact Barack Obama acknowledged when he said John McCain was right at least five times,\" communications director Jill Hazelbaker said. Full coverage of the debates . During the first 30 minutes of the debate, the candidates focused on the economy, even though the debate was supposed to be centered on foreign policy. For a while, it seemed like the debate might not even take place, because McCain said he would not show up unless Congress came to an agreement on the government's proposed $700 billion bailout plan. McCain said Friday that enough progress has been made for him to attend the debate, even though Congress has not made a deal. Here's a snapshot of what the candidates said. On government spending: . McCain said he would consider a spending freeze on everything but defense, veterans affairs and entitlement programs in order to cut back on government spending. Obama disagreed, saying, \"The problem is, you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. \"There are some programs that are very important that are currently underfunded,\" Obama said. He agreed that the government needs to cut spending in some areas, but he said other areas, such as early childhood education, need more funding. McCain repeated his call to veto every bill with earmarks. Watch the candidates spar over earmarks \u00bb . Obama said the country \"absolutely\" needs earmark reform but said, \"the fact is, eliminating earmarks alone is not a recipe for how we are going to get the middle class back on track.\" On the bailout proposal: . Obama said that the United States was facing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. McCain said he was encouraged that Republicans and Democrats were working together to solve the crisis. Obama refused to be pinned down on whether he would support a $700 billion plan proposed by President Bush's top economic advisers, saying the final details of the proposal were not known. McCain said he hoped to be able to vote for it. On the likelihood of another terrorist attack: . McCain that another attack on the scale of the September 11 hijackings is \"much less likely\" now than it was the day after the terrorist attacks. \"America is safer now than it was on 9\/11,\" he said, \"But we have a long way to go before we can declare America safe.\" Obama agreed that the United States is \"safer in some ways\" but said the country needed to focus more on issues such as nuclear non-proliferation and restoring America's image in the world. On relations with Russia: . Obama called for a re-evaluation of the United States' approach to Russia in light of the country's recent military action in the Caucasus. \"You cannot be a 21st-century superpower and act like a 20th-century dictatorship,\" he said. McCain accused Obama of responding naively to Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia last month by calling on both sides to exercise restraint. McCain said he would support the inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine in NATO. On Iran: . McCain said Iranian nuclear weapons would be an \"existential threat to the state of Israel\" and would encourage other countries in the Middle East to seek nuclear weapons as well. \"We cannot allow another Holocaust,\" he said. Obama agreed that the United States \"cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran,\" calling for tougher sanctions from a range of countries including Russia and China. McCain called for a new \"league of democracies\" to stand firm against Iran. On Iraq: . McCain said the next president will have to decide when and how to leave Iraq and what the United States will leave behind. The Republican candidate said that the war had been badly managed at the beginning but that the United States was now winning, thanks to a \"great general and a strategy that succeeded.\" \"Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge that we are winning in Iraq,\" McCain said. Obama responded, \"that's not true; that's not true.\" He blasted McCain as having been wrong about the war at the start, saying McCain had failed to anticipate the uprising against U.S. forces and violence between rival religious groups in the country. Watch Obama tell McCain he was 'wrong' \u00bb . \"At the time when the war started, you said it was quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were,\" Obama said, citing the key White House policy justifying the 2003 invasion. \"You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong,\" he said.","highlights":"Barack Obama says John McCain wrong about Iraq .\nMcCain says Obama \"doesn't understand\" some key issues .\nCandidates debate earmarks, taxes, economic plans .\nStatus of debate was in limbo until Friday afternoon .","id":"f483941144f0abdb9bb37d05c025cd6b0f37c957"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two fishermen remain missing after a commercial fishing vessel went down in frigid, treacherous waters off the Aleutian Islands about 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The fishing vessel Courageous helps search for missing men in waters off Alaska. A search for the two crew members of the 93-foot Katmai resumed at daybreak Friday. An e-mail sent by the doomed fishing boat to a nearby vessel said it was taking on water in the rear, where the steering was housed, the Coast Guard told The Associated Press on Thursday. Four of the boat's crew members were rescued and five bodies retrieved Wednesday near the Amchitka Pass, a strait that connects the Bering Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The names have been withheld pending the notification of families, a Coast Guard statement said. \"What can you say?\" said Jeff DeBell, chief financial officer of Katmai Fisheries, which owned the boat. He told The AP, \"We are devastated by what has happened. We are elated there have been survivors. We are just terribly saddened by the ones that are dead and are praying that those that are still in the water are alive.\" Watch rescue footage from the choppy waters \u00bb . The Seattle-based company told the AP the survivors were Capt. Henry Blake and crew members Guy Schroeder, Adam Foster and Harold Attling. The search began at about 1 a.m. Wednesday when the Coast Guard received an emergency signal from the Katmai, a 93-foot fishing vessel that had been battling 50-knot winds and nearly 20-foot waves. The signal originated from a wall-mounted satellite positioning device on the Katmai that reacts when it's touched or splashed with water, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said. Watch a \"Deadliest Catch\" captain talk about what may have happened on the rough seas \u00bb . At about that time, another vessel, the Blue Balard, sent an e-mail to the Coast Guard saying that it received a message from the Katmai that water was flooding its rear compartment. The message also said that the vessel had lost steering. The Coast Guard tried to e-mail the Balard back but received no response, likely because the seas are remote and Internet access can be spotty, Read said. Rescuers launched a C-130, a long-range surveillance aircraft, and went straight to the scene twice Wednesday morning, Read said. The boat was nowhere in sight, but the C-130 did spot two strobe lights on top of the water, he said. By this time, the weather was treacherous and the sky was darkening, according to Read. The C-130, having found no signs of life, dropped two life rafts and headed back, he said. On the second trip, at 11 a.m., the C-130 and a Jayhawk helicopter found two strobe lights floating in the water, one attached to a survival suit and the other to the emergency device that had first alerted the Coast Guard, Read said. They also found a body, he said. \"We knew the person was from the Katmai because the suit he was wearing had the name of the vessel on it,\" Read said. Roughly five hours later, the Coast Guard spotted four men on a life raft, all wearing survival suits. With the assistance of other vessels, the Courageous and the Patricia Lee, the bodies of four other men were recovered from the water, all wearing survival suits, Read said. The odds of someone surviving the frigid waters off Alaska's Aleutian Islands is minimal, said Read. Crews usually have survival suits that allow water to seep inside but have a mechanism that traps body heat. The search for the two remaining men began at 9:30 a.m. Alaska time Thursday, an hour before sunrise there. \"You just couldn't do anything earlier,\" Read said. \"It's darker the farther out you go, and they are really, really out there.\"","highlights":"NEW: Search resumes for two fishermen lost in frigid waters off Alaska .\nDistressed boat had sent e-mail that it was taking on water .\nFour fishermen rescued; five bodies have been recovered .\nCFO of company: We \"are praying that those that are still in the water are alive\"","id":"7464a7ac138866a3d9b63035c623eb0495b07b61"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The fourth and final suspect in the fatal shooting of two Arkansas university students turned himself in Monday, University of Central Arkansas police said. The first suspect was apprehended while driving about three minutes after the Sunday night shooting. The others were detained later, said Lt. Preston Grumbles. The suspects were identified as Kawin Brockton, 19; Kelsey Perry, 19; Mario Toney, 20 and Brandon Wade, 20. Police released little details on the suspects other than the fact that they were not university students. \"It does not seem at this time that it was a random act,\" he said, but police are \"unsure of the precise motive.\" He said there was \"no indication\" the shooting was gang-related. University police released the names of the victims Monday. Ryan Henderson, 18, of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Chavares Block, 19, of Dermott, Arkansas, were killed. Block was a sophomore pre-engineering major. Henderson was a freshman who had not yet declared a major. The university's student government will hold a candlelight vigil in memory of the students at 5 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) Monday. Religious organizations on campus will host a prayer vigil Tuesday. A third victim, Martrevis Norman, was treated at a hospital and released. He is not a student at the university, said Lt. Rhonda Swindle of UCA campus police. A hospital representative earlier told CNN that the survivor was shot in the leg. \"This is something you pray never happens,\" interim university president Tom Courtway said, visibly upset. \"But it happened.\" The shooting, which happened outside a dorm, prompted a campus lockdown and the cancellation of Monday classes. Courtway said classes will resume Tuesday. Watch police describe the shooting \u00bb . The shots were fired near Arkansas Hall and the Snow Fine Arts Center at 9:22 p.m., Swindle said. Freshman Sam Hausen, who was about 50 feet (15 meters) away from the shooters when the gunfire began, said, \"I heard about five or 10 shots and, at first, I thought it was just firecrackers, because everybody always clowns around out there, but I just realized that it wasn't firecrackers.\" As he began running away, he saw one of the wounded students hit the ground and another stumble into the dorm, he said. \"I saw a couple cars speed off,\" Hausen said. \"I don't know if they were the shooters or not.\" Student Lauren Knight, who was walking to the library when the shooting started, said students scurried for safety. When the campus lockdown was ordered, Knight was stuck with other students for several hours inside the library, she said. The university serves about 12,500 full-time students in Conway.","highlights":"NEW: A fourth and final suspect has turned himself in, police say .\nStudent government, religious groups plan prayer vigils for students .\nTwo students killed, one wounded Sunday night, officials say .\nShooting prompted lockdown at University of Central Arkansas in Conway .","id":"260c5b6d8462a56ad394a51e8f9f986f23d116a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Warren Township, Ohio, man faces charges of felonious assault after authorities say he fired his rifle at two teens who were attempting to deface his McCain presidential campaign yard sign. Police say the man's sign is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs. Kenneth Rowles, 50, pleaded not guilty to the charge Monday, according to CNN affiliate WBNS. Bail was set at $10,000. Rowles told police he was sitting on his porch Saturday when a tan SUV pulled up and a black youth jumped out and ran toward his house, screaming, \"This is for Obama.\" He said another male was hanging out of the passenger window screaming the same thing. Rowles said he went inside, got his rifle and fired three shots to scare the youths away, according to a Warren Township police report. He told officers he believes that the men \"were the same two that have been destroying his McCain sign.\" Just hours before the shooting, Rowles called police and said that a car had stopped in front of his house and that a black male \"ran up and said something about Obama,\" according to the report, and \"damaged his sign again.\" One of the youths, 17-year-old Kyree Flowers, was shot in the arm, according to a police report. He and the second youth, Patrick Wise Jr., 16, told police they were in the car attempting to leave when Rowles fired at them. \"Kyree stated that he witnessed the homeowner trying to shoot Patrick but he was having trouble chambering a round,\" the police report said. The teens admitted that they had defaced the McCain sign several times, Warren Township police Lt. Don Bishop told CNN. Rowles' is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs, he said. Bishop said the teenagers probably will not be charged -- and are unlikely to damage campaign signs again, as the incident scared them. Warren Township is in Trumbull County not far from Cleveland, Ohio.","highlights":"Man pleads not guilty to charges of felonious assault .\nPolice: Youths admitted defacing McCain sign several times .\nIt is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs, police say .\nTeenagers probably will not be charged; one was shot in arm .","id":"c3a4a74ec9a495510a6fd23211ba43d5b2dfa02a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They were fathers and daughters, tycoons and spiritualists, Westerners and Asians, who were in Mumbai for different reasons. But they met the same fate in the indiscriminate path of gunfire and explosions in a string of terror attacks across the Indian city this week. Kia Scherr, left, has told CNN that her husband, Alan Scherr, and daughter Naomi were killed in Mumbai. At least 183 people were killed this week in attacks on several high-traffic landmarks, many of which tourists frequent. Their deaths have torn families and communities apart, and many more have yet to be confirmed. Small snapshots of the victims have begun to emerge, most of them pertaining to foreigners. Limited reports have circulated about victims from India. A father and daughter from a Virginia meditation group were among five Americans confirmed dead, the U.S. State Department said Friday. Kia Scherr told CNN on Friday that her husband, Alan, 58, and daughter, Naomi, 13, were killed. She said she knew her husband and daughter were dining at the Oberoi, a Mumbai hotel, when gunfire broke out Wednesday night. Scherr said she last spoke to them Thursday. Watch friends tell the story of the Scherrs' visit to Mumbai \u00bb . The father and daughter had been in India since November 17 and were due to leave Monday, Scherr said. A spokeswoman for The Synchronicity Foundation, a meditation group based near Charlottesville, Virginia, said the two were among 25 members of the group who were visiting India. The other Synchronicity people who were staying at the Oberoi \"are accounted for and safe,\" the group's Web site said. Hemant Karkare, Anti-Terrorism Squad chief for Maharashtra state, was among at least 16 members of Indian law enforcement officers killed in the attacks. Mumbai is in Maharashtra. Karkare was leading an offensive against gunmen late Wednesday when he was shot three times in the chest, CNN sister network CNN-IBN reported. Karkare, who joined the Indian Police Service in 1982, became ATS chief in January after spending seven years in Austria at the Research and Analysis Wing, Indian's external foreign intelligence agency, according to CNN-IBN. Five hostages, including a rabbi and his wife, were killed in a standoff at the Chabad House, said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch International in the United States. Watch: Rabbi and wife killed in Mumbai \u00bb . Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the city's envoy for the community, and his wife, Rivka, had been held hostage at the Chabad House, known as the Nariman House in Mumbai. The building houses the Mumbai headquarters of the Chabad community, a Hasidic Jewish movement. Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, was born in Israel and moved to Brooklyn, New York, with his parents when he was 9. Rivka, 28, was a native of Afula, Israel, the organization said. Watch the Chabad community in New York react \u00bb . The Holtzbergs arrived in Mumbai in 2003 to serve the Jewish community there, Chabad-Lubavitch International said. \"As emissaries to Mumbai, Gabi and Rivky gave up the comforts of the West in order to spread Jewish pride in a corner of the world that was a frequent stop for throngs of Israeli tourists,\" said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, in a statement. Gavriel Holtzberg made a phone call to the Israeli Consulate to report that gunmen were in his house, the organization said. \"In the middle of the conversation, the line went dead,\" the organization said. It did not say when the phone call took place. A cook at the center, who had barricaded herself in a room, grabbed the couple's son and escaped with another person, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. The boy's 2nd birthday is Saturday, said Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the Educational and Social Services arms of the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement. \"Today, he became an orphan,\" Krinsky said at a news conference in New York. Watch as Krinsky vows the Chabad community will raise the child \u00bb . The couple's other child was not in Mumbai at the time and is safe, Krinsky said. Among others confirmed dead: . CNN's Zain Verjee and Emanuella Grinberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Two Canadians, yachting tycoon, sister of Bollywood actor among dead .\nRabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, wife Rivka confirmed dead at Chabad House in Mumbai .\nVirginians Alan Scherr and daughter Naomi Scherr killed, family member says .\nAnti-Terrorism Squad chief killed in offensive, CNN sister network CNN-IBN says .","id":"54e93c6e67d24aaa1e94888860b1b0d7b9761572"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They were fathers and daughters, tycoons and spiritualists, Westerners and Asians, who were in Mumbai for different reasons. But they met the same fate in the indiscriminate path of gunfire and explosions in a string of terror attacks across the Indian city this week. Kia Scherr, left, has told CNN that her husband, Alan Scherr, and daughter Naomi were killed in Mumbai. At least 183 people were killed this week in attacks on several high-traffic landmarks, many of which tourists frequent. Their deaths have torn families and communities apart, and many more have yet to be confirmed. Small snapshots of the victims have begun to emerge, most of them pertaining to foreigners. Limited reports have circulated about victims from India. A father and daughter from a Virginia meditation group were among five Americans confirmed dead, the U.S. State Department said Friday. Kia Scherr told CNN on Friday that her husband, Alan, 58, and daughter, Naomi, 13, were killed. She said she knew her husband and daughter were dining at the Oberoi, a Mumbai hotel, when gunfire broke out Wednesday night. Scherr said she last spoke to them Thursday. Watch friends tell the story of the Scherrs' visit to Mumbai \u00bb . The father and daughter had been in India since November 17 and were due to leave Monday, Scherr said. A spokeswoman for The Synchronicity Foundation, a meditation group based near Charlottesville, Virginia, said the two were among 25 members of the group who were visiting India. The other Synchronicity people who were staying at the Oberoi \"are accounted for and safe,\" the group's Web site said. Hemant Karkare, Anti-Terrorism Squad chief for Maharashtra state, was among at least 16 members of Indian law enforcement officers killed in the attacks. Mumbai is in Maharashtra. Karkare was leading an offensive against gunmen late Wednesday when he was shot three times in the chest, CNN sister network CNN-IBN reported. Karkare, who joined the Indian Police Service in 1982, became ATS chief in January after spending seven years in Austria at the Research and Analysis Wing, Indian's external foreign intelligence agency, according to CNN-IBN. Five hostages, including a rabbi and his wife, were killed in a standoff at the Chabad House, said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch International in the United States. Watch: Rabbi and wife killed in Mumbai \u00bb . Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the city's envoy for the community, and his wife, Rivka, had been held hostage at the Chabad House, known as the Nariman House in Mumbai. The building houses the Mumbai headquarters of the Chabad community, a Hasidic Jewish movement. Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, was born in Israel and moved to Brooklyn, New York, with his parents when he was 9. Rivka, 28, was a native of Afula, Israel, the organization said. Watch the Chabad community in New York react \u00bb . The Holtzbergs arrived in Mumbai in 2003 to serve the Jewish community there, Chabad-Lubavitch International said. \"As emissaries to Mumbai, Gabi and Rivky gave up the comforts of the West in order to spread Jewish pride in a corner of the world that was a frequent stop for throngs of Israeli tourists,\" said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, in a statement. Gavriel Holtzberg made a phone call to the Israeli Consulate to report that gunmen were in his house, the organization said. \"In the middle of the conversation, the line went dead,\" the organization said. It did not say when the phone call took place. A cook at the center, who had barricaded herself in a room, grabbed the couple's son and escaped with another person, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. The boy's 2nd birthday is Saturday, said Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the Educational and Social Services arms of the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement. \"Today, he became an orphan,\" Krinsky said at a news conference in New York. Watch as Krinsky vows the Chabad community will raise the child \u00bb . The couple's other child was not in Mumbai at the time and is safe, Krinsky said. Among others confirmed dead: . CNN's Zain Verjee and Emanuella Grinberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Two Canadians, yachting tycoon, sister of Bollywood actor among dead .\nRabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, wife Rivka confirmed dead at Chabad House in Mumbai .\nVirginians Alan Scherr and daughter Naomi Scherr killed, family member says .\nAnti-Terrorism Squad chief killed in offensive, CNN sister network CNN-IBN says .","id":"55ad47863d0a01ae8578c23eb6849316327f7900"} -{"article":"You wanted to know more about greenwashing, and Scot Case, from environmental marketing firm TerraChoice, answered. Greenwashing expert Scot Case of TerraChoice . \"Why are green products often more expensive than ones that don't say they are green or environmentally friendly? Is it just because green has become a new form of 'premium brand'? Isn't this bad news if we want to make more people environmentally aware when they go shopping?\" Harriet Gladwell . Case: First, it should be noted that not all greener products are more expensive. The remanufactured toner cartridges I purchase at a nationwide office-supply store, for example, carry the same warranty as other cartridges at a 30-percent lower cost. This greener option is less expensive because the manufacturer avoids the cost of manufacturing the plastic and electronic components. They simply reuse the parts from recycled cartridges. There are also greener products that do not cost extra. There are cleaning products and paints, for example, that have been certified as meeting tough environmental standards by EcoLogo or Green Seal that deliver the same high-quality performance one expects without costing any extra. Other greener products might be slightly more expensive initially, but generate substantial savings for the consumer. Energy-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), for example, are still four times more expensive than traditional cheap incandescent light bulbs. However, CFLs use 75 percent less electricity and last 10 times longer, so they don't have to be replaced as frequently. As a result, the typical CFL saves consumers $30 over the life of the bulb. There are now energy- or water-efficient versions of all sorts of products -- refrigerators, windows, air conditioners, televisions, dishwashers, ovens, showerheads, washing machines, etc. The more efficient versions are typically more expensive initially to reflect the higher-quality components used to make them, but they quickly pay for themselves in lower energy and water costs. Look for products that are Energy Star registered. Even better, look for products that have been independently certified as meeting the Energy Star standards. Why are other greener products still more expensive sometimes? It boils down to the simple laws of supply and demand. Any new innovative product, whether it is \"greener\" or not, costs extra initially. It costs money to research and develop the product and to build the factories and supply chains it takes to make the product. Manufacturers try to recoup those costs as quickly as possible during the initial sales of the product. As demand increases, however, additional manufacturing efficiencies -- economies of scale -- begin to emerge that permit the prices to fall. In addition, high prices attract competitors with similar products, and the additional competition helps force prices lower. Are some manufacturers attempting to earn additional revenue by presenting their greener options as a premium brand? Absolutely. Just as some clothing manufacturers charge extra to have their name brand applied to a shirt. It is also possible, however, to buy high-quality, greener products, at very good prices, at growing numbers of mainstream retail outlets. When DVD players and cell phones were first introduced, they were only available to the very wealthy. Now everyone has at least one. The same is increasingly true with greener product offerings. \"What are the most obvious signs that a company is greenwashing the public with false claims? What words and phrases should raise a red flag?\" Carla Dos Santos . The most obvious sign a company is greenwashing is if the company fails to provide proof of their environmental claims. Legitimate environmental claims can be certified by independent outside third-party auditors. Manufacturers can also provide test data and other relevant information on Web sites. Consumers should also beware of generic environmental claims that are so vague they are likely to be misunderstood. Watch out for broad claims like \"eco-friendly,\" \"earth kind,\" \"all natural,\" \"eco-safe\" or other green babble. Even phrases like \"biodegradable,\" \"recyclable\" and \"compostable\" can be misleading if they fail to clarify how the products were tested or under what circumstances the claim is true. Make sure any environmental claim is specific, backed by proof, and, preferably, verified by an independent, outside third-party. For additional greenwashing examples and recommendations on how to avoid being fooled, check out the Six Sins of Greenwashing or the accompanying wallet-size guide book. \"Is it possible to put together information about a product's greenness that has both the detail that's really needed, and is at the same time simple and clear? And how can we get governments to serve the public and advise them on green purchasing, in the way that is most fair to commercial interests?\" Rick Reibstein . There are certainly efforts underway to provide consumers with additional information about the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions. The traditional environmental standards such as Green Seal and EcoLogo publish standards and then certify products meeting those standards. Most consumers find the simplicity of this type of certification scheme the most useful. Some particularly savvy green consumers, however, want additional information beyond knowing that a product has been certified as meeting a standard. They are seeking information presented in a nutrition-label format that allows them to compare two certified products to determine which is greener. I think we will see the emergence of hybrid labeling systems that do provide greater detail about the environmental features of a product. Such a label would combine the traditional \"thumbs up or thumbs down\" approach of Green Seal or EcoLogo along with additional information in a standard format. The information might be available on product packaging or on an accompanying Web site. Governments are actually already pushing manufacturers to provide this level of detail using their purchasing power rather than their legislative power. Government purchasers across North America, for example, are demanding safer, more environmentally preferable cleaning products, papers, paints, vehicles, building products, office equipment and computers. Government purchasers in New York, Illinois, California, Minnesota, and other places, for example, require cleaning products to meet the Green Seal or EcoLogo cleaning-product standards. As a result, those products are becoming more widely available for consumers too. The U.S. Federal government and many state governments are also purchasing more environmentally preferable computer products. They are requiring products to meet the EPEAT green computer standard. One unique feature of the EPEAT label is that the EPEAT Web site provides additional information on the environmental features associated with the almost 1,000 products on the EPEAT registry. Now that the information is available, consumers can use the EPEAT information to make their own purchasing decisions. Providing this level of environmental information is the foundation of market-based environmentalism. Government purchasers, other large purchasers such as colleges and universities or Fortune 1000 companies, and individual consumers can use the publicly available information about the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions along with traditional factors like price and quality to determine how they will spend their hard-earned money. This approach allows the greenest products to be identified and to compete with other products for market share. Of course, in addition to the market-based approach, governments always have it within their power to actually legislate minimum environmental requirements or the publication of basic environmental information. There are persistent rumors of efforts underway to use the legislative power of the federal government to encourage greater transparency regarding the environmental footprint of a product and to make it easier to share that information with consumers. It will be interesting to see what happens in Congress with a new U.S. president in January. \"How can we know if the 'green' label is credible, and do you think we'll ever get to the place where all these different certifications merge into one consistent and widely recognized label? Is this happening in any countries?\" Amber Wells . While there were only three or four eco-labels 20 years ago -- EcoLogo was North America's first and it was founded in 1988 -- there are now more than 300. At some point, I think it is inevitable that there will be some significant consolidation in the environmental-labeling world. There are already numerous meetings among the most legitimate environmental-labeling programs to collaborate more closely. A variety of efforts are attempting to separate the truly green labels from the fake green ones. There are also persistent rumors of pending federal legislation to encourage or even require greater accountability. Until then, consumers need to be aware that not all green-labeling programs are created equally. Before relying on any \"green dot\" to help make a purchasing decision, consumers need to understand exactly what the \"green dot\" means. Make sure you can answer the following questions about an environmental label before making a purchase: . (1) Who created the labeling program? -- Was it created by a manufacturer or a trade association to promote their own products, or was it created by an independent outside organization in an open, public, transparent process? Is it backed by a respected European or North American government? (2) Does the label require a product to actually meet a specific standard? -- Some labels are being awarded based on fees paid to a consultant rather than based on compliance with a published standard. Others are being awarded simply by joining a trade association or paying a membership fee. (3) Does the label address multiple environmental issues or does it focus narrowly on just a single issue like energy-efficiency or recycled-content? -- Review the standard to determine whether it covers multiple environmental issues throughout the entire product life-cycle, which includes the raw materials used to make the product, the manufacturing process, transportation and packaging, and the impacts of using and discarding or recycling the product. Make sure the standard covers the environmental issues you and the environmental community are most concerned about. (4) What does a manufacturer have to do to prove a product meets the standard? -- Some labels permit a manufacturer to determine on its own whether it meets the published standard. Other programs -- including EcoLogo, Green Seal, and the Chlorine Free Products Association -- independently review product test data and visit the manufacturing facilities to ensure compliance with the standard. There is a three-page appendix to the Six Sins of Greenwashing report that provides additional information to help identify legitimate environmental standards. Click here to read more of your questions and Scot Case's answers on greenwashing.","highlights":"Scot Case answers your questions on greenwashing .\nHas green become a new form of \"premium brand\"?\nWhat green words and phrases should raise a red flag?\nClick here to read more answers to your questions .","id":"933a9c1525a250e11e74311dedd9821596f831bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A group of native Hawaiians occupied the grounds of the old Hawaiian monarchy's royal residence Wednesday, vowing to stay and do the business of the kingdom's government. \"It is through a greater realm than ours\" that the group took this action, said Mahealani Kahau, elected leader of the group, called Hawaiian Kingdom Government. \"Today and every day, we will be here to assume our role.\" The group is one of several in Hawaii that reject statehood and seek to return to the constitutional monarchy that effectively ended in 1893 when a group of politicians, businessmen and sugar planters -- aided by the U.S. minister to Hawaii -- overthrew the kingdom's government. The monarchist groups say the kingdom was overthrown and annexed into the United States illegally. Hawaii's office of the attorney general did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday's action. The staff of Iolani Palace, built in 1882 and now operated as a museum, shut down the building to visitors. The 60 or so protesters occupied the grounds, chaining the gates and stationing guards there to explain to visitors the purpose of the action. The group later reopened the gates, but remained on the grounds and the building was kept closed. \"It saddens my heart to have to turn away visitors,\" said palace staff member Cindy Ascencio, who added that although she is a native Hawaiian, she does not understand the actions of the group. Ascencio also said the group appeared peaceful and she was not concerned about security. Jose Carrion, a visitor to Hawaii from Puerto Rico, told Honolulu's KHON-TV that he was disappointed he wouldn't be able to visit the ornate palace and \"learn about the culture of the Hawaiians.\" \"We wanted to come here precisely because we thought we'd learn something about the history of Hawaii and the last queen and the monarchy,\" said Carrion, who said he had reservations for the visit. \"But we're leaving tomorrow, so we won't get to see the palace.\" Carrion also said he \"kind of understood\" the actions of the group. Puerto Rico and Hawaii, along with Guam and the Philippines, were annexed into the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Guam and Puerto Rico remain territories of the United States. The Philippines gained independence after World War II, and Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. Although the monarchy was not overthrown until 1893, its fate effectively was sealed six years earlier when the same group that forced the overthrow imposed a new constitution on King David Kalakaua, who was forced to sign it under threat of arms. The document dramatically reduced the authority of the monarchy and instituted voter requirements that limited voting to wealthy businessmen and Hawaiian landowners, barring 75 percent of the native Hawaiian population and all Asians. When Queen Lili'uokalani ascended the throne after the death of her brother in 1891, she began work on a new constitution that would have effectively reversed the 1887 document. With the help of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii, the elite group that had changed the constitution in 1887 opposed the queen's actions. Two years later, under threat of U.S. troops, she yielded her authority, saying, \"Until such time as the government of the United States shall ... undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.\" The queen was later imprisoned in Iolani Palace for eight months for her participation in an attempted 1895 revolt, until she relinquished her claim to the throne in return for her release. She died in 1917 at 79. In 1993, the U.S. Congress approved, and President Bill Clinton signed, an apology to the people of the Hawaiian islands. The document \"acknowledges that the overthrow of the kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum.\" Although it was used as a seat of government for decades after Lili'uokalani's reign, the palace fell into disrepair. When the last of the government offices moved out and into new facilities adjacent to the palace in 1969, restoration work began. It opened to the public in 1978. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Group does not recognize Hawaii as a U.S. state .\nPalace used by rulers of Hawaiian kingdom; now a tourist attraction .\nPeaceful protesters eventually unlock gates, stay on palace grounds .","id":"4859adfa074b276dfc6d8c0bea66bc64c31e50ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Asashoryu stands at the pinnacle of sumo wrestling like a colossus. Asashoryu is one of sumo's most successful, and most controversial, wrestlers. But the 330-lbs Mongolian, sumo's most successful ever grand champion, has not been able to rise above the scandals and tragedies that have beset Japan's national sport in recent years. Asashoryu, whose real name is Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj, grew up in Mongolia, where both his elder brothers and father were successful wrestlers. Moving to Japan as a student he was spotted and trained by the Takesago stable and made his professional debut at the age of 18 in 1999. Winning his first tournament, or basho, in 2002, his rise up the rankings culminated in him attaining the highest position of Grand Champion, or yokozuna, in January 2003, becoming only the 68th yokozuna in the sport's 2,000-year-old history. Two years later, he set a new record by being the only man to win all six official tournaments in one year. While Asashoryu's meteoric rise to the top was seen by many as reinvigorating a sport that had seen a decline in homegrown wrestlers and popularity, his success in the dohyo has not pleased everyone. Some have complained that his wins are too routine, and purists grouse that he does not poses the quality of \"hinkaku,\" the dignity and calm expected in a yokozuna, or give the sport's traditions the necessary respect. In 2003 he was disqualified from a bout for pulling on the top-knot of an opponent, and has gained a reputation as the enfant-terrible of sumo. Regardless of the criticisms of Asashoryu's wrestling style, sumo's reputation as a noble sport of tradition has suffered from a number of scandals in recent years and exposed it as just as susceptible to the problems faced by other sports. With deep links to Japanese culture going back to when sumo was part of the Shinto religious rituals, the sport's troubles have almost represented a national identity crisis. Following the banning of three non-Japanese wrestlers for using recreational drugs in September, the sport's chairman and former-wrestler Kitanoumi resigned. It came after a period of years in which a number of match-fixing allegations were made, some directly implicating Asashoryu, and plunging the sport into yet another crisis. In January 2007 he was accused of bribing other wrestlers to lose bouts, compounding the view that corruption was prevalent in the sport. Problems for Asashoryu continued in 2007 when he was suspended by the sumo wrestling federation for allegedly faking a doctor's note and was restricted from leaving his house in Tokyo, leading to reports of a nervous breakdown. Mental as well as physical strength are necessary to reach the top of the sport, but while the punishing physical routine and \"hazing\" in the training stables has been known and accepted, tragedy struck earlier this year. Takashi Saito, a 17-year-old sumo trainee, died in brutal circumstances, allegedly beaten to death by his stable-master and three fellow sumo wrestlers. Continuing to make his mark in the dohyo will be Asashoryu's aim for the rest of the year, while sumo hopes it can recover its own poise.","highlights":"Mongolian grand champion wrestler one of the sumo's most successful ever .\nReinvigorated the sport, but also has detractors critical of his style and attitude .\nAccused of match fixing and feigning illness, banned as a consequence .","id":"9674c790966de344a4a34a39dc19a9bf2ef635fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Grammy Award winners Alicia Keys and John Legend will perform at \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,\" airing on Thanksgiving on CNN. John Legend will sing \"If You're Out There\" from his just-released album \"Evolver.\" Hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper, the program honors the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. The show will be broadcast globally on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol at 9 p.m. ET\/PT November 27 (0200 GMT November 28). Each of this year's top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored in a documentary tribute and introduced by a celebrity presenter. Actors Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, Forest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, Terrence Howard, Lucy Liu, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and Selena Gomez are among the stars participating in the event. See photos of the presenters \u00bb . In addition, actor Hugh Jackman will present People magazine's 2008 Heroes Among Us award to six recipients honored by the magazine this year. People is partnering with CNN for this portion of the telecast. Keys will perform \"Superwoman\" from her hit album \"As I Am.\" Legend, backed by the Los Angeles-based Agape Choir, will sing \"If You're Out There\" from his just-released album \"Evolver.\" The evening will culminate with the announcement of the CNN Hero of the Year, chosen through a six-week online poll that generated more than 1 million votes. Viewers were asked to select the CNN Hero who inspired them the most from among the top 10 CNN Heroes selected by a blue-ribbon panel. The Hero of the Year will be awarded $100,000 in addition to the $25,000 that each of the top 10 CNN Heroes receives. Voting for the CNN Hero of the Year has now closed. Watch a close-up look at the CNN Hero Award \u00bb . Award-winning producer-director Joel Gallen returns to executive produce this year's program. Among his credits, Gallen produced telethon events supporting victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, winning an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for \"America: A Tribute to Heroes.\" Kodak Theatre is a 3,400-seat venue that opened in November 2001 and is best known as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards.","highlights":"Grammy winners to perform at CNN Heroes event .\nThe show will honor the top 10 CNN Heroes, as selected by a distinguished panel .\nIt airs globally at 9 p.m. ET November 27 (0200 GMT November 28)\nThe program culminates with the announcement of the CNN Hero of the Year .","id":"83adc62a90edc904cc78cdebc2e32841e0714be9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rebel attacks north of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo prompted thousands more civilians to flee Tuesday, and U.N. officials said a U.N. convoy trying to provide security near Goma also was attacked. Thousands of displaced Congolese on Tuesday line the road near the Kibati camp north of Goma, Congo. \"Five rockets were fired on two U.N. armored personnel carriers that were part of the convoy of MONUC Blue Helmets near Kalengera,\" according to a report on the Web site of the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known by its French acronym, MONUC. \"MONUC reiterates that under its mandate it will continue to intervene with all of its means to ensure the protection of civilians and to protect the urban centers of North Kivu,\" MONUC said, referring to the province in eastern Congo. The attacks by rebels of the National Congress for the Defense of People, or CNDP, led civilians to seek refuge in Goma, the provincial capital, where national army forces surround the city, said MONUC spokesman Jean-Paul Dietrich. He said U.N. helicopters flew overhead to provide cover until darkness fell, when the aircraft were grounded for the night. Dietrich said a U.N. official in Goma reported that the town of Rutshuru had been captured, although he had not confirmed the information with the military. Rutshuru is a territorial capital about 37 miles (60 kilometers) north of Goma. The U.N. convoy that officials said was attacked was providing security on the road from Rutshuru. Dietrich said clashes between the rebels and government forces had taken place during the day in scattered locations. Bertrand Bisimwa, a spokesman for the rebels, told The Associated Press the rebels' front lines are within within 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Goma, a city of 600,000. U.N. refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond said the Kibati camp for displaced persons tripled in size in a matter of hours Tuesday, The AP reported. Congolese hurled rocks at U.N. armored personnel carriers that were headed away from the fighting, according to an AP report. Watch as Congolese throw rocks at tanks \u00bb . \"What are they doing? They are supposed to protect us,\" AP quoted displaced person Jean-Paul Maombi as saying. Between 800,000 and 1 million displaced persons are living in camps run by the United Nations and other organizations in the area, Dietrich said, including about 150,000 people who came to the camps after August 28. \"I think right now it's a very delicate situation,\" he added. The spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Goma, Sylvie van den Wildenberg, said the situation in Goma is under control for now. \"We have reinforced our presence there.\" Watch as crowds target U.N. offices in Goma \u00bb . On Monday, U.N. gunships supported army forces as they fired on the CNDP rebels in an effort to halt their advance on Kibumba, to the north, Wildenberg said. \"We have put all our resources on alert to deter any further progression, trying to contain the aggression in those areas. CNDP is not listening to anyone anymore,\" she said. Renewed fighting erupted Sunday when the CNDP, led by renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda, seized a major military camp and gorilla park just one week after a U.N.-brokered peace accord, according to U.N. and park officials. The rebels, according to Wildenberg, are surrounding areas where displaced persons are housed as a \"strategy used to put more pressure on government and on the international community to get some of their requests satisfied. This is unacceptable and a violation of humanitarian law.\" Although the civil war in Congo officially ended in 2003, recent fighting in eastern Congo between government forces and rebels has displaced thousands. Fighting and the related humanitarian crisis have killed some 5.4 million people since 1998, and 45,000 people die there every month, according to an International Rescue Committee report in January. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Displaced persons triple size of U.N. camp .\nU.N. tanks stoned by frustrated civilians .\nRebels say they're within a dozen miles of Goma .","id":"65d160f1f0bf38de093ef8ecb137b2c54ac7fbff"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German federal police seized two suspected terrorists from a Dutch passenger aircraft at Cologne airport Friday shortly before it was due to take off for Amsterdam, officials told CNN. The arrests were made at Cologne's airport. A 23-year-old Somali national and a 24-year-old German citizen who had been born in Mogadishu were arrested on a KLM plane at 6.55 am local time (0455 GMT), a police spokesman said. Police said \"farewell\" letters had been found from the men that led them to suspect they were intending to carry out terror attacks. It was not revealed where the letters were found or how long the men had been under observation. Walter Roemer, press spokesman at Cologne-Bonn airport, said that the arrests had been \"very unspectacular\". He said federal police boarded the plane and arrested the two suspects, \"without them showing any resistance.\" The two had been among 40 passengers en route to Amsterdam. All those on board were asked to disembark while the suspects' luggage was identified. The plane took off for Amsterdam after a delay of one hour and 20 minutes. She said everyone was then forced to leave the plane, and there was a \"baggage parade\" to see whose bags belonged to whom. Watch more details on the incident. \u00bb . Amsterdam's Schipol airport Web site listed flight KL 1804, the scheduled morning flight from Cologne to Amsterdam, as having arrived at 9.17 am local time, one hour and two minutes after it was due to arrive. In September 2007, German authorities arrested three suspected militants planning what were described as \"massive\" attacks on American targets in Germany. German media said at the time that potential targets could have included Ramstein Air Base, the U.S. military's main installation in Germany, or the major international hub of Frankfurt Airport. Terrorism expert Sajjan Gohel told CNN the arrest showed Germany faces a major threat from extremists. Watch Gohel explain details behind the arrests \u00bb . \"This was a long term operation, there was a couple of individuals that the German intelligence agency was monitoring,\" he said. \"The feeling was that they had come back specifically with the purpose of planning and plotting a terrorist attack.\" CNN's Diana Magnay in Berlin contributed to this report . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police board KLM flight in Cologne early Friday to arrest suspects .\nTwo suspects said to be Somali man, 23 and German born in Somalia, 24 .\nPolice say \"farewell\" letters found from the men .","id":"f3c51af5cd92dc34eb77c7a23479e8d6e306d5b2"} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- The old warehouses of Portland's Pearl District are home to increasingly cool cultural diversions. Spend a weekend browsing the neighborhood's art galleries, snack on a pumpkin-pie cupcake and enjoy dinner and a show. The Gerding Theater at the Armory has been transformed after its $36 million eco-renovation. Take it home . If prices in the Pearl's posh galleries put a damper on your holiday gift giving, head to the Pacific Northwest College of Art for its annual student-art sale. Future famous artists sell surprisingly sophisticated gifts reflecting their fields of study: one-of-a-kind monotypes and screen-printed cards, jewelry with semiprecious stones, gorgeous oil paintings and thought-provoking metal sculptures. Catch a show . The once-vacant, castlelike Gerding Theater at the Armory has been transformed after its $36 million eco-renovation. For people-watching, sip wine in the loft overlooking the lobby, then settle in for Portland Center Stage's one-man play \"R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe.\" Sunset.com: Life in the Pearl . One-stop gallery hop . Who cares if it's raining when you have the DeSoto Building\/Museum of Contemporary Craft -- four fine art galleries and an innovative museum under one roof? Hit the museum's Holiday Shoppe (December 3-January 4) for funky felt rings and handcrafted ornaments. Great Pearl eats . Wild rice-smoked duck breast is steps from the Gerding Theater at Ten 01. Or try Isabel; we like the brown rice and tofu bowl with peanut sauce. Then there's 50 Plates, a casual bistro serving all-American classics. Sunset.com: Green in Portland . A twist on pumpkin pie . Warm up for T-Day with a luscious pumpkin pie cupcake filled with pumpkin cream at Cupcake Jones, a grab-and-go bakery. (Then place your order for Thanksgiving dessert.) WANT MORE ENTERTAINMENT? (Portland's got it) For budding theater buffs . Kids will eat up the juicy Oregon Children's Theatre production of Roald Dahl's classic \"James and the Giant Peach,\" while you'll get a kick out of the high-flying special effects and dry humor. For small-stage premieres . See classics and local playwrights' works on one of Artists Repertory Theatre's two intimate stages. Get some comic relief during the hectic holidays with Marc Acito and C.S. Witcomb's \"Holidazed,\" a humorous look at modern families coping with old-fashioned Christmas traditions. For indie-film fans . The Northwest Film Center presents themed series, retrospectives and annual film festivals. The Portland International Film Festival, held in February, features nearly 100 films from more than 30 countries. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2008 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Check out Pacific Northwest College of Art's annual student art sale .\nSettle in to watch a play at the renovated Gerding Theater at the Armory .\nStop for dinner at 50 Plates, a casual bistro serving all-American classics .","id":"49588f27e11132228bca365312086110b70f2f7b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators had a \"significant break\" in tracking the salmonella outbreak when they found the bacteria on a jalape\u00f1o pepper imported from Mexico at a Texas food supplier, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday. The FDA has discouraged all consumers from eating raw jalape\u00f1o peppers. The FDA also warned consumers not to eat fresh jalape\u00f1os and products made with fresh jalape\u00f1os. The discovery may provide a clue to the source of a recent outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul. The bacteria have sickened more than 1,200 people in 42 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"One of the jalape\u00f1o peppers has tested positive with a genetic match to the Saintpaul strand,\" said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases. Consumer Tips Blog: Hold the jalape\u00f1os He said officials are \"looking at the chain that the peppers would have passed through to decide if any of them are a point of contamination.\" Watch more on the salmonella outbreak \u00bb Tauxe called the discovery a \"significant break.\" \"While this one sample does not give us the whole story, this genetic break is very important,\" he said. \"This will hopefully help us pinpoint the source of this outbreak.\" The bacteria were found at a distribution center in McAllen, Texas, and the distributor has agreed to recall the products. Although the pepper was grown on a farm in Mexico, Tauxe said, investigators are not yet certain where the bacteria originated. Read food safety tips \u00bb \"This does not mean that the pepper was contaminated in Mexico,\" he said. \"We aren't only looking for the source, but the reason for the spread [of the outbreak].\" The news comes just days after the FDA lifted its ban on consumption of certain raw tomatoes. The FDA has not ruled out tomatoes as the source of the original outbreak, but investigators have determined that tomatoes currently in fields and stores are safe, Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for food protection, said Thursday. Learn about the differences between salmonella and E. coli \u00bb The FDA is still investigating fresh tomatoes as a possible source of the outbreak. It is possible that tomatoes were paired with another food that was contaminated, Tauxe said. Watch more on the FDA investigation \u00bb Before Monday's warning, the agency had discouraged high-risk people -- elderly people, infants and those with impaired immune systems -- from eating serrano and jalape\u00f1o peppers. Two elderly men with pre-existing conditions died while infected with Salmonella Saintpaul, and the FDA said the infection could have contributed to their deaths.","highlights":"NEW: Discovery called a \"significant break\" in outbreak investigation .\nStrain is Salmonella Saintpaul, which has sickened hundreds recently .\nCDC: Pepper grown in Mexico, but origin of bacteria uncertain .\nBacteria were found at distribution center in McAllen, Texas .","id":"483c32bb466a2c71cb7bee9db7c46c1bddc0707a"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Alfred Liggins is chief executive officer of Radio One Inc. and chairman of TV One LLC. The companies are aimed at an audience of African-American and urban consumers, and they own 53 radio stations in 16 cities, a cable network and a variety of Web sites. Liggins personally has contributed to Barack Obama's campaign. Alfred Liggins says the black population in America has grown increasingly diverse. (CNN) -- If you think African-Americans will come out in greater numbers than ever before to vote for Barack Obama, you're probably right. If you think you know how they'll vote in the almost 500 House, Senate and gubernatorial races, you could be in for a surprise. Although politicians and their advertising gurus often speak to Black America as a collective, homogeneous group, the black population is anything but a monolith. In the past decade, the more than 40 million strong black population in America has become increasingly diverse: economically, socially, technologically and even philosophically. In the final push toward Election Day, as politicians and political hopefuls seek to penetrate this community, they may no longer understand to whom they are speaking. Are they addressing blacks or African-Americans? Is racial prejudice as important an issue today as affording a college education for their kids or taking care of an aging parent? iReport.com: Black college cancels class to vote . Radio One, the country's largest broadcasting company primarily targeting African-Americans, recently commissioned a study to uncover Black America today. How do they identify themselves? What do they care about? How are they influenced? What is most important to them? Interestingly, the study found that 42 percent of those polled actually prefer to be called black (these are more likely to be more affluent) compared with 44 percent who choose to be described as African-American. And yes, it would be misguided to assume that dropping a Martin Luther King Jr. quote into a speech and focusing on America's history of racial inequality is the sure way to sway black voters when one-third of blacks, particularly younger people, believe that there is actually too much focus on past oppression. And as insulting as it is to assume that all women vote for female candidates, it is equally inaccurate and offensive to say that blacks simply cast their ballots for people of color. Like all Americans, black folks vote on the issues they care about, and today those issues are less likely to be linked to race than they are to the economy, health care, education and a whole spectrum of social issues. As Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson recently said, \"black people don't vote for candidates just because they are black. If Clarence Thomas ran for president, he would get five black votes.\" Given Black America's extreme diversity today (the study identified 11 specific groups) it is easy to misunderstand who they are and how they can be reached. Yes, discrimination and racial issues are still incredibly important, particularly to middle-age and older blacks. But the younger populations are more concerned about starting their own businesses, paying for their education, taking care of their children and creating a better work\/life balance. So how do politicians penetrate the multiple segments of Black America? In 1992, when Bill Clinton wooed African-Americans in church, he understood how to effectively reach that population. But that was before social networking sites attracted millions of teenage and young black adults. Now that the digital divide has faded, with roughly the same percentage of blacks online as the general population, ignoring black Web sites and social networking sites would be a big mistake. Although the history of black oppression in America is not the radioactive issue it once was, trust in the community -- whom blacks trust -- is still paramount. Of all institutions, they are least likely to trust credit card companies but also remain seriously wary of the mainstream media and tend to trust black media more than traditional media outlets. It has been almost a century and a half since blacks in America won the right to vote. It makes all the sense in the world that the black community has evolved and diversified over the years, but too often politicians make the mistake of assuming that blacks are still a monolithic group fixated on all of the same issues. Though Barack Obama will be able to count on a massive percentage of the black vote on Election Day, the rest of the ticket will need to dig deeper than the canned speeches dealing with racial injustice of the past to satisfy today's black voters. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Alfred Liggins.","highlights":"Alfred Liggins: America's black population has become more diverse .\n40 million population represents many different social, economic viewpoints, he says .\nLiggins: Discrimination still key issue, but other concerns have emerged .\nLiggins says politicians need to know that past appeals to race are outdated .","id":"7a0dc0a1f25bd46fb262b67c2b6533395d994b41"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After Friday night's presidential debate, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger defended Sen. John McCain's attack against Sen. Barack Obama for Obama's willingness to meet with the Iranian president \"without precondition.\" Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says he is not in favor of negotiations with Iran at the presidential level. Immediately after the debate, the McCain campaign released a statement from Kissinger backing the Republican nominee's sentiments on structuring any talks with Iran. \"Sen. McCain is right. I would not recommend the next president of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the presidential level,\" Kissinger said in the statement. \"My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Sen. John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.\" McCain and Obama sparred during the debate over how to best handle relations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly threatened Israel. Both candidates referenced Kissinger's comments from a CNN forum last week in which former secretaries of state discussed several topics, including Iran, and the presidential candidates disagreed over what Kissinger had said. The exchange started with McCain criticizing Obama for stating in two previous debates that he would sit down with Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro \"without precondition.\" McCain, the Republican nominee, said that in the past, U.S. presidents such as Ronald Reagan refused to meet with adversaries until a Cabinet member, such as the secretary of state, had several talks. \"Look, I'll sit down with anybody, but there's got to be preconditions,\" McCain said. Watch the candidates debate policy in Iran \u00bb . Obama responded by claiming that Kissinger, \"along with five recent secretaries of state, just said we should meet with Iran, guess what, without preconditions.\" McCain denied the claim: \"Dr. Kissinger did not say that he would approve a face-to-face meeting\" with Ahmadinejad. \"He did say there could be secretary and lower-level meetings.\" Obama defended his stance, explaining, \"Look, Sen. McCain keeps on using this example that suddenly the president would just meet with somebody without doing any preparation, without having low-level talks. Nobody's been talking about that. Sen. McCain knows it. That's a mischaracterization of my position.\" He also said, \"I reserve the right as president of the United States to meet with anyone at the time and place of my choosing if I think it's going to keep the American people safe.\" He added that those talks would come after \"preparations, starting with low-level diplomatic talks.\" The forum last week -- \"The Next President: A World of Challenges\" -- was co-sponsored by CNN and hosted former secretaries of state Warren Christopher, Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, James Baker and Colin Powell. During the forum, Albright, who served in the Clinton administration, said, \"I believe we need to engage with Iran.\" Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, echoed the sentiment. He said he is \"in favor of negotiation with Iran\" at the secretary of state level. \"I always believed that the best way to begin a negotiation is to tell the other side exactly what you have in mind ... what the outcome is that you're trying to achieve so that they have something that they can react to,\" Kissinger said.","highlights":"Obama said Kissinger thought U.S. should meet with Iran without preconditions .\nMcCain: \"Kissinger did not say that he would approve a face-to-face meeting\"\nKissinger releases statement siding with McCain .\nEx-secretaries of state: Next president should have some form of talks with Iran .","id":"9e45ef99b5e3dad5eb626da82d17d1572262884d"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities have detained the country's former drug czar on suspicion that he may have accepted $450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers, Mexico's attorney general said Friday. Noe Ramirez Mandujano was in charge from 2006 through August of fighting organized crime in Mexico. Noe Ramirez Mandujano was in charge from 2006 until this August of the attorney general's office that specializes in combatting organized crime. Ramirez is accused of meeting with members of a drug cartel while he was in office and agreeing to provide information on investigations in exchange for the bribes, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza said at a news conference Friday. The arrest was part of an ongoing investigation called \"Operation Limpieza,\" or \"Operation Cleanup,\" the attorney general said. The operation targets officials who may have passed information to drug cartels. The arrest was announced Thursday night, four days after the house arrest of Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, the director for International Police Affairs at Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency and the head of Mexico's Interpol office. Authorities say more than 30 officials have been arrested since July in connection with the anti-corruption operation. Interpol, which is based in France, announced Wednesday it is sending a team of investigators to Mexico to investigate the possibility that its communications systems and databases may have been compromised, a prospect raised by the arrest of Gutierrez, the top official working with the agency in Mexico. \"A war of master proportions\" between authorities and narcotics traffickers and traffickers among themselves has left more than 4,300 dead so far this year, according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent research and information organization. By comparison, the council said in a report this week, there were 2,700 drug-related deaths in 2007. \"Homegrown drug cartels operating from both within and outside the country are engaging in a vicious turf war to seize control of major trafficking corridors while engaging in almost open warfare against the mobilized forces of the state,\" the council said about what it calls \"narco-fueled crime.\" Mexican leaders have been trying to tamp down the violence by tightening controls on money-laundering and cracking down on corruption among local and municipal police forces infiltrated by drug traffickers. It may not be enough. \"Due to pervasive corruption at the highest levels of the Mexican government, and the almost effortless infiltration of the porous security forces by the cartel, an ultimate victory by the state is far from certain,\" the Hemispheric Council concludes. Drug trafficking in Mexico is a $20 billion- to $50 billion-a-year industry, as much as the nation earns from tourism or remittances from Mexicans living in the United States, said Robert Pastor, a former National Security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and now a professor of international relations at American University in Washington. He has been studying Latin America for more than four decades. \"This is a huge industry with an extraordinary capacity to corrupt and intimidate the country. And they're doing both right now,\" said Pastor, also a former director of the Carter Center's Latin American and Caribbean Program. The drug cartels are paying some Mexican officials bribes of $150,000 to $450,000 a month, authorities have said. This in a country where the per capita income is $12,500 a year and one of every seven Mexicans lives in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook.","highlights":"Noe Ramirez Mandujano arrested, suspected of taking $450,000 a month in bribes .\nAbout 30 officials arrested in massive operation investigating collusion with cartels .\nReport: 4,300 dead this year in war between authorities and narcotics traffickers .\nDrug cartels pay some officials bribes of $150,000 to $450,000 a month .","id":"1554bafeeec9d379eb651a17f318e31b3d01003a"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe urgently needs to form a new government in order to address a food crisis in the nation and prevent starvation, newly designated Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters Saturday. At least 80 percent of the population of Zimbabwe are living below the poverty line. Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said there was a \"deepening food insecurity\" in the country. \"We need to respond to this crisis with utmost urgency,\" he said. \"It is therefore imperative that a government be formed in the next few days and begins to implement plans to insure that our people have food and do not die of starvation.\" Zimbabwe industries are operating at about 10 percent of capacity, and the food and manufacturing industry will not be able to deliver sufficient food supplies to markets. Tsvangirai signed a power sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe on September 15 but the two have not yet agreed on the distribution of Cabinet posts. Earlier this week, Mugabe told the press that only four posts were still to be agreed on. But Tsvangirai said in response, \"I think to minimize the remaining issues to only four issues, it is to underplay the whole process. The issue is that the negotiation must be concluded I think the matter will be solved once all the principals are back in the country.\" Mugabe has been in the United States for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He is expected back in the country after Saturday. Zimbabwe has been facing a collapsing economy for nearly a decade, and is plagued with high unemployment, food shortages and at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line. This has been accompanied by dizzying levels of inflation -- now officially at 11.2 million percent, the highest in the world. Once an exporter of food, Zimbabwe has been a net importer of food since 2000, when Mugabe's government embarked on a controversial and violent land reform program that displaced some experienced commercial farmers, most of them of European origin. Tsvangirai said he has consulted with food security experts and was told the country needs to import 800,000 tons of maize (corn) to avoid starvation until the next harvest in April.","highlights":"New PM: Zimbabwe urgently needs government to address food crisis .\nRobert Mugabe blames country's economic collapse on sanctions .","id":"dc7774ef29c0f3438de72dea1712a14ee1aef699"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elvis Presley may have left the building three decades ago, but he raked in more money last year than many living titans of the music industry . Singer Elvis Presley tops the Forbes list for the second year in a row, raking in $52 million last year. For the second year in a row, Presley topped the Forbes magazine's list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, hauling in $52 million last year. In comparison, the very-much-alive Justin Timberlake earned $44 million while another superstar, Madonna, made $40 million, the magazine reported Tuesday. The 30th anniversary of Presley's death boosted attendance and merchandise sales last year at his Memphis, Tennessee, home, Graceland. A long list of licensing deals, such as a Presley show on satellite radio, added to the earnings. The business magazine has been compiling its annual list of departed celebrities' earnings since 2001. Since 2003, the feature has coincided with Halloween. This year, the top 13 celebrities earned a combined $194 million in the last 12 months. The magazine says it talked to people inside the celebrities' estates and calculated their gross earnings from October 2007 to October 2008. Some celebrities are staples on the list, which is in its eighth year. Cartoonist Charles Schulz, who created Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the assorted cast of \"Peanuts\" characters, is second on the list. Schulz, who died in 2000, had posthumous earnings last year of $33 million, the magazine reported. He owes his constant presence to a steady revenue stream from the ongoing licensing of his characters, the magazine said. Schulz and Presley join Theodor \"Dr. Seuss\" Geisel (this year's No. 6), Beatles legend John Lennon (No. 7) and actress Marilyn Monroe (No. 9) as the only entertainers to make the list every year since its inception. Physicist Albert Einstein, best known for his theory of relativity, is fourth on the list. It is his third consecutive year making the Forbes rankings. Though he died in 1955, a franchise bearing his name -- Baby Einstein -- made big bucks last year selling educational books, DVDs, CDs, toys and other products. It plans to expand into the young-adult market this year. Australian actor Heath Ledger, who died of an overdose in January, made his debut on the list in third place. The magazine estimated his earnings at $20 million, thanks to the success of the movie, \"The Dark Knight,\" in which Ledger played the Joker. The movie grossed $991 million worldwide. Paul Newman, who died of lung cancer last month, also made his first appearance on the list, raking in $5 million. \"His income still largely stems from residuals from his classic pictures, as well as more recent productions,\" the magazine said. The legendary actor's line of natural and organic food products, Newman's Own, earned revenues of $120 million last year, but the earnings were not considered in the tally because Newman donated all profits to charity while he was living, the magazine said. Several entertainers from last year's list failed to make this year's cut, including composer, producer and Beatles guitarist George Harrison, rapper\/actor Tupac Shakur, \"Godfather of Soul\" James Brown, and reggae legend Bob Marley.","highlights":"Presley earned more than Justin Timberlake ($44M), Madonna ($40M) last year .\nCartoonist Charles Schulz, author Dr. Seuss still relevant among children .\nBeatles' John Lennon comes in at No. 7, but George Harrison drops off list .\nHeath Ledger debuts on list thanks to performance as Joker in \"The Dark Knight\"","id":"2c13a432ca76474e2d0d65f94e108768daefb5a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first of a new class of HIV drugs that attacks the virus in a different way. A woman wears an AIDS ribbon at a Cape Town, South Africa, hospital where HIV patients are treated. Isentress, developed by Merck & Co., is designed for patients who have shown resistance to current treatments. The drug has been approved for adults who already have been receiving treatment, but more testing is necessary before it is approved for new HIV patients or children, the company said in a statement. Isentress belongs to a class of drugs called integrase inhibitors. These drugs work by blocking the integrase enzyme, which helps HIV replicate by inserting its DNA into new cells. Isentress is the first drug in the class to win FDA approval. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a noted HIV expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the FDA's approval \"will be most welcome in the community of physicians taking care of HIV-infected patients.\" \"Its mechanism of action is particularly important in that it blocks the ability of the virus to integrate itself into the genes of cells,\" Fauci said. \"This property of the virus to integrate is important in establishing the reservoir of virus in the body that has made it extremely difficult to eradicate HIV, even with prolonged treatment.\" Two earlier classes of anti-HIV drugs -- protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors -- also work by blocking different enzymes involved in HIV replication. Friday's decision by the FDA will give doctors a new tool to help patients who have developed resistance to existing drugs or who are infected with drug-resistant strains of HIV. Like protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors, Isentress will also be prescribed for patients in combination with other drugs to maximize the number of ways the virus is being attacked. The cost of the recommended daily regimen of Isentress -- a 400 mg tablet taken twice a day -- will be comparable to protease inhibitors, with a wholesale price of $27, Merck said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"FDA approves HIV drug for use in adults with resistance to existing treatments .\nIsentress, by Merck & Co., is the first of new class of drugs to get approval .\nMore testing necessary before it is approved for new HIV patients, children .\nDrug works by blocking different enzymes involved in HIV replication .","id":"21bf4e8709c7fe19855a20c8c398ce7d015b36f1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration misused intelligence to build a case for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a report issued Thursday. President Bush didn't request intelligence reports about the post-war situation, the Senate panel's report says. The White House exploited its ability to declassify intelligence selectively to bolster its case for war, the committee chairman, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-West Virginia, said in the report. Senior officials disclosed and discussed sensitive intelligence reports that supported the administration's policy objectives and kept out of public discourse information that did not, he said. The report also found that the administration misled the American people about contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. \"Policymakers' statements did not accurately convey the intelligence assessments\" about contacts between the then-Iraqi leader and Osama bin Laden's group, \"and left the impression that the contacts led to substantive Iraqi cooperation or support of al Qaeda,\" the report said. \"Statements and implications by the president and secretary of state suggesting that Iraq and al Qaeda had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al Qaeda with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence,\" according to the committee's exhaustive report on prewar intelligence. The top Republican on the committee dismissed its findings as \"partisan gamesmanship.\" \"It is ironic that the Democrats would knowingly distort and misrepresent the committee's findings and the intelligence in an effort to prove that the administration distorted and mischaracterized the intelligence,\" said Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri. The White House also rejected the report as old news. \"I know this is another report, and I'm sure that they put a lot of considerable thought into it, but this is a subject that has been gone over many many, many times, and I don't know of anything that's particularly new in it,\" said spokeswoman Dana Perino, who said she had not yet read it. She said the White House relied on the same information as the rest of the world, admitting that it was wrong but denying that Bush had set out to mislead the country. White House claims that Hussein was seeking weapons of mass destruction were partially backed by available intelligence, the report found, but did not reflect disputes within the intelligence community. The CIA, among others, believed Iraq was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, but the Department of Energy disagreed, the report said. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq after the invasion. The report also took the administration to task for its predictions about the aftermath of the invasion, including Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators. Bush and Cheney did not request intelligence reports about the post-war situation, and their public statements did not reflect doubts and uncertainties in the intelligence community, the report said. The report comes days after former White House press spokesman Scott McClellan published a book saying Bush decided on war with Iraq soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks. \"Bush and his advisers knew that the American people would almost certainly not support a war launched primarily for the ambitious purpose of transforming the Middle East. Rather than open this Pandora's Box, the administration chose a different path -- not employing out-and-out deception, but shading the truth,\" McClellan wrote in his memoir, \"What Happened.\" Current and former White House officials have dismissed McClellan's accusations, saying he was not in a position to know about top-level White House decision-making before the war when he was deputy press secretary. The Senate committee chairman slammed the White House in a statement marking the release of the long-awaited report. \"Before taking the country to war, this administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced,\" Rockefeller said Thursday. \"Unfortunately, our committee has concluded that the administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence. In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed,\" he added. The report picked apart three speeches by Bush, including his 2003 State of the Union address two months before the invasion, one by Cheney and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's U.N. presentation about Iraq in the run-up to the war. The report was approved by a 10-5 vote, with some Republicans dissenting. Some GOP members of the committee had wanted the report to examine prewar statements by Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Clinton. Democrats on the committee blocked the suggestion and limited the report's purview to administration statements only. CNN's Pam Benson and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Report says Bush administration misused intelligence in run-up to Iraq war .\nAdministration selectively declassified information to bolster case, report says .\nPanel: Public misled about contacts between Saddam Hussein, al Qaeda .\nWhite House spokeswoman calls findings old news .","id":"a590a88d169de861b0a5971a41a5334fafcd78ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Suspected Al Qaeda militants disguised as security forces launched an explosive assault on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, Wednesday killing 10 Yemeni police and civilians, officials said. The attack involved two car bombs, a spokesman for Yemen's embassy in Washington said. Six attackers, including a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest, were also killed in the attack, Mohammed al-Basha said. There were at least four explosions -- including at least one car bomb -- and sniper fire, a senior State Department official said. Yemeni officials said the first car contained people in police uniforms who exchanged fire with Yemeni security forces, the officials said. The second car exploded after it passed an outermost gate to the Embassy but before it reached a second protective barrier, the officials said. But al-Basha said there were two cars packed with explosives involved in the attack. The heavily fortified compound in the capital of Yemen -- the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- has previously been targeted in attacks. Watch the aftermath of the attack \u00bb . A U.S. official told CNN the attackers initially opened fire outside the embassy's security gate, then there was the main explosion followed by a secondary explosion. At some point, snipers positioned across the street from the embassy opened fire on Yemeni first responders as they arrived on the scene, the official said. Those killed include six Yemeni policemen and four civilians, he said, noting that the number of wounded is unclear. No U.S. Embassy employees were killed, the official added. However, CNN affilliate WGRZ reported that Ahmed Elbaneh of Lackawanna, New York, said his sister, Susan, 18, and her new husband died in the attack. Elbaneh said his sister left Lackawanna about a month ago for an arranged marriage and that she had been married for only 30 days. Elbaneh said family members in Yemen told him she was at the embassy translating for her new sister-in-law when the blast occurred. Yemen believes al Qaeda is responsible for the attack, al-Basha said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the the explosions \"bear the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack.\" And Al-Basha said in a statement: \"The government of Yemen considers terrorism as a crime against humanity. It strongly condemns this heinous attack. Whoever else who may have planned, plotted and supported the perpetrators of this terrorist attack will be apprehended and justice will prevail.\" Media reports said Islamic Jihad in Yemen -- which is affiliated with al Qaeda -- has claimed responsibility for the attack, but CNN could not independently confirm those reports. The U.S. State Department said it is sending a team of law enforcement and security experts to help in the investigation, spokesman Sean McCormack said. Trev Mason, a British national who lives near the embassy, said he saw \"a massive fireball\" near compound. Eyewitness tells of fireball outside embassy \u00bb . \"We heard the sounds of a heavy gun battle going on,\" he told CNN. \"I looked out my window, and we saw the first explosion going off -- a massive fireball very close to the U.S. Embassy. \"The gun battle went on for a further 10 to 15 minutes, followed by two further loud explosions.\" The first explosion happened about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday (0615 GMT\/2.15 am ET) and was followed by several secondary blasts, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Ryan Gliha. Gliha describes the aftermath \u00bb . Gliha was at the embassy at the time of the attack and said he felt the compound shake. \"We were all ordered to assume what we call a duck-and-cover position which is a position where we guard ourselves and bodies from potential debris,\" Gliha told CNN. \"From that vantage point, I can't tell you much after that except we did feel several explosions after the main explosion that shook the ground.\" Al-Basha called it a \"despicable and heinous act\" particularly because it took place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. President Bush condemned the attack, and warned that it is \"a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives.\" \"One objective ... is they will try to cause the United States to lose our nerve,\" he said. \"We want people to be able to live normal lives; we want mothers to be able to raise their sons and daughters.\" A senior State Department official told reporters Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a phone call with Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh expressed regret for the loss of Yemeni life but also underscored the need to increase and improve cooperation against terrorism. Witnesses told CNN they heard gunfire, and said they saw ambulances rushing from the scene. The U.S. State Department has warned of violence that it attributes to Islamic extremists in Yemen. It has cited concern \"about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests.\" The State Department ordered the departure of all non-emergency American staff from the Embassy, along with their family members, in April, after attacks against the Embassy and a residential compound. That order was lifted last month. In March, three mortar rounds landed near the Embassy, injuring Yemeni students at a nearby school and Yemeni government security personnel, the State Department said. The next month, an expatriate residential compound in the Hadda neighborhood was attacked by mortar fire. Suspected extremists fired two mortar rounds toward the Yemen Customs Authority and Italian Embassy in April, as well, but no one was hurt. Authorities in Yemen have been struggling to curb the activities of al Qaeda-linked groups, with militants seen as having free rein outside major cities, says CNN's International Security Correspondent Paula Newton. Watch Newton analyze the situation in Yemen. \u00bb . CNN's Zain Verjee, Caroline Faraj and Mark Bixler contributed to this report . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Militants attack U.S. Embassy in Yemen with car bombs and suicide bomber .\nAttack involved two cars and snipers; some attackers wore police uniforms .\nEmbassy spokesman says 10 Yemen police, civilians killed; six attackers dead .\nNEW: President Bush: \"A reminder that we are at war with extremists\"","id":"d49212f5a1fe4c1f5de71cf93f479bd82770ec40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hemant Karkare, Mumbai's slain terror chief, was a shrewd and unflappable investigator whose death is a blow to a police force that has difficult work ahead, his colleagues said this week. Hemant Karkare, left, was killed by gunmen in Mumbai shortly after this video was taken Wednesday. According to accounts in Indian newspapers, Karkare, 54, was credited with solving many crimes and did his job apolitically and with the utmost integrity. \"The state Anti-Terrorism Squad has lost a daredevil officer in Hemant Karkare,\" Peter Lobo, chief inspector of the Anti-Terror Squad in Pune, told The Times of India on Thursday. Karkare, head of Maharashtra state's Anti-Terrorism Squad, was heading home Wednesday when he learned gunmen were attacking the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil told The Hindu newspaper. Karkare later got word the situation at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was more serious. The terror chief and two other officers -- armed with automatic weapons -- jumped in a jeep and rushed to take on the terrorists, The Hindu reported. Watch how victims are coping with the attack \u00bb . Footage from CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN, showed Karkare donning a helmet and putting a bulletproof vest over his light blue shirt as uniformed police officers with firearms and walkie-talkies surrounded him. Watch Karkare's funeral \u00bb . It would be the last video taken of Karkare before terrorists shot him three times in the chest near Cama hospital, the site of another Wednesday attack in Mumbai. \"Though a workaholic, he was a soft-spoken officer. ATS has received a severe blow because of the untimely death of Karkare,\" Lobo told The Times of India before departing Pune to pay his respects to Karkare. Karkare joined the Indian Police Services in 1982. He became head of Maharashtra's Anti-Terror Squad in January after he returned from Austria, where he served seven years in the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency. The post in Austria was testament to his acumen as a police officer, a colleague told The Times of India. \"Due to his excellent ability to handle things, he was posted to the Research and Analysis Wing in Austria. He was like family to me,'' said Bipin Gopalakrishna, who joined the force with Karkare in 1982. According to CNN-IBN, Karkare was credited with solving bombing cases in Thane, Vashi and Panvel and played a key role in cracking the case of the September 29 blast in Malegaon, which reportedly killed six people. He also uncovered several radical Hindu groups operating in Maharashtra, according to media reports. Karkare came under intense political pressure while investigating the Malegaon bombing, and it was widely reported that he warned officers in his command against succumbing to pressure to doctor evidence. \"We should do our job and it is for the court to decide,\" Karkare was quoted in several media outlets as saying. Watch officials speculate on who may be responsible for this week's attacks \u00bb . \"He was simply superb. He could handle any difficult situation boldly and with a cool mind,\" Aurangabad Police Commissioner Thakur Deepaksinh Gaur told The Times of India. Gaur told the paper he had worked with Karkare in Aurangabad and Nanded. Added another Indian Police Services officer: \"His death is a huge loss to our force and society.\" When not on the clock, Karkare was known to enjoy sculpting and could often be found whittling driftwood, The Indian Express reported. He also enjoyed music and dabbled in palm reading, former diplomat T.P. Sreenivasan told The Hindu. \"We used to put him in one of the stalls as an Indian palmist during the annual charity fair organized by the Indian ambassador and he was big hit with the crowd,\" said Sreenivasan, who worked with Karkare in Vienna for five years. Sreenivasan told The Hindu that Karkare -- who had strong credentials in fighting terrorism, corruption and money laundering -- could have earned a post at a U.N. agency in Vienna, but chose instead to return home to serve India. Karkare is well-admired, Sreenivasan told The Hindu, and is survived by a doting family and many friends and admirers. Contacted in Pune, Karkare's brother Shirish found it difficult to speak about his brother's death Thursday. \"He was a father figure for me,\" the younger brother told The Times of India. Shirish's wife Amruta told the newspaper that the anti-terror chief would be laid to rest when his daughters arrived from overseas. The older daughter Jui Navare lives in Boston, Massachusetts, she said, and the younger daughter studies at the London School of Economics. Karkare's son Akash is a student at R.A. Podor College of Commerce and Economics. His wife Kavita teaches at a college in Mumbai, she said.","highlights":"Official tells paper Hemant Karkare was on his way home when he heard of attacks .\nReports: Karkare was shot three times in chest responding to Mumbai attacks .\nColleagues describe terror chief as \"workaholic\" with utmost integrity .\nKarkare had interest in woodworking, music, palm reading, reports say .","id":"59e249b4ecb6dbcb804b22955b663b9176e5d5d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chairman of one of India's fastest-growing banks, the sister of a Bollywood actor, a Times of India journalist and the chief of India's Anti-Terrorism Squad were among Indians killed in the four-day terrorist siege in Mumbai. National Security Guard troops salute slain commando Gajendra Singh on Saturday in New Delhi, India. Eighteen foreigners, including five Americans, were killed in attacks on nine sites Wednesday through Saturday in India's commercial capital; at least 165 Indians died. Several news outlets reported that Ashok Kapur, chairman of Yes Bank, was killed Wednesday at the Oberoi hotel. He had gone there to have dinner with his wife and some friends, who escaped the carnage, the Indian newspaper Business Standard reported. His body was found not in the restaurant but on the hotel's 19th floor, a bank spokesperson told the paper. Kapur was one of the founders of the bank and held a 12 percent stake in it, Business Standard said. His long banking career included ventures in Singapore and the Netherlands, and he was an adviser to India's wealthy Tata family, the paper reported. Bollywood actor Ashish Chowdhury's sister, Monica Chhabaria, and her husband also were killed Wednesday at the Oberoi, CNN-IBN reported. The actor waited outside the hotel for word of his sister, who he said had stopped answering phone calls after the siege began. Chowdhury has appeared in numerous Indian films. He had a small role in the U.S. film \"Fight Club,\" starring Brad Pitt. The body of Sabina Sehgal Saikia, a Times of India consulting editor and food critic, was recovered Saturday from the Taj hotel, CNN-IBN reported. As the terrorists were seizing control of the hotel, Saikia had sent a text message to hotel employees saying, ''They are in my bathroom,'' CNN-IBN said. She was not heard from again. Hotel staff were also among the many dead. Boris Rego, a management trainee at the Taj Mahal hotel, was killed Thursday, his brother told CNN-IBN. Kevin Rego said his 25-year-old brother was working in the hotel's restaurant when gunmen barged in and opened fire. Boris made several phone calls to his family in Goa, the last one coming in about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Kevin Rego told CNN-IBN. \"There was commotion in the background. All he said was 'Daddy ... Kevin ... Kevin.' Then his voice trailed off, and there was silence,\" his brother said. The chairman of the company that owns the Taj told said the hotel's general manager lost his family in a fire the broke out in the hotel Wednesday night. \"I went up to him today, and he said, 'Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was,' \" Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. The bodies of Karambir Kang's wife and two children of were burned beyond recognition in the fire, The Times of India reported, citing hotel sources, but it was unclear whether they were killed in the blaze. Thousands turned out Saturday in Mumbai for the funeral of Hemant Karkare, chief of Maharashtra state's Anti-Terrorism Squad, who was shot to death Wednesday as the siege unfolded. He was one of at least 17 police officers who died in the attacks. Karkare's cremation was delayed while his two daughters made their way home from the United States and England, The Times of India reported. A military funeral was held Saturday in Bangalore for Maj. Sandeep Unnikrishnan, a National Security Guard commando who was killed at the Taj hotel, The Times of India reported. iReport.com: Share tributes to those lost . The body of another Security Guard officer, Gajendra Singh, was taken to New Delhi before being transported for last rights in his native Dehradun, The Times reported. He was killed at Mumbai's Chabad House, a Jewish community center where American-born rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his Israeli wife, Rivka, were killed along with another American rabbi, Leibish Teitelbaum. IBN listed the other slain police officers as: .","highlights":"NEW: Hotel employee, Taj GM's wife and two sons reported dead .\nAshok Kapur, chairman of Yes Bank, reported killed at Oberoi Hotel .\nBody of Sabina Sehgal Saikia, Times of India consulting editor, found .\nHemant Karkare, chief of Anti-Terrorism Squad, among 17 police killed .","id":"8f35b63a8c76a8a8a73e5b0a2b66f71086cb816a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Erika Preuss gave a worried glance over rows and rows of empty cars packing the Wal-Mart parking lot at 3:30 a.m. Sean Blake said he met Black Friday campers in Houston, Texas, who call themselves the \"Best Buy family.\" She was 30 minutes early at the sprawling store in suburban Kansas City, Missouri, where she had arrived to take advantage of Friday's 4 a.m. post-Thanksgiving clothing deals. But there were no tents, no campers, no eager shoppers waiting to spend their dollars. Preuss said she expected to wait in a line to get service, but people were already inside, and the store was filled with frenzied shoppers. She captured video to document her experience. \"So apparently Wal-Mart did take pity on the poor souls standing outside in the cold and let people into the store early,\" Preuss said. \"Here's how they handle it: They shrink-wrap all the goodies in plastic wrap, so all the good sale items are wrapped in black Saran wrap, and no one can touch them until 4 a.m.\" As a self-described \"Black Friday virgin,\" Preuss says, she has lots to learn about the proper technique for this holiday weekend ritual. \"I discovered that I was very unprepared for Black Friday, not dressed properly, as you need more padding to avoid all the shopping carts ramming into you,\" she said. \"I feel like that song, 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,' only the reindeer had a Wal-Mart sign on it.\" She decided to see what the hype was about while visiting from Lake Delton, Wisconsin. \"I have three kids, and money is tight,\" she said. \"I'm a single mom. This year, I decided I was going to give it a try and see if I could get some bargains.\" Preuss said the lines of people searching for discounted merchandise said a lot about the shape of the economy. Many people were fighting over kids' clothes and other essentials, but she saw much less effort being expended on video games and TV sets. She said she came for the $4 kids' track suits and $8 winter coats. iReport.com: See footage of the shoppers packing the store . Inside the packed store, she began to realize she needed a new strategy to beat the crowds. She decided to grab a bunch of clothing from which to pick. \"I ditched the cart and went in with my bare hands,\" she said. iReport.com: Huge crowd in Puerto Rico . Although Preuss got lucky and immediately entered the toasty store, others across the country were willing to wait in the freezing cold just to get merchandise. Barbara Rademacher woke at 2 a.m. to see the shopping scene and found shoppers huddling outside a Best Buy in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Some had sleeping bags, blankets and winter wear. Chilly hands held lists of the items they planned to buy. \"Laptops! We have lists!\" exclaimed excited shoppers waiting to get into the store. iReport.com: Watch Arkansas customers wait in the cold . Rademacher watched a lengthy stream of people cram through the doors when the store opened. \"It's something fun to experience, because you can only do it once a year,\" one of the aspiring customers said to the camera. Rademacher headed for the nearby Kohl's and found a similar scene as massive queues of people started running into the store. iReport.com: Virginia shoppers join Santa at mall . \"Whoa, look at all these people,\" Rademacher said. \"I'm less worried about the economy than I might have been.\" But even these determined shoppers had nothing on the tented campers spotted by Sean Blake of Houston, Texas, who found several temporary shelters set up outside a Best Buy store on Thursday. He said campers told him the first tents went up on Wednesday morning, two days ahead of the store's 5 a.m. sales deals. iReport.com: Retail campout for the holidays . Blake said the shoppers refer to themselves as the \"Best Buy family\" and have gotten together to wait in line for the past three years. \"They've become really close friends with each other because they've done this every year,\" Blake said. iReport.com: Vehicle blocked by overnight shoppers . Some customers spent almost the entirety of Thanksgiving in line, taking turns to get food or sneak a break from the close-knit tent city. Blake saw people with TV sets, car batteries, computers and other devices. He visited a different Best Buy store and found people playing an impromptu football game in the parking lot. Eager shoppers made for many more strange sights Friday. Patrons camped out in the frozen-food aisle at a Meijer store in Louisville, Kentucky. iReport.com: Lawn chairs in aisle 9 . While on a break during his grocery shift, Bryan Hoskins shot photos of the circuslike scene of customers taking free doughnuts as they sought HDTVs and video game consoles. He said some items sold out completely. Not everyone could get what they wanted, as Jason Rathburn of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, found. iReport.com: Wal-Mart packed to the gills . \"It was a sea of people,\" said Rathburn, who hoped to buy a Nintendo Wii game system but went home empty-handed. He wasn't impressed by the behavior of fellow customers. He said a woman accidentally bumped his back as she tried to compete with him while he examined $1.50 towels. He also said he watched as a customer swooped in to take a 42-inch TV and the unattended cart in which it was sitting. \"I'm guessing that the spirit of giving for Christmas starts tomorrow,\" he said.","highlights":"iReport.com: Shoppers line up early to take advantage of holiday deals .\nSean Blake says people camped through Thanksgiving outside Best Buy .\nErika Preuss calls herself a \"Black Friday virgin,\" learns many lessons .\nBarbara Rademacher says cold weather doesn't deter shoppers in Arkansas .","id":"b68d7e51ff68b61af25e4a0a65132599ae718b00"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former first lady Barbara Bush was moved out of the intensive care unit of a Houston, Texas, hospital into a regular room Thursday after surgery to repair and seal a perforated ulcer, a hospital spokeswoman said. Ex-first lady Barbara Bush has been moved out of ICU and into a regular room. Bush, 83, was in good spirits and was joking with hospital staffers, the Methodist Hospital spokeswoman said. She was being fed intravenously. Her doctor said earlier she will be allowed no food by mouth for about a week, to avoid possibly stretching her abdominal area. The former first lady showed up at Methodist's emergency room Tuesday night complaining of severe abdominal pain, Dr. Patrick Reardon, who performed the surgery, told reporters Wednesday. Doctors determined Bush had a perforated ulcer in her duodenum, the first portion of the small intestine after the stomach, he said. In the operating room, doctors thoroughly cleaned her abdominal cavity of any contaminants that had leaked through the hole, described by the hospital as being one centimeter in diameter. Then, doctors repaired the ulcer and sewed a piece of the fat tissue in the abdomen, on top of it to seal it, Reardon said. Bush's husband, former President George H.W. Bush, was with her Thursday morning, but was leaving to attend Thanksgiving dinner with his son Neil, the Methodist Hospital spokeswoman told CNN. The ulcer was biopsied and is benign, Reardon said Wednesday. He suggested it might have been caused by anti-inflammatory medications. CNN's Sean Callebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Barbara Bush had surgery to repair and seal a perforated ulcer .\nBush, 83, is in good spirits and was joking with hospital staffers .\nFormer first lady being fed intravenously to avoid stretching abdomen .\nThe ulcer has been biopsied and is benign .","id":"debd52f3efc13dee3dce1f10c5843213ca76dcbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manuela Testolini and her colleagues had just sat down to dinner at the Oberoi hotel restaurant in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday when the sound of gunfire erupted outside. Manuela Testolini was in Mumbai on business when a series of brazen attacks broke out. At first, they didn't know what it was. Then, one of Testolini's colleagues saw a man get shot to death outside the restaurant's front door, and everyone started to run. \"We left everything behind, including purses and phones,\" said Testolini, the ex-wife of music icon Prince and founder of In A Perfect World children's foundation. \"There was a lot of panic.\" Testolini said gunfire followed her as she and dozens more fled through the kitchen and down to the ballroom, where they found temporary refuge from the gunfire and grenades raining outside. Testolini, a Canadian in Mumbai for business, was at the center of a brazen series of coordinated attacks in the southern part of the city overnight Wednesday. Watch Testolini describe running from gunfire \u00bb . Gunmen rampaged through a series of targets in the commercial capital of India, killing indiscriminately and taking hostages at two luxury hotels. Testolini said she and 200 others waited in the dark ballroom for several hours, listening to the intensifying sounds of gunfire and grenades. Eventually, the hotel staff began evacuating guests 10 at a time, women and children first, to the street. For a moment, she thought she was safe. But then, the gunfire returned. \"They were pursing us, and we ran, and we could hear them shooting at us,\" Testolini said. Testolini and her colleagues eventually found shelter in an undisclosed location, where they are keeping up with the news on their BlackBerrys, waiting for signs that it's safe to move. \"We are far enough away to feel safe but close enough to feel what's going on,\" said Testolini, who was scheduled to leave Mumbai on Thursday afternoon. \"We'll lay low till at least the daylight.\" There's no telling where Testolini would be had she been in her room at the Taj Mahal Hotel, where gunmen were holding hostages on multiple floors. One witness told local reporters that gunmen stormed the lobby, demanding to know who had U.S. or British passports, and took about 15 people hostage. Yasmin Wong, a CNN employee who was staying in the Taj, said she hid under her bed for several hours after she was awoken by gunfire. Wong said she received a phone call from the hotel telling her to turn her light off, put a wet towel by the door and stay in her room until she was told otherwise. Watch Wong describe the chaos in the hotel \u00bb . She complied, but then she went to her window and saw smoke and debris. \"I saw a guy outside the window above me who had smashed the window and was hanging out,\" Wong said. \"At that point, authorities told us to run out of the hotel.\" Wong said she passed dead bodies in the hotel's halls as she searched for an exit, finally leaving through the pool entrance. \"The main thing I thought was, was it going to end? And it just never ended,\" Wong said.","highlights":"Manuela Testolini says colleague saw man killed outside restaurant .\nPrince's ex-wife says gunmen pursued her, diners as they fled .\nNearby, CNN employee hid from gunfire under bed at Taj .\nYasmin Wong ran past bodies in hotel's halls as she sought exit .","id":"7233c980f4d69a9582d1c2200c6586bc8da21bb6"} -{"article":"ST. BERNARD PARISH, Louisiana (CNN) -- \"We were a normal red-blooded American family,\" recalls Rudy Aguilar. \"And ... it took [one day] to wipe us out.\" Liz McCartney moved to St. Bernard Parish to help residents rebuild their homes after Katrina. A lifelong resident of St. Bernard Parish, a community just east of New Orleans, Aguilar lost everything during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Nearly three years later, like many in his area, Aguilar is still struggling to get back on his feet. But now he has help. From her home 1,000 miles away in Washington, Liz McCartney was haunted by images of the storm's destruction and stories of people like Aguilar. In February 2006, she and her boyfriend, Zack Rosenburg, went to New Orleans to volunteer. The experience changed their lives -- so much that they quit their jobs and moved to St. Bernard Parish. Now they're dedicated to helping people rebuild and move back into their homes. Watch McCartney describe how the St. Bernard Project is rebuilding homes \u00bb . McCartney said that when she first arrived in St. Bernard Parish, she was stunned. \"We just wanted to pitch in and help out,\" McCartney, now 35, recalls. \"I naively thought that six months later, you'd see all kinds of progress. [But it] looked like the storm had just rolled through.\" St. Bernard Parish was once home to 67,000 residents, but Katrina left nearly all of the area's homes uninhabitable. As McCartney got to know the locals, she was reminded of her parents and grandparents. \"These were people who worked their whole lives, put their kids through college, and had never had to receive [help] before,\" she says. That's when she decided to do more to help the community recover. By June 2006, the couple had left Washington and moved to St. Bernard Parish. Neither knew anything about construction, but both felt they could use their experience raising money and organizing volunteers to help with the rebuilding effort. Local residents, touched by the couple's leap of faith, taught them basic construction. Within two months, McCartney and Rosenburg opened the nonprofit St. Bernard Project, which focuses on helping those they consider most in need -- senior citizens and families with children. The formula is straightforward: With donations, volunteers and skilled supervisors, homes get rebuilt -- and people move home. \"It's not rocket science,\" McCartney says. \"The problems in this community are widespread, but the solutions are really simple.\" Yet this simple equation yields impressive results. The St. Bernard Project can transform a gutted house into a livable home in just eight to 12 weeks for an average cost of $12,000. For residents like Aguilar, the St. Bernard Project has been a lifesaver. In the years since Katrina, he lost his job and struggled with health problems. \"I was so beaten down,\" he says. \"I was gonna blow myself away.\" When the Saint Bernard Project agreed to rebuild his home, the relief he felt was palpable. \"They saved my life.\" Watch Aguilar describe his own Katrina experience \u00bb . To date, more than 6,000 volunteers have worked with the St. Bernard Project, enabling more than 120 families to move back into their homes. McCartney says every house her group rebuilds has an impact on the community as a whole. \"Once you get one family back, other families are willing to come back as well,\" she says. \"There's a very nice ripple effect.\" McCartney and Rosenburg plan to keep working until all the homes in St. Bernard Parish are rebuilt. \"We're here until we work ourselves out of a job,\" she says. Watch McCartney describe her turning point while volunteering in New Orleans \u00bb . For Aguilar, McCartney isn't just rebuilding homes -- she's restoring a sense of hope to the community. \"Little by little, one house at a time, we'll be back,\" he says. \"I feel it. I know it.\"","highlights":"Katrina left St. Bernard Parish, once home to 67,000, virtually uninhabitable .\nLiz McCartney moved from Washington to New Orleans to help rebuild homes .\nShe and her boyfriend started St. Bernard Project, focusing on seniors, families .","id":"58b2d467b435fbe4fa393e85ed1a3c568f4e9726"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Behind every good war are many good women. Using their feminine (and in at least one case masculine) wiles, the following five spies would make James Bond proud. Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her spy service. 1. Mata Hari . While Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod (1876--1917) may not have caused World War I, she sure as heck kept it going. Having spent time in Java with her husband, Captain Campbell MacLeod, Margaretha returned to Holland and sued for divorce. To make ends meet she took up exotic dancing and the name Mata Hari (meaning \"the light of day\" in Malay). With her sensual performances becoming the attraction of the major European cities came the men and the gifts for her favors. Many of these favors came from royalty and high-ranking French and German military officers. As World War I progressed, both sides became suspicious that Mata was spying for the other side. The French eventually put her on trial and, although the charges were never proven, Mata Hari was convicted of espionage and was executed by a firing squad on October 15, 1917. Playing the seductress up until the end, Mata refused a blindfold, smiled, and blew a kiss to the firing squad as the fatal shots were fired. Mental Floss: When a criminal survives execution . 2. Noor Inayat Khan . Khan was born in 1914 and at a young age moved with her family first to England and then to France. In 1940, Khan, along with her mother and sister, escaped back to England just before France surrendered to Germany. While in England she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), but her ability to speak fluent French soon caught the attention of the Special Operations group and Khan agreed to become a spy. Khan was flown to Le Mans, where she teamed up with other female spies and traveled to Paris, France. There they joined the French Resistance Prosper Network. Soon after their arrival, the network was infiltrated and many were arrested. Khan was ordered to return to England, but instead she stayed on and continued to pass information on to England. Eventually she was arrested again and interrogated by the Gestapo. When she refused to speak, she was sent to a prison in Germany and then to the Dachau concentration camp. On September 13, 1944, Khan and three other female British spies were executed by the Nazi SS. In 1949, Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross. 3. Belle Boyd (aka \"La Belle Rebelle\") Born Isabelle Boyd in Martinsburg, Virginia, in 1844, the beautiful Belle soon became the star attraction in Washington, D.C., social circles prior to the beginning of the Civil War. With the outbreak of the war, she returned to Martinsburg. When the Union soldiers occupied the city, Belle mixed with the officers and soon gathered information on troop movements, which she passed on to the Confederate forces. However, she is probably best known for warning Stonewall Jackson that the Union intended to blow up all the bridges around Martinsburg. With this information, Jackson, with a small number of troops, was able to surprise the Union troops and drive them from the area. In 1864, Confederate president Jefferson Davis asked Belle to carry letters for him to England. The Union Navy captured her ship, but the officer in charge fell in love with Belle and let her escape. The officer, Lieutenant Samuel Harding Jr., after being courtmartialed and discharged from the Navy, traveled to England, where he married Belle. After the war, Boyd toured the United States as an actress under the stage name of La Belle Rebelle. 4. Elizabeth Van Lew . Crazy Bet, as she was known, was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1818 but educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After developing a hatred for slavery, Elizabeth returned to Richmond and freed all her family's slaves. She also went so far as finding where her freed slaves' relatives were and purchased and freed them also. After the Civil War started, Elizabeth asked to visit Union prisoners being held captive in Richmond. The Union prisoners gave her information, which she then passed on to the North. Among the slaves she freed was Mary Elizabeth Bowser, whom Van Lew got a job as a house servant in the home of Jefferson Davis. This allowed Bowser and Van Lew to collect and pass on information directly from the Confederate president's mansion. Elizabeth effectively used the Crazy Bet moniker to make the residents of Richmond think she was mentally ill. She would wear old clothes and bonnets and talk to herself. Because of this, most people thought that her Northern sympathies were just a part of her craziness. Mental Floss: Confederacy's plan to conquer Latin America . After the war, President Grant named Elizabeth the postmaster for Richmond. When the citizens of Richmond found out that Crazy Bet was an act, they shunned her. However, at her death, the state of Massachusetts placed a memorial marker on her grave. 5. Sarah Emma Edmonds (or Was It Frank Thompson?) Born in 1841 in New Brunswick, Canada, Sarah ran away from home in her early teens. In order to survive she became an itinerant Bible salesman, by calling herself Frank Thompson and dressing like a man. In 1861, Frank (Sarah) enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry and over the next two years not only fought in a number of Civil War battles, but also served as a spy for the Union Army. Solders in her unit called Frank \"our woman\" because of his feminine mannerisms and his extremely small boot size. However, none of her comrades ever figured out that Frank was really Sarah. Mental Floss: Celebrity or look-alike? This boded well for her spying, where she dressed as a young boy serving in Confederate camps, as an immigrant Irish peddler and, most interestingly, as a woman. In 1863, Sarah caught malaria and deserted the army out of fear that hospitalization would reveal her true identity. In 1884, though, Sarah applied for and was awarded a veteran's pension in which the secretary of war acknowledged that Sarah was a female soldier who had rendered faithful services to the ranks. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Elizabeth Van Lew pretended to be crazy so no one would take her seriously .\nBelle Boyd passed on information to the Confederate forces .\nSarah Edmonds fought and spied as a man during the Civil War .\nExotic dancer Mata Hari convicted of espionage and executed by firing squad .","id":"f180005b2c6a275f9922c1ffce96149ccfa4f06d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As recognizable as the brand itself, Donatella Versace is adamant about one thing in fashion: \"Fashion is not frivolous,\" she told CNN. Glamour, femininity and sensuality: The three watchwords of Donatella Versace's fashion empire. It may not be frivolous, but in many respects it is a form of fantasy, something that Versace has developed as head of the Italian fashion house since taking over the reigns after the tragic death of her brother Gianni. \"We sell a lifestyle, so to own one piece of Versace is like to own a whole outfit of expensive things. That's why we do many different things,\" she told CNN. With a range of lifestyle items from sunglasses to furniture and even hotels, the Versace brand developed since the 1980's when it was all about supermodels and a confident, almost decadent, glamour. Not that the rich and beautiful have disappeared from the world of Versace. Fans and faces of Versace read as catalogue of glossy party A-listers included Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Halle Berry, Kate Moss and Demi Moore. Gianni Versace was one of the first fashion designers to recognize the power of celebrity, and Donatella, working with her brother, had a strong hand in the advertising campaigns. With iconic photographer Richard Avedon taking the shots, his images and Donatella's direction helped create the bold image of Versace in the 1980s and early 1990's making it synonymous with toned and beautiful Hollywood stars. It was Gianni who designed \"that dress\" that launched Elizabeth Hurley's career and Donatella's own safety pin moment came when Jennifer Lopez had the paparazzi and fashionistas goggling when she wore a plunging green Versace at the Grammys in 2000. While she has taken the Versace company in her own direction, Gianni was a huge influence on her life, encouraging her to join him when he was setting up his burgeoning fashion business. \"Gianni was a very strong personality. We were two people who loved each other dearly. We were brother and sister. Very tight family. When Gianni became a big fashion star I was the only one who told him the truth,\" she said. After he was shot dead outside his Miami home in 1997, Donatella had to cope with running the fashion empire and deal with her own grief. \"I didn't know if I would follow exactly Gianni's steps or find my own way and I was suffering from my brother's death. But in the meantime I had to be strong because everybody around me was looking at me for direction. But then I found my way and I started to believe in myself more and more, find my confidence and here I am,\" she told CNN. The Versace image may be more toned down compared to 20 years ago, but for Donatella the three guiding words of Versace remain: \"glamour, femininity and sensuality.\" \"I think fashion is to make people dream. Nobody thinks they are going to look exactly like the model on the runway, nobody wants people to think that, but it is here to make people to want to have something. I try the best I can to try and make people to want and desire things,\" she said. China is one part of the world that Donatella is increasingly selling the dream, with the first Versace show in Beijing in early November signifying a new chapter in the Versace brand expansion. \"Chinese people view fashion in a different way from other people. They buy the whole style, the whole look together. In other countries they like the accessory or they like the clothes but they like one thing of the look. [In China] it's good because you can convey they message together,\" she told CNN. Donatella's fashion tips: . CNN: What should a woman always have in her wardrobe? Versace: A pair of black high heels. CNN: What should a man always have in his wardrobe? Versace: A pair of low-waist pants. It makes your upper body taller and your shoulders larger. CNN: What is the most commonly made fashion mistake? Versace: Too much make-up and clothes together. It's about one of those, not all. CNN: What is the ugliest trend you've ever seen? Versace: Flat shoes and lunch pants together.","highlights":"Took over brother Gianni's fashion empire after his death in 1997 .\nHas developed Versace to be a lifestyle brand, including furniture and hotels .\nHollywood A-list, including Jennifer Lopez and Madonna, often faces of Versace .","id":"8a0e2493af0a6686912a1817f4e01c514f38fbfa"} -{"article":"SINGAPORE (CNN) -- Hundreds of customers flocked to the Singapore office of troubled insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG) on Wednesday, many hoping to pull their investments and policies from the company. People in Singapore queue outside the office of AIA, a subsidiary of AIG. The crowd formed just hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend $85 billion to a crumbling AIG. In return, the federal government will receive a nearly 80 percent stake in the company. One person who lined up in Singapore, retired teacher Wong Yoke Inn, said she was going to pull her investments from AIA even though it would cost her about $3,000 -- the equivalent of about $2,000 in the United States. She joined an orderly crowd whose members were each given a number and a time to return to meet with a representative of AIA Singapore -- AIG's division in the island nation. AIA tried to allay investors concerns in a statement distributed outside the Singapore office and posted on the company's Web site. \"AIA Singapore has more than sufficient capital and reserves ... to meet our obligations to policyholders,\" the statement said. \"The funds maintained in Singapore are segregated from American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and are held specifically for the purpose of meeting our obligations to policyholders.\" The U.S. government announced Tuesday night that it would act to save America's largest insurer from filing for bankruptcy. Such a move almost certainly would have further roiled world markets already reeling from the bankruptcy filling of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. AIG has $1.1 trillion in assets and 74 million clients in 130 countries.","highlights":"Hundreds queue outside AIG subsidiary in Singapore following news of U.S. bailout .\nU.S. Fed announces $85 billion loan to one of world's largest insurers .\nSingapore offices try to ease worries of policyholders .","id":"91a2af94dc01e4478f3fe8a96c2bb225f2d6ec73"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Inside the blacked-out Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, hallways were littered with bloodied bodies. A commando in disguise give details of what went down in the Taj hotel when commandos went in. Terrorists were still holding 200 people 33 hours after the assault began. Knowing next to nothing about what they might encounter in the dark recesses of the hotel, Indian Army commandos decided to go back in -- and were met by terrorists firing mercilessly, throwing grenades and continuously switching positions. The sound of gunfire and explosions reverberated throughout the hotel's atrium, making it impossible to pinpoint the origin of the shots. Through it all, the commandos walked down pitch-black halls, trying to navigate the damaged hotel without knowing the layout. A commando spokesman, his face and hair swathed in a black scarf and wearing dark glasses to hide his identity, revealed these details of the mission inside the Taj at a news conference Friday. At 6:30 a.m. Friday, the battle at the Taj came to a head with a final firefight at the room holding the 200 hostages, he said. Watch what it was like inside the hotel for commandos \u00bb . When the gunfire stopped, commandos -- known as the Black Cats -- entered the room and freed all 200 hostages. Their difficulties had been apparent from the beginning, he said. \"We did not know the layout of the hotel,\" the commando told reporters. \"There was one person on the hotel staff who was helping to guide us around.\" They entered the hotel for the first time essentially blind to what was ahead. They had no idea what kind of people they would encounter, what kind of weapons might be pointed at them, and whether they might be blown up by explosives. Learn more about the Taj's past and future \u00bb . \"Then we heard gunshots on the second floor and we rushed toward the fired shots,\" he said. \"While taking cover we found that there were 30 to 50 bodies lying dead. At that point we also came under fire. The moment they saw us, they hurled grenades.\" When the shots stopped, the commandos moved toward the source of the gunfire. See the first photos from inside the Taj Mahal hotel \u00bb . \"At that time, they vanished ... they had gone elsewhere,\" the commando said. The attackers had a clear advantage, commandos said, because it was apparent from their movements they knew the hotel's layout. Some tourists rescued from the hotel said the building's large dome and a massive atrium made the sounds of gunfire and explosions reverberate endlessly. It was impossible to pinpoint where the shooters were. Because of the darkness, commandos could not tell how many terrorists were there -- were there many, or only a few who continued to change positions? At one point, commandos believed some of the terrorists were hiding on the eighth floor. As the commandos approached one of the rooms, attackers opened fire at them and said all the people in the room were dead. \"We fired at them and they fired at us, but because the room was absolutely dark and we had just gotten [inside] it made it difficult for us,\" the commando said. Watch commandos talk about fighting the attackers \u00bb . During the fight, two commandos were shot. They decided to flush out the terrorists by blocking entry and exit routes. But the attackers knew all the doors, he said. When they made it inside the room, the terrorists had disappeared again. Inside that room, commandos found AK-47 ammunition rounds, including seven magazines fully loaded, and 400 other rounds for other weapons. They found grenades, credit cards, U.S. notes, foreign money and bags of dried fruit, which they believed helped sustain the attackers during the siege. During the three-day assault, the attackers fired indiscriminately. But the commandos were forced to use caution. \"Let me tell you one thing,\" the commando said. \"Within the first exchanges of fire, we could have got those terrorists -- but there was so many hotel guests -- there were bodies all over and blood all over. And we were trying to avoid the causalities of civilians. We had to be more careful in our fighting.\" In trying to rescue hostages and trapped civilians, commandos had to convince guests they were there to help, not terrorists trying to trick them, Indian Army Lt. Gen. Noble Thamburaj said. \"There are a number of rooms that are locked from inside,\" he told reporters. \"It is possible that some of the hotel guests have locked themselves in and for their own security and safety. Even though we have identified ourselves they are not opening the doors.\" The overall operation may have been made more difficult because of a late start, CNN sister station CNN-IBN reported. CNN-IBN said that attacks at the Taj Mahal Hotel were well under way at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, but unnamed sources said the commandos were not given the go-ahead to take part in the rescue until midnight. Those sources told CNN-IBN said that once the commandos got the go-ahead, it took nearly three hours for them to leave for Mumbai from their undisclosed location. Once they arrived, the sources said, commandos had no precise maps of the hotel layout or its access points. While local police and other officers were at the scene, the sources said, the commandos and army special force units are the only ones equipped and trained to rescue hostages.","highlights":"Disguised commando tells reporters rescuers entered unknown layout in the dark .\nCommandos had to avoid hurting civilians, convince them they were not terrorists .\nAttackers knew layout well, moved around frequently, commando says .\n33 hours after siege, commandos rescued 200 people from Taj Mahal Hotel .","id":"027eb44752671b224e7236209eadfbddbd51749d"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The body found inside an SUV Monday morning has been confirmed to be Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, a top FBI official said. The white SUV where the child's body was found is taken away to be examined by investigators. The medical examiner positively identified the body found in the white Chevrolet Suburban as Julian King, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said Monday afternoon. Julian had been shot to death, said police spokeswoman Monique Bond. Police are collecting evidence from the Suburban and reviewing surveillance tapes from all over the city as the investigation continues, Weis told reporters. \"There's a lot of work to be done. We'll be sure we go through this thoroughly,\" he said. Asked about possible motives, Weis said, \"We don't know what the motive really was at this time. But, clearly you have people who do know each other, so it wasn't a case of a stranger-type homicide.\" Earlier Monday Deputy Chief Cmdr. Wayne Gulliford said police found the body inside a parked white Chevy Suburban with a license plate matching the description in the child's Amber Alert, after responding to \"a call about a suspicious auto\" on Chicago's West Side at approximately 7 a.m. He had no details on the body, pending the medical examiner's report. Julian has been missing since Hudson's mother and brother were found dead in their home Friday. Watch police say they've ID'd the body \u00bb . Over the weekend, Hudson offered a $100,000 reward for the safe return of her nephew. \"Please keep praying for our family and that we get Julian King back home safely,\" Hudson said in a posting on her MySpace page Sunday. \"If anyone has any information about his whereabouts please contact the authorities immediately.\" Hudson also posted two pictures of her nephew wearing the brown-and-orange striped polo shirt he was wearing when he was last seen. Earlier, Hudson viewed the bodies of her mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, the Cook County medical examiner's office told CNN on Sunday. They were found shot to death Friday in their South Side Chicago home. Watch the latest on the Hudson case \u00bb . Julian's stepfather, William Balfour, was detained over the weekend for questioning in connection with the case, a police spokesperson told CNN. He was subsequently transferred to prison on a parole violation charge, the spokesperson said. No charges had been filed against anyone in connection with the murders. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Balfour, 27, spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle. Chicago news station WLS reported Saturday that Julian was not with Balfour when he was detained. Hudson's sister, Julia Balfour, made an emotional appeal Saturday for the safe return of her son. \"My greatest fear has already happened, my greatest hope is for having my child. I just want my son,\" Julia Balfour said. \"That's all I have to say. Just let my baby go.\" William Balfour's mother, Michele Davis-Balfour, also urged the public to focus on finding Julian and said her son had nothing to do with the slayings. \"Out of no means did my son do this. This heinous crime to this family is unbelievable. It's unbearable,\" Davis-Balfour told WLS. Watch Davis-Balfour's emotional appeal \u00bb . Deputy Police Chief Joseph Patterson said the bodies of Hudson's mother and brother were found about 3 p.m. Friday, when a relative arrived and found the body of a woman on the living room floor. The relative backed out of the house and called police, Patterson said. Authorities found a man shot to death in a bedroom. The Cook County medical examiner's office said Saturday that Donerson and Jason Hudson suffered multiple gunshot wounds and ruled the deaths homicides. Neighbors reported hearing gunshots earlier Friday, Patterson said. Authorities found no signs of forced entry to the home and were not sure whether other items were missing. Watch the scene outside the house \u00bb . \"You've got two people who were killed inside a home. That alone will produce a great deal of evidence,\" Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said of forensic evidence at the crime scene. Hudson won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Effie in the film version of the Broadway musical \"Dreamgirls.\" She competed on the third season of \"American Idol\" in 2004, making it to the top seven contestants before being eliminated from the contest. CNN's Susan Roesgen and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Julian King, 7, was shot to death, a police spokeswoman says .\nPolice collecting evidence from Suburban, reviewing surveillance tapes .\nJulian King missing since Friday, when Hudson's mother, brother were shot dead .\nActress identified bodies of her mother and brother for medical examiner .","id":"d094ae3280e4a95836a637df0c9fca497c946313"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's foreign ministry said Wednesday that it has lodged a \"strong\" protest with the U.S. ambassador over missile attacks conducted on Pakistani soil by unmanned drones. The aftermath of a suspected U.S. drone attack on a building in North Waziristan. The ministry said it summoned Ambassador Anne Patterson to underscore that such attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately. A statement from the ministry said Patterson was also told that the attacks have cost lives and undermined public support for Pakistan's counter terrorism efforts. The ministry lodged its protests three days after a missile strike from a suspected U.S. drone on a compound in South Waziristan killed 20 people. Pakistan has repeatedly raised objections to foreign nations violating its sovereignty to pursue terrorists. A U.S. ground operation in September that left several civilians dead rankled relations between the two countries. Last week, Pakistan's parliament passed a resolution that condemned any incursion on Pakistani soil by foreign forces. The resolution called for a review of the country's national security strategy and said the government needs to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The ministry said it handed Patterson a copy of the resolution. The U.S. and NATO, which have troops in Afghanistan, have been seeking a way to effectively battle militants who launch attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. They have become frustrated with Islamabad over the years, saying it is not being proactive enough against militants -- a claim Pakistan denies. The United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely. In another development, suspected Taliban militants kidnapped three government officials from an administrative office in Pakistan's tribal region Wednesday, officials said. The militants abducted two employees and a security guard from the Ambar district in Mohmand Agency. Mohmand is in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a presence of militants. Earlier in the day, militants tried unsuccessfully to take control of a school in Mohmand and abduct about 100 students, authorities said. A shootout with Frontier Corps followed, in which one militant was killed and another arrested. The Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force which uses recruits from Pakistan's tribal areas and is overseen by Pakistani army officers. Also Wednesday, a suicide car bomber detonated explosives outside a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing two security personnel, officials said. The Wednesday afternoon attack in the Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province also wounded a dozen people, military sources said. The bomber targeted a check point near a military hospital, said the sources who did not want their names revealed because they are not authorized to speak to the media. CNN's Reza Sayah and journalist Janullah Hashimzada contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan summons U.S. ambassador over missile attacks .\nMissile strike from a suspected U.S. drone killed 20 people .\nSuspected Taliban militants kidnap 3 officials from in tribal region .","id":"27c2c8e7cc1ed38e540bfaaa5c257b05ffee540d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have produced aerial photos of jungle dwellers who they say are among the few remaining peoples on Earth who have had no contact with the outside world. Taken from a small airplane, the photos show men outside thatched communal huts, necks craned upward, pointing bows toward the air in a remote corner of the Amazonian rainforest. The National Indian Foundation, a government agency in Brazil, published the photos Thursday on its Web site. It tracks \"uncontacted tribes\" -- indigenous groups that are thought to have had no contact with outsiders -- and seeks to protect them from encroachment. More than 100 uncontacted tribes remain worldwide, and about half live in the remote reaches of the Amazonian rainforest in Peru or Brazil, near the recently photographed tribe, according to Survival International, a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of indigenous people. \"All are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed or decimated by new diseases,\" the organization said Thursday. Illegal logging in Peru is threatening several uncontacted groups, pushing them over the border with Brazil and toward potential conflicts with about 500 uncontacted Indians living on the Brazilian side, Survival International said. Its director, Stephen Cory, said the new photographs highlight the need to protect uncontacted people from intrusion by the outside world. \"These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist,\" Cory said in a statement. \"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.\" The photos released Thursday show men who look strong and healthy, the Brazilian government said. They and their relatives apparently live in six communal shelters known as malocas, according to the government, which has tracked at least four uncontacted groups in the region for the past 20 years. Watch a report on the tribe \u00bb . The photos were taken during 20 hours of flights conducted between April 28 and May 2.","highlights":"The photos are published on the National Indian Foundation's Web site .\nGovernment: Men appear strong and healthy, live in communal shelters .\n\"Uncontacted tribes\" are thought to have had no contact with outsiders .","id":"f9ed1adf1617debc16f66ce7b12c3bba3fe85342"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA's plans to fly a fifth and final space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope have suffered another set-back. Atlantis was prepared to launch in September before an onboard computer failed, delaying the mission. Hubble managers say ground testing of a critical replacement computer that they hope to install on the orbiting telescope is taking longer than previously expected. And that means an additional flight delay. \"Delivery in April to support a May launch, I think is a fair thing to say,\" said Hubble program manager Preston Burch. \"Right now I think we have a very good chance of meeting a readiness date in that time frame.\" The additional delay is just the latest dip in an emotional rollercoaster ride for the Hubble team over the past few months. In late September, astronauts were mere weeks away from launching to Hubble aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, with spacewalks planned to make the telescope more powerful than ever and extend its expected lifespan an additional five years. That flight had to be postponed when the onboard computer that downlinks scientific data to the ground suddenly failed on September 27th. While that problem has been corrected using a back-up system, NASA managers have decided the computer needs to be completely replaced in order to keep a fully redundant back-up capability available. A spare computer was built prior to Hubble's launch in 1990, and has been warehoused at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland ever since. Initially, engineers had hoped that spare could be quickly tested, certified \"flight ready,\" and shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be packed aboard Atlantis in time for a February launch. But a closer evaluation of the spare shows more than six months of work will be needed to get it ready to fly. Among other issues, it was partially disassembled other the years so that parts could be used for other systems. It has been largely put back together, but now programming anomalies are cropping up. And once engineers get it in good working order, it will have to go a battery of environmental tests to make sure it is ready to hold up in the harsh conditions of space. But the engineers are confident that they will eventually overcome all the obstacles. \"We've gotten a lot smarter about the condition of this unit over the last four weeks, said Burch. \"We don't want to take any chances in bringing a box up there that isn't going to be 100% working to the absolute best that it can. So we want to take some extra time and make sure that we subject this to a very rigorous test program and we don't want to leave any stones unturned on the way to the launch pad.\"","highlights":"NASA's plans to service Hubble Space Telescope suffer another setback .\nGround testing of a critical replacement computer taking longer than expected .\n\"Delivery in April to support a May launch,\" NASA manager predicts .\nMore than six months of work will be needed to get it ready to fly .","id":"e899e4ddfacffd9627f4344dc0940db79dbd80f5"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A car bomb exploded Thursday in a parking lot at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, sparking a massive fire, but \"luckily,\" no one was nearby and there were no deaths, Spain's interior minister said. \"There could have been an enormous tragedy today at the University of Navarra,\" Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said hours after the attack in a televised address. Hospital officials told CNN that 27 people suffered minor injuries, including one American woman and five other non-Spaniards. The Basque separatist group ETA is suspected to be behind the attack. The car, packed with an unknown quantity of explosives, was parked in a lot near the university's library and detonated shortly after 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), Rubalcaba said. Watch witness describe the blast \u00bb . Campus authorities shut down the entire campus shortly after the blast to search for a possible second explosive device near the science building, about a half kilometer (.3 mile) from the car bombing, according to CNN's partner station in Spain, CNN+. Watch report on Pamplona car bomb \u00bb . No device was found and the search was called off Thursday afternoon, according to a university spokesman and a representative for the national government's main office in Navarra. Most of the campus was reopened; only the area surrounding the bomb blast remained cordoned off, they said. Classes are expected to resume as scheduled on Friday, the university spokesman said. The car bomb sparked a massive fire in the campus' Central Building, where about 400 students and staff were located at the time, university spokesman Jesus Diaz told CNN+. Video from the scene showed fire engulfing part of the building and thick clouds of black smoke billowing over the campus. Authorities in Spain's Basque province of Alava received a warning call at 9:50 a.m. in the name of ETA. Watch aftermath of the blast \u00bb . The warning call to the DYA emergency services in Alava said the car bomb would strike a university campus in the city of Vitoria about an hour after the phone call, prompting emergency officials to search that campus and determine that the call was merely a false alarm, Rubalcaba said. \"So whoever planted the bomb either gave an intentionally misleading warning call or they made a mistake,\" he said in his televised address. According to CNN+, the University of Navarra has been targeted by ETA six times in the past 30 years, and one faculty member said it is unclear why. \"It is not a political university,\" Professor Maria Teresa La Porte told CNN. \"We don't understand.\" \"If they are looking for innocent victims, the place to find them is here,\" she said. \"There is no way to stop them.\" She said it is an open campus with students from various backgrounds -- including Basque -- where people \"can come here completely freely.\" The blast could be heard across the campus of the private school, which has 12,000 students -- including more than 1,000 scholars from countries outside Spain. It is also home to Spain's top-rated journalism school, which is located not too far from the blast site. A spokeswoman for Clinica Universitaria de Navarra -- located across the street from the university -- said that 24 patients were treated for injuries ranging from glass cuts to hearing problems. Most have been released and only two are expected to remain overnight, she said. Two other patients are being treated at Hospital Virgen del Camino, also in Pamplona, but their nationalities were not clear. Those being treated at Clinica Universitaria de Navarra included 18 Spaniards and six others with the following nationalities: American woman from California, age 20; Italian woman, age 28; Portuguese woman, age 23; Chilean woman, age 25; Peruvian man, age 28 and Philippines man, age 34. Thursday's explosion came just days after Spanish police arrested four suspected ETA members early Tuesday. Authorities accused them of forming a terrorist cell that was ready to attack, the Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement. Three of the suspects were arrested in or near the city of Pamplona, in Spain's northern Navarra region, which has Basque roots and was to be the base for the alleged cell, the statement said. The fourth suspect was arrested in the city of Valencia, on Spain's eastern coast. Police seized two revolvers and ammunition; various timers that might be used for bombs; detonating cord; items that might be used to make a bomb attached to the underside of vehicles; various substances that might be used to make explosives; and computer documentation, the ministry said. All four suspects -- three men and a woman -- were born in Pamplona and range in age from 26 to 29, the ministry said. ETA is blamed for more than 800 killings in its four-decade-long fight for Basque independence. The European Union and the United States list ETA as a terrorist group. CNN Madrid Correspondent Al Goodman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Car bomb blast at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain Thursday .\nNEW: 27 people injured, none seriously, hospital tells CNN .\nBlast days after arrests of four suspected members of separatist group ETA .\nAuthorities accused them of forming a terrorist cell that was ready to attack .","id":"d661bbaed3356f1c85bcba5155d63eb0f025bba2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's Olympic gold medal gymnasts have been officially cleared of lying about their ages. Widespread reports claimed that gold medal winner He Kexin was only 14 years of age. An investigation was launched after the Beijing Games over claims that several members of their women's squad were ineligible because they were not 16 in the year of competition. But on Wednesday, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) closed a near six-week probe saying that documentation provided confirms they were old enough to compete. The inquiry had been called for by the International Olympic Committee who were concerned that the controversy undermined the results of the competition in Beijing. Watch tiny gymnasts work out \u00bb . China provided passports, ID cards and family registers for He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan, all showing the girls were 16 or would turn 16 this year. \"We have received all we could possibly ask for,\" FIG secretary general Andre Gueisbuhler told Associated Press. \"All of them confirm the age that they should be, so what can we do ?\" he added. The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition in Beijing and five members won individual medals. One of the challenges came from a blogger known as \"Stryde Hax.\" The blogger claimed to have uncovered proof that He Kexin is only 14. In Internet searches, \"Stryde Hax\" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. That would make her 14 -- too young to compete in the Olympic Games. CNN was not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appeared to back up the claim. Other bloggers joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994. But Chinese gymnastics coaches have stridently defended their team. \"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion,\" said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams, referring to media inquiries. \"They shouldn't be suspicious.\" It was not all good news for the Chinese gymnasts, with the FIG announcing that it would step up its investigation into the 2000 team which won the bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics, particularly Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun. Yang, who also won a bronze medal on the uneven bars in 2000, said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was only 14 in Sydney . Dong, who was a technical official for the Chinese team in Beijing, allegedly provided documents for her credentials which indicated that she too must have been only 14 in 2000. Gueisbuhler warned that legal and statute of limitation issues might hinder further scrutiny and sanctions against the 2000 Chinese team. Underage gymnasts have been a problem since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. North Korea was barred from the 1993 world championships after FIG officials discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row. Romania admitted in 2002 that several gymnasts' ages had been falsified, including Olympic medalists Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu. In women's gymnastics, younger teenage girls can have an advantage over older competitors due to their often smaller, more agile bodies and lighter frames. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"China's gold medal gymnasts cleared of competing while under age limit of 16 .\nInternational Gymnastics Federation announces decision after investigation .\nFurther doubt cast on members of the 2000 Chinese Olympic squad .\nIOC ordered probe after widespread claims that Chinese squad were too young .","id":"0dc5ccd9e3730ef0a79b61be94a9a566382b876d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will face off for their first and only debate in the presidential race Thursday night, an event pitting a political veteran against a political newcomer. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been preparing since last week for Thursday's debate. Both candidates have recently tried to lower expectations leading into the debate, where topics will range from domestic to foreign policy. The debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, will start at 9 p.m. ET and be moderated by PBS's Gwen Ifill. For Palin, the stakes are high. After skyrocketing onto the national stage and energizing the Republican faithful, the first-term Alaskan governor has struggled recently to regain her footing after several shaky network TV interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric. View memorable moments from other debates \u00bb . Palin said Tuesday that she's different. \"I think they're just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying, 'You know what? It's time that normal Joe Six-Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency,' and I think that that's kind of taken some people off-guard,\" she said in a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. Palin's interview gave the vice presidential candidate a chance to showcase elements of her life story and demonstrate some of the folksiness that's been central to her political success. It's exactly the kind of interview that voters can expect to see from the governor in the coming weeks, according to a Palin adviser, who recognized that there is hunger in Republican circles and among the public at large to see a less-scripted, more authentic candidate. \"We're going to be continue to put her in settings where she has an opportunity to shine, to be on offense,\" the adviser said. \"We've gotten very good feedback from the public from Hugh Hewitt interview.\" The adviser suggested that the campaign's efforts at damage control after Palin's interview with Couric may have been hampered by the fact that the governor wasn't doing more friendly interviews to counter her flubs on Russia and the congressional bailout bill, which have reverberated throughout the blogosphere and even turned Palin into a punch line on \"Saturday Night Live.\" \"We acknowledge that perhaps she should have been out there doing more,\" the adviser said, arguing that \"it's not fair to judge her off one or two sound bites\" from the network interviews. Palin is apparently eager to take on a more outspoken role, both in interviews and in her stump speech, after Thursday's vice presidential debate in order to remind voters of what it is they like about her. iReport.com: Watch debate, then tell us who won . \"She connects really well, and she's good at it, and she wants to be doing more of it, and she will do more of it,\" the adviser said. For the Democrats, Biden has served in the Senate for 35 years. His biggest challenge will be to stick to the script. He's known for making off-the-cuff remarks, including some gaffes. Watch analysts weigh in on Thursday's debate \u00bb . A Biden aide said the senator is ready. He left Wednesday's debate preparation in Delaware to vote on the economic recovery bill in Congress. \"I haven't read the package yet, but my anticipation is I'm going to vote 'yes.' But I want to see. That's why I'm going home now to get briefed on the details,\" Biden said. Biden campaign aides are actively playing up Palin's debating skills. His spokesman called Palin \"a leviathan of forensics,\" a classic example of the campaign tactic of raising the expectations of their opponent and lowering their own. \"She's very skilled, and she'll be well-prepared,\" Barack Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, said Sunday night while flying with Biden back to Delaware to help him get ready. \"As you saw at the convention, she can be very good. So, I think it would be foolish to assume that this isn't going to be a really challenging debate. We're preparing for that, on that assumption.\" Taking it one step further, Biden spokesman David Wade added, \"he's going in here to debate a leviathan of forensics who has debated five times, and she's undefeated.\" Biden has a difficult task on his hand: not coming across as condescending with his decades of experience and not adopting a tone that could appear as though he's treating Palin differently because she's a woman. \"I think Gov. Palin is a skilled politician,\" Axelrod said. \"She got elected in a very tough political arena against tough opponents, and we're going to treat her with the respect that she deserves. And I think that she would expect that; I think voters should expect that.\" Axelrod argued that at the end of the day, the choice voters make is between the candidates at the top of the ticket and not the vice presidential candidates. However, he said vice presidential nominees have a harder time preparing because they need to not only defend their own positions but those of their running mates, as well as knowing where both candidates on the opposing ticket stand. Obama and John McCain, meanwhile, have two more debates before the November 4 general election: a second debate October 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a final debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on October 15. CNN's Sandra Endo, Peter Hamby, Ed Hornick and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joe Biden, Sarah Palin to face off in their only debate Thursday night .\nStakes high for Palin, who is said to be eager to prove herself .\nBiden is political veteran who must avoid embarrassing gaffes .","id":"66ce5e5e040fd1425a0153aec955744ad37b36e4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton decided to join her one-time rival's team because she wanted to be part of the \"greatest adventure of our century,\" she said Monday after President-elect Barack Obama named her as his nominee for secretary of state. Sen. Hillary Clinton addresses the media in Chicago on Monday while President-elect Barack Obama looks on. \"President Kennedy once said that engaging the world to meet the threats we face was the greatest adventure of our century,\" Clinton said during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, when Obama unveiled his national security team. \"Well, Mr. President-elect, I am proud to join you on what will be a difficult and exciting adventure in this new century.\" Clinton said she would work to restore America's position as \"a force for positive change\" in the world. \"America is a place founded on the idea that everyone should have the right to live up to his or her God-given potential. And it is that same ideal that must guide America's purpose in the world today,\" she said. Watch Clinton accept Obama's offer \u00bb . During the news conference, Obama called Clinton a woman of \"extraordinary intelligence and toughness\" who will \"command respect in every capital.\" \"Hillary's appointment is a sign to friend and foe of the seriousness of my commitment to renew American diplomacy and restore our alliances,\" Obama said. Speculation that Obama would appoint his former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination to the nation's top diplomatic post surfaced after the two meet secretly in Chicago in mid-November. When Clinton's name was first mentioned for secretary of state, the Obama team reviewed the relationships her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had forged as part of his charitable foundation work. The Obama team was concerned that the relationships could create conflicts of interest. To address those concerns, the former president agreed to disclose the names of the more than 200,000 donors to his presidential foundation, a move he had previously resisted, Obama aides told CNN on Sunday. He also agreed to separate his work with the Clinton Global Initiative from his foundation work and submit the text of future speeches and other activities to State Department officials for review, the Obama aides said. In a statement, President Clinton said he was \"deeply proud\" that Obama has chosen his wife to be secretary of state. \"She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America's image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities,\" he said. During the presidential campaign, Obama and Clinton traded tough statements on foreign policy, but, now, Obama and Clinton will be in the same administration, albeit one led by Obama. Watch more about the other members of the security team \u00bb . In a now famous ad that showed a telephone ringing at 3 a.m., Clinton challenged Obama's readiness to handle foreign policy crises. Later, Obama questioned Clinton's argument that she had more foreign policy experience. But during the news conference, Obama dismissed any lingering resentment between himself and Clinton as a result of the tough campaign. Clinton and the other members of the national security team \"would not have agreed to join my administration -- and I would not have asked them to be part of this administration -- unless we shared a core vision of what's needed to keep the American people safe and to assure prosperity here at home and peace abroad,\" he said. Obama said there was not a \"light bulb moment\" when he decided to ask Clinton to be his secretary of state but would not reveal details on the talks that led up to him asking his former rival to join his team. Watch Obama praise Clinton's abilities \u00bb . \"I have always admired Sen. Clinton. We have worked together extensively in the Senate,\" Obama said. \"After the election was over and I began to think about my team, it occurred to me that she could potentially be an outstanding secretary of state,\" he said. \"I extended her the offer, and she accepted. I know that's not as juicy a story as you were hoping for, but that's all you are going to get.\" Clinton will also be working with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whom Obama asked to stay on when he takes office. Watch Gates on why he is staying \u00bb . Gates was responsible for implementing an increase in troop strength in Iraq that both Obama and Clinton criticized while on the campaign trail. He will now, however, work to implement the drawdown of troops in Iraq that the president-elect promised during the campaign. After announcing Clinton and the rest of his national security team, Obama said he was sure that team members shared \"a core vision of what's needed to keep the American people safe,\" but he also wanted \"strong personalities and strong opinions\" in his administration. \"I think that's how the best decisions are made,\" Obama said. \"One of the dangers in the White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in groupthink, and everybody agrees with everything, and there is no discussion and there are no dissenting views.\" CNN's Scott J. Anderson, Ed Henry and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"President-elect Obama taps Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state .\nObama calls Clinton a woman of \"extraordinary intelligence and toughness\"\nFormer rivals engaged in tough exchanges on foreign policy during primary fight .\nObama says national security team members share common \"core vision\"","id":"b6afc6c7b0f5f90f3f678dffae3cb57ac883c95c"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's foreign ministry said Wednesday that it has lodged a \"strong\" protest with the U.S. ambassador over missile attacks conducted on Pakistani soil by unmanned drones. The aftermath of a suspected U.S. drone attack on a building in North Waziristan. The ministry said it summoned Ambassador Anne Patterson to underscore that such attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately. A statement from the ministry said Patterson was also told that the attacks have cost lives and undermined public support for Pakistan's counter terrorism efforts. The ministry lodged its protests three days after a missile strike from a suspected U.S. drone on a compound in South Waziristan killed 20 people. Pakistan has repeatedly raised objections to foreign nations violating its sovereignty to pursue terrorists. A U.S. ground operation in September that left several civilians dead rankled relations between the two countries. Last week, Pakistan's parliament passed a resolution that condemned any incursion on Pakistani soil by foreign forces. The resolution called for a review of the country's national security strategy and said the government needs to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The ministry said it handed Patterson a copy of the resolution. The U.S. and NATO, which have troops in Afghanistan, have been seeking a way to effectively battle militants who launch attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. They have become frustrated with Islamabad over the years, saying it is not being proactive enough against militants -- a claim Pakistan denies. The United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely. In another development, suspected Taliban militants kidnapped three government officials from an administrative office in Pakistan's tribal region Wednesday, officials said. The militants abducted two employees and a security guard from the Ambar district in Mohmand Agency. Mohmand is in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a presence of militants. Earlier in the day, militants tried unsuccessfully to take control of a school in Mohmand and abduct about 100 students, authorities said. A shootout with Frontier Corps followed, in which one militant was killed and another arrested. The Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force which uses recruits from Pakistan's tribal areas and is overseen by Pakistani army officers. Also Wednesday, a suicide car bomber detonated explosives outside a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing two security personnel, officials said. The Wednesday afternoon attack in the Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province also wounded a dozen people, military sources said. The bomber targeted a check point near a military hospital, said the sources who did not want their names revealed because they are not authorized to speak to the media. CNN's Reza Sayah and journalist Janullah Hashimzada contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan summons U.S. ambassador over missile attacks .\nMissile strike from a suspected U.S. drone killed 20 people .\nSuspected Taliban militants kidnap 3 officials from in tribal region .","id":"f8783bca4e7f8dd2d9f520950fe28408ab7acaa8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Campaigners in London planned to petition the British government Friday for a posthumous pardon for the hundreds of people executed for witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries. Witchcraft has not been punishable by death for nearly 300 years. They said Halloween is a good time to highlight the \"grave miscarriage of justice\" suffered by the men and women falsely accused of being witches. Their petition asks Justice Minister Jack Straw to recommend that Queen Elizabeth II issue a pardon. \"We felt that it was time that the sinister associations held by a minority of people regarding witches and Halloween were tackled head-on,\" said Emma Angel, head of Angels, a large costume supplier in London. \"We were gobsmacked to discover that though the law was changed hundreds of years ago and society had moved on, the victims were never officially pardoned.\" Angels launched a Web site, pardonthewitches.com, to solicit signatures for their petition. They had between 150 and 200 by Friday morning, Angels spokesman Benjamin Webb said, but they hoped Halloween publicity would generate more. Around 400 people were executed in England and some 4,000 in Scotland for alleged witchcraft, campaigners say. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 put an end to trials of accused witches, but many still faced persecution and jail for other crimes such as fraud. \"It shifted from a spiritual thing to more of a criminal thing,\" Webb said, but \"it didn't pardon those people who'd suffered before.\" The campaigners worked with witchcraft historian John Callow to detail eight cases they hope will persuade the government to act. They include the case of Ursula Kemp, a woman who offered cures in Essex, England in the 1500s. The uneven results of her work prompted accusations of witchcraft and she was hanged in 1582. A century later, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards were begging for food in Exeter, England, when a local woman blamed one of them for an illness and they were jailed. A jail visitor noticed Edwards' shaky hands and suggested she was \"tormenting someone.\" It started a string of rumors that resulted in an accusation of witchcraft, and the women were executed in 1682. In 1645, clergyman John Lowes was regarded as too attached to Catholicism in a strongly Reformed area. He had already defended himself once against witchcraft when he came to the attention of a notorious zealot named Matthew Hopkins. Hopkins made Lowes walk for days and nights until he was unable to resistconfessing to being a witch. Lowes was hanged in Bury St. Edmunds, England, after conducting his own funeral. \"Today we are well aware that these individuals were neither capable of harmful magic nor in league with the devil,\" Callow said. He said the endemic poverty of the 16th to 18th centuries put pressure on leaders and the judiciary to blame someone for society's problems -- so they decided to blame witches. \"A lot of these cases were score-settling in local communities,\" Webb said, adding many cases of alleged witchcraft weren't even reported. \"The notion that people could suspend their disbelief and believe that women were talking to toads -- just horrible times. Horrible times.\" In 2004, one Scottish town managed to get a pardon for the 81 accused witches that had been put to death there. The independent baron court in Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, pardoned them before the court was officially disbanded in November of that year. In its ruling, the court pardoned both the accused witches and their cats who, it said, were executed for \"conjuration or sorcery.\" It said their convictions were based on insufficient evidence that often relied on \"voices\" or the actions of \"spirits\" to attest to their guilt. A separate group petitioned the Scottish parliament last month, asking for pardons for each of the 4,000 witches who were put to death across the nation. Ewan Irvine, a medium with Full Moon Investigations, acknowledged it's unlikely they will get a pardon for every accused witch, so the group is going ahead with a private memorial in Scotland instead. \"It would be an apology to all those accused,\" said Irvine, whose group investigates the paranormal. Webb said while few people today may believe those men and women deserved execution, their stories still generate suspicion and stigma. That extends to modern-day criticism of children dressing as witches at Halloween with the idea that it's evil or connected to the devil, he said. \"Witches were not emissaries of Satan,\" Webb said. \"They were in fact persecuted women and men who deserve a pardon.\" A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice would not comment on the case but said the granting of such a pardon is extremely rare. \"To receive a royal pardon, the test is a high one,\" the spokesman said. \"Evidence must prove conclusively that no offense was committed or that the applicant did not commit the offense. It is not enough that the conviction may be unsafe -- the applicant must be technically and morally innocent.\" Accused witches were also tried and put to death in the famous Salem witch trials in the U.S. state of Massachusetts in the late 1600s, but all were later pardoned, said Alison D'Amario, director of education at the Salem Witch Museum. The names of 14 were cleared in 1711 after their families applied to the government, D'Amario said. Gov. Foster Furcolo cleared one name in 1957, and then-Gov. Jane Swift cleared the remaining five in 2001, she said. \"Their names are now on a list that makes it seem as though they were innocent, which they surely were,\" D'Amario said.","highlights":"Petition seeks pardon for UK witches hundreds of years after their deaths .\nAround 400 people were executed in England for alleged witchcraft .\nThe Witchcraft Act of 1735 put an end to trials of accused witches .\nIn 2004 one Scottish town managed to get a pardon for 81 accused witches .","id":"0db43bc4716cf7fae9cc6efd282cf40ac58e77ba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A juvenile court in Ghana has sentenced two teenage girls from Great Britain to nine months in jail for trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country, Ghana's national news agency said Wednesday. The girls were stopped by customs officials at Accra trying to smuggle drugs back to Britain. The 16-year-olds will not have to serve the full sentence because they have already spent more than six months in jail, a British Foreign Office spokesman said. Fair Trials International, a UK-based group that provided legal assistance to the pair, said in a statement Wednesday that it will decide in the coming days whether to appeal. The girls faced a maximum sentence of three years but are expected to be released on April 18, the group said. For now, the girls are housed in a correctional home for girls in the country's capital, Accra. Ghanaian police arrested the teenagers as they were readying to board a British Airways flight back to London last July. When officials searched their laptop bags as part of departure formalities, they found about 6 kg (13 lbs) of cocaine, the Ghana News Agency and British media reports said. Authorities in Ghana said a man paid the girls 6,000 pounds (about $11,700) to fly to Ghana to retrieve the laptop bags containing the drugs from two of his associates, the news agency added. Those men have not been caught. Fair Trials called the girls \"pawns in a larger operation. \"It is deeply unfortunate that they, and not the men who lured them to Ghana, are bearing the consequences,\" said the group's chief executive, Catherine Wolthuizen. Ghana and other West African countries have become a transit point for drugs headed to Europe. The girls were arrested in a joint Britain-Ghana drug detection operation, the United Kingdom's customs agency said Wednesday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"British teens sentenced to nine months in prison for trying to smuggle cocaine .\nThe duo, both 16, were arrested in Ghana on July 2, 2007 at Accra's airport .\nGirls unlikely to serve whole sentence as have been in jail more than 6 months .","id":"6a7c84f9727de4f595b7ea476f273ba6eea7a4d1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army is establishing a suicide prevention board to examine the mental health of its recruiters around the country after the fourth suicide in three years by Houston, Texas-based recruiters, according to Army officials. The Army Recruiting Command is examining recruiters all over the country for job-related and combat-related stress. The board will look at how to handle the high-stress climate facing recruiters who may be both under pressure from their job and victims of post-combat deployment stress, according to Douglas Smith, a spokesman from the U.S. Army Recruiting command. \"The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion,\" said a statement released by the Recruiting Command. \"The board's objective will be to prevent future suicides, increase suicide awareness, analyze trends and highlight additional tools and resources to combat suicide within the Recruiting Command.\" The Army's examination comes after a sergeant first class, a member of the Houston Recruiting Battalion and an Iraq combat veteran, killed himself at his home earlier this month. CNN has chosen not to name any of the recruiters. The sergeant's was the second suicide within the ranks of the battalion within weeks, Army officials said. In August, a staff sergeant, a combat veteran in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, also killed himself. Another Houston recruiter killed himself in 2007 and a yet another in 2005, Army records show. The Army Recruiting Command is sending a team -- including a chaplain and a psychologist -- to assist the Houston recruiters. The team was scheduled to show up in mid-September, but because of the severe hurricane damage the arrival was delayed until October, officials said. A chaplain from Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky, was sent to be with the battalion shortly after the latest victim's death, Smith said. He said recruiters receive annual suicide prevention training, and commanders have additional tools to help their soldiers cope. The members of the Houston battalion received their last training in December 2007, according to an Army statement. The Army Recruiting Command is examining recruiters all over the country for both job-related and combat-related stress problems, but is giving special attention to the Houston battalion at the moment, according to Smith. \"We do not have any other circumstances with our recruiters around the country like we do with the Houston unit,\" he said. The deaths of the two recruiters this year also caught the eye of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn from Texas. Cornyn wrote a letter to Army Secretary Pete Geren this month about the suicide rate in the battalion. \"Due to the recurring deployments that have proven necessary to sustain operations in the Middle East, it is likely that a large majority of our recruiters are also veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,\" he wrote. \"Many of our military recruiters work in recruiting offices and facilities remote from the military installations at which their fellow soldiers serve. As such, many of them lack the same access to peer support networks and important services for dealing with stress, anxiety, PTSD and other conditions that may directly result from their prior combat service,\" he said. A veteran's advocacy group says Houston has one of the top recruiting operations in the United States but there is a good deal of stress in bringing in new recruits when the Army is stretched. \"The suicides in the Houston battalion are a very loud, very bright alarm that Army officials and politicians can't afford to ignore,\" said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. While recruiting among all of the services has been on target for more than a year, the stress levels on recruiters to bring in new service members can be crushing with extended hours and, many times, six- or seven-day work weeks. Army officials said Cornyn was correct in saying one of the problems for recruiters is they work in locations often far from bases where they can get the mental health help that is readily available to other troops. With the United States at war for the past seven years, the vast majority of recruiters have combat experience, Smith said. The recruiter suicides come at a time when the total number of suicides in the Army's ranks has been growing, Army officials said. Through August there had been 93 active duty suicides in the Army. Last year there were 115 active duty suicides, the highest for the Army since the Vietnam War, according to Army statistics.","highlights":"Army will examine mental health of recruiters .\nRecruiters under pressure from job and victims of post-combat deployment .\nTexas sees four suicides in three years .","id":"446e8b7c2ca7e82e1ca6368ea58e3c3cd7de4c6c"} -{"article":"MANCHESTER, England -- Owen Hargreaves curled in a superb free-kick, 18 minutes from time, to give Manchester United a 2-1 Premier League victory over Arsenal at Old Trafford. Hargreaves curls his match-winning free-kick over the Arsenal wall and past Lehmann. The win lifted United six points clear of Chelsea, who meet Wigan on Monday, and effectively ended Arsenal's fading title bid. The Gunners trail United by nine points with four matches left to play. Emmanuel Adebayor gave Arsenal a 48th minute lead but Cristiano Ronaldo equalized from the penalty spot minutes later with his 38th goal of the season. The loss dooms Arsene Wenger's side to their third season without a trophy and ends a black week which also included a Champions League quarterfinal defeat to English rivals Liverpool. England midfielder Hargreaves, best known for his determined defending, Scored United's 100th goal in 50 games this campaign when his curled free-kick from the edge of the box over the wall left goalkeeper Jens Lehmann standing. Adebayor headed Arsenal in front three minutes into the second period when he met Robin van Persie's cross and profited from confusion between United keeper Edwin van der Sar and center-back Rio Ferdinand. There were no complaints from United about the goal but tv replays suggested Adebayor may have handled the ball rather than knocked it in with his head, even though he was just a few yards away from goal. Six minutes later Arsenal defender William Gallas clearly handled inside his own area and referee Howard Webb pointed to the spot. Ronaldo netted but Webb ordered the penalty to be re-taken because of encroachment by other players. Lehmann, only playing because of a wrist injury to first-choice keeper Manuel Almunia, was then booked for delaying the second kick. Ronaldo, making light of the pressure of the situation, stuck with his stuttering run-up and struck the ball low and hard past the German international's right-hand. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scored and created a goal for Fernando Torres in a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at Anfield. Spain striker Torres now has 30 goals this season and midfielder Gerrard 21 .Substitute Andriy Voronin added a third in the 90th minute. This win left Liverpool five points clear of city rivals Everton in the race for the final Champions League qualifying spot. Sunday's match, played out against a backdrop of ongoing boardroom rows at Anfield, was all square for an hour until England midfielder Gerrard beat several Rovers players on the edge of the box before sliding the ball past goalkeeper Brad Friedel. Torres then became the first Liverpool player to score in seven consecutive top-flight games at Anfield when he headed in Gerrard's cross eight minutes from time. Voronin then got on the end of a John Arne Riise cross to make it 3-0 before Roque Santa Cruz pulled a goal back for Rovers in stoppage time. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Manchester Utd beat Arsenal 2-1 in the Premier League game at Old Trafford .\nUnited go six points clear of Chelsea, who play Wigan on Monday .\nArsenal are nine points adrift of the leaders with four games to play .","id":"da1d1b34f7c3cfa21550f7a8bc3d8504551abcd7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The FBI on Monday arrested the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, on federal charges including conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns. Mayor Larry Langford, right, appears at a news conference Monday in Birmingham, Alabama. Larry Langford, 62, is named in an indictment that alleges criminal activity while he was a county commissioner, said U.S. Attorney Alice Martin. As president of the Jefferson County Commission and head of its department of finance and general services from November 2002 until about November 2006, Langford put his personal affairs ahead of those of the county, Martin said. \"Our investigation has revealed, and the indictment alleges, that Langford sold his public office to his friends and political supporters,\" Martin said. Also named in the 101-count indictment are William Blount, 55, a Montgomery, Alabama, investment banker, and Albert LaPierre, 58, a Birmingham lobbyist, neither of whom returned calls from CNN. \"Langford steered lucrative business to William Blount and his company and he, in turn, earned in excess of $7.1 million and, with the help of lobbyist Albert LaPierre, they ensured that Larry Langford's crushing personal debts were paid off through payoffs of loans, store charge accounts, purchases of clothing and jewelry and other items of value that exceeded $230,000 over a period from 2002 to 2006,\" Martin said. The allegations go back to a 1996 consent decree entered into by the commission to bring Jefferson County into compliance with the Clean Water Act, which required authorizing billions of dollars in transactions. After making his first appearance in U.S. District Court on Monday, Langford appeared outside the courthouse with his lawyer, who said he had told his client not to talk to reporters. \"He's got a city to run and right now, or very shortly, he's headed back to City Hall,\" the lawyer said. An indictment on some counts was returned in June to ensure they were not rendered moot by a five-year statute of limitations, Martin said. The superseding indictment returned last Tuesday by a federal grand jury was unsealed Monday after Langford's arrest. The other two men named in the indictment agreed to turn themselves in, she said. Langford conspired with Blount and LaPierre \"to solicit and to accept bribes, to use influence and position to ensure that Blount and his company, Blount Parrish Inc., was involved in Jefferson County's bonds and swap transactions related to multibillion-dollar sewer debt,\" Martin said. Though the financing was set up by then-big financial institutions -- including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America -- \"Langford used his position to make it a condition that those financial institutions include Blount Parrish in the financing deals and paid Blount Parrish a fee in order to get the county financing business,\" Martin said. She cited an October 2003 financial transaction that included Bank of America and Lehman Special Financing Corp. that required Lehman to pay an \"arrangement fee\" of $35,000 to Blount's company. In all, she said, Blount and his company received $7.1 million in fees related to Jefferson County's financial transactions. In turn, Blount paid lobbyist LaPierre approximately $219,000 for \"consulting fees,\" Martin said. She added, \"Through a web of financing agreements, Langford required many institutions to use Blount as a consultant so Blount would make fees and in turn pay off Langford. It was a classic pay-to-play scheme.\" Martin said Blount and Langford traveled together to New York, where Blount bought Langford clothing and jewelry from high-end stores that included Tourneau, Zegna, Ferragamo and Turnbull & Asser. In addition, Blount bought Rolex watches and other jewelry for Langford from a Birmingham store, Martin said. Federal authorities are seeking criminal forfeiture of about $7.6 million from each of the men. Langford is named in 60 counts of the superseding indictment; Blount in 43 counts; and LaPierre in 22 counts. In addition to the fines, each defendant would face a maximum of 10 years for each bribery and money-laundering count, 20 years for each fraud count, five years for the conspiracy count and three years for each tax count. In a written statement, the mayor's office said city business will continue as usual. \"We are glad the mayor will finally have his day in court,\" said Langford's chief of staff, Deborah Vance-Bowie. \"As members of his team, we stand behind him and look forward to the day when we can return the focus to the important issues before the city.\" A public information officer said the president of the current five-member Jefferson County Commission, Bettye Collins, would have no comment .","highlights":"Larry Langford engaged in fraud, bribery, indictment says .\nInvestment banker and lobbyist also named in indictment .\nProsecutor describes \"web of financing agreements\" among the three .\nLangford attorney says he told Langford not to talk to media and \"he's got a city to run\"","id":"bccbafde53424449bd09c9369b7e906db38bba9a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States warned the Indian government about a potential maritime attack against Mumbai at least a month before last week's massacre in the country's financial capital left nearly 180 dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN. Onlookers in Mumbai read messages posted outside the Oberoi Hotel, scene of one of the attacks. U.S. intelligence indicated that a group might enter the country by water and launch an attack on Mumbai, said the source, who refused to be identified due to the ongoing investigation into the attacks and the sensitivity of the information. Indian security forces have confirmed to CNN that not only did U.S. officials warn them of a water-borne attack in Mumbai -- they were told twice. The area entered a higher state of alert for a week, including tightened security measures at hotels, but those efforts were eventually reduced, Indian officials said. Local fisherman in Mumbai said they witnessed a group of gunmen dock their boat Wednesday night, before heading toward the busy causeway. Also, sources have told CNN-IBN that officials found phones and a global navigational device on an abandoned boat floating off the coast of Mumbai. The boat had been hijacked, intelligence officials told CNN-IBN. Watch Nic Robertson's report about U.S. warning . Four crew members who had been on board were missing. The captain was found dead, lying face down with his hands bound behind his back. India has made clear that it believes last week's coordinated attacks in Mumbai originated in Pakistan, but the Indian government is under pressure to explain the lapse of security that allowed the siege to occur. Indian police say 179 people were killed in the attacks on 10 targets in Mumbai. Most of the deaths occurred at the city's top two hotels, the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal. Watch report about nanny saving infant . Pakistani authorities say Islamabad has not received any evidence that militants from within its borders carried out the attacks, but have vowed to fully cooperate in the investigation. Suspicion has fallen on Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda, even though it has denied responsibility. Watch how attacks could damage relations \u00bb . Pakistan banned the group in 2002 after an attack on India's parliament that brought the two countries to the brink of war. Indian security forces say they arrested a member of the group in February, noting that the man was casing Mumbai for an attack. U.S. counterterrorism officials continue to say signs are pointing to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and they haven't seen anything to rule it out. However, they will not definitively say the group is responsible. A team of FBI agents is in Mumbai to assist in the investigation, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading to New Delhi on Wednesday to try to ease strained relations between the nuclear neighbors. Watch Pakistan's PM say his country will defuse tensions \u00bb . At the center of India's investigation is the lone suspect in police custody, who Indian authorities say is Pakistani and trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. Indian officials have identified the suspect as a clean-shaven young man who was photographed during the attack on Mumbai's Victoria Terminus train station. One of the still images shows him walking with one arm outstretched and a gun in his other hand, lowered by his side. He is wearing a black T-shirt, cargo pants and a backpack. Watch Anderson Cooper talk with Fareed Zakaria about the attacks \u00bb . Indian police say the other nine attackers were killed in three days of battles with police and the Indian military. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. warned India about potential Mumbai attack, source says .\nAttacks that killed 179 people have strained India-Pakistan relations .\nSuspect is from Pakistan, Indian authorities say .\nPakistan PM rejects accusations his country had role in Mumbai massacre .","id":"4d9c1dedc5a0d176631f1fd2c1cc014b2ed02101"} -{"article":"David C. Novak became chairman of the board at Yum! Brands on January 1, 2001, and chief executive officer on January 1, 2000. Yum! Brands's CEO, David Novak talks to CNN's Maggie Lake in The Boardroom. He also serves as president of Yum, a position he has held since October 21, 1997. Mr. Novak previously served as Group President and Chief Executive Officer, KFC and Pizza Hut from August 1996 to July 1997, at which time he became acting Vice Chairman of Yum. He is a director of J.P. Morgan Chase. Novak is a member of the Yum! Brands Executive committee. In his spare time Novak is a keen golfer and has even played a round with golf legend Tiger Woods. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"David Novak was made CEO of Yum! Brands in January 2000 .\nHe is a director of Global financial services firm J.P. Morgan Chase .\nA keen golfer, Novak has teed off with Tiger Woods .","id":"64c3f4b04f8ba41618bde6de0226b7f202396024"} -{"article":"LONG ISLAND, New York (CNN) -- The death of a temporary Wal-Mart worker trampled by customers amid frantic Black Friday shopping could have been avoided, the union that represents retail workers said Saturday. Customers rushing to get into a Valley Stream, New York, Wal-Mart damaged doors and trampled a worker. Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m. Friday, police said. \"This incident was avoidable,\" said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York's largest grocery worker's union. \"Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner? \"This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart,\" he said. Watch father of trampled worker react \u00bb . Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar said Saturday that the company had no response to the union's comments, referring CNN to a written statement the retailer released Friday. The statement said the store added internal security, brought in outside security, erected barricades and worked with Nassau County police in anticipation of heavy crowds. \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased,\" Wal-Mart Senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in the statement. \"We are continuing to work closely with local law enforcement, and we are reaching out to those involved.\" Damour's death was one of two high-profile violent incidents on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally one of the year's busiest shopping days. Police say two men shot each other dead in a Toys \"R\" Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store. The fight did not appear to be related to shopping, according to authorities. At the Wal-Mart, police say that a line began forming at 9 p.m. Thursday and that, by 5 a.m. Friday, there were as many as 2,000 customers outside. A video showed about a dozen people knocked to the ground as the doors were opened and the crowd surged, breaking the doors. Minutes later, police trying to give Damour first aid were jostled by customers still running into the store, authorities said. The union is calling for an investigation \"by all levels of government\" to ensure justice for Damour's family and make sure that such an incident never happens at Wal-Mart again. Watch reaction to the incident \u00bb . \"If the safety of their customers and workers was a top priority, then this never would have happened,\" said Patrick Purcell, a projects director for the local UFCW. \"Wal-Mart must step up to the plate and ensure that all those injured, as well as the family of the deceased, be financially compensated for their injuries and their losses. Their words are weak.\" The UFCW has long been a harsh critic of Wal-Mart's, arguing that the world's largest retailer offers low wages and poor health care for its workers and pushes competitors and suppliers to do the same or go out of business. The group has had only marginal success in organizing Wal-Mart workers in the United States and Canada, citing aggressive anti-union efforts by Wal-Mart. The UFCW has 1.3 million members working largely in the retail, food and food-processing industries. CNN's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report.","highlights":"Retail workers union says Wal-Mart showed \"blatant irresponsibility\"\nDiscount chain said it made many preparations for Black Friday .\nTemporary worker was trampled as he unlocked doors at 5 a.m.\nUnion has been one of Wal-Mart's harshest critics .","id":"7469a4691c3b9612ebe555fa1d9ae69c1414541a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators have named Casey Anthony a suspect in the mid-June disappearance of her toddler daughter, Caylee, Florida authorities said Wednesday. Casey Anthony had been called a \"person of interest\" in her daughter's disappearance. Police had previously labeled Anthony -- who authorities said didn't report the 3-year-old child's disappearance until mid-July -- a \"person of interest\" in the case. \"Casey is a suspect,\" said Orange County Sheriff's Department Capt. Angelo Nieves. \"She has been uncooperative, leading investigators down the wrong path and lying to them. She has not provided any credible information about the last time she saw her or where she was left.\" Casey Anthony of Orlando, Florida, was arrested July 16 on suspicion of telling detectives lies about Caylee's disappearance. She was released on bail after that arrest and subsequent arrests on unrelated theft charges. Authorities said weeks ago that evidence suggests Caylee is dead. Investigators found evidence of human decomposition in the trunk of Anthony's car, authorities have said. Law enforcement sources also suggested that a strand of hair found in the trunk of the car was Caylee's. Watch Nancy Grace speak to Casey Anthony's \"babysitter\" \u00bb . Authorities also have said they found traces of chloroform in the car Anthony drove and Internet searches of chloroform Web sites on her computer. Anthony and her daughter have garnered national headlines and served as fodder for nightly crime shows. Protesters have held vigils outside Anthony's home pleading with her to give police more information about Caylee's whereabouts. In connection with her July arrest, Anthony was charged with child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. CNN's Andrew Iden and Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: Casey Anthony has been \"leading ... investigators down the wrong path.\"\nCaylee Anthony, 3, reported missing month after her June disappearance, police say .\nPolice have said evidence suggests Florida toddler is dead .","id":"abc858ceeefaa3815a64c87cff5eb777aaaff906"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Most people know that condoms prevent the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Unusual campaigns to promote condom use are being launched in places where condoms are less popular. But in many parts of the world, condoms aren't very popular. Here are five novel campaigns launched by nonprofit organizations and condom companies to encourage wider use. 1. A ring tone to remember . In India, people stigmatize condoms and refuse to wear them because they believe only prostitutes must use prophylactics. Leave it to one of the world's richest men to find a solution -- the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated money for a national condom ring tone. An a cappella group sings \"Condom, Condom\" -- in the style of doo-wop like the contagious pop song \"Barbara Ann\" -- when one receives a phone call. Despite its bubblegum sound, officials hope that the people who have the condom ring tone appear smart and responsible. Since the ring tone's August launch, more than 60,000 people downloaded it. Yvonne MacPherson, country director of the BBC World Service Trust (which the Gates foundation funded), sums it up best when she said to The Associated Press: \"A ring tone is a very public thing. It's a way to show you are a condom user and you don't have any issues with it.\" Right, nothing attracts the amorous attention like announcing loudly that you have a condom. 2. Perks you right up . Ethiopians claim they hate condoms because the smell of latex sickens them. To combat the odor, DKT International, a United Sates nonprofit, created coffee condoms. These dark brown condoms allegedly (I'm not testing the products) taste and smell like the favorite coffee of Ethiopia -- the macchiato, an espresso with cream and sugar. One college student claimed the smell reminded him of the beauty of Ethiopian women (it's not clear if that's a compliment). These condoms bolster national identity because Ethiopians claim to have invented coffee. DKT International also created flavored and scented condoms for Indonesia (durian fruit) and China (sweet corn). Mental Floss: 4 fruits we're dying to try . 3. Condom trees . In western Australia, the rate of HIV infection is the highest in the nation. When public health nurses were looking for an effective way to distribute condoms, someone suggested trees. Young people in the countryside hang out under trees, so the shady spots are the perfect places for nurses to hang condom-filled canisters. Over 3,000 condoms are taken each month. Residents said grabbing condoms from trees was convenient and private. Additionally, officials in Australia piloted programs where Aboriginal teens sold packets of condoms and kept half of the proceeds. Officials tout these programs as a success because STD rates have fallen, yet nurses wonder how they will convince people that they shouldn't have multiple partners. Maybe a monogamy tree is in the Outback's future. Mental Floss: 8 smooches that (sort of) shook the world . 4. Scare tactics . Perhaps some safe sex programs skirt the issue -- unprotected sex causes HIV, which leads to AIDS and often death. It's not surprising that a condom company would resort to scare tactics. The Tulipan Company launched its \"Be Careful\" ads in Argentina. Showing skeletons positioned in flagrante delicto, these ads make no bones about how important it is to wear a condom while engaging in coitus. No word if the skeleton ads have had the desired impact, though the graphic skeletons appear more popular than recent Trojan ads, which depict men as swine. Mental Floss: Strange gravestones . 5. Spray-on protection . Since his teens, Jan Vinzenz Krause struggled to find a condom that fit correctly. He thought the pursuit of the perfect prophylactic was hopeless -- until he went to the carwash. Inspired by the spray-on soap and wax, the German Krause developed a spray-on latex condom, which he claims always fits perfectly and feels natural. However, many men find the design off-putting; the spray-on condom comes in a hard phallic case. Men slide themselves into the cylinder and layer on the latex, providing full coverage. The Jolly Joe, as Krause dubbed it, frightened many men during the testing phase -- they only put the case on their fingers. (Spray on gloves anyone?) Others felt the loud hissing wasn't sexy and the latex takes too long to dry -- three minutes. Krause explains to Time, \"It needs to be ready in five to ten seconds.\" So for now, Krause is waiting for a quicker-drying latex. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Unusual campaigns are aimed at promoting condom use and fighting AIDS .\nGerman develops spray-on condom named \"Jolly Joe\" that dries in 3 minutes .\nBill and Melinda Gates Foundation pays for India's \"condom ring tone\"\nAustralia promotes safe sex by hanging thousands of condoms in trees .","id":"57e441a48611d3cd93e9fe5c9e9a84cbc3ef39a7"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Somalis are so desperate to survive that attacks on merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean will not stop, a pirate leader promises. A French warship keeps guard over commerical vessels in the Gulf of Aden last week. \"The pirates are living between life and death,\" said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. \"Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything.\" The interview with the pirate was conducted in late August by journalists employed by the Somali news organization Garowe Online. The complete interview was provided to CNN last week and provides a glimpse of why piracy has been so hard to control in the region. Recorded on grainy video, the interview took place in the Somali port city of Eyl, now a center of pirate operations. Eyl is on the east coast of Somalia in the autonomous territory of Puntland. It is a largely lawless zone, considered extremely dangerous for Westerners to enter. The Puntland government said two unidentified Western journalists were taken hostage Wednesday as they attempted to report on pirate activity. Boyah said that the piracy began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks. Traditional fishermen started attacking the trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons. The fishermen then turned to softer targets. Watch why fishermen turned to piracy \u00bb . \"We went into the deep ocean and hijacked the unarmed cargo ships,\" Boyah said. \"For the past three years, we have not operated near the Somali coast. We have operated at least 80 miles [out], in international waters.\" When merchant shipping started avoiding the Somali coast, Boyah said, \"we went to ships traveling other routes.\" Over the past year, the number of pirate attacks has increased dramatically. The International Maritime Bureau cites more than 90 pirate attacks off East Africa so far in 2008. When attacks are successful, the hijacked ships are taken to Somali waters, where the ships and crew are held until a ransom is paid. See how pirate attacks have increased \u00bb . Ships recently captured include a massive Saudi supertanker laden with crude oil valued at more than $100 million and a freighter carrying Russian-built tanks. The hijackings have been profitable. Kenya's foreign minister, Moses Wetangula, estimates the pirates have been paid more than $150 million during the past year. One pirate gang wants $2 million dollars to release a Yemeni freighter and crew seized last week. Facing increasing disruptions through one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, several countries have sent warships to patrol the area. There have been reports of skirmishes between pirates and naval forces, but the military presence does not concern pirate leader Boyah. He boasts the pirates literally sail in a vast ocean beneath the radar of the warships. Watch how piracy thrives off Somalia \u00bb . \"No ship has the capability to see everything,\" he said. \"A ship can see 80 miles or so [on radar]. It cannot see us at all. No one can do anything about it.\" Boyah said it is unlikely the Puntland regional government would ever crack down on piracy because government officials are involved in financing the piracy and collect a cut of the ransoms. \"They motivate us. It's their money and their weapons,\" Boyah said. \"Thirty percent belongs to them.\" The Puntland foreign minister, Ali Abdi Aware, denied government involvement with the pirates, including taking bribes. The minister cited the arrest of six pirates earlier this year as evidence it is acting to stop piracy. Pirate Boyah said he is unimpressed with the arrests by Puntland authorities. \"The pirates are at sea and Puntland does not approach them. The pirates are on land and Puntland does not approach them,\" Boyah said. \"They arrest some small people and tell the world that they captured pirates, but they are liars.\" While Boyah may have been outspoken about the government's ineffectiveness, he did not allow interviewers to show his face, an indication that even in this lawless country, pirates still have some fear.","highlights":"Piracy a life or death choice, Somali pirate says .\nAs foreign trawlers took catch, Somali fishermen turned to piracy, leader says .\nPirates gain more than $150 million in ransom in past year, official says .\nGovernments unable to stop pirates, leader says .","id":"8940cd22edfbc7ef58645295e3c1351d769dc2ce"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Rebel forces have declared a cease-fire after four days of fighting in the North Kivu province of eastern Congo, the French ambassador to the United Nations said after Security Council talks on the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Congolese soldiers and displaced civilians move into Goma on Wednesday, fleeing advancing rebels. Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese Tutsi general who leads troops of the National Congress for the Defense of the People, ordered the cease-fire, Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters. \"We hope that it will stand, and we hope that tomorrow Mr. Nkunda will announce that he stops his offensive,\" Ripert said, adding that he expected the the council would condemn the military operation. He called the humanitarian situation \"very alarming,\" said more than 50,000 people \"are on the road,\" and expressed hope that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would send a high-level envoy to the region for talks \"as soon as possible.\" Representatives of European countries \"are talking together\" about how best to ease the situation, Ripert said. \"We are looking into the most effective and fastest way of helping MONUC,\" he said, using the French acronym for the U.N. mission in Congo. Nkunda has accused the Congolese government of failing to protect the Tutsi tribe from Rwandan Hutu militia in Congo. Ripert cited reports of fighting at the DRC's border with Rwanda and called on neighboring countries \"to use restraint and not to interfere.\" News of the cease-fire was embraced by Samuel Nagbe, a representative of the relief agency Oxfam, in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. \"We are very happy that, at least, the fighting is going to stop,\" he told CNN. He called for the factions to meet \"to find a lasting situation to the crisis.\" Nkuda's troops were advancing after fighting between the rebels and government forces led thousands of people to flee south toward Goma, capital of North Kivu province in eastern Congo. Conditions in the region were \"continuing to deteriorate rapidly,\" the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said in a statement posted on its Web site. Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, said government troops were leaving the city, which wasn't on the front lines. He said he didn't know where the soldiers were going, but suspected they were headed to areas of heavy fighting. Ban said at midday he was \"alarmed at the escalation of violence\" over the prior 24 hours and warned of a \"humanitarian crisis.\" In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the agency was sending Assistant Secretary Jendayi Frazer to the region as an envoy. \"We're working as best we can to minimize or defuse the situation, get more troops in there,\" McCormack said. Attacks by CNDP rebels have uprooted hundreds of thousands of displaced people from camps run by the United Nations and other organizations. \"The humanitarian situation is quite dire,\" Mounoubai told CNN by phone from Kinshasa, Congo's capital. \"We have internally displaced people streaming out of camps. Both parties are blocking the U.N. from reaching desperately needy people to evacuate,\" he added. \"I cannot emphasize how desperate the situation on the ground is.\" The region's instability endangers aid workers, some of whom have joined the exodus. Michael Arunga, a spokesman for World Vision, told CNN the organization's workers had fled to the Rwandan border, where they were assessing the situation and caring for civilians crossing into the area. Arunga said he himself had fled from Goma, where he could hear shootings at night. \"For agencies to operate on the ground, we need a peaceful environment,\" he said. Doctors Without Borders said that on Sunday, medical teams in Rutshuru treated 70 wounded, and had been working round the clock since. Some of the people who sought help had been on the run for weeks, said the group, which described the situation as \"extremely volatile.\" Doctors have been working mostly in towns and camps in and around Kitchanga, Masisi, Mweso, Nyanzale and Kayna. DWB says it is the only international organization still providing medical and humanitarian assistance in Kitchanga, Masisi, Mweso and Rutshuru.","highlights":"NEW: U.N. says rebel troops to adhere to cease-fire .\n45,000 flee refugee camp in matter of hours .\nU.N. says its peacekeepers still in charge of Goma .\nCongo says Rwandan forces join fight with minority Tutsi rebels .","id":"832764ebe6fc018f25e1b0ef4d19d8359130ef29"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- John \"Junior\" Gotti, son of the late Gambino family mob boss John Gotti, was arrested in New York on Tuesday and faces a number of federal charges including racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking, authorities said. John \"Junior\" Gotti, seen in September 2006, has had three criminal trials end in mistrials. Gotti was among six people indicted by a Florida grand jury, said Robert O'Neill, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. The indictments were unsealed Tuesday with the arrest of five defendants, including Gotti, he said. Negotiations were under way for the surrender of the sixth person named in the indictment, O'Neill said. All six suspects were charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a law used to target organized crime groups -- in this case, the Gambino crime family. Gotti appeared Tuesday afternoon before a judge, who ordered him held without bail. His attorney, Charles Carnesi, told reporters the charges against his client were baseless. \"I can guarantee you that this case will be based on people who have been convicted of various crimes who do not want to go to jail,\" Carnesi said outside the courthouse. \"Let's face it, they have the money, they have the resources, they have an army of agents and most of all they have the ability to go to people who are willing to lie and say, 'OK, here's the key. Here's the way out.' \" Watch authorities talk about 'significant evidence' \u00bb . The indictment alleges Gotti was involved in three slayings in New York City -- those of George Grosso, who died in December 1988 in Queens; Louis DiBono, killed in October 1990 in the parking garage of the former World Trade Center; and Bruce John Gotterup, slain in November 1991 at the Boardwalk at the Rockaways in Queens. Gotti is the first person charged in Grosso's death, which was listed as an unsolved homicide and was investigated with assistance from the New York Police Department's Cold Case Squad, O'Neill said in a written statement. Gotti is charged in one indictment, and the five others in another one. Watch Gotti being led away in handcuffs . Carnesi said he was surprised by the judge's decision to hold Gotti without bail. He said it would be his preference to keep Gotti in New York as long as possible \"so that we can maintain contact with him\" and suggested he enter his not-guilty plea by video to the Florida court. Gotti, 44, of Oyster Bay, New York, has served as an associate, soldier, captain and de facto boss in the organization, the indictment alleges, as well as a member of a captains' committee formed in the early 1990s to assist in the administration of the family. His co-defendants are John Burke, 47, a New York prison inmate; James Cadicamo, 33, of Tampa, Florida; David D'Arpino, 33, of Howard Beach, New York; Michael Finnerty, 43, of Oceanside, New York; and Guy Peden, 47, of Wantagh, New York. Burke and Peden are also accused of participating in the murder of Gotterup, according to authorities, and Burke and D'Arpino are charged in the death of John Gebert, who was killed in 1996 in Queens. In addition, Cadicamo is charged with conspiring to beat or kill a man named Michael Malone to prevent Malone's testimony in a case, and with retaliating against Malone for his cooperation with authorities. A number of cases culminated in the indictment, which names people in Florida and New York, the prosecutor said. \"I think what you have here is, you have the Gambino crime family reaching out to Tampa, Florida\" and \"trying to gain a foothold,\" he said. All six defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison, authorities said. If convicted of the charges involving Malone, Cadicamo could face the death penalty. \"[Gambino crime family] enterprise members engaged in public acts and displays of violence -- shootings, stabbings, baseball bat beatings and murder -- designed to create and maintain fear and dread in others so that the GCF enterprise could defend and expand its unlawful dominion and influence in certain geographical areas,\" according to a statement issued by O'Neill's office. \"GCF enterprise members worked to establish and maintain GCF enterprise footholds, or operational bases, in various parts of the United States of America, specifically including the city of Tampa, Florida.\" The Gambino family also is accused of crimes including robbery, bribery, kidnapping, extortion, home invasions and money laundering, among others, authorities said. Members of the organization \"invested some of their criminal income for the acquisition of interests in other businesses,\" including window and glass businesses, valet parking businesses and bars or nightclubs, prosecutors allege. Carnesi questioned why, if Gotti is involved in drug trafficking and murder, informants such as Sammy \"The Bull\" Gravano have never suggested it. \"You can go down the line as to any of these individuals who made deals with the government. ... They don't know anything of this,\" he said. In late 2006, a third mistrial was declared in a federal racketeering case against Gotti. Charges against him included racketeering and extortion. Prosecutors said they would not retry Gotti, who was accused of ordering attacks on radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa after the Guardian Angels founder criticized Gotti's father on his radio show. Sliwa was shot three times but recovered and testified against Gotti. Asked Gotti's feelings on the newest charges, Carnesi said, \"He was very disappointed to have to go through all this again. You can imagine the toll it took on him and his family to have to fight three times in the course of a year, to feel that, OK, perhaps it's over ... because the government itself came to the conclusion, no more. It's very disheartening for him to be back here again.\" Gotti's father, who was nicknamed the \"Teflon Don\" because prosecutors had trouble making charges stick against him, died in prison in 2002 of throat cancer. CNN's Kevin Bohn and Kimberly Segal contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"Junior\" Gotti goes before a judge Tuesday who orders him held without bail .\nProsecutor: Gambino crime family was \"trying to gain a foothold\" in Tampa, Florida .\nJohn Gotti is among six people indicted by a Florida grand jury .\nHe faces federal charges, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder .","id":"6b9d017d16a725f04063f25e2facb1ad69831814"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday. File image of the Nautica in Sydney Harbor . The Nautica was in an area patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces when two small skiffs appeared to try to intercept it, Oceania spokesman Tim Rubacky said. The ship took evasive maneuvers and accelerated to its full speed of 23 knots or 27 mph. One of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots at the cruise ship, he said, but the ship was able to pull away. It was the first report of a pirate attack on a passenger ship of its size this year, said Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau, which runs a piracy reporting center. \"There have been a couple of passenger yachts hijacked, but they were much smaller,\" he said. It is \"quite common\" for pirates to target ships the size of the Nautica and even larger, he said, but they tend to be cargo ships, not passenger vessels. Map of pirate activity in the area \u00bb . The Nautica escaped without damage or injury to its 684 passengers and 400 crew, and arrived safely on schedule in Salalah, Oman early on Monday morning, Rubacky said. He emphasized that the ship was not off the coast of Somalia, which has become a base for pirates, but off the coast of Yemen. The International Maritime Bureau has issued piracy warnings for both areas. The Nautica was in a Maritime Safety Protection Area which is patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces, Rubacky underlined. But the International Maritime Bureau's Mody warned that there was only so much navies could do even in that zone. \"The zone has been created to enable navies to patrol and concentrate on a much smaller area than the entire Gulf,\" he said. \"But, saying that, it is still a large area. Vessels do not automatically get guaranteed safe passage even if they use it.\" The Nautica left Rome November 18 on a 32-day cruise to Singapore. It was the first time one of the company's cruise ships had encountered possible pirates, Rubacky added. He said the company did not plan to change routes to avoid the area, which has seen increasingly audacious piracy in recent months. \"We're not considering re-routing as the Gulf of Aden is the most viable gateway from the Med to Asia,\" he said. On Sunday, an official from the Kenya Seafarers Association said pirates have reached a deal with the owners of a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms that was seized more than two months ago. \"A deal has been reached to free the MV Faina. Talks on how to deliver the ransom money are ongoing,\" Andrew Mwangura of the association told CNN. It is not clear how long those talks will take, but the ship could be freed as soon as an agreement has been reached. The ship, which is laden with Soviet-era tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms, was seized on September 25. It was heading for Kenya, whose government had bought the weapons from Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The pirates originally asked for a $35 million ransom, but lowered their demand to $20 million, he said. The Faina is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, and its crew includes citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, the Navy said.","highlights":"Nautica was in area patrolled by international anti-piracy task force .\nTwo small skiffs appeared and tried to intercept it, spokesman said .\nOne of the boats closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots .\nReport: Deal reached Sunday over hijacked Ukrainian arms ship .","id":"45bf61ac916a37943569a0e001255f994b775568"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Breakaway conservative members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and its Canadian counterpart are expected to formally announce Wednesday the formation of a rival North American Anglican church. The consecration of Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire left many conservatives disaffected. Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a network of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, are expected to unveil a draft constitution for a new ecclesiastical territorial division, or province, at an evening service in Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, Illinois, the group said in a written statement. \"The public release of our draft constitution is an important concrete step toward the goal of a biblical, missionary and united Anglican Church in North America,\" Bishop Robert Duncan of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, diocese, said in the written statement. The move comes after years of debate over issues from the interpretation of the Bible to homosexuality. Tensions reached a boiling point in 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay man, Rev. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. The move outraged worshippers with traditionalist tendencies, and since then, four dioceses and several parishes have left the Episcopalian Church, including Duncan's Pittsburgh diocese. In all, the newly formed division will consist of about 100,000 members from the secessionist dioceses and parishes, along with splinter groups that had left the Episcopalian Church in earlier years, said Robert Lundy, a spokesman for the group . \"This constitution brings them back together under one church, all aligned together,\" Lundy said. \"This is all these folks coming back together.\" Lunday said it was safe to say Duncan will lead the nascent province. An assembly is likely to be called next year to determine additional leadership, he said. The Rev. Dr. Charles K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, issued a statement saying it would not hazard a guess as to the consequences of Wednesday's service. \"We will not predict what will or will not come out of this meeting, but simply continue to be clear that the Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada and the La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, comprise the official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America,\" he said. \"We reiterate what has been true of Anglicanism for centuries: that there is room within the Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ.\" The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, which is composed of 38 provinces around the world. It was not immediately clear which of the other provinces would recognize the Anglican Church in North America, but Lundy said in a meeting last year in Jerusalem indicated that some would do so. Lundy said the draft constitution will state the province's core beliefs and doctrine. He said it will not lay out definite policies for issues the leaders disagree on, such as ordaining women.","highlights":"Network of breakaway traditionalists expected to announce formation of rival province .\nMove comes after years of dispute over progressive direction of Episcopal Church .\nTipping point for many was consecration of gay man as bishop of New Hampshire .\nNew division expected to take in 100,000 from parishes that left Episcopal Church .","id":"42c7f11b530e58acc7e0f93c30a92e0d6380d13b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two customers are suing Wal-Mart for negligence after being injured in a mad rush for post-Thanksgiving bargains that left one store employee dead, the men's attorney said Tuesday. A temporary worker at this Wal-Mart was crushed to death when shoppers rushed into the store last week. Temporary Wal-Mart worker Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed to death as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a store on Long Island at 5 a.m. Friday. Attorney Kenneth Mollins said Fritz Mesadieu and Jonathan Mesadieu were \"literally carried from their position outside the store\" and are now \"suffering from pain in their neck and their back from being caught in that surge of people\" that rushed into the Wal-Mart. New York Newsday reported that the Mesadieus are father and son, ages 51 and 19. The lawsuit alleges that the Mesadieus' injuries were a result of \"carelessness, recklessness, negligence.\" In a claim against the Nassau County police department, the men also contend that they \"sustained monetary losses as a result of health care and legal expenses ... in the sum of $2 million.\" \"This is a tragic situation that could have and should have been avoided with the exercise of reasonable care. There are very simple measures that could have been put in place to avoid this, such as barriers along the line to spread people out, extra security and a better police presence,\" Mollins said. He said his clients and others who were at the scene contend that the police \"were there ... saw what was happening, and they left.\" Calls seeking comment from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were not immediately returned. Lt. Kevin Smith of the Nassau County Police Department said, \"it's our policy that we don't comment on open litigations\" and would not respond directly to Mollins and his clients' claim that officers left the scene. He said it is \"incumbent upon the store to provide security\" but noted that there was no security force present when officers responded to an initial phone call after 3 a.m. Friday for an unknown disturbance at the site. Smith said the officers noticed a lack of order with the crowd and began to organize them into a line, remaining on site for about 30 minutes until the crowd had become orderly. Throughout the morning, officers went back to check on the crowd and continued to notice no disturbance, Smith said. He said that there were no additional calls for assistance until about 5 a.m., when people began rushing the doors of the store and trampled Damour. An autopsy showed that Damour died of asphyxiation after being trampled, Nassau County officials have said. Video showed that as many as a dozen people were knocked to the floor in the stampede of people trying to get into the store. The employee was \"stepped on by hundreds of people\" as other workers attempted to fight their way through the crowd, said Nassau County Police Detective Lt. Michael Fleming. CNN's Kristen Hamill contributed to this report .","highlights":"Men suffered injuries after being carried along in rush for bargains, suit claims .\nCustomers also filed claim against police, say they didn't maintain order .\nOne store employee killed in post-Thanksgiving rush for bargains .","id":"f9b8fa31280fde49f82022a1dacb92a5c600af74"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Christine Beatty, chief of staff for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from their text-messaging sex scandal case and will serve four months in jail, according to the Wayne County prosecutor's office. Under a plea deal, Christine Beatty, shown in August at an arraignment in Detroit, will serve five years probation. Beatty pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, according to Maria Miller, the prosecutor's spokeswoman. Charges of perjury and misconduct against Beatty will be dropped as part of the plea arrangement, she said. Beatty agreed to a plea arrangement under which she will serve five years probation -- the first 120 days to be served in jail -- and pay a $100,000 fine, \"based on [Beatty's] ability to pay,\" Miller said. Beatty will begin serving her jail sentence on January 5, when she will be formally sentenced, Miller said. Kym L. Worthy, prosecuting attorney for Wayne County, released a statement saying she is \"very pleased that this defendant admitted her guilt.\" \"We live in an age where greed and protecting one's secrets is glorified and accepted,\" Worthy said. \"Now the city of Detroit, the region and the state of Michigan can truly begin to move forward when this ugly chapter in Detroit's history is put to rest.\" In September, Kilpatrick resigned as mayor and pleaded guilty to two felony obstruction of justice charges stemming from his efforts to cover up his relationship with Beatty. Like Beatty, Kilpatrick was sentenced to five years probation with the first four months to be served in jail. He is serving that sentence in the Wayne County jail. At the time of his sentencing in October, the judge in the case called Kilpatrick \"arrogant and defiant,\" particularly for a televised speech that aired hours after Kilpatrick entered his pleas. \"That night, the community expected to hear a message of humility, remorse and apology,\" Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner said at Kilpatrick's sentencing. \"Instead, we heard an arrogant and defiant man who accused the governor, among others, for his downfall.\" In addition to his jail and probation sentence, Kilpatrick must also pay the city of Detroit $1 million in restitution, and forfeit any future pension. Initially, Kilpatrick was accused of blocking a criminal investigation into his office and firing a police deputy to cover up an affair with Beatty, then his chief of staff. When that deputy, Gary Brown, filed a whistle-blower suit, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied under oath that an affair had taken place between them. Text messages that contradicted Kilpatrick's and Beatty's denials of an affair were made public in January by the Detroit Free Press, and county prosecutor Worthy charged Kilpatrick and Beatty with multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. The most serious charges would have carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison upon conviction. Beatty resigned her post after the text messages were made public. Kilpatrick initially refused to resign after the scandal broke, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called a hearing on whether she should remove him from office at the request of the Detroit City Council. Granholm adjourned those hearings after Kilpatrick pleaded guilty and resigned in September.","highlights":"Christine Beatty pleads guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice .\nChief of staff for former Detroit, Michigan, mayor will serve four months in jail .\nShe gets probation, $100,000 fine; perjury, misconduct charges to be dropped .\nCharges stemmed from text-messaging sex scandal involving mayor .","id":"eea5cd28d80d4cc91c7cac328f4e17e168cc22df"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is founder of The Carter Center, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to \"prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.\" Read more on human rights defenders: http:\/\/www.cartercenter.org\/homepage.html . Jimmy Carter says closing Guantanamo Bay and ending torture would send a strong message. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It has been heartening to witness the outpouring of worldwide enthusiasm over the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States, a transformational moment for our country. Our incoming president has huge challenges ahead of him, and he will undoubtedly reach out to other world leaders to help address the most difficult problems. A high priority will be the restoration of human rights, which have been badly eroded in recent years. President-elect Obama has reiterated his decision to close Guant\u00e1namo Bay detention center and end U.S.-sponsored torture. Also under discussion is the establishment by the U.S. government of an independent commission to examine the actions that led to these shameful policies and practices. Together, these steps would signal a renewed commitment to the cause of universal human rights long championed by the United States. As this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the reassertion of these fundamental rights is necessary. While the U.S. government has much work to do in this regard, there will have to be a concerted international effort to achieve meaningful protection of human rights, even as the issue of security continues to demand our attention. The American people and our courts have rejected the proposition that some people's rights can be suspended arbitrarily; to do so violates the very core of our democracy. Hopefully, those working to establish democratic practices and institutions worldwide will seize upon this development and convince their own fellow citizens that democracy and human rights are worth the struggle. The international community, including a newly energized United States, should move swiftly and decisively to support the local heroes who risk much to advance this cause. Human rights defenders from throughout the world are participating in our annual conference at The Carter Center this week to share the challenges they face, and to decide how the international community can best support their efforts. For years, these activists have told us that when the United States engaged in torture and indefinite detention, their decades of struggle for rights began to erode. Dictators who had felt pressure from the United States to improve rights were suddenly off the hook. With new leadership in Washington, a clear and principled message on the centrality of human rights can help set a new tone. Too often, the international community has failed to respond to emerging crises, partly because voices of the oppressed are missing in policy discussions. Had the international community heeded the warning of human rights defenders in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, more robust and coordinated diplomacy and even limited intervention may have averted these crises. Catastrophic conditions exist in Congo, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and elsewhere and will require unprecedented cooperation to resolve. It is time to embrace the idea that when human beings are systematically abused, international peace and security are inherently threatened. In such situations, the global community should spare no effort to help societies in distress. Crises like these can be assuaged before they escalate if there is determined global leadership and cooperation. Human rights defenders are on the frontlines of this battle, and we must protect them when they face danger because of their work. We must do a better job of listening to their diagnoses of issues and be receptive to their proposed solutions. And we must strengthen their voices and help to protect them in a collective, undeniable commitment to create the world of peace and freedom that many of us enjoy and we all desire. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jimmy Carter.","highlights":"Jimmy Carter: It's heartening to see world enthusiasm over Obama's election .\nNew president has pledged to close Guant\u00e1namo and end torture, he says .\nCarter: These steps would signal renewed U.S. support for human rights .\nHe says U.S. is vital in sending message to dictators about human rights .","id":"f63593be113f81d3d691773dd02224583b864b71"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia is facing life-threatening food and water shortages leaving millions at risk for starvation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday. A growing percentage of Somalia's population has become dependent on humanitarian aid. \"The Somali people are going through unbearable hardship,\" said Pascal Hundt, head of the ICRC's delegation for Somalia, in a written statement. \"We are witnessing the worst tragedy of the past decade in Somalia.\" Somalia's last severe famine, from 1991 to 1993, devastated crops, killed between 240,000 and 280,000 people and displaced up to 2 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Humanitarian workers view Somalia's food crisis as one of the worst in the world. With winds ripping though the country, hundreds of thousands of Somalis are finding their crops as dry as the surrounding landscape, preventing harvests, killing livestock and leading to a mass risk of starvation. The continual armed conflicts in central and south Somalia have aggravated the situation, hindering people from accessing shelter and medical attention. A growing percentage of the population has become dependent on humanitarian aid. The ICRC, World Food Program and CARE plan to deliver four months worth of food to 435,000 Somalis within the next few weeks. International donors are being asked by the ICRC to provide some of the emergency money. Aid includes giving blankets, kitchen sets and other shelter supplies to 150,000 people. The WFP will be increasing the amount it spends in Somalia to $163 million in food assistance, the group said at a U.N. conference in Rome Wednesday. In addition to drought and armed conflict, high inflation on food and fuel have also exacerbated the situation. Similar factors have affected other developing nations in Africa and other parts of the world. Ethiopia's food crisis has affected 4.5 million people, said the United Nations Children's Fund. As a result of widespread food shortages and little rainfall, an estimated 126,000 children are in need of medical assistance to combat severe malnutrition, while the WFP projects $193 million will be needed for urgent food distributions.","highlights":"ICRC: Somalia facing life-threatening food, water shortages leaving millions at risk .\nWinds are leaving crops as dry as the landscape, preventing harvests .\nContinual armed conflicts in central and south Somalia have aggravated the situation .\nHigh inflation on food and fuel have also exacerbated the situation .","id":"4851362601dbc1e65e9fa10cd50a217e6dab0149"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be secretary of commerce, a Democratic source told CNN on Tuesday. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination this year. The former Democratic presidential candidate's name has been bandied about as the next head of Commerce. Obama spoke with Richardson about the position November 14, a senior Democratic source said. The source said Richardson has always been on Obama's list of possibilities for the key Cabinet position. Richardson, 61, also traveled to Chicago, Illinois, in November to meet with Obama, according to a source. \"He brings to this plate, in particular in an era where the economy is the focus of attention, a lot of skills that could be put to use -- perhaps opening up marketplaces for U.S. products abroad,\" CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley said. \"In New Mexico, he sought to bring in new businesses and to create jobs ... so the Obama team considers this part of the economic team.\" One of the most prominent Hispanic politicians in the nation, Richardson withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination January 10 and later endorsed Obama. He has served as a U.N. ambassador and as energy secretary in the Clinton administration. If Richardson steps down as chief executive of New Mexico, Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish takes over. She was Richardson's running mate in the 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial elections. It's a very different situation in neighboring Arizona, where another Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano, is also stepping down to join the Cabinet. Arizona doesn't have a lieutenant governor. Under state law, Secretary of State Jan Brewer -- a Republican -- takes over. Richardson sought the Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the January 8 New Hampshire primary. Declaring that Obama is an \"extraordinary American,\" Richardson endorsed Obama to be the Democratic nominee for president March 21. \"Barack Obama will make a great and historic president,\" Richardson said at a rally in Portland, Oregon, with Obama at his side. \"[It] is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our nation, and you are a once-in-a-lifetime leader.\" Obama said, \"I am extraordinarily grateful to have the support of one of the great public servants of these United States.\" \"He's done the kind of work that you want from your public servants, somebody who's driven not just by raw ambition, not just by an interest in personal aggrandizement,\" Obama added. \"He's been somebody who's been motivated by the desire to make the lives of his constituents and working people a little bit better.\" Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton both lobbied Richardson for his endorsement. Richardson said that his \"affection for Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton will never waver\" but that \"it is now time for a new generation of leadership.\" Obama \"can bring us the change we so desperately need by bringing us together as a nation here at home and with our allies abroad,\" he said. Hillary Clinton was named this week as Obama's pick for another Cabinet post: secretary of state. Richardson caused controversy in Democratic circles with his endorsement of Obama this year. In April, Richardson said he was \"very close to endorsing\" Clinton but decided not to after the campaign became negative. His endorsement was viewed as an act of betrayal by some longtime Clinton supporters. CNN political analyst James Carville, who has close ties to both Clintons, likened Richardson's endorsement to Judas' betrayal of Christ. Richardson responded to Carville's criticisms by saying that Carville and other Clinton supporters believe they are a \"dynasty\" and that they were \"clinging to the throne.\" CNN's Candy Crowley, Ed Hornick and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill Richardson is New Mexico's governor, former U.N. ambassador .\nRichardson to be announced as commerce secretary nominee Wednesday .\nHe was a rival of Barack Obama's during the Democratic primaries .","id":"0730a5921e9a2fde0e36821da355c412f26b9b8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an age when many people become celebrities through looks or connections, Jennifer Hudson's rise to fame came the old-fashioned way: through talent, hard work and a close-knit family. Jennifer Hudson is in a new movie, \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" and recently released her first solo album. At a time when the singer is in a new movie, \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" and recently released her first solo album, Hudson is now back in the public eye largely due to a family tragedy. Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were found shot to death Friday in their Chicago home. The body of the singer's missing 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, was found in an SUV on Monday morning. Julian's stepfather, William Balfour, was detained over the weekend for questioning in connection with the case, a police spokesperson told CNN. He was subsequently transferred to prison on a parole violation charge, the spokesperson said. Balfour's mother has acknowledged that her son has been questioned about the shootings, but said he had nothing to do with the crime. No charges had been filed against anyone in connection with the murders. iReport.com: Reaction to Hudson family tragedy . The tragedy is a sad turn for the 27-year-old actress and singer, who first earned national notice for her performances on \"American Idol\" in 2004 and won an Oscar for best supporting actress for 2006's \"Dreamgirls.\" Hudson's singing career began in her church choir in the South Side Chicago neighborhood of Englewood when she was a child. She remained devoted to singing all the way through Chicago's Dunbar Vocational High School, where there is now a Jennifer Hudson Room. (She's in good company; Dunbar's alumni include Lou Rawls and two of the Staple Singers.) \"People would say it was unusual for such a small girl to have such a big voice,\" she told Reuters in 2006. \"They would say, 'She sounds like she's grown.' \" After finishing school, she performed in the musical \"Big River\" at a Chicago-area dinner theater and took a job on a cruise line. In 2003, she auditioned for \"American Idol\" in Atlanta, Georgia, and managed to earn her way to the top-rated show with a performance of \"Easy to be Hard,\" the \"Hair\" ballad popularized by Three Dog Night. \"Idol\" proved to be an uneven experience for Hudson. After the show narrowed down its 12 finalists, she started slowly, at times almost being voted off, but eventually her song choices -- including Elton John's \"Circle of Life\" and Whitney Houston's \"I Have Nothing\" -- made her one of the favorites. Sir Elton himself believed she was the \"best of the lot.\" 'Idol' friend speaks out about Hudson case . In the end, Hudson didn't even come close to making \"Idol's\" final two, being voted off midway in the show's run. However, her performances had established her as a talent to watch, and in May 2005 -- several months after finishing the traditional post-\"Idol\" group tour -- she was contacted by a casting agency about the part of Effie, the tragic soul of \"Dreamgirls.\" In the musical, which concerns an all-girl trio much like the Supremes, Effie is a weight-challenged musical powerhouse who begins as the group's leader but is dropped as both performer and lover by the group's manager for the more statuesque singer Deena. The role features the musical's showstopping song, \"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going,\" and won Jennifer Holliday a Tony Award when \"Dreamgirls\" ran on Broadway. Hudson was unfamiliar with \"Dreamgirls\" when she auditioned, but she allegedly beat out almost 800 other women for the role -- including her former \"Idol\" rival, Fantasia Barrino, who had been the third-season winner. The role's high-pitched emotions were a challenge, Hudson told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2006. \"I had to find a way into it,\" she said to the newspaper. \"[Director] Bill Condon sent me into 'Diva 101.' He told me I was too nice. So I'd come into the room angry, but tell all the ADs, 'Bill told me to do this. This is Effie and not Jennifer.' I had to learn how to separate myself from the character with that attitude. That was Bill's main concern. Effie had to have that edge.\" Her performance won her across-the-board raves. Variety compared her turn to Barbra Streisand's award-winning debut in \"Funny Girl,\" among others. It also led to a host of awards, including supporting actress honors from the New York Critics Circle, Golden Globes, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and -- finally -- the Academy Awards. At the Oscar show, Hudson tearfully thanked her grandmother, whom she described as her \"biggest inspiration.\" Julia Kate Hudson, who sang at Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church, where Hudson got her start, died in 1998. Since winning the Oscar, Hudson has been a mainstay of celebrity magazines, which have broadcast news of her engagement to \"I Love New York 2\" contestant David Otunga, regularly singled her out as an example of a healthy plus-sized body type and held her up as an \"Idol\" made good. She's continued her movie career with performances in \"Sex and the City: The Movie\" and \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" both of which came out in 2008. She sang the national anthem at the Democratic National Convention in August at the personal request of Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. According to many reports, Hudson has remained humble amid all the attention. She remains devoted to the church -- \"Church is where I'm from. It will always be my favorite place to sing, and that's where I'd like to go back to,\" Hudson told the Sun-Times -- and uses her against-all-odds biography to inspire others. \"I've had a similar journey as Effie,\" Hudson told the Sun-Times. \"Me being a part of 'Idol,' her being part of the group. ... We both go through our journeys, trying to hold on to our dream and achieve our goal. We have hardships, but we prevail at the end.\"","highlights":"Jennifer Hudson's rise to fame came the old-fashioned way .\nHudson's mother, brother, nephew found dead in Chicago, Illinois .\nSinger beat out more than 800 other women for role in \"Dreamgirls\"\nHudson's first national recognition came on \"American Idol\"","id":"defdaaf2d5159884dc35c4b72603c0e57572f284"} -{"article":"KFAR CHABAD, Israel (CNN) -- Thousands of mourners and emissaries from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement poured into an Israeli village Tuesday for the funerals of two people killed in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Israeli girls mourn Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah, who were killed in the Mumbai attacks. There was a feeling of pain and anger at the funeral in Kfar Chabad, a village of 900 families just outside Tel Aviv. Speeches at the funeral said the gunmen sought out the Chabad House in Mumbai and targeted the victims because of their faith. The two people laid to rest Tuesday were Chabad House directors Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. They lived and worked at the house in Mumbai, which served as both a home and Jewish center -- a place open to anyone who wanted a place to pray, eat kosher food, or celebrate Jewish holidays. Three former Israeli prime ministers were at the funeral: Ehud Barak, who is now the defense minister; Shimon Peres, currently the Israeli president; and Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party. Watch Israeli funerals for those killed in Mumbai \u00bb . After the funeral, the bodies of the Holtzbergs were buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Another victim from Chabad House, kosher supervisor Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum of New York, was buried there earlier. Separate funerals were held for Teitelbaum and another kosher supervisor at Chabad House, American-Israeli Rabbi Bentzion Kruman. They died in the siege along with Israeli grandmother Yocheved Orpaz and Mexican citizen Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich. The building, also known as the Nariman House, was the local headquarters of the Chabad community, a Hasidic Jewish movement. The Holtzbergs had two children, one of whom was in the house when terrorists stormed in. A woman who worked as a nanny and cook at the house managed to escape with the 2-year-old boy, Moshe. Watch report about nanny saving infant \u00bb . The couple's other son was not in Mumbai at the time, according to Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the educational and social services arms of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The child has Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease, The Associated Press reports. In an emotional scene before flying from India to Israel on Monday, the boy repeatedly cried for his mother at a memorial ceremony at a Mumbai synagogue. His cries were played repeatedly on Israeli TV stations. \"You don't have a mother who will hug you and kiss you,\" Rabbi Kotlarsky said, adding that the community would take care of the boy, AP said. \"You are the child of all of Israel.\" The only other surviving member of the family, Moshe's brother, has Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease, and is institutionalized in Israel, AP added. The Holtzbergs' eldest son died of the disease. The Holtzbergs went to Mumbai five years ago to serve the city's small Jewish community and the thousands of Israeli visitors and business people who frequent the area, according to Chabad.org, the ultra-Orthodox group's Web site. About 5,000 Jews live in India, according to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. About 3,000 of them live in Mumbai, The Jewish Press reported. iReport.com: Share tributes to those who died . The Holtzbergs operated a synagogue and taught Torah classes. The rabbi also conducted weddings for local Jewish couples. Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, was born in Israel and moved to Brooklyn, New York, when he was 9. He studied in New York and Argentina and traveled to Thailand and China as a rabbinical student. His wife, Rivka, 28, was a native of Israel. In Mumbai, they ran the headquarters of the Chabad community, a Hasidic Jewish movement. The center, in a building known as the Nariman House, was open to anyone who wanted a place to pray, eat kosher food or celebrate Jewish holidays. In footage filmed two years ago by the Chabad movement, Gavriel Holtzberg said anybody who visited the center was welcome. His wife said its doors were always open and that it was not unusual to have 30 people for dinner. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement was formed more than two centuries ago in Russia. The organization says 4,000 full-time emissary families now direct more than 3,300 Chabad institutions around the world. Kruman was in India to help Teitelbaum supervise a mushroom packing plant under kosher certification, the Chabad Web site said. He grew up in Israel and in the past year had visited China once a month to supervise food packaging plants there. Kruman often visited the Chabad House in Beijing, the organization said, and survived the May earthquake in China's Sichuan Province. He leaves behind a widow and three children. CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands attend funerals in Israel of two people killed in Mumbai attacks .\nThree former Israeli prime ministers attend Tuesday's funeral .\nRabbi and wife killed; family's nanny helped couple's 2-year-old son to escape .","id":"2415f9252573bc973cd6ccd3907e6f85ce271da6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven suspected pirates rescued by a Danish warship were turned over to authorities in Yemen early Friday, two days after they were picked up in the pirate-plagued Gulf of Aden. The French frigate Nivose escorts commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden on November 28, 2008. The men were rescued by the HDMS Absalon on Wednesday after being found in a powerless skiff with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s aboard, Danish Navy spokesman Jesper Lynge told CNN. They were found approximately 75 nautical miles (140 km) off the coast of Yemen following a distress call, Lynge said. \"These guys had been without propulsion on their small boat for several days without food or drinking water,\" he added. After receiving medical treatment aboard the Absalon, the ship's crew turned them over to Yemen's coast guard Friday morning, said Rasmus Tantholt, a reporter for Denmark's TV2, who was aboard the warship. The skiff's small engine was broken, and the Danish vessel sank the boat in order to prevent any hazard to sea traffic. Watch how NATO is fighting piracy \u00bb . The men are suspected to be pirates because of the weapons on board, Lynge said. Pirates frequently use small boats to attack commercial vessels with small arms and grenades, but Lynge said Absalon crew could not connect the men \"directly with another pirate attack in the area,\" Lynge said. Lynge said the skiff was found in Yemeni waters, and the Absalon crew was instructed to hand over the men to the Yemen Coast Guard. Yemeni authorities must conduct any investigation because the episode took place in their jurisdiction, he said. CNN was unable to obtain an immediate comment from Yemeni authorities. Pirates have seized many ships in recent weeks in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, which separates Yemen from Somalia. So far this year, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off the coast of Somalia and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the International Maritime Bureau. A multinational fleet, including vessels from the United States, NATO member states, Russia and India, has been patrolling waters of Indian Ocean near the Gulf, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. CNN's Katy Byron contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seven Somali men in possession of rocket grenades and AK-47 guns rescued .\nDanish Navy ship picked them up in the pirate-plagued Gulf of Aden .\nThe patrol craft responded to a small skiff's calls for assistance off Yemeni coast .\nShip's crew instructed to hand over the men to the Yemen Coast Guard .","id":"8edfdc6093ff3a3d64e790511588f01a18af7757"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Cholera is caused by becoming infected with a bacterium called vibrio cholera. It's a disease that affects the bowels and in its most severe form is characterized by acute watery diarrhoea that can lead to immediate death through severe dehydration and kidney failure. A man from Zimbabwe wheels his sick relative to a cholera clinic. Almost 12,000 people have contracted cholera since August in Zimbabwe, and the outbreak threatens to kill even greater numbers as the water situation becomes more desperate. Unicef says it plans on providing a month's supply of water treatment chemicals for the capital Harare where water supply has been cut off because the government of Robert Mugabe is unable to buy chemicals needed to clean tap water. With the world's eyes on Zimbabwe where it is estimated that more than 500 people have already died , many myths and misconceptions abound about cholera. CNN compiles some crucial cholera facts: . --Unlike other diarrhoeal diseases, cholera can kill a healthy adult within hours. --Cholera's short incubation period of two hours to five days enhances the potential for increased outbreaks . --Seventy-five percent of people infected with cholera do not exhibit any symptoms. --A total of 236 896 cases were reported in 2006, an overall increase of 79% compared with the number of cases reported in 2005 . --People who have HIV or are malnourished have a greater risk of dying from cholera than others. --The disease is mostly spread through contaminated water and food supplies. --The belief that cholera epidemics are caused by dead bodies after a disaster is false. --Cholera remains a problem in almost every developing country . --If untreated, as many as one in two people may die. --The true burden of the disease is grossly underestimated as not all cases are reported. Source: World Health Organization .","highlights":"Cholera is a disease that affects the bowels and untreated .\nMalnourished and HIV-infected people are at a high risk for death if infected .\nCholera is transmitted through contaminated water and food supplies .","id":"e0b56eeb9daba3c14b4728b9edbdd50be12f2794"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chief executives of Ford and GM joined their Chrysler counterpart Tuesday in agreeing to accept salaries of $1 a year if Congress comes through with a bailout for the automakers. Alan Mulally, chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., has reversed course and will accept a salary of $1 a year. The statements came as the Big Three automakers turned in financial plans to Congress, hoping to bolster their requests for $25 billion in bridge loans. GM spokesman Steve Harris said CEO Rick Wagoner had agreed to accept a $1 salary. Harris didn't elaborate. Ford Motor Company said the salary of its CEO, Alan Mulally, would be cut to $1 a year if Ford actually borrowed money from the government. When Mulally appeared before the House Financial Services Committee last month, he said he would not agree to a pay cut. In his previous appearance before Congress, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli said he would accept a $1-per-year salary if it helped Chrysler obtain its share of the rescue package. GM plans to display some of its new high-tech cars on Capitol Hill this week, a GM source told CNN. About two weeks ago, congressional Democrats ordered executives of the three automakers to show that they have viable financial turnaround plans when they return later this week to Capitol Hill. Watch why the Big Three are not all in same situation \u00bb . Ford released details of its turnaround plan in a written statement Tuesday. The automaker said that, based on current business planning assumptions, it expects its overall and its North American automotive business pre-tax results to break even or be profitable in 2011. The company also released initial details of an accelerated vehicle electrification plan for a family of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles. The plan includes a Ford full-battery electric vehicle (BEV) in a van for commercial fleet use in 2010 and a BEV sedan in 2011, the statement said. Ford said it plans to invest about $14 billion in the United States on advanced technologies and products to improve fuel efficiency during the next seven years. It also said it will sell its corporate aircraft as part of its cash-improvement plan. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he would not support a bailout package unless the companies could prove that they would be viable after the bailout. Reid did not commit to holding a vote on the bailout package. \"No one is too big to fail,\" Reid said. \"We hope we can work something out with them.\" One of Reid's aides said the senator had not read the Ford plan yet because he was involved in back-to-back meetings. GM, Ford, and Chrysler already have made sizable cuts in production and staffing throughout the year, with additional cuts expected in the next few months. Their plans were being submitted to the Democratic chairmen of the committees that will hear the automakers' requests -- Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, whose Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee convenes Thursday, and Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, whose House Financial Services Committee meets Friday. Lawmakers asked the automakers to describe how they will restructure their businesses to become more competitive. In general, the automakers have been asked to describe how much money they have, and how much they need to stay viable in the long term. Their plans also must address how the companies will meet health care and pension obligations to workers. After being criticized during their last trip for arriving in Washington in corporate jets, Mulally and Wagoner are driving to the nation's capital in hybrid cars -- Mulally in a Ford Escape and Wagoner in a Chevrolet Malibu. A Ford executive told CNN the company's plan, 20 to 30 pages long, was being e-mailed to Congress. He said the plan put a heavy emphasis on advanced technologies. Ford is worried, however, that even after doing a \"bang-up job\" on its report, the company may not receive what it needs, the executive said. The atmosphere in Congress was tense before Thanksgiving, he said, adding that he feels \"automakers have become the whipping boy\" for the industry bailout. Automakers are counting on a rebound in demand by 2010. But that could turn out to be unrealistic because of an \"auto bubble\" the Big Three helped to create during the past few years. Cheap financing, easy credit conditions and attractive pricing on cars due to overcapacity in the U.S. auto market caused record sales earlier this decade. Experts agree those three conditions are going to be missing for years to come, and sales will be weaker than normal at least through 2011 or 2012. CNN's Ted Barrett and Kate Bolduan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"No one is too big to fail,\" top Senate Democrat says .\nAll of the Big Three automaker CEOs say they'll accept salaries of $1 a year .\nAuto execs return to Capitol Hill this week to offer plans for turnaround .\nExecutives driving to Washington from Detroit in hybrid vehicles .","id":"ee318c3884f490ca7ab361261f8a58ef6d2e9a5c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The uncertainty of the economy is making almost everyone nervous about money. Some are wondering what will happen to their homes while others are terrified about never getting out of debt. Ali Velshi responds to CNN viewers' questions about personal finance on \"The Help Line with Ali Velshi.\" CNN's Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi answers viewers' money questions on \"The Help Line with Ali Velshi.\" The following is an edited version of the program. Linda in Kentucky: We have two different adjustable rate mortgages on our house and we're starting to get threatening letters about the smaller mortgage. Can the smaller mortgage start foreclosure procedures before the larger one? Ali Velshi: The first mortgage is the first lien against your house. They can actually start foreclosure procedures on the smaller mortgage but it's not typical because the first mortgage holder is going to want to protect its assets. E-mail your own questions to Ali . If you're getting threatening letters, the first thing you need to do is be in constant contact with them. Letters that don't get responded to escalate and once they've started foreclosure procedures it's much harder to get out of it. Judy in Warren, Michigan: I am trying to pay off my four credit cards and I want to totally shut down the three of them that [charge] annual fees. ... What will this do to my credit rating? Velshi: If you close a credit card account, you need to make it clear on your credit report -- you may have to write a letter to them -- that it was closed by you, not that it was closed by someone else. A closed credit card account, particularly when you have a lot of debt, could look like somebody closed it on you and that could be read incorrectly. Typically, if you've closed a credit card account and you've paid off that balance, your amount of available credit has reduced. This means that the amount that you actually owe could be larger in proportion to the amount of your available credit and that could hurt your credit score. The bottom line is you can eliminate the balances on those credit cards if you have the discipline not to spend. This keeps your available credit there and doesn't hurt your credit score. But some people need to literally cut up that card and have the account closed so they don't run up balances on it. It's better to pay off your credit card debt regardless of what you're planning to do with the credit card. Terae in North Carolina: My wife and I are thinking about taking advantage of the economy and investing in a property. I'm a risk-taker and want to buy two properties but my wife doesn't want to buy any. We don't have any debt, so should we take advantage of this opportunity or do something more conservative? Velshi: You're in a great situation. Properties tend to be a good investment over time. It kind of depends on where you're buying and what kind of property. But you have to be prepared to handle the nuances of owning a property: the upkeep it's going to take and the fact that you could sit around without renting it for some time. Watch Ali Velshi talk about money \u00bb . I'm not sure I'm a big fan of money being invested in something that's not getting you some returns. I don't see the point of buying a property and keeping it vacant unless you absolutely know it's going to skyrocket in value -- and remember what happened the last few years with people who absolutely knew it was going to skyrocket in value. I would read a good book on it. Buying a property is a good option but there are many other forms of investments that will satisfy your need for risk and perhaps make your wife feel less exposed.","highlights":"Velshi: If your mortgage holder sends threatening letters, stay in contact with them .\nNot using credit card accounts may benefit your credit score more than closing them .\nBuying property is a good option but other investments may be less risky, he says .","id":"bf19007ab095559783d69d08a5cfbe936a18cf6d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspect in the death of a 20-year-old pregnant Marine will be returned to North Carolina to face charges in her slaying, a Mexican judge ruled Thursday, according to North Carolina authorities. U.S. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean was arrested in Mexico in April. U.S. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, 21, who was arrested in Mexico in April, could be returned to Onslow County, North Carolina, within a week, the county sheriff's office said in a statement issued Thursday. Federal authorities will handle his transportation to the North Carolina jail. Laurean has been indicted on first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. Her charred body and that of her fetus were found beneath a fire pit in Laurean's backyard near Camp Lejeune, where both were stationed, in January, a month after she was last seen. Prosecutors allege that Laurean killed Lauterbach on December 14 and used her ATM card 10 days later before fleeing to Mexico to avoid prosecution. Laurean was arrested in April in San Juan Vina, in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Because he holds citizenship in the United States and Mexico, he could not be immediately deported and had to go through the extradition process, authorities said. Asked by a Mexican reporter at the time of his arrest whether he killed Lauterbach, Laurean said, \"I loved her.\" As part of the effort to apprehend Laurean, authorities seized a computer belonging to his sister-in-law that Laurean's wife, Christina, was using to communicate with him, a law enforcement official had said. If convicted, Onslow County prosecutors said, Laurean would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Mexico's extradition policy prohibits U.S. authorities from seeking the death penalty against fugitives it hands over. Authorities found Lauterbach's body after Christina Laurean produced a note her husband had written claiming that the 20-year-old woman slit her own throat during an argument, according to officials. Although a gaping 4-inch wound was found on the left side of Lauterbach's neck, autopsy results indicate that the wound itself would not have been fatal. Prosecutors have said there was no evidence that Christina Laurean was involved in or aware of Lauterbach's slaying before she gave the note to authorities. Lauterbach had accused Laurean of raping her, and it is unclear whether he was the father of her fetus, although her relatives have said they believe him to be. He had denied the rape allegation and said he had had no sexual contact with her. Mary Lauterbach, the young woman's mother, has said she's unconvinced that the Marine Corps took her daughter's rape allegation and other allegations of \"harassment\" seriously. Her daughter's car was keyed, she said, and she was assaulted. \"Those particular actions should have been taken much more seriously because the Marines were aware of them,\" she said Friday. In a statement issued after her death, the Marine Corps said Laurean's denial \"was believed to be significant evidence.\"","highlights":"Cpl. Cesar Laurean is suspected in death of pregnant Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach .\nLaurean was arrested in Mexico in April .\nHe could be back in North Carolina within a week, sheriff's office said .\nLaurean said Lauterbach slit her own throat after an argument .","id":"b952860ec43f9604c6ab3240b0749494d49a486f"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The world knows her as the daring nanny who, clutching a 2-year-old boy, pushed past the havoc in a terrorized Mumbai and risked her life to keep the toddler safe. Sandra Samuel bravely saved the life of Moshe Holtzberg, 2, but says she sees no heroism in her actions. But Sandra Samuel sees no heroism in her actions amid last week's terror attacks on India's financial capital that killed nearly 180 people -- including baby Moshe's parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. She only wishes she could have done more. \"Even today, I am thinking I should have sent the baby and done something for the rabbi and his wife,\" Samuel told CNN in an exclusive television interview in Israel, where she now lives. Samuel and Moshe were among the few to make it out of the Chabad House alive after gunmen stormed the Jewish center, killing the Holtzbergs and four others. Israel's Chabad movement has set up a fund to provide for Moshe's care. He is being looked after by members of the community, although who will serve as his guardian has not yet been established. The nanny says she came face to face with a gunman late Wednesday, the first night of the siege. \"I saw one man was shooting at me -- he shot at me.\" Watch CNN's Paula Hancocks talk with Samuel \u00bb . She slammed a door and hid in a first-floor storage room and attempted to reach the rabbi and the others on the second floor. Overnight, Samuel frantically tried to call for help as gunfire and grenade blasts shook the Chabad House. Samuel says she emerged early the next afternoon, when she heard Moshe calling for her. She found the child crying as he stood between his parents, who she says appeared unconscious but still alive. Based on the marks on Moshe's back, she believes he was struck so hard by a gunman that he fell unconscious at some point as well. \"First thing is that a baby is very important for me and this baby is something very precious to me and that's what made me just not think anything -- just pick up the baby and run,\" Samuel said. \"When I hear gunshot, it's not one or 20. It's like a hundred gunshots,\" she added. \"Even I'm a mother of two children so I just pick up the baby and run. Does anyone think of dying at the moment when there's a small, precious baby?\" Watch Samuel describe the escape \u00bb . Outside, chaos flooded the streets as people tried to make sense of the massacre that killed at least 179 people and wounded 300 others. Ultimately, she and Moshe reached safety at the home of an Israeli consul before arriving in Israel, where she is considered a hero. In the aftermath of the attacks, Moshe asked for his mother continuously, Samuel says, and he is learning to play again -- though he likes the nanny close by. And while she still has nightmares of the horrific siege that took hold of Mumbai, Samuel, a non-Jew and native of India, said she will stay in Israel for as long as Moshe needs her. Watch as Samuel describes boy asking for his mother \u00bb . \"Yes, yes, they said it is important I am here,\" she said. \"Me, I just take care of the baby.\"","highlights":"Sandra Samuel, who saved toddler's life, sees no heroism in her actions .\nWhy she faced gunfire: \"This baby is something very precious to me\"\nSamuel: \"When I hear gunshot, it's not one or 20. It's like a hundred gunshots\"\nFor now, she will stay in Israel helping take care of orphan toddler that she saved .","id":"2f422a72066f7f7060d68852093fdb6abeee958c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that Canada's governor general has allowed him to suspend Parliament, postponing a no-confidence vote from his opponents that he was likely to lose. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Parliament will resume on January 26. Harper called on his opponents to work with his government on measures to aid the nation's economy when Parliament returns on January 26. \"The first order of business will be the presentation of a federal budget,\" Harper told reporters outside the governor general's residence in Ottawa, Canada. \"Those who were elected here to serve the interest of Canada as a whole should work together -- at least to some degree -- on planning an economic plan for Canada.\" Had Governor General Michaelle Jean -- who represents Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state -- denied Harper's request, Monday's vote would have likely brought down Harper's government, less than two months after his Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections. The Liberal Party and the leftist New Democratic Party announced plans earlier this week to form a governing coalition with the support of the Bloc Quebecois, which supports independence for French-speaking Quebec. Liberal Party Leader Stephane Dion, the man who would fill Harper's role under the planned coalition, said the coalition would look to replace Harper unless he makes \"monumental change.\" \"For the first time in the history of Canada, the prime minister of Canada is running away from the parliament of Canada,\" said Dion, accusing the premier of placing \"partisan politics ahead of the interest of all Canadians.\" New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton said Harper had used a \"maneuver to escape accountability.\" \"He refuses to face the people of Canada through their elected representatives,\" he said. \"The prime minister is choosing to protect his own job rather than focusing on the jobs of Canadians who are being thrown out of work today.\" The news comes one day after Harper appealed directly to Canadians for support, vowing in a nationally televised address on the economy to halt his opponents, whom he accused of imposing their own agenda on the Canadian people. \"Unfortunately, even before the government has brought forward its budget, and only seven weeks after a general election, the opposition wants to overturn the results of that election,\" said the prime minister, whose Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections on October 14. iReport.com: Outrage brewing in Canada . Harper rejected the idea of a \"power-sharing coalition with a separatist party,\" referring to the Bloc Quebecois, and insisted the country must stand together. \"At a time of global economic instability, Canada's government must stand unequivocally for keeping the country together. At a time like this, a coalition with the separatists cannot help Canada,\" he said Wednesday. \"The opposition is attempting to impose this deal without your say, without your consent, and without your vote. This is no time for backroom deals with the separatists; it is the time for Canada's government to focus on the economy and specifically on measures for the upcoming budget. This is a pivotal moment in our history,\" he said. Harper, 49, has served as prime minister since February 2006.","highlights":"NEW: Opposition accuses PM Harper of putting his job ahead of Canada's interests .\nMove postpones opposition parties' plan for no-confidence vote next week .\nLiberal and New Democratic parties join with Bloc Quebecois to try to unseat Tories .\nVote likely would have brought down Canada's Conservative government .","id":"55b23283d54672a6eaba2cf38f1f7dffdfaf3203"} -{"article":"MAMMOTH LAKES, California (CNN) -- A small amount of human remains has been found in the wreckage of the plane that adventurer Steve Fossett was flying when he disappeared last year, a National Transportation Safety Board official said Thursday. The wreckage of adventurer Steve Fossett's plane was found in California's Sierra Nevada on Thursday. A search team that was examining the wreckage, which was found Wednesday at an altitude of about 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes, found \"very little\" remains among the debris, acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said. Asked whether the remains were enough for an identification, Rosenker said, \"I believe the coroner will be able to do some work.\" Earlier Thursday, Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said the single-engine Bellanca appeared to have crashed into the side of a mountain in the Sierra Nevada in eastern California, and the damage was \"so severe I doubt someone would've walked away from it.\" See a map of the crash site \u00bb . Fossett was last seen the morning of September 3, 2007, when he took off from the Flying-M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada, on what he said would be a pleasure flight over the Sierra Nevada. Watch how searchers located the wreckage \u00bb . Investigators homed in on the area near Mammoth Lakes on Wednesday after hikers there found a sweatshirt, cash and identification cards with Fossett's name. The hikers did not find any wreckage; an aerial search discovered the airplane parts about a quarter-mile away, Anderson said. Ground crews confirmed Wednesday night that the wreckage was Fossett's plane. The sheriff said authorities were not certain whether the cash and sweatshirt belonged to Fossett. The engine was about 300 feet higher on the mountain than the fuselage and the wings, Anderson said. An NTSB team arrived Thursday to investigate the crash. Rosenker said investigators, based on examinations of the debris, believe that the plane struck the mountain horizontally but not necessarily head-on. It may take \"weeks, perhaps months to have a better understanding of what happened on that mountain that day,\" he said. Watch NTSB say crash was \"nonsurvivable\" \u00bb . Fossett's disappearance prompted a search that ultimately included thousands of volunteers, hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft poring over an area more than twice the size of New Jersey. The search was officially suspended a year ago Friday, and a Chicago probate court judge declared Fossett dead in February. Fossett made his money in the financial services industry but became renowned for his daredevil exploits. He was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon, accomplishing the feat in 2002, and the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling, which he did three years later. He also set world records in round-the-world sailing and cross-country skiing. Browse a list of his achievements on land, sea and air \u00bb . CNN's Chuck Afflerbach contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: NTSB says \"very little\" remains found in wreckage .\nNTSB: It could take \"weeks, perhaps months\" to determine cause of crash .\nSheriff says crash appears so severe that finding survivors is unlikely .\nFossett survived round-the-world adventures but vanished on pleasure flight .","id":"4bbd5cbefff3807c865ca18b9042ee1dab3837db"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Formula One has seen a number of last-race world championship deciders down the years. Michael Schumacher (left) and Damon Hill collided at the last race of 1994, with the German taking the title. Here, The Circuit looks at four of the most memorable of the last 15 years. Drivers in capitals won the title. 1994 (Australian Grand Prix, Adelaide) MICHAEL SCHUMACHER v Damon Hill . Even without a last-race showdown, the 1994 season had been dramatic enough. The legendary Ayrton Senna had become the second fatality in two days at the San Marino Grand Prix after 12 years without a death in F1. See images of the best title showdowns. \u00bb . Schumacher started the season strongly in a Benetton that had its legality questioned by a dubious paddock and media, and by mid-season he was 27 points clear of Hill. But Hill clawed his way back into the title hunt, helped by Schumacher's two-race ban for ignoring a black flag at the British Grand Prix. Come the decider in Australia, the momentum was with Hill and the deficit was down to one point. Schumacher looked rattled all weekend and after being hounded by the Englishman from the off, he crashed into a wall midway through the race. Crawling back onto the track, Schumacher veered one way and Hill the other as they approached the next right-hander, only for the German to swipe across the Williams' bows, ride up over Hill's front wheel and into retirement. Read more about F1 at The Circuit. Hill would have become world champion if he could have kept going but suspension damage ended his race and his title challenge. Schumacher, at 25, became one of F1's youngest and most controversial champions. 1997 (European Grand Prix, Jerez) JACQUES VILLENEUVE v Michael Schumacher . Three years on from Adelaide, those who had given Schumacher the benefit of the doubt were left to reassess their opinions of the German. Villeneuve's Williams was the class of the 1997 field but mistakes had blighted his campaign and Schumacher's brilliance had put him ahead by one point by the last race in Jerez, Spain. Vaulting poleman Villeneuve at the lights, Schumacher raced into a lead few thought he would lose. But after the last round of pitstops, the Ferrari's tires were not working as well and Villeneuve closed in. Heading down the back straight, the French-Canadian dived up the inside into the following hairpin corner, surprising Schumacher, who turned into the corner and into the side of the Williams. Schumacher slid off into the gravel and retirement while Villeneuve, his car damaged from the collision, hobbled on to finish third and take the title by three points. A vilified Schumacher was later stripped of his second place in the championship for his desperate maneuver. 1998 (Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka) MIKA HAKKINEN v Michael Schumacher . An intriguing season, the first with grooved tires and narrow-track cars, had seen Hakkinen surge into an early season lead with a lightning-quick, if somewhat fragile McLaren. But Schumacher's Ferrari benefited from Goodyear's incessant tire development and by mid-season the never-say-die German was back in the title hunt. Going to the season-closer in Japan, Schumacher had to make up four points on Hakkinen, who had edged the previous race at the Nurgburgring. Schumacher had claimed pole at Suzuka, just ahead of Hakkinen, but stalled on the grid, further adding to his reputation of fumbling pressure-cooker situations. Starting from the back at the restart, he sliced his way up to third and was keeping his fingers crossed for a problem for the race-leading Finn. But a puncture on lap 31 ended his title hopes. An ice-cool Hakkinen was not headed throughout and could coast to his first drivers' world championship. 2007 (Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos) KIMI RAIKKONEN v Lewis Hamilton v Fernando Alonso . It had been a remarkable debut season for McLaren's Hamilton, with him often outpacing double world champion team-mate Alonso. But after a slow start, Ferrari's Raikkonen had begun to look menacing as the season progressed. F1's first three-way title decider since 1986 saw Hamilton start the last race in Brazil with a four-point advantage over Alonso and seven over Raikkonen. Felipe Massa's Ferrari took pole with Hamilton alongside, but the Englishman was slow away and by turn three he was behind Raikkonen and Alonso. Rashly, Hamilton attempted to re-pass Alonso, ran wide and dropped down the order. Soon after, he suffered gearbox problems that cost him 30 seconds -- effectively scuppering his chances of becoming F1's first rookie champion. Out front, Massa slowed to allow Raikkonen past for the win he needed to become champion by one point from seventh-placed Hamilton and Alonso, who trailed home a distant third.","highlights":"F1 has seen some memorable title deciders at the final race of the season .\nMichael Schumacher involved in two controversial collisions, in 1994 and 1997 .\nLast year's championship was the first three-way title fight since 1986 .","id":"0e906ee9c2c6f28be945c6175a8e17be006582fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Strange things seem to happen when Grant Wilson enters a room. Grant Wilson, left, and partner Jason Hawes were driven by personal experiences to track ghosts. Human forms materialize in darkened hallways. The dead whisper greetings from beyond the grave. Unseen entities attack and hurl terrified people to the ground. Every day is Halloween for Wilson, co-star of the Sci Fi Channel's hit show, \"Ghost Hunters.\" Close encounters of the paranormal kind would drive most people to look for another hobby, but Wilson says he ain't afraid of no ghosts. \"That's part of the job,\" says Wilson, who investigates suspected hauntings with his co-host, Jason Hawes.. \"We tell everyone that we train that you'll be punched, slapped and grabbed. Be prepared for it.\" Anyone who has watched their 401(k) account evaporate during the recent stock market dive knows something about horror. But Wilson is part of a growing community that prefers getting their chills the old-fashioned way. They are ghost hunters, or, as they prefer to be called, paranormal investigators. \"Ghost-Hunters,\" which airs a special live show at 7 p.m. Halloween night, is helping lift the stigma once attached to paranormal investigators. The show has become so popular that the group featured in each episode -- The Atlantic Paranormal Society - has spawned imitators across the United States and affiliates in 12 countries. TAPS, as the \"Ghost Hunters\" group is informally known, even has its own \"Beyond Reality Radio\" show, magazine, lecture tours, T-shirts --and groupies. \"Ghost Hunters\" has made creepy cool, says David Schrader, a paranormal investigator and co-host of \"Darkness Radio,\" a radio show that investigates paranormal activity. \"Five or six years ago, you'd be embarrassed to sit around the water cooler talking about ghosts, but now everybody talks about it -- it's gone mainstream,\" Schrader says. It's also gone Hollywood. Paranormal shows like \"Paranormal State\" on A&E Television; \"Haunting Evidence\" on truTV (which, like CNN.com, is owned by Time Warner); \"Dead Famous\" on the Biography Channel; and \"A Haunting\" on the Discovery Channel are trying to mimic the success of \"Ghost Hunters.\" Paranormal investigators aren't just chasing ghosts anymore; they're chasing television gigs, Schrader says. \"Everybody I know has a pilot in development -- including me,\" Schrader says. \"They throw it around like Frisbees. It's become a joke.\" The paranormal shows have also created a paranormal circuit. Families and friends attend ghost-hunting conventions, retreats (one was dubbed \"GhoStock,\") swap tips on ghost-hunting gear and make pilgrimages to famous haunted places like The Stanley Hotel in Colorado, the setting for the Stephen King movie, \"The Shining.\" I hear dead people. \u00bb . Why they chase ghosts . Many of these amateur paranormal investigators are inspired -- and freaked out - by what they see on \"Ghost Hunters.\" Some of the incidents recorded by \"Ghost Hunters\" are mystifying: Ghostly forms appear on camera, chairs lurch across rooms by themselves and voices of people long dead are played back to their wide-eyed relatives. In one of the most famous \"Ghost Hunters\" episodes, a cameraman is grabbed and hurled to the ground --though no one appears to touch him. The cameraman is so shaken that he sobs and quits the show. Wilson says people who think they have a ghost at home should not try a do-it-yourself home ghost repair. A person who uses Ouija boards or anything else to contact ghosts can unleash malevolent spirits. \"You might not be ready for what happens,\" Wilson says. Watch Grant's encounter with a ghost \u00bb . Some ghost-hunters say they entered the field because, like Wilson, they had personal experiences with the supernatural. Others want to know if there is something beyond death. Others like Marley Gibson, an author and paranormal investigator says they're more scared by current events. \"We're living in a world where we're fighting two wars, we've got poverty, homelessness, people not having health care and a job -- people want escapism,\" says Gibson, author of \"Ghost Huntress: The Awakening\" a forthcoming book that follows the exploits of a 16-year-old girl who forms a paranormal research team. Ask ghost hunters if they get scared and many give the same reply -- I don't do scared, just startled. Gibson says many ghost-hunters go into investigations armed with strong spiritual beliefs. \"I've never met such spiritually-grounded, religious, God-fearing people as I have in the paranormal community,\" she says. 'I felt a ... very large finger or a paw poke me in the back' Sometimes paranormal investigators, though, admit they experience what Schrader, the Darkness Radio co-host calls, \"Oh [bleep]' moments.\" Schrader had one last December, when he apparently took his job home with him one evening. He visited his ex-wife and children after coming back from a ghost-hunting retreat and decided to spend the night in the basement. Around three in the morning, he says, he heard his then one-year-old daughter screaming. He ran upstairs to hear her say that a shadow was watching her in her room. He comforted his daughter and returned to sleep downstairs. His wife then called him an hour later on his cell phone from her bedroom and whispered: \"Get up in my room. There's something here and I can see it.\" Nothing was there but Schrader says some spirits had apparently thought it was OK to pay a visit to his family. He says people who are open to the existence of ghosts sometimes become \"beacons\" that attract spirits. Schrader decided to solve the problem by calling for a supernatural version of pest-control. He blessed the house with holy water and called in two \"demonologist\" to cleanse the house. No more ghosts. Patrick Burns, a paranormal investigator and co-host of \"Haunting Evidence,\" had one of his teeth-chattering moments when there was no one around to call. He says he was working on a documentary on ghosts from his home computer one night when he felt something touch him. \"I felt a very pronounced poke with a very large finger, or possibly a paw, just above my beltline on the back,\" he says. Now the average person might have taken that as a cue to run from the room. But Burns is a professional, and besides, he has his own paranormal television show. He shrugged and kept working. Then, he says, he felt the room temperature drop. Cold spots are often associated with hauntings, but Burns kept working because, as he said later: \"No way is my house is haunted.\" Finally, he heard a thud that sounded like a body slammed against the wall. The impact is so hard that it shook the house, he says. \"I throw off my headphones and say, 'Okay you have my attention now,' \"Burns says. \"After that, nothing else happened. It just wanted me to acknowledge that it was there.\" Sometimes encounters with the living can be just as strange as their encounters with the paranormal, ghost hunters say. Wilson, the \"Ghost Hunters\" co-host, says he's more leery of people than ghosts. Paranormal investigators like him and Burns are now so famous that they have adoring fans. Wilson is a Roto-Rooter plumber by day, but he had to stop answering residential calls because too many people were breaking their toilets just to meet him Hawes, his ghost hunting\/plumbing partner. Though Wilson says he's never been scared by a ghost, he still sounds shaken by one encounter. He says he once met an entity that displayed a personal interest in him. She appeared in front of him, displayed a tattoo of his face stenciled on her leg, and asked him what he thought. The \"entity\" was a fan Wilson met during a public appearance. \"That,\" Wilson admits, \"was a little scary.\"","highlights":"Sci Fi Channel ghost hunter says ghosts can get pushy .\n\"Ghost Hunters\" inspires others to delve into the paranormal .\nWork follows them to their homes, ghost hunters say .\nGhost hunter: \"I felt a very large finger or paw poke me\"","id":"6ccc90832425c1590001a0fa8ef77e42f5516b02"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With a week to go before Election Day, most recent national polls show Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with an advantage. But how much are they to be believed? As Election Day gets closer, will the race tighten in the polls? The most recent national CNN poll of polls showed Obama with an 8-point lead over Republican presidential nominee John McCain, 51 percent to 43 percent. The polls were conducted October 21 through October 26. Most other national polls show Obama with a lead ranging between 5 points and double digits. A look at CNN polling during the same period before Election Day in 2000 and 2004 suggests that political observers and campaign supporters ought to be cautious in declaring the race over because of current polling numbers. See the latest state and national polls . When a presidential race has a non-incumbent in the lead, like this year, the poll numbers tend to tighten as Election Day gets closer, CNN senior researcher Alan Silverleib said. \"Any time it looks like they are on the verge of voting somebody new into office, there is buyer's remorse,\" he said. \"Based on that, and the fact that the country has been so polarized in recent elections, there's pretty good reason to think that the polls might tighten up a little bit.\" Four years ago, a national CNN poll of polls released about a week before Election Day showed President Bush leading Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry by 3 points, 49 percent to 46 percent. The poll was released October 25 and reflected likely voters' choice for president. Election Day was November 2 in 2004. A national CNN poll of polls released November 1 showed Bush leading Kerry by 2 points, 48 percent to 46 percent. President Bush won by 3 percentage points, 51 percent to 48 percent. In 2000, it was a bit of a different story. Election Day arrived November 7 that year. A CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup tracking poll conducted October 29 through October 31 showed Bush, then the Texas governor, leading Democratic Sen. Al Gore, 48 percent to 43 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. A subsequent poll conducted November 2 through November 4, released two days before the voters cast their ballots, showed the same results. Gore, however, ended up winning the popular vote by about 540,000 votes. When broken down by percentage, both candidates had about 48 percent of the popular vote. Bush won the Electoral College, and thereby the presidency, by 5 electoral votes. Two of the battleground states this year, as in many recent presidential elections, are Ohio and Florida. What did the polls say before Election Day in those states four years ago? In Florida, a CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup poll conducted about a week before Election Day showed Bush leading Kerry 51 percent to 43 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points and was conducted October 21 through October 24. Kerry caught up to Bush in the polls before Election Day and led by a single point, 48 percent to 47 percent, in a similar poll conducted October 28 through October 31. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Bush won Florida by 5 percentage points in 2004. In Ohio four years ago, a CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup poll showed Kerry leading Bush by a point -- 49 percent to 48 percent -- about two weeks before Election Day. The poll was conducted October 17 through October 20 and had margin of error of plus or minus 4 points. A week before November 7, Election Day, a similar poll showed Kerry leading Bush 50 percent to 46 percent. The poll was conducted October 28 through October 31, and the margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. Bush won Ohio by 2 points in 2004, 51 percent to 49 percent. Obama leads McCain in recent CNN poll of polls conducted in both states. In Florida, he leads McCain 49 percent to 45 percent. The polls were conducted October 23 through October 26. In Ohio, Obama has an 8-point lead over McCain, 50 percent to 42 percent. The polls were conducted October 22 through October 27. 'Buyer's remorse' in recent history . There have been a few examples of such \"buyer's remorse\" in recent history, Silverleib said. \"We saw that with [Arkansas Gov. Bill] Clinton in 1992, when the polls suddenly tightened up during the last week,\" he said. \"It was almost like people saying, 'Do we really want this guy?' \" They did. Clinton soundly defeated President George H.W. Bush, 43 percent to 37 percent. In another example, polls tightened during the 1968 presidential race between Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat Hubert Humphrey. Nixon led by double digits among registered voters in late September, according to a Gallup analysis published Monday. The lead dwindled to 8 points in a poll conducted October 17 through October 22. By early November, Nixon was clinging to a 1-point lead. The poll was conducted October 29 through November 1 and surveyed likely voters, according to Gallup. Nixon won by less than 1 percentage point. \"Humphrey had all the momentum at the end, and there's an open question there that had that election gone on for another week, Humphrey might very well had won,\" Silverleib said. There is then the oft-cited example of Thomas Dewey and Harry Truman in 1948. Polls predicted that Dewey would win, but Truman pulled off the upset. Silverleib, however, is reluctant to cite that race as illustrative of the accuracy of contemporary polls. \"People talk about Dewey and Truman, but they stopped polling a couple of weeks before the election,\" he said, adding, \"polling then wasn't nearly as refined a science as it is now.\" However, in what might be a bit of sobering news for the McCain campaign, since 1956, front-runners in late October lost the popular vote only twice after being ahead in the Gallup poll a week before Election Day, according to that polling organization's analysis. Obama held a lead in both of Gallup's likely voter tracking polls released Tuesday.","highlights":"Obama leads by 8 points in most recent CNN national poll of polls .\nPolls tend to tighten up as Election Day nears when a non-incumbent leads .\nElection Tracker: See the latest state and national polls .","id":"c24025591e20b5d21062d1a1ec8fbf4686b963b7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As Washington gears up for January's presidential inauguration with high-priced tickets to fancy affairs, one businessman is making sure that some of the less fortunate will have a chance to share in the festivities. Earl Stafford is a Virginia businessman helping the disadvantaged see the inauguration. Virginia businessman Earl Stafford has spent $1 million to give hundreds of poverty-stricken and terminally ill Americans, along with wounded men and women in uniform, an inauguration experience that won't cost them anything. The zero-dollar price tag is even more shocking, considering that tickets to the inaugural events are going for hundreds of dollars, the city's remaining hotel rooms are edging into four-figure territory, and even basements and couches miles from the National Mall are going for a premium on Craigslist. Tickets for the inauguration are distributed through members of Congress, and just 240,000 seats are available for the swearing-in ceremony. The tickets are supposed to be free, but with demand outpacing supply, some people have been trying to scalp tickets for thousands of dollars. Stafford's event is one of the splashiest inauguration packages out there. It includes high-end hotel rooms and luxury suites, food and drinks, a heated viewing spot right above the parade route, even gowns and tuxedos to wear to celebratory balls and a beautician to help attendees get ready. Hours after the election, Stafford, a 60-year-old businessman and son of a Baptist minister, invested in what the JW Marriott billed as its $1 million \"build-your-own-ball\" inaugural hotel package. His family's nonprofit foundation, the Stafford Foundation, is footing the bill for what it is calling the People's Inaugural Project, but it is also hoping to get money from sponsors. Stafford said Thursday that he hopes the balcony terrace is filled \"with those who are disadvantaged, those who are distressed, mingling with those who aren't so. And we hope to see on their faces a sense of excitement.\" \"I was inspired to do this by the Lord. ... It's not about us but about us helping other people,\" he said. At least third of the tickets to the event will go toward people who are needy or underprivileged, and the rest of those participating could be people from sponsoring foundations, companies or volunteers. Everything, he said, will be taken care of: transportation, evening gowns and tuxedos for the ball. He hopes that providing a front row seat to history will inspire those invited to do good things in their communities. Stafford said he began thinking about the project in March. He voted for Barack Obama, and records show he contributed $4,600 to the Democrat's campaign, according to the Washington Post. Stafford, a retired Air Force officer, noted that he does not agree with all of Obama's positions. But, he told the paper, he decided the inauguration would be \"a transition in history, if you will ... and everyone should be included.\" CNN's Samantha Hayes and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report.","highlights":"Earl Stafford paid $1 million so needy could see inauguration .\nPackages for some inaugural events going for hundreds of dollars .\nStafford said his effort was rooted in his faith, good fortune .\nPackage offered by JW Marriott billed as \"build-your-own-ball\"","id":"20fd8bd577028a57d12fa5097fbb5d93c8aaa795"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison in a deadly bank robbery plot -- described by the judge in the case as \"incredibly bizarre\" -- in which a pizza deliveryman died when a bomb affixed to his neck exploded. This device held a bomb to the neck of Brian Wells during a 2003 bank robbery in Erie, Pennsylvania. At the sentencing in Erie, Pennsylvania, prosecutors repeated their contention that the pizza deliveryman was involved in planning the robbery attempt but wore a live bomb only after being threatened by his co-conspirators. Kenneth Barnes, 55, of Erie, was sentenced Wednesday after he pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and using a destructive device during a crime of violence. Prosecutors said Barnes and three co-conspirators -- one of whom was pizza deliveryman Brian Wells -- planned to rob a PNC Bank on the outskirts of Erie, and Wells, 46, carried out the robbery on August 28, 2003. Authorities said Wells walked into the bank with a pipe bomb locked to his neck and passed a note demanding money to a teller. The robbery netted about $8,700. Wells died when the bomb exploded as he sat in a parking lot after being stopped by police shortly after the robbery. The case drew national attention and was the subject of intense investigation and questions about whether Wells was a willing participant or a murder victim. Prosecutors said after Barnes' sentencing that Wells was involved in planning the robbery but balked when he realized that the bomb he was supposed to wear was real. He was threatened with a gun to make him wear the bomb, according to prosecutors. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan called the sentence \"appropriate and just,\" and said the contentions of Wells' family that he was not involved in the plot are \"overwhelmingly\" countered by evidence of meetings with Wells, Barnes and the other two co-conspirators before the robbery. One of the alleged co-conspirators is now dead and the other one, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, is undergoing treatment at a federal facility in Texas after the judge in the case found her mentally incompetent to stand trial. Her case will be re-examined by the court next year, said Margaret Philbin, spokeswoman for Buchanan's office. In sentencing Barnes, U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin said, \"To me, the callousness and complete lack of regard for human life is, in a word, chilling. This case represents the unhappy combination of incredibly bizarre and sadly tragic.\"","highlights":"Pizza deliveryman died when bomb affixed to his neck exploded .\nProsecutors contend victim was in on plot but didn't count on live bomb .\nErie, Pennsylvania, judge calls case \"incredibly bizarre and sadly tragic\"","id":"73f1d1dbc4c54661b4a96c3bcb9e1683ed27bae3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Libya has paid $1.5 billion to the families of terrorism victims, overcoming the final obstacle to full relations with the United States, the State Department said Friday. Police officers survey the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. The payment ends Tripoli's legal liability in U.S. terror cases and paves the way for increased U.S. involvement in the oil-rich nation. President Bush signed an executive order Friday restoring Libyan immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits and dismissing pending cases over compensation as part of a deal reached this summer. David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, who negotiated the agreement, called Libya's rehabilitation from a terrorist nation to a U.S. ally \"historic.\" The pact closes the book on a contentious period in U.S.-Libyan relations, which began in the 1980s with a series of attacks involving the two countries, including the bombings of Pan Am flight 103, a German disco and U.S. airstrikes over Libya. U.S. business executives hope the new relationship will lead to billions of dollars of new investment in Libya, a country rich in petroleum reserves but lacking a developed infrastructure. This summer, the United States and Libya signed a deal for the State Department to create a $1.8 billion compensation fund to finalize the claims for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the 1986 bombing of La Belle disco in Berlin, Germany. It also compensates Libyan victims of U.S. airstrikes in the 1980s. Congress unanimously adopted the Libyan Claims Resolution Act, sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, which cleared the way to end the feud and created the victim compensation fund. Under the agreement, Libya pays more than $500 million to settle remaining claims from the Lockerbie case and more than $280 million for victims of the disco bombing. It will also set aside funds to compensate victims of several other incidents blamed on Libya, although Libya has not accepted responsibility. In exchange, Libya will now be exempt from legislation passed this year enabling terrorism victims to be compensated using frozen assets of governments blamed for attacks. Tripoli sought the protection to encourage U.S. companies to invest in Libya without fear of being sued by terrorism victims or their families. An initial payment of $300 million was received this month, after the opening of a U.S. trade office in Libya and a historic visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Another $600 million was received Thursday and the remaining $600 million Friday, Welch said, adding that the families could start receiving payments within days. The remaining $300 million will go to Libyan victims of the bombing in Libya by U.S. warplanes in 1986. Libyans say dozens of people died in the U.S. air attack, including an adopted daughter of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi. President Reagan ordered the attacks on Tripoli and Benghazi after two U.S. soldiers were killed and 79 Americans were injured in the 1986 Berlin disco bombing. The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. Of the dead, 259 people died on board the plane and another 11 on the ground. Libya has paid 268 families involved in the Pan Am bombing $8 million each of a $10 million settlement. But it withheld the remaining $2 million owed to each family over a dispute regarding U.S. obligations to Tripoli. A group of relatives of Pan Am victims said in a statement Friday that they applauded Libya's fulfillment of the agreement. \"The Pan Am 103 families deeply appreciate Sen. Lautenberg's work to urge the administration to take every step to bring the agreement to fruition,\" spokeswoman Kara Weipz said in the statement. \"While our loved ones will never be forgotten, we are glad this chapter in our efforts is finally over.\" Ties between the two countries began to improve in 2003, when Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction program and began compensating Lockerbie victims. But lingering lawsuits prevented the two countries from fully normalizing ties. The State Department has said the deal was pursued on a \"purely humanitarian basis and does not constitute an admission of fault by either party.\" Senior State Department officials said the formula was designed to respect Libyan sensitivities about compensating victims for incidents for which it hasn't taken responsibility and also allow Libya to settle outstanding claims for the air strikes on Tripoli. Donations to settle Libyan claims were placed in the \"voluntary\" fund, from which each country involved in the claims draws the money to pay its citizens. Welch would not say exactly where the money came from but stressed that no American taxpayer money would be used to compensate Libya. The deal is to be followed by an upgrading of U.S. relations with Libya, including the confirmation of a U.S. ambassador, which was held up until the payments were made. Lautenberg applauded the payment Friday. \"American victims and their families have waited decades for Libya to pay for its deadly acts of violence and today they have received long-overdue justice,\" he said in a statement. \"I am pleased that our relentless pressure and support for terror victims has led to this historic moment.\" Rice's visit in September, the first by a secretary of state since 1953, was hailed by both countries as a breakthrough. It followed months of negotiations between the two countries.","highlights":"Payment is part of multitiered plan to normalize relations between the two countries .\nTensions go back to attacks on Pan Am 103, German disco, U.S. airstrikes .\nLibya now exempt from legislation allowing victim compensation from frozen assets .\nDeal ends Libyan liability in terror cases, paves way for U.S. investment .","id":"3b2e95a96f67dc8311d1cf8f03165e85cb51b5ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Douglas Cootey is replacing his lightbulbs with brighter ones, but not just to see better. The new broad spectrum lights simulate sunlight, and might help enliven his mood in the gloomy winter months. A light box like the one shown here may help some people combat seasonal depression in winter. Cootey, a stay-at-home dad in Salt Lake City, Utah, has struggled with depression for 16 years and shares his story with others on his blog, The Splintered Mind. He said he started to notice last year that his depression was harder to manage in the winter. His challenge, he told CNN, is \"keeping a positive and upbeat attitude in the face of a chemical onslaught induced by winter.\" He realized that his symptoms fit those of seasonal affective disorder, a condition that typically generates depression during autumn and winter and then goes away in the sunnier months. In rarer cases, people can suffer from it only in summer. \"I set the clock back and look at this: I've been so unproductive,\" Cootey said. \"Now that I know what's going on, I'm trying to counteract it.' Between 4 and 6 percent of the U.S. population suffers from seasonal affective disorder, according to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, but 10 to 20 percent of the population may suffer from more mild winter doldrums. SAD is more common in women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, the Cleveland Clinic says. Some people may be genetically predisposed to SAD, but the environment can trigger it as well, said Ignacio Provencio, a biology professor at the University of Virginia. Learn about other mood disorders \u00bb . A recent study led by Provencio shows that a genetic mutation in the eye could play a role in seasonal affective disorder. The mutation makes a person with SAD less sensitive to light. The photopigment gene is called melanopsin, which helps detect colors. \"Being able to look at one's DNA and seeing that you're a carrier or contain two copies of this gene may be able to, in the future, allow one to predict whether or not they will be susceptible to this disease,\" Provencio said. The information may also help predict which people with seasonal affective disorder will respond to light therapy, because the mutated genes involve light sensitivity, he said. Light therapy works for some people, experts say, by mimicking outdoor light and promoting a biochemical change in the brain that improves mood. The researchers looked at 220 people, including 90 nondepressed people and 130 people diagnosed with the disorder. In this group, seven people with seasonal affective disorder had two mutated copies of the gene. The study results make sense to Dr. David Baron, chairman of Temple University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science in Philadelphia. The study is \"consistent with the literature on understanding genetics in vulnerability to illness,\" he said. But Stephen Josephson, associate professor at Cornell University Medical Center-New York Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said the study points to a correlation but does not constitute definitive proof. Although the specific causes of the disorder aren't known, some biological factors might contribute to it. Circadian rhythm, which helps regulate the body's internal clock, may be disrupted with the drop in sunlight in fall and winter, MayoClinic.com says. Other research indicates that the brain chemical serotonin and the sleep-related hormone melatonin may play a role, MayoClinic.com says. Although seasonal affective disorder symptoms typically kick in around late autumn or early winter, some people experience \"summer depression,\" accompanied by symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, irritability, agitation, and poor appetite, according to MayoClinic.com. Experts say seasonal affective disorder is more prevalent in places farther from the equator. Someone who has a genetic predisposition to SAD may not have problems if he or she lives in Singapore, for example, Baron said. Some people with seasonal affective disorder use a light box, a device that shines a bright light similar to outdoor light, which a patient sits in front of for a half hour or hour a day, Josephson said. Experts say consult a doctor if you feel you may have seasonal affective disorder. Certain cases require antidepressants or other medications, but some people manage it through light therapy or psychotherapy. For winter depression, MayoClinic.com also recommends exercising regularly and, if possible, taking vacations to warmer, sunnier places. Cootey said this winter he will try to learn how to ski and ice skate. He recommends finding a support community, such as an online forum or his blog, The Splintered Mind. He also finds relying on humor keeps spirits up. He has relied on cognitive behavioral therapy to manage depression for 16 years. With a therapist, he tries to identify what triggers the disorder or other problems. \"Change your thinking, change your life. Mind over mood. These are the mantras that keep me in control of my depression and will help me overcome, or at least manage SAD,\" he said.","highlights":"Between 4 and 6 percent of the U.S. population suffers from SAD .\nLight therapy, psychotherapy, and medications are treatment options .\nRecent research indicates genetic component to the condition .","id":"f83e0b40b3e4430ff0f19fbff380e6fcedf879fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Americans and other foreigners were among those caught up in the bloodshed and chaos of the terror attacks in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday and Thursday. A foreign national held hostage by gunmen for nearly 24 hours is released from the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai. At least six foreigners were among the 125 dead, police said. Targets included two luxury hotels, the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal, as well as a cafe popular with Western tourists. A man told a local television station that he was in the Oberoi around 10 p.m. Wednesday when gunmen entered the lobby and began rounding up guests, asking for anyone with a U.S. or British passport and taking about 15 of them hostage. Fire raged at the Oberoi, the scene of much bloodshed as explosions and gunshots rang out Thursday morning. Outside the Taj Mahal, screaming and fighting broke out as reporters scrambled to capture the chaotic scene. Australian filmmaker Anthony Rose told CNN that he had just arrived at the Oberoi hotel when he heard gunshots in the lobby and saw a fellow Australian shot in the leg and then shot at close range in the head by one of the attackers. He said that he and others in his film crew fled through back doors in the hotel to escape the shooters. Among those killed in the two days of violence was British yachtsman Andreas Liveras, according to St. George's Hospital in Mumbai. At least one French national is trapped in the Oberoi hotel, according to the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. A woman from Nashville, Tennessee, was shot in the arm and leg by the attackers, who barged into a ballroom at her hotel, her husband told CNN affiliate WSMV. Andi Varagona operates a holistic health clinic in Nashville and was in Mumbai for training, her husband, Santos Lopez, told the station. According to Lopez, his wife called him and said, \"We were ambushed and we were shot.\" When he asked Varagona if she was all right, she told him she had been shot in the leg and arm and was at that moment being wheeled into surgery, Lopez said. \"My God, I cried more than I cried in my entire life,\" Lopez told WSMV. \"I mean, it's just been so overwhelming with emotion. ... You tend to believe that things that happen in the world happen to other people, until it happens to you.\" Watch hostages walk from the building looking dazed \u00bb . WSMV is reporting that Varagona came out of surgery Wednesday night -- a bullet removed from her leg. An American woman, who was still inside the Taj with her husband, told CNN by phone Thursday that television feeds into the rooms had stopped and she did not know what was going on. \"We have water and we're hunkered down and patient and ready to wait it out,\" she said. \"We're OK. Last night was a different story, but today we're OK.\" The woman, whom CNN is not identifying so as not to disclose her location to the gunmen, said she heard gunfire outside her room Wednesday night and \"a man with an American accent screaming for help.\" Aparna Dash, an American who lives in Pennsylvania but is visiting Mumbai on business, was staying at the Oberoi hotel. She was on the phone with her husband, who was in the United States, when the first explosions rang out. \"She thought it was firecrackers and didn't think much of it,\" her husband, Biswa Dash, told CNN. \"But then in the coming hours, she realized what was going on and all the people in the hotel began trying to get out, to rush down the stairs.\" Aparna Dash had made it down to the fifth floor from her room on the 26th floor, her husband said, and found an American woman sitting on the stairs, dazed and crying. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your story and send photos and video . \"They were telling [the woman] that she needed to get up and keep moving,\" said Biswa Dash, recounting what his wife told him. \"She was crying and saying that there were all these people piled on top of each other and that the armed men had come at them just straight on -- without masks, without trying to hide their faces at all. Just charging at them with their ammunition and their AK-47s.\" Indian Prime Minister Moanmohan Singh said the attackers were likely foreigners, but he did not name a country where he believed they were from. Officially, the Indian authorities are saying no one has claimed responsibility. A group called the Deccan Mujahideen took credit in e-mails sent to several Indian news outlets. Authorities found 8 kilograms (17 pounds) of RDX, one of the most powerful military explosives, at a restaurant near the Taj, indicating that the attackers may have been planning more violence. A woman whom CNN is only identifying by her first name -- Andrea -- spoke to CNN from Mumbai, where she is visiting for her brother's wedding. She is staying at a hotel a few blocks from the Taj. She heard the explosions Wednesday and then immediately got a call from her brother, who lives in Hong Kong. He was worried, saying that he had heard reports of gunfire. \"And we were like, 'Yeah, gunshots, we're from New Orleans, whatever,' \" Andrea said. A few hours later, she said, her brother called back and said, \"This is a big deal, put on the TV.\" \"That's when we figured out what was going on,\" Andrea said. \"Over the course of the night we heard maybe three explosions, some emergency vehicles, sirens. For the most part the street was really quiet,\" she said. \"We've been watching the news the whole time, just like everyone else.\" She needed water, so she left her hotel and a person at a restaurant helped her, she said. She has since been in contact with the U.S. embassy and the family is moving the wedding.","highlights":"NEW: Hospital: British yachtsman among those killed in attack .\nFilmmaker describes fellow Australian being shot point-blank in the head .\nTennessee woman shot in arm and leg in Mumbai attacks, her husband says .\nWitness: Gunmen entered hotel lobby asking for anyone with U.S. or British passport .","id":"a1331e7c8a3daa637e0dfb026b0ff8551e491d69"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- French speed sailing trimaran,l'Hydroptere has broken yet another world record as its crew draw closer to two major milestones. The flying yacht: French trimaran l'Hydroptere is closing in on two major speed sailing records. L'Hydroptere is now the fastest yacht in history over 500 meters and one nautical mile, after its average speeds of 46.88 knots and 43.09 knots respectively were ratified by the British World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC). The records were set by Alain Thebault and his crew off Port Saint-Louis du Rhone near Marseille in the south of France. The boat is now poised to pass the 100km per hour mark (54 knots) after reaching a peak of 53.69 knots in training last month. The major record the l'Hydroptere is trying to claim is the world \"absolute speed sailing record,\" which is currently held by American kite surfer Robert Douglas, who achieved 49.84 knots over 500m earlier this year. Thebault and his crew now have until 22 December to establish new records this year. These attempts will be presided over and measured by a representative from the World Sailing Speed Record Council. Th\u00e9bault told CNN he had a long-held dream of skippering a boat that could \"fly.\" He said several subtle design changes had been made to the boat in 2008 and he's confident the crew can produce the record speed in the near future. \"I think the boat is ready now. I have always dreamed about a flying yacht. It was a big emotion for all of the crew and myself when we passed 50 knots,\" he said.","highlights":"L'Hydroptere is the new fastest yacht over 500 meters and one nautical mile .\nThe boat is based in Marseille and is skippered by Frenchman Alain Thebault .\nThe crew are now poised to pass the 100 kilometers per hour mark (54 knots)","id":"ff6ce6b88b20829714c9c980b948f8909f46d393"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- French speed sailing trimaran,l'Hydroptere has broken yet another world record as its crew draw closer to two major milestones. The flying yacht: French trimaran l'Hydroptere is closing in on two major speed sailing records. L'Hydroptere is now the fastest yacht in history over 500 meters and one nautical mile, after its average speeds of 46.88 knots and 43.09 knots respectively were ratified by the British World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC). The records were set by Alain Thebault and his crew off Port Saint-Louis du Rhone near Marseille in the south of France. The boat is now poised to pass the 100km per hour mark (54 knots) after reaching a peak of 53.69 knots in training last month. The major record the l'Hydroptere is trying to claim is the world \"absolute speed sailing record,\" which is currently held by American kite surfer Robert Douglas, who achieved 49.84 knots over 500m earlier this year. Thebault and his crew now have until 22 December to establish new records this year. These attempts will be presided over and measured by a representative from the World Sailing Speed Record Council. Th\u00e9bault told CNN he had a long-held dream of skippering a boat that could \"fly.\" He said several subtle design changes had been made to the boat in 2008 and he's confident the crew can produce the record speed in the near future. \"I think the boat is ready now. I have always dreamed about a flying yacht. It was a big emotion for all of the crew and myself when we passed 50 knots,\" he said.","highlights":"L'Hydroptere is the new fastest yacht over 500 meters and one nautical mile .\nThe boat is based in Marseille and is skippered by Frenchman Alain Thebault .\nThe crew are now poised to pass the 100 kilometers per hour mark (54 knots)","id":"80dbebbb6f7c1b314f18fc9193eab3f51edc95cd"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- The death toll in flood-ravaged southern Brazil has reached 116 and the first cases of a water-borne, potentially fatal disease are being investigated, the nation's Civil Defense agency reported. People use a boat to navigate flooded streets in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina last week. The number of missing residents has increased to 31, the agency said. The previous tally was 19. Nearly 79,000 residents have been left homeless, many of them in the hard-hit state of Santa Catarina. Many of the deaths have been caused by mudslides. Officials are now worried about disease, as 10 cases of leptospirosis are suspected, the state news agency reported. Leptospirosis is an infection in rodents and other wild and domesticated animals, according to the World Health Organization. In humans, exposure through water contaminated by urine from infected animals is the most common form of infection. The disease is often found in flooded areas. Ten people with symptoms are being treated in the cities of Blumenau and Ilhota, the state-run Agencia Brasil reported. Symptoms usually occur 2 to 30 days after infection and consist of high fever, malaise, sharp and constant headache, intense muscular pain, fatigue and chills. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea also are common. About 10 percent of patients develop jaundiced eyes after the third day, indicating the most severe cases. Authorities also were warning residents in flooded areas to be careful with food and water they consume. Food that has been under water or moist should not be eaten unless it's in a sealed plastic bag or a can, officials said. The health secretary for Santa Catarina said residents who drink contaminated water also run the risk of getting hepatitis A and diarrhea. Rescuers also are at risk of disease and injury. In the city of Maximus in Luis Alves state, eight rescuers were injured over the weekend, one of them gravely, Agencia Brasil reported. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that Santa Catarina will be rebuilt and become just as strong as it was. \"We cannot lose hope,\" Lula said. \"We must be convinced that people will reconstruct the state of Santa Catarina. There is a national solidarity never seen before in the history of the country.\" Lula flew over some of the flooded areas last week and proclaimed the disaster one of the worst in the country's history. \"I've never seen anything like this,\" he said Thursday. He said last week he was releasing 1.97 billion Reals (more than US$850 million) in aid to the afflicted areas. Officials have distributed 880 tons of food, nearly 1 million liters of water and 60 tons of clothing, toys and cleaning and personal hygiene material, Agencia Brasil said Monday. The Civil Defense said seaplanes have flown 548 relief missions in seven days. The disaster also is having an economic effect, with bridges, roads, houses and buildings destroyed. The Federation of Industries said the closed port in Itajai is costing $33 million a day. The port is the major terminal for frozen goods in Brazil and second in the transport of containers, Agencia Brasil said. Port Superintendent Arnaldo Schmitt said last week part of the terminal could be back in operation in two weeks. Weather conditions may not allow that to happen, though. The Civil Defense issued an alert Monday for heavy rains in 14 states and the federal district.","highlights":"Death toll from flooding in southern Brazil reaches 116; 31 people missing .\nOfficials report 10 suspected cases of potentially deadly leptospirosis .\nAuthorities warn people to avoid flood-contaminated food, water .\nMore heavy rain forecast for parts of Brazil .","id":"cb1737c877dcf55742a1e7e5620897c4206d1a27"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Auto insurers report that about 60,000 vehicles were stolen in just over a year in Mexico, the highest figure in the past decade. Mexico City, Mexico, has a well-deserved reputation for heavy traffic. Now car thefts may be added to the list. That's no surprise to Guillermo Cruz, who has bought two new cars this year: the first after his original car was stolen, and the second three months later after two armed men pointed guns at him, got in and drove off with Cruz inside. \"They dropped me off in the street and I thought they had already left, and I went back\" to where they had taken it, he said. \"And still they hadn't left; they were inside the car. And one man said to the other, 'Let's shoot him because he's becoming annoying.' \" According to the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions, the capital of Mexico City is a favorite site for car thieves to work. \"If we talk about data from the federal district, we can say that we have 16,000 automobiles stolen, an increase of 10 percent from October 2007 to September 2008,\" said Recaredo Arias, a spokesman for the association. He said drug traffickers have contributed to the increase by pushing other bands of criminals into new lines of business. \"Perhaps they are taking up so much space from the point of view of the sources of income as from the point of view of supply and distribution of drugs to these bands and, as a result, the bands are looking for other types of crimes,\" he speculated. Authorities say they are making efforts to fight the crime, though some observers predict that the incidence of car theft will rise further as the world economic crisis worsens.","highlights":"About 60,000 vehicles were stolen in just over a year, Mexican insurers report .\nThe problem is particularly acute in the capital of Mexico City .\nObservers predict car thefts will rise further as world economic crisis worsens .\nOne Mexican man says he's had two new cars stolen in three months .","id":"27d7f005f5e28d8c3d4678e17e648389083b6842"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Tuesday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says \"having no life\" isn't a requirement for a man to get a job. (CNN) -- How many times have politicians been warned about the dangers of an open microphone? And yet, on Tuesday, the lectern mic at the National Governors Conference picked up this little nugget from Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. He's having a conversation near the lectern about President-elect Barack Obama's choice for to lead the Homeland Security Department, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Here is what Rendell said about Napolitano: . Rendell: Janet's perfect for that job. Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19-20 hours a day to it . Wow. Now, I'm sure Gov. Napolitano has many qualifications for the job beyond having no family, and therefore the ability to devote 20 hours a day to the job. Watch Campbell Brown's commentary \u00bb . But it is fascinating to me that that is the quality being highlighted here as so perfect. C'mon. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is married with two grown children. His predecessor, Tom Ridge, had a family. Anybody remember a debate about whether they would have trouble balancing the demands of work and family? Now, I am a fan of Gov. Rendell. He has been on this show many times. I like him for his candor. In our attempts to cut through the bull, he delivers far less bull than most politicians. But it is his frankness here that raises so many questions. 1. If a man had been Obama's choice for the job, would having a family or not having a family ever even have been an issue? Would it have ever prompted a comment? Probably not. We all know the assumption tends to be that with a man, there is almost always a wife in the wings managing those family concerns. 2. As a woman, hearing this, it is hard not to wonder if we are counted out for certain jobs, certain opportunities, because we do have a family or because we are in our child-bearing years. Are we? It is a fair question. 3. If you are a childless, single woman with suspicions that you get stuck working holidays, weekends and the more burdensome shifts more often than your colleagues with families, are those suspicions well-founded? Probably so. Is there an assumption that if you're family-free then you have no life? By some, yes. Again Gov. Rendell, I don't mean to rake you over the coals. I know what you meant to say. But your comments do perpetuate stereotypes that put us in boxes, both mothers and single women. In government and beyond, men have been given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to striking the right work-life balance. Women are owed the same consideration. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Rendell says choice for Homeland Security good because she has \"no life\"\nBrown: Janet Napolitano has many qualifications beyond having no family .\nNobody would have said the same about a male candidate, Brown says .\nWomen deserve same treatment as men on work-life issues, she says .","id":"3819baf67ba4870128b3893c900ba72413ff32c9"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- It's hard to walk down the aisle of a liquor store without running across a bottle bearing someone's name. A costumed reveler at a Captain Morgan party celebrates the rum named after the 17th century privateer. We put them in our cocktails, but how well do we know them? Here's some biographical detail on the men behind your favorite tipples: . 1. Captain Morgan . The Captain wasn't always just the choice of sorority girls looking to blend spiced rum with Diet Coke; in the 17th century he was a feared privateer. Not only did the Welsh pirate marry his own cousin, he ran risky missions for the governor of Jamaica, including capturing some Spanish prisoners in Cuba and sacking Port-au-Prince in Haiti. He then plundered the Cuban coast before holding for ransom the entire city of Portobelo, Panama. He later looted and burned Panama City, but his pillaging career came to an end when Spain and England signed a peace treaty in 1671. Instead of getting in trouble for his high-seas antics, Morgan received knighthood and became the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. Mental Floss: 5 drinking stories that put yours to shame . 2. Johnnie Walker . Walker, the name behind the world's most popular brand of Scotch whisky, was born in 1805 in Ayrshire, Scotland. When his father died in 1819, Johnnie inherited a trust of a little over 400 pounds, which the trustees invested in a grocery store. Walker became a very successful grocer in the town of Kilmarnock and even sold a whisky, Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky. Johnnie's son Alexander was the one who actually turned the family into famous whisky men, though. Alexander had spent time in Glasgow learning how to blend teas, but he eventually returned to Kilmarnock to take over the grocery from his father. Alexander turned his blending expertise to whisky, and came up with \"Old Highland Whisky,\" which later became Johnnie Walker Black Label. 3. Jack Daniel . Jasper Newton \"Jack\" Daniel of Tennessee whiskey fame was the descendant of Welsh settlers who came to the United States in the early 19th century. He was born in 1846 or 1850 and was one of 13 children. By 1866 he was distilling whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Unfortunately for the distiller, he had a bit of a temper. One morning in 1911 Daniel showed up for work early and couldn't get his safe open. He flew off the handle and kicked the offending strongbox. The kick was so ferocious that Daniel injured his toe, which then became infected. The infection soon became the blood poisoning that killed the whiskey mogul. Curious about why your bottle of J.D. also has Lem Motlow listed as the distillery's proprietor? Daniel's own busy life of distilling and safe-kicking kept him from ever finding a wife and siring an heir, so in 1907 he gave the distillery to his beloved nephew Lem Motlow, who had come to work for him as a bookkeeper. Mental Floss: The many myths of Jack Daniel . 4. Jose Cuervo . In 1758, Jose Antonio de Cuervo received a land grant from the King of Spain to start an agave farm in the Jalisco region of Mexico. Jose used his agave plants to make mescal, a popular Mexican liquor. In 1795, King Carlos IV gave the land grant to Cuervo's descendant Jose Maria Guadalupe de Cuervo. Carlos IV also granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila, so they built a larger factory on the existing land. The family started packaging their wares in individual bottles in 1880, and in 1900 the booze started going by the brand name Jose Cuervo. The brand is still under the leadership of the original Jose Cuervo's family; current boss Juan-Domingo Beckmann is the sixth generation of Cuervo ancestors to run the company. 5. Jim Beam . Jim Beam, the namesake of the world's best-selling bourbon whiskey, didn't actually start the distillery that now bears his name. His great-grandfather Jacob Beam opened the distillery in 1788 and started selling his first barrels of whiskey in 1795. In those days, the whiskey went by the less-catchy moniker of \"Old Tub.\" Jacob Beam handed down the distillery to his son David Beam, who in turn passed it along to his son David M. Beam, who eventually handed the operation off to his son, Colonel James Beauregard Beam, in 1894. Although he was only 30 years old when he took over the family business, Jim Beam ran the distillery until Prohibition shut him down. Following repeal in 1933, Jim quickly built a distillery and began resurrecting the Old Tub brand, but he also added something new to the company's portfolio: a bourbon simply called Jim Beam. Mental Floss: A bourbon FAQ . 6. Tanqueray . When he was a young boy, Charles Tanqueray's path through life seemed pretty clear. He was the product of three straight generations of Bedfordshire clergymen, so it must have seemed natural to assume that he would take up the cloth himself. Wrong. Instead, he started distilling gin in 1830 in a little plant in London's Bloomsbury district. By 1847, he was shipping his gin to colonies around the British Empire, where many plantation owners and troops had developed a taste for Tanqueray and tonic. 7. Campari . Gaspare Campari found his calling quickly. By the time he was 14, he had risen to become a master drink mixer in Turin, Italy, and in this capacity he started dabbling with a recipe for an aperitif. When he eventually settled on the perfect mixture, his concoction had over 60 ingredients. In 1860, he founded Gruppo Campari to make his trademark bitters in Milan. Like Colonel Sanders' spice blend, the recipe for Campari is a closely guarded secret supposedly known by only the acting Gruppo Campari chairman, who works with a tiny group of employees to make the concentrate with which alcohol and water are infused to get Campari. The drink is still made from Gaspare Campari's recipe, though, which includes quinine, orange peel, rhubarb, and countless other flavorings. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Capt. Morgan married his own cousin, plundered Cuba and won a knighthood .\nJack Daniel died after losing a fight with a ... safe?\nWhich best-selling bourbon whiskey was originally called \"Old Tub?\"\nGin-maker Tanqueray descended from three-generations of clergymen .","id":"d9a0c37c3c87e36ed07629a332b2f35da173bbe4"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York hospital worker was suspended for failing to report the gunshot wound of NFL star Plaxico Burress, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN Monday. New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress arrives at the 17th police precinct in Manhattan on Monday. The spokeswoman, Kathy Robinson, gave no further detail on the New York Presbyterian Hospital employee. \"We can confirm that the individual at New York Presbyterian Hospital, who was responsible for failing to report the incident, has been suspended,\" hospital spokeswoman Robinson said. Burress has garnered media attention recently for accidentally shooting himself with a gun he is accused of bringing into a crowded New York night club. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed Burress on Monday, saying it would be an \"outrage\" if the Giants receiver isn't prosecuted \"to the fullest extent of the law\" after the shooting with a gun that authorities say he owned illegally. Burress, 31, was arraigned Monday on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. He could face up to 15 years in prison, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. Alicia Maxey Greene, spokeswoman for the district attorney, said Burress is not expected to enter a plea until a court appearance in March. Burress' attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said he expects Burress to plead not guilty. Bloomberg, speaking at a news conference, made clear he wants Burress to face jail time. Noting a law that automatically sentences an offender to at least 3 1\/2 years for illegally carrying a loaded handgun, Bloomberg said, \"It's pretty hard to argue the guy didn't have a gun and it wasn't loaded. You've got bullet holes in and out to show that it was there.\" The mayor also lashed out at New York Presbyterian Hospital for failing to inform police about the incident. He called on the state attorney general to \"go after\" the hospital for a \"chargeable offense.\" The district attorney's office said the hospital is under investigation. The hospital said it also is investigating the incident and promised to cooperate with authorities. In the incident Friday night, Burress suffered a wound to his right thigh and was treated and released from the hospital, the Giants said in a statement released over the weekend. Sports Illustrated reported that Burress had accidentally shot himself with a gun he was carrying while at Latin Quarter, a sprawling nightclub in Manhattan. Brafman said his client \"understands the seriousness of the situation, and he's addressing it in a responsible fashion.\" Brafman also said Burress is \"physically OK and mentally OK.\" He added that he does not know when Burress may be back on the field. Bloomberg, who has long fought against illegal gun ownership, said public figures \"make their living because of their visibility. They are the role models for our kids, and if we don't prosecute them, to the fullest extent of the law, I don't know who on Earth we would. It makes a sham, a mockery of the law.\" Turning his ire to New York Presbyterian Hospital, which treated Burress, Bloomberg said officials \"didn't do what they're legally required to do\" -- inform the authorities of the incident. \"It's a misdemeanor. It's a chargeable offense, and I think that the district attorney should certainly go after the management of this hospital.\" He also called on the hospital to fire those whose responsibility it was to alert the authorities. And Bloomberg added, \"I would question why the management didn't have training in place and didn't discipline them immediately. It's just an outrage.\" The hospital later Monday afternoon issued a statement acknowledging that \"not reporting a gunshot wound is a clear violation of our policies and procedures.\" \"We take this very seriously, and are conducting a thorough investigation into why this gunshot wound was not reported to the police department in a timely fashion. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. We are in full cooperation with the mayor's office and the police department,\" it said. Bloomberg also complained that the Giants \"should have picked up the phone right away as good corporate citizens. I don't care whether there's a legal responsibility for them to do it. They are a team that is here in this region. I know they're in New Jersey, but it's the New York Giants, and they have a responsibility as a team that depends on the public and wants to be role models to the public.\" The mayor said police learned about the incident from a TV report. But team spokeswoman Pat Hanlon, in an e-mail to CNN, wrote, \"We are working closely with the police and NFL security. In the early hours of Saturday morning, as we started to get a sense of what we were dealing with, we did, in fact, notify NFL security, which then contacted the police.\" Over the weekend, the Giants issued a statement saying they were \"in contact with Plaxico since shortly after the incident,\" and that their primary concern was for his health and well-being. The team said it had contacted NFL security and was working to gather more details. The shooting was the latest bump in a rocky season for Burress, who became a hero of last season's Super Bowl when he caught the game-winning touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning with 35 seconds remaining. He was fined and suspended from the team's October 5 game for reportedly missing a practice without notifying the team. Later, he was fined $45,000 by the NFL after an October 19 game during which he argued with a referee and threw a football into the stands. He injured a hamstring in a game two weeks ago and was not scheduled to play in the Giants' game on Sunday. CNN's Laurie Segall, Elianne Friend, Kristen Hammill and Cheryl Robinson contributed.","highlights":"Plaxico Burress accused of taking gun into a crowded New York night club .\nNew York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants vigorous prosecution of NFL star .\nMayor also slams hospital, Giants for their response to the Burress incident .\nHospital: \"Not reporting a gunshot wound is a clear violation of our policies.\"","id":"32615acc37a93b433deb1617bc6ab5f21e2c86e1"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Former Cuban President Fidel Castro says he is open to the idea of meeting with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has largely been out of the political scene since falling ill in 2006. \"With Obama, one can talk whenever he wants, because we're not preachers of violence or war,\" the communist leader wrote in an essay published Thursday on a state-run Web site. \"He must be reminded that the carrot-and-stick theory cannot be applied in our country.\" Friday's missive marked the second time in recent weeks that a Cuban leader has said he is open to meeting with Obama. In the latest issue of The Nation, actor Sean Penn writes of his recent conversation in Havana with Ra\u00fal Castro, who took over as president this year from his ailing brother. According to Penn, Ra\u00fal Castro told him, \"Perhaps we could meet at Guantanamo. We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift. ... We could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay.\" Obama has called for the U.S. detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on the island of Cuba to be closed. Despite the indications that the Cuban leadership is open to warmer relations with its neighbor to the north after 47 years of a U.S.-imposed trade embargo, some in Havana expressed skepticism that the impending change in leadership in the United States will translate in to a changed Cuban policy. \"Obama is a product of the American empire,\" Carlos Pose said. But Elisany, a high school student, said she's hopeful. \"We've got to wait and see. I hope things change.\"","highlights":"\"We're not preachers of violence or war,\" Castro writes in essay .\nActor Sean Penn writes that Castro's brother also open to meeting .\nSome in Havana skeptical of change in U.S. policy .","id":"27d0b62b9dc9ab05db189f4963bcf42337701aa2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The daughter of Sen. Dick Durbin died Saturday from a congenital heart condition, the Illinois Democrat's office said. \"Chris Durbin, 40, fought a heroic lifelong battle with heart disease and our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Durbin family,\" said Durbin's spokesman, Joe Shoemaker. Chris Durbin worked for 16 years for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington. Survivors include her husband, Marty Johnson, and son, Alex. Her death comes as Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, seeks a third term in Tuesday's general election. Funeral arrangements for his daughter were not immediately announced.","highlights":"Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin's daughter dies .\nChris Durbin, 40, had a congenital heart condition .\nFuneral arrangements are pending .","id":"a3f792d7c9889b5a4191a12e9346a28b5abb90a4"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Sajida Faraj scoops mashed potatoes and peas onto her plate, not quite sure of the history behind her first Thanksgiving meal. But she knows how thankful she is to be at a church in Atlanta this November, lining up for turkey, stuffing and pecan pie. Sajida Faraj took a break to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with fellow refugees. Three years ago she grabbed her son, now 12, and fled Iraq. Her husband, a carpenter who worked for Americans, had left for the market one day in Baghdad and never returned. Faraj says she knows he is dead, even though she has never seen his body. When the rest of her family started to receive death threats, she felt she had no choice but to run. Faraj and her son, Ahmed, made it across the border to Syria and later entered the United States, two of more than 15,000 Iraqi refugees to be allowed in since the beginning of the war in 2003. The Thanksgiving meal, served at the Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church to dozens of refugees from far-flung places like Myanmar and Sudan as well as Iraq, is a welcome break for Faraj, who is struggling to build a new life. Unable to translate her skills as a Baghdad salon owner into a job as a stylist, Faraj does not have the money to pay $625 due in rent. \"I have an electricity bill to pay, I have no job,\" she says. \"I have no way of knowing what to do.\" Government and aid group assistance to refugees does not last long. Faraj plans to ask an aid group, the International Rescue Committee, for more help, but she's not sure what else she can do. Soon she hopes her 21-year-old daughter will arrive from Syria and bring with her better luck. \"My daughter is coming and hopefully I will work,\" she says, as Nepali dancers in elaborate costumes entertain the diners. Across the room, more and more refugees line up for the potluck dinner. \"Don't worry, there will be enough food,\" a man tells his two daughters, asking them to wait patiently. The man, Munir, and his wife, Fatima, hoped, like so many immigrants before them, that the United States would help them find a better life for them and their children. But the couple, who asked that their identities be protected for fear of reprisals against their family and friends still in Iraq, are considering ending their American dream after three months of struggle. College-educated and proficient in English, Fatima and Munir were shocked that the skills that provided them a comfortable living in Baghdad, as a mechanical engineer and lab technician, are of little advantage in an increasingly competitive U.S. job market. They spend much of their day at the IRC office in Atlanta, searching for employment, but are considering returning to Jordan, where they say they can find work, albeit illegally. \"I am worried that I will be thrown out on the street,\" Fatima says. \"My Pakistani neighbors couldn't find work and they were evicted and thrown out on the street. We are worried the same will happen to us. Many refugees we know have not found work and they have been here for eight months to a year.\" Until 2007, very few Iraqi refugees were resettled in the United States. For 2008, the Bush administration set a goal of accepting 13,000 Iraqis. Most of the estimated 2.2 million people who have fled Iraq since the invasion are in Syria and Jordan, many living illegally. Their presence is straining infrastructure and social services there and driving food and housing prices higher. Far from the warmth of the Thanksgiving party, another Iraqi refugee has managed to find work at a supermarket seafood counter, helping customers with their requests for jumbo shrimp and crab cakes. \"I am like a manager,\" says Muataz, with a glimmer of pride in his eye. \"I thank God that I have a job and that I am lucky.\" Muataz, who also asked that his identity be protected, was a college-educated artist and shop owner in Baghdad. He fled Iraq with his wife and three children after he was run off the road and shot in the side on his way home from work. A friend who was with him died in the assault. Muataz is now able to support his family with the aid of food stamps and hopes that his wife will find a job to help out financially. Nevertheless, he has been able to afford Internet service for his children and a car. That kind of American dream is all Faraj wants as she stands at a bus stop, bundled in her head scarf and winter coat, the music and laughter of the IRC Thanksgiving dinner now just a distant memory. She is on her way to the local farmers market, where she plans to spend the morning waiting in line with 40 or 50 other people hoping to work. Faraj says she has hope. \"I wish for my children to be like [the Americans],\" she says in Arabic. \"I wish they would have their own car, home, job -- to be American. \"I wish that because in my country, unfortunately, I did not see that. Not during Saddam's time or this new government. I wish I was still young. I would have left Iraq a long time ago.\"","highlights":"Iraqi refugee Sajida Faraj enjoys festivity of first American Thanksgiving dinner .\nShe's still struggling; some Iraqis ready to give up while others are established .\nMore than 15,000 Iraq refugees have entered United States since war began .","id":"84084d0497b7e6db36ae6d297b5e6ca9d1c23151"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chevy Chase didn't look like Gerald Ford and didn't sound like Gerald Ford. But in the mid-1970s, when \"Saturday Night Live\" first went on the air, Chase -- then a writer and cast member of the show -- made his impression of the president, rife with pratfalls and slapstick, the talk of the country. He also made the president a butt of jokes, which was intentional, Chase told CNN in an interview. \"[Ford] was a sweet man, a terrific man -- [we] became good friends after, but ... he just tripped over things a lot,\" he said. \"It's not that I can imitate him so much that I can do a lot of physical comedy and I just made it, I just went after him. And ... obviously my leanings were Democratic and I wanted [Jimmy] Carter in and I wanted [Ford] out, and I figured look, we're reaching millions of people every weekend, why not do it.\" Over the years, \"Saturday Night Live's\" political satires have become a mainstay of the show, sometimes to startling effect. Watch Chase talk about \"SNL's\" impact \u00bb . Al Franken -- now the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota -- and his then writing partner, Tom Davis, wrote a wicked takeoff of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book, \"The Final Days,\" which included Dan Aykroyd as a bitter Richard Nixon and John Belushi as a toadying Henry Kissinger. In the mid-'80s, a sketch starring Phil Hartman as Ronald Reagan showed the president, often lampooned as forgetful, with a razor-sharp command of the Iran-Contra situation, cutting deals in Arabic and barking orders at his staff. More recently, Dana Carvey's malaprop-laden impression of George H.W. Bush, Hartman's puppy-dog Bill Clinton, Will Ferrell's George W. Bush and Tina Fey's Sarah Palin have embedded themselves in the culture. Though Chase believes the show leans left, and Fey's Palin is an attempt to hurt the Republicans, Marc Liepis, NBC Universal senior director of late night publicity, had no comment. Certainly, \"SNL\" -- which began as one of the old '60s counterculture's first forays into network TV -- has also mocked Democrats. Indeed, sketches about the Democratic debates in the spring, one of which portrayed the media as fawning over Barack Obama, gave Hillary Clinton ammunition in her pursuit of the nomination. The writer of that sketch, Jim Downey, has been described as leaning conservative, though he was quoted in a March New York Times article as calling himself a registered Democrat. In the same article, \"SNL\" creator Lorne Michaels said, \"We don't lay down for anybody.\" Chase talked about his Ford impression and the political impact of \"Saturday Night Live\" with CNN's Alina Cho. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: Let's go back to '76. Chevy Chase: It was Gerald Ford that was president but hadn't been elected and was running again and I just ... CNN: Some people say he was an accidental president and you made him accident prone. Chase: Actually, he was accident prone and he was a sweet man, a terrific man, became good friends later, and a relatively good athlete in college too ... but he just tripped over things a lot. ... You know, after a while, you just start writing the jokes and start doing it. So it's not that I can imitate him so much that I can do a lot of physical comedy, and I just made it, I just went after him. And I certainly, obviously my leanings were Democratic and I wanted Carter in and I wanted [Ford] out and I figured look, we're reaching millions of people every weekend, why not do it. CNN: You mean to tell me in the back of your mind you were thinking, hey I want Carter ... Chase: Oh, yeah. CNN: And I'm going to make him look bad. Chase: Oh yeah. What do you think they're doing now, you think they're just doing this because Sarah's funny? No, I think that the show is very much more Democratic and liberal-oriented, that they are obviously more for Barack Obama. [In the '70s], out of the Nixon era, and it was not unlikely that I might go that direction. CNN: I talked to one political pundit who said, I think Chevy Chase cost Ford the presidency. Chase: When you have that kind of a venue and power where you can reach so many millions of people and you've become a show that people watch, you know, you can affect a lot of people, and humor does it beautifully, because humor is perspective and has a way of making judgment calls. ... So I think there was no question that it had major effect and in fact, in speaking with his family and then later him, and even reading some of his books ... he felt so, too. CNN: What do you think of Tina Fey's portrayal of Sarah Palin? Chase: I think it's actually very spot on. ... I think, though, what Tina is saying is -- and she has also admitted it -- \"This woman is not a dumb woman, she's a smart woman, so am I, Tina Fey. Neither of us are smart enough to be the president, though.\" CNN: So having said that, what do you think then the impact is? You touched on your impact on Ford and his presidency ... Chase: I think more now then ever the impact is great because of how much larger the impact of the media is generally on people's lives, all sorts of media. ... I mean so there's so many outlets, but people just spend so much of their time in front of their computers and watching television in their computer. CNN: Is [\"SNL's\" politics] fair? Chase: Fair? What do you mean fair? They're an all-purpose comedy show. Of course it's fair, it's satire, it's what it is, and it's fair, if you have your own television show, to give your own opinion. ... They didn't let Barack off the hook a lot either, you know, when they said, \"Is there anything you would like sir, a little more coffee. ... \" Of course it's fair. I mean really, the whole thing about that show is get the laugh; it always has been, and it always will be.","highlights":"Chevy Chase says mockery of President Ford was deliberate .\nChase says show leans liberal, but \"whole thing ... is get the laugh\"\n\"SNL\" creator Lorne Michaels: \"We don't lay down for anybody\"","id":"b1ed6635bc6d555265ae59ccd1272d30d700556d"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A 3-month-old girl born to an Indian surrogate mother has flown to Japan to join her biological father after spending the first months of her life in legal limbo. Baby Manjhi and her grandmother flew to Osaka, Japan, from the Indian capital, New Delhi, Saturday night, said family friend, Kamal Vijay Vargiya. While some countries have banned surrogacy as a money-making venture, it has been legal in India since 2002. Under the practice, infertile couples are matched with local women to carry babies for $12,000 to $30,000. Baby Manjhi was conceived when a Japanese couple paid a clinic in India to have the husband's sperm and an anonymous donor's egg implanted in the womb of an Indian surrogate. The plan worked. But a few months before Manjhi was born, the couple divorced. The intended Japanese mother decided she did not want the baby. Manjhi was born on July 25. Her father, Ikufumi Yamada, and grandmother traveled from Japan to pick her up and take her to her new home. But Indian law stipulates that a mother must be present in order for a baby to receive a passport. In this case, neither the birth mother nor the mother who had originally sought the child wanted to be involved. Manjhi's father looked into a legal adoption, but Indian law does not allow single men to adopt. The case garnered international headlines. Eventually, Manjhi was issued a birth certificate with just her father's name on it. And on Saturday, she left for Osaka to be reunited with him. \"This is for the first time in 28 years in Jaipur that somebody (in such a situation) has been issued travel documents by Indian authorities. And this became possible mainly because of media,\" said Sanjay Arya, the doctor who treated Manjhi at a Jaipur hospital. -- CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002 .\nSome countries have banned the practice as a money-making venture .\nA few months before Manjhi was born, the couple divorced .\nThe intended Japanese mother decided she did not want the baby .","id":"b3a313d6714be58fd3fa6e7453daeeddbb7ab319"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iraq's presidency council Thursday approved the U.S.-Iraq security agreement -- the final step for the agreement to be ratified by the Iraqi government, a council spokesman said. The pact allows the presence of American troops in Iraq for three more years. U.S. soldiers gather at the \"Crossed Swords\" in Baghdad's secure Green Zone on Tuesday. The three-member presidency council -- Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi -- approved the agreement unanimously a week after the Iraqi parliament passed the measure. Under the Iraqi constitution, unanimous approval by the presidency council is required for ratification of a law or agreement. The security pact will replace a U.N. mandate for the U.S. presence in Iraq that expires at the end of this year. The agreement, reached after months of negotiations, sets June 30, 2009, as the deadline for U.S. combat troops to withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns. The date for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq is December 31, 2011. The agreement -- which stresses respect for Iraqi sovereignty -- \"requests the temporary assistance\" of U.S. forces, but severely restricts their role. The pact says that all military operations are to be carried out with the agreement of Iraq and must be \"fully coordinated\" with Iraqis. A Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee will oversee military operations. Iraq has the \"primary right to exercise jurisdiction\" over U.S. forces \"for grave premeditated felonies,\" the agreement says. Suspects can be held by U.S. forces but must be available to Iraqi authorities for investigation or trial. Iraq also will have the \"primary right to exercise jurisdiction\" over U.S. contractors and their employees under the agreement. Also, the pact says that \"Iraqi land, sea and air shouldn't be used as a launching or transit point for attacks against other countries.\" The presidency council also approved a U.S.-Iraqi bilateral pact called the strategic framework agreement, which covers a wide range of bilateral cooperation efforts and which was approved by the Iraqi parliament last week. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military official in Iraq, issued a statement welcoming the council's ratification of the measures. \"We look forward, under these agreements, to the continued reduction in U.S. forces and the normalization of bilateral relations as two sovereign and co-equal nations,\" the two said in their statement. \"We will undertake initiatives to strengthen our cooperation in the fields of economics, energy, health, the environment, education, culture, and law enforcement. The United States will support Iraq's request to the U.N. Security Council to continue protection of Iraqi assets,\" the statement said.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. officials welcome Iraqi council's approval of security pact .\nPresidency council's approval was final legal step for enactment .\nAgreement pulls U.S. troops out of all Iraqi cities by June 30 .\nU.S. forces would exit Iraq entirely by December 31, 2011 .","id":"ed0596e6105b2d827647ada10505f448c47b9be9"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian police swiftly handled a \"security scare\" at New Delhi's major airport early Friday amid heightened concern in the wake of last week's terror attack in which gunmen killed 179 people in Mumbai. An Indian soldier joins the beefed up security detail at New Delhi airport. New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said police responded to reports of gunfire at Indira Gandhi International Airport but found no casualties or damage. Bhagat said there was \"no terror threat.\" \"And there's no cause of panic,\" he added. Uday Banerjee, the head of India's Central Industrial Security Force, told reporters at the airport that something sounding like gunshots was heard, but no one saw anything and no bullet casings were found. Indian authorities stepped up security at the nation's airports on Thursday after receiving intelligence reports that terrorists might be planning an air attack. At Indira Gandhi, four armed police stood guard at each entrance, and people waiting for arriving passengers were not allowed inside. Watch what triggered the security scare there \u00bb . \"There have been intelligence inputs about some terrorist activity, and therefore security has been tightened (at airports),\" civil aviation spokesperson Moushmi Chakraborty told CNN. Watch heightened anxiety after the attacks \u00bb . Police beefed up security at all airports including in the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, Chakraborty said. A spokesman for the Indian Navy, Cmdr. Nirad Sinha, also confirmed to CNN that security officials had received warnings about an airborne attack. Watch more on increase in security \u00bb . The Press Trust of India, a nonprofit newspaper cooperative, said that reports had suggested that terrorists could have sneaked into the country to carry out strikes on the anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition. The mosque -- one of the largest in the Uttar Pradesh state -- was destroyed on December 6, 1992, by Hindu nationalists who believe it was built on the site of an existing temple. On Wednesday India's defense minister met with the chiefs of the army, air force and navy and discussed what the ministry in a news statement called \"possible terror threats from air.\" The officials also discussed the country's coastal security plans and how to tighten security along the military line of control dividing the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan to \"prevent infiltration of terrorists,\" the statement said. India ranks among the countries where terrorism is most common, according to the U.S. State Department. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh and Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"There's no cause of panic,\" says New Delhi police spokesman .\nSecurity raised at all the nation's airports amid intelligence on terrorist activity .\nPress Trust of India: Reports suggest possible strike on December 6 .\nIndia's top military officials discuss country's security plans .","id":"476e8e55be16497ab62008c0a082637b9482461c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Theological conservatives estranged from the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church in Canada formed a rival North American \"province\" Wednesday. The consecration of Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire left many conservatives disaffected. Leaders of the new Anglican Church in North America unveiled a draft constitution and a set of canons for the province -- or ecclesiastical territorial division -- at an evening service at the Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, Illinois, the group said in a written statement. \"Some of us have been praying for this for decades,\" said Michael W. Howell, who attended the service, according to the statement. \"Instead of focusing on things that divide us, we as orthodox Anglicans are focusing on the things that unite us.\" \"The public release of our draft constitution is an important concrete step toward the goal of a biblical, missionary and united Anglican Church in North America,\" Bishop Robert Duncan of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, diocese said in a statement released Wednesday ahead of the service. The move comes after years of debate over several issues, ranging from interpretation of the Bible to homosexuality. Tensions reached a boiling point in 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay man, Rev. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. The decision rankled traditionalists, and since then, four dioceses and several parishes have left the Episcopalian Church, including the diocese in Pittsburgh. The others are in Quincy, Illinois; Fort Worth, Texas; and San Joaquin, California. Not all parishes in those dioceses have left the Episcopalian Church. In all, the Anglican Church in North America will take in about 100,000 members, including those from the secessionist dioceses and parishes, said Robert Lundy, a spokesman for the group. \"This constitution brings them back together under one church, all aligned together,\" Lundy said. \"This is all these folks coming back together.\" The preamble to the provisional constitution says the leaders are \"grieved by the current state of brokenness within the Anglican Communion prompted by those who have embraced erroneous teaching and who have rejected a repeated call to repentance,\" the group said. Lundy said Wednesday the draft constitution states the province's core beliefs and doctrine. He said it will not lay out definite policies for issues the leaders disagree on, such as ordaining women. He said it is \"safe to say\" Duncan will lead the nascent province. An assembly is likely to be called next year to determine additional leadership, he said. A spokesman for the archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement noting the lengthy process of creating a province, adding that in the case of Wednesday's service, the process has not yet begun. \"There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports ... detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces,\" said James M. Rosenthal, canon to Archbishop Rowan Williams. \"Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting ... the process has not yet begun.\" The Rev. Dr. Charles K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, issued a statement Wednesday ahead of the meeting, saying the church would not hazard a guess as to the consequences of the breakaway group's action. \"We will not predict what will or will not come out of this meeting, but simply continue to be clear that the Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada and the La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, comprise the official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America.\" He added, \"We reiterate what has been true of Anglicanism for centuries: that there is room within the Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ.\" The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, which is composed of 38 provinces around the world. It was not immediately clear which of the other provinces would recognize the Anglican Church in North America, but Lundy said a meeting last year in Jerusalem indicated that some would do so.","highlights":"\"Orthodox Anglicans are focusing on the things that unite us,\" man says .\nMove comes after years of dispute over progressive direction of Episcopal Church .\nTipping point for many was consecration of gay man as bishop of New Hampshire .\nNew division expected to take in 100,000 from parishes that left Episcopal Church .","id":"13ec6d03aac3f52359bf288296efff2eff1f4056"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain on Thursday accused Sen. Barack Obama of breaking a promise when the Democrat decided to forgo public financing in this fall's campaign. Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly broke campaign fundraising records during the Democratic primary season. Obama told supporters in an e-mail message Thursday that he would not accept about $85 million in public funds when he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. In the e-mail, Obama said the public campaign financing system allowed \"special interests [to] drown out the voices of the American people\" and asked his supporters to \"declare our independence from a broken system.\" McCain said that Obama's move to drop out of the system \"should be disturbing to all Americans\" and that he may decide to opt out, too. \"Sen. Obama's reversal on public financing is one of a number of reversals ... that he has taken,\" McCain said while touring flood-damaged parts of Iowa. \"This election is about a lot of things, but it's also about trust. It's also about whether you can take people's word. ... He said he would stick to his agreement. He didn't.\" Watch McCain's attack on Obama \u00bb . He said his campaign will reconsider whether to opt out as well. \"We''l have to reevaluate in light of his decision,\" he said. But he said he leans toward taking public money. But Rep. Rahm Emanuel, an Obama supporter, argued that the Democrat had \"more than realized the objective of public financing\" by setting up a system to accept small donations over the Internet. \"It has given the American people a voice in our political process and has forever changed politics in this country by inspiring record numbers of Americans to participate in bringing change to Washington,\" Emanuel said. Despite the heated back-and-forth, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said it is unlikely the controversy will influence voters. \"I'm not sure it's a big deal for most voters. There's not a lot of support for the public financing system.\" Schneider said. \"About a year ago, the polls asked people if they supported the idea that candidates and campaigns should be financed by taxpayer money ... and most persons said no. \"They like the idea of financing campaigns through small contributions from a lot of individual contributors, which is what Obama has done,\" he said. Obama would be the first major presidential candidate to drop out of the modern campaign financing system for the general election since its creation in 1976 in the post-Watergate era. Under this system, candidates agree to spend only the public funds and cannot raise or spend money directly obtained from individuals. Because he has decided not participate in the system, Obama will be able to spend an unlimited amount of money during the general election. The two camps also bickered Thursday over whether they had held negotiations on public financing before Obama's move to drop out. Obama counsel Bob Bauer said he discussed the public funding issue for 45 minutes with Trevor Potter, his McCain counterpart, on June 6 when they met to talk about a possible town-hall appearance between the candidates. Potter said the two \"spoke in general terms about the public financing system, with Bob outlining reasons it could be considered 'broken' or irrelevant in 2008, and I explaining why Sen. McCain remained committed to it and thought it was good for the country.\" Given his record-breaking ability to raise donations over the Internet, the Illinois Democrat probably will be able to raise more than and outspend the presumptive GOP nominee. Watch CNN's Candy Crowley explain the significance of Obama's decision \u00bb . Since January 2007, Obama has raised more than $272 million, including nearly $31 million in April. During that time period, McCain has raised less than half that amount, roughly $100 million. In April, the Arizona Republican brought in about $18 million. The FEC ruled unanimously in March 2007 that presidential candidates could accept general election public financing, provided that they return any money raised for the general election while following certain guidelines. At the time, Obama's actions appeared to be a desire on his part to preserve the public financing option while enabling him to raise general election money. After that ruling, spokesman Bill Burton said, \"Sen. Obama is pleased the FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Sen. Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.\" McCain is embroiled in controversy over his attempt to withdraw from the primary public financing system. He entered the program last year when his campaign was strapped for cash, and took a loan using future fundraising -- or the matching funds from the public financing system -- as collateral. But after his primary victories on Super Tuesday, McCain wrote to the Federal Elections Commission announcing his intent to withdraw from the program. But the FEC has four vacancies -- and no quorum -- to vote on whether to allow McCain's withdrawal. And federal election rules say that a candidate who uses the matching funds as collateral cannot withdraw from the system. The Democratic National Committee has filed a complaint with the FEC, but the lack of a quorum has stalled assessment of the complaint. Obama, meanwhile, asked supporters Thursday to \"declare our independence from a broken system, and run the type of campaign that reflects the grass-roots values that have already changed our politics and brought us this far.\" The Democrat also attacked McCain and Republicans for taking money from lobbyists and political action committees, and he faulted McCain for not checking the campaign spending of conservative groups independent from his campaign. \"We've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,\" the e-mail said, referring to independent political advocacy groups that often purchase issue ads independent of the presidential campaigns. These groups operate under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service tax code. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Dana Bash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. John McCain says decision \"should be disturbing to all Americans\"\nAnalyst says voters favor the way Obama has raised campaign cash .\nSen. Barack Obama calls public finance system \"broken\"\nMove will allow Obama to spend unlimited amount of money .","id":"c1ffbcdb6ccc8b34211535bee122ed0f10ae3235"} -{"article":"Multicultural, multilingual and multifaceted, there's more to Miami than meets the eye. Make the most of your stay with these tips. Miami Beach during Spring Break may not be to everyone's taste. Get around Miami is a sprawling city and exploring it on foot just isn't an option. Unless you're planning on spending all your time on the beach, you're probably going to want your own set of wheels. There are car hire places scattered throughout the city, but if you want to cruise Ocean Drive in style you can hire a Harley-Davidson from Peterson's (19400 NW 2nd Avenue), from $100 a day. But before you hop on that hog, a word of caution: Miami's motorists have been named the most aggressive in the U.S. for the last two years. If you're in Downtown, the Metromover is an automated monorail that you can ride for free. It also makes a good vantage point for photographing the surrounding skyscrapers. If you're out and about in Coral Gables you can take advantage of the recently launched a free shuttle service. Life's a beach If you're in Miami, the chances are you'll be wanting to kick back and soak up some of that glorious Florida sunshine. South Beach is the classic Miami sunning spot, but if you want to avoid the crowds, Sunny Isles Beach, at the northern end of Miami Beach, is a better bet. Nearby, Haulover Beach is another good bet and is \"clothing optional\" -- handy if you're trying for an all-over tan. A little further afield, Key Biscayne, five miles from the mainland, has some great beaches, as does Fort Lauderdale, some 30 miles north of Miami. Do you live in Miami? Share some insider tips of your own. Breaking point From early March to mid April Miami is plagued by a voracious swarm of college kids on their spring break. These exuberant youngsters descend on South Beach, intent on playing beach volleyball, partying hard and vomiting in public. Unless hanging out with beer-belching frat boys is your thing (and why wouldn't it be?), Miami is best avoided during this period. A city for all seasons Because Miami is a beach destination, it has definite holiday seasons. December to March is the peak season. Hotel prices can double, or even triple, and you'll need to book well in advance. Summer means guaranteed sunshine, but it also means tropical downpours. It can also be unbearably humid, all of which means plummeting hotel prices. June to November is hurricane season, although Florida has an excellent advance warning system, which you'd do well to heed. Evergreen Everglades If you can muster the energy to haul yourself off the beach, hire a car and head west to the Evergaldes, a vast, swampy area filled with alligators, flamingoes and hundreds of bird species. Entrance to the Everglade National Park is $10 per car, which grants you access to 1.5 million acres of a unique ecosystem. Just off the southern tip of the Everglades are the Florida Keys, a 130-mile-long chain of coral islands linked by the Overseas Highway. These laid back islands are a world away form the frenetic glamour of Miami Beach. The Keys offer fishing, kayaking and snorkeling, as well as some fine beaches.","highlights":"Miami is a sprawling city -- you'll need a car if you want to explore it .\nHotel prices can fluctuate wildly between low season and high season .\nTake a day trip to the Everglades or spend some time in the Florida Keys .","id":"172a83e31be04816afa95453ee5395518a2d1771"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Former football great O.J. Simpson, convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping, deserves leniency in sentencing as he is a first-time offender who showed no criminal intent, his attorney says in court papers. O.J. Simpson should receive a six-year sentence in a 2007 hotel room confrontation, his attorney says. Attorney Gabriel Grasso argued that Simpson should receive the minimum sentence, six years. Grasso acknowledged in court papers, \"Clearly Simpson was not using good judgment\" during a 2007 hotel room confrontation over sports memorabilia. Simpson could receive a maximum life sentence from Judge Jackie Glass on Friday. A pre-sentencing report recommended an 18-year sentence. On October 3, a jury convicted Simpson, 61, and co-defendant Clarence \"C.J.\" Stewart of 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon. Watch Stewart talk about the night they were arrested \u00bb . Their convictions stem from a September 13, 2007, fracas at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Prosecutors alleged that Simpson led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take sports memorabilia from dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley. Simpson said he was attempting to recover items that belonged to him. Four men charged with Simpson cut deals with the prosecution and testified against him. One testified that Simpson asked him to bring a gun to the encounter. \"These were not crimes committed on strangers, but were acts stemming from prior relationships with the individuals in the room at the Palace Station,\" Grasso wrote in the memorandum. \"There was overwhelming evidence at trial that Simpson's intent was to recover property that was his and only his,\" the lawyer argued. \"The trial testimony showed Simpson's intent was to return anything that did not belong to him. This intention can be heard throughout the recordings of the Palace Station incident.\" He added, \"However, there is nothing in the record to show that Simpson evinced a criminal mind or showed the requisite criminal intent.\" Because of that and other factors, Grasso wrote, Simpson's sentence should fall on the low end of the minimum sentencing range. In a sentencing brief for Stewart, 54, defense attorney E. Brent Byron said his client also should be sentenced to six years, noting he \"did not kill anyone, nor did he bind or gag anyone.\" He had no weapon and \"no witness testified that Mr. Stewart knew that weapons were going to be used,\" the brief said. Both sentencing memorandums note that one of the victims, Beardsley, did not even want the case prosecuted. Attorneys for both Simpson and Stewart have filed motions seeking a new trial. Simpson's lawyers cite seven reasons why a new trial should be granted in their brief, including that he was denied a fair hearing when two African-Americans were dismissed from the potential jury pool. An all-white jury convicted the men.","highlights":"NEW: Probation report recommends 18 years; defense asks for six .\nO.J. Simpson convicted of robbery, kidnapping in October .\nJudge to sentence Simpson on Friday in Las Vegas sports memorabilia case .","id":"e06429ad69ea20dfead1fd2570124e733e57b117"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A missile shield test was a \"smashing success,\" Pentagon officials said Friday, despite the failure of the test to put to rest concerns that the interceptor might not be able to differentiate between real missiles and decoys. Eight of the United States' 13 missile defense tests have been deemed a success. The ground-based interceptor missile, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, destroyed a long-range ballistic missile launched from Kodiak, Alaska, the Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency said. But one key aspect of the test -- to see whether the system could tell the difference between a missile and a decoy aimed at confounding its \"seek\" systems -- failed because the decoy did not deploy. Officials told CNN on Thursday that Friday's test would be the most realistic of 13 missile shield system tests conducted to date. Eight of the 13 tests have now been deemed a success by the Pentagon. Watch a Pentagon spokesman explain the Friday's problem \u00bb . This was the first test in which a crew at an alternate fire control center in Alaska remotely launched the interceptor missile from California. The \"initial indications,\" according to the Defense Department, are that all components of Friday's test performed as designed. Critics have long complained that the tests are not realistic because they don't involve balloons or other simple decoys that, they argue, could easily fool the interceptor. Watch a report on the defense system \u00bb . In Friday's test, however, the target was a mock warhead and was supposed to be accompanied by \"countermeasures similar to what Iran or North Korea could deploy,\" according to a missile defense agency official. The intention was for the interceptor's kill vehicle to distinguish the target from the decoys. But the decoy that was supposed to deploy to test the system did not. The Pentagon blamed a 40-year-old target system. \"Countermeasures are very difficult to deploy. We have had trouble deploying them in the past,\" said Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O'Reilly, director for the Missile Defense Agency. But O'Reilly said that the interceptor did differentiate between the actual missile target and the upper stage of the missile it had detached from. The test, which had been delayed several times, comes at a crucial time for the $100 billion system, as President-elect Barack Obama is about to take office. Early in his campaign, Obama pledged to \"cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.\" But he later said he would support missile defense systems if they work. \"The biggest threat to the United States is a terrorist getting their hands on nuclear weapons,\" Obama said in the September 26 presidential debate. \"And we are spending billions of dollars on missile defense. And I actually believe that we need missile defense, because of Iran and North Korea and the potential for them to obtain or to launch nuclear weapons.\" Friday's test also showed the Pentagon that multiple sensor systems were able to network together and hone in on a single object, O'Reilly said. \"All those sensors working together, at any one time the system knew which sensor was reporting what and tracking it and gave the war fighter one presentation of a target,\" O'Reilly said soon after the test was finished. \"That was one tremendous accomplishment for us.\" Last month, the outgoing head of the Missile Defense Agency said that not only are U.S. missile defenses workable, they are up and running. \"Our testing has shown not only can we hit a bullet with a bullet, we can hit a spot on the bullet with a bullet. The technology has caught up,\" Lt. Gen. Trey Obering said. CNN's Jamie McIntyre and Adam Levine contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: \"Countermeasures\" failed to deploy during test .\nMissile launched from Alaska; interceptor launched from California .\nShield critics have long complained previous tests didn't involve decoys .\nPresident-elect Obama has said he'll support missile defense systems if they work .","id":"1983136ca3289f22a9fefde9b333fcfaa912ae54"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Meinhardt felt like a clown jammed into a Volkswagen bug when she lived in a 21-square-foot room aboard a circus train. Kate Meinhardt crammed her life into a 21-square-foot room while she lived aboard a circus train. Bungee cords crisscrossed her walls once a week to prevent an avalanche of items from raining down. A microwave, mini refrigerator, her laptop and baskets of personal items lined the dorm-like room. Showering, going to the bathroom and even doing laundry became racing contests on the train, Meinhardt said. The 13 people on board shared one shower, two toilets and one washer and dryer. \"It's a pretty tough life living in such a small space,\" she said. The 23-year-old spent almost a year as an animal handler for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. While most iReporters haven't run off to join the circus, some have traded in their homes for smaller digs. One iReporter even opted for a floating lifestyle, where he could sail away at a moment's notice. iReport.com: Living in tight quarters . Living on a 25-foot boat was only supposed to be temporary, but Jim Smith loved it so much he stayed there for a year. \"I have lived in a 25-foot sailboat, a 28-foot motor home, a 32-foot sailboat and now an 800 square-foot apartment,\" Smith said in his iReport. \"I was happiest with the 25-foot sailboat.\" While docked in Panama City, Florida, Smith kept his expenses to a minimum. The marina slip rent was only $200 and electricity was included in the rent, he said. The boat did not have refrigeration so Smith kept his food inside an insulated ice box. For 79 cents at the discount grocery store, he could buy a 10-pound bag of ice that would last him several days, even during the summer. Air conditioning wasn't a luxury Smith had either, but fans and sea breezes kept him cool. \"Sometimes the less you have, the more you like it,\" he said. The portable lifestyle also charmed a father-son duo who set out on a yearlong European vacation. A camper van took them wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Spencer Pearson and his 15-year-old son, Bryce, bought a 150-square-foot van in Germany for their European excursion. Living out of the van meant \"no reservations, no packing and unpacking of suitcases, no strange beds,\" Pearson said. Modern amenities weren't amiss on the van, which included everything from the Internet and entertainment to a complete bath and kitchen, and there were occasional hotel stays and meals out that made the trip more pleasant. The simple life also enticed Deborah Greant and her husband to trade in their Calgary, Canada, home for an RV. Both she and her husband have neuromuscular problems and needed extra help taking care of their large home. Since moving into a 240-square-foot RV, they can manage the house themselves. \"We didn't want to be owned by our things,\" Greant said. \"We jettisoned pretty much everything except things from former generations.\" While two people living in an RV can be tight, imagine a family of six trying to do the same. Mounting living expenses and a job relocation prompted the Chervenkas to sell their home and move into a 32-foot RV. Two pets came along, too. The Chervenkas weren't forced to do this. Their goal was to become debt-free and save money for their children's college educations. When pilot Tim Chervenka got transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina, the family set up camp in a 32-foot RV. The temporary situation turned into a permanent one. The family said goodbye to paying a first and second mortgage and pricey utilities. They now pay only $500 a month, utilities included. \"It's made such an adjustment in our personal life without the juggling,\" Cindy Chervenka said. \"We have so much more family time. It's a good feeling.\" Cindy Chervenka has some advice for others thinking of a drastic downsizing: \"Step out of your comfort zone and try it. We didn't plan on doing this full-time, but once we discovered it, we thought, 'hey we can do this forever!' Until you step out and try it, you'll think it's not doable.\"","highlights":"iReporters share their experiences of living in a small space .\nKate Meinhardt lived aboard a circus train as an animal handler .\nJim Smith traded in his home for a 25-foot sailboat .\niReport.com: Do you live in a small space?","id":"8879c7867ee349292426e6a1d0bc888261f6ccab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Breakaway conservative members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and its Canadian counterpart are expected to formally announce Wednesday the formation of a rival North American Anglican church. The consecration of Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire left many conservatives disaffected. Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a network of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, are expected to unveil a draft constitution for a new ecclesiastical territorial division, or province, at an evening service in Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, Illinois, the group said in a written statement. \"The public release of our draft constitution is an important concrete step toward the goal of a biblical, missionary and united Anglican Church in North America,\" Bishop Robert Duncan of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, diocese, said in the written statement. The move comes after years of debate over issues from the interpretation of the Bible to homosexuality. Tensions reached a boiling point in 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay man, Rev. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. The move outraged worshippers with traditionalist tendencies, and since then, four dioceses and several parishes have left the Episcopalian Church, including Duncan's Pittsburgh diocese. In all, the newly formed division will consist of about 100,000 members from the secessionist dioceses and parishes, along with splinter groups that had left the Episcopalian Church in earlier years, said Robert Lundy, a spokesman for the group . \"This constitution brings them back together under one church, all aligned together,\" Lundy said. \"This is all these folks coming back together.\" Lunday said it was safe to say Duncan will lead the nascent province. An assembly is likely to be called next year to determine additional leadership, he said. The Rev. Dr. Charles K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, issued a statement saying it would not hazard a guess as to the consequences of Wednesday's service. \"We will not predict what will or will not come out of this meeting, but simply continue to be clear that the Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada and the La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, comprise the official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America,\" he said. \"We reiterate what has been true of Anglicanism for centuries: that there is room within the Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ.\" The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, which is composed of 38 provinces around the world. It was not immediately clear which of the other provinces would recognize the Anglican Church in North America, but Lundy said in a meeting last year in Jerusalem indicated that some would do so. Lundy said the draft constitution will state the province's core beliefs and doctrine. He said it will not lay out definite policies for issues the leaders disagree on, such as ordaining women.","highlights":"Network of breakaway traditionalists expected to announce formation of rival province .\nMove comes after years of dispute over progressive direction of Episcopal Church .\nTipping point for many was consecration of gay man as bishop of New Hampshire .\nNew division expected to take in 100,000 from parishes that left Episcopal Church .","id":"69594f786c934ebdcfc4af1a2db9d703db3fca3a"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters collided Saturday night while landing in northern Baghdad, killing one Iraqi soldier, a U.S. military spokesman said. Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, similar to this, crashed Saturday in northern Baghdad, the U.S. military says. Two U.S. troops and two Iraqi soldiers were injured, said military spokesman Lt. Patrick Evans. Enemy fire is not suspected, he said. However, two Interior Ministry officials said that a U.S. helicopter crashed in northeastern Baghdad as a result of clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and gunmen. The Iraqi officials said the area was sealed off, so they did not know casualty figures. One Iraqi official said the gunfight continued late into the night. U.S. officials said they did not know how many people were onboard. The crash occurred at Combat Outpost Ford in Adhamiya, a northern Baghdad neighborhood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, the U.S. spokesman said. An Iraqi official said the helicopter went down in Talbiya, a stronghold of Shiite militia.","highlights":"Two Blackhawk helicopters crashed while landing in Baghdad, U.S. military says .\nIraqi soldier killed; coalition soldiers, Iraqi troops are among the injured .\nInterior Ministry officials say one helicopter crashed during military clashes .","id":"c9a8fd1367f993937b0fb2af2f82a9be1dc317d0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Former Culture Club singer Boy George has been convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort. The judge told Boy George he faced jail. Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, said the frontman with the 1980s band beat him with a metal chain as he tried to flee his London flat after a naked photo shoot. A jury at a London court found on Friday that the case was proven against the 46-year-old musician -- tried under his real name of George O'Dowd. The singer declined to give evidence during the trial but the jury heard he told police he handcuffed Carlsen to his bed while he investigated alleged tampering with his computer. Carlsen told the court O'Dowd invented the story about computer tampering so he could punish him for not having sex at a previous meeting. He said: \"I think he couldn't handle the refusal -- me not having sex with him.\" O'Dowd looked grim as the verdict was delivered, according to the Press Association. The singer was bailed until sentencing on January 16. Judge David Radford warned him that he was likely to face jail. \"The fact that your bail is being continued does not imply that this will be dealt with by a non-custodial sentence. I don't want any false expectations created,\" he said.","highlights":"Boy George convicted by jury in London of falsely imprisoning male escort .\nNorwegian Audun Carlsen said star beat him with metal chain after photo shoot .\nSinger told police he handcuffed Carlsen while he investigated tampered computer .","id":"761bf72f1ae3fb685b394f3710ec5a76025f0b94"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The world knows her as the daring nanny who, clutching a 2-year-old boy, pushed past the havoc in a terrorized Mumbai and risked her life to keep the toddler safe. Sandra Samuel bravely saved the life of Moshe Holtzberg, 2, but says she sees no heroism in her actions. But Sandra Samuel sees no heroism in her actions amid last week's terror attacks on India's financial capital that killed nearly 180 people -- including baby Moshe's parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. She only wishes she could have done more. \"Even today, I am thinking I should have sent the baby and done something for the rabbi and his wife,\" Samuel told CNN in an exclusive television interview in Israel, where she now lives. Samuel and Moshe were among the few to make it out of the Chabad House alive after gunmen stormed the Jewish center, killing the Holtzbergs and four others. Israel's Chabad movement has set up a fund to provide for Moshe's care. He is being looked after by members of the community, although who will serve as his guardian has not yet been established. The nanny says she came face to face with a gunman late Wednesday, the first night of the siege. \"I saw one man was shooting at me -- he shot at me.\" Watch CNN's Paula Hancocks talk with Samuel \u00bb . She slammed a door and hid in a first-floor storage room and attempted to reach the rabbi and the others on the second floor. Overnight, Samuel frantically tried to call for help as gunfire and grenade blasts shook the Chabad House. Samuel says she emerged early the next afternoon, when she heard Moshe calling for her. She found the child crying as he stood between his parents, who she says appeared unconscious but still alive. Based on the marks on Moshe's back, she believes he was struck so hard by a gunman that he fell unconscious at some point as well. \"First thing is that a baby is very important for me and this baby is something very precious to me and that's what made me just not think anything -- just pick up the baby and run,\" Samuel said. \"When I hear gunshot, it's not one or 20. It's like a hundred gunshots,\" she added. \"Even I'm a mother of two children so I just pick up the baby and run. Does anyone think of dying at the moment when there's a small, precious baby?\" Watch Samuel describe the escape \u00bb . Outside, chaos flooded the streets as people tried to make sense of the massacre that killed at least 179 people and wounded 300 others. Ultimately, she and Moshe reached safety at the home of an Israeli consul before arriving in Israel, where she is considered a hero. In the aftermath of the attacks, Moshe asked for his mother continuously, Samuel says, and he is learning to play again -- though he likes the nanny close by. And while she still has nightmares of the horrific siege that took hold of Mumbai, Samuel, a non-Jew and native of India, said she will stay in Israel for as long as Moshe needs her. Watch as Samuel describes boy asking for his mother \u00bb . \"Yes, yes, they said it is important I am here,\" she said. \"Me, I just take care of the baby.\"","highlights":"Sandra Samuel, who saved toddler's life, sees no heroism in her actions .\nWhy she faced gunfire: \"This baby is something very precious to me\"\nSamuel: \"When I hear gunshot, it's not one or 20. It's like a hundred gunshots\"\nFor now, she will stay in Israel helping take care of orphan toddler that she saved .","id":"6c3e38f97b830625ffa95587b082e0d80be54ed5"} -{"article":"Sara, 29, has lived in Miami for five years, where she works as freelance writer and film maker. Her blog, All Purpose Dark, keeps tabs on the city's nightlife and restaurants, and she is also the editor of the Miami edition of UrbanDaddy.com. Sara has lived in Miami for five years and says the city has a vibrant arts scene. CNN: What made you start blogging the city? Sara: When I moved down here I realized there was so much more to the city than just the beach and the hotels. There were lots of extravagant condo-building parties at the time -- the type where you'd go to the construction site, because the building was still in the planning stages, and they'd throw this lavish catered party with open bar and feather dancers in an effort to get people to buy units. We were going to at least three of these events a week and I felt the need to document it. So my blog started out as kind of a nightlife, event-driven blog and eventually became a chronicle of my adventures in the city, focused now mostly on my eating adventures. CNN: What makes Miami so special to you? Sara: I think Miami is a place of unbridled optimism. It's also a place of great opportunity. There's lots of room here for entrepreneurial spirit and it's very much encouraged and appreciated. Just look at how much the city has changed in five years, in terms of the revival of Downtown and the Design District, and the thriving art scene. It's a place that is still evolving identity-wise and I'm excited to be a part of it. CNN: Is there anything you dislike about the city? Sara: The seasonal aspect of the city can be frustrating -- the way it shuts down in the summer and then revs up in the winter. Also, the crowding in the winter, when all the seasonal residents come back and suddenly there are no parking spaces, the lines at the grocery store are horrendous and you realize you're trying to live in a tourist Mecca and get your errands done when everyone around you is vacationing. Oh and the drivers -- possibly the worst driving etiquette in the country. CNN: Is Miami just about the sun and sand, or is there more to it? Sara: There's definitely more to this city than the tropical getaway. There's a vibrant art scene, where each month the gallery district is alive with opening receptions and throngs of people interested in getting out and seeing the scene. There's also the internationally renowned Art Basel art fair that comes to town every year putting Miami on the cultural map. Also, food-wise there's lots of exciting things going on, from an incredibly diverse selection of Latin cuisine. Everything from Argentinean to Venezuelan food, to Haitian, to Caribbean -- there's a ton of great ethnic food here. There's also a growing high-end dining scene, where a lot of the national trends, like organic, locally sourced cooking, are happening on a very high level. CNN: Could you describe a typical Miamian's weekend? Sara: A typical weekend would probably entail going to dinner in the Design District on Friday night, going for a walk or a bike ride along the beach on Saturday morning, then lunch on Lincoln Road. Saturday night there are usually some great DJs in town, so it's worth checking out the Downtown club scene, or if it's Art Walk, the galleries in Wynwood. Sunday is spent perusing farmers markets, which are popping up in most neighborhoods, and lazily reading the paper over brunch. Sunday night is always bingo at the Standard hotel, a hipster hangout. CNN: Where do you shop? Sara: I usually head to the Aventura Mall if I'm looking to hit a bunch of stores in one fix. There's Bloomingdales, Urban Outfitters and your typical mall stores, like Banana Republic, etc. Collins Avenue in South Beach between 10th and 6th is good for Barney's Co-op (where there's always a sale), Intermix and the Webster. CNN: If Miami was a person, what would she or he be like? Sara: Attractive, laid back and stylish. Loves the beach and the sun but is also involved in a personal creative pursuit -- business, fashion, art or nightlife. .................................. Do you agree with Sara? Send us your comments in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best .","highlights":"Sara is a freelance writer and film maker who blogs about Miami's nightlife .\nShe says Miami is a place of unbridled optimism and great opportunity .\nThe city has a vibrant arts scene and exciting international cuisine, says Sara .","id":"dcebe447c665a12ff14efffe32152cd0785e5204"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Germany's richest woman has said a former lover has threatened to release pictures of them together if she does not pay him millions of euros (dollars), according to her spokesman. Susanne Klatten holds a 12.5-percent stake in BMW. Susanne Klatten's spokesman Joerg Appelhans told CNN Tuesday that the BMW heiress alerted police in January this year that she was the victim of fraud and blackmail by a man he identified as Mr. S. Appelhans said the man had been threatening since autumn 2007 to release pictures of their \"meetings\" together. Klatten \"came to the conclusion that the relationship with Mr. S. was of a solely criminal nature,\" Appelhans said. Some German media reports say Klatten is one of four rich German women who have been preyed on by the same gang. \"His goal was from the beginning to con her and to blackmail her into giving him money. She rigorously notified authorities even in light of the uncomfortable public repercussions this would have for her. The ensuing criminal investigation led to the arrest of the perpetrator,\" Appelhans added. \"The blackmailing with pictures of the meetings they had began in the fall of 2007. First, the blackmailer demanded a loan of several million euros. Later, he attempted to solicit a much larger sum.\" Anton Winkler, from the Munich state prosecutor's office, confirmed that an investigation has been opened and that a man called Helg Scarbi was arrested in January and is in custody in Munich. He declined to give further details. Rome daily La Repubblica, quoting documents German investigators sent to Italian prosecutors, has reported that the suspect allegedly tried to obtain \u20ac40 million ($51 million) from Klatten, according to The Associated Press. Klatten, the daughter of the late BMW chief Herbert Quandt, holds a 12.5-percent stake in the German carmaker and a 51.1-percent share of chemical company Altana. In 2007 Forbes magazine listed her as the world's 68th richest person, with a personal fortune of $9.6 billion. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Germany's richest woman says she is being blackmailed for millions of euros .\nBMW heiress says man threatening to release pictures of their \"meetings\"\nMunich state prosecutor says man was arrested in January .","id":"6b326bdf291b203b6e63271860ba84caebf2f18d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the revised version of $700 billion bank bailout plan intended to bolster the ailing U.S. financial system. Wall Street traders had been watching developments in Washington closely. The House rejected the original bill on Monday, sending stocks tumbling around the world. But lawmakers approved the rescue package, backed by U.S. President George W. Bush and Treasury chiefs, Friday after the U.S. Senate passed it by a large majority on Wednesday. Congress voted 263 to 171 in favor of the bailout bill. President Bush signed the bill into law Friday afternoon. Stocks on Wall Street slumped Friday, as the brutal week ended. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.5 percent, according to early tallies. For the week, the Dow ended down 818 points, the biggest weekly point loss in seven years and the third-biggest weekly loss on a point basis ever. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1.4 percent Friday and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.5 percent. Bush thanked all those involved and said the bill was essential to stopping the crisis on Wall Street becoming a crisis in the wider economy. Bush said it sent a message to the rest of the world that the U.S. was ready to take action to ease the credit crunch. He said it would take sometime for the bill to have an impact on the American economy. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said he applauded the vote. \"It demonstrates the government's commitment to do what it takes to support and strengthen our economy. The legislation is a critical step toward stabilizing our financial markets and ensuring an uninterrupted flow of credit to households and businesses. \"The Federal Reserve will continue to work closely with the Treasury as it undertakes these new initiatives. We will continue to use all of the powers at our disposal to mitigate credit market disruptions and to foster a strong, vibrant economy,\" Bernanke said. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the author of the plan, said Americans would appreciate the leadership of their elected representatives. \"We will move rapidly to implement the new authorities, but we will also move methodically,\" he said. Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the vote that hearings would be held into how the U.S. economy end up needing the bailout. Pelosi said the U.S. needed regulatory reform to prevent the same situation being repeated in the future. She said a much better bill may have been achievable in different circumstances, but the situation was urgent and middle class needed to be protected. Stock markets around the world have endured days of turmoil as a consequence of uncertainty over Washington's response to the credit crisis. U.S. markets opened brightly Friday, following heavy losses the previous day, amid fresh expectation that the bailout plan would go through. By 11.50 a.m. (1550 GMT) the Dow Jones was up 1.79 percent and the Nasdaq was up 2.80 percent. Asian markets slipped earlier in the day with Japan's Nikkei Exchange closing the week down 215.05 points, or about 1.9 percent at 10,939.71 -- a new three-year low. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2.9 percent to 17,682.40 and key indexes across the region were all down. European markets were flat in morning trading, but rallied after Wall Street opened with London's FTSE 100 up 2.15 percent, Paris' CAC up 2.96 percent and Frankfurt's DAX up 2.55 percent. The banking world has been in turmoil in recent weeks with many institutions scrambling for survival as credit has dried up, leaving many holding \"toxic\" subprime debt following the collapse in U.S. house prices. In the latest development Friday, troubled U.S. bank Wachovia announced it would merge with Californian banking giant Wells Fargo in a deal valued at approximately $15.1 billion. (Full story) The merger will include all of Wachovia's banking operations, Well Fargo said. Wachovia had looked set to be sold to Citigroup in a deal brokered by the federal government. The core of the Senate financial bailout bill is a plan to buy troubled assets from banks, but the proposal includes a number of new provisions aimed at ordinary people struggling under the credit crunch. Blog: Will the bailout plan fix the economy? The changes -- including $110 billion in tax breaks and raising the limit at which bank deposits are guaranteed from $100,000 to $250,000 -- were intended to attract more votes from the House -- especially from Republicans, two-thirds of whom voted against that version. Explainer: What next for the bailout plan? But the bill also includes some odd sweeteners -- so-called \"pork-barrel legislation\" -- such as an excise tax exemption for a very specific type of arrow used by child archers, a $478 million tax incentive scheme to encourage movie companies to continue producing films in the U.S, and measures to allow employers to provide benefits to employees who commute to work by bike. Watch where's the pork? \u00bb . Speaking in Friday's debate, Republican Congressman Steven LaTourette accused senators of \"larding up\" the bill. \"Let's do it right. The pork doesn't belong in the bill,\" he said. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. House of Representatives backs revised $700 billion bank bailout bill .\nLawmakers rejected rescue plan Monday; passed by Senate Wednesday .\nWall Street stocks rallied on expectation bill would be passed .\nBailout enables U.S. Treasury to buy up bad debts to ease credit crisis .","id":"6f039b0d39932ac4bbd3bf85eba1690376ff50c5"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Four armed robbers -- two of them men disguised as women -- walked into a luxury jewelry store in Paris and swiped an estimated \u20ac80 million (U.S. $101 million) in jewels, the Paris prosecutor's office said. Robbers dressed in drag stole more than $100M worth of jewelry from a Harry Winston store in Paris. The incident, which lasted about 15 minutes, took place Thursday around 5:30 p.m. at the Harry Winston store near the famed Avenue des Champs-Elysees, around the corner from a police station. The case has been turned over to the unit in charge of handling organized crime cases, said Isabelle Montagne, assistant to Paris prosecutor Jean Claude Marin. No shots were fired and no one was wounded, she said. Watch more on the heist \u00bb . After they entered the store, the four thieves pulled out their weapons, forced the customers and employees -- about 15 people in all -- into a corner, and grabbed jewels out of display cases and safes, the prosecutor's office said. The robbers seemed to know the locations of secret hiding places for jewels and called some employees by their first names, it said. The group then fled the store, which is located on a wide street near subways and other public transportation. French state radio reported that it was not immediately clear how the robbers left the area. Investigators believe it was the work of a highly professional group, and that the culprits were French or from elsewhere in Europe, state radio reported. In a written statement, the Harry Winston company said, \"We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation. Our first concern is the well-being of our employees.\" The same shop was robbed of millions of euros worth of jewelry just 14 months ago, in October 2007. -- CNN's Jim Bittermann and Niki Cook contributed to this report.","highlights":"Robbers -- some in drag -- steal estimated $102m in loot from Paris jewelry store .\nThieves swiped rings, necklaces and luxury watches from display cases .\nHarry Winston store is near the Champs-Elysees .","id":"e1a11c97e810f6f843229195199e9c10e35fed0f"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Former gridiron great O.J. Simpson will serve at least nine years in prison for his role in an armed confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel in 2007. O.J. Simpson told the judge Friday that he was sorry for what he did but didn't think it was wrong. Simpson was sentenced to a maximum of 33 years with the possibility of parole after nine. Before the sentence, he offered a rambling, emotional apology in which he told District Judge Jackie Glass, his voice shaking, that he was sorry for his actions but believed he did nothing wrong. Glass, however, brushed his apology aside, saying his actions amounted to \"much more than stupidity,\" and calling him both arrogant and ignorant. \"Earlier in this case, at a bail hearing, I said to Mr. Simpson, I didn't know if he was arrogant, ignorant or both,\" Glass said. \"During the trial and through this proceeding, I got the answer, and it was both.\" She stressed that the sentence was not \"payback for anything else,\" apparently referring to Simpson's acquittal 13 years ago in the slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. Watch the judge say the sentence isn't about the past \u00bb . Grimacing, Simpson was escorted from the courtroom in shackles. Defense attorneys said Glass' sentence was appropriate. \"It could have been a lot worse,\" Yale Galanter said, noting that Simpson and co-defendant Clarence \"C.J.\" Stewart both could have been sentenced to life in prison. A jury convicted Simpson, 61, and Stewart, 54, on 12 charges including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon stemming from a September 13, 2007, incident at Las Vegas' Palace Station hotel and casino. Prosecutors alleged that Simpson led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take sports memorabilia from dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley. Simpson claimed that he was attempting to recover items that belonged to him. All the men except Stewart made deals with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony. \"We're happy that this case is coming to an end,\" Clark County district attorney David Roger said. \"We're satisfied that we presented a good case to a jury, that the jury listened to all the evidence, particularly the audiotapes, and came to the resolution that we asked them to come to.\" He said he thought the sentence was fair. Simpson's conviction came October 3, the 13th anniversary of his controversial acquittal in the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman. Follow a timeline of Simpson's legal woes \u00bb . Glass said, \"I'm not here to sentence Mr. Simpson for what's happened in his life previously in the criminal justice system. ... The jury decided. There are many people who disagree with that verdict, but that doesn't matter to me.\" Goldman's father and sister were in the courtroom for Friday's sentencing. \"The back of his head looks the same as it did every day that we watched him in the criminal case, and we feel very proud of our efforts,\" Kim Goldman said. \"We feel very strongly that because of our pursuit of him for all these years, that it did drive him to the brink of this.\" Although Simpson was acquitted in the deaths, a civil jury later found him liable, slapping him with a $33 million judgment. Attorneys for the Goldman family have doggedly pursued Simpson's financial assets to pay the judgment. In sentencing Simpson on Friday, Glass noted that he can be heard on tapes of the incident referring to the Goldmans as \"gold-diggers\" and saying he doesn't want them to get his property. See how his sentence breaks down \u00bb . \"If that pushed him over the edge, great,\" Fred Goldman said afterward. \"Put him where he belongs.\" Watch Fred and Kim Goldman react \u00bb . Galanter said he thought the Goldmans' presence was \"inappropriate.\" \"I don't think they should have been here,\" he said. \"It reminded us all how the criminal justice system can run afoul, because the only thing Simpson should have been judged on is what happened here in Nevada.\" Denise Brown, the sister of Nicole Brown Simpson, issued a statement on the sentence saying, \"It is very sad to think that an individual who had it all, an amazing career, beautiful wife and two precious children, has ended up like this. \"Allowing wealth, power and control to consume himself, he made a horrific choice on June 12, 1994, which has spiraled into where he is today.\" Brown said she was saddened that the couple's two children \"once again face the tragedy of yet another parent absent in their lives.\" In the statement, she asks for prayers for the children, Sydney and Justin, and the Brown family. Before being sentenced, Simpson told Glass he was \"sorry, somewhat confused, apologetic.\" He said the items he was trying to recover were his late ex-wife's wedding ring for his daughter and family photos for his son. Watch Simpson's apology \u00bb . \"I just wanted my personal things. I was stupid. I'm sorry,\" Simpson said. \"I didn't know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends. I thought I was retrieving my things. I didn't mean to hurt anybody, and I didn't mean to steal anything.\" But Glass rejected those statements in imposing the sentence. \"When you take a gun with you and you take men with you ... in a show of force, that's not just a 'Hey, give me my stuff back,' \" Glass said. \"That's something else. And that's what went on here, and that's why we're all here. \"I have to tell you, it was much more than stupidity. ... You went to the room, you took guns -- meaning you and the group -- you used force, you took property, whether it was yours or somebody else's, and in this state, that amounts to robbery with the use of a deadly weapon.\" The judge said Simpson's contrite words in court were not as powerful as his angry words, as caught on tape, during the confrontation. \"Everything in this case was on tape,\" Glass said. \"The evidence in this case was overwhelming.\" Simpson's attorneys asked that he be sentenced to no more than six years. A presentencing report recommended an 18-year term. Stewart received a sentence similar to Simpson's but will be eligible for parole in 7\u00bd years. \"I am as happy as someone could be when they know their client is going to reside for at least seven years in a cage,\" said Stewart's attorney, Brent Bryson. Defense attorneys for both Simpson and Stewart have said they will appeal. On Friday, Glass denied motions asking that both defendants be allowed out on bail while the appeal is pending. CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"O.J. Simpson was convicted of robbery, kidnapping, assault in October .\nJudge Jackie Glass said evidence in case was overwhelming .\nCharges stem from 2007 confrontation in Las Vegas hotel room .\nDefense attorneys say they will appeal judge's sentence .","id":"7d25729b08f7ef2b790111d10ed299632d24cc4c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new space race is officially under way, and this one should have the sci-fi geeks salivating. Lift to space: This is a NASA interpretation of what a space elevator may look like. The project is a \"space elevator,\" and some experts now believe that the concept is well within the bounds of possibility -- maybe even within our lifetimes. A conference discussing developments in space elevator concepts is being held in Japan in November, and hundreds of engineers and scientists from Asia, Europe and the Americas are working to design the only lift that will take you directly to the one hundred-thousandth floor. Despite these developments, you could be excused for thinking it all sounds a little far-fetched. Indeed, if successfully built, the space elevator would be an unprecedented feat of human engineering. A cable anchored to the Earth's surface, reaching tens of thousands of kilometers into space, balanced with a counterweight attached at the other end is the basic design for the elevator. It is thought that inertia -- the physics theory stating that matter retains its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force -- will cause the cable to stay stretched taut, allowing the elevator to sit in geostationary orbit. The cable would extend into the sky, eventually reaching a satellite docking station orbiting in space. Engineers hope the elevator will transport people and objects into space, and there have even been suggestions that it could be used to dispose of nuclear waste. Another proposed idea is to use the elevator to place solar panels in space to provide power for homes on Earth. If it sounds like the stuff of fiction, maybe that's because it once was. In 1979, Arthur C. Clarke's novel \"The Fountains of Paradise\" brought the idea of a space elevator to a mass audience. Charles Sheffield's \"The Web Between the Worlds\" also featured the building of a space elevator. But, jump out of the storybooks and fast-forward nearly three decades, and Japanese scientists at the Japan Space Elevator Association are working seriously on the space-elevator project. Association spokesman Akira Tsuchida said his organization was working with U.S.-based Spaceward Foundation and a European organization based in Luxembourg to develop an elevator design. The Liftport Group in the U.S. is also working on developing a design, and in total it's believed that more than 300 scientists and engineers are engaged in such work around the globe. NASA is holding a $4 million Space Elevator Challenge to encourage designs for a successful space elevator. Tsuchida said the technology driving the race to build the first space elevator is the quickly developing material carbon nanotube. It is lightweight and has a tensile strength 180 times stronger than that of a steel cable. Currently, it is the only material with the potential to be strong enough to use to manufacture elevator cable, according to Tsuchida. \"At present we have a tether which is made of carbon nanotube, and has one-third or one-quarter of the strength required to make a space elevator. We expect that we will have strong enough cable in the 2020s or 2030s,\" Tsuchida said. He said the most likely method of powering the elevator would be through the carbon nanotube cable. So, what are the major logistical issues keeping the space elevator from being anything more than a dream at present? Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics and astronautics Professor Jeff Hoffman said that designing the carbon nanotube appeared to be the biggest obstacle. \"We are now on the verge of having material that has the strength to span the 30,000 km ... but we don't have the ability to make long cable out of the carbon nanotubes at the moment.\" he said. \"Although I'm confident that within a reasonable amount of time we will be able to do this.\" Tsuchida said that one of the biggest challenges will be acquiring funding to move the projects forward. At present, there is no financial backing for the space elevator project, and all of the Japanese group's 100-plus members maintain other jobs to earn a living. \"Because we don't have a material which has enough strength to construct space elevator yet, it is difficult to change people's mind so they believe that it can be real,\" he said. Hoffman feels that international dialogue needs to be encouaraged on the issue. He said a number of legal considerations also would have to be taken into account. \"This is not something one nation or one company can do. There needs to be a worldwide approach,\" he said. Other difficulties for space-elevator projects include how to build the base for the elevator, how to design it and where to set up the operation. Tsuchida said some possible locations for an elevator include the South China Sea, western Australia and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. He said all of those locations usually avoided typhoons, which could pose a threat to the safety of an elevator. \"As the base of space elevator will be located on geosynchronous orbit, [the] space elevator ground station should be located near the equator,\" he said. Although the Japanese association has set a time frame of the 2030s to get a space elevator under construction -- and developments are moving quickly -- Hoffman acknowledges that it could be a little further away than that. \"I don't know if it's going to be in our lifetime or if it's 100 or 200 years away, but it's near enough that we can contemplate how it will work.\" Building a space elevator is a matter of when, not if, said Hoffman, who believes that it will herald a major new period in human history. \"It will be revolutionary for human technology, and not just for space travel. That's why so many people are pursuing it,\" he said. \"This is what it will take to turn humans into a space-bearing species.\"","highlights":"Japan group has more than 100 engineers trying to design a space elevator .\nCarbon nanotube would be used as a wire to lift the elevator into space .\nWestern Australia and the Galapagos Islands are potential locations for base station .\nGroup sets the 2030s as a target to begin construction, although it could be later .","id":"f292e4e5eb96c355f993620df4cd4663c6dcbf1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama told supporters that \"change has come to America\" as he claimed victory in a historic presidential election. Sen. Barack Obama addresses a crowd of 125,000 people in Chicago, Illinois. \"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there,\" Obama said in Chicago, Illinois, before an estimated crowd of up to 240,000 people. With Obama's projected win, he will become the first African-American to win the White House. Obama had an overwhelming victory over Sen. John McCain, who pledged Tuesday night to help Obama lead. Watch Obama pay tribute to McCain \u00bb . \"Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much, and tonight, I remain her servant,\" McCain said. McCain called Obama to congratulate him, and Obama told the Arizona senator he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together. President Bush also called Obama to offer his congratulations. Bush told Obama he was about to begin one of the great journeys of his life, and invited him to visit the White House as soon as it could be arranged, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Obama will be working with a heavily Democratic Congress. Democrats picked up Senate seats in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, among others. Read about the Senate races . \"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress,\" Obama said. Watch more on the balance of power \u00bb . Flanked by American flags, Obama told the roaring crowd, \"This is your victory.\" \"To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too,\" he said. Watch Obama tell voters 'all things are possible' \u00bb . Supporters in Chicago cheering, \"Yes, we can\" were met with cries of \"Yes, we did.\" More than 1,000 people gathered outside of the White House, chanting \"Obama, Obama!\" Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's former rival for the Democratic nomination, said in a statement that \"we are celebrating an historic victory for the American people.\" iReport.com: Share your Election Day reaction with CNN . \"This was a long and hard fought campaign but the result was well worth the wait. Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world.\" Sen. Ted Kennedy said Americans \"spoke loud and clear\" in electing Obama. \"They understood his vision of a fairer and more just America and embraced it. They heard his call for a new generation of Americans to participate in government and were inspired. They believed that change is possible and voted to be part of America's future,\" the Massachusetts senator said in a statement. As results came in Tuesday night, Obama picked up early wins in Pennsylvania and Ohio -- states considered must-wins for McCain. Obama also won Virginia, a state that has not voted for a Democratic president since 1964. Going into the election, national polls showed Obama with an 8-point lead. Voters expressed excitement and pride in their country after casting their ballots in the historic election. Poll workers reported high turnout across many parts of the country, and some voters waited hours to cast their ballots. Read about election problems . Tuesday marks the end of the longest presidential campaign season in U.S. history -- 21 months. Obama, 47, will now begin his transition to the White House. He will be sworn in at the 44th president on January 20, 2009.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Barack Obama to voters: \"Change has come to America\"\nNEW: Sen. John McCain congratulates Sen. Barack Obama .\nObama will be working with heavily Democratic Congress .\nHe will be inaugurated on January 20, 2009 .","id":"f0c30617317bcf73065f5b894558e101575f6e44"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue engineered from her own stem cells in what experts have hailed as a \"milestone in medicine.\" Claudia Castillo, 30, suffered from tuberculosis for years. The breakthrough allowed Claudia Castillo, 30, to receive a new section of trachea -- an airway essential for breathing -- without the risk that her body would reject the transplant. Castillo was given the stem cell surgery, the controversial branch of medicine that some say could lead to human cloning, after suffering a severe lung collapse. The condition, caused by long-term tuberculosis left Castillo, a Colombian now living in Barcelona, unable to carry out simple domestic duties or care for her two children. The only conventional option was a major operation to remove her left lung, a risky procedure with a high mortality rate. Sound off: What do you think about this medical breakthrough? A team from the universities of Barcelona, Spain; Bristol, England; and Padua and Milan, Italy, decided instead to replace Castillo's lower trachea and bronchial tube to her left lung with a lab-grown airway. The operation, reported Wednesday in the British medical journal The Lancet, has been hailed as a major leap for medicine that could offer new hope for patients suffering from serious illness. \"Surgeons can now start to see and understand the very real potential for adult stem cells and tissue engineering to radically improve their ability to treat patients with serious diseases,\" said Martin Birchall, professor of surgery at the University of Bristol, who was part of the team that did the operation. \"We believe this success has proved that we are on the verge of a new age in surgical care.\" To create the new windpipe, the team took a seven-centimeter (2.75-inch) segment of trachea from a 51-year-old who had died. Over a six-week period, the team then removed all the cells from the donor trachea, because those cells could lead to rejection of the organ after transplant. All that remained of the donor's stripped-down trachea was a matrix of collagen, a sort of scaffolding onto which the team then put Castillo's own stem cells -- along with cells taken from a healthy part of her trachea. Birchall had already taken Castillo's stem cells from her bone marrow and grown them into a large population in his Bristol lab. Watch Dr. Gupta explain the procedure \u00bb . Four days after putting Castillo's stem cells into the donor trachea, the team was able to perform the transplant operation at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona. Castillo had no complications from the operation and was discharged from the hospital 10 days later. \"We are terribly excited by these results,\" said Paolo Macchiarini of the University of Barcelona, who performed the operation in June. Watch Macchiarini describe the operation \u00bb . Macchiarini said just four days after the operation, the transplanted windpipe was \"almost indistinguishable\" from the patient's normal bronchi. After one month, he said, the blood vessels had successfully grown back. \"We think that this first experience represents a milestone in medicine and hope that it will unlock the door for a safe and recipient-tailored transplantation of the airway in adults and children,\" the authors said in their report. \"We hope that these future patients will no longer suffer the trauma of speech loss, severe shortness of breath and other limited clinical and social activities.\" The doctors said Castillo is now able to care for her children and enjoy a normal quality of life. She can walk up two flights of stairs and occasionally even go out dancing at night. In a comment accompanying the Lancet report, Toshihiko Sato and Tatsuo Nakamura of Kyoto University in Japan said the operation should be highly regarded, but follow-ups from longer evaluation periods are needed to better evaluate the results.","highlights":"Only a few windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.\nTransplant given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two .\nWoman's stem cells used to create cartilage, tissue cells to cover new windpipe .\nDoctors say procedure could become a new standard of treatment .","id":"ec3bd30dfb1fa9c9bb3963b15ab57c9586a03b3e"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama told the nation Tuesday night that \"the dream of our founders is alive\" and that he's ready to fulfill his campaign mantra of bringing change to America. \"Change has come to America,\" President-elect Barack Obama told the nation on Tuesday night. \"At this defining moment, change has come to America,\" Obama, who will be the nation's first black president, told a crowd of about 125,000 people in Chicago's Grant Park. Obama, born in Hawaii to a white mother and black father, said his victory proves that America is a place where all things are possible. Paying tribute to the legions of volunteers and voters who carried him to victory, Obama echoed the words of Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, saying those legions proved \"a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth.\" \"This is your victory,\" he told his supporters, praising \"working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to this cause.\" Watch Obama say all things are possible in U.S. \u00bb . Obama pledged to heal partisan wounds left after a bruising election battle, again using the words of Lincoln, the first Republican in White House. \"As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies, but friends ... though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.' \"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long,\" Obama said. Obama used the life of 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper of Atlanta, Georgia, to illustrate what the nation has overcome in her lifetime, including the Depression, world wars, the nation's quest for civil rights, a man on the moon, the fall of the Berlin Wall and even a world connected by technology. \"Tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?\" Obama said. \"This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment,\" he said. Obama hinted he's even looking beyond his first term, and through the first eight of those next hundred years. \"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there,\" he said. Obama congratulated his rival John McCain and praised McCain's service to the country as a politician and Navy pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam. \"He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves,\" Obama said. \"I look forward to working with (him) to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.\" Watch Obama's praise of John McCain \u00bb . He also thanked his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, for their patience through the long presidential campaign. \"You have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House,\" he told his daughters. Obama spent the first part of his historic Election Day voting, visiting campaign staffers and playing a little basketball. Following an Obama campaign tradition, he arrived Tuesday afternoon at a gym on Chicago's west side, where a campaign spokeswoman said he met with friends for a game of round ball. The game was the latest stop in Obama's busy day, which began early in the morning at a polling station in his Hyde Park neighborhood. Earlier, a smiling Obama and his wife cast ballots at the Shoesmith Elementary School. \"I hope this works,\" Obama said after placing his ballot into a scanning machine. \"I'll be really embarrassed if it doesn't.\" Watch Obama family at voting station \u00bb . Obama's vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, voted in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, casting ballots with his wife, Jill, and his 90-year-old mother. Watch Biden vote \u00bb . People at the polling station also cheered as Biden voted. Election Day came shortly after Obama learned his 86-year-old grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died following a bout with cancer. Read more about the death of Obama's grandmother . Obama has described his grandmother, who helped raise him in his native Hawaii, as an integral figure in his youth, saying she struggled to succeed in a business dominated by men. Watch more on Obama's grandmother \u00bb . Obama traveled to Hawaii in late October to visit her. CNN's Mike Roselli contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Victory proves anything is possible in America, Obama says .\nNEW: Obama promises daughters puppy in the White House .\nNEW: Obama salutes McCain's campaign, sacrifice .","id":"4e2db22c67957a9eec3868fa6557120e27b1e4ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In April 2007, UEFA's executive committee voted to accept a joint proposal from Poland and Ukraine to host the European football Championships in 2012. Poland faces a struggle to upgrade many of its venues, such as Tenth Anniversary stadium in Warsaw. The decision to award the tournament to Poland -- a former communist country -- and Ukraine -- a former Soviet Republic -- was viewed with surprise by many in the world of sport as they had defeated a rival bid from established football powerhouse Italy. In addition to providing economic benefits -- hosting Euro 2008 was worth over $450 million to the Austrian economy according to its government -- staging such a high-profile international event would cap their remarkable transformation into credible democracies in the eyes of the world. However, both countries have had to address a number of problems. Watch more about Poland's bid \u00bb . Political instability remains an issue in Ukraine -- the fragile ruling coalition recently collapsed -- while Poland's national team narrowly avoided a suspension after football's world ruling body FIFA said its federation had done little to stamp out corruption. A match-fixing scandal in the domestic league in 2005 led to about 70 people being arrested, though no one has been prosecuted. Significantly, neither country has hosted a major sporting event and concerns remain about the shortage of adequate stadiums, high-quality hotels and poor transport infrastructure in both Poland and Ukraine. With the proposed semi-final venues in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk and the Polish capital Warsaw, fans would currently be faced with a 30-hour train journey to attend both games. Although there are plans to expand and improve the highway linking the nations. The opening match is scheduled to be staged at a new 70,000-capacity National Stadium in Warsaw when construction work is completed in 2009 at a cost of $800 million. The final will be held at Kiev's redeveloped Olympic Stadium, however all 12 proposed venues need considerable work in order to comply with international standards. The remaining games will be held in the Polish cities of Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw, Chorzow and Krakow, as well as the Ukrainian cities of Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk. Concerns about the readiness of the co-hosts led to a warning in June this year from UEFA President Michel Platini that they risked losing the right to stage the tournament if stadiums in their capitals were not ready. This prompted a defiant response from the prime minister of Poland, who vowed to prove the skeptics wrong and make the 2012 European Championship an organizational triumph. \"We are aware that there are countries interested in us failing and the only successful rebuke to that will be better coordination and solidarity in our actions,\" Polish premier Donald Tusk told reporters at the time. Bizarrely, the head of Poland's Football Association, Michal Listkiewicz, offered Uefa an alternative option for 2012 after voicing his concerns about Poland's ability to overcome its transport issues. \"If the European Championships took place in 2016, we would have no problems about being ready then,\" Listkiewicz told Germany's Die Zeit Online. \"But realistically we are looking at having no good roads in time for 2012,\" he said. \"From Gdansk (in Poland) to Donetsk (in the Ukraine) is more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). This is not like in Austria and Switzerland where everything lies close together.\" Both countries were given a partial reprieve in September this year after UEFA's executive committee met in Bordeaux to discuss a progress report on preparations for the tournament. \"The executive committee reconfirmed UEFA's commitment to organize Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine,\" Platini told uefa.com. \"At the same time, the committee stressed a number of conditions must be met in order to bring forward the whole project.\" \"If we don't have the stadiums in Kiev and Warsaw, that's a problem. Ukraine can't afford to send everyone to a country where there is no capital city (ready),'' Platini said. \"They are working very hard and we have confidence in them. The president and the prime minister tell me it will be ready. What am I supposed to say? That I don't believe them?'' He added that the committee would review the progress again in May 2009. UEFA will then confirm the cities that will host matches. Meanwhile, the Scottish FA has offered to step in to host the tournament if UEFA decides to look elsewhere. Failure to host Euro 2012 is not an option in both Kiev and Warsaw. It would be viewed as a national embarrassment.","highlights":"Doubts persist about Poland and Ukraine's ability to stage tournament in 2012 .\nPolish FA fighting corruption claims within its domestic league .\nOther issues include inadequate stadiums and a poor transport infrastructure .\nUEFA warned both countries to speed up its progress .","id":"536f9715d12ef79d0333721766e8303e31c1a5cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The cool of Barack Obama was very much on display on a warm day in Boston's Christopher Columbus Park during the summer of 2004. John Kerry, right, and Obama confer at the 2004 DNC, where Obama wowed the crowd with his keynote address. It was going to be a big day for the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. In a few hours, on that night, July 27, 2004, he was to give the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center about a mile away. But as he gave a lunchtime speech on environmental policy to a leisurely crowd of about 100 people at the green space on Boston Harbor, he was relaxed and loose, seemingly unconcerned about what was ahead. Taking notes amid the crowd, I hoped to get a few minutes with the candidate. I'd been told about his vaunted charisma -- my two brothers, both of whom live in Chicago, had mentioned his oratorical gifts -- but in person Obama seemed familiar, even a touch wonky, as he talked about asthma rates and the Bush administration's environmental record. I chatted with Obama's press attach\u00e9 and with a Chicago Tribune reporter, David Mendell, as the speech wound down, and was offered a ride in a nondescript minivan back to the Fleet Center. Even then Obama was attracting attention; several members of the audience gave him enthusiastic greetings as he left the scene to get in the van. In the front passenger seat of the van, the rail-thin Obama, obviously hungry (he later told me he'd lost eight pounds since the beginning of the campaign), chewed on a sandwich and joked with the other passengers as I peppered him with questions during the 20-minute ride. He answered with deliberate thoughtfulness, though he'd probably heard at least a few of them dozens of times already. Was he worried about the speech, the kind of spotlight that had made political leaders including William Jennings Bryan, Mario Cuomo and Ann Richards national figures? \"There's going to be some adrenaline,\" he said, after taking off his tie and unbuttoning his white dress shirt. \"But the pressure I'm experiencing is nothing compared to folks I'm meeting getting laid off. ... That's real pressure.\" And what about the Senate race? Illinois Republicans were in disarray and better-known, better-funded candidates had fallen by the wayside, with Obama seemingly now a sure thing for the seat. \"Three months is a lifetime in politics,\" Obama replied. By now, Obama's rise is well known: the son of a Kenyan father and Kansas mother, raised in Indonesia and Hawaii, community organizer, Harvard Law Review editor, author, law instructor, politician. He's been astutely revealing in his books, notably his 1995 memoir \"Dreams From My Father,\" and his presidential campaign has reflected his demeanor. But none of it was foreordained. In the fall of 2003, when he was still an Illinois state senator, he was one of seven candidates running for Peter Fitzgerald's vacated U.S. Senate seat. One of his opponents was a multimillionaire; another was the Illinois state controller. Obama was unknown and underfunded. \"I remember asking [at one event], 'Where is he?' \" Mendell recalled at the Boston rally. \"And somebody said, 'He's parking the car.' \" Mendell's description of Obama's 2004 race offers echoes of his painstaking, grassroots 2008 campaign. Obama had some good luck: The multimillionaire, Blair Hull, had details of his ugly divorce come out during the campaign. But Obama's success was also a tribute to his meticulous resolve. \"He ran a really smart primary campaign,\" Mendell said. \"He waited until the ninth inning to score all his runs. ... It was masterfully done.\" Mendell later wrote a book on Obama, \"Obama: From Promise to Power.\" Not even Obama knows for sure how he landed the keynote slot. In his 2006 book, \"The Audacity of Hope,\" he writes, \"The process by which I was selected ... remains something of a mystery to me.\" He didn't meet 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry until the Illinois primary was over, he recalls; he spoke at a Kerry fundraiser but didn't know he'd be giving a speech at the DNC until weeks later. Even then, he didn't know he'd deliver the keynote until told by Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. According to an August article in The New Republic, Obama was selected over some better-known names by the Kerry brain trust, which included Cahill and adviser Robert Shrum, for various reasons. As an African-American, he would help attract minority voters; Obama was also youthful and energetic, qualities that the Kerry campaign wanted to display on television. And he had a good rapport with Kerry, Mendell told the magazine. \"It's Kerry kind of looking at him [at the fundraiser] and picking up tricks from the rookie,\" Mendell said. \"That was the event where he really impressed Kerry.\" The keynote, of course, electrified the nation and introduced America to the man who would become president. \"Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us,\" Obama said. \"Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America. ... \"We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.\" He gave a hint of those words in the van on the way to the Fleet Center. He was going to give a unifying message, he said, not one that reinforced the \"slash-and-burn politics\" that had divided the country. \"People know [President] Bush isn't the cause of every problem in the world, and they know the Democrats aren't a bunch of raving lunatics,\" he said. Having finished the sandwich, the van approaching its destination, and prepared to enter the Fleet Center for another round of interviews. When that was over, he was going to take a jog. \"Then a long shower,\" he added, \"and maybe a nap.\" History may have awaited, but he wasn't perturbed. Then again, maybe he knew something the rest of us didn't. He'd completed the speech a couple weeks earlier, and he must have suspected its power. In a New Yorker article by Ryan Lizza, Obama's friend Marty Nesbitt also recalls the buzz building around Obama that day, and a clue Obama gave as to what was next. \"My speech,\" Obama said, \"is pretty good.\" Watch another 'pretty good' address: Obama's victory speech \u00bb .","highlights":"Writer rode with Obama on his way to give keynote address at 2004 DNC .\nObama's keynote electrified the nation, emphasized unity .\nCandidate John Kerry took a chance giving keynote to lesser-known Obama .\nObama calm: Said the pressure \"nothing compared to folks ... getting laid off\"","id":"8693bfc0ba4008ed54f1409a99b2fce60ea9e67b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Faced with a nationwide financial crisis, a volatile stock market and rising unemployment and inflation rates, many Americans are making changes in their personal spending habits. Single mother Ingrid Zaharris said financial woes forced her to take her daughter out of gymnastics classes. Ingrid Zaharris started cutting back drastically in May. She and her 6-year-old daughter moved into a smaller home in Allen, Texas, after realizing that she would be unable to afford the summer electricity bills coupled with the cost of rent for her house. Financial worries also forced Zaharris to take her daughter out of gymnastics classes and stop the lawn service. \"I'm just trying to get back to basics,\" she said, adding that she has considered even getting rid of her car. \"I'm just trying to get rid of those extra things just to get by.\" Zaharris is one of many iReporters who shared stories of dealing with a worsening economy. Like many others, she wonders how she wound up in such a tough financial situation. iReport.com: Read more of Zaharris' story . \"Every day I ask myself, why does someone who has a salary over $80,000 struggle so much?\" Zaharris wrote on iReport.com. \"Gas costs more, groceries cost more, there are always checks to write for things at [my daughter's] school. The money just trickles away.\" Molly Zolad of Woodbridge, Illinois, said she's trying to simplify her life and make smart financial decisions. She stopped using credit cards and has made small day-to-day changes such as brewing her own coffee. \"I had no idea how much waste I truly had in my life until the crunch of everything hit at once,\" she wrote on iReport.com. \"Medical bills for myself, my two dogs, and the pay decrease from my company ... it all adds up.\" Zolad says the biggest sacrifice has been her time. She began a second part-time job at her church to earn extra money and avoid paying a baby sitter. She said her new lifestyle has made an \"amazing difference.\" iReport.com: Read more of Zolad's story . Kathleen Fallon shared on iReport.com a list of several luxuries that she gave up such as cable, land-line phones, dining at restaurants and allowances for her children. She told CNN's Josh Levs that the sacrifices have been \"a gift in some ways.\" \"We're having more conversation, we're finding things to do as a family that are free, we play basketball, we play tennis. Homework's getting done better too.\" Watch Levs' interview with Fallon \u00bb . John Stevens, on the other hand, is \"scared to death.\" \"I'm currently in a Chapter 13 to save my condo, but I don't even think that will work for me,\" he said. \"The payment to the trustee every month is too high and along with the mortgage payment.\" Stevens works in the automotive industry and said his pay has been decreasing around $200 per month lately. He is considering changing careers, but says that many companies in his home state of Connecticut aren't hiring. According to a nationwide report released Tuesday by the American Psychological Association, as many as 80 percent of Americans are stressed about their personal finances and the economy. Nearly 7,000 Americans responded to the survey between April and September of this year. Within five months, anxiety about the economy rose from 66 percent to 80 percent. \"I'm tired of what's going on and how the average citizen is suffering and our top leaders are more concerned with the big corporations and Wall Street,\" Stevens said. \"I'm sad right now because I don't know how my future or even the next day is going to be.\" iReport.com: Read more of Stevens' story . iReporter Peter Cabrera also expressed anger about the Wall Street crisis because of the financial struggles affecting his parents. \"Both my parents did everything the right way,\" said Cabrera, a doctoral student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. \"They worked hard, they saved.\" His father has retired early, Cabrera said, \"and he's now watching his 401K disappear.\" iReport.com: See why Cabrera is 'terrified' for his parents . Mia Cole of Memphis, Tennessee, is making a major sacrifice because of financial struggles: She's giving up her ideal wedding. \"Our dream wedding has turned into just that ... a dream,\" she wrote on iReport.com. \"After months of no dinner dates, salon appointments or name-brand condiments, we managed to save a few thousand for a low-key dream wedding,\" she said. But in the two months since Cole and her fianc\u00e9 were both laid off from their jobs, they have used that money to pay for everyday expenses. \"More than likely we will go to a justice of the peace and say our vows and pray that in a few years when we are better and the country is better, our dream will come true,\" Cole said.","highlights":"iReporters are forced to change lifestyles, give up luxuries in tough economic times .\nOne iReporter is giving up her \"dream wedding\" because of layoffs .\nWhat are you giving up? Share it with iReport.com .","id":"bb169fa70ad3afdc0ef848d29abd8832aaa5bc3b"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates who hijacked a crude oil tanker off the coast of Kenya are approaching a Somali port, the U.S. Navy says. An undated photo of the Sirius Star in South Korean waters. The Sirius Star -- a crude \"super tanker\" flagged in Liberia and owned by the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco company -- was attacked on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. The crew of 25, including British, Croatian, Polish, Filipino and Saudi nationals, are reported to be safe. U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the super tanker weighs more than 300,000 metric tons and \"is more than three times the size of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.\" Oil industry insiders say a tanker of this size can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil, and the ship's operator, Dubai-based Vela International Marine Ltd, says it is fully laden. A U.S. Navy spokesman said the tanker is approaching Eyl, Somalia, on the Indian Ocean coast. It is routine procedure for pirates to take hijacked ships to shore, where they will keep them while they discuss negotiations. A multinational naval force including vessels from the U.S., the UK and Russia has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters seas near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, following a sharp increase in pirate attacks in the region. \"It was attacked more than 450 nautical offshore of Mombasa. This means that the pirates are now operating in an area of over 1.1 million square miles. This is a measure of the determination of the pirates and ... a measure of how lucrative piracy could become,\" Campbell said. Campbell said the Navy does not expect to dispatch a vessel to aide the super tanker because it does not have dangerous weapons aboard like the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms that was seized by pirates on September 25. The UK Foreign Office confirmed two Britons were aboard and said it was seeking more information about the incident. South Korean officials said on Sunday that armed gunmen hijacked a Japanese freighter and its 23-member crew off the coast of Somalia. The hijacking came as the Korean government was considering sending a warship to join those of other countries to combat piracy in the area. A Russian patrol ship also thwarted an attack on a Saudi vessel. Eleven vessels are currently being held by pirates hoping to secure ransoms for their release, according to The Associated Press. They include the MV Faina, which was hijacked along with 20 crew and a cargo of weapons and T-72 tanks. Ninety percent of ships transiting the perilous seas are using a guarded corridor and there have been no hijackings inside the zone since it was set up on August 22, Danish Commodore Per Bigum Christensen told AP last week. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. \"Our presence in the region is helping deter and disrupt criminal attacks off the Somali coast, but the situation with the Sirius Star clearly indicates the pirates' ability to adapt their tactics and methods of attack\" said U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces. \"Piracy is an international crime that threatens global commerce. Shipping companies have to understand that naval forces can not be everywhere. Self protection measures are the best way to protect their vessels, their crews, and their cargo.\" CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Hijacked super tanker heading towards port in Somalia, U.S. Navy says .\nSaudi-owned oil tanker has 25 crew aboard in the Arabian Sea .\nPirate attacks have increased sharply in perilous Gulf of Aden region this year .\nMultinational naval force has been patrolling the area to provide protection .","id":"4df1fb2b81e22650a33a43a72428dfd7447b06ef"} -{"article":"ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- Ollie James is 84 years old and a doubter no more. Ollie James, 84, says he knows Obama is going to win, because he believes \"God answers prayers.\" \"I know he is going to win,\" James said after services at Leonard Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. \"See, God answers prayers, and I am a praying man, and I know he is going to win.\" The \"he\" James is referring to is Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. \"From where I came from, with the segregation and all the hatred, I never thought an African-American would get this far in the United States. Really.\" But three weeks until Election Day, James and many other African-Americans are now optimistic they will be part of history. \"I am kind of anticipating it will happen,\" said Raymond Henderson, a soft-spoken African-American man in his 60s. \"But no, I did not expect it to happen in my lifetime.\" It is the flip side of the \"race debate\" in Campaign 2008: While the Obama campaign and its Democratic allies are aggressively working to address the concerns of blue-collar and rural whites who are reluctant to support a black candidate for president, there is an enthusiasm in the African-American community that Democrats believe could lead to dramatically increased turnout and perhaps tip the scales in several key battlegrounds, Missouri among them. African-Americans cast 10 percent of the ballots for president in 2000 and about 12 percent in 2004. Obama aides believe if that percentage increased just modestly in 2008, it could make the difference in at least a half-dozen states: Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Wisconsin and Nevada are additional battlegrounds where Obama organizers are counting on an increase in African-American turnout in their Election Day game plan. To reach its goal, the campaign is counting on a combination of newly registered African-Americans and aggressive outreach to tens of thousands black voters who are registered to vote but have stayed home in past elections. See why African-Americans are finding hope in Obama \u00bb . At Leonard Missionary Baptist, the Rev. Steven Thompson is careful not to preach from the pulpit: He exhorts his congregants to vote but does not preach in favor of or against any specific candidate. Still, a visit to his services found an overwhelmingly pro-Obama crowd, and Thompson says the enthusiasm level about this election is unprecedented in his two decades as the inner-city church's pastor. \"The energy comes from the fact that it is historical, and we've got a lot of first-time voters and many like myself who have been through a few, and it still has that pumped up energy in it,\" Thompson said. Increased African-American turnout is all the more important because of Obama's tougher challenge in more conservative, rural areas. In the Missouri Ozarks, a roadside billboard shows a cartoon of Obama with a turban, his middle name \"Hussein\" in bold red letters. \"Hmmmm,\" Thompson said when shown a photograph of the billboard, keeping his trademark calm. \"If I spent my time getting angry about the things people do, then I can't do what I effectively do here,\" Thompson said as he gestured toward the pulpit. \"Those people who do stuff like that, the only thing I can say is, we pray for them.\" Fredrick Lemon II says that for months, he doubted that Obama could win, but now he believes he can. Still, Lemon took time after services to compliment Republican nominee John McCain for trying to calm angry supporters at recent rallies, including a woman last week who incorrectly said she was worried about an Obama presidency because he is Arab. \"It has gotten a little nasty,\" Lemon said. \"But I think that John McCain really showed some integrity and some character when he was at the last town hall meeting and some people said some disparaging remarks and he corrected them. And that just shows that he does have integrity.\"","highlights":"African-Americans in Missouri excited about Obama's chances .\n84-year-old: \"I never thought an African-American would get this far in the U.S.\"\nObama aides think African-American vote could help in half-dozen states .\nCampaign working to re-energize voters who used to stay home, reach new voters .","id":"80f91d738f559569782c0c1625b5b1342cf40dd7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Christopher Lloyd picked through the charred remnants of his Montecito, California, home Monday morning, resigning himself to the fact it cannot be rebuilt. Christopher Lloyd's $11 million home in Montecito, California, was destroyed by the \"Tea Fire.\" The \"Back to the Future\" and \"Taxi\" star showed ABC's \"Good Morning America\" what remained of his $11 million home in the exclusive celebrity neighborhood northwest of Los Angeles. \"Boy, look at that,\" Lloyd said as he approached the rubble. \"All this happens in a couple of minutes.\" Lloyd's home was among dozens of homes lost in wildfires in Southern California. The \"Tea Fire\" which started at the privately owned Tea Garden Estate, about a mile north of Santa Barbara's Westmont College, ripped through an area that Oprah Winfrey, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe and other celebrities call home. Lloyd told \"Good Morning America\" that it was \"just sort of sinking in\" that his home was gone for good. \"It's amazing, its just gone,\" Lloyd told \"Good Morning America.\" \"Rebuilding would be -- it's too much. You can't rebuild that.\" The home's windows were blown out, entire sections demolished, and piles of concrete, ashy trees and shrubbery were scattered across the property. \"You watch TV, you see these kinds of incidents happening here and there, but you look with a kind of detachment because it's happening ... elsewhere,\" he told \"Good Morning America.\" \"But suddenly to be in the midst of it -- it's a very different awareness.\" Lloyd joked that he had been planning on organizing and storing memorabilia from the home, but never got around to it. \"Kind of don't have to worry about that now,\" he said.","highlights":"Christopher Lloyd's home one of dozens destroyed by California wildfires .\nLloyd: \"Rebuilding would be -- it's too much. You can't rebuild that\"\nLloyd: Having home destroyed brings \"different awareness\" than watching on TV .","id":"88b8d239aee192d01e410fab76cb969bf953fd7c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British filmmaker, screenwriter and playwright, Mike Leigh has been in the movie business for over 35 years. Leigh on screenwriting: \"I don't make a conventional screenplay ... it's a whole organic process.\" In that time, he has been nominated for five Oscars, as well as winning the Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival for \"Naked\" in 1993, the Palme d'Or there for \"Secrets & Lies\" in 1996 and the Leono d'Oro at Venice Film Festival in 2004 for \"Vera Drake.\" Famous for his fierce independence (read refusal to work in Hollywood), Leigh's work is known for gritty realism and a focus on underprivileged sections of British society. Another of Leigh's calling cards is an unconventional approach to screenwriting. \"The Screening Room\" caught up with the veteran director at the International Screenwriters' Festival in the UK earlier this year to ask him more about his approach to making films. The Screening Room: Why is this festival so important to you? Mike Leigh: I am a filmmaker who is both a writer and director and I have this way of making films where the writing and the actors and the shooting is all combined together. I don't make a conventional screenplay ... it's a whole organic process. TSR: What do you think other scriptwriters can learn from you? ML: I think screenwriters who, because of the politics and economics of the film industry, are forced to work in a much more conventional way, are always fascinated to discuss with me how I work. TSR: There is this romantic idea that screenwriting has to be a painful, solitary experience. That's not what you experience, though. ML: No, I don't sit in a room writing a script solo. My films are highly structured. Everything you see in my films is very precisely written, very thoroughly researched, but actually it is done through rehearsal, it's done through improvisation and research. I work for six months with the actors before we shoot anything, then the shooting of the film is in itself then an operation of making the film as I go along in a way, although it's very structured. It's a very sophisticated thing. TSR: How did you first discover that this way the way you wanted to make your films? ML: I trained as an actor, I did a lot of theatre work and, of course, the convention of actually rehearsing is much more prevalent in the theater, although actually what I do isn't really theater practice, it's very film orientated in its nature but it came out of all of those kind of explorations and experiences in the 1960s. TSR: How important is the audition process for you? ML: For me, casting is probably more important than it is for most people. If someone has written a conventional script then a range of actors could do that role. I find actors with whom I can collaborate to create characters, so I have to have actors that are brilliant, who are very intelligent and not all actors are very intelligent, who are versatile, who are character actors and not all actors are, that have a sense of humor, that have a sense of society and commitment, who aren't just narcissistic which a lot of actors are, and people who are patient and courageous. Working with me on these things is dangerous. TSR: When you work with actors do you give them over to the idea that they are shaping the story, or do you always know exactly what you want? ML: I don't always have a structure, and certainly there is no illusion involved. Also, I say to each actor when asking him or her to take part, you will only ever know what your character knows, so they never have an overview of the film. Their actual contribution is as an individual with a responsibility to their character, but my job is to tell the story. It's a very healthy and harmonious division of labor, but certainly, there would be no point in doing it if I didn't set up conditions in which they can really explore and the thing can go in fantastically unpredictable directions. TSR: When you take a script to a producer, how much should you compromise to get the film made? ML: I am the least qualified person in the world to answer that because I don't do that in the first place. I mean, I go to backers with my producers and we say, \"I can't tell you anything about it. I haven't got the script. Give us the money and we will go away and make it.\" And they either say 'yes,' which happens just occasionally, or they say 'no' which happens most of the time. So, I never have a situation where anybody interferes or where I have to compromise. But just in passing I would say that I have a rule about what one should do in the film business which is never compromise.","highlights":"British filmmaker Mike Leigh shares his scripting style and secrets .\nMike Leigh has been in the movie business for over 35 years .\nLeigh's work is known for gritty realism and focus on underprivileged societies .\nHe is also renowned for his unconventional approach to screenwriting .","id":"3b3301b2f6a5c4974baf18b4cf109206829dbc29"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- One of Osama bin Laden's sons has been denied asylum in Spain, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman told CNN on Wednesday. Omar bin Laden pictured earlier this year during a television interview in Rome, Italy. Omar bin Laden, who is in his late 20s, stepped off a plane at Madrid's Barajas International Airport during a stopover late Monday and informed authorities that he planned to request political asylum, the spokeswoman said. Bin Laden has publicly called on his father to abandon terrorism. He prepared his formal asylum request Tuesday at the airport with the help of a translator, filing it around 1 p.m., the spokeswoman said. The Interior Ministry, which had 72 hours to reply to the request, was required to seek the opinion of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on the matter. The UNHCR recommended against granting asylum, the spokeswoman said Wednesday. No reason was given for the denial. It was not immediately known what grounds bin Laden gave for his request, and the spokeswoman said it is unlikely to be disclosed. His flight Monday originated in Cairo, Egypt, and landed in Madrid on its way to Casablanca, Morocco, she said. The request caught Spanish authorities by surprise, she said. Bin Laden, who is married to a British citizen, previously was denied asylum in Britain. He holds a Saudi passport. Since Spain has denied his request, bin Laden has 24 hours to appeal before he is put on a plane back to Cairo, the spokeswoman said. If he appeals, the Spanish government has 48 hours to rule on it. Last year, 7,664 people requested asylum in Spain. The government granted that status to only 570, the spokeswoman said. Al Goodman, CNN's Madrid bureau chief, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Official: Spain denies asylum to Omar bin Laden .\nSpain did not give a reason for turning down the asylum appeal .\nHe has publicly called on his father to abandon terrorism .\nHe was previously denied asylum in Britain .","id":"cf7c301f613ab00d6e07dd222ab9243ef3d272a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World leaders rushed to congratulate President-elect Barack Obama as incumbent George W. Bush called his win \"a testament to hard work, optimism and faith in the enduring promise of our nation.\" Kenya declared a national holiday for Obama's White House victory. Speaking from the White House, Bush said the people had chosen a president \"whose journey represents a triumph of the American story.\" He said: \"It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle and their beautiful girls step through the doors of the White House. \"I know millions of Americans will be overcome with pride at this inspiring moment that so many have waited for for so long.\" Watch the speech from President Bush \u00bb . Across the globe, people in city squares and villages, living rooms and shacks cheered his success, boosting hopes that America's first black commander-in-chief might herald a more conciliatory approach to the rest of the world. Leading the congratulations by world leaders, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was excited about the prospect of working with the new U.S. president. \"I know Barack Obama and we share many values,\" he said. \"And I look forward to working extremely closely with him in the coming months and years.\" Watch as Brown hails 'friend of Britain' \u00bb . German Chancellor Angela Merkel also offered her congratulations and said she would work with Obama to deal with the challenges facing the world. \"I'm convinced that through a close and trusting cooperation between the United States and Europe we will be able to confront new risks and challenges in a decisive manner and will be able to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that are opening up in our world,\" Merkel said. Obama met both Brown and Merkel over the summer while on an international trip through Europe and the Middle East and held a huge rally in Berlin that revived memories of President John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered similar congratulations, urging Obama to join China in shouldering \"important common responsibilities.\" \"I look forward to endeavor together with you,\" he said. \"To push the Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relations to a new level, in order to better benefit our two peoples and the peoples of the world.\" In Kenya, Obama's extended family danced in his ancestral village of Kogelo, chanting, \"Barack Obama, Barack Obama is going to the White House.\" Obama's grandmother, half-brother and relatives eagerly watched the election results, while in the capital Nairobi, revelers marched and danced through the streets to sirens and whistles, singing Obama's name and carrying and waving American flags. Blog from Kogelo, Kenya . Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called Obama's election \"a momentous day not only in the history of the United States of America, but also for us in Kenya. The victory of Senator Obama is our own victory because of his roots here in Kenya. As a country, we are full of pride for his success.\" Watch celebrations in Kenya \u00bb . U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: \"On a personal note, as an African-American, I am especially proud because this is a country that's been through long journey in overcoming wounds, and making race not the factor in our lives.\" Her predecessor, another African-American, Colin Powell said he wept as he watched Obama deliver his victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park. Powell, in an interview with CNN in Hong Kong, said he believed Obama had the potential to be a great president and asked Americans -- including Republicans -- to get behind Obama. Watch as Powell describes his reaction \u00bb . Powell, a retired U.S. general and a Republican, was once seen as a possible presidential candidate himself but endorsed Obama towards the end of the campaign. \"Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well,\" Powell said Wednesday. In Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama lived with his mother and stepfather in the late 1960s, hundreds of students at his old elementary school poured into the playground and danced in the rain, some chanting \"Obama! Obama!\" The Associated Press reported. In a Japanese town bearing Obama's name, jubilation took a few minutes to translate from the group of American teachers to the local crowd, which also cheered \"O-ba-ma!\" CNN's Kyung Lah reported. Watch reaction in Japan and China \u00bb . Financial markets in Asia closed higher Wednesday as traders were hopeful that Obama could successfully tackle the global economic crisis. But in Europe the major markets closed down about 2 percent and U.S. markets closed about 4.5 percent down. Read what Obama must do to tackle crisis . Amid unprecedented turmoil in the financial markets, Wall Street is desperate for an end to the uncertainty that has built up over the two-year campaign. At an election party in Paris, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde highlighted the financial crisis as Obama's priority when he takes office. She told CNN's Jim Bittermann she expected the president-elect to be \"clearly involved\" in the upcoming financial summit being hosted by Bush. Watch Lagarde discuss priorities for the U.S. president-elect \u00bb . In an open letter to Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Obama's election raised in France, in Europe and around the world \"an immense hope\" and that the American people \"had expressed with force their faith in progress and the future.\" Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the American people have taken \"themselves ... and the rest of the world into a new era, the era where race, color and ethnicity ... will also disappear as a factor in politics in the rest of the world.\" Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said: \"We look forward to relations between our two countries that witness, during your rule, further consolidation and development in all different fields, based on a firm contractual ground, common interests and similar values.\" Watch reaction from Iraq, Afghanistan \u00bb . In addition to the global financial crisis, Obama's challenges include Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with Syria -- challenges the Middle Eastern media have dubbed \"the hot files.\" Iran's Deputy Parliament Speaker Mohammad Hossein Abutorabifard offered a mild note of optimism to traditionally thorny relations between his country and Washington. Watch as Iran awaits Obama \u00bb . \"If the United States takes into consideration the realities of the world and chooses suitable policies, America can play its (proper) role in the relations between the United States and the countries of the region and the world of Islam,\" he said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: \"We have no doubt that that the special relations between the two nations will continue and strengthen during the Obama administration.\" Russian President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Obama on his victory and said he was hoping for constructive dialogue with the incoming U.S. president but also highlighted differences between the two countries, including the missile defense plan. Russia expresses hope for a new relationship \u00bb . In Russia, Pravda newspaper was ecstatic, announcing that \"Eight years of hell are over.\" It criticized the cost of the \"grand American soap opera\" during a time of economic crisis. Watch how world's media covered the election \u00bb . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Bush: Obama victory represents a triumph of the American story .\nWorld leaders congratulate Barack Obama on winning U.S. presidential election .\nMost stocks rise in Asia as Obama win seen positively; markets fall in Europe .\nKenyan President Kibaki calls Obama victory \"our own victory\"","id":"b3ea48b0c660d4acc162bc9e79c0d869ecc10dcb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain cemented his front-runner status Tuesday, piling up big wins coast-to-coast, according to CNN projections. Democratic voters remain evenly split over which of their candidates they would rather see get the nomination. Sen. Barack Obama won more states Tuesday, but Sen. Hillary Clinton won states with higher delegate counts. McCain capped the night by taking California and its 170 delegates. After having been nearly written off last summer, the Arizona senator finally felt comfortable enough to call himself the front-runner. \"Tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination of president of the United States. And I don't really mind it one bit,\" he said as results came in Tuesday. Watch McCain claim front-runner status \u00bb . On the Democratic side, Clinton took California, according to CNN projections. While most Republican contests are winner-take-all, most Democratic contests are awarded proportionally based on the number of congressional districts won. Clinton took the larger share of California's 370 Democratic delegates. More about delegates . \"We know what we need is someone ready on day one to solve our problems and seize those opportunities,\" Clinton said Tuesday. \"Because when the bright lights are off and the cameras are gone, who can you count on to listen to you, to stand up for you, to deliver solutions for you?\" Watch Clinton speak to her supporters \u00bb . McCain also won Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Delaware and Arizona, his home state, according to CNN projections. Full February 5 results . McCain has gathered 514 delegates so far in his presidential campaign, including Tuesday night's projections. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 177 delegates, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 122. What do the results mean? \u00bb . In Georgia, Huckabee edged out McCain, who held a slim margin over Romney. Romney got wins in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana and Utah. See who won the popular vote in each state \u00bb . \"One thing that's clear -- this campaign's going on,\" Romney said. \"I think there's some people who thought that it was all going to be done tonight, but it's not all done tonight. We're going to keep on battling.\" Watch Romney vow to fight \u00bb . In addition to Georgia, Huckabee picked up Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia. Watch what Huckabee says about Tuesday's results \u00bb . Going into Super Tuesday, the Republican race had largely been viewed as a fight between McCain and Romney. \"Over the past few days, a lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race. Well, you know what? It is, and we're in it,\" Huckabee said as the results came in. In all, 1,020 Republican delegates were up for grabs Tuesday. To clinch the nomination, a candidate must win 1,191 delegates. Tuesday's contests did not produce a front-runner on the Democratic side. \"Our time has come, our movement is real and change is coming to America,\" Obama said Tuesday. \"We are more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and always will be the United States of America.\" Watch Obama rally his supporters \u00bb . The biggest prizes that Obama won were his home state of Illinois and Georgia, and a larger share of the 288 delegates in those states. Obama also won Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah. Between those states, he would be awarded the larger share of 278 delegates. Watch what the early results mean \u00bb . Clinton was also projected to win her home state of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and the larger share of the 329 delegates at stake in those states. Clinton also won Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and the larger share of the 235 delegates in those states. Republican conservative voters appear to be evenly split between Romney and Huckabee, according to preliminary exit polls of Super Tuesday voters. Of those who voted for Huckabee or Romney, about 80 percent identified themselves as conservative, according to the polls. Watch why voters picked their candidates \u00bb . Only 49 percent of McCain's voters said they were conservative, a sign that the Arizona senator's efforts during the past week to placate conservative voters have not paid off. On the Democratic side, those who made up their mind in the past three days appear to be torn between Obama and Clinton. According to the exit polls, Obama and Clinton are essentially splitting those voters, with 47 percent going for Obama and 46 percent for Clinton. Watch how CNN analysts view the GOP race \u00bb . On the Republican side, front-runners McCain and Romney have engaged in bitter exchanges over their conservative records in recent weeks. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Bill Schneider contributed to this report.","highlights":"McCain solidifies front-runner status .\nClinton takes delegate-rich states .\nHuckabee, Romney vow to keep fighting .\nObama winning more states, but Clinton winning states with more delegates .","id":"e5655381c6d64d55d2abee1eca6184f8d02b1ec1"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The Russian parliament approved a constitutional amendment Friday to extend the presidential term from four to six years. Vladimir Putin was barred constitutionally from seeking a third consecutive term as president. There is widespread speculation in Russian media that the change is aimed at paving the way for a return to the Kremlin by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who remains a popular and powerful figure since leaving the president's office in May. The Kremlin maintains the amendment -- along with other proposed changes to the terms in office for elected officials -- is necessary to ensure the stability of future Russian governments. President Dmitry Medvedev announced the measures just two weeks ago, in his first state-of-the-nation speech on November 5. The lower house of the Russian parliament had its third and final reading Friday before putting the measures to a vote. It passed by a vote of 392 to 57, with those against representing the Communist Party faction. There were no abstentions. Further approval is needed from the upper house of parliament and regional councils before the changes become law. The amendments will come into force when at least two-thirds of the nation's 83 regional parliaments and assemblies -- or 56 -- approve them. Analysts have expressed concern about the rapid movement of the measures through parliament. They say the government may be seeking to capitalize on Putin's popularity amid the financial crisis, which has dented support for the current leadership. The next Russian presidential elections are scheduled for 2012. There is speculation in Russia that the new measures could set the stage for fresh elections, allowing Putin to sidestep a ban on a third presidential term and stand again for president. -- CNN's Matthew Chance and Max Tkachenko contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian media speculates change intended to pave the way for Putin's return .\nKremlin says amendment needed to ensure stability of future governments .\nPresident Dmitry Medvedev announced the measures two weeks ago .\nNext Russian presidential elections set for 2012 .","id":"d98865741a61a1590113fc32b9b0e60a90d1c8e1"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese scientists have produced clones of mice that have been dead and frozen for 16 years -- a feat that could lead researchers to one day resurrect long-extinct species, such as the mammoth. Dolly was cloned using cells from live animals. Now scientists believe they can resurrect extinct species. Until now, scientists have only been able to produce clones using cells from live animals. This is how researchers created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult animal. Researchers had thought that frozen cells were unusable because ice crystals would have damaged the DNA. That belief would rule out the possibility of resurrecting extinct animals from their frozen remains. But the latest research -- published in the journal, Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences -- shows that scientists may have overcome the obstacle. Researchers at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, used cells from mice that had been frozen for 16 years at -20 Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit). They extracted the nucleus and injected it into eggs whose DNA had been removed. Several steps later, the scientists were able to clone the mice. \"This is the first time a mammal has been cloned from a sample stored at conditions reasonably close to what might be expected in permafrost,\" Teruhiko Wakayama, who led the study, said in a statement. \"(It) gives some hope for those who might seek to clone extinct species from frozen carcasses.\"","highlights":"Japanese scientists produce clones of mice dead and frozen for 16 years .\nFeat could lead researchers to resurrect long-extinct species, like mammoth .\nResearchers used cells from mice that were frozen for 16 years at -20 Celsius .","id":"89dbc8653124d5caf46c516422c988a1074ac409"} -{"article":"DOVER, Delaware (CNN) -- It was a very public goodbye for Joe Biden on Friday as the Delaware senator addressed the deployment ceremony of his son's National Guard unit as they prepare to leave for a tour of duty in Iraq. Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden addresses the deployment ceremony Friday. Following Thursday night's debate with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in St. Louis, Missouri, Biden flew back to Delaware to spend the day with his 39-year-old son before his deployment to Iraq. Beau Biden -- a captain in the National Guard and Delaware's attorney general -- will be a trial counselor in the 261st Signal Brigade, a unit that specializes in providing communications for the military in Iraq. \"I've come here many times before as a Delawarean, as a United States senator,\" he told a crowd in Dover. \"But today I come, as you prepare to deploy, as a father -- a father who had some sage advice from his son this morning: 'Dad, keep it short, we're in formation.' \" \"My heart is full of love and pride. ... You are the best demonstration of both our nation's greatness and ... our people's goodness,\" he added. Watch more of Biden's comments \u00bb . Biden joined the rest of Delaware's congressional delegation and the state's Gov. Ruth Ann Minner in speaking to the 110 members of the unit. \"Let me simply say, thank you, thank you for answering the call of your country. ... So stay strong, stand together, serve honorably ... may God bless you and may he protect you,\" Biden added, later saluting the crowd. Beau Biden doesn't ship out right away. Instead, he heads to Fort Bliss, Texas, this weekend, where his National Guard unit completes assigned tasks and receives additional training specific to the conditions in Iraq. Then, in six to eight weeks, they ship out to Iraq. Despite increased interest and security because Biden is now a vice presidential nominee, the public affairs officer for the unit had insisted the ceremony would be no different, and not political. Lt. Col. Len Grattieri said Wednesday that the last time Biden -- who has often spoken at deployment ceremonies -- addressed a departing unit was 18 months ago, and that he usually roots his remarks in foreign policy, offering his perspective on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Grattieri couldn't say where Beau Biden will be based, but his role will be that of a prosecutor enforcing the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He added that positions aren't clearly defined, and the unit will do whatever the Army needs it to. In the past week, Biden had been trying to balance debate prep with family time. On Tuesday afternoon, he took a break and went out to lunch with Beau, Beau's wife, Hallie, and the couple's young daughter. Aides say it's been a tough week for Biden, with Beau's departure weighing on him. Biden said in an interview Tuesday that he is proud of his son, but wishes he weren't going. Palin, along with Biden, brought up their respective sons' deployment to Iraq during the debate. Palin's son Track, 19, an infantry soldier, was deployed to Iraq with his Army unit September 11. Palin spoke at her eldest son's deployment ceremony in Alaska, which honored the 4,000 Alaska-based troops to be deployed from Fort Wainwright to Iraq in the coming weeks. Track Palin, who was standing in formation among members of the 1st Stryker Brigade's 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, went unmentioned by the governor in her brief remarks. Palin had agreed to speak at the deployment ceremony several months ago, before she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate. Though the speech wasn't a political event -- media credentials were issued by the military base -- that didn't stop dozens of national reporters and photographers from descending on the military base in Fairbanks, home to nearly 12,000 soldiers and their families. \"As you depart today,\" Palin told the infantrymen, \"don't mind us -- your parents, your friends, your family -- if we allow for a few tears, or if we hold you just a little close once more before you're gone. Because were going to miss you. We can't help it. We are going to miss you.\" Palin said victory in Iraq is \"within sight.\" \"You and others like you will be there to see the mission through,\" she said. \"You will be there to win. You will see victory. Track Palin signed up to join the Army on September 11, 2007. During his 12-month deployment, his unit will protect reconstruction teams that are rebuilding the country, said Maj. Chris Hyde, the public affairs officer for the brigade. Hyde, who called Track Palin \"a low-profile individual,\" said he had not heard any security concerns about having the son of a prominent political figure in the brigade. \"The decision to put him in that role was made before Gov. Palin was picked by McCain,\" he said. \"If anything comes down from headquarters, we will comply, but I wouldn't even want to speculate. I wouldn't say yes or no. That's just my opinion. We will do well with Track Palin whether he's there or he's not.\" CNN's Peter Hamby, Ed Hornick and Alexander Marquardt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joe Biden speaks at his son's deployment ceremony in Delaware .\nBeau Biden is a National Guard captain and Delaware's AG .\nBiden tells the crowd: \"My heart is full of love and pride\"\nSarah Palin's son, Track, was deployed to Iraq on September 11 .","id":"3a999c065c7f86372b608ff27e6ad4deb3f7b2e5"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Barack Obama did more than thump John McCain in the Electoral College tally; he also handily won the popular vote and redrew the great divide between red states and blue states. Barack Obama addresses a crowd of more than 200,000 at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. Riding a Democratic tide that bolstered the party's presence in both houses of Congress, Obama snared about 63 million votes to McCain's 55.8 million, according to totals early Wednesday. According to exit polls, Obama crushed McCain among women voters (56 percent to 43 percent); voters under 30 (66 percent to 32 percent); African-American voters (95 percent to 4 percent); Latino voters (66 percent to 32 percent); first-time voters (68 percent to 31 percent); and voters making less than $100,000 a year (55 percent to 43 percent). \"I think this is the passing of an old order,\" CNN senior political analyst David Gergen said as the results rolled in Tuesday night and the outcome became increasingly evident. Read what analysts had to say about the victory \u00bb . \"I think what we see ... is a new coalition, a new order emerging. It isn't quite there, but with Barack Obama, for the first time, it's won. It is the Latino vote we just heard about. It is the bigger black vote that came out. Very importantly, it's the youth vote, the 18-to-29-year-old,\" said the Harvard University professor and former presidential adviser. Watch Obama pay tribute to McCain \u00bb . Early voting totals in the East suggested things would go traditionally, with McCain taking most of the Southeast, Obama most of the Northeast. But then things quickly changed, as the senator from Illinois struck -- first in Pennsylvania and then in the Midwest state of Ohio, states McCain had to win in his bid for the Oval Office. Obama then delivered an uppercut in Virginia, a state that had not voted for a Democratic president since 1964. See your state's county-by-county totals . As polls closed from East to West, Obama kept hammering McCain, as he snatched away Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada -- states that had been in President Bush's column in 2004. And Wednesday morning, Obama added Indiana to the list of states he'd turned from red to blue. Indiana hadn't voted for a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. (Missouri and North Carolina were still counting votes Wednesday, but it appeared one or two of them could become blue-state converts as well.) With McCain on the ropes, an Obama victory in Florida sounded the death knell. What's next for Illinois and Delaware? \u00bb . When Indiana fell into Obama's column Wednesday morning, he had a 349-163 lead over his rival in electoral votes, with only 26 undecided. As he claimed victory Tuesday night, Obama told supporters, \"change has come to America.\" \"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there,\" Obama said in Chicago before an estimated crowd of up to 240,000 people. With Obama's win, he becomes the first African-American to win the White House. McCain pledged Tuesday night to help Obama lead. Watch more on the balance of power \u00bb . \"Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much, and tonight, I remain her servant,\" McCain said. The senator from Arizona called Obama to congratulate him, and Obama told him that he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together. Obama will also be working with a heavily Democratic Congress. Democrats picked up Senate seats in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, among others. Read about the Senate races . But Obama pledged to work across party lines and listen to the 46 percent of voters who chose McCain. \"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress,\" Obama said. \"To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too,\" he said. Watch Obama tell voters \"all things are possible\" \u00bb . And he recited the words of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican in White House, to call for unity. \"As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies, but friends ... though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection,'\" Obama said. Watch a discussion of what Obama should do first \u00bb . Supporters in Chicago cheering, \"Yes, we can,\" were met with cries of \"Yes, we did.\" Bush also called Obama to offer his congratulations. The president told Obama he was about to begin one of the great journeys of his life, and invited him to the White House as soon as it could be arranged, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. More than 1,000 people gathered outside the White House, chanting \"Obama, Obama!\" Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's former rival for the Democratic nomination, said in a statement that \"we are celebrating an historic victory for the American people.\" iReport.com: Share your Election Day reaction with CNN . \"This was a long and hard fought campaign, but the result was well worth the wait. Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world.\" Sen. Edward Kennedy said Americans \"spoke loud and clear\" in electing Obama. \"They understood his vision of a fairer and more just America and embraced it. They heard his call for a new generation of Americans to participate in government and were inspired. They believed that change is possible and voted to be part of America's future,\" the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement. Voters expressed excitement and pride in their country after casting their ballots in the historic election. Poll workers reported high turnout across many parts of the country, and some voters waited hours to cast their ballots. Read about election problems . Tuesday marked the end of the longest presidential campaign season in U.S. history -- 21 months. Obama, 47, will begin his transition to the White House. He will be sworn in as the 44th president on January 20.","highlights":"NEW: Obama claims Indiana, 349-163 electoral vote advantage .\nBarack Obama scores wins with women, African-Americans, young voters .\nObama to voters: \"Change has come to America\"\nObama will be working with heavily Democratic Congress .","id":"657fa93300b4793a72c39a7a3fb22d25640e5b99"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John McCain's fight for the White House was a microcosm of his political career and broader life -- full of near-death experiences, stunning comebacks and close calls. Sen. John McCain gestures as he delivers his concession speech Tuesday night. The former Navy fighter pilot, who'd been shot down over North Vietnam and held as a POW, had been able to battle back every time until Tuesday night. He regained respect in the Senate after being accused of improperly helping fraudster savings and loan chief Charles Keating in the 1980s; he got back on speaking terms with the Republican Party base after his primary defeat against George W. Bush in 2000; and he revitalized his campaign after its near-death last summer from lack of cash and power struggles to capture the nomination. What would have been his greatest political comeback -- to seize the White House -- proved to be too difficult. A Republican win in what is being seen as a \"Democratic year\" was always a long shot. Whoever was the GOP nominee was going to have to fight against the legacy of the previous eight years of a Republican president who became highly unpopular because of the Iraq war, administration gaffes such as the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and what turned from a credit crunch into a global economic crisis. The Arizona senator even managed to make the race appear competitive, soaring in the polls on the back of a polished convention and popular VP pick, Gov. Sarah Palin. But he made mistakes, too. Combined with the electorate's disenchantment with his party, it ensured defeat. Turning points . New Hampshire: McCain's great high point came in January, amid the snows of New Hampshire, when primary voters boosted him from long shot to top-tier candidate, just as they had eight years earlier. He stunned a crowded GOP field -- including Mitt Romney, the well-funded former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee -- and proved himself a force to be reckoned with. Not Hillary: Democrats weren't the only ones who expected Hillary Clinton to put a quick end to the primary season -- the Republican machine had spent years honing plans to fight the New York senator in a general election. Not only were those plans ruined, but suddenly the challenger was a fresh face with little baggage who captured the public's imagination. And as the epic Democratic primary season gave many headlines to Barack Obama, it also helped him develop networks of supporters in traditionally red states. And millions of new Obama supporters also became donors, financing a record-breaking fundraising effort. George W. Bush: McCain may never have been a great friend of the president, but he could hardly turn down an endorsement from him at the White House. It was a photo-op that launched a thousand attack ads. Even if the unpopular president was a virtual no-show on the campaign trail, it was easy for the Democrats to remind voters who McCain's party colleague was. Straight talk: One of McCain's strengths had been his relationship with news groups, gaining appreciation by answering reporters' questions until there were none left. But when asked whether he agreed with campaign supporter Carly Fiorina that health insurance plans that covered Viagra should cover birth control as well, he had no answer. Cameras rolled on his Straight Talk Express campaign bus as he sat silently, looking awkward -- long moments of video that would be replayed again and again. Virtually overnight, news conferences disappeared from McCain's agenda as advisers who believed that an open-door media policy did not help persuaded their man they were right. McCain was left to repeat the rehearsed lines of his stump speech, losing the opportunity to impress in candid moments and his likability numbers began to slip. VP pick: McCain made his \"Hail Mary\" pick -- privately acknowledged by some advisers as his only shot of winning -- with the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. For a few weeks, it looked like that game-winning touchdown could happen as the base-rousing running mate burst onto the national scene with such power that the GOP ticket took the lead in major opinion polls. But inconvenient investigations, unfortunate interview performances and questions about qualifications soon hit Palin's approval ratings. McCain's own reputation was tarnished as revelations about hasty vetting raised questions in voters' minds about his judgment. And by then, his central argument against Obama -- that experience was critical -- was essentially off the table given Palin's relatively thin resume. Meltdown response: Ask Republican insiders when they knew the fight was lost, and most will point to McCain's decision to halt campaigning as the depth of the financial crisis became apparent. The rise of the economy from a key election issue to the only issue was never going to help the candidate who'd said earlier it was not his strong suit. But his bid to get in front with a dramatic departure from the campaign trail backfired. He became a bit player at best, again raising the question of leadership ability and judgment and coming up wanting against his opponent. John McCain was never assured victory. But nor was defeat guaranteed. Some of his toughest breaks were outside of his control; other wounds were self-inflicted. Maybe -- given personality, politics and circumstance -- he could not have made decisions other than the ones he chose. But those choices helped seal his loss. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand, Richard Allen Greene and Laura Haring contributed to this report.","highlights":"Arizona senator had tough fight in a \"Democratic year\"\nIn career of stunning comebacks, win eludes him this time .\nMissteps and circumstances sullied voters' opinions of him .","id":"ff45206cfab4cea277d8dbbf002b3bb312af076d"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a Florida woman charged with killing her missing 3-year-old daughter, according to court documents filed Friday. Casey Anthony has been charged in an indictment with the premediated murder of daughter Caylee. \"It is not in the best interest of the people of the state of Florida to pursue the death penalty as a potential sentence,\" prosecutors concluded, according to the document. \"Therefore, the state of Florida will not be seeking the death penalty as to Casey Marie Anthony.\" Anthony, 22, is charged with killing her daughter, Caylee Anthony, in a case that has received national attention. She was arrested last month and faces charges including first-degree murder in the disappearance of Caylee, who has been missing since June. Watch newly released jailhouse tapes \u00bb . She could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Anthony waited about a month before telling her family that Caylee was gone. Cindy Anthony -- Caylee's grandmother and Casey Anthony's mother -- called the Orange County, Florida, sheriff July 15, saying her daughter would not tell her where Caylee was. When questioned, Anthony gave conflicting statements to police, including some that were later disproved, according to hundreds of documents and investigative reports released in the case. She claimed she dropped Caylee off with a baby sitter, but when police checked out her story, they learned that the address Anthony supplied belonged to an apartment that had been vacant for weeks. The woman Anthony named as her baby sitter told police she did not know her. Investigators previously have said cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Anthony's car, as well as in her parents' backyard. They also said air quality tests conducted by the FBI found evidence consistent with human decomposition and chloroform in the trunk of Anthony's car. A neighbor told police that Anthony had asked to borrow a shovel. Also, analysis of Anthony's computer found she had visited Web sites discussing chloroform, as well as Internet searches of missing children, according to information released in the case. Last month, Florida 9th Circuit Judge Stan Strickland denied prosecutors' request to impose a gag order in Anthony's case, saying he could not state that continued publicity would pose a threat to her trial, or even that a gag order would stem the flood of media attention. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"Document: It's not in Florida's best interest to seek death penalty for Casey Anthony .\nAnthony is charged with first-degree murder in daughter's disappearance .\nCaylee Anthony, 3, was missing for a month before her mother told anyone .","id":"b91a0ddb8d19b6e8413449c1ef62ae78724eb1c5"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Former Cuban President Fidel Castro says he is open to the idea of meeting with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has largely been out of the political scene since falling ill in 2006. \"With Obama, one can talk whenever he wants, because we're not preachers of violence or war,\" the communist leader wrote in an essay published Thursday on a state-run Web site. \"He must be reminded that the carrot-and-stick theory cannot be applied in our country.\" Friday's missive marked the second time in recent weeks that a Cuban leader has said he is open to meeting with Obama. In the latest issue of The Nation, actor Sean Penn writes of his recent conversation in Havana with Ra\u00fal Castro, who took over as president this year from his ailing brother. According to Penn, Ra\u00fal Castro told him, \"Perhaps we could meet at Guantanamo. We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift. ... We could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay.\" Obama has called for the U.S. detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on the island of Cuba to be closed. Despite the indications that the Cuban leadership is open to warmer relations with its neighbor to the north after 47 years of a U.S.-imposed trade embargo, some in Havana expressed skepticism that the impending change in leadership in the United States will translate in to a changed Cuban policy. \"Obama is a product of the American empire,\" Carlos Pose said. But Elisany, a high school student, said she's hopeful. \"We've got to wait and see. I hope things change.\"","highlights":"\"We're not preachers of violence or war,\" Castro writes in essay .\nActor Sean Penn writes that Castro's brother also open to meeting .\nSome in Havana skeptical of change in U.S. policy .","id":"84afdfbc7e693e818ba28da16631be71e6092535"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been admitted to a London hospital after suffering a bad reaction to medication, her representative said Tuesday. Amy Winehouse has undeniable talent, but has become better known for her wild behavior. Winehouse, 25, went to the private London Clinic on Sunday, said her spokesman, Chris Goodman. He said Winehouse's medication made her ill and her doctors asked her to come in so they could investigate. Goodman did not disclose what type of medication was involved, saying only it is part of her \"ongoing treatment.\" It was not clear Tuesday whether she had been discharged. Yesterday Winehouse's husband Blake Fielder-Civil lost his appeal against his 27-month jail term for assault and perverting the course of justice. Earlier this month he was moved from prison to a drug rehabilitation unit. The Grammy-winning Winehouse has suffered a string of health problems in recent years, many related to her battles with drug addiction. She spent two weeks in a drug rehabilitation clinic in January. See a timeline of Winehouse's career \u00bb . One of her biggest hits is the song \"Rehab,\" describing her reluctance to enter a clinic. Another bad reaction to medication prompted Winehouse to enter a London hospital in July, but she was discharged the next day. Winehouse won five Grammy awards earlier this year -- three for \"Rehab,\" as well as Album of the Year and Best New Artist.","highlights":"Amy Winehouse representative: Singer has had bad reaction to medication .\nAnother bad reaction to medication prompted Winehouse to enter hospital in July .\nGrammy-winning Winehouse has suffered a string of health problems .","id":"bca0927be2737db657d3c8f104dee25b7f7ccd8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Texas attorney general sued a hotel and a motel Thursday, accusing them of price gouging during September's exodus of more than 1 million Gulf Coast residents ahead of Hurricane Ike. Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit against the Hotel Nacogdoches in Nacogdoches and the Super 8 Brookshire Motel near Katy, accusing them of illegally raising room rates after Gov. Rick Perry had issued a declaration of disaster on September 8. \"Although Texas law clearly prohibits profiteering during declared disasters, these defendants are charged with increasing room rates for evacuees during Hurricane Ike,\" Abbott said in a news release. \"The law imposes strict penalties on vendors that attempt to increase their profits after the governor issues a disaster declaration. \"Despite today's price-gouging charges, the vast majority of Texas businesses complied with the law and are to be commended for working with authorities to provide crucial assistance to hurricane victims.\" In Texas, the state attorney general can sue, but not file criminal charges. A district attorney would need to file any such charges. An estimated 1.2 million Gulf Coast residents heeded officials' recommendations that they move inland until the storm had passed. Hotel Nacogdoches, located north of Houston along a major evacuation route, charged evacuees more than double its usual rate, the statement said, citing complaints from guests whose receipts showed the hotel charged $99.99 for a room that had cost $49.99 two days before Ike. It told a similar tale about Super 8 Brookshire Motel, west of Katy, which also housed evacuees. The motel charged up to $125 for a room that ordinarily cost $99, the statement said. The businesses also charged state and local hotel and motel taxes, even though the governor had issued a declaration waiving them, according to the statement. The office of the attorney general is seeking civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation and up to $250,000 per violation for victims over the age of 65. Managers from neither hotel immediately returned calls seeking comment.","highlights":"Hotel, motel accused of illegally raising prices as evacuees fled Hurricane Ike .\nTexas Attorney General Greg Abbott files lawsuit against the two businesses .\nAttorney general: Hotel charged $99.99 for room that had cost $49.99 days earlier .\nAbout 1.2 million Gulf Coast residents moved inland to avoid worst of Ike .","id":"728b970d96bf07182fdbeccf7d62e522d705b72d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One Australian soldier, three civilians and Taliban militants were killed early Friday during heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan, according to information from Australian and NATO officials. Four Australian troops have now died in the conflict in Afghanistan. The incident occurred in Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province, where Taliban militants killed an Australian commando, the Australian Defence Ministry said. The 26-year-old commando -- Pvt. Luke Worsley of Sydney -- served with the Special Operations Task Group. This is the fourth Australian troop to die in the Afghan conflict. \"The action in which Private Worsley died only concluded in the last few hours and was characterized by heavy, close quarter fighting. The SOTG was conducting an operation to clear an identified Taliban bomb making facility in Uruzgan province, when the soldier was hit by small arms fire,\" Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said \"a significant number of Taliban insurgents were killed or captured as part of the operation. Taliban insurgents initiated the firefight which lasted several hours.\" Gen. Carlos Branco, ISAF spokesman, said it is not known how the civilians, two women and a child, died. \"However, we do know that the insurgents fired upon ISAF soldiers from the compound in which the Afghan civilians (two women and one child) were found after the fight. ISAF makes all effort to prevent losses of innocent civilian lives.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Taliban militants kill Australian commando in southern Afghanistan .\nHe was shot during operation to clear Taliban bomb making facility in Uruzgan .\nThis is the fourth Australian soldier to die in the conflict in Afghanistan .\nSeveral militants killed and a coalition troop injured in other fighting in southeast .","id":"46812e4db246fed228c4a24b36691965ad2e1676"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Democratic and Republican presidential candidates scour the country for votes during the 2008 campaign, they'll inevitably court the Hispanic community, a voting group growing rapidly in number and diversity. Some Democratic presidential candidates pose before a debate sponsored by Univision. The Republican debate was postponed after only one candidate agreed to attend, a development which troubled some party leaders. The Hispanic vote is neither homogenous nor loyal to one party. Though the current political moment seems to favor the Democratic Party, experts say that affinity should not be taken for granted. The Hispanic community is the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, according to the U.S. census. But its percentage of the electorate is lower than its numbers as a whole because of lower citizenship rates, less voter participation and a youthful demographic. Of the nation's more than 44 million people of Hispanic origin, about a third are too young to vote. But all that's changing. Before the midterm elections in 2006, the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated more than 17 million Hispanics would be eligible to vote in that election. The number represented a 7 percent increase from 2004. The Hispanic share of the U.S. electorate increased from 8.2 percent to 8.6 percent during the same period, Pew estimated. That percentage may grow even more by 2008 as a result of citizenship drives, get-out-the-vote campaigns and the natural growth of the community. Univision, the Spanish-language broadcast giant, has thrown its considerable weight behind a citizenship drive this year. \"We feel that empowering our audience is good for Hispanics and the country,\" Univision President Ray Rodriguez told the Wall Street Journal in May 2007, adding that it was \"a totally nonpartisan effort.\" Organizations such as the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, or NALEO, are also mobilizing the vote. \"We have spearheaded a massive naturalization campaign and close to, I think, a million applications will have been submitted this fiscal year,\" said NALEO's executive director, Arturo Vargas. The change in the electorate could play a significant role in possible swing states like Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida during the 2008 election. There's a reason the Democratic Party decided to hold its presidential convention in Denver, experts said. \"I don't think it's really registered with people just how influential the Latino vote can be in some of these state primaries,\" Vargas said. The Hispanic vote has historically been aligned with the Democratic Party, an allegiance established during the administrations of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, said Harry Pachon of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. That political alignment was further cemented when Proposition 187 -- designed to deny health care, education and welfare benefits to illegal immigrants -- was pushed by Republicans and passed in California in 1994. But the Republican Party, intent on gaining more Hispanic voters, made inroads during the early parts of this decade, culminating in the 2004 presidential campaign by President Bush. Exit polls showed he carried 40 to 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. \"There are a lot of issues that Latinos agree with Republican philosophy,\" Pachon said, pointing to the GOP stances on entrepreneurship, fiscal policies, its appeal to Hispanic evangelicals and its policies toward Cuba. But the heated immigration debate, when many congressional Republicans disagreed with President Bush over granting a path toward citizenship for many illegal immigrants, may erode those gains. \"The Republicans are really caught between a rock and a hard place,\" Pachon said. They must balance the interests of a segment of their constituency that is very anti-immigrant with the interests of a \"Latino voter that is affluent and middle class, who can theoretically be reached by Republican Party principles,\" he said. It is little wonder then, that among Republican presidential candidates, only Arizona Sen. John McCain agreed to appear at an Univision debate scheduled for mid-September. The debate didn't happen. All but one of the Democratic contenders appeared for their debate. Some Republican leaders said last week not participating in such debates could harm the party's standing with minority groups for the 2008 election and beyond. \"What are we going to do -- meet in a country club in the suburbs one day?\" former congressman and GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp told The Washington Post. \"If we're going to be competitive with people of color, we've got to ask them for their vote.\" \"This [political environment] gives Democrats a huge advantage,\" Adam J. Segal, who heads the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins University, said in an e-mail. He also runs the 2050 Group, a multicultural public relations firm based in Washington. \"They are likely to draw far more Hispanic votes than in 2004 and would gain at least a half-million vote advantage\" under one of his group's more conservative scenarios, Segal said. But the Hispanic community is diverse and voting interests are not homogenous, which imperils such predictions. Hispanic immigrants originate from more than a dozen different countries, arrived in the U.S. through numerous immigration waves and have different perceptions of communal identity, Segal said. For example, a Cuban-American may vote Republican because of the GOP's long-standing policies toward Cuba, whereas a Puerto Rican voter in New York City or a voter in a border state may be driven by different motives. The culture of a state can also affect a Hispanic voter's behavior. A voter in Texas may be more conservative, whereas a voter with a similar background in California may be more liberal, Pachon said. There may also be generational cleavages, Pachon said. A study he conducted with a colleague on the impact of religion on the Latino vote revealed differences between first-, second- and third-generation Hispanics. The first and third generations said religion was more important to them when compared to the second generation. Additionally, despite the furor over immigration, that issue might not be the most important to Hispanic voters, NALEO's Vargas said. \"If the election were held today, I think immigration would be a significant factor, but we're more than a year away from the election,\" he said. Based on a series of town hall meetings conducted in 2004 and conversations throughout this year, Vargas said education, the Iraq war, the economy and health care may take precedence over immigration. \"We need to distinguish issues that matter to the Latino community versus the issues that matter to Latino voters,\" he said. \"Those are not the same.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Political observers: Hispanic voters as diverse as wider community .\nGrassroots efforts under way to increase Hispanic citizenship .\nHispanic vote could play significant role in 2008 swing states .","id":"32888476c9ac4423d8946d6b32cfad53a5cf17a0"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe enjoys one of the highest popularity ratings of any leader in South America, so much that his supporters are pushing for a third presidential term for him. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has not said whether he would be willing to run for a third term. But the constitution would have to be changed to allow that, and recent global issues have even some supporters questioning whether Uribe should be allowed to seek that extra time in office. \"When the president was first re-elected in 2006, the economy was thriving, and the president benefited from its success,\" said Carlos Lemoine, a political consultant. \"Now, the economy is in a very different situation.\" Five million Colombians might disagree. They have signed petitions asking for a constitutional referendum that would grant Uribe the chance to run again. That could happen in 2010 or, if he sat out a term, in 2014. The nation's Congress is debating the referendum, and not all lawmakers are convinced it's a good idea. \"Another re-election is not good for Colombia, because it would concentrate the power of government on the president,\" said David Luna, a member of Colombia's Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Added representative German Olano, \"In 2001, voters agreed Alvaro Uribe was the most qualified person for the job. But, like any other democracy, there are plenty of capable people for the job. And those people should get their chance.\" The third-term argument in Colombia mirrors to a large degree the situation in rival Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez announced last month that he will press for a constitutional amendment to enable him to seek re-election in order to govern until 2021. Observers say the efforts to expand presidential terms reflect a historical shift in South America. \"Historically, those countries did not have re-election. The president could serve one term, and that was it,\" said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent research and information organization. \"There would be military coups, with the military ousting one civilian ruler to put in another civilian ruler. Then in the 1970s, the coups changed. The military seized power and held it and didn't turn authority over to civilians. So one country after another revised their constitutions to allow standing for re-election,\" Birns said. \"We now have a situation where ruling parties want to stay in power, but for different reasons. In the case of Colombia and Uribe, it is law and order. For Chavez in Venezuela, it is extending his vision, getting more time to institutionalize that vision,\" Birns said. In Colombia, there is also talk of \"vision\" among congressional supporters of a third term for Uribe. \"I believe President Uribe's success requires us to consider the [constitutional] referendum and grant it, so that we can continue his vision of long-term stability,\" Chamber of Representatives member Nicolas Uribe said. But former Colombian President Andres Pastrana believes that it is time for a change, and changing the constitution to allow for a third term is not the change he means. \"I think that changing the constitution for someone's personal gain is against our democratic principles, and it would be a grave mistake for this country,\" he said. That is a risk that supporters of the referendum are willing to take. \"It is not going to weaken our democracy,\" supporter Luis Guillermo Giraldo said. \"Just look at Margaret Thatcher, who governed for 11 years, or Tony Blair for 10,\" he said, referring to two former British prime ministers. As the debate goes on in Colombia, Uribe is not saying whether he wants another term in office. And opponents are arguing that it would not be worth spending an estimated $57 million on a referendum to find out whether he should even be allowed to be a candidate.","highlights":"5 million Colombians signed petitions seeking constitutional referendum .\nSome say others deserve chance to run for president .\nSupporters speak of giving Alvaro Uribe a chance to continue \"vision\"","id":"42a7334ee9360b833b9c331f56783d1f4ff6c990"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Crichton, who helped create the TV show \"ER\" and wrote the best-sellers \"Jurassic Park,\" \"The Andromeda Strain,\" \"Sphere\" and \"Rising Sun,\" has died in Los Angeles, his public relations firm said in a news release. Michael Crichton, here in 2005, was a director and best-selling author. He co-created the TV series \"ER.\" Crichton died unexpectedly Tuesday \"after a courageous and private battle against cancer,\" the release said. He was 66. Crichton, a medical doctor, was attracted to cautionary science tales. Watch more about the life of Crichton \u00bb . \"Jurassic Park\" -- perhaps his best-known work -- concerned capturing the DNA of dinosaurs and bringing them to life on a modern island, where they soon run amok; \"The Andromeda Strain,\" his first major fiction success, involves an alien microorganism that's studied in a special military compound after causing death in a nearby community. Crichton also invited controversy with some of his scientific views. He was an avowed skeptic of global climate change, giving lectures warning against \"consensus science.\" He later took on global warming and the theories surrounding it in his 2004 novel, \"State of Fear,\" which attracted attacks in its own right from scientists, including NASA climatologist James Hansen. iReport.com: Were you a fan? Share your tributes. Crichton was a distinctive figure in the entertainment business, a trained physician whose interests included writing, filmmaking and television. (He was physically distinctive as well, standing 6 feet 9 inches.) He published \"The Andromeda Strain\" while he was still a medical student at Harvard Medical School. He wrote a story about a 19th-century train robbery, called \"The Great Train Robbery,\" and then directed the 1979 film version. He also directed several other films, including \"Westworld\" (1973), \"Coma\" (1978), \"Looker\" (1981) and \"Runaway\" (1984). In 1993, while working on the film version of \"Jurassic Park\" with Steven Spielberg, he teamed with the director to create \"ER.\" The NBC series set in a Chicago emergency room debuted in 1994 and became a huge hit, making a star of George Clooney. Crichton originally wrote the script for the pilot in 1974. \"Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park,' \" said Spielberg, a friend of Crichton's for 40 years, according to The Associated Press. \"He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. ... Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.\" Crichton was \"an extraordinary man. Brilliant, funny, erudite, gracious, exceptionally inquisitive and always thoughtful,\" \"ER\" executive producer John Wells told the AP. \"No lunch with Michael lasted less than three hours and no subject was too prosaic or obscure to attract his interest. Sexual politics, medical and scientific ethics, anthropology, archaeology, economics, astronomy, astrology, quantum physics, and molecular biology were all regular topics of conversation.\" Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942 and grew up in New York's suburbs. His father was a journalist and Michael loved the writing profession. He went to medical school partly out of a concern he wouldn't be able to make writing a career, but the success of \"The Andromeda Strain\" in 1969 -- the book was chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club and optioned by Hollywood -- made him change his mind, though he still had an M.D. Though most of Crichton's books were major best-sellers involving science, he could ruffle feathers when he took on social issues. \"Rising Sun\" (1992) came out during a time when Americans feared Japanese ascendance, particularly when it came to technology. \"Disclosure\" (1994) was about a sexual harassment case. iReport.com: How did Crichton's work affect you? Share your tributes . Crichton won an Emmy, a Peabody, a Writers Guild of America Award for \"ER,\" and won other awards as well. \"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand,\" the news release said. Crichton was married five times and had one child. A private funeral service is expected.","highlights":"Michael Crichton wrote several best-sellers, including \"Jurassic Park\"\nCrichton, a physician, also helped create hit TV show \"ER\"\nCrichton died after \"courageous and private battle against cancer,\" release says .","id":"56512d980e6f0b9da641f67293af0ade8486a88f"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Civilian deaths in Afghanistan have risen sharply in the past year, largely due to more Taliban attacks and roadside bombings, U.N. officials said Sunday. NATO soldiers sit in their vehicle in an Afghan province freed from Taliban forces. Afghan civilian deaths jumped from 430 in the first six months of 2007 to 698 so far this year, an increase of 60 percent, said John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. \"It is clear that the international military forces are making every effort to minimize civilian casualties,\" Holmes said. \"Nevertheless, these problems are still there, and we need to deal with them and make sure that the safety of civilians comes first and international humanitarian law is respected,\" he said. Taliban insurgents forces have shifted from direct attacks on international troops toward the use of \"civilian-blind\" measures such as roadside bombings and suicide attacks, said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. At the same time, he said, civilian deaths blamed on government forces and U.S. and NATO troops has declined in the first six months of 2008, largely due to pressure from Afghan President Hamid Karzai. About 60 percent of civilian deaths in 2008 are blamed on anti-government forces, up from less than half in 2007. Increased Taliban attacks on aid projects also have left 78 of Afghanistan's 398 districts off-limits to relief workers, Siddique said. \"Increasingly, we're seeing targets of schools, of radio stations, of health clinics -- all in an effort to halt progress and keep people in fear,\" he said. A total of 565 aid convoys came under attack in 2007, with hundreds of tons of food hijacked. As recently as Sunday, a convoy of 100 tons of food aid came under attack outside Kandahar, with several trucks burned and looted, he said. \"Thankfully, we're not getting any report of death or injuries,\" he said. Afghanistan is the original front in the \"war on terrorism,\" which was launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. A U.S.-led invasion after the attacks pushed out the Taliban, which had allowed al Qaeda to operate from its territory, but the Islamic fundamentalist militia has regrouped along and across the mountainous border with Pakistan. Coinciding with the rise in civilian deaths in 2008 is an increase in attacks on American and allied forces, which are up 40 percent since last year . The death toll of U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan in June also climbed to more than 40, making it the deadliest month since the war began. An explosion in southern Afghanistan killed a British soldier serving with NATO on Saturday, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday. The soldier died when he was struck by a mine in Lashkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand province, the ministry said. He and his unit were investigating a report of a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a civilian aircraft at a nearby airfield, it said. \"When investigating this, they dismounted their vehicles and what is believed to have been a legacy anti-Personnel mine detonated, killing the soldier instantly,\" the ministry statement said. Most of the soldiers serving in Helmand are British. Helmand province is Afghanistan's top poppy-producing region and a major front in the war against the Taliban. Provincial authorities there have blamed militants for a spate of recent deadly attacks. NATO and Afghan force operations kept the insurgency down in 2007 by killing or capturing key leaders and clearing out Taliban safe havens, but a Pentagon report issued last week predicted the Taliban would be back in 2008.","highlights":"NEW: Afghan civilian deaths up 60 percent from last year, U.N. says .\nNEW: Increase attributed to intensifying Taliban attacks, roadside bombs .\nTroop deaths also up from 2007 as June marks deadliest month since war began .\nBritish NATO soldier dies in mine explosion in Helmand province .","id":"c85a4c3a6ab7094fab189db754033dd4cf033466"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- The death toll in a plane crash that claimed the life of Mexico's interior minister and two other high-ranking officials has risen to 13, Mexico City prosecutor Miguel Angel Mancera said Wednesday, according to Mexico's state-run Notimex news agency. The scene of Tuesday night's plane crash in Mexico City was one of panic and confusion, a witness says. The small plane carrying Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino and seven others crashed in central Mexico City on Tuesday night. A witness described \"moments of panic and confusion\" after the crash, as burning people asked for help and others ran from the scene. The crash injured 40 people on the ground, said government spokesman Marcelo Ebrard. All eight passengers and crew on board the plane were killed, the spokesman said. Two of the dead are women, Mancera said. Also among the dead were Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a former deputy attorney general, and Miguel Monterubio Cubas, the director of social communication, President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address Tuesday night. In Mexico, the minister of the interior oversees domestic affairs, particularly national security, law enforcement and the war on drugs. It is Mexico's second-most-powerful post. Vasconcelos was one of Mexico's top experts on the fight against narcotraffickers and was said to have a price on his head. \"I want to express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and my absolute support during this difficult time,\" Calderon said. Mourino, he said, \"was one of my closest colleagues and one of my best friends. ... With his death, Mexico loses a great Mexican.\" At least 12 cars were burned and two buildings were damaged, Notimex said. Watch video footage of the aftermath of the crash \u00bb . No cause for the crash was immediately given, but Calderon assured the nation that the results of the investigation will be made public. The Learjet 45 did not explode in the air, said Luis Tellez, secretary of communication and transportation. When there is an explosion in the air, Tellez said at a news conference Wednesday, pieces of the airplane are scattered over a wide area. But the wreckage in this instance was limited to a small area, he said. Tellez said Wednesday the pilot did not report an emergency, Notimex said. An audio recording released Wednesday of what Mexican officials said was dialogue between the pilot and the airport control tower did not appear to have an emergency call from the aircraft. The recording could be linked to off the Notimex Web site. The plane was traveling from the north-central city of San Luis Potosi to Mexico City, Calderon said. The cities are about 220 miles (355 km) apart. The Learjet was built in 1998 and carried identification call letters of XCVMC, Tellez said. Agustin Arellano, director of the federal agency that oversees Mexican airspace, said the aircraft's flight path, altitude and velocity were within accepted standards for a landing at Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport. The information was retrieved from the airplane's flight data recorder, Arellano said at the news conference with Tellez. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it has sent a team of investigators, led by senior aviation accident investigator Joe Sedora. The team includes technical advisers from the NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration, Learjet and Honeywell International, it said. Mourino had just given a speech in San Luis Potosi, detailing the administration's efforts to combat drug traffickers, kidnappers and other criminals. When Calderon took office in December 2006, Mourino said, the new president focused on combating crime. \"It was decided to combat criminal groups with all available power in order to confront them, to reduce them and to fulfill the essential mandate of all authority, which is none other than to guarantee peace, tranquility and security for its citizens,\" Mourino said in his speech. Calderon has unleashed federal police and soldiers in several states across Mexico and tightened controls on money laundering and corruption among local and municipal police forces, which have been infiltrated by drug traffickers. The effort has resulted in widespread carnage, with more than 3,000 deaths this year. At the scene of Tuesday's crash, taxi driver Raymundo Bernal, 28, told Notimex that he witnessed the event. \"I heard a strong roar and then saw four people who were burning and asking for help while the rest ran and the tops of trees were burning,\" he said. \"The ambulances took 10 minutes to arrive, but several of the people who were burning were not moving, and what followed were moments of panic and confusion.\" More than 100 federal police secured the area, while the military took control of the airport at San Luis Potosi, Notimex said. Mourino, 37, studied in the United States, receiving an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Tampa. He did post-graduate studies in accounting and finance from the Universidad Autonoma de Campeche, his government biography says. After serving in municipal government in Campeche, Mourino was a regional coordinator for Vicente Fox's successful presidential candidacy in 2000. He later served in the Mexican federal congress and in the Cabinet. He was chief of the president's office from December 2006 to January 2008.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. agency sends investigative team to help .\nDeath toll in Mexican plane crash rises to 13, report says .\nMexico's interior minister and two high-ranking officials among those killed .\nInterior minister is country's second most-powerful post .","id":"5bdc149939290629bcf86aa6e414543bda79e01b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama's two daughters had another reason to high-five their dad's election to the presidency Tuesday night: they're getting a puppy. President Bush's dog Barney walks in the White House Rose Garden in 2007. \"Sasha and Malia,\" Obama said in his victory speech at Chicago's Grant Park, \"I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House.\" The new White House pet will follow in the paw-steps of a menagerie of animals that have had the run of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the years. The Bush family shared their eight years at the White House with a cat, a feisty English springer spaniel and two Scottish terriers -- all of whom have their own pages on the president's Web site. The Clintons' Washington stay included a cat, Socks, who did not get along with their chocolate Labrador retriever, Buddy. And Millie the springer spaniel's canine view of life in the White House -- as \"told to\" then-first lady Barbara Bush -- became a best-seller that outsold the memoirs of President George H.W. Bush. While many presidents took to heart President Harry Truman's admonishment -- \"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog\" -- first pets have come in all shapes, sizes and species. Thomas Jefferson kept two grizzly bears in a cage on the White House lawn, while John Quincy Adams is said to have let his alligator use a bathtub inside. Calvin Coolidge walked his raccoons on a leash. Theodore Roosevelt's sons escorted their pet pony onto the White House elevator to cheer up a sick sibling. And perhaps the strangest of all: Martin Van Buren briefly owned two tiger cubs, a gift from the Sultan of Oman. Pets have sometimes been a boon to a president's image. But some have also taken a bite out of their popularity. Animal lovers howled in protest when Lyndon B. Johnson picked up his beagles, Him and Her, by the ears to provide photographers a better view. On the other hand, Richard Nixon -- running for vice president and accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions -- successfully defended himself in his famous \"Checkers Speech.\" The only gift he ever accepted was \"a little cocker spaniel dog\" that his daughter named Checkers, Nixon said. \"And I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it,\" he added. Come January, the Obamas will make history by becoming the first African-American family to move into the White House. But if Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, get what they've been promised, the new tenants will keep one long-standing tradition alive ... and wagging.","highlights":"President-elect Obama promises his daughters a puppy .\nWhite House has a history of president pets -- from dogs to tiger cubs .\nPresident Bush had three dogs and cat, President Clinton a dog and cat .","id":"3775c657b14066afbac3670c6c97ee6ed5fd5b6a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper appealed directly to Canadians for support Wednesday, vowing in a nationally televised address on the economy that he will do all he can to halt his opponents from carrying out a no-confidence vote in Parliament -- as planned for Monday -- and forming a coalition government that would replace his own. Prime Minister Stephen Harper accuses coalition leaders of \"betrayal\" by relying on Quebec separatists' support. \"Unfortunately, even before the government has brought forward its budget, and only seven weeks after a general election, the opposition wants to overturn the results of that election,\" said the prime minister, whose Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections on October 14. \"Canada's government cannot enter into a power-sharing coalition with a separatist party at a time of global insecurity,\" he said. \"Canada's government must stand unequivocally for keeping the country together.\" The country is undergoing \"a pivotal moment in our history,\" he said, then ticked through a list of efforts his government is making to help the country survive the economic crisis, including personal tax reductions, doubling of spending on infrastructure, injecting liquidity into the financial markets and securing pension plans. iReport.com: Outrage brewing in Canada . \"Tonight, I pledge to you that Canada's government will use every legal means at our disposal to protect our democracy, protect our economy and to protect Canada,\" he said. Though Harper did not specify what those legal means might entail, his opponents predicted that he would try to dissolve Parliament and wasted no time in voicing their opposition. The Liberal Party, which lost seats in the October vote, and the leftist New Democratic Party announced plans earlier this week to form a governing coalition with the support of the Bloc Quebecois, which supports independence for French-speaking Quebec. In a televised address that followed Harper's, opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion called for a vote of confidence. He said he had asked Canada's Governor-General Michaelle Jean -- the acting head of state who would call for a new election or a confidence vote -- \"to refuse any request by the prime minister to suspend Parliament until he has demonstrated to her that he still commands the confidence of the house.\" He said Canada \"is facing the impact of the global economic crisis\" and must act quickly. \"Stephen Harper refuses to propose measures to stimulate the economy\" and his party has lost the confidence of the majority of the House of Commons, he said. \"This means that they have lost the right to govern,\" Dion said. He said he and Jack Layton, head of the New Democratic Party, had agreed to form a coalition government to address the economic crisis, and that the Green Party supported it too. \"Coalitions are normal and put in practice in many parts of the world and are able to work very successfully,\" he said. \"Mr. Harper's solution is to extend the crisis by avoiding a simple vote -- by suspending Parliament and continuing the confusion,\" Dion said. \"We offer a better way. We say, settle it now and let's get to work on the people's business.\" The vote scheduled for Monday ought to be allowed to proceed, he said. In separate televised remarks, Layton accused Harper of having \"delivered a partisan attack.\" The Conservative Party's plan would create no jobs and protect no pensions, he said. \"He seems to be more interested in his job than in protecting your job,\" Layton said. \"Now, that's simply wrong.\"","highlights":"Opposition parties seek to oust Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government .\nHarper's Tories gained seats in Canada's October elections but fell short of majority .\nLiberal and New Democratic parties join with Bloc Quebecois to try to unseat Tories .\nHarper could buy time by asking governor general to suspend parliament till January .","id":"2db6cd1d2bdb46ac821d2a1776852696697a7735"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Adventurer and TV show host Bear Grylls injured his shoulder in Antarctica during an expedition to raise money for an international charity, the Discovery Channel said Sunday. Bear Grylls, host of \"Man vs. Wild,\" was injured in Antarctica during an expedition to raise money for charity. Grylls was injured Friday night after falling during the expedition, which was not for the Discovery Channel, according to the network's statement. The statement said that Grylls is returning to the UK to receive medical attention. \"Once he sees a doctor, we will have a better sense of the level of seriousness of his shoulder injury and the recovery time needed to get him back to his full physical activity,\" according to the statement. Grylls, 34, is the host of Discovery's \"Man vs. Wild\" in which he demonstrates extreme measures -- including eating snakes and insects -- used to survive in harsh environmental conditions. In his blog, Grylls said the aim of his expedition in Antarctica -- sponsored by Ethanol Venture -- is \"to promote alternative energies and their potential.\" \"We will be using lots of different forms of alternative power, including wind-powered kite-skiing, part bio-ethanol powered jetskis and inflatable boats, electric-powered paragliders, solar- and wind-powered base camps -- and good old foot work,\" Grylls wrote in a November 14 entry. Grylls is a former member of the British Special Forces and has broken his back in several places during his service. In his blog, he said he and his wife Shara are expecting their third child in January.","highlights":"Adventurer and TV show host Bear Grylls injured his shoulder .\nGrylls was in Antarctica on an expedition for charity .\nHost going to UK for treatment, Discovery Channel says .","id":"beed8cad0900366868ab6d994b8f5991a79149af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sarah Palin's selection as John McCain's running mate redefined how vice-presidential candidates influence a campaign. Unfortunately for McCain, the Alaska governor hurt his presidential bid more than she helped. Palin, at McCain's concession Tuesday night, boosted the GOP ticket at first but ultimately became a drag on it. Palin had been unfamiliar to most Americans, aside from some conservative writers and bloggers, who had admired her since she upended Alaska's Republican establishment by knocking off incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2006. That all changed on August 29 -- the morning after Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention -- when Palin was introduced by McCain. It wasn't just reporters who were stunned. Even McCain staffers at the event itself were shocked. Many assumed McCain would tap a GOP heavyweight like Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty. The most daring option, many thought, would be Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat. See Palin's path to the ticket \u00bb . But Palin's debut instantly energized the Republican base, which had long been cool to McCain, and the GOP ticket surged in the polls. McCain took a shine to Palin's anti-establishment streak and her familiarity with energy issues. His advisers believed her \"average hockey mom\" persona would attract women. The party grass roots admired her devotion to family and her conservative positions on social issues. Watch Palin as McCain concedes the election \u00bb . But because the Alaska governor was largely unknown, her record and background were immediately under scrutiny. Journalists descended on her hometown of Wasilla to examine her record as mayor and governor, though Palin was still sheltered from questioners. The craving for knowledge spread outside the media and paid huge dividends at the Republican National Convention, when Palin took the biggest stage of her life and assuredly presented herself as both a small-town mother of five and a pit bull who could smile her way through a sharp political attack. The speech garnered mammoth television ratings and rave reviews. McCain came out of the convention with a healthy bounce -- leading Obama by a 10-point margin. Palin's ratings were also riding high, with nearly 50 percent of Americans viewing her in a positive light. She got bigger crowds than McCain, an unusual phenomenon that underscored her newfound political clout. But a series of missteps began to harm her image and McCain's standing. Palin was still kept away from the media, even friendly conservative talk radio shows, in a strategy that campaign aides later acknowledged was flawed. Advisers chose to grant interviews only to two networks. When Palin stumbled over foreign policy questions, she undercut the foundation of McCain's experience argument. Her sometimes-rambling answers in the highly-scrutinized appearances formed the basis for Tina Fey's \"Saturday Night Live\" caricature. Palin held her own on economic and energy issues in the first half of her debate with Joe Biden -- the highest rated of the presidential and vice-presidential debates. But when questioning turned to national security, she seemed to resort to talking points. Back on the stump, Palin began to attack Obama, accusing him of \"palling around with terrorists,\" being a socialist and not as patriotic as herself and McCain. Her offensives were often scattershot, appearing at one rally and disappearing at the next. And while Republicans enjoyed the aggression, Democrats and independents were turned off. Over a month, poll numbers shifted and Palin became more of a polarizing figure. Liberals called her the most divisive politician since Richard Nixon or George Wallace, and some former Hillary Clinton supporters said McCain's selection of Palin was a cynical gambit that wouldn't help him sway female voters. Palin kept up her rigorous campaign schedule but the problems continued. A long-running ethics investigation in Alaska determined she abused her power in firing the state's public safety commissioner, though she broke no laws. News broke that the Republican National Committee had spent $150,000 on her wardrobe, angering her and prompting her to deviate from the campaign's game plan. iReport.com: What's next for Palin? Aides insisted Palin wanted to speak to reporters but had been reined in. That changed in mid-October when she ditched her staff and launched an impromptu press conference in which she criticized the use of robocalls, even as they were being used for her boss. Later she ad-libbed a diatribe on the wardrobe fiasco, stressing a preference for consignment-store clothing and flashing her $35 wedding ring. McCain aides refused to go on the record about it, but they groused anonymously that Palin was \"going rogue,\" that she was a \"diva\" and \"difficult\" to work with. In the final two weeks, Palin was at last given a chance to make in-depth speeches on substantive issues like energy and special-needs children. But the tide had long turned. An NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll in October showed she had become a bigger drag on McCain than President Bush, with voters citing her qualifications as their primary concern. A CNN poll released last weekend showed Palin's unfavorable ratings were twice as high as when McCain picked her, and 57 percent of Americans believed she didn't have the personal qualities a president needed. As for the future, the poll indicated that only four in 10 voters would support Palin if she chooses to run for president in 2012. But Palin's fortunes have changed before.","highlights":"The Sarah Palin pick redefined how running mates can influence a campaign .\nLittle-known before late summer, she soon seized headlines and attention .\nShe brought energy, popularity but ultimately became a drag on McCain .","id":"abb43840016b8d9587974e96da25b492b5f705b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Christine Levinson went to the United Nations on Monday to ask questions about her husband, Bob, a former FBI agent who vanished in Iran last year. Christine Levinson has sought help from Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Levinson flew to New York with three of her seven children in hopes of meeting the one man she hoped could really get things moving -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is at the United Nations for a speech he is scheduled to deliver Tuesday afternoon. Ahmadinejad declined to meet with her. \"I'm disappointed,\" she says. Levinson did meet, however, with the Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. \"He said he would do whatever he could to help me,\" she told CNN. Levinson went to the United Nations with her children -- Susan, 31, Sarah, 28, and Douglas, 14. Her husband disappeared in March 2007 while on a business trip to the Iranian island of Kish. Bob Levinson is a retired FBI agent from Coral Springs, Florida. After leaving the agency, his wife says, he worked as a security consultant specializing in cigarette smuggling. Over the last year and half, Levinson says she has done everything she can to draw attention to her husband's disappearance. She has given interviews, met with U.S. State Department officials, set up a Web site -- www.helpboblevinson.com -- and staged a rally. She even has offered a $5,000 reward, aimed primarily at Iranians who might have information about her husband. Has it yielded any tips? \"No,\" Christine Levinson says. \"Nothing.\" Last year, she traveled to Iran to try to retrace her husband's steps. Back then, Iranian officials told her they would investigate and report back to her. She says she hasn't heard a word. \"They told me when they have some information, they will let me know and in the meantime will continue to search for Bob,\" Levinson told CNN. She has denied that her husband was doing business for the US government when he went missing -- she says she didn't believe so because he's a private citizen. And the State Department and FBI have denied he was working for government. The State Department has demanded Iran free Levinson -- if it is holding him. Levinson says her husband suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. She insists she is confident her husband is all right because \"I haven't heard anything bad.\" At times, she listens to his voicemail message, just to hear his voice. \"I still firmly believe he is alive,\" she says. \"Every day, I tell my children to take things one day at a time. \"I just want him to know I'm still looking for him. I'll never stop looking for him.\"","highlights":"Former FBI agent Bob Levinson disappeared in Iran in March 2007 .\nHis wife says she has done everything to draw attention to Levinson's disappearance .\nA $5,000 reward has been offered, but no tips have come in .","id":"3c48f1e7374a5e120daf77fc2cdf26d76cb64bdb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Caroline Kennedy, who spent most of her life looking to steer clear of the spotlight, is capping off a year of unusually public -- and political -- activity with interest in the Senate seat that would be vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton. Caroline Kennedy could join her uncle Edward in the United States Senate. And her interest in that seat could mean the continuation of a Kennedy legacy in the Senate that began 56 years ago with the election of her father, John F. Kennedy, as the junior senator from Massachusetts. Her uncle Edward has represented Massachusetts in the Senate for more than four decades. Her uncle Robert served as junior senator from New York from 1965 until he was assassinated in 1968. \"Remember, [Clinton's] seat in the Senate was once held by Robert Kennedy,\" CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider said Saturday. \"Her other uncle, Ted Kennedy, is ill right now. If [New York Gov. David] Paterson appoints Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, it means there could be a Kennedy staying in the Senate for quite a long time.\" And a Senate appointment for Caroline Kennedy would mark a change for the woman who has rarely run into the glare of political attention. \"Apparently, she has acquired a taste for politics, having endorsed Barack Obama early this year,\" Schneider said. \"She wants to be part of this new regime in America, clearly playing a key role in the Senate if she gets that appointment.\" Watch CNN's Bill Schnieder discuss Caroline Kennedy's prospects \u00bb . Widely described as extraordinarily shy, self-deprecating and down-to-earth, Kennedy has tended to limit her forays into the public sphere to nonpartisan activity, penning books on civil liberties and serving as the de facto guardian of her father's legacy. But in January, she backed a political candidate for the first time, announcing her endorsement of Obama during the Democratic primary season with an opinion piece in the New York Times that drew days of the kind of media attention she has spent her life avoiding. \"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,\" she wrote. \"But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.\" Kennedy willingly lingered in the spotlight, serving on Obama's vice presidential search team, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and stumping for him through the primary and general election seasons. In a campaign ad that featured video images of her father followed by images of Obama, Kennedy said, \"People always tell me how my father inspired them. I feel that same excitement now.\" There are a slew of high-profile candidates for Clinton's Senate seat -- including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose last name carries some star power of its own in the Empire State -- but their odds grew just a bit steeper when stacked against the wattage of a storied Democratic dynasty. Robert Kennedy was elected to the Senate with few ties to his adopted home state, but his niece's New York roots run deep. Jacqueline Kennedy relocated to New York City after her husband's assassination in 1963, with children Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. Caroline Kennedy has spent most of her life in the city, working there after graduating from Harvard, meeting her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, on the job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending Columbia Law School there. Her most prominent public roles to date involved overseeing her father's presidential library and presenting the annual Profiles in Courage Award. She's also edited several books, from a volume of children's poetry and an updated edition of her father's book \"Profiles in Courage\" to a collection of patriotic verse (\"A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.\") Most of her leadership positions have been based in the arts: hosting the annual nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors in Washington and serving as the honorary chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre, as her mother had. Still, in late spring and early summer, she was whispered as a possible vice presidential candidate -- and more recently as a contender for secretary of education in an Obama Cabinet -- but elected office would mark a major shift for Kennedy. Her history of avoiding partisan efforts, her limited policy track record and the lingering legacy of her father's presidency translated into a far less brutal Republican criticism than that experienced by the other members of Obama's vice presidential search committee, and there was a widespread continuing sense that she would not want to put herself in line for the tough criticism aimed at elected officials. \"I don't think she'd go that far,\" Kennedy White House speechwriter Theodore Sorenson told USA Today this summer after being asked whether he thought Kennedy wanted to hold office herself. In his memoir, \"Counselor,\" he quoted Jacqueline Kennedy saying her daughter had \"gotten her horror of the press from me\" and said the younger Caroline Kennedy used to hide her face when she spotted a cameraman. But in a 2002 Time magazine interview promoting the updated \"Profiles in Courage,\" Kennedy would not rule out the possibility of a run for public office. \"I don't have any plans to do that right now,\" she said. \"I don't plan ahead. My kids are young, and I'm really happy to be able to be around. But I do care about issues, and I'm interested in them. So I don't see that now, but you know, I have a long life ahead of me.\" The 51-year-old mother of three has still not spoken publicly about her interest in the job -- or whether, after months of campaign-trail conditioning, she might be comfortable with the idea of seeking election in her own right when Clinton's term ends. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Monte Plott contributed to this story.","highlights":"Late president's daughter has expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's office .\nMove would put Kennedy in seat once filled by her uncle Robert .\nKennedy has a history of avoiding partisanship and spotlight .\nShe said this year she was inspired by Barack Obama .","id":"3e8dc14222cdd7d178cb0fa481b08a679cbb061f"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck southern Kyrgyzstan late Sunday night killing an estimated 70 people and destroying more than 120 buildings, the government reported Monday. The earthquake occurred near Kyrgyzstan's border with China. Gulshat Kadirova, an official from the Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergency Situations, told CNN that casualty figures were preliminary and could rise as rescue efforts progress. The weekend quake, measured by the U.S. Geological Survey Report, rattled all of Central Asia; however destruction is concentrated in the remote village of Nura on Kyrgyzstan's border with China. \"The remoteness of the villages hit by the earthquake, the absence of means of communications and the destruction of roads are hindering assistance to the injured,\" the Kyrgyz Health Ministry press service told Interfax. The Health Ministry of Kyrgyzstan has set-up a crisis center in the region, however rescue efforts remain difficult, according to a ministry official. The Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Ministry also sent humanitarian aid to the region. \"Four helicopters have just left taking food and blankets to the people affected in the area,\" a ministry representative told CNN by phone. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a letter of condolence to Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, according to the Kremlin's Web site. Medvedev noted Russia's readiness to offer assistance. Bakiyev is scheduled to visit the destroyed region of Nura this week to monitor the search-and-rescue operations, Kadirova told CNN. Temblors continued in Central Asia on Monday with two strong earthquakes striking part of Tibet within 15 minutes of each other.","highlights":"Magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes southern Kyrgyzstan Sunday night .\nAround 70 estimated killed, 120 buildings destroyed, government says .\nQuake rattled large area of Central Asia; damage concentrated near China border .\nKyrgyz Health Ministry has sets up crisis center to coordinate rescue effort .","id":"9ef2560300f77b261f3257533400c62b82e1c8fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former England cricket star Chris Lewis was remanded in custody by a British court Tuesday, charged with attempting to smuggle drugs through an airport. Chris Lewis joined Surrey to play in Twenty20 matches for the 2008 season. The 40-year-old all-rounder, who played 32 Tests and 53 one-day internationals for England in the 1990s, was arrested Monday when border officials at London's Gatwick Airport found cocaine hidden in luggage that had arrived on a flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Four kilograms of cocaine with a street value of around $350,000 was seized by the UK Border Agency, the UK's Press Association said. The drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins, officials said. Lewis and basketball player Chad Kirnon, 26, both from London, were held and questioned by Customs officials and later charged. British Revenue & Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger told PA: \"This was an excellent detection by UK Border Agency officers. \"HMRC, together with UKBA, play a vital role in the fight to prevent illegal drugs from entering the UK and in protecting our communities from the violence and corruption that always accompany this hideous trade.\" The two men made a brief appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court in West Sussex on Tuesday afternoon, where Lewis had a bail application refused, PA reported. They were remanded in custody to appear via video link in court next Wednesday.","highlights":"Four kilos of cocaine worth $350,000 seized at Gatwick Airport .\nOfficials: Drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins in luggage .\nChris Lewis played cricket for England during the 1990s .","id":"0b7a83bf0d1f093220ba88e5d934d3cd864be72b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Caroline Kennedy, who spent most of her life looking to steer clear of the spotlight, is capping off a year of unusually public -- and political -- activity with interest in the Senate seat that would be vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton. Caroline Kennedy could join her uncle Edward in the U.S. Senate. And her interest in that seat could mean the continuation of a Kennedy legacy in the Senate that began 56 years ago with the election of her father, John F. Kennedy, as the junior senator from Massachusetts. Her uncle Edward has represented Massachusetts in the Senate for more than four decades. Her uncle Robert served as junior senator from New York from 1965 until he was assassinated in 1968. \"Remember, [Clinton's] seat in the Senate was once held by Robert Kennedy,\" CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider said Saturday. \"Her other uncle, Ted Kennedy, is ill right now. If [New York Gov. David] Paterson appoints Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, it means there could be a Kennedy staying in the Senate for quite a long time.\" Paterson confirmed to CNN Saturday that Caroline Kennedy called and \"asked a few questions\" but did not express interest in the seat. \"I am sure if she's interested, she'll call back, but I'm not going to rate any of the candidates or talk about prospective candidates. It just adds speculation to the speculation,\" Paterson said. But one Democratic source close to the Kennedy family said Caroline Kennedy \"is interested to say the least\" about discussing the Senate vacancy. The source said Kennedy has asked a tight circle of family friends and political advisers for advice. A second source, who has knowledge of Kennedy's conversation with Paterson, tells CNN that Kennedy reached out to inquire about the responsibilities and impact such a move would have if she were selected by the governor to fill the position. A Senate appointment for Caroline Kennedy would mark a change for the woman who has rarely run into the glare of political attention. \"Apparently, she has acquired a taste for politics, having endorsed Barack Obama early this year,\" Schneider said. \"She wants to be part of this new regime in America, clearly playing a key role in the Senate if she gets that appointment.\" Watch CNN's Bill Schneider discuss Caroline Kennedy's prospects \u00bb . Widely described as extraordinarily shy, self-deprecating and down-to-earth, Kennedy has tended to limit her forays into the public sphere to nonpartisan activity, penning books on civil liberties and serving as the de facto guardian of her father's legacy. But in January, she backed a political candidate for the first time, announcing her endorsement of Obama during the Democratic primary season with an opinion piece in the New York Times that drew days of the kind of media attention she has spent her life avoiding. \"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,\" she wrote. \"But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.\" Kennedy willingly lingered in the spotlight, serving on Obama's vice presidential search team, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and stumping for him through the primary and general election seasons. In a campaign ad that featured video images of her father followed by images of Obama, Kennedy said, \"People always tell me how my father inspired them. I feel that same excitement now.\" There are a slew of high-profile candidates for Clinton's Senate seat -- including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose last name carries some star power of its own in the Empire State -- but their odds grew just a bit steeper when stacked against the wattage of a storied Democratic dynasty. Robert Kennedy was elected to the Senate with few ties to his adopted home state, but his niece's New York roots run deep. Jacqueline Kennedy relocated to New York City after her husband's assassination in 1963, with children Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. Caroline Kennedy has spent most of her life in the city, working there after graduating from Harvard, meeting her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, on the job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending Columbia Law School there. Her most prominent public roles to date involved overseeing her father's presidential library and presenting the annual Profiles in Courage Award. She's also edited several books, from a volume of children's poetry and an updated edition of her father's book \"Profiles in Courage\" to a collection of patriotic verse (\"A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.\") Most of her leadership positions have been based in the arts: hosting the annual nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors in Washington and serving as the honorary chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre, as her mother had. Still, in late spring and early summer, she was whispered as a possible vice presidential candidate -- and more recently as a contender for secretary of education in an Obama Cabinet -- but elected office would mark a major shift for Kennedy. Her history of avoiding partisan efforts, her limited policy track record and the lingering legacy of her father's presidency translated into a far less brutal Republican criticism than that experienced by the other members of Obama's vice presidential search committee, and there was a widespread continuing sense that she would not want to put herself in line for the tough criticism aimed at elected officials. \"I don't think she'd go that far,\" Kennedy White House speechwriter Theodore Sorenson told USA Today this summer after being asked whether he thought Kennedy wanted to hold office herself. In his memoir, \"Counselor,\" he quoted Jacqueline Kennedy saying her daughter had \"gotten her horror of the press from me\" and said the younger Caroline Kennedy used to hide her face when she spotted a cameraman. But in a 2002 Time magazine interview promoting the updated \"Profiles in Courage,\" Kennedy would not rule out the possibility of a run for public office. \"I don't have any plans to do that right now,\" she said. \"I don't plan ahead. My kids are young, and I'm really happy to be able to be around. But I do care about issues, and I'm interested in them. So I don't see that now, but you know, I have a long life ahead of me.\" The 51-year-old mother of three has still not spoken publicly about her interest in the job -- or whether, after months of campaign-trail conditioning, she might be comfortable with the idea of seeking election in her own right when Clinton's term ends. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Monte Plott contributed to this story.","highlights":"Late president's daughter has expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's office .\nMove would put Kennedy in seat once filled by her uncle Robert .\nKennedy has a history of avoiding partisanship and spotlight .\nShe said this year she was inspired by Barack Obama .","id":"355b22ae338cceea133ad05806fe6ed4256ca3c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Adventurer and TV show host Bear Grylls injured his shoulder in Antarctica during an expedition to raise money for an international charity, the Discovery Channel said Sunday. Bear Grylls, host of \"Man vs. Wild,\" was injured in Antarctica during an expedition to raise money for charity. Grylls was injured Friday night after falling during the expedition, which was not for the Discovery Channel, according to the network's statement. The statement said that Grylls is returning to the UK to receive medical attention. \"Once he sees a doctor, we will have a better sense of the level of seriousness of his shoulder injury and the recovery time needed to get him back to his full physical activity,\" according to the statement. Grylls, 34, is the host of Discovery's \"Man vs. Wild\" in which he demonstrates extreme measures -- including eating snakes and insects -- used to survive in harsh environmental conditions. In his blog, Grylls said the aim of his expedition in Antarctica -- sponsored by Ethanol Venture -- is \"to promote alternative energies and their potential.\" \"We will be using lots of different forms of alternative power, including wind-powered kite-skiing, part bio-ethanol powered jetskis and inflatable boats, electric-powered paragliders, solar- and wind-powered base camps -- and good old foot work,\" Grylls wrote in a November 14 entry. Grylls is a former member of the British Special Forces and has broken his back in several places during his service. In his blog, he said he and his wife Shara are expecting their third child in January.","highlights":"Adventurer and TV show host Bear Grylls injured his shoulder .\nGrylls was in Antarctica on an expedition for charity .\nHost going to UK for treatment, Discovery Channel says .","id":"99a840f0fdb736f6c4a64c4112f4cb2a6f4350ef"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The recent arrest and sentencing of a British disc jockey in Dubai highlights the need for foreign travelers to pay close attention to the United Arab Emirates' strict rules on prohibited substances, a legal charity said Wednesday. Western tourists oblivious to the severe drugs laws in the UAE often end up in jail after arriving in the conservative Muslim country with tiny amounts of narcotics. DJ Grooverider, whose real name is Raymond Bingham, was jailed Tuesday for four years in Dubai for possession of cannabis, said a spokesman for BBC Radio 1, where the he presented a weekly drum 'n bass show. He was arrested November 23 after being caught with 2.16 grams of the drug at the airport, the BBC spokesman said. \"It's another incident of exactly the sort of case we've seen occurring with increased frequency,\" said Catherine Wolthuizen, chief executive of Fair Trials International. The charity issued a warning to travelers earlier this month, urging them to read up on Dubai's restrictions and make sure they are free of any substances. The warning followed a series of cases in which Dubai authorities arrested travelers with trace amounts of banned substances or seemingly innocuous items. Fair Trials highlighted the case of a Swiss man jailed for having three poppy seeds on his shirt which apparently came from a sandwich he had eaten at the airport before departure. UAE customs officials said the man was stopped after arriving in Dubai from Zurich on January 18, though it provided no other details on his case. The U.S. State Department warns that poppy seeds are on the UAE's list of controlled substances. An official at the UAE's police labs who declined to be named said the Emirates only ban raw poppy seeds -- not baked -- because raw seeds could be planted for drug use. The British and U.S. governments have warnings in place for travelers to the UAE, alerting them to the severe penalties for being found with drugs, and the types of drugs which are illegal in the country. \"The possession and\/or import of even the smallest amount of drugs can result in a minimum prison sentence of four years,\" states the advice from Britain's Foreign Office. \"The presence of drugs in the system is counted as possession.\" Some prescribed medications -- such as Valium or those used for hormone replacement therapy -- are forbidden even with a prescription, Fair Trials said. Codeine, which is available over the counter in Britain, is allowed only with a doctor's prescription, the Foreign Office states. Fair Trials mentioned the case of an unnamed 20-year-old who was traveling back to England from Pakistan. The charity said he was arrested after customs officers allegedly found 0.02 grams of cannabis in his pocket. UAE customs officials told CNN the 20-year-old was arrested January 16 and actually was found with 0.67 grams of cannabis. \"Travelers must be aware about and understand the laws of any country they visit,\" said a customs official, who also declined to be named. The BBC spokesman said Grooverider, who went to Dubai to work at a club, claimed he forgot the drugs were in the pocket of a pair of trousers. \"Grooverider is paying a very high price for a serious mistake,\" the Radio 1 spokesman said. Fair Trials' Wolthuizen said one thing is clear: Travelers to the UAE must be careful. \"The Emirates are quite happy to be known as having an unusually strict approach to enforcing their drug laws,\" Wolthuizen said. \"They are going to extraordinary lengths to enforce them.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Grooverider sentence highlights UAE's strict drug rules .\nThe DJ was jailed for four years in Dubai on Tuesday for possession of cannabis .\nHe was arrested November 23 after being caught with 2.16 grams of the drug .\nThe Emirates have an unusually strict approach to enforcing their drug laws .","id":"3a240d9c56d48ad544bf07b634af580be8db0f28"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Cash-strapped Zimbabwe revealed plans Saturday to circulate $200 million notes, just days after introducing a $100 million bill, Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said. Zimbabwe central bank governor Gideon Gono shows a new $50 million note Thursday. After the $100 million note began circulating on Thursday, the price of a loaf of bread soared from 2 million to 35 million Zimbabwean dollars. Amid allegations of illegal foreign currency trading, the government also fired top executives at four major banks Thursday, according to The Herald, a state-owned newspaper. Many anxious residents of the nation's capital, Harare, have been sleeping outside banks, waiting for them to open so they can make withdrawals before the institutions run out of cash. Watch how Zimbabwe's children are suffering \u00bb . The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had capped maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars: about 25 U.S. cents, or about a quarter of Thursday's price of a loaf of bread. Last week, restrictions on cash withdrawals -- due to severe money shortages -- triggered riots. Sixteen soldiers now face possible court-martial due to alleged looting and assaults on civilians and police during the unrest, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told The Herald on Saturday. \"We are still investigating the case,\" he said. \"But we expect the soldiers to appear before a court-martial once investigations are completed.\" After spending several days waiting in bank lines, soldiers rampaged through downtown Harare, destroying shops and attacking riot police sent to disperse the protesters. Cash shortages are not the only crisis plaguing Zimbabwe. The United Nations has said that more than half of Zimbabwe's population is in dire need of food and clean water. Watch how a cholera epidemic is affecting Zimbabweans \u00bb . Acute shortages of essentials such as fuel, electricity, medicines and food are key indicators of a failed economy, according to economic observers. \"The [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] is failing to deliver the demands of market, prices are doubling daily, and that demands more cash,\" Zimbabwean economist John Robertson said. \"The huge price increases are resulting from severe shortages of most goods.\" The once-prosperous African nation is facing its worst economic and humanitarian crisis since attaining independence from Great Britain in 1980. Zimbabwe's official rate of inflation is 231 million percent, the world's highest. Critics of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe link hyperinflation to his policies on land distribution and unbudgeted payments to war veterans. Zimbabwe has had no Cabinet since the March presidential election. Its political troubles have aggravated its humanitarian and economic crisis, including a cholera outbreak that has killed close to 600 people since August. A CNN journalist in Harare contributed to this report.","highlights":"Price of a loaf of bread jumps to 35 million Zimbabwean dollars .\nGovernment accuses bank executives of illegal currency trading .\nZimbabwe also faces widespread cholera outbreak; food, power shortages .\nPresident Robert Mugabe's policies blamed for economic collapse .","id":"8ee18b07b0be44484fc35742c2bef618699aa19c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy: An estimated three-fourths of gas stations in the Nashville, Tennessee, area ran dry Friday, victim of an apparent rumor that the city was running out of gas. \"Everybody has just gone nuts,\" said Mike Williams, executive director of the Tennessee Petroleum Council. He said he has no idea about the origin of a rumor that there was going to be no gas in Nashville. One reporter called him, saying she had heard that Nashville would be without gas within the hour, he said. Hearing the rumor, drivers rushed to fill their cars and trucks. CNN called 13 Nashville gas stations at random. Only two reported having gas, and one said it was almost out. The stations said they were being told they would not get more until Monday or Tuesday. iReport.com: Nashville residents desperate for fuel . Katie Givens Kime, visiting from Atlanta, Georgia, was trying to fill up her tank for the trip home when she ran into trouble -- when she was already low on gas. \"We panicked and looked online,\" she said. \"And holy cow, there is no gas in the city. ... It has definitely gripped the city, for sure.\" One store clerk told her there was no way she could get gas to go back home, she said. Williams said some drivers were following gas trucks to see where they were headed, and lines at some stations were a mile long. Fuel was continuing to enter the city, however, as pipelines were working and barges were coming in. He likened it to Southerners rushing out to stock up on bread and milk when they hear it might snow. As stations began running low, the situation snowballed, he said. One station reported selling as much gas Friday as it usually does in a weekend, Williams said. The phenomenon seemed to be isolated to the Nashville area, he said. iReport.com: Is there a gas panic in your area? Givens Kime said she found a station online that still had gas and waited more than an hour to pump it. \"People were freaked out,\" she said. A \"renegade bunch\" of men helped direct traffic to and from the pumps, even taking drivers' cash inside for them. She described people filling cans and other containers as well as cars. She said that the station was not engaging in price gouging but that \"emotions were running very high\" among drivers. CNN's Gary Bender contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nobody knows origin of rumor that Nashville was running out of gas .\nOf 13 Nashville gas stations called at random, only two said they had gas .\nResidents panicked and hit gas stations to fuel up .\nPeople were filling up containers, cans, with some waiting an hour for gas .","id":"dc20d322e0339e3140e509d419b48f386cdc82f6"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- After spending nearly 28 years in an irreversible coma, heiress and socialite Martha \"Sunny\" von Bulow died Saturday in a New York nursing home, according to a family statement. She was 76. Sunny von Bulow is pictured during her 1957 wedding to Prince Alfred von Auersperg. Von Bulow was subject of one of the nation's most sensational criminal cases during the 1980s. Her husband, Claus, was accused of trying to kill her with an overdose of insulin, which prosecutors alleged sent her into the coma. He was convicted of making two attempts on her life, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. He was acquitted in a second trial. His retrial in 1985 received national attention. \"We were blessed to have an extraordinarily loving and caring mother,\" said the statement from Von Bulow's three children -- Annie Laurie \"Ala\" Isham, Alexander von Auersperg and Cosima Pavoncelli -- released by a spokeswoman. \"She was especially devoted to her many friends and family members.\" Martha von Bulow was born Martha Sharp Crawford into a wealthy family. She inherited a fortune conservatively estimated at $75 million, according to an article on the von Bulow case posted on truTV.com's Crime Library Web site. In her early years, she drew comparisons to actress Grace Kelly. She became known as Princess von Auersperg with her first marriage, to Prince Alfred von Auersperg of Austria. That marriage produced two children: Alexander and Annie Laurie. The von Bulows married in 1966 and had a daughter, Cosima. On the morning of December 22, 1980, family members found Martha von Bulow unconscious in the bathroom of the family's posh Newport, Rhode Island, home. She never regained consciousness. She had been hospitalized a year earlier after lapsing into a coma but recovered, according to the Crime Library site. Doctors had diagnosed her with hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Prosecutors accused Claus von Bulow of twice attempting to kill his wife by injecting her with insulin. The case also led to a major motion picture, \"Reversal of Fortune.\" Actor Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow. Famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who won Claus von Bulow a new trial on appeal after his conviction, said in a statement Saturday that Martha von Bulow's death is \"a sad ending to a sad tragedy that some members of her family tried to turn into a crime. We proved overwhelming[ly] that there was no crime and that the coma was self-induced. We saved his life, but could not save hers.\" Claus von Bulow's defense team maintained that Martha von Bulow's alcohol use, among other factors, caused her coma. Dershowitz said he had spoken with Claus von Bulow, who now lives in London, England. Claus von Bulow was saddened by his former wife's passing, Dershowitz said. The family statement said Martha von Bulow is survived by her children, their spouses and nine grandchildren. Alexander von Auersperg and Ala von Auersperg Isham, who had sided with prosecutors against Claus von Bulow, filed a civil suit against their stepfather after his acquittal. The case was settled out of court in 1987, according to a 2007 article in the Providence Journal newspaper in Rhode Island. Claus von Bulow had agreed to waive his claim to his wife's money and to a divorce in exchange for the suit being dropped. The von Bulows' daughter, Cosima, sided with her father. Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne, who covered the von Bulow case, told the New York Daily News in 2007 that Sunny von Bulow was moved from Columbia Presbyterian hospital to a private nursing home in 1998. Watch Dunne recall case \u00bb . Ala von Auersperg Isham served for a time as president of the Sunny von Bulow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation, according to the Providence Journal. An offshoot of that organization, the Brain Trauma Foundation, still operates in New York, the newspaper said. The family statement notes that Martha von Bulow actively supported the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Opera and the J.P. Morgan Library in New York and the Preservation Society of Newport, Rhode Island. A private memorial service will be held for family and friends in New York in the coming days, the family statement said Saturday, along with a private burial. CNN's Julian Cummings contributed to this report.","highlights":"Husband Claus von Bulow was accused of trying to kill her with insulin overdose .\nConviction overturned on appeal; he was acquitted in second trial .\nClaus von Bulow, living in England, is saddened by former wife's death, lawyer says .\nShe is survived by three children and nine grandchildren .","id":"d51dda4b13feedb25949e8ed2d91f65fafa8e068"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Join Roland S. Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 11:10 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. A nationally syndicated columnist, Martin has said he will vote for Barack Obama in November. He is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland Martin says Howard Dean bucked other leaders and insisted on a 50-state Democratic strategy. (CNN) -- If Sen. Barack Obama is able to prevail over Sen. John McCain on Tuesday, all of those Democrats who ripped Howard Dean's 50-state strategy over the last four years should call the head of the Democratic National Committee and offer a heartfelt apology. First in line should be New York Sen. Charles Schumer, Chicago, Illinois, Rep. Rahm Emanuel and my CNN colleague, political strategist James Carville. When Democrats were in the final stages of winning back Congress in 2006, those three were at odds with Dean, saying he should forget about his pie-in-the-sky plan to have the Democratic Party competitive in all 50 states. They reasoned that money spent on get-out-the vote efforts in non-congressional elections was futile, and all the effort should be on reclaiming Congress. But Dean resisted their suggestions, weathering repeated calls for him to resign after that election. Dean's insistence on having a Democratic Party that existed in the heartland, and not just California, New York and Massachusetts, was brilliant in that it made clear that the party recognized the rest of America. iReport.com: What would you ask Obama? The Democratic Party earned its liberal label because it ignored the moderate and conservative voices that paved the way for the Reagan revolution to win three consecutive elections. Yet the decisive wins weren't just on the national level. Texas is a prime example. What used to be a blue dog Democratic state now has Republicans holding every statewide office. But things are looking up. In Dallas County, all of the county positions except for a handful were in the hands of the GOP, especially the judges. That changed four years ago, and now the party could solidify itself this time around. The same thing in Harris County. The state's most populous county saw Republicans take everything in sight. This time around, Democrats are poised to take back Houston and surrounding cities. Texas Democratic leaders used to cry the blues when an election was near, but after seeing the massive turnout during the primary, they have been able to build their voter database and cultivate a new generation of politicians to run for office. Will the state go red? Sure. But with a rock solid black vote, the ability to attract more Hispanic voters and a growing appeal to whites, Democrats may soon make Texas a competitive two-party state. If Democrats are going to achieve success on the national level, they must have significant enthusiasm on the local level. It's hard to get your supporters ginned up for a national campaign if they see no infrastructure, especially local get-out-the-vote operations. When Obama announced that he was implementing a 50-state strategy, he was laughed at. But here we are with six days left in the campaign and the Republicans are having to spend precious dollars on ads in Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada, GOP locks in past elections. Obama deserves a lot of the credit for this because his \"change\" campaign theme, along with the horrible leadership of Republicans nationwide, is helping his candidacy. But changing the attitude among the nation's Democrats was also vital, and that's where Dean played a role. The former governor of Vermont saw firsthand the sorry shape of the party when he ran for president in 2004. Republicans, led by Karl Rove, perfected their voter registration efforts, targeting voters down to the neighborhood, block and household. They knew that to win they needed a well-oiled machine that wasn't activated every four years; it needed to be active all year round and in every election cycle. So Dean put the people and resources behind substantial voter efforts in a number of states, and they went about rebuilding a crippled party that had no central voter registration effort, an outdated database of supporters, a fundraising arm that heavily relied on trial attorneys and Hollywood types, and a message that changed depending on the day. In addition to seeing how Obama performs on Tuesday, we will also watch and see if Democrats are able to increase the number of governorships and legislatures they control. That will be critical in 2010, because that's when the electoral map will be gerrymandered, redrawing the borders of congressional districts, and the party that rules the general assemblies, legislatures and governor's mansions will write the rules to the game. Old pols always said that all politics is local, and the only way for a revitalized Democratic Party to expand its reach nationally is by re-branding the party on the home front. That takes time, money and leadership, and Howard Dean was willing to put his money where his mouth is. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland Martin.","highlights":"Roland Martin: DNC chair Howard Dean stuck to his 50-state strategy .\nIf Obama wins, other top Dems should apologize to Dean, he says .\nMartin says the party needed to rebuild its local infrastructure .\nDean's strategy is creating a year-round base for Democratic efforts, he says .","id":"c2c599b05f6e610c64fe665e1fb8ccdf9dc3073d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dutch-operated container ship outran pirates off the coast of Tanzania this weekend, an official with the International Maritime Bureau said Sunday. French soldiers, who have joined British, Indian, Russian and American patrols off Somalia, during an exercise. The incident took place \"very far out to sea,\" showing that Somali-based pirates are extending their reach further and further, Noel Choong of the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center told CNN. \"Earlier attacks were on ships off the coast of Somalia, then off the coast of Kenya, and now this was 450 nautical miles off Dar es Salaam,\" he said, tracing the southward expansion of the pirates' area of operations. The ship, which Choong declined to name, came under attack from rocket-propelled grenades, starting a fire on board, he said. The crew was able to put out the fire and escape by increasing speed. The ship and crew are now out of danger, he said, following the incident at 11:42 GMT Saturday. Piracy has become increasingly common in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean this year. So far, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the center. Watch how NATO is combating piracy \u00bb . Those hijacked vessels include an enormous oil tanker, a chemical tanker, and a ship laden with Soviet-era arms including tanks. The pirates normally hold the ships for ransom. A luxury cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers and crew successfully outran pirates off the coast of Yemen last weekend. The IMB has tracked at least 11 incidents of actual or attempted piracy near the Tanzanian coast this year. A multinational fleet, including vessels from the U.S., NATO member states, Russia and India, has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. Watch anti-piracy vessels patrol the region. \u00bb . In a recent interview provided to CNN, a pirate leader claimed attacks on shipping would continue as long as life in Somalia remained desperate. \"The pirates are living between life and death,\" said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. \"Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything.\"","highlights":"Piracy has become increasingly common in the Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean .\nExperts have tracked 11-plus incidents of actual or attempted piracy near Tanzania .\nAround 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels use the route annually .\nA multinational fleet has been patrolling the Indian Ocean and nearby waters .","id":"232abe366bf944a6db7f34d7007bdb06455294d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Shh ... shh get back,\" the man with the walkie-talkie said. \"We're filming.\" Contadora, one of Panama's Pearl Islands, draws visitors with beautiful beaches and excellent snorkeling. We had stumbled onto the set of a \"Survivor\"-like television show. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let me tell you how we stumbled onto the Pearl Islands in Panama, and then I'll tell you how we came upon the Orange Tribe on the island of Mogo Mogo. Every year, my husband and I take my niece on a summer vacation. This year, we decided to go to Panama. Besides the canal, Panama has a lot to offer: There are mountains, beaches, colonial cities and rain forests. After we found a $158 round trip flight from Miami, Florida, the decision was made. My only fear was the weather; it was rainy season in Central America. After weeks of research, I was torn. We had enough time to visit one set of islands, and there were two island chains that I was having a hard time choosing between. The San Blas Islands are off the northeast coast of Panama in the Caribbean. They're also known as Kuna Yala and are home to the Kuna Indians. It would be a chance to see the Kunas up close, living as they have for centuries in grass huts along the water's edge. The other option was the Pearl Islands. The Archipi\u00e9lago de las Perlas, less well-known than the San Blas, is off the southern Pacific coast of Panama. After an agonizing week of self-debate, I decided that our summer vacation would include a trip to the Pearl Islands. The flight was only 20 minutes from Panama City, but more importantly, I was told it didn't rain as much on the Pacific side. The sales pitch to my niece: \"We are going to where the 2003 edition of 'Survivor' and 'Survivor: All-Stars' were filmed.\" I was referring to the popular American reality TV show, and I didn't realize that dozens of other countries had their own versions. I admit my destination choice was not as educational as a few days with the Kuna Indians, but I thought it would be better than being rained in with a bored teenager. After a short flight from Panama City in a puddle jumper, we were on the island of Contadora, one of hundreds that make up the Pearl Islands and one of three that can be reached by commercial flight. It's a tiny island with a handful of places to stay and even fewer places to get a meal. Golf carts, the primary mode of transportation, can be rented upon arrival. All of Contadora's entertainment is provided by the sea. It's a beach bum's paradise. If you are a beach bum and a reality TV fan, you can sit on the sand and watch props being built for the contestants' challenges. It's probably the best set shop in the world, or at least the one with the nicest view. But the Pearl Islands offer more than just an exotic TV set. For $30 an hour, you can go snorkeling and island hopping in a small but comfortable wooden fishing boat. We found Ni\u00f1o, our boat captain and guide, on Playa Larga, the beach in front of the Contadora Beach Resort. We did some of the best snorkeling I've ever done anywhere in the world. After a morning of fantastic snorkeling, I asked Ni\u00f1o where \"Survivor\" was filmed. \"Close by. I will take you there,\" he said. Ni\u00f1o took us to Mogo Mogo, one of many uninhabited islands just off the shore of Contadora. As the island's white sandy beaches came into sight, we noticed a clearing where people were putting finishing touches on what looked like a game for contestants. Our boat captain told us it was for \"Desaf\u00edo\" (\"Challenge\"), a Colombian version of the popular reality show. The word on Contadora was that a few countries (Bulgaria, Serbia and Israel, to name a few) were either finishing filming \"Survivor\"-type shows or starting new seasons. A representative for the Panamanian Institute of Tourism told me the government had limited information on the filming and could not confirm the word on the street. We jumped out of the boat, waded through the clear, warm blue water and onto Mogo Mogo, unacknowledged as work continued on the wooden set. Noticing a well-worn path, we decided to check out the rest of the island. We thought we were alone when we reached the beach on the other side. But as we walked down what we thought was a deserted beach, we spotted an orange flag in the sand. We knew the American \"Survivor\" was filmed on this island, but we did not expect to be standing in front of contestants in orange buffs, sitting on a log in the shade. This is when the man with the walkie-talkie shushed us because they were filming. The locals talk about the shows and the many countries they hail from, but they don't seem to capitalize on the \"Survivor\" fame. Contadora locals certainly make money off the film staff, medics and contestants, but evidently they haven't printed the T-shirts yet. The only shirts we saw were on the backs of others that identified them as \"Survivor Crew.\" Perhaps a true fan could purchase a shirt directly off someone's back. The island is only so big, and you are bound to run into a crew from some country. One night, we were the only non-reality show customers in Gerald's restaurant, a popular place for beer and pizza. After our innocent but failed attempt at a guest appearance on \"Desaf\u00edo,\" we returned to the basic comforts on Contadora. That night, as we relaxed in a restaurant -- cold drinks in hand, a warm hearty meal just ordered -- darkness fell. The rain, as it often does in the tropics, started coming down in sheets. I leaned back and thought to myself, \"If I was a contestant, tonight I would vote myself off of Mogo Mogo.\"","highlights":"\"Survivor\" and similar shows have been filmed on Panama's Pearl Islands .\nThe island of Contadora is a 20-minute flight from Panama City .\nBeaches and marine exploration are the main sources of entertainment .","id":"6f6ac3d970661914c9940e6e2eb2812fbfb3f88a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California voters on Tuesday appear to have approved Proposition 8, a measure banning same-sex marriage in the state. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin says the U.S. Supreme Court may have to rule on the issue of same-sex marriage. California's secretary of state late Tuesday released semi-official results showing Proposition 8 had passed 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent. CNN has not officially called the result one way or the other. On Wednesday protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles to voice their opposition to the potential ban. And there are at least three legal challenges to it now pending in court. Kiran Chetry of CNN's \"American Morning\" spoke Thursday with the program's legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, about the issue. Chetry: California's attorney general says that the constitutional amendment is not retroactive, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says he will continue to marry people until someone sues him to stop. So what does Prop 8 mean first of all to people who want to get married in the state of California? Hostin: Well, we already know in Los Angeles they are no longer issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. So in Los Angeles, it's a no go. In San Francisco, as you mentioned, the mayor is saying, \"We're still going to be doing it.\" So for people that aren't married yet, it's really legal limbo. Chetry: All right. And what about people who from the time that they allowed same-sex marriage, this was in May until November, some 18,000 couples decided they were going to do it. What happens to them? Is their marriage still valid? Hostin: It's still valid right now. But really they are also in a legal limbo. The bottom line it's all over the place. The law is really unclear here. Last night, I was poring over these legal papers. I was also discussing this with a lot of law professors, a lot of different lawyers, and everyone is all over the place. Some folks said, you know, the bottom line is when you look at the language of Proposition 8, it is very clear that it was meant to be retroactive and that means that all the marriages will be invalidated. Then another law professor that I spoke to said that is absolutely fundamentally ridiculous. The bottom line is this is a fundamental right that was given to couples and this is a right that is not going to be given away. I think we're going to see a lot of litigation here, Kiran, and the bottom line is everyone is in a legal, legal limbo. Chetry: It's very interesting the grounds for which they are challenging. At least in one of these lawsuits they said that it was a constitutional revision rather than an amendment. And that means it would need two-thirds approval of the House in the legislature. So do we think it could go to the state house in California as well as being fought in the courts? Hostin: I really think this is going to be a legal issue. I think this is going to go before the California Supreme Court. And we already know as you mentioned that there are three cases pending before the California Supreme Court. And what is interesting to note is that it's the very same court that allowed these marriages in the first place. And so, my guess is that that court is going to weigh in, probably reinstitute the right to marry for same-sex couples and then that's going to be likely based on the U.S. Constitution and our Supreme Court is going to weigh in. What is I think extremely interesting here is that we now know that we have a president-elect, Obama. He's going to get the opportunity likely to appoint Supreme Court justices. So we don't even know which type of court or the makeup of the court that will hear this. But I think the Supreme Court will likely weigh in on this issue. Chetry: This was such a hot button issue in the state. More spending on either side, $35 million, $37 million on both sides. Hostin: Yes. Chetry: It was the highest funded campaign on any state ballot. Hostin: That's right. Chetry: They say it trumped every other campaign except the presidential. Hostin: People care about this issue. I mean, they're talking about discrimination, equal protection. It's an issue that's a hotbed issue. We also know, Kiran, that in Arizona and Florida that this ban was implemented. And so, you know, it's all over the place. People care about this issue, and this is an issue that is really present. And I think that it's something that, we, of course, have to watch because we're talking about equal protection, we're talking about discrimination. People care about these issues. Chetry: Sunny Hostin, great to see you. Thank you. Hostin: Thanks. iReport.com: Did you vote on a same-sex measure?","highlights":"California voters appear to have approved a ban on same-sex marriage .\nAt least three court challenges have been filed against ban .\nCNN legal analyst says opinions on ban's legality are \"all over the place\"\nAnalyst says U.S. Supreme Court will likely be called upon to decide issue .","id":"1dfa1939b4e56d28cb081eb2a196e5d7aa4db1ca"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Drew Westen, Ph.D., is professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, founder of Westen Strategies, and author of \"The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.\" He has been a consultant or adviser to several candidates and organizations, including the AFL-CIO, and has informally advised the Obama campaign. Drew Westen says Democrats realized you need more than position papers to sway the voters. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A single factor never produces a complex event like the historic election of Barack Obama. But when the final post-mortem on the election of 2008 is someday written, it will no doubt include at least three. First, John McCain started with three strikes against him. Those strikes happen to be the three strongest predictors that enter into the equations used by political scientists to predict who will win an election: an unpopular incumbent president (in this case, the most unpopular in the history of polling), an economic downturn (in this case an understatement), and an unpopular war. In some ways, McCain lost the presidency twice to George W. Bush. In the 2000 South Carolina primary, McCain was defeated by what have been generously referred to as \"dirty tricks;\" and in the two-year run-up to the 2008 election, he allied himself with Bush and his policies to win his party's nomination (even referring to Bush as \"one of our greatest presidents\"), which was his undoing with independent voters in the general election. Second, whether McCain rues the day he chose Sarah Palin (who moved from the asset to the liability column around the same time Lehman Brothers did), Palin no doubt rues the day she chose to become a small-town mayor instead of a community organizer. It was precisely the extraordinary capacity to organize people that allowed Obama and his chief advisers to bring such unprecedented numbers of people to the polls. Not only was this the first election in recent memory in which Democrats outgunned Republicans with their get-out-the-vote efforts, but it was the first time since Eisenhower recognized the potential value of television as a medium for advertising over 50 years ago that Democrats have led Republicans in technology. From the moment I met Obama's media wizard, Scott Goodstein, 18 months ago, I realized Obama would have a tremendous advantage on that front, but I didn't realize by how much. But then there's that other major factor: For the first time since Bill Clinton, the Democrats chose a candidate with both the general intelligence to govern and the emotional and political intelligence to win. And they finally abandoned the approach to campaigning that has been their downfall for generations: peppering voters with facts, figures, and policy positions and assuming they will see what a rational choice the candidate is. We don't choose any of the important people in our lives that way, whether spouses or presidents. Obama beat McCain the same way he beat Hillary Clinton: by out-inspiring them, boxing them into the role of the candidate against hope, and defining himself as the candidate who represents change. And in the last few weeks of the campaign, Obama finally began to control the four stories that matter in an election: . 1. the story you tell about your yourself (that he was the candidate of change, fleshing out what he meant by change); . 2. the story you tell about your opponent (that McCain was four more years of Bush); . 3. the story the other candidate is telling about himself (McCain the maverick, which Obama countered by citing McCain's proud proclamation that he had voted with Bush over 90 percent of the time and parrying, \"That's not a maverick, that's a sidekick\"); and . 4. the story McCain was telling about Obama (that he lacked the experience and judgment to lead, which Obama countered with his steadiness in the face of the Wall Street meltdown and his strong, steady performances in the debates). Elections are won by candidates who control those four stories and in so doing inspire the electorate and channel their fears (in this case, fears about the economy trumping all else). Going forward, Obama needs to find his way as a leader between the excesses of the \"permanent campaign,\" in which a president remains in campaign mode throughout his presidency -- taken to its extreme under George W. Bush, who allowed his political strategist, Karl Rove, an inordinate role in crafting policies rather than just figuring out how to talk with the public about them -- and Obama's more natural predilection to talk like a law professor. What Democrats learned from this election is that if their candidate thinks like a professor but inspires like a preacher, they can have their cake and eat it, too. President-elect Obama faces enormous mountains to climb that will require enormous public support. He will no doubt pursue the policies he considers best for digging our nation out of some deep ditches, both domestically and internationally. But the best policies don't sell themselves, whether the date is November 3 or January 21, and the style that led him to the White House -- a calm, thoughtful, steady approach to policy combined with an extraordinary capacity to inspire -- is the same style that will make him an extraordinary leader. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Drew Westen.","highlights":"Drew Westen: McCain was burdened by bad economy, Bush unpopularity .\nDemocrats had technological edge for first time in decades, Westen says .\nWesten says Democrats learned you can't win with position papers, statistics .\nThey dealt with people's fears, mostly about the economy, Westen says .","id":"3893e21050e1872765a6a7dd31b0d6e7584d765a"} -{"article":"LAKE LANIER, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a water supply emergency in north Georgia on Saturday as its water resources dwindled to a dangerously low level after months of drought. But an Army Corps of Engineers official denied there is a water crisis. Perdue, who signed an executive order Saturday, asked for President Bush's help in easing regulations that require the state to send water downstream to Alabama and Florida. He also asked the president to declare 85 counties as federal disaster areas. Perdue blasted what he called the \"silly rules\" governing the water supplies, noting that even if the state got replenishing rains, it could not by law conserve those, but must release 3.2 billion gallons a day downstream. \"The actions of the Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service are not only irresponsible, I believe they're downright dangerous and Georgia cannot stand for this negligence,\" Perdue said. The Army Corps of Engineers, however, presented a different assessment. If there were nine months without rain, water supplies still would be adequate, said Maj. Daren Payne, the Army Corps' deputy commander for the Mobile, Alabama, District. The corps sent a letter to Perdue assessing the situation and pointing out that they are \"not going to run out [of water] any time soon,\" Payne said. The corps -- under an agreement reached in the 1980s with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state and downstream users -- releases 5,000 feet of water per second from the dam between Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River. The figure was based on a Florida hydroelectric power plant's needs, as well as concern for endangered species in the river, including mussels and sturgeon. On Friday, Georgia filed a motion seeking to require the Army Corps of Engineers to restrict water flows from the lake and other north Georgia reservoirs. Watch Gov. Perdue blast a \"disaster of federal bureaucracy\" \u00bb . The corps said it needs 120 days to review its water policies, according to Perdue. The Bush administration has been in contact with the Georgia congressional delegation on the matter, the White House said Saturday afternoon . \"We have already begun drafting interim rules to ... address the endangered species requirements, and the Army Corps has started the process of revising the operations manual for the river basin,\" said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Months of drought . Rainfall in north Georgia, which includes the Atlanta metropolitan area, is far below normal for this time of year. That was evident as Perdue addressed reporters on packed red clay on the shore of Lake Lanier -- the main water source for the Atlanta area's 5 million residents. Normally, he'd be standing in water, but levels have dropped to historically low levels. The drought is hurting businesses and scaring away tourists. Efforts are under way to try to reduce the flow from Lake Lanier by looking into requirements for endangered species and demands downstream for power plants and industries, Payne said. A new biological review of endangered species needs will end in November and will be examined by officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to see if water requirements can be reduced, he added. \"The corps is not opposed to reducing the flow, if it can do it legally,\" Payne said. Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been wrangling over how to allocate water from the Chattahoochee watershed for years as metro Atlanta's population has doubled since 1980. \"No one is sacrificing, no one is sharing the pain like the people in north Georgia are,\" Perdue said, noting there are no water restrictions in Florida or southern Alabama. Georgia has imposed a mandatory ban on outdoor water use by homeowners in the region, but Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle warned this is a situation \"we cannot conserve our way out of.\" Meanwhile, individual counties are monitoring illegal water use. In Douglas County, violators will have their water supply turned off and may have to pay up to $1,000 to get it turned back on. Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, is doling out fines of up to $500 for repeat offenders. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Rusty Dornin and Tristan Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Governor asks president to declare North Georgia a disaster area .\nArmy Corps official denies there is a Lake Lanier water crisis .\nArmy Corps releases millions of gallons daily from the lake .\nGeorgia will seek injunction to stop water releases from reservoir .","id":"9ad47839adb9d894f2b8f4d4032204f3611e7113"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The European Union will launch its first naval operation Tuesday, protecting vessels from pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, EU policy chief Javier Solana announced Monday. A French army helicopter taking off from French frigate Nivose, on patrol in the Gulf of Aden. EU foreign ministers approved the mission during their regular meeting in Brussels on Monday. Solana said the operation is \"very important\" because EU vessels will be operating \"in a place in the world that everybody's looking at because of the new problems related to piracy.\" \"It's very important that we have taken that decision to launch it tomorrow,\" he added. The EU naval force will take over the role of escorting United Nations World Food Program vessels carrying food and relief supplies to war-torn Somalia, an EU news release said. Its mandate, which is spelled out in several U.N. Security Council resolutions, also will include \"the protection of vulnerable vessels cruising off the Somali coast, and the deterrence, prevention and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast,\" the news release stated. The deployment follows a decision by the European Council in September that established a coordination cell that supported surveillance and protection operations by several member states off the Somali coast. Piracy has become increasingly common in that area this year, particularly in the Gulf of Aden. So far, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Those hijacked vessels include an enormous oil tanker, a chemical tanker, and a ship laden with Soviet-era arms, including tanks. The pirates normally hold the ships for ransom. The Somali-based pirates have extended their reach beyond Somalia's coastline. On Saturday, a Dutch-operated container ship outran pirates off the coast of Tanzania, an IMB official told CNN. A luxury cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers and crew successfully outran pirates off the coast of Yemen last weekend. A multinational fleet -- including vessels from the United States, NATO member states, Russia and India -- has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. In a recent interview provided to CNN, a pirate leader claimed attacks on shipping would continue so long as life in Somalia remained desperate. \"The pirates are living between life and death,\" said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. \"Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything.\"","highlights":"EU force will take over the role of escorting U.N. World Food Program vessels .\nRole includes \"protection of vulnerable vessels cruising off the Somali coast\"\nPirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast this year .\nWarships from U.S., India, Russia and Malaysia also patrol region .","id":"f20dcf407d61fb6d7d08419ef71d88fca558d3cf"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- After spending nearly 28 years in an irreversible coma, heiress and socialite Martha \"Sunny\" von Bulow died Saturday in a New York nursing home, according to a family statement. She was 76. Sunny von Bulow is pictured during her 1957 wedding to Prince Alfred von Auersperg. Von Bulow was subject of one of the nation's most sensational criminal cases during the 1980s. Her husband, Claus, was accused of trying to kill her with an overdose of insulin, which prosecutors alleged sent her into the coma. He was convicted of making two attempts on her life, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. He was acquitted in a second trial. His retrial in 1985 received national attention. \"We were blessed to have an extraordinarily loving and caring mother,\" said the statement from Von Bulow's three children -- Annie Laurie \"Ala\" Isham, Alexander von Auersperg and Cosima Pavoncelli -- released by a spokeswoman. \"She was especially devoted to her many friends and family members.\" Martha von Bulow was born Martha Sharp Crawford into a wealthy family. She inherited a fortune conservatively estimated at $75 million, according to an article on the von Bulow case posted on truTV.com's Crime Library Web site. In her early years, she drew comparisons to actress Grace Kelly. She became known as Princess von Auersperg with her first marriage, to Prince Alfred von Auersperg of Austria. That marriage produced two children: Alexander and Annie Laurie. The von Bulows married in 1966 and had a daughter, Cosima. On the morning of December 22, 1980, family members found Martha von Bulow unconscious in the bathroom of the family's posh Newport, Rhode Island, home. She never regained consciousness. She had been hospitalized a year earlier after lapsing into a coma but recovered, according to the Crime Library site. Doctors had diagnosed her with hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Prosecutors accused Claus von Bulow of twice attempting to kill his wife by injecting her with insulin. The case also led to a major motion picture, \"Reversal of Fortune.\" Actor Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow. Famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who won Claus von Bulow a new trial on appeal after his conviction, said in a statement Saturday that Martha von Bulow's death is \"a sad ending to a sad tragedy that some members of her family tried to turn into a crime. We proved overwhelming[ly] that there was no crime and that the coma was self-induced. We saved his life, but could not save hers.\" Claus von Bulow's defense team maintained that Martha von Bulow's alcohol use, among other factors, caused her coma. Dershowitz said he had spoken with Claus von Bulow, who now lives in London, England. Claus von Bulow was saddened by his former wife's passing, Dershowitz said. The family statement said Martha von Bulow is survived by her children, their spouses and nine grandchildren. Alexander von Auersperg and Ala von Auersperg Isham, who had sided with prosecutors against Claus von Bulow, filed a civil suit against their stepfather after his acquittal. The case was settled out of court in 1987, according to a 2007 article in the Providence Journal newspaper in Rhode Island. Claus von Bulow had agreed to waive his claim to his wife's money and to a divorce in exchange for the suit being dropped. The von Bulows' daughter, Cosima, sided with her father. Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne, who covered the von Bulow case, told the New York Daily News in 2007 that Sunny von Bulow was moved from Columbia Presbyterian hospital to a private nursing home in 1998. Watch Dunne recall case \u00bb . Ala von Auersperg Isham served for a time as president of the Sunny von Bulow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation, according to the Providence Journal. An offshoot of that organization, the Brain Trauma Foundation, still operates in New York, the newspaper said. The family statement notes that Martha von Bulow actively supported the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Opera and the J.P. Morgan Library in New York and the Preservation Society of Newport, Rhode Island. A private memorial service will be held for family and friends in New York in the coming days, the family statement said Saturday, along with a private burial. CNN's Julian Cummings contributed to this report.","highlights":"Husband Claus von Bulow was accused of trying to kill her with insulin overdose .\nConviction overturned on appeal; he was acquitted in second trial .\nClaus von Bulow, living in England, is saddened by former wife's death, lawyer says .\nShe is survived by three children and nine grandchildren .","id":"a4bea817552f52e415984a7e8b88d327587667a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Washington woman who hid a sedated monkey under her blouse on a flight from Thailand was convicted of violating wildlife laws for smuggling the monkey into the United States, prosecutors said Tuesday. Authorities rescued the monkey from Gypsy Lawson's fake womb. Gypsy Lawson, 28, and her mother, Fran Ogren, 56, were convicted of smuggling and conspiracy to smuggle the monkey in violation of the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws. Lawson hid the young rhesus macaque monkey under a loose-fitting blouse on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand, to Los Angeles, California, International Airport, pretending she was pregnant, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Washington said. Permits are required to possess rhesus monkeys and many other species of animals. Such permits are granted for research, enhancement and conservation purposes. Additionally, transporting such species into the United States requires a customs declaration. Lawson and Ogren had neither. \"These defendants purposely undertook a course of action which could well have endangered many citizens, as well as the life of the animal in question,\" said U.S. Attorney James McDevitt. Rhesus monkeys are known to carry viruses and parasites that can be transmitted to humans, said Paul Chang, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent. \"This particular animal tested negative,\" he said. Chang said the monkey has been placed with a rescue center for abandoned primates, \"but it could have been living out its life with its family in its native habitat.\" Authorities found journals and handwritten notes describing the mother and daughter's attempts to find a monkey small enough to smuggle back to the United States. The journal also described the pair's \"acquisition of a small monkey and their experimenting with different medicines to sedate the monkey for their journey home,\" McDevitt's office said. Authorities also found photographs of Lawson at two airports and on an airplane in which she is wearing loose-fitting clothing and appears to be pregnant. \"The journal confirms that she and her mother smuggled the monkey into the United States by hiding it under her shirt, pretending she was pregnant in order to get past authorities,\" the statement from McDevitt's office said. Co-defendant James Edward Pratt, 34, already has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of possession and transportation of prohibited wildlife. He will be sentenced in January. Sentencing for Lawson and Ogren is scheduled for March 3, 2009. The smuggling conviction carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of court supervision after release. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of court supervision after release. Flight itineraries show the pair flew from Spokane, Washington, to Bangkok on November 4-5, 2007, with stops in Seattle, Washington, and Inchon, South Korea. They returned on a direct flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles, California, on November 28, 2007.","highlights":"Gypsy Lawson, 28, faked pregnancy to hide sedated monkey under her blouse .\nLawson, mother convicted of conspiracy, smuggling for taking monkey from Thailand .\nProsecutors say they found notes between women planning the smuggling .\nSmuggling conviction carries maximum 20-year sentence .","id":"8fdd7ea2a7b95c4979cb933dfd889a5dc8898e24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two airmen were found dead in the Pacific Ocean and rescuers were trying to find four others after a U.S. Air Force B-52 crashed off the island of Guam on Monday, the Air Force said. The B-52H Stratofortress, like this one, was in Guam as part of a four-month rotation. Rescuers found the bodies about 30 miles northwest of Guam, not far from where the bomber was believed to have crashed at about 9:45 a.m. local time, the Air Force said. One of the dead airmen was identified, but the identity was withheld pending family notification, the Air Force said. Search crews have found no survivors, but they are still looking, said Lt. Elizabeth Buendia, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard in Guam, which is a U.S. territory. The B-52H Stratofortress had six airmen aboard and was on a training mission when it crashed, the Air Force said. It was scheduled to fly over crowds celebrating Liberation Day, which commemorates the U.S. capture of Guam from Japan in 1944, the Air Force said. The bomber was based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana but was at Guam's Andersen Air Force Base as part of a four-month rotation, said Capt. Joel Stark, an Andersen Air Force Base spokesman. No weapons or munitions were aboard the aircraft and information on what led to the crash wasn't available, the Air Force said. In February, a B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base. Two crew members ejected and were in good condition afterward.","highlights":"NEW: Bodies of two airmen found in Pacific Ocean; four other airmen sought .\nA U.S. Air Force B-52 with six airmen crashed off the island of Guam .\nRescuers search a point in the Pacific about 30 miles northwest of Guam .\nThe B-52H Stratofortress was based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana .","id":"84ced5c56d8b021c11ed63055e0f8f26b1d15994"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new space race is officially under way, and this one should have the sci-fi geeks salivating. Lift to space: This is a NASA interpretation of what a space elevator may look like. The project is a \"space elevator,\" and some experts now believe that the concept is well within the bounds of possibility -- maybe even within our lifetimes. A conference discussing developments in space elevator concepts is being held in Japan in November, and hundreds of engineers and scientists from Asia, Europe and the Americas are working to design the only lift that will take you directly to the one hundred-thousandth floor. Despite these developments, you could be excused for thinking it all sounds a little far-fetched. Indeed, if successfully built, the space elevator would be an unprecedented feat of human engineering. A cable anchored to the Earth's surface, reaching tens of thousands of kilometers into space, balanced with a counterweight attached at the other end is the basic design for the elevator. It is thought that inertia -- the physics theory stating that matter retains its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force -- will cause the cable to stay stretched taut, allowing the elevator to sit in geostationary orbit. The cable would extend into the sky, eventually reaching a satellite docking station orbiting in space. Engineers hope the elevator will transport people and objects into space, and there have even been suggestions that it could be used to dispose of nuclear waste. Another proposed idea is to use the elevator to place solar panels in space to provide power for homes on Earth. If it sounds like the stuff of fiction, maybe that's because it once was. In 1979, Arthur C. Clarke's novel \"The Fountains of Paradise\" brought the idea of a space elevator to a mass audience. Charles Sheffield's \"The Web Between the Worlds\" also featured the building of a space elevator. But, jump out of the storybooks and fast-forward nearly three decades, and Japanese scientists at the Japan Space Elevator Association are working seriously on the space-elevator project. Association spokesman Akira Tsuchida said his organization was working with U.S.-based Spaceward Foundation and a European organization based in Luxembourg to develop an elevator design. The Liftport Group in the U.S. is also working on developing a design, and in total it's believed that more than 300 scientists and engineers are engaged in such work around the globe. NASA is holding a $4 million Space Elevator Challenge to encourage designs for a successful space elevator. Tsuchida said the technology driving the race to build the first space elevator is the quickly developing material carbon nanotube. It is lightweight and has a tensile strength 180 times stronger than that of a steel cable. Currently, it is the only material with the potential to be strong enough to use to manufacture elevator cable, according to Tsuchida. \"At present we have a tether which is made of carbon nanotube, and has one-third or one-quarter of the strength required to make a space elevator. We expect that we will have strong enough cable in the 2020s or 2030s,\" Tsuchida said. He said the most likely method of powering the elevator would be through the carbon nanotube cable. So, what are the major logistical issues keeping the space elevator from being anything more than a dream at present? Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics and astronautics Professor Jeff Hoffman said that designing the carbon nanotube appeared to be the biggest obstacle. \"We are now on the verge of having material that has the strength to span the 30,000 km ... but we don't have the ability to make long cable out of the carbon nanotubes at the moment.\" he said. \"Although I'm confident that within a reasonable amount of time we will be able to do this.\" Tsuchida said that one of the biggest challenges will be acquiring funding to move the projects forward. At present, there is no financial backing for the space elevator project, and all of the Japanese group's 100-plus members maintain other jobs to earn a living. \"Because we don't have a material which has enough strength to construct space elevator yet, it is difficult to change people's mind so they believe that it can be real,\" he said. Hoffman feels that international dialogue needs to be encouaraged on the issue. He said a number of legal considerations also would have to be taken into account. \"This is not something one nation or one company can do. There needs to be a worldwide approach,\" he said. Other difficulties for space-elevator projects include how to build the base for the elevator, how to design it and where to set up the operation. Tsuchida said some possible locations for an elevator include the South China Sea, western Australia and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. He said all of those locations usually avoided typhoons, which could pose a threat to the safety of an elevator. \"As the base of space elevator will be located on geosynchronous orbit, [the] space elevator ground station should be located near the equator,\" he said. Although the Japanese association has set a time frame of the 2030s to get a space elevator under construction -- and developments are moving quickly -- Hoffman acknowledges that it could be a little further away than that. \"I don't know if it's going to be in our lifetime or if it's 100 or 200 years away, but it's near enough that we can contemplate how it will work.\" Building a space elevator is a matter of when, not if, said Hoffman, who believes that it will herald a major new period in human history. \"It will be revolutionary for human technology, and not just for space travel. That's why so many people are pursuing it,\" he said. \"This is what it will take to turn humans into a space-bearing species.\"","highlights":"Japan group has more than 100 engineers trying to design a space elevator .\nCarbon nanotube would be used as a wire to lift the elevator into space .\nWestern Australia and the Galapagos Islands are potential locations for base station .\nGroup sets the 2030s as a target to begin construction, although it could be later .","id":"d6f2107232b665a55fac6605a81e8261330f9520"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Record the CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Busted! Mortgage Meltdown when it airs commercial-free on Monday, October 6, 2008, from approximately 4:10-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.) Program Overview . Home loans gone bad are wrecking the U.S. economy. CNN teams up with Fortune Magazine's Andy Serwer to investigate how the housing boom went bust. The fallout begins on Wall Street, where billions of dollars in American mortgages were bought, bundled and sold around the world. CNN takes the high-stakes mortgage game to Delmonico's, a Wall Street institution since 1837, where the likes of J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie once wheeled and dealed. Host Andy Serwer plays dealer and invites a few experts to face off on the mortgage crisis. Guest players include New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman, CNN's Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis, securities guru Janet Tavakoli, investment strategist Peter Dunay and mortgage broker Jon Shibley. Grade Levels: 11-12, College . Subject Areas: Business, Economics, Finance, Social Studies, Life Skills . Objectives: . The CNN Special Investigations Unit Classroom Edition: Busted! Mortgage Meltdown and its corresponding discussion questions and activity challenge students to: . Curriculum Connections . Economics America National Standards . Standard 10 : Role of Economic Institutions . Students will understand that: Institutions evolve in market economies to help individuals and groups accomplish their goals. Banks, labor unions, corporations, legal systems, and not-for-profit organizations are examples of important institutions. A different kind of institution, clearly defined and enforced property rights, is essential to a market economy. Standard 16 : Role of Government . Students will understand that: There is an economic role for government in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. Governments often provide for national defense, address environmental concerns, define and protect property rights, and attempt to make markets more competitive. Most government policies also redistribute income. The Economics America National Standards (http:\/\/www.ncee.net\/ea\/standards\/) are published by the National Council on Economic Education (http:\/\/www.ncee.net\/). Social Studies . Standard V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions. Standard VI. Power, Authority, and Governance: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/strands\/) are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/ncss.org\/). Discussion Questions . Suggested Activity . Point out to students that one of the best ways for them to prepare for homeownership is to arm themselves with knowledge, and that the purpose of this activity is to help them obtain this information. Group students and instruct each group to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the top ten things that first-time homebuyers should know before they shop for a mortgage. Groups may want to include information that addresses these points: . Have groups deliver their presentations to the class. If possible, invite a realtor or mortgage broker to attend the presentations and discuss the guidelines that are used to determine whether or not a homebuyer can afford a home. Extension . Following the presentations, direct students to print and online resources to identify homes that are for sale in their community, as well as the current interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage, a 15-year fixed mortgage and a 5\/1 ARM. Next, have each student select a house and use an online amortization schedule calculator to determine what the monthly payment (principle + interest) would be for each type of loan, assuming that the loan was for 80% of the purchase price of the home. Instruct students to identify the potential benefits and drawbacks of each type of loan, and to select the loan type that they feel would be the best choice for the homebuyer. Then, have each student determine the salary that he or she thinks a person would need to earn to afford the monthly mortgage payments. After students share their research, ask: . Keywords . mortgage, subprime, foreclosure, economy, interest rates, credit risk, housing prices, homeowner, real estate, mortgage broker, reverse redlining, Wall Street, Federal Reserve, securities, regulation, predatory lending, housing bubble, capitalism, recession, depression .","highlights":"Learn about the different types of home loans that are available to consumers .\nExamine the current mortgage crisis in the U.S.\nIdentify the economic and social ripple effects of this crisis .\nDetermine ten things homebuyers should know before they shop for a mortgage .","id":"fa106f672b0243aa55be2691a3f8da228a34a9c4"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Barry Eichengreen is George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of \"Golden Fetters: the Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939.\" Barry Eichengreen says strong action should be taken to stop the financial crisis from getting worse. BERKELEY, California (CNN) -- Every time the economy and stock market turn down, financial historians get predictable calls from reporters. Could this be the start of another Great Depression? Could \"it\" possibly happen again? My stock answer has always been no. The Great Depression resulted from a series of economic and financial shocks -- the end of a housing bubble in 1926 and the end of a high-tech bubble in 1929 -- but also from truly breathtaking neglect and incompetence on the part of policymakers. It couldn't happen again precisely because policymakers know this history. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is a student of the Great Depression. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson remembers the mistakes of Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoover's treasury secretary. We can be confident, I always answered, that there will not be another Great Depression because policymakers have read financial histories like mine. At least that was my line until recently. Now I have stopped taking reporters' calls. The first thing that made the Great Depression great, of course, was the Fed's failure to act. It basically stood by as the banking system and the economy collapsed around it. This time, in contrast, the Fed can hardly be criticized for inaction. Not only has it cut rates, but it has rolled out one new unprecedented initiative after another. Unfortunately, it has reacted more than acted. First, it provided funds to the commercial banks. Then, it targeted broker-dealers. Now, it is desperately propping up the commercial paper market. All the while however, the problem has been infecting new parts of the financial system. One thing that restrained the Fed in the 1930s was the fear that rate cuts might cause capital to flee to other countries and the dollar to crash. The danger was that the same liquidity that the Fed poured in through the top of the bucket might just leak back out through these holes in the bottom. There was a solution: coordinated rate cuts here and in Europe. Unfortunately, central bankers couldn't agree on what was needed. The result was further instability. That central banks have learned this lesson of history and now see the need for coordinated action is at least one ground for hope. The problem is that they have already used their bullets. iReport.com: What lessons have your family passed down from the Great Depression? U.S. Treasury bill rates have essentially fallen to zero, and the Fed's policy interest rates are only slightly above that level. Central banks are out of ammunition. This is no longer a problem they can solve by themselves. What is needed now is Treasury action to address what has morphed into a global banking crisis. Between 1930 and 1933, not just the U.S. but also Europe and Latin America experienced rolling banking crises. When Austria took desperate measures to prop up its banking system, its banking crisis only shifted to Germany. When Germany did the same, the crisis spread to the United States. This was beggar-thy-neighbor policy at its worst. We have seen some disturbing evidence of the same in recent weeks, as when Ireland unilaterally guaranteed all bank deposits and thereby sucked funds out of the British banking system. G7 leaders, when they meet in Washington at the end of this week, need to explain exactly how they will address this aspect of the problem. They need to commit money to recapitalizing their banking systems -- now, and not next week. The U.K., which has just announced a $50 billion plan for bank recapitalization, has shown how this can be done in a matter of days. But a coordinated initiative will require the U.S. to put up a considerably larger sum. My recommendation would be to abandon the idea of reverse auctions for toxic assets and instead use the $700 billion of the recently passed rescue plan for bank recapitalization. Although the Great Depression started in 1929, it took until 1933 for American leaders to grasp this nettle and recapitalize the banks. We can't afford to wait for years this time around. A final thing that made the Great Depression such a catastrophe was that some of the worst shocks occurred right before the 1932 presidential election. There then followed an extended interregnum between the election and inauguration of the new president when no one was in charge. The outgoing president, Hoover, asked his successor designate, Franklin Roosevelt, to cooperate with him on joint statements and policies, but FDR refused to do so. Meanwhile, the banking crisis deepened. Corporations failed. The economy was allowed to spiral downward. It was this disaster that led us to amend the constitution to shorten the time between presidential election and inauguration from 4 to 2\u00bd months. The implication is clear. The two presidential candidates should be assembling their financial SWAT teams now. Paulson should promise that they will be invited into his office on November 5. This problem cannot wait until Inauguration Day. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Eichengreen: Serious mistakes were made by policy makers in Depression .\nToday's leaders know the lessons of the Depression, he says .\nStill, events are rapidly overtaking the resources of the central banks, he says .\nEichengreen: The problem can't wait until Inauguration Day to be solved .","id":"464a6206bb275a0e2114e41ab21649b10e6c8273"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China has canceled or postponed several military exchanges with the U.S. in reaction to last week's announcement that the U.S. is selling weapons to Taiwan, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday. Apache attack helicopters are part of the $6.4 billion weapons deal between the U.S. and Taiwan. Officials announced last week an intention to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, though the deal still needs to be approved by Congress. Maj. Stewart Upton said the sale does not violate the Taiwan Relations Act, which allows the United States to provide Taiwan with items for self-defense . Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland in 1949 and the United States has vowed to support them if China initiates an unprovoked attack. The arms deal comes at a time when the United States needs China in negotiations over Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs. \"The Chinese reaction is unfortunate and results in missed opportunities,\" Upton said. \"We feel that the global security environment calls for U.S. and [Chinese] officials to maintain close relations to address common security challenges.\" The \"bilateral events\" China called off or postponed involve \"senior level visits and humanitarian assistance\/disaster relief exchanges\" scheduled to happen by the end of November, he said. The Chinese ambassador was said to be on his way to the State Department Monday afternoon to protest the proposed weapons sale to Taiwan. One U.S. official said the tension with China will not affect the role China is playing in negotiations with Iran or North Korea over its nuclear program. The official declined to speak for attribution because of the sensitive diplomacy involved. The arms deal package includes a variety of U.S.-made weapons systems, including Patriot III anti-missile system, Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.","highlights":"China protesting U.S. deal to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan .\nDeal comes when the U.S. needs China in negotiations over Iran and N. Korea .\nChinese ambassador expected to protest sale to the State Department .\nU.S. defended deal, saying it does not violate international agreement .","id":"9d51333fd37e94fad28581924fe1ab452fdbcf83"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On Tuesday, America elected its first black president, Barack Obama. But what does Obama's sweeping victory mean for the United States? Bill Maher is the host of \"Real Time with Bill Maher,\" which airs on Friday nights on HBO. Bill Maher has the answer to that, and other questions -- including why he wants President George W. Bush to stay at home for the next 76 days. Maher, the host of HBO's \"Real Time with Bill Maher\" and the star of the current film \"Religulous,\" was a guest on Wednesday's \"Larry King Live.\" He talked with CNN's King about Sarah Palin's future, George W. Bush's past and the impact of GOP adviser Karl Rove. The following is an edited version of that interview. Larry King: Were you ever -- I don't want to use the word scared -- were you ever worried last night? Bill Maher: Why? What happened? (LAUGHTER) I think, you know, we all had this paranoid feeling like we're Charlie Brown and they're going to snatch the football away again. So, you know, until about when he won Pennsylvania, that's when it started to look pretty good for the people who were for him. King: What does this election say to you, Bill? Maher: I think that the lesson of the election is that the old America that Sarah Palin was saying was the real America, the small town, \"Joe the Plumber,\" white America, that's still out there. But the other America, the more diverse, liberal America, has edged it out. And maybe that's the real America now. Watch King and Maher talk about the election \u00bb . King: Is Karl Rovism dead? Maher: Never. Negative campaigning, mudslinging, tearing people down -- that will always be in vogue. McCain did make a classy speech last night. But, you know, they all make a classy speech when they lose. What else can you do? And it does ring a little less true when only a day before you're calling the guy a socialist, a communist, a terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American. Oh, we lost? He's a great guy. Forget what I said yesterday. Let's all get behind the guy I just said was a communist. Please. King: Did the McCain campaign -- I know you admired him in the past -- did it disappoint you? Maher: Terribly. I think it even disappointed the people who were voting for him. I sensed something in conservatives reacting to the election yesterday. Even the ones who voted for McCain, they sort of were relieved. I sensed that. It was like, yes, I guess I kind of had to pull the lever for McCain, but secretly a part of me knew that this country needed a breath of fresh air, needed a new kind of president, a new kind of politics, a new face, a smart guy, a flexible guy, a supple leader. King: Is Gov. Palin the new star of the Republican Party? Maher: If they're not very bright, she is. I mean, that's going to be the gut check for the Republicans ... what direction are they going to go in now? Now, I think politicians are usually led by the idea that they want to win elections. And Sarah Palin was a bit of an Alaskan albatross around John McCain's neck -- not that he would have won anyway. King: You said you don't want President Bush meeting with any more foreign leaders between now and the inauguration. Why? Maher:: Because I don't trust him. He's got 76 days left to pull off one more giant screw-up and I don't think it's beyond him. I mean, the man does have a track record, Larry. You know, I keep saying it, but I don't think this man will be happy until he leaves the White House smoldering behind him as he walks back to Texas. King: You recently issued one of your new rules decreeing that Obama must give comedians something to work with. Any suggestions? Maher: No. It's very difficult. We have been spoiled, first with Bill Clinton and then George Bush. And here's a president now who -- he's not stupid. He's not angry. He's not a phony. He's not fat. He's not cheating on his wife. Who needs a jerk like that around for the next four years? Come on. (LAUGHTER) But look, he's going to be the president and we're going to have to get over our nervousness about making fun of a black person. He's not a black person. He's the president. King: So then you must want Gov. Palin to stay around, comedically. Maher: I do and she will. I think what people did not understand about Gov. Palin was that she campaigned for that job. She wanted it. She lobbied for it. She's a very ambitious person. And, of course, she's a super religious person. So she believes that God chose her for this job. I guess -- I guess God had a bad night yesterday, because she didn't get it. But, you know, the Lord works mysterious ways, as we know. So maybe he's saving her for next election or the next after that. She's only 44 years old. I mean she could be on the public stage for the next 30 years.","highlights":"Bill Maher says he thinks the liberal, diverse America may now be the real America .\nMaher on Obama: \"He's not a phony. He's not fat. He's not cheating on his wife\"\nMaher says he wants Gov. Sarah Palin to stick around for comedic reasons .\nI was disappointed in the McCain campaign, Maher tells Larry King .","id":"d463d8f24afc6ebfaf07a04529243d5acc281a8f"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Ten South African ministers and the deputy president have resigned as President Thabo Mbeki prepares to leave office. South African President Thabo Mbeki announced his resignation in a televised address Sunday. His replacement, African National Congress Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, will be sworn in as South Africa's president Thursday. Mbeki announced he was resigning on Sunday, prompting threats from several Cabinet members to follow suit -- but the outgoing president urged them to stay in office, government sources said. The resignations, which include Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, will take effect Thursday when Mbeki steps down, a government statement said. \"All the ministers have expressed their availability to assist the incoming administration in the hand-over process and any other assistance that might be sought from them,\" the statement said. The finance minister's assistant told CNN that Manuel is willing to serve in the new government, if needed. Three deputy ministers have also tendered their resignations, a government statement said. A spokesman for South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, confirmed that it has named Motlanthe as its choice to succeed Mbeki. Motlanthe will stay in office until elections in the spring of next year, which ANC President Jacob Zuma is widely expected to win. Earlier this month, the ANC asked Mbeki to step down after a judge threw out the corruption, fraud and racketeering case against Zuma -- Mbeki's political arch rival. The judge called the case invalid and accused Mbeki's government of political interference. Mbeki -- who has been South Africa's president for nearly 10 years -- spoke of some of his achievements when he formally announced his resignation on Sunday during a televised address. Watch the significance of Mbeki \"falling on the sword\" \u00bb . \"I depart this office knowing that many men and woman in South Africa have worked to achieve better lives for all,\" Mbeki said. Under his leadership the country has had the longest period of sustained economic growth in the South Africa's history and has reached out to indigent people in an unprecedented way, Mbeki said. Mbeki said the country still has economic, corruption and crime challenges to face in the future. And he gave his vote of confidence to the country's next leader without naming who that leader would be. Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the African National Congress, announced Saturday that the party -- which Mbeki has been involved with since his teens -- had asked him to leave before his term was up. Mbeki agreed to do so, he said. Mantashe said the ANC made the decision \"for the citizens of South Africa, so there could be stability within the country\" and so the ANC movement could remain \"stable and unified.\" The case against Zuma -- who replaced Mbeki as ANC president last year -- was thrown out in September 2006, but the National Prosecuting Authority recharged him. Judge Chris Nicholson made no ruling on Zuma's guilt or innocence, and he could be recharged. Political observers doubted that would happen because of Zuma's popularity, particularly with the Communist Party and trade unions. Zuma has denied the charges. He said the case was politically motivated, and harmed his chances to become the ANC's presidential nominee. He could have faced at least 15 years in jail if convicted of accepting bribes from a company that got a contract in a multibillion-dollar arms deal. He also faced charges of having a corrupt relationship with his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for soliciting bribes for Zuma and using Zuma's political influence to benefit his businesses. Mbeki, 66, succeeded Nelson Mandela as South Africa's president in June 1999. Critics alleged he pushed for the corruption charges against Zuma. Mbeki recently brokered a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe's political rivals, who signed the agreement on Monday in an effort to put aside the violent past and end the crisis that has paralyzed Zimbabwe since disputed national elections in March. Under it, longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe remains president, while his perennial rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, has become prime minister and the coordinator of government affairs.","highlights":"10 S. African ministers, deputy president resign with President Thabo Mbeki .\nReplacement, ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, sworn in Thursday .\nMbeki quit after court case collapsed against longtime rival Jacob Zuma .","id":"45e92b1bd1e92b46df0627f40f85228bfc210afe"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha told CNN Sunday. The Dalai Lama with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on a recent visit to France. The check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours, but the Dalai Lama will not be admitted to the hospital, the spokesman said. The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the north Indian hill town of Dharamsala, will travel to the Indian capital on Monday. The 73-year-old Tibetan leader was hospitalized in Mumbai in August for abdominal discomfort. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday.","highlights":"Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a medical exam this week .\nDalai Lama was recently admitted for tests after suffering abdominal discomfort .\nThe check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours .","id":"b1065861c98843512e6f78bbab7e990c4ab37856"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Authorities vowed to re-impose order after demonstrators rose up across Greece Monday in a third day of rioting over Saturday's killing of a 15-year-old boy that has left dozens injured and scores of properties destroyed. An undated photo of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, whose death has sparked riots across Greece. \"Under no circumstances will the government accept what is occurring,\" said Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos. \"We will do what is necessary.\" It was unclear what would be necessary to placate the demonstrators. \"We've just lost count of how many demonstrations are taking place now,\" a police spokesman in Athens told CNN. Police said 34 civilians and 16 police officers were injured Monday in rioting that spread into new municipalities, including Trikala, Larissam and Veria. Riots broke out Saturday in Thessaloniki and Athens, where police killed the teen. Watch the latest report on the rioting \u00bb . Demonstrators had torched three government buildings and three offices of the ruling conservative political party in downtown Athens, a National Fire Brigade spokesman told Greek state television. Watch as iReporter witnesses the clashes . Thirty-five cars and 160 trash containers also had been set ablaze, he said. See images of anarchy on Greek streets \u00bb . Demonstrators Monday barricaded streets in Athens and Thessaloniki and hurled gasoline bombs as they battled with police. Clouds of tear gas hung over the capital city as riot police continued to battle the hundreds of young self-styled anarchists rioting over the boy's death. \"Rage is what I feel for what has happened, rage, and that this cop who did it must see what it is to kill a kid and to destroy a life,\" a student in Athens told reporters Monday. Watch protesters clash with police \u00bb . In a nationally televised address broadcast on state television, Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis condemned the violence and promised to punish those responsible for Saturday's shooting. He also announced a decision to drop plans to reimburse business owners affected by the rioting. The police officer who fired the fatal shot has been charged with \"manslaughter with intent\" and suspended from duty, police said, adding that a second police officer was arrested Saturday on criminal accessory charges. Government officials have condemned the shooting. \"An investigation is under way and those found responsible will be punished,\" said Pavlopoulos. \"Measures will also be taken to avoid such incidents again in the future.\" iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video of rioting . On Monday, authorities conducted an autopsy on the teenage boy in an effort to answer questions about the circumstances of the shooting, but the boy's family has called in their own investigators to verify state findings, the Athens coroner told CNN. The U.S. and British embassies issued warnings to employees and tourists on Sunday, instructing them to avoid downtown Athens and other major cities until rioting subsides. Tourists in central Athens hotels were advised by hotel staff not to leave their rooms as police fanned out across the city. \"There are lots of burning bins and debris in the street and a huge amount of tear gas in the air, which we got choked with on the way back to our hotel,\" according to Joel Brown, a CNN senior press officer visiting Athens on Sunday. A police statement about the teenage boy's death said the incident started when six young protesters pelted a police patrol car with stones. The teen was shot as he tried to throw a petrol bomb at the officers, police said. Other angry teens converged on the site almost immediately. Fighting between youths and police erupted elsewhere, including Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city. Hundreds of young people took to the streets of the sprawling port city, finally barricading themselves behind the gates of a state university. Authorities have been barred from entering university grounds since tanks crushed a 1973 student uprising protesting the ruling military junta. It was not clear what authorities would do about the demonstrators still holed up at the university. No deaths have been reported since Saturday. Police said Monday that 20 protesters had been rounded up for questioning. Journalist Anthee Carassava in Athens contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Authorities vow to re-impose order as rioting enters third day .\nNEW: Police say 34 civilians, 16 police officers injured Monday in rioting .\nProtests exploded after police shoot dead a teenage boy in Athens .\nGovernment says investigation into shooting is under way .","id":"9cda4be30c7605519a161ebb6f3e2c6f1d7dbaaf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal immigration agents arrested about 300 workers Tuesday in a raid at a poultry processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina, the Department of Justice said. The agents executed a criminal search warrant at 9 a.m. at the Columbia Farms poultry processing plant, capping a 10-month investigation into the plant's employment practices, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. About 58 of those arrested were allowed to return to their homes to take care of their children or for other humanitarian reasons, she said. The others were to be held in an ICE detention facility in the area. \"They are all illegals,\" Gonzalez said. \"We have charged them with being in violation of U.S. immigration laws.\" The investigation has already resulted in criminal charges being filed against 11 supervisors and a human resources manager, she said. Maria Juan, 22, was one of about 50 relatives and friends of workers who huddled at the edge of the plant after the raid, some weeping and others talking frantically on cell phones, The Associated Press reported. She was seeking information about her 68-year-old grandmother, a legal immigrant from Guatemala who went to work without identification papers but was later released, the AP reported. \"Families are going to be broken apart,\" Juan told the AP. \"There will be kids and babies left behind. Why are they doing this? Why? They didn't do anything. They only wanted to work.\" No one from Columbia Farms or from its parent company, House of Raeford Farms in Raeford, North Carolina, responded immediately to telephone messages. The Charlotte Observer newspaper first reported in February that plant workers were in the country illegally and company managers knew it, the AP reported. The raid \"is a drop in the bucket\" that is unlikely to persuade anyone in the United States illegally to go home, said Dan Kowalski, an Austin, Texas-based lawyer specializing in immigration law. He questioned the conclusion by Gonzalez and ICE that all of those arrested are indeed illegal immigrants. \"A judge has to say that, they can't just say that,\" he said.","highlights":"Federal immigration agents conduct raid at plant in Greenville, South Carolina .\nAbout 58 allowed to return to their homes to take care of their children .\nNo response from Columbia Farms or parent company, House of Raeford Farms .","id":"f5c9303b5d5d3ff78780e8b6bb4377b8907ed57d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Blake Mycoskie is the founder and \"chief shoe giver\" of TOMS Shoes, a company that matches every pair of shoes it sells with a free pair to an impoverished child. Blake Mycoskie started TOMS Shoes in 2006. The company is committed to giving free shoes to poor children around the world. CNN caught up with the 32-year-old entrepreneur to talk about the inspiration behind his revolutionary business and what he has planned next. CNN: Tell us about the TOMS model. Mycoskie: The TOMS initiative is very simple: For every pair of shoes we sell, we give a pair away. When we know that say, we're going to sell 10,000 pairs this spring, we make another 10,000 to be given away. CNN: Where did you get the idea to start TOMS? Mycoskie: I decided to go back to some of the places that my sister and I had visited on \"The Amazing Race.\" [Mycoskie and his sister participated in the reality TV show in 2002.] . I found myself going on to Argentina. I went to some of the villages and it was one of the defining moments of my life when I saw these kids not wearing shoes. That's where I kind of had this 'ah ha' moment. I started thinking, what if I started a business where every time I sold a pair of shoes, I would guarantee that customer that I would give another pair to someone who does not have shoes? CNN: How did you pursue your vision? Did you have any experience as a designer or shoemaker? Mycoskie: I had absolutely no experience in shoes or fashion so I approached the business how I have done everything in my life, and that's with reckless ambition. There were a lot of really cool styles of shoes in Argentina that we did not have in the United States so I picked one of them, the alpargata, and I started figuring out how to make shoes. CNN: Did you expect the company to be a big success when you launched? Mycoskie: I was not really looking to make any money on the deal. I wanted to be able to sell the shoes for enough money to give away another pair and to hire one or two people to administer it and keep it going once I went back to work. But what I found was that not only did people find this concept just very intriguing - from a fashion perspective, people loved these shoes. All of a sudden I started selling in the top boutiques. CNN: When did you realize that TOMS was going to be much more than a small project? Mycoskie: I think the crowning moment was when Vogue magazine called and that was a few months after we started. That was when I was really like, 'Wow, this is not just some small little shoe philanthropy that I have created.' This could be a real business and it could be a real player in the fashion industry and it could really set a tone for how fashion companies could give back. CNN: Has philanthropy always been a priority for you? Mycoskie: I always thought that I would spend the first half of my life making money so I can spend the second half of my life giving it all away. And one of the defining moments of my life was when I realized that I could do both at the same time with TOMS. CNN: What are some of your proudest achievements? Mycoskie: One thing that is most unique about TOMS and I think that I'm most proud of is that every single pair [of shoes] is hand placed onto a child's foot. CNN: How has TOMS evolved since you started it in 2006? Mycoskie: A big part of our business that has changed over the past year is that now we also have a travel organization that takes volunteers all over the world on these trips and [they] get the experience of giving away the shoes. CNN: Tell us about the process of producing TOMS. Mycoskie: A very big passion of mine and that of the people that run our production is finding factories that have fair labor practices and treating them more like partners in our family than people just who are going to produce for us. One of the things we have always done with all of our factories is I personally visit them and we actually show our documentary film about what we do. When you connect with the factory like that, everything goes much better. CNN: You've called yourself a serial entrepreneur. Do you have another business in the pipeline? Mycoskie: I can honestly say that TOMS is my future. I mean I have no desire to start any other company for as long as I live because this is the perfect blend of business and philanthropy to me. CNN: What's next for TOMS? Mycoskie: The future of TOMS is really creating a whole new business model of this one-for-one giving and expanding the TOMS model from shoes into other products as well. So while we are not committed to doing anything else right now, we are looking for partners out there who have great products and that want to find a way to incorporate giving back.","highlights":"Blake Mycoskie talks about his innovative business, TOMS Shoes .\nHe wants to provide children in need with shoes in a sustainable way .\nMycoskie wants other firms to incorporate the idea of \"one-for-one\" giving .","id":"13df0950ae828be40b1cb0192479dd2199ea96ad"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has indefinitely blocked travel for convoys, carrying food and military supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, through a key mountain pass. Armed militants pose next to a captured armored vehicle near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. But in a statement, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said, \"We do not expect any impact on ISAF's ability to carry out operations.\" The decision to suspend travel through the Khyber Pass in northwest Pakistan was taken due to security concerns, said Gula Jan, a security official in Khyber Agency, on Sunday. The mountain pass links Pakistan to its neighbor, Afghanistan. It is in the Khyber Agency, one of seven semiautonomous tribal agencies along the Afghan border. Because Afghanistan is landlocked, many supplies for NATO-led troops fighting Islamic militants there have to be trucked in from Pakistan. Officials said militants aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda have carried several attacks there. The Pakistani central government has little control in the area, and the area is believed to be a haven for militants. On Tuesday, as many as 60 to 70 armed militants launched back-to-back assaults on convoys. The militants seized 13 trucks -- 12 carrying wheat into Afghanistan as part of a World Food Programme convoy, and one transporting Humvees to the U.S.-led coalition, Khyber Agency officials said. Jan said the decision to suspend travel came after local leaders met with representatives of some of the shipping firms. He said trucks will be allowed through the pass once the security situation improves, but did not specify a date. Dozens of trucks idled by the side of roads Sunday in the Khyber Agency and in Peshawar waiting for the green light. In its statement, ISAF said it has \"multiple, robust and complementary lines of support.\" It added that for security and geographical reasons, \"the movements of civilian convoys destined for ISAF are coordinated with Pakistani authorities and border crossing points. The current temporary adjustments in convoy movements are as a result of this coordination.\" CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: NATO force expects no impact on ability to carry out operations .\nPakistan suspends convoys into Afghanistan through key mountain pass .\nRoute was used to carry food and military supplies to U.S. troops .\nMilitants seized U.S. humvees, food aid in ambush earlier this week .","id":"8e33acabd22582a7b2373b68c9cd456198ae0e97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Louisiana man who Saturday became the first Vietnamese-American elected to the House says he hopes his win will push more young people to become politically active. Anh \"Joseph\" Cao says his win shows that \"really anything can happen.\" \"I am very honored and at this point, somewhat speechless to be the first Vietnamese-American congressman,\" Anh \"Joseph\" Cao told CNN on Sunday. \"But I also hope that many of our young people will consider being more politically active and being move involved in the community. Because as you can see, really anything can happen.\" The Republican defeated nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson in the mostly African-American and heavily Democratic New Orleans-area district. Jefferson had been expected to win a 10th term despite battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years. The contest, which drew a light turnout, was delayed until Saturday after Hurricane Gustav swept through southern Louisiana in late August. Had the vote been held during the November 4 general election, Jefferson -- who is black -- may have benefited from the heavy African-American voter turnout for Barack Obama. Cao conceded that low voter turnout aided his victory. \"We were hoping for a low turnout because it would provide us with the greater chance of winning,\" said Cao, a lawyer and community activist. \"Based on the demographics of the district, a high voter turnout would have gone to our disadvantage.\" Cao also may have been helped by the scandal that has plagued Jefferson. Jefferson, who pleaded not guilty to 16 criminal counts of racketeering, bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice, denies any wrongdoing. In 2005, Jefferson's private homes in Washington and New Orleans were raided, and FBI agents say they found $90,000 in cash stashed in one of his freezers. Officials say the money was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on videotape. Jefferson also is accused of soliciting and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for himself and his family in exchange for promoting their products and services to countries in Africa. Cao said he came to the United States at the age of 8 after his family fled Vietnam as it fell to communists. \"When I [was] 9 years old, I received a letter from my father while he was in the re-education camp,\" Cao said. \"He told me to study hard, to work hard and to give back to your country and to your community. So I hope to do that in Congress.\"","highlights":"Anh \"Joseph\" Cao is first Vietnamese-American elected to the U.S. House .\nCao, of Louisiana, defeated Rep. William Jefferson, who was battling scandal .\nCao says he hopes win will encourage young people to become politically active .","id":"4261220f6fc10a0db80682e0d93cdb762a28b843"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Beirut is asking for assistance in locating two missing American journalists who were on vacation in Lebanon and have not been heard from since they left the Lebanese capital last week. Holli Chmela, 27, was last heard from when she and a fellow journalist left Beirut, Lebanon, on October 1. Holli Chmela, 27, and her male companion, Taylor Luck, 23, arrived in Lebanon on September 29 from Amman, Jordan, the embassy said. They left Beirut on October 1, telling friends they were headed for the northern Lebanese cities of Byblos and Tripoli that day. No one has reported any contact with them since then, the embassy said. \"They were then to cross by land to Syria before returning to Jordan,\" the embassy said. \"Chmela and Luck were due to report to work in Jordan on October 4.\" Luck is an editor with The Jordan Times in Amman, and Chmela had been working as a freelancer for the newspaper, said Sameer Barhoum, the paper's editor. After flying into Beirut last week, the two planned to travel by land to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo before returning to Jordan -- also by land -- by Saturday, Barhoum said. Luck's mother called Barhoum on Sunday after not hearing from her son in three days, he said. She also said the last time Luck used his credit card was October 1 in Lebanon. \"We are hoping that both are safe and looking forward to see them with us soon,\" Barhoum said. Abdul Wahab Zugaylat, the head of Jordan's press association, said, \"We are waiting to hear officially from the U.S. Embassy that they did not depart the Lebanese borders.\" The U.S. Embassy said it is working with the Lebanese Internal Security Force to investigate the whereabouts of the pair. \"In addition, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut is coordinating efforts with the U.S. embassies in Amman and Damascus [Syria] as well as with the Department of State in Washington,\" the embassy said. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he had no details about the missing Americans. CNN's Caroline Faraj in Dubai contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mom called newspaper after she hadn't heard from son in three days .\nTwo on vacation in Lebanon and haven't been heard from since a week ago .\nThey reportedly were headed for northern Lebanese cities of Byblos and Tripoli .","id":"98b26e226929867c8079badd5b498574a980ecfe"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The California Supreme Court has cleared the way for Californians to vote in November on whether to ban same-sex marriages in the state. A gay couple is married in California in June. Voters could void same-sex marriages in the state in November. The court on Wednesday denied a petition to remove the initiative from the state's general election ballots. The unanimous decision was handed down without elaboration. Hundreds of marriage licenses have been issued to same-sex couples since mid-June, a month after the court overturned the state's laws against such unions. However, on June 2, opponents of same-sex marriage filed for a ballot initiative that would ban such marriages in the state's constitution. Such a ban would overturn the court's May ruling. Equality California, a Sacramento-based activist group, filed a petition against the initiative -- Proposition 8 -- arguing that it involves a constitutional revision that can't be adopted through a ballot vote. The group also contended that petitions circulated to qualify the proposition for the ballot contained material that misled readers about the measure's effects. Jennifer Kerns, a spokeswoman for the proposition, called Wednesday's decision \"a huge victory.\" \"We believe it deals a strong blow to our opponents and sends a strong message that they won't be able to keep the ballot initiative away from the people of California,\" she said. Calls Wednesday to Equality California were not immediately returned. If the proposition is approved, it would be the second time same-sex marriages have been voided in California. In February 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom -- who is considering a run for governor -- challenged the state's laws against same-sex marriage, ordering city officials to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Those unions were voided by the California Supreme Court, though the justices sidestepped the issue of whether banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, allowing legal cases to work their way through the lower courts. Several gay and lesbian couples -- along with the city of San Francisco and gay-rights groups -- sued, saying they were victims of unlawful discrimination. A lower court ruled San Francisco had acted unlawfully in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, the state Supreme Court's ruling in May struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. That decision made California the nation's second state, after Massachusetts, to legalize same-sex marriage. Four other states allow civil unions.","highlights":"California Supreme Court declines to block November vote .\nState residents to vote on whether to ban same-sex marriages .\nActivist group had sought to block ballot initiative .\nSame-sex marriages were legalized in state earlier this year .","id":"bf4062bf2c9171f568a11217779517d3bb11b0b3"} -{"article":"TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- As Georgian troops launched a major military offensive Friday to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia, the former Soviet republic's president accused Russia of bombing its territory. Georgian troops fire rockets at seperatist South Ossetian troops from an unnamed location not far from Tskhinvali. According to the Associated Press, Mikhail Saakashvili said in a televised statement that Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities. He said there were injuries and damage to the buildings. \"A full-scale aggression has been launched against Georgia,\" he said in a televised statement. A Georgian official said seven people were hurt in the attack, AP reported. Saakashvili urged Russia to immediately stop bombing Georgian territory. \"Georgia will not yield its territory or renounce its freedom,\" he said. Meanwhile, AP reported that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking in televised remarks Friday during his trip to the opening of the Beijing Olympics, blamed Georgia for launching the effort to take control over South Ossetia and warned it would cause an unspecified retaliatory action. Watch more about the increased violence in Georgia \u00bb . The bombing charge came about an hour after Russia's ambassador to the United Nations brushed off a question about whether Russia would intervene militarily in a conflict between Georgia and its breakaway territory. Violence in the former Soviet republic prompted an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council that lasted into Friday morning. The security council failed to issue a statement on the dramatic escalation of violence in a breakaway territory of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Meanwhile, Georgia's president also announced that his government will be calling up reservists as fighting continued to rage in South Ossetia's capital. Georgian forces launched fresh attacks into region late Thursday after a top government official said a unilateral cease-fire offer was met with artillery fire. About 2,000 Georgian troops attempted to storm the breakaway territory's capital overnight and were regrouping south of the city, Tskhinvali, according to Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency. Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations, Irakli Alasania, said that \"Russia has become a party to the conflict.\" He said Russia has supported separatists in South Ossetia, a charge Russia dismissed. Around 10 a.m. Friday, Georgia said Russian military aircraft violated Georgian airspace and dropped two bombs on Kareli, a part of Georgia that is about 50 miles northwest of the capital, Tblisi, and is not in the conflict zone, said Shota Utiashvili, spokesman for the Georgian Ministry of Interior. No casualties were reported, he said. Georgian troops pushed into South Ossetia after separatists attacked Georgian soil, destroying one village and killing several civilians, soldiers and police officers, Alasania said. Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, denied allegations that his country planned to intervene militarily. In comments to the Security Council, he decried the \"blatant aggressive action of Georgia.\" The latest developments follow a week of sporadic clashes between the Georgian central government and authorities in South Ossetia, which declared its independence from Georgia in the early 1990s after a bloody ethnic conflict between Georgians and Ossetians. Alexander Lomaia, the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said his country had to act. \"The objective of the operation is to protect the civilian population, to ensure their security and then convince the separatists that there is not a military solution to this conflict,\" he said. Lomaia said Georgian troops were responding proportionately to separatist mortar and artillery attacks on two villages -- attacks he said followed a Thursday evening cease-fire and call for negotiations by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. \"There were up to 10 people killed, including peacekeepers and the peaceful population, and up to 23 people wounded, including four of them wounded quite badly,\" Lomaia said. But he said Georgia wants a peaceful solution to the conflict and is leaving the door open to negotiations and has offered the territory \"the widest possible autonomy.\" The official news agency of the South Ossetian government reported heavy shelling in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, that left dozens of buildings ablaze. Lomaia said Georgian troops have no plans to reclaim control over the territory as part of the operation launched Thursday night -- but he said how far they advance \"is really dependent on how the situation evolves on the ground.\" \"Obviously, there will be a moment when we will be forced to respond, we will be forced to advance in order to prevent such bombardment,\" he said. \"But at the time being, there is no such aim of the operation.\" Georgia, located on the Black Sea coast between Russia and Turkey, has been split by Russian-backed separatist movements in South Ossetia and another region, Abkhzia. Neither region's government has international recognition. -- Journalist Elene Gotsadze contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Georgia said Russian aircraft violated its airspace dropping 2 bombs on Kareli .\nNEW: Georgia's president: \"A full-scale aggression has been launched\"\nGeorgia launched military offensive to regain control of South Ossetia .\nRussian PM warned it will cause an unspecified retaliatory action .","id":"eb6d830336b33fa16f030ce9a205ff8a52796ee1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Protests continued Friday in several California cities, including San Francisco, Palm Springs and Long Beach, over the passage of Proposition 8, which outlaws same-sex marriage. The passage of California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriages, has led to a number of protests. The ballot initiative, which passed 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent Tuesday, overturns a May ruling by the California Supreme Court that struck down a 2000 ban on same-sex unions. In San Francisco, an estimated 2,000 protesters marched down Market Street toward Dolores Park. The march stretched out for at least three city blocks, and the protesters completely blocked Market Street's westbound lanes and the eastbound lanes in places. \"I believe that politics and religion should be completely separate,\" protester Eric Rogers told CNN affiliate KGO-TV. \"This has been, actually, one of those lines that has been blurred by that.\" \"It really feels personal. It feels like why would someone not want us to live in love and respect,\" said protester Jayne Dean-McGilpin. A demonstration in Long Beach stretched out for five or six blocks. \"Hate is not hot,\" read a banner at the front of the marchers. About 2,000 demonstrators marched in a peaceful protest in Long Beach, and a few hundred remained in the streets around 10 p.m. (1 a.m. ET), said Sgt. David Marander of the Long Beach Police Department. Marander said Long Beach officers arrested three people after they tried to persuade others to leave the protest route that was described in a permit that organizers obtained for the march. At one point, demonstrators stopped at a street corner for a few moments to allow traffic to cross. Later, demonstrators congregated for about 20 minutes at the intersection of Broadway and Alameda Street, blocking traffic in all directions. The demonstrators then moved on before stopping at the intersection of Long Beach Boulevard and First Street, where many of them sat down in the street. After a few minutes, the demonstrators were on the move again. Police kept a watchful eye on the protesters but did not intervene. In Palm Springs, a crowd of several hundred gathered in front of the city hall, chanting \"Civil rights\" and \"Tax the Church.\" One sign read: \"We will not give up.\" iReport.com: Your thoughts on gay marriage? Several protesters surrounded an elderly looking woman, an apparent Proposition 8 supporter, and shouted at her. No arrests were reported at any of the demonstrations. In Salt Lake City, Utah, about 2,000 demonstrators gathered at Temple Square to protest against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon church strongly supported Proposition 8, which amends California's constitution to define marriage as legal only between one man and one woman. Proposition 8 opponents say the Salt Lake City-based church donated a majority of the money raised in support of the measure. The LDS Church believes it should not be singled out when other groups also supported the proposition. \"It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election,\" the church said in a statement Friday. On Thursday, Roman Catholic and Mormon leaders said their efforts did not target any specific group. The coalition of religious communities and citizens who supported Proposition 8 wanted to preserve \"the bedrock institution of marriage\" between a man and a woman, said Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles. \"Proposition 8 is not against any group in our society,\" Mahoney said in a written statement. About 2,000 protesters picketed Thursday afternoon outside the Los Angeles temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Several groups have petitioned the California Supreme Court to prevent the constitutional revision from taking effect. The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have filed a lawsuit contending the ballot initiative was \"improperly used.\" According to the three groups, \"such radical changes\" as outlawing gay marriage cannot be made by ballot initiative, but must, \"at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.\" The groups also argue the measure takes away a \"fundamental right\" from lesbian and gay Californians. The three organizations filed the legal challenges on behalf of Equality California and six same-sex couples who did not marry before Tuesday's election, but would like to be able to wed now. The three groups contend that California must honor the marriages of the 18,000 lesbian and gay couples who have already married. Sunny Hostin, a CNN legal analyst, said Thursday it is unclear whether same-sex weddings that took place before Tuesday are still valid. Referring to those couples, she said, \"I think they really are in a legal limbo, a legal black hole.\" Voters in Arizona and Florida also banned same-sex marriages in ballot initiatives Tuesday.","highlights":"Protests continue over recent passage of same-sex marriage ban in California .\nMeasure overturns May ruling by California Supreme Court allowing gay marriages .\nLegal status of same-sex weddings that occurred before ban remains unclear .","id":"8bda9795dd01c1cd540743bd2677e13607760794"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's parliament speaker has criticized U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for saying that Iran's development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has outlined where he thinks U.S. policy needs to change. Ali Larijani said Saturday that Obama should apply his campaign message of change to U.S. dealings with Iran. \"Obama must know that the change that he talks about is not simply a superficial changing of colors or tactics,\" Larijani said in comments carried by the semi-official Mehr News Agency. \"What is expected is a change in strategy, not the repetition of objections to Iran's nuclear program, which will be taking a step in the wrong direction.\" In his first post-election news conference Friday afternoon, Obama reiterated that he believes a nuclear-armed Iran would be \"unacceptable.\" He also said he would help mount an international effort to prevent it from happening. Larijani said that U.S. behavior toward Iran \"will not change so simply\" but that Obama's election showed internal conditions in the United States have shifted. He added that Iran does not mind if the United States provides other Persian Gulf countries with nuclear technology, but \"you should know that you cannot prevent the Islamic Republic [from reaching its goals in the nuclear field],\" according to the news agency. Obama cautioned Friday that it had only been a few days since the election and that he was not in office. \"Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through,\" Obama said. \"But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president, and I won't be until January 20th.\" Larijani was speaking two days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Obama, the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. One analyst said the welcome was a gesture from the hard-line president that he is open to a more conciliatory relationship with the United States. Ahmadinejad said Tehran \"welcomes basic and fair changes in U.S. policies and conducts,\" according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Thursday. Relations between the United States and Iran have historically been chilly and have been further strained in recent years over Iran's nuclear program. Tehran insists that the program exists for peaceful purposes, but the United States and other Western nations are concerned by Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment activities. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iran criticizes Obama for saying nuclear weapon development unacceptable .\nParliamentary speaker says Obama should apply campaign message of change .\nU.S.-Iran tensions high over Tehran's nuclear ambitions .","id":"d191e20468fc7675fcfa55c33fab1e65405740a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States and other Western powers have \"exacerbated Somalia's downward spiral\" and must revise their policies in the east African country, a Human Rights Watch report has warned. Recent image of Islamist fighters at a camp in the northern outskirts of Mogadishu . The report, released Monday, blames the policies under President George W. Bush for \"breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat.\" \"The new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama should urgently review U.S. policy in Somalia and the broader Horn of Africa and break with the failed approach of his predecessor,\" the report said. It also cites key European governments for failing \"to address the human rights dimensions of the crisis, with many officials hoping that somehow unfettered support to abusive TFG (Somali transitional government) forces will improve stability.\" Somalia's weak transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces, continues to battle Islamic militias with the fighting concentrated in the capital, Mogadishu. Ethiopian forces have not withdrawn from the country, as required under a recent cease-fire agreement. Ethiopia invaded Somalia two years ago and successfully routed the Islamic militia that seized control of the capital. The HRW report states that the United States \"directly backed Ethiopia's intervention.\" Since the 2006 overthrow of the Islamic Courts Union, Somalia has suffered from \"unconstrained warfare and violent rights abuses\" by all warring parties. \"All sides have used indiscriminate force as a matter of routine, and in 2008 violence has taken on a new dimension with the targeted murders of aid workers and civil society activists,\" the report states. \"The human rights and humanitarian catastrophe facing Somalia today threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis on a scale not witnessed since the early 1990s.\" Heavy fighting in Mogadishu and across Somalia has driven more than a million people from their homes. The lawlessness has also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms. Human Rights Watch offers specific recommendations to the Somali and Ethiopian governments, the main militias, and the international community to address the human rights abuses. It calls on the West to \"insist upon an end to the impunity that has fueled the worst abuses - and the right place to start is by moving the U.N. Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to document abuses and lay the groundwork for accountability.\" Journalist Abdinasir Mohamed Guled contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bush policies blamed for \"breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat\"\nReport: European govts failed to address \"human rights dimensions of the crisis\"\nSomalia's Ethiopian-backed transitional government battling Islamic militias .\nFighting has driven more than a million people from their homes .","id":"bff2051495e5c579c2cc17e7f9cfea936cec4f25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British-based mining giant Rio Tinto announced plans to cut 14,000 jobs on Wednesday, just weeks after a planned buyout by rival BHP Billiton collapsed. Rio Tinto has nearly $39 billion in corporate debt. Rio Tinto made the announcement as part of a plan to cut its nearly $39 billion in corporate debt by an estimated $10 billion by the end of 2009. The company issued a gloomy forecast in October. \"Since that time, demand conditions have worsened further, and as a result the group's priorities have reoriented around conserving cash flow and reducing near-term borrowings,\" it said in a statement announcing the cuts. The layoffs would include 5,500 direct employees and 8,500 contract jobs, the elimination of which would save about $1.2 billion a year, the company said. The layoffs would cost $400 million in severance packages, however. BHP withdrew from its planned buyout in late November, citing a high level of debt the combined company would be required to service in \"difficult\" economic conditions and concerns about whether it would be able to sell off units Rio Tinto already had targeted for divestment. Rio Tinto said it would consider selling off other elements of the company in an effort to raise more cash, but disclosed no details.","highlights":"Rio Tinto announces cuts, citing worsening demand conditions .\nBHP withdrew from planned buyout last month .\nLayoffs would save $1.2 billion a year but cost $400 million in severance packages .","id":"7f23263671c3839bf2574e4bc5514169250f4de6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pop superstar Madonna reaches a major milestone Saturday. She's turning 50. Becky Oliphant went skydiving two weeks before turning 50. \"I'm doing things I've never done before,\" she said. The singer is showing no signs of slowing down as she reaches 50. She will soon begin a world tour and is still regarded as a beauty and fashion icon by many. In honor of Madonna's big day, we asked iReporters to share their stories about turning 50 and what the milestone means to them. Dr. Becky Oliphant jokes with her marketing students at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, that she and Madonna are just months apart in age. Oliphant turned 50 in May. Oliphant went skydiving with her graduate class weeks before her birthday. The jump was a first for her, one of many exciting things Oliphant hopes to experience now that she's 50. \"It's a very liberating feeling,\" she said. \"I'm doing things I've never done before; I'm trying more things. Maybe it's because I feel like I don't have that much time left to do everything that I want to.\" Oliphant says she works hard to maintain a healthy diet and walks often. She said it's necessary to stay in shape to keep up with her sons, ages 12 and 14. \"I have to stay young to keep up with them.\" John Tackett Jr. celebrated turning 50 by running in a marathon in San Diego, California, followed by two days of hiking in Yosemite National Park. See photos of iReporters who have reached the 50-year mark \u00bb . Now 51, Tackett says he's \"doing more now than I ever thought I could.\" After losing 140 pounds in 2004, Tackett has embraced a healthy and active lifestyle. He bikes three times a week to work and runs and swims on a regular basis. He ran the Boston Marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes in April. Three weeks later, he clocked in at 6\u00bd hours during a half-Iron Man competition in Panama City Beach, Florida. Watch Tackett describe how he prepared for races \u00bb . \"As I got older, my eyes opened up,\" Tackett said. Learning that the human life span is increasing made him realize the importance of staying healthy. In 2006, life expectancy at birth in the United States hit a record high of 78.1 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Life expectancy for white males is 76 years, and white women have a life expectancy of 81 years. The numbers are slightly lower for black men and women, at 70 and 76.9 years, respectively. \"If I'm going to live that long, I want to be in the best shape I possibly can be,\" Tackett said. At 50, Deborah Elston says she's in the best shape of her life. The Chicago, Illinois, resident does yoga and walks at least 15 miles a week. She and her partner regularly walk 13.1-mile half marathons, and Elston recently completed 26-mile marathon walk with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Although she was not athletic in her younger years, Elston works hard to stay active. Her brother died of a heart attack in February 2004 at the age of 39, a tragedy that strengthened her desire to be healthy. \"If that isn't a wakeup call to live each day as if it were your last, nothing is,\" she wrote on iReport.com. Although Elston said the thought of turning 50 initially scared her, she continues to feel \"young at heart.\" iReport.com: See why Elston thinks \"50 is the new 30\" \"I feel great and plan on fighting the aging process every step of the way,\" she said. Like many iReporters, Carol Herm is embracing 50 with open arms. The mother of three celebrated her 50th in December and said that, since then, \"life has taken off.\" \"I feel like I am the best 'me' I have ever been,\" she wrote on iReport.com. \"I am confident and so sure of myself, something that I never enjoyed in my younger years.\" Herm, who lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, said she and her husband love being 50. With three grown children, they spend more time together and less time worrying about the cost of braces, tuition and other expenses. \"This is an awesome age,\" Herm said. \"My husband and I are enjoying every minute.\" Elonda Abrams of Beaverton, Oregon, agrees. \"Turning 50 has given me a new awakening and zest for life,\" she said. Abrams explained that a vigorous lifestyle is achieved physically and mentally. She exercises often, has a healthy diet, surrounds herself with positive friends and regularly attends church. Abrams believes that Madonna is just one example of \"the 50, fit and foxy club.\" \"I want to be an example to women all over that age really doesn't matter.\"","highlights":"As Madonna celebrates her birthday, iReporters share what it means to be 50 .\nBecky Oliphant celebrated her 50th by skydiving in Florida .\nAfter losing 140 pounds, John Tackett says he's more active than ever .\niReport.com: Are you 50 and fabulous? Share your story .","id":"4f91c584cc9bfa6506ec98467bc59158a0d97b20"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush signed an executive order Friday expanding U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, the White House said. About 200 victims of election violence seek safety outside the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, this month. \"The new executive order significantly enhances our ability to designate individuals in and entities connected to the Mugabe regime,\" Bush said in a written statement that calls the Zimbabwean government under president Robert Mugabe \"illegitimate.\" Just after the announcement, the Treasury Department said it has designated for sanctions 17 entities, including three government-owned or controlled companies used by Mugabe and his government \"to illegally siphon revenue and foreign exchange from the Zimbabwean people,\" as well as one individual. \"This action is a direct result of the Mugabe regime's continued politically motivated violence, disregarding calls from the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and the United Nations to halt the attacks,\" the White House said. \"The regime has also continued its ban against NGO activities that would provide assistance to the suffering and vulnerable people of Zimbabwe. No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences.\" The U.S. has been pushing for sanctions against Zimbabwe since Mugabe ignored a U.N. Security Council appeal to postpone a presidential runoff election June 27. The vote initially was intended to be a runoff between Mugabe and opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, who did not win the presidency outright in the general election, according to government tallies. But Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change, withdrew just before the vote, saying Mugabe's supporters had orchestrated a campaign of beatings, intimidation and murders against Tsvangirai supporters. Earlier this month, Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution pushed by the United States, Britain and France that would have imposed international sanctions on Mugabe and senior members of his government. Bush said last week he was \"displeased\" at the vetoes, but the Treasury and State Departments were working on potential U.S. action. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told members of Congress last week that more than 100 people have been murdered, more than 3,000 have been injured by beatings or torture and more than 30,000 have been driven from their homes because of violence that broke out after the general election. Entities designated by the Treasury Department include Minerals Marketing Corp. of Zimbabwe, the company that serves as the sole marketing and export agent for all minerals mined in Zimbabwe except gold and silver; Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp.; and Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Co., among others. The individual named is Thamer Bin Saeed Ahmed al-Shanfari. The Treasury Department said he is an Omani national who has close ties to Mugabe and his top officials and uses his company, Oryx Natural Resources, to \"enable Mugabe ... to maintain access to, and derive personal benefit from, various mining ventures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Under the sanctions, any assets tied to al-Shanfari or to the designated companies that are within U.S. jurisdictions must be frozen, and people living in the United States are prohibited from doing business with them. On Monday, Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed an agreement that paves the way for power-sharing talks to take place in the next few weeks. They will be mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, as a representative of the Southern African Development Community, and Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission. Bush said Friday the United States is ready to provide a \"substantial assistance package, development aid and normalization with international financial institutions\" should those talks result in a new government \"that reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people.\" In the meantime, the president said he is authorizing the use of up to $2.5 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to assist Zimbabwean refugees and those displaced by the violence. In addition, he said the United States will continue efforts to provide food and medical care to Zimbabweans.","highlights":"U.S. President Bush signs order expanding sanctions against Zimbabwe .\nIn written statement, Bush calls Robert Mugabe's government \"illegitimate\"\nRussia, China have vetoed U.N. resolution calling for international sanctions .\nMugabe, Tsvangirai have signed agreement paving way for power-sharing talks .","id":"b506e84084b0260a16c997426094fd90c3e943b9"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Despite the tough economic times, you can't just expect to stop lusting after those Frye riding boots you've had your eye on forever, or that your longtime trusted hair stylist is going to suddenly start cutting her prices. From hobbies to bake sales to your own Web site, there are ways to make extra money in your spare time. The fact is no matter how frugally you learn to live, there are still going to be some things you'll want to splurge on, and that's okay. I mean, this is a recession, after all, not a potato famine. You don't have to give up all your luxuries or switch to low-cost everything; you just have to get savvier about making extra money for those treats you enjoy. But I'm not talking about getting a second job or really working that much harder; a true recessionista knows how to make extra cash for little luxuries while leaving plenty of free time to enjoy them, too. After the jump, seven ways to make more money without taking a second job... 1. Become a focus group participant: An old co-worker turned me on to focus groups about 8 years ago and after I made 75 bucks giving my opinion on a series of coffee ads, I immediately went home, opened the phone book (remember those?), and called dozens of market research companies to get my name added to their databases for future groups. Over the years I've made thousands of dollars telling people what I think about ads, product concepts, packaging, services, and the taste of food and beverages. Once, I even made $200 tasting vodka for an hour. Talk about easy money! Check the \"Etc.\" section of Craigslist for current focus groups in your area, or do an online search for market research recruiting companies and then can call and have your name added to their databases. 2. Use your blog: If you have a blog -- and who doesn't these days? -- you're sitting on valuable real estate. Depending on the size of your readership, you could make anywhere from enough money to buy a magazine and a latte to enough to support your entire family (\u00e1 la Dooce). There are lots of different ways to make money on a blog, from virtual tip jars to product reviews, but the most popular is through running ads. In the past, I've recruited sponsors directly for a niche blog I used to write, but I currently use an advertising program on my personal blog that basically takes care of everything so all I have to do is post regularly and collect my check at the end of the month. Free money for writing about my cats and boyfriend and favorite TV shows! What could be easier? There are a host of ad programs open to anyone, so do your research to find one that's right for you. 3. Sell the stuff you no longer want: When I moved to New York from Chicago a year ago to be with my long-distance boyfriend, I used the opportunity to unload all the crap I no longer wanted or needed. I sold furniture, home goods, clothes, accessories, and my car (no need for one in Manhattan!). In addition to hosting a yard sale where I made about 200 bucks for candles, pots and pans and old Halloween costumes, I used the hell out of Craigslist and eBay, both before my move and after I arrived when I realized I still needed to unload quite a bit to fit into my boyfriend's one-bedroom apartment. I honestly don't miss anything I got rid of (and can't remember what most of it even was), and the money from the sales paid a big chunk of my moving costs. Now that I'm settled in, I like to go through my belongings each season, selling a few items and making room and money for new stuff, like dresses and cute shoes. 4. Make money from your hobbies: From hawking your crafts on Etsy, and selling produce from your garden, to playing piano once a week at a local restaurant, or reading tarot cards at a party, there are innumerable ways to make cash doing the activities you love. The key here is to convince yourself you have a product or skill someone else wants and then search out those people or companies who can pay you for them. 5. Host a bake sale: Remember when we were kids and our parents used to make cookies and brownies and stuff for school bake sales to raise money for a new flagpole or air conditioning in the gym? Well, why not do the same thing now that we're grown-ups and need to raise money for our vacations to Barcelona? I say get a few friends together, bake up a storm, and then sell your goods at a local market, a festival, or even online at a place like Etsy. If you love baking, this is another great way to make money from a hobby...without inhaling all the extra calories eating the goods yourself! 6. Shop and sell: What recessionista doesn't like shopping, right? So instead of giving it up or cutting back, start making money off your great eye and awesome buying skills. Whether you live in an area with fantastic sample sales, or a town with the best thrift and antique stores, chances are you're able to score stuff your recessionista sisters in other parts of the country can't. So make your next shopping spree a moneymaking one and sell your finds for a profit on eBay, or open a vintage shop on Etsy (can you tell I'm a fan of the site?). 7. Pet sit: If you know people with pets, volunteer to watch them -- for a small fee, of course -- the next time they leave town for a few days. Sure, they could kennel them or hire a professional, but most people feel better when they leave their beloved pets (not to mention their house keys) in the hands of someone they know and trust. And, hey, if they have cable and throw in a bottle of wine for your trouble, you'll score a bit of a vacation yourself...and make money for a pedicure, to boot. TM & \u00a9 2008 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"You don't have to get a second job to make extra money in spare time .\nSell the stuff in your home that you no longer use -- try eBay or Craigslist .\nSign up to be a focus group participant or become a dog sitter .\nSet up your own blog and use an advertising service .","id":"918d65caaa78102cdbe0173b9aae1c182a79abfc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Armored cars patrolled the streets of Zimbabwe's capital and residents flocked to banks Thursday after limits on cash withdrawals were lifted in the inflation-ravaged African nation. With prices rising even more than once a day, shopping is a mathematical proficiency test for Zimbabweans. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had capped maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars -- about 25 U.S. cents, and about a quarter of the price of a loaf of bread. But faced with mounting chaos in a country already in economic free fall, the bank decided last week to raise that limit to 100 million dollars ($50 U.S.) per week. Soldiers were deployed to all banks in anticipation of throngs of people lining up to withdraw money Thursday, when the increase took effect. Wednesday, police chased depositors away and arrested union leaders who planned to protest the limits. Zimbabwe's inflation rate of 231 million percent is the world's highest. In addition, the country is faced with a growing outbreak of cholera that its government declared a national emergency Thursday. The outbreak has killed at least 565 people and sickened more than 11,000, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Office said. Medical professionals blame the resurgence of the water-borne disease on the lack of safe water in many parts of the country. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said 69 people were arrested across the country during Wednesday's demonstrations. Amnesty International has demanded to know the whereabouts of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, whom it said was abducted at dawn Wednesday by armed men in plainclothes posing as police. And angry, unpaid soldiers clashed with foreign currency exchangers and some civilians Monday, three days after troops who had failed to get cash from their banks looted shops they suspected to be illegally dealing in foreign currency.","highlights":"Residents flock to banks after limits on cash withdrawals lifted; troops patrol streets .\nCentral bank caps maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars .\nBank last week raise that limit to 100 million dollars ($50 U.S.) per week .\nZimbabwe's inflation rate of 231 million percent is the world's highest .","id":"1cf150392ff7dd119f71b8c17cb4ef691119d497"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What do Copernicus and a Britney Spears look-a-like have in common? Despite centuries separating the two, both have inspired greatness in Poland. Maxim named Joanna Crupa, a Polish\/American model and actress, 61st in its 2006 Hot 100 list. Here we look at some of Poland's most famous nationals -- from years gone by to the present day. Many have influenced a world far beyond their country's boundary. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. He is primarily known, however, for his theory that earth is not the center of the universe. His book, \"De revolutionibus orbium coelestium\" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining moment that began the Scientific Revolution. Copernicus was born in 1473 in Thorn. Thorn was a city in Prussia, an autonomous region in the old Kingdom of Poland. Frederick Chopin (Fryderyk Chopin) (1810-1849) Born in the village of Zelazowa Wola in Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French father, he was regarded early on as a child-prodigy piano virtuoso. He is generally considered to be Poland's greatest composer, and ranks as one of music's greatest tone poets. Always in fragile health, he died in Paris in 1849 from chronic pulmonary tuberculosis. He was only 39. Mari-Sklodowska (Marie Curie) (1867-1934) Marie Curie, a Polish physicist and chemist, is arguably the most famous female scientist. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the only person honored with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, and the first female professor at the University of Paris. Her French husband Pierre Curie and both her daughter Ir\u00e8ne Joliot-Curie and son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie were awarded a Nobel prizes. Marie Curie was born in Warsaw. In 1891 she moved to Paris to further her studies and work on scientific projects. She found the theory of radioactivity and also found two new elements, radium and polonium (the latter being named after her native Poland.) Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) (1920-2005) Karol J\u00f3zef Wojtyla was born on 18 May, 1920 in the Polish town of Wadowice. At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope elected since Pope Pius IX in 1846. He reigned as the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. His reign of over 26 years was the second-longest after Pius IX's 32-year reign. He has been the only Polish pope, and was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Adrian VI in the 1520s. The pope traveled extensively, visiting over 100 countries, more than any other pope and was fluent in numerous languages: Polish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Croatian, Portuguese, Russian and Latin. He was the victim of several assassination attempts, but later said he forgave the perpetrators. He was chosen twice as person of the year by Time magazine. Andrzej Wajda (1926 - ) Wajda, born in Suwalki, Poland is an award-winning Polish film Director. He received an honorary Oscar in 2000. After the fall of communism in 1989, he was elected as a government senator while he continued his role as artistic director of Warsaw's Teatr Powszechny. His films often raise social awareness and have dealt with a number of subjects including war, communism and murder (based on the murder of his own father by the Soviets in 1940). Wajda married four times. He has one daughter and is currently married to actress Krystyna Zachwatowicz. Roman Raymond Polanski (1933 - ) Polanski is an Academy Award-winning and four-time nominated Polish film director, writer, actor and producer. After beginning his career in Poland, Polanski became a celebrated filmmaker and director of such films as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). Recently Polanski has made acclaimed films such as the Academy Award-winning and Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winning The Pianist (2002), and Oliver Twist (2005). Polanski has a tragic personal history. He lived in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War and was persecuted for being Jewish. He escaped death by hiding in a farmer's cow shed, while his mother was murdered in the infamous Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. After surviving the Holocaust and moving to the United States, Polanski married American actress Sharon Tate. In 1969, Tate, who was pregnant at the time, was murdered by serial killer Charles Manson's sect. In 1978, Polanski pleaded guilty in the United States to \"unlawful sexual intercourse\" with a 13-year-old girl. The director fled to France before sentencing. He now lives there and has French citizenship. He cannot return to the United States because he is likely to be imprisoned. Lech Walesa (1943 - ) A former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Walesa is often credited with changing the Polish political system. He founded the organization \"Solidarity,\" the country's first independent trade union, which was pivotal in bringing about the fall of the communist regime. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his human rights activism. In 1989, after the fall of the Soviet Union, he persuaded leaders from formerly communist parties to form the first non-communist coalition government. He was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995. In 2000, Walesa once again stood for the presidential election, but received very little support and subsequently announced his retirement. Joanna Krupa (1979 - ) Krupa is a Polish-American model and actress. Born in Warsaw, the daughter of hotelier Steven Krupa, she eventually moved with her family to the United States at the age of five. Krupa has appeared on various magazine covers including FHM, Personal, Inside Sport, Stuff, Steppin' Out, Teeze and Maxim, in which she was named the Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the World. Maxim named her 61st in its 2006 Hot 100 list. She was also voted German Maxim's Model of the Year 2004-2005. She posed nude in the July 2005 issue of Playboy and also did a nude photoshoot for animal rights group PETA. The advertisements all have \"I would rather go naked than wear fur\" as a motto. Krupa has been quoted as saying, \"There is nothing sexy about wearing something that is so obviously tied to senseless pain and killing.\" Robert Kubica (1984 - ) Born in Krakow, Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Since 2006 he has driven for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during the 2006 season. In June 2008, he achieved his maiden F1 victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, becoming the 99th F1 racer to win a Grand Prix. Dorota Rabczewska or \"Doda\" (1984 - ) Dorota Rabczewska, or Dorota Rabczewska-Majdan, is often nicknamed Doda or Doda Elektroda or \"the Polish Britney Spears.\" She was born in Ciechanow, and is one of the most famous and successful pop singers in Poland. Doda started her career at the age of 14 and became popular after her participation in a reality TV show \"Bar.\" In 2000, at the age of 16, Rabczewska became the vocalist of the Polish rock band Virgin. In December 2005 and October 2007, she posed nude for the Polish edition of Playboy Magazine. She also posed for CKM Magazine several times. Doda received a Superjedynka award on National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 2006. In 2007, she left her record company, Virgin, to begin a solo career. Her first solo album was released in 2007 and was certified as gold on the day before its official release. In 2008, her album \"Diamond Bitch\" went double platinum after 60,000 copies of the album had been sold.","highlights":"Top ten Poles: Marie Curie and her Nobel Prized family .\nPope John Paul ll: 27 year-reign, visited over 100 countries, spoke ten languages .\nJoanna Crupa: Former \"Sexiest Swimsuit Model\" in the world .","id":"dba09bf8d6e380add99a720940fa42be72cf95bd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Extra-time goals from Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba gave Chelsea a 3-2 victory over Liverpool to send the London side into a Champions League final showdown against English Premier League rivals Manchester United, 4-3 on aggregate. Didier Drogba (right) and Frank Lampard both found the net as Chelsea secured their final place in Moscow. Lampard, playing his first game since the death of his mother last week, coolly slotted home a 98th-minute penalty and Drogba, who had opened the scoring in the first-half, sent Chelsea to the final in Moscow on May 21 with a timely second goal. Fernando Torres had given Liverpool hope with a second-half equaliser but they failed to finish the job and Chelsea made them pay in a pulsating extra period which also saw Ryan Babel grab a late consolation goal for the visitors. Drogba, who Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez had accused of being a 'diver' prior to the match, looked like a man on a mission to ram the Spaniards words down his throat. The Ivory Coast striker forced Jose Reina to turn his skidding 15-meter effort around the post in the fifth minute. Four minutes later, Liverpool put together their only meaningful move of the opening half when a quick Steven Gerrard pass put Fernando Torres in behind the Chelsea defense. However, the Spanish striker's first touch was not deft enough and although he bore down on Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper did well to close down his space and options. The wet conditions hampered both sides but it was Chelsea who mastered them quicker. In the 18th minute, Lampard despatched a delightful pass into the path of Drogba but the striker was a meter wide with his shot. Chelsea were in the ascendancy and their supremacy was underlined by Michael Essien's 20-meter effort which had to be collected by Reina at the foot of his right-hand post. Liverpool were struggling to keep pace with the home side and their worries increased when central defender Martin Skrtel was forced off with a knee injury in the 21st minute to be replaced by Sami Hyypia. Reina was forced to punch clear a long-range effort from Ballack but the goal Chelsea had threatened for most of the half arrived in style in the 33rd minute. The architect was England midfielder Lampard. He cleverly split the Liverpool defense to give Salomon Kalou the chance to run on and fire a shot that Reina could only palm into the path of the onrushing Drogba. The Ivorian does not miss such gifts and he sent a low drive fizzing into the net at the near post to give London side a 2-1 aggregate lead. Drogba, clearly hurt by Benitez's criticism of his 'diving', then ran the length of the half to celebrate his goal in front of the Liverpool manager. Chelsea's domination almost brought them a second four minutes before the interval but Michael Ballack's measured free-kick veered just the wrong side of the post. Dirk Kuyt almost hauled Liverpool back into the tie three minutes after the restart but his shot met the outstretched leg of Cech before Ashley Cole cleared. After Lampard's 53rd-minute volley was well held by Reina, Liverpool finally broke their goalscoring hoodoo when Yossi Benayoun carved out a chance for Torres. The Spaniard collected the ball in his stride just inside the penalty area before sliding it beyond the exposed Cech to make it 2-2 on aggregate -- the 64th-minute effort was Liverpool's first at Stamford Bridge in nine games under Benitez. Both sides sought a winner -- but the 90 minutes ended all-square and the contest went into extra-time. Liverpool almost snatched the lead within minutes of the restart but Hyypia's header fell wide of the post with Cech beaten. Chelsea then thought they had done enough when Essien sent a 15-meter effort into the net -- but it was rightly disallowed for offside. However, in the 98th minute, Ballack was brought down by Hyypia inside the box and referee Roberto Rosetti pointed to the spot. Lampard kept his composure to send Reina the wrong way and was in tears as he celebrated with his teammates near the corner flag. Worse was to come for Liverpool when substitute Nicolas Anelka got free on the right and pulled the ball back for Drogba to fire under Reina. An error from Cech gifted Babel a late goal from longe range but Chelsea held on to reach their first ever Champions League final. \"This is something amazing. I am really pleased for the club because we have been looking for this final for too long,\" said Drogba, who admitted that he was \"disappointed\" by Benitez's pre-match comments. \"Benitez is a fantastic coach and I was a bit disappointed but I think he felt his team was not strong enough and Chelsea were going to beat them. \"I am just happy for my team and I don't want to think about others. It's not good for my image. I'm giving my best to put my team at the top and I think it's not fair but it's finished now.\" Benitez believed his side were in control when they handed Chelsea the initiative in extra-time. The Spaniard said: \"I thought we were very close. We played well in the second half but the third goal killed it. We had control of the game but missd two chances in extra-time.\" Benitez insisted he did not regret his criticism of Drogba, saying: \"I don't think so, when you play a semifinal in the Champions League I don't think you think about anything other than that.\" Chelsea manager Avram Grant admitted he was proud to have succeeded in beating Benitez's Liverpool in the Champions League last four -- something his predecessor Jose Mourinho failed to manage. \"There is only one special one,\" he joked. \"But this was special against Liverpool. They are a fantastic team and Rafa played it tactically well. \"You need to be clever against him but we did it. We have created history and I am very proud we did it my way -- but I don't like to say 'I' because owner Roman Abramovich created this club. Grant, who has guided his team to a strong end-of-season charge on two fronts, also praised Lampard's efforts in trying times. \"Frank played very well and in my opinion was one of our key players today. It is not an easy thing. He gave everything to the team,\" added Grant. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Chelsea beat Liverpool 3-2 to reach Champions League final 4-3 on aggregate .\nDidier Drogba scores twice and an emotional Frank Lampard is also on target .\nChelsea to face title rivals Manchester United in an all-English final in Moscow .","id":"a083028eb71f5aa4b9b65ac99591b149eb3b6a6a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four Boy Scouts who died Wednesday when a tornado swept through a wilderness camp were remembered for the very qualities that had brought them to the camp in the first place. Clockwise from top left: Sam Thomsen, 13; Josh Fennen, 13; Aaron Eilerts, 14; and Ben Petrzilka, 14. Josh Fennen, 13, Sam Thomsen, 13, Ben Petrzilka, 14 , and Aaron Eilerts, 14, were among 93 Boy Scouts who were chosen by their troop leaders to attend leadership training this week at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch outside Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to the deaths, 48 Scouts and staff members were injured. Friends on Thursday described the fallen Scouts as multitalented, dedicated teens whose enthusiasm for life was matched only by their passion for Scouting. Aaron Eilerts' best friend described him as a \"kindhearted\" person who took his commitment to Boy Scouts very seriously. \"He would do anything that you asked him to do,\" Colby Gochanour, told CNN's Larry King. \"He just helped people.\" As a member of the Humboldt Boy Scout Troop No. 108 in Eagle Grove, Iowa, Aaron used his own money to make pillowcases for hospital patients, Gochanour said. He tried to donate the pillowcases to hospitals during a family vacation to Memphis, where he visited the home of Elvis, one of his heroes, according to a story that was published in the Eagle Grove Eagle last year. Aaron extended the same dedication to making fleece blankets for the Humane Society, according to the Omaha World-Herald. \"He embodied everything Scouting stands for,\" Dawn Sievertsen, principal of Robert Blue Middle School in Eagle Grove, Iowa, told the newspaper. \"He would start these projects to earn badges, but took them very seriously and would continue them long after he earned the badge.\" People who knew Josh Fennen of Omaha said he used many of the skills he learned in Scouting in everyday life. \"We'd go hiking. He was a good hiker. He knew what to do, how to start fires and good with pocketknives,\" Josh's best friend, Jack Cormaci, told affiliate KETV. \"He'd always be there when you needed him, always playing outside.\" Jeff Alfrey, the principal at Andersen Middle School, where Josh recently finished eighth grade, described Josh as inquisitive and confident, with natural leadership qualities, according to the Omaha World-Herald. \"He was a good student, a hard worker, and he was always trying to be creative,\" Alfrey told the newspaper. Sam Thomsen, who was days away from his 14th birthday, divided his time among the Boy Scouts, sports, home-schooling and the Southwest Church of Christ, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Sam's Facebook page, where he last wrote, \"Sam is ready for a week in the great outdoors,\" lists his interests as Jesus, football, video games and the Roadrunners, a basketball team for home-schooled children, according to the newspaper. \"He was always just full-board with everything he did, whether it be church or Boy Scouts or sports,\" Dr. Jim White, pastor of Southwest Church of Christ, told Larry King. \"He always had a wonderful, engaging smile on his face.\" Ben Petrzilka, who just finished seventh grade at Mary Our Queen Catholic School, was remembered as kind and caring. \"He always gave it his best effort. It is a very devastating loss to the school,\" principal Kayleen Wallace told the newspaper. A candlelight vigil was scheduled for Thursday evening at the Durham Scout Center in Omaha, the Boy Scouts said.","highlights":"Teens who died in tornado said to embody the values of the Boy Scouts .\nTwo 13-year-olds, two 14-year-olds killed; three from Nebraska, one from Iowa .\nFriends describe fallen Scouts as enthusiastic, hard-working, dedicated .\nCandlelight vigil set for Thursday night in Omaha .","id":"91844c99566efb187d5a1587d0fcd9c3e81d9210"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China has recalled two tainted leukemia drugs tied to \"adverse reactions\" in patients, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. The factories involved in the production of the tainted drugs have been closed for investigation. According to Xinhau, the State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Health suspended the production, sale and usage of methotrexate and cytarabin hydrochloride, produced by Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co., on September 5. There is no indication the drugs in question were ever exported outside of China. On Friday, the two agencies issued a notice saying that vincristine sulfate was the culprit -- an anti-cancer medicine which had been mistakenly mixed with the leukemia drugs, causing leg pains and retention of urine -- Xinhua reported. The factories involved have been closed, while the cause is being investigated. Separately, China returned to U.S. and Canadian exporters 42 tons of pork and turkey products after samples of the pork in the shipments showed traces ractopamine, Xinhua reported. Ractopamine is a hormone used to promote lean meat growth in some animals and is banned in many parts of the world, including China and the European Union. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"China has recalled two tainted leukemia drugs causing \"adverse reactions\"\nProduction, sale of drug by Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical suspended .\nChina returned to U.S., Canadian exporters 42 tons tainted pork, turkey products .","id":"bf6f49b5fd09d942ab409bcda4938a0d61b081b6"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- More than 10,000 charred bone fragments were found buried at the site of a former Argentine government detention center, the first find of its kind at one of the secret centers, Argentine officials said. Bones were unearthed during a seven-month search at an ex-detention post in La Plata, Argentina, officials said. Searchers said they also found a wall with more than 200 bullet holes and an \"important quantity\" of spent ammunition shells on the ground nearby. In some cases, bullets were still lodged in the wall. The announcement was made Tuesday at a news conference by government officials and representatives of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, better known as EAAF, the initials of its name in Spanish. A team of six professional anthropologists and support crew said it believed the remains were human, but it was unable to determine how many bodies the fragments represented. \"I ask the forgiveness of family members, because I can imagine what the mothers and all who are gathered here will feel, but what we are about to show is not to detail the genocide but so that we have proof for the trials that are to come,\" said Sara Derotier de Cobacho, secretary of human rights for Buenos Aires province. \"But let us not forget,\" she said in a statement, \"that behind every clandestine center there were the names of the repressors. ... So it is very important for all citizens to know those names.\" The detention center was among those used in Argentina during the country's \"Dirty War,\" which started in 1976 when a group of generals staged a coup and started a vicious crackdown against anyone considered a subversive. By the time civilian control of the government resumed in 1983, up to 30,000 Argentines had been abducted and taken to the secret government detention centers, where they were tortured and killed. They are widely called \"los desaparecidos,\" or \"the disappeared.\" Thousands more people were abducted and killed by right-wing dictatorships in other South American countries during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Chile and Uruguay. The bone fragments in Argentina were unearthed during a seven-month search at the former detention post in the city of La Plata, near Buenos Aires. In 25 years of searching, this was the first time that human remains were found at a former detention center, said Luis Fondebrider, president of the EAAF. \"We've worked throughout the country and have always found remains in cemeteries, never outside,\" Fondebrider said in the release. The conference was called, he said, because of the extraordinary nature of the find. \"We usually don't hold press conferences about our work or what we find,\" Fondebrider said. \"But we understand that the magnitude of what we have found where the Clandestine Center of Arana was located merits that sometimes we show partial results.\" The searchers determined that bodies had been burned inside graves along with tires, combustibles and other material, Fondebrider said. \"The possibilities of identifying some of these remains is low because of the state they are in,\" Fondebrider said. The searchers will start analyzing the remains next year and are working with two prominent forensic genetic laboratories that specialize in working with remains that are in poor condition, he said. Lending an official air to Tuesday's proceedings, Carlos Stornelli, minister of security for the province of Buenos Aires, and Pablo Buruera, mayor of La Plata, also attended the news conference. \"We are looking for the truth so we can attain justice and construct, from there, the memory of our 30,000 'desaparecidos,' \" Derotier said.","highlights":"Remains believed to be human; number of bodies unknown, officials say .\nDetention center among those used in Argentina's 1976-1983 \"Dirty War\"\nTens of thousands said to have been abducted, killed during \"Dirty War\"","id":"015463975f4653362fbd9386335907e17246abee"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A few months ago, it seemed liked nothing could stop Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussain from representing her country in the upcoming Summer Olympics. Iraqi sprinter Dana Hussain was devastated to learn she could not participate in the Beijing Summer Olympics. Then, the International Olympic Committee banned Iraq from competing because of what it says is the government's political interference in sports. Hussain cried for hours after hearing the news, which arrived in the form of a letter to Iraqi officials. \"She hasn't stopped. It's like finding out that a close relative has died,\" said her coach, Yousif Abdul Rahman. Abdul Rahman attempted to console Hussain by assuring her that she could compete in the 2012 Olympics. Watch Hussain react to the news \u00bb . \"In this horrible situation,\" she said, \"who can say I'll even be alive in 2012?\" CNN received a copy of the letter sent to Jassim Mohammed Jaffer, Iraqi minister of youth and sports, and Ali Mohsen Ismail, acting secretary general of the Iraqi general secretariat of the Council of Ministers. \"We deeply regret this outcome, which severely harms the Iraqi Olympic and Sports Movement and the Iraqi athletes, but which is unfortunately imposed by the circumstances,\" said the letter, signed by two IOC officials. Watch an official explain the decision \u00bb . The move stems from an Iraqi government decision in May to suspend the nation's Olympic Committee and form a temporary committee to handle its duties. The Iraqi government thought the committee had not been operating properly and as a result undermined the sporting movement there. The government said the original committee held meetings without quorums and had officials serving in one-year posts for more than five years. Many of the officials also lived outside Iraq, the government said. iReport.com: See a cartoonist's take on the decision . Emmanuelle Moreau, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said it suspended Iraq's national Olympic Committee in June after the government removed elected officials and put in people the IOC didn't recognize. She said the IOC proposed to the Iraqi government that officials come to the organization's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, \"to discuss possible solutions.\" But she said they didn't respond. \"We're extremely disappointed with the situation. The athletes have been ill-served by the government in Iraq,\" she said. Moreau said Iraq missed a Wednesday deadline for the entry of athletes to compete in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. Watch a historian discuss the Olympics in Iraq under Saddam Hussein \u00bb . She said there is a chance that track and field athletes could compete if the original committee is reinstated. The deadline for the track team to register is at the end of the month. The Games begin August 8. A former official from the disbanded Iraq Olympic Committee said the IOC's decision was justified because the government interfered with the national committee by suspending it. The former official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. He said he believed that the government suspended the committee out of \"jealousy.\" The national committee was making great strides, and the government, namely the Ministry of Youth and Sports, wanted control of it, he said. The seven Iraqi athletes who were to travel to China for the Games' start in August are disappointed by the decision, officials said. They include an archer, a weightlifter, a judoka, two rowers and two sprinters, one of whom is Dana Hussain. Her coach called the decision unfair and said he blames \"everyone\": the Iraqi government and the Iraqi and International Olympic committees. In the end, Abdul Rahman said, the athletes are paying the price. \"It's a shame after all the efforts, ambitions, risks and dangers,\" he said. \"I wish from the bottom of my heart they would reconsider this unjust decision for the sake of the athletes.\" CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Iraqi government interference in Olympic committee attributed to \"jealousy\"\nInternational Olympic Committee accuses Iraqi government of interference in sports .\nIraqi government suspended nation's Olympic Committee in May .\nSeven Iraqi athletes were to compete in Beijing, China .","id":"60988aea27196b8bbbf468746dc3553d93163adf"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- More than 10,000 charred bone fragments were found buried at the site of a former Argentine government detention center, the first find of its kind at one of the secret centers, Argentine officials said. Bones were unearthed during a seven-month search at an ex-detention post in La Plata, Argentina, officials said. Searchers said they also found a wall with more than 200 bullet holes and an \"important quantity\" of spent ammunition shells on the ground nearby. In some cases, bullets were still lodged in the wall. The announcement was made Tuesday at a news conference by government officials and representatives of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, better known as EAAF, the initials of its name in Spanish. A team of six professional anthropologists and support crew said it believed the remains were human, but it was unable to determine how many bodies the fragments represented. \"I ask the forgiveness of family members, because I can imagine what the mothers and all who are gathered here will feel, but what we are about to show is not to detail the genocide but so that we have proof for the trials that are to come,\" said Sara Derotier de Cobacho, secretary of human rights for Buenos Aires province. \"But let us not forget,\" she said in a statement, \"that behind every clandestine center there were the names of the repressors. ... So it is very important for all citizens to know those names.\" The detention center was among those used in Argentina during the country's \"Dirty War,\" which started in 1976 when a group of generals staged a coup and started a vicious crackdown against anyone considered a subversive. By the time civilian control of the government resumed in 1983, up to 30,000 Argentines had been abducted and taken to the secret government detention centers, where they were tortured and killed. They are widely called \"los desaparecidos,\" or \"the disappeared.\" Thousands more people were abducted and killed by right-wing dictatorships in other South American countries during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Chile and Uruguay. The bone fragments in Argentina were unearthed during a seven-month search at the former detention post in the city of La Plata, near Buenos Aires. In 25 years of searching, this was the first time that human remains were found at a former detention center, said Luis Fondebrider, president of the EAAF. \"We've worked throughout the country and have always found remains in cemeteries, never outside,\" Fondebrider said in the release. The conference was called, he said, because of the extraordinary nature of the find. \"We usually don't hold press conferences about our work or what we find,\" Fondebrider said. \"But we understand that the magnitude of what we have found where the Clandestine Center of Arana was located merits that sometimes we show partial results.\" The searchers determined that bodies had been burned inside graves along with tires, combustibles and other material, Fondebrider said. \"The possibilities of identifying some of these remains is low because of the state they are in,\" Fondebrider said. The searchers will start analyzing the remains next year and are working with two prominent forensic genetic laboratories that specialize in working with remains that are in poor condition, he said. Lending an official air to Tuesday's proceedings, Carlos Stornelli, minister of security for the province of Buenos Aires, and Pablo Buruera, mayor of La Plata, also attended the news conference. \"We are looking for the truth so we can attain justice and construct, from there, the memory of our 30,000 'desaparecidos,' \" Derotier said.","highlights":"Remains believed to be human; number of bodies unknown, officials say .\nDetention center among those used in Argentina's 1976-1983 \"Dirty War\"\nTens of thousands said to have been abducted, killed during \"Dirty War\"","id":"ef5c70bbd8df6f74e6bc4a1aa711de2a6d45170a"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A German cruise liner said Tuesday it plans to fly its passengers over the Gulf of Aden, instead of sailing them through, out of fear of pirate attacks in the region. U.S. Navy image of pirates operating off coast of Somalia in October this year. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises said all 246 passengers and most of the crew aboard the MS Columbus, currently at the start of an around-the-world cruise, will disembark at an undisclosed port, then fly to Dubai to continue their journey. The company called the move a precautionary measure. Pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia have shot up this year, with pirates staging increasingly bolder attacks on ever-bigger targets. So far this year, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Freight and cargo ships, cruise liners, and private yachts have all come under attack. In many hijackings, pirates take the crew and passengers hostage while they demand a ransom. The problem has forced companies like Hapag-Lloyd, that use the Gulf of Aden, to make new plans, including stepping up security or changing their routes. One shipping company announced last month it would bypass the region altogether, sailing instead around the Cape of Good Hope and adding thousands of kilometers to its voyages. Read more about how to solve the pirate problem here. Hapag-Lloyd said a general travel warning for the area, issued by the German Foreign Ministry, played a part in the decision. But the company also said it had asked the German government for naval protection and the request was turned down. Representatives of Hapag-Lloyd and the German Defense Ministry could not immediately be reached for further comment. The passengers on board the Columbus began the first leg of their world cruise November 28 in Genoa, Italy and are due in Dubai on December 17, according to Hapag-Lloyd's Web site. Further stops include Singapore, Bali, Indonesia and Sydney, Australia. Hapag-Lloyd said that after the passengers and most of the crew disembark, the Columbus will sail through the Gulf of Aden with a skeleton staff. The passengers will stay in a five-star hotel in Dubai for three days until the Columbus arrives to take them back onboard, the company said. Both the crew and passengers approve of the safety measure, Hapag-Lloyd said. The U.S. State Department and British Foreign Office advise those traveling near the Somali coast to use extreme caution because of the recent pirate attacks. Last week, the Australian government issued a similar warning about travel to the region. The advice also urged Australian ships \"to apply a robust and layered protective security regime\" when traveling through the area. -- CNN's Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers will fly to Dubai to continue their journey .\nHapag-Lloyd: Involves 246 passengers, most of crew aboard MS Columbus .\nPrompted by travel warning for the area issued by German Foreign Ministry .\nUnited States, UK advise those traveling near Somali coast to use extreme caution .","id":"a885e9c07273094ac3bd8ba156012187205b25f5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invited the woman set to replace her as the nation's top diplomat, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to dinner Monday night, a State Department spokesman said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Sen. Hillary Clinton dined together Monday night. The dinner took place at Rice's home in the Watergate complex in downtown Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The meeting lasted for two hours, he said. \"They talked just very generally about policy -- the challenges, the opportunities -- talked a little bit about the job of secretary of state, talked about the 'building,' managing a big operation,\" McCormack said. The two dined after Clinton met with members of President-elect Barack Obama's State Department transition team on Monday. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that important information often is exchanged during such dinners between outgoing and incoming secretaries of state. Albright, who was former President Bill Clinton's top diplomat during his second term, said she had a similar dinner with Colin Powell, President Bush's first secretary of state, in 2001. Watch Albright give her advice to Obama \u00bb . \"I'm sure they had a social part of it, but Secretary Rice told her what the major challenges are, how the department works -- we call it 'the building' -- and, generally, I think they are very nice times,\" Albright said. \"It's just a matter of really turning over the most important job in the world on foreign policy,\" she added. Albright said Clinton will have to get up to speed on a number of issues, including the status of negotiations the U.S. is engaged in, who will be part of her team and how she will work with other members of Obama's national security team. \"I know from talking to her that she has a great sense of excitement and desire to ... reintroduce America to the rest of the world,\" said Albright, who said she thought that Clinton would be \"a very great secretary of state.\" Earlier, Rice said she was looking forward to meeting her successor and said she believes Clinton will do \"a great job.\" \"I talked with her and we're going to sit down, and I'm really looking forward to it. I've known her a long time, and she is someone that I admire,\" Rice told CNN on Sunday. Despite being from different parties -- and Clinton's tough criticism of Bush's foreign policy while she was a Democratic presidential candidate -- Rice has been effusive in her praise of the former first lady. \"President-elect Obama has made his choice, and he's made a terrific choice. Hillary Clinton is somebody of intelligence, and she'll do a great job,\" Rice told ABC News on Sunday. \"She also has what's most important to being secretary of state, and that is that you love this country, and you represent it from a basis of faith in its values. And I know that she will do that,\" Rice added. Obama's decision to tap Clinton as his top diplomat already has brought about changes. On Tuesday, former President Clinton released the corporate sponsors of a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Hong Kong, a practice he previously has resisted. The sponsors of last week's meeting included CLSA, Laureate, the Roberson Foundation, Citi, the Li Ka Shing Foundation, The Economist, HP, Ogilvy, Suzlon, Thomson Reuters and CNN. The former president agreed to make it a regular practice to disclose the sponsors of his global initiative as part of a deal with the Obama transition team to allow the nomination of his wife to go forward. He also has agreed to allow State Department officials to review his speeches and other personal activities.","highlights":"Secretary of state invites Sen. Hillary Clinton to dinner at her Washington home .\nSuch dinners allow for exchange of important information, ex-secretary of state says .\nBill Clinton releases names of sponsors of Clinton Global Initiative in Hong Kong .","id":"96bebebf034d1e3645a7fa4497d9e4ba08ee3490"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The European Union will launch its first naval operation Tuesday, protecting vessels from pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, EU policy chief Javier Solana announced Monday. A French army helicopter taking off from French frigate Nivose, on patrol in the Gulf of Aden. EU foreign ministers approved the mission during their regular meeting in Brussels on Monday. Solana said the operation is \"very important\" because EU vessels will be operating \"in a place in the world that everybody's looking at because of the new problems related to piracy.\" \"It's very important that we have taken that decision to launch it tomorrow,\" he added. The EU naval force will take over the role of escorting United Nations World Food Program vessels carrying food and relief supplies to war-torn Somalia, an EU news release said. Its mandate, which is spelled out in several U.N. Security Council resolutions, also will include \"the protection of vulnerable vessels cruising off the Somali coast, and the deterrence, prevention and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast,\" the news release stated. The deployment follows a decision by the European Council in September that established a coordination cell that supported surveillance and protection operations by several member states off the Somali coast. Piracy has become increasingly common in that area this year, particularly in the Gulf of Aden. So far, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Those hijacked vessels include an enormous oil tanker, a chemical tanker, and a ship laden with Soviet-era arms, including tanks. The pirates normally hold the ships for ransom. The Somali-based pirates have extended their reach beyond Somalia's coastline. On Saturday, a Dutch-operated container ship outran pirates off the coast of Tanzania, an IMB official told CNN. A luxury cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers and crew successfully outran pirates off the coast of Yemen last weekend. A multinational fleet -- including vessels from the United States, NATO member states, Russia and India -- has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. In a recent interview provided to CNN, a pirate leader claimed attacks on shipping would continue so long as life in Somalia remained desperate. \"The pirates are living between life and death,\" said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. \"Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything.\"","highlights":"EU force will take over the role of escorting U.N. World Food Program vessels .\nRole includes \"protection of vulnerable vessels cruising off the Somali coast\"\nPirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast this year .\nWarships from U.S., India, Russia and Malaysia also patrol region .","id":"c1cf140092b42c4330e68b018898b8a1014145e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four of O.J. Simpson's accomplices in the 2007 robbery at a Las Vegas hotel were given suspended sentences Tuesday by Nevada District Judge Jackie Glass. District Court Judge Jackie Glass sentenced four O.J. Simpson codefendants to probation on Tuesday. The four -- Charles Cashmore, Charles Erlich, Michael McClinton and Walter Alexander -- all turned on Simpson and cooperated in the case against him. Simpson was sentenced last week to at least nine and as many as 33 years in prison in the case. Glass called him \"arrogant\" and \"ignorant.\" Before announcing the suspended sentences Tuesday, Glass said the actions of Cashmore, Erlich, McClinton and Alexander were \"stupid but also criminal\" when they accompanied the former football star to the Palace Station Hotel and Casino on September 13, 2007. But she praised them for taking responsibility for their actions and for cooperating with the state's case against Simpson. Should they violate the terms of their probation, the four could face prison time ranging from 12 months to 84 months, depending on the specific charges against them. The four apologized to the state and the victims in the case before their sentences were read in court Tuesday. Simpson, a former Heisman Trophy winner and record-setting NFL running back, had enlisted the help of Cashmore, Erlich, McClinton and Alexander, along with Clarence \"C.J.\" Stewart, in an effort to get sports memorabilia items that Simpson claimed belong to him from dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley. The six men confronted the dealers in a hotel room, brandishing weapons but not firing them. Stewart received a sentence similar to Simpson's but will be eligible for parole in 7\u00bd years. Watch how Simpson's conviction came down \u00bb . Glass ordered Fromong removed from the courtroom Tuesday after he made a comment during the sentencing of McClinton, who admitted brandishing a gun in the hotel room. Glass still has to decide restitution in the case a schedule a hearing on that for Friday morning. The four men sentenced Tuesday walked meekly from the courtroom to report to law enforcement officials and get details on their probation. On Friday, Simpson was led from the courtroom in shackles. He'll remain jailed while an appeal is pending.","highlights":"Charles Cashmore, Charles Erlich, Michael McClinton, Walter Alexander in court .\nFour accompanied Simpson, another man in robbery of memorabilia dealers .\nIf they violate probation, four face prison terms of 12 months to 84 months .\nJudge must still decide restitution in case .","id":"0c7fe6645263f28fb2b14297f9403dad960806b1"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have arrested two top leaders of the Islamic militant group India blames for the November massacre in Mumbai, Pakistan's prime minister confirmed Wednesday. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistani security forces had rounded up a number of militant figures. The top military officer in the U.S. on Wednesday said he is \"encouraged\" by Pakistan's recent arrests of \"significant players\" in the Mumbai attacks. U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said the arrests amount to \"first steps\" toward determining who plotted the three day siege last month that killed 160 people in Mumbai, India's financial capital. \"There are more steps to follow,\" he noted. He also thanked India for showing restraint against Pakistan, which it has accused of harboring the terrorist groups behind the November massacre. Zarar Shah, a top operational commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Zakir Rehman Lakhvi, whose arrest had been reported Tuesday, were among the militant figures rounded up in recent days, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters. Gilani would not confirm the detention of Masood Azhar, the leader of another militant group, Jaish-e-Muhammad. But he said his government has launched its own investigation into India's allegations that the gunmen who killed more than 160 people in Mumbai had links to Pakistan. The acknowledgment came three days after Pakistani security forces raided an LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, in the first sign of government action against Lashkar-e-Tayyiba since the three-day siege of India's financial capital. Both LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad were formed to battle Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, and both were banned after a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that brought the South Asian nuclear rivals to the brink of war. The United States has listed LeT as a terrorist group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. According to the U.S. government, Lakhvi, 47, has directed LeT's military operations in southeast Asia, Chechnya, Bosnia and Iraq. Pakistan's Defense Minister Choudhry Mukhtar Ahmed told CNN's sister network in India, CNN-IBN, that Lakhvi and Azhar had been arrested on Monday. Azhar has been in Pakistan since 1999, when he was released from an Indian prison in exchange for hostages aboard a hijacked Indian airliner. Indian authorities say the sole surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks told investigators that he was trained at an LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, along with the nine other attackers who were killed in the three-day siege. A Pakistani security official said the terror raids on banned militant groups are ongoing and have resulted in at least 15 arrests.","highlights":"NEW: Top U.S. military officer encouraged by terror arrests .\nPakistan arrests militant leaders blamed by India for Mumbai terror attacks .\nZarar Shah, top commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, among those held .\nBlamed militant groups were formed to oppose Indian rule in divided Kashmir .","id":"e9c308262dea37b1e0b578bd4e5c6a97c9f592b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has branded the cholera crisis in Zimbabwe \"an international emergency\" and called on the world community to confront President Robert Mugabe, leader of the central African nation. A shortage of clean drinking water has unleashed a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. \"This is now an international rather than a national emergency,\" Brown said in a statement Saturday. \"International because disease crosses borders. International because the systems of government in Zimbabwe are now broken. There is no state capable or willing of protecting its people.\" Earlier this week the government of Zimbabwe, which already suffers from severe economic problems and political instability, declared a national emergency following the outbreak, which has so far killed more than 600 people. Cholera, a water-borne disease, is on the increase in nine of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned. It blamed \"poor water and sanitation supply, a collapsed health system and limited government capacity to respond to the emergency.\" Many of those afflicted with the disease have fled to neighboring countries to seek medical help -- which risks spreading the outbreak still further. Brown called on the international community to tell Mugabe \"enough is enough,\" and suggested that the United Nations Security Council meet to discuss the issue. He added that the most pressing issue was to ensure that testing and rehydration equipment and packs reach the right people, as well as for aid agencies to set up a organizational structure in the state capital Harare to confront the disease. \"The people of Zimbabwe voted for a better future. It is our duty to support that aspiration,\" Brown added. Brown's comments came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the outbreak is the latest sign that Mugabe's rule over the country must end. \"It's well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave. I think that's now obvious,\" Rice said during a visit to Denmark. Washington has long called for Mugabe to leave office, with President George W. Bush calling Zimbabwe's runoff presidential election in June a \"sham\" and instructing Rice and other U.S. officials to develop additional sanctions against Mugabe's \"illegitimate government.\" \"The United States will always do anything and everything that it can to help innocent people who are suffering,\" Rice said. \"And we are not going to deny assistance to people in need because of their government. But if this is not evidence to the international community that it's time to stand up for what is right, I don't know what will be. And frankly, the nations of the region have to lead it.\" Rice -- who has just about a month left in office before President-elect Barack Obama's administration takes over -- also called on all African nations to speak up. Asked whether the United States and Europe should try to force out Mugabe, Rice responded, \"Well, without help in the region, it's very difficult to have the tools that will bring about a just resolution in Zimbabwe. The United States and Europe can't do everything alone. Other states are responsible too. And the southern African states should be the most responsible at this point, because they have the most at risk. And the people of Zimbabwe have suffered long enough.\" Supporters of Mugabe, who has come under heavy international criticism for several years, were accused of political intimidation following June's presidential runoff vote. For months there have been some efforts to build a power-sharing government between Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, to little avail. On Thursday, Mugabe hinted he may form a Cabinet without the opposition and call for early elections. The opposition responded that it would welcome a \"genuine election,\" with international supervision. The 84-year-old Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980 from Great Britain, also suggested he would ignore an international tribunal ruling that declared illegal his government's seizure of farms from white Zimbabweans.","highlights":"UK PM Gordon Brown calls for more to be done about Zimbabwe cholera crisis .\nCholera has killed 600-plus people in nation hit by hyperinflation, political unrest .\nCondoleezza Rice Friday called on all African nations to \"speak up\" about crisis .\nUK, U.S. have led international pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe .","id":"2f8c3a280fb430c7518726c07accbf1226b3fa1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ghana international Michael Essien has followed goalkeeper Petr Cech in agreeing a new five-year contract with English Premier League side Chelsea. Michael Essien has made a big impression on new Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. The midfielder, who is in China for the start of the club's pre-season tour, is now tied to the London outfit until the summer of 2013. The 25-year-old has made 143 appearances since moving to Stamford Bridge from French club Lyon in a $49 million transfer in August 2005, scoring 14 goals in total and helping Chelsea win the league title that season. Essien's decision to commit his long-term future to the club is a boost for new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, who allowed veteran holding midfielder Claude Makelele to join Paris St Germain on Monday. \"I have not been here long but it is clear to me that Michael Essien is one of the best midfield players in the world,\" Scolari said. \"I have always admired him and it is good news for me and for Chelsea that he signs for so long.\" The Accra-born Essien, who started his career in France with Bastia in 2000 before moving to Lyon three years later, was also pleased with the deal. \"I am really pleased to have extended my career with Chelsea,\" he said. \"I am very happy here. We have a great team and fantastic fans who have always made me welcome. \"With the addition of the new manager, I am feeling very positive about the season ahead.\" Chelsea announced on Monday that Czech Republic goalkeeper Cech signed a new five-year deal, while England full-back Wayne Bridge committed himself to four more years last week. Scolari is still seeking to keep England midfielder Frank Lampard, who has ended talks over a new deal and now appears to be resigned to waiting until his contract runs out before joining Inter Milan following the upcoming season. The Brazilian has so far added only Portugal playmaker Deco to his midfield ranks. His first match in charge will be Wednesday's friendly against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, one of the three games the team will play in China. Striker Didier Drogba, who has been linked with moves to AC Milan and Barcelona, is not among the touring squad due to a recurring knee problem. Khalid Boulahrouz, meanwhile, completed his transfer from Chelsea to Stuttgart on a four-year contract with the Bundesliga club. The Netherlands central defender was released Monday by Chelsea and arrived in Stuttgart's training camp in Austria shortly before midnight after passing a medical exam in Stuttgart. The deal between Stuttgart and Chelsea was completed Tuesday. Details were not given. The Dutchman played for Hamburger SV for two seasons before going to Chelsea in 2006. He was loaned to FC Sevilla last season. Boulahrouz's departure came a day after 35-year-old former France international Claude Makelele signed a two-year deal with Paris-Saint Germain after joining from Chelsea on a free transfer.","highlights":"Ghana international Michael Essien signs new five-year contract with Chelsea .\nMidfielder follows Petr Cech and Wayne Bridge in agreeing long-term deals .\nThe 25-year-old has made 143 appearances since joining from Lyon in 2005 .\nDutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz leaves Chelsea for Stuttgart on 4-year deal .","id":"f43134e70b1cf8c22c560b2de7c64d935c507a72"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A German cruise liner said Tuesday it plans to fly its passengers over the Gulf of Aden, instead of sailing them through, out of fear of pirate attacks in the region. U.S. Navy image of pirates operating off coast of Somalia in October this year. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises said all 246 passengers and most of the crew aboard the MS Columbus, currently at the start of an around-the-world cruise, will disembark at an undisclosed port, then fly to Dubai to continue their journey. The company called the move a precautionary measure. Pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia have shot up this year, with pirates staging increasingly bolder attacks on ever-bigger targets. So far this year, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off Somalia's coast and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Freight and cargo ships, cruise liners, and private yachts have all come under attack. In many hijackings, pirates take the crew and passengers hostage while they demand a ransom. The problem has forced companies like Hapag-Lloyd, that use the Gulf of Aden, to make new plans, including stepping up security or changing their routes. One shipping company announced last month it would bypass the region altogether, sailing instead around the Cape of Good Hope and adding thousands of kilometers to its voyages. Read more about how to solve the pirate problem here. Hapag-Lloyd said a general travel warning for the area, issued by the German Foreign Ministry, played a part in the decision. But the company also said it had asked the German government for naval protection and the request was turned down. Representatives of Hapag-Lloyd and the German Defense Ministry could not immediately be reached for further comment. The passengers on board the Columbus began the first leg of their world cruise November 28 in Genoa, Italy and are due in Dubai on December 17, according to Hapag-Lloyd's Web site. Further stops include Singapore, Bali, Indonesia and Sydney, Australia. Hapag-Lloyd said that after the passengers and most of the crew disembark, the Columbus will sail through the Gulf of Aden with a skeleton staff. The passengers will stay in a five-star hotel in Dubai for three days until the Columbus arrives to take them back onboard, the company said. Both the crew and passengers approve of the safety measure, Hapag-Lloyd said. The U.S. State Department and British Foreign Office advise those traveling near the Somali coast to use extreme caution because of the recent pirate attacks. Last week, the Australian government issued a similar warning about travel to the region. The advice also urged Australian ships \"to apply a robust and layered protective security regime\" when traveling through the area. -- CNN's Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers will fly to Dubai to continue their journey .\nHapag-Lloyd: Involves 246 passengers, most of crew aboard MS Columbus .\nPrompted by travel warning for the area issued by German Foreign Ministry .\nUnited States, UK advise those traveling near Somali coast to use extreme caution .","id":"8b7438ba9c0c7407ad567bf4c6b8ae9d81c880ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Pennsylvania teen has been charged as an adult for allegedly planning to kill classmates he did not like before turning the gun on himself in a high school shooting spree, a Pennsylvania prosecutor said Tuesday. Richard Yanis allegedly stole three handguns from his father and told police he planned to \"shoot students in the school and then himself\" at Pottstown High School, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said in a press release. Yanis, 15, was charged with attempted murder in adult court because juvenile law in Montgomery County excludes crimes committed with a deadly weapon, Ferman said. The investigation began when the teen's father reported that three handguns were stolen from a secured gun locker in his basement, Ferman said. His son allegedly took a Smith & Wesson .357 caliber revolver, a Smith & Wesson .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a Colt .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, Ferman said. Richard Yanis gave the guns and ammunition to an unnamed friend from school and asked him to \"hold onto it,\" the statement said. The friend allegedly showed his stepmother the guns, and the two drove to a nearby creek where they tossed in the weapons. The friend told a teacher at Pottstown High School what happened, and police were called. Yanis told police he planned to attack the school after the New Year, officials said. \"He was going to go into the school shooting, shoot everyone he did not like, and then himself,\" Ferman said. \"He was to have the guns loaded and have the additional ammunition inside his backpack,\" she said. \"On the day of the planned shooting, Yanis said he was going to tell his friends to go home from school.\" John Armato, director of community relations at Pottstown Senior High School, described Yanis \"as quiet, relatively introverted.\" \"He did not have a great number of friends or a history of discipline problems,\" Armato said. \"He had no history of aggressive behaviors in school.\" Yanis' parents had no comment, but family friend Brian Hanlon spoke on their behalf. \"I can say that it was definitely out of character, but that his parents are dealing with it as best as possible,\" Hanlon said. \"They want everyone to respect their privacy at this time while dealing with these events.\" CNN's Chloe Melas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Richard Yanis charged with attempted murder for alleged high school shooting plot .\nYanis, 15, planned to kill people he didn't like and then himself, prosecutor says .\nTeen is charged as adult because of use of gun in alleged plot, prosecutor says .\nTeen described as introverted, no history of aggressive behavior .","id":"1dec4b3c5b0e5340cc4ffe887377f3c8503e0813"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Before middle-aged men started singing \"Viva Viagra\" in TV ads, before former Sen. Bob Dole appeared in its commercials in the '90s, before the blue pill with a funny name entered the public lexicon, impotence was hush-hush. Viagra entered the market 10 years ago, bringing once taboo subjects like erectile dysfunction out in the open. Now there's no getting away from it. In-boxes are clogged daily with spam mail promising cheap and instant manliness delivered fast and in bulk. Couples exchange amorous, come-hither looks followed by a lengthy recitation of side effects on TV ads. The pill helped more than 25 million men get their groove back and blasted the topic of erectile dysfunction into the open. \"It's like the nuclear explosion,\" said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, California. \"It created sexual medicine. It allowed the taboo to be broken.\" Since the diamond-shaped blue pill debuted 10 years ago, it has become embedded in the public psyche, late-night television jokes and urologists' offices. \"It is one of the revolutionary steps in sexual health,\" said Dr. Ira Sharlip, spokesman for the American Urological Association. \"It ranks with the changes in cultural attitudes about sexuality that were started by [Sigmund] Freud, continued by [William] Masters and [Virginia] Johnson, the two researchers in the '60s, and the work that [Alfred] Kinsey did in the '40s. \"These were the huge steps in the development of our understanding of human sexuality and cultural attitudes of sex.\" Men seldom talked about their bedroom troubles before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Viagra as the first oral medication for erectile dysfunction in 1998. \"We lamented the fact that the men had so much shame about erectile dysfunction, how rarely anyone came for medical attention,\" said Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, an associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard Medical School. Penis injections and vacuum pumps were available, but these treatments weren't appealing. Men with medical conditions such as diabetes, prostate cancer, hyper cholesterol, endocrinological and cardiovascular problems weren't able to enjoy sex, Goldstein said. \"People who couldn't enjoy intimacy before have been given a second life....\" he said. \"We have had a better life because of it.\" Viagra increases blood flow to the penis, enabling a man to have an erection. The drug does not induce desire and works when the man is sexually aroused, according to Pfizer, the makers of Viagra. Urologists heard from patients who had tried the pill that Viagra made them feel as if they were 20-year-olds again. Anti-impotence drugs Levitra and Cialis have come along since. \"Along with the birth control pill in the '60s, this pill really changed people, society and medicine,\" Goldstein said. \"It changed the patient-physician relationship. You can walk in and ask about sexual functions. It was a major taboo at some point.\" Dr. Gerald Melchiode, a Texas psychiatrist, agreed that the pill has helped men open up about their sexual health, but finds the commercials a bit much. \"I've never run across men singing about their impotency,\" he said. Since Viagra's appearance on the market, the dialogue about sexual dysfunctions has helped doctors identify other health problems in their patients, doctors say. \"You always hear someone drops dead,\"said Dr. Chris Steidle, a urologist who wrote the book \"Sex and the Heart.\" \"It's not sudden death if you couldn't get an erection. It's a symptom of a heart condition. You wouldn't ignore a stroke, but you would ignore erectile dysfunction -- it's a significant symptom.\" The man's penis is like \"the tip of the iceberg\" or \"the canary in the mines,\" which serve as an indicator of overall health, Morgentaler said. \"There's now good evidence that shows that men with ED who have no other symptoms of anything are at increased risk for heart attacks and strokes,\" he said. Thousands of studies have been conducted on Viagra. \"The pill that thrills\" is also being studied to see whether it gives athletes an edge in competition. It's been studied to see whether it helps women with their sexual health. Despite the deluge of attention, Viagra doesn't work for about 25 percent to 35 percent of men with erectile dysfunction. For others, it has revitalized and strained marriages. Experts say Viagra gave a window into the psyche of men and women. Some complain that sex should be spontaneous and that popping a pill ruins the romance. Eating food decreases the potency of Viagra, and some say the pill forces them to go on a schedule. Another complaint: Having to use Viagra makes a spouse or partner feel undesirable. \"Sometimes their spouse personalizes it,\" said Melchiode. \"Why does he have to take this pill? Aren't I attractive enough? Aren't I sexy enough for him? That's not unusual for the partner.\" Even when Viagra is effective, some men realize that it's not the magic bullet that solves their problems with intimacy, doctors said. Only about half refill their prescription. \"One has to think beyond just giving a pill to cure sexual problems,\" Melchiode said. \"A typical example is a couple where there's been problems over the years and they can't deal with the problems on a verbal level, so they start withdrawing from one another. They build up a resentment and anger, they have trouble being close to one another and having sex with each other. Just giving them a pill isn't going to touch on all the problems of the resentment and anger.\" Sex, it turns out, is part of a bigger web of relationship issues. Morgentaler, author of \"The Viagra Myth,\" said: \"It's unrealistic that there's a pill that fixes all of these things.\"","highlights":"Viagra helped 25 million men with erectile dysfunction and bring awareness .\nBlue pill considered a huge step in understanding human sexuality, cultural attitudes .\nED indicates other health issues and that blood vessels aren't working well .\nViagra isn't a cure-all, some sex problems are indicative of relationship problems .","id":"08b007c013887133bc86d6ed908e341b26ac6734"} -{"article":"SODDY-DAISY, Tennessee (CNN) -- Kat Koonce loves her Saturns. She owns three, and has pictures of them on Saturnfans.com, where she is one of almost 2,500 Saturn devotees who've posted photo albums of their vehicles. Saturn owners show off their Sky roadsters after a Christmas parade in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, on Sunday. Judy Pearson shows off a photo album of her Saturn Sky roadster the way a grandmother might show off one of her grandchildren -- pictures of vacations and happy times together. The women are exactly the kind of customers General Motors was looking for when it introduced the Saturn brand two decades ago as \"a different kind of car company.\" The brand's slogan is now one word -- \"rethink\" -- but its fate may soon be summed up in another -- \"done.\" General Motors has raised the prospect of eliminating the nameplate as it tries to restructure to regain profitability. \"I just can't stand the thought of them doing away with Saturn,\" said Dianne Pollard of Hixson, Tennessee. She created the Sky Club of Chattanooga, dedicated to the sporty two-seater. General Motors hasn't officially announced the end of Saturn, but in a restructuring plan submitted to Congress, the automaker said it would concentrate resources on four core brands -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. That leaves Saturn, along with GM's Pontiac, Saab and Hummer brands, with a dim future. See how Saturn owners are devoted to their vehicles \u00bb . Pollard drove her black 2008 RedLine (that's Saturn's name for a turbo) Sky in Sunday's Christmas parade in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, northeast of Chattanooga. Fellow Hixson residents and Sky devotees Connie Terrell (red 2007 RedLine) and Pearson (dark blue 2007 standard edition) were there, too. All three have owned other, more sedate Saturns than the Sky, which Edmunds.com praises for \"sharp styling, low price and everyday comfort\" and Car and Driver.com calls a \"mini-Corvette\" at around half the price. They were joined by George and Brenda Holloway, who drove their 2007 Sky almost 100 miles from their farm in Centre, Alabama, to join in the parade. \"We thoroughly enjoy the Saturn. Our next vehicle, when we buy one, will be a Saturn,\" Brenda Holloway said. \"This is the only car I've ever owned that you can be driving down the interstate and people pull up beside you and take a picture of it,\" her husband, a retired 20-year Army veteran, said with amusement-tinged pride. But it's not just the cars -- including the original S series sedans and coupes -- that turn people into \"Saturnistas\"; it's also the pleasant buying experience and over-the-top customer service. \"It's a family. It's the Saturn family. And you become part of that family,\" Pearson said. All three Sky owners from Hixson had stories to tell about a sales consultant who went the extra mile or a service call that exceeded their expectations. Pearson said she has owned many makes of cars, including foreign nameplates, and Saturn's treatment of customers beats them all. \"The best experience I've ever had was with Saturn, bar none,\" she said. Koonce, of Dayton, Ohio, used to feel that way, too. But Koonce now says GM might as well kill off the brand, because that would be preferable to the slow death she sees as inevitable. Saturn sold slightly more than 8,000 cars in November and has delivered about 175,000 this year. That's a far cry from the half a million GM had hoped to sell each year when it introduced Saturn. Koonce said she fell in love with Saturn before she was old enough to drive. She became such a familiar figure at her local Saturn dealer and so knowledgeable about its lineup that she was hired as a sales consultant. She and her husband, Nick, met at a Saturn owners' event, their wedding was a Saturn owners' event, and they have owned six Saturns between them. They have brought numerous relatives and friends \"into the Saturn cult,\" said Nick, whose dream is to own a Saturn dealership. Saturn was conceived in the early 1980s as a separate-standing division of GM, with then-unheard-of features: . \u2022 an innovative new plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee; . \u2022 a separate agreement with the United Auto Workers that embraced more teamwork between union and management; . \u2022 the use of plastics instead of metal for many body parts; . \u2022 and a highly personalized consumer experience, including no-haggle buying and \"Homecomings,\" a sort of family reunion for Saturn owners at the Spring Hill campus. The first Saturn came off the Spring Hill assembly line on July 30, 1990. Unfortunately, Kat Koonce said, GM has abandoned what made Saturn different. The cars are now made of metal, and the models all have twins in other GM divisions. Even the original Spring Hill factory has been converted to build Chevrolets instead of Saturns; the Saturn VUE is built in Mexico. So disillusioned was Koonce that she quit her job at the Saturn dealership and went back to college. \"It was a success that became a failure,\" she said. Walter S. McManus, the head of the Automotive Analysis Division of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, says he could see it coming. \"Brand loyalty is overrated,\" McManus stated flatly. \"It is costly to do all the fuzzies, and Saturn's example is clear that it doesn't pay off for what is essentially an economy-car company. Women especially appreciated the Saturn way, but Honda sells more cars to women, despite having a less female-friendly approach.\" Don't tell that to Charlie Eickmeyer, who runs the Saturnfans Web site and has posted a \"Save Saturn\" petition for the site's 35,000 members to sign. And don't tell the Sky Club of Chattanooga. \"I think Saturn really is a different kind of car company, and that is what has brought me back to them,\" Pearson said.","highlights":"Owners of vulnerable GM brand rave about quality, service .\nFour owners of Sky roadsters drive in town's Christmas parade .\nDisillusioned longtime fan quits as sales consultant .\n\"Brand loyalty is overrated,\" auto industry researcher says .","id":"ffd9898acbe737ca2b8864c332f89e27aeb85e60"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's hard to imagine Meryl Streep having second thoughts about tackling any role, but the actress admits that she had doubts about \"Doubt,\" her newest project. The cast of \"Doubt,\" from left: Viola Davis, Amy Adams, Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film -- based on a Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play by the same name -- examines what happens when a strict nun who heads a Catholic school in the Bronx suspects a charismatic priest of having an inappropriate relationship with a student. \"I actually didn't think it would ever be a movie,\" Streep said. \"It was so thoroughly realized on stage, and it was so minimal. It was hard to imagine how or why you would make a movie out of it.\" But Streep, who plays the terrifyingly severe and determined school principal, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, said she changed her mind when she saw the final product. \"How did they make the play without any children in it? It is just sort of amazing to me, because to me they are sort of the landscape. They are the lambs of the movie. They are the stakes. They are why everybody is passionate.\" Her co-stars are passionate about sharing the screen with a Hollywood legend. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the priest targeted by Streep's character in the film, says he \"adores\" her. Amy Adams calls Streep \"a sweetheart.\" Viola Davis says she's \"just fantastic.\" Davis' performance in the movie is generating Oscar buzz, with Streep advising the actress to pick out a dress for the Academy Awards. Davis, who plays the mother of the student at the center of the sexual abuse allegations at the school, said she drew on the experiences of her mom and other women she knows to bring the role to life. She expressed awe about any suggestion of an Oscar nomination. \"It's surreal. I don't know how to respond to that anymore,\" Davis said. \"All I wanted to do was good work. ... Everything else is just the icing on the cake.\" The movie is set in 1964, but the play was written by John Patrick Shanley after the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church several years ago. Hoffman -- who plays Father Flynn, the priest under fire -- said the lurid headlines about molested children weren't even on his mind when he took on the project. \"It is really about something else. If people see it, they will know what I mean about that,\" Hoffman said. Some have suggested that the play served as a criticism of the Bush administration's dogged belief that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Shanley, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay of \"Moonstruck,\" told Entertainment Weekly that the play did have a political point. \"I'm not interested in morality,\" he told the magazine. \"One of my larger premises in doing this play, in what's not said, is that doubt itself is a passionate exercise. I think it's perceived in this culture as something weak or denatured, and that's a huge mistake.\" Adams said she became \"a little obsessed\" with the adaptation of the play to the big screen. She plays Sister James, a nun who expresses her suspicions about Father Flynn's relationship with the student to Sister Aloysius. The movie is a departure for Adams, who became famous for sunnier roles in films like \"Enchanted\" and \"Talladega Nights.\" But she said she doesn't mind being known as an eternally cheerful actress, because that description reflects \"75 percent\" of her real persona. \"There's 25 percent that's probably dark and grumpy and not personable at all, but I keep her at home,\" Adams said. As for Oscar buzz surrounding her performance, the actress said she's keeping her fingers crossed for Streep and Davis to be nominated for their roles in \"Doubt\" but has no expectations for herself. \"It's always fun ,and I would love to. If it doesn't happen for me, it's all right as well,\" Adams said. \"So, the experience of making the film was my get in this case.\"","highlights":"\"Doubt\" stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis .\nFilm is based on a Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play by the same name .\nIt examines what happens when a nun suspects a priest of abusing a student .\nStreep advises co-star to pick out a dress for the Academy Awards .","id":"57134ae4deea60bd791ff29e6678a8f9b4edc52c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of Zimbabwe's top officials blamed his country's spreading cholera outbreak on what he calls \"a genocidal onslaught\" by Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler -- Britain. Zimbabwean clinics have been overwhelmed by the cholera epidemic, according to aid organizations. \"Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country,\" Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told reporters. Britain ruled the country as a colony until 1965. Ndlovu's claims triggered quick and pointed reaction from Britain and the United States. In Washington, State Department spokesman Rob McInturff called Ndlovu's accusations \"patently ridiculous.\" Referring to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, McInturff said Friday that, \"Mugabe is clearly unwilling to take any meaningful action (to stop the cholera outbreak).\" On Thursday, Mugabe said \"there is no cholera in the country.\" His spokesman later said that Mugabe was sarcastically ridiculing what he believes are Western designs to invade the country. Britain's Africa minister, Mark Malloch-Brown responded by saying, \"I don't know what world he (Mugabe) is living in,\" according to the British newspaper The Guardian. Malloch-Brown made the comment during a one-day trip to South Africa, where he visited a Johannesburg church housing 1,600 Zimbabweans who have fled their country, the newspaper said. \"There is a raging humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe as well as an economic crisis and still there is no representative government able to lead the country out of this disaster,\" he said, according to The Guardian. Cholera has ravaged Zimbabwe, causing nearly 800 deaths and infecting more than 16,000 people, the World Health Organization says. The outbreak could surpass 60 000 cases, according to an estimate by the Zimbabwe Health Cluster, which is a group coordinated by the World Health Organization. View image gallery of Zimbabwe's cholera crisis \u00bb . Cholera, a bacterial waterborne disease that causes diarrhea, dehydration and, if not treated, death in a matter of hours, is widespread in Zimbabwe but help is not. Like the general Zimbabwean economy, the country's health delivery system is strapped, lacking modern drugs and machinery, while doctors and nurses have been striking for over a month. On Friday, the State Department issued a travel warning for U.S. citizens because of the cholera outbreak and violence that has flared as Zimbabwe's economy has deteriorated. \"The public health system in Zimbabwe no longer provides even basic services due to a lack of staff, electricity, clean water, and medical supplies,\" the travel warning said. \"Americans who fall ill while in Zimbabwe may find it difficult to find treatment.\" At the State Department's daily press briefing Friday, spokesman Sean McCormack said the situation in Zimbabwe will be one of the topics Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss when she visits the United Nations next week. \"The number of cases of cholera -- statements from Robert Mugabe notwithstanding -- is going up, not down,\" McCormack said. \"The crisis has not ended. People's lives are in danger.\" Health experts say the Zimbabwean government can win the battle against cholera only if it imports adequate stocks of water-treating chemicals and disposes of refuse and sewerage properly. Watch shocking footage of Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis (Discretion advised) \u00bb . A Doctors Without Borders epidemiologist in Zimbabwe said, referring to the capital city, that \"the scale and sheer numbers of infection, especially in Harare, is unprecedented.\" He said the group has treated more than 11,000 patients since August and has 500 international and local staff members treating people in cholera centers across the country. He said the main reasons for the outbreak are poor access to clean water, uncollected garbage in the streets and burst and blocked sewage systems. \"The fact that the outbreak has become so large is an indication that the country's health system can't cope,\" he said. Meanwhile, in his statement Thursday Mugabe said, \"I am happy to say our doctors, assisted by others and the World Health Organization, have now arrested cholera. So now that there is no cholera, there is no cause for war anymore. Let's tell them (Britain and the United States) that the cholera cause does not exist anymore, if it was cause for war.\" The pro-government Herald, quoting presidential spokesman George Charamba, said Mugabe had been sarcastically reacting to \"calls for intrusive action\" against Zimbabwe from European leaders. Charamba said the country continues to want international assistance to combat the disease and has declared a state of emergency. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which rivals Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, issued statements deploring the Mugabe government's \"indifferent and casual approach\" to cholera and saying it was \"alarmed by Mugabe's irresponsible and false remarks\" on Thursday. \"The ZANU-PF caretaker government is in a denial mode. The MDC believes that it is such careless and reckless statements that have not helped the situation,\" MDC said. \"We should be honest with ourselves and with the world. The truth is that cholera remains a major disaster in Zimbabwe,\" the MDC said. In his remarks to reporters in Zimbabwe, Ndlovu -- who said the country's health system is working on the outbreak -- labeled the cholera outbreak \"a serious biological, chemical war force, a genocidal onslaught, on the people of Zimbabwe by the British,\" He also made reference to U.S. President George W. Bush and Rice: \"To the outgoing warmongers, please leave in peace and not in pieces.\" Ndlovu also slammed news outlets including CNN for what he called \"gunboat journalism.\" \"They take photos (of) people dying (in) the DRC and Darfur and say these are cholera victims from Zimbabwe,\" he said, making reference to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan.","highlights":"Zimbabwe information minister says UK responsible for cholera outbreak .\nHe accuses CNN, BBC, other networks of falsifying news reports .\nWHO says cholera outbreak has killed almost 800, infected 16,000 .","id":"cc046329de1ebd5950caf5b5bd51a878c1dcab55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A day before Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was busted by federal investigators on corruption charges, he dared authorities to tape his phone calls if they thought he was guilty of anything. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, shown here in 2003, was known as a tireless campaigner. \"If anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it,\" Blagojevich said Monday outside a Chicago window factory where workers were protesting their layoffs. His comment came in response to a reporter's question about corruption allegations. Authorities had indeed bugged the governor's campaign office and tapped his home phone, catching him talking about alleged plans to sell the U.S. Senate seat left empty by President-elect Barack Obama. During his political career, Blagojevich made headlines. A native Chicagoan, he was thought of as a charismatic guy who always liked to ingratiate himself to the working man. But he was never considered a natural politician, particularly when he first began exploring a run for the governorship in 2002. His father, Rade Blagojevich, was a Yugoslavian immigrant who came to America after World War II. The elder Blagojevich worked in a steel mill to support his family, which was then living on the city's then-downtrodden northwest side. As a boy, Blagojevich held odd jobs -- shining shoes, delivering pizzas -- and worked in Alaska for two summers in his teens. He used the money to enroll in Northwestern University, a prestigious school in Evanston, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. He went on to law school at Pepperdine University, then went back to Chicago after graduation to be a lawyer. Blagojevich later joined the State's Attorney Office in Cook County -- the county in which Chicago is located -- and built a reputation for prosecuting domestic violence cases. During his time as a lawyer, where Blagojevich grew to enjoy the increasing public spotlight, he began flirting with the idea of running for office. He met his wife, Patricia Mell, in 1988 at a political fundraiser for her father, well-known Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. Blagojevich started working in the father's office, married Patricia Mell and had a daughter, Amy. They had another daughter a few years later. He served in the Illinois House from 1992 to 1996, representing the North Side Chicago district before moving on to Congress in 1997. During his three terms in Congress, he helped bring $240 million in federal funds to the Chicago Transit Authority and an additional $10 million to help protect Lake Michigan's shoreline. He grabbed headlines in 1999 when he traveled to Yugoslavia with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to negotiate the release of three American soldiers. Blagojevich met with then-President Slobodan Milosevic, who later faced a war crimes tribunal but died of a heart attack before the proceedings were concluded. Blagojevich set his sights on the governorship in 2002 with an aggressive appeal to the workaday Illinoisan. He portrayed himself as a regular guy who wanted to do right by the middle class. Tirelessly campaigning, knocking on doors and running down-home-flavored television ads, Blagojevich jokingly told voters not to worry about pronouncing his last name right. Just call me Rod, he said. At one point, a staunch supporter of his Republican opponent, Michael P. Flanagan, marveled to the Chicago Sun-Times that he was impressed by the number of appearances Blagojevich was making during the campaign. \"He is one of the most energetic guys in politics today,\" Flanagan said in a Sun-Times profile. \"If he was an athlete, they would test him for amphetamines. He would come up clean -- but they would test him.\" Blagojevich was able to leverage a string of endorsements from popular figures like Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. He also got the support of the Service Employees International Union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In the 2002 governor's race, Blagojevich rode to victory 7 points ahead of opponent Jim Ryan. Blagojevich commenced his re-election campaign in 2006 by promising not to raise state income or sales taxes during his second term. In May 2008, Blagojevich proposed a $150 million initiative to combat youth violence. In July, he pardoned 19 convicted criminals, including several who had been exonerated, and in August called a special legislative session to consider reducing state construction costs in order to increase money for schools. Earlier this week, Blagojevich was in the news again -- standing beside and supporting the workers suddenly laid off at the Chicago window factory. The employees complained that the layoffs came without the 60 days' notice required by federal law. Speaking to reporters as he stood with the workers, Blagojevich spoke of the need to follow the law. \"We are going to do everything possible here in Illinois to side with these workers,\" he said. \"And it isn't just lending them moral support, but it's ... making sure that we have our court system enforce the federal laws so these workers are getting what they're entitled to under the law and under what is the right thing to do.\"","highlights":"The son of a Yugoslavian immigrant has working-class roots in Chicago .\nBlagojevich worked in State's Attorney Office before serving 3 terms in Congress .\nHe became known for his energy, political clout before joining 2002 race for governor .\nBlagojevich appealed to middle class Illinoisans with ads suggesting \"call me Rod\"","id":"b3d47460eac09e09a829cb936a232bd79a320a7d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Sen. Tom Daschle will be announced Thursday as President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a Democratic source said Wednesday. Former Sen. Tom Daschle, shown with his wife, Linda, says he will write Obama's health care plan. CNN has previously reported that the 61-year-old former Senate majority leader from South Dakota would be Obama's choice, but not the announcement date. In November, Daschle said he was excited about the possibility of serving as point person in Obama's effort to change the nation's health care system. Daschle is on the health care advisory group of Obama's transition team and said he plans to write the health care plan that Obama submits to Congress next year. \"I hope to have the plan enacted by next year, and then it will take several years to implement,\" Daschle said last month. Daschle said reforming health care in the United States must be a priority in the current economic climate. \"We can't afford not to do it,\" he said. \"If we do nothing, we'll be paying twice as much on health care in 10 years as we do today.\" Daschle served as Democratic leader in the Senate from 1995 until he lost a re-election bid in 2004. Representing South Dakota, he was first elected as a congressman in 1978 and served in the House until he was elected to the Senate in 1986. He recently wrote a book on health care titled \"Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.\" In the book, he pushed for universal health care coverage to reach 46 million uninsured Americans by expanding the federal employee health benefits program to include private employer plans together with Medicaid and Medicare. Most Republicans oppose any such plan, saying it would give too much power to the government. They've also questioned Daschle's recent work for a Washington lobbying firm. His wife, Linda Daschle, is a registered lobbyist for a firm that includes health care clients. But a source close to Daschle told CNN that Linda Daschle would be leaving the firm at the end of the year to set up her own company focusing on transportation lobbying in order to clear any potential conflicts of interest. CNN's Candy Crowley and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Sen. Tom Daschle is a health care adviser on Obama's transition team .\nThe former Senate majority leader says he plans to write Obama's health care plan .\nDaschle advocates expanding federal employee health benefits to private employers .\nLinda Daschle, a registered lobbyist, would leave firm to clear potential conflicts .","id":"6c4e7f28374e4bdbae7aa99688a5c0a8c68c1a2b"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Authorities cordoned off the home of missing toddler Caylee Anthony's grandparents on Thursday, hours after the remains of a small child were found nearby. Investigators have sealed off the Anthony home, which shows a large Caylee poster. The sheriff's office in Orange County, Florida, said it is seeking a warrant to search the home of George and Cindy Anthony. Sheriff Kevin Beary said the home has been secured \"pending more investigation.\" The house has the \"possibility of being more of a crime scene later,\" he added. A child's skull was found at about 9:30 a.m. by a utility meter reader who alerted authorities, sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons said. Investigators, including those from the Anthony case, rushed to the scene, he added. Watch investigators swarm the scene \u00bb . CNN affiliate WFTV reported that the meter reader picked up a plastic bag at the site and a skull fell out. The remains have been removed by the medical examiner and will be sent to the FBI lab at Quantico, Virginia, Sheriff Beary said. The agency has told its lab analysts that the case is top priority, Beary added. \"If they have to work through the weekend, they'll work through the weekend.\" \"Bottom line, it's real simple, folks,\" Beary said. \"We've recovered this human skull, it appears to be that of a small child, and now the investigation continues. We've got a lot of lab work to do, a lot of DNA work to do, a lot of crime scene work to do. We could be here all night.\" Watch the sheriff talk about what needs to be done \u00bb . Prosecutors have asked police not to disclose many details surrounding the discovery, Beary said. Caylee Anthony, 3, has been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. Casey Anthony, the child's 22-year-old mother, was charged last month with murder and other offenses. She is being held at the Orange County Jail. The area where the remains were found had been searched as part of the investigation into Caylee's disappearance, he said. But the precise spot where a county meter reader found them -- \"45, 50, 60 feet back\" from the street -- was flooded at the time of the search. No clothes were found with the remains, Beary said. Asked whether the remains could belong to another child, Beary said, \"Not that we know of, but that's always a possibility, and that's why we've got a lot of work to do on this case still.\" Earlier, authorities said the Anthony family had been notified of the discovery. The remains were found \"in very close proximity\" to the Anthony home, Solomons said. View a map of where the remains were found \u00bb . An attorney for Casey Anthony filed legal papers Thursday afternoon seeking a court order to preserve all evidence collected, and to permit the defense to conduct its own forensic testing. A hearing has been scheduled for Friday morning. In a court hearing earlier Thursday, 9th Circuit Judge Stan Strickland postponed Casey Anthony's trial at the request of defense attorney Jose Baez. The attorney said he had not received all the evidence due him from prosecutors and was not ready to proceed with the January 5 trial. Baez asked Strickland whether the trial could be delayed until March. The judge scheduled a hearing January 15 to consider a new trial date as well as a possible change of venue. Casey Anthony remains in protective custody and has no contact with other inmates, corrections officials said. \"She has been seen by a Corrections Health Services psychologist and her status was reviewed,\" officials said in a statement, adding Anthony was under psychological observation -- which is not the same as suicide watch. Baez arrived at the jail just before noon Thursday and stayed about an hour and a half, officials said. Prosecutors said this month that they would not seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony. If convicted of murder, she could be sentenced to life in prison. Authorities have said Casey Anthony waited about a month before telling her family that Caylee was gone. Cindy Anthony -- Caylee's grandmother and Casey Anthony's mother -- called the Orange County sheriff's office July 15, saying her daughter would not tell her where Caylee was. When questioned, Casey Anthony gave conflicting statements to police, including some that were later disproved, according to hundreds of documents and investigative reports released in the case. She claimed that she dropped Caylee off with a baby-sitter, but when police checked out her story, they learned that the address Casey Anthony supplied belonged to an apartment that had been vacant for weeks. The woman Casey Anthony named as her baby-sitter told police she did not know her. Investigators have said that cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Anthony's car, as well as in her parents' backyard. They also said air quality tests conducted by the FBI found evidence consistent with human decomposition and chloroform in the car's trunk. A neighbor told police Anthony had asked to borrow a shovel. Also, an analysis of Anthony's computer found that she had visited Web sites discussing chloroform and had done Internet searches on missing children, according to information released in the case. \"There isn't a motive, and they haven't found a motive,\" Cindy Anthony said Wednesday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Watch Cindy Anthony insist her daughter is innocent \u00bb . She added, \"They told us they thought it was an accident, and she's scared and tried to cover it up. They don't feel there's a motive.\" Cindy Anthony stressed that five searches for the girl's body have \"come up with nothing. There's nothing that they have found that, you know, has given them any evidence that Caylee is no longer with us.\" The Anthonys said they believe that the girl is still alive and that someone has her, noting several reports of sightings. Last month, Strickland denied prosecutors' request to impose a gag order in Anthony's case, saying he could not state that continued publicity would pose a threat to her trial or even that a gag order would stem the flood of media attention. CNN's John Couwels and \"Nancy Grace\" producer Natisha Lance contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Police to search home of Caylee Anthony's grandparents .\nChild's remains found nearby on Thursday morning .\nAffiliate reports that child's skull fell from plastic trash bag when found .\nUtilility worker found remains in bag in area once underwater .","id":"3a3d3eb61555a2436bfe8ecf43261fc647b047fa"} -{"article":"COVINGTON, Louisiana (CNN) -- A woman recruited over the Internet and shot to death during a Ku Klux Klan group's initiation rite felt a need to be wanted and was eager to be part of a group, authorities say family members told them. Relatives describe Cynthia Lynch as having a deep need to feel wanted and eager to join groups. Her relatives told investigators that Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, had never been outside her home state, said Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Department. But she recently took a bus to Slidell, Louisiana, where she was met by two Klan members and taken to a campsite in the woods near Sun, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of New Orleans. Bonnett and Sheriff Jack Strain gave CNN this account of what happened: . During the initiation rite, members of the Klan group, which calls itself the Sons of Dixie, shaved Lynch's head. After 24 hours of drills, including chanting and running with torches, she asked to be taken to town. An argument began and the group's leader, Chuck Foster, allegedly pushed her to the ground and shot her to death without warning. Lynch wanted to leave the campsite because she was homesick, investigators concluded after talking to Lynch's family in Tulsa. Watch how an initiation rite went wrong \u00bb . Strain told CNN that Foster used a knife to remove the bullet. Other members of the Sons of Dixie helped cover up the slaying for Foster, their leader or \"Grand Lordship,\" Strain added. The attempt to conceal the killing included burning the woman's personal items, Strain said. The new details emerged Thursday as the FBI announced it was assisting local authorities. The FBI's top agent in New Orleans, Louisiana, said the agency usually doesn't monitor specific groups, but will look into whether any federal laws were violated. \"The FBI is working closely with local law enforcement authorities investigating this recent incident,\" said Special Agent in Charge David W. Welker. He added that the FBI would \"aggressively investigate\" any leads and urged anyone with information to call the FBI at 504-816-3000 . Sheriff's investigators said they received the intitial tip about the killing from a convenience store clerk. Two of the group members went into the store and asked the clerk if he knew how to get bloodstains out of their clothes, Strain said. The clerk told them no, and called the sheriff after they left. Officials tracked down those two members and arrested them. Authorities established telephone contact with other members of the group who were still at the campsite and let them know law enforcement officials were on their way. They surrendered without incident. Foster was elsewhere in the woods, but he also surrendered, the sheriff said. Watch report on Klan initiation gone awry \u00bb . The woman's body was found under loose brush along a road several miles from the campsite. At the campsite, investigators found Confederate flags, KKK banners, five Klan robes and an Imperial Wizard robe. Foster, 44, is charged with second-degree murder. He remained Thursday at the St. Tammany Parish jail with no bail set, authorities said. Seven other suspects also remained in jail Thursday, charged with obstruction of justice. Bail for each was set at $500,000. On Wednesday, sheriff's investigators searched a house Foster had rented for the past five years in Bogalusa. They found Klan paraphernalia, documents and computer files. Among the seized documents were membership applications, titles and a chain of command for group members . \"We recovered various documents out of that home that are giving us an indication of the organizational structure and the organizational guidelines of the group,\" Bonnett said. Fred Oswold, chief of criminal investigations for the sheriff's office, said the Sons of Dixie Klan group is small and that most of its members already had been arrested. \"So far we have learned that they were a small group, but they were fairly organized,\" said Oswold, who said his agency is working with the FBI to learn more about the group. CNN's Katie Ross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Louisiana Klan group called itself the \"Sons of Dixie\"\nFBI says it is working with local police .\nChuck Foster, 44, charged with second-degree murder in death of Cynthia Lynch .\nOthers involved in initiation are accused of trying to conceal the killing .","id":"c47b16947c5f69343619ce851a079668116f5835"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Suleman Ali cashed out just in time. Suleman Ali sold Esgut, his portfolio of Facebook applications, for seven figures in April. The 26-year-old, a former Microsoft employee who helped put together the Windows Home Server product, founded a company called Esgut within months of the debut of Facebook's developer platform in May 2007. Esgut is a portfolio of Facebook applications, and a few of them, like Superlatives and Entourage, became genuine viral hits. In April, Ali sold the 12-employee Esgut to the Social Gaming Network, a Silicon Valley company backed by the likes of Bezos Expeditions, the Founders Fund, and Greylock Partners. He said the price was in the seven figures. But Ali is the first to acknowledge that for upstart social-platform developers, hailed just months ago as the Valley's hottest breed of bright young things, the condition has taken a significant turn for the worse. \"Most people are not counting on anything,\" the lanky and bespectacled Ali said over lunch at an organic restaurant near New York's Union Square in early December. \"They're just operating from day to day.\" When Facebook's developer platform launched, the social network's traffic began to really skyrocket. What had started as a no-frills networking site for students at elite universities became a Silicon Valley buzz factory with legitimate geek credentials. And however gimmicky many of the most popular Facebook Platform apps were, millions of people decided they now had a reason to join the site. The floodgates had opened. Facebook was a phenomenon. When other social networks such as MySpace, Friendster, and Hi5 also paraded out developer platforms, the tech world took it as evidence that there was a big future in building platform applications. More importantly for developers and ambitious tech entrepreneurs, it looked like there could be gobs of money in it; the open, anyone-can-play attitude created the notion that there was enough for everyone. \"The social platform (on Facebook) actually launched the last day that I was at Microsoft...I was quitting without any idea of what I was going to do,\" Ali recalled. His aims for leaving Redmond were starry-eyed. \"I left because I wanted to do a start-up. I wanted to see what I could do out there on my own. And I wanted to care deeply about what I was working on.\" But he had no concrete plans to go the Facebook route initially, he said. \"I ended up in my parents' house in Florida and was kind of bored, and started building Facebook apps just out of restlessness and the desire to do something.\" Then, Ali continued, he went to the Graphing Social Patterns West conference in San Diego in March and met Social Gaming Network founder Shervin Pishevar. At the time, he was looking to raise venture funding but hadn't thought about selling his apps. \"We talked for 30 minutes and he was like, 'You sound like the exact type of people we want at SGN.'\" Ali sold Esgut to Pishevar's company the next month. Widgets buzz turns into hush . Ali got lucky. Even before the reality of the recession set in, the social-platform craze was subsiding. The venture capital buzz about widgets began to quiet over the summer. Some of the sillier novelty apps wore off in popularity. Companies that were snapping up small apps and raising huge amounts of venture capital, like Slide and RockYou, grew intimidatingly bigger--but the glut of independent apps made it more difficult to grab the attention of potential buyers. And after new restrictions, a redesign, and then the social network's focus on expanding through its Facebook Connect log-in service, it became evident that a social-network platform is still a new phenomenon that can change dramatically, and not always to the benefit of little start-ups. \"There's definitely a lot of tightening up,\" Ali said. \"There's a few people that I know that have apps that are relatively small, and they're selling them for valuations lower than what they could've sold them for a month ago, and there are just no buyers in the marketplace. I think they're going to have a hard time selling, period--forget trying to sell at a lower valuation. They're just having a hard time getting rid of them.\" So would he still be able to sell his company as easily now? \"No, probably not,\" Ali admitted. \"If we were the same company we were then, it would be much harder to sell today. I think we would've had to evolve as a company. I think we would need to be generating more revenue than we were.\" But for all his concern about the fate of social-platform developers in a recession, Ali is still strikingly bullish on Facebook--enough so that his newest project is a fund for Facebook stock. He started purchasing it in November, he said, and is meeting with investors in the hopes of purchasing more. He added with surprising gusto that Facebook's decision to delay direct cash-outs hasn't derailed his plan. \"I think that's actually good news for us,\" Ali said. \"I think that means that the price that we pay will actually go down because there are all these employees who intended to sell stock back to Facebook, and now they're not going to be able to sell it to Facebook, (so) they'll have to sell it somewhere else.\" He hopes to keep the stock until Facebook files for an initial public offering, and he still thinks that's on track, too. \"I think it's going to be a function of the economy and when the markets open back up for an IPO,\" he said, and cited target dates that had been provided in interviews by Facebook investor and board member Jim Breyer. \"From a Facebook perspective, I think it'll be ready to IPO in 2011.\" Many critics would say that's wishful thinking, and that the company will sell--to existing investor Microsoft, maybe--for much lower than its $15 billion preferred-stock valuation. But Ali got lucky on Facebook once already, and even in a recession he hasn't given up hope that it could happen again. \u00a9 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Suleman Ali sold Esgut, his tech startup, for seven figures in April .\nEsgut is a portfolio of Facebook applications; a few of them became big viral hits .\nSuleman \"started building Facebook apps just out of restlessness\"\nHe sold his company just before the social-platform craze subsided .","id":"1fe89a8e5acfe9855a02b5c6dcf0bf9c1e7369e4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite Patricia Blagojevich's myriad charitable endeavors, she is now thought of as the goading voice in the background of a November phone call taped by the FBI. Illinois first lady Patricia Blagojevich was born into a political family. \"Hold up that f---ing Cubs s---. F--- them,\" she allegedly said as her husband, Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, bandied about a scheme to withhold state funds from the Cubs' parent Tribune Company unless the owner agreed to fire certain Chicago Tribune employees. Seven days later, according to the affidavit, she took part in a meeting about whether President-elect Barack Obama would secure a lucrative job for her if her husband appointed Obama's preferred candidate to his vacant Senate seat. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has said Patricia Blagojevich is not the target of the investigation of the governor's alleged attempts to sell Obama's Senate seat, pressure the Chicago Tribune and threaten to withdraw funding from a children's hospital. Watch what prosecutors say was the first lady's role in alleged scandal \u00bb . A glance at her profile on the governor's Web site details a list of philanthropic endeavors, including awareness campaigns for breast cancer, heart disease and food allergies. She also has championed children's health care and literacy, and has parlayed her love for gardening into the State Beautification Initiative. \"As first lady, she works hard to promote initiatives that will help the families of Illinois bring up happy, healthy and successful children,\" her biography says. Blagojevich and her family have been part of the Chicago machine for decades. The 43-year-old mother of two is the oldest daughter of Margaret Mell and longtime Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, whose district includes part of Chicago's Northwest Side, where Rod Blagojevich was raised. Patricia Blagojevich has two siblings, Rich Mell Jr. and Deborah Mell, a gay rights activist and incoming state representative who was arrested in March 2004 while protesting Cook County, Illinois,' refusal to grant her a same-sex marriage license. Deborah Mell had said she would run for the seat of U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel after Obama tapped him as his chief of staff, but she later withdrew from consideration. Richard Mell is a well-known Chicago power player who has served on the City Council since 1975. Rod Blagojevich met his future wife in 1988, at one of the alderman's fundraisers. The couple married in 1990, and Mell put his political weight behind Rod Blagojevich, who quickly ascended the political ranks. Mell has long been credited as choreographer of that rise, which took Rod Blagojevich from the Cook County state's attorney office to the Illinois General Assembly (1992) to the U.S. House of Representatives (1997) to the governor's office (2003). Rod and Patricia Blagojevich did not move into the governor's mansion in Springfield, opting instead to live 200 miles north in Chicago's upscale Ravenswood Manor neighborhood. There, they live with their daughters -- Amy, 10, and Annie, 4. After Rod Blagojevich was elected to the state's top post, a public feud erupted between the governor and Mell. Tensions reached a flash point in January 2005, when Rod Blagojevich reportedly shut down a Joliet, Illinois, landfill owned by Patricia Blagojevich's second cousin. Mell, in an interview with the Chicago-Sun Times, castigated Rod Blagojevich as someone who \"uses everybody, and when there's no more use, he discards them.\" Mell further said that his daughter was wearing \"blinders\" and didn't realize her husband was a manipulative political animal who would \"throw anyone under the bus.\" Mell also leveled a flurry of allegations against his son-in-law's administration -- most notably that Rod Blagojevich's fundraising chief, Christopher Kelly, \"trades appointments to commissions for checks for $50,000\" to the governor's political fund, the newspaper reported. Asked Wednesday if he would discuss his 2005 allegations, Mell responded via e-mail, \"My main concern right now is for my daughter and grandchildren. I would rather not discuss this sad situation in the public venue at this time.\" Reports vary on whether the family feud was ever laid to rest. Though fences were mended two years ago, after Mell's wife died of a terminal brain disease, the Sun-Times reported the bad feelings later resurfaced. Though Mell did not accuse his daughter of improprieties in his well-publicized rant, Patricia Blagojevich has been the subject of scrutiny over her real estate deals, most notably those involving businessman Antoin Rezko. Rezko, who was convicted in the summer on 16 counts, including fraud, money laundering and abetting bribery, is part of this week's allegations against Rod Blagojevich. Federal authorities allege Rezko is one of the conspirators with whom the governor schemed in what Fitzgerald called \"a corruption crime spree.\" The first lady, a licensed real estate broker and appraiser with an economics degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, has not been charged with wrongdoing. Patricia Blagojevich's ties to Rezko came under fire after the Chicago Tribune in 2005 reported that 25 percent of her income in 2004 -- about $38,000 -- came via deals with Rezko, one of the governor's top fundraisers at the time. Aides to the governor said there was nothing nefarious about the business relationship. In October, the Chicago Tribune reported that the first lady's home-based real estate firm, River Realty, had received about $700,000 in commissions since 2000, when Blagojevich began raising funds for his gubernatorial run. Of those commissions, the paper reported, about three-quarters came from \"state contractors, family and others with political ties.\" Among her associates, the Tribune reported, were William Cellini, a key player in the Rezko trial, and Anita Mahajan, who was charged in 2007 with bilking Illinois out of more than $2 million for drug-screening services her firm never performed. The paper reported that Mahajan's husband, Amrish, was a former Blagojevich fundraiser. Despite the reported income, the federal affidavit outlining the charges against Rod Blagojevich states the governor was bemoaning his family's \"financial stress\" and expressing hope that Obama might help alleviate it. A six-figure salary for serving on a corporate or nonprofit board would help the \"struggling\" family, he allegedly said, noting that Patricia Blagojevich's Series 7 license to sell securities makes her an apt candidate for such work. The affidavit says the governor had harsh words for the president-elect should he not help the Blagojeviches. Calling Obama a \"motherf---er,\" the governor scoffs incredulously at the idea of appointing his preferred candidate without a kickback, the affidavit says. \"For nothing? F--- him,\" he said, according to the affidavit. The next day, the affidavit says, Rod Blagojevich firmly ruled out appointing Obama's preferred successor. \"They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F--- them,\" the affidavit quotes him as saying. CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Patricia Blagojevich is allegedly heard urging her husband to withhold state funds .\nShe comes from a political family; father is Chicago alderman, sister an activist .\nHer real estate deals with fraudster businessman Antoin Rezko have drawn scrutiny .\nHer father once accused husband's administration of selling state appointments .","id":"1f206d9b4d03cd118b2c096d384f139f4808237a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Joran van der Sloot is meeting with investigators Thursday in the Netherlands in response to the recently released videotape in the Natalee Holloway case, his U.S.-based attorney said. Joran van der Sloot awaits transfer from the Netherlands to Aruba in November. He later was released. The exact location of that meeting was not disclosed, but van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, said his client has \"agreed to answer any questions.\" In the video that aired Sunday on Dutch television, van der Sloot, a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Holloway, told a man he was with the Alabama teen on an Aruban beach when she apparently died and that a friend of his with a boat disposed of Holloway's body. Van der Sloot later said the statements were lies, and on Monday, Tacopina said the video contains \"no admission of a crime.\" The lawyer said facts in the case contradict two assertions van der Sloot made in the video, including that the boat-owner friend mentioned wasn't in Aruba in May 2005. Watch how video has brought new interest in case \u00bb . Meanwhile, prosecutors are still awaiting a decision from a three-judge appellate panel on the nearby Caribbean island of Curacao as to whether van der Sloot can be arrested in reaction to the video. The chief prosecutor in Aruba, Hans Mos, was denied an initial attempt to arrest van der Sloot by the investigating judge last Sunday. The judge determined that numerous pretrial detentions of van der Sloot in the past have created a \"high bar\" that current circumstances do not meet. The prosecutor appealed the judge's decision on Tuesday, and the appellate panel will have eight days to respond. Holloway disappeared while visiting Aruba with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, and was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. Mos dropped charges against the three men in December, saying he couldn't be sure of a conviction. E-mail to a friend . CNN Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joran van der Sloot will answer questions about video story, lawyer said .\nVan der Sloot said videotaped story of how woman died was lie .\nHolloway disappeared in 2005 while on graduation trip to Aruba .\nMeet journalist who uncovered van der Sloot tape; tonight, 9 ET, \"Larry King Live\"","id":"29b502b9c891441abf7d331801696959b3d016d3"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Lear jet that crashed on landing last week in Mexico City, killing all aboard, including Mexico's interior minister, may have been felled by the turbulence from a large passenger jet it was following too closely, the nation's transportation secretary said Friday, citing results of a preliminary investigation. The scene of the plane crash in Mexico City was one of panic and confusion, witnesses said. Radar tapes show that the Lear 45 -- carrying three crew members and six passengers from San Luis Potosi -- was flying just 4.15 nautical miles behind a Boeing 767-300 at 6:45 p.m. November 4, Luis Tellez said. The International Civil Aviation Organization calls for a separation of at least 6 nautical miles between a heavy jet like the Boeing and a medium-weight jet like the Lear to ensure that turbulence does not affect the smaller plane's control, Tellez said. The flight controller in Mexico City recognized that the separation was insufficient and, at 6:44 p.m., told the Lear jet to reduce its speed, but \"the Lear jet didn't begin to decelerate significantly until a minute and 12 seconds later,\" Tellez said. \"The transcript of the [cockpit voice recorder] reveals that, in this period, the plane entered a turbulence that surprised the crew members, and the pilot attributed it to the wake of the plane ahead,\" Tellez said. The pilot asked the co-pilot, who had more experience, to take over, but he was unable to regain control, Tellez said. \"We know that the crew recognized the presence of the turbulence provoked by the wake of the plane that preceded it and, immediately after recognizing it, the plane gave a sharp turn and initiated its descent at a pronounced angle that culminated in its impact on the ground,\" he said. The Boeing, which weighs 175 tons, is classified as a heavy plane. The 8-year-old Lear, which weighed 9.5 tons, was classified as a medium-weight plane, though it was on the light end of that scale, Tellez said. \"Therefore, it is more vulnerable than most medium-sized planes to the phenomenon of turbulence,\" he said. Officials said last week that the left engine fell off the plane before it crashed. Lab tests found no traces of alcohol or drugs in either pilot and no evidence of sabotage or explosives, he said. Scrutiny of the wreckage has found no indication that anything was wrong with the plane or its engines, he said. But the investigation did find \"presumed deficiencies\" in the pilot's certification to operate a Lear jet, Tellez said. Audio from the cockpit voice recorder \"shows the lack of familiarity\" of the pilot, Capt. Martin de Jesus Oliva Perez, with the instruments in the cabin, he added. Among the plane's passengers was Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, the nation's second most-powerful official and a confidant of President Felipe Calderon's. The plane crashed in Mexico City traffic and erupted in flames, killing five people on the ground and injuring 14 in addition to killing the nine people aboard. Tellez said the final report, which will take several months to complete, will include studies carried out in a NASA simulator to confirm whether the wake was responsible.","highlights":"Lear jet was too close behind Boeing 767, transportation secretary says .\nPilots were unable to regain control after hitting turbulence .\nInvestigators found no alcohol or drugs in pilots, no explosives or sabotage .\nCrash killed 14 people, including nation's interior secretary .","id":"553186949677e208c4c234bc1d2ea726154fec46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An ancient race that lived 2,700 years ago in the Gobi Desert may have been among the first to use cannabis for medical or religious purposes. Researchers believe an ancient Gushi shaman may have consumed or burned pot for medical or religious purposes. Nearly two pounds of the plant was found stashed in the tomb of a Gushi shaman. It was high in the chemical compounds that provide its psychoactive properties. \"It had evidence of the chemical attributes of cannabis used as a drug,\" said Dr. Ethan Russo, an author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Botany. \"It could have been for pain control. It could have been for other medicinal properties. It could have been used as an aid to divination.\" The Gushi people were a Caucasian race with light hair and blue eyes who likely migrated thousands of years ago from the steppes of Russia to what is now China. A nomadic people, they were accomplished horsemen and archers. Chinese archaeologists excavating a network of 2,500 tombs near the town of Turpan in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region unearthed the shaman's grave, which contained the cannabis, along with a trove of artifacts such as bridles, archery equipment and a rare harp. The shaman is thought to have been about 45 years old when he died. Many of the bodies recovered in the area were found in an incredibly well-preserved, almost mummified condition. The shaman, however, was a skeleton. \"The deceased was laid out on the bottom of this tomb on a little bier,\" Russo said. \"This individual seemed to be very high status because of the variety and quality of the grave goods, including the equestrian equipment, the archery equipment and the large amount of cannabis.\" Russo said no pipe for smoking the cannabis was found in the shaman's tomb. Researchers think he might have eaten the cannabis or possibly put it on a burning fire to create fumes. They don't think it was used to make hemp clothing or rope, as some other early cultures did. Genetic analysis of the plant suggests it was cultivated rather than gathered from the wild. This find is not the first or the oldest example of ancient people using cannabis, but it may be the best studied. \"There may have been older finds of cannabis, but not with this level of scientific investigation attached to them,\" Russo said.","highlights":"About two pounds of potent cannabis found stashed in Gushi shaman's tomb .\nThe Gushi were horsemen and archers who lived 2,700 years ago in the Gobi Desert .\nArchaeologists found shaman among 2,500 tombs of mummies, bridles, rare harp .\nNo pipe in grave, leading researchers to surmise shaman ate or burned cannabis .","id":"61584cc33fdcf488f9dcc0e804ed8cc46779dd86"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A child cries from hunger, but no tears come from her swollen eyes. Zimbabwean clinics have been overwhelmed by the cholera epidemic, according to aid organizations. Malnutrition has left this baby born in Zimbabwe fighting for her life. She is the face of an unfolding crisis in a country once known as Africa's bread basket. Today a loaf of bread costs 35 million worthless Zimbabwean dollars, and people are forced to sift through garbage piles for any morsel of food. Others huddle for warmth around a fire burning inside the shell of a broken-down van. All of these images were captured on video recently smuggled out of Zimbabwe by Solidarity Peace Trust, a South African human rights group. Zimbabwe's government maintains that the situation is being exaggerated by the West in an effort to exert pressure on President Robert Mugabe to leave office. But the World Health Organization (WHO) says the desperate situation has triggered a widening cholera outbreak that has killed 775 people and infected more than 15,000. \"You have to eat in the same place you sleep right next to the buckets, the same buckets that we used as toilets,\" one cholera patient says on the video. \"There is no water to bathe.\" Watch shocking footage of Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis (Discretion advised) \u00bb . And little to eat. Women foraging for food in the bush find dry branches with only a few berries. \"This packet of juice will be my supper tonight,\" one woman says. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- who is still trying to form a unity government with Mugabe under a recent power-sharing deal -- said the situation can only be addressed once a \"legitimate government\" is in place. \"Once there is a legitimate government, it is up to that government to deal with the problems the country is facing, which are quite wide-ranging,\" Tsvangirai told CNN on Wednesday. \"But the immediate intervention of the health crisis has exacerbated the situation to the extent that it has now become an international crisis.\" The WHO says the current cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has a high fatality rate because sufferers are either not able to reach health centers in time or because health centers lack the capacity to treat the cases. View image gallery of Zimbabwe cholera crisis \u00bb . \"The epidemic is clearly on the increase,\" Dr. Eric Laroche, a WHO official in Harare, told CNN on Wednesday. \"I think it's going to last for several months.\" In addition to the WHO, the Red Cross has responded to the outbreak and is sending staff and medical supplies into Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's main hospitals have all but shut down and the small clinics equipped by international aid organizations are overcrowded and unable to cope with the thousands of cholera patients. Health workers inside Zimbabwe believe scores are dying at home. Laroche said the WHO is receiving cooperation from the government, but the health care system is abysmal. \"The quality of the care, the supplies that come inside Zimbabwe, also need to be restored,\" Laroche said. \"So there's a lot of work to do, because the health system is collapsing for the time being.\" One Zimbabwean health care worker, who would not show his face on the video, said he fears the death toll will skyrocket. \"People are dying even at the health institution,\" he said. \"It's beyond control. We are going to witness so many deaths in the coming weeks.\" He expressed frustration that so many people are dying from cholera, a disease that \"is both preventable and curable.\" \"Nobody should die from cholera,\" he said. \"We are quite unfortunate.\" Zimbabwe, already experiencing an economic crisis, was struck with the raging water-borne cholera in August. Health experts say the battle against the disease can only be won if Harare has adequate water-treating chemicals and disposes of refuse properly. Zimbabwe's information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said Tuesday that the country has enough chemicals to purify water and enough money to buy pipes to mend sanitation lines. He maintained that the outbreak is under control, blaming the West for causing the crisis as an excuse for military intervention. International leaders -- including U.S. President George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Kenyan premier Raila Odinga -- have recently called for Mugabe to step down for failing to contain the cholera outbreak. Frustration inside Zimbabwe is building. Last week, doctors and nurses protested over the lack of medical supplies and other resources at the country's hospitals. Labor unions have protested over the deteriorating economy. Even soldiers once shielded from economic hardships by the Mugabe regime went on a rampage last week when they were unable to access wages from the country's banks. Human rights activist Elinor Sisulu, who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe and now coordinates civil action outside the country, called on African leaders to demand Mugabe step down before Zimbabwe explodes. \"In any population where you have high levels of desperation, anger and ... people arrive at the conclusion that we've tried a peaceful political process and this is not working, then anything can happen,\" she said. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse in Johannesburg, South Africa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video images of starving children reveal scale of Zimbabwe's hunger crisis .\nWHO says widening cholera outbreak has killed 775, infected 15,000 .\nZimbabwe's information minister maintains crisis is under control .\nZimbabwe health care workers fear death toll could skyrocket .","id":"3613b2756cad74f9310641445b55eb2f02fe0d5b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Sen. Tom Daschle will be announced Thursday as President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a Democratic source said Wednesday. Former Sen. Tom Daschle, shown with his wife, Linda, says he will write Obama's health care plan. CNN has previously reported that the 61-year-old former Senate majority leader from South Dakota would be Obama's choice, but not the announcement date. In November, Daschle said he was excited about the possibility of serving as point person in Obama's effort to change the nation's health care system. Daschle is on the health care advisory group of Obama's transition team and said he plans to write the health care plan that Obama submits to Congress next year. \"I hope to have the plan enacted by next year, and then it will take several years to implement,\" Daschle said last month. Daschle said reforming health care in the United States must be a priority in the current economic climate. \"We can't afford not to do it,\" he said. \"If we do nothing, we'll be paying twice as much on health care in 10 years as we do today.\" Daschle served as Democratic leader in the Senate from 1995 until he lost a re-election bid in 2004. Representing South Dakota, he was first elected as a congressman in 1978 and served in the House until he was elected to the Senate in 1986. He recently wrote a book on health care titled \"Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.\" In the book, he pushed for universal health care coverage to reach 46 million uninsured Americans by expanding the federal employee health benefits program to include private employer plans together with Medicaid and Medicare. Most Republicans oppose any such plan, saying it would give too much power to the government. They've also questioned Daschle's recent work for a Washington lobbying firm. His wife, Linda Daschle, is a registered lobbyist for a firm that includes health care clients. But a source close to Daschle told CNN that Linda Daschle would be leaving the firm at the end of the year to set up her own company focusing on transportation lobbying in order to clear any potential conflicts of interest. CNN's Candy Crowley and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Sen. Tom Daschle is a health care adviser on Obama's transition team .\nThe former Senate majority leader says he plans to write Obama's health care plan .\nDaschle advocates expanding federal employee health benefits to private employers .\nLinda Daschle, a registered lobbyist, would leave firm to clear potential conflicts .","id":"a6a5ec942516d42da7ae9b843c3d04b023b67575"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former England cricket star Chris Lewis was remanded in custody by a British court Tuesday, charged with attempting to smuggle drugs through an airport. Chris Lewis joined Surrey to play in Twenty20 matches for the 2008 season. The 40-year-old all-rounder, who played 32 Tests and 53 one-day internationals for England in the 1990s, was arrested Monday when border officials at London's Gatwick Airport found cocaine hidden in luggage that had arrived on a flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Four kilograms of cocaine with a street value of around $350,000 was seized by the UK Border Agency, the UK's Press Association said. The drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins, officials said. Lewis and basketball player Chad Kirnon, 26, both from London, were held and questioned by Customs officials and later charged. British Revenue & Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger told PA: \"This was an excellent detection by UK Border Agency officers. \"HMRC, together with UKBA, play a vital role in the fight to prevent illegal drugs from entering the UK and in protecting our communities from the violence and corruption that always accompany this hideous trade.\" The two men made a brief appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court in West Sussex on Tuesday afternoon, where Lewis had a bail application refused, PA reported. They were remanded in custody to appear via video link in court next Wednesday.","highlights":"Four kilos of cocaine worth $350,000 seized at Gatwick Airport .\nOfficials: Drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins in luggage .\nChris Lewis played cricket for England during the 1990s .","id":"0685e2a0188f42b190674934a555f062d9cb4c3e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Meinhardt felt like a clown jammed into a Volkswagen bug when she lived in a 21-square-foot room aboard a circus train. Kate Meinhardt crammed her life into a 21-square-foot room while she lived aboard a circus train. Bungee cords crisscrossed her walls once a week to prevent an avalanche of items from raining down. A microwave, mini refrigerator, her laptop and baskets of personal items lined the dorm-like room. Showering, going to the bathroom and even doing laundry became racing contests on the train, Meinhardt said. The 13 people on board shared one shower, two toilets and one washer and dryer. \"It's a pretty tough life living in such a small space,\" she said. The 23-year-old spent almost a year as an animal handler for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. While most iReporters haven't run off to join the circus, some have traded in their homes for smaller digs. One iReporter even opted for a floating lifestyle, where he could sail away at a moment's notice. iReport.com: Living in tight quarters . Living on a 25-foot boat was only supposed to be temporary, but Jim Smith loved it so much he stayed there for a year. \"I have lived in a 25-foot sailboat, a 28-foot motor home, a 32-foot sailboat and now an 800 square-foot apartment,\" Smith said in his iReport. \"I was happiest with the 25-foot sailboat.\" While docked in Panama City, Florida, Smith kept his expenses to a minimum. The marina slip rent was only $200 and electricity was included in the rent, he said. The boat did not have refrigeration so Smith kept his food inside an insulated ice box. For 79 cents at the discount grocery store, he could buy a 10-pound bag of ice that would last him several days, even during the summer. Air conditioning wasn't a luxury Smith had either, but fans and sea breezes kept him cool. \"Sometimes the less you have, the more you like it,\" he said. The portable lifestyle also charmed a father-son duo who set out on a yearlong European vacation. A camper van took them wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Spencer Pearson and his 15-year-old son, Bryce, bought a 150-square-foot van in Germany for their European excursion. Living out of the van meant \"no reservations, no packing and unpacking of suitcases, no strange beds,\" Pearson said. Modern amenities weren't amiss on the van, which included everything from the Internet and entertainment to a complete bath and kitchen, and there were occasional hotel stays and meals out that made the trip more pleasant. The simple life also enticed Deborah Greant and her husband to trade in their Calgary, Canada, home for an RV. Both she and her husband have neuromuscular problems and needed extra help taking care of their large home. Since moving into a 240-square-foot RV, they can manage the house themselves. \"We didn't want to be owned by our things,\" Greant said. \"We jettisoned pretty much everything except things from former generations.\" While two people living in an RV can be tight, imagine a family of six trying to do the same. Mounting living expenses and a job relocation prompted the Chervenkas to sell their home and move into a 32-foot RV. Two pets came along, too. The Chervenkas weren't forced to do this. Their goal was to become debt-free and save money for their children's college educations. When pilot Tim Chervenka got transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina, the family set up camp in a 32-foot RV. The temporary situation turned into a permanent one. The family said goodbye to paying a first and second mortgage and pricey utilities. They now pay only $500 a month, utilities included. \"It's made such an adjustment in our personal life without the juggling,\" Cindy Chervenka said. \"We have so much more family time. It's a good feeling.\" Cindy Chervenka has some advice for others thinking of a drastic downsizing: \"Step out of your comfort zone and try it. We didn't plan on doing this full-time, but once we discovered it, we thought, 'hey we can do this forever!' Until you step out and try it, you'll think it's not doable.\"","highlights":"iReporters share their experiences of living in a small space .\nKate Meinhardt lived aboard a circus train as an animal handler .\nJim Smith traded in his home for a 25-foot sailboat .\niReport.com: Do you live in a small space?","id":"6229e71abd22f39aa95a06a17eda00da4a420edd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The rapper Common wants to take hip-hop in a new direction, he says, and he has an unsuspecting ally -- President-elect Barack Obama. Common says he was looking for a new sound on his eighth album, \"Universal Mind Control.\" Obama \"is going to change hip-hop for the better,\" predicted the rapper, whose eighth album, \"Universal Mind Control\" (G.O.O.D. Music\/Geffen), hits shelves Tuesday. \"I really do believe we as hip-hop artists pick up what's going on in the world and try to reflect that,\" he told CNN, outlining his belief that mainstream as well as so-called \"conscious\" rappers -- the more socially aware -- will pick up on what he sees as the more optimistic prospects of an Obama presidency. \"I think hip-hop artists will have no choice but to talk about different things and more positive things, and try to bring a brighter side to that because, even before Barack, I think people had been tired of hearing the same thing,\" he said. Likewise, \"Universal Mind Control,\" with its hook-heavy, synthed-out tracks, represents a \"broadening\" of hip-hop's audience -- one that demands evolution rather than hackneyed revamps of old beats, rhythms and rhymes, Common said. Listen to clips from the album and Common's interview with CNN.com \u00bb . Not that Common, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., is altogether removed from the temptations of his hip-hop brethren. He serves as a spokesman for Lincoln Navigator and purports on his new album to \"rebel in YSL,\" a reference to designer Yves Saint Laurent. Money is also a weakness, as Common -- No. 14 on Forbes magazine's 2008 list of richest rappers -- regularly invokes the greenbacks he makes and spends. iReport.com: Talk Grammy Awards and more showbiz with Todd . Still, Common has come at hip-hop from a different angle from many of his colleagues. He was generally considered \"underground\" until he linked up with Kanye West, who produced his albums \"Be\" (2005) and \"Finding Forever\" (2007). Even now, while paying homage at mainstream hip-hop's altar, the Chicago-born lyricist also enters parishes where most rappers wouldn't be seen. He's helped front movements for HIV\/AIDS awareness and vegetarianism, and he's written two children's books emphasizing the importance of self-esteem. Lyrically, violence has never been his thing; soft-drug use has been mentioned but rarely glamorized; he removed homophobic references from his lyrics years ago; and while there have been hints of misogyny and the occasional N-word in his verses, neither has been a staple of his rhymes. \"I've always been conscious, honestly,\" he said. \"I made a choice on this album, 'Universal Mind Control,' to really make some music that was bright, that would be a little more lighthearted, just because of what was going on in the world.\" Read more from the interview . With a few exceptions, his latest lyrics are consummate Common. In his beat poet's cadence, the 36-year-old rhymesmith aggressively courts the ladies, personifies hip-hop, aggrandizes himself and his hometown (lovingly, \"the Chi\"), and respectfully doles out props to hip-hop's forefathers -- most notably to Afrika Bambaataa on the album's title track. Hear the title track \u00bb . The album's sound, however, is atypical, moving -- sometimes jerkily -- from club-banger to anthem to ballad to Top 40. The latter even runs counter to the opening verse of \"Everywhere\": \"No pop, no pop, no pop, no pop\/We gonna do this thing till the sky just drop.\" But the sound is part of \"a whole new sound and a new movement\" in hip-hop, something he explored out of disdain for repetition and predictability, he said. That might explain Kanye West's relative absence on \"Universal Mind Control.\" The Louis Vuitton don appears on only one track, the pop-drenched \"Punch Drunk Love.\" But West has long been credited, even by Common, with bringing his fellow Chicagoan to the mainstream after \"Be\" and \"Finding Forever\" went gold and leapt up the Billboard 200. Of course, it's not all Kanye, said Common. \"I'm a true believer that it all boils down to the music, because Kanye can endorse something, and if people don't like it they ain't gonna get with it -- regardless of whoever endorses it,\" he said. He compared his working relationship with West to the collaboration he enjoyed with The Neptunes' Pharrell Williams on \"Universal Mind Control.\" Williams, whom Common casually likened to Quincy Jones, pushed him lyrically, much like West did, he said. Between Williams and Mr. DJ -- who composed backbeats for some of OutKast's biggest hits -- Common arrived at the evolution he sought, he added. Common also is plotting a change, or at least a detour, in his career path. Though his past cinematic endeavors have been primarily gangster flicks, Common has landed a role in the upcoming \"Terminator Salvation\" and could play Green Lantern in \"Justice League: Mortal\" should the derailed movie get back on track. \"I would truly love to go increasingly in the acting direction,\" he said. \"My goal is to be a movie star. I want to be at Will Smith's level. I want to be co-leading with Leonardo DiCaprio.\" Fear not, Common fans. The aspiring thespian is confident he can pull off both, though hip-hop might ride sidecar to the silver screen. Acting, he said, seems to improve his music. \"I don't take as much time overthinking it. Actually, since 'Be' I've been working on films and each album has been expanding and increasing, so I feel like I would still make music, but it wouldn't be the main gig,\" he said. Selling albums, Common said, is about more than good music, and though he stands proudly by the music he made pre-West, he concedes he didn't do enough to claw his way up from the underground. \"After you make good, quality music, then it's your job to go out there and promote it and to market it and to get it out there to the people. I feel like I wasn't doing that early on,\" he said. \"Now I am, and I feel like I'm growing as a songwriter and working with producers that are very incredible, so I feel all that is contributing to me getting the recognition that I'm getting.\"","highlights":"Barack Obama should inspire a \"more positive\" message in hip-hop, Common says .\nCommon sat down with CNN to discuss \"Universal Mind Control,\" his movie career .\nProducers Pharrell Williams, Kanye West pushed Common lyrically, he says .\nCommon concedes he didn't do enough to promote his music in his early years .","id":"2404916090cce8e9949e22ada3d68b2bf61e43ad"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The conviction of a terrorist doctor in the UK exposes how any section of society can become radicalized, a top police officer said Tuesday. Bilal Abdulla is shown being arrested after the attack at Glasgow Airport. Bilal Abdulla was well-educated and working as a doctor when he carried out his plot to plant car bombs in London -- rather than unemployed or with feelings of being outside or abandoned by society as has been seen before in the UK. Born in southern England, his family moved to Iraq when he was a child. He grew up in the capital during Saddam Hussein's rule and went to the University of Baghdad before returning to Britain to attend Cambridge University. The Cambridge-educated graduate became a doctor working in the National Health Service where the maxim is to treat anyone regardless of the ability to pay. Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, who heads the Counter Terrorism Command, said Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed -- who died from burn injuries after he crashed a jeep into Glasgow International Airport, Scotland -- reveal a new type of terrorist. He told the UK's Press Association: \"These individuals were not on our radar and that in itself is very interesting. When you look at the profile of these individuals they are very different from the terrorists we have dealt with in this country before - being professional people. McDowell added they were probably inspired by al Qaeda in Iraq but developed their plan in Britain without help from abroad. \"I think this was a group that was largely self-motivated, came up with the ideas themselves, tutored themselves through the Internet. I don't think they received significant training elsewhere, which is unusual from what we have had in the past,\" he told PA. Abdulla's motive, prosecutors said, was revenge for the bloodshed in Iraq. Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said: 'There is no longer a conventional approach to terrorism. There are no rules to be broken any more, nothing can be taken for granted.\" Abdulla was found guilty Tuesday of conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause explosions. He will be sentenced to Woolwich Crown Court, London, on Wednesday. The jury rejected his defense that he had planned only to set fire to cars in central London as a way of highlighting the plight of Iraqis.","highlights":"Dr. Bilal Abdulla's professional life is different to radicals seen before in UK .\nAnti terror officer tells PA Abdulla was a self-taught, self-starter .\nAbdulla planned car bomb attacks in June 2007 on targets in Glasgow and London .\nHe was found guilty of conspiracy to murder in June 2007 .","id":"da1a3a3a0ff29af36ae21485ba1197c7949c0a67"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- An engine fell off a Mexican government jet before it crashed, killing the second-highest official in the nation, the Cabinet member in charge of the investigation said Saturday. Firefighters at the scene of the crash Tuesday night in Mexico City. Officials also said they have ruled out the possibility that the crash was caused by a bomb. \"There is no trace of explosives on the plane wreckage or the [crash] site,\" said Luis Tellez, Mexican secretary of communication and transportation. Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, former deputy attorney general Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others onboard were killed in the crash. At least five others on the ground died, and others were reported missing. Officials said 40 people were injured. Camilo Mourino and Santiago Vasconcelos had been instrumental in the war on drugs, leading to widespread speculation among Mexicans that drug lords orchestrated the crash. But Mexican authorities have said there is no indication that foul play was involved. The government Learjet 45 was traveling at 500 kmh (310 mph) when it crashed in central Mexico City as it approached Benito Juarez International Airport. Gilberto Lopez Meyer, Mexico's director of airports and auxiliary services, said the jet's left engine fell off when the plane was traveling between 250 and 300 kmh (150 to 186 mph), according to Mexico's state-run Notimex news agency. An examination of the wreckage indicates that the engines were functioning at high speed, Lopez Meyer said. Tallez said the day after the crash that the Learjet 45 did not explode in the air because when that happens, pieces of the airplane are scattered over a wide area. But the wreckage in this instance was limited to a small area, he said. Tellez also said Wednesday that the pilot did not report an emergency, Notimex said. A recording released Wednesday of what Mexican officials said was dialogue between the pilot and the airport control tower did not appear to have an emergency call from the aircraft. Officials have vowed to make all aspects of the investigation public. Mexican President Felipe Calderon inspected the crash site Saturday, Notimex said.","highlights":"Jet's left engine fell off as plane traveled between 250 and 300 kmh, reports say .\nNo traces of explosives found in wreckage; no foul play suspected, official says .\nInterior minister, former deputy attorney general among those who died Tuesday .\nMexicans had speculated that drug lords were behind crash .","id":"47b278801970ecf6b900a8c21118c89f713aa8a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite acknowledgment from the White House a day earlier that a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians is unlikely before a new U.S. president takes office, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she is confident that ongoing efforts would produce success. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak Thursday. \"Carried to its state of conclusion, it will produce a state of Palestine,\" Rice, referring to negotiations in the wake of last year's U.S. summit on Israel-Palestinian peace in Annapolis, Maryland, said at a joint news conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, West Bank. Rice is on her eighth trip to the region since the Annapolis summit. On Thursday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the Bush administration does not \"think that it's likely that it (a peace agreement) would happen before the end of the year.\" Rice said Friday that she realizes the lack of a peace agreement in the months following the Annapolis summit had caused some concerns that talks had stalled or might fail, but \"it's quite the opposite -- the Annapolis process has laid the foundation for the eventual establishment for the state of Palestine.\" The purpose of her current trip, Rice said, was \"to advance the Annapolis process,\" and while she did not speculate on a timetable for the future of the process or offer specifics on peace talks, she added, \"I've seen them move forward a great deal in the past year.\" Both Israeli and Palestinian officials have expressed doubts about achieving a peace agreement before President Bush leaves office, but until this week U.S. officials had been more optimistic in their public comments. Speaking in Israel on Thursday, Rice blamed part of the inability to secure a deal on recent political changes in Israel, which she noted is \"in the midst of elections.\" With Abbas on Friday, she emphasized that the commitment expressed by Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when they signed an agreement to work toward a peace deal by the end of 2008 is still strong. \"I hope that the tremendous commitment (by both sides) is fully understood,\" Rice said. While Rice did not discuss any impact a new administration in Washington might have on the process, she said, \"The United States really does understand why the Palestinian people want unity.\" Israel in recent months has seen political upheaval. Olmert resigned in September amid allegations of corruption. Kadima Party leader and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave up efforts to form a new coalition government late last month and is seeking to hold early general elections, which could be held in February, Livni's spokesman has said. Olmert will continue to lead as Israel's interim prime minister until a successor assumes power either by forming a coalition in the current Knesset or through general elections. However, it is unclear whether he will be able to strike a deal with the Palestinians before Israel forms its new government. Last month, Rice postponed a trip to a Middle East conference because of the global crisis in financial markets.","highlights":"Ongoing process will result in Palestinian state, Condoleezza Rice says .\nSecretary of State Rice meeting with Middle East leaders .\nRecent political changes in Israel cited as one reason peace deal elusive .\nIsraeli leader has resigned but will stay in office until successor assumes power .","id":"65a7dcda30d744ede721c5869b1fc7e9efc562b3"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- A plane with seven people aboard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday, a French regional government official told CNN. A New Zealand Airbus 320 flying into Auckland from France, from a file picture taken in 2003. The Airbus A320 jet was on a training flight when the crash occurred about 5 p.m. (4 p.m. GMT), said the official at the Maritime Prefecture in Toulon, France. There were no immediate reports of survivors, but rescue efforts involving French navy vessels and a helicopter were launched. Floating debris had been located, the official said. Airbus confirmed the crash in a written statement, saying the jet was owned by Air New Zealand and operated by XL Airways Germany. \"The aircraft was operating a local technical flight from Perpignan, France,\" the company said. The Airbus statement did not say how many people were thought to be on board. See a map of where the flight originated \u00bb . The twin-engine plane involved in the accident had accumulated about 7,000 flying hours, Airbus said. Learn more about the Airbus A320 \u00bb . \"At this time, no further factual information is available,\" Airbus said. \"In line with international convention, Airbus will provide full technical assistance to the authorities of France, who will be responsible for the investigation into the accident. A team of five specialists from Airbus is being dispatched to the site.\" People in a civilian vessel saw the crash take place off the coast near Perpignan, the French government official said. \"The investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant authorities, and it would be inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the cause of the accident,\" the Airbus statement said. \"The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident.\"","highlights":"French official: Airbus A320 Air New Zealand jet crashes off southern French coast .\nRescue efforts launched, no immediate reports of survivors, floating debris found .\nPassenger jet was on a training flight when it crashed at about 4 p.m. GMT .","id":"418320c193f4722eccbc94b84cabc1daed5767b8"} -{"article":"MALE, Maldives (CNN) -- The new president of the Maldives wants to relocate -- his entire country. Much of Male, capital of the Maldives, was flooded following the 2004 tsunami. Mohamed \"Anni\" Nasheed, a former political prisoner, was sworn in Tuesday after he unseated Asia's longest-serving leader in the country's first multi-party elections two weeks ago. He inherits an island nation with several problems. Foremost among them: the very likely possibility that the Maldives will sink under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels. The Maldives is an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-southwest of India. Most of the islands lie just 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) above sea level. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has forecast a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches (18 cm) by the end of the century. The island was badly hit by the December 2004 tsunami, which killed an estimated 273,800 people and left thousands missing across Asia and Africa. In the Maldives itself, at least 82 people were killed and 26 unaccounted for from a population just over 270,000, according to the Maldives Disaster Management Center. Sixty-nine islands were completely flooded and a further 30 islands half flooded. The capital of Male was also flooded, although sea walls protected it from further devastation. The government has calculated that creating a similar barrier around the rest of the country would cost too much. Watch Maldives president vow to save the nation. \u00bb . And so the tourist nation, which has white sandy beaches that lure well-heeled Westerners, wants to set aside some of the $1 billion a year it receives from tourism and spend that money on buying a new homeland. \"We will invest in land,\" Nasheed said. \"We do not want to end up in refugee tents if the worst happens.\" Nasheed's government has said that it has broached the idea with several countries and found them to be \"receptive.\" Lands owned by Sri Lanka and India are possibilities because the countries have similar cultures, cuisine and climate as the Maldives. Australia is also being considered because of the vast unoccupied land it owns. Climate change is not the only challenge the new president will have to tackle, though. Other thorny issues include rising unemployment, corruption and a staggering drug epidemic. By some estimates, one of every three Maldivian youth uses drugs. Maldivians also worry that their tiny secular nation of 370,000 Muslims could fall prey to the reach of Islamic radicals. A bombing in Male, attributed to Islamic extremists, wounded 12 tourists in September 2007. \"We have made many pledges,\" Nasheed said in his inaugural address. \"The citizens gave their majority vote to us to implement these.\" Nasheed said he will work to bring affordable housing and medical care for everyone. Twenty-one percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Nasheed, a 41-year-old one-time journalist, was among the fiercest critics of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who came to power in 1978 and ruled the Maldives for 30 years. He won the six previous elections as the only candidate on the ballot. Nasheed contended that Gayoom ruled with an iron fist, crushing dissent, amassing wealth and stacking his administration with friends and relatives. Gayoom's critics say his government enforced a system of 'apartheid' tourism that banned most Maldivians from nearly 90 luxury resorts. Shortly before election day, an auditors' report said that millions of dollars were improperly accounted for by Gayoom's government. He disputed the findings. Nasheed was arrested several times in the last 15 years and held as a political prisoner. Five candidates challenged Gayoom for the presidency in elections held on October 9. Gayoom said he needed a seventh five-year term to see through the reforms he put in place. But critics said Gayoom instituted democratic reforms -- and legalized political parties -- only after violent protests in 2004 and 2005. Nasheed and Gayoom ended up in a runoff -- with Nasheed winning 54 percent of the votes to Gayoom's 46 percent in the October 28 race. \"No other citizens in the world in modern times have changed a 30-year-old regime so peacefully,\" Nasheed said in address. As the clock struck 12 a.m. Tuesday, Gayoom quietly exited the presidential office. \"I deeply regret any actions on my part ... (that) led to unfair treatment, difficulty or injustice for any Maldivian,\" he said in a farewell speech. \"From anyone who had had to face any such unfair treatment, difficulty or injustice, I sincerely seek forgiveness.\" Maldivians took to the streets in a celebration that carried into the wee hours of the morning. Residents danced to the beats of local bands and feasted on rice and mutton. They decked the cobbled roads of Male with the red-and-green flag of the Maldives and the yellow banner of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party. \"We cannot believe that this is happening. I have spent more than half my life in exile in Sri Lanka,\" said Nasheed's close confidant Mohammed Naseem. Journalist Sumon K. Chakrabarti in Male and CNN's Saeed Ahmed in Atlanta contributed to this report.","highlights":"Newly sworn-in Maldives president vows to buy land to relocate entire nation .\nClimate change-threatened Indian Ocean islands could sink under rising sea levels .\nMaldives is considering land in Sri Lanka, India and Australia .\nIsland was badly hit by tsunami of 2004, with more than 100 people dead or missing .","id":"c811fe856e3c53e8c478e0f2bb0d3935da445ec1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The European Union has launched a fact-finding mission to determine the causes of the August war between Georgia and Russia, an EU spokeswoman said Tuesday. Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss dipomat, will head the investigation into what started the Georgian conflict. The eight-month inquiry will examine the facts of the conflict in regard to international law, humanitarian issues and human rights, said the spokeswoman, who did not give her name because she was not allowed to speak publicly. Investigators will also assess the basis for all accusations made regarding the conflict, the spokeswoman said. Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat and former United Nations special representative for Georgia, will head the mission, the spokeswoman said. The mission began its work Monday and was due to finish July 31, 2009, ending with a report to the EU, the U.N. and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the spokeswoman said. Georgia launched a campaign against South Ossetia, a Russian-backed separatist territory, on August 7. The following day, Russian tanks, troops and armored vehicles poured into South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian territory, Abkhazia, advancing into Georgian cities outside the rebel regions. The two sides blamed each other for starting the conflict and have made accusations of ethnic cleansing. Moscow has since recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent regions.","highlights":"European Union launches mission to determine causes of Georgian conflict .\nHeidi Tagliavini, former U.N. special representative for Georgia, heads probe .\nGeorgia and Russia blame each other for starting the conflict .","id":"088edc3b3f5635f2cad734e5dad71ad946c644d1"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Election tension is boiling over; it seems like everyone from the office blowhard to the person in front of you at the post office is spouting off opinions that make your blood boil. But what happens when the one disagreeing with you shares your bedroom? Here are ten tips to help you make it to November 4 without resorting to the taser gun: . 1. Assess the situation: While one of you might not care that much, the other might be eating, drinking, and sneezing the party line. Acknowledge who feels most strongly, who's just having fun, and whether or not thoughtful discourse is as likely as pigs (with or without lipstick!) flying. 2. Find common ground: Establish that you each are trying to do what you think is best to move this country forward. Maybe you can even agree on an issue or two, and join forces in talking about your mutual passion. (Note: this becomes less effective if you see eye-to-eye only about oatmeal tariffs.) 3. Establish boundaries: Maybe it's no political talk at the table or no ranting email forwards from Aunt Phyllis. You might even agree that you'll freeze discussion if one of you cries for mercy (a \"safe\" word is good for this: who knew that political arguments were so much like S & M?) Either way, ground rules are essential to keep things from getting ugly. 4. R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Now's the time to channel your inner Miss Manners. Offensive taunts, passive-aggressive digs and -- most certainly-- flying fondue pots are all out of the question. 5. Don't overpersonalize: Your beloved is still, for the most part, who he always was. And the vast majority of those qualities have nothing to do with who gets his hanging chad in the voting booth. 6. Drive to distraction: Now is the time to take up cooking together, not to spend all night with Wolf Blitzer. Choose a classic movie over debate analysis and your 80s playlist over talk radio. And don't even think of bringing your guy to that fundraiser! 7. Find your outlet: If it helps you to hang out in partisan chat rooms all day, have at it. Just make sure you know the difference between blowing off steam and getting yourself worked up, or you're liable to be worse off than you started. 8. Keep it out of the bedroom: Say good night without politics-- unless, of course, the conflict adds some spice! But ixnay on the bouffant wig and red glasses.... as well as the Joe Biden undies. 9. Make an election night plan: Whether you'll be at viewing parties in opposite cities or side-by-side with earpieces and laptops, agree in advance whether you'll spend the evening, and morning, together. Avoid the potential pitfall of letting the night unfold spontaneously -- after all, one of you will be stewing while the other is squealing. 10. Do a reality check: For every couple engaged in a playful red-versus-blue showdown, there's another that must acknowledge red flags about opposing world views. Don't minimize what might be a larger problem of philosophical incompatibility-- or it could be a very long four years to come. TM & \u00a9 2008 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"If you're in a mixed political party marriage, this could be a tense time .\nFind common ground or avoid political battles over dinner table .\nDon't hurl taunts or forward political e-mail rants from Aunt Phyllis .\nChoose classic movie over talk radio, perhaps take up cooking class .","id":"2ced9176522d981d3aa243de10728924d2fa674a"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected missile strike from a U.S. Predator drone killed at least four people in a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan region early Saturday. Marchers protest recent U.S. missile strikes on the Pakistani tribal areas. The attack, which occurred in the Mir Ali subdivision in the village of Ali Khel, was one of several to hit the country Saturday. Six people were injured in Saturday's attack, the fourth suspected U.S. strike on Pakistani soil in November. The names of the victims have not been released. It is also not known why the house was targeted. Elsewhere, three people were killed and 11 were injured in an explosion inside a mosque in northwest Pakistan's tribal region, a government official said. The explosion happened just after 4 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), leaving the Hangu district mosque inside Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province in ruins, said Omer Faraz Khan, deputy superintendent of Hangu. He said rescuers were trying to save people trapped under the debris. It was not immediately clear how many people were inside the mosque at the time of the blast. Police were investigating the explosion, which was detonated using a homemade timer, Khan said. Hours later, three bombs exploded about 10 p.m. (noon ET) outside a stadium in Lahore where a music festival was being held, police Inspector Muntzir Kazmi said. A 13-year-old was injured, but it was unknown whether the victim was a boy or girl. This week, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson to lodge a formal protest against another suspected U.S. missile strike on its territory, an act Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called a violation of his nation's sovereignty. Watch Gilani say his country has had enough of U.S. attacks \u00bb . Wednesday's strike in the Bannu region of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province left five dead and seven wounded. That attack was farther inside Pakistani territory than previous attacks. The attack targeted a home outside the tribal areas that U.S. intelligence says have become a haven for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters battling U.S. and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The U.S. government has not acknowledged hitting targets within Pakistan, an ally in the war on al Qaeda launched after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. However, Pakistan's government has repeatedly complained about the strikes. Gilani took to the floor of the parliament and renewed his condemnation of the attacks Thursday but added that he thinks they will be controlled when President-elect Barack Obama takes office. In October, the foreign ministry summoned Patterson to lodge a \"strong\" protest on continuing missile attacks and said they should be stopped immediately. At the time, a missile strike from a suspected U.S. drone on a compound in South Waziristan killed 20 people. Pakistan's government said the attacks cost lives and undermine public support for its counterterrorism efforts. The U.S.-led coalition and NATO, based in Afghanistan, have been seeking a way to effectively battle militants who are launching attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. They have become frustrated with Islamabad over the years, saying it is not being active enough against militants, a claim Pakistan denies. The United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.","highlights":"NEW: Teen killed when three bombs explode outside music festival .\nFour killed after suspected U.S. missile strike fired from drone, official says .\nAttack believed to be fourth in Pakistan since early November .\nMosque bombing leaves at least three people dead in northwest .","id":"af8e17f35f3274492a4da83fc1f5c99ecd5cda5e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army intentionally denied benefits to soldiers suffering from a widespread stress disorder after they returned from service in Iraq and Afghanistan, a veterans advocacy group charges in a suit filed Wednesday. A soldier is welcomed home from Iraq by his son at Fort Stewart, Georgia, earlier this month. The lawsuit, filed by the National Veterans Legal Services Program, accuses the Army of illegally cutting off benefits to thousands of veterans and their families by refusing to assign a proper disability rating to those veterans after they had been discharged with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As a result, the veterans have been denied benefits, including, among other things, lifetime monthly disability payments and free medical care for themselves and their families. \"I experience firsthand the horrors of war\" said Juan Perez, an Iraq veteran and one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit. \"My expectation was that the military would be there for me, and my country would be there for me. Instead, the way I was treated felt more like a slap to the face.\" All disabled veterans are assigned a disability rating from zero to 100 percent. According to the Legal Services Program, a rating of at least 30 percent is required to qualify for benefits such as monthly disability payments and free health care. Soldiers receiving less than a 30 percent rating are entitled only to a one-time lump sum severance payment after being discharged. On October 14, the Defense Department ordered the Army to assign at least a 50 percent rating to all soldiers discharged with PTSD in the future. The lawsuit seeks to provide full benefits to all veterans discharged with PTSD in the past six years. A Rand Corp. study released in April indicated that nearly 20 percent of all military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported symptoms of PTSD or major depression.","highlights":"Soldiers: Army denied them disability rating, so they were denied benefits .\nLawsuit filed by veterans advocacy group on behalf of vets with PTSD .\nIn October, Army ordered all future PTSD sufferers to be eligible for benefits .\nSoldiers want eligibility to go back six years .","id":"8f25d842ee670060b0c08137dbbcd0cc0f412b6d"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A bomb attached to a car carrying an Iraqi army general exploded Saturday afternoon, killing the driver and wounding the general and a bystander, an Interior Ministry official said. U.S. soldiers patrol the streets of Baghdad's central district on Saturday. The official said Gen. Abdul Karim Jabbar was seriously wounded when the bomb went off between al-Firdous Square and al-Andalus Square. The U.S. military refers to bombs attached to civilian vehicles without the driver's knowledge as \"sticky bombs.\" Separately, a civilian was killed and five were wounded in afternoon clashes between gunmen and Iraqi National Police in the al-Shaab neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad, the ministry official said. In the same neighborhood, a roadside bomb exploded at an Iraqi army checkpoint Baghdad, killing a child, the Interior Ministry official said. The blast also wounded four Iraqi soldiers. Also Saturday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and another was wounded when a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad.","highlights":"Bomb attached to vehicle explodes in Baghdad, killing one and injuring two .\nCivilian killed in clash between gunmen and Iraqi National Police in Baghdad .\nChild killed by roadside bomb at Iraqi army checkpoint .","id":"545a6e2afd63930acd466d4023300ee0f99aff87"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush had a \"relaxed\" and \"friendly\" meeting with President-elect Barack Obama after he and first lady Laura Bush welcomed their successors to their future home Monday, a White House spokesman said. President Bush and Laura Bush welcome Barack and Michelle Obama to the White House on Monday. \"The president and the president-elect had a long meeting, described by the president as good, constructive, relaxed and friendly,\" White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. \"The president enjoyed his visit with the president-elect, and he again pledged a smooth transition to the next administration.\" Perino said the two discussed national and international issues but did not provide specifics of the conversation. Bush also gave Obama a tour of the White House's living quarters, including the Lincoln bedroom. Bush and Obama held a private meeting in the Oval Office, while the first lady gave incoming first lady Michelle Obama a tour of the residence. The president and president-elect walked together along the Colonnade by the Rose Garden before entering the Oval Office together. They briefly waved to reporters along the way. Obama and Bush were not expected to speak on camera after their meeting. The two met in the Oval Office for just over an hour. When President George H.W. Bush hosted President-elect Bill Clinton after the 1992 election, the two talked for nearly two hours. Monday's meeting was a historic formality, but it was also a time for serious talks. It marked the first time Obama has visited the Oval Office. Watch Bush welcome Obama to the White House \u00bb . Bush and Obama \"had a broad discussion about the importance of working together throughout the transition of government in light of the nation's many critical economic and security challenges,\" said Stephanie Cutter, spokeswoman for Obama's transition team. \"President-elect Obama thanked President Bush for his commitment to a smooth transition, and for his and first lady Laura Bush's gracious hospitality in welcoming the Obamas to the White House,\" Cutter said. A day earlier, a leader of Obama's transition team said the president and president-elect were expected to discuss \"a broad range of issues,\" focusing on the economy. \"It's clear that we need to stabilize the economy, to deal with the financial meltdown that's now spreading across the rest of the economy. The auto industry is really, really back on its heels,\" transition team leader John Podesta told CNN's \"Late Edition\" on Sunday. Podesta said Obama will push Congress to enact \"at least part\" of an economic package before he takes office in January, but said the problems Americans face need short- and long-term approaches. The president and president-elect also were expected to talk about national security and the war in Iraq. Go inside the Oval Office . Despite the negative tone of the campaign season -- in which Obama frequently campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\" -- Bush has pledged to do everything he can to make sure they have a smooth transition. iReport.com: What's your message for Obama? \"When I called President-elect Obama to congratulate him on his historic victory, I told him that he can count on my complete cooperation as he makes his transition to the White House. Ensuring that this transition is seamless is a top priority for the rest of my time in office,\" Bush said in his radio address this weekend. Podesta said cooperation with Bush administration officials has been \"excellent\" since Tuesday's election. Watch more on the transition to power \u00bb . Obama said he was \"gratified by the invitation\" to meet with the president and his wife. \"I'm sure that, in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there's going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president,\" he said at a news conference Friday. \"I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done,\" he said. Given their drastically different views on foreign policy, Mark Preston, CNN's deputy political editor, predicted an \"uncomfortable meeting at best.\" Watch CNN's Mark Preston talk about the meeting \u00bb . \"Let's not forget that Barack Obama ran against President Bush every day when he was taking on John McCain. While they will be cordial, I bet you it will be uncomfortable,\" Preston said. As the president and president-elect met in the Oval Office, Perino gave Robert Gibbs a tour of the White House press office. Gibbs was the communications director for Obama's presidential campaign. He has not officially been named the incoming press secretary, but he is widely considered the top contender for the position. Cutter said that after Laura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour of the residence, the first lady and her successor discussed raising daughters in the White House. \"Mrs. Obama was honored to finally meet the first lady, who was a gracious hostess,\" Cutter said.","highlights":"NEW: President Bush calls meeting with President-elect Obama \"constructive\"\nLaura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour while president, Obama met .\nBush and president-elect were expected to discuss \"broad range of issues\"\nObama campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\"","id":"1630ca6217ca6123668a4f9738ca323a1c6f620a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Almost 33,000 acres of the Everglades National Park were burning Sunday, fire officials said, the latest in a series of wildfires that have scorched parts of Florida in May. Smoke obscures the flames Sunday in the Everglades National Park. The smoke cast a haze over parts of South Florida, including Miami, prompting a dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service. The fire, which threatened private property as well as an endangered bird, started Friday, the Southern Area InterAgency Management Blue Team said. By Sunday morning it was 20 percent contained, and fire crews were working to restrict it to the park while protecting the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, a federally protected species whose only habitat is in the Everglades. Watch the Everglades fire spread \u00bb . Windy conditions Sunday morning pushed the fire into the corner of the park closest to Miami, fire officials said. About 200 personnel battled the blaze in southern Florida Saturday night, but more crews were expected to join them Sunday. It is the latest wildfire to scorch Florida. More than 12,000 acres burned in the \"Brevard Complex\" fire near Palm Bay, on Florida's Atlantic Coast just south of Daytona Beach. That series of fires is about 75 percent contained and is expected to be fully contained on Tuesday, the National Interagency Fire Center said Sunday. Learn how wildfires spread \u00bb . Last week, Florida authorities charged a suspect, Brian Crowder, with arson in connection with some of the fires in Palm Bay. Watch the suspect's 'perp walk' \u00bb . The Brevard County fires have destroyed about 22 homes and structures, and damaged another 160 homes. Damage totals more than $9 million, officials said. A 19,000-acre fire near Clewiston, Florida, on the south end of Lake Okeechobee, is about 50 percent contained, the fire center said Sunday. And a 1,300-acre fire north of Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle was 80 percent contained by Sunday, it said. Last week, U.S. Navy officials said a Navy jet sparked a 257-acre forest fire in the Ocala National Forest in the north-central part of the state. The jet had missed a target on a practice bombing run, the officials said.","highlights":"Fire threatens the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, which only lives in Everglades .\nDense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service issued for South Florida .\nBrian Crowder, 31, accused of setting several wildfires .","id":"c1532cd462862a6df9e3470fa0bf678fda43308c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: David Craig is a film, television and Web producer, an adjunct professor at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, and a gay rights activist. David Craig says there's growing support for recognition of gay unions and gay marriage. LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- My battle for marriage equality began in 1990, after my partner, Brian Binder, and I had a commitment ceremony. The ceremony was held at the end of a conference for Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays and was attended by more than 300 friends and members of both our families. We were featured in a couple of books on gay marriage because the concept was so new at the time. We also registered as domestic partners and entered into every possible form of legal recognition available at the time. A few years later, Brian was visiting his parents in Nevada to inform them that he was giving up his battle with AIDS. Something went horribly wrong, and he was rushed to the hospital. I flew there immediately. As his caretaker, I knew his medical condition and had been involved in every medical decision. We had shared the joy of making a commitment to one another and the pain and suffering of a horrible disease. But when I arrived, I was told I could not see him because I was not \"family\" and because my legal documents were valid only in California. Even as I heard him calling out my name, they refused to let me see him because we were not married. Brian died in 1992. In 1995, I helped organize the first Freedom to Marry March in Los Angeles. Ten years later, the idea for A Day Without Gays was conceived. iReport.com: Are you taking part in \"A Day Without Gays?\" I was discussing same-sex marriage with Delia Fine, my colleague at the A&E Network. I proposed a gay version of Lysistrata, an ancient Greek satire about Athenian women who withheld sex from their husbands until they agreed to stop going to war. She replied, \"what if gays went on strike instead?\" and the idea was born. We convinced A&E to produce a movie based on the idea, which became a romantic comedy called \"Wedding Wars\" that aired on the network in 2006. Critics compared the film to \"A Day Without a Mexican,\" which led to the one-day protest by the Latino community called A Day Without Immigrants. In the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage, I posted the event on Facebook. My fellow organizer, Steve Holzer, inspired by the Latino protests, suggested we call it A Day Without Gays. We soon discovered that other organizers had conceived of the same idea simultaneously, and we all agreed to schedule the protest for December 10, which is International Human Rights Day. A week later, Join The Impact, the group that organized City Hall rallies nationwide November 14, joined forces with us. Our goal is to raise awareness that marriage is a \"basic human right\" as declared by the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia, the case that ended race-based restrictions on marriage. We believe that to deny gays and lesbians that right, and the 1,400 state and federal legal and economic benefits of marriage, is discrimination and in violation of the 14th Amendment. We are asking people who support us to \"call in gay\" to their workplace by taking the day off or to shut down their businesses. Our goal is to raise awareness that we are gay and lesbian Americans who work, own businesses, pay our taxes and support the economy to the tune of $712 billion a year, according to an analysis by Witeck-Combs Communications, a public relations agency that specializes in the gay and lesbian consumer market. This is a declaration that we take our rights seriously and demand full equality. Our Facebook site has had a million visitors, and more than 225,000 people indicate that they will or might participate. There are also more than 17,000 postings from participants who have taken the time to debate, support and\/or deride these issues. There is still much to do. Thirty states have passed bans on same-sex marriage. Thirty states allow employers to fire someone based on sexual orientation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Some states have instituted or are considering bans that directly or indirectly prevent gays and lesbians from adopting or fostering children. In addition, the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act by Congress in 1996 denies civil unions what Barack Obama's campaign described as the more than 1,100 benefits of marriage including immigration, taxation, Social Security and veteran's benefits. A recent Newsweek poll reflects that, for the first time, a majority of Americans now believe that gay and lesbian couples deserve recognition, with 55 percent supporting legally sanctioned unions. It found increased backing for inheritance and other rights and found that 39 percent favor gay marriage. The tide is clearly turning in our favor, and I believe that love, equality and support for all families will triumph. In the words of Tony Kushner, \"We will be citizens. The time has come.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Craig.","highlights":"David Craig: I've been battling for marriage equality for gays since 1990 .\nHe says civil unions don't provide same level of rights and benefits as marriage .\nCraig is part of a group organizing \"day without gays\" protest for December 10 .\nCraig: Poll shows growing support for gay unions and for gay marriage .","id":"6071da750a92d9770884be1f82333f4320f2653d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A biker who posted videos of himself on YouTube performing stunts and speeding at up to 210 kph (130 mph) has been jailed after inadvertently confessing his misdemeanors to police. Sandor Ferenci posted video of himself online performing high-speed stunts. Sandor Ferenci, 28, was approached by police after a motorist saw him speeding on his powerful motorcycle and noted his registration number. When they called at his house in Oxfordshire, England, he unwittingly asked if they had seen his YouTube video -- prompting officers to search the Internet, where they found uploaded video of his hazardous riding. Ferenci was Monday sentenced to 12 weeks' jail after admitted two counts of dangerous driving at Oxford Crown Court. Judge Terence Maher told Ferenci that he had carried out \"lunatic and grossly irresponsible maneuvers at considerable speed,\" according to CNN affiliate ITN. Ferenci's video footage, filmed by a friend from various angles including a footbridge, was shown to the court. In it the biker is seen performing wheelies, tire-smoking wheelspins and skids on his Yamaha R6 road bike as well as high speed undertaking maneuvers. Prosecutor Brian Payne said it was impossible to gauge Ferenci's exact speed in the video, but police estimated he was driving up to 210 kph, ITN reported.","highlights":"Biker jailed for 12 weeks after posting YouTube stunts video .\nPolice estimates put his speed at up to 210 kph (130 mph)\nFerenci admitted two counts of dangerous driving .","id":"1e2e597f0b417b2bc1c5dac6aec33ba4059962e3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI agents temporarily deployed to Iraq received an average of about $45,000 in excessive overtime because they billed the government for 16 hours a day throughout their 90-day assignments, according to a Justice Department audit. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine released the audit on Thursday. The audit, released Thursday by Inspector General Glenn Fine, found the agents routinely submitted the overtime with the blessing of their managers from 2003 through 2007. The report says the excessive overtime totaled $7.8 million. \"The FBI inappropriately permitted employees to regularly claim overtime for activities that are not compensable as work, such as time spent eating meals, exercising more than 3 hours per week, and socializing,\" the report said. The socializing included going to movies and cocktail parties. The FBI promptly responded to the report, acknowledging the overtime policy was designed to encourage FBI employees to volunteer for Iraq duty, but should not have been used and has now been corrected. The 88-page report documenting the overtime issues found the FBI had initially approved the policy of paying for 16-hour days because conditions were harsh, there were few recreational opportunities and employees were always \"on call.\" But the audit said that violates federal pay guidelines. The FBI admitted that \"a flawed system was allowed to develop and remain in place too long,\" but it also sought to explain how the practice started. \"Early in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq FBI managers traveled to those war zones and saw first hand the challenges of a 24\/7 threat environment. FBI employees lived with sniper attacks, mortar fire, and roadside bombs as part of their daily work environment. They attempted to adapt a long established domestic pay system for domestic law enforcement to unprecedented wartime assignments for FBI personnel.\" FBI agents in Iraq perform a variety of duties, according to the bureau's Web site. Agents interview suspected terrorists captured by the military; gather intelligence; collect evidence from crime scenes like car bombs or mass graves; and investigate crimes committed by Americans against Iraqis, as well as those that Iraqis commit against their fellow citizens. The inspector general's report said overtime pay was less excessive for FBI personnel in Afghanistan. The report also found that somewhat less excessive overtime was paid to agents from other Justice Department agencies who were sent to Iraq, including deputy marshals, and ATF and DEA agents.","highlights":"FBI agents in Iraq each received an average of $45,000 in excessive overtime .\nAudit finds agents submitted overtime with managers' blessing .\nFBI acknowledges error but says policy was to encourage voluntary sign-ups .","id":"0f92fbb574360f8c01cf81450af9f93af1429f02"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN.com asked its users what they would do if they had all the money they needed. What would they do in retirement? Or would they retire? Several CNN.com users said they would buy a motorhome and travel around the United States to NASCAR events. We received more than 1,400 replies. Some people wanted to volunteer in other countries, some wanted to find new hobbies, some just wanted to relax for a change. Here are some of the edited responses that users around the world sent in. Reza Rohani of Tehran, Iran I would develop an NGO for popularization of science in Iran and some Central Asian countries. I would establish a publication house solely for the mentioned purpose and travel around the world to become more acquainted with different cultures and produce information packages and audio-visual documentaries to bring about a better understanding to people in different countries. E. Noonan of Natick, Massachusetts Oh, if I didn't have to work, I would spend my time on my dream of acting. Slogging around New York trying to get auditions, get into stage plays, get an agent -- all that sounds wonderful, as long as there is enough money to live on. Voice-over work and straight plays ... I would be in heaven. Frank Morganti of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida I'd continue my work as a general contractor as my new hobby and wouldn't worry about money. Eric Scheffer of Bangkok, Thailand Retirees and financially independant people can still be of great use to society and communities. There is, for example, still a lot of poverty in Asia and Africa. Living costs are low, and retirees can live comfortably in Asia or Africa while participating in community work. One can, for example, teach simple things in the villages: hygiene, healthy cooking, etc. They can also give aid and simple loving care to small children. I would like to encourage retirees and financially independant people to become actively involved in such countries, and make a difference. There is no need for us or any healthy retiree to sit around and wait for death. The world needs us. Mandy Sickler of Marion, Indiana I'd finish my last year in college as a social work major and I would pay off all my college loans. Then I wish I had the means to load up a huge plane full of food, water and clothing\/shoes to take to underprivileged countries and teach the people how to use the food I brought them. I would bring over educators to teach the people in these places about how to maintain their health. If I could, I would provide every child with the correct physical checkups and immunization shots. But this would be way out of reach for me to do; so if I didn't have to work, I would join the Peace Corps and work my butt off to help in any way I could. Roger Belanger of Tiverton, Rhode Island I'd be involved somehow in the theatre arts. My mid-life crisis hit about 10 years ago at 40 and I became involved in amateur theatre. If I were able to \"walk away from it all,\" I would dedicate my life to the performing arts in some fashion. Robert Madden of Parsons, Kansas . Buy a motor home and become a NASCAR fan on the road at a different track every weekend. Cicely Jette of Boston, Massachusetts I would develop the other side of my brain! I'm a research scientist and spend most of my time on data analysis, organization and logic. If I didn't have to work, I would learn to sing opera, how to speak French and Italian fluently, how to act, and I would spend all my free time in museums. That is ... until I overloaded my right brain and was driven back to the lab. Mark Albert of Salmon River, Nova Scotia I would do the same as now: stay home with my kids. I have already decided to leave my job to be able to spend time with my kids in the most valuable time of their lives and mine. My wife works and makes enough for me to be able to do so and I am very grateful! Not enough parents stay home to raise their own kids. It rocks! Valerie Cathell of Dumfries, Virginia If I didn't have to work is tough to contemplate; however, I have fantasized about helping kids who are not able to read or are trapped in war-torn areas with no exposure to education. I am an educator currently, and I work in a small private school where funds are scarce. I understand limitations when there is not enough money. I would love to be able to touch the lives of kids who have no idea what an X-Box is or an iPod. Even in our environment, we have parents paying private tuition, who have the means to provide these \"often taken for granted\" things. But that is what they are: things. I worked with my fifth grade class to create a book for children in Uganda last year. After receiving the book, the liaison\/facilitator of the program, sent our school a DVD of the children in Uganda. We shared this with our students and they were in awe of the way those kids actually lived. It was a life-changing experience and one that inspired me to seek ways to help others more often. Donald LaMarr Sr. of Antioch, California If I didn't have to work I would spend a significant portion of my time on the streets of Oakland, Berkley, and San Francisco, California, approaching and mentoring potential gang members in a different more positive direction. We have more than 1 million young African-American males who are either unemployed or underemployed who need some direction and someone to show them that there is a different way, a better culture than the gang culture. I would help guide them back to our educational institutions. I would help to create hybrid educational institutions for the most incorrigible amongst them. These would not be the gladiator training camps that our youth prisons have become. These would be places where education and cultural development become mandatory and punishment for failing or resisting assimilation would be severe. That's what I would spend most of my time doing if I were retired. Jeffrey Young of McKinney, Texas For every person that needed help, I would stop and offer assistance. From one to the next, like a connect-the-dots on the map of the world just to see how I could band-aid my way across the globe in search of myself while making a difference from the smallest to the greatest challenges thrown at me. I would be a constant part of the solution. If I had nothing to worry about financially well, 90 percent of my problems would go away and then I would have the rest of my life to focus on the things that matter. I would go about developing relationships, experiencing the lives of others all while uplifting spirits of the world one soul at a time. I would breathe life from the Himalayas. Ride the currents in the waters of Costa Rica. Listen to jazz in New Orleans. Dip in the hot springs by Vancouver, British Columbia. Really. There is not enough time for me to talk about everything I would do. Instead, trust in that I would never waste a moment learning life all over again. Debra Ross of Rex, Georgia If I were the recipient of a sudden, legal windfall, I'd immediately quit my job and purchase an RV and travel to every state in America driving at a consistent, aggravating 40 mph. Isn't that what the people do when they travel in those things anyway? Far be it from me to break the rules. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN.com asked users what they would do in life if money were no object .\nMost people said they would do volunteer work .\nSome respondents felt a need to experience new hobbies, interests .\nA few would continue to work, but also use their talents to help those in need .","id":"554d90afd0eac376d5d145f952e69688dd161e0b"} -{"article":"SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (CNN) -- As his fishing boat, Murphy's Law, was tossed about Wednesday in the path of Hurricane Dolly, Steven Murphy hoped to dodge the adage his vessel is named for: \"If anything can go wrong, it will.\" Captain Murphy's Fishing Charters boats sit moored Wednesday at South Padre Island, Texas. Murphy, owner of Captain Murphy's Fishing Charters, was riding out the storm in the 65-foot double-decker boat tethered to a pier at South Padre Island, Texas, just north of Brownsville. \"I don't know if you can hear that wind, but it's really blowing. It's like a tornado,\" he said. \"It's starting to tear it up real good.\" Dolly strengthened into a Category 2 storm Wednesday with 100-mph winds as it lashed the south Texas-Mexico border, sending residents and military personnel scurrying for safety and forcing people on South Padre Island to hunker down to wait it out. Watch Dolly pound South Padre \u00bb . The hurricane was reclassified to a Category 1 at midafternoon, not long after its eye came ashore at South Padre Island. Forecasters said its winds had decreased to about 95 mph. \"It's probably not the best decision to ride it out,\" said Murphy, 41, but he said he felt that he didn't have a lot of choice.iReport.com: Murphy's Law striking Murphy's Law? Only one shipyard in the area can pull a boat such as his out of the water, he said, and there are more boats than there are spaces, \"so you pretty much have to man it.\" See the projected path of the storm \u00bb . The charter company is a family business, and Murphy has been working on boats since he was 9. He said his brother was in a boat anchored next to Murphy's Law. He was alone because his deckhands left. View photos from the storm zone \u00bb . Murphy was accompanied by his girlfriend, Lisa Graves, and the captain of the company's third boat, which had been hauled out of the water. \"When they told us about the hurricane, they said 80 mph max,\" Murphy said. A Category 1 storm has winds of 74 mph to 95 mph; a Category 2 storm has winds between 96 mph to 110 mph. Learn about hurricane mechanics \u00bb . \"It's absolutely outrageous here. The winds are high. ... I can't describe it,\" Graves said. \"In all my life, I've never seen anything like this. iReport.com: See another iReporter's footage from Brownsville, Texas . \"We've had a sailboat that broke off the docks across the way and got caught up on our bows. We had to run out and cut the anchor line.\" Before the storm's eye hit South Padre Island, Murphy said things hadn't been too bad. iReport.com: Tree knocked down by storm . \"If this is it, this isn't all that bad, [but] it probably wasn't the wisest thing,\" he said.","highlights":"Fishing boat operator endures Hurricane Dolly aboard 65-foot vessel .\nBoat moored at South Padre Island, Texas, pier as storm hits .\n\"It's probably not the best decision,\" Captain Steven Murphy admits .\nOne of his company's three charter boats was pulled safely from water .","id":"ec9c63fdace0d6accc446634c5bc5e66a0beb2ed"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A court Thursday rejected an appeal filed by a former administrative law judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million over a missing pair of pants. An unidentified man talks on a cell phone in front of the Chung family's shop, Custom Cleaners. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals \"ruled resoundingly in favor of the Chung family and denied Mr. Roy Pearson's appeal of the case completely,\" said Christopher Manning, an attorney for the Chung family, who own Custom Cleaners. \"The D.C. Court of Appeals held that the trial court correctly ruled that Mr. Pearson's claims had no merit whatsoever,\" he added. The Chungs have \"some level of relief,\" Manning told CNN, \"but they won't count Mr. Pearson out for at least trying to torment them further\" with future appeals. \"We are very happy with the result and thank everyone for supporting us,\" Jin Chung said in a statement issued by Manning. \"The past three years have been very difficult, but we hope this nightmare is finally over.\" Pearson initially sought $67 million from the Chungs, calculating the amount by estimating years of legal violations, adding nearly $2 million in common law claims for fraud. The saga began in May 2005, when Pearson took several pairs of pants to Custom Cleaners for alteration as he prepared to start his new job as an administrative law judge. He alleged that among them was a pair of pants from a blue and maroon suit. When he came to collect his clothing, he said, the Chungs tried to give him a pair of charcoal gray pants that were not his. During a two-day trial, Pearson, who represented himself, said that when he took the pants to the cleaners, his financial situation was precarious: He had just been ordered to pay $12,000 in attorney's fees to his ex-wife, and his credit cards were at their limit. He claimed millions of dollars in attorney fees and millions more in punitive damages for what he called fraudulent advertising under the law. He also claimed that a sign in the store's window promising \"satisfaction guaranteed\" was an unconditional warranty that required the defendants to honor any claim by any customer without limitation. The Chungs' attorney argued that no reasonable person would interpret the signs to mean an unconditional promise of satisfaction. District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff agreed, ruling that Custom Cleaners did not violate the city's Consumer Protection Act. Manning, whose law firm handled the appeal on a pro bono basis for the Chungs, said the Chungs hope the \"vague and often unfair\" act will be changed \"so that others do not suffer like they did.\" In August 2007, the Chungs dropped their bid to recover legal costs in the hopes that Pearson would drop his appeal. Pearson may request that the appeal be heard again by the entire panel of D.C. Court of Appeals judges, Manning said. He also could petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for an appeal. \"It is the Chungs' hope that Mr. Pearson will not attempt to appeal any further and will end his frivolous and baseless attacks on the Chung family,\" Manning wrote in the statement. \"The 3\u00bd years this case has been pending and appealed have been very difficult for the Chungs,\" he said. \"They lost two of their dry cleaning stores and their realization of the American dream.\" He said the family wants to \"quietly return to their one remaining small dry-cleaning store ... to rebuild their lives.\" Pearson was taken off the bench in May 2007 while the lawsuit was pending and was not reappointed as an administrative law judge when his term expired. He filed a federal lawsuit in May 2008 to get his government job back, accusing city government and others of an \"unlawful demotion and subsequent termination.\" That suit remains pending. CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this story.","highlights":"Appeals court rejects appeal of failed $54 million lawsuit over missing pants .\nDry cleaners say they aren't counting plaintiff out .\nEx-administrative judge who filed case could take it to Supreme Court .","id":"0449a49683cf7e85fd8754c758dca89dfdbfb855"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The meter reader who led authorities last week to remains believed to be those of Caylee Anthony called police four months ago, directing them three times to same site, authorities said Thursday. Caylee Anthony, 2, has been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. At a news conference, Capt. Angelo Nieves, an Orange County Sheriff's Department commander, said investigators are looking into whether the tips, called in August 11, 12 and 13, were properly followed up. In one of those phone calls, the meter reader reported seeing a gray bag on the side of the road, Nieves said. On August 13, a deputy responded to the site and did a \"cursory search\" but found nothing, Nieves said. Casey Anthony, 22, faces charges including first-degree murder in the June disappearance of her daughter, Caylee, who was 2 at the time. Remains described as being those of a small child were found last week a half-mile from Casey Anthony's parents' home, in the area where the meter reader first directed police. Nieves said police were getting more information from the tipster and the deputy who responded to the tips. He said the department was investigating the \"thoroughness\" of the deputy's response but would not identify the deputy. The meter reader \"is not a suspect,\" Nieves said. \"He is a credible witness.\" Nieves' latest announcement is raising questions about whether police missed several chances to find remains believed to be Caylee's. The meter reader is not the only one, or the first, to have pointed police toward the site containing the remains. KioMarie Cruz, Casey Anthony's childhood friend, also told police to investigate the same wooded area near Hidden Oaks Elementary School a month before the meter reader, according to CNN affiliate WFTV. In an interview with detectives, according to WFTV, Cruz said that she and Anthony \"pretty much used to hang out there most of our time,\" would \"snack on food for hours\" and went there to \"get away from our parents.\" The sheriff's office followed up on that tip, but the wooded area was covered in floodwaters, preventing a search. Nieves said the water may have been present at the time of the meter reader's tips as well. Nieves also said Thursday that searchers combing the site after the skull's discovery had found \"significant skeletal remains\" consistent with those of a small child on the outer perimeter of the search area. The area will be enlarged, and processing and searching of the site will continue, probably into the weekend, he said. Some of the remains have been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, in an effort to identify them. Authorities have said the remains are believed to be Caylee's, but an identification is pending. Sheriff's spokesman Carlos Padilla said last week that authorities believe the remains are Caylee's for three reasons: No other children have been reported missing in the area; the remains are consistent with those of a child of Caylee's age; and the remains were found near the home of the grandparents, where the 2-year-old and her mother were living just before Caylee disappeared. FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday that he did not know when tests would be complete, but an attorney for Anthony's parents said the FBI is likely to have results \"within the next week.\" Casey Anthony could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said this month that they would not seek the death penalty.","highlights":"Officials say worker who found child's remains called in three tips in August .\nAuthorities looking into whether earlier tips were mishandled .\nCasey Anthony's friend told police to check the area five months ago, WFTV reports .\nSheriff's Department says new skeletal remains found in search area .","id":"b076547af993a2329612d5e4ef06ecf1db4f9b8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former first lady Barbara Bush was moved out of the intensive care unit of a Houston, Texas, hospital into a regular room Thursday after surgery to repair and seal a perforated ulcer, a hospital spokeswoman said. Ex-first lady Barbara Bush has been moved out of ICU and into a regular room. Bush, 83, was in good spirits and was joking with hospital staffers, the Methodist Hospital spokeswoman said. She was being fed intravenously. Her doctor said earlier she will be allowed no food by mouth for about a week, to avoid possibly stretching her abdominal area. The former first lady showed up at Methodist's emergency room Tuesday night complaining of severe abdominal pain, Dr. Patrick Reardon, who performed the surgery, told reporters Wednesday. Doctors determined Bush had a perforated ulcer in her duodenum, the first portion of the small intestine after the stomach, he said. In the operating room, doctors thoroughly cleaned her abdominal cavity of any contaminants that had leaked through the hole, described by the hospital as being one centimeter in diameter. Then, doctors repaired the ulcer and sewed a piece of the fat tissue in the abdomen, on top of it to seal it, Reardon said. Bush's husband, former President George H.W. Bush, was with her Thursday morning, but was leaving to attend Thanksgiving dinner with his son Neil, the Methodist Hospital spokeswoman told CNN. The ulcer was biopsied and is benign, Reardon said Wednesday. He suggested it might have been caused by anti-inflammatory medications. CNN's Sean Callebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Barbara Bush had surgery to repair and seal a perforated ulcer .\nBush, 83, is in good spirits and was joking with hospital staffers .\nFormer first lady being fed intravenously to avoid stretching abdomen .\nThe ulcer has been biopsied and is benign .","id":"a8dc0380db5fd4613bfee0e59690649cb29b6c90"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Investigators will interview crew members and review data and voice recorders to help determine what caused a passenger plane to veer off a Denver International Airport runway and catch fire, an official said Sunday. Injured passengers are taken to a hospital after Saturday's accident at Denver International Airport. All 115 people aboard the Continental Airlines jet escaped Saturday evening, and of the dozens who were taken to hospitals, five were still hospitalized Sunday afternoon, said Robert Sumwalt, a National Transportation Safety Board member leading the investigation team. No deaths were reported. Sumwalt said the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered and appeared to be in good condition, though they were covered in soot from the fire. Both recorders were sent to Washington to be reviewed as early as Sunday night. \"We are here for one reason and one reason only, to find out what happened so we can keep it from happening again,\" Sumwalt said. The flight was bound for Houston, Texas, and was taking off about 6:18 p.m. Saturday when it skidded into a ravine and caught fire. Thirty-eight people were taken to hospitals after the accident, airport officials said Sunday. Officials said one of the five people still hospitalized was in serious condition; no one was reported to be in critical condition. Bone fractures and bruises were the most common complaint, and there appeared to be no burn victims, fire officials said. Investigators will interview crew members, review crew training and evaluate several factors, including the weather at the time of the crash and structure of the plane, Sumwalt said. While officials were on the scene Sunday, evidence collection, documentation and measurements will start Monday. \"We are just now beginning our investigation,\" Sumwalt said, adding that short, cold days will be a challenge for the investigators. At a news conference late Saturday, Patrick Hynes, chief of the airport division of the Denver Fire Department, said crews responding to the scene \"had a difficult time narrowing down exactly where the airplane ended up,\" but found it north of a firehouse. When they arrived, firefighters found the Boeing 737 on fire in a ravine about 200 yards from the runway, with its wheels sheared off and fuel tanks leaking, Hynes said. \"They [firefighters] described a surreal scene when they pulled up, heavy fire on the right side of the aircraft, all chutes deployed from both sides of the aircraft, people evacuating and walking up the hillside towards them,\" he said. Hynes said the entire right side of the jet was in flames and \"a heck of a firefight\" followed. Watch airport official describe scene of accident \u00bb . \"There was significant extension of fire into the cabin portion,\" he said. \"There's significant fire damage inside with the luggage compartment described as melting and dropping down into the seats.\" Hynes said fuel from the aircraft leaked for several hours after the accident. Continental issued a statement saying it was collecting information about the accident. The 115 people on board included five crew members. The airport originally said 112 people were on board, but raised that to 115 on Sunday, saying officials had not counted some children who were not ticketed. Planes resumed takeoffs and landings at the airport after the incident, although Day said a section of the airport will remain closed into Sunday. She suggested passengers call ahead for Sunday departure times, because many flights may be delayed. Passenger Gabriel Trejos described a scene of panic as the plane skidded off the runway while trying to take off. \"Some people were trying to get luggage from the top, [and] the engine was on fire, so I was worried about getting out of there,\" Trejos said Sunday. \"And then we had another guy yelling, 'Oh, the plane's going to blow up! The plane's going to explode!' \" CNN's Susan Roesgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder recovered .\nFive passengers still hospitalized after jet incident .\nContinental jet veers off runway while attempting to take off from Denver airport .\nJet caught fire, skidded into ravine 200 yards from runway .","id":"87daa82e22bc80f7461edb4f8914aac6fdea1788"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iraq's smaller religious groups have been facing \"ongoing severe abuses,\" and the situation requires a response from the United States, a religious freedom watchdog said Tuesday. In late November, members of a Christian Iraqi family sit in a home in Lebanon after fleeing violence in Mosul. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a report citing \"threats and intimidation\" against Chaldo-Assyrians and other Christians, Sabean-Mandaeans and Yazidis. The commission wants the U.S. State Department to designate Iraq as a \"country of particular concern\" -- a status that would allow policy responses, including public condemnations, the denial of state visits, and even sanctions. Spokeswoman Judith Ingram said such a designation would draw attention to the abuses and \"encourage a robust policy response.\" There has been \"reconciliation\" between Iraq's dominant Shiite and Sunni religious groups, but tensions continue to reverberate and that's a concern, the commission said. But the smaller groups don't have \"militia or tribal structures to protect them\" and they \"do not receive adequate official protection.\" \"Iraq's non-Muslim religious minorities -- particularly Christians, Mandaeans and Yazidis -- have suffered religiously-based attacks and other abuses, and have fled the country, at rates far disproportionate to their numbers, seriously threatening these communities' continued existence in Iraq,\" the report said. \"Lacking militias, and in the case of the Mandaeans unable to defend themselves for religious reasons, they are easy prey for extremists and criminals, and they do not receive adequate protection from the authorities. As in earlier years, they also are caught in the middle of a Kurdish-Arab struggle for control of disputed northern areas where the minorities are concentrated and have been targeted because of this.\" Examples include Christian protest over provincial election legislation and anti-Christian violence in Mosul this autumn and election intimidation of non-Muslims in Nineveh province in 2005. The Iraqi Constitution also \"gives Islam a preferred status, providing a potential justification for abuses and discrimination against non-Muslims.\" The commission is recommending that the incoming Obama administration ensure \"safe and fair provincial elections\" and \"security and safety for all Iraqis.\" It calls for making prevention of religious abuse a \"high priority\" and urging the Kurdish region to support \"minority rights.\" It also urges addressing the displaced persons' and refugee problem. CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Religious freedom watchdog group urges protection of Iraq's minority religions .\nSituation severe enough to merit response from United States, group says .\nSmaller groups don't have militias or tribal structures to protect them .\nIncoming U.S. administration urged to ensure \"safety for all Iraqis\"","id":"703f0b3d5dc51620c9f2a465296e2e905223ba14"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Snowstorms and icy conditions on Sunday delayed flights across the northern United States, caused havoc on roads and left thousands without electricity. A worker shovels snow as the storm hits Chicago, Illinois. At least one death has been attributed to storms that hit all over the country in the past week. A 44-year-old Massachusetts man died Friday when a tree limb weighed down by snow fell on him, authorities said. Forecasters say there's more cold weather to come. Authorities urged motorists in north-central and northeast Iowa to stay off roads because of poor visibility caused by blowing snow. Authorities prohibited tow trucks from operating on U.S. Highway 20, near the border with Minnesota, because of concerns the tow trucks would get stuck. Forecasters said wind chills of 20 below and 30 below zero were possible in much of the rest of the Midwest, prompting wind chill advisories and warnings for the region into Monday morning. Blizzard warnings also were expected to be in effect into Monday for parts of Maine and western parts of Michigan's lower peninsula. In much of Maine, between 10 and 18 inches of snow was expected to fall Sunday and Monday, the weather service said. Whiteout conditions were expected at night, with wind gusts of up to 45 mph, the weather service said. The Minnesota Department of Transportation ordered snowplow drivers off the road until Sunday morning in 13 southwest counties, because of poor visibility, blowing snow and wind gusts up to 40 mph, an agency spokeswoman said Saturday. The western U.S. has also been hit with the cold blast. Parts of Washington saw 2 to 3 feet of snow last week. On Friday, two buses carrying 80 people collided on a road in Seattle and crashed through a metal railing, where they hung over a freeway for several hours before two trucks rescued them. Many roads in Walla Walla, Washington, had yet to be plowed by Saturday, and the only practical way to drive on them was to have chains on tires, iReporter Aaron Cloward said. Watch how driving has been difficult in Walla Walla \u00bb . Cloward, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, said he had \"never seen roads this bad or snow this bad.\" He also said he's been unable to free his car. \"Everything is sold out -- snow shovels, ice melt, salt, chains ... so I don't know how to get out,\" he said. The storm system is expected to move eastward, where people are already dealing with air traffic delays and power outages brought on by snowfall earlier this week. \"This is essentially the reincarnation of the same storm that brought the heavy snow to parts of California, southern Nevada and northern Arizona,\" Steve Corfidi, lead forecaster with the weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, told CNNRadio.","highlights":"Authorities urge motorists in north-central and northeast Iowa stay off roads .\nNational Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for parts of Maine, Michigan .\nAt least one death has been attributed to storms, authorities say .","id":"bbbb7008e9db2882064e6e3639f7f33f7918cd19"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombia will freeze prices for gasoline and other petrofuels through March, the government has announced. Hernan Martinez Torres, in a photo from September, says gas prices will be frozen in Colombia through March. The freeze takes effect Thursday and sets prices at December levels, the minister of mines and energy said Monday. The measure will be funded through a $170 million Fund for the Stabilization of Prices for Combustibles, which goes into effect January 1, a release on the Colombian president's Web site says. \"All this is being done to give consumers a clear signal of stability,\" Minister of Mines and Energy Hernan Martinez Torres is quoted as saying in El Pais newspaper. Gas prices also will not decrease, although there has been a significant drop in crude oil prices in the past few months, Martinez said. The price freeze pertains to gasoline, biogasoline (oxygenated gasoline), a product called ACPM (combustible oil for motors), and the mix of ACPM and biodiesel. For the time being, El Pais said, only propane will see a decrease in price, with the price going down 25 percent. It's the second price drop for propane, which decreased 10 percent in November.","highlights":"Price freeze on gas, other fuels takes effect Thursday, runs through March .\nFreeze is to give consumers \"a signal of stability,\" energy minister tells newspaper .\nGas prices can't rise or fall under the freeze, Hernan Martinez Torres says .\nPrice freeze doesn't affect propane; its price is set to drop 25 percent, paper reports .","id":"37bd4ac49bd82023f7ba7ffd9a544d51753b52e7"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A meeting between the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan was canceled Friday when bad weather prevented Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari from traveling to the Afghan capital, Kabul. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari (pictured) has met Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai before. An official in Pakistan's Foreign Office said the meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and top government officials will be rescheduled for the near future. The visit was to have taken place amid ongoing warfare and tension along the Afghan-Pakistan border and was to have focused on the nations cooperating in the fight against terror. Some of the Taliban militants conducting attacks in Afghanistan have been based in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and nearby tribal regions. The group's resurgence has prompted U.S. commanders and the incoming Barack Obama administration to put more of a focus on confronting militants along the volatile border. In the past, Afghan and Pakistani leaders have blamed the other for the security problems in the region. Zardari was to have been accompanied on the trip by the governor of North West Frontier Province, as well as his foreign minister and adviser on internal affairs. The two presidents also planned to discuss the expansion of bilateral relations and trade. Both men have met before, when Karzai visited Pakistan in September to attend Zardari's swearing-in ceremony.","highlights":"Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai .\nVisit to have taken place amid ongoing tension along Afghan-Pakistan border .\nTaliban militants attacking Afghanistan from Pakistan's North West Province .\nBoth countries have previously blamed each other for the security problems .","id":"e0804ec646e04713fb222b2e533a3a730d989642"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- -- Federal officials have fined Exxon Mobil more than $6 million after it violated a three-year-old agreement to decrease air pollution at four of its refineries. Exxon Mobil's refinery in Baytown, Texas, is one of four that the EPA said had high sulfur emissions. The Justice Department announced Wednesday that the oil giant agreed to pay $6.1 million after Environmental Protection Agency officials determined the company had not sufficiently reduced sulfur emissions in its refineries in Baytown and Beaumont, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Torrance, California. Exxon Mobil had paid a $7.7 million fine in its original 2005 agreement with the government and promised to install new emissions controls at the refineries. The petroleum company said after the latest settlement its refineries now meet the required EPA standards on sulfur emissions. The company's role in environmental pollution has been in the spotlight ever since the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the company to pay $507 million in punitive damages from the incident, down from an original $2.5 billion judgment.","highlights":"EPA says company had not sufficiently reduced sulfur emissions at four refineries .\nThe facilities in question are in Texas, Louisiana and California .\nExxon Mobil says refineries now meet EPA standards on sulfur emissions .","id":"a59fd993cb54210aa9448d2bb688a5e04d5acf02"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pentagon officials have begun preparing for the first transfer of power during war since Vietnam. They insist that the complicated transfer from the Bush administration to the Obama administration will go smoothly. The coming transfer of power during wartime will be the first since 1968. President Bush met Thursday with members of his Cabinet, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and urged them to cooperate. \"We're in a struggle against violent extremists determined to attack us, and they would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people,\" Bush said. \"For the next 75 days, all of us must ensure that the next president and his team can hit the ground running.\" Teams in Gates' office and that of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, have been working on the transition for months, according to Pentagon officials. See who Obama may be considering for his Cabinet \u00bb . With ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it will mark the first time a transfer of power has taken place during wartime since 1968, when Lyndon Johnson handed over power to Richard Nixon while the Vietnam War raged. \"We are preparing to make this as smooth a transition as we can,\" Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said this week. Although officials say the transition is in good hands, little is being said about what discussions will occur between the Pentagon teams and President-elect Barack Obama's transition teams when they begin showing up within days or weeks. \"There is a recognition that given that we are a nation at war, that energy and effort [should] be sufficiently placed to ensure that we don't drop any balls, because national security and supporting our fielded forces that are engaged in combat is of paramount importance to this country,\" Whitman said. Robert Rangel, special assistant to Gates and the deputy secretary of defense, is in charge of the transition process in the Pentagon, while Marine Brig. Gen. Frank McKenzie, who reports to Rangel, is leading the effort for the Joint Chiefs. Last month, Gates issued guidelines for the transition, stressing that the department must maintain continuity of operations and ensure efficient and effective transition between the outgoing political leaders and the incoming administration, according to Whitman. The Pentagon has opened offices for Obama's transition staff. The nondescript offices are just down the hall from the secretary of defense's office and have been readied with computers, phones and filing cabinets. The offices remain empty until staff members are designated by Obama's team and cleared through the White House. \"The initial contact point for the Obama transition team will be through the White House, and there will be a discussion on the way forward on the transition, and what will happen out of that will be a memorandum of understanding that says, 'these people will be working with the Defense Department,' so we know who has been sanctioned and designated by the president-elect,\" Whitman said. In his comments Thursday, Bush said, \"ensuring that this transition is as smooth as possible is a priority for the rest of my presidency.\"","highlights":"Transition of power will be the first during wartime since Vietnam .\nPentagon officials say they began transfer preparations weeks ago .\nPresident Bush says terrorists could use this transfer period \"to attack us\"\nSmooth transition of power is a \"priority for the rest of my presidency,\" Bush says .","id":"bcb890f08ba1cab10277fd9b3e7733906d930b18"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Swedish truck and bus maker that assembled trucks in Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era has signed \"an agreement in principle\" with the government to open an assembly plant next year. Swedish truck and bus maker Scania is to reopen a former plant in Iraq. The company, Scania, issued a statement on its Web site confirming the deal to produce 500 trucks ordered by Iraq, with work starting during the third quarter of 2009. The work will be performed in the same Iskandariya factory south of Baghdad where the company's previous operation was housed. The operation comes under the auspices of Iraq's State Company for Automotive Industry. The deal reflects the Iraqi government's efforts to rehabilitate an economy decimated by warfare. \"Scania has the necessary qualifications to satisfy the Iraqi government's desire to begin local production quickly. Assembly of the 500 trucks initially ordered is expected to employ about 500 people. The facility will be designed for the production of 3,000 vehicles per year,\" says Klas Dahlberg, vice president in charge of Scania's sales in the Middle East. The company said Iraq had been one of its largest markets during the 1980s. The Iskandariya factory assembled 3,900 trucks in 1981, Scania said, and many of the trucks assembled there during that era remain in service. The company said a memorandum of understanding signed by both sides specifies that Scania will work with an Iraqi distributor and \"will assume responsibility for installation of production equipment as well as employee training.\" \"In collaboration with our Iraqi distributor, we will also invest in the establishment of a service network in the country. Even today, there is a great need for workshops to take care of vehicles that operate in international traffic to Iraq,\" Dahlberg said.","highlights":"Swedish truck and bus maker Scania is set to return to Iraq .\nCompany assembled trucks there during Saddam Hussein era .\n500 trucks to be made in same factory it had previously used .","id":"dcb3fa19687c4e71c3870a4b6b8f1ee5645e7a9d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The conviction of a terrorist doctor in the UK exposes how any section of society can become radicalized, a top police officer said Tuesday. Bilal Abdulla is shown being arrested after the attack at Glasgow Airport. Bilal Abdulla was well-educated and working as a doctor when he carried out his plot to plant car bombs in London -- rather than unemployed or with feelings of being outside or abandoned by society as has been seen before in the UK. Born in southern England, his family moved to Iraq when he was a child. He grew up in the capital during Saddam Hussein's rule and went to the University of Baghdad before returning to Britain to attend Cambridge University. The Cambridge-educated graduate became a doctor working in the National Health Service where the maxim is to treat anyone regardless of the ability to pay. Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, who heads the Counter Terrorism Command, said Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed -- who died from burn injuries after he crashed a jeep into Glasgow International Airport, Scotland -- reveal a new type of terrorist. He told the UK's Press Association: \"These individuals were not on our radar and that in itself is very interesting. When you look at the profile of these individuals they are very different from the terrorists we have dealt with in this country before - being professional people. McDowell added they were probably inspired by al Qaeda in Iraq but developed their plan in Britain without help from abroad. \"I think this was a group that was largely self-motivated, came up with the ideas themselves, tutored themselves through the Internet. I don't think they received significant training elsewhere, which is unusual from what we have had in the past,\" he told PA. Abdulla's motive, prosecutors said, was revenge for the bloodshed in Iraq. Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said: 'There is no longer a conventional approach to terrorism. There are no rules to be broken any more, nothing can be taken for granted.\" Abdulla was found guilty Tuesday of conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause explosions. He will be sentenced to Woolwich Crown Court, London, on Wednesday. The jury rejected his defense that he had planned only to set fire to cars in central London as a way of highlighting the plight of Iraqis.","highlights":"Dr. Bilal Abdulla's professional life is different to radicals seen before in UK .\nAnti terror officer tells PA Abdulla was a self-taught, self-starter .\nAbdulla planned car bomb attacks in June 2007 on targets in Glasgow and London .\nHe was found guilty of conspiracy to murder in June 2007 .","id":"2e0ac732d40ed9f68bc72fd310f084f4eff77cf9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Growing up in a small Sri Lankan fishing town, cricket changed Sanath Jayasuriya's life. But his association with the game and humanitarian work has also helped transform the lives of many others. Jayasuriya's stature and shot-making led to comparisons with India's Sachin Tendulkar. \"Without cricket I would have a small job in my home town. My mother is happy to say my name,\" he told CNN in Hong Kong. His mother's pride in his success has an extra poignancy as Jayasuriya's fame in some part helped his mother survive the south Asian tsunami on December 26, 2004. She was swept away by the first wave and only by calling out to get attention, saying she was Jayasuriya's mother, did a rescuer manage to spot her among the debris and destruction and pull her to safety. Thousands of others, including many of Jayasuriya's friends and neighbors, were not so fortunate, and the impact that the disaster had on Jayasuriya's hometown of Matara and many other parts of Sri Lanka is still felt today. \"Even now when many people hear the word (tsunami), they are still scared. When my mother hears it, she still can't run,\" he said. After nearly 20 years of international cricket, the 39-year-old is now just as happy to put bowling attacks to the sword as well as working as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. \"Coming from Sri Lanka you need to do a lot of charity work and help in anyway you can. People love cricket and they look to cricketers, so as a team Sri Lanka also does a lot for charity. It's a personal commitment,\" he told CNN. On the pitch he has always been just as committed to helping his team. Making his international Test match debut in 1991, he captained the Sri Lankan team for four years until 2003 and hit memorable centuries against every other Test side, bar the West Indies and New Zealand. He retired from the five-day version of the game in 2007. However it was in the one day game that the all-rounder has really made his mark. As part of the Sri Lankan team that won the World Cup in 1996, he played an explosive innings of aggressive shot-making that has been credited with revolutionizing the way in which batsman play the game. In 2005 he became only the fourth batsman to reach 10,000 runs in one-day matches and his current stats stand at 12785 runs from 421 one-day internationals. Having made his name in the 50-over version of the game he's still involved in cricket's latest revolution; the even shorter Twenty20 game that is being touted as the future of popularizing the sport. \"Cricket has changed all over the world. For the public to watch this game we need for it to change. You can now enjoy all that in around 3 hours (with Twenty20). The Indian Premier League (IPL) is good for cricket and good for cricketers. The one-day game will be phased down.\" Throughout his career he's shown his own resilience adapting to changing circumstances on the cricket pitch as well as off it. Before the 2003 World Cup he took the decision not to sign a contract with the Sri Lankan cricket board, citing the loss of potential earnings it would mean for him and fellow players. Despite not being a confrontational personality, the tension between himself and the Sri Lankan cricket board led to his resignation from the captaincy in 2003. With no Test cricket to play this year, Jayasuriya found himself omitted from the Sri Lanka squad for 2008 series one-day series against the West Indies. However his fine form while playing in the IPL -- he ended its inaugural season as the third highest run scorer with 514 runs and hitting 31 sixes -- convinced the selectors to pick him for the upcoming one-day series between Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. \"Looking back I could never have thought I would have come this far. Buddhism helped me a lot. It says that you should take the middle path and you will never go wrong,\" he said. \"But I've done a lot of hard work and everyone, my family and coaches, have given me support. Without that I wouldn't have got here.\" When he does finally retire you can expect Jayasuriya to keep giving all he can to the game and causes he loves so much.","highlights":"Sri Lankan cricketer recognized as changing the way one-day cricket is played .\nThe first cricketer to be a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador .\nSri Lanka's highest run scorer in Test matches and one-day internationals .","id":"807172e7f1e30a9b2d31cb8fe6fd0d8d24a079ad"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- \"Che\" the movie met Che the myth in Cuba this weekend, and the lengthy biopic of the Argentinean revolutionary won acclaim from among those who know his story best. Actor Benicio Del Toro stars in \"Che,\" which details Che Guevara's role in the 1950s Cuban revolution. The movie was screened Saturday in the Yara movie theater in central Havana as part of the 30th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema. \"Che\" also played Sunday at Havana's Karl Marx Theater. \"Che\" stars Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro in the title role, for which he won a best actor award at this year's Cannes Film Festival. But it's one thing to make a movie about Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara and the Cuban revolution and show it in France, quite another to screen it in Cuba. Speaking to CNN outside the Karl Marx Theater, the bilingual Puerto Rican actor admitted some anxiety. \"This is Cuban history, so there's an audience in there that probably, that could be the biggest critics and the most knowledgeable critics of the historical accuracy of the film,\" Del Toro said. Watch Del Toro talk about the movie in Cuba \u00bb . It appears he needn't have worried. Audiences gave the movie hearty ovations. And Granma, the official mouthpiece of the Cuban government, gave Del Toro a glowing review. \"Del Toro personifies Che in a spectacular manner, not only his physical appearance but also his masterly interpretation,\" the state newspaper said. After the showing, Del Toro characterized the public reaction as \"sensational, a shot of adrenaline,\" Granma said. \"The dream was to make this movie and to bring it here, where it all began.\" The movie has two parts: \"El argentino,\" which portrays Guevara's role in the 1950s Cuban revolution, and \"Guerrilla,\" which shows Guevara's efforts in Africa and Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who also directed Del Toro in the 2000 film \"Traffic,\" for which Del Toro won an Oscar. At 4 hours and 17 minutes, \"Che\" can test viewers' stamina. But that wasn't a problem in Havana. It's a story Cubans know by heart. But this time, it's told by outsiders. Catalina, a history professor who would give only her first name, was a tough critic. \"The movie is well-done. It has good intentions,\" she said. \"But in my opinion, in the first part, the scenes in the jungle seemed a bit like a caricature.\" Though some debated the details of this story they know so well, most -- like a young Guevara lookalike who identified himself only as Daniel -- were pleased. \"It has captured history to perfection,\" he said. \"It has been well thought out and well-created.\" Others, like student Susel Paraza, were torn about seeing their history told by others. \"What hurt me a little,\" she said, \"is that it wasn't us, the Cubans, who thought to make a movie like this but instead a foreign director with foreign actors who have recreated this story very well.\" Other foreign actors have played Guevara, most notably Egyptian-born Omar Sharif in a 1969 U.S. production titled \"Che!\" Soderbergh's \"Che\" has been shown at six film festivals worldwide and will have a limited opening in the United States on December 12. It is scheduled for widespread U.S. distribution starting January 24. Although many may not know Guevara's history, his image is recognized worldwide from a photograph taken by Alberto Korda at a Havana memorial service in March 1960. Titled \"Guerrillero Heroico\" (Heroic Guerrilla), the image of a somber, long-haired and bearded Guevara wearing a beret with a lone star became what the Maryland Institute College of Art called \"the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century.\" The image has been emblazoned on everything from T-shirts to posters and even tattoos. \"There is no other image like it. What other image has been sustained in this way?\" Trisha Ziff, the curator of an exhibition on the iconography of Guevara, asked in a 2007 interview with the BBC. \"Che Guevara has become a brand. And the brand's logo is the image, which represents change. It has becomes the icon of the outside thinker, at whatever level -- whether it is anti-war, pro-green or anti-globalization.\" Guevara was 31 years old when the photo was taken. He has been dead for 41 years, longer than he was alive. Jonathan Green, former longtime director of the UCR\/California Museum of Photography, has been quoted as saying, \"Korda's image has worked its way into languages around the world. It has become an alpha-numeric symbol, a hieroglyph, an instant symbol. It mysteriously reappears whenever there's a conflict. There isn't anything else in history that serves in this way.\" CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Che\" stars Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro in the title role .\nThe official mouthpiece of the Cuban government gives Del Toro a glowing review .\nThe movie played Sunday at Havana's Karl Marx Theater .\n\"Che\" will have a limited opening in the United States on Friday .","id":"6b24f125bd26c8a8826c210f5c1748c9a78aa202"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two giant pandas arrived in Taiwan Tuesday after leaving China's Sichuan province for their new home, in a sign of improving ties between the cross-strait neighbors. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan rest at a giant panda research center in Sichuan province on Monday. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, both four years old, had been living in Ya'an since the May 12 earthquake that damaged their former home in Wolong in Sichuan, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The pandas ate a meal of steamed corn buns and carrots before they were placed in a truck and taken to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu. From there, they were flown to Taiwan. \"They had a good breakfast to sustain them on the long journey,\" said a Taiwan keeper traveling with the animals to the island, according to Xinhua. The panda goodwill was the latest sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei. Watch more about the pandas \u00bb . Regularly scheduled commercial flights, shipping and mail between Taiwan and China resumed last week for the first time since the 1949 revolution that brought the Communist Party to power on the Chinese mainland. On Monday, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said China would provide 130 billion yuan ($19 billion) in financing over the next two to three years to Taiwan-based companies doing business in the mainland. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has been cultivating ties with Beijing since winning office in March. Ma, a Nationalist, opposes reunification with China but ran on a platform touting the economic benefits of better relations with the mainland. In June -- in the first formal talks between the two sides in almost a decade --Chinese and Taiwanese officials agreed to set up permanent offices in each other's territories. Taiwan separated from China after the communists' victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949. About 2 million Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a government there. Beijing has always considered the island a part of China and has threatened to go to war should Taiwan declare formal independence. China said in May 2005 it would give the island two giant pandas, but their departure was delayed for more than three years. Improved ties between the two sides made the delivery of the pandas possible, Xinhua reported. The pair, whose names Tuan and Yuan together mean \"reunion,\" will live in a four-story building at the Taipei city zoo, and their lodgings will include an outdoor playground, the agency said. After a one-month quarantine, the pandas are expected to make their debut in Taiwan during the Chinese lunar new year. There are about 1,590 pandas living in China's wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. There were 239 captive-bred giant pandas in China in 2007, Xinhua reported. One panda died in the May quake, while another is still missing, according to an official at the China Panda Protection Studies Center in Wolong.","highlights":"Pandas will live at Taipei zoo, expected to debut during the Chinese lunar new year .\nPanda goodwill the latest sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei .\nRegular flights began between the two sides for the first time since 1949 .\nAbout 1,590 pandas live in China's wild, and there were 239 captive bred in 2007 .","id":"a6e61cdd3dd061992295e78ab39591e3cb05ba2d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's no secret that the music industry has not made an ideal transition into the digital era. Is the iPod, iTunes and independent Web promotion the future of music? Or can record labels fight back? Album sales are falling, P2P file sharing is rife, and a plethora of new artists are using the Internet as a platform for gaining international exposure. With the introduction of MySpace Music, three major record labels -- Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group -- are hoping to launch a counter-strike to the technological developments and online activities that have rocked their industry. But, how far can the record labels go towards getting back those good old days where they were uncontested as they reaped the lion's share of profits from the music industry? Experts CNN spoke to for a Just Imagine article had contrasting views on what the coming years hold for the industry. Long-time music industry figure Bob Lefsetz was critical of the new venture. \"Radio on demand, in one's home, in front of the computer, which is what MySpace actually is, is not a sexy alternative to owning what you want and taking it to the beach, to the party, to your workout,\" he said, comparing it with Apple's iTunes and iPod. Lefsetz feels the record labels have to face serious decline, unless they can come up with a new business model. Well-known music artists' rights advocate, educator and industry commentator, Moses Avalon, was more positive about MySpace Music's hopes and the future of the record label industry. Music industry lecturer Andrew Dubber, meanwhile, believed the future would be characterized by change, and that there is no set model for the future of the recording industry. Now, we want to know what you think. Give us your views on the future of the music industry. Do you have a business model you think the record labels should adopt to build a strong future? Or, do you think the industry has no future at all? Do you think Web sites like tunecore.com, rawrip.com and sellaband.com hold the power now? Post your comments in the Sound Off box below. We'll publish the best.","highlights":"We take a look at the future of the music industry as record sales decline .\nWill MySpace music venture between major labels save the industry?\nWhat do you think? Post your views and we'll publish the best.","id":"cd1600b047715ef0829bacfc7ed3b4cebb616f98"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cited several examples in a recent report of abuse toward Christians in Iraq. Iraqis rush to a car bomb explosion at a Christian church in Kirkuk in January.","highlights":"U.S. panel reports examples of intimidation, violence against Christians in Iraq .\nReport: Christians urged to convert to Islam, attacked if they don't obey Islamic laws .\nChristian priests, missionaries have been kidnapped and killed, report says .","id":"578d4784656d2b462895cfc89b3481a231ebfb51"} -{"article":"DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNN) -- Bob Konrardy carried the guilt with him for more than 40 years. A platoon commander in Vietnam, Konrardy was wounded when shrapnel tore through his body. Four comrades carried him to safety in a poncho for more than an hour while the firefight raged. Bob Konrardy says the fallen soldier monument outside his home honors soldiers killed in Iraq like Dave Behrle. \"These four guys went back to help the platoon because they were still fighting, and all four of those guys got killed,\" Konrardy says. \"I felt guilty for 40-something years.\" Two years ago, Konrardy got to thinking: He'd be a Santa of sorts for soldiers in Iraq as a way to help him deal with his conscience. He would collect autographed college and pro footballs, letters from local kids and other mementoes from home to help inspire the troops in Iraq. Then, he would have the goods delivered to his old platoon serving in Iraq, the First Cavalry Division. He initially thought he'd have the material shipped. But his plan changed when the military signed off for Konrardy to deliver the goods in person and work as an embedded journalist for a local paper. The 65-year-old grandpa was about to head to one of the world's most dangerous places. Watch \"I could have been killed\" \u00bb . \"I wanted to maybe bury some Vietnam demons and just make a difference with this platoon and maybe make up for what I didn't do with my old platoon,\" he says. \"I thought it was going to go one way. It went the other. It made me worse.\" He adds, \"I couldn't sleep before, but now it's worse. I hate to see it get dark. I get extremely nervous. I get uptight. I just don't like to see it get dark. And once it is dark, I'm on edge until it gets dawn.\" Konrardy's story is one of patriotism, heroism and torment -- a war veteran unable to escape what happened in 1965, when he was just 23. \"Here's a guy who is a true American hero in his own right. He was wounded in action in the Iadrang Valley, and he comes into a combat zone 40 years later,\" says Maj. Chris Rogers, the operations officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, when Konrardy embedded with them. \"In my opinion, he's a guy who has done it all -- bled for his own country -- and he's more interested in telling the story of today's generation of young heroes than trumpeting his own horn.\" Konrardy was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder shortly after he retired from John Deere in 2002, when he says his disorder really kicked in. He once sleep-drove to a Wal-Mart about 20 minutes from his home at 3 a.m. He doesn't recall how he got there or how he got home. He only remembers a guy mopping the floor asking if he could be helped. Other times, he'd patrol the neighborhood in the wee hours of the night with his loaded 9-mm pistol on his hip. His counselor with the Department of Veterans Affairs once asked what he would do if the police ever stopped him. \"I said, 'I'll just shoot out his windows and escape and evade back to the house. I think it'd be fun.' She didn't like that answer,\" he says with a laugh. \"So I'm lucky because that's probably what I would've tried to do.\" Konrardy checked himself into a VA facility in Des Moines, Iowa, to get help for his PTSD. He chuckles more when he recounts trying to escape from the place and police approached him. \"I rolled down a hill and started running so they couldn't catch me. They said that was the wrong thing to do.\" Learn about PTSD and how to get help \u00bb . He says he was then put in an isolation ward for 11 days and nights, and eventually released. It was August 2005. Fast forward to the fall of 2006. That's when Konrardy spoke to his grandson's eighth-grade class about his war experience. They thanked him for serving his country. \"Nobody had ever done that before, for serving in Vietnam,\" he says. He started e-mailing members of the Army's First Cavalry Division as part of his grandson's \"adopt a platoon\" project. He got autographed footballs from the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts, as well as from the University of Tennessee and University of Georgia. Even the players at local St. Ambrose University chipped in with a football of their own: the game ball from their championship game. \"I just wanted to do something and make up for what I didn't do for my guys,\" Konrardy says. His family gathered for Christmas that year and he told of his plans to travel to Iraq. \"Everybody cried,\" he says. \"I said, 'Hey, this is a chance of a lifetime. I have to go.' \" Quizzed about why a man who was held in a VA facility a couple years earlier was cleared to travel to Iraq, Konrardy laughs. He says CNN is the first to ask that question. But he adds the original plan was for him to not go into combat. \"On the way over, I didn't think I'd be going out.\" By March 2007, the old warrior's boots were on the ground in Baghdad. His plan was to hand out the 95 pounds of goods and kick back with the soldiers at base camp, collecting their stories and gathering video to give to their families back home. Konrardy handed the St. Ambrose football to a soldier named David W. Behrle, a 20-year-old from Tipton, Iowa. He scooped it up and cherished it. Konrardy was officially in Iraq as an embedded journalist to file blog posts for \"The Quad-City Times.\" He had not intended to go into combat, but that quickly changed. He says the commander said if he wanted to get to know the troops \"you've gotta be proactive.\" Konrardy says he hopped into a Humvee and began patrolling the tight streets of Baghdad with the unit. He was assigned the back right seat for four days. His Humvee once struck a dud of a roadside bomb that blew the tire out underneath where he was sitting. Gunfire erupted. \"Looking back, I'm thinking, 'Wow, I could have been killed,' \" he says. He's still haunted by another time in Iraq -- not because of what happened, but because of what he didn't do. \"I'm going to the bathroom and I hear somebody crying. My first instinct was to be a grandpa: I'm going to go in and I'm going to hold this young kid whoever it is and just say, 'I know where you're coming from. I've been there. Let's just talk.' \" He adds, \"But I chickened out. I didn't do that. Now, I wish I would have.\" A few weeks after he left Iraq, soldiers he befriended were riding in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle on patrol around Baghdad. He says the soldiers had recently saved a young Iraqi girl who had been shot in the head from insurgent crossfire. But on this day, May 19, 2007, a roadside bomb went off, killing all six soldiers inside. One of those killed was Spc. David Behrle, the soldier who loved the football hand-delivered by Konrardy. \"I took that hard. It still bothers me,\" Konrardy says. Outside his Iowa home, a flagpole stands on Konrardy's lawn. A fallen soldier monument sits at its base with a pair of boots, rifle facing down and helmet with the name \"Behrle\" on it. Behrle's family was so moved by Konrardy they had it built for him. Kneeling next to the monument, Konrardy says, \"It reminds me of Dave. But it also reminds me of the Behrle family and how close we've gotten with them and how great they've been in my grieving for Dave and helping me ... try to readjust to the things I went through in Iraq.\" \"They say I helped them; I say they helped me.\" The lifelong Republican recently did something he thought he'd never do: He says he voted for a Democrat for the president of the United States. Thousands of American troops will soon be returning home in need of help just like him. Konrardy, who is still getting PTSD treatment, wishes the rest of the nation could better understand what that's like. \"I just want them to realize the life of a soldier is not what you think,\" he says. \"It changes you for the rest of your life.\"","highlights":"Army veteran went to Iraq hoping to expunge \"Vietnam demons\"\nBob Konrardy spent four days on patrol in March 2007 as an embedded journalist .\n\"I couldn't sleep before, but now it's worse. I hate to see it get dark,\" he says .\nKonrardy says nation must be ready for when troubled soldiers return from Iraq .","id":"a7f578ca546ea016f5695fe3dd09f1b16e083575"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Concerns were growing Wednesday for a polar bear born last month at a German zoo after its twin died and was possibly eaten by its mother. One year ago Vera gave birth to Flocke, pictured here playing in her enclosure in April. The young polar bear died Monday, less than two weeks after it was born, Nuremberg Zoo said. The surviving twin was doing well, the zoo said, but added that it was concerned the mother may not be able to care for it properly. Zookeepers watching a video feed from the bears' enclosure said they had noticed the baby bear looking thinner and weaker. They saw the bears' mother, Vera, nudging the dead bear with her nose and observing it -- and as of Wednesday, they said, the dead bear was nowhere to be seen. \"It is very, very sad,\" said zoo director Dag Encke. \"it is unfortunately frequently the case that with twins, one of the animals doesn't survive.\" Zookeepers had kept their distance from Vera and her babies, watching them only on camera so as not to make the mother feel threatened. Polar bears are known to eat their young if they sense any danger or interference. \"We have to worry more about the surviving young animal and take care that the polar bear with her baby is not disturbed,\" Encke said. \"So far, Vera is caring for the surviving baby in an exemplary way.\" One year ago Vera gave birth to Flocke, who became an instant celebrity across Germany. Flocke's first birthday is Thursday.","highlights":"German zookeepers concerned for baby polar bear after its twin died .\nYoung polar bear died Monday, less than two weeks after it was born .\nBaby nowhere to be found in enclosure; mothers often eat young if sense danger .","id":"4e91d616a08a8dfb97b65898ef146845cf5468b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What could be more powerful than the tears of a Native American Indian? Wax on, wax off: Does it make you want to save the rainforests? Iron Eyes Cody was the face of the Keep American Beautiful campaign of 1971 whose tears marked the plight of the environment, but more importantly kept the problems of pollution in the minds of millions. From teary Native Americans to witty skits or doom-ladened eco-horror scenarios, the environmental campaign video then has long been a powerful tool for environmental groups to spread their message and raise pubic attention. The rise of YouTube and other video sharing web sites has now meant that individuals can broadcast their own eco-awareness messages and form their own social action networks. But what makes a good video and how much impact do they have? Is it better to be funny or shocking? When you see Harrison Ford getting his chest waxed, do you immediately think about saving the rainforests? Or does the sight of celebrity pontificating about the plight of the environment make you want to watch their next film rather calculate your carbon footprint. We've featured three different videos that we like and want to know which ones you think are the best. Watch the featured videos \u00bb . Let us know which eco videos have got you going by using the Sound Off box below. Or, e-mail us at ecosolutions@cnn.com. We also want to feature your own environmental videos here on CNN's Eco Solutions. Use the iReport form to send in your film and you could find your environmental efforts make even more impact than Harrison Ford's chest.","highlights":"Nominate your favorite environmental campaign video .\nRate our featured videos, including Harrison Ford getting his chest waxed .\nSend in your own videos using our iReport page .","id":"6e8382e61be49c936e00a8eea24377a687622967"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts \"Fareed Zakaria: GPS\" on CNN at 1 p.m. ET Sundays. Fareed Zakaria says he doesn't think the crisis between Russia and Georgia is likely to be resolved soon. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential candidates. In an exclusive interview Thursday with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi, Russia, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia. Putin said his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate, but he presented no evidence to back it up. \"U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict,\" Putin said. \"They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader.\" White House spokeswoman Dana Perino blasted Putin's statements, saying they were \"patently false.\" Russia is trying to counterbalance mounting pressure from the West over its military action in Georgia and its recognition of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But Russia's hopes of winning international support were dashed Thursday when China and other Asian nations expressed concern about tension in the region. The joint declaration from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, said the countries hoped that any further conflict could be resolved peacefully. CNN spoke to world affairs expert and author Fareed Zakaria about the Russia-Georgia situation. CNN: Is the crisis between Russia and Georgia likely to get resolved soon? Zakaria: No, positions are actually hardening. The Russians have formally recognized the two regions of Georgia -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- and on our program, the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, has demanded the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers, to be replaced by European Union peacekeepers. So the two sides are actually further apart than they were 10 days ago. CNN: Who will prevail? Zakaria: It's difficult to see the circumstances under which Russia will withdraw completely. On the other hand, its recognition of the two provinces is a joke. Almost no country in the world has followed them in this recognition. So they might be willing to reverse themselves on this issue. But I can't see them getting out completely. CNN: So Russia wins? Zakaria: Well, even if it wins in the narrow sense, it will lose in a broader sense. Russia's actions have scared all their neighbors, aroused anti-Russian nationalism, driven the Poles, the Ukrainians and so many other countries closer to the West and away from Moscow. Countries around the world have been startled by the Soviet-era tactics. And what have they gained for all this? South Ossetia. I think this will go down in history as a major strategic blunder. The Russians have massively overplayed their hand. CNN: Why did they do it? Zakaria: They would argue that the West pushed and punished them after the collapse of the Soviet Union and that by expanding NATO to their borders, it signaled that it still saw Russia as a rival and relations as competitive. Perhaps there is some truth to their perception, but there were also much broader developments in Russia over the last decade. The rise of Russian nationalism, an anti-Western and anti-democratic movement, the rise of an elected dictatorship, and above all, the rise in oil wealth, which always produces corruption, dysfunction and arrogance. Russia has moved in anti-modern directions, and much of it has nothing to do with what the West did or didn't do. CNN: What should the United States do? Zakaria: Assist Georgia in rebuilding and securing itself. Assure countries like Poland that may be insecure. But also, don't overreact. Russia's blunder is producing a reaction in the region and across the world. Let that play itself out. We should be firm in insisting that they cannot re-impose their rule in Georgia, but there is little to be gained in a total cutoff with Moscow. We have to deal with Russia on many issues, from Iran to North Korea. Nobody benefits from a new Cold War, not the Russians and not the U.S.","highlights":"Fareed Zakaria says Russia's actions will be viewed as \"a major strategic blunder\"\nZakaria calls Russia's recognition of Georgia's two breakaway provinces \"a joke\"\nAnalyst: Russia has moved in \"anti-modern\" directions in recent years .\nZakaria says U.S. shouldn't overreact, let world reaction play itself out .","id":"401f477dfd8792c71b416f6b031ac643cd400ec3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Republican National Convention is kicking off in full force Tuesday in the Twin Cities -- the first time the GOP has held a presidential convention there since 1892. Laura Bush and Cindy McCain speak at a shortened first day of the Republican National Convention Monday. The convention, delayed briefly when Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, is also being held later in the year than any nominating convention in history. Check out these tidbits of convention history and political trivia. Location . The Republican National Convention is being held in the Xcel Energy Center, the home of the National Hockey League team the Minnesota Wild. To prepare the Xcel center for the GOP convention, workers removed 3,000 seats and installed more than 25 miles of cable . Sen. Barack Obama gave his first speech as the Democrats' presumptive 2008 presidential nominee at the Xcel Center on June 3. The Twin Cities and Denver have each received $50 million each in federal funds for convention security. No Republican since Richard Nixon has carried Minnesota in a presidential general election -- the longest Democratic streak of any state in the nation. The Delegates . About 2,300 delegates and 2,200 alternates delegates are expected to journey to the twin cities for the event, and the Minneapolis\/St. Paul economy is expected to benefit to the tune of $150 to $160 million. The Candidates, past and present . John McCain turned 72 last week; if elected, he'll be the oldest president sworn in to a first term. Two GOP presidential nominees were older than McCain; Ronald Reagan was 73 in 1984 when he was running for his second term and Bob Dole was 73 in 1996. Dole lost that election to Bill Clinton. John McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam from 1967 to 1973; his service awards include the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and a Purple Heart. McCain's father and grandfather were both U.S. Navy admirals; they were the first father and son to achieve that rank. McCain represented Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1987; he has served in the U.S. Senate since 1987. McCain was the presidential nominating speaker in 1996 for Sen. Robert Dole. McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination on March 4 after winning 26 primary season contests. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the second woman to serve on a major party ticket -- in 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman to serve on a major party ticket. Palin is the first woman to serve as Alaska governor; she was elected in 2006, winning the election to the governorship as a maverick reformer willing to distance herself from the Republican Party. McCain first met Palin at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington in February of 2008. Conventions . National political conventions were covered on radio for the first time in 1924, and covered on television for the first time since 1948. 2008 marks the fourth time the parties have held back-to-back conventions; it also happened in 1912, 1916 and 1956. The longest convention in history was the 1924 Democratic convention in New York -- It lasted 17 days. The shortest convention in history was the 1872 Democratic convention in Baltimore -- it only lasted six hours.","highlights":"McCain was the presidential nominating speaker in 1996 for Sen. Robert Dole .\n2008 marks the fourth time the parties have held back-to-back conventions .\nNo Republican since Nixon has carried Minnesota in a presidential general election .\nIf McCain is elected he'll be the oldest president sworn in to a first term .","id":"371f206bd72e1f8f7b57bafd260b3c1d930a9d78"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Israel said Wednesday it may expel Venezuela's top diplomat from the country in a tit-for-tat gesture after the South American nation ordered the Israeli ambassador to leave over the increasingly bloody ground war in Gaza. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the Israeli army \"cowards.\" The decision on whether to expel Venezuela's charge d'affaires will be taken later Wednesday, said Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry. On Tuesday, Venezuela expelled Israel's ambassador to Caracas and accused Israel of attempting to carry out \"genocide\" against the Palestinian people. \"In this tragic and indignant hour, the people of Venezuela manifest their unconditional solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, share in the sadness that overcomes thousands of families through the loss of their loved ones, and extends to them a hand by affirming that the government of Venezuela will not rest until it sees those responsible for these criminal atrocities severely punished,\" the Venezuelan foreign minister said in a statement read by an anchor on state television. The statement added that the government \"condemns strongly the flagrant violations of international law\" by Israel and \"denounces their planned utilization of state terrorism.\" \"For the above-mentioned reasons, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the ambassador of Israel and some of the personnel of the Israeli Embassy in Venezuela,\" it added. In a news conference broadcast by state-run Venezuelan television, President Hugo Chavez blasted the Israeli military. \"They are cowards,\" he said. \"It's as though a boxing professional were to come here and challenge you to box. Well, how courageous! How courageous is the Israeli army!\" It said that Chavez \"makes a fraternal call to the Jewish people throughout the world to oppose these criminal policies of the state of Israel that recall the worst pages of the history of the 20th century. \"With the genocide of the Palestinian people, the state of Israel will never be able to offer its people the perspective of a peace that is both necessary and long-lasting.\" Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was unswayed. \"I haven't heard the details yet, but you know the regime in Venezuela has been one of the few countries in the world that gives automatic support to the Iranian extremists, and it doesn't surprise me that they have affinity with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,\" he told CNN. He predicted that other countries would not follow suit, even in the Middle East. \"I think, even in the Muslim and Arab countries, there is a fair amount of understanding for what Israel has had to do here,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Top Venezuelan diplomat may be expelled in tit-for-tat gesture .\nVenezuela ordered Israeli ambassador to leave over the ground war in Gaza .\nVenezuelan government statement condemned \"flagrant violations\" by Israel .\nPresident Hugo Chavez calls Israeli army \"cowards\"\nIsraeli spokesman says Venezuela has given \"automatic support\" to extremists .","id":"4e8a351d30e125464d9adeebd10e376adcb80d79"} -{"article":"Motozintla, MEXICO (CNN) -- \"My life was sad before because I had to crawl on the ground,\" recalls Caesar Morales, a 24-year-old father in Mexico who, until recently, had only one limb and couldn't walk. David Puckett's nonprofit has provided free artificial limbs, orthopedic braces and care to more than 420 people. But today, thanks to David Puckett and his U.S.-based nonprofit, Morales has new prosthetic legs. Now, he's not only able to walk, but his newfound independence has made it possible for him to move to another town where he could find work. \"He lifted me up to where I am today,\" Morales says. Morales isn't the only person in southeastern Mexico who credits Puckett with changing his life. Since November 2000, the certified, licensed prosthetist\/orthotist from Savannah, Georgia, has been providing artificial limbs, orthopedic braces and ongoing care to hundreds in need in the communities of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas -- free of charge. \"When someone loses a limb they immediately know what they've lost,\" says Puckett. \"The goal is to restore the healthy self image again so that that person can see themselves whole.\" Puckett first connected with the Yucatan people while volunteering on a mission there as a teenager. Struck by the overwhelming poverty and the physical challenges he saw people facing in the rural communities, Puckett vowed to return and make a difference there. \"When I finally got into the field of orthotics and prosthetics, I said, 'Ah-ha. Now, I know what I can do.' \" His nonprofit, PIPO Missions: Limbs and Braces to Mexico, collects donated, used orthopedic braces and artificial limbs in the United States and crafts new ones from their recycled components. On average, Puckett makes a six-day trip every two months to distribute the custom prosthetics and braces, while also providing ongoing care. \"To deliver an artificial limb or brace without follow-up doesn't help that person in the long run,\" says Puckett. \"We need to make sure that they have what they need to continue living successfully for years to come.\" Over the course of his 41 trips to the region, Puckett has helped more than 420 individuals. He's found that word of his work spreads fast through the villages and people will drive hours to attend his clinics. Puckett's trips are routinely extended to accommodate house calls to immobile residents of distant towns. Watch how Puckett brings prosthetic and orthotic care to people in Mexico \u00bb . \"Someone might say, 'I wanna bring 10 people with me next time you come.' The mixed blessing is they'll bring 50 or 100 people that have physical needs,\" says Puckett. \"The difficulty for me is, how do I say no?\" For Puckett, each trip demonstrates the immeasurable impact he is making on people's lives. Stories of previously unimagined independence, confidence and employment greet him from clinical waiting areas, often along with offerings of food, livestock and friendship. When his group helps one person, Puckett explains, it has an effect on an entire community. Watch Puckett describe how one patient in Mexico crafted himself a homemade foot \u00bb . \"It opens a whole other door for many of these folks to experience the world in a way in which they've never even dreamt of,\" says Puckett. \"And the world has an opportunity to greet them, accept them and welcome them back into society. So, it's a double blessing.\" Watch Puckett describe how he helped a woman now known as \"the miracle girl\" \u00bb . In between trips, Puckett also spends time soliciting the aid of surgeons, as he frequently encounters physical conditions that require surgery before prosthetic help can be successfully administered. \"If we had a surgeon here, we could see eight to 10 patients in a weekend and change their lives forever,\" he says. \"It's tough for people to make the choice to give up time with their families and a portion of their income to extend themselves in this way. But, take it from me, the more we give, the more we get.\"","highlights":"David Puckett's nonprofit provides free artificial limbs, braces and care .\nSince November 2000 the organization has helped hundreds in southeastern Mexico .\nPuckett's organization crafts the braces and artificial limbs from recycled ones .","id":"887def04d491d6bf532e1a01684d23f436ce308f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bayern Munich have agreed a deal to sign Croatian international striker Ivica Olic from Bundesliga rivals Hamburg, the German champions have revealed on their official Web site fcbayern.de. Olic will join Bayern Munich at the end of the season after proving a success in his time at Hamburg. \"We've struck an agreement to sign Olic at the end of the season. All we need now are the signatures under the contract,\" said Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness following the team's arrival at a winter training camp in Dubai. Olic will complete his move on a free transfer on July 1 and will sign a three-year contract binding him to the club until 2012. \"I'll do everything I can to mark my departure from Hamburg with a trophy,\" the 29-year-old Olic vowed on Friday, as he and his team-mates prepared for a winter training camp almost exactly parallel to Bayern's in Dubai. The two teams will meet on January 30 in Hamburg in a match marking the official start of the second half of the Bundesliga season. Olic joined Hamburg from CSKA Moscow in January 2007 having won three league titles and the UEFA Cup in Russia. He has already scored 12 goals this season and has netted 11 times in 61 internationals for Croatia. \"We're certain Ivica will be a perfect compliment to our strikers Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose. One pleasing aspect is that he is out of contract at the end of the season,\" said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge last month.","highlights":"Bayern Munich agree a deal to sign Croatian international striker Ivica Olic .\nOlic will join from Bundesliga rivals Hamburg at the end of the current season .\nThe 29-year-old agrees a three-year contract and will not cost Bayern any fee .","id":"6e3657fabf186e1c31969e851e8934d41ae336fa"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man who police say dressed as Santa Claus and killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party may have also had plans to kill his mother and his former wife's divorce attorney, police said Monday night. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo went on a shooting rampage in a Los Angeles suburb on Wednesday, police say. Prime suspect Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who police said committed suicide hours after he went on a shooting rampage and started a raging house fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, left a rental car with a gasoline canister outside the home of attorney Scott Nord, said Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department. Police previously said that Pardo targeted his rampage at his former wife, Sylvia Ortega Pardo, and her family at the family's Christmas Eve party. A divorce between the two was finalized in court on December 18 in a \"somewhat contentious proceeding,\" Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said last week. Police believe Pardo planned to carry out a similar attack at Nord's house as he did at the shooting and house fire that claimed nine lives. Another rented car that Pardo used to flee the scene was found booby-trapped after the shooting, police said. That car burned as the Covina bomb squad was trying to disconnect an explosive device in it, police said. On Saturday, Covina police released the names of the nine people unaccounted for since the shooting and fire. Nine bodies were recovered from the rubble of the house, but authorities said that they are having to work with dental records to establish identities. \"The bodies were so badly burned they cannot be identified any other way,\" said Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan. The nine unaccounted for include Sylvia Pardo, her parents, her sister, her two brothers, both brothers' wives, and a nephew. Ages of the nine range from 17 to 80, police said. On Monday night, police said Pardo's mother had also planned to attend the Christmas party, but didn't go because she was sick. Pardo had a contentious relationship with his mother, according to Buchanan, because she attended the couple's divorce hearing and had sided with Pardo's ex-wife. The shooting and fire left 10 children orphaned and three others lost one parent. An \"Ortega Family Fund\" has been set up at Nord's law offices.","highlights":"Police say Bruce Jeffrey Pardo had hit list after divorce proceedings were final .\nOriginal target was Pardo's ex-wife, police say, but attorney, mom also targets .\nShooting and fire left 10 children orphaned and three others lost one parent .","id":"3becc221d2b5e9a2c3a20ccd587e9ee15a9b8023"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Bush spoke live via satellite to the Republican National Convention Tuesday night. Here is the text of the speech: . President Bush says John McCain is \"ready to lead\" the United States. Bush: Good evening. As you know, my duties have me here in Washington tonight to oversee the federal government's efforts to help citizens recover from Hurricane Gustav. We are thankful that the damage in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast was less than many had feared. I commend the governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas for their sure-handed response and seamless coordination with the federal government. I thank all of the wonderful volunteers who stepped forward to help their brothers and sisters in need. We know that there is still risk even after the storm has passed. So I ask citizens across the region to listen closely to local officials and follow their instructions before returning to their homes. All of us are keeping the people of the Gulf Coast in our thoughts and prayers. As you gather tonight in Saint Paul, I want to share some thoughts about our nominee -- a great American, and the next president of the United States, John McCain. Watch Bush's speech \u00bb . Before I do so, I want to say hello to two people in the hall with you tonight. I could have no finer examples of character, decency, and integrity than my mom and dad. I know what it takes to be president. In these past eight years, I've sat at the Resolute Desk and reviewed the daily intelligence briefings, the threat assessments and the reports from our commanders on the front lines. I've stood in the ruins of buildings knocked down by killers, and promised the survivors I would never let them down. I know the hard choices that fall solely to a president. John McCain's life has prepared him to make those choices. He is ready to lead this nation. From the day of his commissioning, John McCain was a respected Naval officer who made decisions on which the lives of others depended. As an elected public servant, he earned the respect of colleagues in both parties as a man to follow when there is a tough call to make. John McCain's life is a story of service above self. Forty years ago in an enemy prison camp, Lt. Cmdr. McCain was offered release ahead of others who had been held longer. His wounds were so severe that anyone would have understood if he had accepted. John refused. For that selfless decision, he suffered nearly five more years of beatings and isolation. When he was finally released, his arms had been broken, but not his honor. Fellow citizens: If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will. As the father of seven sons and daughters, John has the heart of a protector. He and his wonderful wife, Cindy, are adoptive parents. John is a leader who knows that human life is fragile ... that human life is precious ... that human life must be defended. We have seen John McCain's commitment to principle in our nation's capital. John is a steadfast opponent of wasteful spending. As president, he will stand up to the high-tax crowd in Congress and make the tax relief permanent. He will invest in the energy technologies of tomorrow and lift the ban on drilling for America's offshore oil today. John is an independent man who thinks for himself. He's not afraid to tell you when he disagrees. ... No matter what the issue, this man is honest and speaks straight from the heart. Last year, John McCain's independence and character helped change history. The Democrats had taken control of Congress and were threatening to cut off funds for our troops. In the face of calls for retreat, I ordered a surge of forces into Iraq. Many in Congress said it had no chance of working. Yet one senator above all had faith in our troops and the importance of their mission, and that was John McCain. Some told him that his early and consistent call for more troops would put his presidential campaign at risk. He told them he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war. That is the kind of courage and vision we need in our next commander in chief. My fellow citizens, we live in a dangerous world. And we need a president who understands the lessons of September 11, 2001: that to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen, and not wait to be hit again. The man we need is John McCain. When he takes office next January, John will have an outstanding leader at his side. America will have a strong and principled vice president in the governor of the great state of Alaska, Sarah Palin. In the time the Oval Office has been in my trust, I have kept near my desk reminders of America's character -- including a painting of a West Texas mountain lit by the morning sun. It reminds me that Americans have always lived on the sunrise side of the mountain. We are a nation that looks to the new day with confidence and optimism. I am optimistic about our future, because I believe in the goodness and wisdom of the American people. I am optimistic because I have faith in freedom's power to lift up all of God's children and lead this world to a future of peace. And I am optimistic about something else: When the debates have ended, and all the ads have run, and it is time to vote, Americans will look closely at the judgment, the experience, and the policies of the candidates, and they will cast their ballots for the McCain-Palin ticket. While I am not with you in the Twin Cities on this wonderful night for our party, with Laura Bush speaking, you have clearly traded up. I am so proud the American people have come to know her gracious presence, her determined spirit, and her loving heart. Laura has been a fantastic first lady. Thank you, Laura, and thanks to all of you in the hall tonight. God bless you, and God bless America.","highlights":"Bush: The man we need is John McCain .\nBush: We need a president who understands the lessons of September 11, 2001 .\nPresident praises McCain for support of troop surge in Iraq .\nBush: That is the kind of courage and vision we need .","id":"a0c2d26c2ebecd53dcecc9ea04ae8c5aabd24e22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuela expelled Israel's ambassador to the country Tuesday and accused Israel of attempting to carry out \"genocide\" against the Palestinian people. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the Israeli army \"cowards.\" \"In this tragic and indignant hour, the people of Venezuela manifest their unconditional solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, share in the sadness that overcomes thousands of families through the loss of their loved ones, and extends to them a hand by affirming that the government of Venezuela will not rest until it sees those responsible for these criminal atrocities severely punished,\" the Venezuelan foreign minister said in a statement read by an anchor on state television. The statement added that the government \"condemns strongly the flagrant violations of international law\" by Israel and \"denounces their planned utilization of state terrorism.\" \"For the above-mentioned reasons, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the ambassador of Israel and some of the personnel of the Israeli Embassy in Venezuela,\" it added. In a news conference broadcast by state-run Venezuelan television, President Hugo Chavez blasted the Israeli military. \"They are cowards,\" he said. \"It's as though a boxing professional were to come here and challenge you to box. Well, how courageous! How courageous is the Israeli army!\" It said that Chavez \"makes a fraternal call to the Jewish people throughout the world to oppose these criminal policies of the state of Israel that recall the worst pages of the history of the 20th century. \"With the genocide of the Palestinian people, the state of Israel will never be able to offer its people the perspective of a peace that is both necessary and long-lasting.\" Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was unswayed. \"I haven't heard the details yet, but you know the regime in Venezuela has been one of the few countries in the world that gives automatic support to the Iranian extremists, and it doesn't surprise me that they have affinity with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,\" he told CNN. He predicted that other countries would not follow suit, even in the Middle East. \"I think, even in the Muslim and Arab countries, there is a fair amount of understanding for what Israel has had to do here,\" he said.","highlights":"Expulsion is in protest of Israeli strike against Palestinians, minister says .\nVenezuelan government statement condemned \"flagrant violations\" by Israel .\nPresident Hugo Chavez calls Israeli army \"cowards\"\nIsraeli spokesman says Venezuela has given \"automatic support\" to extremists .","id":"4928ccf044e057744c301e4b4c1c278ac0109523"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- An 850-pound emerald said to be worth as much as $370 million is in the hands of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department while a court decides who really owns it, a spokesman for the sheriff said. This enormous raw emerald was being kept in a Las Vegas, Nevada, warehouse. The \"Bahia Emerald\" -- one of the largest ever found -- was reported stolen in September from a secured vault in South El Monte in Los Angeles County. The report was made by someone who claimed to own the giant gemstone, Los Angeles Sheriff's Lt. Thomas Grubb said. Federal court papers showed the emerald has been at the center of a dispute between a California man who claimed ownership, a company he contracted with to sell it, and a potential buyer. Detective work traced the Brazilian stone to a Las Vegas, Nevada, warehouse, where the person in possession claimed to be the rightful owner, Grubb said. A federal judge ordered the sheriff to hold the 180,000-carat emerald until he can sort the case out, Grubb said. Investigators suspect someone used falsified papers to remove the stone from the secured vault in California, although no criminal charges have been filed, Grubb said. While Grubb said it was his understanding the stone had been appraised at $370 million, the value is unclear. The company hired by the owner to sell it said in court papers it had received a $19 million offer, which the company wanted to accept. It alleged the gemstone's owner then tried to go around the broker to sell the emerald to the same buyer for $75 million. At one point, the emerald was listed for sale on eBay for a \"buy it now\" price of $75 million.","highlights":"L.A. sheriff takes custody of 180,000-carat gemstone pending resolution .\nSeller, buyer, broker arguing over ownership, sale agreement .\nEstimates of raw emerald's value range from $19 million to $370 million .","id":"726dafd6e5d3a0daac9a9bbc72028d882fc82d33"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A NASA report on the last minutes of Space Shuttle Columbia cited problems with the crew's helmets, spacesuits and restraints, which resulted in \"lethal trauma\" to the seven astronauts aboard. Columbia crew members were killed when the shuttle broke apart upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere. But the report also acknowledged that \"the breakup of the crew module ... was not survivable by any currently existing capability.\" The spacecraft broke up while re-entering Earth's atmosphere near the end of its mission on February 1, 2003. The NASA report found the astronauts knew for about 40 seconds that they did not have control of the shuttle before they likely were knocked unconscious as Columbia broke apart around them. Watch more details from the report \u00bb . The report also found that while crew members were wearing their pressurized suits, one astronaut did not have on a helmet, three were not wearing gloves and none lowered the visors before the module lost cabin pressure. One astronaut also was not seated. \"In this accident, none of those actions would have ultimately made any difference,\" said former shuttle program manager Wayne Hale, now a deputy NASA administrator. The graphic, 400-page investigative report relied on video, recovered debris and medical findings, supplemented with computer modeling and analyses. It also includes many recommendations to make space travel safer for future astronauts. A shuttle-program source told CNN the families of the astronauts who died were brought in specifically to look at the report and even in some cases to help with its preparation. The report took more than five years to complete. \"The members of this team have done an outstanding job under difficult and personal circumstances,\" said Johnson Space Center director Michael L. Coats. \"Their work will ensure that the legacy of Columbia and her heroic crew continues to be the improved safety of future human spaceflights worldwide.\" Columbia broke apart some 200,000 feet over Texas -- just minutes before it was to have touched down in Florida. The shuttle's wing was damaged on takeoff when a large piece of heat-reflecting foam ripped off and gouged a hole in it. During re-entry, the hole allowed atmospheric gases to burn the wing and destroy the spacecraft. The oldest orbiter in the fleet, Columbia had just completed a 16-day science mission. Watch the view from the command deck as the shuttle enters the atmosphere \u00bb . Killed were commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, payload commander Michael Anderson and mission specialists David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon, an Israeli Air Force colonel who was Israel's first astronaut. By request of the families of the Columbia astronauts, NASA released the report between Christmas and New Year's so that the astronauts' children would be at home where they could discuss the findings with their families in private, said former shuttle commander Pam Melroy, deputy project manager for the investigation team. \"It was a way for us to work through our grief about the accident,\" said Melroy about compiling the report. \"This was one of the hardest things I've ever done.\" The report stated that \"after the crew lost consciousness due to the loss of cabin pressure, the seat inertial reel mechanisms on the crews' shoulder harnesses did not lock. \"As a result, the unconscious or deceased crew was exposed to cyclical rotational motion while restrained only at the lower body. Crew helmets do not conform to the head. Consequently, lethal trauma occurred to the unconscious or deceased crew due to the lack of upper body support and restraint.\" Another section of the report focused on the pressure suits used by the space shuttle crew on launch and re-entry. It said the suits were not part of the initial design of the orbiter and that depressurization \"occurred so rapidly that the crew members were incapacitated within seconds, before they could configure the suit for full protection from loss of cabin pressure.\" Melroy said investigators took some comfort in data that suggests the Columbia crew died abruptly and without suffering. \"Of course, we were relieved,\" she told reporters during a NASA conference call Tuesday afternoon. \"It is a very small blessing, but we'll take them where we can find them.\" The NASA team's report evaluated every aspect of the crew cabin infrastructure, including the design of the safety belts and helmets worn by the crew. The report also included recommendations to improve spacecraft design and crew safety. Those recommendations cover a broad range of subjects from crew training, procedures, restraints and individual safety equipment to spacecraft design methods and recommendations regarding future accident investigations. \"By learning these lessons and ensuring that we continue the journey begun by the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia, we help to give meaning to their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families,\" the report stated. \"It is for them, and for the future generations of explorers, that we strive to be better and go farther. The report will have little if no effect on the nine remaining space shuttle flights to come. NASA is mothballing the shuttle program in 2010 as it begins a new program, Constellation, designed to send astronauts back to the moon. There is expected to be about a five-year hiatus in manned U.S. space flight as NASA transitions to the new program, which it hopes will launch in 2015. CNN's Brandon Griggs and Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"NASA released a report Tuesday on the last minutes of Space Shuttle Columbia .\nSeven astronauts died when the spacecraft broke up while returning to Earth in 2003 .\nReport: Astronauts knew for about 40 seconds that they'd lost control of craft .\nReport also cited problems with the crew's helmets, spacesuits and restraints .","id":"b0c97a4e917d1d78113ef144bdae41e99db2c328"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll suggests most Americans favor an economic stimulus package even if it comes with an $800 billion price tag, although that support doesn't indicate the public wants to see a new era of big government. Two-thirds of people polled think Present-elect Barack Obama's stimulus package will help the economy. Fifty-six percent of those questioned in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday said they favor the stimulus package that President-elect Barack Obama is proposing; 42 percent were opposed. Obama is pushing Congress to pass the plan soon after he's inaugurated on January 20, to help jump-start an economy mired in a deep recession. The poll also indicates that two-thirds of the public thinks the stimulus package will do just that, with 17 percent saying it will help the economy a lot and another 50 percent feeling that it will help the economy somewhat. Twenty-one percent say the stimulus package won't help the economy very much and 10 percent say it won't help at all. But Americans seem to be split on whether they'd like more government regulation of business and industry, with 39 percent saying there's too much government regulation and an equal amount saying too little. Twenty percent said the amount of government involvement is just right. Watch why most Americans back the bailout \u00bb . \"Attitudes toward government have not changed since 2006, when the economy was still in pretty good shape,\" said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. \"Most still say the government is doing too much that should be left to individuals and businesses, and trust in government is still low.\" On the other hand, he said, \"with the economy in such poor shape, government action to stimulate the economy seems to get an exemption to the general concerns about big government.\" There also appears to be a divide between the parties when it comes to government involvement. \"Six in 10 Democrats want to see the federal government do more,\" Holland said. \"But three-quarters of Republicans would like to see a smaller government. The tiebreaker is independents. A majority of the independents polled say that government is doing too much that should be left to individuals and businesses.\" The poll also suggests that a declining number of Americans trust the government to do what's right. iReport.com: What should Obama do first? Twenty-two percent of those polled said they trust the government to do what's right most of the time. That's down 6 points from when the question was asked two years ago. Sixty-six percent said they trust the government some of the time, and 9 percent said they never trust Washington. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 3 percent said they can always trust the government to do the right thing. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, with 1,013 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.","highlights":"CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. finds 56 percent of people favor stimulus plan .\nNumbers are more evenly split about government regulation of business .\nMore Democrats want the government to help more with economic woes .\nTwo-thirds of those polled thought Obama stimulus package would help economy .","id":"f5ce809241c23bafca7733920543678815151a9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four years since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake spawned massive walls of water that swept across the Indian Ocean, leaving more than 230,000 dead according to a United Nations estimate, improvements can be seen in many of the devastated areas, humanitarian groups said. Laborers work on a construction site in a fishing village in Indonesia's Aceh on December 21. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless and jobless after the tsunami, and poor and isolated communities were left even worse off. Today, new schools have been constructed, and armies of workers -- many of them volunteers -- have cleared and rebuilt homes and towns, and helped get people back to work. \"The tsunami, despite being a horrific event, also provided a lot of opportunities for those countries,\" said Jonathan Cauldwell, chief of UNICEF's Tsunami Transition Support. \"It brought a peace dividend within Banda Aceh (Indonesia) where you still see peace in an area which had long term localized conflict in place. It allowed those areas to be built up as well, to have investments in the infrastructure in the social sectors ...,\" he added. Agencies such as UNICEF said that while the immediate emergency was over, they remain committed to improving the lives of millions of children across the region. \"The lessons of the tsunami will never end. The funding will end, we can complete the construction, we can complete the project, but the intervention never ends ...,\" Cauldwell said. Oxfam International, which said it will close its response to the tsunami at the end of December, said it has provided housing to tsunami survivors in Aceh, helped restore the livelihoods of people in India and Sri Lanka, and funded the reconstruction of eight tsunami-affected secondary schools. \"The money we received allowed us not only to help meet the immediate emergency needs of tsunami-affected populations, but also to try to address the factors that made them vulnerable: not least poverty and a lack of influence over their own lives,\" Barbara Stocking, chair of the Oxfam International Tsunami Fund Board, said in a statement. \"What has been achieved is astounding. Hundreds of thousands of people are now living in better conditions than they were in before the tsunami ...,\" she added. UNICEF said the basic needs of children affected by the tsunami have been met -- more children are going to school as a result of improved facilities, and better nutrition, post-natal care and other life-saving interventions are helping those countries worst hit transition to developing regular services and programs. But long-term improvement of water and sanitation is critical, the agency said, and so is building new schools that are better able to withstand earthquakes. According to UNICEF and Oxfam, the response to the tsunami and the lessons learned have changed the way they deal with such emergencies. It highlighted the need for better coordination among partners and other organizations, and contributed to reforms in the way humanitarian relief is delivered.","highlights":"The devastation of the 2004 tsunami stretched across the Indian Ocean .\nHundreds of thousands left homeless, and poor and isolated communities worse off .\nHumanitarian groups have helped rebuild schools, homes, and get people working .\nGroups say long-term improvement of water and sanitation is critical .","id":"2d6f5c53854701cd0e4db68352cf7b1acf676c72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cyclist Chris Hoy has been knighted in the United Kingdom New Year Honors list, while every British gold medallist from the Beijing Olympic Games has also been rewarded. Hoy completes a remarkable year by being knighted in the United Kingdom New Years Honors list. In a move that breaks with tradition, triple-gold medallist Hoy will be knighted while still competing and will take part in London 2012 as Sir Chris. The 32-year-old told PA Sport: \"To become a knight from riding your bike, it's mad. It is an amazing honor and is also great for the sport.\" Hoy, who was made an MBE after winning his first gold in Athens in 2004, was also voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year earlier this month. The Scotsman was one of 10 Olympic cyclists to be honored, while a number of Olympic coaches and officials were also recognised. Rebecca Adlington, the 19-year-old swimmer who won two Olympic golds -- the first British woman to win an Olympic swimming gold for 48 years -- receives an OBE (Order of the British Empire) . Adlington said: \"I'm absolutely delighted to receive and accept the OBE -- it is fantastic to be recognised in the New Year Honors List. There are so many amazing names on the list, it's something I'll treasure for the rest of my life.\" Christine Ohuruogu, the only British athlete to win a track and field gold in Beijing when she claimed the 400m title, has been given an MBE (Member of the British Empire). \"It is nice to be called the Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion and now to be made an MBE is extra special,\" said Ohuruogu. Away from the Olympics, Lewis Hamilton receives an MBE after becoming the youngest ever Formula One world champion. \"It is a massive honor and incredible privilege. It is the most amazing culmination to what has been quite a year for me,\" said Hamilton.","highlights":"Track cyclist Chris Hoy knighted in the United Kingdom New Year Honors list .\nHoy will compete in the 2012 Olympics as Sir Chris after three golds in Beijing .\nEvery British gold medallist from the Beijing Olympics has also been rewarded .","id":"d2e96584b92ac662f67b605cc2505456d93f446d"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian energy monopoly Gazprom said Thursday it has cut off supplies of natural gas to Ukraine after a payment deadline expired. A gas-compressor and gas-holder station in Mryn, Ukraine. Gazprom said it had cut supplies to Ukraine Thursday. Gazprom had been threatening the move, saying months of negotiations with Ukraine had failed to resolve the issue of outstanding payments. The company says Ukraine owes about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries. Ukraine also disputes the new price set by Gazprom for 2009 deliveries, which was initially more than double the price from 2008. Gazprom has reassured the rest of Europe that its natural gas supply, which runs through Ukraine, will not be affected by the dispute with Kiev. Thursday, a Gazprom spokesman said on Russian state television the company had actually increased the deliveries to the rest of the continent. \"Gazprom will continue supplying gas for its consumers in Europe at full volume,\" the company's chief executive, Alexey Miller, said. \"We have an effective transit contract.\" Without natural gas, some Ukrainians could be in for chilly days and nights. The temperature at midday Thursday in Kiev was 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius), with a forecast high of only 32 F (0 C) and snow predicted overnight. Watch a report on Gazprom's threats to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine \u00bb . Ukraine's state-controlled energy company, Naftogaz Ukrainy, said Thursday it is ensuring domestic natural gas needs are covered by taking gas from underground storage facilities. \"All of Ukraine's consumers are fully secured,\" the company said in a statement. In Washington, the White House urged a resolution Thursday. \"The United States would like to see a restoration of normal deliveries,\" White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. \"The parties should be resolving their differences through good-faith negotiations, without supply cutoffs.\" The frigid weather is of particular concern, the White House said. \"We urge both sides to keep in mind the humanitarian implications of any interruption of gas supply in the winter,\" Johndroe said. Naftogaz Ukrainy also disputed Gazprom's claim that it owes for past deliveries, saying Thursday it has paid its debt to Gazprom in full, though it declined to give a figure. Another part of the dispute centers on Gazprom's price hike for 2009 gas deliveries. Gazprom had wanted to more than double Ukraine's payments, but Wednesday it offered a lower price. Ukraine, which currently pays about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, balked at the figure offered, saying it simply can't afford to pay the new price. It is the second time in three years Gazprom has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine. The company made good on its threat on January 1, 2006, but turned the supply back on a day later. Russia is the world's biggest producer of natural gas and supplies Europe with more than 40 percent of its imports -- mainly via the pipelines through Ukraine. Naftogaz said in its statement Thursday that it would ensure the uninterrupted flow of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine, but only under existing arrangements. It indicated some gas deliveries to Europe could be halted in Ukraine if Naftogaz fails to reach a new agreement with Gazprom. Although gas is still flowing to Europe, there are also concerns in Russia that the amount could be reduced if Ukraine siphons off some of the gas headed to the west. Naftogaz said it will continue negotiating with Gazprom to address the issues.","highlights":"Russia's energy monopoly Gazprom cuts off gas supplies to Ukraine .\nCompany says Ukraine owes it about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries .\nGazprom says supplies to other European customers won't be affected .\nGazprom cut supplies on January 1, 2006, but turned supply back on a day later .","id":"414d0a79ccb6ed2424621d1364b359096d989a72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said. The Dignity arrives in Tyre, Lebanon, after it was reportedly rammed by an Israeli military vessel Tuesday. CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed. It was flying the flag of Gibraltar. The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers -- physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists from the Free Gaza Solidarity Movement -- who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory. Also on board was former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney. Penhaul said an Israeli patrol boat shined its spotlight on the Dignity, and then it and another patrol boat shadowed the Dignity for about a half hour before the collision. One patrol boat \"very severely rammed\" the Dignity, Penhaul said. The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities, the captain said. But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the patrol boat had warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area. Palmor said there was no response to the radio message, and the vessel then tried to out-maneuver the Israeli patrol boat, leading to the collision. Watch Penhaul describe the boat damage \u00bb . The captain and crew said their vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said, but Palmor called those allegations \"absurd.\" \"There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody,\" Palmor said. \"I would call it ramming. Let's just call it as it is,\" McKinney said after the boat docked in Lebanon. \"Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side. Watch Cynthia McKinney discuss the collision \u00bb . \"Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis -- the aggressiveness of the Israeli military,\" she said. The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza. Israel controls the waters off Gaza's coast and routinely blocks ships from coming into the Palestinian territory as part of an ongoing blockade that also applies to the Israel-Gaza border. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the blockade on Gaza, which has restricted the delivery of emergency aid and fuel supplies. Tuesday's collision was so severe, Penhaul said, that the passengers were ordered to put on their life vests and be ready to get in lifeboats. The Dignity began taking on water, but the crew managed to pump it out of the hull long enough for the boat to reach shore. \"It could have ended with people drowning if they hit us more square on,\" Dignity's captain, Denis Healey, said. \"It could have gone down in minutes.\" Palmor said the vessel refused assistance after the incident. The boat was carrying boxes of relief supplies, volunteers and journalists to Gaza, the Palestinian territory that has been subject to an intense Israeli bombing campaign since Saturday. Israel Tuesday lambasted McKinney -- the Green Party's 2008 candidate for the U.S. presidency and a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia -- for taking part in the maritime mission. In a written statement, the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast, based in Atlanta, Georgia, said McKinney \"has taken it upon herself to commit an act of provocation,\" endangering herself and the crew. \"We regret that during this time of crisis, while Israel is battling with the terrorist organization of Hamas and defending its citizens, that we are forced to deal with Ms. McKinney's irresponsible behavior,\" the statement read. The trip was the Free Gaza Solidarity Movement's sixth in as many months. Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza on Saturday in what Defense Minister Ehud Barak called an \"all-out war\" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007. The Israeli military says its goal is to stop a recent barrage of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. Watch the chaos in Gaza and Israel \u00bb . The Palestinian death toll has topped 375, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday. At least 60 civilians have been killed in Gaza, U.N. officials said. Hamas has continued to fire rockets at southern Israeli towns since the airstrikes began, Israel says. Six Israelis have been killed -- five of them civilians. Hamas has vowed to defend Gaza in the face of what it calls continued Israeli aggression. Each side blames the other for violating an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which formally expired December 19, but had been weakening for months.","highlights":"NEW: Israel scolds former congresswoman for being on Gaza-bound boat .\nIsraeli naval vessel, boat with medical volunteers collide in Mediterranean .\nBoat's crew contends naval vessel rammed it intentionally .\nIsrael denies intentionally hitting boat carrying journalists, medical supplies .","id":"69edff3a8e78207d641d6ba3a7deaa684f867b7c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German sailors foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, the German Defense Ministry said. Pirates like these threaten the Somalian coast. The German navy frigate Karlsruhe responded to an emergency call from the Wabi Al Arab Thursday morning, sending helicopters to the stricken vessel. When the helicopters arrived, the pirates broke off the attack, the ministry said. A crew member on the Wabi Al Arab was wounded when the pirates attempted to board the vessel. He was flown by helicopter for treatment aboard the Karlsruhe, the ministry said. The German sailors captured the pirates and disarmed them, destroying the weapons, the ministry said. The German government in Berlin later ordered the Somali pirates released because they were not caught while harassing German interests, according to BBC. The Karlsruhe joined the fight against the pirates on Tuesday from Djibouti, the defense ministry said. On Wednesday a top Japanese official said the country was considering sending vessels to join U.S., Russian, NATO and Indian vessels in the waters off Somalia, a key shipping route that sees around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels each year. China said Tuesday that two destroyers and a supply ship from its navy would set sail for the region on Friday to protect Chinese merchant ships. Watch why China's dispatch of forces is significant \u00bb . The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last week aimed at combating piracy along the Horn of Africa by allowing military forces to chase pirate onto land in cases of \"hot pursuit.\" The Security Council resolution, which passed unanimously, expands upon existing counter-piracy tools, including a stipulation that would allow for national and regional military forces to chase pirates onto land -- specifically into Somalia, where many of the pirates have their bases. Over 124 incidents -- attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful hijackings -- have been recorded to date this year, according to Kenyan Seafarers Association.","highlights":"German government later ordered pirates released, according to BBC report .\nJapan was considering sending vessels, a top official said Wednesday .\nWaters off Somalia is a key shipping route that sees 20,000 vessels each year .","id":"a5c1959a4d1ab2a5f26b2737bc943ebe19d5cd78"} -{"article":"ZURICH, Switzerland (CNN) -- As I watched Cristiano Ronaldo receive the FIFA World Player of the Year award in Zurich, I couldn't help feeling a deep sense of satisfaction, as the 23 year-old Portuguese international once again proved all his doubters wrong. Cristiano Ronaldo shows emotion after being named the FIFA World Player of the Year for 2008. Especially the ones in England. In the days leading up to the awards ceremony, there were various rumors circulating that the Manchester United star was going to be pipped by Leo Messi on Tuesday night. I was asked several times in London whether I really thought Ronaldo was going to win. Whether he really deserved it. It was as if many in the British press didn't want him to take home another award. Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo is shown enough respect? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. The fierce attack on his lifestyle by the tabloids after he crashed his Ferrari last week just accentuated the fact that in the UK, he still has earned little respect. Never mind that he was about to become the first Premier League Player to win this prestigious award. Never mind he has been the competition's biggest ambassador and promoter overseas. Too many in the English media, he was still a diver on the field, and a petulant rock star off it. Now I am not going to sit here and say that my compatriot Cristiano is perfect. He isn't and he makes mistakes. But the same can be said about Wayne Rooney or any of the other English internationals. When Rooney charges down the referee and shouts obscenities in his face without even being booked, as was the case in last weekend's match against Chelsea, is he called arrogant or petulant? No. When he goes seven or eight matches without a goal, is he suddenly branded overrated? No. So all I am asking for here is a little respect. If Ronaldo was English, I am sure in the eyes of the British press he would be virtually untouchable, but although he's not, just give him a break. After all, he had an incredible 2007\/2008 season which saw him score 42 goals in 49 matches and win virtually every major trophy on offer. And he's a great ambassador for the game. Pedro Pinto is a CNN sports correspondent based in London.","highlights":"Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Player of the Year for 2008 in Zurich, Monday .\nCNN's Pedro Pinto says he is not shown enough respect by media .\nPinto: \"Ronaldo is a great ambassador for the game\"","id":"558f8a1e7cf49e418383e3e94157cb33364de270"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Real Madrid have failed in ar bid to overturn UEFA's ruling denying them the right to register both Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Lassana Diarra to play in the Champions League knockout stages. Real must decide whether to register Huntelaar, above, or Diarra for the Champions League KO stage. UEFA's appeals body made the decision on Tuesday after Madrid challenged the original ruling made by European football's governing body last week. Regulations specify that clubs can only register one player who has already played in Europe that season to represent them in the latter stages of the Champions League or UEFA Cup the same campaign. Both Diarra and Huntelaar had played in the UEFA Cup this season, for Premier League Portsmouth and Dutch club Ajax respectively, prior to joining Madrid earlier this month. Madrid claimed they had a \"different interpretation\" of the rule, but both the Spanish club's initial request and subsequent appeal have now been thrown out. A statement confirmed: \"UEFA's Appeals Body today upheld the decision taken by the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body on 8 January, in accordance with article 17.18 of the [UEFA Champions League] competition regulations. \"They rejected an appeal by Real Madrid CF in relation to the Spanish club's request to be able to register two players who have already competed in UEFA competition this season, as part of their A-list squad for the knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League.\" Madrid must now decide whether to accept the finding or pursue the issue further at the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.","highlights":"Real Madrid fail in their bid to overturn UEFA ruling regarding player eligibility .\nReal wanted to register newcomers Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Lassana Diarra .\nUEFA say only one player per club can appear for two sides in same season .","id":"fa2fbcacbe752c4e2ee349767a83e972ed1fb529"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Game show host and comedian Howie Mandel's irregular heartbeat scare is over, his publicist said Tuesday. Howie Mandel had an irregular heartbeat, but he did not have a heart attack, his publicist said. \"Howie has been released from the hospital and will be back at work tomorrow,\" said Lewis Kay. \"He appreciates everyone's concern.\" Mandel, 53, checked into a Toronto hospital Monday so doctors could monitor his condition, Kay said. He was in Toronto, filming segments for a new show \"Howie Do It.\" The hour-long prank show debuted on NBC Friday. Mandel is the host of the American version of the game show \"Deal or No Deal,\" which has brought huge ratings for NBC.","highlights":"NEW: Howie Mandel released from Toronto hospital .\nHost of \"Deal or No Deal\" had been admitted with irregular heartbeat .\nComedian was in Toronto, Canada, filming segments for a new show, \"Howie Do It\"","id":"e1aa3cc0557bc36c8bdb78a78bc24e1770db05cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has been ruled out for a minimum of three weeks after suffering a foot injury during the 3-0 Premier League win over title rivals Chelsea. France defender Patrice Evra will be out for a minimum of three weeks after hurting ankle ligaments. It was Evra's first game back after a four-match suspension imposed by the Football Association for his involvement in a post-match fracas involving groundstaff at Stamford Bridge last season. The French left-back was hurt after firing over a cross for Wayne Rooney's goal and now faces another spell on the sidelines as United chase trophies on four fronts. Evra suffered ligament damage and manager Alex Ferguson said: \"He will be out for three weeks minimum and maybe four. It shouldn't be any more than that. \"He just went over on his foot and has done the little ligament in his foot, so we need to get the swelling down and that will take about 7-10 days.\" Evra sits out Wednesday's Premier League clash with Wigan, the trip to Bolton three days later and next week's League Cup semifinal return at home to Derby when United will be expecting to overturn a 1-0 deficit. Central defender Rio Ferdinand remains on the sidelines for at least another week although a scan on his back problem confirmed there is no long-term damage. Ferdinand, out for a month, needs more rest and Jonny Evans will continue in central defense with Wes Brown still two weeks away from a comeback after ankle surgery. Ferguson hopes Ferdinand will be back for the televised FA Cup fourth round home clash against Tottenham on Saturday January 24.","highlights":"Manchester Utd defender Patrice Evra sidelined for minimum of three weeks .\nFrenchman hurt ankle ligaments during 3-0 Premier League win over Chelsea .\nEngland defender Rio Ferdinand is out for another week with a back problem .","id":"e6a8ba1f79db8f0ef71ce4e393afa28c1d1ba9a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa inflicted the first home series defeat on Australia in almost 16 years as they wrapped up a nine-wicket win over the world's number one ranked Test nation in Melbourne on Tuesday. South African captain Graeme Smith led from the front with 75 as his team wrapped up victory. Captain Graeme Smith hit a fluent 75 as his side successfully passed a modest victory target of 183 on the final day at the MCG to take an unassailable 2-0 lead. It was the South African's first-ever Test series triumph in Australia and victory in the third and final match in Sydney will see them leapfrog the home side at the top of the global rankings. Hashim Amla (30 not out) scored the winning runs shortly after lunch as South Africa became the first team to overcome Australia at home since the West Indies in 1992-93. South Africa were never under any pressure in their run chase and did not lose a wicket until just before lunch when the inspirational Smith was trapped leg before wicket by Nathan Hauritz. Smith had dominated a 121-run opening stand with Neil McKenzie, hitting 10 boundaries. McKenzie struggled to a half century and survived strong lbw shouts from Brett Lee, who was bowling despite an injured foot that will keep him out of the Sydney Test. South Africa's victory was set up by a brilliant maiden Test century from JP Duminy, who shared a stunning 180-run ninth wicket partnership with pace bowler Dale Steyn. It gave the tourists a priceless 65-run lead on first innings before man of the match Steyn worked his magic with the ball as Australia were bowled out on the fourth day for 247 in their second innings. The pugnacious Smith was virtually lost for words in his victory speech. \"It has been such a special moment for all of us, it has been an incredible team effort,\" he said. \"I have been smiling non-stop since we hit the winning runs. \"To be 2-0 up after this game was something we only dreamt of.\" South Africa won the first Test in Perth from an unlikely position, chasing 414 for victory for the loss of only four wickets.","highlights":"South Africa beat Australia by nine wickets in second Test in Melbourne .\nVictory gives the South Africans an unassailable 2-0 lead in their series .\nSouth Africa won first Test of the series in Perth by six wickets .","id":"d63b31cd3d197d40a6f2ee847a1c1a60123cb959"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anyone who doubts Roland Burris' qualifications to serve as the next senator from Illinois may want to head to Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery. Roland Burris has erected a mausoleum listing his accompishments in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery. There, Burris, whom embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed to succeed President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate on Tuesday, has erected a granite mausoleum listing his many accomplishments. Under the seal of the state of Illinois and the words \"Trail Blazer,\" Burris, 71, has listed his many firsts in granite, including being the state's first African-American attorney general and the state's first African-American comptroller. The memorial also notes that Burris was the first African-American exchange student to Hamburg University in Germany from Southern Illinois University in 1959. There appears to be enough room to add \"U.S. senator\" to the memorial, but Burris may never get a chance to serve in Washington. A Senate Democratic aide told CNN on Wednesday that plans were in the works to prevent Burris from being seated in the Senate. After Blagojevich made the surprise move to appoint Obama's successor, Senate Democrats praised Burris but said they could not accept any appointment by Blagojevich after his arrest on corruption charges earlier this month. Federal prosecutors say he conspired to \"sell\" Obama's Senate seat for campaign donations and other favors.","highlights":"Roland Burris has erected a mausoleum in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery .\nGov. Rod Blagojevich picked Burris to succeed President-elect Obama in the Senate .\nMemorial lists firsts, including being the first black attorney general for Illinois .","id":"2a3a35e8f66a570abaa94c5876140a93de17d52f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Argentine coach Diego Maradona has urged Carlos Tevez to quit Manchester United at the end of the season and head for Italy. Tevez has been advised by Argentine coach Maradona to leave Old Trafford at the end of the season. Maradona watched United trounce Chelsea 3-0 last weekend at Old Trafford where striker Tevez remained on the bench despite a rousing reception when he went on a touchline warm-up during the game. \"I saw the Manchester United match. They won, but did so without Tevez. This situation is not good for him. For sure, certain things are happening which mean his departure is nearing,\" Maradona told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport. \"Italy, and Inter (Milan) in particular, would be great for him. Among other things, the fact that his contract is soon to expire facilitates a change of shirt.\" Weekend reports claimed that United manager Alex Ferguson has already pinpointed Lyon's French international striker Karim Benzema as his chief summer target. Benzema, whose contract runs until 2013, made his mark against United in a Champions League tie last season when he scored in a first leg tie. He hit the target 20 times as Lyon secured a seventh straining French League title and he has netted five times in this season's Champions League. Lyon are said to be willing to cash in at the right price with Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid also monitoring the situation. Media reports said Lyon would want around \u00a340 million (45 million euros) for Benzema while the asking price for Tevez -- he joined United on a two-year loan -- is likely to be around \u00a332 million. Tevez, who hit the headlines during two seasons in Brazil with Corinthians, has struggled to retain a starting place at Old Trafford following his controversial stay at West Ham. He has indicated he would respond positively to any approach from Real Madrid, but is sure to take on board the advice of Maradona who twice led Napoli to the Serie A title after joining the Italian club from Barcelona. Meanwhile, West Ham face a fresh inquiry after the FA and Premier League launched an investigation relating to dealings with Tevez's representatives after the club had initially been fined \u00a35.5m for breaching league rules over third-party agreements. It follows the findings of an arbitration tribunal in favour of Sheffield United and against West Ham last year which decided Tevez should not have been able to play for the Hammers at the end of the 2006-07 season. Premier League West Ham insist that they have nothing to hide.","highlights":"Diego Maradona urges Carlos Tevez to quit Manchester Utd at end of season .\nArgentine coach believes striker would be better off joining Italy's Inter Milan .\nTevez on bench when Maradona watched United beat Chelsea at the weekend .","id":"0c5bbc09d83a09bbb1d80d5e1628a50c753b7acd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst and a fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington and at New York University's Center on Law and Security. His most recent book is \"The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader.\" Peter Bergen says it's crucial to correctly frame the nature of a war before beginning it. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama and his foreign policy advisers and speechwriters are wrestling with one of the most important speeches of his presidency, his inaugural address. One of their toughest conceptual challenges is how to describe and recast what the Bush administration has consistently termed the \"war on terror.\" The dean of military strategists, Carl von Clausewitz, explains the importance of this decision-making in his treatise \"On War\": \"The first, the supreme, the most decisive act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish...the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into something that is alien to its nature.\" Clausewitz's excellent advice about the absolute necessity of properly defining the war upon which a nation is about to embark was ignored by Bush administration officials who instead declared an open-ended and ambiguous \"war on terror\" after the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001. Bush took the nation to war against a tactic, rather than a war against a specific enemy, which was obviously al Qaeda and anyone allied to it. When the United States went to war against the Nazis and the Japanese during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and his congressional supporters did not declare war against U-boats and kamikaze pilots, but on the Nazi state and Imperial Japan. The war on terror, sometimes known as the \"Global War on Terror\" or by the clunky acronym GWOT, became the lens through which the Bush administration judged almost all of its foreign policy decisions. That proved to be dangerously counterproductive on several levels. The GWOT framework propelled the Bush administration into its disastrous entanglement in Iraq. It had nothing to do with 9\/11 but was launched under the rubric of the war on terror and the erroneous claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The theory was that he might give such weapons to terrorists, including al Qaeda to whom he was supposedly allied, and that he therefore threatened American interests. None of this, of course, turned out to be true. The Bush administration's approach to the war on terror collided badly with another of its doctrines, spreading democracy in the Middle East as a panacea to reduce radicalism. It pushed for elections in the Palestinian territories in which, in early 2006, the more radical Hamas won a resounding victory, propelled to power on a wave of popular revulsion for the incompetence and corruption of the Fatah party that had dominated Palestinian politics since the 1960s. Imprisoned by its war on terror framework, the Bush administration supported Israel in a disastrous war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Hezbollah is not only a terrorist group but is also part of the rickety Lebanese government and runs social welfare services across the country, yet for the Bush administration its involvement in terrorism was all that mattered. As is now widely understood in Israel, the war against Hezbollah was a moral and tactical defeat for the Israeli military and government. Events in the current Israeli incursion in Gaza will determine whether history repeats itself. Under the banner of the war on terror, the Bush administration also tied itself in conceptual knots conflating the threat from al Qaeda with Shiite groups like Hezbollah and the ayatollahs in Iran. In 2006, for instance, President Bush claimed that \"the Sunni and Shiite extremist represent different faces of the same threat.\" In reality, Sunni and Shiite extremists have been killing each other in large numbers for years in countries from Pakistan to Iraq. The groups have differing attitudes toward the United States, which Sunni extremists attacked in 1993 and again on 9\/11, while Shiite militants have never done so. So, how to reconceptualize the GWOT? Contrary to a common view among Europeans, who have lived through the bombing campaigns of various nationalist and leftist terror groups for decades, al Qaeda is not just another criminal\/terrorist group that can be dealt with by police action and law enforcement alone. After all, a terrorist organization like the Irish Republican Army would call in warnings before its attacks and its single largest massacre killed 29 people. By contrast, al Qaeda has declared war on the United States repeatedly -- as it did for the first time to a Western audience during Osama bin Laden's 1997 interview with CNN. Following that declaration of war, the terror group attacked American embassies, a U.S. warship, the Pentagon and the financial heart of the United States, killing thousands of civilians without warning; acts of war by any standard. Al Qaeda is obviously at war with the United States and so to respond by simply recasting the GWOT as the GPAT, the Global Police Action Against Terrorists, would be foolish and dangerous. What kind of war then should the United States fight against al Qaeda? For that we should learn some lessons from the conceptual errors of the Bush administration. Nine days after 9\/11, Bush addressed Congress in a speech watched live by tens of millions of Americans in which he said that al Qaeda followed in the footsteps \"of the murderous ideologies of the 20th century...They follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism,\" implying that the fight against al Qaeda would be similar to World War II or the Cold War. For the Bush administration, painting the conflict in such existential terms had the benefit of casting the president as the heroic reincarnation of Winston Churchill and anyone who had the temerity to question him as the reincarnation of Hitler's arch-appeaser, Neville Chamberlain. But this portrayal of the war on terror was massively overwrought. The Nazis occupied and subjugated most of Europe and instigated a global conflict that killed tens of millions. And when the United States fought the Nazis, the country spent 40 percent of its gross domestic product to do so and fielded millions of soldiers. In his inaugural address, Obama should say that the United States is indeed at \"war against al Qaeda and its allies,\" but that as Roosevelt said in his inaugural address in 1933, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. If Americans are not terrorized by terrorists, then the U.S. has won against them. Al Qaeda and its allies are threats to the United States and Americans living and working overseas, but they are far from all-powerful. Barring an exceptional event like September 11, 2001, in any given year Americans are more likely to die of snake bites or lightning strikes than a terrorist attack. Despite the hyperventilating rhetoric of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda's amateur investigations into weapons of mass destruction do not compare to the very real possibility of nuclear conflagration that we faced during the Cold War. There are relatively few adherents of Binladen-ism in the West today, while there were tens of millions of devotees of communism and fascism. Obama should also make it clear that instead of the Bush formulation of \"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,\" the Obama administration doctrine will be, \"Anyone who is against the terrorists is with us.\" After all it is only al Qaeda and its several affiliates in countries like Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria and allied groups such as the Taliban that kill U.S. soldiers and civilians and attack American interests around the globe. Everyone else in the world is a potential or actual ally in the fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates, because those organizations threaten almost every category of institution, government and ethnic grouping. This is the first of two commentaries on the war on terror. Read the second piece, Peter Bergen's commentary on what principles Barack Obama should follow in waging war against al Qaeda and its allies, Friday, January 9 on CNN.com . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen.","highlights":"Peter Bergen: Bush never correctly framed the \"global war on terror\"\nHe says the president went to war against the tactic of terrorism .\nInstead, Bergen says, the U.S. should be leading a war vs. al Qaeda .\nBergen: al Qaeda is a formidable enemy, but not the equivalent of fascism .","id":"6eb4f450b2fca771bbb5e1988b1dcb98b346cf96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He had a 1966 Volkswagen bus, scraggly beard and a penchant for the arts. She had blonde hair and liked the Grateful Dead. That was all they needed. Craig Rutman poses poolside with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir before a 1997 show in Reno, Nevada. \"I knew right away she was not like other girls, other girls,\" muses Mark Goldfarb of Woodstock, New York, quoting the Grateful Dead song, \"Scarlet Begonias.\" On a fateful day 28 years ago, Goldfarb began a shaggy odyssey of love at a Grateful Dead concert when he literally bumped into his future wife, Diane. Over the years, he has been to more than 125 Grateful Dead concerts. The band literally changed his life. Goldfarb, who now makes moccasins for a living, is excited about the Grateful Dead's new tour. The surviving members of the band will be reuniting for 19 shows this year. He went to see them during their last organized tour five years ago. \"What was special about the Dead is you had a group of highly talented musicians who were able to get a sense of the audience,\" Goldfarb said. \"When the audience was off, the band would be off. There was a lot of back-and-forth energy.\" Back in the late '70s and well into the '80s, Goldfarb traveled the West Coast in a Volkswagen van playing music for a belly-dancing troupe at Renaissance festivals. Along the way, he went to Grateful Dead concerts whenever he could. He sent a photo of his now short-haired self to show the \"then and now\" contrast. Though he lives now in Woodstock, New York, he missed the two large music festivals in his town. A businessman now, Goldfarb says he feels he's grown up in a lot of ways. The old bus is gone, but he dreams of getting another. iReport.com: See the before-and-after contrast of this Deadhead . \"I was a huge fan, I still love the music, but like I said times change. Interests change,\" he says. Readers across the board said the band has stood the test of time because of the personal connection they brought to the music they played. iReport.com: What does the Grateful Dead mean to you? Indeed, the revival has Craig Rutman of Apex, North Carolina, excited to revisit his past. His brother, a caterer, often provided food for the band and this gave Rutman access to members of the band. He has seen more than 200 shows and been backstage to meet the band. He and his young daughter Laura met bandmember Bob Weir poolside in Reno, Nevada, in 1997. Rutman said Weir is always cordial and friendly. \"Whether it was backstage or poolside, whenever I saw him, Bobby always took the time with whoever came by to talk, share a joke or sign an autograph,\" Rutman said. After the pool-side meeting, the Rutmans attended what would be the toddler's first show. iReport.com: See photos poolside with Weir and at the concert later that day . \"I sat way in the back of a general admission show to keep her from the crowd and the loud music, but we had a wonderful time nonetheless,\" Rutman said. Steve Maaske of Omaha, Nebraska, said one of his fondest memories is seeing the band in East Troy, Wisconsin, on the \"Wave the flag\" tour. He even plans to make the Chicago, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado, stops on the current schedule. It's a good year for a new Dead tour, he says. \"We have a new 'just off the shelf' president in Barack Obama, some clear optimism for the future of this country, and hey, gas prices for that VW bus are lookin' pretty good about now.\" iReport.com: See a picture of a colorful Volkswagen bus at the show . Greg Sarafan, 19, of Suffern, New York, last saw the band at a summertime Obama rally at Pennsylvania State University. He's hoping to catch them on tour, and says he was amazed to see the diversity of people interested in the band. \"I was sitting next to people that were my father's age and older. It was an interesting experience,\" he said. Sarafan likes to create works of art inspired by the band and has decorated his car with dancing multi-colored bears. He says the music is timeless, and he learned about it from his parents. iReport.com: See a picture of the tie-dyed fruit falling near the tree . Like his father many years before him, Sarafan as a young man snuck out of the house to see the Grateful Dead perform. Does Dad know? \"He does now,\" responds Sarafan, who says he was in trouble at first, but things slowly changed between father and son. \"When I reminded [my father] that he did sneak away to see the Grateful Dead, he kinda didn't care as much,\" he said. Geoff Feusahrens of Monterey, California, also represents the younger generation of Grateful Dead fans. He was born in 1979 and never got to see the band in its heyday, but likes classic rock and the Grateful Dead in particular. \"I like how they are a jam band,\" says Feusahrens, who has seen the band perform about eight times. \"You go to their concerts and you hang out. There's lots of people there and good music and history and I just fell in love with it.\" He got married October 11, 2008, and decided to have a cake decorated with a Grateful Dead motif. Though the wedding was mostly traditional, he had Deadhead cufflinks and rock-themed tables at the reception. One of the tables had a Dead theme and \"Eyes of the World,\" one of the band's songs, was played. iReport.com: See Feusahrens all gussied up for the occasion . He plans to see the last show on the 2009 tour when it stops nearby in Mountain View and previously saw them perform during the 2004 series. The band figures importantly in his life. Feusahrens and Goldfarb, too, have in common precious love affairs joined together by the Grateful Dead. Perhaps the band's own lyrics from that same song, \"Scarlet Begonias,\" say it best. iReport.com: See Goldfarb's expression of \"grateful\" feelings about his wife . \"Well, I ain't always right but I've never been wrong. Seldom turns out the way it does in a song.\"","highlights":"iReport.com: Grateful Dead tributes shared as band plans new tour in 2009 .\nMark Goldfarb met his wife at a Dead concert and drove a Volkswagen bus .\nCraig Rutman has seen more than 200 shows and met the band members .\nSteve Maaske says now is the perfect time for a tour after the historic election .","id":"56fbc56ec0e9af16634e1f86f4980981770578c0"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Royal Dutch Shell said Tuesday that it may not be able to meet its oil supply obligations in Nigeria after an attack on its major pipeline. Heavily armed Nigerian rebels pose a constant threat to oil pipelines in the country. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a rebel group, said \"detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters\" sabotaged two of Shell's pipelines early Monday. After a helicopter flyover of the area, Shell confirmed that parts of its large Nembe Creek \"trunk line\" were damaged, company spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen said. The company shut down some production \"to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,\" she said. Hours later, it declared \"force majeure,\" a legal term meaning it could not meet its supply obligations in the region because of the attack. \"[Shell] is working hard to repair the line and restore production,\" Wittgen said. Nigeria is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, and attacks by rebels have helped fuel the year-long spike in crude oil prices. It's one of many factors pushing up the price of gas in the U.S., where one in every 10 barrels of oil comes from Nigeria. MEND -- the largest rebel group -- has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006. It has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment. MEND hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Its attacks on oil facilities have taken a toll. \"Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,\" said Jim LeCamp, a senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management, which manages assets for wealthy clients worldwide. Exxon and Shell are two of several companies that have been extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day in Nigeria. Recent rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent -- meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days. That decrease in production comes at a time of increased demand from oil-hungry regions such as China, Russia and Latin America. \"Anytime there's a disruption there, it really affects the system,\" LeCamp said in a recent interview with CNN.","highlights":"Shell says it may not be able to meet supply contracts after Nigerian attack .\nTwo of Shell's oil pipelines sabotaged by rebel groups on Monday .\nCompany is working to repair the lines and get production running normally .","id":"bf34aefcb26fef8138941c9908fceb2376ed68d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Russian energy monopoly Gazprom on Wednesday said it would stop natural gas deliveries to Ukraine over a dispute about payments. Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller accused Ukraine of using the issue as \"a political bargaining chip.\" Gazprom chief Alexey Miller said talks with Ukraine have been \"unproductive\" and accused Ukraine of using the issue as \"a political bargaining chip.\" \"The talks with Ukraine haven't brought any concrete result ... Gazprom hasn't received any money from Ukraine as payment for the supplies of Russian gas,\" Miller said in a statement on the Gazprom Web site. The state-controlled Gazprom said supplies to its other European customers would not be affected by Ukraine's cut-off, which the company said would take place at 10 a.m. Thursday (2 a.m. ET). Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also assured the European Union that there would be no disruptions in deliveries, the Kiev Post reported. Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko called \"for every effort to be made for the earliest possible signature of an agreement with Russia,\" Yuschenko energy security commissioner, Bohdan Sokolovsky, told the Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday evening. Watch a report on Gazprom's threats to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine \u00bb . It is the second time in three years Gazprom has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine. The company made good on its threat on January 1, 2006, but turned the spigots back on a day later. Russia, the world's biggest producer of natural gas, supplies Europe with more than 40 percent of its imports -- mainly via pipelines that cross the former Soviet republic of Ukraine. Ukraine owes Gazprom about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries. Ukraine's state-controlled energy company, Naftogaz Ukrainy, initially denied it owed the payment to Gazprom, but later retreated from that claim. The Kiev Post reported Tuesday that Naftogaz said it had paid $1.5 billion toward the debt, but Gazprom said it had not received the payment. Also at issue is Gazprom's contract for 2009 deliveries. Gazprom had wanted to more than double Ukraine's payments, but on Wednesday offered a much lesser payment of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Ukraine, which currently pays about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, balked at that figure. \"We have heard a negative reply to the offers from the Russian side on the favorable terms of gas supply to Ukraine in 2009, and we are getting the impression that there are political forces in Ukraine which have a strong interest in the gas standoff between our two countries,\" Miller said.","highlights":"Russian gas giant Gazprom says it will cut gas supply 10 a.m. Thursday (2 a.m. ET)\nCompany says Ukraine owes it about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries .\nGazprom said supplies to other European customers won't be affected by action .\nGazprom cut supplies on January 1, 2006, but turned spigots back on a day later .","id":"f5ba7bfd3a297c525fb15e4f5caa15f355da81f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Louisiana teenager whose 2006 arrest in the racially charged \"Jena 6\" assault case drew thousands of protesters tried to commit suicide days after a separate arrest last week, a police report says. Mychal Bell was released in September 2007 and later agreed to a plea deal in the beating of a classmate. Mychal Bell, who was arrested last week after allegedly stealing clothes worth $370 from a department store, told investigators he shot himself Monday evening \"because he was tired of all the media attention,\" the report says. The high school senior's mother and his grandmother also told an investigator that he'd indicated \"he did not feel like he could live anymore\" because of media coverage of the shoplifting allegations, according to the report. Earlier, Bell's attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing, told CNN that Bell's family told her he'd accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun. According to the police report, however, an officer responded to a 911 call from his grandmother's Monroe, Louisiana, home, where Bell lives. The grandmother, Rosie Simmons, told the officer that she had hidden the gun after the shooting \"for Mychal's safety so he did not try to shot [sic] himself again,\" according to the report. Bell, 18, suffered a wound to the upper right chest, the report says. Powell-Lexing told CNN that Bell had surgery Monday night, and Monroe police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten said the wound was not life-threatening. Bell was being treated Tuesday at a hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. In December 2006, Bell was one of a half-dozen black teenagers who faced felony charges in the beating of a white classmate in the town of Jena, Louisiana, an incident that followed months of racial tensions in the community of about 3,000 people. The case of the \"Jena 6\" drew national attention from civil rights groups that said the charges were excessive, and an estimated 15,000-plus people turned out for a September 2007 rally in Jena on the youths' behalf. Bell eventually pleaded guilty to battery in a juvenile court and later moved to Monroe, about 70 miles north of Jena. On Christmas Eve, Bell was arrested at the Pecanland Mall in Monroe and charged with shoplifting, simple battery and resisting arrest, Monroe Police Lt. Jeff Davis said Tuesday. Bell was released on $1,300 bond, and the case was assigned to city court. Watch CNN's Sean Callebs report on the case \u00bb . On Monday, Simmons and Bell's mother, Melissa Bell, told investigators they heard a gunshot from the teenager's room and found him on the bed, according to the police report. \"Rosie and M. Bell stated Mychal had made comments over the past two days that because of the current media attention he had because of a shoplifting arrest he did not feel like he could live anymore,\" the police report says. Monroe police Lt. Jeff Harris said investigators do not know whose gun Bell used. Bell's Christmas Eve arrest came after security guards at the shopping center were told Bell and a male friend were seen stuffing clothing into a bag in a menswear section of Dillard's, according to the investigative report. Once spotted, the men split up, police said. Bell, chased by security guards, ran from the store to a parking lot, where he tried to hide under a car, Davis said. As a store security officer tried to pull Bell out, \"Bell swung his arms wildly\" and hit the guard with his elbow, the report says. Davis said the guard was hit in the face. Bell admitted to the thefts, which police said included four shirts and a pair of jeans, Davis said. The merchandise was photographed by store security and returned to stock, he added. Bell was taken to jail and booked. Davis said the second man escaped. Powell-Lexing told CNN her client went to the mall with someone to return a shirt, for which he had a receipt. The person with Bell did the shoplifting, and Bell was caught in the middle, the attorney said. Powell-Lexing said Bell has been trying to stay out of trouble since the Jena arrest, and that he has been on the verge of getting a college football scholarship. Bell attends a Monroe high school, but has not been allowed to play high school football since his arrest in Jena, where he was a running back. In April, after his move to Monroe, Bell told CNN that he wanted to keep his life on the straight and narrow in part because of the support he received during the Jena case. \"I feel like [after] all the people came down and supported me [and] gave money to the defense fund, I feel like ... if I would do something now, I would let the whole country down,\" he said. CNN's Sean Callebs and CNN Radio's Amanda Moyer contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police report: Mychal Bell shot himself because he's tired of media attention .\nBell was arrested last week on suspicion of shoplifting .\nHe is accused of stealing clothes worth $370 from a department store .\nBell was a defendant in the racially charged case in Louisiana .","id":"890deccbe5bef58962617b66983fe74c8b65986c"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A British soldier was killed on New Year's Day by an explosion in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Friday. A British unit on patrol in Helmand province's Garmsir district, where another soldier has died. The soldier, who served with the 6th Battalion The Rifles, had been taking part in a routine patrol in the Garmsir district of Helmand province when he was killed, the ministry said. \"It is deeply saddening to confirm the loss of a British soldier who died while helping to provide security in southern Helmand,\" said Commander Paula Rowe, a spokeswoman for Task Force Helmand. \"His family, friends and all those who knew and worked with him will mourn his loss -- our heartfelt sympathies go to them all at this terrible time.\" Britain suffered its worst year of losses in Afghanistan in 2008, with 51 British troops killed. It was more than in any other year since the mission began in October 2001, the defense ministry said.","highlights":"British soldier killed on New Year's Day by blast in Afghanistan .\nSoldier served with the 6th Battalion The Rifles in Helmand province .\nHe was on patrol in Garmsir district when he was killed .","id":"511617fdbeed7da899b878c9eb2100aa353b9329"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Kellogg Co. announced Wednesday it is recommending that consumers not eat its peanut butter crackers because they may be tainted with salmonella. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The products affected are Austin- and Keebler-branded: . -- Toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers. -- Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. The Michigan-based maker of cereals and snacks posted the recommendation in a statement on its Web site. Peanut butter produced by Peanut Corporation of America, one of several peanut butter suppliers to the company, has been linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that has affected at least 434 people in 43 states, federal health officials said Wednesday. \"Kellogg Company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the company received any consumer illness complaints about these products,\" the Kellogg statement said. \"Nonetheless, Kellogg Company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of PCA and Kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue.\" All of the company's peanut-butter crackers are made at its bakery in Cary, North Carolina, said spokeswoman Kris Charles. Though consumers are urged \"to hold the product until we have more information,\" Charles recommended anyone seeking a refund call 888.314.2060 for details about how to get one.","highlights":"Some types of Austin- and Keebler-branded sandwich crackers affected .\nOne of its peanut butter suppliers has been linked to outbreak of salmonella .\nKellogg says warning is strictly precautionary; no incidents of illness reported .\nOutbreak of salmonella poisoning has affected at least 434 people in 43 states .","id":"2e6711bdaf4ce48233dd8285ab7e532b3abff686"} -{"article":"OAKLAND, California (CNN) -- A former police officer for the Bay Area transit system pleaded not guilty Thursday in the New Year's Day shooting of a passenger at an Oakland rail station. Former transit officer Johannes Mehserle is charged with homicide in the death of Oscar Grant III. Johannes Mehserle, 27, appeared in a packed Alameda County courtroom, with his supporters separated by a courtroom aisle from relatives of shooting victim Oscar Grant III and other spectators. Mehserle is charged with shooting Grant, 22, in an incident that spurred violent protests in Oakland after being captured on video. Mehserle resigned his job as a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer days after the shooting, and he was arrested in Nevada earlier this week. Thursday's proceedings took less than five minutes, with Mehserle appearing behind heavy windows in an enclosure out of view of all but a handful of spectators. Superior Court Judge Robert McGuinness ordered the ex-officer held until his next hearing, scheduled for January 26. BART police had been called to Oakland's Fruitvale station January 1 after passengers complained about fights on a train. Officers pulled several men, including Grant, off the train when it arrived at Fruitvale, and video taken by witnesses showed Mehserle shooting Grant in the back as another officer kneeled on the man. Investigators have not said whether Grant was involved in the fight. The shooting spawned public outrage and a string of protests that led to more than 100 riot-related arrests. Watch some of the recent rioting in Oakland, California \u00bb . Thursday's proceedings drew an overflow crowd to the courthouse, with some would-be spectators grumbling that they could not get into the hearing. Vicki Behringer contributed to this report for CNN.","highlights":"Ex-cop Johannes Mehserle appears in packed Alameda County courtroom .\nSupporters separated by aisle from relatives of shooting victim Oscar Grant III .\nMehserle was arrested in Nevada earlier this week .\nGrant's death spawned public outrage and a string of protests .","id":"37ecf9547d2ac78f54458f6aa43be23802068c59"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 75th minute strike by striker Graziano Pelle gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over NEC Nijmegen on Sunday to leave his side top of the Dutch standings. Italian star Pelle scored the winner to keep AZ on top heading into the Dutch break. The Italian's decisive goal means Louis van Gaal's men will head into 2009 with a three-point lead over Ajax Amsterdam after 17 rounds. The Eredivisie is set to resume on January 16 after a three-week break. Earlier, Dario Cvitanich scored a hat-trick as Ajax beat ADO Den Haag 3-0 to temporarily draw level on points with the leaders. But AZ, who are unbeaten in 15 games, then saw off Nijmegen, who had also been on a fine 14-game unbeaten run. AZ have 41 points, with Ajax on 38. Steve McClaren's FC Twente are in third place, seven points adrift of AZ, after holding defending champions PSV Eindhoven to a goalless draw on Saturday. PSV are fourth with 30 points and looking set to relinquish their league title. On Friday, Feyenoord snapped a run of three successive losses by beating NAC Breda 3-1, but the struggling Rotterdam giants are in 12th spot.","highlights":"AZ Alkmaar beat NEC Nijmegen 1-0 in Dutch league game on Sunday .\nAlkmaar on top by three points from Ajax heading into midwinter break .\nFormer Lecce striker Graziano Pelle scores crucial winner for AZ .","id":"edfc4d8f64e4aa164d7d01915264e0e9c0c4729b"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates holding a Saudi-owned oil supertanker off the coast of Somalia have set the vessel free after receiving a ransom payment, a piracy monitor in neighboring Kenya and the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet said Saturday. A small aircraft drops a ransom payment during a flight over the Sirius Star on Friday. \"The supertanker VLCC Sirius Star is currently under way to safe waters,\" Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association said in an e-mail. Mwangura said all 23 crew members of the Sirius Star, the largest ship ever hijacked by pirates, are safe and in good health. They are citizens of Croatia, Great Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. \"Anytime a ship is released, it is positive news,\" said Cmdr. Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. \"But too many people see it as a ship and its cargo being released. When merchant mariners are released, it is always good news.\" The ship is a VLCC, or \"very large crude carrier.\" According to the Fifth Fleet, the tanker is more than three times the size of a U.S. navy aircraft carrier. Pirates seized the supertanker November 15. The tanker was carrying two million barrels of crude oil worth about $100 million. The Liberian-flagged tanker is owned by Vela International Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco. Saleh K'aki, president and CEO of Vela International, said in a statement, \"We are very relieved to know that all crew members are safe and I am glad to say that they are all in good health and high spirits. This has been a very trying time for them and certainly for their families. We are very happy to report to their families that they will be on their way home soon.\" Mwangura said it would have been a \"disaster\" if the pirates had fired guns aboard the ship, harming the cargo or igniting a fire. \"The capture of the Sirius Star raised the specter of an environmental disaster should the hijackers decide to turn the ship into a weapon or foreign navies attempt to release it by force,\" he said. The pirates had been expected to release the supertanker after receiving the ransom payment Friday, but four pirates drowned after their skiff capsized in rough seas while they were leaving the Sirius Star, according to a journalist who spoke to one of the pirates on board. Watch ransom being parachuted to ship \u00bb . There were five pirates in the skiff and one survived, the journalist said. The bodies of the other four were recovered, he said. The pirates told another journalist they received $3 million in ransom money but lost part of it when the skiff capsized. \"Initially, the gunmen were demanding $25 million for its release but the latest reports indicate that the demand had been lowered to below $3.5 million,\" Mwangura said. Meanwhile, pirates also have released the MV Delight, an Iranian chartered ship carrying wheat from Germany, Mwangura said. It was captured in November. Details were not immediately available. Hijackings off East Africa are a cause of growing international concern, spurring a number of international navies to patrol the pirate-wracked Gulf of Aden. Dozens of ships have been attacked in the gulf by pirates based in a largely lawless Somalia in recent months. See how pirate attacks are on the rise \u00bb . Campbell said the number of attacks may have gone up in recent months, but the number of successful hijackings has gone down. She attributed that to measures taken by merchant ships, such as vigilant keeping of watch and evasive ship maneuvers, and the increased naval presence in the at-risk areas. Campbell stressed, however, that they are only preventive measures. \"Piracy is a problem that starts on the shore,\" she said. \"The international community needs to address the situation on the ground in Somalia.\" CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Second hijacked ship also released .\nPirates release Saudi-owned oil supertanker after receiving ransom .\nAll crew members on Sirius Star are safe, according to piracy monitor .\nFour pirates drowned, some ransom lost after skiff capsized in rough seas .","id":"d9e01cafd25855ba5c194a9eeeea006464e6f432"} -{"article":"Editor's note: For 85 years, Yankee Stadium has hosted some of the greatest moments in sports. On Sunday, the Yankees will play their last game before the stadium is torn down. Former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton played on the 1963 American League All-Star team and in two World Series. He wrote the classic baseball book, \"Ball Four,\" named as one of the \"Books of the Century\" by the New York Public Library, and has been a sportscaster and actor. For Bouton's web site, click here . Jim Bouton was photographed as a rookie in 1962 at Yankee Stadium, before the renovation of the ballpark. EGREMONT, Massachusetts (CNN) -- I'll never forget my first day in The House that Ruth Built: April 9, 1962, the day before opening day. I made the team that spring as a non-roster player, having pitched in the Texas League (AA) the year before. And I had just turned 23. The Yankees had scheduled an afternoon workout, but I was so excited that I couldn't sleep and I drove in from my parents' house in New Jersey at 7 in the morning. After introducing myself to a skeptical guard, he led me down two flights of stairs and through a hallway, where I was greeted by the clubhouse man Pete Sheehy (who died in 1985 and for whom the room is now named). The Yankee clubhouse in 1962 was like a large subterranean living room. A wall-to-wall grayish green carpet muffled all sound, and the overhead lighting was subdued. Three walls of walk-in wood lockers faced a wall of large frosted windows that cast shafts of light from the street above. Everything was painted a muted gray green to match the carpet, including the exposed ductwork in the ceiling above. A cleat-dented wooden stool sat in front of each locker. And hanging in the lockers, with military precision, were the classic Yankee uniforms. \"Your locker is right here by the door,\" said Pete. I couldn't help smiling when I saw Whitey Ford's nameplate just one locker away. I asked Pete if this was the same room that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and all those guys used. He pointed to a locker across the room where he used to bring \"a bi-carb and coffee\" each day to the Babe. Pete returned to his duties and I touched my uniform reverently. With no one around, I decided to try it on. Perfect fit. I adjusted my hat in a mirror. That looked good, too. iReport.com: Share your memories of Yankee Stadium . Then I grabbed my glove and went out to the field -- you know, just to get oriented. After sitting in the dugout a few minutes, I trotted out to the mound. Looking up at the three tiers of stands was like being in the Roman Coliseum. Of course, I had to toe the rubber and look in for the sign. Fortunately, at that hour of the morning, it was just me and the pigeons. What would it be like to pitch there when the stands were filled with people? My big chance came on May 7, 1962, in the second game of a double-header against the Washington Senators, in front of a real crowd that included my Mom and Dad, my brothers and a whole bunch of neighbors from New Jersey. I was thrilled and scared at the same time -- maybe a little more on the scared side. I walked the bases loaded with nobody out. Then I fell behind 3 and 1 on the fourth hitter. My next pitch was a little bit high and manager Ralph Houk stepped out of the dugout - either to calm me down or remove me from the premises. But the umpire, bless him, called it a strike and Houk stepped back into the dugout. The inning seemed to last forever, but I finally got out of it and ended up pitching a complete game shutout. Maybe the worst shutout in history - 7 walks and 7 hits. After the game Houk said to me, \"any more shutouts like that and we're going to need a new bullpen.\" The best part was when I walked into the clubhouse after the game. I arrived a few minutes late because I'd done a TV interview in the dugout. And when I opened the door, there was a path of white towels leading to my locker -- and Mickey Mantle was laying down the last towel. This is my favorite memory of Yankee Stadium. Unless it was Mantle's 9th inning walk-off home run in '64 World Series that beat the Cardinals 2-1, which also happened to be my first World Series win. After that it was all down hill. In 1968 a sore arm got me traded to the Seattle Pilots for a bag of batting practice balls. That's the year I kept a diary that became Ball Four -- a book that also mentioned Mantle hitting a home run with a hangover -- which got me banned from Old Timers Day at Yankee Stadium for 28 years. My eventual return to Yankee Stadium came after my son Michael wrote a letter to the New York Times, saying the Yankees should let bygones be bygones and invite me back. It was such a beautiful letter the Yankees were embarrassed into inviting me. After 28 years, Yankee Stadium was a different place -- a strange and garish place. A makeover in 1973-75, under the new owner George Steinbrenner, added cantilevered stands that destroyed the elegant upper fa\u00e7ade, and exterior elevators which spoiled the view of the of the lower facade. Inside, the grayish green carpet was now bright blue and featured a giant Yankee logo. The honest ceiling with its exposed pipes was now a dropped ceiling with stark white tiles. Everything was painted blue and white -- the Yankee colors, get it? Now, instead of restoring the stadium, they're going to tear it down. Raze the clubhouse where Pete Sheehy made coffee for Ruth. Destroy the dugout where Stengel slept. Bulldoze the field where Mantle roamed and level the mound where Larsen pitched the only perfect World Series game. And they're going to build an underground parking garage on the site! This will no doubt be \"The Garage that Ruth Built\" -- which could produce a reverse \"Curse of the Bambino.\" If you check the current standings, you'll see this may already be happening. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Former Yankee Jim Bouton recalls his debut at Yankee Stadium in the 1960s .\nBouton played alongside stars Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford .\nBouton: Now the legendary sports venue is going to be torn down .","id":"15050103702a56981c082c69c415f8667f1f2115"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fred Berretta was aboard US Airways Flight 1549 bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, when he heard a loud bang and the plane shook. The New York Fire Department rescued passengers from the downed plane in the Hudson River. \"We were still on ascent, and the engine blew out,\" he said. \"The pilot turned around and made a line for the river.\" Passenger Alberto Panero said that immediately, he smelled smoke. \"All of a sudden, the captain came on and said brace for a landing, and that's when we knew we were going down,\" he said. The Airbus A320, carrying Panero and more than 150 other passengers and crew, crash-landed in the Hudson River on Thursday after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York. Watch Jeff Kolodjay describe the crash \u00bb . A New Jersey State Police source told CNN the pilot radioed to air traffic controllers that he had experienced a bird strike and declared an emergency. \"We knew there wasn't a lot of time because we were quite close to the ground, and it felt as though the descent was somewhat rapid,\" said Berretta, who said he was sitting in seat 16A. Watch Berretta describe the landing \u00bb . As the plane headed down toward the river, the cabin was mostly silent, he said. \"After he told us prepare for impact, it was pretty evident we were not going to make the runway.\" At first, it felt like the plane was gliding, Berretta said, as if no engines were working. \"People started praying, and there was a lot of silence, and the realization that we were going in was really hard to take in at that moment,\" he said. As the plane started to go down, some passengers shouted to those in exit rows to be prepared to quickly open the doors. Berretta spent that time contemplating the chances of surviving a water crash. \"I think that [it] certainly went through my mind that this probably very much could be it,\" he said. Then the plane hit the water. Panero said the impact felt like a car crash. Some said that as the plane hit, there were extremely loud noises. \"The plane was jockeying about, spinning a bit,\" Berretta said. \"Then all of a sudden, it was 'Get out, get out now,' \" Panero said. Jeff Kolodjay was sitting in seat 22A right next to the engine believed to have caused the plane to go down. \"The plane started filling with water pretty quick,\" he said. \"It was scary. There was a lady with her baby on my left-hand shoulder, and she was crawling over the seats.\" Upon impact, passengers left behind their coats and luggage. They grabbed life vests and seat cushions and headed toward the exits. \"It seemed like it lasted an eternity,\" Berretta said. When the plane began to sink, some passengers began to panic, Panero said. Watch Panero describe what he saw and heard \u00bb . \"But there was a couple of people who kind of took charge and just started yelling to calm down, just to get everybody out,\" he said. \"Once people realized that we were going to be OK, everybody kind of calmed down and just tried to get out of the plane to safety.\" Passengers began to group themselves on the wings to stay out of the frigid water. When they were safely out of the plane, Berretta said, there was one more moment of fear. \"Our raft was tethered to the plane, and we worried we might go down with the plane,\" he said. \"But we were able to get a knife off a rescue boat and cut the tether.\" More than anything, passengers wanted to thank the crew. As Berretta exited the plane, he said that besides a few passengers remaining, the crew and pilot stayed behind to make sure everyone was out. \"I think the pilot, he did a great job,\" Berretta said. \"I think it was as good of a landing as you can make in a river.\"","highlights":"NEW: People were praying, telling exit row passengers to get ready to open doors .\nPlane passengers say pilot told them to \"brace for a landing\"\nJeff Kolodjay: \"The plane started filling with water pretty quick\"\nWoman with baby tried to climb over seats to get out .","id":"0ebb4d502da4fe25afb8f8f18d063b377567b092"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Royal Dutch Shell said Tuesday that it may not be able to meet its oil supply obligations in Nigeria after an attack on its major pipeline. Heavily armed Nigerian rebels pose a constant threat to oil pipelines in the country. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a rebel group, said \"detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters\" sabotaged two of Shell's pipelines early Monday. After a helicopter flyover of the area, Shell confirmed that parts of its large Nembe Creek \"trunk line\" were damaged, company spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen said. The company shut down some production \"to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,\" she said. Hours later, it declared \"force majeure,\" a legal term meaning it could not meet its supply obligations in the region because of the attack. \"[Shell] is working hard to repair the line and restore production,\" Wittgen said. Nigeria is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, and attacks by rebels have helped fuel the year-long spike in crude oil prices. It's one of many factors pushing up the price of gas in the U.S., where one in every 10 barrels of oil comes from Nigeria. MEND -- the largest rebel group -- has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006. It has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment. MEND hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Its attacks on oil facilities have taken a toll. \"Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,\" said Jim LeCamp, a senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management, which manages assets for wealthy clients worldwide. Exxon and Shell are two of several companies that have been extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day in Nigeria. Recent rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent -- meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days. That decrease in production comes at a time of increased demand from oil-hungry regions such as China, Russia and Latin America. \"Anytime there's a disruption there, it really affects the system,\" LeCamp said in a recent interview with CNN.","highlights":"Shell says it may not be able to meet supply contracts after Nigerian attack .\nTwo of Shell's oil pipelines sabotaged by rebel groups on Monday .\nCompany is working to repair the lines and get production running normally .","id":"b313cdebb8f09af65296e8f186d9ca1e407e2a88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In style and substance, Barack Obama is looking like he could be a different president than the candidate voters got to know during the campaign. Barack Obama has taken on a more somber tone as he prepares to take office. His message of changing the country has been replaced by one of repairing the country as he inherits crises that demand immediate action. \"I want to be realistic here,\" Obama said in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace that we had hoped.\" During the campaign, Obama stressed fixing the economy as one of his top priorities, but his recent language has taken on an urgent tone. Obama painted a dire picture of the economy last week, warning that if Congress does not take \"dramatic action\" on his economic aid package as soon as possible, the nation would face devastating long-term consequences. \"For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs. More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied. And our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse,\" he said. It's a far cry from what voters heard from Obama the Democratic candidate, who inspired roaring crowds of thousands by telling them, \"This is our moment. This is our time.\" But with the economy in a recession and people afraid for their financial future, Obama's soaring campaign rhetoric has given way to grim reality. And as if the economic crisis weren't enough, Obama has an international crisis awaiting him as well. The president-elect said Sunday that the suffering on both sides of Gaza's borders has led him to ramp up his commitment to working for a peace deal in the Middle East. These urgent items on Obama's agenda are forcing his team to reconsider some campaign pledges. Just as soon as he went from presidential hopeful to president-elect, Obama warned the nation of tough times ahead and lowered expectations that he would be the one to solve it all. Watch more on the expectations for Obama \u00bb . \"We know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,\" he said on the night of his election victory. \"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there,\" he said. He told voters that change couldn't happen without them, \"without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.\" He reiterated that same message this weekend, explaining what it's going to take to reform the government. \"Everybody is going to have to give. Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game,\" Obama told ABC. iReport.com: What should Obama do first? Some of the pledges Obama might have to rethink include his proposal to give some homeowners a 10 percent tax credit, an idea that has little support in Congress. During the campaign, Obama also told voters, \"I don't believe in running up debt for the next generation.\" But just last week, he acknowledged that the cost of the economic recovery plan he is pushing would be \"considerable\" and would \"certainly add to the budget deficit in the short term.\" Obama has not put a price tag on his stimulus package, but observers have estimated it would cost in the neighborhood of $800 billion. Obama also has proposed repealing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy, but now it's more likely that the president-elect will delay any tax increases on the wealthy until 2011, when the tax cuts expire. Some of the maneuvering is aimed at attracting Republican support for the incoming president's recovery plan, but that could set up an early battle in the now heavily Democratic Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, is adamant about seeing those tax cuts repealed. iReport.com: What does Obama's presidency mean to you? Obama says everyone will have to sacrifice, and that includes Congress, too. Some political observers say the economic crisis that Obama is inheriting is raising the stakes to get a move on his recovery plan -- even if Congress isn't 100 percent behind it. \"This strengthens Barack Obama's hand with the Congress and with the public. It's so urgent, that it's going to be very, very hard, I think, for people who don't like parts of this package to vote against it,\" said David Gergen, CNN's senior political analyst. And while the public is well aware of the economic battle ahead, Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins said Obama has little time to wait. \"You've got to have results,\" Rollins said, \"He doesn't have four years to get it done. He has two years. If there's not improvements dramatically in two years, you have a midterm election, and certainly by the second part of this first term, this economy better be moving.\" CNN's Jim Acosta, Kristi Keck and Christine Romans contributed to this report .","highlights":"Obama says not all of his campaign promises will happen at pace he wanted .\nPresident-elect's tone has become more somber as he prepares to take office .\nObama says, \"Everybody is going to have to give\" to get things back on track .\nPresident-elect's priority is getting his economic recovery package passed .","id":"67d3beb0dd9ca7e0553bff4f37171e8c9d394285"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There was no shortage of superstars in Washington this week, including the middle school students of Atlanta, Georgia's Ron Clark Academy. Ron Clark Academy students singing their newest song, \"Dear Obama,\" in Washington this week. \"There are those Obama kids!\" \"Those are the kids from TV!\" \"Sing for us!\" The middle schoolers' ode to the political process, \"You Can Vote However You Like,\" set to the tune of rapper T.I.'s \"Whatever You Like,\" has garnered exhilarating fame nationwide. Invited to perform at inauguration events, the boys and girls were stopped along every block in the capital by people who asked them to sing and pose for a picture. \"I have a sleepy energy,\" sixth-grader Kennedy Guest Pritchett said. \"I feed off of the crowd and their cheers.\" The students' new song, \"Dear Obama,\" which they have performed this week, offers advice to the president on energy, taxes, financial regulation and al Qaeda and urges him to \"control Ahmadinejad.\" \"Dear Obama hear us sing\/We're ready for the change that you will bring\/Gonna shine the light for the world to see\/to spread peace hope and democracy. ... Fight for health care for the young so that coverage is available to everyone\/It's time to find a renewable way to fuel our needs so we don't end up depending on Chavez and the Middle East.\" Watch the students sing \"Dear Obama\" \u00bb . The kids will perform Tuesday at the Africa and International Friends Inaugural Ball, sharing a stage with Usher and Patti LaBelle, one of many events in their packed schedule highlighted by a luncheon gala Monday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. \"I want to do good every song we perform. When the crowd cheers, I feel like we did a good job,\" said Willie Thornton, a seventh-grader. \"I feel a lot of adrenaline afterwards.\" The students have met the Kenyan Boys Choir, who told their American counterparts what kind of animals they might see when the Ron Clark students travel to Kenya on a school trip in June. At another luncheon, the sixth- and seventh-graders were thrilled to catch a glimpse of actor Ed Norton, the man who played the Incredible Hulk. But he didn't compare to singer Beyonce, who closed Sunday's star-studded Lincoln Memorial concert and drew giggles and shouts. The kids gained notoriety just before the election when they appeared on CNN, singing \"You Can Vote However You Like.\" They became media favorites overnight, appearing on several networks and shows. Dressed neatly in their school uniform of khaki pants, light blue shirts and navy blue blazers, they discussed the Iraq war, the economy and taxes with the composure of adults. Their teacher, Ron Clark, known for his innovation, has used pop music to teach his students. He once changed the words of Rihanna's infectious hit \"Umbrella\" to teach geography. \"You have to give students something they can identify with, something that catches their enthusiasm and spirit,\" he said. \"I'm so proud of them all. They've taught me a lot.\" Before founding his school in the rough neighborhood of South Atlanta, Clark taught in Harlem, where he penned \"The Essential 55,\" a rule-book for educators that caught Oprah Winfrey's eye. She talked about it on her show, and it soon became a New York Times bestseller. This past Christmas, Clark received another gift from the talk show host: $365,000. Winfrey donated $1,000 for each day of the year. Clark has said that the money will help provide scholarships for a year. The teacher said he plans to incorporate Barack Obama's inauguration into lessons throughout the rest of the school year. \"Our school is about politics and world issues and helping the kids understand that they have an important role in all of that,\" he said. CNN's John Murgatroyd and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Singing Atlanta schoolkids perform at inauguration festivities .\n\"I have a sleepy energy,\" one 6th-grader says of the group's packed schedule .\nRon Clark Academy singers gained fame for their \"Vote However You Like\" song .\nThey have written another song, \"Dear Obama,\" which offers advice to the president .","id":"e96f6af54a156f2c21b11c626a9ea60e8a4d760f"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A British soldier was killed on New Year's Day by an explosion in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Friday. A British unit on patrol in Helmand province's Garmsir district, where another soldier has died. The soldier, who served with the 6th Battalion The Rifles, had been taking part in a routine patrol in the Garmsir district of Helmand province when he was killed, the ministry said. \"It is deeply saddening to confirm the loss of a British soldier who died while helping to provide security in southern Helmand,\" said Commander Paula Rowe, a spokeswoman for Task Force Helmand. \"His family, friends and all those who knew and worked with him will mourn his loss -- our heartfelt sympathies go to them all at this terrible time.\" Britain suffered its worst year of losses in Afghanistan in 2008, with 51 British troops killed. It was more than in any other year since the mission began in October 2001, the defense ministry said.","highlights":"British soldier killed on New Year's Day by blast in Afghanistan .\nSoldier served with the 6th Battalion The Rifles in Helmand province .\nHe was on patrol in Garmsir district when he was killed .","id":"2a52370fd79b092f62fb38077f99aa48df47accc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities investigating the case of a boy who disappeared in Kansas almost a decade ago plan to search an undisclosed residence Wednesday, the Butler County sheriff said. An age-progression photo shows what Adam Herrman would like today, as a 21-year-old man. Sheriff Craig Murphy would not disclose details about the residence or why authorities want to search it. He said his department will also search on an area of the Whitewater River, in southern Kansas, on Saturday near where Adam Herrman was last seen. Adam was 11 when he went missing in 1999. He was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a town about 25 miles northeast of Wichita, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, authorities said. Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple believed Adam had run away and didn't report him missing. They \"really rue the fact that they didn't\" report him missing, he said Monday. A few weeks ago, an undisclosed person contacted the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit, expressing concern about Adam, the sheriff said. The Herrmans told Eisenbise that Adam ran away frequently, the attorney said, and they believed he was either with his biological parents or homeless. Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, \"they were very worried about him,\" Eisenbise said. In an interview published Tuesday in The Wichita Eagle, Valerie Herrman said Adam ran away in May 1999 after she spanked him with a belt. She said she was upset but doesn't remember why, The Eagle reported. The couple never reported Adam missing, Valerie Herrman told the paper, because they feared authorities would take Adam and his siblings away because of the spanking. The couple adopted his two younger siblings as well, according to The Eagle. \"We love him, and we made a terrible mistake\" by not reporting him missing, Doug Herrman told The Eagle. The couple said they searched the mobile home park and other areas for two days after Adam left. \"Then we came to the conclusion that the police probably have him, and they're coming to us, probably to get us in trouble,\" Doug Herrman told the newspaper, but the \"police never came.\" Authorities have searched an empty lot in the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park where the family lived. There, police found an \"answer\" to one of their questions, Murphy said Monday without elaborating. Eisenbise said that on December 15, authorities also searched the Herrmans' homes in Derby, outside of Wichita, and took the couple's computer, he said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released an age-progression picture that depicts Adam as he might appear now: a young man with blue eyes and light-colored hair. Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said Monday. He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed. His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported. \"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children, and evidently it wasn't,\" Irvin Groeninger, Adam's biological father, told KWCH. \"If he was still in my custody, this would have never happened.\" Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she had last seen her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party. \"He had the cutest little round face, little-bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek,\" she told the station. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sheriff says his officers will search area near Whitewater River on Saturday .\nAttorney says parents \"rue the fact\" they didn't report him missing .\nAdam Herrman reportedly ran away when he was 11, after being spanked .\nParents tell paper they thought spanking would lead police to take other kids away .","id":"058b01b7db785d249496e9d4e38a91723bada57c"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China has become the world's third-largest economy, surpassing Germany and closing rapidly on Japan, according to government and World Bank figures. Commuters drive along a road in downtown Beijing, China, on Thursday. The Chinese government revised its growth figures for 2007 from 11.9 percent to 13 percent this week, bringing its estimated gross domestic product to $3.4 trillion -- about 3 percent larger than Germany's $3.3 trillion for the same year, based on World Bank estimates. Beijing is expected to release its 2008 GDP figures next week. Although the world's top economies, the United States and Japan, are in recession, the most pessimistic estimates for China's growth in upcoming years runs about 5 percent. That could allow China's GDP to overtake Japan's, currently $4.3 trillion, within a few years. The U.S. economy, the world's largest, was about $13.8 trillion in 2007. The World Bank's estimate of China's economic growth is about 7.5 percent. But China has seen a sharp decline in exports in November and December as other major economies struggle, and the bank's analysts say rates below 6 percent could worsen the rest of the world's slump. Watch how China was able to overtake Germany \u00bb . And Michael Santoro, author of the 2008 book \"China 2020,\" said China will have other problems to overcome if it is to maintain its rapid expansion. \"It's no longer sufficient for China to become a manufacturer of sneakers or toys and the like,\" Santoro said. \"Now they're looking to become players in the area of pharmaceuticals and foods and other high value-added products, where safety and quality are important characteristics for improving in the global economy.\" China recently announced a $600 billion economic stimulus package, and its State Council on Wednesday laid out a new plan to boost its steel and auto industries -- including about $1.5 billion to develop alternative-fuel vehicles. CNN's John Vause and Judy Kwon contributed to this report.","highlights":"China's GDP could overtake Japan's within a few years .\nWorld Bank's estimate of China's economic growth is about 7.5 percent .\nChina announced $600 billion economic stimulus package recently .","id":"f7f1edcf90aa8e562bcdb375bef689f4c97aea6d"} -{"article":"GONAIVES, Haiti (CNN) -- Four major storms have raked the desperately poor country of Haiti in the past month, leaving at least 341 people dead. A man carries drinking water through the flooded streets of Gonaives, Haiti, on Monday. Nine of the deaths were attributed to Fay, 79 to Gustav, 183 to Hanna and 70 to Ike, said Abel Nazaire, deputy head of Haiti's Civil Protection Service. The country's fragile infrastructure was overloaded after the storms and officials were concerned that the floodwaters could spread disease, Sophie Boutaud de la Combe, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, said Tuesday. Gonaives, on the west coast, is one of the hardest-hit cities. This week, Gonaives was knee-deep in filthy water and reachable only by water or air, with many of Haiti's bridges destroyed and roads flooded. \"My home is destroyed. I have no place to live with my kids. Everything I had just washed away,\" Roselene Josef told CNN. Watch desperate survivors in Gonaives \u00bb . Another survivor said, \"The flood washed away everything. I couldn't save anything. They should just move this city. Floods always destroy it.\" Aid workers warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis as attempts to deliver aid were frustrated by logistical problems. The U.S. Navy's USS Kearsarge arrived in the waters off Haiti on Monday to support the U.S. Agency for International Development's efforts to assist after the devastation. The vessel will help move cargo and equipment between affected cities and will deliver relief supplies, said the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command. But Monday, the Kearsarge wasn't able to deliver anything to Gonaives, because the ship's scout helicopters couldn't find a suitable place for supplies to be unloaded, according to The Associated Press. A U.S. Coast Guard ship carrying 35 tons of relief supplies arrived Saturday in Gonaives. The U.S. cutter was preceded by a ship carrying U.N. relief supplies, including 19 tons of high-energy biscuits, 50,000 bottles of water and water purification tablets, which arrived Friday in Gonaives, said Myrta Kaulard of the United Nations' World Food Program. CNN's Karl Penhaul watched as U.N. troops handed out scant supplies of food and water to a long line of Haitians. The line became chaotic, with people fighting over supplies. Watch the devastation Penhaul found in Haiti \u00bb . Hundreds of people had taken shelter in a school. They told Penhaul they had not received relief aid in a week. An official in Gonaives told the AP on Monday that nine people had died in shelters, including two children. It was not clear if they had died of starvation or some other cause, Daniel Dupiton of the region's civil protection department told the AP. When floodwaters were at their highest, some residents camped out on their roofs, their clothing and blankets hung over the sides of buildings. Some people \"have lost really everything. ... These are not rich people, these are people who were really struggling [already] against high food prices,\" Kaulard said. U.S. Navy Capt. Frank Ponds said he had flown over part of southern and northern Haiti. \"I saw towns that were completely flooded,\" Ponds said. \"I saw infrastructure, such as bridge[s] and roads, totally wiped out.\" The eye of Hurricane Ike never touched Haiti earlier this week, but the storm system did bring heavy rains and winds to Gonaives and other towns. Jean Pierre Guiteau, executive director for the Red Cross in Haiti, said 52 people were killed when a river burst its banks in the mountain town of Cabaret near the capital, Port-au-Prince. Another 21 bodies were pulled from sea at Fort-Libert\u00e9, Haiti, close to the border with the Dominican Republic. \"It's a very grim picture,\" Guiteau said Sunday. \"Things certainly are getting no better.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gonaives, Haiti, cut off from rest of country by flooded roads, washed-out bridges .\nSome flood survivors say they haven't received aid in a week .\nLogistical problems prompt aid workers to warn of deepening humanitarian crisis .\nAt least 341 people have died in four storms in Haiti .","id":"7f1440bef80d598e7bd670652192b8d54b72a848"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On his final full day in office, President Bush issued commutations for two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted in 2006 of shooting and wounding an unarmed illegal immigrant -- suspected of drug smuggling at the time -- and then covering it up. An artist's sketch shows Ignacio Ramos, left, and Jose Compean. The prison sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will now end March 20. Ramos had received an 11-year prison sentence; Compean had received a 12-year term. They began serving their sentences in January 2007. The Office of the Pardon Attorney was still reviewing the clemency request when Bush made his decision, Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said. \"The president has reviewed the circumstances of this case as a whole and the conditions of confinement and believes the sentences they received are too harsh and that they, and their families, have suffered enough for their crimes,\" a senior administration official said. \"Commuting their sentences does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes. Ramos and Compean are convicted felons who violated their oaths to uphold the law and have been severely punished,\" the official stated. \"This commutation gives them an opportunity to return to their families and communities, but both men will have to carry the burden of being convicted felons and the shame of violating their oaths for the rest of their lives.\" The official noted that both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have supported a commutation, including President-elect Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and Texas GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. The head of the labor union representing Border Patrol agents told CNN Radio he was \"grateful\" that Bush commuted the sentences but questioned why the prison terms won't end until March 20. \"I would be quite curious to learn why they have to wait another two months for an unjust sentence,\" said Rich Pierce, president of the National Border Patrol Council. He said the union's ultimate goal would be for the men to get their Border Patrol jobs back. The shooting happened February 17, 2005, on the border southeast of El Paso, Texas. During their trial, Ramos and Compean said the illegal immigrant, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, had brandished a gun while actively resisting arrest. Aldrete-Davila, however, said he was unarmed and was attempting to surrender when Compean attempted to beat him with a shotgun. Aldrete-Davila was shot while fleeing toward the Rio Grande. Ramos and Compean were ultimately convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, lying about the incident and violating Aldrete-Davila's Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure. After receiving immunity to testify in the case against the two agents, Aldrete-Davila was arrested in 2007 on charges of bringing more than 750 pounds of marijuana into the United States. The case quickly became a political flash point, with advocates of tighter border controls defending the agents and civil liberties groups saying that the agents had used illegal and excessive force against Aldrete-Davila. Bush has granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations over his eight years in office, far fewer than Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan in their two-term administrations. During the final months of the Bush administration, speculation has swirled around the question of whether former vice presidential aide Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby would be granted the presidential favor. Libby was convicted in March of 2007 of four counts of lying and impeding a federal investigation into the leak of information that revealed that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative. Among the more notable people who have applied for -- but not received -- some form of clemency are: former Rep. Randall \"Duke\" Cunningham, R-California, who was convicted of receiving bribes; publishing executive Conrad Black, who was found guilty of fraud; former junk bold salesman Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud; and former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, convicted of accounting fraud. The parents of John Walker Lindh, who was given a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to supporting terrorists in Afghanistan, held a news conference in December urging Bush to commute their son's sentence. There is a long tradition of presidents issuing pardons and commutations during their final days in office. Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich during his last hours in office, setting off a firestorm of controversy. A commutation reduces a convict's prison term, but the conviction remains on the person's record. A pardon, however, wipes the slate clean by erasing the record of the conviction. A president has the sole authority to grant clemency to whomever he chooses, although a Justice Department office usually reviews applications and makes recommendations after considering such standards as a person's degree of remorse and ability to lead a responsible and productive life after release. Those applying for a pardon through the Justice Department are required to wait at least five years after their conviction or release from confinement.","highlights":"Bush commutes sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean .\nPresident believes \"the sentences they received are too harsh,\" official says .\nEx-Border Patrol agents will be released March 20 .\nPair convicted of shooting undocumented immigrant allegedly running drugs .","id":"ad2af6c1362a3f84000edd71fd752ad60549fec8"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- At least 59 people were killed in a fire that broke out early Thursday at one of Bangkok's most upscale nightclubs, where about 1,000 revelers were ringing in the new year, Thai police said. Rescue officials work at the scene of the fire in Thailand. Most of the dead were Thai, but foreigners have been identified, among them from Australia, the Netherlands, Nepal and Japan, police said. Another 100 people were believed injured. The fire, at a club called Santika, started at about 12:35 a.m. (1735 GMT), police told CNN. The blaze started near a stage where fireworks were being used as part of a performance, according to authorities. Watch the fire engulf the building \u00bb . Most of those who died in the building suffered smoke inhalation or were trampled in a rush to get out of the club, they said. British citizen Andrew Jones said he was celebrating in the area when he walked up on the fire. He said he saw victims being rushed out of the fire on stretchers and spoke to witnesses, including a fellow Briton who saw fireworks being lit onstage. \"He immediately ran out of the building, but immediately when he'd done that the lights went out and he couldn't see,\" Jones said. The club is located in one of Bangkok's busiest commercial districts. Its Web site features images of bands and DJs performing on both indoor and outdoor stages, and says that it \"innovatively blends the comfort of nature with the excitement of the Bangkok nightlife.\" The site advertises the club's new year's party, which was named \"Goodbye Santika.\" CNN's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fireworks were used as part of a performance, authorities say .\nMost of those who died suffered smoke inhalation or were trampled, authorities say .\nClub is located in one of Bangkok's busiest commercial districts .","id":"85b3821389a8fd80d3a8c81370b0639c7fc1924a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Baseball's biggest stars are in New York for Tuesday's All-Star game, as the sport says goodbye to one of its most famous landmarks. Joseph Cornacchia, left, used to play with Babe Ruth when he was a kid, his son Jim says. It's the Yankees' final season at the \"House that Ruth Built,\" and MLB.com reports that 40 Hall of Famers are expected to attend the historic event. We asked CNN.com readers to share their baseball memories and to tell us about meeting their favorite players. iReporter Jim Cornacchia of Rye, New York, says his grandmother taught Babe Ruth to \"make a mean batch of chili.\" He said the legendary slugger would come to Greenwood Lake, New York, during the off season and would visit with his family. iReport.com: Ever met your favorite player? Cornacchia's father, Joseph, who just turned 76, would play wintertime games with \"The Babe\" as a child, and even built a snowman with him. Patrick Palmer, 43, has been a Yankees fan since he was a kid, even though he grew up in Iowa. \"My father was a Yankees fan, and it was just handed down through the generations,\" he said. Palmer has a baseball signed by about 20 Yankees players and other memorabilia, but said his biggest thrill was meeting relief pitchers Sparky Lyle and Rich \"Goose\" Gossage. \"It was also amazing to shake hands with one of the most feared pitchers of his day, Goose Gossage, and really see what a gentle person he could be,\" See what Palmer wrote on iReport.com. New Yorker Matthew Friedman said he met Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg last August after singing \"God Bless America\" before a Peoria Chiefs minor league game. Friedman was in town as part of the Broadway touring production of \"Movin' Out.\" He said he would sing at the game only if he could meet Sandberg, who was managing the Chiefs. \"He was such a nice guy,\" he said. Friedman is a Mets fan, but said the Cubs legend was \"the kind of player I thought other players should be.\" He said it was a meeting he'll never forget, and one he'll tell his children about again, and again, and again. \"I have a child on the way,\" he said. \"I can't wait.\" Meeting a childhood hero was a test of courage for many young fans. iReporter thedeke almost didn't get to shake slugger Roger Maris' hand during a trip to Yankee Stadium as a 10-year-old. \"He was only 3 kids from me when he turned and started for the field,\" he wrote. \"Why I said what I did, I will never know, but I actually yelled at Roger saying, 'Roger Maris! Don't you dare walk away with out shaking my hand!' \" Maris smiled, walked up to him and \"grabbed my hand with both of his and without saying a word he gave me a wink and off he went,\" thedeke wrote. Phil Miller was a 17-year-old bat boy for the Tacoma Rainiers in 1995 when he got to meet star outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey was playing for the Seattle Mariners at the time and was in the minor leagues while he was recovering from a wrist injury. Chasing fly balls Griffey hit during batting practice is something Miller said he will never forget. \"I wish I could freeze time and relive that 15 minutes over and over,\" he wrote. Miller was nervous about talking to Griffey in the locker room, but he said he broke the ice by asking him about his wife's pregnancy -- news that wasn't out yet. Griffey laughed when he found out his mother-in-law had shared the news with Miller's mom in a Tacoma hair salon, Miller said. Even baseball's most controversial figures provide fond memories. Kenny Lucas met Barry Bonds, the all-time leading home run hitter, in 2006 at a Colorado Rockies game. The former Giants star has been dogged by steroid allegations and has a reputation for being difficult, but Lucas said \"he was a very cool guy.\" \"I used to think of Barry as another arrogant athlete, but he treated me as an equal and invited me into his conversation,\" Lucas said. iReporter natsmom24 met Pete Rose at a golf course when he was 11 years old. In 1991, Rose and other members of the Cincinnati Reds were at a golf course near his house, so natsmom24 tried to get some autographs. Several players ignored him and walked past, but he said Rose approached him and asked to sign his ball. He talked to him and then took him to the clubhouse and bought him a Snickers and a Coke. \"I was on top of the world! I was hanging out with Pete Rose! The Hit King! Charlie Hustle! No one was going to believe me when I told them this,\" he wrote. He said that not even his parents believed him until he showed them the autographed ball.","highlights":"Baseball's current and former stars getting ready for All-Star game .\niReporters met Ruth, Bonds, Goose Gossage and Sparky Lyle .\nGot a baseball memory? Share it on iReport.com .","id":"51f9cd736be4ef3ed0d798ac66e157204c1f3d79"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A dream come true, a part of history, an accomplishment for all of us. Margret Forsythe, left, and Evadey Minott came to Tuesday's inaugural events from Brooklyn, New York. Millions of people gathered on the Mall in Washington on Tuesday to celebrate the inauguration of the 44th U.S. president, Barack Obama. \"This is America happening,\" said Evadey Minott of Brooklyn, New York. \"It was prophesied by [the Rev. Martin Luther] King that we would have a day when everyone would come together. This is that day. I am excited. I am joyful. It brings tears to my eyes.\" L.J. Caldwell of Somerset, New Jersey, said Obama's inauguration capped five decades of struggle for African-Americans. \"When you think back, Malcolm [X] fought. Then we come a little further, Rosa Parks sat. Then come up a little further and Martin [King Jr.] spoke. Then today, President Obama ran and we won.\" Watch Obama say Americans have \"chosen hope over fear\" \u00bb . Kim Akins, 43, of Chicago, Illinois, who lives just blocks from Obama's home, made the trek to Washington with her 8-year-old daughter, Chloe. Vanessa Reed, of Centerville, Virginia, took her daughters to spot on the inaugural parade route. \"I was going to take my daughter here if it was the last thing I did,\" she said. \"It's breathtaking. ... It's overwhelming.\" Vanessa Reed, of Centerville, Virginia, who brought her two young daughters to the inauguration, reflected on Obama's speech as she sat with her daughters across from the presidential reviewing stand at the end of the parade route. \"It was beautiful. It spoke to the issues of the moment,\" said Reed, who worked for the Obama campaign. \"I am proud this country saw what we saw in him.\" Not as impressed, her youngest daughter, Brooke. \"It was so boring,\" the 4-year-old said. Patrick Bragg, 44, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contemplated the day as he tried to stay warm standing over steam vents on H Street. Patrick Bragg says he rode a bike 18 miles to get to downtown Washington on Tuesday morning. \"I've been sitting here thinking -- it's really beautiful,\" said Bragg, who said he rode a bike 18 miles from Bethesda, Maryland, to attend Tuesday's ceremonies. \"This is what I would consider the true representation of all of America. Obama gives everyone space at the table.\" Some of those attending Tuesday recalled how they were part of the effort that culminated in the historic day. \"You remember why you are doing it all, why you were working so hard on the campaign making phone calls, knocking on doors and getting slammed in the face sometimes,\" said iReport contributor Vanessa Palmer of the University of South Florida in Tampa. Howard University student Shakuwra Garrett, 18, said she felt like \"a part of history.\" \"I can carry this with me the rest of my life,\" Garrett said. \"It's an accomplishment for all of us.\" The accomplishment crossed borders and oceans for some of those at Tuesday's inauguration. \"The dream came true,\" said Fatima Cone, 39, who came to the U.S. from Ivory Coast, where her mother wears an Obama T-shirt. She conveyed the excitement her family feels in West Africa. \"The fight is the same for all blacks. It's the same story. It's the same fight wherever you come from,\" Cone said. Canadians Peter and Susan Butler drove down from Toronto, Ontario, to see the event and \"support the American people.\" iReport.com: Are you in Washington? Share your story . \"This is a world event,\" Susan Butler said. \"We can tell our grandchildren we were here.\" Brtion Simon Ginty called the Obama inauguration \"an international moment.\" Simon Ginty of Manchester, England, said the world was celebrating Tuesday. \"This is an international moment as well as an American moment. I'm excited to see how Obama changes things. I imagine things are gonna be on the up,\" Ginty said. Eli Bracken, an iReporter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, drove into Washington early Tuesday to try to see the inauguration, but large crowds kept him away from the Mall. Instead, he watched on TV from a McDonald's restaurant on E Street near the Canadian Embassy. The eatery went silent during the inaugural prayer, he said. \"It was just cool that everybody knew they were witnessing something awesome,\" Bracken said. \"There were people gathered around every car they could just to hear it.\" Dartmouth College student Amarita Sankar, 18, watched Obama's speech on the grounds of the Washington Monument. \"When ever I hear him speak, I want to be a better person. That's what you want in a leader, \" Sankar said. Gerrard Coles waited with a throng outside St. John's Episcopal Church, where Obama and his wife, Michelle, went for a Tuesday morning prayer service. \"Everyone's down here -- hopefully to catch a glimpse of Barack, just for a split second,\" he said. Watch as Obamas head to church \u00bb . Nearby was Bethesda, Maryland, 9-year-old Laura Bruggerman, waiting with her mother, Wendy, and father, Jeff. \"I want to see Obama. I think that would be really cool. I could tell all of my friends that I got to see him,\" the girl said. The crowd tried to oblige, letting the children and shorter people move up front. Margaret Trowelle of Jersey City, New Jersey, gets strangers to autograph an inauguration hat Tuesday. Outside the church, Margaret Trowelle of Jersey City, New Jersey, showed off a hat she had signed by others she's met in the nation's capital. \"Everyone is so friendly,\" she said. Benica Tripleti, from Eastern Kentucky University, was among a group of 54 people headed to the Mall. She said she had one goal -- \"to see Obama's head.\" Kathie Easom and Christine Hannon of upstate New York were looking to plant themselves on the Mall and watch the proceedings on a screen. \"It's a once in a lifetime event,\" Easom said. Eight rows behind the inauguration stand, Sylvia Schoen of Phoenix, Arizona, waited in the morning cold. \"It's freezing. It's worth it. It's worth it,\" she said. Watch the atmosphere surrounding the inauguration \u00bb . \"Obama's cause is all about the future. I think that's why everyone's so excited right now,\" Schoen said. \"It's like we can do anything. Look what we just did -- the people. The people did this. Not the politicians -- we did it.\" Harvard University student Megan Starr, 21, was impressed with the crowd. \"I've never seen people excited about politics before,\" she said. \"Usually they are politically apathetic, but people are getting involved.\" Woodie Lee Durham of Buffalo, New York, says Tuesday marks a milestone for African-American influence. In a seating section for the disabled on the Mall, Woodie Lee Durham of Buffalo, New York, said Tuesday was a landmark for African-American influence on America. \"It is no longer a question; this is the answer,\" Durham said. IReporter Barbara Talisman, 48, of Chicago, watched Tuesday from a spot on the Mall near the American Museum of Natural History. \"The historical significance of today and importance of our work made it necessary for me to be here and not at home. I want to be a witness,\" Talisman said. Corey Waters of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and his two sons, Thad and Matthew, set out on their inauguration journey at midnight. Waters said they hoped to get a spot near the Capitol and then find a second place later to see the inaugural parade. \"We want to be close to the swearing-in,\" Waters said as the three walked with the crowd to the Mall. Watch an iReport of festivities on the Mall \u00bb . After the speech, Decatur, Alabama, pastor Regina May, sat on a bench near St. John's Church and looked ahead. \"I think he is fresh,\" she said of Obama. \"He's more than just an idea man. I think he can carry out his plans, and I'm going to do all I can to help.\" CNN's Adam Levine, Ed Hornick, Valerie Streit, Scott J. Anderson and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"A McDonald's in Washington goes silent as patrons watch inaugural .\n\"This is America happening,\" says New York woman .\nCanadian says, \"This is a world event\"\nBarack Obama's election shows American people \"can do anything,\" woman says .","id":"a483adfdf3f345e702f6f8d67ee6e236f59e57ed"} -{"article":"LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Tensions between Chile and Peru remained high Monday after last week's revelation that Peru's top army general said at a party that Chileans in Peru would be sent back in coffins or body bags. General Edwin Donayre, right, meets with Peruvian President Alan Garcia in Lima, Peru, last year. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet met Monday morning with her domestic advisers to discuss the matter after the Peruvian general appeared unrepentant over the weekend, the Chilean government reported on its Web site. Peruvian President Alan Garc\u00eda had called Bachelet last week to say that the statements by Gen. Edwin Donayre are not the official policy of Peru. Bachelet said at the time she was satisfied with Garc\u00eda's explanation and it was \"up to the government of Peru to take measures.\" Donayre made the remarks in 2006 or 2007 at a party at a friend's house, said CNN affiliate station TVN in Santiago, Chile. The video was downloaded to YouTube in February and surfaced a week ago to wider attention. \"We are not going to let Chileans pass by,\" Donayre says in the amateur-quality video as he offers a toast. \"Chilean who enters will not leave. Or will leave in a coffin. And if there aren't sufficient coffins, there will be plastic bags.\" Tensions rose over the weekend when Donayre, who is scheduled to retire Friday, was widely quoted in Peru and Chile as saying that he will not be forced to resign early due to external pressure. \"I was named commander general under a presidential mandate and I can only be relieved under such an order. Not by necessity nor under pressure from another government,\" Donayre said, acording to the Peruvian Andina news agency. Further heightening tensions, Donayre was quoted as saying that Peruvian citizens have a right to say whatever they want at private functions. \"I want to express and specify that it was not a speech nor a public act,\" Andina quotes the general as saying. \"The situation in which what happened at a private gathering was spread worries me.\" In the video, Donayre is surrounded by other uniformed army officials as well as people in civilian dress. It is not clear from the video in what context the general was making his comments. Nor was it clear in what forum Donayre made his comments over the weekend. After Bachelet's meeting with top aides Monday, government spokesman Francisco Vidal declined to say whether Chile's ambassador to Peru would be recalled in light of Donayre's weekend statements. \"General Donayre's declarations in the past 24 to 48 hours only convince us that we are right and that our government's posture is reasonable,\" Vidal said on the Chilean government Web site. In Peru, meanwhile, a member of Congress, Gustavo Espinoza, is under investigation, suspected of sending Donayre's videotaped comment to Chilean press and politicians. A political opponent said Espinoza has an \"unpatriotic attitude,\" the Andina news agency said. \"I would not have expected this conduct from any Peruvian, much less a member of Congress,\" said Aurelio Pastor. Espinoza is already serving a 120-day suspension for leaking a private conversation with another member of Congress, Andina said. Peruvian Defense Minister \u00c1ntero Flores-Ar\u00e1oz told reporters Saturday that relations between the two nations will be repaired, calling the Donayre incident \"a bump in the road.\" Flores-Ar\u00e1oz also said that Donayre's remarks about Chileans used \"improper terms\" that are not shared by the Peruvian people, Andina said. Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garc\u00eda Belaunde made similar assertions last week. Peru has not taken any measures against the general. His retirement Friday is required by law at the end of his two-year appointment as the army's top chief. Donayre has been the subject of an investigation in recent weeks concerning the use of 80,000 gallons of fuel under his control as commander of the southern military region in 2006. Chile and Peru have a long history of animosity, having fought in the War of the Pacific from 1879 to 1883. Hard feelings linger to this day. More recently, the two nations nearly came to war in 1975 when left-wing Peruvian leader Juan Velasco, who was backed by Cuba, wanted to invade Chile, which was led by right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The invasion was called off and Velasco was deposed in a coup a short while later. Tensions rose again when Peru discovered a Chilean spy mission, but war was averted. This year, the World Court agreed to look at an issue concerning Peruvian claims to a disputed maritime area.","highlights":"Video surfaced on YouTube last week of Peruvian general's anti-Chile remarks .\nGen. Edwin Donayre said Chileans in Peru would go home in coffins or body bags .\nDonayre made the remarks in a toast at a party in 2006 or 2007, CNN affiliate reports .\nPeru's president tells Chile the remarks do not reflect Peruvian policy .","id":"fcd31a94623303cfb9ee19976f9f3b1dc519efd5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There was no shortage of superstars in Washington this week, including the middle school students of Atlanta, Georgia's Ron Clark Academy. Ron Clark Academy students singing their newest song, \"Dear Obama,\" in Washington this week. \"There are those Obama kids!\" \"Those are the kids from TV!\" \"Sing for us!\" The middle schoolers' ode to the political process, \"You Can Vote However You Like,\" set to the tune of rapper T.I.'s \"Whatever You Like,\" has garnered exhilarating fame nationwide. Invited to perform at inauguration events, the boys and girls were stopped along every block in the capital by people who asked them to sing and pose for a picture. \"I have a sleepy energy,\" sixth-grader Kennedy Guest Pritchett said. \"I feed off of the crowd and their cheers.\" The students' new song, \"Dear Obama,\" which they have performed this week, offers advice to the president on energy, taxes, financial regulation and al Qaeda and urges him to \"control Ahmadinejad.\" \"Dear Obama hear us sing\/We're ready for the change that you will bring\/Gonna shine the light for the world to see\/to spread peace hope and democracy. ... Fight for health care for the young so that coverage is available to everyone\/It's time to find a renewable way to fuel our needs so we don't end up depending on Chavez and the Middle East.\" Watch the students sing \"Dear Obama\" \u00bb . The kids will perform Tuesday at the Africa and International Friends Inaugural Ball, sharing a stage with Usher and Patti LaBelle, one of many events in their packed schedule highlighted by a luncheon gala Monday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. \"I want to do good every song we perform. When the crowd cheers, I feel like we did a good job,\" said Willie Thornton, a seventh-grader. \"I feel a lot of adrenaline afterwards.\" The students have met the Kenyan Boys Choir, who told their American counterparts what kind of animals they might see when the Ron Clark students travel to Kenya on a school trip in June. At another luncheon, the sixth- and seventh-graders were thrilled to catch a glimpse of actor Ed Norton, the man who played the Incredible Hulk. But he didn't compare to singer Beyonce, who closed Sunday's star-studded Lincoln Memorial concert and drew giggles and shouts. The kids gained notoriety just before the election when they appeared on CNN, singing \"You Can Vote However You Like.\" They became media favorites overnight, appearing on several networks and shows. Dressed neatly in their school uniform of khaki pants, light blue shirts and navy blue blazers, they discussed the Iraq war, the economy and taxes with the composure of adults. Their teacher, Ron Clark, known for his innovation, has used pop music to teach his students. He once changed the words of Rihanna's infectious hit \"Umbrella\" to teach geography. \"You have to give students something they can identify with, something that catches their enthusiasm and spirit,\" he said. \"I'm so proud of them all. They've taught me a lot.\" Before founding his school in the rough neighborhood of South Atlanta, Clark taught in Harlem, where he penned \"The Essential 55,\" a rule-book for educators that caught Oprah Winfrey's eye. She talked about it on her show, and it soon became a New York Times bestseller. This past Christmas, Clark received another gift from the talk show host: $365,000. Winfrey donated $1,000 for each day of the year. Clark has said that the money will help provide scholarships for a year. The teacher said he plans to incorporate Barack Obama's inauguration into lessons throughout the rest of the school year. \"Our school is about politics and world issues and helping the kids understand that they have an important role in all of that,\" he said. CNN's John Murgatroyd and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Singing Atlanta schoolkids perform at inauguration festivities .\n\"I have a sleepy energy,\" one 6th-grader says of the group's packed schedule .\nRon Clark Academy singers gained fame for their \"Vote However You Like\" song .\nThey have written another song, \"Dear Obama,\" which offers advice to the president .","id":"bea9b42b57ca3e76bf645bba90c167298b4d54a0"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- The death toll from flooding in southern Brazil continued to climb Wednesday, with officials reporting at least 86 dead, the state news agency said. About 30 people are missing, the official news agency Agencia Brasil said, citing civil defense officials. Earlier reports had indicated as many as 100 people were dead. In addition, more than 54,000 residents have been left homeless, and another 1.5 million have been affected by the heavy rains, the state news agency reported. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced he will release nearly 700 million reais ($350 million) on Wednesday, Agencia Brasil said. About 50 federal police are being dispatched to Santa Catarina state, where most of the deaths and damage have occurred, Agencia Brasil said. The authorities will help look for victims and provide security for local businesses. Military police reported that four grocery stores were looted this week in the Santa Catarina city of Itajai, the news agency said. The rain-fueled flooding resulted in a declaration of public calamity in six municipalities -- Gaspar, Rio dos Cedros, Nova Trento, Camboriu, Benedito Novo and Pomerode, Agencia Brasil reported. Another seven municipalities have declared states of emergency -- Balne\u00e1rio de Pi\u00e7arras, Canelinha, Indaial, Penha, Paulo Lopes, Presidente Get\u00falio and Rancho Queimado, the news agency reported. Eight communities are cut off from the rest of the nation and have no water and electricity, Civil Defense officials said. The flooding has blocked more than 20 roads, and emergency supplies of food, water and coats are being brought in by helicopter. Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao was scheduled to tour the affected areas Wednesday to meet with Santa Catarina Gov. Luiz Henrique da Silveira and announce emergency measures. The governor has called the situation the worst catastrophe in the state's history. Complicating matters, the flooding also ruptured a pipeline carrying gas between Brazil and Bolivia on Sunday night, interrupting the flow of gas in part of the country's southern region, Agencia Brasil said. Heavy rains have brought flooding to many parts of Central and South America. In Colombia, at least 34 people have died, and another eight are missing, officials said. About 50,000 people suffered damage to their property in northwestern Colombia after the Cauca River overflowed following heavy rains. The Cauca -- a tributary of the Magdalena River, the largest in Colombia -- broke through its levees Tuesday and flooded the town of Nechi, in the province of Antioquia, about 248 miles (400 kilometers) north of Bogota. In Panama, rains have caused damage in the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui and Colon. The Panamanian Red Cross said in a release Tuesday it is offering aid to about 5,000 people. Journalist Fabiana Frayssinet in Brazil and Fernando Ramos in Colombia contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 54,000 have been left homeless, state news agency says .\nAt least 86 dead, 30 missing in southern Brazil, reports say .\nMost of deaths and damage have been in Santa Catarina state .\nFlooding also has caused damage in Colombia, Panama .","id":"b460a398ab996780e2f29a84dd32f3ca2bc5fed9"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Ann Nixon Cooper sits back in her dining room chair, her eyes closed tight and her lips clenched, when asked if she will attend Barack Obama's inauguration in January. Ann Nixon Cooper was born in 1902, a time when women and black people were denied the right to vote. \"I could go and maybe would go, but I'm not looking forward to it,\" says the 106-year-old former socialite. What if Obama came to her house and asked her in person to attend? Cooper perks up and a big smile spreads across her face. \"Oh, yes, of course I'm ready to go!\" It's been a whirlwind ever since Obama mentioned the African-American centenarian in his victory speech Tuesday night. Throngs of media -- from the BBC to a Japanese station to national news outlets -- have descended on her Atlanta house. Strangers have stopped by too. She's taking it all in stride. She stayed up later than usual, until about 3 a.m., after Obama's speech and the phone began ringing off the hook. She had been tipped off by the Obama campaign that he'd say something. \"Somebody told him what to say and what to do and he followed through,\" she says. Watch \"I'd be proud to meet him as anybody else\" \u00bb . Cooper -- who was born during a time when women and black people couldn't vote -- fully understands the significance of Obama's victory. \"Things are changing, changing, changing, and I look for more change now that it's the first black president in victory of faith over fear,\" she says. \"Don't you know, that's quite something to be proud of.\" What would she tell Obama if she ever meets him? \"I wouldn't have anything special to say about Obama. I enjoyed listening to him, but that's all,\" she says. \"I would be proud to meet him as anyone else.\" She and her late husband, prominent dentist Dr. Albert Cooper, raised four children in her house. The home was a center of Atlanta's black society and the scene of many parties. She knew Martin Luther King Jr. when he was just a boy and was close with his mother. She sometimes refers to Obama as \"that young man.\" In his victory speech, Obama praised Cooper's fight. The president-elect had learned of her story two weeks earlier after CNN profiled her when she went to the polls to vote early. Obama called her soon afterward. Watch Obama talk about Cooper in his victory speech \u00bb . \"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations,\" Obama told the tens of thousands of supporters who had gathered in Chicago on Tuesday night. \"But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing -- Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. \"She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. \"And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.\" Cooper watched Obama's speech from her home. \"Yeah, I knew he was talking about me -- I had been told that he would be saying these things.\" See images of Cooper's early voting extravaganza \u00bb . She added that her late husband \"would be elated\" a black man will be president. \"Yeah, he'd be so tickled to death,\" she said. \"We looked forward to changes. Everybody looked forward to a better life.\" One of her grandsons, Albert B. Cooper, said the family has been overwhelmed with pride since Tuesday. \"It was a bigger honor than you could ever imagine to be mentioned in Obama's speech. For her to be used as an example of the strength -- and all the changes that have gone on within the black community -- is stunning. We were touched and proud and I can't come up with the words,\" he says. \"It's an amazing thing.\" Ann Cooper has called Atlanta home since the 1920s. She co-founded a Girls Club for African-American youth and taught community residents to read in a tutoring program at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached. Celebrities, including the late singer Nat King Cole, often dropped in to visit. One time many years ago, a young student from Morehouse College stopped to visit. He spoke of dreams to become a filmmaker. That man, it turns out, was Spike Lee. \"It's been a house with a heap of living going on in it,\" Cooper said. Born in 1902 in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Cooper danced the electric slide up until the age of 103. She has recently slowed down after suffering several heart attacks and a fractured hip. On a typical day, Cooper spends hours watching television in her wood-paneled sitting room. Her favorite shows are \"The Price is Right,\" \"Oprah\" and \"Dancing with the Stars.\" Three of Cooper's four children have died; her surviving daughter is 83. She has 14 grandchildren living and many great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. When CNN first interviewed her in October, she said she only had one thing left to see in this world. \"I ain't got time to die 'cause I've got to see a black president,\" she said, giggling with excitement. \"I've got to see that.\" Now, she says, \"I would be very proud if I could just meet and shake his hand.\"","highlights":"At 106, Ann Nixon Cooper has witnessed pivotal moments unfold in U.S. history .\nAtlanta, Georgia, resident sees \"more change now that it's the first black president\"\nWhat would she say to Obama? She'd just like to shake his hand .\nShe co-founded a Girls Club for black youths, taught community residents to read .","id":"2bbfdbd8ceadbc0eff00d188e2b6295d45632853"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Newspaper front pages around the world were unanimous Wednesday in celebrating the momentousness of Barack Obama's inauguration as U.S. President. Readers browse newspapers Wednesday in the Philippines. \"Let's rebuild America,\" said the front page of France's Le Figaro, over a photograph of a smiling Obama swearing the oath of office. \"The Promise,\" said Liberation, hailing the \"United States of Obama.\" \"Remaking America,\" said the Daily Telegraph in the UK -- a theme carried by many other newspapers worldwide -- while the Daily Mirror preferred: \"Reborn in the USA.\" The Sun showed a picture of Obama's seven-year-old daughter Sasha giving her father the thumbs-up with the headline: \"You're the Daddy.\" \"At last it was the day, the hour, even the second that millions of Americans, \"and not just Americans, have waited for impatiently ever since November, and in many cases for much longer than that. The crowds in Washington were extraordinary evidence of the momentous public potency of the moment,\" the Guardian gushed in its editorial. Many international newspapers focused on the powerful symbolism and unifying power of the arrival of an African-American U.S. president on the world stage. \"We're a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers,\" said the headline on the front of the Times of India, taking a line from Obama's inaugural address. Japan's Asahi Shimbun said: \"He is expected to play the leading role in changing the world in which racial and religious confrontations continue to rage in defiance of the ideal expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\" \"He is as much symbol as substance, an icon for the youth and a sign of deliverance for an older generation that never believed a man with his skin color would ascend those steps,\" said the International Herald Tribune. But many papers urged Obama to get to work immediately to address the urgent problems already piled up up in his intray. \"This wasn't the occasion for his most soaring of speeches. It was instead an oration rooted in the immediate challenges. It was directed at two audiences: a hopeful but anxious one at home, and an uncertain but hopeful one overseas, the UK's Times said. Speaking of the economic problems on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, China's Xinhua said: \"Like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, Obama, the new president, will get a rare opportunity to leave a sweeping and long-lasting imprint on the U.S. economy.\" The Times of India called on Obama to continue the so-called \"war on terror\" by pursuing Pakistani-based militant groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba which New Delhi blames for last year's terror attacks in Mumbai. \"For the sake of the world's security, Obama must press Islamabad to clamp down on these groups and close down their bases, something that the Bush administration failed to do for most of its run.\" Meanwhile, Germany's Der Spiegel sounded a note of caution about the weight of expectation now resting on Obama's shoulders: \"The catchword of the election campaign was 'change.'The new message to his followers is: 'Be patient.'\" And there was little lament for the passing of the presidency of Obama's controversial predecessor, President George W. Bush. \"He entered the White House promising to heal division by being a 'uniter, not a divider.' He leaves it today as one of the most divisive and least popular presidents in US history,\" the South China Morning Post said. For Obama, according to the UK's Independent, the challenge in office will be to strike a balance between the \"poetry\" of his campaign for election and the tough \"prose\" of government. \"Beautiful rhetoric alone cannot change the world. So perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the address was the new President's willingness to spell out the scale of the problems facing America and the \"hard choices\" that lie ahead for him and the country,\" the paper said. \"An old American aphorism has it that politicians campaign in poetry, but govern in prose. We can be sure that the poetry will continue to flow from an orator as gifted as President Obama. But now begins the difficult task of getting the prose right too.\"","highlights":"Newspapers around world celebrate U.S. President Barack Obama's inauguration .\nMany focus on symbolism of arrival on world stage of African-American president .\nPapers urge Obama to get to work to tackle mounting problems in intray .\nObama \"must change poetry of campaigning into prose of government\"","id":"3d44a33804a7c3afea8e317ee1dd6496932389f2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's the man who has just rejected offers of up to $700,000 a week in wages -- but who really is Kaka? And what has he done to deserve so much money? Wanted man: Kaka overcame a spine fracture before getting to the top of world football. Born in Brazil in 1982, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, or \"Kaka\" as he is more commonly known, is a footballer with Italian club AC Milan. His name, Kaka, is believed to come from a brother, who began calling him that due to his inability to say his proper name -- Ricardo. Said to be an amazing talent from a very young age, the attacking midfielder began his career with Sao Paulo at the tender age of eight, and had signed his first contract before his 16th birthday. Do you think Kaka should have stayed at AC Milan or taken the money at Manchester City? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. However, when all seemed set for a perfect career, Kaka suffered a serious, potentially paralyzing injury from a swimming pool accident in 2000. The then 18-year-old fractured a vertebra in his spine -- an injury that many thought could have ended his career and even prevented him from walking again. Kaka did recover though, and it's something that the deeply religious Brazilian has put down to the help of God, and ever since has given some of his income to his Church. Once recovered, he didn't waste time in getting his career restarted. By January 2001 he had made his debut in the Sao Paulo senior team and led the team to its first Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo championship. The following year he was a part of the Brazil team which won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and in 2003 his talents had attracted the interest of European clubs and he signed to AC Milan for euro 9 million ($12 million) per season, and remains under contract with them through 2013. Since then he's won the Serie A, UEFA Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup with AC Milan, while on a personal level he won the 2007 Ballon d'Or Award for the best player in Europe and the FIFA World Player of the Year 2007 -- among many other awards. His international performances have continued to be strong -- and he has now scored 23 goals for Brazil. Such is his influence inside and outside of football, that Kaka was named in the Time 100 most influential people in 2008. Outside of the game Kaka has continued to be a devout Christian. He married his long-time partner Caroline Celico in 2005, and they had their first child in June 2008. Oddly, the current season (in which he finds himself being offered the biggest football salary ever) hasn't been as profitable for Kaka. The 26-year-old has struggled with a groin injury and has not managed to combine as smoothly within the AC Milan team compared to previous seasons. Still, that did not seem to worry Manchester City -- or Real Madrid, and for now at least, the $150 million transfer effort remains the biggest in football's history.","highlights":"Kaka is a Brazilian attacking midfielder who plays at AC Milan in Italy .\nAt the age of 18 Kaka broke a vertebra in a swimming pool accident .\nHe was named FIFA World Player of the Year for 2007 .","id":"45256ff2b93cf1e595bea999c3ee61088a86e585"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The n-word appears in this piece because CNN feels the context in which it is used is pertinent to the story of James \"Little Man\" Presley. James \"Little Man\" Presley has worked in the cotton fields of Sledge, Mississippi, since he was just 6 years old. SLEDGE, Mississippi (CNN) -- James Presley stands amid chopped cotton, the thick Mississippi mud caked on his well-worn boots. A smile spreads across his face when he talks about voting for Barack Obama and what that might mean for generations to come. His voice picks up a notch. He holds his head up a bit higher. \"There's a heap of pride in voting for a black man,\" he says. At 78, Presley is a legend of the past living in the present and now hopeful for the future. A grandson of slaves, he's one of the few men left in America so closely tied to his slave past, still farming cotton on the same land as his ancestors. He's picked cotton since he was just 6 years old. He and his wife of 57 years, Eva May, raised 13 children and six grandchildren in a cypress-sided house in the middle of cotton fields in northwestern Mississippi. He was a sharecropper most his life, but rarely qualified for food stamps. Watch \"Obama, he come up like\" \u00bb . His father died in 1935 when he was 5, and he had to step up and be the \"Little Man\" of the house, a nickname that has stuck seven decades later. He's lived a raw-knuckled life where hope moved at a molasses-slow pace. The last time he had hope for a better future was four decades ago -- first with President John F. Kennedy and then with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Obama has changed everything to the poor in these parts. iReport.com: What does Obama's presidency mean to you? \"I'm a church man,\" he says. \"And I kind of figured this here is about like it was with Moses with the children of Israel. On that day, when he gets to be president, we're all going to be rejoicing.\" Does he have plans to celebrate on Inauguration Day? \"Oh man, it's gonna be nice. I believe we're gonna have a good time,\" he says. \"I never thought one would get there.\" See photos of the weather-beaten home where Little Man raised so many children \u00bb . As the nation prepares for Obama's inauguration on January 20, CNN.com traveled to Sledge, Mississippi, a forgotten town of about 500 people in the heart of the Mississippi Delta that some consider to be the birthplace of blues in America. Nearly 20 percent of residents over the age of 60 live below the poverty line, according to the 2000 census. That number nearly doubles, to 37.5 percent, for residents under the age of 19. About three-quarters of the population are black. Two-thirds of the people here make less than $35,000 a year. Presley says the fact the nation will have a black president will have a ripple effect in poor communities like his. For the first time ever, he says, black parents and grandparents can tell youngsters in rural America that through education, anything is possible -- that the White House isn't just for white folks. Three of his children graduated from college. Two have died -- one as a youth, one as an adult. It never gets easier, he says, no matter what age they die. Obama has already brought inspiration to future generations of his own family. \"I might be dead and gone, but it's going to be a good thing to me, because I know that they ain't gotta go through what I went through. They'll have a better time, a more joyous time, than what I had when I come along. It is gonna be grand to them and to me, too.\" \"He knows what it is to come up without a father and what it is to come up for what you work for,\" Presley says. \"Me and the poor man coming up, we had to work for what bread I got.\" Presley shifts back and forth on his feet as he speaks. His flannel shirt and oil-stained jeans seem befitting of his life on the farm. He peers out from a camouflage hat, the fuzzy ear flaps pulled up over his head. He speaks in an accent as thick as the mud on his boots. His hands speak to decades of hard labor. His fingers appear swollen with overworked muscles. The skin seems about a quarter-inch thick. If his hands could speak, he says, \"They'd be crying, instead of talking, for what they've been through.\" \"You see how rusty and rough they are. They've been through something, ain't they?\" At 6-foot, 2-inches and 214 pounds, Presley has what seems an odd nickname. \"They call me Little Man,\" he says. He wears the nickname with pride. The youngest of three sisters and four brothers, he says that after his father died in 1935, he became the \"Little Man\" of the house. \"I was tall, but I was small. So they called me Little Man,\" he says. He doesn't remember much about his father. He can't recall the day he died or the sound of his voice. He was too young. He never met his slave grandparents either. They died long before he was born. But the fact they were slaves still stings. \"That doesn't make you feel too good, you know, to be sold like a cow. But back then, they couldn't help it. So I reckon I'm just glad that things come out better like it is now.\" A thick fog hangs over the fields on this day. Presley pauses. He scans the fields and says, \"I think about the good times and the hard times.\" \"When I started farming, we planted with hands ... and hauled it to the gin by wagon, a mule and a wagon. One bale at a time,\" he says. He worked the fields when he was 6, the age of a typical kindergartner these days. \"I was making 50 cents a day, from sunup to sundown.\" \"Back then, you know, I didn't get no schooling. I had to get out, come home and break the land, cut the stalks, plow the land and get it ready for the crop.\" Presley has a total of four years of education, classes that he took in between growing seasons. His mother taught him to read and write, but he admits even to this day he struggles with both. When it comes to life as a black man -- a sharecropper -- in Mississippi, he says it's tough to explain how difficult it was. He points to a nearby bluff and says that when he was just a boy, a black man was lynched from a tree. \"I never saw him hanging up there,\" he says. \"All I seen was the tree.\" Blacks were segregated from whites. They couldn't go to the same schools. They had separate water fountains. Blacks couldn't go in the front doors of businesses. And just about everywhere you went, he says, racism was rampant. \"You go into a place, and they say, 'Nigger, get outta here.' You don't want nobody telling you that. You're a citizen around town. If you're a citizen, I'm a citizen like you,\" he says. \"It makes you feel mighty bad.\" \"When I was a young boy, they was bad about that, calling you that.\" He registered to vote for the first time in 1959 and cast his first presidential ballot for Kennedy. He says he's voted in every presidential election ever since. \"We felt like we were moving on up when we voted for him,\" he says. When Kennedy was assassinated, \"everybody was kind of sad on that day, because he looked like the first president that had come in and was trying to help the poor folks.\" King brought hope, too. \"He was the only hope that we were looking for -- to bring us out,\" Presley says. But when King was killed on April 4, 1968, he says, it \"put us right back where we was.\" \"It was pitiful that day,\" he says. \"Everybody around here was in mourning.\" He says Obama has brought inspiration to blacks in these parts, the likes of which hasn't been seen since 1968. \"With Obama coming in, it's gonna be another Martin Luther King helping us,\" he says. \"Maybe in the next 40 years, we'll be better off.\" He says Americans should never take their voting rights for granted. He was 30 years old before he first voted. \"It means a lot to me, because I can put in for who I want to be president and who not to be president,\" he says. \"So I just feel proud that I can vote.\" Before parting on this day, Presley gives a tour of the weather-beaten, four-bedroom house where he raised his 13 children and six grandkids. The wood-framed house was the first home he ever lived in with running water, a bathroom and electric stove. The now-abandoned house is dilapidated, many of its windows broken, its doors barely hanging on hinges. \"I've had a good life, despite the hard times. I sure did,\" says Presley, who is retiring after 72 years of working the fields. What's his message to the world? \"The important thing in life is to try to live and do the best you can,\" he says. \"We done had it bad. Let us help give our children a better life, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren. Let's try to give them a better life than we had. But anyway, just keep the good work going, is all I say.\"","highlights":"James \"Little Man\" Presley, 78, has worked cotton fields since he was 6 years old .\n\"There's a heap of pride in voting for a black man,\" says the grandson of slaves .\nHis dad died when he was 5; Obama \"knows what it is to come up without a father\"\nHis message: \"The important thing in life is to try to live and do the best you can\"","id":"a8f6508736c136a450a79a10b42545e177a58c28"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A child cries from hunger, but no tears come from her swollen eyes. A Zimbabwean family bury their relative, who died of cholera, 25km from Harare, Zimbabwe. Malnutrition has left this baby born in Zimbabwe fighting for her life. She is the face of an unfolding crisis in a country once known as Africa's bread basket. Today a loaf of bread costs $35 million worthless Zimbabwean dollars, and people are forced to sift through garbage piles for any morsel of food. Others huddle for warmth around a fire burning inside the shell of a broken-down van. All of these images were captured on video recently smuggled out of Zimbabwe by Solidarity Peace Trust, a South African human rights group. Watch the disturbing images \u00bb . Zimbabwe's government maintains that the situation is being exaggerated by the West in an effort to exert pressure on President Robert Mugabe to leave office. But the World Health Organization (WHO) says the desperate situation has triggered a widening cholera outbreak that has killed 775 people and infected more than 15,000. \"You have to eat in the same place you sleep right next to the buckets, the same buckets that we used as toilets,\" one cholera patient says on the video. \"There is no water to bathe.\" And little to eat. Women foraging for food in the bush find dry branches with only a few berries. \"This packet of juice will be my supper tonight,\" one woman says. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- who is still trying to form a unity government with Mugabe under a recent power-sharing deal -- said the situation can only be addressed once a \"legitimate government\" is in place. \"Once there is a legitimate government, it is up to that government to deal with the problems the country is facing, which are quite wide-ranging,\" Tsvangirai told CNN on Wednesday. \"But the immediate intervention of the health crisis has exacerbated the situation to the extent that it has now become an international crisis.\" The WHO says the current cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has a high fatality rate because sufferers are either not able to reach health centers in time or that the health centers lack the capacity to treat the cases. \"The epidemic is clearly on the increase,\" Dr. Eric Laroche, a WHO official in Harare, told CNN on Wednesday. \"I think it's going to last for several months.\" In addition to the WHO, the Red Cross has responded to the outbreak and is sending staff and medical supplies into Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's main hospitals have all but shut down and the small clinics equipped by international aid organizations are overcrowded and unable to cope with the thousands of cholera patients. Health workers inside Zimbabwe believe scores are dying at home. Laroche said the WHO is receiving cooperation from the government, but the health care system is abysmal. \"The quality of the care, the supplies that come inside Zimbabwe, also need to be restored,\" Laroche said. \"So there's a lot of work to do, because the health system is collapsing for the time being.\" One Zimbabwean health care worker, who would not show his face on the video, said he fears the death toll will skyrocket. \"People are dying even at the health institution,\" he said. \"It's beyond control. We are going to witness so many deaths in the coming weeks.\" He expressed frustration that so many people are dying from cholera, a disease that \"is both preventable and curable.\" \"Nobody should die from cholera,\" he said. \"We are quite unfortunate.\" Zimbabwe, already experiencing an economic crisis, was struck with the raging water-borne cholera in August. Health experts say the battle against the disease can only be won if Harare has adequate water-treating chemicals and disposes of refuse properly. Zimbabwe's information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said Tuesday that the country has enough chemicals to purify water and enough money to buy pipes to mend sanitation lines. He maintained that the outbreak is under control, blaming the West for causing the crisis as an excuse for military intervention. International leaders -- including U.S. President George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Kenyan premier Raila Odinga -- have recently called for Mugabe to step down for failing to contain the cholera outbreak. Frustration inside Zimbabwe is building. Last week, doctors and nurses protested over the lack of medical supplies and other resources at the country's hospitals. Labor unions have protested over the deteriorating economy. Even soldiers once shielded from economic hardships by the Mugabe regime went on a rampage last week when they were unable to access wages from the country's banks. Human rights activist Elinor Sisulu, who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe and now coordinates civil action outside the country, called on African leaders to demand Mugabe step down before Zimbabwe explodes. \"In any population where you have high levels of desperation, anger and ... people arrive at the conclusion that we've tried a peaceful political process and this is not working, then anything can happen,\" she said. -- CNN's Nkepile Mabuse in Johannesburg, South Africa contributed to this report.","highlights":"WHO: Nearly 775 people have died in Zimbabwe from cholera outbreak .\nZimbabwe maintains that the situation is being exaggerated by the West .\nThe number of overall cholera cases is also on the rise, hitting 15,141 .\nCholera outbreak is part of a larger humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe .","id":"33fe4319881cf2ebc225ad0e0914429a6fdf3175"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Troubled pop star Amy Winehouse spent the night in a London hospital after suffering a reaction to a medication she was taking at home Monday night, according to her spokeswoman. Amy Winehouse's husband was recently jailed for 27 months. Tracey Miller said she could not say what medication was involved. A statement from University College Hospital said Winehouse had been kept in overnight for observation. She had a comfortable night and was released Tuesday morning, the statement said. London Ambulance Service said it transported the singer after being notified of \"an adult female taken unwell.\" Winehouse's spokesman in London, Chris Goodman, told the British Press Association that he had not been told what was wrong with the 24-year-old singer, who is well known for her song \"Rehab,\" describing the singer's reluctance to enter a clinic. The pop singer was investigated this year after a London tabloid made public a leaked home video that showed her smoking something in a glass pipe minutes after she was heard saying she had just taken six tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Valium. Police declined to file charges. The singer has battled drug addiction and spent about two weeks in a rehabilitation clinic in January. Winehouse won five Grammy awards this year -- three for \"Rehab\" as well as Album of the Year and Best New Artist. Winehouse's Grammy winning album, \"Back to Black,\" is still a big seller, recently charting at No. 12 in the UK more than 19 months after its release. Madame Toussaud's London wax museum recently unveiled a wax statue of Winehouse alongside Madonna, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and other musicians in the museum's \"Music Zone\" exhibit. On July 21, Winehouse's husband was jailed for 27 months. He admitted to brawling with a pub manager and then offering him $400,000 to not talk about the incident.","highlights":"Amy Winehouse leaves hospital after spending the night under observation .\nSpokesperson says singer had reaction to medication she was taking at home .\nAmbulance took 24-year-old Winehouse from London home to emergency room .\nSinger has struggled with drugs and alcohol .","id":"b4a18030df64c45d6cc6ee2eea097e2acb962755"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bird struck an Arkansas hospital's helicopter Saturday, tearing a hole into the aircraft's nose and prompting the pilot to land early, according to officials and pictures taken after the landing. A medical helicopter landed near Forrest City, Arkansas, on Saturday after striking a bird. The chopper's pilot made a \"safe landing\" in that state after hitting a bird while returning to Baptist Health Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, hospital spokesman Mark Lowman said. \"I think the pilot just made a judgment call to set it down,\" Lowman said of the landing, which happened at 6:15 p.m. Saturday near Forrest City, Arkansas. Video footage taken by CNN affiliate WREG showed a bird hanging out of a hole torn into the paneling on the chopper's nose. Part of the helicopter's windshield also was broken. The pilot was slightly injured during the landing, and the other two crew members on board were uninjured, Lowman said. Federal aviation officials are investigating, and the helicopter is not expected to be grounded for long, he said. The helicopter was returning from a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where the crew had taken a patient. The incident came two days after a US Airways jetliner was forced to land in New York's Hudson River, apparently after striking a flock of birds. Shortly after the jet took off from New York's LaGuardia airport on Thursday, the crew reported seeing a flock of birds. Seconds later, the cockpit voice recorder captured the sounds of loud \"thumps\" and both of the plane's engines failed. The pilot, C.B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, landed the Airbus A320 in the Hudson, where all 155 people aboard were rescued.","highlights":"Bird hits Arkansas hospital's helicopter, forcing pilot to land early .\nCopter's pilot suffers minor injuries during landing .\nIncident comes days after birds apparently forced jet to land in Hudson River .","id":"cd8bf79db505d36a6ba59eb37a075e14661c09a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Phil Donahue has rarely shied away from controversy. On his long-running syndicated talk show, he debated issues including abortion and the death penalty, and his MSNBC show was canceled in 2003, he maintained, because of his antiwar stand. Phil Donahue, right, made \"Body of War\" about disabled veteran Tomas Young, seated. Now the former talk show host has co-directed and co-produced an independent film, \"Body of War,\" about a disabled Iraq war veteran, Tomas Young, who questions the conflict's rationale. Young joined the military after the September 11 attacks and was sent to Iraq. After less than a week there, he was shot in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. \"Body of War\" is the story of his coming home and adjusting to his new reality. The film has earned excellent reviews and was named best documentary of 2007 by the National Board of Review. It airs on The Sundance Channel on Tuesday night. Watch Donahue talk about politics and war \u00bb . Donahue talked about \"Body of War\" and the recent presidential election on \"American Morning\" with CNN's Carol Costello. CNN: What did you hope to prove by [making \"Body of War\"]? Phil Donahue: Well, this work by ... Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue is our attempt to show the harm in harm's way. In the middle of the most sanitized war of my lifetime, nobody sees this pain. These people are all below the radar. What you see in our film is a drama taking place behind the closed doors of thousands of homes in this country. I'm telling you, less than 5 percent of us have sacrificed, and the American people are not seeing this. I think this is a shame. CNN: Well, let's see some of that. We're going to show a clip right now. (Begin video clip) Tomas Young: When I made the phone call on September 13, it was because I saw the pictures of [President Bush] standing on top of the pile, saying that we were going to smoke the evildoers out that did this to us. All that had to happen so I could fly 10,000 miles away to not shoot around, because all I saw were women and children running away from gunfire, before I took a bullet myself. (End video clip) CNN: Got a lot of wonderful reviews already. I just want to ask you what your hope is for when Barack Obama takes office for veterans of the Iraq war. Donahue: Well, he will stop the pretense. He will stop it immediately. Oh, the troops, the troops, we love the troops ... [but] the troops come home and the V[eterans] A[dministration] doesn't call them back. We have to stop all this. We think if we say it, it's true. So, I see Barack Obama as -- first of all, the smile alone is going to restore this nation to the world's family of nations. ... They're going to be fascinated with the guy, and he is going to exploit this special attention to the benefit of this nation. I am pumped. CNN: The bar is high for him. Donahue: Yes. CNN: He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Phil Donahue, thank you for joining us. Donahue: Thank you, Carol.","highlights":"Phil Donahue co-directed, co-produced \"Body of War\"\nFilm concerns Tomas Young, Iraq war veteran paralyzed by bullet to spine .\nDonahue: \"Nobody sees this pain. These people are all below the radar\"","id":"2b25dd4b1c826fb46b9c89c6921029cff4c1963d"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist, is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute and founder of Brazile & Associates, a political consulting firm. She was the campaign manager for the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman ticket in 2000 and wrote \"Cooking with Grease.\" Donna Brazile says Barack Obama's inauguration is a huge milestone in the fight for equal rights . WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Today Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. This is the day for which so many prayed, so many marched and so many more sacrificed. This is a day of jubilation and celebration. This is the day to rejoice and recommit ourselves to restoring the American dream for us all. Barack Obama's election offers our country the opportunity to open a new chapter that will allow us to turn the corner on past prejudices and racial politics. When Sen. Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, most people, black and white, thought it would be, at best, an interesting sideshow. After Obama's victories in the early primaries, there came the controversial videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, broadcasting a racial divisiveness that cast even greater doubt on an Obama candidacy. But the senator moved quickly to reassure people that Wright's jaundiced view of America did not reflect his own. Americans wanted to move beyond racial categorization and the politics of division. Obama understood that. And so did the voters. But African-Americans didn't believe it. Seventy-one percent of black voters had never thought a black candidate for president would get elected in their lifetime, according to a national poll released in November by CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. Yet 59 percent of white respondents said they had thought it was possible. Obama did not just win the caucuses in Iowa -- a state with a white population of more than 94 percent -- he resoundingly captured it. Other primary victories, once thought improbable, soon followed. These included Georgia, and Virginia, the former seat of the Confederacy. On Election Day, Obama won a higher percentage of the white vote than John Kerry did in 2004, though he did not get a majority of whites. Unlike other black presidential candidates before him, Obama did not run as \"the black candidate.\" He ran as a Democratic candidate, a U.S. senator from Illinois, and a progressive. And America, by larger margins than in previous recent elections, voted for the progressive Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois who happened to be biracial. For too long, race has been the stain on the American fabric. As Secretary Condoleezza Rice reminded us, race has been our \"nation's birth defect.\" At times during the long primary and general election, race became a subtle distraction -- but the American people rejected it and it was never the primary issue. Nor was it the primary issue for Americans who voted for Barack Obama. The vast majority of those who voted for and against Obama did so based on the content of his political prescriptions and platform -- not the color of his skin. A lot of lessons were taught November 4. Obama's election revealed the possibility of three new truths for African-Americans: White America may not be as racist as African-Americans thought they were; a solution to our country's lingering racial problem may eventually be found; and the Rev. Martin Luther King's dream that one day all people will be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin is alive and within reach. Obama's election has inspired 6 in 10 blacks to forecast better race relations in the United States. \"A majority of blacks now believe that a solution to the country's racial problems will eventually be found,\" said CNN polling director Keating Holland. \"In every previous poll on this topic dating back to 1993, black respondents had always said that racial problems were a permanent part of the American landscape. Even in the most recent polls taken last week, a majority of African-Americans said that a solution to the country's racial problems could be within reach; now blacks and whites agree that racial tensions may end.\" Yes, of course, racism still exists in America. But if a black man can become president of the United States of America, then aren't all Americans now free to believe they can achieve any goal they set for themselves? So on this day, let us all rejoice and be glad. Let us celebrate this moment in American history and let us resolve to find common ground. Let us resolve to join together as a nation to ensure that racial prejudice in America, as well as an ethic of non-achievement based on excuses and low expectations, dies the same death it did in the November ballot box. What our founders envisioned -- what President Lincoln and the Rev. King fought and died for, we are perhaps finally ready to achieve. This is a remarkable moment. Though not the apex we need to reach, it is still a mountaintop, alive with possibilities, a dream no longer deferred. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.","highlights":"Donna Brazile: Obama's inauguration is a time for rejoicing and rededication .\nBrazile: Hardly anyone took Obama seriously as a candidate two years ago .\nBrazile: He didn't run as an African-American candidate but as a Democrat .\nBrazile: We are perhaps ready to achieve what Lincoln and the Rev. King fought for .","id":"8a19d95198207046dca6f93bb56932891f96096f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While nearly all maritime activity on the Potomac River will be halted on Inauguration Day, a handful of Mall-goers will sail from Virginia to Washington on water taxis. Some people will cross the Potomac River via water taxi on Inauguration Day. Working closely with the United States Coast Guard, the Potomac Riverboat Company, based in Alexandria, Virginia, plans to ferry up to 3,200 passengers from across the frigid Potomac on seven climate-controlled boats. The service is partially a response to the closure of all bridges from Virginia to D.C. on Inauguration Day, a measure that prompted an uproar among Virginia residents. According to maritime authorities in charge of the region, PRC is the only company being allowed to taxi across the river on the 20th. \"Because the taxi service provided us with a security plan that we examined and deemed adequate to provide good security, I granted them a waiver to operate at an increased security level,\" National Capitol Region Port Captain Brian Kelley says. \"The taxis are going to operate on a strict schedule and a strict route.\" The Coast Guard established a temporary security zone on waterways in the National Capitol Region, stepping up restrictions day-by-day leading up to 11 p.m. on January 19. At that point, all vessels must be docked and only boats with an approved sail plan will be allowed to operate. John Lake, a ship captain and the general manager of the company, said the sail plan he submitted was approved only a week ago and details nearly every move taxis will make. \"All the departures are scheduled times. And those departures are supposed to leave on-time,\" Lake said. \"We have to call in on each departure to the Coast Guard, let them know we're preparing to get under way, and get the permission, basically, to get under way.\" The boats depart the Alexandria Marina for the 40-minute trip beginning around 6 a.m. and must be docked on the southwest D.C. shore by 10 a.m. From there, it's a cold, mile-long walk to the Mall, so Lake has some advice for passengers. \"Show up early to get through the security check and dress warm,\" he said. \"It's going to be nice and toasty on the boat, but not so much outside.\" Return trips, tentatively scheduled for around 6 p.m., are not allowed to depart D.C. until after the inaugural parade events have concluded and President Obama is secured. In keeping with the Coast Guard's security measures, Lake says all passengers must arrive at least an hour early for a full screening. Passengers that want to stay in D.C. after the early evening departures will have to find other transport back across the Potomac. PRC Vice President Charlotte Hall says tickets went on sale Monday and the initial response from customers has been enthusiastic.","highlights":"Up to 3,200 passengers to be taken across Potomac on seven boats .\nService is partially a response to the closure of all bridges from Virginia to D.C.\nPotomac Riverboat Company clears security to provide service .\nAll passengers must arrive at least an hour early for a full screening .","id":"fcf7e2eb076e6d457956ad41b03e81dfb1ac0ee1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prince Harry paraded alongside his fellow British servicemen in Scotland Wednesday, as he attended a memorial to service members who have died in Afghanistan. Prince Harry takes part in a memorial parade and service for troops killed during his tour of Afghanistan. Harry, 23, serves in the British Army and spent 10 weeks in Afghanistan earlier this year. He was withdrawn unexpectedly in March after news leaked out about his low-key deployment. The prince appeared in uniform alongside around 200 other sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen at the parade, which took place on Edinburgh's famous Royal Mile. They made their way to St. Giles' Cathedral for a private memorial and thanksgiving service for the fallen service members. Also attending the service was British Defense Secretary Des Browne, families of the fallen troops, and recovering wounded military personnel. Harry holds the rank of cornet, equivalent to a second lieutenant. He was deployed to Afghanistan's Helmand province where he served as a forward air controller. His duties included calling in airstrikes and air support when necessary, guaranteeing the accuracy of bombing on the ground and guarding against incidents of friendly fire. The parade and memorial service took place on the same day Britain's Ministry of Defense announced the deaths of four British soldiers in Afghanistan, and two days after Browne announced Britain will increase its presence in Afghanistan from 7,800 troops to 8,030 by next spring. Watch Prince Harry at the memorial \u00bb . Prince Harry is the younger son of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the late Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. Last year, the military ruled he could not be sent to Iraq because publicity about the deployment could put him and his unit at risk. Shortly after the news of the prince's deployment broke, several Islamist Web sites posted messages alerting their \"brethren\" in Afghanistan to be on the lookout for the royal soldier. Several members of the British royal family saw combat in the past century. Prince Harry's grandfather, Prince Phillip, served aboard warships in World War II; his great-grandfather -- the future King George VI -- took part in the World War I naval battle of Jutland; and Prince Andrew, Prince Harry's uncle, flew Royal Navy helicopters during Britain's 1982 war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Prince Harry's brother, Prince William, is also an army officer. But as second in line for the throne, he is specifically barred from combat.","highlights":"Harry serves in British Army and spent 10 weeks in Afghanistan this year .\nDecision was made to pull prince from Afghanistan amid fears for his safety .\nHarry marched with 200 sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen at parade in Edinburgh .\nService took place on the same day four UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan .","id":"747430a224df7b2c40bf373f801c1fb3d9864595"} -{"article":"H. W. Brands is the author of \"TR: The Last Romantic\" and the just-released \"Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.\" He teaches history at the University of Texas at Austin. Historian H.W. Brands says power as well as race was behind controversy over Booker T. Washington. AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- In his concession speech on Tuesday night, John McCain illustrated the historic significance of Barack Obama's election by noting that a little over a century ago the inclusion of another black man, Booker T. Washington, at a White House dinner provoked outrage in large parts of the country. McCain wasn't giving a history lecture, and he quickly moved on, but the tale is worth exploring, as it is both more complex and more instructive than McCain's brief remarks suggested. Washington was the one who initiated the acquaintance that led to his 1901 dinner with Theodore Roosevelt. Washington had built the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama into a political base that made him the most powerful black leader in the country. Invited to address the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895, Washington offered white America a racial bargain: Blacks would cease agitating for immediate political and civil rights if whites would fund black educational and economic advancement. This \"Atlanta Compromise\" outraged black intellectuals like W. E. B. Du Bois, but it appealed to white leaders in the South and white philanthropists in the North -- and it marked Washington, the broker of Northern largesse and Southern cooperation, as one of the shrewdest politicians in the South. Washington spotted Roosevelt on the rise, and after Roosevelt became vice president, Washington invited him to Tuskegee, where he knew Roosevelt, the apostle of the strenuous life, would be entranced by the rigorous physical regimen the students pursued. Roosevelt was preparing to visit Tuskegee when the assassination of William McKinley elevated him to the presidency and threw his plans into turmoil. Roosevelt instead invited Washington to call at the White House whenever he was in town. Washington didn't have to be asked twice. Within weeks, he was in the capital and was invited to join the president for dinner on October 16. Roosevelt's ascension to the presidency made him that much more interesting to Washington. Yet no more interesting than Washington was to Roosevelt. The peculiar politics of the Republican Party gave Washington an importance among Republicans that belied the abnegations of the Atlanta Compromise. Discriminatory Jim Crow laws kept most blacks from voting in the South, but they didn't prevent the Southern states from sending delegations to the Republican national conventions every four years. These delegations could tip the balance in a tight contest, and Roosevelt -- who though president was profoundly unpopular among the Republican bosses -- expected the 1904 convention to be a tight contest. Roosevelt's invitation to Washington to dine at the White House had little to do with Washington's race per se, but everything to do with Washington's role as a political boss of Southern Republicans who happened to be black. Likewise, the outrage expressed by Southern editors and spokesmen over Roosevelt's alleged affront to the South, while couched in the language of race, was really about political power. \"White men of the South, how do you like it?\" fulminated the New Orleans Times-Democrat. \"White women of the South, how do you like it?\" The Richmond Times frothed over the implications of the honor Roosevelt had bestowed on Washington: \"It means that the president is willing that Negroes shall mingle freely with whites in the social circle -- that white women may receive attentions from negro men; it means that there is no racial reason in his opinion why whites and blacks may not marry and intermarry, why the Anglo-Saxon may not mix negro blood with his blood.\" The vehemence of the Southern response gave the game away. Booker Washington had explicitly forsworn any claim to social equality, let alone the right for blacks to marry whites. What the Southern foamers, political conservatives to a man, feared was that Washington might help the dangerously progressive Roosevelt get elected in his own right. When he did precisely that -- Roosevelt fended off the conservatives at the 1904 convention and was returned to office overwhelmingly -- they foamed the more. The race question in America has often been about race, but it has equally often been about power. Not for 40 years, since the dismantling of the Jim Crow system, has the race of guests at the White House prompted anything other than idle curiosity. But until last Tuesday those African-Americans among the guests were precisely that: guests -- visitors who lacked the power that occupancy of the White House entails. Symbolism isn't unimportant, and the symbolism of a black man taking the oath of the president's office in January will certainly bring an outpouring of sentiment like that which greeted Obama's election. But behind the symbolism of race is the reality of power. Obama will wield power of an order Booker Washington appreciated in Roosevelt but never possessed for himself. A week or a month after the symbolism fades, the reality will remain. At that point, Obama's race won't matter nearly as much as his facility with power. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of H.W. Brands.","highlights":"H.W. Brands: Roosevelt-Washington White House dinner was controversial .\nHe says the the opposition was about power as well as about race .\nAfrican-Americans have often been guests at the White House .\nBrands: When Obama moves in, it will represent a leap in terms of power .","id":"51d4c63b315b80cf1601ca6c50be4eb14e3ff0f6"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi Presidency Council approved a resolution Sunday that will allow non-U.S. foreign troops to remain in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year's end. British troops talk in Basra last week. Iraq on Sunday OK'd foreign troops to remain in the country after the new year. It was the last step for final adoption of the resolution, which won parliamentary approval Tuesday. Iraq's main political parties hammered out the resolution a week ago, after an impasse among parliamentary factions threatened to continue beyond the December 31 deadline. A separate, previously approved agreement authorizes U.S. troops to remain. Britain has about 4,100 troops in Iraq, the second-largest contingent after the United States, which has about 142,500. Other countries covered under the resolution -- El Salvador, Australia, Romania and Estonia -- have a total of several hundred troops in the country. The resolution authorizes Iraq to negotiate bilateral agreements with the countries, Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said. If it had not been approved by year's end, their troops would have been in Iraq illegally. In November, the United States concluded a separate agreement with the Iraqi government authorizing the continued presence of its troops. U.S. combat forces plan to pull back from population centers in Iraq by July and to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. The British government says its forces will complete their mission of training Iraqi troops by May 31 and withdraw from the country by July 31. In other developments: . \u2022 Four people were killed and 20 wounded Sunday when a suicide bomber targeted a demonstration in Mosul against Israeli military operations in Gaza, a Mosul police official said. About 30 minutes into the rally, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest detonated after riding his bicycle into a crowd of protesters, police said. \u2022 One of three al Qaeda in Iraq prisoners at large after a Friday jail break in Ramadi was killed in a gun battle with police Saturday, and the remaining two were arrested early Sunday, according to Ramadi police and an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. Amad Ahmed Farhan was among 40 al Qaeda in Iraq prisoners who escaped from jail at al-Fursan police station. An Iraqi police patrol drove by Farhan's sister's home and Farhan began shooting at officers, a police official said. He then fled, jumping from the roof of one house to another before a police sniper gunned him down. The remaining two prisoners, Abdul Aleem Abdulwahab and Lazem Mohammed Ali, were found hiding in water tanks Sunday at a home where they had threatened two women and several children with weapons, the Interior Ministry said. Of the 40 who escaped, 24 were taken into custody, six were killed in the clashes and seven others were wounded. Ten Iraqi police also were killed. \u2022 A car bomb killed at least two civilians and wounded four others Sunday near the western entrance to the city of Falluja, an Interior Ministry official said. Falluja is a Sunni town located about 35 miles (60 kilometers) west of Baghdad. \u2022 A U.S. soldier was killed by a bomb Sunday in northern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldier was with Multi-National Division - Baghdad. No further details were given. The death brings the U.S. toll in the Iraq war to 4,217. CNN's Jill Dougherty and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suicide bomber kills 4 in Mosul at protest against Israel's Gaza airstrikes .\nResolution approved by Presidency Council replaces U.N. mandate set to expire .\nAfter U.S.'s 142,500 troops, Britain has second-largest contingent: 4,100 .\nAuthorities capture two al Qaeda in Iraq escapees, kill another from Friday jailbreak .","id":"3d10c664f01a2e38b43a9bb73158223a333d9bc0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bitter cold weather was sweeping across the nation Thursday, putting the Midwest in a deep freeze. A thermometer registers minus 20 degrees Thursday in Hudson, Wisconsin. It was brutal in Ames, Iowa, on Wednesday. \"Last night, the temperature was still above zero (3 degrees Fahrenheit), but the wind chill (minus 14 degrees) was cold enough to make your skin burn,\" iReporter Kevin Cavallin said. \"When it gets this cold, your hands are just in pain when doing something as simple as carrying bags of groceries from the car to the apartment.\" iReport.com: What's the weather like near you? Send photos, video . In Minneapolis, Minnesota, it felt like 40 below because of the wind chill, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said. It was 48 below in Fargo, North Dakota, where unprotected fingers could suffer frostbite in 60 seconds. Watch the freeze in Iowa \u00bb . The freezing temperatures are likely to remain in the East through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. There were low teens Thursday along much of the Interstate 95 corridor, which hugs the Atlantic from Maine to Florida. It was 17 in New York, which had a moderate snowfall Thursday that delayed flights a few hours on the ground at LaGuardia Airport. \"If you live east of the Mississippi River, the temperature at mid-morning may be the best you'll get,\" Marciano added. Temperatures dipped to 19 degrees below zero in Michigan and 10 below in Chicago, Illlinois. Snow caused more traffic nightmares in the Midwest. Snow also was falling in Trenton, New Jersey; New Haven, Connecticut; and other Northeast cities. Meanwhile, an icy cold front was pushing into the Southeast, with a cold high-pressure center expected to remain over the area through Saturday, the National Weather Service said. Another cold front is to move in late Sunday. The sun came out in Georgia, but forecasters said the weather would deteriorate by evening. Much of Georgia, including Atlanta, will be under a wind chill advisory from 7 p.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday. Thursday's high in the state could reach 59, but the thermometer could reach as low as 14 at night, the weather service said. Forecasters said overnight temperatures will be accompanied by bitterly cold wind chills, possibly setting a record.","highlights":"NEW: It felt like 40 below in Minneapolis, Minnesota, because of wind chill .\nNEW: It was 10 below in Chicago -- without the wind chill .\nIcy cold front is pushing into the Southeast and could last through Saturday .\niReport.com: Cold near you? Share your photos, video, stories .","id":"baf433510e7e603ca15499150a3335f7f98131a1"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military formally handed authority over Baghdad's \"Green Zone\" to Iraqis on Thursday as new pacts governing the mission of international troops replaced a U.N. mandate. An Iraqi honor guard parades outside the former palace of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on Thursday. Iraqi troops took over checkpoints around the heavily protected district, formally known as the International Zone, which houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy. Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace, which served as U.S. headquarters in Baghdad after the 2003 invasion that ousted Iraq's longtime strongman, was among the facilities handed over in Thursday's ceremony. \"This day is a great day in the history of the Iraqi people,\" Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta said. Maj. Gen. David Perkins, a U.S. military spokesman, noted the significance of turning over the former Republican Palace. Watch what goes on in the \"Green Zone\" \u00bb . \"The palace was handed back to the Iraqi people, significant as symbol of the head of the government and a sign for increased sovereignty,\" he said at a news conference with Atta. Thursday marked the first day of a U.S.-Iraqi pact that allows U.S. forces to remain in the country until 2011, under tighter restrictions. Similar agreements have been signed with other coalition countries that remain in Iraq. A U.N. mandate that authorized international forces in the country expired Wednesday. Perkins said American troops will continue to fight alongside Iraqis -- \"but the Iraqis will be in the lead.\" \"When you come up to a checkpoint, the Iraqis will check your identification. They will make the decision if you come in or go out,\" he said. \"We will continue to be there to provide some technical capacity, to provide some mentoring, but you will see less and less American forces and more and more Iraqi forces -- and they will have the majority of the responsibility for making those key decisions which determine the security of the capital.\" Iraq's three-member Presidency Council ratified the new pact in December. Under the deal, U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by June 30, and all American troops will leave the country by the end of 2011, more than eight years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Hussein. The agreement authorizes the \"temporary assistance\" of U.S. forces but severely restricts their role. It requires Iraqi approval for all military operations and gives Iraqi courts the right to try U.S. troops and contractors for \"grave premeditated felonies.\"","highlights":"U.N. mandate authorizing foreign troop presence expired Wednesday .\nNew bilateral pact covers U.S. presence until 2011 .\nU.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities by end of June .","id":"911f4fe0e60be00b6d114dd11d0e4d4fef34caca"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Police Wednesday arrested the suspected head of an Italian mafia murder squad following a two-day manhunt after he eluded police by crawling through sewer pipes, according to Italian media reports. Italian police examine a sewer that may have offered an escape route for a suspected mafia boss. Giuseppe Setola, 38, was arrested near Caserta north of Naples, according to Italy's state-run ANSA news agency and reports in the La Repubblica and Corriere Della Sera newspapers. \"This is a great moment for the (Italian) state,\" Naples anti-Mafia prosecutor Franco Roberti told ANSA after Setola's arrest. \"We were certain (Setola) was in a situation of great difficulty. We promised all the citizens that he would be caught. We have kept that promise.\" Setola is believed to have slipped into a tunnel built under his hideout near Naples on Monday, as police closed in on him, according to the reports. That tunnel connects to the sewer system in Caserta. Corriere published photos of anti-mafia police searching through what was described as Setola's trash-strewn bunker and the tunnel. Anti-mafia police have been searching for Setola for months, and had already arrested his wife and two suspected members of his crew, according to the reports. Monday was the third time he avoided arrest. Setola is allegedly the head of a killing team run by the powerful Casalesi clan which belongs to the Neapolitan mafia known as Camorra. He got out of jail last spring after a doctor ruled that he was legally blind. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into that ruling. Corriere published a photo of Setola wearing sunglasses with his left eye bandaged. The Casalesi clan is featured in the best-selling book \"Gomorrah\" -- a play on the word \"Camorra\" -- written by Roberto Saviano who now lives under constant police protection. Saviano recently said he may have to leave Italy to escape constant death threats from the mafia and its supporters. Police began cracking down on Setola and his colleagues after the murder of six West African immigrants in the nearby town of Castel Volturno in September. After those killings, the Italian government activated the army to help bolster efforts against the Casalesi clan, which is believed to have killed more than 20 people since May. The two suspected members of his squad have given police information about his movements. In November, police arrested an Italian police officer suspected of informing Setola about police operations.","highlights":"Italian mafia suspect arrested after escape through sewer pipes .\nSetola is allegedly head of killing team run by the powerful Casalesi clan .\nTunnel found connecting to sewer system in the nearby town of Caserta .","id":"0cf74875b9fddf7e0c96fe743d9c4f0990be02ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A new study that surveyed racial attitudes suggests that racial prejudices could tip the balance in the upcoming presidential election. A poll finds a small percentage of voters said they may turn away from Sen. Barack Obama because of his race. If there were no racial prejudice among voters, Sen. Barack Obama would receive about 6 percentage points more support, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll, designed in partnership with Stanford University. The results suggest that 40 percent of white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, including more than a third of white Democrats and independents. A small percentage of voters -- 2.5 percent of those surveyed -- said they may turn away from Obama because of his race. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey also indicates that race could play a big role in November. Asked if race would be a factor in their vote, 37 percent of respondents said yes. But of that group, many are Republicans who are not likely to vote for any Democrat, and some are Democrats who may vote for Obama because of his race. Of the 8 percent of Democrats who told CNN they plan to vote for Obama's GOP rival, Sen. John McCain, half said race was a factor. The survey, conducted August 29-31, questioned 1,031 people and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Experts point out that it's hard to quantify racial prejudice because many people who hold prejudices are not going to admit to it. Watch how race could affect the election \u00bb . \"The hardest thing in the world for pollsters to poll for, with the exception of sexual behavior, is racial attitudes and how it affects behavior,\" said Walter Shapiro, Washington bureau chief for Salon.com. Shapiro said while people might say things differently off the record, racial issues cannot easily be quantified. The pollsters for the AP\/Yahoo survey used techniques that they thought would be more likely to lead to honest results -- such as conducting the poll online and using subtle methods and formulas to calculate racial attitudes. That study also suggests that the number of people who may turn away from Obama because of his race could be larger than what the margin of victory was in the 2004 election. Jeff Johnson, host of BET's \"The Truth With Jeff Johnson,\" said, \"I think there is a concern clearly about the number of people who will vote based on race. \"But I agree -- how you quantify that number, I think, is very difficult.\" According to CNN's average of recent national polls, Obama holds a lead of 5 percentage points over McCain. Johnson said one misconception is that racial prejudices are unique to conservatives or people in \"Middle America.\" \"There are liberals also in many cases that are racist. I don't think we know yet how it's going to play out,\" he said. In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS' \"60 Minutes,\" Obama said while some people might not vote for him because he is black, others might vote for him just because he is. \"Are there going to be some people who don't vote for me because I'm black? Of course. There are probably some African-Americans who are voting for me because I'm black or maybe others just inspired by the idea of breaking new ground, and so I think all that's a wash,\" he said. Democrats, however, typically get close to 90 percent of the African-American vote anyway. Salon.com's Shapiro said Democrats can work on increasing turnout among black voters but that it will be hard to make gains on the percentages they already see. Johnson said he thinks race will matter, and the best way for Obama to balance out any negative effect is to just stay on message. \"I don't know if I believe it's going to be a wash. I think it's going to matter. This race is extremely close, and so every single demographic and every single point is going to count,\" he said. \"I think he has to speak to the issues of people in Middle America, and by that, it can counterbalance some of these racial issues.\" The AP-Yahoo News poll surveyed 2,227 adults. It was conducted August 27-September 5, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.","highlights":"Racial prejudices could cost Sen. Barack Obama 6 percentage points, poll suggests .\nPoll: Forty percent of white Americans have at least a partly negative view of blacks .\nExperts point out that it's hard to quantify racial attitudes .\nDemocrats typically get close to 90 percent of the African-American vote .","id":"c1bb8e9900e2da0a2dace45b697ec9f1c08c8614"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven people, including a toddler, died when fire roared through a three-story home in southwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Friday night, fire officials said. Firefighters work to put out a fire at a town home Friday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Six of the victims -- three adults, a teen and two children -- were found in the townhome's basement, huddled together, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. A 2-year-old boy who was pulled from the burning house by firefighters was later pronounced dead at Children's Hospital, Ayers said. Eleven people, all of Liberian nationality, lived in the basement of the home, he said. Two were rescued by firefighters and two escaped on their own, Ayers said. Watch firefighters at work on the blaze \u00bb . There were no stairs from the basement to the upper level and there was only one door leading out, he said. Early clues suggest a kerosene heater may have started the blaze, but the fire marshal has not officially determined a cause, Ayers said. \"We found serious issues in the house,\" he said. The home did not appear to be equipped with smoke detectors, the fire commissioner said. \"We have not found any smoke alarms at all, which we are very saddened by,\" Ayers said. Wade Lee, who lived in the same building, said the landlord had helped tenants work out fire evacuation plans. Lee said the victims often brought his family fresh vegetables from their garden, and the children were a joy. \"Our wishes are with them right now, more so than for ourselves,\" he said. \"Just hearing the children laughing, and not being able to hear that no more is grievous to us all.\"","highlights":"2-year-old pulled from fire later pronounced dead at hospital .\nSix victims found huddled together in basement .\nEleven people, all of Liberian nationality, lived in the home, fire official says .\nBasement home had one exit, no smoke detectors, official says .","id":"81c50426e3c15619f2e1d3fd1b85bf5711487a74"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Grammy-winning trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, a leading figure in jazz during a five-decade career, has died at age 70, about a month after suffering a heart attack, his publicist said Tuesday. In the 1970s, Freddie Hubbard made a series of funk- and fusion-oriented albums, such as the 1970 hit \"Red Clay.\" Hubbard died Monday morning in Sherman Oaks, California, outside Los Angeles, after a long battle with heart disease, spokesman Don Lucoff told CNN. He had been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack the day before Thanksgiving and took a turn for the worse last week, Lucoff said. \"Freddie Hubbard, in terms of the advent of modern jazz, the birth of bebop, was probably among the five greatest trumpet players that has ever lived ... He's really right up there with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Roy Eldridge, an innovator and great composer,\" Lucoff said. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, Hubbard moved to New York in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, he was playing alongside such major jazz figures as Art Blakey, Oliver Nelson, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. In the early 1970s, he made a series of funk- and fusion-oriented albums, such as the 1970 hit \"Red Clay\" and 1972's Grammy-winning \"First Light.\" \"The thing that set Freddie Hubbard apart was he played rapidly, he played soulfully and he really set the pace for a lot of the trumpet players who have come after him in the last 20 or 30 years,\" Lucoff said. Hubbard was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006. He is survived by wife, Briggie, and son Duane.","highlights":"Grammy-winning trumpeter long fought heart disease, spokesman says .\nHubbard played with major jazz figures including Art Blakey and Herbie Hancock .\nHubbard was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006 .","id":"4ce7b9ced9ce04094bc607fdfb17cbebc315a1e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tim Russert, who became one of America's leading political journalists as the host of NBC's \"Meet the Press,\" died Friday, the network said. He was 58. Tim Russert established himself as the face of NBC's political journalism as host of \"Meet the Press.\" The network said the award-winning journalist collapsed at work Friday. He was taken to Washington's Sibley Memorial Hospital, where he died, the hospital confirmed. Colleague and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw broke the news on the network Friday shortly after 3:40 p.m. Russert had just returned from a family vacation in Italy with his wife, journalist Maureen Orth, and son, Luke, to celebrate his graduation from Boston College, Brokaw said. \"I think I can invoke personal privilege and say this news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice,\" Brokaw said Friday. \"He will be missed as he was loved -- greatly.\" Watch Brokaw break the news \u00bb . Friends and colleagues remembered Russert on Friday not only as one of the country's most respected and influential political journalists, but also as a friend, a devout Catholic and an avid sports fan, especially when it came to his home team, the Buffalo Bills. Watch politicians, journalists pay homage to Russert \u00bb . \"I just loved the guy. He had this enthusiasm about all of the things that life brings to you,\" said James Carville, who often attended Washington National games with Russert. \"My wife and I are in a complete state of utter shock.\" Watch as Carville describes his friendship with Russert \u00bb . Russert was born May 7, 1950, in Buffalo, New York. His parents were Timothy John Russert Sr., or \"Big Russ,\" a newspaper truck driver and sanitation worker, and Elizabeth Russert. Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown ordered that all flags on city property be lowered immediately to half-staff in Russert's honor. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia, according to a biography on CNBC.com . Before joining NBC, Russert served as press secretary for former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and as chief of staff to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Russert joined the network in 1984 and quickly established himself as the face of the network's political coverage, eventually becoming senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC news. His career at NBC was marked by a number of milestones. In 1985, Russert supervised live broadcasts of the \"Today\" show from Rome, Italy, negotiating an appearance by Pope John Paul II -- a first for American television. He was also the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including an Emmy in 2005 for his coverage of the funeral of President Ronald Reagan. His rise to prominence coincided with his success as the best-selling author of two books, 2004's \"Big Russ and Me\" and 2006's \"Wisdom of Our Fathers,\" which documented his journey from blue-collar beginnings to law school to Washington powerhouse. Watch Russert talk about lessons he learned from his father on CNN's Larry King Live \u00bb . The memoirs, both of which were New York Times best sellers, transformed the award-winning journalist into the son of Big Russ, a Buffalo Bills fanatic, and finally, a husband and father. Watch Russert talk about his son's first tattoo \u00bb . \"Tim was a true child of Buffalo and the blue-collar roots from which he was raised,\" Brokaw said Friday. \"For all his success, he was always in touch with the ethos of that community.\" Russert credited his upbringing with helping him keep his ego in check as he became the man who interviewed presidents and important politicians of the day. iReport.com: Send your memories of Russert . \"If you come from Buffalo, everything else is easy. Walking backwards to school, for a mile in the snow, grounds you for life,\" Russert told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz in 2004. \"Plus, if you have a family the way I do, it's a daily reality check.\" Russert, who also served as a political analyst for cable network MSNBC, took the helm of \"Meet the Press\" in 1991, turning the long-running Sunday-morning interview program into the most-watched show of its kind in the United States. During his 17-year run as the host of \"Meet the Press,\" the longest of any host in the show's 60-year history, Russert earned the respect and admiration of many journalists and politicians. \"He was an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades. Tim was a tough and hardworking newsman. He was always well-informed and thorough in his interviews. And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it,\" President Bush said Friday. His professionalism earned him many accolades. The Washingtonian Magazine once dubbed Russert the best and most influential journalist in Washington, describing \"Meet the Press\" as \"the most interesting and important hour on television.\" In 2008, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Brokaw described Russert as a political junkie who threw himself into his work during this year's presidential contest. \"This was one of the most important years of Tim's life for many reasons,\" Brokaw said. \"He loved this political campaign. He worked himself to the point of exhaustion many weeks.\"","highlights":"Veteran journalist collapses at work, according to NBC .\nRussert best known as host of NBC's \"Meet the Press\"\nRussert just returned from trip to Italy with family .\nMayor of Buffalo, New York, orders flags to fly at half-staff .","id":"a893159c64c4b79b7c541d4e2b2d968e4c738334"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Blistering temperatures and winds battered parts of the upper Midwest on Tuesday, delivering to some states the coldest weather in decades. A chilling cold front is battering the upper Midwest and Great Lakes. On the heels of a blizzard that barreled into the Northern Plains, temperatures dropped to minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Hayward, Wisconsin, a man who was prone to sleepwalking died after exposure to the freezing temperatures there, according to CNN affiliate KDLH-TV in Duluth, Minnesota. Authorities said the man's son reported him missing about noon Tuesday. Police told KDLH they found bare footprints leading 190 feet away from the man's home. For Tony Williams, the temperature in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was more than his body could handle. After shoveling outside his home without gloves for 45 minutes in minus-17-degree weather, Williams suffered second-degree frostbite, according to CNN affiliate KARE-TV. \"On his finger pads, all of his fingers and his thumb, he had the formation of blisters,\" Dr. Cheryl Adkinson, an emergency physician at Hennepin County Medical Center who treated Williams, told KARE. In Grand Forks, North Dakota, the weather was severe enough to break a record temperature from 1979, with minus 37 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The blast of cold, snow and ice wreaked havoc on traffic throughout the Midwest. In cities across the area, schools and businesses shut their doors because of the icy temperatures, and residents tried to dig out their cars and streets. iReport.com: How is winter weather affecting you? In Arlington Heights, Illinois, railroad worker Matt Tesh was feeling the sting of near-zero wind chills as he shoveled snow from railroad tracks Tuesday morning, CNN affiliate WGN reported. See how the storm has hit Chicago, Illinois \u00bb . Wearing several layers under his bright orange coat, he tried working without a face mask. That didn't last long. \"Two or three minutes [without it], and my face was burning,\" he told WGN. In the next couple of days, forecasters aren't predicting much of a letup. The weather system, known as an \"Alberta clipper,\" is expected to bring gusty winds, plummeting temperatures and a couple of inches of snow to Chicago, Illinois, on Wednesday morning, according to the weather service. The cold system from Canada will meet a system that originated in the Arctic and will spread below-freezing temperatures across the Great Lakes area, according to CNN meteorologist Guillermo Arduino. See the forecast \u00bb . The system will bring many states in the Midwest the coldest days of the season, with hazardous wind chills. The weather service forecasters predicted snowfall of 1 to 5 inches from the Dakotas to the southern Great Lakes and even to the Northeast by the end of the week. \"Near-whiteout conditions and slick roads are expected to impact travel of all types,\" according to the weather service's central region headquarters. After previous blasts of snow and cold, airports in Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan, are expected to have continuing delays, Arduino said. Temperatures in Detroit are expected to reach minus 18 degrees Wednesday and minus 12 degrees Thursday. In Minneapolis, the front will bring temperatures down to minus 21 degrees Wednesday and minus 29 degrees Thursday. In Bismarck, North Dakota, temperatures on Wednesday will dip near minus 20, with wind chills as low as minus 45 degrees. In the next couple of days, forecasters said, the city could receive 3 to 6 inches of snow on top of the 5 inches dumped there by the last winter system.","highlights":"Major winter system hits Midwest, packing heavy winds and snow .\nForecasters predicting below-zero temperatures for next few days .\nOne man dies after sleepwalking barefoot outside in Wisconsin .\nMan suffers frostbite after shoveling without gloves in minus 17 degree weather .","id":"1700d071bb6a347283ad4067bf7c9a987bd361c5"} -{"article":"Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences covering the news. Here, CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez describes spending some time with day laborers for a report that will air on 'Out in the Open' tonight at 8 ET. CNN's Rick Sanchez, pictured center, visits a street corner where many people gather to seek manual labor jobs. PALISADES PARK, New Jersey (CNN) -- For four hours Friday morning, I joined about 200 immigrants -- legal and illegal -- at a day-laborer site at the corner of East Columbia Avenue and Broad Avenue in downtown Palisades Park, New Jersey. My goal was not to find a job; rather it was to see how day laborers go about finding one themselves. Dressed in jeans, running shoes and a short-sleeve shirt, I looked like one of them. I also carried over my shoulder a bag containing a hidden camera. Day laborer sites like this one have sprung up all over the country. The laborers -- mostly immigrants, mostly men -- come to them to find jobs in construction or masonry or painting or landscaping. Some communities encourage the formation of these sites. In others, they have become lightning rods of controversy. In Palisades Park, they have become fixtures. At the site I visited, the last thing the folks there needed was more competition for jobs, but they nonetheless welcomed me into their group. They gave me pointers about how to get a good job. \"Always ask how much,\" one man told me in Spanish as he prepped me in the art of negotiating for a days' wage. Another said it's better to be paid by the day instead of the hour. That way you're assured of a decent payment even if the work is cut short or the job is finished early. The guys I met told me they come here seven days a week. They wait and wait and wait for work. \"Sometimes there's no work, sometimes there is work. Not every day,\" one man said. It gets worse when winter comes. \"When it's cold, there's no work,\" another told me. A good week, they said, is one where they get offered jobs on two days for about $90 a day. That's a weekly salary of $180. It's barely enough to put food on the table, but it's better than the alternative. Life in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, they said, offers little in the way of income -- about $5 a week for manual labor. \"We don't have a choice but to try to save a little bit and go back to our country,\" a 23-year-old Guatemalan man told me. The routine is simple: Show up early and wait for hours until a prospective employer shows up, if one shows up. As more people flock to these sites the competition for jobs gets intense. \"There are a lot of people ... and I mean a lot of people at the stop here. So you no longer get a lot of work,\" the Guatemalan said. On Friday, I was there for 3\u00bd hours until I finally witnessed a job offer. It came from, ironically, another immigrant. He was from the Ivory Coast, Africa, new in America himself, and delighted to provide work for fellow immigrants. He was looking for someone to help him move furniture and other belongings. These immigrants -- the African with a job and the Latinos seeking work -- negotiated the job terms in broken English, with African and Spanish accents swirling in the air. \"I need two,\" said the African employer referring to the number of workers. \"Two dollars is not enough,\" responded the Guatemalan. After much arm waving and false starts, they eventually figured out what the other was saying and a deal was struck. Many of the men here have a love-hate relationship with the United States. They miss their home countries but feel compelled to stay here out of economic necessity. \"All you get in this country is bitterness, sadness and loneliness,\" one man told me. \"But money,\" I interjected. \"Of course, that's true,\" he responded. \"First place is ... the money, that's why we come.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Alison Ginsberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Laborers in Palisades Park say two days of work at $90\/day is a good week .\nThey hope to earn enough money to send some to family in other countries .\nSome seem bitter about life in the U.S., but claim they stay for the money .","id":"7b78c92930c8d9b7414afb79366509cbd6ebb327"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday he is asking the city council to change the office's two-term limit to allow him to run for a third term. \"If the City Council should vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I've earned another term,\" Bloomberg said in a news conference at City Hall. The mayor, a billionaire businessman, is credited with helping New York City recover economically after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, which felled the twin towers of the World Trade Center and killed more than 2,700 people. Elected for the first time just two months after the attacks, Bloomberg pumped tens of millions of dollars of his own money into that campaign, as well as his bid for re-election in 2005. \"As a businessman with expertise on Wall Street and finance and as a mayor who has balanced budgets and delivered services, I can tell you that the enormity of the challenges ahead should not be underestimated,\" Bloomberg said. \"I care deeply about sustaining the progress we made and finishing the job the voters elected me to do.\" Watch Bloomberg talk about seeking a third term \u00bb . New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., a Democrat considered a leading candidate to replace Bloomberg in next year's election, said he was \"extremely disappointed\" in the mayor's announcement. \"I have always taken the Mayor at his word, particularly when he said on multiple occasions that altering term limits through a council vote would be disgraceful,\" he said. \"Let me be clear: Today's announcement constitutes an attempt to suspend democracy. We should not undermine the will of the voters.\" Bloomberg, an independent since 2007, wants city council to change the current two-term limit law and offer voters another choice. \"As always, it will be up to the people to decide, not me,\" he said. Standing beside Bloomberg at a later news conference regarding rebuilding at the World Trade Center site, New York Gov. David Paterson said he'd \"be delighted to see [Bloomberg] running for a third term.\" The mayor then jokingly pledged that he would not seek a fourth. In 2005, Bloomberg easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, who was never able to gain any traction against the popular incumbent. Before becoming mayor, Bloomberg ran Bloomberg L.P., a global communications company that provides news and financial services to thousands of businesses worldwide.","highlights":"Michael Bloomberg asking city council to change two-term limit so he can run again .\nMayor credited with helping New York recover after September 11, 2001 .\nFirst elected just two months after the attacks, he spent millions on campaign .\nBefore becoming mayor, Bloomberg was billionaire businessman .","id":"de0239e034652ddeb15e0fdb3faa7c3a751d968c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's the man who has just rejected offers of up to $700,000 a week in wages -- but who really is Kaka? And what has he done to deserve so much money? Wanted man: Kaka overcame a spine fracture before getting to the top of world football. Born in Brazil in 1982, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, or \"Kaka\" as he is more commonly known, is a footballer with Italian club AC Milan. His name, Kaka, is believed to come from a brother, who began calling him that due to his inability to say his proper name -- Ricardo. Said to be an amazing talent from a very young age, the attacking midfielder began his career with Sao Paulo at the tender age of eight, and had signed his first contract before his 16th birthday. Do you think Kaka should have stayed at AC Milan or taken the money at Manchester City? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. However, when all seemed set for a perfect career, Kaka suffered a serious, potentially paralyzing injury from a swimming pool accident in 2000. The then 18-year-old fractured a vertebra in his spine -- an injury that many thought could have ended his career and even prevented him from walking again. Kaka did recover though, and it's something that the deeply religious Brazilian has put down to the help of God, and ever since has given some of his income to his Church. Once recovered, he didn't waste time in getting his career restarted. By January 2001 he had made his debut in the Sao Paulo senior team and led the team to its first Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo championship. The following year he was a part of the Brazil team which won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and in 2003 his talents had attracted the interest of European clubs and he signed to AC Milan for euro 9 million ($12 million) per season, and remains under contract with them through 2013. Since then he's won the Serie A, UEFA Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup with AC Milan, while on a personal level he won the 2007 Ballon d'Or Award for the best player in Europe and the FIFA World Player of the Year 2007 -- among many other awards. His international performances have continued to be strong -- and he has now scored 23 goals for Brazil. Such is his influence inside and outside of football, that Kaka was named in the Time 100 most influential people in 2008. Outside of the game Kaka has continued to be a devout Christian. He married his long-time partner Caroline Celico in 2005, and they had their first child in June 2008. Oddly, the current season (in which he finds himself being offered the biggest football salary ever) hasn't been as profitable for Kaka. The 26-year-old has struggled with a groin injury and has not managed to combine as smoothly within the AC Milan team compared to previous seasons. Still, that did not seem to worry Manchester City -- or Real Madrid, and for now at least, the $150 million transfer effort remains the biggest in football's history.","highlights":"Kaka is a Brazilian attacking midfielder who plays at AC Milan in Italy .\nAt the age of 18 Kaka broke a vertebra in a swimming pool accident .\nHe was named FIFA World Player of the Year for 2007 .","id":"c76c0b3158f682cac56183ac32708359431b320b"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three bombings killed an Iraqi official and three police officers and wounded 14 other Iraqis on Sunday evening and Monday morning, according to an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry. A U.S. soldier plays with a boy Monday while on patrol in Babil province, Iraq. An Iraqi police captain was killed when a bomb attached under his vehicle exploded as he drove to work Monday morning in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry official said. Seven people, including three Iraqi soldiers, were wounded by the \"sticky bomb\" blast, which happened as the captain drove to a checkpoint in eastern Baghdad's Zafaraniya neighborhood. The military refers to bombs attached to vehicles without the driver's knowledge as \"sticky bombs.\" The deputy head of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front was killed Sunday evening by a suicide bomb blast in the town of Al-Qaiyara, south of Mosul, according to Mosul police. The bomber entered Sheikh Hassan Zaidan al-Luhaibi's guest house and detonated an explosives vest, killing the sheikh and two other police officers, police said. Another bomb blast on Sunday evening wounded seven people who were putting up campaign posters and banners for candidates along Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, the official said. The people were campaigning for candidates in Iraq's provincial council elections set for January 31, the official said. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"The deputy head of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front is killed by a suicide bomb blast .\nAn Iraqi police captain is killed when a bomb attached under his vehicle explodes .\nBomb blast wounds seven people putting up campaign posters and banners .","id":"2840f926c864b1d8e2056df3c0bfdccc04da3106"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man who, dressed as Santa Claus, killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party planned to flee to Canada the next day, but California police believe he decided to kill himself instead because of severe burn injuries. Pardo rigged his rental car so that if someone tried to remove the Santa suit, the car would explode. During a news conference on Friday, Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said Bruce Jeffrey Pardo had purchased a ticket for an early Christmas Day flight from Los Angeles to Canada. Raney said that while police do not know why Pardo, 45, decided against his plan to flee, they speculate it may have been due to the burn injuries Pardo received after setting fire to the home where the slayings occurred. Pardo's body was covered in third-degree burns, Raney said, and part of the Santa suit the gunman wore to the massacre burned and melted into his legs. Police believe Pardo's injuries came after he set fire to the home using a homemade device used to spread fuel. Raney also said Pardo came to his former in-laws' home with $17,000 strapped to his legs and inside a girdle, indicating he may have wanted quick access to his money as he fled the country. Watch police talk about what was found on the gunman's body \u00bb . Police said that after leaving the home, Pardo changed out of the Santa suit and into regular clothes. Raney also spoke about a pipe bomb that exploded in Pardo's rental car Thursday night. He said Pardo had rigged the rental car so that if someone tried to remove the Santa suit, the car would explode. The car was packed with ammunition and black powder, he said. Police said that inside Pardo's home in Montrose, California, they also found five empty boxes for semiautomatic handguns, two high-powered shotguns and \"racing fuel,\" which they believe was used to help set fire to the home. Police also said they found Pardo's resume, which said he had a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering, but they could not verify if it was accurate. The resume also indicated Pardo had worked in the aerospace field. The news conference Friday came after officials said a ninth body was found in the rubble at the home. Watch investigators at the burned-out home \u00bb . Police said about 25 people attended the holiday party where Pardo, dressed in a full Santa Claus outfit, came in the front door and then moved through the house, firing two semiautomatic handguns. Covina police Friday released a recording of a chaotic 911 call. Voices are heard on the recording yelling, \"Stay away from the window!\" and pleading, \"Please come immediately ... he's shooting! He's shooting!\" Later a voice gasps, \"He's left the house -- my mom's house is on fire!\" A distraught woman cries, \"My daughter's been shot! She was shot in the face on the side, and she's bleeding!\" Police said Pardo brought four handguns to the home. The first victim was an 8-year-old girl who ran to the door after hearing a knock, police said. She was shot in the face but survived. \"She has a very, very severe injury to her face. It's not life-threatening, but she's got a very tough road ahead of her,\" Lt. Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department said at a news conference Thursday. Watch police describe girl's injuries \u00bb . Raney said Friday that witnesses, who may have caught only glimpses of what was happening because of the chaos, thought Pardo may have targeted some victims. He said witnesses at the party said Pardo may have stood over some of the victims and executed them. Raney said people at the party were jumping out of windows on both floors of the house trying to escape the gunfire and flames. \"The information we have so far is that Mr. Pardo was married to the daughter of the resident of the house,\" Raney said. \"They'd been married for possibly one year, had recently divorced and a settlement was reached apparently last week. It sounds like that might have been a very contentious divorce.\" Investigators have yet to identify the charred bodies recovered from the burned house, which belonged to Pardo's ex-in-laws. Watch how the massacre unfolded \u00bb . In addition to the nine people killed, police said three people were injured, including the 8-year-old girl. A 16-year-old girl was wounded by gunfire and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said, and a woman who jumped out of a second-floor window suffered a broken leg and was hospitalized. Police said they have not accounted for three people: Pardo's ex-mother-in-law, ex-father-in-law and ex-wife. Pardo's neighbors talked to KABC on Thursday as they watched police search his home. \"He's very nice, very sociable,\" Cindy Keenan said. She said Pardo always decorated his home for the holidays. Patrick Guzman said when he encountered Pardo in his yard about two hours before the attack, \"He seemed normal.\" \"He said 'Merry Christmas' to me,\" Guzman said. Ed Winter, assistant chief Los Angeles County coroner, said the bodies recovered were \"severely burned and charred\" and dental and medical records and X-rays will be necessary to establish identities. Winter said the intense fire caused the top floor of the two-story house to collapse onto the first floor. Pardo's body was discovered about 30 miles from the shooting scene at his brother's house in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar, dead from \"a self-inflicted gunshot wound,\" police said. Relatives returning to the house found Pardo's body, police said. Buchanan said police received several 911 calls at 8:27 p.m. Wednesday. When officers arrived at the house three to four minutes after the first call, the dwelling was engulfed in flames. The fire was so intense that firefighters battled the blaze for an hour and a half before knocking the flames down so that officers \"were able to look into the house from the outside, and initially saw three bodies in the front portion of the house,\" he said. As uninjured people were trying to escape, Buchanan said, \"that's when he (Pardo) lit the accelerant in some manner -- we do not know how at this point -- and he fled the scene.\" Buchanan said the device that spread accelerant was \"nothing that we or the arson-explosives unit has ever seen before. It appears to be homemade.\" A Christmas Eve party at the house was a family tradition, Raney said, and the party had often featured a visit from a neighbor who was dressed as Santa Claus. He said that neighbor has moved out of the neighborhood and was not at the party Wednesday night. Referring to Pardo, Buchanan said, \"We don't know at this point whether he was aware that there was a Santa Claus in years past. We're assuming that he did, and that's the reason for the outfit.\"","highlights":"NEW: 911 call: \"Please come immediately ... he's shooting! He's shooting!\"\nPolice say suspect had flight scheduled from Los Angeles to Canada .\nCops say Santa suit melted onto suspects body .\nBody of missing ninth person found in ashes, coroner's office says .","id":"cc01c46f5c05afa94e1640b0453a7ba91942d585"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. authorities arrested six people Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling African elephant ivory worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, law enforcement officials said. Imports of African elephant ivory have been banned in the United States since 1976. The defendants arranged to have ivory from Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Uganda shipped into the United States disguised as wooden snakes, guitars and statues, authorities said. \"The defendants plundered precious natural resources for personal profit,\" U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell and other officials said in a statement. \"Their illegal trade threatens the continued existence of an endangered species and will not be tolerated.\" Federal agents tracked at least eight shipments, including one worth an estimated $165,000. Federal agents used surveillance and shipping, phone and bank records to track the suspect shipments. Arrests were made in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Texas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security were involved in the law enforcement operation. One suspect told an undercover federal agent during a purchase that it was difficult to bring ivory into the United States, but easy to sell it at high prices, the government statement said. Two other suspects also are accused of paying a courier $15,000 to bring a shipment of ivory from Cameroon into the United States. The U.S. banned ivory imports in 1976, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora effectively outlawed trade in elephant tissue in 1989. Illegal trade in African elephant ivory is considered to be a major cause of the continuing decline of elephant populations in Africa. The defendants are expected to appear in court in New York on Wednesday. They face jail terms of up to 20 years if convicted.","highlights":"Six in four states face federal smuggling charges, U.S. attorney says .\nIvory reportedly disguised as wooden snakes, guitars and statues .\nElephant ivory trade illegal in U.S. since 1976, worldwide since 1989 .","id":"eb2e5017b44cf72b6db498ed074146897f8daa2d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has covered the Bush administration for six years. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux shares a light moment with President Bush during his final press conference Monday. As always, she was in the room Monday when Bush held his final press conference, an almost hourlong event in which the president answered questions about current issues and reflected on his eight years in office. Here Malveaux reflects on her time covering the Bush administration and on the final White House press conference, which she described as \"raw,\" \"fascinating\" and \"bizarre.\" Q: How do you compare this to previous briefings? Malveaux: This was an extraordinary press conference. It took the president a little time to warm up. He called on me third. About two questions after that, he embraced this different kind of mood and revealed things about himself that he didn't before. Watch Bush talk about his respect for the press \u00bb . We'd heard a bit about his misgivings before, but we didn't expect to hear about his disappointments -- \"Sometimes the biggest disappointments will come from your so-called friends.\" At times he looked directly at me, other times away, in flashes of rage. And occasionally he turned to all of us pleading with an expression for understanding, empathy. He raised his voice when it was suggested that he was alone, insisting that he never felt the burden of the office: \"I believe this -- the phrase 'burdens of the office' is overstated,\" he said. But at other points he reflected on the weight of the job: \"You never escape the presidency. It travels with you wherever you go.\" When he was discussing Iraq, he was almost yelling, defending his administration. He was using gestures, leaning forward on the podium, his finger raised in the air. It was dramatic. Q: What was it like in the room? A: You saw at times a defiant President Bush as well as ultimately reflective in some ways. We know he regretted the \"Mission Accomplished\" banner on the aircraft carrier. But we heard some new details about how he had some regrets that Air Force One flew over New Orleans at that critical time when the city was under water during Katrina, as opposed to landing. He said he was wary of taking away law enforcement and rescue resources on the ground. But later in the press conference he was defiant about Hurricane Katrina, telling us: \"Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed.\" Watch Bush defend the response to Katrina \u00bb . It was from there the president shifted to the president-elect. He discussed the fact that many people never thought they'd see the day when a black man would become the president, and it spoke volumes about the progress the country's made with race. At that time, he seemed misty-eyed. Q: Were you surprised at how candid the president was? A: This is certainly the most open he has been about some of the failures of his administration. You know, what was interesting, he took us back to the time of September 11 in a very emotional and strident way. He said -- remember those times when they had those tough questions, why didn't you put the dots together? It was almost as if he felt like he couldn't win either way. But at the same time, he said self-pity was pathetic and it wasn't something he was going to engage in. It was a very interesting look at President Bush grappling with all of these different things -- the successes as well as the failures. You get a sense here that he is looking at his legacy, that he's trying to come to terms with some of the things he did, his role in all of this. Q: Was there any one moment that stood out to you? A: He was most defiant when he talked about what he believes are the threats, potential threats against the United States. You could see him becoming emotional -- that this is something the future president is going to have to deal with, that he is going to have face. Every single time he went back to the threat out there, it seemed he wanted to reveal more, and would wish Barack Obama the best. At times, Bush seemed to be speaking directly to the president-elect: \"He'll get in the Oval Office, and there will be a lot of people that are real critical and harsh, and he'll be disappointed at times by the tone of the rhetoric.\" Watch how Bush and Obama are working out the shift of power \u00bb . Q: The president ribbed you about the pronunciation of your name because it's French, even jokingly saying you can call him \"Georges.\" But he finally got your name right. A: Yes, you could say the president and I have had an ongoing standoff for years now. When I first met the president, he called me Suzanne [said: Sue-zan], and I initially corrected him: \"It's Suzanne. Rhymes with John.\" The president would blame it on his Texas accent. Actually, the first time he got it right was years ago on a trip to India and Pakistan. I remember feeling shocked. Sometimes I thought he intentionally called me \"Sue-zan,\" if he was angry with my questions. Q: Any other surprises about this press conference? A: He didn't call on Helen Thomas, who is widely viewed as the dean of the White House press corps. She's been critical of President Bush and been covering presidents since Kennedy. She was out there, front row center with her hand raised.","highlights":"CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reflects on covering president .\nPresident Bush reveals more of his feelings about job than ever before, she says .\nPresident most emotional over potential threats to United States, Malveaux says .","id":"1a7a8054368d7ff37ad58ae1efdfddd7d7954a95"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Our dog Tilly loves the holiday season. Turkey for Thanksgiving. Brisket for Hanukkah. Ham for Christmas and pot roast for New Year's. With so much food moving around the house and visitors who generously -- and covertly -- feed her under the table, Tilly has always been a happy dog during the season of giving. Two reluctant reindeer: Tilly, left, and Riley. Not anymore. After we spent much of one holiday season at the animal emergency center trying to keep Tilly alive, our holiday celebration turned into a hunt for household toxics. Tilly was diagnosed with severe anemia, which could have been caused by any one of numerous toxic items found in the refrigerators, cupboards and medicine cabinets of most homes. Now, Tilly's kibble and treats practically need their own passport to reach her mouth; human food is out of reach; visitors are asked to put away any medications and shown where the \"approved\" treats are kept. It may sound extreme, but veterinary medical experts say this type of preventative behavior can keep pets safe. This is especially true during the holidays, when family chaos increases and your pet's environment may change from day to day with the arrival of family and friends bearing gifts, holiday food items and exotic plants. \"Dogs and cats do not know what is bad for them,\" said Dr. Cynthia Gaskill, associate professor and veterinary clinical toxicologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. \"If there is medicine on the bathroom counter or food left on the table, that is irresistible to them.\" And unless your houseguests are conscientious pet owners themselves, chances are they aren't aware that they may be creating a toxic environment for your pet. Gaskill says it is important to let guests know not to leave their medications in an open suitcase or otherwise exposed. Over-the-counter and prescription medications can kill small animals. Because metabolic systems vary between species, a drug that may alleviate pain in humans can easily induce a toxic reaction in a dog or cat. For example, ibuprofen ingested by a dog can cause gastrointestinal damage and kidney dysfunction. Cats are especially susceptible to even small amounts of acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol); ingestion of just one tablet can result in anemia and potential liver damage. Dr. Robin Van Metre, a veterinarian at the Fort Collins Veterinary Emergency Hospital in Colorado, says that many of the emergency calls he receives involve pets that have accidentally ingested prescription medications or been given an over-the-counter medication by well-meaning owners who believe that their animal is in pain. Van Metre says these calls increase significantly over the holidays. \"Dogs will eat almost anything,\" Van Metre said, \"and there is no such thing as a dog-proof cap.\" Take care in the kitchen, too. Typical holiday staples such as grapes and raisins have been shown to cause renal failure when ingested by dogs. Although small amounts of onions and garlic are often used in pet foods and treats to add flavor, ingestion of large amounts can cause severe red blood cell damage; cats are especially sensitive. Macadamia nuts can cause a short-term hind-limb paralysis, and bread dough, if eaten before baking, can expand rapidly once ingested and cause ethanol poisoning. Sweets, gum and hard candies are often problematic depending on ingredients. Chocolate contains a theobromine, a chemical that can affect the heart, kidneys and central nervous system. Dark chocolate and baker's chocolate contain higher concentrations of theobromine and are more toxic than similar amounts of milk chocolate. Sugar-free gums and candies that contain the sugar-substitute xylitol can lead to quick onset of toxic clinical signs that may include a rapid decrease in blood sugar and possible seizures. Think carefully before placing mistletoe or holly in low-lying areas, but put poinsettias anywhere you like. The effects of the poinsettia, long believed poisonous, are generally benign, says Dr. Anthony Knight, author of A Guide to Poisonous House and Garden Plants and professor of clinical sciences and toxicology at Colorado State University School of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences. Exposed plant bulbs such as Amaryllis and all species of lilies should be placed out of reach of pets not only during the holidays but year-round, Knight says. Lily toxicity in cats can reach critical levels almost immediately after ingestion and lead to acute kidney failure within 48 hours or less. \"Lilies are one of the most poisonous houseplants that exists,\" Knight said. \"It's not just the flower but also the leaves. ... If a cat eats any part of the plant, it would need to be treated immediately.\" What should you do if your pet ingests a toxic holiday treat? \"Do not wait,\" Van Metre said. \"Most people wait too long to call us, and that reduces our options for treatment.\" Van Metre recommends calling a local veterinarian or animal emergency hospital first, or the ASPCA national animal poison control center (888-426-4435). The ASPCA charges a $60 veterinary consultation fee, but information about toxins is free on the ASPCA Web site. Gaskill does not advise calling human poison control centers or attempting to diagnose your pet on the Internet. Human poison control \"is often not aware of the species differences and could inadvertently give the wrong advice,\" Gaskill said. \"When doing a general Internet search, make sure the site is backed by a recognized veterinary organization or veterinary medical school. If it is not referenced, it is just someone's opinion.\" Van Metre and Gaskill both warn against inducing vomiting in your pet before speaking with a veterinarian. Getting appropriate background information about the animal is critical to preparing a treatment plan for a particular toxin, they say, and every case -- every animal -- is different. Tilly never recovered from her anemia, but she has been in remission long enough to create another toxic scare. After learning that Tilly had ingested an entire bag of Hershey's kisses, we called our local animal emergency hospital in Atlanta. They did a quick calculation using Tilly's weight to determine whether a one-pound bag of milk chocolate would reach toxic levels in a dog of her size. It would not, but we were forced to clean up the silver-streaked evidence for many days afterwards. Melissa Tarkington is a former journalist for MSNBC, CNN.com and The Moscow Times. She is a second-year student in the professional veterinary program at Colorado State University.","highlights":"Holiday food items and exotic plants can be toxic for your pets .\nGrapes, raisins and macadamia nuts are dangerous for dogs .\nMistletoe, holly and Amaryllis bulbs should be kept out of reach of pets .\nThe ASPCA has a national animal poison control center .","id":"5020b6f34983b2805e30225104e932346b041bdd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush have landed in Midland, Texas, the former first lady's hometown and her husband's childhood home. Former President George W. Bush helicopters for the last time to Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday. A crowd welcomed the Bushes in Midland, waving red, white and blue W signs. Country music performers Rodney Atkins, the Gatlin Brothers and Lee Greenwood performed until the former first family arrived. \"Today is a good day for the Bush family. We're back in Texas, and we're here to stay,\" Bush told a cheering crowd in downtown Midland's Centennial Plaza. \"I am grateful that y'all came out to welcome us home.\" Watch the crowd in Midland cheer Bush \u00bb . The Bushes flew to Midland from Washington on Tuesday after inaugural ceremonies for President Obama. \"A good man took the oath of office today, and we offer him our prayers for success,\" he said. The Bushes boarded a helicopter in front of the Capitol bound for Andrews Air Force Base shortly before 1 p.m. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walked the Bushes to the helicopter -- known as Marine One when the president is on board but called \"Executive One\" for this flight -- and bid them farewell with handshakes and hugs. The former president kept busy right up until his final moments in the White House. Painters and cleaning crews were still working in the West Wing press offices. Moving crews heaved boxes and delicately carried paintings bound in bubble wrap. Other moving trucks were unloading boxes and carting them into the White House. iReport.com: President Bush draws boos from inauguration crowd . George W. Bush spent Tuesday morning making calls. He rang outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Watch Bush wave goodbye \u00bb . The former president also had a conversation with his good friend the Rev. T.D. Jakes. Jakes is the chief pastor of the nondenominational megachurch Potter's House in Dallas, Texas. He was in Washington to give a sermon Tuesday at St. John's Church, a short walk from the White House. It's unclear what was said in any of these exchanges, but Bush made clear to the nation last week that his presidency was challenging and that he is \"filled with gratitude.\" Though there has been \"legitimate debate\" about many of his decisions, including the war in Iraq, Bush said, \"there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil.\" Noting that Bush's last day in the home he has known for eight years was fraught with emotion, press secretary Dana Perino spoke affectionately about her boss. Bush \"gave me a kiss on the forehead,\" she said. \"It's something I will never forget.\" An attempt to sweeten the memories of the White House press corps was made Tuesday when Perino gave reporters boxes of M&Ms. The candies were wrapped with a presidential seal and signed by President Bush. Shortly before President Barack Obama and his family arrived at the White House, Bush took a last walk around the South Lawn. He spent his remaining time at the White House with his family. After the inauguration, a wheelchair-bound Vice President Dick Cheney, who injured his back lifting boxes while moving, was taken to a motorcade.","highlights":"NEW: \"We're back in Texas, and we're here to stay,\" Bush tells cheering crowd .\nNEW: \"A good man took the oath of office today,\" Bush says .\nThe Bushes arrive in Midland, Texas, about 6 p.m. Tuesday .\nOutgoing press secretary gives reporters M&M boxes signed by President Bush .","id":"a85043e96dc51ef8a0185ec65ecf0d710eed89bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rwandan troops have crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo to prepare for a joint operation with Congolese forces against a Hutu militia, the United Nations said. At least 800,000 people are thought to have died during 100 days of violence in Rwanda in 1994. \"We can tell you there are Rwandan soldiers here, but I cannot confirm the numbers,\" said Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwandans will team up \"with the Congolese forces,\" he said Wednesday. \"The Rwandan forces are in a meeting with Congolese forces and the understanding is that in the meeting they are preparing a joint operation against the FDLR,\" or the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda. The Rwanda News Agency reported that Rwanda has dispatched 1,917 soldiers. Rwanda and Congo traditionally have been on different sides of the conflict in eastern Congo. The struggle pits ethnic Tutsis, supported by Rwanda, against ethnic Hutu, backed by Congo. The conflict is effectively an extension of the Rwandan genocide dating back to the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed in ethnic battles between minority Tutsi and majority Hutu. According to a statement issued last week by the Rwandan government, the joint military operation is aimed at driving out the FDLR and former members of the Interhamwe militia, \"remnants of those who spearheaded the 1994 genocide against Tutsis.\" Michael Arunga, a Kenya-based spokesman for the World Vision aid organization, said his colleagues in Goma -- a city in eastern Congo -- told him that Rwandan troops arrived Tuesday morning in the village of Ishsha, outside of Goma. Arunga said he had no knowledge of Rwandan troops being in Congo before. A U.N. statement said the FDLR has been involved in clashes since late August mainly in North Kivu, \"where the national army, the mainly Tutsi militia -- known as the CNDP -- and other rebel groups ... have fought in shifting alliances, uprooting around 250,000 civilians on top of the 800,000 already displaced by violence in recent years.\" See photos from Mia Farrow's trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo \u00bb . A report by a U.N. Security Council panel last month said Rwanda and Congo were fighting a brutal proxy war for territory and precious natural resources in eastern Congo, and all parties involved in the conflict were using execution, rape and child soldiers as tools of war. The report, filed by a panel of U.N. experts, \"found evidence that Rwandan authorities have sent officers and units of the Rwanda Defense Forces\" into Congo in support of Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's fighters. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rwanda has dispatched some 1,900 soldiers, Rwanda News Agency reports .\nThe neighbors have traditionally been on different sides of the conflict in east Congo .\nThe struggle pits Tutsis, supported by Rwanda, against the Congo-backed Hutu .\nThe conflict is effectively an extension of the Rwandan genocide .","id":"1e77fdec714320afa8c93e42a144f9058b58c82b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- At a time of economic uncertainty in the U.S., the writers strike cast a dark cloud over the eternal sunshine of the Californian mindset and its most glittering awards ceremony. Oscar winner Helen Mirren dazzled in Chopard diamonds last year and gained masses of publicity for the jeweler . Up until a fortnight ago, the million dollar question was whether the Oscars would go ahead as stars refused to cross the picket line. Make that the 400 million dollar question. According to the pundits and bean-counters, that's how much the strike would have cost Los Angeles and the industry if Hollywood's most glamorous evening had been cancelled. Not only would the stars have been robbed of their moment to shimmer along the world's most famous red carpet, but a whole hinterland of ancillary trades would be affected. Limo drivers driven to despair, caterers with no-one to cater for, make-up artists struggling to make up lost earnings and security teams facing an insecure future -- and the paparazzi would have no-one to focus on. But it's not just the little guys who would have lost out on the Oscars millions. Big-name jewelry designers like Chopard traditionally dress the stars. Kate Winslet, Charlize Theron and Hilary Swank are among their successful models at the Academy Awards. Last year, Helen Mirren wore a 55 carat diamond flower bracelet along with a 62 carat diamond brooch worth $4m dollars to accept the Best Actress gong. It is estimated that having a celebrity pictured in an item of jewelry or an outfit can be worth $1m in publicity for a jeweler or fashion house. With hundreds of celebrities strutting the red carpet on Oscars night, the scope for generating revenue is seemingly endless. But even Chopard's famous sparkle was tested by the uncertainty surrounding this year's event. \"Leading up to the Oscars business for the whole of Rodeo Drive was a little sketchy. Everyone was thinking, what's gonna happen?\" Wes Carroll, Chopard spokesman, told CNN. \"We felt for the writers, we felt for the studios and we wanted a great outcome for everyone. We would have been very disappointed had the Oscars not happened.\" Films which achieve success at the Academy Awards can expect a new injection of cash with a boost in DVD sales and renewed interest at the box office. Robert Buchsbaum, a Los Angeles theater boss, told CNN, \"It's not just the studios who are affected by the Academy Awards show. It's theater owners. As a single-screen theater owner, my whole year is based on how well films perform from November through March through the Academy Awards. It's the busiest time of year for me.\" \"We really try to figure out, not just what the big Academy Award film is gonna be -- the Best Picture -- but also the smaller films, the independent films which might get the edge like Juno and There Will Be Blood, films which will have a lot of legs to them once they get the nomination,\" he continued. \"It usually means between 25% and 75% in box office revenues alone.\" The prime candidate for a new lease of life at the box office is the Coen Brothers' film, \"No Country for Old Men.\" On the opposite side of the U.S., New York critics are expecting it to yield a decent crop of Oscars after taking their own awards night by storm. Stephen Whitty, Chair of the New York Film Critics' Circle, told CNN, \"It won best picture because the direction from the Coen brothers was really assured. They were completely in control of the mood throughout that film. \"I think the screenplay, also by the Coens, while being truthful to Cormack McCarthy's book, managed to turn it into cinema,\" he continued. \"It made it consistently visual and imparted its message and its mood through images. The acting -- and again, Javier Bardem got the fourth of the four awards we gave it -- I thought the acting was spot on throughout.\" Will the rest of the results be equally clear cut? If so, the tips are Daniel Day Lewis and Julie Christie for Best Leads, Diablo Cody for Original Screenplay for \"Juno,\" \"Atonement\" for Best Score, Mike Moore for Best Documentary for \"Sicko,\" and in the Year of the Rat, Best Animation is marked for \"Ratatouille.\" But of course, no one can really be that certain. Just ask producer Graham King, who seemed set to take Best Picture for \"The Aviator\" after it won virtually every award except the Nobel Peace Prize. But it wasn't to be, after Clint Eastwood's \"Million Dollar Baby\" pipped him to the post. Then a year ago, King finally won the big one with \"The Departed.\" One year on from winning the Oscar, he spoke with CNN's Quest team about how his life changed. \"I think for a good few months after the Academy Awards I was floating on air,\" he said. \"It was really hard to come down from it and it was hard to realize that you'd achieved the goal that you'd set out to achieve many years ago. There it is: in one night, you've got it.\" And as King explains, even Oscar-winning Hollywood producers are prone to attacks of the jitters too. \"It was a year where I just took stock and decided what I wanted to do next and what kind of movies I want to make,\" he told CNN. \"Then, bam! We get hit with this strike, which was horrendous. I felt like I was unemployed ... your phone calls go from 60 or 70 a day to three and emails were not coming in and I felt really insecure about it.\" For producers like King, the end of the writers strike is crucial for their business -- far more important than whether the Oscar ceremony takes place. But imagine being producer of the Best Picture in the one year when the ceremony was cancelled. And it's inconceivable to think of Hollywood without the Oscars. Picture Rio without its Carnival, London without the Queen, New York without the Statue of Liberty. The famous statuettes of Los Angeles may be somewhat smaller, but their presence is felt far beyond the Hollywood hills ... E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Oscar cancellation would have cost the industry an estimated $400m .\nLimo drivers, caterers, make-up artists would be among worst hit .\nJewelry designers like Chopard generate $1m in publicity on Oscars night .\nFilms which achieve success on the night can expect box office cash injection .","id":"66b924710101368e01e33196b72bb2adef7b08e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- We all have our favorites for the big honors at Hollywood's top awards show, but over its 80-year history there have been some classic films, performers and people behind the scenes that have been criminally overlooked by Oscar. Peter Sellers in \"Dr. Strangelove,\" just one of Kubrick's classics beaten to the prize by a glitzy musical . From acting turns that kept us glued to the screen, to directors that were passed over by the Academy time and time again, these are the statues we would have given out if we'd been in charge. Don't agree? Think we've missed one or robbed an actual winner of its top-spot? Share your views by using the Sound Off box below and we'll publish the best. 1. Stanley Kubrick's double snub 1968\/1964 . In two equally baffling instances, the last true auteur's work was denied the prize. Cold War classic \"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb\" lost out to George Cukor's \"My Fair Lady\" while his genre-defining sci-fi epic \"2001: A Space Odyssey\" was beaten by Carol Reed's threadbare \"Oliver!\" Glossy Hollywood musicals hailed above two of the most influential movies ever made: are you serious? Truly, this is Oscar's greatest travesty. 2. \"Citizen Kane,\" denied best picture 1941 . It has been topping critics' lists since its release over 60 years ago, but this work of cinematic genius left the 1941 Oscars almost empty handed. Nominated for nine, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, \"Citizen Kane\" was beaten to the prize by \"How Green Was My Valley,\" a sentimental epic about Welsh miners. 3. Martin Scorsese, ever the bridesmaid 1976\/1980\/1990 . Finally recognized last year for his work on \"The Departed,\" for years it looked like Scorsese would always play bridesmaid to some distinctly mediocre brides. The three biggest Oscar crimes against Marty: \"Taxi Driver,\" \"Raging Bull\" and \"Goodfellas.\" For the latter, he was beaten by Kevin Costner for \"Dances With Wolves.\" Fair enough, it's the only Costner-helmed film that isn't utterly abysmal, but better than Scorsese's best? We don't think so. 4. James Dean: Rebel without an Oscar 1955\/1956 . The only actor to receive more than one posthumous nomination, Dean still failed to secure the statue, despite turning in three amazing performances in one year. Nominated for his roles in \"East of Eden\" and \"Giant,\" and overlooked for the iconic \"Rebel Without a Cause,\" three performances that put him into Hollywood folklore as an acting great, he lost out second time round to Yul Brynner in \"The King and I.\" Is it us or are the sentimental musicals trumping the all-time classics? 5. Alfred Hitchcock's Academy curse 1958 . One of the greatest directors of all time, Hitchcock never won the best director award. Nominated just four times, he was only beaten by the finest directors of the day, including Billy Wilder and Elia Kazan. But how could the nomination committee overlook \"Vertigo\"? Today it's considered one of his true masterpieces. No nomination for Hitchcock, and instead the academy hand the award to Vincente Minnelli, the director of \"Gigi\" -- another tooth-gratingly glitzy musical. 6. \"Pulp Fiction\" and Morgan Freeman get Gump-ed 1994 . Whether you like \"Forrest Gump\" or not, it's hard to defend the decision that saw Tom Hanks take his second acting Oscar ahead of the definitive performance of one of Hollywood's elder statesmen, Morgan Freeman, in Frank Darabont's \"Shawshank Redemption.\" And as for the Academy passing over \"Pulp Fiction\" or its director, Quentin Tarantino in favor of a comfortable family flick? That left us speechless. Where's the Academy's court of appeal? 7. Robert Duvall steals the show, but is robbed of the award 1979 . It's hard to stand out in a cast that has Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen and Dennis Hopper in it, let alone when the project's directed with powerful skill by Francis Ford Coppola, but the wild ravings of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore stand out as the highlight in the excellent and affecting \"Apocalypse Now.\" We hate the smell of Oscar injustice in the morning. 8. \"LA Confidential\" is sunk by a blockbuster 1997 . Ok, it was an impressive venture, and the technical frills were unrivalled at the time, but \"Titanic\" just wasn't the best film of the year. A flimsy script, plus performances far from the actors' best, failed to deter voters: the movie picked up a record 11 awards. Versus \"LA Confidential,\" or even the impressive \"Good Will Hunting,\" it simply doesn't float. 9. Al Pacino's best apparently not good enough 1976 . Pacino may have descended into a constant stream of shouting in his later roles (something that can be seen in abundance in \"Any Given Sunday\" or \"Devil's Advocate\"), but his magnetic performance as sensitive Michael Corleone in \"The Godfather\" sees him at his compelling best. Joel Grey's performance in \"Cabaret\" (more musicals! Argh!) is nothing if not annoying, and certainly not a patch on Pacino's finest hour. 10. \"Brokeback Mountain\" wins everything but an Oscar 2005 . In the approach to the Academy Awards it had been winning major prizes, scooping the best picture BAFTA and Golden Globe and earning director Ang Lee a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, but when it came to the Oscars, the movie mysteriously missed out. \"Crash,\" the actual winner, is not a bad film, but it pales in comparison to the sensitive and highly emotional \"Brokeback Mountain.\" .................................... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Read others' comments and share your views by using the Sound Off box below. ....................... And the day before the Oscars are given out, the 28th Annual Razzie Awards will be announced for the year's worst film offerings. Here are five of the biggest Razzie winners ... Sly and the family Stallone \"win\" big . With 30 nominations and 10 awards, including worst actor of the century, Sly is the biggest \"winner\" in Razzie history. Most notably, in 1985 he and his family cleaned up, as he took worst actor, director and screenplay awards, his wife Brigitte Nielsen scooped worst supporting actress and worst new star, and Sly's brother Frank received worst original song for \"Peace in Our Time\" from \"Rambo II.\" Their parents must be so proud. Madonna fails to get the hint . She's not known for her acting, but Madge just won't let it go. With fewer than 20 full-length feature roles under her belt, the queen of pop has picked up 15 Razzie nominations and nine awards for her weak performances. In 2002 she cleaned up, taking Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress and half of the Worst Couple. You really can't fault her consistency. \"Showgirls\" breaks Razzie records . This record-breaking clunker was nominated for 13 awards in 1995: admirable, since there were only 10 categories that year. It also claimed the most wins, taking home a well-deserved seven awards, including Worst Director and Worst Picture, which were collected in person by director Paul Verhoeven, the first winner to attend the show to collect Razzies. Respect. Eddie Murphy: man of 2008 . This year's show sees the comedian who was up for an Oscar last year pick up a record five nominations for one person in a year, for his work in Worst Picture nominee \"Norbit.\" Having played multiple characters, Murphy is up for Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Couple (nominated with himself) and Worst Screenplay. A truly impressive haul: good work, Eddie. Battlefield Earth \"succeeds\" in every category . John Travolta's Scientology\/sci-fi movie was nominated for a meager eight awards, but brought home the bacon as it took seven of those awards on the night. Only Forrest Whitaker failed to convert his nomination, pipped to the post by co-star Barry Pepper. If it makes them feel any better, we think they deserved all eight. .................................... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Read others' comments and share your views by using the Sound Off box below. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock never won a best director Oscar .\nPerennial critics' favorite \"Citizen Kane\" was almost entirely passed over .\nBlockbusters \"Forrest Gump\" and \"Titanic\" prevented great movies taking honors .\nRazzies \"honor\" poor cinema, big winners are Sylvester Stallone and Madonna .","id":"7dae6ed91c0b5a94845e798b97728b08d82462d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of people filled a college auditorium Wednesday to pay their last respects to an El Reno, Oklahoma, woman slain along with her four children last week. Summer Rust's children -- clockwise from top, Autumn, Kirsten, Evynn and Teagin -- carve pumpkins. About 300 people attended the service at Redlands Community College for Summer Rust, 25; her son, Teagin, 4; and daughters Evynn, 3, and Autumn and Kirsten, both 7, CNN affiliate KOCO reported. Rust's white coffin was placed in front of the podium, flanked by the smaller caskets carrying her children. Each casket had a picture of the victim, surrounded by flowers. A slide show of the family played on an overhead screen throughout the service. \"I've preached a lot of funerals, but none like this one,\" said the Rev. Gerald Van Horn. \"This has been on my heart ever since I heard about it. I first learned of it from the news, and I said, 'In El Reno? No way.' ... We don't have to deal with tragedy very often, but it has come, and the reality of it has sunk in. Searching my heart on what to say, I have found it difficult.\" He told mourners that God is near and feels their pain but acknowledged that Rust and her children \"will be greatly missed.\" The bodies were found January 12 in Rust's apartment in El Reno, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. According to the document, each of the victims was suffocated and strangled. Crime scene investigators said each body had ligature marks around the neck. Rust's boyfriend, Joshua Steven Durcho, 25, admitted choking her to death but said the children were not there at the time, according to an affidavit filed last week. He was arrested in Hamilton County, Texas, officials said. A spokeswoman at the Canadian County, Oklahoma, Sheriff's Office said Durcho was being held in the county jail after waiving extradition. Durcho's cousin found Rust's body and called officers, who found the children's bodies in the apartment, says an affidavit written by a special agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. An apparent acquaintance of Durcho's told police he came to her apartment Monday afternoon and told her he had \"choked\" Summer Rust to death and he was leaving Oklahoma, according to the affidavit. The affidavit says Durcho told the woman \"that the children were at their grandmother's residence ... while he and Summer worked out their relationship problems.\" Rust's mother, Susan Rust of Carson City, Nevada, said Durcho was unemployed and had been living with Rust and her children. Authorities in Texas said Durcho was arrested after a state trooper attempted to stop his car because the trooper suspected that the driver was drunk. When the trooper ran the license plate on the car, it matched the tag number of a vehicle sought by Oklahoma police.","highlights":"NEW: Preacher says he found funeral for mom, four kids \"difficult\"\n300 mourners attended service at Redlands Community College .\nBodies found January 12 in apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma .\nWoman's boyfriend, Joshua Steven Durcho, admitted choking her, affidavit says .","id":"7a0d1b41a53a2cb5dfcf6f05fbb997326927c36a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Marine commander on Wednesday warned of a \"growing\" insurgent threat in Afghanistan, but he said forces would have to be cut in Iraq to send more Marines to Afghanistan. Marines could be pulled from Iraq's Anbar province, Gen. James Conway said Wednesday. \"To do more in Afghanistan, our Marines have got to see relief elsewhere,\" said Gen. James Conway in a briefing for Pentagon reporters. Conway said the Corps' two regimental combat teams -- about 10,000 Marines -- in Iraq's Anbar province could be removed as there are only two or three insurgent attacks a day in what was once the hotbed of the Iraqi insurgency. The U.S.-led coalition is scheduled to hand over security control in Anbar to Iraqi troops next week. Despite the progress, Conway said, he doesn't expect any decisions on troop withdrawals until Gen. David Petraeus -- the head of the U.S. military in Iraq -- makes his recommendations on troop deployment in Iraq to President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. There are more than 3,000 Marines in Afghanistan, and Conway said that the Marine Corps would be willing to help bolster the fight against the Taliban in that country. \"I think that a battalion of Marines in Afghanistan count for more than a battalion of Marines in Iraq, if you will, just in terms of the impact that they can have,\" he said.","highlights":"Marines in Iraq's once-volatile Anbar province could leave, general says .\nAnbar attacks down to a few a day, Gen. James Conway says .\nMarines could have greater effect in Afghanistan, Conway says .","id":"9a19200792db252cc156ac0b7c2b4640a9dc340a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- While the Oscars is without doubt the grandest of all the awards ceremonies, it doesn't have the world stage to itself. \"Persepolis\" won the French nomination -- but failed to make the Academy's shortlist . In London, the Brits have their BAFTAs; Spain has the Goyas; and France celebrates the Cesars, where \"La Vie En Rose\" won six out of its \"magnifique\" 11 nominations. And it was this foreign fare that gave rise to the biggest controversy at Hollywood's big event. \"La Vie En Rose\" amassed an impressive eleven nominations at the French Cesar Awards. Marion Cotillard's astonishing transformation into Edith Piaf won her Best Actress gongs at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the Academy Awards. But \"La Vie En Rose\" was not among the contenders for Best Foreign Film. Another French language film, \"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,\" was on many critics' top ten lists for the films of 2007. It won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and its American director Julian Schnabel was nominated for an Oscar. But like \"La Vie En Rose,\" this film was not among the contenders for Best Foreign Film. A third French film, \"Persepolis\" won the special jury prize at Cannes and it received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but yet again, this was not a nominee for Best Foreign Film. France suffered through an abundance of riches this year, with three potential Oscar winners. But to enter the race for Best Foreign film, France, like every other country, had to nominate just one. So \"La Vie En Rose\" and \"Diving Bell\" were rejected by the French film authorities in favor of \"Persepolis.\" But \"Persepolis\" didn't sufficiently impress the Oscar judges: so France had no films among the final five nominees. French frustration at the Oscar process was echoed in Taiwan, which chose Ang Lee's film, \"Lust Caution,\" as its official entry. The film won both critical acclaim and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. But Oscar judges ruled there was too little Taiwanese involvement -- none of the lead actors are from Taiwan. The double Oscar winning director watched in disbelief as his film was banned and Taiwan was told to pick another film instead: Oscar caution triumphing over Ang Lee's lust for a third Academy Award. And the list goes on: the Israeli film, \"The Band's Visit\" was excluded for having too much English -- but it's the only way the Israeli and Egyptian protagonists can communicate in the film and is a key part of the plot. But Israel submitted \"Beaufort\" instead -- and made the final five. \"The Kite Runner\" may have proved an international success at the box office, but it didn't fly with Oscar watchdogs. Set in Afghanistan with Farsi as its main language, it fell foul of the rulebook by having too little Afghan involvement and a Swiss-American director. But for most critics, the most inexplicable omission from the shortlist of nominees was Romania's \"4 Months, 3 weeks & 2 Days,\" winner of the Palme D'Or in Cannes and considered by many to be a sure-fire Oscar winner. Some feel its challenging subject of a back-street abortion in communist Romania was too testing for conservative members of the Academy's Foreign Film Committee, whose volunteers tend to include many retirees -- who else has time to attend screenings of 63 foreign language films? Even Marc Johnson, the Chairman of the Academy's Foreign Language Film Committee, acknowledged that some of the criticism levelled against the Academy this year was \"justifiable\". He told CNN: \"We took quite a beating, and I think quite justifiably, not for the films that we selected but for the films that we DIDN'T select. \"And I felt very passionately about it and spoke out about it more than I should have done, but there was a part of me saying \"wait a minute I didn't sign on for this -- I didn't sign on to be the scapegoat and we received a lot of criticism and yet it's something I feel so passionately about I think foreign language film and particularly subtitled film in the U.S. are really an endangered species.\" Defenders of the Academy also point out that they're only asking countries to nominate their favorite film; they then pick the best of that bunch. Mr Johnson said it would be unfair to allow countries to submit more than one film as the selection process would become \"unmanageable\". \"There have been arguments that why can't a coutnry submit more films? France for instance might argue we make 50 films a year, maybe five of them are Oscar worthy and Ecuador maybe only makes one why is it we have the same group as they?\" . \"Not that I ever like to mix sports with the arts but it's a little bit like the World Cup. Brazil could probably submit five teams but they're only allowed to submit one -- and it's what makes it a fair race,\" he explains. \"The other thing is quite frankly this year we had 63 films. We could not see many more than that. So if we had 5 from this country and 3 from this country it would be completely unmanageable.\" And while the one-film-per-country rule fails to reward a nation with a flourishing film industry, it does ensure diversity: no less than 63 countries from Azerbaijan to Vietnam submitted films for the 80th Academy Awards. Israel, Austria, Poland, Russia, and Kazakhstan -- representing 210 million people in all -- were the countries vying for the prize on Oscar night, and the Academy points to the quality of those on the list, rather those that are not, as ultimate proof that the system works. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Academy rules mean each country can only submit one film .\nFrance dismissed \"La Vie En Rose\" and \"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly\"\nIts choice, \"Persepolis,\" failed to make the Oscars shortlist .\nTaiwan's choice, Ang Lee's \"Lust, Caution,\" was also blocked by the Academy .","id":"8c8ad7876226f634c31e66a95aa352d6be824abe"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Collecting cars is an expensive hobby. Here's a twist: Buy a new car today that will be worth a fortune as a collectible years from now. The Audi S5 is a slick coupe with solid credentials. Best of all, you don't need to break the bank to buy a hot and value-appreciating ride. But you do have to be patient, since waiting is key. \"Many consumers could be driving a future collector car right now,\" McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty, a specialty insurer of collector cars in the United States, and himself a respected collector car valuation expert. \"Our goal was to find cars that are currently on the road but may be considered nostalgic in 15 to 20 years. Each car on Hagerty's Hot List possesses a 'buzz,' a wow factor that resonates with consumers of all ages, many cars being daily drivers that turn heads already.\" Why do some vehicles become tomorrow's collector car? Hagerty says it's a combination of pop culture popularity, limited production numbers and the style of the next generation of collectors. Hagerty's Hot List, the top 10 collector cars of the future: . 1. Cadillac XLR-V Roadster . Under the hood sits a hand-built 4.4-liter V8 that's been supercharged and puts out 443 horsepower. This is a serious domestic roadster that competes with the Mercedes SL-Class, Porsche 911 Cabriolet and Jaguar XKR, as well as the four-seat BMW M6 convertible. AOL Autos: Cadillac XLR Roadster . 2. Lotus Exige S . Most practical people will find the Lotus Exige is a miserable little car -- that is if you are shopping for a grocery getter! Research uncovered one anonymous review stating \"Bottom Line ... my heart beats faster when I think about this car ... it is that rewarding.\" AOL Autos: Lotus Exige S . 3. Audi S5 . A slick coupe with solid credentials. It provides good looks, impressive all-wheel-drive handling and an affordable price tag for this segment. AOL Autos: Audi S5 . 4. Mustang Shelby GT 500 KR . The new GT500 KR (King of the Road) takes the bare bones of a GT500 and turns it into a 540 horsepower muscle car that pays tribute to the legendary Carroll Shelby. Production is expected to be around 1,000. AOL Autos: Mustang Shelby GT 500 KR . 5. Chevrolet Corvette Z06 . The ferocious Z06 is a fixed-roof coupe with a 7.0-liter V8 that produces 505 horsepower. The last 50 years have proven that most Corvettes eventually become collectible. AOL Autos: Chevrolet Corvette Z06 . 6. Smart . At first look, the Smart seems too small to be practical. It's not. Rather, it is a marvel of packaging efficiency. This is the first year they will be available en masse in the United States. 7. Subaru Impreza WRX STi . Some Subaru enthusiasts may not like the idea of being spotted in a hatchback, but this will make it more collectible down the road. 8. Honda S2000 CR . Less than 2,000 of the CR editions will be built. This is a high-performance version of the stock S2000 that is regarded as Honda's only true sports car. 9. Pontiac Solstice\/Saturn Sky . This pair of roadsters from GM have all the necessary ingredients: rear-wheel drive, a powerful engine, independent suspension and an impressive weight balance. 10. Dodge Charger Super Bee . It has a 6.1 liter HEMI V8 with 425 horsepower and 420 ft.-lbs. of torque. Need we say more for a family sedan?","highlights":"The right new car today could be worth a fortune as a collectible later .\nCadillac XLR-V Roadster can compete with the Mercedes SL-Class .\nLess than 2,000 of the Honda S2000 CR editions will be built .\nThe hatchback will make the Subaru Impreza WRX STi a collectible later .","id":"65496e866523b7172ba4ab8bcb9cb14ae8ea4880"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Pandering.\" According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to pander is to: \"provide gratification for others' desires.\" So is that what John McCain and Barack Obama are doing with Hispanic voters? Sen. John McCain has said the issue of immigration would be a top priority for him as president. If you follow coverage of their speeches at three Latino events -- the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the League of United Latin American Citizens and The National Council of La Raza -- the answer would be yes. Why? Because the two candidates are talking about making immigration reform a priority if they reach the White House, and to make it there, they know the Hispanic vote can have a great impact. More than 9 million Hispanics are expected to vote on November 4th. They traditionally favor Democrats, but many have supported Republicans in key races. In 2004, for example, 40 percent of the Latino vote went to President Bush -- so going after them makes political sense. Do Hispanics care about immigration reform? Yes, they do. But it's not the only issue that concerns them. See where the candidates stand on immigration . They, too, pay more than $4 for a gallon of gas, and are worried about the economy, foreclosures, the war in Iraq and access to health care and education. But the debate on immigration has motivated many to apply for citizenship and many others to register to vote. Hispanics aren't a monolithic group as many seem to believe. Some families go back six or seven generations. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth. Cubans can stay if they make it to U.S soil. Latinos from all over Latin America come by plane. Surprisingly, a majority of Latino voters show a deep interest in immigration reform, even though it wouldn't benefit them directly because they are U.S. citizens. They believe reform would help in a community that shares a common language, even though it has many differences. They aren't na\u00efve and won't be swayed with tall tales. But to pander has a negative connotation and the concept seems highlighted when it refers to Hispanics, the largest- and fastest-growing minority in the nation. This electorate is familiar with politicians making promises they don't always keep -- and surely will see that McCain favors border security before immigration reform, a reform he put his name on at great cost. They are aware of the need to learn English in order to succeed, and not necessarily for every child to learn Spanish as Obama suggested. That could fuel fears about Hispanic influence, and spur some to use that fear to score political points. In this case, the approach goes in two directions. It can be seen as pandering to a specific group for political gain, but it can also be portrayed as a challenge to Hispanics. With greater clout comes higher responsibility; it means not only registering to vote, but actually doing it on Election Day, making those numbers count, showing that Latinos are more than a group with great potential. Is pandering to Hispanics any different from pandering to other groups? Why isn't there a similar outcry when candidates address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on the future of Israel? Or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? Isn't that pandering? Hispanics are coming of political age, and probably face a dilemma. But which is better -- being pandered to, or ignored? And no, it's not a trick question.","highlights":"Candidates talk about immigration reform at Latino events .\nHispanics care about a lot of other issues, says Juan Carlos Lopez .\nLatinos: The largest and fastest growing minority in the nation .\nCandidates' so-called pandering to Latinos shows the power of the Hispanic vote .","id":"513ad8bd2fac3616b9bbc78b6eb237d716ef0f85"} -{"article":"MONTEREY PARK, California (CNN) -- Five men are accused of starting a massive Malibu wildfire at that destroyed more than 50 homes and forced about 15,000 people to evacuate. A firefighter works to contain a wildfire threatening homes in Malibu, California, on November 24. Authorities say the five, ranging in ages from 18 to 27, were drinking in a popular party spot in a cave at the park when they started the fire. All five are from the Los Angeles area and are being charged with three felonies -- including two arson-related charges. Each count carries a sentence of two to four years in prison. Baca said investigators traced the fire to the cave, then used receipts and surveillance camera footage from a nearby store to hunt down the men. Investigators would not comment on why the men started the fire. During the investigation, fire officials speculated that a campfire may have started the blaze -- which engulfed roughly 5,000 acres and destroyed 80 structures, including the 53 homes. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in the wake of the fire, which started on November 24. The blaze, which was fueled by dry Santa Ana winds and low humidity, followed a spate of California wildfires in October that charred more than 508,000 acres in several counties. Those fires forced 1 million people from their homes and left 14 people dead. The men are expected to make their first court appearance on Monday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Men were partying in a cave .\nAll five are from the Los Angeles area and are being charged with three felonies .\nReceipts and surveillance camera footage helped investigators find the men .\nFire engulfed about 5,000 acres and destroyed more than 50 homes last month .","id":"0aef0ffd5443bc582aa944bb8714617afbe51973"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roberto Ascencio has lived in the New Orleans area for 30 years, 28 of them on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Thousands of drivers sat in traffic for hours as they fled Gulf Coast ahead of Hurricane Gustav's arrival. The last time he fled the city, ahead of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he was worried about his restaurant, which was two months away from opening. Once again, as he leaves town, his primary concern is his restaurant, which finally opened little more than a year ago after repairing damage from Katrina. \"It was very hard to get back to where we were, because the money was gone,\" he said. \"I'm worried because it's my livelihood. My wife runs the restaurant with my sister-in-law. We worked so hard to get there. If it gets destroyed again, I'll probably go bankrupt. I'm just praying that it's going to be OK.\" Praying is all he or anyone leaving New Orleans can do as Hurricane Gustav makes its away across the Gulf of Mexico towards the Gulf Coast. View a map of Gustav's projected path \u00bb . By Sunday night, more than 1.9 million people had fled the city and its surrounding parishes, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said, many of them, like Ascencio, spending hours in traffic. Watch Jindal discuss the progress of evacuations \u00bb . \"I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. As soon as we hit the interstate, it was bumper-to-bumper. It was very, very slow-moving,\" he said. As the sun set behind him Sunday, Ascencio was driving east on Interstate 10 with his wife, daughter, three cats, three dogs and two birds. After 16 hours on the road, he was closing in on Biloxi, Mississippi, about 60 miles east of New Orleans. iReport.com: Leaving home? Share your story . \"We just took off,\" he says. \"We don't know where we're going right now. It's just crazy.\" When Katrina hit three years ago, Ascencio and his family fled New Orleans for Houston, Texas. That trip took 18 hours, he said. Then, like now, the worst part was leaving behind his restaurant. This time, Ascencio said he took all the precautions he could before he left, safeguarding his stocks in the restaurant and moving possessions in his two-story home upstairs. CNN's Susan Roesgen report on evacuations from New Orleans \u00bb . But supplies were limited. The local home improvement store was out of plywood to board up the restaurant windows when he arrived. But he did what we could and set out on the road, unsure of where he would end up. \"Everybody on my side has Louisiana license plates. It looks like we own the whole highway,\" Ascencio says, almost laughing. But just as quickly, his voice turns serious. \"I hope everything is well. I'll need to get back and see how things are going, but right now we've just got to keep going.\"","highlights":"About 1.9 million fled the New Orleans area this weekend ahead of Hurricane Gustav .\nRoberto Ascencio left behind a restaurant that has been open for a year .\nAfter 16 hours on I-10, he closes in on Biloxi, Mississippi, about 60 miles away .\nAscencio hopes for the best, but right now, \"we just got to keep going\"","id":"dba1fa51c4e5f88cef30520a2bc6dc4f1e939234"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The small Baltic nation of Estonia is ending its nearly six-year military operation in Iraq by not replacing its platoon of 34 troops. Estonian soldiers on patrol near Baghdad in 2004. Estonia's Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo said the country will not deploy its next infantry platoon to Iraq, according to a statement from the ministry. Platoon ESTPLA-18 was ready to replace the previous 34-man platoon which returned to Estonia from Iraq in late December, The Baltic Times reported. The Estonian defense ministry announced Thursday it had failed to reach an agreement with Iraq's government about the troops' legal status. Aaviksoo said the absence of a legal agreement \"specifying the legal status of our soldiers\" was one of three reasons Estonia ended its military operation in Iraq. He said the other two reasons were the improving security situation in Iraq and the Iraqi government's desire to \"continue bilateral cooperation in forms other than battle units.\" A bilateral agreement spelling out future defense-related cooperation between Iraq and Estonia is still being hammered out, Aaviksoo said. Estonia will continue to participate in a NATO-led training mission in Iraq, with three staff officers, he said. The Estonian defense ministry said Aaviksoo will soon visit Iraq to formally terminate the Estonian Defense Forces' operation and discuss future defense-related cooperation with his Iraqi counterpart, Abdul Al-Qadir Jassam. In late December, Iraq's Presidency Council approved a resolution allowing non-U.S. troops to remain in the country after a U.N. mandate expired at the end of 2008. The resolution authorized Iraq to negotiate bilateral agreements with the countries, including Estonia. If that resolution had not been approved by the end of the year, those countries would have been in Iraq illegally. The United States concluded a separate agreement in November with the Iraqi government authorizing the continued presence of its troops. U.S. combat forces plan to pull back from population centers in Iraq by July 2009 and to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. The British government says its forces will complete their mission of training Iraqi troops by May 31, 2009, and withdraw from the country by July 31, 2009. Britain has 4,100 troops in Iraq, the second-largest contingent after the United States with 142,500. Australian troops also plan to be out of the country by the end of July.","highlights":"Estonia not replacing its platoon in Iraq .\nPrevious 34-strong platoon left Iraq in December .\nDefense minister blames lack of new legal agreement on status of troops .\nAustralia, UK also expect their troops to be out by the end of July .","id":"2adfd057c88ef32c9d192a00f1a5e63bafeb4ace"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Griffin Bell, who served as attorney general in the Carter administration, has died, according to the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He was 90. Griffin Bell is sworn in as attorney general in January 1977. Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement saying that he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter were deeply saddened by Bell's death. \"A trusted and enduring public figure, Griffin's integrity, professionalism, and charm were greatly valued across party lines and presidential administrations,\" Carter said. \"As a World War II veteran, federal appeals court judge, civil rights advocate, and U.S. attorney general in my administration, Griffin made many lasting contributions to his native Georgia and country. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.\" The son of a south Georgia cotton farmer, Bell passed the Georgia bar exam while still a student in law school, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. He went on to help build the prominent Atlanta law firm King and Spalding, and then to serve as the nation's top legal officer. He was a chairman of John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, and Kennedy appointed him to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1961. As a federal judge, Bell was involved in desegregation rulings in the 1960s, and he became known as a moderate legal voice in the South. Fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter nominated Bell as attorney general in 1976. He was confirmed shortly after Carter's inauguration but only after sometimes difficult Senate hearings. Bell's memberships in private segregated clubs and some of his decisions as a federal judge became issues. He was confirmed in January 1977 by a Senate vote of 75 to 21. Bell's tenure as attorney general followed the Watergate era, and he was credited with helping restore public confidence in the Justice Department during the late 1970s. Bell resigned as attorney general in 1979 to return to private law practice in Atlanta with King and Spalding. He resurfaced in the public eye periodically, including in 2004 when he was listed among Georgia Democrats who endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election. Also in 2004, he co-authored an independent study ordered by FBI Director Robert Mueller of the FBI's internal disciplinary procedures. The report sharply criticized the FBI and called its methods for determining punishments for its agents \"seriously flawed.\"","highlights":"President Jimmy Carter nominated Griffin Bell as attorney general in 1976 .\nBell credited with helping restore confidence in Justice Department in late 1970s .\nHis \"integrity, professionalism, and charm\" valued across party lines, Carter said .\nIn 2004, he was listed among Georgia Dems who endorsed Bush for re-election .","id":"506e1baad13bc8b50b0f1db98518da52aea1c40c"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist, is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute and founder of Brazile & Associates, a political consulting firm. She was the campaign manager for the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman ticket in 2000 and wrote \"Cooking with Grease.\" Donna Brazile says Barack Obama's inauguration is a huge milestone in the fight for equal rights . WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Today Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. This is the day for which so many prayed, so many marched and so many more sacrificed. This is a day of jubilation and celebration. This is the day to rejoice and recommit ourselves to restoring the American dream for us all. Barack Obama's election offers our country the opportunity to open a new chapter that will allow us to turn the corner on past prejudices and racial politics. When Sen. Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, most people, black and white, thought it would be, at best, an interesting sideshow. After Obama's victories in the early primaries, there came the controversial videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, broadcasting a racial divisiveness that cast even greater doubt on an Obama candidacy. But the senator moved quickly to reassure people that Wright's jaundiced view of America did not reflect his own. Americans wanted to move beyond racial categorization and the politics of division. Obama understood that. And so did the voters. But African-Americans didn't believe it. Seventy-one percent of black voters had never thought a black candidate for president would get elected in their lifetime, according to a national poll released in November by CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. Yet 59 percent of white respondents said they had thought it was possible. Obama did not just win the caucuses in Iowa -- a state with a white population of more than 94 percent -- he resoundingly captured it. Other primary victories, once thought improbable, soon followed. These included Georgia, and Virginia, the former seat of the Confederacy. On Election Day, Obama won a higher percentage of the white vote than John Kerry did in 2004, though he did not get a majority of whites. Unlike other black presidential candidates before him, Obama did not run as \"the black candidate.\" He ran as a Democratic candidate, a U.S. senator from Illinois, and a progressive. And America, by larger margins than in previous recent elections, voted for the progressive Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois who happened to be biracial. For too long, race has been the stain on the American fabric. As Secretary Condoleezza Rice reminded us, race has been our \"nation's birth defect.\" At times during the long primary and general election, race became a subtle distraction -- but the American people rejected it and it was never the primary issue. Nor was it the primary issue for Americans who voted for Barack Obama. The vast majority of those who voted for and against Obama did so based on the content of his political prescriptions and platform -- not the color of his skin. A lot of lessons were taught November 4. Obama's election revealed the possibility of three new truths for African-Americans: White America may not be as racist as African-Americans thought they were; a solution to our country's lingering racial problem may eventually be found; and the Rev. Martin Luther King's dream that one day all people will be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin is alive and within reach. Obama's election has inspired 6 in 10 blacks to forecast better race relations in the United States. \"A majority of blacks now believe that a solution to the country's racial problems will eventually be found,\" said CNN polling director Keating Holland. \"In every previous poll on this topic dating back to 1993, black respondents had always said that racial problems were a permanent part of the American landscape. Even in the most recent polls taken last week, a majority of African-Americans said that a solution to the country's racial problems could be within reach; now blacks and whites agree that racial tensions may end.\" Yes, of course, racism still exists in America. But if a black man can become president of the United States of America, then aren't all Americans now free to believe they can achieve any goal they set for themselves? So on this day, let us all rejoice and be glad. Let us celebrate this moment in American history and let us resolve to find common ground. Let us resolve to join together as a nation to ensure that racial prejudice in America, as well as an ethic of non-achievement based on excuses and low expectations, dies the same death it did in the November ballot box. What our founders envisioned -- what President Lincoln and the Rev. King fought and died for, we are perhaps finally ready to achieve. This is a remarkable moment. Though not the apex we need to reach, it is still a mountaintop, alive with possibilities, a dream no longer deferred. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.","highlights":"Donna Brazile: Obama's inauguration is a time for rejoicing and rededication .\nBrazile: Hardly anyone took Obama seriously as a candidate two years ago .\nBrazile: He didn't run as an African-American candidate but as a Democrat .\nBrazile: We are perhaps ready to achieve what Lincoln and the Rev. King fought for .","id":"6467c484cf7e0fb84f78426daeff0418505f9cd2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The number of illegal immigrants arrested along U.S. borders dropped 23 percent during the past nine months -- evidence, officials said, that stepped-up enforcement is working. Mexican families swim and wash cars along the banks of the Rio Grande at the U.S. border in Juarez in June. The Border Patrol captured 695,841 people nationwide in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2007, down from 907,445 for the same period the previous fiscal year, or a 23 percent drop, said Border Patrol spokesman Michael Friel. Arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border declined by 24 percent, he said. Border Patrol officials said the reasons for the change are varied and complex, but Friel said, \"We're clearly seeing a deterrent.\" One factor cited by officials is the end of the practice of releasing non-Mexican immigrants, pending court hearings. The Border Patrol captured 50,349 non-Mexican illegal immigrants nationwide in the nine-month period ending June 30, down from 89,952 during the same period of fiscal 2006. That's a 44 percent decrease. The decrease was 48 percent for non-Mexican illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. Other factors include the 6,000 National Guard troops patrolling along the Southwest border, more detention space and enhanced enforcement in the interior, Friel said. Outside economic, political and social factors also are \"always involved\" in fluctuating levels of immigrants seeking entry into the United States, he said. Last month, opponents effectively killed President Bush's long-fought and emotion-laden immigration bill in the Senate when members voted against advancing the legislation. The bill aimed to create a path to citizenship for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants and to toughen border security. Supporters and opponents of the legislation said that it probably won't be resurrected until the 2008 elections are over. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mike M. Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Illegal immigrants captured on U.S. borders down 23 percent in nine months .\nOfficials say enforcement having deterrent effect on illegal immigration .\nOfficial: Use of National Guard troops along Southwest border may be a factor .","id":"ea05dfab8ef7ff691bd615fe062cc312e57a61aa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A seventh minute goal from Brazilian teenager Alexander Pato proved enough to give AC Milan a 1-0 home victory over Fiorentina in a match totally dominated by Manchester City's $150 million bid for playmaker Kaka this week. Pato (right) and David Beckham celebrate Milan's only goal at the San Siro on Saturday evening. The goal was created by David Beckham who beat two defenders to a loose ball. He poked it back to Marek Jankulovski who played in Pato inside the penalty area. There still appeared no danger to the Fiorentina goal, but Pato hit a stunning strike from the left that went in off the far post. Fiorentina should have equalized on 66 minutes when Juan Vargas got to the byline and crossed to Mario Santana but the Argentine put his shot too close to goalkeeper Christian Abbiati who managed to save. The result leaves Milan in third place on 37 points, six points behind leaders and city rivals Inter, who have a game in hand. Jose Mourinho's side travel to Atalanta on Sunday. Jankulovski collected a late red card for timewasting, but Milan held on to secure the three points. Meanwhile, Milan supporters made their opposition to the Kaka bid, and his possible departure, perfectly clear throughout the match -- unveiling a host of banners and singing songs pleading with the Brazilian to stay at the San Siro. Reggina remain deep in relegation trouble after suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Siena. Mario Frick's goal 15 minutes from time was enough to give the Bianconeri three points which sees them leapfrog Sampdoria and move up to the relative comfort of 14th spot. Siena in contrast, stay second from bottom and could slip to the foot of the Serie A standings if Chievo beat Napoli on Sunday.","highlights":"Alexander Pato scores seventh minute goal as AC Milan defeat Fiorentina 1-0 .\nThe win puts Milan within six points of Serie A leaders and rivals Inter at top .\nMilan supporters display displeasure at Kaka's possible departure from club .","id":"0eec5926864110b348394412cf7e9e9a29d8f70d"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At the Aimin Fat Reduction Hospital in the Chinese city of Tianjin, they have never seen anyone so big. Bland said he misses his family and friends, but his goal is to lose the weight and be \"healthier and happier.\" \"Yes this is our record,\" Dr. Su Zhixin proudly boasted. He's talking about 33-year-old Alonzo Bland of Green Bay, Wisconsin. When Bland stepped off the plane at Beijing Airport in May of this year, he weighed 640 pounds. In fact, he struggled to take more than a few steps, and as he lay flat on his back, exhausted, airport staff called an ambulance. After repeated warnings from his doctor, Bland decided to come to China as a last-ditch effort to shed the pounds. \"I needed to take it serious because we were talking about my life.\" Bland's weight yo-yoed for years, ballooning after he lost his job 12 years ago. \"Nobody wanted to hire a guy who couldn't move, you know and so, [I] spent the next ...12 years on the couch and watched my weight constantly going up.\" Watch more on Alonzo Bland's transformative journey \u00bb . At one point he needed an emergency tracheotomy because fat around his neck was crushing his windpipe. Earlier this year, while watching TV on the couch, he did an Internet search for weight-loss competitions. He entered one offering a first prize of an all-expense-paid trip to one of China's most famous boot camps for the obese. The weight-loss clinic is housed in a drab building, far from the city center. \"It's a beautiful place. It really is,\" Bland said. \"It is difficult though: I am away from home -- all my family and friends. But my goal here -- my goal is to lose the weight, so I think in the end I will be healthier and happier.\" Being this far from home, Bland said, has been a clean break from his bad habits. He simply doesn't know where the restaurants are, or how to order takeout. \"It is away from everything I know, all those things -- even the excuses you make up: 'Oh I have to do this today, I can't work out, I have this do.' So coming here eliminated all the excuses.\" So far he has lost nearly 240 pounds -- a result of diet, exercise and traditional Chinese medicine such as acupuncture, which doctors say reduces appetite and increases metabolism. He works out at a gym three times a week, he walks every day and plays badminton as well. Bland's doctors are impressed with his determination to shed the weight. When he was in America, he had a different lifestyle, said Su. If he wanted to eat he would just order on the phone and \"every day stay on sofa, playing games, watching TV,\" Su said. Bland has only been home once in the past seven months, for two weeks. His family was amazed at his weight loss, and more importantly, despite the fears of his doctor, Bland did not put on any weight while he was away. In fact, he woke at 4 a.m. most days, he said, to work out at the gym -- an indication, said his doctors, that he has broken the bad eating and living patterns that caused his weight gain. The ultimate goal for Bland is a weight of 220 pounds. To reach that goal, he must lose another 180 pounds. His doctors hope he can do that in the next five months -- a year after he arrived at the hospital. \"I know I will get there. Will it happen in the next five months? I don't know, but I will get there.\"","highlights":"Alonzo Bland from Green Bay, Wisconsin, arrived in Beijing weighing 640 pounds .\nHe won all-expense-paid trip to a Chinese boot camp for obese .\nBland said after losing his job, his weight ballooned .\nBland has lost 240 pounds since May in China .","id":"841e6fe0e5d87aa02edd093e068de909c4c9080b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Polaroid Corp. announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Minnesota-based company said it is taking itself and its subsidiaries into bankruptcy in order to restructure its finances. \"Our operations are strong and during this process Polaroid will ship products to our retail partners, work with our suppliers and contract manufacturers to fulfill retailer demand ...\" said Mary L. Jeffries, Polaroid chief executive officer. \"We expect to continue our operations as normal during the reorganization and are planning for new product launches in 2009,\" she said, adding that employees should receive their paychecks without interruption. The bankruptcy filing was necessary because of an investigation of its parent company, Petters Group Worldwide, which has owned Polaroid since 2005, the Polaroid statement said. The group's founder and other employees are under investigation for fraud. Polaroid said the investigation does not involve its leadership team.","highlights":"\"Our operations are strong,\" Polaroid CEO says; company will \"fulfill retailer demand\"\nPolaroid: Bankruptcy filing necessary because of investigation of parent Petters .\nBankruptcy will allow restructuring of finances, company says .\niReport.com: Share your favorite Polaroid pictures .","id":"75e6c61d7fb9388bf5dc9faa4cbe963801625aec"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli troops Thursday killed a Palestinian militant trying to cross into Israel from Gaza and wounded another, according to Palestinian security sources. Israeli soldiers stand in front of the Kerem Shalom crossing Thursday on the Israel-Gaza border. Three armed militants tried to infiltrate into Israel near the Kerem Shalom crossing along the southern Gaza border, according to the Israeli military. Israel Defense Forces said it fired at the militants, hitting two of them. It was unclear what happened to the third. In a separate operation, Israeli forces killed another Palestinian militant Thursday near Jabalya in northern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said. The militant was part of a group trying to launch a mortar shell, sources said. On April 9, Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel through the Nahal Oz border crossing in northern Gaza and fired on the fuel terminal there, killing two Israeli civilian workers. In response, Israel halted already reduced fuel shipments to Gaza. It restarted some shipments on Wednesday but shut down the terminal again Thursday because of Palestinian sniper fire, according to the Israeli military. During the brief time the terminal was open, Israel sent 437,000 liters of diesel fuel and 93 tons of gas to Gaza via Nahal Oz, the only transit route for delivering fuel supplies to Gaza. Israeli forces also clashed early Thursday with Palestinian militants in the West Bank village of Qabatiya, killing the local Islamic Jihad leader and his deputy, the Israeli military said. Bilal Hamuda Machmud Zaalah and his deputy, Adin Machmud Hasani Avidot, were hiding in a vehicle when Israeli soldiers and security forces spotted them and surrounded the vehicle, the military said. \"After confirming that the two men were armed, forces fired at the wanted men, killing both,\" according to an IDF statement. Israel blames Zaalah for attacks against Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Jenin as well as other planned strikes inside Israel. But Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said Israeli forces surrounded a house around 3 a.m., ordering the two members of Islamic Jihad to surrender. The militants wouldn't come out, the sources said, and they died in an exchange of fire with the soldiers. The violence came a day after Israeli airstrikes and ground battles with Palestinian militants in Gaza left 21 dead -- 18 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers -- according to Palestinian security sources. A Reuters cameraman and two bystanders were killed in an apparent airstrike near El Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Hamas security sources and Palestinian medical sources. Other civilians and Palestinian militants also were killed in an Israeli strike on El Bureij. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement through his spokesman, said he's \"gravely concerned at the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel\" on Wednesday. \"He condemns the reported civilian casualties among Palestinians, including children, during Israeli military operations, and calls on Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law,\" the statement said. \"The secretary-general also reiterates his condemnation of rocket fire against Israeli civilian targets. He urges all parties to exercise restraint.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Israel closes fuel terminal on Gaza border after sniper fire, military says .\nIsrael says its troops fired on militants from Gaza trying to infiltrate border .\nOne killed, one wounded, Palestinian security sources say .\nIn separate incident, Israel says two Islamic Jihad militants killed in West Bank .","id":"f37d515bb487d37972a85dce1d6fd33c8fc9d14c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The driver of the limousine in which Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed were killed spent time in a bar shortly before the 1997 Paris crash, a jury at an inquest into her death has heard. But the jury also watched video from security cameras at the Ritz that gives no outward sign that Henri Paul was drunk when the Mercedes he was driving crashed in an underpass while being chased by paparazzi, as both French and British police have concluded. Paul is seen squatting in the lobby of the hotel to tie his shoe laces, shifting his weight from one foot to another and rising steadily. He is also shown bounding up stairs two at a time. The jury has already heard that Paul ordered two Ricards - an aniseed spirit - that night after arriving at the hotel. The father of the princess's lover Dodi Fayed, Ritz owner Mohamed al Fayed, says Paul was not drunk and that the samples were switched after the tragedy. Watch footage of Diana's last hours \u00bb . The purpose of the inquest, which is taking place in London, must decide whether the deaths of Diana and Dodi on August 31, 1997 was an accident or murder. It is expected to be a six-month process. Al Fayed says Diana and his son were murdered because the British royal family \"could not accept that an Egyptian Muslim could eventually be step-father to the future king of England,\" referring to Prince William, the son of Diana and her former husband, Prince Charles. The elaborate efforts of Diana and Dodi to give the paparazzi the slip in the minutes before the tragedy in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel were also shown in a new video. Jurors were shown second-by-second security footage of the couple's efforts to escape the Ritz Hotel undetected. The images show how security staff choreographed a decoy exit in an effort to distract a swelling pack of press photographers and onlookers. But even as Diana and Dodi are led through the bowels of the hotel and out through a service doorway, paparazzi lie in wait. The security footage shows Diana, Dodi's arm around her, standing for 10 minutes behind one exit, waititng for the all-clear to sprint to a car. At one point the princess delivers what appears to be a mock salute as she receives instructions from bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones -- the sole survivor of the crash -- and Paul. The wait over, Diana, Dodi, Paul and Rees-Jones run to a awaiting Mercedes and are immediately surrounded by photographers. But as they leave the paparazzi give chase in cars and on motorcycles. Intriguingly, Paul was earlier seen waving to two photographers who had uncovered the plan to leave by the rear service entrance of the Ritz. On Wednesday previously unseen footage of Diana was shown to the jury. Images taken from a security camera at the Ritz show the 36-year-old smiling as she and Fayed, 42, step into an elevator and later walk out of the hotel. Further footage shows Fayed visiting a jeweler's shop, images that could lend support to claims that he was buying an engagement ring. Earlier, the coroner at the inquest said it may never be known for certain whether Diana was pregnant when she died. Lord Justice Scott Baker told the jury that scientific evidence might be unable to demonstrate \"one way or the other\" whether she was in the early stages of pregnancy. But he said they would hear \"intimate\" details of her personal life. Baker told the 11 members of the jury -- six women and five men -- Diana may have been on the contraceptive pill and that evidence she was poised to get engaged to Dodi on the night she died was contradictory. On Tuesday the judge, who is acting as coroner in the case, told the jury that a famous image taken in summer 1997 showing Diana wearing a swimsuit could not be proof she was pregnant with Dodi's child as she had not started a relationship with him at that stage. Next week, the jury is scheduled to travel to Paris to see the crash site, along the River Seine. They are also expected to hear testimony from the paparazzi who were present after the accident. In its evidence section, the Web site for the inquest has posted previously unpublished pictures taken by paparazzi of the limo before and immediately after the accident. One is a closeup -- looking into the front of the vehicle -- that shows Diana, Fayed, Paul and Rees-Jones minutes before the crash. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Barry Neild contributed to this report.","highlights":"Driver of car in which Diana was killed was in bar before crash, jury hears .\nCCTV gives no indication though that Henri Paul was drunk, as officials say .\nInquest jury also shown new footage of Diana taken hours before her death .\nCourt will make final decision on what happened in car crash 10 years ago .","id":"68ae41bafeb4e327982f437d7eb72a84184a5da1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter and dumping her body in Galveston Bay in Texas has pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in the case. Kimberly Dawn Trenor is scheduled to go on trial for murder next week in the death of her daughter. But Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 20, pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge, her lawyer said Wednesday. Trenor and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 25, both were charged with tampering with evidence and capital murder in the case of Riley Ann Sawyer, whose body was found in a large blue plastic container on an uninhabited island in Galveston Bay, Texas, in October 2007. The charge of tampering with evidence accused the couple of concealing the child's remains. Trenor was arraigned Tuesday in Galveston, Texas, said her lawyer, Tom Stickler. Jury selection for her trial on the capital murder charge begins Wednesday. The trial will begin in earnest on January 27, he said. The jury also will sentence Trenor on the evidence tampering charge, which carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison, The Houston Chronicle reported. Zeigler, who is being tried separately, has not been formally arraigned, Stickler said. Both remain in jail. The Houston Chronicle reported bail had been set at $850,000 each. Riley Ann's case garnered national headlines after a fisherman found her body on the island in the bay. Authorities were unsure of her identity, and police dubbed her \"Baby Grace.\" Police distributed composite sketches of the girl nationwide, and Sheryl Sawyers, the girl's paternal grandmother, contacted police from her Ohio home to say the drawing resembled her granddaughter. DNA testing confirmed the child's identity. According to an affidavit, Trenor told police Riley had been beaten and thrown across a room and that her head was held underwater before she died on July 24, 2007. She said the couple hid the girl's body in a storage shed for one to two months before they put it in the plastic container and dumped it into the bay. A medical examiner said Riley's skull was fractured in three places, injuries that would have been fatal. A cross has since been erected on the island where the child was found, which was named Riley's Island in her honor, the Houston Chronicle reported. Trenor moved to Texas from Ohio with the girl in May 2007 to be with Zeigler, whom Trenor had met on the Internet. While in custody, Trenor gave birth this summer to another child, who is now in the care of relatives, Stickler said.","highlights":"Kimberly Dawn Trenor pleads guilty to tampering with evidence .\nShe faces capital murder trial in death of child known as 'Baby Grace'\nChild's body was found in plastic container on island in Galveston Bay .","id":"1f4603ad3ef986c557014f69422a92e345e3c9a8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Previously unseen footage of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken just hours before she was killed in a car crash, has been shown to the jury at the inquest into her death. The footage showed Diana and Dodi step into an elevator at the Ritz Hotel. Images taken from a security camera at the Ritz Hotel in Paris show the 36-year-old smiling as she and her lover Dodi Fayed step into an elevator and later walk out of the hotel. Further footage shows Fayed visiting a jeweler's shop, images that could lend support to claims that he was buying an engagement ring. Earlier, a British coroner at the inquest said tt may never be known for certain whether Princess Diana was pregnant when she died in the Paris car crash. Lord Justice Scott Baker told the jury at the inquest into the deaths of the princess and her lover Dodi Fayed that scientific evidence might be unable to demonstrate \"one way or the other\" whether she was in the early stages of pregnancy. But he said they would hear \"intimate\" details of her personal life. Watch footage of Diana's last hours \u00bb . Baker told the 11 members of the jury -- six women and five men -- Diana may have been on the contraceptive pill and that evidence she was poised to get engaged to Dodi on the night she died was contradictory. On Tuesday the judge, who is acting as coroner in the case, told the jury that a famous image taken in summer 1997 showing Diana wearing a swimsuit could not be proof she was pregnant with Dodi's child as she had not started a relationship with him at that stage. The jury is set to hear \"scene setting\" evidence, including CCTV and a tourist video. The inquest to establish cause of death is expected to be a six-month process. Fayed's father, Mohammed Al Fayed, has contended from the start that Diana and his son were murdered because the royal family \"could not accept that an Egyptian Muslim could eventually be step-father to the future king of England,\" referring to Diana's son Prince William. \"I'm hoping for justice,\" Al Fayed said outside court. \"At last, we're going to have a jury from ordinary people and I hope to reach the decision which I believe that my son and Princess Diana have been murdered by the royal family.\" Baker told the jury of Al Fayed's allegations, but again reminded them that they were responsible for deciding the facts of the case, but not to assign blame or guilt. \"You have to decide four important, but limited factual questions: who the deceased were, when they came by their deaths, where they came by their deaths and how they came by their deaths,\" Baker said, according to inquest transcripts. \"The first three questions are unlikely to give rise to any difficulty. The fourth is a rather wider question and is directed towards the means by which they died.\" Diana, 36, and 42-year-old Dodi Fayed were killed on August 31, 1997 when the Mercedes-Benz they were traveling in hit a pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris. They were being pursued at the time by the paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel. Driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, was drunk and driving at high speed. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor. Next week, the jury is scheduled to travel to Paris to see the crash site, along the River Seine. They are also expected to hear testimony from the paparazzi who were present after the accident. In its evidence section, the Web site for the inquest has posted previously unpublished pictures taken by paparazzi of the limo before and immediately after the accident. One is a closeup -- looking into the front of the vehicle -- that shows Diana, Fayed, Paul and Rees-Jones minutes before the crash. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Jury shown new footage of Diana taken hours before her death .\nDiana and Dodi Fayed inquest jury to hear \"scene setting\" evidence .\nOn Tuesday coroner outlined controversial claims, published new images .\nCourt will make final decision on what happened in car crash 10 years ago .","id":"2b9f6d2414c7374e0239d0e96d456e573184282d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's not exactly the war of the roses, but a New York couple is taking a divorce case to a new level. Dr. Richard Batista (left) and his attorney, Dominick Barbara, says the divorce case is not just about a kidney. Dr. Richard Batista and his wife, Dawnell, are fighting over a kidney he gave her. Batista and his attorney, Dominick Barbara, appeared on CNN's Larry King Live on Wednesday to discuss the case and why he filed a lawsuit. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: When did the wife need the kidney? Richard Batista: Well, she needed three of them. The one that I donated was back in 2001. King: Who else donated? Batista: Her father donated the first kidney in -- well, I'm going to go back -- when she was 13 years old. The second kidney she needed after two years of our marriage and that was back in 1992. Thereafter, we had three children, prompting the third kidney transplant, which took place in 2001. King: How is she doing now? Do you know? Batista: To the best of my knowledge, I understand that her kidney is doing better than mine. King: When did the marriage go bad? Batista: It's hard to say, but it was not on a good foundation around the time of the third transplant. King: What's it like, by the way, to donate a kidney? Batista: Well, it is probably the most wonderful feeling that you can possibly ever imagine on this planet. King: Is the surgery difficult? Batista: The surgery, for me, was performed arthroscopically, so I have several port incisions, with a separate hand incision to allow for the kidney to be extracted. The surgery discomfort and pain itself was not all that horrendous, very tolerable. I was on my feet the following day. King: What was the cause of the divorce? Batista: Well, she has her allegations. King: What were yours? Batista: Infidelity. That's my reason. Dominick Barbara: Actually, Larry, in the state of New York, it's one of the grounds for divorce. When the show started, you mentioned the demand for the kidney or the value. Really, that's not what's going on. We use that as an example of what the doctor wants. What the doctor wants is, A) health to be taken into consideration in the division of the assets, whether or not she'd be entitled to maintenance or not. But most of all, (what's) being done so he can be part of the children's lives. That's what really this case is all about. King: He's not allowed to be part of their lives now? Batista: It is my belief that the influence that the children are under, from the household, has put such a pressure on them that they no longer have visitation time with me, despite my most strongest efforts, both through phone call attempts through their mother and through the court system. King: What is he going to do with a kidney back? Barbara: He doesn't want the kidney. Remember, this is a God-like act when one gives a kidney. You can certainly understand that. No, what he wants the court to do is take into consideration what he's done, what a wonderful thing it is he's done and some understanding from the court. You know, it's so strange; here he does this, and when he says he's allowed to see his children, well, legally he is, but these children have been so alienated from him. By the way, prior to the divorce, you should know that this was a 24\/7 dad. The children loved him dearly. He's a broken-hearted man from that. Before we started the litigation, we thought very deeply how it's going to affect everyone. It was out of desperation that he did it. King: Dr. Batista, you think this might affect other people donating kidneys? Batista: I hope, at the very least, first of all, I have to say that the real issue here is for me to get my children back. Aside from that, to draw light to the lack of kidney availability, to the number of poor and dying patients across the country who are yearning to live. I hope, and it's my prayer, that this fallout will help enlighten those people who have any question about organ donation come forward, because there are so many people who are dying as a result of not having an organ. King: In view of how bitter this has gotten, Dr. Batista, if you had to do it over again, would you not donate it? Batista: Without hesitation, I would give another kidney.","highlights":"New York doctor, soon-to-be-ex-wife fighting over kidney he gave her in 2001 .\nDoctor tells CNN's Larry King \"real issue\" is to get his children back .\nDoctor says he hopes case will not deter organ donation .","id":"2fcfba02babfed9414890ac017cb23e0afa6fd3b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In focus: OPEC quota cuts . OPEC, which pumps 40 percent of the world oil, is set to announce this week plans to cut its output when it meets in Oran, Algeria. CEO Naguib Sawiris is expanding his mobile phone services into North Korea, an area where few businessmen venture. The cut in crude is hoped to stabilize prices and will be the third cut in quotas since September. So what's behind the supply cuts? Is it just a matter of price stability? Or is OPEC trying to protect the cost of future investments? Facetime with Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom . Amidst the economic downturn, one company is venturing into markets where others fear to tread. Orascom launches its mobile phone services in North Korea this week. CEO Naguib Sawiris tells MME about the company's ambitious expansion plans and the effects of the international financial crisis. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: . Friday: 0915, 1945 Saturday: 0645 Sunday: 0815 .","highlights":"OPEC, which supplies 40 percent of world oil plans on cutting more output .\nThis is the third cut since the fall and is supposed to stabilize prices-will it?\nOr is OPEC just looking out for its own interests?\nPlus, CEO Naguib Sawiris talks about his North Korea expansion plans .","id":"d91d2f3b435c9be31d8613ec2b4634d23a7fb6d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ben Cahan wishes he hadn't damaged his old snapshot of a person in a prosthetic alien suit sitting with his Macintosh. Luckily, he still has a late-1980s picture of actor Kurt Russell with his boxy Mac desktop. Ben Cahan worked with Hollywood films and spotted Kurt Russell sitting with his Mac in the 1980s. Rubbing elbows with big-name celebrities was not unusual for Cahan, who is a software developer. He used his Mac to create Hollywood screenwriting software that formed the basis for programs still in use today. Cahan never expected his old computers to become museum pieces, and he didn't think much about saving funny photos of them at the time. He almost wants to kick himself when he thinks about the lost photo of extraterrestrial attire. \"Who would have thought that would be an interesting picture?\" he mused. But as the Macintosh computer celebrates its 25th birthday Saturday, Cahan and other iReporters are seeking to preserve memories and the history of what they consider to be simple, classic and timeless designs. At the same time, they ponder the purpose of preserving such a short legacy. Gil Poulsen of Franklin Park, New Jersey, says he can understand confusion from people who see the meticulously curated collection in his basement. iReport.com: Go behind the museum's velvet rope . \"Computers almost become like antiques or dinosaurs very quickly. It does seem like a contradiction in terms to have a computer as a museum piece.\" Watch Poulsen talk about his museum \u00bb . Poulsen keeps an elaborate stash of vintage Macs, portable devices, accessories and artwork. Two of his favorite pieces are a special vertical flat-screen unit made for Apple's 20th anniversary and a chassis cover designed to deflect radiation. Small placards explain the details of each item in the collection, and a velvet rope gives the space a real museum feel. He remembers the days when the computers ran exclusively on floppy disks, necessitating frequent disk switching whenever the onboard memory filled up. As storage innovations cropped up, users sought to purchase additional floppy drives and, later, units with hard drives. His collection chronicles many of these changes. Upstairs, he keeps a couple \"Macquariums\" on display. Among Mac enthusiasts, a popular form of artwork is the conversion of an old Mac case into a shell for a fish tank. The resulting aquarium setup mimics a popular screen saver on the units that featured swimming fish. iReport.com: See iReporter Bob Mushchitz's Macquarium . Building inspectors and plumbers who visit are sometimes taken aback at the little computer museum. \"I often get very strange reactions from contractors visiting the house because they don't quite know what to make of it when they see it,\" Poulsen said. Blake Patterson of Alexandria, Virginia, can certainly relate. His family is in awe of the computer room downstairs, which he calls the \"Byte Cellar.\" He maintains a blog by the same name that chronicles his experiences with vintage computing. iReport.com: Get a peek inside the Byte Cellar . \"My wife is quite amazed and sort of frightened by that. She stays out of the computer room. It's a little bit scary.\" He purchased an original 128K Macintosh in 1985 and has owned several more machines. Much of his collection was built in the past eight years or so. Patterson, who operates Web sites, currently uses a three-screened Mac Pro for high-end tasks. See both old and new photos of vintage Macs \u00bb . The legacy of the Mac, now 25 years old, is one of innovation, he says. \"It was quite a notable achievement 25 years ago when the Mac first came out. It was a big, new thing. People were a little bit baffled by the innovations.\" Classic Macs were some of the first commercially successful home computers to incorporate a graphical user interface, mouse and streamlined chassis. This new form of design allowed flexibility for manipulating graphics and page layouts onscreen. Mike Tuohy of Seattle, Washington, acknowledges that artists and the Mac seem especially well-suited for one another. In fact, he likes to do much of his art on Mac cases themselves. \"There are certainly out-of-the-box kind of approaches that appeal to me,\" he said. \"That technology appeals to the more artistic side of the population.\" Over the years, he has amassed several old Macintosh units. Some are complete with signatures from Apple developers molded onto the inside of the chassis. He likes to paint the outside of the computers to create artistic interpretations. iReport.com: See the painted Macintosh cases . One piece spins the concept of a \"vintage computer\" on its head with a wood paneling design. Another almost exudes a glow of primary colors. \"I don't want to create a lot of canvas work that I have to drag across the country,\" Tuohy said of his preference for art created on -- and with -- computers. Cahan, the software developer, says he relishes the heyday of the early Macintosh computer lines. He could see the appeal for artistic types like himself. \"I loved Macs in the '80s and '90s,\" Cahan said. \"The entertainment industry was one of the big movers for the Mac back in those days.\" But after all these years, he has opened up to using Windows-based PCs. He points out that perhaps the greatest legacy of the Macintosh's innovation may be the many permutations and inspirations that later occurred. iReport.com: Read about Cahan's encounter with Kurt Russell . \"All the innovation is on the Mac,\" he said. \"But that's what competition is all about. You think the PC people are supposed to sit around and lose their market share? It's just plain old business.\" Looking back, Cahan isn't sure he would have been as successful with computers today as he had been back then when things were simpler. Software development manuals have bloated to upwards of 3 feet thick. \"It costs a million bucks to make stuff nowadays,\" he said. \"Back then, I could do it in my bedroom.\"","highlights":"iReport.com: Outpouring of photos, stories ahead of Macintosh's 25th birthday .\nSoftware developer Ben Cahan photographed Kurt Russell with his old Mac .\nGil Poulsen's basement computer museum includes placards, velvet rope .\nMike Tuohy paints his old Mac cases to look like wood and primary colors .","id":"e3248851a6f18bb53c6b242447f3f4967fd2364f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal officials are urging consumers to put off eating foods that contain peanut butter until assurances are made that the foods do not contain products manufactured by the Peanut Corp. of America, some of which were found to contain salmonella. A salmonella outbreak has sickened almost 500 people and killed at least six. Food and Drug Administration officials said Saturday that peanut butter and peanut paste made from ground roasted peanuts, manufactured in Peanut Corp.'s Blakely, Georgia, plant were found to contain the bacteria, although a direct link to the strain that has now sickened 474 people in 43 states has not been found. Six deaths may have been connected to this salmonella outbreak. Peanut Corp. announced an expanded recall of peanut butter and peanut paste produced from its Georgia plant Friday night. Peanut Corp. doesn't directly supply to supermarkets, so brand-name peanut butters are not expected to be affected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, Peanut Corp. sells produce in bulk. The peanut butter is sold in containers from 5 to 1,700 pounds. Peanut paste is sold in sizes from 35-pound containers to tankers. The peanut paste is used in the manufacturing of cakes, candies, crackers, cookies and ice cream, FDA officials say. Minnesota and Connecticut health officials have confirmed salmonella Typhimurium linked to this outbreak in bulk containers found in institutions such as prisons, schools and nursing homes. The FDA is urging companies that make these foods to check whether they use peanut butter or paste produced by the company. The recalled peanut butter was manufactured on or after August 8, 2008; the peanut paste was produced on or after September 26, 2008. The administration is urging companies to notify consumers if the products they manufacture may contain peanut products from Peanut Corp. It is also urging companies whose products do not contain Peanut Corp. peanut butter or paste to make that information available to the public. The Kellogg Co. announced a voluntary recall of 16 products, including Keebler and Famous Amos peanut butter cookies, because they contain peanut butter that could be connected to Peanut Corp. The FDA does not have the authority to order a recall of products. It has to rely on companies doing so voluntarily. Congress would have to pass a law to give the FDA such power . Peanut Corp. products are also distributed by King Nut Co., which voluntarily recalled its products a week ago. \"The majority of products [like cookies, crackers, ice cream] are manufactured with products that don't come from PCA,\" said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. However, until people can be sure that the peanut cookies or crackers they have do not contain product from Peanut Corp., the FDA is asking consumers to hold off on eating them. Sundlof said a previous outbreak linked to salmonella-contaminated peanut butter showed that the bacteria are not necessarily killed if the product is heat-treated or baked. \"It took temperatures up to 250 degrees [Fahrenheit] to kill salmonella,\" Sundlof said. Even if a cookie is cooked at 350 degrees, it doesn't guarantee that the center of the food gets that hot, making it possible for some some salmonella bacteria to survive. CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Salmonella outbreak has sickened 475 says FDA .\nPeanut Corp. of America products found to contain salmonella .\nBrand-name peanut butters are not expected to be affected .\nFDA urges manufacturers to announce whether they use certain products .","id":"27e34dca10f873b1c116b489de7fe9cd076b9a9c"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- The conventional wisdom, among most folks, anyway, is that buying a used car is usually something done out of necessity, by those on a budget -- that is, people who want, or need, to \"move down\" from the new-car market because a new model is simply out of their reach. Bottom line, the Lexus reputation is for high-end luxury, quality and long-term dependability. However, there is another category of used cars that appeal to those with a bit more disposable income: used luxury cars. For some buyers, the used-luxury market is a way of getting into that Lexus, Lincoln, Infiniti or Porsche you always wanted, without laying out $70,000 or $80,000 for something you're not actually going to live in. For others, scouring the used-luxury-car listings is a way of re-visiting the halcyon years of their youth. At this point, some of these used-luxe models have been around so long that they almost qualify as vintage throwback editions. Recently, Consumer Reports magazine issued its list of best and worst used cars, and divvied them up by price range. Using CR's recommendations as a guideline, here is a list of some of the best used luxury cars currently on the market in the $24,000-30,000 price range. 2005 & 2006 Acura MDX . A luxury SUV, the MDX is spacious, seats seven, and boasts distinctive styling and Acura's famed attention to detail. Plus, it packs some punch under the hood -- this generation was powered by 3.5-liter, 253-hp V6 matched to a five-speed automatic transmission. AOL Autos: Used Acura . Priced just right as a new vehicle, it included safety features like dual-stage front airbags, three-point seatbelts and adjustable head restraints for all seating positions. 2007 Acura RDX . A crossover vehicle that mixes sedan-like ride with SUV roominess, the '07 RDX offered unibody construction, leather upholstery, heated front seats, power moonroof, 18-inch alloy wheels with all-season tires, xenon HID headlights with foglamps and the 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine -- plus a five-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters on the steering wheel, and the patented SH-AWD (SH for Super Handling) system. 2006 & 2007 Acura TL . A mid-size, front-wheel-drive, four-door sedan powered by a 258-hp 3.2-liter V6, the Acura TL is a fine road machine. Actually, it was available for '06-'07 as both a TL and a higher-end TL Type S -- the latter of which sported an upgraded engine, a 286-hp 3.5-liter. Depending on trim level, you can find it with a five-speed automatic with a console-mounted lever or shift paddles on the steering wheel. 2007 Audi A3 . Audi designers have always shown a certain flair for dynamics, and that is evident here, in a sharply-engineered, handsomely-appointed vehicle that offers a fine balance between silky ride, nimble handling and zesty performance. This sporty compact was powered by a 200-hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine in '07, and came standard with a six-speed manual and an optional Direct Shift Gearbox. AOL Autos: Used Audi . 2005 & 2006 BMW 3-Series . The 3-Series is another winning stable of cars, but Consumer Reports especially liked specific model years\/versions\/features in the 3-Series family: The 2005 RWD coupe and convertible; the '06 325i RWD sedan; the '06 330i RWD sedan and the '05 Z4. Depending on the model year and version, the standard engine ranged from a 184-hp 2.5-L to a 255-hp 3.0-L. AOL Autos: Used BMW . 2005 & 2006 Infiniti FX35 . Another of the many crossovers that have hit the market the last several years, the FX35 is one of the sportier editions. During these model years, the FX35 2WD came with a 280-hp 3.5-liter V6 and a five-speed automatic transmission. Rear-wheel-drive was standard, but AWD was also an option. Some spiffier features included leather seating surfaces, 18-inch wheels, dual-zone climate control with microfiltration and steering-wheel controls. AOL Autos: Used Infiniti . Infiniti G35 . The G35 is one of the more svelte sports-sedan beauties on the road, offering Infiniti's typical attention to detail and sporting attitude. Yes, it has four doors, but it handles like a sporty coupe, with its power coming from a finely-tuned 3.5-liter V6. Horsepower output is 280 for the automatic and 298 with the manual. Luxo amenities include leather upholstery, automatic climate control, steering wheel audio controls, illuminated visor vanity mirrors and high-intensity discharge (HID) xenon headlamps. Lexus . Any luxury-car aficionado knows that a Lexus is one of the most exquisitely-designed, high-performing chariots on the luxury-car market, and CR saw fit to include more than a half-dozen Lexus models on this list of recommended used luxury cars -- from the '02 SC and LX models, to the '03-'04 GX edition, '03 LS, '04 \/ '06 IS entries, '04-'05 RX model, '05 GS and '06 ES to ... well, you get the picture. Bottom line, given the Lexus reputation for high-end luxury, quality and long-term dependability, it's hard to go wrong with any of the above-named Lexus entries. And all have plenty of engine oomph and luxo-line amenities. AOL Autos: Used Lexus . 2007 Lincoln MKX . This luxury crossover vehicle debuted in '07 as a replacement for the Aviator, and made a big splash. A higher-end and pricier version of the Ford Edge, it seats five and is powered by a 265 hp 3.5-liter V-6 and comes with standard six-speed automatic tranny. Either FWD or AWD is available. One cool option was the glass-paneled roof dubbed the \"Vista Roof.\" 2007 Lincoln MKZ . Also new for the '07 model year, this handsome and fully-loaded mid-size luxury sedan replaced the Zephyr. Under the hood purrs a muscular 263-hp V6 hitched to a six-speed automatic transmission. FWD is standard, but AWD is optional. Standard safety features include side-impact air bags in the front; curtain-style head protection airbags for all outboard positions; plus traction control and antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution. 2007 Lincoln Town Car . A venerated luxury car whose heritage goes way back, the Town Car still \"has game\" -- and is a far cry from the floaty boats your granddad drove in the '70s and '80s. It's still cavernous inside, but now boasts a much more refined design. It seats six comfortably and is powered by a 239-hp 4.6-liter V-8 that's linked to a four-speed automatic. The well-appointed cabin is trimmed in premium leather and burl walnut appliques. Available in Signature, Signature Limited, Designer and Signature L trim levels, you can find one to fit any taste. 1998 Porsche 911 . No, your eyes don't deceive you -- CR did include a primo, high-line vehicle like a Porsche 911 on its list of recommended used cars under $30,000. But, take note: This is the 1998 edition. But when you're dealing with quality of this level, even an 10-year-old vehicle has a lot of juice left in it. So, by \"going vintage,\" driving enthusiasts can get into their car of their dreams without breaking the bank. In '98, the 911 was powered by a 3.6L H-6 282 hp engine. So, while it wasn't quite the road-burner it is today, is still packed plenty of thrust. 2007 Volvo S60 (FWD) Only a year old, the '07 used edition should still be in fine condition, and it boasts top-drawer performance, stylish design and Volvo's all-world safety features. The '07 S60 came in several trim levels, with an array of engine sizes, from the turbocharged 2.5-liter 208 hp job to the 2.3-liter 257-hp inline five-cylinder plant to the 2.5-liter high-pressure turbocharged and intercooled engine that churned out 300 ponies. Depending on the trim line, either a manual or automatic transmission can be had. 2006 & 2007 Volvo XC70 . The XC70 is a crossover vehicle, splitting the difference between an SUV and a wagon. And it's one of the finest crossovers on the road. It's all-wheel drive, and the latest used-model-year, the '07, was powered by a 208-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-five-cylinder engine matched to a Geartronic five-speed automatic transmission that also offers manual gear selection.","highlights":"Some buyers go to used-car market to get the luxury car they always wanted .\nConsumer Reports magazine issues its list of best and worst used cars .\nInfiniti G35 is one of the more svelte sports-sedan beauties on the road .\n1998 Porsche 911 made the list of cars for under $30,000 .","id":"9d827c2fde85a66357fe5cdcf75bff87c441ec0a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Robert Barnett, a prominent Washington attorney, has worked on eight national presidential campaigns, focusing on debate preparation. He played the role of George H.W. Bush in practice debates with Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and with Michael Dukakis in 1988, and practice debated Bill Clinton more than 20 times during the 1992 campaign. He also played the role of Dick Cheney in 2000 and 2004 and helped prepare Hillary Clinton for 23 primary debates for the 2008 nomination. Barnett spoke with CNNI's Michael Holmes. Robert Barnett has been in practice debates with Democrats from Geraldine Ferraro to Bill Clinton. CNN: How does Tuesday night's town hall format differ from other debates? Barnett: The individuals will not necessarily express the question as a journalist would. So, for example, one of these people will probably not ask about Internal Revenue Service Code section 341, but rather will ask about their taxes and their tax burdens and what they care about with respect to taxation. And so you have to be very careful to be sure you understand what the individual is asking about and you have to be particularly careful to answer the question, because if you don't, you risk alienating the questioner and the audience and the listeners. CNN: You're in a unique position. You have prepped, I think, seven or eight presidential campaigns. You've done debate prep, you've stood in and played the role of Dick Cheney and others. What's that like? What are you trying to do to prepare the candidate, any candidate? Barnett: If I'm playing the surrogate, if you will, if I'm the Republican for a Democrat, I try to prepare myself -- not to imitate; I'm not Darrell Hammond or Dana Carvey. I'm not that talented. But I try to be ready with what my candidate that I'm playing, if you will, has said -- the exact words used, the way they counterattack, the way they attack. And I try to make sure that the candidate I'm working with, meaning the Democrat, has heard just about everything that they could hear from their opponent before they ever walk on the stage. CNN: Do you try to bait them, get them to bite a little and then say that's not what you should be doing? Barnett: Well, it can get pretty contested. When I prepared with Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 when she was running against then-vice president George Herbert Walker Bush, I baited her a lot and she got so angry with me that she frequently walked over to me and slugged me on the arm. So I left the process black and blue. CNN: When you're doing that sort of thing, how direct can you be with the candidate? Or do you have to treat them with a bit of kid gloves? Barnett: I treat them with no kid gloves. It's fair to say I'm direct, I make sure they hear everything from me before they hear it on the stage and maybe hear it even a little more aggressively so they can be prepared.","highlights":"Robert Barnett: Candidates must make sure they answer town hall questions .\nBarnett has played Republicans in practice debates for more than 20 years .\nBarnett: I try to prepare candidates for the attacks they will face .\nBarnett says he'll make the case aggressively to prepare candidates .","id":"3d1090ed32b442c478f4f775ca76080839baa88e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain played offense against Sen. Barack Obama during much of the final presidential debate as he challenged his rival on his policies, judgment and character. Obama said he is the candidate who can bring \"fundamental change\" to the country and continued to try to link McCain to President Bush. In one of the more forceful moments of the debate, McCain turned to Obama and said, \"I am not President Bush.\" \"If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy and this country,\" the Arizona senator said. Watch McCain say he's no Bush \u00bb . McCain aides said they had been working on him to be more explicit in drawing a distinction between himself and Bush. With less than three weeks before the election, it was one of several jabs McCain took at his opponent, who is leading the race in most national polls and has an 8-point lead in CNN's average of national polls. A CNN\/Opinion Research poll of people who watched the debate found 58 percent said Obama did the best job while 31 percent said McCain did. Watch entire debate: Part 1 \u00bb | Part 2 \u00bb | Part 3 \u00bb . The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, and the sample of debate-watchers in the poll were 40 percent Democratic and 30 percent Republican. McCain touted what he called his \"long record of reform\" and said to Obama: \"You have to tell me one time when you have stood up with the leaders of your party on one single major issue.\" Obama said he has a \"history of reaching across the aisle\" and pointed to his support for charter schools, pay for performance for teachers and clean coal technology. See scenes from the debate \u00bb . \"Sen. Obama, your argument for standing up to the leadership of your party isn't very convincing,\" McCain said. The third and final presidential debate took place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, and was moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News. Analysts weigh in on the debate \u00bb . As McCain tried to put the pressure on Obama, he told the Illinois senator that voters need to \"know the full extent\" of his relationship with Bill Ayers, a former 1960s radical who belonged to the Weather Underground. \"Mr. Ayers is not involved in this campaign, he has never been involved in my campaign, and he will not advise me in the White House,\" Obama said. McCain's campaign has charged that Obama's association with Ayers should cause voters to question his judgment. Ayers was a founding member of the radical Weather Underground, a group that was involved in bombings in the early 1970s, including attacks on the Pentagon and the Capitol. Obama said Ayers had committed \"despicable acts\" 40 years ago, but pointed out that he himself had been 8 years old at the time. Watch what Obama says about Ayers \u00bb . Obama said Ayers has become the \"centerpiece\" of McCain's campaign and said the fact that McCain keeps bringing Ayers up \"says more about your campaign than it says about me.\" The Republican nominee also brought up comments made last weekend by Rep. John Lewis and pushed Obama to repudiate them. Lewis on Saturday compared the feeling at recent GOP rallies to those of segregationist George Wallace. \"I think Congressman Lewis' point was that we have to be careful about how we deal with our supporters,\" Obama said. \"I do think that he inappropriately drew a comparison between what was happening there and what had happened during the civil rights movement, and we immediately put out a statement saying that we don't think that comparison is appropriate,\" he said. As the candidates butted heads over tax policy, both made frequent mention of \"Joe the plumber.\" Watch voters react when 'Joe' comes up \u00bb . Last weekend, while Obama was canvassing for support in Holland, Ohio, the Democratic nominee ran into a man since dubbed Joe the plumber. In that exchange \"Joe\" asked Obama if he believed in the American Dream -- he said he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that Obama would tax him more because of it. Obama explained his tax plan in depth, saying it's better to lower taxes for Americans who make less money, so that they could afford to buy from his business. At the debate Wednesday, McCain characterized Obama's plan as trying to \"spread the wealth around.\" Watch the candidates debate tax plans \u00bb . \"We're going to take Joe's money, give it to Sen. Obama, and let him spread the wealth around. I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around,\" McCain said. He added, \"Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that to anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time?\" Obama countered that both he and McCain want to cut taxes, but that his plan would cut taxes for \"95 percent of American families,\" more than McCain's plan. On spending, Obama promised as president he would \"go through the federal budget page by page, line by line, and cut programs that don't work,\" echoing a vow his rival has made repeatedly. McCain in turn promised an \"across the board spending freeze.\" He said he would balance the federal budget in four years, and went on to name specific programs including subsidies for ethanol when Schieffer pressed both candidates to identify specific budget cuts they would make. The candidates also talked about abortion rights, a topic not addressed in the previous presidential debate. Watch the candidates debate abortion \u00bb . McCain refused to commit to nominating only judges who opposed abortion, saying he would \"never impose a litmus test\" on court nominees. But he qualified the statement a moment later, saying he would base his nominations on \"qualifications\" -- and that he did not believe a judge who supported Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion, \"would be part of those qualifications.\" McCain hammered Obama on abortion, accusing him of \"aligning himself with the extreme aspect of the pro-abortion movement in America.\" Obama rejected the charge out of hand, saying: \"Nobody is pro-abortion.\" He advocated sex education as a way of reducing the number of unintended pregnancies that result in abortions. \"We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and they should not be engaged in cavalier activity,\" he said. At the conclusion of the debate, Schieffer signed off with a line borrowed from his mother: . \"Go vote now. It will make you feel big and strong.\"","highlights":"NEW: More viewers say Obama won the debate, poll shows .\nNEW: Candidates debate Bill Ayers, John Lewis, negativity .\nNEW: McCain, Obama make frequent mention of \"Joe the plumber\"\nMcCain, Obama start debate with talk of economic plans .","id":"f4693cf097efddefb3e5720eeab5ac78afaf440f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The missing engine from a US Airways jet that ditched in the Hudson River was recovered Friday, more than a week after the crash landing. A jet engine lost after Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River is hoisted from the water Friday. Icy conditions and strong currents hampered efforts to locate and raise the plane's left engine, which apparently tore from the Airbus A320 when it hit the water in an emergency landing January 15. The engine was found Wednesday in about 50 feet of water. The divers who found it reported that it was in one piece, said New Jersey State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones. A crane brought the engine up Friday afternoon as daylight began to fade. It was placed on a barge and hauled to the New Jersey side of the river, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was supervising the recovery. Watch the engine pulled from Hudson River \u00bb . After an initial examination at the site, the engine will be shipped with the plane's other engine to the manufacturer, where \"the NTSB will supervise and direct a complete tear-down of each engine,\" NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said. The right engine was still attached to the plane when it was pulled from the Hudson last week. It will be at least next week before any information from the initial examination is released, Knudson said. Investigators said this week that they found a single feather and evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" on the aircraft. The find reinforces the pilot's report that the plane was brought down by a flock of birds. Pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, 58, told investigators that his aircraft struck birds, disabling both engines, about 90 seconds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York. Map \u00bb . The feather, found on a flap track on the wing, was sent to identification experts at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Samples of what appears to be organic material found in the right engine and on the wings and fuselage have been sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, a pilot program involving \"birdstrike avoidance\" radar systems will be expanded to include LaGuardia, said a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. See authorities' efforts to retrieve plane \u00bb . The Air Force has been using such systems at its bases for years, and last year the Port Authority -- which operates five metropolitan New York airports -- struck an agreement with the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration to install the bird-detecting system at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the wake of the US Airways crash-landing, that program will be expanded to include LaGuardia and Newark International airports within a few months, according to Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority. Newly released video captured seconds after the Airbus A320 ditched in the Hudson River showed passengers trying to flee the aircraft almost immediately after it settled in the water and began to float along the river current. All 155 crew members and passengers on the plane survived the incident, which Gov. David Paterson dubbed a \"miracle on the Hudson.\" The video, which the Con Edison utility company released Thursday, first shows a long wake behind the plane before zooming in on the aircraft. Steam surrounds the plane as it floats with a slow counterclockwise twist. An exit hatch opens on the plane's left side, and several people file out onto one of the plane's wings. Seconds later, an inflatable evacuation ramp extends from the opposite side of the plane. Watch their escape \u00bb . Passengers run onto the plane's other wing as the aircraft floats off-screen for a few seconds. The camera jerks, and when the plane reappears, passengers can be seen at the bottom of the inflatable ramp. Some passengers jump into the water, which was a chilly 41 degrees when the plane splashed down on the afternoon of January 15. Within minutes, a ferry and other boats come into the picture and begin to take the people aboard. The video came from a surveillance camera at Con Edison's 59th Street Station, a steam plant, spokesman Chris Olert said. A person manning the camera from inside the plant saw the plane hit the water and redirected the camera, Olert said. CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Mike Ahlers and Alona Rivord contributed to this report.","highlights":"Missing engine recovered from Hudson, hauled to New Jersey riverbank .\nVideo shows at least two passengers jump off plane's wings into chilly Hudson River .\nSingle feather and evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" found on plane .\nUS Airways flight crash-landed in river after reportedly hitting flock of birds .","id":"de67acf0d1ca59b9bcfd917c26a741817e22bf0d"} -{"article":"Barry Eichengreen is George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of \"Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-39\" and \"Financial Crises and What to Do About Them.\" Barry Eichengreen says Barack Obama will have to fix the credit crisis, the auto industry and trade policy. BERKELEY, California (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama has been holding his economic cards close to his vest. He did not participate in person at last weekend's meeting of G20 leaders. He has been reluctant to encourage the lame-duck Congress to adopt a major fiscal stimulus package. He may be right in saying that the U.S. has only one president at a time. But this makes it all the more important that he hit the ground running on January 20. This will mean, first of all, addressing the credit crisis. Despite all the actions of the Fed and the Treasury, the banks are still not lending. In some cases this is because their own finances are weak. But in others it is because they have other more convenient uses for their funds, ranging from acquisitions to dividend payments. This reflects a flawed bank recapitalization scheme that gives the government no voting shares in the banks into which it is injecting public funds and hence no say in their decisions. Fortunately (as it were) there will be an opportunity to correct this, since as the recession deepens there will be more loan losses and the need for more capital injections. The next round of public money should come with voting rights so that taxpayers' interests are protected. Then there is the need for increased public spending on infrastructure and federal grants to state and local governments to offset the collapse of private spending. Candidate Obama spoke of $150 billion of fiscal stimulus. But if this recession turns out to be the deepest since World War II, as now seems certain, the appropriate figure will be at least four times that large. Anything less would fail to cushion the downturn. A trillion-dollar deficit will excite fears of government out of control if not accompanied by a plan to balance the budget once the recession ends. The new president therefore will need to offer not just a stimulus package but also a multiyear budget. Then there is the problem of the auto industry. The best course normally would be Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This would allow the Big Three to shed bad management and contracts, both of which would be thrown out in the bankruptcy process. If GM, Ford or Chrysler is then able to come up with a viable business plan, they should be able to obtain the new money, known as debtor-in-possession financing, needed to implement it. Admittedly, the credit crisis makes new money difficult to obtain. But if this is a problem, then the government can provide the debtor-in-possession financing. In other words, it can make its aid conditional on the Big Three first going through bankruptcy workouts. A further complication arises from the fact that cars last for years and when they break down are expensive to repair. Warranties matter, in other words. If a producer was undergoing bankruptcy reorganization, from which it might or might not emerge, consumers would question whether its warranties were worth the paper they were written on. But if this is the problem, then the government can guarantee the warranties. It could reimburse the cost of major repairs subject to terms and conditions. It is not as if our government has been reluctant to guarantee other products, ranging from bank deposits to money market mutual funds. And this guarantee should be provided only to auto companies that undergo bankruptcy reorganization. Finally, it will be important for the new president to reassure our foreign partners about his economic intentions. There may be jubilation in Kenya and Indonesia over the election of a candidate they may view as a native son, but there is trepidation in Asia and Latin America about his protectionist rhetoric. President Obama will need to reassure Mexico that while he believes in labor and environmental standards, he also believes in NAFTA. He should encourage the Congress to ratify our free trade agreements with Colombia and Korea. He should reassure the Chinese, who now have economic problems of their own, that he will not bash them over their exchange rate policies. If Obama wishes to help Americans impacted by import competition there are better ways. He can expand trade adjustment assistance for displaced workers. He can propose wage insurance -- partial compensation for a limited period for workers moving to lower-paid jobs. He can ramp up spending on education and training. He can address concerns over the environment by proposing a carbon tax rather than allowing blame for global warming to be shifted to Mexico and China. That should be enough to keep the new president occupied for his first 100 days. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Barry Eichengreen.","highlights":"Barry Eichengreen: Obama will have daunting agenda on economy .\nHe says government must take a voting stake in banks getting public money .\nEichengreen: Economic stimulus package must be large, at least $600 billion .\nObama should take steps to show he is committed to free trade, he says .","id":"c483873d06833c991f455b11c848558e29135221"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama hammered away at each other's judgment on the economy, domestic policy and foreign affairs as they faced off in their second presidential debate. Obama tried to tie McCain to President Bush's \"failed\" policies, while McCain pushed his image as a \"consistent reformer\" at the debate, which took place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The debate was set up as a town hall meeting, and the audience was made up of undecided voters. Obama and McCain fielded questions from the crowd, Internet participants and moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC News. The candidates spoke directly to each other at times, but at other times they spoke as if their opponent were not on the same stage, a few feet away. Debate report card . In comparison to the first debate, Tuesday's event -- which came on the heels of several days of increasingly aggressive attacks from both sides -- took on a more contentious tone. On foreign policy, McCain charged that Obama \"does not understand\" the country's national security challenges. McCain said he knows how to handle foreign affairs and questioned Obama's ability to do so. Analysts weigh in on the debate \u00bb . \"Sen. Obama was wrong about Iraq and the surge. He was wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against Georgia. And in his short career, he does not understand our national security challenges,\" McCain said. \"We don't have time for on-the-job training, my friends.\" McCain said the \"challenge\" facing a president considering using military force \"is to know when to go in and when not.\" \"My judgment is something that I think I have a record to stand on,\" McCain said. Video highlights of key moments \u00bb . Obama shot back and questioned McCain's judgment in supporting the invasion of Iraq. \"When Sen. McCain was cheerleading the president to go into Iraq, he suggested it was going to be quick and easy, we'd be greeted as liberators,\" he said. \"That was the wrong judgment, and it's been costly to us.\" The candidates spent about 30 minutes of the debate focusing on foreign affairs. They spoke about the economy for about 45 minutes and spent 15 minutes discussing domestic issues. See scenes from the debate \u00bb . A national poll of debate watchers suggested that Obama won the presidential debate. Post-debate poll . Fifty-four percent of those questioned in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released 30 minutes after the end of the debate said that Obama did the best job, while 30 percent said McCain performed better. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted by telephone with 675 adult Americans who watched the debate. All interviews were taken after the end of the debate. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. iReport.com: Tell us who you think won round two . At the start of the debate, Obama said the country is in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. He blamed President Bush and McCain for the crisis, saying they had worked to \"strip away regulation.\" Bush: The elephant in the room . McCain said the system in Washington \"cries out for bipartisanship\" and pushed his record as a reformer. He proposed having the government buy up and renegotiate bad home loans to stabilize the property market. He admitted the plan would be expensive but said it was necessary. Watch McCain talk about his plan for the economy \u00bb . The Arizona senator also hammered away at his rival's tax policies, saying that \"nailing down Sen. Obama's various tax proposals is like nailing Jell-O to the wall.\" Watch McCain slam Obama's tax plan \u00bb . McCain charged that \"Obama's secret that you don't know\" is that he would increase taxes on small business revenue, which he said would lead to job cuts. Fact check: Did Obama vote 94 times for higher taxes . Obama shot back, saying \"the Straight Talk Express lost a wheel on that one.\" \"Let's be clear about my tax plan and Sen. McCain's,\" he said. \"I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of Americans.\" Watch Obama talk about his plan for the middle class \u00bb . The candidates talked about their plans to revamp the health care system. Obama said the country has a \"moral commitment as well as an economic imperative\" to address the health care problem. The Illinois senator said health care is a \"crushing burden\" for small businesses and is \"breaking family budgets.\" Obama said health care was a \"right,\" while McCain said it was a \"responsibility.\" Watch the candidates debate health care \u00bb . Obama and McCain both proposed computerizing medical records to reduce costs and limit errors. Obama's health care plan includes the creation of a national health insurance program for individuals who do not have employer-provided health care and who do not qualify for other existing federal programs. His plan does not mandate individual coverage for all Americans, but requires coverage for all children. McCain opposes federally mandated universal coverage. He believes competition will improve the quality of health insurance. McCain says he would reform the tax code to offer choices beyond employee-based health insurance coverage. McCain argued that Obama's plan included fines for small businesses that did not insure their employees, while his was based on \"choice\" rather than \"mandates.\" Immediately after the debate, Obama's campaign highlighted a moment when McCain sought to criticize Obama for supporting the 2007 Bush-Cheney energy bill: . \"It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate, loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney,\" McCain said. \"You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me.\" Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton immediately e-mailed reporters noting McCain's seemingly peculiar reference to the Illinois senator. \"Did John McCain just refer to Obama as 'that one?'\" Burton asked. Obama campaign highlights 'that one' McCain and Obama will face off for a third and final time next Wednesday at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.","highlights":"Barack Obama, John McCain spend half of debate discussing economy .\nMcCain pushes reformer image; Obama ties McCain to Bush Obama, McCain question each other's judgment .\nDebate set up like a town hall, with audience of uncommitted voters .","id":"289c8befc56bbf1d1dd7e183aac8ffc64eb26356"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance of the Democratic Party's presidential nomination may be historic in many ways. One of them is the size of the audience at Invesco Field. More than 75,000 people packed into the football stadium in Denver, Colorado, to hear Obama's historic speech as the first African-American Democratic presidential nominee. The enormity of the crowd was borne out by the gridlock that greeted them as they left the stadium. Attendees shuffled along like herds of cattle, moving inches at a time, as they attempted to leave the grounds. But those in attendance said the size of the audience contributed to the event's electric atmosphere.iReport.com: Watch wave break out at Invesco . \"What his whole campaign is about is bringing people together,\" said iReporter William Gilbane III. \"The mix of people -- young, old, gay, straight, white, black -- everything you could imagine was represented in the crowd and it was just really, really exciting.\" Watch Gilbane describe the scene inside the stadium \u00bb . Local authorities worked with the Secret Service to get as many people into the stadium as possible. Obama said he chose to speak Thursday at Invesco Field, which seats 76,000 people, to make sure \"everybody who wants to can come.\" Some attendees stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the stadium floor for hours, mingling among the likes of celebrities such as Spike Lee, Farrah Fawcett, Susan Sarandon and Oprah Winfrey. iReporter Zennie Abraham said he talked politics with actor Matthew Modine and former San Francisco, California, Mayor Willie Brown. Watch Abraham talk about mingling with celebrities \u00bb . A few ticket-holders and would-be attendees arrived at Invesco Field by 9 a.m. ET. By noon, the line for the entrance included roughly 1,000 people, according to media reports. The parking situation near Invesco filled up, even with garages charging $50 to $60 for Thursday night. iReport.com: Check out the sights and sounds . By midday, thousands stood in the warm temperatures to wait in lines that were nearly six miles long, according to local police. The lines snaked around ramps and onto the Auraria Boulevard overpass, which leads to Invesco Field. Watch thousands walk toward the stadium \u00bb . A group of transportation volunteers in orange T-shirts with the convention logo walked toward the front of the line. They called out, \"What time is it?\" People responded, \"Obama time!\" Les Spencer and Tony Viessman, lifelong Democrats who call themselves \"Rednecks for Obama,\" went through the crowds, talking about their support for the Illinois senator. \"Don't be afraid to vote for Obama!\" Les said. Their motto, according to Les and Tony, is \"workin' for the man who'll do more for the workin' man.\" Obama's speech fell on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s \"I Have a Dream\" speech. Two of King's children, the Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, participated in a tribute to their father at the convention. The crowd also heard from former vice president Al Gore, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and party chairman Howard Dean. CNN Laura Bernardini, Ed Hornick, Julia Leja, Justine Redman and Martina Stewart contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Attendees encounter gridlock as they leave Invesco Field .\nLines to enter stadium were up to six miles long, police estimate .\nAbout 75,000 people attended Sen. Obama's acceptance speech .","id":"58f3ec064c17a35ce0eef03a596cdb5851946241"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former NBA star and TNT sports analyst Charles Barkley attended the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday and answered five questions for CNN.com at the CNN Grill. Former NBA star Charles Barkley says the next president must deal with poverty and the war in Iraq. CNN.com: Why are you here in Denver? Barkley: I just wanted to be here. I'm just so excited. I never thought in my lifetime we'd have a black man with a legitimate shot of being president. CNN.com: Are you a Barack Obama supporter? Barkley: Barack has been a friend of mine for a long time. I met him when I was writing my last book, and he was running for Senate, and I got to know him, and we stayed in contact. I consider him a friend. I think he'd make a fantastic president. I want to make it clear that if I didn't think he could do the job, I wouldn't vote for him. I think he'd make a fantastic president. And I'm not voting for him because he's black. I think he's a great person. CNN.com: What do you think the Democrats need to do here to win the White House? Barkley: I think they've got to just make sure to get those troops home from Iraq, that's a big deal. But No. 1, we've got to give poor people a chance. America is divided by economics, and we as Americans, we've got to do a better job of supporting poor people. CNN.com: How? Barkley: We've got to improve the public school system. If you're born in this country poor, whether you're white or black, you're going to be born in a bad neighborhood; you're going to go to a bad school. It's going to be very difficult for poor people to be successful. iReport.com: Are you at the DNC? Share sights, sounds . CNN.com: What are you doing in Denver for fun? Barkley: I'm going to the Hill Harper party tonight. Last night we just went out and had a real nice meal and just took it easy because I knew today was going to be a long day. I just want to be here. Plain and simple. CNN.com: Are you running for governor in Alabama? Barkley: I'm planning on running for governor. I can't screw up Alabama. Politics, it's just so important, and I just want to do good things with my name, and I'm just going to keep continuing to do that.","highlights":"Former NBA player Charles Barkley says he favors his friend Obama .\nAmerica's public schools should be a priority, Barkley says .\nTNT sports analyst also says he's running for governor of Alabama .\n\"I just want to do good things with my name,\" he says .","id":"a4a0d6a36e32c971e4b47f53e333a9f24d77dab5"} -{"article":"AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, needing a win in Texas to derail Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, sought Thursday to contrast her opponent's rhetorical skills with what she called her superior ability to govern. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton face off in a high-stakes debate. \"I do think that words are important and words matter,\" Clinton said at a debate at the University of Texas. \"But actions speak louder than words.\" Obama responded by laying out issues he's worked on in the Senate and others he'd support as president -- then called it ridiculous to suggest his supporters are \"being duped.\" \"The implication is that the people who have been voting for me or involved in my campaign are somehow delusional,\" he said. Obama said his supporters perceive the reality of what's going on in Washington very clearly, and they want to see it change. \"What they see is that if we don't bring the country together, stop the endless bickering, actually focus on solutions and reduce the special interests that have dominated Washington, then we will not get anything done.\" Watch Obama talk about his plan to change Washington \u00bb . Much of the 90-minute debate featured the two candidates staking out similar positions on issues like Iraq, the economy and immigration. Watch the candidates weigh in on the economy \u00bb . \"It was a very odd debate -- the questioners had to beg them to differ with each other,\" said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. See what CNN's political team thought of the showdown \u00bb . The debate was the first the two have participated in since they met in Los Angeles January 31. Five days later, the two effectively split the victories on Super Tuesday. But since then, Obama has rolled to 11 straight wins, a streak that leaves Clinton needing wins in delegate-rich Texas and Ohio on March 4. Vermont and Rhode Island also hold primaries that day. Texas is the biggest prize, with 193 Democratic delegates. Going into those primaries, Obama leads Clinton by 140 pledged delegates. Responding to a question from the panel, Clinton's sharpest attack on Obama came when she went after him for borrowing lines from a speech by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, his campaign co-chairman, in his own campaign speeches. The Clinton campaign has called that plagiarism. \"If your campaign is going to be about words, they should be your own words,\" she said. \"Lifting whole passages isn't change you can believe in; it's change you can Xerox.\" Watch the spat over plagiarism \u00bb . Some in the audience booed Clinton for the line. \"This is where we start getting into silly season in politics,\" Obama replied, saying Patrick is a friend who suggested he use the lines. \"People start getting tired of it.\" A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll out Monday suggests the Democratic race in Texas is a statistical dead heat. Watch uncommitted Texas students discuss debate \u00bb . In the survey, taken before Obama's Tuesday victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii, 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters support Clinton as their choice for the party's nominee, with 48 percent backing Obama. The poll's margin of error is 4.5 percentage points. Two other recent polls also show the race statistically even. With so much at stake, analysts said Clinton needed a very strong performance in the debate, the only time the two candidates will share a stage in Texas before the state's primary. \"Texas is the endgame. Hillary Clinton has to stop Obama in Texas. This means she has to do something to shake the race up. She has to raise doubts about Obama and get Democrats to rethink whether they really want to rally behind him,\" Schneider said. In a state where Hispanic voters are expected to make up a large share of the March 4 electorate, the pair fielded questions on immigration reform and dealing with Cuba's government in the wake of President Fidel Castro's decision this week to step down. Watch the candidates talk about Cuba \u00bb . Both Clinton and Obama voted to authorize President Bush to build a border fence between the United States and Mexico -- but both said Thursday they would consult with leaders in border areas about where fencing is needed and where other methods could be used to secure the borders. Watch the candidates debate immigration \u00bb . \"As with so much, the Bush administration has gone off the deep end,\" Clinton said. Both also said they'd be willing to meet with Fidel Castro's brother Raul -- who is expected to become president of Cuba after his brother stepped down -- if the nation's leadership has shown signs of improving its record on human rights, freedom of the press and other issues. Schneider said neither candidate appeared to have gained or lost significant ground in Thursday's debate. After months of campaigning that have included 19 Democratic debates, some analysts said the two may be satisfied to stand on the themes they've established and simply let voters decide. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Clinton, Obama discuss immigration, economy, taxes in mostly civil debate .\n\"It was a very odd debate,\" says CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider .\nClinton, Obama in close race in Texas, polls show .\nTexas holds its primary March 4 .","id":"a0df9574d9568bff803c2800675340f0ca6b5091"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama, who in 10 days will be sworn in using the Bible of his political hero Abraham Lincoln, visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Saturday night with his family. The Obama family walks down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Saturday. Obama, wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha made the unannounced stop shortly after 7 p.m. ET. The family walked up the steps of the memorial on a chilly night in Washington and then visited the museum at the site. On the way out, they stopped at the edge of the reflecting pool. The parents were seen pointing in the distance to the Capitol and the Washington Monument. The Obamas spent about a half-hour at the memorial before returning to the Hay-Adams Hotel, where they are staying. Watch the family at the memorial \u00bb . Obama will be the first president to use the Lincoln Bible for his inauguration since Lincoln used it in 1861. Inauguration organizers have said Obama's inaugural theme, \"A New Birth of Freedom,\" was inspired by Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Learn more about the Lincoln Memorial \u00bb . The president-elect also plans a train trip from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington three days before the inauguration, following the final leg of the train route taken by Lincoln.","highlights":"Obamas made unannounced stop at memorial on Saturday .\nThey spent a half-hour at the site before returning to hotel .\nBarack Obama will use Lincoln's Bible at his inauguration this month .","id":"a0c8e891686757ebf11356bf3a134347f34c0960"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner told the Democratic National Convention that the most important race facing the country is the \"race for the future ... and it won't be won with a president who is stuck in the past.\" \"This election ... is about the future vs. the past,\" former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner said Tuesday. \"We need a president who understands the world today, the future we seek and the change we need. We need Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.\" Warner was delivering the keynote speech at the convention, the slot that Obama himself filled four years ago. He accused President Bush of a failure of leadership at a critical moment in the nation's history. \"Folks always ask me, what's my biggest criticism of President Bush? I'm sure you all have your own. Here's mine: It's not just the policy differences. It's the fact that this president never tapped into our greatest resources: the character and resolve of the American people. He never really asked us to step up.\" John McCain, he said, offered only \"a plan that would explode the deficit and leave that to our kids. No real strategy to invest in our infrastructure. And he would continue spending $10 billion a month in Iraq. I don't know about you, but that's just not right. That's four more years that we just can't afford.\" Watch Warner say McCain is \"more of the same\" \u00bb . But much of his speech was devoted to the kind of bipartisan rhetoric Obama has espoused on the campaign trail. \"I know we're at the Democratic Convention, but if an idea works, it really doesn't matter whether it's got a 'D' or an 'R' next to it. Because this election isn't about liberal vs. conservative. It's not about left vs. right. It's about the future vs. the past. \"That's why we must elect Barack Obama as our next president,\" Warner said. \"Because the race for the future will be won when old partisanship gives way to new ideas. When we put solutions over stalemates and when hope replaces fear.\"","highlights":"Mark Warner says America needs leader who understands \"the future we seek\"\nBush never asked Americans to step up, Warner says .\nMuch of Warner's address focused on bipartisan rhetoric .","id":"acba5782880c1a6842a3425d06e7d20025add0d9"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton introduced herself as a \"proud supporter of Barack Obama\" at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday as she called on her party to rally behind her former rival. Sen. Hillary Clinton, with daughter Chelsea, receives a standing ovation from the Democratic delegates. \"Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future. And it's a fight we must win together,\" she said. Leading up to her address, there was a lot of speculation about what she would say and whether she would make a strong enough call for unity. But she made a very strident case for Obama's candidacy. \"No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president,\" Clinton said. Her speech, which was the last of the night, followed a line up of other Democrats who used their time at the podium to attack President Bush's record and McCain's policies. Appearing strong and energized, Clinton thanked her voters for supporting her historic campaign as a female candidate and reached out to those wary of Obama by telling them they weren't in this for her, but for her cause. That cause, she said, is the same thing that Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party are fighting for. Watch Clinton's entire speech \u00bb . Many analysts said the speech would end speculation that Clinton has not fully embraced Obama as her party's candidate. Clinton mentioned Obama by name more than twice as many times as she mentioned the party as a whole. Analysts weigh in on the night's speakers \u00bb . \"I thought she was a class act,\" said political analyst David Gergen, who worked in the Clinton administration. \"I think it could well be said that nothing has so become her campaign as the way she has ended it here tonight.\" Clinton also praised Obama's newly tapped vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. The former first lady called Biden \"pragmatic, tough and wise.\" Watch Clinton talk about the Obama-Biden team \u00bb . Clinton was met with a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience. Only a few pockets of the standing-room only convention center weren't on their feet cheering for her. Observers said she had the biggest reception of the evening. As soon as the speech ended, the McCain campaign issued a statement implying that Clinton did nothing to dispel her previous criticism of Obama. \"Sen. Clinton ran her presidential campaign making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander-in-chief. Nowhere tonight did she alter that assessment,\" McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. \"Nowhere tonight did she say that Barack Obama is ready to lead. Millions of Hillary Clinton supporters and millions of Americans remain concerned about whether Barack Obama is ready to be president.\" The McCain campaign has stepped up its effort to woo disaffected Clinton supporters, running ads highlighting Clinton's criticism of Obama during the primaries. Obama called Clinton after the speech and thanked her for her support and said she could not have done a better job. Earlier, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner appealed across party lines in his keynote address. Obama has been campaigning hard to win Virginia, which hasn't voted for a Democratic president since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Watch Warner make his case for Obama \u00bb . According to CNN's electoral map, the state is a toss-up going into the general election. In order for Obama to take the state's 13 electoral votes, he would need to win over some of Virginia's independent and Republican voters. Instead of tearing into the current administration, Warner talked about ideas -- highlighting science and technology. \"I know we're at the Democratic convention, but if an idea works, it really doesn't matter if it has an 'R' or 'D' next to it,\" Warner said. \"Because this election isn't about liberal versus conservative. It's not about left versus right. It's about the future versus the past.\" His words echoed Obama's own keynote speech of four years ago when the then little known senator from Illinois spoke of what united rather than divided Americans. In 2004, before John Kerry was nominated for president, Obama said to delegates: \"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.\" Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said Warner's address could do for him what Obama's address did four years ago. Watch Warner's entire speech \u00bb . \"It's a very powerful speech. He's going to come out of this convention the way Barack Obama came out of the last convention -- as the rock star, as the next guy,\" he said. \"It was an important speech because if this election is about experience and strength, McCain wins. But if this election's about the past versus the future, Republicans have a much tougher job.\" Warner's most blunt criticism of President Bush was that he has kept the country from living up to its potential. Tuesday's other speakers played up Obama's message of change and tore into McCain, saying he would only bring about more of the same. Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey Jr. at one point feigned shock at the idea that the Republican Party was asking for four more years in the White House, promising the party of President Bush and McCain \"not four more years, but four more months.\" In response, the delegates jumped to their feet shouting, \"Four more months! Four more months!\" Audience members also waved signs that said \"McCain more of the same.\"","highlights":"NEW: Hillary Clinton: The time is now for Democrats to unite .\nNEW: Barack Obama calls Clinton and thanks her for her support .\nSpeakers at Democratic convention tie McCain to Bush policies .\nFormer Virginia Gov. Mark Warner appeals across party lines in keynote address .","id":"ccbe0bfe4609f6a9a58b3ee06ed230871916f877"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The biggest challenge was finding an Edward. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart play Edward and Bella in \"Twilight.\" \"The most perfect guy in the world,\" \"Twilight\" director Catherine Hardwicke said, ticking off the characteristics of \"Twilight's\" vampire hero. \"Cannot be Leo [DiCaprio]; cannot be Brad Pitt. They don't fit in high school anymore. And there are a lot of cute guys, but do they really look like they've lived for 108 years?\" Probably not, but with a fan base as large as \"Twilight's,\" Hardwicke had to search for one. And if the thousands of screaming girls who show up at autograph signings are any measure, she found him in Robert Pattinson. The actor, best known for playing Cedric Diggory in \"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,\" has faced mob scenes wherever he's appeared. Fans in Dallas waited overnight in the rain for a chance to see him; an event in San Francisco was delayed because of the crush. Pattinson is still surprised by the reaction. Though things started quietly during filming, by the time production was wrapping, \"there were like 200 people turning up to the set every day,\" he said. \"And now, if we were trying to shoot it now, it would be absolutely impossible to do anything. Because where ever there's a 'Twilight,' anything mentioned about 'Twilight,' thousands of people turn up.\" \"Twilight's\" many fans -- most of whom will get their first feature-length glimpse of Edward when the film opens with midnight showings Friday -- can't wait for the witching hour. They also haven't been afraid of letting Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan in the film based on Stephenie Meyer's series of books, know about their feelings for \"Twilight\" -- and Edward. Some have been downright disdainful, Stewart told CNN at the Los Angeles interviews for the film. \"Very communicative looks,\" Stewart said. \"Like, 'I'm just letting you know with this look that you're nothing special. ... I'm here for Edward, and I hope you don't ruin the movie.' It's really crazy.\" Stewart doesn't let it bother her, though. She's been focused on portraying Bella, a clumsy, awkward 17-year-old who moves into a small town that she finds quite boring. Boring, that is, until she meets and falls in love with Edward(Pattinson). Watch Pattinson greet a line of screaming fans \u00bb . The vampires created by Meyer are different from those of the past. They dress fashionably, have good taste in art and music, and are very much human. \"They are the main characters,\" Stewart said. \"They are the people that you sympathize with. They're not just the villains in the movie.\" Edward is one of the Cullen family of vampires, a clan that has stopped drinking human blood. \"He made his world smaller and smaller so he never killed anybody,\" Pattinson said of his character. \"And he didn't care about anyone else. Imagine, never having an emotion ... and then suddenly this girl comes into your life. As well as breaking down all your self-discipline, which you've had for 80 years, she also makes you feel everything again.\" Edward and Bella must overcome obstacles worthy of \"Romeo and Juliet\" in their relationship. (Besides the differences in her background with Edward, Bella is also stalked by a vampire with fewer scruples than the Cullen boy.) But it's that sexual tension that makes the whole vampire culture so undeniably delicious, Hardwicke said. \"The idea of this incredibly seductive creature wanting to bite your neck,\" she said. \"And if he does, on one level it could be pleasurable. If he goes too far, you could die. That kind of razor's edge, that sexual tension, is incredibly seductive.\" That doesn't mean the film is all lovey-dovey. Hardwicke and the movie's stunt coordinator spent hours trying to figure out how to keep the fight scenes true to Meyer's books. Meyer's vampires can't be killed with stakes or holy water; they have to be ripped limb from limb. And then what's left has to be burned. \"How do you fight when you're trying to pull somebody's arms off or twist their head off?\" Hardwicke asked. \"That makes for a different kind of fight.\" Romance, seduction and violence are all well and good, elements that have fulfilled audience desires for decades. But it's the vampires that give those characteristics an extra edge, whether it's in Bram Stoker's \"Dracula,\" \"Buffy the Vampire Slayer\" or \"Twilight.\" iReport.com: Are you planning to see 'Twilight'? \"A vampire itself is just such a great template for making a mysterious character,\" Pattinson said. \"They can only come out at night. They have a dark secret, which by vampire law they're not allowed to tell anybody. And the only people who find out, die.\" \"Twilight\" is based on the first of Meyer's now four-book series. So will the movie \"Twilight\" follow in the footsteps of another book series with a huge audience, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter tales? Hardwicke said she doesn't know. \"Stephenie went a little wild [in the sequel] and wrote all these visual effects and werewolves and Italy and everything,\" she said. \"So the next book is going to be a lot more expensive [to make]. But if this one makes enough, then we'll get to do it.\" CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this story.","highlights":"\"Twilight\" is eagerly awaited movie based on Stephenie Meyer's book .\nFilm concerns romance between a vampire and a high school girl .\nCo-star Kristen Stewart says fans possessive of Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward .","id":"493f1995614acbc9e8cd9959fb0f158940e365ae"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- It was classic Clinton. It was Sen. Hillary Clinton's big night but before her speech even began, former President Bill Clinton reached out in his box and firmly embraced a young African-American man. Clinton gripped the young man tightly; to millions watching on television, it was clear he could feel Mervyn Jones Jr.'s pain. As he sat down for his wife's headlining address, Bill Clinton's silent embrace of the 25-year-old son of recently deceased Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones resonated loudly. Rep. Tubbs Jones, of course, was a solid and loyal Clinton supporter, standing by the Clintons even when many other black leaders were shifting their support to Barack Obama. Then, in her speech, Sen. Clinton herself took a moment to mention Tubbs Jones and her son. \"Steadfast in her beliefs, a fighter of uncommon grace, she was an inspiration to me and to us all,\" Clinton said. \"Our heart goes out to Stephanie's son, Mervyn Jr.\" The public moment of recognition was the result of years of friendship. \" I remember the first time President Clinton ran for office [in 1992],\" Jones Jr. told CNN. \"He came to Cleveland. I must have been 8 years old. \"My mother got the chance to meet him. ... They have been best of friends ever since,\" he said. And, perhaps, it was also a reminder that if you stand by the Clintons, the Clintons will stand by you. Tubbs Jones endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in April 2007 but with Sen. Barack Obama's success during the primaries, many African-American superdelegates came under pressure to back Obama instead. Tubbs Jones, however, held steadfast even as others in her position switched their allegiance. \"I'm going to be with her until she says, 'Stephanie, I'm no longer in this fight. You're free to do something else,'\" Tubbs Jones told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in March. \"In politics, all you have is your word,\" she added. She passed that same sense of commitment on to her son. \"If you give somebody your word, you're going to go ahead and do it,\" Jones Jr. said the day after Hillary Clinton's address to the Democratic National Convention. \"Otherwise, it's not worth anything.\" \"The same goes in politics,\" he added. \"If you don't have your word, you don't really have anything to stand on in politics. So, that's one thing I did learn [from my mother] at a very early age.\" When Sen. Clinton asked Jones Jr. to sit with her husband during what was perhaps her most important speech to date, he agreed. \"She always said that if you don't stick by somebody in the bad times, you never know how good the good times are going to be,\" Jones Jr. said, explaining his mother's view of loyalty. Tubbs Jones, 58, died suddenly a week ago of a brain aneurysm. She was in her fifth term in the House of Representatives and was the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in the House. What would Tubbs Jones have thought of Sen. Clinton's call Tuesday for Democrats to unify behind Obama? \"She would've been standing up, hooting and hollering saying, 'Wow. That's exactly what we needed. Way to be a team player,'\" Jones Jr. said. In what some political analysts were calling the first speech of her second campaign for president, Hillary Clinton did her part on stage. And, in the box, her husband held on tightly to the son of an old friend \u00adand sent a message of his own that may resonate as an important moment in the long-term resurrection of the Clinton brand in American politics.","highlights":"Bill Clinton's silent embrace of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones' son resonated loudly .\nTubbs Jones, 58, died suddenly a week ago of a brain aneurysm .\nThe public moment of recognition was the result of years of friendship .","id":"a453a783cd7f423053b7e56dc5e81fdeec92c468"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Radical Islamist fighters seized control of the seat of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government Monday, raiding the parliament building and demanding that several lawmakers publicly surrender, according to a journalist who witnessed the spectacle. Members of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament are meeting in the neighboring country of Djibouti. Al-Shabab fighters took over the parliament building and the presidential palace in Baidoa, in the southwestern part of the country, a day after the Ethiopian troops who had backed up the transitional government left the country. The insurgents captured five members of parliament and paraded them through the city streets, with hundreds of residents looking on, the reporter said. The five were released after publicly surrendering. The situation left Somali lawmakers stranded in the neighboring country of Djibouti, where they often convene and where talks on forming a new government are under way. \"We have nowhere to return to,\" Parliament Speaker Aden Mohamed Nur told fellow lawmakers there. Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government took office after Ethiopian troops invaded the country at its request in December 2006. The Ethiopian invasion ousted the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist movement that had claimed control of the capital Mogadishu earlier that year. Ethiopia's invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. But various Islamist groups -- including the hard-line Al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- rejected the presence of Ethiopian forces and mounted an insurgent campaign against the Ethiopians and the transitional government. Ethiopia announced on Sunday that all its forces have left Somalia. Last week, as Ethiopian troops began pulling out of the Somali capital, forces from different Islamist groups -- including Al-Shabab -- took control of bases the Ethiopians abandoned around Mogadishu. The transitional government maintained very little control outside of Baidoa, even with the support of the Ethiopian forces. It has also been wracked by an internal power struggle between Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in December. In Washington, the State Department said U.S. officials are working to independently confirm the reports from Baidoa. But State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said members of one of the major Islamic factions, which signed a peace agreement in October in Djibouti, are already joining the transitional government. Duguid said the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, another offshoot of the ICU, will choose up to 200 new members of the transitional parliament. Another 75 members will be drawn from other opposition groups, and the expanded parliament is expected to elect a new president soon. \"We remain deeply concerned about the ongoing violence in southern Somalia, which continues to claim innocent lives,\" Duguid said. \"Lasting peace and stability in Somalia can only be established through the reconciliation process underway through the Djibouti Agreement and rejection of extremism.\" With Monday's takeover of Baidoa, the transitional government only has control of the presidential palace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and the road to the airport in the capital city, which it holds with the help of African Union forces. CNN's Ben Brumfield and journalists Mohamed Amiin Adow and Omar Faruk Osman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Islamist fighters seize control of Baidoa, Somalia .\nBaidoa is headquarters of Somalia's U.N.-backed government .\nTown's seizure leaves country's lawmakers stranded in nation of Djibouti .","id":"a999aa661a4990e6d8423cfdf474e344aaffdc5a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Pfizer is near a deal to buy rival drugmaker Wyeth for $68 billion, according to news reports late Sunday citing people familiar with the deal. Pfizer's world headquarters is in New York. A deal was imminent and likely to be announced Monday, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported. \"It is our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation,\" said Michael Lampe, a Wyeth representative. Pfizer was not immediately available for comment. Pfizer, the world's leading drugmaker in terms of sales, has been in talks to buy Wyeth. Pfizer's stock slipped 1 percent on the news Friday, while Wyeth gained about 8 percent. On January 13 Pfizer said it was cutting up to 8 percent of its R&D staff, about 800 jobs. Spokesman Raymond Kerins said that was to \"raise productivity.\" But analysts say Pfizer is clearly trying to beef up its drug pipeline through an acquisition, adding that the company seems to have given up on its own R&D staff coming up with a blockbuster to replace Lipitor. This cholesterol-cutting drug peaked in 2006 with nearly $13 billion in annual sales but will lose its patent protection in 2011, when generic versions will become available. Les Funtleyder, pharma analyst for Miller Tabak, said Pfizer is \"not feeling that they're getting the efficiency out of their R&D unit.\" He said Pfizer would probably rather do a deal with Wyeth over other competitors, because there is less overlap in the companies' pipelines. Funtleyder said Pfizer already has a diabetes franchise, which would overlap with Eli Lilly & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb, both of which also focus on diabetes treatments. Pfizer probably has its eyes on Wyeth's Alzheimer's drug pipeline, he said. But he cautions that a merger won't be a success unless Wyeth's pipeline is successful, which remains to be seen, he said. \"If Wyeth comes out with an Alzheimer's drug that works, then the deal works,\" he said. Pfizer is probably also focused on Wyeth's blockbuster children's vaccine Prevnar, as well as its experimental biotech drugs, said Michael Krensavage of Krensavage Asset Management. Sales of Prevnar, which combats meningitis and blood infections, jumped 12 percent in the first nine months of 2008 compared with the same period the prior year, to $2.1 billion. If a deal does go through, Funtleyder warns, Wyeth staffers should brace for layoffs. \"I can say with pretty good confidence that this is going to lead to some head count reduction,\" he said.","highlights":"\"It is our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation,\" Wyeth rep says .\nPfizer was not immediately available for comment .\nPfizer said this month it was cutting up to 8 percent, or 800 jobs, of its R&D staff .","id":"2d9c2a3027f19656315cacbdd44cf4341fb86502"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard says he contemplated suicide after his relationship with a male escort was revealed in 2006, resulting in his being fired from the influential megachurch that he founded two decades ago. Rev. Ted Haggard tells Oprah Winfrey he still struggles with homosexual urges but says he is not gay. Haggard told talk show host Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday that the scandal forced him to work through his \"issues\" with homosexuality. \"I was dying. I had settled in my mind exactly how I was going to commit suicide,\" Haggard told Winfrey. \"I was preparing, and in my life, Jesus came to me and he said, 'Now, now I can save you.' \" The interview also addressed the latest scandal involving the embattled pastor. In a statement from Haggard that Winfrey read at the end of the program, Haggard denied having \"physical contact\" with a second man whose allegations of an inappropriate relationship with Haggard surfaced recently. Watch Haggard's accuser speak out \u00bb . Haggard, who appeared in the prerecorded interview segment with his wife and two of his three children, said he continues to struggle with homosexual urges but insisted he is not gay. Haggard continues to have \"sexual thoughts about men, but they're not compulsive any more, and I do have temptations, but they're not compulsive,\" he told Winfrey. He said one therapist described him as a \"heterosexual with homosexual attachments,\" and he admitted to struggling with homosexual urges all his life. \"I do believe I don't fit into the normal boxes,\" Haggard said. \"I do think there are complexities associated with some people's sexuality, but it just wasn't as simple as I wanted it to be, because I was so deeply in love with my life.\" But, he added, \"I had this other thing going on inside of me too.\" Haggard founded the Colorado-based New Life Church in his basement in 1984 and oversaw its growth to a megachurch with some 15,000 members. After the scandal, he was fired from the church in 2006 and also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals -- a group that says it represents millions of people in 45,000 evangelical church congregations nationwide. His fall followed allegations from male escort Mike Jones about a sex-for-money relationship that involved drugs. \"When it first started to happen, I lied about it because I was so ashamed, and it was the first time that that dark area of my life that I had worked so hard to keep secret and fight against was coming to the surface,\" he told Winfrey. \"I thank God, though, that in this process, I am where I am now and that accusation and the scandal had a lot to do with that,\" he said. The interview aired as Haggard tries to combat the latest allegations. A senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said Monday that the church agreed to pay the second man -- a 20-year-old church volunteer -- in exchange for his pledge not to talk publicly about the relationship with Haggard. After the taped segment, Winfrey read a statement from Haggard about those new allegations. \"Even though there was never any physical contact, I have regretted my irresponsible behavior,\" Haggard said, referring to allegations from a man he identified as Grant. \"I apologized to Grant, my family and the church two years ago. I now ask him again for his forgiveness as well as the people of the church,\" Haggard said. In the past three weeks, the man told New Life Senior Pastor Brady Boyd that he was considering going public with his story because Haggard was portraying himself as a victim in an upcoming HBO documentary called \"The Trial of Ted Haggard,\" which is scheduled to air Thursday.","highlights":"Haggard: \"I had settled in my mind exactly how I was going to commit suicide\"\nHaggard founded New Life Church, was fired after male prostitute scandal .\nHaggard says he still has homosexual temptations, but they are not compulsive .\nHaggard denies physical contact, apologizes to man involved in new allegations .","id":"7686d7a002412b57a5a2124c7ae7f352ebb504cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Longtime character actor Pat Hingle, a veteran of early television dramas, Westerns and four \"Batman\" films, has died at age 84, his family announced Sunday. Pat Hingle was a familiar face to moviegoers and TV watchers for his many roles. Hingle died Saturday evening at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, after a two-year battle with the blood disorder myelodysplasia, his cousin, Lynn Heritage, told CNN. \"He was awake one moment, and in the next breath, he was gone,\" Heritage said. Hingle began his acting career in the 1950s, appearing in numerous television theater shows. His first movie role was an uncredited appearance in 1954's \"On the Waterfront,\" which won eight Academy Awards; he played the by-the-book judge opposite Clint Eastwood's vengeful marshal in 1968's \"Hang 'Em High,\" and appeared as Sally Field's father in 1979's \"Norma Rae.\" In 1989, he appeared as Gotham City's Commissioner Gordon in Tim Burton's \"Batman,\" carrying on the role through three sequels. His last film role was in \"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,\" released in 2006. He also guest-starred in countless TV series, including a memorable turn as a character named Col. Daniel Webster Tucker in a 1980 \"M*A*S*H\" episode. In the episode, called \"April Fools,\" Hingle's Tucker antagonized the unit's surgeons -- with surprising consequences. Hingle's other TV series included \"Hawaii Five-O,\" \"The Streets of San Francisco,\" \"Hart to Hart,\" \"St. Elsewhere,\" \"Magnum, P.I.\" and \"Cheers.\" Hingle is survived by his wife of nearly 30 years, Julia, and their five children.","highlights":"Pat Hingle appeared in many TV series, movies .\nHingle played Commissioner Gordon in '90s \"Batman\" films .\nHingle also had roles in \"M*A*S*H,\" \"St. Elsewhere,\" \"Cheers\"","id":"15ca63cf7178906ddff9eb804f7cbf94efd9292f"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lankan soldiers have seized a key rebel stronghold after launching a surprise attack early Sunday morning, the head of Sri Lanka's army announced. Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka says a key Tamil town has been taken in a national TV broadcast Sunday. Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. \"Our troops fought their way through a 40 km (25 mile) thick jungle track,\" Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address on Sunday. \"This is the long awaited victory and I am happy to say that our heroic forces today captured the Mullaittivu town after 12 years,\" the Sri Lanka Army chief said. There is no confirmation from the rebels that the strategic garrison has been overtaken. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 and established a military garrison there, according to the government. In recent days, the military has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The re-capture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea. \"The area that the LTTE has dominated has shrank phenomenally,\" Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, C.R Jayasinghe, told CNN. \"They lost... about 90 percent of what they had.\" Despite major government gains, critics point to ongoing civilian casualties resultant from the conflict. \"This is an important strategic success for the army, but literally tens of thousands of people, children, are in the line of fire,\" United Nations spokesman James Elder said in a phone conversation Sunday. \"Some Sri Lankan U.N. staff are trapped there,\" he added. \"Convoys are going to the area, delivering emergency supplies, but these are not sufficient for the number of people in need.\" Sri Lankan authorities are barring journalists and humanitarian aid workers from areas where heavy fighting is taking place. Amnesty International spokesman Shuransu Mishra estimated that \"over a quarter of a million of the population, mostly Tamils, are trapped between the two sides.\" The organization says greater access and protection for aid workers and journalists are needed as news agencies struggle to report an accurate picture of the conflict. \"The Sri Lankan authorities are doing little to ensure the safety of the country's media, or to prosecute those responsible for murdering or attacking them,\" Amnesty International spokeswoman Yolanda Foster said in a written statement on Friday. \"They (Sri Lankan authorities) are also directly responsible for subjecting journalists to harassment and interrogation,\" she said. At least 14 journalists have been killed since the start of 2006, according to the statement. Others have been driven from the country by death threats, or in fear of detention and torture by government authorities, it said.","highlights":"Rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996, established a military garrison there .\nMilitary making significant progress to recapture rebel strongholds .\nEarlier this month troops regained control of key northern town of Elephant Pass .\nTamils want independent homeland, war since 1983 has left more than 65,000 dead .","id":"b10d9f8cc0f8350f4fde5e81aa9d3edefea20d8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When John Lennon remarked in 1966 that the Beatles were then \"more popular than Jesus\" his comments prompted outrage in the United States. But this weekend the Vatican's newspaper paid tribute to the band on the 40th anniversary of the release of the \"White Album\" in an article interpreted by some as a papal pardon for Lennon. John Lennon appears with wife Yoko Ono in 1968, two years after he made his \"more popular than Jesus\" comments. CNN's Alessio Vinci spoke to Steve Turner, author \"The Gospel According To The Beatles,\" about the controversy that helped to end the Beatles' touring career. Q: Was Lennon surprised by the storm his comment generated? A: I think John Lennon was surprised because it had been said in a casual way to a journalist who was a personal friend of his and he had no idea it would cause that sort of controversy. When it did happen he was actually quite frightened because they were about to go off on tour and there were these threats to their lives and a clairvoyant made some predictions that their plane would crash. It was really quite frightening and they wanted to cancel the tour but they knew they couldn't. They were under obligation to the tour promoters. And when he made his apology in Chicago, (the band's) press officer told me that John was actually in tears before he went in to make the apology. Q: Was his apology sincere? Watch as Vatican pardons Lennon \u00bb . A: His apology was very carefully worded. He never said \"I didn't mean that;\" he kind of said, \"if it was taken that way, that's not what I meant,\" but he never actually retracted it. The reason it happened that way, in America particularly, is that people thought the Beatles were getting too big, too proud and it was a way of putting them down and I think people grabbed that opportunity. Q: Did they care at all what the Vatican newspaper had to say at the time? A: I don't know that the Beatles had any particular concern about what the Vatican said. I know the Vatican did say something at the time. But by that time, everybody was pitching in with their opinion, and it just kind of gathered pace. Q: If he were alive, what would he say about his \"rehabilitation?\" A: It's very hard to say what John Lennon would say now if he knew that the pope had forgiven him or the Catholic Church had forgiven him because on the one hand he wrote to an American evangelist called Oral Roberts and said he had been very sorry. But in a book he said he was very glad that it had happened because it effectively ended the Beatles. Because that tour was so bad that it became the last tour the Beatles ever did. So he thought, \"Thank you Jesus for causing this to happen -- because you gave me a solo career.\" Q: How spiritual were the Beatles? A: The Beatles started out as atheists and agnostics and I think as everybody knows they became more interested in spiritual things. They went out to India in 1968 and I think in a way the Beatles became a spiritual force themselves. And I think that John actually saw that. He saw Christianity and rock 'n' roll as competitors. Only three years later, after 1966, you had the Woodstock festival and you get rock music almost performing a religious function. So I think in a way he was aware of what was happening. The Beatles were almost becoming a religion and exerting a spiritual force over people.","highlights":"Author: John Lennon never meant \"more popular than Jesus\" comment to offend .\nLennon never actually retracted the controversial remark .\nVatican newspaper paid tribute to the Beatles on 40th anniversary of \"White Album\"\nBeatles author says band were a \"spiritual force\" themselves .","id":"dbfccb9f0f6de53af9b2fd0f0f984d0fb5ca3efc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man walks into a thrift store. A New Zealand man finds confidential U.S. military files on a used MP3 player he bought at a thrift store for $9. It sounds like the opening line to a bad joke. And this case was a bad joke -- for the Pentagon. Chris Ogle of New Zealand was in Oklahoma about a year ago when he bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store for $9. A few weeks ago, he plugged it into his computer to download a song, and he instead discovered confidential U.S. military files. \"The more I look at it, the more I see, and the less I think I should be,\" Ogle said with a nervous laugh in an interview with TVNZ. The files included the home addresses, Social Security numbers and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers. The player also included what appeared to be mission briefings and lists of equipment deployed to hot spots in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the information appears to date to 2005. The New Zealand journalist who first reported the story was able to contact at least one of the soldiers by dialing a phone number found in the files. He hung up once she explained why she was calling. Watch how man discovered secret military files \u00bb . Pentagon officials told CNN that they are aware of the MP3 player, but can't talk about it until investigators confirm that the information came from the U.S. Department of Defense. \"The government isn't doing a good job of protecting the information that it collects,\" said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. Despite government efforts to protect sensitive information, this is a growing problem, privacy experts say. Two years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs lost track of a laptop with the personal information of millions of soldiers. And computer hard drives with classified military information have been found for sale at street markets in Afghanistan. \"When you can identify American personnel, when you have their names, their home address, their cell phone numbers, you put people in a dangerous position,\" Rotenberg said. In this case, the personal information for several hundred soldiers landed in friendly hands. Ogle told CNN the MP3 player is being kept in a safe place and he will happily turn it over to U.S. military officials if they ask for it.","highlights":"New Zealander finds confidential U.S. military files on a used MP3 player .\nMan bought player for $9 a year ago at an Oklahoma thrift store .\nOwner says he'll happily hand over the player to the U.S. military if he is asked .","id":"f6a0aebb193a6bcf3894d0dbd2b7a06a73325e8e"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A suspect in police custody calls himself a \"stewmaker\" for a Mexican drug lord, saying he disposed of about 300 bodies by dissolving them in acid. Santiago Meza Lopez has asked for forgiveness from the families of those he says he targeted. Santiago Meza Lopez was arrested Thursday in Ensenada, Baja California, but it took police 24 hours to identify him. He says he works for drug lord Teodoro Garcia Simental, also known as \"el Teo,\" a powerful drug trafficker. Meza, who is shown handcuffed and flanked by guards in video released by the government, calls himself \"Teo's stewmaker\" and says he was paid $600 a week for his macabre duties. The victims, he said, were men who owed Garcia something or had betrayed him. A native of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Meza was arrested along with three other people, including a minor female who said she was contracted for a social event. Other people sought by police were in the area at the time but were able to escape, officials said. Now, Meza is asking for forgiveness. \"To the families, please forgive me,\" he said in the video. Mexican police have not specifically said whether they believe that all elements of Meza's story are credible. He has told police where he buried some of the bodies. Now authorities, along with citizens groups and the families of the disappeared, are searching for them. They hope Meza could have information about the location of their friends and relatives. Authorities say Garcia formed part of the Arellano Felix cartel but is currently said by intelligence sources to be operating with the Sinaloa cartel. Officials say seven brothers and four sisters of the Arellano-Felix family inherited the Tijuana, Mexico-based drug cartel from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo in 1989, after his arrest for drug trafficking. Today, the notorious cartel is split into two factions that have engaged in brutal fighting that has accounted for nearly all the violence in Tijuana, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 400 people were killed last year in drug-related violence. Eduardo Arellano-Felix, who police said was the last remaining brother to have an active role in the cartel, was arrested in October. CNN's Carolina Sanchez and CNN en Espanol's Krupskaia Alis in Mexico City contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspect says he worked for powerful Mexican drug trafficker .\nHe says he got $600 a week to deal with those who owed drug lord .\nPolice have not said whether they find man's story credible .\nFamilies hope he could have information on their missing loved ones .","id":"5dbf33ee3441e17e641288fa7476525d5072e7be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Apple enthusiasts speculate over why pancreatic cancer survivor Steve Jobs won't appear at Macworld Conference & Expo this year, the CEO asks them to think differently about his health. Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivered keynote addresses in September 2008, left, and in October 2005, right. Addressing the \"Apple Community\" in a statement, Jobs said his doctors think they have found the reason behind his weight loss: \"a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.\" But doctors unaffiliated with Jobs' care say this \"hormone imbalance\" could be a symptom of a slew of underlying conditions, including cancer or diabetes. However, any diagnosis based on this description and Jobs' cancer history is purely speculative, experts say. Based on Jobs' history of gastrointestinal problems, it's possible his gastrointestinal system either isn't absorbing proteins or is losing proteins, said Dr. Kenneth Burman, director of Endocrinology at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, who is not involved in caring for Jobs. \"I suspect he's referring to his gastrointestinal system and some of the hormones related to that, rather than more classic endocrine hormones,\" which are associated with the thyroid, adrenal or pituitary glands, Burman said. While abnormalities related to those hormones may also lead to weight loss, they are not necessarily associated with pancreatic disease, he said. There is not enough information available to say how severe a gastrointestinal hormonal problem would be, he said. Others speculate the hormonal issue could relate to his cancer. Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, clinical professor at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said a tumor in the pancreas would typically create an overproduction of hormones. Glucagon, a hormone produced in the pancreas, would lead to weight loss if produced in excess. \"In a patient whom a few years ago had pancreatic cancer, then progressive weight loss, then develops complications from the weight loss, it would be logical to associate his symptoms now with the previous cancer,\" he said. But the weight loss is not necessarily cancer-related, and Jobs' statement suggests that it's not, said Dr. Andrew Lowy, chief of the division of surgical oncology at the University of California, San Diego's Moores Cancer Center. Plenty of hormonal conditions, as well as diabetes related to cancer treatment, could be the reason, he said. Jobs, who co-founded Apple Inc., first learned he had pancreatic cancer in October 2003. He had been getting abdominal scans because of a history of intestinal problems, and a tumor appeared on one of them, Fortune reported last year. The growth was an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer that is operable, Fortune reported. While Jobs initially wanted to treat the tumor with a special diet and alternative therapies, he finally underwent a Whipple procedure, a painful but relatively safe operation, in July 2004, Fortune reported. If Jobs had a recurrence of this tumor, and it was a functional neuroendocrine tumor, which produces problem-causing hormones, that would be one speculative explanation, Lowy said. But not enough information is available to say whether the tumor was the functional kind, he said. \"Is it possible that a cancer recurrence would result in weight loss? Of course. He's saying that's not what he has, and so, I have to take him at his word. None of us know the truth except his doctors,\" Lowy said. Rumors about Jobs' declining health have been circulating for months, as his weight visibly dropped from one public appearance to the next. While Jobs' keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo is usually the highlight of the Apple fan gathering, Apple announced in December Jobs would not appear this year and the company would no longer participate in the event after 2009. CNN's Danielle Dellorto contributed to this report.","highlights":"Doctors: Jobs' \"hormone imbalance\" could refer to several health conditions .\nCancer recurrence could explain weight loss .\nHormonal imbalance related to thyroid, pituitary or adrenal glands also possible .\nJobs will not appear at Macworld this year .","id":"f6c987116c7b4f5c0ed3173184dc38732b022321"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gas prices dropped nearly 33 cents in the past two weeks, dipping below $2 for the first time since March 2005, a national survey said Sunday. This station in Rio Vista, California, had gas prices below $2 on November 19. The average price of self-serve, unleaded gasoline on Friday in the United States was $1.97, said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey. The last time the price was below $2 was on March 4, 2005, she said. The all-time high average was $4.11, set on July 11, according to Lundberg, and prices have been dropping ever since. \"The rate of decline has slowed somewhat, but it is still dramatic at 33 cents in two weeks,\" she said. Diesel prices averaged $2.93 on Friday, slumping under $3 for the first time since September 2007, she said. Lundberg attributed the price reductions to a drop in crude oil prices and demand, and also because of low refining margins. Watch thrilled customers enjoy cheaper gas \u00bb . \"Crude oil remains [the] main driver,\" for the decline, she said, noting that crude oil futures settled on Friday below $50. Demand is always low in November, she said, but the weakening economy is reducing it further. However, Lundberg said that if crude oil prices do not fall further, \"then the end of this [gasoline] price crash is either here or near.\" The Lundberg Survey is based on responses from more than 5,000 service stations nationwide. On Friday, drivers in St. Louis, Missouri, paid the least at the pump -- $1.61 -- while drivers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Anchorage, Alaska, paid the most, at $2.81. Here are average prices in other cities: . \u2022 Detroit, Michigan -- $1.76 . \u2022 Houston, Texas -- $1.78 . \u2022 Atlanta, Georgia -- $1.88 . \u2022 Boston, Massachusetts -- $2.01 . \u2022 Chicago, Illinois -- $2.10 . \u2022 Washington -- $2.19 . \u2022 Los Angeles, California -- $2.22 .","highlights":"Average price in U.S. is below $2 for first time since March 2005, survey says .\nAll-time high average -- $4.11 -- was set four months ago .\nAverage price dropped 33 cents in the past two weeks .\nSurvey: Diesel prices are under $3 for the first time since September 2007 .","id":"11eeffa6f033febd785c26476aa21afe7f72fb55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Why are some people amazingly successful -- and other people with the same intelligence or abilities just part of the crowd? Malcolm Gladwell tries to find out why some people are successful in his new book, \"Outliers.\" Malcolm Gladwell, the New Yorker writer who's made a living dissecting questions such as how small trends become major movements (\"The Tipping Point\") and the value of snap judgments (\"Blink\"), was curious about that subject, and -- typically -- set out to find some answers. The result is his new book \"Outliers\" (Little, Brown), which finds parallels between the Beatles, Bill Gates and Canadian hockey players -- as well as reasons why planes operated by members of particular cultures have a greater likelihood of crashing. John Roberts of CNN's \"American Morning\" spoke to Gladwell on Friday. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: We always think that it's the smartest people that become the most successful. You postulate in this new book [that] it's not always intelligence that leads to success. You say \"it's not the brightest who succeed, it's rather a gift. Outliers are those given opportunities who have the strength and presence of mind to seize them.\" But there are also some commonalities with these outliers. Malcolm Gladwell: Yes. I'm really interested in things like the effects of generation. So what does it mean? I have a chapter that looks at some of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley. And almost all of them are born in 1955: Steve Jobs at Apple, Bill Gates at Microsoft, Bill Joy -- who is one of those famous programmers -- a bunch of guys at Sun Microsystems. The argument there is that they were 21 when the computer revolution hit, and that's how old you want to be when you're confronted with a new revolution. That's the kind of pattern that you see, over and over again, when you look at the lives of very successful people. That it's not just their own abilities, it's being in the right place at the right time, it's coming from a certain kind of culture, it's having certain built-in advantages. CNN: There were also some happy accidents along the way. For example, if Bill Gates hadn't been put into a private school, which actually had a computer -- one of the first schools to ever have a computer -- perhaps he may not have become the mogul that he was. Gladwell: Yes, he has this incredible childhood. ... I talked to him, and he was going through the extraordinary one-in-a-million lucky breaks that characterized his childhood. He got to start programming on a computer in 1968 as a 13-year-old when nobody was programming. So he was way ahead of the crowd by the time he starts Microsoft. CNN: You and I both lived in Canada, developed a love for Canadian hockey, and you found by looking at Canadian hockey teams that there's a certain commonality between all of the best players, at least in the junior hockey league system, which I imagine translates to the pros as well. Gladwell: Oh, absolutely. An extraordinary number of hockey players who are professionals are born in January, February and March. And that's because the cutoff date for age-class hockey is January 1st. So when they go to ... recruit kids for all-star teams when they're 8 or 9 years old, they think they're choosing the most talented ones, but actually they're choosing the biggest ones. Because if you're born in January and you're 8, you're a lot taller, more mature and taller and bigger and stronger than someone born in December. CNN: Because development is much faster there -- . Gladwell: At that age, and so that advantage you get as an 8-year-old, you get plucked out and given proper coaching and more games and more practice -- and by the time you're 18, you actually are better. CNN: Another fascinating finding is that you are more likely to be in a plane crash if the pilot comes from a particular country. What's that all about? Gladwell: Yes. That's a fascinating thing. The single most important variable in determining whether a plane crashes is not the plane, it's not the maintenance, it's not the weather, it's the culture the pilot comes from. Planes are flown safely when the pilot and co-pilot are in open and honest communication. And in cultures where it is difficult for a junior person to speak openly to a superior, you have lots of plane crashes. CNN: And you said the Avianca crash here in [New York's] Oyster Bay ... is a very clear example of that. Gladwell: Where the co-pilot was so intimidated by air traffic control, he could not tell them they were running out of fuel, and they crashed. They just go around and crashed. CNN: Some of the ideas of this book were criticized by The New York Times, which said the book \"is glib, poorly reasoned, thoroughly unconvincing. Much of what Mr. Gladwell has to say about superstars is little more than common sense: that talent alone is not enough to assure success, that opportunity, hard work, timing and luck play important roles as well.\" What do you say about that? Gladwell: I don't think -- I start from a very common-sense premise, but it takes you in all kinds of interesting areas. I wouldn't say that you know the stuff about pilots, the stuff about hockey players being born in January, it doesn't sound like common sense to me. So you know, I think what's interesting about this book is I take a series of ideas which we all know, and then I say, look, it's more complicated and more interesting and more fascinating than we would have ever imagined. CNN: Anything we can do to try to employ some of these techniques? Gladwell: Well, the end of the book talks about what we should be doing as a country. It's less about what we can do. When we understand that success is so much a part of the world of which we're a part, we move away from this idea that's about self-help and we move towards this idea that it's time for us to be providing opportunities to a group.","highlights":"Malcolm Gladwell's new book, \"Outliers,\" studies reasons for success .\nSuccessful people aren't just smart; they've had timing, contacts in their favor .\nBook also touches on role of culture in creating (or blocking) success .","id":"2c1d74ce2f2124fc397bb03c21a1adf23c50a404"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Miami police issued a plea for information Saturday after at least one person with an assault rifle opened fire on a crowd of people on a streetcorner Friday night, killing two teens and wounding seven other people. Evidence markers dot the Miami street where nine people were gunned down with an AK-47 Friday night. \"We need the community to come together, someone come forward and give us a tip,\" Miami Police Officer Kenia Alfonso told CNN. \"There are a lot of people in that area. Someone must have seen something, someone must know who could've done this horrific crime.\" Alfonso said two teens, ages 16 and 18, died in the attack, which broke up a game of craps in front of a grocery store about 9:50 p.m. Friday in the city's Liberty City neighborhood. Five of the shooting victims were still in the hospital Saturday night, according to CNN affiliate WSVN. Others told WSVN that a masked man with an AK-47 burst onto the scene and ordered everyone to the ground. \"Boy came round the corner; he was like, 'Get down,' and he just started shooting,\" 16-year-old victim Andrew Jackson told WSVN. Watch as resident describes scene as \"war zone\" \u00bb . Six of the nine shot were current or former Northwestern Senior High School students, Alfonso said. \"It was like a war zone,\" resident Joan Rutherford told WSVN. \"I witnessed this guy laying there with his face, looked like it was completely tore off. His eyes was all I could see, and he had a grip on some money and gasping and trying to lift his head up to say something.\" Police Chief John Timoney said that at least one man with an AK-47 \"discharged numerous rounds, then ran around the corner. There were some more rounds discharged there from an AK-47 and another weapon.\" One of those wounded was in critical condition Saturday and undergoing surgery, Timoney said. \"We are convinced that because of the amount of people out here last night that there is somebody that knows the individuals or individual involved, and we need them to come forward,\" Timoney said, according to WSVN. \"These are weapons of war, and they don't belong on the streets of Miami or any other street in America,\" Mayor Manuel Diaz said. Watch Miami residents call for stricter laws \u00bb . Alfonso said police did not know the motive for the shooting and had no suspects. CNN's Patty Lane contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Teen tells WSVN that masked gunman ordered victims to ground, opened fire .\n\"Someone must know who could've done this horrific crime,\" officer says .\nSix victims are students, graduates of Northwestern Senior High School .\nCrowd of people standing at streetcorner was fired upon Friday night, police say .","id":"2f0e64b4a983b4d6063c541bbe99743b8224e144"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial proceedings got under way Monday, the embattled Illinois governor hit the media circuit, answering questions about Oprah, foul language and why he isn't resigning. Gov. Blagojevich appeared on CNN's Larry King Live Monday night. Blagojevich appeared Monday on ABC's \"Good Morning America\" and \"The View,\" and gave his first live prime-time interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"I'm not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing,\" Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell President Obama's former Senate seat, told King. \"I'm entitled to a presumption of innocence.\" Blagojevich also further explained comments that he channeled major political figures who overcame adversity as he was being arrested. \"I've been criticized for this, but I'm not comparing myself to Dr. King or Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, but I tried to reach in to history and imagine some inspiring figures that would have gone through something like I was going through for sustenance and inspiration.\" Blagojevich also said that he looks forward to the day when he can tell his story in full, rather than people judging him by snippets of conversation released to the media. Watch Blagojevich tell Larry King he's done nothing wrong \u00bb . The governor said he is the victim of political enemies who want to raise taxes in Illinois. \"Snippets of conversations out of full context is unfair,\" Blagojevich told CNN. \"If the full context, all of the tapes are heard, you hear the story of someone trying to make decisions and maneuver for the best intentions of the people of Illinois.\" However, Blagojevich said he has not listened to the tapes in their entirety. He addressed the news that his lead attorney, Ed Jenson, is leaving his defense team. \"Look, I think lawyers like that want you to simply say nothing, and I'm champing at the bit, dying to show my innocence.\" Blagojevich said his legal fees will be paid through campaign funds. Blagojevich did say he looked forward to calling witnesses -- including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois; and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- who had conversations with him about who should replace Barack Obama as the junior senator from Illinois. Blagojevich maintained the goal of the conversations was to get the best senator for the people of Illinois. \"There was a lot of exchanging of ideas, asking questions, exploring options -- including Oprah Winfrey -- but never, not ever did I have any intention of violating any criminal law,\" Blagojevich said. \"Never was this about selling any Senate seat for any kind of personal gain.\" On both of his ABC appearances and on CNN, Blagojevich explained why talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was a contender to fill Barack Obama's former Senate seat. \"I was trying to think outside of the box. The idea came to me from a friend who suggested Oprah -- it wasn't my idea,\" Blagojevich told CNN. \"I threw it around in conversation with senior staff and political advisers, who were all involved in this whole adventure we're on. \"And among the things we talked about was the, you know, the unlikelihood she would be interested in it, because she has a bully pulpit that's worldwide and more influence that U.S. senators combined -- all 100 of them.\" Winfrey said that she had no idea she was under consideration. She said she found out from best friend Gayle King, who called to tell her on Monday morning. Watch Oprah's reaction \u00bb . Winfrey said she was \"amused by the whole thing\" but would have turned down the proposal had it been made. Blagojevich also said he was worried about how to present the offer to Winfrey without it looking like a gimmick. The governor said the talks never got to that point \"partly because I was interrupted on December 9.\" Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested then on federal corruption charges, including allegations that the governor tried to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Obama was elected president. Blagojevich ended up picking former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace Obama. iReport.com: Share your questions for Blagojevich . The governor's impeachment trial began Monday in the Illinois Senate. The Illinois House of Representatives impeached him earlier this month. Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing. A 76-page criminal complaint against Blagojevich includes snippets of intercepted phone calls involving the governor's alleged efforts to benefit from the Senate vacancy. Those conversations are laced with expletives. Asked on \"Larry King Live\" about his foul mouth, Blagojevich said, \"Had I known someone was listening, I wouldn't have used language like that. For those who might have been offended, I apologize. Again, I didn't know you were listening.\" He also defended his wife, Patti, saying he takes responsibility for any recordings of her using foul language because he may have rubbed off on her. \"I was raised in a big city in a tough neighborhood, and when you're a kid growing up in a neighborhood like that, you would never say words like that in front of your mother. But when you're out there at the schoolyard ... it's just sort of the thing you do,\" he said. \"Unfortunately, you try to get rid of some of those habits; you may have left the neighborhood, but part of that neighborhood never left you.\" In each of his media appearances Monday, Blagojevich maintained his innocence. He said the impeachment proceedings are unfair because he is unable to call witnesses. The governor said he is the victim of political enemies who want to raise taxes in Illinois. Asked by \"The View's\" Barbara Walters why he doesn't step down for the sake of his state and his dignity, Blagojevich said resigning would be \"the worst thing I could do.\" \"I'm an innocent man who has not done anything wrong. And when you're wrongfully accused and you're not given the chance to properly defend yourself ... for me to resign would be to admit that I did something wrong, which I did not do.\" Blagojevich said resigning also would be a way for him to \"disgrace\" his children. iReport: Your questions for the governor . \"So I'm going to fight to the finish because there's a bigger principle here and it's this: Can a legislature take out a governor elected by the people two times without giving that governor a chance to confront witnesses, bring witnesses in and prove his innocence? That's what they are doing in Illinois, and that's why I'm here in New York -- because this is much bigger than me or Illinois.\"","highlights":"NEW: Governor says taking \"snippets of conversations out of full context is unfair\"\nBlagojevich says he channeled MLK, Gandhi, Mandela during arrest .\nGovernor says he considered Oprah Winfrey to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat .\nBlagojevich says resigning would be \"worst thing I could do\"","id":"93fc92e03ed9e456a776150ab247c688a2c21e5e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.N. official said Monday that the global economic crisis is hurting efforts to clear land mines in Afghanistan, one of the world's most heavily mined countries. An Afghan soldier inspects a land mine in Herat, western Afghanistan. Haider Reza, program director of the U.N. Mine Action Center for Afghanistan, said more than 82,000 anti-personnel mines were cleared in Afghanistan last year. But he said the $500 million needed to meet the goal of clearing all mines by 2013 is under threat. \"We are at a very critical point, and this country and people cannot afford to see a devastating situation where not much money will come,\" Reza said, in remarks included in a U.N. news release. More than 4 million people live in \"mine-contaminated\" areas in Afghanistan, the U.N. says. The clearance of explosives is considered of key importance for the country's development. The anti-personnel mines and 900 anti-tank mines cleared this past year constitute more than 20 percent of mines cleared from the country since 1989, the United Nations said. The Ottawa Convention on land mines specifies that Afghanistan must be completely cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance by 2013. The Afghanistan Compact, the partnership between the Afghan government and the international community, is calling for \"70 percent of explosive-infested land to be cleared by 2011.\" \"If the resources flow into the program, we have the technical capacity and we can do the job,\" said Reza, who is reaching out to new donors, such as Persian Gulf nations. \"God forbid that the security situation throughout the country, especially in areas where we have to do the job, deteriorates to the extent that would not allow our de-miners to do their job. Otherwise, I am very confident we will make it,\" he said.","highlights":"$500M needed to meet the goal of clearing all mines by 2013, official says .\nU.N.: 82,000 anti-personnel mines were cleared in Afghanistan last year .\nMore than 4 million people live in \"mine-contaminated\" areas in Afghanistan .\nU.N. official: \"If the resources flow into the program, we can do the job\"","id":"c882759effb2f675aeec5a172f9fe5aafd3ab665"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the shadows of Mount Redoubt, Alaskans are calmly waiting for the volcano to erupt -- an event that could occur at any time. Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano spews ash and steam during an eruption in 1989. \"The level of seismic activity\" has \"increased markedly\" in recent days at the 10,197-foot peak located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the state's most populous city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. \"We don't have a crystal ball,\" said Peter Cervelli, a research geophysicist with the observatory, which is aggressively monitoring the volcano. But \"we expect based on the past behavior of this volcano that this activity is going to culminate in an eruption.\" The activity has consisted \"of a combination of discrete, relatively small earthquakes and periods of more continuous volcanic tremor,\" Cervelli said. Scientists raised the alert status Sunday to a \"watch\" level, the second-highest, based on seismic activity detected January 23. PopSci.com: Predicting eruptions . The \"watch\" status means the \"volcano is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption, time frame uncertain, or eruption is under way but poses limited hazards,\" according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Maureen Burke, 29, a coffee shop manager in Anchorage, said she remembers the last eruption and isn't too worried this time. PopSci.com: Prehistoric explosions wiped out ocean life -- and created petroleum . She said living in Alaska and being close to nature, residents just laugh such events off, dealing with them as they come. Falling ash is a potential problem. The best way to protect yourself from the harmful showers of ash is to wear a mask, Missy Moore, 33, said. As an administrator and supervisor of Starbright Early Learning Center in Anchorage, Moore said, \"it's really not anything to worry about just yet.\" PopSci.com: Google Earth environment guide . If Mount Redoubt covers nearby cities with ash, Moore said the school will adhere to the public school district's guidelines. \"If the [public] school district closes schools, our school closes too. The city of Anchorage advises citizens to stay indoors,\" Moore said. \"The ash can get into your engines and mess up your car.\" Shana Medcoff, 17, a barista in Kenai, about 50 miles from the volcano, said residents are encouraged to buy air filters for their cars. PopSci.com: Spying on a hostile landscape . Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago, in December 1989, and that lasted until April 1990. Geologists think there could be an eruption \"similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90.\" Learn more about Redoubt and its history \u00bb . That eruption spread ash in Kenai and Anchorage, where it disrupted air traffic operations. Cervelli said the ash plumes caused engine failure on a jet. \"It's not the closest volcano to Anchorage,\" Cervelli said, but \"it has the potential to disrupt air traffic at Anchorage.\" The 1989-90 volcano also spurred volcanic mudflows, or lahars, that flowed east down the Drift River. The ash fall was seen as far away as Fairbanks and the Yukon Territory border. The observatory has set up a Web camera near the summit of the volcano and another within Cook Inlet. It plans to do continuous visual surveillance, measure gas output and analyze satellite and weather-radar data.","highlights":"NEW: Scientists raise alert level to \"watch,\" the second highest state of alert .\nThe 10,200-foot Mount Redoubt is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska .\nVolcano last erupted in December 1989 .\nEruption could spawn huge mudflows, disrupt flights with ash .","id":"fdc7ad27e2cff3f2ec0cbc3b665e0e461ac0a614"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Lorna Irungu sits on a hospital bed looking extremely frail. She has lupus and her kidneys continue to fail. Lorna Irungu, 35, had to travel from Kenya to India to receive her third kidney transplant. \"At some point I just wanted it to be over,\" said Irungu, 35. \"I was just tired. I was really, really tired of the fighting, of the struggling, of being sick.\" But Irungu did decide to fight, with the help of a very giving family. Three times she has needed a kidney transplant, and three times her family members insisted on donating. First her father donated, then her sister, and then her brother. Irungu says what she couldn't find was a doctor who would do the tricky third transplant in her own country of Kenya. When she checked in neighboring countries, the cost was impossibly high. Irungu, who's single and has no children, has no insurance. So the former television host was paying for the surgery and medicines out of her own pocket. \"When we looked at the price of getting things done in South Africa. I'm like, 'We're never gonna get there.' It's $45,000. Where do I even begin?\" The cost of a kidney transplant in the United States can be $25,000 to $150,000, also out of Irungu's price range. Watch more on Lorna Irungu's odyssey \u00bb . So she began looking elsewhere, sending out e-mails and making phone calls to hospitals in other countries. Doctors at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, India, were the only ones who responded to her somewhat complicated case. Dr. Vijay Kher, the hospital's director of nephrology, first talked to Irungu by phone. \"When she called me from Kenya, she was very sick,\" Kher said. \"She had uncontrolled blood pressures, and she was having fever. She had been in ICU for about three weeks.\" But Irungu made it to India. Once her condition was stabilized, doctors performed the third transplant, which is a rare operation in India. Of the 1,500 kidney transplants performed at Fortis Hospital, doctors remember having done only two in which the patient was having a third transplant. Doctors had to remove one of the previously transplanted kidneys to make room for the new kidney, Kher said. Doctors said it was unnecessary to remove the three other kidneys because they were not causing harm and they didn't want to subject her to more surgery than was necessary. Even with the complications that can arise during a third transplant, the cost of it and the weeklong hospital stay in India came to about $8,000. It's a fraction of the price she was quoted elsewhere, as is the cost of the post-transplant medication. \"This last surgery, I keep saying, has been remarkable.\" Irungu said. \"I haven't felt as good post transplant as I did this time around.\" After three months in India, Irungu is leaving with four kidneys inside her. Irungu says for now the newly transplanted kidney seems to be working great. \"From my experience, the cost here and the quality of care is worth it,\" Irungu said. \"It's worth it because instead of you sitting wherever you are, thinking, 'This is the end for me,' or just getting depressed or getting into this struggle, (you can) just pack up and go.\"","highlights":"Woman travels from Kenya to India for a tricky third kidney transplant .\nLorna Irungu suffers from lupus and already has received two previous transplants .\nOne kidney was removed during the surgery to make room for the new kidney .\nIrungu now has four kidneys, but only one works properly .","id":"13ed274815b0b2372bc00176f974f24c9d713a1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bus carrying Chinese tourists overturned Friday near Hoover Dam, killing at least seven people and injuring at least nine, an Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman said. Authorities work on the crash scene Friday on U.S. 93 in White Hills, Arizona, near Hoover Dam. The accident happened at 4 p.m. on U.S. 93 at mile marker 27, about 27 miles south of Hoover Dam, said Lt. James Warriner. The dead lay in body bags on the roadway near the bus, which was on its side across both lanes and onto the shoulder of the highway. Initial reports from the scene indicated rescuers had difficulty communicating with the passengers, all of them Chinese nationals. Five of the injured were taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center, where one was in critical condition and four were in serious condition, said Ryan Kennedy, executive director of operations. Rick Plummer, a spokesman for University Medical Center in Las Vegas, said the hospital received five victims by helicopter, one who died, two in critical condition and two in serious condition. Watch authorities work the crash scene \u00bb . The north-south highway at the crash scene in White Hills, Arizona, was shut in both directions. Officials said the bus was heading from Las Vegas to Arizona. Hoover Dam is near the border of the two states. View a map of the crash site \u00bb . Among the injured was a motorcyclist who was hurt avoiding the bus, said National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz.","highlights":"Bus passengers were Chinese nationals, officials say .\nThe dead lay in body bags on the roadway near the overturned bus .\nTour bus overturns on U.S. Route 93, heading from Las Vegas to Arizona .\nHospital says as many as 15 victims being flown to Las Vegas .","id":"ae8e756e2e91fbbbf0d720cc17db980e812a5c70"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police on the picturesque island of Jersey in the English Channel detained a 68-year-old man Tuesday as part of their investigation into alleged abuses at a long-closed government-run children's home. A woman walks past the Haut de la Garenne children's home. Spokeswoman Louise Nibbs said the man was helping authorities with their inquiries into \"a number of historic rapes and indecent assaults.\" But, Nibbs added, the man's detention was not \"directly related\" to the Haut de la Garenne children's home. Rather, he is part of a wider inquiry into abuses that authorities are investigating, she said. \"We can now also confirm that the alleged offenses in question took place in the 1960s and 1970s,\" she said. \"We are not able to say at this time where the offenses took place.\" Nibbs did not release the man's name or disclose any other details. The man has not been charged with a crime, Nibbs said. Jersey is a British crown dependency, located 14 miles off the coast of Normandy near France. In January, police arrested another man -- a former warden who was charged with three counts of indecent assault on underage girls in the late 60s and early 70s. The man, 76-year-old Gordon Wateridge, has not entered a plea yet, Nibbs said. The announcement in January that fragments of a child's skull had been discovered under a stairwell in the building has sparked more than 160 allegations of child abuse there dating back to the 1960s, authorities say. The building opened in 1867 and housed up to 60 children at any one time. It underwent several renovations and closed in 1986 only to reopen as a youth hostel in 2004. Possible clues to the abuse alleged to have occurred inside include writing found on a wall that \"refers to somebody being bad,\" Jersey Deputy Police Chief Lenny Harper said in February. \"We have no idea at the moment who put it there or, indeed, how long it's been there.\" Police said much of what they found, including shackles, matches accounts given by witnesses. Several former residents allege they suffered physical and sexual abuse in a storeroom. Police suspect there could be four bricked-up chambers underground. Several alleged victims have talked about abuse occurring in a large concrete trough in the basement, which was originally the first floor of the building. In February, authorities said they had compiled \"well over 40\" suspects who are alive, and a number of others who are dead. The investigation has taken officials to Australia, Thailand, Germany and the British mainland. Some of those who have reported abuse have taken their complaints to the news media. \"There was one occasion, in the sick bay, where I was made to fondle another boy -- if you didn't, you were threatened you wouldn't come out alive,\" said Carl Denning, who said he was taken to the home at the age of 5 and said one of his friends committed suicide after being raped there. \"You'd go to bed at night, sleeping, and all of a sudden your arms would be held down and the next thing you know you're getting raped,\" recalled Peter Hannaford, who spent the first 12 years of his life there. \"You were subject to constant abuse. ... It was every night, and you were scared to go to bed.\" Stuart Syvret, a local politician, told CNN the building had long been known \"as a place where young boys were punished severely, where they suffered.\" He alleged a \"long-established culture of covering up alleged abuses\" -- a claim the local government denies. The investigation began in 2006, when police were alerted to the possibility that pedophiles had worked at the institution. That led to the discovery of the skull fragment. The institution housed wards of the state -- primarily neglected and abandoned children. A remand wing housed children who had been convicted of crimes. The allegations mar the carefully cultivated image the island's elite have tried to project. Jersey's beaches have made it a big tourist destination, and its offshore banks have made it a tax haven and a playground for the rich. Eleven miles long and 9 miles wide, the island is populated by about 80,000 mostly white, affluent residents. Heavily influenced by the French, the largely autonomous island has its own legal system and its own currency. London manages only its defense and foreign policy matters. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jersey police say 68-year-old man arrested in children's home abuse probe .\nMan being questioned about a number of alleged rapes .\nMore than a 100 people claim they were abused at Haut de la Garenne home .","id":"64daf6045022229b25f520dd6b65c113c0683445"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's economic stimulus plan cleared its first hurdle, but it was hardly the bipartisan victory he hoped for -- not a single House Republican broke ranks to support it. The stimulus bill now moves to the Senate, where GOP members want less spending and more tax cuts. In fact, 11 Democrats also voted against the $819 billion package. But a win is a win, and so the White House strategy is to take the long view: Maybe the Senate will take out more of the controversial pork projects and tweak the tax cuts to win over more Republicans. The full Senate will vote on its version next week. Should the Senate and House pass different versions, the two bills would have to be conferenced together. Then both chambers would have to vote on the new conference version in the coming weeks. Watch what's next for the stimulus \u00bb . \"I do think it is so important that we slow this bill down in order to do it right,\" said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. Senate GOP sources report that there is a \"real split\" in the GOP caucus about the best way to proceed in the wake of Wednesday's vote in the House. The sources say Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, wants a \"smaller, narrower\" bill. Another group of Republicans including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is working to craft a larger package that would include more infrastructure spending. Generally, the sources say, the party is looking for more concessions from the White House on spending. The Senate has already made some changes in its version of the bill, which is approaching $900 billion. The Senate Finance Committee added about $70 billion to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was intended to place a tax on the wealthy but now hits many middle class families. The Senate bill adds more direct money for seniors, with a plan to send $300 checks to social security recipients and disabled veterans. Smaller changes in the Senate version include $108 million to extend worker retraining programs and a provision to block any taxes on the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits. Aides say housing relief is also going to be a big issue for some Republican senators. The main concerns are similar to those of their House counterparts. They want more tax cuts and less spending. \"We look forward to offering amendments to improve this critical legislation and move it back to the package President Obama originally proposed -- 40 percent tax relief, no wasteful spending and a bipartisan approach,\" McConnell said. Obama has made it clear that he's not willing to budge on some of the big ticket items, like how the tax cuts are structured. The version passed in the House is two-thirds spending and one-third tax cuts. Much of the $550 billion in spending is divided among these areas: $142 billion for education, $111 billion for health care, $90 billion for infrastructure, $72 billion for aid and benefits, $54 billion for energy, $16 billion for science and technology and $13 billion for housing. Those opposed to the bill say it includes too much wasteful spending, pointing to things like $335 million in funding for education on sexually transmitted diseases and $650 million for digital TV coupons. Watch why some say there's too much pork \u00bb . A growing number of Republicans and Democrats say measures such as those don't create jobs. The Democratic rationale is that healthier Americans will be more productive. And on the millions for digital television coupons, the hope is that money will go to new call centers explaining how the technology works. \"There's something in there for literally every interest. It's a pent-up wish list of spending programs that many around here have wanted to implement for a really long time,\" said Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota. Congressional leaders did drop some of the controversial provisions, like one that provided $200 million worth of contraceptives to low-income families. Obama personally called some House Democratic leaders to urge them to remove the family planning provision in hopes of winning bipartisan support. The White House is hoping that some Republicans will come on board in the Senate, where there already has been a little more compromise and a greater sense of bipartisanship. Some House Republicans have left the door open to being more receptive to changes made on the Senate side, and then perhaps voting yes if they get those changes when the final bill comes up for a vote. David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN, said that while there will be disagreements, some version will likely pass in the coming weeks. \"I think both sides are approaching this with some qualms, but they also feel -- especially the Democrats feel -- they have no choice. The economy is in urgent need to be addressed with a stimulus package,\" he said. \"We have got a very popular president. They're going to support him and go forward. And this package is going to pass. A version of this package is going to pass here in the next two or three weeks.\" The president hopes to have the plan passed by Congress and on his desk for signing by mid-February. CNN's Jim Acosta, Lisa Desjardins, Gloria Borger, Ed Henry, Kristi Keck and Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.","highlights":"Stimulus bill passed in the House with no support from Republicans .\nGOP senators want more tax cuts, less spending .\nPresident Obama has made a push for bipartisan support .\nObama made it clear that he's not willing to budge on some big ticket items .","id":"740fa15109249c602b6abe61cf03b5bc5f2ebcd6"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Voting in Iraqi provincial elections ended peacefully Saturday evening, and the mood was festive in some places, unlike the violence, intimidation and apathy that marked the balloting in 2005. An Iraqi casts his vote Saturday in Ramadi. Preliminary results are expected in a week. \"There is a new norm of politics. ... It is truly a proud moment,\" Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh told CNN. \"The distance that we have come is truly inspiring.\" Faraj al-Haidari, who chairs the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq, and Staffan de Mistura, special U.N. representative for Iraq, issued statements saying the election went smoothly. \"Hundreds of thousands of IHEC staff worked dutifully according to procedures,\" said Mistura, who also said he was pleased at the number of women who turned out to vote. Preliminary results from the electoral commission are expected within five days, de Mistura said. Final numbers are due at the end of February. \"Some security incidents were reported during the day, but we didn't have any confirmation on serious security incidents that might effect the total electoral process,\" al-Haidari said. President Obama congratulated the Iraqis on the elections. \"Millions of Iraqi citizens from every ethnic and religious group went peacefully to the polls across the country to choose new provincial councils,\" Obama said in a statement released by the White House. \"It is important that the councils get seated, select new governors and begin work on behalf of the Iraqi people who elected them.\" He said the United States \"is proud to have provided technical assistance, along with the United Nations and other international organizations, to Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission, which performed professionally under difficult circumstances.\" CNN's Arwa Damon, who toured polling stations with UN observers, said she noticed an increased sense of awareness and optimism among voters, who felt that their participation would have an impact on their lives and country. Watch Iraqis head to polls \u00bb . Political analysts said this election could correct some of the political imbalances that resulted from the 2005 election. Saturday's voting also was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. \"We are trying to build a new system of government in the heart of the Islamic Middle East,\" Saleh said. The last provincial elections were in January 2005, after the ousting of Saddam Hussein, and most Sunnis did not vote. \"This time, happening four years after the first elections, means that this process is on track to building a functioning democracy,\" Saleh said. \"I think the election results will point to the real political map of Iraq. \"The overwhelming majority of the people of Iraq are having a stake in this process, are buying into this democratic process.\" He added that politics \"is no longer defined by violence\" and is now transcending \"sectarian and ethnic dimensions.\" Voting was extended by one hour, partly because a curfew had been lifted, allowing more Iraqis to go to the polls, said Judge Qassim al-Aboudi, a member of the Electoral Commission. He described turnout as \"good.\" Those elected will have regional power over the essentials Iraqis have been desperate for: basic services and jobs, Damon reported. She said there was a sense of jubilation in Anbar province, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad. The sprawling desert area was dominated largely by al Qaeda in January 2005, when the first provincial elections after the fall of Hussein were held. In 2005, fearing retribution from the terrorist group, only about 2 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. In Najaf, the Shiite center south of Baghdad, voters also were eager to let their voices be heard, Damon said. Watch Arwa Damon on the importance of these elections \u00bb . At a polling station in Baghdad, 80-year-old Ibrahim Saleh, a retired lawyer, said this election \"is completely different from previous elections.\" When asked how, he replied, \"because it is open for all the society components to express their opinion freely.\" Asked what she expects from her candidate, a woman in Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, said, \"we hope stability and security and employment.\" Observers believe that the provincial vote will be a gauge of the country's political direction and a guide to how to the parliamentary elections will turn out this year. The results should spell out the status of the Sunni \"awakening\" movement and the popularity of the Shiite factions, such as those backing al-Maliki, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. There were tough security measures in place throughout the country, including security rings around polling centers and vigorous searches of voters. Nevertheless, three mortars exploded near a polling station in central Tikrit, about 100 miles north of Baghdad, Saturday morning, an official with the Interior Ministry said. There were no casualties. Police also detained four people wearing Iraqi police uniforms who they said had thrown stun grenades at voters outside a polling center in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown. Al-Maliki cast his ballot in Baghdad's Al-Rasheed Hotel, in the highly protected and fortified International Zone. He told reporters at the polling station that the election is evidence that Iraqi people live under a high level of safety. In Anbar province, Iraqi police and army troops lined the streets of downtown Ramadi. One of the police officers said he was proud to be working on election day. \"\"Let the people see us standing here,\" he said. Police vehicles blasted music outside, creating a festive atmosphere. One man brought his 7-year-old brother with him to the polling center. \"I want him to learn about democracy,\" the man said. CNN's Ingrid Formanek and Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama praises election, says he's \"proud\" of collaborative efforts .\nPreliminary results of provincial elections expected within five days .\nPolls close after one-hour extension; no serious violence reported .\n\"There is a new norm of politics,\" deputy prime minister says .","id":"3e7cbc630e7c7d92fa567b121c2f80a26c558d96"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ready for your Super Bowl party? Sure, you have drinks, hot wings, maybe even a favorite jersey. But do you have an M-16, a Kevlar helmet and body armor? Pittsburgh Steelers fan Sheresa Coleman will watch the Super Bowl from the USS Mahan in the Gulf of Aden. Not everybody is watching the game from the comfort of the family den. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops will be deployed in remote war zones, on lonely oceans and at overseas bases -- all far away from an NBC affiliate. So the military is going out of its way to make sure that many soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors can watch Super Bowl XLIII live. \"Super Bowl day has really become a holiday, military-wise, over the last couple years,\" said Petty Officer 1st Class Grant Shannon. Shannon is from a town about an hour north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but is on board the USS Mahan, a destroyer deployed to stop pirates working off the coast of Somalia. When they finish their duties, sailors like Shannon can head to the ship's mess to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Arizona Cardinals. The same is true for soldiers, Marines and airmen in combat zones. \"We can broadcast to every forward operating base in Iraq and Afghanistan,\" said Andreas Friedrich, the deputy director of Armed Forces Radio and Television Services, which has been sending the Super Bowl to troops overseas since the first Super Bowl, broadcasting it live since 1981. Watch how troops will be able to watch big game \u00bb . All told, about 1 million American military personnel and civilians overseas will be able to watch the big game. Some of those watching will be benefiting from the same technology that makes Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle missions possible. A global broadcast system will beam the game to ships and submarines far out in the Pacific Ocean. GBS is how pilots in the United States can watch and fly an unmanned vehicle over a battlefield halfway around the world, and then feed what they see to the battlefield commanders on the ground below. Raytheon, the company that runs the system, will use one of its video channels to feed the game to several U.S. Navy submarines and ships in the Pacific. Tens of thousands of sailors will be able to see the game via GBS, which first broadcast a Super Bowl in 2003, according to Guy DuBois of Raytheon. \"It's a pretty amazing feeling, when you get to do that, to watch it on the ship and knowing that everybody else is back home having a good time, just like we will be,\" said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Wright, a Cardinals fan from Arizona. Wright is on board the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock that is part of the anti-piracy task force. A Steelers fan on board the USS Mahan agrees. \"It would be nice to be home and watch the game in my hometown,\" said Seaman Sheresa Coleman of Pittsburgh. \"But it's a great honor to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.\" One thing Wright and the other overseas Super Bowl viewers will miss is the legendary Super Bowl commercials. Friedrich said the Armed Forces Radio and Television Services would have had to pay high fees for the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl commercials to an international audience. Instead, the multimillion-dollar ads that some people consider the best part of the game will be pre-empted in favor of Department of Defense-produced ads and public service messages. Still, even without seeing football-playing Clydesdales or movie-shilling monsters, those in uniform appreciate being part of America's unofficial midwinter holiday. \"We have lots of sailors and Marines on board who have followed the season,\" said Cmdr. Eric Cash, the commander of the USS San Antonio. \"Any time we can enjoy some traditional American sports like the Super Bowl, it's always a great time for us, a good mental break and also a good time for people to get together and socialize.\" Just like home. But you have to wonder -- does the ship's galley have nachos or pigs in a blanket?","highlights":"About 1 million American military personnel, civilians overseas could catch game .\nTroops get Department of Defense ads instead of Super Bowl commercials .\nGlobal broadcast system will beam game to ships, submarines in the Pacific Ocean .\n\"It's always a great time for us, a good mental break,\" commander says of game .","id":"625376e35b8473c3d6a182e1fbe5f7d4fbadbc45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has lost his position at the top of football's rich list but David Beckham remains the wealthiest player. Abramovich set a trend with his massive cash injection into Premier League Chelsea. Russian billionaire Abramovich has slipped to third place behind Manchester City's new owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, has a fortune of \u00a315 billion ($22.04B), according to the Football Rich List, researched and published by FourFourTwo magazine. Abramovich has also been overtaken by Indian industrialist Lakshmi Mittal, who is the joint owner of second-flight English side Queens Park Rangers with Formula One's Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore. Abramovich has seen his fortune cut by over \u00a33 billion to \u00a37 billion ($10.29B) in the global economic downturn, the magazine estimated. Have wealthy owners benefited English football ? His billions gave Chelsea massive spending power to win two successive Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho and accelerated the trend of foreign ownership in English football. Beckham, currently on loan to AC Milan from Los Angeles Galaxy, has personal assets valued at \u00a3125 million ($183.66 million), well ahead of Michael Owen (\u00a340 million -- $58.77m) and Wayne Rooney. England head coach Fabio Capello is 73rd on the list, boosted by his own private art collection, with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson at number 78. English football had dominated comparable rich lists for several seasons but many financial experts fear the good times may be coming to an end as the global economic crisis bites.","highlights":"Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is knocked off the top of football 'rich-list'\nManchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan heads new list .\nAC Milan's on-loan England midfielder David Beckham remains richest player .","id":"a31d207c5d4a05918ecb21f0521d15e0a4fc6fc2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World number two Roger Federer stepped up his preparations for the Australian Open with an easy win over Spaniard Carlos Moya in the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne on Wednesday. Federer plays a backhand during his straight sets win over Moya in Melbourne. Federer, who will be looking to tie Pete Sampras with his 14th grand slam, opened with a 6-2 6-3 win in the eight-man invitational tournament. The Swiss has begun the year with successive defeats to world number four Andy Murray in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but made no mistake against former French Open champion Moya. He needed just 57 minutes to progress at the former home of the Australian Open. \"I was a little rusty in the beginning, missed quite a few forehands, but I thought it was a good match overall,\" he told the Press Association. \"There were a few gusts of wind, which makes it not easy to play, but I felt like I was playing OK.\" Earlier, Federer's compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka also had an easy win over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 6-2 6-2. Federer's next opponent will be Spanish Davis Cup hero Fernando Verdasco, who swept past young Croatian star Marin Cilic 6-2 7-5. Second seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile also went through as he beat Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4 6-3.","highlights":"Roger Federer wins his opening match at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne .\nThe world number two sweeps past Carlo Moya of Spain in straight sets .\nFernando Verdasco of Spain and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile also go through .","id":"e6f66988f44501f48314fc63e531288f482cf761"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan is postponing its presidential elections until August 20 due to security and logistical concerns, the country's election commission said Thursday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's five-year term is coming to an end this year. The balloting was originally scheduled for late May, but the independent election commission laid out several reasons for the delay. Security is a factor, the commission said. It also cited a lack of trained staff, incomplete voter registration and the weather. It is difficult to campaign or distribute ballots during the rough winter months in the rugged landscape. The elections are a critical moment for Afghanistan as President Hamid Karzai's five-year term ends. He was elected in December 2004 in largely peaceful polling. But since then, the Taliban militant movement has regrouped, international troop deaths have increased and there has been an increase in terror attacks, mostly in eastern and southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan has already registered 3 million voters and is holding voter drives to register more. The United States will deploy additional troops in coming months to provide much-needed security in the run-up to the election. The country expects to hold parliamentary elections in 2010. Meanwhile on Wednesday coalition forces fighting in southern Afghanistan killed four militants, the U.S. military said. Coalition soldiers were targeting a Taliban leader in the Zabul province when militants fired on them, according to a military statement. Soldiers returned fire, killing the four militants. Soldiers then searched their compound and confiscated several assault rifles. This operation comes as the U.S. military is contemplating adding three brigades to the war effort in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the troop build up could happen by this summer. CNN's Atia Abawi contributed to this report .","highlights":"Afghan presidential elections come as President Hamid Karzai's five-year term ends .\nAfghanistan has registered 3 million voters, holding voter drives to register more .\nU.S. troops will deploy extra troops to provide security in run-up to the election .","id":"d8ba5a7b514c33a52c7bcda87f4f55d83980d009"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Monday night's broadcast. Campbell Brown says President Bush can't seem to see the failure of his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. (CNN) -- Much of President Bush's news conference today was a defense of the many controversial decisions of his presidency, it was also reflective, with the president showing a willingness to admit and talk about the serious mistakes made by this administration. But on one topic in particular, he seemed almost entirely disconnected from what really happened: Hurricane Katrina. As someone who spent many days in New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina, I was taken aback listening to the president talk about the government's response. President Bush: . \"People said, 'Well, the federal response was slow.' Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard drivers, to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs. Thirty-thousand people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. It's a pretty quick response. Could things have been done better? Absolutely. Absolutely. But when I hear people say, the federal response was slow, then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?\" It is impossible to challenge what so many of us witnessed firsthand -- what the entire country witnessed through television day and night: New Orleans was a city for a time abandoned by the government; where people old and young were left at the New Orleans convention center for days with no water or food. People will disagree over aspects of the Bush legacy, but on the government's handling of Katrina? We were there. Watch Campbell Brown's reaction to President Bush's news conference \u00bb . The whole country saw what happened. People stuck on roofs were one part of a massive catastrophe. But there was so much else the government didn't do. To this day that city is fighting for its life. Mr. President, you cannot pat yourself on the back for that one. We will debate the war in Iraq, national security, the economy and the rest of your legacy. Those debates will continue for years to come. But on how you handled Katrina, there is no debate. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Campbell Brown: Bush defended many decisions at Monday news conference .\nBrown: Bush disconnected from what really happened with Hurricane Katrina .\nBrown: People will disagree over aspects of the Bush legacy, but not Katrina .\nBrown: Katrina response was catastrophe that America watched on TV .","id":"d8871f70487edea13f26ac0ca16e29f9ca6f7cd6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Author John Updike, regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific writers in modern American letters, died Tuesday, his publicist said. He was 76. John Updike won many literary awards. His books, such as \"The Witches of Eastwick,\" were also best-sellers. Updike passed away Tuesday morning after battling lung cancer. He lived in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. \"He was one of our greatest writers, and he will be sorely missed,\" said Nicholas Latimer, vice president of publicity at Updike's publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. Updike was a rarity among American writers: a much-esteemed, prize-winning author whose books -- including \"Rabbit, Run\" (1960), \"Couples\" (1968), \"The Witches of Eastwick\" (1984) and \"Terrorist\" (2006) -- were also best-sellers. Updike won the Pulitzer Prize twice: for \"Rabbit Is Rich\" (1981) and its successor, \"Rabbit at Rest\" (1991). iReport: Share your tributes to John Updike . The \"Rabbit\" series, about an angst-ridden car dealer in a town much like Updike's hometown of Shillington, Pennsylvania, spanned four novels, a novella and four decades. In the books -- which also included 1971's \"Rabbit Redux\" and a 2001 novella, \"Rabbit Remembered\" -- onetime basketball star Harry \"Rabbit\" Angstrom negotiates marriage, divorce, wealth and health problems, never quite understanding the larger forces shaping his life. \"Rabbit is not a character calculated to inspire affection, but he is an unflinchingly authentic specimen of American manhood, and his boorishness makes his rare moments of vulnerability and empathy that much more heartbreaking,\" wrote Time's Lev Grossman in naming \"Rabbit, Run\" to Time's \"All-Time 100 Novels\" list. Updike was incredibly prolific, penning essays, reviews, short stories, poetry and memoirs. His works frequently appeared in The New Yorker, including a famed 1960 essay about Ted Williams' final game, \"Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.\" \"No writer was more important to the soul of The New Yorker than John,\" said David Remnick, the editor of the magazine, in a statement. \"Even though his literary career transcended any magazine -- he was obviously among the very best writers in the world -- he still loved writing for this weekly magazine, loved being part of an enterprise that he joined when he was so young. \"We adored him,\" Remnick continued. \"He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him.\" The magazine said that Updike had written 862 pieces for it over the years, including 327 book reviews, 170 short stories and 154 poems. He was well-regarded in his adopted home state of Massachusetts. \"John Updike's place among America's literary greats is forever secure, as is his special place in every Red Sox fan's heart for his magnificent 'Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,' \" Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement. \"We honor his memory and his contributions, and Massachusetts today bids him a sad and wistful adieu of our own.\" Updike never won a Nobel Prize, but one of his characters, Henry Bech, received one in \"Bech at Bay\" (1998). His works, particularly given their sexual content, could be as divisive as they were poetic. Many critics accused him of misogyny, and others accused him of using his graceful prose to cover thin subject matter -- and Updike put out his prose by the ream. \"It seems to be easier for John Updike to stifle a yawn than to refrain from writing a book,\" the literary critic James Wood wrote in the London Review of Books in 2001. But his frank discussion of sex also garnered him many readers, the cover of Time magazine (for 1968's \"Couples\") and a lifetime achievement Bad Sex in Writing award from Great Britain's Literary Review. He was criticized by Norman Mailer, hailed by fellow author (and Updike obsessive) Nicholson Baker in \"U and I\" and even appeared as an animated version of himself on a \"Simpsons\" episode as the ghostwriter of a Krusty the Klown book. \"[I] was flattered to be asked to be one of the many voices that they worked into the endless saga of Springfield,\" Updike said, noting that the hardest part of his performance was \"producing a chuckle.\" John Hoyer Updike was born March 18, 1932, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Shillington. From an early age he took to reading and writing, and earned a full scholarship to Harvard, where he headed the Harvard Lampoon. Upon graduation, he accepted a one-year fellowship to Oxford University in England. By the time he was 23, he had been offered a position at The New Yorker, which was to become his literary home over the next 50-plus years. Updike's first novel, \"The Poorhouse Fair,\" came out in 1959. The next year, in \"Rabbit, Run,\" he introduced Angstrom, who was to become one of the most famous characters in American fiction. When introduced, Rabbit is a man fleeing his pregnant wife, the songs on the car radio reflecting both the era and his life. Over the course of the \"Rabbit\" books, the character would routinely infuriate his spouse, mistresses and offspring, try to make things right, and never quite succeed. His attitude didn't help. \"Men are all heart and women are all body. I don't know who has the brains. God maybe,\" the character said in \"Rabbit, Run.\" \"Rabbit, Run\" was successful, as were Updike's other '60s books, including \"The Centaur\" (1963), which featured a teacher much like Updike's father, and the short story collection \"The Music School\" (1966). But it was \"Couples\" that made Updike a household name. The book, about a group of spouses engaging in the sexual revolution in suburban Massachusetts, became a No. 1 best-seller. Updike's interests ranged widely. He wrote about an African state in \"The Coup\" (1978). He discussed the relationship between science and religion in \"Roger's Version\" (1986). He revisited \"Hamlet\" in \"Gertrude and Claudius\" (2000). And he created a group of promiscuous witches in \"The Witches of Eastwick\" (1984), which became a hit movie in 1987 starring Jack Nicholson as the devil. Though Updike's work routinely sold well, he was painfully aware of the decline of what's come to be called \"literary fiction.\" In a 2000 interview with Salon, he lamented its difficulties. \"When I was a boy, the best-selling books were often the books that were on your piano teacher's shelf. I mean, Steinbeck, Hemingway, some Faulkner. Faulkner actually had, considering how hard he is to read and how drastic the experiments are, quite a middle-class readership,\" he said. \"But certainly someone like Steinbeck was a best-seller as well as a Nobel Prize-winning author of high intent. You don't feel that now.\" And yet, Updike himself never lost his zest for the written word, and the pleasure brought by jotting, tuning, refining -- creating -- a new story, even as the years drifted by. \"An aging writer has the not insignificant satisfaction of a shelf of books behind him that, as they wait for their ideal readers to discover them, will outlast him for a while,\" he wrote in AARP The Magazine late last year. \"The pleasures, for him, of book-making ... remain, and retain creation's giddy bliss. Among those diminishing neurons there lurks the irrational hope that the last book might be the best.\" Updike's most recent novel, \"The Widows of Eastwick,\" came out in 2008. A collection of stories, \"My Father's Tears and Other Stories,\" is due out later this year.","highlights":"John Updike, author of \"Rabbit\" books and \"The Witches of Eastwick,\" dies .\nUpdike, 76, had been suffering from lung cancer .\nPulitzer Prize winner was titan of American letters .","id":"3d6f02e5a73f1248c9274af8358f3ad010c820f0"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The trial of an Iraqi journalist charged with throwing his shoes at U.S. President George Bush has been postponed, Iraq's Council of Ministers and one of the journalist's lawyers said Tuesday. Amman protesters support Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist held for throwing his shoes at President Bush. Muntadhir Al-Zaidi was due to go on trial Wednesday, but the Criminal Court postponed it pending an appeal filed by his lawyers with the Federal Court of Appeal, a spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council, Abdul Sattar Bayrakdar, said. Dhiya al-Saadi, who leads Al-Zaidi's 25-member legal team, confirmed the postponement. Al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at Bush two weeks ago during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad. Neither shoe hit the president, and others in the room quickly knocked Al-Zaidi to the ground before security officials arrested him. Many Iraqis hail Al-Zaidi, who faces a prison term if convicted, as a hero. More than 1,000 lawyers have volunteered to defend him, al-Saadi said. The lawyers' appeal asked the Federal Court to change Al-Zaidi's case from assaulting Bush to insulting him. If Al-Zaidi is convicted of the former, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, al-Saadi said. The lawyers are trying to persuade the appeals court that Al-Zaidi did not want to harm Bush by throwing the shoes, but simply wanted to insult him. By tradition, throwing a shoe is the most insulting act in the Arab world. Al-Saadi said he met with his client several days ago but was having difficulty meeting with him again. He did not give the reason he was not allowed to see Al-Zaidi but said many lawyers have trouble meeting with detainees in Iraqi or U.S. custody. It will take at least two weeks for the court to set a new date for Al-Zaidi's trial, legal expert Tariz Harab said. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Trial of Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at U.S. President Bush delayed .\nMuntadhir Al-Zaidi faces jail if convicted; trial was due to start Wednesday .\nMany Iraqis hail the shoe thrower has a hero; mass protests followed his arrest .\nAt least two weeks before new trial date set, legal experts say .","id":"aa905ece59d1c439708984809017ac1ae6a03848"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Lynne Lucas is taking herself off the meat market. Monique Brown is sick of having to look cute all the time. And Scott Hayes is searching for his inner child. Imari Havard, co-founder of PlayDate, dances with some participants on the dance floor. It's Saturday night at PlayDate in Atlanta, Georgia, where 400 adults have gathered to play games, drink and socialize. \"It's not your usual bar scene where I look good, you look good, I'm scared to talk to you,\" Hayes says as he scans a giant Jenga tower for the right block to pull. \"You'll talk to anyone when you're playing games, because you're trying to beat them.\" Next to Hayes, Brown watches a rambunctious game of Pictionary while a twosome fights it out with Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots nearby. Across the room, Lucas joins her friends in a game of Trouble. And on the dance floor, Imari Havard is hula-hooping with some ladies. Havard is the co-founder of Timeless Entertainment Concepts, host of PlayDate, with Ryan Hill and Ronald Gaither. Timeless' mission is clear: provide a fun alternative to the typical nightlife scene for an entrance fee of just $10 per person. In other words, if you're looking for love in all the wrong places, try a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Tell us how your and your sweetheart first met . PlayDate began in Atlanta in 2005 and has slowly expanded from a monthly crowd of 80 to 500 twice a month in nine cities across the nation. The three men hope to start affiliates in another 20 markets this year. \"It's a pretty simple word-of-mouth advertising,\" Havard says of how they've made PlayDate so popular. \"The No. 1 question asked on a Monday morning, is 'How was your weekend?' The number two most popular question is 'What did you do?' Well, we've built our entire program around answering those questions.\" While Gaither takes care of the legal and administrative aspects, Hill and Havard attend events and deal with affiliates. The two opposites complement each other. Tonight, Hill wears a red polo shirt and jeans. Havard wears a stingy fedora and a pin-stripe suit jacket. Hill uses the words \"overhead,\" \"clientele\" and \"venue negotiation\" regularly in conversation. Havard is more likely to shout phrases like \"Patricia's in the house, y'all!\" And while Havard is swiveling his hula-hooping hips, Hill blends into the background. \"Someone has to have a respectful corporate face,\" Hill says as he laughs at Havard's antics. See photos from the event \u00bb . Meanwhile, Alisha Wheeler has on her game face. A man she just met is teaching her to play Scrabble, and it's not as easy as it looks. Wheeler found out about PlayDate on the Internet and decided to check it out. \"To be able to play games again and not be an adult for one night, it's kind of fun,\" she says. \"It's not the typical, uneasy having to go up to someone you don't know, because everyone has on these silly nametags, and [the games] are like an icebreaker.\" Todd Jones agrees. A PlayDate veteran, Jones has been coming to the events since they started three years ago. He's even attended launches in other cities and says the atmosphere is the same everywhere. \"When you go to a club, people will stand around. They're very defensive,\" Jones says. \"But here, you really have to intermingle.\" Gesturing to the six women he's playing Uno with, Jones says he doesn't come to PlayDate looking to hook up. \"I just come here really to have a good time. If something happens after that, then, fine.\" Havard says that's the basis of his company, Timeless, which also offers Paint By Numbers and Call Me UP. Paint By Numbers lets people socialize while painting a 100-square-foot mural. Call Me UP is a new interactive take on a stand-up comedy club. \"You go to a nightclub, a lot of times, that scene is the same,\" Havard says. \"It's too loud; it's too dark; it's too smoky. A lot of people have on their nightclub personas, so you don't get to know real people. What we've found with PlayDate is, it lets people let their guard down and be themselves. It's romantic, in a sense, because you begin to connect like you did when you were younger.\" Back on the dance floor, Havard narrates a game of musical chairs. As the music stops, a woman and man fight for the last chair. \"Girl, you've got a nice booty, but it ain't in the seat,\" Havard shouts into the microphone. \"Everybody say byyyyyeee!\" As the crowd shouts a farewell, Hill looks at his watch, shrugs proudly and smiles. \"It's not every day you can answer 'what do you do for a living?' with 'I have fun, and I make sure other people have fun, too,' \" he says. \"I mean, where else in the world would you see 30- and 40-year-olds playing musical chairs at midnight?\"","highlights":"PlayDate offers fun alternative to nightlife scene with board games, video games .\nTimeless Entertainment Concepts runs PlayDate, Paint By Numbers .\nPlayDate offers hula-hoops, musical chairs, Scrabble, Jenga, Pictionary .\nTo \"not be an adult for one night\" is kind of fun, participant says .","id":"5bd35a2e89c44679e2a720f3984293e31e340172"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps has acknowledged he engaged in \"regrettable\" behavior and \"demonstrated bad judgment,\" after a British newspaper published a photograph of the swimmer smoking from a bong. Sports attorney Ryan Smith thinks Michael Phelps should speak to public about his opposition to drug use. Ryan Smith, a sports attorney and BET talk show host, on Monday spoke to John Roberts on CNN's \"American Morning\" about how the incident could affect Phelps' career. John Roberts: What was your reaction to news of this picture of Michael Phelps surfacing? Ryan Smith: The thing with Michael Phelps is, he's not only been an outspoken athlete against drugs so he's done a lot of testing, he's been supportive of WADA, which is the World Anti-Doping Agency. But he's really a guy of high character. So you look at this, and my first thought was, \"What about his endorsement deals? What's going to happen in those?\" A lot of endorsement deals have clauses that say that you can't do bad actions like this, not only crimes, but just things that you do bad in public could result in the termination of your contract. So he could lose a lot of money on this. Roberts: Now he never really admitted to smoking marijuana. ... The United States Olympic Committee isn't going to sanction him, it looks like, but did call his actions disappointing. But to the greater issue that you were talking about, in terms of his endorsement deals, do you think anybody is going to say, well, this is the straw that broke the camel's back with this guy? He had one incident back in 2004. But are you going to dump Michael Phelps because of this picture? Smith: It could happen, and the reason why is because a lot of these companies that are sponsoring him really are focused on kids and how actions of their athletes affect children. So that can be a big problem. The other thing is, unlike an athlete that plays sports every year in the public spotlight, the Olympics for swimmers comes only every four years. So he doesn't have that chance to rehabilitate his image immediately like a lot of other athletes, a basketball player or a football player would. So companies might say, you know what, let's not work with Michael Phelps right now, because he doesn't really have a chance to redeem himself. A picture says a thousand words, and how can he fight that? Roberts: How could you turn this around? If you were his attorney, if you were advising him what would you do? Smith: The first thing I would suggest is a drug test. And I know that that's not required. And I also know that he's not really going to have a problem with swimming in 2012. But I would just show that hey, I'm clean, I'm doing great. The next thing I would do is go out there in the public and talk about the troubles with working with drugs and really show the public that you are not about drug use, you are not about doing bad things in public. You are only about supporting the rules of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and supporting their drug testing program. So you can show that, hey, this is a minor incident, not a big deal. And really what it's all about is remaining clean. Roberts: If you were to lay a bet, would you say anybody drops him? Smith: I would say he'll have some problems. I don't know if I would say that a big sponsor would drop him, but I would say that a more wholesome-oriented sponsor might.","highlights":"Michael Phelps could lose a lot of sponsor money, attorney says .\nNewspaper has published photo of Olympic swimmer using a bong .\nAttorney Ryan Smith would advise Phelps to get drug test .","id":"799d802bd5058e527271843e3992b67123319191"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Customs officials in Australia have cried fowl after searching a airline traveler -- and allegedly finding two live pigeons stuffed in his tights. Customs officials in Australia allege that a man tried to smuggle pigeons hidden in his tights. The 23-year-old man was stopped at Melbourne International Airport Sunday after arriving on a flight from Dubai, Australia's Customs and Border Protection service said in a statement posted on its Web site. The service alleges that two eggs were found inside a multivitamin container carried by the passenger, who comes from Melbourne. A further search revealed that he was wearing tights -- with a live bird stashed down each leg. Photographs show the birds appear to have been rolled in newspaper and polythene with only their heads showing. The images indicate that one bird was attached to each of the alleged smuggler's lower legs. Customs officials also claim that plant seeds were found in the man's moneybelt and undeclared eggplant in his baggage. \"Wildlife smuggling is not only cruel to the animals involved, it poses a severe risk to the Australian environment and the health of the Australian community,\" said Richard Janeczko, Customs and Border Protection National Manager Investigations. \"It is important that people declare all animal and plant materials to Customs and Border Protection when they enter Australia,\" Janeczko added. The service said that the maximum penalty for wildlife smuggling is 10 years imprisonment and\/or a A$110,000 ($70,000) fine.","highlights":"Customs officers stopped 23-year-old man as he returned from Dubai .\nPhotographs show live birds were rolled in newspaper and polythene .\nMaximum penalty for wildlife smuggling is 10 years jail and\/or $70,000 fine .","id":"68009d839eeb0d71f5ba12a308c15ddf858a1e6e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Questions continued to swirl Thursday over the president's decision to withdraw a pardon for a New York developer involved in a Long Island mortgage fraud scheme. President Bush withdrew the pardon of Isaac Toussie after a firestorm of criticism. Isaac Toussie, 36, was convicted in 2001 of mail fraud and of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development that stemmed from the mortgage scheme. The White House initially announced the pardon Tuesday afternoon, immediately setting off a firestorm of criticism from angry homeowners and investors, as well as government watchdog organizations quick to note Toussie's ties to prominent Republican officeholders. Among the questions now being asked are: . \u2022 Why didn't the White House conduct a more thorough investigation of Toussie's background? \u2022 Why did White House Counsel Fred Fielding circumvent the typical pardon application process by directly considering Toussie's clemency request instead of leaving it to the Justice Department? \u2022 Did Toussie get special treatment because of his political connections? Watch why Bush withdrew the pardon \u00bb . Toussie and his father, also a developer, are defendants in a lawsuit filed in New York federal court on behalf of more than 400 minority home purchasers who allege a conspiracy involving racial steering, racketeering and fraud related to homes the Toussies built on Staten Island, attorney Peter Seidman told CNN. Seidman, a partner in a law firm representing the plaintiffs, said he was \"very pleased\" with President Bush's order for a review of the pardon. \"It [the pardon] was a bitter pill for the home purchasers to swallow,\" he said. The Toussies had previously been accused of conspiring with lenders and others to build and sell substandard homes -- a charge they denied. According to a senior administration official, the White House learned new information about Toussie's case Tuesday night -- hours after the pardon was announced. Specifically, the White House learned, according to the official, \"additional information about the nature of fraud [Toussie] carried out.\" The White House also learned that Toussie's father had made numerous contributions to leading GOP politicians. In 2008, Toussie's father donated almost $40,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor. White House press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement Wednesday saying that \"based on information that has subsequently come to light,\" Bush had told the Justice Department's pardon attorney not to act on the pardon extended to Toussie. Instead, Perino said, \"The president believes that the pardon attorney should have an opportunity to review this case before a decision on clemency is made.\" While almost all pardon requests go through the Justice Department, the Constitution allows the president to grant a pardon or commutation to any individual for any reason. Perino said Toussie's pardon was withdrawn before it reached the final stage of the process. The president's request never made it to the pardon attorney, who actually executes the pardon requests. Bradford Berenson, Toussie's lawyer, issued a statement saying Toussie \"remains confident\" that the pardon attorney will find in his favor. Toussie was sentenced in September 2003 to a five-month prison sentence in the Long Island case, as well as three years of supervised release. Seidman told CNN that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Toussies allege that the quality of construction in homes they bought on Staten Island was inferior to that in the model homes upon which they had based their decision to buy. They also allege that their applications were coded by race, a violation of civil rights laws, and that they were steered away from racially integrated neighborhoods to segregated neighborhoods, he said. \"I'm baffled that Toussie was selected as a candidate for a pardon in the first place,\" Seidman said. \"So I don't know what I would say about the re-examination, other than why in the first place they thought he was worthy.\" The Toussies deny the allegations in the lawsuit. An administration official noted it is rare for a pardon to be reversed. Bush's 189 pardons and nine commutations are far fewer than those granted by Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan in either of their two-term administrations. Bush's planned pardon of Toussie was one of 19 presidential pardons announced earlier this week. CNN's Kevin Bohn, Elaine Quijano and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Isaac Toussie was involved in mortgage scheme in New York .\nAnswers wanted about how thorough of an investigation there was before his pardon .\nQuestions remain about whether pardon was due in part to political connections .\nWhite House learned Toussie's father made contributions to top GOP politicians .","id":"2d219b6cf528e73c406bdcd6e90db9ced720df6f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman who has been in a vegetative state for nearly 17 years was transferred to a private clinic Tuesday where she is expected to die -- ending what has been a lengthy and controversial legal fight. A portrait of Eluana Englaro taken in July 2008 in Italy. Englaro has been in a vegetative state for nearly 17 years. Eluana Englaro suffered irreversible brain damage in a car crash in 1992, when she was 20 years old. For years, her father has fought to have her feeding tube removed, saying it would be a dignified end to his daughter's life. Beppino Englaro says that before the crash, his daughter visited a friend who was in a coma and told him she didn't want the same thing to happen to her should she ever be in the same state. Euthanasia is illegal in Italy, but patients have the right to refuse treatment. It is on that basis that Englaro argued his daughter should be allowed to die, because she had expressed the wish not to be kept alive while in a coma -- indirectly refusing treatment, he said. \"We knew Eluana well, and we always thought of her as a champion of freedom,\" her father said in October. \"She had clear ideas about her life and for her, life was about freedom -- not an obligation to live.\" A series of legal battles finally ended in November, when Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation, upheld a lower court ruling allowing Englaro to suspend his daughter's treatment. But although Englaro had cleared the last legal hurdle, the court's decision sparked a new fight to find a hospital or clinic that would take out Eluana's feeding tube. Several clinics initially came forward to say they could do it, but the Italian health minister then issued a decree to remind them of their duty of care. Under pressure to adhere to his decree, the clinics backed off. Finally, a private clinic in the northeastern Italian city of Udine agreed to assist in Eluana's case. Monday night, Eluana was transferred from the church-run hospital in Lecco, north of Milan, where she had been kept alive to the Udine clinic. A handful of protesters tried to block the ambulance carrying Eluana from leaving the clinic, one of them holding a banner reading, \"Only thieves and assassins act at night.\" The case has been a controversial one in Italy, a heavily Catholic country where the Vatican has great influence. Last Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims that \"euthanasia is a false solution to suffering.\" Tuesday morning, a top Vatican official was quoted in the Italian media saying, \"Stop the killer hands.\" The Udine clinic says the removal of Eluana's tube will begin in about three days, and the process of allowing her to die will take about 20 days. Clinic officials gave police an outline of the specific steps they are going to take with Eluana during that time. The outline adheres to the Cassation Court's ruling, which required certain steps and conditions once Eluana's feeding tube is removed. Among the steps and conditions was a rule that no video or photography may be taken and that only certain people may enter the patient's room.","highlights":"Eluana Englaro has been in a coma for 17 years after a car crash .\nEnglaro was transferred to a private clinic Tuesday where she is expected to die .\nHer father has fought for years to have her feeding tube removed .","id":"058568ee39ad194f5161a08a88ebcc8ee5223c41"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German investigators Thursday acknowledged \"credible information\" indicating that one of the world's most wanted Nazi war criminals died almost 20 years ago in Egypt. The former the hotel in Cairo where Heim spent his final days. The announcement from the Baden-Wuerttemberg State Criminal Investigations Office came a day after German public broadcaster ZDF reported similar findings about Aribert Heim, wanted since 1962. ZDF said research it conducted with the New York Times showed that Heim died in Cairo in 1992 of intestinal cancer. Witness accounts and documents, including a passport, prove that Heim lived under the false name of Tarek Farid Hussein, ZDF said. CNN spoke to Heim's son, Ruediger Heim, who said his father fled Germany to Egypt via France, Spain and Morocco. Ruediger Heim told CNN he visited his father in Cairo several times, including in the final weeks of his life when the terminal cancer was discovered. The German investigators said they were was checking the new information. \"This information has not yet been verified due to time constraints,\" the office said in a statement. But German authorities said they already had hints that Heim was living and working in Egypt. The office said it received information in 1965 and 1967 indicating Heim was working in the country, but Egyptian authorities at the time, acting on a German request, did not find any conclusive evidence. \"Our main goal now is, in cooperation with the Egyptian authorities, (to) identify the remains of Aribert Heim,\" the office said. The chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, said the news about Heim's death, if true, is deeply disappointing. \"I personally feel a tremendous sense of disappointment that he escaped justice,\" Zuroff told CNN. But he emphasized that he had not seen the evidence that Heim was dead. \"There is no body and no grave, so we can't do a DNA test,\" he said, adding that \"there are people who have a vested interest in convincing us that he is no longer alive.\" He said he expects to see the documentary evidence of Heim's death on Thursday. Heim would be 94 years old if he were still alive. Zuroff described Heim as \"the most wanted Nazi war criminal,\" and said the Simon Wiesenthal Center was about to raise the reward for information about him from \u20ac315,000 ($405,000) to \u20ac1 million ($1.3 million) when it heard the reports of his death. During World War II Heim was a doctor at the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was known to inmates as \"Dr. Death\" for performing often-fatal experiments on prisoners. After the war, he was initially cleared of wrongdoing, but in 1962 German authorities issued an arrest warrant for him. CNN Berlin Bureau Chief Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report .","highlights":"German broadcaster reports Nazi hiding in Egypt died in 1992 .\nAribert Heim known to inmates as \"Dr. Death\" performed experiments on prisoners .\nZDF reports he lived lived in Cairo as Tarek Farid Hussein; died of cancer .\nNazi hunter groups says it expects to see documentary evidence Thursday .","id":"2ca9f740485581f77409191fc97b1f1681e3cf66"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama claimed the second major legislative victory of his young administration Wednesday, signing a bill to provide federally funded health care to an estimated 4 million children. President Obama says the SCHIP bill is a downpayment on his \"commitment to cover every single American.\" The final version of the new law, which expands the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by roughly $35 billion over the next five years, passed a sharply polarized House of Representatives earlier in the day, with almost every Democrat voting in favor of the expansion and most Republicans opposing it. With the bill, Obama said at a White House ceremony, \"We fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have -- to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children.\" The president said the bill was a downpayment on his \"commitment to cover every single American.\" The SCHIP expansion is Obama's second major legislative win in less than a week. The first was Thursday's approval of the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Equity Act, which makes it easier to sue employers for wage-based discrimination. Learn more about the SCHIP program \u00bb . The expansion is also a sign of the strength of Washington's new Democratic majority. Former President George W. Bush vetoed two similar health care bills in 2007, arguing that the legislation would encourage families to leave the private insurance market for the federally funded, state-run program. Before the bill's passage, SCHIP covered almost 7 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid -- the federal health insurance program for the poor -- but who can't afford private insurance. The new law boosts total SCHIP funding to approximately $60 billion. The expanded program will be financed with a 62-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes. \"This is a day worthy of celebration. There can be no greater cause ... than protecting the well-being of our nation's children,\" New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the legislation's primary House author, said shortly before the bill's final passage on a 290-135 vote. Passing the health program's expansion is \"morally the right thing to do by our children,\" said freshman Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Virginia. \"At a time when the cost of health care is crushing America's families ... this is an important lifeline.\" Opponents of the legislation argued that, among other things, it will allow undocumented immigrants to illegally access taxpayer-financed health care, and is insufficiently funded. \"This will go out of control just like all the other [entitlement] programs have, and our children will pay,\" Rep. Jack Linder, R-Georgia, warned during the House debate Wednesday. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, ripped the bill as a \"foundation stone for socialized medicine in the United States,\" arguing that raising the income limit for SCHIP eligibility will serve as the basis for a massive expansion of government-run health care. The Senate passed the expansion Friday in a 66-32 vote. All those voting against the bill were Republicans, though nine Republicans voted in favor of the measure.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama signs State Children's Health Insurance Program into law .\nHouse approves the bill in vote that falls largely along party lines .\nSCHIP passed the Senate last week .\nSCHIP makes additional 4 million kids eligible for federally funded health insurance .","id":"642ef9066835ec36bc2bca620b4cee571fe8d1ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lanka's president declared Wednesday that the country's Tamil insurgents are on the verge of total defeat, saying their demise has helped unite the island nation on the 61st anniversary of its independence. Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa . \"We are today a nation that has defeated a powerful enemy that stood before us,\" Mahinda Rajapaksa said in his independence day speech. \"Our entire nation is now united in the shade of the national flag.\" But in other parts of his speech, Rajapaksa indicated that the fight against the Tamil Tiger rebels was not over. \"I am confident that in a few days we will decisively defeat the terrorist force that many repeatedly kept saying was invincible,\" he said. In another part of the speech, he said, government forces over the past two and a half years have \"been able ... to almost completely defeat\" the rebel forces. Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa rejected calls Wednesday for a negotiated end to the fighting. He said there would be no political solution, the online edition of The Island reported. Some in the international community have suggested negotiations to give the rebels an opportunity to surrender. That idea is ridiculous, an angry Rajapaksa told The Island, emphasizing that nothing short of unconditional surrender of arms and cadres could end the offensive on the Vanni front. Government troops and Tamil rebels are locked in a battle for the remaining rebel strongholds in the north of Sri Lanka, where the the country's ethnic Tamil minority has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983. Watch a report on risks facing journalists in Sri Lanka \u00bb . Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area where the fighting is taking place, and the onslaught has intensified as government forces have closed in on the rebels. Aid agencies have asked for increased access to the region, calling conditions in northern Sri Lanka a nightmarish situation. The fighting has forced the closure of Pudukkudiyiruppu hospital in the Vanni region, the last functioning medical facility in the conflict zone.","highlights":"Government troops, rebels battling for remaining rebel strongholds in north .\nAid groups say as many as 250,000 civilians are trapped in the area .\nLast functioning medical facility in the conflict zone has closed .\nEthnic Tamil minority fighting for an independent homeland since 1983 .","id":"b8b5ea3238e180f7726f12c821a4b4aad9f1495d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Days after thick snow brought London to a standstill, the traditional drizzle has returned and it is business as usual in the bustling British capital. The snowmen who populated London during the heaviest snowfall in 18 years are looking worse for wear. The pavement might be slippery with ice but the resumption of the bus and rail services means that you'll at least be able to move around the city. All airports in the south are operating normally -- albeit with some delays -- so there's no excuse to stay away. With that in mind, CNN Business Traveller has compiled a guide for visitors to the city. It is still wise to bring an umbrella, but this week you may want to throw in a couple of ski poles. Time zone: London is currently on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and eight hours behind Hong Kong. From the airport: Non-stop train services link Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted aiports with central London. The Heathrow Express takes 15 minutes to Paddington Station and costs from $24 (\u00a316.50) for a single journey. The London Underground costs only $6 (\u00a34) but takes an hour. A breakfast meeting: Visitors with a healthy budget and appetite might want to start the day at the Grand Caf\u00e9 in The Wolseley (160 Piccadilly, W1J) where you where you can buy a traditional fry-up or \"The English\" for just shy of $20 (\u00a313.50). A budget option with no less of a London flavor can be found at the The Cock Tavern (East Poultry Avenue, EC1A) in the heart of Smithfield Market. Meat has been traded there for 800 years and early in the morning you can still see butchers plying their trade in bloodied coats. For dinner: Impress with a table at one of London's most famous restaurants, Le Gavroche (43 Upper Brook Street, W1K) or Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's (Brook Street, W1K) . For a cheaper option try a traditional pie and mash shop, the once staple of working class East London life. One of the oldest is M Manze (87 Tower Bridge Road, SE1) that sells jellied eels as well as pie and mash amid the traditional decor of tiled walls, wooden benches and white marble table-tops. For a drink: Two of the oldest London pubs include Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (145 Fleet Street, EC4A) in the City of London and The Prospect of Whitby (57 Wapping Wall, E1W) a short walk along the Thames from Canary Wharf. For one of the best hotel bars try the Lanesborough (Hyde Park Corner, SW1X) and One Aldwych (1 Aldwych, WC2B). High-flyers can also take in the view over a drink at Vertigo 42, the champagne bar atop Tower 42 (25 Old Broad Street, EC2N). Tipping: Expect to tip around 10 percent in restaurants and cabs, but no tips are expected in bars. On a fine afternoon (they do exist): Visit St James's Park to seek out its pelicans and to catch a view of Buckingham Palace from the bridge on the lake. Then walk via Westminster Abbey to Waterloo Bridge for spectacular views of The Palace of Westminster, Somerset House and Victoria Embankment. Finish with a ride on the London Eye. Staying dry: Improve your swing at one of London's indoor golf centers. Urban Golf (Soho and Smithfield) features eight simulators, two putting greens, a bar and lounge and coaching. Shelter can also be found in some of London's iconic department stores. Harrods and Harvey Nichols are both in Knightsbridge. Opening hours: Most shops and businesses are open from 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Larger stores in central London stay open till 7 p.m or 8 p.m. and later on Thursdays. What to avoid: The crowds of tourists in Leicester Square, the Trocadero and the ubiquitous Scottish Steakhouses in London's West End. Transport: Be warned: a single-stop tube journey in central London costs $8 (\u00a34). To save money buy an Oyster card, which can be used on London's underground (\u00a31.60 per single-stop journey), buses, trams and some overland rail services. Black cabs can be hailed anywhere. Fares are high but the pay-off is that all drivers must pass the \"Knowledge\" -- an in-depth exam on navigating around London -- which means they really do know where they are going. Don't miss in February: In 2009 the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (Richmond, TW9) is celebrating its 250th anniversary with a \"Tropical Extravaganza\" of exotic plants in one of its conservatories. The Natural History Museum (Cromwell Road, SW7) is commemorating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth and 150th year of the publication of On the Origin of Species with a major exhibition. A number of star-studded plays have also just opened in London's theatreland. Imelda Staunton, star of Harry Potter, is in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane (Trafalgar Studios until April 11). James McAvoy is in Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain (Apollo Theatre until May 2). What to pack: February is a particularly bleak and cold month in Britain so pack an umbrella and warm clothes. For a handy keepsake of the city, buy an umbrella on arrival from James Smith & Sons (53 New Oxford Street, WC1A). The shop has hardly changed since it opened in 1830 and offers an impressive range of umbrellas and essential gentlemen's accessories. Oh, and don't forget to pack thermals and some decent footwear. What are your tips for London visitors? Sound Off below .","highlights":"London buses, trains, airports operating after heaviest snowfall in 18 years .\nCNN's Business Traveller offers advice for business travellers in London .\nIndulge in a traditional pie and mash, stay dry by playing indoor golf, shopping .\nIf you're planning on using the underground system, buy an Oyster card .","id":"13532f045a97e894b1f31e22283ae5ebd8874873"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yahoo! announced Monday that the search is on for the Internet giant's next CEO. Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder, speaks at an electronics show in Las Vegas in January. The new CEO will replace Yahoo! co-founder, Jerry Yang, who assumed the position in June 2007 and has since come under fire for failing to turn around the company. Yang will step down when a replacement is selected. Just two weeks ago at the Web 2.0 Summit, Yang was asked if he was the right guy to lead the battered portal. Yang dodged the question by defending his passion for the company he co-founded 13 years ago. \"I didn't make the decision of being the CEO lightly,\" he said. \"I wanted to make a change at Yahoo! that I believe I can make ... That's a dream that I felt I could achieve by being CEO and that's still the dream today.\" Now, Yang plans to return to his former role as \"Chief Yahoo\" and will still have a seat on the board, Yahoo! said. During his short tenure, Yahoo! has had two major rounds of layoffs and has seen its search market share shrink significantly while a series of reorganizations led to the departure of senior executives. Wall Street and shareholders criticized Yang for falling short of reaching an agreement to sell the company to Microsoft. Yang also was taken to task when Google pulled out of a controversial ad agreement earlier this month that would have boosted Yahoo's revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars. Yahoo! said the search for a new CEO will encompass both internal and external candidates. \"Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,\" said Chairman Roy Bostock. \"Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level.\"","highlights":"Jerry Yang plans to resume his former role as \"Chief Yahoo\"\nThe Yahoo! co-founder will still have a seat on the board .\nYang criticized for not reaching deal to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft .\nYang took over as CEO in June 2007 .","id":"97188a264a3a3da9a4fc95f8aae9243038a2be1e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital. A group of men push a giant snowball across Kensington Gardens, west London Monday. Heathrow, one of the busiest transport hubs in the world, closed both its runways for more than two hours Monday morning and operated with just one for the rest of the morning, according to BAA, the company which runs it. London City airport is also closed, while the British capital's other two airports, Stansted and Gatwick, were operating with severe delays, BAA said. British Airways canceled all flights out of Heathrow until 5 p.m. except for Edinburgh and Lisbon routes. Send your iReport videos, stories . One of the city's largest cab companies was in such high demand it stopped taking cash and credit card bookings, serving only customers with accounts, it said. Dial-a-Cab, which has a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles, served mainly blue-chip companies trying to get employees into work, said Keith Cain a Control Room manager for the company. Customers waited up to an hour and a half for a cab early in the morning, he said. See gallery of UK under snow \u00bb . Jochen Jaeger, 36, found himself stranded at Heathrow, unable to fly home to Zurich or to get back into the apartment he rented in London. \"I will stay here at the airport,\" he told CNN. \"There is no other option. I may have to spend the night here.\" American businessman Ken Plunkett, 60, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was trying to fly out from Heathrow Airport but found himself caught in the weather chaos. \"I know England does not have the infrastructure to remove snow like we do in Minnesota,\" he said. Watch passenger stranded by snow \u00bb . Jenny Leslie, a shop worker at Heathrow's Terminal 2, said it was so quiet at the airport \"you can hear a pin drop.\" Southampton Airport, southwest of London, was also closed for several hours Monday morning, but re-opened by 1200 GMT. But many people in the city were delighted by the unusual weather. \"Londoners of all ages are childishly happy to be making snowmen and having snowball fights. Bankers of all ages are throwing snowballs in the middle of the residential streets,\" Monica Majumdar told CNN in an iReport. She lived in New York before moving to London four years ago, and was surprised by how little snow it took to bring the British capital to a standstill. \"I have seen snow like this. But somehow, it's more beautiful here. It's partly due to the fact that even Londoners are amazed by the snow -- so there is a general air of surrealism,\" she said via e-mail. \" I do feel like I'm in a Christmas snowglobe, with all the iconic London monuments blanketed by the powdered snow.\" London's famous red buses were pulled off the roads on Sunday night as the snow got deeper. It was the first time \"in living memory\" that all city bus service had been suspended, including when London was being bombed during World War II, a spokesman for the city's transit agency, Transport for London, said. \"Bus services were suspended throughout London last night on the grounds of passenger safety due to the unsafe road conditions resulting in a large number of traffic incidents across London,\" the agency said in a statement Monday morning. Watch London grind to a halt \u00bb . About six million people ride London buses each day, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. London Mayor Boris Johnson suspended the \u00a38 ($11.30) daily congestion charge drivers normally pay to enter central London, the city transport authority said. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. The city's subway system was also experiencing severe delays, leaving normally bustling central London something of a ghost town. On a regular weekday, London's transit system handles more than three million passenger journeys. The Federation of Small Businesses estimated that at least one in five workers nationwide -- about 6.4 million employees -- failed to make it into work Monday morning. But the figure was estimated to be far higher -- around two in five -- in London and southeast England, which is home to around a fifth of all British businesses. Monday's disruptions are likely to cost businesses \u00a31.2 billion ($1.7 billion), FSB spokesman Stephen Alambritis told CNN. Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, issued severe weather warnings for all of England and much of Scotland and Wales for both Monday and Tuesday. It reported 20cm of snow in Balham, south London, and 15cm at Canary Wharf in east London. The last time such widespread snowfall affected Britain was in February 1991, the Met Office said. Watch iReport on snowy Stonehenge. The snow meant a break from school for the region's children as classes gave way to snowball fights. In the southern English seaside resort of Brighton there was a carnival atmosphere as dozens of people who were unable to get to work threw snowballs and built snowmen on the beach. Mother-of-three Fiona Robbins, 45, added: \"Everyone is very excited to be able to show their children proper snow for the first time.\" Tuesday's forecast is expected to bring some relief, with the snow expected to stop and temperatures to rise above freezing. Two climbers were found dead Monday morning on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, after being reported missing Sunday night, North Wales Police said. It was not clear if their deaths were related to the storm. CNN Business Assignment Editor Alysen Miller, Laura Perez Maestro, Simon Hooper and Olivia Feld in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK business spokesman: Disruptions would likely cost $1.7 billion .\nMeteorologists said snow is worst in southeastern England in 18 years .\nMajor international airports including Heathrow, Gatwick badly affected .\nUK weather service issues severe weather warnings for Monday, Tuesday .","id":"f99fb23e7031d50818dfb62c398b4363250f0213"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fire on the back porch of a home in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was the town's 18th arson fire of the year, authorities determined Wednesday morning. The latest in a string of arson fires was quickly extinguished on a back porch of this Coatesville house. John Hageman from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the small fire broke out about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday in the eastern Pennsylvania town. Four other fires were deliberately set Saturday in neighboring communities in surrounding Chester County, according to the ATF. They were ignited on the front and side porches of homes, officials said. None of the homes was completely lost, Hageman said. The Coatesville arsons have received national attention. At least 30 fires have been deliberately set in Coatesville in 2008 and 2009. Of those, more than half have occurred in the past four weeks. The string of arson fires has rattled residents, who have demanded action from City Hall and fire officials. A county task force is investigating the arsons and looking into other fires near Coatesville, which is about 40 miles west of Philadelphia. Fire swept through 15 homes in the town during the weekend of January 24 and 25, authorities said. Coatesville has a population of about 11,000.","highlights":"Back porch fire is ruled an arson in Coatesville, Pennsylvania .\nThe town, population 11,000, has had 18 arsons so far this year .\nAt least 30 fires were deliberately set in the town in 2008 and 2009 .\nFire swept through 15 Coatesville homes the weekend of January 24-25 .","id":"655b07004407ec282b84176a595c015b64a1f3a6"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon outlined a series of economic recovery measures Wednesday, including freezing gasoline prices for the rest of the year and lowering natural gas prices by 10 percent. Mexican President Felipe Calderon announces his economic recovery proposals on Wednesday. Calderon also announced an ambitious agenda to help rebuild the nation's highways, bridges and other public-use facilities. The National Infrastructure Program, as he called it, will spend 570 billion pesos ($42 billion). Petroleos Mexicanos, the nationally owned oil industry, will receive an additional 17 billion pesos ($1.2 billion). Calderon made his wide-ranging announcement in a nationally televised speech attended by his wife, Cabinet members, governors and other public and private officials. He said Mexico is in better shape this year to fight off recession than it was in previous instances. The recovery plan will address five areas: employment aid, family finances, competitiveness, infrastructure, and actions toward public spending that is more transparent and efficient. In all, Calderon promised to spend billions of pesos to help Mexicans weather the global financial storm. For example, Calderon pledged 2.6 billion pesos ($193 million) to improve a Social Security program for unemployed Mexicans, increasing from two months to six months the time they will receive medical and maternity coverage. Other programs he announced also carried hefty price tags. The government will spend 2.2 billion pesos ($163 million) to help Mexicans who are unemployed or underemployed, Calderon said. The recovery measure includes financing to help poor families buy more energy-efficient electrical appliances. The government will set aside 750 million pesos ($55 million) to pay 50 percent of the costs of replacing old appliances. To help businesses, the federal government will make at least 20 percent of its purchases from small- and medium-size companies, Calderon said. The government also will establish a 5 billion peso ($372 million) fund to start a \"Made in Mexico\" program for businesses to sell supplies to the national petroleum industry.","highlights":"Mexico leader says gasoline prices will be frozen for rest of year .\nAlso planned is ambitious program to rebuild nation's infrastructure .\nBillions of pesos will be spent to help Mexicans weather financial storm .\nPlan also calls for steps to aid small- and medium-size companies .","id":"deb1b2f9b06a105185435f58e2677de3f670b053"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created to help individuals realize the American dream of home ownership, but they now find their survival at risk in the U.S. mortgage crisis. Steps to shore up FannieMae and Freddie Mac could eventually stabilize home prices. Friday's closure of California-based IndyMac bank by federal regulators on Friday sparked investor panic that sent shares of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a wild ride and fueled speculation of a government rescue. On Sunday, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve announced steps to make funds available to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if necessary. IndyMac, which reopened Monday under federal supervision, was once one of the nation's largest home lenders. Thanks in part to the nation's mortgage crisis, it lost hundreds of millions of dollars this year and last, and concerns about the bank led customers to withdraw $1.3 billion in the last two weeks, prompting the government takeover. Below, CNN's Ali Velshi and Gerri Willis answer questions about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and IndyMac and how you may be affected. Q: What are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and what do they do? A: Originally chartered by Congress, both were converted into private companies with shares traded on Wall Street. Neither company directly loans money to prospective home buyers. Instead, they buy mortgages from banks and other lenders on the secondary market, thus freeing up more funds to home lenders. They resell bundled loans as mortgage-backed securities. Read more about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac \u00bb . Combined, the two companies own or guarantee almost half of the home loans in the United States, or $5.3 trillion of mortgage debt. Q: How did they get their names? A: Fannie Mae was created in 1938, during the Great Depression. The nickname comes from the acronym FNMA, which stands for Federal National Mortgage Association. Freddie Mac was chartered by Congress as a private corporation in 1970 to end Fannie Mae's monopoly over the secondary mortgage market. The name Freddie Mac spawns from the acronym FHLMC, or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Q: What's the connection between the IndyMac takeover and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? A: Nothing, except both crises stem from the same problem: a drop in home prices and the inability of mortgage-holders to make their payments, thereby leaving banks (whether it was IndyMac, an actual lender, or Fannie\/Freddie, the secondary banks that had bought mortgages) holding the bag. Q: Will the government's actions change the value of my home? A: Steps the federal government is taking to shore up Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is ultimately a positive for the housing industry. Although it won't happen overnight, housing prices could be stabilized by the move. The reason? These two institutions are critical to the smooth functioning of the mortgage underwriting industry. Q: Is my money safe in the bank? A: Up to certain limits, money is safe in banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC guarantees traditional bank accounts up to $100,000 and individual retirement accounts up to $250,000. Money beyond those limits isn't guaranteed if a bank fails. In the case of IndyMac, the FDIC says it will cover 50 percent of uninsured balances there. But as a practical matter, consumers shouldn't count on that. Bottom line: Owning accounts with amounts that exceed the FDIC limits is like driving without a seat belt. Watch: Is your bank safe? \u00bb . Q: How are the government's moves to help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going to affect mortgages, loans and the federal budget deficit? A: Shoring up Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is good news for consumer lending lending generally because it boosts confidence in the mortgage markets. If you already have a loan, it's won't have immediate consequences. We don't yet know if it will be successful and how much the two entities might take advantage of the federal governments offer to lend them money. For that reason, it's difficult to say what the impact might be on the federal budget deficit. Suffice it to say, however, that the buck always seems to stop with the American taxpayer.","highlights":"Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac own or guarantee almost half of U.S. home loans .\nGovernment announces steps to shore up mortgage giants if necessary .\nSteps could stabilize home prices .","id":"af9906a58acb1933a0fe149498260576045f38f8"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has asked Thailand to permit greater freedom for thousands of refugees stuck in camps after fleeing neighboring Myanmar, according to a U.N. statement released Friday. Angellina Jolie and Brad Pitt visited refugees in northern Thailand on Wednesday. Jolie and actor Brad Pitt traveled to a refugee camp in northern Thailand on Wednesday in effort to draw international attention to what the U.N. has called \"restricted\" movement of roughly 111,000 refugees housed in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, the statement said. Jolie has spent several years as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. She said her passion for helping refugees, whom she calls \"the most vulnerable people in the world,\" was sparked in 2001 during visits to Cambodia.\" The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have fled to northern Thailand's Mae Hong Son province between 2006 and 2007. A recent CNN investigation found evidence of the Thai army towing an apparent boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees -- a Muslim minority group from Myanmar -- out to sea, prompting Thai authorities to launch an investigation. CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Angelina Jolie calls on Thai leaders to grant more freedom to refugees .\nThousands of refugees are stuck in camps after fleeing Myanmar .\nJolie is currently goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees .","id":"d4f0f67b36d2d3d13d64005e179932dec52669f7"} -{"article":"CNN -- Years ago, a frustrated boy with a violent temper attacked his own mother with a hammer (his older brother restrained him). He stabbed a schoolmate over a dispute about which radio station to listen to; the knife blade luckily hit a belt buckle. Carson wants to continue educational efforts and find ways to reform the health care system when he retires. That brash teen today is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Dr. Benjamin S. Carson made medical history in 1987 by performing the first successful surgery that separated twins conjoined at the back of the head. He also became known for his expertise in pediatric brain tumors and methods of controlling seizures. In 2008, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this country's highest civilian honor. Having come up from the streets of Detroit, Michigan, to receiving an award at the White House, Carson, 56, works to spread his gospel of education and hard work to motivate others. He and his wife, Candy, started a scholarship foundation to help children with strong academics and humanitarian qualities to pay for college. \"I have at least 100,000 letters from kids and adults from around the world ... telling me how it changed their lives,\" Carson said. Their tales of transformations and redemption inspire him to keep talking about educational empowerment and overcoming adversity, he said. An obstacle is a hurdle, and \"you jump over it,\" Carson said. \"Every time you see a hurdle, you jump over it, and it strengthens you for the next one. And if that's the case, you lead a victorious life, because whatever comes before you, you know you're going to get around it.\" Carson was raised in Detroit, majored in psychology at Yale University and attended medical school at the University of Michigan, where he studied neurosurgery. Carson's life has been told through plays, books and movies, including a TNT made-for-TV movie called \"Gifted Hands,\" which airs Saturday. (TNT is part of Turner Broadcasting, which also owns CNN.) The biopic stars Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carson. \"I think he's an angel, a gift from God,\" Gooding said. \"He has touched a lot of people's lives.\" Carson holds more than 50 honorary doctorates and hundreds of other awards. He's fortunate, he acknowledges, but this doctor does not believe in luck. \"I always say you make your own luck by being prepared,\" he said. His mom pushed him hard. Sonya Carson \"would not accept the victim mentality. She wouldn't let us accept the victim mentality. No excuses. She didn't make excuses, and she didn't accept excuses,\" Carson said. She turned off the TV, sent Carson and his brother to the library and made them write weekly book reports. Meanwhile, she worked several jobs to support her two sons. She is now 80 and lives with Carson in Baltimore, Maryland. When Carson was young, he was influenced by stories about Booker T. Washington, a former slave who taught himself to read and later advised presidents, and the biblical character Joseph, who persevered though his brothers sold him into slavery. \"Those kinds of stories had an impact on me and helped me to believe it's not where you started, it's where you end that counts. And you have a whole lot to do with that,\" he said. \"Everybody has problems. They just come in different forms. If that problem for you becomes a containing fence, then you become a victim. Once you think you're a victim, you are one, and you're not going anywhere.\" In the same way, Carson's biography has resonated with people like 22-year-old Douglas Nivens II of Baltimore, Maryland. Nivens' mother was killed when he was 4 years old, and his father was imprisoned for her murder. His aunt raised him, and he endured relentless teasing for his interest in academics while attending public schools in Baltimore City. During middle school, Nivens picked up Carson's autobiography, \"Gifted Hands,\" and immediately identified with it. \"It was a relief to see someone grew up in the city and didn't have a luxurious life but overcame it all,\" he said. \"I love stories about underdogs, those who overcome adversity and do something.\" When he was in middle school, Nivens won two $1,000 scholarships from the Carson Scholars Fund, which helps children with strong academics pay for college. \"When it came to times of doubt during high school, when I talked to my adviser, they would say, 'You got this award. Not everyone gets it. You're not dumb. You have the tools to be successful in life,' \" Nivens said. \"That's what really helped me in terms of self-esteem and management in high school.\" He graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in May. \"I probably should not be where I am,\" said Nivens, a budget analyst for the U.S. Social Security Administration. \"I went to Baltimore public schools. My father's in jail; my mother is dead. Statistically, I should not be here. I should be on parole somewhere or even dead. I never looked at it that way. I made it through.\" Carson said he's heartened by stories pf people who've been inspired by his biography. \"My message is that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you,\" Carson said. \"Not somebody else, and not the environment. If you have a normal brain, you're capable of incredible things.\"","highlights":"Doctor overcame troubled youth to head pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins .\nCarson won Medal of Freedom and shares his biography to motivate others .\nSurgeon's biography inspired Baltimore, Maryland, teen that anything is possible .","id":"2bec0803b7a8d6dfc514a988724c15031a96def1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Ashley Judd says a wolf management program backed by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is \"incredibly savage ... it's not right, it's not appropriate, it makes no sense on any level.\" Ashley Judd is criticizing the aerial hunting of wolves, a program supported by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Appearing on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" Judd repeated her criticism of a program that allows hunters firing from aircraft to shoot wolves to thin the numbers of the animals. Judd recently appeared in a video for the Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which also opposes the Palin-backed aerial hunting program. Referring to the former Republican vice presidential candidate by name in the video, Judd says that Palin is \"championing the slaughter of wildlife.\" \"When Sarah Palin came on the national scene last summer, few knew that she promotes the brutal aerial killing of wolves,\" Judd says in the video, adding, \"It is time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery.\" Palin responded on Tuesday, releasing a statement calling Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund an \"extreme fringe group,\" and saying, \"It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money.\" Watch why Judd, Palin are trading barbs \u00bb . Judd said Alaska's program is a \"distortion\" of wildlife hunting under normal circumstances, and that the program attracts \"urban hunters, trophy hunters from out of state.\" Palin did not appear on \"Larry King Live,\" but Rod Arno, executive director of the Alaska Outdoor Council, told King by telephone that only Alaska residents can participate in the aerial wolf-hunting program, and then they must obtain a state permit. The purpose of the program is to facilitate control of Alaska's wolf population, which preys on moose and caribou, Arno said. \"The only criticism is from people who aren't up here participating in a predator-prey scheme,\" he said. Judd was accompanied by Rodger Schlickeisen, CEO of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, and he said \"hundreds\" of scientists have criticized the aerial hunting program. Schlickeisen suggested that Palin's government allow television crews to videotape the hunting process \"and you could put this out for all the people in American to see and she (Palin) could proudly stand up for it.\"","highlights":"Ashley Judd criticizes Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for supporting aerial wolf hunting .\nIn video, Judd says Palin is \"championing the slaughter of wildlife\"\nSupporters say hunting program is used to control Alaska's wolf population .","id":"8c55b69bd82f39eadba5a08429f6ffe79933823f"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A recently retired Mexican army general whose bullet-riddled body was found Tuesday near Cancun had taken over as the area's top antidrug official less than 24 hours earlier, officials said. A soldier guards the forensics office where the body of a slain former general was taken in Cancun, Mexico. Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Qui\u00f1onez, his aide and a driver were tortured before being killed, said Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo. He said there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime. \"The general was the most mistreated,\" Rodriguez said at a Tuesday night news conference monitored by El Universal newspaper. \"He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken.\" An autopsy revealed Tello also suffered broken knees and was shot 11 times, Mexico City's Excelsior newspaper said. Tello had just been appointed a special drug-fighting consultant for Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, the mayor of the Benito Juarez municipality, which includes the city of Cancun. Tello, who retired from the army in January at the mandatory age of 63, had moved to the resort area three weeks ago. The three victims were found inside a white Toyota pickup truck outside of Cancun on the road to Merida. The truck belongs to the Benito Juarez municipality, Excelsior said, citing Luis Raymundo Canche, an assistant prosecutor for Quintana Roo state. The three men were abducted Monday night, possibly in Cancun, tortured and then later shot to death, El Universal said, citing prosecutor Rodriguez. The bodies were found with their hands bound, the newspaper said. The killings happened around 4 a.m., the prosecutor said. The other two victims were identified as Lt. Julio Cesar Roman Zuniga, who was Tello's aide and the chief bodyguard for Mayor Mart\u00ednez, and civilian driver Juan Ramirez Sanchez. Tello is the second high-ranking army officer to be killed in the area in the past few years. Lt. Col. Wilfrido Flores Saucedo and his aide were gunned down on a Cancun street in 2006. That crime remains unsolved. The killings come as Mexico grapples with the highest violent-death rates in its history -- around 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, according to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has characterized the battle among drug cartels and with government authorities as a \"civil war.\" On Tuesday, 12 men were gunned down in Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, Excelsior reported Wednesday. Eight other people were shot and killed in Chihuahua last weekend. More than 200 people have been killed this year in Ciudad Juarez, the largest city in Chihuahua and considered the most violent town in Mexico, El Tiempo newspaper said, citing local authorities. Last year, according to the National Commission on Human Rights, there were 1,900 organized crime killings in the state of Chihuahua. About 1,600 of those slayings occurred in Ciudad Juarez.","highlights":"NEW: Retired general tortured before being killed, prosecutor says .\nNEW: Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Qui\u00f1onez shot 11 times, paper reports .\nNEW: Former general, 63, moved to Cancun area just weeks ago .","id":"8bc2356d06dd7900fc4f04bf2fae6001394421c8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pledging to take \"the air out of golden parachutes,\" President Obama announced Wednesday that executives of companies receiving federal bailout money will have their pay capped at $500,000 under a revised financial compensation plan. $500,000 will be the limit on executive salaries at companies receiving tax dollars, President Obama says. Last year's \"shameful\" handout of $18 billion in Wall Street bonuses \"is exactly the kind of disregard for the costs and consequences of their actions that brought about this crisis: a culture of narrow self-interest and short-term gain at the expense of everything else,\" Obama said to reporters at the White House. \"For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis isn't just bad taste -- it's a bad strategy -- and I will not tolerate it. We're going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid -- so that when firms seek new federal dollars, we won't find them up to the same old tricks,\" the president added. Under Obama's plan, companies that want to pay their executives more than $500,000 will have to do so through stocks that cannot be sold until the companies pay back the money they borrow from the government. The rules will be implemented by the Treasury Department and do not need to be approved by Congress. The restrictions will most affect large companies that receive \"exceptional assistance,\" such as Citigroup. The struggling banking giant has taken about $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The new rules also will mandate that shareholders of banks have a greater say about the salaries paid to company heads. The measures will put in place greater transparency for costs such as holiday parties and office renovations. Obama also pledged further reforms in the future, promising that the administration will \"examine the ways in which the means and manner of executive compensation have contributed to a reckless culture and quarter-by-quarter mentality that in turn have wrought havoc in our financial system.\" Watch Obama talk about limiting executive salaries \u00bb . \"We're going to be taking a look at broader reforms so that executives are compensated for sound risk management and rewarded for growth measured over years, not just days or weeks,\" Obama said. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pay for executives at companies that take bailout money capped at $500,000 .\nNEW: Obama pledges further rules on compensation .\nCompensation over $500,000 will have to be in stocks with sales limit .\nThe plan will affect companies getting \"exceptional assistance,\" like Citigroup .","id":"ea52e75c7fa8f5912902dea6c8a38092e3ce3944"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Intensifying violence, food shortages and widespread drought are driving an increasing number of Somalis to seek asylum in Yemen, the United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday. A man brandishes a knife while others carry old notes during a demonstration against record-high inflation. More than 15,000 refugees have arrived in the Yemeni port city of Aden since January, compared with 7,166 people in the first four months of 2007, according to a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Many of those seeking asylum brave treacherous boat trips across the Gulf of Aden. Consequently, the number of boats landing in Aden has jumped from 60 to 361 since January while the number of fatalities has remained constant, according to UNHCR. The agency attributed the surge to strife in Somalia, where riots continued in the capital city of Mogadishu for the second day Tuesday. According to news reports, Somali soldiers killed at least two people Monday during the protests over rising food prices. Watch protesters take to the streets \u00bb . Somali refugees pay as much as $150 to cross the Gulf of Aden in search of asylum. Because of its proximity to the war-torn country, Yemen is a common destination for Somalis fleeing economic hardship, famine and war. Yemen is also an attractive location because Somalis receive automatic refugee status in the fellow Muslim country. New smuggling routes across the Red Sea have also led to increased numbers of refugees in Yemen, according to the UNHCR. Refugees often die before reaching Yemen because of dangerous sea conditions and overcrowded vessels. Others die at the hands of their smugglers, who order the passengers to jump overboard when the Yemeni coast guard approaches the vessel. Yemen's coast guard stepped up patrols of its coastline this year in an attempt to deter smugglers, according to the UNHCR, which operates shelters and reception centers for refugees in Yemen. The coast guard has also seized boats and given them Somali fishermen affected by the 2004 tsunami.","highlights":"Agency attributes surging number of refugees in Yemen to unrest in Somalia .\nMore than 15,000 refugees have come to port city of Aden since January .\nNew routes across the Red Sea to Yemen also contributing to increase .","id":"8800857db476b92864b111c5f0dbf9d55a0c81d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been delayed at least a week, NASA has announced. Discovery moves atop the crawler transporter in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 14. The shuttle will now lift off no earlier than February 19 because of concern over a valve in the main engine. A decision on the launch date will be made February 12, after more analysis and testing of the part. NASA said Tuesday night: \"The valve is one of three that channels gaseous hydrogen from the engines to the external fuel tank. One of these valves in shuttle Endeavour was found to be damaged after its mission in November. As a precaution, Discovery's valves were removed, inspected and reinstalled.\" This will be the shuttle's 28th mission to the international space station. The mission will deliver the final set of solar arrays needed to complete the station's complement of electricity-generating solar panels. They will help support the station's expanded crew of six in 2009. \"More crew means that we'll have to run more life support equipment, more crew support equipment -- toilet facilities, water processing equipment and all of that stuff,\" Kwatsi Alibaruho, the lead space station flight director for the mission, said on NASA's Web site. \"We'll have to run more of all of that, so we need additional power.\" The expanded capacity will mean more hands to perform science experiments. The mission also will include four spacewalks.","highlights":"Discovery will lift off no earlier than February 19, NASA says .\nSpace agency concerned about a valve in the main engine .\nThis will be the shuttle's 28th mission to the international space station .\nThe mission will deliver the final set of solar arrays for the station .","id":"7a8cf8e961ba14050c96df4aa2090efcb7ae761a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Ohio sheriff had harsh words for ice fishermen who had to be rescued Saturday after high winds and rising temperatures caused an ice floe to break away and strand about 150 of them on Lake Erie. People were stuck when an 8-mile-long chunk of Lake Erie ice broke away near Toledo, Ohio. The incident, in which one person was pronounced dead after being transported to the hospital, came after the National Weather Service issued a warning that ice floes could break away from the main ice area in the western section of the lake. At least some of those rescued were fishermen. \"This just cost the taxpayers a ton of money,\" Ottawa County, Ohio, Sheriff Bob Bratton said. \"We lost a life out there today. ... I'm sorry a man lost his life out there today. These people should have known better.\" Bratton said those rescued should never have been on Lake Erie in the first place because weather conditions made it risky, and \"if there was a section in the code about common sense, we would have had 150 arrests out there today.\" Watch sheriff express frustration \u00bb . A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard said the person who died fell in the water when the ice floe broke away from land. View ice safety tips \u00bb . \"We have rescued more than 150 people, and unfortunately there were two people in the water,\" Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier said. \"One of the people was recovered and brought to shore,\" but the other man was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. \"This was wrong. These people endangered the life of volunteer firemen, [and] the United States Coast Guard,\" Bratton said, estimating the cost of the sheriff's office response at $25,000. \"I'm sure that's going to climb.\" Bratton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the fishermen displayed poor judgment in building a makeshift bridge to get from one section of the ice to the other. \"I have no problem with people ice fishing, but these idiots should realize that when you see open water, you should not build a bridge and cross it,\" he said. \"It's a shame you can't arrest people for stupidity.\" Among the hundreds of people who went fishing Saturday were Gary and David Vaughn of Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania. They told the Plain Dealer that they set up a shanty about 7 a.m. and didn't come back out until 11 a.m., when they saw a crowd gathered at the edge of the ice. It was then that they knew they were in trouble. \"When we were over there waiting to be rescued, we feared the ice would just break up under us,\" Gary Vaughn, 47, told the newspaper. \"I feared for my life.\" The sheriff told the Toledo Blade that the people who went out on the ice did not take proper precautions. \"Where is the common sense when they know the ice is broken?\" Bratton said. \"The experienced fishermen, I guarantee, are not out there,\" he told the newspaper. \"They're not reading the weather. If the ice is broke, you don't build a little bridge to get from here to there.\" \"Ice fishing and recreation on the ice is a culture in the Great Lakes. It's something we've become used to,\" Lanier said. iReport.com: Were you there? Share your photos, story . The sheriff said there were a host of factors that the fishermen should have been aware of, which caused them to risk their lives unnecessarily. \"The weather changed; the temperature went up; the wind was coming out of the south. These are all things that are indicators [that an ice floe break could occur].\" Asked whether there are signs or other notification systems to discourage fishermen from going out on the ice under risky conditions, Bratton said there are only Web sites fishermen can check. \"We will go back and look at that,\" he said. \"We can't develop the attitude, 'Go out on the ice. If you get caught, we'll be there to get you. We'll bring you in.' You've got to have common sense.\" Watch lake officials describe rescue efforts \u00bb . Unprecedented numbers of fishermen have taken to the ice this winter because thicker ice allowed them to go farther out onto the lake, according to the Plain Dealer. But Saturday's unseasonably high temperatures apparently melted chunks of the ice. The ice floe, 8 miles long, was created when a large piece of ice broke off from land near Locust Point, Ohio, east of Toledo, Lanier said earlier. View a map of the area \u00bb . Numerous helicopters participated in the rescue, Lanier said, including those from the Canadian Coast Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, Ohio State University and Monroe County. State hovercraft were on the scene as well, and airboats were sent, he said. Those rescued were brought to a staging area at a park, Lanier said.","highlights":"NEW: Frustrated sheriff asks, \"Where is the common sense?\"\nOne person dead, 150 people rescued after ice floe breaks away .\nNational Weather Service warned that floes could separate .","id":"2c0974e72a563f82d6eb52246930a6eee10a5386"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an age when many people become celebrities through looks or connections, Jennifer Hudson's rise to fame came the old-fashioned way: through talent, hard work and a close-knit family. Jennifer Hudson is in a new movie, \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" and recently released her first solo album. At a time when the singer is in a new movie, \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" and recently released her first solo album, Hudson is now back in the public eye largely due to a family tragedy. Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were found shot to death Friday in their Chicago home. The body of the singer's missing 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, was found in an SUV on Monday morning. Julian's stepfather, William Balfour, was detained over the weekend for questioning in connection with the case, a police spokesperson told CNN. He was subsequently transferred to prison on a parole violation charge, the spokesperson said. Balfour's mother has acknowledged that her son has been questioned about the shootings, but said he had nothing to do with the crime. No charges had been filed against anyone in connection with the murders. iReport.com: Reaction to Hudson family tragedy . The tragedy is a sad turn for the 27-year-old actress and singer, who first earned national notice for her performances on \"American Idol\" in 2004 and won an Oscar for best supporting actress for 2006's \"Dreamgirls.\" Hudson's singing career began in her church choir in the South Side Chicago neighborhood of Englewood when she was a child. She remained devoted to singing all the way through Chicago's Dunbar Vocational High School, where there is now a Jennifer Hudson Room. (She's in good company; Dunbar's alumni include Lou Rawls and two of the Staple Singers.) \"People would say it was unusual for such a small girl to have such a big voice,\" she told Reuters in 2006. \"They would say, 'She sounds like she's grown.' \" After finishing school, she performed in the musical \"Big River\" at a Chicago-area dinner theater and took a job on a cruise line. In 2003, she auditioned for \"American Idol\" in Atlanta, Georgia, and managed to earn her way to the top-rated show with a performance of \"Easy to be Hard,\" the \"Hair\" ballad popularized by Three Dog Night. \"Idol\" proved to be an uneven experience for Hudson. After the show narrowed down its 12 finalists, she started slowly, at times almost being voted off, but eventually her song choices -- including Elton John's \"Circle of Life\" and Whitney Houston's \"I Have Nothing\" -- made her one of the favorites. Sir Elton himself believed she was the \"best of the lot.\" 'Idol' friend speaks out about Hudson case . In the end, Hudson didn't even come close to making \"Idol's\" final two, being voted off midway in the show's run. However, her performances had established her as a talent to watch, and in May 2005 -- several months after finishing the traditional post-\"Idol\" group tour -- she was contacted by a casting agency about the part of Effie, the tragic soul of \"Dreamgirls.\" In the musical, which concerns an all-girl trio much like the Supremes, Effie is a weight-challenged musical powerhouse who begins as the group's leader but is dropped as both performer and lover by the group's manager for the more statuesque singer Deena. The role features the musical's showstopping song, \"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going,\" and won Jennifer Holliday a Tony Award when \"Dreamgirls\" ran on Broadway. Hudson was unfamiliar with \"Dreamgirls\" when she auditioned, but she allegedly beat out almost 800 other women for the role -- including her former \"Idol\" rival, Fantasia Barrino, who had been the third-season winner. The role's high-pitched emotions were a challenge, Hudson told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2006. \"I had to find a way into it,\" she said to the newspaper. \"[Director] Bill Condon sent me into 'Diva 101.' He told me I was too nice. So I'd come into the room angry, but tell all the ADs, 'Bill told me to do this. This is Effie and not Jennifer.' I had to learn how to separate myself from the character with that attitude. That was Bill's main concern. Effie had to have that edge.\" Her performance won her across-the-board raves. Variety compared her turn to Barbra Streisand's award-winning debut in \"Funny Girl,\" among others. It also led to a host of awards, including supporting actress honors from the New York Critics Circle, Golden Globes, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and -- finally -- the Academy Awards. At the Oscar show, Hudson tearfully thanked her grandmother, whom she described as her \"biggest inspiration.\" Julia Kate Hudson, who sang at Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church, where Hudson got her start, died in 1998. Since winning the Oscar, Hudson has been a mainstay of celebrity magazines, which have broadcast news of her engagement to \"I Love New York 2\" contestant David Otunga, regularly singled her out as an example of a healthy plus-sized body type and held her up as an \"Idol\" made good. She's continued her movie career with performances in \"Sex and the City: The Movie\" and \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" both of which came out in 2008. She sang the national anthem at the Democratic National Convention in August at the personal request of Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. According to many reports, Hudson has remained humble amid all the attention. She remains devoted to the church -- \"Church is where I'm from. It will always be my favorite place to sing, and that's where I'd like to go back to,\" Hudson told the Sun-Times -- and uses her against-all-odds biography to inspire others. \"I've had a similar journey as Effie,\" Hudson told the Sun-Times. \"Me being a part of 'Idol,' her being part of the group. ... We both go through our journeys, trying to hold on to our dream and achieve our goal. We have hardships, but we prevail at the end.\"","highlights":"Jennifer Hudson's rise to fame came the old-fashioned way .\nHudson's mother, brother, nephew found dead in Chicago, Illinois .\nSinger beat out more than 800 other women for role in \"Dreamgirls\"\nHudson's first national recognition came on \"American Idol\"","id":"3b1ca8e6f5d79ff89cd477b62a832309b7d3028f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French Prime Minister Francois Fillon unveiled further details Monday of a 26 billion-euro ($33 billion) business stimulus package which his government hopes can stall falling growth and prevent the country joining other major European economies in recession. Up to 1,000 projects will benefit from the package, which was first proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy in December and approved by French lawmakers last week. Around 20 billion euros of the total amount will be spent over the next 12 months. Businesses will receive 11.4 billion euros while the same amount will be invested in public projects with social housing identified as a priority. The final 4 billion euros will be spent on improving France's transport, energy and postal service infrastructure. The package is expected to stimulate economic growth of around 1.3 percent, Fillon said. France has so far avoided the worst of the recession that has gripped many of its western European neighbors, including Germany and the UK. But unemployment rose by a further 45,000 in December after surging by 64,000 in November, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday, adding that she would be \"very surprised\" if France experienced positive growth in 2009. Speaking to CNN this weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lagarde, defended the case for public spending in the face of fears that stimulus packages amounted to storing up unmanageable debts for future generations. \"When the house is on fire we don't look at what can be built, Lagarde said. \"We need to kick start (the economy) and we need to restore confidence.\"","highlights":"French government to spend $33 billion in effort to bolster economy .\nFrench PM Fillon hopes package will stimulate 1.3 percent in 2009 .\nUnemployment rose by 45,000 in December, according to French finance minister .","id":"74cde23c933ad6243bb276efc925d4c9afbabc1a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two international journalists, along with their Somali colleague and a driver, were kidnapped Saturday, a journalists' organization in Somalia said. A young fighter mans a gun on the beach of Kismayo. The photographer asked not be identified. Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian journalist, and Nigel Brenan, an Australian photojournalist, had been in the country just three days when militia men snatched them outside the capital city of Mogadishu, the National Union of Somali Journalists said Sunday. The kidnappers also took Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, a Somalian photojournalist who was acting as the pair's translator, and their driver, the journalists' union said. The four were on their way back after conducting interviews at a refugee camp. Officials do not know if the journalists are being held for ransom and who is behind the abductions. \"No formal claim of responsibility was made,\" the journalists' group said. \"As well, there have been no demands.\" Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting. Somalia's current transitional government is trying to maintain control of the capital, with the help of Ethiopian forces. On Friday, fighters from the Islamic group Al Shabab took control of the southern port town of Kismayo after three days of clashes. The fighting left at least 89 people dead, 207 wounded and displaced some 5,500 people, triggering a humanitarian crisis. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to install the transitional government in Mogadishu after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. The invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused Islamists of harboring fugitives from the al Qaeda terrorist movement. But the Ethiopian troops quickly became embroiled in an insurgency led by the Islamists. And as guerrilla attacks mounted, efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union-led peacekeeping mission faltered. The conflict displaced hundreds of thousands of Somalis, further worsening a humanitarian crisis that dates back to the collapse of the country's last government in 1991. The situation has been exacerbated by drought, continual armed conflicts in central and southern Somalia, and high inflation on food and fuel prices.","highlights":"Two international journalists and Somali colleague and driver kidnapped .\nCanandian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brenan seized .\nThe group had been conducting interviews at a refugee camp .","id":"18771989f9eb80310173483a9192d5f50598c6a1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Leading Republicans warned Sunday that the Obama administration's $800 billion-plus economic stimulus effort will lead to what one called a \"financial disaster.\" The country will \"pay dearly\" if it executes the president's stimulus plans, Sen. Richard Shelby says. \"Everybody on the street in America understands that,\" said Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. \"This is not the right road to go. We'll pay dearly.\" Shelby, of Alabama, told CNN's \"State of the Union\" that the package and efforts to shore up the struggling banking system will put the United States on \"a road to financial disaster.\" But Lawrence Summers, the head of the administration's National Economic Council, said Republicans have lost their credibility on the issue. Watch Republicans criticize the stimulus bill \u00bb . \"Those who presided over the last eight years -- the eight years that brought us to the point where we inherit trillions of dollars of deficit, an economy that's collapsing more rapidly than at any time in the last 50 years -- don't seem to me in a strong position to lecture about the lessons of history,\" Summers told ABC's \"This Week.\" President Barack Obama, his advisers and the Democratic leaders of Congress argue the roughly $830 billion measure will help pull the U.S. economy out of its current skid. Much of the package involves infrastructure spending, long-term energy projects and aid to cash-strapped state and local governments. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported last week that the measure is likely to create between 1.3 million and 3.9 million jobs by the end of 2010, lowering a projected unemployment rate of 8.7 percent by up to 2.1 percentage points. But the CBO warned the long-term effect of that much government spending over the next decade could \"crowd out\" private investment, lowering long-term economic growth forecasts by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent by 2019. In a concession to Republicans, about a third of the bill involves tax cuts. But the measure is expected to have only minimal GOP support when it goes to a scheduled vote early this week. Watch South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford warn of \"disastrous consequences \u00bb . The version of the bill that passed the House of Representatives had no Republican votes. \"We need to spend money on infrastructure and on other programs that will immediately put people to work. But this is not it,\" said Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, last year's GOP presidential nominee. Senators reached a tentative agreement Friday on a compromise bill largely negotiated by a handful of moderate Republicans whose votes are needed to prevent a filibuster. But McCain told CBS' \"Face the Nation\" that the package should have been about half the size of the one now before senators, and should be balanced between tax cuts and spending. \"We're going to amass the largest debt in the history of this country, by any measurement, and we're going to ask our kids and grandkids to pay for it,\" he said. The stimulus bill includes about $45 billion in transportation spending, much of which can be spent on projects \"that can be implemented immediately,\" Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told CNN. LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, said he would talk to his former colleagues on Capitol Hill \"and do all that I can to persuade them that this bill really will put people to work.\" He said he invited state transportation chiefs to Washington for a Wednesday meeting on how to create jobs using funding from the stimulus bill. \"There aren't going to be any boondoggles. This money will be spent correctly, by the book, with no shortcuts,\" LaHood said. The administration is also readying a second phase of the financial bailout program launched by the Bush administration last fall. Shelby said Obama and his advisers need to address the staggering problems in the U.S. banking system first. \"Until we straighten out our banking system, until there is trust in our banking system, until there's investment there, this economy is going to continue to tank,\" he said. Shelby also has been critical of other efforts by the federal government to help the struggling economy, including legislation that would have provided a bailout to the auto industry. But Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told CBS the current recession -- which has already produced an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent -- is in danger of a deep downturn \"like we saw in the Great Depression.\" \"If there is a failure to give a significant boost to this economy, this crisis will only deepen and become far more serious,\" said Conrad, D-North Dakota.","highlights":"Sen. Shelby: Package plus bank bailout will put U.S. on \"a road to financial disaster\"\nShelby: Economy \"will continue to tank\" unless banking system is addressed first .\nCrisis will deepen without significant economic boost, Democratic senator tells CBS .\nSen. McCain: We need to spend money to create jobs, but not this way .","id":"8545add91629b26a3a93cac3ec399afff81d5fe3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The humble mobile phone is driving a new revolution which some experts hope could bring fairer elections and democracy to some African states. During the 2006 local government elections in Senegal, Radio Sud used reporters and correspondents with cell phones to call in what they saw. Many African countries have struggled against rigged elections and authoritarian rule since gaining independence last century. However, African observers say the growth of simple communication technologies like cell phones are assisting many states to progress towards open and fair elections in increasingly democratic systems. Senegal is one of a number of African countries to hold successful elections by keeping voting and counting in check through independent communication. Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said many African nations now had a \"very open society\" and the increasing success of elections owed a lot to the existence of mobile phones. \"With communication and cell phones, this is where it is difficult to cheat in elections now. You are announced at the district level and cell phones go wild so by the time you go to the capital, if you have changed the figures, they will know and you will be caught out.\" According to experts, cellphones are particularly important for Africa due to a lack of some other technologies. Visiting African political expert at Indiana University, Sheldon Gellar, said cellphones were much more accessible than the internet in most parts of Africa, and therefore had greater potential to influence transparency. \"Internet provides groups in society with means to communicate, organize and obtain good information which is not controlled by government -- but, only a tiny percentage of African populations have access to internet.\" Just this month CNN reported dramatic increases in cell phone usage in African nations. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, there are just 10,000 fixed telephones but cellphone subscribers have soared to more than a million in the last five years. Gellar told CNN the key benefit of cell phones was that they allowed independent media, especially radio, to provide accurate coverage of elections and make it more difficult for ruling parties to cheat and get away with it. \"During the 2006 local government elections in Senegal, Radio Sud used reporters and correspondents with cell phones to call in what they saw. I remember hearing one reporter describing how a local party boss was illegally taking a ballot box on his truck from the polling station. This was reported live as it was happening.\" Civilians and independent election observers outside the media have also taken advantage of cell phones to monitor elections. Bob LaGamma, executive director of Council for a Community of Democracies, said the 2007 Nigerian election was another example of technology being used effectively. LaGamma described a technique of \"parallel reporting\", whereby independent observers spread news of local vote counts and any irregularities. This technique was also used in the Zimbabwe elections this year, which he said caused Robert Mugabe to delay announcement of election results. \"Parallel reporting was important in Zimbabwe. It kept them from coming straight out and reporting a false result. \"All of this technology is very important and gives a powerful new tool that cuts the ability for cheating,\" LaGamma said. Gellar said other computing technology, though more sparse, could also have a positive impact towards building democracies. He told CNN computers could be used to ensure parliament has access to national budget information and spending patterns, and in urban and rural communities they could provide citizens with data concerning the functions of the government and offer people an opportunity to contact their elected representative. Despite the positive developments brought by cell phones and other communication technology, there have still been problems with numerous elections in recent years. Leonardo Arriola, Associate Professor at University of California, Berkeley, is wary about the potential of the technologies to make some situations worse. He said there could be both good and bad aspects to it. \"The more transparency and the more information that can be circulated outside the hands of government is a good thing ... but the other side of that is that a lot of misinformation can get out that way also,\" Arriola said. Although there has undoubtedly been positive progress with cell phone technology, most scholars and observers agree that pockets full of mobile handsets will not be enough to build stable democratic states and hold future fair elections. \"It doesn't mean anything unless you have all of the means of verifying the results. If you have a ruling authoritarian regime which is determined to cheat, they will do it,\" LaGamma said. Gellar sees the technology as necessary, but not sufficient for progress. \"Africans have been able to organize without technology. Freedom of association -- the right to organize autonomous organizations and function freely -- is more important than access to new technology in fostering democracy. \"That said, new technology can be a powerful tool in improving communications between citizens and governments, between civil society organizations and the public. Informed citizens are essential to good functioning of democracies,\" he said. Gellar said a number of other factors needed to progress before a state could move towards a more democratic model of governance. According to Gellar these changes include: strengthening independent media; growing and ensuring freedom of civil society; decentralizing power, ceding more control to local governments; empowering women; improving judicial systems to ensure independence and power to punish. Gellar said new technology could help achieve those goals to some extent, as communication was the key to overcoming oppression. \"Authoritarian regimes want to control and monopolize the flow of information. African authoritarian regimes don't have the power and resources to completely control information disseminated through traditional means -- as oral communications are still the main means of disseminating information,\" Geller explained. Gellar said the changes being brought about by cell phones and other communication technologies could well play a part in bringing more participatory governments to the continent. \"New technology is not a panacea, but it can speed up processes of democratization and should be encouraged,\" he concluded.","highlights":"Election processes are being checked with the help of cell phones .\nCell phones are more accessible to Africans than the internet and telephones .\nTechnology could help push more countries towards democratic models .\nExperts agree more than technology will still be required to see change .","id":"0df814d8bb76641e21693a7935845ea628132449"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Key structural changes have been identified in the brain images of some patients with mild cognitive impairment which could help determine who's at greatest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, studied MRI scans of 84 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 175 patients with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, and 139 images of healthy brains. \"Our initial goal was to locate similarities in the patients with Alzheimer's disease to those with MCI, in the hopes of finding a method to predict [MCI patients'] likelihood of developing the disease,\" said lead study author Linda McEvoy, assistant project scientist at UCSD's department of radiology. Neuroimaging results for the patients with Alzheimer's disease were as expected, according to the study, which was published online in the journal Radiology. Atrophy, which is loss of brain tissue, was visible throughout the brain. The temporal and parietal lobes, which affect cognitive function, saw the most damage. What surprised researchers were the differences in images from the MCI patients. More than 50 percent of the brains in the MCI group showed atrophy similar to the Alzheimer's disease patients. The other half of the MCI patients showed only small amounts of tissue damage. Watch Dr. Gupta explain the findings \u00bb . \"Although the symptoms for the entire MCI group were primarily memory problems, other parts of the brain were impacted in over half the group,\" McEvoy said. \"And even though these patients [with Alzheimer's-like atrophy] don't have problems with their cognitive function now, their MCI will likely develop to that in the future.\" Researchers also evaluated the brains of the MCI group one year after initial testing. They found that patients who earlier had mild cognitive impairment plus signs of atrophy were getting worse. Twenty-nine percent of the group had since been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and the others had begun to show signs of more serious cognitive decline. The condition of patients in the MCI group whose scans showed minimal signs of atrophy the previous year remained about the same. \"Only 8 percent of this group had developed Alzheimer's disease. The rest of the patients were stable and their symptoms had not increased,\" McEvoy said. Bill Thies, chief medical and scientific officer for the Alzheimer's Association, underscored the significance of these findings. \"What this study really shows is how different people with MCI can be, despite having similar symptoms. We can now use this information to create new treatments,\" he said. There are several drugs on the market that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, but none that prevent its progression. Clinical trials may be able to use this data to select a better pool of candidates when testing new drugs. \"If they use a MCI patient with loss of brain tissue, someone who we now know is progressing fast towards Alzheimer's disease, we'd be able to quickly figure out if drug 'X' is slowing things down or not helping at all,\" Thies added. In addition, researchers hope that within the next few years patients could regularly be tested by their physicians to determine their risk of developing Alzheimer's. \"If nothing else it would be good information for their family members to have early on, to be better prepared for the future.\" McEvoy said. Over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and an estimated three and a half million have mild cognitive impairment.","highlights":"Key structural changes seen in brain scans of some patients with memory loss .\nOne year later, many patients with brain changes had developed Alzheimer's .\nMemory-loss patients without these changes were mostly stable one year later .\nBrain scans could identify who gets Alzheimer's, help with drug testing .","id":"125fa4fa5d93c3237909f033d9466172fdc674fc"} -{"article":"CNN Student News -- Welcome to CNN Student News, a daily commercial-free, ten-minute broadcast of the day's news geared for middle- and high-school students. CNN Student News can be found on air and online, and whether you're brand new to the program or a longtime viewer, we've got new things in store for you. CNN Student News anchor Carl Azuz. You've already found our new homepage, CNNStudentNews.com, where you can access the show and free related curriculum materials, including Learning Activities, Discussion Questions, Newsquizzes and One-Sheets. CNN Student News airs on CNN Headline News at 4 a.m. You can record the show from 4:00-4:10 a.m. Eastern time on Headline News. (Check your local listings for channel number). If you'd prefer, you can download CNN Student News to your desktop or iPod. Go to the CNN.com Podcast page and look for the Student News podcast. Once you've signed up for the free subscription, every episode will automatically be downloaded to iTunes. In addition to CNN Student News, each week, CNN offers educators a commercial-free edition of \"CNN: Special Investigations Unit,\" \"CNN Specials\" or its award-winning documentary program \"CNN Presents,\" along with a corresponding free curriculum guide on CNNStudentNews.com. You can record these CNN Classroom Edition programs from 4:00-5:00 a.m. Eastern time on Mondays on CNN. (A short feature begins at 4:00 a.m. and precedes the program.) And if you want to be the first to know what's coming up on CNN Student News and CNN Classroom Edition programs, you'll want to sign up for our CNN Student News Daily Education Alert. Registration is quick and simple. Just click here to subscribe.","highlights":"CNN Student News is the day's news for middle- and high-school students .\nCNN Student News airs daily on CNN Headline News from 4:00-4:10 a.m. EST .","id":"bb793bd352d5f327ca8581d1fae45012b0bcc665"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China has killed 13,000 birds in the country's far northwest to control what it called an epidemic of bird flu, state media reported Tuesday. Since the end of 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected birds in over 60 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Five hundred fowl that had died in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region tested positive for the H5N1 virus, according to China's Ministry of Agriculture. In late January, China confirmed its sixth case of bird flu in a human. The ministry said at the time that, although further human bird flu cases were possible throughout China, there wouldn't be a large-scale outbreak, state run news agency Xinhua and CCTV reported. The country also announced it was setting up a nationwide network to test for the H5N1 virus. Following a bird flu outbreak in late January, India culled more than 4,000 birds in the remote northeastern state of Sikkim. Health officials also detected dozens of cases of upper respiratory infection among humans, but none of the patients had any history of handling sick poultry, a government spokesperson said. Sikkim borders Nepal and China. Since the end of 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected many species of birds in more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. It has not been found in birds in North or South America or the Caribbean, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but the virus has passed from poultry to humans in some cases. It has killed more than 200 people since 2003. China reported its first human-to-human infection case in 2005. Of the 34 cases confirmed to date in the country, 23 had been fatal, the World Health Organization said in late January.","highlights":"China kills 13,000 birds in northwest to control what it calls an epidemic of bird flu .\n500 fowl that died in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region tested positive for H5N1 .\nIn late January, China confirmed its sixth case of bird flu in a human .\nThe virus has killed more than 200 people since 2003 .","id":"28cad16dcd769677b7e2b21ffe113822efd192a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Phoenix, Arizona, elementary school bus careened out of control for nearly a mile Wednesday evening, causing more than a dozen accidents and sending at least 26 people to the hospital. A Phoenix, Arizona, school bus crossed over several lanes of traffic, crashing into several vehicles on Wednesday. Phoenix police officer James Holmes told CNN the bus struck two cars at an intersection as it approached an overpass on Interstate 10. The bus later crossed into oncoming lanes, causing a chain reaction of collisions. At least two cars overturned, and several passengers in the vehicles had to be cut out of the wreckage, authorities said. Holmes said the bus carrying 45 students came to a stop a mile from the first accident scene. He said panicked children began jumping from the bus and fled into the neighborhood. Watch children describe frenzy of being on out-of-control bus \u00bb . Officers had to round up the students and used media reports to ask for help in looking for them. By late Wednesday, police thought they had located everyone. No injuries were reported to any of the children on board. Police were interviewing the driver, trying to determine what caused the accident. CNN affiliate KPNX reports the bus driver lost consciousness before the crash. Twenty-six passengers in the other cars, including several children, were being treated at hospitals. Some of the injuries were serious, but none was thought to be life-threatening.","highlights":"Out-of-control school bus crashes into dozens of cars in Phoenix, Arizona .\nPanicked children jumped from bus, fleeing into neighborhood .\nAt least 26 people treated at area hospitals .","id":"a100128fde5ad8cf889c050f5e54c72d700535d9"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The police chief in Canc\u00fan has been relieved of his duties and placed under house arrest while he is investigated in the killing of a retired Mexican general who had been the area's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours, Mexican media are reporting. A Mexican soldier guards the entrance at a Canc\u00fan police station where the military is investigating a murder. Francisco Velasco Delgado was detained by military officials early Monday and flown to Mexico City, where he was placed under 45 days of house arrest, according to the media reports. With Delgado's removal, the military has taken over the Canc\u00fan police force, several newspapers reported. Canc\u00fan Mayor Gregorio Sanchez Martinez said the move was made \"to facilitate all types of investigations into the triple murder that happened last week,\" the Diario de Yucatan newspaper said. Salvador Rocha Vargas, the secretary for public security for the state of Quintana Roo, will lead the police force. He said he will take all the pertinent measures \"to clean up the Canc\u00fan police,\" the Excelsior newspaper reported Tuesday. Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quinonez's bullet-riddled body was found a week ago on a road outside Canc\u00fan. Authorities said he had been tortured before being shot 11 times. His aide and a driver also were tortured and killed. Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo said last week there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime. \"The general was the most mistreated,\" Rodriguez y Carrillo said at a news conference. \"He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken.\" An autopsy revealed he also had broken knees. Tello had been appointed less than 24 hours earlier as a special drug-fighting consultant for Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, the mayor of the Benito Juarez municipality, which includes the city of Canc\u00fan. Tello, who retired from the army in January at the mandatory age of 63, had moved to the resort area three weeks ago. Mexico is undergoing an unprecedented wave of violence that some have likened to a civil war. The government is battling drug cartels as the traffickers fight each other for control of the lucrative illicit market. Tello was the second high-ranking army officer to be killed in the area in the past few years. Lt. Col. Wilfrido Flores Saucedo and his aide were gunned down on a Canc\u00fan street in 2006. That crime remains unsolved. The latest killings come as Mexico grapples with the highest violent-death rate in its history. Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora reported in December there had been around 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 tallied in 2007. There already have been more than 400 drug-related killings this year, according to some news accounts.","highlights":"Mexican media says local chief put under house arrest for 45 days .\nWith Francisco Velasco Delgado's removal, military takes control of police .\nMayor: Delgado's detainment to \"facilitate all types of investigations\" into murder .\nRetired general killed after being area's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours .","id":"cd50184d54c3685dd75a8bf13e768f68a3c9f89e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A sculpture of a giant white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of an unusual scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England. The 50-meter high horse will dominate the landscape around Ebbsfleet. The 50-meter equine artwork was Tuesday announced as the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, set to be a new stop on the Eurostar London-to-Paris rail link. Designed by artist Mark Wallinger -- whose previous work has included dressing in a bear suit and wandering around a gallery in Berlin -- the \u00a32 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK. Wallinger's horse -- which echoes ancient white horse symbols carved into hillsides around Britain -- beat a shortlist of designs that included a tower of stacked cubes and giant steel nest. Victoria Pomery, head of the panel that selected the design, described the 33-times normal size horse as \"outstanding.\" \"Mark is a superb artist of world renown and his sculpture will become a real landmark for Ebbsfleet Valley and the whole region,\" she said. It drew a less favorable response from readers of local Web site Kentnews.com, who described it as a \"waste of money,\" an \"abomination\" and \"depressing.\" One correspondent, Andy Smith, added: \"This horse looks extremely silly.\"","highlights":"Giant horse announced as winner of competition to design new landmark .\nEquine artwork is brainchild of conceptual artist Mark Wallinger .\nDesign's selectors describe sculpture as \"outstanding,\" critics say it's \"silly\"","id":"567a16c58ad968e6f56594039a5092c18d0f3cc6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she is \"praying\" that President Bush has a change of heart and does not veto a bipartisan children's health insurance bill that he has labeled an unwarranted expansion of government-run health insurance. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applauds after signing the State Children's Health Insurance legislation Friday. \"The tide is going a different way than a presidential veto would reflect,\" Pelosi, a California Democrat, said. \"It was with great friendship that I reached out to the president this morning to say that I was still praying that he would have a change of heart and sign this legislation.\" \"I think I have to pray a little harder, but I will not give up,\" Pelosi said. Pelosi's comments came a day after the Senate voted 67-29 for the measure, which would expand the State Children's Health Insurance program by up to 4 million children. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Friday said Bush still intends to veto the bill when it arrives at his desk. Perino also said the disagreement between Congress and the White House was a simple policy difference, not \"about who cares about children more than the other.\" \"The president is saying, 'Let's take care of the neediest children first, let's not put scarce federal dollars toward a program that was meant for the poorest children and let it creep up to middle-income families with incomes up to $83,000 a year,' \" Perino said. Bush and many Republicans contend that the program's original intent -- to give parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance coverage for their children -- would be changed under the current bill, prompting parents to wind up dropping private coverage their children already have to get cheaper coverage under the bill. Perino also objected that the rhetoric surrounding the SCHIP bill has become too heated. \"I think it is preposterous for people to suggest the president of the United States doesn't care about children, that he wants children to suffer,\" Perino said. The bill enjoys bipartisan support. Eighteen Republican senators Thursday night joined all the Democrats in voting for expanding the popular program from its current annual budget of $5 billion to $12 billion for the next five years. Four senators -- Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas and Democrats Joseph Biden of Delaware and Barack Obama of Illinois -- did not vote. With the current program scheduled to expire Saturday, the White House encouraged Congress to send the president a continuing resolution extending the program. \"We should take this time to arrive at a more rational, bipartisan SCHIP reauthorization bill that focuses on children in poor families who don't currently have insurance, rather than raising taxes to cover people who already have private insurance,\" Perino added. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was among those Republicans who split from the president. \"It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for,\" he told his colleagues on the Senate floor prior to the vote. \"It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue.\" Though 67 votes in the 100-person chamber would suffice to overturn a veto, the House version, which was approved Tuesday, fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"House Speaker Pelosi \"praying\" that president has change of heart on bill .\nMeasure expanding kids' health insurance program passed Senate .\nBush objects to measure expanding coverage beyond just poor children .\nWhite House says expansion would cover children from middle-class families .","id":"55281d89b0ff20457705de2e364a8ee45f54491e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amnesty International has accused Hamas militants in Gaza of kidnapping, killing and torturing fellow Palestinians they accuse of spying for Israel, the organization announced Tuesday. Hamas supporters stand on the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike that killed Hamas' interior minister. According to Amnesty International, at least 24 Palestinian men -- most of them civilians -- were shot and killed by Hamas gunmen during the recent Israeli offensive aimed at crippling the Hamas leadership in Gaza. \"Scores of others have been shot in the legs, kneecapped or inflicted with other injuries intended to cause permanent disability,\" the human rights organization said in a news release. Hamas leaders have publicly accused followers of its rival Palestinian political faction, Fatah, of spying for the Israelis during the conflict, and they have said many have been arrested for collaborating with the Jewish state. But they deny ordering any reprisal attacks against suspected spies, instead blaming rogue elements. The Israeli military offensive in Gaza was launched at the end of December and ended three weeks later, when Israeli forces withdrew under the terms of a cease-fire agreement. Amnesty said that the targets of \"Hamas' deadly campaign\" include prisoners who escaped from Gaza's central prison when Israeli forces bombed it in the initial days of the military conflict. Some prisoners injured in the Israeli bombing were \"shot dead in the hospitals where they were receiving treatment,\" Amnesty said. \"The perpetrators of these attacks did not conceal their weapons or keep a low profile, but, on the contrary, behaved in a carefree and confident -- almost ostentatious -- manner,\" it said. Other targets included former members of Palestinian Authority security forces and supporters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. Fatah, which is based in the West Bank, has denied spying on Hamas. Fatah leaders have accused Hamas of rounding up at least 175 of their members in Gaza during the Israeli war and torturing them. The two Palestinian factions have been locked in a power struggle since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and wrested Gaza from Fatah in violent clashes the following year. Abbas is a U.S. ally and regularly negotiates with Israel as the Palestinian leader, but he holds little sway in Gaza. Fatah supporters have been accused of helping the Israeli military conduct its campaign in Gaza, which targeted the Hamas leadership. Neighbors of Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam said they suspected Fatah supporters helped Israel pinpoint his location when they bombed his house on January 15. Siam was highest-ranking Hamas member killed in the Israeli offensive. Most of those suspected of spying for Israel have been abducted from their homes and then \"dumped -- dead or injured -- in isolated areas,\" according to Amnesty International. During the Gaza conflict, medical officials at Gaza City's main medical facility, Shifa Hospital, said injuries they witnessed were consistent with people being shot in the kneecaps, elbows, hands or feet. Punishment shootings are a time-tested tactic used worldwide by guerrilla and militia groups, from Che Guevara in Cuba to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. They are meant not only to take revenge but also to send a message to others. Two self-described Fatah loyalists were found heavily bandaged at a Gaza City safe house during the recent conflict. One of their colleagues refused to say where or why they were injured, but they denied spying. \"They shot him at close range with a pistol,\" he said of one man. \"His bones are shattered. They shot him point-blank in the foot. ... This was done by Hamas people.\" The other man, he said, was struck on his legs with a metal construction bar. \"Four people were beating him,\" he said. A Hamas security source told CNN the shootings occurred because renegade gunmen took the law into their own hands. Ehad al-Ghossain, Hamas' Interior Ministry spokesman, said there was no official order within Hamas to carry out such shootings. \"That's not us,\" al-Ghossain said. \"Maybe some families who had problems in the past just wanted to shoot these people.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Some people shot as they lay in hospitals, Amnesty International says .\nTwo dozen Palestinians killed by Hamas, rights group says .\nHamas accused the victims of spying for Israel, group says .\nHamas blames attacks on rogue elements .","id":"3bb32c633eb5166cb357bd94f6082082b33cb39b"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's president said Tuesday his country welcomes talks with the United States \"in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.\" Women in Tehran celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution Tuesday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks a day after President Barack Obama said the United States is looking for opportunities for \"face to face\" dialogue with Iran, even though he has \"deep concerns\" about Tehran's actions. \"Right now, the world is entering the era of dialogue,\" Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of people in a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. \"The new U.S. administration announced that it's willing to bring about a number of changes and is now taking the course for dialogue. It's quite clear that real change should be fundamental, not just a tactical change, and it is quite clear that the Iranian nation will greet real changes. \"The Iranian nation is ready to hold up talks, but talks in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect,\" Ahmadinejad said. In Washington, Obama was asked about U.S. relations with Iran during his first prime-time news conference on Monday night. Watch news conference in full \u00bb . \"There's been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it's not going to happen overnight,\" Obama said. He said his administration is reviewing existing U.S. policy toward Iran, which supports groups Washington has branded terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and has defied U.N. demands to halt its uranium enrichment program. Despite those concerns, Obama said his administration wants to use \"all the resources at the United States' disposal\" to resolve those concerns. \"My expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction,\" Obama said. \"So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there's the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress.\" The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since 1979. During that year, the Shah of Iran was forced to flee the country and the Ayatollah Khomeini took power. Later that year, Iranian students took over and seized hostages at the U.S. Embassy. Relations have been cut since then. U.S. President George W. Bush labeled Iran as a member of the \"axis of evil\" after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Iran celebrated the 30th anniversary of the revolution Tuesday with crowds chanting \"Death to America.\" Watch the parade in Iran \u00bb . Tensions have rippled over issues such as Iran's nuclear program, Israel, and Iraq, and have been aggravated since the outspoken Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. Western nations believe Iran is intent on building a nuclear weapon. Ahmadinejad has been criticized for his vehemence against and provocative remarks toward Israel and for Iran's support of Hamas militants in Gaza and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon -- militants groups that Israel has battled. Also, the United States has accused Iran of backing Iraqi insurgents. In recent years, the Iraq conflict has provided an opportunity for Iran and the United States to cooperate since both countries support the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and Iraqis have urged both countries to put aside their differences in helping Iraq. In 2007, U.S. and Iraqi envoys met several times in Baghdad. Ahmadinejad addressed the conflict in Iraq, saying that 1 million people have been killed and others have been displaced because of the \"Bush administration war on Iraq.\" \"To deal with the root cause of insecurity I think that we should go and find the main culprits, including Bush himself and his administration. They must be put on trial,\" said Ahmadinejad. \"The world does not want to see the dark age of Bush being repeated.\" Addressing the issue of terrorism, Ahmadinejad said Iran has been fighting terror for 30 years and that Iran itself been victimized by terror. \"If you want to fight terrorism in practice come and work with the Iranian nation,\" he said. \"If you want to eradicate the root causes of massacres and aggression, let's sit together and see what has been behind the reasons why we have had wars in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.\" As usual, he had harsh words for Israel, a state he loathes and a topic that whips up passions among his supporters. \"If you want to eradicate crime, let's work together with the Iranian nation and other nations of the world and let's put on trial the Zionist leaders of the Zionist regime,\" the Iranian leader said. As for nuclear power, Iran has said it wants to harness it for energy and Ahmadinejad indicated Iran is against deploying nuclear weaponry. \"If you want to fight proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, then you should join us and help us so that we will show you the right way. Yes we're opposed to nuclear weapons of mass destruction. They're real threats and they must be destroyed. Iran has been a victim of the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction but the only way would be justice and the use of appropriate mechanisms,\" he said. \"If they really want to have real security, then they should be able to work with us and then we will be able to revisit the structure of the Security Council -- and remember the Security Council itself is the root cause of discrimination -- we should change this structure and then have justice.\" The United States also is concerned about Iran's technological pursuits. Iran successfully launched its first satellite into orbit last week, a step hailed by Iran's president as a \"source of pride\" for the Islamic republic, according to state-run news outlets. The launch of the satellite Omid -- which means \"Hope\" in Farsi -- was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution in Iran, according to Iranian media reports. U.S. Department of Defense officials confirmed the launch, and the State Department expressed \"grave concern.\" In August, Iran performed a test of a rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit. Iranian officials declared that mission a success, but U.S. officials disputed that. Senior U.S. officials had expressed concerned about the test of the rocket, saying Iran could use the rocket to deliver warheads. On Monday, Obama said Iran must \"send some signals that it wants to act differently, as well, and recognize that, even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities.\" \"It's important that, even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country, that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable, that we're clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing.\" Praising Iran's people history and traditions as \"extraordinary, Obama says the nation's actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity both in the region and around the world.\" \"Their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they've used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, that all those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace.\"","highlights":"U.S. seeking opportunities for \"face to face\" dialogue with Iran, says Obama .\nIranian president Ahmadinejad: We welcome Obama comments .\nU.S. has not had diplomatic ties with Iran for nearly three decades .\nAhmadinejad makes speech as Iranians mark 30th anniversary of Islamic revolution.","id":"e202c989567db9ef534edbd3223698fb83f98e98"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One brief window of opportunity when all the elements align themselves. The light, the look - it all comes together. Point and click: Richard takes a lesson from Magnum photographer Raghu Rai in Delhi. And then -- the click. A fleeting magical moment come and gone, then lost forever. But preserved in one picture. This month Richard Quest goes in search of the perfect photo. \"Get me Demarchelier!\" One of the orders barked by the infamous editor in \"The Devil wears Prada.\" Patrick Demarchelier was indeed worth that special mention in the film. Richard visits this uber fashion and portrait photographer. In New York Demarchelier teaches Richard the techniques involved in composing the perfect picture. The great Henri Cartier Bresson once said: \"Photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.\" Magnum Photos bequeathed us with a living record of our history. From the Normandy Landings to Tienanmen Square, Magnum's members have captured some of the most iconic images of the photographic age. To find out more about Magnum photos please click here. Richard finds out what it takes to join this elite brotherhood. In New York, he visits Steve McCurry, the man behind National Geographic's \"Afghan Girl.\" Then it's off to Delhi to meet the legendary Raghu Rai . Whatever you do don't photograph wildlife and babies! Richard is off to find out why getting that perfect shot can often be next to impossible. Try getting either to stand still! Quest learns from the masters in both of these --- the acclaimed baby photographer Anne Geddes and, in San Francisco, award-winning wildlife photographer Frans Lanting. You just have to look at our news stands to see what a celebrity-obsessed culture we live in. Every few months a new gossip magazine emerges promising even better and more compromising pictures of celebrities at their best, at their worst, showing us what they're doing and what they definitely should not be doing. We are the voyeurs, and we just can't get enough of them. The paparazzi have spawned this celebrity culture showing celebrities as anything but perfect. In London Darren Lyons, snapper turned celebrity himself, tells us how his business really works. But while we all love to curl up with a good gossip magazine, most of these photos will never be remembered. But there are photos that will endure, like those taken at our weddings. The wedding photographer is one of the honest jobs in the business. We visit a wedding in L.A. and capture a couple's special moments. Finally, Quest is back with Frans Lanting in San Francisco. And this time he is the one taking the photographs. They go to the Ano Nuevo state reserve to photograph a colony of elephant seals. To view more of Frans Lanting's work please click here. Richard shows us his metal as he snaps away. But then it's back to the studio to see if his photographs will indeed seal the deal. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Richard Quest goes in search of the perfect photo .\nHe meets Patrick Demarchelier, Steve McCurry, Frans Lanting and Anne Geddes .\nQuest puts his new skills to the test by photographing a colony of elephant seals .","id":"e92c4914629728b8c18cf61320cf4a34baa77300"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police arrested a man near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday after he drove up to one of the building's barricades with a rifle in his vehicle and told officers that he had a delivery for President Obama, a Senate spokesman said. A man drove to the Capitol with a rifle and said he had a delivery for President Obama, police said. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider identified the man as Alfred Brock, 64, of Winnfield, Louisiana. She said Brock was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition. Brock drove up to the north barricade at the Capitol late Tuesday afternoon, saying he had a delivery for the president, Schneider said. After further questioning, he admitted he had a rifle in his truck. He was arrested and taken to police headquarters for processing, she said. A search of his truck turned up several rounds of ammunition, Schneider said. Police also checked the area around the barricade, but found nothing hazardous. Threats against Obama have led to arrests in previous cases. In one, federal prosecutors concluded that three people arrested with drugs and weapons in a suburban Denver, Colorado, motel posed a \"true threat\" to Obama during the Democratic National Convention. In the second, a Florida man was charged with threatening bodily harm against the then-candidate in August. He has pleaded not guilty.","highlights":"NEW: Alfred Brock, 64 drove up to Capitol barricade with a rifle in his vehicle .\nNEW: Brock charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, ammunition .\nPolice say he told them he had a delivery for President Obama .\nMan was arrested, transported to Capitol Hill police headquarters for processing .","id":"21a3bf331defe8b1ab9dbadbdf2ca912af11a3f0"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Each month in 2008, CNN Student News will be \"Talking Democracy\" by introducing an election-year topic on the show and online. From caucuses to conventions and primaries to polls, CNN Student News will be breaking down these election-year concepts for students and teachers. Classes are invited to show what they know about the political process by submitting iReports to CNN Student News. Classes are encouraged to use original video, music, animation and other production elements to demonstrate their knowledge of each political concept. There's a list of political concepts and the months they will air below. The best iReports may appear on CNN Student News. This Web page is your one-stop destination for Talking Democracy educational materials and iReport information. As the year unfolds, additional materials will be added to this site that address the different topics your students will learn about in the Talking Democracy series. Be sure to revisit often! Talking Democracy Topics January: Caucuses and Primaries February: The Right to Vote March: Political Parties April: Campaign Finance May: Polling June and July: The Issues August: Conventions September: Debates October: What's at Stake? November: Electoral College . Learning Activities . \u2022 Caucuses and Primaries \u2022 The Right to Vote \u2022 Political Parties \u2022 Campaign Finance \u2022 Polling \u2022 Political Issues \u2022 Conventions \u2022 Debates Viewing Guide \u2022 Electoral College Reform \u2022 Predict Electoral College Votes . One-Sheets \u2022 Caucuses and Primaries \u2022 The Right to Vote \u2022 Political Parties \u2022 Campaign Finance \u2022 Political Polls \u2022 Political Issues \u2022 Conventions \u2022 Debates \u2022 Electoral College . Talking Democracy Questions . Use these questions to test your knowledge of the presidential election process, then check the answers to see how you did. Videos . \u2022 Delegates 101 Delegate-hunting can be a mathematical challenge, but CNN's Jill Dougherty says it adds up to American-style democracy. \u2022 Right to Vote CNN Student News explores the right to vote, and an iReporting classroom chimes in with reasons to exercise it. \u2022 Political Parties 101 Discover some of the differences between the Democratic and Republican parties. \u2022 Campaign Finance 101 Check out some of the rules concerning cash for presidential campaigns. \u2022 Polling 101 Discover why a random sampling is an important aspect of an opinion poll. \u2022 Conventions 101 CNN Student News takes you behind the scenes of the national political conventions. \u2022 Debates 101 The candidates face off as CNN Student News provides the background and backdrop for presidential debates. \u2022 Electoral College 101 CNN Student News' Carl Azuz gives us the 411 on the Electoral College . Interactives . Why delegates matter in the presidential race Click through this interactive for an explanation of the different types of delegates and how they are chosen in the nomination process for the Democratic and Republican parties. Electoral Map Calculator Use this Electoral College map to examine how the presidential candidates may fare in November's election, based on analysis from the CNN Political Unit. Then call the race yourself! Click on a state, choose a winner, and watch the electoral votes add up. Cable in the Classroom's eLECTIONS campaign simulation Make all the decisions for a virtual run for the U.S. presidency, allocating budget, selecting key issues, choosing where to campaign, and responding to the opponent's moves and other external events. Debate Quiz How much do you know about debate history? These questions will test your knowledge and include video of some memorable moments in presidential debate history. Related Resources . \u2022 CNN Election Center 2008 \u2022 FEC: 2008 Presidential Caucus and Primary Dates \u2022 Project Vote-Smart.org: How Does the Primary Process Work? \u2022 CNN Campaign Trail Jargonbuster . iReports . Students can demonstrate their understanding of election-related topics by sending in their own Talking Democracy iReports. Click here for information on how to send in iReports.","highlights":"\"Talking Democracy\" breaks down election-year concepts for students and teachers .","id":"d6929993a925b14c8424557fff5249e1dbab9a2c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Germany striker Miroslav Klose struck just four minutes from time to give Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich a 1-0 win at Karlsruhe -- their first victory in four league games. Klose scored a vital goal for Bayern as they claimed a 1-0 Bundesliga victory at Karlsruhe. Klose converted Massimo Oddo's cross on 86 minutes to give Jurgen Klinsmann's side three league points for the first time this month despite another unimpressive performance. Bayern last picked up three points in a Bundesliga game on September 13 when they hammered Cologne 3-0. Since then the gloss on Jurgen Klinsmann's first season in charge has faded badly after Werder Bremen hammered his side 5-2 at home on September 20 and then slumped to a 1-0 defeat at minnows Hanover the following week. Cries of \"Klinsmann out!\" were first heard around Munich's Allianz Arena in their previous league game on October 4 when a poor Bochum side were allowed to score two goals in the last 10 minutes to poach a 3-3 draw. Despite their first-half domination in Karlsruhe, Bayern could not break down the home defense and lost striker Luca Toni, the league's top scorer last season, who limped off after 40 minutes to be replaced by Lukas Podolski. And another of Munich top attacking options from last season was substituted on 59 minutes when Klinsmann switched France midfielder Franck Ribery for Germany's Tim Borowski. With Karlsruhe unable to create any chances and Bayern unable to convert theirs, it looked like the game was heading towards a 0-0 draw until Klose struck. But Klinsmann's side will need to do much better against Fiorentina in Tuesday night's Champions League game in Munich. Promoted Hoffenheim went top of the table with a flurry of late goals to seal a 5-2 victory at 10-man Hanover which put them level with Hamburg but leading the table on goal difference. Two goals from Hoffenheim's Vedad Ibisevic led the charge and made the Bosnian and Herzegovina striker the league's top scorer with nine so far this season. However, Hamburg have the chance to recapture top spot when they host Schalke on Sunday. Also on Saturday, Bayer Leverkusen moved up one place to third place thanks to their 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt. Striker Patrick Helmes scored his eighth league goal of the season when he converted a penalty after just six minutes and a 61st minute header from Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal sealed the win. Stuttgart drop from third to sixth in the table after losing 2-1 at Hertha Berlin while Wolfsburg picked up their first league win for nearly a month as midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic netted first-half goals in a 4-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld to put Felix Magath's side fifth in the table. Ten-man Energie Cottbus lost 1-0 at Cologne to stay in the bottom three while Dortmund scored in injury time to seal a 3-3 draw at Werder Bremen.","highlights":"Miroslav Klose scores only goal to give Bayern Munich a 1-0 win at Karlsruhe .\nKlose's 86th minute strike is enough to end German champions' win drought .\nHoffenheim top of table with flurry of late goals to seal a 5-2 victory at Hanover .","id":"3acc26e31aa5136ecb0ba64c920bccf444ac75a8"} -{"article":"MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Ethiopian troops have not yet begun to withdraw from key positions in the capital of Somalia two days after they were supposed to do so under a peace agreement designed to end years of conflict. Ethiopian troops are yet to leave the Somlai capital despite a peace agreement. The Ethiopians had agreed to withdraw from some bases by Friday under an agreement signed last month by the Somali transitional government and a rebel faction known as the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. Ethiopia invaded Somalia two years ago to expel Islamic forces who had conquered Mogadishu. Under the deal signed October 26, a cease-fire between the transitional government and the ARS went into effect November 5. The Ethiopians were to withdraw from from key positions in the capital on November 21, and leave the country entirely early in 2009. Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein has said that Ethiopian troops will withdraw as agreed. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate leader of the rebel ARS, told the local radio station Shabelle Saturday that the Ethiopian troops would pull out on schedule. Insurgents clashed with Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies Friday, witnesses said, leaving at least 11 fighters dead. The fighting started when armed insurgent fighters attacked the house of a local commissioner in Mogadishu's Wadajir district, sparking heavy fighting between the government troops guarding the house and the insurgents. \"I saw 11 men wearing red turbans on the heads dead on the ground,\" local resident Mohamed Haji Ali told CNN by phone from a house near where the clashes took place. Other residents provided a similar death toll. The commissioner whose house was attacked, Ahmed Da'd, said that his soldiers killed 17 insurgents. He displayed what he said were some of the dead insurgents for the media. It is not clear what will happen if the Ethiopian troops remain in Mogadishu despite the October 26 peace deal. Under that agreement, government and opposition members will form a 10,000-member joint police force to keep order, along with the African Union peacekeeping mission now in place and a U.N. force to be deployed later. Both sides will work toward establishing a unity government in Somalia, which has been riven by 17 years of strife since the collapse of its last fully functional government. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to install the transitional government in Mogadishu after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. The invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union -- which captured Mogadishu earlier that year -- of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. The Islamists responded with a guerrilla campaign against government and Ethiopian troops. Efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union-led peacekeeping mission faltered as the violence worsened, and heavy fighting in Mogadishu and other cities drove hundreds of thousands from their homes. The lawlessness also spilled on to the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms. Journalist Abdinasir Mohamed Guled and CNN's Mohammed Amiin and Amir Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ethiopian troops yet begin to withdraw from key positions in Somali capital .\nEthiopians had agreed to withdraw from some bases by Friday .\nThey were supposed to do so under a peace agreement designed to end conflict .","id":"3a74a105eef5416699d68bcb1838b7b20bd20cd2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- From bedroom creators to big studios, hand-drawn to CGI, animation has charmed and entertained children -- and, increasingly, adults -- for many years. The Screening Room went to Annecy in France to discover the secrets of success in animated films... Annecy has hailed animators like director Tim Burton, seen here receiving a special award at Annecy in 2006. Annecy is the Cannes of animation. The French town, which lies close to the Swiss border just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Geneva, has hosted the International Animated Film Festival for almost half a century and attracts a younger crowd than many of the major film festivals. With prizes for long and short features, television and student animation, Annecy highlights a wide variety of different types of animation and budgets. One veteran of Annecy is Craig Decker, known as worldwide cult figure \"Spike\" and co-founder of \"Spike and Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation.\" Beginning 30 years ago as a means of bringing independent animation to new audiences, the touring festival was instrumental in showcasing the early works of legendary animators such as Tim Burton, Pixar's John Lasseter and Aardman's Nick Park, as well as the first episode of \"Beavis and Butthead.\" Spike explained to CNN the challenge of getting animation taken seriously. He said, \"Originally we had to deal with the stigma. We showed great films like National Film Board of Canada [pieces], or \"Tin Toy\" by John Lasseter, works of art, masterpieces that take two to three years to make, and we had to deal with, 'What is it? Cartoons like Bugs Bunny or something like that?' And over the years we've educated the public, and we've put animation in the context of a very cool thing [with] a young, hip, adult audience of 18 and over.\" Stop-motion classics . One of Spike and Mike's biggest fans, Nick Park, won the Annecy award for Best TV Animation with \"Shaun the Sheep,\" a spin-off from \"A Close Shave,\" one of Aardman's famous Wallace and Gromit short features that grabbed an Oscar. Stop-motion is also close to the heart of director Tim Burton, who employed the technique on \"Corpse Bride\" and \"The Nightmare Before Christmas.\" He said, \"Because it's such an old-fashioned technique, a lot of it truly has to do with finding the right group of animators, the right group of people to build the puppets, because a lot of things are being done by computer now. Very few people are doing this style of animation.\" Allison Abbate, a producer on \"Corpse Bride,\" added, \"Stop motion is an age-old process as far as animation in film-making goes. It hasn't really changed since the days of King Kong - we used new technology in 'Corpse Bride' to bring it into a new century.\" Appropriate animation . \"I think there's room for all types of animation,\" she continued. \"It depends on the story. The story should really decide how you tell it. I think there are stories that are better made in 2-D and CGI and that's what you'd go for.\" 2-D animation is the mainstay of Japanese anime - a subject so vast it will command its own feature in a subsequent edition of the Screening Room. The film \"Paprika\" has won worldwide critical praise during the past year as a sophisticated example of the art, whose keenest supporters are sometimes contemptuous of their Hollywood animation counterparts. Asia is becoming an increasingly powerful force in animation, where companies who traditionally provided a cheap source of labor for animation studios are now using their skills to take a leading role in the creative process. UTV Toons is one of several Indian companies forming partnerships with big U.S. production houses to make new animated features. Combination of skills . Animation requires a combination of several skills, as producer Allison Abbate explained. She told CNN that animators face many complex challenges. \"Animators have to know how to move things, how things work anatomically in a space, but they also have to know how to act, how to emote and that is what makes animation so different from live action. It is so crafted, one frame at a time.\" But Spike points out that the rewards animation promises can be very high. \"Obviously in features, look at the most successful films,\" he told CNN. \"They're nearly all animated Pixar pieces or, if it's live action, it's the special effects animation that carries the film.\" And the future? Spike believes animation is going mobile. He said, \"Internationally, what's exciting is with new media: with digital; with broadband; with mobile phones. That's where we're going with our stuff.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The International Animated Film Festival in Annecy is the Cannes of animation .\nFestival highlights the best in animation, from student work to studio shorts .\nExperts say the future of animation is on mobile devices .","id":"06a2c3475ec2077a99483c735cd8aee2384af699"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Here's a tip for dairy farmers: If you want your cows to produce more milk, get to know them better. Herdsman Paul Nelson of Eachwick Red House Farm, Newcastle, England, with Highlight the cow. So says a study out of Newcastle University in northeast England, published online Wednesday in the academic journal Anthrozoos. The researchers found that farmers who named their cows Betsy or Gertrude or Daisy improved their overall milk yield by almost 500 pints (284 liters) annually. \"Just as people respond better to the personal touch, cows also feel happier and more relaxed if they are given a bit more one-to-one attention,\" Catherine Douglas of the university's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development said in a news release. \"By placing more importance on the individual, such as calling a cow by her name or interacting with the animal more as it grows up, we can not only improve the animal's welfare and her perception of humans, but also increase milk production.\" Douglas and her colleagues questioned 516 dairy farmers in the United Kingdom. Almost half said they called the cows on their farms by name and reported a higher milk yield. A press statement from the university, touting the study, quoted Dennis Gibb, who co-owns a dairy farm outside of Newcastle, called Eachwick Red House Farm. \"We love our cows here at Eachwick, and every one of them has a name,\" Gibb said. \"Collectively, we refer to them as 'our ladies,' but we know every one of them and each one has her own personality.\"","highlights":"Study in the U.K. finds cows treated with personal touch increase milk production .\nFarmers who named their cows got almost 500 more pints annually .\nDairy farmer: \"We love our cows ... and every one of them has a name\"\nResearchers questioned 516 dairy farmers in the United Kingdom .","id":"99ba3d1cc315f0e927108f7feeedc41de6e34b46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Personal computer maker Lenovo, expecting to report a loss for the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, announced it would cut 2,500 jobs as part of a restructuring expected to save $300 million. A woman walks past a Lenovo advertisement at a computer shop in Hong Kong. The cuts comprise about 11 percent of the Chinese computer manufacturer's global workforce. \"Although the integration of the IBM PC business for the past three years was a success, our last quarter's performance did not meet our expectations,\" Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman of the board, said in a statement. \"We are taking these actions now to ensure that in an uncertain economy, our business operates as efficiently and effectively as possible, and continues to grow in the future.\" Hong Kong's Hang Seng index suspended trading of Lenovo shares Wednesday, anticipating the announcement. The trading is to resume Thursday. The job cuts, to occur during the first quarter, will include management and executive positions and also affect finance, human resources and marketing divisions, the company said. In addition, the \"resource redeployment plan\" included executive compensation reductions of 30 percent to 50 percent, including bonuses, and the consolidation of its China and Asia-Pacific organizations into a single business unit to be called Asia Pacific and Russia . The company, ranked as the world's fourth-largest PC maker, anticipated taking a pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $150 million. As part of its restructuring, the company said it was relocating call center operations from Toronto, Canada, to Morrisville, North Carolina, the company's North America headquarters in order to \"better leverage its investment in real estate and facilities.\"","highlights":"Chairman of the board cites last quarter's below-expectations performance .\nJob cuts to include management and executive positions .\nCompany is ranked as the world's No. 4 PC maker .\nLenovo anticipates taking pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $150 million .","id":"500d36ba2bc69c9436fdb45566bc88a30a69dd4e"} -{"article":"JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- A deadly trade is occurring along the U.S. border with Mexico, federal officials say -- a flood of guns, heading south, used by drug thugs to kill Mexican cops. Authorities recently seized these .50-caliber bullets, already belted to be fed into a machine gun. In Mexico, guns are difficult to purchase legally. So, officials say, weapons easily purchased in the United States are turning up there. \"The same routes that are being used to traffic drugs north -- and the same organizations that have control over those routes -- are the same organizations that bring the money and the cash proceeds south as well as the guns and the ammunition,\" says Bill Newell, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Police in Mexican border towns fear for their lives, and with good reason. Five high-ranking Mexican police officials have been killed this year in what Mexican officials say is an escalating war between police and drug cartels. In Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, a police commander was gunned down in front of his home. The weapon used to kill Cmdr. Francisco Ledesma Salazar is believed to have been a .50-caliber rifle. The guns are illegal to purchase in Mexico but can be obtained just north of the border at gun shows and gun shops in the United States. ATF special agent Tom Mangan says the .50-caliber rifle has become one of the \"guns of choice\" for the drug cartels. The weapon fires palm-sized .50-caliber rounds that can cut through just about anything. Mangan showed CNN the power of the rifle on a gun range near Phoenix, Arizona. The weapon, a Barrett, was seized in an ATF raid. A round fired from 100 yards away tore through a car door and both sides of a bulletproof vest like those used by Mexican police. \"There's nothing that's going to stop this round,\" Mangan says. The rifle was intercepted as it was being smuggled into Mexico. Mangan says investigators believe four others already had passed through the border. Watch how the weapons fuel a little-known war \u00bb . The ATF has been trying to help Mexican police by cracking down on illegal purchases of guns and ammunition. Operation Gunrunner has led to several arrests and seizures of guns and ammo. But the operation has mainly shown just how big a problem exists, authorities say. One recent seizure in a Yuma, Arizona, storage locker yielded 42 weapons and hundreds of rounds of .50-caliber bullets already belted to be fed into a machine gun-style weapon. The guns confiscated included AK-47 rifles and dozens of Fabrique National pistols. The semiautomatic pistols fire a 5.7-by-28 millimeter round, which is technically a rifle round, according to the ATF. Newell says the round has a special nickname in Mexico. \"It's called 'mata policias,' or 'cop killer,' \" he says. Mexican authorities along the border recently met with their counterparts in the United States, hoping more cooperation will lead to more arrests of criminals and fewer killings of Mexican police officers. Guillermo Fonseca, Mexico's regional legal attach\u00e9 for the West Coast, told CNN the violence in his country is \"problem number 1\" -- and police in his country are outgunned. Officers in Mexico lack heavy firepower, he says. With the presence of large-caliber weapons from the United States, drug cartels and criminals have the advantage in what he says is basically a war. Part of the solution, he says, is for the United States to give Mexico more information about who is selling these guns illegally in the United States. Then Mexico could go after the buyers. \"We have access to systems to trace guns that have been smuggled into Mexico, and that has worked very well,\" Fonseca told CNN. \"We need more information about the people who are actually purchasing the guns. We need to prosecute those people, to convict those people. In our opinion, that's the next step we have to take.\" Last year Mexican police confiscated 10,000 guns and $200 million in raids aimed at cracking down on border violence. Still, local police tread carefully, especially in neighborhoods controlled by the powerful drug cartels. Officer Cesar Quitana patrols a dangerous barrio in Juarez, Mexico. He is armed with an M16 assault rifle -- a weapon that would be no match in a gunfight with drug lords. \"I think most of us feel scared just to bring this with us,\" he says, pointing to the rifle in the front seat of his patrol car. \"But this is what we use to defend ourselves.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Orlando Ruiz and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Firearms difficult to purchase in Mexico are more easily obtained in United States .\nDrugs and money go north to U.S. while guns go south to Mexico, authorities say .\nMexican drug cartels blamed for killings of police officers .","id":"4dab2d6eab513446e7b5c76924cffde43f42cdb1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Electronics giant Sony launched its eagerly anticipated social-networking site Thursday for PlayStation 3 users. A gamer plays Sony's PlayStation 3. PlayStation Home, which can be downloaded free of charge, will allow PS3 gamers to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences through their own personal \"avatars,\" or three-dimensional virtual representations of themselves. Users will be able to chat to each other in Home Square -- a kind of PlayStation clubhouse -- before heading over to the bowling alley to bowl, play pool or use the gaming arcade. They will also be able to access music and video. Users will eventually be able to customize their avatars and virtual apartments with the latest virtual clothing from designers such as Diesel and furniture maker Ligne Roset. Sony also plans to introduce Red Bull Island, where users can jump into the cockpit of a Red Bull Air Race plane and compete against other Home users. \"The idea behind Home is to create a virtual space for PS3 owners to meet up, talk and play games - the easiest way to think of it is as a hybrid of Facebook, Second Life and the prettiest game lobby ever,\" Tim Clark, editor in chief at Official PlayStation Magazine UK, told the BBC. All you need to download Home is a PlayStation Network account and access to PlayStation Store. Providing you have the latest system software update installed, the Home icon will appear under PlayStation Network on the PS3 Home Menu (XMB). \"PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with a combination of the power of PS3 and the PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,\" said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment on the company's Web site.","highlights":"PlayStation Home can be downloaded free of charge by PS3 users .\nUsers communicate, share gaming experiences through their own avatars .\nDesigned along the lines of 3-D Second Life virtual world .","id":"ccee27b87deb37c76b1c76042629af98af24a68b"} -{"article":"Congressman Jared Polis . (D) Colorado: District 02 . Congressman Jason Chaffetz . (R) Utah: District 03 .","highlights":"Two freshman representatives document their experience for CNN .\nRep. Jared Polis is a Democrat representing Colorado's Second district .\nRep. Jason Chaffetz is a Republican representing Utah's Third district .","id":"86bd905861391cbd3a98de15c83768b6d1400304"} -{"article":"IP-455 Press Release 8 February 2008 The findings of a Scotland Yard inquiry into how Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died after being attacked during a political rally in Rawalpindi were presented to the Government of Pakistan today. The bomb explodes near Bhutto's vehicle following a political rally in Rawalpindi. The conclusions of the inquiry were outlined in a detailed report handed over to interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz by Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne, accompanied by a senior official from the British High Commission, during a meeting in Islamabad. The text of the executive summary of the report is as follows: . On the 27th December 2007, Mohtarma Benazir BHUTTO, the leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), died as a result of being attacked in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Following discussions between the Prime Minister and President Musharraf, it was agreed that officers from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) should support the investigation into Ms Bhutto's death. The primary focus of the Scotland Yard team was to assist the Pakistani authorities in establishing the cause and circumstances of Ms Bhutto's death. The wider investigation to establish culpability has remained entirely a matter for the Pakistani authorities. The SO15 team was led by a Detective Superintendent Senior Investigating Officer, and comprised two forensic experts, an expert in analysing and assessing video media and an experienced investigating officer. The team arrived in Pakistan on 4th January 2008 and spent two and a half weeks conducting extensive enquiries. During the course of their work, the team were joined by other specialists from the United Kingdom. The UK team were given extensive support and co-operation by the Pakistani authorities, Ms Bhutto's family, and senior officials from Ms Bhutto's party. The task of establishing exactly what happened was complicated by the lack of an extended and detailed search of the crime scene, the absence of an autopsy, and the absence of recognised body recovery and victim identification processes. Nevertheless, the evidence that is available is sufficient for reliable conclusions to be drawn. Within the overall objective, a particular focus has been placed on establishing the actual cause of death, and whether there were one or more attackers in the immediate vicinity of Ms Bhutto. The cause of death . Considerable reliance has been placed upon the X-rays taken at Rawalpindi General Hospital following Ms Bhutto's death. Given their importance, the x-rays have been independently verified as being of Ms Bhutto by comparison with her dental x-rays. Additionally, a valuable insight was gained from the accounts given by the medical staff involved in her treatment, and from those members of Ms Bhutto's family who washed her body before burial. Ms Bhutto's only apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head. The UK experts all exclude this injury being an entry or exit wound as a result of gunshot. The only X-ray records, taken after her death, were of Ms Bhutto's head. However, the possibility of a bullet wound to her mid or lower trunk can reasonably be excluded. This is based upon the protection afforded by the armoured vehicle in which she was travelling at the time of the attack, and the accounts of her family and hospital staff who examined her. The limited X-ray material, the absence of a full post mortem examination and CT scan, have meant that the UK Home Office pathologist, Dr Nathaniel Cary, who has been consulted in this case, is unable categorically to exclude the possibility of there being a gunshot wound to the upper trunk or neck. However when his findings are put alongside the accounts of those who had close contact with Ms Bhutto's body, the available evidence suggests that there was no gunshot injury. Importantly, Dr Cary excludes the possibility of a bullet to the neck or upper trunk as being a relevant factor in the actual cause of death, when set against the nature and extent of her head injury. In his report Dr Cary states: . \u2022 \"the only tenable cause for the rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effects of the bomb-blast.\" \u2022 \"in my opinion Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of the bomb-blast and due to head impact somewhere in the escape hatch of the vehicle.\" Given the severity of the injury to Ms Bhutto's head, the prospect that she inadvertently hit her head whilst ducking down into the vehicle can be excluded as a reasonable possibility. High explosives of the type typically used in this sort of device, detonate at a velocity between 6000 and 9000 metres per second. This means that when considering the explosive quantities and distances involved, such an explosion would generate significantly more force than would be necessary to provoke the consequences as occurred in this case. It is also important to comment upon the construction of the vehicle. It was fitted with B6 grade armour and designed to withstand gunfire and bomb-blast. It is an unfortunate and misleading aspect of this case that the roof escape hatch has frequently been referred to as a sunroof. It is not. It is designed and intended to be used solely as a means of escape. It has a solid lip with a depth of 9cm. Ms Bhutto's injury is entirely consistent with her head impacting upon the lip of the escape hatch. Detailed analysis of the media footage provides supporting evidence. Ms Bhutto's head did not completely disappear from view until 0.6 seconds before the blast. She can be seen moving forward and to the right as she ducked down into the vehicle. Whilst her exact head position at the time of the detonation can never be ascertained, the overwhelming conclusion must be that she did not succeed in getting her head entirely below the lip of the escape hatch when the explosion occurred. How many people were involved in the immediate attack? There has been speculation that two individuals were directly involved in the attack. The suggestion has been that one suspect fired shots, and a second detonated the bomb. All the available evidence points toward the person who fired shots and the person who detonated the explosives being one and the same person. \u2022 Body parts from only one individual remain unidentified. Expert opinion provides strong evidence that they originate from the suicide bomber. \u2022 Analysis of the media footage places the gunman at the rear of the vehicle and looking down immediately before the explosion. The footage does not show the presence of any other potential bomber. \u2022 This footage when considered alongside the findings of the forensic explosive expert, that the bombing suspect was within 1 to 2 metres of the vehicle towards it rear and with no person or other obstruction between him and the vehicle, strongly suggests that the bomber and gunman were at the same position. It is virtually inconceivable that anyone who was where the gunman can clearly be seen on the media footage, could have survived the blast and escaped. The inevitable conclusion is that there was one attacker in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle in which Ms Bhutto was travelling. In essence, all the evidence indicates that one suspect has fired the shots before detonating an improvised explosive device. At the time of the attack this person was standing close to the rear of Ms Bhutto's vehicle. The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury. John MacBrayne QPM Detective Superintendent Counter Terrorism Command 1st February 2008 E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Scotland Yard releases report into assassination of Benazir Bhutto .\nOnly apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head .\nUK experts all exclude the injury being a wound as a result of gunshot .\nInjury consistent with her head impacting upon the lip of vehicle escape hatch .","id":"7ba64fb6411031273d83670d0b7ef77f24cc551b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- \"There's no doubt\" that the deadly attack on India's financial capital last month was planned inside Pakistan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN on Sunday. People in New Delhi, India, take part in a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Mumbai attacks on Sunday. Her comments to CNN's \"Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer\" were the most definitive made by a top-ranking U.S. official regarding Pakistan's connection to the November 26-29 attack on Mumbai, in which more than 170 were killed and hundreds of others were wounded. \"Well, I think there's no doubt that Pakistani territory was used by probably non-state actors,\" Rice said. \"I don't think that there is compelling evidence of involvement of Pakistani officials. But I do think that Pakistan has a responsibility to act, and it doesn't matter that they're non-state actors.\" Last week, Rice traveled to the region to try to ease tension between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers and key allies of the United States. While in New Delhi, India, she called on Pakistan to take responsibility for terrorists operating within its borders. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said \"stateless actors\" carried out the attack while Indian authorities say they believe all the attackers were Pakistanis, specifically blaming Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan. U.S. counterterrorism officials say signs point to LeT, and they haven't seen anything to rule it out. However, they have not definitively said the group is responsible. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said during an appearance Tuesday at Harvard University that the Mumbai attacks were carried out by the same group responsible for the parliament attack and a series of bomb explosions aboard trains and at railway stations in Mumbai in 2006 -- though he didn't specifically name LeT. LeT has denied any responsibility for the attacks, but a suspect in custody -- whom India has said was one of 10 gunmen in the attacks -- told interrogators he was trained by LeT, Indian authorities said. India said its forces killed nine gunmen. On Sunday, Rice said LeT and al Qaeda \"tend to travel in the same circles,\" though she declined to directly link either group to the Mumbai attack. But she stressed that Pakistan is obligated to root out terrorists within its borders. \"Well, I don't want to go into too much detail here because, obviously, in counterterrorism no one wants to tip the hand of what has happened here and what may happen in the future,\" Rice said. \"The important thing now is to get these perpetrators and to prevent follow-on attacks. And Pakistan's cooperation, Pakistan's action, is absolutely essential to doing that.\" Asked about possible ties between Pakistan's government and LeT, Rice acknowledged \"there have been historic ties -- there's no doubt about that.\" \"But Pakistan is a different place now with a civilian government and an army leadership that is working in concert to try to bring an end to extremism within Pakistan,\" she said. \"We have to remember that Pakistan itself has been suffering at the hands of extremism. So whatever the history here, and there is a history, the important thing is that Pakistan act against those who used Pakistani soil to perpetrate attacks.\"","highlights":"Condoleezza Rice: \"No doubt\" Pakistani territory used by \"probably non-state actors\"\nRice: Pakistan is obligated to root out terrorists within its borders .\nIndia has alleged Pakistan-based Islamic militant group linked to Mumbai attacks .","id":"90ba568443486427c40cb12268d3e14629ded9f4"} -{"article":"LONE GROVE, Oklahoma (CNN) -- A scene of devastation emerged Wednesday as circling helicopters broadcast images of housing developments smashed by tornadoes and severe storms that killed at least eight people in south-central Oklahoma Tuesday. Rescue personnel search for potential trapped victims Wednesday in Lone Grove, Oklahoma. Storms ripped roofs off several homes and left twisted metal and other debris scattered across the area. Firefighters and emergency personnel were working with distressed residents. \"It just happened really quickly. The sky darkened up and turned really, really green,\" truck driver Bruce Mundy told CNN from a truck stop in Oklahoma City early Wednesday morning. Watch aerial footage of destruction \u00bb . \"It was just, like, one after another. As soon as you get calmed down there were more,\" he said. The storms had moved out of the state Wednesday morning after at least three tornadoes touched down in central and southern Oklahoma Tuesday, the National Weather Service said Wednesday. The one that hit Lone Grove at about 7:30 p.m. had an intensity of EF4 and winds of around 170 mph. The Enhanced Fujita scale measures the intensity of a tornado and its wind speeds based on the type of damage caused and rates it between EF0 and EF5. The first tornado, which hit Edmond between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., had an intensity ranging between EF0 and EF2, the NWS said. The service has not been able to determine an intensity for another tornado that hit near Langston about an hour later. In the aftermath of the storms, authorities acknowledged a heavy task ahead as emergency personnel and private citizens began the cleanup effort. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video . \"We're just trying to get stuff in people's hands,\" store owner Matt Wilson told CNN while handing out pry bars and flashlights to residents at his hardware store in Lone Grove, where heavy damage occurred. \"But just about all of Lone Grove is without power.\" View a map of where tornadoes touched down \u00bb . Lone Grove, near the Texas line about 90 miles south of the capital, Oklahoma City, had all of the fatalities and most of the approximately 50 injuries caused by the storms, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Watch funnel cloud touch down \u00bb . Also hit hard by the storms were the towns of Pawnee and Edmond, both north of the capital. Dramatic television footage of one storm showed large funnel clouds that darkened the sky as the storm approached. It mangled homes, snapped trees and crushed cars with debris as it touched down. Watch town where tornado leveled buildings \u00bb . \"The wind started blowing really hard and then died down,\" a Lone Grove man told CNN affiliate KOCO-TV. Then, \"all heck broke loose. I mean, it just broke loose. The whole house shook.\" Donetta Singleton, manager of Bill's Fish House in Lone Grove, said one tornado's path took it right past the restaurant. She said the post office was gone and a church was damaged. Lone Grove police said a trailer park was hit. Watch post-tornado damage \u00bb . Mercy Memorial Health Center in Ardmore, about eight miles east of Lone Grove, received 46 people with injuries -- seven considered major -- after the storms passed, said Shana Hammond, a hospital spokeswoman. About 6,000 OG&E customers are without power, including nearly 3,500 in Lone Grove, according to a statement released by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management on Wednesday. CNN's Robyn Sidersky contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Cleanup begins after tornadoes reaching 170 mph tear through Oklahoma .\nStorms rip off roofs, scatter sheets of metal, other debris .\nHardest hit is Lone Grove, about 90 miles south of the capital, Oklahoma City .\nResident says post office is gone and a church is damaged .","id":"d86cefefb323606366763661f9ce20f787fffcc5"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Suspected Taliban militants blew up a government-run school Monday in Pakistan's violence-plagued Swat Valley, bringing to 183 the number of schools destroyed since fighting began in the area six months ago, officials said. Students gather outside a destroyed school on January 17 in Kundar in Pakistan's Swat Valley. A day earlier, radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah threatened to kill more than four dozen government officials if they did not appear before him for opposing the Taliban. Local newspapers on Monday printed the list of 50 government officials and tribal elders whom Fazlullah has threatened with death. The boy's high school that was destroyed was located in Mingora, the valley's main city, said Sher Afzal Khan, an education officer for Swat. The attack occurred early Monday and no one was wounded. Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once Pakistan's biggest tourist destination. It is situated near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 km) from the capital city of Islamabad. The valley boasted the country's only ski resort and was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts until it was overrun by militants, led by Fazlullah. He has launched a violent and deadly campaign to enforce Taliban-style fundamentalist Islamic laws throughout the province. The militants want to require veils for women and beards for men, and to ban music and television. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants. As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban has carried out a series of deadly bombings, and has said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out. Elsewhere in the North West Frontier Province, a blast killed five people and wounded 15 others Monday morning, officials said. The bomb, planted on a bicycle, went off in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, said Mohammad Riaz of the province's police force. It killed shopkeepers and pedestrians, added the town's police chief, Abdul Rashid. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Blast targets boy's high school in Mingora, Swat Valley .\nMonday attack marks 183rd school destroyed in past six months of fighting .\nHundreds of people killed in wave of violence across North West Frontier Province .","id":"72d11f6df74ab4431ce24b8cb391d239e998ec3e"} -{"article":"BIRMINGHAM, England -- Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele broke the two-mile world record at an international indoor meeting in Birmingham on Saturday. Bekele shaved 0.34 seconds off the record held by Gebrselassie. The reigning Olympic 10,000 meters champion, on the same track where compatriot Haile Gebrselassie achieved the previous fastest time, shaved 0.34 seconds off his fellow Ethiopian's mark with a time of 8 minutes 04.35 seconds. The women's 3,000 meters was won by another Ethiopian, front-running Gelete Burka, in 8:31.94 - the third-fastest time in history. Britain's Commonwealth champion Phillips Idowu warmed-up for next month's World Indoor Championships in Valencia by winning the triple jump with 17.21 meters. Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia set a world indoor record in the women's pole vault by clearing 4 meters 95 centimeters in Donetsk. She beat her own mark of 4.93m which she set last year at the same venue. It is the third consecutive year in which 25-year-old Isinbayeva, who has leaped 5.02 outdoors, broke the indoor mark in Donetsk. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kenenisa Bekele breaks the world two-mile record in Birmingham .\nHe wins the event in 8 minutes 04.35 seconds.\nHe is 0.34 seconds faster than compatriot Haile Gebrselassie's old record .","id":"a9898e0ed47b41926bc26486022e4bf5bfe23a55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Christine Beatty, chief of staff for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from their text-messaging sex scandal case and will serve four months in jail, according to the Wayne County prosecutor's office. Under a plea deal, Christine Beatty, shown in August at an arraignment in Detroit, will serve five years probation. Beatty pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, according to Maria Miller, the prosecutor's spokeswoman. Charges of perjury and misconduct against Beatty will be dropped as part of the plea arrangement, she said. Beatty agreed to a plea arrangement under which she will serve five years probation -- the first 120 days to be served in jail -- and pay a $100,000 fine, \"based on [Beatty's] ability to pay,\" Miller said. Beatty will begin serving her jail sentence on January 5, when she will be formally sentenced, Miller said. Kym L. Worthy, prosecuting attorney for Wayne County, released a statement saying she is \"very pleased that this defendant admitted her guilt.\" \"We live in an age where greed and protecting one's secrets is glorified and accepted,\" Worthy said. \"Now the city of Detroit, the region and the state of Michigan can truly begin to move forward when this ugly chapter in Detroit's history is put to rest.\" In September, Kilpatrick resigned as mayor and pleaded guilty to two felony obstruction of justice charges stemming from his efforts to cover up his relationship with Beatty. Like Beatty, Kilpatrick was sentenced to five years probation with the first four months to be served in jail. He is serving that sentence in the Wayne County jail. At the time of his sentencing in October, the judge in the case called Kilpatrick \"arrogant and defiant,\" particularly for a televised speech that aired hours after Kilpatrick entered his pleas. \"That night, the community expected to hear a message of humility, remorse and apology,\" Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner said at Kilpatrick's sentencing. \"Instead, we heard an arrogant and defiant man who accused the governor, among others, for his downfall.\" In addition to his jail and probation sentence, Kilpatrick must also pay the city of Detroit $1 million in restitution, and forfeit any future pension. Initially, Kilpatrick was accused of blocking a criminal investigation into his office and firing a police deputy to cover up an affair with Beatty, then his chief of staff. When that deputy, Gary Brown, filed a whistle-blower suit, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied under oath that an affair had taken place between them. Text messages that contradicted Kilpatrick's and Beatty's denials of an affair were made public in January by the Detroit Free Press, and county prosecutor Worthy charged Kilpatrick and Beatty with multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. The most serious charges would have carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison upon conviction. Beatty resigned her post after the text messages were made public. Kilpatrick initially refused to resign after the scandal broke, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called a hearing on whether she should remove him from office at the request of the Detroit City Council. Granholm adjourned those hearings after Kilpatrick pleaded guilty and resigned in September.","highlights":"Christine Beatty pleads guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice .\nChief of staff for former Detroit, Michigan, mayor will serve four months in jail .\nShe gets probation, $100,000 fine; perjury, misconduct charges to be dropped .\nCharges stemmed from text-messaging sex scandal involving mayor .","id":"7498c99ad6c6f0e0d3929c214b290a172584efe8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Capitol Police arrested a man Friday after an officer spotted a rifle in his car when he stopped the officer to ask for directions two blocks from the Capitol building. Police inspect the suspect's vehicle in Washington on Friday. Christopher Shelton Timmons, 27, has been charged with carrying a deadly weapon, having an unregistered firearm and having unregistered ammunition, Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said. In addition to the rifle -- an AK-47 -- police found a grenade, a pistol, ammunition, loaded magazines \"and several other items of concern to the police\" in the Jeep Cherokee he was driving. Authorities said Timmons was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon in March in Albemarle County, Virginia, and served a month in jail. In that incident, Timmons had two grenades in his car, said Albemarle Police Chief John Miller. The pins had been removed and the grenades were filled with powder, authorities said. They had an adhesive on top to close them and a firecracker for a fuse. Law enforcement sources said the grenades were similar to an item found in Timmons vehicle Friday. That device has been taken to the FBI facility in Quantico, Virginia. Members of the joint terrorism task force are involved in the investigation, sources said, but so far no one is suggesting Timmons was planning an attack of some kind. CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police say suspect had AK-47, grenade, pistol, ammunition in car .\nSuspect Christopher S. Timmons was recently convicted on weapons charge .\nTimmons had stopped officer to ask directions .","id":"8d817ad3977623d9cf2b0645d3f41574ee825d50"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Consumer advocates Wednesday hailed the settlement of a class-action lawsuit over Sears stoves in which the retailer agreed to install safety brackets for free to prevent the appliances from tipping over or provide other reimbursements. Stoves in danger of tipping over can be fixed for free under terms of a settlement announced Wednesday. According to the court-approved agreement, Sears will notify nearly 4 million customers who may have bought stoves between July 2000 and September 2007 that they either can get anti-tip safety brackets installed for free or receive gift cards or reimbursements of up to $100 to qualifying customers. The brackets keep the appliances bolted to the floor or wall to prevent them from tipping over. Such accidents have caused more than 100 deaths or injuries, mostly from scalding and burns, according to the nonprofit consumer group Public Citizen. The value of the settlement depends on how many customers respond to Sears' offer, but Public Citizen said it could end up costing the retailer more than $545 million. Watch to see if your stove is in danger of tipping \u00bb . In addition to paying $17 million in legal fees, Sears will install brackets on all new stoves for free for the next three years. \"This agreement by Sears and the lawyers for the consumer is a real deal,\" said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. \"This is a fantastic deal for a lawsuit to make this headway and get the protection for the consumer.\" Sears Holdings Corp. spokesman Chris Brathwaite said the plaintiffs' counsel is overestimating the settlement's monetary value. \"The parties dispute many aspects of the case, including the value on this settlement -- which Sears estimates to be a small fraction of what plaintiffs' counsel estimates,\" Brathwaite said in a statement. Claybrook and other consumer advocates said they would like the Consumer Product Safety Commission to require anti-tip brackets for all stove installations. Installing brackets is now voluntary. Claybrook said the agreement \"sets a model for what the Consumer Product Safety Commission should do and should have done. They've known about it for 25 years and done nothing.\" She said an amendment requiring anti-tip stove devices should be added to Senate legislation intended to beef up the safety commission. Commission spokeswoman Patty Davis disagreed, saying, \"The statistics and risk do not support mandatory rule-making at this time. We believe the voluntary standards are working.\" Brathwaite said customers can visit the Web site http:\/\/www.searsrangesettlement.com\/ for information. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sears agrees to install anti-tip safety brackets on stoves for free .\nStoves tipping over blamed for than 100 deaths or injuries .\nSears will install brackets for free on new stoves over the next three years .\nConsumer group says settlement may cost retailer more than $545 million .","id":"9e813f1f7417a851c66be993479447763990eafb"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Preliminary DNA tests indicate a 3-year-old foster child is the son of a woman being held captive by leftist rebels, Colombian officials announced Friday. Clara Rojas appears in a video released by the kidnappers in July 2002. \"There is a very high probability that Juan David belongs to the family of Clara Gonzalez de Rojas,\" Mario Iguaran Arana, the country's chief federal prosecutor, said at a news conference. The boy, known as \"Emmanuel,\" has been at the center of a hostage drama that raised hopes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia would liberate some of their hostages. The rebel group, known as FARC for its Spanish acronym, had agreed to release three hostages as part of a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. FARC said it would release Emmanuel along with his mother, Clara Rojas, and another woman, Consuelo Gonzalez, but the mission to free the captives fell apart December 31, when the rebel group said it could not release the hostages because of Colombian military operations in the area, according to a FARC statement Chavez read on Venezuelan television. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied the group's assertion, saying there were no combat operations in the area near the rebels, and he said the rebels could not release the three hostages because they did not have Emmanuel in custody. He raised the possibility that Emmanuel, who was born in captivity to Rojas, was living in a foster home in the Colombian capital of Bogota. Authorities in Colombia suspect the FARC duped child-welfare authorities by presenting the boy as a child in need of foster care in 2005, he said. On Friday, Iguaran Arana said initial DNA results will be checked against tests being done in European labs to verify the child's identity. There was no immediate response from Venezuela after the announcement concerning Emmanuel's DNA. However, a statement on the Venezuelan government's Web site from earlier Friday said the Colombian government had not allowed Venezuela to participate in the DNA testing. Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of State. The United States, the European Union and Colombia classify it as a terrorist group. FARC has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running and complex civil war that also has involved right-wing paramilitary units, government forces and drug traffickers. Fighting has waned, but not stopped, in recent years. Among the group's hostages are three American contractors who were captured when their plane went down in 2003 during a drug-eradication flight, and Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian independent presidential candidate who was kidnapped in 2002. Rojas was kidnapped in 2002 while she managed Betancourt's campaign. Betancourt is perhaps the best-known captive in Colombia, a country plagued by kidnapping. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Colombian government: 3-year-old in foster home was likely born in captivity .\nChild was at center of hostage release drama .\nRebel group had promised to release the boy, his mother, and another woman .","id":"54b3de3ff92f0898b0b0d1e14c618492c53b0927"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced Wednesday he is releasing all information on his and his family's income to show he did not invest in or make money from pyramid schemes that have defrauded millions. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says he's releasing the information to help the government's fight against fraud. Uribe said he is releasing the information because some of the people running the frauds have told potential investors that he and his sons also have invested or are otherwise involved. There also were allegations made in a congressional debate this week that Uribe's sons had been involved with one of the main companies accused of fraud. \"There's been slander against the good name of my family that I feel I must defend,\" a somber and angry-looking Uribe said in a short nationally televised speech. Officials have said the pyramid schemes took in at least $200 million from 3 million people this year. In the past five years, authorities said they believe the businesses took in $1 billion. Uribe said he is releasing the income information, dating to his youth, to help the government's continuing fight against fraud. \"I do it in respect to the Colombian people, for transparency and to strengthen the moral authority in order to keep battling all the expressions of the crime,\" he said. The president also defended his two sons, Tomas and Jeronimo. \"They are not involved in corruption,\" Uribe said. \"My sons are not corrupt. My sons are not influence peddlers before the state. My sons do not rely on their father. My sons are not sons of daddy. My sons are not layabouts. My sons are not lazy men with salaries. My sons have chosen to be men of work, honest and serious.\" Officials last week arrested the head of a Colombian company accused of defrauding millions of investors. David Murcia Guzman, president of a company called DMG, was arrested in Panama and immediately deported to Colombia. Also last week, the Colombian government declared a state of emergency, allowing officials to take over businesses that have used pyramid schemes to steal millions from 3 million investors. The government immediately took over 60 DMG branches and shut the company's doors. Officials said they hope to liquidate some of the company's assets to repay defrauded investors. The emergency decree also stiffened jail time and fines for anyone found guilty of fraud. The government said the businesses defrauded the public by purporting to offer a sure investment. Speaking about the emergency measures last week, Interior Minister Fabio Valencia decried \"the Mafia-like mentality\" of those \"who want to obtain easy money.\"","highlights":"Pyramid schemes took in at least $200 million from 3 million this year, officials say .\nColombia's leader says people falsely said he and his sons invested in schemes .\nPresident Alvaro Uribe: \"There's been slander against the good name of my family\"\nFirms defrauded public by purporting to offer a sure investment, government says .","id":"11776ec820ac75e55bab9616774a114d82185e66"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It was an odd sight in Ethiopia's capital this week: a standing ovation for Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the man whom Ethiopian forces had removed from power in neighboring Somalia two years ago. Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's new president, answers questions at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. He once led the Islamic Courts Union, which ruled much of Somalia in 2006 before it was routed by the Ethiopians. Now, Ahmed is the leader of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government -- and two days after his election to the post of president, he was welcomed with open arms at an African Union summit in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Two years after the invasion and the guerrilla war it provoked, Somalia has in some ways come full circle. Islamist militias control the country's capital and other key cities; the transitional government is trying to establish a foothold from outside the country; and Ahmed -- commonly known as \"Sheikh Sharif\" -- is in a position of power. But several analysts who have studied the region say the new government is in a much stronger position to establish itself inside Somalia and restore order to a country that has been mired in chaos for the past two decades. \"The ascendancy of Sheikh Sharif provides an opportunity to create an inclusive coalition governing from the center outwards,\" said John Prendergast, co-chairman of the Enough Project, who studies the Horn of Africa for the Center for American Progress think tank. The transitional government is currently stranded in Djibouti, unable to return to Somalia after its base in Baidoa was seized last week by Al-Shabaab, a radical Islamist militia with ties to al Qaeda. Ahmed now stands at a crossroads between quelling the militia, which once was aligned with the ICU, and including more moderates in his future government, Prendergast said. \"The fulcrum for change is in the hands of Sheikh Sharif's government,\" he said. \"If he is able to put together an inclusive government -- even if it's only on paper, even if it's only in Djibouti -- I think it will quickly defuse any fervor of support for Shabaab.\" See a list of Somalia's key players \u00bb . Rise of Al-Shabaab . Al-Shabaab fighters took control of Baidoa hours after the remaining Ethiopian forces withdrew under a June 2008 cease-fire deal. Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the loss of Baidoa is \"a clear indication that the transitional federal government has lost any grip -- whatever grip it had -- in Somalia.\" But Prendergast said the radical Islamist militia will most likely lose support among Somalis now that its \"rallying cry\" of getting the Ethiopian forces out of Somalia is gone. \"What the Islamists did was, they wrapped themselves up in the mantle of Somali nationalism and, for the last two years, they have hitched their star to throwing the Ethiopians out,\" he said. Prendergast predicted that Al-Shabaab fighters \"will sustain themselves for awhile and temporarily expand, but I don't envision it to be a long-term prospect at all.\" Last year, the United States put Al-Shabaab -- which means \"The Youth\" -- on its list of terrorist groups. Analysts say Al-Shabaab models itself after the Taliban's puritanical Islamic rule. See a timeline of recent events in Somalia \u00bb . Stig Jarle Hansen, a Nairobi, Kenya-based expert on Somalia for the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, said Al-Shabaab fighters have been trained in Afghanistan, and the group has \"clear connections\" to al Qaeda. There has been evidence that the group has extended its reach into the United States, as well. The FBI is investigating what appears to be a massive recruitment effort by Al-Shabaab in the United States' Somali communities, particularly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where more than a dozen young men of Somali descent have gone missing in recent months. One member of Minneapolis' Somali community, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, blew himself up in an apparent suicide bombing in northern Somalia in October. Also, hours before U.S. President Barack Obama took the oath of office in January, the FBI was warned of a possible terrorist attack by Al-Shabaab that was timed to coincide with his inauguration. Prendergast said he expects Al-Shabaab's overseas ties to dry up now that its \"clarion call\" against Ethiopian forces is no longer valid. \"Now that that fight is over, I don't see that money continuing, and I don't see the recruitment from Somalis like places from Minneapolis to continue successfully,\" he said. And Ken Menkhaus, a Davidson College professor and former adviser to U.N. missions in Somalia in the 1990s, said the militia's efforts to govern the territory it holds in southern Somalia has had mixed results, alienating many Somalis by imposing hardline Islamic law. Al-Shabaab now has to justify its continued presence \"on the basis of what it's for -- and what it's for is not very popular among Somalis,\" Menkhaus said. The group is fraught with internal divisions and has already clashed with other militias over control of key neighborhoods in Mogadishu, he said. But if Al-Shabaab did manage to establish a government, there would be a \"genuine fear\" that al Qaeda could try to gain a foothold there. \"It would guarantee proxy wars and conflicts between Somalis and non-Somalis that would just perpetuate this conflict,\" Menkhaus said. Military intervention in Somalia? The United States has conducted periodic airstrikes against Islamist leaders since 2006 and has long viewed Somalia as a possible haven for al Qaeda. But military intervention would not only be unpopular, it would only empower Al-Shabaab by handing it back its \"raison d'etre,\" Prendergast said. \"You don't immediately confront a group like this -- they are at their high point,\" he said. \"You fight it politically and draw support slowly and patiently ... for clans and organizations in Somalia that don't really want them there. \"Area by area, they'll kick them out, unless they make the mistake of sending U.N. troops.\" Susan Rice, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told U.S. senators during her confirmation hearing that the situation in Somalia \"has the potential to pose a serious and direct threat to our own national security.\" But she also expressed skepticism about the wisdom of sending in a U.N. peacekeeping mission to replace an existing African Union force, calling instead for more efforts by Somalia's neighbors and the international community to promote national reconciliation. J. Anthony Holmes, director of the Africa program for the Council on Foreign Relations, said there is \"little appetite on the ground for sustained engagement\" in Somalia. But because of its clan-based society, it is unlikely the country would emerge as \"a breeding ground for terrorism,\" he said. Holmes said U.S. policy should focus more on longer-term issues -- such as addressing humanitarian and economic issues in the impoverished Horn of Africa country, where years of civil war and near-anarchy have left 1 million people displaced and 3 million needing food aid. The U.S. intervention in Somalia in the 1990s, in which Somali militiamen killed 18 American service members during a failed attempt to capture a Mogadishu warlord, had a chilling effect on U.S. policy toward Africa. Author and policy-maker Jared Cohen writes in his book, \"One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide\" that the \"catastrophe in Somalia was the catalyst for this unspoken decision not to intervene in places like Rwanda.\" As the new Obama administration gets its Africa policy in place, Washington is in a good position to exert some leverage in Somalia, Prendergast said. Previous U.S. counterterrorism efforts worked \"at cross-purposes\" with efforts to promote long-term stability and provide humanitarian aid, according to Menkhaus. He recommended that Somali leaders be given room to either marginalize or co-opt the opposition on their own. \"I personally think that they will, if left to their own devices,\" Menkhaus said. \"But Somalis are never left to their own devices.\" CNN's David McKenzie and Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Moderate Islamist is new leader of war-torn Somalia .\nModerate leader has chance to form inclusive government, analyst says .\nRadical Islamist group still controls parts of Somalia .\nWith departure of Ethiopian troops, radical Islamists lose rallying cry .","id":"68fad8f1601f937b18c43af593bf81a9b576e8f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Continental Airlines plane that crashed in Clarence Center, New York, late Thursday is one of several major incidents over the past two months. The wreckage of a Continental Airlines 737 sits off a runway at Denver International Airport in December. \u2022 On February 12, Continental Flight 3407 crashed en route to Buffalo, New York, killing 49 people. \u2022 On January 27, Empire Airlines Flight 8284 crashed 300 feet short while on approach to a runway at Lubbock International Airport in Texas. The plane was arriving from Fort Worth, Texas. The aircraft was destroyed by the crash and a post-impact fire. Two crew members suffered minor injuries. \u2022 On January 15, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River while en route from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina. All 155 passengers survived, with few injuries. \u2022 On December 20, 2008, Continental Flight 1404 departed the left side of the runway during takeoff from Denver International Airport in Denver. The flight was en route to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. A total of 38 passengers and crew were taken to hospitals, and five were admitted. There were no fatalities. The airplane was substantially damaged and experienced a post-crash fire, which was located on the right side of the aircraft. CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thursday's deadly plane crash in Buffalo is part of a spate of recent incidents .\nU.S. Airways Flight 1549 landed in Hudson River on January 15 .\nContinental Flight 1404 slides off runway during takeoff at Denver International Airport .","id":"fda3227662b9f67900f063790d7190d45c1803ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A high school dropout who stole the identity of a missing South Carolina woman and used it to gain admission to two Ivy League colleges has been arrested, police said Sunday. Esther Reed, who allegedly used a missing woman's ID to get into colleges, was arrested by U.S. Marshals. A fugitive for more than a year, Esther Reed was arrested Saturday by U.S. Marshals in suburban Chicago, said Clark Brazier, a spokesman for the police department in Traveler's Rest, South Carolina. Reed is scheduled to have a bond hearing this week in Illinois. South Carolina authorities are seeking to extradite her on charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. Reed assumed the identity of Brooke Henson, who was 20 years old when she disappeared more than eight years ago from Travelers Rest, investigators say. It's unclear how Reed obtained Henson's personal information, but Reed used Henson's identity to take the SAT and GED, and then applied to the schools, said Jon Campbell, a Travelers Rest Police Department investigator who spoke to CNN last year. Officials at Harvard University and Columbia University have acknowledged that a Brooke Henson was enrolled at their schools, but said privacy laws prevent them from discussing details. \"There's a little relief that goes with [the news of Reed's arrest],\" Brooke's aunt Lisa Henson told CNN Sunday. \"But [Brooke] is still missing. I'd like to have some answers. I would love to see [Reed] and look her in the eye and say, 'You're a horrible person.' \" Police say they're confident Reed was not involved in Henson's disappearance. Authorities believe Henson was killed by someone who knew her. However, no body has been found and no arrests have been made. Henson's family had heard nothing about their missing relative for years until the summer of 2006, when New York City authorities told police in Travelers Rest that they had found her, alive and well, in Manhattan. The police relayed that message to Henson's family. \"I was jumping for joy,\" said Lisa Henson. \"It was incredible.\" But the family's joy was short-lived when it was revealed that the woman found was actually Reed. An ex-boyfriend told CNN that Reed -- posing as Henson -- often bragged about being a world-class chess player who earned a living playing the game competitively. The man told CNN that he believed her until he challenged her to a game and beat her. Originally from the tiny town of Townsend, Montana, Reed had been reported missing by her family in 1999, around the same time that Henson disappeared. In high school in Montana, Reed earned poor grades. \"Esther was the kind of kid who would have been invisible,\" her English teacher James Therriault said. \"If you didn't take pains to notice her presence.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Gary Tuchman and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: Esther Reed went missing the same time that Brooke Henson did .\nReed assumed Henson's identity, took SAT and GED in her name, police say .\nPolice believe Henson was killed but say Reed was not involved .\nColumbia University and Harvard confirmed that a Brooke Hanson was enrolled .","id":"56cc7a062049066591149f210a6a4c2f0c15f0ac"} -{"article":"DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) -- Eric Mace says he thought he was giving his daughter good advice by asking her to sit up front in class. Ryanne Mace was 19 when she was killed last year in a shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University. \"I'd like you to sit in the front row of every class that you're in and constantly drag information out of these people, and if you don't understand what they're talking about, raise your hand and say, 'I don't get it' until you get it,\" Mace recalled telling her. His daughter, 19-year-old Ryanne, took that advice. Now, he wishes she would have sat somewhere else. Mace believes that Ryanne was probably one of the first to be killed in the Northern Illinois University shootings a year ago, because she was in the front row in the lecture at Cole Hall. \"She was, from what I understand, in the front row of that room and was probably the first one that had shots fired at her after the gentleman that was on stage,\" Mace said. \"It's not an easy thing to carry, but I shouldn't have to carry it, either.\" Ryanne was Eric and Mary Kay Mace's only child. She was one of five NIU students killed on Valentine's Day last year by Steven Kazmierczak, a former NIU student who was attending graduate school at the University of Illinois in Champaign. \"It's difficult. There's always an ache, loneliness and a longing. We're going to miss her every day for the rest of our lives,\" Mary Kay Mace said. Her husband added, \"I go to bed thinking about her. I wake up in the morning thinking about her. Any time that I've a free moment, it will pop up.\" The Maces said they would like to know more about the police investigation into the shooting and Kazmierczak's history of mental illness. Police records provided to CNN indicate that he had a long history of mental problems, including several suicide attempts. The parents also are angry that he was able to buy guns. Because Kazmierczak had not been in a mental facility for more than five years, he was legally able to purchase those weapons in Illinois -- and on the firearms application form Kazmierczak filled out, he stated that he had never been adjudicated \"mentally defective\" and had never been \"committed to a mental institution.\" See some of Kazmierczak's mental health records \u00bb . \"I don't know if they don't report it if he's a juvenile with the mental illness on his record or what. But somewhere along the line, the pertinent information didn't get into the right database, and he could waltz out of a store with a legally purchased weapon,\" Mary Kay Mace said. \"And I don't get that. That is what makes me angry.\" Now, the Maces have started a scholarship foundation for psychology majors in honor of their daughter. And they hope that what happened a year ago is never forgotten. \"I don't want them to forget a single detail about it, because the details aren't going to change just by forgetting about them,\" Eric Mace said.","highlights":"Steven Kazmierczak carried out shooting spree at Northern Illinois February 14, 2008 .\nFather of Ryanne Mace told his daughter to always sit on the front row of class .\n\"There's always an ache, loneliness and a longing,\" says Ryanne Mace's mother .\nParents want to know more details about the shooting and the killer .","id":"0ada64f40ebeba9e675cbd37ad110e643d48e74a"} -{"article":"CLARENCE CENTER, New York (CNN) -- President Obama on Friday praised Beverly Eckert, the widow of a September 11 victim and a prominent post-9\/11 activist, who was one of the passengers who died in a plane crash outside Buffalo, New York. Sean Rooney and wife Beverly Eckert in an undated photograph. \"Beverly lost her husband on 9\/11,\" Obama said, \"and became a tireless advocate for the families whose lives were forever changed on that September day.\" A resident of Stamford, Connecticut, Eckert was the widow of Buffalo native Sean Rooney, who died at the World Trade Center. Obama's words underscored the shock and grief from friends, family and acquaintances over the news that Eckert was aboard the Continental Connection Flight 3407. The turboprop plane crashed Thursday, killing all 49 aboard and one person on the ground. \"Tragic events such as these remind us of the fragility of life and the value of every single day. And one person who understood that well was Beverly Eckert, who was on that flight and who I met with just a few days ago,\" Obama said in brief remarks. Obama met Eckert at a gathering of September 11 victims' families on Friday. Valerie Lucznikowska, a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, said she, Eckert and another woman traveled to Washington for the meeting. Lucznikowska said Eckert asked Obama whether the group would have ongoing meetings with his administration. Obama said there would be, even though they wouldn't necessarily be with him. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Eckert co-founded Voices of September 11, an advocate group for survivors and families. Eckert had a reputation as a strong campaigner of September 11 families, involved in protests leading to more land for a ground zero memorial, working on the September 11 Commission's Family Steering Committee and pushing for a victims' families compensation fund. She was traveling to Buffalo for a celebration of what would have been her husband's 58th birthday. Eckert planned to take part in presenting a scholarship award at Canisius High School that was established in honor of her late husband, who was an alumnus, according to the school's president, John Knight. Obama mentioned the scholarship plans in his remarks Friday. \"In keeping with that passionate commitment, she was on her way to Buffalo to mark what would have been her husband's birthday and launch a scholarship in his memory. She was an inspiration to me and to so many others, and I pray that her family finds peace and comfort in the hard days ahead,\" Obama said. Lucznikowska, whose nephew died in the World Trade Center attacks, said she was \"horribly saddened by this news.\" \"I would very much like to honor her. She was truly a wonderful person. She was someone who was trying to make society better.\" Eckert backed Peaceful Tomorrows' effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and end the military commissions there, Lucznikowska said. The group elaborated on this stance in a signed letter to Obama, and Eckert gave a presidential aide a separate letter listing her own concerns, Lucznikowska said. Knight said Canisius High postponed the scholarship presentation, set to occur at noon Friday, for two students entering the high school next fall. He said Eckert also had been active in a capital campaign fundraising effort. \"She struck me as a wonderful, beautiful person who clearly wanted to do something to remember her husband in a way that would have an everlasting impact on our community,\" Knight said. Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93 Inc., the plane that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, also expressed his grief. \"We note with deep sorrow the passing of Beverly Eckert in the Buffalo plane crash. She was a 9\/11 family member who brought to light issues of importance to all of us -- and to all Americans. We extend our condolences to her family and to all those who loved her. She will be missed.\" Jay Winuk, a September 11 organizational leader who lost his brother in the World Trade Center, said that although he did not know Eckert personally, \"it is clear that she was a terrific advocate for the 9\/11 family community.\" CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama says Beverly Eckert was \"tireless advocate\"\nEckert was the widow of a September 11 terrorist attack victim .\nShe was on way to Buffalo to mark what would have been husband's 58th birthday .\nEckert had co-founded advocacy group for September 11 survivors, families .","id":"585ac8d43bb92ff9c336d556458a1eb56e6917d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For five generations, the Meserve\/Kunhardt family has been the collector and custodian of some of the most valuable photographs and memorabilia of Abraham Lincoln. Peter W. Kunhardt, left, Philip B. Kunhardt III and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr. co-authored \"Looking for Lincoln.\" In fact, eminent Lincoln historian Harold Holzer said there's only one other family that's contributed more \"to our understanding of America's most enduring leader,\" and that's the Lincolns themselves. \"The Kunhardts -- and before them, their ancestor Frederick Hill Meserve -- have been active, and crucial for generations, in preserving Lincoln's image for posterity,\" Holzer said. \"Mr. Meserve literally saved photos from destruction, then cataloged and analyzed them. Later members of the family wrote seminal books incorporating the family-owned archive into the stories of Lincoln's life and death.\" The family collection was the basis for the new book, \"Looking for Lincoln\" (Knopf), and for a PBS documentary. One of the book's co-authors, 26-year-old Peter W. Kunhardt Jr., has now joined the family business as assistant director of the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation. Kunhardt, who recently earned a master's degree in art business and photography, also works on the Gordon Parks Foundation, a division of the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation, which includes the life's work of the pioneering African-American photographer. Kunhardt spoke with CNN in an interview and follow-up conversations about the extraordinary family history. CNN: Tell us about your family. Peter W. Kunhardt Jr: I'm the fifth generation to be working on Lincoln. My great-great-grandfather was a man by the name of Frederick Hill Meserve. His father, William Neal Meserve, was a soldier in the Civil War who was wounded at the battle of Antietam, and he kept a diary of the entire time he was in war. That diary was illustrated by his son, Frederick Hill Meserve, years after the war through collecting photography. He became one of the leading collectors of 19th-century American photography. ... At that time photography was still quite new. In the late 19th century, the war-weary nation lost its interest in the images of that era. Many glass negatives were thought to be worthless. The emulsion was washed off, and many were used to build greenhouses. Meserve wrote a book in 1911 called \"Photographs of Abraham Lincoln.\" He became obsessed with Lincoln. Lincoln was the first president to be photographed while in office. Meserve's goal in life was to find and catalog all the existing images of Lincoln, of which we now know there were about 120. Each photograph in Meserve's book, which he updated for the next half century, was given an \"M\" number. Part of our work was to update his numbering system and establish a new national standard. Then his daughter Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt, she became heavily involved with Lincoln scholarship and the collection as well. She was the author of the children's book, \"Pat the Bunny,\" which ... as everyone knows today, it's one of the most popular children's books. She worked with her father on Lincoln publications and continued to collect Lincoln. The collection was passed to Philip Kunhardt Jr., my grandfather, who eventually passed this collection of photographs on to my father and uncle, who were my co-authors in this book, \"Looking for Lincoln.\" My grandfather, father and uncle wrote a book on Lincoln in 1992 called \"Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography,\" using the contents of the collection. Each generation has continued the fascination with the collection but with a special interest in Abraham Lincoln. CNN: What's your involvement now in the collection? Kunhardt: My role is the assistant director of the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation. The foundation was established in 2002 by my father and uncle in order to preserve our family's collection and make it available to the public. During the past century, the collection had grown so large that we decided it was finally time to place it in public hands. That is why we first formed the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation. And this year the collection will be moved to the Neuberger Museum of Art at the State University of New York in Purchase, New York, and the Purchase Library at SUNY, where it will be made available to students and scholars. CNN: Was there ever any doubt in your mind that you wanted to go into this field? Kunhardt: I was an art history major at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. I've always been fascinated with our collection. I was flattered to be asked to help with this project, the Lincoln book. I've been an intern since I was about in fifth grade. I've grown up knowing this collection very well, putting everything in plastic sleeves. Then when we found out that they weren't of archival quality, I had to change them to polyester sleeves. It's really been a family love. We've all grown up with this collection. A great portion of this collection is now housed at the National Portrait Gallery. It was sold after my great-grandmother's death. CNN: What are some of the most valuable parts of the collection? Kunhardt: It includes many gems, like Alexander Gardner's oversized portrait of Lincoln that was taken just before he went to Gettysburg. As a young boy, I remember it hanging on the walls of our home. We also own the bronze life mask of Lincoln cast by Leonard Volk. CNN: Was Lincoln particularly interested in being photographed? Kunhardt: It was his way of reaching out to a wider audience. It was a process that was so slow, he had to sit for long periods of time with a neck brace in order to be photographed because the exposure time was forever. There are pictures where if he moved just slightly, the picture was blurry. Crowd scenes are always blurry because you couldn't make the crowd stay still. CNN: What's the story of the Gordon Parks Foundation? Kunhardt: My grandfather Philip Kunhardt was managing editor of Life magazine. He and Gordon became close personal friends, and shortly before both of them died in 2006, my grandfather showed Gordon how we were preserving our 19th-century collection. After Gordon's death, his estate placed all of his photographs with us, and we formed the Gordon Parks Foundation. CNN: What else are you working on? Kunhardt: Our next book is \"Lincoln Life Size,\" which will be published in September 2009. We're taking the Lincoln photographs and blowing them up to the actual size of Lincoln's face ... and it will include his own reactions to some of the photographs.","highlights":"Meserve-Kunhardt family has been collecting Lincoln items for five generations .\nFrederick Hill Meserve began collecting endangered Lincoln photographs .\nHe published groundbreaking work on images of the 16th president .\nHis descendants have carried on and expanded his work .","id":"f9f20c23b2fff49eaa8370d5e6bdb2d47fc673f2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy arrested nine more suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia Thursday -- the second capture in two days -- after receiving a distress call from an Indian-flagged commercial ship. Suspected pirates are arrested in the Gulf of Aden. According to the Navy announcement, at 4 a.m. local time the Indian-flagged Premdivya sent a distress call to all ships in the area reporting that she had been fired upon by a small skiff, and suspected pirates were attempting to board it. A U.S. Navy helicopter crew was launched from the USS Vella Gulf and fired two warning shots at the small boat to get them to stop. A Navy boarding team was then launched to investigate the skiff's crew and found rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons on board the small craft, according to Navy officials. The suspected pirates were taken aboard the USS Vella Gulf and processed. They'll be moved to a temporary holding facility aboard the larger USNS Lewis and Clark, according to the statement. The Navy is now holding a total of 16 suspected pirates while the U.S. and Kenyan governments work out legal details on how the suspects will be moved to Kenya for prosecution. Last month, the United States and Kenya signed an agreement saying that suspected pirates captured by U.S. ships will be moved to Kenya to be tried for their crimes. The capture Wednesday of seven suspected pirates marks the first time the United States was able to capture and hold pirates since its forces began patrolling the dangerous waters off Somalia. Piracy has become a chronic problem off the Horn of Africa in recent years, with some pirates operating from largely lawless Somalia. Pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 in the waters off the coast of Somalia in 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The task force led by the Vella Gulf was set up in January in an effort to clamp down on the attacks in the region, the southern approach to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.","highlights":"Nine suspects arrested off the coast of Somalia .\nSecond arrests in two days .\nUnited States, Kenya working out legal details .","id":"02aef53a8ae894b86d408fa90194ceaa1332ba5b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Japan may withdraw the last of its military mission in Iraq by the end of the year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday. Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force was initially deployed in 2004 to help in reconstruction and left in 2006. Japan's Air Self-Defense Force has been airlifting materials and troops between Kuwait and Iraq since 2006 to support U.S.-led coalition forces. \"The political and security situations have improved,\" and the Iraqi government suggested it wants countries to downsize their presence, Defense Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters, according to the Kyodo news agency. Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Japan will discuss an official schedule for ending the mission with the United States, the United Nations and Iraq. Withdrawal would mark the end of Japan's military presence in Iraq. The country's Ground Self-Defense Force was initially deployed in 2004 to help in reconstruction and left in 2006. The Japanese Navy continues to take part in refueling missions in support of the U.S.-led coalition in and around Afghanistan. Except for a three-month hiatus, Japan had been refueling coalition warships taking part in interdiction operations against terrorists in the Indian Ocean since 2001. As an officially pacifist nation since losing World War II, Japan's participation in these missions has been controversial.","highlights":"Japan may withdraw the last of its military mission in Iraq by the end of the year .\nJapan's military has airlifted materials, troops between Kuwait and Iraq since 2006 .\nJapanese ground force deployed in Iraq in 2004 to aid reconstruction left in 2006 .\nJapanese Navy continues refueling missions in support of coalition in Afghanistan .","id":"adc30a2a730f5182608d7b7058d873f6eeefdbe0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A nude photograph of pop singer Madonna was sold for $37,500 Thursday afternoon at a Christie's Art House auction. Christie's auctioned this nude photo of Madonna (partially shown) taken by Lee Friedlander for $37,500. The photo, originally expected to go for between $10,000 and $15,000, was purchased for more than double its original estimated selling price, a Christie's spokesperson confirmed. The 13-inch by 8 5\/8-inch framed photograph was purchased by an anonymous bidder over the phone. The full frontal photograph was one of several taken by American photographer Lee Friedlander in 1979. Madonna, then a cash-strapped student, received $25 for the entire photo shoot. Most of the pictures from the shoot were ultimately featured in Playboy magazine in 1985.","highlights":"Nude photograph of Madonna taken when she was student in 1979 .\nLee Friedlander pic sold by Christie's for $37,500 .\nAnonymous bidder made purchase over the phone .","id":"9838d5c70c0db67603b46f6210c9de3e8839a377"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Treasury Department will begin selling bonds Wednesday to help the Federal Reserve, which has had to loan out an unprecedented amount of money to businesses because of the credit crisis. CNN's Ali Velshi says the Fed needs access to large amounts of cash to keep Wall Street confident. The Fed announced Tuesday it would authorize the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend up to $85 billion over two years to insurance giant American International Group. In return, the government will receive a 79.9 percent stake in the company, which has 74 million clients in 130 countries. The first Treasury auction for the central bank will be for $40 million. The Treasury bills will mature in 35 days, allowing the Fed access to quick cash. But what does this mean to American taxpayers and an ailing U.S. economy? CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi breaks it down. Q: What does this mean in layman's terms? A: The Federal Reserve keeps a lot of money in supply to help banks, and basically, when they help them, it means they loan them money. As this credit crisis intensified, the Fed invited more and more banks to come and borrow from it and would accept collateral that was not as high-quality as it would typically accept. The Fed was the lender of last resort for a bank; you paid a premium to borrow money from the Fed, and you had to give them your best collateral. What's happening now is you still pay a premium, but you can go with lower collateral. The thinking behind that is the more banks feel free to go to the Fed to borrow money, the less likely they are to get money at higher interest from other sources and the less likely they are to fail as a result. In other words, if they feel that there is an ability to borrow money from the Fed -- if they absolutely have to to stay afloat -- that facility is there. Well, the number of banks that have taken advantage of this has caused the reserve at the Federal Reserve to go from about $800 billion to, by some estimates, as low as $200 billion. And when they do things like the bailout of AIG, that's where that money comes from. Watch experts discuss what the bailout means for consumers \u00bb . So you do the math, and there's some sense that the Fed could run out of money to finance these banks, to give loans. And just the idea that the Fed could run out of that money causes Wall Street to panic because it says, \"If four more banks were to fail, the Fed wouldn't have money to bail them out, so we're in a bad situation.\" So the thinking is: Let's increase the Federal Reserve's reserve, and that's what this auction is. It's the first in a series of auctions -- this one will be for $40 billion -- where the Treasury on behalf of the Federal Reserve issues bonds that they will sell at auction, the way they normally do, and they'll be for 35-day periods. So the Fed gives out those bonds, and in exchange, gets cash and the Fed sits on that cash and uses it for whatever it needs. Q: Why would the government bail out a company like AIG but let Lehman Brothers file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection? A: Speaking frankly, the world can do without another investment firm. If an investment bank fails, any remaining investment bank can hire more people and take their jobs. AIG is not an investment bank. As a principal insurer, it insures consumers, it insures businesses and it insures business ventures, so it's not just that your corner store needs insurance. AIG insures things like rigs and Hollywood movies and those subprime mortgage-backed securities. The utter failure of business that would ensue from a failure of AIG would be catastrophic and would actually leave the government having to pick up a few things along the way. The best analogy I've been able to come up with is to use an automaker. When you think about putting an automaker out of business, you put tire makers out of business, you put seat makers out of business, you put all sorts of things out of business. It's the same thing with AIG. There are tentacles. They're just so connected to so many other parts of the economy that the government deemed it more dangerous and potentially more expensive to the economy to have it fail than to give them this loan. Q: What does this mean to the American taxpayer? A: If AIG gets the financing it needs, the taxpayer is actually doing OK. The government is charging such high interest to AIG, and they've got a guarantee of 80 percent of the company, so this may not be a bad deal for the government, and the interest is high enough to discourage others from coming cap in hand to the government. If you realize that maybe the government will bail you out as a last resort but you're going to pay 12 percent interest on the loan, that's expensive. For a business to be paying 12 percent for their money is very expensive. Q: What sort of interest can an investor expect from something like this? A: When the Federal Reserve loans money out to banks, these are short loans. They've typically been under a month. They can be extended under new emergency rules, but typically speaking, they're all supposed to be \"bridge loans,\" immediate financing while some sort of problem is sorted out. The loan to AIG is a 24-month bridge loan, so obviously these 35-day bonds are not great, but the idea is that money that is borrowed by the Federal Reserve in exchange for a bill is as safe as it gets. That is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The government can borrow money probably for less than most people can because this gets sold to investors who want safety. It's not a premium. The government's not going to pay a lot of interest on this, but it's a very safe loan. If you're an investor who's looking for a small but absolutely safe return for 35 days, this might be an option for you. Q: These bonds are not available to the individual investor? A: Not at all. It's not something that individuals buy. It's all done commercially. Q: The U.S. government says it will charge AIG roughly 12 percent interest for this rescue loan, but that's not comparable to what an investor would earn by buying these bonds? A: Not at all. I don't know what the rate is and that' s because it's an auction -- it's determined that way. I would be surprised if there's any material spread between that and an equivalent Treasury. If you buy a Treasury, it trades on a daily basis. I'm guessing this is actually more of a straight bond in that you'll buy it and that'll be your rate until you redeem it, but I could be wrong. I don't know the machination of that. It's a safe, safe, safe investment. It's the United States government backing the investment. Q: And by being a safe investment, it dictates a lower return? A: Correct. Q: So the fact that the Fed, by some estimates, is low on cash and having to bail out a weak economy, that doesn't negatively affect the government's bond rating? A: It doesn't have an effect on the rating. The way things happen at these auctions sometimes is that regardless of the good rating, sometimes they're oversubscribed and sometimes they're undersubscribed. It has more to do with the needs of the market. If the market needs the money, they'll sell quickly. It's not the equivalent of printing new money; it's borrowing more money. The government is simply issuing a loan based on its own credit. Q: Is the Treasury auction then a result of the weak economy or is it directly linked to the AIG rescue loan? A: It's directly linked to the moves that the Federal Reserve has taken to shore up financial services, and AIG would be key among those. Q: The government has said the rescue loan is backed by AIG's considerable assets, which total about $1.1 trillion. If reports are correct that the government is planning on selling off many of these assets to get its money back, why does it need to issue these bonds? A: Two separate issues. Regarding AIG, the government gets 80 percent of the assets as collateral. They're not free to sell them. The company has to sell them, and as they do so and repay the government, the 80 percent hold can be diminished. You may not need any of that to cover AIG. The bond issuance here has got more to do with the fact that the reserves that the Fed keeps have dwindled from about $800 billion to an estimate -- and I should tell you that's an outside estimate, not the Fed's estimate -- of about $200 billion, so they are just looking for methodology to increase the reserve. I don't think it's meant to say that the Fed is losing $85 billion of its $200 billion, and that $85 billion is covered. It's a separate transaction. It's the idea that we need to have enough money to keep Wall Street confident that we can move in and rescue a bank if we have to.","highlights":"U.S. Treasury to hold its first bond auction Wednesday, for $40 billion .\nCNN's Ali Velshi says the Fed needs more money to keep Wall Street confident .\nAIG has so many \"tentacles,\" allowing it to go under could've been catastrophic .\nHigh interest on $85B loan, government stake in AIG could bode well for taxpayers .","id":"62b94281e554fa5b4922383cbf71bc8d574eb129"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- His life has never been easy. Born into poverty and war, his ears and tail were chopped off when he was just a few months old in preparation for dog-fighting. He escaped to find a better life, only to be trapped in lonely, sterile quarantine for six months. Bear plays for the first time out of quarantine after coming to Britain from Afghanistan. But all that changed Monday when Bear the dog stepped out of British quarantine and through the doors of a London animal shelter. \"He's absolutely a loving dog,\" said former British Royal Marine Paul \"Penny\" Farthing, who helped bring Bear to England. \"He just loves people. It's a good thing he was brought back to the U.K. when he was quite young, so he's never gone through having to fend for himself in the street and be made to dogfight.\" An unknown soldier in Afghanistan first found Bear last year and brought him to a local Afghan animal shelter. The shelter wasn't able to care for Bear, so it contacted Farthing, who now runs a charity for stray and abandoned animals, primarily dogs from Afghanistan. Farthing's Nowzad Dogs is named for the Afghan town where he was based for a few months in 2006. He asked Mayhew International, an arm of London's Mayhew Animal Home, to help find Bear a new home. Mayhew International says Bear is one of the few dogs it has brought back to Britain. Usually it tries to find animals new homes within their own countries. \"Although Mayhew International does not encourage people to bring dogs to the U.K. from abroad as a general policy, we made an exception in this case as it was the perfect opportunity to highlight the plight of thousands of stray animals in Afghanistan,\" the organization said in a statement. Bear's story may be unique, but he is certainly not alone. Mayhew International, which works around the world to educate people about animal welfare, says there are countless dogs in Afghanistan that are homeless or trapped in a life of dogfighting -- an increasingly popular pastime in Afghanistan. \"Animal welfare is not looked so highly upon in Afghanistan,\" said Christopher Sainsbury, Mayhew's international projects officer. \"In war-torn areas, people tend to forget the animal welfare side of things. [We want to] make people aware that this is a key side of things that needs to be assessed, needs to be worked on.\" Bear is a Koochi dog, a large breed common in Afghanistan, according to Dr. Mohammadzai Abduljalil, a Mayhew veterinarian from Afghanistan. While no one knows Bear's exact age, Abduljalil said they believe he is just about a year old. You wouldn't know it by Bear's size. He's already a large dog nearly 3 feet high with large paws to match. Stepping into the Mayhew play area Monday for the first time, Bear made sure to sniff every corner of the room and mark his territory a few times before settling in to play. He had a puppy's curiosity and quickly started playing fetch and tug-of-war with Farthing, wagging enthusiastically the small part of his tail which is left. Bear is lucky. He escaped a violent and uncertain future in Afghanistan. Not so for many other dogs left behind. It is those dogs that Farthing hopes to help with his charity. \"They need someone to look after them, so why not me?\" Farthing said. It began when the Royal Marines arrived in the war-torn town of Now Zad, in Afghanistan's Helmand province, in October 2006. They found stray dogs wandering the streets, scavenging for food, dodging bullets and seeking shelter from the hot days and cold nights. Many were also being used for dogfighting, with their ears and tails docked to make the fights last longer and give their opponents less to bite. Farthing and other Marines began to feed and care for a few dogs that wandered into their camp. At first they had three dogs, but other strays soon figured out the camp was a source of food and shelter, and before long the Marines found themselves caring for seven dogs and 14 puppies. Time was running out, however. The Marines were due to leave Now Zad in February 2007 and knew they couldn't take the dogs with them. They looked for some way to make sure the dogs would be taken care of after they left. That's when Farthing first contacted Mayhew International. They put him in touch with a small shelter in northern Afghanistan that Mayhew had assisted since its inception, providing advice and veterinary support. The shelter offered to take the dogs on one condition: The Marines had to arrange for the dogs' transfer to Kabul, a difficult and dangerous three days' drive away. Finding a taxi willing to accept dogs was the first hurdle; the second was that the drivers refused to allow the dogs to be transported in Western-style cages, which would give away to the Taliban that the car was carrying foreigners. Instead, the dogs had to be tied with ropes, the Afghan way, and the puppies had to be stashed in small crates -- in this case, a bird cage. \"A lot was done on trust,\" Farthing told CNN. \"The Afghans did it as a favor to us. We paid for some of their fuel and their costs, but it was fantastic. It was them helping us out. They didn't have to do it. It shows that the people of Afghanistan and us, we can work together.\" In the end, most of the dogs made it to Kabul, but not without casualties. Two were left behind for lack of room in the taxi, and two more escaped along the way when a car door was accidentally left open. Three of the largest puppies were stolen, probably for dog fighting. Three dogs and eleven puppies finally made it to the shelter, but nine of the puppies later died due to an outbreak of disease and shortage of vaccines. Sainsbury, of Mayhew International, says the story of the Now Zad dogs and of Bear shows their efforts can help animals, even if it's just one at a time. Mayhew International works with organizations already established in developing countries to plan mass sterilization drives that reduce the number of unwanted animals. They also train veterinary surgeons in modern neutering techniques that are quick and humane. \"The way that war makes looking after animal welfare harder is quite clear,\" Sainsbury said. \"Animal welfare gets forgotten and it becomes a back-burner because organizations ... that were working in those war-torn countries will probably be unable to operate any longer. They'll be unable to aid the populations of stray and community animals which would rely on their help originally.\" Mayhew CEO Caroline Yates said staff have no idea how long it will take for Bear to find a new home. They hope the publicity surrounding his arrival in Britain will encourage people to think about adopting him. Yates said they hope to have him adopted within a month. Said Farthing, \"To be able to help just one [dog] is a reward in itself and a huge step to highlighting the undocumented suffering that animals in all war zones are subjected to.\"","highlights":"Bear the dog was born into poverty, had ears and tail chopped off for dogfighting .\nUnknown soldier in Afghanistan first found Bear last year .\nRoyal Marines made preparations with company and locals to transport dogs .\nMarine: \"It shows that the people of Afghanistan and us, we can work together\"","id":"8206e93e1cd8b63fd8efe25bbf7ac1bd95970734"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The Russian Orthodox Church enthroned a new leader Sunday at Moscow's spectacular Christ the Savior Cathedral in a ceremony attended by Russian leaders and Christian delegations from around the world. Patriach Kirill is the first new leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since the collapse of communism. Patriarch Kirill, 62, becomes first new leader of the church since the fall of communism, and the first enthroned in the Cathedral since it was rebuilt at the end of the 1990s. Russian first lady Svetlana Medvedeva was the first person to receive the Eucharist from the new Patriarch, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. Russian Orthodox Church leaders chose Kirill Tuesday to replace Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December. Kirill, who became acting head of the church after Alexy died, is seen as a modernizer. He chaired the church's department for external relations starting in 1989. Kirill becomes the 16th Patriarch since the position was created in 1589. The appointment is for life. He met Pope Benedict XVI recently, one of the highest-level meetings between Roman Catholic and Orthodox leaders since the two churches split more than 1,000 years ago. The late Pope John Paul II was repeatedly denied permission to visit Russia. Kirill said before he was elected Tuesday that the Russian Orthodox Church should work with other Christian faiths to support \"those partners who are ready to oppose, together with us, the marginalization of religion, to speak out for believers' rights and to build one's life according to one's own principles, to defend the underlying meaning of morality in the life of an individual and society.\" Alexy, 79, died December 5 after 18 years at the head of the church. He is credited with reviving the denomination after years of communist rule.","highlights":"Patriarch Kirill becomes first new leader of church since fall of communism .\nKirill is seen as a modernizer and has met Pope Benedict XVI .\nPatriarch Alexy II died December 5 after 18 years as head of the church .","id":"15b8d972fa1a9192dfb6049a5737a592e403aceb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three Chinese nationals accused of importing thousands of counterfeit luxury handbags in the United States have been arrested in the past two days, federal authorities announced Thursday. Shoppers sort through counterfeit brand name luxury bags and wallets on a Hong Kong street. \"This was a sophisticated criminal conspiracy that trafficked millions of dollars of counterfeit goods from China, profiting off the backs of legitimate companies and their hard-working employees,\" said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher. Authorities call it one of the largest counterfeit operations ever discovered, involving about 300,000 bags and wallets with names like Burberry, Gucci and Coach. For customers who bought the knockoffs, it seemed like a deal. They paid a total of about $16 million for what would have been more than $100 million in handbags, purses and wallets in legitimate retail sales. The alleged leaders of the counterfeit operations are three Chinese citizens living in New York. Chong Lam, 49, and Joyce Chan, 39, were arrested there Wednesday. Eric Yuen, 39, was arrested Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who made the arrests began investigating the alleged scheme five years ago, after raids turned up counterfeit goods. The indictment was secretly returned in Richmond, Virginia, in October. The charges were unsealed when the alleged conspirators were taken into custody. Authorities seized and froze 29 bank accounts and three New York properties. The Chinese defendants will be taken to Richmond, where they will be arraigned at a later date, officials said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Authorities call it one of the largest counterfeit operations ever discovered .\nOfficial: Scheme profited \"off the backs of legitimate companies\"\nCounterfeit operation allegedly involved 300,000 high-end bags and wallets .\nThe alleged leaders are three Chinese citizens living in New York .","id":"beed1717b0db010fcf22ab9b38c8955f81790c9b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush Pentagon tried to find loopholes in the Geneva Conventions for its \"ghost detainee\" program in Iraq and to delay the release of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to avoid bad press, three human rights groups contend. The Pentagon considered delaying the release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay because of criticism. Pentagon documents discuss CIA and Pentagon detention activities earlier this decade and indicate coordination between agencies in hiding internees from the Red Cross. Amnesty International USA, New York University's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and the Center for Constitutional Rights obtained the material through a Freedom of Information Act request and released it Thursday. \"It's obvious that Defense officials engaged in legal gymnastics to find ways to keep detainees off the books,\" said Meg Satterthwaite, faculty director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. \"A full accounting of all agencies' responsibilities must now take place to ensure that these abuses don't continue under a different guise.\" President Obama has signed an order closing the Guantanamo detention facility in Cuba and prohibiting CIA prisons. However, the order allows the CIA to detain people temporarily. It is not known whether the Pentagon or the CIA still holds \"ghost detainees,\" Satterthwaite said, referring to people housed at secret facilities. The Pentagon issued an information paper May 28, 2004, on the \"applicability of the Geneva Conventions to 'Ghost Detainees' in Iraq.\" Its purpose was to clarify the law about such detainees. The Geneva Conventions spell out international humanitarian law and authorize the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisoners during armed conflicts. The Pentagon's information paper said that if \"absolute military security\" requires it, the conventions permit the holding of persons \"who participated in activities hostile to the security of the occupying power.\" Specific examples would be \"spies and saboteurs,\" the paper said. Although the Red Cross must be notified of such detentions, \"persons who have committed such acts are considered to have forfeited the rights of communication,\" the paper said. \"Normally the ICRC has the right to go to all places where protected people are detained,\" the paper said. But, it added, such visits can be denied temporarily \"for reasons of imperative military necessity.\" A February 17, 2006, e-mail showed that a State Department foreign policy adviser urged the Pentagon to consider delaying by a month and a half the release of Guantanamo prisoners who were scheduled to be sent home in order to avoid bad press. This came amid worldwide furor over the Guantanamo detention facility, photos of prisoners being mistreated at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and sharp criticism on the streets and in blogs toward U.S. detention policies. \"We may need to definitely think about checking with SouthCom to see if we can hold off on return flights for 45 days or so until things die down,\" the adviser wrote to Gen. Norton Schwartz, then head of the U.S. Transportation Command. \"Otherwise we are likely to have hero's welcomes awaiting the detainees when they arrive, and we will have problems getting overflight and landing clearance for the flights anyway. It would probably be preferable if we could deliver these detainees in something smaller and more discreet than a T tail\" -- apparently referring to a large transport plane like the giant C-5 Galaxy. SouthCom is the U.S. Southern Command, the American military command covering Latin American and the Caribbean. Schwartz is now the Air Force chief of staff. The letter appeared to be an e-mail reply to a State Department \"hot issues\" memo that said the United States was getting \"creamed on human rights\" and \"taking a big hit on the issues of human rights and respect for the rule of law.\" It pointed to news stories about a U.N. Guantanamo report and coverage highlighting calls from officials to close Guantanamo. It cited criticism of the United States in blogs and discussion boards. \"America has lost its prestige,\" a blogger from Yemen wrote. \"Every year the world waits for the annual U.S. State Department report on human rights. Today, it is America that awaits the world's opinion of its human rights policy. From Gitmo, to Abu Ghraib, to secret prisons in Europe, the world accuses America of not respecting human rights.\" Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday that he had not seen the documents and wasn't aware of the story. He did elaborate on the factors taken into account when transferring detainees from the Guantanamo facility. \"It has to do with their threat,\" Whitman said. \"It has to do with ... whether or not we think they have information that is important to our intelligence efforts. \"And there are also considerations given to ensure that the [transferred detainees] will be treated appropriately and that in cases where continued detention is necessary, that the appropriate conditions are met for that, too. \"It has been U.S. policy not to return detainees if we thought they would be mistreated by their country of origin,\" he said.","highlights":"Military tried to justify detention practices, human rights groups say .\nGroups present Pentagon documents to support accusations .\nGroups: Pentagon also sought to delay Guantanamo releases to avoid bad press .\nCommunications came amid criticism over Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq .","id":"b399d17b960ec4ced75cece6a2456178546b888e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The biggest surprise on a busy night of international football on Wednesday came in Duesseldorf, where Euro 2008 finalists Germany were beaten by Norway for the first time in 73 years. Norway players celebrate Christian Grindheim's (No.16) goal in their shock victory over Germany. Midfielder Christian Grindheim scored from close-range, from Morten Gamst Pedersen's cross, in the 63rd minute to give the visitors a 1-0 victory to stun the 45,000 home supporters on a freezing evening. Not since the 1936 Olympics in Berlin had Germany lost to Norway --the defeat even more suprising as Germany coach Joachim Loew had the luxury of naming a full-strength side, while new Norway coach Egil Olsen was missing seven key players. In Marseille, Lionel Messi scored a brilliant solo goal to give Argentina a 2-0 win over France and give Diego Maradona a second straight win as national coach. The Barcelona striker collected the ball outside the penalty area and ran right through the home defense before expertly slotting the ball past goalkeeper Steve Mandanda. Newcastle winger Jonas Gutierrez had opened the scoring four minutes before the interval with a shot that went inside Mandanda's left-hand post. Meanwhile, Jamel Saihi scored a second-half equalizer to give home side Tunisia a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands in Rades. Montpellier star Saihi netted midway through the second-half with a long-range shot that Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg should have saved. Klaas Jan Huntelaar has given the visitors the lead in the 62nd minute when converting his 11th goal in 19 internationals, after Joris Mathijsen had headed down a long ball from Stijn Schaars. Elsewhere, Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva returned to action for the first time since breaking his leg 12 months ago -- helping Croatia to a 2-1 victory over Romania in Bucharest. Eduardo, who fractured his left fibula and dislocated his ankle against Birmingham in February 2008, replaced Ivica Olic in the 61st minute and set up Niko Kranjcar for a 75th-minute winner. Ciprian Marica gave Romania the lead in the 22nd minute but the visitors levelled just six minutes later when Ivan Rakitic scored with a superb long-range free-kick. Unsettled Chelsea striker Didier Drogba scored an injury-time equalizer to give Ivory Coast a 1-1 draw with Turkey in Izmir. Drogba, who has been out of favor for his club side this season, tapped in a cross from the right in the second minute of injury time in his first match for his country in over a year. Gokhan Unal put the European 2008 semifinalists ahead in the 11th minute with a shot into the top right-hand corner of the net. World Cup host nation South Africa's run of five consecutive victories came to an end when they were beaten 2-0 by Chile in Polokwane.","highlights":"Germany suffer 1-0 home defeat by Norway in biggest shock on Wednesday .\nChristian Grindheim scores only goal as Norway win for first time in 73 years .\nLionel Messi on target for Argentina in their 2-0 victory over France in Marseille .","id":"2dd03905dc81d75ead7eb410043041a7d619729d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A commuter airliner that crashed Thursday in upstate New York, killing 50 people, underwent violent pitching and rolling seconds before impact, with passengers experiencing twice the normal force of gravity, a federal investigator said Sunday. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. The plane's final 800-foot fall took five seconds, Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said. The aircraft crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York, near Buffalo, on Thursday night, killing all 49 people aboard. A 61-year-old man in the house died also, but his wife and daughter survived. Final motions of the aircraft were so drastic that the plane's autopilot automatically disengaged and warnings sounded, Chealander said, citing information from the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Also, a \"stick-shaker\" device, which noisily vibrates an airplane's controls to warn the pilot of imminent stall, kicked in, he said. The flight crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, discussed \"significant\" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, and icing has become a focus as a possible cause. Follow the plane's path \u00bb . Chealander said the plane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after the flight left Newark, New Jersey, for Buffalo, and remained on for the entire flight. He said the pilots were told before departure from Newark that there was \"light to moderate icing\" in the Buffalo area but that no other pilots had reported problems with their landings at the Buffalo airport. \"It was really not a bad-weather day, and they chose to launch [from Newark],\" Chealander said of the pilot and the first officer. The plane was on autopilot during its approach to the Buffalo airport, Chealander said. As to questions about whether the autopilot should have been turned off, Chealander said using it even in bad weather situations \"is normal.\" Watch Chealander discuss autopilot options \u00bb . \"You're encouraged to use the autopilot to help you with the workloads of these high intense weather situations that we fly into all the time,\" he said. He said the NTSB in the past has recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees civil aviation including commercial airlines, that in severe icing conditions, \"it might be best to disconnect autopilot so that the pilot might have a better feel\" for the aircraft's conditions. However, severe icing is \"not what we saw here,\" Chealander said, adding that the FAA has no such disengagement rule in effect. \"To say that they should not have been flying on autopilot is not correct,\" Chealander said. The pilots' recorded remarks about \"significant\" icing did not indicate \"severe\" icing, he said. The NTSB has said problems for the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 occurred when the pilots lowered the landing gear and tried to set the wing flaps to slow the aircraft for landing. Offering more details, Chealander said Sunday that the plane's nose pitched up 31 degrees, then down 45 degrees. The aircraft rolled left 46 degrees then right 105 degrees, or past the 90-degree vertical point, he said. Inside the cabin, he said, conditions went from lower than normal gravitational force to twice the normal force as the plane rocked through the sky. iReport.com: Send your photos, videos from the scene . Chealander said the NTSB's investigation of the crash site indicated that the two propellers on the turboprop aircraft were in place when the crash occurred. \"The airplane hadn't lost anything prior to impact. It came down intact,\" he said. Meanwhile, local authorities working to recover remains of the victims said Sunday that a federal team of more than 40 people using some $2.8 million worth of scientific equipment would begin on Monday to help establish positive identification of the victims. But because of the intensity of the crash and a subsequent fire, \"whether we can identify everybody or not remains to be seen,\" Erie County Health Commission Anthony Billittier said. Authorities had recovered 15 bodies as of Saturday night, but Billittier announced Sunday that numbers of recovered bodies will no longer be released \"out of respect for the families.\"","highlights":"NTSB: People aboard experienced twice the normal gravitational force before crash .\nPlane rolled past the vertical point before it crashed into home, NTSB official says .\nThursday's crash in upstate New York killed all 49 aboard plane, one in house .\nPlane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after takeoff, NTSB says .","id":"1b38d607e848ffcb6422759ccc6e3eefd3988abc"} -{"article":"BLUE BELL, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Janice McFadden's story hardly stands out. Applications for tuition-free courses have flooded in at Montgomery County Community College. The Pennsylvania woman was laid off in November after working at the same company for nearly 20 years. Now, as she looks for a job, McFadden worries about losing her home and uprooting her 8-year-old daughter. But when McFadden talks about the future, she has found some cause for hope. In January, the 43-year-old enrolled in the tuition assistance program at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The program offers county residents who have been laid off since September 2008 the opportunity to take 12 college credits -- usually four courses -- for free. McFadden said the program will allow her to reassess her options while she improves her marketability and salary potential. \"I have all of the capabilities, but I don't have that piece of paper, which is a requirement for a lot of jobs,\" said McFadden, who is taking night courses in economics and English composition. \"I never thought that I would go back to school, all this time, and I'm glad I did.\" She is one of more than 1,100 Pennsylvanians taking tuition-free community college courses as they search for a job. Many are concentrating on new job skills, such as computer programming and accounting, to retrofit their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s so they can compete in a turbulent job market. \"The response was incredible,\" said MCCC President Karen Stout. \"The day after we announced the program, our call center lines were clogged up. We had more than 300 calls in the first two or three days, and we had information sessions that had standing-room-only attendance.\" It's a trend echoed at community colleges across the country. George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, said he has heard from 75 college presidents reporting double-digit enrollment increases this semester. \"Community colleges are a big part of the solution to this economic downturn,\" Boggs said. \"We are the institutions that are on the ground bringing these individuals into our institutions and preparing them for a new career.\" Boggs pointed to programs in hard-hit industrial manufacturing states, such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as being particularly geared toward mid-career students. Many community colleges have cut or frozen tuition for laid-off workers, established scholarship programs or offered financial assistance to pay for textbooks and transportation costs. However, the spike in applications has put a burden on some schools that already are struggling to keep tuition low and upgrade their facilities. \"Many [community colleges] are reporting that it is the highest-ever enrollment that they have had,\" Boggs said. \"And several are reporting a waiting list of students that they can not accommodate. \"It wouldn't surprise me to hear that about a half-million students are being turned away from our community colleges today.\" At MCCC, enrollment is up 10 percent since spring 2008. But the school has been able to place the new students in courses that aren't at capacity. \"We are worried about our bottom line, especially in this economic environment,\" MCCC President Stout said. \"But we do have classes that are scheduled to go that have open seats. So basically, these were empty seats that we're filling with unemployed workers.\" If unemployment continues to rise -- in Pennsylvania the jobless rate is 6.7 percent -- Stout wants to continue offering tuition-free classes. And even once these mid-career students get back on their feet, she's hoping to see them around campus still. \"Our goal is that these students want to come back and be lifelong learners -- that they understand that in today's economy, you have to continue to keep your job skills relevant and up to date,\" Stout said. \"None of us can be complacent about our own learning.\" Her plan may be working. Much to Janice McFadden's surprise, she has discovered she loves being a student. \"I'm looking at it as a wide-open possibility for me. I don't have to stay in the same field that I was in, I can go back to school ... I can be anybody that I want to be now,\" McFadden said. \"I just have to pick what I really like, what I'm good at, and concentrate on that.\"","highlights":"Many community colleges have cut or frozen tuition for laid-off workers .\nScholarships and other forms of financial assistance have been made available .\nApplications spike has burdened some schools with already strained resources .\nGoal is to support lifelong learning, says Pennsylvania community college president .","id":"d80c19f5e27b84db9445500b4fe801826dadbdb7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Why do we watch? Bob Greene says athletes like Lebron James show us the difference between ordinary effort and excellence. The question applies not just to Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, although that is the immediate case in point. The outcome of the game is not important -- few people remember who wins the All-Star Game from year to year. The players, while attempting to win, do it with barely concealed smiles on their faces. All-Star weekend is mostly a class reunion for basketball's elite. But all the games, in all the seasons, in all the big-time sports leagues -- what is the real reason we keep on watching? You might think that we'd finally grow weary of caring, with headlines about Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, with the sports pages often reading like the business pages (contract disputes and stadium bond-issue negotiations and salary arbitration), with police-blotter details sometimes pushing aside the box scores. Why do we watch? The answer may be found in a single sentence written by a man who died at the age of 76 in this still-new year. John Updike, his literary brilliance aside, was prolific almost beyond belief -- he wrote more than 50 books, and hundreds upon hundreds of essays, short stories, articles, poems and works of criticism. All those careful words, year after year, decade after decade. But of all the sentences Updike ever wrote, there is one that I have long encouraged people to carry around with them -- if not literally tucked into their wallets, then somewhere in their heads and in their hearts. In that sentence of Updike's lies the secret to a lot of things -- including the secret that answers: Why do we watch? The sentence appeared in Updike's 1960 nonfiction piece about Ted Williams's last game for the Boston Red Sox. That piece is famous for how Updike explained Williams's refusal to come out of the dugout and acknowledge the cheering, crying fans after his home run in his final at-bat: \"Gods do not answer letters.\" But it is another sentence in the story that explains everything -- not just about sports, but about the lives the rest of us can lead. Referring to Ted Williams, Updike wrote: . \"For me, Williams is the classic ballplayer of the game on a hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill.\" There it is, right there. That tissue-thin difference, when you don't necessarily know anyone is watching -- there is the answer. We all face the choice in our lives every day: to make the extra effort or not, to stay at the desk for the extra fifteen minutes or to go home, to revise the project one more time before handing it in or to settle for something acceptable, if not quite excellent. On fields of play -- baseball diamonds, football fields, a basketball court like the one on which Sunday's All-Star Game will be held -- the tissue-thin difference is there for the world to see. The lights are dazzlingly bright; the television cameras carry the close-ups around the globe. If a player is dogging it, we can tell; if a player is jogging instead of sprinting, it's self-evident; if a player's mind is already at the party that will be held after the final buzzer, we know. Yet once in a while -- we can see it in a player's eyes -- we are rewarded. Once in a while, sometimes when we are least expecting to witness it, it's there: a tiny move, an all-but-imperceptible lunge, an additional thrust, a reach beyond that which should by all reason be reachable. It was true during small and glorious moments in the days when Bob Cousy and Elgin Baylor were on the basketball court; it is true during small and glorious moments today, when Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are on the court. Updike's tissue-thin difference. A thing done well, when the player could have gotten away with a thing done ill. Are the rest of us the same as the players on the court? In most ways, no. We lack their athletic skill, their physical grace, their monetary riches. They hear cheers every working night; we toil in silence. And yet, the one way in which we can be the same, or at least strive to, is in that pursuit of the tissue-thin difference. The thing that makes the best of them different is the thing that offers us, too, the potential to earn that difference -- the effort beyond mere effort, the desire beyond standard-issue desire, the pride so strong that it becomes the definition of pride. Why do we watch? We watch for those moments. They may be fleeting; they may come and go so quickly we're not even certain, for an instant, that we actually saw them. But they're real, and they can be ours. We wait for them. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: What explains why Americans watch sports so intently?\nHe says professional athletes depress us with steroid and scandal stories .\nGreene: We watch for the greatness the greatest athletes can achieve .\nHe says it reflects the top-flight effort everyone can strive to contribute .","id":"1374e965cf091ce058b3db6fe0a2239355684086"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- A U.N. report says hunger is on the rise globally and blames higher food prices. Populations within conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo are particularly vulnerable. The Food and Agriculture Organization has issued preliminary estimates classifying 963 million people as undernourished -- an increase of 40 million people over the past year. \"One out of seven people -- about 15 percent -- suffer chronically of not having enough to eat,\" said Mark Smulders, an FAO economist. The hunger report -- titled \"The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008\" -- said the world's financial and economic problems could throw more people into poverty. The number of hungry had been increasing over the years before the rise in food prices, with warfare and political instability continuing to be among the factors causing poverty. The preliminary estimates lack a firm country breakdown, but last year's figures are an accurate measure of where the problems are. About 907 out of 923 million undernourished people in 2007, or 65 percent of the hungry, live in India, China, the war-wracked Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Smulders said about 27 percent of the world's hungry live in India and 15 percent in China. The other countries each represent 4 to 5 percent of the world's total. There has been progress in fighting hunger in the Asian nations of Thailand and Vietnam, and in the sub-Saharan African nations of Ghana, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Mozambique and Malawi, the report said. Food prices have declined from their peak earlier in the year, but they are staying high compared to other years, the agency said. The Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index was 28 percent higher in October than it was two years before. \"Prices of major cereals have fallen by over 50 percent from their peaks earlier in 2008 but they remain high compared to previous years,\" the FAO said. The agency said the \"rural and urban poor, landless farmers and female-headed households are the worst hit by high food prices.\" -- CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. agency says food prices are to blame for an increase in hunger .\nFood and Agriculture Organization issues estimates 963 million undernourished .\nIt is an increase of 40 million people over the past year .","id":"c8c3ddcb88aedc17e3972505eabbdd094817beeb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that if the financial rescue bill fails in Congress again, \"the present crisis will turn into a disaster,\" and Sen. Barack Obama told lawmakers it's time to \"step up to the plate.\" Both presidential candidates stressed bipartisanship as they called for Congress to act before heading to Washington to vote on the $700 billion financial rescue plan. \"We are square in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. And I am pleased to report that today, I will be returning to the floor of the Senate to vote on a bill that marks a decisive step in the right direction,\" McCain said at a campaign event in Kansas City, Missouri. \"Today, with the unity that this crisis demands, Congress will once again work to restore confidence and stability to the American economy,\" McCain said. Watch what McCain says about the bailout \u00bb . The Arizona senator and Republican nominee said there will be time later to assign blame for the situation, \"but our duty right now is to fix the problem.\" Obama also warned that the crisis could turn into a \"catastrophe\" without swift action from Congress. The Illinois senator and Democratic nominee said he has been reaching out to leaders of both parties to help pass the plan. See bailout tracker \u00bb . \"To the Democrats and Republicans who have opposed this plan, I say this: Step up to the plate and do what's right for the country, even if it's not popular, because the time to act is now,\" he said in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Watch Obama speak out about the bailout \u00bb . As part of his lobbying efforts, Obama has called members of the Congressional Black Caucus to support the bailout. When the bailout came up for a vote on Monday, caucus members split 21 against and 18 for the bill, CBC spokeswoman Keiana Barrett said. Obama campaign Co-chairman Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Illinois, was one of the CBC members who voted against the bailout but said he would consider switching if more protections for homeowners are added to the bill. Republicans accused Obama of failing to show leadership as the economic crisis unfolded. McCain said last week that he was suspending his campaign to focus on the situation. Democrats accused him of slowing down negotiations, while Republicans said he helped sway some reluctant lawmakers. Although McCain did not mention Obama by name Wednesday, he made what could be seen as a swipe as his opponent. \"This is a moment of great testing. At such moments, there are those on both sides of this debate who will act on principle. Of course, there are always some who think first of their own interests, who calculate their own advantage instead of rushing to the aid of their country,\" McCain said. Meanwhile, Obama blamed the current crisis on greed and irresponsibility in Washington and on Wall Street. \"Let me be perfectly clear. The fact that we are in this mess is an outrage. It's an outrage because we did not get here by accident. This was not a normal part of the business cycle. This was not the actions of a few bad apples,\" he said. After their campaign events, McCain and Obama were both returning to Washington to vote on the bailout package. Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, was also expected to vote on it. The bailout proposal failed in the U.S. House on Monday. The version going to the Senate adds provisions, including raising the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. cap to $250,000 from $100,000 per account, and will be attached to an existing revenue bill that the House also rejected Monday, according to several Democratic leadership aides. McCain and Obama both support raising the FDIC insurance limit as a way of reviving talks on Capitol Hill. The Senate vote is scheduled for after sundown, in observance of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. After pointing fingers Monday, Obama and McCain have both tried to strike a more bipartisan tone as they work on selling the financial rescue package to voters and reluctant members of Congress. Democratic sources said that they expect bipartisan support for the bill. Because the tax bill must originate in the House, the Senate is attaching the rescue plan to a bill that deals with renewable-energy tax incentives. This would allow the Senate to vote before the House to approve a bailout bill. As the candidates focused on the economic crisis, former President Clinton, who ran his own 1992 campaign on the now commonly used phrase \"it's the economy, stupid,\" stumped for Obama in Orlando and Fort Pierce, Florida. Clinton urged residents there to get out and vote, and he told voters why he thinks Obama is the better candidate. Watch what Clinton says about Obama \u00bb . \"He's got a better philosophy; he's got better answers; he's got a better understanding and better advisers on these complex economic matters. He's got a better vice presidential partner,\" Clinton said. He also said he thinks the country needs to get behind the bailout proposal. The rallies marked the first major events Clinton has hosted on Obama's behalf. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama asking Congressional Black Caucus members to vote for bailout .\nJohn McCain, Barack Obama call on Congress to act .\nObama, McCain, Joe Biden returning to Washington for vote .\nFormer President Clinton campaigns for Obama in Florida .","id":"af6c0b40f7025773bbb48f888a13a251dcccfcc9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross expressed its concern Wednesday over what may have been the improper use of its emblem in the daring rescue last month of 15 hostages in Colombia. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a man involved in the rescue in this official image. \"We are in contact with the Colombian authorities to ask for further clarifications as to exactly what happened,\" ICRC Deputy Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart said in a written statement. Video and photographs originally shown to CNN appeared to show one of the hostage rescuers wearing a bib with a red cross on it, and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe admitted July 16 that Colombian military intelligence used a single Red Cross symbol in the rescue mission. The ICRC statement said video aired on Colombian television earlier this week \"reveals that a member of the army team involved was wearing a tabard marked with the Red Cross emblem before the operation had even begun, suggesting intentional misuse.\" Watch where bib appeared in video \u00bb . \"If authenticated, these images would clearly establish an improper use of the Red Cross emblem, which we deplore,\" Stillhart said. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos blasted the leaking of the video as \"an act of disloyalty, possibly corruption or even treason,\" although he defended the right of the media to publish the material once it had been leaked. Speaking at a news conference at a military base in San Jose del Guaviare on Tuesday, Santos said the military had launched an investigation into the leak and said that those responsible would be \"severely disciplined.\" Uribe said in July that the man wearing the bib was a member of the Colombian military intelligence team involved in the rescue who panicked and used the emblem to protect himself. \"This officer, upon confessing his mistake to his superiors, said when the (rescue) helicopter was about to land ... he saw so many guerrillas that he went into a state of angst,\" Uribe said. \"He feared for his life and put on the Red Cross bib over his jacket.\" However, a confidential military source who showed CNN the photographs that included the man wearing the bib said they were taken moments before the mission took off. The use of the \"Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal Emblems is governed by the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.\" \"These emblems may not be used by bodies or persons not entitled to do so under international humanitarian law,\" the ICRC statement said. Uribe said in July that as the constitutional head of the armed forces, he takes full political responsibility for what he described as a slip-up. He said he has apologized to ICRC officials. Previously, the Colombian president and his top generals had categorically denied that international humanitarian symbols were used in the July 2 rescue mission that duped the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels into handing over prized hostages including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors and 11 Colombian police and soldiers. Learn about some of the freed hostages \u00bb . Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute a \"war crime\" under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, according to international legal expert Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association. Such a move could endanger humanitarian workers in the future, he said. \"If you use the emblem in a deceitful way, generally the conventions say it would be a breach. (Based on the information as explained to me) the way that the images show the Red Cross emblem being used could be distinguished as a war crime,\" he said in an interview with CNN on July 16. \"Complete and total respect for the Red Cross emblem is essential if the ICRC is to be able to bring assistance and protection to the people worst affected by armed conflicts and other situations of violence,\" the ICRC's statement said. \"As a neutral and impartial humanitarian organization, the ICRC depends on the trust of all the parties to the conflict to be able to carry out its humanitarian work.\"","highlights":"NEW: Defense minister blasts leak of video from hostage rescue .\nInternational committee probing use of symbol by military rescuer .\n15 hostages were rescued July 2 from rebel organization FARC .\nMisuse of emblem could be war crime, legal expert says .","id":"85afdc41638cd05dbd2e1db2bad8662b8cc61fba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Love hurts, especially for jilted lovers on Valentine's Day. With that in mind, a London tourist attraction is offering visitors the chance to curse former boyfriends, girlfriends or spouses -- and get a discount on the entry price at the same time. \"Hex your Ex\" is the Valentine's Day promotion at the London Dungeon, a house of horrors that takes visitors through elements of the city's bloody, gruesome, and torturous past. To qualify, visitors must bring a picture of their ex -- or anyone who has shunned them -- then rip it up and throw it in a smoking cauldron, spokeswoman Kate Edwards told CNN. Visitors can then select from a range of curses to inflict on their ex. \"If you happen to be single or freshly shunned, this is a way to move on and have a great way of doing it,\" Edwards said. Hexing your ex will earn you \u00a35 ($7.20) off the entry price. \"It's very therapeutic, but it means in times of the credit crunch, you get money off as well,\" she said. The \"curses\" are meant to be taken lightly, she said. All were developed by the Dungeon's creative team. \"They involve marvelously bad things happening to your ex,\" she said. \"Nothing deadly, obviously. It's obviously tongue-in-cheek.\"","highlights":"London tourist attraction offers visitors chance to curse former lovers .\nVisitors must bring picture of their ex, rip it up and throw it in cauldron .\nThey can then select from a range of curses to inflict on their ex .","id":"23ae06eb107634f7969139f3c0696757772d4b68"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Turkish military bombed PKK rebel targets Saturday in northern Iraq in response to clashes that left at least 15 Turkish troops dead, the PKK and the military said Sunday. Members of Turkey's honor guard carry flag-draped coffins of two soldiers killed in clashes with the PKK. The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, said it sustained no casualties in the operation. The Turkish military said the air operation was conducted on the PKK's \"hiding positions\" in the Avasin-Basyan area of northern Iraq near the border with Turkey. During the operation, steps were taken to avoid civilian casualties, the Turkish military said. Watch inside the PKK's hidden camps \u00bb . The military said the operation was carried out Saturday. The PKK's military wing said the military operation began after Friday's clash and lasted for two days. At least 15 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 wounded in the clashes, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Saturday. Two others were missing, and the Turkish military said Sunday they were feared dead. The military said 23 PKK members were also killed in the attacks, launched from northern Iraq. In its statement on Sunday, however, the PKK said more than 60 Turkish troops were killed and at least 30 injured. Nine PKK members were killed, the organization said. Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency said the clashes occurred in Semdinli, a town in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari. On Tuesday, the Turkish government is scheduled to vote on whether to extend the authority of the Turkish military to launch attacks on PKK positions in northern Iraq. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh on Saturday condemned the clashes, calling them a \"terrorist act\" that \"creates a serious threat to the security of the border areas and the joint security of Iraq and Turkey.\" He called on the Turkish government to deal with this \"criminal act wisely and with self restraint.\" \"The Iraqi government expresses its support for the measures the Turkish government will take within Turkish territory to guarantee its [Turkey's] security and stability,\" he said. Saturday night, Iraq's Presidency Council, made up of President Jalal Talabani -- himself a Kurd -- and his two vice-presidents, condemned what it called \"a vicious attack against Turkish troops.\" \"What makes the attack more horrific is the fact that it happened during the days of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, where Muslims should be celebrating, rejoicing and befriending each other ... instead of fighting and bloodshed,\" the council said. It pledged to \"continue its joint efforts with the Turkish side to prevent the recurrence of such attacks and to put an end to the illegal presence of all foreign militants in Iraq.\" The central Iraqi government has labeled the PKK a terrorist organization, banning its activities and shutting its offices in the country two years ago. But the PKK continues to operate in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq bordering Turkey and Iran. The separatist faction has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey. In an interview held last month in the group's mountain hideout, the PKK's military commander, Bahoz Erdal, told CNN's Arwa Damon and Yousif Bassil that the PKK is defending Kurdish rights and attacks only military targets. \"We are ready for a political solution,\" Erdal said, adding that the PKK would lay down its arms if Kurds were guaranteed equal rights within Turkey. But the Turkish government told CNN in response that it does not negotiate with \"terrorists.\" In February, Turkish military ground forces launched a weeklong offensive against the rebels in northern Iraq.","highlights":"Air operation was conducted on the PKK's \"hiding positions\"\nPKK, Kurdistan Workers' Party, said it sustained no casualties in the operation .\nAir attack follows clashes blamed on PKK that killed at least 15 Turkish soldiers .\nThe central Iraqi government has labeled the PKK a terrorist organization .","id":"8ec645803d00236d26f73f936e51178f5faa455e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Democrats' top investigator in Congress reacted angrily Friday to a report that the former Blackwater USA employee accused of killing an Iraqi vice presidential guard was hired by another U.S. contractor weeks later. Rep. Henry Waxman says the State Department is covering up \"an epidemic of corruption\" in Iraq. The report comes alongside Rep. Henry Waxman's warning of a \"confrontation\" with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over how much Americans should be able to learn about corruption in Iraq. In a sharply worded letter, Waxman demanded Rice turn over a long list of documents related to the contractor, Andrew Moonen. \"Serious questions now exist about whether the State Department may have withheld from the U.S. Defense Department facts about this Blackwater contractor's shooting of the Iraqi guard that should have prevented his hiring to work on another contract in support of the Iraq War,\" wrote Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Moonen is accused of fatally shooting an Iraqi guard and fleeing the scene, according to a Congressional memo describing the investigation report. He was fined, fired and flown home from Iraq, and the company later paid $20,000 in compensation to the victim's family. Moonen returned to the United States within a few days of the incident, his attorney said, but in February he returned to Kuwait working for Combat Support Associates (CSA), a company spokesman said. CNN reported Thursday night that CSA said it was unaware of the December incident when it hired Moonen, because the State Department and Blackwater kept the incident quiet and out of Moonen's personnel records. Waxman wrote it is \"hard to reconcile this development\" with previous assertions State Department officials have made in recent days. Waxman earlier accused Rice and the State Department of a cover-up of what he called \"an epidemic of corruption\" in Iraq in general. He branded the State Department's anti-corruption efforts \"dysfunctional, under-funded and a low priority.\" Waxman further blasted the department for trying to keep secret details of corruption in Iraq, especially relating to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. \"Corruption is increasing in Iraq, and the State Department can't keep us from knowing that -- can't censor that -- just because it might embarrass or hurt our relationship with [al-]Maliki,\" Waxman said at the House committee hearing. Watch Waxman ask why negative comments must be said behind closed doors \u00bb . Deputy Secretary of State Larry Butler repeatedly refused to answer questions from Waxman about Iraqi corruption but offered full disclosure if his testimony would be kept secret. Asked if he believes the Iraqi government has the political will or the capability to root out corruption, Butler responded, \"Mr. Chairman, questions which go to the broad nature of our bilateral relationship with Iraq are best answered in a classified setting.\" But he was more forthcoming when talking about efforts that al-Maliki has taken to improve matters, commending the prime minister for dispatching Iraqi forces to surround a refinery to ensure oil did not end up on the black market. But Waxman appeared unmoved. \"Why can you talk about the positive things and not the negative things?\" he asked. \"Shouldn't we have the whole picture?\" \"I'd be very pleased to answer those questions in an appropriate setting,\" Butler replied. Waxman laughed and asked, \"An appropriate setting for positive things is a congressional hearing, but for negative things, it must be behind closed doors?\" \"As you know, this goes to the very heart of diplomatic relations and national security,\" Butler said. \"It goes to the very heart of propaganda,\" Waxman said, putting funding for anti-corruption activities through June 15, 2006, at $65 million, \"or less than 0.003 percent of the total\" spent by the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund. The State Department said details of anti-corruption efforts must be secret to protect investigators and Iraqi allies. In a letter to Rice last week, Waxman called the department's position \"ludicrous.\" Fellow Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky agreed. \"It's pretty clear that the administration just wants to muzzle any comments that reflect negatively on the [al-]Maliki government,\" he said. Earlier, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, told the hearing that al-Maliki had protected family members from corruption investigations, citing Salam al-Maliki, Iraq's former transportation minister and the prime minister's cousin. Al-Radhi resigned last month and fled Iraq after he and his family were attacked and 31 of his anti-corruption employees were killed. He said corruption has affected \"virtually every agency and ministry, including some of the most powerful officials in Iraq.\" \"Corruption has stopped possible advances by the government on the political level, on economic reconstruction, on basic services, amenities and infrastructure and on the rule of law,\" he told the committee, estimating the total lost to corruption at $18 billion. In Baghdad, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh acknowledged his country is plagued with a \"high level\" of corruption, but he said officials are trying to rein in the problem. U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, said there appeared to be no U.S. plan for countering the corruption. He urged Congress to consider conditioning future appropriations on such a plan \"so we can achieve some results rather than have just more efforts.\" Waxman questioned whether Iraq's government was \"too corrupt to succeed.\" If so, he added, \"We need to ask if we could, in good conscience, continue to ... prop up his regime.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Bob Constantini contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Rep. Henry Waxman demands documents on Iraq contractor .\nWaxman accuses State Department of covering up \"an epidemic of corruption\"\nState Department says it will provide information if it is kept classified .\nEx-Iraqi official estimates the total lost to corruption at $18 billion .","id":"45d62e9971a1595b0eab883f56f553c958a72a35"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps will not face criminal charges in connection with a November party at which he was photographed using a bong, a South Carolina sheriff said Monday. Michael Phelps admitted \"regrettable behavior\" after a photo of him using a bong was published. \"We do not believe we have enough evidence to prosecute anyone\" who was at the party in Columbia, South Carolina, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters, adding that authorities are ending their investigation into Phelps. \"We had a photo, and we had him saying he was sorry for his inappropriate behavior,\" Lott said. \"That behavior could have been going to a party. ... He never said, 'I smoked marijuana.' He never confessed to that. We didn't have physical evidence. We didn't have enough where we could go arrest him.\" Phelps, 23, who won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, admitted \"regrettable behavior\" after a British newspaper published the photograph about two weeks ago. The tabloid News of the World showed Phelps using the bong during what it said was a November party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Watch the sheriff say he won't prosecute Phelps \u00bb . A bong is a device commonly used to smoke marijuana. University police and Columbia police both said they would not pursue charges against Phelps. Lott said he has not spoken to Phelps, but hopes the swimming champion has learned from his mistakes and is willing to share an anti-drug message with children. Phelps said Monday he had learned some \"important lessons\" from the incident. \"I'm glad this matter is put to rest,\" he said in a written statement. \"But there are also some important lessons that I've learned. For me, it's all about recognizing that I used bad judgment and it's a mistake I won't make again. For young people especially -- be careful about the decisions you make. One bad decision can really hurt you and the people you care about. \"I really appreciate the support my family and fans have shown me, and now I will move forward and dive back into the pool, having put this whole thing behind me.\" Watch Phelps acknowledge making 'a mistake' \u00bb . Phelps told CNN affiliate WBAL in Baltimore, Maryland, \"This is something that I need to learn from, will learn from and have learned from.\" \"I know that a lot of people make mistakes, and the best way to learn from them is changing things,\" Phelps told WBAL. Lott said the photo that surfaced of Phelps put him and his department in a \"no-win situation.\" If he had ignored it, he said, he would have faced criticism, but he also was criticized for investigating. However, he said, the photo did initiate an investigation into goings-on at the home where the party took place, and some people were arrested on suspicion of drug possession. The home has been the focus of previous drug-related investigations, he said. He defended his investigation, saying, \"As a cop, my responsibility is to enforce the law, not to create it or ignore it. Marijuana in the state of South Carolina is illegal.\"","highlights":"Michael Phelps won't be charged in connection with bong picture, sheriff says .\nSheriff: \"We didn't have enough where we could go arrest him\"\nBritish newspaper published picture of Olympic champion using a bong .\nSheriff defends probe, saying he would have been criticized if he hadn't investigated .","id":"80770c8e972c93bf7549e74096af9ce2245e6c34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Zimbabwe Monday failed to bring to court an opposition activist who was scheduled to become a government minister on Friday but was arrested instead. Zimbabwe police officers at Mutare Magistrates Court where Roy Bennett's scheduled appearance was postponed. Roy Bennett of the Movement for Democratic Change was supposed to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister last week under a power-sharing agreement between the MDC and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. Bennett was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, sabotage and banditry. Police added another charge, contravening the Immigration Act, on the day he was scheduled to appear in court. They accuse Bennett of attempting to leave the country illegally. His party has decried the charges as \"trumped up.\" His lawyer said Monday's court proceedings were canceled because prosecutors were unable to make it from the capital Harare to the court where the proceeding was to take place, in Mutare, 132 miles (213 km) away. It is unclear why local prosecutors are not being used. Bennett's lawyer Trust Maanda says he hopes his client will appear on Tuesday. \"He is doing fine considering the conditions of the cells he is being kept in,\" Maanda said. \"There is no food or running water, sanitation facilities are not working, the cells are overcrowded and there are no blankets.\" Bennett was arrested on Friday while on his way to South Africa, where he has been living for three years. Bennett, who is also the MDC party's treasurer, was pulled from an aircraft at the airport in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, the MDC said. Police accuse him of funding the acquisition of weapons to commit the crimes he is charged with. Bennett, a white coffee grower, is an old foe of Mugabe's government. His farms were seized during the country's controversial land reform program. He has previously been jailed for assaulting Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in parliament. The arrest happened the same day that other MDC ministers in the new unity government took their oaths of office. The power-sharing agreement came into effect only after months of on-again, off-again negotiations between Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, and the MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Under Mugabe's government, the country has gone from being one of the breadbaskets of Africa to dire poverty. A cholera epidemic is raging, much of the population lacks adequate food and water, many public sector workers are on strike, and the country suffers such severe inflation it recently knocked 12 zeroes off its currency. --CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"Court proceedings against arrested Zimbabwe opposition activist delayed .\nHis lawyers said prosecutors could not make it to the court 132 miles from Harare .\nRoy Bennett arrested Friday, the day he was due to be made a government minister .\nMovement for Democratic Change says the conspiracy charges are trumped up .","id":"3e19d4363cbc74ed00f60cfa971ec75aa3d719c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Top Republican lawmakers Sunday called on President Obama to change his political strategy, arguing that the passage of a massive stimulus bill on a party-line vote showed he has failed to deliver the \"change\" he promised. Sen. John McCain says the Obama administration is off to a \"bad beginning.\" \"If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed,\" Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told ABC's \"This Week.\" \"I know bipartisanship when I see it.\" Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Obama was off to \"a bad beginning,\" out of step with the vow of bipartisanship both men made after Obama beat out the Republican presidential nominee for the White House in November. \"It was a bad beginning because it wasn't what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people, that we would sit down together,\" McCain told CNN's \"State of the Union With John King.\" The $787 billion bill made it through Congress with the support of three Republicans -- Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Obama is expected to sign the bill Tuesday in Denver, Colorado. Watch Democratic and GOP analysts debate bipartisanship \u00bb . \"This is not 'change we can believe in,' \" Graham, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told ABC. He said Democrats \"rammed it through the House\" after starting out \"with the idea, 'We won -- we write the bill.' \" But Obama's spokesman insisted the stimulus is a bipartisan success. Speaking to CBS' \"Face the Nation,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, \"We're happy that Congress, in a bipartisan way, took steps to make whatever happens in this recession easier to take for the American people.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus plan . And on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" Gibbs said, \"I think what you saw from this president was an unprecedented effort to reach out to Republicans. Not just in meetings at the White House, but you had the president drive up to Capitol Hill to meet with Republicans where they work.\" McCain fired back. \"Look, I appreciate the fact that the president came over and talked to Republicans,\" he said. \"That's not how you negotiate a result. You sit down together in a room with competing proposals. Almost all of our proposals went down on a party-line vote.\" When the next major piece of legislation aimed at helping the economy recover reaches Congress, McCain said that he hopes \"we will sit down together and conduct truly bipartisan negotiations. This was not a bipartisan bill.\" iReport.com: McCain's actions \"totally reprehensible\" McCain added, \"Republicans were guilty of this kind of behavior. I'm not saying that we did things different. But Americans want us to do things differently, and they want us to work together.\" Gibbs described things differently. \"This president has always worked in a bipartisan fashion,\" he told King. \"He will continue to reach out to Republicans. John, we hope that Republicans will decide they want to reach back.\"","highlights":"Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham say stimulus bill wasn't bipartisan .\nSpokesman: President made \"unprecedented effort to reach out to Republicans\"\nCongress passes $787 billion stimulus bill with support of three Republicans .\nPresident Obama expected to sign bill on Tuesday .","id":"5df5a494ac6c23820e182912dff09d52c0f7e200"} -{"article":"CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (CNN) -- When polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom last August, Kathy Jo Nicholson, a former member of Jeffs' sect, felt fearful even though she was only watching him on television. Nicholson, roughly 13 years of age, is shown here with five of her sisters and two of her mothers. \"It devastated me. It elated me. It made me afraid. I looked at this man that was so powerful in my life ... and he was just so thin and pale,\" she said. Today, as Warren Jeffs sits at Utah's Purgatory Correctional Facility awaiting trial, Nicholson has started talking publicly about her childhood in the church Jeffs led -- the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). She hopes that by sharing her story she will help others struggling with similar issues. \"My hope is that they, they'll see it, and it'll mean something,\" the 36-year-old said. Nicholson recently co-authored an article about leaving her polygamous community for Glamour magazine and is planning to write a book as well. Jeffs, whose approximately 10,000 followers practice polygamy mainly in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, is charged in Utah with being an accomplice to rape by arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. He faces additional charges in Arizona. Go inside Warren Jeffs' world \u00bb . As a child, Nicholson had three mothers and 12 siblings. She considers it a typical FLDS home. At the age of 14, Nicholson started sewing her wedding dress in anticipation of getting married. She knew that at any moment she could be whisked away to meet her husband and that her future likely would include at least two \"sister wives.\" But Nicholson had doubts whether she could live the life before her. \"I've always liked a lot of attention. And when it hit me that I could possibly and most likely absolutely would be sharing my husband, I began doubting that I could live that way,\" she said. That perspective got Nicholson in trouble at Alta Academy, the FLDS-run high school whose headmaster was Warren Jeffs. \"He beat the kids there. He humiliated the kids there. And as time went on and I wasn't so devoted to being perfect and sweet, he held me up as an example and humiliated me,\" she said. Jeffs would force children -- Nicholson included -- to stand on a chair in front of the class and flex their buttocks muscles, according to Nicholson. She doesn't know how he came upon this particular punishment. \"As I got more and more rebellious, he would come up behind me while I was in a group and seize me by the back of the neck and lean down and whisper in my ear, 'Are you keeping sweet or do you need to be punished?' \" she said. Jeffs wrote a letter to Nicholson's parents saying that he was concerned about her and a friend, because \"when around boys, and even younger boys, they would outwardly show their cuteness, seemingly to have the younger boys relate their cute behavior to older boys.\" After getting caught passing notes to a boy, Nicholson was expelled from Alta Academy. She began working in an FLDS-owned factory full of other youths who openly questioned their religion. It was a common destination for FLDS kids kicked out of high school. At 18, she eloped with a young man from within the community. Their marriage was not accepted by the FLDS or their families because they had gone outside of the church, to a justice of the peace, for the ceremony. So they packed up a U-Haul and headed toward California. \"That's when I cried the very most,\" she said tearfully. \"Because I was leaving my family, everything that I had ever known, my friends and God behind. And I was choosing it.\" That marriage fell apart, but in 2003 Nicholson persuaded her family to allow her brother to come live with her. He never went back. Within months, her birth mother came for a visit and she also never returned to the church. Nicholson feels fortunate she helped two relatives leave the church, but this has not been without consequence. The FLDS no longer permits Nicholson's relatives to communicate with her and she doesn't even know where the rest of her family lives. As glad as Nicholson is to see Jeffs behind bars and awaiting trial, she finds it unsettling to see a man who led the community in which she was raised now reduced to such a pathetic state. Still, she recalls a moment during Jeffs' first court appearance that showed he's not an entirely broken man. \"He had the downcast look that he would have when he was very disappointed in somebody, right before he'd start a beating or whatever or give a scolding. ... And then he looked up at the camera and gave this smirk, and that was the smirk that he would give before he damned you straight to hell or gave you the beating of your life or altered a rule that would absolutely devastate your household,\" Nicholson said. The FLDS broke from the mainline Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, over the practice of polygamy. The Mormon church, which gave up plural marriage more than a century ago, has no ties to Jeffs' group. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kathy Jo Nicholson grew up in a polygamous home and community .\nPolygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs was the headmaster at her school .\nNicholson, who flew from the community, says Jeffs was a harsh disciplinarian .","id":"1a8c96ed743c04b8c42efd7a53a1d119669be655"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his country would join the strategic review of the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, right, meets with Richard Holbrooke in Kabul on February 15, 2009. Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, Karzai said he is \"very, very thankful\" that President Barack Obama accepted his proposal to join the review. Holbrooke is visiting Afghanistan after a trip to neighboring Pakistan. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tapped Holbrooke as special representative for the two countries, a signal of how the new administration considers Afghanistan and Pakistan intertwined in any solution to the war in Afghanistan and the terrorist threat along their shared border. At the news conference in Kabul, Holbrooke said Sunday that he conveyed the administration's support of the upcoming elections on August 20, a date recently set by Afghanistan's electoral commission. \"President Obama and Secretary Clinton and the United States government were very gratified to hear President Karzai reaffirm his support of the August 20 decision,\" Holbrooke said. Holbrooke's visit comes as Obama plans to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to fight what he's called the \"central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.\" In an interview on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS,\" which aired Sunday, Karzai said that, with a resurgent Taliban, a still-flourishing drug trade and a border with Pakistan believed to be home base for al Qaeda, his country can't afford for U.S. troops to leave any time soon. \"U.S. forces will not be able to leave soon in Afghanistan because the task is not over,\" Karzai said. \"We have to defeat terrorism. We'll have to enable Afghanistan to stand on its own feet. We'll have to enable Afghanistan to be able to defend itself and protect for its security ... \"Then, the United States can leave and, at that time, the Afghan people will give them plenty of flowers and gratitude and send them safely back home.\" At the same time, Karzai said the actions of troops currently in Afghanistan have turned some of the public against them. \"It's the question of civilian causalities. It's a question of risk of Afghans. It's the question of home searches,\" he said. \"These activities are seriously undermining the confidence of the Afghan people in the joint struggle we have against terrorism and undermining their hopeful future. \"We'll continue to be a friend. We'll continue to be an ally. But Afghanistan deserves respect and a better treatment.\" While he said he welcomes additional U.S. troops, Karzai suggested they need to work along the Afghan-Pakistan border and in the poppy fields that fuel a drug trade that threatens to turn the nation into a narco-state -- not in the villages where most Afghans live. \"We have traveled many years on. What should have happened early on didn't unfortunately happen,\" Karzai said. \"Now, the country is not in the same mood as it was in 2002. And so any addition of troops must have a purposeful objective that the Afghan people would agree with.\" The Obama administration is conducting several reviews of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, including a review by Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in the region. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the original mission in Afghanistan was \"too broad\" and needs to be more \"realistic and focused\" for the United States to succeed. \"If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience and money,\" Gates said during a recent Senate hearing. He called for concrete goals that can be reached in three to five years. Speaking via satellite from Kabul, Karzai called former President George Bush \"a great person,\" but said he can work with Obama -- despite the president's comments as a candidate that Karzai had \"not gotten out of the bunker\" to improve security and infrastructure in Afghanistan. \"President Obama is a great inspiration to the world,\" he said. \"The people of America have proven that they can really be the light holders for change and the will of the people in the world. \"And his coming to power by the vote of the American people is a manifestation of that great power of the American people.\" Karzai also acknowledged corruption in the Afghan government, but defended the work he's done to combat it. \"Sure, corruption in the Afghan government is as much there as in any other third world country,\" he said. \"Suddenly this country got so much money coming from the West, suddenly so many Afghans came from all over the world to participate. Suddenly there were projects -- suddenly there were this poverty that turned into some sort form of prosperity for this country,\" he said. He said a government department has been created to deal with corruption and that corrupt judges, administrators and other officials are dismissed \"daily\" over corruption charges.","highlights":"Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country will help review of war on terrorism .\nHe says U.S. forces shouldn't leave Afghanistan soon since task is not over .\nKarzai says civilian causalities, home searches have soured public support .\nKarzai suggested forces should focus on poppy fields that fuel a drug trade .","id":"0a10d46e8d848941656352cdf58e587143896f2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday is searching for two fishermen missing after a commercial fishing vessel went down in remote, treacherous waters off the Aleutian Islands about 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The fishing vessel Courageous helps search for missing men in waters off Alaska. Four of the boat's crew members were rescued and five bodies retrieved Wednesday near the Amchitka Pass, a strait that connects the Bering Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The names have been withheld pending the notification of families, a Coast Guard statement said. \"What can you say?\" said Jeff DeBell, chief financial officer of Katmai Fisheries, which owned the boat. He told The Associated Press, \"We are devastated by what has happened. We are elated there have been survivors. We are just terribly saddened by the ones that are dead and are praying that those that are still in the water are alive.\" The Seattle-based company told the AP the survivors were Capt. Henry Blake and crew members Guy Schroeder, Adam Foster and Harold Attling. The search began at about 1 a.m. Wednesday when the Coast Guard received an emergency signal from the Katmai, a 93-foot fishing vessel that had been battling 50-knot winds and nearly 20-foot waves. The signal originated from a wall-mounted satellite positioning device on the Katmai that reacts when it's touched or splashed with water, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said. Watch a \"Deadliest Catch\" captain talk about what may have happened on the rough seas \u00bb . At about that time, another vessel, the Blue Balard, sent an e-mail to the Coast Guard saying that it received a message from the Katmai that water was flooding its rear compartment. The message also said that the vessel had lost steering. The Coast Guard tried to e-mail the Balard back but received no response, likely because the seas are remote and Internet access can be spotty, Read said. Rescuers launched a C-130, a long-range surveillance aircraft, and went straight to the scene twice Wednesday morning, Read said. The boat was nowhere in sight, but the C-130 did spot two strobe lights on top of the water, he said. By this time, the weather was treacherous and the sky was darkening, according to Read. The C-130, having found no signs of life, dropped two life rafts and headed back, he said. On the second trip, at 11 a.m., the C-130 and a Jayhawk helicopter found two strobe lights floating in the water, one attached to a survival suit and the other to the emergency device that had first alerted the Coast Guard, Read said. They also found a body, he said. \"We knew the person was from the Katmai because the suit he was wearing had the name of the vessel on it,\" Read said. Roughly five hours later, the Coast Guard spotted four men on a life raft, all wearing survival suits. With the assistance of other vessels, the Courageous and the Patricia Lee, the bodies of four other men were recovered from the water, all wearing survival suits, Read said. The odds of someone surviving the frigid waters off Alaska's Aleutian Islands is minimal, said Read. Crews usually have survival suits that allow water to seep inside but have a mechanism that traps body heat. The search for the two remaining men began at 9:30 a.m. Alaska time Thursday, an hour before sunrise there. \"You just couldn't do anything earlier,\" Read said. \"It's darker the farther out you go, and they are really, really out there.\"","highlights":"NEW: Survivors identified as Henry Blake, Guy Schroeder, Adam Foster, Harold Attling .\nFour fishermen rescued after boat goes missing in Alaska waters .\nFive bodies have been recovered; search is under way for two other fishermen .\nThe Katmai, a 93-foot fish vessel, hasn't been found, officials say .","id":"2401b95f39c201b1738143544175f5b6399429c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Islamic militia took over two strategic towns in Somalia Tuesday in a territory grab by the strengthening insurgency, a regional commander told CNN. Islamist fighters from Al-Shabaab group in Somalia display their flag. The al-Shabaab militia seized the cities of Bulo Marer and Quryoley from the U.N.-backed government and its Ethiopian allies. The move gives the group a strategic base in central Somalia, where it also controls Kismayo, the country's third-largest city. Al-Shabaab is an offshoot of an Islamic party that ruled much of the country in the second half of 2006 and aims to impose Islamic sharia law in Somalia. Nur Shekoy Jabril, the commander of government forces in Quryoley, said his troops withdrew from the two towns after they faced being overwhelmed by the al-Shabaab force. He said al-Shabaab forces were moving toward Merka, another major town in the region where the Untied Nations uses an air strip to fly in supplies for the World Food Programme. Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, is in the throes of an Islamic insurgency which is battling for control of the country and the ouster of Ethiopian forces. A cease-fire between the some of the Islamic fighters and the Somali transitional government takes effect on Wednesday. The agreement was brokered by the United Nations and the African Union and signed late last month in Djibouti. It calls for Ethiopian forces -- who are supporting the transitional government forces -- to withdraw starting on November 21. It is unclear if the cease-fire will hold as it has already been rejected by Al Shabaab. Somalia's lawlessness also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms.","highlights":"The al-Shabaab militia seized the cities of Bulo Marer and Quryoley .\nThe move gives it a strategic base in central Somalia .\nAl-Shabaab an offshoot of Islamic party that ruled in Somalia for much of 2006 .\nThe group aims to impose Islamic sharia law in Somalia .","id":"63ca2843721d74accb08f480df5eff6f77322a82"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- This month on the Screening Room we're turning to the wonderful world of animated films. \"Shrek the Third,\" the latest in Dreamworks' inverted-fairytale franchise . Blockbusters like \"Finding Nemo\" and Dreamworks' franchise \"Shrek\" have turned animation into a multi-billion-dollar industry, and a market once dominated by Disney is becoming crowded with competition. This year, Pixar celebrates its 20th anniversary. From \"Toy Story\" to \"Ratatouille,\" the company has transformed expectations about what's possible with animated film. Pixar's position as a world leader in animated film is largely down to John Lasseter - considered by some to be the Walt Disney for a new generation. From \"Toy Story\" and \"A Bug's Life\" to \"Monsters, Inc.\" and \"Cars,\" the Pixar back-catalogue is a testament to his creative genius. And when Pixar merged with Disney he became one of the most powerful players in the movie business. The first Pixar production released since the merger is \"Ratatouille,\" the story of an unlikely alliance between a blundering trainee chef and a gourmet-loving rat. \"Ratatouille\" director Brad Bird's credits for Pixar include the Oscar-winning feature \"The Incredibles,\" which won critical plaudits for its ground-breaking animation. He told CNN, \"I think that one of the nice things about Pixar is that they don't feel like they have discovered the secret formula to making a good movie. They just keep focused on trying to make a movie that they would want to see. We are challenged and surprised every time they work out.\" But while Pixar and Disney may be the giants of animation they face formidable competition from another box-office monster -- Shrek. The adventures of the world's favorite ogre have generated a total of two billion dollars in takings. Actor Mike Myers, who voices Shrek, told CNN that he thinks the movies' appeal is their unlikely hero. He said, \"With 'Shrek,' they took fairytales and turned them on their heads. Everything is inverted. Traditional villains are heroes, traditional heroes are villains. The whole team decided, we're going to look at somebody who has been told he was a villain and we're going to make him a hero. That's when I knew they were on to something.\" The success of the Shrek franchise, supported by other big budget features such as \"Madagascar,\" has cemented Dreamworks' position as a major force in the animated world. Another successful franchise -- \"Ice Age\" -- has been a hot seller for 20th Century Fox. And the polar climate has also been kind to Warner Brothers with last year's Oscar-winning \"Happy Feet\" charming audiences around the world with a tale of dancing penguins, while the Tom Hanks-voiced \"The Polar Express\" also scored well on its way to becoming a seasonal stocking-filler on DVD. The life-like motion-capture technique used in \"The Polar Express\" will also feature in Warner's forthcoming release, \"Beowulf\" featuring Angelina Jolie. But in a market dominated by 3-D CGI animations, one of the big three summer blockbusters this year belongs to a more traditional form of the art. \"The Simpsons Movie\" is the world's longest-running animated television series, and fans have eagerly awaited its move to the big screen. Creator Matt Groening told the Screening Room, \"We've had fans clamoring for a movie for the past 18 years. We've had kids, they've grown up, they've become adults, they've become writers for the Simpsons, so we had to do a movie after all this time.\" So, will Springfield's most famous inhabitants break all former animation records? Groening and co. will certainly be hoping that the movie gets a box-office \"Woo hoo!\" from its fans. \"Happy Feet\" is a Warner Bros. film; Warner Bros., like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Animation is now a multi-billion-dollar industry .\nMovie franchises like Shrek, Toy Story boost appeal to both adults and kids .\nDreamworks, Warner Bros target slice of Disney Pixar's success .","id":"197854b01841383a0cc89b28c98d003142216084"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, William Wood, said Friday that changes in communications with Afghan military forces have been made in the aftermath of a disputed U.S. air raid on an Afghan village. Civilians are overcome with emotion outside a home destroyed by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan. And despite Afghanistan's outrage over the loss of life, he said, the incident has not undermined the nations' relationship. The Afghanistan government has said that as many as 90 civilians -- including many children -- were killed in the August 22 air attack on a village in the Shindand district of Western Afghanistan. The United States had said that only seven civilians died, along with dozens of insurgents. A number of investigations into the incident are under way, including a \"senior level\" review by the United States. \"People who are reviewing our findings have been in Afghanistan for a while, and I don't know when they will complete their review,\" Wood said at the State Department late Friday. \"There is no American involved who doesn't feel a personal sense of pain and regret any time any civilian casualty occurs,\" he said. \"Speaking as an official of the American government, I can say there is no one who works harder than the United States does to minimize such casualties. \"I know as a matter of absolute certainty of operations that have been canceled precisely because there was a risk of civilian casualties,\" he added. \"I think there is no question there has been what one Afghan official referred to as 'sort of a bumpy time' over this issue in the last few weeks. I think that it has never threatened the underlying relationship of confidence between our two countries and between our peoples or between our military and the people of Afghanistan. \"That said, we are certainly committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure that such casualties are reduced to the absolute minimum and to working closely, even more closely, with the Afghan government to successfully carry out the military mission.\" The ambassador said the United States has made changes in communication between the U.S. and Afghan forces. \"Steps are already not simply under way but have been taken to improve coordination,\" he said. U.S. and Afghanistan officials have just completed a new round in what is called the United States-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership. A joint U.S.-Afghanistan statement released Thursday referred to the attack. \"The United States delegation expressed regret over the loss of any innocent civilian lives incurred during security operations,\" the statement said. \"In response to concerns expressed by the government of Afghanistan, the United States is conducting a senior level review and assessment of the August 22 Shindand operation. In addition, both sides recognize the need for establishing a mutually agreed-upon framework and mechanism to minimize civilian casualties and to maintain the strong support of the Afghan people in fighting terrorism.\"","highlights":"U.S. ambassador says bombing led to \"bumpy time\"\nAfghan government says August airstrike killed 90 civilians .\nU.S. says attack killed seven civilians and many insurgents .\nIncident hasn't threatened nations' relationship, ambassador says .","id":"0f6e7c544db5d38bd510f30a8eeebadf5a5aa980"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sudan's government and rebels from its troubled Darfur region signed a confidence-building agreement Tuesday in Qatar, a step toward ending a six-year conflict that has killed about 300,000 people, the emirate's state news agency reported. A member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) stands guard near the Sudan-Chad border in 2007. Detailed talks between the government and the Justice and Equality Movement are scheduled to begin in two weeks after Tuesday's signing, Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabr al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister, told the SUNA news agency. Roger Middleton, an Africa specialist at the British think-tank Chatham House, said Tuesday's agreement deals mostly with prisoner releases. But he said the two parties' decision to hold further talks \"is an important move forward, which there hasn't necessarily been in the past.\" \"It is certainly a step in the right direction,\" he said. \"But a lot more needs to be done if we're going to see a full cessation of fighting in Darfur.\" Other rebel groups are not included in the pact, and \"many, many things\" could cause the talks to fail, he said. \"It is a start, but it's very fragile, and we mustn't get overexcited just yet,\" Middleton said. In November, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir agreed to an immediate, unconditional cease-fire in Darfur, but JEM was not included in the talks. Sudan's Culture Minister Amin Hassan Omar and Jibril Ibrahim, a top rebel official, signed Tuesday's agreement. Qatar has been mediating talks between the two sides in the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Khartoum government. The government launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign, aided by government-backed Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. Al-Bashir is under pressure to end the fighting, particularly because he was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court last year for the government's campaign of violence in Darfur. In the past six years, an estimated 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, the United Nations says. An additional 2.7 million people fled their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and allied militias.","highlights":"NEW: Sudanese government, Darfur rebel group sign confidence-building deal .\nNEW: Government, Justice and Equality Movement holding further talks in two weeks .\nNEW: Analyst calls agreement \"first step in the right direction\"\nAround 300,000 people estimated to have died in six-year conflict .","id":"f6637a6c30e7175aa86490edc177f8409d00c57d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The first child in Britain known to have been screened as an embryo to ensure she did not carry a cancer gene was born Friday, a spokesman for University College London told CNN. Genetic screening allows lab-fertilized embryos to be tested for genes likely to lead to later health problems. Her embryo was screened in a lab days after conception to check for the BRCA-1 gene, linked to breast and ovarian cancer. People with the gene are known to have a 50-80 percent chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer in their lifetimes. British newspapers have dubbed the girl the \"cancer-free\" baby. \"This little girl will not face the specter of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life,\" said Paul Serhal, a consultant at University College London Hospital and Medical Director of the Assisted Conception Unit. \"The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations.\" Yet not everyone is thrilled with the idea of testing embryos for genes that could cause health problems later in life, a process known as preimplanatation genetic diagnosis. \"This is not a cure for breast cancer,\" said Josephine Quintavalle, co-founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, which describes itself as group that focuses on ethical dilemmas related to reproduction. What do you think about testing embryos for gene defects? \"This is simply a mechanism for eliminating the birth of anybody (prone to) the disease,\" she said. \"It is basically a search-and-kill mechanism.\" She opposes the procedure because embryos found to carry disease-causing genes often are discarded. She says that is essentially murder. \"They will be destroyed,\" she said. \"They will never be allowed to live.\" Doctors in Britain and elsewhere increasingly test embryos for genes that are certain to cause illnesses such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington's Disease. What's different about the girl born Friday is that she is the first infant known to have been tested in Britain as an embryo for a gene that is merely likely -- not certain -- to cause disease. In the United States, geneticists are free to test for any condition for which they can develop a probe -- and they're free to look for genes that are certain to cause diseases as well as genes that merely may pose problems later in life. Quintavalle opposes any form of in-vitro fertilization where embryos are \"killed,\" she said. But she is particularly troubled by the idea of screening an embryo for the BRCA-1 gene because carriers of the gene do not always develop the disease, and the disease is not always fatal. \"The message we are sending is: 'Better off dead than carrying (a gene linked to) breast cancer,'\" she said. \"We have gone very much down the proverbial slippery slope.\" Peter Braude, one of the top British experts on the genetic testing of embryos, said he understands the ethical objections but focuses on the benefits. \"There has always been a vociferous group in opposition,\" he said. But \"there are people who can benefit and I think they should be allowed to do so.\" In fact, he argues that the procedure actually prevents abortions because it takes place on a three-day old embryo in a lab. Only embryos that lack the defective gene are implanted. \"I don't think you can equate eight cells in a dish to an embryo or a child,\" said Braude, head of the department of women's health at the King's College London School of Medicine. For many couples, the alternative to testing an embryo is to conceive a child naturally and test the fetus weeks or months into a pregnancy. Some couples opt for an abortion when such testing reveals a defect. Diagnosing an embryo genetically typically involves fertilizing an egg with a sperm in a lab, testing the resulting embryo and implanting it in the mother if no defects are found. Braude agrees that testing for diseases that may not be fatal -- or may not manifest themselves for decades -- raises thorny ethical questions. \"How serious does it have to be before you throw away an embryo?\" he asked. \"Are you prepared to throw away a 16-week embryo for Huntington's, which will not manifest until age 40?\" In Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority determines the conditions for which geneticists can test. It has approved testing for more than 60 conditions since it was established in 1990. The authority approved testing for the BRCA-1 gene in 2008. Dr. Mark Hughes, who founded a genetics clinic in the United States, said he likes the idea of an authority that regulates what tests can be performed -- the system in place in Britain -- but believes that parents who want to test for genetic abnormalities should be allowed to do so. At his Genesis Genetics Institute in Detroit, Michigan, Hughes carries out about two tests a month for BRCA-1 or BRCA-2, a related gene. \"The couple is the best one to be making these decisions, because they live with these diseases,\" he said. \"When it hits your family over and over again, many couples are saying: 'Enough of this. Let's prune this out of our family tree forever.'\" He rejects the notion that parents will use genetic testing to remove all imperfections from children. \"You can get up on your high horse and say people are looking for perfect children, but let's give these families more credit,\" he said. \"They just want one that has a fighting chance of not having a disease.\" Hughes said he doubts genetic screening will ever be used to test all babies. That's partly because it costs the equivalent of about $11,755 -- 8,000 British pounds -- to screen embryos. It's also because the process is very complex. \"It's gotten easier to do now than it was 19 years ago,\" when Hughes did his first test for cystic fibrosis, he said. \"But it has not exploded, not burst onto the medical field like some technologies do. \"No one would use these technologies for a trivial reason. It's too much effort,\" he said. \"Not just the money -- it's so many hoops to jump through for a couple that would prefer to make their baby on vacation rather than in a clinic.\"","highlights":"\"Cancer-free baby\" born; baby girl is first in UK to be screened for cancer gene .\nEmbryo was screened to check she didn't carry gene linked to breast, ovarian cancer .\nEthicists criticize screening for genes that could cause later health problems .\nDoctors say cost of screening makes it unlikely all embryos will ever be tested .","id":"7291796705735c70ebc81b0ad333f16839f2c728"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary singer\/songwriter Aretha Franklin sang \"My Country 'Tis of Thee\" at the inauguration Tuesday. Aretha Franklin says cold weather affected her voice during her performance at the inauguration on Tuesday. CNN's Larry King talks with \"The Queen of Soul\" about the reality of the nation's first black president, singing at the inauguration and the much-talked-about hat she wore. Larry King: Where'd you get that hat? Aretha Franklin: Well, I bought it at a little millinery that I frequent out in Detroit. King: What was that like for you (Tuesday)? Franklin: Oh. What a tremendous, mammoth morning, evening, the ball, everything, from one event to the other, was just too much. King: How did you find out you were singing? Franklin: My agent called me and he told me that he had received an invitation and a telephone call, asking for my presence and performance at the swearing-in and the inauguration. King: Did you choose the song? Franklin: Yes, I did. King: Is that a tough song to sing? Franklin: No, not at all, but (Tuesday) it was. Mainly because of the temperature outside. I don't have to tell you, it was freezing, if you were there. Some singers it doesn't bother, and others it does. I don't care for it. It affected my voice. Watch Franklin sing at inauguration \u00bb . King: You sang at Martin Luther King's funeral. What do you remember about that? Franklin: There were very, very long lines, of course. I recall walking in the street behind the bier, somewhere maybe about 200, 300 feet from the bier, I think. I recall Leontyne Price being there, as well as Eartha Kitt. They shuttled us from one point to the other. The passing of a great man was at hand. King: How did you feel yesterday about seeing a young black man elected president? Franklin: Oh boy, how do you put it into words? There's a love affair going on with the country and Barack. I think it's the age of Barack. People have just fallen head over heels in love with him. His ascent to the presidency was miraculous. But we have to remember that he's not going to work miracles right off the top. It's going to take time. Watch Franklin discuss joy of seeing nation's first black president \u00bb . (There's) a lot of problems, and there's a plethora of things to deal with for he and his administration. King: One thing, with your magnificent voice, is it hard to sing outdoors? Franklin: It depends on the temperature. Yesterday, Mother Nature was not very kind to me. I'm going to deal with her when I get home. It, by no means, was my standard. I was not happy with it, but I just feel blessed because it could have been five above zero or five below zero like it is in Detroit. I was still blessed to be able to pretty much just sing the melody, but I wasn't happy with it, of course. King: It was great to listen to. Franklin: I was delighted and thrilled to be there. That was the most important thing, not so much the performance, but just to be there and to see this great man go into office -- the promise of tomorrow coming to pass.","highlights":"Aretha Franklin: Cold weather affected rendition of \"My Country 'Tis of Thee\"\nFranklin on Obama presidency: \"It's the age of Barack\"\nFranklin says she bought much-talked-about inauguration hat at Detroit millinery .","id":"369f23c601eb404faf7e0a41ef5bb537e02ebed2"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- An Indian official said the coordinated terrorist attacks that killed at least 183 people in nine sites across Mumbai this week could have been much worse. An Indian soldier carries his rifle outside the Taj Mahal Hotel on Saturday in Mumbai, India. \"We found bullets with them, hand grenades, bombs,\" R.R. Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, said at a news conference. \"Based on our investigation, we believe they had planned to kill 5,000 people.\" Indian authorities also were investigating whether some of the attackers may have gotten away, blending into Mumbai's 18 million residents. Another top official at the news conference pointed to a connection with Pakistan. \"Yes, the captured terrorist was Pakistani, as the home minister and others have said,\" said Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located. \"As far as the others, the accomplices, the investigation, the interrogation is under way and the details will become public very soon.\" Police and soldiers continued their room-by-room sweep of the Taj Mahal Hotel late Saturday to make sure all trapped guests had been evacuated and no gunmen remained hidden. Watch the destruction left at the hotel \u00bb . Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari pledged his country's full cooperation with the investigation and vowed to take \"the strictest action\" if it is found the terrorists were based in Pakistan. Investigators probing the attacks said they found cell phones and a global navigational device on an abandoned boat floating off the coast of Mumbai, CNN's sister station CNN-IBN reported. The television station showed photographs of a phone's log that indicated calls had been placed to Pakistan. The boat, intelligence officials told CNN-IBN, had been hijacked. The captain was found dead, lying face down with his hands bound behind his back. Four crew members were missing. Zardari -- whose wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated a year ago -- said he was \"as committed as can be\" to wiping out the terrorists because they also threaten him and his country. Watch Mumbai's history of violence \u00bb . \"They may not be the same individuals, but they are definitely the same forces with the same mindset.\" Zardari said Pakistan's cooperation with Indian investigators will be present \"without any hesitation whatsoever.\" \"As the president of Pakistan, let me assure you, if any evidence points to any individual or group in my part of the country, I shall take the strictest of action in light of the evidence and in front of the world.\" Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vowed Saturday to take action against any group within its borders if it is found to be involved with the attacks. \"The Indian leadership has not blamed the government of Pakistan; please be very clear on that,\" he said. \"What we have said is, if we have information, if they (India) have evidence, they should share it with us. As far as the government of Pakistan is concerned, terrorism is terrorism and we do not qualify it nor do we differentiate between organizations.\" President Bush, returning to Washington on Saturday from a Thanksgiving break at Camp David, Maryland, extended condolences and support to the Indian people and government. \"The killers that struck this week are brutal and violent. But terror will not have the final word,\" Bush said on the south lawn of the White House. \"The people of India are resilient, the people of India are strong. They've built a vibrant, multi-ethnic democracy that can withstand this trial.\" \"As the people of the world's largest democracy recover from these attacks, they can count on the world's oldest democracy to stand by their side,\" he added. Meanwhile, security forces at the Taj hotel, the site of the terrorists' final stand, carried out a series of controlled explosions Saturday afternoon to defuse explosives they came across as they combed through the 565 rooms of the Victorian structure. Read more about those killed in the terror attacks . J.K. Dutt, director-general of the National Security Guard, told a throng of reporters that security forces had killed three gunmen during the mission to clear the Taj hotel, but officials were not ready to declare the operation over until they finished their room-by-room search. Watch survivor say gunmen were targeting Britons and Americans \u00bb . Dutt appealed to guests who may be hiding in their rooms to open their window curtains to signal their presence to security officials. The hotel was secured Saturday morning. Minutes earlier, a fire -- which Dutt said had been set by the terrorists as a diversionary tactic -- swept through the ground floor of the 105-year-old building and coincided with an end to rifle fire. The blaze was quickly brought under control. Learn more about the hotel's history and future \u00bb . Meanwhile thousands gathered at the city's largest park, Shivaji Park, to say farewell to Hemant Karkare, the head of Mumbai's antiterrorism squad. Karkare was shot three times by gunmen outside the Cama Hospital, one of nine sites the attackers targeted Wednesday night. He was one of at least 17 police officers who died in the attacks. By Saturday evening the death toll from the attacks reached at least 183, federal officials said. State officials are reviewing the higher toll of 195 they released earlier. An additional 300 people were wounded, including 23 foreigners, said Vandana Pawar, a Mumbai disaster management official. The official death toll does not include the at least 11 gunmen killed. The toll is expected to rise as authorities count the casualties inside the Taj Mahal Hotel, whose burned-out lobby was littered with shards of glass. Watch victim speak about ordeal \u00bb . Indian officials found five bodies of hostages who had been held inside the Chabad House, a Jewish community center. The dead included an American rabbi, his Israeli wife, a second American rabbi and two other people. Two gunmen were also killed. At the Oberoi Hotel -- another luxury hotel where gunmen took hostages before they were killed -- 36 people were found dead, according to Bhushan Gagrani, a state official for Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located. \"We were in there for 36 hours in our room,\" said Vinka Clemmett, one of the survivors of the Oberoi attack. \"We heard the first explosion ... kind of a big silver tray had dropped on the floor. And then about five minutes later, (we) heard the shooting, and it just went on and on. And my first reaction was, 'Oh, God forgive them,' because I knew that people were being killed. It was just obvious that something terrible was happening.\" A UK security source told CNN that officials were investigating why two bodies believed to be those of terrorists were found with British identification documents. He said another gunman was captured alive. Watch a timeline of the attacks \u00bb . The gunmen were in their 20s and appeared well-trained, a member of the Indian navy's commando unit said. Police say boats took the men to Mumbai's waterfront near the Gateway of India monument, near the Taj hotel. Officials said the men had prepared for months, setting up \"control rooms\" in the two hotels. Indian authorities said no one had claimed responsibility, although a group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen said in e-mails to Indian news outlets that it was behind the attack. CNN's Andrew Stevens, Mallika Kapur, Harmeet Shah Singh, Saeed Ahmed, Sara Sidner, Alessio Vinci, Reza Sayah and Paula Newton contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Terrorists armed with grenades, bombs, official says .\nNEW: India's democracy 'can withstand this trial,' President Bush says .\nOfficials link boat floating off Mumbai to attacks; calls placed to Pakistan .\nAt least 183 killed during attacks, according to federal officials .","id":"7af5a8125182334810e23eb2da393e7f7333f3b6"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- The political crisis that has gripped Zimbabwe for nearly a year may be drawing to an end, but a deadly cholera outbreak there is only getting worse. Zimbabweans walk through mounds of garbage. Lack of sanitation and clean water make cholera spread. The newly formed cabinet of Zimbabwe's unity government met for the first time Tuesday, the same day that Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) released a report warning that the epidemic shows no signs of slowing. The outbreak -- one of the world's largest, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) -- is only getting worse, and could be a stepping-stone to other epidemics and health crises, international agencies say. Since August, at least 3,623 people have died and 76,127 people have been infected by cholera, a preventable water-borne bacterial illness that causes severe diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration and can lead to death in a matter of days if not treated. According to a report released Tuesday by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), new cholera patients were being registered at a rate of one every minute at the beginning of February in Zimbabwe. Unless urgent action is taken, the aid group said, the country could see a worsening of the \"massive medical emergency that is spiraling out of control,\" MSF President Dr. Christophe Fournier told CNN Tuesday after his latest visit to Zimbabwe. MSF says the response from the international community to the crisis has been slow and inadequate, and it called on donors to put aside politics and send help immediately. The cholera epidemic has been left to fester as the Zimbabwean government grappled with questionable elections, opposition charges of fraud, power-sharing talks and the creation of a unity government in the last year. During that time, the country's economy and infrastructure imploded, with sanitation systems and garbage collection becoming virtually non-existent. \"The reasons for the (cholera) outbreak are clear: lack of access to clean water, burst and blocked sewage systems, and uncollected refuse overflowing in the streets, all clear symptoms of the breakdown in infrastructure resulting from Zimbabwe's political and economic meltdown,\" the MSF report said. The disease is contracted \"by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium,\" the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its Web site. \"In an epidemic, the source of the contamination is usually the feces of an infected person,\" the CDC said. \"The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water.\" Making matters worse, flooding from the rainy season -- which began in November -- is spreading the bacteria through swollen streams and rivers. Cholera cases have now been reported in all of the country's provinces, the MSF report said. Exacerbating the epidemic is the current economic crisis, which has caused the health care system to nearly grind to a halt. \"I've seen many health services being down like this in my life as an MSF doctor, but only in this country have I seen this kind of collapse of the public health care system in the absence of any conflict,\" Fournier said. He said most of the country's public hospitals or clinics are either closed or empty, and the ones that are open face critical shortages of drugs and medical equipment. \"A huge part of the medical staff is not showing up because they are unpaid and on top of that, the patients, when finally accessing one opened facility, are asked for totally indecent amounts of money only to be seen and then an extra amount of money for their treatment,\" Fournier added. Many patients can't afford to pay and don't even bother to seek treatment, he said. MSF believes cholera may be just the beginning of a nightmare health crisis in the southern African country. \"The current food shortages make us fear of further malnutrition among the most vulnerable, starting with the under (age) five children, where any kind of infectious epidemic can start at any moment after this current cholera epidemic,\" Fournier explained. MSF currently has more than 500 staff members working in Zimbabwe to battle the outbreak. The organization is calling on the government to remove barriers that are slowing the MSF response to the crisis. \"Despite the glaring humanitarian needs, the government of Zimbabwe continues to exert rigid control over aid organizations. MSF faces restrictions in implementing medical assessments and interventions,\" the group's report said. \"The Zimbabwean government must facilitate independent assessments of need, guarantee that aid agencies can work wherever needs are identified and ease bureaucratic restrictions so that programs can be staffed properly and drugs procured quickly,\" the report said. Manuel Lopez, the chief of MSF's mission in Zimbabwe, said the cost of importing medicine is often higher than the cost of the drugs themselves. High fees for visas and work permits for staff are also impeding operations, he said. And it often takes months to get permission for MSF specialists to operate inside the country, Lopez explained, with some eventually being turned down.","highlights":"Doctors without Borders report says cholera crisis shows no signs of slowing .\nAid agencies say it could be lead to other epidemics and health crises .\nNo sanitation or clean water, piles of garbage help spread disease .\nEpidemic has been left to fester due to Zimbabwe political wrangling .","id":"e599cf8a991bda9abf12816ebeeaa08a62f8cd86"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Eight police personnel were killed in an early-morning attack Saturday on a police security checkpoint in Pakistan's Punjab province, a police official said. The attack happened at 3:30 a.m. Saturday (2230 GMT Friday). Some personnel were asleep in the checkpost guard quarters and others were standing guard when unknown militants attacked the checkpost from their vehicle, a police official from the Mianwali district of the province said. All the men were killed by gunfire. The attackers then blew up the checkpost with explosives, the police official said. The checkpoint was part of the NATO supply routes transporting goods from the port city of Karachi through Pakistan's northwestern region and tribal areas into Afghanistan. Police told CNN that an attack a few days ago also targeted a checkpoint in the Mianwali district. Rocket fire damaged the top level of building but no one was killed in the attack.","highlights":"Early-morning attack results in death of eight police personnel .\nAll men killed by gunfire -- attackers then blew up checkpost with explosives .\nThe checkpoint was part of the NATO supply routes .","id":"9a0d14155b86e213894dc6af412b5ae6a3423e72"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Bamboo, woven into the shape of human stomachs. Red, sky blue and orange pencil shavings glued onto a large canvas form a woman's traditional hair clip. A collage of magazine clippings, drawings and found materials depict Cambodia's tumultuous modern history. Leang Seckon's \"Prison Guard\" depicts Duch, who is facing a genocide tribunal starting Tuesday. These are a few of the offerings on hand in Hong Kong at one of the first large international exhibitions of artists from Cambodia. The work by 14 artists varies in practice-- video, photography, collage, wood shavings, paper, bamboo and painting-- as well as in themes, from reflecting on the Southeast Asian nation's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime to the emerging modern Cambodia, with traffic lights and all. \"Every artist in this show is referencing ancient tradition and recent history,\" said Phnom Penh-based curator Erin Gleeson, noting the wall-size depiction in folded paper of the serpent Naga (which in Cambodian culture represents the people's mythical birth) to a collage of 20th-century Cambodia and its six different regime changes. \"The show is looking at the present -- 'Forever Until Now' is the title -- and it is this lineage of the past, you see that in the show, and then you see artists that arrive at the present,\" she added. The show opens Friday and runs through March 22 at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery. Gallery owner and director Katie de Tilly said she believed it was important the artists get international exposure. \" ... it's really at the beginning of their art emergence. Obviously, they've had a very hard history,\" she said. \"This is really the beginning of contemporary Cambodians who are expressing very original ideas in their artworks and I think that that's what makes it very unique and to show to the rest of the world.\" Cambodia, which lost an estimated one-quarter of its population or at least 1.7 million people -- including an estimated 90 percent of its artists -- under the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, has a small but growing artistic community: there are some 50 practicing artists out of its 14 million people, Gleeson said. The genocide and ensuing war, which only ended in the last decade or so, stifled the development of the arts in one of the world's poorest countries. \"The legacy of that is now in every facet of a developing society,\" said Gleeson, who noted the country had no art books when she arrived in 2002 on a fellowship to teach art history. \"There's an absence of infrastructure for them, there's an absence of materials, there is no art store. ... they are quite inventive about mixing materials to make them of a higher quality or last longer, but in many cases they don't know archival techniques.\" The harsh weather conditions -- a dusty, hot season and a rainy monsoon -- add to the trying work conditions. \"Everything's against them,\" she added. \"Their parents in many cases are coming from a really disadvantaged background, as the majority of the country is economically.\" Some of the art included in the show looks at the Cambodia of today, such as Leang Seckon's \"Three Greens\" -- an acrylic painting showing children in school uniform crossing a road with a yellow light, red light and three green lights, along with cows and roosters. The piece shows the changes in a country that recently got stop lights, with animals, people and traffic mingling on the main roads of the capital. Sopheap Pich, a Cambodian-American whose family migrated to the U.S. in 1984, works with bamboo and rattan -- materials often used in Cambodian traditional farming and crafts -- to make sculptures. His work, \"Cycle 2,\" is the joining of the stomachs of an infant and an elderly person that for him brought up ideas of Cambodian traditional village life. \"You belong to each other, you help each other out,\" he said. \"But also, if you look at the lines and you see how it's shaped by hand, it's not very perfect, so it's also about struggle... \"You could say it's a cycle of trying to hold onto each other, now we are living everywhere in the world, Cambodians are all over the planet,\" he added. \"All this technique and pattern that I am quite obsessed with ... it's about this idea of trying to hold on with very simple means.\" Chan Dany, a 25-year-old artist who graduated from one of the country's three art schools, creates textured patterns that appear almost like tapestry using pencil shavings in various colors. The works on display in the show are from a series based on Cambodian architectural decor, such as door and window shutter carvings, and include ancient Khmer forms whose shapes are derived from nature. \"When I started learning art, the teacher introduced a lot of new ways of making art, new ideas that were very difficult for me, so I had to think a lot,\" he said through a translator. \"So then I looked around at what my classmates were doing and I started to think about what they weren't using for their work, so I started to collect the things that they didn't use when they were making art and started to think about my way of making art using those materials.\" \"I like the first piece I did (using the pencil shaving technique) because I had never done it this way before and since then I kept on making it,\" he said. The younger artists \"seem to be expressing something more fresh,\" while the work by artists from the older generation is \"much more heavy,\" de Tilly said. Some of the works of the Khmer Rouge period include a painting by Vann Nath, one of seven people to survive the regime's infamous S-21 torture prison. His painting, \"Pray for Peace,\" depicts women wearing traditional Cambodian funeral scarves praying en masse under troubled skies by stormy seas. Another work, Leang's \"Prison Guard,\" tells the life of Duch, a former teacher who ran S-21 and goes on trial Tuesday before a U.N.-backed tribunal on charges that include crimes against humanity. The art scene has been growing slowly in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh over the last few years: Sopheap started a group to promote contemporary Cambodian art practices and two art institutes offer programs apart from the Royal University of Fine Arts. One factor that has also made Cambodian contemporary artists different from their counterparts, for example in neighboring Vietnam, has been the lack of outside influence, such as was the case with Chinese contemporary art 30 years ago, de Tilly said. \"Cambodia still is very much influenced by itself and so the development is happening on a slower pace but as well very interesting,\" she said. \"They seem to not have as much international exposure to materials, magazines, publications, so you really do feel -- it was the same just after the Cultural Revolution in China -- that they didn't have exposure to many publications and things, and so their art was developing at that moment in time.\" \" ... it's very interesting to document it and see what's going to happen in the future,\" she said. Part of the exhibit will be shown at another of the gallery's venues in Hong Kong and will run through April 25.","highlights":"Fourteen artists, ranging in age and practice, displaying their works .\nOne work depicts Duch, a former Khmer Rouge leader facing genocide tribunal .\nCambodia's arts were stunted by the 1970s genocide and civil war .\nSome 50 artists now practicing their craft in the Southeast Asian country .","id":"65029e0d677a79ed0c3f3fdf91ed346bc44910e5"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Turkey launched another round of airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, an Iraqi official said. File photo from 2007 of Kurdistan Workers Party fighters at the Mahsun Korkmaz Academy in Northern Iraq. Turkish warplanes and artillery units bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in villages near Amadi in Iraq's Duhuk Province, a provincial security official told CNN. The official said the Turkish military operation started at 5:30 p.m. and lasted an hour and a half. There were no reports of casualties. Turkey said it was the sixth time in the past week it attacked the PKK in response to clashes that left at least 15 Turkish troops dead in the Turkey-Iraq border region last weekend. The central Iraqi government has labeled the PKK a terrorist organization, banning its activities and closing its offices in the country two years ago. The United States and the European Union also consider the PKK a terrorist group. It was the second round of Turkish strikes on northern Iraq this weekend. Late Friday and early Saturday, Turkish warplanes hit 31 targets in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq before returning. They \"successfully completed the operation [and] safely returned to their bases,\" the Turkish military said. A spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Security Forces said Turkish warplanes and artillery units bombed the region from around 11 p.m. Friday until 1 a.m. Saturday. The spokesman, Jabbar Yawer, said there were no reports of casualties. Turkish artillery shells also hit border villages in the Zakho area, targeting PKK positions for about an hour on Saturday afternoon, Yawer said. Though the Iraqi government opposes the PKK, the organization continues to operate in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq bordering Turkey and Iran. The separatist faction has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey. The Iraqi Kurdish Regional Security Forces provide security for Iraq's Kurdish regional government. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkish military bombs Kurdistan Workers Party positions in Iraq's Duhuk Province .\nNo casualties reported in second Turkish incursion into PKK territory this weekend .\nStrikes follow clashes last weekend that killed 15 Turkish troops in border region .\nIraqi government, United States, European Union consider PKK a terrorist group .","id":"75c8898204f01e677486bf85b3333384a76dd78f"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- It was supposed to be just another day at work. Job losses suffered by Linda and Chris Metzger have had a ripple effect on other businesses in their community . In early March 2008, 31-year-old Linda Metzger went to the New York office where she had worked as an assistant vice president in the marketing department at Lehman Brothers for about a year. Only 15 minutes into her work day, Metzger was called into her manager's office, where a representative from human resources was waiting. \"They told me that the company was having economic difficulties and that they had to make budget cuts,\" Metzger said. \"They were afraid that they were going to have to let me go and that it was not due to performance.\" Metzger says that would be her last day at Lehman Brothers. She was given some time to collect her composure, gather her belongings and head home. She was out of a $90,000-a-year job and was getting married in three months. Metzger says it was a chance for her and her fianc\u00e9 to refocus, relocate and start a new life. Within a few weeks, they both found jobs near Phoenix, Arizona, earning close to what they were making in New York. They bought a home and two new cars and got married. But the good feelings suddenly and dramatically ended in October when Metzger, who was four months pregnant, showed up to work at Lumension, where she was a marketing manager. Metzger says she was called into the office, and it happened again. She was laid off from her second job in less than a year. Watch Linda talk about getting laid off \u00bb . \"I was so overwhelmed and so shocked that I just immediately burst into tears.\" She thought about how she and her new husband, who had just moved across the country, were going to be able to afford their new life and all the bills that came with it. A week later, Chris Metzger was called into his manager's office at the job placement agency where he worked. He was told that because of the economy, his office was closing, and he was out of a job. Now he had to break the news to his wife. \"I just came home, and she was upstairs,\" Chris Metzger said. He tried to find the best way to tell his wife that they no longer had an income. \"I walked upstairs, I gave her a hug, and I said, 'I lost my job today.' \" \"I immediately fell to the floor and just started crying,\" Linda said. Within 10 days, Chris was able to find a new job, but Linda had no such luck. The economy was taking its toll, and very few companies were hiring. They looked at their budget and started to eliminate all the extras, including dining out and gym memberships. Vacations were put on hold; furniture purchases had to wait; fine meals out were now home-cooked meals. The Metzgers' story is playing out all across America as businesses and communities feel the ripple effect of the recession . \"When jobs get lost, demand falls for a whole bunch of businesses. You're not going to buy new shoes; you're going to put new soles on them,\" said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, an independent group that studies recessions. Restaurants where the Metzgers used to dine are now closed. The furniture store where they hoped to fill their home is having a liquidation sale and is closing in three weeks. \"You've pulled back from all your spending except paying your mortgage and putting food on the table,\" Achuthan said. It's a sign of the times. A drive down the Phoenix streets and strip malls are filled with vacant office space . Chris and Linda Metzger are expecting their first child in April. This month, they had to decide between making an expensive COBRA insurance payment or the mortgage payment, and they may have to start asking family for help. Despite her education and work experience, Linda Metzger says she is hoping she can start a genealogy business. She just doesn't feel good about jumping back into the work force after her baby is born. \"I am feeling a little burnt -- sorry, very burnt by corporate America.\"","highlights":"Phoenix, Arizona, couple lost three jobs in one year .\nRestaurants, stores where they spent money are closing .\nEconomist says when a job is lost, demand falls for many businesses .","id":"751a7a20d45a6671c53be7a852039c84dbc89fcf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The only thing Venus Williams treasures more than winning is a decent nap. Venus Williams knocks Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova out of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on February 17, 2009. Just before a match, when other top tennis players might be psyching themselves up for a three-set onslaught, the elder of the Williams sisters can be found somewhere private, snoozing. \"I'm always sleepy,\" she told CNN in an interview for this month's edition of \"Revealed.\" \"I'm literally taking a nap during the first set and the match before me, so I'm probably the only person that can go to sleep, come out 15 minutes later and start playing.\" Wary of sending the wrong signals to her rivals, the sixth seed confessed to CNN that she prefers to take her naps in private. \"I'm wondering if my competitor is going to see me here, so I try to act like I'm not asleep, but I am asleep, or I try to find a place where I can sleep in and no one will see me,\" she laughs. The lightning-fast speed of Venus' serve is at complete odds with her personality. She is strong, ambitious and determined, but also surprisingly laid-back for someone whose professional career is about playing harder, longer and faster. \"I just always go with the flow,\" she told CNN. \"On the court, that's when I get most intense. In practice, I scream and yell and threaten to throw my racquet but in the match I'm not like that at all.\" Her younger sister, world number one Serena, sounds almost envious of Venus' ability to keep her emotions in check. \"Venus is really, really unusually composed and that's just her style,\" Serena told CNN. \"On the court she's always really focused. She always has this quiet tenacity and she never really shows her emotions which I think is good.\" The youngest of five sisters, Serena says she continues to draw inspiration from her closest sibling. Venus is just 15 months older than Serena. She set the marker for success in 2002 when she became the first of the sisters to become world number one. Serena first took the title in July of the same year and reclaimed it earlier this month. \"She's my bigger sister, she's my older sister, she's a role model for me,\" Serena said. \"I'm always trying to do what she does. If she's going on the right path then I'm going on the right path too. If she's working hard then I want to work hard also. I'm the little sister who wants to be just like the big sister,\" she added. If they once struggled to find the required ruthlessness to eliminate each other from a competition, it is clearly no longer a problem. Of 18 matches they have contested, each sister has won nine. At the time of writing, there is every chance they will meet again this week in the semi-final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. They last clashed at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha in November 2008 when Venus dispatched Serena in three hard-fought sets before going on to win her first end of season title. Asked after the match about accusations they don't play as hard against each other as they would normal rivals, Venus replied, \"You have to play hard against a Williams or you are going home quickly. We try our hardest and I think that everyone knows that by the effort level.\" Their mother, Oracene Price, told CNN she keeps her advice on the subject simple. \"I just tell them to remember they are sisters and how love and how to care for one another is more important than anything,\" she said. \"So, this is just a game and eventually it would be over and you will have to live with each other. So, just go out there and do your best and whoever wins, wins. And whoever loses, better luck next time.\" Having said that, Price admits she keeps her distance from whoever comes out second best, in any match. \"They don't want to be talked to, they don't want you telling them anything, they just want to be left alone and that's what I do,\" she told CNN. There is no need for tip-toeing today. Venus made fast work of Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, beating the 17-year-old 6-0, 6-1 in less than one hour in the second round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Venus told CNN her ambition this year is to topple Serena to become the world number one. \"I think I am in a great position to do that,\" she said. Watch Venus Williams on Revealed this week at the times below: . ALL TIMES GMT Wednesday, February 18: 0930, 1830 Saturday, February 21: 0830, 1900 Sunday, February 22: 0530, 1830 Monday, February 23: 0400 .","highlights":"Venus Williams admits she's always sleepy, likes to nap before a match .\nThe sixth seed is playing in the Dubai Tennis Championships this week .\nVenus aims to topple sister Serena to become world number one in 2009 .\nWatch Venus Williams on Revealed this week at the times below .","id":"28e35b68caf037877b527d723704215db796acf6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Senate gave final approval Friday to a $787 billion recovery package that President Obama hopes will help boost an economy in freefall with a combination of government spending and tax cuts and credits. Sen. Sherrod Brown speaks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at right on the Senate floor Friday. Approved earlier by the House, the plan -- which went through multiple permutations as it bounced back and forth on Capitol Hill over the past week -- now goes to Obama's desk, where he plans to sign it into law by Presidents Day. Spending in the package includes about $120 billion for infrastructure -- new projects repairing bridges, roads, government buildings and the like -- more than $100 billion for education and $30 billion on energy-related projects that Obama says will create \"green jobs.\" More than $212 billion goes to tax breaks for individuals and businesses, and another $267 billion is in direct spending like food stamps and unemployment benefits. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted that the plan will create between 1 million and 3 million jobs. Most individuals will get a $400 tax credit, and couples will get $800. The vote by the Senate took several hours longer than a simple roll call of its 100 members generally would. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, attended a wake for his mother until about 8 p.m. Friday. Voting began about 5:30 p.m. Then, the Senate chamber sat nearly empty until Brown arrived to vote about five hours later. He was flown from Ohio to Washington on a plane provided by the White House, which said no commercial flights were available that would have allowed Brown to cast a vote and return to Ohio in time for his mother's funeral Saturday. As had been the case when the original version of the package passed, the stimulus package garnered no Republican support in the House. The compromise legislation, which was hammered out by House and Senate leaders and White House staff over the past several days, passed in the House on a 246-183 vote. Three Republicans -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- supported it in the Senate. Their support was needed to give the plan the 60 votes needed to keep it from being shut down by Republican parliamentary procedures. All Democrats in the Senate supported the plan. Seven House Democrats opposed it. Although the package was signed off on by leadership Thursday, a written version wasn't available to most lawmakers until about 11 p.m. Some Republicans in the House expressed frustration over how little time they had to read the 1,000-plus-page bill, and others predicted ruin if it passed. Watch the stimulus pass without GOP support \u00bb . \"Just because Republicans spent too much money after September 11 and lost our way on financial matters doesn't mean the Democratic party should be allowed to wreck our ship of state,\" said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee. \"This is taking us quickly down the wrong road. Vote no.\" Watch the GOP say 'Americans deserve better' \u00bb . Other lawmakers, however, said they were hopeful the stimulus plan would get the economy back on track. \"We know this bill alone will not solve all of our economic woes overnight. We know that the road back to economic stability and prosperity will require hard work over time,\" said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado. \"But this bill is the right size and scope necessary to truly help us turn things around.\" Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, who returned to Capitol Hill for votes this week, was not present for the final vote because he returned to Florida to continue his recovery from brain cancer. The bill passed the Senate 60-38. Here's how the compromise bill is expected to affect individuals: . Most individuals will get a $400 tax credit, and most couples will get an $800 credit. That amounts to an extra $13 a week in a person's paycheck, starting in June. That's less than what Obama campaigned on: $500 for individuals and $1,000 per couple. Many students will get a $2,500 tuition tax credit. First-time home buyers may qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000. People who receive Social Security will get a one-time payment of $250. The overall package is estimated to be 35 percent tax cuts and 65 percent spending, Democratic sources said. CNN's Ted Barrett, Dana Bash, Lisa Desjardins, Evan Glass, Mark Preston and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Senate approves bill with vote of 60-38 .\nSherrod Brown casts deciding vote after being flown from mother's wake .\nHouse approves bill 246-183; no Republicans back measure .","id":"f0dde29cb61e0949145ac50052462378355306f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Italian government has approved the creation of a new task force of 500 soldiers who will be deployed to combat the recent wave of Mafia crime in the country. The army has been deployed in major cities aross Italy since the early summer. Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told the ANSA press agency Tuesday that ''the majority'' of the troops would be sent to the southern city of Naples following the worst ever Camorra massacre last week, that left an Italian and six Africans dead. La Russa said that the 500 troops will be in addition to the 3,000 soldiers deployed alongside police in major Italian cities this summer, ANSA reported. ''The troops could be deployed for three months and (perform) the functions of manning check points,'' he said. This will be the second time since the 1990s that the army has been sent in to combat Mafia crime in southern Italy, ANSA said. Thousands of soldiers were sent to Sicily in 1992 following the murder of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. They stayed on the southern island until 1998 in an operation dubbed the Sicilian Vespers. The Casalesi Camorra clan is believed to have been behind Thursday's killings, which began with the shooting of an amusement arcade's 53-year-old Italian owner, known to have had links with the clan, ANSA said. Twenty minutes later, three Ghanaians, two Liberians and a Togo national were shot dead at a shop where local residents often brought clothes for minor adjustments. A third Liberian died in hospital Friday morning. According to ANSA, police said the murders were drug-related but also ''a signal'' that the Casalesi were still strong in the area despite a raft of recent arrests. The Casalesi clan is one of the most feared Camorra gangs. It controls drug trafficking and prostitution in the Caserta region, near Naples.","highlights":"Defense Minister: Majority of the troops would be sent to Naples area .\nThis follows the murder of six people by local Camorra clan last week .\nSecond time since 1990s that army has been sent in to combat Mafia crime .","id":"78bdb6fa2c870f29a3ab835a02c45eeb40d3e986"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani government officials announced Monday an agreement with the Taliban to allow strict Islamic law, or sharia, to be implemented in parts of North West Frontier Province. Delegation members of pro-Taliban leader Soofi Mohammad at a meeting in Peshawar Monday. It marks a major concession by the Pakistani government in its attempt to hold off Taliban militants who have terrorized the region with beheadings, kidnappings, and the destruction of girls' schools. The government will recognize sharia for the entire Malakand Division, which includes the Swat district -- a two-hour drive from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad -- the chief minister of North West Frontier Province Amir Haider Hoti announced Monday in a news conference. Islamic law is already being practiced in the area, where the Taliban have control. Hoti said the people of the region want sharia which will fill the \"vacuum\" left by a lack of access to Pakistan's judicial system. He said he hoped it would bring peace to the region, where Pakistani forces have battled militants aligned with the Taliban. \"Those who chose to take the path of violence because of this decision, I appeal to all of them to work for the sake of peace now,\" Hoti said. \"There is no accounting for the sacrifice of all the people of Swat and the Malakand division. How many children have been orphaned? How many parents have lost their children? How many young people have been martyred? In my mind, I don't think that anyone can take this any more.\" Watch Pakistan's foreign minister discuss negotiating with the Taliban \u00bb . He also stressed that the recognition of Islamic law in the region \"isn't something that hasn't happened before.\" He said previous agreements have been made regarding sharia, but were never implemented. He also said that the Islamic law will not go against basic civil liberties, although he did not explain how the government would make sure that provision would be upheld. Watch the implications of the concessions to the Taliban \u00bb . Sharia is defined as Islamic law but is interpreted with wide differences depending on the various sects of both Sunni and Shia Islam. So far, the Pakistani Taliban's interpretation of sharia has included banning girls from school, forcing women inside and outlawing forms of entertainment. The agreement comes amid negotiations between Pakistani provincial officials and Taliban representatives, led by Sufi Mohammed. The Taliban on Sunday declared a 10-day cease-fire in Swat Valley, which Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said was a gesture of good will towards the government. The Taliban's control of Swat is believed to be the deepest advance by militants into Pakistan's settled areas -- meaning areas outside its federally administered tribal region along the border with Afghanistan. The negotiations in North West Frontier Province are the latest attempt by Pakistan's civilian government -- which took power last year -- to achieve peace through diplomacy in areas where Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are believed to have free rein. But analysts as well as critics within the establishment have warned that Pakistan's previous dealings with the Taliban have only given the fundamentalist Islamic militia time to regroup and gain more ground. Khadim Hussain, a professor Bahria University in Islamabad who studies Pakistani politics, said the government has effectively surrendered the areas to the Taliban, thereby setting the stage for two contradictory, parallel states in North West Frontier Province. \"If you leave them like that and you give ... a semblance of peace in a particular area, what does that mean?\" Hussain said. \"It means you're capitulating. It means you're surrendering the state to them. It means your submitting the state authority to them because they are running a parallel state.\" He said the government's decision amounts to a marriage of convenience made under duress. Swat has been overrun by forces loyal to Maulana Fazlullah's banned hardline Islamic group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) which has allied itself with Taliban fighters. TNSM was once led by Sufi Mohammed, Fazlullah's father-in-law who is leading the latest negotiations. Sufi Mohammed was released from jail last year by Pakistani authorities after he agreed to cooperate with the government. He was jailed in 2002 after recruiting thousands of fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Fazlullah took over TNSM during Sufi Mohammed's jail stint and vowed to continue his fight to impose fundamentalist Islamic law in the region. Last May, Pakistan's government announced it reached a peace deal with militants in Swat Valley. In the months that have followed, the Taliban have seized control of the region and carried out a violent campaign against government officials, including local politicians. The head of the Awami National Party -- which represents the region -- was forced to flee to Islamabad amid death threats from the Taliban. Pakistan is under enormous pressure to control the militants within its borders, blamed for launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting militants. The deal with the Taliban comes on the heels of a visit by U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who is now meeting with leaders in neighboring India. He said he is awaiting more details of Monday's agreement, but said it underlines the challenge of dealing with the rise of the Taliban. The United States -- using unmanned drones -- has carried out several airstrikes inside Pakistan on suspected militant targets, including one on Monday that killed at least 15 people, Pakistani sources said. Such airstrikes, which sometimes result in civilian casualties, have aggravated tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan's military operation in the region is unpopular among Pakistanis, but efforts to deal diplomatically with militants have not worked in the past. Pakistan's previous leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reached a cease-fire deal with militants in South Waziristan in 2006 which was widely blamed for giving al Qaeda and Taliban a stronger foothold in the region.","highlights":"Pakistani Taliban's interpretation of sharia includes banning girls from school .\nDeal with the Taliban comes after a visit by U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke .\nTaliban: 10-day cease-fire in Swat Valley is good-will gesture towards government .\nCritics warn that previous dealings with the Taliban have allowed it to regroup .","id":"5eb2bc3b42232bf1b2f246780c9e8cc8d61c1d0d"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels to \"release\" civilians, who it said numbered about 70,000 in Sri Lanka's war zone. A Sri Lankan soldier poses in front of a Tamil Tigers emblem in the rebel group's former military headquarters. India is ready to help evacuate them, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Indian parliament. \"Estimates on the number of civilians trapped vary, but 70,000 or so are estimated to be there now. The LTTE were reportedly using them as human shields,\" he said, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers. \"As the conflict enters what may be the final phase of military operations, the LTTE would best serve the interest of the Tamils by immediately releasing all civilians and laying down arms,\" Mukherjee added. He noted that some civilians had either been caught in cross-fire or \"stopped and even killed\" by Tamil rebels as they tried to escape. Government troops and the Tamil Tigers are locked in a battle over the rebels' remaining territory in northern Sri Lanka's Vanni region. The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. Tens of thousands of people have fled the region as government forces have advanced and rebels have been pushed into a smaller and smaller patch of land. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"India urges Tamil Tiger rebels to allow civilians to leave Sri Lankan war zone .\nSri Lankan troops, Tamil fighters locked in battle for control of rebels' territory .\nIndia estimates up to 70,000 are trapped in the region by the conflict .\nTamil Tigers have been fighting for independent homeland since 1983 .","id":"bee0fcc90f1bfbdc53aa7de5415c53dd7731360b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Britain's Princess Eugenie has been reprimanded by her school after being caught frolicking naked on college grounds, it was reported Saturday. Princess Eugenie is sixth in line to the British throne. The 18-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah Ferguson, was apprehended for her involvement in end of term \"high jinks\" at the exclusive Marlborough College, west of London, the UK Press Association said. A royal source told the Press Association, \"It was nothing more than high jinks at the end of term in May. A group of them were reprimanded and that's the end of the matter.\" The tabloid Sun newspaper reported that a college staff member woke to playful shrieks and found several young women dancing around without clothes. It said there was no suggestion boys were present or that drugs were involved but claimed a pupil said the students had been drinking. Princess Eugenie, the sixth in line to the British throne, is studying art, history of art and English at the $46,000-a-year college, PA said. It said the princess was expected to be among guests celebrating the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday. A spokesman for the princess made no comment about the claims, PA reported.","highlights":"Britain's Princess Eugenie reprimanded for naked school frolic, reports say .\nSixth in line to British throne involved in end of term \"high jinks,\" insiders say .\nPrincess due to attend queen's official birthday celebrations .","id":"163ed986c2ee496911f964a4a7cf7c7f90359118"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The owners of a cruise ship that ran aground in Marguerite Bay, Antarctica, are hoping high tide will dislodge the ship Wednesday, a company statement said. The Ocean Nova, seen on a previous voyage, has a total of 106 people on board. Connecticut-based Quark Expeditions said the M\/V Ocean Nova became stranded Tuesday in the bay not far from an Argentine research base. Marguerite Bay is about 900 miles south of the tip of South America. The ship is carrying 65 passengers and 41 crew members, Quark Expeditions said. All those aboard the vessel \"remain safe and calm,\" the company statement said. The ship's captain is awaiting high tide to make another attempt to move the vessel. \"The midnight operation will occur in daylight, as the ship is below the Antarctic Circle, where the sun never sets during February. We anticipate a positive outcome,\" Quark Expeditions president Patrick Shaw said. The captain is also waiting for divers from the Spanish naval ship the Hesp\u00e9rides to inspect the hull of the Nova to make sure it's not damaged, the statement said.","highlights":"All 65 passengers and 41 crew are safe, company reports .\nMV Ocean Nova stranded in Marguerite Bay, about 900 miles from South America .","id":"c7aa75130c60a0fed530dcc65aa06da2a01efc4f"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Tuba Sahaab looks nothing like a warrior. She is a slight girl of 11, living in a simple home in a suburb of Islamabad. But in Tuba's case, looks are deceiving. \"I want to give peace to my nation,\" Tuba Sahaab says, \"I will fight for it.\" With her pen, Tuba is taking on the swords of the Taliban. She crafts poems telling of the pain and suffering of children just like her; girls banned from school, their books burned, as the hard-core Islamic militants spread their reign of terror across parts of Pakistan. A stanza of one of her poems reads: \"Tiny drops of tears, their faces like angels, Washed with blood, they sleep forever with anger.\" Tuba is not afraid to express her views. Of the Taliban forcing young girls out of the classroom, she says: \"This is very shocking to hear that girls can't go to school, they are taking us back to the Stone Age.\" Less than two hours from Tuba's home, the Taliban have control. The one-time holiday destination of the Swat Valley is now a no-go zone. Curfews are in place at all times. Militants kill with impunity. Human rights activists and people on the ground in Swat Valley speak of a place called \"slaughter square\" where the Taliban leave the bodies of their victims with notes saying \"do not remove for 24 hours.\" No one touches the corpses out of fear of reprisals. Watch Tuba recite her poetry \u00bb . Tuba Sahaab refuses to be silent. As young as she is, she is wise and brave beyond her years. The young school girl is reaching a bigger audience, regularly appearing in the media. On the day we spend with her, Tuba and her mother appear on a talk radio program. Back home, she tells me how she would give her life for her country. \"I want to give peace to my nation,\" she says, \"I will fight for it.\" And Tuba has an inspiration: U.S. President Barack Obama. She prayed for his elections, she says. She sees in him the hope of peace in her own country. Tuba Sahaab has a dream to meet her hero. She can hardly contain her excitement. \"I want to go the White Palace and show him my poems, show him what is happening and ask him to come to Pakistan and control it because he is a super power.\" Meeting and listening to Tuba Sahaab, it is easy to forget she is still a young girl. In her playground at school, Tuba dances and laughs with her friends. She loves writing her short stories (she has already published one book) and shows me a cartoon character she has created called \"Tomato Man.\" Tuba's parents are proud of their daughter. They say they are not afraid even as she speaks out so publicly against the Taliban. Tuba is their only child but as her mother tells me, she is \"worth more than seven sons and seven daughters.\" And Tuba has the dreams of any young child. She tells me she wants to be an astronaut and then one day lead her country. \"I will do anything, if my life goes I don't worry, I just want to do something.\" \"I think you will get the chance,\" I say. \"Yes, if someone gives me the chance you will see what I can do.\" Of that, I have no doubt.","highlights":"With her pen, 11-year-old Pakistani Tuba Sahaab takes on the swords of the Taliban .\nShe crafts poems on children in Pakistan oppressed by hard-core Islamic militants .\nGirls have been banned from school, their books burned, as militants spread terror .\nRefusing to be silent, despite the danger, she regularly speaks out in the media .","id":"d318a83dd7ceb51bae460dd5101238e21bc7b680"} -{"article":"DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) -- It's 7 a.m. at Henry Ford Hospital, and surgeons are preparing to remove a cancerous tumor from a man's kidney. A doctor posts updates on social-networking site Twitter during a recent operation in Detroit. It's potentially a risky surgery, but everything's ready: The doctors and nurses are in the operating room, the surgical instruments are sterilized and ready to go, and the chief resident is furiously Twittering on his laptop. That's right -- last week, for the second known time, surgeons Twittered a surgery by using social-networking site Twitter to give short real-time updates about the procedure. Following the February 9 operation online were other doctors, medical students and the merely curious. Watch surgeons Twittering from the operating room \u00bb . \"Here's something different: HenryFordNews is live tweeting surgery today, getting some buzz, too,\" wrote one Twitter participant from Massachusetts. \"I find this fascinating!\" tweeted another Twitter user from Swansea, United Kingdom. \"It's an interesting use of technology, but I can't help but feel a bit 'eeewww!' about this,\" wrote a third tweeter from New York. Why twitter a surgery? Whether it's new and cool or merely yicky, observers say there's no question that more and more doctors -- and patients -- will be sharing the blow-by-blow of medical procedures on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Dr. Craig Rogers, the lead surgeon in the Henry Ford surgery, said the impetus for his Twittering was to let people know that a tumor can be removed without taking the entire kidney. \"We're trying to use this as a way to get the word out,\" Rogers said. Observers say Twittering about a procedure is a natural outgrowth of the social networking media revolution. \"Doing this removes a real communication barrier. It helps make something scary much more comprehendable,\" said Christopher Parks, co-founder of the Web site changehealthcare.com. \"It brings us closer together and makes us more engaged.\" Four months ago, Park's colleague, Robert Hendrick, tweeted his own varicose vein removal surgery here as it was happening (he was, obviously, under local anesthesia). \"It redirected my attention and allowed me to minimize some of the nervousness around what was going on. It felt like I had family and friends there to support me,\" Hendrick wrote in an e-mail. \"I wanted a record for other people who might be interested in the same surgery,\" added Hendrick, who also posted photos and video of his surgery. \"It later allowed me to connect with others with the same issues.\" As time goes by and the younger generation moves into medicine, expect even more sharing online of private medical procedures, Parks says. \"Newer and newer generations are used to putting their life online,\" he said. \"This generation shares everything.\" \"Gosh, this is big\" Twitter users -- those \"tweeple\" -- who kept up with the Henry Ford procedure online got to share some medical drama in real time. (You can read the \"Tweetstream\" or watch video of the tumor removal on YouTube). As Rogers got closer to the tumor, he realized it was far larger than it had appeared on a CT scan, and he wondered out loud whether he would have to remove the entire kidney -- something he'd been trying to avoid. \"Gosh, this is big,\" he said to his colleagues in the operating room. \"Could I have picked a harder case for this?\" As Rogers worked away on his robotic machinery, the chief resident, Dr. Raj Laungani, Twittered: \"Dr. Rogers is saying because the tumor is so large he may have to do a radical (total) nephrectomy.\" After conferring with Laungani and others in the operating room, Rogers decided he could remove just part of the kidney. Then came another challenge: In a surgery like this one, doctors have to restrict blood flow to the kidney with clamps while they remove the tumor. Those clamps then have to be removed within 30 minutes so the kidney isn't damaged by the lack of blood. iReport.com: Would you allow your surgeon to \"tweet\"? \"The goal is to keep the clamp time below 30 minutes,\" Laungani Twittered. \"25 minutes left!!!\" Approximately 25 minutes later, Laungani shared his relief with all of Twitterville: \"Tumor is excised, bleeding is controlled, we are about to come off clamp,\" he wrote. In the end, Rogers had the last tweet. \"The robotic partial nephrectomy was a success,\" he wrote. \"Thank you for joining us today.\" CNN's Jennifer Pifer-Bixler and Marcy Heard contributed to this article.","highlights":"For the second known time, surgeons \"Twittered\" last week during surgery .\nDoctors used social-networking site Twitter to give updates about the procedure .\nFollowing along online were other doctors, medical students and the merely curious .\nSurgeons hope twittering will help educate other doctors and the public .","id":"0e400a3087db0f5a9ae1788bf1246f4fced51f84"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Australian pop star Kylie Minogue and the professor who created Dolly the sheep are among the prominent figures who have received awards from Queen Elizabeth II in her annual New Year Honors list. Kylie Minogue battled back to health after suffering from breast cancer. Minogue, 39 , and Prof. Ian Wilmut were appointed to the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the list, which is chosen by the queen on the advise of the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Other award winners included Stuart Rose, the head of the British retailer Marks and Spencer, who was handed a knighthood and \"Lord of the Rings\" star Ian McKellen. The award of a Companion of Honour for the 68-year-old British actor, who already has a knighthood and has been a longtime campaigner for gay rights, recognized his efforts to promote \"equality.\" The New Year's list recognizes a wide range of people who are thought to have made a positive contribution to British life. The queen hands out a range of honors including knighthoods, life peerages and gallantry awards for those serving in the armed forces and civilians. The list is published in the official newspaper of the British monarchy, the London Gazette. The honor's list usually attracts attention for the high-profile figures honored; previous recipients of knighthoods include the pop stars Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger but anyone can be nominated for an award. This year's list, for example, includes some of the people who took part in the rescue operations following the flooding that affected large parts of England this summer. Capt. Tracy Palmer, from the Salvation Army in the northern English town of Workshop, was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) after she provided shelter for children caught up in the floods. Wilmut, 63, created headlines around the world after he led the team of scientists that created the first mammal produced through genetic cloning in 1996. Kylie Minogue has sold more than 60 million records worldwide in a music career lasting 20 years. The Australian pop diva battled back to health after she was forced to cancel a world tour when she was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kylie Minogue among those named in Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honors list .\nThe professor who created Dolly the sheep, Ian Wilmut, also honored .\nAwards recognize those who make a positive contribution to British life .\nMinogue battled back to health after she was diagnosed with breast cancer .","id":"688b08ca48de0ae9be1541955f7280c5547cc753"} -{"article":"CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti (CNN) -- U.S. Marines at Camp Lemonier -- the only American military base on the African continent -- spend much of their time vaccinating livestock, repairing schools and giving medical training. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and Rear Adm. James Hart, in Camp Lemonier, December 2007. The camp, just 10 miles north of the Somali border, began as a French Foreign Legion outpost, but the Djibouti government agreed in 2002 to let the U.S. military establish a base for counterterrorism and humanitarian missions in the Horn of Africa. The 1,800 U.S. troops in Djibouti spend just a fraction of their time on military tasks, such as locating and removing land mines. They conduct civil affairs operations in seven East African countries -- seen as an antidote to extremism. \"If you get at the basic needs of any individual, if you address the basic needs of people, then you have the opportunity to change their mindset, then you have the opportunity to show them that there is something better than doing extreme acts,\" said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Roosevelt Barfield, deputy commander of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa. Many of the Marines in Djibouti, a predominantly Muslim country, previously served in Iraq. \"In Iraq, you can just go out and pretty much roll around and you do what you got to do and your mind set is a lot different,\" said Marine Cpl. Chad Armstrong. \"Here, this country is a sovereign nation. Their government is established and everything, so there is a lot more working with the governments here.\" The military role, though, sometimes upstages the humanitarian mission. Periodic airstrikes of suspected al Qaeda terrorist targets in Somalia, often from U.S. warships, has created animosity among ethnic Somalis in the region. The U.S. military presence in Djibouti underscores the growing importance of Africa to the U.S. military. The United States has created a centralized military command for Africa, U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, which will become fully operational in October. The reluctance of African leaders to host a U.S. military facility, however, has hampered selection of a headquarters location for AFRICOM. Liberia, so far, is the only African country to offer. For now, AFRICOM is based in Stuttgart, Germany.","highlights":"Camp Lemonier is the only American military base on the African continent .\nThe 1,800 U.S. troops conduct civil affairs operations in seven East African countries .\nTheir humanitarian mission is seen as an antidote to extremism .","id":"74711f6af07fc009ca37d7a1ba2e0eaf191ec776"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak, Peanut Corp. of America, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in court Friday in Lynchburg, Virginia. Peanut Corp. of America plants in Georgia and Texas came under scrutiny after the salmonella outbreak. The documents were filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Virginia. The bankruptcy papers were signed by Stewart Parnell, the president of Peanut Corp., who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions this week in a congressional hearing. Bacteria found in the company's Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant have been blamed for more than 600 cases of salmonella, including nine deaths. Watch how bankruptcy could affect case \u00bb . The Texas Health Department on Thursday ordered products from the company's plant in Plainview, Texas, to be recalled after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant. Watch what health inspectors found \u00bb . A call to the company's telephone number, which was working earlier this week, elicited a recording that said it was no longer in service. \"The long and the short of it is that we kicked the tires on reorganizing the company, and, frankly, they're just in a position now where they can't even conduct business,\" said Andrew S. Goldstein, a lawyer for the company. \"They can't operate at all, and this just seemed like the inevitable course.\" In a written statement, Consumers Union said Friday's declaration shows that Congress needs to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration and hike the penalties it can impose. \"It is unacceptable for corporations to put consumers' health at risk and then simply declare bankruptcy and go out of business when they get caught,\" said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. \"PCA's declaration of bankruptcy will, among other things, shield it from liability suits filed by consumers who became sick or whose loved ones died as a result of eating PCA's peanut products,\" she said.","highlights":"NEW: Consumers Union says filing shows need for stronger FDA .\nNEW: Move will shield company from liability lawsuits, group says .\nBacteria in company plant in Georgia blamed for hundreds of salmonella cases .\nProducts from company plant in Texas recalled after dead rodents found .","id":"d0dce59a1d23a82ba51e597e09f1bdfdc95ea846"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Ever wonder how actresses like Sienna Miller look stunning 24\/7? Good genes, sure. But they also get a little help from their friends . Sienna Miller and favorite hairstylist Adir Abergel: \"If I worried what people thought about my look, I'd get it all wrong.\" Sienna Miller and hairstylist Adir Abergel . Try to talk coifs with Sienna Miller and she'll cut you off at the pass. \"I don't even own a hairbrush!\" she insists. \"I'm really not too attached to my hair.\" No kidding. She gamely lopped off about 10 inches to play Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl. But the actress is much less keen to part with her hairstylist Adir Abergel, for whom she has been known to cook dinner at her London home. \"Adir gets me,\" says Miller. \"He knows I never like to look too done or polished.\" Her biggest challenge? \"I've got quite a lot of hair, but I like it flat, so Adir squashes it down for me.\" To create Miller's ideal look, Abergel flatirons her roots and combats bulkiness with Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fekkai Coiff Finishing cream. \"Sienna feels most like herself when her hair is soft and airy versus set and stylized,\" he says. Still, it takes effort to appear this artfully undone. It may seem like she rolls out of bed looking glamorous, but Miller says it is not that easy: \"I'm very much involved in how I want to look.\" Eve and makeup artist JJ Jacobucci . She dyed her hair platinum as a Philadelphia teenager, rose to fame as a hip-hop biker chick, and cavorted with a tiger -- and later Gwen Stefani -- on MTV. It seems like Eve was born edgy. But until recently the rapper-singer-actress clung religiously to her signature look of cat eyes, dewy skin and pale pink lips, aided by the habitual application of MAC Lipglass in Malibu Barbie (she's also a company spokeswoman). It was on the L.A. set of Eve's candy-colored video for \"Tambourine\" (the hit single off her fall album Here I Am) that makeup artist JJ Jacobucci motivated the star to test a new image. \"JJ recently said to me, 'Thank you for letting me experiment,'\" says Eve, referring to a Cyndi Lauper--inspired look that involved electric-blue eye shadow. \"I have definitely opened up a lot more.\" Says Jacobucci: \"We were so used to seeing her in nude lips, bronze skin and comfortable colors. I push Eve to get out of that box.\" The star has lately sported hot-pink lips, chartreuse highlighter on her browbones, and blue mascara with newfound confidence. \"At first Eve was like, 'Oh my god,'\" says Jacobucci of such intense shades. \"I was like, 'Listen, trust me. I'm going to make you look gorgeous.'\" Kate Bosworth and hairstylist Renato Campora . During the last three years, hairstylist Renato Campora has seen all shades of actress Kate Bosworth. \"When I met her, she had beachy [sandy] highlights,\" says Campora, who brightened up Bosworth's Blue Crush--era color so she looked \"more movie star, like a young Marlene Dietrich.\" Campora's platinum touch sent his number straight to Bosworth's speed dial. \"It's a little secret,\" she says of his closet coloring abilities (he's known primarily as a haircutter). \"I call him months in advance!\" Naturally, she also uses him as her stylist -- it was Campora who gave her the sleek bob that solidified her status as a hair icon last year. \"She was the first one to have it,\" he says. \"And then everybody did the bob. She was the inspiration.\" For someone whose biggest struggle is building volume (Bosworth has \"baby angel hair,\" says Campora) the bob was perfect; her hair looked thicker, and it practically styled itself. \"I could jump out of the shower, give it a tousle and leave,\" says Bosworth. Her next experiment? \"I want to be a redhead -- a deep, Karen Elson redhead. Just to go there once.\" Hilary Duff and makeup artist Rachel Goodwin . When Hilary Duff first settled into Rachel Goodwin's makeup chair in 2004, she felt like she had found a soul mate. \"It was really instant,\" says Duff, who fell head over heels for the Chanel artist's ability to create high cheekbones, luxe lashes and pale lips. But never mind the makeovers for movie premi\u00e8res and music videos for her latest album, Dignity; for Goodwin, the real test was meeting Duff's family. \"My mom [Susan] did makeup for Neiman Marcus, so she knows what looks good and what doesn't,\" says Duff. Luckily, Goodwin wowed the 'rents. \"That's when I knew it was OK -- when Susan was like, 'This is good work,'\" laughs Goodwin, who now pushes the boundaries with blue shadows and white eyeliner. \"I have really big eyes,\" says Duff, \"and for the longest time I would use black eyeliner to make them look smaller. Rachel actually made them look bigger by lining them with white. I love how she makes me see myself differently.\" Now when the two get together, they share more than makeup tricks. \"We see each other a couple of times a week for hours,\" says Duff. \"We talk about boys, life and work. We know each other so well. It's like a big therapy session every time.\" Rachel Weisz and hairstylist Mark Townsend . She may be an Oscar winner, but Rachel Weisz has little in common with her gilded statuette. \"In real life I'm very unpolished,\" says the mother of 17-month-old Henry. \"Dressing for the red carpet is fantasy time, but in my day-to-day life, I'm very grungy.\" This low-maintenance attitude has served her hair well. \"It's in great shape,\" says Matrix hairstylist Mark Townsend. \"Rachel's hair matches her personality: It's not overdone, not super-fussed-over. And she's incredibly approachable and sweet.\" Fearless too: In 2005 the British actress sheared her locks to a half inch to play a dying woman in The Fountain. While growing out her hair, she often donned extensions. But a year later, when Townsend suggested she wear a thicket of curly, waist-length tresses to the Oscars, the eight-months-pregnant star didn't feel so brave. \"Are you sure we need this much hair?\" Weisz asked. But Townsend soldiered on, confident in his vision. \"I wanted fullness in the back to balance out her silhouette,\" he says of the baby bump\/hair bump symmetry. The romantic updo proved lucky -- and prophetic. \"Now I'm growing my hair out,\" she says. \"I've come to like it really long and unruly.\" E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Stars get attached to hairstylists, makeup artists they trust .\nRachel Weisz: \"In real life I'm very unpolished\"\nHilary Duff: Sitting in Rachel Goodwin's makeup chair is like therapy .\nHairstylist Renato Campora gave Kate Bosworth her sleek bob .","id":"80a6f5df747cb8426858cca96f62b2c7b9f84f9c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Edwin van der Sar claimed the all-time British record for minutes without conceding a goal during Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Ham on Sunday. Triumphant: Edwin van der Sar holds the British goalkeeping record for most time without conceding. The Dutch veteran also took the 30-year-old English record from Steve Death last week. Death's name, with all due respect to the former Reading custodian, is not up there with the game's greats. So who is in Van der Sar's league as football's finest shot-stoppers, the men who rarely get the credit but often cop the flak? Here, Football Fanzone presents a run down of the best goalkeepers in history. Read through our picks and tell us if you disagree or if we've missed anyone in the Sound Off box below. What do you think of van der Sar's inclusion? Lev Yashin (USSR) Yahsin is the only goalkeeper ever to be named European Footballer of the Year, in 1963. Dubbed the Black Spider for his all-black outfit and what seemed like eight limbs, the Russian even invented the concept of the keeper as sweeper. In the days when keepers were not protected by referees as they are today, Yashin's bravery and acrobatics were legendary and 207 clean sheets and 150 penalties saves he made in a 22-year career tell their own story. The best keeper at each World Cup is presented with the Yashin Award. Dino Zoff (Italy) Zoff is one of just two goalkeepers to lift the World Cup having captained Italy to their third crown in 1982. He was already 40 then, making him the oldest World Cup-winning captain too. But the unflappable Zoff's achievements don't end there: he holds the record for the longest playing time without conceding in international tournaments (1,142 minutes) set between 1972 and 1974. And with 112 caps, he ranks third in the Azzurri's all-time list. A true great. Gordon Banks (England) \"What a save,\" so the commentary runs to the finest piece of goalkeeping ever and one of football's most memorable moments. Pele was certain he'd scored after meeting Jairzinho's center, heading powerfully down into the left-hand corner of the net in Brazil's 1-0 1970 World Cup group win over England. But somehow Banks scrambled across, miraculously diving to push the ball up over the bar. Banks might have been immortalized by that stop, but his absence through illness from England's subsequent quarter-final against West Germany was perhaps more telling when his replacement Peter Bonetti was made a scapegoat for the defending champions' defeat. Peter Schmeichel (Denmark) Schmeichel will go down as Sir Alex Ferguson's best signing for Manchester United, certainly pound-for-pound. Bought for just $750,000 in 1991, the imposing Schmeichel would provide United everything a world-class goalkeeper requires -- including the ability to launch a swift counter-attack. He won Euro 92 with Denmark and the Treble with United in 1999, while 13 career goals are not to be sniffed at either. He played on a season too long, maybe, but on his day there were few better. Edwin van der Sar (Holland) At 38, the rangy Van der Sar is in the very twilight of his career -- but what a career it's been. The man from Voorhout holds the record number of caps for Holland, he's won the Champions League twice and is on course to win a third Premier League title in a row with Manchester United this season. All of which makes you wonder how come he spent so long at Fulham? United fans would love to have had Van der Sar way before 2005; he has proved to be the definitive Schmeichel replacement. Iker Casillas (Spain) It's easy to take Casillas' brilliance for granted, but stand back and look at his career and it's clear he's already one of the greats. Real Madrid have always been able to lure the best, yet they've had the agile Casillas as their number-one No.1 since 1999 -- when he was still a teenager. Still only 27, Casillas is contracted to the club until 2017. He's already won two Champions Leagues and four La Liga titles. At international level he came into his own during 2008 by captaining Spain to the European Championship, becoming the first goalkeeper to do so. Ricardo Zamora's legacy is safe hands. Pat Jennings (Northern Ireland) Jennings was a late starter in the position and famously had no official coaching. His international career spanned a record-breaking six World Cups (including qualifying campaigns) across 22 years. By the time he came out of retirement to play for Northern Ireland at Mexico 1986, Jennings was 41 and ended the tournament with 119 caps. He played more than 1,000 games, including crossing the bitter north London divide by playing for Tottenham and Arsenal. The unflappable Jennings' enormous hands were his trademark and the curse of many an attacker. Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) Buffon vies with Casillas and the Czech Republic's Petr Cech to be considered the best goalkeeper around at the moment, but in a country with a long tradition of high-quality No.1s Buffon is up there with the very best. Winning the 2006 Yashin Award was the perfect riposte to his critics after Juventus' dramatic fall from grace owing to match-fixing. Buffon, an imposing figure with no obvious weaknesses, stayed loyal to the Old Lady, who made him the world's most expensive goalkeeper in 2001 when they paid Parma $46.2m for him. He's been worth every cent. Jose Luis Chilavert (Paraguay) If there's one thing a goalkeeper is not expected to do -- other than to make a mistake -- it's score a goal. Given Chilavert netted no fewer than 62 times in his career, including eight for his country, it seems only fair he should be included on this list. Brazil's Rogerio Ceni may have outscored him and Rene Higuita of Colombia might have out-done him on the chutzpah front, but Chilavert's pioneering free-kicks and penalties have made him a legend. Mohamed Al-Deayea (Saudi Arabia) Goalkeepers are known for their longevity and ability to perform into their 40s. That makes Al-Deayea a relative youngster at just 36, but the Saudi Arabian holds the world record for the most number of international appearances. Over a 16-year career for the Middle Eastern country, Al-Deayea racked up a scarcely believable 181 caps.. Having started his career playing handball, Al-Deayea went on to play in three World Cups -- and was even on the receiving end of an 8-0 thumping by eventual finalists Germany at the 2002 tournament. Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico) This one is from the left-field and a little premature for a list containing the best goalkeepers of all time. But much is expected of Ochoa, Mexico's up-and-coming talent. He's already been linked with a move to Manchester United and he is on the radar of a number of Europe's top clubs. Reliant on his amazing reflexes, Ochoa is one of the best shot-stoppers out there and great at on-the-spot improvised saves. Ochoa's already established in the Mexico set-up and is already such a big star already that the American release of the FIFA 09 video game featured him on the front cover. Definitely one to watch.","highlights":"Edwin van der Sar claims British record for minutes without conceding a goal .\nCNN picks 11 of the top goalkeepers of all time .\nShare your thoughts on who should in and who should be out .","id":"7fa94958a480769cad0649a787cc59948c74df43"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has designated a Kurdish militant group in Turkey as a terrorist organization, the State Department said. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, left, speaks to reporters with President Bush earlier this week in Washington. The group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, known as TAK, is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK -- the separatist Kurdish group that has been attacking Turkey from inside northern Iraq. Turkey has responded to the attacks by bombing PKK targets in the predominantly Kurdish area of northern Iraq. The United States, the European Union and Turkey regard the group as a terrorist organization. The United States says TAK is \"responsible for multiple terrorist attacks in Turkey, which targeted tourist locations, military sites, and government buildings, resulting in several deaths.\" The classification of the group as a \"Specially Designated Global Terrorist\" subjects the organization and its supporters to financial sanctions. \"With this designation, the United States reaffirms its commitment to fight terrorism in cooperation with its NATO ally, Turkey. The United States will continue to work with Turkey, Iraq, and the rest of Europe against the PKK and its support networks and affiliates, such as the TAK. There must be no safe havens for such terrorists,\" according to a statement from Tom Casey, deputy spokesman of the State Department. The move came after President Bush met Tuesday in Washington with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. The men discussed what Bush called their \"common enemy ... the PKK.\" The PKK has spent two decades fighting for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S. puts Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, on list of terrorist groups .\nTAK is affiliated with Kurdish separatist group PKK .\nPKK has been attacking Turkey from inside Iraq .\nMove against TAK comes after Turkish president meets with President Bush .","id":"8027c0d60791c73bf0d800598b8aad8091523f9a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa inflicted the first home series defeat on Australia in almost 16 years as they wrapped up a nine-wicket win over the world's number one ranked Test nation in Melbourne on Tuesday. South African captain Graeme Smith led from the front with 75 as his team wrapped up victory. Captain Graeme Smith hit a fluent 75 as his side successfully passed a modest victory target of 183 on the final day at the MCG to take an unassailable 2-0 lead. It was the South African's first-ever Test series triumph in Australia and victory in the third and final match in Sydney will see them leapfrog the home side at the top of the global rankings. Hashim Amla (30 not out) scored the winning runs shortly after lunch as South Africa became the first team to overcome Australia at home since the West Indies in 1992-93. South Africa were never under any pressure in their run chase and did not lose a wicket until just before lunch when the inspirational Smith was trapped leg before wicket by Nathan Hauritz. Smith had dominated a 121-run opening stand with Neil McKenzie, hitting 10 boundaries. McKenzie struggled to a half century and survived strong lbw shouts from Brett Lee, who was bowling despite an injured foot that will keep him out of the Sydney Test. South Africa's victory was set up by a brilliant maiden Test century from JP Duminy, who shared a stunning 180-run ninth wicket partnership with pace bowler Dale Steyn. It gave the tourists a priceless 65-run lead on first innings before man of the match Steyn worked his magic with the ball as Australia were bowled out on the fourth day for 247 in their second innings. The pugnacious Smith was virtually lost for words in his victory speech. \"It has been such a special moment for all of us, it has been an incredible team effort,\" he said. \"I have been smiling non-stop since we hit the winning runs. \"To be 2-0 up after this game was something we only dreamt of.\" South Africa won the first Test in Perth from an unlikely position, chasing 414 for victory for the loss of only four wickets.","highlights":"South Africa beat Australia by nine wickets in second Test in Melbourne .\nVictory gives the South Africans an unassailable 2-0 lead in their series .\nSouth Africa won first Test of the series in Perth by six wickets .","id":"f155e440ae4f77514f9ba24dfb2a4360fa3c0653"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A leader of the Sons of Iraq anti-al Qaeda group was killed Saturday when a bomb attached to his vehicle exploded, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. U.S. soldiers arrive on the scene of a suicide bombing Saturday in Kirkuk, Iraq. Two civilians were wounded in the explosion in southern Baghdad's Dora district, the official said. The Sons of Iraq, or Awakening Councils, are mainly composed of former Sunni insurgents who turned against al Qaeda in Iraq. They are considered a major factor in the reduction of violence in Iraq over the past two years and are frequently targeted by al Qaeda. In other violence across Iraq on Saturday: . \u2022 At least 19 people were wounded in a bombing at a coffee shop in Baquba, a security official in Diyala province said. The coffee shop is frequented by U.S.-backed anti-al Qaeda fighters. The explosion wounded 17 group members and two civilians, the official said. Baquba is about 35 miles north of Baghdad. \u2022 At least seven people, including three Iraqi Army soldiers, were wounded when a roadside bomb struck an army patrol in northern Baghdad's Qahaira neighborhood, the Interior Ministry official said. \u2022 At least one police officer was killed and nine people -- seven police and two civilians -- were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest near a police academy in Kirkuk, according to a police official. Kirkuk is located in oil-rich northern Iraq, about 150 miles north of Baghdad. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bomb attached to vehicle kills a leader of Sons of Iraq .\nCoffee shop frequented by al Qaeda in Iraq foes also bombed; 19 wounded .\nRoadside bomb aimed at Iraqi army patrol wounds at least seven .\nKirkuk suicide bomber kills police officer, wounds nine people .","id":"c26dba391aea18166902e590edff05db2580ee27"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Eight men plotted to use bombs disguised in drinks containers to blow up planes heading towards the United States in mid-flight in the name of Islam, a British court heard Tuesday. The eight men deny conspiracy to murder by plotting to blow up transatlantic aircraft. Prosecutors told London's Woolwich Crown Court the men planned to make the explosives from household objects to resemble drinks bottles, batteries and other items to be carried onto aircraft in hand luggage, the UK's Press Association reported. The foiling of the alleged plot in August 2006 triggered the imposition of strict new security measures at international airports around the world, restricting the quantity of liquids passengers can carry on to aircraft. The measures, which led to massive delays and scores of canceled flights when they were imposed overnight, remain in place at many airports. Prosecutor Peter Wright described two of the men, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 28, as ringleaders of an Islamic fundamentalist conspiracy, according to PA. \"It was an interest that involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an unwitting civilian population all in the name of Islam,\" he said. \"These men were indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue if their plans were successful. To them the identities of their victims was an irrelevance by race, color, religion or creed. \"What these men intended to bring about together and with others was a violent and deadly statement of intent that would have a truly global impact.\" Wright said the bombs were to be carried onto flights to the United States by suicide bombers as part of a plot hatched in Britain and Pakistan, according to PA. He said a computer memory stick seized at the time of the defendants' arrests listed details of flights operated by three carriers -- American Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada -- between August and October 2006. \"If each of these flights were successfully blown up the potential for loss of life was considerable,\" Wright said. Ali, Sarwar and six others including Tanvir Hussain, 27, Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, Waheed Zaman, 24, Umar Islam, 30, and Donald Stewart-Whyte, 22, deny conspiracy to murder. The trial is expected to last 10 months.","highlights":"Prosecutors say the men planned to make bombs out of household items .\nEight accused of being involved in an Islamic fundamentalist plot .\nAmerican Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada were alleged intended targets .","id":"92de15f2a0ee9f92adcd9841b0aaf7a12dfa24ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot of a tanker that crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, causing a major oil spill, was under the influence of multiple prescription medications that impaired his judgment, federal officials said in a report Wednesday. The November 2007 crash left a gash in the tanker's side and led to an oil spill that killed more than 2,000 birds. The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of the Hong Kong-registered Cosco Busan, was \"medically unfit\" on November 7, 2007. That, and a master pilot's poor oversight of his performance, were major factors in the crash that dumped 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay, the NTSB said. \"How a man who was taking a half-dozen impairing prescription medications got to stand on the bridge of a 68,000-ton ship and give directions to guide the vessel through a foggy bay and under a busy highway bridge is very troubling,\" said acting NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker. The pilot, John Cota, was charged with criminal negligence in federal court last year. He faces two misdemeanor charges that could result in up to 18 months in prison and $115,000 in fines. The 901-foot ship left Oakland, California, en route to South Korea when Cota gave orders that steered the ship directly toward a support tower on the bridge. While the ship avoided a direct hit, it hit a support system at the tower's base, cutting a 212-foot gash in the ship's side, the NTSB said. The board ruled that Cota and Chinese master pilot Mao Cai Sun never thoroughly discussed a plan before they took off on a foggy night when visibility was less than a quarter-mile. The oil spill killed about 2,500 birds of 50 different species, according to the report. The crash caused more than $70 million in environmental cleanup costs, $2 million in damage to the ship and $1.5 million in damage to the bridge. The report also blamed the ship's operator, Fleet Management Ltd., for not properly training crew members and the U.S. Coast Guard for not providing adequate medical oversight of the pilot. It said the Coast Guard should have revoked the pilot's license, the pilot should have given a meaningful pre-departure briefing about plans for the voyage and the master pilot should have taken a more active role in ensuring the ship's safety. \"There was a lack of competence in so many areas that this accident seemed almost inevitable,\" Rosenker said.","highlights":"Pilot of tanker that struck San Francisco Bay Bridge \"medically unfit,\" NTSB says .\nMan was taking \"a half-dozen impairing prescription medications,\" report says .\nCrash in 2007 caused oil spill that killed about 2,500 birds, NTSB says .\nSupervisor's poor oversight also cited as factor in NTSB report .","id":"efd07f5b0d2fbb210968d714d2117347e2d7d440"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rwandan troops have crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo to prepare for a joint operation with Congolese forces against a Hutu militia, the United Nations said. At least 800,000 people are thought to have died during 100 days of violence in Rwanda in 1994. \"We can tell you there are Rwandan soldiers here, but I cannot confirm the numbers,\" said Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwandans will team up \"with the Congolese forces,\" he said Wednesday. \"The Rwandan forces are in a meeting with Congolese forces and the understanding is that in the meeting they are preparing a joint operation against the FDLR,\" or the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda. The Rwanda News Agency reported that Rwanda has dispatched 1,917 soldiers. Rwanda and Congo traditionally have been on different sides of the conflict in eastern Congo. The struggle pits ethnic Tutsis, supported by Rwanda, against ethnic Hutu, backed by Congo. The conflict is effectively an extension of the Rwandan genocide dating back to the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed in ethnic battles between minority Tutsi and majority Hutu. According to a statement issued last week by the Rwandan government, the joint military operation is aimed at driving out the FDLR and former members of the Interhamwe militia, \"remnants of those who spearheaded the 1994 genocide against Tutsis.\" Michael Arunga, a Kenya-based spokesman for the World Vision aid organization, said his colleagues in Goma -- a city in eastern Congo -- told him that Rwandan troops arrived Tuesday morning in the village of Ishsha, outside of Goma. Arunga said he had no knowledge of Rwandan troops being in Congo before. A U.N. statement said the FDLR has been involved in clashes since late August mainly in North Kivu, \"where the national army, the mainly Tutsi militia -- known as the CNDP -- and other rebel groups ... have fought in shifting alliances, uprooting around 250,000 civilians on top of the 800,000 already displaced by violence in recent years.\" See photos from Mia Farrow's trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo \u00bb . A report by a U.N. Security Council panel last month said Rwanda and Congo were fighting a brutal proxy war for territory and precious natural resources in eastern Congo, and all parties involved in the conflict were using execution, rape and child soldiers as tools of war. The report, filed by a panel of U.N. experts, \"found evidence that Rwandan authorities have sent officers and units of the Rwanda Defense Forces\" into Congo in support of Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's fighters. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rwanda has dispatched some 1,900 soldiers, Rwanda News Agency reports .\nThe neighbors have traditionally been on different sides of the conflict in east Congo .\nThe struggle pits Tutsis, supported by Rwanda, against the Congo-backed Hutu .\nThe conflict is effectively an extension of the Rwandan genocide .","id":"46bed153c1ba79ff212ca7108c9a71e20ea190ec"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Twenty-seven million new cancer cases are expected by 2030, according to a report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization's cancer research agency. Rates for breast cancer, shown here under a microscope, have tripled in some Asian countries. That compares to 12 million new cases in 2007, the report found. The group forecast a 1 percent increase globally each year, with emerging economies such as China, Russia and India being hit the hardest. The major culprit: tobacco. \"About 1.3 billion people smoke globally, making tobacco the major avoidable cause of death and disease worldwide,\" the report found. Experts say less developed countries are especially vulnerable, predicting a 38 percent increase in those regions by 2030. Watch more on the report \u00bb . Tobacco killed 100 million people in the world last century and will kill a billion in the 21st century, unless changes are made, said John R. Seffrin, chief executive officer at the American Cancer Society, Tuesday. Besides smoking, other causes for the rise in the disease include high-fat diets including fast food and decreased physical activity, reflective of increasingly western lifestyles, the report found. In addition, the rate of breast cancer has doubled or tripled in countries like Japan, Singapore and Korea, according to the report. In Africa, 518,000 people have died from cancer since the start of 2008 -- cervical cancer being the leading cancer killer among women, the report found. But there is good news for some Western nations. Cancer mortality rates are falling in Great Britain and the United States, said Seffrin. Effective cancer treatment in developing countries, experts say, depends on prevention and more data. \"Awareness of the global cancer burden pandemic and its causes will help establish and enforce policies, resources and programs to control cancer and tobacco, and to de-stigmatize cancer,\" according to the WHO report. CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Report: 38 percent increase in cancer in developing countries by 2030 .\nEmerging economies such as China, Russia and India will be hit hardest .\nSmoking, high-fat diets, decreased physical activity are cited causes .","id":"045bc6fcee7b435fad7136430788add2b0809301"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A jury in Canton, Ohio, found former police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, Jessie Marie Davis, and their unborn child. Grasping tissues and moaning, Bobby Cutts Jr. testitfied he never meant to hurt girlfriend Jessie Davis. The jury of six men and six women reached the verdict after more than 21 hours of deliberations. Jurors found Cutts guilty of aggravated murder for the unlawful termination of Davis' pregnancy and the aggravated murder of a child under the age of 13. But the jury found him guilty of a lesser murder count in the death of Davis. Davis was nine months pregnant when she disappeared. She had chosen the name Chloe for her daughter. Jurors found that baby Chloe was killed during the commission of another crime, making Cutts eligible for the death penalty. The penalty phase of the trial is set to begin February 25. Cutts will face a sentence of either 25 years to life with the possibility of parole, 30 years to life with the possibility of parole, life without parole or death. As the verdicts were read, Cutts remained stoic, a stark contrast to his tearful testimony on Monday. Watch the verdicts \u00bb . His and Davis' families left the courthouse without comment. Jurors began deliberations late Tuesday afternoon. They had been sequestered, spending nights at a nearby hotel, cut off from exposure to the media and other potential influences. According to testimony, Cutts, 30, rolled Davis' body in a comforter and dumped it in a park, leaving their 2\u00bd-year-old son, Blake, alone. Cutts also was found guilty of aggravated burglary, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse and endangering a child, Blake. Cutts sobbed on the witness stand as he admitted killing Davis and their unborn child. But Cutts insisted that their deaths were an accident. \"I didn't mean to hurt her,\" Cutts testified, clasping a handful of tissues. \"This isn't real,\" he said he kept telling himself. Prosecutors discounted Cutts' story, claiming he buckled under the financial pressure of child support, killed the mother of his child and then created a cover story to try to get away with it. On the stand, Cutts said he went to pick up his son Blake and became agitated when Davis, 26, wasn't moving fast enough to get the boy ready. He said he tried to leave her house but she grabbed him to keep him from leaving, and he accidentally elbowed her in the throat. Cutts told the jury he performed CPR on Davis and then tried to revive her with bleach. When he realized Davis was dead, Cutts said he panicked and put her in the back of his truck, so Blake wouldn't have to see his mother. Myisha Ferrell, Cutts' longtime friend, testified for the prosecution that Cutts appeared at her home at 6 a.m. after Davis died. She said she could tell he was distraught. When they left her home in his truck, she found out why. \"We drove off and he said something was wrong,\" she said. \"He said, 'Something bad.' \" \"He said something was wrong with his baby's mother.\" Ferrell told the jury Cutts started speaking erratically as they drove, then blurted out, \"She's in the back.\" Ferrell admitted she helped dump Davis' body in a field and said Cutts later coached her on what to say to police. Ferrell was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to authorities and complicity to gross abuse of a corpse. During closing arguments, prosecutor Dennis Barr said Cutts strangled and killed Davis and her unborn child because of his mounting debt and child support for what would have been his fourth child. Cutts' own actions following Davis' disappearance were a clear indications of his guilt, he said. \"His reaction is the reaction of person who committed a crime and is trying to cover it up,\" Barr said. Davis disappeared in June and the search for her attracted national attention. At that time, Cutts repeatedly denied he had any involvement. But Cutts eventually led police to her body. \"For nine days he kept the location of [Davis' body] a secret and went on about his life, every day knowing that Jessie and Chloe were laying there rotting away, destroying the evidence,\" Barr said. Prosecutors also reminded the jury of the testimony of one of Cutts' friends, Richard Mitchell, who claimed the former police officer threatened to kill Davis one month before she disappeared. \"I'm going to kill that [expletive] and throw her in the woods,\" Mitchell quoted Cutts as saying. In their closings, Cutts' attorneys acknowledged their client's poor judgment after Davis' death, but said the prosecution had not presented any witnesses to support their claim that Cutts was in financial distress. They urged the jury to find Cutts not guilty on the basis that the prosecution did not prove their case that he intentionally killed Davis. Fernando Mack, a defense lawyer, admitted Cutts' judgment lapsed when he wrapped Davis' body up and went to dispose of it, leaving their toddler alone with the bleach-soaked rug. But he cautioned jurors against deciding Cutts' fate based on an emotional response to ugly facts. \"Will it outrage you? Absolutely. But, Blake being left home alone doesn't tell you about aggravated murder.\" \"You don't know what happened in that house,\" defense attorney Carolyn Ranke said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Bobby Cutts Jr. guilty of murders of Jessie Davis, unborn child .\nNEW: Cutts faces the death penalty in death of baby Chloe .\nJury deliberated for nearly 22 hours in murder trial of former police officer .\n\"I didn't mean to hurt her,\" Bobby Cutts Jr. testified .","id":"2d115e202c7b1ea797daab342d7f5945bed2487f"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli military says it has found a \"sketch\" detailing \"the deployment of explosives and Hamas forces\" in the Al-Attara neighborhood in northern Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces says this map from Hamas shows positions of booby traps and snipers in Al-Attara. The Israel Defense Forces issued a news release Friday saying paratroopers found a map that \"describes the location of explosive devices and firing positions in the middle of the civilian population in the dense neighborhood, which endanger the life of the civilians.\" \"That's what Hamas has been doing throughout the entirety of the operation -- perversely using civilians as human shields,\" said Brig. Gen. Yuval Halmish, officer-in-chief of Israel's Intelligence Corps. The IDF said the map depicts sniper positions at a mosque entrance and in nearby mosques. It shows \"the directions the snipers are aiming,\" the IDF said. The map \"indicates that explosives are planted in the entrances of civilian homes.\" There are bombs planted throughout the area, including one next to a gas station. \"The important point is the disregard for human life in using entrances to civilian homes,\" Halmish said. \"They booby-trapped the entrances of civilian houses with explosives put close to them,\" he said. \"The objective is of course to hit our forces, but a local explosion also damages the houses of the civilians and causes great damage, and likely killing civilians,\" he said.","highlights":"Israeli military says Hamas map shows location of explosives .\nMap pinpoints locations in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, IDF says .\nHamas using civilians as \"human shields,\" Israeli intelligence officer says .\nMap also shows sniper positions at mosque entrance, in nearby mosques, IDF says .","id":"8add33e4e12842214dfd6e4f77871ad33fc55133"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Undisturbed tropical forests are absorbing nearly one-fifth of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels, a new study has found. Trees in undisturbed tropical forests are soaking up more CO2 than people realized. The scientific report published in \"Nature\" magazine suggests that the world's remaining tropical forests remove 4.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year. This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, which annually absorbs 1.2 billion tons of CO2. The study was based on taken data on African tropical forests from the past 40 years and has shown that for at least the past few decades each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon per year. The scientists then analyzed the new African data together with South American and Asian findings to assess the total sink in tropical forests. Analysis of these 250,000 tree records reveals that, on average, remaining undisturbed forests are trapping carbon, showing that they are a globally significant carbon sink. \"We are receiving a free subsidy from nature,\" said Dr. Simon Lewis from the University of Leeds, and the lead author of the paper, in a press statement. \"Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18 percent of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change.\" The study also found that trees of comparable age are gaining girth, though the reasons are unclear. For example, a 20-year-old tree is on average bigger than a 20-year-old tree measured a decade ago. A leading suspect is the extra CO2 in the atmosphere, which may act as a fertilizer.. However, Lewis warns, \"Whatever the cause, we cannot rely on this sink forever. Even if we preserve all remaining tropical forest, these trees will not continue getting bigger indefinitely.\" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that each year human activity emits 32 billion tons of CO2, but only 15 billion tons actually remain in the atmosphere adding to climate change. The new research suggests just where some of the \"missing\" 17 billion tons per year is going. \"It's well known that about half of the 'missing' carbon is being dissolved in to the oceans, and that the other half is going somewhere on land in vegetation and soils, but we were not sure precisely where. According to our study about half the total carbon 'land sink' is in tropical forest trees,\" Lewis said. The protection of tropical forests is likely to become a key theme at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in November in Copenhagen, Denmark. Co-author on the study, Dr. Lee White, Gabon's chief climate change scientist said, \"To get an idea of the value of the sink, the removal of nearly 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by intact tropical forests, based on realistic prices for a ton of carbon, should be valued at around \u00a313 billion ($18.5 billion) per year. This is a compelling argument for conserving tropical forests.\" Dr. Lewis added, \"Predominantly rich polluting countries should be transferring substantial resources to countries with tropical forests to reduce deforestation rates and promote alternative development pathways.\"","highlights":"Nearly 5 billion tonnes of carbon absorbed by undisturbed tropical forests .\nStudy found that trees in forests are getting bigger .\nNew carbon sink discovered in Africa that mops up 1.2 billion tons of CO2 .\nIPCC says each year humans emit 32 billions tons of CO2 .","id":"1800b380ee003a610439e6a51a3386b2e0b3186c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- All 18 people aboard a helicopter that crashed off the coast of Scotland have been recovered alive, a Royal Air Force officer told CNN. A Super Puma helicopter, similar to the one in this file photo, went down about 120 miles east of Aberdeen. The Super Puma ditched about 120 miles east of Aberdeen while approaching an offshore platform. \"Everyone has been recovered from the water,\" said James Lyon, assistant controller of the RAF's aeronautical rescue coordination center at RAF Kinloss, Scotland. \"We don't know their condition, but we believe there are no major injuries.\" Five helicopters were scrambled when the Super Puma helicopter ditched. \"Some were recovered by helicopter and some by boat from the platform,\" Lyon told CNN. The RAF was providing helicopter assistance to the Aberdeen Coast Guard in the rescue. Lyon said earlier that rescuers had been picking up emergency signal beacons from the lifejackets of the 18 people. He did not know if the pilot transmitted a mayday before the aircraft ditched. View a map of the crash site \u00bb . \"We believe it was quite close to the platform it was supposed to be landing on,\" he added. The area is home to a number of offshore oil rigs. Lyon said he did not know which one the helicopter was heading to or where it was coming from. The RAF received its first report of the crash at 6:43 p.m. (1:43 p.m. Eastern time). Lyon said the Super Puma is regularly used to transport people to and from oil platforms in the North Sea and as far as he was aware it has a good safety record. Weather at the crash site is relatively good, though slight fog is hampering visibility, he said. A spokesman for BP told the UK's Press Association: \"The 16 passengers and two crew who were on board have been accounted for and have been rescued. Three people are on the ETAP Platform and a further 15 are on the Caledonian Victory rescue vessel. \"The priority of the company is the safety of all personnel involved in this incident and we have implemented our full emergency response procedures.\"","highlights":"Royal Air Force says civilian helicopter carrying 18 people ditches in North Sea .\nRAF officer says all rescued alive, no immediate details of any injuries .\nRescue aircraft on the scene, more in the area off Scotland .","id":"7e151fdc3154f53dbdc846c8296350e8bc5ce1fa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Japan is grappling with its worst economic crisis since the end of World War II, the nation's economic and fiscal policy minister said Monday. A businessman walks past a homeless man taking a nap at a Tokyo park. The comments from Kaoru Yosano followed news of Japan's gross domestic product falling 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter in 2008. \"This is the worst economic crisis in the post-war era,\" Yosano said at a press conference, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency. The global economic crisis has pummeled Japan, which depends largely on its auto and electronics exports. The slump in exports has led to tens of thousands of layoffs across Japan. \"Behind [the contraction in GDP for] the October-December quarter is a terrific downturn in exports,\" he said, according to Kyodo. \"Like other major countries, our country cannot avoid the pains of structural change,\" Yosano said. To stimulate the economy, the Japanese parliament needs to act quickly on key budget measures, he said, referring to bills related to a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008 and early passage of the state budget for fiscal 2009. Asked about Japan possibly producing a new economic stimulus plan in the short term, Yosano said wide-ranging discussions would be needed first. \"After seeing this level [of GDP], it is our duty to think of various policy options,\" he added.","highlights":"Economic and fiscal policy minister says worst economic crisis since end of WWII .\nJapan's gross domestic product fell 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter in 2008 .\nA slump in exports has led to tens of thousands of layoffs across Japan .","id":"b7a0bb1157ab0088f77bd0cef793faf421425a3f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger III was \"the right guy at the right time at the right moment\" to guide a jet safely onto the surface of the Hudson River, a neighbor and friend said. Chesley Sullenberger is an Air Force veteran who has been with US Airways since 1980. Sullenberger has a cool, calm and collected style -- honed by decades of flight experience and research on safety issues, friend and neighbor John Walberg told the Contra Costa Times newspaper. All 155 passengers and crew aboard Flight 1549 survived. The 57-year-old former Air Force fighter pilot has been flying for more than 40 years, and has been with US Airways since 1980. His two-page resume is packed with achievements and highlights his broad aviation experience. The pilot speaks internationally on airline safety, and collaborates with the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California-Berkeley, whose researchers look for ways to avoid air disasters. Watch a pilot applaud Sullenberger's skills \u00bb . Passenger Joe Hart praised the plane's crew as \"phenomenal, in all respects.\" \"Once the pilot said 'brace for impact,' the flight attendants made sure everybody knew they had to be buckled in and bent over,\" Hart said. \"Then they sat in their chairs, strapped themselves in, and in a regular cadence, until we hit the water, they just continued to chant 'brace, brace, brace' so that nobody would sit up. And that, I think, helped prevent a lot of injuries on impact.\" CNN affiliate WKOW in Madison, Wisconsin, identified the co-pilot as Jeffrey Skiles, 49. Barbara Skiles told WKOW that, in conversations since the incident, her husband has praised the rescue effort. \"He was really grateful and really impressed about the response that they got, how quickly boats were at the side of the airplane,\" she said. Sullenberger was primed to help passengers aboard the Airbus A320 survive the crisis, said Karlene Roberts, a university professor who co-directs the center. \"I can imagine him being sufficiently in charge to get those people out,\" she said. \"He's got that kind of personality, which is to his credit.\" Watch how passengers call pilot a hero \u00bb . Sullenberger's resume is packed with achievements. After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1973, he had a brief but distinguished Air Force career during which he flew the Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom fighter jet. He was a flight leader and training officer with experience in Europe and the Pacific and at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, where he was the mission commander for Red Flag exercises. The exercises are for advanced aerial combat training, a position delegated to top pilots. Among those who congratulated Sullenberger was Lt. Gen. John Regni, the Air Force Academy superintendent, who graduated with Sullenberger. \"He not only showcased unbelievable airmanship, but exemplary character as well,\" Regni said. \"In addition to superb judgment under utmost pressure, by checking his aircraft twice to ensure there were no passengers left behind he epitomized the 'service before self' concept we strive to instill in our cadets,\" Regni said. Sullenberger is president and CEO of Safety Reliability Methods Inc., a company he founded. The firm provides emergency management, safety strategies and performance monitoring to the aviation industry. He was an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member, according to a biography on the Web site of his company. He participated in several U.S. Air Force and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations, and worked with NASA scientists on a paper on error and aviation, according to his resume. He was widely praised after Thursday's forced water landing, apparently caused by a \"double bird strike,\" which crippled the plane's engines. \"It was an amazing piece of airmanship,\" said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. Even New York's mayor had praise. \"It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure that everybody got out,\" Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference Thursday. \"I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off and tried to verify that there was nobody else on board -- and assures us there was not.\" Sullenberger's wife, Lorrie, told CNN that his response wasn't surprising. \"This is the Sully I know, she said. \"I always knew this is how he would react. So, to me, this is not something unusual. It's the man I know to be the consummate professional.\" She also told the New York Post on Thursday that her husband \"is about performing that airplane to the exact precision to which it is made.\" \"I've said for a long time that he's a pilot's pilot. He loves the art of the airplane,\" she said standing with the couple's two daughters outside their Danville, California, home on Friday. Watch interview with pilot's wife \u00bb . She said her husband, who hadn't spoken to the media as of noon Friday, was doing well. \"He's feeling better today. He's a pilot. He's very controlled, very professional,\" she said. She divulged to CNN that she was stunned to hear the news from her husband after it was all over. \"I hadn't been watching the news. I've heard Sully say to people, 'It's rare for an airline pilot to have an incident in their career.' \" \"When he called me he said, 'There's been an accident.' At first I thought it was something minor, but then he told me the circumstances and my body started shaking and I rushed to get our daughters out of school.\"","highlights":"Air Force Academy superintendent praises pilot's character .\nChesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger III, 57, is former Air Force fighter pilot .\nSullenberger has 40 years of flight experience .\nSullenberger is frequent speaker on airline safety .","id":"6c9e9ac93c7a80d6bdb3dd6906e217938d50fc75"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- How long did it take you to get a taxi last time you tried? If it was longer than 20 minutes, then chances are you live in the sticks or were calling on a busy Friday or Saturday night. Catching a cab can be easy, whether you're in a big city or a crowded sporting event. But seemingly everyone has had difficulty calling or hailing a cab at some stage, on vacation or a business trip or when stranded in a city center after a night out. So what's the best, and quickest, way to get hold of a cab in New York? Or Los Angeles, California? Or at a major sporting event? We find out. Beware the bandit . Basil Enerieze, a taxi driver in Los Angeles, says in general a passenger's situation dictates the quickest way to get a cab. In downtown LA or in a commercial or tourist area, hailing a cab works best, he says, but calling one is the quickest way in suburban areas. Cabbies, he says, prefer fares that are called from a home or business as it gives the taxi company some information about the customer - their phone number, name and residence - in case the fare turns into trouble. Does this mean that taxis are more likely to respond to a call than being hailed? \"If they're there and need a ride I stop my cab,\" Enerieze says. \"The biggest problem we face is bandit cabs. Never take a bandit cab,\" he says. Enerieze says he's seen unlicensed operators in LA since he got his license 15 years ago, and that while they might in some cases be quicker or more available; the risks of hailing one are too great to justify. He says that licensed cabs will be clearly marked with a city insignia, and tells the tale of when he went to the theater in downtown Los Angeles and saw the long lines for a cab and decided, against his better judgment, to hail one of the many unlicensed cabs outside. On the 10-or-so mile drive to his home, he noticed the meter was running too fast. \"I said, 'I am a cab driver. I know that your meter is running too fast.' He [the driver] said: 'That's the way it is.\" And I paid the fare. [But because] it was an illegitimate taxi, I could not phone anyone to complain.\"AOL Autos: Cheapest family sedans . Bad apples in the big apple . Matthew Daus, the chairman of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, concurs, telling AOL: \"I think the number one, most important thing for anyone seeking taxicab or taxicab-like spontaneous service in New York City to understand is that only yellow, medallion taxicabs are legally empowered to solicit or accept street hails from the public. The driver of any other kind of vehicle that is soliciting passengers or responding to your taxi hail is already doing something illegal.\" AOL Autos: Cheapest luxury cars . He says that in adverse weather conditions or during peak demand hours, customers can be tempted to hop into something that looks like a legitimate limo or black car, but he, too, warns of the risks. \"TLC-licensed drivers are drug-tested and have had a criminal background check, and TLC licensed vehicles are inspected three times annually and carry insurance levels well in excess of the state's minimum requirements.\" AOL Autos: Best car deals this month . \"Taxicabs go where the people are. If you are hailing from the street, hail in the direction you are traveling to save turn-around time for both you and your driver. If you have the time to plan ahead, a call or Web site visit to a local livery service, black car or limousine service can quickly and conveniently arrange guaranteed door-to-door pick-up and drop-off. Look for the TLC diamond sticker inside the right-hand side of the windshield.\"AOL Autos: Best looking 2009 cars . Use your iPhone . Taxi Magic is the latest innovative application to come to your iPhone and allows a user to book a taxi at 25 of the nation's biggest cities - excluding New York - and track the progress of the driver en route, all by pressing the iPhone's touch screen a couple times. Helpfully, while saving you time talking to an operator it also cuts down on the number of calls the operator has to field, speeding up the service for others. The app, which pinpoints your location with GPS and calculates the nearest cab firms, was released by Web site ridecharge.com, which also features online booking and other goodies like taxi expense and receipt tracking and, in partnership with some companies, payment and account options that are always useful on vacation or business trips. AOL Autos: Best 2009 cars for your money . Get seen easier . Late at night sometimes you get the feeling that all the cabs that drive past because cabs haven't seen you, something Stamford, Connecticut. company TaxiLite wants to remedy with its line of pocket-sized bright yellow LED light, which it says can be seen up to three city blocks away. The company says it increases your visibility in crowds and its light can be seen in rain, sleet or snow. In a release last week, TaxiLite President, Howard Lippin, said: \"TaxiLite has been very well received by cab drivers in New York City. Drivers have told me that TaxiLite will be a great help to them, especially in identifying fares at night and in bad weather.\" In the dark and when it's dry, you can also try holding up an iPhone with Exact Magic Software's ingenious flashlight application, which can create a strobe-light effect to catch a driver's attention, and a couple other Apple applications also will let you spell out TAXI in flashing billboard-effect lettering. Sporting events . Larry Meister, manager at the Independent Taxi Operators Association, which represents 350 Boston cabbies, says location is key to quickly getting a cab. He lends no credence to the rumor that patrons carrying luggage tend to get picked up quicker as cabbies know a tip is more likely at Logan International Airport (and usually drivers will go out of their way to earn it by taking the frequently heavy bags from the trunk to the curb). Boston, he says, has hundreds of taxi stands around the city, mostly on main thoroughfares, and he says his organization and others are working to put electronic cab-tracking, wait time and fare calculators in place for a new generation of taxi customers. But how about catching a cab at Boston's famous sporting events, a Red Sox or Celtics game? He chuckled ruefully. \"You're talking about the worst time; you're competing against 20,000 other patrons for cabs at the same time. The cabs are out there on Brookline Avenue trying to serve the public, but it's tough. If you leave before the end of the game you might have a shot at getting a cab quicker.\"","highlights":"A passenger's situation dictates the quickest way to get a cab .\nTaxi Magic, an iPhone app, can help you catch a cab easily .\nTaxis drive past you at night because they can't see you .\nLeave sporting events before the end of the game to get a cab quicker .","id":"60325f1532dfe71a8a079d597c15f3e2e731506b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan's president signed a bill Friday to close an air base that the U.S. military uses as a route for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan, the president announced on his Web site. Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan serves as a U.S. supply route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. The news came as two other central Asian nations -- Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- reportedly agreed to let U.S. cargo pass through their countries on the way to Afghanistan. Such deals, if confirmed, could help fill the void left by the closing of the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz order became effective on Friday when President Kurmanbek Bakiyev reportedly signed legislation that the parliament in Bishkek backed on Thursday, the Pentagon said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry on Friday officially notified the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek that a 180-day withdrawal process is under way. Embassy spokeswoman Michelle Yerkin told CNN the United States hopes to retain the base. Officials in Washington and Bishkek signed a deal three years ago allowing the United States to renew the arrangement annually through July 2011. \"We do remain in contact with the government of Kyrgyzstan,\" Yerkin said. \"The Manas Air Base continues to operate under existing agreements, as per the coalition's efforts in Afghanistan.\" U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday the United States will continue to work with Kyrgyzstan on keeping the base open. Watch why Kyrgyzstan wants to close the base \u00bb . \"I continue to believe that this is not a closed issue and that there remains the potential at least to reopen this issue with the Kyrgyz and perhaps reach a new agreement,\" Gates said at a NATO meeting in Krakow, Poland. \"If we are unable to do that on reasonable terms then, as I have suggested, we are developing alternative methods to get resupply and people into Afghanistan.\" The Manas Air Base outside Bishkek is the only U.S. base in Central Asia and is a major resupply hub for the war in Afghanistan. Its closing could deal a significant blow to the U.S. military effort there, especially following President Barack Obama's announcement of additional troops to halt a resurgence of the country's former Taliban rulers. The United States pays $17.4 million a year to use Manas, a major logistical and refueling center that supports troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said. About 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo reportedly move through Manas monthly, it said. The air base currently employs more than 1,000 servicemen, 95 percent of whom are Americans, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. \"This is an important facility, it has been an important facility, but it's not irreplaceable and, if necessary, we will find other options,\" Whitman said. How far is Manas from Afghanistan? View our map \u00bb . Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two other Central Asian nations that border Afghanistan, have agreed to allow U.S. cargo to be transported to Afghanistan through their countries, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Friday. The agency said Rear Adm. Mark Harnitchek, U.S. transportation command director for strategy, policy, programs and logistics, held a meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Kharokhon Zarifi, after which he said he had also secured Uzbekistan's consent. A Tajik government statement said only that the two sides discussed the issue, but a spokesman for the Tajik foreign ministry told CNN that \"practically all issues\" to allow U.S. cargo transit through the country have been resolved. If confirmed, success would still depend on how much access the United States would have to those countries for flights and cargo, and even then, it may not totally replace the capacity lost in Kyrgyzstan. U.S. General David Petraeus, who oversees the war in Afghanistan, was in Uzbekistan this week for talks on Afghanistan and other regional issues. A Pentagon spokesman told CNN that his discussions included the regional supply network into Afghanistan. The U.S. military leased a base in Uzbekistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But after Uzbek troops were accused of killing at least 150 people during a demonstration in 2005, the autocratic government of President Islam Karimov came under criticism from Washington and severed most of its military ties with the United States.","highlights":"Tajikistan, Uzbekistan may allow U.S. military supplies heading to Afhanistan .\nKyrgyzstan president completes next step towards closure of U.S. base .\nThe U.S. says it's still working with the country to keep the operation open .\nThe Manas base is used to transport key supplies and troops into Afghanistan .","id":"2b8faeb992798b4bd9df316c1c907e9e132e0b0d"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military coalition in Iraq confirmed Tuesday that a business jet -- not a U.S. military aircraft -- was recently forced down in Iran due to an airspace violation. A Falcon business jet is shown in an undated file photo. \"The airplane is now being confirmed as a light transport plane with no Americans onboard,\" Multi-National Forces-Iraq said in a statement issued Tuesday. \"From what we have been seeing, it was a Falcon business jet. We have accounted for all our aircraft and none are missing.\" The U.S. coalition in Iraq had no information on who owned the aircraft, stressing that it was not a registered American plane. Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency initially reported that five American military officials were on board the U.S. aircraft. But other Iranian media reports -- quoting Iranian officials -- said the aircraft was Hungarian and no Americans were on the plane. Iranian officials told Iran's state-run Arabic language channel Al-Alam that the incident happened a week ago and that the plane was carrying humanitarian workers. Fars later changed its Farsi language report, citing other Iranian and Arab media as saying the plane was not an American aircraft . Fars also initially reported that aircraft, which it called a \"Falcon fighter,\" entered Iranian airspace at a low altitude from Turkey to avoid radar detection, despite repeated warnings by the Islamic Republic Air Force. It said the plane also carried three civilians. Washington is monitoring the reports, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said \"as far as we know (they are) totally bogus.\" U.S. National Security Council Spokesman Gordon Johndroe also said there is no indication that the reports are accurate. \"We're looking into the various and conflicting reports coming from the Iranian 'news' agencies, but do not have any information at this time that would lead us to believe they are correct,\" he said. Fars said the aircraft, which was en route to Afghanistan, was forced to land at an Iranian airport that it did not name. Fars reported that the eight people aboard were released \"after daylong interrogations\" that revealed the aircraft had \"unintentionally\" violated Iran's airspace. Fars said the aircraft was later allowed to continue on to Afghanistan. Two top U.S. military officials told CNN's Barbara Starr that no U.S. military aircraft has been forced down. The U.S. military has an F-16 Fighting Falcon, but it is a one-seat jet fighter aircraft that is used by the U.S. Air Force for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. The Dassault Falcon is a European-made private passenger business jet that resembles a Lear jet. It can seat a crew of two and as many as 10 passengers. It's used for passenger transport, but also has military uses. CNN's Saad Abedine in Baghdad, Iraq; Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran, Iran; Caroline Faraj in Dubai; and Mike Mount in Washington contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Iran now says aircraft was forced down a week ago .\nThere were no Americans on board the aircraft, U.S. says .\nIranians say they forced down plane after it violated Iranian airspace .\nIran had claimed aircraft was a U.S. \"Falcon fighter\"","id":"fc9cc9efab7f6588f46b527b3076241a9bcea672"} -{"article":"ARBIL, Iraq (CNN) -- Two United Arab Emirates based companies announced on Tuesday that they will be investing in the Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan. Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, called the project \"a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy.\" Four hundred and sixty one million square feet have been officially assigned to \"Gas Cities LLC,\" a joint venture between Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, both Sharjah-based companies, to establish a new venture: \"Kurdistan Gas City.\" Kurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings in an integrated city. The expected initial investment in basic infrastructure is estimated at $3 billion, with further foreign direct investment exceeding $40 billion during the operations phase. Work will start on the project, which is designed to promote private sector investment in a variety of gas-related industries, on September 21. Gas City is structured to hold over 20 varieties of world scale petrochemical and heavy manufacturing plants, and hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), served by state-of-the-art facilities. Mr Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said: \"Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have made a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy through their work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq thus far, we are making significant progress in spurring on economic growth and creating opportunity for our people.\" Hamid Jafar, Executive Chairman of Dana Gas, explained the importance of this achievement saying: \"The Kurdistan Gas City is an enormous step forward in Dana Gas' strategy across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.\" The Kurdistan Gas City is projected to generate job opportunities for nearly 200,000 Iraqi citizens in infrastructure, industrial projects, support services and other business activities. This is not the first project for Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, the two companies are committed to a service agreement signed in April 2007 with the Kurdistan Regional Government to build 180 kilometers of natural gas pipeline and two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plants, which are 80 percent complete. The project is on track and will start pumping 150 million cubic feet of gas per day in the coming weeks, rising to 300 million cubic feet by early 2009. Other companies from the UAE showed similar interest in Kurdistan Region \"Damac Properties\" one of the major private developers in the regions revealed on June 3 plans for a $16 billion residential, commercial and recreational project.","highlights":"Emirati companies making significant investments in Kurdistan .\nKurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings .\nWork will start on the project on September 21 .","id":"01307bfd9eda40466465b19b4cabe4dc9e936abf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Not only is Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi the first woman to hold a ministerial post in the United Arab Emirates, the first female minister of economy in the Gulf, and the first to start a Middle Eastern BB marketplace, but she's also the first minister - anywhere in the world - to launch her own perfume line. Member of Sharjah royal family and one of Forbes' 100 most powerful women, Sheikha Lubna took the post of minister for economy and planning of United Arab Emirates in 2004. Her background is in IT and before the government appointment worked at the Dubai Ports Authority where she gained the \"Distinguished Government Employee Award\" in 1999 for developing a documentation system that reduced cargo turnaround from one hour to ten minutes. In 2000, Sheikha Lubna founded Tejari, the first Middle Eastern business-to-business marketplace. As a result of Tejari (Arabic for commerce) 70 percent of Dubai's government purchases are made online, while only 30 percent of bureaucrats were web-literate before its launch. One of the cornerstones of Sheikha Lubna's work has been to allow for foreign ownership, so when John Defterios met up with her, he began by asking her about her upcoming strategy. Sheikha Lubna: We are looking with scrutiny at the companies a lot at the moment and we have several sectors. We will evaluate each sector, from the service side, finance, accounting. And any sector that we believe we need further development in terms of economic growth, then we will focus on that: on increasing the acquisition or the ownership of the foreign company. Defterios: If you look at the Middle East, specifically within this Gulf region, it's quite a radical change to open up specific sectors to majority foreign ownership. Is this society in the region ready for this move? Sheikha Lubna: Interestingly, the United Arab Emirates is host to 80 percent of its population coming from outside. We host 200 nationalities, so for us, the contribution to the economy has already started over 15 years ago with the existence of the expatriate community. So in many ways I think the openness is only a natural path: it's an organic path to continue the openness that exists. Foreign direct investment is not your own wealth. When you have your own wealth, you have a tendency to be complacent sometimes, because it's your money and you may not think you need to actually strengthen your infrastructure. However, if you look at foreign direct investment, it mandates you to be much more transparent, you have to be very diligent about your work, and it also creates new knowledge coming into the country and you can create more development through employment. Defterios: It's interesting, you read the front line of the DP World, P&O acquisition and the furor it created in the United States particularly within Congress. What are the lessons, not just from the UAE perspective, but the lessons learned from both sides during that whole process? Sheikha Lubna: First of all, I think it is important to understand, in this global world, there is a circulation of funds and there is excess of wealth that has to go somewhere. Liquidity of markets sometimes means you invest internally or you invest abroad. We've learned a lesson being in the oil crises earlier that you need to diversify your money and look into investment abroad. And we've seen this where the UAE invests in the Far East, Australia, Asia as well as in Europe and the United States. What's more important to understand is that if you're going to lock up your interest in terms of selling either because of protectionism or a particular idea in your mind that I don't want to sell to this particular organization versus another, there are other places. Defterios: That's not a veiled message your saying, that's pretty forthright this comment. Sheikha Lubna: But it's a message to all of us. If today I lock up my investment opportunity here, money will not come to me, money will go somewhere else. When I have investment coming from abroad, it creates confidence in this country that 'I am a global image'. So when I say it, I am not directing this as a message to a particular country. I am saying all countries are equal when it comes to regulation, when it comes to responsibility, when it comes to strategy in terms of attracting foreign funds and wealth coming to the country. So that's really a lesson that's very very critical. Defterios: A number of firsts: the first to start a B2B marketplace; the first female minister within the country, an economy minister; and the first to launch a perfume range as well. What is it all about? Trailblazing, setting examples, being an entrepreneur? How would you describe what you're doing here? Sheikha Lubna: Everybody laughs about the perfume. One, I think the United Arab Emirates, since inception (it's not from today but from the founder late Sheikh Zayed) has always given equal opportunities for women. But it's up to us as women to decide what is it that we can push, and what it is that we can do and not do. In my personal belief you need a bridge, you need a door opener for women. And sometimes women do not want to take the risk. Sometimes they are shy of achieving what they should be achieving. I had the opportunity and I had the trust from the government and the community, so to me, it is setting the example internally for the young women, and men by the way. Be it in technology, or economy or e-commerce. Defterios: And the perfume line is the exclamation point? Sheikha Lubna: A young woman, actually a perfume creator, who sells exclusively to Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai, decided to create a perfume with my name. So I had two mandates from her. One, I had to smell it, otherwise if it doesn't smell good I'm not going to take it as a name. So one, I had to actually agree to the scent of the perfume. And it's an Arabic perfume by the way. And second, my mandate was that I would only launch it with my name for her, if she gives 20 percent of its sales and revenue to the Friends of Cancer Patients. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sheikha Lubna was first female minister in the United Arab Emirates .\nOpenness to foreign ownership is the \"natural path\", she says .\nIf countries \"lock up\" interest due to protectionism there are other places to go .","id":"7554bcdf4be93baf973eccf5a3423bd8b383ac72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection was under way Thursday in the case of a man accused of sexually assaulting a toddler and capturing it on videotape years ago, a crime that triggered a nationwide manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007. Chester Arthur Stiles faces life imprisonment if convicted of videtaping a sexual assault on a child. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces 22 felony counts in connection with the videotape, including lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor and attempted sexual assault with a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Thursday is the third day of jury selection, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some 200 potential jurors were called, according to CNN affiliate KVBC. As of Thursday morning, only seven jurors had passed on to the next stage of selection, Sommermeyer said. Prosecutors hope to seat 15 jurors eventually, Sommermeyer told CNN, meaning they'll want a pool of about 35 to pick from in the final stage. Picking a jury in the case is challenging, according to KVBC, not only because of the media attention the case has drawn, but because of the crimes Stiles is accused of. A questionnaire given to potential jurors has one question addressing the videotape: \"As a juror, despite the graphic nature of the videotape, can you promise to remain fair and impartial and objectively evaluate all evidence for returning a verdict?\" \"One, you let them know what the case involves and they've heard it on the news, it's a little difficult to get over any preconceived notions that they had about the case,\" defense attorney Stacey Roundtree told KVBC. \"However, we do have faith in this community that they want to do the right thing,\" she said. \"Most of the jury trials I've had, the jurors go out of their way to make the right decision. They go out of their way to follow the judge's rules, and we're confident we can have that happen in this case.\" The tape was given to authorities in September 2007 by a man who said he had found it in the desert five months before. On it, police found images of the small girl being sexually assaulted. After attempting unsuccessfully to find out the girl's identity, authorities turned to the media for help and released a picture of the girl, and the case drew nationwide attention. She was found in October 2007. An attorney for her mother said she was 7 years old and safe and healthy. The rape occurred before the girl's third birthday while she was in the care of a baby sitter her mother had hired, he said. The mother did not know the girl had been victimized. After the girl was found, authorities asked CNN and other news organizations to stop showing her picture. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was arrested in a traffic stop in October 2007. Police said at the time they pulled Stiles' car over because it had no license plate and became suspicious when the driver displayed an expired California license with a photo that did not match his appearance. \"He finally told us, 'Hey, I'm Chester Stiles,'\" said Henderson, Nevada, police Officer Mike Dye. \"'I'm the guy you're looking for.\" Stiles told police he was \"sick of running,\" Dye said. The mother of the girl shown on the tape, meanwhile, went on \"The Dr. Phil Show\" after Stiles' arrest, saying that while she was \"relieved,\" it would have been \"better if they found him dead.\" She said her daughter remembers nothing about the alleged assault. \"Nothing that I have seen in my career comes close to what this girl has gone through,\" Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff Tony DeMeo said during the manhunt for Stiles. The man who turned the tape over to authorities, Darrin Tuck, faced criminal charges because of the delay in turning it over, during which authorities alleged he showed it to others. A judge gave Tuck a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation in April after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He initially had faced a felony count of possession of child pornography.","highlights":"Chester Arthur Stiles faces 22 felony counts in connection with sex tape .\nTape showed girl younger than 3 being sexually assaulted .\nTape surfaced years after alleged assault .\nPotential jurors know about case, have strong feelings about it .","id":"e8da17cd03b94b03e37ff2aa6870f3ba0214f43d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In Focus: Sovereign Wealth Funds . Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Foreign Trade, U.A.E., talks to CNN about future relations with Washington . What a difference a credit crunch makes. Sovereign Wealth Funds control up to $3 trillion in assets, which could provide essential liquidity during the global slowdown. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown toured the Gulf this week in an attempt to secure more funds from the region. MME takes a look at what the Sovereign Wealth Funds can bring to the table and interviews the top U.S. official overseeing relations with the SWFs, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt. Facetime: Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Foreign Trade, U.A.E. A new era and a new President for the United States. A historic week with the election of the 44th President of the United States. But what can the region look for in a new U.S. administration? We talk to United Arab Emirates' Minister of Foreign Trade, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi about future relations between the Middle East and Washington. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: Friday: 0915, 1945 Saturday: 0645 Sunday: 0815 .","highlights":"UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown toured Gulf looking for more funds from the region .\nDeputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt on Sovereign Wealth Funds .\nWhat can the Middle East look for in the United States' new president?\nMME talks U.A.E.'s Minister of Foreign Trade about relations with the U.S.","id":"8003a890632a3d401b30d4abaa542be27d595d12"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- From barefoot tomboy to fashion supernova, fearless pop renegade Rihanna lives to bust all the rules. \"I love the heavy chain over this pretty dress -- it's exactly the way I would do it,\" says Rihanna. What are some rules you'd like to crush? The idea of not wearing brown and black together seems so dated. The other day I wore a black T-shirt, black Nobody jeans, a brown leopard-print belt by Dolce & Gabbana, and brown Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, and it looked awesome. Also the rule about not matching your makeup to your outfit. I do that onstage, matching red lipstick to a bright red jacket or neon-pink eye shadow to a pink jumpsuit. And I also love to mix prints. We've had the Meg, the Jennifer, and now people ask for the Rihanna at salons. Will you be switching it up again? The first time I heard people were asking for the Rihanna, it was really flattering and maybe a little strange. It caught me by surprise, but now I feel it's a very cool thing. I don't feel the pressure to change it up again at all. I like it, as they like it. Can you talk about your style obsessions and how your look has evolved over the years? It has evolved without my even noticing it. Lately I'm obsessed with Thierry Mugler... Grace Jones inspires me. She is the most iconic woman ever, in my eyes. She has extraordinary style and she's fearless. I love designer Martin Margiela; Kanye West told me about him. I also like Dsquared, Chlo\u00e9, Zac Posen... But you weren't always a fashion maven? Growing up in Barbados, you were a tomboy. I wore my brother's clothes, dresses with sneakers, or no shoes at all. I would always get into trouble with my mom. She would say things to scare me like, \"You're going to get cut!\" But I couldn't help it. I would climb trees, steal mangoes, catch birds--silly things that were fun to us at the time. My cousin and I were the only girls in the group. We would have to stand up for ourselves because the guys didn't want us around. You stood out in Barbados because of your light complexion. Do you remember having trouble fitting in at school? Definitely. It made me angry... For the first six years of school, I would go home traumatized. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school. High school was better. I read that your mom owns a boutique and your dad works at a garment factory -- it seems you have the Rihanna fashion line already partly sewn up. [Giggles] Well I am working on that right now. It takes a lot of effort, and I want to be involved with every step of the process. What do you do for kicks in L.A.? I don't go out much. I'm moving into a new four-bedroom home in Los Feliz that I'm excited about. Parts of it will be inspired by India. I love things like canopy beds, printed fabrics and Spanish touches. Then I can stay at home and cook West Indian dishes like callaloo [stewed greens]. But I do want a sports car--as soon as I get my license. Who knew you were so domestic. Wait a minute. You're such a rebel. In the video for \"Take a Bow,\" you drive a car. I have my Barbadian license, just not my American one. How will you celebrate your 21st birthday? Don't scare me! I have till February. I feel like I have so much more to accomplish before I'm 21. No party plans yet. Many showbiz types say, \"Don't ever read your own press,\" but you do, even the online stuff. What's the kookiest thing you've read about yourself? The Grammy thing -- that I brought Jay-Z on stage and Beyonc\u00e9 was upset, which is so ridiculous. Or the idea that I've had breast implants -- I don't even have much cleavage. It was just the dress! So yes, I read about myself and about everybody else in the gossip pages. It's comedy to me; I laugh about it. The tattoo behind your ear is a Pisces symbol -- two fish swimming head to tail in a circle--which represents life after death. If possible, what would you be reincarnated as? If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog, DJ. He gets the best treatment, all the attention in the world, and he's so adorable. Plus, he goes everywhere I can take him. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Rihanna wants to crush the idea of not wearing brown and black together .\nHer light complexion gave her trouble fitting in at school in Barbados .\nSinger's new four-bedroom home decor in Los Feliz to be inspired by India .\n\"If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog,\" Rihanna says .","id":"251bbb4a78035144af2f9452119aef2a17d96ac5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll indicates that nearly three out of four Americans are scared about the way things are going in the country today. A deputy oversees an eviction in Lafayette, Colorado, last week. Seventy-three percent of those questioned in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say they're very or somewhat scared about the way things are going in the United States. That's six points higher than in an October poll. Nearly eight in 10 say things are going badly in the country, with just 21 percent suggesting that things are going well. The survey also says that three out of four Americans are angry about the way things are going in the country. But three out of four questioned say that things are going well for them personally. The poll was released a day before President Obama gives a prime-time address before a joint session of Congress. \"Americans always believe things are better in their own lives than in the rest of the country,\" said CNN polling director Keating Holland. \"But they are realists as well -- they recognize that bad times somewhere else in the U.S. may eventually come to affect them. That's why so many say they are angry and scared, even though they're content with their own personal circumstances. \"There is a tiny sliver of good news -- the number of Americans who think things are going very badly has dropped from 40 percent in December to 32 percent now,\" Holland added. \"But since most of those people switched from the very bad category to the pretty bad category, it's wrong to say that the public is more optimistic -- call them a little less pessimistic at best.\" The CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted Wednesday and Thursday, with 1,046 adults questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.","highlights":"Nearly eight in 10 say things are going badly in the country .\nThree of four Americans are angry about the way things are going in the country .\nBut three out of four questioned say that things are going well for them personally .","id":"be69b853f62c35f58c9e77b6ddb888450d5b03fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He had a rough life during the Ice Age, walking around with a couple of broken ribs and a possibly cancerous lesion on his jaw before dying at a young age. Assistant lab supervisor Trevor Valle discusses the teeth and lower jaw of Columbian mammoth fossil \"Zed.\" Now, at least 10,000 years later, visitors in Los Angeles can see the remains of \"Zed,\" a Columbian mammoth whose nearly intact skeleton is part of what is being described as a key find by paleontologists at Los Angeles' George C. Page Museum. Zed was discovered at a construction site in the heart of Los Angeles. An earth mover helping to build an underground parking garage near the L.A. County Museum of Art uncovered the mammoth's skull, according to project director Christopher Shaw. \"The skull was hit and shaved off ... by a scraper,\" Shaw told CNN Thursday. \"We don't know just how smashed up it is, but it's fairly intact because it's a huge jacket we put it around.\" The mammoth's fossil was found along with 16 other deposits at the site that paleontologists \"tree-boxed\" along with the surrounding dirt, creating 23 massive crates weighing between 5 and 53 tons that were then lifted out intact. Zed's remains were encased in a plaster jacket. The construction was being monitored by a consulting firm because the site is so close to the La Brea tar pits -- a site that has yielded between 3 million and 4 million fossilized bones. Construction on the parking garage began in 2006 but it took two more years for all the recovered materials to be handed over to researchers at the Page Museum, who began analyzing the various fossils in June, Shaw said. \"It's very exciting for us because each one of these ... could be different ages in the past 10,000 to 45,000 years,\" Shaw said. John Harris, the head curator of the Page Museum, publicly announced the finding of \"a whole new treasure trove of fossils\" on Wednesday. He described it as \"the most important discovery\" for the museum \"of the last 90 years.\" Shaw said the announcement was made to \"create interest\" in the museum's discovery. Among the most interesting items is likely to be Zed, who is believed to have died in his late 40s. Mammoths are thought to have had an average lifespan of about 60 years. Not all of Zed's remains have been cleaned off and analyzed. \"Right now we have opened the plaster jacket of four sections that were excavated, including vertebrae and ribs and pelvis, one tusk and the lower jaw,\" Shaw said. \"It will take another six to 12 months to open everything.\" Shaw said both of Zed's tusks were found intact, which is very rare. \"Previously, we've found mammoths but the tusk material was very poorly preserved,\" Shaw said. \"It's very exciting to us to have these two complete, beautifully preserved tusks.\" The excitement generated by Zed and the rest of the paleontological find could help boost the Page Museum's attendance and funding, which is key as many museums are seeing their attendance dry up during the recession. \"The cleaning of Zed can be viewed inside the museum inside the 'fishbowl' -- a windowed area -- as parts of his bones are being cleaned,\" Shaw said. \"So people come to see us and we've constructed small exhibits. It will attract a lot of people and that will help our funding situation.\" Researchers hope to have the entire skeleton on display by next year. Shaw said it is unique to have such a major fossil find in the heart of an urban center like Los Angeles. \"I've always said we're kind of spoiled here in Rancho La Brea,\" he said. \"It's not like going to the Gobi Desert where you can't take a shower for weeks.\" While the process of cleaning and analyzing the fossils is very intricate and time consuming, Shaw said it is a rare experience for researchers to come in to work and not know what they will discover that day. \"Every day we come to work, we're uncovering things that haven't seen the light of day for 40,000 years,\" he said. \"It's an exciting thing that we're doing just that.\"","highlights":"Nearly intact skeleton of mammoth found at Los Angeles construction site .\nColumbian mammoth's skeleton was unearthed near the La Brea tar pits .\nDiscovery called the museum's most important in almost a century .\nBoth of mammoth's tusks were discovered intact -- a rare occurrence .","id":"4b3c67642970c39ac3ce9e0573d03fc40fa20b96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Though they support some federal action to help their states recover from the recession, several Republican governors said Sunday they plan to turn down a portion of what's offered in the stimulus bill that President Obama signed last week. Gov. Haley Barbour said the stimulus bill would force Mississippi to raise taxes. \"If we were to take the unemployment reform package that they have, it would cause us to raise taxes on employment when the money runs out -- and the money will run out in a couple of years,\" Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told CNN's \"State of the Union\" on Sunday. The Republican governors of Idaho, Alaska, Texas, South Carolina and Louisiana expressed similar concerns. But one of their colleagues, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, had a message for them Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" When asked about broader complaints from lawmakers such as South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford about the stimulus package leading to more debt, Schwarzenegger responded, \"I am more than happy to take his money or [that of] any other governor in this country that doesn't want to take this money. I take it because I think California needs it.\" Schwarzenegger said he does not foresee a need for a tax hike in the future to sustain the unemployment provisions. In a separate interview on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" Schwarzenegger said the complaints are \"partially\" right, but that using the money for now \"cannot hurt.\" And another governor, Michigan Democrat Jennifer Granholm, told CNN, \"We'll take it.\" Watch how stimulus package could affect your paycheck \u00bb . \"South Carolina, I'll take your money. Louisiana, we'll take it,\" Granholm said in an interview recorded last week and broadcast Sunday on \"State of the Union.\" \"We got plenty of work here, plenty of jobs that we would like to create here,\" Granholm added as she discussed the struggling auto industry and job losses in her state. A leading Democrat, meanwhile, said he does see a potential problem. \"I'm not sure that we can, over the long run, cope with the high unemployment compensation standard that this mandates for states,\" Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, the head of the National Governor's Association, told \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"But I don't care. My people are suffering,\" he added. \"They need that extra money. And right now that's paramount in my mind.\" At issue is a portion of the unemployment assistance stipulated by the stimulus bill, which provides federal dollars to expand unemployment insurance in the states. In exchange for accepting that, states would have to expand the number of people who are given jobless benefits. In Louisiana, for example, that portion of the funds would total nearly $100 million, state officials said. Gov. Bobby Jindal, a rising GOP star, has announced plans to turn it down. \"The $100 million we turned down was temporary federal dollars that would require us to change our unemployment laws,\" he told NBC's \"Meet the Press.\" \"That would have actually raised taxes on Louisiana businesses. We as a state would have been responsible for paying for those benefits after the federal money disappeared.\" The law demands a \"permanent\" change to state law, Jindal said. Jindal and the other governors do plan to accept other funds offered by the stimulus, including money to increase benefits for those who are receiving them. And even some governors who have expressed disappointment in the stimulus package are not shying away from any of the funding. \"I don't like this bill, but it is now the law. ... It's now our responsibility and opportunity to try to implement it,\" Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told \"Fox News Sunday.\" Calling his state \"a major net subsidizer of the federal government,\" he said, \"We're paying the bill either way -- we're going to take our share of the money.\" In the end, some governors who would like to turn down a portion of the federal funding may not be able to. The law stipulates that state legislatures can overrule governors. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, said Americans are making it clear to all governors that they should accept whatever help they can get. \"Everywhere across the country, certainly in Massachusetts ... people want their roads repaired, they want their bridges repaired, they want a clean energy strategy ... and real alternatives, and they want us to be candid with them about those needs,\" he told CNN's \"State of the Union.\"","highlights":"Governors of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, others raise concerns .\nThey worry unemployment assistance compensation is too steep to maintain .\nRepublican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is for the plan, saying California needs help .","id":"29ba104809ad68b1bbfcb6025ef595f481878185"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Law enforcement officials arrested more than 500 people, and took custody of 48 juveniles in a coordinated 29-city weekend sweep aimed at combating child prostitution, the FBI announced Monday. Task forces made up largely of state and local police officers arrested and booked what authorities said were 464 adult prostitutes, 55 pimps and 55 customers on state charges. While most faced local charges, a senior FBI official said he expected there were would be some federal charges as well. The FBI Monday said 19 searches were conducted, netting a total of $438,000 in cash, plus illegal drugs, cars and computers. The four dozen juveniles were recovered in the third phase of Operation Cross Country, an initiative that seeks to help child prostitutes and crack down on people who control them and patronize them. In the previous coordinated operations, authorities recovered 21 alleged child prostitutes last June and 47 in October. In 2003 the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched what was called the Innocence Lost National Initiative to address what had become a growing problem of children forced into prostitution. Many were young runaways. Officials say the 32 Innocence Lost task forces formed nationwide have now recovered about 670 children in the six years, and seized more than $3 million in cash. The most recent operation involved law enforcement agencies in several states including California, Alaska, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Alabama, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Minnesota and Arizona.","highlights":"Police booked 464 adult prostitutes, 55 pimps and 55 customers on state charges .\nFBI: 19 searches netted $438,000 in cash, plus illegal drugs, cars, computers .\nOfficials say Innocence Lost task forces recovered about 670 children in 6 years .","id":"e404376f211534025dc5f3aeacd373408a99e866"} -{"article":"(MENTAL FLOSS) -- In the last 2,000 years, commodity shortages, financial speculation, wars, famines, and outright manias have created some pretty strange economic behavior throughout the world. Once worthless Roman coins found in the British town of Snodland are considered quite a treasure. Cake or death? In order to stop rising inflation and devaluation of the currency in third century Rome, Emperor Diocletian instituted fixed prices on most consumer goods. Anyone selling goods at prices higher than those of the emperor was put to death; this led to hoarding of goods. A law was then passed that forbade the hoarding of goods. Penalty? Death. So people just closed their businesses, then another law was passed. You guessed it: shut down your business or fail to follow in your father's business? Death. It's amazing the Roman Empire lasted as long as it did. Mental Floss: Strange things we didn't know were illegal . Gonna barter like it's B.C. 99 . When the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, so did the Roman financial system. Part of the collapse was the disappearance of Roman coinage. Nowhere was this more evident than in England, where, according to archeological evidence, money basically disappeared, driving the British isles straight back to a barter economy. Coinage only came back centuries later when the English were forced to pay protection money (Danegeld) to the Vikings to stop the constant pillaging. 99.9 percent pure . In 15th century Germany, grain shortages -- acceptable -- frequently led to beer shortages -- unacceptable. In response, brewers in towns like Munich and Regensburg used seeds, spices, and rushes to flavor their beers. Showing an uncomfortable foreshadowing of future events, German authorities instituted purity laws stating that only water, barley, and hops could be used in the brewing of beer. The rule, or Reinheitsgebot, is still on the books today. Nothing but the best for France . While the Sun King, Louis XIV, and his building of Versailles typically get all the credit for bankrupting France in the seventeenth century, his Minister of Finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert deserves some kudos as well. Colbert's tax schemes, deficit spending, and manic obsession with the production of luxury goods -- to the detriment, or outright exclusion of ordinary consumer goods -- emptied the French treasuries, drove the peasantry to starvation, and laid the foundation for the bloodiest revolution of the age. But, let's face it: who wouldn't trade the fate of an entire nation for a really, really well made tapestry? Adjustable rate mortgage, Archduke Ferdinand? In the 1860s, the rulers of the newly-formed Austro-Hungarian Empire encouraged their bankers to be more free with their lending standards. Their goal was to encourage growth in the empire. The result (this is going to sound eerily familiar) was over-speculation in building, massive default on borrowed funds, and economic collapse throughout Central Europe. The worldwide depression reached all the way to the United States and triggered the Panic of 1873. On the bright side, many of the most beautiful buildings in Europe come from this period of \"irrational exuberance.\" Mississippi burning . John Law, a Scottish banker and businessman, took control of a French enterprise called the Mississippi Company in 1717. In just a few years, he turned the company into the main economic force behind the French colonies throughout the world. The share price for the company went from about 500 livres in 1719 to 10,000 livres in 1720. Just one year later though, in a rather Enron-like turnaround, the stock price collapsed, Law fled France, and the French government (as the primary shareholder) was forced to cancel a significant portion of its debt obligations leaving lenders throughout the world ruined. Economists refer to the episode as the \"Mississippi Bubble.\" The Mason-Dixon bottom line . Many have read about the effects of hyperinflation on the German Weimar Republic. From 1920-1923, prices in Germany increased as much as 3.25 million percent. People burned their old currency for warmth, since it was less costly than buying wood. But, few know that the same type of hyperinflation, albeit to a lesser extent, affected the Confederate States of America. From 1861 to 1864, the commodity price index rose as high as 10 percent a month. By the end of the Civil War, the cost of living in dear old Dixie was 92 percent higher than before the war. Mental Floss: The Confederacy's plan to conquer Latin America . Prayer pays . In 1943, due to shortage of raw materials like paper and leather, and an increase in wartime piety, there was an actual Bible shortage in the United States. Tokyo falling . Japan had one of the most meteoric economic rises of the twentieth century. By the late '80s, property values had risen so high that all the land in Japan was worth four times the value of all the property in the United States. The real estate value of Tokyo alone was valued at more than that of all America. By the end of the century, however, the Tokyo stock exchange was off 60 percent of its 1989 high, and property values had fallen as much as 80 percent. Some blame over-speculation, others blame Michael Crichton's novel \"Rising Sun.\" Mental Floss: Leaders who spent their countries into the ground . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"When in Roman history it was illegal to raise prices, hoard goods or close stores .\nEurope's \"irrational exuberance\" in 1860s was when great buildings were constructed .\nShortages paper and leather led to U.S. bible shortage in 1943 .","id":"8c42f541a0eff6d8f29e00797d1c8a3fe20164bd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Tara Wall is deputy editor for The Washington Times. Before joining the newspaper, she was a senior adviser for the Republican National Committee and was named a public affairs director in the Department of Health and Human Services by President George W. Bush. Read her columns here. Tara Wall says Eric Holder's \"nation of cowards\" comment struck the wrong tone. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- First, we're a nation of whiners; now, we're a nation of cowards. The coward comment comes from none other than President Obama's newly minted attorney general, Eric Holder. The remarks were part of a speech Holder delivered for Black History Month. Yet, even in that context, the words came across as arrogant, condescending and not at all becoming a statesman. One dictionary definition of coward is \"lacking courage.\" Stinging words for a country at war, where white and black soldiers are shedding the same color blood. Are they cowards? Ironic too that Holder's remarks come at a time when the nation has just elected its first black president and witnessed the confirmation of its first black attorney general (Holder himself). Forget that more whites than blacks cast their ballots for a black man to lead the nation. So this is how Holder says thanks? Did the attorney general not think about the weight his words would carry? Was he simply trying to be provocative? Is this his way of bringing the races together? Does his position or his color give him the bravado to think that he can get away with calling us cowards? Imagine for a moment if John McCain or George W. Bush uttered those words. The criticism would have known no bounds. i-Report.com: Share your thoughts on Holder's comments . You'll recall, it was just a few months back that a media frenzy erupted when former Sen. Phil Gramm called national leaders (not the nation) a bunch of \"whiners.\" Media pundits and broadcasters blasted Gramm for weeks, until he was forced off McCain's campaign. Gramm's words, while true, were mild in comparison to Holder's. Where is that same outrage and moral condemnation over Holder's loose lips? It's a rhetorical question, of course. And as much as we are constantly reminded of the past \"mistakes\" this country has made, is there nothing worth celebrating, no times when racial harmony brought racial reconciliation? Little of that made it to Holder's speech. Instead, he chose the celebratory occasion to exact punishment by way of guilt. It makes one wonder, why does every race speech by those on the left have to begin (and end) with repudiation and insult? Why must there be a constant reminder of what went wrong without giving due recognition to what went right? I will acknowledge that the country can always do better when it comes to race, but as much as Republicans are accused of refusing to admit racism exists, assuredly Democrats exploit it for every inch of territory they can garner. They point fingers, threaten and name-call without offering real solutions or substantive conversation. One regular reader of The Washington Times, a Democrat, forwarded me a letter he sent to Holder, telling the attorney general how much he \"applauds\" his remarks but saying he had one request: \"I would like to recommend that your office take the lead in ensuring the appointment of at least one African-American on every committee and task force that is created by the President of the United States and current cabinet Secretary's.\" How's that for affirmative action on demand? More like affirmative extortion. The writer also stated in closing: \"Let us (by \"us,\" he means black folks) take advantage of every opportunity that is before us.\" I was particularly struck by the words \"take advantage.\" It is a line of thinking and supposed reasoning to justify black Americans getting what's \"due.\" This was just one person's opinion, but it reflects a sentiment shared by many liberals. It also reveals a get-it-all-while-you-can mentality that has nothing to do with parity, equality or justice but rather with guilt trips, paybacks and quotas. This is not how the \"case for race\" should be made. To be fair, there are some points Holder made with which I do agree (at least in part). \"We, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race,\" Holder stated. It is a challenge for each of us, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, to go outside our comfort zone and reach out to someone \"different\" from ourselves (though I've done it my whole life). It is an observation that, while true, shouldn't just apply to white people. It applies to black folks, too. Yet that's where the discussion of race loses traction among liberals. Holder doesn't really want to \"talk\" about race, because that would entail not only encouraging blacks to reach out, but it would mean addressing black racism -- which we've seen in the likes of one Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- in addition to white racism (and all racism). Yes, we are sometimes too \"socially segregated,\" as Holder put it, but cowards we are not. And mere rhetoric and rancor does nothing to elevate the discussion. In contrast to Holder's bombastic speech, President Bush's Black History Month speech last year was refreshingly retrospective without being pretentious. While condemning present-day acts of racism (i.e. hanging nooses), Bush also offered a way forward. \"We renew our commitment to securing liberty and justice for every American,\" Bush said, focusing on the present instead of the past: \"We honor four Americans who ... are leading the way toward ending racial injustice across our land.\" Rhetoric aside, what was lacking from Holder's remarks was a way forward. Instead of \"hope,\" Holder offered more hate veiled in subtle anger. Last year, Obama gave a famous speech on race, addressing the controversy about the remarks of his former pastor, Wright, and urging people not to wallow in resentment: . Obama said, \"The profound mistake of Rev. Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress had been made, as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.\" Obama's speech sums it all up. Holder's is a contradiction. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tara Wall.","highlights":"Tara Wall: Eric Holder's remark that we're a \"nation of cowards\" was wrong .\nShe says he ignores the millions of votes Obama got from white voters .\nInstead of hope, she says, Holder offered anger and resentment .\nObama has urged Americans to focus on the racial progress that's occurred .","id":"6b54f55b45df538fd42c1c704128052df1a97516"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 60 years after reneging on a promise to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who fought for the United States during World War II, the U.S. government will soon be sending out checks -- to the few who are still alive. Veteran Franco Arcebal says, \"we are loyal to the United States, except that the United States has forgotten us.\" \"For a poor man like me, $15,000 is a lot of money,\" said 91-year-old Celestino Almeda. Still, he said, \"After what we have suffered, what we have contributed for the sake of democracy, it's peanuts. It's a drop in the bucket.\" During the war, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. The U.S. military promised full veterans benefits to Filipinos who volunteered to fight. More than 250,000 joined. Then, in 1946, President Truman signed the Rescission Act, taking that promise away. Today, only about about 15,000 of those troops are still alive, according to the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. A provision tucked inside the stimulus bill that President Obama signed calls for releasing $198 million that was appropriated last year for those veterans. Those who have become U.S. citizens get $15,000 each; non-citizens get $9,000. \"I'm very thankful,\" said Patrick Ganio, 88, the coalition's president. \"We Filipinos are a grateful people.\" Ganio was among the tens of thousands of Filipinos at the infamous battle of Bataan, a peninsula on Manila Bay opposite the Philippine capital. He was captured and beaten by Japanese troops before ultimately being freed, suffering from malaria and then resuming his service to the U.S. military. \"The record of the Philippine soldiers for bravery and loyalty is second to none,\" Truman wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate in 1946. \"Their assignment was as bloody and difficult as any in which our American soldiers engaged. Under desperate circumstances they acquitted themselves nobly.\" Though Truman said the Rescission Act resulted in \"discrimination,\" he signed it. \"There can be no question but that the Philippine veteran is entitled to benefits bearing a reasonable relation to those received by the America veteran, with whom he fought side by side,\" he said. \"From a practical point of view, however, it must be acknowledged that certain benefits granted by the GI bill of rights cannot be applied in the case of the Philippine veteran.\" Some historians say financial concerns were paramount: The cost of funding full veterans benefits to all those Filipinos, particularly in the wake of the costly war, would have been a heavy burden. The National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity offers a different explanation. \"In 1946, discrimination against people of color was the rule of law,\" the group says in a document it submitted to the Obama-Biden transition team in November. \"The second-class treatment of Filipino World War II veterans is another example from this historical period.\" For decades, Filipino activists and their supporters have fought for the full benefits. They've petitioned and picketed. Almeda, a widower who now lives in Virginia with his daughter, once chained himself to the fence outside the White House. \"I was fined $50 for civil disobedience and was arrested,\" he says now, chuckling. He says he was just looking for answers. Despite encouraging words from U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the benefits were never restored. \"Only 70,000 Philippine veterans remain alive, and they hope to stay alive long enough to see those benefits reinstated,\" CNN reported in 1997. \"There's a bill, stuck in committee in Congress, that would do just that.\" That effort, just like so many before, fell apart. \"We were loyal to the United States. Even up to now, we are loyal to the United States, except that the United States has forgotten us in many ways,\" said Franco Arcebal, another leader of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. \"It's only now, because of the insistence of Sen. [Daniel] Inouye in the Senate, he was able to act on this.\" Inouye, D-Hawaii, inserted the language in the stimulus bill, calling it \"a matter of honor.\" The honor comes too late for the many Filipino veterans who passed away waiting for this moment. Families of deceased veterans are not eligible to receive the money. For those who are alive, the checks could make a real difference. \"Practically all of us are below the poverty line now at this age. We have no way of earning a living,\" Arcebal said. But, he emphasized, \"it does not correct the injustice and discrimination done to us 60 years ago. ... We were not granted school benefits. We were not granted hospital benefits. ... And in the 60 years, several billion dollars were saved by the U.S. government for not paying 250,000 of us. \"Now we are only 15,000. And the amount that they're giving us is a small amount. But we appreciate that. Because it will finally recognize our services ... as active service in the armed forces of the United States.\" CNN's Lisa Sylvester contributed to this report.","highlights":"Filipinos were promised full military benefits to enlist .\nPresident Truman later signed act reneging on promise .\nOnly about 15,000 of the troops are still alive .\nU.S. citizens will get $15,000; non-citizens will get $9,000 .","id":"fb9541ec38e8211fa43fb17a40a0c9afc917d55e"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- The head of a Kurdish nationalist party in Turkey addressed his party members Tuesday in the Kurdish language -- which is illegal -- prompting the national broadcaster to pull the plug on the live broadcast. Ahmet Turk began his speech in Turkish before switching to Kurdish. In his address, Democratic Society Party leader Ahmet Turk began his speech in Turkish, addressing the value of a \"multilingual culture\" and decrying the fact that the Kurdish language is not protected under Turkey's constitution. \"We have no objection to Turkish being the official language, yet we want our demands for the lifting of the ban on Kurdish language to be understood as a humanitarian demand,\" he said. Turk then announced he would deliver the rest of his speech in Kurdish and, at that point, state broadcaster TRT cut the broadcast. \"Since no language other than Turkish can be used in the parliament meetings according to the constitution of the Turkish Republic and the Political Parties Law, we had to stop our broadcast,\" the TRT announcer stated. \"We apologize to our viewers for this and continue our broadcast with the next news item scheduled.\" The situation is somewhat ironic because Turkey began a new Kurdish language state television channel, TRT6, on January 1. Turk pointed out that paradox in his speech to parliament. \"Despite the Kurdish broadcast on TRT 6, there is no legal protection (for the language),\" he said. \"(Politicians) get punished for speaking Kurdish while Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan speaks Kurdish during rallies. Therefore, Kurdish is forbidden to Kurds yet free for (the ruling party) and the state.\" The issue comes ahead of hotly contested elections scheduled to be held on March 29. Political analysts have said Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, is trying to gain votes in the Kurdish southeast, which has traditionally been held by the Democratic Society Party, or DTP. Erdogan's launching of the Kurdish language channel is considered a historic development not only because speaking the language in parliament is illegal, but also because the Turkish republic for decades officially denied the existence of ethnic Kurds, calling them \"mountain Turks\" instead. -- CNN's Ivan Watson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ahmet Turk switched to Kurdish during address to party members .\nTurk decried fact Kurdish language not protected under Turkish law .\nTurkish state broadcaster TRT then cut the broadcast .\nIronic because Turkey has started a new Kurdish language state TV channel .","id":"31e85dd4fcbb2580f8e223a1cb11e08680317481"} -{"article":"Researchers may be getting closer to an effective way of preventing age-related macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of vision loss among older Americans. A new study found that vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid may help prevent age-related macular degeneration. A new study finds that women who took a combination of B6 and B12 vitamins along with a folic acid supplement had lower risks of developing age-related macular degeneration. The women who got the supplements, compared with those taking a placebo, had a 34 percent lower risk of developing any form of AMD, and a 41 percent lower risk of more severe forms of AMD. Epidemiologist and study author William G. Christen, Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, expects that if these findings are successfully replicated in future studies, \"the combination of these vitamins might become the first prevention method of early stages of age-related macular degeneration other than avoiding cigarette smoking.\" Christen also noted that although the study was conducted among women age 40 and older, there is no particular reason to believe the same results would not hold true in a similar group of men. Christen and his colleagues examined the role of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid in AMD partly because previous studies have shown these vitamins are known to lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid found in the blood that when elevated has been associated with higher risks of AMD. The 5,442 women who participated in the randomized, double-blind clinical trial already had heart disease or at least three risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The majority of them did not have AMD at the start of the study, which lasted more than 7 years. Christen explains that the underlying mechanism of AMD likely involves the vascular system, and researchers widely believe that cardiovascular disease and AMD share common risk factors. Age-related macular degeneration is a vision disease common among people older than 60, involving the deterioration of tissues in the macula, the central part of the retina. The condition impedes the performance of critical everyday functions such as reading and driving because it affects the ability to see items that a person is looking at directly, as opposed to items even a few degrees off to either side of the direct line of vision. \"If you affect that central part of your vision, no one goes blind from it but it really interferes with your quality of life,\" explains Dr. Roy Rubinfeld, ophthalmologist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. There are two types of macular degeneration: wet and dry. Wet forms of AMD are caused by abnormal blood vessels growing beneath the macula, which can rupture and bleed. The dry form is generally caused by cells in the macula degenerating over time and thus losing function. While some treatments do exist for the wet form of the disease (including laser surgery, photodynamic therapy and injections into the eye), there is currently not much in the way of treatments for the more common dry form. When asked if the study results mean that people at high risk for AMD should begin taking a vitamin supplement that provides vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid, retina specialist Dr. Robert Frank of the American Academy of Ophthalmology suggests probably not yet. \"If you do anything, I would take a supplement of antioxidant vitamins containing high doses of vitamins A, E, C and zinc,\" suggests Frank, who has no financial interest in the vitamin supplement industry. These antioxidant vitamins were found to prevent the progression of age-related macular degeneration in the 10-year Age-Related Eye Disease Study conducted by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health. However, Frank does say that while it still remains to be seen whether people currently taking a multivitamin containing the B vitamins and folic acid will be able to prevent early AMD from developing -- answers which will probably not be found for several years, after a large-scale clinical trial is begun -- there is little risk for most people in taking a daily multivitamin.","highlights":"Study: B vitamins may help prevent age-related macular degeneration .\nWomen taking B6, B12, folic acid had 34 percent lower risk of getting AMD .\nStudy findings need to be replicated .\nOnly prevention now is avoiding smoking; antioxidant vitamins prevent progression .","id":"c723bd075d6ae41172e6176410e4651248ca1163"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One week in Darfur, the next week at the White House. That's the role of a peace activist -- one that actor George Clooney embraces. Actor George Clooney met with Vice President Joe Biden on Monday to discuss bringing peace to Darfur. His battle to bring peace to Darfur brought him to the White House on Monday, where he met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. The actor appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" later on Monday to discuss his activism. \"I actually met with the president in the Oval Office for about 15 minutes,\" Clooney told King, adding that they'd worked together on Darfur three years ago, holding a news conference on the issue when Obama was a U.S. senator. The actor met separately with Biden on Monday. \"They've been very involved\" in Darfur, Clooney said. \"Vice President Biden has been incredibly vocal on the issue.\" Clooney, a longtime Darfur activist and a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations, was in Darfur last week with journalists Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and Ann Curry of NBC. \"I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth,\" Clooney told King of his visit. The government of Darfur has waged a brutal counter-insurgency against militias for the past six years, a war that some international critics have characterized as genocide. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the United Nations. An additional 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and the allied Janjaweed militias. Clooney said of his conversations with Obama and Biden: \"Basically, we were just talking about coming back from Chad and right on the border of Darfur. And we were talking about there's a moment coming up relatively soon -- probably by the middle of next week -- where the International Criminal Court is going to indict the president of Sudan for war crimes, which has never happened before -- a sitting president.\" Last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court for the government's campaign of violence in Darfur. The violence erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Khartoum government. Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. Under pressure to end the fighting, Al-Bashir in November agreed to an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Darfur. \"This isn't about needing American dollars,\" Clooney said of the push for peace in Darfur. \"I understand that it's a very difficult time. It's not about needing American troops. It's about needing what we do best -- what we have done best since the start of this country -- which is good, robust diplomacy all across the world.\" The priorities, as Clooney advocated to Obama and Biden: . -- An envoy working full time on bringing peace to Darfur -- someone \"getting up every morning with their sole job to find peace in the area,\" he said. -- Persuading China to leverage its investment muscle in Darfur to push for peace. -- Pressing Egypt, the African Union and Europe to strengthen diplomatic efforts in the region. \"Diplomacy has to start and it has to be aggressive and it has to start soon. We have an opportunity here,\" Clooney said.","highlights":"\"This isn't about needing American dollars,\" Clooney says of helping Darfur .\nActor calls for full-time envoy to bring peace for refugees 'hanging on by a thread'\nOf Darfur, Clooney tells Obama and Biden \"we have an opportunity here\"","id":"a8b9f7907bbfaf08d43ec304a0a791154535ca93"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nineteen political prisoners were released by the government of Myanmar over the weekend, the human rights group Amnesty International reported Tuesday. Protesters demand democracy for Myanmar at a demonstration in New Delhi, India earlier this month. Among those released was Ma Khin Khin Leh, who was serving a life sentence because her husband, a student activist, had helped plan a protest demonstration in Bago in July 1999, according to Amnesty International USA's Web blog . Authorities prevented the demonstration from taking place, but took the woman and her three-year-old daughter into custody after failing to find her husband, Amnesty International said. The child was released after five days but her mom, a 33-year-old school teacher, was sentenced to life in prison. \"Even by the normally harsh standards of 'justice' meted out by Myanmar's military government, the life sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme,\" the human rights organization said. She was designated one of Amnesty International USA's priority cases. She was released with 18 others \"widely considered to be political prisoners,\" Amnesty International said. Myanmar's military rulers have been widely condemned for their alleged human rights abuses. Pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been confined in her home for 12 of the past 18 years. Her last house arrest began in 2003 and has been periodically renewed. In October 2007, clashes erupted between pro-democracy demonstrators and government security forces. As many as 110 people are believed to have been killed in that crackdown, including 40 Buddhist monks. The protests were sparked by a huge fuel price increase imposed by the military government, and quickly escalated. Myanmar's military junta said in mid-October that it had detained more than 2,900 people amid the clashes. In September 2008, Amnesty International reported that Myanmar, also called Burma, had released seven dissidents, among them U Win Tin, a journalist and senior official in the opposition National League for Democracy who had been imprisoned for 19 years.","highlights":"School teacher among 19 political prisoners freed in Myanmar, Amnesty says .\nMa Khin Khin Leh sentenced to life in 1999 after her husband planned a protest .\nMyanmar's military rulers are widely condemned for alleged human rights abuses .\nPro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi still confined to home .","id":"5a5c15d8d198b243a59bd98b1717ce55a98b0080"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres said he had an amicable phone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a day after Erdogan stormed offstage during an angry exchange with Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves the stage Thursday, as Israeli President Shimon Peres sits, left. Peres said he and Erdogan did not take the spat personally. \"I called him up and said, yes, it's nothing against you, nothing against Turkey. We consider you as a friend,\" Peres said. He said Erdogan reciprocated. Although there was no mention of an apology, Peres said there was a polite exchange between the two leaders. \"I didn't take it personally. I didn't go for a personal fight. I answered unfounded accusations. It was my duty. And they didn't change my mind,\" he said. Watch Shimon Peres on the Gaza conflict \u00bb . Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation, has long been the Jewish state's closest military and economic partner in the region, and Turkey recently mediated indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria. But many Turks have been incensed with Israel over its three-week military operation that ended there earlier this month. And in Davos, Erdogan was angered after Peres said that Israel is committed to peace and blamed Hamas for the fighting in Gaza, where Israel staged a three-week military operation that ended earlier this month. When Erdogan began responding, a moderator cut him off, saying the debate had run over its allotted time. Erdogan patted the moderator on the arm until he was granted one more minute to respond. Watch commentary on Erdogan's angry exchange \u00bb . \"I know the reason behind raising your voice is because of the guilty psychology,\" he said to Peres. \"My voice will not be that loud. You must know that. When it comes to killing -- you know killing very well. I know how you hit, kill children on the beaches.\" He then left the stage, complaining that Peres was receiving preferential treatment. \"From now on, Davos is finished for me,\" Erdogan said. \"I will not come back. You won't let people talk. You gave him 25 minutes, but you gave me 12 minutes. This is not right.\" Erdogan had described the military campaign against Hamas fighters in Gaza as \"barbaric\" and accused Israel of using excessive force. He said: \"The Palestinian Territories are like an open-air prison, isolated from the world. I have always been a leader who said anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity. But so is anti-Islamism.\" Peres had said Hamas was responsible for the \"tragedy,\" accusing the Islamist militants of creating a \"dangerous dictatorship.\" \"Israel left Gaza completely -- no occupation,\" Peres said. \"I want to understand why they throw rockets at us.\" On Friday, after his outburst, Erdogan returned home to a hero's welcome. Thousands of people lined up at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, cheering and waving signs. A large banner read, \"You Will Never Walk Alone,\" and smaller signs bore phrases including \"Davos Conqueror.\" People also were seen waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and throwing flowers on the road leading to Erdogan's home. Despite the glowing response at the airport, there has been some criticism in the Turkish media of Erdogan's exchange with the Israeli president. CNN Turk's Deniz Bayramoglu said the issue was still \"hot\" with Erdogan's secularist political opponents speaking out against the prime minister. \"They also say that Israel's behavior in Gaza is unacceptable but they are very critical of Prime Minister Erdogan's behavior,\" Bayramoglu said. \"Some are saying they are really proud of Prime Minister Erdogan and some are saying it is a diplomatic scandal.\" Erdogan explained whom he was directing his anger at during a news conference at the airport. \"My words were only to the Israeli government, not the Israeli people,\" he said. CNN's Simon Hooper and Talia Kayali contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkish Prime Minister angered during debate on Gaza at World Economic Forum .\nRecep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel's Gaza campaign \"barbaric,\" stormed off stage .\nIsraeli president Shimon Peres said he and Erdogan did not take spat personally .\nErdogan returned home to a hero's welcome in Istanbul .","id":"eb9177b8462d6c9d5ce0d99a36414a560d2e6d5c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Her powerful voice resonates through the music hall, delivering an unlikely message of hope. All eight Liyana band members met at the King George VI school for disabled children in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The Afro-fusion melody comes from an unlikely source -- the small, wheelchair-ridden body of Prudence Mabhena, a woman from Zimbabwe who has overcome her physical disabilities and the hurdles of daily life in her home country. \"Some people don't even get you and take you as a person,\" Mabhena said. \"And with us singing right now, we're not giving up -- we're pushing up.\" Mabhena is the lead singer of Liyana, a group of eight musicians who are all physically disabled and from Zimbabwe. Their message of hope has been drowned out in their home country, which is suffering from an economic collapse, a cholera outbreak, and a political power struggle that has erupted into violence. Watch the band performing \u00bb . Mabhena was born with arthrogryphosis, a muscle and joint disorder, and had to have parts of her arms and legs amputated as a result. She said her mother was told to kill her rather than have her face life as a physically disabled woman in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was once a center for disability rights after it gained independence in 1980, according to recent report on Public Radio International. It was one of the first countries to recognize the rights of the disabled, who are sometimes shunned by communities in rural Africa who fear they are touched by witchcraft. But the gains for the disabled in Zimbabwe have been erased by the country's current crisis, according to Dr. Raymond Lang of the London-based Cheshire Center for Conflict Recovery who spoke to PRI's Lonny Shavelson. Mabhena said the group is apprehensive about returning to Zimbabwe after its U.S. tour, which wrapped up this month. But none of the members of Liyana dwell on the despair. \"'Never give up' -- it's one of our biggest and strongest mottos,\" said singer Tapiwa Nyenger, explaining one of the band's song titles. \"We have the capability to go on stage and at the end of the day make people smile. It's a good feeling.\" All eight band members, who are between the ages of 17 and 23, met at the King George VI school for disabled children in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The band describes their music as a fusion between \"myriad geographic, cultural, and musical genres including gospel, reggae, and traditional Zimbabwean Shona music.\" Liyana means \"rain\" -- a Shona term for good luck. \"Music makes you think of something positive,\" Nyenger said. \"For me, music is rehabilitation.\" Mabhena has said her voice is a gift from god. They had long dreamed of performing in the United States, and their multi-city tour included more than 20 performances in California and the New York metro area, including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. \"We have been received in an overwhelming, heart-filling way,\" Nyenger said. \"Everywhere we go, every place we go, we [see] new things, we meet new people, we learn new stuff.\" The band's U.S. tour coincided with President Barack Obama's inauguration, which has also been a source of inspiration for a new song, \"Obama.\" \"When we heard Obama was going to be the American president, the first black American president, we were so excited,\" Mabhena said. \"Through that joy that we had, there came a song.\" Liyana is also the subject of a new documentary, iTemba -- My Hope -- which is scheduled to be released worldwide later this year. The band's singers perform in seven languages -- Shona, Ndebele, English, Dutch, German, Hebrew, and Spanish -- allowing them to reach a wider audience. \"We want to leave a message to everyone in the world that no matter what circumstance you are in, you can make it,\" singer Marvelous Meulo said.","highlights":"Liyana are a group of eight physically disabled musicians from Zimbabwe .\nTheir multi-city tour of the U.S. has included more than 20 performances .\nThe message of their songs is you can make it, whatever the circumstances .\nTheir message of hope has been drowned out in Zimbabwe, which is in crisis .","id":"da50e8eccdc1bb032e30ead18e40d5233abe94d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The second-highest ranking official in Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's political party resigned Saturday, along with four other high-ranking Kurdish politicians, officials said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani could be jeopardized by the resignations of five key members of his party. Khosrat Rasul, the vice president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, resigned, along with four other members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), according to Kurdish lawmakers. Rasul is a battle-scarred veteran of Kurdish rebellions against former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Kurdish members of the Iraqi Parliament say the resignations threaten the delicate balance of power in Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. It has been the most stable part of the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. \"It looks very serious,\" said Ala Talabani, the president's niece and a PUK member, as well as a member of Parliament. She spoke by phone from the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, long a stronghold of the PUK. \"It's about corruption,\" Ala Talabani said of the resignations. \"They are asking about the resources and the money. Who is spending it. And who is in charge of the income of the party.\" \"It's not good,\" said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Iraqi Parliament and an independent Kurdish politician. \"The PUK is one of the main two [Kurdish] players,\" he added. \"A problem like this will upset the whole situation.\" Iraqi Kurdistan broke free from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf War. Since then, the region has been divided between two rival Kurdish factions, Talabani's PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barzani. For several years throughout the 1990s, the groups battled each other in the mountains and valleys of northern Iraq. Those historic divisions faded somewhat following the United States' overthrow of Hussein. For the past five years, the Kurds have worked together in Baghdad to enhance the Kurdish region's position in Iraq. Kurdish politicians deftly took advantage of divisions between Sunni and Shi'a Arab factions. They successfully lobbied to maintain Kurdistan's militia of pesh merga fighters. Demands to expand the Kurdish zone of control and win the right to exploit oil deposits in Kurdish territory have increased tensions between Kurdish and Arab politicians. The resignation of Rasul and his allies threatens the power base of Talabani, the first Kurdish president in Iraqi history. \"If it is not fixed by Talabani by tomorrow, this could change the entire landscape of Kurdish politics,\" said Hiwa Osman, the Iraq country director of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Iraq's three northern Kurdish provinces are scheduled to hold regional elections in May. Talabani is expected to travel to Kurdistan to hold emergency meetings with Rasul and his other former comrades-in-arms. This is not the first time the stout Kurdish leader has faced a rebellion from within the ranks of his followers. Kurdish observers say these disputes usually stem from disagreements over money and power.","highlights":"5 politicians in Kurdish Iraqi President Talabani's PUK party resign .\nPUK and Kurdistan Democratic Party rivals for power in Kurdistan .\nOfficial says resignations are over corruption, questions of where money goes .\nResignations could threaten power base of Talabani, first Kurdish president .","id":"3e72553ce77e7d7592aaf3014bd18a33162064da"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iran may be holding a former FBI agent in a bid to exchange him for Iranians seized by U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007, a U.S. senator suggested Tuesday. Christine Levinson, wife of Robert Levinson, went to Tehran in 2007 to try to learn her husband's fate. Robert Levinson disappeared from Iran's Kish Island in March 2007. Iranian authorities have repeatedly said they don't have any information on him, but that is widely doubted in the United States. \"On several diplomatic occasions when Bob Levinson's name has been brought up to Iranian officials, the standard answer is, 'We don't know anything about that.' But the next thing out of the Iranian officials' mouths are to discuss the matter of the Iranians held by the Americans in Irbil, Iraq,\" Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, told reporters. \"You can draw your own conclusions.\" U.S. troops arrested five Iranians accused of being members of an elite Iranian military unit during a January 2007 raid in the Kurdish city of Irbil. They were accused of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq, but Iran said they were diplomats and accused the United States of violating international law by raiding a consulate. The United States said the men were taken at a liaison office that lacks diplomatic status. Two were released the next November. Nelson and Florida Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler, whose district includes Levinson's Coral Springs home, are trying to jump-start efforts to find the missing man. Wexler said Iranian authorities have not assisted the Levinsons, saying they have \"zero knowledge\" of his whereabouts and are stonewalling \"any effort to gain pertinent information.\" Levinson's wife, Christine, said her husband was working as a private investigator on a cigarette smuggling case when he disappeared. \"It's been extremely difficult for my family,\" she said. \"We hope to resolve this as soon as possible.\" Wexler and Nelson said they plan to introduce legislation in their respective houses calling on Iran to cooperate with the United States and come up with information about Levinson. Nelson said Iran could use Levinson's case as a show of good will toward the incoming Obama administration, which has said it wants to engage Iran after three decades without diplomatic relations. \"We hope that Iran will take this moment in time to show a change in the relationship with the United States by doing this humanitarian gesture for this family,\" he said. In a January 22 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wexler asked that the case be raised \"at the highest levels.\" Nelson raised Levinson's status during Clinton's confirmation hearing. Nelson said the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations has discussed Levinson's case with him under the \"fiction\" that he represents the people of Florida, not the U.S. government. But he said the Iranians have never acknowledged holding the former federal agent. Levinson had been working as a private investigator in Dubai and was last heard from on March 8, 2007. His family said he checked into a hotel on Kish Island and then checked out the next day to go back to the United States, but he never boarded his flight. Levinson family members have met with local Iranian officials and have traveled to Iran to retrace his steps. Christine Levinson also flew to the United Nations in September to ask questions about her husband, whom she says suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. The family has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to his safe return. The State Department and FBI have consistently denied Levinson was working for the government and have demanded Iran free Levinson -- if it is holding him. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the U.S. government has called on Iran to provide more information about the matter \"for some time.\" \"His family's extremely concerned, as you can understand, that no information has been forthcoming,\" Wood said. \"So, again, we call on the Iranians to provide whatever information they have on Mr. Levinson so that we can hopefully return this gentleman to his family.\"","highlights":"Robert Levinson disappeared almost two years ago from Iranian island .\nFlorida congressman, senator seek new attention from Obama administration .\nSenator says Iranians caught in Iraq always mentioned in conjunction with Levinson .\nIranians say they have \"zero knowledge\" of missing man's whereabouts .","id":"938357445ba10ac9d82bc266aa917983c7845caa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A recent scientific expedition in Colombia's mountainous Darien region has unearthed 10 new species of amphibians, an environmental organization said. A new species of salamander was one of the exciting discoveries in Colombia's Darien region. Scientists with Conservation International on Monday announced the discovery of 10 new species in what's being referred to as a safe haven for frogs located in the west of the country on the border with Panama. The discovery of 10 amphibians, which are believed to be new to science, was the result of a three-week survey of the area, the group said. The new species were discovered as part of a CI program aimed at assessing the ecological health of a given area. Scientists identified nearly 60 species of amphibians, 20 reptiles and 120 species of birds, the group said in a prepared statement. The discoveries come as global extinction rates continue to rise. Experts with Conservation International argue that the discovery is particularly significant since amphibians serve as an accurate gauge of an area's ecological health. Amphibians can act as an early warning sign of pollution such as acid rain due to their porous, absorbent skin. The sensitivity of these species to low level environmental threats can also act as a barometer for human health. Conservation International says the discovery offered renewed optimism. \"The high number of new amphibian species found is a sign of hope, even with the serious threat of extinction that this animal group faces in many other regions of the country and the world, \" says Jose Vicente Rodriguez Mahecha, Scientific Director of CI-Colombia, who was part of the team that discovered the new species. The region is, however, not immune to modern threats. According to Conservation International, between 25 percent to 30 percent of the natural vegetation in the Darien area is currently being deforested. For the scientists, the hope now is that the discoveries will renew efforts to conserve the region and manage its rich biodiversity.","highlights":"Ten new species of amphibians found in Colombia near border with Panama .\nConservation International says the discovery offered renewed optimism .\n25-30 percent of vegetation in the Darien area is currently being deforested .","id":"869ca6636dfe98eaec685e17374723c2180a222a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Israel was founded on democratic principles with the Jewish state's declaration of independence in 1948 including a commitment to the \"complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.\" It has remained a continuous democracy ever since. The 120-seat Knesset is the Israeli seat of government. The seat of Israeli government is the Knesset, the country's national parliament, located in Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital. The Knesset's 120 lawmakers are elected by universal suffrage with all Israeli citizens over the age of 18 entitled to vote. Knesset seats are divided according to each party's proportion of the overall vote. But parties must poll at least two percent nationally to gain a seat. Participation in elections, including among Arab Israelis who constitute around 20 percent of the population, has traditionally been high at around 80 percent turnout, according to Israeli government figures. Israel currently has around 5.3 million eligible voters. Israel usually holds national elections every four years. But this year's poll on February 10 was called early -- less than three years since the last vote -- by Israeli President Shimon Peres following the resignation of prime minister Ehud Olmert amid allegations of corruption and his Kadima Party successor Tzipi Livni's failure to form a coalition. Olmert has continued to serve as caretaker prime minister in the interim. Coalitions of two or more parties are common in Israel; in fact no party has ever won enough votes to form a government by itself. Those remaining outside the ruling coalition make up the opposition. Thirty-four parties will participate in the 2009 elections, including major parties such as Kadima, Likud and Labor and also three Arab parties. The task of forming and leading a government is charged by Israel's president to the Knesset member and party leader considered to have the best chance of forming a viable coalition. The prime minister-designate then has 28 days, extendable by 14 days, to build a coalition commanding the support of at least 61 Knesset members. Officials results are due to be published on February 18 with the new Knesset convening on March 2.","highlights":"Israel goes to the polls in national elections on February 10 .\n34 parties bidding for 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament .\nTurnout among Israel's 5.3 million eligible voters expected to be high .\nElection follows collapse of Kadima-led coalition, resignation of ex-PM Ehud Olmert .","id":"26eb182596399e9da140c307a1191958f1e198d3"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Marxist guerrillas admit they recently killed eight Indians whom the rebels accused of collaborating with the Colombian government, media outlets reported Tuesday. In Bogota, Colombia, last week, Luis Evelis Andrade denounces the killings of Indians by FARC rebels. Human rights organizations and a state governor last week had accused the the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC, of killing at least 27 Awa Indians in southwest Colombia in the past two weeks. The FARC issued a statement dated February 11 saying the guerrillas detained and \"executed\" eight people on February 6 in the town of Rio Bravo because the Indians were gathering information about the rebels to give to the Colombian military. The FARC statement was posted Tuesday by the New Colombia News Agency and Caracol Radio's Web site. The statement said the guerrillas were not targeting indigenous populations but took the action \"against people who independent of their race, religion, ethnicity, social condition etc. accepted money and put themselves at the service of the army in an area that is the object of military operations.\" The FARC communication also urged the Indians not to be manipulated by government officials who say the guerrillas are out to harm indigenous populations. \"They know of our respect for the civil community,\" the statement said, adding that a government that \"never has looked out for these indigenous communities and has plunged them into war can't be their defenders. They are their executioners!\" Last week, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called the FARC \"executioners\" for killing Indians. \"Let the world know: The Democratic Security [forces] protect the indigenous because it is for all Colombians,\" Uribe said. \"And the FARC deceive the country, they assassinate the indigenous.\" The governor of Narino state, Navarro Wolff, said last week the FARC had killed 10 Awa in one incident a few days earlier and 17 others the previous week. Luis Evelis Andrade of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym ONIC, said the FARC had targeted the Awa because the Indians don't want to get involved in the armed struggle and refuse to reveal information on government troop actions. Speaking on Caracol TV, ONIC said the FARC has abducted 120 Awa since February 4 and 44 Awa have been killed this year. Others also shared their concern. \"We are very worried about the Awa community,\" said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. \"It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups.\" The Awa, he said, \"are pacifist, want respect of their organization and want to regain their traditions. We have been accompanying them in this process, and that's why this hurts so much.\" Colombian Attorney General Alejandro Ordonez Maldonado ordered the nation's human rights commissioner to launch an investigation and take steps to help the Awa. The Human Rights Watch organization said Wednesday that the guerrillas tortured some of the Awa before killing them with knives. \"These cruel killings violate the most basic principles of human decency and dignity,\" said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch. \"There is no possible excuse or justification for these horrific actions.\" Monsignor Ruben Salazar Gomez, the president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, joined last week's chorus of criticism, calling the killings a \"very grave ... crime the whole country should condemn.\" New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a release that group members have made numerous visits to Narino, which is one of Colombia's 32 departments, or states. Narino is in southwest Colombia, on the Pacific Ocean and the border with Ecuador. The area has a heavy presence of various armed groups and Colombian military forces and has among the worst human rights conditions in Colombia, the human rights group said. The Awa territories have been particularly affected. The Colombian government has issued a \"risk report\" warning that civilians in the region are in danger. The FARC is said to have \"confined\" some villages, cutting them off from the outside world and not allowing anyone to enter or leave. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts say the FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings, bombings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador.","highlights":"Statement from rebel group FARC takes responsibility for slayings of 8 Indians .\nFARC says the victims were \"executed\" for helping Colombian government .\nIndians say FARC targets them because they want to stay out of armed struggle .\nHuman Rights Watch says rebels tortured some Indians before killing them .","id":"2abf786570b9f9de945c70d9678cb67dd2a2e57e"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil called Wednesday for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change in tactics on the war on drugs, a Spanish news agency said. People march in support of legalized marijuana in late January in Belem, northern Brazil. Ex-presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil made their announcement at a meeting in Brazil of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, the EFE news agency said. \"The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices and fears and not on results,\" Gaviria said at a news conference in which the commission's recommendations were presented. The 17-member panel worked on the report for a year and will forward it to all Latin American governments as well as the United States and the European Union, EFE said. Gaviria said the time is right to start a debate on the subject, particularly with the pragmatic openings provided by the election of President Barack Obama in the United States. \"In many states in the United States, as is the case in California, they have begun to change federal policies with regard to tolerating marijuana for therapeutic purposes. And in Washington there's some consensus that the current policy is failing,\" EFE quotes Gaviria as saying. Decriminalization should be accompanied by treatment for addicts and public service campaigns on abuse prevention, the commission said. \"If you don't help those who are dependent, you are half way there because they are going to commit crime to get money and pay for the drug,\" Gaviria said. Cardoso said the group called for only the decriminalization of marijuana and not other illicit drugs because \"you have to start somewhere\" and it would have been unrealistic to ask the same for all drugs, EFE said. Marijuana was chosen because it is grown in all countries in the region and because it is \"less harmful.\" The decades-old criminalization of personal consumption has failed to stop the plant's cultivation and distribution, the group said. The commission urged that all current criminal prosecution be aimed at drug cartels and organized crime and not marijuana smokers, EFE said. Zedillo did not attend the news conference but worked on the report, Cardoso said. Wednesday's recommendation was the second time in less than a week that a Latin American government official called for decriminalization. A mayor in Peru suggested Friday that the federal government legalize illicit drugs and administer them through the national health ministry. Gusto Sierra, the mayor of the Surquillo district in Lima, said a federal drug law is hypocritical because it allows maximum legally allowed quantities for some drugs and plants but doesn't say where to acquire them, the Peru 21 newspaper reported in a front-page story headlined \"Say yes to drugs?\" Sierra said he will take the matter up with the nation's executive branch. Zedillo served as president of Mexico from 1994-2000. Gaviria was president of Colombia from 1990-94. And Cardoso led Brazil from 1995-2002.","highlights":"Ex-presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia urge decriminalization of marijuana .\nLeaders urge treatment for addicts, public service campaigns on abuse prevention .\nCriminal prosecution should target drug cartels, not users, former leaders say .","id":"80754c02b5580c40b8aaa1671f97b13e39e2cf43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Malmo is a shopper's heaven. Most stores are within walking distance of the city center, and unlike in neighboring Copenhagen, where shops are usually shut all day on Sunday, most department stores and shopping centers are open seven days a week. Select from modern and classic designs at the shop at the Form Design Center. Stock up on souvenirs at the stores around Lilla Torg. Hokeriet, an old-fashioned general store, sells a variety of collectibles and interesting gifts while hand-painted Swedish wooden clogs are a specialty of Toffelmakaren. Venture into the picturesque Gamla Vaster neighborhood and you'll find chic boutiques like Issue (Stora Nygatan 25a) which stocks designer labels like Marc by Marc Jacobs and Rag & Bone. Fashion mavens will also want to check out the eclectic label Robert & Blad (Norra Grangesbergsgatan 4), which is known for making well-cut clothes in good fabrics. Kit of Elsinore (Rodergatan 2) in the trendy Western Harbor neighborhood is another spot to hit for of-the-moment style. If you want the convenience of a big shopping center, you can find just about anything at Hansa (Malmborgsgatan 6) and Triangeln (Sodra Forstadsgatan 41), which are both centrally located. If you have a weakness for shoes, check out the feminine footwear at Scardia, which recently moved from its flagship store in Master Johannsgatan to Hansa. Scandinavia is synonymous with good design and you don't have to go far in Malmo to find examples to take home. A variety of contemporary and classic designs are on sale in the shop at the Form Design Center in Hedmanska Garden. Also check out Formagruppen (Engelbrektsgatan 8) and Olsson & Gerthel (Engelbrektsgatan 9), which are both located nearby. Looking to spruce up your home? David Design (Skeppsbron 3) specializes in sophisticated interior design. Design Torget (Sodra Vallgatan 3) is the perfect place to find a gift for that someone who's impossible to buy for. The shop showcases independent designers and sells everything from unique kitchen utensils to quirky toys for kids. New items are added to its shelves every week. Take a break from your shopping extravaganza at Saluhallen, the covered market on Lilla Torg that is a tourist attraction it is own right. Stalls sell everything from sushi and kebabs to baked potatoes and bagels. If you're into buying green, Drottningtorget is the place for you. Here you'll find Morot & Annat, which sells everything from organically produced textiles to produce. Nearby Uma Bazaar (Ostra Forstadsg 13) stocks a wide range of fair-trade clothing produced by a women's collective in India. .................... Malmo City Guide: Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . Do you agree with our Malmo picks? Share your comments and suggestions in the SoundOff below.","highlights":"Swedish clogs and traditional wooden toys make great souvenirs .\nIf you're in to eco-friendly shopping, head to Drottningtorget .\nFind gifts for people who are impossible to buy for at Design Torget .\nFor fashion-forward apparel, check out local designers like Robert & Blad .","id":"3bb0115e2c06dd6f6480bfef18b74654ea93baae"} -{"article":"MALMO, Sweden (CNN) -- The breathy vocals of Nina Persson helped launch The Cardigans onto the music scene in the 1990s. The band developed its dreamy pop sound in the Southern Swedish town of Malmo. Singer Nina Persson finds musical inspiration in love and relationships. They were catapulted to international success in 1997, when the single \"Lovefool\" appeared on the soundtrack for \"Romeo and Juliet,\" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The song's chorus (\"Love me, love me, say that you love me\") became a pop anthem. In addition to fronting The Cardigans, Persson, 34, has worked on solo projects under the name A Camp. Now, after a near decade long hiatus, her second A Camp album, \"Colonia,\" is due out later this month. Persson, who splits her time between New York and Malmo, talks to CNN's \"My City, My Life\" about music, inspiration and life after \"Lovefool.\" CNN: How did The Cardigans start? Nina Persson: We formed the band in this town where we are all originally from -- Jonkoping -- and that was in 1992. Magnus and Peter were the two guys who actually met and wanted to form the band. And then they recruited people and I was one of the first to be recruited, along with a friend of mine who played guitar in the first version of The Cardigans. I had not sung before that really. I was sort of hired because they knew they wanted a girl singing. And I was like 'I'm a girl' and I guess we got along well and I was willing to learn to sing. So that's how it started really. Watch Nina take CNN on a tour of her favorite Malmo spots \u00bb . CNN: How big was music in your life before you joined the band? Nina Persson: I've loved music my whole life. But I never really listened to a record and thought that was something that I wanted to do. I was interested in becoming a painter, an architect, a designer. Those are the things I was interested in. But music, I never took instrument classes -- it was a random thing to start doing. CNN: Sometime a career finds you? Nina Persson: Yeah and I was a person who was really helped by it. I was looking for something but I didn't know what it was and it proved to fulfill what I needed at the time. CNN: How is A Camp different from The Cardigans? Nina Persson: It's hard to say what makes it different because I'm still doing the same thing -- I'm still writing songs and singing them -- but it feels like it's a bigger freedom because I am in charge in A Camp. I like both. Both serve good purposes. I like to be in the collective, being part of the machinery, but I also really enjoy being dictator. CNN: How do you define yourself as a musician now? Nina Persson: Well I'm not. I'm not one of these people who live and breathe music. In the beginning I was a reluctant musician -- I still haven't bothered to learn an instrument. I'm still only a singer and that's how I write my songs. I'm always superstitious that if I do learn an instrument I would pop the bubble a bit. CNN: Is there anything else you would have liked to have done if you hadn't done singing? Nina Persson: At the time when I was found, picked up by the band, I was into art. I was really good at drawing, really creative. I made stuff, I built stuff, I sewed stuff. I thought I would end up in that world somewhere. Photography was a big thing for me. In retrospect, I'm sure that could have been a good career for me. But recently I've started to wish that I could start over and dedicate my life to medicine. I would have loved to go to med school. I don't think I will because I don't want to spend seven or eight years in training, but I dream about working in a hospital. CNN: What were your inspirations over the years? Nina Persson: That's an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I think I'm a sucker for constantly going back to the subject of love and relationships. It also varies very much from project to project and month to month. I'm very emotional when it comes to the music. I want to make people cry. CNN: Tell us the story of how the band ended up in Malmo. See photos of Nina in Malmo \u00bb . Nina Persson: We moved here because we started to record in Tambourine Studios which was here. Most studios are in Stockholm so sort of all roads wanted to drag us to Stockholm but we did persist and came here. CNN: When you came to Malmo, what was it like starting out in the early days? Nina Persson: Our parents helped us move down here which was really sweet. They sort of dropped us off and waved goodbye and we moved in. We really did hang out, the five of us, quite exclusively in the beginning. CNN: What was the area like back then? Has it changed? Nina Persson: Well actually the area where I now live hasn't changed that much. A lot of Malmo has moved away from the blue collar past it has, but not that area. It has strangely remained the same, and I like it. CNN: Do you think the gritty atmosphere of Malmo has helped you stay grounded? Nina Persson: Well it's hard to say how much has to do with the people we are or how much to do with Malmo. But there certainly is something here that does not encourage big headedness. CNN: The musical heritage of Malmo is quite rocky. How did you guys fit in? Nina Persson: People thought we were really ridiculous when we came to this totally rock place and played pop music. So we didn't fit in at all -- we were never part of the scene here. CNN: You were happy to be outsiders of the rocky heritage? Nina Persson: I think we felt sort of cool about doing our own thing. We thought we knew something that the others didn't understand. CNN: Is there something about Malmo that helps shape your music or influence you? Nina Persson: I think Malmo did have a big influence on us. Obviously we came here for the sound, and we got the sound we wanted. We were away from the industry -- that was great for us. I really did appreciate being in a place where there is not a lot whole of press and industry. Nina takes . CNN: So you also live in New York. What brings you back to Malmo? Nina Persson: For me, I love Malmo very much because of my friendships. In Malmo I get the intimacy and get to run into my friends in the street once in a while which is a lovely feeling and I get to have a great grocery store just around the corner. CNN: If Malmo was a person, what kind of person would it be? Nina Persson: It would be somebody who has been around for a while and survived a lot of hardships -- somebody you don't mess with, somebody really intelligent, stubborn, with a lot of beauty on the inside.","highlights":"Cardigans' singer discusses Malmo, the group's adopted hometown .\nThe band moved to the Southern Swedish city for a particular sound, she says .\nPersson talks about the \"bigger freedom\" that comes with her solo projects .\nInspired by love and relationships, she wants her music \"to make people cry\"","id":"e8d4cde9daa33532ed1b0800b1a7ae799ee5f218"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militants fired a long-range rocket from Gaza into southwestern Israel on Tuesday morning. It was the first such attack into the city of Ashkelon since the two sides declared a cease-fire, the Israeli military said. This aerial view shows the power station and industrial zone of Ashkelon, Israel, in March of 2008. The missile fired from a Grad rocket launcher did not cause any injuries or damage in the coastal city, said a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. Rockets fired from a Grad have a longer range than the crude, home-made Qassams that Palestinian militants in Gaza fire more frequently. Militants have used Grads to strike farther into Israel. Ashkelon lies 12 miles (19 km) north of Gaza. Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, declared separate, tentative cease-fires two weeks ago after more than three weeks of fighting in Gaza. Israel launched the attack on Hamas in Gaza on December 27 with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks on southern Israel. More than 1,300 Palestinians died and about 5,400 others were wounded. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, were also killed in the fighting. Since the two sides declared a cease-fire on January 21, militants have sporadically fired rockets into Israel. Israel has responded with air strikes. CNN's Igor Krotov contributed to this report.","highlights":"It's the first attack into Ashkelon since cease-fire two weeks ago .\nCoastal city of Ashkelon is about 12 miles north of Gaza .\nIsraeli Defense Forces say missile didn't cause any damage or injuries .\nPalestinians say more than 1,300 died after recent Israeli attacks on Hamas .","id":"3defbb6415c7cf02fc59d9453962bd5e7d539b6f"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian officials are blaming the FARC guerrilla group for a car bombing late Sunday at a police station in Cali that killed two people and wounded at least 14. Residents check out a destroyed police building after a car bombing Sunday night in Cali, Colombia. It was the second bombing in Colombia attributed to the Marxist guerrilla group in less than a week. An explosion at a Blockbuster video rental store in an upscale Bogota neighborhood Tuesday killed two and wounded more than 20. The suspect in Sunday night's attack was killed in a shootout with police after the explosion, Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said Monday, hours after convening a special security meeting in the middle of the night. \"Although the explosive device only had moderate impact,\" Ospina said on the Cali government Web site, \"we should not forget we are at war and the FARC has been committing terrorist acts in Bogota, Neiva, Cali and other cities in the country. That's why we cannot let our guard down, since they take advantage of Sundays and city centers, where control is more difficult.\" The explosion came just hours after the rebel group released four hostages in what many interpreted as a gesture to reach a peace accord with the government. Two officials also are slated to be released this week. FARC, which is the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the largest and oldest revolutionary group in the nation and has been at war with the government for more than 40 years. According to Ospina, a blue and red Renault 12 Break pickup crashed into the police headquarters in Cali at 10:38 p.m. and then exploded. The driver tried to flee but was felled by two shots from uniformed police and died a few hours later at a hospital, the mayor said. The explosion caused damage in a two-block area, the Cali news Web site Semana.com said. Five of the 14 wounded were minors, Ospina said, citing emergency director Laureano Quintero. The injured are suffering from fractures and other wounds not considered life-threatening, he said. Cali's health minister, Alejandro Varela, said earlier 32 were wounded, including a pregnant woman who was in good condition. Others complained of hearing problems. The mayor's office said the previous higher tally could be a result of people not wounded in the bombing but seeking medical attention to receive government help. Three police were wounded, including a major with a broken arm and an officer who had to have three fingers amputated on his left hand, said the police chief, Gustavo Adolfo Ricaurte Tapia. The bombing caused a temporary power outage, which made security more difficult for officials, said the news Web site Burladero.com. It was the fourth bombing in Cali in less than 42 months, Semana.com said. The latest bombing took place about five blocks from the Palace of Justice, which was blasted by a car bomb in August, killing four and wounding 26. Police buildings were bombed in April 2007 and August 2006. The earlier blast killed five and wounded 17, Semana.com said. Security analysts say FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group was established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. The guerrillas operate mostly in Colombia but have carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, according to the Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program. Authorities said Sunday night's bomb contained 90 kilograms (198 pounds) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel, a commonly used explosive, Semana.com said. By comparison, the bomb that Timothy McVeigh used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, contained more than 2,800 kilos (6,200 pounds) of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel.","highlights":"Car bombing at police station in Cali, Colombia, kills two people, wounds at least 14 .\nFARC rebels also blamed for last week's bombing at video rental store in Bogota .\nSuspect in Cali attack dies in shootout with police after blast, mayor says .\nCali explosion comes hours after FARC releases four hostages .","id":"e05eabdb8162da01f536fdaadf5d4fb854f6cdba"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN has asked its journalists across the country to offer their thoughts on how the economic crisis is affecting their cities. In this installment, Bob Crowley reports from Boston, Massachusetts. Hardware store owner Brendan Kenney says \"people who have money should go out and spend it.\" BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Brendan Kenney has seen enough bad news about the economy. \"I'm also getting tired of being worried,\" he says. His family has been running a small hardware store in Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, for about 56 years. He says business has slowed down a little, but mostly because winter is normally the slow time of year for them. Though he hopes the stimulus plan will help his and other small businesses, he believes people shouldn't be afraid. \"I think the American consumer holds a lot of power,\" he continues. \"I think people who have money should go out and spend it.\" Like many in the Boston area, Kenney doesn't want to hear more discouraging stories and sees that as part of the problem. \"It's just negative story after negative story, kind of creating a crisis of confidence.\" Watch Boston-area reaction to the economic slump \u00bb . South of Boston, Jose Nieto, from Plainville, has his own reasons to be discouraged. Between September and October of last year, he was laid off twice. Nieto, a civil engineer who works on road construction projects, had felt fortunate. After losing his job of 14 years, he was able to find employment after only being out of work for two weeks. After being on the new job for three weeks, however, he got called into the boss's office. \"I said, 'Oh, no. My God, not again.'\" He was faced with looking for work in an industry that traditionally slows down in the winter months. \"It's more than losing your job. It gives you a feeling of rejection,\" he says. Yet, Nieto feels this is a time to learn valuable lessons, especially for those who need to dip into their savings when unemployment checks don't cover all of the bills. \"I think a lot of people will learn from this situation, and, going forward, they'll try to save more money.\" He has been trying to stay healthy, busy and positive. Passing the time working on projects in his basement workshop and taking yoga classes has helped him get through the rough spots, and his luck is turning. He was offered a job that starts in March. \"It is a relief, because I'm employed,\" he says, \"however, I'm taking a job for much less money.\" Nieto believes that most employers cannot afford to hire at the salaries they could offer in the past. Like Kenney's hardware store, Sue Stein's American craft gallery, also in Brookline, is not seeing any major shifts in her business, yet. \"Our business has been certainly down, but not devastating,\" she says. Fire Opal, her gallery, sells everything from earrings to pottery to scarves, all made by artists from around the country. To keep her business healthy, she says, she is trying to make adjustments like buying less merchandise. But she is changing her approach to her customers as well. She says she tries to keep \"understanding that people are having a hard time and trying to find things that are more in their price range.\" Like Kenney and Nieto, Stein is also trying to stay optimistic. \"I think if we all are very careful,\" she says, \"we'll sort of ride it out and then things will adjust.\"","highlights":"Hardware store owner in Boston slams \"negative story after negative story\"\nWorker laid off twice in two months says he's trying to stay positive .\nLayoff also brings on feelings of rejection, worker says .\nGallery owner says business is down but not \"devastating\"","id":"eae1154155c11e1ce91d15350f6f97956e3792b7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts \"Fareed Zakaria: GPS\" on CNN at 1 and 6 p.m. ET Sundays. \"Banks are still reporting large losses, credit remains tight, home prices continue to fall,\" notes Fareed Zakaria. NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Barack Obama offered more detail on his plan to restore economic growth Friday, saying the economic stimulus program being debated in Congress is just one of at least three parts to his recovery plan. In a meeting to discuss the stimulus proposal with Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic and Republican congressional leadership, Obama said America also needs an improved financial system stability program as well as an overhaul of financial market regulation. CNN talked to world affairs expert and author Fareed Zakaria to get his thoughts about the most pressing issues facing the new president. CNN: What should be President Obama's first order of business? Zakaria: Oh, without question, the economy. This is a problem that isn't going away. Banks are still reporting large losses, credit remains tight, home prices continue to fall. It's difficult to tell whether the measures enacted have not had time to work, or that they are not working. But the basic reality remains -- the financial system is in crisis, and as a result, the American economy is in a dangerous paralysis. President Obama needs to focus like a laser beam on this issue above and beyond everything else. CNN: Does that mean foreign policy takes a back seat? Zakaria: Not a back seat, but if I were advising him, I would suggest that he save his presidential time, energy and political capital for the economy. He will probably need to go to Congress soon and ask for more money and more authority. Now, having said all this, the trouble with foreign policy is that it doesn't wait around for you until the time is convenient. Things happen and you have to react to them -- like the violence in Gaza. That's probably why the president called the foreign leaders he did on his first day -- [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, [Saudi] King Abdullah and [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak. He had to make sure that the situation didn't spiral downward. CNN: What's the first major foreign policy problem President Obama should address? Zakaria: Afghanistan. This is his war; the one he said was the right war. And it isn't going well. The Taliban is gaining strength and the central government is losing power and legitimacy. CNN: The Taliban is back? I thought we defeated them. Zakaria: The Taliban was not defeated: They retreated. They retreated into the rural areas of Pakistan. If you remember, the Taliban was born in Pakistan and supported by the Pakistani military as a tool to destabilize Soviet-controlled Afghanistan and India. Since they retreated, they have been able to slowly reassert their influence. Rory Stewart, who was just in Afghanistan, is on our show this week and he mentions that in the past, the Taliban only had a presence in southern Afghanistan. But they now can be found in Kabul. The fact they have such a presence in the capital, an area we considered secure, is very troubling. CNN: Why are they experiencing this support within the country? Zakaria: There are many reasons. But you have to remember, this is still a very poor country that is very fragmented. Security and the rule of law are missing and the Taliban provides it. Barney Rubin remarked that the first thing the Taliban creates when they go into an area is courts. It may not be the type of justice we would like; but for the Afghans it's better than the corrupt system that exists. Also, we shouldn't assume our image of the Taliban is correct. It is a very dynamic organization and changes. We may need to find a way to negotiate with them. CNN: Negotiate with the group that harbored al Qaeda? Zakaria: It may be a political necessity. Rory Stewart said, \"It's not 'what ought we do,' but 'what can we do.'\" He argues that at some point, the reality of troops and money will force us to revaluate our goals and we should start that process now. And there are many other crises America must deal with -- Iraq, Pakistan, sub-Saharan Africa, Iran -- so we can't be obsessed with Afghanistan. Barney Rubin added: The question is, whether we can separate the terrorist al Qaeda connections from the political issues of the Taliban. If that can occur, then it may be possible to find a solution in Afghanistan as [Gen. David] Petraeus helped broker in Iraq. We'll have to wait and see what Gen. Petraeus advises the president and what he decides to do. Done in [the president's] spare time, when he's not handling the economy. [Barnett Rubin is one of the nation's foremost experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan and the author of eight books. Rory Stewart, who lives in Kabul, has traveled extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq and written books about his experiences.] .","highlights":"Fareed Zakaria: Obama should save presidential time, energy for the economy .\nU.S. economy is in dangerous paralysis, says Zakaria .\nZakaria: War in Afghanistan is top foreign policy problem Obama should address .","id":"6de29017a7f8d6a1f92273466087a411faa26210"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pop star George Michael was cautioned by police in London after being arrested in public toilets on suspicion of possessing drugs, the UK's Press Association reported. George Michael has talked candidly about drug use in the past. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said a 45-year-old man had been arrested in the Hampstead Heath area of London on Friday. He was later released with a caution for possession of class A and class C drugs. The statement did not name Michael, but other sources confirmed his identity. Reports Sunday said Michael had been arrested following a tip-off to police from a suspicious toilet attendant, PA said. The 45-year-old, who has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, has talked openly about his use of drugs in the past. In an inteview with the BBC last year he admitted: \"I'm a happy man and I can afford my marijuana so that's not a problem.\" Last May he pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs and was banned from driving for two years after being found slumped behind the wheel of his car.","highlights":"George Michael cautioned after being arrested for drugs in London public toilet .\nPop star was released with a caution for possession of class A, class C drugs .\nPress reports claim police were tipped off by a suspicious toilet attendant .","id":"b5687e4c60fe62a420ae0a076f4358892b54bc2a"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- In the U.S., the film \"Slumdog Millionaire\" barely escaped going straight to video before it caught the eye of moviegoers and critics alike, becoming a sleeper hit and best picture nominee. It's viewed by many observers as the film to beat at the 81st annual Academy Awards. Danny Boyle, left, celebrates with actor Anil Kapoor, right, at the Mumbai premiere of \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" In the city where the movie was shot, Mumbai, India, the recognition came much quicker and more enthusiastically. The Mumbai premiere had all the makings of a scene from a Bollywood blockbuster: Musicians banged on traditional Indian drums as the cast and crew broke into dance on the red carpet in recognition of the 10 Academy Award nominations the film received Thursday. \"It feels like a million nominations,\" said director Danny Boyle, who earned one of the nominations. Watch scenes from the Mumbai premiere \u00bb . Bollywood legend Anil Kapoor, who stars as the host of the Indian version of \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire\" in the movie, said he was with Boyle when the nominations were announced. \"Danny had tears in his eyes, and I couldn't control myself,\" Kapoor said. Watch Kapoor rave about the film \u00bb . But not everyone was celebrating. The film, about a Mumbai orphan seeking fame and love through the \"Millionaire\" game show, has stirred strong emotions among some Indian critics. They found the word \"slumdog\" in the title insulting and complained that the movie romanticizes poverty in India. Film critic Meenakshi Shedde said she was disappointed with the movie. \"What saddened me and annoyed me about the film is that it's a laundry list of India's miseries,\" she said. \"The poverty, the child labor, the beggary, the prostitution, that part of it was just banal, I thought.\" According to the Press Trust of India, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan -- who once hosted the Indian version of \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire\" -- recently cleared the air with Boyle regarding Bachchan's reported criticism of the Golden Globe-winning film. Such negativity was forgotten at the Mumbai premiere, which was attended by several Bollywood celebrities. They said the event marked a proud day for Indian cinema. Loveleen Tandan, who was the film's casting director, said the entire cast was exhilarated by news of the Academy Award nominations. As for her whether she believed \"Slumdog Millionaire\" had a chance at the Oscars, she expressed confidence. \"Now I can say it openly, I have high hopes,\" she said. \"I am sure there's a statue waiting for A.R. Rahman [who composed the film's music and received three nominations] to bring home.\" CNN's Mallika Kapur contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cast and crew celebrate Mumbai premiere of \"Slumdog Millionaire\"\nFilm nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best picture .\nSome in India critical of film's subject matter .","id":"28d7b81f08c84f8898d1658c3869ce377d9b4a4d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Nigerian militant group released pictures Sunday of two Britons identified as captive oil workers, saying the men were \"alive and well\" and that more such Western workers would be taken hostage if the country does not stop exporting its oil wealth. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta released this image of two men it claims are British hostages. The photos, sent in an e-mail by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), show the men, identified as Robin Barry Hughes and Matthew John Maguire, standing on a dirt path wearing dirty shorts and flip flops. The pictures were \"recent,\" MEND said in a written statement, but it is unclear when they were taken. MEND, formed in 2005, has taken American and European oil workers hostages in the past. The group is calling for more of the African nation's oil wealth to be pumped into the region -- instead of going to foreign investors -- and the release of political prisoners. The United States Agency for International Development says more than 70 percent of Nigeria lives on less than a dollar a day -- the population is among the 20 poorest in the world. Nigeria's federal government and oil companies split oil profits roughly 60-40. The money is then supposed to make its way down to the local governments to fund various projects, but little money actually reaches its intended destination. The country's anti-corruption agency estimates between $300 billion to $400 billion has been stolen or wasted over the last 50 years. \"Our policy on kidnapping high value oil workers from Western Europe and North America remains unchanged and will continue to form an integral part of our pressure strategy in the emancipation struggle in 2009,\" MEND said in its statement. Watch special correspondent Lisa Ling meet militant group in a secret location . A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said the government was aware of the pictures. \"We call for their immediate and unconditional release and will remain in close contact with their families,\" the spokeswoman said, though she declined to elaborate on whether the families had seen the photos. \"Our thoughts are with them on this deeply distressful time.\" Violence in oil-rich Nigeria has been limiting crude supplies out of the country. MEND has been attacking oil pipelines in retaliation against government forces, limiting the amount of crude oil that can be exported. MEND also repeated its threat that the men would be held hostage until the Nigerian government releases one of the group's members, Henry Okah, who was taken into custody last year and, according to local reports, is charged with treason.","highlights":"Nigeria is one of world's richest oil states; people are among poorest in world .\nMilitant group MEND demands profits given to Nigerian people .\nMEND is holding two British oil workers captive .\nMEND says more workers will be seized if Nigeria does not stop exporting oil wealth .","id":"328e1ae2c17008e9db7a637163a98c455070a07d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith is confirming the latest buzz: She's been laid off from the New York Post. Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith, 86, has been a fixture of New York tabloids for more than three decades. Confronted with \"economic gales,\" New York Post Editor Col Allan said in a letter sent to Smith that the newspaper would not renew her contract, which expires at the end of the month. \"The Post is grateful to have been able to publish Liz Smith's legendary column for so many years. We wish her the very best for the future,\" Allan said in a statement Tuesday. In an interview with CNN affiliate WABC-TV in New York, Smith noted that Friday \"will be the first time in 33 years that there hasn't been a Liz Smith column in a New York paper.\" \"That hurts my heart. I would hate to see another newspaper fail. ... When I came to New York, there were nine newspapers. I've worked for seven of them. They just disappear out from under you,\" she added. Often referred to as the \"Diva of Dish,\" the 86-year-old Smith has been a presence in New York tabloids for more than three decades. She's written for the New York Post, New York Daily News and Newsday. Smith was also a fixture on local television, appearing on WNBC-TV for more than 10 years. In 2000, she published a memoir, \"Natural Blonde,\" and wrote a nonfiction work in 2005 combining food and gossip, \"Dishing.\" Though her titillating and often penetrating look at the New York social scene may be gone from tabloid pages, Smith will continue to publish, writing five times a week for wowOwow.com, an online community created and run by women for women. In an online statement, WowOwow.com co-founder Joni Evans said that Smith will begin posting next week.","highlights":"For first time in 33 years on Friday, Liz Smith column won't be in a New York paper .\nLetter cites \"economic gales\" in decision not to renew contract .\n\"We wish her the very best for the future,\" says New York Post Editor Col Allan .\nSmith will write five times a week for Web site wowOwow.com .","id":"5a1adaec3de9b78183afb4299154f864840f7abe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For anyone yearning to forget about the recession by escaping to a tropical paradise or relaxing on a cruise, finding great travel deals right now isn't hard. Deciding whether to take advantage of them is another matter. Katie Parker and her husband, Damon Fodge, are going to India soon, but she had second thoughts about the trip. For many Americans, spending money on a getaway may not be a priority, a possibility -- or even the right thing to do -- amid thousands of layoffs, plunging home prices and shrinking portfolios. The general misery is even causing some who can afford a big trip to stay put. Take \"NBC Nightly News\" anchor Brian Williams, who told the blog TVNewser this month that he and his family would skip a vacation in 2009 because it wouldn't seem appropriate during a time of hardship for so many people. \"We were going to try to get away, but it didn't feel right this year,\" Williams told the blog. Other Americans are jetting off, but they're having lots of second thoughts and are watching their wallets closely. Katie Parker, a Web designer who lives in Washington, is going to India next month to meet her husband on the last leg of his international business trip. Parker, 33, said she's excited about the vacation but apprehensive about spending $1,600 for her plane ticket in addition to lodging costs and other expenses during the two-week stay. \"Although I think my job is probably safe, you never really know,\" Parker said. \"Part of me thinks maybe we should have waited on this trip.\" She added, \"But I also feel like it's a once in a lifetime thing. I don't know when I'm going to get another chance to go to India so we're just going to do it.\" Parker and her husband, Damon Fodge, are usually frugal while traveling, staying in hostels and other inexpensive lodgings, she said, but they will be especially careful about spending money during this journey. Parker recalled feeling devastated after a layoff several years ago and said the possibility that it might happen again would be on her mind. Fear factor . The fear over what could happen is causing many people to put their lives on hold and hunker down because they don't feel in control, said Nancy Molitor, a clinical psychologist who practices in suburban Chicago, Illinois. \"There's a huge psychological component to any recession and this one, I think, in particular ... because it's gone on for so long,\" Molitor said. \"Anxiety is contagious.\" She also has heard from patients and friends who are affluent but who feel embarrassed about spending a lot of money on travel right now. Some have \"survivor's guilt\" and are downplaying their vacations instead of feeling excited about them, Molitor said. Brian Morton, a manager at a movie studio in Los Angeles, California, said talking about his travel plans with friends who are already unemployed -- and for whom travel is out of the question -- can be uncomfortable. \"You don't want to seem like you're bragging,\" he said. Morton, 37, is planning to spend at least $3,500 on a weeklong trip to Aruba this summer, even though there have been layoffs in his industry and he's not entirely sure his job is safe. \"I don't think I'm going to stop vacationing just because of the recession,\" he said. \"[But] I scrutinize my budget a little bit more. ... I want to get the most bang for my buck when it comes to hotels and that kind of thing.\" Where the deals are . Americans such as Morton who are willing to travel right now may find globe-trotting much more affordable than before. Watch tips for finding the best airfares \u00bb . \"It's the best time in years to book a vacation; the deals are outstanding,\" said Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor at Travelocity. Hotels are offering some of the best values, especially in cities such as Las Vegas, Nevada; New York; and San Diego, California, she added. Bargains also can be found in Hawaii and Canada. Watch how to find off-season deals \u00bb . For sea lovers, cruises are among of the best values this year, Shaw Brown said, though she urged people to consider the additional money they might have to spend on shore excursions, alcohol and other extras. Depending on where you go, the current travel discounts and incentives can mean that a vacation that might have cost $4,000 a year ago now costs $2,500, said Rey Alton, leisure marketing director at Travel Leaders\/Almeda Travel in Houston, Texas. \"Some people say, 'I'm going to have to hold off until next year or maybe the year afterward,' but [those who want to travel now] are really the ones who are finding deals,\" he said. Mexico and the Caribbean are the biggest destinations on sale right now, he added. Molitor urged people to be mindful of their budgets but to try to avoid thinking they're stuck and have no options. \"If they get away to a vacation that they could afford, that could be very good for them,\" Molitor said. \"Some people are so down that they're missing opportunities.\"","highlights":"Travel deals abound, but some people are reluctant to spend money during crisis .\n\"Anxiety is contagious,\" even for those with steady incomes, psychologist says .\nSome affluent Americans may feel embarrassed about spending a lot on travel .\n\"It's the best time in years to book a vacation,\" a Travelocity editor says .","id":"8aba24af67a2917a4e912290078d24690cfb52ef"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The global health community has been battling tuberculosis for more than a century, yet the disease still thrives. TB, which is contagious and spreads through the air when an infected person coughs, spits or sneezes, strikes everywhere, but predominately affects the poor. The countries most affected by TB are the so-called high-burden ones, or the 22 countries identified by the World Health Organization that combined contribute 80 percent of the global burden of TB. Many health care systems in these nations don't have the resources, drugs and diagnostics to effectively deal with the disease, according to Dr. Mel Spigelman, director of research and development at the not-for-profit Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance). \"But even if we upgraded those systems, the lack of a really effective vaccine, the lack of better and faster drugs that shorten treatment to a reasonable time and the lack of good drugs for treating resistant disease -- make it hard for any health care system to effectively deal with the disease,\" he said. TB is usually treated with a combination of antibiotics administered for six to 24 months. But many patients fail to finish the long course of treatment, which has led to the emergence of deadly strains of the disease that can't be wiped out by the usual drugs. There hasn't been a new class of TB drugs developed in 40 years, Because it is mainly a disease of poverty, there hasn't really been a commercial market for new drugs, Spigelman noted. However, growing awareness of the disease has led to greater emphasis being placed on finding new treatments. Scientists at Rutgers University recently developed a group of antibiotic compounds that could be strong enough to combat even drug-resistant strains of TB. The project is exciting but is still in an early phase, according to Spigelman. He said it could be a good 10 years before a drug based on that research is available. \"We're going in the right direction, but unfortunately, the resources - given the magnitude of the problem - are still a small fraction of what is needed to have great chance of coming up with something that will turn the tide,\" he said.","highlights":"Tuberculosis is a disease of poverty .\nThere hasn't been a new class of TB drugs developed in 40 years .\nA funding shortfall could hamper the global fight against the disease .","id":"a430f3f657df3298d0a13e3a2fa2030622f8dcc5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- First trip to Malmo? Here's some insider advice to help you get the most out of your visit. Locals like to take a cold dip after a sauna at Ribersborgs Kallbadhus. Getting around town Most of Malmo's attractions are reachable by foot, but flat terrain and an abundance of cycle paths also make the city ideal to explore by bike. Rentals run around 120 kronor. You can also jump on the eco-friendly buses that criss-cross the city. Visit the tourist office at Central Station for maps. If you opt for a taxi, be sure to set the price of the trip with the driver before setting off. Ice cool For more than a century, locals have been visiting the Ribersborgs Kallbadhus for a steam in the sauna followed by a dip in the Baltic. The swimming baths are open year-round. If you want to blend in with the locals, brave the elements and hit the baths in the winter for an icy plunge. A better time to visit for the less adventurous is in the summer, when the baths are open for sunbathing. Living green As part of its post-industrial transformation, Malmo has become a leader in environmental design. The city's green achievements are reflected by the Bo01 housing development, a waterfront regeneration project with a focus on environmentally-friendly living. For the latest in green design, visit the Western Harbor and Augustenborg neighborhoods. For a more informed look, contact the local Environmental Department, which occasionally offers free guided tours of the city's ecologically sustainable areas. Around the Sound Malmo is located just 35 minutes by train from the Danish capital of Copenhagen, and every day thousands travel between the two cities via the Oresund Bridge. Trains leave from Malmo every 20 minutes for most of the day. After midnight, service is less frequent. The two cities are part of Scandinavia's Oresund region -- the transnational area made up of southern Sweden and eastern Denmark. The best way to explore the Oresund region is with an \"Around the Sound\" ticket, which gives you access to all the trains you need to travel around the area, including the ride across the Oresund Bridge. You can make as many stops as you want as long as you travel in one direction. Tickets are good for two days and also get you discounts to the major attractions in the region. Prices depend on how far you travel and start from 199 kronor. Feasting on crayfish Swedes are crazy about crayfish, and outdoor festivities celebrating the crustacean are held across the nation to mark the end of summer. In Malmo, head to Stortorget, the city's main square, for one of the biggest crayfish parties in the world. The massive celebration is held annually to kick off the popular Malmo Festival. Swedes like their crayfish cooked in salty water infused with dill. Blend in with the locals by eating it cold with toast and beer. To really get into the tradition, wash down the crayfish with akvavit, a Scandinavian kind of vodka.","highlights":"Walking is the cheapest and easiest way to explore Malmo .\nHave a steam followed by an icy dip in the sea for a truly local experience .\nEnjoy a two-nation vacation by taking a trip to nearby Copenhagen .\nFeasting on crayfish is a traditional way to mark the end of summer .","id":"fd038ea3b53fa758e5bc8cc5932ad0264b63601d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just west of Seville in Spain, a sea of giant mirrors is reflecting the sun's energy to provide \"concentrated solar power\" (CSP) while illuminating the path to a new wave of green energy projects. Shining beacon: The concentrated solar power plant in Sanlucar, Spain is the first of its kind. The 624 carefully positioned mirrors reflect the sun's heat towards a 50 meter-tall central tower where it is concentrated and used to boil water into steam. The superheated steam is then used to turn a turbine that can produce up to 11 megawatts of electricity -- enough power for 6,000 homes -- according Solucar, the Spanish company that has built the power plant. While traditional solar panels, photovoltaic cells, convert the sun's power directly into electricity, CSP focuses power from a wide area and uses the vast heat generated to make electricity in a similar way to that produced from coal or oil. The Spanish tower, known as PS10, is the first phase of an ambitious development. By 2013 it is hoped that additional towers will create a \"solar farm\" with an output of 300 megawatts, which would be enough power for 180,000 homes, or equivalent to the entire population of nearby Seville. This $1.5 billion project is the largest commercial CSP station in the world -- so far. But many believe the technology will soon take off in areas of continuous hot sun and clear skies, offering a cheaper and more efficient alternative to photovoltaic cells, and bringing jobs and money to arid, often depressed areas. CSP also produces no greenhouses gasses and the only pollution is visual. The European Union has invested over $31 million in CSP research over the last ten years. At least 50 CSP projects have been given permission to begin construction across Spain. By 2015 the country may be producing two gigawatts of electricity from CSP, and employing thousands in the industry. One of the strengths of CSP is that it allows the construction of power stations on a scale that can match many fossil fuel based plants, and for an investment far less than that required to install the equivalent wattage of photovoltaic cells. There is also the possibility that production can keep going around the clock -- even when the sun has gone down. Solucar is currently testing technology at a plant near Granada that will pump 50 percent of the electricity generated in the day into the Spanish national grid, and use the other 50 percent to melt salt, which will then act as a kind of battery, storing the sun's power. When dusk falls, the heat stored in the molten salt can be used to generate power through the night. \"These technologies excite me,\" says Dr Jeff Hardy, Network Manager at the UK Energy Research Council. \"One of the real advantages is that you can get a decent sized power plant. \"The main challenge with the technology is working with extreme heat, but then a lot of the back-end is very similar to a traditional fossil-fuel generation; you are after all just dealing with water heated to make steam and drive a turbine.\" Concentrating on promoting CSP worldwide . As America looks to increase the contribution of renewables to its overall energy mix -- a key part of the Obama plan before the recession turbocharged Government funding for such \"green\" infrastructure projects -- the potential of CSP technology is obvious. The Spanish company responsible for the Sanlucar la Mayor plant has seen the potential and created Solucar Power, Inc., a subsidiary aiming to develop the market in the USA. There is already a huge Solar Energy Generating Systems' CSP station in the Mojave Desert, California; Spanish firm Acciona has built a plant near Las Vegas. Many more are surely on their way. One bold projection estimates that a single plant 100 miles by 100 miles located in the American South West could generate enough electricity for the whole country. It would obviously be a huge undertaking -- politically, financially and scientifically -- but it's not hard to imagine such a scheme finding a home in the nation's vast, empty quarter. Other equally arid areas may also find themselves transformed, and CSP may be able to offer valuable foreign earnings for drought-stricken Africa -- while giving Europe the green energy it needs. According to Dr Hardy the technology has a ready application, given the right political, environmental and economic context. \"Concentrated Solar Power is proven to do well in countries like Spain with a favorable government policies and the right climate,\" he says. \"I can certainly see the potential for extended networks linking together, and the idea of a North African grid linking renewable resources is a real possibility.\" Providing power, jobs and money . The Sahara, the world's largest desert, is fringed by some of the poorest countries in the world and the harsh environment has always been seen as a problem, with it's vast, waterless interior regularly reaching temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius. But with large-scale CSP projects, suddenly all that empty space, with its year-round clear skies and hot sun, has a value that could transform local economies. It could potentially turn Africa into a net exporter of energy to power-hungry Europe, and perhaps even do for countries in North Africa what oil did for Saudi Arabia. The sums are dizzying. Estimates vary, but one projection from the German Aerospace Agency puts the amount of solar energy stored in just one per cent of the Sahara -- 35,000 square miles, or a piece of land slightly smaller than Portugal -- as having the potential to yield more power than all the world's existing power plants combined. Already Spanish firms are exporting CSP technology to Morocco and Algeria, and a British consortium, the Sahara Forest Project, is testing the technology in the deserts of Oman. Costs and benefits . However, there is a problem: at the moment costs are still very high. But they are falling as plants get bigger, the technology is perfected and economies of scale kick in. Even so, any plans to power Europe from the Sahara would require a vast infrastructure of CSP plants and cables laid across the Mediterranean -- requiring billions upon billions of dollars in investment. Such sums will only be possible through international co-operation on a huge scale. But on a smaller, more local scale a simple change in the way electricity generators are paid has been hugely effective in boosting renewable power. In Spain and other European countries investment has been encouraged by Governments creating what's known as a \"feed in tariff,\" which pays companies a premium for power sold to the national grid generated by renewable means for a fixed period of time. This enables investors to pay back up front costs more quickly. Where they have been introduced they have brought about a huge increase in renewable power: Germany has 200 times as much solar energy as Britain, generates 12 percent of its electricity from renewables, and has created a quarter of a million jobs in the sector. We're a long way from a future where the Sahara becomes the world's largest source of renewable electricity, and the American South West is covered in mirrors lighting and powering cities across the continent. There are many huge issues yet to resolve, but with small steps, we may be moving towards it.","highlights":"Concentrated solar power projects in Spain leading field in that form of green energy .\nPotential of CSP in desert regions around the globe; more benefits than power .\nPlans to transform Sara ha would involve huge costs; small projects breaking through .","id":"f8f23517b15ad186cacc607adc110a187a1df399"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Whether you're looking for a laid-back evening or want to party the night away, there are plenty of bars and clubs in Malmo to keep you entertained. Slagthuset is Scandinavia's biggest nightclub. Many nights start out in Lilla Torg, which boasts a wide array of restaurants and lounges. Sip cocktails at Victors -- if the weather's good, grab your drinks and head to the outdoor terrace. An equally popular hangout is nearby Moosehead, which has a more casual-woodsy vibe. Be sure to order the moose meat burger. A vibrant club scene exists in Malmo, which is home to Slagthuset (Jorgen Kocksgatan 7A) -- the largest nightclub in Scandinavia. Young dancers spread out over three dance floors at the club located behind Central Station. As its name suggests, Club Prive (Malmborgsgatan 7) draws an exclusive crowd. To chill in style, head to Torso Twisted (Vastra Varvsgatan 44) in the hip Western Harbor district. The restaurant serves gastronomic delights, and at night the lounge is decidedly cool. Indulge in one of the lavish cocktails or sample from the impressive wine list. You can also find the trendy set partying the evening away at Hipp (Kalendegatan 12). You can hang out in the restaurant or two bars or head straight to the pulsating nightclub. Satisfy your thirst for beer at Tva Krogare (Storgatan 35). The pub dishes up traditional Swedish fare and you'll likely find locals playing a game of darts. For a taste of British in Malmo, try The Bishop's Arms (Norra Vallgatan 62). Located inside the Hotel Savoy, it serves staples like fish and chips and has a wide assortment of beers available. If parties begin in Lilla Torg, they tend to end in Mollevangen. The bohemian neighborhood is dotted with bars that stay open well into the night. Prices in this area aren't as cheap as they once were but are still lower than compared to what you'll find in the city center. Local musicians hang out at hip Tempo Bar and Kok (Sodra Skolgatan 30). For something a little different, try Chokladfabriken (Bergsgatan 33), a club housed in an old chocolate factory that plays mostly hip hop, funk and soul. Malmo's passion for music makes it a great place to take in live performances. Kulturbolaget (Bergsgatan 18), one of the best venues for live acts, is a veritable Swedish institution. The club puts on about 220 rock concerts annually. Inkonst (Bergsgatan 29), a so-called culture house, puts on shows and club evenings. Jazz enthusiasts get into their groove at Jeriko (Spangatan 38), named such because it's housed in a former church. .................... Malmo City Guide: . Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . Do you agree with our Malmo picks? Share your comments and suggestions in the SoundOff box below.","highlights":"The bars and restaurants around Lilla Torg are a great place to start the night .\nFrom rock to jazz, there are plenty of venues to take in live music .\nMalmo is a clubber's paradise, with several pulsating nightclubs .","id":"54ceb0e30fae291252237200f9bbd43e3c4f0ef9"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi soldiers have found a mass grave of mutilated bodies in a restive region north of Baghdad, a local security official told CNN Thursday. Mourners with the coffin of a relative killed by a triple car bombing Wednesday in the city of Amara. Elsewhere an Iraqi was killed and five people were wounded Thursday when a car bomb detonated near the Italian Embassy in northern Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said. And 11 people were detained in coalition raids targeting al Qaeda in Iraq and those who help foreign insurgents, the U.S. military said. Iraqi soldiers said 12 of the bodies found north of Baghdad were beheaded and four others were mutilated. The corpses, all male, were discovered Wednesday near Muqdadiya in Diyala province north of the capital, the official, from Diyala province, said on Thursday. He said police believe al Qaeda in Iraq left behind the mass grave. Diyala province -- which stretches north and east of the capital and borders Iran -- has been a major scene of fighting during the U.S. and Iraqi troop escalations this year. It is one of the Baghdad \"belts\" with a strong insurgent presence that have been targeted by coalition and Iraqi forces over the year. It is not the first mass grave found in and near Baghdad this autumn. Others include a mass grave of 17 Iraqi civilians believed kidnapped at fake police checkpoints, found under a house used by insurgents near Baquba, Diyala's provincial capital -- an area where al Qaeda in Iraq has had a strong presence. The decomposed bodies of 16 Iraqi civilians believed killed by al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists were found in early December in a shelter in central Baghdad's Fadl neighborhood. And U.S. and Iraqi troops found 22 corpses buried in the region around Iraq's Lake Tharthar, northwest of Baghdad, in both Anbar and Salaheddin provinces. Meanwhile the Italian Embassy confirmed the bombing in northern Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood which killed one person but had no further details about the incident. Three police were among the wounded when the parked car blew up, the official said. A predominantly Sunni neighborhood, Adhamiya is one of the areas in Baghdad where an \"awakening\" movement has been created to maintain security. The awakening movement is the name for the anti-al-Qaeda in Iraq Sunni groups that have emerged in Iraq over the year. The detention of the 11 people in coalition raids targeting netted, the U.S. military said, an al Qaeda in Iraq leader north of Hawija, believed to be responsible for facilitating finances and logistics for the terrorist network in the area\". Five others were detained. A \"wanted individual\" and three others were detained in Mosul and another person was seized in Samarra. \"Foreign terrorists who come to Iraq to support al Qaeda will find no safe haven from which they can operate,\" said Cmdr. Scott Rye, a Multi-National Forces-Iraq spokesman. \"While they struggle to rebuild their networks, we will continue to dismantle them.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mass grave found north of Baghdad, includes mutilated remains of at least 16 men .\nOne Iraqi killed and five people wounded by a car bomb in northern Baghdad .\nEleven people detained in countrywide coalition raids targeting al Qaeda in Iraq .","id":"0fea0eba7e5302d66877c1ffa45505fb35eea5e5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Identifying the world's finest airports is easy. Hong Kong International Airport, Singapore's Changi and Seoul's Incheon have topped the ranks of airport awards for the last decade. Sitting comfortably? Not at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, ranked by some as one of the worst. These 21st-century airports boast the best shopping, classiest restaurants, as well as features such as indoor pools, orchid gardens, and free wireless Internet. See world's best airports . The world's worst airports, however, are harder to pin down. It's a crowded field to choose from and the choice depends on what you class as bad. See our pick of the world's worst airports \u00bb . If it's for danger, then Baghdad International Airport, in the middle of a war zone, should rank pretty high. Lukla airstrip -- gateway to the Mount Everest region in Nepal -- is also a strong contender. Landing involves a hair-raising plummet onto an uphill airstrip cut into the side of a mountain. On takeoff, the airstrip comes to an abrupt end at the edge of a mountain cliff. What do you think is the world's worst airport? Sound off below . Watch CNN's Ayesha Durgahee examine what it takes to become Airport of the year in Hong Kong. \u00bb . In 2007, TripAdvisor asked travelers to rank airports according to how easy they are to navigate, the cleanliness of the lavatories and parking facilities. Based on these factors, the 2,500 respondents classed London Heathrow and Chicago O'Hare as the world's most hated. Yet neither of these major hubs appeared in Foreign Policy magazine's review of the five worst airports, published in 2007. The list here included the likes of Mineralnye Vody airport in Russia for its feral cats and daggers on sale in the departure lounge. Charles de Gaulle also gains little affection from those that pass through its interminable terminals. As Foreign Policy says, \"visitors to Paris should expect more than the grimy terminals, rude staff, confusing layout, and overpriced food.\" Where was your worst airport experience in 2008? Which airport do you think is the most dangerous, uncomfortable or aggravating? Sound Off below . We're also looking for photos and video of your worst airport experiences. Send them to the Business Traveller page on CNN iReport . Here's your chance to grumble.","highlights":"Travelers rank Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul airports as the world's best .\nWhich airports are the worst? Send your photos, videos to iReport .\nCrowded terminals? Terrifying airstrips? Rude staff? Sound off below .","id":"dd9072a39bc7bf907c5729da8356dee5ff947c12"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- There are two sides to almost every breakup -- the dumper and the dumpee. (Sorry, I don't buy those \"mutual\" decision splits. I'm sure they happen, but they're as rare as a fat cell on Madonna's rear end, so they don't count.) Don't haunt the person you dumped by sending them a birthday card. While it's ideal when both sides exit the relationship with dignity, it's much easier to be the Gracious Ex when you're the dumper. After all, it was your bright idea to break up. You've had time to wrap your head around it, and really, who are you kidding -- you probably have a replacement lined up already. So we're going to start with you, the breaker-upper, because your list of \"How Not to Be\" is a lot shorter. Without further adieu, you definitely should not: . \u2022 Refuse to be the bad guy. Every breakup has one and, as the dumper, you need to suck it up and admit you're it. Even if you're not particularly evil, you're the one who used his heart as a hankie, so don't call him, wondering if he's \"OK.\" Not only does it not absolve you from anything (and that's really all you're looking for), it's presumptuous. And while we're at it, don't even think about acknowledging milestones. Nothing says Unhappy Birthday like a store-bought greeting card from the person who ruined your life (at least for a while). \u2022 \"Friending\" them. There is not one action more weaselly than kicking someone to the curb one week, only to send them a \"Zombie Hug\" on Facebook the next. I went out with one dude whose MySpace page consisted solely of women he'd wrung through his emotional wringer. Guess who he tried to add next? I don't think so, buddy. \u2022 Leave them on your band\/performance\/whatever SPAM list. The best thing about getting dumped by a musician\/actress\/mime is that you never have to sit through another one of their lame performances. The second worst thing about these emails is that they serve as a reminder you still draw breath and are experiencing some level of success. But the all-time worst aspect is that you just know that the list of recipients includes the person she's currently snogging. This goes up an extra notch of excruciating when the sender doesn't utilize the BCC function. \u2022 Throwing the sad face. True, running into someone you've emotionally eviscerated is uncomfortable, but if you happen to cross paths with your ex, be polite, be discreet, and move on quickly. Don't coo and hover, your exaggerated frown telegraphing their status as the booted party to any and all in the area. Getting dumped is humiliating enough without the insincere theatrics. \u2022 Rebound with a friend or family. The ultimate in sketchy ex behavior would have to be dumping a dude to get to his cousin (or brother). Next up is his best friend. If you're going to go there, at least wait a couple days before you do so. \u2022 Backsies! How many times have you finally gotten over someone, only to have them come bounding back into your life the second you meet someone new? It's uncanny -- and unbelievably irritating -- how often this happens. Don't be that person. To ensure you won't, before you have \"the talk\" with your no-longer-significant other, picture him making out with your best friend. Are you a) mildly intrigued; b) livid; or c) relieved that he found someone else because now he won't cry when you tell him to get lost. If you picked A or C, you're good to go. If B was your answer, well, you'll get what you deserve when he starts dating your hotter, younger cousin. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"After you've dumped someone, don't try to date his friends or relatives .\nTake your ex off all your SPAM lists so you don't haunt him .\nDo not \"Zombie Hug\" or poke them on social networking sites .","id":"3b906dd9825b2d0d4fa09b3f56f57be8844dd677"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Washington police told the mother of slain congressional intern Chandra Levy that an arrest is imminent in her daughter's 2001 death, Susan Levy told CNN on Saturday. Washington intern Chandra Levy's body was found a year after she disappeared in 2001. \"I got a call from the Washington police department, just to give me a heads up that there's a warrant out for the arrest,\" Levy said. Police Chief Cathy Lanier of the Metropolitan Police Department did not reveal the suspect's name when she contacted the parents on Friday, Levy said. She said police told her they have \"enough evidence to convict somebody.\" A source close to the investigation told CNN the suspect was Ingmar Guandique, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for two assaults in Washington's Rock Creek Park that occurred around the time of Levy's disappearance. Levy's remains were found in the park. View a timeline of her disappearance \u00bb . The source would not speak on the record because the investigation is ongoing and the arrest warrant had not been finalized. A California native working as an intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Levy, 24, disappeared May 1, 2001. Her remains were found in May 2002 by a man walking his dog in a remote area of the park. The source said authorities are working to finalize the arrest warrant. Asked about reports that Guandique, a laborer from El Salvador, told a fellow inmate he killed Levy, the source said Guandique \"was running his mouth.\" Guandique has been imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution - Victorville, a medium-security facility north of San Bernardino, California, an official there confirmed to CNN on Saturday. Watch CNN's Mike Brooks discuss Guandique's background \u00bb . He has denied any involvement in her death, the Washington Post reported Saturday. Guandique was mentioned last year in a Washington Post article about the killing. \"It's a bittersweet situation for me as the mother of a daughter who is no longer here. I want justice. I want to know that the person who did it is in jail and will not do it to anybody else,\" Levy said. \"Every day the elephant is there. Every day you get a knot in your stomach. It doesn't go away. It's a life sentence for the families and relatives that miss their loved ones. We have a life sentence of hurt.\" Referring to the impending arrest, Chandra's father told CNN affiliate KXTV that Lanier didn't say when an announcement would be made, but \"she said it would be really soon.\" \"She didn't say the name yet, but we think we know who it is. I don't want to say until it's official, though,\" the father said. The search for Levy and massive publicity that accompanied it stemmed largely from her connection to Rep. Gary Condit, D-California. Condit and Levy, who was from Condit's district, had an affair, and police questioned Condit many times in connection with her disappearance. Police never named Condit as a suspect. Condit, a member of Congress since 1989, lost the 2002 Democratic primary and left office at the end of his term. He later reportedly moved to Arizona. \"For the Levy family, we are glad they are finally getting the answers they deserve. For my family, I am glad that their years of standing together in the face of such adversity have finally led to the truth,\" Condit told WJLA on Saturday. Condit's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, blamed police and media attention on Condit for delays in the arrest. Police never named him as a suspect. \"It is a tragedy that the police and media obsession with former Congressman Condit delayed this result for eight years, and caused needless pain and harm to the families involved,\" Lowell said. \"This should give the Levys the answer and closure they deserve, and remove the unfair cloud that has hung over the Condits for too long.\" CNN's Carol Cratty, Karen Zuker, Justine Redman and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Chandra Levy's death is a \"life sentence\" for family, Susan Levy says .\nSource tells CNN that inmate Ingmar Guandique \"was running his mouth\" in prison .\nGuandique is serving time for attacks in park where Chandra Levy's remains found .\nChandra Levy went missing May 1, 2001; her remains were found May 22, 2002 .","id":"9cdf14dcb48562c0c9a6a6a90e23ef635ec68e2a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso met with President Barack Obama on Tuesday making him the first head of state to be hosted by the new administration. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso steps off his Boeing 747 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland Monday. It was a long trip -- 6,800 miles (11,000 km) -- for a short meeting -- one hour -- and happened as Obama was preparing his first address to a joint session of Congress. Sitting next to Aso in the White House, Obama said: \"The friendship between the United States and Japan is extraordinarily important. \"It is for that reason that the prime minister is the first foreign dignitary to visit me in the Oval Office.\" Obama said the U.S.-Japanese alliance would be crucial in solving international problems including climate change. \"We think we have to work together, not only on issues relating to the Pacific Rim, but throughout the world,\" Obama added. Aso said the global economy was also on the agenda at their meeting. \"We are the number 1 and second biggest economies of the world. We will have to work hand in hand. \"I think we are the only two nations which are powerful enough to solve those very critical, vital issue,\" Aso said. Japan's Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said that being the first to visit the Obama White House was an indication of the priority the new president placed on the relationship. Another topic likely to have been on the agenda was Japan's Asian neighbor North Korea, which U.S. intelligence says is preparing to test a long-range missile. Pyongyang has denied the charge, instead saying it is making preparations to launch a satellite. A test-fire by North Korea in 2006 failed 40 seconds after launch. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers), which -- if true -- could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii. Aso's visit to Washington comes, as his approval rating stands at a meager 11 percent, the second lowest ever recorded for a Japanese prime minister. Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister, resigned after his rate bottomed out at 9 percent. Last week his finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa announced he will step down after coming under fire for appearing intoxicated at a weekend news conference during the G-7 meeting in Rome. CNN's Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Aso's approval rating at 11 percent, the second lowest ever for a Japanese PM .\nAso is first head of state hosted by Obama administration .\nObama will give his first address to joint session of Congress hours later .","id":"c0499bc05f812ae41420f75cf532ad8e7ddb2f69"} -{"article":"(MENTAL FLOSS) -- Most of the world seems to think that America invented obesity sometime in the last century, but the truth is, fat has always been a part of life (witness Hatshepsut, one of the great ancient Egyptian queens who reigned in the 15th century BC -- despite her svelte sarcophagus, modern archeologists believe that she was pretty obese and may have suffered from diabetes). Goldfish may have delivered a dubious dietary aid -- tapeworms. So it stands to reason that dieting has been around just as long. Some historians credit William the Conqueror with starting the first fad diet. Having grown too fat to ride his horse, William went on a liquid diet in 1087 -- or, rather, a liquor diet, since all he did was drink booze. The story might be apocryphal -- William, still fat, actually died after falling from his horse and there was no word on whether he was drunk at the time -- but it's a good one, and it sets the tone for the next 1000+ years of dieting. Throughout history, people have been looking for some kind of magic that will allow one to eat and live as one pleases, but still look emaciatedly gorgeous. And they've come up with some pretty dubious theories that somehow took hold in the public consciousness and became fads. Here are a few of our favorites. Location, location, location . \"The Causes and Effects of Corpulence\" was a treatise penned in 1727 by one Thomas Short, in which he observed that larger people were more likely to live near swampy areas. His advice? Fat people should move to more arid climes. Improbable side effects . The namesake of the graham cracker -- ironically now an integral part of that deliciously fattening treat, the 'smore -- was a Presbyterian minister who claimed that overeating could not only make you fat, it could make you lecherous, too. In the 1830s, Sylvester Graham ran health retreats for like-minded parishioners featuring a strict meat-free, incredibly bland diet. Chew yourself thin . Horace Fletcher, a turn of the century San Francisco art dealer, became known as the Great Masticator after he claimed he lost more than 40 pounds by chewing his food until it was essentially liquefied and spitting out all the bits that weren't. Fletcher's scheme became incredibly popular -- novelist Henry James and industry titan John D. Rockefeller were reportedly fans, as was John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg, of the cereal fame, was a health nut who ran a sanitarium in Michigan, where he encouraged his visitors to \"Fletcherize\" with a little song he wrote called \"Chew Chew.\" Mental Floss: How cereal transformed American culture . The parasite diet . In the early part of the 20th century, the weight loss industry allegedly found a tiny little helper in the form of a tiny little parasite -- the noble tapeworm. According to product advertisements of the day, tapeworms were being sold in pill form as a weight loss tool. While whether or not those pills actually contained a real live tapeworm is certainly debatable, however, there is evidence that jockeys, who frequently needed to lose a lot of weight fast, would try to induce tapeworms. Another favorite weight loss tool of the Lilliputian equestrians: Burying themselves in piles of horse manure, which acted as a kind of natural sauna. Introducing the calorie . In 1918, Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters introduced a new word to the world lexicon --\"calorie\" (may she be forever cursed for it). Peters' book, \"Diet and Health, With a Key to Calories,\" which helpfully included a phonetic spelling of the word \"calorie,\" as so many people were unfamiliar with it, sold more than 2 million copies and established calorie-counting as the framework of a good health. This diet regime wasn't particularly dubious, but it did lend a potentially dangerous new tool to those looking for a way to quantify and reduce their food intake. Case in point: The Scarsdale Diet of 1979, a strict 700-calorie a day diet that works -- because you're starving. Mental Floss: Quiz: Which item has more calories? The goldfish diet . OK, this one wasn't so much about weight loss as it was fame gain, but in 1939, it was a fad that swept the nation. Like most good things, it all started with a bet -- a Harvard University undergrad won $10 after swallowing an innocent fishy. The story spread from there, prompting a countrywide goldfish slaughter. Goldfish swallowing became so popular that not only were pet stores running out of the indigestible comestibles, but the New York Times published warnings from doctors that swallowing goldfish, which are known to carry tapeworms and other parasites, could be very harmful to one's health. The nicotine diet . By the middle of the 20th century, dieting had become such a major economic, social and cultural force in the Western world that cigarette companies, not wanting to miss the money boat, jumped on board promoting cigarettes as a weight-loss tool. It's a belief that persists today -- ask any supermodel. The master cleanse . In the 1940s, nutrition guru Stanley Burroughs created the Master Cleanse, a fast during which the dieter subsists solely on a mixture of cayenne pepper, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup and water. The Master Cleanse is still popular today, especially among anorexics and aspiring anorexics, despite the fact that most nutritionists and doctors say that \"detoxing\" is a nonsensical and potentially harmful idea. The Sleeping Beauty diet . Then there's the Sleeping Beauty Diet, a regime that allows the dieter to literally sleep off the pounds while under heavy sedation for several days. Elvis was reportedly a fan of that one, right about the time when he was having a little trouble squeezing into those trademark white jump suits, as was a character in the landmark beach read, \"Valley of the Dolls.\" Mental Floss: 7 simple rules for how to take a nap . The monotony diets . The 20th century also brought us back to a concept allegedly pioneered by William the Conqueror -- the single food or drink diet. There's the Grapefruit Diet, which alleges that eating a lot of grapefruit and drinking a lot of grapefruit juice, in conjunction, of course, with a very low-calorie diet, is the way to weigh less; the Cabbage Soup Diet, which is said to cause serious gas with a side of nausea; the Popcorn Diet, which is pretty much undercut by all the tasty things one puts on popcorn to make it palatable; and the Chocolate Diet, which, though tempting, is just plain silliness. Memorable dieting paraphernalia . And let's not forget about the gadgets that went along with these suspect food fads, like the Vision-Dieter Glasses, which made food look unappealing, or the Mini-Fork system, which encouraged people to eat smaller portions by supplying them with -- you guessed it -- smaller forks. Or how about slimming soaps, popular in the 1930s, which promised dieters that they could just wash the fat away? And then there's the perennially popular vibrating machine, which promised to melt off pounds by a few minutes of intense body vibration -- and which is actually enjoying a comeback now at gadgetry stores like Brookstone. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Over the years, there have been many dubious theories on how to lose weight .\nWilliam the Conqueror went on liquid diet (alcohol) until killed by fall from horse .\nIn early 20th century, pills alleged to contain tapeworms were sold for weight loss .\nLiving in arid areas, chewing food into liquid, smoking pitched for weight loss .","id":"3ee45b9a6ba34f57ad4eb20a4d87ee0a2e47dfe4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On their son's last night as president, a melancholy former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, made an impromptu visit to the White House's press briefing room and told reporters how much they'll miss the building. Ex-President George H.W. Bush says he'll miss coming and going from the White House. \"We will miss coming and going, but it's time to move on,\" said the former president, who was a frequent visitor during his son's two terms in office. \"The Bushes are going to a happy life.\" When a reporter suggested that perhaps one of their other sons, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will take the White House someday, the former president smiled. \"Maybe Jeb will do something. I'd like to see him try,\" the former president said. Barbara Bush, who was first lady from 1989 to 1993, said the hardest part of the night was saying goodbye to the White House residence staff a second time. \"In tears twice,\" she said, her eyes red. She added that she and her husband are looking forward to attending Tuesday's inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. \"Very exciting day,\" she said. In addition to the inauguration, the former first couple was to attend a final dinner at the White House with current President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and the first couple's two daughters, Barbara and Jenna. As the former first couple left the briefing room, some reporters and photographers spontaneously started clapping out of respect. Your view of history . The ex-president, who was using a long walking stick to get around, quipped, \"You didn't clap when I was president, what the hell is going on?\"","highlights":"Former president, wife visit White House on son's last night as president .\nGeorge H.W. Bush smiles when reporter suggests other son could run .\nBarbara Bush reflects on saying goodbye to White House staff for second time .\nFormer first couple attending inauguration of Barack Obama .","id":"0257aa00fa70f33ef7fea2120c749c94ea4a9d44"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former GOP presidential nominee John McCain warned Wednesday that the United States is losing the war in Afghanistan. Sen. John McCain recommended expanding the Afghan army to between 160,000 and 200,000 troops. The Arizona senator, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that while he approved of President Obama's recent decision to send 17,000 more troops to the country, he believed an additional allied military and civilian surge would be necessary to prevent it from once again becoming an al Qaeda safe haven. The Obama administration is conducting a review of overall U.S. policy in the troubled Islamic republic, the president said in his joint address to Congress on Tuesday. \"With our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda and combat extremism,\" Obama said Tuesday. \"Because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens halfway around the world. We will not allow it.\" But McCain said on Wednesday, \"When you aren't winning in this kind of war, you are losing. And, in Afghanistan today, we are not winning.\" He delivered his remarks at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank. McCain claimed that while the situation in Afghanistan is \"nowhere near as dire as it was in Iraq,\" the number of insurgent attacks had spiked in 2008 and violence had increased more than 500 percent in the past four years. Growing portions of the country \"suffer under the influence of the Taliban,\" he added. McCain's comments echoed those of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who acknowledged last Friday that the United States is facing a \"very tough test\" in Afghanistan. \"But I'm sure we will rise to the occasion the way we have many times before,\" Gates told a news conference in Krakow, Poland, where NATO defense ministers were meeting. McCain said that the U.S. was winning the war in Afghanistan through early 2005, when some troops were withdrawn and \"our integrated civil-military command structure was disassembled and replaced by a Balkanized and dysfunctional arrangement.\" A Vietnam War veteran, former prisoner of war and longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, McCain said that while he knows Americans \"are weary of war ... we must win [in Afghanistan]. The alternative is to risk that country's return to its previous function as a terrorist sanctuary, from which al Qaeda could train and plan attacks against America.\" Among other things, McCain stated that the U.S. needs to establish a larger military headquarters capable of executing \"the necessary planning and coordination for a nationwide counterinsurgency campaign.\" He also said plans to expand the Afghan army from 68,000 to 134,000 troops were insufficient. He recommended expanding the Afghan army to between 160,000 and 200,000 troops. At the same time, he said, the U.S. needs to boost the country's nonmilitary assistance to help strengthen \"its [civilian] institutions, the rule of law, and the economy in order to provide a sustainable alternative to the drug trade.\" Southern Afghanistan provides about two thirds of the world's opium and heroin. Over the years, those two drugs have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, including the Taliban. McCain warned that, even if his recommendations are adopted, the violence in Afghanistan is \"likely to get worse before it gets better. The scale of resources required to prevail will be enormous.\" The timetable, he concluded, \"will be measured in years, not months.\"","highlights":"McCain: \"When you aren't winning in this kind of war, you are losing\"\nWhile Afghanistan is \"nowhere near as dire as it was in Iraq,\" attacks have spiked .\nU.S. needs to establish a larger military headquarters, McCain says .\n\"The scale of resources required to prevail will be enormous,\" senator says .","id":"ac9c2b30819230c7d46f786d33dc9a94974a9ba7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After almost 10 months, the FBI has zeroed in on a suspect in the case of missing Florida pilot Robert Wiles, who may have been kidnapped for ransom. Missing Florida pilot Robert Wiles is thought to have been kidnapped for ransom. \"We're close to solving the case,\" said FBI special agent David Couvertier. He would not elaborate. Agents also would not identify the suspect, and they said the person is not in custody. Investigators would only reveal that the \"key suspect\" is in Florida, either in Orlando, Lakeland or Melbourne. \"They're holding that back in hopes of getting additional information,\" said Couvertier. The FBI says it's also looking at several persons of interest in those same three Florida cities. Wiles, 27, was last seen in the family's aircraft maintenance business, National Flight Services, at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport on April 1, 2008. The day Wiles disappeared, he left behind his bags, his computer, and even his car. His father says the next day, Wiles was supposed to be on a flight out of Orlando. He never showed up. Two days after he vanished, Wiles' father, Thomas, received a ransom note. It demanded money and threatened to harm Robert Wiles if the terms weren't met. Wiles' parents said they tried to comply but heard nothing back. Nearly a year later, the FBI says their investigation shows that those involved \"were very familiar with Robert's work, Robert's personal information and had knowledge of his parent's personal affairs.\" Agents say they've tracked down leads in nine U.S. cities and as far away as Thailand where National Flight Services also does business. The Ohio-based company services aircraft in 50 countries and has been in business since 1972. Investigators are reaching out to the public in hopes of sparking any additional information about Wiles to \"close the loop,\" Couvertier said. Investigators want to talk with \"people who knew about his work routine, who might know someone who was obsessed with him, who was upset or jealous of him, or complained about him, anything that might be helpful,\" said Couvertier. Wiles' parents told CNN they hope their son Robert is still alive. \"That is our hope until proven otherwise, ' said his mother, Pamela. \"We don't know what happened to him. We don't know where he is. We just hope somebody will call and tell us what their needs are,\" she added. \"Sometimes, I stay up late and get up early and try to come up with any scenarios to make sense of this,\" said Wiles' father. \"I have my very low moments when I think I'll never see him again, \" he added. Occasionally, Wiles' mother says she plays back a voicemail message her son left her shortly before he disappeared. It said \"Hey, mom. It's Robert. I just wanted to call and thank you for sending that stuff down to me. And I hope you have a good weekend, ... and I'll talk to you later.\" \"I still listen to it, and it breaks my heart,\" said Pamela Wiles. The Wiles are still offering a $250,000 reward for information about their son and arrest of those responsible for his disappearance. \"But Tom and I don't think you can put a dollar on his head,\" said Pamela Wiles. \"We want to provide them with security and a new life, if that's what they need,\" she added. His father doesn't think whoever is responsible is working alone. He says his son is too strong to have left willingly or without knowing who his alleged captors are. Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI. Wiles' parents have a message for the FBI's unidentified suspect. \"I would say to him 'come forward and tell the truth and we hold no personal animosity,'\" said Pamela Wiles. \"Someone made a bad mistake. It's up to God to forgive him.\"","highlights":"FBI agent says they are \"close to solving the case,\" have a \"key suspect\"\n\"Key suspect\" is in Florida, either in Orlando, Lakeland or Melbourne, agent says .\nPolice believe missing pilot Robert Wiles may have been kidnapped for ransom .\nMother would tell suspect to \"come forward and tell the truth\"","id":"772858186d456cbd32232325ba43db6ad669870c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It was the late 1960s and Tom Repasky was in a fog. H. Michael Karshis owns thousands of albums but Steely Dan's \"Can't Buy a Thrill\" holds a special place in his heart. \"I was trying to discover who I was, what I was and what I was doing here,\" he said. In 1963, at age 14, Repasky was on a field trip with his seminary when he and another student accidentally fell down a steep ledge while throwing rocks at upperclassmen. A tree broke his friend's fall, but Repasky was not so lucky. Repasky awoke in the hospital, but says he was unable to remember even the smallest detail of his past. \"It was as if I didn't exist before that time,\" he said. This experience scarred him, to the point that he was asked to leave the seminary by the end of the year. \"I clearly was not the same person,\" he said. \"After my near-death experience, there was this prolonged period of not being able to relate to reality very well.\" Several years after his accident, Repasky first heard the Moody Blues song \"Nights in White Satin.\" \"After I heard these lyrics, I thought, 'They know what I'm feeling.' \" He sought out their album \"Days of Future Passed.\" He was particularly drawn to the lyrics from their song \"Dawn is a Feeling:\" \"You are here today; no future fears; this day will last 1,000 years, if you want it to.\" Repasky, who now lives in Danville, Pennsylvania, and is an artist, often goes back to this album. \"When I hear the music, it brings me to the point of realizing that I had experienced life and I could be alive, and it brings me great joy in knowing that.\" The part of \"Nights in White Satin\" where the words \"I love you\" are repeated always moves Repasky, even 40 years later. iReport.com: Watch Repasky tell his story . Repasky is one of many iReporters who shared the album that first hooked them and has stayed with them throughout their lives. H. Michael Karshis owns about 3,200 albums, but one holds a special place in his heart: \"Can't Buy a Thrill\" by Steely Dan. Even though his mother worked in a record store in 1973 (which helps explain the number of albums he owns), \"Can't Buy a Thrill\" was the first one he bought with his own money, at the age of 12. \"Reelin' in the Years\" was the song that hooked him. \"It's almost an ode to a distant past,\" he said. \"I remember listening to that before I was 17 and thinking about how old 17 was. It has a different connotation and meaning the older you get, but it's still a poignant, relevant song.\" Whenever Karshis moves into a new home, one of the first things he does is to crank up the stereo and play the album. \"It's just one of those timeless albums and it's hard to describe how it affects me.\" Karshis, who works as a graphic artist in San Antonio, Texas, thinks the cover of the album has influenced his artwork. \"I'm not saying I got it all from the Steely Dan cover, but it's amazing how it permeates everything I do now.\" iReport.com: Karshis talks about one album in his massive collection . Sal Steels of Denver, Colorado, first rocked out to Van Halen's album \"1984\" about 20 years ago, and hasn't stopped since. In fact, he demonstrated the way he feels when the song \"Panama\" starts in a video for iReport.com. For Steels, \"1984\" is \"one of those you have in the car. It's one you make a backup CD for.\" He listens to it constantly and considers \"Panama\" his favorite song of all time. iReport.com: Sal Steels rocks out to Van Halen . Not all iReporters listen to their most influential album regularly. Diane Holder of Ann Arbor, Michigan, had fond memories of Pink Floyd's \"The Wall,\" but it had been a while since she had heard it. \"Twice before, I went back and looked at something that I cherished as a memory from my childhood, [and] the results were not very good,\" she said. Despite her hesitation, she listened to the album online. In this case, she was pleasantly surprised by how well it stood the test of time, and she ended up downloading the whole thing. \"For me, that is remarkable. I can count on my fingers the albums I have bought.\" Jill Pearson of Atlanta, Georgia, is such a fan of Elton John's \"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road\" that she created a video quiz for the iReport.com community. Pearson has been going back to the album off and on for years. \"It takes me back to my college days and he's just one of my favorite performers,\" she said. iReport.com: Take the Elton John quiz . For some iReporters, one album opened their eyes to something new. Marvin Gaye's \"What's Going On\" was not the first album Tony Bernez bought, but he considers it an important work, not just for himself, but for his generation. He considers it \"one of the most ground-breaking, consciousness-raising and inspiring concept albums of its time, or any other time, for that matter.\" \"It marked a transcendent change from the Motown R&B songs that Marvin had previously released, and it spoke to the pain, injustice, and uncertainty of the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s,\" he said. \"I just listened to it yesterday, and it still moves me in a very special way.\" For Lulis Leal, one album completely changed her philosophy of life. She had not been exposed to Rush's music before their ninth album, \"Signals,\" was released, but when she heard the song \"Subdivisions,\" Neal Peart's drumming had her hooked. Leal listened to more of Rush's music and soon learned that the band was influenced by author Ayn Rand. After reading her novels, Leal began to adapt Rand's philosophy into her own life. Fred Thorne was a big fan of much of the popular music of the 1980s when he was 14, but the moment he heard R.E.M.'s song \"Fall on Me\" on alternative radio, he was determined to own the album \"Life's Rich Pageant.\" After buying not just one, but three R.E.M. albums, his musical tastes changed forever. Thorne went on to play in bands for 18 years. \"If you ask me, R.E.M. is the godfather of indie sound.\" iReport.com: Fred Thorne pays tribute to R.E.M. Whether it's nostalgia, an appreciation of great songwriting, or even a life-changing experience, music has certainly done a lot to help these iReporters throughout their lives. \"Music can be that one thing that can bring a bright spot to anyone's life,\" said iReporter Crystal Dickson. \"Where would we be without it?\"","highlights":"iReporters share the albums that stayed with them throughout their lives .\nThe Moody Blues got one iReporter through a near-death experience .\nH. Michael Karshis owns thousands of albums, but loves Steely Dan the most .\niReport.com: What album had a lasting impact on you?","id":"cc68600c045188dd1c1889e47a7b79c95482ce26"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than two dozen guests joined first lady Michelle Obama at the president's speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Leonard Abess Jr. was recognized by President Obama during Tuesday's State of the Nation speech. One person on the first lady's guest list was Leonard Abess Jr., a Miami banker who received a $60 million bonus from the proceeds from the sale of shares of City National Bank in Florida and gave it out to his 399 workers and 72 former workers. During his speech, President Obama said Abess didn't tell anyone about his generosity, but when the local newspaper found out, Abess simply said, \"I knew some of these people since I was 7 years old. I didn't feel right getting the money myself.\" Abess demonstrates the kind of \"responsibility\" the president has called for from high-profile financial CEOs, the White House said. Obama contrasted Abess' story with the greed that he said got the country into the problems it faces now. \"CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over,\" Obama said. Obama also referenced in his speech an eighth-grader who wrote a letter to members of Congress appealing for help in rebuilding her deteriorating school. Ty'Sheoma Bethea, a student at the J.V. Martin Junior High School in Dillon, South Carolina, was invited after a letter she sent lawmakers appealing for help rebuilding her school made its way to President Obama. Obama talked about the school during his first news conference earlier in February as evidence of crumbling schools across the country. Other guests of the first lady Tuesday night included injured Afghanistan veteran Spc. Jonathan N. James, equal pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter and Blake Jones, the co-founder and president of a solar electric company. The president and first lady also invited Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas -- one of the president's key Republican allies among the nation's governors in passing the massive $787 billion stimulus bill -- and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a key Democratic governor whose state is among the hardest hit by the economic downturn. The practice of inviting guests to sit in the House Gallery is a tradition dating back to 1982 when president Ronald Reagan recognized Lenny Skutnick -- a good Samaritan who pulled a survivor out of the frozen Potomac River in Washington after an Air Florida plane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge. Since then, presidential administrations steadily increased the number of invitees to the first lady box, often including prominent athletes and celebrities, citizen heroes, members of the military, and individuals likely to benefit from policies proposed by the president. It has also become customary for the president to acknowledge a handful of guests sitting in the box during his speech, especially those who have a particularly compelling story or illustrate a point he is trying to make. Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an expansive guest list of her own, including hero-U.S. Airways pilot Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger and several other crew members of flight 1549. CNN's Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Miami, Florida, banker Leonard Abess gets prime seat at Obama speech .\nAbess received $60 million bonus, gave it to employees .\nWhite House: Abess demonstrates \"responsibility\" Obama has called for .","id":"ca4d998615f4d48fa792b3bba65c41bcb513ffb3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Basketball is often viewed as a game of opposing sides. But one man is using the game to bring young Catholic and Protestant men together on the same team in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After graduating college, Michael Evans coached basketball at two high schools in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Former college basketball player, Michael Evans, 26, in partnership with another basketball player, Dave Cullen, created the organization Full Court Peace to help forge friendships between between schools in the divided communities. He spoke with CNN's Nicole Lapin about how Full Court Peace works. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Lapin: So you wanted to use basketball as a bridge but you started Full Court Peace almost to dupe these youngsters into working together? Evans: Yea that's one way to put it. I think what I did was I just coached basketball separately in two high schools. And, uh, on the opposite sides of these walls I've been talking about. And I got roughly five on each side to latch on to me. These 16-year-old boys. You know, they came from broken homes and I showed them loyalty. That's what coaches do, is show their players loyalty and the kids latched on to me, so much that I was able to sell the idea of making an integrated team out of their enemies and it was a complete success. Watch more on Michael Evan's organization \u00bb . Lapin: They didn't think that they were going to work with the other side. Like Robert, for example, one of your players who is Protestant. What did he think when he was going to work with a Catholic team? Evans:That was a pretty discouraging moment throughout the whole process of forming that team. I told Robert the news and he shunned me. He couldn't believe that the time I'd spent with him alone was really just basically me trying to convince him to join this team. I thought I might have lost him. Lapin: Now he's also friends with the other side to this day. There was a little bit of hesitation at first, I know they did speak, but are they still friends? Evans:They are still friends. I recently went back to Belfast and had dinner with a lot of them all together. And the ones that couldn't meet for the integrated dinner asked about their team mates. The neighborhoods are too divided for them to visit each other so they communicate a lot online through bebo.com which is a social networking site over there. And they keep up with each other. They're not bashful about having pictures of each other, arm-in-arm on their social networking sites, and they communicate through me about each other because I'm in touch with all of them. Lapin: So that's amazing, Michael. How do you think you do this? How does sports diplomacy, which is really what this is, succeed where world leaders, prime ministers and presidents have failed? Evans: I mean just because a politician, two politicians come together and say they agree on something, it doesn't mean that the people on the ground are going to be agreeing on it. And most importantly the youth that are growing up in these environments, that doesn't mean that they agree with what's going on. So that's sort of just a face to the whole solution. I think what sport does, namely basketball, is that you put kids in a small, very small group together and they're forced to communicate in order to succeed; in order to win. And then the coaches role is very unique in that the kids all bond over having one voice and one person telling them what to do and guiding them along and helping them with success.","highlights":"Michael Evans on organization to forge friendships in Northern Ireland .\nHe put Protestant and Catholic high school students on one team .\nEven after graduating from school, the former teammates are still friends .\nThe friends communicate via Internet because it's too dangerous to visit .","id":"ec7ca8313c5a1edf5c84d05cd96913777c4c6b84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fighting has prompted thousands of people in the southern part of Sudan's Darfur region to seek security and shelter at a refugee camp in the northern part of the war-torn area, according to the United Nations. A member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) stands guard near the Sudan-Chad border in 2007. The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that fighting in Muhajeria and Shearia between Sudanese government forces, and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), drove over 15,000 people north to the Zam Zam camp. The water supply to the camp is becoming strained with displaced people arriving there every day, OCHA said Wednesday. The government of Sudan has waged a brutal counter-insurgency against militias for the past six years, a war that some international critics have characterized as genocide. An estimated 300,000 people in the western Sudanese region have been killed through combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the United Nations. An additional 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and the violent Janjaweed militias. Fighting continues in the region despite the JEM and local government signing a \"goodwill and confidence-building\" agreement earlier in February, according to the U.N. The U.N.-African Union allied peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) will begin building a new community police center near Zam Zam in the next two weeks, the U.N. announced Saturday. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. Last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court for the government's campaign of violence in Darfur. Under pressure to end the fighting, Al-Bashir in November agreed to an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Darfur. But the rebel Justice and Equality Movement was not included in the case-fire talks. CNN's Katy Byron contributed to this report.","highlights":"Refugees seek security and shelter at refugee camp in north Darfur .\nDarfur government has waged counter-insurgency war against militias for six years .\nDarfur violence erupted in 2003 after rebel uprising against Sudanese government .","id":"8b6181d9d0b038bd231b428cc5650c0dc34b0cc9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kawasaki have announced they will run Marco Melandri in a one-bike team in the 2009 MotoGP world championship. Italian Melandri will be the sole Kawasaki rider in the 2009 MotoGP championship. The news comes just weeks after the Japanese manufacturer confirmed it was to end its MotoGP activities due to the economic downturn. A statement confirmed the team's return to the sport comes in the wake of \"constructive talks between Kawasaki, MotoGP organisers and other involved parties\". \"This decision was made after negotiations that followed Kawasaki's January 2009 announcement to suspend its MotoGP activities due to the economic crisis,\" the statement continued. \"The rider for the new MotoGP team will be Marco Melandri. The team will be equipped with Kawasaki motorcycles and supporting materials. \"That Kawasaki have come to this new team approach is the result of, on the one hand, the need for a strong reduction of MotoGP racing investments and, on the other hand, the necessity to come to constructive solutions for all related parties.\" Melandri moved to Kawasaki from Ducati at the end of what was a dismal 2008 season for the Italian, but shortly afterwards was told his new team would not be on the grid in 2009. While the 26-year-old has earned a welcome reprieve, the man who would have been Melandri's team-mate this season, American John Hopkins, appears set for an extended spell on the sidelines.","highlights":"Kawasaki will run Marco Melandri in a one-bike team in 2009 MotoGP season .\nThe news comes after manufacturer revealed it was ending MotoGP activities .\nItalian Melandri moved to Kawasaki from Ducati at the end of the 2008 season .","id":"750662d2cbba2cc755feea68a55c7194fd7d2dac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 40 bodies -- all of them wearing uniforms identifying them as army officers -- have been found in a mass grave inside the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles paramilitary in the capital, Dhaka, authorities said Friday. Bangladeshi army soldiers gather near the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka Thursday. The discovery brings to at least 62 the number of army officers who have been found dead after mutinous paramilitary forces took dozens of superiors hostages at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters on Wednesday. The Rifles laid down their arms after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina agreed to grant them amnesty. The bodies were found in a grave behind the mortuary building inside the BDR compound in the Pilkhana area of Dhaka, said Cmdr. Abdul Kalam Azad with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite internal security team that is helping with the recovery effort. \"It's a bad scene,\" Azad said. \"You can only see their legs. We're carrying away only as many as we can fit in ambulances. Then we're going to go look for more.\" Earlier, 22 bodies had been recovered from the Buriganga River after the rebelling troops dumped them down a sewer during the standoff, authorities said. The Rifles took their superiors -- all military men -- hostage Wednesday morning after a rebellion they said was spurred by years of their grievances not being addressed. Discontent had been bubbling for years among the ranks of the BDR troops, a 65,000-strong paramilitary outfit primarily responsible for guarding the country's borders. Watch how the paramilitary revolt spread \u00bb . The recruits complained their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and opportunities to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Bangladesh and its South Asian neighbors contribute the most troops to such U.N. operations. And the pay is far greater than the meager salary the jawans -- as the BDR troops are called -- make.","highlights":"Mass grave found with bodies of at least 40 Bangladesh army officers .\nAt least 62 officers found dead since mutiny by paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles .\nRifles laid down arms Thursday after PM agreed to offer them amnesty .","id":"f83175664116f1983935569716bb1c348192a5aa"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanon's prime minister condemned the firing of rockets into northern Israel after an attack wounded two Israelis on Thursday. He said his government is trying to determine who was responsible. U.N. soldiers on Thursday inspect the site in Lebanon thought to be the source of rockets fired into Israel. Israel's military warned Israeli civilians to stick close to shelters after police said at least four rockets hit near the city of Nahariya, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the Lebanese border. The Israeli military said it returned fire across the border with mortars. Schools and kindergartens were closed in Nahariya and the nearby town of Shlomi, the Israel Defense Forces reported. \"What happened in the south [of Lebanon] is a violation of Resolution 1701 and is rejected by Lebanon,\" Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said, referring to the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. In a statement issued by his office, Siniora said he has asked Lebanese authorities to investigate the attack alongside troops from the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed along the border. He also condemned the Israeli retaliatory strikes, which the Lebanese military said inflicted no casualties. Watch CNN's Christiane Amanpour discuss rocket attack \u00bb . There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, to the south, entered a 13th day. The Israeli campaign in Gaza is aimed at halting rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory. Israel fought a similar battle against the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah in 2006, during which Hezbollah rained rockets on cities in Israeli's north for a month before a cease-fire was reached. But Hezbollah has kept a tight rein on its forces in southern Lebanon since the cease-fire, and a number of Palestinian factions operate in southern Lebanon as well. Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said the rockets appear to have been fired from a point about 4.5 miles east of Naqoura, where the peacekeepers are headquartered. \"We've been intensifying our patrols on the ground in order to prevent any further incident,\" Tenenti said. He said UNIFIL's commander, Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, is in \"constant and close contact\" with both sides \"and has urged maximum restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation.\" CNN's Michal Zippori in Jerusalem and Cal Perry and Nada Husseini in Beirut contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora calls attack a violation of U.N. resolution .\nNEW: Lebanese government, United Nations investigating, Siniora says .\nFour Lebanon-based rockets strike northern Israel, authorities say .\nIsraeli military returns fire toward source of rocket attack .","id":"300c8cea1a2f6fc29dcd5175369e7068ac658f3a"} -{"article":"MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- Dramatically played out on live television, an opposition politician and rebel military officers surrendered to government forces after taking over a luxury hotel in Manila. \"We're going out for the sake of the safety of everybody,\" Philippines Sen. Antonio Trillanes said. The senator made the decision to give up after the military peppered the inside of the hotel with tear gas. Live pictures from inside the hotel showed reporters and rebel soldiers covering their faces. An armored personnel vehicle was also seen firing into the lobby of Manila's Peninsula hotel and later rammed through the front entrance of the building. \"The situation is contained within the Peninsula hotel, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told CNN. \"The perpetrators are in the process of being arrested.\" Those who held the hotel were shown being loaded into a Philippine National Police bus. Teodoro said no one was injured, but Associated Press reported that at least two people were injured. The standoff began hours earlier when a group led by Trillanes and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim bolted from a court hearing on charges linked to a failed 2003 coup attempt. Watch footage of troops storming the hotel in Manila \u00bb . \"What happened, to me, was clearly either an attempted rebellion or an attempted coup d'etat,\" Teodoro said. Philippines military and police personnel had been surrounding the hotel, where the group was asking for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down. After Trillanes' announcement, soldiers milled around the outside of the hotel, but the scene had calmed noticeably. Arroyo had issued orders to the military and police in response to the seizure of the hotel, located in Manila's Makati financial district, journalist Adrian Addison told CNN. Few supporters of the rebels were visible around the Peninsula hotel, Addison said. Philippine authorities gave the rebel group until 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) to allow guests to leave the hotel, and until 3:00 p.m. (0700 GMT) to surrender, the ABS-CBN news service reported. Businessman Peter Parcel was caught in the middle of the hotel's takeover and subsequent tear-gassing. Listen to the eyewitness in the hotel describe what happened \u00bb . \"I couldn't see and couldn't breathe,\" he said, noting he faced \"at least 100 guns\" as he exited the hotel. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Renegade officers and politician surrender and leave Manila hotel .\nShots and tear gas fired into the hotel by government troops .\nRebels entered hotel after walking out of court hearing where they were on trial .\nThe group was asking for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down .","id":"32f512e2e5e3ced7649faf6bccd2a9b274541626"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The disabled young son of UK opposition leader David Cameron has died. David Cameron leaves the family home after the death of his 6-year-old son on February 25. Ivan Cameron, six, passed away early Wednesday, the UK's Press Association reported a Conservative Party spokesman as saying. \"It is with great sadness that David and Samantha Cameron must confirm the death of their six-year-old son Ivan,\" the spokesman said according to the agency. The spokesman said that Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, was taken ill overnight and died at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, central London early Wednesday morning. \"David and Samantha would ask that their privacy is respected at this terribly difficult time,\" the spokesman added. Meanwhile, the queen sent a private message of sympathy to the Camerons, Buckingham Palace said. Prime minister Gordon Brown said the \"thoughts and prayers of the whole country\" would be with the Conservative leader and his family, The Guardian newspaper reported, while prime minister's question time -- which offers Cameron a weekly opportunity to grill Brown in parliament -- was cancelled at Brown's suggestion. The prime minister, together with other senior British politicians, instead offered their condolences in the parliament chamber. \"I know that the whole house will want to express their sorrow at the death of Ivan Cameron,\" Brown told lawmakers, according to The Guardian. \"He brought joy to all those around him. Every child is precious and irreplaceable. The death of a child is an unbearable sorrow no parents should have to endure.\" Brown and his wife Sarah lost their first child, Jennifer Jane, in 2001 after she was born prematurely and died 10 days later. They have two sons, John and Fraser, who suffers from cystic fibrosis.","highlights":"UK media: Young son of opposition leader David Cameron has died .\nIvan Cameron, six, passed away early Wednesday, Conservative Party says .\nIvan Cameron suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy .\nBritish PM Gordon Brown offered his condolences in parliament .","id":"296b364ccfbea3edb348e151f2de042be8b16e11"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 40,000 Somalis have returned to the abandoned neighborhoods of Mogadishu in the past six weeks, despite some of the heaviest fighting in months, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday. Violence continued this week in Mogadishu between Somali Islamist fighters and African Union soldiers. They are part of more than a million residents who have been displaced by fighting, including 100,000 who fled to neighboring countries last year, according to the United Nations. Most of those returning are families from Somalia's southern and central regions, areas that are suffering from drought and renewed fighting, according to UNHCR. They are now living in neighborhoods in northern Mogadishu that had been abandoned over the past two years of conflict, the U.N. agency said. Part of the reason displaced Somalis may be braving the violence and returning to the war-torn capital city is because of the recent pullout of Ethiopian troops, who were blamed for indiscriminately killing civilians in Mogadishu, a Somali journalist said. \"The AU [African Union] and [Somali] government forces only defend in their positions, they don't move around,\" according to Mohammed Amiin Adow. \"This may reduce the fear of the civilians that their homes may be raided. \"During the Ethiopian presence, it was different: When their bases were attacked, they used to come and carry out search operations in which civilians may be detained, killed or wounded.\" Adow also said another reason refugees may be returning is the bad conditions at the camps for internally displaced Somalis. \"People had been living in very poor conditions in the makeshift camps on the road between Mogadishu and Afgooye for the last two years,\" Adow said. \"So that is I think why people are returning.\" Those returning to Mogadishu will have limited access to basic necessities, a problem that is compounded by the scarcity of international aid agencies, who have fled Somalia because of the violence, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said Friday. \"UNHCR is not encouraging returns to Mogadishu at this juncture, as the security situation is volatile and the conditions are certainly not conducive,\" he said. \"Nevertheless, we are preparing to help returnees or those who wish to return in the near future, in the hope that the security situation will improve.\"","highlights":"Most of those returning are fleeing drought, fighting in central and southern Somalia .\nOthers may be returning because of conditions at displacement camps .\nMore than a million Somalis have been displaced throughout country, abroad .\nSupplies in the capital city are scarce due to exodus of aid groups fleeing violence .","id":"2320616cb90e5d4a876282ca55af167abd927880"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The notorious Iraq prison once called Abu Ghraib has reopened under Iraqi government control. And the Ministry of Justice has launched a public-relations campaign to show it has changed since the days when prisoners were tortured there -- first under Saddam Hussein, and later by American troops. The Iraqi Ministry of Justice gave journalists an inside look at the prison formerly known as Abu Ghraib. It is now called Baghdad Central Prison, and has water fountains, a freshly planted garden and a gym -- complete with weights and sports teams' jerseys on the walls. Under Saddam Hussein, tens of thousands of Iraqis were thrown behind bars here. There were horrific stories of torture, abuse, execution without trial. In 2004, the prison was once again thrown into the international spotlight, this time because of abuse by U.S. troops. Watch how the prison has been revamped \u00bb . Detainees were photographed in degrading positions, as Americans posed next to them smiling. The images -- naked prisoners stacked on top of each other, or being threatened by dogs, or hooded and wired up as if for electrocution -- caused outrage around the world when they were leaked to the news media in May 2004. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the Abu Ghraib prison at the time, was demoted in rank to colonel because of the scandal. Seven low-ranking guards and two military intelligence soldiers -- described by then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as \"bad apples\" -- were disciplined after the scandal surfaced. Rumsfeld later said the day the scandal broke was the worst in his tenure as defense secretary. \"Clearly the worst day was Abu Ghraib, and seeing what went on there and feeling so deeply sorry that that happened,\" Rumsfeld said shortly before leaving office at the end of 2006. \"I remember being stunned by the news of the abuse.\" The United States always denied it was a matter of policy to torture detainees. But it shut down Abu Ghraib in September 2006 and turned the facility over to the Iraqis. They have revamped and reopened it. Rooms have been transformed and renovated. CNN was told, but not shown, that a few hundred prisoners are here already, in a revamped part of the facility that can hold up to 3,000 prisoners. The capacity is critical to help deal with overcrowding at Iraq's other facilities and the potential security threat. The Iraqi government is going to great lengths to try to change the image this facility has. It organized a tour for journalists, very carefully orchestrated by the Ministry of Justice. Murtada Sharif, the only Ministry of Justice official to speak to CNN on camera about the prison, admitted Abu Ghraib is synonymous in people's minds with the inhumane acts that took place there both before and after the fall of Saddam in 2003. \"We want to change its image, to make it a place of justice,\" he said. A wing that used to hold a thousand prisoners In Saddam Hussein's time now is ready for 160. Cells that used to hold between 30 and 50 people now have a capacity of eight. Prisoners and their families actually get to see each other -- the prisoners behind a cage-like structure, the families on the other side of the fence, in a courtyard with a playground for the children. Again, it is part of the whole effort to create a different atmosphere. But human rights organizations in Iraq say abuse and torture remain routine in Iraq's detention facilities. Changing Abu Ghraib's infamous reputation may take more than fresh paint and fake flowers.","highlights":"Abu Ghraib is now Baghdad Central Prison, with a garden and a gym .\nIn 2004, photos of prisoners being humiliated by American guards were published .\nMinistry of Justice trying to show that the prison, now under Iraqi control, has changed .","id":"1c0683c2821bb2415b3a1560b3df68f596d68a63"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Vimlendu Jha is the founder and head of Swechha -- We For Change Foundation which is based in India's capital, New Delhi. \"The Dreamtime Circus is a troupe of fire dancers, jugglers, aerialists, clowns and musicians who travel the world to share the uplifting experience of the circus.\" Swechha started out as an organization to combat the pollution of the city's main waterway, the river Yamuna. Today it deals with the environmental issues that affect several aspects of Delhi. Vimlendu leads volunteers and local children to key sites around the city to tackle the ecological problems, as well as to raise awareness of the issues. Follow his efforts in his blogs and video diaries. December 4, 2007 We live in a conflict-ridden world. There is upheaval and turmoil between countries, between people, between man and nature and within one's own self. Fortunately, there are people who are striving hard to fight this feeling of gloom and despondency. Dreamtime Circus and Swechha -- We for Change Foundation have joined hands to salute this indefatigable spirit of such change makers through \"Circus for Change.\" Both organizations are comprised of people who have devoted themselves to reduce the misery of the earth and her people by way of grassroots level advocacy, raising awareness about social, cultural and political issues or by bringing smiles to the faces of many by entertaining them through their creative performances. The Dreamtime Circus is a troupe of fire dancers, jugglers, aerialists, clowns and musicians who travel the world to share the uplifting experience of the circus with the peoples of the world. During their travels, the troupe aims to support local organizations working on vital environmental, health, and humanitarian issues that impact the communities they visit. The Dreamtime Circus was founded by fire dancers and non-profit organizers Chris Dunn and Kara \"Kfire\" Voss in 2005, when they first started performing in villages throughout Indonesia. Since then, Dreamtime Circus has grown from two to 30 performers and their debut performance, \"Between Worlds,\" played to five sold out audiences in San Francisco, California, as well as a packed circus tent at the world famous \"Burning Man Festival\" in the U.S. The coming together of Dreamtime Circus and Swechha symbolizes the fusion of advocacy and creativity, and a common goal for effecting social change. One of the key objectives of Swechha's various endeavors is to help people -- primarily youth -- to rediscover their relationship with the environment and to empower them to reflect on the consumption-based lifestyle of modern times and its ill-effects. Dreamtime Circus epitomizes daring, innovation and a will to make the world a more humane place, through creative arts and in whatever little way one can. While Swechha promotes volunteerism in a big way, the performers at Dreamtime hope to further the cause of volunteerism by performing for free, wherever they travel in India and in doing so, they wish to aid local civil society groups in their work. Objectives of Circus for Change: . \u2022 To promote \"out-of-the-box\" methods for raising awareness. \u2022 To spread the message of \"One Earth, Your Earth,\" which essentially means -- political, cultural and economic boundaries notwithstanding -- this earth is undivided and there is a need for each one of us to be responsible towards it without thinking about our personal gains. \u2022 To help local NGOs in their efforts to uplift society through performances and workshops by Dreamtime Circus. It would also help the NGOs, especially the ones in rural areas, to attract media attention and get publicity for their present and future projects. \u2022 To collaborate with artists, activists and performers from different countries to promote inter-cultural learning, and to share experiences and good practices. From October 2007 through March 2008, Dreamtime Circus will tour India and perform for free in cities, villages, schools, and refugee communities throughout the country. Wherever a circus need be, a circus shall be. Performances will include an array of circus arts, music and storytelling, and will communicate positive messages of hope, dreams and respect for the Earth and all humanity. In addition to performing, the Dreamtime troupe can hold workshops to teach a variety of basic circus arts to kids of all ages. These performances and workshops will provide a unique and creative venue for partnering organizations to raise awareness about their issues. There's nothing like a circus to attract a captive audience. \"Circus for Change\" has already been staged at several places in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. It will travel to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh in the next five months. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Swechha has teamed up with the Dreamtime Circus troupe .\nDreamtime Circus supports local organizations on key issues .\nThe troupe is touring India putting on shows and circus skills workshops .","id":"630140753cfdeb90c15875f5002e1f1050c939a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Trading two children for a bird landed three people in jail in Louisiana, authorities say. The biological mother, who was not involved in the alleged trade, is to be interviewed by authorities Friday. Investigators seek further details about a case that they say unfolded this way: . Paul and Brandy Romero advertised that they were selling their pet cockatoo for $1,500. A woman named Donna Greenwell responded and said she wanted to buy the bird. Greenwell then told the Romeros that she was taking care of three children whose biological parents were going through a separation. Greenwell proposed selling two of the couple's children to the Romeros for $2,000, saying that her job as a truck driver made it hard to take care of the children, said Capt. Keith Dupre of the Evangeline Parrish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana. The parties allegedly negotiated a trade involving the two kids, the bird and $175. An anonymous tipster contacted authorities after the children began living with the Romeros. As a result, Greenwell and the Romeros were arrested February 21 and charged with aggravated kidnapping, Dupre said. The children were well taken care of when they were with the Romeros, who badly wanted children, according to Dupre. Greenwell said she needed the cash for a lawyer to handle adoption paperwork, authorities said. She had placed the third child with another Louisiana couple, Dupre said, but he didn't know whether bartering was involved. The two children were ages 4 and 5, according to CNN affiliate WGNO. Police did not identify the biological parents, and no other information was available. The children have been placed in foster care. -- Sean Nottingham contributed to this report.","highlights":"Paul and Brandy Romero advertised the sale of their pet cockatoo for $1,500 .\nDonna Greenwell offered two children, who were not her own, for payment .\nGreenwell and the Romeros were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping .","id":"7e99e9688e7bf2b8bccdaecb646d950ff5282ce8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singapore's economy shrank by 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said Thursday, as it forecast the economy would contract between 2 and 5 percent this year. Boats ply under a bridge near the financial district of Singapore. Compared to a robust growth of 7.8 percent a year earlier, the economy grew by 1.1 percent for the whole of 2008, the ministry added. It called Gross Domestic Product growth prospects for 2009 \"weak ... on account of the pessimistic global economic outlook.\" All major sectors, except for construction, business services and information and communications, saw contractions, the ministry said. The ministry cited a decline in private sector investments and private consumption expenditure for dragging down total domestic demand. Declines in global demand for electronics products, pharmaceuticals and chemicals were also likely to weigh on the manufacturing sector.","highlights":"Singapore's economy shrinks by 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 .\nGovernment forecasts economy will contract between 2 and 5 percent this year .\nEconomy grew by percent in 2007, but only 1.1 percent for the whole of 2008 .\nConstruction, business services, information, communications avoid contractions .","id":"0ac1fbe30fa074f91c280997ad8d980202430c5d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Premier League big-spenders Manchester City are set to fine record signing Robinho for his training ground walk-out in Tenerife last week. Manchester City have confirmed Robinho will be fined following his Tenerife walk-out last week. The 25-year-old striker made an unscheduled departure, flying home to Brazil without telling City manager Mark Hughes that he had to attend to some \"urgent family business\". It was expected that Hughes would fine the \u00a332.5 million ($46m) striker approximately two weeks wages, which would be touching \u00a3200,000 ($283.5m), but there have also been suggestions that the City manager would not impose a punishment at all. However, Hughes has denied that allegation, confirming that Robinho will be punished. \"I've had a talk with Robinho,\" Hughes told the UK's Press Association. \"I have read some of the things that have been said this morning but nothing could be further from the truth. \"I have told Robby about the situation and our intention is to fine him. But there is a disciplinary procedure that has to be gone through and that is what we are doing at the moment. But what I would like to say is that he will be treated no differently to any other member of the squad.\" Robinho returned to Manchester from South America at the weekend and trained yesterday. It is expected he will line-up alongside new arrivals Craig Bellamy and Nigel de Jong when City entertain Newcastle in the Premier League on Wednesday evening.","highlights":"Manchester City confirm they will fine Robinho after his walk-out in Tenerife .\nManager Mark Hughes was reacting to reports Robhinho would not be fined .\nClub record signing returned to his native Brazil without permission last week .","id":"e5b248ede2f007f1a42f14210cc7f76e55e75241"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Relief teams dug through rose gardens at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles Sunday, looking for more than 70 army officers still missing -- and presumed killed -- after a deadly uprising by paramilitary forces last week. Bangladeshi firefighters continued to uncover bodies Friday of Bangladesh Rifles officers from a mass grave. By late Saturday night, 72 bodies had been found floating in a river or in three mass graves inside the compound of the Rifles, or BDR, in the capital city, Dhaka, the Home Ministry said. Fifty of the dead were confirmed to be army officers, shot or stabbed to death. Another six were Rifles troops, or jawans. The rest of the bodies were too damaged for immediate identification, the ministry said. But four days since the rebellion, grieving family members keeping vigil outside the headquarters were losing hope of seeing their loved ones alive again. Some men quietly recited verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book, or counted prayer beads. Several women howled in despair and collapsed hopelessly on the pavement. Sympathy for the mutineers has dried up, a Bangladeshi journalist said. \"The first day of the incident, Bangladeshis were for the BDR. They thought they had legitimate concerns of army officer corruption and denial of basic necessities to them,\" said Ashraf Kaiser, host of the television show, \"Road to Democracy.\" \"But from the second day, when we started getting news of missing officers and seeing pictures of one body after another being pulled out, the perception changed,\" he said. One can see the shift in the media coverage of the mutiny, he said. \"What was being called Pilkhana revolt or rebellion\" -- named after the area of the city where the BDR compounds are located -- \"is now being dubbed the Pilkhana massacre.\" Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initially earned high marks for persuading the jawans to surrender in exchange for amnesty. But now she finds herself in a delicate balancing act: trying to appease an army that demands the killers, who stubbed out the lives of so many of its officers, be punished. She met for hours Sunday with the army's top officials, and made several concessions. A committee the Home Ministry set up to investigate the mutiny will be shuffled to include more members from the army's ranks. She has also backtracked from her promise of amnesty. Killers will face trial, she said, and ordered jawans to return to their posts or report to police stations by the end of the day Sunday. Hundreds of jawans lined up at a field outside the Pilkhana headquarters, insisting to reporters they fled the compound during the rebellion. They kissed their loved ones as they waited, assuring wives and fathers they were innocent but asking for their prayers. The fear of a military take-over is a pervasive one in Bangladesh. The country has experienced a series of coup since its independence in 1971, including one that killed Hasina's father -- the country's independence leader. The current government itself came to power in December, after two years of an army-backed rule. \"Hasina has her responsibility to keep peace and tranquility and so she did what she did,\" said Aneeqa Khan, a student who lives not far from the BDR headquarters. \"And you can't fault the army from reacting. They lost so many people.\" The military did its part to allay fears of retaliation. \"I believe if exemplary punishment is meted out to the people involved directly or indirectly in the mutiny, it will help pacify the anger among our officers and soldiers,\" Brig. Gen. Mahmud Hossain told reporters. The standoff started Wednesday when BDR troops rebelled against their commanders. The BDR is a paramilitary force distinct from the army, but its commanders are career army officers. The Rifles is responsible primarily for guarding the country's borders. The force, more than 65,000-strong, also takes part in operations such as monitoring polls. The troops staged their rebellion on the second day of BDR Week, when officers and troops from various BDR outposts along the border were in the capital for celebrations. Discontent had been bubbling for years in the ranks of the BDR, who complained their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and their requests to participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations -- which pay far more than what they make at home. Bangladesh and its South Asian neighbors are the largest troop contributors to U.N. peacekeeping operations. During the stand-off, dozens of officers were killed. Some bodies were dumped in mass graves. Others were tossed in sewers that emptied into the Buriganga River, where they floated for miles before being retrieved.","highlights":"72 bodies found floating in a river or in three mass graves inside Rifles' compound .\nFifty of the dead were confirmed to be army officers .\nStandoff started Wednesday when Rifles troops rebelled against commanders .\nMore than 160 were inside Bangladesh Rifles headquarters when mutiny erupted .","id":"865babf2287b71cbd3557b102e1aaa4b64157688"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Even though she was born without arms, Jessica Cox never says \"can't.\" Jessica Cox, 25, uses her life story to inspire young people to face challenges head-on. She was determined to become a pilot, and she did. Not only has she mastered flying with her feet, but she also earned a black belt in tae kwon do and can legally drive a car. Cox also conquered otherwise mundane challenges like putting in contacts, text messaging, and applying makeup. Instead of saying she can't do something, Cox prefers to say, \"I haven't figured it out yet.\" Watch more of the interview with Jessica Cox \u00bb . CNN's Nicole Lapin spoke to Cox about her determination to overcome obstacles. The following is an edited transcript of the interview: . Nicole Lapin: [Your dad] said to us he never shed a tear for you. Jessica Cox: He never saw me as a victim. I never had that as an excuse, that I was a victim of my condition. This is just who I am and I'm not a victim of anything. Lapin: We have a question from our Web site that said, \"What motivated you to become a pilot, Jessica?\" Cox: Actually, flying was my greatest fear. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, \"Identify your greatest fear and walk directly at it.\" And that's how it has been for me as a student pilot and learning how to fly an airplane. The first time, a fighter pilot, he came up and asked me if I would like to fly, and I didn't answer right away because it was my fear. But, when [someone] offered to take me up in a Cessna for the first time, I thought about it for a while and said what great opportunity, to attempt to fly an airplane. Lapin: You use your right foot on the throttle, left foot on the yoke and up you go. Cox: Yes. Lapin: We have another question in from [a viewer] who wants to know, \"What do you think could be different if you had both arms?\" You wouldn't want anything different? Cox: I mean, I would have a whole different life. So there is really no way to know where to start on that, because this is my life and I wouldn't trade it for the world, to be honest with you. And so, to think about that, I don't even know if I'd want to waste the time to even think about how my life would be different, because I enjoy it as it is now. Lapin: What kind of advice would you give young people today? Cox: Well, I think that it's important to not allow our fears to stand in the way of our opportunities. And for me, I had this great fear of flying. And I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Three and a half years later, after confronting my fear and saying I'm going to do it anyway, I'm now certified. [However] just because you confront your fear doesn't necessarily mean that you can overcome it, because I still have a little bit of fear, and fear is a good thing. Lapin: We all do. Cox: Yes. So, I think that it is important not to allow our fear to stand in the way of any opportunity and stand in the way of achieving whatever we set out to accomplish.","highlights":"Jessica Cox, 25, was born with no arms .\nAccustomed to not having arms, she decided against using prosthetics .\nCox is a certified pilot, black belt in tae kwon do and licensed driver .\nHer advice: Don't let fear stand in the way of opportunity .","id":"ce0ca2423f44c63f7f90c5cdc2d12cd60c2b544a"} -{"article":"CLEARWATER, Florida (CNN) -- Two NFL players are among four boaters missing since Saturday night off Florida's Gulf Coast, officials told CNN. Corey Smith, left, and Marquis Cooper are missing after a boating trip off the Florida coast, officials said. Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper and NFL free agent Corey Smith, who played for the Detroit Lions for the past three seasons, have not returned from a Saturday fishing trip in water off Clearwater, Florida, family members and colleagues said Sunday. \"It feels like my greatest fear coming true -- it doesn't feel real,\" Cooper's wife, Rebekah, told CNN affiliate WTSP in Tampa on Sunday afternoon. \"I'm just waiting for a phone call.\" The Coast Guard began searching around 2 a.m. Sunday after it learned that four men -- Cooper, Smith, and former University of South Florida football players William Bleakley and Nick Schuyler -- had not returned from their fishing trip Saturday evening as expected. Rough weather has hampered the effort, but \"it's still a very active search,\" Coast Guard Capt. Tim Close told reporters Sunday afternoon. Poor visibility from heavy waves forced the search-and-rescue effort to be conducted primarily by air, though authorities deployed patrol boats as well, Close said. Watch relatives, friends express concern for missing boaters \u00bb . Searchers have focused on 750 square miles of open water in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass. From there, the men had left the Seminole Boat Ramp in a 21-foot single-engine boat about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. Rebekah Cooper said she became worried Saturday night when she didn't hear from her husband. She called her one of her husband's fishing buddies, Brian Miller, who contacted the Coast Guard with the coordinates of where the men planned to fish. \"Usually I'm on the boat. It's a little difficult wondering if something would have been different if I had been there,\" Miller said. \"Or who knows? They may be just sitting out there with a broken motor -- and that's what we're hoping for.\"He said it was clear something was wrong when Cooper didn't call Saturday night. \"He should've been within range to use his cell phone, and he knows enough to shut it off when he goes out so the batteries are still there,\" he said. Close said weather conditions were relatively good Saturday, \"but the weather picked up overnight.\" \"It's a small vessel for the conditions that are out there right now,\" Close said Sunday afternoon. Rebekah Cooper said her husband was aware of Sunday's weather forecast and for that reason picked Saturday for the trip. \"Fishing is his first love, it always has been,\" she said, adding, \"I have a lot of faith in him out there.\" Cooper's father said he learned of the situation Sunday morning from his daughter-in-law. His son \"routinely stays out on the water 12-14 hours,\" Bruce Cooper, a sports anchor for CNN affiliate KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona, said in a statement. Close said authorities had not received a distress signal from the boaters. Close said Cooper owns the boat. Bruce Cooper called his son an \"avid fisherman.\" \"He goes deep sea fishing any opportunity he gets,\" Cooper said in the statement. \"Two years ago I went deep sea fishing with him. I swore I would never do so again; I didn't like the fact that I couldn't see land. Needless to say I am very concerned. I am praying and hoping for the best.\" The boat, a center-console vessel manufactured by Everglades Boats, is billed as \"unsinkable,\" Close said. The Detroit Lions released a statement acknowledging that Smith was among the missing men, adding, \"Our thoughts and prayers are with all the passengers, their families and all those involved in the search efforts.\" Smith and Cooper were teammates with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for part of the 2004 season, when Cooper was a rookie, according to the NFL's Web site. Smith, who entered the league with Tampa Bay in 2002, went on to play for the Washington Redskins before moving to the Lions for the 2006 season. Cooper has played for six teams in his five-season career. Cooper played college football at the University of Washington. Smith played at North Carolina State. Schuyler's father, Stu, told reporters that the four men knew each other from working out at a gym, and that his son had accompanied Cooper and Smith on a fishing trip last week that lasted 15 hours. Bleakley lettered from 2004 to 2006 as a tight end for USF, according to a spokesman for the university's athletics department. Schuyler was a walk-on defensive end for USF in 2006, but he never played in a game, the spokesman said. \"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Will and Nick, as well as the Florida Coast Guard as they continue their search,\" USF Athletic Director Doug Woolard said in a statement Sunday. The Coast Guard asked anyone with information on the boaters to contact its St. Petersburg, Florida, office at 727-824-7506. CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"It feels like my greatest fear coming true,\" wife of missing man says .\nFour boaters missing off Florida's western coast, officials say .\nNFL's Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper among the missing .\nBoat set out early Saturday; Coast Guard began search Sunday .","id":"7131adb6b95357a143b10c426857c25926c282ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After 34 years of invitations, the \"Boss\" finally said yes to the National Football League. Bruce Springsteen was first asked to play the Super Bowl in 1975, his bandmate says. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band headline the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show in Tampa, Florida, on Sunday. E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren promises it will be \"a very cool thing,\" but would only hint at what four Springsteen songs the band will play. \"One of them has to be 'Born to Run,' but he's got over 400 great songs,\" Lofgren said. The song list, in fact, is subject to change \"knowing Bruce, since what we do is so improvisational,\" he said . \"We've got the best bandleader in the business and whatever we decide to do, we'll be able to do it well and I'm sure it will be a great ride,\" he said. Lofgren said the NFL first asked Springsteen to play at the Super Bowl in 1975, but he declined. \"They keep offering it to him and he keeps turning them down,\" he said. \"So, we were thrilled that he had a change of heart and decided to do it.\" Springsteen is taking the E Street Band on tour a world tour beginning April 1 to support the band's latest album, which was released January 27. The new album -- \"Working on a Dream\" -- sounds \"very fresh and in your face,\" Lofgren said. Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson will deliver the National Anthem before the start of Sunday's game, her first public performance since her mother, brother and nephew were found shot to death in October. Faith Hill will sing \"America the Beautiful\" during the pregame show at Raymond James Stadium. The 2009 Super Bowl will be broadcast February 1 in 230 countries and territories, the NFL said. More than 148 million American viewers watched the 2008 game, the NFL said. CNN's John Lorinc contributed to this report.","highlights":"E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren promises show will be \"a very cool thing\"\nHe won't say what four songs Springsteen and band will play .\nJennifer Hudson, Faith Hill also will sing at Super Bowl XLIII Sunday .","id":"45b8e099eebfd8a8c02f6b9a949c5c1ddab3cf69"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The ever budget-conscious boss of Ryanair has suggested the discount airline may start charging passengers for using the toilet on board its flights. Whatever you do, don't drink too much before your flight. Ryanair's investigating onboard fees for flushing. Michael O'Leary said the airline had revived inquiries into whether the airline could install coin-operated toilets on its fleet. \"People might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future,\" he said in a BBC interview, adding \"We're always in Ryanair looking at the ways of constantly lowering the costs of air travel and making it more affordable and easier for passengers to fly with us.\" Asked by the incredulous presenter what passengers would do if they found themselves without money mid-flight, O'Leary replied: \"I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound.\" Sound Off: Is it fair to charge a fee for a flush? The Irish airline is renowned for its cheap flights and regularly advertises competition-crushing deals to boost capacity on its short-haul routes. The company has made no secret of its quest to boost revenue by any means possible. It already charges for food and each bag checked into the hold is subject to a fee. Last week Ryanair announced plans to remove all its check-in counters in an effort to encourage travelers to take just one piece of hand-luggage. Ryanair's latest revenue-raising proposal has surprised few in the industry who are accustomed to its method of business. \"It seems Ryanair is prepared to plumb any depth to make a fast buck and, once again, is putting profit before the comfort of its customer,\" said Rochelle Turner, Head of Research at Which? Holiday. The consumer group also warned that move might hit Ryanair where it hurts. \"Charging people to go to the toilet might result in fewer people buying overpriced drinks on board, though -- that would serve Ryanair right,\" Turner said.","highlights":"Passengers on board Ryanair flights may need to take plenty of spare change .\nAirline boss says he's considering installing coin-operated toilets on fleet .\nWhich? Holiday says it may encourage passengers to spend less on drinks .","id":"b4fee59ac816f2d4d2eefabceb4a0f4809568e69"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yahoo! announced Monday that the search is on for the Internet giant's next CEO. Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder, speaks at an electronics show in Las Vegas in January. The new CEO will replace Yahoo! co-founder, Jerry Yang, who assumed the position in June 2007 and has since come under fire for failing to turn around the company. Yang will step down when a replacement is selected. Just two weeks ago at the Web 2.0 Summit, Yang was asked if he was the right guy to lead the battered portal. Yang dodged the question by defending his passion for the company he co-founded 13 years ago. \"I didn't make the decision of being the CEO lightly,\" he said. \"I wanted to make a change at Yahoo! that I believe I can make ... That's a dream that I felt I could achieve by being CEO and that's still the dream today.\" Now, Yang plans to return to his former role as \"Chief Yahoo\" and will still have a seat on the board, Yahoo! said. During his short tenure, Yahoo! has had two major rounds of layoffs and has seen its search market share shrink significantly while a series of reorganizations led to the departure of senior executives. Wall Street and shareholders criticized Yang for falling short of reaching an agreement to sell the company to Microsoft. Yang also was taken to task when Google pulled out of a controversial ad agreement earlier this month that would have boosted Yahoo's revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars. Yahoo! said the search for a new CEO will encompass both internal and external candidates. \"Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,\" said Chairman Roy Bostock. \"Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level.\"","highlights":"Jerry Yang plans to resume his former role as \"Chief Yahoo\"\nThe Yahoo! co-founder will still have a seat on the board .\nYang criticized for not reaching deal to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft .\nYang took over as CEO in June 2007 .","id":"a6d88d33454805c4c3b9f3c50b1b2482048c32a2"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- On Sunday night, Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali were in Hollywood, California, getting celebrity treatment as eight Oscars were awarded to the movie they starred in, \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" Rubina Ali, who starred in \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" is greeted by crowds in Mumbai, India, on Thursday. Thursday night, the two children were sleeping at home in Mumbai, India. Azharuddin sleeps under a plastic sheet in a shantytown beside a railway track, where the smell of urine and cow dung lingers in the air. Rubina sleeps with her parents and siblings in a tiny shack beside an open drain. The slum they live in put on a Bollywood-style welcome for the two young stars. There were music, dancing, sweets, garlands, security -- tears and tantrums -- and paparazzi. Mumbai's Garib Nagar area, which translates literally into \"poor district,\" put on a robust show for two of its own. Watch the children get happy, chaotic reception \u00bb . Rubina and Azharuddin have lived in a Mumbai slum all their lives. They were handpicked by the producers of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" for parts in the movie, which tells the rags-to-riches tale of a young boy who grew up in a Mumbai slum. Following the film's spectacular success around the world, the producers decided to include the two young actors in the movie's Oscar experience. The children made their first journey on a plane when they were flown to Los Angeles, California, to attend the awards ceremony. \"The plane was so big,\" said Rubina. \"I'd only seen [planes] in the sky earlier and it used to look so small.\" \"America was just fantastic,\" Rubina gushed, visibly excited after she made a dramatic entry into the slum on her father's shoulders on Thursday afternoon. \"I was so excited to be on stage at the Oscars. Everyone was crying.\" Red-carpet formalities done, the children were given a whirlwind tour of Los Angeles. The highlight -- a trip to Disneyland. \"I loved all the rides, especially the fast ones,\" said Rubina. The trip to the United States did have some drawbacks though. \"The food is different over there,\" said Rubina. \" I didn't like it. I missed Indian food.\" They'll have plenty of that now that they're back home. The first thing Azharuddin did when he returned to Garib Nagar was to dig into a plate of biryani, a traditional Indian meal of meat and rice, at a restaurant. His mother, who accompanied him to Los Angeles, spoke to reporters at home -- a makeshift shelter under a tree, with a torn plastic sheet for a roof. See where the children live \u00bb . She said she hoped the \"Slumdog Millionaire\" experience would change things. \"It would be nice to get a proper home.\" She says she has heard rumors the government may provide her family with one, but no one has confirmed any plans for a new home. \"I've been praying for a new home for so long. It's all up to Allah now.\" Returning to their slum, Azharuddin and Rubina were excited -- and exhausted -- by media attention that was sometimes a little overwhelming. Azharuddin burst into tears while eating lunch, leaving his biryani unfinished, his every move caught on camera. Hoping to secure a future for Azharuddin and Rubina, the film's producers have enrolled them in a school and set up a trust fund to ensure their welfare. \"We thought long and hard about how best can we benefit them and we decided to put in place an education plan for them,\" said Danny Boyle, the movie's director. iReport.com: One iReporter's personal 'slumdog' experience . \"We put them in school, a very good school, which they're paid for to stay in until they're 18. If they stay in school until they're 18, a substantial sum of money is released to them then, which will effectively change their lives for the better,\" Boyle said. The Telegraph newspaper of London, England, quoted their parents saying Azharuddin was paid less than $2,500, and that Rubina got about $700. \"The children were paid well,\" Boyle said. \"The families were paid well for their work, over and above what you could pay, way over and above what you could pay.\" \"I hope the children get a better life after this,\" said a neighbor who waited outside her home all day to welcome the children home. \"They've achieved so much at a young age. They deserve much better.\"","highlights":"\"Slumdog Millionaire\" won eight Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday .\nChild actors who attended Oscars ceremony return home to India .\nRubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail greeted by crowds, celebration, paparazzi .\nRubina says she loved Disneyland rides, but didn't like American food .","id":"efe759668ff735317de8d3b7511fc8d3ac7620f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The bad economy and downturn in the housing market aren't the only painful things for Realtor Anne Stephens. Her knees, hips and ankles hurt from arthritis. Anne Stephens, 61, was in her late 30s when she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. \"I can't sit too long. I can't stand too long, and I can't walk too long,\" said Stephens, 61, from Conyers, Georgia. Stephens is among the 27 million Americans who suffer from the most common form of arthritis called osteoarthritis. \"I think people tend to think of this as more of a nuisance,\" said Dr. John Klippel, president and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation. \"They think of it as only aches and pains and not the serious problem that it actually is -- the leading cause of disability in this country.\" Klippel said part of the misconception has to do with all the myths surrounding the disease. Common myth 1: Arthritis is a disease of the elderly . While older people do develop arthritis, children and teenagers can get certain forms of the condition, Klippel said. The Arthritis Foundation reports two-thirds of people with doctor-diagnosed arthritis are under age 65. Watch more on arthritis fact and fiction \u00bb . Stephens was in her late 30s when she developed osteoarthritis after injuring her knees running and playing volleyball. She felt a sharp pain and recalled, \"It was downhill after that.\" Researchers don't know the exact cause of arthritis, but they do know what puts people at risk. Klippel said that while the disease is associated with aging, other risk factors include heredity, joint injury, obesity and lack of fitness. Common myth 2: Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis . Despite what your grandmother told you, experts say cracking your knuckles is not a risk factor for arthritis. \"It's annoying -- it's certainly not good for the joints, but on the other hand, it doesn't cause arthritis,\" Klippel said. Common myth 3: Predicting the weather . \"Boy, there's a good myth,\" Klippel said with a chuckle. \"I can't tell you how many patients I would take care of who would say they were better than the weatherman at predicting changes in humidity.\" He said researchers have studied the claims, but concluded there is no scientific evidence to suggest arthritis flare-ups occur during bad weather. Klippel also doesn't buy the argument that arthritis patients are better off if they live in a warmer climate. \"If you live in a warmer climate, you're simply more active for more months of the year and that's probably why people feel better,\" Klippel said. \"It probably has very little to do with the weather itself.\" Common myth 4: Exercise aggravates arthritis . Staying active actually is one of the most important ways to prevent and ease the pain of arthritis, Klippel said. It also helps with weight control. \"For people with arthritis, it hurts to exercise,\" he said. \"But over time, the post-exercise pain actually diminishes if you push through it.\" He recommended choosing joint-friendly exercises such as walking, biking or swimming. In addition to putting ice on an aching joint, Klippel suggested taking nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory medication before or after exercising to help relieve the pain. \"People need to stay active and move their joints to keep the muscles strong and to keep the joints flexible,\" Klippel said. Common myth 5: Nothing helps . Klippel worries about arthritis patients who don't seek medical help because they don't think anything can be done about the pain. He said a proper diagnosis can lead to a host of possible treatments, including the latest prescription medicines for pain and rehabilitating aching joints through physical therapy. Klippel urges people not to wait until the pain is unbearable before seeing a doctor. \"If aches and pains persist for more than four weeks, that's a time to pay attention,\" he said. Anne Stephens followed that advice and she said it has made all the difference. She manages the inflammation and pain by taking prescription medication (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug). She also exercises at least three days a week; the workouts help her strengthen her muscles. And she sees her doctor several times a year. \"I've learned to adapt,\" she said. \"I know what's going to hurt me and what doesn't.\"","highlights":"Osteoarthritis, the most common form of the disease, affects 27 million Americans .\nArthritis is not a disease of the old: Two-thirds of those diagnosed are under 65 .\nPrescription and over-the-counter drugs can help with pain, as can exercise .","id":"078eaad18c2a36eed5b00089781575f25569b030"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two hijackers who took over a plane flying from Sudan's Darfur region on Tuesday and diverted it to Libya surrendered to authorities Wednesday, Libyan state media said. The hijacked plane took off from near the Darfur refugee camp of Kalma, which was attacked earlier in the week. The official news agency JANA said the two hijackers surrendered to Libyan authorities in the eastern town of Kufra, where the plane landed, and they were being detained in a hall in the airport there. Their identities were not released. Earlier, the hijackers had released all 87 passengers aboard the plane, but had held on to six crew members while they negotiated with Libyan officials through the pilot about passage to France, JANA said. Libyan officials tried to persuade the hostage-takers to surrender as the hijackers demanded fuel to fly the plane to Paris, France. No details were provided as to how the two surrendered. All of the remaining hostages were freed, and JANA said 20 Sudanese officials were en route to the airport. Libya will send a plane to return the passengers and crew to Khartoum, Sudan, the plane's original destination, JANA said. The Sun Air Boeing 737 airliner was about 10 minutes into a flight from Niyala, Sudan, to Khartoum on Tuesday when the pilot called the control tower and told officials the plane had been hijacked and was heading to Kufra, Sun Air airlines official Murtada Hassan Jumaa told the Al-Arabiya news channel. The hijackers at first wanted to land the plane in Egypt, but the Egyptian government refused them permission, John Ukec, Sudan's ambassador to the United States, said Tuesday. Khaled Deeb, an Al-Jazeera reporter in Tripoli, Libya, said Libyan authorities allowed the plane to land only because the hijackers said they were low on fuel -- \"for humanitarian reasons and nothing else.\" \"The fact that the plane was kidnapped from Darfur indicates that one of the militant groups may have prepared for this operation, and the fact that they want to go to France adds more to that theory,\" Deeb said Tuesday. \"The hijackers don't have any clear demands except for fuel and then heading to France.\" -- CNN's Mustafa Al-Arab contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Two hijackers surrender to Libyan authorities .\nHijackers earlier released passengers but had kept crew as hostages .\nSudan plane hijacked shortly after taking off from Darfur region for Khartoum .\nHijackers reportedly wanted fuel to fly to France; no other demands known .","id":"016163428c6e9f0eef6a08d243e6f0b286f8796e"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- President Bush surveyed this week's bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and pledged the government would \"eliminate roadblocks\" and \"cut through paperwork\" to get it rebuilt. \"I bring prayers from the American people to those who have suffered loss of life as a result of the collapse of the 35W bridge in the Twin Cities. I bring prayers to those who wonder whether they'll ever see a loved one again,\" Bush said on his visit. \"I have met with the chief of police and the sheriff and rescue workers -- people who represent men and women working as hard as they possibly can to save life and to find life -- to go under these murky waters to find the facts. And it's going to take awhile.\" Shortly after Bush left the site, a diver bobbed in the water and communicated with an attending boat with hand signals. \"I have been impressed not only by their determination but by their compassion,\" the president said. Watch Bush tour the disaster site \u00bb . \"We want to get this bridge rebuilt as quick as possible. We understand that this is a main artery,\" Bush said. \"People depend on this bridge, on this highway.\" Bush was accompanied by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who pledged that she would do what she could to meet the needs of the city. On Friday, the chief federal investigator said the south end of the bridge \"behaved differently\" from the rest of the structure during its catastrophic collapse. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said, based on a video of the collapse and where the bridge debris lies, the southern end shifted 50 feet to the east. \"And when we compare that to what we've seen in the rest of the bridge, the rest of the bridge appears to have collapsed in place,\" Rosenker told reporters. Rosenker cautioned that investigators' interest in the southern end does not mean they have found the cause of the bridge collapse. \"What we have is a step forward,\" he said. \"We believe that as the bridge began to fall, as it began to collapse, it shifted,\" Rosenker said. \"I am not saying that the 50-foot shift created the fall. That is not what we believe. What we believe is whatever created the failure, we also saw a 50-foot shift in the southern end of the structure.\" Rosenker would not offer any theories on what caused the collapse, saying that would come after the 19 investigators have completed their analysis. See which states have most troubled bridges \u00bb . The 1,907-foot bridge came down Wednesday in a cloud of dust and river water during the evening rush hour. Divers searched the river throughout Friday, locating 12 submerged or partially submerged vehicles, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said. While no bodies were found, two of the vehicles were so badly crushed that divers could not check inside. Five people were confirmed to have died in the collapse. View photos from the disaster \u00bb . \"I'm hopeful that the death toll will remain low, but I can't be absolutely certain,\" Stanek said. \"I can only pray.\" The Hennepin County medical examiner's office Friday identified a fifth victim as Paul Eickstadt, 51, of Mounds View, Minnesota, who was the driver of the tractor-trailer that was ablaze in the immediate aftermath of the collapse. The other four victims were previously identified. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Susan Roesgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President pledges to get bridge rebuilt \"as quick as possible\"\nNEW: Transportation secretary promises help for city's transit needs .\nBush praises people who disregarded danger to help victims .\nFederal investigator notes 50-foot shift of part of bridge .","id":"88ace3ae9e91238f38211b0a9f02c4001f1ba0af"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Militants set fire to a hotel at Pakistan's only ski resort Thursday, as security in the Swat Valley continued to deteriorate despite a month-old peace deal. Pakistani soldiers on patrol in the Swat Valley, which is home to the country's only ski resort. Militants forced their way into the state-run hotel in the northwestern tourist valley early Thursday morning, ransacked it and set it on fire, said Sardar Rehim Shahzad, district coordinator for Swat police. The hotel, the only one at the Malam Jabba ski resort, sustained significant damage, he told CNN. The resort is located near the Afghanistan border and about 300km (186 miles) from the capital city of Islamabad. It was shut down last summer after militants overran the area, keeping tourists away, Shahzad said. Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), was once Pakistan's biggest tourist destination. Aside from the ski resort, it was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts and visitors to the ancient Buddhist ruins in the area. In recent months, however, militants bent on imposing fundamentalist Islamic law, or Sharia, have unleashed a wave of violence across the NWFP which has claimed hundreds of lives, many of them security personnel. The militants want women to wear veils, beards for men and to ban music and television. After months of bloody battles, the government in May reached a peace deal with fighters loyal to the banned hardline Islamic group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM). It is the latest attempt by Pakistan's new government -- headed by the party of the assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto -- to achieve peace through negotiations in the lawless tribal areas where Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are believed to have free rein. Ahead of the peace pact, Pakistan's government released TNSM's former leader Sufi Mohammed, who had been jailed in 2002 after recruiting thousands of fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He was freed after agreeing to cooperate with the government. Under the terms of his release, TNSM was also expected to lay down its arms and forgo violence. But his son-in-law Fazlullah, who took over TNSM during his jail stint, vowed to continue his fight to impose fundamentalist Islamic law in the region.","highlights":"Militants set fire to a hotel at Pakistan's only ski resort Thursday .\nMilitants forced their way into the state-run hotel in the Swat Valley .\nThe resort is located near the Afghanistan border, 300km from Islamabad .","id":"e79286b43973ac7bd7ca4aed5dbfc0a04ffb05f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Local security forces and coalition soldiers in western Afghanistan killed several insurgents Thursday in what the NATO command called a \"successful operation against high-priority Taliban targets.\" British troops detain suspected Taliban Militants during a recent operation in Afghanistan. The operation took place in the Shindand district of Herat province. Two Taliban leaders, Haji Dawlat Khan and Haji Nasrullah Khan, and \"significant number of other insurgents\" were killed, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. It added there was no evidence of civilian casualties or accidental damage in the operation, in which a \"number of men were discovered handcuffed and imprisoned in appalling conditions in one of the insurgent compounds.\" The incident reflects the increasing violence between troops and Taliban militants across Afghanistan and the growing concern in the United States that the war there should be more of a priority than it has been. Since May, the deaths of U.S. and allied troops have far outpaced the toll in Iraq. On Thursday, the toll in Afghanistan was 21 compared to six in Iraq. The International Security Assistance Force did not provide the nationality of the soldier who died in Afghanistan Thursday. Two top Pentagon officials said Wednesday they expect to be able to recommend more troop reductions in Iraq this fall and will try to find ways to increase troops in Afghanistan. One of the toughest fronts in the war has been the southern province of Helmand. The British Defense Ministry said its troops in southern Afghanistan killed a senior Taliban leader, two weeks after another leading militant died in a British missile attack. Mullah Bismullah Akhund was killed Saturday in the Now Zad district of Helmand, long a Taliban bastion. The Defense Ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, called Bismullah \"a senior key facilitator and logistician responsible for the northern Helmand region.\" The ministry says his death will disrupt the Taliban's leadership structure and hamper the group's ability to conduct attacks. \"He is believed to have commanded numerous fighters and was identified by Task Force Helmand as a key player in the insurgency, and criminality, before the strike,\" according to ISAF. British troops, which are part of the assistance force, announced the killing on Thursday. Saturday's operation occurred 15 days after British troops killed another senior Taliban militant, Sadiqullah, in an Apache missile strike. \"Bismullah was closely associated with local Taliban leader Mullah Rahim, whose brother was also killed during this operation,\" ISAF said. The Defense Ministry said that \"combined with the elimination of Sadiqullah, this is the most significant blow struck against the Taliban logistics and facilitation chain in northern Helmand this year.\" The U.S.-led coalition said it also is investigating an airstrike in western Afghanistan's Farah province. Launched after a coalition convoy was attacked Tuesday, it struck a house and killed eight civilians. CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"NATO: 2 Taliban leaders and \"significant number of insurgents\" were killed .\nUK said its troops in S. Afghanistan killed another senior Taliban leader .\nMullah Bismullah Akhund described as \"a senior key facilitator and logistician\"\nW. Afghanistan: Airstrike launched after a coalition convoy was attacked .","id":"32c0cc080bb3a1877e79bacf87332c596f1d45b0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Southwest Airlines will pay $7.5 million to settle complaints that it flew unsafe aircraft, and the fine will double unless the airline completes additional safety measures within a year, federal regulators announced Monday. The FAA found Southwest operated jets on nearly 60,000 flights without performing certain mandatory inspections. The Federal Aviation Administration originally recommended more than $10 million in civil penalties in 2008 after finding Southwest operated 46 of its Boeing 737 jets on nearly 60,000 flights without performing mandatory inspections for fatigue cracks in their fuselages. FAA documents obtained by CNN found that in some cases, Southwest aircraft flew for 30 months after government inspection deadlines had passed. A congressional panel concluded the planes were \"not airworthy,\" and two FAA whistle-blowers said agency managers let the airline conduct the safety checks on a slower schedule to avoid disrupting flights. The Dallas, Texas-based airline said it was happy to have settled \"all outstanding issues with the FAA.\" \"This settlement with the FAA will allow us to focus on safety going forward, rather than on issues that are now behind us and that have already been addressed,\" Southwest Airlines said in a written statement. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fine will double unless airline completes additional safety measures within a year .\nFAA found Southwest flew 46 jets without checking for fatigue cracks in fuselages .\nFAA documents: Aircraft flew for 30 months after inspection deadlines passed .\nSouthwest happy to have settled \"all outstanding issues with the FAA\"","id":"b519f16bcd8ff68b00bb614b236f0f2fd2c636d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Climate protesters demonstrating against Donald Trump's plans for a sports resort broke into a Scottish airport Tuesday, setting up a small golf course and scaling the roof of a terminal building. Climate protesters broke into Aberdeen Airport in the early hours of Tuesday to demonstrate against plans for expansion. Flights at Aberdeen airport were returning to normal by midday after the activists breached the security fence overnight, the airport authority said. Nine members of Plane Stupid, which campaigns against airport expansion and aviation-related climate change, entered the airport grounds at about 2:15 a.m. Tuesday (9:15 p.m. Monday ET), the group said. A spokesman for the airport called the protest \"dangerous and highly irresponsible.\" By mid-morning, the seven members on the ground had been arrested, but the two protesters remained on the roof, group spokesman Leo Mullay told CNN. He explained that the group is against plans to expand the one-runway airport for the American millionaire's planned golf resort in the region. \"It's going to cause a huge increase in emissions,\" Mullay said. \"There's simply no capacity within our carbon budget for more flying.\" Trump's plans call for a golf resort to be built on 1,400 acres along Scotland's northeast coast, just north of Aberdeen, according to the resort's Web site. Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, is to feature two championship-caliber golf courses and a five-star luxury hotel. Trump's resort is in the planning stages, project director Neil Hobday told CNN. But he rejected the idea that the airport is expanding because of the Trump resort. \"The runway issue has been going on long before we got here,\" Hobday told CNN. It's \"nothing to do with us. They were going to lengthen the runway whether we were here or not.\" The protest caused a backlog of flights at the airport, a major gateway for Scotland and one of Europe's busiest heliports, airport officials said. Outbound flights resumed just after 9 a.m. (4 a.m. ET), but there remained some delays and cancellations, according to the airport's Web site. \"Despite the runway being open and available for use, the earlier protest is likely to cause some knock-on disruption during the course of the day and passengers are being asked to check the status of their flight,\" an airport statement said.","highlights":"Protest caused a backlog of flights at the airport, a major gateway for Scotland .\nDonald Trump plans a golf resort on a 1,400-acre site alongside Scotland's NE coast .\nActivists claim that the airport in nearby Aberdeen will have to expand as a result .\nTrump project director: Runway issue was ongoing long before we got here .","id":"ce97f6ceb729c37f02ea26367107209029b8b94a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN's Larry King talked with Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in a prime-time exclusive interview Monday night. Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Barack Obama: \"I'm certainly not nearly as good of a speaker as he is.\" Jindal gave the Republican response after President Obama's address to Congress last week. Jindal received negative reviews after the speech, and Larry asked him how he felt about that. They also talked about the war of words in the Republican Party centered around Rush Limbaugh. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: Governor, you took a lot of flak for that speech. Were you surprised that you did? Gov. Bobby Jindal: Let's be clear, the president is a great speaker -- probably the greatest we've seen in a generation. I'm certainly not nearly as good of a speaker as he is. And I'm not the only one that's got that opinion. I hope people look at the content of the speech, not just the delivery. You know, for years, I've been told I speak too quickly. Now I'm told I speak too slowly. What's more important is I was outlining a philosophical difference with the stimulus package, with the leadership in Congress, with the administration. I was outlining a philosophical disagreement that says we need to get businesses hiring again. We need to put more money in the private sector. Watch Larry King's interview with Gov. Bobby Jindal \u00bb . Let's cut taxes. Let's get rid of the wasteful spending. That's the debate. That's the discussion we need to be having. King: But governor, to say that the federal government apparently has no voice in this crisis, when in some cases, they are the only answer, that pointed to a lot of the criticism, didn't it? Jindal: If the president had actually delivered the targeted temporary stimulus package that he described, I think you'd see a lot more conservative and Republican support. We absolutely agree with the kind of infrastructure spending he describes -- speeding up federal spending that would have happened anyway. Less than 5 percent of this bill was actually [for] the shovel-ready infrastructure spending that he described. ... Fundamentally, I don't think $30 million for the federal government to buy new cars, $1 billion for the Census, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts is going to get the economy moving again as quickly as allowing the private sector to create jobs. King: There was no criticism of the Bush bailout of the automobile industry. No criticism of the last eight years of the Republican leadership with a tremendous deficit. Jindal: Well, Larry, I think that you're absolutely right. One of the reasons the Republicans lost the elections in 2006 and 2008 is the Republican Party didn't match its actions with its rhetoric. ... I think one of the reasons we lost elections was that the Republicans came to Washington to change the culture and instead became captive of that culture. The Republican Party defended spending and corruption we never would have accepted from the other side. King: Governor, if perception is reality, do you think your speech hurt the party? Jindal: I think that people are going to look at the content. I think people are going to be focused now that we've [got] alternative views on how to move our country forward. Let me begin the first to say we want to work with the president every chance we can get. Whenever we can find areas of agreement, we need to work across the aisle and put America first. But when we disagree, we need to offer principled alternative solutions. So for example, in health care, I agree with the president that health care should be affordable for every American. I just don't think it should be a government-run program. King: All right, governor, here was Rush Limbaugh at this weekend's CPAC Conference. Watch. Rush Limbaugh: What is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed? King: Governor, do you think people are thinking about capitalism now or are they thinking about problems? Jindal: Look, clearly, the American people are worried about paying their mortgages, keeping their jobs and paying their health care bills. I think Rush is a great leader for conservatives. I think he articulates what a lot of people are concerned about. King: Do you want him [Obama] to fail? Jindal: I don't want those policies to be adopted. I want my country to succeed, but I don't want policies to be adopted. King: What if the policies work? Jindal: Well, again... King: What if they work? Jindal: This is where we have a fundamental disagreement. I don't think it's going work ... to spend in excess of our revenues. I want my country to succeed. But what I worry about is that simply spending money on new programs. Look at every new bailout. You talked about the auto bailouts. Then you had the fourth, I think it's the fourth -- it's hard to keep track -- AIG bailout today. It seems like every time you turn around, there's another trillion dollar plan. King: One more thing. It may be moot now, but RNC Chairman Michael Steele took some shots at Limbaugh and then apologized. What do you make of all of that? Jindal: Well, I didn't follow the day's events. I'm glad he apologized. I think the chairman is a breath of fresh air for the party. As I said before, I think Rush is a leader for many conservatives and says things that people are concerned about. [He] articulates very well the concern people have about growing government spending without an end in sight. King: Thanks, governor. We'll call on you again. Always good seeing you. Jindal: Thank you, Larry.","highlights":"Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talks with CNN's Larry King in prime-time exclusive .\nJindal says he hopes people judge content of his speech, not just delivery .\n\"I think Rush [Limbaugh] is a great leader for conservatives,\" Jindal says .\nJindal: Republicans became captive to Washington politics, lost elections as result .","id":"4c7fa67da7e664088d3161830a7a1a15083fefb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Your saliva is doing all kinds of useful things for you all the time -- for instance, helping you chew and taste food. It's also home to more than 600 species of bacteria, which are harmlessly enjoying the moisture of your mouth. There's a slew of bacteria floating around in your mouth, but it's generally harmless. Since people have different eating habits in different places, you might think an American's saliva might look a lot different from, say, a South African's. But a new study published in the journal Genome Research finds that bacteria in saliva may not be as related to environment and diet as you might think. In fact, researchers found that the human salivary microbiome -- that is, the community of bacteria in saliva -- does not vary greatly between different geographic locations. That means your saliva is just as different from your neighbor's as someone's on the other side of the planet. \"It was somewhat surprising to us, because in our sampling we didn't control for diet, or environment, or anything like that,\" said Mark Stoneking of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and co-author of the study. Now, Stoneking and colleagues are trying to figure out why. One theory is that since the researchers looked only at the genus of the bacteria in question, they might find more differences at the level of individual species. They are investigating this in a follow-up study. Stoneking became interested in surveying the bacteria of saliva when he learned that saliva contains more DNA than blood, if you include DNA of bacteria and other organisms. Human blood, as you might guess, still contains more human DNA than saliva. Researchers took saliva samples from a total of 120 healthy subjects. The countries represented in this sample were Germany, Poland, Turkey, Georgia, China, Philippines, South Africa, Republic of the Congo, Argentina, Bolivia and the United States. This was the first global survey of bacteria diversity in human saliva. The most common type of bacteria found in the survey of saliva was Streptococcus, Stoneking said. People typically have Streptococcus in their mouths living benignly, although certain species are responsible for diseases such as strep throat, meningitis and bacterial pneumonia. Why do you need hundreds of bacteria species in your mouth? It turns out they're mostly not helping you at all -- you're just giving them a warm, moist home. \"Having those bacteria -- that's the price we have to pay for having a lot of saliva in the mouth to begin with,\" said Nate Dominy, anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dominy, who has studied enzymes in saliva, found the results surprising, and said no one had previously surveyed the variety of bacteria in saliva. What else is inside saliva? One component of saliva that has been shown to vary according to diet is amylase, the only digestive enzyme that converts starch into sugar, Dominy said. Amylase is also found in the pancreas and the small intestine. The human body evolved to start the digestive process early, in the mouth, so we can maximize the amount of sugar that we take in, Dominy said. \"Given that we have such large brains, and our brains are metabolically very demanding tissues, they're extremely costly and expensive to maintain, so we need a lot of sugar,\" he said. Americans in particular have a lot of amylase in their saliva because their diets are full of starch: chips, rice and baked potatoes. But the Pygmies of central Africa, for example, eat mostly game animals, honey and fruit. They have relatively little amylase in their saliva. Dominy and colleagues found these differences at the genetic level, meaning natural selection has favored large quantities of amylase in populations with starchy diets. But there is also evidence that amylase levels can rise and fall within an individual's lifetime. A study on college students in Ghana, who typically eat a lot of meat at the university, found that students who had grown up eating traditional starchy Ghanaian home-cooked meals had lower levels of amylase after attending the school. Humans have had starch as an important part of their diet for at least 12,000 years, since the advent of agriculture, he said. So what else is spit good for? Saliva spreads molecules to the taste receptors on the tongue so you can tell whether something is salty, sour, sweet or spicy, Dominy said. It also helps soften food and spread it to your teeth so that you don't have to chew as hard. Compared with other animals, humans are not very good at detecting toxins, he said. As a result, humans vomit much more than other species, and saliva buffers the acid that results from throwing up -- meaning you'll likely salivate immediately beforehand to limit the damage. \"A lot of the value of saliva is attributable to the fact that, in human evolution, we've had to eat marginal plant foods, things that are marginal in quality and full of toxins, and we need these particular salivary adaptations to help cope with those types of food,\" he said.","highlights":"Saliva contains more DNA than blood because of all of the oral bacteria .\nMost common type of bacteria in saliva is Streptococcus, in a mostly harmless form .\nSaliva spreads molecules to the taste receptors on the tongue .","id":"499411a9becc207e446719f8ad4861b21bdb8218"} -{"article":"JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- Jose Molinar knew something wasn't right. He hadn't heard from his wife for a few hours, which was not sitting well with him. Marisella Molinar was killed while driving her boss, a target of cartels, across the border into El Paso, Texas. Marisella Molinar worked as a secretary for a top prosecutor in Juarez, Mexico, Jesus Huerta Yedra. She was employed in the office for more than 10 years and though she lived across the border in El Paso, Texas, with her husband, she drove about 20 minutes over the Juarez-El Paso border every day to the job she loved. The growing violence over rival drug cartels had concerned the couple, but Mexico was a part of their lives and they were sure the violence stayed between rival drug gangs, who were fighting over a lucrative drug route into the United States. Without fail, Marisella Molinar would call her husband every day when she arrived to work, went out for lunch and when she was leaving the office. But on December 3, 2008, by around 5:30 p.m., Jose Molinar still hadn't heard from his wife. He called the office in Mexico and was told she was giving her boss a ride over the border so he could do some Christmas shopping. Jose Molinar turned on his television, and his life changed forever. \"As soon as the image came up, I saw her truck,\" said Molinar, who was watching the news out of Juarez, \"and I knew what happened right then and there.\" Watch Jose Molinar talk about the moment he knew his wife was killed \u00bb . Marisella Molinar was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her passenger, Jesus Huerta Yedra, was a target of the cartels that day. As Molinar's car was about a mile away from the border crossing back to the United States, gunmen walked up to her car and fired 85 rounds from an AK-47 into their intended target. One shot hit Marisella Molinar, a mother of two and proud grandmother, in the chest, killing her instantly. \"She wasn't involved, she didn't have anything to do with this!\" said Jose Molinar in a recent interview with CNN. \"She was the guy's secretary and she was giving him a ride to meet his wife here in El Paso who was Christmas shopping.\" But instead of making it home to help her husband hang Christmas lights, Marisella Molinar became yet another victim in the drug war taking place just steps from the U.S. border. The violence generated by the war of the drug cartels for control of drug routes translated last year into some 6,000 killings. More than 1,600 of them occurred in Juarez, three times more than the most murderous city in the United States. This year, in two months, the body count in Juarez is 400. Mexican military and police in riot gear now patrol the once popular streets of Juarez. Gone are the Americans shopping, dining and partying. The bars and restaurants are shuttered -- many closed for good. Americans don't come here anymore. In March 2008, the Mexican military joined with Mexican states and local law enforcement in the fight against drug cartels in border cities. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has waged a war against business as usual with the cartels who controlled drug routes through Mexico and into the United States. The fallout has led rival drug gangs to launch all-out war not only with the military, but also with each other, because the once-established drug routes are now up for grabs. The violence has been the worst in Juarez, where cartels have killed police officers, forced the chief of police to resign and threatened public officials. \"They started killing police officers, and not when they were doing police work, but when they were coming out of their homes and getting into their cars to go to the police station,\" said Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, whose own family has recently received death threats. At the city's only morgue, bodies are piling up. The mayor said there are far too many dead for the small facility to handle. The majority of the dead are unidentified members of the cartels. Just last week, the mayor said, 50 corpses were buried in mass graves because no one claimed the bodies. Officials from both sides of the border said the drug war may go on for years. Beheadings, bodies riddled with gunfire and blood-stained streets will continue daily, they said. They added that the appetite for illegal drugs is too great in the United States, and the drug routes are too lucrative for the battles to end. \"It's not going to be won quickly,\" said Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the Mexican government, adding that the Mexican president is committed to fighting the cartels. \"He can't talk about a time frame in this type of situation. We know the monster is big, but we don't have an idea of how big it is.\"","highlights":"Marisella Molinar, a secretary, was killed nearly a mile from her U.S. home .\nHusband: \"She wasn't involved, she didn't have anything to do with this!\"\nMore than 1,600 deaths in Juarez last year, 400 already this year .\nCartels have killed cops, forced police chief to resign, threatened public officials .","id":"17568db07eff3644d5b28d19429acb78a086bcb2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York Post cartoon Wednesday drew fire from civil rights activist Al Sharpton and others who say the drawing invokes historically racist images in suggesting an ape wrote President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package. Al Sharpton says he wonders whether the cartoon \"is making a less-than-casual inference\" to a form of racism. The artist, Sean Delonas, called Sharpton's reaction \"ridiculous,\" and the newspaper defended its decision to run his cartoon. But other African-American leaders joined Sharpton, who has been the butt of previous Delonas panels, in attacking what they called the cartoon's racial overtones. \"Sean Delonas' cartoon in today's New York Post is insensitive and offensive,\" National Urban League President Marc Morial said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. \"Comparing President Obama and his effort to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable.\" The cartoon showed two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot, a reference to this week's mauling of a Connecticut woman by a pet chimp, which police killed after the attack. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, \"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.\" New York Post: See cartoon . The nearly $800 billion stimulus package was the priority for Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, who signed it Tuesday. Watch Sharpton raise racism concerns, and see the cartoon \u00bb . \"The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys,\" Sharpton said. Sharpton questioned whether Delonas \"is making a less-than-casual inference to this form of racism.\" \"The Post should at least clarify what point they were trying to make in this cartoon, and reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy if, in fact, this was yet another racially charged cartoon,\" he said. In a brief phone interview with CNN, Delonas called the controversy \"absolutely friggin' ridiculous.\" \"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon,\" Delonas said. \"It's about the economic stimulus bill,\" he added. \"If you're going to make that about anybody, it would be [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi, which it's not.\" Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, said the cartoon \"is a clear parody of a current news event.\" Watch CNN panel discuss the cartoon \u00bb . \"It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist,\" Allan said in a written statement. But Sharpton and Morial were not alone in their criticism. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said the Post showed a \"serious lapse in judgment\" by running the cartoon. \"To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence,\" Ciara said in a written statement. \"Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst.\" Jeff Johnson, a former activist turned Black Entertainment Television host, said provocative cartoons are good, but that \"none of this is appropriate on any level.\" \"The Post ultimately has to answer ... [for] a specific reference to the president of the United States to violence and to his connection to an animal likeness,\" Johnson said. In California, civil rights leader Earl Ofari Hutchinson called on the Post to apologize. \"In times past, that depiction of African-Americans has been vigorously condemned as racially offensive,\" Hutchinson said in a statement issued from his Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. \"The cartoon also subtly condones violence. We call on the Post management to issue an immediate apology and a statement that racial insults will not be tolerated by Post writers and cartoonists.\"","highlights":"NEW: Others join Al Sharpton in saying cartoon invokes historically racist images .\nCartoon makes references to recent chimp attack, stimulus bill .\nCartoonist calls Sharpton's objections \"ridiculous\"\nNewspaper's editor: Sharpton showing himself to be a \"publicity opportunist\"","id":"e3e2d2011d64e8d1bc6be36776abb2c9fb85a577"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I've never been one to attend the performances of symphony orchestras, but off and on, for more than 35 years, I gave myself the gift of something even better: . Paul Harvey received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2005. I would go and sit with Paul Harvey as he broadcast his radio show. It was music; it was thrilling. I met him in the early 1970s, when I was a young newspaper reporter in Chicago, and that's when he allowed me, for the first time, to sit silently in his studio as he did his work. Over the years, whenever I felt a need for a Paul Harvey fix, he was always welcoming, and we came to know each other well. I would sit there wordlessly and observe absolute excellence. He would invariably be wearing a smock when I arrived -- he had been working since well before the sun came up, and the smock would cover his shirt and tie. It was the kind of smock a jeweler might wear, or a watchmaker -- it was crisply pressed, the uniform of an expert craftsman. I never asked him why he wore it, but I suspect that was the reason -- pride in craftsmanship. He would be at the typewriter, honing his script. He was famed for his voice, but the writing itself was so beautiful -- his respect for words, his understanding of the potency of economy, his instinct for removing the superfluous. The world heard him speak, but the world never saw him write, and I think he honored both aspects of his skill equally. He would walk down the hallway to his studio just minutes before airtime. The studio itself -- when I first knew him it was on the west side of North Michigan Avenue, and in later years he moved it to the east side of the street -- was far from lavish. It was impossible to equate the spartan surroundings with the idea that his voice was leaving this little room and traveling around the world. Maybe that was the point: He worked for the illusion of unfussy intimacy. He would make these warm-up noises -- voice exercises, silly-sounding tweets and yodels, strange little un-Paul-Harvey-like sounds -- and he showed no self-consciousness about doing it in front of someone else, because would a National Football League linebacker be self-conscious about someone seeing him stretch before a game, would a National Basketball Association forward be worried about someone seeing him leap up and down before tipoff? This was Paul Harvey's arena, and he would get the voice ready, loosening it, easing it up to the starting line. And then the signal from the booth, and. . . \"Hello, Americans! This is Paul Harvey! Stand by. . . for news!\" And he would look down at those words that had come out of his typewriter minutes before -- some of them underlined to remind him to punch them hard -- and they became something grander than ink on paper, they became the song, the Paul Harvey symphony. He would allow me to sit right with him in the little room -- he never made me watch from behind the glass -- and there were moments, when his phrases, his word choices, were so perfect -- flawlessly written, flawlessly delivered -- that I just wanted to stand up and cheer. But of course I never did any such thing -- in Paul Harvey's studio, if you felt a tickle in your throat you would begin to panic, because you knew that if you so much as coughed it would go out over the air into cities and towns all across the continent -- so there were never any cheers. The impulse was always there, though -- when he would drop one of those famous Paul Harvey pauses into the middle of a sentence, letting it linger, proving once again the power of pure silence, the tease of anticipation, you just wanted to applaud for his mastery of his life's work. iReport.com: Share your memories of radio legend Harvey . He probably wouldn't have thought of himself this way, but he was the ultimate singer-songwriter. He wrote the lyrics. And then he went onto his stage and performed them. The cadences that came out of his fingertips at the typewriter were designed to be translated by one voice -- his voice -- and he did it every working day for more than half a century: did it so well that he became a part of the very atmosphere, an element of the American air. He had difficult years toward the end. At one point there was a problem with his vocal cords, and he had to leave his broadcast for an extended period; when he came back he told me he had felt fear and the deepest kind of despondency, because he thought he might be finished. He wasn't; he was able to work again, and then in the last 12 months he became ill, and his beloved wife, Angel, died; he turned 90 and he wasn't on the air as much. I was in St. Louis last fall to cover the vice presidential debate, and I was taking a morning walk through the suburb of Clayton. I was on Wydown Boulevard, on a sidewalk beneath some old and thick trees, and the cell phone in my pocket rang. It was Mr. Harvey. I didn't know exactly why he was calling that day, and I still am not certain, but my sense was that he just felt a need to talk. This was during the time when his radio appearances had become sporadic; I knew how lonely he was without Mrs. Harvey. The voice, of course, was much older, and not as strong, but it was his voice, arriving out of the air in yet another American town, and what I said to him then is what I will say to you now: It was wonderful to hear it again. I walked down the street, his voice in my ear. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: I was privileged to watch Paul Harvey prepare and deliver the news .\nHe says Harvey wrote his own scripts and was a master of spare language .\nGreene: Harvey was a craftsman who words were flawlessly delivered .","id":"486f25d3d5db2468664c9801e1cbd77b41c672b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Myanmar will allow Rohingya refugees back into the country if they can prove that they are Bengali, Thailand's foreign ministry said. A photograph released by the Thai navy shows a group of men captured on December 12. The agreement was reached in side talks between the Thai and Myanmese foreign ministers during the 14th ASEAN summit, a meeting of Southeast Asian nations held in Thailand over the weekend, said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thairit Charungwat on Monday. Thousands of Rohingya refugees -- a Muslim minority group from Myanmar -- have fled to Thailand over the years, saying they are persecuted by Myanmar's hard-line military government. In recent months, controversy has erupted as the Thai military has been accused of intercepting boatloads of Rohingya, sabotaging their vessels and abandoning them at sea. Thailand eventually acknowledged such actions, after initial denials. About 20,000 Rohingya migrants already live in Thailand, according to its foreign ministry, which says Thailand is being inundated. The refugees -- who lack documentation -- live on the fringes in Thailand and Myanmar. But in Myanmar, \"things like forced relocation, forced conscription, forced labor -- these things are exacerbated for the Rohginyas,\" said Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International. \"In addition to that, they suffer from what is really systemic discrimination, systemic persecution. Things, for example, like not being able to marry outside their ethnicity, very strict restrictions on movement, the inability to work for the government, to hold jobs as civil servants. They are summarily disenfranchised. They are not able to vote. They are not even held to be citizens.\" The latest group of 78 Rohingya boat people, who arrived Thailand a month ago, has been detained there. Some of the 78 have required medical treatment, after being abused by the Myanmese navy, they say. \"They will have to be sent back, according to our law,\" Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told CNN. \"They are entering the country illegally.\" Watch CNN's \"The Forgotten People\" on Rohingyas' escape to Thailand \u00bb . Myanmar says it will take refugees back if they can prove that they are Bengali, a recognized ethnic group in Myanmar. Proof would include confirmation by relatives, a standard practice in a country that often lacks documentation. But the refugees have resisted being returned to Myanmar, saying they would be killed. \"At least this issue is being raised at international and regional level,\" Charungwat said. \"Myanmar has also started to establish communication and participation on this issue, and join with ASEAN, as it is a regional issue to be solved.\"","highlights":"Amnesty International: Rohingyas face systemic discrimination, persecution .\nThailand's PM Abhisit: \"They will have to be sent back, according to our law\"\nAgreement reached during ASEAN summit .","id":"749b07a1024e9db09e0f161787019d0bd18095f1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the Marines shown in a famous World War II photograph raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima was posthumously awarded a certificate of U.S. citizenship on Tuesday. The Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia depicts Strank and five others raising a flag on Iwo Jima. Sgt. Michael Strank, who was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the United States when he was 3, derived U.S. citizenship when his father was naturalized in 1935. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently discovered that Strank never was given citizenship papers. At a ceremony Tuesday at the Marine Corps Memorial -- which depicts the flag-raising -- in Arlington, Virginia, a certificate of citizenship was presented to Strank's younger sister, Mary Pero. Strank and five other men became national icons when an Associated Press photographer captured the image of them planting an American flag on top of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. Strank was killed in action on the island on March 1, 1945, less than a month before the battle between Japanese and U.S. forces there ended. Jonathan Scharfen, the acting director of CIS, presented the citizenship certificate Tuesday. He hailed Strank as \"a true American hero and a wonderful example of the remarkable contribution and sacrifices that immigrants have made to our great republic throughout its history.\"","highlights":"Marine Sgt. Michael Strank was among six who famously raised flag on Iwo Jima .\nStrank, born in Czechoslovakia, became a U.S. citizen after his father was naturalized .\nStrank, killed on Iwo Jima in World War II battle, didn't receive citizenship papers .\nCertificate given to his sister on Tuesday .","id":"644a3f79470d3b457efacc7d4ea33577d59e69c1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration's efforts to help struggling homeowners will aid \"responsible\" borrowers, not deadbeats or speculators, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said Sunday. The plan is aimed at \"folks who are playing by the rules,\" Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan says. President Barack Obama announced the plan Wednesday, saying it will help up to 9 million people keep their homes in a housing market ravaged by foreclosures. But critics, including several leading Republicans and some commentators, said the $75 billion proposal will unfairly help some people at the expense of others. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs acknowledged Friday that some people who made \"bad decisions\" might end up getting help under the proposal. But Donovan, Obama's secretary of housing and urban development, told CNN's \"State of the Union\" on Sunday that \"there are no 'flippers,' investor-owners or scammers that are eligible for this program.\" \"We're going check everybody's income when they come into this program. We're going to make sure that people are paying their bills. And more than anything, we're targeting the folks who are playing by the rules,\" Donovan said. The administration's proposal would make it easier for homeowners to afford their monthly payments either by refinancing the mortgages or having their loans modified. And it would vastly broaden the scope of the government rescue by focusing on homeowners who are still current in their payments but at risk of default. Read more about the plan . South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican who also has criticized the administration's stimulus package, called the mortgage plan \"a horrible idea.\" \"About 95 percent of folks are playing by the rules and struggling, but still paying their mortgages. The idea that somebody down the street gets a different system, I think, is ultimately something that's going to undermine a whole lot of other folks with regard to paying their mortgage,\" Sanford told \"Fox News Sunday.\" In particular, he singled out a provision that would allow judges to modify or reduce the principal of loans for borrowers in bankruptcy -- an idea Sanford called \"incredibly dangerous for the precedent it sets.\" But Donovan told CBS's \"Face the Nation\" that judges already have that power for second homes or vacation homes. \"It's only for people who have one home and are living in it or are in trouble where you can't have a modification of that loan in bankruptcy,\" he said. But he said the administration would limit the plan to existing loans, not future ones, and considered it a \"last resort.\" \"There seems to be growing consensus that this is an important part of the solution,\" he said. About $50 billion of the money would come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout package, a senior administration official said Friday. Nationalized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will contribute more than $20 billion to the loan modification program, mainly to subsidize interest rates so troubled borrowers' monthly payments can be lowered to affordable levels. But those companies are on shaky financial ground themselves and are expected to report billions in losses in the next week or two. To stabilize them, the foreclosure prevention program calls for doubling their lines of credit with the federal government to $200 billion each. Donovan said 45 percent of home sales in December were \"distressed,\" meaning either sellers were facing foreclosure or the homes were already seized by the bank, driving down home prices further in an already-battered market. \"We've got to make clear, here, that a foreclosure hurts every American,\" he told CNN. In releasing his proposal Wednesday, Obama said it would help both responsible homeowners suffering from falling home prices and borrowers either at risk of or already in default. But it does virtually nothing for the unemployed, who often don't have enough income to make any reasonable monthly payment affordable. And since it relies more heavily on lowering interest rates than on reducing principal, it does little for borrowers concerned their homes will never recoup their value.","highlights":"Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan: Scammers, speculators won't be helped .\nCritics have said plan will unfairly help some people at the expense of others .\nDonovan: \"We're targeting the folks who are playing by the rules\"","id":"830d56dbd698e640442ace48bb6e057eb34f8747"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It only takes one injury to end an athlete's career. Anything that impairs an athlete's performance could mean they're no longer good enough for the top flight -- that's why the best athletes need the best treatment if they're to recover from injury. Owen Hargreaves (L) in action before his career was cut short by tendonitis. Manchester United star and England international footballer Owen Hargreaves is known for his versatility and exceptional work rate, but in 2008 his season was cut short by tendonitis. Hargreaves, 27, was told he would need surgery on both knees to save his career. That's when he decided to travel to the small mountain ski village of Vail, Colorado, to meet the \"knee whisperer\" -- Dr Richard Steadman. Steadman became fascinated with the way the knee functions and how it can be injured during his university days playing American football. Now known as \"Doctor Steady,\" Steadman is knee specialist to the stars, counting Real Madrid ace Ruud van Nistelrooy, American football sensation Bruce Smith, and even the King of Spain among his clients. \"I just think he understands the athletes, the significance of the injuries and he's able to deal with the personalities that go along with these injuries,\" Hargreaves told CNN. Watch Owen Hargreaves talking about his recovery \u00bb . Steadman works with a team of 75 doctors who have together repaired some 16,000 knees. He has developed pioneering knee treatments, including \"micro-fracturing,\" which involves making a small hole in a patient's bone to draw out marrow blood, allowing the patient's own stem cells and growth factors to make new cartilage. Dr. Steadman says the secret to healing athletes is letting them do what they do best. \"I became convinced early in my career that mobility was important and immobility was a bad thing. \"I was one of the first ones to say, 'I don't think we'll use casts, we'll work on braces, we'll try to get motion back',\" he told CNN. Owen Hargreaves has about a month left of rehab in Vail. His days follow a strict routine: Wake up, rehab, eat lunch, rehab, eat dinner and rest. \"It's been frustrating at times,\" says Hargreaves. \"I don't really watch our games because as an athlete, and being so competitive, it's hard to watch when you normally would be out there.\" Steadman says Hargreaves will return to football next season better than ever, adding that athletes often build inner strength from overcoming what could be a career-ending injuries. Hargreaves shares that view. \"I'm going to come back stronger and hopefully add a couple of years onto my career,\" he said. For others the road to recovery can be slower. British middleweight boxer Michael Watson almost died after collapsing at the end of his 1991 title fight with Chris Eubank. \"I took a punch, everything went blank and I woke up in a bed. I thought I was dreaming,\" Watson told CNN. Watson spent the next 40 days in a coma and had to undergo six brain operations. Neurosurgeon Peter Hamlyn, who operated on Watson, told CNN, \"He was as close to death as I think it's possible to go, and survive. And he stayed there for longer than anyone I've ever known.\" It was thought that Watson would never walk again, but after years of slow recovery, he was able to enter the 2003 London Marathon, completing it over six days. \"His [recovery] is by far the most remarkable I've ever seen,\" said Hamlyn. There's now a close bond between Hamlyn and Watson, and Steadman's patients are similarly grateful for their recoveries. The hallway of Steadman's clinic is lined with the signed shirts of his former patients; the number 10 Manchester United shirt signed by Ruud van Nistelrooy reads simply \"Thank you for giving back my dream.\"","highlights":"The best athletes need the best treatment if they're to recover from injury .\nFootball star Owen Hargreaves was told he'd need surgery to save his career .\nDr Richard Steadman, knee specialist to the stars, is treating Hargreaves .\nBoxer Michael Watson recovered slowly after sustaining severe brain injuries .","id":"de8fabbf83450b302628c7666ece93c702eab008"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The ambush by up to a dozen gunmen of a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore is the realization of fears long held by the sport's leading players. Pakistani policemen outside The National Stadium after masked gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3, 2009. The Sri Lankan team had agreed to tour Pakistan after India pulled out in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last November when more than 160 people died in a three-day siege. The England team was in India -- but not in Mumbai -- during the attacks and promptly cut their tour short and returned home. In September 2008, Cricket Australia decided to push ahead with a tour of India despite a series of bomb attacks in the country's capital New Delhi. In March of the same year, they had pulled out of a tour of Pakistan after a spate of suicide bombings. Before that, the Australian team had not played in Pakistan for 10 years. Such was the concern about the security risks presented to players in Pakistan that in August 2008 the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the biennial Champions Trophy would be postponed until October 2009. The ICC announced last month that it was investigating other venues after three countries -- England, New Zealand and Australia -- expressed reservations about touring Pakistan. South Africa pulled out of the 2008 competition citing security concerns. Long before that, in 2002, a suicide bomb blast outside the New Zealand team's hotel prompted them to pack up and abandon the second Test series in Pakistan. The explosion injured the team physiotherapist and killed 11 French navy experts as well as two Pakistanis. The previous year, the New Zealand team cancelled a scheduled tour of Pakistan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the U.S. Most of the team stayed on to play, though under increased security, when a suicide attack closed Colombo's international airport in July 2001. In February 1996, Australia and the West Indies refused to play in preliminary World Cup matches in Sri Lanka after a huge bomb blast killed 80 people and injured 1,200 in Colombo. In November 1992, also in Colombo, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb outside a hotel where the New Zealand team was having breakfast, killing four people. Five players and the coach were allowed to return home on compassionate grounds. Five years earlier, in April 1987, the New Zealand team cut short a three-test tour of Sri Lanka after a car bomb killed 100 people at a bus station in Colombo.","highlights":"Sri Lankan team agreed to replace India in Pakistan after Mumbai attacks .\nInternational teams have long expressed concern about security in Pakistan .\nAustralian team pulled out of tour of Pakistan last year after suicide bombings .\nICC currently investigating other venues for postponed Champions Trophy .","id":"f40f182d0286b265e947cfed5f110798bdfc05a7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN has asked its journalists across the country to offer their thoughts on how the economic crisis is affecting their cities. In this installment, All Platform Journalist Jim Spellman reports from Denver, Colorado. Hari Dallakoti says business at his UPS store in Denver, Colorado, is down 25 percent. DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- The conventional wisdom here in the Mile High City is that Denver entered the recession early and is pulling out of it ahead of the rest of the country. Time and again I have heard politicians, journalists and business people tell me that it isn't so bad here, that Denver is poised to lead the nation in an economic recovery. Maybe, but the signs on the ground are a little harder to read. Down on Broadway I stop by a UPS store a couple of times a week. The owner's name is Hari Dallakoti. Dallakoti always has a smile on his face and seems to know all his customers by name -- he was calling out to me by the second time I entered the shop. People drop by to ship out packages, make copies and pick up deliveries. There is always a crowd when I have been in, but Dallakoti tells me business is down 25 percent this month versus the same time last year. \"Finally it's hitting in this area, and I believe that people are afraid of spending money,\" he says. \"It's like a ripple effect, and I think I am feeling it now.\" Dallakoti says customers who once sent birthday presents across the country are now only sending cards. Also, eBay-related shipping is down, and he has seen a falloff in people sending mortgage-related documents. He has five employees and says he hasn't had to let anyone go, but he has had to cut back their hours. He agrees that business is better in Denver than in other parts of the country and is confident he will weather the economic storm, but it may be a while before things get better for him. \"In my opinion it's going to get worse for the next couple, three months, and I'm hoping it will turn around after June,\" he says. Watch how the downturn is affecting Denver \u00bb . A block up Broadway is a little guitar store called Music Gear Guys. I play guitar, and this was one of the first businesses I stopped by when I moved to Denver in January. I have been in the shop four or five times and have been surprised that every time I drop by, the place is packed. \"The recession affected us a little last year but overall -- knock on wood -- it hasn't really affected me too much,\" says owner Gregory Decker, who thinks the recession may actually be helping his business. \"I have a feeling that people are looking for hobbies or different forms of entertainment that aren't too expensive,\" Decker explains. His store is crowded with new and used guitars, amplifiers and accessories. He says guitars based on designs from the 1960s are the hot items in the store. Like Dallakoti, the UPS store owner, Decker seems to know all of his customers by name. He says that in this economy you have to focus on customer service to stand a chance. He doesn't advertise, instead relying on word of mouth, and keeps overhead low: He is the sole employee. \"Relationships are what make my business thrive. Without them I wouldn't be as successful,\" he says. But even here in a relatively successful small business there are signs of the hard times other people have been experiencing. Beginning last year more customers started coming in to sell Decker their guitars in hopes of making ends meet. \"A lot of people are selling their gear due to job layoffs and needed the money,\" he says. The recession started with free-falling housing values and, in this respect, the signs are harder to read. Over the weekend I took my dog for a walk through my neighborhood near Sloans Lake in Northwest Denver and decided to count how many houses were for sale. In a six-block walk, I counted two houses for rent and 13 for sale, including the house next door to me. These homes sit like ghosts in the neighborhood. There are open houses on Sundays, but few people come by. The houses are all well-maintained, though most of them appear to be empty. My neighbors hope these places don't fall into foreclosure; they are worried the neighborhood will fall apart if they do. I'll be keeping my eye on the house next door, and keeping my fingers crossed that my new hometown will be back on track soon.","highlights":"CNN journalist in Denver, Colorado, weighs in on how economy affecting city .\nUPS store owner says business down at least 25 percent .\nBusiness brisk at guitar store, but many selling instruments to obtain money .\nHousing market's slowdown also felt in Mile High City .","id":"e504e45eadbfeb87ca390c54d37aac9526c1504c"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Nothing, but nothing, has the power to spoil New Orleans' appetite. The people of this city love to eat, and they eat it all -- from simply fried oysters and perfectly dressed po' boys to cutting-edge dishes served Cajun style. Here, a meal-by-meal primer of the Big Easy from a lucky visitor who came to eat and stayed to listen. A classic meat biscuit at Mother's . Breakfast . When local business owners pulled together in move-on mode and reopened faster than seemed possible after Hurricane Katrina, natives dubbed Magazine Street, a six-mile ribbon of shops and restaurants, the \"aisle of denial.\" Only a few blocks away, on the edge of the Central Business District, Mother's reopened with Vice Admiral Thad Allen, head of the disaster relief effort, as its first customer. Regulars and tourists alike line up to order at the counter, cafeteria-style, but dishes such as grits and debris (roast-beef edges in gravy) or red-bean omelets with baked ham and biscuits are delivered to your Formica-topped table by old-time waitresses who may well call you darlin'. Mellow Coffea Caf\u00e9 (3218 Dauphine St.), in Bywater, a picturesque residential neighborhood a mile or so downriver from the French Quarter, doubles as a gallery space for local artists and has a genuine bohemian charm. Try their caf\u00e9 au lait (equal parts chicory coffee and steamed milk), sweet potato pancakes, or the savory \"huevos crepe,\" filled with eggs and black beans and served with a side of Southern hospitality: a half-dozen bottles of hot sauce, including the tangy Louisiana favorite, Crystal. iReport.com: Send your photos of New Orleans . Don't leave the neighborhood without swinging by homey corner restaurant Elizabeth's for fried chicken livers with pepper jelly or lacquered praline bacon, baked in brown sugar with crumbled pecans and tasting -- if you can imagine it -- like pig candy. The hand-lettered sign, swaying when the breeze blows off the river, promises REAL FOOD DONE REAL GOOD. For weekend brunch, order \"red neck eggs\" (poached and served over fried green tomatoes with grits) and sweet rice fritters called calas, a nearly extinct regional specialty. Travel + Leisure: World's craziest party towns . Lunch . Founded in 1919 by Italian immigrants, Casamento's takes pride in its oyster loaf: a sandwich of fried oysters layered between two slices of house-made buttery white bread (rather than a French-style po' boy roll). But check the calendar, because the tiny Garden District oyster house is only open in the cooler \"r\" months. If the time is right, plunk those freshly shucked oversize warm-water oysters onto some saltines and wash them down with the coldest local Abita Golden beer in town. During the summer \"r-less\" months, there's always La Petite Grocery (4238 Magazine St.), a cozy neighborhood bistro nearby. Chef Justin Devillier's top-notch half-pound burger comes with his house-made pickles and sweet Vidalia-onion marmalade. There's only one way to end the debate over where to find the best po' boy in town: head for the Parkway Bakery & Tavern. Whether you go for the roast beef with gravy or golden fried shrimp, the basic anatomy of Parkway's perfect rendition is always the same: \"dressed\" (lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and pickles) on distinctive New Orleans-style French bread (lightly crisped crust, interior as airy as cotton candy) from the celebrated Leidenheimer Bakery. Nothing better, nowhere else. A grande dame of French Creole cooking since 1905, and still family-owned, the clubby Galatoire's has long earned its place in the social scene. If you sit in the mirrored ground-floor dining room (not the second floor) and order without studying the menu, you might -- just might -- pass for an upper-crust regular. Cheat sheet: Get the \"grand goute,\" a seafood appetizer trio featuring the restaurant's signature shrimp r\u00e9moulade. Dinner . Under sparkling chandeliers in a renovated four-story French-Creole warehouse, James Beard Award-winning chef John Besh, whose August empire has doubled in size post-Katrina, celebrates regional ingredients in French style. A devoted Louisiana resident, Besh is involved with artisanal producers and longtime area farmers, which means you might find a salad of heirloom beets with Allen Benton's cherrywood bacon, mustard greens, quail eggs, and black-eyed pea croutons, or a sugar-and-spice duckling with Anson Mills heirloom Carolina corn grits, roasted duck foie gras, and quince. Don't let the phrase \"contemporary Cajun\" scare you; there's no trickery about the food at Cochon. Devoted to protecting old-style traditions, chef\/co-owners Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski turn out splendid boudin, andouille, and smoked bacon, which you can also buy at the newly opened Butcher, located in the same building. Order absolutely anything: wood-fired oyster roast, ham hock with lima bean hopping John, catfish court bouillon. And whatever you do, don't leave without trying the fresh chunk-pineapple and cornmeal upside-down cake, slightly sticky with caramel sauce. The last bite will haunt you for days. Between meals . Beignet rhymes with clich\u00e9 for a reason: everybody hits Caf\u00e9 Du Monde, a cornerstone of the historic French Market since 1862, sometime. Despite the crowds, it's hard to find fault with the hot little pillows of sweet fried dough, served 24 hours a day, seven days a week (except Christmas Day). Paris, Milan, New Orleans? It seems likely at ultrasleek patisserie Sucr\u00e9, where you can rev up with a plate of delicate macarons or a chicory coffee-gelato shake. The NOLA Chocolate Collection includes evocative local flavors such as the Meuniere, brown butter and white chocolate ganache coated in dark chocolate; and the Magnolia, dark chocolate with pecan ganache, topped with a pecan half. After hours, Big Easy style . Traces of voodoo have long seeped into New Orleans's everyday life. So settle in at the International House hotel's candlelit bar Loa and toast the divine spirits with a champagne-and-pear brandy Laveau 347, a cocktail honoring Marie Laveau, New Orleans's legendary voodooienne, who's buried in Tomb 347 in St. Louis Cemetery No.1, on the edge of the French Quarter. Travel + Leisure: World's strangest hangover cures . The Columns Hotel, founded in 1883, is on the National Register of Historic Places and feels as haunted as hell. The creaky floorboards and dark corners of the Victorian Lounge give off a catacomb-like vibe. But meeting for a Sazerac, the city's official cocktail as declared by the state legislature, on the mansion's wide wooden porch facing the prettiest boulevard in the Garden District, is the perfect way to ease into -- or out of -- a long evening. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Mother's serves hearty breakfasts on the edge of the Central Business District .\nParkway Bakery & Tavern is known for its po' boy sandwiches .\nChef John Besh celebrates regional ingredients in French style at August .","id":"c1ffdf8a75b64f8d7810b93240e9b32c0cd8c949"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Bangladeshi military has revised the number of army officers missing after last week's bloody uprising, from 72 down to six. Bangladeshi soldiers carry a coffin during a funeral Monday for victims of last week's mutiny. The earlier number was based on \"assumptions,\" said Lt. Gen. Sina Ibn Jamali, the army chief of general staff. \"The numbers we are giving now are grounded in facts,\" Jamali told reporters Sunday night. Authorities said confusion arose because no one knew for sure how many officers were inside the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters when paramilitary troops, or jawans, staged a bloody revolt and took dozens of them hostage Wednesday. Search crews have recovered 73 bodies from a river, sewers and three mass graves inside the Rifles compound in the Pilkhana area of the capital, Dhaka. Of those bodies, 53 were confirmed as those of army officers. Meanwhile, an army investigation into the 35-hour rebellion began Monday. The police have filed murder charges against more than 1,000 Rifles, and soldiers were out in full force throughout Bangladesh looking for them. The 65,000-strong Rifles is a border security force -- distinct from the army, but whose commanders are career army officers. The jawans had complained for years that their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and the opportunity to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations, which pay far more than what they make at home. The two-day standoff ended after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised the jawans amnesty if they laid down their arms. She has backtracked since, saying the government will not show mercy to those who killed, looted or committed arson.","highlights":"Number of army officers missing after mutiny is six, down from earlier estimate of 72 .\nConfusion arose because no one was certain how many officers were involved .\nMurder charges filed against more than 1,000 members of Bangladesh Rifles .","id":"017e445ca3b43c00d7252a55bc39db7fcb5fcba2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Your saliva is doing all kinds of useful things for you all the time -- for instance, helping you chew and taste food. It's also home to more than 600 species of bacteria, which are harmlessly enjoying the moisture of your mouth. There's a slew of bacteria floating around in your mouth, but it's generally harmless. Since people have different eating habits in different places, you might think an American's saliva might look a lot different from, say, a South African's. But a new study published in the journal Genome Research finds that bacteria in saliva may not be as related to environment and diet as you might think. In fact, researchers found that the human salivary microbiome -- that is, the community of bacteria in saliva -- does not vary greatly between different geographic locations. That means your saliva is just as different from your neighbor's as someone's on the other side of the planet. \"It was somewhat surprising to us, because in our sampling we didn't control for diet, or environment, or anything like that,\" said Mark Stoneking of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and co-author of the study. Now, Stoneking and colleagues are trying to figure out why. One theory is that since the researchers looked only at the genus of the bacteria in question, they might find more differences at the level of individual species. They are investigating this in a follow-up study. Stoneking became interested in surveying the bacteria of saliva when he learned that saliva contains more DNA than blood, if you include DNA of bacteria and other organisms. Human blood, as you might guess, still contains more human DNA than saliva. Watch CNN's Elizabeth Landau talk more about saliva \u00bb . Researchers took saliva samples from a total of 120 healthy subjects. The countries represented in this sample were Germany, Poland, Turkey, Georgia, China, Philippines, South Africa, Republic of the Congo, Argentina, Bolivia and the United States. This was the first global survey of bacteria diversity in human saliva. The most common type of bacteria found in the survey of saliva was Streptococcus, Stoneking said. People typically have Streptococcus in their mouths living benignly, although certain species are responsible for diseases such as strep throat, meningitis and bacterial pneumonia. Why do you need hundreds of bacteria species in your mouth? It turns out they're mostly not helping you at all -- you're just giving them a warm, moist home. \"Having those bacteria -- that's the price we have to pay for having a lot of saliva in the mouth to begin with,\" said Nate Dominy, anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dominy, who has studied enzymes in saliva, found the results surprising, and said no one had previously surveyed the variety of bacteria in saliva. What else is inside saliva? One component of saliva that has been shown to vary according to diet is amylase, the only digestive enzyme that converts starch into sugar, Dominy said. Amylase is also found in the pancreas and the small intestine. The human body evolved to start the digestive process early, in the mouth, so we can maximize the amount of sugar that we take in, Dominy said. \"Given that we have such large brains, and our brains are metabolically very demanding tissues, they're extremely costly and expensive to maintain, so we need a lot of sugar,\" he said. Americans in particular have a lot of amylase in their saliva because their diets are full of starch: chips, rice and baked potatoes. But the Pygmies of central Africa, for example, eat mostly game animals, honey and fruit. They have relatively little amylase in their saliva. Dominy and colleagues found these differences at the genetic level, meaning natural selection has favored large quantities of amylase in populations with starchy diets. But there is also evidence that amylase levels can rise and fall within an individual's lifetime. A study on college students in Ghana, who typically eat a lot of meat at the university, found that students who had grown up eating traditional starchy Ghanaian home-cooked meals had lower levels of amylase after attending the school. Humans have had starch as an important part of their diet for at least 12,000 years, since the advent of agriculture, he said. So what else is spit good for? Saliva spreads molecules to the taste receptors on the tongue so you can tell whether something is salty, sour, sweet or spicy, Dominy said. It also helps soften food and spread it to your teeth so that you don't have to chew as hard. Compared with other animals, humans are not very good at detecting toxins, he said. As a result, humans vomit much more than other species, and saliva buffers the acid that results from throwing up -- meaning you'll likely salivate immediately beforehand to limit the damage. \"A lot of the value of saliva is attributable to the fact that, in human evolution, we've had to eat marginal plant foods, things that are marginal in quality and full of toxins, and we need these particular salivary adaptations to help cope with those types of food,\" he said.","highlights":"Saliva contains more DNA than blood because of all of the oral bacteria .\nMost common type of bacteria in saliva is Streptococcus, in a mostly harmless form .\nSaliva spreads molecules to the taste receptors on the tongue .","id":"f3fc658691c64c1f2e8b25a66eec4feb8845bf12"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The UK government has clashed with the judiciary amid claims that Washington pressured London into not releasing documents that reveal the torture of a terrorism suspect, UK media report. Binyam Mohamed has been held at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years. Ethiopian Binyam Mohamed, 30, formerly resident in the UK, has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2004. Allegations that he he was involved in a plot to release a \"dirty bomb\" in the United States have now been withdrawn. Mohamed and his supporters allege he was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004, and that the UK security services were complicit. UK media outlets had appealed against an earlier ruling to withhold documents relating to the alleged torture. Two UK High Court judges said Wednesday, in comments reported by the UK's Press Association, that the papers would still not be disclosed after UK foreign minister David Miliband warned their publication might affect intelligence sharing between the U.S. and UK. In their ruling, reported by PA, the judges said the documents included information \"relevant to allegations of torture,\" but added that they did not contain any sensitive intelligence. Rather, the judges concluded, the material was \"politically embarrassing\" and urged the new U.S. administration to take a different approach. The judges also suggested the U.S. government had pressured London about the intelligence-sharing relationship should the documents be released. Miliband told the UK's Channel 4 News Wednesday that intelligence co-operation between nations relied on confidentiality and that there would have been repercussions if the papers had been released. But he added: \"There has been no threat from the United States to 'break off' intelligence cooperation.\" \"In this case, the United States made clear, in documents that have been published, that there would inevitably be serious and lasting harm if that fundamental principle was breached,\" Miliband said. \"It is American information and it is for the Americans to decide when to publish their information.\" The UK government has peviously pressed for the release of Mohamed. Last month U.S. President Barack Obama set a one-year deadline for the closure of Guantanamo. Clive Stafford Smith, lawyer for Mohamed, said in a statement on the Web site of human rights group Reprieve that the U.S. and the UK governments were legally obliged to investigate any allegations of torture. \"For the foreign secretary to give in to these illegal demands by the Bush Administration is capitulation to blackmail, pure and simple. It is hardly Britain's finest hour. As the judges say, it is up to President Obama to put his money where his mouth is. He must repudiate his predecessor's reprehensible policy.\" Earlier this week Miliband met with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for talks in Washington. Clinton told media after her meeting that the U.S.-UK relationship stood the test of time, adding: \"Our two countries have stood side by side confronting global challenges for a very long time. We share fundamental values and important fundamental objectives.\"","highlights":"Binyam Mohamed has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2004 .\nMohamed's supporters allege he was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan .\nUK media loses appeal against release of information relating to case .\nUK judges, in ruling, say U.S. govt. has pressured London to supress documents .","id":"82f8c01db091300db3c124543317cd825b441cbe"} -{"article":"MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Some of the people hit hardest by this bad economy are the youngest. Almost 2 million children nationwide have had or will have their lives disrupted by home foreclosures, according to one study. There are more empty desks in Suzell Tougas's fourth grade classroom after 10 students have stopped coming. These are the children whose families have had to move, sometimes more than once. The youngsters are pulled out of school, often leaving their friends behind without even saying goodbye. Nine-year-old Kenia, who is in the fourth grade at Fairview Elementary School in Modesto, California, said that is what happened to her. She is new to the school, having moved to the area just a few months ago. She said it is really hard and she misses her friends. Her classmate Bethany said her best friend since kindergarten just left without saying goodbye. Heather Sharp, the principal at Fairview, said her school has been the one most affected by the bad economy in the Modesto City School system. \"We have, over the last couple of months, 50 students coming new to the school and 50 students leaving,\" Sharp said. It was so bad that the school conducted a door-to-door search for missing students, she said. \"We had our community aide going out to houses. And they were boarded up, windows boarded, yard brown. She had to go to neighbors to find out where the kids were.\" In terms of raw numbers, California had the most foreclosures of any state from 2007 through January 2009. More than 57,000 homes entered foreclosure. Many of those were in Stanislaus County, where home prices have declined 65 percent since December 2005, according to the Modesto Bee. Fourth-grade teacher Suzell Tougas said she has lost 10 kids from her class so far this year and is braced to lose more. She usually has a room full of children with every desk occupied. Now, it \"looks empty ... it's like a \"ghost town\". She said constant moving is hard on kids. \"Just having to start over and start over is really hard on a child,\" Tougas said. \"It takes six weeks for a child to adjust ... at least.\" While children are in that period of adjustment, she said, they aren't learning and their studies suffer. \"The biggest issue is that when [children have to move] when there are other stressors going on, we know it puts these kids at greater risk for being behind in their academics,\" said Pat Popp, a past president of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. That is borne out in a recent study by a nonpartisan group in Washington called First Focus. It said that children who move twice in one year are only half as likely as others to be able to read proficiently, and may have a greater chance of being held back. It also found that moving a lot reduces the student's chance of graduating from high school by half. Read the report here . The report, published in May, estimated that 1.95 million children will be affected by foreclosure over the next two years. The number of homeless students is increasing dramatically. A study by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children reported that more than 450 school districts across the nation had an increase of at least 25 percent in the number of identified homeless students between the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years. Read the report here (pdf) A student who moves \"may hear the same information again that you learned in your previous classroom or miss information that has already been covered in your class but wasn't taught in your previous school,\" Popp said. The fallout from the rash of foreclosures likely will have a long-term impact on education, especially in California. Schools get much of their funding from property tax revenues. Real estate values are spiraling downward and so is the revenue. At Fairview Elementary, Principal Sharp worries about students like 9-year-old Eunice, who has moved twice in the last year. Her parents told her that after they pay their mortgage this month, they won't have any money for a week. But, Sharp said, children are resilient. \"We don't give them credit for what they can handle but, at the same time, the flip side is it's sad -- they shouldn't have to handle it. They should be able to know they can go to school and focus on reading and math and recess.\"","highlights":"California hit hard by foreclosures, falling home values, families moving .\nModesto 4th graders say they miss friends, some of whom left without goodbyes .\nStudy: Children who move twice in year are half as likely to be able to read proficiently .\nChildren are resilient, teacher says, but have hard time focusing on their studies .","id":"ce3fcbe4b8f0c54dce1899d2b4c1b948a3204f27"} -{"article":"Children and teens who have a parent with bipolar disorder are 14 times more likely than their peers to have bipolar-like symptoms themselves, and are two to three times more likely to be found to have an anxiety or mood disorder, such as depression, according to a report in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. More than 10 percent of the kids with a bipolar parent had signs of a bipolar-spectrum, mood or anxiety disorder. When both parents are bipolar, children are 3.6 times more likely to have bipolar disorder than children with only one parent with the psychiatric condition. Bipolar disorder, which is also known as manic-depressive illness, affects 5.7 million people over age 18 in the United States. The condition is characterized by extreme fluctuations in energy, mood, and the ability to function. For example, someone experiencing an \"episode\" may have a manic state of euphoria for a period of time, followed by a bout of severe depression. Although bipolar disorder may run in families, it's not guaranteed that children of bipolar parents will develop the condition too. \"I don't want parents to think 'I have bipolar, so my kids have bipolar,'\" says Boris Birmaher, M.D., of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and author of the new study, called the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study. \"Yes, these kids are at a higher risk, but that doesn't necessarily mean your child will have it.\" Health.com: Bipolar disorder is different for women . In the study, Birmaher and colleagues looked at 233 parents with bipolar disorder and their 388 children, ages 6 to 18. They were compared with a control group of 143 parents and 251 children with no family history of the condition. Overall, 10.6 percent of the children with a bipolar parent had signs of a bipolar spectrum disorder (which includes a range of symptoms from severe to less so) or a mood or anxiety disorder. In comparison, only two children, or 0.8 percent, in the control group had such symptoms. It's not clear whether genes, environment or a combination of both are responsible for the link, or possibly greater awareness and diagnosis of psychiatric conditions in bipolar families. Health.com: How a bipolar patient learned to manage mania . However, Birmaher says identifying the condition at an earlier age may ultimately help young people. \"The longer you wait, the more complicated the condition could become,\" Birmaher says. Previous studies have suggested that it can take 10 years of symptoms before people get a correct diagnosis and proper treatment. \"Ten years is a long time -- especially in the life of a child,\" he says. The condition is difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can be mistaken for depression, attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder or one of the disruptive behavior disorders. Signs of a manic episode include increased energy, extreme irritability, racing thoughts, spending sprees, abuse of drugs (particularly cocaine), and increased sexual drive. A depressive episode may range from disruptive sleeping patterns to thoughts of death or suicide. \"The chronic highs and lows are only two manifestations of the condition,\" says Gary Sachs, M.D., director of the bipolar clinic and research program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. \"But there are plenty of people who live a full, functional life and still have bipolar disorder.\" Health.com: How to care for and cope with a bipolar spouse . Bipolar disorder cannot be cured, and is treated with mood-stabilizing medications like lithium, as well as psychotherapy, and psychosocial intervention. The ongoing study will follow this group of parents and children to explore further bipolar triggers including stress, family interactions, and genetics. Health.com: My story: I'm bipolar and struggle with addiction . \"This study in no way should be a reason for someone with bipolar not to have children,\" says Sachs. \"But there is a risk and that might make someone's child who has difficulty seek help sooner.\" In adults with bipolar disorder, up to 60 percent say they had their first symptoms before the age of 21. \"Bipolar disorder is a multidimensional condition, and it can affect a lot of things including your physical health,\" says Sachs. \"That is what we are learning from studies like this where you begin to see other psychiatric conditions.\" The National Institute of Mental Health funded the study. Birmaher has participated in pharmaceutical company-sponsored forums and a study co-author has served on the advisory boards of several pharmaceutical companies. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Kids with a bipolar parent are 14 times more likely to have bipolar-like symptoms .\nThey're also more likely to have a diagnosis of an anxiety or mood disorder .\nBipolar disorder affects 5.7 million people over age 18 in the United States .\nFindings might help families recognize problem, get help for a child earlier .","id":"bd03b29cddbee1cd9855f3712367303de0490bb0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nonnie Dotson, a nurse in the U.S. Air Force, was decompressing from a hard-fought child support battle when she disappeared hundreds of miles from her home base. U.S. Air Force nurse Nonnie Dotson disappeared on the way to the mall on November 19, 2006. Dotson, 33, was staying with her brother at his home outside Denver, Colorado, when she vanished on November 19, 2006. She was supposed to meet friends at the mall for a smoothie. She never showed. The single mother and her 16-month-old daughter, Savannah, lived in San Antonio, Texas, where Dotson worked on a military base as an intensive care nurse. They were staying with Dotson's brother, Tony, for a few days. Watch why Dotson's disappearance puzzles investigators \u00bb . Dotson had recently emerged from a court battle with Ed Vehle, Savannah's father. Vehle, who also lived in San Antonio, was ordered by the court to pay $10,000 in back child support, as well as $900 each month. Dotson won the court order two months before she disappeared. Dotson was just months away from completing her military duty and was trying to decide whether she would move back to her hometown in Colorado or remain in San Antonio. Vehle had declared he had no interest in being a part of their lives. The two met in 2004 and the relationship ended when Dotson became pregnant. Vehle did not want her to have the baby, she told friends at the military base. The friends spoke on condition that their identities would not be made public. Vehle is not a suspect or person of interest in the case, police said. Because things appeared to be going well in Dotson's life, her sudden disappearance is a mystery to her family and to police. She was hundreds of miles away from home in a safe Denver suburb. She left her brother's home on Sunday afternoon, and the mall was within walking distance,Tony Dotson said. \"She asked me to look after Savannah for a couple hours and she walked out that door and we never saw her again,\" Tony Dotson added. \"She would never have intentionally left Savannah behind like that.\" Police agree. Since Dotson vanished, there has been no activity on her bank accounts, credit cards or cell phone, police said. Her case is still an open missing persons investigation being handled by the Jefferson County homicide department. \"Unfortunately, we have no real leads as to who is responsible for Dotson's disappearance,\" said sheriff's office spokeswoman Jacki Kelley. \"She could be alive and being held against her will. She could have been kidnapped and then murdered. We are not ruling anything out at this time,\" Kelley said. For several weeks after Dotson's disappearance, Vehle refused to answer questions. He retained counsel. In mid-December 2006, Vehle and Jay Norton, his attorney, met with police, answering all their questions. Norton said they were able to provide investigators with receipts and cell phone records accounting for Vehle's whereabouts. Police confirmed that Vehle was nowhere near Colorado before, during or after Dotson's disappearance. After Dotson's disappearance, Vehle decided to go to court to pursue full custody of his daughter. Dotson's parents had been taking care of Savannah. The court last year gave Vehle shared custody with Dotson's parents. Family and police urge anyone with information about the whereabouts of Nonnie Dotson to call the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office tip line at (303) 271-5612. Nonnie Dotson is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.","highlights":"Nonnie Dotson was visiting brother in suburb of Denver, Colorado .\nShe was an Air Force nurse based in San Antonio, Texas .\nShe won court battle before November 2006 disappearance .\nHave a tip? Call Jefferson County Sheriff's office at (303) 271-5612 .","id":"9880666126c7836dbe99b0b42becfee3dcab88cf"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir on Tuesday accused the international media of \"exaggerating\" the situation in Darfur to detract from atrocities in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Somalia. Refugees from Darfur gather at a camp in Chad. Sudan's president says the crisis in Darfur is a \"media fabrication.\" El-Bashir spoke at a news conference in Dubai following a three-day visit to the Persian Gulf emirate. He said the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region is a \"media fabrication.\" El-Bashir's government has been blamed by the United Nations of supporting militias that conduct \"indiscriminate attacks\" on civilians in the Darfur region, including torture, rape, and killings. Rebels fighting the government-backed militias have also been accused by the U.N. of widespread human rights abuses. During Tuesday's news conference, el-Bashir restated his position that foreign intervention in Darfur was an obstacle in achieving peace in the region. The Sudanese president has been outspoken in his opposition to allowing non-African forces in Darfur. At the start of this year, more than 9,000 members of a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force were deployed to the region to address the fighting and humanitarian suffering. The force will eventually number 26,000. Speaking on Tuesday, el-Bashir said that the fighting only affects 10 percent of the region. In the majority of Darfur, there is little to no conflict and people are living normal lives, he said. Citing Sudanese government statistics, el-Bashir said that less than 10,000 people have died in the conflict and less than 500,000 have been displaced. International figures, including United Nations' data, put the death toll in Darfur at approximately 200,000, with another 2.5 million people displaced by the violence since 2003. The conflict started five years ago when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese government. Sudan's Arab-dominated government is accused of responding by unleashing the tribal militias known as janjaweed, which have committed the worst atrocities against Darfur's local communities. El-Bashir, however, rejected claims that the Darfur conflict is being fought along ethnic lines. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Elham Nakhlawi in Dubai contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir: Crisis in Darfur region is a \"media fabrication\"\nPlan is to detract from atrocities in Iraq, Palestinian territories and Somalia, he says .\nEl-Bashir says less than 10,000 people have died and less than 500,000 displaced .\nU.N. says 200,000 people have died, and 2.5 million have been displaced .","id":"5b738e4e6b0cdb0437853e4276e47e469fe082f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nineteen political prisoners were released by the government of Myanmar over the weekend, the human rights group Amnesty International reported Tuesday. Protesters demand democracy for Myanmar at a demonstration in New Delhi, India earlier this month. Among those released was Ma Khin Khin Leh, who was serving a life sentence because her husband, a student activist, had helped plan a protest demonstration in Bago in July 1999, according to Amnesty International USA's Web blog . Authorities prevented the demonstration from taking place, but took the woman and her three-year-old daughter into custody after failing to find her husband, Amnesty International said. The child was released after five days but her mom, a 33-year-old school teacher, was sentenced to life in prison. \"Even by the normally harsh standards of 'justice' meted out by Myanmar's military government, the life sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme,\" the human rights organization said. She was designated one of Amnesty International USA's priority cases. She was released with 18 others \"widely considered to be political prisoners,\" Amnesty International said. Myanmar's military rulers have been widely condemned for their alleged human rights abuses. Pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been confined in her home for 12 of the past 18 years. Her last house arrest began in 2003 and has been periodically renewed. In October 2007, clashes erupted between pro-democracy demonstrators and government security forces. As many as 110 people are believed to have been killed in that crackdown, including 40 Buddhist monks. The protests were sparked by a huge fuel price increase imposed by the military government, and quickly escalated. Myanmar's military junta said in mid-October that it had detained more than 2,900 people amid the clashes. In September 2008, Amnesty International reported that Myanmar, also called Burma, had released seven dissidents, among them U Win Tin, a journalist and senior official in the opposition National League for Democracy who had been imprisoned for 19 years.","highlights":"School teacher among 19 political prisoners freed in Myanmar, Amnesty says .\nMa Khin Khin Leh sentenced to life in 1999 after her husband planned a protest .\nMyanmar's military rulers are widely condemned for alleged human rights abuses .\nPro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi still confined to home .","id":"38bc8324908f1f8a4131283b1dcb1e0cfb3b7bcb"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- When stock markets are soaring, people think they're making money because they're geniuses. But when the market tanks -- which it always does, sooner or later -- people look for villains to blame for their losses. Allan Sloan says the real lesson of the Madoff case is not to rely on others to protect your investments. That brings us to Bernie Madoff, who has become the iconic symbol of the current horrible market and economic meltdown, even though he really had nothing to do with it. Yes, Madoff sure seems to be a really, really bad guy who ruined lots and lots of lives and should probably be locked up for the rest of his natural days. But Madoff's misdeeds -- or as our lawyers would prefer, his alleged misdeeds -- have nothing to do with the market meltdown that has sliced trillions of dollars from our collective net worth. He's become the symbol of the current meltdown the same way that uber-tastemaker Martha Stewart became a face of the 2001-02 corporate crime wave, even though the misdeeds of which she was convicted -- misleading government investigators -- were less than penny-ante compared to the multi-billion dollar frauds that first built up and then destroyed giant companies such as Enron and WorldCom. Along with Madoff, the Securities and Exchange Commission is being portrayed as the villain of the piece, having failed to catch him long ago when his alleged depredations must have been much smaller. Instead, it gave him a few wrist slaps until he confessed his misdeeds a month ago. But, tips from Boston money manager Harry Markopoulos over the years notwithstanding, it's not at all surprising that the SEC missed Madoff. In fact, I'd have been amazed if the SEC had been the ones to catch him. Why? I don't want to seem cynical or jaded, but after almost 40 years of covering business news, I've seen the same thing happen over and over because of the way regulators are trained. If someone runs a little bit out of the baseline by chiseling on numbers or playing some other game, regulators are pretty good at catching him (or her). But if -- like Madoff -- you make up numbers from scratch and deal with huge sums, you're so far out of the baseline that regulators aren't looking for you there. It's very hard for an SEC regulator to wrap his head around the idea that an establishment guy like Madoff -- a Nasdaq market pioneer and an occasional consultant to the SEC -- is capable of just making things up out of whole cloth. But, it would appear, he was. And as an aside, it's easy to blame George W. Bush's anti-regulation policies for the SEC not catching Madoff. But Markopoulos' original tips reached the SEC when Bill Clinton was president. Like newspapers, where I used to work, regulators get all sorts of tips coming across the transom. As in newspapers, I suspect, many of the tips end up ignored. Markopoulos was right about Madoff's operation being a fraud. But his magnum opus -- an 18-page 2005 letter listing 29 \"red flags\" -- is quite dense and confusing, probably because he'd gotten frustrated after years of not being taken very seriously. Unfortunately, the letter didn't list what would have been (in hindsight, naturally) the simplest tip-off: that this supposedly multi-billion dollar operation was audited by an obscure three-person accounting firm. As Jim Heatherington, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, certified public accountant, pointed out to me after reading a Madoff column I wrote for Fortune, a simple database search shows that the firm hadn't had a peer review since 1990. That would -- or should -- have set off all sorts of alarm bells. Back to the main event. Ponzi schemes, in which you pay existing investors not by making a profit but by getting money from new investors, have been around forever. Like Madoff, a Jew who preyed on fellow Jews and Jewish charities such as Elie Wiesel's foundation, Ponzi schemers often target their own religious or ethnic groups. That way, they lure victims who feel flattered at having been asked to join an elite society, so much so that many of them fail to find out basic things, such as whether the securities or properties they're supposedly being put into actually exist. Consider these: Tom Petters, a prominent Minnesota businessman is charged with running a multi-billion dollar scam that preyed on evangelical Christians. A New York City man was recently accused of preying on fellow members of a Hispanic church. A Haitian-American in Miami was accused on December. 30 of preying on other Haitian-Americans. Just yesterday, the SEC accused a Williamsville, N.Y., man of preying on fellow Catholics. If someone, especially a member of your racial, religious or social group, offers you a deal not available to the general public, check it out. Very diligently. Don't rely on the SEC or any other regulator to do that for you. Never, never, never put all your eggs in one basket, no matter how good it looks. And that, my friends, is the real bottom line. Pillory Madoff and mock him all you like, he has it coming. But learn from him, too. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Allan Sloan.","highlights":"Allan Sloan: Madoff is being blamed for collapse of stock market values .\nHe says Madoff had nothing to do with it but escaped scrutiny for fraud .\nSloan says regulators rarely catch the biggest frauds .\nHe says real lesson is to never rely on others to protect your investments .","id":"fef9ba044558fb72ce94d96db641f54c5ff3990e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced the resignations Tuesday of three high-level government officials, most notably Communications and Transport Secretary Luis Tellez Kuenzler. The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, seen here in January, is facing elections in July. Abraham Gonzalez, a key official for the powerful ministry that oversees Mexico's government, also resigned. So did Sergio Vela Martinez, president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts. No official reasons were given for any of the resignations, which analysts said did not appear to be related. But at least two of the resignations did not come as a surprise. Tellez, who stepped down from a Cabinet-level post, had been involved for weeks in a controversy over taped comments revealed last month by CNN journalist Carmen Aristegui. In the taped conversation, Tellez said former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had stolen government money. Salinas has not been formally accused of any crime. Tellez received an anonymous threat in late February from an apparent political enemy telling him to resign or more damaging audiotapes would be released to the media. He refused and turned the matter over to authorities. Ana Maria Salazar Slack, a political analyst who is host of a daily radio show in Mexico City, called it \"an almost soap opera-ish scandal\" that left Calderon little choice but to force Tellez to resign. \"Although Calderon wanted to keep him in office, it made it very difficult to keep him there,\" she said. Calderon moved Tellez to a post as a presidential aide dealing with economic matters. Other observers also were not surprised by the move. \"That was waiting to happen,\" said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center. \"But evidently the president values his counsel and has kept him in a high-profile position in the presidency from which he'll continue to have influence.\" Robert Pastor, the Latin America national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, praised Tellez but said political considerations prevailed. \"He's a very competent fellow,\" Pastor said. \"One of the most competent people I've known in Mexico. But this tape in particular was very embarrassing.\" In a televised news conference after Calderon announced the changes, Tellez expressed his \"gratitude for this opportunity that few Mexicans obtain.\" Replacing Tellez will be Juan Molinar Horcasitas, the head of the Mexican Institute for Social Security. Molinar belongs to the same party as Calderon, the National Action Party [PAN], while Tellez belongs to the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI]. That played a role, Slack said. \"The president is sending a signal to his party that he's going to support people from his own party,\" Slack said. \"Beyond the political scandals of the tapes, there's a decision for the president to appoint people very close to the party.\" Gonzalez's departure was not a surprise either, since he is running for a congressional seat in July and Mexican law requires him to resign. Analysts spoke highly of Gonzalez's replacement, Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez. He had been the top person in the foreign ministry for Latin and North America. \"Gutierrez moving in is outstanding,\" the Mexico Institute's Selee said, calling him \"one of the smartest people ... I've met\" and \"an impressive guy.\" Consuelo Saizar Guerrero takes over as head of the National Council for Culture and the Arts, replacing Vela, whose reasons for resigning were not disclosed. Saizar previously served as head of the Economic Culture Fund, the government's book-publishing enterprise. The arts and culture post will play a significant role in 2010, when Mexico celebrates 100 years of its social revolution and 200 years of its declaration of independence, radio analyst Slack said. As for the timing of resignations from three key posts, Slack linked it to Mexico's election calendar. \"In order to understand these changes,\" she said, \"you have to understand there are midterm elections in July. So if there are going to be any changes, they have to take place right now.\" Meanwhile, Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said the changes do not portend a political shift. \"This doesn't sound like any major direction in change for Calderon,\" Hakim said.","highlights":"Analyst says timing of resignations linked to Mexican midterm elections in July .\nCommunications and transport secretary resigns amid controversy over comments .\nKey official for ministry that oversees Mexico's government leaves .","id":"03765604d9073697904c2dc4cf29e90b924f36f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Whether it's dining, shopping, culture, nightlife or people, everybody has a favorite city. Some cities are great places to live and raise a family. Others provide the backdrop for that once-in-a-lifetime vacation. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I-Reporters have been telling us about their favorite American cities. Here are some of the highlights. Jim Thompson sent the photo of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis in Santa Fe, New Mexico, along with this important information: \"Be sure to mention that St. Francis Cathedral has been renamed to St. Francis Basilica. ... The request was made by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and was granted by the Vatican, so now St. Francis is the headquarters for the pope when he comes to Santa Fe.\" Diana Peters moved to New Orleans in 2003, and has experienced the city before and after Hurricane Katrina. Her feelings about recovery are complicated. \"But don't turn your back on New Orleans, because she survives in all of us, especially those of use who still see her beauty in what remains.\" Josh Gorrell sent the photo of the \"painted ladies\" at Marina Del Rey in southern California. \"My favorite part of living by the coast is the constantly fresh ocean breezes, the year-round sunshine and the wonderful seafood! Oh, and the surf!\" Raymond Lopera's favorite city in the Los Angeles area is Santa Monica. He lived there briefly when he moved from New York a few years ago and says he goes back every chance he gets. He says Santa Monica is very pedestrian friendly and he enjoys taking long walks, stopping along the way at places like Barnes & Noble or Starbucks. Nikolai Ursin can't get enough of Minneapolis. \"I'm 28 and able to live a fabulous life because the cost of living is so low, yet the wages are quite high. My friends in N.Y.C. are jealous. I travel a lot for work and there is nothing quite like landing in Minneapolis and knowing I'm home.\" I-Reporter Chris Fuhriman is a captain in the Army and completing a master's degree in geography at the University of Hawaii. Fuhriman moved to Honolulu from Utah three years ago with his wife and two children. \"His favorite thing about Honolulu? \"The international flavor of the city, and the diversity. It's really a city for everyone.\" Russell Clayton says there's \"far too much to do\" in Austin, Texas. Then he went on to list a wide variety of outdoor activities, including hiking, swimming, mountain biking, kayaking and canoeing. Clayton says the city's unofficial motto is \"Keep Austin Weird.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rate your favorite U.S. city by taking the America's Favorite Cities survey .\nThe survey ends on July 15; enter to win a trip to Australia .\nI-Reporters weigh in with photos and comments about their favorites .","id":"0855d22a73d652b037a9424aef66d60077163ab2"} -{"article":"BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Erin Sheehan was a freshman last year when Seung-Hui Cho peeked through the door of her German class. The next hour of her life would become a struggle for survival. Erin Sheehan played dead while the Virginia Tech shooter went on a rampage. \"I still have trouble sleeping.\" \"The gunman entered my room. He shot my German teacher and then proceeded to shoot the students in the classroom pretty thoroughly,\" she said. Sheehan was only one of four students in the room not to get shot. She jumped on the floor and remained quiet while Cho went on his rampage. \"I thought if I played dead then he hopefully would think I was already hit.\" She listened as the killer left her Norris Hall classroom to attack another room. She and the other survivors barricaded the door to keep Cho from coming back. \"I tried to use a podium at the front of the classroom to block the door, because the gunman was shoving at the door and started firing through the door. We didn't think we were going to be able to hold it,\" she said. Watch Sheehan remember a day of horror \u00bb . Sheehan is now a sophomore at Virginia Tech. Like so many on campus, April 16, 2007, marks the worst day of her life, when Cho killed 32 students and professors in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Sheehan recently accompanied CNN to what is known as the Virginia Tech April 16, 2007 Prevail Archive -- an office space on the edge of campus where mementoes sent from across the world are temporarily warehoused. The university is cataloging and documenting every item it can save in order to create a permanent collection as well as an online archive that the public can access. Take a tour of the archive \u00bb . Teddy bears, an American flag from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, painted eggs, the hood of a race car, condolence posters signed by Koreans and a letter from President Bush are housed there. Thousands of other letters are also kept in the archive. \"This is making me feel super bad. Because a lot of people died at Blacksburg. I love VT,\" wrote one young child. Walking through the archive for the first time, Sheehan was overcome with emotion. She stopped and held a picture of all the victims, pointing out her slain German teacher and another classmate. \"I believe this is Nicole White, she sat right next to me. And I think I would credit her with taking bullets for me,\" she said in a muted tone. Watch letters to Virginia Tech \u00bb . Of the entire archive, she added, \"I don't ever remember seeing it all together like this before. I think it is really remarkable that so many people cared to reach out to us like this.\" Tamara Kennelly is the archivist at Virginia Tech. She's responsible for documenting how everyone beyond the campus dealt with the tragedy, when the world was joined by four words: \"We are all Hokies.\" \"People at other places have really identified with us and felt all of this with us,\" she said. \"I think it's very heartening, it's very moving to me.\" Watch a Tech student describe surviving four shots \u00bb . They've received just about anything, from condolences books from funeral homes to messages from prisons to letters from elementary students. \"There are always people who really have their own story to tell or a powerful way of putting it. And when you find those letters, they stay with you -- all day, all week,\" said Amy Vilelle, the manuscript archivist. \"There are a few that I will not ever forget reading.\" Some are very personal, like a pair of goggles from a lab partner. \"Mike may you rest in peace. You will forever be remembered as my favorite lab partner. We'll be missing you,\" it says on the goggles. Fighting back tears, Kennelly said, \"This job is very moving because you get something and you read it and you think, 'oh gosh, they want to share something with us somehow. They want to reach out and give some kindness.' \" Gail McMillan, the director of digital archives, says it's especially difficult to read material from children. \"It's hard to know what kind of impact this may have on them.\" Their job is not only to remember, but to preserve, an archival collection for the university. For those who lived it, the tragic events of April 16, 2007, are still too fresh to put into the past. \"I still have trouble sleeping some days,\" Sheehan said. \"It really does bother me because I still understand I could have been killed so easy, and there is no explanation why I wasn't.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Thousands of items sent from around globe are housed on Tech campus .\nItems range from letters from kids to an American flag from Afghanistan .\n\"It is really remarkable that so many people cared to reach out to us,\" survivor says .\nArchivist: \"There are a few that I will not ever forget reading\"","id":"14160ef182d08523040eeec07aaaa417ebc38287"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal and state health officials said Monday that salmonella linked last week in Minnesota to King Nut peanut butter was caused by the same strain of bacteria responsible for an ongoing outbreak of 410 salmonella cases in 43 states. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The infection may have contributed to three deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. \"Preliminary analysis of an epidemiologic study conducted by CDC and public health officials in multiple states comparing foods eaten by ill and well persons has suggested peanut butter as a likely source,\" the disease agency said in a written statement. \"To date, no association has been found with common brand names of peanut butter sold in grocery stores.\" A spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said Monday that the agency has been collaborating with the CDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and public health officials in many states to investigate the outbreak of infections due to Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium. \"This new information from Minnesota will not change what we are currently doing as part of the investigation,\" said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon. What you need to know about food poisoning \u00bb . The Minnesota bacteria were linked last week to institutionally distributed peanut butter, sold under the King Nut brand name. In one of the Minnesota patients, a 70-year-old female nursing home resident, the infection proved fatal, said Doug Schultz, a Minnesota public health department spokesman. \"We do not know to what extent the salmonella contributed to the death,\" said Schultz, who added that the patient had other underlying illnesses. Virginia Health officials confirm that two of the three deaths linked to the salmonella outbreak were from their state. Although she could not provide a lot of information due to privacy laws, Michelle Peregoy, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health tells CNN that one person who died was over age 65 and from the Southwest part of the state, the other person who died was a younger adult between the ages of 25-64. As with the Minnesota patient, both Virgina patients had underlying illnesses, which means they had weakended immune systems. Very young people, older people and those with compromised immune systems are the most vulnerable to severe side effects, including death. Late last week, King Nut Companies, based in Ohio, recalled King Nut peanut butter. President and CEO Martin Kanan said the product is manufactured by a Lynchburg, Virginia-based company, Peanut Corporation of America. \"King Nut took this action as soon as it was informed that salmonella had been found in an open five-pound tub of King Nut peanut butter,\" the company said Saturday in a posting on its Web site. King Nut, which distributes peanut butter through food service accounts, does not sell directly to consumers. Kanan said King Nut has asked customers to stop distributing peanut butter with lot codes beginning with \"8\" and has canceled orders with the manufacturer. The first cases nationwide were reported September 3, but most occurred between October 1 and December 31, the CDC said last week. About 18 percent of cases were hospitalized as a result of their illness, and patients have ranged from 2 months to 98 years of age. California has reported the highest case count with 55, followed by Ohio with 53, Massachusetts with 39, Minnesota with 30 and Michigan with 20. The other 37 states are each reporting from one to 19 cases. The seven states that have reported no cases connected to the outbreak are Montana, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida and Alaska. Strains of salmonella linked to outbreaks in the past have been traced to contaminated eggs, meat, poultry, vegetables, pet food and peanut butter. Contaminated tomatoes were blamed for an outbreak in the fall of 2006 caused by salmonella Typhimurium, which sickened at least 183 people in 21 states. Most people suffered from diarrhea and fever for about a week. No one is known to have died in that outbreak. Salmonella infections can be treated with antibiotics, though some strains are resistant to these drugs, according to the CDC. Most people infected develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps within a few days of infection and the illness can last up to a week. Most recover without treatment, but some may suffer dehydration and, in severe cases, require hospitalization. Children, senior citizens, people with chronic illnesses and those with weak immune systems tend to be at highest risk for complications, according to the National Institutes of Health. CNN's Louise Schiavone and Miriam Falco contributed to this story.","highlights":"New: Virginia officials confirm two salmonella-related deaths in the state .\nCDC: Salmonella outbreak sickens at least 410 people in 43 states .\nOfficials link salmonella in Minnesota to same strain responsible for outbreak .\nMinnesota bacteria traced to institutionally distributed King Nut peanut butter .","id":"1960336c302e4299df70b1d3bb3e4b4931820ec2"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian police swiftly handled a \"security scare\" at New Delhi's major airport early Friday amid heightened concern in the wake of last week's terror attack in which gunmen killed 179 people in Mumbai. An Indian soldier joins the beefed up security detail at New Delhi airport. New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said police responded to reports of gunfire at Indira Gandhi International Airport but found no casualties or damage. Bhagat said there was \"no terror threat.\" \"And there's no cause of panic,\" he added. Uday Banerjee, the head of India's Central Industrial Security Force, told reporters at the airport that something sounding like gunshots was heard, but no one saw anything and no bullet casings were found. Indian authorities stepped up security at the nation's airports on Thursday after receiving intelligence reports that terrorists might be planning an air attack. At Indira Gandhi, four armed police stood guard at each entrance, and people waiting for arriving passengers were not allowed inside. Watch what triggered the security scare there \u00bb . \"There have been intelligence inputs about some terrorist activity, and therefore security has been tightened (at airports),\" civil aviation spokesperson Moushmi Chakraborty told CNN. Watch heightened anxiety after the attacks \u00bb . Police beefed up security at all airports including in the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, Chakraborty said. A spokesman for the Indian Navy, Cmdr. Nirad Sinha, also confirmed to CNN that security officials had received warnings about an airborne attack. Watch more on increase in security \u00bb . The Press Trust of India, a nonprofit newspaper cooperative, said that reports had suggested that terrorists could have sneaked into the country to carry out strikes on the anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition. The mosque -- one of the largest in the Uttar Pradesh state -- was destroyed on December 6, 1992, by Hindu nationalists who believe it was built on the site of an existing temple. On Wednesday India's defense minister met with the chiefs of the army, air force and navy and discussed what the ministry in a news statement called \"possible terror threats from air.\" The officials also discussed the country's coastal security plans and how to tighten security along the military line of control dividing the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan to \"prevent infiltration of terrorists,\" the statement said. India ranks among the countries where terrorism is most common, according to the U.S. State Department. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh and Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"There's no cause of panic,\" says New Delhi police spokesman .\nSecurity raised at all the nation's airports amid intelligence on terrorist activity .\nPress Trust of India: Reports suggest possible strike on December 6 .\nIndia's top military officials discuss country's security plans .","id":"b3b11f8af4c99fe7f1696f402c2c3cc49921f8e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Indian city of Mumbai exploded into chaos early Thursday morning as gunmen launched a series of attacks across the country's commercial capital, killing scores of people and taking hostages in two luxury hotels frequented by Westerners. CNN's Christiane Amanpour says India and Pakistan might be warming toward each other. Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour spoke about the situation. CNN: An attack this large, this sophisticated, and carried out with no warning could have come from inside India, maybe, maybe outside, maybe a neighboring state could be involved. We turn to Christiane Amanpour. What do you hear? Christiane Amanpour: Well, Tom, Islamic militants have been stepping up their assaults on Mumbai, which is not just the center of its filmmaking, but the economic and financial hub of India. They have often blamed terror attacks on Islamic militants based in Pakistan. Some, they say, are concerned about, for instance, Indian rule over Kashmir. Al Qaeda also has threatened to attack India in revenge for its policies. Very, very interestingly, this comes at a time when the new president of Pakistan has, in fact, gone further than any previous Pakistani leader in saying they want to improve relations with India, in saying they want to jointly combat terrorism together. The Pakistani president even went so far as saying he would consider renouncing a nuclear strike on India. This is a very confused situation. Although some group has claimed responsibility, nobody knows the motive yet. ... CNN: Talk to me about why it would be in the interest of these people to sever this tie between Pakistan and India. Do they believe India would join in the effort to squeeze them out? Amanpour: This is the ongoing situation. Certainly, Kashmir is a flashpoint for India and Pakistan, and really back in 2006, there were Islamic militants blamed for recent attacks. About 180 people were killed there. The one that came closest to pitting India against Pakistan was in 2001, when Islamic militants attacked the Parliament. Only 12 people were killed, but not compared to what's happened now, and that almost led to a war between India and Pakistan. Whatever happens in this region is so, so difficult and dangerous because of the flash point it centers on. As I say, though it has come at a time right in the aftermath of the warmest outreach by Pakistan to India in decades. ... CNN: What is, in all of this world picture, Christiane, what is the significance of this? Amanpour: Well, this is deeply significant, obviously, because it is such a complex and coordinated attack on multitudinous targets, multitudinous locations. Obviously, a large number of militants or terrorists who have taken part in this, and they have engaged the Indian forces, the police and security forces. It's not like they just put bombs somewhere and allowed them to go off, and either they were suicide attackers who got killed or they were able to remotely detonate their bombs. What they've done is not just attack, take hostages, but engage also with the security forces. So this really ratchets it up a very significant level. And it's been coming for about 20 years, these attacks. Small in the last couple of decades, but in the last 10 years or so, particularly since 9\/11, there have been a number of very significant attacks blamed by the Indian forces on Islamic militants. ... This is very, very dangerous in this part of the world. Mumbai is India's not just gateway to the nation; it's its economic and financial hub, and it's its cultural hub as well, having the Bollywood and the other film production studios there. Nobody quite knows who it is and why they have done it. This is the thing that is very difficult and dangerous at the moment. This little-known group, if it's true that they exist, have claimed responsibility, although that has not been confirmed, so-called Deccan Mujahedeen, and what is the motive? There has obviously for many, many years been a type of feelings by India that, say, 150 or so million Muslims who are in the minority are feeling sort of hard done by in terms of the Hindu majority. There are also complaints by Indian Muslims about the way Kashmir is progressing, that enclave, and that is a huge, huge flashpoint. But what's really amazing is that often, it's blamed on tensions with Pakistan. And yet, this comes at a time where the president of Pakistan has -- the new president -- has really made an unprecedented overture to India in terms of trying to warm up relations, trying to secure a lasting peace. And just today, Indian and Pakistani officials were having meetings, and they ended it with a joint declaration that they wanted to cooperate on ending terrorism and combating terrorism. CNN: Christiane, do you see any connection with the recent American elections and this? Amanpour: Well, it's hard to tell. People would say that it takes a lot longer than a few weeks to plan something like this. It's difficult to tell. I'm sure there will be a huge amount of analysis in the upcoming days and weeks. What is going to be vital is whatever information the Indian security forces can get from some of these terrorists, militants, who've apparently some may have been captured alive. Obviously, there apparently have been some who have been killed as well. All of this will provide some of those missing pieces of the puzzle. Who are these people? What is their motive? Just today, there is an interview with the U.S. Marine Corps commandant as basically saying that al Qaeda's focus now is Pakistan. There had been some thought that maybe al Qaeda was in the past trying to launch its attacks also in India, but the Indian secret services and the security services say that they don't have a presence there. But Pakistan is a very, very big worry. It's a failing state. Afghanistan is practically a failed state right now, even after the U.S. in 2001 sent al Qaeda and the Taliban packing. There's a very difficult and dangerous situation on this subcontinent that really has been the focus of a lot of attention right now, and indeed, the incoming president has said that he wants to step up the number of U.S. forces. U.S. commanders want more forces in that region as well, not just Afghanistan, but to cope with Pakistan as well. CNN: As you said, there have been a lot of incidents since the year 2000 in India. Why is this one getting so much particular attention? There was one with over 200 deaths. Amanpour: Well, about 180 in 2006. But those were sort of multiple bombings in trains and railway stations. But this is one night with, so far, according to our sources, at least 87 people killed, and it's a brazen attack on the most visible elements and symbols and structures of the economic, the cultural, the tourist, the international hub, as I said, the gateway to India -- which is the world's largest democracy -- which is not a failed state by any stretch of the imagination. Which has a unified political structure, which has an army and security forces. India is not Pakistan or Afghanistan, and yet this has been able to happen here. And why is it getting so much attention? Because so many more people than ever before have been killed in one fell swoop, and it's ongoing, and these people launched pitched battles with the security forces, and they still have hostages, and it appears they deliberately targeted Westerners.","highlights":"Pakistani leader has gone far in reaching out to India, Amanpour says .\nNations may even join together to fight terrorism, correspondent says .\nRegion of Kashmir has been flashpoint for neighboring nations .","id":"32729e17019f1076f3d6f7c80a660e55bd53b790"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have arrested two top leaders of the Islamic militant group India blames for the November massacre in Mumbai, Pakistan's prime minister confirmed Wednesday. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistani security forces had rounded up a number of militant figures. The top military officer in the U.S. on Wednesday said he is \"encouraged\" by Pakistan's recent arrests of \"significant players\" in the Mumbai attacks. U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said the arrests amount to \"first steps\" toward determining who plotted the three day siege last month that killed 160 people in Mumbai, India's financial capital. \"There are more steps to follow,\" he noted. He also thanked India for showing restraint against Pakistan, which it has accused of harboring the terrorist groups behind the November massacre. Zarar Shah, a top operational commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Zakir Rehman Lakhvi, whose arrest had been reported Tuesday, were among the militant figures rounded up in recent days, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters. Gilani would not confirm the detention of Masood Azhar, the leader of another militant group, Jaish-e-Muhammad. But he said his government has launched its own investigation into India's allegations that the gunmen who killed more than 160 people in Mumbai had links to Pakistan. The acknowledgment came three days after Pakistani security forces raided an LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, in the first sign of government action against Lashkar-e-Tayyiba since the three-day siege of India's financial capital. Both LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad were formed to battle Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, and both were banned after a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that brought the South Asian nuclear rivals to the brink of war. The United States has listed LeT as a terrorist group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. According to the U.S. government, Lakhvi, 47, has directed LeT's military operations in southeast Asia, Chechnya, Bosnia and Iraq. Pakistan's Defense Minister Choudhry Mukhtar Ahmed told CNN's sister network in India, CNN-IBN, that Lakhvi and Azhar had been arrested on Monday. Azhar has been in Pakistan since 1999, when he was released from an Indian prison in exchange for hostages aboard a hijacked Indian airliner. Indian authorities say the sole surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks told investigators that he was trained at an LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, along with the nine other attackers who were killed in the three-day siege. A Pakistani security official said the terror raids on banned militant groups are ongoing and have resulted in at least 15 arrests.","highlights":"NEW: Top U.S. military officer encouraged by terror arrests .\nPakistan arrests militant leaders blamed by India for Mumbai terror attacks .\nZarar Shah, top commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, among those held .\nBlamed militant groups were formed to oppose Indian rule in divided Kashmir .","id":"f75073d5b4e22de4dfdbc7d28a3b2e0fec5f34a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi, was the first female prime minister of Pakistan and of any Islamic nation. She led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. Benazir Bhutto died Thursday after a suicide bombing at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto, 54, spent eight years in self-imposed exile in Great Britain and Dubai after President Farooq Leghari dismissed her second administration amid accusations of corruption, intimidation of the judiciary, a breakdown of law and order, and undermining the justice system. She was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison. The conviction was later overturned but she remained in exile until this year. She returned to Pakistan in October after President Pervez Musharraf signed an amnesty lifting corruption charges. Watch political history of Bhutto \u00bb . In a September 26 interview on CNN's \"The Situation Room,\" Bhutto said she expected threats against her life as she prepared to lead a push for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. \"After military dictatorship an anarchic situation developed, which the terrorists and Osama (bin Laden) have exploited,\" she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. \"They don't want democracy, they don't want me back, and they don't believe in women governing nations, so they will try to plot against me. \"But these are risks that must be taken. I'm prepared to take them,\" she said. Bhutto narrowly escaped injury on October 18 when a suicide bombing near her convoy in Karachi killed 126 people. \"Soon thereafter, I was asked by authorities not to travel in cars with tinted windows -- which protected me from identification by terrorists -- or travel with privately armed guards,\" she wrote for CNN.com in November. \"I began to feel the net was being tightened around me when police security outside my home in Karachi was reduced, even as I was told that other assassination plots were in the offing.\" \"I decided not to be holed up in my home, a virtual prisoner,\" she wrote. \"I went to my ancestral village of Larkana to pray at my father's grave. Everywhere, the people rallied around me in a frenzy of joy. I feel humbled by their love and trust.\" Musharraf declared a state of emergency and placed Bhutto under house arrest twice in November as anti-government rallies grew in Rawalpindi. The arrest warrant was lifted November 16. She filed a nomination paper for a parliamentary seat on November 25 and appeared headed for a power showdown with Musharraf before she was assassinated Thursday. See a timeline of Bhutto's political career \u00bb . Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former president and prime minister of Pakistan, who was hanged in 1979 for the murder of a political opponent two years after he was ousted as prime minister in a military coup. Benazir Bhutto was the de facto leader of her father's Pakistan People's Party. Her brother, Murtaza, was killed along with six others in a 1996 shootout with police at his home. Another brother, Shahnawaz, died mysteriously in France in 1985. \"I know the past is tragic, but I'm an optimist by nature,\" Bhutto told Blitzer in September. \"I put my faith in the people of Pakistan, I put my faith in God. I feel that what I am doing is for a good cause, for a right cause -- to save Pakistan from extremists and militants and to build regional security. \"I know the danger is out there, but I'm prepared to take those risks.\" Benazir Bhutto earned degrees from Radcliffe College and Oxford University and received an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1989. She leaves her husband of 20 years, Asif Ali Zardari, two daughters and a son. Bhutto's husband issued a statement Thursday from his home in Dubai saying, \"All I can say is we're devastated, it's a total shock.\" President Bush, on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said Bhutto \"refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country.\" \"We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror and extremism,\" Bush said. \"We urge them to honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Bush: Bhutto \"refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country\"\nBhutto was first female prime minister of a Muslim country .\nBhutto survived assassination attempt in October .\nHer father, a former prime minister, was hanged in 1979 .","id":"2e7750cfc27f95b2495c48dca085985ac615d0a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities said they were searching the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, on Saturday morning after killing several militants, and other standoffs across the city appeared to have ended by Friday. An Indian police officer takes position during an operation at the Chabad House Jewish center Friday. Officials said that at least 160 people have been killed in the violence and more than 300 injured. But even with most of the fighting quelled after more than two days of gun battles, many questions remain. The following is what is known about the attacks: . \u2022 Gunmen arrived by boats at the Mumbai waterfront near the Gateway of India monument on Wednesday night, police said. The gunmen hijacked cars, including a police van, and split into at least three groups to carry out the attacks, according to police. Watch a timeline of the attacks \u00bb . \u2022 One group headed toward the Cafe Leopold, a popular hangout for Western tourists, firing indiscriminately at passers-by on the street. The group then opened fire and lobbed grenades at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, authorities said. Watch theories on who attackers might be \u00bb . \u2022 As police rushed to the scene of the attacks, gunmen attacked the Cama Hospital for women and infants. Several people were killed at the hospital, and a standoff there lasted until Thursday morning. \u2022 Two other groups attacked the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels, taking hostages there, police said. \u2022 Gunmen took hostages at the Chabad House, where several Jewish families live, police said. \u2022 Police said gunmen fired indiscriminately from the Chabad House. Stray bullets killed a couple in their home and a 16-year-old boy who stepped outside, police said. \u2022 The Chabad-Lubavitch International group said Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, made a phone call to the Israeli Consulate to report gunmen in the house. \"In the middle of the conversation, the line went dead,\" the organization said. \u2022 Authorities raided the Chabad house Friday morning. Two gunmen died after the assault was launched, CNN-IBN reported. Authorities said five hostages -- including Holtzberg, who was an American, and his Israeli wife, Rivka, 28 -- were found dead. One of the three others was a second American rabbi, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office said. \u2022 At the hotels, hostages or people who were trapped exited at various times Thursday and Friday. Commandos entered both hotels, trying to flush out militants and rescue others. \u2022 Fire brigades battled blazes at both hotels. By early Friday, it appeared that what had been a major fire at the Oberoi had been extinguished. \u2022 Police were reporting Friday that the standoff at the Oberoi was over. Two gunmen were killed as authorities cleared the hotel, said J.K. Dutt, the National Security Guard's director-general. Thirty-six people were found dead there, according to Bhushan Gagrani, a Maharashtra state official. \u2022 At various times Saturday morning, gunfire and explosions could be heard as security forces worked to clear the Taj of at least one remaining gunman. \u2022 Shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday local time, Dutt said that three militants had been killed but that security personnel still needed to search the hotel for civilians and any possible remaining gunmen. His comments came shortly after Mumbai Police Chief Hussain Gafoor told CNN-IBN that the last militants at the Taj had been killed. The statements coincided with an apparent end of gunfire at the hotel. \u2022 By Friday night, 160 had been killed in the Mumbai attacks, including at least 15 foreign nationals, authorities said. These included five Americans, three Germans, an Italian, an Australian and one Chinese. \u2022 The official death toll did not include attackers who were killed by security forces. R.R. Patel, the Maharashtra home minister, said Friday that nine attackers had been killed. \u2022 More than 300 people were wounded, including seven Britons, three Americans and two Australians. \u2022 Two of the killed Americans were identified as Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, both of Virginia. The two, who were visiting India with a meditation group, died at the Oberoi. \u2022 Also among the dead were 16 police officers, two commandos and the chief of the Mumbai police anti-terror squad. \u2022 CNN-IBN quoted police sources as saying there were about 26 gunmen. \u2022 Authorities found 8 kilograms (17 pounds) of RDX, one of the most powerful kinds of military explosives, at a restaurant near the Taj. \u2022 The Indian navy, stepping up patrols on the country's western coast after the attack, was questioning the crew of the MV Alpha, a ship detained with the help of the Indian coast guard, British authorities said. The authorities said that they think the attackers' boats came from this ship and that they think the ship is from Karachi, Pakistan. \u2022 Several Indian news outlets reported that a group called the Deccan Mujahideen e-mailed them to claim responsibility for the attacks. Intelligence officials say little is known about the group. U.S. officials and security analysts say the sophistication of the attacks may indicate that a more-established group is involved. \u2022 State media Press Trust of India, citing Union Cabinet Minister Kapil Sibal, reported the gunmen had worked for months to prepare, even setting up \"control rooms\" in the two luxury hotels that were targeted.","highlights":"NEW: Three militants killed at Taj Mahal hotel; authorities continue search .\nTwo gunmen, five hostages dead at Chabad House .\nSecurity forces clear Oberoi hotel, where 36 people found dead .\nBritish authorities: Indian navy looking into ship where boats may have originated .","id":"3938a0db6fa95bb57602fc86bb9dcf6bd77c734f"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, residents say much of America has forgotten their plight. President Bush and first lady Laura Bush pause for a moment of silence Wednesday at a New Orleans school. But President Bush said Wednesday the federal government has been persistent in pushing recovery efforts. \"I would like them to know that we still need all the help and caring and volunteers. We need it bad. People don't realize. They just don't realize,\" Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, resident Linda Fallon said. The beachfront communities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Mississippi, were nearly destroyed in Katrina's fury. Two years later, one-third of Bay St. Louis residents haven't returned. Business has moved inland. Watch the struggle to rebuild in Mississippi \u00bb . \"Without the people, we don't have a town. We don't have a city, we don't have a place apart,\" Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre said Tuesday. He predicted it would be at least seven years before the town is back to near-normal. A longtime resident, Diane Bourgeois, has moved 15 miles inland to an apartment and said she doubts she will rebuild. Her home was razed. When she asked why, she said, \"I don't know, the memories. It will just never be the same. Can't risk it all again.\" David MacDonald, pastor of Calvary Independent Baptist Church in Bay St. Louis, said, \"We get crews coming down, but they are thinning out as the months go on. \"So it's trying to let the people know there is still a need down here, especially in the area of housing. And just the mental and spiritual needs that are down here -- just still overwhelming.\" In New Orleans, Bush participated in a moment of silence at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology to remember Katrina victims. He said that the U.S. government hasn't forgotten the Gulf Coast and that federal efforts to make post-Katrina improvements to levees and infrastructure were unyielding. \"I hope people understand we're still paying attention. We understand,\" Bush said. Eighty percent of the the $114 billion allocated to the region for Hurricane Katrina repairs has been disbursed, he said. \"We're still engaged,\" Bush said of federal agencies. The president, in his 15th visit to the region since Katrina hit, called the school \"a place of hope.\" Bush said Katrina broke hearts but not \"the spirit\" of New Orleans citizens. But he alluded to the challenges faced across the region, citing teachers who commuted 30 miles to teach at the school. \"This town is better today than it was yesterday,\" Bush said in praising the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort. But he said it would be even better tomorrow. He urged people across the country to pitch in to help the recovery, whether through donations or volunteer efforts or even moving to the area and joining its work force. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said his city's population increase -- citing 4,000 to 7,000 people a month -- is a good indication of the progress made since Katrina hit. On Wednesday, Nagin participated in the groundbreaking for a memorial to storm victims. \"We ring the bells for a city that is in recovery; we ring the bells for hope that the promise that was made at Jackson Square will become a reality and will restore confidence in government at all levels,\" Nagin said, referring to the scene of Bush's vow in 2005 that the government would help the city and region recover. Katrina first made landfall on August 25 in South Florida as a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of near 81 mph. At one point, after moving west into the Gulf of Mexico, it reached Category 5 status, with maximum sustained winds of nearly 173 mph before making landfall on the Gulf Coast. Four days after its initial landfall, Katrina came ashore near Buras, Louisiana, as a Category 3 storm, with winds near 127 mph. Initial reports put the wind speed higher, but the National Weather Service later revised its statistics. Water breached two levees in New Orleans at the 17th Street and Industrial Canals, flooding 80 percent of the historic city. More than 1,800 people died in five states -- 1,577 of them in Louisiana. Days after the storm, images of people stranded across the region -- particularly in New Orleans where horror stories emerged from the Louisiana Superdome -- led to outcries of an inadequate response from the government. After supporting him in the days after the hurricane, Bush announced that Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would resign September 12. A special House of Representatives committee released a report in February 2006, saying the \"response of government at all levels to Hurricane Katrina was \"dismal,\" poorly planned and badly coordinated, showing that more than four years after the 9\/11 attacks, \"America is still not ready for prime time.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Bush says federal recovery effort ongoing .\n80 percent of of $114 billion in federal rebuilding aid distributed, Bush says .\nMississippi mayor says his coastal city still years away from full recovery .\nHurricane Katrina left 1,800 dead in five states in 2005 .","id":"6dcdad019cbd6ab6674c35dd897d17d280a8468c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- To some, she was a lifelong role model. Others call Pakistan's former prime minister and the first female prime minister of any Muslim nation a source of inspiration to women everywhere. One I-Reporter acknowledges, \"I never was a political supporter of Benazir Bhutto but now after her death I feel that her loss is a loss for Pakistan, not just her political supporters.\" Anthony G. Moore photographed Benazir Bhutto with her husband Asif Ali Zardari in New York in 2006. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated during a suicide bombing on December 27, 2007, and I-Reporters from all over the world responded with their memories and condolences. Below are selections, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. Farhad Sethi of Lahore, Pakistan Breathing in the air of grief and sadness, the nation suffers the loss of our beloved leader Benazir Bhutto, an institution in herself withstanding pressures at times when suicide bombing has become an unstoppable enigma. A sniper pierced a bullet through her neck and our enthusiastic leader couldn't even make it to the hospital, her last words God knows what were they but her face and inspirational personality will always be remembered. A woman who grew up with politics in her backyard is no longer with us, she was a graduate from Harvard and Oxford universities and seeing her go down in a wooden casket was a sight bringing down tears in every eye. We all have to go down the ground one day but being assassinated like this is not something we would want for even our worst enemies. She has left a space that will never be filled in the hearts and minds of the nation. She has enjoyed the position of being the first Muslim woman to lead a country as Prime Minister, but this is over she's gone, may Allah (swt) have mercy on her soul and she rests in peace in a better place. Ameen. Al Alston of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Benazir Bhutto's gifts to Pakistan and the world far outweigh the charges made by her adversaries. I will never forget how she led Pakistan in its unwavering support for the African National Congress during the misery of the apartheid days. Her presence at the inauguration of Nelson Mandela left an indelible impression on me. I remain an admirer of her nation because of this critical alliance. I will keep her family and nation in my prayers. Mickin Sahni of Stone Ridge, Virginia As a first generation Indian-American, I have heard from my parents the turmoil on the subcontinent as their parents were forced to India while their friends were forced to Pakistan. Bhutto's effort to reconcile the differences between the two countries was one of her main missions. Indians throughout the world remember her as a peaceful link between the two nuclear superpowers and could only sympathize with Pakistanis grieving throughout the world. Hopefully her efforts were not in vain. Sandra Rios of Aberdeen, Maryland Benazir Bhutto loved her country and people so much that despite an assassination attempt in Oct and continuous death threats she remained unshaken. As a Women and a Former US soldier I admire her bravery. Russ Bonny of Golden, Colorado I haven't had the raw emotions I am feeling right now since September 11, 2001. The death of Mrs. Bhutto is a loss for the entire world and a grim reminder of how tirelessly we must fight extremists. Whitney Anderson of Irving, Texas I never really got the chance to know much about this woman. I'm still a teen, trying to figure out this mess we call our own democracy. But I can say this. For anyone to be slaughtered is a shame. It's crazy to think young adults like myself have had to grow up in a time where planes are flown into buildings, wars are dragging on and dragging us down, and now a revered and respected woman is dead, only because she was trying to better the world. I can only hope my future children don't have to live like this, and that the only time they hear of things like this is in a history book. Shima of Tehran, Iran All Persians know what her name means... Her name means Unique, and she was unique in all her life. God bless her. Naureen Haider of Jensen Beach, Florida It's a great loss to the country. Ms. Bhutto went to the same elementary school as mine, Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Karachi, and she was always an example to us, to motivate, thus that it is proud to be a female. Benazir, not only earned the best of qualifications on merit, but also proved to the world, that this is what patriotism is. My family having met Benazir personally several times, sends our deepest condolences to the family and prayers go out to the children. May Allah be with them. Ameen!! Humnaa Umar of Great Falls, Virginia The death of Benazir Bhutto not only marked the end of a revolutionary political leader, but also the demise of a pioneer in terms of women's rights. In a country with a strict gender hierarchy, Bhutto inspired countless women with her ceaseless supply of fortitude. Mwilu Mwanachilenga of Lusaka, Zambia A Martyr. A pity though that a life that I looked up to, for the whole 25 years of my existence, could ever end like this. Condolences to the family and may her soul rest in peace . Sabina Brauner of Frankfurt, Germany Disbelief was my first reaction when I just read the news. And shock. At such violence. I do not remember her as an outstanding figure but when someone mentioned Pakistan there was that immediate connection: Pakistan-Bhutto. So after such an act you just hope against hope that people there will find peace. I wish them all the best. Ahsan Khan of Reading, United Kingdom I never was a political supporter of Benazir Bhutto but now after her death I feel that her loss is a loss for Pakistan and not just for her political followers. The present government setup has failed and should resign to stop further bloodshed. God bless Benazir Bhutto's soul. Erum Qayyum of Lahore, Pakistan As the first female prime minister in the Muslim world, I felt as if women are really going to get ahead and men would actually start taking their technical knowledge more seriously but of course men are men. Her death was appalling and the way it happened. It has shocked me and everyone else in my family even though we are not really Benazir's supporters. It is a wonder that my land of Pakistan is actually going to the dogs where no one is safe. I wish the Bush administration opens its eyes to what's happening because neither the civilian nor the military governments have done anything to make this land of mine more peaceful and secure to live in. Moses Quinion Galabuzi of Kampala, Uganda It is too sad to hear of the assassination of this great lady. I was following her very closely and had a lot of respect for her. Whoever did kill her will die the same way but will never be a hero just as she was. Rest in peace Honorable Benazir Bhutto. May the good Lord reward you for the great things you did. Carlo Zappa of Montreal, Quebec When will the horror in Pakistan end? My heart goes out to her family and to the people of Pakistan. Her life was cut short and mankind will never see the additional good she could have done to resolve the endless political conflict in India. Ahmed Alian of Cairo, Egypt She was a brave woman in a coward world, may her soul rest in peace. I'm not blaming Musharraf for killing her, but I'm blaming him for feeding the atmosphere of terrorism through his dictatorship, which is unfortunately, supported by the so-called \"free world.\" Oyefeso Temitope of Lagos, Nigeria You had a heart to help save Pakistan from military dictatorship, and you have to pay with your life!!! What a world!!! We await the reaction of the West. Sleep well, it was a just curse and rare fight from a woman. Linda Palumbo of Boston, Massachusetts A woman who was beautiful, brilliant and dedicated to bringing peace to her country. Such a tragedy and such a loss for the people of Pakistan. Kartiq Subramanian of Charlotte, North Carolina This is really sad! My limited political knowledge told me that she was Pakistan's only hope toward democracy and peace and now her killing has proved that. I feel sad for her family and for the people of Pakistan. May peace prevail. Fariha Waseem of Spring Valley, New York Benazir Bhutto is a woman of courage and conviction and we Pakistani's are proud to acknowledge her with all the dedication and deeds she made for her country. She stands for principal of democracy and corruptions and wants to remove it from roots. She not only received awards for her books but for her all dedications she did for her peoples. My condolence is with all the loved ones of Bhutto's family and her party workers. May God rest her soul in Peace! (Amen) Funmi Omoniyi of Lagos, Nigeria We will miss you Benazir Bhutto because you are a strong woman, ready to fight for your country. As a woman of substance, you deserve to rest in perfect peace. May Allah grant you Aljanat Amiin. Kimberley Brewer of Ottawa, Ontario Although I have no ties, either familial or political, to Benazir Bhutto, I am deeply saddened and enraged by her murder. This noble leader, who championed women's rights in a society rife with discrimination toward fully half the population, has been felled by cowards who seek to thwart progress and peace. My heart goes out to all who mourn her loss as I do, and my condemnation to those responsible for this horrific act of barbarism. Mohammad Khurram Khan of Cleveland, Ohio It is a sad day for all Pakistanis and the entire world. This is a direct result of the aftermath of September 11 and its ongoing consequences around the world. The blazes set forth by the terrorist continue to burn today in different cities. Bhutto was a legend and a role model for all men and women alike. She was inspirational not just to Pakistanis, but inspirational to us all through out the world. It is saddening (with tears in my eyes and sorrow in my heart) to see such a [legend] become a part of the blaze beset by the terrorists. Terrorists have no religion or political affiliations. They only have motives driven by greed and power. I certainly hope that the terrorist behind this are brought to justice and I am sure that General Musharraf will do his best to do so as he has always done in the interest of Pakistan. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated .\nI-Reporters from around the world offer condolences, memories .\n\"We Pakistanis are proud to acknowledge her,\" says one I-Reporter .\nI-Report: Share your memories, condolences, photos of Benazir Bhutto .","id":"a994137548230227d2d5bebe79782d9f7e728d2d"} -{"article":"CLEARWATER, Florida (CNN) -- One of four missing boaters was found Monday clinging to an overturned fishing vessel off Florida's Gulf Coast, and the search for the other three, including two NFL players, has narrowed, the Coast Guard said. Nick Schuyler clings to an overturned boat in this Coast Guard photo. \"We now know we are looking for persons in the water, not a boat,\" said Coast Guard Capt. Tim Close. Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player, was the only person still with the small fishing boat when a Coast Guard cutter came across it about 50 miles west of Clearwater Beach on Monday, the Coast Guard said. Still missing Monday afternoon were Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper; NFL free agent Corey Smith, who played for the Detroit Lions for the past three seasons; and former University of South Florida football player William Bleakley. Schuyler told his rescuers that the boat was anchored Saturday evening when it was overturned by waves during a storm, Close said. He told them that all four men were clinging to the boat for a time, but became separated, Close said. The four men embarked in a 21-foot single-engine boat from the Seminole Boat Ramp near Clearwater Pass about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. The search was launched early Sunday after friends and relatives realized they had not returned from their fishing trip. Schuyler appeared to be conscious and talking in video showing him being removed from a Coast Guard helicopter Monday afternoon. Watch Schuyler being moved on stretcher \u00bb . Although he was initially able to answer a few questions to help with the search for the three missing men, officials decided to wait until he was treated for hypothermia before talking with him again, Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Simpson said. See photos of rescue \u00bb . Schuyler's parents, Marcia and Stu Schuyler, told reporters in Florida on Monday they were ecstatic that their son had been found alive. But Stu Schuyler said his \"heart is still out\" for the three missing men. \"We're not going to talk too much until we find these guys. We're all praying for them,\" Stu Schuyler said. The Air Force Reserve sent a C-130 airplane and a Pave Hawk helicopter to assist the Coast Guard's search, which also included several other helicopters and airplanes. Three Coast Guard cutters were also on the water, Close said. Rough seas and high winds that hampered the search Sunday continued Monday. The Coast Guard reported winds of 15 to 20 knots and waves up to 9 feet in the search area Monday. \"It feels like my greatest fear coming true -- it doesn't feel real,\" Cooper's wife, Rebekah, told CNN affiliate WTSP-TV in Tampa on Sunday. \"I'm just waiting for a phone call.\" Watch relatives, friends express concern for missing boaters \u00bb . Cooper said she became worried Saturday night when she didn't hear from her husband. She called her husband's fishing buddy, Brian Miller, who contacted the Coast Guard with the coordinates of where the men planned to fish. \"Usually I'm on the boat. It's a little difficult wondering if something would have been different if I had been there,\" Miller said. He said it was clear something was wrong when Cooper didn't call Saturday night. \"He should've been within range to use his cell phone, and he knows enough to shut it off when he goes out so the batteries are still there,\" he said. Rebekah Cooper said her husband was aware of Sunday's weather forecast and for that reason picked Saturday for the trip. \"Fishing is his first love, it always has been,\" she said, adding, \"I have a lot of faith in him out there.\" Cooper's father said he learned of the situation Sunday morning from Rebekah. His son \"routinely stays out on the water 12 to 14 hours,\" Bruce Cooper, a sports anchor for CNN affiliate KPNX-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, said in a statement. He called his son an \"avid fisherman.\" \"He goes deep-sea fishing any opportunity he gets,\" Cooper said in the statement. \"Two years ago, I went deep-sea fishing with him. I swore I would never do so again; I didn't like the fact that I couldn't see land. Needless to say, I am very concerned. I am praying and hoping for the best.\" Smith and Cooper were teammates with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for part of the 2004 season, when Cooper was a rookie, according to the NFL's Web site. Smith, who entered the league with Tampa Bay in 2002, went on to play for the Washington Redskins before moving to the Lions for the 2006 season. Cooper has played for six teams in his five-season career. Cooper played college football at the University of Washington. Smith played at North Carolina State University. Bleakley lettered from 2004 to 2006 as a tight end for the University of South Florida, according to a spokesman for the university's athletics department. Schuyler was a walk-on defensive end for the school in 2006, but he never played in a game, the spokesman said. Schuyler's father told reporters Sunday that the four men knew each other from working out at a gym, and that his son had accompanied Cooper and Smith on a fishing trip last week that lasted 15 hours.","highlights":"Search for missing men narrows after one found clinging to overturned boat .\nMan rescued off Florida coast identified as Nick Schuyler .\nSchuyler said boat flipped over Saturday during a storm, Coast Guard said .\nNFL's Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper and a third man remain missing .","id":"f3fe02696e16a3478c97c5c34a52f8e5d3d1d9ea"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been celebrating film's best and brightest for more than 80 years, the glamour we associate with the Oscars truly started in the 1950s, when stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Janet Leigh brought high style to the ceremony. Anne Hathaway accessorized her Armani Prive gown with more than $1 million worth of Cartier jewelry. Since then, the red carpet has been a can't-miss staple of the evening, and Hollywood's hottest stars work with fashion designers, wardrobe stylists, jewelers, hairstylists and makeup artists to create looks they hope will go down in fashion history. This year's show was no exception, and high-wattage stars such as Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet and Natalie Portman walked the red carpet in stunning couture gowns. Here are just a few of our favorites: . \u2022 Best actress nominee Anne Hathaway made the most of her big night, arriving in a champagne-colored strapless Armani Prive gown that glittered with paillettes and Swarovski crystals. When the \"Rachel Getting Married\" star turned to give an over-the-shoulder pose, she revealed an unexpected onyx and black crystal dragon brooch, which was affixed to the back of her gown. Diamonds are always in fashion on the red carpet, and the actress accessorized with more than $1 million worth from jeweler Cartier. \u2022 Best actress nominee Kate Winslet looked as stunning as ever in an asymmetrical Atelier Yves Saint Laurent gown and Chopard jewels. Despite her picture-perfect appearance, the Oscar winner for \"The Reader\" admitted, \"I'm extremely nervous!\" See photos of InStyle's favorite red carpet looks \u00bb . \u2022 \"Slumdog Millionaire\" beauty Freida Pinto continued her winning awards season style streak in a John Galliano royal-blue gown made of silk tulle with delicate embroidery and metallic beading. The 24-year-old, who said an enthusiastic hello to her parents in India from the red carpet, wore Martin Katz jewelry, including a ring set with a 150-year-old diamond from her native country. \u2022 In a sea of red and white dresses Natalie Portman stood out in an orchid gown by Rodarte, vegan heels by Stella McCartney and a vintage Rialto clutch. The actress' minimal Kwiat jewelry and elegant updo highlighted her flawless skin. Portman was truly an Oscars triple threat, making our best dressed, best hair and best makeup lists. Other colorful bests included Sarah Jessica Parker's Dior Haute Couture gown, which we loved not only for the shade (which she described as \"barely mint, maybe seafoam\") but also for its impressive size. Best supporting actress nominee Amy Adams was stunning in a crimson silk and satin gown by Carolina Herrera and a jaw-dropping, jeweled collar necklace by Fred Leighton (as seen on Beyonc\u00e9 in the November 2008 issue of InStyle!). And Heidi Klum's bright red dress was not only glamorous, but also charitable: For the second year running, the \"Project Runway\" host partnered with The Heart Truth campaign to raise awareness of women's heart health by wearing red. Last year, Klum wore a custom red dress by John Galliano for Dior that was auctioned off for charity, and this year she hit the carpet in a red silk taffeta gown from RM by Roland Mouret. The stylish supermodel accessorized with a diamond and ruby bracelet charm of her own design that will be part of a giveaway on dietcoke.com. In total, the best-dressed women of the night span 28 years, from 16-year-old Miley Cyrus to 44-year-old Marisa Tomei. See all of our favorites, including Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Hudgens, on InStyle.com. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"InStyle: Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Freida Pinto among best dressed at Oscars .\nNatalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Adams praised for color choices .\nHeidi Klum's wore red in hopes of raising awareness of women's heart health .","id":"dc431f941eb4b62d40dcd1f85e6466d62d940f55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Coast Guard ended its search Tuesday for two professional football players and a third man lost at sea, leaving the families to cope with unknown fates of the men and to organize a private search. Loved ones of one of the missing boaters react Tuesday to the news the Coast Guard's search would end. \"There's a lot of things we have to come to grips with -- we've all agreed unanimously we won't give up hope,\" said Bruce Cooper, father of Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper. Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith and former college football player William Bleakley are missing, with authorities believing a fishing boat carrying them and a fourth man overturned Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard search was called off at sundown Tuesday, about 6:30 p.m. The fourth man, Nick Schuyler, was found alive and sitting atop the overturned boat about 40 miles west of Egmont Key, Florida, on Monday afternoon. Cooper's father and his friend, Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Terry \"Tank\" Johnson, praised the Coast Guard for its efforts, but said they would move forward with plans to organize their own search. \"What we're asking for is experienced aviation pilots\" to volunteer for the mission, Johnson said. \"We are looking only for experienced pilots ... we don't want another tragedy as we are searching.\" Johnson said he had spoken to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and that \"we have the support of the entire NFL\" in continuing the search. Neither the league nor Goodell commented on the missing players Tuesday, but Cooper's team, the Oakland Raiders, issued a statement saying the team continues to \"closely monitor\" the situation. \"We are aware that one of the passengers -- Nick Schuyler -- has been rescued and remain hopeful that the others ... will be located and rescued as well,\" it said. See photos of Schuyler's rescue \u00bb . The team for which Smith most recently played, the Detroit Lions, said: \"While we still have that hope, we have begun to cope with the grim reality of this sad and tragic situation.\" Earlier Tuesday, Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close announced the search would conclude in the evening, saying authorities were \"extremely confident that if there were any [other] survivors on the surface of the water ... we would have found them.\" Watch the Coast Guard say it will call off the search \u00bb . Bruce Cooper said that when his family received the news that the Coast Guard search was ending, \"It got very emotional.\" He said his son's wife, Rebekah, was trying to rest. \"She is likewise very emotional. She's got a lot of things going through her head, her 3-year-old daughter, for one,\" he said. He also said despite his son's career as a pro football player, his first love was deep-sea fishing. \"He definitely got lost in his element,\" Cooper said. The four friends embarked on a fishing trip in a 21-foot single-engine boat from the Seminole Boat Ramp near Clearwater Pass about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. Authorities launched a search for them early Sunday after friends and relatives realized the men had not returned. Close said authorities believe the boat capsized around 5 p.m. Saturday as the men were trying to lift the boat's anchor. The men were \"not wearing life jackets at the time the boat capsized,\" he said earlier, but \"immediately swam under the boat, recovered life jackets and managed to put them on.\" The weather was calm when the trip began, but it worsened late Saturday into Sunday, Close said. He said he believed they were aware of the forecast. Searchers scanned about 24,000 square miles of ocean in about 60 hours, Close said. Authorities found a life jacket and a cooler about 16 miles from where Schuyler and the boat were found Monday, Close said. Schuyler is suffering from dehydration and hypothermia, making it difficult for him to speak, said his father, Stuart Schuyler. Watch Nick Schuyler's father overjoyed that his son is safe \u00bb . Schuyler, who, like Bleakley, used to be a University of South Florida football player, was able to speak to Coast Guard authorities for a short time, Close said. Watch Schuyler being moved on a stretcher \u00bb . Schuyler told rescuers that all four men clung to the boat for a time, but then became separated, Close said. Schuyler last saw his three friends at 2 a.m. Monday, his father told CNN affiliate WTSP-TV on Monday. Schuyler's mother, Marcia Schuyler, told the Tampa, Florida, television station that thoughts of his family helped to keep him alive. \"He told me: 'Mom, I kept saying you're not going to go to my funeral.' He said that's what kept him hanging on,\" she said. Close said he understood there were some plans for amateur searches, and he urged caution. \"We don't want any new search-and-rescue cases resulting from good Samaritan efforts,\" Close said. He said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will investigate, in line with state law, and they may attempt to recover the boat sometime Wednesday. Smith and Cooper were teammates with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for part of the 2004 season, when Cooper was a rookie, according to the NFL's Web site. Smith, who entered the league with Tampa Bay in 2002, went on to play for the Washington Redskins before moving to the Lions for the 2006 season. Cooper has played for six teams in his five-season career. Bleakley lettered from 2004 to 2006 as a tight end for USF, and Schuyler was a walk-on defensive end in 2006 but never played in a game, according to a spokesman for the university's athletics department.","highlights":"NEW: Friends, relatives of three missing men to organize private search .\nCoast Guard suspends search off Florida coast at sundown Tuesday .\nMissing boaters include NFL players Marquis Cooper, Corey Smith .\nFourth boater, Nick Schuyler, was rescued off Florida coast on Monday .","id":"9d5011762f6f4255159fb4f47aaac27718b99ecd"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The tabloid-friendly tale of the so-called California \"Octomom\" continues to stir debate -- this time 2,000 miles away in the Georgia state capitol, where lawmakers say they're trying to prevent a repeat. Proposed legislation regulating in-vitro practices came after Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets. A Georgia state senator introduced legislation to limit the number of embryos that can be implanted in a woman's uterus during in-vitro fertilization procedures. Sen. Ralph Hudgens, a Republican from near Athens, Georgia, said his legislation was inspired by Nadya Suleman, the woman who said she gave birth to octuplets after being fertilized with six embryos -- an unusually high number. \"She is not married,\" said Hudgens. \"She is unemployed, she is on government assistance and now she is going to put those 14 children on the back of the taxpayers in the state of California.\" Suleman, 33, had six children before the procedure. Hudgens' plan, which was co-sponsored by several other senators, would limit the number of embryos a doctor could implant to two for women under 40 years old and three for women 40 or older. Those numbers are slightly less than what's considered the norm in medical circles. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends no more than two embryos for women under 35 years old and no more than five for women over 40. The reason for allowing more embryos in women over 40 is that it is more difficult for them to get pregnant. State lawmakers in Missouri are considering a similar bill. And England and Italy have had similar limits on the books for years. At least some fertility doctors say the limits in Hudgens' bill would hurt chances for women to get pregnant. They say that while three embryos are usually enough, there are special cases when they need more. \"What this bill will effectively do is shut us down,\" said Dr. Daniel Shapiro, a fertility doctor in Atlanta. \"Patients seeking reproductive care in Georgia will go to Tennessee or South Carolina or Alabama. They will just leave.\" Breaking the law would carry a fine of up to $1,000 under the legislation. Some critics of the plan also see another problem, calling it a backdoor effort to outlaw abortions in the state. The bill, which Hudgens titled the \"Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act,\" contains language that says \"a living in vitro human embryo is a biological human being who is not the property of any person or entity.\" The anti-abortion group Georgia Right to Life issued a news release in support of the bill on the day it was introduced. \"Georgia Right to Life supports Sen. Hudgens in this legislation and wants to see strong protections in place to stop the dangerous practice of implanting more embryos than is medically recommended,\" the group said, saying the plan would help avoid premature births and low birth weight in in-vitro fertilization cases. Realistically, the bill faces long odds of passing -- at least in the near future. Tuesday was Day 25 of the Georgia legislature's 40-day session. Legislators will meet 10 more days, then take a break until June, when lawmakers will consider how money flowing to the state from the federal economic-stimulus plan may help their ongoing budget woes. According the the Georgia legislature's Web site on Tuesday, Hudgens' bill had been read and assigned to a committee, but no other action had taken place. Some Georgians from the lawmaker's part of the state say they hope he has to keep waiting for a long time. \"Unless the senator is a physician, ethicist or other informed professional, he should step aside and let the medical professionals determine what is best in individual cases,\" Dorothy West wrote in a letter to the editor of the Athens Banner-Herald, Hudgens' hometown paper. \"There are other issues more important to the citizens of Georgia that should be addressed.\" CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Georgia state senator says bill was inspired by \"Octomom\" Nadya Suleman .\nBill would limit women under 40 to two embryos, women 40 or older to three .\nCritics call it a backdoor effort to outlaw abortions in the state .\nBill faces long odds of passing because of timing in Georgia legislature .","id":"fba9c8bf98b317a788b9501b39afb83629485060"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- Jennifer Bilotta thought she and her husband Michael had the perfect present for his cousin's wedding. The gift in question -- a fused-glass plate decorated with a \"tacky scene of a bride and groom,\" she recalls -- had been given to Bilotta at her own wedding a few years earlier. Nothing wrong with a little regifting as long as the bride and groom enjoy the gift. Or so Bilotta thought. \"She collects Barbies, and he collects G.I. Joes,\" says Bilotta, 33, a publicist in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. \"The plate seemed up their alley. So for their wedding gift, we gave them the plate along with a card with a check for the usual wedding amount.\" But the gift didn't go over well. \"A few weeks after they got married, we were talking to them about their wedding gifts, and they mentioned this hideous glass plate that someone gave them,\" Bilotta says. \"The card must have gotten separated from the plate, so they didn't know it was from us and they both went on about how ugly it was. We never fessed up.\" Watch when to send a gift \u00bb . Deciding what to give (or not give) newlyweds is never an easy task, says Peggy Post, one of the country's leading etiquette experts and co-author of the book \"A Wedding Like No Other.\" Before you turn into a guestzilla, however, take heart. \"Gift giving doesn't have to be a stressful experience,\" says Post. The wrong way to give . Some gifts should never be given -- namely those that you yourself received. Whether it's to save yourself some cash or to avoid the hassle of shopping, regifting is a wedding no-no, says Steve Kemble, star of Style Network's \"Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?\" and \"Married Away.\" \"What makes you think someone is going to want a gift you did not want?\" Kemble says. \"Plain and simple, re-gifting is tacky! If you do not have the time to think about what a couple would really want, then don't give anything at all.\" Kemble ticks off a few of his favorite wedding gift gaffes: shot glasses (\"I simply do not think there could be anything tackier,\" he says); knives ( \"they represent bad luck for a relationship\"); and, worst of all, deciding that a gift isn't necessary, because you gave the bride or groom a gift the last time they got married. \"If you feel this way, then I feel you should not attend the wedding,\" he says. \"If you are going to sincerely celebrate with them on their special day, then show that you are happy for them, and tradition says you should do this by honoring them with a gift.\" The right way to give . When it comes to gift giving, Rob Johnsen, co-founder of MyWedding.com, has some simple, if calculating advice: Decide how much your relationship is worth. If the happy couple are two of your most cherished friends or relatives, get ready to fork over about $200, says Johnsen. \"A blender or silverware off a traditional registry won't quite have the sentiment you are looking for,\" he says. Is the bride or groom is someone you talk to only a few times a year, yet someone you still value? Then keep your gift between $50 and $100, and feel comfortable selecting a set of dishes off the registry, says Johnsen. For distant relations, friends of friends or other lesser acquaintances, limit your spending to $50. \"Sentiment here really isn't of concern, so go for something off the registry, or some cash in a card is acceptable too,\" Johnsen says. Peggy Post disagrees with putting a price limit on a wedding gift (\"There's no such thing as a dollar amount,\" she says), but she does suggest basing the amount you spend on your affection for the bride and groom and their family. \"If you're a close cousin, you'd probably want to ratchet it up a bit, rather than if you're just an acquaintance,\" she says. Of course, not everyone can afford to give extravagantly, even if the newlyweds are dear friends. Not to fear, Post says: You won't be breaking any etiquette rules by splitting the cost of a high-dollar gift with a fellow guest. And, she adds, it's especially acceptable if you're in your 20s and a recent college graduate with a limited income. Cash is acceptable, too, as is deviating from the bridal registry. \"Do what you feel comfortable with,\" Post says. \"Just don't do something totally off the wall.\" Gifts that make memories . Sometimes, though, offbeat wedding gifts can impress. Manhattan resident Samuella Becker, 53, says she'll never forget a gift someone gave her and her husband for their wedding 24 years ago. \"One of the members of our wedding party, an attorney who I worked with at a major Fortune 500 company, gave us a magician to perform at our reception,\" explains the owner of a media relations firm. There was just one problem: The reception, held in the elegant Crystal Room at New York City's Tavern on the Green, wasn't exactly the ideal place for magic tricks. But, Becker says, the gift, which might have been seen as tacky by some, ended up becoming a wedding-day highlight. \"All guests, young and old, were absolutely entranced and filled with wonder as the magician performed trick after trick,\" she says. It was a reminder, she says, that sometimes the most unusual and daring gifts can be the most memorable and welcome. LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Sarah Jio is a Seattle-based writer who has contributed to Cooking Light, SELF, Glamour and many other publications.","highlights":"Expert: $200 is appropriate spending for wedding gift to close friends .\nTV host: Shot glasses and knives are bad wedding gifts .\nPeggy Post: It's OK to split cost of high-ticket gift with other guests .","id":"97b50bfe94dd4d7a6dbf82241be134744ead3bea"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It doesn't have the brutality of rugby or the physical intimidation of a boxing match, yet sailing is still one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Capsized: This French catamaran flipped near New Zealand while attempting to win the Jules Verne Trophy. This danger is never more evident than in the epic Volvo Ocean Race. The round-the-world event which begins this month in Alicante, Spain, always throws up its fair share of drama as the crews face all types of conditions right through to the race finish around July 2009. To give an idea of the extreme dangers this year's crews will face over the coming nine months, here is a look at some of the worst tragedies to strike yacht racing. There's no question about it: this is no sport for the faint-hearted. September 2008 R\u00e9gates Royales-Troph\u00e9e Panerai Death toll: One . Wilfrid Tolhurst was killed during the famous R\u00e9gates Royales-Troph\u00e9e Panerai yacht race off Cannes that sees the major classic yachts in the Mediterranean gather. Skippering the eight-meter yacht, Safir, in the coastal race, Tolhurst was struck by the boat's falling mast that broke off under the impact of a collision with another boat, Rowdy. Although rescue crews reacted quickly to bring the skipper ashore, nothing could be done to save his life. A police inquiry is currently in progress to determine the cause of the incident. September 2008 Sean Whiston Perpetual Cup Race Death toll: One . Kenneth Jones (46) lost his life while sailing in a race from Wicklow to the Poolbeg Yacht Club in Dublin, Ireland. It was not clear what caused the incident, however, a mayday was issued by the yacht Allanah, stating that there was 'a man in the water.' Jones was lifted from the water and transferred to Tallaght Hospital where he later died. May 2006 Volvo Ocean Race Death toll: One . During the seventh leg of the race Hans Horrevoets, 32, of The Netherlands was swept overboard from ABN Amro Two in heavy seas. Although he was recovered from the water, attempts to resuscitate him were not successful. The savage storm that hit the fleet could easily have claimed more lives. The crew of Movistar abandoned ship after the aft end of their keel pivot broke away from their hull in the night -- less than 48 hours after Horrevoets died. The crew transferred to ABN Amro Two which had been standing by and was escorted by HMS Mersey back to land. December 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race Death toll: Six . One of the saddest events in yachting history began at Sydney Harbor on December 26, 1998, when the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race set off. Fierce storms and violent winds battered the 115-strong fleet in the famously tough event off the eastern coast of Australia and only 44 boats made it to the finish line at Hobart. Met by the massive storms, five boats sank, 66 boats retired from the race, six sailors died, and 55 sailors were taken off their yachts, most by helicopter. Among those who died were; Mike Bannister (Winston Churchill), Glyn Charles (Sword of Orion), John Dean (Winston Churchill), Bruce Guy (Business Post Naiad), Jim Lawler (Winston Churchill), Phillip Skeggs (Business Post Naiad). The vessels; Winston Churchill, VC Offshore Stand Aside, Sword of Orion, Miintinta, and Midnight Special all sank. 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race Death toll: One . Competing boat Creighton's Naturally suffered a serious broach in the early hours of one morning during the second leg of the race, at about three in the morning. Crew members Anthony (Tony) Philips and Bart van den Dwey were swept over board. Both were pulled back on deck and although Van den Dwey was successfully resuscitated, after three hours of trying, crew members could not revive Philips. Several days later, by radio agreement with his relatives, Philips was buried at sea. December 1989 Sydney to Hobart Race Death toll: One . Peter Taylor, crew member aboard BP Flying Colours suffered fatal head injuries when a runner on his vessel broke and the rig collapsed in gale-force south westerly winds. December 1988 Sydney to Hobart Race Death toll: One . In another grueling race 38 of the 119 starters retired, nearly half of them with broken masts or damaged rigging. Ray Crawford aboard Billabong was killed. December 1984 Sydney to Hobart Race Death toll: One . Wally Russell of Yahoo II died during the 1984 edition of the race, which was hit by a low pressure system that created two different swell patterns. August 1979 Fastnet Yacht Race Death toll: Fifteen . Huge storms in the Irish Sea wreaked havoc on more than 300 yachts taking part in the biennial race, resulting in 15 deaths and one of the worst yacht race disasters of all time. The race was well regarded after being established in 1925, and in 1979 was the climax of the five-race Admiral's Cup competition. As the storms battered the fleet, naval ships, lifeboats, commercial boats, and helicopters from the west side of the English Channel were brought to aid what was the largest peace-time rescue operation. The rescue effort saw 125 sailors, whose boats had been caught in force 11 storm strength wind gusts, taken to safety, while 15 people could not be saved. In total 69 yachts did not finish the race. December 1975 Sydney to Hobart Race Death toll: One . Zilvergeest III's Hugh (Barry) Vallance was killed during the 1975 event, despite reasonably good sailing conditions. September 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race Death toll: Three . The first race started off from Portsmouth, England on September 8, 1973. Seventeen yachts of various sizes and shapes took part. During the race three sailors were swept over board and died: Paul Waterhouse, Dominique Guillet and Bernie Hosking. Waterhouse and Guillet were never to be seen again.","highlights":"Volvo Ocean Race begins in Alicantes, Spain in October .\nSailors have died in yacht races as recently as September of this year .\nThe 1979 Fastnet yacht race saw 15 people die in huge storms .","id":"8c4ed9cdbba191061ae005bbe8e9593f67a9ac55"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Inside the blacked-out Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, hallways were littered with bloodied bodies. A commando in disguise give details of what went down in the Taj hotel when commandos went in. Terrorists were still holding 200 people 33 hours after the assault began. Knowing next to nothing about what they might encounter in the dark recesses of the hotel, Indian Army commandos decided to go back in -- and were met by terrorists firing mercilessly, throwing grenades and continuously switching positions. The sound of gunfire and explosions reverberated throughout the hotel's atrium, making it impossible to pinpoint the origin of the shots. Through it all, the commandos walked down pitch-black halls, trying to navigate the damaged hotel without knowing the layout. A commando spokesman, his face and hair swathed in a black scarf and wearing dark glasses to hide his identity, revealed these details of the mission inside the Taj at a news conference Friday. At 6:30 a.m. Friday, the battle at the Taj came to a head with a final firefight at the room holding the 200 hostages, he said. Watch what it was like inside the hotel for commandos \u00bb . When the gunfire stopped, commandos -- known as the Black Cats -- entered the room and freed all 200 hostages. Their difficulties had been apparent from the beginning, he said. \"We did not know the layout of the hotel,\" the commando told reporters. \"There was one person on the hotel staff who was helping to guide us around.\" They entered the hotel for the first time essentially blind to what was ahead. They had no idea what kind of people they would encounter, what kind of weapons might be pointed at them, and whether they might be blown up by explosives. Learn more about the Taj's past and future \u00bb . \"Then we heard gunshots on the second floor and we rushed toward the fired shots,\" he said. \"While taking cover we found that there were 30 to 50 bodies lying dead. At that point we also came under fire. The moment they saw us, they hurled grenades.\" When the shots stopped, the commandos moved toward the source of the gunfire. See the first photos from inside the Taj Mahal hotel \u00bb . \"At that time, they vanished ... they had gone elsewhere,\" the commando said. The attackers had a clear advantage, commandos said, because it was apparent from their movements they knew the hotel's layout. Some tourists rescued from the hotel said the building's large dome and a massive atrium made the sounds of gunfire and explosions reverberate endlessly. It was impossible to pinpoint where the shooters were. Because of the darkness, commandos could not tell how many terrorists were there -- were there many, or only a few who continued to change positions? At one point, commandos believed some of the terrorists were hiding on the eighth floor. As the commandos approached one of the rooms, attackers opened fire at them and said all the people in the room were dead. \"We fired at them and they fired at us, but because the room was absolutely dark and we had just gotten [inside] it made it difficult for us,\" the commando said. Watch commandos talk about fighting the attackers \u00bb . During the fight, two commandos were shot. They decided to flush out the terrorists by blocking entry and exit routes. But the attackers knew all the doors, he said. When they made it inside the room, the terrorists had disappeared again. Inside that room, commandos found AK-47 ammunition rounds, including seven magazines fully loaded, and 400 other rounds for other weapons. They found grenades, credit cards, U.S. notes, foreign money and bags of dried fruit, which they believed helped sustain the attackers during the siege. During the three-day assault, the attackers fired indiscriminately. But the commandos were forced to use caution. \"Let me tell you one thing,\" the commando said. \"Within the first exchanges of fire, we could have got those terrorists -- but there was so many hotel guests -- there were bodies all over and blood all over. And we were trying to avoid the causalities of civilians. We had to be more careful in our fighting.\" In trying to rescue hostages and trapped civilians, commandos had to convince guests they were there to help, not terrorists trying to trick them, Indian Army Lt. Gen. Noble Thamburaj said. \"There are a number of rooms that are locked from inside,\" he told reporters. \"It is possible that some of the hotel guests have locked themselves in and for their own security and safety. Even though we have identified ourselves they are not opening the doors.\" The overall operation may have been made more difficult because of a late start, CNN sister station CNN-IBN reported. CNN-IBN said that attacks at the Taj Mahal Hotel were well under way at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, but unnamed sources said the commandos were not given the go-ahead to take part in the rescue until midnight. Those sources told CNN-IBN said that once the commandos got the go-ahead, it took nearly three hours for them to leave for Mumbai from their undisclosed location. Once they arrived, the sources said, commandos had no precise maps of the hotel layout or its access points. While local police and other officers were at the scene, the sources said, the commandos and army special force units are the only ones equipped and trained to rescue hostages.","highlights":"Disguised commando tells reporters rescuers entered unknown layout in the dark .\nCommandos had to avoid hurting civilians, convince them they were not terrorists .\nAttackers knew layout well, moved around frequently, commando says .\n33 hours after siege, commandos rescued 200 people from Taj Mahal Hotel .","id":"802531133b69a9164d3c57c8d10eb535de6fde7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Piracy off the coast of Somalia rose nearly 200 percent in 2008 compared to the year before, with bolder attacks over greater distances, an international piracy monitor said Friday. The French military on patrol in the Gulf of Aden. Somalia and the Gulf of Aden were the worst areas for piracy in 2008, according to the annual report from International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center (PRC). It said 42 vessels were hijacked there and 815 crew members taken hostage -- more than any place else in the world. The increased ability of pirates to sail farther out to sea, coupled with the inability of the Somali government to respond, led to what the report called an \"unprecedented\" rise in piracy in the area. The problems off the Somali coast contributed to a global rise in piracy, which was up 11 percent in 2008 from the year before, the report said. \"The 2008 statistics surpass all figures recorded by the PRC since it began its worldwide reporting function in 1991,\" said IMB Director Captain Pottengal Mukundan. Worldwide in 2008, a total of 49 vessels were hijacked and 889 crew members taken hostage, the report said. Eleven crew members were killed and 21 others are missing and presumed dead. The pirates are targeting every kind of vessel and are better armed and prepared to assault and injure the crew, the report said. Incidents involving guns nearly doubled from 72 in 2007 to 139 last year. Pirate attacks last year included the hijacking of the largest ship ever taken by pirates, an oil supertanker called the Sirius Star. Attackers seized the giant ship and its 23-man crew in November and only released it last week after receiving a $3.5 million ransom payment. The carrier's crew was released unharmed. Last year's uptick in hijackings off East Africa has already spurred a number of international navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden. Mukundan said he hoped that more governments would authorize their naval forces to patrol the region. \"International navies are the only ones capable of effective response against piracy in the region and can help to secure the safety and security of this major maritime trade route,\" Mukundan said. Nigeria ranks second in world piracy with 40 reported incidents last year, including five hijackings and 39 crew members kidnapped. The main difference between the East and West African pirate activities is that almost all the incidents in Nigeria are conducted within its territorial waters, whereas most of the incidents along the East coast of Africa and the Gulf of Aden occur on the high seas, the report said. That means vessels in the Gulf area have a much harder time staying away from pirate-infested waters. The motives for the attacks are also different. In Somalia the motives are financial while in Nigeria they are at least partly political, the report said. Under-reporting of piracy in Nigerian waters is also a problem for the International Maritime Bureau, the report said. While 2008 appeared to be a bad year for piracy, the report noted declines in other areas of the world, especially in Indonesia. Mukundan said sustained anti-piracy efforts by Indonesian authorities have resulted in declines every year. More than 121 attacks were reported there in 2003 but only 28 were reported last year, most of which were opportunistic, low-level attacks, Mukundan said. Only two attacks happened last year in the Malacca Straits, which lie between Indonesia and Malaysia, compared to seven the year before, the report said. Farther south, the Singapore Straits saw a slight rise in incidents, going from three to six, the report said. \"This welcome reduction has been the cumulative result of increased vigilance and patrolling by the littoral states and the continued precautionary measures on board ships,\" the report said. \"With the world economy in its present uncertain condition, there is a possibility of piracy increasing. Navies and coast guards must continue therefore to maintain their efforts against pirates.\"","highlights":"Somalia, Gulf of Aden confirmed as worst area for piracy in 2008 .\n42 of 49 hijackings in 2008 were in the region, says Piracy Reporting Center .\nPRC says international navies are the only ones capable of effective response .","id":"c1ea35d3ed306ef8cb511a07bf18a2c7cc7ea944"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The chief financial officer of India's Satyam Computer Services Ltd. was arrested Saturday, the third person taken into custody in a scandal that began when the company's chairman admitted inflating profits with \"fictitious\" assets and non-existent cash. Satyam founder B. Ramalinga Raju is shown Saturday being sent to prison in Hyderabad. Vadlamani Srinivas will appear Sunday before a special court, said A. Sivanarayana, additional director general of police in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, told CNN. Company founder B. Ramalinga Raju and his brother, Rama Raju, Satyam's managing director, were arrested Friday in connection with the scandal. In a letter written to investigators, B. Ramalinga Raju admitted that he and his brother were responsible for cooking the books at Satyam, according to CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN. Satyam, India's fourth-largest software-services provider, serves almost 700 companies, including 185 Fortune 500 companies, and generates more than half its revenues from the United States. It employs some 53,000 people and operates in 65 countries. B. Ramalinga Raju resigned Wednesday and confessed to padding company balance sheets. The practice began several years ago to close \"a marginal gap\" between actual operating profit and one reflected in the company's accounting books, he said, but continued for several years. \"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,\" B. Ramalinga Raju said in a letter to the company's board of directors. He said no board member was aware of what he was doing and he did not profit from the inflated accounts. The deception came to light after he tried to plug the hole by getting Satyam to buy his son's construction companies. The acquisition was \"the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones,\" he wrote in his letter. The deal would have cost Satyam $1.6 billion -- but the company's board vetoed it. Stocks fell following the botched deal. Soon afterward, B. Ramalinga Raju came clean, saying he was doing so \"with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience.\" After his confession, stocks of the Hyderabad-based company fell more than 70 percent, causing India's major stock index, the BSE SENSEX, to fall 7.3 percent Wednesday. The BSE SENSEX on Thursday deleted Satyam Computer Services from its indices. The company's interim chief executive officer said Thursday the company's immediate goal is to continue its operations uninterrupted. CNN's Bharati Naik and Harmeet Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Satyam's chief financial officer arrested in profit-fraud scandal .\nComputer giant employs 53,000 people and operates in 65 countries .\nChairman B. Ramalinga Raju said balance-sheet padding began years ago .","id":"77ca7b4343422666fd99da0452c51637ec5595a4"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Well, here's what we've all been waiting for. Apple put out a couple of announcements on Tuesday related to its desktop computers. Apple on Tuesday announced a new Mac Pro high-end desktop powered by Intel's \"Nehalem\" processor. The company unveiled a new Mac Pro high-end desktop powered by Intel's \"Nehalem\" processor, a new and more graphics-intensive Mac Mini machine, and updated iMacs that include the lowest price point yet for the consumer desktops. Let's look at the new Mac Pro first: priced at $2,499 for the quad-core version and $3,299 for the eight-core version, those Intel \"Nehalem\" Xeon processors run at 2.93 GHz, and the interior of the machine has been cleaned up to make physical expansions easier. On the green front, it meets the new Energy Star 5.0 requirements that will go into effect later this year. The new iMac desktop is a 24\" machine that is priced at $1,499, the cost of Apple's previous 20\" iMac. The 20-inch is now $1,199. The 20\" is powered by a 2.66 GHz processor; the 24\" has processor speed options of 2.66 GHz, 2.93 GHz (for $1,799), or 3.02 GHz (for $2,199). The 24\" comes with a 640GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM expandable to 8GB; the 20\" comes with a 320GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM expandable to 8GB. \"Our flagship 24-inch iMac with twice the memory and twice the storage is now available for just $1,499,\" Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook, currently standing in at the helm of the company in place of iconic CEO Steve Jobs, said in a release. \"The Mac mini is not only our most affordable Mac, it's also the world's most energy efficient desktop computer.\" As for the new Mac Mini, the big upgrade is NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics that Apple says will improve its graphics performance as much as fivefold. The monitor-free machine costs either $599 for a lower-end edition (1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive) or $799 for the higher-end (2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive). All these machines, like the new Mac Pro, meet Energy Star 5.0 requirements. Rumors of new Apple desktop computers were first reported at AppleInsider. \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Apple on Tuesday announced a new Mac Pro high-end desktop .\nPowered by Intel's \"Nehalem\" processor, they're priced at $2,499 and $3,299 .\nApple also unveilved a new and more graphics-intensive Mac Mini machine .\nUpdated 24-inch iMacs have twice the memory and twice the storage .","id":"a34dd2f5d6b6ff5dd493bfba5a9d745d654d6cc3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Pennsylvania woman told police she was attacked at an ATM in Pittsburgh by a robber who became angry when he saw a John McCain bumper sticker on her car, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Police Department said Thursday. Police cannot confirm whether a man attacked this woman because she had a McCain sticker on her car. Public Information Officer Diane Richard said police cannot substantiate her story, however, and the investigation is ongoing. Richard said the 20-year-old told investigators a man approached her Wednesday night at an ATM in the city's East End, put a blade to her neck and demanded money. She said she gave him $60 and stepped away from him, Richard said. But the woman said the man \"became very angry\" when he noticed her car had a bumper sticker supporting the GOP presidential nominee, according to Richard. The woman said he punched her in the back of the head, knocked her to the ground and \"continued to punch and kick her while threatening her,\" the spokeswoman said. Before he left, the woman said, he carved the letter \"B\" into her face with a knife, according to Richard. There was no indication what the \"B\" indicated. The alleged assailant fled on foot, Richard said. \"We, the police, cannot substantiate this yet,\" she said. \"This is what she told police.\" The woman, who is not from Pittsburgh, refused medical attention, Richard said, although she told the investigating officer she would see a doctor Thursday. There was no update on her condition, she said. Richard said the woman described her alleged attacker as a dark-skinned African-American, 6 feet 4 inches tall with a medium build and short dark hair, wearing dark clothing and shiny shoes. McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker told CNN that McCain and running mate Sarah Palin \"spoke to the victim and her family after learning about the incident earlier this afternoon.\" Hazelbaker said the campaign would not offer more detail out of respect for the woman's privacy. The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama responded to the report with a statement saying, \"Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.\"","highlights":"Woman says man robbed her, returned to beat her after noticing sticker on her car .\nPolice say they cannot substantiate her claim .\nThe 20-year-old says man kicked, punched her, carved B into her cheek with knife .\nMcCain spokeswoman says McCain, Sarah Palin, have spoken with the victim .","id":"5eafbd607cc3a599ee520fe5ba20d86428404b8b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Predatory mice are threatening the albatross population on a remote south Atlantic island and have caused the birds' worst nesting season on record, a British bird charity says. Baby albatross on a remote Atlantic island are threatened by killer house mice. The research from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds indicates bad news for the Tristan albatross, whose only home is Gough Island in the middle of the south Atlantic. House mice not native to the island are threatening the Tristan albatross with extinction, the RSPB said. The mice are also threatening the native population of bunting, one of the world's largest finches, the RSPB said. \"Without removal of the mice, both the albatross and the bunting that live there are doomed to extinction,\" Grahame Madge, a conservation spokesman for the RSPB, told CNN. The mice on the island eat the chicks of the albatross and bunting before they make it to the fledgling stage, the RSPB said. This makes it especially difficult for the albatross population to survive because the birds lay eggs only once every two years -- a very low reproductive rate compared to other birds, Madge said. \"What [the mice] are affecting is the ability of the albatross to produce enough young to sustain the population,\" he said. Adult Tristan albatross are threatened by longline fishing at sea, a practice in which boats put up numerous 100-meter long fishing lines baited with squid or fish. The albatrosses are attracted to the bait and while some manage to steal it successfully, many more get snagged and drown, Madge said. Because of the impact from house mice, introduced to the island by sealers in the 18th and 19th centuries, conservation alliance BirdLife International earlier this year listed both the Tristan albatross and the Gough bunting as critically endangered -- the highest threat level before extinction. Gough Island, a British territory almost midway between Argentina and South Africa, is a place of stunning natural beauty. The island is not inhabited by humans. Gough Island and nearby Inaccessible Island are both listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. A survey of the albatross on Gough Island in January showed 1,764 adults incubating eggs, the RSPB said. A later survey revealed only 246 chicks had survived to fledgling. \"We've known for a long time that the mice were killing albatross chicks in huge numbers,\" said RSPB scientist Richard Cuthbert, who recently visited the island to assess the problem. \"However, we now know that the albatrosses have suffered their worst year on record.\" The bunting suffer because the mice eat their eggs and chicks, and may also compete with them for food in the winter, Cuthbert said. \"The decline in bunting numbers is alarming,\" said Peter Ryan of the University of Cape Town, who has been studying buntings on the island since the 1980s. \"Without urgent conservation action to remove the mice, both the albatross and the bunting are living on borrowed time.\" The RSPB has been studying whether it is possible to remove the mice. It said trials so far look promising, but it urged the British government to step up funding for the project. It said eradicating the mice from Gough Island would solve the primary conservation threat facing both bird species. The RSPB said it had been working with New Zealand conservationists on a program to remove the smaller mice by dropping poisoned bait from helicopters. Tristan albatrosses are one of 22 species of albatross in the world. Albatrosses principally live in the southern Atlantic but some also live in the Pacific, the RSPB says. Albatrosses are among the largest flying birds, weighing up to 25 pounds (22.5 kilograms). One species -- the wandering albatross -- has a wingspan of 11 feet, the RSPB says. The birds can fly thousands of miles without a pause, and their only need to touch land is to nest and raise their young, the RSPB says.","highlights":"Predatory mice are threatening the albatross population on a south Atlantic island .\nHouse mice not native to the island are killing and eating chicks .\nMice are also threatening the native population of large finches .","id":"4cb0a311b912e6274d5c40711d19d5febb1fafe9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ten co-workers from New Jersey say they will split a $216 million Mega Millions jackpot, thanks to the five bucks they each kicked into a pool. Melanie Jacob, Linda Harrington and Bob Space, who bought the tickets, are three of the lucky winners. The 10, who work for Chubb Commercial Insurance in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, held a news conference Wednesday to announce their win. Bob Space of Toms River, New Jersey, held up a lottery ticket that clearly showed the winning numbers from Tuesday's drawing: 26, 32, 35, 43, 52 and 10. \"I checked and I rechecked and then I sent it to my wife,\" said Space, who purchased 50 sets of lottery numbers for himself and his nine co-workers from a Singin Oil gas station near his house on Monday. Watch man describe buying winning ticket \u00bb . Space went to work as usual on Wednesday morning, playing it coy. \"I got an e-mail,\" said Todd Ellis, the company's chief information officer. \"It said, 'We won the big one' and then he just put the numbers down.\" Joanne Roth got the same e-mail. \"I thought we won $4, because last week we won $7,\" she said. \"I said, 'Don't mess with me.' \" Space played hardball with co-worker Oscar Oviedo, who hadn't paid him yet for his share of the lottery tickets. \"This morning, I come into work early with him,\" said Oviedo, who soon received an instant message from Space. \"I got a surprise for you. Come over,\" the message said. Oviedo went to Space's cubicle. \"He's like, 'You got my money?' \" Oviedo said he thought, \"Wow, that was rude,\" but paid up. Space shook his hand and said: \"Now you're a millionaire.\" They aren't officially millionaires at this point, because the winning ticket hasn't been presented to lottery officials yet. \"In due time,\" Space said. \"We have a year.\" But another Chubb employee said they'll cash in their ticket soon. \"If you have that winning ticket ... please sign the back of the ticket, put it in a safe place and seek legal and financial advice before you come to talk to us,\" New Jersey Lottery spokesman Dominick DeMarco said at the news conference, held at the gas station where the winning ticket was sold. \"Be careful with it.\" None of the co-workers, who have been with Chubb for seven to 30 years, said they had immediate plans to quit. The ticket is worth an estimated $216 million if the money is paid out over 26 years, or about $140 million if they choose an immediate cash payout. \"It relieves a lot of stress ... and it also gives a nice cushion to be able to help the people we want to help,\" Ellis said. \"I feel incredibly blessed. I can't even absorb it at this point.\" Roth, recently divorced, said she'll pay off her bills. \"I'm shocked. ... The whole thing is cool.\" Mega Millions is played in 12 states: California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.","highlights":"10 winning New Jersey co-workers work for an insurance company .\nThey each kicked in $5 in an office pool and bought 50 sets of numbers .\nPayout is $216 million over 26 years or about $140 million for immediate payout .\nThose oh-so-valuable winning digits are 26, 32, 35, 43, 52 and 10 .","id":"c535d768722a0802eee80d425085249949bb4e9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Playboy magazine issued an apology Monday for the cover of its Mexican edition, which features an Argentine model in what many observers say is meant to be a depiction of the Virgin Mary. Playboy issued an apology after outrage erupted over this cover of the magazine's Mexican edition. Playboy Mexico has said the cover was not meant to portray the Virgin Mary, despite being printed just days before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- both Catholic holidays centering on the Virgin Mary. CNN's Rick Sanchez sat down with CNN Espa\u00f1ol's Glenda Umana and Father Albert Cutie, a Radio La Paz host, to discuss the reaction among Mexicans and Catholics. The transcript has been edited for clarity. Rick Sanchez: What is going on in Mexico and how big a deal is this? Watch the controversy over the Playboy cover \u00bb . Glenda Umana: ... there has not been a lot of publicity. It's very interesting, but certainly it has been very, very offensive, not only for the Catholics in Mexico, but all Catholics worldwide. As we can see, this Mexican version of Playboy magazine shows the cover of a model as you were explaining -- Mar\u00eda Florencia Onori from Argentina -- posing like the Virgin Mary. This was published last week on the exact date, Rick, when millions of Mexicans celebrate the festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Very important, not only for Mexicans but for all Latino-Americans. Sanchez: So the timing is interesting here. Let me read to the viewers, because we contacted the magazine... Umana: You have a reaction from them, right? Sanchez: We do. It's right here. This is from the publisher of the magazine, Raul Sayrols. He says, \"The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe,\" -- which is the Virgin Mary -- \"The intent was to portray a renaissance-like mood on the cover.\" Interesting. Let me bring in somebody for whom this hits home. He's one of the best known priests in the United States. His name is Father Cutie. I worked with him in Miami many times, has his own show -- actually he's got his own book out now. It's called \"Real Life, Real Love.\" Bestseller, by the way. Father, are we as Catholics just too sensitive when it comes to this kind -- after all, it's a beautiful woman being shown to represent what is, in our minds, to all of us, a beautiful woman. Father Albert Cutie: Listen, there's no doubt that she's a beautiful woman. But a stained-glass window and the veil that looks like that, certainly there's a reference to Mary. Whoever tells you there isn't is simply being hypocritical or not very honest. And that's what I don't like about the statement from Playboy magazine. I think that they timed it not only with the Virgin of Guadalupe, as Glenda was saying, but also with the month of December. How many nativity scenes are out there this time of the year? How many times is Mary a central figure in this whole celebration? And this is offensive. This is very offensive. It's blasphemous. Sanchez: As a matter of fact, Father -- . Cutie: It's wrong. Sanchez: Father, we got one statement from him. But let me read you the entire statement he had put out earlier in the day, \"The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe or any other religious figure.\" He goes on to say -- \"or any other religious figure.\" Now, on its face, as you look at this picture, that looks like a bald-faced lie, doesn't it? Cutie: No, and not only that, this is someone who obviously has no scruples. And I'm not talking about the model -- whoever assigned this whole thing. First of all, we don't adore Mary; we adore God, only God. And to say \"Te Adoramos Mar\u00eda,\" the Spanish -- \"We adore you, Mary\" -- basically, it's making a direct religious reference to something which is sacred. Because you don't adore anything if it's not sacred. So to us, really it's a double offense... Sanchez: And by the way, the emphasis, \"Te Adoramos,\" as you know, being Cuban yourself, that word in Spanish has even more of a heightened religious meaning than it does in English. Cutie: That's right. It means that you love someone -- . Sanchez: Hail -- you hail them. Cutie: That's right. That's right. Now, in the cover of a magazine of a porn business that is already a huge success, why would you need to use religious symbols to sell more magazines? This sounds desperate to me. And not only desperate, it's totally offensive to a billion Catholics in the world and to non-Catholics who honor Mary as the mother of Jesus.","highlights":"Model Mar\u00eda Florencia Onori featured on cover above caption, \"We adore you, Mary\"\nDecember plays host to several religious holidays honoring Virgin Mary .\nPriest: \"It's totally offensive to a billion Catholics in the world\"\nPlayboy says cover was never meant to portray any religious figure .","id":"398a994fc25d2146b506028d603249bc60abe4bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After deliberating for more than four hours, a jury convicted a Nevada man of 22 counts Tuesday for videotaping himself sexually assaulting a toddler, CNN affiliates report. Chester Arthur Stiles has been convicted of videtaping a sexual assault on a child. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was convicted of lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor, attempted sexual assault with a minor and other related charges. He showed no reaction as the verdict was read after more than four hours of jury deliberations, according to KLAS. Sentencing was set for May 8. The crime triggered a national manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007. Jurors in Stiles' trial viewed the videotape, but the judge would not allow members sitting in the gallery to view it, and a screen was put up to block the jury box, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some members of the media were allowed to view the tape as well, but the judge did not want the reactions of reporters or the public to influence jurors, he said. The charges also related to another girl who Stiles was accused of sexually assaulting on videotape. The tape was given to authorities in September 2007 by a man who said he had found it in the desert five months before. On it, police found images of the small girl being sexually assaulted. After attempting unsuccessfully to find out the girl's identity, authorities turned to the media for help and released a picture of the girl, and the case drew nationwide attention. She was found in October 2007. An attorney for her mother said she was 7 years old and safe and healthy. The rape occurred before the girl's third birthday, while she was in the care of a baby-sitter her mother had hired, he said. The mother did not know the girl had been victimized. After the girl was found, authorities asked CNN and other news organizations to stop showing her picture. In an appearance on \"The Dr. Phil Show,\" the girl's mother said the girl has no recollection of the assault. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was arrested in a traffic stop in October 2007. Police said at the time they pulled Stiles' car over because it had no license plate, and became suspicious when the driver displayed an expired California license with a photo that did not match his appearance. Stiles eventually admitted who he was and that he was being sought, authorities said. The man who turned the tape over to authorities, Darrin Tuck, faced criminal charges because of the delay in turning it over, during which authorities alleged he showed it to others. A judge gave Tuck a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation in April after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He initially had faced a felony count of possession of child pornography.","highlights":"NEW: Chester Arthur Stiles guilty of all counts in child sex video case .\nNEW: Sentencing for Stiles scheduled for May 8 .\nStiles could be sent to prison for the rest of his life .\nTape surfaced in 2007, years after alleged assault .","id":"e07118e00a8fa961f27be12a05a8023e26697753"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A \"faulty\" flight instrument contributed to the crash of a Turkish plane last month in the Netherlands, an accident that killed nine people and injured more than 60 others, Dutch safety authorities said on Wednesday. Turkish Airlines workers carry the coffins of four staff who died in the crash. On February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam dropped from the sky on approach to the landing strip at Schiphol Airport, shattering into three pieces in a muddy field. Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Board, said the instrument was one of the plane's two altimeters, which measure altitude. Because of the \"faulty\" left altimeter, the plane on automatic pilot reacted as if it were lower than it was and started to behave as if it was touching down. The plane was at 700 meters but the instrument indicated that it was at ground level. This caused the automatic throttles to slow the plane down, leading to a loss of speed. The plane was on automatic pilot when it crashed. Van Vollenhoven said there had been misty weather and if it were clearer then the pilots might have noticed how far up they were. He said that if such instruments don't function, automatic pilots should not be used for landings. Investigators said there had been faulty meter readings on two other flights but the pilots were able to land. Van Vollenhoven said that the pilots realized the problem but failed to appreciate what had been happening until it was too late. In the immediate aftermath of the crash investigators said the plane fell almost vertically to the ground indicating the aircraft did not have enough forward speed. The plane crash less than 500 yards short of the runway. Passengers described feeling the plane suddenly drop before impact, and at least one passenger said he heard the pilot trying to give more power to the engines before it went down. Four of the crew and three Boeing employees were among the nine people killed in the crash. Turkey's flagship airline is well-rated internationally for its overall safety record and the Boeing 737-800 has a good safety record. The last previous fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed as it tried to return to Schiphol shortly after takeoff.","highlights":"Turkish plane that crashed in Netherlands had faulty instrument .\nInvestigators say altimeter gave false reading .\nThat made automatic pilot implement landing procedures while plane was too high .\nTurkish Airlines flight 1951 crashed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport killing nine .","id":"53ba087075d251f2f69c4f73fca48a32f298997a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Illinois sheriff filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the owners of craigslist, accusing the popular national classified-ad Web site of knowingly promoting prostitution. \"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation,\" says Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart wants craigslist to eliminate its Erotic Services section. \"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation,\" Dart said. \"Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they're being pimped on craigslist.\" The FBI found more than 2,800 child prostitution ads posted on craigslist, with Chicago, Illinois, in the top 10 cities for juvenile prostitution, Dart said. The sheriff also noted instances of what he said was child neglect while parents were engaged in activity solicited on the Web site. In an e-mailed statement, craigslist told CNN it had not seen Dart's complaint but that \"craigslist is an extremely unwise choice for those intent on committing crimes, since criminals inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law enforcement officers will follow.\" \"On a daily basis, we are being of direct assistance to police departments and federal authorities nationwide,\" spokeswoman Susan McTavish said. \"Misuse of craigslist to facilitate criminal activity is unacceptable, and we continue to work diligently to prevent it,\" she said. \"Misuse of the site is exceptionally rare compared to how much the site is used for legal purposes. Regardless, any misuse of the site is not tolerated on craigslist.\" But Dart said that the Web site for two years has ignored his written requests to shut down the Erotic Services section and failed to take action or adequately monitor the section despite hundreds of arrests. \"Pimps are preying on the most vulnerable members of our society and taking advantage of our struggling economy,\" he said. \"The worst part is craigslist's owners know their Web site is still being used for illegal purposes and they're doing nothing to stop it.\" Craigslist entered into an agreement with 43 states' attorneys general in November to enact measures that impose restrictions on its Erotic Services section. The agreement called for the Web site to implement a phone verification system for listings that required ad posters to provide a real telephone number that would be called before the ad went public. Craigslist also imposed listing fees, requiring a credit card, for ads in the section. The proceeds were to be donated to charity. Dart called the fees \"dirty money\" and said the move was a \"publicity stunt\" that had little practical effect because pimps use stolen credit cards or post ads in free sections.","highlights":"Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart wants craigslist to cut Erotic Services section .\nDart said that the Web site for 2 years ignored his requests to cut section .\n\"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation,\" says Dart .\nWe help police fight illegal activity \"on a daily basis,\" says craigslist spokeswoman .","id":"80b61c14bd7dddec9e965f10da23391c08febabb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Barack Obama will make his first overseas trip since taking office at the end of this month, visiting England, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, the White House said Thursday. President Obama wil travel with first lady Michelle Obama to four European nations in the coming weeks. The trip is scheduled from March 31-April 5. Obama, who will be joined by first lady Michelle Obama, will first visit London, where he will attend a summit with other world leaders. He is to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on April 3. Obama will also attend NATO summit meetings in Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany, then travel to Prague, Czech Republic, to meet with Czech leaders and leaders of other European Union nations. His first trip outside the United States was to Canada last month.","highlights":"The trip is scheduled from March 31-April 5 .\nObama first heads to London, where he will attend a summit of world leaders .\nHe will also join NATO meetings in France and Germany .\nHis first trip outside the United States was to Canada last month .","id":"a4c5f7cf63b76943f9bbb1e3097818a4195108bc"} -{"article":"WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- To pick up the morning paper and see the word \"recount\" in a headline stirs an ominous case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Judge Robert Rosenberg examines a ballot in Broward County, Florida, during the election recount in 2000. At issue in recent days in Palm Beach County is a local judicial race that is hardly of national note. But problems with administering the local election, and statements from county officials that some critics call confusing, if not contradictory, have some worried about the coming presidential election. Polls showing a dead heat in the battle for Florida's 27 electoral votes only add to the drama. \"Managerially, software-wise, procedure-wise, training-wise, there is no confidence that these people will be ready in less than 50 days for the election we are all going to have,\" said Sid Dinerstein, the Palm Beach County Republican chairman. \"Never again!\" was the county's promise after the butterfly ballots and hanging chads of the 2000 recount drama. For 2004, the county switched to touch-screen machines. There were no major issues here. But some local Democrats, including Rep. Robert Wexler, demanded changes because they said the touch-screen system might be vulnerable to fraud and did not, in their view, provide a reliable audit trail. So the county switched again, to its third system in eight years, this time a paper ballot that is scanned by an optical reading device. The paper is then retained in case of recounts or other irregularities. Local officials say the system works and promise a smooth Election Day. But Dinerstein says the recount in the judicial race proves the folly of switching. \"We could have had nice, reliable computers counting and giving all of us an honest count,\" he said in an interview. The 2000 recount drama led to major changes -- more than 40 states made changes or adjustments to the way they conducted and administered elections. \"We have had more change in our election process since 2000 than we have seen since the Voting Rights Act of 1965,\" said Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a recent past president of the national association of top state elections officials. Indiana alone spent some $67 million on new equipment, including a statewide voter file, and also requires a color photo ID on Election Day. Rokita takes issue with those who question the reliability of newer, high-tech systems. \"You know, we use technology in every one of our financial transactions and social transactions -- why did we not until 2000 put that type of technology to use when it comes to our most sacred civic transaction, you know, the voting process?\" Rokita asked in an interview at his office in Indianapolis. \"The technology is just a tool. And what the conspiracy theorists want you to believe is the technology runs the election -- and nothing could be further from the truth,\" he said. \"If you have well-trained people who know how to use that technology and those tools, to know what to do if a battery dies on election day, all those things, then you will have a fair and an accurate election and the people are the ones who will produce that. And If they are not trained and they are not prepared, then you are not going to have a good election. But it is the people, not the machines.\" Indiana expects a record number of new voters this year, and Rokita is changing his usual advice as a result. In the past he has encouraged voting on Election Day, saying it builds community spirit and gives voters up to the last moment to ponder their choices. But this year, given the high interest in his state and nationwide, he suggests voters who are certain they will not change their minds help ease the burden -- and the potential for mistakes on Election Day -- by taking advantage of any early voting options in their states.","highlights":"Palm Beach County, Florida, has changed voting systems twice in past eight years .\nCounty GOP chairman says \"no confidence\" election will go off without problems .\n2000 recount drama in Florida led to changes in election procedures in 40+ states .\nIndiana official says it's people, not machines, that make elections run smoothly .","id":"30fc6e3122b565ebec1e5a63076353988da0fa38"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- For years Ahmad has been unable to find true love. So the 27 year-old bachelor who lives in Tehran is turning to a professional matchmaker. Jafar Ardabili's matchmaking service provides one option for Iranian singles. \"I'm searching for a love that lasts,\" Ahmad said. What's unusual is Ahmad's matchmaker wears a turban, a robe and could be the first-ever Iranian cleric who plays cupid. \"First they say 'wow',\" Jafar Ardabili said, \"then they take a closer look and say 'since he's a cleric we have faith in him.'\" Ardabili made his first love match 10 years ago while he taught at a Tehran university. One of his students had a crush on a person, so Ardabili arranged for the two to meet. A few months later they married. The set-up worked so well that Ardabili and his wife opened the Amin International Family and Cultural Institute, a service that matched Iranian singles in a supervised setting. In Iran, Islamic law restricts social interaction. \"You can't just go after someone in public and say would you like to live with me?\" Ardabili said. \"Especially the women, who often don't have any right to choose their companion, but in our institute women do have the right to choose.\" Ahmad would love nothing more than one of those women to choose him. On a Thursday morning he anxiously sat in the institute's waiting room. Ardabili had arranged for Ahmad to meet a young lady. Could she be the one? Ahmad had paid a $100 fee, submitted a picture and his information. In return he has access to thousands of other applicants. Once applicants approve of one another's pictures and profiles Ardabili arranges up to two meetings inside his office. After each meeting, the applicants report back to Ardabili. \"When there's no connection they look like wrinkled potatoes,\" Ardabili said. And when cupid's arrow hits the mark? \"They look very eager. They're as happy as an ice cream cone.\" Watch Ardabili describe how his service works \u00bb . The third meeting for couples takes place outside the institute without supervision. If all goes well, Ardabili arranges for the families to meet and then the couple ties the knot. \"You feel good because you're serving humanity,\" Ardabili said. Ardabili said that during the past 10 years his institute has had more than 50,000 applicants. More than 2,000 of his couples have married without a single divorce, he said. Ardabili gave credit to his 10-member staff that offers counseling to married couples, even sex therapy. \"We want to reduce divorce, give families a strong foundation,\" Ardabili said. On his Web site, Tehran's matchmaking mullah has posted wedding pictures of some of his success stories. Ahmad can't wait to see his picture among them. \"At this very moment I'm counting down the days.\"","highlights":"Iranian cleric, wife runs matchmaking service .\nService offers option for social interaction between Iranian singles .\nCleric claims his service has married 2,000 couples without a divorce .","id":"7130a2e14e23fa4b4129c7900ed222e355f73b40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two human-rights activists were shot and killed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on Thursday evening, leading a U.N. investigator to call for an independent investigation to prove that Kenyan police were not involved. U.N. invesitgator Phillip Alston said an inquiry into the activists deaths was the only way to eliminate suspicions of police involvement. The shootings spurred a protest by students that led police to fatally shoot a student, police said. A U.N. investigator called the killings of the human-rights workers an assassination. \"It is extremely troubling when those working to defend human rights in Kenya can be assassinated in broad daylight in the middle of Nairobi,\" Phillip Alston said. \"There is an especially strong onus on the Kenyan government to arrange for an independent investigation into these killings, given the circumstances surrounding them.\" Alston said many are suspicious that the police were involved and an independent investigation is the only way to eliminate the suspicion. The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights also called for an independent probe and planned to hold a news conference Friday. Oscar Kamau Kingara, a longtime critic of Kenyan police, was fatally shot while driving near the the state house, the home of Kenya's president. Kingara's colleague John Paul Oulu also was killed by the gunmen, who fled. Kingara founded the Oscar Foundation, an organization that provides legal aid to the poor in Kenya. He released a report last year alleging that Kenyan police had killed or kidnapped more than 500 people in an effort to control a gang in the country called the Mungiki. Both men also provided information to the United Nations this year that helped the organization release a scathing report about police brutality and police killings in Kenya. The U.N. report released in late February accused Kenyan police of widespread extrajudicial killings, and called for the removal of the East African nation's police commissioner and its attorney general. Kenyan police said in a statement Friday that investigators were looking for two suspects who were seen fleeing after the shootings of Kingara and Oulu. Police also said they would investigate three officers who shot at college students who protested after the human rights activists were killed. \"That use of lethal force during this confrontation was unprofessional and uncalled for. It has also been confirmed one student later died at Kenyatta National Hospital following bullet injuries suffered during this confrontation with the police,\" the police statement said. CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. official calls for inquiry into deaths of two Kenyan human rights activists .\nDeaths sparked protests amid suspicion over police involvement in killings .\nOne student fatally shot by police during demonstrations in Nairobi .\nPolice say they are looking for two suspects seen fleeing scene of the shootings .","id":"c9275d366be81687a8fb2805f327f55f68a41f06"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The entire population of Taloga, Oklahoma, was evacuated Thursday because of a raging fire that has burned tens of thousands of acres, officials said Friday. Wildfire threatens a house in Edmond, Oklahoma, on Friday. All of the residents, about 400, left the Dewey County town, but have been allowed back in, said Bill Challis with the fire department in Clinton, Oklahoma, south of Taloga. Clinton is among dozens of fire departments helping battle the blaze. Wildfires have been burning in northwest and central Oklahoma since Thursday, according to the state Department of Emergency Management. A large wildfire also came within inches of homes north of Edmond late Friday morning and was still burning during the noon hour, CNN affiliate KOCO reported. Oklahoma Department of Public Safey officials also report that one to two city blocks of Weleetka, in Okfuskee County, were on fire, according to KOCO. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved the state's request for federal assistance for fighting the wildfire in Dewey County, where Taloga is located. The original call about the Taloga fire came in Thursday at about 12:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. ET), Challis said. Officials don't know how the fire started. Brett Russell, also with the Clinton Fire Department, said about 60,000 acres have burned. There are no reports of anyone injured. As of about 11 a.m. Friday (12 p.m. ET), the Taloga fire was about 50 to 60 percent contained. About 80 fire departments helping battle the blaze, Russell told CNN. An Oklahoma Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter was helping with aerial fire suppression, according to the state.","highlights":"All residents of Taloga, Oklahoma, were evacuated because of fire .\nEntire population of about 400 people allowed back in .\nWildfires have been burning in northwest and central Oklahoma since Thursday .\nWildfire also burning near towns of Edmond, Waleeka .","id":"f5f6db49aae94ae2644d2886fd6b2a6d2ab24c71"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN. Tsvangirai and his wife, Susan, were en route to the prime minister's hometown of Buhera. The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai's hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe. Analysts say the crash is bound to raise suspicion of foul play, with one former U.S. diplomat calling for an outside investigation, saying it is not the first time that a political foe of Mugabe has been killed or injured in a car crash. Members of Tsvangirai's political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday that it was too early to tell whether the crash is anything other than an accident. Tsvangirai's aide and driver also were injured in the head-on collision with a large truck, according to his spokesman, James Maridadi. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said he spoke to Tsvangirai at the hospital, and the party leader was in \"relatively stable\" condition. An MDC spokesman describes 'critical' accident \u00bb . Sources at The Avenues Clinic in Harare said that Tsvangirai was in stable condition with minor head injuries and that the prime minister was alert and talking. One source said the attending doctor had told him of his wife's death. Another said that doctors were planning to keep Tsvangirai overnight for observation and that specialists were checking his condition. Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, took office last month under a power-sharing deal with Mugabe after a contentious election. Tsvangirai's MDC reached the power-sharing agreement with Mugabe in September after months of angry dispute that included violence. More than 200 deaths, mainly those of opposition supporters, were reported leading up to and in the aftermath of the election. \"I'm skeptical about any motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe involving an opposition figure,\" said Tom McDonald, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2001. \"President Mugabe has a history of strange car accidents when someone lo and behold dies -- it's sort of his M.O. of how they get rid of people they don't like.\" Watch more on the fatal crash \u00bb . McDonald cited the 2001 death of Defense Minister Moven Mahachi, Employment Minister Border Gezi's death in 1999 and the death last year of Elliot Manyika, a government minister and former regional governor. All three died in car crashes. \"This is several,\" McDonald said. \"So, when I hear that Tsvangirai was in an accident, it gives me pause.\" McDonald, now an attorney with the Washington law firm Baker Hostetler, urged a full investigation by outside authorities. One analyst who studies the region said the collision could \"exacerbate\" the fragile unity government. \"There will undoubtedly be suspicions about the cause of the crash and whether there was foul play involved,\" said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. \"At a time when there needs to be confidence-building measures, this incident potentially raises suspicions and undermines the potential for greater cohesion of the government. [There is] huge potential for the agreement to be manipulated by Mugabe.\" McDonald, however, was quick to say that traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe. The highway on which Tsvangirai was traveling is a two-lane road where tractor-trailers are common, vehicles in the country are often in bad shape and drivers often are inexperienced, he said. \"It's certainly plausible that this was just one of those tragic things,\" he said. The collision occurred on the Harare-Masvingo Road as Tsvangirai and his wife headed to his hometown of Buhera, south of the capital, Harare, his spokesman said. The couple, who were married in 1978, have six children, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Last month, Susan Tsvangirai told a BBC affiliate that the past decade had been an \"endurance test\" for her husband and his MDC colleagues. \"People went through hell, but they stuck to their ideals to seek change through democratic means,\" she said. \"This was a struggle that we endured with MDC cadres, activists, supporters and peace-loving Zimbabweans. \"To them I say thank you so much for the support they gave the MDC to reach this momentous period.\" A former miner and union organizer, Morgan Tsvangirai first ran for president in 2002 against Mugabe, who has been the country's leader since it gained independence from Great Britain in 1980. Since then, Tsvangirai has been charged with treason twice and accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe. Tsvangirai was arrested and allegedly beaten in 2007. The criminal charges against him were dropped. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse, Alan Silverleib and Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in stable condition, sources say .\nAnalyst: Crash could exacerbate fragile unity government with President Mugabe .\nHead-on collision bound to raise suspicion of foul play, analysts say .\nEx-U.S. diplomat says other Mugabe foes have died in car crashes .","id":"3e57228b544d53905e505107a6a30ede0c5748e5"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- It's hard to walk down the aisle of a liquor store without running across a bottle bearing someone's name. A costumed reveler at a Captain Morgan party celebrates the rum named after the 17th century privateer. We put them in our cocktails, but how well do we know them? Here's some biographical detail on the men behind your favorite tipples: . 1. Captain Morgan . The Captain wasn't always just the choice of sorority girls looking to blend spiced rum with Diet Coke; in the 17th century he was a feared privateer. Not only did the Welsh pirate marry his own cousin, he ran risky missions for the governor of Jamaica, including capturing some Spanish prisoners in Cuba and sacking Port-au-Prince in Haiti. He then plundered the Cuban coast before holding for ransom the entire city of Portobelo, Panama. He later looted and burned Panama City, but his pillaging career came to an end when Spain and England signed a peace treaty in 1671. Instead of getting in trouble for his high-seas antics, Morgan received knighthood and became the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. Mental Floss: 5 drinking stories that put yours to shame . 2. Johnnie Walker . Walker, the name behind the world's most popular brand of Scotch whisky, was born in 1805 in Ayrshire, Scotland. When his father died in 1819, Johnnie inherited a trust of a little over 400 pounds, which the trustees invested in a grocery store. Walker became a very successful grocer in the town of Kilmarnock and even sold a whisky, Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky. Johnnie's son Alexander was the one who actually turned the family into famous whisky men, though. Alexander had spent time in Glasgow learning how to blend teas, but he eventually returned to Kilmarnock to take over the grocery from his father. Alexander turned his blending expertise to whisky, and came up with \"Old Highland Whisky,\" which later became Johnnie Walker Black Label. 3. Jack Daniel . Jasper Newton \"Jack\" Daniel of Tennessee whiskey fame was the descendant of Welsh settlers who came to the United States in the early 19th century. He was born in 1846 or 1850 and was one of 13 children. By 1866 he was distilling whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Unfortunately for the distiller, he had a bit of a temper. One morning in 1911 Daniel showed up for work early and couldn't get his safe open. He flew off the handle and kicked the offending strongbox. The kick was so ferocious that Daniel injured his toe, which then became infected. The infection soon became the blood poisoning that killed the whiskey mogul. Curious about why your bottle of J.D. also has Lem Motlow listed as the distillery's proprietor? Daniel's own busy life of distilling and safe-kicking kept him from ever finding a wife and siring an heir, so in 1907 he gave the distillery to his beloved nephew Lem Motlow, who had come to work for him as a bookkeeper. Mental Floss: The many myths of Jack Daniel . 4. Jose Cuervo . In 1758, Jose Antonio de Cuervo received a land grant from the King of Spain to start an agave farm in the Jalisco region of Mexico. Jose used his agave plants to make mescal, a popular Mexican liquor. In 1795, King Carlos IV gave the land grant to Cuervo's descendant Jose Maria Guadalupe de Cuervo. Carlos IV also granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila, so they built a larger factory on the existing land. The family started packaging their wares in individual bottles in 1880, and in 1900 the booze started going by the brand name Jose Cuervo. The brand is still under the leadership of the original Jose Cuervo's family; current boss Juan-Domingo Beckmann is the sixth generation of Cuervo ancestors to run the company. 5. Jim Beam . Jim Beam, the namesake of the world's best-selling bourbon whiskey, didn't actually start the distillery that now bears his name. His great-grandfather Jacob Beam opened the distillery in 1788 and started selling his first barrels of whiskey in 1795. In those days, the whiskey went by the less-catchy moniker of \"Old Tub.\" Jacob Beam handed down the distillery to his son David Beam, who in turn passed it along to his son David M. Beam, who eventually handed the operation off to his son, Colonel James Beauregard Beam, in 1894. Although he was only 30 years old when he took over the family business, Jim Beam ran the distillery until Prohibition shut him down. Following repeal in 1933, Jim quickly built a distillery and began resurrecting the Old Tub brand, but he also added something new to the company's portfolio: a bourbon simply called Jim Beam. Mental Floss: A bourbon FAQ . 6. Tanqueray . When he was a young boy, Charles Tanqueray's path through life seemed pretty clear. He was the product of three straight generations of Bedfordshire clergymen, so it must have seemed natural to assume that he would take up the cloth himself. Wrong. Instead, he started distilling gin in 1830 in a little plant in London's Bloomsbury district. By 1847, he was shipping his gin to colonies around the British Empire, where many plantation owners and troops had developed a taste for Tanqueray and tonic. 7. Campari . Gaspare Campari found his calling quickly. By the time he was 14, he had risen to become a master drink mixer in Turin, Italy, and in this capacity he started dabbling with a recipe for an aperitif. When he eventually settled on the perfect mixture, his concoction had over 60 ingredients. In 1860, he founded Gruppo Campari to make his trademark bitters in Milan. Like Colonel Sanders' spice blend, the recipe for Campari is a closely guarded secret supposedly known by only the acting Gruppo Campari chairman, who works with a tiny group of employees to make the concentrate with which alcohol and water are infused to get Campari. The drink is still made from Gaspare Campari's recipe, though, which includes quinine, orange peel, rhubarb, and countless other flavorings. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Capt. Morgan married his own cousin, plundered Cuba and won a knighthood .\nJack Daniel died after losing a fight with a ... safe?\nWhich best-selling bourbon whiskey was originally called \"Old Tub?\"\nGin-maker Tanqueray descended from three-generations of clergymen .","id":"6002b47ac98e56969803333ce0bfd72c8c4c1451"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The decision to make \"Che\" was an easy one, Benicio Del Toro says. Filming the movie was anything but. Benicio Del Toro stars as Latin American revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara. \"I have to say it probably is the most difficult movie I've ever made, and I've made a few,\" Del Toro says of his starring role in director Steven Soderbergh's Spanish-language biopic. One of Hollywood's most bankable stars, Del Toro has made a name for himself playing dark and brooding characters in movies like \"21 Grams,\" \"The Usual Suspects,\" and \"Traffic,\" for which he won an Oscar. He now adds to that list the role of revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara, an Argentine doctor whose role in the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s vaulted him to cult status where he remains today. To play the Latin American revolutionary, Del Toro says he had to start with the man himself rather than invent a character. He read what Che wrote and interviewed a range of people, including those who knew him when he was a child, as well as those who were there in his last days. And then there were the countless photos of the iconic and controversial leader which he pored over. Looking at the pictures, seeing the attitude that he had in the photographs,\" he says, \"I learned a lot from the photographs.\" The meticulous study pays off on screen. Del Toro delivers a soulful performance that has earned him accolades. He won the Best Actor award at Cannes this year and he is being hotly tipped for another Oscar nod. Which films and actors do you think are contenders for this year's Oscars? Share your picks in the SoundOff below. Che's life \"is what movies are made of,\" Del Toro told CNN. The incredible story, along with the opportunity to work with Soderbergh, who directed him in 2000's \"Traffic,\" for a second time drew him to the project. The 41-year-old bilingual actor was born in Puerto Rico but grew up in Pennsylvania. It wasn't until he was in his early 20s and wandered into a bookstore in Mexico City that he discovered Che. \"I bought a compilation of his letters that he had written to his family and I read that book. I didn't know anything about this guy, so that started my journey,\" he recalls. See how the movie was received in Cuba \u00bb . \"Che\" is split into two parts -- \"The Argentine\" and \"Guerrilla.\" When shown in its entirety, the movie clocks in at a staggering 257 minutes. Part one charts Che's rise from young idealist to revolutionary hero during the Cuban Revolution. Part two depicts his efforts to bring change to all of Latin America and focuses on his campaign in Bolivia, where he died. Shot in various locations ranging from the jungles of Bolivia to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, filming was grueling. \"In this film, we went pretty fast,\" Del Toro says. \"We went really fast.\" Soderbergh wanted to film using only natural light, and production moved rapidly. On some days, Del Toro recounts, they only had 15 or 30 minutes to capture a scene. One day of filming felt like a whole week of work, he says. \"The way I felt on a Monday in this movie is the equivalent to how I felt at the end of the week of another movie.\" Del Toro, who also co-produced the movie, isn't complaining though. He speaks with pride about the effort the cast and crew put in to the moviemaking process, which he describes as \"hit and run.\" \"Che\" is being released in two parts, but the epic is best viewed in its entirety, Del Toro says. \"You'll get the full experience of what we went through, of the two movies together as one.\" The full-length version of \"Che\" will have a limited opening in the U.S. on Dec. 12. It is scheduled to be released in separate parts in the UK on Jan. 2.","highlights":"Benicio Del Toro stars in \"Che,\" a biopic of the Latin American revolutionary .\nHis performance is generating Oscar buzz in Hollywood .\nDirected by Steven Soderbergh, the two-part film is more than four hours long .\nDel Toro on Che: His life \"is what movies are made of\"","id":"fb2cd7b00d3438e64b85341b757d2716348e3631"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of South Koreas were left in limbo after North Korea shut its borders Monday at the start of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. U.S. troops have started joint military exercises with their South Korean counterparts. When Pyongyang took the action, 573 South Koreans were staying at the Kaesong industrial complex, north of the demilitarized zone, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Many of the stranded South Koreans work at the complex, which is a joint project between the Koreas. \"The South Korean government is closely monitoring the situation and preparing for all contingencies,\" said Kim Ho-nyun, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman. \"We emphasize that currently the first priority is the safety of our citizens.\" Eighty South Koreans had applied to cross the border into South Korea on Monday, Kim said, but had not been cleared to do so. \"We are also not certain what will happen to the South Koreans that want to cross tomorrow as well,\" he said. The cross-border developments came as North Korea said it would retaliate if a \"satellite\" launch from its northeastern coast were intercepted, with the communist nation saying interference would \"mean a war.\" \"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,\" a spokesman for the North Korean army said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). U.S. and South Korean officials have said that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, under the guise of launching a satellite into space. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles), which -- if true -- could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii. North Korea's bellicose announcement came on the first day of annual joint military drills between South Korea and the United States. \"We have said several times that the U.S.-South Korean military exercises are annual defensive exercises,\" Kim said. \"We again urge North Korea to maintain the agreed stance of mutual respect and to stop its verbal attacks and actions that are raising tensions on the Korean peninsula,\" he said. The North said it has shut its borders to \"any enemies\" and has cut off \"the North-South military communications in order to guarantee the security.\" North Korea said the military phone lines with the South, the last remaining communications channel, will remain closed until the 12-day military exercises end on March 20, according to Yonhap. Kim said his government is urging North Korea \"to immediately retract this measure and to allow the smooth flow of personnel and communication.\" On Saturday, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth said he wants dialogue with North Korea, but he also spoke against North Korea's move to go forward with a launch, saying it would be \"ill-advised.\"","highlights":"573 people staying at Kaesong industrial complex, north of demilitarized zone .\n80 South Koreans not cleared to cross the border into South Korea Monday .\nFollows vow to retaliate from N. Korea if its satellite launch is intercepted .\nS. Korea, U.S. have started their annual joint military drills .","id":"e4cb3a0fffada5a379ad602e295d7a2822eb3def"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fourteen people were missing after a cargo ship sank Monday in Egyptian waters, Red Sea Gov. Majdi Al Qubaisi told Egyptian television. Nine survivors and the bodies of two crew members aboard the Cypriot-flagged Ibn Battuta cargo ship were recovered in separate operations Monday, the Nile TV News Web site said. A rescue boat was headed out to retrieve a 10th survivor. The survivors were \"on their way to the naval base, and preparations had been taken to carry out a medical check as soon as they arrive,\" the Web site said, citing an unnamed Egyptian official. The Ibn Battuta's crew members are of Indian, Pakistani, Bengali, Somali, Iraqi and Sudanese nationalities, Nile TV News said. The Ibn Battuta was carrying 6,500 tons of sand for use in the glass industry and was on its way from the Port of Abu Zenima in Egypt to the United Arab Emirates, the TV station reported. The ship had experienced bad weather in the Red Sea, with low visibility and high waves. The commercial ship Susan K retrieved the two bodies, while the survivors were rescued by the boat Sultan and an aircraft from an Egyptian Search and Rescue team, Nile TV News said. -- CNN's Caroline Faraj and Yousef Rafayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Reports: 14 crew missing after ship capsizes in Egyptian waters .\n9 survivors, 2 bodies recovered from Cypriot-flagged Ibn Battuta cargo ship .\nVessel carrying 6,500 tons of sand for use in the glass industry .\nThe ship had experienced bad weather in the Red Sea .","id":"f63568f91f42bef24b46376b11233bc594204380"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The missing engine from a US Airways jet that ditched in the Hudson River was recovered Friday, more than a week after the crash landing. A jet engine lost after Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River is hoisted from the water Friday. Icy conditions and strong currents hampered efforts to locate and raise the plane's left engine, which apparently tore from the Airbus A320 when it hit the water in an emergency landing January 15. The engine was found Wednesday in about 50 feet of water. The divers who found it reported that it was in one piece, said New Jersey State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones. A crane brought the engine up Friday afternoon as daylight began to fade. It was placed on a barge and hauled to the New Jersey side of the river, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was supervising the recovery. Watch the engine pulled from Hudson River \u00bb . After an initial examination at the site, the engine will be shipped with the plane's other engine to the manufacturer, where \"the NTSB will supervise and direct a complete tear-down of each engine,\" NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said. The right engine was still attached to the plane when it was pulled from the Hudson last week. It will be at least next week before any information from the initial examination is released, Knudson said. Investigators said this week that they found a single feather and evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" on the aircraft. The find reinforces the pilot's report that the plane was brought down by a flock of birds. Pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, 58, told investigators that his aircraft struck birds, disabling both engines, about 90 seconds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York. Map \u00bb . The feather, found on a flap track on the wing, was sent to identification experts at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Samples of what appears to be organic material found in the right engine and on the wings and fuselage have been sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, a pilot program involving \"birdstrike avoidance\" radar systems will be expanded to include LaGuardia, said a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. See authorities' efforts to retrieve plane \u00bb . The Air Force has been using such systems at its bases for years, and last year the Port Authority -- which operates five metropolitan New York airports -- struck an agreement with the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration to install the bird-detecting system at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the wake of the US Airways crash-landing, that program will be expanded to include LaGuardia and Newark International airports within a few months, according to Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority. Newly released video captured seconds after the Airbus A320 ditched in the Hudson River showed passengers trying to flee the aircraft almost immediately after it settled in the water and began to float along the river current. All 155 crew members and passengers on the plane survived the incident, which Gov. David Paterson dubbed a \"miracle on the Hudson.\" The video, which the Con Edison utility company released Thursday, first shows a long wake behind the plane before zooming in on the aircraft. Steam surrounds the plane as it floats with a slow counterclockwise twist. An exit hatch opens on the plane's left side, and several people file out onto one of the plane's wings. Seconds later, an inflatable evacuation ramp extends from the opposite side of the plane. Watch their escape \u00bb . Passengers run onto the plane's other wing as the aircraft floats off-screen for a few seconds. The camera jerks, and when the plane reappears, passengers can be seen at the bottom of the inflatable ramp. Some passengers jump into the water, which was a chilly 41 degrees when the plane splashed down on the afternoon of January 15. Within minutes, a ferry and other boats come into the picture and begin to take the people aboard. The video came from a surveillance camera at Con Edison's 59th Street Station, a steam plant, spokesman Chris Olert said. A person manning the camera from inside the plant saw the plane hit the water and redirected the camera, Olert said. CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Mike Ahlers and Alona Rivord contributed to this report.","highlights":"Missing engine recovered from Hudson, hauled to New Jersey riverbank .\nVideo shows at least two passengers jump off plane's wings into chilly Hudson River .\nSingle feather and evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" found on plane .\nUS Airways flight crash-landed in river after reportedly hitting flock of birds .","id":"160efba90d2219be19a095b0b940d52b4d18240d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The killer of \"Harry Potter\" actor Rob Knox has been given four life sentences and told he will be behind bars for at least 20 years. The parents of Robert Knox read a statement outside the Old Bailey after Karl Bishop was found guilty of his murder. A judge at the Old Bailey court in central London sentenced 22-year-old Karl Bishop on Thursday, the day after he was convicted of the attack on Rob Knox and four of his friends in southeast London last May. Bishop stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the court heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. The judge, Mr Justice Bean, told Bishop: \"You are at present a highly dangerous man,\" the Press Association reported. \"There is plainly a very significant risk to the public of serious harm caused by your committing further offences of violence. \"Because you had threatened his younger brother, Rob Knox was among those who tried to disarm you. He paid for his bravery with his life. \"The truth is that you simply could not care less whether you killed him or not. When you learned that you had killed Rob your only response was to say 'Yeah, sweet.'\" Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. The Knox family left the court without commenting, but earlier Rob's mother Sally said of Bishop: \"Once he's got his sentence and he's gone, I will not waste my time thinking about him. \"I just think maybe somebody like him may have some kind of disturbed mind, which may not be due to the life he's had, it just may be something in him.\" Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"","highlights":"The killer of \"Harry Potter\" actor jailed for life, must serve at least 20 years .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings .","id":"596b16e646b968cfac900db008319db7dc8f7782"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The gigolo former lover of Germany's richest woman has been jailed for six years after confessing to blackmailing her and other women out of millions of dollars, a court official said Monday. Helg Sgarbi has admitted blackmailing Germany's richest woman, Susanne Klatten. Susanne Klatten, the BMW heiress, complained to police last year that Helg Sgarbi had threatened to release pictures of them if she did not pay him nearly $60 million. Munich's state prosecutor Anton Winkler said Sgarbi, who was accused of blackmailing several wealthy woman, had made a written confession which was read by his lawyer to the court. \"He confessed that he blackmailed the victims, told them untrue stories,\" Winkler told CNN. However, Sgarbi had not revealed what had happened to the estimated $12.5 million he had taken from his victims nor where the pictures had gone. \"It is really only half a confession. We asked him about where the money is, about accomplices and videos... and he refused to say anything about that,\" Winkler said. Authorities said Klatten, who is married with three children, had an affair with Sgarbi. He started to ask her for money, and she paid several million at first, but when she refused to provide more he threatened to send compromising videos to her husband and the media. Klatten went to the police in January 2008, telling them she was the victim of a fraud and blackmail. At the time, her spokesman, Joerg Appelhans, told CNN that Sgarbi's goal had always been to con her. \"She rigorously notified authorities even in light of the uncomfortable public repercussions this would have for her,\" Appelhans said. Sgarbi's lawyer, Egon Geis, said he was surprised by all the media attention. \"This is all because of Mrs. Klatten, take the same amount of money and any other person and no one would care.\" Sgarbi allegedly maintained relationships with a number of woman, telling them he was a special Swiss representative in crisis zones. Klatten, the daughter of the late BMW chief Herbert Quandt, holds a 12.5-percent stake in the German carmaker and a 51.1-percent share of chemical company Altana. Forbes magazine lists her as the world's 55th richest person, with a personal fortune of $13.2 billion. CNN's Fred Pleitgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Germany's richest woman told police she was being blackmailed for millions .\nBMW heiress said former lover threatened to release images of them .\nHelg Sgarbi's admits trying to blackmail BMW heiress and others .","id":"1728b9a1dcba7fa792374cfc1d3b4b86c4344c6d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers with a Malaysian university said they have uncovered evidence of an iron industry that dates to the 3rd Century, A.D., and proves that ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia were more advanced than once thought. The archaeologists from the Universiti Sains Malaysia found the remains of an iron smelting site, tools to pump oxygen into the iron smelting process, rooftops of buildings, beads and pots, said Mokhtar Saidan, a professor and leader of the team. The discovery was made after a month of excavation at Lembah Bujang, a historical site in Malaysia. \"This is the first discovery of the earliest iron industry in Lembah Bujang and has been dated conclusively. This date also adds on to the facts and data on the early history of Southeast Asia,\" he said. He said coal from the site was sent to a laboratory in Florida that said elements in the coal dated to the 3rd Century. The professor said the discovery confirms that human civilization in the area was more advanced than thought and the site probably was a place for exporting iron in the 3rd Century.","highlights":"Researchers uncover evidence of Malaysian iron industry dating to 3rd Century .\nProves ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia more advanced than thought .\nDiscovery was made after a month of excavation at Lembah Bujang .","id":"69211f3bcbd8388495333855a164e1c1ee5e309d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It runs on 100 per cent renewable biodiesel and holds the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe in a powerboat -- and now Earthrace is for sale. For sale: The green powerboat Earthrace is on the market for $1.5 million. The boat's owner, New Zealander Pete Bethune, listed Earthrace as for sale on the vessel's dedicated Web site last year, and he's now taking it on a tour of Australia and New Zealand in the hope of finding a buyer. Bethune is asking $1.5 million for the trimaran, which holds the world record for the fastest time in circling the globe in a powerboat. Earthrace achieved the feat in 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes; beating the old record by over two weeks. Earthrace claims to have a net zero carbon footprint by running on renewable bio diesel. Most of the fuel is believed to come from waste animal fats. The 1080 hp engine is kept cool with ducts which expel hot air and suck in cold air. See an image gallery of Earthrace \u00bb . Bethune has said he hopes to pay off some debts with the sale of the boat.","highlights":"Earthrace holds the world record for fastest time around the globe in a powerboat .\nOwner Pete Bethune is selling Earthrace for $1.5 million .\nThe trimaran is currently touring Australia in the hope of finding a buyer .","id":"3ddac6ff117cf27efabb2fac8c751921af8c66bb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose current book is \"When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams.\" Bob Greene says one dentist in Iowa found an ingenious way of keeping his chair filled with patients. (CNN) -- You may not have the answer for how to thrive in a lousy economy. I may not have the answer for how to thrive in a lousy economy. But the truck stop dentist figured it out a long time ago. \"When your dental practice is in a truck stop, you don't have a lot of patients coming in for their six-month cleanings,\" said Dr. Thomas P. Roemer. \"You have people walking in holding their jaws in pain. Treatment is not optional -- they need to see a dentist, and they need to see me now.\" Dr. Roemer's one-man dental office is inside the Iowa 80 Truckstop, at Exit 284 of Interstate 80, near the small town of Walcott. The complex proclaims itself to be the world's largest truck stop, and if you've never been there -- well, the truck stop itself is probably a story for another time. Suffice it to say that the establishment is spread over 200 acres, that it features its own movie theater, a 300-seat restaurant with a 50-foot salad bar, the Super Truck Showroom (more than 75,000 truck-related items for sale, festooned with enough gleaming chrome to make you reach for your sunglasses). But the topic for today is Dr. Roemer, and how he ended up offering root canals in a building where people stop for diesel fuel. These desperate economic times highlight the importance of individual inventiveness and ingenuity -- and a dentist has to be beyond ingenious to gaze upon an Iowa truck stop and figure out: A fellow could make himself a pretty nice living in there. \"I had a regular dental practice over in Davenport,\" Dr. Roemer, 48, told me. \"I had an advertisement in the Yellow Pages. And in the early 1990s I noticed that I kept getting calls from truckers who were in a phone booth out by the Iowa 80 Truckstop. They had stopped for fuel, and they were in a lot of pain, and they absolutely had to see a dentist.\" Now... Walcott, the town adjacent to the truck stop, has only 1,500 residents. But the truck stop itself caters to an estimated 5,000 customers a day, most of them long-haul truckers passing through. The light bulb above Dr. Roemer's head snapped on. \"I made arrangements with the truck stop to open up an office,\" he said. \"At first I split my practice between my old office in Davenport and the truck stop office. But I ended up closing the old one. My entire practice is in the truck stop now.\" Business is good, he said, even during the recession. There have been stories from around the country about doctors and dentists seeing fewer patients, because people just don't have the money to come in for regular checkups. But a truck stop dental office is not a place where patients come because they have planned it -- a truck stop dental office is a place where patients come because they need immediate relief. \"The sentence I hear the most often is, 'Do you pull teeth?'\" Dr. Roemer said. \"Someone will come in with his hand to his face, and he'll want to have a tooth extracted. He will have heard that I'm here.\" But how do truckers learn about Dr. Roemer's practice? \"Word of mouth,\" he said. (So to speak.) The business model of most dental offices, he said, is based on teeth-cleaning: A dentist builds up his or her list of loyal patients and their families who come in to get their teeth cleaned, and when they need fillings or crowns, the office is there for them. The truck stop dentist, by necessity, turns that business model inside out. \"I usually see a patient once, and then never see him again,\" he said. \"Truckers aren't going to say to me, 'I'll be back for a cleaning on September 23 at 2 in the afternoon.' They can't plan where they're going to be. I make patient files for the people who come in, but I know that I'll probably never have a reason to open the files after they walk out the door. These are mostly one-time patients.\" He doesn't have the luxury of knowing, at the beginning of a day, how many patients he will see -- or even if he will see any. \"It can range from zero patients in a day to 15,\" he said. \"It's unusual for a patient to call in advance. I'll know I have a patient when the door opens and a trucker walks in, with that look on his face.\" Dr. Roemer's success, he said, is based on two factors: the steady flow of those 35,000 people who pull in to the truck stop every week, and the actuarial certainty that some of them will be truckers with a mouthful of hurt. \"I had a guy who came in yesterday who told me he was in such pain that he had tried to pull his own tooth,\" Dr. Roemer said. \"I told him there was no need for that. I told him that I could help him.\" It does get a little lonely out at Exit 284, not being able to build up a continuing relationship with his patients, the way most dentists do. Sometimes, as a patient is getting up from the chair to leave, Dr. Roemer will find himself saying: . \"Make sure you try to get your dispatcher to send you back this way.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Dentist in Iowa found ingenious way of boosting his business .\nHe says dentist set up a thriving practice at a busy truck stop on Interstate 80 .\nGreene: Traffic ensures there will be some truckers in need of dental care .\nHe says the dentist can't rely on return business from his patients .","id":"346b373c12a8b8c0ab395b066a4f019d8333de99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four survivors of the US Airways Flight 1549 that went down in the Hudson River appeared on \"Larry King Live\" Thursday to discuss a recording of the pilot calmly telling an air traffic controller the plane would ditch. Carl Bazarian, clockwise from left, Vince Spera, Alberto Panero and Brad Wentzell appeared on \"Larry King Live.\" \"We're gonna be in the Hudson,\" pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger radioed on January 15, about three and a half minutes after the Airbus A320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration released the recording on Thursday, a day after the National Transportation Safety Board said both the plane's engines contained the remains of birds. Larry King: Carl, what goes through you when you hear the recording, especially the calmness? Carl Bazarian, survivor: You know, to me -- my son played it for me this morning. I found it incredibly stressful and sobering that we were so close to death. And that's the bad side. And I'm really not keen on hearing it too many more times. But on the other side, it's exhilarating. Again, we were blessed with the best feat in aviation, with the best pilot and co-pilot. That's all I can say. King: Vince, what goes through your mind? Vince Spera, survivor: Larry, the entire conversation that you hear going back and forth is just indicative of how the entire cabin was. It was calm, controlled, but tense. That's really what that conversation started to sound like to me. Listen to pilot's communication with flight controller \u00bb . King: Alberto? Alberto Panero, survivor: It's filling in pieces to the puzzle. While everything was going on in the plane, we didn't have much information of what was going on actually. So hearing this now kind of fits into the puzzle, where we see where I was at the point when everything was happening in the plane. King: Brad? Brad Wentzell, survivor: It's an amazing thing to hear, not only from our perspective, when we were basically going for a ride, but to hear from the man who -- just him and the Good Lord had our lives in his hand. King: How do you feel, Carl -- you'll see the whole crew with us Tuesday night -- when you hear the captain talk? Bazarian: First thing, he's very honest about it. But I don't know how -- we all had disbelief. It was all surreal. How then he was so energized to exhibit the highest professionalism. I think it's an incredible aviation feat. And my fellow friends, they will comment. But how did he get that composure? Watch survivors react to hearing the tape \u00bb . We were all panicky. Not panicky, I think Vince is right. We were kind of cool, but concerned, overly concerned. How did he regain himself and do what he did? I don't know how he did it. King: Vince, were there a lot of moments, Vince, when you thought you bought it? Spera: Actually, no. There was never a point in time when I thought I was going to die. Obviously, I think the way the people in the cabin behaved contributed to my feeling that way. It was just a lot of control. We felt like the pilot was in control. Obviously, it all worked out. At no point did I feel like I was going to die. I'm very happy to hear the captain truly didn't feel that way either. King: Alberto, how about when it hit the water? Did you think you were going to go under? Panero: No. I think as soon as we hit the water, we realized that the worst was over and the most important thing was to get out as soon as possible, making sure that the doors got open quickly and that everybody stayed calm and tried to exit as calmly as possible, because at first people were trying to get out quick and trying to push a little bit. But I think everybody realized that the more organized that we did it, the faster we would get out. I think that helped out a lot. King: Brad, the last few weeks, have you had flashbacks? Do you think about it a lot? Wentzell: I've had a few flashbacks. For me the most real thing that I keep playing back in my head is saying goodbye to my family in prayer and saying goodbye to my little daughter, my loved ones, my wife, and waiting to die. It's a very real feeling. I wasn't as optimistic. No one ever knows when they're going to die. I felt that was my time. Apparently, the Good Lord still has a few things for me to do on this Earth. King: Carl, you're looking out the window here, I guess. Bazarian: Yes, I was. King: What are you thinking? Bazarian: The first reality when we hit, I thought, initially, the landing was so good I thought we were back on the tarmac. That was my immediate reaction. But then the water -- immediately, we saw the water out the window. Again, like Vince said, when we saw that daylight of the door opening, it wasn't a herd of people trying to rush out. It was pretty good composure. I guess Vince is right. We picked up on the courage of the crew and the flight attendants. King: Vince, there was one passenger who thought he landed. Spera: Yes. I heard several stories about reactions of different people. Honestly, most of the people knew exactly what was going on and they really just wanted to get out and get to safety. But I did hear somebody attempting to pick up their bag and do some other things like that. Fortunately, most of those people were on the right side of the plane. I got to get out the left. King: Alberto, have you flown since? Panero: Actually, I have. The next day I took a plane home. I figured that was going to be the easiest way to just get over any kind of possible trauma, just get back on the plane. And I just kept focused on seeing my family and friends and that got me through the flight pretty well. And also the lady that was sitting next to me was very nice and just happened to make friendly conversation. So it worked out pretty good. Panero: Brad, have you met the captain? Wentzell: I did meet the captain. That was very real thing. He's just as cool and calm in person as you would expect, for someone who was able to do, from what I believe, no one else on the planet could do. He was very humble. I think we all have been humbled from this experience.","highlights":"Four survivors of Flight 1549 react to recording of pilot dealing with emergency .\n\"I'm really not keen on hearing it too many more times,\" one survivor says .\n\"How did [the pilot] get that composure?\" another survivor asks .","id":"c7390ea7df4beb896eb7265c4f082ef5ae61b6b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection was under way Thursday in the case of a man accused of sexually assaulting a toddler and capturing it on videotape years ago, a crime that triggered a nationwide manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007. Chester Arthur Stiles faces life imprisonment if convicted of videtaping a sexual assault on a child. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces 22 felony counts in connection with the videotape, including lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor and attempted sexual assault with a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Thursday is the third day of jury selection, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some 200 potential jurors were called, according to CNN affiliate KVBC. As of Thursday morning, only seven jurors had passed on to the next stage of selection, Sommermeyer said. Prosecutors hope to seat 15 jurors eventually, Sommermeyer told CNN, meaning they'll want a pool of about 35 to pick from in the final stage. Picking a jury in the case is challenging, according to KVBC, not only because of the media attention the case has drawn, but because of the crimes Stiles is accused of. A questionnaire given to potential jurors has one question addressing the videotape: \"As a juror, despite the graphic nature of the videotape, can you promise to remain fair and impartial and objectively evaluate all evidence for returning a verdict?\" \"One, you let them know what the case involves and they've heard it on the news, it's a little difficult to get over any preconceived notions that they had about the case,\" defense attorney Stacey Roundtree told KVBC. \"However, we do have faith in this community that they want to do the right thing,\" she said. \"Most of the jury trials I've had, the jurors go out of their way to make the right decision. They go out of their way to follow the judge's rules, and we're confident we can have that happen in this case.\" The tape was given to authorities in September 2007 by a man who said he had found it in the desert five months before. On it, police found images of the small girl being sexually assaulted. After attempting unsuccessfully to find out the girl's identity, authorities turned to the media for help and released a picture of the girl, and the case drew nationwide attention. She was found in October 2007. An attorney for the child's mother said she is 7 years old and safe and healthy. The rape occurred before her third birthday while she was in the care of a baby sitter her mother had hired, he said. The mother did not know the girl had been victimized. After the girl was found, authorities asked CNN and other news organizations to stop showing her picture. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was arrested in a traffic stop in October 2007. Police said at the time they pulled Stiles' car over because it had no license plate and became suspicious when the driver displayed an expired California license with a photo that did not match his appearance. \"He finally told us, 'Hey, I'm Chester Stiles,'\" said Henderson, Nevada, police Officer Mike Dye. \"'I'm the guy you're looking for.\" Stiles told police he was \"sick of running,\" Dye said. The mother of the girl shown on the tape, meanwhile, went on \"The Dr. Phil Show\" after Stiles' arrest, saying that while she was \"relieved,\" it would have been \"better if they found him dead.\" She said her daughter remembers nothing about the alleged assault. \"Nothing that I have seen in my career comes close to what this girl has gone through,\" Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff Tony DeMeo said during the manhunt for Stiles. The man who turned the tape over to authorities, Darrin Tuck, faced criminal charges because of the delay in turning it over, during which authorities alleged he showed it to others. A judge gave Tuck a one-year suspended sentence and three years' probation in April after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He initially had faced a felony count of possession of child pornography.","highlights":"Chester Arthur Stiles faces 22 felony counts in connection with sex tape .\nTape showed girl younger than 3 being sexually assaulted .\nThe tape surfaced years after the alleged assault .\nPotential jurors know about case, have strong feelings about it .","id":"ebc4c8962079c28f1e94c3d80019a0ad324c14e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Goldman says he can't understand why he can't have custody of his son following his ex-wife's death in Brazil. The U.S. government agrees. David Goldman is fighting for custody of his son after Bruna Bianchi Goldman died during another childbirth. Goldman told CNN's Larry King he had no idea when he dropped off his wife and 4-year-old son at Newark International Airport in 2004 for a two-week vacation to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that he was about to become embroiled in an international custody battle. Shortly after Bruna Bianchi Goldman arrived in her homeland she called to say she wanted a divorce, which she obtained in Brazil, and would stay there with their son, Sean. The running custody battle has taken many twists and turns and has gained the attention of the Department of State and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. \"A child belongs with his family, and there is no reason why David Goldman should not get his child back,\" Clinton said in a recent interview on NBC's Today show. \"And we're hoping that that will be resolved very soon. Obviously, if not, we will continue to raise it with the Brazilian government.\" For nearly five years, Goldman has fought to regain custody of his son. It's a case that has been complicated by Bianchi Goldman remarrying, getting pregnant and dying during childbirth last summer. Sean Goldman is said to be living with his stepfather, who has been granted provisional guardianship. \"I went down ... to bring my son home,\" Goldman said on CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday, figuring his ex-wife's death had made the custody issue a moot point, and \"we find out that this man doesn't file custody, but he files to remove my name from a Brazilian birth certificate that they had issued for my son, who was born in Red Bank, New Jersey.\" Goldman continues to press his case through the U.S. government. \"The Department of State is working diligently to ensure that David and Sean Goldman are accorded their rights under the Hague Convention of 1980 on the civil right aspect of International Child Abduction,\" the agency said in a statement. \"We'll continue to insist that the Brazilian government fulfill its obligations under the treaty and international law.\" The convention, to which Brazil is a signatory, \"is a multilateral treaty, which seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of abduction and retention across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their prompt return,\" according to the Hauge Convention Web site. Brazilian courts have refused to return Sean Goldman to the United States for any custody hearings that New Jersey courts have ordered and the Brazilian government has not intervened. As a result, the case remains a stalemate. \"I would tell him that he's been very brave, as he has fought to have his son returned to him,\" Clinton said in the NBC interview. \"His son is the most precious person in the world to him and he has gone not just the extra mile, but mile after mile, back and forth, trying to make it clear that his son Sean deserves to be returned to him.\" But on Larry King Live, Helvecio Ribeiro, a Bianchi family spokesman, questioned Goldman's fitness as a parent. \"I don't question the biological right,\" he said. \"The fact of the matter is that in order to be a parent, you have to be more than just a DNA donor, Mr. King. Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures, it's about sacrifice. It's about providing support to your child. It's about being there even when you're not there. \"And Mr. Goldman, while Bruna was still alive, failed to do so,\" Ribeiro said. Goldman visited his son for the first time in more than four years last month -- a bittersweet experience that was heartbreaking when it was time to return to the United States. \"He asked me why I haven't come to see him in all this time,\" Goldman told Larry King, \"and that was very, very painful -- and the anguish on his face when he asked me that question. I didn't want to tell him that ... they're holding him.\" International custody fights are common and were supposed to be simplified by the 1980 Hauge agreement, but conflicting court systems and conflicting accounts of relationships can trump international law. The next step in this case is uncertain.","highlights":"David Goldman dropped off his wife and 4-year-old son at airport in 2004 for vacation .\nWife got a divorce in Brazil, later got remarried, got pregnant and died during birth .\nWife's family lawyer questions Goldman's fitness as a parent .\nState Department, Hillary Clinton working to help get son returned to United States .","id":"cf58f7b65494090da7a8d0afc1ad17cd413fcba9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas grand jury indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on sexual assault charges, and five of his followers also face a variety of charges, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said. Members of the polygamous FLDS revere jailed leader Warren Jeffs as their prophet. Jeffs was charged in the Tuesday indictment with sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony. A conviction on the charge could mean a maximum penalty of five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of $10,000, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the attorney general. Jeffs, 52, is the so-called leader and \"prophet\" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which broke off from mainstream Mormonism in the 1890s over the practice of polygamy. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at its Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Texas, and in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line: Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Jeffs is accused in the indictment of assaulting a child \"younger than 17 years of age and not legally married to the defendant\" in January 2005. The alleged victim, whose name is redacted on the document, \"was a person who the defendant was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom the defendant was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married\" under Texas law. The indictments, which were handed down by a grand jury in San Angelo, Texas, also charge four of Jeffs' followers with single counts of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 17. One of the four also faces a count of bigamy. A fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse. The Texas attorney general's office was cooperating with other agencies to ensure the five others would be taken into custody, Fillpot said. Their names have not been made public, and only Jeffs' indictment has been released. Jeffs has been in custody since August 2006, when he was arrested during a routine traffic stop after spending several months on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list. Jeffs is serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison on accomplice to rape charges in Utah for his role in the marriage of a sect member to his 14-year-old cousin. He is being held Arizona while he awaits trial on similar charges. It was not immediately clear when Jeffs would be brought to Texas. Authorities seized more than 400 children in April during a raid on the Texas ranch. The children were returned to their families after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove the children and lacked evidence to show they faced imminent danger of abuse. In May, DNA samples were taken from Jeffs as part of a criminal investigation into allegations that he \"spiritually\" married four girls ranging in age from 12 to 15, authorities said. A search warrant seeking the DNA samples said marital records -- known as bishop's records -- from the ranch show that Jeffs married a 14-year-old girl on January 18, 2004, in Utah. The records showed that Jeffs \"married\" two 12-year-olds and a 14-year-old at the YFZ Ranch, according to the search warrant. One of the 12-year-olds, believed to have married Jeffs on July 27, 2006, was sexually assaulted by Jeffs later that day, the search warrant said. The warrant made reference to pictures of Jeffs with his alleged underage brides. In one photograph, the warrant states, he is kissing one of the 12-year-olds. In another, he is shown with a 15-year-old wife at the birth of their child in October 2004. Authorities had said the DNA samples would determine whether he is the father of the children born to underage mothers. FLDS spokesman Rod Parker, who is vacationing in Colorado this week, had no immediate comment on the indictment Tuesday. \"As far as an indictment of Warren Jeffs, I'd want to know a little more before I start talking about it,\" he said. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on polygamy and the need for a \"coordinated state and federal response,\" according to an agenda. Carolyn Jessop, a former FLDS member who recently wrote a book about leaving her marriage and the sect, is scheduled to testify, along with federal prosecutors, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and the attorneys general of Texas and Arizona.","highlights":"NEW: Jeffs faces anywhere from five years to life on new charge in Texas .\nJeffs charged with the sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony .\nFive of his followers face charges ranging from assault to failing to report child abuse .\nProsecutors say Jeffs married underage girls, had intimate relations with them .","id":"dccf91ff452fc352a372df54a6895785f60d103c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Wiping tears from his cheeks, a man who survived avalanches that killed eight snowmobilers in western Canada said Wednesday that he and two others tried to save their friends but eventually left the mountain because of the threat of more slides. Jeffrey Adams says he freed himself and helped free two others before making a \"gut-wrenching\" decision to leave. Jeffrey Adams, with his his fianc\u00e9e at his side, said he and the two other survivors \"did everything we could to try to save\" the eight Sunday. \"They died doing what they loved. ... I'm truly sorry to the families that we couldn't find them,\" Adams said. Adams described digging himself out after the avalanches struck the group Sunday in British Columbia about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) east of Fernie, a town in the Canadian Rockies about 300 kilometers (186 miles) southwest of Calgary, Alberta. Both avalanches left him buried but near the surface, he said. He was able to dig himself out, choking on snow, and free a second companion without gloves or gear. Watch Adams describe digging himself, others out \u00bb . Adams and six others had been snowmobiling near the base of a mountain when the first avalanche happened, he said. The avalanche buried him for \"a minute or two,\" but he was able to free himself. He started digging for a companion as another group of four people showed up to help, Adams said. One called 911 on a transmitter. But then they heard a crack, and a second slide buried all 11 of them, Adams said. Miraculously, he said, only 8 to 10 inches of snow covered him. \"When I opened my eyes, I could see daylight,\" he said. \"I was digging. I managed to get my mouth free. I was already choking. I took a few breaths. After about five minutes of struggling, I got myself out, looked around and realized there wasn't anybody else -- couldn't see any sleds, no gear, nothing.\" He yelled for his friends and heard an answer, and he was able to dig out one man, whom he identified as Jeremy. The two were working on freeing a third man, James, when they heard another crack. \"We said, 'Sorry, James, we've got to run,' \" Adams remembered tearfully. \"As we were running away from James, he was saying, 'Don't leave me here! Don't leave me here!' We kept saying we're sorry. We went off and sat to the side, and the slide never hit us in the area we were in. We just got the snow cloud. We went back in and finally got James out.\" But then the three looked around and saw no one. They considered getting the one snowmobile that wasn't struck by the avalanche, but determined that the area was too unsafe. \"That's when we had to make the gut-wrenching decision to leave our eight friends and start walking off the mountain,\" an emotional Adams said. The group had walked for about 10 minutes and was thinking of going back, but when he turned to look, \"the whole center of the mountain came down\" in a fourth avalanche. \"We just decided our best bet was to keep walking,\" he said. They were hoping for a helicopter in response to the earlier 911 call, he said, and one eventually arrived and picked them up. Searchers found seven bodies Monday and the eighth Tuesday. Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the dead as Danny Bjarnason, 28; Kane Rusnak, 30; Warren Rothel, 33; Michael Stier, 20; Len Stier, 45; Blayne Wilson, 26; Kurt Kabel, 28; and Thomas Talarico, 32. Adams and the other two survivors, James and Jeremy -- whose last names and ages were not given -- suffered minor injuries. One was hospitalized overnight. \"It's hard,\" Adams said. \"I replay it in my head all the time whether it was the right decision or not.\" He said he had spoken with the families of most of the other men. \"So far, all of them are supporting our decision to leave,\" he said. \"It was a hard one, to leave eight guys up there.\" He described the victims as \"good buddies,\" his voice breaking. Experts told him the second avalanche hit the group at 150 kph (93 mph), Adams said. He estimated the wall of snow was 15 feet high. He said members of the group knew the avalanche danger was high, and that's why they weren't climbing the mountain. Even buried under a few inches of snow, \"you don't know what way is up and what is down,\" he said. \"You can't move. You simply can't move in it,\" Adams said. The snowmobilers were from Sparwood, British Columbia. They were in an area called Harvey Pass, which police called \"a popular backcountry snowmobile destination.\" Sparwood Mayor David Wilks said all the victims were upstanding citizens who worked as businessmen or in coal mines. The mayor said temperatures were as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks, though the air had warmed to 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmer temperatures could melt and loosen packed snow, raising the danger of avalanches.","highlights":"Survivor says decision to leave eight behind was \"gut-wrenching\"\n\"I replay it in my head all the time,\" Jeffrey Adams says .\nAdams describes digging himself out twice, helping two others escape .\nEight bodies were found Monday and Tuesday .","id":"4d90ee3bff00c3e88ee985d98f6cc1c45194539a"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- At least 59 people were killed and more than 200 others injured early Thursday after a fire broke out at an upscale Bangkok nightclub where about 1,000 revelers were ringing in the new year, Thai police said. Rescue officials survey the scene of the nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation or were trampled in a rush to get out of the club. Thirty bodies have been identified: 29 Thai nationals and one Singaporean, according to police. The fire began at the nightclub Santika about 12:35 a.m., police said. Rescue officials said 226 others were injured, including several foreigners. Two Americans were injured in the blaze, a U.S. State Department official said. The official did not release the victims' names or the extent of their injuries but said the department was in contact with them. Steven Hall, a British national who was hurt in the fire, told CNN that flames began to spread along the ceiling above the stage where a band and DJ were performing. But some people appeared to believe that it was part of the performance. \"At the same time there were people rushing to get out, there were other people who seemed to be lacking a sense of urgency and didn't seem to realize what was going on,\" Hall said. The blaze started near a stage where fireworks were being used as part of a performance on the club's closing night, said police Maj. Gen. Chokchai Deeprasertwit. Watch the fire engulf the building \u00bb . \"It may have been caused from sparks, but we don't know if it was sparks from guests or from the nightclub's countdown display on the nightclub stage,\" he said. iReport.com: Eyewitness captures scene of deadly aftermath . Hall said his wife escaped ahead of him, but he got caught in a crowd. \"The lights went out, and at that moment, my back started burning, and I was breathing in hot air,\" he said. Watch Steven Hall describe his experience \u00bb . British citizen Andrew Jones said he was celebrating in the area when he walked up on the fire. He said he saw victims being rushed out on stretchers and spoke to witnesses, including a fellow Briton who saw fireworks being lit onstage. \"He immediately ran out of the building, but immediately when he'd done that, the lights went out, and he couldn't see,\" Jones said. The club is in one of Bangkok's busiest commercial districts. Its Web site features images of bands and DJs performing on both indoor and outdoor stages, and says that it \"innovatively blends the comfort of nature with the excitement of the Bangkok nightlife.\" The site advertises the club's New Year's party, which was named \"Goodbye Santika.\" CNN's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thai police say that 59 died in nightclub fire, another 226 injured .\nFireworks were used as part of a performance, authorities say .\nMost of those who died suffered smoke inhalation or were trampled, authorities say .\nClub is located in one of Bangkok's busiest commercial districts .","id":"965568c7ebf0d55a143cbeb27bf09c5d1df670dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities Tuesday recovered the body of an eighth missing snowmobiler buried in avalanches in southern British Columbia, a spokesman for the the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. Authorities found seven bodies a day after avalanches in British Columbia, Canada. Sgt. Tim Shields said the body was recovered around 11:38 a.m. The seven other bodies were recovered Monday. Their identities were not immediately released. David Wilks, mayor of Sparwood, the small town where the snowmobilers lived, said all were men in their 20s. The eight men, and three others who escaped, faced two avalanches Sunday about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Fernie, a town in the Canadian Rockies about 300 kilometers (190 miles) southwest of Calgary, Alberta. The three survivors suffered minor injuries, and one was hospitalized overnight. The men had been in an area called Harvey Pass, which police called \"a popular backcountry snowmobile destination.\" Police said an avalanche buried part of the group and, as others came to help them, a second avalanche buried them. \"Two of the buried riders managed to self-rescue within about 20 minutes. These two used their avalanche beacons to locate a third buried victim who they rescued after an additional 20 minutes of digging,\" police said. The mayor described the snowmobilers as upstanding citizens, most of them working in coal mines or as businessmen. \"All were well aware of the dangers involved in snowmobiling. All are very cautious with what was going on,\" Wilks said. The mayor said temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks had warmed up in the last two or three days to 25 degrees Fahrenheit.","highlights":"Bodies of seven other missing snowmobilers were found Monday .\nGroup had been snowmobiling in southeastern British Columbia, Canada .\nTwo of 11 buried riders managed to rescue themselves, find third victim .","id":"8452f5f3bbb0d04af6380fe84966d2c98d59266d"} -{"article":"GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN) -- The Obama administration has been talking about \"pressing the reset button\" with Russia after relations \"crashed\" when Russia invaded Georgia last August. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laugh about their \"reset' button. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greeted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday before sitting down to their working dinner, she presented him a small green box with a ribbon. Inside was a red button with the Russian word \"peregruzka\" printed on it. \"I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: 'We want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together.'\" Clinton, laughing, added, \"We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?\" she asked Lavrov. \"You got it wrong,\" Lavrov said.\" Both diplomats laughed. \"It should be \"perezagruzka\" (the Russian word for reset,) Lavrov said. \"This says 'peregruzka,' which means 'overcharged.'\" The question came up at the news conference afterward. \"In a way, the word that's on the button turns out to be also true,\" Clinton said. \"We are resetting, and because we are resetting, the minister and I have an overload of work.\" Asked by a Russian reporter whether he had pressed the button, Lavrov said that he and Clinton did, indeed. \"It is big and red and I hope that Russia and the United States, and other countries will never press on another button which used to be associated with a destructive war,\" he said. The \"overload,\" Clinton said, is a broad agenda of issues. \"We are going to systematically go through each and every one of them,\" she added. Clinton said the two sides will get to work on re-negotiating a follow-up to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and nonproliferation. On other issues like Afghanistan, the Middle East and Iran, Clinton said, \"We will work through them.\" On issues where there is disagreement, Clinton said, \"We are keeping those on the list because, we think through closer cooperation and building trust in each other, we can even tackle some of those differences.\" Lavrov agreed the burden of the agenda for the two countries is \"enormous,\" but added: \"I don't think either Hillary or I have any desire to be freed from any burden.\" Clinton called the encounter \"a very productive meeting of the minds.\" She said both Lavrov and she are \"very practical-minded\" and will create a \"specific set of objectives and responsibilities\" to present to presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev before the leaders' first face-to-face meeting in April at the G-20 meeting in London. On the START treaty, she said Russia and the United States intend to have an agreement by the end of this year when the treaty expires and are \"going to get to work immediately\" on it. Lavrov was asked about Russian intentions to install S-300 missiles in Iran. He said the decision \"will be made exclusively on the basis of law in accordance with Russian law, and will be under expert control, which is one of the strictest in the world and of course in accordance with international agreements.\" Lavrov said the weapons Russia provides to its partners are \"nondestabilizing, defensive weapons.\" In an apparent reference to U.S. military supplies to Georgia, Lavrov said, \"We want our partners to act the same way and show restraint in military supplies to those countries where, including very recently, those weapons have been used very close to our borders.\" Senior U.S. officials who briefed reporters afterward, however, said they had not read Georgia into the minister's comments. They said the discussion ranged broadly over a number of areas and \"we now have a very substantive work agenda that they just outlined.\" \"It would have been easier and in a first meeting almost natural to be much more general but in this case it was very focused and very productive in laying out steps,\" one official said. On the proposed missile defense system the United States is considering installing in Poland and the Czech Republic, one official said, \"Minister Lavrov made it clear he had listened quite attentively to Secretary Clinton's comments about missile defense ... and I think it's got them thinking.\"","highlights":"United States, Russia want to \"reset\" relations after years of tension .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton gives \"reset\" button to Russian counterpart .\nText on button actually translates to \"overcharged\"\nBoth countries want to renegotiate Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty .","id":"fed968c89cc8bfd3eaf6b307bc8d515a86f6cc01"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- You are about to meet Mr. Brown. David Mann and Tamela Mann -- a real-life couple -- star in \"Meet the Browns\" as father and daughter. He's David Mann, star of the TBS sitcom \"Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns.\" To borrow a phrase from the network's marketing -- he's very funny. Mann's character -- \"Downtown\" Leroy Brown -- is a lovable, sometimes outrageous and always off-the-wall senior citizen who has stolen every scene he's entered in Tyler Perry's plays, movies and TV shows. Mr. Brown no longer has to steal scenes, because TBS -- owned by CNN parent company Time Warner -- has ordered 80 episodes of half-hour comedy, based on the success of 10 pilot episodes. \"Just in case I'm dreaming, don't pinch me,\" said Mann. \"I'm living the dream.\" \"Meet the Browns\" is a spinoff of Perry's \"House of Payne,\" a sitcom that has yielded strong cable ratings for TBS, and it employs some of the same characters seen in Perry's movies and stage plays -- including a play and film named \"Meet the Browns,\" which is only mildly related to the TV series. The show focuses on Mr. Brown and his daughter Cora, played by Mann's real-life wife, Tamela Mann, as Mr. Brown tries to turn his house into a home for the elderly. Those who have followed Perry's productions know that Cora was the conceived during a brief fling between Brown and Madea, Perry's female alter ego. \"If it hadn't been for Cora, Mr. Brown and Madea probably would have killed each other by now,\" Mann said. \"Cora is the glue to this whole thing. Cora keeps everybody grounded.\" Mann said Mr. Brown's speech and mannerisms are from a combination of people. \"Grandfathers, uncles, relatives, you know, different friends you see.\" he said. \"I use to go to a nursing home and just look at people, watch -- 'OK, that's how they're doing this.' \" His biggest laughs come from his use -- or abuse -- of the English language which Mann refers to as \"Mr. Brownisms.\" Manipulate becomes \"manipudip,\" while hypnotize transforms to \"hepatitis.\" \"You hear them as I spit them out, and it's just like, 'What was I thinking?' \" Mann said. Mr. Brown's wardrobe, which is always two sizes too small for his protruding belly, is a bright-colored mix of thrift store specials. \"The clothes just kind of happened,\" he said. \"Because, you know, you have that uncle or that relative in your family who just can't let the clothes go?\" Since Mr. Brown originated on the stage -- in Perry productions -- Mann had to adjust to the small screen. \"I'm very animated and so I just had to make sure I toned that down for the screen because I'm so used to making sure that the person in the front row can see as well as the person in the balcony,\" he said. \"To bring that and condense it down for television was a transition for me.\" Camera operators are challenged to keep up with Mann as he moves around the set, sometimes re-writing the script. \"One word can trigger a whole different thing with us, and that's what I love about working with Tyler Perry,\" Mann said. \"He gives you the freedom to go in there and create. If you see something that can make it funnier, he gives you the liberty to go ahead and do it, create it and make it funny.\" Perry directs every episode at his new Atlanta studio on a sound stage next to where he also tapes \"House of Payne.\" Mr. Brown never seems too far from Mr. Mann. In mid-interview, he emerges. \"Oh, he can come out any time,\" Mann, speaking as Brown, said. \"All you got tuh do is say it, and he'll come. Yeap, Mr. Brown is always 'round somewhere. You jes' got tuh belieeeeeve.\" The character is played about 30 years older than Mann, which causes some confusion out of costume and in public, he said. \"What's funny is when people see me out they're like, 'Are you Mr. Brown's son?' No, I'm Mr. Brown,\" he said. \"But that's good for the makeup team.\" Perhaps the most awkward time is when he is on the set, dressed as Mr. Brown, and he wants to show his wife, Tamela Mann, some husbandly affection. \"She is like, 'When you put that makeup on, you are Mr. Brown, you're not my husband.' \" he said. \"So, she doesn't want me kissing on her and stuff. She says 'it's like a dirty old man kissing and hugging on me.' \" You can also see Mr. Brown in \"Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail,\" which hit theaters last month and has been a rousing success at the box office. \"They finally got Madea,\" Mann said. \"She's been to jail a few times, but this time Madea goes to prison -- or as Mr. Brown would say, 'prisnuh.' \"","highlights":"David Mann plays Mr. Brown in \"Meet the Browns\"\nCharacter known for his mangled speech, off-the-wall actions .\nIn real life, Mann is married to actress who plays his daughter on show .","id":"0206f486c821d39f12fa4d3b62b1fe8cbaf3ded6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor Sr. was sentenced Friday to 97 years in prison for charges including torture and conspiracy, according to a federal court in Florida. The U.S.-born son of Charles Taylor Sr., pictured, moved to Liberia when his father became president. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga sentenced Charles \"Chuckie\" Taylor Jr., 31, in a Friday morning session that lasted four hours, according to a court document. Altonaga cited Taylor's \"sadistic, cruel and atrocious past,\" saying it \"constituted unacceptable, universally condemned torture,\" The Miami Herald reported. \"The lengthy prison term handed down today justly reflects the horror and torture that Taylor Jr. visited upon his victims,\" said Matthew Friedrich, acting assistant attorney general of the criminal division. Taylor, also known as Charles McArthur Emmanuel, was convicted October 30 of torture, conspiracy to commit torture and firearm charges. His case, tried in Miami, was the first brought under a 1994 U.S. law saying those accused of committing torturous acts overseas can be tried in a U.S. federal court, as long as the person is a U.S. national or is present in the United States, regardless of nationality. Calls to Taylor's defense attorneys were not immediately returned. Prosecutors had asked for Taylor to be sentenced to 147 years. Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but he moved to Liberia when his father was named president. Prosecutors said Taylor became the leader of the Anti-Terrorist Unit and the Liberian National Police while his father was president. The two groups are accused of abducting, torturing and killing people. From 1999 to 2002, Taylor committed torture and allowed others to commit torture, prosecutors said. Taylor and his associated burned victims with molten plastic, lighted cigarettes, candle wax and an iron. Some were severely beaten with firearms, cut and stabbed and shocked with an electric device, prosecutors said in an indictment that superseded the initial indictment from 2006. In the initial indictment, Taylor was charged with one count of torture, one count of conspiracy to torture and one count of using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. The superseding September 2007 indictment -- which incorporated the initial charges -- included five counts of torture, one count of conspiracy to torture, one count of using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and one count of conspiracy to use a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. The defense had said the U.S. government had little or no evidence to back up its claims. Also Friday, the World Organization for Human Rights USA filed a civil class action suit against Taylor on behalf of a group of people who are said to have been subjected to torture and other human rights abuses by Taylor or his subordinates, according to the organization. The suit seeks declaratory relief and general, compensatory and punitive damages, the organization said in a written statement. \"This civil suit aims to address Defendant Taylor's wrongs on a much greater scale\" than the criminal trial, the organization said. Taylor's father, Charles Taylor Sr., is standing trial in The Hague, Netherlands, on war crimes charges. CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sentence reflects \"horror and torture\" visited upon victims, state official says .\nNEW: Human Rights organization sues Taylor on behalf of alleged torture victims .\nCharles \"Chuckie\" Taylor Jr. sentenced for charges including torture and conspiracy .\nSon of ex-Liberian president convicted October 30 .","id":"50ea08544a01e51a187ac78e8298404450d3584b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Key West's historic Duval Street reopened Monday morning after a fire swept through a building housing three well-known businesses and temporarily shut down other popular spots on the island city's main street. A fire broke out late Sunday night on Duval Street in Key West. The fire, which started at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and was contained by 1 a.m. Monday, wiped out a crepe shop, an art gallery and a sign shop. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, city spokeswoman Alyson Crean said. The fire department was working Monday to determine the cause of the blaze, Crean said. Singer Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant and store was one of the businesses initially shut down, halting late-night festivities at the popular watering hole in mid-pour. \"I was hoping to go back in, finish off my shift and clean up, but they wouldn't let us back in,\" said waitress Patricija Hambrook. \"It became bigger than we thought. \"We couldn't close out checks, and the drinks we made were never served.\" Margaritaville's restaurant reopened Monday afternoon, and its adjacent retail store reopened a few hours later, the fire department said. In addition to protecting Margaritaville, firefighters kept flames away from the historic San Carlos theater, although the facility's administrator said that a large broken out window and about 2 inches of water on the floor of the lobby would keep it closed for a few days. Alex Pascual said he anticipated the theater would reopen by Thursday, in time for a concert scheduled for that evening. The San Carlos was founded in 1871 and was the site of Cuban patriot Jose Marti's 1892 speech launching his drive for Cuban independence. Fire officials initially shut down Duval Street to vehicular traffic but allowed pedestrians to stroll the sidewalks. Traffic restrictions prompted some business owners to be concerned about their livelihoods, at least for the short term. Robert Porter, assistant manager of Crazy Shirts, was concerned early Monday \"because there aren't any cars driving through.\" But Banana Republic general manager Darren Paugh said the foot traffic and onlookers curious to see the aftermath of the fire \"should increase business for the day.\" Plus, he said, three cruise ships were in port Monday morning. And Crean indicated life for tourists won't stop in Key West because of the fire. \"We have a lot of spring breakers on vacation and bikers coming from Bike Week in Daytona,\" Crean said. All the concern proved unfounded when officials reopened Duval Street at about 10 a.m. Monday morning. For the owners of the three businesses that took the brunt of the fire, however, it will be some time before it's business as usual. \"It's a big loss for us. And we worked so hard, it's not fair,\" said La Creperie Cafe owner Yolande Findlay in a story published on the Keynoter newspaper's Web site Monday. Findlay, according to the paper's Web site, opened the popular crepe shop with her partner, Sylvie Lenouail, six years ago. Both are from Brittany, France. The American Royal Art gallery, which specialized in entertainment art, and the sign shop Montage were destroyed in the fire.","highlights":"Historic Duval Street initially opened only to pedestrians .\nSeveral businesses damaged late Sunday night .\nThe fire department is working to determine the cause of the blaze .","id":"8d627c12ea3be6497ac41fc656c79d43343635af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Accused enemy combatant Ali al-Marri was served with an arrest warrant Tuesday and transferred out of U.S. military custody for the first time since 2003, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was a student at Bradley University in Illinois when he was arrested in 2001. Al-Marri's initial court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates released the Qatari man to the U.S. Marshals Service in preparation for the hearing. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Obama administration's request to dismiss al-Marri's challenge of the president's unilateral authority to detain him indefinitely and without charges. The high court ruled that al-Marri's case was rendered moot by a decision to indict him on federal conspiracy charges. The court's ruling means there is no resolution of the larger constitutional issue of the president's power to detain people accused of terrorism and other crimes in the United States. The decision by the Obama administration to criminally charge al-Marri after he spent seven years in custody -- more than five years in virtual isolation in a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina -- is the latest twist in the ongoing legal saga of the only remaining \"enemy combatant\" held in the United States. Al-Marri had been accused of being an al Qaeda \"sleeper agent,\" but until the indictment had never been charged with a criminal or terrorism-related offense. The 43-year-old man will be sent at some point to Peoria, Illinois, to face a criminal trial. President Obama last month ordered a prompt and thorough review of the \"factual and legal basis\" for the continued detention of al-Marri. He subsequently issued a presidential memorandum ordering Gates to facilitate al-Marri's transfer, saying it was \"in the interest of the United States.\" Since his initial arrest on credit card fraud charges in December 2001, al-Marri -- a legal resident of the United States -- had remained in \"virtual isolation in the brig,\" his attorneys said. They were suing the government to improve his jail conditions and were challenging the constitutionality of his detention. The Pentagon asserts al-Marri had trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan, met al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and \"volunteered for a martyr mission,\" according to a government filing with the Supreme Court.","highlights":"Ali al-Marri due to appear in court on Tuesday; he's charged with conspiracy .\nLast week Supreme Court dismissed al-Marri's challenge of presidential authority .\nAl-Marri, a U.S. resident originally from Qatar, has been in custody for 7 years .\nHe's accused of being a \"sleeper agent\" for al Qaeda who trained at terror camp .","id":"27639bd507d10216b2143c2557315e7c65293820"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli media are buzzing with reports that right-wing nationalist Avigdor Lieberman may become Israel's next foreign minister. Avigdor Lieberman is loathed by ultra-orthodox parties because of his support for a Palestinian state. The appointment of Lieberman, a polarizing figure in Israeli politics, could complicate the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. It could also further strain relations between Israel and moderate Arab countries. Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is still in the process of forming Israel's next government. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this week that it is likely that he will select Lieberman as foreign minister. The paper quoted a source close to the negotiations between Netanyahu's Likud Party and Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu. Lieberman would replace outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the moderate Kadima party, which secured the most number of parliament seats in last month's election -- but not enough to form a coalition government. Netanyahu has been unable to woo moderate parties, including Kadima, into his government. He may be forced to concede some key ministerial posts to Lieberman's party, which would be the second largest faction in the new coalition government behind Likud. Netanyahu has vowed to form a broad-based government, but it is unclear how he can keep that promise since Kadima and the moderate Labor Party have indicated that they plan to form an opposition to a Likud-led government. \"Although Netanyahu has reportedly largely agreed to making Lieberman his foreign minister, he is thought to still be weighing the potential political damage the appointment of the hawkish politicians would do to the image of his government,\" Haaretz reported. The Jerusalem Post, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, reported that although Israel's ties with western Europe may suffer if Lieberman becomes foreign minister, he may help improve the Jewish state's ties with Russia and eastern Europe. Lieberman is in a peculiar spot on the Israeli political spectrum He is routinely categorized as a right-wing hawk. But as a secularist who supports an independent Palestinian state, he is loathed by Israel's ultra-orthodox parties, including Shas, which holds 11 seats in the Knesset and is another potential member of Netanyahu's coalition. It is unclear how moderate Arab countries, who are still outraged over Israel's recent military operation in Gaza, would react to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Egypt, one of only four Muslim countries that have full diplomatic ties with Israel, has been trying to negotiate a broader cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas leadership. It is unclear whether those indirect negotiations would continue under the new Israeli government. Lieberman has said he is unwilling to directly or indirectly negotiate with Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel for its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence against the Jewish state. Lieberman does support \"the creation of a viable Palestinian state,\" which is the bedrock of U.S. policy in the region. He restated that support in a Jewish Week article, written shortly after last month's election. That puts him at odds with Netanyahu, who does not support a two-state solution. However, Lieberman's support of a Palestinian state comes at a high price. He has stated that he would oppose any peace agreement that would divide Jerusalem as a shared capital between Israel and a Palestinian state. Lieberman, who migrated from the former Soviet Union to Israel in 1978, has also called for Israel's boundaries to be redrawn to exclude much of Israel's Arab minority, a move that would strip them of their citizenship. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship make up about 20 percent of the Jewish state's population. Lieberman frequently clashes with Arab members of the Knesset and has called for them to be tried and executed for meeting with leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas. He wants all Knesset members, both Arabs and Jews, to prove their loyalty by swearing allegiance to the Israeli flag and national anthem. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi has warned that Lieberman's rising popularity reflects a dangerous trend. \"We are talking about a pure and obvious fascist phenomena invading the Israeli society,\" Tibi said. \"During the last years, racism became mainstream in the Israeli society.\" Lieberman's supporters credit him with offering clear solutions to Israel's complicated problems. In his article in Jewish Week, he rejected accusations from his critics that his party is racist. \"I stand at the head of the most diverse political party in the Knesset,\" he wrote, noting that his party's Knesset members have included four women, three people with disabilities, a Jewish convert and a Zionist. \"I find it a bit rich to be called a bigot.\" He said that he \"look[s] forward to working with President Obama\" since \"U.S.-Israel relations are as strong as ever, and that our shared values and interests make our friendship unshakable.\" Yossi Klein Halevy of the Adelson Institute of Strategic Studies said Lieberman is tapping into the dark side of Israelis' concerns about security, particularly as militants in Gaza continue to routinely fire rockets on southern Israel . \"Lieberman is riding an ugly wave of resentment among many Jewish Israelis toward the Arab-Israeli minority,\" he said. Ynetnews.com political correspondent Attila Somfalvi recently wrote that Lieberman has become \"the leader of those who lost any hope or faith in the possibility of securing peace or engaging in talks with the Arabs.\" \"The war in Gaza indeed restored the public's sense of security and lowered the anxiety level, yet Lieberman is perceived as the man who will know how to do what needs to be done so that no more missiles land around here,\" she wrote.","highlights":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may pick Avigdor Lieberman .\nMedia say he might hurt ties with West but improve ties with Russia .\nIt is unclear whether talks over Gaza cease-fire would continue .\nLieberman frequently clashes with Arab members of Knesset .","id":"73c95602213ae6837a71f98aeaad7fd77bda2a7a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Simon Cowell may not recognize \"American Idol\" alumna Mandisa the next time he sees her. Mandisa, who appeared on season five of \"American Idol,\" has lost more than 75 pounds. The woman about whom the acerbic \"American Idol\" judge once said, \"We're going to have to get a bigger stage,\" has lost 75 pounds -- and hopes to lose 100 or more. Though she has long forgiven Cowell for his snippy comments during season five about her weight, she said she still wants to lose more in part because he is a father figure for her. The last time he saw her was last season when she had lost a few pounds. He raved about how nice she looked then. \"He was very encouraging and saying how proud he was of me,\" she said. \"It's sort of like your dad who you really want to please. I want to please him and to show him that I am doing well.\" Mandisa, whose full name is Mandisa Hundley, said that her faith in God has guided her new lifestyle. \"It's more than the physical and more than what I am eating. It's a spiritual change,\" she said. \"I've had to not turn to food for comfort and validation anymore, and that is a complete mind change. Because my entire life, that is what I have done.\" She named her new album, \"Freedom,\" due out March 24, after the feeling she has gotten breaking what she calls her food addiction. It follows a successful debut CD, \"True Beauty,\" of which Entertainment Weekly said, \"Plus-size powerhouse Mandisa ... realizes her considerable pipes and self-righteousness are best suited to Christian pop.\" It sold more than 160,000 copies. The new album is full of catchy Christian pop tunes such as \"My Deliverer,\" \"Dance Dance Dance\" and \"Freedom Song,\" and power ballads such as \"Not Guilty.\" The song that is nearest to her heart is \"You Wouldn't Cry,\" a tune based on a fan whom Mandisa met and corresponded with who lost her unborn child. Mandisa said that when she went to put together a CD of songs to help comfort her friend, she couldn't find anything from the child's point of view. \"I wanted to write a song about what Andrew would say to his mom about the fact that he's in heaven,\" Mandisa said. \"For people who have faced the situation where a loved one had gone to be with the Lord, I think the song will mean a lot to them.\" She called \"My Deliverer\" her personal testimony. In the chorus she sings: . My deliverer, you rescued me from all that held me captive . My deliverer, you set me free . Now I'm alive and I can live . The song as a first single is \"perfect, because it's a kind of been my story over these past few months\" of her weight loss. When CNN.com first spoke to Mandisa in January, she was singing on a cruise ship. (Yes, Simon, a cruise ship.) \"I think that this is a cruise ship like no other,\" she said of the K-Love Family and Friends cruise, a gathering of Christian music bands and their fans. She beamed with pride then as she described her new exercise regimen and diet. The most difficult part has been to retrain her mind to turn to God instead of turning to food, she said. She also talked about her time on the show that brought her to America's attention. \"American Idol's\" producers gave the fifth-season contestants a speech about being themselves, saying to not pretend to be anybody other than who you are, she said. \"I don't know that they realized that I was as vocal about my faith as I am,\" she said. She was caught in controversy when an article in The Advocate questioned whether she was a proponent of the \"ex-gay\" movement. She thinks her critics were too focused on her statements about not agreeing with what she calls \"the lifestyle\" and missed her message of love for everyone. \"I think that we are called to love people that are different from us and that don't agree with the things we agree with,\" she said. She still watches \"American Idol\" faithfully, and like many other people tuning in each week, is a fan of Danny Gokey, a 28-year-old widower from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She said this week that he is the clear favorite but also likes 23-year-old Matt Giraud from Kalamazoo, Michigan (\"I love his voice\") and Lil Rounds, a mother of three from Memphis, Tennessee (\"I think she's incredible as well\"). \"But I am still rooting for Danny to win,\" she said. After being booted from \"Idol,\" many observers thought that Mandisa had a good chance of becoming a successful R&B artist. She said she considered that path; it was all she wanted to be when she was growing up. But she felt a call to sing Christian music. \"Christian music is the music that comes the most naturally for me,\" she said. The pop world is so big, and it has been easier for \"Idol\" alums who have pursued careers in country or Christian music, she said. She said she also is pretty passionate about exercising. \"There's a feeling you get after you exercise; it's just unexplainable,\" she said. \"It makes you know that you have done the right thing for your body.\" She works out with a trainer three to five times a week, mixing cardio with muscle-building exercises. \"This is a lifestyle for me. My goal is to be healthy,\" she said.","highlights":"Former \"American Idol\" star credits \"spiritual change\" for weight loss of 75 pounds .\nMandisa's second studio album is due out March 24 .\nSinger still watches \"Idol\" and says she's rooting for Danny Gokey .\nMandisa says she felt called to sing Christian music .","id":"4c540db41b12235c073d4da0c6b0e9c80c1c1bbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This spring break, thousands of college students will ditch the bars and the beaches to do something more meaningful with their vacation time. Brad Vonck (bottom, left) and other student volunteers worked with the Cherokee Nation in Stilwell, Oklahoma. Brad Vonck is one of them. A sophomore at the University of Illinois, Vonck will travel to San Juan, Texas, in a group of 13 students to volunteer with La Union del Pueblo Entero, an organization that helps strengthen the communities and lives of farm workers and their families. \"Learning about different cultures is very important to me,\" Vonck said. \"I like to engage in different areas of life that I don't really understand.\" Every year, more and more college students, like Vonck, are choosing to spend their valuable time off from school participating in \"alternative spring break\" programs -- community service-based opportunities dealing with the most pressing issues of the day, including hunger and homelessness, disaster relief and global warming. \"If you can name a social issue, then students are doing trips around it,\" said Jill Piacitelli, executive director of Break Away, an organization that trains and helps colleges across the United States promote alternative break programs. For the past six years, these programs have been growing in popularity among college students. Break Away estimated that this year, nearly 65,000 students will participate in its alternative break programs, an 11 percent increase from 2008. \"It's a student-led social movement. ... This is a group that very much wants to be involved in the world around them,\" Piacitelli said of the volunteers. \"They're solution-oriented. They want to innovate and lead and involve their peers.\" The average domestic trip costs around $250 or $300, Piacitelli said, which includes \"housing, travel, social activities, food and often a donation to the community.\" Many university programs offer financial aid and the option to raise money to help pay for trips. \"It is rare that anyone who wants to go on a trip cannot go,\" Piacitelli said. The affordability is part of the reason why so many students return for second or third trips. Nikunj Shah, a graduate of Arcadia University, has taken several alternative spring break trips volunteering in the United States and Mexico. This year, he will be traveling as an alumnus to Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, a city that has been largely ignored by disaster relief efforts in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita. \"I've always had an interest in helping people. I've always been really involved in community service,\" Shah said. \"So I saw this as an opportunity to go places I haven't been before, to get a feel for different cultures and to help people there that truly need help.\" In an effort to expand their alternative spring break options, universities across the United States partner with humanitarian organizations like the United Way of America. Randy Punley, director of corporate and media partnerships at the United Way, oversees the organization's Alternative Spring Break programs. After Hurricane Katrina, the United Way partnered with MTV to engage young people in the response effort. \"We knew there was an interest and a passion in young people for the work we were trying to achieve,\" Punley said. Since then, the United Way has evolved and expanded, establishing chapters on college campuses. The organization has also developed an Alternative Spring Break Social Media Challenge, encouraging young people to be active in their communities and use social media Web sites, like Facebook or Twitter, to involve other people. \"Whether it started with the first Gulf War, punctuated by the September 11 attacks and Katrina and the economic meltdown, young people have a very different perspective about what's going on in the world,\" Punley said. At the end of the weeklong trip, most students say it was the best week of their lives, Punley said. The increasing interest in these programs, Punley believes, speaks volumes about the attitudes of Generation Y, a group of people who are eager to make an impact on the world around them. \"It's such a difference from going home and not really feeling accomplished to going on these trips and meeting new people,\" Vonck said. \"You get experiences that you wouldn't get sitting on the couch watching TV for a week.\" Piacitelli said these programs encourage young people to continue serving their communities and those in need. \"The students are the main benefactors of what goes on,\" Piacitelli said. \"It changes their consciousness. They get really interested in social issues ... They see themselves as active citizens, and helping the community becomes a priority.\" Like Vonck and Shah, University of Illinois senior Adriana Collazo has a passion for community service. During her spring break last year, Collazo traveled to the Bronx in New York to volunteer at a homeless shelter. She stayed at a hostel with other volunteers and helped serve food and organize clothing drives. \"I never really had all that money to go off and do the whole Cancun, Mexico, spring break, and I didn't really want to, because I think that's throwing away money,\" Collazo said. \"When you can give back, it's selfish.\" The trip to the Bronx was a personal one for Collazo who, at the age of 6, experienced poverty firsthand when her family became homeless. \"My family's better now, and I want to give back,\" Collazo said. \"I think a lot of students have realized that they can do better things with their time. ... It humbles you.\"","highlights":"\"Alternative\" spring breaks are becoming more popular among college students .\nThe programs center on community service .\nTrips may address hunger and homelessness, disaster relief and global warming .\nThe average domestic trip costs around $250 or $300 .","id":"33dd97439a3b1ede5bc4f24aaf71a411e9ae76c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pharmaceuticals giants Merck and Schering-Plough are planning to merge their operations under the name Merck in a deal worth $41.1 billion. Merck chairman and CEO Richard T. Clark will head the combined company. Under the terms of the agreement, Schering-Plough shareholders will receive just over half a Merck share and $10.50 in cash for each Schering-Plough share they own. Each Merck share will automatically become a share of the combined company. Merck shareholders are expected to own approximately 68 percent of the combined company, and Schering-Plough shareholders are expected to own approximately 32 percent. Merck Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Richard T. Clark will lead the combined company. \"We are creating a strong, global healthcare leader built for sustainable growth and success,\" Clark said in a media statement Monday. \"The combined company will benefit from a formidable research and development pipeline, a significantly broader portfolio of medicines and an expanded presence in key international markets, particularly in high-growth emerging markets. \"We look forward to joining forces with an outstanding partner we know well and that shares our commitment to patients, employees and the communities where we work and live.\" Merck added that its 2009 outlook has not changed, and it is committed to keeping its annual dividend at its current level of $1.52 per share. Both drug-makers reported better-than-expected quarterly results in early February, but announced steep job cuts. On a conference call with investors on February 3, Clark said the drug-maker was open to a takeover of a large pharmaceutical company.","highlights":"SP shareholders to get over half a Merck share and $10.50 in cash per share .\nMerck shareholders expected to own around 68 percent of combined company .\nBoth drug-makers reported better-than-expected quarterly results in February .","id":"bf74899b892175a68325fa98013050c70374ab92"} -{"article":"DULUTH, Georgia (CNN) -- Neither the on-the-field fame nor the off-the-field notoriety of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was enough to spark a bidding war for his suburban Atlanta mansion Tuesday. No one submitted the minimum $3.2 million bid for former Falcon Michael Vick's Atlanta-area mansion. The multimillion-dollar home in Duluth was on the auction block Tuesday, but just three real estate agents showed up -- and one of them, Lance Hempen of Funari Realty, was a listing agent who had no clients interested in the property. No one offered a bid, so the auction ended before it began. The auction required a minimum bid of $3.2 million, with a deposit of $160,000. Vick, 28, is serving a 23-month sentence after pleading guilty in August 2007 to a federal conspiracy charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He is expected to be released early, possibly in May, and to serve the final two months or so of his sentence under home confinement, most likely in Virginia. No dogfights occurred in Duluth, 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. The home, in the upscale Sugarloaf Country Club community, has been on the market for more than a year. It has eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a four-car garage and a movie theater, among other deluxe features. Narender Reddy of Metro Brokers\/GMAC Real Estate said his client offered $3.2 million for the home two months ago, but the auction organizers said they wanted to see whether someone would offer more. Reddy said his client withdrew the bid but remains interested. \"Why would I let them use my offer as a benchmark?\" Reddy asked. \"I wanted to see who was going to bid and what were they going to offer.\" He will advise his client to offer less money now, Reddy said. Seema Jain of Virtual Properties Realty also was on hand. She said that she has interested buyers but that they didn't want to bid if there was no competition. The next step is to be determined by the bankruptcy judge in Virginia who ordered the sale. Reddy said the price is too high for today's economy. \"It is the economy that is dictating the price of the houses, and I'm sure most of the people still think $3.2 million ... is higher than what the market can fetch,\" he said. Jain said no one seems turned off by Vick's reputation. \"Nobody cares about who owns it. It's just the product and the location,\" she said. Reddy said the home is \"well-built, has a lake view and an excellent floor plan.\" CNN's Amanda Moyer and Deb Krajnak contributed to this report.","highlights":"No one submitted minimum $3.2 million bid for Michael Vick's mansion .\nVick, former quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, is in prison .\nHe was convicted last year in connection with dogfighting operation .\nMansion in Duluth, Georgia, has eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms .","id":"b8f7d41759dca62a512ba604969407e68e4a9ce1"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Up to 30,000 additional U.S. troops could be sent to Afghanistan next year, military officials said Saturday. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with its high mountain terrain. Roughly 31,000 U.S. troops currently are in Afghanistan. Of the additional troops, 20,000 will comprise four ground\/maneuvering brigades, said Col. Gregory Julian, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. That number is consistent with what Gen. David McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, called for in October, he said. The additional 10,000 likely refers to support personnel, Julian said. McKiernan requested the additional 20,000 troops be sent to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. On Friday, military officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year. Those troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected buildup of U.S. troops in the country in 2009. The brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region. Helicopters are the main mode of transportation for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies. The additional troops would nearly double the level of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Troop levels are likely to be maintained at this increased level for three to four years, Julian said Saturday, as U.S. forces continue to try to \"clear and hold\" more parts of Afghanistan from insurgents and militants and train Afghan military and police to be self-sufficient.","highlights":"20,000 in four ground\/maneuvering brigades, said U.S. forces spokesman .\nThe additional 10,000 likely refers to support personnel, said spokesman .\nOn Friday, Defense Secretary ordered 3,000 troops to Afghanistan for next year .","id":"6a23daaeae81f208667e47dbd8eec0e56802cb42"} -{"article":"In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents and producers share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Stan Wilson visited San Quentin for \"Black in America: The Black Man\" which rebroadcasts tonight at 8 p.m. ET. \"I want to have everything that an average American would want,\" said Chris Shurn who served time in prison. OAKLAND, California (CNN) -- Chris Shurn walked out of San Quentin Prison in June after serving four years of hard time for possession of crack cocaine and a weapon charge. He joined at least 3,000 men paroled each year in Oakland, California, where the recidivism rate is more than 50 percent. When our documentary team first met Shurn inside San Quentin in 2008, he considered himself one of the lucky ones. At 21, he entered prison with a fourth-grade education, but left with a GED certificate and was only a few semesters short of earning an associate degree. Shurn told us there were few role models around him as a kid. He said his father left home before he entered the first grade, his mother was a crack addict and he was surrounded by a lot of violence. Ironically, San Quentin is where Shurn met the kind of role models he said he needed to break the cycle of incarceration. His hard work and determination to change caught the eye of Everett Highbaugh, who runs a program called Project Choice. Twice a week, Highbaugh goes into San Quentin with the goal of transforming men like Shurn from drug entrepreneurs to business entrepreneurs. Upon his release, Shurn replaced his dreadlocks and prison uniform with casual attire and a neatly manicured haircut. He said he felt relieved after the harsh conditions of prison life, but said he struggles every day in his Oakland neighborhood to resist the temptations of making easy money by selling crack cocaine. \"I want to have a family. I want to own a house. I want to have everything that an average American would want; a good-paying job, a career,\" he said. But the odds are against him. Nearly 1 million black men are behind bars, an especially crippling blow to black communities, where one in three black men will have a prison record in their lifetimes. They leave behind communities filled with fear, broken families and a generation of vulnerable children. After Shurn left San Quentin, Highbaugh was in contact with him twice a week and helped him land a part-time job at Goodwill Industries. At Goodwill, Shurn spent 30 hours a week in a labor-intensive job, stacking goods and preparing them for shipment. \"I remember reading a lot of these very same books in prison,\" said Shurn as he was busy working. He was grateful to have a job, but frustrated because it paid so little, $7 an hour. That job lasted only a few months. When we caught up with him in January, he had been unemployed for a while. As he sat in Oakland's Oracle Arena watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama, he wondered how he was going to help support his girlfriend and her daughter and earn enough tuition money to continue working toward his degree. Shurn has moved a few times, but is still hoping for success, still fighting against long odds, particularly in a severely debilitated job market. He's hopeful that his hard work and the skills he learned through Project Choice will be a much better alternative than making easy money on the street -- a certain pathway back to prison. \"Every day of my life, with or without work, I feel vulnerable,\" said Shurn. \"Instead of waking up every day and going to a 9-to-5; I used to wake up and go outside and sell some drugs and have my money for a whole week.\" \"It crosses my mind, but I got to a point where I'm disciplined and don't need to venture into it.\" A few weeks ago, Shurn was hired as a courier for a local printing business. The job pays $9 per hour; $2 more than his previous job. He says the new job won't be enough to pay all the bills, but his goal is to build a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 so future employers will take a chance on an ex-convict who's trying to recover from a mistake that cost him four years of his life.","highlights":"Chris Shurn served four years in San Quentin Prison .\nShurn earned a GED and nearly completed an associate degree in prison .\nHe currently makes $9 per hour as a courier and hopes to return to college .\n\"Every day of my life, with or without work, I feel vulnerable,\" says Shurn .","id":"cdf534312f1c63bcb2bfd34c4a925155830dcb15"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian space officials say the crew of the Soyuz space ship is resting after a rough ride back to Earth. A South Korean bioengineer was one of three people on board the Soyuz capsule. The craft carrying South Korea's first astronaut landed in northern Kazakhstan on Saturday, 260 miles (418 kilometers) off its mark, they said. Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew -- South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko -- was satisfactory, though the three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry. Search helicopters took 25 minutes to find the capsule and determine that the crew was unharmed. Officials said the craft followed a very steep trajectory that subjects the crew to gravitational forces of up to 10 times those on Earth. Interfax reported that the spacecraft's landing was rough. This is not the first time a spacecraft veered from its planned trajectory during landing. In October, the Soyuz capsule landed 70 kilometers from the planned area because of a damaged control cable. The capsule was carrying two Russian cosmonauts and the first Malaysian astronaut. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Soyuz capsule lands hundreds of kilometers off-target .\nCapsule was carrying South Korea's first astronaut .\nLanding is second time Soyuz capsule has gone awry .","id":"f39e76a387f7749755a0fd88225f200cd353511b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bayern Munich inflicted a record defeat on Sporting Lisbon to book their place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League by a staggering 12-1 on aggregate. Bayern Munich players react to the crowd after their staggering 12-1 aggregate victory over Sporting. Leading 5-0 from the first leg, a double from Lukas Podolski and Anderson Polga's own goal put them 3-0 up on the night within 40 minutes before Joao Moutinho pulled one back in stunning fashion. It was the briefest respite for Sporting, though, Bastian Schweinsteiger hitting an immediate reply, before Mark van Bommel, Miroslav Klose (pen) and Thomas Muller netted in the second half for a 7-1 triumph on the night. The result was a record aggregate winning margin for a post-group stage Champions League game, surpassing Lyon's 10-2 demolition of Werder Bremen in 2005. The scoring began in the eighth minute, Podolski combining well with Ze Roberto on the edge of the box after Bayern took advantage of a poor defensive clearance before hammering home from the edge of the box. Bayern were rampant and the second finally came after 34 minutes when a long kick from the Bayern keeper Jorg Butt sailed through to the edge of the Sporting area. It should have been simple for the visiting defense, but a horrible mix-up between Polga and and Patricio allowed Podolski to flick the ball over his head and into the empty net. Polga's night got even worse 39 later when he scored an own goal, volleying Schweinsteiger's cross into his own net. There was a brief hiatus in Sporting's embarrassment when Moutinho's classy strike arrowed into the far left corner three minutes before the break to reduce the arrears. But barely a minute later, Christian Lell pulled the ball back for Schweinsteiger to sweep home, making it 9-1 on aggregate. Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann made two changes at half-time, bringing on Jose Sosa and Breno for Ze Roberto and Lucio as the pace dropped. A fifth did arrive, though, in the 74th minute, substitute Muller's cross headed across goal by Klose for Van Bommel to control and fire home. And Klose continued to pile on the woe for Sporting in the 82nd minute, picking himself up from a foul by Pedro Silva to convert the subsequent penalty. Teenager Muller, making his Champions League debut, rounded things off in the final minute, poking home from Sosa's corner.","highlights":"Bayern Munich inflict a record 12-1 aggregate defeat on Sporting Lisbon .\nSurpassed Lyon's 10-2 post-group demolition of Werder Bremen in 2005 .\nBayern triumphed 7-1 on the night having won the first leg 5-0 in Portugal .","id":"f52c440db4589c9a5e0acb64668365e15d2823d1"} -{"article":"GOLDEN, Colorado (CNN) -- Sometimes the best way to roll with the punches is to roll the dice. Jerry Goldsmith was one of hundreds of people who turned out this week to apply for a casino job. That's Jerry Goldsmith's attitude. The Colorado man lost his engineering job of 29 years -- and the six-figure salary that went with it -- and is now applying for a casino job dealing craps, blackjack, roulette and poker. \"I was angry. I think everyone gets angry,\" says Goldsmith, 60, recalling his New Year's Day firing. \"It's 'Why me?' But after a while I just learned: One door closed, but many more just opened. \"I just need to find the right one to go into.\" Goldsmith was one of 750 people who showed up Wednesday to apply for casino dealer jobs near Denver. Another 550 applied on Thursday. The applicants were going after 90 spots in dealer school. Earlier on Wednesday, Goldsmith had interviewed for a job as a cable TV installer. They were his first job interviews since losing his job. He says that, at first, he spent a lot of time on the Internet looking for work. He also contacted executive headhunters but was unable to find any leads in the engineering field. So he decided to expand his search into other areas. Goldsmith says he nailed the casino job interview and thinks he would make a great dealer. \"When you've been working hard all your life, quitting is just not an option, so I'll take on any opportunity I can,\" he says, adding with a laugh: \"Hopefully there will be some exchange of gratuity in the business so I make something.\" In a November referendum, Colorado voters approved a measure to expand betting limits at casinos in Colorado from $5 to $100 and to add the games of roulette and craps. The new rules will also allow the casinos to stay open 24 hours a day. They currently close at 2 a.m. and open at 8 a.m. The state hopes to benefit from the increased tax dollars, a portion of which will help fund community colleges, but before the first new tax dollar goes into state coffers, the casinos need to staff up. \"Twenty-four-hour gaming adds a whole extra shift every day, seven days a week. You're adding an extra shift in every department of the casino,\" says Jef Bauer, who runs three casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado, for Golden Gaming: the Golden Mardi Gras, Golden Gates and Golden Gulch. \"We're looking to hire initially about 90 people into our dealer school, which we're offering free to learn how to deal craps, roulette and blackjack.\" Golden Gaming currently employs about 400 people in Black Hawk and anticipates adding another 100 by July 2, when the new rules go into effect. Black Hawk is a former mining town tucked into the Rocky Mountains about 35 miles from Denver. Black Hawk and its next-door neighbor, Central City, became casino towns in the 1990s. For years the towns flourished, but Bauer says times are tough now. \"We have just been through 12 months of declines in gaming revenues and head counts,\" he says, adding that he hopes the increased bet limits, new games and extended hours will bring the gamblers back to the tables. Before the hiring event even started, more than 100 people were lined up, waiting for an interview outside of a bar in Golden, Colorado. The would-be croupiers filed in, filled out applications and were assigned a number. They were photographed and then sat down for a 3-minute job interview. No experience was necessary for the casino jobs. Applicants who make the grade will attend a casino-run, part-time dealer school for three months, where they will learn the complicated games and qualify for a Colorado gaming license. The jobs pay between $40,000 and $80,000 a year, depending on tips. So who would make a good dealer? \"Mainly what we're looking at is personality and an ability to entertain, and intelligence that can be proven in dealer school,\" says Bauer. \"Most will probably never have dealt cards before.\" That seems like just the ticket to Andrea Pitts, whose only casino experience has been on the other side of the table. \"I'm a high roller,\" she says with a laugh. \"I've never dealt cards before, but I love to play blackjack and I'm pretty good at it.\" Pitts, 41, spent 12 years working in the trucking industry. But the bad economy has taken its toll, and now she has been forced to look for any kind of work. Like most of the other casino applicants, she never pictured herself dealing cards. But she says she is ready for the change of pace. \"You have to keep yourself motivated. It would be easy to sit at home and feel sorry for yourself, but that's not going to get you anywhere,\" she says. \"I'm not afraid to take challenges -- that's what life is all about.\" Casinos are big business. According to the American Gaming Association, some 360,000 people work in 467 commercial casinos across the country, accounting for $13.8 billion in wages including benefits and tips. The industry paid $5.78 billion in gaming taxes in 2007. Alan Meister, an economist and the author of \"Indian Gaming Industry Report,\" says there were 346,000 people directly employed by 423 Indian gaming casinos in 2007. State governments often look to casinos as a quick source of tax income in difficult economic times. According to Spectrum Gaming Group, a consulting firm that monitors the gaming industry, at least 15 states have recently expanded or are currently considering expanding gambling. See a map of states looking to expand gaming \u00bb . It all sounds good to Craig Taylor. He spent 13 years in the real estate business, buying and selling investment properties. He says that when the industry was booming he was making a salary in the \"low six figures,\" drove a new BMW and lived in a house in the tony Cherry Creek section of Denver. But since the market tanked, he has been making adjustments. He sold the BMW and bought a used 2001 Jeep. He sold the house in Cherry Creek and bought a smaller house on the outskirts of Denver. Now all he needs is a job, and he thinks being a casino dealer might be a good fit. \"Real estate was a great job, great income,\" he says. \"But you have to do what you have to do in this economy and make the adjustments to where the job you have pays the bills.\"","highlights":"Colorado will allow higher bets, expanded hours at state's casinos .\nCasinos to operate 24 hours a day, must hire more workers to fill positions .\nUnemployed would-be dealer says that \"quitting is just not an option\"\nDealers will make $40,000 to $80,000 a year, depending on tips .","id":"1587bb9c4aba6ee43af23cd10a6c23b895dade33"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flying penguins are unusual. Especially when they fly on a C-130 Hercules military plane. Almost 400 lost Magellanic penguins march back to the sea after being rescued by animal-welfare groups. In Brazil, 373 young Magellanic penguins were rescued, rehabilitated and released last weekend after their search for food left them stranded, hundreds of miles from their usual feeding grounds. Animal-welfare activists loaded the birds onto a Brazilian air force cargo plane and flew them 1,550 miles to the country's southern coast, where a crowd of onlookers celebrated as the penguins marched back into the sea. \"We are overjoyed to see these penguins waddle back to the ocean and have a second chance at life,\" said veterinarian Dr. Valeria Ruoppolo of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the group that oversaw the rescue. See photo gallery of rescued penguins \u00bb . Magellanic penguins are warm-weather birds that breed in large colonies in southern Argentina and Chile. The young animals then migrate north between March and September, following their favorite fish, the anchovy. The birds are named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who first saw them in 1519. But changes in currents and water temperature apparently confused the juvenile birds, who strayed too far north to the warm beaches of Salvador, Brazil, 870 miles north of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Watch the penguins march into the sea \u00bb . Starting in mid-July, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bah\u00eda, \"It was just about raining penguins,\" Ruoppolo said. \"There was not much of a food supply. The birds were stranded and emaciated. They had lost all their muscles and body condition.\" While occasionally a few birds show up so far north, the unusual sight of hundreds of wayward penguins posed a challenge for animal conservation groups. \"We had to learn how to work with them,\" said Carlos Garcia, a spokesman for IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute for Environment and Renewable Resources. \"Fewer than 20 penguins usually wash ashore, but with such a large number, we had to really understand their biology and learn how to treat them.\" The Instituto Mam\u00edferos Aqu\u00e1ticos (Institute for Aquatic Mammals) also fed and cared for the hungry and disoriented birds. Ruoppolo, who is also the emergency relief officer for IFAW, has a lot of experience saving penguins and other animals injured in oil spills. Last week she worked with conservation groups and volunteers to save as many of the birds as possible. \"We showed them how to stabilize the animals, to feed them and give them proper care,\" she said. Healthy Magellanic penguins grow to about 27 inches tall and weigh about 9 pounds. Ruoppolo said IBAMA -- the government's environmental authority -- and the Brazilian military were supportive throughout the unusual relocation mission. On Friday, the penguins were loaded into special crates and put onto the plane for the journey to Pelotas, in southern Brazil. After their first-ever flight, the birds went on a truck ride to the Center for Recovery of Marine Animals, where they rested for 24 hours. The birds released at Cassino Beach the next day had to meet very specific health criteria, said Ruoppolo. \"Their feathers had to be waterproof, their overall body condition had to be good, their lungs healthy, and they had to be able to catch food,\" she said. The youngsters had some adult supervision for their return to the wild. They were released with a small group of adult penguins that had been nursed back to health after surviving an oil spill. Scientists expect the older birds will help guide the little ones to nearby feeding grounds. Some penguins are still being cared for, both in the north and south of Brazil. The newly released birds have bands on their flippers so scientists can follow their progress and learn more about their migratory habits. Of more than 1,600 penguins that washed ashore in northern Brazil, about half are still alive. That is a fairly good outcome, given the fragile status of young birds on their first migration, said Ruoppolo. \"For all species you have animals that die within the first year,\" she said. And without quick human intervention, the consequences would have been much worse. At this point there is no way to know exactly why the animals became stranded. While the Magellanic penguin population is not in jeopardy because of this one event, Ruoppolo said there are other threats, primarily from overfishing. CNN's Paulo Nogueira contributed to this report .","highlights":"Activists rescue group of young penguins who migrated too far north on Brazil coast .\nPenguins loaded onto a C-130 Hercules military plane and flown south .\nTo cheers of onlookers, penguins return to ocean near their feeding grounds .\nChanging currents, temperatures may have led the confused birds off course .","id":"477b8f0bf113c7bf1976faeceed13e7e5a76b5e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Far too many passengers are being stranded on board commercial flights in the United States in delays, an air passengers' rights group said Wednesday. Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Continental Airlines, and US Airways received an overall grade of \"F\" on the air travel consumer report card. FlyersRights.org, in issuing what it calls an air travel consumer report card, said there were more than 1,200 tarmac strandings -- in which passengers are locked in planes on the runways -- in 2008. Delta Air Lines had the greatest number of tarmac delays longer than three hours. Southwest Airlines was rated the best for handling delays by letting customers get off delayed planes, as well as providing food, water and other items. The longest delay the organization found was a January 2008 Delta flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to Florida, in which passengers waited on the tarmac for more than 10 hours without food and water. \"Too many Americans have been locked inside sealed airplanes, trapped in tubes on the tarmac, for three hours or more,\" said FlyersRights.org Executive Director Kate Hanni. \"It's time for Congress to give airline passengers the legal right to get off planes stuck on the ground for three hours or more.\" Hanni -- who has been lobbying for an airline passengers' bill of rights -- also said America's economic situation has exacerbated the problems consumers face on the airlines because of layoffs. \"Airlines are trying to maintain or increase their profit margins,\" she said. \"They have decreased all of their goods and services related to flying.\" She added that a timely flight is \"not just a matter of passenger convenience, it's a matter of public safety.\" \"I wonder if heroic Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger and his crew could have performed as they did after seven, nine or even 12 hours on the tarmac?\" Hanni asked, making a reference to the US Airways crew that made an emergency landing in New York's Hudson River in January. Hanni started her organization after she was stranded on the tarmac on an American Airlines flight in Austin, Texas, for more than nine hours in December 2006. Mark Mogel, the group's research director, said FlyersRights.org has about 24,000 members, many of whom donate money, services and lobbying help. The report card is based on government statistics, press reports, airline Web site data, reports on the group's hotline, and eyewitness accounts from January to December of 2008. It surveyed 17 airlines for various kinds of tarmac delays, their menu and contracts of carriage and customer service commitments and issued grades for these separate factors and an overall grade. As for the menu, Mogel specified that the menu grade is based on quantity, not quality. The survey was looking to see whether there would be food on board during a tarmac delay. Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Continental Airlines, and US Airways received an overall grade of \"F\" and American Airlines received an overall grade of \"D.\" United Airlines, Airtran and American Eagle got a \"C.\" Alaska Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines got a \"B,\" and Southwest received an \"A.\" Five other airlines -- Atlantic Southeast, Comair, ExpressJet, Mesa and Pinnacle -- didn't get an overall grade because some categories couldn't be completed. \"The fact that some airlines have received A's and B's and others D's and F's on this report card also shows that providing decent customer service and avoidance of strandings is both achievable and should not place an undue burden on the airline industry or lead to higher ticket prices,\" the report's executive summary said. CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"FlyersRights.org graded airlines for tarmac strandings, menu, customer service .\nDelta Air Lines had the most tarmac delays lasting longer than three hours .\nDelta, JetBlue, Continental, and US Air got overall grades of 'F'\nSouthwest Airlines got an overall 'A'","id":"66b143c100589251a825dbdc7ef94a6f3a2a79c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A long-hidden message has been discovered inside Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch, the Smithsonian's Museum of American History announced Tuesday. The message in the watch differs slightly from what the watchmaker later said he wrote. Watchmaker Jonathan Dillon was repairing Lincoln's watch in April 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and wrote a short message on the metal inside the watch, the Smithsonian said. There it remained, unseen for almost 150 years, it said. In a 1906 interview with The New York Times, Dillon reported that as soon as he heard the news about the first shots of the Civil War, he unscrewed the dial of the watch and wrote on the metal, \"The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.\" The actual message that the museum found differs from the watchmaker's recollection. It says, \"Jonathan Dillon, April 13-1861, Fort Sumpter [sic] was attacked by the rebels on the above date J Dillon, April 13-1861, Washington, thank God we have a government, Jonth Dillon.\" According to the Smithsonian, it was not unusual for professional watchmakers to record their work inside a watch. \"Lincoln never knew of the message he carried in his pocket,\" said Brent D. Glass, director of the National Museum of American History. The museum decided to open the watch after being contacted by the watchmaker's great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles, who had heard about the message Dillon said he had inscribed and wanted to see if it was really there.","highlights":"Watchmaker left message during repairs, Smithsonian says .\nMessage comments on attack on Fort Sumter, which began Civil War .\nLincoln never knew about message, historian says .","id":"284dab08008c1da5a2b542c9c1bb7dff23c59790"} -{"article":"SAMSON, Alabama (CNN) -- As the crime scene tape starts to come down in this small Southern town, the residents are leaning on one another for comfort and the strength to move on. The shooter, Michael McLedon, killed his mother before killing others. First Baptist Church, a few feet from the neighborhood where Michael McLendon, 28, opened fire Tuesday, welcomed members of this close community Wednesday night for a prayer service. \"It's what community is about, isn't it? Crying together. Holding each other,\" a pastor said. It's hard for many to believe the shooting rampage could happen in this town of about 2,100 people. Authorities said McLendon went to three towns, slaying 10 people. He started in his hometown of Kinston, killing his mother, before moving on to open fire in Samson and finally Geneva. McLendon was once a police officer in Samson, the small town hit hardest by the deadliest crime in Alabama history, authorities said. His nearly hourlong assault ended at the Reliable Metal Products plant in the last town, 24 miles from where it began and where police said McLendon engaged in a shootout before killing himself inside the building. In the aftermath of the rampage, among those seeking comfort at First Baptist Church was Josh Mathews. He was driving down the street around the time of the shootings. \"Could've been anyone -- just missed the gunfire, could've been any of us,\" Mathews said. Watch report from CNN's Brooke Baldwin \u00bb . After the shootings, he found out one of the victims was a friend. It will be hard to move on, he said. But \"you have to. He was like the happiest dude in the world. He would've wanted us to move on and remember him for who he was.\" High school baseball coach Chris Reid said he knew almost all the victims. \"Everybody knows everybody. Everybody's always been willing to go out of their way to help people in need around here, no matter what the case may be. It's just a small town where you consider your friends as family.\" Reid was walking out of the Big-Little convenience store when he stopped to talk to CNN. A little more than 24 hours ago, the gas station was the site of one of killings. Watch deputy talk about his loss \u00bb . Reid was at baseball practice when he heard the shots. \"They were one block from us, \" Reid said, adding that while driving, he saw a man killed in the street. iReport.com: On the scene as officials investigate . \"It really hasn't set in yet,\" he said. \"It is still kind of a dream where you wait for it to not be real, to be over. But it's a fact, something we have to go through.\" Inside the church service, Steve Sellers, a visiting pastor, spoke to several hundred in attendance, praying for God to give the community strength. Some sat in the pews and sobbed. \"I want to thank you, Lord, that in the coming days that this community walks through that process of healing, that there is a God who carries them through that valley,\" he said. Sellers also thanked town leaders, medical personnel and local law enforcement while asking the question that's been on so many minds: \"I don't know what set a young man off like that, but I, too, want to pray for his family. We also come, knowing Lord, you taught us to forgive those who trespass against us.\" Watch how state copes with \"shock and disbelief\" \u00bb . While members of this tight-knit town may never fully understand how McLendon could've committed this crime, many find comfort in faith and friends. As one pastor put it, \"Thank God for this town.\"","highlights":"The 2,100 people of Samson, Alabama, cope with aftermath of deadly rampage .\nFirst Baptist Church welcomes community for Wednesday night prayer service .\nHigh school baseball coach Chris Reid: \"It really hasn't set in yet\"\nCommunity members say their tight bonds will pull them through difficult days ahead .","id":"e281e8d1d941e5fe23310ff59a6c9debee77ad76"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe police arrested on Friday a magistrate who ordered the release of a senior opposition politician granted bail by the country's High Court, a lawyer said. A Zimbabwean policeman patrols outside the entrance of Mutare Magistrates court. The order to release the politician had been suspended when state lawyers appealed the HIgh Court decision. Trust Maanda, a lawyer in Mutare city about 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Harare, told CNN by phone that magistrate Livingstone Chipadze had been arrested. \"He is in police custody. The police are saying he ordered the release of Roy Bennett in compliance with the High Court ruling,\" said Maanda. Bennett is the choice of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for deputy agriculture minister under the power-sharing government formed last month. On Wednesday, Chipadze ordered Bennett be released from a prison in Mutare as had been ruled by the High Court last week. However, that order, which required Bennett to post $2,000 as bail, was suspended after the state filed an appeal with Zimbabwe's Supreme Court. \"I can confirm the arrest, but I will be in position to tell you the charge he will face later,\" said a police official in Mutare over the phone. \"He is likely to go to court on Saturday or Monday. But most magistrates here [in Mutare] have gone on strike over his arrest.\" Chipadze joins Bennett in prison in Mutare. Bennett was arrested on February 13 and is facing charges of possessing arms for the purposes of banditry, terrorism and sabotage. The continued detention of Bennett, an ally of MDC leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, is seen by many as a crack in the foundation of the coalition Tsvangirai formed with President Robert Mugabe. Meanwhile, a Zimbabwe High Court judge Friday ordered the immediate release of three human rights activists in state \"safe custody\" to testify against human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who is facing charges of plotting to topple Mugabe. Opposition MDC activists Fannie Tembo, Lloyd Tarumbwa and Terry Musona have been missing since October last year after they were abducted from their homes under the cover of darkness. Lawyers Chris Mhike and Innocent Chagonda took the state to the High Court in an attempt to win the release the trio. But the state represented by Nelson Mutsonziwa had opposed the application, saying the three would be state witnesses when the trial of Mukoko starts. The MDC lawyers then successfully argued that the three were bread winners for their families and the state had not provided their families with assistance while they are in custody. Delivering the judgment, Justice Ben Hlatswayo said, \"I order the immediate release of Fannie Tembo, Lloyd Tarumbwa and Terry Musona from police custody or the custody of any other state agent. This order stands enforceable notwithstanding the noting or filing of an appeal.\" Relatives of the three who were milling around the High Court could not hide their joy after Mhike told them of Hlatswayo's ruling.","highlights":"Magistrate who released a senior opposition politician arrested .\nHigh Court had ordered politican released, but decision was suspended .\nRoy Bennett's imprisonment a crack in coalition of opposition and Robert Mugabe .\nIn separate decision, High Court ordered release of three human rights activists .","id":"9b7ec55557443ea8b1d73ac431e0266dfd16d717"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man went over Niagara Falls and survived Wednesday afternoon, one of the few people to ever survive the plunge unprotected, authorities said. It is unclear whether the man chose not to aid in his rescue or was physically unable to do so, officials say. The man was seen entering the icy water just above Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side, and apparently jumped in about 2:15 p.m, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Fire Chief Lee Smith said. Smith said the unidentified man was in the near-freezing water for \"40-plus\" minutes before he was rescued by Niagara Parks Police and Niagara Falls firefighter Todd Brunning. Brunning, who was tethered to shore, swam about 60 meters (nearly 200 feet) into the river and was able to get hold of the man and bring him to shore. Niagara Parks Police initially used a helicopter from a private company, Niagara Falls Helicopters, to attempt a rescue of the man. When that failed, they used the wind from the chopper's rotors to push the man closer to shore, Smith said. Watch chopper hover over man in icy water \u00bb . He said the man was \"being rotated in a cyclic fashion\" by the river's very strong currents. The man did not aid in his rescue, officials said, though it was not immediately clear whether he was physically unable to or he did not want to do so. Niagara Falls Fire Capt. Dave Belme said the man was not wearing any clothes when he was rescued, but he added that it's not unexpected for a person to lose things while being washed down the falls. The man's \"chances of survival without the quick response would be lessened,\" Smith said. All of the agencies train for situations like this, he said, and they are put to the test about a dozen times a year. Still, he called Wednesday's rescue \"amazing.\"","highlights":"Unidentified man apparently jumped in on Canadian side, authorities say .\nHe was in near-freezing Niagara River for more than 40 minutes .\nOfficials unsure why man did not aid in his own rescue .","id":"8d417a60238936ce5802e68a8bba2f010615f84b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An expert on Lincoln photography thinks a photograph found in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's family-owned album showing President Abraham Lincoln in front of the White House could be one of the last photos taken of the 16th president before he was assassinated in 1865. A photo found in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's family album is verified to contain an image of Abraham Lincoln. Grant's great-great grandson Ulysses S. Grant VI had seen the previously unpublished image in the general's personal photo album, but didn't think much of it until he scrutinized it earlier this year. \"I started to think that it might be the White House,\" said Grant, a construction business owner from Springfield, Missouri. \"Then I started to look at the height difference between the people in the photo.\" Thinking that the towering individual commanding the attention of the other people in the image could be Lincoln -- who stood 6-foot-4 and is the nation's tallest president -- Grant called Keya Morgan, a renowned collector and scholar of Lincoln and Gen. Grant photographs, to see whether his suspicions could be verified. Morgan, who owns the world's largest collection of Lincoln artifacts and original photographs, persuaded Grant to take the small photo out of the album to see whether any clues could be found on the back -- particularly the name of the photographer. \"If you don't know who the photographer is, it's like not knowing who your father and mother are,\" Morgan said. Sure enough, the seal of photographer Henry F. Warren appeared on the back, along with an inscription: \"Lincoln in front of the White House,\" dated 1865. Grant recognized the handwriting as that of his great-grandfather and Gen. Grant's youngest son, Jesse Grant. Those indicators, along with a revenue stamp used from 1864-66 to raise money during the Civil War, helped convince Morgan that the photograph could be the well-documented missing photo from Lincoln's last \"sitting.\" Watch how photograph was verified \u00bb . According to Morgan -- who cites Lincoln's secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay -- Warren took the last three photographs of Lincoln on March 6, 1865, just two days after his second inauguration. Morgan says Warren was desperate to take pictures of Lincoln, so he staged the first act of paparazzi photography. According to Morgan, Warren first took photos of the president's son Tad on his pony. The following day, Warren gave the pictures to Tad and told him to summon his father. Morgan says that Warren was already set up to take the photo outside the White House, and that Lincoln gave him access afterward to take two more portraits on the White House balcony. Will Stapp, founding curator of the National Portrait Gallery's photography department and a professional photograph appraiser, agrees with Morgan's assessment of the long-lost image. \"The figure itself, the physique -- in looking at it under a magnifying glass, I can see the shape of his beard; I can see the hairline,\" Stapp told CNN. \"It's similar to the impression you get from other photos taken of [Lincoln] from the same distance, like at the Gettysburg Address and his inauguration.\" Stapp and Morgan also say it appears that Lincoln is wearing the same clothes in the outdoor photo as he wore for the portraits taken the same day. As one of only 130 photographs of Lincoln, it is an extraordinary find not only because of its proximity to Lincoln's death, but because it shows him in a natural stance. \"You could put yourself in the shoes of the people around [Lincoln] and see what it was like to live at the White House,\" said Morgan, who says he receives 10 to 20 requests a day asking him to verify potential Lincoln photographs. Morgan, who purchased the photo from Grant, says he has received thousands of e-mails from Lincoln aficionados commenting on the find. His Web site, lincolnimages.com, received more than 5 million hits on Tuesday and crashed because of the traffic overload.","highlights":"Ulysses S. Grant's great-great grandson took family photo to scholar for verification .\nSeal of photographer Henry F. Warren appeared on the back of photograph .\nWarren took the last three photographs of Lincoln on March 6, 1865 .","id":"9c3f2cc023bea06fabb034c71e58ea2aceed2e8f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: A gunman killed 10 people and himself Tuesday in southern Alabama. It's the most recent example of mass killing sprees that have traumatized communities over the years. Here's how one city responded. In the worst mass shooting in the U.S. at the time, a gunman killed 23 customers in a Texas cafeteria in 1991. (CNN) -- On October 16, 1991, 35-year-old George Hennard drove a pickup truck into Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and fatally shot 23 people and wounded more than 20 before killing himself. For more than 15 years, the city next to the sprawling Fort Hood military base had the dubious distinction of being the site of the deadliest mass shooting in the United States -- until a student killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech in 2007. \"You can never prepare for an incident like this,\" says Killeen city councilman Fred Latham, who was mayor pro tem of the city, which had a population of about 66,000 at the time of the shooting. But Killeen's experience shows a city can survive the grief, pain and stigma of such an incident. About 80 people were in the cafeteria, many of them taking their bosses to lunch for National Bosses Day when Hennard arrived. He methodically chose his victims, most of whom were women, before he was wounded by police and shot himself. Latham, who is 60 and a real estate broker, has been on the city council off and on for 16 years. He spoke to CNN.com Wednesday. CNN: What are your memories of that day in October? Latham: It was a tragic day in our history, Many of the people who were killed or injured I personally knew. It was just a big shock that anything like that could ever happen in our community. CNN: Where were you when it happened? Latham: I was with the mayor and the Waco city engineer, looking at potential road improvements and we just happened to be driving near where Luby's was, and we saw some roadblocks being set up and we knew something terrible had happened. There were police cars and barricades and you had the sense that something was wrong. CNN: What are your memories of the days after the shooting? Latham: The community came together as far as trying to help resolve the issues with the people who were victims or their families who were trying to get through it. There were a lot of human resource agencies that came, American Red Cross, a lot of counselors. It was just overwhelming. I think the phones into Killeen were jammed from people all over the country trying to check on their family members. Luby's was the kind of place that would attract any kind of person. That was Bosses Day that particular day, so you had a lot of extra business there, I'm sure. And many of the people were in our school district. Our school district is one of the biggest employers in the region. So when you had administrators or people in that administration office killed, they're going to be known by many, many people. The commanding general at Fort Hood sent in helicopters and all kinds of extra assistance that might be needed. ...Fort Hood is the major employer in the area. At that time there were some 42,000 assigned troops there and some soldiers were actually killed. You can never prepare for an incident like this from somebody that just goes off. How they pick a destination you don't know. This person drove all the way from Belton, which is about 16 miles to our east. He wasn't a Killeen resident, so how he picked Luby's you don't know. He actually drove through the front window and the people that were in the restaurant thought maybe he had an accident where you try to apply the brakes and hit the gas pedal. .... When he came out shooting, the people were kind of trapped. I was proud of our community as to how they handled the situation and overcame all the adversity. Everybody was concerned about the welfare of the families and the people who were victims, Luby's began a fund to help defray some of the expenses and I think people from all over the country sent money. We formed a committee that helped look at how you disburse the money. I think that was successful and helped some with the aftermath. CNN: What are the emotions that a community goes through? Latham: Grief, just disbelief that something like this could happen, all the same emotions that you go through with any significant death in a family, I suppose. To have at the time...that this was worst shooting anywhere in the world, it gives a stigma that you don't ever want to have for your city. It's similar to the one that happened at Columbine and at Virginia Tech. Nobody has the answers as to why these things happen and the randomness of the person shooting his victims doesn't make any sense. It's not logical, you can't comprehend it. To see death happen to people, they were just there to have a meal with their boss and have a celebration of that and no interaction with the person that perpetrated this act. CNN: Were the churches and houses of worship involved in trying to heal the wounds? Latham: Absolutely, the churches throughout town came to the aid, performing counseling and having funeral services. There was a lot of compassion, if anything good came out of this, it was the fact that we realized that we all really cared more about each other more than we ever thought. CNN: Has the town recovered? Latham: It has been resilient. We've been in a dynamic part of central Texas where the economy has been good for many years. [There's] the resiliency and the strength of Fort Hood, which is one of the most efficient training facilities for the Army and it has continued to grow. A lot of people have retired here and the cost of living is good. There's affordable housing, the weather is good ... then you've got a work force that's educated and disciplined, and they're fairly young. CNN: You talked about the stigma of having the worst mass killing in the world. Latham: The tendency for the news media, each time an event like this happens, they'll list one, two, three, four, five, where the most killings occurred and you're mentioned in that top five. And that's not something we want to be reminded of. CNN: Some people say the stigma can hurt a town economically, but it doesn't seem to have done so in Killeen. Latham: We're a very mobile community. Our population turns over at least 30 percent every five years. Maybe two-thirds of our population [now] weren't even here or doesn't even know anything about this. So we're different from a longtime community that doesn't turn over like that. CNN: What advice would you have for other mayors or other city council people in towns who experience these kinds of incidents? Latham: Well I would accept help from others. You're not in it by yourself. You'll be surprised at the resiliency that you'll have as a community. The faith-based community will come forward, embrace that. You'll get through it, but you won't ever forget the victims or what has happened to the community.","highlights":"Fred Latham: \"You can never prepare\" for an incident like the one in Killeen, Texas .\nIn 1991, a gunman drove a pickup into a cafeteria and killed 23 people .\nLatham says the city raised money for victims and bounced back .\nLatham: Communities are resilient but they will never forget what happened .","id":"2f6356ccd45d8dbc1051a37673fa3aacb9fba99a"} -{"article":"BRASILIA, Brazil (CNN) -- A doctor excommunicated by the Catholic Church for performing an abortion on a 9-year-old rape victim received a standing ovation during a national convention on women's health, according to a local media report. Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho excommunicated the doctors who performed the child's abortion. The response came during the opening ceremony of an event hosted by Brazilian Minister of Health Jose Gomes Temporao. The newspaper O Povo reported that Temporao called on the audience to acknowledge the \"brilliant\" work done by a medical team in the abortion, performed in Brazil's northeastern city of Recife. The girl was pregnant with twins after being raped, allegedly by her stepfather, police were quoted in media reports as saying. The abuse had gone on since the girl was 6, authorities said. The abortion was performed March 4 during the fourth month of pregnancy, according to media reports . Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife excommunicated the doctor, the child's mother and the medical team involved in the procedure. However, the stepfather was not excommunicated, with Sobrinho telling Globo TV that, \"A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life.\" The child was not excommunicated, Sobrinho said, because Catholic Church law says minors are exempt from excommunication. \"The church is benevolent when it comes to minors,\" he told Globo TV. \"As for the adults, especially those who approved it, performed this abortion, the excommunication is applicable.\" \"God's law is above human laws,\" Sobrinho said. The case has outraged the Brazilian public and fueled a controversy reaching the highest levels of church and state in a nation whose law bans abortion except in cases of rape. Temporao recently said doctors must put law before religion. \"The question posed is very simple. There is a Brazilian law which states that a pregnancy can be interrupted in case of rape,\" Temporao said. \"It is legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but these dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole,\" he added. Earlier, a verbal spat ensued between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the archbishop over the church's decision. \"As a Christian and a Catholic, I find it deeply lamentable that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude,\" Lula said on Globo TV. \"In this case, the medical profession was more right than the church,\" he said. Meanwhile, a Vatican cleric told Italy's La Stampa newspaper that he supports the Brazilian archbishop's decision to excommunicate all involved in the abortion except for the child. Dr. Olimpio Moraes, one of the doctors involved in the procedure, said he thanked the archbishop for his excommunication because the controversy sheds light on Brazil's restrictive abortion laws. He said women in Brazil's countryside are victimized by Brazil's ban on abortion. Some of the doctors vowed to continue attending church services, despite being expelled. \"The fact that I was excommunicated will not keep me from going to Mass, praying, conversing with God, and asking him to illuminate me and my colleagues in our medical team to help us take care of people in similar cases,\" one doctor said. TV Globo reported that the child, who is from a town outside Recife, has stayed in the city to recover and to escape media coverage. Her current condition is not known. A new report by Brazil's IPAS, a non-governmental organization that works with the health ministry, indicates that more than 1 million women undergo illegal abortions in Brazil each year. About 250,000 are treated by doctors for traumas due to botched abortions, said Beatriz Jalli, an IPAS official. Studies at a Brazilian hospital dedicated to treating female victims of violence, the Perola Byington in Sao Paulo, indicated that more than 40 percent of the cases involved children. \"This is why the Recife case is so important for women in Brazil,\" Jalli said. Jalli said the liberated \"Girl from Ipanema\" image that many foreigners have of Brazilian women is far from reality. \"We live in a male chauvinistic, patriarchal society with a very high rate of sexual crimes against women and minors,\" she said. \"Our reproductive rights are constantly criminalized.\" CNN's Helena de Moura contributed to this report.","highlights":"Report: Doctor who performed abortion on child rape victim praised at event .\nBrazilian law bans abortion except in cases of rape .\nCatholic Church excommunicated doctor, along with child's mother, medical team .\nArchbishop says child was not excommunicated .","id":"2bcfcbcbb7f3f3cda16a49e1c530dff05c757338"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just days after giving birth to her second child, Dr. Jane Dimer drove herself home from the hospital to find her then-husband in bed with another woman. He threw Dimer down the stairs, and she never saw him again until court. Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, before the Grammys on February 8. Dimer, now an obstetrician-gynecologist at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington, had been in an abusive relationship with her husband in Germany for 4\u00bd years until he pushed her out 11 years ago. \"Emotionally, the remnants of that stay for a long time,\" she said. Domestic violence is the most common cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44, according to the National Institutes of Health. With the entertainment world buzzing about pop sensation Rihanna, whose boyfriend Chris Brown has been formally charged with assaulting her, public interest in domestic violence has been reinvigorated. Abuse can influence a victim's future behavior in relationships and even in friendships, depending on whether the victim stays or leaves, said Mark Crawford, a clinical psychologist based in Roswell, Georgia. Those who stay are likely to stop trusting their own perceptions and become passive in both romantic and nonromantic relationships. Victims who do leave -- which is the healthier choice, Crawford said -- often become over-accommodating because they want to avoid conflict, even verbal disputes, at all costs. Some women won't trust people easily, if at all, and won't be able to handle even normal expressions of anger. Visit CNNHealth.com, your connection to better living . \"What they need to do when they get out of the relationship is make sure they're aware of their own anger, and then they can learn how to freely express it in a healthy, normal way,\" he said. \"If somebody's still having issues 10 years later, they just haven't worked through it. They haven't healed; they need to do that.\" New research shows that abuse victims feel the impact of violence long after it occurred. A recent study in the Journal of Women's Health found that older African-American women who were exposed to high levels of family violence at some point in their lifetimes -- whether by a partner or family member -- are at a greater risk of poor mental and physical health status. \"Not just ongoing violence, which everybody thinks about, but even when it's over, there's something about what happens that seems to have a lingering effect that we don't quite understand yet,\" said Dr. Anuradha Paranjape, co-author of the study and associate professor at Temple University School of Medicine. It makes sense that abused women would report worse health, given that people in stressful situations have higher levels of stress hormones, which interfere with immune function, Crawford said. Other studies show a clear connection between depression and abuse. Adult women who have been abused in a relationship in the past five years have rates of depression 2\u00bd times greater than women who have never been abused, according to a different study of more than 3,000 women. They are also more likely to be socially isolated, said author Amy Bonomi, associate professor at The Ohio State University. Women who have been abused prior to, but not during, the past five years had depression rates 1\u00bd times greater than those without abuse experience, said Bonomi, who has collaborated with Dimer on research on abused women. \"People like to sort of think that, 'Well, abuse is just when you have a black eye, you sustain a broken bone,' \" Bonomi said. \"But we see lots of different effects in other areas, like depression and social isolation, and we've actually proven that with the data.\" Women who have suffered violence also seem to have a greater likelihood of substance abuse, but it's unclear how the two are related -- one doesn't necessarily cause the other, and there could be other factors involved, Bonomi said. A 2008 study of 3,333 women, which Bonomi worked on, found that middle-aged women who suffered child abuse, sexual or other physical abuse, had a greater likelihood of depression, as well as a higher body mass index. These women also spend up to one-third more than average on health care costs. About 34 percent of women in the sample said they had been abused. While Paranjape's study found that women with the highest levels of abuse reported having poor health, the same number of diseases were reported among those women as the women in the sample who had less or no abuse. This indicates that there is something else that makes abused women report feeling unwell, she said. \"When your patient says they don't feel so good, you might want to think about asking what other issues may be going on,\" she said. People who have gotten out of a relationship should go through the work of learning what issues set them up in that situation, and reflect on the warning signs, Crawford said. Experts recommend finding a counselor and other means of support, but people who have been abused should think twice about revealing too much in online support groups, because their abusers could discover what they're saying, Dimer said. Research has also shown that violence escalates in abusive relationships among couples who go to marriage counseling, she said. Some women do feel stronger having been through the experience of abuse, Dimer said. She herself found healing through advocacy and research on the subject, she said. Calling a domestic violence hot line is a good first step for anyone who is experiencing abuse, Dimer said. \"Whether you're a pop star or somebody that's working front lines -- an employee at a grocery store selling the pop star magazine -- you're at equal risk for having this,\" she said.","highlights":"NIH: Domestic violence is the most common cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44 .\nStudy: Abused women more likely to have depression, anxiety, joint pain .\nCalling a domestic violence hot line is a good first step for a victim .","id":"503da4e6a59062957f5dad1fda5fd70185088c00"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A meningitis outbreak is threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people in Darfur, according to an aid agency expelled from the country last week. A Doctors without Borders medic helps a sick child in a Darfur refugee camp. Humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF), says it was preparing to vaccinate around 100,000 people in southern and western Darfur against meningitis, when it was told to leave the country. \"We were in the process of organizing a vaccination campaign. At the moment there's no one there that can take over those activities, which is really worrying,\" Gemma Davies of MSF told CNN. The country's Ministry of Health officially declared a meningitis outbreak on March 2 at the Kalma Camp, which shelters more than 90,000 refugees in southern Darfur. \"Living in such close proximity, the potential for this outbreak to spread quickly is quite high, Davies, MSF project coordinator for South Darfur, told CNN. \"With no health care providers to give vaccinations, and with no one to manage the meningitis cases when they come, it's really concerning,\" she added. The vaccination campaign was due to begin on March 7, but it is now unclear if or when it will resume, as reports of government harassment of aid workers continue. Davies told CNN she experienced no harassment, and said government officials had been in contact with only the head of MSF's regional operations. \"We haven't actually been given any reason on why we were expelled,\" she said. \"We have absolutely no idea when we'll be able to return.\" Doctors Without Borders was among 13 aid agencies, including Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, that were ordered by the government to shut down their operations in Sudan last week. So far the agency has confirmed 32 meningitis cases and four deaths, and has seen dozens of other suspected cases. Thousands of unvaccinated refugees and villagers are now exposed to the airborne disease in densely populated camps and villages throughout Sudan. \"One of our priorities is to get another organization to take over our programs there,\" Davies added. The medical relief agency says it doubts though that other any other organizations have the capacity to deal with a meningitis epidemic. Davies also said she is worried about the cut-off of MSF's feeding and maternal delivery services: \"We had over 100 patients on our feeding program that now won't be receiving any follow up.\" The decision by the Sudanese government to throw out the aid groups came a day after the International Criminal Court at The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. However, not all international aid organizations are affected. Others including World Vision international continues its work, which reaches approximately 500,000 internally displaced people in South Sudan. The U.N. has received reports that international staff members of five non-governmental organizations had been detained for up to four hours. Speaking on the phone from Nairobi, an aid worker, who asked not to be identified for fear of further harassment, told CNN that his colleagues who remained in Khartoum were being intimidated and threatened by government agents. In some cases Sudanese government representatives \"had started gathering banking details and confiscating computers, communications equipment and vehicles from the NGOs\", a U.N spokesman said at a news conference last week. Last week, the U.N. warned that the loss of NGOs in Sudan would cause 1.1 million people to go without food aid and health care, and more than 1 million to have no access to water. Oxfam, whose work focuses on providing safe drinking water, was one of the aid groups who were told their registration to operate in Sudan was no longer valid. Ninety percent of their staff are Sudanese nationals, who mostly remain in country, unable to continue their relief work under threat of arrest. \"These agencies are vital implementation partners for the United Nations and account for at least half of the humanitarian capacity in Darfur,\" said Catherine Bragg, U.N. Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator at the news conference in New York.","highlights":"Meningitis threatens hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur .\nMore than a million at risk of starvation after aid agencies expelled, U.N. warns .\nSources: Aid workers harassed and detained by the Sudanese government .","id":"31ce56bbc9d1ef7398577b51ee7400fcb6268f08"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of South Koreans were demonstrating Saturday on the streets of the capital to protest the government's decision to import what they say is unsafe U.S. beef. South Korean protesters protest against government's policy on U.S. beef imports on Saturday. South Korean police estimate that the crowd in Seoul is about 50,000. No clashes were reported between the protesters and riot police, although ongoing protests have at times turned violent. South Koreans have protested regularly since April when the government announced it would resume importing beef from the United States after a five-year ban. That ban was instituted over a case of mad cow disease in the United States in 2003. The widespread public protests essentially paralyzed the government of President Lee Myung-bak, who replaced seven top aides this month and plans to reshuffle his Cabinet. Tens of thousands of auto workers in South Korea went on strike Wednesday to oppose the government's lifting of the ban. After a series of negotiations, Seoul and Washington came up with a revised agreement on June 21 -- one that limits imports to cattle younger than 30 months old. Animals older than 30 months old are considered at a greater risk for mad cow disease, which can be transmitted to humans. The revised agreement also excludes the import of certain parts believed more susceptible to mad cow disease. The initial deal would have allowed the import of all U.S. beef imports. Scientists believe mad cow disease spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The U.S. banned recycled feeds in 1997. Eating meat products contaminated with the illness has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady in humans. Until the 2003 ban, South Korea was the third-largest market for U.S. beef exporters. South Korea's new pro-U.S. president agreed to lift the import ban in April before a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush. But the move provoked a backlash over health concerns spurred in part by false media reports about risks, along with a sense that South Korea had backed down too easily to American pressure. The government has vowed to get tough with the rallies. In Washington, the White House announced that Bush would visit South Korea on August 5-6 before heading to the Beijing Olympics. Bush had originally been expected to go to Seoul next week when he visits Japan for the G-8 summit, but the trip did not materialize amid the protests. CNN's Sohn Jie-ae contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tens of thousands of South Koreans protest imports of U.S. beef .\nBeef imports largely banned since 2003 when mad cow disease found in U.S.\nProtests essentially paralyzed the government of President Lee Myung-bak .","id":"55aa3ebb3bf0b9fb34d4a0f9a86e847136228c9e"} -{"article":"WINNENDEN, Germany (CNN) -- Students jumped out of windows and locked themselves in classrooms as a former pupil rampaged through a German school with a gun, killing at least a dozen people there Wednesday, a student at the school told CNN. People lay flowers at the school Wednesday. \"Suddenly there were police standing in front of me and told us to run outside quickly,\" Luisa Santonastaso, 16, said. \"At first we didn't know what to do. So first we went to the class and picked up some of our classmates and ran out. \"Then we heard that someone was inside shooting. Then we also saw a teacher who had blood on his hands because he wanted to help a female teacher who sacrificed herself for a student -- she stood in front of a student to protect her,\" the girl told CNN by phone from Germany. \"The guy just entered the classroom and started shooting and a friend of mine was panicking so much that she jumped out of a window. I think she broke her arm. She's in hospital now.\" Santonastaso's friend was not the only one who jumped, she said. Dressed in military gear, the gunman -- identified by police as Tim Kretschmer, 17 -- killed a total of 15 people in two different towns before he died. Watch more about the shootings \u00bb . Initial indications are that he shot himself, but police are continuing to investigate, said Erwin Hetger, the regional chief of police. The rampage in Winnenden, a small town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Stuttgart, and spread to neighboring Wendlingen. As people at Albertville-Realschule Winnenden school -- where Kretschmer used to be a student -- realized what was happening, many burst into tears, Santonastaso said. \"Everybody was crying because nobody could really imagine what had just happened. They brought us to the swimming pool hall in Winnenden for security reasons,\" she said. \"Then all our parents were called because no child was allowed to leave without parents,\" she continued. At least one parent got awful news when she arrived. \"One mother came and the teachers had to tell her that her child had been injured or shot dead, and then she cried really hard and fainted,\" Santonastaso said. iReport.com: Town in shock over shooting . Santonastaso's own parents were more fortunate. \"When I first called to tell them what had happened they wanted to come right away, but I told them that wasn't possible because we were being brought to somewhere safe,\" she said. Later, she said: \"My parents and my friend came and we went out with them. Out there it got a bit better.\" CNN's Marco Woldt and Lianne Turner contributed to this report .","highlights":"Student tells how classes turned to horror at hands of rampaging gunman .\nShe says one teacher shot when she put herself between the gunman and a student .\nStudents jumped from windows to escape killer .\nGunman killed 15 people in two German towns near Stuttgart .","id":"72741127429bf233d52aa4060da20aeb8b670bdc"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- For five years, the horrible memory has lingered in the minds of Madrid's commuters, quietly riding their trains into the heart of the city. The pain is easing, but it's a nagging ache just the same. The rush-hour train bombings killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others. It was March 11, 2004, during morning rush hour, that terrorists armed with powerful bombs boarded these same commuter train lines, unleashing an onslaught that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others. The attacks are the deadliest in Europe since the rise of al Qaeda. More than a year later on July 7, 2005, terrorists would stage bombings on the London transit system that killed 52 people and wounded hundreds more. The explosives were left on the Spanish trains in sports bags and backpacks -- sometimes placed under seats -- court documents say. The terrorists got off at various stations down the line, before cell-phone timers detonated 10 bombs in quick succession on four trains at three stations. Police dismantled another bomb that didn't explode. It provided vital clues that led to arrests. Eighteen people, mostly Islamic militants, have been convicted in the attacks. Watch more on the anniversary . Juan Carlos Garcia, an engineer who took the train later that same day, said he knows a couple whose daughter died in the attacks. \"It was very tough, especially knowing it could have been you,\" Garcia said. \"Now, you remember it, but not the same as when it just happened.\" Beata Sadecka, a regular commuter, says she rides cautiously. \"Every day, when I get on the train, I always ride in the last car,\" Sadecka said. \"I don't know why, for safety,\" she added, not quite sure of her motives. On one train, the first explosion was in a rear car and, as people ran forward to get away, they were hit by explosions in the middle cars, investigators have said. \"People remember the March 11th attacks,\" said Vicente Jimenez, a deputy editor with El Pais newspaper, \"and while conscious that the threat continues, you have to continue with your life.\" Memorial observations were scheduled throughout the day, including five minutes of silence for the victims. King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero were not taking part in the public events. A victims group called their non-participation a slight. But on this fifth anniversary, most commuters are just going about their business, with that nagging ache still lingering.","highlights":"Spain commemorates fifth anniversary of Madrid train bombings .\nMarch 11, 2004, attacks killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 .\nExplosives were left on the Spanish trains in sports bags and backpacks .","id":"8b1ac6b9228d98f2873abafbe2c1040da91d3410"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedian Jay Leno's plan to hold a free concert for the jobless of Detroit, Michigan, drew criticism from a politician in the city. A Detroit politician believes Jay Leno should change the location of his free show for the city's unemployed. Detroit City Councilwoman Martha Reeves likes the idea, but she said the \"Tonight Show\" host needs to change the location. \"When I heard Jay Leno say Detroit is one of his favorite places and he's going to do a free concert for the people laid off, to people who don't have any money right now, given the economic state we're all in, I was elated,\" Reeves said. \"Then he said Auburn Hills... and that's not Detroit.\" Auburn Hills is a well-to-do suburb of Detroit, but is located in Oakland County, which has had its share of economic troubles as well. The free comedy show -- called \"Jay's Comedy Stimulus Plan\" -- is set for April 7 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, which holds about 24,000 people. \"I thought I might try to get a word to him that we have a Ford Field, we have a Cobo Hall, we have wonderful theaters here, the Fox Theater,\" Reeves said. \"He could come and present something to Detroit as he said.\" Free tickets for the show will be given out beginning Monday at 10 a.m., according to Leno's Web site. Leno, host of NBC's Tonight Show for more than 15 years, has a new job himself. He will move from late night to a 10 p.m. show.","highlights":"Detroit councilwoman says Jay Leno should change concert location .\nComedian plans to perform free show in Auburn Hills, a well-to-do suburb .\nMartha Reeves' suggestions: Ford Field, Cobo Hall, the Fox Theater .\nFree tickets for the show will be given out beginning Monday at 10 a.m.","id":"a05cb77ab3fc43125c6b86543d1c46c57f897d6b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A portrait painted 400 years ago and kept anonymously in an Irish home for much of the time since is now believed to be the only painting of William Shakespeare created during his lifetime. The portrait of William Shakespeare is thought to be the \"only\" portrait painted during his lifetime. The image reveals a wealthy Shakespeare of high social status, contradicting the popular view of a struggling playwright of humble status, according to Stanley Wells, a professor who chairs London's Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Wells, a distinguished Shakespeare scholar, arranged for three years of research and scientific testing which confirmed it was painted around 1610, when Shakespeare would have been 46 years old. \"A rather young looking 46, it has to be said,\" Wells said. Shakespeare died in 1616. The Cobbe portrait -- named after the Irish family that owns the painting -- shows Shakespeare with rosy cheeks, a full head of hair, and a reddish brown beard. The most common portrait of Shakespeare is a gray image showing a bald Bard with a small mustache and beard, and bags under his eyes. The identity of the man in the portrait was lost over the centuries -- until Alec Cobbe saw a portrait from Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library. That painting, which fell into disfavor as a Shakespeare portrait about 70 years ago, turned out to be one of four copies of Cobbe's portrait. The portrait \"shows a man wearing expensive costuming, including a very beautifully painted ruff of Italian lacework which would have been very expensive,\" Wells said. \"It establishes, for me, that Shakespeare in his later years was a rather wealthy, a rather well affluent member of aristocratic circles in the society of his time,\" Wells said. \"There's been too much of a tendency to believe that Shakespeare, being the son of a glover, coming for a small town in the middle of England, that he necessarily retained a rather humble status throughout his life.\" Wells reads even more into what he sees in Shakespeare's newly-found face. \"I think it's plausible as a portrait as a good listener, of somebody who would have been capable of writing the plays, clearly the face of a man of high intelligence,\" he said. \"It's the face of a man, I think, who betrays a good deal of wisdom in his features. But, of course, as somebody (King Duncan) says in Shakespeare's story Macbeth, 'there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.'\" It should be noted that Shakespeare's King Duncan paid a price for judging Macbeth to have the face of an honorable man. Macbeth later murdered the king. The public can read Shakespeare's face from the original painting at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon where it goes on display for several months starting April 23. The portrait then returns to the Cobbe family, which inherited it when an ancestor married England's Earl of Southampton -- a friend of Shakespeare who likely commissioned its painting.","highlights":"Shakespeare group unveil \"only\" portrait of playwright painted during his lifetime .\nPainting on display after three years of research and testing .\nIt was painted in about 1610 -- or six years before Shakespeare's death .\nIdentity of man in painting was lost until owner saw a copy of it in a museum .","id":"b344d243cd99bdcc9f96906edb7fbfd15c5e4774"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Key members of Congress from both parties want NASA's internal watchdog fired, arguing he can't be trusted to oversee the $1 billion in additional money the space agency is getting under the Obama administration's economic stimulus package. Lawmakers say NASA's inspector general cannot be trusted and must go. Government reports dating back to 2006 have accused NASA Inspector General Robert \"Moose\" Cobb of ineffectiveness, of profanely berating employees and being too close to the agency's leadership. Calls for his ouster have intensified in the past month, since NASA is getting additional stimulus money for space exploration, research, and aeronautics. \"Apparently, Mr. Cobb thought he was supposed to be the lap dog, rather than the watchdog, of NASA,\" Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tennessee, told CNN. Gordon, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, has asked President Obama to remove Cobb. In a letter co-authored by Rep. Brad Miller, D-North Carolina, who leads the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, the lawmakers argue that \"NASA cannot afford another four years with an ineffective inspector general.\" Watch NASA watchdog under fire \u00bb . \"It's incredibly ironic for members of Congress who have scolded the inspector general for lousy oversight to dump a billion dollars into the agency,\" said Pete Sepp, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group that monitors government spending. \"The first thing you do when you're digging a hole is to stop digging. Congress doesn't seem to get that message.\" Cobb declined two requests from CNN to respond to the complaints. In December 2008, the Government Accountability Office released a report that criticized how Cobb was running the inspector general's office. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, \"found that Mr. Cobb is one of the least productive IGs in the federal government,\" Gordon and Miller wrote. \"His monetary accomplishments reflect a return of just 36 cents for every dollar budgeted for his office. This compares with an average of $9.49 returned for every dollar spent on other IGs' offices. The main reason for this failure is that NASA's audit operation is not working.\" Gordon told CNN that Cobb's \"own peers said he wasn't doing his job, that he didn't understand the audit process and that he was not carrying out the investigation process. As a matter of fact, he was slowing it down, or even stopping it.\" And Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, agreed that Cobb must be replaced. \"Inspectors general are the first line of defense against the waste of taxpayers' money,\" Grassley told CNN. \"And, if he's not doing his job, and you stick another billion dollars into it, then you just know there's another billion dollars that there could be a lot of waste of it.\" A 2006 investigation by a presidential integrity council found Cobb \"engaged in abuse of authority\" and had a \"close relationship\" with former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe that \"compromised\" his independence. The two played golf together and took official trips together on NASA aircraft. Read investigative integrity report (Warning: Report contains explicit language) The committee also found that Cobb \"engaged in an abuse of authority\" through his \"habitual use of profanity,\" and recommended disciplinary action \"up to and including removal,\" Gordon and Miller wrote. Cobb defended himself at a 2007 congressional hearing, arguing that he had upheld his oath of office. \"At NASA, I have taken the responsibilities of office under the Inspector General Act seriously and without compromise to root out and prevent fraud, waste and abuse, and to promote the economy and efficiency of the agency,\" he said. \"I've worked with NASA management in the manner contemplated by the Inspector General Act.\" But former staffers told the committee that Cobb created a disturbing work environment. \"One of my early experiences with Mr. Cobb was so disturbing that I considered leaving the OIG almost immediately afterwards,\" said Debra Herzog, former deputy assistant inspector-general for investigations. \"At a scheduled weekly meeting, Mr. Cobb, in front of his deputy and my supervisor, berated me concerning a word in a letter. In an ensuing monologue, loudly peppered with profanities, Mr. Cobb insulted and ridiculed me,\" Herzog recounted. Lance Carrington, the former assistant inspector general for investigations, told the panel that \"in many investigative cases, Mr. Cobb appeared to have a lack of independence when NASA officials were subjects, or if arrest\/search warrants were obtained for NASA facilities. Mr. Cobb would question every aspect of the cases and gave the appearance he wanted to derail them before agents were given adequate time to investigate the allegations.\" Gordon told CNN it's time for Cobb to go. \"President Obama needs to replace Mr. Cobb as quickly as possible with someone who can do the job,\" he said.","highlights":"Lawmakers say NASA watchdog can't be trusted to oversee $1B in stimulus funds .\nGovernment reports say NASA inspector general is too closely tied to the agency .\nIG Robert Cobb \"thought he was supposed to be the lap dog,\" congressman says .\nCobb declined two requests to speak with CNN for this report .","id":"6cb01372bb85aca6c0da0870aa6249c213ff74bf"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The top court in Iraq sentenced two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers to death Wednesday for crimes against humanity. Tariq Aziz, seen in 2002, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity. The court also sentenced former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and a former senior official known as \"Chemical Ali\" -- Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- to 15 years in custody for crimes against humanity, an official with the Iraq High Tribunal told CNN. The men were sentenced for their roles in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants. In an unrelated trial last week, Al-Majeed was sentenced to death for his role in putting down an uprising in Baghdad a decade ago, Iraqi state TV reported. It was the third death sentence for al-Majeed, a cousin of Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq who was toppled from power by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003. Al-Majeed and other former members of Hussein's regime remain in U.S. custody. His execution has been delayed for political rather than legal reasons. In last week's trial, Aziz was acquitted. Aziz, one of the best-known faces of the Hussein regime, was Iraq's deputy prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and also served as minister of foreign affairs for part of that time. He was captured by U.S. forces in April 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Meanwhile, car bombs in the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk killed six people on Wednesday, officials told CNN. The Mosul car bomb, which targeted troops, killed four people and wounded 14 others, an Interior Ministry official said. The car, parked near the city's medical college, blew up near an Iraqi army patrol. Of the dead, three were soldiers. Four other soldiers were among those wounded. Mosul, which has long been a volatile city, has had a strong militant presence. In Kirkuk, a parked car bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing two civilians and wounding seven others. The oil-rich and ethnically diverse city is known for sectarian and political tension. People were injured in wo other incidents in Iraq on Wednesday. In Baghdad, mortar fire in a residential area wounded four civilians. And a roadside bomb in the largely Kurdish town of Jalawla in Diyala province wounded four police officers. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this story .","highlights":"NEW: Car bombs in northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk kill six people .\nTwo Saddam Hussein half-brothers sentenced to death for crimes against humanity .\nCourt gives 15-year sentences to former Deputy PM Tariq Aziz and \"Chemical Ali\"\n\"Chemical Ali,\" Hussein's cousin, already faces three death sentences .","id":"a63c05ab7c5b5dce4b58f61c9aa772317bbac17e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The power of women hit the State Department on Wednesday when first lady Michelle Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to celebrate champions of women's rights around the world. Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton present the State Department Women of Courage Awards. The event was to celebrate the State Department Women of Courage Awards, but highlighted how both the current and former first ladies have made women's rights a signature issue. Since calling women's rights a human rights issue at a women's conference in Beijing in 1995, Clinton has made it a personal mission to champion the rights of women. Her first two trips as secretary of state have been packed with events promoting the importance of women's rights. \"These personal experiences have informed my work, and I will continue to fight for human rights as secretary of state in traditional and especially nontraditional ways and venues,\" Clinton told the audience. You \"can't solve problems of financial crisis, climate change, disease and poverty if half of the population is left behind,\" Clinton said. The rights of women will \"always be central to our foreign policy.\" In a commentary published Monday in honor of International Women's Day, Clinton warned that \"women still comprise the majority of the world's poor, unfed and unschooled.\" \"Global problems are too big and too complex to be solved without the full participation of women,\" she wrote in the article, which ran in more than 50 newspapers around the world. \"Strengthening women's rights is not only a continuing moral obligation -- it is also a necessity as we face a global economic crisis, the spread of terrorism and nuclear weapons, regional conflicts that threaten families and communities, and climate change and the dangers it presents to the world's health and security.\" Ambiga Sreenevasan, a Malaysian lawyer who won an award Wednesday for her work on behalf of justice for women, called Clinton \"a woman of courage who has encouraged woman around the world.\" Clinton's speech declaring that women's rights are human rights, Sreenevasan said, has \"resonated with a lot of us here.\" Clinton also heaped praise on the current first lady, saying that in a very short time, Michelle Obama \"through her grace and her wisdom [has] become an inspiration to women and girls, not only in the United States, but around the world.\" Obama spoke about the importance of proper health care, education and justice for women in ensuring strong families and communities. \"The difference between a broken community and a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued, where relationships among women and between women and men are based upon mutual respect,\" Obama said. Obama said the work done by the honorees has not just changed their own circumstances, but by inspiring hope and motivating others to act, that work also has changed women's lives around the world. \"This is how real change occurs, one determined woman at a time. And change is coming,\" she said. \"The women we honor today teach us three very important lessons. One, that as women, we must stand up for ourselves. The second, as women we must stand up for each other. And finally, as women we must stand up for justice for all.\" On Wednesday, President Obama created a White House Council on Women and Girls, charged with devising a coordinated federal response to various challenges faced by American women. The council, which will be led by senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and which will include most members of the president's Cabinet, will be charged with ensuring that all governmental agencies take the needs of women into account. The president said the council will also help ensure a more coordinated federal response on a range of issues, including equal pay, family leave and child care. He also nominated Melanne Verveer, Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady, as ambassador-at-large for global women's issues. In addition to Sreenevasan, the Women of Courage honorees make up an impressive list of advocates on behalf of women under difficult and often dangerous circumstances. Hadizatou Mani escaped caste-based slavery in Niger to help fight for rights of other people still enslaved in the country. Veronika Marchenko was honored for her activism on behalf of slain soldiers' families in Russia. Suaad Allami won an award for running a nongovernmental organization on behalf of women in Sadr City, Iraq, that is considered a \"one-stop shop\" for legal, educational and domestic violence counseling for women. Mutabar Tadjibayeva is one of the most vocal activists in Uzbekistan fighting on behalf of women's rights, despite being arrested and beaten by police. In Guatemala, where an average of two women each day die a violent death, Norma Cruz provides support to families of women who are murdered. One honoree, 12-year-old Reem al-Numery of Yemen, was unable to attend because she is in court fighting her forced marriage to a 30-year-old cousin who allegedly raped and beat her. Her battle in the courts to divorce her husband has sparked an avalanche of activism on behalf of Yemeni preteens sold into wedlock.","highlights":"First lady, secretary of state honor champions of women's rights .\nEvent celebrates State Department Women of Courage Awards .\nClinton: Rights of women will \"always be central to our foreign policy\"\nObama: \"As women we must stand up for justice for all\"","id":"c7f5ff67b3c156c5ea429d3850ea5ff39b98b38a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pet store expecting a shipment of exotic fish this week found itself with a man's dead body instead. The man's widow told CNN that it might have been her husband's \"last practical joke.\" The body of Jon Kenoyer, a California man who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was being donated to an Allentown, Pennsylvania, research group, Life Quest Anatomical. The shipment was handled by US Airways, which also has delivered imported fish from throughout the world to Pets Plus Pet Center for more than a decade, store manager Mike Mullarkey said. On Tuesday, Mullarkey said, he received what he thought was an expected shipment of seahorses, anemones and corals from Vietnam via California. Before opening it, however, he discovered that the box's label indicated that it contained the remains of a man who had died four days before. The Pets Plus people were \"shocked to see that,\" he said. Mary Kenoyer, Jon Kenoyer's widow, told CNN that she was initially startled by the news, but was able to see the comic side of it. \"At first, of course, you're upset and shocked. But then I realized it was just a mistake,\" she said. Noting her husband had been afraid of flying during his life, she said, \"He's just playing the last practical joke on me for putting him on a plane.\" Kenoyer said she hopes news of the mistake won't discourage others from donating their bodies to science. \"The casket wasn't opened and was treated with respect,\" she said. Mullarkey said police supervised the return of the shipment to US Airways, which rerouted it to Life Quest. \"In all the years, I can understand a mixup,\" Mullarkey said. \"But something like that, I think, should be handled a little more delicately.\" US Airways issued a statement of apology: \"Regrettably, there was an unfortunate mixup yesterday at the US Airways Cargo facility near Philadelphia International Airport. The mixup occurred due to a verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative. We are working to rectify the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.\" A spokeswoman at Life Quest Anatomical declined to comment.","highlights":"Body of Jon Kenoyer delivered to Pets Plus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania .\nIntended for delivery to Life Quest Anatomical in Allentown, Pennsylvania .\nPet store expected shipment of seahorses, anemones, and corals .\n\"He's just playing the last practical joke on me,\" says widow .","id":"5282bc477156595129ad336e104ca87dabd54840"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The gigolo former lover of Germany's richest woman has been jailed for six years after confessing to blackmailing her and other women out of millions of dollars, a court official said Monday. Helg Sgarbi has admitted blackmailing Germany's richest woman, Susanne Klatten. Susanne Klatten, the BMW heiress, complained to police last year that Helg Sgarbi had threatened to release pictures of them if she did not pay him nearly $60 million. Munich's state prosecutor Anton Winkler said Sgarbi, who was accused of blackmailing several wealthy women, had made a written confession which was read by his lawyer to the court. \"He confessed that he blackmailed the victims, told them untrue stories,\" Winkler told CNN. However, Sgarbi had not revealed what had happened to the estimated $12.5 million he had taken from his victims nor where the pictures had gone. \"It is really only half a confession. We asked him about where the money is, about accomplices and videos... and he refused to say anything about that,\" Winkler said. Authorities said Klatten, who is married with three children, had an affair with Sgarbi. He started to ask her for money, and she paid several million at first, but when she refused to provide more he threatened to send compromising videos to her husband and the media. Klatten went to the police in January 2008, telling them she was the victim of a fraud and blackmail. At the time, her spokesman, Joerg Appelhans, told CNN that Sgarbi's goal had always been to con her. \"She rigorously notified authorities even in light of the uncomfortable public repercussions this would have for her,\" Appelhans said. Sgarbi's lawyer, Egon Geis, said he was surprised by all the media attention. \"This is all because of Mrs. Klatten, take the same amount of money and any other person and no one would care.\" Sgarbi allegedly maintained relationships with a number of women, telling them he was a special Swiss representative in crisis zones. Klatten, the daughter of the late BMW chief Herbert Quandt, holds a 12.5-percent stake in the German carmaker and a 51.1-percent share of chemical company Altana. Forbes magazine lists her as the world's 55th richest person, with a personal fortune of $13.2 billion. CNN's Fred Pleitgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Germany's richest woman told police she was being blackmailed for millions .\nBMW heiress said former lover threatened to release images of them .\nHelg Sgarbi's admits trying to blackmail BMW heiress and others .","id":"6c02bf2dcde3f9ad37ff21423b9613f02ff90fc8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A slaying spree spread across two southern Alabama towns left 10 people dead Tuesday. The gunman then took his own life. Mayors Wynnton Melton, left, of Geneva, Alabama, and Clay King of Samson, Alabama, speak with CNN. CNN \"American Morning\" anchor Kiran Chetry spoke with the mayors of the two towns on Wednesday. They are Mayor Wynnton Melton of Geneva, Alabama, and Clay King of Samson, Alabama. Kiran Chetry, CNN anchor: Police have identified the gunman who they say went on a killing spree in southern Alabama yesterday afternoon. They say Michael McClendon murdered 10 people, including his own mother, his grandparents, an aunt, an uncle, along with a sheriff's deputy's wife and child. And these are crime scenes now spread out across two small towns this morning. And their mayors join us now, Wynnton Melton of Geneva, Alabama, and Clay King of Samson, Alabama. Mayor King, let me start with you. ... You knew all of the victims and also the shooting suspect who took his own life as well. What can you tell us about the situation this morning, Mayor King? Mayor Clay King, Samson, Alabama: Well, the whole community is still in shock. Like I said, we know, I personally know everyone that is involved, both the shooter and the victims. And that makes it more difficult to have to deal with. Watch the mayors talk of the tragedy \u00bb . Chetry: And Mayor King, you say you coached him, along with your own sons in T-ball, in Little League, and that you would have never had any idea that he could have done something like this. Is there any motive that people are talking about this morning? King: No, ma'am. At this time, I don't think anybody has any idea of what the motive is. And yes, I did. I coached the shooter's -- I coached him in both T-ball and in Little League baseball along with my two sons. Chetry: And Mayor Melton, I want to ask you about this situation. I mean, this turned -- it appears from the beginning, this shooter targeted people within his own family. After that, it turned into really a random shooting spree. He had a semiautomatic, according to police, and he was firing at random until the sheriffs were able to corner him at this place of business. What are you learning about just how dire the circumstances were and how law enforcement was able to respond the way they did? Mayor Wynnton Melton, Geneva, Alabama: That is correct. And the response was very quick. He was intercepted in Geneva by one of our officers, and then the chief of police arrived at the scene. Both of those received fire from the assailant. The chief of police was nicked in the arm, not very seriously. The pursuit went on to the metal fabrication plant, Reliable, where an exchange of gunfire occurred in the parking lot. The suspect went into the building and took his own life there inside the building, which probably had around 400 people working at the time. But no injuries there at all, in the building. He took his own life at that point. Chetry: And Mayor King, it's also just so ironic that one of the sheriff's deputies who was actually responding to the call of this emergency going on, it was his wife and one of his children killed, and his second child also airlifted to a hospital in Florida. What is going on with that situation? How did that family become involved in any way in this shooting? King: They just happened to be over across the street visiting with the family. Chetry: The family, the grandfather, grandmother, uncle and aunt who were out on the porch? King: Right, right. Chetry: So, just an unfortunate circumstance. So, besides his family, you guys are investigating this, or your authorities are, as a random act? I mean, I know that this is going to be tough for you guys because these crime scenes are spread out over both towns, so many different locations. How are you tackling this? King: Well, we're very fortunate. We received a call from the governor this afternoon. And they have -- we've got the department of public safety here, ABI, ABC, FBI. We've got surrounding agencies that have come over to assist us. And that's how we're, you know, handling it. ABI is actually leading the investigation at this time. Chetry: And Mayor Melton, how's the community reacting to this news? I'm sure they are learning more details, and it just gets more horrific as you find out how many people lost their lives. Melton: It's still in shock. I think the community is handling it very well. But they're still in shock. We just feel here in our rural, Southern comfortable communities that things like this just don't happen. But unfortunately, they do. And that's the major topic of discussion, that we are not shielded. Being small doesn't keep you from the problems of the rest of the world. And it's just a matter of comforting each other and a lot of discussions, a lot of prayers for the family here in Samson. Chetry: Absolutely. Our prayers are with you guys, too. A real tough morning there. Mayors King and Melton, thanks so much for joining us this morning. King: Thank you. Melton: Thank you, ma'am.","highlights":"Mayor says he coached gunman in T-ball, Little League .\n\"The whole community is still in shock,\" mayor says .\nKillings show that even in small towns, \"we are not shielded\"","id":"cbce525fff8406f3a6fcd3f3f39b2df938f3026d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thierry Henry scored twice as Barcelona booked their place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League with a 5-2 second leg victory against Lyon at the Nou Camp. Lionel Messi, left, and Thierry Henry celebrate as Barcelona reach the last eight of the Champions League. Former winners Porto joined them at the next stage after their return leg against Atletico finished goalless in Lisbon -- the 2-2 draw in the first leg in Madrid sending them through on the away goals. Spain's Primera Liga leaders Barcelona strolled into a 4-0 first half lead on their way to a 6-3 aggregate success with Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto'o building on Henry's double. Jean Makoun pulled one back just before half-time and Juninho struck three minutes after the restart, but the French champions never looked like disturbing Barca's path to the March 20 draw. Lyon's hopes suffered another blow when Juninho was given his marching orders after picking up a second yellow card in time added on and Seydou Keita took full advantage by snatching another in the final seconds. Having conceded an away goal in a 1-1 draw in the first leg at the Stade Gerland, Lyon had to score to stand any chance of progressing. After a fairly even opening, a quickfire double from Henry dictated the outcome of the tie. After 25 minutes he latched onto a ball from Rafael Marquez, beating the offside trap to slide the ball under Hugo Lloris. Two minutes later Henry doubled the lead when he slid the ball in at the near post past the advancing Lloris. Messi showed his class in the 40th minute. The Argentina star collected the ball on the right touchline, before embarking on a mazy run past three Lyon defenders. He then exchanged a one-two with Eto'o, before firing a low shot home. Eto'o was desperate to get on the scoresheet himself as he stormed into the box from the left, only to see his shot saved by Lloris from point-blank range. Within a minute, though, he had made amends as he popped up in the box, side-stepped his marker and smashed the ball home. A minute from the break, Makoun made it 4-1 as he headed home Juninho's corner. And the former Brazil midfielder got on the scoresheet himself three minutes after the break following a cross from Cesar Delgado. Any thoughts of a comeback failed to materialise as Barca continued to create a raft of chances. As the game moved, into stoppage time, Juninho picked up a second booking for dissent and moments later Mali midfielder Keita made it five for Barca.","highlights":"Barcelona beat Lyon 5-2 in second leg to reach Champions League last eight .\nThierry Henry on target twice as Spain's Barcelona progress 6-3 on aggregate .\nPorto also through on away goals after goalless home leg against Atletico .","id":"4125e5aa3c28f28946cee47cb4790e1fc712f71c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A football team from southern Italy is hoping for entry into the Guinness World Records because all their players have the same surname, according to a media report. The entire squad of Team De Feo, an amateur side from the town of Serino, have \"De Feo\" as their surname -- as does the coach, doctor and club secretary and sponsors, British newspaper The Independent reported. The club's ground even sits on Via Raffaele De Feo. A tourism Web site for Serino shows that the mayor's name is Gaetano De Feo. According to The Independent, the team was established by former Serie A player, Maurizio De Feo, who says he founded the team in a bid for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records. The name De Feo is very common in the region. A Guinness World Records spokesman told CNN there did not appear to be any active categories that the team's identical surnames would fit in to -- but that new ideas were always welcomed. If the team was to submit a claim to Guinness World Records, the idea would be considered and a new category could potentially be created, the spokesman said.","highlights":"Amateur football team in southern Italy all have same surname .\n\"Team De Feo\" founded by former Serie A player Maurizio De Feo .\nTeam has ambitions to get into Guinness Book of World Records .","id":"c9b3fcee7876513b8bf122399dbcdc1e46cb89a6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A football team from southern Italy is hoping for entry into the Guinness World Records because all their players have the same surname, according to a media report. The entire squad of Team De Feo, an amateur side from the town of Serino, have \"De Feo\" as their surname -- as does the coach, doctor and club secretary and sponsors, British newspaper The Independent reported. The club's ground even sits on Via Raffaele De Feo. A tourism Web site for Serino shows that the mayor's name is Gaetano De Feo. According to The Independent, the team was established by former Serie A player, Maurizio De Feo, who says he founded the team in a bid for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records. The name De Feo is very common in the region. A Guinness World Records spokesman told CNN there did not appear to be any active categories that the team's identical surnames would fit in to -- but that new ideas were always welcomed. If the team was to submit a claim to Guinness World Records, the idea would be considered and a new category could potentially be created, the spokesman said.","highlights":"Amateur football team in southern Italy all have same surname .\n\"Team De Feo\" founded by former Serie A player Maurizio De Feo .\nTeam has ambitions to get into Guinness Book of World Records .","id":"82a68bd672596d342ece8907e8bdf69c90760edf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What do you do when your 10-year-old son wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, \"There's a 'roo in my room!\" Beat Ettlin wrestled a kangaroo out of his house near Canberra after it crashed through a window. If you're Beat Ettlin, you wrest the marsupial into a headlock, drag it down your hallway and toss it out your front door. Ettlin and his family were woken early Sunday when a 6-foot-tall kangaroo crashed through a window, landed on their bed and thrashed around their house in the suburb of Garran, south of the capital of Canberra, Australia. \"At first, he (my husband) thought it was a lunatic ninja,\" said Ettlin's wife, Verity Beman. \"It leaped through the window, this martial-arts kind of figure. It was very Jackie Chan.\" The family's one-story house is in a suburb that butts against a kangaroo reserve. About 2 a.m. Sunday, their dog began barking furiously. Possibly possums, they thought. The family had put up with possums scampering across their roof every night since they moved in three weeks ago. Moments later, the window was smashed and a black figure landed on their bed. Ettlin, after gathering his wits about him, exclaimed, \"It's OK. It's only a kangaroo,\" Beman recalled. \"I was cowered under the quilt, thinking, 'No, it's not OK,'\" she said. The kangaroo jumped on top of the blanket that Beman and her 9-year-old daughter were hiding under. It then leaped onto the nightstand, punched holes in the furniture and left blood stains on the wall as it bounced into their son's room. \"That's when his male instinct kicked in,\" Beman said of her husband. After putting the 90-pound creature in a choke hold, Ettlin kept it low to the ground and pulled it toward the front door. He knew that kangaroos carry their strength on their hind legs, Beman said. \"He held it by one arm. He opened the front door with the other, then the screen door,\" she said. \"It bounced across our veranda and bounced away.\" Ettlin is a chef, originally from the Swiss city of Stans. Beman thinks he would not have tackled the kangaroo so readily were he Australian. \"They would be fully aware of the risk,\" she said. The house in shambles -- with blood and shattered glass everywhere -- Ettlin stood surveying the damage in his shredded underpants. Scratch marks ran down his leg, but otherwise he was fine. \"I kept marveling at what he did,\" Beman said. \"I called him my hero. My hero in Bonds undies.\"","highlights":"Beat Ettlin wrestles with kangaroo that leapt through window into house .\nKangaroo jumped into son's room but Ettlin got it in a headlock .\nWife: \"It leaped through the window, this martial-arts figure. It was very Jackie Chan\"","id":"8eb0d4fbd09250f931541ea361937c5114b1ae3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Residents of Second Life, the online virtual environment, can do all kinds of things they can't in real life: fly, mute other voices, even transport themselves from one location (or \"sim\") to another. Real-life human anger even can spill over into Second Life, the online virtual world. But though they may be godlike online, they're still human in real life -- and like all humans, they can become victim to their emotions. \"I have been in many situations over the past two years in Second Life where people have been rude, overly aggressive, bullying me by tracking me down using my profile and flaming [me] with words or grief,\" said Anoron Hanson, a Second Life regular, in an e-mail interview. Rekka Berchot, another Second Life citizen, says she believes that people act differently in SL than they do in real life, or \"RL,\" as Second Lifers call it. \"You don't use filters as much in Second Life,\" she said. \"I find that there are things about yourself that come out in Second Life that [don't] in real life.\" If you are attacked in Second Life, she adds, there's little you can do besides file an abuse report; SL players can boot others off their sims, but the effect is generally temporary. Better, she says, is to control the other person through your own cleverness: freezing their avatar or muting their \"voices.\" (Berchot added that \"I've been known to use kung fu.\") iReport.com: Reduction in nonverbal communication leads to misunderstandings . But, in general, what works best is to try to understand the reason for the other's behavior, says Hanson. \"I believe one can try and assess their own behavior responsibly so when we encounter such individuals we are prepared for a response that will either calm the person or leave them disinterested and go about their business elsewhere,\" he said. \"[I] smile or laugh and tell them how clever they are for doing what they did.\" He says Second Life, in general, is a good life: \"Those who take the time to really find out how to live and thrive in SL safely and still have fun are the ones who will last the longest,\" he said. iReport.com: Jealousy and fantasy play out in a virtual world . He's philosophical about the game's occasional bad apples. \"There is nothing you can do about the flaming. It is here to stay. You have to remember that a great deal of us online are often ill or restricted in some way in their real lives,\" he observed. \"My point is, there is nothing you can do save to keep the rules in place and moderate the situation. It is a free country, just let the poor bastards vent their frustrations.\"","highlights":"Second Life, the online environment, has its share of angry people .\nAt worst, players can be written up, but others try to understand them .\nUser: \"There is nothing you can do save to keep the rules in place\"\niReport.com: Share your stories from Second Life .","id":"fdcefba287a677f1f470f71be9cd28df3f7b0b60"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas woman accused of killing her toddler daughter and dumping the body in Galveston Bay has been found guilty of murder by a jury in Galveston, Texas. Kimberly Dawn Trenor received a life sentence without possibility of parole in the murder of her daughter. Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 20, showed no emotion as the verdict was read late Monday. Trenor had pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in the case, but pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge. She received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The body of Trenor's daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers, was found in October 2007 in a large blue plastic container on an uninhabited island in Galveston Bay. Two-year-old Riley Ann's case drew national attention after a fisherman found her body. Authorities didn't know her identity, and police dubbed her \"Baby Grace.\" After authorities distributed composite sketches of the girl nationwide, Sheryl Sawyers, the girl's paternal grandmother, contacted police from her Ohio home to say the drawing resembled her granddaughter. DNA testing confirmed the child's identity. According to an affidavit, Trenor told police Riley had been beaten and thrown across a room and that her head was held under water before she died on July 24, 2007. Another piece of evidence shown to the jury during the trial was a page of Trenor's journal where she talked of beating the child, according to CNN affiliate KTRK. \"I just kept hitting her with the belt again and again. I don't know how long, but I remember her trying to get away and me knocking her back down,\" the journal said. Trenor's husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 25, also faces capital murder and evidence tampering charges, but is being tried separately. A court date has not been set in that case.","highlights":"Body of Kimberly Dawn Trenor's daughter found on Galveston Bay island in 2007 .\nPolice dubbed girl \"Baby Grace\" before her identity was known .\nTrenor wrote in journal about beating toddler .\nTrenor's husband to face murder charges in separate trial .","id":"5796e888d880070b1aa6fc516b9e3bcfaa3ff8d3"} -{"article":"SAMSON, Alabama (CNN) -- The man who killed 10 people, then himself, in a shooting rampage in southern Alabama had failed in his dreams both to become a U.S. Marine and a police officer, and was depressed and unhappy with his life, investigators said Thursday. The shooter, Michael McLendon, killed his mother before killing others. Michael McLendon, 28, fatally shot his mother in his hometown of Kinston on Tuesday before driving to nearby Samson and Geneva, killing nine more, then fatally shooting himself after a shootout with police. Authorities are calling it the deadliest single assault in recorded Alabama history. \"He was going to go until he was stopped, by himself or someone else,\" said Col. Chris Murphy of the Alabama Department of Public Safety. \"He had obviously planned to go out in grand style.\" McLendon left behind a letter, apparently after killing his mother, that described how he did so and saying that he planned to kill himself, according to Murphy. The letter \"describes how McLendon harbored ill feelings toward family members due to a family dispute.\" McLendon -- a self-proclaimed survivalist who was known to train with the rifles he used in the shooting spree -- enlisted in the Marines in 1999, but was kicked out one month later for \"fraudulent enlistment,\" Murphy said. He was hired as a police officer in 2003, but let go a month later for what Murphy called physical issues. The nearly hourlong assault ended 24 miles from where it began at Reliable Metal Products plant in Geneva, where McLendon had worked in 2003. \"McLendon made statements of being depressed and was dissatisfied with his present position in life,\" Murphy said. \"His dream was to become a Marine, and later a police officer. Both those dreams were unfulfilled.\" McLendon was armed with two assault rifles -- an SKS and a Bushmaster -- and two pistols, and a shotgun was found in his car. \"At this time, we believe that he fired in excess of 200 rounds during the assaults,\" the Department of Public Safety said in a news release. McLendon had no known criminal record before carrying out the rampage, officials said. Coffee County district attorney Gary McAliley said neighbors and co-workers described McLendon as quiet and shy. Some neighbors complained that he was always shooting firearms behind his home, he said -- but feared only that McLendon would accidentally kill one of their cows. Watch how the shaken towns are trying to cope \u00bb . Co-workers at Kelley Foods, where he unexpectedly resigned last week, said they had a nickname for him -- Doughboy -- that he didn't like. \"I don't think anybody could have anticipated this by looking at him and interacting with him,\" McAliley said. \"But, certainly he had a volcano inside of him.\" McLendon called the Samson City Hall about 1 p.m. Tuesday and asked whether the city council would be meeting in the evening, Michelle Flanery, magistrate and billing clerk, told CNN Radio. Flanery said she replied that there was no meeting scheduled that day and that McLendon thanked her before hanging up. Authorities said McLendon also had a list of current and former co-workers, some whose names were accompanied by notes on ways he felt they'd wronged him. But the note was not a \"hit list,\" as had been reported, and none of the people whose names were listed were attacked, they said. View images from the rampage \u00bb . Among the dead were the wife and toddler of Geneva County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers, who was involved in the standoff with McLendon before he realized his own loss. His 3-month-old daughter, Ella, was also wounded. She was rescued by a neighbor and released from a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, Thursday evening. The shootings rattled Samson and Geneva, neither of which has a population beyond 4,500 people, and sent shock waves outside the small towns affected. \"This event formed the single deadliest crime recorded in Alabama,\" said Murphy of the Department of Public Safety. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley arrived in Geneva County on Wednesday afternoon, pledging support to the community and members of law enforcement. \"I think it's a combination of just shock and disbelief,\" said Riley, a native of Ashland, Alabama, population 2,500, in east Alabama. \"I live in a little small town about like this, and I know what it would be like in my community. It really is devastating to a community this size.\" Watch the governor respond to the rampage \u00bb . \"This doesn't happen in small towns, and all of a sudden you begin to understand that you really do have the same problems in some of these small towns you have in other parts of the country.\"","highlights":"NEW: Michael McLendon left behind note describing ill will he harbored toward family .\nNEW: Shooter was going to continue \"until he was stopped,\" investigator says .\nMcLendon killed 10 people in two towns before killing himself .\nMcLendon unhappy with failed efforts to become Marine, police officer, police say .","id":"a398c64e6b826001238d2c60edd8ebb6dac61a09"} -{"article":"WINNENDEN, Germany (CNN) -- A gunman dressed in military gear killed 15 people Wednesday in a shooting spree in Germany, police said. German shooter Tim Kretschmer, 17, targeted females during his rampage. Tim Kretschmer, 17, began his rampage at a school where he used to be a student in Winnenden, a small town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Stuttgart. Most of the victims at the school were female -- eight female students, three female teachers and one male student, said Heribert Rech, interior minister for Baden Wuerttemberg region. Rech said: \"They were completely taken by surprise. Some of the victims still had their pens in their hands.\" Kretschmer opened fire in three first floor classrooms, including a physics lab where a teacher was found dead behind her desk, Rech told a news conference. Rech said police arrived in minutes. \"This speedy intervention means they prevented further escalation of events.\" The shooting at the Albertville-Realschule Winnenden school began around 9:45 a.m. (0845 GMT) and lasted about two minutes. Student Louis Schweizer was in class when he heard the gunshots. \"When I came out, I saw the shell casings lying around everywhere,\" he said. His sister, Lisa Schweizer, also heard the shots. \"It is a tragedy,\" she said. \"One of my teachers was killed.\" Another student told CNN: \"We heard that someone was inside shooting. Then we also saw a teacher who had blood on his hands because he wanted to help a female teacher who sacrificed herself for a student -- she stood in front of a student to protect her.\" Read how students jumped from windows to escape . Fifteen-year-old Natta lost a long-time friend. \"She was a very good friend of mine from soccer, and I knew her since we were four years old and it's very hard,\" she said. Kretschmer did not shoot wildly, Rech said, contradicting earlier police statements, but hit most of his victims in the head. As the first police arrived at the school, he fled and killed a person working in a hospital nearby, then hijacked a car, taking the driver hostage. He drove towards the nearby town of Wendlingen, but the car crashed on a sharp bend, Rech said. The driver escaped and called police as Kretschmer ran away and towards a car salesroom in Wendlingen where he shot a salesperson and a customer, Rech said. Watch the gunman's deadly route \u00bb . \"Police officers in civilian clothes opened fire and shot several times. The perpetrator tried to escape and was shot at least once in the leg. ... A little later he was found dead,\" he added. It was not clear if he died from injuries received in the police shootout or if he committed suicide. Regional police chief Erwin Hetger said police thought he had killed himself. Kretschmer was on the loose for three and a half hours after the incident began, police said. Watch more about the shootings \u00bb . German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was \"inconceivable that within seconds school students and teachers have been put to death by this terrible crime.\" \"It is a day of mourning for the whole of Germany,\" she said in a televised statement. Police did not know the motive for the shooting spree, CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reported from Winnenden. \"No one seems to have an explanation for why this happened,\" he said. \"Police officers have heard that this young man didn't cause much of a buzz, wasn't someone who was negative or known for violence. They have no idea why he did all this.\" Police raided his parents' home later and found they had a collection of 14 guns. The pistol used in the killing was part of the father's collection, authorities said. German gun laws are fairly restrictive and require owners to control access to them. Do you think the gun control issue is taken seriously enough? Rech said the guns were legally owned by Kretschmer's father who is a member of a gun club. At least seven people were injured in the shootings -- five people in Winnenden and two police officers in Wendlingen -- police spokeswoman Renate Roesch added. She was unable to say how serious the injuries were. Six teenagers from the from the school shooting were transported to the Waiblingen hospital with undisclosed injuries. One of those patients has already been released from the hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The families of the dead have been informed and are receiving counseling, Roesch said. About 1,000 students attend the school where the killings began. Map of the area \u00bb . Authorities sealed off the town of Winnenden and launched an intense manhunt for the gunman after the school shootings. Police said the man was about 1.80m (5'11\") and heavily armed. \"It is a small town, an idyllic town,\" said Frank Nipkau, the editor in chief of Winnenden Zeitung newspaper. \"The town people are devastated and they can't understand why this is happening in this town.\" Security at German schools has been an issue in the past. In November 2006, an 18-year-old former student strapped explosives to his body and went on a rampage at a middle school in western Germany, shooting and wounding six people -- most of them students -- before killing himself. In July 2003, a 16-year-old student shot a teacher before taking his own life at a school in the southern German town of Coburg. iReport.com: 'Fear and confusion' in German town . A year earlier, 18 people were killed when an expelled student went on a shooting spree at his school in eastern Germany. Another European country, Finland, is planning to toughen firearm laws after two school shootings there left 20 people dead. Those incidents occurred in November 2007 and September 2008. Finnish news reports on Wednesday said an Interior Ministry working group has issued a proposal calling for age 20 as the minimum age for handgun ownership and 18 as the minimum for rifles. The proposal will be circulated among legislators. -- CNN's Katy Byron, Diana Magnay, Frederik Pleitgen, Nadine Schmidt and Ivan Watson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Victims of gunman's rampage at German school are mostly female .\nNEW: Police unsure if Tim Kretschmer died from police wounds or killed himself .\nPolice: Three teachers, 9 students among 15 people during 3-hour killing spree .\nChancellor Angela Merkel: \"It is a day of mourning for the whole of Germany\"","id":"6a27a9a3307651eae1765f57253aae1727ea0892"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The search will continue until at least Friday night for 16 people missing since Thursday morning when a helicopter carrying them to an offshore oil platform ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland, Canadian officials said. A helicopter made an emergency crash landing off Newfoundland en route to Hibernia oil field on Thursday. One survivor, identified as Robert Decker, was found and taken to a hospital, but efforts to find more survivors had proven fruitless, said Maj. Denis McGuire of the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The body of one person, who has not been identified publicly, also was pulled from the water. There were 18 people aboard the helicopter when it went down, about 30 nautical miles from St. John's. \"All we've got is the debris field,\" McGuire said. \"There are no indications of any [more] survivors, but the search will continue.\" The water is 400 feet deep at the site where the helicopter hit the water, he said. Helicopters and ships were scouring the debris field Thursday evening, and search-and-rescue technicians were planning to use night-vision goggles and flares overnight. The debris filled a six-mile area, said Jeri Grychowski of the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax. Officials became aware that the helicopter was having problems shortly after 9:10 a.m., when the pilot declared a mayday, McGuire said. \"They declared their mayday and then they hit the water or landed in the water approximately eight minutes later,\" he said. About 25 minutes later, a helicopter arrived and discovered the survivor, the body, the overturned helicopter and two empty life rafts, he said. Those aboard should have have been wearing survival suits that would have kept them dry and were equipped with lights and personal locator beacons, but the suits have not helped searchers. \"We have not received any signals whatsoever,\" McGuire said. The suits theoretically would allow wearers to survive 24 hours in the freezing waters -- or until about 9 a.m. Friday -- but the search effort was to continue well beyond that. \"We will continue to search until there's absolutely no chance that any survivors will be located,\" he said. \"Until last light [Friday].\" At that time, based on water temperature and the size of the search area, officials will decide whether to continue the effort, he said. Early in the day, high winds and seas hampered the search, but by late afternoon, the weather had improved, though seas were still about 13 to 16 feet (4 to 5 meters) and winds were at about 40 knots (46 mph). The survivor was taken to the Health Sciences Center in St. John's, Newfoundland. The helicopter had been heading to the Hibernia offshore oil platform when it went down in what Grychowski called a controlled emergency crash landing. The pilot reported some technical malfunctions before the crash and radioed that he was turning the chopper around, said Rick Burt of Cougar Helicopters -- the operator of the S-92 Sikorsky copter.","highlights":"NEW: Search to continue \"until there's absolutely no chance\" of locating survivors .\nNEW: People aboard chopper should be wearing survival suits, locator beacons .\nOne survivor in hospital, one man found dead, 16 still missing .\n18 aboard were oil workers; copter ditched into waters off Newfoundland .","id":"05200e6d917d3f494a4fbf14d1ae2345e1fce888"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prince William has spoken in depth publicly for the first time about death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, 12 years ago, saying \"mummy\" is now a hollow word \"evoking only memories.\" Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris car crash 12 years ago. Prince William was only 15 and his brother Prince Harry 12 when Diana died in a Paris car crash along with Dodi Fayed in 1997. The Prince made the comment Thursday during a speech to mark his new role as patron of Britain's Child Bereavement Charity -- a group his mother was once involved with. The British Press Association reported that he told the launch of the charity's Mother's Day campaign: \"My mother Diana was present at your launch 15 years ago, and I am incredibly proud to be able to continue her support for your fantastic charity, by becoming your royal patron. \"What my mother recognized then -- and what I understand now -- is that losing a close family member is one of the hardest experiences that anyone can ever endure. \"Never being able to say the word 'Mummy' again in your life sounds like a small thing. Tell us what you think about Prince William's moving comments . \"However, for many, including me, it's now really just a word -- hollow and evoking only memories. \"I can therefore wholeheartedly relate to the Mother's Day campaign as I too have felt -- and still feel -- the emptiness on such a day as Mother's Day.\" Listen to Prince William discuss his mother. \u00bb . The charity wants to raise awareness of the problems suffered by mothers bereaved of a child or children bereaved of their mother. Based in Buckinghamshire, a region west of London, it educates professionals and supports families after a death. Writing in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper about his new role, the Prince said the reality of losing a child or parent was \"awful.\" \"Initially, there is a sense of profound shock and disbelief that this could ever happen to you. Real grief often does not hit home until much later. \"For many it is a grief never entirely lost. Life is altered as you know it, and not a day goes past without you thinking about the one you have lost.\" Mother's Day in the UK always falls on the fourth weekend of Lent, and this year is on March 22. Earlier this week France's leading society magazine, Point de Vue, reported that the Prince would marry his long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton, this summer. The magazine claimed an official announcement was \"imminent.\"","highlights":"Prince William says he feels \"emptiness\" every Mother's Day .\nHis mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris car crash 12 years ago .\nPrince: \"For many, including me, [Mummy is] now really just a word\"","id":"848f94049f343a43ef63c75778f1a08be3ca3d0b"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Polish authorities in Pakistan say they are monitoring local reports that Taliban militants have executed a kidnapped Polish engineer. Pakistani Taliban militants offer prayers in Mamouzai area of . Orakzai Agency in November. Piotr Stancza was kidnapped September 28 from the city of Attock in Punjab province. Stancza had been based there for a Polish survey company searching for natural gas. Local reports and TV station Dawn News reported Stancza's execution Saturday. Polish Embassy spokesman Peter Adams said his offices were aware of local media reports but were waiting to hear officially from Pakistani authorities. He said all efforts had been made by Polish authorities to pressure the Pakistani government to do whatever it could to secure Stancza's release. \"From the Polish side, we did whatever we could, pressuring the Pakistani government on the presidential and prime minister level,\" Adams said. \"Problem was, this was solely Pakistan's responsibility. Demands were only towards [the] Pakistan government.\" Adams said there had been no demands for ransom. The Taliban had demanded the release of Taliban prisoners being held by the government and a pullout of government security forces from the tribal areas. Although there were assurances that the Pakistani government was doing everything it could and that Stancza would be freed soon, Adams said it was never clear what the government was actually doing to secure his release. \"We are waiting for confirmation and waiting for any answer [about] how this happened and why did this happen,\" Adams said. A spokesman for Pakistan's interior ministry said that the reports of Stancza's death have yet to be confirmed and that the case of his kidnapping was a high priority for the government. Shahid Ullah Baig said the government had been working hard to retrieve Stancza unharmed but did not give details. \"The Pakistan government is doing its level best to secure his release,\" he said, adding, \"Human life is more important to us than anything else.\" Kidnappings and attacks against foreigners have risen sharply in recent months throughout the country. Most recently, an American working for the United Nations was kidnapped in Quetta, and Peshawar has been the scene of various attacks against foreign diplomats and journalists.","highlights":"Piotr Stancza kidnapped September 28 from Attock in Punjab province .\nPolish authorities in Pakistan checking local reports .\nTaliban had demanded release of prisoners, pullout of forces .","id":"0ee0835f9ec00fe2d448428ec1615e52f6065609"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 33 people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide car bombing targeting a national reconciliation conference in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. Abu Ghraib attack victim in Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad, Amjad Hameed . The attack -- which occurred outside the municipal building of Abu Ghraib in western Baghdad -- also wounded 46 others, the official said. The attacker was targeting the latest effort by the government to foster national reconciliation between religious and ethnic groups. Sunni Arab and Shiite tribal leaders were attending the meeting, backed by the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. Another Interior Ministry official told CNN the attack occurred when people gathered outside as the conference in the building ended. Al-Baghdadiya TV said two of its journalists were killed in the explosion. An Iraqi journalists' group confirmed those deaths and said a number of journalists were also wounded. Along with meeting attendees and journalists, Iraqi soldiers were among the casualties. No one has claimed responsibility for the strike, but in the past, such gatherings have been targeted by al Qaeda in Iraq, the anti-American Sunni Arab militant group. Staffan de Mistura, special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Iraq, deplored the attack and passed along condolences to grieving families. He said the bombing targeted the tribal leaders after their meeting, and called the strike a \"horrible crime that is designed to sabotage reconciliatory efforts by the Iraqi people, who, I am confident, will continue on the road of dialogue.\" The blast follows another huge attack on Sunday, when a man wearing an explosives-laden vest drove a motorcycle rigged with bombs into a group of police recruits in eastern Baghdad. That attack killed 30 people and wounded 61 others. Most of the victims of Sunday's strike were police officers and recruits who had gathered outside a police academy on Palestine Street. The same academy was targeted on December 1 in a double bombing that killed 16 and wounded 46. The violence came after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday rallied sheikhs of the nation's tribes to participate in Iraq's government. It was the latest official effort to further reconciliation among Sunnis, Shiites and tribes of different sects and bring some former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party into the political fold. After the invasion, the U.S.-led coalition decided to purge Iraqi institutions of Baathists, most of whom were Sunni Arabs. Al-Maliki, who is Shiite, has been criticized in the past by minority groups for not fairly representing Iraqi's ethnic groups. CNN's Yousif Bassil and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"33 killed in suicide bombing at reconciliation conference in Baghdad .\nTuesday's attack came as tribal leaders were attending conference .\nBombing came 3 days after Iraqi PM urged nation's sheikhs to join government .","id":"ad2e90052e15364c93011386322f6a5007314348"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani troops have been moved to the Indian border amid fears of an Indian ground incursion, two Pakistani military officials told CNN on Friday. File image of a Pakistani soldier . The troops were deployed from Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, where forces have been battling Taliban and al Qaeda militants in North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Pakistan's armed forces have been on high alert in anticipation of a possible conflict with India following last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which killed 160 people. India believes the 10 men who carried out the attacks were trained at a terrorist camp in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. A senior official said the troops had been moved from areas where there are no active military operations, and emphasized that troop levels have not been depleted in areas where soldiers are battling militants, such as the Swat Valley and near Peshawar, capital of the North West region. In addition to the move, leave for all military personnel has been restricted and all troops were called back to active duty, the senior official said. Asked for a reaction to the development, Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the United States, said, \"Pakistan does not seek war, but we need to be vigilant against threats of war emanating from the other side of our eastern border.\" He said Pakistan's conduct since the Mumbai attack \"has been consistent with international expectations. There is no justification for threats against Pakistan.\" \"Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and will continue to act against terrorists,\" he added. \"We are a country of rule of law and need evidence to prosecute anyone for the crime of terrorism.\" U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States has been \"in close contact\" with India and Pakistan in probing the Mumbai attack and fighting terror. He is hoping that \"both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times.\" In London, England, Pakistani envoy to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan countered the report, noting that winter redeployments are normal and that only police and not the army had their vacation canceled. While he criticized India's \"coercive diplomacy\" and regretted India's \"war hysteria,\" he underscored the fact that the two countries don't want to go to war. Tensions increased between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan following the November 26 attacks in Mumbai, where militants launched a coordinated strike against luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other targets. India has criticized Islamabad for not doing enough to counter terrorism, and it has accused elements within the Pakistan government and military of complicity in fueling terrorism in the region. On Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned India to refrain from launching any strikes against Pakistan, according to a report in The Nation newspaper. Another unnamed Pakistani military official told CNN that the Pakistani military has been taking precautionary measures to safeguard borders in the face of mounting military threats from India over the Mumbai attacks. \"Naturally, you have to take certain steps to stem that expected tide of Indian operations,\" he said, \"You can't fight on both fronts so we have redeployed certain military elements from the western border to the northern border to meet Indian operations.\" The official said that while Pakistan has tolerated U.S. missile strikes from Afghanistan into Pakistan, he believes the government and public would not stand for an Indian incursion. In the Indian capital of New Delhi on Friday, three military chiefs briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the security situation. An Indian officer said Indian soldiers have spotted Pakistani troop movements along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The Line of Control divides the disputed region between the area controlled by India and the area administered by Pakistan. Indian defense spokesman Sitanshu Kar said India isn't carrying out a troop buildup along its western borders but \"is monitoring the situation closely.\" He also said he is \"not aware\" of military reports about Pakistani troop mobilization along the Indian border. \"But we are keeping a vigil,\" Kar said. Since the division of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- now wracked by an 18-year, bloody separatist campaign that authorities say has left at least 43,000 dead. There also was a limited border conflict in 1999 between the countries in Kashmir. CNN's Sara Sidner, Mukhtar Ahmad, Nic Robertson and Harmeet Singh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan has moved troops to border with India amid rising tensions, officials say .\nPakistan forces on high alert after terror attacks last month in Mumbai .\nIndian defense spokesman: India \"is monitoring the situation closely\"\nThe two countries have fought three wars since 1947 .","id":"b895ebd78d9be1c3713c828a3fe5c5eb5f0afbc0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A third minute goal from Gonzalo Higuain gave Real Madrid a 1-0 victory over Valencia, coach Juande Ramos' first Primera Liga win since taking charge of the Spanish champions. Gonzalo Higuain is congratulated after scoring Real Madrid's only goal against Valencia. The win ended Madrid's run of three straight league defeats and moved them up to 29 points, nine behind leaders Barcelona -- who visit Villarreal on Sunday. With captain Raul Gonzalez only on the bench befcause of the flu, Higuain played alone in attack, and he soon made his mark with the early goal -- the Argentine collecting Arjen Robben's pass to fire home his 11th goal of the season. Valencia almost fell two goals behind in the 16th minute when Rafael van der Vaart struck the post with a curling drive. Higuain had a chance to double Madrid's tally in the second-half, but his close-range shot struck the bar. The visitors' hopes were effectively ended when captain Carlos Marchena was sent off after picking up his second yellow card, for a foul on Robben. The defeat, only Valencia's second of the season after also going down to Barcelona, leaves them on 30 points, just one above Madrid.","highlights":"Gonzalo Higuain scoresd the only goal as Real Madrid defeat Valencia 1-0 .\nThe victory marks first success in the Primera Liga for coach Juande Ramos .\nValencia, who had Carlos Marchena sent off, were losing only second match .","id":"ed3aa9850ef9c840e7da34a48c4519a210a763b5"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Bollywood superstar Anil Kapoor has been catapulted into the global spotlight for his award-winning performance as creepy quiz show host Prem Kumar in the smash hit movie \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" Anil Kapoor: \"Slumdog Millionaire is like my story.\" Kapoor talks to CNN's \"My City, My Life\" about \"Slumdog\", his hometown of Mumbai, his own rags to riches rise to stardom and how the recent terror attacks affected the city. CNN: - Did you grow up in Mumbai? Anil Kapoor: I was born in Mumbai, in a suburb named Chembur. In my neighborhood the kids never wore shoes, we always had bare feet. I remember my parents asking me to wear shoes to go and play, but usually I would forget. Usually kids say they want to be doctors or engineers, pilots or businessmen, but I just wanted to be an actor. My father was an assistant director for an Indian film maker and then from being an assistant he became a secretary to one of the big stars. In my childhood I was surrounded by films, actors, film makers, directors and film talk. I would bunk school to watch movies, old English films and Hindi films -- that's how I spent my childhood. And playing cricket! CNN: Mumbai is the home of Bollywood movies -- was that an influence? Anil Kapoor: The influence of the film industry is tremendous over here. Every kid dreams of becoming either an actor or a cricketer. In India, we love film and everybody wants to get into films. \"It's in our bloodstream -- film making, songs, music, everything connected with cinema -- people just love it. \"It's the cheapest form of entertainment and recession or no recession, people just flock to the theaters to watch our movies.\" CNN: Tell me about \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" Anil Kapoor: Slumdog is like my story. I also started from scratch, went from rags to riches. I started in Chembur and I slowly climbed -- God has been kind in that way. CNN: Do you think the film is an accurate portrayal of Mumbai? Anil Kapoor: It's a fairytale -- the story is basically a love story, but shot in a very realistic way and it is very authentic. If there is a traffic jam, he [Danny Boyle] has not created a traffic jam, he has actually shot the traffic jam. If he has gone into the slums it is not choreographed at all. The film is very natural -- whatever you see in \"Slumdog\" is very real -- nothing is exaggerated and nothing is downplayed. Watch Anil Kapoor take CNN on a tour of Mumbai. \u00bb . CNN: Is the portrayal of the slums realistic? Anil Kapoor: It is -- you'll see from the way \"Slumdog Millionaire\" has been shot, it's not portraying misery. You see there is a lot of hope in the kids, a lot of fun and a lot of innocence. There's not a single portion where you feel it has been sensationalized. There is nowhere in the film where you feel they are trying to show misery or poverty. Mumbai is growing and it's a commercial city and you can see that things are changing. These are the realities and we have to face it. We are confident enough to face it, we are not ashamed. CNN: What reaction have you had from family and friends? Anil Kapoor: People are very proud of this film. Generally, the public is happy, the whole country is very happy. It's an Indian story with Indian content and it's great. There are a lot of friends from Britain and USA who want to come to Mumbai, after seeing this film. I happened to talk to Tom Cruise at the Golden Globes and he is very keen to come to Mumbai and visit India. CNN: How have the terror attacks affected the city? Anil Kapoor: The whole country was stunned. Mumbai was coming to a standstill and we started questioning ourselves and the government, asking are we safe enough? What is happening? Is it our fault, their fault? Why cant we take action? It really shook us completely and the tremors are still being felt. People are still angry, people are still upset, still insecure, still scared -- all these emotions are still there. You'll find everything is normal, but internally there is a certain sense of insecurity. See photos of Anil Kapoor in Mumbai \u00bb . CNN: What do you love about the city? Anil Kapoor: It is a city of opportunities. People come here to make it and they get absorbed by it. This city always surprises you; there is something happening constantly, there is a real buzz -- it's pulsating, like a roller coaster ride. You go somewhere outside the city and you feel it is dead compared to Mumbai. When you come to Mumbai you notice its energy, its excitement . Mumbai never sleeps. When I go to London and I want to eat something there is nothing open past 2 a.m., but here at five in the morning everything is open, everything is alive. Here everyone is so full of life, so full of happiness. CNN: What do you do to relax in Mumbai? Anil Kapoor: In Mumbai no one relaxes. People are always on the move -- that's what is relaxing for them. Everybody is working and enjoying themselves and achieving and dreaming. Holidays are also combined with work; the concept of holiday doesn't exist for most people over here. CNN: What's it like being Anil Kapoor going about your business in Mumbai? Anil Kapoor: I've never really felt like a star. I just feel like I'm one of the ordinary people in the city. I cycle around and I'm around in the street sometimes and obviously people meet me and I love meeting people from all walks of life. I just feel like one of them. I love interacting with them, I love meeting them, making friends. Wherever I go I am always available to talk, to listen. I'm a good listener and that's what I do. CNN: Describe the people of Mumbai. Anil Kapoor: The people are very open. It's not that the city's underbelly is hidden away and you can't see it --you see it everyday, you know what the reality is. Everybody who comes to Mumbai adds something to this changing, dynamic city. Mumbai is ancient India with a dynamic presence and it's looking forward to a bright future.","highlights":"Anil Kapoor played quiz show host Kumar in hit movie \"Slumdog Millionaire\"\n\"Slumdog is like my story. I also went from rags to riches,\" says Kapoor .\nHe lives in Mumbai: \"The city is pulsating, like a roller coaster\" he says .\nKapoor says: \"Slumdog is very real -- nothing is exaggerated or downplayed\"","id":"811c6e2aca7949f3be075071c58fc7c5453ae02b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Ariel Binns is cute, smart, outgoing and looks remarkably like first daughter Sasha Obama. Young model Ariel Binns, right, resembles Sasha Obama. The similarity has not gone unnoticed by the fashion industry. Harper's Bazaar magazine cast the 6-year-old Brooklyn, New York, first-grader with model Tyra Banks in a photo spread showing an African-American family in the White House. Binns, a child model, was peering out from under a big wooden desk in an image reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's time in office. When it comes to fashion there's nothing like a powerful brand to boost sales, especially if that brand is a dynamic first family. \"Marketers are finally waking up to it -- you know -- black is beautiful,\" says global branding expert David Rogers who predicts African-American models will play a more prominent role in fashion photography as a direct result of the Obamas. \"It's just going to become part of the fabric of the fashion imagery of pop culture, which is a great thing,\" says Rogers. Watch young first daughter look-alike model \u00bb . At Wilhelmina Kids, a modeling agency in New York for kids and teens, agents say there is increased demand for first daughter look-alikes. \"It's a trend because, what little girl doesn't want to emulate the first kids?\" said Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina, which represents Binns. Unlike the Bush twins or Chelsea Clinton, global branding experts say the appeal of the Obama girls is unique -- and infinitely marketable. After the first kids appeared in their J.Crew outfits on Inauguration Day, the company's Web site got so many hits, it crashed. \"The most visible, most exciting family in America is this beautiful black family and so people are ready and looking for those kinds of images,\" says branding expert David Rogers, adding that a lot of Americans want to identify and, \"find some sort of connection with this family.\" There is a downside. The Obamas were not happy when toy manufacturer Ty Inc. came out with African-American dolls named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia even though the company said the dolls did not look like the Obama girls. First lady Michelle Obama's office said it was \"inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes.\" New York clinical psychologist Judy Kuriansky says many famous families face similar problems. \"I can certainly understand Michelle Obama being protective of her children. Many celebrities in Hollywood feel that way too. They don't want their children exposed to the public, because once the child is exposed to the public image, not only are they owned, but they could be used in many different ways and it takes away from the child growing up as a normal, average child.\" Still, some say the celebrity of Sasha and Malia has a positive effect by presenting a positive and prominent image of young African-American girls. Asked whether she believes the Obama girls will open up possibilities for her own child, Ariel Binns' mom Dawn Crooks says, \"I think it will. I hope it does.\" As for the overall effect, branding expert Rogers says he believes using look-alikes will take diversity to a whole new level.","highlights":"One young model is getting jobs because she looks like an Obama daughter .\nExpert: \"Marketers are finally waking up to it -- you know -- black is beautiful\"\nJ.Crew's Web site crashed after Obama girls wore the brand on Inauguration Day .","id":"5990d3a8c994b6efe7b90eaf391d687ed7103619"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Officials monitoring the River Tiber in Rome fear it could break its banks as early as Friday evening after a spate of bad weather in Italy -- but do not expect major flooding. A rescue boat patrols the swollen River Tiber in central Rome early Friday. Guido Bertolaso, the head of the Italian Civil Protection Department said that there is a 20 to 30 percent chance the river could break its banks and cause disruption in some neighborhoods in northern Rome, but not in the historic city center. Two people have died in weather-related incidents elsewhere in Italy. \"We see that the flow is increasing, but it is not reaching a level that could be dangerous for the capital city of Italy,\" said Bertolaso about the Tiber, deeming the situation \"crucial but not serious.\" Bertolaso, calling the situation \"quite extraordinary,\" labeled the flood threat and storms as the \"fifth most serious situation of the past 100 years.\" \"But I think it is under control and the secret is to have the technology and the kind of organization to monitor the situation and to intervene if an emergency arises,\" he said. Bertolaso noted that authorities have been keeping a minute-by-minute watch because of heavy storms over the past few days. He said the water level would probably increase for a few more hours and eventually peak between 8 p.m. and midnight local time Friday (between 1800 and 2200 GMT). \"If there will be no more rain, the situation is expected to stabilize,\" he said. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said he did not expect a major flood and noted that only a few dwellings have been evacuated -- primarily those inhabited by immigrants and Roma, who have set up makeshift camps on the banks of the Tiber. \"I just recommend people to stay at home and not to rush to the river banks to watch the river swelling,\" Alemanno said. Hundreds of volunteers and civil protection officials have been deployed around Rome to monitor the situation, the Civil Protection Department said. Sandbags have been lined up to contain any possible river overflow, and the fire brigade is ready with amphibious vehicles. Police have blocked access to some pedestrian bridges and river banks, while residents are being urged to use their vehicles only if necessary. Firefighters Thursday had to rescue dozens of motorists stranded in their cars. Because of the intense rain, the streets of some northern Rome neighborhoods were already flooded by water and covered in thick brown mud. One woman died near Rome early Thursday when her car was submerged by a wave of water and mud in an underpass. The body of a second victim was found in the southern region of Calabria after a bridge collapsed.","highlights":"NEW: Official: 20 - 30 percent chance that the River Tiber could overflow its banks .\nItaly has been hit by a wave of bad weather that has claimed two lives .\nOne woman died near Rome when her car was submerged by a wave of water .\nBody of a second victim was found in Calabria region after a bridge collapsed .","id":"05b497ae445d5f223b4772292ce83009074f2249"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday called on President-elect Barack Obama to govern from the middle, as her party sat poised to gain its widest House majority in 15 years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, celebrates election victories Tuesday night in Washington. According to projections, Democrats in the House were on track Wednesday to increase their majority by at least 18 seats, a margin that would give Obama a formidable tool to push his legislative agenda after his January 20 inauguration. Democrats took at least 22 seats from Republicans in Tuesday's election, with the GOP taking four seats from the Democrats, according to CNN projections. With winners yet to be called for eight of the House's 435 seats, Democrats were projected to win 254 seats, with Republicans having 173. \"I don't know what the final number will be,\" Pelosi said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference on Capitol Hill. \"But it will be well over 250. It's a signal of the change that the American people want.\" Pelosi, D-California, said she hoped Obama would \"bring people together to reach consensus\" on issues that concern Americans. \"A new president must govern from the middle,\" she said. Topping her agenda, she said, would be \"growing the economy, expanding health care, ending dependence on foreign oil and ending the war in Iraq.\" When he woke up Wednesday morning, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said, he felt like the boy who stubbed his toe, the character in a quote from President Lincoln, who said: \"It hurts too bad to laugh, and I'm too big to cry.\" Duncan also called on the president-elect to govern from the center and warned that if Democrats moved too far to the left, Republicans could take back seats in the 2010 midterm elections. \"The last two times Democrats controlled the House, Senate and the presidency, they choked on the bone of responsibility,\" he said. \"They lurched far to the left and introduced the country to President Ronald Reagan and Speaker Newt Gingrich.\" Among Tuesday's GOP casualties was longtime Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, whose reputation for occasionally bucking his party couldn't keep him from losing to Democrat Jim Himes. Shays' defeat leaves New England without any Republicans in the House. Shays was seeking his 11th full term. Watch Pelosi say Americans voted for change \u00bb . Heading into Election Day, the Democrats had a 235-199 House majority. The Democrats' gains come two years after they took control of the House -- with a gain of 30 seats -- after 12 years in the minority. Here are highlights of other races from Tuesday with projected winners: . Democrats gained at least two seats in Ohio, including that of Rep. Steve Chabot, who was seeking an eighth term in a Cincinnati-area district that normally votes about evenly for GOP and Democratic presidential candidates. CNN projects that Chabot lost to Democrat Steve Driehaus. Just two years earlier, Chabot was re-elected with 52 percent of the vote despite an anti-Republican tide that helped Democrats capture Ohio's governorship and take a U.S. Senate seat. Democrats also gained a seat left open by retiring Rep. Ralph Regula. Democrat John Boccieri defeated the GOP's Kirk Schuring in the northeastern Ohio contest. \u2022 In New York, Democrats won three Republican seats, including two left open by incumbents not seeking re-election. In one of the open races, Democrat Mike McMahon won the last GOP-held seat in New York City, defeating the GOP's Robert Straniere. Democrat Dan Maffei defeated Republican Dale Sweetland, who was trying to win a seat vacated by 10-term GOP Rep. Jim Walsh. In a rematch of a 2006 race, former naval officer Eric Massa beat GOP Rep. Randy Kuhl in a western New York district that generally votes Republican. \u2022 Freshman Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, was projected to survive a race that tightened after she accused Obama of having \"anti-American views.\" She was leading Democratic challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg 47 percent to 43 percent with 86 percent of precincts reporting. Bachmann set off a storm of criticism in October when she said Obama's connection to 1960s radical William Ayers made her concerned that Obama may have anti-American views. Bachmann's comments prompted a flood of fundraising for Tinklenberg. \u2022 In Florida, Democrats captured from Republicans two of the four seats that analysts thought they could win. Democrat Suzanne Kosmas defeated Rep. Tom Fenney, and Democrat Alan Grayson defeated Rep. Ric Keller. However, brothers and Republicans Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, who represent districts in southern Florida, held off their Democratic challengers. Lincoln Diaz-Balart won a ninth term, defeating former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez. \u2022 Democratic incumbents weren't invulnerable in Florida. Rep. Tim Mahoney -- a south-central Florida Democrat elected to replace scandal-plagued GOP Rep. Mark Foley in 2006 -- lost to his Republican challenger, Tom Rooney. Mahoney already was going to have a tough race in his Republican-leaning district. But the race became tougher in mid-October with allegations that Mahoney had an affair with one of his aides and paid her thousands of dollars in hush money. Mahoney admitted to causing \"pain\" in his marriage, but he denied paying the aide to keep quiet. \u2022 Republican incumbents in two California districts maintained their House seats -- Rep. Ken Calvert defeated Democrat Bill Hedrick, a former teacher, and Brian Bilbray defeated Democrat Nicholas \"Nick\" Alexander Leibham, an attorney. In June 2006, Bilbray narrowly won a special election to fill the vacant San Diego seat that once was occupied by disgraced former Rep. Randy \"Duke\" Cunningham. \u2022 In Pennsylvania, Rep. John Murtha handily defeated Republican challenger William Russell. Republicans had hoped to defeat Murtha after he called his western Pennsylvania district \"a racist area\" and \"redneck.\" \u2022 The House's third-ranking Republican, Rep. Adam Putnam of central Florida, was re-elected but wrote to his colleagues Tuesday night that he wouldn't run again for a leadership post, saying he wanted to return his focus \"to crafting public policy solutions for America's generational challenges.\" He is currently the GOP conference chairman. \u2022 In a heavily Republican district near Houston, Texas, Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson lost his re-election bid against Pete Olson. Lampson won the seat in 2006 after Republican and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned to fight state money laundering charges. \u2022 In Ohio's 11th District, Democrats easily took a seat that was vacant since the death of Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Democrat Marcia Fudge defeated Republican Thomas Pekarek. Tubbs Jones, who represented the district that covers parts of Cleveland and its suburbs, died in August after brain hemorrhaging caused by an aneurysm. \u2022 The House's first two Muslim members, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, won their contests Tuesday. Carson has won his first full term; he had succeeded his grandmother, the late Rep. Julia Carson, in a March special election. \u2022 There was a party change in the race to represent New Jersey in the House. Democrat John Adler, 48, defeated Republican Chris Myers, 42, a Navy combat veteran. Adler, an attorney, sponsored New Jersey's 2006 law prohibiting smoking in indoor public places and workplaces. He was also the sponsor of a law toughening car emission standards in the state. \u2022 Democrats took power from Republicans in Idaho, too. Walt Minnick beat Republican William Sali in a race for the House. Minnick has an MBA and law degree from Harvard University and served as a Nixon White House staffer in the early 1970s before starting a 21-year career at a wood-products maker. Not all 435 seats will be decided immediately. Two Louisiana districts used Election Day for primary runoffs; the general election for those seats will be December 6.","highlights":"RNC chairman warns Dems against choking \"on the bone of responsibility\"\n\"A new president must govern from the middle,\" says House speaker .\nDem victories signal \"change the American people want,\" says Pelosi .\nProjections: House Dems take 22 GOP seats; Republicans snatch four .","id":"a3131390b8f3fea5666e2b572b1f95bf836ba4d9"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A hearing is set for Monday in a case involving actress Lindsay Lohan after an arrest warrant was issued for her Friday, officials said. A warrant issued for Lindsay Lohan apparently stems from her 2007 drunken driving convictions, police said. Lohan's attorney told CNN the warrant was issued \"out of a misunderstanding.\" It was not known whether she would attend the hearing Monday. The warrant was issued by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in Beverly Hills, California. It apparently stems from Lohan's 2007 convictions for drunken driving, police said Friday. She is serving three years probation. Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office told CNN on Sunday the warrant is believed to be in connection with a possible probation violation. The district attorney's office prosecuted the original 2007 case, she said. The hearing is set to begin sometime after 8:30 a.m., she said. Lohan \"has the right to appear\" at the hearing, said Alan Parachini, Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman. \"That decision is up to her.\" Lohan's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, told CNN on Sunday that she will appear at the hearing on Lohan's behalf. \"Since her case was resolved, Ms. Lohan has been in compliance with all the terms and conditions of her probation and all orders of the court,\" Holley said in a statement. \"The warrant issued on Friday was, in our view, born out of a misunderstanding which I am confident I can clear up next week,\" Holley said. Police said Saturday they were not actively seeking Lohan, as they would not usually go after a person to take them into custody in such cases. Beverly Hills police Sgt. Mike Foxen said on Friday authorities were hoping Lohan would turn herself in. Lohan was arrested twice in 2007 on driving under the influence charges, with a cocaine possession charge in the second incident. The first arrest, in May 2007, came after Lohan lost control of her Mercedes-Benz convertible and struck a curb in Beverly Hills. Just two weeks after checking out of a Malibu drug and alcohol rehab facility, she was arrested again in July 2007 after a woman called Santa Monica police saying Lohan was trying to run her down in a car. A judge sentenced Lohan to three years probation after she entered guilty and no contest pleas to the charges. Lohan's acting career, which started at age 10 on a soap opera, took off on the big screen a year later when she played both identical twins in Disney's \"The Parent Trap.\" Since then, she has starred in at least a dozen movies, including \"Georgia Rule\" with Jane Fonda in 2007. Her pop music recording career, boosted by her movie roles, has floundered in the past year. Her last album was released in 2005. CNN's Irving Last contributed to this report.","highlights":"Arrest warrant was issued for actress Lindsay Lohan in Beverly Hills on Friday .\nWarrant believed connected with possible probation violation, D.A.'s office says .\nLohan's attorney blames misunderstanding .\nActress was convicted of drunken driving in 2007 .","id":"86161af7394c4982f1ac6ede7080057949d62982"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A judge declared a mistrial in the murder case against music legend Phil Spector after a jury announced for the second time in eight days that it was hopelessly deadlocked. Phil Spector did not testify at his five-month murder trial. The jury said it was split 10-2. The jury deliberated for 12 days, taking six ballots, but was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Jurors told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler they were split 10-2, without indicating which way they were leaning. They added there was nothing Fidler could do to help them arrive at a unanimous verdict. Fidler discharged the nine men and three women, thanking them for their service. Watch what the jurors have to say \u00bb . Spector went on trial in April, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of B-movie queen Lana Clarkson after a night out in the clubs of Hollywood. The judge told attorneys to return to his Los Angeles, California, courtroom on October 3 to discuss the next legal move. Spector, 67, did not take the witness stand at the trial. Deliberations were arduous, entering the third week on Monday. Last week, jurors received new instructions on the law and were told to start over after the foreman declared the panel was deadlocked 7-5. The jury's inability to reach a verdict capped a five-month trial that played like a Hollywood film noir classic -- with a twist of the bizarre. A 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed blonde with a toothpaste commercial smile, Clarkson was known for her roles in \"Barbarian Queen\" and \"Amazon Women on the Moon.\" But at 40 the parts were few and far between and she had taken a $9-an-hour job as a VIP hostess at the House of Blues in Hollywood. Spector invented the \"wall of sound\" in the 1960s and worked with the Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner and other acts. Normally reclusive, Spector had spent a rare night out on the town, found Clarkson at the House of Blues at closing time and invited her home for a drink in the wee hours of February 3, 2003. After initially turning him down, she agreed to accompany him, according to testimony. Hours later, police were summoned to Spector's mansion in Alhambra, a suburb of Los Angeles. The diminutive music producer had wandered into the driveway in the predawn and told his Brazilian-born chauffeur, \"I think I killed somebody,\" according to the driver's testimony. Clarkson was found inside, slumped in a chair in the foyer. She had been shot in the mouth. A .38-caliber Colt Special revolver lay at her feet. It appeared someone had attempted to clean up the blood with a diaper found in the guest bathroom. Spector's attorneys argued that Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup, grabbed the gun and took her own life. But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace, with five women telling harrowing tales on the witness stand of the music producer threatening them with firearms. Spector's driver testified he heard a loud noise and saw the producer leave the home, pistol in hand, saying, \"I think I killed somebody.\" At issue was whether Spector pulled the trigger -- or whether Clarkson did. In photos projected on a large screen, the gruesome crime scene resembled a set decorated for a horror film. In all, 77 witnesses testified and more than 600 pieces of evidence were submitted. The evidence cart wheeled into the jury room was piled high with exhibits. The jury even toured the scene of the alleged crime. The experts' testimony differed widely on what the physical evidence showed. Prosecutors pointed to the leopard print purse slung over Clarkson's shoulder as evidence she was trying to leave when she was shot. The defense argued that blood-spatter evidence on the white women's jacket Spector wore showed he was standing too far away to place the gun in Clarkson's mouth. Spector hired and fired a who's who of legal talent for his defense. High profile defense attorneys who have left the case include Leslie Abramson and Bruce Cutler. He also changed hairstyles several times during the trial, and wore flamboyant clothing, including frock coats and pastel-colored ties and pocket handkerchiefs. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Judge to meet with lawyers next week to discuss options .\nActress found dead at music legend's home .\nProsecutors said Spector shot Lana Clarkson when she tried to leave .\nDefense said Clarkson shot herself in the mouth .","id":"e0958a62e7ef54d01408355d66f7f4c383449211"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Juventus came from behind to defeat Bologna 4-1 on Saturday to put pressure on Inter Milan at the top of the Serie A table. Alessandro Del Piero celebrates the first of his two goals in Juventus' 4-1 victory over Bologna. Massimo Mutarelli put Bologna ahead in the 24th minute, but a dominant second half display from the Bianconeri gave them all three points. Hasan Salihimidzic equalised in the 49th minute before Sebastian Giovinco put the home side ahead in the 71st minute. A brace from Alessandro Del Piero in the 75th and 88th minutes sealed a win which takes Juve to within four points of leaders Inter, who face a tricky home match against Fiorentina on Sunday. In Saturday's other match, Genoa boosted their hopes of playing in the Champions League next season thanks to a 1-0 win at 10-man Cagliari to move above Fiorentina into fourth place. Cagliari lost Andrea Cossu to a red card in the 39th minute but held out until five minutes from the end when Ruben Olivera grabbed the decisive goal. Meanwhile, veteran striker Filippo Inzaghi scored his 300th career goal to help Milan crush Siena 5-1 on Sunday to consolidate third place in the table. The 35-year-old scored twice, while Alexander Pato also netted a brace and Andrea Pirlo scored the opener from the penalty spot, as Milan proved too strong for their opponents -- for whom Massimo Maccarone was on target. Roma lost further ground in the race for the fourth Champions League place as they were held to a 2-2 draw at Sampdoria. Julio Baptista gave the visitors a seventh-minute lead but Giampaolo Pazzini headed home an equalizer before the same player put the home side ahead after a mistake from goalkeeper Doni. But Baptista levelled from the spot after Marco Padalino was penalized for fouling Max Tonetto -- the player who missed the decisive spot-kick in the midweek Champions League defeat by Arsenal.","highlights":"Juventus recover from going a goal behind to defeat Bologna 4-1 on Saturday .\nThe result lifts Juventus to within four points of Inter Milan at the top of Serie A .\nFilippo Inzaghi reaches 300 career goals to help AC Milan hammer Siena 5-1 .","id":"0646161a7ea03bfa7f256d948cfd4af64c92284f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Josef Fritzl, the Austrian accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, will plead guilty to rape and incest when his trial opens Monday, Fritzl's lawyer told CNN. Josef Fritzl is expected to plead guilty to rape and incest on Monday, his lawyer tells CNN. However, Fritzl will deny other charge he faces: murder, enslavement and assault, attorney Rudolph Mayer said Sunday. The 73-year-old expects to spend the rest of his life in prison, Mayer added. Fritzl faces six charges in a closed-door trial. The trial is scheduled to last five days, but Mayer said it could be shorter. Fritzl was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, over a 24-year period. But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care. In all, Fritzl is charged with: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Austria does not have the death penalty. \"This man obviously led a double life for 24 years. He had a wife and had seven kids with her. And then he had another family with his daughter, fathered another seven children with her,\" said Franz Polzer, a police officer in Amstetten, the town where Fritzl lived, at the time of his arrest. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions. Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin, then 19, to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, she told police, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room. Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the girl, who was then 18, had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write. Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending the missing Elisabeth had dropped them off. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are: . \u2022 Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. \u2022 Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison. \u2022 Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl \"regularly sexually abused Elisabeth,\" according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison. \u2022 Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year. \u2022 Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years. \u2022 Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man accused of keeping daughter in a cellar for decades, fathering her 7 children .\nJosef Fritzl, whose trial starts Monday, will plead guilty, his lawyer tells CNN .\nProsecutors: Fritzl raped his daughter over 24 years, said she had run away .\nFritzl also accused of killing one of the children he fathered with daughter .","id":"7974f89f052ee395aab84119635ad5cfbbed7c2a"} -{"article":"(Coastal Living) -- Whether scaling a mountain or rounding a bend, nothing beats the sight of water from a hiking trail. Shore to shore, here are great spots for hitting the trail and seeing the coast. Hikers will find snow-white beaches, coastal marshes and maritime forests along Mississippi's Gulf Islands National Seashore. Maine: Camden Hills State Park . Hiking is a way of life on the Maine coast -- especially in the Camden Hills, a range of low mountains surrounding Camden, Rockport and Lincolnville, where vistas of the Atlantic Ocean are just a short stroll away. Take the park's Megunticook Trail to Ocean Lookout for a magnificent view of Penobscot Bay and Mount Battie. Call 207\/236-3109 during park season or 207\/236-0849 off-season, or visit maine.gov\/doc\/parks\/programs\/db_search. British Columbia: Lighthouse Park . Across English Bay from Vancouver, Lighthouse Park offers a coastal wilderness experience in sight of the big city. The West Vancouver Trail leads straight to the shore and down to a rock bluff. Here you can see the 60-foot-tall Point Atkinson Lighthouse. The 5-kilometer route includes several challenging changes in elevation, but at a leisurely pace, you should be able to hike it in a couple of hours. For information, visit westvancouver.net\/article.asp?a=2011&c=766. California: Redwood National Park . South of the Oregon border, hikers will discover a flamboyantly scenic trail in Redwood National Park. The Yurok Loop to Hidden Beach explores the lagoon area of the 40-mile Coastal Trail pathway. Cypress, alder, and dense coastal scrub shroud hikers on their way to views of the shoreline. The beautiful cove of Hidden Beach serves as a turnaround. For information, call 707\/465-7306 or visit nps.gov\/redw\/. Michigan: Hiawatha National Forest . This easy trail in the Hiawatha National Forest near Mackinac Island leads to a perfect spot for a picnic on a Lake Huron beach. The Upper Peninsula hike doesn't skimp on scenery. You might spy a great blue heron or bald eagles perched nearby. For information, visit www.fs.fed.us\/r9\/forests\/hiawatha\/. Florida: Canaveral National Seashore . Just north of the Kennedy Space Center, Canaveral National Seashore offers 24 miles of secluded beaches with dunes and lagoons. The Castle Windy Trail leads hikers from the ocean through the coastal hammock and past an ancient Indian midden. No boardwalks or signs detract from the splendor of this mile-long sand trail. For information, call 321\/267-1110 or visit nbbd.com\/godo\/cns\/trails.html. Newfoundland: East Coast Trail . For a hike that's really out there, try Newfoundland's East Coast Trail, crossing the easternmost land in North America. It runs for about 335 miles past towering cliffs and headlands, sea stacks, deep fjords and a natural wave-driven geyser called the Spout. Intentionally left unspoiled, the trail leads over large rocks and along cliff edges. For information, call 709\/738-4453 or visit eastcoasttrail.com. Alaska: Kachemak Bay State Park . The Emerald Lake Trail in Kachemak Bay State Park, near Homer, covers the highlights of Alaska. The 13-mile round-trip hike climbs 1,650 feet, passes a glacier and crosses a log bridge. Other park hikes pass below the high-tide line and offer access to glaciers, forested coves and alpine peaks. For information, call 907\/269-8400 or visit acrossalaska.com\/kbaypark.html. New York: Fire Island National Seashore . About an hour east of New York City, hikers can find panoramic vistas, coastal plain ponds, harbor seals and maritime grasslands. The Sunken Forest Nature Trail is a 1.5 mile boardwalk, but you'll want to focus on the 32 miles of Fire Island beach. Although your eyes will be drawn to the ocean and bay views, remember to look down to see the beach plum and beach heather along the way. For information, call 631\/563-4354 or visit nps.gov\/fiis\/. Texas: San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge . Birders know it. Now you do, too. The Texas coast is a major habitat for migrating birds. For a close view of wildlife, the Cow Trap Trail, about 70 miles south of Houston, lets hikers travel from high to low marsh on a 1.5-mile levee. Flocks of ibis and other wading birds are often on display. But watch out for alligators! They often sun on the banks of Moccasin Pond. For information, call 979\/964-3639 or visit fws.gov\/southwest\/refuges\/texas\/texasmidcoast\/index.htm. Mississippi: Gulf Islands National Seashore . Explore Mississippi's natural coastline on Nature's Way Trail, just 9 miles outside of Biloxi. Reopened after Hurricane Katrina damage, the Davis Bayou route passes snow-white beaches, coastal marshes and maritime forests on your easy hike through the national seashore. For information, visit nps.gov\/archive\/guis\/extended\/MIS\/indexMS.htm. E-mail to a friend . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright \u00a9 Coastal Living, 2009 .","highlights":"Canaveral National Seashore in Florida offers 24 miles of secluded beaches .\nSan Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in Texas is a good spot for birding .\nCamden Hills State Park in Maine offers magnificent views of Penobscot Bay .","id":"ab43c135227d2bad70f83911ae25b32e5847f9ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Commentators who have watched the conflict in Northern Ireland play out for decades call the peace process a miracle. Various leaders negotiated for years to bring an end to Northern Ireland's \"troubles.\" Culminating in a power sharing deal between Ulster's unionists, led by Ian Paisley, and Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA (nationalists), led by Gerry Adams, the road to peace has been a torturous one characterized by violence, set-backs and numerous false starts. Only recently the Ulster Defence Association, Northern Ireland's largest loyalist group, said it will cease to be an armed paramilitary group, starting at midnight on November 11, saying the \"war is over.\" \"All weaponry will be put beyond use,\" Colin Halliday of the Ulster Political Research Group, which is linked to the group, said in a speech in Belfast aired by RTE, Ireland's state-owned broadcaster. \"The struggle to maintain the union is on a new and more complex battlefield.\" The Irish Republican Army (IRA) disarmed two years ago, helping to restore the province's government in Belfast. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said the most recent moves of groups to disarm was \"significant and hopefully signals a further step toward the ending of all paramilitarism in Northern Ireland.\" For those that have lived through the turmoil in Northern Ireland, peace achieved though diplomacy must have seemed like an unrealistic goal. After all, each attack by loyalists usually resulted in retaliation by nationalists -- making the dispute bitter and intractable. But diplomacy has worked in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. Credit for developing a framework for the peace process stretches back to former British Prime Minster John Major's rule in the 1990s and efforts by Ireland's Ahern. But it was Major's successor, Tony Blair, who was unrelenting in his quest for peace by making it a major priority of his government. Blair came to Northern Ireland 37 times as Prime Minister, traveling there more often than any of his predecessors as well as hosting many meetings at 10 Downing Street and discussing the peace process while at many international summits. According to the Belfast Telegraph: \"When he (Blair) said on that first day he had come to seek 'a lasting and fair political settlement' it turned out he wasn't spouting platitudes on a stump.\" Journalist James Button, who covered the peace process talks, says: \"Blair played a clever hand. He saw the hardliners had to be involved. \"Critically he judged that the process had to tilt ever so slightly towards the republicans to prevent a split in their ranks and the resumption of violence by radicals -- which had happened whenever the republican leadership had inclined to moderation before.\" Button says Downing Street had a bicycle theory around peace talks: \"They had to keep going forward otherwise they would fall over.\" It was Blair's diplomacy that wooed the previously immovable Paisley. Irish political scientist Lord Bew told the Guardian the alliance with Paisley was Blair's \"last great romance... Once again when we thought the old maestro was fading, his capacity to seduce, politically speaking, is phenomenal.\" But as Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein told CNN, the conflict was primarily a local one that needed to be solved by local people: \"The people who have to be the brokers are the people who live in the areas of conflict. \"They're the people who ought to be the brokers but everybody else from the outside has to enhance the conditions so that those leaders or factions can actually broker not just an agreement, but implement an agreement. \"The Good Friday Agreement -- and [former U.S.] Senator [George] Mitchell said this at the time, when we got the agreement -- \"That's the easy bit. Implementing it is going to be the difficult bit.\" Mitchell worked with the various participants to reach an agreement. The long road to peace . The \"troubles\" have been a centuries-old dispute between England and Ireland over who controls Northern Ireland. In 1609 British colonial settlers confiscated native-owned land in Northern Ireland and settled in Ulster with mainly Protestant British planters. There was conflict between the planters and the native Irish. The planters won the bloody ethno-religious conflicts that followed and cracked down on the political and religious freedoms of the indigenous Irish. In the 1700s groups formed (including the Ulster Orangemen that continue to this day) and antagonisms between the two communities became entrenched. Ireland was incorporated into the UK in 1801 and reformers such as Daniel O'Connell called for the repeal of the union as well as the end of discrimination of Catholics (around 75 percent of the population). The agitation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, who sometimes held the balance of power in Westminster, led to the unionists further entrenching their position for British rule. In 1920 guerilla warfare between what became known as the IRA and Unionists led to the partitioning of southern Ireland and Northern Ireland. Nationalists in Northern Ireland, who numbered around 35 per cent of the population, did not accept legitimacy of the new partition. Between 1970 and 1972 tensions that had been brewing erupted into violence with almost 500 people killed in Northern Ireland. One explanation for this was the formation of the real IRA, which embraced \"armed struggle\" against British rule. Another was the introduction of internment without trial (the vast majority of those imprisoned were Catholic) which succeed in politicizing many into the nationalist cause. Bloody Sunday -- a January 1972 shooting in Derry of 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights activists by the British Army -- was a flashpoint in the conflict. In 1972 the retaliation of the Provos came at a massive cost -- more than 100 soldiers were killed, 500 were wounded and there were 1300 bombings. Yet the nationalists vowed to continue their campaign until there was a united Ireland. Successive British governments failed to solve the \"Irish question\" so the participants settled in for what the IRA called the Long War, which involved sustained, low-level violence, hunger strikes and protests. The stop-start cease-fire . Since the late 1980s Sinn Fein, which compared its struggle to that of the fight for liberation in Palestine and South Africa, has sought a negotiated end to the conflict. Both loyalist and republican paramilitary groups declared a cease-fire after much negotiation. But the peace was fragile and short-lived. The IRA, led by Adams, revoked the cease-fire in 1996 after a bombing at Canary Wharf in London that killed two and caused \u00a385 million worth of damage. In June 1996 a large part of Manchester's city center was destroyed by an IRA bomb that injured 200 people. Splinter groups of the IRA who rejected the notion of a cease-fire continued their campaigns. In August 1998 the Real IRA bombed Omagh, killing 29 civilians. But during the 1990s many world leaders still held out for peace in Northern Ireland. Supporters of talks included the president of the U.S., Bill Clinton, who in 1995 visited Northern Ireland and spoke in Belfast of the \"peace process,\" calling terrorists \"yesterday's men.\" Diplomacy in action . In 1997 newly elected British Prime Minister Tony Blair endorsed a report on decommissioning and the criteria for inclusion in all-party talks. Mo Mowlam, the UK's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, accepted in August 1997 that the IRA cease-fire was genuine and invited Sinn Fein for multi-party talks. On Good Friday, April 10 1998, it was announced that the two governments and political parties in Northern Ireland had reached an agreement to share power. It later emerged that President Clinton had made a number of calls to party leaders to encourage them to reach an agreement. The agreement included a devolved, inclusive government, prisoner release, troop reduction, paramilitary decommissioning, and the addressing of the question of Irish reunification. The definitive end of the peace process -- and the Troubles - came in 2007 following the St Andrews agreement in October 2006 and the March 2007 elections. The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein formed a government in May 2007 and in July 2007 the British Army formally ended their mission in Northern Ireland, 38 years after their deployment. Today, Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom but the British government has said if there is a majority of votes then a united Ireland will be possible. The key to winning support from the Nationalists\/ Republicans was the British Government recognizing the \"Irish Dimension\" -- that the Irish as a whole should have the right to work out the issues between the North and the South, without outside interference. Prosperity and peace . According to an article in the Financial Times, former sectarians have been tamed not only by peace but also by prosperity. \"The little brick houses which rose 56 percent in price in the last year cost more than the English average. There are Japanese restaurants. The locals fly from George Best Airport to their Alpine second homes. These people are, in the local phase, 'recovering sectarians,'\" according to the FT. Aiding this process is the European Union, which is flooding Northern Ireland with funds, believing that the peace and diplomatic process needs to be financially assisted. The European Union's investment, worth 724 million euros (about 1.03 billion U.S. dollars) will be made available through the three programs -- the PEACE III program, the cross-border cooperation program with Ireland and Scotland, and the Regional Competitiveness and Employment program for the province. But peace and prosperity would not have occurred without the success of diplomacy, says Adams. \"There's been a war somewhere in the world for every day of every week of every month of the last few decades and all of them are caused by human beings, mostly by men ... all of them can be resolved through dialogue.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some commentators have called the peace process in Northern Ireland a \"miracle\"\nIt culminated in a power sharing deal between the Ulster's unionists and Sinn Fein .\nPeace and prosperity would not have occurred without diplomacy .","id":"7e7d7f8f293e4750bc9a403cf8b46cda25fe616a"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe police arrested on Friday a magistrate who ordered the release of a senior opposition politician granted bail by the country's High Court, a lawyer said. A Zimbabwean policeman patrols outside the entrance of Mutare Magistrates court. The order to release the politician had been suspended when state lawyers appealed the HIgh Court decision. Trust Maanda, a lawyer in Mutare city about 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Harare, told CNN by phone that magistrate Livingstone Chipadze had been arrested. \"He is in police custody. The police are saying he ordered the release of Roy Bennett in compliance with the High Court ruling,\" said Maanda. Bennett is the choice of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for deputy agriculture minister under the power-sharing government formed last month. On Wednesday, Chipadze ordered Bennett be released from a prison in Mutare as had been ruled by the High Court last week. However, that order, which required Bennett to post $2,000 as bail, was suspended after the state filed an appeal with Zimbabwe's Supreme Court. \"I can confirm the arrest, but I will be in position to tell you the charge he will face later,\" said a police official in Mutare over the phone. \"He is likely to go to court on Saturday or Monday. But most magistrates here [in Mutare] have gone on strike over his arrest.\" Chipadze joins Bennett in prison in Mutare. Bennett was arrested on February 13 and is facing charges of possessing arms for the purposes of banditry, terrorism and sabotage. The continued detention of Bennett, an ally of MDC leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, is seen by many as a crack in the foundation of the coalition Tsvangirai formed with President Robert Mugabe. Meanwhile, a Zimbabwe High Court judge Friday ordered the immediate release of three human rights activists in state \"safe custody\" to testify against human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who is facing charges of plotting to topple Mugabe. Opposition MDC activists Fannie Tembo, Lloyd Tarumbwa and Terry Musona have been missing since October last year after they were abducted from their homes under the cover of darkness. Lawyers Chris Mhike and Innocent Chagonda took the state to the High Court in an attempt to win the release the trio. But the state represented by Nelson Mutsonziwa had opposed the application, saying the three would be state witnesses when the trial of Mukoko starts. The MDC lawyers then successfully argued that the three were bread winners for their families and the state had not provided their families with assistance while they are in custody. Delivering the judgment, Justice Ben Hlatswayo said, \"I order the immediate release of Fannie Tembo, Lloyd Tarumbwa and Terry Musona from police custody or the custody of any other state agent. This order stands enforceable notwithstanding the noting or filing of an appeal.\" Relatives of the three who were milling around the High Court could not hide their joy after Mhike told them of Hlatswayo's ruling.","highlights":"Magistrate who released a senior opposition politician arrested .\nHigh Court had ordered politican released, but decision was suspended .\nRoy Bennett's imprisonment a crack in coalition of opposition and Robert Mugabe .\nIn separate decision, High Court ordered release of three human rights activists .","id":"f5e582a43830936471ed30077fc4ec2949be8870"} -{"article":"CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio (CNN) -- Camryn Jakeb Wilson was bathed in TV lights the day he was born, celebrated on the local news as Summit County's 2008 New Year's baby after his arrival at 12:33 a.m. January 1. Camryn Jakeb Wilson was the first baby born this year in Summit County, Ohio, arriving at 12:33 a.m. January 1. Just 12 weeks later, he was bathed in warm water minutes after he quietly died in his mother's arms, the victim of shaken baby syndrome. Camryn's 9-year-old sister, Tabatha, asked why he needed a bath now. \"We have to get him ready to go to Jesus,\" a nurse softly replied. Tabatha took up a sponge to help. Camryn's father, Craig R. Wilson, 28, of Cuyahoga Falls, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on murder and other charges August 20. Police say he confessed to shaking and squeezing the infant after arguing with his wife, Crystal Wilson. But he has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and faces trial in September. \"There are no excuses for this to happen to any baby,\" said Crystal Wilson, 26. \"This is murder. He had no reason to die. He died because he cried.\" An innocent infant's violent death has destroyed a family. Watch the family celebrate Camryn's birth \u00bb . \"It really is a tragedy,\" said Craig Wilson's defense attorney, Jonathan T. Sinn. \"I mean, not only did Crystal and Craig lose a son, but Crystal lost a husband, and Craig's parents lost a son and a grandson. ... One day this was a happy, perfect family, and the next day it's been devastated.\" The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome estimates that as many as 1,400 babies annually are injured or killed by shaking. According to the center, 70 percent to 79 percent of people convicted of killing or hurting babies are men. The average age of perpetrators is 24, and 82 percent are either the parent of the victim or the live-in boyfriend of the mother. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain shaken baby syndrome \u00bb . Craig Wilson and Crystal Twiddy, both recovering alcoholics, met about four years ago in a softball league popular with Alcoholics Anonymous members. The couple beamed in engagement photos shot in a garden setting before they were married in September. It was the first marriage for both. See photos of the family \u00bb . Craig, the machinist son of the Cuyahoga Falls High School wrestling coach and a former Mat Cats wrestler himself, became a father figure to Tabatha, Crystal's daughter from a previous relationship. The newlyweds also became frequent caretakers to 1-year-old Corrine, a daughter Craig had with another woman. Family members said the couple's only source of conflict was Craig's interaction with Corrine's mother. On March 12, the topic sparked a heated quarrel, according to a police report and family accounts. The couple hurled their wedding rings, along with profane insults, at each other. Crystal left with Tabatha to attend one of her regular AA meetings, leaving baby Camryn in the care of his father. \"Maybe they both could have used a meeting that night,\" Sinn observed. When Crystal and Tabatha got home from the meeting March 12, Crystal immediately noticed that Camryn didn't look right in his baby swing. He was gasping for air but couldn't be wakened. After briefly speaking with an on-call doctor at Akron Children's Hospital, she scooped him up and rushed him there. Camryn was critically injured, with bleeding inside his head and in the backs of his eyes, and several broken ribs -- some of which, according to the autopsy, turned out to be older injuries. Medical personnel at the hospital determined that the combination of injuries could only mean abuse. When rib fractures are seen in a 10-week-old infant, \"it's beating up,\" said Dr. Nicolas Krawiecki, a pediatric neurologist and faculty member at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He is not involved in the Wilson case. Watch a doctor describe typical symptoms \u00bb . Craig Wilson was summoned to the hospital, where police questioned both parents separately. Early on March 13, the 5-foot-7-inch, 190-pound father was arrested after admitting that he had shaken and squeezed his baby out of frustration and anger toward his wife resulting from the argument over Corrine's mother, according to the police investigators' report. The bleeding inside Camryn's head was catastrophic. The two sides of his brain were \"like two telephone poles with the lines between them cut,\" a family member said a doctor told them. Camryn was blind and incapable of feeling someone touching him, he could not breathe on his own, and if he lived, he would never be aware of his surroundings or even be capable of thinking, family members said. Learn about shaken baby syndrome \u00bb . After almost two weeks of waiting for a miracle that would never come, Crystal Wilson decided to withdraw life support. She gave friends and family -- including everyone on Craig's side -- time to gather to say goodbye to the tiny boy with the big, sightless eyes. Various relatives took turns holding him as he gradually slipped away. \"They pulled together; they prayed together; they took baby Camryn off life support together,\" said Sinn, the Wilson family's longtime lawyer. \"And that was a wonderful thing, that they were able to pull together like that despite Craig being alleged to have done these things.\" Camryn's father was not among them as he remained in jail. Sheriff's deputies took Craig Wilson to the funeral home for a brief private viewing of the infant's body the night before the funeral. But the family unity would not last. Buried with Camryn were multiple relationships that could not survive the grief, recrimination and legal machinations that have followed his death. Watch how Camryn's death has ruined relationships \u00bb . Crystal Wilson intends to divorce her husband of 11 months and is at odds with her in-laws. \"My anger is kicked in full load,\" she wrote on her private MySpace page. \"I don't care what Craig's family members think. He did this to my son. May he get what he deserves! Maybe people should talk more about Camryn than Craig. Craig's name has no worth to even be mentioned.\" Through their attorney, Wilson and his family declined to comment to CNN. Sinn said the autopsy on Camryn raises questions about whether Craig Wilson or someone else might have injured the infant on previous occasions. The autopsy report, obtained by CNN, found Camryn had multiple rib fractures, including several that apparently were incurred on one or more previous occasions. \"The question becomes: If that autopsy is accurate, if this child has been severely injured to the point that his ribs were fractured on prior occasions, multiple occasions, how come no one knew that?\" Sinn said. If Camryn's caregivers didn't pick up on his earlier rib fractures, neither did medical personnel trained to look for signs of child abuse. Camryn had been to Children's Hospital several times during his short life -- including earlier on the day he was fatally injured -- for well-baby checks and immunizations. No doctor or nurse ever noted broken ribs or signs of unusual pain in the infant, family members said. Watch how to avoid hurting a baby \u00bb . Cuyahoga Falls police have said there are no suspects besides Craig Wilson, and Summit County Children Services removes children immediately from a home investigators consider dangerous. Crystal Wilson's other child, 9-year-old Tabatha, is still at home with her mother. Sinn conceded that his client belatedly admitted to police having squeezed Camryn on previous occasions. \"He only made the confession after the detectives involved started talking about other possibilities of how this child could have been injured, what other folks in the household could have injured him. Then Craig quickly took responsibility,\" Sinn said. Sinn said his client would accept \"today\" an offer to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, saying Craig Wilson had no intention to kill Camryn that night, making a murder charge inappropriate. But prosecutors say there will be no deal. \"No matter what happens, Craig is going to very likely spend the majority of his adult life in prison,\" Sinn conceded. \"We are talking massive numbers here.\" John Saros, executive director of Summit County Children Services, said crime within a family can bring long-lasting hardship, especially when a family member goes to prison. \"If that's the breadwinner or the main breadwinner, then you've got some serious financial problems right off the bat,\" he said. Crystal and Tabatha can attest to that. They can no longer afford to live in the charming little house they once shared with Craig on a peaceful Cuyahoga Falls street. Watch how bad things happen in good families \u00bb . \"I lost my job because of this, because I couldn't work enough hours. Now I have to move into a smaller place,\" Crystal said. \"It's horrible. It's a whole life change.\" And the consequences in such circumstances extend beyond the immediate family, Saros said. \"It will be the basis for divorces; it'll be the basis for the kind of family conflict that then brings into play maternal and paternal grandparents and the extended family on both sides, and we end up with a lot of conflict,\" said Saros, who has been in the family services field for 40 years. Crystal Wilson's mother -- Camryn's grandmother, Laura Twiddy -- is angry at Craig but is trying to keep perspective. \"I can't have HATE eat me up and beat me down. I can't live like that,\" she wrote on her MySpace page. \"I will have to one day forgive him so that I might find peace.\" Peace of a sort can be found near the back of Stow Cemetery, where birds chirp in the trees above a freshly carved marker bearing a photograph of a big-eyed baby boy. The plot where Camryn now lies beneath that stone was donated to Crystal Wilson by a kind relative: Janet Wilson, Camryn's great-grandmother. On his father's side.","highlights":"2008 New Year's baby of Summit County, Ohio, shaken to death .\nFather confessed to police, but attorney fighting murder charge .\nAutopsy on 12-week-old infant indicates earlier injuries .\nTragedy destroys family, ruins relationships .","id":"f2702feddad1dcaca1de453bf0b7c026f2b43eb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Altovise Davis, the widow of entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., has died. She was 65. Altovise Davis, in a 2008 photo, married Sammy Davis Jr. in 1970. Davis died Saturday at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, said her publicist, Amy Malone. She had been admitted two days earlier after suffering a stroke. Davis, a dancer and actress from Brooklyn, New York, met Sammy Davis Jr. on the set of the musical \"Golden Boy\" in London in 1967. The couple married three years later. It was Sammy Davis Jr.'s third marriage. The couple remained together until he died of throat cancer in 1990. The couple had an adopted son. Funeral services will be held in Burbank, California, with the date and time to be announced later. Sammy Davis Jr., himself a musician, was famous for being part of the Rat Pack, which included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Altovise Davis, 65, died Saturday at a Los Angeles hospital, her publicist says .\nShe had been admitted two days earlier after suffering a stroke .\nDavis, a dancer and actress, married Sammy Davis Jr. in 1970 .","id":"d6b3a06ff9be495841ce9d5660c9e024e6c83d89"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- The recession has millions of consumers spending less, saving more and paying off debt. The fact that we are adjusting to the reality of this economy is good news, to be sure. There are items in any budget that can be scaled back easily. Financial expert Jean Chatzky warns there are items you should not cut out of your budget. But there's some spending areas where you shouldn't budge. Retirement planning . The Pension Rights Center counted about 20 corporations in December that announced changes to their 401(k) plans. Many others have discontinued or downsized their traditional pension plans. If your company is still offering matching dollars, you should keep kicking in money to grab them. \"To get that free money from your employer is so important for the long-term growth of your retirement nest egg. Especially now, with the down market, when you're dollar-cost averaging in at lower prices, that free money has more value in the long run,\" said Derek Kennedy, a financial planner in Cincinnati. If your company has cut back, it still pays to contribute. Also consider an Individual Retirement Account. You can get your money out any time and, after five years, use it without penalty for a first-time home purchase. Insurance . Don't cut your homeowners insurance thinking that because home values have dropped you don't need as much coverage. What you're paying for is the amount it would cost to rebuild your home and replace your belongings. If you need to save, boost your policy's deductible. Raising it to $1,000 from $500 could shave 25 percent off the cost. Exercise . Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota just completed a study that found that people who go to the gym at least eight times a month have significantly lower health costs than those who don't. You can get those same benefits by going for a brisk walk, running or riding a bike or by spending less than the cost of a monthly gym membership on a pair of dumbbells. Healthcare . Some cuts are fine -- generic drugs instead of name brand, for instance. But skipping doctor visits is a bad idea, and so is canceling your insurance. \"I've seen so many people go through horrendous financial nightmares and even bankruptcy because they don't have health insurance. This is just not one you want to mess with,\" said Jonni McCoy, author of \"Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Economy.\" Charity . Giving to others can make you feel better about yourself and your situation. If money is tight, donate items you no longer use, give canned goods, shop at thrift stores that benefit a charity or share some of your time. Oprah.com: Five steps to secure your financial future . By Jean Chatzky and Arielle McGowen, Oprah.com exclusive, March 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Financial expert Jean Chatzky: Don't cut house insurance coverage .\nContinue contributions to 401(k) if your company is matching .\nStudy finds exercise significantly cuts health care costs .\nGiving money, goods or time to charities can make you feel good .","id":"3332cef5a2cb7d3cef95429525d66c1b07ef6b11"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- The conventional wisdom, among most folks, anyway, is that buying a used car is usually something done out of necessity, by those on a budget -- that is, people who want, or need, to \"move down\" from the new-car market because a new model is simply out of their reach. Bottom line, the Lexus reputation is for high-end luxury, quality and long-term dependability. However, there is another category of used cars that appeal to those with a bit more disposable income: used luxury cars. For some buyers, the used-luxury market is a way of getting into that Lexus, Lincoln, Infiniti or Porsche you always wanted, without laying out $70,000 or $80,000 for something you're not actually going to live in. For others, scouring the used-luxury-car listings is a way of re-visiting the halcyon years of their youth. At this point, some of these used-luxe models have been around so long that they almost qualify as vintage throwback editions. Recently, Consumer Reports magazine issued its list of best and worst used cars, and divvied them up by price range. Using CR's recommendations as a guideline, here is a list of some of the best used luxury cars currently on the market in the $24,000-30,000 price range. 2005 & 2006 Acura MDX . A luxury SUV, the MDX is spacious, seats seven, and boasts distinctive styling and Acura's famed attention to detail. Plus, it packs some punch under the hood -- this generation was powered by 3.5-liter, 253-hp V6 matched to a five-speed automatic transmission. AOL Autos: Used Acura . Priced just right as a new vehicle, it included safety features like dual-stage front airbags, three-point seatbelts and adjustable head restraints for all seating positions. 2007 Acura RDX . A crossover vehicle that mixes sedan-like ride with SUV roominess, the '07 RDX offered unibody construction, leather upholstery, heated front seats, power moonroof, 18-inch alloy wheels with all-season tires, xenon HID headlights with foglamps and the 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine -- plus a five-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters on the steering wheel, and the patented SH-AWD (SH for Super Handling) system. 2006 & 2007 Acura TL . A mid-size, front-wheel-drive, four-door sedan powered by a 258-hp 3.2-liter V6, the Acura TL is a fine road machine. Actually, it was available for '06-'07 as both a TL and a higher-end TL Type S -- the latter of which sported an upgraded engine, a 286-hp 3.5-liter. Depending on trim level, you can find it with a five-speed automatic with a console-mounted lever or shift paddles on the steering wheel. 2007 Audi A3 . Audi designers have always shown a certain flair for dynamics, and that is evident here, in a sharply-engineered, handsomely-appointed vehicle that offers a fine balance between silky ride, nimble handling and zesty performance. This sporty compact was powered by a 200-hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine in '07, and came standard with a six-speed manual and an optional Direct Shift Gearbox. AOL Autos: Used Audi . 2005 & 2006 BMW 3-Series . The 3-Series is another winning stable of cars, but Consumer Reports especially liked specific model years\/versions\/features in the 3-Series family: The 2005 RWD coupe and convertible; the '06 325i RWD sedan; the '06 330i RWD sedan and the '05 Z4. Depending on the model year and version, the standard engine ranged from a 184-hp 2.5-L to a 255-hp 3.0-L. AOL Autos: Used BMW . 2005 & 2006 Infiniti FX35 . Another of the many crossovers that have hit the market the last several years, the FX35 is one of the sportier editions. During these model years, the FX35 2WD came with a 280-hp 3.5-liter V6 and a five-speed automatic transmission. Rear-wheel-drive was standard, but AWD was also an option. Some spiffier features included leather seating surfaces, 18-inch wheels, dual-zone climate control with microfiltration and steering-wheel controls. AOL Autos: Used Infiniti . Infiniti G35 . The G35 is one of the more svelte sports-sedan beauties on the road, offering Infiniti's typical attention to detail and sporting attitude. Yes, it has four doors, but it handles like a sporty coupe, with its power coming from a finely-tuned 3.5-liter V6. Horsepower output is 280 for the automatic and 298 with the manual. Luxo amenities include leather upholstery, automatic climate control, steering wheel audio controls, illuminated visor vanity mirrors and high-intensity discharge (HID) xenon headlamps. Lexus . Any luxury-car aficionado knows that a Lexus is one of the most exquisitely-designed, high-performing chariots on the luxury-car market, and CR saw fit to include more than a half-dozen Lexus models on this list of recommended used luxury cars -- from the '02 SC and LX models, to the '03-'04 GX edition, '03 LS, '04 \/ '06 IS entries, '04-'05 RX model, '05 GS and '06 ES to ... well, you get the picture. Bottom line, given the Lexus reputation for high-end luxury, quality and long-term dependability, it's hard to go wrong with any of the above-named Lexus entries. And all have plenty of engine oomph and luxo-line amenities. AOL Autos: Used Lexus . 2007 Lincoln MKX . This luxury crossover vehicle debuted in '07 as a replacement for the Aviator, and made a big splash. A higher-end and pricier version of the Ford Edge, it seats five and is powered by a 265 hp 3.5-liter V-6 and comes with standard six-speed automatic tranny. Either FWD or AWD is available. One cool option was the glass-paneled roof dubbed the \"Vista Roof.\" 2007 Lincoln MKZ . Also new for the '07 model year, this handsome and fully-loaded mid-size luxury sedan replaced the Zephyr. Under the hood purrs a muscular 263-hp V6 hitched to a six-speed automatic transmission. FWD is standard, but AWD is optional. Standard safety features include side-impact air bags in the front; curtain-style head protection airbags for all outboard positions; plus traction control and antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution. 2007 Lincoln Town Car . A venerated luxury car whose heritage goes way back, the Town Car still \"has game\" -- and is a far cry from the floaty boats your granddad drove in the '70s and '80s. It's still cavernous inside, but now boasts a much more refined design. It seats six comfortably and is powered by a 239-hp 4.6-liter V-8 that's linked to a four-speed automatic. The well-appointed cabin is trimmed in premium leather and burl walnut appliques. Available in Signature, Signature Limited, Designer and Signature L trim levels, you can find one to fit any taste. 1998 Porsche 911 . No, your eyes don't deceive you -- CR did include a primo, high-line vehicle like a Porsche 911 on its list of recommended used cars under $30,000. But, take note: This is the 1998 edition. But when you're dealing with quality of this level, even an 10-year-old vehicle has a lot of juice left in it. So, by \"going vintage,\" driving enthusiasts can get into their car of their dreams without breaking the bank. In '98, the 911 was powered by a 3.6L H-6 282 hp engine. So, while it wasn't quite the road-burner it is today, is still packed plenty of thrust. 2007 Volvo S60 (FWD) Only a year old, the '07 used edition should still be in fine condition, and it boasts top-drawer performance, stylish design and Volvo's all-world safety features. The '07 S60 came in several trim levels, with an array of engine sizes, from the turbocharged 2.5-liter 208 hp job to the 2.3-liter 257-hp inline five-cylinder plant to the 2.5-liter high-pressure turbocharged and intercooled engine that churned out 300 ponies. Depending on the trim line, either a manual or automatic transmission can be had. 2006 & 2007 Volvo XC70 . The XC70 is a crossover vehicle, splitting the difference between an SUV and a wagon. And it's one of the finest crossovers on the road. It's all-wheel drive, and the latest used-model-year, the '07, was powered by a 208-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-five-cylinder engine matched to a Geartronic five-speed automatic transmission that also offers manual gear selection.","highlights":"Some buyers go to used-car market to get the luxury car they always wanted .\nConsumer Reports magazine issues its list of best and worst used cars .\nInfiniti G35 is one of the more svelte sports-sedan beauties on the road .\n1998 Porsche 911 made the list of cars for under $30,000 .","id":"e112dc229a8bc4db8c69a5805bf3cad414019410"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two children and one adult were killed Friday after a man with a painted face launched a knife attack at a children's daycare center in Belgium. Police look at a hearse parked in front of the childcare centre in Dendermonde where the attack took place. Officials said two adults and 10 children, some of whom were in a critical condition, were being treated in hospital following the attack in Dendermonde, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of Brussels. \"The guy just went crazy,\" local official Theo Janssens said, according to Agence France-Presse news agency. He was arrested an hour and a half afterwards, according to the Interior Ministry. Reports said he was trying to make his escape on a bicycle. The attacker entered the day care center in Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, around 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) and began stabbing children and staff, the ministry said. Local journalist Bart Bekaert told CNN that the attacker's face was painted black and white. Hear Bekaert describe the attack \u00bb . \"Witnesses say he looked calm. There was no security and he just walked straight in,\" he added. AFP reported that the man was not known to staff at the nursery. \"You don't expect such acts happening in a daycare center,\" Dendermonde deputy prosecutor Jan Kerkhofs told CNN. \"It is not like a prison so there are no bars on the doors or security systems.\"","highlights":"2 children, 1 adult killed in knife attack at creche, Belgian Interior Ministry says .\nThree others reported seriously injured in attack in town of Dendermonde .\nAttacker \"had painted face,\" local journalist tells CNN .","id":"5ae1a5c43b537955fa28342096ea8c6b912ef7c3"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel's attorney general will indict former President Moshe Katsav on charges of rape and sexual assault of a number of his employees, the country's justice ministry said Sunday. Israel's ex-President Moshe Katsav will face rape and sexual assault charges, Israel's Justice Ministry said. Katsav will also be charged with obstruction of justice, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said in a statement. Katsav had agreed in 2007 to plead guilty to lesser charges and pay a fine in order to avoid jail time, but pulled out of the deal when it came time to enter his plea. The plea bargain caused a public storm in Israel, mainly because it did not include charges of rape, contrary to what had been suggested by Mazuz in a draft indictment. Watch more on the expected indictment \u00bb . Katsav, of the center-right Likud Party, was president of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was minister of tourism before that. The charges stem from allegations made against him in both jobs. He resigned the presidency in June 2007 over the sexual assault allegations. CNN's Shira Medding contributed to this report.","highlights":"Justice Ministry: Moshe Katsav will be indicted on rape, sexual assault charges .\nKatsav to face obstruction of justice charge, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz says .\nKatsav, of the center-right Likud Party, was president from 2000 to 2007 .","id":"b8ad23d27af2b9fbb2f37264c651ac75bd2a11d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Extra-time goals by Darren O'Dea and Aiden McGeady gave Celtic a 2-0 victory over Glasgow rivals Rangers in the Scottish League Cup final at Hampden Park. Darren O'Dea (left) peels away after scoring the opening goal in Celtic's 2-0 victory over Rangers. After 90 tense minutes had failed to produce a goal, the game moved in to extra-time and just a minute after the restart O'Dea, who had not scored since Celtic beat Livingston in February 2007, leapt to head a Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick past goalkeeper Allan McGregor. Then, In the third minute of added time at the end of the match, Rangers defender Kirk Broadfoot was red-carded for denying McGeady a clear goalscoring opportunity and the Ireland international scored from the resulting penalty. There was little between the two sides in normal time but Celtic's superior fitness paid off, giving them a psychological boost in their bid for a fourth Scottish Premier League title in succession -- a race in which Celtic lead Rangers by three points. The victory was Celtic's first major final victory over their arch-enemies for 20 years -- and ensured Rangers, who are also through to the semifinals of the Scottish FA Cup -- cannot now lift the domestic treble.","highlights":"Celtic defeat rivals Rangers 2-0 to win Scottish League Cup final at Hampden .\nExtra-time goals by Darren O'Dea and Aiden McGeady secure cup for Celtic .\nThe result will give Celtic a boost as they battle with Rangers for Scottish title .","id":"26eefc50190e2cb4e9d5f37529791b2231906296"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian conservatives have said they captured most of the 82 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Friday's runoff election. An Iranian girl drops her mother's ballot for the parliamentary runoff election. Conservatives took about 80 percent of the parliamentary seats, official Mohammad Forouzandeh told the country's semi-official FARS news agency. \"The final results are not in yet, but so far, the fundamentalists have 53 seats, Reformists have 12 and the rest went to Independent candidates with fundamentalist tendencies,\" he said. FARS also published the names of the 11 winners of the Tehran constituency. Ten were conservatives and one was a reformist. Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported that election results from 47 out of 54 had been finalized, and that the final count would be ready Saturday night. IRNA said voter participation in the second round was 8 percent higher than the second round of the previous election. Last month's first round, in which 204 parliamentary races were settled, was a decisive victory for the hard-line conservatives. The reformists suffered a setback before the March election, when 70 percent of their candidates were disqualified. Iran's conservative Guardian Council screened candidates and disqualified about 1,700 it deemed unsuitable. They were predominantly reformists. The Guardian Council is an unelected body of six high clerics appointed by supreme religious leaders and six lawyers nominated by the head of the judiciary branch. Iran is scheduled to hold its presidential election in the spring of 2009. Ahmadinejad has not announced whether he will run for a second term. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian conservatives say they captured most seats in parliamentary election .\nEarlier contests seen as victory for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .\nReformists suffered setback when 70 percent of their candidates were disqualified .","id":"1f3a263d638b28232d7450dc4d668089cad4d21c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A top congressional Republican on Sunday criticized President Barack Obama's expected decision to reverse the Bush administration's limits on embryonic stem-cell research, calling it a distraction from the country's economic slump. U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor also says the policy reversal could lead to embryo harvesting, which \"shouldn't be done.\" \"Why are we going and distracting ourselves from the economy? This is job No. 1. Let's focus on what needs to be done,\" Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, told CNN's \"State of the Union.\" Obama's move, scheduled for Monday morning, is part of a broader effort to separate science and politics and \"restore scientific integrity in governmental decision-making,\" White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes said Sunday. The Bush administration's 2001 policy bars federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells beyond the cell lines that existed at the time. Cantor, R-Virginia, has been among the leaders of GOP opposition to Obama's economic policies. In a conference call with reporters, Barnes said funding research is also part of the administration's plan to boost the plunging U.S. economy. \"Advances with regard to science and technology help advance our overall national goals around economic growth and job creation,\" she said, adding, \"I think anytime you make an effort to try and separate these pieces of the puzzle, you're missing the entire picture.\" Because stem cells have the potential to turn into any organ or tissue cell in the body, research advocates say they could yield cures to debilitating conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal injuries. But because work on embryonic stem cells involves the destruction of human embryos, many conservatives supported the limits former President George Bush imposed by executive order in 2001. \"Frankly, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research can bring on embryo harvesting, perhaps even human cloning that occurs,\" Cantor said. \"We don't want that. That shouldn't be done. That's wrong.\" The Bush policy limited federal funding to work on 60 existing stem-cell lines, but only 21 of those have proven useful to researchers. Congress voted to roll back those limits in 2006 and 2007, but Bush vetoed the legislation both times, leading to Democratic charges that he had put politics over science. Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council, said Sunday that Obama will \"endorse the notion that public policy must be guided by sound, scientific advice.\" Obama's order will direct the National Institutes of Health to develop revised guidelines on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research within 120 days, said Varmus, who joined Barnes in the conference call with reporters. \"The president is, in effect, allowing federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research to the extent that it's permitted by law -- that is, work with stem cells themselves, not the derivation of stem cells,\" he said. Supporters of the ban said researchers could still obtain private funding or explore alternatives such as adult stem cells. Opponents said the research could be carried out using embryos left over in fertility clinics, which otherwise would be discarded. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, told reporters that reversing the Bush ban would \"once again say to the rest of the world that we will be the beacon for cures and for hope.\" She credited her support for federal funding in part for her 2006 election. \"I think it's a great moment, and I'm proud of [Obama] for reversing that executive order,\" McCaskill said. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the Bush policy imposed ethical limits on science. \"My basic tenet here is I don't think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth,\" Shelby said. \"I know that people argue there are other ways. I think we should continue our biomedical research everywhere we can, but we should have some ethics about it.\" CNN's Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: White House adviser: Move part of effort to separate politics, science .\nBush-era policy on embryonic stem cell research to be reversed, officials say .\nPresident's expected decision on stem cells distracting from economy, Cantor says .\nRep. Cantor, R-Virginia, also says policy reversal could lead to embryo harvesting .","id":"31b7af1311286bb22096ba8a76b26a8bf704d9f2"} -{"article":"KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police in Pakistan arrested lawyers holding a public protest to demand that the government immediately restore judges the previous president had ousted, Karachi's police chief told CNN Thursday. Lawyers shout slogans Thursday in Karachi on the eve of a march to Islamabad. Among those detained were Muira Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and leader of the Karachi lawyers movement, and retired high court justice Rasheed Razvi, police Chief Wasim Ahmed said. The lawyers were arrested under an order that outlaws public gatherings. The police chief also said authorities had credible information that there was a terror threat against the march and he had warned the lawyers before they started that it would be a public danger. Up to 500 lawyers in the Karachi group planned to join thousands of other demonstrators heading to the capital, Islamabad, as part of a four-day \"Long March.\" The demonstrators plan a massive sit-in at the parliament building Monday. \"Our movement is a peaceful movement,\" organizer Razvi, president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, said before his arrest. \"When we protested the last time, there were hundreds of thousands of people and not one grass was broken, not one leaf was broken.\" The demonstrators began walking from the gates of the Sindh High Court, heading to a dozen buses that waited to ferry them to their next stop: the city of Hyderabad. \"The rule of baton and bullets cannot last,\" the protesters chanted. They want President Asif Ali Zardari to live up to a promise to reinstate judges sacked by then-President Pervez Musharraf. Among the dismissed judges was the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. After sweeping into power in parliamentary elections last year, Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went. The government responded to the recent intensification of protests by banning political demonstrations in two of the country's biggest provinces -- Punjab and Sindh. It also detained several hundred activists Wednesday. But the protesters said they will not be deterred. Their movement now, they said, isn't so much about reinstating Chaudhry as it is about restoring the office of the chief justice. \"We will start the long march from the province as we have promised the nation,\" Razvi said. The country's largest opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), is backing the lawyers -- but for reasons of its own. Party head Nawaz Sharif accuses Zardari of being behind a February Supreme Court decision that bars Sharif from holding public office. The court also stripped Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, of his post as chief minister of Punjab -- the Sharif party's power center. Supporters of PML-N have responded by holding massive rallies, some of which have turned violent in recent days. CNN's Thomas Evans and Zein Basravi contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Lawyers arrested at start of 'Long March' protest to the capital, Islamabad .\nProtesters heading to Islamabad to take their case to parliament .\nThey want judges removed by previous president be restored to office .\nPresident Zardari's party had vowed to reinstate judges after winning election .","id":"a0361739a1aa6a575fd33ff184f77caf42acdeeb"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Spain remain top of the world rankings for the ninth straight month, according to newly released standings by FIFA, the world game's governing body. European champions Spain are ranked No.1 by FIFA in their world rankings. The European champions have not lost a game since going down 1-0 in a friendly to Romania in Cadiz in November 2006. They top their 2010 World Cup qualifying group, with four wins from four games, and have only conceded one goal in their last 10 internationals. No team can compete with that record and Spain are placed at No.1 for that reason. Their rankings are based on team performances over the last four years, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team. Yet fans all over the world have long questioned how much can be read into the rankings. After the 2008 African Cup of Nations, US-based football columnist Ives Galarcep wrote: \"Don't try making any sense of these rankings. After all, Egypt, which just won the African Cup of Nations for a second straight time, is ranked 29th, fourth best among African teams.\" Do you think FIFA's rankings count for much? Let us know in the Sound Off box below. For example, France, who reached the World Cup final in 2006 are down in 12th, while England, who failed to even qualify for Euro 2008, are ninth. Furthermore, Les Bleus were at their lowest-ever standing in the rankings in April 1998, when they were down in 25th. Three months later, they lifted the World Cup. From 2001-06, Mexico were anchored in the top 10, at one point as high as fourth, which left many European fans wondering how that was possible. They were ahead of many a supposed European powerhouse, such as Portugal. Not only did the Iberian country reach the final of Euro 2004, they also made the semi-finals of the World Cup in Germany two years later. Mexico were even in the same group as Portugal at the World Cup and finished five points behind them in second place. In the round of 16 Mexico fell to skilful but flawed Argentina side. Surely the yardstick is the planet's biggest tournament? There is luck involved, of course, as it's knockout football, but the best teams overall tend to go through. FIFA's suggestion that Mexico were once the fourth-best team in the world does not seem to add up. And to suggest that throughout this period they were better than Portugal does not ring true -- not when performances on the pitch indicate otherwise. Other ranking systems, compiled by football statisticians, have been founded as an alternative to FIFA's, which began in 1993. Criticism that calculating rankings over an eight-year period was unrepresentative of a team's recent performances led to FIFA revamping their system after the last World Cup. \"The increasingly high profile of the world ranking has also brought a certain amount of criticism that its calculation formula is too complicated. It was therefore decided in 2005 to revise the ranking in order to simplify the way in which it is calculated,\" according to FIFA.com. Before that there were even more glaring anomalies than today: Norway were twice ranked second in the table in the 1990s and the United States were fourth two months before the World Cup in 2006. At the tournament, the Americans went home early after picking up one point and two goals in their three group games, which made a mockery of such a high placing. As of March 2009, Brazil and Argentina are the only non-European teams in the top 10, Cameroon (16) are the highest African nation, the United States are 17th, while Australia are the top Asian nation at 32. But regardless of your opinions of the rankings, they are here to stay. And Spain deserve respect for becoming only the sixth team after Germany, Brazil, Italy, France and Argentina to top them.","highlights":"Spain remain top of FIFA's world rankings for the ninth month in a row .\nFIFA revamped their ranking system to make it more representative in 2006 .\nFootball fans are still unsure about how accurate the rankings are .","id":"fb6d767469b9e25f0067e5b6efbcef206c0b3389"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Football fans are set to benefit from the recession as clubs slash season ticket prices to keep supporters coming back. Some Premier League fans will save on season tickets after five clubs cut prices. Price cuts have been announced at five English Premier League clubs. Manchester City, Sunderland, Everton, Portsmouth and Newcastle United have cut prices, while five further clubs announced price freezes on their season tickets. Bolton dropped their season ticket prices last season. Manchester City have taken an average of seven percent off their prices, while at Everton the cheapest adult season ticket will now be \u00a3399 ($550). At Sunderland under-16 season passes will be just \u00a31($1.39) per home match for the 19 matches (\u00a319 [$26] total) when purchased with an adult pass. The move comes amid a slight decline in Premiership football crowds this season. The average attendance at Premier League matches is down about 800 per match compared to the 2007\/2008 season -- however, on average the stadiums are still at almost 92 percent capacity. Outside the United Kingdom, fans also stand to benefit from lower ticket prices. In the U.S. Major League Soccer side Kansas City Wizards recently announced they would drop ticket prices for the coming season. Wizards president Robb Heinemann was quoted in the Kansas City Star saying; \"We understand these are tough economic times.\" Other countries in Europe have maintained lower prices in recent years, with single tickets available for about 10 Euros in club games in Italy and Germany. Tickets in Australia's A-League tended to be cheaper yet, while South America and Africa\/Middle East remained the cheapest. In England's League One and League Two competitions crowds had dropped more significantly. Dan Johnson of the Premier League told CNN the clubs cutting ticket prices were simply responding to the financial climate. \"Given the economic situation, there will be pressure on fans' ability to spend and the clubs have acted accordingly. \"It's a very real way that they can help at this time,\" Johnson said. Johnson said the drop in crowds this season was not significant and may be made up towards the end of the season when attendances are traditionally higher. Sport business expert Professor Simon Chadwick, founder of the Center for the International Business of Sport (CIBS) at Coventry University, told CNN recessions could have a strong impact on football crowds. \"In previous recessions there is evidence to suggest that as unemployment rises, the attendance at football matches decreases,\" he said. However, Chadwick said English football fans shouldn't hope for significant price reductions. \"Some Premier League clubs are running at nearly 100% capacity and there's excess demand ...so in the short-to-medium term they should be able to continue at premium prices,\" Chadwick said.","highlights":"Football fans to benefit as club teams lower season ticket prices .\nFive English Premier League teams have dropped prices for season passes .\nDan Johnson of the Premier League says the move is due to recession .\nA U.S. Major League Soccer team has also announced a price drop .","id":"9792778c4de34cb4207c0f0f1f53c5a5a9d20cb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rioting has flared near Belfast on Saturday after the arrests of three men in the killings of two soldiers in Northern Ireland last week, police said. Two people in masks prepare to throw petrol bombs Saturday in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Petrol bombs have been hurled at police in Lurgan, a town in County Armagh, 20 miles west of Belfast, police in Northern Ireland said. There are gangs of youths on the streets, authorities said, but there have been no arrests or injuries. Police announced the arrests on Saturday and said the three men have been taken to the police service's Serious Crime Suite in County Antrim. One of them, a dissident republican named Colin Duffy, is from Lurgan. They are the first arrests in connection with the March 7 shootings, which were the first fatal attack on British troops in the province for more than 12 years. The two British soldiers were shot dead at a base in Massereene, in Antrim, as they were preparing to ship out for duty in Afghanistan. The soldiers, Cengiz \"Pat\" Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, had already packed their bags and changed into desert uniforms, authorities said. Two masked gunmen with automatic rifles shot them as the soldiers picked up a pizza delivery at the barracks, authorities said. Two other soldiers and the two pizza delivery men were seriously wounded. The shooting has sparked fears of a return to the sectarian violence that Northern Ireland suffered until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a period known as The Troubles. A militant splinter group, the Real IRA, reportedly claimed it had carried out the attack on the soldiers. Two days after the soldiers were killed, a police officer was killed in a shooting southwest of Belfast. Constable Stephen Carroll was one of four officers who were responding to call in Craigavon when his vehicle came under fire and he was killed. Three people have been arrested in connection with the police officer's death. The Continuity IRA, a republican splinter group that does not accept the Good Friday Agreement, said it had killed Carroll, Britain's Press Association reported. Politicians from across the political spectrum have condemned the killings, with Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness calling the killers \"traitors to the island of Ireland.\" Sinn Fein is a predominantly Catholic party that wants Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and become part of the Republic of Ireland. The party is widely thought to be linked to the Irish Republican Army. Danny Kennedy, deputy leader of the loyalist Ulster Unionist Party, which wants Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, also condemned the attack as \"wicked and murderous.\"","highlights":"NEW: Petrol bombs hurled at police after arrests in connection with soldiers' killings .\nThree arrested over slayings of two soldiers in Northern Ireland last week .\nThree men also being held in Monday's killing of police officer .\nTwo republican groups have reportedly claimed responsibility for the killings .","id":"106c76a1c679ac9f9f954903e33683a24758336e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The average cost of medical care for a premature or low birth-weight baby for its first year of life is about $49,000, according to a new report from the March of Dimes Foundation. Babies born after the 37th week of pregnancy are less costly to the health care system than premature babies. By contrast, a newborn without complications costs $4,551 for care in its first year of life, the report said. Newborns with other kinds of complications, such as congenital defects, have medical expenses of $10,273 on average in the first year. The foundation wants to show employers the importance of good maternity care, maternity coverage, and prevention of prematurity, said Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes, a nonprofit for pregnancy and baby health. \"It's in the best interest of the bottom line for the employer, and of course it's certainly in the best interest for the baby, the employee, and ultimately the community in which the business is located,\" she said. Although most of these costs go straight to the health care plans, even out-of-pocket expenses are far greater for premature babies than for children delivered at a normal time. The average out-of-pocket expense for a premature or low-birth-weight baby in the first year was $1,987. For uncomplicated births, it is $654, and a baby with other kinds of complications averages $953 in out of pocket expenses. But it's important to note that these are average costs for premature babies born at different times -- a baby born closer to 40 weeks will most likely cost much less than a baby born at 26 weeks, said William Sexson, neonatologist at Emory University and prematurity prevention chair for the March of Dimes for the state of Georgia. Sexson was not involved in the new report. The problem of prematurity . By definition, a premature baby is born before the 37th week of pregnancy. About 12 percent of all pregnancies in the United States result in premature birth, according to the National Institutes of Health. A low-birth-weight baby weighs less than 2,500 grams, or 5.5 pounds. Prematurity may contribute to problems such as cerebral palsy, vision problems, learning disabilities, and developmental delays, experts say. The rate of premature babies in the United States has increased 36 percent since the early 1980s, the March of Dimes said. One reason for the abundance of premature births may be the increasing number of elective early deliveries, said Sexson. There is a lack of transparency about both patients' and obstetricians' decisions to, for example, have a Caesarean section close to term -- technically premature. The March of Dimes recommends every elective delivery before 39 weeks be reviewed. \"There is a real concern that many of those deliveries are a lot more elective than they ought to be,\" Sexson said. Uncomplicated Caesarean deliveries cost over 40 percent more than uncomplicated vaginal deliveries, the new report said. These deliveries also resulted in longer inpatient stays, outpatient visits, and more prescriptions filled. Most of the costs get covered by a health plan -- out-of-pocket expenses were similar for normal Caesarian deliveries, uncomplicated vaginal deliveries, and complicated births. Preventing premature births . Prenatal care is essential in helping mothers carry their babies to term, experts say. The vitamin folate is especially important for mothers-to-be because it has been shown to prevent congenital abnormalities, said Janet Larson, chief of neonatology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Premature babies cost the United States at least $26 billion each year, according to the Institute of Medicine. Women who have a shortened cervix, or have certain infections, such as bacterial vaginosis and trichomoniasis, are at higher risk for having a premature baby, according to the NIH. A history of giving birth to premature babies is also a risk factor, said Dr. Charles Macri, obstetrician-gynecologist at the The George Washington University Hospital in Washington. A woman in this situation may take progesterone therapy between weeks 16 and 36 to decrease the likelihood of a premature delivery. A pregnant woman should always tell her doctor if she has had any kind of cervical surgery, which may also contribute to premature births, he said. Women who carry multiples babies at once, even twins, are also at higher risk of giving birth prematurely, he said. Not all premature births can be prevented, however. Some babies are \"destined to be born early,\" Macri said. About 50 percent of pregnancies that result in premature births are completely normal until labor, Sexson said. Costs for premature and low-birth-weight babies are also higher in terms of combined medical costs for the mother and child -- $64,713, compared with $15,047 for uncomplicated births, the March of Dimes report said. Even in tough economic times, experts agree that pregnant women should not cut back on health care. \"Investing in health care costs -- that's the best investment a family can make,\" Howse said.","highlights":"By definition, a premature baby is born before the 37th week of pregnancy .\nPremature babies cost the U.S. at least $26 billion each year .\nThere are risk factors, but not all premature births can be prevented .\nIn tough economic times, pregnant women should not cut back on health care .","id":"901e810586727686a5f19cba9653be7a6d4b17ce"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Friday that would have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, and 11 senior members of his government. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe meets this week with Arthur Mutambara, an opposition leader. According to a draft of the resolution, the measure would have instituted a travel ban on Mugabe and others in his government, frozen many of their assets and imposed an international arms embargo on the regime. The measure received nine votes -- the minimum for it to pass. However, two of the five negative votes were from Russia and China, who as permanent members of the Security Council have veto power. One Security Council member abstained. The resolution was pushed by the United States after Mugabe ignored the Security Council's appeal to postpone the June 27 presidential runoff election. The vote initially was intended to be a runoff between Mugabe and opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. But Tsvangirai withdrew days before, saying Mugabe's supporters had orchestrated a campaign of beatings, intimidation and murders against his supporters. With their votes, ambassadors for China and Russia said they wanted to give the rival political parties a chance to resolve the election matter on their own terms without undue interference from the Security Council. Representatives from Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), have been meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change this week. Tsvangirai said Wednesday the talks, which are being mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, are focusing on \"how to move forward.\" Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said his nation believes the international community should allow the talks in South Africa on the Zimbabwe situation a chance to progress before imposing sanctions. Wang said the adoption of the resolution would \"unavoidably interfere with the negotiation process and lead to the further deterioration of the situation.\" \"Many countries, including China, repeatedly called upon the Security Council to respect the position of the African countries on this question and give more time,\" Wang said. \"China has always maintained the best approach to solve a problem is negotiation and dialogue,\" Wang said. \"To use or threaten to use sanctions lightly is not conducive to solving the problem.\" Wang's comments echoed those of Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who said the Security Council would have overstepped its responsibilities had it approved the resolution. \"Recently, in the positions of a number of council member states, we have seen an ever-more-obvious attempt to take the council beyond its chartered prerogatives and beyond maintaining international peace and security,\" Churkin said. \"We believe such practices to be illegitimate and dangerous, leading to a realignment of the entire U.N. system.\" Churkin also noted that, had the resolution been approved, council members would have ignored appeals from the African Union to let the South African talks take place. He also accused the council of missing an opportunity to coordinate a response that would have \"promoted the success of the political dialogue\" in Zimbabwe. Speaking before the vote, Zimbabwean Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku said his nation has been a victim of \"incessant meddling\" from the international community. Chidyausiku blamed sanctions already imposed on Zimbabwe for its underperforming economy and the suffering of its people. South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo also urged the Security Council to give the South African talks a chance to bring about a resolution. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States was disappointed at the veto. \"China and Russia have stood with Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe ... for reasons that we think are not borne out by the facts on the ground,\" he said. \"The U-turn on the Russian position is particularly surprising and disturbing,\" he said, noting that a few days ago, the Russian Federation was supportive of a statement adopted at the Group of Eight meeting in Japan expressing \"grave concern\" about the situation in Zimbabwe. \"The Russian performance here today raises questions about its reliability as a G-8 partner,\" Khalilzad said. The draft resolution expressed \"deep concern at the gross irregularities\" during the presidential election, saying violence and intimidation before the runoff prevented \"free and fair elections,\" creating \"an environment that did not permit international election observers to operate freely before the June 27 vote.\" The United Kingdom, which has been highly critical of Mugabe, was a chief supporter of the United States push for sanctions. France also supported the resolution. \"The Security Council has failed to shoulder its responsibility to do what it can to prevent a national tragedy deepening and spreading its effects across southern Africa,\" British Ambassador John Sawers said after the vote. Watch the British Ambassador to the U.N. speaks about the failed resolution \u00bb . Sawers also questioned Mbeki's efficacy as a mediator in Zimbabwe's affairs. \"We have to be realistic. Those efforts have so far come to naught. The only one who has benefited to date is Mr. Mugabe,\" he said. After the vote, Chidyausiku thanked the council for heeding his call. \"Today we have seen reason,\" he said. \"I want to express our gratitude to the people in the Security Council who managed to see reason and refused to be intimidated or cowed into following the national interests of the U.S. and UK.\" The Zimbabwean people, he said, are \"committed to resolve their differences.\" CNN's Richard Roth and Terence Burke contributed to this report.","highlights":"China, Russia veto resolution that would have meant sanctions for Mugabe regime .\nUnited States pushed for measure after Mugabe refused to postpone runoff elections .\nSanctions would have meant travel bans, frozen assets for Mugabe and others .\nProposed sanctions also would have imposed an international arms embargo .","id":"c24ed0721d85c0d6d199c6c4c4265124187af97f"} -{"article":"ST. POELTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A verdict in the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, could come as early as Thursday, a court official told reporters Monday. Josef Fritzl expects to spend the rest of his life in prison, his attorney has said. As his trial began behind closed doors Monday Fritzl pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but denied charges of murder and enslavement -- the most serious charges against him. He pleaded \"Partly guilty\" to multiple charges of rape, but did not elaborate. \"Partly guilty\" is a plea option in Austrian courts. Franz Cutka, a spokesman for the Landesgericht St. Poelten court, said the \"partly guilty\" plea might mean that Fritzl contends he is not guilty of all the individual rape charges or that the violence used was not as severe as rape. Cutka was not in court for the plea and does not speak for the defendant. Fritzl's attorney was not immediately available to explain what he meant. Fritzl arrived at the courthouse in St. Poelten covering his face with a blue binder to shield himself from reporters, television cameras and photographers and escorted by a phalanx of police officers. Watch Fritzl arrive in court \u00bb . Fritzl faces six charges at a closed-door trial in St. Poelten, 45 miles (70 km) east of Amstetten, where Fritzl lived. Cameras were removed from the court . The trial is scheduled to last five days, but his attorney Rudolph Mayer said it could be shorter. Fritzl was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, over a 24-year period. But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care. In an opening statement, prosecuting attorney Christiane Burkheiser handed damp-smelling items from the cellar where Elisabeth and her children had lived to jurors to give them an idea of the conditions in which they were allegedly locked up. In all, Fritzl is charged with: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of murder. Mayer said Sunday that Fritzl expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. \"This man obviously led a double life for 24 years. He had a wife and had seven kids with her. And then he had another family with his daughter, fathered another seven children with her,\" said Franz Polzer, a police officer in Amstetten, the town where Fritzl lived, at the time of his arrest. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions. Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin, then 19, to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, she told police, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room. Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the girl, who was then 18, had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write. Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending the missing Elisabeth had dropped them off. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are: . \u2022 Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. \u2022 Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison. \u2022 Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl \"regularly sexually abused Elisabeth,\" according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison. \u2022 Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year. \u2022 Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years. \u2022 Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"Friztl pleads guilty to imprisonment, incest denies murder, enslavement .\nFritzl answers \"partly guilty\" when asked his response to rape charge .\nAustrian accused of keeping daughter in cellar for decades, fathering her 7 children .\nVerdict could come as early as Thursday, court official says .","id":"7ffd6dbf93e2a1f89a3d8166b333e7f834481a90"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anna Nicole Smith's longtime partner and attorney Howard K. Stern and two doctors were charged Thursday with conspiring to furnish drugs before her death in 2007, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend Howard K. Stern was among those charged Thursday. Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8 after being found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood, Florida. The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. At the time of her death several prescription medications -- both in Smith's name and that of her partner and lawyer, Stern -- were found in the room. Officials said prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three antidepressants or antianxiety drugs. Also found in toxicology testing was human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, officials said. Stern, 40, and doctors Sandeep Kapoor, 40, and Khristine Eroshevich, 61, were each charged with eight felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions between June 2004 and January 2007 -- only weeks before the playmate's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich were each also charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" Each were also charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, according to the DA's office. All three were charged with one count of \"prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.\" Smith was buried in the Bahamas March 2 next to the grave of her son, Daniel, who died in September, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn.","highlights":"Howard K. Stern, Sandeep Kapoor, Khristine Eroshevich charged with eight felonies .\nThe three are accused of conspiring to furnish drugs before her death .\nFormer Playboy playmate died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs .\nAll three charged with giving \"a controlled substance to an addict\"","id":"5d251418d1cc55e5b50708eca850fd47b858d0b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hamburg have moved up to fourth place in the Bundesliga, only behind Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg on goal difference, after a comfortable 2-0 home victory over Energie Cottbus on Sunday. Ivica Olic celebrates his opening goal for Hamburg as they remain in touch near the top of the Bundesliga. Croatian striker headed Hamburg into a 32nd-minute lead while a free-kick from winger Piotr Trochowski seven minutes later secured the points for the home side. The result lifts Hamburg above Hoffenheim onto 45 points, with leaders Hertha Berlin remaining top of the table on 49 points following their 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. Sunday's other match saw Werder Bremen pick up their first league win of 2009 with a 4-0 victory over Stuttgart, the first defeat in 10 matches for new Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel. Sweden striker Markus Rosenberg struck twice for the home side who lie 10th in the table, while Stuttgart remain sixth, 10 points behind leaders Hertha Berlin.","highlights":"Hamburg remain in Bundesliga title hunt following 2-0 win over Energie Cottbus .\nThe win lifts Hamburg into fourth in the table, four points behind leaders Hertha .\nStuttgart suffer first defeat under Markus Babbel, losing 4-0 at Werder Bremen .","id":"54da453b9a3d1ac08df74b75c5f0a886d1da8985"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A crowd of about 10,000 came to Dodger Stadium on Saturday, but they weren't there for a baseball game. Job seeker Eric Clardy, right, shakes hands with recruiter Raul Mendez from L.A. County Probation Department. While the Dodgers were in Arizona for spring training, more than 80 employers set up employment booths in the parking lot just beyond the center field fence. To those who turned out, finding a job would be a home run. Participating companies included Coca-Cola, Lowe's and Union Bank. And government agencies including the FBI, the Social Security Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers were there, too. All had one thing in common: They were hiring. And that was music to the ears of 30-year-old Eric Clardy. It has been a rough couple of years for Clardy. He was laid off from his job as a loan processor when the real estate market started to tank. Then, after finding work as a project manager for a plumbing company, layoffs struck again. \"It's kind of like, get the job now so you can pay your bills, then start towards the career that you really want,\" he said. Clardy said his goal is to make contact with at least 10 potential employers a day via phone, letters and the Internet. Being unemployed is hard work, too. Watch how Clardy goes about trying to find a job \u00bb . \"It was a scramble,\" Clardy said. \"I was selling insurance, doing temp jobs, going to job fairs.\" The city of Los Angeles and the California Employment Development Department organized Saturday's event, which they said drew about 10,000 people. Earlier this month, a two-day job fair to fill some 500 part-time jobs at the stadium during baseball season drew about 7,000 applicants. California's unemployment rate is 10.1 percent, a full 2 percentage points higher than the national rate. The state's Employment Development office estimates that nearly a half-million state residents have lost their jobs in the past year. \"We are not seeing as many job opportunities as we saw a year ago,\" said Gloria Bratton Moore, who runs the state-funded Work Source job center in Los Angeles. Nonetheless, she said, \"There are jobs available.\" But at Dodger Stadium, it was clear that competition for those available jobs is stiff. Applicants were often stacked four and five people deep in front of employer tables, and there was little chance for most of the 10,000 job seekers to make much of an impression. But organizers worked hard to pump up any flagging spirits. \"Yes we can. Yes we can,\" Los Angeles School Board member Monica Garcia chanted over a loudspeaker. State lawmaker Kevin deLeon told the crowd that they are among the nation's hardest-hit in this economic downturn, but he exhorted them to not give up. \"We will get out of this economic funk,\" he said. \"We will recover soon. We've got to have hope.\" Garcia and deLeon's comments echoed the campaign slogans of President Obama, who recently won approval of a nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package. Recruiters from the government agencies present at the job fair said that money will start creating jobs within the next few months. The Army Corps of Engineers told applicants that it is hiring for a wide variety of positions, including those for engineers, heavy-equipment operators and environmental field workers. The Commerce Department is adding more than 1 million jobs in preparation of the 2010 census, and other federal agencies are hiring as well. All of that was good news to Clardy, who left resumes and filled out applications at a number of the 80 booths cluttering the stadium's parking lot. But he remained realistic about this day's activities leading directly to a job. \"It seemed like a couple of years ago, the job fair was really your first interview,\" he said. \"Now it doesn't seem like that. Some companies are not even taking resumes at the job fairs anymore.\"","highlights":"Eighty employers set up booths in parking lot of Dodger Stadium .\nThousands vie for time with representatives from companies, government agencies .\nCalifornia's unemployment rate of 10.2 percent is higher than nation's .\nHead of state-funded job center in Los Angeles: \"There are jobs available\"","id":"e5ae7dad00bebab1d86a199886c041e6567f2b60"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called Israel's recent offensive in Gaza a \"holocaust,\" according to a purported message from him posted on an Islamist Web site. Osama bin Laden, in an undated photo, apparently taped a message calling Israel's Gaza offensive a holocaust. \"The holocaust of Gaza in the midst of this long siege is an important and historic event and an articulate tragedy which affirms the need for detachment of the Muslims from the hypocrites. It is not right that our condition after what happened in Gaza be like our condition prior to it,\" the message said. Al Qaeda says it wants to liberate the mosque from Israeli control. The message -- an audiotape played over a still image -- is called \"Practical Steps to Liberate Palestine\" and it is dated March 2009, according to terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield. The more than 33 minutes-long tape includes English subtitles, and English and Arabic transcripts were released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's media production center, Mansfield said. The authenticity of the tape could not be verified. The message says it's \"clear\" some Arab leaders have \"conspired\" with what it calls the \"Zionist-crusader alliance\" against the Palestinians in Gaza. \"They are the ones that America describes as the moderate leaders in our world,\" the message says. The speaker urged Muslims to help insurgents \"liberate\" Iraq. \"For those honest in their desire to deliver al-Aqsa mosque, they should back the Mujahideen in Iraq with everything they need in order to liberate Mesopotamia,\" the message said, alluding to the Jerusalem mosque regarded as the third holiest place in Islam. \"And with that they will have defeated the Zionists' biggest ally,\" referring to the United States. Then, the fighters should move on to Jordan to \"liberate all of Palestine from the sea to the river\" from Israel. When talking about Palestine, the speaker is referring to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River that includes the Jewish state of Israel and the Palestinian lands of the West Bank and Gaza. In his last purported audio message in January, bin Laden called for a jihad, or holy war, to stop Israel's military campaign in Gaza.","highlights":"NEW: Message condemns Arab leaders who \"conspire\" with Israel .\nNEW: Speaker on Al-Jazeera urges liberation \"from the sea to the river\"\nArabic-language news network doesn't reveal source of recording .\nIsraeli offensive killed 1,300 Palestinians; 13 Israelis also died .","id":"6f8c5f373c416a5a6170e6def1d60aaba971b6cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inter Milan kept their seven-point lead at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win over Fiorentina in the San Siro in Sunday's late match in Italy. Ibrahimovic powers home a 30-meter free-kick in stoppage time at the San Siro. Inter showed no signs of their Champions League disappointment at Manchester United as Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck in each half. Ibrahimovic scored the opener after 11 minutes but Inter had to survive some nervous moments against a committed away side before he sealed victory in stoppage time with a thumping free-kick. Title rivals Juventus had won 4-1 at Bologna on Saturday evening to put the pressure on Jose Mourinho's men. Inter's arch-rivals AC Milan also enjoyed an important win on Sunday with a 5-1 thrashing of Siena to stay third. Veteran striker Filippo Inzaghi scored twice, including his 300th career goal in the away victory. David Beckham, who shrugged off an injury to play, set up Inzaghi for his first goal and the side's second. Andrea Pirlo scored the opener from the penalty spot, while Alexander Pato also netted twice, as Milan proved too strong for their opponents -- for whom Massimo Maccarone was on target. Roma lost further ground in the race for the fourth Champions League place as they were held to a 2-2 draw at Sampdoria. Julio Baptista gave the visitors a seventh-minute lead but Giampaolo Pazzini headed home an equalizer before the same player put the home side ahead after a mistake from goalkeeper Doni. But Baptista leveled from the spot after Marco Padalino was penalized for fouling Max Tonetto -- the player who missed the decisive spot-kick in the midweek Champions League defeat by Arsenal.","highlights":"Inter Milan defeat Fiorentina 2-0 to re-open seven point lead in Serie A table .\nSwedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores twice for the leaders at the San Siro .\nFilippo Inzaghi reaches 300 career goals to help AC Milan hammer Siena 5-1 .","id":"8939eee2f33590f7e5a817c1d3aab243ee1211e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Top Democratic lawmakers called Tuesday for high taxes on the controversial AIG bonuses, as new details emerged on who got those bonuses. Congress is looking at ways to deal with the outrage surrounding AIG's controversial bonuses. \"My colleagues and I are sending a letter to [AIG CEO Edward] Liddy informing him that he can go right ahead and tell the employees that are scheduled to get bonuses that they should voluntarily return them,\" Sen. Charles Schumer said on the Senate floor. \"Because if they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of [the money] ... so it is returned to its rightful owners, the taxpayers.\" Schumer's comments came the same day New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed in a letter to Congress that AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of more than $1 million each. Cuomo also wrote that 11 of the employees no longer work for the company. The largest bonus paid was $6.4 million; seven other people also received more than $4 million each. \"Until we obtain the names of these individuals, it is impossible to determine when and why they left the firm and how it is that they received these payments,\" Cuomo wrote to a congressional committee. AIG has been under fire for awarding seven-figure bonuses to employees while being kept afloat by more than $170 billion from the U.S. government's financial bailout. The company insists the payouts are needed to keep talented executives on the payroll, but public anger over the moves has prompted Congress and the Obama administration to seek some ways to reclaim the money. Watch Sen. Schumer vow to recoup the bonuses \u00bb . Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on the Senate floor Tuesday that the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee will pursue a legislative fix in such a way that the \"recipients of those bonuses will not be able to keep all their money -- and that's an understatement.\" Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, will propose a special tax within the next 24 hours, Reid said. \"I don't think those bonuses should be paid,\" Baucus said Tuesday. The special-tax idea was first floated Monday by Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. \"We have a right to tax,\" the Connecticut Democrat told CNN. \"You could write a tax provision that's narrowly crafted only to the people receiving bonuses.\" Watch why Americans have a right to be angry \u00bb . At an unrelated hearing Tuesday at which IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman was testifying, Baucus asked the nation's top tax official, \"What's the highest excise tax we can impose that's sustainable in court?\" Shulman did not respond directly, but Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, chimed in to suggest the tax could be as high as \"90 percent.\" President Obama on Monday expressed dismay and anger over the bonuses to executives at AIG. \"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed,\" Obama told politicians and reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were unveiling a package to aid the nation's small businesses. Obama said he will attempt to block bonuses for AIG, payments he described as an \"outrage.\" See a snapshot of facts, attitudes and analysis on the recession \u00bb . \"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?\" Obama was referring to the bonuses paid to traders in AIG's financial products division, the tiny group of people who crafted complicated deals that contributed to the shaking of the world's economic foundations. Watch Obama say he's outraged by bonuses \u00bb . The president said he has asked Geithner to \"pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.\" Obama said he would work with Congress to change the laws so that such a situation cannot happen again. The president spared Liddy from criticism, saying he got the job \"after the contracts that led to these bonuses were agreed to last year.\" But he said the impropriety of the bonuses goes beyond economics. \"It's about our fundamental values,\" he said. iReport.com: Sound off on AIG . Under pressure from the Treasury, AIG scaled back the bonus plans and pledged to reduce 2009 bonuses -- or \"retention payments\" -- by at least 30 percent. That has done little to temper outrage over the initial plan, however. In the House, Democrats are trying to shame AIG executives into forgoing the bonuses. They're also investigating possible legal avenues Congress can take to force the company to return money used for bonuses, a House Democratic leadership aide and a House Financial Services Committee aide said Monday. The committee is trying to determine whether Congress can force AIG to renegotiate the bonuses, which the company says it is legally required to give employees under contracts negotiated before the company received its first infusion of bailout dollars in September, according to the committee aide. Who's insured by AIG? \u00bb . Both aides said it is unclear what authority Congress might have to force AIG to take back the bonuses. Liddy will face intense questioning about the bonuses when he testifies Wednesday before the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets. CNN's Ted Barrett, Dana Bash and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Schumer: We'll enact a new law that will \"tax bonuses at a very high rate\" AIG paid 73 people bonuses of $1 million or more each, New York AG reports .\nSenate majority leader says Senate Finance Committee looking into bonuses .\nSen. Chris Dodd suggests tax provision crafted toward recipients of bonuses .","id":"bbf5f39be7e02719aa7e87307f99445b5476cac2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Like the neighbors of a new kid who just moved into the big fancy house down the block, many Latin American leaders are curious about President Obama. Latin America expert Otto Reich says the summit is an \"opportunity, but also a risk for U.S. policy.\" The heads of 34 nations will get a chance to see him up close next month at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. What he says will be closely watched. \"The spotlight will be entirely on Barack Obama,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. Hakim will be one of three people who will on Wednesday address the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the summit. Otto Reich, who served Presidents Reagan and both Bushes in a number of high-level Latin American posts, also will speak. Thomas F. \"Mack\" McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, will be the third person. Reich has some advice for Obama: Be careful. \"The summit is an opportunity, but also a risk for U.S. policy,\" Reich said. \"Not all the neighbors there are good. Why do we recognize this reality when we lock our doors at night but don't recognize it in our foreign policy?\" Reich said the United States must differentiate between its friends, primarily Colombia and Mexico, which are under attack from drug traffickers and organized crime, and hostile countries, particularly Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Cuba, which was expelled from the Organization of American States, is not allowed to attend the summit. \"Obama can't look at this group of people and think he's among a group of friends,\" Reich said. \"Let's not look at this as a community of 34 countries. They are very different people.\" Hakim said Obama must ask Latin American leaders to share the burden. \"He shouldn't simply say what the United States is going to do,\" Hakim said. \"He should say what he expects Latin America to do.\" Hakim pointed out several areas Obama needs to address. First, he said, \"He must make clear he's trying to fix the U.S. economy.\" He said Obama also will have to deal with the one nation that won't be there -- Cuba. The United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 and imposed an economic embargo in 1962. President Bush increased some restrictions in the past eight years. Obama has signaled that he's ready to start relaxing some of the prohibitions. \"This is the issue of greatest symbolic importance,\" Hakim said. \"It will be seen as a test of real U.S. readiness to change in the hemisphere. What he says about Cuba will make headlines.\" But Reich warns that the United States should extract some conditions from Cuba before making any allowances. \"There's a way it can be done to advance the conditions of the people in Cuba,\" he said. \"I don't approve of the unilateral way it's being done. The embargo is a negotiating tool. We should not negotiate with ourselves, and that's what we're doing.\" Hakim also said Obama must address \"the pandemic of criminal violence\" destroying many parts of Latin America. U.S. aid is focused primarily on Mexico and Colombia. \"Is the United States going to go beyond Mexico and Colombia?\" he asked. \"Is the United States ready to rethink it's drug strategy, which has done so little?\" A new approach to the drug war has received increased support and attention recently. The former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil called last month for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change in tactics on the war on drugs. Ex-presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil made their announcement at a meeting in Brazil of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. \"The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices and fears and not on results,\" Gaviria said at a news conference in which the commission's recommendations were presented. The 17-member panel worked on the report for a year. Gaviria said the time is right to start a debate on the subject, particularly with the pragmatic openings provided by Obama's election. The Fifth Summit of the Americas will be held in Port of Spain April 17-19. The periodic meetings bring together the 34 democratically elected heads of state and governments in the Western Hemisphere to discuss regional issues. The first summit was held in Miami, Florida, in December 1994. The most recent took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in November 2005.","highlights":"Obama goes to Fifth Summit of the Americas next month .\nThree analysts are speaking to Congress this week about summit .\nOne says Obama should recognize he's not surrounded by friends .\nAnother says he should address issue of Cuba, which will not be at summit .","id":"85ea5ac1300194927b58530756575dbc84dd46af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The women's draw at the Indian Wells Masters event has been thrown wide open after second seed Jelena Jankovic and third-seeded Elena Dementieva were both beaten on Saturday. Pavlyuchenkova celebrates her victory over Jelena Jankovic in the Indian Wells Masters. Serb Jankovic, who ended 2008 as number one in the world but has now dropped to third in the rankings, slumped 6-4 6-4 to Russian 17-year-old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Meanwhile, Russian Dementieva ran out of steam in the final set to go down 7-6 2-6 6-1 to Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska -- ensuring only 17 of the 32 seeded women failed to make it out of the second round. Fifth seed Ana Ivanovic, the defending champion defeated Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-4 6-3 and now joins top-seeded Russian Dinara Safina as the tournament favorite. Also through is seventh-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska, who fought back from dropping the opening set to beat Australian Samantha Stosur 3-6 6-3 7-5.","highlights":"Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva both crash out of Indian Wells Masters .\nSecond-seeded Serb Jankovic beaten by Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova .\nRussian Dementieva goes down 7-6 2-6 6-1 to Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska .","id":"4b23eff83089c5068d0bb9aa73fee1834a98a207"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea fully reopened its border to South Koreans on Tuesday, without explaining its reversal, the South's Unification Ministry said. Cross-border gates between North and South Korea were closed on March 9. The communist nation shut its border on March 9, calling 12-day U.S.-South Korean military exercises a threat to its safety. But on Tuesday, North Korea normalized visits by South Korean workers and cargo trucks to an industrial complex jointly run with the South, Yonhap said. \"The North Korean side sent us a letter of approval this morning,\" the news agency quoted Unification Ministry official Lee Jong-joo as saying. The letter did not explain the North's reversal, Lee told Yonhap. Two batches of workers, totaling 287 people, crossed the border into North Korea on Tuesday, according to the Unification Ministry. More than 300 were scheduled to return at the end of the workday. North Korea had partly opened its border Monday, allowing nearly 300 South Koreans to return home. Many of the South Koreans work at the industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The border closing was part of a recent series of aggressive moves by North Korea, which included cutting the last remaining communications channel between North and South; saying that the North could not guarantee the safety of South Korean passenger jets in its airspace during the annual joint military exercises; and threatening to retaliate if a \"satellite\" launch from its northeastern coast was intercepted, saying interference would \"mean a war.\" U.S. and South Korean officials have said that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, under the guise of launching a satellite into space. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers) that, if true, could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii.","highlights":"NEW: North Korea fully reopens its border to South Koreans without explanation .\nPyongyang closed border March 9 because of U.S.-S. Korea military exercises .\nBorder partly opened Monday, allowing 300 South Koreans allowed to go home .\nStranded S. Koreans mostly work at joint industrial complex in border town Kaesong .","id":"ea0a1fe86468cc4661841718fc481ec0e7b103ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA won't have to maneuver the international space station to dodge a piece of debris from a Soviet-era satellite spinning around Earth, the space agency announced Monday. NASA says debris won't threaten the international space station, seen here from Endeavour in November 2008. Mission controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston warned earlier that a piece of the Kosmos 1275 was to pass about 1\/2 mile from the space station early Tuesday morning. But after further study, NASA determined no evasive action would be needed, said Paul Dye, flight director for the space shuttle Discovery, which is en route to the station. \"The latest tracking information showed it is outside of our area of concern, so the station is going to be right where we expected it to be,\" Dye told reporters at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Discovery lifted off from Florida on Sunday for a scheduled docking at 5:13 p.m. ET Tuesday. The spacecraft is not threatened by the debris, said LeRoy Cain, the shuttle program's deputy manager. The dimensions of the satellite debris were not known Monday. The object was expected to pass \"on the fringes\" of the 2 km-by-25 km-by-25 km (1.25 mile-by-15 mile-by-15 mile) safety zone controllers monitor, Dye said. \"It's a very low probability of hit -- less than one in 100,000,\" he said. The space shuttle Discovery is currently headed toward the station for a scheduled docking Tuesday, but the spacecraft is not threatened by the debris, said LeRoy Cain, the shuttle program's deputy manager. Last week, a piece of debris forced the space station's current crew -- astronauts Mike Fincke and Sandy Magnus, and cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov -- to take shelter in its escape capsule, a rare close call for the orbiting platform, NASA said. That object, a chunk of metal from a satellite rocket motor used on an earlier space mission, was about 5 inches across, and moving at nearly 20,000 mph. It passed within 3 miles of the station early Thursday afternoon and was detected too late for the station to maneuver out of the way, controllers said. iReport.com: See, share your photos of launches and space . Cain called the prospect of two close passes in less than a week a \"random\" occurrence, but said controllers have frequently had to maneuver around pieces of orbital junk. \"It's part of the business,\" he said. \"It comes with the territory, and we'll continue to do whatever's necessary to avoid debris.\" CNN's John Zarrella contributed to this report.","highlights":"Avoidance maneuver not necessary to avoid satellite debris .\nThe exact size of the Soviet-era debris is unknown, scientists say .\nSpace station crew earlier was forced to take shelter because of other debris .","id":"bce33bb5b5cff6b93065aa0cf91917c8dd36ac78"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court's only black justice was the target of a racially motivated threat by an Ohio man who has been indicted in Cleveland, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday. Racially motivated threats were made against Justice Clarence Thomas, according to a federal indictment. An eight-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury charges David Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio, with making multiple threats against Justice Clarence Thomas and with threatening to blow up the Supreme Court building. Tuason had made the threats in e-mails and mailed letters to the Supreme Court, as well as to Thomas personally, according to a source close to the case. Tuason \"engaged in an elaborate scheme of sending racially motivated threatening communications ... intended to threaten and intimidate with bodily injury African-American males known to affiliate with white females,\" said U.S. Attorney Frank Filiuzzi Wednesday in Cleveland. \"The indictment alleges that an associate justice of the Supreme Court, athletes, and entertainers received threatening communications,\" Filiuzzi said. Thomas's wife is white. \"The indictment also alleges that at times, children of mixed racial parents were also targeted,\" the prosecutor said. The indictment says that \"Tuason, at times, threatened to blow up the facility or building in which the targeted victim was located.\" If Tuason is found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison for the count targeting Thomas and five years imprisonment for each of the other counts. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.","highlights":"Justice Clarence Thomas received racially motivated threats, indictment says .\nDavid Tuason also threatened to blow up Supreme Court building, indictment says .\nIndictment: Tuason threatened black males known to affiliate with white females .\nChildren of mixed-race parents also received threats .","id":"751e7220fbd5d541cbbe95921f8a77b4b29710e2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Radio host Don Imus has prostate cancer. Radio shock jock Don Imus has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The shock jock made the announcement on his radio show Monday morning. Imus learned of the Stage 2 prostate cancer diagnosis last Wednesday, said Laurie Cantillo, program director for WABC-AM of New York. A bone scan indicated that the cancer has not spread, she said, and doctors believe it is fully treatable. Stage 2 prostate cancer means the cancer can be felt on exam but has not spread beyond the prostate gland. Imus, 68, said he's been on an organic diet for the past 10 years, avoiding meat and fish and eating mostly fruits and vegetables. \"It wasn't great, but I was surprised,\" Imus said after learning the results of a biopsy that was performed last Monday. He added that he plans to go to San Francisco, California, for a second opinion. Imus said he's spoken with Sen. John Kerry and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani about his diagnosis. Kerry and Giuliani are both prostate cancer survivors. Imus exuded confidence while discussing his situation. \"They are predicting they can treat it. They can cure it.\" Imus returned to the radio in December of 2007, months after his inflammatory remarks caused the cancellation of his morning radio show on the CBS radio network. His four-hour program is syndicated nationally by the Citadel Broadcasting Corp. Known for decades for his outspoken comments and off-color humor, Imus sparked a public outcry with his comments in April 2007 about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. The controversy eventually led to the cancellation of his show by CBS Radio. He called the Scarlet Knights \"tough girls\" and \"nappy-headed 'hos\" during a national broadcast a day after the team lost the NCAA championship to the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers. He later apologized.","highlights":"NEW: Imus says he was \"surprised\" by biopsy results, will seek a second opinion .\nRadio shock jock announces the diagnosis on his show Monday morning .\nBone scan indicates the cancer has not spread, his program director says .\nDoctors believe it is fully treatable, she says .","id":"8cd03202f708a2922e67d162c6ca287b7fcd8f84"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A man walks around the side of a building, footsteps falling in time to the heartbeat of a driving pop soundtrack, pulls out a pistol and guns down another man. Tony Servillo as arch-manipulator and seven time Italian Prime Minister, Guilio Andreotti, in Paolo Sorrentino's \"Il Divo.\" A montage of grisly murders follows, all with the same infectious pop song pounding in the background. It's edge-of-the-seat stuff and it's only the opening sequence of gifted Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's biopic of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, \"Il Divo.\" Sorrentino's film chronicles the career of probably the most important and controversial politico in Italy's recent history. But, more than that, it pins Andreotti to the specimen board and dissects his character without mercy. The film caught the eye of the judges at Cannes Film Festival last year where it picked up the Jury Prize. Predictably, Andreotti didn't react well to the film. \"He was very angry,\" recalls Sorrentino. Now 91 years-old, Andreotti has been Prime Minister of Italy seven times. His Christian Democrat Party was the leading force in Italian politics as a one-party system for four decades. The rules of the game were shattered in the early 1990s by \"Tangentopoli\" or Bribesville -- a corruption scandal that laid bare some of the government's unsavory practices, ruining careers and resulting in the suicides of some leading politicians. Andreotti himself was implicated in illegal activities, including connections to the Mafia, but was finally acquitted of all charges. Today, he is a senator for life. Something of the man's influence in all spheres of Italian public life becomes clear when Sorrentino -- who says he is not a political director, \"only in this case\" -- explains how hard he found it to fund the film. \"In Italy nobody wanted to finance the film because everybody was scared,\" Sorrentino told CNN. \"He has been a very powerful man for many years.\" Sorrentino managed eventually to secure funding from a private source. \"It is not easy for Italian companies to put money in this project, so we did it with the private money of very courageous individuals,\" he said. Sorrentino picks up the Andreotti story at the beginning of the 1990s, just prior to his implication in the scandal, as he is about to assume power for the seventh time. A good deal of \"Il Divo's\" success lies in a stunning portrayal of Andreotti by Naples-born actor Toni Servillo, who is a veteran of three of Sorrentino's other films including 2006's \"The Consequences of Love.\" Servillo's Andreotti is a stiff, impassive tortoise of a man. With a hunched back, skinny sloping shoulders and strange drooping ears, Andreotti appears physically frail. He is beset by headaches -- indeed, the opening scene of the film shows him with a head full of acupuncture needles trying to get rid of one -- a taste of the mix of drama and humor that informs the rest of the film. But where the body is weak the will is strong and in Andreotti's wit and cunning intelligence -- \"I know I'm an average man, but looking around I don't see any giants\" -- there is a sense of a man who can and will do anything to stay in power. \"I have always wanted to make a film about Andreotti,\" says Sorrentino. \"He is so psychologically complex that everyone has been intrigued by him over the years. \"It's a political film but at the same time a film about a complex character from a psychological point of view.\" For a long time, though, Sorrentino was convinced that the vast amounts of literature written about the man could never be distilled into a structure that would work on film -- \"It made my head spin,\" he remembers. While Sorrentino almost had too much material to mine while researching Andreotti's public life, it was impossible to get access to details of his home life. Sorrentino had to go on instinct and imagine life behind the scenes for the great man. Something that made aspects of Andreotti's response to the film very puzzling. \"He told everything was false, a lie, about his public life and at the same time he said the film was very precise about his private life,\" recalls Sorrentino. \"But all the public things in the film are documented. It's on record that the events took place. \"The trials, the letters, the diary of Aldo Moro, the Prime Minister who was kidnapped by the Red Brigade and held in captivity for 55 days. (Andreotti was Prime Minister at the time and decided not to negotiate with the terrorists and they killed him.) \"And about the private life I invented everything.\" One of the most surprising things about the 39-year-old director's film is the soundtrack. Full of rock, pop, electronica -- \"Nux Vomica\" by The Veils an indie band from New Zealand and \"Toop Toop\" by French electro artists Cassius -- mixed in with classical music like Vivaldi and Sibelius. It's incongruous but it delivers a hefty emotional punch. \"The idea was to make a rock opera about a man very far from rock,\" says Sorrentino. \"I didn't want to do a traditional biopic.\"","highlights":"Paolo Sorrentino's \"Il Divo\" chronicles the career of Italian politician Guilio Andreotti .\nSeven time Prime Minister was implicated in 1990s political corruption scandal .\nFilm is a psychological study of man who has fascinated Italy for years .\nSorrentino found it hard to fund the film because people were scared of Andreotti .","id":"bdc303eedb1dd59ab441312506acac69b3244fb2"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Tess Malone is a writer for the The GW Hatchet, the leading news source for George Washington University. This article was brought to CNN.com by UWIRE, the leading provider of student-generated content. UWIRE aims to identify and promote the brightest young content creators and deliver their work to a larger audience via professional media partners such as CNN.com. Visit UWIRE.com to learn more. Students start groups on social networking Web sites to discuss the dogs they left at home. (UWIRE) -- For freshman Elise Chen, home is only a phone call away. It's keeping in touch with Sammy, her collie-lab mix, that's the problem. \"I can talk to my dog on the phone, but I don't get anything out of it,\" Chen said. Chen is not the only student who misses her pet, an integral part of many families. According to membership in Facebook groups dedicated to the topic, at least 44,845 others are in the same boat. There are at least six groups dedicated to missing one's pet on the social networking site; the largest, \"I love college, but I miss my dog,\" stands at 31,056 members. The group's wall is full of declarations of love for dogs at home, often accompanied by pictures and funny stories in the photo and discussion board sections. Chen, one of the group's newest members, said she joined when she realized the forum was a literal representation of missing her dog. In some respects, Chen said, she actually misses her dog more than she misses her parents. \"My dog never says 'Go to bed,' or 'You have to be in by two,' \" she said. \"My dog just says, 'I'm happy to see you, even if it's 2:30 in the morning.' \" GW's Facebook network has its own group for pet lovers: \"I Miss My Dog.\" Its 89 members frequently post pictures of their \"four- and sometimes three-legged friends at home,\" as the group's description states. The group's active members use it as a way to further express themselves on Facebook and to cope with missing their animals back home. Like Chen, junior Jared Stone said he did not realize how much his dogs were a part of his life until he came to college. \"In the past, I had always been at home and always been around my dogs,\" Stone said. \"I was used to having them nearby and petting them while watching TV. So in college, their absence hit me and I found the group on Facebook an accurate representation of how I was feeling.\" Although a freshman like Chen is still adjusting to college life away from pets, Stone has learned that students must learn to deal with missing their pets. \"Friends fill the gap so much, but can only go so far,\" he said. \"I've overcome it, but it's still nothing you can really get over.\" Many students, including law student and \"I Miss My Dog\" member Rebecca Rodgers, hope to eventually have dogs of their own, but they know that college is not conducive to pet ownership. \"My studio is no place for a dog and definitely not with a crazy law school schedule,\" Rodgers said. When Rodgers misses her Australian shepherd, Missy, she turns to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube. \"I tend to watch (my) particular breed of dog, Australian shepherds,\" Rodgers said. \"Seeing other people's dogs makes me miss mine a little less.\" Chen also uses technology to cope, though in a more personal manner. \"I video chat with my dog,\" she said. Although she does not plan on getting a dog on campus any time soon, she jokes about adopting a \"hallway dog\" for Lafayette, where she lives this year. The Internet and hopes for the future, though good coping aids, can only help those missing their pets to an extent. Rodgers said, \"Sometimes I look over my shoulder and expect a dog to follow me around.\"","highlights":"College student: I miss my dog more than I miss my parents .\nMissing a pet while at school is topic for six groups on Facebook .\nMembers post pictures, funny stories about their dogs .","id":"62c705cf289d7a2358def64f6cea3221937b96ca"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexico has announced plans to raise tariffs on almost 90 U.S. exports, Mexican and U.S. officials confirmed Monday. Mexico's state-run news agency says tariffs are in retaliation for cancellation of a U.S. trucking project. The new trade measures are in retaliation for the cancellation earlier this year of a U.S. commercial trucking project and will target U.S. industrial and agricultural products delivered to Mexico, Mexico's state-run news agency said. Mexico's Economic Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Mateos called the cancellation of the program a breach of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the agency said. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the trucking project was killed in the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, but President Barack Obama has asked his administration to create a new program. \"Congress has opposed the project in the past because of concerns about the process that led to the program's establishment and its operation,\" Gibbs said. The project allowed a small number of Mexican trucks to enter the United States beyond the normal commercial zones, and allowed some U.S. trucks the same privilege in Mexico. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, warned that the Mexican action would harm American businesses. \"Unfortunately, this is a predictable reaction by the Mexican government to a policy that now puts the United States in clear violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and was inappropriately inserted into the omnibus appropriations bill,\" McCain said after learning of the Mexican government's plans. McCain said Washington \"must take steps to prevent escalation of further protectionist measures -- actions that only serve to harm American business during these tough economic times when these businesses need a worldwide marketplace to prosper.\" \"This is another reason why the president should have vetoed the omnibus spending bill,\" McCain added. Mexico's intentions to raise tariffs on U.S. goods \"is an absurd overreaction to the shutdown of the unsafe cross-border trucking pilot program,\" Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said. \"The right response from Mexico would be to make sure its drivers and trucks are safe enough to use our highways without endangering our drivers,\" Hoffa said in a statement issued by the union. \"The border must stay closed until Mexico holds up its end of the bargain.\"","highlights":"Tariffs will target about 90 U.S. industrial, agricultural products delivered to Mexico .\nSen. John McCain warns that new measure will harm American businesses .\nMeasures reportedly in retaliation for cancellation of U.S. commercial trucking project .\nProject allowed some Mexican trucks to enter U.S. beyond normal commercial zones .","id":"e2f32906009056596b9769ac53fdcba5bdcb4fb7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an attempt to be frugal amid the economic downturn, Karl Stetson and his family in Seattle, Washington, planned to skip their annual trip to Hawaii. Water rushes toward the shore at Sandy Beach Park in Honolulu, Hawaii. That is until Stetson began noticing airfare and hotel rates plunge this year. Last week, he caved, purchasing plane tickets for less than $450 a person, a sweet deal compared with $600 last year. He booked rooms at Hanalei Colony Resort, among the emerald mountains in Kauai, for 25 percent off, and he was delighted to receive one of the nights free. \"We might have done something on the mainland, something more low-key, but the fact that it was inexpensive was a big factor for us to go again,\" said Stetson, who is taking his wife and two young boys in May. Outdoor enthusiasts, lovebirds and families prudently resisting the urge to visit Hawaii, say aloha to majorly discounted airfares and hotel rates -- many hitting rock-bottom prices -- this year. The bittersweet theory seems to hold true: What is bad for the travel industry has been good for consumers. As Hawaii suffers from its biggest visitor decline since the Great Depression, the state is enticing travelers with discounted deals to offset the toll on its local economy. iReport.com: Toughing out the recession? Airfare to Hawaii from cities in the continental United States has plummeted more than 30 percent in some markets, according to FareCompare.com, an airfare research Web site. Pleasant Holidays, one of the nation's largest privately owned travel companies, is offering vacation packages that include flight and three nights hotel stay in Oahu starting at $299. Online travel giants Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz are all offering sales on Hawaii flights, hotels and activities, and some luxury hotels have rooms for less than $150 a night. \"You won't see prices to Hawaii like this again in your lifetime,\" FareCompare CEO Rick Seaney said. \"It might be worth it to take that once-in-a-lifetime trip.\" For decades, tourists from the United States and abroad have flocked to Hawaii, many captivated by the exotic islands' natural beauty: snow-capped mountains, active volcanoes, breathtaking waterfalls and pristine beaches. Now with the administration of President Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Hawaii, there is a renewed interest for tourists to visit, travel experts say. But travelers have long viewed Hawaii as an expensive destination in comparison with Florida or California. Two adults can expect to spend $673 a day in Honolulu on food and lodging, making Hawaii the most expensive destination in the country, according to the AAA's 2008 Annual Vacation Costs Survey. It is no surprise, then, that in a brutal economy where consumer confidence is low, the islands are having a tough time reeling in visitors, despite discounted prices. The state reported a 12.4 percent decline in visitors, or 72,255 fewer guests, in January compared with the same time last year. The drop, which started last spring, is a reversal of nearly a decade of visitor growth. To make matters worse, visitor spending in Hawaii declined by 13.6 percent in January, and many state officials and experts are worried what that will mean for a state where tourism is the backbone industry. Nationwide, the tourism picture looks bleak, as the number of travelers is expected to fall throughout 2009, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. In the Aloha State, the smaller, more remote islands like Lana'i and Moloka'i are feeling the most pain. They received about a third fewer visitors in January than the year before. \"This is a downturn,\" said Mark B. Dunkerley, who sits on the board of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and is CEO of Hawaiian Airlines. Dunkerley explained that the decline in visitors may be troubling, but the numbers are still as strong as they were a decade ago. \"It's not a catastrophe. The clock has been wound back.\" Signs of decline for Hawaii began last spring with the shutdown of Aloha and ATA Airlines, which held about a fifth of the market share. By the summer, fuel prices had skyrocketed to $135 a barrel, which drove fares to an unaffordable price point for many travelers. That same year, NCL Corp.'s Norwegian Cruise Lines pulled back stops to Hawaii. Rob Pacheco, the president of Hawaii Forest & Trail, said he noticed about 3,000 fewer customers after some of the cruise ships stopped coming. The company, which gives natural tours of the island, said things \"just kind of deteriorated, and it was more difficult to fill seats.\" Another challenge Hawaii faces in terms of tourism is its remote location on an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. This makes the state's tourism industry highly dependent on airfare prices. iReport.com: Where's your favorite secret hideaway? Traditionally, economical travelers shy away from Hawaii because of the high flight cost, travel experts said. But the airfare prices being offered until June show that prices may be more affordable than most leisure travelers think. A flight from Boston, Massachusetts, on Delta, United or American Airlines is running about $461 round trip, down from $610 at the same time last year, according to FareCompare.com. Travelers from major West Coast cities such as Los Angeles, California, can find flights just under $340, nearly 30 percent off the ticket price from a year ago, the site reported. Adding to the vacation savings are hotels, including lavish resorts, advertising rates about 20 percent lower in the first quarter of 2009 compared with first-quarter 2008, according to online travel companies. Hotels scrambled to offer lower rates when they saw occupancy numbers dive for the first time in years. Hotels say that in addition to the discount on the rooms, there are perks and added value such as upgrades, free nights and dinner coupons, travel experts say. For example, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, owned by Outrigger Enterprises Group, is offering the third night free for travelers who book a stay in Waikiki this month for $159 a night. A year ago, the lowest the rate at the hotel was nearly $100 more. \"You can travel better than you have in the past for the same amount of money,\" said Ian Jeffries, an Expedia travel expert. \"Or you could do the exact same thing as last year and save money.\" Travelers can also snatch bargains at condos and rental properties. This is particularly true on the islands of Maui and Oahu, where there has been major development in recent years, says Pauline Frommer, creator of the Pauline Frommer Guidebooks. \"You can play 'let's make a deal' with these folks,\" said Frommer, who has been tracking the travel industry for almost 20 years. \"They are desperate for people's business.\" But don't expect the deals to paradise to last forever. Prices will climb during peak summer season and as soon as the economy recovers. Though experts are unsure when recovery will happen, Hawaii's Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism predicts that won't be until 2011. In the meantime, Hawaii tourism groups want to change American and international travelers' impression that a trip there is too expensive. With Japan suffering from its own economic woes, arrivals of Japanese tourists, once a steady revenue stream, have slowed, travel experts said. \"The difficulty is the fact that it's not a Hawaii-centered problem,\" said John Monahan, president of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. \"We have a nationwide and global crisis.\"","highlights":"Airfare to Hawaii has plunged more than 30 percent in some markets .\nHawaii reported a 12.4 percent decline in visitors in January .\n\"You can play 'let's make a deal' with these folks,\" said Pauline Frommer .\nState officials say Hawaii's tourism economy won't improve until 2011 .","id":"1fe8e81f4158be6bb82931c90ad5aabe8a7f4540"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As he walks past the tiny, dingy waiting area into an equally cramped garage, Nui Srisook says business at his car repair shop is thriving. Drivers are choosing to keep their old cars longer, and they're turning to repair shops to make it so, observers say. Sales are up 20 percent this month and Srisook spends most nights working late, helping his customers to get extra mileage out of their old cars. \"Most of the customers right now we see, they don't really have much extra money to ... buy a new car. So that's why they just do repair,\" Srisook said. \"And now, people are willing to spend more money on maintaining the car, deciding what is broke, anything that needs to be maintained on the car.\" As more cash-strapped Americans turn to do-it-yourself projects and bargain shopping, car repair shops like Srisook's are feeling the boon. Drivers are choosing to keep their old cars longer, and often they're willing to put in the money to do so, observers say. The Automotive Service Association reports their members' sales were up 16 percent over last year. Watch Kate Bolduan's report on the thriving auto repair industry \u00bb . \"That indicated that people were coming in and putting the vehicle in the repair facilities' hands and saying, 'Look, I am going to be keeping this car. I want to be sure it runs well. I want to be sure that if there are any safety issues or any maintenance issues that I have overlooked, let's get those taken care of,' \" said ASA President Ron Pyle. Pyle said that's a change from the past, when drivers would scrimp on the cost of maintenance and repair. \"That was surprising news. We didn't expect that in the midst of the beginnings of the economic woes,\" Pyle said. \"But they are looking at the cost of trying to purchase a new vehicle ... so I think that in relative terms that $1,000 repair to keep a $2,500 car running may be an attractive alternative.\" The economic slump has cut automakers deeply. Last month, sales of new cars were down more than 40 percent compared with the same time last year, according to sales tracker Autodata. The trend seems to have translated into increased traffic at auto parts stores. \"We're doing way more business. The phones are ringing, you know, customers are walking in,\" said Darryl Wright, owner of D.C. Brake & Bearings Co. \"Basically, if it's broke, they fix it.\" In the past, only savvy auto mechanics knew to shop at Wright's nondescript discount store. Now, he sees more car owners who are looking for a cheaper deal on parts. \"[Customers will] find a guy on the street, you know -- Joe Shady Mechanics is what we call them -- to fix it at a deeper discount rate, labor-wise, and they'll send the customer in here to buy the parts on their own,\" Wright said. \"So people are saving money that way too.\" Srisook said he keeps service prices low to appeal to those bargain shoppers, such as Esther White, a loyal customer. She brought in her daughter's 1996 Oldsmobile for new rotors and brakes, and said her daughter would be driving the car \"until it drops dead.\" \"Believe it or not, we were raised to fix things, and to hold on to things as long as we could,\" White said. \"But it goes back to today's economy, and making the right financial decisions.\"","highlights":"As more strapped Americans opt to fix their cars, repair shops are doing well .\nAutomotive Service Association: Members' sales grew 16 percent over the last year .\nD.C. shop owner: \"People are willing to spend more\" to keep cars well-serviced .\nTrend seems to have translated into increased traffic at auto parts stores, as well .","id":"9ee562c81df68ecb43c04d398e2ab5c9ad4786c5"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rachel Motte blogs at www.evangelicaloutpost.com and writes for Wheatstone Academy, a Christian educational program for high school students. She is a graduate of Biola University and the Torrey Honors Institute. Rachel Motte says Rush Limbaugh still can animate conservative popular opinion. (CNN) -- It's no secret that liberals throughout the nation are rejoicing at Rush Limbaugh's supposed status as leader of the Republican Party. I can see why. He's easy to pick on. His rhetoric is extreme, and his personal life has at times been less than picture-perfect. I've heard some pundits refer to Vice President Joe Biden as \"the gift that keeps on giving.\" I imagine the left feels the same way about Limbaugh. Rush was an integral part of my childhood. I must have been 6 or 7 when I started listening in the late 1980s. I remember that my parents and their friends found him refreshing, and I remember that he made them laugh. I memorized his song parodies and even tried to write a few of my own based on the events I heard him talk about. When I was 11, I once spent several hours trying to call his show, redialing after every busy signal, over and over. I never got through. It's probably just as well; I think I had planned to try to talk him into running for president. I no longer think he'd make a good president -- we're all much better off when he sits behind the EIB microphone. Rush taught me a lot about personal responsibility, the value of freedom of speech and the love of country. At 26, I've outgrown many of my childhood habits, but I never outgrew Rush. Have conservatives outgrown him? Is it time to distance ourselves by dismissing him as just \"an entertainer,\" as Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele initially did before apologizing? My friend John Mark Reynolds wrote recently that Rush is \"a shallow thinker\" who will alienate today's young adults rather than draw them in. He argued that Rush's \"insider lingo\" and harsh demeanor are problematic at a time when the Republican Party is losing the young adult vote. Is he right? Has Rush Limbaugh outlived his usefulness to the conservative movement? Should we take a cue from the Democrats' glee and relegate El Rushbo to a back room like an aging and unpopular distant relative? Not by a long shot. Rush doesn't need to be removed as leader of the Republican Party, because he's never held that position, much as Democrats would like you to think he has. He's a vitally necessary part of the conservative movement, but he's no one's leader. Don't give him more credit than he deserves, and don't fall prey to the Democrats' carefully planned attempts to inflate his authority. Steele learned the hard way a few days ago that the opposite extreme is also not true -- Rush is not a mere entertainer. One of his most important contributions to the conservative movement has been his ability to energize the base. This is particularly vital now given the recent election results. Someone has to keep the troops from giving up, and like it or not, for now that someone is Rush. It doesn't really matter whether he's a shallow thinker. What does matter is that he knows how to prod people into action. That's all well and good, but is it sustainable? What works for me and for the many other \"Rush babies\" out there may not work for our younger siblings. Thanks to the Obama campaign, new activists aren't going to be as easily attracted by witty aphorisms and wordplays as previous demographics were. President Obama's impressive rhetorical skills appeared to raise the level of public discourse during the campaign. As far as I can tell he didn't actually say anything new, but so many things sounded new when he said them. I don't think he changed the content of the age-old feud between right and left, but he did change the style, providing a stark contrast to the admittedly strident tones of some on the right. That's going to change the way young people all over will approach the political process; after all, 66 percent of the 29-and-under crowd voted for Obama. Rush's personal influence will decline because of this shift in rhetorical style, but we're not yet at the point where it is unimportant. The current crop of college students may not call themselves \"dittoheads,\" but their mentors and heroes within the movement still do, and that will continue to be significant for a while yet. Do we need leaders who can inspire the next generation of young conservatives? Absolutely. Is Rush the best man for that job? At this point, yes, though that will probably change in the next few years. One thing is likely -- the next big conservative leaders who do resonate well with the age group that favors Obama will cite Rush as a major influence. His work won't end with him. And that's as it should be. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rachel Motte.","highlights":"Rachel Motte says she grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh and became a big fan .\nShe says Limbaugh's style still has great appeal to conservatives .\nMotte: Obama has set a new bar for public discourse, winning over young voters .\nLimbaugh may not appeal to the young as much, but he's still relevant, Motte says .","id":"5db6db273454e34b6485df852571a0715298c747"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A Thai judge fined dozens of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of illegal entry after escaping from their own country a month ago -- amid allegations that other Rohingya have been dumped at sea by the Thai army. Male refugees show scars they say were caused by beatings at the hands of the Myanmar navy. The Ranong Provincial Court judge ordered each of the 66 ethnic Muslim refugees to pay 1,000 Thai baht (less than $30). He imposed the fines via a closed-circuit television link to Ranong Provincial Prison, where the refugees will continue to be held until they can pay the court. Twelve additional refugees, all teenagers, were being detained at a police station and are exempt from prosecution. The 78 refugees will be handed over on January 31 to immigration police, who will deport them. It is unclear where they will be sent. The refugees arrived by boat on the Thai shore, and Thai police said many had severe burns from a fire that broke out on board their craft after it left neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma. Members of Myanmar's Rohingya minority have been fleeing the country for years, saying they are persecuted by its military government. One refugee, who called himself Mohamed, told CNN that their boat had been at sea for a month, and that Myanmar's military had detained and attacked them before setting their boat on fire. The refugees are unwelcome in Thailand, where authorities say about 20,000 have settled illegally. Other boatloads of Rohingya have allegedly been set adrift after being towed out to sea by Thai authorities. A recent CNN investigation found evidence of such activity. Photos obtained by CNN include one that shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees. Watch Dan Rivers' BackStory on the investigation \u00bb . CNN also interviewed a refugee who said he was one of the few who had survived after a group of six rickety boats was towed back to sea and abandoned by Thai authorities earlier this month. The Thai government has launched an inquiry. The Thai army has denied the allegations. But after extensive questioning by CNN, one source in the Thai military confirmed that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. The source defended it, saying that each boatload of refugees is given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source said Thai villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and they had accused the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. The Thai government has said that \"there is no reasonable ground to believe\" that the Rohingya are fleeing Myanmar because of persecution. \"Their profile and their seasonal travel further support the picture that they are illegal migrants, and not those requiring international protection,\" the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday. One of the refugees who came ashore Tuesday said they will be killed if returned to Myanmar because of their minority status. He said the Rohingya are stateless because they lack bribe money to obtain identification cards in Myanmar. In Tuesday's statement, the Thai government said it deals with all illegal migrants in accordance with its laws and international guidelines. It said \"basic humanitarian needs\" such as food and water are met among the migrants before they are returned home. Their boats also are fixed, officials said. The Thai government said that \"accepting those arriving in an irregular manner would simply encourage new arrivals.\" The government denied media reports alleging that Thai authorities mistreat the illegal migrants and intentionally damage their boats. CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sixty-six Rohingya refugees from Myanmar fined by Thai court .\nThey will be handed over to immigration police with 12 others .\nRohingya refugees are at center of allegations of mistreatment by Thai army .\nPhotos obtained by CNN show army towing boatload of 190 refugees to sea .","id":"874bfb4eda2463dbabd2075c8aa62c63072e0b18"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Babies lie side by side in warming beds or sprawled on blankets atop crude wooden tables. Many families at Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, seem resigned to the situation. Children with wounds and broken bones are carried in by their parents to wait on stiff plastic chairs. Outside, coughing youngsters squat on the pavement with their anxious families, waiting for care. And everywhere, parents clutch plastic bags containing bring-your-own medicines and supplies. For though they are all awaiting treatment at Afghanistan's only specialist pediatric hospital, the hospital cannot even afford bandages for its patients. The Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in central Kabul has to run on an operating budget of less than $1,200 a month, said Dr. Noorulhaq Yousufzai, the hospital director. The few supplies that he can buy have to be hoarded for emergencies, and he has to count on parents to buy what's needed to care for their children. \"In some cases, there is shortage of the surgical materials, and sometimes we don't have antiseptic to use,\" Yousufzai said. The United Nations says that more than $15 billion in aid has been sent to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. But still, the hospital cannot afford to help the hundreds of children who stream in every day, desperate for care and cures. The government does pay for salaries and sometimes for fuel, but there is often a shortage of even basic supplies like syringes. Doctors say they have to double up premature babies in incubators. And some of those incubators are compromised. On a recent day, a plastic surgical mask taped onto one machine was the only shield from infection. Watch scenes from inside the hospital \u00bb . The parents waiting anxiously beside their sick children seem resigned to the situation in the hospital. One mother, who declined to give her name, said she spent the family's entire weekly income of $8 on an injection that did not help her baby. \"This is something that the hospital should be giving us, because we can't afford it,\" she said. The U.S. Agency for International Development says infant mortality has dropped by 22 percent since the overthrow of the Taliban but acknowledges that the health status for Afghans is among the worst in the world. One in every five Afghan children will die before their 5th birthday, often of a preventable disease, according to the Save the Children aid agency. The toll on the children and parents is clear to any visitor, and the strain hits the hospital staff, too. \"When you see a patient is very, very, sick and you cannot help, and they have to provide something for their children and they are not able to provide, it's also a stress for us,\" Yousufzai said. At the end of 2001, there were hopes that the hospital would be upgraded, but it is still waiting. It needs some acute care of its own, or it will continue to struggle to help the children who arrive at its door pleading for care.","highlights":"Kabul hospital's operating budget is less than $1,200 a month .\nGovernment pays salaries, but even basic supplies are often gone .\nOne in five Afghan children will die before their 5th birthday, group says .","id":"72017f539207bde989b9887e573cf2434ed480a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Madagascar's military handed over the reins of the island nation to opposition leader Andry Rajoelina on Wednesday, ending a two-month long political crisis -- but apparently creating a constitutional one. Andry Rajoelina is six years too young to be Madagascar's president under its constitution. Rajoelina, a former disc jockey turned mayor of Madagascar's capital, declared himself president of a transitional government and his supporters pledged to hold elections in two years. But Rajoelina, at 34, is six years too young to be president, according to the country's constitution. Also, the constitution says the head of parliament's upper house must call elections within two months if something happens to the president. Madagascar's former president, Marc Ravalomanana, ceded power to his military Tuesday after insisting over the weekend that he would remain in control. Analysts think Ravalomanana had little choice but to step down once he had lost much of the army's support. The African Union had warned that any power transfer aided by the military would amount to a coup d' etat. The Union has since removed any mention of a coup in its official communique and called on the transitional government to \"comply scrupulously with the provisions of the constitution of Madagascar on interim arrangements.\" Monja Roindefo, the opposition-appointed prime minister, vigorously defended the week's developments on the island, located off the southeastern coast of Africa. \"Well, we would like to define what is a coup,\" he told CNN on Wednesday. \"A coup is a group of people or persons who takes the power on behalf of sovereignty, on behalf of the people ... when the representative democracy doesn't work anymore.\" \"As you know, as stated, in the African Union charter, the people have the right to defend itself from an oppression or a dictatorship in Africa,\" he added. Roindefo said the new government will hold elections but has given itself two years to clean up the process. Watch more from iReporters and Twitterers on the crisis \u00bb . \"How could you make an election immediately?\" he said. \"We need to reform the electoral commission. ... So the 24 months that we have given ourselves is to prepare all these types of elections in order to build a genuine democratic country.\" The African Union also asked that all steps be taken to ensure the safety of the former president. The opposition leader had called for Ravalomanana's arrest, accusing him of corruption, financial mismanagement and dictatorship. Ravalomanana was first elected in 2001 and won a second term in 2006. To many Malagasy, he represented a new breed of politician -- a self-made millionaire, a no-nonsense business leader. But Ravalomanana maintained his business empire while in office and it was unclear to many where his business interests ended and his political leadership began. His recent purchase of a $60 million airplane further stoked public discontent. Opposition leader Rajoelina was quick to seize on the sentiments and made fiery appeals to the country's impoverished masses. The country was plunged into political instability in January after thousands of people took to the streets to protest rising food prices and what they perceived as autocratic behavior by Ravalomanana. The protests soon degenerated into rioting and looting, and left about 100 people dead. Watch more on president's resignation \u00bb . Soon after, Rajoelina declared that he was in charge of the country. He gave Ravalomanana until early February to step down. The president responded by firing Rajoelina as mayor of the capital, inciting the latter's supporters to once again descend on the streets. More deadly violence followed. Clashes spread to most provincial capitals and other cities across the country, with homes and businesses looted and burned, the U.S. State Department reported. CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"Madagascar military hands power to opposition leader Andry Rajoelina .\nUnder Madagascar constitution, Rajoelina to young to become president .\nCrisis has plunged poverty-stricken nation into turmoil .\nThousands of people took to the streets to protest rising food prices .","id":"b1d64899afcf11b27b351a07bab2a5403c37ff00"} -{"article":"CNN affiliates report on where job seekers are finding work across the country and how those looking for employment are coping with the situation. A census employee poses with the new handheld device field workers will use for the 2010 count. (CNN) -- The nation will take roll call in 2010 and the federal government is giving the states money to hire thousands of census workers. Officials in Colorado say they may hire as many as 8,000 workers for positions that last between 10 weeks and one year. Cathy Illian says the bureau has already hired 800 people in the Denver area. The organization will also post open positions in early April. Some jobs pay as much as $28.75 an hour. Read the story on KMGH . In Idaho, Dave Mulvihill, manager of the state's census bureau, said the organization will hire 1,200 workers. He has plenty of job searchers to choose from. \"We've had applications from approximately 7,300 people across the state,\" he told CNN affiliate KIVI. Read the full report on census jobs . The office is holding off on taking any more applications until fall. The Alabama census bureau is preparing to hire between 1,000 and 1,500 workers. \"We need workers so we can get good addresses [to] send the questionnaires out so we can get a good response,\" state census bureau official Darryl Lee told TV Alabama in Birmingham. Census officials point out that an accurate count of U.S. citizens helps the government figure out how much funding to give each state for federally sponsored programs. Read the ABC 33\/40 story . Northeast: Rhode Island strip club holding job fair . Business is so good at the Foxy Lady in Providence, Rhode Island, that owners need to hire 25 to 30 more people. And not just dancers. Club co-owner Tom Tsoumas said he also needs managers, waitresses and other behind-the-scenes workers. Tsoumas said because of the poor economy he is expecting to be shocked by the quality of applicants on Saturday. The state's unemployment rate is 10.3 percent. Read the story at WPRI's Web site . Southeast: Beauty schools see increase in applicants looking for career change . Maria Gonzalez was a receptionist until she was laid off. Now she is training to cut hair. Gonzalez, 34, attends Bradenton Beauty and Barber Academy. \"But right now with everything slowing down and being laid off, all the companies, you know, [are] not hiring at this time, so I decided to start coming to school here,\" she told Bay News 9 in Tampa, Florida. The CNN affiliate reports that The Florida Association of Beauty Professionals says beauty schools throughout the state are seeing a 5-15 percent increase in students. Read Bay News 9 report on beauty schools . Liz Galdamez, director of the school, said her newly enrolled students were more likely to be looking for a career change than people in their 20s. \"We're seeing more people in their early 30s and 40s coming into this industry,\" she said . West: Man shows job hunters how to look for work on Twitter . A man who was laid off from his real estate job a year ago now organizes events that bring job seekers together while teaching them skills to use social networking tools. Edwin Duterte runs Pink Slip Mixers and has put on 10 networking events in Southern California. Recently he held his first such event in Mountain View, California. Perrine Crampton, a program manager who is out of work, was impressed with the willingness of other job seekers to help each other. \"With people saying, 'Hey, I found this job; I'm not a good fit. Would you like this position?' she told CNN affiliate KGO. Watch the KGO report on the mixer . \"That kind of thing is going on now. That is something I really hold onto, because it shows me that there is good in humanity.\" Duterte said the Web sites Twitter and LinkedIn are a great way to build an online network of contacts. \"If I get other eyes to look for you maybe you'll find a job faster than if you just look for yourself.\" West: Navy hiring 1,000 civilians . The naval facility in China Lake, California, is hiring people with experience in engineering, physics, chemistry and other sciences. Employees will work with explosives and other weapons systems. \"Let's say you're fresh out of college -- the average salary is somewhere around $50,000 a year,\" division commander Capt. Mark Storch told KABC of Los Angeles. \"Very experienced people that might be looking for a job, too, we need them as well, and those jobs would be more like $100,000.\" Watch the report from KABC . The Navy is also hiring machinists and clerical workers. \"We're looking to bring on about a thousand people here,\" said Scott O'Neil, executive director of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division. Midwest: Agency ready to loan money to small businesses . The Small Business Administration in Oklahoma is encouraging businesses to apply for loans backed by the federal government. The agency told KWTV in Oklahoma City that more than 40 banks were committed to the loan program. \"It'll loosen up the credit crunch,\" said Fred Munden, lead business development specialist at the Small Business Administration. \"I think that the 90 percent guarantee, personally, was a good idea to help small business.\" Read the KWTV report on how businesses can get money . One bakery owner said it will keep her in business and possibly give her a chance to hire more employees. \"It will give us some operating capital,\" said Cherry Duran of Sweet Cherry's. \"Right now, I don't have operating capital. As we get money in, we're spending it.\"","highlights":"Census bureaus are hiring hundreds of workers in each state .\nStrip club in Rhode Island needs more dancers, other workers .\nCalifornia man advising people on using Twitter to get job leads .\nThe Navy needs rocket scientists and other types of workers at one of its centers .","id":"d312173b8c95cc6c206a32cc0acd8a92c1e272d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Josef Fritzl, the Austrian accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, will plead guilty to rape and incest when his trial opens Monday, Fritzl's lawyer told CNN. Josef Fritzl is expected to plead guilty to rape and incest on Monday, his lawyer tells CNN. However, Fritzl will deny other charge he faces: murder, enslavement and assault, attorney Rudolph Mayer said Sunday. The 73-year-old expects to spend the rest of his life in prison, Mayer added. Fritzl faces six charges in a closed-door trial. The trial is scheduled to last five days, but Mayer said it could be shorter. Fritzl was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, over a 24-year period. But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care. In all, Fritzl is charged with: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Austria does not have the death penalty. \"This man obviously led a double life for 24 years. He had a wife and had seven kids with her. And then he had another family with his daughter, fathered another seven children with her,\" said Franz Polzer, a police officer in Amstetten, the town where Fritzl lived, at the time of his arrest. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions. Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin, then 19, to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, she told police, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room. Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the girl, who was then 18, had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write. Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending the missing Elisabeth had dropped them off. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are: . \u2022 Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. \u2022 Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison. \u2022 Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl \"regularly sexually abused Elisabeth,\" according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison. \u2022 Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year. \u2022 Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years. \u2022 Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man accused of keeping daughter in a cellar for decades, fathering her 7 children .\nJosef Fritzl, whose trial starts Monday, will plead guilty, his lawyer tells CNN .\nProsecutors: Fritzl raped his daughter over 24 years, said she had run away .\nFritzl also accused of killing one of the children he fathered with daughter .","id":"1ba9160deb47d55e4e9cbec4b8ff3d7537c7a12d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- FIFA will announce its Player of the Year for 2008 at a ceremony in Zurich today, and here is a look at the leading contenders for the award. Favorite: Portugal and Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo is in line for the FIFA award. To see the full list of contenders for the prize and vote for who you think should win, click here. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal) Ronaldo has emerged as favorite for the award after he and his Manchester United club enjoyed a superb season. The Portugal international was a central figure in the club's English Premier League, UEFA Champions League and World Club Championships titles. He scored 42 goals in the season. Critics would say he didn't perform well enough on the international stage, as Portugal exited at the quarter-final stage of Euro 2008, and Ronaldo was disappointing. However, he has already picked up the Ballon d'Or award for Europe's player of the year, and for the previous three years the winner of this has gone on to claim the FIFA prize (Ronaldinho, Fabio Cannavaro and Kaka). Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina) Messi appears to be Ronaldo's main challenger for the prize -- if public opinion matters, anyway. Messi won an Olympic gold medal with Argentina and made a stunning start to the current season with Barcelona. In the Primera Liga his 10 goals early in the season helped open up a significant gap on the side's main rivals, and he has also scored five goals in the UEFA Champions League season. The 21-year-old is often compared to Argentina's legendary Diego Maradona. Fernando Torres (Liverpool, Spain) The Spaniard enjoyed an incredible first season in the Premier League -- scoring 24 league goals for Liverpool -- a new record for a foreign striker in his debut season. After that success he went on to Austria-Switzerland and played an integral part in Spain's Euro 2008 victory, scoring the winning goal in the final. If top-level international performances are the key to this award then Torres should go close. Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, Spain) Casillas was recently awarded the Best Keeper of the World in 2008 title by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Casillas played a large part in helping his Real Madrid side to the Spanish La Liga title, put in strong performances in the UEFA Champions League, and was a key part of Spain's Euro 2008-winning team. Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona, Spain) Also part of the Spanish team which won Euro 2008, Xavi claimed the Player of the Tournament award, which would make him a worthy winner of the FIFA Player of the Year. Aside from his stunning performances at Euro, Xavi scored seven goals for Barcelona last season, and was one of their standout players, while this season he has continued his good form and helped Barcelona to the top of La Liga.","highlights":"FIFA will announce its Player of the Year for 2008 in Zurich Monday evening .\nCristiano Ronaldo has been tipped as a favorite to win the award .\nLionel Messi, Fernando Torres, Iker Casillas and Xavi are top contenders .","id":"26440375e5854faafc4bd9c1cf40cc38ff1f2b5b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Keri Russell, who stars in the new Adam Sandler comedy \"Bedtime Stories,\" says her own son is a little too young to enjoy a story before bedtime. Keri Russell, here with \"Bedtime Stories\" co-star Adam Sandler, has a young son. \"He's too squiggly and little for that right now. He's a year and a half,\" Russell tells CNN. She and husband Shane Deary have tried reading to their tot. \"We do read [him] books, and he has his favorites, but right now it's very much like 'Read this one, read this one.' And we read the first two pages, then he's like, 'and now this one.' I'm like 'But we haven't gotten to the best part! Let me finish.' It's a lot of that.\" Russell and Deary named their son River, which she acknowledges is unusual. \"It was a name we like, and my husband grew up on Martha's Vineyard. It was a lot of sort of unusual hippie names, so we thought we could get away with it.\" Other unconventional celebrity baby names include Bronx Mowgli Wentz (son of Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson), Apple Martin (daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin) and Naviyd Ely Raymond (son of singer Usher and Tameka Raymond). Russell offers a reason why some entertainers choose distinctive names for their children: It's the nature of their work. \"It's an unusual life. I mean, so there tend to be creative people, and maybe people are more creative with their names, too,\" she says. \"Or [they] feel like they don't have to be so confined to tradition because it's such an untraditional line of work.\"","highlights":"Keri Russell stars in new Adam Sandler film \"Bedtime Stories\"\nRussell has 1\u00bd-year-old child who's \"too squiggly\" for own stories .\nRussell's boy is named River; she recognizes name is unusual .","id":"9bfd320481df92893ac652e9a8452bb653bb2478"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican military has arrested the son of a top drug cartel lieutenant, the government said Thursday. Authorities present suspect Vicente Zambada Niebla to the press Thursday in Mexico City. Vicente Zambada Niebla, known as \"El Vicentillo,\" was arrested Wednesday along with five subordinates, Mexico's defense department and attorney general's office said in a joint release. The men were acting suspiciously and had military-grade weapons, officials said. Zambada is the son of Ismael Zambada Garc\u00eda, known as \"El Mayo.\" The elder Zambada is a top lieutenant in the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman, officials said. Senior defense official Luis Arturo Oliver Cen and Jose Ricardo Cabrera Gutierrez, a top official with an attorney general's task force on terrorism and security, announced the arrest in Mexico City. Guzman, the alleged cartel leader who escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, was named in this year's Forbes magazine report on the world's billionaires. He ranked 701. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame Sinaloa and other cartels for a surge in violence in the region. Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora expressed outrage at Forbes for listing a major drug suspect. About 6,500 people died in the drug war in Mexico last year, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said last week. Defense official Oliver said authorities confiscated three rifles, three luxury automobiles, 67,480 pesos ($4,845) and $866 in U.S. currency. A video on the Universal newspaper Web site shows a dark-haired Zambada and other men being led away in handcuffs. Zambada sports long sideburns, beard stubble, a black sports coat and a striped shirt. CNN's Melanie Whitley contributed to this report from Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"Vicente Zambada Niebla and five subordinates arrested, government says .\nZambada is son of Ismael Zambada Garc\u00eda, lieutenant in Sinaloa drug cartel .\nAuthorities blame Sinaloa and other cartels for a surge in violence in the region .","id":"f8c1c18591bc9d2a898228cfdf9d7e72d92bcf92"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A ship laden with toxic substances is due to arrive in northeast England for recycling Sunday, ending an odyssey that has seen it turned away from at least three other countries. The scrapping of the aircraft carrier has been hugely controversial and a major headache for France. The French Navy spent years looking for a site that would decommission the former aircraft carrier Clemenceau, now known simply as the Q790. The ship contains asbestos, which can cause cancer. Greenpeace activists boarded the ship off the coast of Egypt in 2006 to prevent it being sent to India to be scrapped. The environmental campaign group said at the time it contained \"high levels of asbestos and other hazardous materials.\" Two activists climbed the ship's masts and hung banners reading \"Absestos carrier: stay out of India.\" The group declared \"victory\" a month later when then-President Jacques Chirac of France recalled the ship after the country's Council of State ruled its export could violate European law, Greenpeace said. The ship had earlier been rejected by Turkey and Greece, after the original plan to turn it into an artificial reef was scrapped for environmental reasons, the group said. The British ship recycling company that will scrap it had to apply for special permission from the country's Environment Agency and Health and Safety Executive. But the company, Able Ship Recycling, hailed its arrival in the English city of Hartlepool as a milestone. \"The dismantling of the vessel will be the largest ship recycling project ever undertaken in Europe,\" the company said in a statement. The work will take place at the company's Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre, where it will produce about 200 jobs in the economically depressed region. Able chairman and chief executive Peter Stephenson said the contract was \"crucially important... at a time when there are so many economic problems facing the world -- and especially a region such as the north-east of England.\" \"Recycling the Q790 will be the largest project so far handled by any European yard but, with the biggest dry dock in the world, we have the capacity to undertake the recycling of the vessel,\" he added. Launched in 1957, the Clemenceau was the mainstay of the French naval fleet and sailed over a million nautical miles before being withdrawn from active service after almost four decades at sea, the company said. It will join the other three UK and four U.S. vessels also being recycled at the center, Able said. Greenpeace is not opposing the transfer of the ship to England, but press reports suggest local activists are displeased.","highlights":"French ship laden with toxic substances is to arrive in UK for recycling .\nAircraft carrier had been turned away from at least three other countries .\nDespite earlier protests, Greenpeace not opposing transfer of ship to England .","id":"90b921baab76e81762e444fc7b2615932d194215"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Democrats' top investigator in Congress reacted angrily Friday to a report that the former Blackwater USA employee accused of killing an Iraqi vice presidential guard was hired by another U.S. contractor weeks later. Rep. Henry Waxman says the State Department is covering up \"an epidemic of corruption\" in Iraq. The report comes alongside Rep. Henry Waxman's warning of a \"confrontation\" with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over how much Americans should be able to learn about corruption in Iraq. In a sharply worded letter, Waxman demanded Rice turn over a long list of documents related to the contractor, Andrew Moonen. \"Serious questions now exist about whether the State Department may have withheld from the U.S. Defense Department facts about this Blackwater contractor's shooting of the Iraqi guard that should have prevented his hiring to work on another contract in support of the Iraq War,\" wrote Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Moonen is accused of fatally shooting an Iraqi guard and fleeing the scene, according to a Congressional memo describing the investigation report. He was fined, fired and flown home from Iraq, and the company later paid $20,000 in compensation to the victim's family. Moonen returned to the United States within a few days of the incident, his attorney said, but in February he returned to Kuwait working for Combat Support Associates (CSA), a company spokesman said. CNN reported Thursday night that CSA said it was unaware of the December incident when it hired Moonen, because the State Department and Blackwater kept the incident quiet and out of Moonen's personnel records. Waxman wrote it is \"hard to reconcile this development\" with previous assertions State Department officials have made in recent days. Waxman earlier accused Rice and the State Department of a cover-up of what he called \"an epidemic of corruption\" in Iraq in general. He branded the State Department's anti-corruption efforts \"dysfunctional, under-funded and a low priority.\" Waxman further blasted the department for trying to keep secret details of corruption in Iraq, especially relating to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. \"Corruption is increasing in Iraq, and the State Department can't keep us from knowing that -- can't censor that -- just because it might embarrass or hurt our relationship with [al-]Maliki,\" Waxman said at the House committee hearing. Watch Waxman ask why negative comments must be said behind closed doors \u00bb . Deputy Secretary of State Larry Butler repeatedly refused to answer questions from Waxman about Iraqi corruption but offered full disclosure if his testimony would be kept secret. Asked if he believes the Iraqi government has the political will or the capability to root out corruption, Butler responded, \"Mr. Chairman, questions which go to the broad nature of our bilateral relationship with Iraq are best answered in a classified setting.\" But he was more forthcoming when talking about efforts that al-Maliki has taken to improve matters, commending the prime minister for dispatching Iraqi forces to surround a refinery to ensure oil did not end up on the black market. But Waxman appeared unmoved. \"Why can you talk about the positive things and not the negative things?\" he asked. \"Shouldn't we have the whole picture?\" \"I'd be very pleased to answer those questions in an appropriate setting,\" Butler replied. Waxman laughed and asked, \"An appropriate setting for positive things is a congressional hearing, but for negative things, it must be behind closed doors?\" \"As you know, this goes to the very heart of diplomatic relations and national security,\" Butler said. \"It goes to the very heart of propaganda,\" Waxman said, putting funding for anti-corruption activities through June 15, 2006, at $65 million, \"or less than 0.003 percent of the total\" spent by the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund. The State Department said details of anti-corruption efforts must be secret to protect investigators and Iraqi allies. In a letter to Rice last week, Waxman called the department's position \"ludicrous.\" Fellow Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky agreed. \"It's pretty clear that the administration just wants to muzzle any comments that reflect negatively on the [al-]Maliki government,\" he said. Earlier, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, told the hearing that al-Maliki had protected family members from corruption investigations, citing Salam al-Maliki, Iraq's former transportation minister and the prime minister's cousin. Al-Radhi resigned last month and fled Iraq after he and his family were attacked and 31 of his anti-corruption employees were killed. He said corruption has affected \"virtually every agency and ministry, including some of the most powerful officials in Iraq.\" \"Corruption has stopped possible advances by the government on the political level, on economic reconstruction, on basic services, amenities and infrastructure and on the rule of law,\" he told the committee, estimating the total lost to corruption at $18 billion. In Baghdad, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh acknowledged his country is plagued with a \"high level\" of corruption, but he said officials are trying to rein in the problem. U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, said there appeared to be no U.S. plan for countering the corruption. He urged Congress to consider conditioning future appropriations on such a plan \"so we can achieve some results rather than have just more efforts.\" Waxman questioned whether Iraq's government was \"too corrupt to succeed.\" If so, he added, \"We need to ask if we could, in good conscience, continue to ... prop up his regime.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Bob Constantini contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Rep. Henry Waxman demands documents on Iraq contractor .\nWaxman accuses State Department of covering up \"an epidemic of corruption\"\nState Department says it will provide information if it is kept classified .\nEx-Iraqi official estimates the total lost to corruption at $18 billion .","id":"84594f3a0c29611dfc7aeb6fde3a7f99d248401f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Natasha Richardson, the Tony Award-winning stage actress and member of the famed Redgrave acting clan, died Wednesday from injuries suffered in a ski accident. She was 45. Comedian Joan Rivers says actress Natasha Richardson had \"such a family.\" On Wednesday night's \"Larry King Live,\" comedian Joan Rivers remembered Richardson for her marriage to actor Liam Neeson and used her sharp wit to recall her own skiing experience. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: You knew Natasha Richardson. What was your reaction? Joan Rivers: Oh, [it] shouldn't have happened. We were more acquaintances than friends. But we spent one amazing day on a boat with my whole family and she and Liam and the boys. And they were such a family. King: What was the occasion? Rivers: We were all in the Caribbean, and we all kind of knew each other from dinner parties and so forth. And we met at the airport, and we said, \"Oh, let's get together, with the kids.\" And it was one of those wonderful days. We laughed and talked and had lunch, and the kids were jumping off the boat and we were drinking wine. She was just amazing and darling. King: Have you seen her work on Broadway? Rivers: I've seen her work. I love actresses who go back and forth. I always have such great respect for someone who goes to Broadway and then film and goes back again. I saw her in \"The Philadelphia Story\" years ago in London when she won an award. She was very young in a musical version of that. King: What was your read on them as a couple that day? Rivers: Totally happy, totally devoted to each other. That's what kills me. I mean [it] just shouldn't have happened. ... And they made such a good-looking couple, too. He doted on what she said, she doted on -- it was just perfect. King: How did you learn of this yesterday? Rivers: One of our mutual friends called me and said, do you know about -- I just saw them recently in the thing that Prince Charles gave in England, and a mutual friend said, did you heard about what happened to Natasha? I said, what are you talking about? And he said, she's brain-dead. Watch King talk to celebrities about Richardson \u00bb . King: So you knew yesterday? Rivers: I knew yesterday. And I knew yesterday that she was brain-dead. And I was told, which is, again, so dear, that they kept her alive purposely to bring her back to New York, so that the boys could say goodbye to her before -- . King: Really? Rivers: Yes. King: That's both beautiful and sad. Rivers: Look at this, it gets me crazy. It's sad. King: Do you ski? Rivers: I had a terrible fall about 12 years ago. And I lay there in the snow and I said to myself, \"If I get up, I'm not coming back and I got up.\" King: You're like, \"Goodbye.\" Rivers: Goodbye. And I swear to you, I laid on the ground and I go, \"If everything works, that's it. That's it.\" King: You've heard the doctor. What do you make of this? There must have been something previously. It was a slight fall? Rivers: You don't know; you hit your head wrong. You walk out of your house and it's over. We all know that, especially at this age. You understand that it's over, it's gone. It's just not that [Richardson's] age, not with a good marriage, not with two young boys. It shouldn't be. King: John Kennedy said life isn't fair. Rivers: It isn't. It isn't. And anyone who doesn't get up in the morning and say, \"How lucky I am,\" is an idiot.","highlights":"Joan Rivers says Natasha Richardson and her family sailed in Caribbean together .\nStage actress and husband Liam Neeson were \"totally devoted,\" Rivers recalls .\nRivers says life can be taken in a flash: \"You walk out of your house and it's over\"","id":"240609c20125e524e982390c1097a3ed44eb1130"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- California corrections officials released an updated prison photograph of Charles Manson on Wednesday, showing the balding and graying 74-year-old, complete with his iconic forehead swastika. A new photo of Charles Manson shows his graying beard and his legendary swastika tattooed into his forehead. The picture was taken as part of a regular update of inmate images at the California State Prison in Corcoran, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, where Manson is serving a life term. The release of the picture comes ahead of the 40th anniversary of the \"Manson family\" killings in August 1969. Manson and four others -- Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Charles \"Tex\" Watson and Leslie Van Houten -- were convicted of murder and other charges in connection with a two-night rampage that left pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven others dead. Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the killings, was convicted in the murders of Leno LaBianca, a wealthy grocery store owner, and his wife, Rosemary. Van Houten was accused of stabbing Rosemary LaBianca 14 to 16 times in the back. Van Houten was also convicted of conspiracy in Tate's death and four others at the actress' Beverly Hills home. Tate was 8\u00bd months pregnant, and the baby also died in the attack. Manson, Atkins and Krenwinkel were convicted for those murders. All members of the \"Manson family\" have been up for parole multiple times over the past four decades, but it has never been granted. Atkins, who has been declared terminally ill, was denied a compassionate release from prison in July 2008. Atkins has told police she was one of the people who stabbed Tate and scrawled the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with director Roman Polanski. In May 2008, authorities dug for bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police learned that testing had indicated human remains might be buried there. According to authorities, nothing was found.","highlights":"Prison officials release updated photo of convicted murderer Charles Manson .\nPhoto shows Manson with receding hairline, gray hair and forehead swastika .\nManson, four others were convicted in series of murders over two-day period in 1969 .","id":"3221954fc7fcdf762ae359847ab6bfcdee4258f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Natasha Richardson died of injuries caused by blunt impact to the head, the New York City Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Thursday. Natasha Richardson fell on a beginners' ski slope in Canada. The death was ruled an accident, the office said. Paramedics dispatched to help Richardson minutes after she fell on a Canadian ski slope Monday were turned away and did not have a chance to check her injury, the ambulance service director told a Toronto, Canada, newspaper. Richardson -- a film star, Tony-winning stage actress and member of the famed Redgrave acting family -- died two days later in a New York hospital from a head injury suffered at a Quebec resort about 80 miles northwest of Montreal. Yves Coderre, operations director for Ambulances Radisson, told Toronto's The Globe and Mail newspaper on Wednesday that his company sent an ambulance to the slopes at Mont Tremblant Ski Resort after a call from the ski patrol. \"They never saw the patient,\" Coderre said. \"So they turned around.\" Watch how brain injuries can be hidden \u00bb . Coderre did not say who sent the ambulance away. Efforts by CNN to reach Coderre have been unsuccessful. A resort spokeswoman said a statement was being prepared in response to the latest report. An earlier statement from the resort said a paramedic from its ski patrol \"arrived on the scene within minutes\" after Richardson, 45, fell during a lesson on a beginners' trail. The ski patrol paramedic \"did not find any visible sign of injury,\" it said. \"As standard protocol, the ski patrol insisted Ms. Richardson be transported to the base of the hill in a rescue toboggan,\" it said. \"Once at the base of the hill, Ms. Richardson was advised by staff to consider seeking additional medical attention which was declined.\" The resort's statement said Richardson, accompanied by her instructor, returned to her hotel but about an hour after the fall was \"not feeling good,\" the statement said. Another ambulance was later called to the hotel, where paramedics found her conscious, but she \"wasn't in good shape,\" Coderre said. Richardson was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. From there she was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. She and her husband, actor Liam Neeson, have two children, Michael and Daniel. Her family issued a short statement Wednesday night acknowledging her death. \"Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.\" Richardson is a member of acting royalty. Her grandfather, Sir Michael Redgrave, was a famed British actor. Her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, is an Oscar-winning actress, and her father, late director Tony Richardson, helmed such films as \"Look Back in Anger,\" \"The Entertainer\" and the Oscar-winning \"Tom Jones.\" Watch a review of her career \u00bb . Richardson's uncle Corin Redgrave, aunt Lynn Redgrave and sister Joely Richardson are also noted performers. Natasha Richardson won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of \"Cabaret\" and earned raves for her Blanche DuBois in a 2005 production of \"A Streetcar Named Desire.\" She was scheduled to perform in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's \"A Little Night Music\" this year, after a January benefit performance of the show. Broadway dimmed its lights Thursday evening in tribute to Richardson.","highlights":"NEW: Medical examiner rules Natasha Richardson's death an accident .\nAmbulance crew was turned away, company official tells newspaper .\nRichardson died two days after falling on ski slope .\nRichardson initially showed no sign of injury, resort statement says .","id":"29f2f51b136196c5273cf03957ad3345dbd50894"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- More than 1,000 people rallied Sunday in support of Israel in front of the Israeli Embassy in the Spanish capital. Spaniards protest Sunday in support of Israel's military action in Gaza. The rally came a week after a demonstration across town in support of Palestinians in Gaza and sharply critical of Israel's attacks. Sunday's pro-Israeli demonstration featured the sounding of air raid sirens -- like those heard in southern Israel to warn of incoming Hamas rockets from Gaza -- and a speech by a Madrid official from the ruling Socialist Party, observers said. Last week's pro-Gaza, anti-Israeli demonstration included two national leaders of the Socialists, prompting a rare statement from the Israeli Embassy criticizing their participation. But the Socialist government and the Israeli Embassy appeared to have mended fences during the week, issuing conciliatory statements. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the Mideast last week, with stops in Syria, Egypt and Israel, where he was received by top officials. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was in Egypt Sunday, attending the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh organized by Egypt and France. The pro-Israeli demonstration on Sunday cut traffic on a broad boulevard in front of the Israeli Embassy. Israeli and Spanish flags were waved and one protest banner charged that \"Hamas equals terror.\" Spain has earmarked 6.5 million euros ($8.5 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza.","highlights":"Pro-Israel crowd rallies in front of Israeli Embassy in Madrid .\nDemo follows pro-Palestian gathering last weekend attended by ruling lawmakers .\nSpain has earmarked euros 6.5M ($8.5M) in humanitarian aid to Gaza .","id":"3da87cea54108b576bd3747b1cc5a3c49a0ac8f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six years ago Thursday, then-President George W. Bush appeared on television screens across America and somberly addressed the nation. An Iraqi crowd pulls down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in April 2003. \"My fellow citizens,\" he began his four-minute speech, \"at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.\" Six years later, the conflict in Iraq drags on -- with war-fatigued Americans shoving the military operation to the deep recesses of their psyches as they grapple with an economic crisis at home. Only 10 percent of voters questioned in exit polls during the November presidential elections picked the war as their top issue. Sixty-two percent said the economy was. \"This is already one of the longest wars in American history. There's nothing new in Iraq,\" said Steven Roberts, a professor of media studies at the George Washington University. \"We've read the stories of instability in the government a hundred times. Every single possible story has been told, and so there is enormous fatigue about Iraq.\" Against that backdrop, the United States has accomplished much of what it set out to do when it invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was deposed, captured, tried and hanged for a brutal and deadly crackdown against his opponents during his regime. The rate of U.S. troop deaths has slowed. A surge of 30,000 additional troops in 2007 is credited for security gains the country has made. iReport.com: Share your salute to troops . And a fledgling democracy is taking hold, as President Obama announced that all U.S troops will be withdrawn by the end of 2011. But America has had to pay a steep price -- literally and figuratively -- to achieve its aims, analysts say. Taking into account operations for fiscal 2010, the conflict has racked up an $800 billion price tag since it began, the Congressional Budget Office said. By Wednesday, 4,261 Americans had been killed in the war, according to CNN's tally. The Iraqi casualty count, while harder to ascertain because of the lack of formal record-keeping, has reached at least 128,000, by CNN's tally. And leaked images of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison and America's programs of detention and torture have tarred the United States' image internationally. \"From the first step until now, they destroyed our country,\" said Sheikh Moffaq Qaraghuli, a Baghdad resident. \"Smashed. Not destroyed. Smashed.\" As the battles rage on, researchers are still trying to gauge the damage the war has done to troops. \"I still have the nightmares and wake up and find myself downstairs and I don't know how I got there,\" said Chris Tucker, who did three tours of duty in Iraq. \"Faces. Kids' faces. People that you have engaged or you have had contact with. ... You see your colleagues blown up. Things like that.\" \"I thought we would get there quick and handle our business and we'd be out,\" he said. \"At least that's what we were told anyway.\" Tucker received a medical discharge from the army last year and is now a police officer in Savannah, Georgia. Many in Iraq also are trying to move on, amid the constant fear of suicide attacks in their ruined cities. The Shahbander cafe, one of Baghdad's oldest, is a favorite haunt of the city's intellectuals. Inside, photographs of five young men hang on the wall. Watch Shahbander Cafe patrons talk about the war \u00bb . All were sons of the cafe owner, Mohammed al-Khishali -- killed in a car bombing that ripped apart the cafe in 2007. A month later, al-Khishali lost his grief-stricken wife. For almost two years, he could not bear to reopen the cafe, he said. \"I remember the tragedies every day,\" he said, as his eyes welled with tears. \"But then I decided to take a hard decision to reopen this cafe for the sake of my people, my culture.\" Many of the customers who gather there are critical of the U.S. invasion but are equally concerned about a potential withdrawal. \"Iran has ambitions toward Iraq,\" said Amer Naji, a cafe regular and a former Iraqi diplomat. \"With the Americans, they are afraid to do something aggressive against Iraq. But ... when you withdraw, that will be very dangerous.\" Iraq and Iran fought a war in the 1980s that spanned eight years and killed at least a half-million people, by some estimates. The U.S. and Iraqi governments think Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard has been training militias and providing weapons, such as roadside bombs, to insurgents operating in Iraq. So, though many Iraqis agree that 2009 is better than 2008, they worry about 2011 when the United States pulls out. \"We are hopeless,\" Qaraghuli said. \"We are hopeless.\" CNN's Nic Robertson, John King, Ed Hornick and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began on March 19, 2003 .\nSix years later, fledgling democracy taking hold, security situation improving .\nBut U.S. lost more than 4,000 troops; at least 128,000 Iraqis have died .\nPolls show many Americans more focused on economy than lingering Iraq war .","id":"bda882d647272810180aae59f07dfa0f0095d1ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Havana has a thriving cultural scene and is the setting for world-class ballet and film festivals. But it's also a city of music, sunshine and rum, and Havana knows how to throw a damn fine party. Here are some of the city's biggest and best annual events. Dancers parade along the Malecon for the Havana Carnival. May Day (May 1) Hundreds of thousands of cheering people march through Havana to celebrate International Workers' Day. This quintessentially Cuban event offers a fascinating insight into a country where politics is woven into every aspect of daily life. Marching Cubans carry placards past images of communist heroes like Marx and Lenin in Plaza de la Revolucion square. The fact that the whole occasion is carefully stage managed by party officials adds to its uniquely Cuban air. Havana Carnival (August) One fiesta just isn't enough for a city like Havana, so the Cuban capital has two annual carnivals. There's the smaller event in February, which is well worth checking out, but to experience the real deal you're better off waiting until summer. Crowds pack the Malecon in the final two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August to hear some of the island's finest musicians performing al fresco. The final weekend sees a colossal parade make its way from Habana Vieja to the Malecon in a swirling mass of conga lines, skimpy outfits, music and dancing -- accompanied by lashings of rum. Look out too for the \"Munecones\", huge satirical figures of various famous faces, accompanied by the \"faroleros\", dancers who twirl brightly colored standards as they parade along the Malecon. See Carlos Acosta's Havana \u00bb . The International Havana Ballet Festival ( October\/November, every other year) This festival brings together international stars and prestigious companies from around the world, as well as showcasing the renowned National Ballet of Cuba, which has produced the likes of Alicia Alonso and Carlos Acosta. The festival has showcased more than 200 world premieres and performances range from classics like Swan Lake to challenging modern pieces. One of the highlights of the festival is the choice of venues, ranging from the faded grandeur of the Gran Teatro de La Habana, the city's opera house, to open-air performances in Old Havana, where the subtly-lit facades of colonial palaces provide a wonderfully romantic backdrop. What do you think are Havana's seasonal highlights? Let us know below. Havana Jazz Festival (Winter) Cuban music has played a huge role in the development of jazz, with musicians like Chano Pozo exporting Cuban rhythms to the U.S. to create the fusion known as Latin Jazz. Cuban jazz maestro and five-time Grammy winner Chucho Valdes organizes the festival and is a regular performer, along with a host of international names. Past events have featured the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach and the present-day lack of U.S. stars is more than made up for by an impressive contingent of Latin American talent. There are performances at The Hotel Rivera, Casa de la Cultura Plaza, Teatro Nacional de Cuba, Teatro Amadeo Rold\u00e1n and various smoky clubs. Although the jazz festival is usually held in December, the 2009 event took place in February, so if you're planning a visit be sure to check the dates well in advance. The Festival of New Latin American Cinema (December) This 10-day festival is one of the biggest events in Latin American film, which is currently producing some of the finest cinema in the world. Movie buffs from all over the island flock to see an impressive selection of movies, ranging from Spanish-language blockbusters to obscure art flicks. Even if your Spanish isn't good enough to fully understand the films being shown, the festival still offers the chance for a bit of celeb spotting. Past attendees have included the likes of Robert de Niro, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg and Pedro Almodovar.","highlights":"Hundreds of thousands march through Havana on International Workers' Day .\nCrowds pack the Malecon seafront promenade for the Havana Carnival .\nThe International Ballet Festival attracts world-famous dance stars to the city .\nLegendary jazz maestro Chucho Valdes brings jazz to the Cuban capital .","id":"b35e18a7ab5a831e7362e522bc19852a5fe847a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of people packed a soccer stadium in Cameroon Thursday, including President Paul Biya and his wife, for the first large-scale mass of Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to Africa. Tens of thousands of people gathered at a football stadium in Cameroon to see the pope. Africa is the last continent that Benedict had left to visit, and one he could not avoid, said David Gibson, a biographer of the pope. \"He knows he has to do this. He knows Africa is the future of the (Roman Catholic) Church, as it is for all of Christianity,\" said Gibson. Christianity, like Islam, is on the rise in Africa and Latin America, even as the northern hemisphere tends to become more secular.\" One in five of the world's Christians lives in Africa -- up from less than one in fifty in 1900, said Brian Grim, an editor of the World Religion Database. So Benedict is making the visit although travel \"is not his cup of tea,\" Gibson said. \"John Paul II loved the travel and loved the different cultures. Benedict is a European through and through.\" Watch the pope at the soccer stadium \u00bb . But Benedict understands that travel has become an essential part of a pope's duties, said Gibson, the author of \"The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World.\" Benedict drew cheers at the mass at the 40,000-seat Amadou Ahidjo Stadium when he told worshippers that God had not forgotten orphans, poor and abused children, and those \"forced to join paramilitary forces,\" Cameroon TV reported. He did not mention condoms, a subject which sparked controversy when he reiterated the Vatican's opposition to artificial birth control Monday while flying to Cameroon. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it. The pope's mention of birth control may have been an effort to draw attention to the trip, which \"is not getting much of a bounce in the Western media,\" Gibson speculated. \"They are savvy enough to know that if the pope mentions condoms, it is going to be a headline,\" he said of the pontiff's advisers. The issue did not come up by chance, he pointed out. \"These were pre-selected questions for which they had prepared answers,\" he said. The pope also Thursday met local Muslim leaders in Cameroon, a west African country which is just over one-quarter Roman Catholic and just under one-quarter Muslim. Both religions are expanding rapidly in Africa, said Grim, a senior research fellow in religion and world affairs at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Less than one in ten people in sub-Saharan Africa was Christian in 1900. Today nearly six in ten are, he said. The region was about 14 percent Muslim at the beginning of the 20th century, he said, and about 30 percent Muslim now. Benedict outraged Muslim leaders around the world in 2006 by quoting the 15th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus when he said, \"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.\" He repeatedly apologized for the citation, which he said did not reflect his own views. \"It was a painful lesson but clearly the pope learned something from that,\" Gibson said. The pope's meeting Muslim leaders in person can help relations between the Church and Islam, the analyst added. Face-to-face encounters make \"the pope a human figure. That's what these trips are really about -- to see that the pope is not the boogeyman, he is someone who is kind and wise and wants to discuss issues. \"It's so easy to see caricatures, so for the pope simply to show up can be an enormously positive development,\" Gibson said. Gibson said this week's visit may be Benedict's only trip to Africa. \"Knowing that the pope is older, he cannot travel as much -- he does not like to travel -- makes these trips more poignant. He may never come back to Africa again.\"","highlights":"Tens of thousands of people pack soccer stadium in Cameroon for pope's mass .\nPope tells followers that God has not forgotten orphans, poor and abused .\nHe did not mention condoms after sparking controversy earlier in the week .","id":"98ee2fd1d1950b4a82d549b22f1b6d5a3c4643ee"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Four people were killed early Saturday after a fire broke out at a state-run group home for mentally disabled residents in upstate New York, the governor's office said. A fire killed four people at a state-run group home for the mentally disabled in Wells, New York. The fire started at about 5:30 a.m. at the facility in Wells, New York, about 70 miles north of the state capital of Albany, where nine residents lived, and two staffers were on duty at the time of the fire. Two victims died at the site of the fire and two died during hospitalization, according to a statement from New York Gov. David Paterson's office. Two other residents were taken to area hospitals, including one taken from the scene by helicopter, said Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for the governor's office. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Shorenstein said.","highlights":"Two died at site of fire, two died at hospital, Gov. David Paterson's office says .\nFire started around 5:30 a.m. in home for mentally disabled 70 miles from Albany .\nThe cause of the fire is under investigation .","id":"9b46d8524c55d9f5c6db59228777bf52d6469fc4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What's happening in Madagascar? Supporters of opposition leader Andry Rajoelina attend a rally in Antananarivo on Monday. Marc Ravalomanana resigned as Madagascar's president after weeks of bitter and deadly political clashes. The military handed power to Andry Rajoelina, the 34-year-old former mayor of Antananarivo. Rajoelina and Ravalomanana have been engaged in a bitter power struggle since the beginning of the year. Despite vowing that he would never give up power without an election or referendum, Ravalomanana fled his presidential palace. The army later stormed the abandoned palace as a show of support for Rajoelina. Analysts believe that Ravalomanana had little choice but to step down once he lost the army's support. The power grab ended a chaotic few days in the island nation. Though Rajoelina's supporters say he is now in charge, the dust has not yet settled. Is this a Coup, as the African Union has suggested, or is this a popular expression of the people? Why did this happen? Trouble has been brewing in Madagascar since January, when Ravalomanana sacked Rajoelina from his post in the capital. Rajoelina, a former DJ and media entrepreneur, tapped into rising frustration in the country over high food prices and service delivery to rally support against the president. He set up a parallel government and led massive street protests against his rival. Over 100 people were killed in the protests, culminating in a demonstration outside the presidential palace in February when a further 23 were killed. Reports suggest most were killed by the security forces. While Rajoelina has tapped into popular discontent, Madagascar watchers say that to call this a popular revolution over simplifies the takeover. \"I think at first Ravalomanana was quite popular with the people but he treated the political elite with disdain,\" said historian Stephen Ellis. This made him enemies within the country. Ravalomanana v. Rajoelina -- are they that different? Ravalomanana made his fortune in business and has interests in several media outlets. He came to the fore politically in 1999 when he was appointed mayor of Antananarivo. Rajoelina gained prominence as a DJ and also has interests in several media businesses. He too gained political traction by becoming the mayor of Antananarivo. Both men gained popular support by reaching out to the masses as a leader for the youth of Madagascar. Ravalomanana was first elected president in 2001 and won a second term in 2006. To many Malagasy he represented a new breed of politician-a self-made millionaire, a no-nonsense business leader. But Ravalomanana maintained his business empire while in office and it was unclear to many where his business interests ended and his political leadership began. Rajoelina tapped into the very same strategies of slick marketing and a youthful appeal that Ravalomanana had depended on. Some feel he is just a younger version of the former president. Will the international community recognize the new government? It is unlikely that key members of the international community will rush to support Rajoelina's push into power. \"All of the parties to this conflict need to exercise restraint and resume dialogue,\" said Robert Wood, U.S. State Dept. Spokesman, \"I also want to make clear that any extra constitutional resolution will result in a cut-off of U.S. assistance.\" Prior to the takeover, the African Union warned that any power transfer aided by the military would amount to a coup d' \u00e9tat. The AU has since diluted its rhetoric-removing any mention of a coup in its official communiqu\u00e9 on the takeover and calling for the protagonists to \"comply scrupulously with the provisions of the Constitution of Madagascar on interim arrangements.\" The crisis in Madagascar is a test for the African Union. Despite purporting to be champion of democracy, recent power grabs in Mauritania and Guinea and the botched elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe, have tested the continental groups claims. Why should you care about Madagascar? Madagascar isn't just a cartoon movie. It is the fourth largest island on the planet with a population of around 20 million, a rich cultural history and breathtaking natural diversity. In the relative stability of the last 8 years, the country's tourism sector has boomed, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars. However most ordinary Malagasy have not seen any trickle down from the tourism industry. The country remains one of the poorest in the world.","highlights":"Madagascar military hands power to opposition leader Andry Rajoelina .\nUnder Madagascar constitution, Rajoelina to young to become president .\nCrisis has plunged poverty-stricken nation into turmoil .\nThousands of people took to the streets to protest rising food prices .","id":"866b825f8c7d72ba7d599dbf04cb1730fb88c38f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- America faces an economic calamity. Trouble brews in faraway lands. Superman #14, cover art. Artist: Fred Ray. (c) 1941 DC Comics. All rights reserved. Sound familiar? More than 70 years ago, the very first superheroes debuted in the dire times of the Great Depression and the early years of World War II. Their names became legend -- Superman, Batman (or, as he was then known, the Bat-Man), Wonder Woman, Captain America -- and they're still with us today. A new exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles celebrates these icons from the Golden Age of Comic Books. Through a collection of rare original artwork and comics, the exhibit explores how a group of mostly Jewish artists created the costumed heroes who came to symbolize the hopes of a beleaguered nation. \"In the 1930s, the American Dream had become a nightmare, and I think comic books and superheroes in particular provided an escapist form of entertainment that allowed the American public to go into a fantasy world where all the ills of the world were righted by these larger-than-life heroes,\" says Erin Clancy, a curator at the Skirball. Watch a tour of the exhibit \u00bb . Guest curator Jerry Robinson not only organized the exhibit, he's a part of it. The comic book pioneer created Batman's arch-enemy, The Joker, and named the caped crusader's sidekick Robin. (Success has many fathers, of course: Bob Kane, credited with creating Batman, has long disputed elements of Robinson's creation stories.) \"We were just emerging from the Depression,\" Robinson recalls. \"Superman started in 1938. Batman started in 1939. So, we were just recovering.\" Robinson says the villains changed with the times. \"The first villains in the comic books were hijackers, embezzlers, bank robbers. It was the era of Pretty Boy Floyd and so forth. Once the war came along, we felt a need for more patriotic heroes to fight Hitler. \"In fact,\" he adds, \"Hitler banned American comics, at least Superman and superheroes. He said they were Jewish. Little did he know that the creators were actually Jewish. ... Hitler banned American comics, except one: Mickey Mouse, which was his favorite.\" One of the highlights of the collection is Robinson's original sketch for The Joker. \"My first thought was that a villain who had a sense of humor would be different and memorable,\" he says. \"So, I'm thinking of a name for a villain that has a sense of humor. I thought of 'The Joker' as a name, and as soon as I thought that, I associate it with the playing card, as my family had a tradition of champion playing; my brother was a contract champion bridge player. There were always cards around the house. \"So I searched, and luckily it had the typical image of the joker, which came out of a tradition in Europe. This was an important element. Throughout history, we had court jesters, clowns, and so this was an iconic image that was also very useful.\" In our own times, the public is turning to costumed heroes again in record numbers. Movies based on comic books are box office leaders; comic books themselves remain a strong and growing industry. \"I think the comic book superhero came out of a context in which the political, social and economic realties were a little tough,\" Clancy says, \"and we can certainly relate to those realities now in our own day. I think the resurgence of popularity of superheroes can be attributed to that.\" Last year, audiences made \"The Dark Knight\" the second-highest grossing film of all time. The late Heath Ledger, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as The Joker in that film, spoke with Robinson before he died. \"I was flattered to hear from him that he based the whole concept of The Joker's persona and rationale on our first concept of The Joker,\" Robinson says. With the box office success of \"The Dark Knight\" and \"Iron Man\" -- plus comic book-inspired films like \"The First Avenger: Captain America,\" \"The Avengers\" and \"Thor\" in development -- it looks like superheroes will continue to inspire. \"I think heroes are back,\" Robinson says. \"I think you can almost chart it. The times are not so good -- we're looking for heroes.\" All images and characters copyright DC Comics. DC Comics, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.","highlights":"Superman, Batman, others born during Great Depression, early World War II years .\nNew exhibit shows \"golden age\" of superhero characters .\nArtist Jerry Robinson, who created The Joker: \"We're looking for heroes\"","id":"19f3a4985a24a5ede1fb8118b2b261f778851f2f"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Samuel Welsh's chances of landing a job before this economic downturn were already slim. Samuel Welsh, laid off since 2006, has found solace in his faith. \"You got to keep God in your heart,\" he said. Now, as a disabled worker, the 29-year-old is competing with thousands of nondisabled job seekers going for jobs once allocated for the disabled population. Welsh was laid off from his job as an executive assistant in 2006. \"I did mortgages, refinances and purchase deals. I was dismissed from that job and after that I was sent over to the Bobby Dodd Institute to do my vocational rehab counseling,\" he said. The Bobby Dodd Institute in Atlanta provides job training and rehabilitation for people with disabilities. Meg Godfrey, an employment specialist with BDI, has been handling Welsh's case. \"He came to us originally looking for a position in administrative clerical type work. We have lowered his goals to greeting and ticket-taking, but those are the first jobs that go in this type of economy,\" she said. As part of her job, Godfrey seeks potential employers who will allocate some of their positions for people with disabilities, but as unemployment has soared, competition has gotten fierce. \"Usually, we can get three to five jobs a month. Lately it's been one or no jobs each month. There are some employers I have talked to about hiring our clients. It's in a restaurant-type business and they have people coming in and putting applications that have previously worked at Morgan Stanley,\" she said. For Welsh, the competition and the wait have proven too long. He recently started a home cake-making business using cooking skills he learned from his grandmother when he was growing up in Alabama. He gets orders from local clients and delivers the cakes with the aid of public transit for the disabled. He gets about three orders a week, at an average price of $15 per cake. Welsh said he evaluated his skills and abilities before starting his business. \"I know that I can bake cakes. I know that people like cakes; people like to eat a little something sweet, \" he said. He added that he has not lost hope about finding a job. Wayne McMillan, CEO of BDI, says job numbers for people with disabilities show little hope. \"It's terrible to be without a job in this country. It's tragic to have a disability and be without a job. We are having people come through the programs that we are not being able to place. Last year we placed 171 folks; during the month of December zero; January two. This is a real crisis for us,\" McMillan said. For the first time, the Department of Labor in February released a report tracking unemployment rates among disabled job seekers. The survey found a 14 percent unemployment rate among disabled workers -- almost double that of the nondisabled population. And only 21 percent of the available working disabled population is employed, compared with the 65 percent of nondisabled workers. \"It is not at the top of most people's minds,\" said Megan Rutter Branch, director of communication for BDI. \"They are seeing family members go off and have the dignity of work, and earn a paycheck, and the only expectation that is had of them is to sit at home, watch TV and stay out of trouble.\" She emphasized that disabled workers have one of the highest retention rates in the industry, 82 percent to 87 percent, according to BDI figures. \"Our folks wouldn't want to leave. They had to overcome all these hurdles to get a job.\" According to the U.S. Census, people with disabilities comprise the largest minority group, approximately 20 percent of the population. Robin L. Shaffert, senior director of corporate social responsibility with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), says it is critical for this group to be included in economic recovery plans. \"It is very important for our society that we are using all the productive force of our society. It is important that we are also looking at people with disabilities and make sure we are looking for solutions for them as well,\" Shaffert said. AAPD research shows that President Obama's economic stimulus package has allocated funds to help people with disabilities, such as increased Medicaid help, vocational rehabilitation, help with independent living and specialized education. Until that help comes, Welsh, who suffers from spina bifida, says he is holding onto his faith. \"You got to keep God in your heart. As long as you got him in your side everything will go smoothly,\" he said.","highlights":"Institute that places disabled employees says employers all but stopped calling .\nLabor statistics show 14 percent unemployment rate among disabled workers .\nStimulus package allocates funds to aid disabled, but immediate help needed .","id":"99281dcafe415b3a921ad4a2e688968e687c7cf3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A commuter airliner that crashed Thursday in upstate New York, killing 50 people, underwent violent pitching and rolling seconds before impact, with passengers experiencing twice the normal force of gravity, a federal investigator said Sunday. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. The plane's final 800-foot fall took five seconds, Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said. The aircraft crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York, near Buffalo, on Thursday night, killing all 49 people aboard. A 61-year-old man in the house died also, but his wife and daughter survived. Final motions of the aircraft were so drastic that the plane's autopilot automatically disengaged and warnings sounded, Chealander said, citing information from the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Also, a \"stick-shaker\" device, which noisily vibrates an airplane's controls to warn the pilot of imminent stall, kicked in, he said. The flight crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, discussed \"significant\" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, and icing has become a focus as a possible cause. Follow the plane's path \u00bb . Chealander said the plane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after the flight left Newark, New Jersey, for Buffalo, and remained on for the entire flight. He said the pilots were told before departure from Newark that there was \"light to moderate icing\" in the Buffalo area but that no other pilots had reported problems with their landings at the Buffalo airport. \"It was really not a bad-weather day, and they chose to launch [from Newark],\" Chealander said of the pilot and the first officer. The plane was on autopilot during its approach to the Buffalo airport, Chealander said. As to questions about whether the autopilot should have been turned off, Chealander said using it even in bad weather situations \"is normal.\" Watch Chealander discuss autopilot options \u00bb . \"You're encouraged to use the autopilot to help you with the workloads of these high intense weather situations that we fly into all the time,\" he said. He said the NTSB in the past has recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees civil aviation including commercial airlines, that in severe icing conditions, \"it might be best to disconnect autopilot so that the pilot might have a better feel\" for the aircraft's conditions. However, severe icing is \"not what we saw here,\" Chealander said, adding that the FAA has no such disengagement rule in effect. \"To say that they should not have been flying on autopilot is not correct,\" Chealander said. The pilots' recorded remarks about \"significant\" icing did not indicate \"severe\" icing, he said. The NTSB has said problems for the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 occurred when the pilots lowered the landing gear and tried to set the wing flaps to slow the aircraft for landing. Offering more details, Chealander said Sunday that the plane's nose pitched up 31 degrees, then down 45 degrees. The aircraft rolled left 46 degrees then right 105 degrees, or past the 90-degree vertical point, he said. Inside the cabin, he said, conditions went from lower than normal gravitational force to twice the normal force as the plane rocked through the sky. iReport.com: Send your photos, videos from the scene . Chealander said the NTSB's investigation of the crash site indicated that the two propellers on the turboprop aircraft were in place when the crash occurred. \"The airplane hadn't lost anything prior to impact. It came down intact,\" he said. Meanwhile, local authorities working to recover remains of the victims said Sunday that a federal team of more than 40 people using some $2.8 million worth of scientific equipment would begin on Monday to help establish positive identification of the victims. But because of the intensity of the crash and a subsequent fire, \"whether we can identify everybody or not remains to be seen,\" Erie County Health Commission Anthony Billittier said. Authorities had recovered 15 bodies as of Saturday night, but Billittier announced Sunday that numbers of recovered bodies will no longer be released \"out of respect for the families.\"","highlights":"NTSB: People aboard experienced twice the normal gravitational force before crash .\nPlane rolled past the vertical point before it crashed into home, NTSB official says .\nThursday's crash in upstate New York killed all 49 aboard plane, one in house .\nPlane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after takeoff, NTSB says .","id":"c6553eebaee8cbf8dfa62430f8e0624317661341"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's coldest winter in almost two decades bared its teeth again Friday, with more snow trapping hundreds of motorists in their cars. Britain is suffering its coldest winter in almost two decades, with heavy snow falls causing havoc. Police, the army and civilian rescue teams rushed to help people trapped overnight south of Exeter, Devon, where 200 cars and dozens of trucks were snow-bound, the British Press Association reported. \"Wherever they're gonna go, they're gonna get stuck,\" said PC Carter of Chudleigh Police, just outside Exeter. \"Everything's ground to a halt.\" Rescuers needed 4x4s to reach the trapped motorists. Some drivers abandoned their cars along the road overnight, trudging to nearby hotels to wait for the snow to pass. Watch the snow stall motorists \u00bb . \"You couldn't drive because it was coming onto your windscreen so thick and fast that it was just impossible to see,\" one woman staying warm at a hotel told CNN affiliate ITN. \"You couldn't see the car in front and your tires were starting to skid, and it was really scary.\" One man was stuck in his truck. \"I think I've been fairly lucky -- I managed to do most of what I've got to do, but this has got gradually worse,\" he told ITN from the cab of his truck. \"It's got gradually worse and worse and worse until I got here. I've been here for 2 1\/2 hours.\" Devon and Cornwall Police urged people to avoid the area altogether and avoid travel whenever possible. The snow, which has continued to fall across Britain following Monday's huge dump that brought the country to a virtual standstill, forced more airport closures Friday. Watch an iReporter talk about being snowed in \u00bb . Luton, about 50 kilometers north of London, cancelled all flights until at least midday, while Bristol said it was closing until mid-morning. However, London's major airports -- Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick -- were all open for business as normal. Britain's Met Office issued another severe weather warning, saying snow would be heavy at times with up to 10 cm over high ground. It said the snow was likely to lead to further travel delays and warned the icy conditions would continue into the weekend.","highlights":"Hundreds of British motorists trapped by fresh snow are rescued .\nMet Office issues another severe weather warning .\nBritain is suffering its coldest winter in nearly two decades .","id":"d41090c8e9e44d3c03a5602f7bac1cac4ec81670"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two coalition U.S. soldiers were killed along with three Afghans, including a police official, while trying to disable a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Sunday, the U.S. military said. Afghan police destroy poppy fields in Helmand province. The explosion was under investigation, the military said. The soldiers were part of a convoy of coalition troops accompanying Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand province, to a village where he intended to talk to residents about alternatives to opium farming. The convoy came upon two bombs stacked on top of each other, said local journalist Abdul Tawab Qureshi. When the soldiers tried to disable the bombs, the second one went off, added Qureshi, saying the blast killed the police chief of the province's Nad Ali district, Mohammed Nader; a police officer; and a translator. Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan. Though southern Afghanistan still provides about two-thirds of the world's opium and heroin, poppy cultivation has dropped by 20 percent -- to the lowest level since 2006. CNN's Atia Abawi contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Five people, including 2 U.S. soldiers, killed by roadside bomb .\nSoldiers tried to disable bombs when one exploded, journalist says .\nSoldiers were part of a convoy accompanying governor of Helmand province .","id":"3b793dc917efb05f1cf7c6dc1dac97d93315bdda"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- France bears responsibility for deporting Jews to their deaths in concentration camps during World War II, the country's highest court ruled Monday. Jews and foreigners are rounded up in Paris in May 1941. But, the Council of State said, \"measures taken since the end of the Second World War have compensated for the damage.\" Northern France was directly occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II while the south of the country was ruled by the Vichy government that collaborated with Adolf Hitler. France's role in the deportation of its Jews was a taboo subject for decades after the war. The trial of Maurice Papon, a civil servant in the collaborationist Vichy government, for deporting Jews, forced the country to confront its role in the Holocaust. Papon was convicted in 1998 by a French court for complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of 1,590 Jews from the city of Bordeaux. Most of the deportees later perished at the concentration camp at Auschwitz in modern day Poland. Papon died in February 2007, aged 96, after serving part of his term and then being freed on health grounds. There were approximately 350,000 Jews in France at the time of the country's defeat by Germany in 1940. At least half of those were refugees who had already fled Germany or countries already under Nazi occupation, according to the Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. At least 77,000 Jews were deported to their deaths from French transit camps between 1942 and the end of German occupation in December 1944. Of these, around a third were French citizens and more than 8,000 were children under 13.","highlights":"Court: France bears responsibility for sending Jews to WWII concentration camps .\nCourt rules measures taken since end of war have compensated for damage .\nFrance's role in deportation of its Jews taboo for decades after war .\nAt least 77,000 Jews deported from France during Nazi occupation .","id":"380f8451c8ac7922d972856da9523235d12bbe1d"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- A gunman holed up across the street from a French nursery school opened fire Friday on mothers and nannies entering the building to pick up children for lunch, slightly injuring eight adults, police said. French police at the Lyon nursery school Friday. Two of the injured were taken to a hospital. No children were harmed, said officials from the Ecole Maternelle, located in Lyon in southeastern France. Police said the shooter, who remained at large, used an air rifle. The school was closed and a security cordon set up around it and other schools in the district, police said. In an interview with the French radio network RTL, Lyon Mayor Thierre Philip expressed doubt that the school was the gunman's real target. \"It was pedestrians, especially mothers or nannies who came to pick up the children, who were hurt,\" he said. CNN's Sujatha Samy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eight injured by gunman who opens fire at nursery school in Lyon, France .\nPolice said the shooter used an air rifle and was not captured .\nSecurity cordon set up around area schools .\nMayor says he thinks pedestrians rather than the school were gunman's target .","id":"668c0cf0153c88ed478f2917967102c47883b242"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama reached out to Iran on Friday -- the start of the Iranian New Year -- in a video message offering \"the promise of a new beginning\" that is \"grounded in mutual respect.\" Obama's message to Iran echoes his inaugural speech, where he said \"we seek a new way forward.\" The message is a dramatic shift in tone from that of the Bush administration, which included Iran, along with North Korea and Iraq, in an \"axis of evil.\" It also echoes Obama's inaugural speech, in which he said to the Muslim world, \"we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.\" In Friday's video, Obama said: \"The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right, but it comes with real responsibilities. And that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization.\" There was no immediate response from Tehran to Obama's message, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last month that his country would welcome talks with the United States \"in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.\" The United States, several European nations and Israel suspect that Tehran has been trying to acquire the capacity to build nuclear weapons, but Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. Last month, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released a report saying that Iran has reached \"nuclear weapons breakout capability\" -- it has enough uranium to make a nuclear bomb. The report was based on an analysis of data from the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, an IAEA official who asked not to be named cautioned against drawing such dramatic conclusions from the data, saying Iran's stock of low-enriched uranium would have to be turned into highly enriched uranium to be weapons-grade material. That hasn't been done, the official said. The United States has had tortuous relations with Tehran since the Islamic revolution in 1979, but the Obama message speaks of \"new beginnings\" with the promise of a new year. \"We have serious differences that have grown over time. My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community,\" the president said. \"This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek, instead, engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.\"","highlights":"Video message coincides with the start of the Iranian New Year .\nThe U.S. has had tortuous relations with Tehran since 1979 .\nThere was no immediate response from Tehran .","id":"327ae4c12a2253aad4703380923b52d1cc6f506b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A young blogger arrested in Iran for allegedly insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Internet posting has died in prison, his attorney said Friday. The blogger had been jailed for allegedly insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an internet posting. Attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said Omid Mir Sayafi, reported to be in his 20s, died in Evin prison, which is located in Tehran and known for its wing that holds political prisoners. Dadkhah said a fellow inmate, Dr. Hessam Firouzi, called him Wednesday night with the news -- and said he believed Sayafi would have lived if he received proper medical care. Dadkhah said Firouzi, an imprisoned human-rights activist, said that he carried a semi-conscious Sayafi to a prison doctor but that he didn't receive the care he needed. \"It was Dr. Firouzi's opinion that if he would've received proper medical attention, he would not have died,\" Dadkhah said. He said Sayafi was buried on Thursday and that his calls to the prison asking for an explanation have not been returned. Dadkhah said Sayafi \"sounded OK\" at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday when he last spoke to him by telephone. He said the blogger asked for a book about Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which begins Friday. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, which advocates for activists in the country, quoted Firouzi on its Web site as saying Sayafi suffered from depression and had taken extra doses of medication on Wednesday. The group blamed Iran's government for unsafe conditions in its prisons. \"Iranian leaders have relegated the administration of the prison system to a group of incompetent and cruel officials who are showing their utter disregard for human life,\" said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign. \"If the authorities do not move quickly to hold negligent officials responsible, they are reinforcing impunity and the lack of accountability.\" Sayafi was first arrested in April, then released for 41 days before being arrested again. He was sentenced to 2\u00bd years in prison for comments on a blog that his lawyer argued was intended only for a few friends to read.","highlights":"Omid Mir Sayafi, reported to be in his 20s, dies in Evin prison .\nSayafi was a blogger who allegedly insulted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei .\nLawyer says semi-conscious Sayafi was taken to doctor but didn't get proper care .\nRights group reports prison doctor said blogger had taken extra medicine doses .","id":"6e415a79e3e2e8beb0d12f83bb39e7c845e13988"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Battlestar Galactica,\" the TV series that has held up a mirror to post-9\/11 politics and paranoia for the past four seasons, comes to an end Friday. \"Battlestar Galactica\" drew consistent praise from the critics, but never attracted huge audiences. The show's legions of fans may be in mourning, but executive producer David Eick finds the looming finale bittersweet. \"It's a combination of deep sadness and a little bit of relief,\" he told CNN by phone from Los Angeles. Eick and his producing partner Ronald D. Moore revived -- or, as they like to say, \"reimagined\" -- a campy late-1970s space opera about a ragtag group of survivors from an attack that wiped out most of humanity, making it a gritty, tense, and morally ambiguous drama. Echoes of the traumas that shaped contemporary America are inescapable, from a shot in opening credits that looks like Manhattan before the attacks of September 11, 2001, to questions about curtailing civil liberties in wartime. Eick says the show is a reflection of its times. The show \"went into development very shortly after the attacks -- December of 2001. Not only were we post-9\/11, but the wounds were so extremely fresh, there was still a great deal of shock,\" he said. Some of the imagery and themes of the show derived directly from the attacks, he said, such as a \"wall of grief\" where people place pictures of dead comrades. The show's central conflict has a religious dimension: The show's villains, the mechanical yet human-looking Cylons, believe in one god; the humans believe in many. \"The antagonists are motivated by a belief that they are operating with the blessing, the permission of an all-powerful god. To the extent that religion and spiritual beliefs were chief motivations for the antagonists, that had resonance with al Qaeda,\" Eick said. But, he said, the writers fought to keep the show from becoming morally simplistic. \"Sci-fi has always been a safe haven because we're not talking about al Qaeda, we're talking about the Cylons,\" he said. \"We went to great lengths to try to see things from the opponents' point of view, to make the audience ask if they are rooting for the right side,\" he said. In fact, the Cylons become increasingly complicated characters as the series goes on, ultimately warring among themselves -- as do the humans. \"The intention of 'Battlestar Galactica' was to present flawed heroes, who fought among themselves as much as the enemy,\" Eick said. \"We are drawn to heroes who succeed in spite of themselves.\" \"Growing discontent with the [Bush] administration allowed us to deepen many of those flaws in those characters,\" he said, even as he denied the show was designed to reflect the headlines. \"Rarely do I recall saying: 'Let's do Abu Ghraib,' \" said Eick, referring to the notorious prison in Iraq. The series does include an interrogation episode with a clear reference to waterboarding. The show drew consistent praise from the critics, but never attracted huge audiences from its home on the Sci-Fi channel, a cable network. Nielsen figures suggest the miniseries that launched the show drew about 4 million viewers, but audiences dipped to about half that in the third season before rebounding slightly as the fourth and final season began last year. Eick said he did not watch the original \"Battlestar Galactica\" series, which ran from 1978 to 1980 -- another gloomy era in America. But he knew he did not want his protagonist to be like the hero of that show, even if they shared the same name. \"In the original incarnation, the main character of Adama was the picture of perfection, a military genius and a family man and a diplomat and a great orator, and and and... We were in an age where it didn't seem plausible that one person could have all the answers,\" he said. \"The world didn't need another moralizing space opera,\" he said, drawing a specific contrast with the much more successful \"Star Trek\" franchise, or, as he called it \"escapist 'Star Trek'-ian action-adventure.\" \"The virtue of 'Star Trek' is that is does present a problem -- a moral crisis that its main characters ultimately solve or answer in a way that is intended to be a model for the audience,\" Eick said. \"They come away feeling better about themselves.\" That has never been \"Battlestar Galactica's\" intention, he said. \"To the show's good fortune, the audience was in need of a vehicle for its angst and its paranoia,\" said Eick, who said that as a viewer, he \"was much more seduced\" by darker stories that \"felt like a reflection of reality.\" The walls of his home, he said, are adorned with posters from just such dark films: \"Jaws,\" \"Taxi Driver,\" \"The Exorcist,\" \"Lenny\" and \"Manhattan.\" (He also likes the lighter fare of \"The Blues Brothers.\" ) \"For some people, there's something very cathartic about watching nihilistic drama,\" he said. \"There is a relief associated with it. \"We often hear that what audiences want in troubled times is escapism and comfort food. I think it's the opposite. They want a way to feel their reality reflected back at them.\"","highlights":"Show featured group of survivors from an attack that wiped out most of humanity .\nIt went into development shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks .\nExecutive producer: Some of the themes of the show derived directly from the attacks .\nOriginal \"Battlestar Galactica\" series ran from 1978 to 1980 .","id":"6b8d498f434312042a9d7386e7b8e28bfd5389bc"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bidding failed to meet expectations Saturday on a uniquely complete skeleton of a Jurassic-era dryosaurus -- a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur -- so it was no-sale for the centerpiece at an auction of rare skeletons, fossils and other prehistoric memorabilia. Fossils including dinosaur skeletons are on display at the I.M. Chait Gallery on Saturday. Auctioneers at the I.M. Chait Gallery had hoped the 150-million-year-old, 9-foot-long dryosaurus would sell for as much as $500,000, but the bidding did not add up. Two museums are said to still be interested in acquiring the skeleton, being sold by Western Paleontological Laboratories out of Utah. An 18,000-year-old, 7-foot-tall and 15-foot-long skeleton of a teenage woolly mammoth from Siberia took the auction's top price, fetching close to $60,000. A completely opalized green, blue, yellow and red ammonite fossil measuring 2\u00bd feet in diameter went for close to $50,000. Both were bought by private collections. \"The woolly is so special because it wasn't fully grown and can therefore fit in someone's living room,\" says Josh Chait, director of operations at the gallery. \"A collector's dream.\" Watch collectors stroll among fossils \u00bb . The ammonite, an extinct marine animal, turned to opal as part of the fossilizing process. Ammonite fossils have been found in ancient seabeds in Alberta, Canada.","highlights":"Auctioneers had hoped remains of dryosaurus would fetch half a million dollars .\nBids didn't measure up, so 9-foot skeleton from Jurassic Period remains unsold .\nFossil of a teenage woolly mammoth sold for close to $60,000 at auction .\nHuge opalized fossil of an extinct sea creature went for almost $50,000 .","id":"467e47ca46fdc890de461ede05f589a21a452099"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates on a seized Saudi-owned oil supertanker are delaying release of the ship despite receiving a ransom because of a fatal drowning accident that killed four of their colleagues, a journalist who spoke with one of the pirates told CNN. A small aircraft is observed by the U.S. Navy flying over the Sirius Star during a seeming ransom payment Friday. The pirates had been expected to release the Sirius Star, which they've held since November 15, after a ransom payment was parachuted onto the ship. The journalist told CNN that the pirate who spoke said four pirates drowned after a skiff carrying leaving the Sirius Star capsized due to rough seas. Sea charts showed that waves in the area were reaching 5 to 7 feet at the time. There were five pirates in the skiff and one survived, the journalist said. The bodies of the other four were recovered, he said, adding that this will delay the exit of the pirates still remaining on board the ship and thus affect the ship's release after payment of the ransom. The tanker was carrying two million barrels of crude oil worth about $100 million when pirates hijacked it off the coast of Somalia. Pirates seized the Sirius Star more than 450 nautical miles off the African coast in one of their most audacious hijackings to date. The pirates told another journalist that they received $3 million in ransom money, but lost part of it when the skiff capsized. The remaining ransom money is still aboard the ship with the rest of the pirates. The U.S. Navy took photographs and observed as an apparent ransom payment was parachuted aboard the tanker. The pirates aboard the supertanker have equipment to check for counterfeit bills, authorities said. \"While the potential release of the Sirius Star is undoubtedly excellent news, we must not forget that nearly 300 other merchant mariners (on other ships) are still being held captive,\" said Commodore Tim Lowe, deputy Combined Maritime Forces commander. Hijackings off East Africa are a cause of growing international concern, spurring a number of international navies to patrol the pirate-wracked Gulf of Aden. See how pirate attacks peaked in 2008 \u00bb . Dozens of ships have been attacked in the gulf by pirates based in a largely lawless Somalia in recent months. See a map of the region \u00bb . The area involved, off the coast of Somalia and Kenya as well as the Gulf of Aden, equals more than 1.1 million square miles. That is roughly four times the size of Texas, or the size of the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined.","highlights":"Pirates counting ransom money aboard hijacked Saudi supertanker .\nWitness tells local journalist that ship, crew to be released in next 24 hours .\nTanker was carrying two million barrels of crude oil worth about $100 million .\nU.S. Navy took photos of apparent ransom payment being dropped onto ship .","id":"6517d584b2bf015a1e0ef7f68adda4f5a345d55d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A British man convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach was re-arrested as he prepared to board a flight back to the UK, according to media reports. File image of one of the co-accused -- Vince Acors -- arriving at court in Dubai in September. Vince Acors, 34, from London, was due to fly to Heathrow Monday following his deportation from the Gulf state. But he was detained at Dubai Airport and returned to jail as his flight confirmation was allegedly \"not in order,\" the British Press Association said. Acors and fellow Briton Michelle Palmer, 36, were initially given three-month jail terms for unmarried sex and public indecency, but these were suspended on appeal. Acors had been due to return last Friday but a hold-up in the deportation process meant he was unable to board a UK-bound plane and spent the weekend in jail, PA said. His lawyer Andrew Crossley said: \"The return of Vince Acors has been delayed yet again and he will not be returning to the UK. The situation is close to becoming farcical and Vince is severely disappointed. \"After having booked and confirmed his return flight on three separate occasions through the course of the day Vince was re-arrested at Dubai Airport, as his flight confirmation was allegedly not in order. He has been returned to jail, his precise return is now unknown.\" Palmer and Acors were arrested on a public beach shortly after midnight on July 5. Police charged them with illicit relations, public indecency, and public intoxication. A court found them guilty in October and fined them 1,000 dirhams ($367) for the charge of public indecency. Both denied they had intercourse. And during the trial, Mattar argued that the public prosecutor failed to produce corroborative evidence against his clients on the first two charges, though he said both tested positive for liquor. The United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is located, is home to thousands of expatriates and is among the most moderate Gulf states. Still, the oil-rich kingdom adheres to certain Islamic rules.","highlights":"Michelle Palmer and Vincent Acors, faced three-month sentence .\nThe pair were arrested at a Dubai beach shortly after midnight on July 5 .\nThey were charged with with illicit relations, public indecency, public intoxication .\nAlthough a relatively moderate Gulf state, Dubai adheres to certain Islamic rules .","id":"80e18188c11c2f86e79288288bd3f06d782087cb"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- France bears responsibility for deporting Jews to their deaths in concentration camps during World War II, the country's highest court ruled Monday. Jews and foreigners are rounded up in Paris in May 1941. But, the Council of State said, \"measures taken since the end of the Second World War have compensated for the damage.\" Northern France was directly occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II while the south of the country was ruled by the Vichy government that collaborated with Adolf Hitler. France's role in the deportation of its Jews was a taboo subject for decades after the war. The trial of Maurice Papon, a civil servant in the collaborationist Vichy government, for deporting Jews, forced the country to confront its role in the Holocaust. Papon was convicted in 1998 by a French court for complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of 1,590 Jews from the city of Bordeaux. Most of the deportees later perished at the concentration camp at Auschwitz in modern day Poland. Papon died in February 2007, aged 96, after serving part of his term and then being freed on health grounds. There were approximately 350,000 Jews in France at the time of the country's defeat by Germany in 1940. At least half of those were refugees who had already fled Germany or countries already under Nazi occupation, according to the Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. At least 77,000 Jews were deported to their deaths from French transit camps between 1942 and the end of German occupation in December 1944. Of these, around a third were French citizens and more than 8,000 were children under 13.","highlights":"Court: France bears responsibility for sending Jews to WWII concentration camps .\nCourt rules measures taken since end of war have compensated for damage .\nFrance's role in deportation of its Jews taboo for decades after war .\nAt least 77,000 Jews deported from France during Nazi occupation .","id":"3eaf3c907993e091859a61a02163dc0d1edd664d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Children were among the victims of a plane crash that killed as many as 17 people Sunday in Butte, Montana, according to authorities in Oroville, California, where the aircraft stopped for fuel. Martha Guidoni said this photo was taken after she and her husband saw the plane \"nosedive\" in Butte, Montana. The single-engine plane stopped at the Oroville airport at about 11 a.m. PT, refueled and departed about half an hour later, Police Chief Kirk Trostle said. \"There were some adults and children on board,\" he told reporters Sunday evening, adding the passengers got out briefly to stretch while the pilot refueled the plane. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus said based on preliminary reports, 17 people died in the crash. The Pilatus PC-12 was headed to Bozeman, Montana, but rerouted to Butte instead and crashed 500 feet short of the runway at Butte's Bert Mooney Airport, Fergus said. The flight plan originated in Redlands, California, according to flight-tracking site FBOweb.com. Stops were made in Vacaville, California, then Oroville, before the plane headed for Montana. Preliminary information indicates the pilot did not declare an emergency aboard the plane before the crash, Fergus said. The National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigation team to the scene, Kristi Dunks, an aerosafety investigator with the agency, told reporters in Butte on Sunday evening. Dunks said the plane crashed at the Holy Cross Cemetery, located just south of the airport's Runway 3. She said there were no survivors, though she wouldn't confirm the number of people on board the plane. No one on the ground was injured, Sheriff John Walsh said. Eric Teitelman, Oroville's director of community development and public works, said the small airport has no control tower but because it has a \"wide-open runway\" and a self-service fuel system, it is a frequent stop for private aircraft. Teitelman said at least one person -- an aircraft owner doing servicing work -- was at the airport Sunday when the Pilatus stopped for refueling. The aircraft owner \"met the pilot, saw the children running around,\" Teitelman said. The plane, manufactured in 2001, was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing in Enterprise, Oregon, according to the FAA. Martha Guidoni told CNN she and her husband witnessed the plane crash. She photographed one of the first images of the scene, which showed the cemetery in the foreground of a huge blaze. See a map of Butte, Montana \u00bb . \"We were just taking a ride, and all of a sudden, we watched this plane just take a nosedive,\" she told CNN. \"We drove into the cemetery to see if there was any way my husband could help someone, and we were too late. There was nothing to help.\" Her husband, Steve Guidoni, who went to the scene of the crash, said the plane \"went into the ground\" and caught a tree on fire. Watch footage from scene and hear witness recount what he saw \u00bb . \"I looked ... to see if I could see anybody I could pull out or anything, but there wasn't anything there, I couldn't see anything,\" he told CNN. \"Some luggage [was] strewn around. ... [There were] some plane parts.\"","highlights":"Children among those killed in crash in Butte, Montana, authorities say .\nWitness says she watched plane \"just take a nosedive\"\nSingle-engine aircraft crashed about 500 feet short of runway, FAA says .\nFAA: Plane left California; originally supposed to land in Bozeman, Montana .","id":"ab73bafbd4f00136dfec44d8732ae911abb4d2fc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot and co-pilot aboard a FedEx cargo plane were killed when the plane burst into flames Monday while landing at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan, airport and hospital officials said. Smoke rises from a FedEx cargo plane that crash landed on the tarmac of the Narita International Airport, Tokyo. Both crew members were American men, an official at Narita Red Cross Hospital told CNN. Video from the landing showed the plane bouncing at least twice on the runway and veering left as it turned on its side before bursting into flames. The fire destroyed the aircraft, which was identified by FedEx as a McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Japan's Ministry of Transport said it was the first fatal crash at Narita, which opened in 1978. Strong winds may have played a role in the crash, said Masaru Fujisaki, an airport official. FedEx Express Flight 80 took off from Guangzhou, China, and crashed at Narita about 7 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. Sunday ET), said FedEx spokesman Matt Ceniceros. Watch more about the cargo plane accident \u00bb . According to observations at the airport, wind gusts were reported to be between 30 to 50 mph around the time if the crash. Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that Narita firefighters had worked through the flaming wreckage to try to rescue two people believed to be the crew. The news agency said the cargo plane was landing on Runway A, the longer of the two runways at Narita, a major international airport. The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said Sunday night it was sending a team to Japan to assist in the investigation of the crash. CNN's Kyung Lah in Tokyo contributed to this report.","highlights":"FedEx cargo plane crashes and bursts into flames at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan .\nPilot and co-pilot, both Americans, aboard plane from Guangzhou, China, are killed .\nStrong winds may have played a role in the crash, says airport official .\nVideo shows plane bouncing on the runway and veering left as it turns on its side .","id":"cf4e28fd1f7e8205d3bcc2121fa521d7db56c1fd"} -{"article":"What the heck are triglycerides? If you don't know, you have plenty of company. One in every three Americans has high triglyceride levels, which elevate risk of heart disease and early death. The fatty particles found in your blood are important for heart health, but don't get nearly as much attention as, say, cholesterol. Now a new study suggests that there's a good chance that your triglycerides are in the unhealthy zone, whether you know what they are or not. About one-third of American adults have triglyceride levels that are borderline or too high, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine. \"I see it as a major problem that we've completely ignored this problem so far,\" said Dr. B\u00f8rge Nordestgaard of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Nordestgaard has conducted research linking high triglyceride levels to cardiovascular disease and early death, but was not involved in the CDC research. \"Everyone in clinical practice seemed to be so focused on LDL, LDL, LDL [bad cholesterol], people tended to forget triglycerides.\" he said. Being too heavy, getting too little activity, drinking lots of alcohol and eating lots of saturated fat can all add up to higher triglyceride levels because the body stores excess calories as triglycerides. Health.com: Fats to eat, fats to avoid . Triglycerides are a third type of fatty particle found in the blood, along with LDL cholesterol and HDL (also known as good) cholesterol. People taking certain medications or those who have diabetes or a genetic condition can have high triglycerides. Health.com: What cholesterol tests reveal about your heart's health . Nordestgaard said that high triglycerides are as dangerous as high cholesterol levels as a risk marker for heart disease and early death. \"There's a really big potential for further prevention of heart disease and strokes by getting more focused on that,\" he said. Health.com: How stress can trigger heart problems . The problem: Right now, the best way to attack high triglycerides is by losing weight, eating more healthily, and becoming more active-- a tall order for many of us. In the new report, Dr. Earl Ford of the CDC, and his colleagues looked at a nationally representative group of 5,610 people 20 and older. They found that 33.1 percent had triglyceride levels above 150 milligrams per deciliter, while 17.9 percent had levels above 200 milligrams per deciliter, 1.7 percent had levels of 500 milligrams per deciliter or above, and 0.4 percent had levels higher than 1,000 milligrams per deciliter. Triglycerides of 150 to 199 milligrams per deciliter are considered borderline high and anything above 200 milligrams per deciliter is considered too high. Men were more likely than women to have high triglycerides, while whites were at greater risk than African Americans and Mexican Americans. Very high triglyceride levels can cause inflammation of the pancreas. Although there's increasing evidence that elevated triglycerides are associated with cardiovascular disease and early death, no one has yet shown that treating high triglyceride levels reduces cardiovascular disease, according to an editorial by Dr. Warren G. Thompson and Dr. Gerald T. Gau of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, in Rochester, Minnesota. Lifestyle changes-- exercising, losing weight, swapping healthy fats for unhealthy ones, and the like-- are the treatment of choice right now for people with triglyceride levels between 150 milligrams per deciliter and 500 milligrams per deciliter . According to the National Cholesterol Education Panel, higher-risk people with triglyceride levels falling in this range may also need medication. Beyond lifestyle changes, treatments for high triglycerides include statins, fibrates, niacin, and fish oil. But while fibrates reduce the risk of cardiovascular events like stroke and heart attack, Thompson and Gau note, they don't reduce mortality and actually increase the risk of death from non-heart-related causes; they are only recommended for people with triglycerides above 1,000 milligrams per deciliter. \"What we really need scientifically, we need companies to come up with drugs that are more efficient at particularly reducing triglycerides,\" said Nordestgaard. He usually recommends that people try statins first if lifestyle changes are not enough-- as do Thompson and Gau. Health.com: The therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) diet for heart disease . \"People with hypertriglyceridemia should talk to their physician about appropriate steps to take to bring their levels of triglycerides down,\" said Ford. \"For people with levels in the 150-500 milligrams per deciliter range, therapeutic lifestyle change is recommended.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Fatty particles called triglycerides are important for heart health .\nOne in every three Americans has high triglyceride levels, according to CDC .\nHigh triglyceride levels can cause pancreatic inflammation, heart disease death .","id":"6ae7a8682c7258e74ba87760f387809afceb5589"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescue workers have pulled a body from underneath the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Cologne, Germany, police spokeswoman Astrid Gelss told CNN. The remains of Cologne's archive building following the collapse on Tuesday afternoon. The apartment building collapsed together with two other buildings on March 3. Initially as many as nine people were reported missing, but after seven of them reported to the authorities that they were safe, search and rescue efforts focused on finding the two remaining missing men. Rescue workers found the body at about 2 a.m. Sunday morning (8 p.m. ET Saturday). It has not been identified. The search for the second missing person is still ongoing, Gelss said. It is still not clear what caused the collapse of the building which contained the city's historical archives, bringing down parts of the two nearby structures. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rescue workers pull body from rubble of collapsed building .\nOne person still missing after building collapsed in Cologne .\nAuthorities haven't yet determined what brought down the structure .","id":"5786f889045fe69f5acc89049bd897b415ba0100"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, facing an international arrest warrant, is paying the price for pandering to the West, al Qaeda's second-in-command said in an audio statement released Tuesday. Ayman al-Zawahiri, seen here in 2007, said Tuesday the Sudanese president pandered to the West. \"I am not defending Omar al-Bashir or his regime, nor am I defending what it has done in Darfur and elsewhere,\" Ayman al-Zawahiri said in the statement released by al Qaeda's production company, as-Sahab Media. But, he said, \"the issue isn't one of Darfur and solving its problems; the issue is one of making excuses for more foreign interference in the Muslims' countries in the framework of the contemporary Zionist Crusade.\" The warrant issued by the International Criminal Court earlier this month accuses al-Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity, charges he denies. In response, Sudan ordered 13 international aid groups to leave the country, groups that the United Nations says provide roughly half the assistance delivered in Darfur. \"The Bashir regime is reaping what it sowed,\" al-Zawahiri said. \"For many long years, it continued to back down and backtrack in front of American Crusader pressure.\" He further accused Sudan of expelling members of the mujahedeen who had sought refuge there, particularly Osama bin Laden, and declaring \"in an audacious lie that they had left voluntarily, then attempting to beg payment for that from the Saudi regime and the Americans.\" Al-Zawahiri asked, \"Why hasn't the United Nations moved to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from Israeli barbarity and criminality, while it pretends to cry over the suffering of the people of Darfur? Why hasn't the United Nations and the international community intervened to lift the siege from Gaza, while it pretends to cry over the people of Darfur being deprived of relief and aid?\" \"The Sudanese regime continued to pant for American approval, and it agreed to the division of the Sudan, paved the way for the imminent secession of the south, provided all the information it had on the emigrants and mujahedeen to the American government, and handed over some of them to the regimes of treason and criminality in their countries,\" al-Zawahiri said. \"But despite all that, the senior criminals weren't satisfied with it and continued to besiege it with demands and interference, even going so far as to demand the arrest of its leaders and prominent figures.\" He said he wants to send a message to Muslims in Sudan, telling them they are being targeted so that Islam can be eliminated from the country. \"And in order for Islam to be eliminated from the Sudan, a justification must be found for Western military intervention,\" he said. The audio message is the fifth released this year by al-Zawahiri and the fourth in English, according to Virginia-based IntelCenter. The center said on its Web site it focuses \"on studying terrorist groups and other threat actors ... and disseminating that information in a timely manner to those who can act on it.\"","highlights":"Ayman al-Zawahiri says he is not defending Sudanese regime, actions in Darfur .\nPresident Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity .\nAl-Zawahiri says Sudan expelled Osama bin Laden, other mujahedeen .\nHe further asks why U.N. cares so much about Darfur, so little about Gaza .","id":"97c1e479cbf43fd5a119744bc42b99ad1d2e0182"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Every day for decades, it was an essential part of the day for millions of listeners. A voice would boom out over the radio airwaves, announcing, \"Hello, Americans, this is Paul Harvey! Stand by for news!\" Paul Harvey gave Brent Burns his \"big break,\" giving one of his songs national exposure for the first time. After more than 70 years on the air, Harvey died Saturday at the age of 90. His broadcasts were heard on more than 1,200 radio stations, according to his Web site. iReporters shared their memories of hearing Harvey's program through the generations and told how he affected their lives, and in some cases their careers. When Anna Hiller of Albany, California, heard of Harvey's passing, she was immediately reminded of spending time at her grandparents' home in Baltimore, Maryland, as a child. \"His voice was inescapable, ubiquitous and energizing, emerging from the silver radio in the kitchen,\" she said. She describes Harvey's broadcasts as a \"ritual\" for her grandparents. \"The voice of Paul Harvey would echo throughout the entire first floor, and even though I was too young to follow the stories, I knew my grandmother was listening intently, as was my grandpa from his study.\" John Hargis Sr. has memories of his mother listening to Harvey every day as well. \"I once asked her why we couldn't watch TV when Harvey was on, and she replied that Harvey gave her honest news,\" he said . Hargis has since lost 70 percent of his hearing and says that Harvey's voice was one of the few he could understand. He lost his mother in 2001, and Harvey's death reminds him of her. iReport.com: Hargis pays tribute to Harvey, his mother . Bev Cummins of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, was captivated as a child by Harvey's skills as a storyteller, as heard on his second daily broadcast, \"The Rest of the Story.\" \"He enriched our young lives with his quiet, warm voice that phrased words so well in my mind,\" she said. \"It had all the comfort of a story being read at bedtime.\" Cummins says that she modeled the way she told bedtime stories to her daughter after Harvey. \"The lucky ones among us still have the love of a good Paul Harvey story.\" For some iReporters, Harvey was not just an important part of their daily lives. He gave one his \"big break.\" Brent Burns of Gulf Shores, Alabama, was at the beginning of his career in the music business, with a few recordings released but nothing hugely successful. Then, Harvey played his song about the 1970s gas crisis, \"Cheaper Crude or No More Food.\" \"It bounced me onto the world stage immediately,\" he said. Burns says he appeared in magazines and television after this first major exposure. \"It just goes to show how well-loved and listened-to Paul Harvey was,\" he said. \"He was just a brilliant guy who really had a command of the language.\" Burns believes that his song might be the only one Harvey ever played. iReport.com: 'Integrity was Paul Harvey's middle name' After entering giant frogs into the famous Calaveras County frog jumping contest in 1990, Andy Koffman of Seattle, Washington, appeared on \"The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson\" as well as other television programs. \"But,\" he said, \"the one thing I will never forget is Paul Harvey's voice talking about me and my giant frogs on the radio.\" A retired radio host himself, Gerald Dimmitt of Vancouver, Washington, will never forget hosting a dinner where Harvey was the guest speaker. At first, Dimmitt was unsure if he wanted to take the job because of Harvey's then-support of the war in Vietnam. \"Due to the fact that he was an icon in the business, I went ahead and did it,\" he said. Dimmitt and a small group of attendees at the dinner discussed the war with Harvey. Toward the end of the conversation, Harvey told them to listen to one of his broadcasts coming up in a few days. Dimmitt listened to that broadcast, and heard Harvey announce his opposition to escalating the war. iReport.com: Dimmitt remembers his dinner with Harvey . As for Hiller, her grandfather is gone, but her grandmother now lives in Virginia. \"I have a hard time not believing that the same radio that carried Paul Harvey's booming voice throughout the house on Gibbons Avenue is set up in Grandma's room in Virginia, and that she will miss him telling her 'Good day,' as he had for over 50 years.\"","highlights":"iReporters remember how legendary radio host Paul Harvey affected their lives .\nJohn Hargis lost 70% of his hearing, but Harvey's voice was one he recognized .\nBrent Burns believes that Harvey gave him his \"big break\" in music .\nShare your memories of Harvey on iReport.com .","id":"efe0bb5aa0e4dc3704e08c6ee19dae11eb984545"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tim Geithner may be the latest political pi\u00f1ata in Washington these days, but -- policy aside -- there may be another reason he is the one fellow everyone is picking on at Treasury: He's there alone. President Obama's ethics code requires that no lobbyist can work for an agency he may have lobbied. Believe it or not, Geithner is the only confirmed official at his department. Some top nominees, even those who have served in government before, have decided to withdraw. Others are still pending as they go through arduous background checks that one pro-Obama Democrat calls \"maddening vetting hell.\" Sure, this is about extensive scrutiny to make sure no one has a tax problem after Geithner's own embarrassing unpaid tax bill. But the staffing problem is not just at Treasury, and it goes way beyond the time-consuming nature of extensive background checks. It's also about overreaching anti-lobbyist rules. Consider Tom Malinowski. He's the advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, an expert on genocide and torture. But when it came time for a top human rights job at the State Department, he was turned away. Why? \"Because he lobbied against torture,\" says one incredulous administration official. \"It's crazy.\" But the rules are the rules: The ethics code requires that no lobbyist can be hired to work for an agency he may have lobbied. So, just to clarify: Someone like Malinowski who lobbied against torture and is a widely acknowledged expert on international human rights law is, er, blackballed. More to the point, he was shown the door precisely because he tried to influence Congress on an issue that both he and the administration agree, and care deeply about. (Malinowski won't comment.) Only in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Washington would this make any sense. And it still doesn't. It's just a prime instance of the problems that can arise when great-sounding (theoretical) campaign one-liners rub up against the (real) difficulties of trying to staff a government. In other words, the short-term interest in demonizing all lobbyists has led to some very difficult staffing problems. So, if you're an environmental expert and lobbyist, forget about the Environmental Protection Agency. But you might want to think about some work in the health field. That is, unless someone says you're a lucky exception! They're rare, but William Lynn is one. He's a top defense department appointee who once worked as a lobbyist for Raytheon, a military contractor. The White House says that (a) it hasn't had much trouble staffing the government and (b) is willing to make reasonable exceptions. So far we have only seen a handful. The problem has made it difficult to operate at every department. \"A lot of good people just can't go into government,\" says one administration official. \"It's a huge departure from the spirit of what they wanted.\" Indeed, he adds, here's an unintended consequence: \"We're setting up a system where the only people who qualify to work in government are the ones who never actually left government.\" Oh, great. So instead of getting the best and the brightest from finance and elsewhere, we're recycling some folks from Capitol Hill. Not that they're unqualified, but the administration needs input from multiple sources -- outside of Washington. On top of that, the Treasury has another public relations problem: The appointment of anyone with any tie to a bank that has been bailed out or any institution that is tied to the mortgage mess is a non-starter. No wonder it's hard to find the experts. Yet much of this problem is self-inflicted. The no-lobbyist rule could have been \"softened\" to exclude nonprofit lobbyists. The administration decided against that, one senior official tells me. \"We didn't want to label people as 'good lobbyists' or 'bad lobbyists.' \" Besides, he adds, \"We think we are flexible.\" That's not the feeling you get speaking with either those jumping hoops to try to get into government and those who have been turned away. As the administration faces its huge economic crisis, it needs all hands on deck. After all, you can't rebuild public confidence in a government if you don't have one.","highlights":"Obama's overreaching anti-lobbyist rules interfere with governing, Gloria Borger says .\nShort-term interest in demonizing all lobbyists leads to staffing problems, she says .\n\"A lot of good people just can't get into government,\" says one administration official .\nAdministration needs all hands on deck during this financial crisis, Borger says .","id":"d8cc8977a7801fe782239b71afa5c0ebb602dc36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dr. J. Stephen Jones had seven vasectomies to perform in a day. Some urologists around the country are reporting increased numbers of patients coming in for vasectomies. The schedule for Jones, a Cleveland, Ohio, urologist, has become more crowded during a recent boom in vasectomies. \"My staff came to me and said, what's happening?\" said Jones, the chairman of the Department of Regional Urology of Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. \"Why are we suddenly having an explosion in guys asking for vasectomies?\" They looked at their statistics and realized the uptick started around November as the economic crisis deepened. October went down in the history books as one of Wall Street's worst months. Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman's fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy. \"It's unlikely that some guy read the Dow Jones numbers that day and said, 'Why don't we have a vasectomy?' \" Jones said. \"More likely, people have already been considering it and typically a guy and his wife have spoken a year or two about this.\" Jones was told by patients that they were getting vasectomies because they were losing their jobs and health insurance, or concerned about being out of work soon. \"They realize they don't have the financial security long-term with what's going on,\" Jones said. \"Several of them have mentioned, 'We can't afford to have any more children in this economy.' My perception is that it's more of the concept of raising children in an uncertain economic future.\" Much like Jones, Dr. Marc Goldstein, surgeon-in-chief of male reproductive medicine and surgery at the Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine in New York, saw a 48 percent increase in vasectomy consultations compared with the same time last year. \"I have never seen anything like this,\" said Goldstein, a urologist for the last 30 years. \"When things started to go south in the stock market, then the vasectomy consults went north.\" Half of Goldstein's New York patients work in the financial sector. New patients filed into his office in November. \"I think the situation of finance and the economy is the major reason,\" Goldstein said. \"Some of them have mentioned that, 'It cost $30,000 a year to put my kids in private school and I can't afford to have another one.' It's never the sole reason, but it's certainly a contributing factor.\" During the vasectomy, the doctor cuts the two vas deferens, which are the tubes carrying sperm from the testicles to become semen. After the procedure, men can still have sex, but their semen does not contain sperm and therefore they can no longer father children. Doctors can attempt to reverse the procedure, but vasectomy reversals are expensive and only work half the time in restoring sperm flow. Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a private research firm, said the National Center for Health Statistics' data showed that, \"During bad economic times, the Depression and the recession in the 1970s, the birth rate did go down.\" See the chart on fertility rates in the United States from 1917 to 2007 \u00bb . \"Some folks will postpone having kids,\" he said. \"If you had a vasectomy, you've made a bigger decision that you're never going to have another child.\" When people stop having children, it implies a loss of confidence in their future employment prospects. \"Am I going to have a job in six months or a year from now?\" Haub said. \"If I'm concerned about that, people are not going to increase their financial obligations... It's na\u00efve to say the economy didn't play a significant role in lowering the birth rate.\" It's too early to tell whether this recession has crimped the birth rate, Haub said. At this point, most of the evidence of increased vasectomies has been anecdotal from practicing urologists, because there is no national registry for sterilizations. The number of appointment requests spiked 30 percent in January 2009 on the Web site vasectomy.com, which links people with local urologists. But throughout the last few months, appointment requests have been fairly level, said Dr. Ted Benderev, founder of the site. Dr. Lawrence Ross, a professor of urology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former president of the American Urological Association, said the school's clinics have seen moderate increases in the last six months to a year and that vasectomies are growing popular among lower-income clients. \"My guess is that since economic times have worsened, people are concerned about their ability to raise larger families and are opting for more permanent birth control,\" Ross said. People who are concerned about losing their health insurance are trying to take advantage of the coverage for a procedure they've long considered. \"It may have something to do with the economy,\" said Dr. Bryan Kansas, a urologist. \"I can't count on my hands, in the last three months, the number of times someone has said they're about to lose their insurance and ask to squeeze them in.\" He and his colleagues have seen a similar uptick in their Austin, Texas, practice called The Urology Team. Throughout March Madness, Kansas' office has a special on vasectomies called, \"Vas-Madness\" to capitalize on their patient's obsession with the college basketball tournament. Patients \"would love to have a procedure, go home and sit there when you've got all-day programming, watch basketball,\" Kansas said. After the less-than-hourlong procedure, patients usually spend a day or two recovering, moving gingerly and icing the soreness. Some men time their vasectomies around the time of major sports events such as the Masters Golf Tournament and the NCAA basketball tournament to keep themselves entertained during recovery. Vasectomies are likely to produce tenderness, discomfort and slight swelling and the patient is usually able to return to usual activities within a week.","highlights":"Urologists report a higher demand for vasectomies in recent months .\nIn New York, vasectomies increase after stocks tumble in fall 2008 .\nDuring recessions, people have fewer children, according to health statistics .","id":"afd0b4ed24297d80f4e03265746da40fb38cc0cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you're looking for love and not having much luck, maybe you could increase your success by getting a bit more passionate -- about helping others. Dave Chung and Kim Benty share a love of volunteer work in New Orleans. When singles write to advice columnists complaining about being lonely, they are often urged to volunteer. Duane Bates, the public relations director for Habitat for Humanity, says it's not unusual for their volunteers to meet on a building site and \"end up together.\" Victor Fasolino was living in New Jersey and his future wife, Lora, was living in Seattle, Washington, when the two met in Hungary in 1996 while volunteering on a Jimmy Carter Work Project for Habitat. \"I thought she was an attractive young lady,\" recalls Victor Fasolino, adding that they were working 10-12 hour days so it wasn't until the project was almost complete that they got to spend much time together. Both were committed volunteers and had signed up for a Habitat fundraising bike ride of 500 miles two weeks after they returned to the United States. They got to know each other while pedaling from Kentucky to Atlanta, Georgia. The two got married one year later atop a house they helped build during another project in Pikesville, Kentucky. Other volunteers had cleaned and scraped a ladder so the bride wouldn't get her wedding gown dirty climbing to the roof. The groom wore a tuxedo, a local minister officiated and a fiddler joined them on the roof to provide the music. This year, Victor, 56, and Lora Fasolino, 46, will again work on former President Carter's 2009 Habitat work project, building houses in five countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and China -- along the Mekong River in southeast Asia. In 2007, Dave Chung and Kim Benty found each other while helping Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans, Louisiana. Chung had been a pro golfer playing mini-tours in California and living half the year in Toronto, Ontario, when he got the urge to drive down to New Orleans to volunteer. \"I really liked the place, and the people,\" says Chung. \"The original plan was to come down here for two months and go to a friend's wedding, but I ended up staying.\" At first the 30-something golfer worked for Habitat for Humanity, learning plumbing and wiring. Then he went to work with Liz McCartney, 2008 CNN Hero of the Year, at the St. Bernard Project. Meanwhile, Kim Benty, 36, an interpreter for the deaf in the western New York town of Batavia, began a series of trips in July 2007 to work with volunteers in the same area. Benty was smitten after meeting Chung on her first trip, but he merely smiled and went back to work. \"He was doing a little of everything, a runner, bringing supplies, our construction manager,\" Benty remembers. \"I thought, you know, I am just another volunteer to him.\" There were several more trips, a few chance meetings -- but no sparks. But something changed when they met yet again in December 2008 at a friend's Christmas party. \"We just hit it off that night,\" Chung says. Chung says he was attracted to her for a million little reasons: \"She's attractive, fun to be around and both of us are kind of easygoing.\" But then it was time for Benty to go back to New York and for Chung to make the long drive to Canada to see his relatives. Chung's New Year's Eve plans fell though, so he asked Benty about coming down. They hung out for a few days and Chung was set to drive by himself back to New Orleans. \"She hopped in the car with me, and came down. It really surprised the people who knew her,\" Chung says, \"because she is the kind of person who likes to plan everything.\" \"Ha, it did surprise people,\" Benty admits. \"I am very conservative, a planner, it was out of context for me.\" They both admit they are at a crossroads of sorts. Psychologist Diana Kirschner, author of the book, \"Love in 90 Days,\" says the couple's relationship could go either way. \"I've seen couples come together in some kind of mission or some kind of movement, and they work together really well when they're within the mission. There's a sense of a bond because of their joint commitment to the mission,\" says Kirschner. \"But then when the mission ends, or if it ends, they just look at each other and find they have nothing in common.\" \"However, I've also seen it where couples come together like this and basically decide to stay on the mission the rest of their lives. And they marry and they stay on the mission. Their marriage is all about being together and helping each other fulfill their purpose in this mission,\" Kirschner says. That's what happened to Carol and John Coonrod, who met in 1985 while working for several weeks in Washington on a book promotion for the The Hunger Project, an organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty in the world. \"The last night when we all went out for a drink, we kind of looked at each other and noticed who we'd been working with all that time -- and we've been together ever since,\" said Carol Coonrod, 62, adding that her husband, 57, always says, \"We're living happily ever after.\" The couple, who have no children, are both on staff at the organization. \"We've had a relationship that was formed within The Hunger Project and that has always been our senior mission, part of a senior commitment,\" said Carol Coonrod. \"And within that we've created a partnership and a marriage.\" Their shared passion for their work has driven them during their more than two-decade marriage. \"As we've gotten older, we've sort of rediscovered the rest of life and we've continued to be partners, not only in work, but also in our leisure and the rest of our life. We're wonderfully compatible and enjoy vacation and nonwork time as much as working together,\" says the veteran volunteer. The younger volunteer couple is still pondering their relationship. \"We're not trying to put pressure on ourselves, we are trying to have a good time,\" Chung says. But they are certain about one thing. \"Our passion is to be down here with the St. Bernard Project,\" says Benty. \"You know, that is how life works,\" Chung said. \"It works in strange ways. Stuff you don't plan on is the stuff you remember.\"","highlights":"Couple who met working with Habitat for Humanity gets married atop house .\nOrganization spokesman says it's not unusual for volunteers to \"end up together\"\nPassion for ending world hunger brings Carol and John Coonrod together .","id":"8f6886c2b90a135c43321edcdd510873120c429c"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Almost everyone knows that each state of the Union has its own flag. State flags, however, are just the most visible elements of an elaborate, esoteric system of legalized symbols that characterize and codify our united states. It's time we were all exposed to the bizarre symbology of state identity-politics. Texas' state flower, the bluebonnet, is celebrated in the Texas state song. To begin with, some of the most well-known state symbols allude to lesser-known meanings and histories. I grew up in Wisconsin and only recently learned that the Badger State title originally refers not to Bucky, nor to the savage beast itself, but to lead miners in the 1820s and 30s. These miners moved from prospect to prospect in southwestern Wisconsin, traveling light and often, with little money for luxury. When winter came and conditions worsened, those miners too far from home to migrate would dig themselves sheltering caves in the hills -- like badgers. These temporary dwellings could be abandoned if a prospect proved fruitless, without much regret; and if the lead pickings were good, the lucky miner could fluff up his badger hole or upgrade to a more traditional Euro-American residence. For this practice Wisconsin miners were dubbed \"badgers\" -- a jibe that was soon appropriated as a proud, statewide nickname. Bucky didn't come along until 1949; the furry, quadruped badger, notoriously vicious when cornered, wasn't declared Wisconsin's state animal until 1957. Other miners migrated south for the winter to the far end of Illinois, much like the region's sucker fish; which earned them the nickname of Suckers, and their state of Illinois its unenviable nickname, The Sucker State. Mental Floss: How 22 colleges got their nicknames . 'Rebel' woodpecker . The state bird of Alabama has another tale behind it. They honor a little woodpecker they call the yellowhammer, which is known outside of Alabama as the northern flicker, the common flicker, or simply The Flicker. (It eats a lot of ants, and is not to be confused with the yellowhammer bunting of Europe and New Zealand.) State birds are chosen for reasons many and varied, some meaningful and others frivolous -- from the pretty songs they sing to their proximity to extinction -- and I believe this is the only bird singled out for its resemblance to Confederate uniforms. The story goes that a clean, trim, flashy bunch of new Confederate recruits one day passed by a weary, bedraggled, dusty pod of veterans, and their fresh uniforms, grey tinged with brilliant yellow, reminded some jokester vet of the woodpecker, so he let out a mocking call: \"Yallerhammer, yallerhammer, flicker, flicker!\" The jeer stuck, and the recruits were soon labeled the Yellowhammer Company. Later, as these things go, all Alabama troops were known as Yellowhammers, the whole state as the Yellowhammer State, and Confederate veterans developed a habit of wearing yellow feathers in their caps and lapels to dress up for post-war reunions. How entertaining and informative. But the real fun starts when these state symbols more shamelessly approach the ridiculous. Let us consider some of the finest specimens: . Eat and drink to the honor of the state . Most states have at least one form of official food. In Louisiana, the official doughnut is the beignet. (I'm unaware of any other state doughnuts -- and I'm disappointed.) New York's official muffin is made with apples; Minnesota's with blueberries; and none have yet found it fit to honor the vegan bran and raisin muffin, despite whatever strange wonders it works on the abdominal tubing. Vermont is the only state with an official flavor: maple, as in maple syrup -- but because they've designated the \"flavor,\" not the \"syrup,\" we can assume the appointment includes everything from maple-glaze for ham to autumnal maple lattes. Shockingly, Oklahoma has recognized a complete (and daunting) meal: fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbeque pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, chicken friend steak, black-eyed peas, strawberries, and pecan pies. Mental Floss: 6 food challenges for the super hungry . As for state drinks, Nebraska has Kool-Aid, Indiana has water (hubris!), and Alabama, the standout, has Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey -- a re-creation of some well-regarded illegal moonshine made in the backwoods by a man named Clyde May. Silly, sentimental, and insulting songs . All states have songs, too, except New Jersey. Most states have more than one. There are state ballads, state marches, state waltzes, and so on. Connecticut has a state cantata (a narrative piece intermixed with solos and choruses); Louisiana has a state environmental song (\"The Gifts of the Earth\"); Massachusetts a polka (\"Say Hello to Someone from Massachusetts\"); a couple states have lullabies; and Ohio has an official rock song, \"Hang On Sloopy.\" Two state anthems, Maryland's and Iowa's, are set to the familiar tune of \"O Tannenbaum!\", or \"O Christmas Tree!\"; but no states have designated official Christmas songs. And despite Texas' tough boy image (their official footwear is the cowboy boot), it's the only state with an official flower song -- in praise of its state flower, the bluebonnet. Many of the traditional states songs are brazenly effusive. Arizona's begins, \"I love you, Arizona,\" and continues, rather romantically, \"You're the magic in me.\" California's is similar, without the magic: \"I love you, California, you're the greatest state of all.\" South Dakotans use the superlative when singing to \"The state we love the best.\" Usually they're just hilarious, but a few of these songs bear some heinously outdated lyrics. With a nod to the old Eternal Feminine, North Carolina praises its women as Queens of the Forest, \"So graceful, so constant, yet to gentlest breath trembling.\" The real trouble comes, though, with old minstrel tunes that portray humble \"darkies\" praising \"old Massa\" in song and romanticizing their cotton-picking servitude. Kentucky changed the language for \"My Old Kentucky Home\" in 1986 to glaze over such indiscretions. But Virginia still seems to have trouble acknowledging its error, and simply demoted its song, \"Carry Me Back To Old Virginny,\" to the status of \"state song emeritus.\" Virginia still seeks an adequate replacement, preferably one that doesn't idealize slavery. Every state for itself . Besides these strange variations on common themes, many states have even more idiosyncratic symbols. Since 1962, the official sport of Maryland has been jousting, and more recently, the state's official \"exercise\" was declared to be walking. Not even mall-walking or speed-walking -- just \"walking.\" Kentucky doesn't have a \"sport,\" but it does have an official tug-of-war: the Fordsville Tug-of-War Championship. Mississippi has a state toy, the teddy bear; Massachusetts a state bean, the navy bean; and Oklahoma proudly boasts the only state cartoon character, a gust of wind named Gusty that was used to report weather and news, between 1954 and 1989. Mental Floss: State nickname quiz . While many designations seem absurd, most aim to represent some definite aspect of a state's intended \"character.\" Legislators want icons that mean something, that give you a sense of the land and its people -- something like the bolo tie. Arizona named the bolo tie its official neckwear back in 1971. And more recently, in 2007, New Mexico added the same to its list of emblems. Apparently, it was an Arizona silversmith who invented the string-and-buckle necktie when he took off his hatband to avoid losing the precious buckle during a high-wind horse ride, and hung it around his neck. This discovery occurred as late as 1940, but the bolo's become such an icon that it's hard to imagine a Wild West without it. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Wisconsin's Badger State comes from miners who dug caves to survive winters .\nAlabama's state bird is a flashy-looking woodpecker .\nState drinks: Nebraska -- Kool-Aid, Indiana -- water .\nMississippi state toy: the teddy bear; Massachusetts state bean: navy bean .","id":"c08844923efa38e0231df053b089d92873fc6f3c"} -{"article":"ROOSEVELT, New York (CNN) -- When Lisa Brown moved into her rental house on Long Island last summer with her three daughters, she says, it felt like a new beginning. Lisa Brown has to move out of her rental house because it is facing foreclosure . After living in apartments, the spacious house got her attention immediately. \"It was bigger than what I had lived in,\" she says. Brown was also won over by the neighborhood with its tidy homes and good school district. \"I wanted to come here, and I wanted to see my kids graduate from this school district.\" But they hardly had a chance. Instead, fighting back tears, she says, \"I have to get out.\" Brown and her family are being evicted not because of anything they did, but because her landlord defaulted on the mortgage and the house fell into foreclosure. The house was recently sold at auction. The bad news came just seven months after Brown had moved in. A real estate broker came to the door and handed her an eviction notice, telling her she had 30 days to vacate. \"I was hysterical, I was like, what do you mean?\" Watch Lisa Brown's talk about why she has to move \u00bb The broker explained that the landlord no longer owns the property and that the lease was no longer valid. Brown had no idea the house was in foreclosure. As a tenant, she always paid her rent on time, and she assumed the rent was going toward the mortgage. \"I didn't see there was a problem,\" she said. \"You know, I'm paying rent, and she's putting it toward her mortgage, I didn't see the problem.\" Unfortunately, Brown is not the only tenant caught off guard. According to the Center for Housing Policy, nearly 20 percent of all foreclosures are on rental properties, and tenants' rights in such situations are minimal. In most states, when a bank forecloses on a landlord, the tenant has no guarantee of being allowed to stay in the property, and neither the bank nor the landlord has a legal obligation to tell the tenant about the foreclosure. So while the owners know what's going on, renters are usually kept in the dark. New York State Sen. Jeff Klein is aware that renters can run into problems. \"In many instances, they're actually paying their rent on time, and the owner of the property who is in foreclosure is pocketing the money,\" he says. Klein says rental properties are involved in 50 percent of all foreclosures in New York, and he is working on a law to warn renters of foreclosure proceedings ahead of time and to keep them from losing their security deposit and being evicted with nowhere to go. Similar laws are already in place in Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, Rhode Island, Michigan and California. \"What we're facing here\", Klein says, \"is sort of the new homeless population unless we do something about it.\" Brown was astonished to learn that her landlord rented her the house when she knew she was losing it. \"She knew that this house was foreclosing on her. She did nothing about it. Nothing, except take my money.\" Brown was paying $1,900 a month in rent. She had also paid $5,700 for a security deposit and broker fees to secure the house. She says that money is gone. \"She will not give me my deposit back. Nothing.\" CNN tried to reach the owner, who lives upstairs, for comment, but her phone was disconnected, and no one answered the door. The broker who rented her the house and who was paid $1,900 says he did not know the house was in foreclosure. He also says the brokerage fee will not be returned. \"It took everything I had to move in,\" Brown says, \"to give my kids a better environment.\" And now, \"I'm left out with nothing.\" Because eviction papers trump the lease, Brown has no legal right to stay. The bank that foreclosed on the house, and now owns it, offered her $1,000 to get out, but she says she's lost close to $6,000 and has nowhere to go. \"If it was me, yeah I could move out and go on my own. But it's my family you're talking about, my children, my three daughters and my pets, that I brought in here thinking that we were going to stay and be happy.\" Brown is considering suing the owner in small-claims court to get her money back and cover moving expenses. For now, though, she says she will adjust her dreams and find another place for her family to live.","highlights":"Mortgage meltdown affects renter Lisa Brown after landlord is foreclosed upon .\nBrown evicted because landlord defaulted on mortgage, house fell into foreclosure.\nBrown wanted a better life for her three daughters; now she must find a new home .\nNew York state senator working on law to warn renters of foreclosure early .","id":"01a9836f1743877135e049fbe705f7618c3953b7"} -{"article":"The second most-dreaded question for new parents after \"Is your baby sleeping?\" (Answer: \"Well, yes, for forty-five-minute stretches, but not during the night, and only after I conduct a two-hour-long routine including feeding, swaddling, singing, rocking, and an ancient tribal sleep dance\") is \"Where does he sleep?\" Some say a baby should never sleep in the same bed as you, while others say it's the only way to go. That's because the response is usually just as complicated and the people who ask are often ready to pass judgment on it. At least, that's what more than 6,000 of you told us in our national survey about sleep habits, in which we set out to determine the differences between parents who put their babies down to sleep at night in a crib (for convenience's sake, we're calling them \"crib-sleepers\") and those who share a family bed with their children (co-sleepers). Here, an illuminating peek into the night lives of new families: . \"Now, that's crazy!\" When we were creating this survey, we imagined a giant pillow fight, with moms on one side of the bed yelling \"Safety!\" and a posse on the other shouting \"Bonding!\" And we did hear those battle cries: Nearly half of all crib-sleepers admitted that they think co-sleepers are \"irresponsible\" and that parents who share a family bed are \"putting their baby's life at risk.\" Parenting.com: Guide to baby sleep . Another 39 percent think that co-sleeping parents are spoiling their baby. \"I know people who still have a three-year-old in bed with them because the kid won't sleep alone. Now, that's crazy!\" exclaims Patty Queen, a mom of two in Marion, North Carolina. \"Come on, people, you are only making it hard on the kids by keeping them in the bed with you.\" Another crib proponent, Esther Tune of Henderson, Nevada, considers co-sleeping to be \"the easy option.\" \"I never brought my kids into my bed -- even though it would have been easier. I believe they're safer in their own crib.\" So what about the safety issue? In a 2005 policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warned that bed-sharing was associated with an increase in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and strongly recommended against the practice. \"There is no evidence that co-sleeping can be done safely,\" adds John Kattwinkel, M.D., chairperson of the AAP's Task Force on SIDS. Parenting.com: Baby sleep strategies . No wonder moms who co-sleep are twice as likely to feel judged compared with crib-sleepers. In their defense, co-sleepers cite the work of James McKenna, Ph.D., an anthropologist whose research shows SIDS rates to be lower in countries where co-sleeping is the norm, and the attachment-parenting theories of Babytalk contributing editor William Sears, M.D. (Both experts believe parents can -- and must -- co-sleep safely; see Askdrsears.com for guidelines.) Parenting.com: Why are infants still dying from SIDS? In fact, co-sleepers were just as likely to choose their sleeping arrangement for safety reasons as crib-sleepers. And they also slung some arrows: 40 percent of moms who planned to co-sleep believe that parents who use a crib won't have as close a bond with their babies as they do; another 20 percent feel that crib-sleepers are \"selfish\" and \"only thinking of their own sleep.\" \"Babies grow up more secure when they sleep with their moms for the first year of their lives,\" contends Phasinee Brown of Kansas City, Kansas. Parenting.com: Learning to sleep solo . Giving up control . The majority of parents agreed, however, that in the quest for rest, one size does not fit all babies. \"After having three children,\" Trenny Suggs of Spring Hill, Tennessee, told us, \"I have learned that you have to do whatever is necessary to help your children sleep.\" And for many of you, that means changing your game plan. According to our results, only 11 percent of moms actually planned to co-sleep with their babies, but a whopping 42 percent ended up doing so once their little bundles arrived (see \"Best-Laid Plans\" on the previous page). \"During my pregnancy, I studied controversial topics, such as co-sleeping, and thought I knew what I would do,\" shared one reader in California, who swore that she wouldn't co-sleep but now spends every night in bed with her 5-month-old daughter. \"But children set their own schedules. I never understood that having a baby means giving up complete control.\" Parenting.com: Dreaming of sleep . The perfect sleep solution . For all the stress that surrounds getting your baby to sleep, it's helpful to remember -- in a twisted sort of way, we admit -- that 51 percent of you report being tired all the time, regardless of whether your tot snoozes in a crib or in your bed. In other words, there's no right or wrong answer to that frustrating question \"Where does your baby sleep?\" As Jaclyn Petrin of Princeton, New Jersey, said, \"I hope this survey helps parents understand that there is no perfect sleep solution. If there is, please let me know what it is.\" Sorry, Jaclyn, no such luck. Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"AAP: Bed-sharing associated with an increase in sudden infant death syndrome .\nStudy: SIDS rates to be lower in countries where co-sleeping is the norm .\nSurvey: Few moms planned on co-sleeping, but 42 percent ended up doing so .\nThere is no perfect sleep solution .","id":"385f7f24db2f75ff88ea8f5dec609dd9a1b5fcc7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Indonesian fisherman has been killed by Komodo dragons after he was attacked while trespassing on a remote island in search of fruit, officials said Tuesday. Komodo dragons kill their prey with an extremely toxic bite. Muhamad Anwar, 32, bled to death on his way to hospital after being mauled by the reptiles at Loh Sriaya, in eastern Indonesia's Komodo National Park, the park's general manager Fransiskus Harum told CNN. \"The fisherman was inside the park when he went looking for sugar-apples. The area was forbidden for people to enter as there are a lot of wild dragons,\" Harum said. Other fisherman took Anwar to a clinic on nearby Flores Island, east of Bali, but he was declared dead on arrival, he added. Komodo dragons, the world's heaviest lizards, can grow up to 3 meters (10 feet) in length and have a toxic bite that they use to kill prey such as buffalo, returning to feast when the animal succumbs to the poison. Despite their ungainly appearance, the carnivorous reptiles can run as fast as a dog in short bursts, jump up on their hind legs, and kill animals with a blow of their powerful tails. Attacks on humans are rare, but Monday's incident is the latest in a series in which the monster lizards -- which have forked tongues and fearsome claws --have killed or injured people. Last month a park ranger survived after a Komodo dragon climbed the ladder into his hut and savaged his hand and foot. In 2007 an eight-year-old boy died after being mauled. In June last year, a group of divers who were stranded on an island in the national park -- the dragons' only natural habitat -- had to fend off several attacks from the reptiles before they were rescued. Park rangers also tell the cautionary tale of a Swiss tourist who vanished leaving nothing but a pair of spectacles and a camera after an encounter with the dragons several years ago. An endangered species, Komodo are believed to number less than 4,000 in the wild. Access to their habitat is restricted, but tourists can get permits to see them in the wild within the National Park. All visitors are accompanied by rangers, about 70 of whom are deployed across the park's 60,000 hectares of vegetation and 120,000 hectares of ocean. Despite a threat of poachers, Komodo dragon numbers are believed to have stabilized in recent years, bolstered by successful breeding campaigns in captivity. On Monday, a zoo in Surabaya on the Indonesian island of Java reported the arrival of 32 newborn Komodos after the babies all hatched in the past two weeks, the Jakarta Post reported.","highlights":"Fisherman was trespassing on island when dragons attacked .\nMuhamad Anwar died from heavy bleeding on his way to hospital .\nKomodo dragon attacks on humans are rare .","id":"3a3d96cea214fda0293a5863977e6640c6d9b501"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some 5,000 residents in eastern Pennsylvania were allowed to return to their homes Saturday afternoon, some 12 hours after they were evacuated when a tractor-trailer carrying 33,000 pounds of toxic hydrofluoric acid overturned after the driver tried to avoid a deer, authorities said. Traffic is backed up Saturday after a truck spilled hydrofluoric acid in eastern Pennsylvania. State police identified the driver as Raymond Leblanc, 54, of Harrow, Ontario, Canada. Leblanc, who initially was trapped in the truck, was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released. Police said a passenger in the truck was unhurt. No other injuries were reported. The truck flipped over on its side and slid along northbound State Road 33, which was closed in both directions from Belfast to Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, from the time of the early-morning accident until about 6 p.m. Saturday. Most of the acid in the tank was in the form of pressurized gas, but there also was some water, said Northampton County spokesman John Conklin. State and federal hazardous materials experts stopped the leak by noon. The wreck occurred at 3:30 a.m. near Wind Gap. Conklin said many evacuees -- those living within a mile of the accident site in Plainfield Township -- went to a shelter set up at nearby Pen Argyl High School in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. A dispatcher with the Northhampton County Division of Emergency Management said residents were allowed to begin returning to their homes about 3:45 p.m. Saturday. Hydrogen fluoride is a hazardous chemical compound used mainly for industrial purposes such as etching glass, and is extremely corrosive. It also is an ingredient in high-octane gasoline, refrigerants, aluminum and light bulbs. Contact with concentrated solutions can cause severe burns, according to medical authorities. Inhaling the gas causes respiratory irritation, severe eye damage and pulmonary edema.","highlights":"5,000 evacuees able to go home 12 hours after evacuated because of acid spill .\nCanadian driver tried to avoid hitting a deer, flipped tractor-trailer .\nLeak of highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid stopped .","id":"f0f7a51b1939743a3c6539fe3be903777c7610e5"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Ten people in the disputed territory of Kashmir have been killed in ongoing gunfights between militants and Indian troops, an Indian defense spokesman said Sunday. Indian soldiers stand guard in Srinagar. \"So far we have lost an army officer and three troopers, while six militants have been gunned down by the army in past three days,\" Indian defense spokesman, Lt. Col. J.S. Brar told CNN on Sunday. The fighting started after troops were tipped off about the presence of heavily armed militants in the region. Security forces encircled a forested region to close in on the militants. Militants opened fire at the troops and both sides traded fire. \"The operations are being conducted in a densely forested and highly foliaged mountain range,\" Brar said. The gun battle is the second-longest of the year in Kashmir after the nearly seven-day-long encounter in the mountainous Poonch district of Jammu region in Indian-administered Kashmir in January. The onset of summer and melting of snows in mountain passes often leads to increased influx of militants from across the Line of Control, police said. The Line of Control is the border in Kashmir between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled region of the disputed province. The other day, India said, Pakistani troops had opened indiscriminate and unprovoked fire at its positions in northern Kashmir along the Line of Control. One trooper was injured. Kashmir has endured a violent separatist campaign for nearly 20 years, and authorities say 43,000 people have been killed. However, various non-governmental organizations and rights groups put the number of dead at twice the official count.","highlights":"10 dead in Kashmir gunfights between Indian troops, separatist militants .\nIncident comes after India accuses Pakistani troops of firing on Indian troops .\nKashmir has been in throes of separatist campaign for 20 years .","id":"c032a561967275e82291987dd67335b3e2cf3b7d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British reality TV celebrity Jade Goody died early Sunday morning following a public battle with cervical cancer, her publicist has announced. Jade Goody married her fiance Jack Tweed weeks before her death. Goody, 27, died in her sleep at home in Essex, east of London, just before 4 a.m. (midnight Eastern Daylight Time), a spokeswoman for Max Clifford Associates said. Goody's husband, Jack Tweed, who she married last month in a lavish wedding ceremony, was at her bedside when she died, Clifford said. Her mother, Jackiey Budden, who was also at the house, said: \"My beautiful daughter is at peace.\" Goody leaves behind two sons, Bobby, 5, and Freddie, 4, by former boyfriend and TV host Jeff Brazier. \"She died knowing that she had touched a lot of hearts and minds across the world,\" Clifford told CNN by phone from Portugal. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was \"deeply saddened\" by Goody's death. \"Her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer which will benefit thousands of women across the U.K. Every death from cancer is a tragedy and my thoughts go out to her two sons, husband and family at this time,\" Brown said in a statement. The British media has reported a rise in the number of screenings for cervical cancer since Goody announced she had the disease, a phenomenon some have dubbed the \"Jade Goody effect.\" Goody's death marks the tragic end to a very modern tale. Images of her shrinking frame and bald head have dominated the pages of British media since she announced she had just weeks to live. However, she has openly courted the attention since bursting into the spotlight courtesy of the British version of \"Big Brother\" in 2002. At first the former dental nurse was a hate figure for Britain's vociferous tabloid newspapers, who attacked her for being ignorant and stupid. The public, however, warmed to her loud, honest streak. She did not win the series, but was able to parlay her popularity into a series of reality television and business deals. Her face was soon regularly boldly looking out from the cover of gossip magazines and you could buy the fragrance Shh... Jade Goody, fitness DVDs or pick up a copy of her autobiography. In 2007, with her fame starting to dip, she agreed to return for the celebrity edition of \"Big Brother,\" with her mother and then boyfriend, Jack Tweed, joining her in the house. It was to prove an ill-fated decision. Goody was soon accused of making racist comments and bullying her housemate -- the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. More than 50,000 complaints were received. When she was voted out of the house the show's producers took the unusual step of banning the public from attending her eviction. Goody was tearful and apologetic but British PR guru Clifford summed up the general opinion at the time by saying: \"It looks like she has ruined a very lucrative career.\" Ever resilient, Goody had a Christmas cookbook out at the end of 2007 and in 2008 signed up for India's version of \"Big Brother.\" Two days into the show her cancer diagnosis was revealed on air. She flew home immediately to begin treatment. Last month Goody revealed her cancer was terminal and that she only had weeks to live. With typical bravado she, with Clifford's help, organized her wedding to Tweed, who had only just been released from prison after serving a sentence for assault, selling the exclusive rights to OK! magazine for a reported $970,000. It was also filmed for her reality TV show. Read blog about how media covered wedding . The British government even stepped in to extend Tweed's 7 p.m. curfew, a condition of his release from jail, so the couple could spend their wedding night together. Watch Jade Goody's wedding preparations \u00bb . Despite her weakening state Goody continued to open her door to the media, saying she needed to keep selling her story to help secure the future of her sons. In the days leading up to her death there were newspaper stories on a hammer-wielding woman getting into her room, the baptism of her sons, her last view of \"sun-kissed\" fields and final farewells with family. There was also controversy when OK! published a memorial issue nearly a week before she died. The issue, with a coverline announcing \"Jady Goody, 1981-2009,\" went on sale Tuesday. Clifford said Goody had loved her time in the spotlight. \"I think they've (she and the media) exploited each other. Both have benefited. In Jade's own words, she's loved the last 7 years. They've been wonderful. All the people's she's met, all the things she's done.\" CNN's Glen Scanlon and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jade Goody dies aged 27 after losing her battle with cervical cancer .\nBritish PM Gordon Brown says he is \"deeply saddened\" by Goody's death .\nBritish \"Big Brother\" star fast-tracked plans to get married after cancer spread .\nGoody said she needed to keep selling her story to raise money for her boys .","id":"dde7543fc31c2941b28ebcb23b980aba2a07a85b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK -- For more than 10 years, Mandy Hughes drifted in an out of what she calls the horrible, debilitating pain of Lyme disease. Mandy Hughes says the pain she suffered for more than 10 years was due to Lyme disease . \"It literally feels like you got into a severe accident, like you were hit by a Mack truck and you were allowed no medical attention,\" she says. After being bitten by a tick at 19, Hughes broke out in hives and suffered fever and chills so severe that she had to be hospitalized. She was diagnosed with Lyme disease and was sent home with two weeks' worth of the antibiotic tetracycline. She seemed to be cured. But over the years, the Lyme symptoms flared back -- crippling joint pain, muscle spasms, headaches and facial paralysis. She visited 15 doctors, yet they were unable to arrive at a diagnosis. Several thought she had multiple sclerosis. Others knew she was sick but didn't know why. Lyme had been ruled out. \"Maybe it's psychological -- we don't really have an explanation,\" they told Hughes. \"Your tests are coming back fine, Mandy.\" Watch a report on a 10-year battle with Lyme disease symptoms \u00bb . The memory of one doctor's visit stays with her to this day. She went to see him with joint pain so severe, she said, her hands were curled into a palsy-like position. Yet the doctor seemed impatient with her. \"You're obviously an attractive woman, and you're just trying to get attention,\" she recalls him saying. In 2005, Hughes went to see what some patients refer to as a \"Lyme-literate\" doctor -- one willing to diagnose chronic Lyme disease and prescribe a long-term regimen of intravenous as well as oral antibiotics. Within three months, she began to feel better. After 15 months, she was back on her feet, but had to abruptly halt treatment when her doctor was sued by an insurance company and stopped seeing patients. Learn more about Lyme disease \u00bb . Hughes' story is featured in a new documentary called \"Under Our Skin,\" which takes a look at the leaders of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a national medical group that represents health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. The society's purpose, according to its Web site, is to improve health care in areas related to such diseases. In particular, the documentary takes aim at the 14-member panel that wrote the 2006 Lyme disease treatment guidelines. The guidelines question the existence of chronic Lyme disease and claim the post-treatment symptoms of some patients appear to be \"more related to the aches and pains of daily living rather than to either Lyme disease or a tickborne coinfection.\" The guidelines list specific criteria for diagnosing Lyme -- such as an obvious tick bite, a characteristic bull's-eye rash at the site of the bite, facial paralysis and a positive blood test. Yet some Lyme specialists say many patients experiencing symptoms do not see or remember a tick bite. Only 70 to 80 percent get the rash at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The longer the disease goes undiagnosed, the harder it is to treat, some doctors say. \"The disability associated with Lyme disease is worse than the disability that you might see with someone after a heart attack,\" said Brian Fallon, director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Patient advocates criticize the IDSA for recommending no more than a month's worth of antibiotics to treat Lyme. They say insurance companies use the guidelines to deny payment for long-term antibiotic therapy. But the IDSA says there are inherent risks from such treatment, including localized infection from the IV line and the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One IDSA critic, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, conducted an antitrust investigation of the guideline process, saying the panel ignored or minimized other medical opinions regarding chronic Lyme disease. Blumenthal said the process was tainted by conflict of interest because members of the panel consulted for insurance companies and at least one had a patent for a Lyme disease treatment. Gary Wormser, chief of infectious diseases at New York Medical College and one of the guidelines' authors, denies those allegations, calling them \"preposterous.\" \"What we did recommend was not treating with unsafe or prolonged courses of antibiotic therapy,\" Wormser said. In a settlement with Blumenthal, the IDSA agreed to reassess its 2006 guidelines with the assistance of an outside arbiter. The heart of the debate is whether patients actually have Lyme disease, or simply symptoms that are mistaken for Lyme disease. \"The problem is that the majority of patients that carry the diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease actually have the same kinds of symptoms: fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, sometimes brain fog. ... The majority of such patients actually don't have any evidence of ever having had Lyme disease.\" Wormser said. There's a lot at stake. The CDC reports approximately 20,000 new cases of Lyme disease a year, with the number doubling from 1991 to 2005. Factoring in underreported cases, the CDC says the actual number could be three to 10 times higher. \"We have an epidemic of Lyme disease,\" said Daniel Cameron, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, which rejects the IDSA guidelines and says the chronic form of the disease may be prevalent in up to 62 percent of the population in areas where Lyme disease is endemic. Fallon says standard blood tests fail to detect the Lyme infection in 20 to 30 percent of patients. \"Most reasonable academic physicians throughout the United States would acknowledge that there's a large number of patients out there who do have chronic, persistent symptoms. The question is, why do they have those symptoms?\" he says.","highlights":"Mandy Hughes says she suffered from Lyme disease effects for more than 10 years .\nHughes featured in documentary that questions disease treatment guidelines .\nThere's a debate over whether the disease symptoms are mistaken for the disease .","id":"93022183cab82d9e8764e51fdf2ddb68978b43f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Israeli soldiers routinely and intentionally put children in harm's way during their 22-day offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza, according to a United Nations report made public Monday. On March 6, a Palestinian boy sits on the rubble of a building destroyed during Israel's 22-day Gaza offensive. The report said a working group had documented and verified reports of violations \"too numerous to list.\" For example, on January 15, in a town southwest of Gaza City, Israel Defense Forces soldiers ordered an 11-year-old boy to open Palestinians' packages, presumably so that the soldiers would not be hurt if they turned out to contain explosives, the 43-page report said. They then forced the boy to walk in front of them in the town, it said. When the soldiers came under fire, \"the boy remained in front of the group,\" the report said. It said the boy was later released. Also cited were \"credible reports\" that accused Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs Gaza, of using human shields and placing civilians at risk. But it singled out the Israelis for more sweeping criticism. A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister called the report another example of the \"one-sided and unfair\" attitude of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which requested it. The report cited two alleged incidents from January 3. In one, it said, after a tank round struck near a house, a father and his two sons -- both younger than 11 -- emerged to look at the damage. \"As they exited their home, IDF soldiers shot and killed them (at the entrance to their house), with the daughter witnessing,\" the report said. In the second, it said, \"Israeli soldiers entered a family house in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Standing at the doorstep, they asked the male head of the household to come out and shot him dead, without warning, while he was holding his ID, hands raised up in the air, and then started to fire indiscriminately and without warning into the room where the rest of the family was huddled together. \"The eldest son was shouting in vain the word 'Children' in Hebrew to warn the soldiers. The shooting did not stop until everyone was lying on the floor. The mother and four of the brothers, aged 2-12 years, had been wounded, one of them, aged 4, fatally.\" The alleged instances occurred during Operation Cast Lead, which was launched December 27 to halt rocket attacks into southern Israel from Gaza and ended January 17 with a cease-fire. The U.N. report called the response by Israel disproportionate. Of the 1,453 people estimated killed in the conflict, 1,440 were Palestinian, including 431 children and 114 women, the report said. The 13 Israelis killed included three civilians and six soldiers killed by Hamas, and four soldiers killed by friendly fire, it said. The report said the Israeli operation resulted in \"a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of the civilian population.\" It cited \"targeted and indiscriminate\" attacks on hospitals and clinics, water and sewage treatment facilities, government buildings, utilities and farming and said the offensive \"intensified the already catastrophic humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people.\" It said Israeli strikes damaged more than 200 schools and left more than 70,000 people homeless. \"There are strong and credible reports of war crimes and other violations of international norms,\" it said, adding that many observers have said war crimes investigations should be undertaken. \"The alternative is de facto impunity,\" it said. It called for the end of Israel's blockade of Gaza and the free passage into the territory of food, medicine, fuel and construction supplies. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, called the report \"another example of the one-sided and unfair attitude of the rapporteur of the Human Rights Council, a council that has been criticized by current and previous secretaries-general for its unbalanced attitudes toward Israel.\" He added, \"The negative fixation on Israel by the council has done a disservice to the issue of human rights internationally as has been attested to by the leading NGO's [nongovernmental organizations] on human rights.\" Another report issued Monday also was critical of the IDF. The report from Physicians for Human Rights said the Gaza incursion violated IDF's own code of ethics. The report by the medical group, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, cited instances where it said IDF forces did not evacuate injured civilians for days and prevented Palestinian teams from reaching the wounded, and said some of them died as a result. It said 16 Palestinian medical personnel were killed by IDF fire and 25 were wounded during the IDF operation, and accused the IDF of attacking 34 medical centers in violation of the IDF's own \"ethical code for fighting terror.\" In response, the IDF accused Hamas of having used medical vehicles, facilities and uniforms to conceal its members' activity. \"Hamas used ambulances to 'rescue' terror activists from the battlefield and used hospitals and medical facilities as hiding places,\" the Israelis said in a written statement. \"Despite this, throughout the fighting, IDF forces were instructed to avoid firing at ambulances, even if they were being used by armed fighters. They were instructed only to shoot if there was fire towards our forces emanating from the direction of the ambulance.\" Regarding the reported delays in casualty evacuations, \"there existed real difficulties in evacuating the injured, due to the roadblocks, booby-trapped roads and dirt mounds placed by the Hamas as well as the considerable damage to the infrastructure,\" the statement said. Nevertheless, it said, an IDF investigation is ongoing and its conclusions will be made public once it is complete. But Dr. Dani Filc, PHR-Israel chairman, was skeptical that the investigation would prove useful. \"There are considerable doubts that the IDF is the correct institution to investigate suspicions of these violations,\" he said. \"The IDF's repeated promises to the High Court to look into attacks on medical teams and medical centers have gone unfulfilled, and there are suspicions concerning its seriousness and readiness to carry out the matter.\" The Israeli military did accept criticism Monday on another matter -- the practice of some Israeli soldiers of wearing T-shirts that appear to condone acts of violence against Palestinians. The Israeli daily Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli soldiers who had finished basic training ordered the shirts, one of which showed a pregnant Arab in the crosshairs of a gun sight with a caption reading \"1 Shot 2 Kills.\" Another showing a small child in a gun's sight was captioned, \"The smaller they are, the harder it is.\" \"The examples presented by The Haaretz reporter are not in accordance with IDF values and are simply tasteless,\" the Israeli military said in a written statement. \"This type of humor is unbecoming and should be condemned.\" Israeli soldiers said last week that Palestinian civilians were killed and Palestinian property intentionally destroyed during Israel's military campaign in Gaza, according to Haaretz. The IDF has said it is investigating the claims, but its top general expressed skepticism Monday. \"I don't believe that soldiers serving in the IDF hurt civilians in cold blood, but we shall wait for the results of the investigation,\" Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi, the chief of staff, said in a speech. \"I tell you that this is a moral and ideological army.\" He blamed Hamas for choosing \"to fight in heavily populated areas. \"It (was) a complex atmosphere that includes civilians and we took every measure possible to reduce harm of the innocent,\" he said, according to an IDF statement.","highlights":"Israel: U.N. Human Rights Council has \"one-sided and unfair\" attitude .\nReport says Israeli soldiers intentionally put children in harm's way during offensive .\nU.N. report also said there was credible evidence Hamas used human shields .\nReport called the Israeli response to Hamas rocket attacks disproportionate .","id":"a3bbc4fa97e019943ef327773ff8de6a38d109b9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An 8-year-old American boy is caught in the middle of an ugly custody battle so high profile that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is using her clout to try to bring the boy home. David Goldman's legal battle to gain custody of his son has drawn the attention of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 2004, David Goldman dropped off his wife, Bruna, and then-4-year-old son, Sean, at the airport for a two-week vacation in Brazil. Shortly after she arrived in her native country, Bruna told David she wanted a divorce and planned to stay in Brazil with their son. Bruna later remarried and got pregnant, but she died while giving birth last summer. Goldman thought he was getting his son back, but a Brazilian family court judge granted custody of Sean to Bruna's new husband. Goldman talked with CNN's Larry King about the international legal battle he is waging to gain custody of his son. King also talked to Helvecio Ribeiro, Bruna Goldman's uncle. The following is an edited version of the interviews. Larry King: What caused the breakup of the marriage? David Goldman: I don't know. Apparently, she decided she wanted to live in Brazil, where she said she had more friends and more family and where she was known. King: Did you feel happily married? Goldman: Yes, I thought we were happily married. King: So this was a call out of the blue? Goldman: I was completely blindsided and crushed. King: What did you do then? Goldman: Well, I (got) a phone call. My mom tracked it down as being Father's Day, about three days after they arrived. The first call was they got there safe, everything was OK. Then, I got a phone call and a very serious voice -- a voice they didn't recognize, really, as being, you know, it was out of her normal tone. Bruna says, \"David, we need to talk. You're a great guy. You're a wonderful father, but our love affair is ended, is over. I've decided I want to live in Brazil and you need to come down to Brazil immediately and sign 10 pages of papers with my attorney.\" There was a list of demands on these papers. One was giving her full custody. Another was to never go to the courts to file any claims of kidnapping or criminal charges. King: Did you get to talk to your son? Goldman: I got to talk to my son. In fact, I got to speak with all of them in the beginning, while they were still trying to get me to go down there and be trapped in this custody battle. At that point, I wasn't the enemy until I didn't meet her demands and I did go to the courts. King: Well, when you went (to Brazil), who did you see? What did you do? Goldman: I went to the courts. I went to every ruling on every court proceeding and with the guise that they would honor the Hague Treaty and return (my) son. And every time, it just got worse and worse. In the first instance, they kept Sean for over a year before they made this ruling. And then they said, 'Well, you know, yes, he was taken unlawfully and he should have been returned, but now he's settled with the mother. These are Brazilian judges who have admitted that he's been held unlawfully and wrongfully. King: How did you hear she died? Goldman: I have friends who, kind of, have an ear to the ground in Brazil, and there were some articles that came out in some local Brazilian newspapers and they did some on the Internet and said she'd passed away. King: Did you try then to get the child back legally? Goldman: Yes. As soon as I was notified, I called both counsel in Brazil and in the U.S., and they said it should be over. You know, we have stacks of court records and all these treaties and it's always been about Bruna and David, Bruna and David. There's no more Bruna. By all matters of law, international and national and Brazilian law, no one has a legal claim of custody but the living, biological parent. Go down to Brazil and bring your son home. King: What happened in court? Goldman: In this past court, we finally got a visitation ruling. But when I went down the first time to bring my son home, we find out that this man doesn't file custody, but he files to remove my name from a Brazilian birth certificate that they had issued for my son, who was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. And with that, they gave him a provisionary guardianship -- a provisionary. King: Obviously, he wanted the boy? Goldman: Obviously. King: When you were (with him? Goldman: Oh, he was -- I just saw him this last February for the first time. King: At eight years old, did he ask you why he's not with you? Goldman: He asked why I haven't come to see him in all this time. And that was very, very painful -- and the anguish on his face when he asked me that question. And I didn't want to tell him that the situation that I'm not allowed -- that they weren't allowing me, they're holding him. So I just told him that I had been there many times with his grandmother, with his grandfather, with his cousins, with family friends to see him, sometimes staying for up to two weeks and the courts -- it was difficult. King: How long did you have with him? Goldman: I saw him for two days a total of about six hours. King: How did you say goodbye? Goldman: It was very, very difficult. I just kept telling him the whole time how much I love him, how much I miss him. King: Did you tell him you were going to try to get him back? Goldman: No. I told him I'm going to always try to be with him. I don't want him to be put in any type of awkward situation or uncomfortable situation. I just told him I love him, I miss him and everyone at home loves him. And he remembers things at home. We spoke English. King: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has raised the Goldman case with the Brazilian government. Anything you'd say to her? Goldman: I'm just -- I'm so grateful and thankful that -- that she's helping me and she knows what's right and sees what's right and she cares about children and parents' rights to be with their own flesh and blood. - - - - - - - - - - - - . King followed the Goldman interview by talking to Helvecio Ribeiro, Bruna Goldman's uncle. King: Why do you think that David should not have his son? Why shouldn't he have his -- it's his son. Ribeiro: That's right. And I don't question the biological right. The fact of the matter is that in order to be a parent, you have to be more than just a DNA donor, Mr. King. Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures, it's about sacrifice. It's about providing support to your child. It's about being there even when you're not there. And Mr. Goldman, while Bruna was still alive, failed to do so. I'm not sure if you know that, but he hasn't paid one single dime of child support so far. And he has been making allegations all over the place about us not allowing him to visit his child. They are completely untrue. King: Do you question whether David loves his child? Ribeiro: Oh, absolutely. I think that it's really easy to say that you love someone, but you have to act and show that. Mr. Goldman never had any interest on actually going down to Brazil, even to visit. I mean the child is not guilty of his parents' mistakes. I mean divorces happen all the time. And the parents should be responsible and work their way toward finding an agreement in which, you know, both parents are part of the children's lives. And he failed to do that because it was not in his best interests. King: How close is he [Sean's stepfather] with Sean? Ribeiro: Very close. Sean knows exactly that he is not his biological father, but he also calls him Daddy. Sean knows that, you know, Mr. Goldman is his biological father. Even though it was not mentioned during this interview, Sean normally talks to Mr. Goldman or at least used to talk to Mr. Goldman and also her -- his grandmother here in the United States. So he knows exactly the difference. He knows exactly who is who.","highlights":"David Goldman's wife, Bruna, took son to Brazil, asked for divorce .\nBruna later remarried, died while giving birth .\nBrazilian court awarded custody of Goldman's son to stepfather .\nU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked Brazilian government to return child .","id":"5c19ebce58e729e01d8bf72b40b1670d86dbef76"} -{"article":"CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- Nine bodies have been found in a common grave in the desert south of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, according to Chihuahua state prosecutor's spokeswoman Daniela Gonzalez. Police look on as one of the nine bodies found in a common grave near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is removed. Investigators have yet to determine the identities of the seven men and two women found in the grave, Gonzalez said. They have not released information on how they were killed or how long they have been there. Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the major battlegrounds as drug cartels fight both each other and Mexican authorities. The conflict has made violence increasingly common in Juarez, Tijuana and other Mexican border towns. Extreme violence among warring drug cartels and the Mexican government has long plagued Juarez and the state of Chihuahua, but the situation has been getting worse. Last month, the city's chief of police was obliged to quit after threats from organized crime to kill a policeman every day that he remained on the job. Watch as mayor of Juarez talks about who is responsible for slayings \u00bb . Earlier this month, the U.S. Consulate in Juarez specifically warned Americans to avoid an area southeast of the city. The discovery of the bodies comes as 5,000 Mexican soldiers are descending this weekend on Juarez in an effort to end the violence that has claimed more than 400 lives so far this year. Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told CNN he is hopeful Operacion Conjunto Chihuahua (Chihuahua Joint Operation) will be successful. \"The reality is that the military presence in the last several weeks has caused the violence to subside,\" he said. \"We were averaging about 10 murders a week; and since February 26, when the troops starting arriving, we have been averaging about one.\" Enrique Torres, spokesman for the Chihuahua Joint Operation, said by Sunday there will be 7,500 military personnel, 2,300 federal police and 1,600 city police working together to patrol the city and aggressively fight the cartels. \"We are launching a full frontal attack\" Torres said. \"We will also be tackling other types of organized crime -- money laundering and kidnappings.\" Corruption among the police force has been a major concern to local and international authorities. Torres said the city has been preparing for a year to \"clean up the local police.\" Watch panel discuss escalating drug war \u00bb . Already, he said, more than 500 city police officers have been fired because they failed to pass the \"trust test.\" As part of the \"clean-up,\" federal authorities have been requiring officers to take a polygraph test. To prevent corruption among the just arrived soldiers, Torres said they will be frequently rotated. \"They will only work in the region one to two months and then they will be sent to other parts of the country.\" Ferriz, the mayor, said government officials are doing everything in their power to stop the violence; they have brought in consultants from Colombia and adapted programs that have proven successful there, such as a civilian corruption watchdog program. But he explained that a big part of the problem is coming from the north. \"The majority of the weapons used for homicides here have been identified as coming from the United States\" he said. Ferriz said that during a recent raid, local police confiscated two .50-caliber military-style rifles. Some weeks later they arrested another man bringing in another .50-caliber rifle. \"He bought it off the internet in the U.S.,\" Ferrez said. \"It is so easy there for organized crime to get access to these types of weapons. The arms and cash contraband into Mexico from the United States must be stopped.\" Ferriz siad he plans to travel next week to Washington to meet with U.S. lawmakers about the security situation in and around Juarez.","highlights":"Nine bodies found are found in a common grave near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico .\nBodies of seven men and two women have not been identified, authorities say .\nCity has become major front in drug cartels' wars among selves, with authorities .","id":"092ba6b6f529f751f3068281fa4e3693da8554c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The power of the Mexican military was on full display Tuesday in Ciudad Juarez, where police reported the third consecutive day without a drug slaying. A federal police officer guards a checkpoint earlier this month in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico . Ten drug-related killings in a single day were common before 9,500 army troops poured into the blood-soaked border town in the past few weeks, said Mauricio Mauricio, a spokesman for the Juarez municipal police. \"It's a much more secure city at this moment,\" he said. \"We haven't had murders with the same regularity and frequency as before.\" But as President Obama's administration announced plans Tuesday to beef up U.S. security along its border with Mexico, there are questions about whether increased military and police efforts in both nations can yield long-term results. Mexico has been spiraling into a deepening pit of violence, with 6,500 people killed in 2008 and the body count continuing apace this year. Most of that violence is occurring along the border, which worries Washington. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others have said recently that the United States must share responsibility because the demand for drugs and most of the weapons used by drug cartels comes from north of the border. The drug war and security will be a major topic when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday. Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, called Obama's pledge on Tuesday to give $700 million in aid to Mexico and assign an additional 360 staff along the border a \"substantive commitment\" that shows the United States is serious about attacking the problem. \"It's an attempt to really put some substance behind the idea of shared responsibility,\" Selee said. \"They finally committed some of the resources they said they would to this.\" Success will depend on the follow-through, he said. \"Now is the hard part,\" he said. \"It's not easy to follow the money trail or stop the weapons or the criminal networks.\" Others say the Obama plan falls short. Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy institute, calls it a \"militarized strategy\" that isn't oriented toward finding solutions based on economic development or social justice programs. \"This is a feel-good strategy that is meant to produce the illusion of concrete developments taking place when it's actually just really more of the same,\" Birns said. \"You're talking about a 2,000-mile border, so the odd 16 [agents] here or 12 there is not going to do the trick.\" On the other hand, Mexico's major military commitment is certainly showing short-term benefits. Before the army arrived in Ciudad Juarez, there had been more than 400 drug killings this year, police spokesman Mauricio said. Since the army arrived, slayings have dropped 95 percent, he said. Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute, says Mexico's use of the army in Juarez -- and its evident success -- \"shows that Mexico is definitely not a failed state. Nobody is going to challenge the government for control of a certain area.\" Selee sees it as \"increased determination from the Mexican government to establish order.\" But there are limitations to using the military in Mexico, Birns and Hakim said. \"There's bad blood that exists between local communities and the military,\" said Birns. \"The Mexican military has not fought a war for years. It's enemy has always been the local population.\" Hakim noted the cost in money, and to the daily fabric of life. \"That's not a cheap way of keeping law and order,\" he said. \"It does a great deal of harm to civilian institutions. The military is not trained to respect human liberties and individual rights.\" It's an ambivalence that many Mexicans feel: security versus liberties. Polls consistently show that security is the top concern among a vast majority of Mexicans. And for many Mexican citizens, the drug war can still hit close to home no matter how far away they live from the front lines. Adrian Jesus Garrido Gomez, a 30-year-old bank loan officer with a wife and two young sons, lives in Tabasco state in southern Mexico, far from the violence tearing up Juarez and other border cities. \"Tabasco has always been relatively safe,\" Garrido said by telephone Tuesday. He said a childhood friend worked for 2\u00bd years in a high-paying white-collar job in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. When he got married recently, his wife had one request: Let's move back to Tabasco. They did, six months ago. \"For them, it (was) very insecure,\" Garrido said. Reynosa was the site of a four-hour gun battle last month that left five drug traffickers dead and seven police wounded. People worldwide saw video of a television reporter sprawled on a bridge during that fight, trying to file an on-air report over the roar of gunfire. Hakim says Mexican President Calderon's efforts to paint the United States as partially responsible for the violence is lost on some Mexicans. \"In the end,\" Hakim said, \"this is Mexico's problem as much as Mexico talks about a shared problem. The costs of not getting control of it will be paid by the Mexicans.\"","highlights":"Police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, reported third straight day without a drug slaying .\nQuestions remain about whether increased security efforts can work long term .\nPolls consistently show security is top concern among vast majority of Mexicans .\nDistrust of military has long been part of social fabric of Mexican life .","id":"466c83e0fd25bf36af78fc23befe88befdfc26b8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the Bush administration's economic record, the invasion of Iraq and the treatment of suspected terrorists, warning that reversing its anti-terrorism policies endangers Americans. \"We've accomplished nearly everything we set out to do,\" ex-Vice President Dick Cheney says Sunday about Iraq. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's \"State of the Union,\" Cheney said the harsh interrogations of suspects and the use of warrantless electronic surveillance were \"absolutely essential\" to get information to prevent more attacks like the 2001 suicide hijackings that targeted New York and Washington. \"President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,\" he said. Critics said the Bush administration's \"alternative\" interrogation techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody, while the administration's warrantless surveillance program violated federal laws enacted after the Watergate scandal. Since taking office in January, Obama has announced plans to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to halt the military trials of suspected terrorists there, and to make CIA officers follow the Army field manual's rules on interrogations. Cheney said the administration appears to be returning to the pre-2001 model of treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue, rather than a military problem. \"When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they're doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth ... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks,\" he said. But Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, said the Bush administration's policies undercut \"what is actually the source of America's greatness -- our principles.\" \"How can we say that keeping a man in a black hole forever -- perpetually in a black hole -- and saying, 'Let's torture when we decide to,' is what America stands for?\" asked Sestak, a former admiral who led the Navy's anti-terrorism efforts. The Bush administration took office at the end of an economic boom and left in the middle of a deep recession, with a budget surplus in 2001 becoming a $1 trillion-plus deficit by 2009. But Cheney said he and Bush had to spend money to deal with the September 11, 2001 attacks, the resulting war in Afghanistan, the disaster of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and the costly and unpopular war in Iraq, now nearly six years old. \"All of these things required us to spend money that we had not originally planned to spend, or weren't originally part of the budget,\" Cheney said. \"Stuff happens. And the administration has to be able to respond to that, and we did.\" Obama has begun to wind down the war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4,200 American lives and nearly $700 billion in direct costs. But Cheney said the United States has \"accomplished nearly everything we set out to do\" in Iraq, including establishing a democratic government in the Middle East. Cheney was one of the administration's leading advocates of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, pressing the Bush administration's argument that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction and could provide those weapons to terrorists. None of those weapons were found after the invasion, but Cheney said, \"We've eliminated that possibility.\" In 2005, Cheney said the raging insurgency against U.S. troops was in its \"last throes.\" Nearly two years later, a commitment of more than 30,000 additional American troops and a widespread effort to pay former insurgents to turn against Islamic militants helped quell the worst of the violence. \"I don't hear much talk about that, but the fact is, the violence level is down 90 percent,\" Cheney said. \"The number of casualties [among] Iraqis and Americans is significantly diminished. There's been elections, a constitution. They're about to have another presidential election here in the near future. We have succeeded in creating in the heart of the Middle East a democratically governed Iraq, and that is a big deal, and it is, in fact, what we set out to do.\" But Sestak said the administration was too slow to react to the problems it faced in Iraq and let the conflict overshadow the \"whole fabric\" of U.S. national security. \"The cost of this war is something that I strongly believe has far, far hurt us,\" he said. \"We're going to recover, because we're Americans. But Iraq was just one piece of our security, and this administration failed to realize that.\" Though considered one of the administration's most influential figures, Cheney said President Bush rebuffed his advice on at least two issues. Watch Cheney tout Bush administration \u00bb . He said Bush left former Cheney aide Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby \"sort of hanging in the wind\" by refusing to issue Libby a pardon before leaving office. Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal agents investigating the leak of a former CIA officer's identity. \"I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that,\" Cheney said. He would disclose no details of his efforts to lobby the president on Libby's behalf, saying they would be \"best left to history.\" And Cheney said he argued against the administration's policy on North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. The Bush administration reached a still-incomplete disarmament deal with the isolated Stalinist state in 2007 and removed it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as part of the deal. \"I had my say,\" Cheney told CNN. \"I got my chance to voice my views and my objections. I didn't think the North Koreans were going to keep their end of the bargain in terms of what they agreed to, and they didn't.\" The Obama administration has nominated Christopher Hill, the State Department official who was the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea, to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Cheney said Hill lacks the Middle East experience that his predecessors have, and \"I did not support the work that Chris Hill did with respect to North Korea.\" \"I think it's a choice that I wouldn't have made,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Cheney: Harsh interrogations, warrantless eavesdropping \"essential\"\nNEW: Former vice president says Bush rebuffed his advice on two big issues .\n\"An administration has to be able to respond to [crises] and we did,\" Cheney said .\nCheney cites costs of dealing with 9\/11 attacks, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .","id":"00128f1ba30d5e9e0f17df83285a1bc2072e2f01"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States shares the blame for Mexican drug trafficking and the attendant violence that has killed thousands in the past year alone, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Mexico for a series of meetings on the drug crisis and other issues. \"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,\" she said en route to Mexico City, Mexico, according to pool reports. \"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians. So, yes, I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility.\" Clinton will meet with President Felipe Calderon and other Mexican leaders to discuss bilateral strategies for the drug war. But her aides said she will also make an effort to show that the U.S.-Mexican relationship is not restricted to matters related to drug violence. As Clinton arrived in the Mexican capital Wednesday, a day after the United States unveiled its plan to improve security along the southern border, the United States' investment in the drug war emerged as a predominant theme. Watch Clinton acknowledge the U.S. role in Mexico's drug war \u00bb . She emphasized that the United States has already appropriated $700 million in aid to Mexico, and Congress wants to see how the administration is applying it before sending more. \"We are going to demonstrate that we are spending it in an accountable and effective manner that will assist the Mexicans\" in law enforcement and justice, she said. The United States needs to stop the flow of guns, body armor and night-vision goggles to the cartels, Clinton said. \"When you go into a gunfight or are trying to round up these bad guys and they have military-style equipment that is much better than yours, you start out at a disadvantage. Since we know the vast majority of that comes from our country, we are going to help stop it from getting there in the first place.\" Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, called the Obama administration's willingness to accept co-responsibility \"a very encouraging sign.\" Watch Sarukhan share his thoughts on the U.S. move \u00bb . \"I think that the fact that the Obama administration is seized with the importance of this issue is a clear indication that they understand that, to defang the drug syndicates in Mexico, we have to eliminate two of their most powerful sources -- bulk cash from the United States into Mexico and illicit weapons.\" In most instances, local and state police \"are outgunned by the drug syndicates,\" which has necessitated the use of federal forces, he said. The Mexican army arrested a man Mexico calls a top drug cartel chief and four of his bodyguards, the government announced Wednesday. Hector Huerta Rios, also known as \"La Burra\" or \"El Junior,\" was arrested Tuesday in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia, outside Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state, a little more than 100 miles from Mexico's border with the United States. The Obama administration announced a crackdown on border violence and on the smuggling of cash and weapons into Mexico on Tuesday, a step that could mark an end to a nasty blame game over where responsibility for the violence lies. Clinton called the fighting \"a terrible law-enforcement problem\" in U.S. cities along the Mexican border, but said it does not yet pose a major threat to overall U.S. security. \"This is more about trying to act proactively,\" she said in an interview with CNN's Jill Dougherty in Mexico City. \"We need to help them, or we'll see the results in our own country. \"[Traffickers] are distributing these drugs in our country. They're causing all kinds of criminal activity in our country. It has an effect on us, so we want to prevent it from going any further.\" Clinton will visit a Mexican police base to show U.S. support for the nation's embattled police force. And she will travel to Monterrey, a thriving industrial town, to meet with students, hold a town-hall meeting with business leaders and visit a clean energy plant. The Defense Department and the director of national intelligence have both warned of the national security threat an unstable Mexico poses to the United States. Congress has seized on the issue, holding eight hearings since coming back into session two months ago. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on violence along the U.S.-Mexican border Wednesday. Mexico is the United States' second-largest export market, after Canada, and its third-largest total trade partner. Hundreds of U.S. companies have factories in Mexico, and Mexico is a leading supplier of crude oil to the United States. Clinton noted many Americans have close ties and families in Mexico, adding she honeymooned there. Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder are due to visit Mexico soon, to be followed next month by President Obama, before he attends the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton says fighting does not pose major threat to U.S. security -- yet .\nMexico's U.S. ambassador says willingness to share an \"encouraging sign\"\n\"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,\" Clinton says in Mexico .\nU.S. needs to stop flow of guns, body armor, night-vision goggles to cartels, she says .","id":"7b5fa29cb7ff66d0899d320617982c24536c2ca4"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- He's a TV salesman offering an unbelievable deal -- and police say you don't want to do business with him. Police in Largo, Florida, say \"Plasma Pat\" is really 60-year-old Joseph Wesley Torma. Dubbing himself \"Plasma Pat, the TV Discount Guy,\" he allegedly took cash from Wal-Mart shoppers, promising to use his employee discount to get them a good deal on a TV set, police said. Then, he called the police to taunt them. Police in Largo, Florida, a city near Tampa on the state's gulf coast, circulated security pictures of \"Plasma Pat,\" and now can put a name to the alliterative nickname. Investigators say their suspect is 60-year-old Joseph Wesley Torma, and they've just released a mug shot from a recent arrest in Polk County, Florida. \"He made at least two or three phone calls, and he even talked about surrendering, but he never showed up, obviously,\" said Lt. Michael Loux of the Largo Police department. Police believe \"Plasma Pat\" has conned victims in about a dozen different places in Florida. He allegedly befriended people outside Wal-Mart stores, telling his victims that he worked at the store, and that he could use his employee discount to get them a good deal on a major purchase. Then, police said, he took their cash, walked into the store through one door -- and out another, leaving his victims in the parking lot. One victim found himself out $300 while waiting outside for a television. Largo Police say that Torma also called them several times. asking to speak with Det. Brendan Arlington. Each time he called, police say, Torma identified himself as \"Plasma Pat,\" and bragged that he had cheated about 30,000 people who will never file a police report. \"Because the victims feel embarrassed, he feels that nobody is going to report the crime,\" said Lt. Michael Loux. \"And I think he's probably right.\" Police say they believe that Torma has left the area, and may be headed to Texas, but they have not explained why.","highlights":"Police identify 'Plasma Pat' as Joseph Wesley Torma, age 60 .\nMan offered to use employee discount for strangers, pocketed their cash, police say .\n'Plasma Pat' taunted police, saying he had 30,000 victims .","id":"444884c42c9a83ebcd7f9098c41846127da3cae9"} -{"article":"EL PASO, Texas (CNN) -- The cell phone rang as Jorge Aguirre walked to a friend's funeral in Juarez, Mexico, last November -- a funeral for a fellow journalist who, Aguirre says, was assassinated for the critical stories he wrote. Mexican federal police recently began patrolling Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas. When he answered the phone, Aguirre heard a profanity-laced threat. \"They told me I was next,\" Aguirre told CNN. \"I thought they were going to kill me right there.\" Aguirre immediately gathered up his family and darted across the border into El Paso, Texas. He hasn't returned to Juarez since that day. Aguirre is seeking asylum in the United States, and he's part of a growing trend among Mexican citizens looking to escape the violence and corruption of their homeland. Watch journalists met with death threats \u00bb . According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency that falls under the Department of Homeland Security, the number of Mexican nationals requesting asylum in the United States based on \"credible fear\" has gone up every year since 2003, even as the overall number of \"credible fear\" asylum cases remains steady. In 2003, the USCIS reported 54 asylum cases from Mexican citizens. In 2008, that number reached 312. But asylum requests based on fear of violence aren't easy cases to make. Last year, the United States approved less than half of those cases. \"Whether they're fleeing extortionists or potential kidnappers or they're leaving because of the drug cartels, it tells you there are definitely problems in Mexico right now,\" said El Paso Mayor John Cook. Those seeking asylum come from every walk of life. There are journalists, entrepreneurs and even law enforcement officials, including three police chiefs. For Raymond Cobos, the sheriff in Luna County, New Mexico, this is the most disturbing revelation. Just across the Mexican border is a dusty, far-flung outpost called Palomas, a speck of a town that's a popular path for drug trafficking and human smuggling. It's also been the site of wild gunbattles between cops and the cartels. The cartels outgunned the police force, and the police chief disappeared and sought asylum in the United States. It's not clear where his case stands or where the police chief is today. \"I don't know what I would do. It's pretty hard to fight that type of situation by yourself -- if you're in an environment that you don't know from one day to the next if someone's going to knock on your door and blast your family away,\" Cobos said. Emilio Gutierrez is another journalist hiding in El Paso. He wrote stories critical of the Mexican government for a small newspaper in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua, which shares a border with Texas and New Mexico. Watch cops say U.S. teens were cartel hit men \u00bb . Last May, Gutierrez says men dressed in Mexican military fatigues raided his home in the middle of the night. He was told they were looking for drugs and weapons. A month later, a friend called, frantically urging him to hide. Gutierrez grabbed his family, drove to El Paso and requested asylum. He spent seven months in a U.S. jail as his case moved through the immigration system. He's recently been allowed to leave the jail while his request is pending. He's now in hiding in El Paso. \"The fear never ends,\" Gutierrez told CNN. \"We're scared for our families that are still on the other side, and we're scared for ourselves.\" Gutierrez and Aguirre offer a chilling perspective on everyday life in areas of Mexico that are consumed with violence and corruption. They describe a situation that has left ordinary citizens unable to trust anyone in positions of authority. \"Thousands of families are in danger of being killed,\" Aguirre said. \"They're vulnerable because they can't go to the police for help because that might get them killed.\"","highlights":"Number of Mexicans seeking asylum in U.S. on the rise .\nJournalist says his stories have put him in harm's way: \"They told me I was next\"\nPolice chief from nearby Palomas, Mexico, has disappeared amid violence .","id":"cae6ae56690280dbd787bf694e000b3095751bea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 2,000 students in Southern California laid 65 miles of pennies on a speedway track Thursday in an attempt to set a world record and help schools in the area. Mason Gonzalez is ready with pennies. Dodgers tickets were prizes for collecting the most pennies. THINK (Teaching, Helping, Inspiring & Nurturing Kids) Together didn't meet its original goal of laying out 100 miles of pennies at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, but group spokeswoman Nadia Flores said the group is happy with the results. \"We raised twice what we were able to lay down,\" she said. \"I think the energy and the vibe from having so many kids and volunteers present made it really fun.\" Flores said the group ran out of time in its attempt to get all 100 miles laid out, but she added that they're confident they have the record anyway. Guinness World Records, which would certify the record, said Thursday it had not yet received documentation from the group. The current record for pennies laid out is 40 miles. The money -- about $84,500 -- will go to the nonprofit program that provides free after-school care for students at more than 200 elementary and middle schools in at-risk communities in four California counties -- Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino. Flores said the idea for \"Miles of Change\" came after group members saw students at a school in Kansas make a 40-mile chain of pennies in July 2008 to set the world record. Flores said her group, based in Santa Ana, California, wanted a program that would unite the counties involved -- and set a record. The pennies were collected by 35,000 students in the after-school program and were laid in loops around the two-mile track in Fontana, California. Flores said every penny must be touching the next penny in order to qualify for the Guinness world record. Documentation will include aerial photos, she said. Each student took home tubes to collect the pennies. Students who collected the most got tickets to future Los Angeles Dodgers games, Flores said. The effort also is meant to honor Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday and the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Lincoln penny.","highlights":"Southern California students want to break 40-mile world record set in Kansas .\n$84,500 collected will go to program that provides free after-school care .\nMore than 2,000 kids lay out loops at speedway track .\nGuinness World Records will verify if record was set .","id":"9bca7481982223a4ac82c28d19557f83a6b05399"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Organs donated by a slain Oakland, California, police officer saved four lives, and his donated tissue will enhance the lives of up to 50 others, the California Transplant Donor Network said Wednesday. Officer John Hege was one of four police officers fatally shot Saturday in Oakland, California. Officer John Hege, 41, was pronounced brain dead on Sunday but was kept on life support pending a decision on organ donation. He was the fourth Oakland officer to die after a gunman fired on police in two weekend incidents. \"Officer Hege was registered on the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Registry, which his family also supports,\" the donor network said in a news release. \"He chose in death as he did in life to help those in need. His organ donations saved the lives of four adult males from California.\" Hege's liver, kidneys and heart were donated, the network said, and the transplants were successfully completed Tuesday and early Wednesday. In a written statement, Hege's family said, \"Our son John never met a stranger.\" \"John's courage and strength was enhanced by his ability to perceive the realities of life,\" the family said in the statement. \"In June 2008, he registered on the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. We completely and proudly support his decision, and it gives us a great deal of comfort to know that four individuals have received the gift of life because of our selfless and beloved John. \"Even in death he gave to the lives of those in our community whom he had always loved and supported.\" Hege had been with the Oakland police force about 10 years. The man accused of shooting the officers -- Lovelle Mixon, 26, of Oakland -- was fatally shot in a gun battle with SWAT officers in an apartment complex where he was hiding, police said. Authorities said Saturday night that Mixon had an extensive criminal history and was in violation of parole for assault with a deadly weapon. The incidents began about 1 p.m. Saturday in east Oakland, when two motorcycle officers tried to pull over a car for a \"fairly routine traffic stop,\" said Dave Kozicki, deputy police chief. Emergency dispatchers received reports that two officers had been shot and needed help, he said. Those officers were Hege and Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, an 18-year veteran of the force. Dunakin died Saturday. Police launched an intense manhunt to track down the gunman. An anonymous caller directed authorities to a building on an adjacent street where the man was believed to be barricaded, acting Police Chief Howard Jordan said. The gunman fired on SWAT officers who entered the apartment, hitting two of them before police shot and killed the man, Jordan said. Those two officers -- Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35 -- died. Police said Romans had been with the department since 1996 and Sakai since 2000. A fifth officer who was grazed by a bullet was treated at a hospital and released, police spokesman Jeff Thomason said Saturday.","highlights":"John Hege, three other Oakland police officers fatally wounded over weekend .\nOfficer was brain dead Sunday, kept on life support pending organ decision .\nHege's organs saved lives of four men, donor network says .\nHege's family: Knowing donations helped others \"gives us a great deal of comfort\"","id":"0e844818ee0ed490830cb401886d90714d98f738"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. Navy submarine and a Navy amphibious ship that collided Friday in the Strait of Hormuz south of Iran have arrived in Bahrain to be assessed for damage, the Navy said. The submarine USS Hartford and amphibious ship USS New Orleans are shown in Navy photos. The submarine USS Hartford and amphibious ship USS New Orleans arrived Saturday in Mina Salman pier to \"to further assess and evaluate the damage that resulted from their collision at sea,\" the service said in a written statement. Fifteen sailors were slightly hurt aboard the Hartford in the collision, which occurred early Friday morning. On Friday, Navy officials in Washington told CNN that there was significant damage to the sail, or tower-like structure on the topside of the submarine. On Saturday, the Navy said there was no damage to the submarine's propulsion unit. No injuries were reported aboard the New Orleans. The ship's fuel tank ruptured, spilling 25,000 gallons of marine diesel fuel in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy said in the Saturday statement. \"Aerial searches of the area where the fuel spill occurred were conducted yesterday, and revealed no indication of any remaining fuel on the ocean's surface,\" the Navy said. \"The quick dissipation of the fuel is likely due to the type of fuel, and various environmental factors to include air and water temperatures, winds and seas.\" When the collision occurred, both vessels were headed to ports in the Persian Gulf to stock up on provisions and allow for some recreation, Navy spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said Friday. Christensen said there were about 200 sailors in the sub and 1,000 sailors and Marines aboard the ship. The Strait of Hormuz is located between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, linking the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. It is heavily used by oil tankers. Both vessels are on regularly scheduled deployments to the U.S. Navy Central Command area of responsibility, and conduct Maritime Security Operations.","highlights":"Vessels in Bahrain \"to further assess and evaluate the damage,\" says Navy .\nUSS Hartford, USS New Orleans collided near Arabian Peninsula .\n15 sailors on Hartford slightly injured .\nFuel tank on New Orleans ruptured, spilling 25,000 gallons of fuel .","id":"3e31c7cf60506eb659f8e9e175c6f4579b7f8249"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the test pilot, the Air Force said. An F-22A fighter jet similar to this one crashed Wednesday during a test mission in California. The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) for unknown reasons, Air Force officials said. Lockheed Martin said the test pilot, David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, joined the company in 2003 and was a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release. At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter. In 2004, an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert. The pilot ejected and was not hurt, though the jet was destroyed. The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike. Once the Cold War ended, the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival. However, the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program, which was almost eliminated by Congress. In the end, the aircraft survived, and most of the problems were fixed -- except for the price tag, which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft.","highlights":"NEW: Test pilot David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, dies in crash .\nF-22A fighter jet crashes 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB around 10:30 a.m.\nThe one-seater jet was on a test mission when it crashed .\nAt $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter .","id":"cd76fdc5cc9db3d1ed8cba6c2c95718cf496d4f2"} -{"article":"FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- Forecasters issued flash flood warnings for Bismarck and surrounding areas Wednesday, as volunteers rushed to fill sandbags ahead of expected record floods in the flat state of North Dakota. Explosives are set off in the Missouri River on Wednesday to break up ice jams. Areas of three counties -- Morton, Emmons and Burleigh, which includes the North Dakota capital of Bismarck -- were under a flash flood warning until 12:30 p.m. CT (1:30 p.m. ET), the National Weather Service said. In an effort to alleviate the flooding, demolition crews blew up an ice jam Wednesday evening south of Bismarck, according to CNN affiliate KXMB. Mayor John Warford said that water appeared to be moving more freely in the Missouri River after the explosives were set off, KXMB reported. The plan is make sure water continues flow through the river channel and not spread out over land. Ice jams in rivers have been a major factor in the flooding there. Most of the state, which endured a particularly harsh winter, remained under a flood warning Wednesday, with forecasters predicting possibly record flood levels on several rivers. Snow, which continued to fall Wednesday, complicated preparations, city officials said. \"I woke up this morning and looked outside, I guess I thought of the same thing everybody else did. ... [What] came to mind is what a revolting development this is,\" said Mark Voxland, the mayor of Moorhead, Minnesota, a city just outside of Fargo. Watch flooded fields of snow \u00bb . More than 1,000 people were evacuated from an area near Bismarck on Tuesday night as the Missouri River flooded, Rick Robinson of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services said Wednesday. See a map of the affected area \u00bb . Emergency officials said they were particularly concerned about the Red River, which snakes through eastern portions of North and South Dakota and western Minnesota. The river is expected to crest between 39 and 41 feet in Fargo on Friday, according to Cecily Fong of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. The record for the Red River at Fargo was set in 1897 at 40.1 feet, according to Pat Slattery of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The threat of flooding prompted authorities to ask for volunteers to fill sandbags either to build temporary dikes or to bolster existing ones. In some areas, even at 3:30 a.m., hundreds of volunteers packed into individual sandbagging centers, an organizer said. See images of flooding, preparation \u00bb . \"There have been so many volunteers that we had to turn people away,\" said Ryan McEwan, a supervisor at one volunteer coordinating center. \"It is very busy. They are filling sandbags as fast as they can.\" As of late Tuesday, Fargo residents and out-of-town volunteers had filled more than 1 million sandbags out of the needed 2 million. Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said he hoped that goal would be met by Thursday. Fargo's mayor, Dennis Walaker, said Wednesday that his city was about 95 percent prepared for the flooding, which is expected later in the week. \"I went and looked at the dikes this morning, and they're significant, absolutely significant,\" he said in a briefing Wednesday morning. However, he said, \"We have some areas we need to shore up.\" Just south of Fargo, authorities said they had rescued several people in Oxbow, a town of about 238 people, after a residential dike gave way. In some places, water had reached halfway up residents' basement stairs, and in others, it had reached the main level of homes, Sgt. Gail Wichmann said. CNN's Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ice jam in Missouri River blown up, CNN affiliate KXMB reports .\nBismarck, surrounding areas threatened; snow complicates preparations .\nFargo halfway to 2 million-sandbag goal, which may be met Thursday .\nSouth of Fargo, town residents rescued after residential dike gives way .","id":"08b1319d7a00848a21f3f90f8e2ee5e35d0b83cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano unveiled a $700 million plan on Tuesday to help Mexico fight violent drug cartels, which includes a U.S. crackdown on the flow of weapons and money into Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the DHS plan will address demand and border security. The move sets the stage for visits to Mexico by three administration Cabinet members, starting tomorrow with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an effort to stem drug-related violence and prevent it from spilling into the United States. CNN's Kyra Phillips spoke with Napolitano on Tuesday about the United States' involvement in the Mexican government's war against drug cartels and the United States' stake in the conflict. Kyra Phillips: Well, I want to get right to it because we'll never be able to defeat the drug lords until our own demand for drugs here in the U.S. is curbed. I mean, it is our consumption in the U.S. that fuels the drug lord production. So, what are you going to do to decrease that demand? Janet Napolitano: Well, the whole package we announced today is not only about enforcement and stopping the flow of drugs into the United States and helping Mexico against these very brutal cartels, but it includes money for more drug courts and reduction in demand. So, we look forward to working on the demand side as well as the supply side, but I'll tell you, where the Department of Homeland Security is concerned, it's all about border safety and security and making sure that spillover violence does not erupt in our own country. Phillips: We're talking about more than 200 cities, cities that we'd never think of, like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Sioux Falls [South Dakota]. I mean, what about the people right now that are dealing with sexual abuse, murder, house invasions, kidnapping? Napolitano: That's right. What is happening, for those who don't live on the border, is that there are some large drug cartels. They're old. They've been in Mexico for a long time, but they've gotten larger and more powerful. The president of Mexico has said, enough. And he is really going after those cartels. We've been clamping down on the land border, so the cartels simultaneously are fighting each other over ever-diminishing turf and they're fighting the federal government of Mexico. And that's what's caused 6,000 homicides in Mexico -- northern Mexico last year -- 550 of which were law enforcement or public officials who were assassinated by the cartels. But the cartels got so big and powerful because they were bringing tonnage loads of cocaine and other illegal drugs into our country, and their organizations ultimately went to supply those who are using illegal drugs in places like Sheboygan and places -- other places where you wouldn't think of having any connection with these big cartels. Their fingers were everywhere. We want to shut those cartels down. Phillips: Well, there are a lot of leaders here in the United States that say it's been -- we've helped those cartels. We've actually helped fuel the problem. And if you look at [Sen.] Dick Durbin [D-Illinois], chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, he said the drugs are coming north, and we're sending money and guns south. And as a result, these cartels have gained extraordinary power. And he also added, about 90 percent of guns seized in Mexican raids are traced back to the United States, About 2,000 firearms cross the border into Mexico daily. Napolitano: Well, it's a significant number of the guns used in this wave of violence in northern Mexico absolutely come from the United States. That's why part of our plan is increasing the number of agents who are going to inspect southbound vehicles. That's why we're sending technology to the border that will allow us to scan or do noninvasive X-rays to see whether cars are carrying assault weapons, other kinds of weapons that are now flowing into Mexico to fuel these drug cartels. And to find these huge truckloads, basically, of cash that are garnered in the United States and sent to Mexico. This is a strategy that we are -- have used in certain places. Now we're employing it border wide. Phillips: So, Madam Secretary, let me ask you about the military. For example, we've covered the city of Juarez, Mexico. You know how bad of a place that has been. Brutal murders, sexual abuse against women, people being beheaded, kidnapped. I mean, just ruthless cartel activity. And what did Mexico do? They took 5,000 military troops, 1,200 federal police officers and just about bombarded Juarez. And so, now they've seen a drop in these drug-related killings. It's sort of like what we saw in Iraq, you know, putting in troop surges into certain areas, and you saw a drop in violence. Would you ever consider doing something like that, getting the military involved and saying, OK, we can't take this anymore, we've got to do something drastic or it won't work? Napolitano: Well, obviously, the violence problem in Juarez was of a different quality and kind than anything we've seen in the United States. And it really did demand that kind of response by the federal government in Mexico. We have contingency plans on the United States side. And we're still evaluating a request that we do send some National Guard to some of the border areas. We're still looking at that. But you know, that clampdown in Mexico, in Juarez in particular, was really called for. The homicide situation there was out of control. Phillips: Let's talk about Gil Kerlikowske, the former Seattle [Washington] police chief. [President] Obama has selected him to be the drug czar for all of you. He hasn't been confirmed yet. But what does he know about dealing with cartels who have mastered kidnapping and beheadings and are using grenades and other forms of firepower, quite frankly, that is far greater than a lot of police forces we have in the U.S.? Napolitano: Well, he's a police chief, and police chiefs know a lot about a lot of different things. And as you yourself pointed out, these drug cartels have fingers that reach all over the United States, including into communities like Seattle. So, he'll come into that job, assuming he's confirmed, with a knowledge base, and also a knowledge base about what the use of illegal drugs is doing to people, does to families, does to our neighborhoods, our communities. That's why we need to work on the demand side as well as the supply side through these cartels. Phillips: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, we'll definitely follow your efforts. Appreciate your time. Napolitano: Thank you so much.","highlights":"Strategy aimed at preventing spillover violence, says chief of Homeland Security .\nNapolitano says plan includes money for programs to help reduce demand for drugs .\nAgents will inspect southbound vehicles for weapons entering Mexico, she says .\nU.S. evaluating whether to send National Guard to border areas in U.S., she says .","id":"2b51cc7290072a70b029d90cd57490ad6017eb36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, the Southern California woman who gave birth to octuplets in January, has fired a nonprofit group of nurses charged with helping care for her children, CNN affiliate KTLA has reported. Nadya Suleman, mother of octuplets and six other children, fired a free nursing team, says a CNN affiliate. Suleman accused the nurses, from a group called Angels in Waiting, of spying on her to report her to child-welfare authorities, the affiliate reported Monday. The group was working for free, the affiliate said. Suleman instead will rely on nurses whom she is paying, Suleman's attorney said. She now has four of the octuplets at home, along with her six other children. The other octuplets remain in a hospital, which is discharging them two at a time to ease the adjustment. Suleman -- already a single mother with six young children -- gave birth to the octuplets through in-vitro fertilization, fueling controversy. News of her collecting public assistance for some of her children also outraged many taxpayers. She has not identified the father of the children, but spoke about him in a new video released on RadarOnline.com. Watch Suleman describe donor \u00bb . He is a foreign-born man who lives in California and is the father of all 14 of her children, Suleman said. The man was angry when she told him that she was having eight more children, she said. \"He was angry at the doctor, like everyone else,\" Suleman said. \"He is a good friend -- a platonic friend. We would not be very compatible. As far as I am concerned, I would never disclose who he is.\" At one point in the video, a child's voice can be heard asking Suleman the man's name. She did not answer.","highlights":"Nadya Suleman: Nurses spying on her to report her to child-welfare authorities .\nShe now has four of the octuplets at home, along with her six other children .\nSuleman instead will rely on nurses whom she is paying .","id":"24cfb82696e61a8c029486e1b4ef4899bac4cd7e"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Melting glaciers in the Alps may prompt Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders near the Matterhorn, according to parliamentary draft legislation being readied in Rome. Glaciers in the Alps near the Matterhorn are receding, forcing the border to be redrawn. Franco Narducci of Italy's opposition Democratic Party is preparing a bill to redefine the frontier with neighboring Switzerland, his office said Wednesday. Narducci is a member of the foreign affairs panel in Italy's lower Chamber of Deputies. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has authorized the bill. Switzerland also has cooperated with Italy on the matter. The Italian Military Geographic Institute says climate change is responsible for the Alpine glaciers melting. \"This draft law is born out the necessity to revise and verify the frontiers given the changes in climate and atmosphere,\" Narducci said. \"The 1941 convention between Italy and Switzerland established as criteria [for border revisions] the ridge [crest] of the glaciers. Following the withdrawal of the glaciers in the Alps, a new criterion has been proposed so that the new border coincides with the rock.\" The border change only affects uninhabited mountaintop terrain. The deputy excludes the possibility of any family having to change citizenship. The border between Italy and Switzerland was fixed 1861, when Italy became a nation, but it has been occasionally modified, the Military Geographic Institute said. The border was last modified in the 1970s when the Switzerland-Italy highway was built at the Brogeda crossing. The bill is expected to become law by the end of April, Narducci said. Unlike Switzerland, Italy can change its border only with new laws approved by parliament. Narducci said the same negotiation will be proposed to France and Austria . \"Once upon a time, the border line demarcation between two nations was synonymous to war and bloodshed,\" he said. \"Instead , today we proceed with photograms.\"","highlights":"Melting glaciers in Alps forcing Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders .\nItalian Military Geographic Institute blames climate change for melting .\nSwitzerland cooperating with Italians on potential changes .","id":"40a798e654eca15889381caef7a3780ee8bf7956"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A firefighter in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was arrested Monday in connection with two recent arson incidents, authorities said. Coatesville has recorded more than 20 arson cases in 2009. Robert Tracey is held in two of the fires. Robert Tracey, 37, was taken into custody Monday afternoon for allegedly setting two fires Friday night, Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll said. Coatesville has been hit by a string of arsons in recent months and although the arson task force investigating those cases made Monday's arrest, officials did not link the arrest to any other arson cases. The criminal complaint against Tracey lists nine charges stemming from a fire set to a homeowner's porch swing and a fire set in another homeowner's trash can. The fires, both Friday night, were extinguished before any serious damage was done, authorities said. No injuries were reported. Carroll said eyewitness accounts, including descriptions of the suspect's clothes, helped lead to the arrest. Carroll said the arrest of a firefighter was \"extremely troubling.\" He said the arson task force is working diligently to solve the arson cases and that \"there is no more important investigation\" to his office. On January 23, Tracey, who was then an assistant chief of volunteer firefighters in Coatesville, told CNN affiliate WPVI that fighting multiple fires was \"really taxing the fire department.\" Tracey recently became a paid firefighter with the department, according to Carroll. Tracey was jailed with bond set at $2 million, Carroll said. He is expected to be arraigned March 30, according to Carroll. Tracey is the third person arrested this year in connection with arsons in Coatesville, which has recorded more than 20 arson cases so far in 2009.","highlights":"Robert Tracey, 37, arrested for allegedly setting two fires Friday night .\nString of arsons investigated in Coatesville; Tracey not linked to others .\nTracey recently became a paid firefighter with Coatesville department .","id":"1c6880a268805ccad0cedf1dcd6d5f0d412a2fc7"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Imagine the Batmobile busting bad guys in Bismarck, North Dakota, or \"Knight Rider's\" KITT corralling criminals on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Carbon Motors Corp.'s E7 concept vehicle was on display recently near the U.S. Capitol. Carbon Motors Corp.'s new high-tech cop car prototype might not be quite up to superhero specs, but some police say it could be a welcome addition to their arsenal. \"I don't see any downside to this car,\" said Carl Latorre, a Pennsylvania State Police dispatcher who served 35 years as a Philadelphia police officer. \"I am so excited about this car. This car rates up there with cops carrying automatic weapons to combat what the criminals carry now. It's about time that something like this came about.\" OK, so it doesn't have a nanotech cloaking capability or rocket boosters, but every feature on the Carbon E7 concept vehicle draws on suggestions from more than 3,000 law enforcement professionals. The result is a futuristic prowler with a 300-horsepower clean diesel engine, flashing lights visible from all angles, an ergonomic cockpit, an onboard computer with voice command and instant license plate recognition, integrated shotgun mounts, and more. (Weapons of mass destruction detectors are available as an option -- seriously.) See how the E7 stacks up against KITT and the Dark Knight's Tumbler \u00bb . The E7 was designed by cops for cops, breaking the tradition of recruiting family sedans into the force, company co-founder Stacy Dean Stephens said. \"The current vehicles that they (police departments) use were designed for driving around, going to the grocery store, taking kids to school -- things like that,\" Stephens said. \"You don't have an engineer sitting at one of the other automakers who says, 'Y'know, I think what we need to do is we need to take this car, and we need to run into a curb at 50 miles an hour and see how many times it takes before the wheels and the suspension fails on it.\" The rear passenger compartment alone is enough to make experienced cops get teary-eyed. The rear-hinged \"suicide doors\" make it easier for handcuffed passengers to get in and out, and the seat is designed so \"guests\" can ride comfortably with their hands cuffed behind their backs. For officer safety, Latorre likes how the seat belts are anchored in the center of the seat and buckle near the door so the officer doesn't have to lean across the prisoner. \"When you put a prisoner in the back seat, you're supposed to strap him in,\" Latorre said. \"Nowadays, you have to make sure your gun isn't going close to his hands, and how are you going to strap somebody in doing that?\" Perhaps most popular among cops is the rear compartment, which is sealed off from the front and made entirely of seamless, washable plastic, with drain plugs in the floor. \"Numerous times I've had less than pleasant experience\" with prisoners vomiting or relieving themselves in the back seat, said Stephens, a former Texas police officer. The seat innovations are up front, too, where the seats have recesses to accommodate officers' bulky gun belts. \"The front seat -- I couldn't believe the front seat. They thought of everything,\" Latorre said. \"You don't know how difficult it is to get out of a car. The first thing you've got to do is adjust your gun belt. The gun belt shouldn't be a problem.\" The E7 can go 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, has a top speed of 155 mph and can withstand a 75-mph rear impact, according to the company's Web site. It has bullet-resistant panels in the doors and dash and has push bumpers incorporated into the aluminum frame. The upper flashing lights are integrated into the roof panel, eliminating the need for a bolted-on light bar that causes aerodynamic drag -- reducing fuel economy -- and can lead to rust. Watch police check out the car and hear the engine growl \u00bb . Despite the technological \"wow\" factor and officer enthusiasm, the E7 could prove to be a tough sell. \"The people are very intelligent and smart that are setting this up,\" said Lt. Michael Arnold, fleet manager of the Bismarck, North Dakota, police department. \"What scares me is they don't give you a price.\" Company officials say the price -- possibly around $50,000 per unit -- will be \"competitive\" considering the cost of equipping a conventional car for police work and how long each vehicle lasts. The Carbon E7 will be built to last 250,000 miles, compared with 75,000 to 120,000 miles for the typical patrol car, Stephens said. \"When it's all said and done it's a matter of how much it costs per mile,\" said Bismarck Deputy Chief Fred Wooten. Regardless of how good it looks on paper, a state or big-city agency won't be willing to take a chance on a vehicle with no track record, said Detective Mary Wheat, spokesperson for the Portland, Oregon, police department. \"If they do cost $50,000, nobody's going to buy them,\" Wheat said. \"Nobody's going to buy them. No, police agencies can't afford $50,000 cars. We have huge fleets of cars. We have hundreds of them; hundreds and hundreds of cars. And we turn them over. I mean, we ride them hard. Those cars are used on a 24-hour basis. That wouldn't work.\" But municipalities don't balk at paying large sums for other purpose-built vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances, countered Latorre, the Pennsylvania officer. \"They don't say, 'Oh, here's a box truck; go fight fires with it' or 'Here's an E-250 cargo van; go pick up patients with it,' do they?,\" he said. \"So I don't see why the municipality wouldn't say, 'You know what? This [police car] is nothing but a plus for us.'\" The company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, doesn't yet have a factory, but has named five states where it could locate: Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina. Production is scheduled to begin in 2012, Stephens said. Carbon doesn't expect to take over the market quickly, instead counting on a few \"early adopters\" willing to take a risk on a few vehicles and work out the kinks to everyone else's satisfaction, Stephens said. Hundreds of agencies already have made online reservations for thousands of Carbon Motors vehicles, putting the company \"very well on our way to selling out our first year,\" he said. Wheat praised the Carbon team's entrepreneurship and suggested the company market its car first in smaller towns with less red tape and simpler bidding processes. That works for Wooten, the deputy chief in Bismarck. \"We'll be more than happy to field test one,\" he offered. \"If it works as advertised, we'll probably have a fleet of them someday.\"","highlights":"Carbon Motors' E7 prototype is not your father's Crown Victoria .\nVehicle designed bumper to bumper by cops, for cops .\nCar features high-performance engine, integrated gadgets, ergonomic cockpit .\nWhether governments will buy it is the big unanswered question .","id":"ffaa717f0fb02cdaaade105690405247d1c8007f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Connie and Donald McCracken were watching CNN one evening last week when they learned of the tragic death of actress Natasha Richardson from a head injury. Immediately, their minds turned to their 7-year-old daughter, Morgan, who was upstairs getting ready for bed. An injured Morgan McCracken has benefited from awareness after Natasha Richardson's death. Two days earlier, Morgan, her father, and brother had been playing baseball in the yard of their Mentor, Ohio, home when her father hit a line drive that landed just above Morgan's left temple. A lump formed, but the McCrackens iced it down and the swelling subsided within an hour. \"For the next two days, she was perfectly fine,\" Donald McCracken says. \"She had no symptoms. She went to school both days and got an A on her spelling test as usual. There were no issues whatsoever.\" But after hearing about Richardson's death, the McCrackens wondered if Morgan was really as OK as she seemed. After all, Richardson had been talking and lucid immediately after her fatal injury. When they went upstairs to kiss Morgan good night, she complained of a headache. \"Because of Natasha, we called the pediatrician immediately. And by the time I got off the phone with him, Morgan was sobbing, her head hurt so much,\" McCracken says. The McCrackens took Morgan to the emergency room at LakeWest Hospital in neighboring Willoughby, where doctors ordered a CT scan and immediately put Morgan on a helicopter to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, with her father by her side. \"I knew it was bad when she had to get there by helicopter in six minutes, instead of the 30 minutes it would have taken to get to Cleveland in an ambulance,\" McCracken said. When the helicopter arrived at Rainbow, the McCrackens were greeted by Dr. Alan Cohen, the hospital's chief of pediatric neurosurgery. He whisked Morgan into the operating room, pausing for a moment to tell McCracken that his daughter had the same injury as Richardson: an epidural hematoma. McCracken remembers standing in the emergency room, feeling like the life had just been sucked out of him. \"My heart sank,\" he says. \"It just sank.\" Unlike Richardson's, Morgan's story has a happy ending. After surgery and five days in the hospital, she's at home and doing fine. \"Dr. Cohen told us that if we hadn't brought her in Thursday night, she never would have woken up,\" McCracken says. Now the McCrackens sometimes wonder if they waited too long to get Morgan to a doctor. After hearing about Richardson's death, many people are asking themselves the same question: Do all head injuries need attention, even ones that seem minor? \"Sometimes there's a gray zone, and there's no right answer,\" Cohen says. Watch for tips on when to go to the ER \u00bb . In most cases, it's pretty clear when someone needs medical attention after a head injury, says Greg Ayotte, a spokesperson for the Brain Injury Association of America and a cognitive rehabilitation therapist. \"They're confused, they're agitated, or they might be dizzy or unresponsive,\" he says. But then there's what doctors call the \"talk and die\" scenario, where someone seems fine, only to die hours, or sometimes even days later. \"Talk and die\" can happen with several different kinds of brain injuries. In the case of epidural hematomas, the injury Richardson and Morgan had, blood pools in the area between the lining of the brain and the skull. \"Fluid is building up in a contained space, creating pressure. Something's got to give, and that something is the brain,\" Ayotte says. If you don't get to the hospital to have surgery to drain the fluid, \"the deterioration can happen very quickly.\" Here, from Ayotte and other experts, is a list of what to do after someone has suffered a head injury. 1. Be vigilant . Keep an eye on someone who has hit his head, even if the person never lost consciousness. \"A lot of folks are still under the assumption that as long as you're not knocked out, you're OK, and that's not true,\" Ayotte says. 2. Look for dizziness, vomiting, headache and confusion . If the injured person has these signs, take him or her to an emergency room, says Dr. Jam Ghajar, clinical professor of neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, and president of the Brain Trauma Foundation. 3. Look for changes in symptoms and behavior . Any sudden change, such as Morgan's headache going from mild to severe in minutes, means the person needs medical attention. For example, Ghajar says, if a person gets suddenly sleepy in the first 12 hours after a hit, it may mean the parts of the brain responsible for staying awake are experiencing pressure from a bleed. 4. Be especially wary if someone a) has been drinking alcohol, b) is on blood thinners, c) is elderly or d) is a young athlete . It's tough to distinguish brain-injured behavior from drunken behavior, so when in doubt, take the person to the hospital, Ghajar says. Also, blood thinners can turn a mild bleed into a major bleed, so be especially vigilant if the injured person is taking blood thinners such as warfarin. He also warns people to be extra vigilant when an elderly person hits his or her head. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has information on traumatic brain injury and senior citizens. The CDC also has information on concussions in young athletes. 5. Go to a certified trauma center if you can . The American College of Surgeons has a list of certified trauma facilities; a hospital that's not a trauma center may not have a neurosurgeon on call. You can also look on this map from the American Trauma Society. Find your state, select trauma centers, update the map, and you can find information about trauma centers in your area. The McCrackens say they look back and still can't believe Morgan suffered such a severe injury and didn't show any signs for 48 hours. \"She didn't black out, her speech wasn't slurred, she wasn't dizzy, she wasn't any of the things you'd expect,\" McCracken says. \"And you don't want to be one of those panicky parents who takes their child to the emergency room all the time.\" Cohen's advice after a head injury: When in doubt, go. \"It's always better to err on the side of being conservative,\" he says. CNN Medical Producer Sabriya Rice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Richardson's death raises question: When should you go to ER after head injury?\nDizziness, vomiting, headache and confusion are all red flags .\nTake special care if person is on blood thinners or is elderly .\nDoc: \"Sometimes there's a gray zone, and there's no right answer.\"","id":"47a9e864ed7327d21329f1268695239ee983397e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil legend Pele has been threatened with court action unless he retracts a reported allegation that compatriot Robinho, the Manchester City striker, has taken drugs. Robinho is \"upset and disappointed\" at comments attributed to Pele regarding the use of drugs. Pele had claimed Robinho and Brazil's former world footballer of the year Ronaldo used recreational drugs at a private party in Sao Paolo. Robinho's official Web site says the player is \"upset and disappointed\" at Pele whose alleged comments came during a court case involving his son, Edinho, was has admitted cocaine addiction. The story hit the headlines in Brazil and Robinho\u00b4s Web site says \"that a formal retraction from Pele will be requested, if what he said was not misinterpreted by the media that published it. And if Pele does not come forward, he will have to deal with his very unfortunate comment in court. The statement by the player's representatives, added: \"Robinho is upset and disappointed at Pele, who seems to have forgotten the great idol he was and that it appears Pele must be reading sensationlist medias, to come up with such wrongful statement.\" Brazilian radio station, Jovem Pan, had quoted Pele as saying that: \"It is unfair to talk about drugs in football just because of one or two cases, like Robinho and (former Brazil striker) Ronaldo, who had that problem.\"","highlights":"Pele threatened with court action unless he retracts reported drug accusations .\nHe reportedly alleged fellow Brazilians Robinho and Ronaldo had taken drugs .\nRobinho's representatives say a formal retraction will be requested from Pele .","id":"31fb5ca210d456eace45d752517b3241560c4091"} -{"article":"In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Gary Tuchman accompanied a Border Patrol unit in Nogales, Arizona, and experienced the variety and the danger of law enforcement life firsthand. CNN's Gary Tuchman pulls his weight on ride-along with 64 lbs. of marijuana seized by law enforcement. NOGALES, Arizona (CNN) -- Nogales, Arizona, is a small city. Just more than 20,000 people live here, according to the 2005 census. But spend a couple of days here with law enforcement, and your head will spin. Almost half of all illegal drugs seized from Mexico last year were seized in the eastern Arizona region, and Nogales is the largest border city in this U.S. border patrol sector. In the past six months, the Border Patrol has seized about 500,000 pounds of illegal drugs here, which is 15 percent higher than the previous six months. Each day, hundreds of people are arrested, mostly for immigration violations but many for drug and weapons crimes. The temporary jail cells in the Border Patrol station in Nogales are often overflowing. The Border Patrol boss in this sector says his agents were assaulted 260 times within the past year. One night this week, we saw the danger and variety of lawbreaking activity experienced here quite vividly. At the immigration checkpoint set up a half-hour north of Nogales on Interstate 19, a semi truck is pulled over when the drug-sniffing dog detects something. The back of the truck is opened, and inside are thousands of tomatoes, but the dog is still not happy. The truck is taken back to the Border Patrol station, and agents climb over the tomatoes. And that's where they find the stash. Bales and bales of dope. Forty bales of marijuana. Nine hundred eight pounds, to be exact. At a street value of $800 a pound, the authorities estimate they kept $720,000 worth of marijuana off the streets. I interview the man arrested for driving the shipment. The operating theory: that he is doing dirty work for one of the Mexican cartels. But the Mexican man tells me he is not scared, because \"I was just carrying tomatoes.\" He claims that he knew nothing about the nearly half-ton of pot. The man will be telling that to the judge and could face significant time in an American prison. Illegal drugs consume the day of all law enforcement people here. We drive with the Border Patrol in the late hours of the night and hear a call over the radio that two men have been spotted jumping the border wall with backpacks. The chase is on, and another dog is brought to the area. The men disappear, but the dog picks up a scent in the heavy, hilly brush. Sarah the drug-sniffing dog is taught to sit when she finds something. She suddenly sits and then jumps on what looks like bushes. It turns out the bushes are actually attached to sacks of marijuana. Two 25-pound sacks full of pot. They were abandoned by the men when they ran away after being spotted. Street value, at least $40,000. Ray Rivera, the agent who works with Sarah, told me that over the past two years, Sarah has found nearly 7,000 pounds of pot. But Rivera also is pretty heroic. Just a couple of weeks ago, he was shot in the leg when a man he was chasing committed suicide. The bullet passed through the man's face and into Rivera's knee. Law enforcement life here is not for the squeamish. Before we leave this area, we go to a rural area west of Nogales where we hear illegal immigrants and drug couriers often try to get into the United States. When we get there, we see why. The tall border fence abruptly ends as it gets close to a small mountain, but there is plenty of space for people to squeeze into the United States. We wander about 10 feet into Mexico to look at some of the clothes, water bottles and cigarette boxes that people have left behind. As we get ready to leave, we see a Border Patrol vehicle zooming towards us. They don't know we're with CNN; they think we may be criminals. One of the four agents points his rifle at us and demands that we keep our hands in plain sight. They search our car, and we tell them who we are and what we're doing. They say they spotted us because of their long-range video cameras. They tell us to give them a heads up next time we go exploring, and all is well. The agents did their job well. But there are only so many of them and an immense amount of border. After spending time with these agents, it's easy to see how sometimes what they do feels like a thankless task.","highlights":"About half of seizures of illegal drugs from Mexico occurred in eastern Arizona region .\nIn past six months, Border Patrol has seized about 500,000 pounds of drugs .\nBushels of tomatoes conceal 908 lbs. of marijuana in truck seized by patrol .\nCNN's Gary Tuchman: \"Law enforcement life here is not for the squeamish\"","id":"bc943b88ab22d763e1e4a2c4645acd7fc4d9df32"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- While automakers lay off staff and shut down plants in response to the economic downturn, one automaker announced Thursday that it will open a manufacturing plant in the United States, potentially creating hundreds of jobs in the area eventually chosen. Tesla unveils its Model S sedan, with a base price of $57,400. The manufacturing plant will be in California. Tesla Motors, maker of a high-end electric sports car, says it will build an all-electric sedan in Southern California. Thursday's announcement was made in Hawthorne, California, where Tesla unveiled the Model S sedan at a base price of $49,900, after a federal tax credit of $7,500. That's less than half the price of its first model, the Roadster. Started in 2003 and bankrolled by PayPal millionaire Elon Musk, Tesla has attracted investments from the Silicon Valley elite, among them Google founder Larry Page. It is widely believed that the Model S sedan will be built near the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation facility in Hawthorne. That aerospace company, more commonly known as SpaceX, was founded by Musk in 2002. SpaceX recently won a NASA contract to deliver cargo to the international space station when the space shuttle program is retired next year. That contract, worth $1.6 billion, was won over such industry mainstays as Boeing and Lockheed. The promise of a high-performance, all-electric vehicle became a reality with the startup's first model, the Tesla Roadster, a car with the look, speed and price tag -- a steep $109,000 and up -- that rivals other high-end, high-performance vehicles. Recently though, the economic downturn has forced Tesla to delay production of their would-be flagship Model S until 2011. They've also had to lay off more than 80 workers, which is about 25 percent of the company's staff. Nonetheless, Tesla predicts it will manufacture 20,000 Model S vehicles a year. That would make it more of a mass-market vehicle than the Roadster; only 1,200 of which are produced yearly. The company faces many challenges, the foremost of which is convincing consumers to pay almost $50,000 for an all-electric sedan when they could pay thousands less for another brand of upmarket sedan or a gas-electric hybrid.","highlights":"Tesla says manufacturing plant will be in California; hundreds of jobs possible .\nThe all-electric Model S sedan will go for a base price of about $50,000 .\nTesla's challenge: Will consumers pay that much for a car in recessionary times?\nThe company hopes to make 20,000 Model S sedans a year .","id":"11848762a02d3809ded890d3898e415bbe9cf544"} -{"article":"ALPHARETTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Ben, who's 15 months old, can already do a lot of things. He can turn on a light or open a door. He can pick up a remote control off the floor. He can pull a heavy object with his teeth. Colise Johnson, 42, spent two weeks in September at a canine training camp getting acquainted with Ben. But Ben, a gangly golden retriever, is more than a family pet. He is a specially trained seizure dog who may one day be able to save the life of his new owner, Colise Johnson. \"Having epilepsy and cerebral palsy is kind of like having a nonstop roller coaster ride,\" said Johnson, 42, of Portland, Oregon. \"You never know what's going to happen, but with him, he slows the ride down so it's manageable.\" Johnson, who uses a wheelchair and must wear a helmet because of persistent seizures, is among 3 million Americans who live with some form of epilepsy, a brain disorder that causes recurring seizures, violent muscle spasms or, sometimes, a loss of consciousness. There are no estimates of how many patients are paired up with assistance dogs, and the benefits of having such an animal have not been studied to any great extent. But Dr. Gregory Barkley, a neurologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and an adviser for the Epilepsy Foundation of America, believes nearly a quarter of the people who suffer from frequent, severe seizures might be helped by a canine companion. He said the dogs have \"an unqualified devotion to their master\" that may offer important mental health benefits. The dogs are sometimes credited with powers they really don't possess, Barkley said. \"The dog does not predict a seizure,\" he said. \"It may respond to the earlier stages of a seizure.\" Johnson owned a seizure dog for 12 years before he died in 2007, ironically, having his own seizure. Watch more on Ben and his new owner \u00bb . She recalled that the dog, named McKeever, \"told me ahead of time when I was going to have a seizure. ... He helped me get off the floor if I fell, helped me retrieve items, helped me get clothes out of the drawer for a bath, open the fridge on command and took out the recycling.\" She said she'd felt lost without McKeever since his death, but that recently changed. Johnson spent two weeks in September at a training camp at Canine Assistants in Alpharetta, Georgia, getting acquainted with Ben. This year, Johnson was one of 1,100 people on the agency's waiting list. Jennifer Arnold founded the nonprofit service in 1991 and has placed more than 1,000 dogs with adults and children with physical disabilities or other special needs. \"We work primarily with people who have mobility issues and have conditions like muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and brain injuries,\" Arnold said. In the past few years, Arnold also helped train 100 seizure dogs to assist people with epilepsy. \"We train them to do basically 90 different commands,\" Arnold said. \"They learn to do things like go for help and press buttons to alert 9-1-1.\" Over time, nearly all the dogs eventually develop the ability to identify the onset of a seizure, she said. \"We have no understanding of what it is that alerts the dogs that a seizure is oncoming,\" she said. \"Is it a smell that the body produces? We don't know to what stimuli the dog is responding.\" By spending time with epilepsy patients, Arnold's dogs are taught what a seizure looks like and not to be frightened. Some dogs are able to anticipate a seizure 20 to 40 minutes before it happens. \"If the dog feels that their person is going to have a seizure, they tend to get very restless and distressed. ... They show signs of stress and agitation,\" Arnold said. \"Provided their human can read what that means, you have a really good alert system going on there.\" Barkley has heard similar anecdotal information from his own epilepsy patients, but many of those dogs were simply family pets and were untrained, he said. He warned patients to be wary of agencies that charge a lot of money for a dog that may or may not be able to perform certain tasks. Canine Assistants offers its dogs free of charge to qualified patients. The group not only covers the cost of airfare and lodging during the training sessions, but it provides a lifetime of food and veterinary care at no cost. Arnold estimated the total value at $20,000 per dog. She said that a third of her company's operating costs are underwritten by large corporate grants. The rest of the money is raised through private donations. Arnold helped train some of the 140 dogs currently at the facility. She said she has no trouble letting the animals go to new homes because she knows they'll serve an important purpose, especially for the epilepsy patients. \"They become a prisoner,\" Arnold said. \"They don't want to leave the house ... they're so vulnerable. Just having this dog with you means that you're not ever alone.\" Johnson, the married mother of a 15-year-old, is looking forward to regaining some independence with a new dog in the house. \"He's going to be able to give my family a break. He's going to be able to let them rest a little bit easier,\" she said. She also looked forward to a new reason to get out of bed in the morning. \"With the dog, instead of getting all bummed out or getting depressed over the seizures, I'll spend time with him and play with him and start laughing.\" \"These dogs will change your life in such a way you won't know how you've lived without him once you've had them.\"","highlights":"Three million Americans live with epilepsy, which causes recurring seizures .\nCanine camp in Georgia has trained 1,000 dogs since 1991 to help the disabled .\nCost of training, maintaining dog is $20,000; dogs are free to qualified patients .","id":"915a732d219264013357864663ee433c2db76e20"} -{"article":"PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Nearly 100 Thai soldiers crossed into Cambodian territory Wednesday near a disputed border temple that was the site of clashes last year, Cambodian officials said. Cambodian troops guard the Preah Vihear temple late last year amid heightened tensions with Thailand. The Thai army denied the claim. Thai soldiers crossed into the area of the 11th century Preah Vihear temple about 1:40 p.m., said Phay Siphan, secretary of the Cambodian Council of Ministers. The two sides did not fight and Cambodia has asked Thailand to pull back. Thai Army Col. Sansern Kaewkumnerd said the troop movement was part of a normal rotation and that Thai soldiers had not gone anywhere they were not permitted to be. For months last year, the two countries saber-rattled over the ancient temple. The nations differ on whether some territory around the temple forms part of Thailand or Cambodia. Both countries posted troops in the area after the United Nations in July approved Cambodia's application to have the temple listed as a World Heritage Site -- a place the United Nations says has outstanding universal value. The temple sits atop a cliff on Cambodian soil but has its most accessible entrance on the Thai side. The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962. Thailand claims, however, that the 4.6 sq. km (1.8 square mile) area around it was never fully demarcated. Thailand says the dispute arose from the fact that the Cambodian government used a map drawn during the French occupation of Cambodia -- a map that places the temple and surrounding area in Cambodian territory. The United Nations' decision re-ignited tensions, with some in Thailand fearing it will make it difficult for their country to lay claim to disputed land around the temple. Last year's flare-up began July 15, when Cambodian guards briefly detained three Thais who crossed into the area. Once they were let go, the three refused to leave the territory. Cambodia claimed Thailand sent troops to retrieve the trio and gradually built up their numbers. Thailand denied that, saying its troops are deployed in Thai territory. -- CNN's Tim Schwarz in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Kocha Olarn in Bangkok, Thailand, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Official: Thai soldiers crossed into area of 11th century Preah Vihear temple .\nThe Thai army denied the claim by senior a Cambodian official .\nThai army said soldiers did not go anywhere they were not permitted to be .\nBoth countries claim territory around the temple belongs to them .","id":"d9ed24554836d5f4cfd13674008332b50bd29c44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a fugitive U.S. marshal has been found in the city of Juarez, Mexico, according to the U.S. Marshals Service -- the latest discovery in a wave of violence that has gripped towns along the U.S.-Mexican border in recent months. The body of Deputy Marshal Vincent Bustamante was found Wednesday in Juarez, Mexico. The body of Deputy Marshal Vincent Bustamante -- who faced federal charges of stealing weapons and other government property -- was found in Juarez on Wednesday, said Marshals Service spokesman Jeff Carter. Bustamante appeared to have been shot in the back of the head, a federal law enforcement source said. Chihuahua state police said the body had multiple wounds to the head -- apparently consistent with an execution-style shooting, according to Edgar Roman, a reporter with XHIJ television in Juarez. Watch where the U.S. Marshal's body was found \u00bb . Bustamante, 48, was charged with stealing U.S. government property including Glock and Ruger handguns, a shotgun and a pair of binoculars, according to court documents. According to the federal source, who was not authorized to speak about details of the case and asked not to be named, a pawnshop owner became suspicious when Bustamante attempted to pawn a shotgun and called the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The source said Bustamante would buy back items he had pawned on his pay days and return them. Bustamante's attorney, Mike Torres, said a warrant was issued for Bustamante's arrest after he failed to appear at a court hearing last week. He said Bustamante was a 17-year veteran of the marshals and a former El Paso Police officer who lived in El Paso with his wife and two children. \"He was a familiar face around the federal courthouse here,\" Torres said. \"I'm very shocked by this and very saddened. \"He had a lot of friends and a lot of people that cared about him.\" Carter said Bustamante was on administrative leave from the marshals and had been required to turn in his gun and badge. He said Bustamante had not been in Mexico on marshals business and that all of the weapons he was charged with stealing had been recovered. Carter said Bustamante was on \"modified status\" with the marshals, meaning he had been required to turn in his gun and badge outside of his official work hours. \"What I can tell you is that the U.S. Marshals Service is saddened by the death of Deputy Bustamante and our thoughts and prayers are with his family,\" he said. Carter said U.S. marshals are working with the FBI and Mexican authorities to investigate the death. He said an autopsy will be conducted in Mexico, and another may be conducted once Bustamante's body is returned to the United States. Juarez, which sits across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the major battlegrounds as drug cartels fight both each other and Mexican authorities. The conflict has made violence increasingly common in Juarez, Tijuana and other Mexican border towns. More than 400 deaths in the region have been attributed to the fighting this year. CNN's Anderson Cooper, Emily Robards and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Marshal's body found in border town of Juarez, Mexico .\nU.S. Marshals Service has no comment on cause of death .\nMarshal had been accused of theft of public property, service spokesman says .","id":"773d78ce596cc56ec2438b192d48e7f0bfc0c800"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Russian heavy missile cruiser stopped three pirate ships off the coast of Somalia, and detained 10 pirates, according to a statement released Friday by Russian Navy headquarters in Moscow. Russian missile cruiser \"Peter the Great\" moored in Cape Town, South Africa, last month. The cruiser, Peter the Great, halted two small high-speed motor boats and a mid-size, support vessel on Thursday, the Russians said. \"Ten pirates have been detained. All of them are citizens of Somalia,\" the press release obtained by CNN stated. \"Officials from the Northern Fleet's military prosecutor's office are currently questioning the detainees aboard the Peter the Great. Their future will be decided in coordination with the Russian Foreign and Justice ministries.\" The Russians said a Russian helicopter Ka-27, which took off from the cruiser, had located two small boats, which were moving toward an Iranian fishing vessel at high speed last Thursday. When those in the boats spotted the helicopter overhead, the boats began slowing down, then veered off toward their support vessel, which was adrift nearby. The helicopter crew could see pirates in the two motor boats throwing weapons into the sea, and kept chasing the boats until the Russian cruiser arrived in the area. \"The three boats were (captured and) delivered to the Peter the Great, and ten Somalian pirates were taken aboard. \"The detainees possessed weapons, including a G-3 rifle, an Ak-47, two AKMS machine-guns, two grenade-launchers and two anti-infantry grenades, and also had a GPS receiver, a ladder, 500 grams of drugs, a large amount of money, a bag of sugar and a bag of rice. The detained pirates were high on drugs,\" the press release said. Meanwhile, Somali pirates have released a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in November, according to a non-governmental group that monitors piracy. The ship, named the MT Chemstar Venus, was released late Thursday, according to Ecoterra International. The 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew members were reportedly unharmed. The International Maritime Board, a group that also monitors piracy, told CNN that the company had not confirmed the release of the ship, but said shipping companies sometimes wait a few days before going public to ensure the safety of the crew. The ship was hijacked on November 15. It was unclear whether the pirates were paid a ransom to release the ship. This incident comes a week after Somali pirates released a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks, ammunition and crew after receiving a ransom of $3.2 million. -- CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian cruiser halted two small high-speed motor boats and a support vessel .\nRussia: 10 pirates have been detained -- all of them are citizens of Somalia .\nMT Chemstar Venus released late Thursday, Ecoterra International says .\nFollows release of Ukrainian ship carrying tanks after a $3.2M ransom was paid .","id":"244075fe2d79d8ff0aeb46b3a9a74d615f1a5311"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Erik Roberts, an Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, underwent his 13th surgery recently to save his right leg from amputation. Imagine his shock when he got a bill for $3,000 for his treatment. Army Sgt. Erik Roberts was badly wounded in Iraq with two comrades in April 2006. \"I just thought it was bull---- that I'm getting billed for being wounded in Iraq doing my job. I always put the mission first, and now that I was wounded in Iraq, they're sending me bills,\" he said. \"I put my life on the line and I was wounded in combat, and I came back and they're not going to take care of my medical bills?\" It's a level of outrage shared by his mother, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery. \"It's hard to understand why we're not taking care of guys like Erik whose injuries are clearly related to their service. They deserve the best care of anybody,\" said Dr. William Obremskey, an Air Force veteran and surgeon at Vanderbilt Orthopaedics in Nashville, Tennessee. \"For him to be responsible for $3,000, I think, is a little ridiculous or is uncalled for, particularly in this situation.\" His mother, Robin Roberts, put it more succinctly: \"Why should any soldier pay one penny of a medical bill from injuries that occurred while they were fighting in a war? That's what really frustrates me.\" The Department of Veterans Affairs has now decided to pay his bill, but only after prodding from a U.S. senator who got involved after CNN brought it to his attention. Roberts, of Warren, Ohio, is one of more than 31,100 U.S. troops to have been wounded in Iraq. An additional 4,262 have died in the war. Roberts was wounded April 25, 2006, when roadside bombs tore through his Humvee in western Baghdad. Heat from the flames ignited the Humvee's ammunition, which popped off all around. See Roberts describe getting blown up \u00bb . Roberts and his buddies, A.J. Jefferson and Luke Murphy, were badly wounded and bleeding on the ground after jumping from the burning vehicle. They were saved by comrades who rushed to help them. \"The truck automatically filled with smoke. There was fire coming from the middle of the truck. And I just feel my whole right side just like kind of explode,\" Roberts said. \"I thought at that moment that my life was over, so I started praying.\" All three soldiers survived the attack, but Murphy lost his leg. Days later, on his 23rd birthday, Roberts returned to the States. He underwent a series of life-saving surgeries, including 12 different ones to repair his fractured right leg. A metal rod was inserted in his upper leg to help the fracture heal. He retired from the Army in October 2007, because of his war injuries, and enrolled in college last fall at Youngstown State University, majoring in finance and minoring in economics. But in December, he says, a golf ball-sized lump appeared on his wounded leg. He says he went to a Veterans Affairs hospital and was told not to worry about it. A few days later, he says, he went to the emergency room after the lump flared up more. A doctor there, he says, told him that the leg was badly infected and that it might have to be amputated. Desperate for help, his mother contacted the Army surgeon who had saved her son's life two years earlier. That doctor referred him to Obremskey, the Vanderbilt surgeon. The Robertses say the VA did not approve of them going outside the system. Erik Roberts says he had no choice -- it was have surgery or potentially lose his leg. \"I thought my leg was more important than the usual bureaucratic mess,\" he said. His leg was saved. The $3,000 billed to Roberts wasn't for the surgery itself. It's a portion of the bill for six weeks of daily antibiotics to prevent the infection from coming back. His private insurance plan picked up the majority of the $90,000 in costs. Roberts has been administering the drugs himself -- up to seven IVs a day, with a nurse coming to his home once a week to check on him. At one point, his mom says, the insurance company suggested the war veteran should be put in a nursing home to receive the round-the-clock antibiotics. \"Now why would you want to put an injured soldier who is 25 years old in a nursing home to get IVs?\" Robin Roberts said. \"He said, 'Send me home and teach me to do it myself.' \" Roberts has also paid for his travel expenses from Ohio to Tennessee for treatment. He fears how much of the $57,000 surgery bill he will owe and how much he might be billed for his emergency room visit in December. His schooling has been put on hold because of his surgery and lengthy recovery. \"These soldiers and young men and women fight for our country and our freedom, only to come back to have to fight for their health and their life back in the United States,\" Robin Roberts said. Dr. Obremskey said it's \"frustrating\" to hear about cases like Roberts'. He says the lesson from Roberts' story is \"pretty obvious.\" \"If they're injured in the service to our country, we should continue to take care of them even if they are discharged from active duty because of their injuries. Some mechanism ought to be available for them to obtain whatever care they need,\" Obremskey said. CNN on Wednesday contacted the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Roberts' home state of Ohio who serves on the Senate's VA committee. Brown's office had not heard of Roberts' case, but immediately reached out to the soldier and alerted the VA about his situation. In less than 24 hours, the VA got back to CNN. \"The VA will be paying the bill,\" said VA spokesman Sean Nelson. The VA did not offer an explanation as to how something like this could happen. Brown's office issued a written statement, applauding the decision. \"Sen. Brown is pleased to hear that Mr. Roberts will not have out-of-pocket costs for a service-connected injury. However, he believes it should not take the intervention of a U.S. senator for our veterans to receive the care they've been promised.\" Roberts said he appreciates the help. Despite everything he's experienced, Roberts -- who went into the Army just after high school -- said he would never trade in being a member of the 101st Airborne. \"I will always be proud I served my country, and proud that I was able to wear that flag on my shoulder,\" he said. \"I would defend this country against anyone, and I'm proud to wear that uniform.\" CNN's Thom Patterson contributed to this story.","highlights":"Wounded soldier gets billed $3,000 for wounds suffered in Iraq .\n\"I put my life on the line ... and they're not going to take care of my medical bills?\"\nArmy Sgt. Erik Roberts was wounded in April 2006; he's had 13 surgeries on his leg .\nSen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio urged the VA to act; VA agrees to pay bill .","id":"5bb83e7d670618e3f9dcb1b3e5aade00fa4ef5d2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five days of gunbattles between the Indian army and separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir have left at least 25 dead -- eight Indian army troopers, including one officer, and 17 militants, the Indian military said Tuesday. An Indian army soldier lays a wreath during the funeral of a slain soldier, northeast of Srinagar on Tuesday. Defense Minister A.K. Antony, meeting with India's military chiefs in Delhi, reviewed the situation in the Himalayan region and told the Army to deal with the situation in the Himalayan region with \"utmost firmness.\" Kashmir has been in the throes of a violent separatist campaign for nearly two decades during which authorities say 43,000 people have been killed. However, various NGOs and rights groups put the number of dead at twice the official count. In Srinigar, Kashmir, Army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar told CNN the Army was moving against the militants \"based on sound intelligence inputs as well as human intelligence provided by our own sources.\" The battles in the Shamsbhari forests of north Kashmir Kupwara district have caused \"minimum collateral damage to property,\" Brar said. The spokesman denied media reports that helicopter gunships and heavy weapons had been used by the army during these operations against the militants. This month's encounter between the Indian Army and the militants is the second longest in Kashmir this year. In January, a fierce encounter raged for seven days in the Poonch district of Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir. Two soldiers, a policeman and four militants were killed in that encounter. Kashmir has been the source of bitter dispute and two wars between India and neighboring Pakistan. Both control parts of the region which is predominantly Muslim.","highlights":"NEW: 25 dead in Kashmir gunfights between Indian troops, separatist militants .\nIncident comes after India accuses Pakistani troops of firing on Indian troops .\nKashmir has been in throes of separatist campaign for 20 years .","id":"0ac087a38e319cdaf67876cb39bd0062ff1fa598"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 75th minute strike by striker Graziano Pelle gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over NEC Nijmegen on Sunday to leave his side top of the Dutch standings. Italian star Pelle scored the winner to keep AZ on top heading into the Dutch break. The Italian's decisive goal means Louis van Gaal's men will head into 2009 with a three-point lead over Ajax Amsterdam after 17 rounds. The Eredivisie is set to resume on January 16 after a three-week break. Earlier, Dario Cvitanich scored a hat-trick as Ajax beat ADO Den Haag 3-0 to temporarily draw level on points with the leaders. But AZ, who are unbeaten in 15 games, then saw off Nijmegen, who had also been on a fine 14-game unbeaten run. AZ have 41 points, with Ajax on 38. Steve McClaren's FC Twente are in third place, seven points adrift of AZ, after holding defending champions PSV Eindhoven to a goalless draw on Saturday. PSV are fourth with 30 points and looking set to relinquish their league title. On Friday, Feyenoord snapped a run of three successive losses by beating NAC Breda 3-1, but the struggling Rotterdam giants are in 12th spot.","highlights":"AZ Alkmaar beat NEC Nijmegen 1-0 in Dutch league game on Sunday .\nAlkmaar on top by three points from Ajax heading into midwinter break .\nFormer Lecce striker Graziano Pelle scores crucial winner for AZ .","id":"e66474367f034d570570f1c554a8ee620ddf65fd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China's military is developing longer-range ballistic and anti-ship missiles that are \"shifting the balance of power in the region\" and could help Beijing secure resources or settle territorial disputes, a report released by the Pentagon said Wednesday. U.S. and Chinese militaries need \"resumption of dialogue,\" Adm. Timothy Keating told Congress. China also continues to build up short-range missiles and increase its \"coercive capabilities\" against Taiwan. The report suggests such moves constitute an effort to pressure Taiwan into settling the cross-strait dispute in favor of China, though tensions between the two countries have receded over the past year. The report, called the \"Military Power of the People's Republic of China,\" is the Pentagon's annual briefing to Congress on the status of the communist country's military might. While China continues to proclaim that its military buildup is for defense purposes to protect its interests, the report says the country's lack of transparency is worrisome and could lead to an unintended conflict. \"The limited transparency in China's military and security affairs poses risks to stability by creating uncertainty and increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation,\" according to the report. \"Much uncertainty surrounds China's future course, particularly regarding how its expanding military power might be used.\" The lack of transparency causes Washington \"to speculate to some degree on what their intentions are,\" Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters at a Wednesday briefing. According to Adm. Timothy Keating, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, some of that uncertainty is due to the cessation of talks between the Chinese and U.S. militaries. In March of 2008, the United States and China installed a hot line between the two countries' militaries. But there have been no military-to-military talks since November 2008, when Washington announced it was selling weapons to Taiwan. \"We are looking for the resumption of that dialogue so we can engage in discussion with our colleagues in the People's Republic of China and their Army, Navy and Air Force so we can have a sense of their way ahead,\" Keating told the House Armed Services committee on Tuesday. \"We don't have a clear idea of their broad strategic way ahead.\" The Pentagon report comes after a recent incident in which Chinese ships, including a Chinese navy vessel, confronted an unarmed U.S. Navy surveillance ship in the South China Sea in international waters. The confrontation prompted the United States to move a destroyer ship to the area to protect the surveillance vessel. While the report does not discuss the incident, it notes the importance China puts on controlling its waterways and the surrounding territories because \"China's economic and political power is contingent upon access to and use of the sea, and that a strong navy is required to safeguard such access.\" The analysis also said that while much of China's capability is more for regional disputes, it did send two destroyers and one supply ship off the coast of Africa to protect Chinese vessels from pirate attacks. That move was a sign of Chinese intent to expand its militaries to protect expanding economic and political interests around the world, according to a China analyst. \"The Chinese military is being told to develop capabilities to deal with Chinese national interests beyond the pure defense of Chinese territory,\" said David Finklestein, the Director of China Studies for CNA, a nonprofit research group that does analysis for the U.S. military and other clients. \"China, with a global economy, now obviously has global political interests and clearly has expanding global security interests.\" Though the Pentagon report concludes that \"China's ability to sustain military power at a distance remains limited,\" it does have a growing space program, nuclear weapon system and cyber warfare capabilities, \"the only aspects of China's armed forces that, today, have the potential to be truly global,\" the report explained. In citing China's cyber warfare, the report notes that U.S. government computers were the target of \"intrusions that appear to have originated\" from China, although they were not confirmed to be from the military.","highlights":"Pentagon report: China's missile development \"shifting balance of power in region\"\nBeijing's lack of transparency could lead to unintended conflict, report says .\nCessation of talks between nations' militaries partly to blame, U.S. admiral says .\nReport: Cyber warfare capability among the few areas of China's \"truly global\" reach .","id":"308b71facc59a13a0d031c3b00937cd6a069ba12"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Only a few states have laws that adequately equip teen victims of dating violence with tools for protection and safety, according to a new report from a watchdog group. Twenty-three states received sub-par grades in a report focusing on state laws focusing on protective orders. The report by Los Angeles, California-based Break the Cycle includes state-by-state report cards that measure how each state treats teen victims of dating violence in comparison with the treatment of adult domestic violence victims. Only five states -- California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Oklahoma -- received As, while nine states received B's. Twenty-three states received sub-par grades, including 11 getting Fs. \"I think what the state report cards are telling us is that states have a long way to go before they are protecting minors in abusive relationships,\" Marjorie Gilberg, Break the Cycle's executive director, told CNN Radio. The report focuses on how easy it is for a teen to obtain a protective order in the event of abuse, including whether state law allows a minor to take out an order, if adult permission is required and whether an order can be issued against another minor. New Hampshire, which got an A, is the only state where the law specifically allows minors to apply for a protection order, according to the report. Missouri, which got an F, makes such orders available only to adults. See how the different states scored \u00bb . Nine states allow minors to obtain protective orders without adult approval if they meet certain criteria, such as being a minimum age, often 16, or having a specific relationship with the abuser, such as having a child together. \"What we hope to achieve with this is to call out the states that are not doing a good job protecting minors and help people in those states call on their legislators to make change,\" Gilberg said. One in five teens who have been in a \"serious relationship\" report being hit, slapped or pushed by a partner, according to the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline. One in three girls who have been in such a relationship say they've been concerned about being physically hurt by their partner. Gilberg said that since the 2008 report cards came out, several states worked to change their laws to address the rights of minor victims in domestic violence statutes, though some were more successful than others. This year's report noted that eight states improved their grades. Among them, Florida jumped from a D to a B for making protective orders \"relatively accessible\" to teen victims without an adult's approval if they are dating the abuser. The process was described as \"extremely difficult\" the previous year because state law did not specify whether a minor could petition for one alone. \"Even when you have an A grade,\" Gilberg said, \"you still can do things to make the law more protective of minors who are in teen dating violence relationships.\"","highlights":"Report focuses on ease with which teens can obtain protective orders .\nNew Hampshire is only state that allows minors to apply for a protection order .\nNine states let minors obtain orders without adult approval under certain criteria .\nOne in five teens who've been in a \"serious relationship\" report being hit by partner .","id":"8ddc0631a67be8cd314b08e8468759025b207b01"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have raised the alert status at Mount Redoubt, a volcano in southern Alaska, after another increase in seismic activity. Seismic activity at Alaska's Mount Redoubt again has scientists watching for an eruption. \"Shallow earthquake activity under the volcano has been as high as 26 events per 10-minute period,\" officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Sunday in a statement announcing that the alert level was raised to \"watch\" status. Although no eruption has occurred, the scientists said the increase in seismic activity \"likely represents either the upward movement of magma or pressurization of the system.\" \"It is possible for unrest at the volcano to change rapidly, and seismic activity or other signs of unrest could escalate culminating in an eruption within days to weeks,\" the statement concluded. An increase in seismic activity at the same volcano prompted a \"watch\" level last Monday. In the U.S. Geological Survey's color-coded alert levels, the orange \"watch\" level means the volcano \"is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption\" or that \"eruption is underway with no or minor volcanic-ash emissions.\" The next level is red, meaning an eruption is imminent or underway. Bill Burton, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said since January there have been increases in seismic activity at Mount Redoubt followed by periods of quiet. The 10,197-foot peak is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the most populous city in Alaska. Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago, in December 1989. That eruption lasted until April 1990.","highlights":"Increase in seismic activity noted at Mount Redoubt in southern Alaska .\nAlert level raised; \"eruption within days to weeks\" is possible, officials say .\nVolcano last erupted in December 1989 and last for months .\nMount Redoubt is about 100 southwest of Anchorage, Alaska .","id":"88238d58224511964c9a61d2b529b5d003d6cc25"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Rap star T.I. was sentenced in Atlanta federal court Friday to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay a $100,300 fine on weapons charges related to purchasing machine guns and silencers. T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, has mentored at-risk students as part of his community service. The rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, reached the terms of the sentence in a plea agreement with prosecutors last year. \"I would like to say thank you to some, and apologize to others,\" Harris said at his sentencing. \"In my life, I have been placed in the worst-case scenario and had to make the best of it,\" he said. \"Most often, things I have learned have been from trial and error. I knew no way to protect myself than to arm myself.\" He was dressed in a gray suit and black shirt and tie. Harris, 28, also was sentenced to some property forfeiture, supervised release for three years after his prison sentence, 365 days of home confinement and 1,500 hours of community service. He has already served 305 days of home confinement and 1,030 hours of service. He also must undergo DNA testing and drug counseling, cannot own firearms and must submit to reasonable searches and a financial audit. Watch the rapper's interview with CNN's T.J. Holmes \u00bb . \"We are very pleased with the result in this case,\" U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said. \"Mr. Harris has received a significant penalty for the serious firearms offenses he committed. ... \"His prison sentence was reduced from what it might have been, but the public got something very significant in exchange: the extensive and unique community service program that Mr. Harris committed to doing when he pleaded guilty. \"By all accounts, his community service has been a remarkable success -- it certainly exceeded our expectations -- and there is still more to come when he gets out of prison.\" Watch T.I. urge others to learn from his mistakes \u00bb . Former Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young spoke on behalf of Harris, comparing black-on-black violence to the Ku Klux Klan decades ago. Young said he regarded working with Harris not so much as a chance to help him but more as \"an opportunity for him to help me.\" \"We hit it off immediately,\" Young said. \"It was a grandfather type of relationship.\" Bishop Eddie Long of the New Birth Baptist Church also spoke in support of Harris. Harris will be taken into custody no earlier than May 19. The plea agreement, which federal authorities called unique, allowed the rapper to remain out of prison for a year while he performed community service. In that time, he mentored at-risk students at 58 schools, 12 Boys & Girls Clubs, nine churches and many other nonprofit organizations, according to court documents. Young said he and Harris went to a hospital for paraplegics in New York. \"He heard the testimonies of guys in their 50s and 60s who talked about being shot back when they were 16,\" Young said. \"A perfect example for me in my ministry, and that wouldn't be possible without the willingness of this court to try new things.\" Meanwhile, the rapper has released his sixth CD, \"Paper Trail,\" which has sold close to 2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The multiplatinum rapper also has starred in the MTV reality show, \"T.I.'s Road to Redemption: 45 Days to Go,\" which chronicles his efforts to shave years off his sentence by completing his community service. The show features him talking to schools and community groups \"about how to avoid the trouble he now finds himself in,\" according to the network's Web site. Harris' fall from grace was sudden and dramatic, played out on the streets of his hometown of Atlanta in 2007. That year, Harris had starred in the film \"ATL\" and could be seen in Chevy commercials with NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. Harris had been named to the Forbes list of top-earning rappers, banking an estimated $16 million in 2006. Then he was arrested in October 2007 in an Atlanta parking lot hours before he was to perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards. Harris was caught in a federal sting after his bodyguard-turned-informant delivered three machine guns and two silencers to him, prosecutors said. The rapper had provided the bodyguard with $12,000 to buy the weapons. Harris was not permitted to own any guns, however, because he was convicted in 1998 on felony drug charges -- possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute -- in Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta. For his court hearing Friday, Harris' attorneys submitted more than 100 letters from officials who thanked him for his community service since the weapons arrest. One of the letters was from Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who said Harris did an \"outstanding job\" talking to a group of teenagers about not breaking the law. \"If only one young person in that courtroom listened to Mr. Harris -- and I believe they all did -- we are all better for it,\" Sears wrote. \"He was honest, humble and inspirational.\" CNN's Aaron Cooper and Lateef Munger contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rapper T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, sentenced on weapons charges .\nHe also must forfeit property, have supervised release, do more community service .\nT.I. was arrested in federal sting hours before appearance at BET awards show .\nHe has mentored at-risk students as part of community service .","id":"360576c9e5e43e3eb767b490d3014cb9e3d38734"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Conjoined Egyptian twin boys Hassan and Mahmoud, who were successfully separated in Saudi Arabia Saturday, are recovering and are expected to lead normal lives, officials said. Conjoined twins Hassan, left, and Mahmud rest the day before separation surgery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. \"The twins' vital signs are good; they're doing excellent,\" said Sami Al-Shalan, spokesman for the King Abdulaziz Medical City facility in Riyadh where the surgery took place. \"The twins still have about 24 hours before a progress report can be issued. The anesthesia consultants are happy with the progress of the children.\" The boys are less than a year old and were brought to the kingdom on February 10. The delicate surgery took a little more than 15 hours. \"The twins' parents have visited them in the [pediatric intensive care unit], but they can't stay there long. They come and go,\" Al-Shalan said. Separating the boys' urinary system was a major challenge, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the Saudi minister of health, told CNN. So was separating the siblings' local veins and arteries, he said. \"We had to identify the arteries and the blood veins between each baby,\" Al-Rabeeah said. Watch Al-Rabeeah explain the operation \u00bb . The procedure was the 21st of its kind to be performed in the kingdom. The surgeries are performed free as part of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's philanthropic initiative. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Egyptian twin boys are less than a year old .\n21st procedure of this type to be performed in the kingdom .\n15-hour delicate surgery declared successful, surgeon says .\nSurgery free as part of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's philanthropic initiative .","id":"7528ce25dfbca6d6d32186a24530cbcdae9891ac"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Imagine the Batmobile busting bad guys in Bismarck, North Dakota, or \"Knight Rider's\" KITT corralling criminals on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Carbon Motors Corp.'s E7 concept vehicle was on display recently near the U.S. Capitol. Carbon Motors Corp.'s new high-tech cop car prototype might not be quite up to superhero specs, but some police say it could be a welcome addition to their arsenal. \"I don't see any downside to this car,\" said Carl Latorre, a Pennsylvania State Police dispatcher who served 35 years as a Philadelphia police officer. \"I am so excited about this car. This car rates up there with cops carrying automatic weapons to combat what the criminals carry now. It's about time that something like this came about.\" OK, so it doesn't have a nanotech cloaking capability or rocket boosters, but every feature on the Carbon E7 concept vehicle draws on suggestions from more than 3,000 law enforcement professionals. The result is a futuristic prowler with a 300-horsepower clean diesel engine, flashing lights visible from all angles, an ergonomic cockpit, an onboard computer with voice command and instant license plate recognition, integrated shotgun mounts, and more. (Weapons of mass destruction detectors are available as an option -- seriously.) See how the E7 stacks up against KITT and the Dark Knight's Tumbler \u00bb . The E7 was designed by cops for cops, breaking the tradition of recruiting family sedans into the force, company co-founder Stacy Dean Stephens said. \"The current vehicles that they (police departments) use were designed for driving around, going to the grocery store, taking kids to school -- things like that,\" Stephens said. \"You don't have an engineer sitting at one of the other automakers who says, 'Y'know, I think what we need to do is we need to take this car, and we need to run into a curb at 50 miles an hour and see how many times it takes before the wheels and the suspension fails on it.\" The rear passenger compartment alone is enough to make experienced cops get teary-eyed. The rear-hinged \"suicide doors\" make it easier for handcuffed passengers to get in and out, and the seat is designed so \"guests\" can ride comfortably with their hands cuffed behind their backs. For officer safety, Latorre likes how the seat belts are anchored in the center of the seat and buckle near the door so the officer doesn't have to lean across the prisoner. \"When you put a prisoner in the back seat, you're supposed to strap him in,\" Latorre said. \"Nowadays, you have to make sure your gun isn't going close to his hands, and how are you going to strap somebody in doing that?\" Perhaps most popular among cops is the rear compartment, which is sealed off from the front and made entirely of seamless, washable plastic, with drain plugs in the floor. \"Numerous times I've had less than pleasant experience\" with prisoners vomiting or relieving themselves in the back seat, said Stephens, a former Texas police officer. The seat innovations are up front, too, where the seats have recesses to accommodate officers' bulky gun belts. \"The front seat -- I couldn't believe the front seat. They thought of everything,\" Latorre said. \"You don't know how difficult it is to get out of a car. The first thing you've got to do is adjust your gun belt. The gun belt shouldn't be a problem.\" The E7 can go 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, has a top speed of 155 mph and can withstand a 75-mph rear impact, according to the company's Web site. It has bullet-resistant panels in the doors and dash and has push bumpers incorporated into the aluminum frame. The upper flashing lights are integrated into the roof panel, eliminating the need for a bolted-on light bar that causes aerodynamic drag -- reducing fuel economy -- and can lead to rust. Watch police check out the car and hear the engine growl \u00bb . Despite the technological \"wow\" factor and officer enthusiasm, the E7 could prove to be a tough sell. \"The people are very intelligent and smart that are setting this up,\" said Lt. Michael Arnold, fleet manager of the Bismarck, North Dakota, police department. \"What scares me is they don't give you a price.\" Company officials say the price -- possibly around $50,000 per unit -- will be \"competitive\" considering the cost of equipping a conventional car for police work and how long each vehicle lasts. The Carbon E7 will be built to last 250,000 miles, compared with 75,000 to 120,000 miles for the typical patrol car, Stephens said. \"When it's all said and done it's a matter of how much it costs per mile,\" said Bismarck Deputy Chief Fred Wooten. Regardless of how good it looks on paper, a state or big-city agency won't be willing to take a chance on a vehicle with no track record, said Detective Mary Wheat, spokesperson for the Portland, Oregon, police department. \"If they do cost $50,000, nobody's going to buy them,\" Wheat said. \"Nobody's going to buy them. No, police agencies can't afford $50,000 cars. We have huge fleets of cars. We have hundreds of them; hundreds and hundreds of cars. And we turn them over. I mean, we ride them hard. Those cars are used on a 24-hour basis. That wouldn't work.\" But municipalities don't balk at paying large sums for other purpose-built vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances, countered Latorre, the Pennsylvania officer. \"They don't say, 'Oh, here's a box truck; go fight fires with it' or 'Here's an E-250 cargo van; go pick up patients with it,' do they?,\" he said. \"So I don't see why the municipality wouldn't say, 'You know what? This [police car] is nothing but a plus for us.'\" The company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, doesn't yet have a factory, but has named five states where it could locate: Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina. Production is scheduled to begin in 2012, Stephens said. Carbon doesn't expect to take over the market quickly, instead counting on a few \"early adopters\" willing to take a risk on a few vehicles and work out the kinks to everyone else's satisfaction, Stephens said. Hundreds of agencies already have made online reservations for thousands of Carbon Motors vehicles, putting the company \"very well on our way to selling out our first year,\" he said. Wheat praised the Carbon team's entrepreneurship and suggested the company market its car first in smaller towns with less red tape and simpler bidding processes. That works for Wooten, the deputy chief in Bismarck. \"We'll be more than happy to field test one,\" he offered. \"If it works as advertised, we'll probably have a fleet of them someday.\"","highlights":"Carbon Motors' E7 prototype is not your father's Crown Victoria .\nVehicle designed bumper to bumper by cops, for cops .\nCar features high-performance engine, integrated gadgets, ergonomic cockpit .\nWhether governments will buy it is the big unanswered question .","id":"5c0b84fcebf647a1ea5d23b09b0a6f482d90ea67"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: The European champions and current highest-ranked soccer team in the world, Spain, are beaten 3-0...by a team of robots. On the way: Robots are developing steadily towards the goal of beating humans at football. It may sound ridiculous, but robot developers in Asia, the U.S. and Europe are dreaming of that very goal. Working under the umbrella organizations FIRA (Federation of Robot-Soccer Association) and the RoboCup Federation, researchers and developers are aiming to advance robot technology to the point that a team of humanoids can beat the best humans in the sport by 2050. Since robot soccer competitions began in the mid-1990s, researchers have already made significant developments towards their goal. Phil Culverhouse of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Plymouth told CNN that the first robots in competition were controlled by humans and many were on wheels or four-legged, but that is changing. \"Since 2007 the team have progressed to bipedal robots that have cameras on board,\" he said. \"Our robots are autonomous -- they have no control from outside sources. The cameras try to work out where the goal is, where the ball is and where the other players are.\" Further robotic developments appear to be close. Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid released a study in the March 2009 online edition of 'Expert Systems with Applications,' showing they had refined a technique known as machine-learning. Basically, the scientists were able to teach a virtual player simple reactions to visual stimuli -- based upon how real humans react in the same situation. Do you think robots will one day be able to beat humans at football? Sound Off box below. This year robots will go head-to-head at both the RoboCup event in Austria in June\/July and the FIRA RoboWorld Cup in Korea in August. The most advanced classes at present are the bipedal classes for 'humanoid' robots. Co-chair of RoboCup 2009, Gerald Steinbauer, told CNN this year's event was the 13th edition of the cup, and he was impressed by progress by advances since the competitions began. \"At the last RoboCup in China 2008 we had games of teams of three humanoid playing attractive soccer. They walk on two feet, fight for the ball and of course score... so we are approaching the goal,\" he said. Culverhouse said interest in both events had steadily grown, especially since the two-legged robots had been introduced. This year up to 3,000 competitors from 40 countries are expected at RoboCup. \"This has been extremely effective in gaining interest. These are much more exciting to watch. We have seen a steep level of change in interest from not just young people but everybody.\" Despite the increasing profile, Culverhouse said there are still plenty of major challenges before the humanoids can seriously compete with humans. \"This is still a long way from competing against humans. The next big challenge to be met is to get robots walking like humans and then running like humans. \"One of the most challenging things is getting a robot to walk on uneven terrain without falling over,\" he said, explaining that some fall over after kicking at goal. (Although, it's not hard to think of professional footballers who have suffered the same problem.) The University of Plymouth team is currently researching how robot's feet can be improved, and hope to release a concept later this year that could usher in a new era of in foot design. For Steinbauer, the critical issues are that of perception and cognitive abilities. \"Perception is one of our major problems. It is important that a robot is able to understand a scene like a human does. If you enter a complete unknown room you are able to recognize the important things like furniture and also relations and functions of objects very fast,\" he said. \"Despite huge progress in this area we are far behind the capabilities of animals or humans. \"And of course there's cognitive capabilities. To reason about new, uncertain or even inconsistent facts is easy for a human but very hard for a robot,\" Steinbauer said. Size and cost are other limiting issues. \"In order to make this affordable we are developing robots 50 to 60 centimeters high. At that size each robot costs about 10,000 pounds to make. At full human size each would cost about 50,000 pounds,\" Culverhouse said. Soccer is an ideal testing ground for robotics as it encompasses many different elements including movement, vision and strategy, Steinbauer said. But the applications developed in these robots could serve a greater purpose. Steinbauer said robot technologies could be used for entertainment or performing simple tasks around the home and office. They also could be used in rescue scenarios -- where robots could be sent into dangerous situations in place of humans, he said.","highlights":"FIRA and RoboCup organizations promoting development of robots .\nRobots have been competing in regular soccer contests since the mid-'90s .\nScientists hope to be able to beat world's top team of humans by 2050 .\nRobotics developments tested in robo-soccer have uses in other fields .","id":"a1701fb5046d662c8829fdc3d8990360ace8e931"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United went five points clear at the top of the Premier League as goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar set a new English record for minutes in not conceding a goal in the 1-0 victory over Everton. Van der Sar was left to celebrate a United win and a new goalkeeping record. Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed the winning goal with a 44th minute penalty but once again it was United's rock-solid defense and keeper that made sure of the vital three points. Everton's failure to score by the 73rd minute at Old Trafford left van der Sar unbeaten for 1,104 minutes. The Dutch international was breaking the previous record set by Reading's Steve Death 30 years ago. He had taken Petr Cech's Premier League record in the 5-0 win at West Bromwich Albion last week and has now had 12 straight clean sheets. With title rivals Chelsea and Liverpool playing each other on Sunday and Aston Villa being held 0-0 at home by Wigan, the record was the icing on the cake for Alex Ferguson's defending champions. World footballer of the year Ronaldo had hit the post in the first half before converting from the spot after Michael Carrick was tripped by Mikel Arteta. In truth, Everton, missing three strikers through injury, rarely troubled van der Sar with most of the action at the other end. Carrick had appeals for a second penalty turned down after appearing to be brought down by Joleon Lescott, but referee Mark Halsey ignored his pleas. Carlos Tevez shot wide from Park ji-Sung's right wing cross and Tim Howard later had to save smartly from a deflected free kick from the Argentine star. United manager Alex Ferguson was delighted with yet another clean sheet and the three points. \"It's a fantastic performance from the boys. I couldn't believe it when I read that the last goal we conceded was against Arsenal in October,\" he told Setanta Sports. \"Van der Sar brings calmness and assurance. Over the last 12 games we have changed the back four I don't know how many times so you have to give great credit to them.\"","highlights":"Record breaker Edwin van der Sar has now kept 12 clean sheets for United .\n1-0 win over sixth-placed Everton sees United go five points clear in Premier League .\nClosest rivals Chelsea and Liverpool play each other in title showdown on Sunday .","id":"85246595f881711f549945cad2a1f35e9b47f075"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- There's the Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls: blending her voice with singing partner Emily Saliers on songs such as \"Closer to Fine\" and \"Galileo\" and writing songs that tap into the duo's shared folk-oriented touchstones. Amy Ray says playing with some musician friends brought out songs that \"felt very different from the Indigo Girls.\" Then there's Amy Ray the solo artist, letting out her inner Joe Strummer and Paul Westerberg. The two aren't mutually exclusive, of course. \"Emily and I are frustrated sometimes with any kind of box,\" Ray says during an interview at her manager's office near downtown Atlanta, \"because we want to experiment musically, and we do a lot of electric stuff. ... But the reality is that we are a folk band.\" However, Ray adds, her influences include artists who have come out of a punk mindset such as the Clash, the Replacements, the Pretenders and Patti Smith. \"At some point I was hanging around with the Butchies -- a band I ended up playing with a lot -- and it just brought out this thing in me ... and it felt very different from the Indigo Girls,\" she says. Which explains the appearance of \"Didn't It Feel Kinder\" (Daemon), Ray's third solo album. Watch Ray perform the song \"She's Got to Be\" \u00bb . (Disclosure: Ray and I were contemporaries at Atlanta's Emory University, but we didn't know one another.) The songs on \"Kinder\" include \"Bus Bus,\" a scorching rocker about the longings felt while on tour; \"Who Sold the Gun,\" which alludes to a mass shooting, counterpointed by rousing major chords; and \"SLC Radio,\" which praises the support of a Salt Lake City radio station in the midst of \"LDS nation.\" Ray gives a great deal of credit to producer Greg Griffith for the album's raw sound and melodic ideas, and she adds that the musicians on the solo album helped guide the way the songs were presented. \"Something like 'Bus Bus,' I wanted this lead thing going on with a kind of raucous band, and the harmonies are very important but they are more of a bed that you're singing over rather than the duo,\" she says. \"I think the musicians I play with solo do a certain thing that the musicians we play with with the Indigo Girls don't do. It's just a different thing. ... And it sort of steers my writing in some ways.\" A number of the solo songs do share the same activist outlook as Ray's songs with the Indigo Girls. \"SLC Radio,\" for example, is about KRCL-FM, which Ray describes as \"a really progressive community station.\" In the song, Ray, an out lesbian, sings \"Radio radio SLC fighting the good fight for me\/ Boys and girls lend a hand, bend an ear in God's land.\" \"I was thinking about community radio in general, and I was thinking about Mormonism and the fabric of the country and how much you see when you're traveling ... and the idea that change comes, but it comes slow, and it comes one person at a time,\" she explains. But, she notes, \"The song is not totally taking Mormonism to task. I even say, 'I'm sending love to all the Mormons,' 'Keep the good things throw out the bad.' \" Respect flows both ways, she says. Ray's activism extends to the artist-centered Daemon Records, the label she founded in 1990. Though Daemon is the furthest thing from corporate -- Ray and the label's staff still stuff envelopes themselves -- she acknowledges that changes in the record business have forced her to adjust as much as any major label. Watch Ray on keeping the business going \u00bb . \"For indie labels it was a big adjustment because we ended up with a lot of CDs on hand when downloading [happened]. We knew it was coming, it came, but it happened a little bit faster [than we thought],\" she says. \"There were business decisions that were hard. ... But I love the freedom that downloading has brought, and I love the way it saves resources.\" Besides, she adds, \"The Internet has revolutionized the DIY movement, and it's great to me. I don't even know if record labels need to exist. I don't even know if I need to exist,\" she laughs. But some things about being a musician don't change, such as promotion and performance, which means it's time to hit the road again. Ray will perform with the Indigo Girls in September and then do some solo dates for the rest of the year. A new Indigo Girls album is due out in early 2009. Isn't it exhausting, after more than 20 years in the business, to have to get on the bus again? Ray agrees that touring can be draining. \"It's like you're doing all this stuff, the traveling and the unpacking and the packing, just to play the show. And in that one ... moment during the show, that's the fun. That's where all the fun is,\" she says. \"It's the blessing and the curse of it. \"But it's not like digging a ditch,\" she adds. \"You get to see different places, get to go running in a different town every day. It's very stimulating, and that can be a very good thing.\"","highlights":"Indigo Girl Amy Ray has solo album out, \"Didn't It Feel Kinder\"\nSound on album harder-edged than Indigos; Ray says songs more apropos .\nRay on touring: Can be draining, but \"not like digging a ditch\"","id":"80acf1c551238d542d5f76baa789d66623078a2a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The agency that owns the space where the World Trade Center towers stood is freeing itself of the term \"freedom\" to describe the signature skyscraper replacing the buildings destroyed on September 11, 2001. The One World Trade Center skyscraper is expected to be completed in late 2013. The change from Freedom Tower was revealed Thursday at a news conference where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the signing of the first commercial lease in the building to a Chinese company. The building is expected to be completed in late 2013. \"We've referred to the primary building planned for the site as One World Trade Center -- its legal name and street address -- for almost two years now, as well as using the name the Freedom Tower,\" said Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority, in a statement released to CNN. \"Many will always refer to it as the Freedom Tower, but as the building moves out of the planning stage and into full construction and leasing, we believe that going forward it is most practical to market the building as One World Trade Center.\" Ten of the building's planned 108 above-ground floors have been built. \"The fact is, more than $3 billion of public money is invested in that building, and, as a public agency, we have the responsibility to make sure it is completed and that we utilize the best strategy to make certain it is fully occupied,\" Sigmund added. He noted that the agency lost 84 colleagues in the September 11 attacks. Mary Fetchet, founding director of Voices of September 11th, a group that commemorates the lives of those killed in the attack, said she was not familiar with the decision made by the Port Authority and was not willing to make a statement. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on the John Gambling radio show taped Friday morning, said he was not upset by the Port Authority's decision. \"It's up to the Port Authority,\" he said. \"I have no idea what the commercial aspects are, and we can say, 'Oh, we shouldn't worry about that,' but of course you have to, particularly now. \"I would like to see it stay the Freedom Tower, but it's their building, and they don't need me dumping on it. If they could rent the whole thing by changing the name, I guess they're going to do that, and they probably, from a responsible point of view, should. From a patriotic point of view, is it going to make any difference?\" He added, \"one of the things is, we call things what we want to call them. So, Avenue of the Americas is a good example, for it's Sixth Avenue to most people. Very few people use Avenue of the Americas. If they name this One World Trade Center, people will still call it the Freedom Tower.\" The building was named the Freedom Tower in the first \"ground zero\" master plan. Officials said at the time that the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism. Representatives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Vantone Industrial Co. announced Thursday the signing of a lease that will create the China Center, a 190,810-square-foot business and cultural facility, to be on portions of the 64th floor and the entire 65th through 69th floors of One World Trade Center. Hailing it as a great day for the Port Authority and its partners in the China center, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward added, \"this is the first step in a long journey as downtown is finally rebuilt.\" The lease is for 20 years and nine months, beginning when the building is completed, with rents starting at $80 per square foot and escalating afterward. The China Center also will have the right to lease up to two additional contiguous floors under the same terms, an option that expires at the end of 2009. The Port Authority also has commitments for more than a million square feet of leased office space in One World Trade Center from the U.S. General Services Administration and the New York State Office of General Services. Leases for these two public agencies are being finalized. These commitments, coupled with the China Center lease, represent nearly 50 percent of the office space in the building. The China Center at One World Trade Center is expected to represent the elite of China's business and cultural communities and serve as a hub for Chinese firms developing United States operations, as well as for U.S. companies that wish to conduct business in China or expand operations. One World Trade Center will include 2.6 million gross square feet of office space on 70 office floors, a public lobby with a 50-foot-high ceiling, an observation deck 1,265 feet above ground, a skyline restaurant, a wide array of shopping and parking. The building itself will be 1,368 feet tall, and a spire at the top will bring the total height to 1,776 feet. Beijing Vantone Industrial is one of the first private corporations established in China. Today, the company is one of China's largest private real estate investment companies with 13 subsidiaries, including one publicly traded company, Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co.","highlights":"New skyscraper will be known as One World Trade Center .\nPort Authority: \"It is most practical to market the building\" under address name .\nThe building was named the Freedom Tower in the first \"ground zero\" master plan.\nAgency says it has signed first commercial lease to Chinese company .","id":"9c9f4fc7e71b04d6af69a9ff0d72334936a4551f"} -{"article":"BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) -- Blake Jones' business plan for his company, Namaste Solar Electric, was so unusual, he confounded a lot of business experts. Typical home solar systems cost about $12,000 up front, but supporters say they pay off in the long run. \"We did have a lot of skeptical, raised eyebrows at the beginning,\" Jones said of his company, which installs solar power systems in Colorado. \"We even have had business schools bring teams of MBA students to come to do a case study,\" he said. Outsiders were baffled by some of these company plans: . \u2022 Environmental concerns would be a driving force in every aspect of the company. \u2022 Six weeks of paid time off. \u2022 A concept called FOH -- frank, open and honest -- to help eliminate gossip and grudges. \u2022 Employees, no matter what their job description, have the same pay scale. \u2022 One percent of yearly revenues goes to solar systems donated to community groups. \u2022 All major decisions would be made by consensus of all company employees. Jones had done a serious turnabout in his own career that inspired some of the unusual principles of Namaste. Namaste is a Sanskrit greeting meaning \"to bow to you.\" The civil engineer spent five years working in the Middle East for Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, in the oil and gas industry. \"But something in me realized there is something more. I didn't like the overdependence that we have on oil and gas. I think oil and gas, even coal are always going to be a very big part of our lives. But I think what we need to do, is we need a more balanced portfolio. I had a gradual awakening to wanting passionately to work with renewable energy because I thought there was a better way,\" Jones said. He moved from the Middle East to Nepal, where he spent three years installing solar and hydroelectric systems in remote areas. Although the clients and the mission are very different in Colorado, solar power is becoming a more popular long-term investment in the state. Jones picked a place where residents are open to doing things a different way. Boulder is tree-hugger heaven by anyone's standards. The city has lots of incentives to encourage the use of renewable energy. \"There is more interest in solar in Boulder then anywhere else in Colorado. That's one example of how environmentally focused our community is,\" said Sarah Vanpelt, environmental sustainability coordinator for the city. In 2004, Colorado voters approved state incentives for the use of alternative energy. \"And Boulder provides a rebate on a portion of the sales and use tax that property owners pay to purchase and install a system, and we use those funds to provide grants to nonprofits to install solar on affordable housing, low-income housing, and on nonprofit facilities,\" Vanpelt said. \"So I think we will continue to see growth in the green industry and in renewable energy, both solar and wind,\" she said. Namaste is in the process of remodeling a 15,000-square-foot warehouse for its offices. Watch more about the unique project \u00bb . And it is doing it to the highest of green building standards, the LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. That involves everything from the use of natural light to the recycling of building materials to the access to the building by public transportation. And yes, all the building's electricity will be provided by a solar system Namaste installs. Most of the panels will be on the roof, but there will also be a solar awning. Construction manager Marc Smerekanicz did some of his own head-scratching with some of the requests to meet LEED standards. \"Thinking in a different way than what I was brought up to think of as the construction process, that's the way of the future,\" Smerekanicz said. For some customers, it is rising energy prices as much as concern for the environment that is prompting them to consider solar power for their homes and businesses. Namaste just installed solar panels on the home of Hal Stuber. \"It's become more reasonably priced, and on top of that there are the incentives from the utility company, also the federal tax credits. So, all in all, the economics really look excellent,\" Stuber said. \"For every $3 of cost, from rebates and tax credits I'm getting about $2 back, and yeah, that's a big incentive. I doubt that I would have done this had it not been for the rebates and tax incentives,\" he said. Stuber plans to use some of his solar power for a plug-in motorbike. And when his system produces more power than he uses, his electric meter runs backward. At the end of the year, he may get money back from the utility. Even with rebates, Jones said, a typical solar system costs a homeowner about $12,000 up front. But he said that as a long-term investment, it pays off. He said that's why the company's community involvement comes in the form of solar installations, not cash. \"We consider a solar system to be a gift that keeps on giving. If we give them a solar system, then it will save their electricity bills each year for the next 30 years, compared to if we just give them money, it will contribute to their budget for that one year only,\" Jones said. So how's that crazy business plan working? In the past 3\u00bd years, Namaste has installed more solar systems than any other company in Colorado. Three original employees have grown to 45. And the company has been growing by triple-digit percentages every year. \"Whatever perspective you look at, we're being profitable, and it's exactly what we need to do to prove that our business experiment, that our company model is going to work,\" Jones said.","highlights":"Businessman Blake Jones seeks to develop renewable energy sources .\nJones' passion for solar sparked a radical career shift during time in Mideast .\nHome solar system costs $12,000, but Jones says it pays off in long run .\nBoulder, Colorado, offers rebates, grants for home solar power systems .","id":"cdf95acaecb9eada01fb36b63a0e222e6b4e27f2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Self-confessed BlackBerry addict President Barack Obama may not have to kick the thumbing habit after all, despite the concerns of a notoriously technophobic White House. Obama was a self-confessed BlackBerry addict during his White House campaign. \"The president has a BlackBerry,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday, clearing up weeks of speculation about whether President Obama would be able to hold on to a cherished method of communicating. The decision to allow Obama to keep a smartphone is \"a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends,\" Gibbs told the media in his first press conference since the inauguration. \"Use will be limited and the security is enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate but to do so effectively,\" Gibbs also said. \"And to do so in a way that is protected.\" The press secretary refused to provide more details about the new president's device, already being called the \"BarackBerry.\" Watch CNN's Errol Barnett reports on the president's new phone \u00bb . Obama was often seen hunched over the mobile e-mail cell phone device during his election campaign and even featured at No. 2 on one celebrity Web site's list of obsessive BlackBerry users. But, like previous Oval Office incumbents, Obama had been expected to take a vow of technological celibacy following his inaugural oath on Tuesday, despite telling CNBC in an interview that security officials would have to \"pry it out of my hands.\" He said a mobile device would help him stay in touch with the real world. Should President Obama be allowed to keep his BlackBerry? Tell us what you think . E-mail has long been treated with suspicion by the Secret Service because of fears it could be hacked into by foreign espionage agencies, or that sensitive information could reach the public domain via a single mistaken strike of the \"send\" key. President George W. Bush was forced to give up using e-mail when he took charge, while President Bill Clinton sent just two e-mails during his administration -- one to test that the system worked and the second to veteran astronaut John Glenn before his trip into space in 1998. There are also concerns that mobile devices such as the BlackBerry, which contain built-in GPS technology, could be hacked, revealing the president's location within a few feet. But according to reports Thursday, Obama may actually have been issued a spy-proof alternative to his favorite toy. Writing on his blog for the Atlantic magazine, Marc Ambinder reports that the National Security Agency has approved a $3,350 smartphone -- inevitably dubbed the \"BarackBerry\" -- for Obama's use. The exclusive Sectera Edge, made by General Dynamics, is reportedly capable of encrypting top secret voice conversations and handling classified documents. But Obama may have pushed his Secret Service handlers' technological patience far enough. Ambinder also reports that instant messaging in the White House will still be a definite no-no. CNN's Martina Stewart contributed to this report.","highlights":"Report: Security officials approve $3,350 smartphone for Barack Obama .\nObama was an inveterate BlackBerry user during his campaign .\nSecurity concerns that e-mail could be hacked, or GPS used to locate president .\nPhone capable of encrypting voice conversations, handling classified documents .","id":"089fd9d3b8e3f84061b8329425e81ef62de7bded"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A 16-year-old girl was found dead and another girl was found unconscious in an Army barracks at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington, during the weekend, a base spokesman said Monday. \"Neither of the two women had any outward signs of trauma on them,\" said Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek. He said that an Army solider who was \"allegedly an acquaintance\" of the two 16-year-olds was questioned by investigators, but no arrests had been made. The spokesman said the name and rank of the soldier who had been questioned was not being released. According to an Army news release, the names of the two girls \"are not being released due to their ages, their civilian status, and the nature of the ongoing investigation.\" The Fort Lewis Criminal Investigation Division is trying to determine why the two girls were in the barracks, where soldiers live, and what led to their conditions when they were found. Emergency personnel from the base responded to a 911 call about 3:30 a.m. Sunday and found the two girls in one of the barracks. A doctor declared one of the girls dead on the scene, and the second girl was transported to Madigan Army Hospital, where she was in stable condition Monday. The Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy, Piek said, and it will be at least a week before results are complete. Both girls are from the nearby South Puget Sound area but were not related to anyone living on base, Piek said. Both girls' families had been notified, he said. Although Fort Lewis is not open to civilians, they can be escorted in by a soldier living there if they have identification and a reason for coming onto the facility. The circumstances of how the girls came unto the base are under investigation, Piek said, but there was no evidence that security had been compromised. About 30,000 military personnel are based at Fort Lewis. Barracks where soldiers live are usually split into rooms for one to three soldiers, Piek said. Details about the barracks where the girls where found were not released.","highlights":"Second girl found unconscious in barracks at Fort Lewis, Washington .\nSoldier has been questioned, but no arrests have been made .\nThe two teens had no outward signs of trauma on them, spokesman says .\nFort Lewis not open to civilians but can be escorted onto base by personnel .","id":"c1208956c5c755a1a5c1948f67c4bafbd0835ebb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five days of gunbattles between the Indian army and separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir have left at least 25 dead -- eight Indian army troopers, including one officer, and 17 militants, the Indian military said Tuesday. An Indian army soldier lays a wreath during the funeral of a slain soldier, northeast of Srinagar on Tuesday. Defense Minister A.K. Antony, meeting with India's military chiefs in Delhi, reviewed the situation in the Himalayan region and told the Army to deal with the situation in the Himalayan region with \"utmost firmness.\" Kashmir has been in the throes of a violent separatist campaign for nearly two decades during which authorities say 43,000 people have been killed. However, various NGOs and rights groups put the number of dead at twice the official count. In Srinigar, Kashmir, Army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar told CNN the Army was moving against the militants \"based on sound intelligence inputs as well as human intelligence provided by our own sources.\" The battles in the Shamsbhari forests of north Kashmir Kupwara district have caused \"minimum collateral damage to property,\" Brar said. The spokesman denied media reports that helicopter gunships and heavy weapons had been used by the army during these operations against the militants. This month's encounter between the Indian Army and the militants is the second longest in Kashmir this year. In January, a fierce encounter raged for seven days in the Poonch district of Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir. Two soldiers, a policeman and four militants were killed in that encounter. Kashmir has been the source of bitter dispute and two wars between India and neighboring Pakistan. Both control parts of the region which is predominantly Muslim.","highlights":"NEW: 25 dead in Kashmir gunfights between Indian troops, separatist militants .\nIncident comes after India accuses Pakistani troops of firing on Indian troops .\nKashmir has been in throes of separatist campaign for 20 years .","id":"758c6cca523bf61ac5d36407fae830676e9c6378"} -{"article":"BARCELONA, Spain (CNN) -- Google launched the latest salvo in the cellphone wars Tuesday with the unveiling of the newest handset to carry its Android platform. Google's Android platform goes head to head with Apple's iPhone. Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Vodafone's HTC Magic smartphone will make its European bow in the UK, Spain, France and Germany in the coming months. In Italy it will be available under a non-exclusive contract. The Google-run handsets are regarded as the chief rivals to Apple's iPhones in the battle for the next generation of mobile devices. Google's latest foray into the cell phone market is seen by many as the beginnings of the Internet giant's attempts to dominate the industry. Some have expressed concerns that cell phone manufacturers, network operators and users will have little control over what data Google will be able to utilise from its software. Among critics is the LiMo Foundation, representing Linux-based operating system LiMo, which has launched its own cell phone platform, according to Congress organizer Groupe Speciale Mobile Association's daily newsletter. \"A lot of operators still harbor some questions over whether they will have the control over services and how much of the data that is going out and coming from a Google device goes to Google and how much to you [the operator],\" LiMo's Andrew Shikiar told Mobile Business Briefing. Users of both the Apple and Google models can download applications developed by third-parties from open-source software, potentially giving them the capability of small handheld computers. The first Android-capable handset, the G1, was launched last year. It partnered with T-Mobile for its UK launch, its first foray into the European market. The HTC Magic includes a 3.2-inch QVGA touch screen display, navigational buttons and a trackball. It also comes with several Google applications including Google Mail, Google Maps and Google Search as well as YouTube, which is owned by Google. Andy Rubin, Senior Director of Mobile Platforms at Google, said that the launch of the HTC Magic was an important step for Android. \"With it, Vodafone is opening up the mobile web for consumers across Europe and giving more third-party developers a platform on which they can build the next wave of killer applications,\" Rubin said. CNN's Adrian Finighan, who is at the congress, said that as an iPhone user he had spent much of his time at this year's event looking for something to rival his device. \"The Magic is, well, magic! I think I've found it. It really is the first device that I could consider swapping my beloved Apple device for.\"","highlights":"Vodafone's HTC Magic handset will launch in western Europe in the next few months .\nThe first Android-capable handset, T-Mobile's G1, was launched last year .\nNew device includes a 3.2-inch touch screen display, navigational buttons, trackball .","id":"cd2fece4084507f172e1c4aeeb4f11973f455abf"} -{"article":"LAKE WALES, Florida (CNN) -- Does jumping out of a plane show love? For one family in Florida it does. Trevor Muir (left), 23; Darcy Shepard, 18; Harriett Shepard, 94; and Dave Shepard, 74, are ready to jump. Last Saturday, four generations of Darcy Shepard's family went skydiving for her 18th birthday. The oldest jumper was Shepard's 94-year-old great-grandmother, Harriett Shepard. Skydiving is becoming a Shepard family rite of passage. Two members of the family had jumped before -- including family matriarch Harriett. Harriett Shepard jumped three years ago, at age 91, because she wanted to know what it felt like. She is an inspiration to her great-granddaughter. \"If she can do it at 91, then I could, too,\" Darcy says, explaining that she wasn't allowed to jump three years ago because she hadn't reached age 18. As Darcy planned the adventure, her brother, cousins, father and grandfather decided to join her in skydiving. At first, the family invited 94-year-old Harriett to watch everyone skydive in central Florida. But Harriett, known to the family as \"Honeynun,\" didn't want to watch. She wanted to jump. Watch Harriett and kin soar across the sky \u00bb . Adventure isn't new to this bunch. In the past the family has gone scuba diving and hang gliding together. Jumping out of the plane were Harriett; Darcy; Harriett's 74-year-old son Dave; Dave's 45-year-old son Dallas, who is Darcy's dad; two cousins; a girlfriend; and a future father-in-law. As she suited up, Harriett said she found it \"exciting to be doing this with the family.\" The eight uncertified skydivers were trained and paired with tandem instructors at Florida Skydiving Center at the Lake Wales Airport. The center required Harriett to be cleared by a doctor prior to jumping. Florida Skydiving says Harriett Shepard is the oldest person to jump at the center. As jump time nears, Harriett is fearless. \"I'm never scared up there,\" she says. \"My husband and I had a plane. I'm never afraid.\" See photos of the family's skydiving day \u00bb . Great-grandson Trevor Muir, another of the jumpers, says he has water-skied, jumped on a trampoline and climbed giant tree forts with his great-grandmother. \"So what's skydiving? Just another notch in the pole,\" says the 23-year-old Trevor. \"We've done a lot of crazy things.\" The plane, a DeHavilland Twin Otter, takes the group to an altitude of 14,000 feet. The rear door opens. Pilot Eric Weaver announces over the radio: \"Attention any traffic in the Lake Wales area. There will be skydiving over the Lake Wales Airport.\" First to jump is 94-year-old Harriett, with her instructor David \"Pip\" Perry. The skydivers free-fall at speeds between 120 and 150 mph before deploying their parachute. \"Honeynun\" slowly floats to the ground, wearing her cozy buckle-up sandals that she feels are more comfortable than closed-toe shoes. After landing, Harriett -- who has battled skin cancer -- is more fearful of the sun than jumping from the plane. One skydiver after the other lands safely to fanfare from anxious family members on the ground. Eighteen-year-old Darcy is greeted with a chorus of \"Happy Birthday.\" There are lots of high-fives, family photos and exclamations of \"awesome.\" Darcy hugs her great-grandmom: \"Yay, Honeynun.\" Darcy's father, Dallas Shepard, deems it \"an incredible jump that was a lot of fun.\" Dallas says that skydiving with his grandmother was \"kind of neat, just being able to do it with her -- but she is living life, and that's the best part.\" His father, Dave Shepard, calls it an experience he will remember for a long time. \"It was something special, where we had four generations.\" Harriett Shepard confesses that her late husband would not be happy. \"He would have never let me do this,\" she says. \"He took care of me -- that's why I'm this old.\" Yet Harriett, who has lived a long and full life as an author, photographer and architect, is concerned about the publicity. \"She's worried,\" Dave Shepard says of his mom, \"that the only thing people will remember her for is jumping out of an airplane.\"","highlights":"Four generations, in age from 18 to 94, jump out of plane at 14,000 feet .\nGreat-grandmother Harriett Shepard jumped once before -- at age 91 .\nJumpers included family members age 94, 74, 45 and 18 .\n\"I'm never scared up there,\" great-grandmother says .","id":"aaad53130d0d5e816b8f47db0e05d5ac5a3eb985"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nicole Nagy had gone back to school hoping that a new career would lead to a better job. When she was turned down for financial aid, Nagy was told she could, as a song goes, \"sing for the money.\" She was directed to a contest called Careereoki. Nicole Nagy enlisted the help of her children and her husband to make her videotape. Anyone brave enough to videotape themselves singing -- and sometimes dancing -- about their dream career karaoke-style was qualified to enter the competition. More than 60 videos were submitted, from which five finalists were chosen to compete for online votes that will determine the winner. Most contestants were from Central Florida, likely because the grand prize includes tuition for a certificate program at an Orange County technical school. Nagy, a mother of three, was laid off in 2007. When she couldn't find a job, her husband supported her decision to enroll in nursing school. But tuition and books are costly, and the Nagys are a month behind on the mortgage payment. So risking embarrassment, Nagy decided a better future might lie in her music video. \"I can't sing to save my life, but I will go ahead and try this because I am willing to do anything to get school paid for,\" Nagy said. Her husband, obviously a good sport, appears in the video along with her children. Watch the contestants' videos \u00bb . Dressed in a bathrobe, she sits on the couch with her kids as her husband starts the video with the bad news, \"OK guys, I have to go to work. Sorry we can't send you to nursing school, Mom. We just don't have the money.\" Nagy replies, \"Ahh man.\" Addressing her children, she says, \"know what we can do instead, we can sing about it.\" Nagy takes off the robe, revealing a nursing uniform and the stethoscope which acts as her microphone. Nagy then dances around her living room, belting out her tune, \"Doctor, doctor give me the news; I got a bad case of nursing blues.\" She sings her original lyrics to Robert Palmer's \"Bad Case of Loving You\" as her young, obedient children wait for the song to end. Nagy's video was good enough to gain her a spot as a Careereoki finalist. But winning the contest won't be as easy as making it to the finals. The Careereoki competition is stiff. American Idol judging it was not for this first-time contest. To choose the final five videos, judges considered three categories. Points were awarded based 50 percent on the contestant's originality, 25 percent on creativity and 25 percent on the video's humor. Whether Nagy's performance will be good enough to win will depend on how many people vote for her on local radio station WPYO's Web site where the videos are posted. Fans of the musical Grease may feel inclined to vote for Julia Langston of Lake Mary, Florida. Langston does a nice job singing what is supposed to be a duet, \"Summer Nights.\" She creatively sings, \"Unemployment happened so fast, never thought this recession would last.\" Langston was laid off a few months ago after working for 15 years as an office manager. As with her fellow contestants, the grand prize would be a huge help for her. She is living off the money she had set aside to remodel her kitchen. Finalist Jennifer Faulk of Deltona, Florida, sums up the recurring theme of the five still standing: \"The day does not go by that I don't go online and look for something and there's just nothing out there.\" The Careereoki contest was sponsored by the Orange County School Board; Workforce Central Florida, an Orlando-area job placement organization; and a local advertising agency. Workforce Vice President Kimberly Cornett said her organization's participation in the singing contest helped spread the word on their \"no-cost services\" to the community. \"It was a way to connect to job seekers, and also for job seekers to take a little break from the stress of unemployment,\" Cornett said. She said she sees that stress first hand; the Orlando organization she works for offers job placement. Unemployment in Central Florida is the highest it has been in 16 years, according to Cornett. The grand prize is worth $8,000 and includes a career training scholarship, personal and resume makeovers and a $100 gas card. Two first-place winners will also get tuition help, resume makeovers and $50 gas cards. The finalists are keeping their fingers crossed that the song in their heart doesn't end up a song sung blue. The winner will be announced on Monday.","highlights":"People invited to sing for job help in \"Careereoki\" contest .\nBest videotape of singing contestant will earn prize worth $8,000 .\nCentral Florida contest sponsored by school board, job-placement agency .","id":"b7d4b8380c877052f632ce3d8a3d3b0d712d7215"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British TV channels could advertise abortion services for the first time under new advertising rules proposed Thursday by an ad industry group. The new proposals will also allow condoms to be advertised more widely on television. The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, the industry body responsible for writing and enforcing advertising rules in Britain, said the commercials would be for pregnancy advisory services that give information about a range of options to pregnant women, including abortion. If an organization does not offer information about abortion, it would have to make that clear in the ad, BCAP spokeswoman Lynsay Taffe said. Abortion clinics, which require referrals from doctors or hospitals, would not be allowed to advertise under the proposed rules, Taffe said. There would be no restrictions on when such ads could air on British television, she said, but programmers would have to keep the sensitive topic in mind and not schedule the ads around religious programs, for example. \"It's a sensitive product, so it would have to be scheduled sensitively,\" Taffe told CNN. The proposal is among a number of updates to current advertising standards that the Committee for Advertising Practice and BCAP, its broadcasting arm, published Thursday after an 18-month review. \"Each year the British public (sees) millions of advertisements, many of which are memorable,\" the committee said. \"The advertising codes aim to make sure that they are memorable for the right reasons.\" The public now has until June 19 to comment on the proposals before they come into force, likely in 2010, the committee said. The new proposals also contain a change on advertising condoms on television. Under current rules, condoms generally cannot be advertised on TV before 9 p.m. in order to protect younger viewers, the committee said. New rules would relax the restrictions on advertising condoms, with the only requirement that they not be shown around programs intended for children younger than 10. The change came after Joyce Gould, a member of the House of Lords, requested the change and noted that Britain had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe along with spiraling rates of sexually transmitted diseases, the committee said. Gould reported a survey that showed young people believed TV was one of the most effective ways of encouraging them to use condoms. \"The presence of condom advertisements on television continues to be a subject of complaint to the (Advertising Standards Authority), but numbers are very low,\" the committee said. \"Nevertheless, BCAP has to balance public sensitivities against a public health problem that is clearly urgent.\"","highlights":"British TV channels could advertise abortion services under new proposals .\nIndustry group says commercials would be for pregnancy advisory services .\nThey give information about options for pregnant women, including abortion .","id":"3080b37f9dc56d160c69a0fb24d3bfdd2ac4ad28"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- France is sending four state police units to its overseas department of Guadeloupe after a month of sometimes violent demonstrations, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Thursday. French gendarmes face-off against Guadeloupe protesters. \"The pillaging ... the violence against people, are not tolerable and will not be tolerated,\" Alliot-Marie told the French radio station RTL. \"It's no longer simply a question of containing the protests. ... This mission of honor will continue to be undertaken, but we also have to fight against the violence.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to meet with elected officials from overseas departments, including Guadeloupe, Thursday afternoon, his office announced. A general strike over low wages and living conditions in the Caribbean island has included demonstrations and clashes with police. At least one civilian has been killed in the riots, officials said. Hospitals and emergency services continue to function and the main international airport is open, but petrol stations, schools, and most businesses -- including supermarkets and car rental offices -- are closed, the British Foreign Office said in a travel advisory. Hotels are open, but the strike is causing daily cuts to electricity and water supplies, the Foreign Office said. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Thursday he is ready to approve a compromise that would give nearly a \u20ac200 ($254) monthly supplement to workers in Guadeloupe with low-paying jobs. \"This crisis is serious, and profound, but it's not new,\" Fillon said, adding that it's linked to \"the lifelessness of the economy in the Antilles, aggravated by the global economic crisis.\" Sending supplementary police forces is justified, Fillon said, because \"we cannot accept what has happened\" in the department. He was referring to the attacks on businesses, the roadblocks in the streets and above all, the death of the civilian, who he said was a union leader. Agence France-Presse identified the victim as union representative Jacques Bino. He was shot dead Tuesday night when he drove past a roadblock manned by armed youths in the city of Pointe-a-Pitre. His car was hit three times by shotgun fire, prosecutors told AFP. Three police who accompanied emergency services trying to help the dying man were lightly wounded, officials said, according to AFP. Speaking with RTL on Wednesday, one demonstrator denied he was fanning the flames of unrest. \"We have always called for calm,\" Elie Domota, leader of the Coalition against Exploitation, said. \"We have told the young people to go to their homes and continue to protest peacefully, but the police yesterday beat protesters and called them racist names, so the situation escalated.\" CNN's Alanne Orjoux in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report .","highlights":"French police reinforcements being posted to Guadeloupe .\nIsland wracked by a month of sometimes violent protests over living conditions .\nProtest leader denies encouraging violence .\nGuadeloupe is French overseas territory .","id":"94b37c8f266c3fe90e30a565ef0e4edf7f28c852"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What he lacks in technique, Steve Wozniak makes up for in geeks. Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak and his partner show off their moves on \"Dancing With the Stars.\" The Apple Inc. co-founder has managed to transform his less-than-graceful moves on ABC's \"Dancing With the Stars\" into enough votes to keep hope alive on the competitive ballroom-dance show. \"Woz,\" as he is known by friends and fans alike, and partner Katarina Smirnoff have had some of the lowest scores from the trio of judges since the show premiered on March 9. But the judges, who are experts in the field of competitive dance, aren't the only deciding factor. Viewers can vote online, via phone calls or by text messaging, and those votes comprise 50 percent of each couple's score. The dance team with the lowest combined score is then voted off the show -- a fate that may await Wozniak on Tuesday night. Wozniak and Smirnoff are up against a bevy of entertainers, including an Olympian, an NFL Hall of Famer, the most successful female rapper in hip-hop history and an actor whose claim to fame is appearing naked in the film \"Sex and the City.\" But all that star power has so far been matched by the power of computer geeks who are using what they know best to keep the rhythmically challenged Silicon Valley icon in the game. Chris Harrington, technology director for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based advertising, public relations and new media firm Luquire George Andrews, set up VoteWoz.com and a similarly named Twitter account, which so far has more than 55,000 followers. Harrington -- who began rallying the techie troops almost as soon as ABC announced that Wozniak would be competing -- said he is rooting for the philanthropist because \"he puts more heart and more passion in what he's doing than some of the other dancers.\" \"When you have beautiful athletes, movie stars and TV personalities, and then you mix in a geek, there's something a little strange and entertaining,\" Harrington said. \"Being a fellow geek myself, I thought now is the time to work with the technologies that we know and start pushing for the vote.\" That means lots and lots of social networking to spread the love -- and the word of Woz. Joe Patane is a longtime friend of Wozniak's and one of the officers for the official \"Vote for Woz on ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars' \" Facebook group. Patane shares his friend's passion for philanthropy and runs his own foundation and the site joesworld.org. He also knows a bit about reality television. A former cast member of MTV's \"The Real World: Miami,\" Patane was instrumental in convincing his bud to sign on to the show and said the lovable (though some might argue lumbering) Wozniak has garnered fans both young and old. \"He loves his fans, and he's completely flattered by the fan response,\" Patane said. \"He's a shy guy, and he's doing a crazy, unique and different thing in his life that he wants to share with the world.\" Patane, who is also executive producer of the documentary \"Camp Woz: The Admirable Lunacy of Philanthropy,\" said he enjoys watching his friend dance each week. \"He's the most uniquely giving, loving, happy man,\" Patane said. \"With so many people watching this show, it's a good, infectious way to spread love, joy and hope.\" Aaron Petrey of Stanford, Kentucky, is one viewer who has fully embraced the Wozniak mania. He won an autographed copy of the book \"iWoz\" for submitting a video of himself imitating Wozniak's dance moves to VoteWoz.com. Petrey said it's only natural that fans of Woz would turn to the Internet to support him. \"Without [Wozniak] there probably wouldn't be a YouTube, Twitter or Facebook,\" Petrey said. \"He's the reason why we even have a computer. I like seeing him on the show.\" Unfortunately, the \"Dancing With the Stars\" judges don't seem to feel the same way. Despite dancing through injuries -- including a pulled hamstring that sent him to the hospital in an ambulance last week -- Wozniak failed to impress the experts Monday night. While he did manage to score a perfect 10, it was a collective 10 out of a possible 30. At one point during Wozniak's and Smirnoff's samba, judge Bruno Tonioli put his face in his hands. Wozniak capped their routine by doing his version of the break-dance move known as \"the worm,\" but even that failed to save his lackluster performance. \"At some point the novelty wears off,\" said judge Carrie Ann Inaba, often cited as the kindest of the three. Wozniak, who beat out former Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle after a dance-off in an earlier round, kept his smile throughout the storm of criticism. \"I enjoy it,\" he said on the show afterward. \"I'm going to try to bring my form of entertainment to the world.\"","highlights":"Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak scores this season on \"Dancing With the Stars\"\nFellow \"geeks\" are supporting Wozniak via voting and social-networking sites .\nWozniak friend: He's a shy guy \"doing a crazy, unique and different thing\"\nDespite dancing through injuries, Wozniak hasn't been a hit with judges .","id":"ab1ebdb812ed9e2721321585340fa25efb6c4e3e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite the steady drum-beat of economic news, therapists say money is still one of the most taboo subjects for American families. Keli Lauric, 30, and her grandmother, Evelyn Gloer, 79, view money based on life experience. \"It's easier to talk about sex than it is to talk about money in our societies,\" says Dr. Nancy Molitor, a psychologist in Illinois. And that's too bad, because all of us have something to learn from each other, says Molitor. Often, generations seem like they're speaking different languages when it comes to saving and spending money. Older people tend to save, while younger generations wrestle with the fallout from overspending. Experts say people's spending habits often reflect the environment in which they grew up. To find out how families view money during the economic recession, CNN.com sat down with two multigenerational families. The four-generation Merriweather family worries its younger members may have been spoiled by the economic high tide of the 1990s and early 2000s. Marvin Merriweather, 65, says a person's spending habits are derived from life experience. If your life was hard, you save; if you've got it made, you tend to spend, he says. Watch the Merriweather family talk about money \u00bb . \"I think a lot of the fault falls to us as the older generation by not teaching [financial skills], because we try so hard to make it better for our children.\" The three-generation Gloer family says families need to remember to lean on each other during the hard times. \"Life's what you make it. I still say that,\" says Evelyn Gloer, 79. \"I mean, you don't have to be rich to have a happy home.\" Olivia Mellon, a money coach who organizes multigenerational family retreats to talk about spending, says older generations are more inclined to hoard money because they've lived through difficult times. Now, \"we have a culture of addictive overspenders,\" she says. But, with the recession, there are signs spending habits are trending back toward the Depression era, she says. \"Some people are getting much more frugal and much more risk-averse,\" Mellon says. Keli Lauric, Gloer's 30-year-old granddaughter, says she spent her money freely in her 20s, living in New York. Now in Atlanta, Georgia, she owns two houses because she can't find a way to sell or rent one of them. Like many people, she's had to cut back. The recession has \"made everyone realize you have to live on a budget all the time, even when times are good,\" she said. Dr. April Benson, a psychologist and author of books on compulsive spending, said this is a good time for families to bond over experiences instead of purchases. Molitor, the family therapist, said many Baby Boomers grew up with a sense of entitlement about money. Now, many of them are terrified because they may have to put off retirement because their savings accounts dwindled as markets fell. Older generations tend to save more, she said. Many avoid credit because they remember hard times after the Great Depression. iReport.com: What have you learned from past generations? Families can use the economic recession as a chance to band together and learn from each other, she says. \"This is an opportunity. As much as this is very painful, many people are actually using this as a challenge and they're actually rising above this,\" she says. Molitor said children should be involved in financial planning from an early age. At about age 8, they should be able to understand if the family is under financial stress, so it's best to see what they can contribute. Dr. Barbara Lips, on the other hand, says children should be involved in financial planning, but should not be made aware of family money problems at a young age. \"If [children] have a sense that mom and dad are OK then they are OK,\" says Lips, a psychologist in Iowa. \"Mom and dad being OK really is their sense of security.\" Molitor says she's seen a wave of families come to her to talk about money and the stress it's causing them. Often, what they need is to talk to each other, says Molitor. The Gloer family agrees. Melanie Burns, Evelyn's 53-year-old daughter, says families should band together in hard times. \"That's what family's for ... We're here to support each other if we need it.\" \"Right, when somebody falls down we pick them up,\" Evelyn Gloer responded.","highlights":"Therapists say money is still more taboo in American families than sex .\nGenerational differences and life experiences can shade a person's view of money .\nOlder generations tend to save more; younger people tend to rely on credit .\nExperts say generations can learn from each other during recession .","id":"fda2d5c87c65093261438a353e123b25e41c7e71"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The moment I saw that guinea pig's corpse, I made up my mind. I would not tell my son Checkers was dead ... at least not that night. Drew had five tests within the next two days. I wasn't going to let grief jeopardize his grades. Checkers, on the left, enjoys a bit of kale with Andrea. I realize instantly the challenges of my decision. How could I keep this secret in a 10-by-12 room in which the guinea pig chalet was almost as big as the twin bed? I'd already goofed by yelping, \"Oh, my!\" when I saw the body. Drew heard me from his bathroom. \"What's wrong, Mommy? Are you OK?\" \"I'm fine,\" I reply. But he recognizes that I haven't answered both questions. \"But what's wrong?\" \"Nothing.\" \"Well, why did you say that? Is it the guinea pigs?\" I feel panicked. No sloshing! He's drying off! Pajamas are next! I realize I'm holding my breath, and in my head, I'm yelling, \"Move, Christy! Move!\" I exhale as I lie. \"Everything's OK.\" In what seemed like one move, I reach in the closet, dump shoes out of a box, grab Checkers, plunk the stiff in the box, run downstairs, stuff the cardboard casket into a plastic bag, dash to the garage trash can, finish rapid hand-washing and make it upstairs as my third-grader steps into the hall. \"We're having storytime in my bed tonight!\" I say breathlessly. My bed is off-limits except for nightmares, illness or Saturday morning. Drew's so excited about the treat, he runs for the king-sized sanctum without asking questions. We read and pray, and then I give him a piggyback ride into his dark bedroom. It's Wednesday, 7:45 p.m., and for now, I'm in the clear. By the time Drew wakes the next morning, I have a plan: darkness and distraction. We're always 30 minutes into our commute before the sun rises. Between a disabled circuit breaker to prevent lights in his room from working, piggyback rides up and down the stairs, dressing in mom's room (where the lights work) while we review potential bonus words, multiplication drills, Scripture recitation for the Bible test, questions science and reading lessons, there are enough morning distractions to safeguard my secret. Thursday evening is a challenge. In our house, TV is for weekends only. It's cold and drizzly outside; Andrew has beaten me in chess -- twice. I pull out the biggest distraction of all. \"I'm going to let you see a video tonight. You need to relax a bit from those tests today,\" I say. His eyebrows make a big V on his forehead. \"But it's a school night, Mommy.\" I assure him it's OK. He's suspicious, but TV is as awesome as getting in Mom's bed, so no more questions. My co-workers split into camps. The Grief Gurus ream me for concealing the death. Andrew loves Checkers. He deserves timely notice of death. I care more about grades than his emotional health. Bad things will happen to Drew at inopportune times in his life, and he has to learn to juggle difficulties. I'm delaying his development. Whatever. The Practical Posse has opinions, too. That guinea pig still will be dead Friday. Andrew will be just as sad after his tests with fewer consequences than if he's sad before the tests. Make sure you're honest about why you delayed telling him. After school Friday, I break the news. There's a shriek and then loads of tears. I'll never forget the long drawn-out wail, \"I loved her like a daughter!\" I'm convinced that boy's been reading William Faulkner, because there is way too much drama that follows. We must wear black for three days. The only song we can listen to on the \"High School Musical 2\" CD is the duet after Gabriella and Troy break up. It's the saddest one. He cancels Happy Meal Friday, because there is nothing happy about this day. I answer the questions. She was on her side at the end of the ramp. Her mouth was open with her two big teeth protruding. No, it didn't look like she suffered. Maybe a lung problem killed her. I think Andrea (the cage mate) will be fine. No, it wasn't your care that killed her. And then finally, \"She died Wednesday.\" Tears stop. Voice strengthens. \"Wednesday?!\" \"Honey, you had a science test. You needed to know your binominal nomenclature. You had a math unit test, a reading test. You had to do your scripture recitation and a Bible test. You see how upset you are now? I couldn't let you go to school and take tests feeling like this.\" There's a long pause. And then he says the words that make giving piggyback rides on a spine with bad discs and disabling circuit breakers worth it. He stares deeply and says, \"Thank you, Mommy.\" Maybe the Grief Gurus are right. Maybe Drew deserved to know sooner. But he seems fine. I'm certain he'll develop into a man who can handle more than one problem at a time. And Checkers, rest in peace.","highlights":"Mom discovers young boy's guinea pig has died suddenly .\nShe decides to keep it a secret because he faces several school tests .\nCo-workers divided on whether mom's actions are correct .","id":"cbe5e901b1e58bc11f4269f644582e029106df3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A roadside bomb attack Thursday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, injured the nation's interior minister and killed one of his secretaries, according to a source close to the minister. The Bakaraha market in Somalia's capital is one of the most dangerous areas of the city. The mid-day attack on Abdukadir Ali Omar, a member of the transitional government, left him with shrapnel wounds to his leg. The extent of his injuries was unclear, said the source, who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media. The explosion occurred about noon at the Bakaraha market, in one of the most dangerous areas of the city. The interior minister is a popular moderate who led assaults against Ethiopian forces during their invasion of Somalia. Ethiopian troops invaded the country at its request in December 2006. The Ethiopian invasion ousted the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamic movement that had claimed control of Mogadishu earlier that year. Thursday's attack on Ali Omar fueled concerns that moderate Islamists would strike out against the hardline Al-Shabab, which is suspected in the explosion. Al-Shabab -- which the United States has designated a terror organization -- warmly welcomed a recent call for the overthrow of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's new president. The call, delivered via an audio recording, purportedly came from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. -- Journalist Mohamed Amin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attack on Abdukadir Ali Omar left him with shrapnel wounds to his leg .\nExplosion occurred about noon at the Bakaraha market in Mogadishu .\nInterior minister is a popular moderate in Somalia .\nFueled concerns moderate Islamists would strike against hardline Al-Shabab .","id":"5cc061d518fdf50dc9bed09ab24ff8a86a41b544"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli military's firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during the Gaza offensive \"was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes,\" Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday. Human Rights Watch says Israel used white phosphorus shells over populated areas in Gaza. \"In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops,\" said Fred Abrahams, a HRW senior emergencies researcher. \"It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died.\" Entitled \"Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza,\" the 71-page report provides \"witness accounts\" and \"presents ballistics evidence, photographs, and satellite imagery, as well as documents from the Israeli military and government.\" HRW is an independent international organization dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. The group urged Israel and the United States to investigate the attacks. Israel should prosecute those who carried them out and the U.S. government, which supplied Israel, should look into the issue. HRW said white phosphorous was a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs and rockets, used primarily to obscure military operations. \"(While) it is not considered a chemical weapon and is not banned per se, it ignites and burns on contact with oxygen and creates a smokescreen at night or during the day to mask the visual movement of troops. \"It also interferes with infra-red optics and weapon-tracking systems, thus protecting military forces from guided weapons such as anti-tank missiles. When WP comes into contact with people or objects, though, it creates an intense and persistent burn. It can also be used as a weapon against military targets,\" the group said. In response, the Israeli military said \"smoke shells are not an incendiary weapon\" and defended its actions. The Israel Defense Forces said it was close to completing its probe into \"the use of ammunition containing elements of phosphorous.\" \"(The invesitgation) is dealing with the use of ammunition containing elements of phosphorous, including, among others, the 155mm smoke shells which were referred to in the HRW report. This type of ammunition disperses in the atmosphere and creates an effective smoke screen. It is used by many Western armies. \"It is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law. These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless,\" the IDF said. It said \"that weapons intended for screening are not classed as incendiary weapons.\" But Abrahams said past IDF investigations into allegations of wrongdoing suggest their inquiry would be neither thorough nor impartial. \"That's why an international investigation is required into serious laws of war violations by all parties. \"For the needless civilian deaths caused by white phosphorus, senior commanders should be held to account,\" Abrahams said. The report said white phosphorus munitions weren't illegal when deployed properly in open areas, but it determined that the IDF repeatedly used them \"unlawfully over populated neighborhoods, killing and wounding civilians and damaging civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse and a hospital. \" \"First, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Second, the IDF was well aware of the effects of white phosphorus and the dangers it poses to civilians. Third, the IDF failed to use safer available alternatives for smokescreens,\" the report said. A medical report prepared during the recent hostilities by the Israeli Health Ministry said that white phosphorus \"can cause serious injury and death when it comes into contact with the skin, is inhaled or is swallowed.\" The report said that the IDF could have used a non-lethal smoke shells produced by an Israeli company if it wanted to provide a \"smokescreen\" for its troops. Israel launched the offensive in late December to take on militants from Hamas, who had been shelling southern Israeli communities for months from Gaza. The offensive, called Operation Cast Lead, was launched December 27 and ended January 17 with a cease-fire. Of the 1,453 people estimated killed in the conflict, 1,440 were Palestinian, including 431 children and 114 women, a U.N. report recently said. The 13 Israelis killed included three civilians and six soldiers killed by Hamas, and four soldiers killed by friendly fire, it said. HRW also said it found no evidence that the Hamas militants Israel was targeting in Gaza were using human shields \"in the vicinity at the time of the attacks.\" Israel has said Hamas militants used civilians as human shields and fought from civilian locations, HRW points out. \"In some areas Palestinian fighters appear to have been present, but this does not justify the indiscriminate use of white phosphorus in a populated area.\"","highlights":"Israel's use of phosphorus shells over during Gaza offensive \"indiscriminate\"\nHuman Rights Watch says shelling \"evidence of war crimes\"\nGroup says phosphorus shells cause an \"intense and persistent burn\"","id":"c5b29e85a4a87cbe084b8f89e1013ea7fcee62c5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Protesters draped themselves in the colorful flag of Tibet and shouted slogans at the Chinese embassy in London on Saturday at the start of a demonstration to mark the 50th anniversary since the Tibetan uprising against China. Protesters have gathered in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tibet uprising. \"Tibetans in Tibet -- we are with you!\" they shouted. \"China, China, China -- out, out, out!\" The small but fervent group marched from the embassy through west London to Trafalgar Square, where they were due to hear a speech by Thomas Shao Jiang, a Chinese dissident who was one of the student organizers of the Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing in 1989. \"I think it's important that Tibet is kept in the world's eye,\" protester Chris Last told CNN amid placards declaring \"50 years too long\" and \"We are Tibetans, not Chinese.\" While Tibet is technically autonomous from the central Chinese government, its current government is directed from Beijing. The Dalai Lama, traditionally the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, lives in exile in India. Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule that sent the Dalai Lama into exile. Protest organizers said the march was meant to draw public attention to what they say is a deepening crisis a year after China cracked down on protests across Tibet. \"(British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown and other world leaders must respond urgently and publicly to the Tibet crisis by taking immediate action,\" said Stephanie Brigden, director of Free Tibet. \"They should demand that China calls off its security stranglehold in Tibet as an essential first step towards backing the Dalai Lama's initiative in finding a long-term and negotiated settlement to China's occupation.\" Tibetan Buddhists say they resent the slow erosion of their culture amid an influx of Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China. That resentment spilled over last March, when Buddhist monks initiated peaceful anti-Chinese protests in the regional capital, Lhasa, on the 49th anniversary of the uprising. The protests soon turned violent, with demonstrators burning vehicles and shops. Some protesters advocated independence from China, while others demonstrated against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in the area and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations. The subsequent crackdown left 18 civilians and one police officer dead, according to the Chinese government. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140. China accuses the Dalai Lama of fomenting the discord in his homeland -- a charge he denies. \"The Dalai Lama demanded the establishment of the so-called 'Greater Tibetan area' on a quarter of the Chinese territory, to drive away Chinese army stationed there guarding the Chinese territory, and to drive away Chinese people of other ethnic groups who lived there for generations. Is such a person a religious figure?\" Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Saturday. \"The conflict between him and us is not religious conflict, human rights conflict, ethnic conflict, nor cultural conflict,\" Yang said. \"The conflict is whether or not to maintain China's unification, and whether or not to permit Tibet to be separated from the Chinese territory.\" The Dalai Lama has said he does not advocate violence or a separate and independent Tibet. He has said he wants a genuine autonomy that preserves the cultural heritage of the region. \"I'm just disgusted with the way the Chinese behave towards the Tibetans. Even if you accept that Tibet has been swallowed up by China, why can't they give to them autonomy, respect their religion, their culture?\" protester Bob Hunt said Saturday. \"These are peaceable people, one of the most peaceable people in the world.\" Protester Shobha Trivedi said she hoped the protest march would make people more aware of the situation inside Tibet. \"I feel as a human being, what (the) Chinese are doing for 50 years, nobody's bothering with it,\" she said. \"And it's a real shame on everyone.\"","highlights":"London protesters marking 50th anniversary of Tibetan uprising against China .\nDalai Lama, traditional spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhists, in exile .\nProtesters claim situation in Tibet is getting worse .","id":"1d96b5b85b13ecd52950af1758945e4e9292cd58"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 200 people have died of meningitis in the past week alone in Niger and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. A health care worker vaccinates a child during an earlier outbreak of meningitis in Niger. The disease is an epidemic in 76 areas of the two countries, the health agency reported Wednesday. A spokesman for W.H.O. in Nigeria, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, said Saturday that the outbreak is bigger than usual and stretches across the African meningitis belt from east- to west-sub-Saharan Africa. The outbreak began around the start of the year, Soyinka told CNN. It usually peaks in the dry season because of dust, winds and cold nights, before dipping around May when the rains come, he said. A shortage of vaccines means officials are relying on \"effective prevention,\" in which they watch for outbreaks and then vaccinate people in the epicenter and surrounding areas, Soyinka told CNN. There have been nearly 25,000 suspected cases and more than 1,500 deaths in the meningitis belt in the first 11 weeks of the year, W.H.O. reported. More than 85 percent of those cases happened in northern Nigeria and Niger. Nigeria's Ministry of Health has reported 17,462 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 960 deaths, the world health agency said. In the past week, it reported 4,164 suspected cases with 171 deaths. Sixty-six local government areas in Nigeria have crossed the epidemic threshold. Epidemic thresholds are a way the W.H.O. confirms the emergence of an epidemic so it can step up vaccinations and other management measures. Niger's Ministry of Health has reported 4,513 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 169 deaths, since the start of the year. In the past week, 1,071 suspected cases and 30 deaths have been reported, the W.H.O. said. Ten of Niger's 42 districts have crossed the epidemic threshold. By comparison, other countries are reporting fewer than 50 cases a week. Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. Several different bacteria can cause meningitis but Neisseria meningitidis -- which is to blame for this outbreak -- is one of the most significant because of its potential to cause epidemics. Health authorities have released 2.3 million doses of vaccine to Nigeria and 1.9 million doses to Niger, the W.H.O. said. CNN's Christian Purefoy in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.","highlights":"W.H.O.: Meningitis killed more than 200 people in the past week in Niger and Nigeria .\nOutbreak stretches across African \"meningitis belt,\" at epidemic levels in 76 areas .\nVaccine shortage forces an \"effective prevention\" approach .\n25,000 suspected cases, 1,500 deaths in the belt in the first 11 weeks of 2009 .","id":"c95ec195d50a16376c71320a3b8d8d360b50b7b0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The numbers were good for \"Knowing.\" In \"Knowing,\" a physics professor (Nicolas Cage) ponders patterns in a list of numbers. The film, about a physics professor who sees clues for disastrous events in a time capsule's list of digits, overcame some pretty long odds at the box office -- going against the Paul Rudd-Jason Segel comedy \"I Love You, Man,\" the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen romantic thriller \"Duplicity\" and some fairly scathing reviews -- to emerge as the weekend's No. 1 film. Though star Nicolas Cage wouldn't have predicted the outcome, in an interview before the film's release, he did talk about the power of positive thinking. \"I'm a huge believer of the human spirit,\" he told CNN. \"I think people are amazing. I think what we have accomplished is incredible. ... If you think positive and you apply the guts and ingenuity that mankind has been doing forever, at least in our existence, I believe we get through anything.\" Cage's character, John Koestler, is a science professor whom Cage describes as \"someone who is reawakening to his faith.\" He begins the film believing that everything is random, but as the film continues -- and he seeks to alert the world of a coming catastrophe -- \"he believes there is cause and effect and perhaps even a divine mind,\" Cage said. The film begins in 1959, with students burying items in a time capsule at an elementary school. One of the children, however, creates an image of seemingly random numbers. Fifty years later, when the capsule is opened, Koestler's son receives the page of numbers, and his father realizes that they correspond to major disasters of the past half-century. Koestler determines that three events have yet to occur and sets out to meet the clairvoyant child's now grown daughter. The final event threatens life on Earth itself, and the group begins a race against time, with unusual consequences. Critics were not impressed. The film earned a 25 percent rating on the review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com, with some reviewers in full-on mockery mode. Watch Mr. Moviefone review \"Knowing\" and other films \u00bb . \"It's increasingly hard to believe that Cage won an Oscar in 1996 (for 'Leaving Las Vegas'),\" wrote USA Today's Claudia Puig in a 1\u00bd-star review. \"In the past decade, he has made some awful choices, and his range has seemed to grow more limited.\" \"It's so inept that you may wish you were watching an M. Night Shyamalan version of the very same premise,\" wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, referring to the director whose last two films, \"Lady in the Water\" and \"The Happening,\" were two of the most detested films of recent years. But the film's apocalyptic theme obviously strikes a chord, something director Alex Proyas (\"Dark City\") saw early on. Proyas told CNN in a pre-release interview that \"you can read [the film] as biblical if you choose to,\" but he prefers to see it as \"spiritual.\" \"I try to leave it very open-ended,\" he said. \"I try to think of it as more a spiritual place than a biblical one.\" Cage's character, he said, is on a spiritual quest in the midst of what could be global destruction. Rose Byrne, who plays the clairvoyant child's daughter, Diana, called the film \"kind of a theological discussion.\" \"That's always an exciting topic,\" she said. \"It's bridging the gap between science and spirituality. That always makes things thought-provoking, and I like that with any piece of art.\" Byrne said that \"Knowing\" taps into some of the end-times anxiety that's been in the air in recent years, which perhaps could help find an audience. (As she was talking before the film's release, she didn't realize how much of an audience.) \"I think it's a common thing in life,\" she said of end-of-the-world fears, referencing one of the latest making the rounds -- the Mayan calendar's Long Count end in 2012 -- in making her point. Proyas observes that given such worries, the film can be a wake-up call for such concerns as global climate change. \"There is a symbolic aspect to what is happening and what the story is about, and to get people to pay attention to what could happen,\" he said. But, he adds, it's also just a movie. \"I believe in the entertainment value of movies -- very much so,\" he said. \"I ... want to make it good for the audience. I really want people to be there and experience something powerful and resident, both in terms of ideas and emotions ... and also with this film trying to do something different. It's a challenging film, and it takes some unexpected turns.\"","highlights":"\"Knowing\" was weekend's No. 1 film .\nApocalyptic thriller stars Nicolas Cage as professor who sees clues in numbers .\nFilm taps into themes of religion, spirituality, end-times concerns, say makers .","id":"f28d2147673d3cd0117cfa5a5a8cc46e67e2927b"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Islamic parties in Indonesia will not get enough votes in the coming election to nominate a presidential candidate, according to polls, analysts and an Islamic party official. Supporters of Indonesia's Democratic Party of Struggle take part in a campaign event in Jakarta on March 24. Nevertheless, the influence of Islam on politics in Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim country -- has many nationalist parties changing their strategy. The April 9 national elections will determine the makeup of Indonesia's 550-seat parliament, as well as its regional representation council, provincial, county and city assemblies. More than 38 parties are vying for these seats, but very few are expected to get the 20 percent of parliamentary seats needed to nominate a presidential candidate in the July election. In fact, the only party expected to meet the 20 percent threshold is President Susilo Bambang Yudyohono's Democratic Party. Other parties will have to join alliances to nominate a president. Yudyohono's \"charming\" personality, and his government's ability to weather the current worldwide financial downturn, have kept him on top of the polls, according to James Castle, who analyzes Indonesian politics and economy. Castle said despite the influence of Islam on Indonesian politics, voters are more concerned about economic issues. \"Like everywhere in the world, economics is the key factor,\" he said. \"It's quite clear from all these surveys, when inflation was high, the president's popularity is low. Now that inflation has come down, the president's popularity is high, and he and his party are doing very well in the polls coming into the election.\" So far, Indonesia has not felt the impact of the global recession, partly because its economy is more isolated than other countries'. But the government has taken steps to protect the currency and the economy from the downturn, Castle said. \"This will probably just be a speed bump for Indonesia,\" he said. Although financial issues are the main concern for voters in Indonesia -- where poverty is rampant -- Yudyohono's Democratic Party has recently had to bow to pressure from Islamic groups. Andi Mallarangang, a spokesman for the president, acknowledged that the party's support for an anti-pornography bill -- which was passed in October -- was a \"symbolic gesture\" to the Islamic groups that had called for the measure. \"During the process of legislation, (the government) made sure we do not support pornography,\" Mallarangang said. \"But there should be no limitation on freedom of arts and expression\" He noted that the final law was not as strong as the initially proposed bill. Another issue that has made headlines in the Indonesian media is the government's position on Ahmadiyah, a Muslim sect that does not believe Mohammad is the last prophet. The government recently restricted the freedoms of the group, but has so far refused to ban the group. \"In Indonesia, one group of Islamic radicals would like the government to ban Ahmadiyah ... so the government's using the middle approach in which we will not ban Ahmadiyah because they have a right,\" Mallarangang said. \"But there are certain things that are sensitive to (their) operation that are regulated by government.\" One of those groups that has been outspoken in its rejection of Ahmadiyah is Indonesia's Ulama Council. The chairman of the council, Amidhan, disputed media reports that the council has given Yudyohono's government a deadline to ban the sect or it will issue an edict against voting for Yudyohono. Amidhan -- who goes by one name -- said the council's fatwa against Ahmadiyah was first issued in 1980, but it had to reissue the edict last year because of complaints that the sect was trying to convert other Muslims. \"We agree Ahmadiyah must be a new religion, not part of Islam,\" Amidhan said. The council is an independent organization, but remains very influential. In January, it issued several new fatwas -- including bans on smoking for children and pregnant women, and chanting during yoga. A fatwa is a legal pronouncement for Muslims, but the council said it has no authority to enforce them. Indonesia's Islamic parties are also adopting more moderate positions to attract more voters, which has caused internal divisions -- particularly for PKS, translated as the Prosperous Justice Party. PKS legislator Zulkieflimansyah, known as Bang Zul, said the party \"is between a rock and a hard place.\" \"We have to behave like a political party and also an Islamic movement,\" he said. That has led to a split between the hard-liners and the moderates in the PKS. \"We are using the elections as a test,\" Bang Zul said. \"Hopefully, if we are able to convince the public, PKS will continue to be a significant player in politics.\" Another Islamic party, the National Awakening Party, or PKB, said it intends to use the 2009 election to position itself for the next election in five years. \"All parties want to reach the 20 percent threshold (to nominate a presidential candidate), PKB included,\" said the party's vice secretary-general, Helmy Faishal Zaini. \"But realistically almost no party will be able to nominate on its own.\" That does not mean that a small party like PKB cannot succeed, he said. Zaini said PKB hopes it can put forward a vice presidential candidate who could possibly run for the top spot in the 2014 election. \"We need to build a foundation now,\" he said. \"So one way to do this is to join one of the senior people (politicians) with a junior person this time. ... \"2009 could be the beginning of the new generation\" of politicians.","highlights":"April 9 elections will determine the makeup of Indonesia's 550-seat parliament .\nFew of over 38 parties expected to get enough seats for a candidate in July election .\nAnalysts: Islamic parties won't get enough votes to nominate a presidential candidate .\nInfluence of Islam on politics has many nationalist parties changing their strategy .","id":"9c278530609f30ac78251eab2320343b77b0bf1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Iraqi officials speak loftily of ethnic and political reconciliation, Abu Wissam seethes. In April 2006, two Iraqis mourn a relative slain in sectarian violence in the city of Falluja. He wants cold, hard justice for the killers of his son, Raed, a 25-year-old business school graduate, \"cut to pieces\" by Mehdi Army militia members in their Baghdad neighborhood. The Wissams are among the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis caught in the maelstrom of the militia violence that rippled across Iraq after the 2006 bombing in Samarra of the Askariya Mosque, a Shiite shrine. The kind of trauma and pain endured by the Wissam family is kindling an interest in a social healing process adopted by countries around the world -- truth commissions. They are bodies across the globe that have provided a forum for victims and perpetrators to give cathartic public testimony on human rights abuses and come up with policy recommendations to correct the root cause of the abuses. \"Iraq, like many Arab cultures, is an intensely rich narrative culture,\" said Miranda Sissons, Iraq director of the International Center for Transitional Justice, which helps countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocities and human rights abuses. \"The idea of standing up and witnessing is tremendously appealing, the kind of act and mechanism they can understand.\" Watch how the \"business of death\" continues to thrive \u00bb . The U.S. Institute of Peace -- one of the independent agencies behind the all-important Iraq Study Group report in 2006 -- is backing an initiative in Iraq to generate understanding and \"spark public dialogue on the usefulness of the truth commission process.\" The institute is teaming up with Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights to screen a USIP film across Iraq about the work of four different commissions. Called \"Confronting The Truth: Truth Commissions and Societies in Transition,\" the film -- produced by York Zimmerman and Peter Ackerman -- explores the workings of such commissions in South Africa, Peru, Morocco and East Timor. The film is getting some good reviews among Iraqis. \"The truth commission process is one in which you encourage folks to directly confront that past and how to get behind it,\" said Sermid Al-Sarraf, the executive director of the International Institute for the Rule of Law, a group that manages USIP's rule of law programs in Iraq. Truth commissions and other conflict-resolution strategies have been on Iraq's radar for years. Oral history projects have emerged, one being the Iraq History Project -- which \"gathers and analyzes personal narratives from victims, their families, witnesses, perpetrators and others\" about the \"torture, massacres, assassinations, rape, chemical weapons attacks, disappearances, and other acts of systematic repression\" during the Saddam Hussein regime. That project is managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University College of Law in Chicago and is run by an all-Iraqi in-country staff. Last year, Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative and a conflict-resolution initiative at the University of Massachusetts Boston were behind an effort to forge the so-called Helsinki agreement -- a statement of reconciliation principles among a wide range of Iraqi politicians. That process was notable because former antagonists in Northern Ireland and South Africa worked with the Iraqis. Padraig O'Malley, a UMass conflict-resolution professor involved in the Helsinki process, is planning a three-day forum in April for \"divided cities,\" where officials from ethnically tense Kirkuk in Iraq will discuss common problems with officials from Derry\/Londonderry and Belfast in Northern Ireland, Nicosia in Cyprus, and Mitrovica in Kosovo. The International Center for Transitional Justice says Coalition Provisional Authority officials initially proposed a \"truth-seeking commission\" for Iraq in 2003 but eventually decided to \"delay the process\" in order for Iraqis to rigorously study other truth-telling efforts, as advocated by the center. In 2005, the center also discussed the establishment of a center for the missing and disappeared. As for truth commissions today, some observers say there hasn't been the political will on the part of the national government to pursue one. So says Joost Hilterman, International Crisis Group deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa. He has argued in the past for the establishment of a truth commission process and believes such a process, for example, would have been the proper way to deal with the challenge of de-Baathification. \"I'm not against floating the idea,\" Hilterman said, but there's \"no chance in hell\" it would happen anytime soon. Eduardo Gonzalez, the Americas deputy director of the transitional justice center, had been a staffer on the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he was responsible for public hearings and victims and witnesses protection. He was interviewed in the USIP video, which featured touching testimony from victims of the warfare between government troops and Shining Path guerrillas between 1980 and 2000. Gonzalez stressed the need to produce an accurate account of abuses, provide explanations for what happened, provide the proper opportunity for victims to be recognized, and help the society steer a new course for the future. Truth commissions don't function as courts, and there are only rare occasions, such as in East Timor, where punishment would be meted out. \"Truth commissions, done right, could created a public dialogue,\" he said. He thinks a national Iraqi truth commission would probably be a few years down the road. But he thinks it's more likely that a particular city, province or region could pursue them. One particular truth commission, in Morocco, has been cited as one that Iraq could study. That's because it was the first one in the Arab world and it detailed human rights abuses from 1956 to 1999 under King Hassan II. Gonzalez said Iraq can benefit from studying all models, but he notes they share one thing -- a commitment to objectivity. The ICTJ's Sissons notes that the British explored the idea of a truth commission as well, but experts told them Iraqis and not outsiders are the ones who need to pursue such an idea. She also said \"the scale of violence\" in Iraq and the \"nature and complexity\" of it \"is so vast\" that the German war crimes tribunals after World War II and the reparations to Holocaust victims come to mind. But if a truth initiative is to be effective, it would have to be rigorously designed and properly framed, with a \"distinct focus\" and an \"achievable mandate,\" she said. There must be commitment, goals, dedication and governmental support in areas such as subpoenaing records. \"You don't just tell the truth, hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya,' \" she said. But they can be very useful in Iraq, an \"evidence-rich environment.\" She said truth-telling commissions there could lead to many improvements in society, such as better detention registration policies, higher forensic standards, a freedom of information law, and a far-reaching reparations strategy. As for the man on the street, people who gather at Abu Wissam's house to talk about the violence they've endured don't talk of forgiveness. They want the killers of their kin to be put to death. Al-Sarraf and others all agree justice must be served in cases of heinous crime. But he seized on the concept of forgiveness. It's an Islamic virtue, and it could play a powerful role in a truth-telling initiative. \"Even though there is the principle of 'eye for an eye,' there is also the higher ideal of mercy,\" he said. CNN's Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Relatives of slain Iraqis struggle with feelings of grief, revenge .\nTruth commissions provide forums for victims to be heard, perpetrators to testify .\nProcess lets participants \"directly confront\" the past .\nTruth commissions could lead to other societal improvements, backers say .","id":"320bf9812f71cc4b832f6fb53e0cbdf2fcf758e0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the test pilot, the Air Force said. An F-22A fighter jet similar to this one crashed Wednesday during a test mission in California. The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) for unknown reasons, Air Force officials said. Lockheed Martin said the test pilot, David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, joined the company in 2003 and was a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release. At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter. In 2004, an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert. The pilot ejected and was not hurt, though the jet was destroyed. The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike. Once the Cold War ended, the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival. However, the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program, which was almost eliminated by Congress. In the end, the aircraft survived, and most of the problems were fixed -- except for the price tag, which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft.","highlights":"NEW: Test pilot David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, dies in crash .\nF-22A fighter jet crashes 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB around 10:30 a.m.\nThe one-seater jet was on a test mission when it crashed .\nAt $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter .","id":"9a617a50983bd43c02d7471ff009b71f4fcb49c6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An elderly British couple who died together at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland died \"peacefully\" after receiving \"wonderful and humbling care\" from their doctors, the couple's family said. Peter and Penelope Duff from Bath, England, died in Zurich on February 27, according to a statement released Thursday by their family and reported by Britain's Press Association. Both had terminal cancer, the statement said. \"Penny had fought a rare cancer, GIST, since 1992 and Peter's colon cancer had spread to his liver,\" the statement said. \"Their decision in no way reflected on the wonderful and humbling care they have received from their consultant, doctors and nurses, for which the family, and they, were so appreciative.\" Peter Duff, who was reported to be 80, was the executive chairman of Alcohol in Moderation, a nonprofit group that advocates a \"sensible drinking ethos.\" His daughter, Helena Conibear, is executive director of AIM Digest, a monthly publication. Conibear and AIM could not be reached for comment Friday. The Press Association said Penelope Duff was 70. Her condition, GIST, stands for gastrointestinal stromal tumor, a rare type of cancer found in the digestive system. Dignity in Dying, a British charity that advocates the choice of assisted death for terminally ill patients, said it was \"extremely sad\" that the Duffs had to travel abroad to die. \"Had they had the option of an assisted death in this country they may still be alive, as their physical ability to travel would not have been a factor,\" said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying. Wootton called on Parliament to modernize laws on suicide to allow for assisted dying. Phyllis Bowman, executive director of Right to Life, which opposes euthanasia, also said the Duffs' case was sad. \"I think it's very sad, particularly as they could have gone together into a hospice. A hospice with cancer -- there is not uncontrollable pain,\" Bowman told CNN. \"I think that with the euthanasia lobby, they feed on despair and they encourage despair rather than hope.\"","highlights":"Peter and Penelope Duff from Bath, England, died in Zurich on February 27 .\nPenny had fought a rare cancer, GIST, since 1992 and Peter had colon cancer .\nDignity in Dying charity: \"Extremely sad\" the Duffs had to travel abroad to die .\nThey called on UK to modernize laws on suicide to allow for assisted dying .","id":"52bcb56e49705ccecb6edd0edfdaf5379054bd36"} -{"article":"FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- Fifteen helicopters from the U.S. Northern Command along with active-duty military personnel are being sent to Fargo, North Dakota, to assist the state as it prepares for record flooding, a U.S. military official told CNN. Valley Water Rescue volunteers patrol the Fargo area in search of people who need help evacuating Friday. The military personnel being sent to Fargo are from a \"contingency response force\" made up of active-duty troops, the official said. Above-freezing temperatures, followed by heavy rains this week, caused the Red River to swell and surpass its 1897 record of 40.1 feet early Friday morning. The swollen river threatened to rise further as the city's mayor vowed to \"go down swinging. \"Right now, we think the river is beginning to crest,\" said Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker. \"As long as we stay under 42 feet, I think we got a chance; if we go over 42, there's going to be some more evacuations.\" As of 8:15 p.m., the river churned at 40.78 feet, nearly 22 feet above flood stage and almost a foot above the previous record of 40.1 feet, set in 1897. Watch Fargo's mayor explain why disaster could be averted \u00bb . Sandbagging operations, which have churned furiously throughout the week, continued Friday, drawing praise from local and state officials, including North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven. \"North Dakotans have come together in a big, big way. Our volunteers are doing a magnificent job building this flood protection and we want to say thank you to them,\" he said. \"There's a sense of perseverance and resolve and determination.\" Buses and evacuation staging areas have been staged west of Fargo, Hoeven said, and hundreds of people already have evacuated Fargo neighborhoods, hospitals and a nursing home. Watch how volunteers are battling the rising water \u00bb . Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said authorities were evacuating the city's \"vulnerable populations\" and were asking for voluntary evacuations in sites near retaining dikes. The National Weather Service predicted the river would reach 42 feet Saturday, and forecasts indicated it would remain there into next week. But the weather service warned the river might reach 43 feet -- the height to which most of the city's dikes have been raised -- if warmer temperatures expected in the middle of next week melt the record snowfall. Watch Fargo residents fight back \u00bb . \"What's going on here really is an inspiration for the country,\" said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota. \"The eyes of America are on Fargo, North Dakota, and they're getting a very good impression of what the people of North Dakota are like.\" Authorities would not try to raise the city's dikes above 43 feet, Walaker said. Sandbags are used to bolster dikes in residential areas around the city, while the city dikes are reinforced with clay. \"We have most of the south side of Fargo, and along the river, good to 43, so we're not going to proceed with trying to get it to 44,\" he said at a news conference Friday morning. \"Now is that a gamble? We don't think so.\" See map of affected area \u00bb . National Weather Service spokesman Patrick Slattery in Kansas City, Missouri, said the river's level means uncertainty for officials and volunteers who are scrambling to mitigate the flooding in the area. Emergency responders can extrapolate the effects of the rising river, he said, but they cannot know for sure how accurate the predictions are because they have never seen the river so high. \"At some point, especially when you're dealing with record levels, you reach a point when there's nothing else you can do,\" Slattery said. \"Start alerting people to be ready to get out of there.\" Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who led the military response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2007, warned that sandbags can only buy time. \"You cannot depend on a sandbag dike to save your life; you put it up to try to save your property,\" he said. \"Once you put it up, you need to leave, because that sandbag dike could break at any given time.\" Sandbags also are less effective against cold water, Honore said. Read the full interview with Honore . Water began seeping Friday under a dike that runs across a partially submerged athletic field, prompting officials to ask volunteer sandbaggers to come help. About 150 people showed up as the water on the other side of the dike continued to rise. \"We're going to be OK. We're going to be fine,\" Melanie Engel Unger said as she passed 40-pound sandbags from her left to her right. Daryl Braham said he was confident the volunteers would be able to maintain the dike's integrity. He was hopeful the cold weather -- temperatures were well below freezing Friday -- remained. \"It's kind of a blessing in disguise because it's slowing things down,\" he said. Fargo officials early Friday evacuated a neighborhood of about 150 homes after they found cracks in a levee, according to a city news release. Capt. Tod Dahle said the residents were evacuated because the neighborhood lies between a primary and contingency levee. About 100 people were evacuated Thursday from a nursing home, as were 40 others from a nearby neighborhood. No one was in immediate danger, officials said. See photos of flooding \u00bb . \"We were disappointed yesterday and early this morning about the two areas that we had to evacuate,\" Walaker said. \"Is that going to be it [for evacuations]? We don't know. We don't have any real crystal ball to look into.\" MeritCare Hospital and MeritCare South University had evacuated 177 patients as of Friday, MeritCare Health System spokeswoman Carrie Haug said. Some were taken to hospitals elsewhere in North Dakota; others were taken across the river to Minnesota, she said. Monday, the health system canceled elective procedures to reduce its patient numbers ahead of the evacuations, Haug said. Across the Red River from Fargo, a U.S. senator said some homes had been lost in Moorhead, Minnesota. Emphasizing that there are two states dealing with the river's rise, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, said, \"This is a time at which the forces of nature, of the Red River, will meet the forces of the human spirit.\" Clay County emergency center spokesman Dan Olson said some residents in Moorhead were being asked to evacuate. He called it a \"directed evacuation,\" rather than a mandatory one. It also applied to large parts of nearby Oakport Township, he said. The emergency center is setting up a call center where evacuees can register to be tracked. A spokeswoman at the city's emergency call center said she would put the number of evacuees in the \"high hundreds.\" \"We know our highways are pretty congested\" with people leaving, Kasey Cummings said. Minnesota State University at Moorhead and Concordia College had voluntarily closed, she said. To the west, about 1,500 people who evacuated North Dakota's capital, Bismarck, on Wednesday were able to return home Thursday, after the Missouri River dropped more than 3 feet, the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services said. CNN's Barbara Starr, Chris Welch, Kara Devlin, Nicole Saidi, Greg Morrison, Susan Roesgen and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gov. John Hoeven praises volunteers for perseverance, resolve, determination .\nHelicopters, active-duty military sent to help prepare for possible flooding .\nNational Weather Service data says river will reach 42 feet on Saturday .\nFargo neighborhood evacuated after cracks found in levee .","id":"a0c77037a3892ad8647b31b23c93d98ffa96f65c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Smoking cessation programs make up $75 million of the economic stimulus bill making its way through the Senate, according to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who sponsored the funding. Sen. Tom Harkin's office says smoking causes $110 billion in health costs each year. Harkin said the programs were an attempt to bolster the economy by lowering the soaring health-care costs smoking causes each year. The money will be used to bolster existing anti-smoking campaigns run by the Department of Health and Human Services and to buy new equipment at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tests the contents of cigarettes. Harkin's office cited figures that smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths and causes $110 billion in heath costs every year. Harkin believes prevention will go a long way to boosting the health of Americans while boosting health of the American economy. Watch Harkin describe how anti-smoking programs help economy \u00bb . The U.S. House on Wednesday evening passed the $819 billion economic stimulus package on a party-line vote, despite President Barack Obama's efforts to achieve bipartisan support for the bill, CNNMoney.com reports. The final vote was 244 to 188. No Republicans voted for the bill, while 11 Democrats voted against it. The Senate is likely to take up the bill next week.","highlights":"$75 million would go toward smoking cessation programs, says Sen. Tom Harkin .\nPrograms are effort to bolster economy by lowering soaring health-care costs .\nU.S. House passes $819 billion economic stimulus package .","id":"4ff8cc408643c840049195df35f578294f85e4d3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With a chance of winning an Oscar on Sunday, the director of \"The Final Inch\" says she hopes her documentary will shed light on the often over-looked issue of polio eradication. The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio. \"I felt like I was looking at something that no one in the world talks about,\" Irene Taylor Brodsky, who also helped produce the film, said in a recent interview. Filming the short documentary was an \"eye-opening experience,\" she said, particularly for one of her co-producers who had to wear a bulletproof vest during filming in Afghanistan. \"The Final Inch\" is a testament of the health workers around the world laboring to make polio the second globally eliminated disease behind small pox, Brodsky said. The 37-minute film, which is scheduled to air on HBO on April 1, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the best documentary short subject category. The awards ceremony is Sunday night. The film focuses on \"the final stages of a 20 year initiative\" to eradicate polio around the world, Brodsky said. Polio is a highly infectious disease which lingers in the poor water systems of India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. The more doses of the vaccination a child receives, the better protected the child is from contracting polio. \"The Final Inch\" focuses on the polio vaccine efforts in India and Pakistan. Brodsky said she hoped to include Afghanistan, but that became impossible because of the threat of violence and social barriers. Producer Tom Grant had to wear a bulletproof vest while filming in the war-torn country. He was unable to capture compelling footage because of familial protocol that forbids a man from entering a home full of women while no husband is present. Thus, Grant was often denied access, Brodsky said. In many countries, people are hesitant to vaccinate their children against polio because of a distrust of the government. Some civilians believe the vaccination to be \"something more sinister like a sterilizing drug\" produced to curtail their population, Brodsky explained. She said she often ran into \"the skepticism that some communities have against our government in cooperation with their own government.\" \"It never occurred to me that U.S. foreign policies could affect young children living in the most densely populated areas,\" she said. Although it has been 50 years since the United States developed a vaccination for polio, millions of children abroad remain unprotected. \"Ordinary American people have forgotten polio,\" Brodsky said. And, although the number of polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent, the highly infectious disease is still very real. \"It really limits the opportunities a child might have as an adult,\" said Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative. As part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 20 million volunteers deliver vaccinations to schools, bus stops and rail stations across the world on a daily basis. Only four countries had recorded cases of polio in 2008, down from 125 countries 10 years ago, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This year, there have been 26 recorded cases of polio around the world, compared with 46 people who were infected with polio last year. \"But we're only in mid-February. That doesn't say much,\" Rosenbauer said. He said that he is most concerned that a child suffering from polio will have a difficult time integrating into society, building friendships and finding a job. \"So it's much more than just the fact that this child will be physically disabled for the rest of his or her life,\" he added. \"It is the opportunity that is lost from the life they might have led.\" CNN and HBO are both part of Time Warner.","highlights":"'The Final Inch' focuses on the polio vaccine efforts in India and Pakistan .\nMillions of children abroad remain unprotected from polio .\nThis year, there have been 26 recorded cases of polio around the world .","id":"44778d7de66817cdb5a40a04e35d6431d30408c8"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Watching Iain Softley's motley, jewel-toned adaptation of \"Inkheart,\" the best-selling 2003 young-adult novel by Cornelia Funke, I had the distinct sensation of being a young bookworm again, falling into a world as vividly real as it is impossible. Brendan Fraser stars as Mo, a literature lover who brings characters to life when he reads aloud. In Funke's universe -- given voice in a screenplay by fantasy-friendly playwright David Lindsay-Abaire -- a literature lover named Mo (Brendan Fraser) possesses a dangerous talent for bringing characters from books to life when he reads aloud. The downside? When a fictional figure comes alive, a real person must disappear into the book's pages. That explains the extended absence of Mo's wife, Resa (Sienna Guillory). Mo has not yet told the truth about Resa's disappearance to their intrepid young daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett), just as many a movie adult before him annoyingly withheld information from their children for dramatic effect. (Maybe Fraser's Mo, a pleasantly square-framed American among a population of Brits, just can't bring himself to utter the word ''Mummy.'') It also explains the presence of a rambunctious crowd of fictional interlopers. These include a soulful fire juggler (Paul Bettany) who yearns for home (and why not, when real-life wife Jennifer Connelly appears briefly as the juggler's fairy-tale missus), and an acquisitive villain named Capricorn (Andy Serkis, always welcome even without his Gollum suit). A unicorn and \"The Wizard of Oz's\" flying monkeys also make appearances -- as does, briefly, Toto too. The story is a whirl, a jumble, an effusion -- sometimes flowing smoothly, other times jerking along as if the filmmaker (\"Backbeat,\" \"The Wings of the Dove\") has been given advice he resents regarding pacing and the balance of sweetness and danger. There are close calls, weird whispers, amusing throwaway lines, the ditherings of a distractible author (Jim Broadbent), and cartoon violence undertaken by misshapen scary-comic evil henchmen. But most deliciously madcap of all, there are the grand gestures and imperious pronouncements of Helen Mirren as Meggie's flesh-and-blood great-aunt Elinor, a creature of pencil-thin eyebrows and luscious costumery who caws and squawks with very unqueenly abandon. Mirren's all-out display in this distinctly British absurdo-literary extravaganza had me wishing Elinor were my own fabulous auntie and that she'd lend me some magic items from her closet. EW Grade: B . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Entertainment Weekly reviews Iain Softley's adaptation of \"Inkheart\"\n\"Inkheart\" is best-selling 2003 young-adult novel by Cornelia Funke .\nLiterature lover has dangerous talent for bringing characters from books to life .\nFilm stars Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren and Eliza Hope Bennett .","id":"4724a48e3f60aaf0a21e0262d01d123a634c92cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama, President Bush and all of the surviving past presidents got together Wednesday for a historic meeting at the White House. Barack Obama meets with President Bush and past presidents in the Oval Office on Wednesday. \"One message that I have, and I think we all share, is that we want you to succeed. Whether we're Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country,\" Bush told Obama before lunch with the former presidents. Bush and Obama were joined by Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Obama thanked the president for hosting them and said he was grateful for the opportunity to get \"advice, good counsel and fellowship\" from the group. Watch what Obama says about the meeting \u00bb . Obama's press secretary said the presidents had a \"very constructive conversation\" and Obama appreciated \"the spirit of bipartisanship they showed\" in wishing him success. \"The president and the former presidents had helpful advice on managing the office, as well as thoughts on the critical issues facing the country right now. The president-elect is anxious to stay in touch with all of them in the coming years,\" Robert Gibbs said. Presidential historian Doug Brinkley said it's \"very smart politics for Obama to keep a channel open\" with the former presidents. \"If he has a policy initiative that he wants to lead the country behind ... if he could get the signatures, the green light from all of the ex-presidents to say, 'Not only am I for this, but I have all of the ex-presidents backing me' -- that's powerful,\" he said. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the last time all of the living presidents got together at the White House was in 1981, and she called Wednesday's meeting a \"historic moment.\" She said the president was \"delighted\" to host the luncheon. \"Each of them expressed their desire for President-elect Obama to have a very successful presidency. During the lunch, they had a wide-ranging discussion on many different issues facing the United States, and they all look forward to remaining in contact in the future,\" Perino said. The meeting marked the second time Bush has hosted Obama since the election. Obama suggested the meeting with all of the former presidents when he and Bush first met in November. Perino said earlier she didn't know what they would talk about, but she said she'd love to be able to hear it. \"I'm sure all of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation,\" Perino said during Tuesday's daily news briefing. Perino speculated that they would discuss what it's like to raise children in the White House and how to protect them. Brinkley predicted that first and foremost, the presidents would recall what it was like to be president. \"All of them will have little anecdotes. They'll see something in the White House that will bring back a memory. They'll try to bring some levity to this -- make it a very special and engaging and actually a fun afternoon for Barack Obama,\" he said. Secondly, Brinkley said, the conversation would probably turn to what's going on in the Middle East. Brinkley said that all of the men will be on their \"best behavior,\" but, given the personalities at the luncheon, there could be some tension. \"The friction, if there is any, is between Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who are known to not like each other at all,\" he said, pointing out that the Clinton team did not like Carter \"parachuting for peace into Bosnia, North Korea and Haiti\" during Clinton's administration. \"That's the relationship that is not warm, it's not good, and if you are a body language expert, you might home in on that,\" he said. President Bush may find himself the odd man out at the meeting, at least in terms of popularity. Bush registered only a 27 percent approval rating in a December CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey. In contrast, Obama had an 82 percent approval rating. A new poll out Wednesday indicates that 69 percent of adult Americans approved of how Clinton handled his job as president, while 64 percent of adult Americans gave a thumbs up to Carter and 60 percent approved of George H.W. Bush. CNN's Lauren Kornreich contributed to this report .","highlights":"Historian calls meeting \"smart politics,\" says it'll be light, but could be tense .\nObama and Bush meet with Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter .\nObama says he's grateful for chance to get \"advice, good counsel and fellowship\"\nLast time all the living presidents met at White House was in 1981, Perino says .","id":"bfb9283ce4f17a121707415c8fd2f633b285d70d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Antarctica is warming in line with the rest of the world, according to a new study on climate change in Antarctica. Temperatures across Antarctica have traditionally varied between east and west, scientists say. Rather than being the last bastion to resist global warming, U.S. research has found that for the past 50 years much of the continent of Antarctica has been getting warmer. For years common belief among scientists studying climate change was that a large part of Antarctica, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, has been getting colder while the rest of the world has warmed. However the new research from the University of Washington has found that warming in West Antarctica exceeded one-tenth of a degree Celsius per decade for the past 50 years, which more than offsets the cooling in East Antarctica. \"West Antarctica is a very different place than East Antarctica, and there is a physical barrier, the Transantarctic Mountains, that separates the two,\" said Professor Eric Steig, lead author of the research paper. The study's findings appeared in Thursday's issue of the scientific journal Nature. At 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) above sea level the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is around 4,000 feet lower than East Antarctica and subject to warm, moist storms and more snowfall. In gathering the data Steig and fellow researchers used information from satellites, which was crucial in providing new insight into patterns of temperature change across the continent. Previous research on climate in Antarctica that relied solely on Antarctic weather stations, in place since 1957, could not get as much information about conditions on the interior of the continent as most are placed within a short distance of the coast. \"Simple explanations don't capture the complexity of climate,\" Steig said. \"The thing you hear all the time is that Antarctica is cooling and that's not the case. If anything it's the reverse, but it's more complex than that. Antarctica isn't warming at the same rate everywhere, and while some areas have been cooling for a long time the evidence shows the continent as a whole is getting warmer.\" A major reason most of Antarctica was thought to be cooling was because of a hole in the ozone layer that appears during the spring months in the Southern Hemisphere's polar region. Steig noted that it is well established that the ozone hole has contributed to cooling in East Antarctica. \"However, it seems to have been assumed that the ozone hole was affecting the entire continent when there wasn't any evidence to support that idea, or even any theory to support it,\" he said. \"In any case, efforts to repair the ozone layer eventually will begin taking effect and the hole could be eliminated by the middle of this century. If that happens, all of Antarctica could begin warming on a par with the rest of the world.\"","highlights":"Common belief that Antarctica is getting colder debunked by new report .\nEvidence that western Antarctica is warming, offsetting Eastern Antarctic cooling .\nSatellite data used to determine that West Antarctica warmed in last 50 years .\nAntarctica isn't warming at the same rate everywhere, according to research .","id":"eaabb2ca5c56ba3c4327dd0a4b107da501f0368c"} -{"article":"In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Jay Kernis reports on what it was like inside the Kodak Theatre at the Academy Awards. Hugh Jackman, the host of the 81st Academy Awards, speaks to the audience at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- When you're at home, you can sit back and be critical. When you're inside the theater, the whole show seems to work, especially the big production numbers. Maybe it was a particularly well-produced show this year, but when you're in the audience, you feel part of it -- even way up in the second mezzanine. I've been at the Oscars to cover them, but this is the first time I've ever been inside the ceremonies. I was there with my 17-year-old son, Noah. When you arrive on the red carpet, you enter a security tent and show your ticket and driver's license. You notice that the tent is bisected by red velvet ropes and, with a friendly and practiced technique, celebrities are moved to the left of the rope and others to the right. This way, celebs leave the tent closer to the cameras and the fantasy that you might have that everybody in a gown or tux are somehow equals on one night sort of disappears. View scenes from the Oscars \u00bb . If you ever were curious about what happens during the commercial breaks: Stagehands with really powerful flashlights guide the changing of the sets and curtains; they make sure empty orchestra seats are filled; host Hugh Jackman introduces his parents; they show a short film about the power of the movies that got cut from the show in progress; Jackman hands his wife a plate of cookies, thinking she probably was hungry; and he later points out that the guy playing the cello on stage in the Academy Award Orchestra was actor Dermot Mulroney. Who knew? Watch a report on the night's big winners \u00bb . The show was best when it demonstrated that Hollywood can still do what it has always done well: getting your attention and holding it -- seeing five Best Actors presenting Oscars on the same stage was pretty amazing. So is Best Actor Sean Penn's self-awareness. The Oscars can still astonish: They still know how to put on the big musical number, with a hundred dancing performers in top hats, moving with Busby Berkeley precision. They still know how to break your heart: Heath Ledger's parents and sister received his Academy Award and said that they did so in celebration. But I bet they'd rather have had him accept it. And for all of the breathtaking special effects that Hollywood can muster, for all the star power in the theater last night, there was something remarkable about seeing Philippe Petit in person -- the wire walker who, in 1974, hovered between the World Trade Center towers for 45 minutes. There was something joyous about watching him balance an Oscar statue on his chin.","highlights":"When you're inside the theater, the whole show seems to work, and you feel part of it .\nStagehands guide the changing of the sets during the commercial breaks .\nSeeing five Best Actors presenting Oscars on the same stage was pretty amazing .\nThe Oscars can still astonish -- they still know how to put on the big musical number .","id":"2271e95435987044e5956432f4e60bb2a998fb44"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lankan soldiers seized a key rebel stronghold over the weekend, as humanitarian agencies feared for the safety of civilians. Sri Lankan troops at Elephant Pass, the isthmus that connects north Jaffna peninsula to rest of the country. \"It's an incredibly serious situation,\" James Elder, a U.N. spokesman, said Monday. \"We have a very large number of people, including tens of thousands of children, trapped in a fast-shrinking conflict zone.\" Government forces took the area in a surprise attack early Sunday, the head of Sri Lanka's army announced. Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. \"Our troops fought their way through a 40 km (25 mile) thick jungle track,\" Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address Sunday. \"This is the long-awaited victory and I am happy to say that our heroic forces today captured the Mullaittivu town after 12 years,\" he said. There has been no confirmation from the rebels that the strategic garrison has been overtaken. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 and established a military garrison there, according to the government. In recent days, the military has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The recapture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea. \"The area that the LTTE has dominated has shrank phenomenally,\" Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, C.R Jayasinghe, told CNN. \"They lost ... about 90 percent of what they had.\" Despite major government gains, critics point to ongoing civilian casualties resultant from the conflict. \"This is a critical moment in the conflict when the space for these people has shrunk,\" Elder said. The United Nations is \"calling on the ... Tamil Tigers to meet their international responsibilities and guarantee that these very large civilian populations to move freely and then can move away from the conflict and to areas where they can receive appropriate assistance,\" Elder said. \"Some Sri Lankan U.N. staff are trapped there,\" he said in a Sunday interview. \"Convoys are going to the area, delivering emergency supplies, but these are not sufficient for the number of people in need.\" Sri Lankan authorities are barring journalists and humanitarian aid workers from areas where heavy fighting is taking place. Amnesty International spokesman Shuransu Mishra estimated that \"over a quarter of a million of the population, mostly Tamils, are trapped between the two sides.\" The organization says greater access and protection for aid workers and journalists are needed as news agencies struggle to report an accurate picture of the conflict. \"The Sri Lankan authorities are doing little to ensure the safety of the country's media, or to prosecute those responsible for murdering or attacking them,\" Amnesty International spokeswoman Yolanda Foster said in a written statement on Friday. The Sri Lankan authorities \"are also directly responsible for subjecting journalists to harassment and interrogation,\" she said. At least 14 journalists have been killed since the start of 2006, according to the statement. Others have been driven from the country by death threats, or in fear of detention and torture by government authorities, it said.","highlights":"Government forces took the area in a surprise attack early Sunday .\nRebel Tamil Tigers gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 .\nEarlier this month troops regained control of key northern town of Elephant Pass .\nTamils want independent homeland, war since 1983 has left more than 70,000 dead .","id":"01fec10f5d7e013d0807b94ab8e4a232d74a00d5"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed Friday there was \"a conspiracy with certain international forces\" to belittle his government's military victories against Tamil Tiger rebels. Sri Lankan army troops have had there most decisive victories against the Tamil Tigers in recent weeks. The aim of these conspirators, he said in an address to the nation, \"is to level unfounded charges against the army commander who works with greatest dedication to achieve these victories.\" He also used the address to formally announce the recapture of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had remained in rebel hands for over nine years. The recapture enable the government to use the A-9 highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Until now it was done either by air or by sea. Rajapaksa's remarks came amid mounting attacks on the media. On Tuesday a group armed with rifles, pistols and grenades attacked the country's most popular privately owned television channel MTV. The main control room equipment costing more than $ 1.7 million was damaged. On Thursday, Lasantha Wickrematunga, chief editor of The Sunday Leader, a newspaper which had exposed corruption and criticized aspects of ongoing military operations, was shot dead. Earlier Friday, the leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremasinghe, accused military and security officials of the attacks, saying the government could not control them. \"Armed forces members are shocked about these incidents. The armed forces says due to the activities of few intelligence sections, the reputation of the country is being ruined. That is the team which the government has no control of,\" he told parliament. Rajapaksa said there were efforts to belittle military victories \"to turn the attention of the people to other directions.\" He said such \"conspiracies arise when a country moves ahead without giving in to external pressures.\" He added \"one must not mistake these conspiracies as being against me or my government. This is a conspiracy against the entire country by those who have been driven to fear due to the successes of our security forces.\" Meanwhile, fighting in northern Sri Lanka between government and rebel forces escalated on several fronts Friday, while Tamil Tiger rebels killed seven people in a roadside bombing. Three members of the Sri Lankan air force and four civilians died when rebels exploded a claymore landmine in the village of Morawewa, near the northeastern port city of Trincomalee, police said. The strategic port town is located about 240km (150 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. Friday's incident came as troops pursued their military campaign in the northern Wanni region to recapture remaining rebel strongholds, military sources said. Government troops were said to be meeting fierce resistance as they advanced on the Tamil stronghold of Mullaitivu and a naval blockade remained in the northeastern seas. The 25-year long civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. The U.S. State Department has designated the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization.","highlights":"Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa makes conspiracy claims .\nSri Lankan government troops continue advance into rebel territory .\nCivil war with Tamil Tigers has killed more than 65,000 .","id":"d5e72f50128911dfbd963b9f0d339584bff29231"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian star Kaka is leading the campaign for David Beckham to stay at Italian giants AC Milan beyond his agreed loan spell. Former England captain David Beckham has made an immediate impact with his contribution at AC Milan. The England midfielder is due to return to the Los Angeles Galaxy in March but playmaker Kaka said Beckham had already shown his star qualities. The 33-year-old played 89 minutes of the 2-2 draw with Roma on Sunday following a friendly outing against Hamburg. \"David has shown that he is a player ready to run the extra mile,\" Kaka told a news conference in Zurich ahead of FIFA's world player of the year gala. \"The first matches showed quite clearly what his qualities are and his passing ability and his capacity to play well. \"Perhaps these first two months will lead to six months or to one year, to more contracts. I certainly would like to play more with him.\" Beckham's advisers have stressed that there are no plans for him to stay at AC Milan beyond March 9. However, former Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas last week expressed fears that Beckham could be tempted to bring an early end to his time in the U.S. AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti revealed Beckham's attitude and intelligence had won him a place in the starting side in Rome where he had been expected to start on the bench. \"He did well,\" said Ancelotti. \"I chose Beckham to start because he proved in recent days to be a very intelligent player and serious. \"The appearance against Roma is a small reward for him because he worked very hard and has adapted well to the team. \"This was only his second game with us and he will improve. I believe everyone is happy to have Beckham here.\" Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf said: \"We have to compliment him. He has done a good job and he grew in the game. He still needs to improve but I think he can be very satisfied with what he has done after two months of not playing.\" Roma stand-in captain Daniele De Rossi suggested Milan had made a shrewd move in capturing the 33-year-old. \"From a media standpoint Beckham is impressive,\" De Rossi said. \"He is a nice guy, has a beautiful wife, has won so many trophies in his career and perhaps this penalises him as a player although I believe he has the feet and the determination.\" Beckham, meanwhile, forecast that Sunday's double goalscorer Alexandre Pato of Brazil is destined for greatness. \"I have seen him in training and on the pitch. He is only 19 years of age and I think he can become one of the greatest players in the world,\" said Beckham. Milan are nine points behind Serie A leaders Inter going into Saturday's home game against Fiorentina with Beckham seemingly set to retain his starting slot.","highlights":"Brazilian star Kaka wants David Beckham to extend his loan at AC Milan .\nEngland midfielder Beckham due to return to Los Angeles Galaxy in March .\nBeckham's advisers say no plans for him to stay beyond agreed deadline .","id":"34de9e282b46c8fe5b9191744542571f53691572"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Every time her cell phone rings, Christy Harness thinks of her husband. More consumers download ringtones to their cell phones than full-length songs. The 34-year-old native of Jackson County, Georgia, set her ringtone to Sugarland's \"All I Wanna Do,\" a song that, she says, perfectly expresses the way she feels about him. \"I kind of put myself in [the singer's] place because ... she's in love with this guy. If he's not around, she misses him. Basically, I think the song relates to me and [my husband] and our relationship,\" Harness said. These days, ringtones do much more than alert mobile phone users of a call. Ringtones seem to have become vital fashion statements, a way for people to showcase their personalities and even their feelings about who is calling. According to a 2008 study by Ipsos MediaCT, a marketing research company, approximately one-third of mobile phone users download ringtones, and about 40 percent of users change their ringtones frequently. Ipsos research shows that ringtones are the most common type of mobile music content downloaded by users, compared to full-length songs and ringback tones, tones that replace the typical ringing signal heard by the caller. \"I find regular ringtones kind of dull, so I wanted something exciting,\" said Gordy King, a 51-year-old from Salt Lake City, Utah. King said he gets a kick out of annoying his mostly Republican co-workers with his Barack Obama ringtones, even playing them over the intercom at the electrical supply warehouse where he works. \"It's fake news people saying 'Barack Obama has won the election,' \" he said. \"I really like Barack Obama. I think [my ringtone] probably says that I'm nonconventional and it says I lean a little more liberal. I don't know anyone else who has that ringtone.\" Using a ringtone creator application on Facebook, King said he also makes his own ringtones by downloading sound files onto his computer and editing them to be shorter and louder or softer. Donald Kaplan found a perfect fit with his ringtone choice. Kaplan, of New York, changed his ringtones often before finally settling on the theme song from \"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.\" \"I'm thinking of sticking with it. I notice that when people hear my phone ring they get amused ... I think that people really connect with that movie,\" Kaplan said. But that's not always the case. Kaplan said one of his co-workers wasn't exactly pleased with the ringtone. The co-worker sent a mass e-mail to the office, telling everyone to keep their cell phones on silent. \"The ringtone drove him crazy and he tried to be tactful but I knew that [the e-mail] was directed specifically to me,\" Kaplan said. \"I could tell that this particular ringtone just drove him up the wall ... just the repetition of the sound.\" For some, one ringtone simply isn't enough. Many mobile phone users set specific tones to specific people so that the tones act as audible caller IDs. \"I group people,\" said Natasha Khan, a 26-year-old from McLean, Virginia. \"I group all my best girlfriends together, the people I don't want to talk to together, work contacts together, and family together.\" Khan said when her best friends call she hears \"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,\" by Cyndi Lauper, and when she gets a call from people she doesn't particularly like, her phone rings \"Bugaboo\" by Destiny's Child. \"Bugaboo,\" about a woman irritated by a male caller, contains such lines as, \"It's not hot that you be callin' me.\" \"The 'Bugaboo' ringtone has gotten me in trouble,\" Khan said with a laugh. \"This guy -- I forgot that he was on that list and I told him I needed his number and he said, 'Oh, I'll call you' and he realized he was on the list.\" Customizing a phone with multiple ringtones can be expensive. Depending on the wireless carrier or the service plan, ringtones cost anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99. That may not deter cell phone users. Analysts at Screen Digest, a UK-based firm covering global media markets, predicted that mobile music sales will double from $1.6 billion in 2008 to $3.2 billion in 2012. But there are also free ways to get ringtones, like the ringtone creator application on Facebook -- one of several ringtone applications on the social-networking Web site -- that make setting ringtones all the more appealing. \"The ringtone creator was fun,\" said King. \"No matter how big or little the song or sound effect ... you could select a snippet and edit it.\" Many mobile phone users like to be creative and have fun with their ringtones, and their ringtone choice can reveal much about their personalities. Khan's default ringtone, she said, is typically an upbeat dance song like her current one, \"Forever\" by Chris Brown. \"I think the day can be so mundane and work can bog you down, so I like any chance I can get to get some joy,\" Khan said. \"It's just a break in the day to feel good randomly.\"","highlights":"Ringtones are one way for people to showcase their personalities and feelings .\nOne third of cell-phone users download ringtones; 40 percent change ringtones often .\nVirginia woman uses Destiny's Child's \"Bugaboo\" as ringtone for dreaded callers .\nUtah man customized a pro-Obama ringtone to annoy Republican co-workers .","id":"433c5bc3681979e4ba2cfb94869e703d2b99c795"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British reality TV star Jade Goody married Sunday after being told by doctors last week that her cancer is terminal. Jade Goody, pictured with fiance Jack Tweed Saturday, before Sunday's wedding . Goody, 27 tied the knot with boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, in Hatfield Heath, Essex, east of London, UK media reported. After the ceremony Max Clifford, the couple's publicist, told waiting reporters that there had been \"lots of tears and smiles and laughter\" and that the congregation gave the newlyweds a standing ovation after the signing of the register. Goody sprung to fame in \"Big Brother\" in 2002, going on to launch a range of her own products and host TV shows. But her return to the celebrity edition of the show in 2007 ended in international ignominy, after her taunting of Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Goody's behavior resulted in more than 40,000 complaints and sparked protests in India. Shetty said last week that she was unable to attend the wedding due to filming commitments but was praying for Goody. Read blog about how media covered wedding . In August 2008 Goody appeared on the Indian version of \"Big Brother,\" only to fly home after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. News of Goody's condition has sparked massive interest in the UK, both from the media -- which bid for rights to her story -- and among the public, who have contacted charities for information about cervical cancer. Critics have attacked Goody's decision to sell rights to what may be her final weeks, although the star has told British media that she wants to leave her children by a previous relationship -- sons, Bobby, five, and Freddie, four -- financially secure. Watch Jade Goody's wedding preparations \u00bb . But Clifford told ITN: \"Ironically, a big part of what she's doing now is to fund her children's education. To give them the education she never had.\" Charity Cancer Research UK said in a statement earlier this month that daily visits to its Web site had increased two- to three-fold since news of Goody's illness was announced. \"The publicity around Jade's diagnosis has led many more people to ask questions and seek information about cervical cancer,\" spokeswoman Emma Gilgunn-Jones said. Shetty, writing on her blog earlier this week, said that Goody had invited her to the wedding but had been unable to attend due to filming commitments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. \"Read an article on Jade Goody's deteriorating condition,\" wrote Shetty. \"It disturbed me 'cause the last time I spoke to her, she seemed very positive and we were all expecting that the doctors would be able to curb the cancer from spreading. This piece of news came as a shock - so I called her hoping it was only a rumor but she confirmed it. Shetty added that she was praying for Goody and that she hoped God \"gives her the strength to cope with this pain.\" \"She wants the best for her kids,\" Shetty wrote. \"I hope Jack makes a good father to them. I also hope for a miracle to happen for her children's sake.\" On Friday the UK's Ministry of Justice said it would allow Tweed, who was jailed in September 2008 for assault, to spend his wedding night with his bride, the Press Association reported. \"We are absolutely thrilled,\" the agency reported Clifford as saying. \"It will be the dream finish to her dream day, and it makes so much difference. Tweed, who was released early from jail in January, has to wear a tag and is subject to a 1900 GMT curfew. \"We'll get married if I have to drag her wheelchair down the aisle,\" he told ITN last week. The wedding dress, which media reports say included a pouch to hold Goody's medication, was donated by Harrods owner Mohamed al Fayed. Goody's bridesmaids were seen with the TV star Saturday, wearing plastic bald caps in a show of solidarity at the impact of her chemotherapy treatment.","highlights":"Publicist: Couple receive standing ovation, lots of tears, laughter, smiles .\nBritish 'Big Brother' star fast-tracked plans to get married after cancer spread .\nShetty says she was invited to ceremony but unable due to film commitments .\nCharities report marked increase in public seeking details about condition .","id":"51dc62dd736e7346313669785fad09c5ed689c52"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venus Williams is most often seen wiping perspiration from her brow as she thunders around the court contesting championship tennis matches. Venus Williams steps off the tennis court and into the pool in a series of photos to be featured in Italian Marie Claire. These photos show the world number six in a more reflective mood, posing for a 16-page fashion spread in the Italian edition of Marie Claire. They were taken in Miami, Florida in December last year by her friend and photographer Koto Bolofo. \"I love working with Koto,\" Venus told CNN in an interview for \"Revealed.\" \"I think he's my biggest fan and he believes in me, I'm not sure why, but he does so I've got to accept that,\" she laughed. They planned to shoot 20 outfits in one day, a hectic schedule that included one photo that had been two years in the making. See video of the photo shoot \u00bb . \"I've got it pictured in my mind that she's going to be playing tennis underwater,\" Bolofo told CNN. When the sun finally emerged from behind a cloud, Bolofo ordered Venus into her bathers. \"I'm excited it's my first underwater tennis venture, so I feel a little nervous, but I think I'll come through,\" Venus said. \"I want her smiling and making it look as if it's natural and it's not an effort,\" Bolofo explained. \"It's going to be whimsical and fun. That's the fun part of the shoot.\" Fashion is an important part of Venus Williams' life. She has her own clothing company, EleVen, which produces tennis outfits and casual clothing. She sketches ideas, but says she's not the chief designer, by any stretch. \"There are other people designing stuff. I couldn't do it on my own,\" she said, adding, \"I don't do technical drawing, I hated it in school. I refuse to do this on the computer. I'd rather just do it by hand.\" Venus' status in the ranks of the world's top tennis players gives her a unique position to be able to market her products and she often wears them on court. Then there's her interior design company; Venus launched V Starr Interiors while still in her early twenties. Despite her public business interests, Venus told CNN she's not interested in seizing the spotlight for any reason other than as one of the world's best tennis players. \"Fame has never been important to me. My goals have always been to excel in tennis, and to win championships. Fame has never been my focus and I don't really try to grow it at all,\" she said. Venus' relaxed attitude has earned her respect beyond the world of tennis. Hip hop star Wyclef Jean released a song in her honor last year called \"I'm Ready.\" Listen to the song \u00bb . \"[It's like] when a painter is inspired,\" Jean told CNN. \"When I'm inspired by an individual I just write a song about them ... I said her name is Venus, ruler of the universe.\" Venus was thrilled. \"I've got it on my computer, all the different instrumentals, the different versions, the different cuts. I love it,\" she told CNN. Venus Williams is back on court this week at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Naturally, she's hoping to win after a disappointing early exit from the Australian Open in January. While tennis remains her prime obsession, Venus told CNN it's not the most important thing in her life. \"I would say definitely the most important thing in my life is growing spiritually. And doing what God requires of me -- that's always a learning experience day in and day out,\" she said. Watch Venus Williams on Revealed this week at the times below: . ALL TIMES GMT Wednesday, February 18: 0930, 1830 Saturday, February 21: 0830, 1900 Sunday, February 22: 0530, 1830 Monday, February 23: 0400 .","highlights":"Venus Williams poses in fashion photos to be featured in Italian Marie Claire .\nThe 16-page spread includes a photo of Venus playing tennis underwater .\nThe tennis champion has her own clothing & interior design companies .\nWatch Venus Williams on Revealed this week at the times below .","id":"17d058d5b6c6c14eecd79b794e1ac51f1809811d"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Polish authorities in Pakistan say they are monitoring local reports that Taliban militants have executed a kidnapped Polish engineer. Pakistani Taliban militants offer prayers in Mamouzai area of . Orakzai Agency in November. Piotr Stancza was kidnapped September 28 from the city of Attock in Punjab province. Stancza had been based there for a Polish survey company searching for natural gas. Local reports and TV station Dawn News reported Stancza's execution Saturday. Polish Embassy spokesman Peter Adams said his offices were aware of local media reports but were waiting to hear officially from Pakistani authorities. He said all efforts had been made by Polish authorities to pressure the Pakistani government to do whatever it could to secure Stancza's release. \"From the Polish side, we did whatever we could, pressuring the Pakistani government on the presidential and prime minister level,\" Adams said. \"Problem was, this was solely Pakistan's responsibility. Demands were only towards [the] Pakistan government.\" Adams said there had been no demands for ransom. The Taliban had demanded the release of Taliban prisoners being held by the government and a pullout of government security forces from the tribal areas. Although there were assurances that the Pakistani government was doing everything it could and that Stancza would be freed soon, Adams said it was never clear what the government was actually doing to secure his release. \"We are waiting for confirmation and waiting for any answer [about] how this happened and why did this happen,\" Adams said. A spokesman for Pakistan's interior ministry said that the reports of Stancza's death have yet to be confirmed and that the case of his kidnapping was a high priority for the government. Shahid Ullah Baig said the government had been working hard to retrieve Stancza unharmed but did not give details. \"The Pakistan government is doing its level best to secure his release,\" he said, adding, \"Human life is more important to us than anything else.\" Kidnappings and attacks against foreigners have risen sharply in recent months throughout the country. Most recently, an American working for the United Nations was kidnapped in Quetta, and Peshawar has been the scene of various attacks against foreign diplomats and journalists.","highlights":"Piotr Stancza kidnapped September 28 from Attock in Punjab province .\nPolish authorities in Pakistan checking local reports .\nTaliban had demanded release of prisoners, pullout of forces .","id":"a3aa91082778369f1676f10b8badcdd04024ef2c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's accident prone \"Octopus UFO\" is just one of hundreds of unexplained sightings in the same area where a wind turbine was wrecked over the weekend, according to the latest reports. The Sun tabloid newspaper's UFO splash. Britain's tabloid Sun newspaper Thursday proclaimed from its front page that a wind turbine was ruined after a UFO hit one of its 20 meter-long blades in Conisholme, Lincolnshire. It quoted residents who saw strange balls of lights in the sky and heard a loud bang. However, another British national newspaper said the lights were just fireworks from a staff member's dad's birthday celebration. Turbine experts suggested it was a simple mechanical failure. The plot thickened further Friday, with The Sun saying it had been \"bombarded\" with reports of UFO sightings from hundreds of witnesses in the area where the turbine was destroyed. Watch video on the UFO incident . \"There have been reports of flying saucers for more than six months,\" the newspaper said. Local John Harrison, 32, told The Sun he looked out of his window and saw \"a massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground.\" The newspaper said \"other respected witnesses, such as local council chairman Robert Palmer and GP Jenny Watson, described seeing 'streaking white lights'.\" Quoting unnamed Ministry of Defence \"insiders,\" The Sun said the UFO sightings may be an unmanned stealth bomber on test flights. It said the Taranis \"black delta-wing craft\" was being developed nearby to deliver bombs undetected in war zones; back to the testing board then? However, initial reports when the Taranis contract was let last year said it would take at least four years to develop with flight testing due 2010... in Australia. CNN has also been \"bombarded\" with messages, but mainly from people less than convinced. J. Kale believed there was a very simple explanation. \"The octopus thing obviously thought the wind turbine was a female doing a mating dance and tried to mate with it.\" Trevor Brown was worried the aliens did not \"know how to drive a flying octopus.\" Mono was worried what the aliens might think about the fuss. \"Well, let's hope there is intelligent life watching us. It would at least prove there is intelligence somewhere.\" Maxim, who lives near the turbines, had a simple explanation for the lights. \"On Sunday there was a very spectacular meteor shower, like fireworks on the horizontal.\" Lilia was unimpressed with some of the explanations -- and your writer. \"Listen, just report the story and follow through. Think you can do that? Without screwing up? The plausible explanations are absurd. You are going to tell me that the residents of the area are not going to recognize fireworks? This is a ridiculous and insulting explanation and it sounds exactly like that, offensive and ridiculous. I don't know if there was a UFO or not, but it is all rather odd. What I do know is that the arrogant tone has got to stop.\" Is it life Jim but not as we know it? Beam us up your thoughts.","highlights":"British tabloid blames UFO for destroying wind turbine blade .\n\"Octopus UFO\" may have been unmanned stealth bomber on test flight, paper says .\nCNN readers remain skeptical about role of UFO in turbine's ruination .","id":"264720535e1d9b58d075d6b5bd64527d36249352"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Raul Gonzalez became the leading scorer in Real Madrid history after scoring twice in the 4-0 Primera Liga victory at Sporting Gijon on Sunday. Raul celebrates in familiar style after breaking Di Stefano's Real Madrid record against Sporting Gijon. The 31-year-old moved two goals ahead of the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano with his 308th and 309th strikes in the famous white shirt. Raul is also the all-time leading scorer in the Champions League and has helped the capital club claim six Primera Liga crowns during almost 15 years' service at the Bernabeu. His first goal, in the 15th minute, came when Sergio Ramos found space down the right before crossing for Raul to volley home. Dutch forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had not scored for Real since his 20 million euro move from Ajax, but finally broke his duck with a neat finish on 37 minutes to double Real's advantage. Brazilian Marcelo skilfully slotted home the third goal to wrap the game up early in the second half before Raul netted again to complete a comfortable victory. The win was Real's eighth consecutive Premier Liga success and ensured the defending champions closed the gap to runaway leaders Barcelona to 10 points. On Saturday, Barca had to come from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Real Betis with Samuel Eto'o scoring both goals to take his tally to 23 goals for the season.","highlights":"Raul Gonzalez scores two as Real Madrid beat Sporting Gijon 4-0 on Sunday .\nThe goals ensure the 31-year-old breaks Aldfredo Di Stefano's scoring record .\nReal's eighth consecutive win closes gap on leaders Barcelona to 10 points .","id":"c2023b07e982472a0abdaa7992488f3a5ddab961"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United Nations is urging countries to invest in green jobs working with \"sustainable forest management\" to address the growing problem of unemployment worldwide. A deforested area appears in a rain forest in Brazil's Para state in October. At least 10 million such jobs could be created, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization will say in a report to be released this week. The report does not mention any countries but is aimed at \"mainly regions with substantial rural unemployment and degraded land areas,\" said C.T.S. Nair, chief economist in the U.N. Forestry Department and one of the authors of the report. While all countries could benefit from investing in these green jobs, Nair said, Asia and Africa -- and to some extent Latin America -- could benefit the most. India, China and almost all countries in Africa stand to benefit, he added. The United Nations said it already is seeing indications that some countries -- such as the United States, India and South Korea -- are interested and taking action to invest in sustainable forest management by making it part of their economic stimulus plans. Sustainable forestry aims to prevent depletion of forests by managing them and making sure their use does not interfere with natural benefits or the local environment. For example, in forests where wood is being removed, the United Nations is suggesting that people be hired to monitor and manage how much wood is taken out to ensure the forest does not become depleted and can grow back fully. Managers also would make sure the wood harvest wouldn't affect biodiversity and the water supply. The report will be discussed and analyzed next week at the U.N. Committee on Forestry meeting in Rome, Italy. The Food and Agriculture Organization has designated next week as World Forest Week.","highlights":"U.N. says countries should invest in green jobs for \"sustainable forest management\"\nSustainable forestry aims to prevent depletion of forests .\nAsia and Africa could benefit the most from such jobs, report co-author says .\nReport will be discussed next week at meeting in Italy .","id":"18888fef1ff1e94fddf5666333dcc8d728846255"} -{"article":"COMO, Mississippi (CNN) -- Mary Dowden smiles when she thinks about this moment in history. At 80 years old, she's the granddaughter of a slave who was born in a cotton field outside of Como, Mississippi. Mary Dowden, 80, is the granddaughter of a slave. Barack Obama is bringing white and blacks together, she says. It's difficult to put into words how she feels about Barack Obama, the issues so complex for a black country girl who lost both her parents by the age of 18 and then had to work a hard-scrabble life as a sharecropper. \"I was really afraid for him, because I didn't want nobody to kill him,\" she says when asked about casting her ballot for Obama. But she pauses and smiles. \"I'm awfully proud of him, as a black person.\" Watch \"white and black is coming together\" \u00bb . Did she ever think she would see this moment? \"No, I didn't,\" she says. \"I always thought that, you know, the white was over the black, that they was the leading folks, that one nation is gonna be over another one, and that would be the white over the black. I never thought it would be a black president.\" With Obama's election, CNN.com traveled to the town of Como to talk with African-Americans about their experience growing up black in Mississippi and what this moment in history means to them. Como is a town of 1,400 people 45 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, along Interstate 55. It is a hard-hit rural community, home to a school with the dubious distinction of being among the worst-performing schools in the nation. In 2007, the IRS froze the town's bank accounts for not paying payroll taxes. A railroad track cuts through the middle of town. Even to this day, blacks largely live on one side of the track; whites on the other side. See the hard-scrabble life of a slave's grandson \u00bb . Dowden is a living testament to a life of struggle, sacrifice and ultimately success. When she was 10 years old, her mom cooked a dewberry pie after working the cotton fields all day. She then went to a friend's house and died. \"It was real devastating,\" Dowden says softly. \"I was 10. My sister was 12, and we didn't know how to do nothing. And we had to take care of our little brother.\" She missed one year of schooling because her father, Moses Wilson, couldn't afford schoolbooks. He died four days after she turned 18. She had two photos of her parents, but they were lost over the years. She knows even less about her grandparents. \"All I know is, he said that his momma was sold. She was auctioned off,\" Dowden says. \"I don't know where she was from. I don't know anything about her.\" Dowden is a mother of 12. One son died when he was 3; another died when he was 47. \"It was hard both ways.\" Across town, a group of African-Americans have gathered at Cistern Hill Church to talk about the good times and the hard times -- and hope for a better future. They range in age from 74 to 18. Watch \"I started working when I was 6 years old\" \u00bb . Aubrey \"Bill\" Turner, 26, perks up when talking about Obama. \"He's going to bring a sense of respect in Mississippi, that it's not just a white man's country. You can be young, you can be black, and you can do anything that you want to do,\" Turner says. \"You do have a chance. And he's gonna put that all on the table for us.\" Turner has a tattoo across his neck that reads \"Mr. Ssippi.\" His grandfather was well-known fife musician Otha Turner, whose music was featured in the movie \"Gangs of New York.\" His grandfather, he said, always taught him \"to respect white people, because one day you're gonna want that respect, too.\" Others nod with excitement about the prospects of a black president. They point out that they've supported white presidents over the years and always voted for them. \"It just happened to be a black man [this time] that was qualified to be president and enough people wanted him in that position and voted for him,\" says William C. Wilbourn, 59. But Wilbourn acknowledges, as a black man, it's an awesome moment in the nation's history. \"It feels real good.\" Elnora Jackson, 74, says she was robbed of the privilege to vote for decades. So whenever there's an election, she votes \"every time I get a chance.\" Those gathered here chuckle when they talk about the town of Como. It was, they say, always a bit different than the rest of Mississippi. The downtown strip was built in such a way that there weren't really any back doors. Blacks could walk in the front doors of businesses in the old days. That's not to say it was a honeymoon, either. There was a white water fountain in town that was guarded; blacks could cook at a burger stand, but they couldn't buy food there. School buses with white kids would pass black children walking to and from school. They'd hurl bricks and insults at them. \"When I was growing up, it was painful,\" says Arilla Kerney, 63. \"I prayed and asked the Lord to forgive them.\" There's one day that all the elders remember well. It was in June 1966. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. swung through Como on a march through Mississippi to motivate black people to register to vote. Black children had been told to stay away for fear of any reprisals. But Lucy Thomas, a 4-foot, 8-inch woman with a \"small frame and big voice,\" gathered about 20 black children. They walked hand-in-hand, barefoot and dirty, down the road to the intersection of Highways 51 and 310, where King and the Freedom Marchers were huddled. Descendant of slave owners crosses the tracks . One by one, the children shook King's hand. \"It was just amazing to see Dr. King come through Como, Mississippi!\" says Dorothy Kerney-Wilbourn, who was among the children that day. She says that about 20 miles down the road, there was a peach orchard where white men were up in trees with guns. \"We were walking down the highway, marching and singing freedom songs, and they were up in trees with guns. That was a frightening moment,\" Kerney-Wilbourn says with a laugh. \"Their concept of the blacks was just so different. But we showed them that we were there for peace.\" Mary Dowden remembers that day, too. She said a white man said to her, \"They should send all the black boys back to Africa.\" Dowden got in the man's face. \"I told him, 'You can't send me back to Africa, because I didn't come from Africa! I was born and raised here. Where you gonna send me back to?' \" She smiles. \"He didn't like that. ... He didn't say nothing. He shut his mouth up.\" Obama has helped change the conversation in these parts like few others. Dowden, the granddaughter of a slave, holds her chin high. Referring to Obama, she says, \"It's his time.\" He hasn't taken office yet, but he's already brought change. \"Right now, I think the white and black is coming together.\"","highlights":"Mary Dowden, 80, is the granddaughter of a slave .\nShe says she was afraid for Barack Obama because \"I didn't want nobody to kill him\"\nCNN.com traveled to Como, Mississippi, to talk with blacks about Obama .\nObama's inspiration: \"You can be young, you can be black, and you can do anything\"","id":"630d38b1786107c30898b6721589d4aa0e5de733"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Strange lights in the sky, mysterious flashes, dozens of witnesses, a missing wind turbine blade and a tabloid splash featuring the pun: E.T. farm harm. The Sun tabloid newspaper's UFO splash. Let's hope there isn't intelligent life out there watching us. Britain's tabloid Sun newspaper Thursday proclaimed from its front page that a wind turbine was ruined after a UFO hit one of its 20 meter-long blades in Conisholme, Lincolnshire. Dorothy Willows, who lives near the damaged turbine, told The Sun she was in her car when she saw strange lights in the sky. \"The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.\" Apparently, hours later, she and her husband were woken by a big bang; one of the turbine's three blades had gone. It, was, however, on the ground below. Other locals told the newspaper that the lights looked like \"balls of flames.\" Russ Kellett, a UFO expert, told the newspaper: \"Balls of light were seen in the sky and the MoD [Ministry of Defence] has no explanation. It must have taken a pretty massive object. We are very, very, very excited.\" However, The Guardian newspaper's Web site content director Emily Bell had a simple explanation for all those \"balls of light\" in the sky. She told The Guardian the lights were fireworks her brother Tim had bought at the local garden center for the 80th birthday party of dad Peter Bell. \"It was a medium-sized fireworks display with absolutely no ballistics, and the fireworks were mostly dropping over my parents' house. But we were laughing that we could have broken the wind turbine,\" Emily said. \"There we are in the middle of a scoop and we're beaten to it by a red-top tabloid,\" Emily's mother Bridget, 74, told The Guardian. Later Thursday, the British Press Association reported the blade may have come off after a mechanical failure. Fraser McLachlan, chief executive of GCube, which insures more than 25,000 wind turbines worldwide, told PA that although it was unusual, this kind of incident happened up to six times a year. \"It does happen that a blade will sometimes just come off a machine for one reason or another,\" he said. \"The main reason is the blade may shear. \"We don't normally see things like aircraft -- or UFOs -- hitting them. It's usually a mechanical failure that causes the blade to separate from the main hub.\" He said the cold weather was another possible cause. Dr Peter Schubel, an expert in the design and manufacture of wind turbine blades at the University of Nottingham, agreed. He told the BBC that if the turbine blade was still, it would take a 10-tonne load to remove a blade, but if it was rotating the force could be a lot less. \"It's definitely not a bird. It could be ice thrown from a neighbouring turbine that struck it.\" Aliens out of control or simple mechanical failure? A case for Mulder and Scully? What do you think?","highlights":"British tabloid blames UFO for destroying wind turbine blade .\nNewspaper quotes locals saying there were \"strange lights\" in the sky .\nSecond newspaper says lights were fireworks from staff member's family celebration .","id":"5ad8de279c5668fa0ad2f589b7724457d45d905e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This month, Just Imagine focused on the future of nature and the ways in which it can inspire solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. A digital representation of the human genome. Yet as scientists gain a greater understanding of biological processes, they're also learning how to manipulate them, including the very essence of what makes us human -- our DNA. Biotechnology advances are already helping scientists find groundbreaking ways to create personalized medicine, detect illnesses and eradicate disease. And this, according to futurist Ray Kurzweil, is only the beginning. In the future, humans will be able to reverse the aging process, replace dying organs with younger ones grown from an individual's own DNA and even genetically engineer unborn children, he said. But some, like the UK-based group Human Genetics Alert, worry the ability to reprogram our biochemistry could lead mankind into unknown territory with dangerous ramifications for the future, including genetic discrimination and even a redefinition of what it means to be human. We want to hear your views. To what extent should we be able to alter our genetic makeup? Should there be a limit? And how should it be determined exactly what that limit is? Post your comments in the Sound Off box below. We'll publish the best.","highlights":"We ask, to what extent should we be able to alter our own DNA?\nRay Kurzweil: Reprogramming DNA could expand human potential .\nHuman Genetics Alert says could lead to genetic discrimination, social issues .\nWhat do you think? Post your views in the Sound Off box below.","id":"32bfc3cee2ad055c0b5250cdd5c1273daa558656"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The first photos of Tiger Woods cradling his new baby boy have been released amid speculation the injured world number one could announce a return to competitive golf \"any day now.\" Tiger Woods poses with his family including new son Charlie and dogs Yogi and Taz. Charlie Axel Woods was born on Sunday, February 8, and is the second child for Woods and his wife Elin. He is pictured here with his 20-month-old sister Sam their dogs Yogi and Taz, who is seen planting a well-timed lick on Tiger's face. Woods had been waiting for the birth of his second child before making public any decision about a return to the Tour in 2009. His long-time caddie Steve Williams told Television New Zealand an announcement could come \"any day now,\" and that Woods could return to competitive golf \"in the next few weeks.\" \"He's probably 95 percent of the way there. He was waiting for the birth of his second child which came about last week so he's ready to go, just needs a little bit more walking,\" Williams told TVNZ. \"He hasn't been able to walk too well. But anytime in the next few weeks he's going to tee it up.\" Williams said Woods \"definitely\" wants to play a couple of tournaments before the U.S. Masters at Augusta in early April. The world number one has been out of the game since winning his 14th major title at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last June. He underwent reconstructive surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and a week later ruled himself out for the rest of the 2008 season. Williams told TVNZ that Tiger had been practicing six hours a day, and that the only concession he has made to his injury was to adjust his swing. \"He's had to modify his swing a little bit to accommodate his knee but the guy always finds a way,\" Williams said. He added: \"Nine months out of the game after a major operation is a long time. But he's a hell of a competitor and one of the best we've ever seen in this game so I would suspect that he'll carry right on, but time will tell that.\" Last month, Woods issued a statement saying that he was practicing and making progress towards at a return to the PGA tour. He said after January 1, he started hitting longer irons and his driver, although was not swinging as hard as he could, adding \"I'm working towards that goal.\" Earlier this month he predicted the new addition to the family would make it a \"hectic Spring\" and said that he'd be taking it \"tournament-to-tournament.\"","highlights":"Golfing legend Tiger Woods poses with his family, including new son Charlie .\nCharlie Axel Woods was born on February 8, a brother to 20-month-old Sam .\nWoods had been waiting for his son's birth before announcing a return to golf .\nWorld No.1 has been sidelined since June 2008 after undergoing knee surgery .","id":"1cc4a01de67f1b95345816e6ae3002fd650304a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 23 people died Saturday when a protest rally turned violent outside Madagascar's Presidential Palace, a fire official at the main hospital said. People duck to avoid gunfire Saturday in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The official said 83 people were injured during the demonstration in the capital city of Antananarivo, according to journalist Dregoire Pourtier, who passed the information to CNN. The International Committee of the Red Cross helped at least 18 injured people, press officer Mbola Ramamanana said. Brittany Martin, an American who is a Harvard Fellow and lives near the palace, said she could hear the crowd cheering amid intermittent gunshots and noises that may have been tear gas canisters. iReport.com: Are you there? \"From the window I can see military cars and ambulances driving by,\" Martin said. \"Nothing is up in smoke. We know there have been people killed from French and Malagasy news reports. \"We can see the back of the president's palace. This morning was totally peaceful. We knew that Andry [Rajoelina] was unveiling his new government at the May 13th Plaza, which was peaceful,\" she said, citing a friend who was there. Madagascar's government is in flux. President Marc Ravalomanana fired Rajoelina as mayor of Antananarivo and put someone else in the job, but Rajoelina is still technically mayor and claims to head a transitional national government. Martin said she heard gunshots starting about 2 p.m., after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks before, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. There is also anger in Madagascar -- where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year -- over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Last Saturday, Rajoelina took to the streets, declaring himself the nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Rajoelina urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government can be established in the island nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map \u00bb . \"What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time,\" said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try to disperse the crowd. \"I don't think anyone wanted violence.\" According to the U.S. State Department, Madagascar has about 20 million people with ethnic origins in Africa and Asia. It was administered by the British Empire during much of the 19th century until it came under the control of France, from which it gained independence in 1960.","highlights":"Gunfire heard near presidential palace, site of anti-government rally .\nPresident and fired mayor of capital city are locked in a power struggle .\nRally started peacefully, American in capital says .","id":"47b691352c8d6d7b51284dd00315e2a33798fc3d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Indiana judge Monday froze the assets of Marcus Schrenker, a suburban Indianapolis financial manager who authorities say tried to fake his own death by crashing his private plane into a Florida swamp. Marcus Schrenker exited his small plane before it crashed, and investigators are looking for him, police say. Investigators looking into his business dealings for possible securities violations requested the temporary restraining order in Hamilton County Superior Court, said Jim Gavin, spokesman for the Indiana Secretary of State. He said the order, which also applies to Schrenker's wife, Michelle, and to his three companies, is aimed at protecting investors, and is related to a receivership filing. He didn't elaborate. Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services and Icon Wealth Management are \"the subjects of an active investigation by the Indiana Securities Division,\" Gavin said. Public documents list Schrenker as president of Heritage Wealth Management in Fishers, Indiana. A search warrant related to the inquiry was served December 31, Gavin said. According to The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Indiana, Michelle Schrenker filed for divorce in Hamilton Superior Court on December 30. A hearing was set for February 5. Schrenker, 38, took off alone Sunday night in a corporate plane, a Piper PA-46, from Anderson, Indiana, en route to Destin, Florida. Authorities said the Fisher, Indiana, businessman parachuted to the ground before letting the plane crash in the Florida panhandle. The craft came down near the Blackwater River, only 50 to 75 yards from homes, said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office. Watch more about the mysterious flight \u00bb . \"It is a neighborhood -- some very nice waterfront property,\" he said. Military aircraft from Whiting Field, which were dispatched to intercept the plane after Schrenker reported an emergency, witnessed the crash about 9:15 p.m. CT. The crews fired flares and noticed the plane's door was open and the cockpit was dark, Haines said in a news release. They got no response. Haines said the plane appeared to have been put on autopilot at around 2,000 feet, over the Birmingham, Alabama, area, before the pilot parachuted to the ground. Schrenker had contacted air traffic controllers, saying that the windshield imploded. \"The pilot stated that he was bleeding profusely,\" the news release said. \"Radio contact with the plane was not able to be established after that point. When deputies located the plane at the crash site, no blood was present and the door to the plane was open.\" The Childersburg, Alabama, Police Department reported that Schrenker approached one of its officers shortly before 2:30 a.m., \"and said that he had been in a canoeing accident with some friends,\" a news release said. Childersburg is about 35 miles southeast of Birmingham. Childersburg officers, unaware of the plane crash, took Schrenker to a hotel in nearby Harpersville. After hearing about the crash, they went back to the hotel, where they found that Schrenker had checked into the hotel under a fictitious name. \"When authorities entered Schrenker's room, he was not there,\" the release said. Authorities said Schrenker checked in under a fake name, put on a black cap and fled into a wooded area. Hotel manager Yogi Patel, who identified Schrenker on surveillance video, told CNN that Schrenker was the only guest overnight. He signed in as Jason Galouzs of Bolingbrook, Illinois, Patel said. A hotel employee said Schrenker went up to his room, but didn't enter before leaving the building. iReport.com: Are you near the crash site? Tell us about it . Steve Darlington, manager of Anderson Municipal Airport, told CNN the plane was in fine condition at takeoff, and said Schrenker is \"an accomplished pilot\" who owns \"a couple of airplanes\" and flies regularly. No agency has come forward to lead the probe. \"The FBI is looking into the matter, along with other agencies,\" said Paul Draymond, of the Birmingham FBI office. Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said several factors indicated the pilot likely left the plane before the crash: a \"detailed review of radar data,\" the fact that the plane was switched to autopilot before it crashed, the sighting by military jet crews and the fact that the cockpit was found mostly intact with no one inside. After the pilot alerted air traffic controllers about the alleged problems with his plane, authorities tried to persuade him to land in Pell City, Alabama, east of Birmingham, Haines said. Schrenker also flew an acrobatic plane, and made a video featured on a YouTube site. A message preceding the video warns, \"No pilot should attempt this stunt. You will get yourself killed. Pilot specially trained to fly unlimited acrobatics and shows.\" CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities say pilot tried to fake his own death by crashing his private plane .\nOfficials searching for Marcus Schrenker, who they say parachuted out of plane .\nInvestigators looking into possible securities violations request the restraining order .\nManager in Alabama says Schrenker was his only guest at hotel overnight .","id":"ee1ae386430811722a053e3e241f98867b5f9a44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lights went off across the world Saturday as millions of homes and businesses went dark for one hour in a symbolic gesture highlighting concerns over climate change. The lights go off Saturday at the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben clock tower in central London. More than 2,800 cities and towns worldwide dimmed their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time for the third annual Earth Hour -- a day-long energy-saving marathon spanning 83 countries and 24 time zones. In New York, the Empire State Building, Central Park and the George Washington Bridge went dark at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Philippines topped this year's participation for Asia, with more than 650 communities taking part in the event, according to Earth Hour's Web site. The light illuminating the face of the landmark Big Ben clock tower in London, England, went out at 8:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET). In Dubai, iReporter Sharad Agarwal turned out the lights and sat down to a candlelit dinner with his family. \"I personally believe in going green and everything that goes with it,\" Agarwal told CNN. In Australia, floodlights of the Sydney Opera House were extinguished as the city's iconic harbor kicked off events for Earth Hour. The event's Web site reported that hundreds of people lined the harbor for a glimpse of the dimming skyline at 8:30 pm. Sydney became the birthplace of the Earth Hour campaign in 2007 when 2.2 million turned off their lights, igniting a grass-roots movement that has become a global phenomenon. In China, illuminations at major buildings including the \"Bird's Nest\" Olympic Stadium and the Water Cube were extinguished as 20 cities joined in, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Other landmarks around the world expected to join the World Wildlife Fund-sponsored event were the Egyptian pyramids, Vatican, Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Acropolis in Athens and the Las Vegas casino strip. CNN iReporter Marie Sager of Los Angeles, California, said she planned to hike up to the Griffith Observatory to experience the massive lights-out event. \"A good portion of the city is participating. We'll see the Capital Records sign go out. A lot of these places haven't turned out their lights in awhile,\" Sager said. Event sponsors hoped participating U.S. cities would set an example for the rest of the world. Watch actor Edward Norton and Carter Roberts of the World Wildlife Fund discuss event \u00bb . \"We think we are going to have 100 million people around the world sending a message that climate change is real, and we need to take action now,\" World Wildlife Fund CEO Carter Roberts told CNN. \"The world is watching to see what America is going to do,\" he said, \"because if America acts on climate change, the world will follow.\" Earth Hour events got off to an unofficial start in the remote Chatham Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean where locals switched off their diesel generators, organizers said. Shortly afterward, 44 New Zealand cities and town joined in the event. Organizers say they hope this year's event will send a message to world leaders meeting Copenhagen, Denmark, in December for a major summit on climate change. \"We are asking one billion people to take part in what is essentially the first global vote for action on climate change by turning off their lights for one hour and casting a vote for earth,\" said executive director Andy Ridley.","highlights":"Lights go out over Sydney Harbor as city launches Earth Hour .\n650 communities in Philippines flip the switch .\nMillions of homes and businesses were expected to join event .\nOrganizers hope event will send message on climate change to world leaders .","id":"6bd3bdb8737fd3c5a4b0a932c863b5cc7bd1a610"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska erupted four times on Friday, shooting ash as high as 51,000 feet, scientists said. A series of eruptions has been rattling Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano since Sunday. The latest eruption took place at 8:30 p.m. (12:30 a.m. Saturday ET), according to the National Weather Service. That eruption followed three other ones earlier Friday. The eruptions are the latest in a series that began Sunday. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said the alert level remains at its highest possible designation -- red -- indicating that an eruption is under way or imminent and that the eruption will produce a \"significant emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.\" The weather service said the ash is drifting north and northeast. However, only \"very light\" amounts are expected to fall Friday in the Anchorage area, about 100 miles east-northeast of the volcano. Alaska Airlines limited flights to and from Anchorage on Friday, according to the airline's Web site. It canceled all its Thursday flights to and from Anchorage after an eruption earlier in the day sent an ash cloud 65,000 feet high.","highlights":"NEW: Four eruptions jolt Alaska's Mount Redoubt on Friday .\nAlert level remains at highest possible designation .\nMount Redoubt has been erupting since Sunday .\nAlaska Airlines limits Friday flights to and from Anchorage .","id":"c15231a64b8de48ee45653b6554703c3dcef2880"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mother Nature provided a little bit of everything in several parts of the country on Saturday. Vehicles jam a buckled road in Mobile, Alabama, on Saturday after heavy rains. Heavy winds wreaked havoc on a shopping center in central Tennessee, blowing out windows and damaging the roof, Murfreesboro police spokesman Kyle Evans told CNN Radio. Glass storefronts at the Jackson Heights Shopping Center were blown out 100 to 150 yards into the parking lot, Evans said. Evans said three people were treated for minor injuries from flying glass and metal. Residents in northwest Murfreesboro lost power Saturday night and police warned residents to stay indoors until traffic caused by the incident cleared up. Elsewhere, a blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow in parts of the Plains on Saturday. The blizzard cut power, stranding drivers and prompting governors in Kansas and Oklahoma to issue disaster declarations. The heaviest snow and ice accumulated in south central and southwest Kansas. In Pratt County, 28 inches of snow fell, with snowdrifts reported up to 6 feet deep. At least nine other counties reported 2 feet of snow, the Kansas Adjutant General's office said. About 17,000 customers in Kansas lost electricity, more than half of those in Sedgwick County. The storm left some travelers stranded and in need of last-minute hotel accommodations, according to the front desk manager at the Econolodge in McPherson. \"We have two honeymoon suites open, but other than that we're fully booked. We normally have 84 rooms,\" iReporter Sally Kelley said. The housekeepers who made it to work were all outside shoveling, but they struggled to keep up with the snow as it continued falling Saturday afternoon. \"We haven't had people getting mad at us. The people have been great but I think they're really frustrated.\" The state Adjutant General's office said whiteout conditions and blowing snow made driving hazardous. The Kansas Department of Transportation shut down several roads in the western and south central part of the state. National Guard Humvees were used to move medical personnel and patients to a hospital in Seward County. In Oklahoma, where more than a foot of snow fell, Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency in 50 counties. The state Department of Transportation had several roads blocked in the state and others remained impassable. \"The only people who can get out of their driveways have 4-wheel drive,\" said iReporter Mark Rennie of Alva, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, rain along the Gulf Coast battered areas around Mobile, Alabama, and Biloxi, Mississippi. Watch how the rain is blocking roads in Mobile, Alabama \u00bb . Mobile County Emergency Management Director Walter Dickerson said 4 to 6 inches of rain fell on already saturated ground. Fifteen to 20 roads around Mobile were closed, and several people had to be rescued after flash flooding trapped their cars. In Mobile, heavy rains caused a section of roadway to collapse. Three cars ended up in a large sinkhole, including one vehicle that landed on top of another. No serious injuries were reported. Dickerson said a temporary shelter may be opened for residents displaced by the high waters. In nearby Baldwin County, Alabama, an apartment complex was evacuated and some main roads were closed. The main roadway leading into Biloxi, the Interstate 10 loop, was closed for several hours early Saturday before waters receded and allowed traffic to resume. But more than a dozen other roads around Harrison County remained blocked. Roads were also impassable in some parts of the Florida Panhandle. Officials in the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area, which was under flood watches and warnings, were keeping an eye on surging rivers and creeks.","highlights":"Strong winds damage Tennessee shopping center .\nBlizzard drops more than 2 feet of snow, strands travelers in Kansas, Oklahoma .\nMobile, Alabama, and Biloxi, Mississippi, regions hardest hit by rain .","id":"aafa72a022f766ddf7c9d40716d106c44ca0d64b"} -{"article":"MALMO, Sweden (CNN) -- The breathy vocals of Nina Persson helped launch The Cardigans onto the music scene in the 1990s. The band developed its dreamy pop sound in the Southern Swedish town of Malmo. Singer Nina Persson finds musical inspiration in love and relationships. They were catapulted to international success in 1997, when the single \"Lovefool\" appeared on the soundtrack for \"Romeo and Juliet,\" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The song's chorus (\"Love me, love me, say that you love me\") became a pop anthem. In addition to fronting The Cardigans, Persson, 34, has worked on solo projects under the name A Camp. Now, after a near decade long hiatus, her second A Camp album, \"Colonia,\" is due out later this month. Persson, who splits her time between New York and Malmo, talks to CNN's \"My City, My Life\" about music, inspiration and life after \"Lovefool.\" CNN: How did The Cardigans start? Nina Persson: We formed the band in this town where we are all originally from -- Jonkoping -- and that was in 1992. Magnus and Peter were the two guys who actually met and wanted to form the band. And then they recruited people and I was one of the first to be recruited, along with a friend of mine who played guitar in the first version of The Cardigans. I had not sung before that really. I was sort of hired because they knew they wanted a girl singing. And I was like 'I'm a girl' and I guess we got along well and I was willing to learn to sing. So that's how it started really. Watch Nina take CNN on a tour of her favorite Malmo spots \u00bb . CNN: How big was music in your life before you joined the band? Nina Persson: I've loved music my whole life. But I never really listened to a record and thought that was something that I wanted to do. I was interested in becoming a painter, an architect, a designer. Those are the things I was interested in. But music, I never took instrument classes -- it was a random thing to start doing. CNN: Sometime a career finds you? Nina Persson: Yeah and I was a person who was really helped by it. I was looking for something but I didn't know what it was and it proved to fulfill what I needed at the time. CNN: How is A Camp different from The Cardigans? Nina Persson: It's hard to say what makes it different because I'm still doing the same thing -- I'm still writing songs and singing them -- but it feels like it's a bigger freedom because I am in charge in A Camp. I like both. Both serve good purposes. I like to be in the collective, being part of the machinery, but I also really enjoy being dictator. CNN: How do you define yourself as a musician now? Nina Persson: Well I'm not. I'm not one of these people who live and breathe music. In the beginning I was a reluctant musician -- I still haven't bothered to learn an instrument. I'm still only a singer and that's how I write my songs. I'm always superstitious that if I do learn an instrument I would pop the bubble a bit. CNN: Is there anything else you would have liked to have done if you hadn't done singing? Nina Persson: At the time when I was found, picked up by the band, I was into art. I was really good at drawing, really creative. I made stuff, I built stuff, I sewed stuff. I thought I would end up in that world somewhere. Photography was a big thing for me. In retrospect, I'm sure that could have been a good career for me. But recently I've started to wish that I could start over and dedicate my life to medicine. I would have loved to go to med school. I don't think I will because I don't want to spend seven or eight years in training, but I dream about working in a hospital. CNN: What were your inspirations over the years? Nina Persson: That's an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I think I'm a sucker for constantly going back to the subject of love and relationships. It also varies very much from project to project and month to month. I'm very emotional when it comes to the music. I want to make people cry. CNN: Tell us the story of how the band ended up in Malmo. See photos of Nina in Malmo \u00bb . Nina Persson: We moved here because we started to record in Tambourine Studios which was here. Most studios are in Stockholm so sort of all roads wanted to drag us to Stockholm but we did persist and came here. CNN: When you came to Malmo, what was it like starting out in the early days? Nina Persson: Our parents helped us move down here which was really sweet. They sort of dropped us off and waved goodbye and we moved in. We really did hang out, the five of us, quite exclusively in the beginning. CNN: What was the area like back then? Has it changed? Nina Persson: Well actually the area where I now live hasn't changed that much. A lot of Malmo has moved away from the blue collar past it has, but not that area. It has strangely remained the same, and I like it. CNN: Do you think the gritty atmosphere of Malmo has helped you stay grounded? Nina Persson: Well it's hard to say how much has to do with the people we are or how much to do with Malmo. But there certainly is something here that does not encourage big headedness. CNN: The musical heritage of Malmo is quite rocky. How did you guys fit in? Nina Persson: People thought we were really ridiculous when we came to this totally rock place and played pop music. So we didn't fit in at all -- we were never part of the scene here. CNN: You were happy to be outsiders of the rocky heritage? Nina Persson: I think we felt sort of cool about doing our own thing. We thought we knew something that the others didn't understand. CNN: Is there something about Malmo that helps shape your music or influence you? Nina Persson: I think Malmo did have a big influence on us. Obviously we came here for the sound, and we got the sound we wanted. We were away from the industry -- that was great for us. I really did appreciate being in a place where there is not a lot whole of press and industry. Nina takes . CNN: So you also live in New York. What brings you back to Malmo? Nina Persson: For me, I love Malmo very much because of my friendships. In Malmo I get the intimacy and get to run into my friends in the street once in a while which is a lovely feeling and I get to have a great grocery store just around the corner. CNN: If Malmo was a person, what kind of person would it be? Nina Persson: It would be somebody who has been around for a while and survived a lot of hardships -- somebody you don't mess with, somebody really intelligent, stubborn, with a lot of beauty on the inside.","highlights":"Cardigans' singer discusses Malmo, the group's adopted hometown .\nThe band moved to the Southern Swedish city for a particular sound, she says .\nPersson talks about the \"bigger freedom\" that comes with her solo projects .\nInspired by love and relationships, she wants her music \"to make people cry\"","id":"abe27f9d3cd635e432e0129b2bdae168f6c22aa9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fishing boat carrying two NFL players and two other men capsized last month because it was improperly anchored, a Florida agency reported Friday. Nick Schuyler clings to an overturned boat in this Coast Guard photo. One man survived; the other three are still missing. Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith and former University of South Florida players William Bleakley and Nick Schuyler went overboard February 28 during a fishing trip. Schuyler survived the accident, which happened 35 miles west of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the men were unable to pull up the anchor of their boat to head back to port. Cooper tried to rev the boat forward to free the anchor, but the 21-foot single engine craft then capsized. The report said that the \"improper anchoring\" to a portside bracket, the attempt to throttle the boat forward to release the anchor,and the \"failure to leave enough slack anchor line to compensate for top-water Gulf conditions\" caused the accident. Schuyler told his rescuers that the boat was anchored in the evening when it was overturned by waves during a storm. He told them that all four men were clinging to the boat for a time, but became separated. The four men embarked in a 21-foot single-engine boat from the Seminole Boat Ramp near Clearwater Pass about 6:30 a.m. February 28, the Coast Guard said.","highlights":"Florida agency rules bad anchoring, revving engine made boat capsize .\nRaiders' Marquis Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith, William Bleakley missing .\nNick Schuyler survived the February 28 accident in Gulf of Mexico .","id":"7fd6d5bf3dd9afb2816b0eb7891b2ece01132d42"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Twenty-six year old Brazilian footballer Kaka is at the subject of negotiations about a salary that could see him earn nearly 95 times more than what Barack Obama will be paid when he enters the White House. Pay rise: Kaka could soon be earning $726,000 per week . Reports circulated Wednesday that the AC Milan midfielder is being offered a \u00a3500,000 ($726,000) per WEEK salary by English Premier League club Manchester City. A statement on Italy's Mediaset Web site appeared to suggest he will turn down the offer, however Manchester City officials insist the talks are ongoing. Even if he declines the move, the offer is far beyond the pay for many other high-profile jobs. For example, the U.S. President receives about $7690 per week, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown receives around $5233. What do you think of these salaries? Should footballers be paid more than world leaders? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. A comparison of a variety of salaries shows just how highly footballers, and professional sportsmen and women are paid in relation to other jobs. Even current football salaries dwarf the pay for most executive positions and public offices. WEEKLY INCOME (approximate) U.S. President: $7690 . British PM Gordon Brown: $5233 . Band 5 nurse in Britain: $567 . Director-General of BBC: $22,800 . Average U.S. teacher: $915 . Cristiano Ronaldo: $177,345 . Lewis Hamilton: $391,593 . Kaka's reported offer: $726,881 . If Kaka's deal does proceed, he will earn more than triple the Premier League's current highest-paid player, Robinho. The Brazilian, also with Manchester City, earns approximately $232,580 per week. Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, a man believed to be worth about $22 billion -- so funding the salary shouldn't be a problem. Kaka's current salary at AC Milan was believed to be about $208,000 per week.","highlights":"European media reports suggest Kaka is being offered a $726,000 weekly pay .\nThe U.S. President earns about $7690 per week (plus other benefits)\nWorld Footballer of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo is paid $177,000 a week .","id":"ee3b71da1cf9ff9516460eca5d5d997bb560c4fa"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The BBC is refusing to broadcast a plea from leading British charities for aid to Gaza, saying the ad would compromise the public broadcaster's appearance of impartiality. Demonstrators protest at the BBC's central London offices Saturday against the broadcaster's decision. The decision prompted weekend protests in England and Scotland, with one group saying Sunday that 100 people had occupied the foyer of the BBC building in Glasgow, Scotland and would not leave until the BBC runs the ad. The Disasters Emergency Committee, which includes the British Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children and 10 other charities, plans to launch the ad on Monday. British broadcasters, led by the BBC, originally declined to air the appeal -- but in the face of criticism from government ministers and others, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 changed their minds. CNN was not approached to broadcast the ad, a DEC spokesman said. About 5,000 people demonstrated in front of the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday over the broadcaster's stance. Seven people were arrested. Watch protest against BBC decision \u00bb . In Glasgow, the London-based Stop the War Coalition said Sunday its supporters had moved into the foyer of the BBC building in what the group described as a peaceful protest. The group did not plan to move beyond the foyer but intended to stay there until the BBC changes its decision, said Keith Boyd, a coalition member who called CNN on Sunday. \"Primarily we are asking that the ad be shown,\" Boyd said. The BBC press office would not confirm whether its Glasgow office was being occupied or if protesters were even there. \"We don't comment on individual demonstrations,\" a statement from the BBC press office said. The BBC is standing by its decision to not air the ad, director general Mark Thompson wrote in a blog post on the corporation's Web site. \"We concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its wider coverage of the story,\" he wrote Saturday. \"Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programs but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story,\" Thompson said. \"Gaza remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues -- the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it -- are both at the heart of the story and contentious,\" he added. The BBC, which is funded by an obligatory license fee paid by every British household with a television, is required by its charter to be impartial. It does not carry commercial advertising but does broadcast charity appeals. The DEC is \"disappointed that the BBC declined to support the Gaza appeal,\" the spokesman told CNN. \"It might limit the reach of our key message to the general public.\" The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said the BBC had to make its own decision about impartiality. \"That is a decision they must make. We have no view on that subject,\" he said. Many readers of Thompson's blog post did have a view, however. The statement got hundreds of comments, most of them critical of the BBC. A commenter who signed in as \"bully--baiter\" said the BBC was taking a side, no matter what it did. \"Sorry Mr. Thompson but you cannot have it both ways. If deciding to accede to the DEC request would be seen as political then deciding not to accede to it is also political. Don't insult me with your disingenuous attempts to suggest it is otherwise,\" the commenter wrote. Other commenters simply rejected Thompson's position out of hand. \"I think the reasons for blocking help for a grave humanitarian disaster are simply astounding,\" \"brit--proud\" wrote. \"How can simply bringing food, medicines and homes to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians be seen as political impartiality? How stupid do the BBC think the British public are?\" But the corporation had its defenders as well. \"The last thing I want to do, is fund the BBC to broadcast propaganda,\" \"SternG\" wrote: \"There's no way I will pay the BBC to air the DEC's politically-motivated 'appeal' for Gaza. Gaza is run by a government which is internationally recognized as a terrorist group, including by the EU. There is no doubt that some aid\/fund will be 'procured' by Hamas. ... Good decision BBC.\" British broadcasters have refused to air some previous DEC appeals, the umbrella organization's spokesman said. A planned 2006 appeal for aid to victims of the war in Lebanon was scrapped because \"there were genuine concerns, shared by the aid agencies, about the deliverability of aid.\" Thompson cited doubts about whether DEC members could get aid to Gaza as a secondary reason for declining to take the ad.","highlights":"NEW: Protesters occupy part of BBC building in Scotland, group says .\nU.K. charity group Disasters Emergency Committee to launch appeal for Gaza aid .\nBBC refuses to broadcast ad, says would compromise appearance of impartiality .\nBBC, funded by obligatory license fee, is required by charter to be impartial .","id":"b17122a9fba69c19dfeb4b7b5aea8f27e691e495"} -{"article":"Men who are circumcised are less likely to get sexually transmitted infections such as genital herpes and human papillomavirus (HPV), but not syphilis, according to a study of adult African men published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. Circumcision rates have traditionally been higher in the U.S. than in Europe, but they've been on the decline. The finding adds to the evidence that there are health benefits to circumcision. It was already known that circumcision can reduce the risk of penile cancer, a relatively rare disease. In a previous study, the same research team found that adult circumcision could reduce the risk of HIV infection. Efforts to increase the practice of male circumcision in areas with high rates of sexually transmitted infections, including Africa, could have a tremendous benefit, say the study's authors. Genital herpes has been associated with an increased risk of HIV, and HPV can cause genital warts as well as a higher risk of anal, cervical (in women), and penile cancers. Health.com: Is your partner cheating? How to protect yourself . In the United States, infant circumcision is declining. About 64 percent of American male infants were circumcised in 1995, down from more than 90 percent in the 1970s. Rates tend to be higher in whites (81percent) than in blacks (65 percent) or Hispanics (54 percent). Some opponents say the removal of the foreskin is an unnecessary surgical procedure that may reduce sexual sensitivity in adulthood. In Jewish and Muslim cultures, young or infant boys are routinely circumcised for religious reasons. Circumcision rates have traditionally been higher in the U.S. than in Europe, but the American Academy of Pediatrics currently says that the medical benefits are insufficient to recommend circumcision for all baby boys. In the new study, a research team at the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda -- in collaboration with researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and Makerere University in Uganda -- conducted two clinical trials involving 3,393 uncircumcised men ages 15 to 49. All the men were negative for HIV and genital herpes (also known as herpes simplex virus type 2); a subgroup of men also tested negative for HPV. Roughly half of the men underwent medically supervised circumcision at the start of the trial, while the other half were circumcised two years later. Overall, circumcision reduced the men's risk of genital herpes by 28 percent (10.3 percent of uncircumcised men developed genital herpes compared with 7.8 percent of circumcised men) and HPV infection by 35 percent (27.8 percent of uncircumcised men were infected with HPV compared with 18 percent of circumcised men). Circumcision did not, however, protect against syphilis. (About 2 percent of men in both groups contracted syphilis.) Health.com: A sexual risk taker comes to terms with drinking, depression, and STDs . Study coauthor Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., professor of global health at Johns Hopkins University, says that choosing circumcision, whether it's the parents of an infant or an adult male for himself, is and should remain an individual decision. \"But the critics need to really look at the benefits versus the risks,\" he adds. \"By now a large body of evidence has shown that the health benefits clearly outweigh the minor risk associated with the surgery. In our study, we didn't see any adverse effects or mutilation. We're recommending supervised, safe, sterile environments -- not circumcision out in an open field with rusty instruments.\" Increasing circumcision rates in Africa may not only help men, but would likely protect women too, possibly lowering the rates of female cervical cancer, the authors say. Ronald H. Gray, M.D., professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University and study coauthor, says that the researchers plan to look at whether male circumcision reduces the transmission of HPV to female sexual partners. Health.com: 10 questions to ask a new partner before having sex . Even in the United States, this study has relevance, says Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (which funded one of the trials). \"In this country, circumcision for infant boys remains a personal decision for the parents,\" he says. \"This makes us rethink whether doctors should be more aggressive in recommending that it at least be considered. If parents say no just because generations before them have said no, they should learn more about the significant health benefits before making that choice.\" Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults have had at least one HPV infection, according to an editorial by Matthew R. Golden, M.D., and Judith N. Wasserheit, M.D., both of the University of Washington. Although vaccines against some of the most dangerous HPV strains have been approved for girls ages 13 to 26, the vaccines are expensive and routine Pap tests are still necessary to pick up cervical cancers. Health.com: How to tell your ex you have an STD . Golden and Wasserheit note that \"rates of circumcision are declining and are lowest among black and Hispanic patients, groups in whom rates of HIV, herpes, and cervical cancer are disproportionately high.\" Medicaid, which insures many low-income patients in these populations, does not pay for routine infant circumcision in 16 states. The study authors hope that this growing evidence in favor of circumcision will persuade policy-making bodies, both in the United States and in other countries, to officially recommend the procedure -- which could make patient education and insurance coverage more likely. It's not clear why circumcision may affect infection rates. But the study authors suggest that penile foreskin may provide a moist, favorable environment for herpes and HPV to survive and enter cells on the skin's surface. Once the foreskin is surgically removed, the risk of infection may be reduced. Health.com: Men can lose their sex drives too . They also note, however, that male circumcision is not completely effective in preventing sexually transmitted infections. Safe sex practices, including consistent condom use, are still necessary to provide the best protection. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Study: Circumcision reduces risk of HPV infection and herpes, but not syphilis .\nCircumcision known to reduce risk of HIV infection and penile cancer .\n64 percent of American baby boys circumcised in '95, down from 90 percent in 70s .","id":"f8a9d2d9f3abd4973d8bd55db37db91766d6c318"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two leading Jewish watchdog groups are denouncing a prominent cartoonist's illustration about Israel's offensive in Gaza, saying it uses anti-Semitic imagery. The cartoon was published Wednesday in newspapers and on the Internet. The Anti-Defamation League, which has been fighting anti-Semitism since it was founded in 1913, called the syndicated cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning Pat Oliphant \"hideously anti-Semitic.\" The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which, among other things, fights anti-Semitism and educates people about the Holocaust, said \"the cartoon mimics the venomous anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi and Soviet eras.\" Published Wednesday in newspapers and on the Internet, the cartoon shows the small figure of a woman, labeled Gaza, carrying a child. She is being pursued by a headless, jackbooted figure wielding a sword, marching in an apparent goose-step and pushing a fanged Jewish star on a wheel. The Anti-Defamation League said the cartoon used \"Nazi-like imagery\" and a \"hateful evocation of the Star of David.\" Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director, said the cartoon's \"outlandish and offensive use of the Star of David in combination with Nazi-like imagery is hideously anti-Semitic.\" \"It employs Nazi imagery by portraying Israel as a jack-booted, goose-stepping headless apparition,\" Foxman said. \"The implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart. Israel's defensive military operation to protect the lives of its men, women and children who are being continuously bombarded by Hamas rocket attacks has been turned on its head to show the victims as heartless, headless aggressors.\" The Wiesenthal Center, which also issued its statement Wednesday, said it urged The New York Times Web site and other Web sites to remove the cartoon. \"There is nothing about Oliphant's cartoon not meant to denigrate and demonize the Jewish state, from the headless goose-stepping soldier to the horrific depiction of the Star of David about to devour a cowering innocent Gazan woman holding a baby,\" Rabbi Marvin Hier, the group's dean, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the group's associate dean, said in a joint statement. \"The imagery in this cartoon mimics the venomous anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi and Soviet eras. It is cartoons like this that inspired millions of people to hate in the 1930's and help set the stage for the Nazi genocide,\" the statement said. A spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Oliphant's work, issued a statement defending him, saying he, \"like all editorial cartoonists, uses his art to comment on important issues of the day widely reported in the worldwide media -- in this case, the conflict over Gaza. That his cartoons sometimes spark intense debate is a testament to his talent.\" Universal said no media outlet had informed the syndicate that it removed the cartoon, but \"Oliphant's clients are not contractually bound to inform us.\" A New York Times spokeswoman said, \"We did not run the cartoon in the newspaper, nor do we plan to do so.\" She said NYTimes.com has, by contract with uclick.com, an \"Oliphant\" button on the cartoons page. \"Yesterday, those who clicked on it saw the cartoon you mentioned, which is now relegated to the Oliphant archive,\" she said. Imagery and rhetoric comparing Israel to Nazis have been deployed by Israel's persistent critics, who decry the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians as oppressive and brutal. Israel and its supporters defend the state as humane and say it has properly defended itself against attacks. There has been sharp criticism of Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza who launched rockets into southern Israeli towns. Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the Israeli military's firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during the offensive \"was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes,\" a claim denied by Israel. Israel has said that Hamas militants situated themselves among civilians during the offensive. Oliphant, who won the Pulitzer in 1967, has been a dominant figure in the editorial cartoon world. His work has been distributed since 1980 by Universal Press Syndicate, which calls the Australian native one of the \"sharpest, most daring practitioners\" among editorial cartoonists. He has received many honors, and his cartoons have been exhibited across the world. \"In 1998, the Library of Congress commemorated the acquisition of 60 of his works with a special exhibition at the Library's Great Hall,\" according to an Oliphant biography on the Universal Web site. This isn't the first time Oliphant's cartoons have drawn criticism. The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in 2005 \"wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle and Universal Press Syndicate to communicate concern over racist depictions of Arabs,\" according to the group's Web site, and the Asian American Journalists Association criticized offensive stereotypes in cartoons in 1999, 2001 and 2007. Debates over offensive editorial cartoons are not uncommon. Keith Woods, dean of faculty at the Poynter Institute, a journalism school in St. Petersburg, Florida, was asked to comment on the reaction to the cartoon, whether the cartoon was improper, and at what point in the editorial process an editor can say a product has gone too far. He said he understands the positions the Jewish groups and Israeli policy critics bring to the table. He said he believes Oliphant is saying that \"Israel is behaving toward the Palestinians the way the Nazis behaved toward the Jews\" and that he is stating an opinion shared by many in the Middle East and the world. \"I believe that like the caricatures they are, editorial cartoons by their nature exaggerate their messages, so I don't think Oliphant is suggesting a one-to-one comparison. So I get the message, instead, that Israel is acting brutally toward the Palestinians.\" He also believes the ADL and the Wiesenthal Center \"are saying that the cartoon is at least doing unintentional harm (if not more calculated harm).\" \"I see their point. There are symbols -- and the Nazi extermination of the Jews is surely one of them -- that can only truly be analogized to their equals. Unadulterated evil compared with unadulterated evil. Israel's ongoing battles with its Arab neighbors may be many things, but it is not The Final Solution.\" As for the question of how news organizations should handle and discuss such a cartoon, Woods said that \"Oliphant clearly has the right to provoke or offend. The question for him is: Do you truly wish to conflate a complex, historic conflict with one of the most evil acts in history? And for the newspapers that carry the cartoon -- and their behavior here is equally open to critique -- do you wish to perpetuate such a comparison?\"","highlights":"NEW: Cartoon's distributor defends cartoonist, cites his talent to stir debate .\nWork by Pulitzer-winning cartoonist shows jack-booted figure, Jewish star with fangs .\nAnti-Defamation League, Simon Wiesenthal Center say it uses anti-Semitic imagery .\nCritics compare Israeli actions to Nazi aggression; Israel says it must defended itself .","id":"01e9f168bef2efb6ed4200a8eaf1c89df48042c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Faith Hill will sing \"America the Beautiful\" during the pregame show at the Super Bowl next month, according to the National Football League. Faith Hill is a Grammy Award-winning artist and the voice of \"Sunday Night Football's\" theme song. The NFL announced Wednesday that singer-actress Jennifer Hudson will deliver the national anthem before the start of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1. The NFL already had announced that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would perform at halftime at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Hill, a Grammy Award-winning artist and the voice of the theme song for NBC's \"Sunday Night Football,\" delivered the national anthem before Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000. The only other artists who have sung \"America the Beautiful\" before a Super Bowl are Vikki Carr (Super Bowl XI), Ray Charles (Super Bowl XXXV) and Alicia Keys (Super Bowl XXXIX). The 2009 Super Bowl will be broadcast in 230 countries and territories, the NFL said. More than 148 million American viewers watched the 2008 game, it said.","highlights":"Faith Hill is the voice of theme song of NBC's \"Sunday Night Football\"\nJennifer Hudson will deliver national anthem before the start of Super Bowl .\nBruce Springsteen and the E Street Band also will perform at halftime .\nThe Super Bowl will be broadcast February 1 .","id":"b29cc3ceee57628db7273c4055c1f8bcaeed5181"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prominent Chicago defense lawyer Ed Genson said Friday he intends to resign as attorney for embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the criminal case against the governor. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial is scheduled to start on Monday. \"I never require a client to do what I say but I do require them to at least listen to what I say. ... I wish the governor good luck and godspeed,\" Genson said in brief remarks to reporters. Genson would not elaborate on his reasons for withdrawing from the case or any conversations he had with Blagojevich about his leaving the case. Genson had headed Blagojevich's defense team since soon after the governor was arrested on December 9 on federal corruption charges. Among other allegations, federal prosecutors said the governor tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Obama. Genson represented Blagojevich during proceedings in the Illinois state House in which legislators voted to impeach the governor. But on January 16, the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of Illinois said Genson would not represent Blagojevich in his state Senate impeachment trial. No explanation was given. Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing and said the House impeachment vote was politically motivated. Watch Blagojevich ask for fair trial \u00bb . On Thursday, the outspoken Blagojevich called the Senate trial \"a sham\" and said the Senate is not allowing him to call witnesses in the trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday. The Chicago Tribune reported that Genson said his inability to call witnesses or to know the identities of some parties in alleged schemes made it impossible to defend Blagojevich in the impeachment trial. After Genson announced Friday he would leave Blagojevich's criminal defense effort, another of Blagojevich's attorneys, Sheldon Sorosky, said he was continuing to work on the case. \"I'm on the case, absolutely,\" Sorosky, whose law firm is separate from Genson's firm, said at an impromptu sidewalk news conference as he was leaving an office building. \"I was aware of Mr. Genson's position, and he's a good friend,\" said Sorosky. \"The governor's a friend, and I understand his position and that's that.\" iReport.com: Do you trust your political leaders? Sorosky, who has worked on Blagojevich's defense since the arrest, would not elaborate. Asked by a reporter if he would recommend to Blagojevich that the talkative governor curtail his public comments, Sorosky said, \"You can't tell the governor what to do or not to do.\"","highlights":"Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's top attorney to resign from defense team .\nBlagojevich is accused of trying to sell Senate seat vacated by President Obama .\nBlagojevich's impeachment trial set to start on Monday .","id":"4671c88cec3719d2ca604d320326ff6203e34484"} -{"article":"TROUTVILLE, Virginia (CNN) -- For the past year, Donna Chamberlain has worked at a fuel center here in Virginia's Roanoke Valley. It pays roughly half of what her old job did, but after being out of work for 14 months, she feels lucky to have it. Wachovia, which distributes the debit cards, would not comment on how much it receives for their use. Adding to her concerns, she and her husband, Steve, are now the custodial parents of their 7-year-old special-needs grandson, Cayden. The family needs every penny it can collect. So when state officials replaced the roughly $40-a-week child support check with a debit card, Donna read the fine print -- and left it on the table. \"It was automatically generated, and had my name on it,\" she told CNN. \"This thing had 10 fees.\" Watch Chamberlain discuss the hidden fees . Virginia is one of two dozen states that use debit cards as one means of distributing child support payments, a move that allows them to reduce the amount of money spent issuing and mailing checks. But the fees attached to the debit cards can accumulate quickly: 50 cents to make a telephone balance inquiry; 65 cents to make an ATM withdrawal after two free withdrawals are taken; and $2.75 if the card is used at an out-of-network bank. Chamberlain found one charge particularly galling. North Carolina-based banking giant Wachovia, which distributes the funds on Virginia's behalf, said it would deduct $2.50 from her account for more than one face-to-face visit at one of its banks. \"If you should go to the bank teller window, you get to go once a month,\" she said. \"But if you want to talk to anybody about your money more than once a month, it's going to cost us $2.50 to walk in the door of the bank.\" Wachovia would not comment on how much it receives from the program, and referred CNN to Virginia state officials. But with an increasing number of states turning to debit cards to distribute money for programs such as child support, the fees attached to those cards are drawing criticism from consumer advocates. \"These cards can come with hidden fees, subject to identify theft and unauthorized charges,\" said Lauren Saunders, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center in Washington. \"And, unlike a credit card, you don't get a regular statement, so you can't check on these charges. Some of them have gotchas like overdraft fees that are added on. So, there's dangers, and if these cards are structured unfairly, they can be a problem.\" Many recipients aren't aware of the fees, even though they are usually sent a list of the charges along with a new debit card, Saunders said. Virginia allows child support recipients to receive payment via debit card, direct deposit or check. But it has been pushing the use of debit cards since 2006, said Nick Young, the head of Virginia's Department of Social Services. In 2008, approximately $279 million in child support payments were distributed via the Wachovia debit cards. Young told CNN that he had no idea how much money Wachovia made from debit card fees, but said most of them could be avoided with \"wise\" use of the cards. \"I will admit that if somebody takes their $300 out, $10 at a time, they will in essence defeat the purpose of the card,\" he told CNN. \"And they will suffer.\" In 2008, about 52 percent of child support recipients used direct deposit, Young said. A little more than 41 percent chose debit cards. Only 1,877 people chose to get money by check last year in the state, he said. Virginia also uses debit cards to distribute state retiree payments, and it is one of 30 states to use them to pay unemployment benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In a CNN report on the practice earlier this month, the Labor Department said debit cards are safer and more secure than checks, allow the unemployed to avoid check-cashing fees and frees them from keeping excess cash around. In Pennsylvania, divorce attorney Susan E. Murray advises clients in her state to turn down the debit cards for child support. \"They will nickel-and-dime you to death,\" she said. \"If someone is getting $200 a month in child support, the fees really start cutting into their money.\" The program is \"horrible\" for families, she said. \"It's a win for the state, it's a win for the bank, but the kids lose. Children are the losers under this program. It's unconscionable.\" Back in Virginia, Chamberlain's debit card is still stuck to the letter the state sent to her home. She'll stick with a check, thank you.","highlights":"Virginia is one of two dozen states that use debit cards to distribute child support .\nFees include 50 cents for telephone balance inquiry, $2.75 at out-of-network bank .\nLawyer advises against using debit cards: \"They will nickel-and-dime you to death\"\nChild-support recipients in Virginia can choose debit cards, direct deposit or checks .","id":"fad6cfdf0057d6d3127a4a9a55a3a3536b2d12f9"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military says a recent raid uncovered a detailed letter from an al Qaeda in Iraq militant to the group's leader about how the insurgent network should continue to generate economic chaos and \"psychological conflict\" and must bear down against American-backed Sunni militias. An Iraqi mother and daughter are helped Tuesday after a car bombing in Baquba blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq. Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday about a letter to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, from a militant named Abu Safyan. The document was posted on the Multi-National Forces-Iraq Web site. The sentiments reflect the tenacity of and continuing challenges posed by the predominantly Sunni militant network believed to be responsible for bombings that erupted across Iraq on Tuesday. Bergner said it \"provides further evidence about the strategy and tactics of violence\" the group is pursuing. Bergner said a March 5 raid northwest of Baghdad resulted in three insurgents killed, including Abu Safyan, and three others captured. Troops seized a suicide vest, computer material and a stack of documents, including the document from Abu Safyan -- who was believed to be from Diyala province. Abu Safyan lays out a variety of tactics that militants should pursue. \"We must always leave the enemy in psychological conflict\" so that \"they can never have stability,\" according to the document. With such instability, they \"will not all unite against us,\" it adds. Bergner said that while authorities are investigating Tuesday's bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi, Mosul, and Baquba that killed 60 people and wounded more than 100 others, the strikes have the \"hallmark\" of being perpetuated by al Qaeda in Iraq. The group has been considered the coalition's top foe in Iraq, even though troops have been distracted in recent weeks by fighting rogue Shiite militias. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been described by military officials as having a largely foreign leadership but made up of Iraqis. It is distinct from al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it is not clear how closely both the Iraqi and the South Asian al Qaeda groups cooperate. The letter details the need for fostering \"security chaos\" among the anti-al Qaeda in Iraq and mostly Sunni awakening groups, Shiites and Kurds, the coalition forces, and the government. \"This will lead to weaken them, particularly the Maliki Shia government, by wisely, intelligently and cautiously spreading sedition among them,\" the letter said, referring to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. In the letter, Abu Safyan considers awakening groups a top threat to al Qaeda in Iraq and proposes a media campaign that would discredit the awakening forces by passing along false information about them. The jihadi says al Qaeda in Iraq militants should consider infiltrating the government and security forces to foster trust. That atmosphere would enable militants to conduct attacks, including strikes against Shiites. \"We will work against them and attack them as they fight among themselves,\" Abu Safyan is quoted as saying. Abu Safyan also calls for the disrupting the economy by attacking gas and oil fields, pipelines, tankers, electric stations and power lines. He suggests contaminating water lines and lakes. Such sabotage would serve to \"halt payment of the military and police salaries and the awakening movement associated with the occupier and Maliki's malignant government. Even the American Army will weaken since it depends on the Iraqi oil and gas wealth. The enemy will gradually drown step by step.\" Abu Safyan talks about the need to \"bring many brothers who have sharia knowledge and abide by the teachings of Islam from the outside of Iraq.\" \"They will explain to the people why we are fighting and whom we are fighting with, we must explain to them whom the mujahideen are and who are the people we're fighting.\" The militant also called for good protection of communities under their control. \"We must dig trenches around the villages and cities to prevent the enemy from entering our areas,\" the document said. Abu Safyan also called for organizing fighting groups by having an emir as commander with sniper, assassination and martyrs' groups. It also cautions vigilance against allowing the \"enemy\" to infiltrate its apparatus and exhorts its fighters to keep silent about operations. Sometimes, \"they speak of our operations and area's secrets among their families and their wives in their houses, which unfortunately lead to the spread of our secrets.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Letter from al Qaeda in Iraq militant found after he was slain, U.S. says .\nLetter urges al Qaeda in Iraq to fight against American-backed Sunni militias .\nDocument also cautions vigilance against infiltrators .","id":"c3739f48e1339a612659e494427e8bc5d75141a2"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Some of Zimbabwe's children are \"wasting away\" as political turmoil and economic crisis have caused a severe food shortage, according to a report from Save the Children. Children sleep in rough conditions on the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. The number of acute child malnutrition cases has risen by almost two-thirds in the past year, the report from the UK-based agency said in its appeal to world donors for help. \"There is no excuse for failing to provide this food,\" program director Lynn Walker said. \"The innocent people of Zimbabwe should not be made to suffer for a political situation that is out of their control.\" Five million Zimbabweans -- out of a population of about 12 million -- are in need of food aid now, the report said. The group is appealing for 18,000 tons of food for next month. \"We have already been forced to reduce the rations of emergency food we are delivering because there isn't enough to go around,\" the report said. \"If, as we fear, the food aid pipeline into Zimbabwe begins to fail in the new year the millions of people who rely on emergency food aid will suffer.\" Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic and humanitarian crisis since its independence from Great Britain 28 years ago. There is an acute shortage of all essentials such as cash, fuel, medical drugs, electricity and food. President Robert Mugabe blames the crisis on the sanctions imposed on him and his cronies by the West for allegedly disregarding human rights. But Mugabe's critics attribute the crisis to his economic policies. As the economy has faltered for almost a decade now, a cholera epidemic is raging, fueled by the collapse of health, sanitation and water services in Zimbabwe. The epidemic has claimed more than 1,100 lives and infected more than 20,000 people since its outbreak in August. Health experts have warned that the water-borne disease could infect more than 60,000 unless its spread is halted. The political crisis rose to a boil in this year when the opposition party claimed that it won the presidential election, but Mugabe's government refused to recognize the result. Instead, the race was thrown to a runoff, which was boycotted by the opposition. Mugabe signed an agreement with the opposition in September to form a unity government, but a bitter dispute over the division of cabinet seats has prevented its formation. Inflation is so severe that the government was forced to print $10 billion currency notes last week, with each expected to buy just 20 loaves of bread.","highlights":"Some Zimbabwean children \"wasting away\" amid food shortage, aid group says .\nSevere malnutrition cases rise two-thirds in year, Save the Children warns .\nAlmost half of 12 million Zimbabweans need food aid now, report says .\nCountry facing worst economic, humanitarian crisis since independence in 1980 .","id":"6be6b8dadf9625422ebc93502a488120924c427f"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Be forewarned, Ireland is seductive. Traditions are strong and stress is a foreign word. I fell in love with the friendliest land this side of Sicily. It all happened in a Gaeltacht. As you explore the lush Dingle Peninsula, you'll see how the Emerald Isle got its name. Gaeltachts are national parks for the traditional culture, where the government protects the old Irish ways. Shaded green on many maps, these regions brighten the west coast of the Emerald Isle. Gaeltacht means a place where Gaelic (or Irish) is spoken. But the Irish culture is more than just the language. You'll find it tilling the rocky fields, singing in the pubs, and lingering in the pride of the small-town preschool that brags \"All Gaelic.\" The Dingle Peninsula -- green, rugged, and untouched -- is my favorite Gaeltacht. While the big tour buses clog the neighboring Ring of Kerry before heading east to kiss the Blarney Stone, in Dingle it still feels like the fish and the farm actually matter. Fishing boats still sail from Dingle, and a nostalgic whiff of peat scents its nighttime air, offering visitors an escape into pure Ireland. For 30 years my Irish dreams have been set here, on this sparse but lush peninsula where locals are fond of saying, \"The next parish is Boston.\" Of the peninsula's 10,000 residents, 1,500 live in Dingle Town. Its few streets, lined with ramshackle but gaily painted shops and pubs, run up from a rain-stung harbor, home to a friendly dolphin. You'll see teenagers -- already working on ruddy beer-glow cheeks -- roll kegs up the streets and into the pubs in preparation for another night of music and craic (fun conversation and atmosphere). The Dingle Peninsula is worth exploring by bike or car. It's 10 miles wide and runs 40 miles from Tralee to Slea Head. The top of its mountainous spine is Mount Brandon, at 3,130 feet, the second-tallest mountain in Ireland. While only tiny villages lie west of Dingle Town, the peninsula is home to 500,000 sheep. The weather on this distant tip of Ireland is often misty, foggy, and rainy. But don't complain -- as locals will explain, there is no bad weather ... only inappropriate clothing. Leaving Dingle Town by car or bike, it becomes clear that the peninsula is an open-air museum. It's littered with monuments reminding visitors that the town has been the choice of Bronze Age settlers, Dark Age monks, English landlords, and Hollywood directors (\"Ryan's Daughter,\" and \"Far and Away\"). The Milestone B&B decorates its front yard not with a pink flamingo, but with an ancient pillar stone -- one of more than 2,000 stony pieces in the puzzle of prehistoric life here. Near the red, two-room schoolhouse, a street sign warns Taisteal go Mall -- Slow Down. Near the playground, students hide out in circular remains of a late Stone Age ring fort. In 500 B.C. it was a petty Celtic chieftain's headquarters, a stone-and-earth stockade filled with little stone houses. Many of these ring forts survived the centuries because of superstitious beliefs that they were \"fairy forts.\" The wet sod of Dingle is soaked with medieval history. In the darkest depths of the Dark Ages, when literate life almost died in Europe, peace-loving, bookwormish monks fled the chaos of barbarian raids on the continent. They sailed to this drizzly fringe of the known world and lived their monastic lives in lonely stone igloos or \"beehive huts,\" which you'll see dotting the landscape. Several groups of these mysterious huts, called clochans, line the road. Built without mortar by seventh-century monks, these huts take you back. Climb into one. You're all alone, surrounded by dank mist and the realization that it was these monks who kept literacy alive in Europe. To give you an idea of their importance, Charlemagne, who ruled much of Europe in the year 800, imported Irish monks to be his scribes. Rounding Slea Head, the point in Europe closest to America, the rugged coastline offers smashing views of deadly black-rock cliffs and the distant Blasket Islands. The crashing surf races in like white horses, while longhaired sheep graze peacefully on the green hillside. Study the highest fields, untouched since the planting of 1845, when the potatoes never matured and rotted in the ground. The great famine of that year, through starvation or emigration, nearly halved Ireland's population. Because its endearing people have endured so much, Ireland is called \"The Terrible Beauty.\" Take your time at the Gallaras Oratory, circa A.D. 800, the sightseeing highlight of your peninsula tour. One of Ireland's best-preserved early Christian churches, its shape is reminiscent of an upturned boat. Its watertight dry-stone walls have sheltered travelers and pilgrims for 1,200 years. From the Oratory, continue up the rugged one-lane road to the crest of the hill and then coast back to Dingle Town -- hungry, thirsty, and ready for a pint. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c\/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nHis TV series, \"Rick Steves' Europe,\" airs on PBS stations .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours .","id":"191e9bbbc5e3b2b7247b36681f18061a136dc28c"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia -- Going back to work after my wife had our first child was an emotional roller coaster. The author says that being \"Mr. Mom\" is appealing, but putting the idea into practice is harder than it looks. I forced myself out of bed, shaved my beard and got dressed on the morning of my return. I performed these work week rituals while cursing the fact that I matched only one number on my last lottery ticket, so I had to show up that day. After being out of the office for a little more than two weeks on paternity leave, I knew the transition back to work would be tough. I coped with this fact, like any rational new parent would, by increasing the number of lottery tickets that I purchased. Saying goodbye took a while. I made several trips up and down the stairs to get one more glimpse of my daughter before succumbing to the inevitable: my commute, fighting traffic and reintegrating to cubicle culture. I arrived at the office still thinking of my family at home without me. I found myself misty-eyed at the water cooler while I waited for Outlook to load several hundred unread e-mails. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be at home with my daughter. The idea of being a stay-at-home dad, like Michael Keaton in \"Mr. Mom,\" always appealed to me. For the uninitiated, the 1983 comedy is about an out-of-work father faced with domestic challenges while his wife gets a job. A memorable scene has the title character, Jack Butler, trying to sound like he knows what he's talking about to his wife's new boss. He tells him that he plans to wire a new wing of his house in \"220, 221, whatever it takes.\" I identify with the latter part of his character's claim. It's not like me to pretend to know anything about home improvement, but when it comes to caring for my family while balancing my responsibilities at work, I plan on doing whatever it takes. In 2007, 37 percent of working dads admitted that they would leave their jobs if their family could afford it, according to CareerBuilder.com. The \"if\" in that statistic is a big one. Unlike the characters in \"Mr. Mom,\" my wife and I both need to work. A good sequel to this film may have explored the hijinks that ensued from an overwhelmed parent caring for a newborn while working from home. Nowadays, there's support for all of the Jack Butlers out there. Web sites such as AtHomeDad.org and Rebeldad.com have established online communities dedicated to providing tips and resources for fatherhood. These forums represent a growing fellowship where those with experience can help new dads. Personally, I haven't utilized them much yet because of that old Groucho Marx joke about not wanting to be a member of a club that would have a person like me as a member. Available resources and social acceptance for stay-at-home dads have come a long way since \"Mr. Mom's\" portrayal of them. In fact, Salary.com calculated that a stay-at-home dad was worth $125,340 a year for the dad portion of his work in 2006. This analysis took into account tasks that range from cooking and cleaning to teaching and serving as a child psychologist. Since I can't convince anyone to pay me my estimated worth as an at-home dad -- and living on one salary isn't an option for my family -- I've considered working from home a couple of hours a week when necessary. Flexible work schedules make sense because they benefit a company by allowing employees to be more productive on their terms. Nevertheless, working from home may not be for everyone. I work for a news Web site, facilitating advertisement opportunities. A lot of my job's communication occurs via e-mail, which is something I can do at home. I'd worked from home before, but not with a newborn in the house. My first test was only for a couple of hours when the baby was about 3 weeks old. My wife had an early appointment, and I was going to watch the baby sleep, hopefully, and then go into the office after she got home. I had e-mail to check and two conference calls scheduled back-to-back during that time. I didn't expect this to be too difficult. I caught up on the e-mail much earlier than if I had gone into the office that morning. Unfettered from the restriction of the morning rituals, my productivity was already soaring and I was ahead of schedule. Then disaster struck. As I called into my first meeting, the baby started to stir, squirm and make her signature sounds (a primal series of grunts, snorts and whimpers). She was telling me that her diaper needed to be changed and that she was probably hungry, too. So I did what any multi-tasker would do: I put the phone under my ear, stuck her bottle under the tap, muted the phone, ran up the stairs with her in a tucked football position, unmuted the phone, answered a question, muted again, changed her diaper and ran down the stairs to get the bottle. My wife called while I was juggling the baby, diaper, bottle and meeting to let me know that she was running late. I screamed to myself, \"I need help NOW!\" Allowing the nervous breakdown to run its course, I continued to pace across my living room floor -- regretting that I hadn't chosen decaf that morning. A few minutes later, I jumped out of the first meeting to call into the second. I said, \"Hello, this is Josh, I'm here on mute, OK, thanks.\" As I listened in on mute, I shushed my baby to calm her -- to no avail. Her cries became increasingly louder. My boss asked, \"Josh, are you there?\" I unmuted my phone and right on cue, my daughter screamed at the top of her little lungs. The conference room on the other end of the phone erupted with laughter, and I told them that I'd have to get back to them. My wife arrived home shortly after the conference-call debacle. I told her that I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to work from home anymore. I realize that the ability to work and be a nanny simultaneously is a skill requiring practice. One trial run as a telecommuter with a newborn has caused me to question the feasibility of being able to do it on a regular basis. Perhaps it's time for me to forget about that old Groucho Marx joke and accept some help. Wait, the baby's crying, sorry, gotta go.","highlights":"Poll: 37 percent of working dads would quit jobs if their families could afford it .\nStay-at-home dad's work worth $125,340 a year, according to Salary.com .\nAuthor talks about caring for infant daughter during work conference call .\n\"Mr Mom\" line, \"220, 221, whatever it takes\" inspires work-from-home dad .","id":"528dd38be55bad5a3cca4a424fec288b720a309a"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Murder and justice have always been hallmarks of the \"Law & Order\" stable of TV shows, but never before have the fictional New York City crimes guided the show's detectives and attorneys to the United Nations -- until now. \"Law & Order: SVU\" co-star Christopher Meloni says the show's intent is to \"shine light in the dark places.\" The U.N. recently opened the gates of its New York headquarters to the NBC Universal show \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\" for the filming of an episode scheduled to air Tuesday. The taping marked the first time in its nearly 60-year history that the United Nations has allowed its iconic location to be used as a setting in a major network television production. Previously, the United Nations granted permission for the 2005 motion picture \"The Interpreter\" to film on location, making it the first feature film to shoot on the grounds of the U.N. Series stars Stephanie March, who plays Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot, and Christopher Meloni, along with nearly 200 other cast and crew members, came to the U.N. on March 7 to film an episode revolving around child soldiers, refugees, warlords and the International Criminal Court. \"Law & Order: SVU\" traditionally involves difficult subject matter such as kidnapping, rape and homicide. Emmy-nominated actor Meloni, who plays Detective Elliot Stabler on the show, explained that the intent behind the issues raised on the program has always been to \"shine light in the dark places that no one wants to go or talk about because there's usually a lot of shame and denial about it.\" Meloni described how the U.N. episode \"really does kind of revolve around child soldiers, how they've been brainwashed, the horrible journeys that they've had to endure and how they can be assimilated back and be productive. And I think in this particular episode, we're trying to carry on with whatever clout we may possess. We have the medium to shine the light out there and tell this story.\" Considering the \"ripped-from-the-headlines\" and complicated themes regarding conflict in Africa and the ICC, \"Special Victims Unit\" writers and actors relied on Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast as a consultant throughout the filming. The Enough Project is an advocacy group committed to preventing genocide, crimes against humanity and other atrocities in six historically tumultuous African nations. Prendergast explained that he perceived the episode as \"one where reality dovetailed quite neatly with fiction, and hopefully more people will understand now what is happening in real life with President Bashir and Sudan, and then the accountability for war crimes because they saw it on 'Law & Order.' \" On March 4, the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was the first time such charges have been leveled against a sitting head of state. The \"Special Victims Unit\" filming was the first official project within Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's newly formed Creative Community Outreach Initiative. The intent of the program is to establish a relationship with international film and television industries to enhance the image of the United Nations and to \"raise the profile of critical global issues,\" according to a U.N. representative. Eric Falt, director of the U.N.'s outreach initiative, elaborated: \"We're starting a program where we're going to say to filmmakers, people who produce television series, that we are essentially open for business. You want to come to the U.N.? Talk to us. We'll make it happen.\" In addition to the \"Law & Order\" film shoot, the United Nations has hosted two other high-profile events in March through the initiative. Celebrities and recording artists including Akon, Phylicia Rashad, Peter Buffet and Whoopi Goldberg commemorated victims of the of the trans-Atlantic slave trade March 25 with a concert in the U.N. General Assembly Hall. The show was directed by celebrated musician Nile Rodgers and was the first such event held at the United Nations. Goldberg also moderated a discussion March 17 at U.N. headquarters stemming from the complex topics presented in the popular television show \"Battlestar Galactica.\" The panel featured series stars Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, along with the series creators and assorted U.N. personnel speaking about a variety of subjects prevalent both in the show and in today's world. Topics included abortion, suicide bombings and post-conflict resolution. Goldberg summed up the purpose of the occasion, saying, \"much like the fictional ships and planets in the 'BSG' universe, the U.N. is an imperfect place, but the fight for justice, equality and understanding remains fundamental to both.\" Despite the imperfections of the United Nations, \"SVU's\" March could not have been more thrilled with her experience filming at the U.N. When asked what she would like to be doing if she weren't putting away fictional bad guys as assistant DA Cabot, March said, \"I would love to work for the United Nations. I have a great job, but really all I want to do is actually work in the U.N. I'm pretty excited to be here. It's been a lifelong dream to be a part of it in some way.\" The \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\" episode is slated to air at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday on NBC.","highlights":"TV show is the first to film at U.N.'s New York headquarters .\nTuesday's episode centers on child soldiers .\nIt's first project in U.N.'s Creative Community Outreach Initiative .\n\"SVU\" writers, cast relied on guidance from advocacy group .","id":"d7a20a2677703197f7639b49fe410f4b352a7319"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When it comes to the Academy Awards, Hollywood has some biases. The late Heath Ledger won a Golden Globe for his performance as The Joker in \"The Dark Knight.\" Summer blockbusters get short shrift. Comedies aren't taken seriously. And animated features? They almost never get drawn. Which, on the surface, doesn't bode well for three of the biggest movie stories of the year: \"The Dark Knight,\" Robert Downey Jr.'s performance in \"Tropic Thunder,\" and Pixar's latest marvel, \"WALL-E.\" Each earned critical plaudits and box office success. And each faces an uphill struggle nabbing major-category Oscar nominations when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces its shortlists Thursday morning. Awards expert Tom O'Neil, who follows the Oscars for the Los Angeles Times' TheEnvelope.com, says the best-picture front-runners are \"Frost\/Nixon,\" \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,\" \"Milk\" and Golden Globe best drama winner \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" Barring a completely out-of-the-box surprise, that leaves \"Dark Knight,\" \"The Reader,\" Clint Eastwood's fast-gaining \"Gran Torino\" and possibly \"Doubt\" or \"Revolutionary Road\" to battle for the final slot. Watch who took home the Globes \u00bb . O'Neil believes \"Dark Knight,\" the year's top box office draw, has \"an excellent shot\" of making the best-picture list. \"We know that because Oscar voters belong to guilds that have their own awards, 'Dark Knight' has a strong chance,\" he says, noting that the Directors Guild, Producers Guild and Writers Guild have all nominated \"Dark Knight\" for their top awards. Read what EW's Dave Karger has to say about that . \"WALL-E,\" however, is almost certainly out of the best-picture race, he says. Animated features, no matter how successful, have fared poorly in general categories. Indeed, only one animated feature -- 1991's \"Beauty and the Beast\" -- has ever been nominated for best picture. With the addition of the best animated feature category in 2001, it's doubtful that even the best Pixar has to offer will cross over to best picture, particularly since the Academy ignored classics including \"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,\" \"Fantasia\" and \"Toy Story.\" \"Oscar voters like reality,\" says O'Neil. Either way, the Oscars could probably use the ratings help a box office success can bring to its broadcast. In recent years, the Academy has nominated several independent or low-budget films for top awards, many of which didn't crack the $100 million mark at the box office. Oscar ratings have tumbled; last year's numbers for \"the Super Bowl for women\" -- as the Oscar broadcast is known by advertisers -- were the lowest on record and a far cry from 1998, when more than 55 million people watched all-time box office king \"Titanic\" take home the top prize. That's not to downgrade the expected front-runners, especially since the Oscars' intention is to honor some of the year's best films and performances (though critics have carped they've often not done so). Still, it might behoove the Academy to pay attention to box office as well as prestige, particularly when several films have garnered both. Almost three-quarters of the respondents to an unscientific USA Today Internet survey have said they'd be more likely to watch the Oscar ceremony February 22 if \"The Dark Knight\" is nominated for best picture. \"If a film is very successful, it shouldn't be automatically relegated to the minor leagues,\" producer Peter Guber told The Associated Press. (Ironically, Guber co-produced the 1989 \"Batman,\" which, despite big box office and Jack Nicholson's Joker, was nominated for just one Oscar -- for Anton Furst's set design. It won.) Historically, summer blockbusters haven't always been ignored. \"Jaws,\" considered the first of the modern summer blockbusters, was nominated for best picture, as were \"Star Wars,\" \"Raiders of the Lost Ark\" and \"The Fugitive.\" And there's something to be said for giving visibility to smaller films, says John Martin, president and CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, an upscale theater chain based in Austin, Texas. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Oscar nominations . \"As an exhibitor, we would love to see those [smaller niche] films make it as well,\" he says. \"They would have legs [box office longevity] if nominated.\" Martin, a former film executive, was pleased that \"Slumdog\" and \"The Wrestler\" -- two films his chain got behind -- fared so well at the Golden Globes, and he has high hopes for both films at the Oscars. \"The Wrestler's\" lead, Mickey Rourke, earned a Globe for best dramatic actor, and is now a leading candidate to win best actor at the Oscars. O'Neil sees Rourke as the front-runner in the category, which should be \"a real slugfest,\" he says. \"Milk's\" Sean Penn was considered the early leader, with his main competition \"Frost\/Nixon's\" Frank Langella. But now Rourke is in the picture, which could mean trouble for Brad Pitt (\"Benjamin Button\"), Leonardo DiCaprio (\"Revolutionary Road\"), Clint Eastwood (\"Gran Torino\") and Richard Jenkins (\"The Visitor\"). Watch Eastwood talk about \"Gran Torino\" \u00bb . And Kate Winslet, a double winner at the Globes, could fall between the cracks in the Oscar balloting, O'Neil adds. Other awards let the performers or studios designate whether roles are leading or supporting; the Academy decides on its own, which means that Winslet's performances in \"Revolutionary Road\" and \"The Reader\" could split her support, whether for lead or supporting actress. Heath Ledger should have no such problems. The late actor, whose performance as The Joker in \"The Dark Knight\" has been considered Oscar material since the film came out in July, is believed to be a shoo-in for best supporting actor. Ironically, he could be competing against Downey -- 2008's big comeback story -- for a performance as an actor who takes his Method a little too seriously in \"Tropic Thunder.\" Though comedies haven't received much nomination recognition, comedic performers have received some recognition, including \"Blazing Saddles' \" Madeline Kahn, \"Heaven Can Wait's\" Dyan Cannon and \"A Fish Called Wanda's\" Kevin Kline, which can't hurt Downey. There's also his personal story, says O'Neil: After drug abuse nearly killed his career, he starred in \"Thunder\" and \"Iron Man,\" two of 2008's biggest hits. \"He's a hopeful spin on the Ledger story,\" O'Neil says. Martin believes Ledger is a lock. \"I wouldn't be surprised if he wins [outright],\" he says. But \"Dark Knight\"? Hollywood will have to get past its disdain for \"comic-book movies.\" Which, O'Neil says, it should. \"This isn't just a superhero movie,\" says O'Neil. \"It's come to the rescue of Hollywood during a dark time.\"","highlights":"\"The Dark Knight\" was year's top box office film, also critically praised .\nOscar nominations tend to go to \"prestige\" works .\nOne observer believes \"Knight's\" prospects for best picture nod are \"excellent\"\nOther strong possibilities: \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" Mickey Rourke, Heath Ledger .","id":"688e5f1ad3d64961b151846a98021f552c7fd0b0"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This is the first story in an ongoing series of reports CNN is doing about economic survival in this time of financial crisis. Sean, Brooke and Courtney with their parents, Donna and Robert LeBlanc, in a 2008 Christmas photo. (CNN) -- Donna LeBlanc gave her husband, a former restaurant manager, the stark ultimatum: become a pizza delivery man or their family \"wouldn't make it.\" The Lafayette, Louisiana, family of six was struggling with $45,000 of mounting medical debt from Donna LeBlanc's unexpected case of pneumonia and tonsillitis a year earlier. The family savings account had dwindled to $100. \"It's embarrassing for my husband to take a job he is overqualified for, and I know he feels ashamed at times,\" says Donna LeBlanc, a 35-year-old mother with four children. \"But this is what we have to do and we're going to make the best out of it.\" She watched her husband, Rob LeBlanc, 35, load Domino's pizza boxes into their family car and deliver orders until near dawn for $10 an hour. The family first told their story of falling on hard times on iReport.com. Share your economic survivor story with CNN. Until last summer, Rob LeBlanc had worked as a manager at a truck stop restaurant, making $55,000 a year. He lost that job to the falling economy. Rob LeBlanc says he noticed business at the truck stop getting sluggish a year ago. Then the spike in gas prices last summer exacerbated the restaurant's dire circumstances. Many penny-pinching truck drivers avoided his restaurant altogether, he says. Rob LeBlanc filed for unemployment compensation immediately after he lost his job. More than 4.6 million Americans were collecting unemployment benefits as of early January, according to the Labor Department. In Lafayette, a quiet city of about 114,000 tucked away in southern Louisiana, many of the jobs center around servicing the oil and gas industry, but Rob LeBlanc was unwilling to work offshore and away from his family. When he applied for other jobs, he was told he was either under-qualified or had too much experience. After several weeks of searching, he took the only job he could get -- a Domino's pizza delivery man, a job that would cover the family's expenses. \"I had to swallow my pride and take whatever I could get,\" Rob LeBlanc says. \"I kept telling myself one of these days something better will come along.\" He spent nearly five months delivering pizzas at Domino's. He admits he fell into depression during that time. But the family received good news Friday, when a private security company hired Rob LeBlanc to be a security officer. He says the company offers many opportunities to move up to a managerial position. \"My first thought was to tell my wife right away,\" he says. \"I could hear the relief in her voice.\" Taking a job as a pizza man wasn't the only sacrifice he's made for his family -- he's also selling his beloved 2003 Kawasaki motorcycle. Donna LeBlanc earns a few hundred dollars a week exterminating mosquitoes for a bug control company. Before her husband lost his job, she had talked of going back to school to pursue a biology degree at Louisiana State University. The LeBlanc family lives lean in their five-bedroom, three-bathroom house with its $440 a month mortgage. The couple is teaching their children about budgeting and bargaining while relying on coupons and sales. They no longer eat out and no longer have cable TV. For entertainment, they attend free movies at a church. Donna LeBlanc takes pride that they have no credit card debt. Their children Brooke, 9, Christopher, 14, and Courtney, 13, no longer receive allowances. Soon after her father's job loss, Courtney started cleaning houses and baby-sitting and earned enough money to buy a dress for her first school dance -- off the clearance rack. The LeBlancs' oldest child, Sean, 16, who attends high school, still hasn't found a job. He says the competition has gotten stiff, with many older workers in the area out of jobs. \"I'm trying,\" said Sean, who has been looking for a job since October. \"There are just no openings.\" The LeBlancs have found some unexpected happiness. Donna LeBlanc says her husband now spends more time at home. Not being able to leave the house for entertainment has brought the children closer together over books, games and conversation. \"This experience has given us time to reconnect with each other,\" Donna LeBlanc says. \"And it's taught us to just keep trying and believe that things will get better.\"","highlights":"Rob LeBlanc lost his $55,000 manager job because of the troubled economy .\nTo keep family out of debt, he took a $10 per hour pizza delivery job .\nThe couple and their four children learned to budget and save .\nMom: The experience has \"bought the family closer together\"","id":"1e0e6beba348c41fe951a0a2c79d07112e96ce62"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A bomb inside a van exploded in northeastern Madrid Monday, after a warning call by the Basque separatist group ETA. The blast caused damage but there were no immediate reports of injury. Policemen inspect the area after a van loaded with a bomb exploded in northeast Madrid. The Red Cross received a call at 7:37 a.m. (1:37 a.m. ET), in the name of ETA, warning of the bomb. The Red Cross immediately contacted police, who cordoned off the area, a Red Cross spokeswoman told CNN. The blast occurred shortly after 9 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) outside the building of a construction company, CNN partner network CNN+ reported. The company, Ferrovial Agroman, is involved in building a high-speed train line in the Basque region, which ETA opposes. The attack came just hours after Spain's Supreme Court declined to allow two new leftist Basque parties to compete in the March 1 Basque regional elections in northern Spain. Authorities allege the new parties are simply new names for other leftist Basque parties already outlawed for their links to ETA. \"What ETA did this morning ratifies the Supreme Court decision last night,\" Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters, at the scene of the explosion. At least 30 vehicles parked in the street were damaged, as well as the construction company offices, the Spanish police said in a statement. The bomb, it added, was placed in a van stolen last night in the Madrid area. Exactly four years ago, on Feb. 9, 2005, ETA placed a bomb in the same Madrid neighborhood that was hit on Monday. That attack caused dozens of injuries, and damaged a different glass-fa\u00e7ade office building. ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence. It is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.","highlights":"Bomb inside van explodes in northeastern Madrid after ETA warning .\nBlast occurs outside HQ of company building high-speed Basque rail link .\n30 vehicles damaged; attack comes 4 years after blast in same neighborhood .\nEarlier, court bars new leftist Basque parties from competing in regional elections .","id":"03845538a7d5fede428186d9956cdf510125626f"} -{"article":"CNN -- Years ago, a frustrated boy with a violent temper attacked his own mother with a hammer (his older brother restrained him). He stabbed a schoolmate over a dispute about which radio station to listen to; the knife blade luckily hit a belt buckle. Carson wants to continue educational efforts and find ways to reform the health care system when he retires. That brash teen today is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Dr. Benjamin S. Carson made medical history in 1987 by performing the first successful surgery that separated twins conjoined at the back of the head. He also became known for his expertise in pediatric brain tumors and methods of controlling seizures. In 2008, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this country's highest civilian honor. Having come up from the streets of Detroit, Michigan, to receiving an award at the White House, Carson, 56, works to spread his gospel of education and hard work to motivate others. He and his wife, Candy, started a scholarship foundation to help children with strong academics and humanitarian qualities to pay for college. \"I have at least 100,000 letters from kids and adults from around the world ... telling me how it changed their lives,\" Carson said. Their tales of transformations and redemption inspire him to keep talking about educational empowerment and overcoming adversity, he said. An obstacle is a hurdle, and \"you jump over it,\" Carson said. \"Every time you see a hurdle, you jump over it, and it strengthens you for the next one. And if that's the case, you lead a victorious life, because whatever comes before you, you know you're going to get around it.\" Carson was raised in Detroit, majored in psychology at Yale University and attended medical school at the University of Michigan, where he studied neurosurgery. Carson's life has been told through plays, books and movies, including a TNT made-for-TV movie called \"Gifted Hands,\" which airs Saturday. (TNT is part of Turner Broadcasting, which also owns CNN.) The biopic stars Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carson. \"I think he's an angel, a gift from God,\" Gooding said. \"He has touched a lot of people's lives.\" Carson holds more than 50 honorary doctorates and hundreds of other awards. He's fortunate, he acknowledges, but this doctor does not believe in luck. \"I always say you make your own luck by being prepared,\" he said. His mom pushed him hard. Sonya Carson \"would not accept the victim mentality. She wouldn't let us accept the victim mentality. No excuses. She didn't make excuses, and she didn't accept excuses,\" Carson said. She turned off the TV, sent Carson and his brother to the library and made them write weekly book reports. Meanwhile, she worked several jobs to support her two sons. She is now 80 and lives with Carson in Baltimore, Maryland. When Carson was young, he was influenced by stories about Booker T. Washington, a former slave who taught himself to read and later advised presidents, and the biblical character Joseph, who persevered though his brothers sold him into slavery. \"Those kinds of stories had an impact on me and helped me to believe it's not where you started, it's where you end that counts. And you have a whole lot to do with that,\" he said. \"Everybody has problems. They just come in different forms. If that problem for you becomes a containing fence, then you become a victim. Once you think you're a victim, you are one, and you're not going anywhere.\" In the same way, Carson's biography has resonated with people like 22-year-old Douglas Nivens II of Baltimore, Maryland. Nivens' mother was killed when he was 4 years old, and his father was imprisoned for her murder. His aunt raised him, and he endured relentless teasing for his interest in academics while attending public schools in Baltimore City. During middle school, Nivens picked up Carson's autobiography, \"Gifted Hands,\" and immediately identified with it. \"It was a relief to see someone grew up in the city and didn't have a luxurious life but overcame it all,\" he said. \"I love stories about underdogs, those who overcome adversity and do something.\" When he was in middle school, Nivens won two $1,000 scholarships from the Carson Scholars Fund, which helps children with strong academics pay for college. \"When it came to times of doubt during high school, when I talked to my adviser, they would say, 'You got this award. Not everyone gets it. You're not dumb. You have the tools to be successful in life,' \" Nivens said. \"That's what really helped me in terms of self-esteem and management in high school.\" He graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in May. \"I probably should not be where I am,\" said Nivens, a budget analyst for the U.S. Social Security Administration. \"I went to Baltimore public schools. My father's in jail; my mother is dead. Statistically, I should not be here. I should be on parole somewhere or even dead. I never looked at it that way. I made it through.\" Carson said he's heartened by stories pf people who've been inspired by his biography. \"My message is that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you,\" Carson said. \"Not somebody else, and not the environment. If you have a normal brain, you're capable of incredible things.\"","highlights":"Doctor overcame troubled youth to head pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins .\nCarson won Medal of Freedom and shares his biography to motivate others .\nSurgeon's biography inspired Baltimore, Maryland, teen that anything is possible .","id":"4e78ac53f6f79fb8939289c8be7b26e6bb8a7bb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just west of Seville in Spain, a sea of giant mirrors is reflecting the sun's energy to provide \"concentrated solar power\" (CSP) while illuminating the path to a new wave of green energy projects. Shining beacon: The concentrated solar power plant in Sanlucar, Spain is the first of its kind. The 624 carefully positioned mirrors reflect the sun's heat towards a 50 meter-tall central tower where it is concentrated and used to boil water into steam. The superheated steam is then used to turn a turbine that can produce up to 11 megawatts of electricity -- enough power for 6,000 homes -- according Solucar, the Spanish company that has built the power plant. While traditional solar panels, photovoltaic cells, convert the sun's power directly into electricity, CSP focuses power from a wide area and uses the vast heat generated to make electricity in a similar way to that produced from coal or oil. The Spanish tower, known as PS10, is the first phase of an ambitious development. By 2013 it is hoped that additional towers will create a \"solar farm\" with an output of 300 megawatts, which would be enough power for 180,000 homes, or equivalent to the entire population of nearby Seville. This $1.5 billion project is the largest commercial CSP station in the world -- so far. But many believe the technology will soon take off in areas of continuous hot sun and clear skies, offering a cheaper and more efficient alternative to photovoltaic cells, and bringing jobs and money to arid, often depressed areas. CSP also produces no greenhouses gasses and the only pollution is visual. The European Union has invested over $31 million in CSP research over the last ten years. At least 50 CSP projects have been given permission to begin construction across Spain. By 2015 the country may be producing two gigawatts of electricity from CSP, and employing thousands in the industry. One of the strengths of CSP is that it allows the construction of power stations on a scale that can match many fossil fuel based plants, and for an investment far less than that required to install the equivalent wattage of photovoltaic cells. There is also the possibility that production can keep going around the clock -- even when the sun has gone down. Solucar is currently testing technology at a plant near Granada that will pump 50 percent of the electricity generated in the day into the Spanish national grid, and use the other 50 percent to melt salt, which will then act as a kind of battery, storing the sun's power. When dusk falls, the heat stored in the molten salt can be used to generate power through the night. \"These technologies excite me,\" says Dr Jeff Hardy, Network Manager at the UK Energy Research Council. \"One of the real advantages is that you can get a decent sized power plant. \"The main challenge with the technology is working with extreme heat, but then a lot of the back-end is very similar to a traditional fossil-fuel generation; you are after all just dealing with water heated to make steam and drive a turbine.\" Concentrating on promoting CSP worldwide . As America looks to increase the contribution of renewables to its overall energy mix -- a key part of the Obama plan before the recession turbocharged Government funding for such \"green\" infrastructure projects -- the potential of CSP technology is obvious. The Spanish company responsible for the Sanlucar la Mayor plant has seen the potential and created Solucar Power, Inc., a subsidiary aiming to develop the market in the USA. There is already a huge Solar Energy Generating Systems' CSP station in the Mojave Desert, California; Spanish firm Acciona has built a plant near Las Vegas. Many more are surely on their way. One bold projection estimates that a single plant 100 miles by 100 miles located in the American South West could generate enough electricity for the whole country. It would obviously be a huge undertaking -- politically, financially and scientifically -- but it's not hard to imagine such a scheme finding a home in the nation's vast, empty quarter. Other equally arid areas may also find themselves transformed, and CSP may be able to offer valuable foreign earnings for drought-stricken Africa -- while giving Europe the green energy it needs. According to Dr Hardy the technology has a ready application, given the right political, environmental and economic context. \"Concentrated Solar Power is proven to do well in countries like Spain with a favorable government policies and the right climate,\" he says. \"I can certainly see the potential for extended networks linking together, and the idea of a North African grid linking renewable resources is a real possibility.\" Providing power, jobs and money . The Sahara, the world's largest desert, is fringed by some of the poorest countries in the world and the harsh environment has always been seen as a problem, with it's vast, waterless interior regularly reaching temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius. But with large-scale CSP projects, suddenly all that empty space, with its year-round clear skies and hot sun, has a value that could transform local economies. It could potentially turn Africa into a net exporter of energy to power-hungry Europe, and perhaps even do for countries in North Africa what oil did for Saudi Arabia. The sums are dizzying. Estimates vary, but one projection from the German Aerospace Agency puts the amount of solar energy stored in just one per cent of the Sahara -- 35,000 square miles, or a piece of land slightly smaller than Portugal -- as having the potential to yield more power than all the world's existing power plants combined. Already Spanish firms are exporting CSP technology to Morocco and Algeria, and a British consortium, the Sahara Forest Project, is testing the technology in the deserts of Oman. Costs and benefits . However, there is a problem: at the moment costs are still very high. But they are falling as plants get bigger, the technology is perfected and economies of scale kick in. Even so, any plans to power Europe from the Sahara would require a vast infrastructure of CSP plants and cables laid across the Mediterranean -- requiring billions upon billions of dollars in investment. Such sums will only be possible through international co-operation on a huge scale. But on a smaller, more local scale a simple change in the way electricity generators are paid has been hugely effective in boosting renewable power. In Spain and other European countries investment has been encouraged by Governments creating what's known as a \"feed in tariff,\" which pays companies a premium for power sold to the national grid generated by renewable means for a fixed period of time. This enables investors to pay back up front costs more quickly. Where they have been introduced they have brought about a huge increase in renewable power: Germany has 200 times as much solar energy as Britain, generates 12 percent of its electricity from renewables, and has created a quarter of a million jobs in the sector. We're a long way from a future where the Sahara becomes the world's largest source of renewable electricity, and the American South West is covered in mirrors lighting and powering cities across the continent. There are many huge issues yet to resolve, but with small steps, we may be moving towards it.","highlights":"Concentrated solar power projects in Spain leading field in that form of green energy .\nPotential of CSP in desert regions around the globe; more benefits than power .\nPlans to transform Sara ha would involve huge costs; small projects breaking through .","id":"ff78a7635fb14315807dd0eaec3587bc2c5b5caa"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fifteen crew members of a South African Airways flight spent the night in jail after customs officials found marijuana and cocaine worth nearly half a million dollars hidden aboard a long-distance flight to London, British customs officials said Wednesday. South African Airways said it has a zero-tolerance approach towards any criminal activity. The 10 women and five men -- who include three pilots -- were detained on arrival from Johannesburg, South Africa, after customs officials found 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of marijuana and 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of cocaine in three pieces of baggage, HM Revenue and Customs said. The drugs are estimated to be worth a total of \u00a3310,000 ($428,000), customs officials added. Border agents arrested the crew at London's Heathrow Airport on suspicion of involvement in smuggling prohibited drugs into the United Kingdom, customs spokesman Bob Gaiger said. He said he was not able to disclose what led investigators to believe the suitcases belonged to the crew members. Customs officials interviewed the crew members overnight, and all were released on bail Wednesday pending further inquiries, Gaiger said. They were not charged, according to the airline. South African Airways said it launched its own investigation involving the airline's security and the South African Police Service. \"SAA has a zero-tolerance approach towards the use of the airline's services for any criminal activity,\" airline spokeswoman Robyn Chalmers said.","highlights":"10 women and 5 men were detained on arrival from Johannesburg .\nLondon customs officials found marijuana and cocaine in baggage .\nOfficials: The drugs are estimated to be worth $428,000 .\nSouth African Airways said it launched its own investigation .","id":"ce1e3ff6000d75fed66a2e07681cd8ac01c37f5f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Seattle man has been charged with insurance fraud for allegedly sinking his own yacht because of \"financial pressure and frustration with the maintenance\" of the vessel, authorities said. The Jubilee sank in Puget Sound Bay last year. On March 22, 2008, Brian Lewis, 50, scuttled the Jubilee in the Puget Sound Bay, then rowed a borrowed dinghy back to shore, according to court documents filed in February by prosecutors in King County, Washington. Later that day, Lewis boarded a flight to take him to his job in Kodiak, Alaska, as a petty officer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to court documents. Three days later, Lewis filed an insurance claim with USAA Insurance reporting the Jubilee sank accidentally \"due to unknown causes.\" However, due to environmental concerns, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources salvaged the vessel at a cost to the state of $2,866. An inspection found a hole was drilled into the bottom of the Jubilee, and that two main engine sea strainers appeared to have been broken with a hammer. \"The vessel appeared to have been deliberately sunk,\" authorities said in their probable cause affidavit. Confronted by investigators, Lewis admitted he intentionally sank his vessel, saying the financial strain \"caused him extreme anxiety and frustration.\" Lewis told investigators \"the engine trouble he experienced caused him to lose his temper. In his rage, he smashed the sea strainers with a hammer and drilled the hole to sink the vessel,\" the affidavit said. \"[He] wanted to clarify that his motive for sinking the vessel was anger and frustration, not greed,\" it added. Prior to its sinking, the Jubilee had been listed for sale with Mahina Yachts for $28,500. Jack Bateman, a broker with Mahina, remembers the Jubilee as a \"beautiful\" 1967 Chris Craft Cavalier. He said the Mahina has only seen this type of case one other time in its 30 years of operation. \"This is a very rare, not common occurrence\" he says. Bateman added that Mahina has yet to see any real distress sales due to the bad economy. The King County Prosecutor's Office has charged Lewis with making a fraudulent insurance claim. Lewis filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004. Messages left for him were not returned.","highlights":"Insurance fraud charges were filed against Seattle man accused of scuttling yacht .\nBrian Lewis filed claim saying Jubilee sank \"due to unknown causes\"\nInspection found hole was drilled into bottom of vessel .\nLewis filed told authorities he sank yacht out of anger and frustration .","id":"9c2d098b64e81f0e995ebce159716b65afaa8df3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, the wish list that has been building abroad may have grown longer than he or anyone else can deliver. The world's newspapers marked Barack Obama's election win. Now, world governments want him to act. There are the apparently eternal conflicts of the Middle East and Kashmir, between India and Pakistan, that have already reared their ugly heads almost as a warning even before Obama took office. Between them, they engulf most of the grievances and violence that shape the Islamic world and its relations with the United States. Intense U.S. involvement will be needed to help resolve both of the conflicts. This will require imagination, creative out-of-the-box diplomacy, and the courage to see it through both from the United States and leaders on the ground. Going back even to the status-quo ante will no longer be sufficient. The 30-year-old rupture in relations between the United States and Iran is also expected to be addressed as a key priority by the new administration. Both the president-elect and his secretary of state-designate have said they want to abandon the silent treatment and isolation of previous administrations and try engaging Iran, as a way of resolving difficult issues such as its nuclear program and its influence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Watch Amanpour talk about world views of Obama \u00bb . The United States remains bogged down in hot wars in both of those countries. While the Obama administration plans to increase troops and nation-building in Afghanistan, it is also signaling it will not give President Hamid Karzai's government the \"free ride\" he is thought to have received from the Bush administration. Karzai will be expected to root out corruption and better address the needs of the Afghan people. The new administration will also try to revive nuclear arms agreements that have been abandoned over the last eight years and try to forge a more constructive relationship with Russia, while persuading that country to meet its international obligations too. While many allies -- and adversaries -- welcome the new U.S. administration's declaration to use diplomacy and soft power, the question remains: Will Washington's allies also pull their weight in helping set their common agenda? Many nations and governments say they welcome America's vital global leadership, and the question at the start of the Obama administration is: Will they rise robustly to the occasion, and not just carp from the sidelines? While much is expected from Obama, much, too, will be expected from his allies.","highlights":"World has long wish list for Barack Obama when he becomes president .\nSolving problems will need creative diplomacy and courage, Amanpour says .\nMiddle East, Iran and Kashmir all need attention .\nAmanpour asks if world nations will rise to help U.S. or just carp from sidelines .","id":"9813191d4833bbaf0e7c246ef109b7e9b5477206"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Passengers on the US Airways flight that crash-landed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon praised the actions and courage of the pilot, a safety consultant with 40 years of experience in the aviation industry. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot, has been with US Airways since 1980. Sources tell CNN that Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger was piloting US Airways flight 1549 from New York's LaGuardia airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, when at least one of the plane's engines failed. Passenger Jeff Kolodjay offered \"kudos\" to Sullenberger for a landing that minimized damage to the aircraft and its 155 passengers and crew. \"All of a sudden the captain came on and he told us to brace ourselves and probably brace ourselves pretty hard. But he did an amazing job -- kudos to him on that landing,\" said Kolodjay, who was sitting in seat 22A. Sullenberger's wife told CNN that she was stunned to hear the news from her husband after it was all over. \"I hadn't been watching the news. I've heard Sully say to people, 'It's rare for an airline pilot to have an incident in their career,' \" said Lori Sullenberger of Danville, California. \"When he called me he said, 'There's been an accident.' At first I thought it was something minor, but then he told me the circumstances and my body started shaking and I rushed to get our daughters out of school.\" US Airways said all 155 passengers and crew are alive and safely off the plane. The crash-landing has also earned the former fighter pilot and private safety consultant accolades from state and government officials. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg commended the pilot for not leaving the plane without checking to make sure every passenger had been evacuated. \"It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure that everybody got out,\" Bloomberg said at a press conference Thursday. \"I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off and tried to verify that there was nobody else on board -- and assures us there was not.\" Sullenberger apparently was forced to make an emergency landing after geese were sucked into one or both of the jet's engines. An eyewitness working on the west side of Manhattan said the belly of the plane touched the water first. An official who heard tape recordings of the radio traffic from Flight 1549 reported the pilot was extraordinarily calm during the event. \"There was no panic, no hysterics,\" the official said. \"It was professional, it was calm, it was methodical. It was everything you hoped it could be.\" The pilot and air traffic controller discussed options, including landing at Teterboro airport in New Jersey, the official said. Then there was a \"period of time where there was no communications back, and I'm assuming he was concentrating on more important things.\" Sullenberger's background in aviation appeared to have prepared him for such a situation. He has been a pilot with US Airways since 1980, following seven years in the U.S. Air Force. His resume -- posted on the Web site for his safety consulting firm, Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. -- lists piloting procedures, technical safety strategies, emergency management and operations improvement, as areas of industry expertise. He served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member, according to a biography on the site. He participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations, and worked with NASA scientists on a paper on error and aviation, his site says. For the passengers on flight 1549, Sullenberger's skill and expertise were apparent. iReport.com: Did you see the crash-landing? Send images . \"I've flown in a lot of planes and that was a phenomenal landing,\" said passenger Fred Berretta said. Berretta was sitting in seat 16A right over one of the engines when it failed and the pilot turned the plane to align it with the Hudson River. He described silence in the plane as the passengers waited to hear from the crew. A few moments later, the direction to brace for landing came. \"It was an amazing piece of airmanship,\" said Peter Goelz, a former NTSB managing director.","highlights":"NEW: Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger has been a pilot with US Airways since 1980 .\nNEW: Former Air Force fighter pilot has worked with NASA as safety consultant NYC mayor says pilot checked plane twice for passengers before leaving \"I've flown in a lot of planes and that was a phenomenal landing,\" passenger said .","id":"5569c84dab9169907197143f8b0263f23d29c08a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A NASA satellite crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday, officials said. NASA launches a rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday. \"We could not make orbit,\" NASA program manager John Brunschwyler said. \"Initial indications are the vehicle did not have enough [force] to reach orbit and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean.\" \"Certainly for the science community, it's a huge disappointment.\" The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth's climate, was launched on a Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:55 a.m. PT (4:55 a.m. ET). But the payload fairing -- a clamshell-shaped structure that allows the satellite to travel through space -- failed to separate from the rocket, NASA officials said. See video of launch \u00bb . The weight of the fairing caused the rocket and the satellite to come crashing down to Earth about three minutes later. A team of investigators will look into what caused the payload fairing to fail to separate. \"We'll get back to flying at a pace that allows us to do so successfully,\" said Chuck Dovale, NASA Launch Director, at a press briefing after the failed launch. The $273 million satellite, called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, would have collected global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere to help better forecast changes in carbon-dioxide levels and their effect on the Earth's climate. Carbon dioxide is considered a greenhouse gas because it traps heat, which scientists believe contributes to the warming of the planet. Carbon dioxide also absorbs wavelengths of light, and the NASA observatory would have measured levels of the gas partly by using instruments to analyze light reflected off the Earth. The OCO also would have provided information about CO2 \"sinks\" -- areas, like oceans or landfills, that absorb and store carbon dioxide. NASA officials said all measurements would be combined with the findings of ground observation stations, providing a more complete account of the human and natural sources of CO2. The OCO project took eight years to develop, said Michael Frelich, director of the NASA Earth Science Division. Its failure is a great loss for the science community, he said.","highlights":"NEW: Satellite crashed into ocean near Antarctica minutes after launch, NASA says .\n$273 million project was intended to study effect of greenhouse gases .\nNASA: Investigators will probe why fairing failed to separate from rocket .","id":"9a3d4d7dfb59317d30729fb56592c2e060130ffe"} -{"article":"Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland S. Martin says Sasha Obama is from a generation raised in a diverse world and open to possibility. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There are so many things that we could take away and remember forever regarding the inauguration of the first African-American president in the history of the United States, but I'll always remember the laughter of a little girl. Shortly after President-elect Barack Obama finished the oath and became President Barack Obama, he joined hands with his family and waved to the cheering voices of 1.8 million people packed from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. People cried, others hugged, celebrities and everyday folks snapped photos to capture the moment. There really was an amazing energy that permeated the crowd as we all witnessed a barrier come tumbling down before our eyes. But what stood out for me was a moment when President Obama looked down at his 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, and she said something to him, and then let out this huge laugh. I don't know whether it was her statement or his response, but the bubbly child was having the time of her life. The sheer joy that was on her face as she grinned from ear to ear caused me to just start laughing as I watched her reaction. I was shooting photos from the CNN platform just across from where he spoke, and one of the many images was of a beaming Sasha alongside her mom and 10-year-old sister, Malia. Can you imagine what was going through this young girl's mind, to see her father stand there and take the oath of office? As I saw her that day, and later bouncing along a sidewalk as she walked with her father, my niece Anastacia came to mind. Their smiles and bouncy walk are so much alike, and both are the same age. These young girls, and countless other black children, among others, will grow up in an America where what they can imagine is backed up by what they see. Despite the reality that racism hasn't left us, these children have the advantage of not being burdened with being separated by race. So much has been written about today's generation living in a world where hip-hop music brought them all together in one room, coupled with the diverse images on television and movies. Their reality is not the reality of their parents, and we will see that play out a lot in the future. What also is most compelling about this age of Obama is how he has been received thus far internationally. Many political experts are simply stunned that a man who has only been on the national stage for five years would have so much good will across the pond. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that President George W. Bush and his team were seen as running roughshod over their international partners, praising them when they needed something, and savaging them when they disagreed with the U.S. position. Yet what we also can't ignore is that Obama's skin tone also plays a central role. Americans may be shocked to find out that people of color make up two-thirds of the world population. They know all too well about America's pathetic and violent history of enslaving and later oppressing African-Americans, and it was always seen as ridiculous for U.S. officials to condemn human rights abuses abroad while racial and other forms of discrimination existed in their own backyard. Obama's election sends a powerful signal to the world that Americans are backing up their rhetoric and ideals with action, and Obama serves as that powerful symbol. Barack Hussein Obama now has the opportunity to show those who voted for him -- and those who didn't -- that the change he often spoke about can come to pass. If he is able to fulfill many of the promises he made during the campaign, he will go down as one of America's most successful presidents, looked at fondly by the American people. And if he does, maybe we'll end up having the same smile he received courtesy of Sasha. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland Martin.","highlights":"Roland Martin: Sasha Obama laughed joyously after her father took the oath .\nHe says her generation won't have the same racial burden as its parents .\nMartin: Sasha is growing up in a world of diversity, with great possibilities .\nMartin: In a diverse world, Obama's skin tone strengthens America .","id":"a0854eaebd234fb990c1e9b096b8ba8bbe673b1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Ohio man who was suspended as the drum major of a band for giving President Obama a nod during last week's inaugural parade is calling it quits. John Coleman quit his band after it suspended him for nodding to President Obama last week. John Coleman resigned from the Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes & Drums a week after the parade in Washington. Publicity about his suspension had gotten to be too much, he told CNN affiliate WEWS. \"It's come to a point where I don't want embarrassment anymore between the pipe band and myself,\" Coleman, who is a firefighter, told WEWS on Tuesday. Coleman was seen during the nationally televised January 20 parade nodding toward the new president while marching with the band. A few steps later, he appeared to wave briefly. He told WEWS that as the band was marching past the grandstand where Obama was sitting, he made eye contact with the president. \"Contact was made with our eyes both together and he smiled and waved at the band,\" he told the station. \"And just as a gesture, I nodded my head. I gave him a slight wave and went on.\" Watch parade and explanation \u00bb . Representatives from the group did not return calls from CNN. But bandleader Mike Engle told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Coleman was suspended because he ignored military protocol. \"We had gone over and over time and again with everyone in the band that this was a military parade,\" Engle told the newspaper. \"Protocol and proper decorum had to be followed at all times. Unfortunately, John chose to ignore that.\" Coleman had been suspended from the band for six months. In a written statement, band manager Ken Rybka said Coleman's resignation from the group \"comes as a shock and surprise.\" The band has been inundated with phone calls, e-mails and messages on its Internet pages -- almost all of them critical -- since the story first broke on Monday, Rybka said. iReport.com: 'Pretty cool thing that he acknowledged the president' \"It is unfortunate that an internal band issue has raised so much discussion and ire from the general public,\" Rybka said in the statement. \"It has disheartened me more than you can imagine.\" Rybka said that he will be taking a leave of absence from the band because of the furor. \"The 'afterglow' of participating in the inaugural parade is gone,\" he said.","highlights":"Ohio man quits band after it suspended him for nodding at President Obama .\nJohn Coleman cites publicity over suspension as reason for leaving .\nColeman was band's drum major when it marched in inaugural parade .\nColeman ignored military protocol, band leader tells newspaper .","id":"c790eb1a7487da53477d38d7de6cb4a68fb51092"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday expressing its intent to, eventually, send U.N. peacekeeping forces back to the fractured, unstable nation of Somalia. Islamist insurgents display their weaponry Friday in Mogadishu during a parade. The resolution was sponsored by the U.S., in one of the final Bush Administration initiatives at the United Nations. The passage of the resolution follows the exit of a U.N.-backed, Ethiopian peacekeeping force that completed a two-year deployment in Somalia Thursday. There is wide-spread concern among diplomats and regional leaders in the Horn of Africa that, with the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces, a power vacuum will be filled in Somalia by regional Islamic extremist groups, some with links to al-Qaeda. The U.N. resolution sets forth a process that aims to bring stability and sovereignty to Somalia, which has been racked by violence and lawlessness since the government was overthrown in 1991. First, the resolution expresses renewed support that an African Union force currently deployed in Somalia -- known as AMISOM -- remains on the ground. The A.U. contingent is currently comprised of 2,600 troops. The U.N. resolution calls on the African Union to strengthen those levels to 8,000. The resolution then requests that U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, submit a report by April 15, 2009 updating the situation in Somalia, and it asks that he develop the mandate for a U.N. peacekeeping force. Finally, a decision on U.N. peacekeeping is requested by June 1, 2009. However, the process is off to a rocky start. Last month, Ban said that requests to U.N. member nations for peacekeeping forces for Somalia were received negatively. Also, throughout, one of the key players in the Somalia decisions will likely be Susan Rice, President-Elect Obama's nominee for new U.S.- U.N. Ambassador, and a specialist on African issues. At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Thursday, Rice told senators that she is \"skeptical about the wisdom of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia at this time.\"","highlights":"Resolution expresses intent to send U.N. peacekeeping forces to Somalia .\nThe resolution in war-torn country was sponsored by the United States .\nEthiopian peacekeeping force completed two-year deployment in Somalia .\nRegional leaders fear vacuum will be filled by Islamic extremist groups .","id":"e8d8faa7f51db1bd208bad18bc08de27a494e069"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Forests in the Pacific Northwest are dying twice as fast as they were 17 years ago, and scientists blame warming temperatures for the trend, according to a new study. This photo of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado shows dying pines and firs among healthy trees. The study, to be released Friday in the journal Science, is the first large-scale analysis of environmental changes as contributing factors in the mortality of coniferous forests. The data for this research was gathered by generations of scientists over a 50-year period at multiple sites in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and southwestern British Columbia. Seventy-six forest plots, all more than 200 years old, were monitored by scientists doing some of the most rudimentary research -- counting trees. \"It's not a happy story, but, an important one,\" said Phillip van Mantgem, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and the lead author of the study. \"These are beautiful places. They do change and respond to their environment, sometimes quickly.\" \"If in your hometown where you live, the death rates of your friends and neighbors doubled and there are no compensating birth rates, wouldn't you want to figure out what's going on?\" said Nathan Stephenson, research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the authors of the report. The study primarily focused on three types of coniferous trees: pines, firs and hemlocks. Older-growth forests -- some up to 500 years old -- have trees of all ages, and researchers found that mortality rates have increased for all age groups. Since mortality rates went up across the board, scientists ruled out a number of other possible causes, including ozone-related air pollution, long-term effects of fire suppression and normal forest dynamics. In the end, California had the highest tree death rate. Of the three types of coniferous trees studied, pines were found to be dying at the fastest rate. Ultimately, higher tree mortality may lead to significant shifts in forest structure and function, the report states. \"Much of the world's population in North America, Europe, most of China and large portions of Russia live near temperate forests, so what happens in these forests has global importance,\" said Jerry Franklin, a professor of forest resources at the University of Washington whose work was instrumental in maintaining the research plots. \"My guess is that forest loss has the potential to greatly exceed forest establishment,\" he added. The new findings concern scientists who see the study as further confirmation of the harmful effects of climate change on ecosystems. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific intergovernmental body, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are now at their highest levels for at least 650,000 years. Scientists on the panel say the increase began with the birth of the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. The new research also suggests that as trees die, they actually emit more carbon than they absorb. Trees are key players in regulating climate because they convert carbon dioxide, which they store in their trunks and roots, to oxygen. Changes in climatic conditions or various diseases can cause the gradual dying of plant shoots. \"The concern here is that these might be early warning signs of dieback,\" said Stephenson. Some scientists say that tree species unable to tolerate warmer conditions might just re-establish themselves in cooler areas. Given the speed at which warming appears to be occurring, it's not clear whether tree species will be able to migrate fast enough to survive, said van Mantgem of the U.S. Geological Survey. \"Warmer temperatures cause earlier summer droughts, less snow pack, and cause ideal breeding grounds for invasive species and pathogens,\" he added. \"One hypothesis is that warmer climates can make it easier for invasive species to reproduce and grow in these temperate forests. If the trees are already under a lot of environmental stress, they are more prone to serious insect attack,\" he said. Scientists say forests in the Western U.S. have been increasingly damaged in recent years by invasive insect species such as the bark beetle -- a sign that rising temperatures are having an adverse effect. Bark beetles are known to attack trees already weakened by other environmental factors. \"Many of these beetles cannot survive in cold temperatures, and it's getting warmer,\" said Tim Barnett, a \u00adresearch marine physicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Barnett authored a research paper linking drought conditions in the American West to increased human activity. \"It is perfectly reasonable to assume that this problem is going to get worse, not better,\" he said.","highlights":"Forests in the Pacific Northwest are dying twice as fast as they were 17 years ago .\nScientists blame warming temperatures for the trend, according to a new study .\nData was gathered over a 50-year period at sites in the Western U.S. and Canada .\nScientists: study confirms the harmful effects of rising temperatures on ecosystems .","id":"36b9b2a0a977b93eac3100bf785cd8f7167de0a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Vivienne Tam has become well known for creating clothes that appeal to all ages, ethnicities, and income levels. She has earned the reputation for offering a stylish and high-quality product while at the same time inviting the consumer to experience the inspiration behind it. As a designer of clothing that \"suggests tolerance, global acumen, and a Fourth of July faith in individual expression,\" Tam, in the words of fashion critic and curator Richard Martin, possesses an \"idealistic globalism that transcends politics and offers a more enchanted, peaceful world.\" Born in Canton, China, Vivienne Tam moved to Hong Kong when she was three years old. Her bi-cultural upbringing in the then British colony was the first stage in the development of her signature East-meets-West style. After graduating from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Vivienne Tam moved to New York where she thrived on the excitement and energy of the fashion world. New York became a home for her and a continuing source of stimulation for her designs. In 1994, Vivienne Tam launched her signature collection of Eastern inspired clothing with a modern edge on the New York runways. In 1995, she introduced the influential Mao collection that triumphantly crossed over from the fashion world into the art world. Then in 1997 Vivienne Tam launched the Buddha collection. The public and celebrities around the world quickly embraced both collections. Some of the images became so popular that scores of designers even adopted the look into their designs. Pieces of the collections were ultimately incorporated into the permanent archives of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, The Museum of FIT and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In an era where the fashion industry is populated by numerous names and emerging new talents, Vivienne Tam has shown that she can consistently appeal to everyone from high-society to urban to teens, offering them fresh collections every season. She is poised to become the next multi-tasking, multi-successful designer and businesswoman. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Vivienne Tam was born in Canton, China, moved to Hong Kong when she was three .\nHer Mao and Buddha collections were launched in 1995 and 1997 .\nItems of her work are featured in museums in New York, Pittsburgh and London .","id":"69eccb97078947302167f58f9a0ec9861baff327"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A Scottish fish and chip shop visited by Prince William, Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks has been crowned the best place in Britain to eat the national dish. Robert and Alison Smith, the owners of the Anstrhuther Fishbar in Fife, celebrate their success. The UK is in recession, but the nation's traditional takeaway dish is showing no sign of a downturn. Sales rose at 9,500 chippies in Britain by 1.7 percent last year, according to Seafish, a seafood industry group. The Anstrhuther Fishbar in Fife, Scotland was crowned the best chippy of 2008 following a rigorous selection procedure that included a customer vote, taste tests and two intense rounds of shop inspections. \"Fish and chip shops are well-placed to prosper in the current economic climate as they offer value for money and a quality product with a feel-good factor,\" competition judge Andy Gray said. \"Despite the credit crunch, people still want to enjoy small luxuries. Fish and chips are a national institution which have survived the test of time and will be around for many years to come.\" Fishbar owner Robert Smith said that the start of 2009 had been the busiest January since the harbor front shop opened in 2003. Smith, who also owns a fish processing business, said dedication was the key to the shop's success. \"We are passionate about our business and we just do it right,\" he said. Fish and chips is the most popular hot takeaway in Britain, with 276 million meals eaten every year, according to Seafish figures.","highlights":"Scottish fish and chip shop visited by Prince William named best in UK .\nSales of UK's national dish up despite country slipping into recession .\n276 million meals eaten every year in UK, according to industry figures .","id":"30766f1fd783efd182929b3a76b92588322cabea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dubai could lose its place on the Women's Tennis Association Tour calendar after Israeli Shahar Peer was denied entry to compete at this week's event, the WTA supremo warned Monday. Shahar Peer told CNN she learned of her visa ban Saturday, just before her scheduled flight to Dubai. Peer was scheduled to fly into the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, but was informed Saturday night by telephone that she would not be granted a visa. WTA Chairman and CEO Larry Scott said the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour \"will review appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament.\" Scott added: \"The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking.\" Peer, who had just finished playing in the Pattaya Open in Thailand, where she reached the semifinal, said she is \"very, very disappointed\" to have been denied the opportunity to play in Dubai. \"They really stopped my momentum because now I'm not going to play for two weeks and because they waited for the last minute I couldn't go to another tournament either,\" Peer said from Tel Aviv. \"So it's very disappointing, and I think it's not fair.\" Watch Peer describe her disappointment \u00bb . Scott, meanwhile, confirmed: \"Following various consultations, the Tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the Tour's Board of Directors. \"Ms. Peer and her family are obviously extremely upset and disappointed by the decision of the UAE and its impact on her personally and professionally, and the Tour is reviewing appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer.\" Scott said Peer's visa refusal has precedence: Last year an Israeli men's doubles team was denied entry to Dubai. He said the Emirate cited security reasons following recent unrest in the region. \"At that time I was in Dubai. I made it clear to the authorities, the representatives of the government, that next year when our top players wanted to play this very prestigious tournament all of them had to be allowed to play,\" Scott said. \"They had a year to work on it and solve it. We've spent time through the year discussing it. We were given assurances that it had gone to the highest levels of government,\" Scott said. \"I was optimistic they would solve it. And we've made crystal clear to the government, to the tournament organizers that there could be grave repercussions not just for tennis in the UAE but sports beyond that.\" Watch CNN's interview with Larry Scott \u00bb . The Dubai government issued a short statement through the state-owned news agency, saying that Peer was informed while in Thailand that she would not receive a visa. The agency quoted an official source in the organizing committee saying, \"The tournament is sponsored by several national organizations and they all care to be part of a successful tournament, considering the developments that the region had been through.\" Earlier an official source who did not want to be named, said, \"We should check what happened in New Zealand, when Peer was playing there with all the demonstrations against Israel during the attacks on Gaza. We have to consider securing the players and the tournament.\" In January, a small group of about 20 protestors waved placards and shouted anti-Israel slogans outside the main entrance to the ASB Classic tournament in Auckland. They were moved on before Peer played her match. The Israeli player said she's received phone calls of support from her fellow players. \"'All the players support Shahar,\" world No. 6 Venus Williams told The New York Times, adding, \"We are all athletes, and we stand for tennis.\" Peer is uncertain of her next move. She said the last-minute decision had left her at a loose end. She said she was concerned about her points and ranking and may go to the U.S. this week to try to take part in another tournament. \"I don't think it should happen,\" she said. \"I think sport and politics needs to stay on the side and not be involved. I really hope it's not going to happen again, not only to me but to any other athlete.\" CNN Dubai bureau chief Caroline Faraj contributed to this report .","highlights":"Israeli tennis player back in Tel Aviv after being denied entry for Dubai event .\nShahar Peer told night before tournament she would not be granted visa by UAE .\nWTA chief Larry Scott warned Dubai tournament could lose place on calendar .\nScott: \"This runs counter to everything we were promised and is a setback\"","id":"9939959cf9cb1a14497e63aec0b88a08ad3e451c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Russia will begin the construction of a new naval base this year in Georgia's pro-Russian separatist region of Abkhazia, according to a Russian media report Monday. Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in Sevastopol under a lease agreement with Ukraine that expires in 2017. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unnamed official at Russian naval headquarters as saying it wanted to station vessels at the Abkhaz port of Ochamchire on the Black Sea, Reuters.com reported. \"The fundamental decision on creating a Black Sea Fleet base in Ochamchire has been taken,\" the official told Tass, in quotes carried by Reuters.com. \"This year we will begin practical work, including dredging, along Abkhazia's coast. \"It will take more than a year to implement all works.\" The official added that the deployment was to protect the breakaway region from Georgian attacks. Georgia launched a campaign against South Ossetia, a Russian-backed separatist territory, on August 7 last year. The following day, Russian tanks, troops and armored vehicles poured into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, advancing into Georgian cities outside the rebel regions. The two sides blamed each other for starting the conflict and have made accusations of ethnic cleansing. Moscow has since recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent regions -- a move which angered many Western governments who suspect Russia of acting to thwart Georgia's ambitions of joining NATO. This latest development comes despite comments made last year by Abkhazia's leader that his territory would not be hosting Russian military bases. \"There will be no new bases,\" Sergei Bagapsh told Russia's Novosti news agency, adding that Russia's Black Sea Fleet will not be based in the republic either. \"Only units of Russia's ground forces that have always been based here will continue to be stationed in Abkhazia,\" he said. Russia's Black Sea Fleet is currently based in the port of Sevastopol which belongs to Ukraine -- another former Soviet state which, like Georgia, aspires to NATO membership. The fleet is due to leave Ukraine for good in 2017, in line with a 20-year lease deal signed in 1997. However, Russia's diplomats and military have said they want the fleet to stay at its traditional home base after the expiry of the deadline, Reuters.com reported.","highlights":"Official: Russia to station vessels at Abkhaz port of Ochamchire on Black Sea .\nMoscow recognizes Abkhazia as independent region following war with Georgia .\nGeorgia and Russia blame each other for starting last year's conflict .\nRussia's Black Sea Fleet is currently based at the port of Sevastopol, Ukraine .","id":"4f80dbabbdd79a27f7aeea2b4325799c33e69198"} -{"article":"BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio (CNN) -- After two years of traveling around the country and criticizing President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he \"always thought [Bush] was a good guy.\" Barack Obama tells CNN's John King that it was \"tough\" for him to request the additional bailout funds. \"I mean, I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country,\" Obama said in an exclusive interview with CNN's John King. During the election season, Obama frequently campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\" and promised a \"clean break\" from the past eight years. Asked if there was anything he wanted to take back, now that he has spent more time with the president, Obama praised Bush's team for helping with a smooth transition and said part of what America is about is being able to have \"disagreements politically and yet treat each other civilly.\" Obama also said he thought Bush made \"the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances.\" \"That does not detract from my assessment that over the last several years, we have made a series of bad choices and we are now going to be inheriting the consequences of a lot of those bad choices,\" Obama said. In addition to his relationship with Bush, Obama also discussed some key issues that he will face in the first days of his administration, including national security and the economy. Even before taking the oath of office, Obama has already faced a showdown with Congress over releasing what remains of the $700 bailout bill that Bush and Congress authorized before the election. The $350 billion that the Senate approved will come with specific conditions, Obama said. \"There's nothing wrong with us placing some conditions, making sure that the money's not going to executive compensation, making sure you're not seeing big dividend payoffs to shareholders and making sure that money is being left so that we can get credit flowing again, not just for individual homeowners who are losing their homes, but also small businesses who are the lifeblood of this economy. \"If they can't get credit, then they end up having to shutter their doors. And when they shutter their doors, people lose jobs. They then can't pay their mortgage, and you start down the road that we're on. We want to reverse that path, and that means that's the way we use the next $350 billion that Congress voted on, and that was a very tough vote for a lot of people. And it was tough for me to have to request it,\" he said. Obama sat down with King after he took a factory tour in Bedford Heights, Ohio.","highlights":"Barack Obama says Bush made \"the best decisions that he could at times\"\nObama campaigned against what he called Bush's \"failed policies\"\nObama says it was \"tough\" to have to request bailout funds .","id":"90651e644be24a9643611c58f20837a070361cdf"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama weighed in Thursday on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, urging Israel to open Gaza border crossings and telling the Islamic fundamentalist organization to stop rocket fire into the Jewish state. President Obama called on both Israel and Hamas to make changes toward Mideast peace. He urged Israel to allow the flow of aid and commerce into the Palestinian territory. \"Our hearts go out to Palestinian civilians who are in need of immediate food, clean water and basic medical care,\" he said. The crossings should be opened with an \"appropriate monitoring,\" he added. Obama said Hamas leaders, for their part, must put an end to rocket attacks. He said he will send former Sen. George Mitchell, who was appointed Thursday as special envoy for Middle East peace, to the region as soon as possible. Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at her new office in the State Department, promising a renewed emphasis on candor and \"robust diplomacy\" as the primary means for advancing American interests around the world. America's new chief diplomat walked through the front doors of the State Department lobby shortly after 9 a.m. ET to thunderous applause from an overflow crowd of about 1,000 career diplomats and other department employees. \"I believe with all of my heart that this is a new era for America,\" Clinton told her colleagues. \"President Obama set the tone with his inaugural address. ... Robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America's future.\" Watch Clinton greet her new employees \u00bb . In remarks that could be interpreted as a rebuke of the departed Bush administration, Clinton also said that the Obama administration would not \"tolerate the divisiveness and paralysis that has undermined our ability to get things done for America.\" Clinton also called for a new sense of candor and free exchange of ideas. She urged the country's diplomatic corps to think \"outside the proverbial box.\" \"There's nothing I welcome more than a good debate and the kind of dialogue that will make us better,\" she said. Clinton later attended an intelligence briefing and a meeting with members of the Diplomatic Security Service. She also walked through various State Department offices, including the operations center. Clinton also phoned international leaders, according to acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood. She is expected to call Asian leaders later Thursday. Clinton will also visit the U.S. Agency for International Development, which she praised \"for the work they've done on behalf of development through some very difficult years.\" During her confirmation hearing, Clinton pledged to secure more resources for the State Department and USAID, which has seen a lot of its development work fall to the Pentagon during the Bush administration. Clinton is the 67th U.S. secretary of state. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama urges Israel to open Gaza border crossings .\nHillary Clinton receives intelligence briefing on first day at State .\nClinton greets employees at the State Department .\nClinton was confirmed as secretary of state Wednesday .","id":"998e1d912abbe393ef44e61d60fbafbf431b3981"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has blocked further consideration of a federal law designed to keep sexual material from underage users of the Web. The justices without comment Wednesday rejected an appeal from the federal government to reinstate the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), passed by Congress in 1998. The high court and subsequent federal courts said the law -- which has never taken effect -- had serious free speech problems. The Bush administration was a strong supporter of the law and the Justice Department led the fight in court to revive it. The justices issued their ruling a day after all nine were on hand for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor also attended the ceremony. The case tested the free speech rights of adults against the power of Congress to control Internet commerce. The Supreme Court twice ruled against COPA, arguing that it represented government censorship rather than lawful regulation of adult-themed pornography businesses. The law would have prevented private businesses from creating and distributing \"harmful\" content that minors could access on the Internet. Free speech advocates said adults would be barred access to otherwise legal material and that parental-control devices and various filtering technology are less intrusive ways to protect children. The high court in 2004 upheld a preliminary injunction against the law and sent the case back to lower courts for consideration of the arguments. In their opinion at the time, the 5-4 majority concluded COPA \"likely violates the First Amendment.\" \"The government has not shown that the less restrictive alternatives proposed ... should be disregarded,\" Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 2004 decision. \"Those alternatives, indeed, may be more effective\" than the law passed by Congress. \"Filters are less restrictive\" he said, and thus pose less risk of muzzling free speech. \"They impose selective restrictions on speech at the receiving end, not universal restrictions at the source.\" He added, \"There is a potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech\" if the law takes effect.\" In reconsidering the law, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, again ruled the law unconstitutional.","highlights":"Justices reject appeal to reinstate the Child Online Protection Act .\nCOPA violates the First Amendment right to free speech, justices say .\nCOPA would have kept businesses from distributing \"harmful\" content to minors .\nIn 2004 ruling, justice said parental filters are less restrictive on free speech .","id":"bf3dd673d72edf70f431bb3a638a3cc124a3c3ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Most of us know we shouldn't be talking on a handheld cell phone while driving. But recent studies suggest that hands-free devices are just as dangerous on the road. Studies suggest that talking on a hands-free cell phone while driving is just as dangerous as a handheld one. Engaging in a phone conversation on a mobile device while driving distracts the brain and delays reaction times, experts said. Drivers are more likely to swerve between lanes, slow down and miss important signs. \"When you're on a call, even if both hands are on the wheel, your head is in the call,\" said Janet Froetscher, president of the National Safety Council, which in January urged legislators in all 50 states to pass laws prohibiting motorists from using cell phone devices. A recent University of Utah study found that drivers engaging in a cell phone conversation on a headset were more likely to make errors behind the wheel than a driver talking to a front-seat passenger. \"It doesn't matter what kind of cell phone device they are using, because the impairments are so large,\" said University of Utah professor David Strayer, who used a high-tech driving simulator for his experiment. Strayer's study, published in December, concluded that conversations with a front-seat passenger can actually mitigate accidents, because the passenger can help observe road conditions and warn the driver of possible hazards. In Strayer's previous studies, he found driving while talking on a mobile device is \"just as bad as driving drunk.\" The risk of getting into a car accident while talking on a wireless device -- including headsets and vehicles with built-in communication systems -- is growing as the number of cell phone subscribers increases. There are 270 million cell phone subscribers in the United States, up from 76 million in 1999, according to CTIA -- The Wireless Association, an organization representing the wireless communications industry. In a survey by Nationwide Insurance, 80 percent of people admitted to talking on their cell phones while driving. About 45 percent of drivers said they have been hit or nearly hit by someone using a cell phone, according to Nationwide's survey, conducted in 2006. Some experts said drivers talking on cell phones are four times more likely to get into a crash than those who don't talk on their phones behind the wheel. One study from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated that 636,000 traffic accidents each year -- about 6 percent of all accidents -- are caused by drivers using their cell phones, resulting in an estimated 2,600 deaths. Elderly and younger drivers are most at risk of getting into an accident when they talk on a mobile device while driving, said Arthur Kramer, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. \"I don't think legislation alone is the answer,\" Kramer said. \"Education needs to go along with the legislation to encourage people that these are risky habits for yourself and for others.\" There is no federal law against using handheld devices on the road, but six states and the District of Columbia have such laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a group that tracks legislative data trends. No states ban the use of hands-free or wireless communication devices, experts said. Some private industries, such as trucking and bus companies, prohibit their employees from using cell phones on the road. Other states restrict teenagers from talking on cell phones while driving. Anne Teigen, a policy specialist on transportation issues for the National Conference of State Legislatures, says states are moving to ban handheld cell phone use. Almost all states have debated the issue, but many governments are reluctant to pass restrictions because they say there isn't enough research. They point out that talking on a mobile device isn't the only distraction. Other distractions, such as reaching for the glove compartment, changing the radio station or putting on makeup, also can cause accidents. The popularity of smart phones equipped with Internet, text messaging and e-mail present drivers with even more distractions. Such new technology also makes it difficult for states to keep their laws updated. \"Then there is the final question of whether these laws are enforceable or not,\" Teigen said. Some members of the cell phone industry are advising drivers to stop using cell phones on the road, but few have taken a stance on hands-free devices, because research has been limited. Verizon Wireless was one of the first cellular phone companies to support hands-free driving laws in the early 2000s. The company is focusing on promoting laws against text-messaging while driving. So far, only a handful of states ban the practice. Aegis Mobility, a Vancouver, Canada, company, has created a device that would reduce cell phone usage in cars. The product, DriveAssist, set to launch this fall with a major network carrier in the United States, will enable cell phones to automatically detect when a mobile user is driving. Users can subscribe to DriveAssist's service, which manages incoming and outgoing calls, text messages and e-mails electronically. Callers get a message that the recipient is driving but can leave an emergency message alerting the driver to pull over and return the call. \"People find it hard to stop talking on their cell phones because we've been conditioned our entire life to answer the phone,\" said David Teater of Spring Lake, Michigan, one of the product's backers. Five years ago, Teater's seventh-grade son died in a daytime car accident after a woman talking on her cell phone ran a red light. \"Her life was ruined as well,\" Teater said. \"She had no idea what she was doing was so dangerous. The vast majority of drivers have no idea that it's dangerous.\"","highlights":"Study: Talking on a hands-free cell phone while driving is still dangerous .\nDrivers on cell phones are involved in an estimated 636,000 traffic accidents a year .\nSix states and District of Columbia ban handheld cell phones by drivers .\nDriveAssist service can help drivers stay off the phone by managing calls .","id":"b6d60a191e6b6a852c0fb2fbb194fbe69b90394e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German billionaire Adolf Merckle, one of the richest men in the world, committed suicide Monday after his business empire got into trouble in the wake of the international financial crisis, Merckle's family said Tuesday in a statement. Merckle, 74, was hit by a train in the southwestern town of Ulm, police said. His family said the economic crisis had \"broken\" Merckle. He was number 94 on the Forbes list of the world's richest people. He had fallen from number 44 on the Forbes 2007 rich list as his fortune declined from $12.8 billion to $9.2 billion in 2008. Merckle's business empire included interests as diverse as cement-maker HeidelbergCement and generic drug-maker Ratiopharm. But he lost hundreds of millions of dollars, including company capital, betting against Volkswagen stock last year. The state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg rejected his petition for financial assistance, and he entered bailout talks with several German banks. \"The financial troubles of his companies, induced by the international financial crisis and the uncertainty and powerlessness to act independently which the financial problems brought about, broke the passionate family business man, and he took his own life,\" his family wrote in the news release. An employee of Germany's railroad company found the body on the tracks at about 7 p.m. Monday and notified authorities. Merckle's family had already reported him missing earlier in the day after he walked out of the house and did not return. Authorities are currently conducting DNA tests to confirm his identity. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen in Germany and Alysen Miller in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adolf Merckle was No. 94 on Forbes list of world's richest people .\nMerckle's net worth estimated to be $9.2 billion .\nBillionaire was killed by a train in German town of Ulm .\nFamily says financial woes \"broke the passionate family business man\"","id":"e4a4d45be7fb19f04943ab42afdb203c976069b4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It's a frightening scenario, almost a staple of action movies: Someone has fallen onto subway tracks, and a train is rumbling into the station. iReporter Stuart Gordon spotted rescuers after a woman fell onto subway tracks in Washington. For a heart-stopping moment, the train is certain to strike the fallen person, until rescue comes at the last possible second. But at a Washington Metro station near the National Mall on Tuesday, it was an all-too-real scenario, and all the more frightening. A 68-year-old woman from Nashville, Tennessee, in Washington for the inauguration of Barack Obama, fell off the platform at the Gallery Place-Chinatown stop. Houston Metro Officer Eliot Swainson, deputized to assist with the huge crowds for the inauguration, was aiding another rider when he heard shouts that someone was on the track. Watch Swainson describe what happened \u00bb . \"I turned around and saw a lady standing in the track area,\" Swainson said. The former Houston police officer rushed into action. He and another Metro rider tried to pull the woman to safety, but with a Red Line train bearing down on the station, they didn't have the time. iReport.com: See photos of the rescue operation . \"The train was coming down the tunnel there,\" Swainson said. \"It was coming in closer. I pushed her down and got her tucked down under the platform.\" Swainson cited training from Metro staff for giving him the information he used to get the woman out of danger. The woman, who was not identified, huddled beneath the lip of the granite platform as the train passed. An emergency response crew brought her back up onto the platform and took her to Washington Hospital Center, where hospital staff said she was treated and released. No further details were provided. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority spokeswoman Taryn McNeil said Tuesday that the woman had sustained cuts and bruises from the fall. The agency said transit officers from 18 locations across the country were in Washington to assist with the inauguration crowds. Ridership records were shattered Tuesday: There were more than 1.5 million trips across all the authority's platforms, including more than 1.1 million on the subway system. The Tennessee woman's accident was the only one reported on the transit line, the authority said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send your photos . As for Swainson, Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said he did exactly the right thing. \"Due to Officer Swainson's quick response, the woman was not seriously injured,\" Taborn said. \"He did exactly what was expected, and we are enormously grateful for his actions.\" McNeil said the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro stop was reopened not long after the accident and trains were moving through it, although there were delays. CNN's Larry Lazo and Kelly Marshall contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman, 68, fell off platform at Metro's Gallery Place-Chinatown stop .\nHouston Metro Officer Eliot Swainson, another rider tried to pull her up .\nWhen they couldn't grab her, Swainson helped tuck her under platform .\nWoman safely huddled beneath platform lip as train passed .","id":"e91edd8b56ad4bc40f703b23989bbf5f90b91e29"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In her first interview since giving birth, the teenage daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said having a child is not \"glamorous,\" and that telling young people to be abstinent is \"not realistic at all.\" Bristol Palin says \"everyone should just wait 10 years\" to have a baby, rather than when you're young. \"It's just, like, I'm not living for myself anymore. It's, like, for another person, so it's different,\" Bristol Palin told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. \"And just you're up all night. And it's not glamorous at all,\" she said. \"Like, your whole priorities change after having a baby.\" The 18-year-old, who gave birth in late December, said she is being helped tremendously by her mother, grandmother, cousins and other family members. She is engaged to teen father Levi Johnston, who is now working for his father and trying to complete school, but said she wishes that she waited another 10 years to have a baby. It was \"harder than labor\" telling her parents she was pregnant. \"Well, we were sitting on the couch, my best friend and Levi, and we had my parents come and sit on the couch, too. And we had my sisters go upstairs,\" Bristol said. \"And we just sat them down, and I just -- I couldn't even say it. I was just sick to my stomach. \"And so finally, my best friend just, like, blurted it out. And it was just, like -- I don't even remember it because it was just, like, something I don't want to remember.\" Todd and Sarah Palin were \"scared just because I have to -- I had to grow up a lot faster than they ever would have imagined,\" Bristol said. Her parents insisted that she and her boyfriend hash out a \"game plan\" immediately. And now her parents and relatives are all pitching in to help take care of the child, particularly when Bristol is at school during the day. Van Susteren was delicate with the teenager but pointedly asked if \"contraception is an issue here.\" \"Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have philosophical or religious opposition to it,\" Van Susteren asked. Bristol quickly answered that she didn't want to get into specifics. The best option is abstinence, the teen said, but added that she didn't think that was \"realistic.\" Watch Bristol Palin say that abstinence is \"not realistic at all\" \u00bb . While her mother was running for vice president, the teenager said her treatment in the media was \"evil.\" She said she read some of the tabloids that wrote about her. People didn't understand, she said, and some media reports perpetuated falsehoods about her experience. \"They thought that, like, my mom was going to make me have the baby, and it was my choice to have the baby,\" she said. \"And it's just -- that kind of stuff just bothered me.\" Van Susteren asked, \"But this is your issue? This is your decision?\" Bristol answered yes. \"(It) doesn't matter what my mom's views are on it. It was my decision, and I wish people would realize that, too,\" she said. The network interview was Bristol's idea, the teen said. And she apparently sprung the news to her parents that she was going to speak publicly the day before the network taping. The teen said she wanted to tell her story so that other young people might think twice about having sex. \"I'd love to [be] an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy because it's not, like, a situation that you would want to strive for, I guess,\" Bristol said. Gov. Palin made an unexpected appearance during the interview in Alaska, and Van Susteren asked her about her daughter's pregnancy. \"Not the most ideal situation, certainly you make the most of it,\" the governor said. Bristol is a \"strong and bold woman, and she is an amazing mom,\" Palin said. \"And this little baby is very lucky to have her as a mama. He's going to be just fine.\"","highlights":"Bristol Palin said she wishes she had waited 10 years to have a baby .\n18-year-old is getting a lot of help from family, says baby son is \"awesome\"\nPalin said she's hoping to encourage young people to wait to have sex .","id":"37e9c16109f37122adfca179f173aa3f34823965"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two children and one adult were killed Friday after a man with a painted face launched a knife attack at a children's daycare center in Belgium. Police look at a hearse parked in front of the childcare centre in Dendermonde where the attack took place. Officials said two adults and 10 children, some of whom were in a critical condition, were being treated in hospital following the attack in Dendermonde, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of Brussels. \"The guy just went crazy,\" local official Theo Janssens said, according to Agence France-Presse news agency. He was arrested an hour and a half afterwards, according to the Interior Ministry. Reports said he was trying to make his escape on a bicycle. The attacker entered the day care center in Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, around 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) and began stabbing children and staff, the ministry said. Local journalist Bart Bekaert told CNN that the attacker's face was painted black and white. Hear Bekaert describe the attack \u00bb . \"Witnesses say he looked calm. There was no security and he just walked straight in,\" he added. AFP reported that the man was not known to staff at the nursery. \"You don't expect such acts happening in a daycare center,\" Dendermonde deputy prosecutor Jan Kerkhofs told CNN. \"It is not like a prison so there are no bars on the doors or security systems.\"","highlights":"2 children, 1 adult killed in knife attack at creche, Belgian Interior Ministry says .\nThree others reported seriously injured in attack in town of Dendermonde .\nAttacker \"had painted face,\" local journalist tells CNN .","id":"ef17c99e9346c01558465fe84518ad5cc0a93e42"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Guantanamo Bay's legacy of torture will hurt the United States even if President Obama makes good on a pledge to close the prison camp, a former inmate says. Moazzam Begg says that during intense interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, he would have confessed to anything. Justice will be impossible to mete out to the alleged terrorists and war criminals held there because any confessions must be tainted by the methods used to obtain them, ex-prisoner Moazzam Begg told CNN. Begg says he would have confessed to anything during interrogations while he was held at Guantanamo for nearly three years. \"What procedure can you use on people who have been systematically tortured including waterboarding, including being stripped naked and beaten? What sort of evidence can be admitted into a court of law that has been extracted under that process?\" asked Begg. Watch what Begg thinks of Guantanamo \u00bb . The new administration has said that waterboarding, which causes the feeling of drowning, is torture. Begg, who is British, was captured during the war in Afghanistan and accused of aiding the Taliban regime. His family has always maintained he was a victim of mistaken identity. He was sent back to his home in Britain by the Bush administration in 2005 and never prosecuted. President Obama on Wednesday moved closer to making good on his campaign promise. The administration is drafting executive orders calling for the detention facility's closure, officials said. Earlier in the day, a judge granted Obama's request for a 120-day suspension of prosecutions so a review of all cases of suspected terrorists could take place. During his inaugural speech, he stressed that ideals of justice did not need to be thrown out to ensure the nation's safety. \"Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake,\" Obama said. Watch what could be next for Guantanamo \u00bb . Legal issues are already complicating the cases of some of the most important terror suspects, like Mohamed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th hijacker, who has been accused of helping to plan and possibly participate in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Earlier this month, the retired judge in charge of determining which Guantanamo detainees should be tried by a U.S. military commission told The Washington Post that al-Qahtani was tortured and therefore could not be put forward for prosecution. \"Guantanamo Bay is the most notorious prison on earth,\" Begg said. He said he believes Guantanamo is a radicalizing force for militants around the world. Looking beyond high-profile suspects, human rights campaigners say there is little evidence to prosecute dozens of Guantanamo inmates still being held. They argue that keeping those detainees locked up will not help keep al Qaeda at bay. \"I think it's actually one of the most harmful myths about it, that we can't let people go because we've got the tiger by the tail,\" said Cori Crider of the human rights organization Reprieve. Chris Arendt, a former guard at Guantanamo Bay, says the Obama administration must rethink and reform the way it detains and prosecutes future terror suspects -- and do more than just close Guantanamo. \"We're focused on this one camp that has become the star of the whole show. But there are camps everywhere,\" he said. \"There are camps in Iraq, in Afghanistan -- every country that American or the coalition forces have set their feet. None of those detainees are seeing any justice.\"","highlights":"NEW: Obama administration drafting executive orders calling for camp's closure .\nPresident Obama suspends prosecutions at Guantanamo Bay prison camp .\nEx-inmate says torture at the camp has made justice unattainable .\nFormer guard says detainees at Guantanamo, other camps get no justice .","id":"0ed4e4b98f93de9a758c457f88b829542b4b0bec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A crusading Sri Lankan journalist shot dead last week knew he would be killed -- he said so in a dramatic, posthumously published column touching a raw nerve in his war-torn island nation. A candlelight vigil in the Sri Lankan capital in memory of slain journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga. Lasantha Wickrematunga, editor-in-chief of The Sunday Leader, was gunned down execution-style January 8 but spoke from the grave three days later when the newspaper published \"And Then They Came For Me.\" That posthumous column anticipated his slaying by government forces and defended the craft of journalism in his country, a profession under fire during its bitter civil war. \"Diplomats, recognizing the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice. But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience,\" Wickrematunga wrote. \"People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it's a matter of time before I am bumped off.\" Wickrematunga wrote that he was twice assaulted and his house was fired upon. \"Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. \"In all of these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,\" he wrote. Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa, asked about threats to journalists, voiced assurance that no journalist or media institution had cause to fear any threats or attacks by the government, according to a statement on the government's official Web site. Watch Sri Lanka's foreign minister discuss press freedom \u00bb . \"The government had no interest whatever in seeking disgrace through any attacks on the media,\" he said, and he assured media leaders that the culprits would be captured and brought to justice, the statement said. Hostility against journalists and their institutions has been high as the Sinhalese-dominated government forces work to eradicate the last vestiges of Tamil Tiger separatists in the Jaffna peninsula, the rebel-held northern region. The 25-year-old civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesman for Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement, said harassment of journalists has been common, and cited these examples from the past year: two journalists killed, another journalist shot at, more than 50 reports of intimidations and threats, 12 media personnel arrested, 16 journalists physically assaulted, one tortured, one assaulted in an abduction attempt, the circulation of a list with 27 journalists targeted for killings, the proposal of a censorship law, and the naming of some journalists as terrorists or terrorist supporters. On January 6, 15 masked gunmen entered Maharajah TV studios outside the capital, Colombo. The journalism watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists said the attackers shot at and destroyed broadcast equipment, held staff members at gunpoint, and attempted to burn down the station's facilities. CNN on Wednesday interviewed the head of Maharajah TV, Chevaan Daniel, about the incident. Afterward, Sri Lanka's defense secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, called for the arrest of a person who had talked to CNN, Deshapriya said. CPJ said the government-run media has criticized Maharajah TV for its coverage of a suicide bombing in the capital and \"undermining\" a presidential victory speech after government troops took Kilinochchi -- which had been the de facto capital of the Tamil Tigers movement. Government officials have condemned strikes on Colombo and have ordered probes. Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program director, said that \"far too often the government or its unofficial allies have been prime suspects behind attacks on journalists and media organizations,\" despite government condemnations and investigations. As the civil warfare first unfolded, Tamil journalists were targeted, Dietz said. But in the past year and a half, mainstream journalists, such as those who raise questions about the government's military activity, have been facing a crackdown -- even if they are from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group or sharply critical of the Tamil rebel movement. This includes Wickrematunga, who questioned the government's successes and value of its military actions. \"That really got under the skin of the government,\" Dietz said. \"It's one thing to insult the president, but another thing to insult the military during wartime.\" \"This killing is the worst,\" said Dietz, who compared it to the impact that would be felt if a New York Times or Washington Post columnist were killed in the United States. Wickrematunga's killing spurred a demonstration in Colombo by 4,000 people, which Reporters Without Borders said was the largest since the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa took power three years ago. Another protest was to be held on Thursday in London. The title of Wickrematunga's column was inspired by a poem by a German theologian about how Germans failed to react to Nazism in the past century before it was too late. In his rendition of the poem, Wickrematunga wrote: \"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.\" Wickrematunga pronounces his pride in his profession's attempt to chronicle life in a country at war and his paper's work to bravely represent all people -- \"Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled.\" He casts the paper as an independent organ that faithfully records events. He said the paper lacks a political agenda and wants to see Sri Lanka as a \"transparent, secular, liberal democracy.\" \"No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism,\" he wrote, adding that \"countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.\" \"I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not traveled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands.\" He also castigates the country's president, who had been a long-time friend. \"In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one too.\"","highlights":"Lasantha Wickrematunga gunned down execution-style January 8 .\nPosthumous column anticipated his slaying by government forces .\nGovt.: Says no journalist, media institution should fear attack by government .\nCivil war with Tamil Tigers has killed more than 65,000 .","id":"f5cd475bab8641aef46d48c16d852bde5d3154f8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Piracy off the coast of Somalia can't be stopped until there is some authority to bring pirates to justice, according to the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. U.S. Vice Admiral William Gortney: Need to hold pirates off Africa's east coast accountable. Because there is no working government in Somalia and no country is willing to take captured pirates, bring them to trial and detain them, there is no deterrent for pirates to stop attacking ships, Vice Admiral William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday. \"The problem is there's not a way to -- until we have a mechanism [to hold them] accountable and try them for their actions, there's no way to -- to finish the problem,\" Gortney said. The United States is making a deal with a country in the eastern Africa region to hold and try pirates captured by the U.S.-led Combined Task Force 151, a new maritime anti-piracy mission started earlier this month. He said an official announcement would be made after the deal with the country is official. In the past three months, piracy attacks have averaged about 12 to 14 a month off the east coast of Africa. As of mid-January, the attack numbers are already at the average of the past three months, according to Gortney. \"That [number] should tell you that we're not -- we're not being 100 percent successful on the deterrence of the attempt. And that's where we have to go after,\" Gortney said. The United States is expecting other nations to join the anti-piracy task force, but at the moment, the United States is the only country in the task force with just three ships off of the waters of Somalia. There are ships from some European and Asian countries patrolling the waters independently as well, primarily guarding cargo ships from their own countries. Pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 in the waters off the coast of Somalia in 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau. See how pirate attacks peaked in 2008 \u00bb . Pirating off of Somalia has increased during the past four to five years as fishermen from Somalia realize that pirating is more lucrative than fishing. Additionally, pirates are able to get away with the crimes because of the lack of government and overall lawlessness in the country. Gortney said statistically the chances of ships being pirated off of Somalia less than one percent, but it won't be stopped until piracy is \"disincentivized.\"","highlights":"Gortney: No working Somali government, country willing to detain, try accused pirates .\nU.S. currently only nation with ships dedicated to anti-pirate task force .\nAsian, European nations have own ships independently patrolling region .","id":"ff3fb226c0f6186508051d9b0c781f282c52d704"} -{"article":"LONDON (CNN) -- Iran offered to stop attacking coalition troops in Iraq nearly four years ago in an attempt to get the West to accept Tehran's nuclear program, a British diplomat told the BBC in an interview aired Saturday. John Sawers, British ambassador to the U.N., told BBC of Iran approaching Western nations with offer. \"The Iranians wanted to be able to strike a deal whereby they stopped killing our forces in Iraq in return for them being allowed to carry on with their nuclear program -- 'We stop killing you in Iraq, stop undermining the political process there, you allow us to carry on with our nuclear program without let or hindrance,\" said John Sawers, now the British ambassador to the United Nations, in the documentary, \"Iran and the West: Nuclear Confrontation.\" The United States and other Western nations believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but Iran says it is developing nuclear capability to produce energy. Iran also has been accused of sponsoring terrorists and supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents. The latter prompted a warning from the United States that such behavior by Tehran \"would be regarded by us as enemy action,\" Philip Zelikow, a State Department counselor, told the BBC. Then, Iran began shopping its offer around Europe, Sawers said. Sawers, Britain's political director at the time, reveals the behind-the-scene talks from 2005 -- when roadside bombing against British and American soldiers in Iraq peaked -- were held with British, French and German diplomats at hotels in London, Paris and Berlin. \"And then we'd compare notes among the three of us,\" Sawers told the BBC. The British government dismissed the offer and Iran's nuclear enrichment program restarted once again, the BBC reports . Iran has denied offering any such deal and reiterated its position Saturday. \"Iran's high officials have repeatedly stated that Iran has not had any part in attacks against American and British forces, and there is no evidence to support these baseless accusations,\" Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency. Interviews with top brass from former President Bush's administration and British envoys indicate that Iran and the West had neared agreements several times in the past few years, but never reached success. Nick Burns, who was in charge of the Bush administration's State Department policy with Iran, said taking a tough approach with Iran didn't seem effective. \"We had advocated regime change,\" Burns told the BBC. \"We had a very threatening posture towards Iran for a number of years. It didn't produce any movement whatsoever.\" The documentary aired a day after the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released a report stating that Iranian scientists have reached \"nuclear weapons breakout capability.\" The report analyzed the finding of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, an IAEA official who asked not to be named cautioned against drawing such dramatic conclusions from the data, saying Iran's stock of low-enriched uranium would have to be turned into highly enriched uranium (HEU) in order to be weapons-grade material. That hasn't been done, the official said. Meanwhile, Iran's relationship with the West continues to be strained, though both sides have indicated interest in holding direct talks. President Obama, in his first prime-time news conference held earlier this month, said the United States is looking for opportunities for \"face-to-face\" talks with Iran after an absence of diplomatic ties for nearly three decades. \"There's been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it's not going to happen overnight,\" he said. And Iran's powerful parliament speaker and former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has called the Obama administration \"an exceptional opportunity for Americans.\"","highlights":"Iran approached diplomats with offer nearly four years ago, BBC told .\nDiplomat: Iran offered to stand down in Iraq if West would accept its nuke program .\nIran denies involvement in fighting in Iraq, says allegations are \"baseless\"\nDespite strained relations, Obama administration has hinted at direct talks .","id":"2f020c206213a70a7ee7de5de14a4bc4081cd124"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Diplomats edged closer to finding a way to end the fighting in Gaza on Friday as the United States and Israel signed an agreement designed to stop arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni says European nations and NATO will be helping with anti-smuggling efforts. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed a memorandum of understanding that calls for an international effort to stem the flow of weaponry and explosives. The agreement outlines a plan to share information and provide technical assistance to stop the smuggling of arms to the militants. The meeting in Washington was one of several diplomatic moves afoot to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The diplomatic moves came as Israel's offensive against Hamas militants continued, with Israeli airstrikes pounding the northern and southern sections of Gaza. Watch more on the latest fighting in Gaza \u00bb . U.S. and Israeli diplomats said the agreement includes intelligence coordination to prevent arms from Iran from entering Gaza, maritime efforts to identify ships carrying weaponry, and the sharing of U.S. and European technologies to discover and prevent the use of weapons-smuggling tunnels. Rice said the steps spelled out in the memorandum will \"stem the flow of weapons and explosives into Gaza.\" \"The United States is reaching out to its partners as well. Together, the steps that we and other members of the international community can take will contribute to a durable cease-fire,\" said Rice, noting that \"there must be an international consensus that Gaza never be used as a launching pad against Israeli cities.\" Livni said that ending the fighting in Gaza won't be \"achieved by agreements with terror, but with effective arrangements against it\" -- a unified effort by the international community. She said a \"durable\" end to hostilities requires a stop to weapons smuggling into Gaza. \"We have agreed on a series of actions with regional and international players in order to complement Egyptian actions and end the flow of weapons to Gaza,\" Livni said. She said European nations and NATO would be helping with the anti-smuggling efforts. The Bush administration has been consulting with the Barack Obama team about the memorandum of understanding and efforts to forge a cease-fire. Rice has spoken with President-elect Obama, incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and incoming National Security Adviser James Jones. Israel on Thursday dispatched senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad to Cairo to discuss a cease-fire proposal, and Gilad was continuing talks in Cairo. A Hamas delegation is also in the Egyptian capital, talking with leaders there who are trying to hammer out a temporary truce. Egypt has hosted peace talks with leaders from Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and has acted as an intermediary between Hamas and Israel. Arab and regional diplomats and leaders also have been meeting to deal with the crisis, but there is no unified Arab stand. The state of Qatar held an emergency summit Friday in an attempt to find a unified Arab voice on Gaza. The meeting brought together some regional leaders, including the presidents of Iran and Syria and the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Palestinian Authority were not in attendance. They plan to attend the regular annual Arab League summit scheduled for next week in Kuwait devoted to Gaza. Arab League foreign ministers were meeting in Kuwait City on Friday and were planning the groundwork for next week's meeting. Six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- focused on Gaza at their emergency summit Thursday in Riyadh. Also, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon continued his trip through the region as part of the diplomatic effort to secure a truce. He has called for an immediate cease-fire between Hamas and Israel and said he is encouraged that the Egyptian government is trying to broker a truce. He met with Israeli officials Thursday and condemned an Israeli strike that damaged the U.N. Relief and Works Agency's compound in Gaza City, sparked a massive fire and injured three people. Once the fighting stops, the two sides can \"discuss how to make this cease-fire durable and sustainable,\" he said. CNN's Elise Labott and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report .","highlights":"Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meet .\nAgreement reached on measures to stop flow of Hamas weapons .\nArms smuggling is a key issue for Israel ahead of any cease-fire .\nIsraeli airstrikes continue to pound northern and southern sections of Gaza .","id":"f759289284fd1725bf16ef0c1c080a9db51de573"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nearly 1,300 computers in more than 100 countries have been attacked and have become part of a computer espionage network apparently based in China, security experts alleged in two reports Sunday. The network was discovered after computers at the Dalai Lama's office were hacked, researchers say. Computers -- including machines at NATO, governments and embassies -- are infected with software that lets attackers gain complete control of them, according to the reports. One was issued by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies in conjunction with the Ottawa, Canada-based think tank The SecDev Group; the second came from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Researchers have dubbed the network GhostNet. The network can not only search a computer but see and hear the people using it, according to the Canadian report. \"GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras,\" the report says. The discovery of GhostNet grew out of suspicions that the office of the Dalai Lama had been hacked. His staff sent a foreign diplomat an e-mail invitation to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader, but before the Dalai Lama's people could follow up with a phone call, \"the diplomat's office was contacted by the Chinese government and warned not to go ahead with the meeting,\" according to the Cambridge report. Watch CNN's John Vause report on the network \u00bb . An investigation resulted in both reports. Both found links to computers in China, but the researchers did not conclude who they thought was behind the \"malware,\" or malicious software. \"Chinese cyber espionage is a major global concern ... [b]ut attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or targeted intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading,\" according to the Canadian report titled, \"Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.\" \"The sheer number of young digital natives online can more than account for the increase in Chinese malware,\" it adds. But the report also points out that China is among a handful of countries, including the United States, Israel and United Kingdom, that are \"assumed\" to have considerable computer espionage capabilities. Attempts by CNN to contact the Chinese government in Beijing and its American embassy and consulate offices were unsuccessful on Sunday, as the offices were closed. However, a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in New York dismissed the idea China was involved when speaking to The New York Times. \"These are old stories and they are nonsense,\" Wenqi Gao told the Times. \"The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cyber crime.\" Hackers gained access to computers in the Dalai Lama's office by tricking computer users into downloading e-mail attachments that had been carefully engineered to appear safe, according to the authors of the Cambridge report, titled, \"The Snooping Dragon: Social-malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement.\" \"The attackers took the trouble to write e-mails that appeared to come from fellow Tibetans and indeed from co-workers,\" according to the report, authored by Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson. Once the attackers gained an initial foothold, \"they also stole mail in transit and replaced the attachments with toxic ones,\" the report adds. The Dalai Lama investigation led to the discovery of hundreds more infected machines in locations from The Associated Press in Britain and Deloitte and Touche in New York, to the ministries of foreign affairs in Indonesia, Iran and the Philippines. The office of the prime minister of Laos was also snared, as was a single non-secure computer at NATO, according to the Canadian report. Infected computers \"checked in\" with control servers as early as May 2007 and as recently as March 12 of this year, the report adds. Attempts by CNN to verify the reports' allegations with NATO, the Laotian government and the Dalai Lama's organization in India were not immediately successful on Sunday. The attack has broader implications, Nagaraja and Anderson warn, since a single person could carry out a similar one. \"Even a capable motivated individual could have carried out the attacks we describe here,\" they say. The computer systems of businesses are almost certain to be hacked by similar means, if they have not been already, the experts claim. \"Social malware will be used for fraud, and the typical company really has no defense against it,\" since it is so expensive and inconvenient, for example, to keep sensitive information or processes on computers with no Internet access. \"We expect that many crooks will get rich before effective countermeasures are widely deployed.\" The Information Warfare Monitor Web site, where the Canadian report was released, was down Sunday afternoon. GhostNet is not affiliated with GhostNet Inc., a business technology company.","highlights":"Researchers: Dalai Lama's office, NATO, governments among targets .\nNetwork, dubbed \"GhostNet,\" can take control of computers, search files .\nResearchers link network to China, but don't conclude who is responsible .\nInvestigation finds hundreds of infected machines in more than 100 countries .","id":"8bda32c5a150406c41553a87451cfe7bd898a09b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The e-mail arrived from Uzbekistan on February 26. It was titled \"Bad News.\" Abdul Dadahanov had intended to study business, but changed his mind after 9\/11, his academic adviser said. \"Dear Mama Judy,\" a young woman named Aziza Dadahanov wrote in shaky English. \"Very very bad news!!! Abdul is given 8 years of prison. Today was the verdict. Now i feel myself very bad. And i can't write now. I am shocked.\" \"It was like being kicked in the stomach,\" recalled Judy Skartvedt, a retired flight attendant living in Easton, Connecticut. She knew Dadahanov's husband, Abdul Dadahanov, as an Uzbek exchange student who had wanted to help heal people after the 9\/11 attacks. She thought of him as an open-minded Muslim whom her family had hosted when he came on a scholarship to study at Fairfield University in 2001. \"We were totally shocked that someone like Abdul could be arrested for anything,\" Skartvedt said. \"We haven't stopped worrying about his safety.\" The 32-year-old faces eight years in a labor camp for participation in what the Uzbekistan government says is an extremist religious organization, according to Forum 18, a religious freedom watchdog organization . The group says that Uzbek security forces arrested Dadahanov and four other men -- Bakhrom Ibrahimov, Davron Kabilov, Rovshanbek Favoyev and Botyrbek Eshkuziyev -- last summer after the men had written for an Islamic journal called Irmoq. The National Security Service reportedly claimed the magazine was \"sponsored by a Turkish radical religious movement.\" Officials from the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington have refused to comment on the case. Forum 18 says Dadahanov and the four other Uzbek men were convicted of \"dissemination of information and materials containing ideas of religious extremism, separatism and fundamentalism, calls for pogroms or violent eviction of individuals aimed at creating panic among the population.\" Human rights organizations say the convictions appear to be part of a broader crackdown in the former Soviet republic, targeting members of \"Nurchilar,\" a moderate Muslim movement of Turkish origin, which follows the writing of a 19th-century Sufi Muslim theologian. \"Unfortunately this is not an unusual case,\" said Igor Vorontsov, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in St. Petersburg. \"The [Uzbek] government has persisted in its persecution of independent Muslims.\" Thousands of miles from the Republic of Uzbekistan, news of Dadahanov's jail sentence has stunned academics and Christian community leaders in Connecticut. They fondly describe a committed social activist and observant Muslim, who rode between work and classes on a secondhand bicycle and spent more than a year distributing food to soup kitchens in one of America's poorer cities. \"He had a naive trust in the goodness of human beings,\" said Patty Jenson, an administrator at the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. \"I am shocked. I know he is there [in prison] unjustly. What is happening is unjust.\" \"He was a man of his word, he was gentle and kind,\" said Charlene Chambers, the director of King's Pantry, a nonprofit organization that distributes food to homeless people in Bridgeport. \"Our common bond was feeding people who can't feed themselves and clothing those people who can't clothe themselves.\" Dadahanov's academic adviser, Katherine Kidd, said the young Uzbek originally intended to study business when he arrived at Fairfield University on a scholarship from the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation. That changed September 11, 2001. Kidd choked up as she recalled his visit to her office, hours after the terrorist attacks. \"He said, 'Dr. Kidd, I have to do something to tell people that this is not what Islam is about.' He said, 'I want to be part of things that are done here to bring healing to people after 9\/11.' \" Dadahanov began working closely with Kidd's husband, Pastor John Kidd, who was a Lutheran minister and the executive director of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. Pastor Kidd helped Dadahanov tour churches and work with synagogues, giving lectures on his interpretation of Islam. Dadahanov also appeared before audiences dressed in traditional Central Asian attire, in an effort to spread cultural awareness about Uzbekistan. Advisers say the young Uzbek was inspired by his interaction with church and community groups. Gradually, he shifted his academic focus from business to grassroots community service and education reform. \"He would regularly say 'Wow, how can I do this in Uzbekistan, and make my country and my community better and stronger?'\" Katherine Kidd explained. Dadahanov helped establish a small prayer room for Muslim students at Fairfield University. He also launched a book drive, shipping secondhand books to Uzbekistan to help teach English in his home country. And he was eventually hired at the Council of Churches, and tasked with distributing Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to 26 feeding programs across Bridgeport. \"He wanted to be involved in the frontline programs,\" John Kidd said. \"Ultimately, it's sad that all these things he came to see in terms of how you build a community, how you take responsibility for the life of a community, is at least in part what put him at odds with the authorities in Uzbekistan.\" When he returned to Uzbekistan in 2004 after two and a half years in Connecticut, Dadahanov set up an English-language school with friends. The school offered English lessons to young Uzbeks at an affordable price -- a remarkable achievement in a society in which the government controls almost all facets of the economy. There is little tolerance for independent grassroots activism in Uzbekistan. The country has had the same authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, since it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The State Department's recently published 2008 human rights report states \"torture remain systemic in [Uzbekistan's] law enforcement ... human rights activists and journalists who criticized the government continued to be subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest, politically motivated prosecution, forced psychiatric treatment and physical attack.\" Uzbek security forces frequently target religious activists. \"The government has almost a paranoia of any independent religious activity, particularly those related to Islam,\" said Sean Roberts, a Central Asia expert at George Washington University. \"The Uzbek government tries to control the religious sector very similar to the way the Soviets did. They have a state Muslim board that oversees what is proper Islam - anything that falls out of that scope is seen as threatening and seditious.\" The Uzbek government says it \"views the ensuring of human rights and freedoms of its citizens as its highest priority.\" A statement posted on the Web site of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington cited the passage of more then 120 laws and 60 international treaties aimed at improving the country's human rights record. The Uzbek government says it is making reforms of its judicial and penitentiary system, aimed at \"prosecuting and punishing for the use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.\" Dadahanov's former professors invited him to return on a scholarship to the United States after his arrest, and two families offered to house Dadahanov, his wife Aziza and young son Abdulrahman. Dr. Orin Grossman, Fairfield University's academic vice president, hoped the graduate school offer would allow Uzbek authorities to release Dadahanov. \"It obviously didn't work,\" he wrote in an e-mail to CNN. Accounts of appalling conditions in Uzbek prisons have worried Dadahanov's American friends, who remember how the slim Uzbek rode to barbecues on his bicycle, carrying a giant watermelon in a backpack as a gift. The hardest part has been trying to get information from Dadahanov's family in Tashkent. \"The government is tapping their phone and tracking their e-mail,\" Katherine Kidd said. \"We're pretty much sure neither of those is secure from the government.\"","highlights":"Abdul Dadahanov jailed in Uzbekistan, accused of extremist religious activities .\nAmerican family recalls how the man wanted to aid healing after 9\/11 .\nRights groups say Dadahanov is victim of crackdown on \"independent Muslims\"\nFriends in the U.S. fear for health of \"gentle, kind\" man in Uzbek prisons .","id":"b3181e91994f16fd86b4a8eb05005cab4d69b920"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Watch out! Lock up your loved ones! Another bloated, over-produced, high-concept monstrosity has escaped from the labs at Dreamworks Animation, and it's out to devour your kids. Susan, aka \"Ginormica,\" has to save the world in \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" But don't be too alarmed. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is relatively harmless -- a toothless satire with a knee-jerk feminist theme and a sorry excuse for a plot. That sounds harsh, I know. Who doesn't want to see a 50-foot woman careening through San Francisco on skates that turn out to be automobiles -- the ultimate demolition roller derby? But think about that, just for a second. Roller skates work because they have fixed wheels. Try it with motorcars and you won't get very far. Is that too picky? Perhaps, but you wouldn't find Pixar playing so fast and loose with the laws of physics, and that kind of inattention to detail is typical of the lackadaisical storytelling here and in other Dreamworks animated features. (The talent pool for this one includes the directors of \"Shrek 2\" and \"Shark Tale\" and the writers of \"Kung Fu Panda\" and \"The Rocker,\" incidentally.) High concepts, top-notch voice talent and scattershot pop cultural references are no compensation for a coherent script. The XXXL lady in question -- dubbed \"Ginormica\" by her U.S. military guards -- starts out plain and petite Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), until a meteorite hits her just minutes before she's supposed to tie the knot with unctuous chauvinist Derek (Paul Rudd). Her rapid growth spurt saves her from that particular fate worse than death, even if at first glance her new roommates don't look like much of an improvement. There's Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist who semi-advertently mutated with a bug; B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) an amorphous blue jelly-like blob who gets on just fine without a brain; Missing Link (Will Arnett), a gung-ho amphibian who's all mouth; and a giant dust mite called Insectosaurus who isn't voiced by anyone because he doesn't have anything to say. Sci-fi fans will have fun counting off the references to myriad classics -- \"Close Encounters of the Third Kind,\" \"Invaders from Mars,\" \"The Fly,\" \"The Creature from the Black Lagoon,\" \"The Blob,\" \"Mothra\" and \"Attack of the 50-Foot Woman,\" for starters -- and noting a few clever bits and pieces (Kiefer Sutherland, as General W.R. Monger, riffs on George C. Scott in \"Dr. Strangelove\"). The trouble is, once the introductions are over, the filmmakers can only launch their desperately limp plot: The White House turns to these monstrous superheroes to save the planet from evil Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), a squidlike creature with four eyes and twice as many legs, and a one-eyed tin robot to do his dirty work for him. Ginormica gets a kick-butt finale, and is a much stronger character -- in any number of ways -- than the movie's president. (In a genuinely witty casting touch he's voiced by Stephen Colbert.) That may be good politics or at least a sound marketing decision from the studio's perspective -- it's been awhile since a family animated feature produced a genuinely strong female character (unless you count \"Coraline,\" which was way too scary for my family) -- but Susan's self-esteem is an awfully long time coming. iReport.com: What do you think of 'Monsters vs. Aliens'? (Bizarrely -- and maybe it's just my imagination -- Gallaxhar bears a passing resemblance to President Obama. I wonder ... would that make Susan\/Ginormica a surrogate for Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton?) Visually, too, \"Monsters vs Aliens\" is undistinguished, although its shortcomings may be disguised if you seek out the 3-D version. Funny how 3-D movies tend to produce two-dimensional characters, with \"Coraline\" again the exception to the rule. Jocular and unpretentiously trashy, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" should be a lot of fun -- and it is, in places. But the truth is it's as hung up on itself as Susan's preening fiance. Hand on heart, I had a better time at \"Space Chimps.\" \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" runs 94 minutes and is rated PG. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" about Earth-born \"monsters\" taking on megalomaniacal alien .\nFilm's main character is almost 50-foot woman voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\n\"Monsters\" has great talent but no script to speak of, says Tom Charity .","id":"fb6692faf8d2bd695114d14020939561b68dcd25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Illinois state Senate on Monday began its impeachment trial against Gov. Rod Blagojevich without the governor present. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich denies any wrongdoing. Blagojevich said he expects lawmakers to vote to convict him. He is facing federal corruption allegations, including trying to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Barack Obama was elected president. The second-term Democratic governor has denied wrongdoing. Instead of attending the trial, Blagojevich hit the media circuit Monday. He appeared on ABC's \"Good Morning America\" and \"The View,\" and was scheduled to give his first live prime-time interview Monday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Speaking on \"Good Morning America,\" Blagojevich restated his complaints about what he called the \"unconstitutional\" impeachment trial, which he said \"denies me the right to call witnesses to defend myself and prove my innocence.\" Watch Blagojevich say he's done \"nothing wrong\" \u00bb . He said he is certain the Illinois Senate will vote to remove him from office and said he expects they will demand he step down \"relatively soon.\" Earlier this month, the Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach him. Blagojevich has said the vote was politically motivated. Under the Illinois Constitution, the House can vote to impeach an executive or judicial officer, but it is the Senate that conducts the trial. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate is required to convict an officer of an impeachable offense. According to a federal complaint issued in December, Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris -- who also was arrested on federal corruption charges -- were \"conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits\" for the governor by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a U.S. senator to replace Obama. \"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden,\" Blagojevich allegedly said in one recorded phone conversation, referring to his authority to appoint, according to the complaint. \"I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing.\" When asked about those alleged quotes, Blagojevich told ABC that federal prosecutors \"took snippets of conversations completely out of context.\" \"When the whole story comes out, you'll see that the effort was to work to have a senator who can best represent Illinois,\" he said. Blagojevich has said his rights are being violated because he cannot challenge assertions in the House impeachment report. Watch Blagojevich demand a fair trial \u00bb . Blagojevich also is asking for a change in a Senate trial rule that he said is preventing him from calling witnesses such as Valerie Jarrett, a confidant of Obama's; Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.; and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel, claimed Blagojevich, agrees that he did not break any laws. State Sen. Matt Murphy, part of the nine-member committee that put the Senate trial rules together, called Blagojevich's complaints \"the theater of the absurd.\" iReport.com: Do you trust your political leaders? \"What you've seen here ... is a cynical effort on the part of this governor that's perfectly consistent with his actions over the last six years, to try and further undermine the faith in this process that the people already have,\" Murphy said. He said the House prosecution team responsible for presenting the impeachment case to the Senate is operating under the same restrictions as Blagojevich with regard to calling witnesses. Murphy said on \"Good Morning America\" that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked both sides to \"defer to the criminal prosecution\" of Blagojevich and \"limit witnesses.\" He noted that the governor has every right to submit \"positive statements that the governor says exonerate him\" -- such as those from Jarrett, Jackson and Emanuel -- as evidence in the Senate trial. \"We have lowered the standard for the admission of evidence for the governor to bend over backward to make this fair,\" Murphy said. \"The suggestion that this is somehow unfair to the governor is the most self-serving, ludicrous statement I have ever heard in my life. It couldn't be fairer for this guy.\" Blagojevich missed deadlines this month for answering the impeachment charge and for filing a motion to dismiss, a spokesman for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has said.","highlights":"Impeachment trial proceedings for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich begin .\nIllinois governor says impeachment trial is \"unconstitutional\"\nBlagojevich scheduled multiple television appearances Monday .\nBlagojevich accused of scheming to sell Barack Obama's ex-Senate seat .","id":"3ab0814164a6712234c9e8d6d102da2c9a33b824"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- High winds and heavy seas capsized a boat filled with African migrants heading for Europe off the coast of Libya Monday -- with more than 200 feared dead, the International Organization for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland, said Tuesday. A group of 227 migrants sits on a fishing vessel in Malta last month after arriving from Somalia. Jemini Pandya, IOM spokeswoman, said a boat carrying 250 people capsized north of the Libyan coast, with at least 20 confirmed dead and 23 rescued. Another boat with around 350 migrants was rescued. She said the rescued migrants were taken to two centers in the Libyan city of Tripoli. They included Egyptians, Somalis, Ghanians, Nigerians, Tunisians, Eritreans, Algerians, and Moroccans. There were also passengers from Asia -- Bangladeshis, Syrians, Indians, and Pakistanis, she said. She said there may be two other vessels in the Mediterranean carrying migrants. The initial reports that two vessels capsized proved to be incorrect, Pandya said. Watch as migrants are feared drowned \u00bb . The vessels departed Sunday and were heading to southern Europe, Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported Monday. The migrants were believed to be headed for the Italian island of Lampedusa, where 37,000 landed last year, according to IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy, who said many African migrants converge on Libya en route to Europe. Italian coast guards said an Italian tugboat working for an offshore oil companies in the Libyan seas picked up 350 people on Sunday and carried them to Libya with the help of the Italian military. The U.N. refugee agency, aware of the reports, said they came at the \"beginning of the smuggling season in the Mediterranean.\" The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said details remain sketchy about what happened, but one boat among several vessels leaving Libya for Italy went down and hundreds are reported missing. It said the mishap occurred near the Libyan coast. It said some Egyptian nationals were rescued and bodies were recovered and that those aboard included Africans from the northern and the sub-Saharan regions. High Commissioner Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said that the tragedy reflects the desperation of people to escape poverty and persecution. \"This tragic incident illustrates, once again, the dangers faced by people caught in mixed irregular movements of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean and elsewhere which every year cost thousands of lives,\" the U.N. agency said.","highlights":"Hundreds feared dead after boat carrying African migrants capsized off Libya .\nAnother boat with around 350 migrants was rescued.\nMigrants were believed to be heading for Italian island of Lampedusa .\nU.N.: Marks \"beginning of the smuggling season in the Mediterranean\"","id":"5dfeb99e2efb622b72b4826bb2843902b158bdce"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Leading British Cabinet minister Jacqui Smith's political future is in doubt after her husband admitted to paying for adult movies with taxpayers' money. Jacqui Smith surrounded by media outside her sister's home, whom she lives with in London. The home secretary's husband, Richard Timney, has apologized for the \"embarrassment\" he caused his wife, while she has promised to repay the money spent, including the \u00a310 ($14) charge for the two films, the British Press Association reported. According to British media reports, Smith had not seen the videos and was \"mortified\" that they had \"mistakenly\" been paid for using her MP's expense account. Timney, who Smith pays \u00a340,000 ($56,000) a year to be her office manager, submitted an expense claim last June for a \u00a367 ($95) Virgin Media bill for television services in the couple's family home in Redditch, Smith's constituency, The Guardian newspaper reported. It reported the bill included two adult films, at a cost of \u00a35 ($7) each, as well as two viewings of the heist movie \"Ocean's 13\" and one of \"Surf's Up,\" a children's film about a penguin. The revelations could not come at a worse time for Smith, who is already being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over her decision to claim at least \u00a3116,000 ($164,000) in second-home allowances for her family home since becoming an MP. She has claimed the second-home allowance for her family home while living with her sister in London. Smith designated her sister's house as her \"main\" residence, allowing her to claim the money for her family home. Conservative and opposition leader David Cameron described the latest news as \"deeply embarrassing\" for Smith. He said Smith had \"questions to answer,\" PA reported. \"I do not think this individual thing is the issue. I think she has got some questions to answer about the second home issue. It does seem to me pretty incredible to claim that the home where her family is, that is not her main home. \"I think this goes to a deeper problem, which is the second home allowance for MPs. The prime minister has ordered a review but he has sort of kicked it into the long grass. \"The review doesn't start until September, it is not going to report until after the next election. That is hopeless. We have got to get on with it.\" Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended Smith. \"The home secretary is doing a great job and I do not think this issue should be allowed to detract from everything she is doing to ensure we protect the public and keep our neighborhoods safe,\" he said. \"She has done the right thing by taking steps to rectify the mistake that was made as soon as she became aware of it. \"This is very much a personal matter for Jacqui. She has made her apology, her husband has made clear that he has apologized.\" Last week Brown ordered a review of the complex and opaque system of MPs' pay and allowances. Do you think Smith should resign?","highlights":"British Cabinet minister Jacqui Smith's political future is in doubt .\nHome minister's husband, Richard Timney, has apologized over porn purchases .\nSmith has promised to repay money spent on porn videos .","id":"379be9921248ba4de72971eed8d014bb06107abd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The BBC is refusing to broadcast a plea from leading British charities for aid to Gaza, saying the ad would compromise the public broadcaster's appearance of impartiality. Demonstrators protest at the BBC's central London offices Saturday against the broadcaster's decision. The decision prompted weekend protests in England and Scotland, with one group saying Sunday that 100 people had occupied the foyer of the BBC building in Glasgow, Scotland and would not leave until the BBC runs the ad. The Disasters Emergency Committee, which includes the British Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children and 10 other charities, plans to launch the ad on Monday. British broadcasters, led by the BBC, originally declined to air the appeal -- but in the face of criticism from government ministers and others, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 changed their minds. CNN was not approached to broadcast the ad, a DEC spokesman said. About 5,000 people demonstrated in front of the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday over the broadcaster's stance. Seven people were arrested. Watch protest against BBC decision \u00bb . In Glasgow, the London-based Stop the War Coalition said Sunday its supporters had moved into the foyer of the BBC building in what the group described as a peaceful protest. The group did not plan to move beyond the foyer but intended to stay there until the BBC changes its decision, said Keith Boyd, a coalition member who called CNN on Sunday. \"Primarily we are asking that the ad be shown,\" Boyd said. The BBC press office would not confirm whether its Glasgow office was being occupied or if protesters were even there. \"We don't comment on individual demonstrations,\" a statement from the BBC press office said. The BBC is standing by its decision to not air the ad, director general Mark Thompson wrote in a blog post on the corporation's Web site. \"We concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its wider coverage of the story,\" he wrote Saturday. \"Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programs but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story,\" Thompson said. \"Gaza remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues -- the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it -- are both at the heart of the story and contentious,\" he added. The BBC, which is funded by an obligatory license fee paid by every British household with a television, is required by its charter to be impartial. It does not carry commercial advertising but does broadcast charity appeals. The DEC is \"disappointed that the BBC declined to support the Gaza appeal,\" the spokesman told CNN. \"It might limit the reach of our key message to the general public.\" The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said the BBC had to make its own decision about impartiality. \"That is a decision they must make. We have no view on that subject,\" he said. Many readers of Thompson's blog post did have a view, however. The statement got hundreds of comments, most of them critical of the BBC. A commenter who signed in as \"bully--baiter\" said the BBC was taking a side, no matter what it did. \"Sorry Mr. Thompson but you cannot have it both ways. If deciding to accede to the DEC request would be seen as political then deciding not to accede to it is also political. Don't insult me with your disingenuous attempts to suggest it is otherwise,\" the commenter wrote. Other commenters simply rejected Thompson's position out of hand. \"I think the reasons for blocking help for a grave humanitarian disaster are simply astounding,\" \"brit--proud\" wrote. \"How can simply bringing food, medicines and homes to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians be seen as political impartiality? How stupid do the BBC think the British public are?\" But the corporation had its defenders as well. \"The last thing I want to do, is fund the BBC to broadcast propaganda,\" \"SternG\" wrote: \"There's no way I will pay the BBC to air the DEC's politically-motivated 'appeal' for Gaza. Gaza is run by a government which is internationally recognized as a terrorist group, including by the EU. There is no doubt that some aid\/fund will be 'procured' by Hamas. ... Good decision BBC.\" British broadcasters have refused to air some previous DEC appeals, the umbrella organization's spokesman said. A planned 2006 appeal for aid to victims of the war in Lebanon was scrapped because \"there were genuine concerns, shared by the aid agencies, about the deliverability of aid.\" Thompson cited doubts about whether DEC members could get aid to Gaza as a secondary reason for declining to take the ad.","highlights":"NEW: Protesters occupy part of BBC building in Scotland, group says .\nU.K. charity group Disasters Emergency Committee to launch appeal for Gaza aid .\nBBC refuses to broadcast ad, says would compromise appearance of impartiality .\nBBC, funded by obligatory license fee, is required by charter to be impartial .","id":"3736cd17971d01c4cbffde1157f895fcbf955fd4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre, who scored movies including \"Doctor Zhivago\" and \"Lawrence of Arabia\" among others, died Sunday from cancer in Los Angeles. He was 84. Movie composer Maurice Jarre pictured at the Berlin International Film Festival last month. Jarre enjoyed an illustrious career, working with Hollywood directing legends including John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock and, most notably, David Lean. Fellow French composer Alexandre Desplat, who interviewed Jarre for The Screening Room at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, told CNN Monday: \"Maurice was an immense artist, an incredible symphonist, a magician of the melody and a benevolent human being.\" Watch tribute to Maurice Jarre \u00bb . Jarre won Oscars in 1963 and 1966 for his collaborations on the Lean movies \"Lawrence of Arabia\" and \"Doctor Zhivago\" respectively. He then mustered a further six Oscar nominations but his third award came once again through a further collaboration with Lean on \" A Passage to India\" in 1984. He then swapped orchestral composition to become a pioneer of electronic scoring, working on the music for, among others, \"Ghost,\" \"Witness,\" \"Dead Poet's Society\" and \"Fatal Attraction.\" At the same time his son Jean-Michel Jarre became one of the world's best known electronic musicians with global hits such as \"Oxygene\" and huge outdoor concerts. His final movie composition was for the 2000 film \"I Dreamed of Africa.\" Jarre's career included symphonies, ballet and theatre but it was for his 150 film scores that he was presented with an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last month - almost half a century after producer Sam Spiegel hired him to work on \"Lawrence of Arabia.\" Festival director Dieter Kosslick said in a statement late last year: \"Film composers often are in the shadows of great directors and acting stars. It's different with Maurice Jarre; the music of 'Doctor Zhivago,' like much of his work, is world-famous and remains unforgotten in the history of cinema.\" Speaking in Berlin to double-Oscar nominee Desplat -- who himself scored \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" and \"The Queen\" -- Jarre said: \"I never really had a 'bust-up' with a good director. A good director will always find an intellectual understanding. And that's what was great - I had an opportunity with all these people. I don't think I can say that I ever worked with a bad director.\" But Jarre also said that directing legends of the rank of Huston and Hitchock had disappeared and no longer existed, adding: \"The only problem is now, there is more and more bad music that goes 'dang dang dang dang dang...' So...it's better to turn off the music, and listen to a concert of Mozart.\" Senior producer Neil Curry and associate producer Lidz-Ama Appiah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Maurice Jarre won three Oscars during his career, all for scoring films by David Lean .\nDuring the 1980s, 1990s he scored music for \"Ghost,\" \"Witness,\" \"Fatal Attraction\"\nCareer recognized most recently at the Berlin International Film Festival .","id":"80f85545c9c77106c525a81256e133eeb945500f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The latest 3-D animated movie involves the possible extinction of the human race and features a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach, a prehistoric half-ape\/half-fish, a 50-foot-tall woman (OK, 49-foot-11), and a blue brainless blob named B.O.B. The Missing Link, Ginormica, the blue blob B.O.B. and Insectosaurus dominate \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" And they're the good guys. Reese Witherspoon leads the cast of \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" providing the voice of Susan, who is hit by a glowing meteorite on her wedding day. Before long she's grown into the biggest thing around. The short-statured Oscar winner relished the chance to play not only a giant, but also a role model. \"I was walking with my son and my daughter the other day, and I was like 'Who's your favorite superhero?' \" Witherspoon said. \"And my son was like ... 'Batman, Superman, Spiderman,' and he could name 20 guy superheroes. \"And so I said to my daughter, 'Who's your favorite superhero?' And she goes 'I don't know, the girl in the back of the Justice League? I can't remember her name.' \" So the idea of showcasing a female superhero, Witherspoon said, has the actress \"really excited.\" Kiefer Sutherland, who plays General W.R. Monger, sees the film as helping kids embrace their diversity. \"I love the idea that they were gonna make a film that was going to tell young people that it's all right to be different,\" Sutherland said. His military veteran character captures Susan, renames her \"Ginormica,\" and locks her up with the other \"monsters\" he's collected over half a century. \"And not only is it all right to be different, that one thing that may make you feel awkward about being different might be your greatest asset.\" Those assets become apparent when an alien invader (voiced by Rainn Wilson of \"The Office\") decides he wants Earth, and the monsters -- Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach (\"House\" star Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will Arnett), and the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) -- are called upon to save the planet. The film, which also features the voices of Stephen Colbert and Paul Rudd, opens Friday. Most of the cast had previous experience in animation voiceover -- last year, Rogen was featured in \"Kung Fu Panda,\" and he and Arnett were heard in \"Horton Hears A Who!\" -- but it was the first time for Wilson. \"They called me and they said 'They're interested in you for this, playing an evil alien warlord,' and I was like 'Where do I sign?' \" he said with a chuckle. It was a welcome change of pace for Sutherland, who recorded his voice tracks for \"Monsters\" while he was filming the uber-intense \"24.\" \"So, for five days a week I'm very serious in the '24' world, and then for five hours on the weekend I got to be 5 years old and just play a cartoon character\" -- a character he says he saw as a combination of R. Lee Ermey's intense gunnery sergeant in \"Full Metal Jacket\" and that 'toon terror, Yosemite Sam. \"We combined these voices and the producers laughed, which is generally a pretty good sign,\" Sutherland said. Sutherland may have been inspired by the classics, but the 3-D aspect of \"Monsters\" is as modern as movie technology gets. Under the command of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg (whom Witherspoon and Sutherland respectfully called \"Mr. Katzenberg\"), the film was conceived from the beginning as a 3-D project. One early scene uses the process to bounce a paddleball out at the audience, but for the most part, the effect is used immersively, to bring viewers into the \"Monsters\" world. \"You really feel like you're there, like you're a part of this thing,\" said Arnett, \"not in a way that's gratuitous and to just sort of show off, but really so that the viewer can be an active participant in the movie.\" While film technology continues to advance, some things never change. As Susan is still trying to get used to her new size and powers, she finds herself simultaneously battling an alien robot and trying to save dozens of people trapped in their cars on the Golden Gate Bridge while her male cohorts mostly just stand around. One tries to encourage her by calling \"You're doing it!\" to which Susan snaps back, \"I'm doing everything!\" \"The quintessential cry!\" Witherspoon said. \"The female war cry! That's one of my favorite lines.\" iReport.com: Does 3-D make you more likely to see a movie? Of course, it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that -- eventually -- Susan not only bonds with the rest of her motley crew, but also gains the self-confidence to see the positives in her accidental enormousness. As Wilson, the film's villain, noted, \"It's a coming-of-age tale -- for the monster inside of each one of us.\" And, perhaps, it will give some little girls a superhero to look up to.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is about motley group of misfits who team up to defeat alien .\nMonsters are led by almost 50-foot woman, voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\nWitherspoon says she hopes character can be role model for girls .\nOther actors lending talents: Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett .","id":"3d38f55fd08b2abb419fd0c5f2d18eee5eee98cf"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Prosecutors in Florida are taking a new look at the 2007 death of Anna Nicole Smith to see if recent evidence that California investigators gathered might cause them to open an inquiry. Prosecutors in Florida are reviewing evidence gathered in California for a probe into Anna Nicole Smith's death. Howard K. Stern -- Smith's longtime partner and attorney -- and two doctors were charged this month in California with conspiring to furnish drugs to Smith before her fatal overdose. \"Our prosecutors have met with representatives of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the California Department of Justice and discussed the evidence they have turned up in their investigation,\" said Ron Ishoy, a spokesman for Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz. \"We are now examining that evidence to see where it might lead in relation to Ms. Smith's death here in Broward County in 2007.\" The Broward County state attorney's office never opened a probe into Smith's death but assisted the Seminole police in its investigation in the days afterward. Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8, 2007, after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Hollywood, Florida. A coroner said she died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Officials said both prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three anti-depressant or anti-anxiety drugs. Human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, also were found in toxicology tests, officials said. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor were charged in California with several felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007 -- only weeks before Smith's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich also were charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" And each was charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, prosecutors said. \"Anna was the center of a cruel tabloid feeding frenzy,\" Eroshevich's attorney, Adam Braun, told CNN in a statement after his client was charged. \"In the face of this, Dr. Eroshevich did her best to help the patient while protecting what little privacy Anna had left. Any actions were done with the patient's well-being in mind and were certainly not criminal.\" Watch allegations over photos and the doctor \u00bb . California Attorney General Jerry Brown said the doctors and Stern devised a plan to use fake names so Smith could be prescribed \"thousands of pills.\" The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star was drugged \"almost to the point of stupefaction,\" Brown said. \"The quantity of the drugs, the variety of the drugs, the combination at any given point, and her continuing to use that -- that, to a professional, is clear evidence of addiction,\" Brown said Friday. \"These cocktails of methadone and anti-depressants and sleeping pills and Xanax, you put all that into a cocktail, it explodes and can cause death, injury and permanent morbidity and disability.\"","highlights":"Broward County, Florida, prosecutors taking new look at death of Anna Nicole Smith .\nEx-Playboy playmate found dead in Florida hotel room in February 2007 .\nCoroner: Smith died of accidental overdose of prescription drugs .\nSmith's boyfriend, two doctors charged recently in California drug case .","id":"db22dc48a547e6ed038f967a13a94f3621f5fa4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's the season of brackets, beer and, of course, basketball. Duke Blue Devils fans cheer on their team at the ACC Tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. Come mid-March, the country falls sick with college basketball fever, and the NCAA Tournament is all the talk. As men's college basketball comes to a close with the last game April 6, fans are anxiously watching to see who will claim victory in this year's national championship game. More than a century after James Naismith invented basketball at a YMCA training school in Massachusetts, the sport continues to captivate millions of fans. Over the years, college basketball has sparked great dedication among its fans, from those who camp out for three months for a ticket to those who attended games before they could read. CNN, with the help of experts at the NCAA, chose a handful of basketball towns filled with great fans, rich traditions and history that make these places worth a visit. 1. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill . College basketball is deeply rooted in North Carolina culture, thanks to the success of the men's teams at the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The epic rivalry between Duke's Blue Devils and North Carolina's Tar Heels draws in so many fans that some sports experts say it is partly responsible for reviving the waning college basketball viewership in the first half of this decade. Visitors will find that Duke basketball fans don't shower their support only on game day. At Duke University -- seeded No. 2 in the East -- student fans, dubbed the Cameron Crazies, are so eager to snare one of the 1,200 first-come-first-serve spots in the Cameron Stadium student section that they camp out for up to three months for the infamous North Carolina-Duke matchup. The grassy tenting area outside the basketball arena, known as Krzyzewskiville, is named after Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has been named National Coach of the Year 12 times. \"It's so easy to become enthralled with the culture of Duke basketball,\" said Joel Burrill, a senior who headed up the tenting efforts this year. Outside the stadium, visitors will discover plenty of Blue Devil spirit off-campus in Durham, a former tobacco town. Satisfaction Restaurant and Charlie's Pub & Grille are among the favorite hot spots where visitors will discover student and local fans watching the games. About a 20-minute drive from Durham is the historic town of Chapel Hill, home to the University of North Carolina, which was seeded No. 1 in the South this year. The school has a strong record of basketball success, appearing in more than 40 NCAA tournaments. It is also the college team of professional basketball legend Michael Jordan. Adam Lucas, publisher of Tar Heel Monthly, has been decked in baby blue Carolina gear since he was a child. He even skipped school so he could attend the games with his parents, both Tar Heel alums. \"It's not just a sport,\" he explained. \"It's the number one thing talked about during this part of the year. You'll have trouble holding a conversation in Chapel Hill in March if you don't know the basics of Carolina basketball.\" If visitors can't get one of the coveted tickets to watch the game in the Dean E. Smith Center, aka the Dean Dome, there is plenty to do in the quaint city of Chapel Hill. Visitors can walk to Franklin Street, the heart of town, where eateries, shops and sports bars are ready to embrace UNC fans. They can also visit the 8,000-square-foot Carolina Basketball Museum, located on campus, which holds more than 450 interactive displays, memorabilia and photos documenting a basketball program that began more than a century ago. 2. The University of Kansas in Lawrence . To understand the fan devotion for the defending national champions and a Midwest No. 3-seeded team this year, one must make a trip to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The Jayhawks' indoor arena is old-school -- smaller than most college basketball stadiums -- built in the 1950s and named in honor of revered former Coach Forrest C. \"Phog\" Allen. In 1952, \"Phog\" led the men's basketball team to its first NCAA victory. The energy from thousands of fans in Allen Field House is contagious. In addition to the \"Rock Chalk Jayhawk\" chant, KU students are famous for their clever antics against the other teams, particularly their longstanding rivals at the University of Missouri. But if you can't get a ticket during the regular season, check out the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, a 26,000-square-foot museum adjacent to the stadium. The museum, which opened about three years ago, houses artifacts and information about the history of KU athletics, including the men's basketball team. Visitors can head to colorful Massachusetts Street, the main drag in downtown Lawrence. The street is lined with plenty of restaurants and bars catering to Jayhawks followers on game day. When Kansas beat Memphis to clinch the national championship last year, more than 100,000 fans poured into the street, university officials say. \"People who come [to Lawrence] never want to leave,\" said Jennifer Sanner, a 1981 alumna and editor of Kansas Alumni magazine. \"And if you're a basketball fan, that's all the better.\" 3. Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana . Sure, the Hoosiers didn't have a stellar season after going 6-25, and they didn't make it to the NCAA Tournament. After Kelvin Sampson resigned as coach in February over allegations that he had violated NCAA recruiting standards, the team lost many of its top players. Despite this, college basketball in Bloomington, Indiana, remains sacred, devout Hoosiers fans say, and they believe that the men's team will be back in full force over the next few years. Indiana University has one of the top basketball programs in the country, winning five NCAA championships. The team was led for many years by hot-tempered but incredibly successful coach Bobby Knight. If you are lucky enough to get a ticket to see the Hoosiers play at their stadium, Assembly Hall, you will find droves of student fans. Assembly Hall holds one of the country's largest student sections, holding more than 8,000. Officials at Bloomington Indiana Visitors & Convention Bureau say basketball game days flood local restaurants and bars with students and local fans. The games tend to sell out, so be prepared to explore Bloomington. Most fans head to Kirkwood Avenue near campus and drop by Nick's English Hut, where the walls are covered with Hoosiers athletic photographs and gear, or Yogi's Grill and Bar to watch the game. \"Basketball is a religion in this state,\" said Zach Osterman, the men's basketball columnist at the university's student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student. \"It goes way back before Bobby Knight. It's what people do up here.\" 4. Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . There is no football team at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That means students and alumni are even more dedicated to the men's basketball team, they say. Marquette may be a Jesuit university with just over 11,000 students, but it boasts one of the highest attendance rates at basketball games in the country. Students at Marquette don't pitch tents like at Duke, but the games are so popular, some will bring their sleeping bags 10 hours before the game to get the best seat in the house . \"It's such a great feeling to know you can walk anywhere in the city when you have a Marquette shirt on a basketball day and people will talk to you about basketball,\" said Sarah Dembkowski, a sophomore at the university. \"It gives this city a bonding feeling.\" Although the West region No. 6-seeded Golden Eagles lost to the University of Missouri in the tournament last week, a trip to the Bradley Center, where the Marquette men's basketball team plays (and where the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks play) is well worth the visit. Marquette students, called the Superfans, are famous for their peculiar behavior, dressing up in costumes to support their team and distracting opponents with oversized cutouts of celebrities' heads. On campus are several bars, including the Union Annex, that tout cheap beer pitchers and food specials for fans. Just several blocks from the university is downtown Milwaukee. On Water Street, where most of the fans crowd on game day, visitors can hang with the locals and enjoy a hub of sports bars, taverns and restaurants. 5. Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington . Gonzaga University officials call it the \"Gonzaga Effect\": This small private school in Spokane has qualified for the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight year. The Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball team is an obscure team that seems to emerge from thin air each March. This year, the team entered the tournament seeded No. 4 in the South region. \"There have been a lot of one-and-done schools, who make a splash and disappear, but we've been able to sustain it,\" said Dale Goodwin, a spokesman for the university. Fans in \"the Kennel Club\" at Gonzaga go wild for basketball despite the school's smaller size. For more than 17 years of the Kennel Club's existence, the Bulldogs have won more than 75 percent of their games, including over 90 percent during the past eight seasons, according to the Gonzaga athletic department. Visitors will be delighted to watch the games in the school's arena, the $25 million McCarthey Athletic Center, which opened in 2004. Before the opening, the basketball team was playing in a glorified high school gym, university officials said. On Hamilton Street near the university, visitors will want to head to Jack & Dan's Tavern, which belongs to John Stockton, a former NBA and Gonzaga player. The Bulldog, which claims to have the best burgers in town, is also a popular hangout during the games. Meanwhile, the school is preparing to host the NCAA first- and second-round men's basketball tournament next March. The town of Spokane, tucked into eastern Washington, is excited to welcome visitors. A single event will probably bring in $2.75 million, according to the Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau.","highlights":"Men's college basketball will end with NCAA championship game April 6 .\nSome Duke students camp out for three months to get a game ticket .\nLast year, 100,000 fans poured into downtown Lawrence, Kansas, after KU's victory .\nGames at these basketball towns are so popular that they usually sell out .","id":"2b2c8b817d4747dbb6f914a459fe3703736c420f"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Suspected Taliban militants blew up a government-run school Monday in Pakistan's violence-plagued Swat Valley, bringing to 183 the number of schools destroyed since fighting began in the area six months ago, officials said. Students gather outside a destroyed school on January 17 in Kundar in Pakistan's Swat Valley. A day earlier, radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah threatened to kill more than four dozen government officials if they did not appear before him for opposing the Taliban. Local newspapers on Monday printed the list of 50 government officials and tribal elders whom Fazlullah has threatened with death. The boy's high school that was destroyed was located in Mingora, the valley's main city, said Sher Afzal Khan, an education officer for Swat. The attack occurred early Monday and no one was wounded. Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once Pakistan's biggest tourist destination. It is situated near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 km) from the capital city of Islamabad. The valley boasted the country's only ski resort and was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts until it was overrun by militants, led by Fazlullah. He has launched a violent and deadly campaign to enforce Taliban-style fundamentalist Islamic laws throughout the province. The militants want to require veils for women and beards for men, and to ban music and television. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants. As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban has carried out a series of deadly bombings, and has said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out. Elsewhere in the North West Frontier Province, a blast killed five people and wounded 15 others Monday morning, officials said. The bomb, planted on a bicycle, went off in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, said Mohammad Riaz of the province's police force. It killed shopkeepers and pedestrians, added the town's police chief, Abdul Rashid. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Blast targets boy's high school in Mingora, Swat Valley .\nMonday attack marks 183rd school destroyed in past six months of fighting .\nHundreds of people killed in wave of violence across North West Frontier Province .","id":"12d6baad1d2b23df3d3ca025ab8547c68599c30d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They feature characters such as hat-wearing cats, very hungry caterpillars, nice girls named Madeline and naughty boys named Max. \"The Very Hungry Caterpillar\" by Eric Carle turns 40 this year, and 29 million copies of it have sold since 1969. Parents read them to their children, forming a powerful bond. Years later, those former children read these children's picture books to their children, and the thread between generations is extended yet again. \"Children's books live a long time because you always have children growing into them,\" says Pat Scales, president of the Association for Library Service to Children and a retired school librarian. \"And parents read [to their children] what was read to them.\" The making of a classic is a strange alchemy of skill -- a good story, strong illustrations -- and luck. It's not easy to appeal to three audiences: publishers, parents and -- oh, yes -- children. Dr. Seuss' first children's book, \"And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,\" was rejected by more than 25 publishers before Vanguard Press put it out in 1937. Maurice Sendak's legendary \"Where the Wild Things Are\" (1963), though recognized with the Caldecott Medal -- the highest honor for a picture book -- was controversial for its drawings of monsters and its mischievous hero, Max. But almost all classics share some characteristics, says Alida Allison, a San Diego State University English professor and member of that California school's National Center for the Study of Children's Literature. \"Every one of them ... has the same reassuring pattern of 'home, away, home,' \" she says. \"The basic plot begins with a happy family situation. Then one extremely curious or transgressive child goes out on his or her own. And, no matter how 'bad' the child has been, he gets to come back home.\" The child is welcomed back to the family and often gets something to eat, she adds. (One exception: Seuss' \"Mulberry,\" in which the adult condemns the child's sense of wonder -- but then, she adds, \"Dr. Seuss is in a world of his own.\") The plot isn't just reassuring to children, she points out, but also reinforces the lessons of good parenting. \"If you think of all those stories, there's a loving parent ... allowing a transgressive kid a leash to investigate the world and come back,\" she says. And through the child's eyes, parents find their sense of wonder renewed, she adds. For children, it's all new -- the colors, the wordplay, even the plot -- and the more variety, the better. A child may be attracted by the rudimentary drawings of Eric Carle's \"The Very Hungry Caterpillar,\" the elasticity of Seuss' cats, Grinches and Oobleck, or the rich, almost otherworldly paintings of Chris Van Allsburg's \"The Polar Express.\" And the language: Margaret Wise Brown's \"Goodnight Moon\" may seem to be nothing much, but it's as peaceful as a lullaby, Scales observes. And nothing succeeds like a book that has found its way into a child's heart. \"We know that kids return to their favorite books over and over again,\" Scales says. And then, of course, the story starts from the beginning. Allison, a published author herself, read a variety of books to her children when they were growing up: Dorothy Kunhardt's \"Pat the Bunny,\" Russell Hoban's \"Frances\" books. But at least one title earned its way into the rotation because of an older fan: Allison's husband. \"One of my husband's favorites growing up was 'The Pokey Little Puppy,' \" she says of the 1942 Little Golden Book by Janette Sebring Lowrey and Gustaf Tenggren. \"So he read that to our sons.\"","highlights":"Parents often read to their children what was read to them when they were young .\nChildren's books can reinforce good parenting .\nProfessor describes \"home, away, home\" pattern among books .\n\"Dr. Seuss is in a world of his own,\" professor says of story plots .","id":"7c06e091d7294c87ba42df50008783d9f3cab9b2"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- For all the majesty of the White House, the first lady has already infused it with a palpable ease; her presence makes the place feel open and approachable. When we sit down to talk, Michelle Obama seems as relaxed as she did when I first interviewed her and her husband in their Chicago apartment in 2004. \"This room has the best light in the house,\" she tells me as we settle in, shoes off, on a comfortable sofa. \"And there's pie here, too. The pie in the White House is dangerously good.\" -- Oprah Winfrey . Michelle Obama is the first person to join Oprah Winfrey on the cover of O magazine . Oprah Winfrey: How are you a different woman today than you were when Barack Obama announced his candidacy in 2007? Michelle Obama: I'm more optimistic. More hopeful. It comes from traveling all over America and connecting with so many different people. And this was long before anyone thought Barack had a chance. This was the kindness of strangers. I think we should all have to get to know one another around kitchen tables. It changed me. It's helped me to give other people the benefit of the doubt. Winfrey: What did you see that changed you? Obama: I saw our shared values. We fundamentally want the same things for ourselves and for each other. We want our kids to be safe and to grow up with some resources and aspire to a slightly better life than ours. No one's looking for a handout. People just want fairness and opportunity. Oprah.com:The heart and mind of Michelle Obama . Winfrey: That's so good to hear. Because you know what? We live in an \"American Idol\" culture where it seems like everyone just wants to be in the spotlight. Obama: That's not the America I saw. People value their communities. They're rooting for one another. Even in places where I thought people wouldn't accept or relate to me, I always walked out feeling like, \"Wow -- that was fun.\" That changed me. And it helped prepare me for this. Because I think if you're going to be first lady, you have to believe in the possibility of what this country stands for. You have to see it in action and know what you're working toward. Oprah.com: How Michelle gets unstuck . Winfrey: That's so interesting -- and it all came from sitting around kitchen tables. Speaking of which, did you change your diet during the campaign? Obama: When we first started running, my big concern was making sure we ate well on the road. So we started looking at our diet, trying to eliminate junk, getting seasonal fruits and vegetables that were grown locally. We walked the kids through reading labels. We talked about why one juice might be better than another. Winfrey: That's right. In addition to eating well, do you work out? Obama: Yes. There's a small gym here that has everything we need. I work out about four or five days a week -- and Barack does six. He's a workout zealot. Winfrey: Well, you look better than ever -- despite the rumors that you've got a baby bump. Obama: [Laughter.] I know -- I was like, \"Baby bump? As hard as I work on my abs?!\" Winfrey: Okay, so that's settled. Back to exercise. You do treadmill? Obama: I do treadmill, I do weights . Winfrey: I think anyone who saw you on the cover of Vogue knows you do weights. Those arms! Obama: I also do some jump rope, some kickboxing -- and I'd like to take up Pilates, if I could figure out whether there's time. After I had Malia, I began to prioritize exercise because I realized that my happiness is tied to how I feel about myself. I want my girls to see a mother who takes care of herself, even if that means I have to get up at 4:30 so I can do a workout. Winfrey: When you first told me that a few years ago, I was like, \"You get up at 4:30 to work out?\" Obama: Well, I just started thinking, if I had to get up to go to work, I'd get up and go to work. If I had to get up to take care of my kids, I'd get up to do that. But when it comes to yourself, then it's suddenly, \"Oh, I can't get up at 4:30.\" So I had to change that. If I don't exercise, I won't feel good. I'll get depressed. Of course, it's easier to do it here, because I have much more support now. But I always think about women who don't have support. That's why work-family balance isn't just a policy conversation; it's about changing the expectations of who we have to be as women and parents. Winfrey: What you mentioned earlier is key: We have to ask for help. You can't do it all. It's impossible. Obama: That's a conversation I'd love for us to have as a society. How do we set expectations that are attainable? Winfrey: So what do you know for sure, Michelle Obama? Obama: I know that all I can do is be the best me that I can. And live life with some gusto. Giving back is a big part of that. How am I going to share this experience with the American people? I'm always thinking about that. Oprah.com: Read the entire exclusive interview . By Oprah Winfrey from O, The Oprah Magazine, April 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Michelle Obama talks exercise and diet with Oprah Winfrey .\nFirst lady says she learned about people's shared values while campaigning .\nShe exercises at 4:30 a.m. to feel good about herself .\nShe taught her daughters to read food labels for healthy eating .","id":"e38622e0dab76611e1a4f41278fdbade02ad7f81"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Madonna's planned adoption of a Malawian girl will apparently go forward, despite earlier opposition from the girl's family, a reporter for the ITN television network told CNN Sunday. The pop star arrived in Malawi on Sunday. Madonna holds her adopted Malawian son, David Banda, in 2007. \"The family, I'm told, were admittedly reluctant to agree to this, but they've softened after learning more about this, the upbringing that Mercy will be given and they think perhaps it is in her best interest,\" ITN reporter Martin Geisler told CNN. The girl, who is about 4, is named Mercy James. Her uncle is scheduled to sign adoption agreement papers in a Malawian court on Monday, Geisler said. Geisler said Malawians' public opinion toward Madonna softened after she was interviewed by the Malawi Nation newspaper and released family photographs showing a happy David Banda -- a Malawian boy she adopted more than two years ago. \"The sense, I'm told, in Malawi after that, was, 'Well, the little boy looks well, he looks happy, he looks well looked after. Perhaps we shouldn't be so hard on her,'\" said Geisler. A British children's charity earlier asked the pop star to reconsider her reported plans to adopt a girl from the country. Save the Children spokesman Dominic Nutt said the child would be better off staying in Malawi than being raised by the recently divorced singer, who has three other children, including the adopted Malawian boy. \"The best place for a child is in his or her family in their home community,\" he said. \"Most children in orphanages have one parent still living, or have an extended family that can care for them in the absence of their parents.\" Critics of the singer had argued she should donate money to orphanages in Malawi, rather than adopt another child. The charity argued that foreign adoptions should happen only if a child does not have any relatives, and all other options have been considered. The 50-year-old performer is a big supporter of Malawi. She made a documentary, \"I Am Because We Are,\" which highlighted poverty and AIDS and other diseases devastating Malawi's children. She also helps run a nonprofit group, Raising Malawi, which implements initiatives to help the needy in the southeastern Africa nation. On Sunday, Madonna toured the village of Chinkhota, assessing plans to build a school there and other possible Raising Malawi investments. CNN's Nesta Distin contributed to this report.","highlights":"The superstar arrived in Malawi on Sunday .\nShe reportedly wants to adopt a young girl named Mercy James .\nThe child's family has reportedly consented to the adoption .\nSave the Children spokesman says Madonna should reconsider the move .","id":"adb1c4b127873a18022887a79fda583b5a76ffde"} -{"article":"WHITE OAK, Maryland (CNN) -- Seeking to remove unapproved drugs from the marketplace, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday ordered nine companies to stop manufacturing narcotics whose therapeutic claims have not been proved. The FDA ordered nine companies to stop selling unapproved drugs marketed for pain relief. The FDA's warning letters notified the companies they may be subject to legal action if they do not stop manufacturing and distributing \"prescription unapproved products\" that include high-concentrate morphine sulfate oral solutions and immediate-release tablets containing morphine sulfate, hydromorphone or oxycodone. This action does not include oxycodone capsules. All of these drugs are used for pain relief and are forms of previously approved medications. The agency says this is not a recall, but is instead a warning to manufacturers. The companies have 60 days to pull these pain-relief drugs from the market. Distributors have 90 days to stop shipping them. If these drugs are not off the market by those deadlines, a company could face seizure of the narcotics and legal action. \"We estimate there are several hundred unapproved drugs out there,\" said Deborah Autor, director of the office of compliance within the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. \"We will continue to take aggressive action against those firms that do not have the required FDA approval for their drugs. Today's warning letters are another demonstration of our commitment to remove illegal, unproved drugs from the market.\" Although the FDA does not know whether these drugs are unsafe, it has not approved them so cannot certify that the products are 100 percent safe and effective. \"Consumers have a right to expect that their drugs meet the FDA's safety and effectiveness standards,\" said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. \"Doctors and patients are often unaware that not all drugs on the market are backed by FDA approval. It is a high priority for the FDA to remove these products from the market because they may be unsafe, ineffective, inappropriately labeled, or of poor quality.\" The FDA believes Americans have access to plenty of legal narcotics for pain relief and removing these unapproved drugs will not create a shortage. Consumers who may be concerned that they are taking any unapproved drug products should refer to the FDA's Unapproved Drugs Web page, which includes a list of manufacturers of these products. Those who find they are taking unapproved drugs should see their health care professionals for treatment options. Those companies receiving warning letters are Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc., Columbus, Ohio; Cody Laboratories Inc., Cody, Wyoming; Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., Mahwah, New Jersey; Lannett Company Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lehigh Valley Technologies Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania; Mallinckrodt Inc. Pharmaceuticals Group, St. Louis, Missouri; Physicians Total Care Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma; Roxane Laboratories Inc., Columbus, Ohio; and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc., Newport, Kentucky.","highlights":"FDA warns manufacturers they have 60 days to pull unapproved drugs from market .\nOfficials don't know if drugs are unsafe; they have never been approved .\nRemoving unapproved drugs not expected to create a shortage of pain relievers .","id":"8dc04e53b1a37699912c807e1c20d2975ff86a73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Italian international striker Christian Vieri has left Serie A side Atalanta by mutual consent, blaming constant jeering from the club's fans for his decision to leave. Veteran striker Vieri scored twice in nine appearances for Atalanta this season . The 35-year-old, back at his third stint with the Bergamo-based side, has failed to make an impression this season, and has become the focus of fans' frustrations after scoring just two goals in nine appearances. \"I want to thank Atalanta for the way they have dealt with me throughout the season and throughout my previous experiences wearing the black and blue shirt,\" said Vieri in a statement on the club's official Web site. Atalanta president Alessandro Ruggeri revealed the club had wanted the former Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan striker to stay but that his mind was made up. \"I'm disappointed as I'm sure everyone who loves football is. I don't know what he will do now, whether or not he will continue to play after this experience with Atalanta,\" said Ruggeri. \"I haven't spoken to him yet but my colleagues have and he was adamant, I don't think there was any way to make him stay.\" Vieri has changed clubs 13 times since beconing a professional in 1991, playing for Italy's three biggest teams as well as Atletico Madrid in Spain and Monaco in France. His best season was in 2002-03, when he scored 24 goals in 23 league appearances for Inter.","highlights":"Former Italian international Christian Vieri leaves Atalanta will immediate effect .\nThe 35-year-old striker blames fans' jeering for decision to cancel his contract .\nVieri changed clubs a remarkable 13 times after his professional debut in 1991 .","id":"4977044f0dbd3b051200827793381948d112740a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Altovise Davis, the widow of entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., has died. She was 65. Altovise Davis, in a 2008 photo, married Sammy Davis Jr. in 1970. Davis died Saturday at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, said her publicist, Amy Malone. She had been admitted two days earlier after suffering a stroke. Davis, a dancer and actress from Brooklyn, New York, met Sammy Davis Jr. on the set of the musical \"Golden Boy\" in London in 1967. The couple married three years later. It was Sammy Davis Jr.'s third marriage. The couple remained together until he died of throat cancer in 1990. The couple had an adopted son. Funeral services will be held in Burbank, California, with the date and time to be announced later. Sammy Davis Jr., himself a musician, was famous for being part of the Rat Pack, which included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Altovise Davis, 65, died Saturday at a Los Angeles hospital, her publicist says .\nShe had been admitted two days earlier after suffering a stroke .\nDavis, a dancer and actress, married Sammy Davis Jr. in 1970 .","id":"6bc8f13e6b81a2f2a6c13c3c95cf5c4ece56cfc3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There is an old saying: Out of sight, out of mind. T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, has mentored at-risk students as part of his community service. But when rap star T.I. disappears from the hip-hop scene to complete his one-year, one-day sentence in federal prison, several music experts say, that won't be the case. The self-proclaimed \"King of the South\" will be sticking around, thanks to the success of his most recent album -- the double-platinum, Grammy-nominated \"Paper Trail,\" released last September -- his community service efforts and a reality show on MTV that has resonated with fans, they say. \"I think that if anything, it will gain him more fans and actually support his fan base, because he's talked about making a mistake,\" said Emil Wilbekin, editor in chief of Giant Magazine, which focuses on urban music and lifestyle and featured T.I. on its November 2008 cover. \"He's talked about taking care of the error of his ways.\" T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, was sentenced to prison in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, last week on weapons charges. He will be taken into custody no earlier than May 19. In addition to serving prison time, the court asked T.I., 28, to pay a $100,300 fine on weapons charges related to purchasing machine guns and silencers. \"I would like to say thank you to some and apologize to others,\" Harris said at his sentencing Friday. \"In my life, I have been placed in the worst-case scenario and had to make the best of it.\" Though he had been in legal trouble before, Harris' current situation began when he was arrested just hours before he was to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. The rapper had provided a bodyguard with $12,000 to buy weapons. Harris was not permitted to own any guns, however, because he was convicted in 1998 on felony drug charges -- possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute -- in Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta. After his arrest, he entered a plea agreement, which federal authorities called unique because it allowed the rapper to remain out of prison for a year while he performed community service. Harris has already left a strong mark on the hip-hop genre, music experts say, which should position his career well when he is released. Harris had been named to the Forbes list of top-earning rappers, making an estimated $16 million in 2006. His fan base has expanded in the last year, with some of the growth due to \"Paper Trail,\" which has sold close to 2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This year, Harris went on to star in the MTV reality show \"T.I.'s Road to Redemption: 45 Days to Go,\" which chronicles his efforts to shave years off his sentence by completing his community service. The show features him talking to schools and community groups \"about how to avoid the trouble he now finds himself in,\" according to the network's Web site. To keep Harris in the spotlight, Jason Geter, part owner of Harris' record label Grand Hustle Entertainment, said the company will release a remixed copy of \"Paper Trail\" with five new songs this summer. He says Harris is shooting music videos set to be released when he is in prison. \"We come from a world if you don't work, you don't eat,\" Geter said. In addition to music, Harris' television production company Grand Hustle Productions, which produced the MTV reality show, is filming a second reality television series for MTV about celebrity racing. Also, in the heist film \"Takers,\" produced by Screen Gems and set for release in January 2010, Harris will appear alongside actor Matt Dillon. And Grand Hustle Entertainment officials say Harris' clothing line for young men, AKOO, will continue to be available in stores. Geter said that even in prison, his partner Harris will stay focused on his career. \"His [Harris'] music reflects his experiences,\" Geter said. \"He makes himself vulnerable, and that's why people like him so much. And people always love to hear a good drama.\" Music experts say Harris' fans are an extremely dedicated group that will probably remain loyal until his release. They say that since fans have known for more than a year that their celebrity rapper would be facing jail time, they have had time to prepare for his departure and the decision doesn't come as a shock. Furthermore, experts say, one year is too short of a time to forget such a popular artist. \"This will give him some time to do some great thinking and creating,\" said Gail Mitchell, senior correspondent for R&B and hip-hop at Billboard. \"This time around, he is going to be OK.\" Stacey Richman, a New York-based attorney who has worked with hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule, said there is some threat that going to prison may cause a artist to burn out. But she adds that properly managed talent can help the artist survive. \"It comes down to where he stands in his career,\" said Richman, who has been practicing law for nearly two decades. Prison time can, perhaps ironically, serve to raise the profile of some hip-hop stars. A handful have been able to resume their careers at an even higher level after concluding their sentences. One of the most infamous examples involved 2Pac, also known as Tupac Shakur, who entered prison in 1994 on a sex abuse conviction. In 1996, after his prison stint, he released his album \"All Eyez on Me,\" which had sold 9 million copies by 1998, according to the Record Industry Association of America, a trade organization representing the U.S. recording industry. It was the first double-disc album of original material in hip-hop history, according to Billboard. More recently, Grammy-winning rapper Lil' Kim, also known as Kimberly Jones, is making her comeback on the popular ABC reality show \"Dancing With the Stars.\" She served a year in prison after being convicted of perjury in a federal case involving her friends and a 2001 gunfight in New York City. She has not released an album since leaving prison. But incarceration doesn't promise success. Rapper Foxy Brown spent eight months in prison for violating her probation; her first post-incarceration album, \"Brooklyn's Don Diva,\" was given mediocre reviews and floundered in sales. It has sold only about 30,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Hip-hop artist Jamaal \"Shyne\" Barrow, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for two counts of assault and a list of other charges for involvement in a much-publicized New York City nightclub shootout with Puff Daddy and Jennifer Lopez, released an album while incarcerated in 2004, \"Godfather Buried Alive,\" that struggled to make a splash on the charts. Since his plea agreement, Harris has worked to differentiate his personal life from his rapper image. In multiple interviews with the media, he often mentioned that he is a father of five who lost a daughter to a miscarriage in 2008. His best friend died at a post-party shooting, which he says was the motivation for arming himself. \"Most often, things I have learned have been from trial and error,\" Harris told CNN. \"I knew no way to protect myself than to arm myself.\" Watch the rapper's interview with CNN's T.J. Holmes \u00bb . In Harris' latest single, \"Dead and Gone\" with Justin Timberlake, the lyrics indicate a changed Harris, trying to shed his previous image. He writes in the song that the \"old me is dead and gone.\" The fan support for Harris continues to pour in since he received his sentence Friday. On Facebook.com, one fan, Hendrick Garner in Tupelo, Mississippi, wrote, \"Like you said this [is your] defining moment, and I think we all have had that moment, but it only makes us stronger.\"","highlights":"Rapper T.I. will be taken into custody no earlier than May 19 .\nMusic experts say one year away is too short a time for fans to forget him .\nT.I.'s Grammy-nominated album \"Paper Trail\" has sold nearly 2 million copies .\nOther rappers like 2Pac and Lil' Kim have found success after prison .","id":"411a38fb5216888d83f1b6004aef76a70139768a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth was charged in Florida on Wednesday with killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office said. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth has been charged with DUI manslaughter . Authorities charged Stallworth, 28, with DUI manslaughter in the death of Mario Reyes, spokesman Ed Griffith said. Stallworth is expected to surrender in court Thursday, Griffith said. The charge is a bondable offense, and bail is expected to be set at $200,000. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison. According to Griffith, Stallworth's blood-alcohol level after last month's accident was measured at 0.126 percent, higher than the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent. Stallworth was drinking at a Miami Beach, Florida, club early March 14, court documents say. He later left the club and went to a Miami residence for about 45 minutes before leaving in his black Bentley GT at 7:07 a.m. He was driving east on the MacArthur Causeway, which connects Miami to the South Beach area of Miami Beach, when he struck Reyes, prosecutors said. Reyes, a construction worker, was crossing the eastbound lanes of the causeway. CNN affiliate WSVN reported that he was heading to a bus stop after leaving work. Reyes, 59, was struck by the right front and fender of the car and suffered critical head, chest and abdominal injuries, according to an affidavit. He died a short time later at a hospital. Read the affidavit (PDF) Stallworth told the arriving officer, \"I hit the man lying in the road,\" the affidavit said. He said he had time to honk his horn and flash his headlights to alert Reyes, according to the documents. Police smelled alcohol on his breath, the documents said, and Stallworth provided a blood sample at the scene. Stallworth released a statement four days after the incident saying he and his family were \"grief-stricken.\" \"My thoughts and prayers are with the Reyes family during this incredibly difficult time,\" he said. Among the expected conditions of Stallworth's bail are that he consume no alcohol or drugs, submit to random drug and alcohol testing, abide by a curfew between midnight and 6 a.m., surrender his passport and not drive, according to an agreement setting conditions of his release. He will be allowed to reside in Ohio and Florida as needed, but he must notify authorities 24 hours in advance when traveling. Stallworth and his attorney have been cooperating with authorities, Officer Deborah Doty, spokeswoman for Miami Beach police, said Wednesday. Stallworth, a former University of Tennessee player, has also played professionally for the New England Patriots, the New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report .","highlights":"NFL player is expected to surrender in court Thursday; bail expected to be $200,000.\nDonte Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was 0.126 percent; state's legal limit is 0.08 .\nIf convicted, Stallworth could face up to 15 years in prison.","id":"f13497a315dfefb89e2abf4ea5e5f8696f2418b3"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Murder and justice have always been hallmarks of the \"Law & Order\" stable of TV shows, but never before have the fictional New York City crimes guided the show's detectives and attorneys to the United Nations -- until now. \"Law & Order: SVU\" co-star Christopher Meloni says the show's intent is to \"shine light in the dark places.\" The U.N. recently opened the gates of its New York headquarters to the NBC Universal show \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\" for the filming of an episode scheduled to air Tuesday. The taping marked the first time in its nearly 60-year history that the United Nations has allowed its iconic location to be used as a setting in a major network television production. Previously, the United Nations granted permission for the 2005 motion picture \"The Interpreter\" to film on location, making it the first feature film to shoot on the grounds of the U.N. Series stars Stephanie March, who plays Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot, and Christopher Meloni, along with nearly 200 other cast and crew members, came to the U.N. on March 7 to film an episode revolving around child soldiers, refugees, warlords and the International Criminal Court. \"Law & Order: SVU\" traditionally involves difficult subject matter such as kidnapping, rape and homicide. Emmy-nominated actor Meloni, who plays Detective Elliot Stabler on the show, explained that the intent behind the issues raised on the program has always been to \"shine light in the dark places that no one wants to go or talk about because there's usually a lot of shame and denial about it.\" Meloni described how the U.N. episode \"really does kind of revolve around child soldiers, how they've been brainwashed, the horrible journeys that they've had to endure and how they can be assimilated back and be productive. And I think in this particular episode, we're trying to carry on with whatever clout we may possess. We have the medium to shine the light out there and tell this story.\" Considering the \"ripped-from-the-headlines\" and complicated themes regarding conflict in Africa and the ICC, \"Special Victims Unit\" writers and actors relied on Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast as a consultant throughout the filming. The Enough Project is an advocacy group committed to preventing genocide, crimes against humanity and other atrocities in six historically tumultuous African nations. Prendergast explained that he perceived the episode as \"one where reality dovetailed quite neatly with fiction, and hopefully more people will understand now what is happening in real life with President Bashir and Sudan, and then the accountability for war crimes because they saw it on 'Law & Order.' \" On March 4, the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was the first time such charges have been leveled against a sitting head of state. The \"Special Victims Unit\" filming was the first official project within Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's newly formed Creative Community Outreach Initiative. The intent of the program is to establish a relationship with international film and television industries to enhance the image of the United Nations and to \"raise the profile of critical global issues,\" according to a U.N. representative. Eric Falt, director of the U.N.'s outreach initiative, elaborated: \"We're starting a program where we're going to say to filmmakers, people who produce television series, that we are essentially open for business. You want to come to the U.N.? Talk to us. We'll make it happen.\" In addition to the \"Law & Order\" film shoot, the United Nations has hosted two other high-profile events in March through the initiative. Celebrities and recording artists including Akon, Phylicia Rashad, Peter Buffet and Whoopi Goldberg commemorated victims of the of the trans-Atlantic slave trade March 25 with a concert in the U.N. General Assembly Hall. The show was directed by celebrated musician Nile Rodgers and was the first such event held at the United Nations. Goldberg also moderated a discussion March 17 at U.N. headquarters stemming from the complex topics presented in the popular television show \"Battlestar Galactica.\" The panel featured series stars Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, along with the series creators and assorted U.N. personnel speaking about a variety of subjects prevalent both in the show and in today's world. Topics included abortion, suicide bombings and post-conflict resolution. Goldberg summed up the purpose of the occasion, saying, \"much like the fictional ships and planets in the 'BSG' universe, the U.N. is an imperfect place, but the fight for justice, equality and understanding remains fundamental to both.\" Despite the imperfections of the United Nations, \"SVU's\" March could not have been more thrilled with her experience filming at the U.N. When asked what she would like to be doing if she weren't putting away fictional bad guys as assistant DA Cabot, March said, \"I would love to work for the United Nations. I have a great job, but really all I want to do is actually work in the U.N. I'm pretty excited to be here. It's been a lifelong dream to be a part of it in some way.\" The \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\" episode is slated to air at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday on NBC.","highlights":"TV show is the first to film at U.N.'s New York headquarters .\nTuesday's episode centers on child soldiers .\nIt's first project in U.N.'s Creative Community Outreach Initiative .\n\"SVU\" writers, cast relied on guidance from advocacy group .","id":"673dd0987a596321499851ec1ad12513157e4107"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Addie Polk, who became the national face of the foreclosure crisis last fall when she shot herself during an eviction, was a quiet woman who never asked for help. Polk, 91, who was a deaconess at her church, was remembered by friends and churchgoers for her stateliness. Fannie Mae foreclosed on the Akron, Ohio, home of Addie Polk, 91, after acquiring the mortgage in 2007. \"She had runner's legs,\" said Joyce Smith, a longtime family friend of Polk's and fellow member of Antioch Baptist Church. \"They were well-shaped, well-shaped calves, and she still wore her heels and didn't stumble,\" Smith said. \"I used to ask her, 'Did you used to run?' She'd say 'I would run from trouble, that's about it,'\" Smith said. \"We always laughed at that.\" But Polk didn't run from the troubling eviction notices that were placed time and time again on her door in Akron, Ohio. She kept her business to herself. \"She wasn't a really vocal person,\" Smith said. \"She'd communicate, but you never knew what was going on. If it was anything negative you didn't know; if it was positive you didn't know. She was just quiet about her personal life.\" Polk, made news last fall when she shot herself during an eviction, died Monday at the Arbors at Fairlawn nursing home near Akron. She was 91. The Summit County Medical Examiner's office, when contacted Tuesday by CNN, said the cause of death has not been released but it was not related to the shooting. After Polk's ordeal last October sparked national outrage, Fannie Mae moved to halt the foreclosure process and \"give her the house,\" company spokesman Brian Faith said at the time. \"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan,\" Faith said. \"Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate.\" In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit. Over the next couple of years, Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home that she and her late husband purchased in 1970. In 2007, the mortgage was in the hands of Fannie Mae, which soon filed for foreclosure. Akron Sheriff's Deputy Donald Fatheree, in a telephone interview with CNN on Tuesday, said he'd personally been to Polk's door about six times to deliver eviction notices. \"Never did reach her, but always left notes,\" Fatheree said. As part of the eviction process, authorities left writs of possession -- legal terms that informed the occupier of eviction -- on the front door of homes. Fatheree said each time he'd return the notes would be gone, and he'd leave another. Polk's two self-inflicted gunshots to the chest were heard around the United States as the lifelong homemaker became a symbol for struggling U.S. homeowners burdened down by debt and unrelenting mortgage companies. News of Polk's plight was so pervasive that U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, evoked her name on the House floor during debate over the Wall Street bailout just days after the shooting. \"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world,\" Kucinich said. \"This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill.\" Sommerville Funeral Services in Akron will handle arrangements for Polk.","highlights":"Addie Polk, 91, became symbol of American foreclosure crisis .\nPolk remembered as quiet, reserved woman who was fiercely independent .\nU.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich mentioned her on Senate floor during bailout debate .","id":"13ef808681fcc073cf910ffdecf6886669f62bdc"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Hundreds of French workers, angry about proposed layoffs at a Caterpillar factory, were holding executives of the company hostage Tuesday, a spokesman for the workers said. Caterpillar's French staff say they are angry about a lack of negotiations over layoffs. It is at least the third time this month that French workers threatened with cutbacks have blockaded managers in their offices to demand negotiations. Executives were released unharmed in both previous situations. The latest incident started Tuesday morning at the office of the construction equipment company in the southeastern city of Grenoble. The workers were angry that Caterpillar had proposed cutting more than 700 jobs and would not negotiate, said Nicolas Benoit, a spokesman for the workers' union. They did not want to harm the Caterpillar executives, Benoit told CNN. One hostage was released Tuesday evening leaving workers with four captives inside the Caterpillar building. The released man was a human resources director identified only as Mr. Petit, because he has heart problems, union representative Bernard Patrick told CNN. Petit had a heart attack a few weeks ago, Patrick said. The four others still being held are Nicolas Polutnik, the head of operations; two other executives; and Petit's personal assistant, he said. About 500 employees were also outside the building protesting. A top Caterpillar executive called the hostage-taking unhelpful. \"The actions that are taking place today, led by a small minority of individuals, are not helping as we work for a positive resolution of this situation,\" said Chris Schena, Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for manufacturing operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, in a statement. \"The best way to resolve this matter is to continue the negotiations through the Works Council to find a solution that's fair to our employees and allows Caterpillar to remain a leader in a rapidly changing global marketplace,\" Schena said, adding that the company was \"concerned for the safety of our employees.\" Benoit said all the workers wanted to do was negotiate with Caterpillar and they were upset that the company did not show up to two earlier scheduled negotiating sessions. The employees being held in their office were being allowed to get food, Benoit added. Police arrived at the scene two hours after the incident began but it had not been settled. Employees at a French 3M factory held a manager hostage for more than 24 hours Wednesday and Thursday of last week over a dispute about terms for laid-off staff. Luc Rousselet, who was unharmed, was allowed to leave the plant in Pithiviers, central France, early on Thursday morning after talks between unions and officials from 3M France. Earlier this month, the boss of Sony France was held overnight before workers freed him after he agreed to reopen talks on compensation when the factory closed. France has been hit by nationwide strikes twice in the past two months.","highlights":"NEW: Workers release one of five people being held hostage at Caterpillar factory .\nWorkers angry that Caterpillar propose cutting more than 700 jobs .\nThey did not want to harm the executives but get them to negotiate, official says .\nA senior Caterpillar executive called the hostage-taking \"unhelpful\"","id":"8511f970541e725ef11102ec0b2e53051c0d0f40"} -{"article":"KUALA LAMPUR, Malaysia (CNN) -- Malaysia will swear in a new prime minister Friday -- one tasked with reuniting a multi-racial nation and shoring up an economy in dire straits. Outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, facing, hugs his successor, Najib Razak last week. Until now, Najib Razak had served as the Southeast Asian country's deputy prime minister. He succeeds Abdullah Badawi who turned in his resignation after five years as leader. Both are part of Malaysia's ruling party, the National Front Coalition, which has ruled the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1957. But last year, a loose coalition of opposition parties won 82 of 222 parliamentary seats in elections. It was only the second time in the country's history that the ruling party failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. The election upset led to calls for Abdullah to step down. Various challenges await Najib: . In recent months, the country has seen riots with the country's ethnic Chinese and Indian communities who accuse the government of passing laws that favor the Malay majority. Najib has said he will do more to address their concerns. The country, like other nations around the world, has been severely affected by the global economic downturn. Critics are demanding Malaysia diversify its technology-heavy economy. Last month, Najib unveiled a multi-billion dollar stimulus plan for new spending, according to published reports. Najib also brings with him a whiff of controversy. Two former bodyguards are facing charges in connection the murder of a Mongolian model. He has denied all links to the killing.","highlights":"Najib Razak to become new prime minister for Malaysia on Friday .\nAbdullah Badawi to step down from PM post .\nRuling party has failed to secure majority needed to amend constitution .","id":"9c5ec1acd8ff349677175aebd606f1bdc701d9c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre, who scored movies including \"Doctor Zhivago\" and \"Lawrence of Arabia\" among others, died Sunday from cancer in Los Angeles. He was 84. Movie composer Maurice Jarre pictured at the Berlin International Film Festival last month. Jarre enjoyed an illustrious career, working with Hollywood directing legends including John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock and, most notably, David Lean. Fellow French composer Alexandre Desplat, who interviewed Jarre for The Screening Room at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, told CNN Monday: \"Maurice was an immense artist, an incredible symphonist, a magician of the melody and a benevolent human being.\" Watch tribute to Maurice Jarre \u00bb . Jarre won Oscars in 1963 and 1966 for his collaborations on the Lean movies \"Lawrence of Arabia\" and \"Doctor Zhivago\" respectively. He then mustered a further six Oscar nominations but his third award came once again through a further collaboration with Lean on \" A Passage to India\" in 1984. He then swapped orchestral composition to become a pioneer of electronic scoring, working on the music for, among others, \"Ghost,\" \"Witness,\" \"Dead Poet's Society\" and \"Fatal Attraction.\" At the same time his son Jean-Michel Jarre became one of the world's best known electronic musicians with global hits such as \"Oxygene\" and huge outdoor concerts. His final movie composition was for the 2000 film \"I Dreamed of Africa.\" Jarre's career included symphonies, ballet and theatre but it was for his 150 film scores that he was presented with an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last month - almost half a century after producer Sam Spiegel hired him to work on \"Lawrence of Arabia.\" Festival director Dieter Kosslick said in a statement late last year: \"Film composers often are in the shadows of great directors and acting stars. It's different with Maurice Jarre; the music of 'Doctor Zhivago,' like much of his work, is world-famous and remains unforgotten in the history of cinema.\" Speaking in Berlin to double-Oscar nominee Desplat -- who himself scored \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" and \"The Queen\" -- Jarre said: \"I never really had a 'bust-up' with a good director. A good director will always find an intellectual understanding. And that's what was great - I had an opportunity with all these people. I don't think I can say that I ever worked with a bad director.\" But Jarre also said that directing legends of the rank of Huston and Hitchock had disappeared and no longer existed, adding: \"The only problem is now, there is more and more bad music that goes 'dang dang dang dang dang...' So...it's better to turn off the music, and listen to a concert of Mozart.\" Senior producer Neil Curry and associate producer Lidz-Ama Appiah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Maurice Jarre won three Oscars during his career, all for scoring films by David Lean .\nDuring the 1980s, 1990s he scored music for \"Ghost,\" \"Witness,\" \"Fatal Attraction\"\nCareer recognized most recently at the Berlin International Film Festival .","id":"a7dbbf1bc7fb663c78b6d04a7ee3c7f678ce8b82"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Leaders of the world's largest economies agreed on Thursday to a package worth more than $1 trillion to tackle the global economic crisis. Barack Obama: \"The challenge is clear\" for world leaders to tackle the economic crisis. U.S. President Barack Obama called the deal \"a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery.\" The plan calls for reform of the international banking system and the injection of more than $1 trillion into the world financial system. The Group of 20 is taking \"unprecedented steps\" to attack the global economic downturn, stimulate growth and expand loans to troubled nations, Obama said at the close of the group's meeting in London. \"The challenge is clear,\" the U.S. president said. \"The global economy is contracting. Trade is shrinking. Unemployment is rising. The international financial system is nearly frozen.\" Watch Obama's speech \u00bb . British Prime Minister Gordon Brown heralded the emergence of a \"new world order\" Thursday following the release of what he called an \"unprecedented\" package of measures to tackle the crisis. The deal agreed by the leaders of the world's largest economies included reform of the international banking system and the injection of more than $1 trillion into the world financial system. Watch what was agreed to at the summit \u00bb . French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had voiced concerns prior to the summit about the wisdom of pumping further public money into economies already in recession, welcomed Thursday's agreement -- though hinted at unresolved disagreements behind the scenes. There had been concerns that a rift was opening up between the approach being championed by the U.S. and Britain -- more economic stimulus -- and that favored by France and Germany -- more banking regulations. Sarkozy said the agreement represented \"great progress\" on reform of financial institutions and said \"a page had been turned.\" Merkel described the deal as \"a very, very good, almost historic compromise.\" The six-point plan includes banking reform measures and more than $1 trillion to be spent on restoring credit, growth and jobs, as well as measures clamping down on tax havens and a commitment to build a green and sustainable economy. iReport: What's the economy like where you are? Much of the G-20 communique issued at the end of the London summit restated promises and goals that international leaders had made earlier, relying on language such as \"we remain committed\" and \"we reaffirm our historic commitment.\" But Brown said: \"Our message is clear and certain. We believe that in this new global age our prosperity is indivisible. We believe global problems require global solutions,\" Brown said. \"I think a new world order is emerging and with it the foundations of a new and progressive era of international cooperation.\" Watch Brown's statement \u00bb . Brown said the new rescue package, which includes a commitment to treble the resources available to the International Monetary Fund to $750 billion, amounted to \"the largest macro economic stimulus the world has ever seen.\" Along with existing national stimulus measures, Brown said efforts to bolster economies amounted to more than $5 trillion. The six-point consensus consisted of measures to: . Obama said: \"We owe it to all of our citizens to act and to act with urgency. We have agreed upon a series of unprecedented steps to restore growth and prevent a crisis like this from happening again.\" \"We have rejected the protectionism that could deepen this crisis. ... This cooperation between the world's leading economies signals our support for open markets,\" he said. \"Second, we are committed to comprehensive reform of a failed regulatory system.\" Obama added: \"We can rebuild our global prosperity if we act with the sense of common purpose, persistence, and optimism that our moment demands.\" Obama said the United States would also provide $448 million in additional aid to vulnerable nations which he described as \"future drivers of world economic growth.\" Brown said the G-20 would meet again later in the year to review the success of its plans and said details of the summit would be announced over the next few days. Watch global impact of the downturn \u00bb . \"Together with the measures we have each taken nationally, this constitutes a global plan for recovery on an unprecedented scale,\" the G-20 communique said. As expected, the communique included tough new measures to reform global financial institutions, citing \"major failures\" in regulation of the sector as \"fundamental causes of the crisis.\" The G-20 members will also establish a new Financial Stability Board to provide \"early warning of macroeconomic and financial risks,\" the summit's final communique said, but it was not clear if board would have regulatory powers. Brown said the final deal included agreement on tighter regulation of hedge funds, tax havens and the banking system. \"We will implement new rules on pay and bonuses at a global level that reflect actual performance with no more rewards for failure,\" Brown said. \"We want to encourage corporate responsibility in every part of the world.\" There were only a few protesters outside the summit when it started Thursday -- a marked difference from the thousands who gathered in central London 24 hours earlier. Watch more on the protests \u00bb . Police said they arrested nearly 90 people on Wednesday and were expecting more problems.","highlights":"U.S. President Barack Obama: Unprecedented steps to restore growth .\nWorld leaders say the agreed measures will shorten the recession .\nMore than $1 trillion will be injected into the world financial system .\nSix-point plan also strengthens regulations in the financial sector .","id":"4dbe88267f7a89174dd175ba16444ba0aa2162e8"} -{"article":"TUOL SLENG, Cambodia (CNN) -- The trial of a former prison chief with the Khmer Rouge movement resumed inside a packed Cambodian courtroom Monday, with prosecutors painting a grim picture of inmates who were electrocuted, whipped and beaten to death. Duch ran a prison where people were tortured and killed under the Khmer Rouge. Kaing Guek Eav, a former math teacher and a born-again Christian, displayed no emotion as the U.N.-backed tribunal accused him not just of overseeing the torture and killing of more than 15,000 men, women and children three decades ago -- but of actively taking part in some of them. The trial of the 66-year-old man, better known as Duch, resumed Monday just outside the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Spectators, many of them survivors of the abuse, watched the proceedings from an auditorium separated from the courtroom by a large glass window. The proceedings began with Duch offering a basic introduction of himself. Court officials then read out the findings of their lengthy investigation. Prosecutors contend Duch ran S-21, a prison that had been converted from a school. Here, men, women and children were shackled to iron beds and tortured -- before they were beaten to death, prosecutors said. Many of the victims were military officials or Communist Party members targeted for not going along with the philosophy of the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge movement, prosecutors said. Duch faces charges that include crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and murder. He has admitted his role in the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign. Watch why his trial is significant \u00bb . The movement swept to power in 1975. Three years, eight months and 20 days later, at least 1.7 million people -- nearly one-quarter of Cambodia's population -- were dead from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The non-profit organization has been at the forefront of recording the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. S-21 was one of 189 similar institutions across Cambodia. Duch is the first former Khmer Rouge leader to stand trial. The tribunal, which is made up of Cambodian and international judges, does not have the power to impose the death penalty. If convicted, Duch faces from five years to life in prison. The trial is expected to last three or four months. \"Probably the most important thing about this court is: even after 35 years, you are still not going to get away with it. That is the message,\" said Chief Prosecutor Robert Petit. Even though Duch was not a senior leader with the movement, many Cambodians were relieved that one of the regime's former leaders was facing justice, said Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. \"I think there is a feeling of, well you know, finally -- now it's finally happening after all these years of waiting -- hearing, fighting, negotiating,\" he told CNN last month. \"People have that kind of sense of relief that it's now moving. When I ask people around the center today, people say, 'Oh, it's about time.'\" Four of the regime's former leaders, also accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, await trial before the tribunal. The regime's leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. \"It all seems so fresh,\" said Norng Champhal, who was a starving little boy when Vietnamese forces invaded the prison. He was separated from his mother after a night in the prison and never saw her again. \"It's hard to control my feelings when I see this,\" he said, as he watched footage of the prison taken 30 years ago. \"I wonder whether my parents were tortured like these people,\" he said. CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Duch offers basic introduction of himself; court officials read probe's findings .\nDuch's trial is taking place outside the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh .\nPrison victims were military officials, Communist Party members .\nDuch, former prison chief, has admitted role in Khmer Rouge's reign .","id":"08b673228f06adfe4a386a2390bd78731385a98d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Conjoined Egyptian twin boys Hassan and Mahmoud, who were successfully separated in Saudi Arabia Saturday, are recovering and are expected to lead normal lives, officials said. Conjoined twins Hassan, left, and Mahmud rest the day before separation surgery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. \"The twins' vital signs are good; they're doing excellent,\" said Sami Al-Shalan, spokesman for the King Abdulaziz Medical City facility in Riyadh where the surgery took place. \"The twins still have about 24 hours before a progress report can be issued. The anesthesia consultants are happy with the progress of the children.\" The boys are less than a year old and were brought to the kingdom on February 10. The delicate surgery took a little more than 15 hours. \"The twins' parents have visited them in the [pediatric intensive care unit], but they can't stay there long. They come and go,\" Al-Shalan said. Separating the boys' urinary system was a major challenge, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the Saudi minister of health, told CNN. So was separating the siblings' local veins and arteries, he said. \"We had to identify the arteries and the blood veins between each baby,\" Al-Rabeeah said. Watch Al-Rabeeah explain the operation \u00bb . The procedure was the 21st of its kind to be performed in the kingdom. The surgeries are performed free as part of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's philanthropic initiative. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Egyptian twin boys are less than a year old .\n21st procedure of this type to be performed in the kingdom .\n15-hour delicate surgery declared successful, surgeon says .\nSurgery free as part of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's philanthropic initiative .","id":"1981ada0021e5184d3c7457dae6ca99c3c959324"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir asked Arab leaders meeting in Qatar on Monday to strongly reject an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Omar al-Bashir is the subject of an ICC arrest warrant over allaged war crimes in Darfur. Al-Bashir landed in Qatar on Sunday and met with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. On Monday, he expressed his gratitude to the Arab League Summit. \"We appreciate your support for Sudan in many areas,\" al-Bashir said. \"This support will, God willing, lead to issuing clear and unequivocal decisions -- rejecting the decision [the ICC arrest warrant].\" U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also attended the meeting but avoided any confrontation with al-Bashir. The U.N. leader focused instead on efforts to have humanitarian aid workers allowed back into Sudan. Sudan expelled 13 international aid agencies from the Darfur region after the ICC issued the arrest warrant. The March 4 arrest warrant is the first issued for a sitting head of state by the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, based at The Hague in the Netherlands. But the ICC has no arrest powers and depends on its 106 member states to take suspects into custody. Qatar, site of the summit, is not a member of the tribunal. Sudan refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the ICC, and has made no efforts to hand over two other officials indicted by the court. Al-Bashir has called the charges an attempt by Western powers to recolonize Sudan. The International Criminal Court accuses al-Bashir of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in his government's campaign against rebels in Darfur, in western Sudan. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict. Qatar had been mediating talks between Sudanese officials and representatives of one of the rebel factions, who signed a confidence-building agreement in February. At the State Department, deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid said leaders at the summit should deal with the situation in Darfur. \"We would hope that while [al-Bashir] is in Doha that the Arab League would focus on the immediate and urgent needs of the people on the ground in Sudan and address the humanitarian situation in Darfur and meet the priorities of the comprehensive peace agreement,\" he said. \"The discussions should be on how to stop the violence and support the people. \"The presence of Bashir at this conference should be used as an opportunity to bring forth the international concern to what is happening in Darfur and southern Sudan.\" In another development, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi walked out of the summit after a dispute over whether he would be allowed to talk. \"I am an international leader,\" Gadhafi said before leaving. \"The dean of Arab rulers. The king of kings in Africa. The imam to Muslims. My international position does not allow me to be reduced. Thank you.\" State Department spokesman Duguid declined to comment. CNN's Stan Grant contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sudanese president asks Arab League Summit to reject arrest warrant against him .\nOmar al-Bashir is charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court .\nAl-Bashir accused of crimes against humanity in his campaign against Darfur rebels .\nU.N. secretary general attends summit, but avoids any confrontation with al-Bashir .","id":"fb683e2b294aec775ef018eb943bc0556888e521"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- At least 43 civilians were killed Sunday when they were caught in the crossfire between Pakistani forces and Taliban militants, a Pakistani military official said. The official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the incident happened in Charbagh, a district of Swat Valley in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. The mountainous Swat Valley region used to be a popular destination for tourists and skiers, but today it is a Taliban stronghold. The Pakistani government and the army have come under criticism in recent weeks for allowing the security situation in Swat to deteriorate in the past few months. Islamabad has said there are plans for a new strategy to fight the Taliban, but they have yet to offer details. The Taliban are imposing their strict brand of Islamic law in the region -- banning music, forbidding men from shaving, and not allowing teenage girls to attend school. Watch a report on civilians killed in crossfire \u00bb . Government officials say the Taliban have torched and destroyed more than 180 schools in the Swat region. Many families have fled the area, and have been followed by many Pakistani police officers who are too scared to take on Taliban forces, a Pakistani army spokesman told CNN last week. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996 -- harboring al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden -- and ruled it until they were ousted from power in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States. Since then, the Taliban have regrouped and are currently battling U.S. and NATO-led forces. U.S. President Barack Obama has called Afghanistan the \"central front\" in the war on terror and has promised to make fighting extremism there, and in neighboring Pakistan, a foreign policy priority. He is expected to send as many as 30,000 additional U.S. troops to battle Taliban forces. Richard Holbrooke, the administration's new envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is scheduled to make his first trip to the region this week.","highlights":"Swat Valley region used to be a popular destination for tourists and skiers .\nTaliban are imposing their strict brand of Islamic law in the region .\nPakistan government criticized for allowing security in Swat to deteriorate .","id":"abcf2fa323ebe5826da5711d44f06a19dd60968b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Malaysia swore in a new prime minister on Friday, the country's state news agency reported. Malaysia's former PM Abdullah Badawi waves from a vehicle in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became Malaysia's sixth prime minister after taking over for from Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who stepped down after leading the country for more than five years, according to the Bernama news agency. The new prime minister will immediately be tasked with reuniting a multi-racial nation and shoring up an economy in dire straits. Until now, Najib Razak had served as the Southeast Asian country's deputy prime minister. He is part of Malaysia's ruling party, the National Front Coalition, which has ruled the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1957. But last year, a loose coalition of opposition parties won 82 of 222 parliamentary seats in elections. It was only the second time in the country's history that the ruling party failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. The election upset led to calls for Abdullah to step down. In recent months, the country has seen riots with the country's ethnic Chinese and Indian communities who accuse the government of passing laws that favor the Malay majority. Najib has said he will do more to address their concerns. Malaysia has been severely affected by the global economic downturn. Critics are demanding Malaysia diversify its technology-heavy economy. Last month, Najib unveiled a multi-billion dollar stimulus plan for new spending, according to published reports. Watch what can be expected from the new Malaysian leader \u00bb . Najib also brings with him a whiff of controversy. Two former bodyguards are facing charges in connection the murder of a Mongolian model. He has denied all links to the killing.","highlights":"Najib Razak sworn in as Asian nation's sixth prime minister .\nOutgoing PM Abdullah Badawi was in office for more than five years .\nRuling party has failed to secure majority needed to amend constitution .\nNew PM faces economic downturn, ethnic discord .","id":"74f60eb09724ad952f6fddcc0aac1ddedcfcf229"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amanda Mezyk had developed a close bond with her employers' children as their live-in nanny, which is why it was so painful when her bosses told her she was being laid off. Amanda Mezyk, 20, lost her live-in nanny job when the recession forced her employers to cut the family budget. \"I started crying and they kept repeating, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'\" Mezyk, 20, said about the day last November when her employers -- a Miami, Florida, plastic surgeon and a part-time dermatologist -- delivered the bad news. \"They sat me down in the living room -- where we usually would sit and talk about the kids -- and they told me that business was slow and they had to cut expenses.\" As Mezyk began to realize that life as a virtual member of her employers' family was ending, she thought about the little girl and boy -- Delaney, 6, and Landon, 4 -- with whom she had grown so close during the past 2\u00bd years. Later, Landon found Mezyk crying in her bedroom and asked her what was wrong. \"I told him I had to go away for a little while, and that I would come visit,\" she said. \"I was sad because I had to let the kids go,\" she said. \"I love them like they were mine. And I want to be a part of their lives for the long run.\" Her job as a live-in nanny at a lavish home in an upper-class, upscale private community came with many perks that suddenly had disappeared. The insured car provided by her employers for personal and professional use was gone. Without a steady income, Mezyk wondered how she would pay her mounting $8,000 credit card debt. There would be no more accompanying the family on all-expenses-paid vacations to the Bahamas, Italy and China. The layoff also put an end to Mezyk's annual paid weeklong vacations. To survive, Mezyk has moved in with a great-aunt and uncle until she can decide on her next move. iReport.com: Tell us what are you doing to survive bad economy? Industry leaders said Mezyk is just one of thousands of nannies who've been swallowed up by the shifting landscape in the U.S. child care industry, one that is affecting not just nannies, but baby sitters and day care centers as well. The economic booms during the late 1990s and from 2004 to 2007 made it possible for more middle-class and upper middle-class American families to employ nannies, said Genevieve Thiers, founder of Sittercity.com. \"Now that we're back in recession, families are unfortunately having to cut back on their nannies' hours or unfortunately having to let go of their nannies, and it's not a good situation.\" In a poll of parents who use Sittercity.com, 17 percent said the economy is forcing them to end their time as a stay-at-home parent and return to work. Twenty-seven percent of the parents in the survey said the economy was forcing them to work more hours at their current jobs. \"Business is down a good 45 percent,\" said Jennifer Winter, 37, owner of Nannies in Miami, a nanny placement agency. \"The wealthy are still hanging on to their nannies, but the economy is forcing middle-class parents to make cuts.\" Annie Davis, who launched Annie's Nannies Household Staffing in Seattle, Washington, in 1984, described the current recession as \"the weirdest time I think I've seen in my lifetime.\" She's seen about 10 percent of her active nanny roster laid off since last October. \"There are nannies being laid off in families where both parents work and one parent has lost their job,\" said Candi Wingate of nannies4hire.com and babysitters4hire.com. Baby-sitting 'a godsend' in recession . The recession also is forcing more non-working parents in single-income families to take jobs outside the home. As a result, many formerly full-time nannies are taking what they can get -- which often are part-time child care positions, said Wingate. Katie Heath, 30, a self-employed health consultant and part-time baby sitter listed with Sitters to the Rescue in Indianapolis, Indiana, has been taking advantage of the increased demand to augment her income. \"I'm baby-sitting more than I'm working my regular job,\" Heath said, adding that she's caring for children between 12 to 16 hours a week, while devoting five hours weekly to her business. \"Baby-sitting is a godsend for me.\" During a recession, said Thiers -- a self-described 30-year-old \"super-sitter\" -- \"everybody suddenly realizes, 'Wow, caregiving is a really great gig.' \" \"Increased numbers of recent college graduates are posting resumes on the Web site for jobs as nannies or baby sitters, because they're not finding full-time work in other fields,\" Thiers said. Not surprisingly, with a rising supply of available baby sitters, the pay rate is falling. The standard baby-sitting rate nationwide is $10 to $12 per hour, according to most agencies. This can drop by at least a dollar per hour in some markets, due to economic pressures. According to its survey, 26 percent of Sittercity.com's sitters and nannies said their pay has decreased from last summer. For full-time nannies, a typical Miami salary in past years was $700 per week, said Winter. \"Now they're getting more like $400.\" In the two months since her layoff, Mezyk has been accepting baby-sitting jobs to survive -- working sporadically about 20 hours a week for various clients. \"It's nowhere near what I'm used to making,\" said Mezyk. \"Baby-sitting is not the same thing as being a nanny. It's not promised, it's not guaranteed. My goal is to have a steady income.\" Many parents who have laid off their child care helpers find themselves wracked with guilt because they're getting rid of nannies they love, said Thiers. \"They're trying to move heaven and earth to get them a new position,\" she said, including using online chat rooms and message boards. Nanny sharing: Pros and cons . Agencies are touting the benefits of what's called nanny sharing, when two families share the talents of a single nanny. Nannies4hire.com, which boasts of helping more than 500,000 U.S. and Canadian families since 1987, said the addition of nanny sharing has boosted business by 15 percent. \"One family has the nanny for two days, the other has the nanny for three days,\" said Wingate. Nanny sharing might save a family as much as 30 percent on what an exclusive nanny might charge, she said. Nanny sharing has its drawbacks, including logistical problems, said Winter. \"What happens if the nanny gets sick? Different parents have different demands and both families suffer,\" she said. \"Nannies think it's too stressful and a lot of them won't do it.\" Wingate agrees that nanny sharing can be complicated and said for this reason, good communication between the nanny and both families is critical. Faced with few employment options, Mezyk said she would consider a nanny-sharing situation, despite the idea of having more bosses. Her personal crisis has brought Mezyk's young career to a crossroads, as she considers pursuing a degree in pediatric nursing. Meanwhile, she still keeps in touch with her former employers and with little Landon and Delaney. \"I know the kids really enjoy me,\" she said. \"When the nanny leaves, it's really the kids that get hurt the most.\"","highlights":"Painful layoff hits young Florida nanny -- in her heart and wallet .\nExperts: Middle-class layoffs resulting in out-of-work nannies .\nDemand down for nannies and up for baby sitters, experts say .\nFamilies are sharing services of one nanny to save money .","id":"de93167232c62dc1335fbf50cf6c8158faab99fd"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested in December on charges of conspiracy and fraud, was indicted Thursday on 16 felony counts by a federal grand jury, the U.S. attorney's office said. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is facing such charges as racketeering, conspiracy and wire fraud. The 19-count indictment charges Blagojevich and some of his closest aides and advisers with a wide-ranging \"scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government,\" according to a statement by the attorney's office. Blagojevich, 52, faces charges including racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud and making false statements to investigators, according to the release. Three counts in the indictment are against the aides and advisers. In a written statement, Blagojevich maintained his innocence -- as he has done throughout a political soap opera that captivated the nation. \"I'm saddened and hurt but I am not surprised by the indictment,\" he said. \"I am innocent. I now will fight in the courts to clear my name.\" Blagojevich was vacationing with his family in Florida on Thursday. In video shot at a Disney resort outside Orlando, Florida, by CNN affiliate WESH-TV, he declined to comment on his legal situation. He was filmed shortly before the indictments were handed down. In the WESH video, the ex-governor was sitting near a pool at the resort. \"I'm enjoying Disney World with my kids and I don't think you're supposed to be here,\" said Blagojevich, after his wife attempted to shield him from the camera. \"I'm happy to talk to you at the appropriate time.\" A man who identified himself only as \"someone who knows who he is\" then blocked the camera. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said he hoped the former governor wouldn't use the announcement as a reason to hit the media circuit again. \"We can only hope the former governor will not view this indictment as a green light for another publicity tour,\" he said. \"Rod Blagojevich deserves his day in court, but the people of Illinois deserve a break.\" Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested in December on federal corruption charges alleging that, among other things, they conspired to sell President Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. Harris and Blagojevich's brother, Robert Blagojevich, were among the others indicted on Thursday. In early January, federal Judge James Holderman gave the attorney's office three additional months to decide whether to indict Blagojevich, who was impeached by the state legislature and resigned from office. That deadline ends Tuesday. On Thursday, current Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn called the charges a reminder for political leaders in the state to help stamp out corruption, and he pledged to \"work night and day to clean up our government.\" \"Today, more than ever, I'm committed to making sure our government has fundamental reform from top to bottom,\" said Quinn, also a Democrat and the former lieutenant governor who was appointed governor in January. \"We need to overhaul Illinois government to make sure everything is done right for the people.\" The charges are part of what investigators have dubbed \"Operation Board Games,\" an ongoing investigation into political corruption in the state. Among the specific claims in the 75-page indictment are that Blagojevich schemed with others in 2002, even before he took office, to use his position to make money, which they would split after he left office. Blagojevich is accused of denying state business to companies that would not hire his wife, extorting campaign contributions from a children's hospital that was set to get state money and pressuring a racetrack executive to give political contributions before the governor signed a gambling bill. The indictment said that after Obama was elected president, Blagojevich began meeting with others to figure out a way he could make money from his position to appoint a replacement senator. It said Blagojevich asked others, including state employees, to contact people who may be interested in the seat, and that he believed an associate of someone referred to in the indictment as \"Senate Candidate A\" had offered $1.5 million in campaign contributions in exchange for the appointment. He had asked his brother to meet with an associate of \"Senate Candidate A\" and say that some of those contributions needed to come through before he made the appointment, but the meeting was canceled after a newspaper article reported that Blagojevich had been recorded talking about selling the seat. A lengthy FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps trying to profit from the Senate vacancy. The indictment said that Blagojevich communicated \"directly and with the assistance of others\" with people he believed were in contact with Obama, trying to gain political favor by possibly appointing someone the president-elect supported. He ultimately appointed a former state comptroller and attorney general, Roland Burris, who was seated in the Senate despite protests from the chamber's Democratic leaders. Those leaders said a special election should be called because of the controversy over the appointment. \"The U.S. Attorney's indictment serves to confirm the public's long-standing distrust of former Gov. Blagojevich and his administration, and it underscores the culture of corruption that has afflicted our state for far too long,\" state Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a written statement. \"While this is a terrible day in Illinois history, it is also a moment in which we can recognize an opportunity for real reform.\" Thursday's charges supersede the ones filed in December. The Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in January to impeach Blagojevich, accusing him of abusing his gubernatorial power. Blagojevich faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the 15 most serious charges in the indictment, and five years on a single indictment of making false statements. The government also charges that Blagojevich has bought property with money he got illegally, and is going after homes he owns in Chicago and Washington. \"I would ask the good people of Illinois to wait for the trial and afford me the presumption of innocence that they would give to all their friends and neighbors,\" Blagojevich, who was vacationing with his family, said in the statement. In addition to the Blagojevich brothers and Harris, also charged in the indictments were businessman and fundraiser Christopher Kelly, 50; lobbyist and longtime Blagojevich associate Alonzo Monk, 50; and William F. Cellini Sr., 74, another businessman who raised money for Blagojevich.","highlights":"NEW: Blagojevich declines comment, says \"I'm enjoying Disney World with my kids\"\nBlagojevich faces up to 20 years in prison for each of 15 most serious charges .\nOfficials going after his home, saying he bought it with illegally-earned money .\nCharges against him include wire fraud, making false statements .","id":"2d8718c847474afe7307936cbff82be0fd83d153"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two months before dying, a Virginia woman confessed to killing two women nearly 42 years ago, authorities said Friday, telling police she shot the women because they had taunted her for being a lesbian. Constance Smootz Hevener, 19, was shot to death at an ice cream shop where she worked in 1967. Sharron Diane Crawford Smith, 60, confessed in a November 28 interview to shooting the women at a Staunton ice cream store in 1967, authorities said. \"I was just pushed so far,\" Smith said, according to a transcript of a police interview. Smith was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Constance Smootz Hevener, 19, and Hevener's 20-year-old sister-in-law, Carolyn Hevener Perry, according to CNN affiliate WVIR. But health problems forced a postponement of a December court date, WVIR said, and Smith, who had heart and kidney problems, died January 19. Authorities on Friday said they consider Smith the guilty party and are working toward closing the case. In a transcript of the police interview, Smith told police she and the women worked at High's Ice Cream. The night of the shooting, she went to the store to tell the women she could not work the next day and took her .25-caliber pistol with her. \"I was just going to tell them that I couldn't work and one thing led to another.\" She acknowledged that teasing \"about my lifestyle\" had gone on for a while. Asked how the victims knew about it, she said, \"How do kids find out about anything? I mean, it was really unusual back then.\" She also said her stepfather had sexually abused her, but refused to elaborate on whether that played a role in the shootings or helped push her \"over the edge.\" \"I don't know. I'm not trying to psychoanalyze it,\" she said. In other interviews with police, Smith said that she got into a physical altercation with Hevener at the store, which was consistent with evidence at the crime scene, Commonwealth Attorney Raymond Robertson said. Bruises on Hevener's body were inconsistent with injuries that would have resulted from a fall after being shot, he told reporters. \"She expressed shame in herself. I never saw any tears. She expressed her concern for the family members [of the victims], as to bringing closure to this case,\" police investigator Mike King said. Smith told police she acted alone, authorities said. But Staunton Police Chief Jim Williams said questions about the case remain. \"There will likely be questions surrounding this case we will never be able to answer,\" he said. One of those questions was the whereabouts of the murder weapon, but a late development Friday may have solved that mystery. In the November interview, Smith told police she gave the weapon to a detective on the police force in 1967, David Bocock, and that he buried it. \"He just said that it was sort of dangerous to have a gun, you could hurt somebody,\" Smith said, according to the transcript. \"He said, 'I'll fix it for you if you want.' I figured it was the best thing to do.\" It was unclear whether Bocock, who died in 2006, knew of Smith's involvement in the murders. The two knew each other, as Bocock taught Smith to shoot, but authorities said they were still investigating the relationship and whether Bocock was trying to cover for Smith. Later Friday, the Staunton News-Leader newspaper reported its circulation manager had turned over to police a .25-caliber automatic handgun. Kathy Myers told the newspaper that Bocock gave the gun to her now-deceased husband, a former Staunton police officer, in 1981, telling him, \"Don't let anybody know I gave this to you.\" Myers said she forgot she had the gun until she saw the police news conference Friday, and turned it over to authorities. Myers told the News-Leader that King said the gun matches the description Smith gave police.","highlights":"Woman said she shot co-workers who taunted her for being a lesbian, police say .\n\"I was just pushed so far,\" Sharron Diane Crawford Smith, 60, told police .\nSmith was charged with first-murder before she died January 19 .\nConstance Smootz Hevener and Carolyn Hevener Perry were shot in ice cream shop .","id":"9b034cd8c8d358de738070c052c4a80f68340657"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Suspected terrorists and foreign fighters held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in federal court, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. A prefabricated court complex has been erected at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to try terrorism suspects. The decision marks another legal blow to the Bush administration's war on terrorism policies. The 5-4 vote reflects the divide over how much legal autonomy the U.S. military should have to prosecute about 270 prisoners, some of whom have been held for more than six years without charges. Fourteen of them are alleged to be top al Qaeda figures. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, \"the laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system reconciled within the framework of the law.\" Kennedy, the court's swing vote, was supported by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, generally considered the liberal contingent. At issue was the rights of detainees to contest their imprisonment and challenge the rules set up to try them. Watch how the 5-4 ruling is a major blow for the Bush administration \u00bb . A congressional law passed in 2006 would limit court jurisdiction to hear so-called habeas corpus challenges to detention. It is a legal question the justices have tackled three times since 2004, including Thursday's ruling. Each time, the justices have ruled against the government's claim that it has the authority to hold people it considers \"enemy combatants.\" Preliminary hearings have begun in Guantanamo for some of the accused. A military panel this month arraigned five suspected senior al Qaeda detainees, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was transferred to the prison camp in 2006. The Bush administration has urged the high court not to get involved in the broader appeals, saying the federal judiciary has no authority to hear such matters. Four justices agreed. In a sharp dissent, read in part from the bench, Justice Antonin Scalia said the majority \"warps our Constitution.\" The \"nation will live to regret what the court has done today,\" Scalia said. He was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. President Bush, who is traveling in Europe, said he disagreed with the Guantanamo ruling but promised to abide by it. \"Congress and the administration worked very carefully on a piece of legislation that set the appropriate procedures in place as to how to deal with the detainees,\" he said. \"We'll study this opinion, and we'll do so with this in mind to determine whether or not additional legislation might be appropriate so that we can safely say, truly say to the American people, 'we are doing everything we can to protect you.' \" The Pentagon declined to comment, and the Justice Department said it was reviewing the decision and was expected to comment later Thursday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, welcomed the ruling, saying the Supreme Court upheld the Constitution. \"I have long been an advocate of closing Guantanamo, so I would hope this is in furtherance of taking that action,\" Pelosi said. The appeals involve noncitizens. Sixteen lawsuits filed on behalf of about 200 prisoners were put on hold pending a ruling last year by a federal appeals court upholding the government's right to detain and prosecute suspected terrorists and war criminals. An attorney for one of the detainees, Salim Ahmed Hamdan -- Osama bin Laden's alleged driver and bodyguard -- said he would file an appeal asking that charges be dropped against the Yemeni native. \"The clearest immediate impact of this ruling is to remove the remaining barriers for closing Guantanamo Bay. It means, in legal terms, Guantanamo Bay is no different than Kansas,\" attorney Charles Swift said. Now the ruling has been issued, a flood of similar appeals can be expected. The lead plaintiffs are Lakhdar Boumediene, a Bosnian, and Fawzi al-Odah of Kuwait. They question the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act, passed by Congress in October 2006. The law addresses how suspected foreign terrorists and fighters can be tried and sentenced under U.S. military law. Under the system, those facing trial would have a limited right to appeal any conviction, reducing the jurisdiction of federal courts. The suspects also must prove to a three-person panel of military officers they are not a terror risk. But defendants would have access to evidence normally given to a jury, and CIA agents were given more guidance in how far they can go in interrogating prisoners. The law was a direct response to a June 2006 Supreme Court ruling striking down the Bush administration's plan to try detainees before military commissions. In 2004, the justices also affirmed the right of prisoners to challenge their detention in federal court. Congress and the administration have sought to restrict such access. The Justice Department wanted the high court to pass on these appeals, at least until the first wave of tribunals had a chance to work. Administration officials also argued the prisoners have plenty of legal safeguards. The White House has said it is considering whether to close the Guantanamo prison, suggesting some high-level al Qaeda detainees could be transferred to the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, and to a military brig in North Charleston, South Carolina. Most of the dozens of pending cases have been handled in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, which in February 2007 upheld the Military Commissions Act's provision stripping courts of jurisdiction to hear \"habeas\" challenges to the prisoners' confinement. But a three-judge panel of the same circuit expressed concern about why the U.S. military continues to limit attorney access to the Guantanamo men. The detainees' legal team alleges the government is unfairly restricting access to potentially exculpatory evidence, including documents they may not know exist before pretrial hearings. Legal and terrorism analysts said the issues presented in these latest sets of appeals are unlike those the justices have delved into previously. \"The difference in this case is that they have a congressional enactment cutting back on habeas corpus that they have to wrestle with,\" said Edward Lazarus, a leading appellate attorney and author of a book on the high court, \"Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court.\" \"And that, from a constitutional point of view, is really a different question.\" In a separate decision, the court refused to intervene in the case of two American citizens convicted in Iraqi courts but held by the U.S. military. The high court rejected lawyers' arguments that Mohammad Munaf and Shawqi Ahmad Omar should be released, saying that U.S. courts are not allowed to intervene in foreign courts.","highlights":"NEW: President Bush says he disagrees with ruling but he'll abide by it .\nNEW: Court says separately it won't rule on case of U.S. citizens convicted in Iraq .\nJustice Scalia: U.S. \"will live to regret what the court has done today\"\nJustice Kennedy: Constitution should \"remain in force, in extraordinary times\"","id":"bdb6418eac367ad4f207077e43c2a84f3e3e0cfe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andrew Wyeth, the American painter perhaps best known for his painting of a young woman in a field, \"Christina's World,\" has died, according to an official with the Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania. Andrew Wyeth received the National Medal of Arts from President Bush in November 2007. Wyeth, 91, died in his sleep Thursday night at his home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to Lora Englehart, public relations coordinator for the museum. The acclaimed artist painted landscapes and figure subjects and worked mostly in tempera and watercolor. He was widely celebrated inside and outside of the art world. Wyeth received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, and President Nixon sponsored an exhibition of Wyeth's paintings at the White House. In 2007, President Bush awarded Wyeth the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his lifetime achievement and contribution to American arts and culture. Two years earlier, Wyeth and his wife, Betsy, presented to the White House his painting \"Jupiter,\" which is displayed in the residence's family sitting room. Bush issued a statement Friday saying that he and first lady Laura Bush \"deeply mourn\" the death of Wyatt. \"Mr. Wyeth captured America in his paintings of his native Pennsylvania and Maine,\" Bush said. \"On behalf of the American people, Laura and I offer our sincere condolences to Betsy and the Wyeth family.\" Wyeth, who lived in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Maine, \"has been enormously popular and critically acclaimed since his first one-man show in 1937,\" according to a biography in InfoPlease. His main subjects were the places and people of Chadds Ford and Cushing, Maine. \"Christina's World,\" painted in 1948, shows a disabled Maine neighbor who drags herself through a field toward her house in the distance. The painting, displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has been regarded as Wyeth's most popular. \"His 'Helga' pictures, a large group of intimate portraits of a neighbor, painted over many years, were first shown publicly in 1986,\" the InfoPlease biography says. Those were painted in Pennsylvania. Wyeth, the youngest child of painter N.C. Wyeth, formally studied art with his father as a teen, \"drawing in charcoal and painting in oils, the media of choice for N.C. Wyeth. It was during the family's annual summer vacations in Port Clyde, Maine, that Andrew was able to experiment with other media to find his own artistic voice,\" according to a biography in the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine.","highlights":"NEW: Bush says Wyeth's work \"captured America\"\nWyeth died in his sleep at home in Pennsylvania at 91 .\nHis most famous painting is that of a young girl in a field .\nHis \"Helga\" portraits were first shown in 1986 .","id":"458f0587d9af18f8af18975eed4ee7f2452eca6a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department called the expulsion of the second U.S. diplomat from Ecuador in just over a week \"unjustified,\" rejecting charges the diplomats meddled in Ecuador's internal affairs. First Secretary Mark Sullivan has been given 48 hours to leave the U.S. embassy in Quito, Ecuador. On Wednesday, the Ecuadorian government expelled First Secretary Mark Sullivan, whom it accused of meddling in the government's internal police policies, giving him 48 hours to leave the country. On February 7, the government expelled Armando Astorga, an attach\u00e9 with the Department of Homeland Security working in the U.S. Embassy. Acting Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid said the expulsions stem from the fact that certain Ecuadorian police were banned from taking part in U.S. counternarcotics training programs, but rejected \"any suggestion of wrongdoing by embassy staff.\" \"Despite the government of Ecuador's unjustified actions, we remain committed to working collaboratively with Ecuador to confront narcotics trafficking,\" Duguid said. Asked whether the State Department would reciprocate the expulsions by kicking out Ecuadorian diplomats from the United States, Duguid would say only, \"We will respond as appropriate.\" A senior State Department official suggested the police in Ecuador police did not meet the criteria to take part in the training, noting, \"The United States does have procedures that require it to vet candidates for U.S.-funded training.\" The official added, \"In some countries this is seen as onerous. However, it is part of the legal accountability measures we must follow.\"","highlights":"Government gives First Secretary Mark Sullivan 48 hours to leave the country .\nSullivan is accused of meddling in internal police policies .\nThe State Department calls the action 'unjustified'\nHe's the second U.S. diplomat Ecuador has expelled in just over a week .","id":"cdc3bec9fa6dab9ed88a0d2d44dc347b9a22b1cb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Friday said she would do the job again -- but only if she could work for her current boss. Dana Perino said goodbye to the White House press corps at her last briefing as White House spokeswoman Friday. \"I wouldn't do it for anybody but President Bush,\" Perino said as she briefed reporters for the last time Friday. \"If given the chance to do it over again, would I? Yes,\" Perino said. \"But would I ever come back and do this? No. ... I think it's good to get off the stage.\" Perino also thanked the White House press corps. \"We all have difficult jobs, we all work long and tough hours, and it's been an exciting challenge,\" said Perino, 36. \"I know I had some big shoes to fill when I got here -- and I still only wear a size six.\" Watch Bush's farewell address \u00bb . And she wished President-elect Barack Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, \"all the very best.\" \"Please go easy on him -- for a week,\" Perino joked with reporters. In the 80-year history of official White House press secretaries, only two women have been named to the job: Dee Dee Myers, who served former President Bill Clinton, and Perino. It's been 15 months since Bush named Perino to succeed Tony Snow, who later died of colon cancer, as White House press secretary. View key moments in the Bush presidency \u00bb . \"It was about two weeks into the job when I realized that I am never going to be like Tony Snow,\" Perino said. Her first goal was to make briefings less heated. She still pushed back, but chose her confrontations carefully. \"If I was testy all the time as a woman in this position, I can only imagine what people would have said about me, so there is a delicate balance, I think, in this position.\" During her time behind the White House podium, Perino sparred almost daily with the media on a number of contentious issues, including the president's decision to \"surge\" troops into Iraq. Perino said there are some things that she would have done differently. \"I'm sure that I'll have lots,\" she said Friday when asked if she had any regrets. \"I'm going to go on a six-week trip with my husband, and I'm sure there will be long-enough flights for me to think about all the things we could have done better. View iconic images from Bush's time in the White House \u00bb . \"Any press secretary always wants to be more proactive, but news happens all over the world,\" Perino said. \"And now with the 24\/7 news cycle, in many ways, sometimes, you feel like you're just trying to keep up with that.\" \"That's not a regret or a disappointment. It's just a fact of life,\" she added. As she begins to look beyond her years in the West Wing, Perino, a native of Wyoming who was raised in Colorado, says she is looking forward to spending more time in her own neighborhood in Washington with her husband, Peter McMahon, and their dog, a Hungarian Vizsla named Henry. Watch Perino prepare for life after the White House \u00bb . She is also looking forward to sleeping in. When asked what she will miss the least from her time in the White House, Perino said, \"Absolutely has to be getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning. \"I don't mind working long hours, I don't mind working hard, but getting up when the four is still on the clock is something I hope I never have to do again unless I'm catching a flight to some exotic location,\" she said. After January 20, Perino does plan to take a vacation -- which she says will include volunteer work for President Bush's HIV\/AIDS relief program in Africa. CNN's Elaine Quijano and Scott J. Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House spokeswoman Dana Perino gave last news briefing Friday .\nPerino, 36, succeeded Tony Snow, is only second woman to hold post .\nPerino plans six-week vacation, will volunteer with HIV\/AIDS relief program in Africa .","id":"9b16935c95af8cf7a0256160a929c5c16319f19c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pop star Madonna and her adopted son met with the young boy's biological father in Malawi as the singer awaited a court decision on whether she could adopt a girl from the same country, her publicist said Tuesday. Madonna holds her adopted Malawian son, David Banda, in 2007. Liz Rosenberg said in a statement that Madonna and her son David met Monday with David's birth father, Yohanne Banda, for the first time since the young boy was adopted in 2006. \"Madonna is committed to maintaining an ongoing relationship with David's Malawian roots,\" Rosenberg said. The publicist also confirmed, in the first public acknowledgment of what has been reported for weeks, that Madonna has filed an application \"to adopt Mercy James, a 3-year-old girl Madonna met two years ago in an orphanage that she visited.\" A spokeswoman for Malawi's attorney general told CNN that the singer appeared Monday in court in that country, one of the poorest nations in the world, for a hearing on whether she would be allowed to adopt the girl. Madonna is to return to court Friday to hear the judge's decision in the matter, spokeswoman Zione Ntaba said. The child's family will have to give their permission for the adoption to proceed, according to Martin Geissler, a reporter for the ITN television network who is in Malawi. Madonna has been involved with Malawi for several years. She made a documentary, \"I Am Because We Are,\" which highlighted poverty, AIDS and other diseases devastating that country's children. She also helps run a nonprofit, Raising Malawi, which implements initiatives to help the needy in the southeastern African nation.","highlights":"David Banda reunited with dad for first time since his adoption .\nPublicist confirms singer's application to adopt Mercy James .\nJudge will rule on whether adoption can go forward Friday .","id":"2085bcdd7b72e560784ac7e0e7461fde3f71b349"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fifteen employees were fired for improperly accessing medical records of Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets, a Kaiser Permanente spokesman said Monday. Nadya Suleman has been the subject of much curiosity since she gave birth to octuplets. \"We always provide training on the importance of patient privacy and confidentiality,\" said Jim Anderson, the hospital spokesman. \"We knew from the time she (Nadya Suleman) was admitted to the hospital in December, this case would attract attention. \"Numerous training sessions were held to remind people of the need to keep the information confidential.\" Eight other employees of the Bellflower, California hospital were disciplined for accessing Suleman's files, Anderson said. Anderson said there's no indication that any of the information was distributed outside the hospital to the media. Suleman, a resident La Habra, California, and already a single mother with six young children, gave birth to the octuplets through in-vitro fertilization, fueling controversy. News of her collecting public assistance for some of her children also outraged many taxpayers.","highlights":"Eight other employees disciplined for accessing Nadya Suleman's files .\nKaiser Permanente says training was given emphasizing privacy issues .\nSpokesman: There's no indication any information was distributed outside hospital .\nSuleman was mother of six when she gave birth to octuplets .","id":"df5a008fee39accc4614a50a0e0db21894035b08"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mass grave unearthed Tuesday in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, is believed to contain bodies from an epidemic of yellow fever that swept the city in the 1870s, police said. Two buildings from the 1940s were torn down at the site, and maintenance workers grading the land in preparation for the construction of a new building uncovered the remains, said Montgomery police spokesman Maj. Huey Thornton. The site is adjacent to a cemetery, he said, and \"based on the information we have from historical documents kept by the actual cemetery ... it does appear that it may be remains from a yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s.\" Officials from the Alabama Archaeological Society and the Alabama Historical Association were at the site and are expected to be able to confirm that, he said. It was not immediately known how many bodies might be buried at the site, Thornton said, but authorities are reassuring the public there is no cause for concern. The remains are clearly too old to suggest any recent activity, he said. According to an article posted online by the Mississippi Project of the American Local History Network, an extensive outbreak of yellow fever occurred in 1878, spreading across eight states but particularly affecting Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Some 16,000 people died from the disease that year alone, according to the article.","highlights":"The mass grave was unearthed Tuesday in downtown Montgomery, Alabama .\nWorkers preparing land for construction of a new building uncovered the remains .\nHistorical records indicate bodies could be from yellow fever outbreak .\nIt was not immediately known how many bodies might be buried at the site .","id":"103d35ecb3e3a16547688b12dde5e74023c5d5be"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Key members of Congress from both parties want NASA's internal watchdog fired, arguing he can't be trusted to oversee the $1 billion in additional money the space agency is getting under the Obama administration's economic stimulus package. Lawmakers say NASA's inspector general cannot be trusted and must go. Government reports dating back to 2006 have accused NASA Inspector General Robert \"Moose\" Cobb of ineffectiveness, of profanely berating employees and being too close to the agency's leadership. Calls for his ouster have intensified in the past month, since NASA is getting additional stimulus money for space exploration, research, and aeronautics. \"Apparently, Mr. Cobb thought he was supposed to be the lap dog, rather than the watchdog, of NASA,\" Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tennessee, told CNN. Gordon, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, has asked President Obama to remove Cobb. In a letter co-authored by Rep. Brad Miller, D-North Carolina, who leads the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, the lawmakers argue that \"NASA cannot afford another four years with an ineffective inspector general.\" Watch NASA watchdog under fire \u00bb . \"It's incredibly ironic for members of Congress who have scolded the inspector general for lousy oversight to dump a billion dollars into the agency,\" said Pete Sepp, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group that monitors government spending. \"The first thing you do when you're digging a hole is to stop digging. Congress doesn't seem to get that message.\" Cobb declined two requests from CNN to respond to the complaints. In December 2008, the Government Accountability Office released a report that criticized how Cobb was running the inspector general's office. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, \"found that Mr. Cobb is one of the least productive IGs in the federal government,\" Gordon and Miller wrote. \"His monetary accomplishments reflect a return of just 36 cents for every dollar budgeted for his office. This compares with an average of $9.49 returned for every dollar spent on other IGs' offices. The main reason for this failure is that NASA's audit operation is not working.\" Gordon told CNN that Cobb's \"own peers said he wasn't doing his job, that he didn't understand the audit process and that he was not carrying out the investigation process. As a matter of fact, he was slowing it down, or even stopping it.\" And Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, agreed that Cobb must be replaced. \"Inspectors general are the first line of defense against the waste of taxpayers' money,\" Grassley told CNN. \"And, if he's not doing his job, and you stick another billion dollars into it, then you just know there's another billion dollars that there could be a lot of waste of it.\" A 2006 investigation by a presidential integrity council found Cobb \"engaged in abuse of authority\" and had a \"close relationship\" with former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe that \"compromised\" his independence. The two played golf together and took official trips together on NASA aircraft. Read investigative integrity report (Warning: Report contains explicit language) The committee also found that Cobb \"engaged in an abuse of authority\" through his \"habitual use of profanity,\" and recommended disciplinary action \"up to and including removal,\" Gordon and Miller wrote. Cobb defended himself at a 2007 congressional hearing, arguing that he had upheld his oath of office. \"At NASA, I have taken the responsibilities of office under the Inspector General Act seriously and without compromise to root out and prevent fraud, waste and abuse, and to promote the economy and efficiency of the agency,\" he said. \"I've worked with NASA management in the manner contemplated by the Inspector General Act.\" But former staffers told the committee that Cobb created a disturbing work environment. \"One of my early experiences with Mr. Cobb was so disturbing that I considered leaving the OIG almost immediately afterwards,\" said Debra Herzog, former deputy assistant inspector-general for investigations. \"At a scheduled weekly meeting, Mr. Cobb, in front of his deputy and my supervisor, berated me concerning a word in a letter. In an ensuing monologue, loudly peppered with profanities, Mr. Cobb insulted and ridiculed me,\" Herzog recounted. Lance Carrington, the former assistant inspector general for investigations, told the panel that \"in many investigative cases, Mr. Cobb appeared to have a lack of independence when NASA officials were subjects, or if arrest\/search warrants were obtained for NASA facilities. Mr. Cobb would question every aspect of the cases and gave the appearance he wanted to derail them before agents were given adequate time to investigate the allegations.\" Gordon told CNN it's time for Cobb to go. \"President Obama needs to replace Mr. Cobb as quickly as possible with someone who can do the job,\" he said.","highlights":"Lawmakers say NASA watchdog can't be trusted to oversee $1B in stimulus funds .\nGovernment reports say NASA inspector general is too closely tied to the agency .\nIG Robert Cobb \"thought he was supposed to be the lap dog,\" congressman says .\nCobb declined two requests to speak with CNN for this report .","id":"5a27f3bd800ba6827407f19bbf32e73642b61147"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has been \"cleared\" by the Justice Department's request to dismiss his federal corruption convictions and drop all charges against him, his lawyer said Wednesday. Former Sen. Ted Stevens, 85, of Alaska lost his re-election bid in November. Prosecutors accused Stevens of failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of \"freebies\" from an oilfield services company on Senate ethics forms. But in December, an unnamed FBI whistle-blower accused prosecutors of withholding evidence from the defense, and the Justice Department asked a judge to dismiss the charges against Stevens on Wednesday. \"His name is cleared,\" Stevens' lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, told reporters. \"He is innocent of the charges, as if they'd never been brought.\" Stevens, 85, lost his bid for a seventh full term in November after his conviction on seven counts of lying on Senate ethics forms. Sullivan said the Justice Department was forced to request the dismissal because of \"extraordinary evidence of government corruption.\" Watch more on the dismissal of the case \u00bb . \"Not only did the government fail to provide evidence to the defense that the law requires them to provide, but they created false testimony that they gave us and actually presented false testimony in the courtroom,\" he said. And one of Stevens' longtime friends, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, said Wednesday that Stevens was \"screwed by our own Justice Department.\" In a statement issued Wednesday morning, Stevens thanked the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder for requesting that the charges be dropped. \"I always knew that there would be a day when the cloud that surrounded me would be removed,\" Stevens said. \"That day has finally come.\" U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has set a Tuesday hearing on the Justice Department's request to dismiss the case. Sullivan, who is not related to Stevens' lawyer, excoriated prosecutors during the trial and held the prosecution in contempt at one point. In December, two months after the guilty verdicts, the FBI whistle-blower accused prosecutors of withholding evidence from the defense and reported that someone with the government had had an inappropriate relationship with Bill Allen, an oil industry executive who was the government's key witness. In the motion it filed Wednesday, the Justice Department acknowledged that Stevens was not given access to notes taken by prosecutors during an April 2008 interview with Allen, the former chairman of an oilfield services company at the center of a corruption probe in Alaska. The notes show that responses by Allen, the prosecution's star witness, were inconsistent with testimony he gave against Stevens, and that information from the interview could have benefited Stevens at trial, the motion says. \"In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial,\" Holder said in a written statement. Hatch, a senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he called Stevens in Alaska on Wednesday and the former senator sounded \"elated, as anyone would.\" \"Here's a guy who gave better than 60 years' service to the country and was screwed -- screwed by our own Justice Department,\" Hatch said. But he praised Holder for \"standing up and fixing this foul situation.\" \"I think he's more than shown integrity and decency in this matter, and it's not an easy thing for him to do that,\" Hatch said. \"He has, in looking at it, realized now what people like myself have been saying is 100 percent right.\" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, also commented on the Justice Department's request, saying, \"Ted Stevens is 85 years old. He's already been punished enough. I'm satisfied.\" And in a statement Wednesday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that Stevens \"deserves to be very happy today. What a horrible thing he has endured. The blatant attempts by adversaries to destroy one's reputation, career and finances are an abuse of our well-guarded process and violate our God-given rights afforded in the Constitution. \"It is a frightening thing to contemplate what we may be witnessing here -- the undermining of the political process through unscrupulous ploys and professional misconduct. Senator Stevens ... never gave up hope. It is unfortunate that, as a result of the questionable proceedings which led to Senator Stevens' conviction days before the election, Alaskans lost an esteemed statesman on Capitol Hill. His presence is missed.\" The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility will review the prosecution team's conduct in Stevens' case, Holder said. Asked whether the prosecutors should be charged themselves, Sullivan told reporters, \"That is not my job. I'm a defense lawyer.\" During the trial, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich said Stevens hid \"hundreds of thousands of dollars of freebies\" he received from Allen's company, VECO, and from Allen himself. Many of the allegedly free services were given as part of the renovation of Stevens' Alaska home, prosecutors said. CNN's Terry Frieden, Paul Courson, Ted Barrett and Deb Krajnak contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Senate majority leader, Alaska governor back Justice Department action .\nUtah Sen. Orrin Hatch says Stevens was mistreated, praises attorney general .\nDefense attorney cites \"extraordinary misconduct of government prosecutors\"\nTed Stevens: \"I always knew that there would be a day\" when justice would come .","id":"0ac5e76f11c9ed5c97683aaaad5f6ec6759d45c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you happen to browse upon a news story that's too odd to be true Wednesday, hold your outrage and check the calendar. A Lebanese newspaper ran a caricature last year of two opposition leaders hugging in light of April Fools' Day. It's April Fools' Day -- when media outlets around the world take a break from the serious business of delivering news and play fast and furious with the facts. No one quite knows when the practice began, but any journalist will point to what is undoubtedly the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled: A 1957 BBC report that said, thanks to a mild winter and the elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. The segment was accompanied by pictures of farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees -- and prompted hundreds of viewers to call in, wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. While not as elaborate, the pranks that media outlets harvested this year have been quite rich: . The Guardian in London ran a story Wednesday announcing that, after 188 years as a print publication, it will become the first newspaper to deliver news exclusively via Twitter. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, allows users to post updates that are 140 characters long. In keeping with the limitation, the newspaper said it had undertaken a mammoth project to retool the newspaper's entire archive. For example, Charles Lindbergh's 1927 flight from New York to Paris, France, was condensed to: \"OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise ... sigh.\" The news isn't always black and white. The Taipei Times, one of three English-language dailies in Taiwan, fooled many readers with a report that two pandas donated by China to the Taipei Zoo were, in fact, brown forest bears dyed black and white. To render a whiff of authenticity to the story, editors made a reference to China's tainted-milk scandal that sickened 300,000 people last year. But the story contained enough outrageous lines to clue in readers. Among them, a quote from a souvenir stand operator who worried the panda deception would affect sales of her \"stuffed panda toys, panda T-shirts, panda pens and notepads, remote-controlled pandas on wheels, caps with panda ears on top, panda fans, panda flashlights, panda mugs, panda eyeglass cases, panda face masks, panda slippers, panda wallet and panda purses.\" Sometimes, of course, the pranks backfire. In Australia, the Herald Sun newspaper drew hundreds of angry comments Wednesday after a story on its Web site said a Chinese construction firm wanted to buy naming rights to the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Many readers did not realize the story was a hoax -- despite a quote from a spokeswoman named April Fulton. iReport.com: Share your best April Fools' office pranks and jokes . Geoffrey Davies, the head of the journalism department at London's University of Westminster, said such pranks do not particularly affect the credibility of a news organization. \"They are done in a way that you know it's a joke,\" he said. \"In the Guardian story, for example, the clue is in the name of the journalist [Rio Palof] -- which is an anagram for April Fool. People look out for them really, and therefore, you kind of open the paper trying to spot the spoof story.\" Of course, news outlets aren't the only ones who hoodwink readers on April 1. The town of Rotorua, a popular tourist stop in New Zealand, said a rotten egg smell that permeates the town is such an aphrodisiac that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner wants to build a mansion there. Microsoft Corp. said it is releasing a new Xbox 360 video game, \"Alpine Legend,\" which will do for fans of yodeling what \"Guitar Hero\" did for rock music. And car manufacturer BMW announced in ads in British newspapers that it had developed \"Magnetic Tow Technology.\" \"BMW Magnetic Tow Technology is an ingenious new system that locks on to the car in front via an enhanced magnetic beam,\" the ad said. \"Once your BMW is attached you are free to release your foot from the accelerator and turn off your engine.\" Steve Price, features editor of the Taipei Times, said such hoaxes are not only good for a laugh but serve a purpose. \"It highlights an important aspect of media that readers and viewers should keep a critical mind when they read stories or watch TV,\" he said. \"I think that is especially true with the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of blogging.\" The origins of pulling pranks on April Fools' Day is unclear. Some believe it dates back to the time when the Gregorian calendar was first adopted, changing the beginning of the year to January 1 from April 1. Those who still held on to the Julian calendar were referred to as \"April Fools.\" Traditionally, the pranks are pulled before noon on this day. But a wildly successful prank this year was conceived and executed much earlier. Millions of Web users fell for a video that claimed to be the first flying five-star hotel in a converted Soviet-era helicopter. The 37-second clip, which was posted online Thursday, was an elaborate computer-generated hoax by the airport hotel chain Yotel. If you were one of the many who fell for the prank, hold your disappointment. You can still reserve rooms on the moon through Hotels.com or book flights to Mars through Expedia.com for $99. But hurry. The offers end Wednesday.","highlights":"If a news item seems especially outrageous on April 1, it just may be a hoax .\nAmong the good ones already: The Guardian reportedly switches to Twitter format .\nTaipei Times editor says, \"Readers and viewers should keep a critical mind\"","id":"397db97f247d26843b3d4ae61ec2e3c2d8cf799b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville. The Carteret Islands are just one of a number of places already feeling the effects of climate change. The palm trees sway gently under a balmy sun, the beaches are perfect, and stretched out as far as the eye can see is the wide blue of the Pacific Ocean. The only problem with this idyllic scene is that the water is getting closer; slowly but surely, as global warming bites and sea levels rise, the islands are being swallowed up, leaving the few hundred inhabitants pondering an uncertain future. \"King tides and sea surges are floodling the island to a knee high and it is difficult for the salt water to dry up,\" says Ursula Rakova, a Carteret islander and campaigner. \"Fruit trees and nut trees have lost their leaves and only skeleton branches are left standing. The only greenery is from coconut and sago palms... People have no garden food to feed on... We have lost more than 60 percent of our land already.\" The problem is that on the Carteret Islands, a horseshoe shaped scatter of small islands around a central lagoon, nowhere is more than 1.2 meters above sea level. If anywhere was the canary in the mine forewarning us of the disaster predicted in low lying areas of the world if runaway climate change takes hold, it's right here. Rakova says there is a growing dependency culture on the island as people rely on international aid for food, which is destroying the social and cultural fabric of the Carterets. \"This is a state of emergency,\" she says. \"Why are the rich nations ignoring the fate of the Carterets Islanders? Are the rich nations waiting for the islanders to float before they can act and put money where their mouths are in terms of human rights?\" It's a cruel irony that the people with some of the lowest carbon footprints are already paying the price for the emissions of far richer countries, and are forced to leave their homes for an uncertain future. But the Carteret Islanders aren't alone. Environmentalists point to Inuit communities threatened by melting ice in Greenland, and those living around the fast-shrinking Lake Chad in Africa, as among many already feeling the effects. Watch the effects of warming temperatures on Arctic ice \u00bb . \"The issue of environmental refugees promises to rank as one of the foremost human crises or our time,\" says British environmentalist and Oxford University professor Norman Myers, who has published extensively on the subject. A report by Friends of the Earth in 2007 identified communities all over the world, from Brazil and Honduras, to Malaysia, Mali, Peru and even the UK, that were directly under threat from a mix of drought, rising sea levels, other extreme weather and disease. Climate refugees: Causing controversy . As much of the primary research on our future climate looks increasingly gloomy -- and privately some scientists will make far blacker predictions than they publish - the world seems faced with a growing challenge. Experts at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in March issued a stark warning when they revised up the scale of projected sea level rises, saying many coastal areas around the world could be completely inundated by 2100. \"It is now clear that there are going to be massive flooding disasters around the globe,\" said Dr David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey, in Copenhagen. As well as low-lying areas of Bangladesh and the Maldives, the scientists warned that the Netherlands could face catastrophic floods, and large areas of Florida and the UK, including the Thames Estuary, may disappear under the waves. But despite the threat of widespread future problems -- and the reality of life for the Carteret Islanders now - the term \"environmental refugees\" remains controversial. Some NGOs, such as Greenpeace, have spoken in terms of 150 million displaced people being driven from their homes by 2050 as climate change makes their lives impossible. Their figures are backed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Other groups, notably the Norwegian Refugee Council, have urged caution and said such quantities are impossible to verify, even suggesting that they could play into the hands of right wing groups keen to create a fear of a tide of immigration. \"Because one cannot completely isolate climate change as a cause however, it is difficult, if not impossible to stipulate any numbers,\" the NRC writes in the 2008 report, Future Flood of Refugees. But while the controversy rages, some experts warn the needs of people such as the Carteret Islanders are being ignored. As the numbers of similar soon-to-be refugees looks likely to grow exponentially, the world needs to wake up to the problem and decide fast how to deal with it. \"There is no legal recognition of people displaced by environmental causes and no international treaty protecting them,\" says Stephanie Long, Climate Coordinator at Friends of the Earth International. Meanwhile back on the Carteret Islanders time is running out and an entire cultural group needs relocating because of rising seas. By 2015 Friends of the Earth International estimate the islands will be largely uninhabitable. Islanders have tried to fight the sea by planting mangroves and building walls, but storm surges and high tides continue to destroy homes and crops, and contaminate fresh water. Since 2007 the slow process of evacuation has been ongoing. Not for the first time, a quiet, remote group of people seem to be slipping through the fingers of the global community. It is unlikely they will be the last. \"I wish that the people causing the melting of the icecaps would do something to help us stay in our homes,\" says John Sailik from Han Island, Carterets. \"Because we love living on our little island.\"","highlights":"Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea losing land to rising sea levels .\nEvacuation of islanders planned; number of environmental refugees predicted to rise .\nFrom Greenland to Lake Chad many areas feeling negative effects of climate change .\nMany groups warn of caution when using term 'climate refugee'","id":"7dc9cfe7708586e113394efe071db956490f4966"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea accused the United States and South Korea of sending spy planes on about 200 missions near the isolated communist nation ahead of a North Korea rocket launch scheduled for early April. Pyongyang claims reconnaissance aircraft, including the high-altitude U-2 spy plane, have flown spy missions. \"The U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet military warmongers perpetrated intensive aerial espionage against the DPRK (North Korea) in March by massively mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with various missions,\" a military source said, according to a report from North Korea's state-run news service, KCNA, on Tuesday. Pyongyang said the United States committed 110 cases of \"aerial espionage and the South Korean puppet forces at least 80 cases,\" during March, KCNA reported. The source said the missions utilized six types of reconnaissance aircraft, including the high-altitude U-2 spy plane. \"The U.S. imperialist warmongers had better bear in mind that ... spy planes perpetrating espionage against the DPRK are within the range of its strikes.\" The Pentagon was not immediately available to comment on the story. The North Korean government says it will launch a commercial satellite atop a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. Satellite imagery taken on Sunday appears to show a rocket at the Musudan-ri launch site in northeastern North Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday there is little doubt that the planned rocket launch is designed to bolster North Korea's military capability. He also indicated that the U.S. military could be prepared to shoot down a North Korean missile if the rogue regime develops the capability to reach Hawaii or the western continental United States in a future launch. Watch analysis of Pyongyang's planned rocket launch \u00bb . Both the United States and Japan have mobilized missile defense systems ahead of the launch. North Korea has threatened to start a war if Japan were to shoot down its rocket. Tokyo said the move is aimed at shooting down any debris from the launch that might fall into Japanese territory. U.S. Navy ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles have been moved to the Sea of Japan, a Navy spokesman said. The United States generally has a number of ships equipped with powerful Aegis radar in the Sea of Japan because of North Korean threats to launch rockets. The ships are designed to track and, if needed, shoot down ballistic missiles. The United States has no plans to shoot down the North Korean rocket, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week, but will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang carries out a launch.","highlights":"North Korea claims it detected about 200 spy plane missions near it .\nClaim comes ahead of North Korea's launch of a rocket scheduled for early April .\nPyongyang warned that spy planes are within the range of its strikes .\nU.S. has little doubt rocket launch is designed to bolster N. Korea's military capability .","id":"1ddf41a3671d4e16dfc3cb74c23a10efccec7e64"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI refused Wednesday to soften the Vatican's ban on condom use as he arrived in Africa for his first visit to the continent as pope. Cameroonian President Paul Biya, left, walks with Pope Benedict XVI at the airport in Yaounde, Tuesday. He landed in Cameroon, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Angola. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it. The pontiff reiterated the Vatican's policy on condom use as he flew from Rome to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, CNN Vatican analyst John Allen said. Pope Benedict has always made it clear he intends to uphold the traditional Catholic teaching on artificial contraception -- a \"clear moral prohibition\" -- Allen said. But his remarks Tuesday were among the first times he stated the policy explicitly since he became pope nearly four years ago. He has, however, assembled a panel of scientists and theologians to consider the narrow question of whether to allow condoms for married couples, one of whom has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It is still not clear how the pope will rule on the matter, said Allen, who is also a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. The Catholic Church has long been on the front line of HIV care, he said, adding that it is probably the largest private provider of HIV care in the world. More than 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to a 2008 UNAIDS\/WHO report. Nine out of 10 children with HIV in the world live in the region, which has 11.4 million orphans because of AIDS, the report said, and 1.5 million people there died of the disease in 2007.","highlights":"Pope Benedict XVI refuses to soften the Vatican's ban on condom use .\nHe made comments as he arrived in Africa for his first visit to the continent as pope .\nHe is visiting Cameroon, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Angola .\nSub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region .","id":"eebde0126c7eea0fadf568ebda153eed1e836406"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A baby ape born in the UK is settling into a new life in a German zoo after flying from Birmingham to Frankfurt -- monkey business class. Bili the bonobo is to be fostered by an ape at Frankfurt Zoo. The three-month old male bonobo -- who is to be fostered by a family of German apes after being rejected by his natural mother -- was considered too young and too fragile to travel cargo class, a spokeswoman for the UK's Twycross Zoo told CNN. Instead, the tiny ape named Bili checked in for the Lufthansa flight with special travel documents -- including a fake passport in the name of \"Bili the Bonobo\" -- before taking a seat in the cabin alongside a handler from Frankfurt Zoo, who had flown over to accompany him on his unusual journey. \"He was with his keeper all the way to make him feel more comfortable and relaxed, rather than being in a crate,\" said spokeswoman Kim Riley. \"I just wish I'd been there to see the other passengers' faces.\" Bonobos, which originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, are considered particularly intelligent primates. They are the human species' closest relation in the animal world, sharing 99.6 percent of our DNA. Bili was rejected by his mother after falling ill shortly after his birth and has required extensive nursing and medical care. Zookeepers in Frankfurt hope he can bond with an adult female bonobo which has been trained to assist with hand rearing babies. The zoo's bonobo community will also play and interact with Bili, helping him to acquire social skills. Bili will spend 30 days in quarantine at the zoo before being introduced to his new family, Riley said.","highlights":"Baby bonobo ape takes flight from UK to Germany to start new life in Frankfurt .\nThree-month-old was rejected by natural mother after falling ill following birth .\nFrankfurt Zoo has an adult female bonobo trained to assist with rearing babies .\nBili will spend 30 days in quarantine before meeting new family .","id":"bc6520bc566a58d84f594698783059bbbbbf4fac"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- North Korea, formally called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is also known as the Hermit Kingdom for a good reason. Chinese border guards patrol in Jilin province across from the North Korean border on March 21, 2009. For decades, it has been shrouded by a veil of secrecy that has prevented us from better understanding this important nation. As journalists we seek out the realities of life there, beyond the myths and hype, but that is difficult because the DPRK is generally inaccessible to journalists. The gap between reality and illusion remains profound. Journalists, such as the two Americans being detained in North Korea, do travel to the border between China and North Korea to get a sense of what life is like in the isolated nation of 22 million people. The circumstances surrounding the journalists' arrest are still unclear. \"North Korea is such a difficult country to enter for a foreign reporter that the temptation to slip across the frozen river border is considerable,\" said former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy, author of \"Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.\" \"If that's what they did, however, it was extremely foolhardy and really pushing their luck.\" China and North Korea share a 1,415-kilometer (880-mile) border that mainly follows two rivers. The Yalu River defines the border on the northwest, the Tumen River on the northeast. By land, the two countries are linked by seven road crossings and four railway points. Over the years, I have visited three towns on the Chinese side of the border. From a narrow river crossing at the border town of Tumen, Koreans cross on foot and in trucks. Those going back into North Korea carry bags full of food and household wares, even bicycles. Some of those coming into China ferry logs and minerals. From across the Yalu River in China's Dandong City in October of 2006, I had a glimpse of Sinuiju, a North Korean border town of some 350,000 people. Using a long camera lens, I saw school children learn to roller skate, and residents celebrating what looked like a wedding. Still the city's decrepit appearance hinted at stagnation and isolation. It was a stark contrast from the Chinese city, which was ablaze in neon lights and a bustling commerce and trade. North Korea's public face is one of smiling children, clean streets, manicured gardens, spectacular scenery and a stoic people united under the aegis of Kim Jong Il, known among Koreans as the \"Dear Leader.\" I saw it up close twice, in 1996 and 2002, when I had the chance to visit the most reclusive nation on earth. We were typically greeted by polite officials and smiling children and invited to watch spectacular performances with a cast of thousands. North Korea, however, remains isolated, diplomatically and economically, led by an erratic leadership that behaves out of fear and insecurity. Diplomatic sources in Beijing suggest that China is getting fed up with North Korea's inability to preserve social stability and with its erratic behavior in the multi-national efforts to deal with North Korea's nuclear program. Publicly, however, China sticks to the official line, often calling the two nations' ties as close as \"lips and teeth\" -- one cannot function without the other. In my two visits to North Korea, I have detected conflicting signs -- one, of social instability and another of a tentative desire to experiment with reforms. In 2002, the government tolerated some quasi-private businesses, raised civil servants' salaries and deregulated prices of some commodities. But much of these tentative efforts to change seem to have been aborted and the country remains isolated and poor. What emerges is a nation, now considered a nuclear threat, desperately seeking respect and economic aid. That picture is now intertwined with the two detained U.S. journalists, Chinoy said. \"It will be interesting to see how the case is handled. North Korea has been in a generally more bellicose mood lately,\" said Chinoy, who is currently a senior fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy. \"The concern is that this incident could get caught up in the bigger picture of heightened tension between the north and the U.S. and the north and south. If it is not swiftly resolved, it will add to the complexity of the situation facing [U.S. President Barack] Obama, where he is under pressure from Seoul, Tokyo and some in Washington to get tough, while trying to find a way to get diplomacy with the North going again.\" In recent years, waves of North Korean refugees have fled into China seeking food, jobs and freedom. In the border cities of Tumen, Yanji and Dandong, these refugees tell of misery and persecution. They live under the protection of relatives, friends and human rights activists. Here, people speak of a Korean \"underground railways\" -- a network that smuggles desperate people across the border and eventually out of China. China is struggling to keep out the hundreds of North Korean immigrants and refugees, but stopping the exodus remains a tall order. A fundamental solution, analysts suggest, lies not in China but in North Korea, where many people are running away from humanitarian disasters and political persecution.","highlights":"Secretive and closed off for decades, North Korea is known as the Hermit Kingdom .\nBy land, China and North Korea are linked by 7 road crossings and 4 railway points .\nIn recent years, N. Korean refugees have fled into China seeking food, jobs, freedom .\nTentative reforms have been aborted and North Korea remains isolated and poor .","id":"f7f2180da4dd9f92e41952042c43953e26cea367"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venice has suffered its worst flooding in 22 years, leaving some parts of the historic Italian city neck-deep in water, reports said Monday. A woman wades through high waters in Venice's Piazza San Marco. Water burst the banks of the coastal city's famed canals, leaving the landmark Piazza San Marco -- St Mark's Square -- under almost a meter of water at one point, news agency ANSA reported. Strong winds pushed waters to a high of 1.56 meters (5 feet 2 inches) at 10:45 a.m. local time, prompting the city government to issue warnings to the public, the agency said. The flood level began to drop soon afterwards, prompted by a change in the direction of the wind. Previous highs include 1.58 meters in 1986 and 1.66 meters in 1979, the news agency said. Watch more about the flooding \u00bb . Photographs showed people wading through inundated piazzas and waves lapping over waterside cafe tables. Venice, built around a network of canals and small islands, has for years been trying to tackle the problem of floods that have regularly blighted the city. In 2007, the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO warned Venice -- a designated World Heritage Site -- is under threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. See pictures of Venetians wading through flood waters. \u00bb . It said that unless the problem is tackled, Venice could be flooded daily and water levels would permanently rise by 54 centimeters in the city by the year 2100.","highlights":"Venice reportedly suffering one of its worst floods in 22 years .\nLandmark Piazza San Marco under almost a meter of water at one point .\nUNESCO has warned Venice at risk of high waters caused by climate change .","id":"170561a1619cffbb8d62b5183c1fffd45b072372"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Donna Zovko will have to wait to travel to Falluja to see where her son died in one of the Iraq war's most infamous attacks. Clockwise from upper left: Wesley Batalona, Mike Teague, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko . \"My dream was to go for the fifth anniversary, and that didn't come true,\" Zovko said this week while visiting friends in Boston, Massachusetts. \"It's not that I'm afraid for me. But people with me on the trip would be in more danger.\" Tuesday marks five years since her son Jerry Zovko and three other civilian employees of the Blackwater private security firm were ambushed in Falluja on March 31, 2004. Gunmen attacked vehicles holding Zovko, Mike Teague, Wesley Batalona and Scott Helvenston and set the vehicles on fire. Shocking images beamed around the world showed Iraqis celebrating in front of charred bodies strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River. The remains were dragged through the streets. Donna Zovko honors her son \u00bb . \"I didn't realize until way after the incident that he had been decapitated,\" said Helvenston's mother, Katy Helvenston-Wettengel, from her Florida home. \"They cut his heart out. How can anybody be that hateful?\" To identify his body, she said, investigators had to gather DNA samples from her son's children. A half-decade after the notorious attack, memories of the gruesome images have faded somewhat from the public eye, as the United States plans to reduce troop numbers in Iraq and a wrongful death suit brought by the four families heads to court-ordered arbitration. The families accuse Blackwater of failing to prepare the men for their mission that day. A 2007 House oversight committee report concluded that Blackwater \"ignored multiple warnings about the dangers\" and failed to supply armored vehicles, machine guns, sufficient intelligence or even a map. Blackwater responded by saying the experienced military veterans on the team \"had all of the resources they needed\" and were victims of a \"well-planned ambush.\" In the days after the attack, Blackwater was largely silent beyond a statement that said, \"We grieve today for the loss of our colleagues and we pray for their families.\" But the families said they ran into a stone wall trying to get details of what happened in Falluja. \"For the next three months, they never returned my calls,\" Helvenston's mother said. \"Our families were destroyed. We will never be the same.\" For Zovko, the suit is not about money or punishment. \"I want to hear the truth,\" she said. \"I want to know what my Jerry was doing before the mission. Why they didn't they have the maps? I want to know who he spoke to last.\" What makes this anniversary different from past years, she said, was an encounter this month in Boston with an Iraqi who claimed that he was at the scene of the attack shortly after the massacre. He offered Zovko new alleged details of the attack, which she says brought her comfort. The Iraqi man, whom she wouldn't identify, told her that the attackers did not appear to be targeting the motorcade containing her son and his three comrades. \"We used to think maybe the attack was done on purpose,\" she said. The news made her feel like \"I was lifted into the air,\" she said. \"For me, it was good. I miss my Jerry more today than yesterday.\" The gruesome attack put the little-known North Carolina-based security company into the American lexicon and on the world stage. It also changed the course of the war. The House report called it a \"turning point in public opinion about the war,\" which led to the first major U.S. offensive in Falluja. The fighting lasted three weeks, killing 36 U.S. service members, about 200 insurgents and an estimated 600 Iraqi civilians, according to the report. In the ensuing years, Blackwater and other private security firms in Iraq received hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts. Tactics used by the private security firms sometimes created ill will among Iraqis and Blackwater in particular was criticized, even by some in the U.S. military, for its allegedly reckless use of deadly force. Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder and former CEO, dismissed such allegations as \"baseless\" after his company was criticized by the Iraqi government for an incident in which its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded others while protecting a U.S. State Department convoy in Baghdad on September 16, 2007. \"To the extent there was the loss of innocent life, let me be clear that I consider that tragic,\" Prince said, adding that the Blackwater team \"acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone\" that day. Five ex-Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty in January to charges of voluntary manslaughter stemming from their involvement in the shootings. A sixth pleaded guilty to voluntary and attempted manslaughter. That same month, the Iraqi government refused to grant the firm an operating license, and the U.S. State Department announced that it will not renew its contract. In the two months since the exit of the Bush administration, Prince has stepped down as CEO and brought in a new leadership team. The company has changed its name to Xe, but Prince is still chairman. \"I think Blackwater's been punished enough,\" Zovko said, \"but they will be punished more. It's time our government makes some rules and regulations about what civilian contractors can do in their wars.\" This week, Xe released a brief statement to CNN about the Falluja killings, saying the \"sacrifices of these brave men have not been forgotten. On the five-year anniversary of their death, the company continues to mourn their loss. Our thoughts remain with their families and loved ones.\" Prince's promise . Both mothers seem to be making a conscious effort to control their anger five years on. \"I refuse to hate, but if I were gonna hate anybody, it would be Blackwater and Erik Prince,\" Helvenston-Wettengel said. \"I want Blackwater exposed for who they are, and I want them out of business.\" Zovko said she relies on her Catholic faith to control her anger. In 2007, Prince told CNN he would be willing to meet with Zovko, but 16 months later, no such meeting has taken place. \"He hasn't honored his promise, but I believe he will,\" Zovko said. \"Sometimes I think he doesn't have a heart, but he really does.\" Zovko said she wants to ask Prince, \"Where are my Jerry's three suitcases with personal things that I have never received?\" Also, she said Prince promised to invite Zovko to Blackwater's headquarters in North Carolina to see memorial stones and trees that were planted honoring the victims. \"That hasn't happened,\" Zovko said. Helvenston-Wettengel also said she'd like to meet with Prince. \"I'd like to look him in the eye, yeah. I'd say, 'How can you live with yourself?' \" CNN sought a response from Prince about his promised meeting with Zovko. Company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Prince had tried to meet with Zovko in early 2008 but was unable to \"due to scheduling conflicts.\" Both mothers' sons went to Iraq after careers in the U.S. military. Jerry Zovko, a former Army Ranger, had gone as a security contractor to train Iraqi soldiers. When that contract ended in late 2003, he signed on with a different company, Blackwater, according to his mother. For Scott Helvenston, Iraq was just the final chapter of a colorful career for the former Navy SEAL, a life that included a job as a stuntman and consultant for Hollywood films. On the set of 1997's \"G.I. Jane,\" shot in Jacksonville, Florida, Helvenston put Demi Moore through a rigorous training program, his mother said, even managing to grab a small role as an extra. A divorced father of two, Helvenston told his mother he would return from Iraq in two months, she said. \"He was going to go over there and make a bunch of money and come back and give it to his ex-wife,\" she said. Zovko and Helvenston-Wettengel have become close friends in the years since the tragedy, but on this anniversary, the two mothers will not be together to share their support and grief with each other. \"Traveling is getting to be troublesome for us both,\" said Zovko, who plans to remain near her home in Bratenahl, Ohio, to attend morning and evening masses at Cleveland's St. Paul Croatian Church. Helvenston-Wettengel also said she plans to attend church Tuesday in her hometown of Leesburg, Florida. Legal setbacks . As for the families' wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater, a federal judge in 2007 ordered that the case be taken out of the courts to be decided by a three-member arbitration panel. Senior U.S. District Judge James Fox sent the case to arbitration based on Blackwater's argument that the four victims had signed an agreement not to sue the company. A hearing is set for June 23. In court, Blackwater had argued that it was immune to such a lawsuit because, as an extension of the military, it cannot be held responsible for deaths in a war zone. At this point, Zovko said, both sides are losers. \"I lost my son, and Blackwater lost the dignity of the company they thought they were.\" Helvenston said she wants the whole thing to just end, but events keep dragging it out. \"They won't let me let it go.\" CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"It's been five years since killings of four U.S. contractors in Falluja .\nVictim's mom: \"I want Blackwater exposed and out of business\"\nBlackwater, renamed Xe, says it \"continues to mourn\" the loss of the four men .\nAnother mom: Both sides are losers in Blackwater suit .","id":"5b5a3f82f235ebb073be860c7041fc3b7d66c84f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has given a girl's parents the go-ahead to sue a Massachusetts school district over alleged sexual harassment by another student. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows a couple two avenues to pursue claims against their daughter's school district. The justices, in a unanimous ruling, allowed the plaintiffs two avenues to make their claims -- a 1972 law banning gender bias in education and a separate civil rights law enacted 138 years ago. Lisa and Robert Fitzgerald said their then-kindergartner daughter was forced by an older male student to lift her skirt or pull down her underwear. The parents alleged school officials ignored their concerns and refused to discipline the boy. Federal courts had been split over whether the newer law -- known as Title IX -- displaced any claims made under part of the 1871 civil rights law, called \"Section 1983.\" The Fitzgeralds lost their initial Title IX claims and an appeals court blocked them from pursuing the other legal strategy. The ruling from the justices now gives the Fitzgeralds the right to continue their lawsuit against school officials. \"We hold that Section 1983 suits based on the Equal Protection Clause remain available to plaintiffs alleging unconstitutional gender discrimination in schools,\" Justice Samuel Alito wrote. The plaintiffs allege the incidents happened on a school bus in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in the 2000-01 academic year. The child had told her parents that whenever she wore a dress, a third-grader would make her do things she did not want to do. After the mother complained to school officials, the boy denied the allegations. The principal, after interviewing other students and the bus driver, concluded she could not corroborate the girl's version of events. The principal suggested the girl be transferred to another bus as a possible solution. The Fitzgeralds said that amounted to punishing their daughter and said the boy was the one who should be transferred. The local police department also looked into the case but concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against the boy. The parents began driving the girl to school and filed a lawsuit, claiming the schools system's response was inadequate. School officials denied wrongdoing and tried to limit the case to Title IX, which applies to public or private schools receiving federal aid. The law is credited, among other things, with helping bring equality in sports participation and funding for college women. \"Our concern was that the school district just didn't take things as seriously as they should,\" said Charles Rothfeld, attorney for the Fitzgeralds. \"They were frustrated by what they perceived as indifference by the school.\" Rothfeld said the school's behavior was \"pretty egregious.\" Barnstable school officials did not respond to a request for comment. The case is Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Cmte. (07-1125).","highlights":"Parents allege older boy sexually harassed daughter on school bus .\nParents: School district ignored our concerns, refused to discipline the boy .\nU.S. Supreme Court: Parents can sue school district .","id":"82f0c64c4dbc17902671cf2a19b6de8c290864c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He performed to a watching audience of millions at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, but conducting the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra has been the most nerve-wracking thing the American-Chinese pop star Wang Leehom has undertaken for some time. From the Olympics to holding the baton himself, Leehom has tackled a variety of projects. \"I think I always throw myself in these impossible situations and then see if I can scramble out of them and gain something from these experiences,\" he told CNN during rehearsals for the December performances. \"Standing in front of the orchestra was intimidating at times, but I think we got through it, and I think we made some exciting waves in town. We definitely got the crowd excited about it.\" Leehom has certainly made waves with his Mandarin-language pop music, having sold around 15 million records, but as his recent foray in classical music confirms, he's more than just another voice with an interesting haircut. Growing up in the U.S. to a family of doctors, he excelled at school but decided to take a different path to his parents. After shunning the opportunity to study at an Ivy League university, he spent some time at Williams College of liberal arts before getting his big break in pop in Taiwan in 1995. At that time he admits he knew nothing about Chinese music and didn't speak Mandarin. Learning Mandarin was just another challenge Leehom rose to meet and he believes that having Chinese as a second language has been to his advantage, and his interest in the linguistics of the language has led to some of his more innovative work. \"I always think for artists to take their shortcomings and turn them around and make them into what define them as an artist is a real trick,\" he told CNN. \"I think it's a wonderful thing for people to understand how language can be transformed and mutilated for musical reasons and actually bring out something special orally,\" he said. Musically he's often been put in the same box as Mando-pop sensation Jay Chou, and has similarly has been the subject of rumor about ever aspect of his life, from his school grades to his sexuality. Watch Wang Leehom talk about his rivalry with Jay Chou \u00bb. Adding his face to a number of endorsements, the pressures of being in the public eye have made him become increasingly protective of his privacy. \"It's definitely changed me. It's like some defense mechanism I guess, to just be private, to keep things to myself, to protect myself or my loved ones. I am the same person, but just a different way of life,\" he said. However it hasn't stopped him from branching out and taking on an acting career. He made his big screen debut in 2000 in the Hong Kong action flick \"China Strike\", but it was his role in Ang Lee's international success \"Lust, Caution\" that brought him wider international attention. As for taking on new projects in the future, be they film, singing or even holding the baton once again, Leehom will stay true to his policy of challenging himself with different ventures. \"Sometimes it gives me a lot of trouble, sometimes it ends up launching a career which has been very good for me,\" he said.","highlights":"Wang Leehom is a multi-million-album selling American-Chinese pop star .\nSings in Mandarin despite it being his second language .\nHas a successful acting career, appearing in Ang Lee's \"Lust, caution\"\nWeb exclusive: Watch Wang Leehom talk about his rivalry with Jay Chou .","id":"9d6fc06031ee52c382bfc1b8f233195e7ab4135f"} -{"article":"BARCELONA, Spain (CNN) -- Cell phone makers Tuesday pledged to end one of modern life's chief frustrations --- and introduce a universal charger for handsets by 2012. An estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold in 2008, at least half of which were replacement handsets. The GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), which represents more than 750 of the world's cell phone operators, made the announcement at its annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Tuesday. Under the scheme, phone makers have pledged that a majority of new handset models will include the universal charger by January 1 2012. The planned device will use a micro USB plug. Aside from bringing relief to drawers stuffed full of redundant chargers, the GSMA stressed that the new device would reduce raw materials. \"The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues and this programme is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers,\" said Rob Conway, CEO and member of the board of the GSMA in a statement. Last year an estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold, according to University of Southern Queensland data reported by the GSMA, of which handsets accounted for between 50 and 80 per cent. That equates to between 51,000 and 82,000 tonnes of chargers. The GSMA hopes the initiative will slash the greenhouse gases that result from the manufacture and transport of chargers by 13.6 and 21.8 million tonnes each year. \"There is enormous potential in mobile to help people live and work in an eco-friendly way and with the backing of some or the biggest names in the industry, this initiative will lead the way,\" Conway added. The GSMA says that companies which have signed up to the plan include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telef\u00f3nica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.","highlights":"The GSMA represents more than 750 of the world's cell-phone operators .\nPlan is that majority of new models will have micro-USB charger by January 2012 .\nAn estimated 1.2 billion cell phones sold in 2008, at least half replacement handsets .","id":"50e82dc0c2e8b81fa6a36d1eca91c48048d58e06"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Those who were in AC Milan's San Siro stadium Saturday night for the Italian club's Serie A clash with Fiorentina say the atmosphere felt like a long \"good bye.\" Kaka waves to supporters during Milan's match with Fiorentina on Saturday. As Kaka entered the pitch he took a long look around and then beat his fist on his chest -- a gesture commonly used by footballers to display their loyalty to supporters. Was he saying Milan will always be in his heart? Or was he simply giving everyone a heartfelt \"saludo\"? Kaka, Milan's Brazilian superstar and a former world footballer of the year, is reported to be the subject of a $150 million bid from super-rich English club Manchester City that would smash football's transfer word record. Milan's supporters are on Kaka's side, because they believe it is club officials who want to sell him. Silvio Berlusconi, no longer the club's president but the man in charge when it comes to make major decisions, said this week that it was difficult to ask someone who earns 10 million euros a year to turn down an offer of 15 million euros, adding \"It's a difficult offer to refuse.\" Berlusconi is counting his own money. Italy's prime minister is also the country's richest man and he remains businessman at heart. He purchased Kaka in 2003 for $7.5 million (roughly 8 million euros at the time). Selling him on would generate a massive profit on his investment -- in cash and paid up front. Privately, most Milan supporters would probably agree with Berlusconi's reasoning. After all, when so much money is at stake, your head as much as your heart must decide, and the ball at this point is with Kaka rather than club officials. Still supporters displayed a mix of anger and sarcasm on Saturday evening. \"Hands off Kaka\" read one banner, while another said: \"I thought the devil could not sell its soul, but I was wrong,\" referring to Milan's devil's head logo. \"Berlusconi, Interista\" read another one, referring to Inter, the city's other top team and AC Milan's archrivals. In a choreographed protest 30 minutes into Saturday's match, hundreds of supporters occupying a section of the central stand waved 50-euro notes towards AC Milan President Adriano Galliani, sitting just above them. Galliani didn't react, but perhaps thought to himself that the money wasn't even enough to pay Kaka's wages for a day. The 26-year-old will reportedly earn around $500,000 a week at Manchester City. Likewise, the 5,000 supporters who signed a petition to keep the Brazilian star in Milan would have to pay $100 a week each to match the offer. A single banner criticized the player. \"I belong to money\" it read, referring to the \"I belong to Jesus\" t-shirt Kaka has displayed occasionally after scoring a goal. The banner stayed up only a few minutes but then mysteriously disappeared. Even on this emotional evening at the San Siro there was no room for criticism of the fans' Brazilian hero. At the end of the game Kaka's teammates hugged him and he waved again towards the supporters. Was he saying goodbye to them -- or to a $150 million move to Manchester?","highlights":"Milan fans express anger over Kaka's rumored $150M move to Manchester City .\nFans wave banknotes at club officials, display \"Hands off Kaka\" banners .\nBrazilian waved to fans, beat chest with fist, at start and end of match .\nMilan have admitted 26-year-old could leave club in a world record deal .","id":"03f312b1db9aad1e818388588967b1072fcd1060"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama addressed Congress shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, but a casual viewer might have believed it was actually morning in America. President Obama takes a page from Ronald Reagan's playbook in his speech to Congress. \"Morning in America\" was the theme of Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, and it was front and center in Obama's most critical event since Inauguration Day. The president who has pledged to reverse much of Reagan's economic revolution took a page from the 40th president's playbook in his 52-minute speech, striking a defiantly optimistic tone that belied the nation's sour mood and rebutted critics who have accused him of intentionally talking down the economy for short-term political gain. \"Though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,\" Obama declared to a thunderous round of applause from a packed House chamber. See video highlights of the speech, issue by issue \u00bb . Delivered against a backdrop of dismal economic news and with polls showing overwhelming majorities of Americans believing the country is on the wrong track, Obama's first speech to Congress amounted to a political tour de force. He proposed what many claim is a complete overhaul of the country's economic foundation while ripping his conservative predecessors for transferring \"wealth to the wealthy\" and gutting regulations \"for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market.\" And he did it while employing some of Reagan's favorite rhetorical tools. Obama stuck to a fairly short list of priorities while invoking traditional American values of responsibility, hard work and thrift to pound home a back-to-basics message. iReport.com: 'Obama just replaced Reagan' \"A generosity, a resilience, a decency and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity ... Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure,\" he said. It is time, he declared, to \"summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit.\" Ideological differences aside, the nation's 44th president has made no secret of his admiration for his Republican predecessor. \"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not,\" Obama argued at the start of last year's Democratic primaries. Reagan, Obama said, knew that Americans \"want clarity. We want optimism. We want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that [has] been missing.\" Tuesday night's speech featured all of those elements. \"The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist ... in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth,\" Obama said. What did you think of the speech? Rate it through our CNN report card \u00bb . The president's agenda as defined in his address to Congress may have been the most ambitious in a generation or even two, but it was also easily boiled down to a few bullet points: restore financial stability, strengthen education and promote energy independence and health care reform. It was, in many ways, the mirror image of 1981, when a newly inaugurated Reagan used the combination of stagnating economic growth and skyrocketing inflation to promote an equally ambitious, simple agenda: cut taxes, shrink government and build up the defense budget. \"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,\" White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said shortly after the election in November. In fact, Obama's team believes that their boss has already trumped both the Great Communicator and Obama's immediate Democratic predecessor. Reagan didn't get his economic agenda passed until summer 1981, a senior White House official noted before the speech Tuesday. And when then-President Bill Clinton delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress in 1993, he had only passed the Family and Medical Leave Act and was struggling politically because of the gays-in-the-military flap. In contrast, Obama has already signed into law a sweeping $787 billion economic plan, an expansion of children's health insurance coverage and pay equity legislation. The senior official boasted that Obama has \"gotten more done in 30 days ... than any modern president.\" When he took office in 1981, Reagan said, \"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.\" Obama's response came Tuesday night: \"I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves, that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.\" It is morning in America again. A new day has clearly dawned.","highlights":"Like Reagan, Obama takes a defiantly optimistic tone in speech to Congress .\nObama employs some of Reagan's favorite rhetorical tools .\nBut Obama rejects Reagan view that government has no role in prosperity .","id":"718ebba17f3a3bde51e3c588eef5b12b61eb8f9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just like some U.S. officials looking into the mystery, the man who captured video of an apparent fireball plunging from the sky over Texas on Sunday is perplexed about what it was. Video captured in Austin, Texas, shows a meteor-like object in the sky Sunday morning. \"I don't know what I saw in the sky. It was something burning and falling really fast,\" Eddie Garcia, a videographer for News 8 Austin, told CNN Monday. \"I'm looking in the viewfinder and I see, just, something flying through the sky. And it kind of looks like it could be dust, it could be something, and then I look up and, no, it was something burning in the sky,\" he said. \"And you know, this is something that you see at night clearly during a meteor shower or something like that, but you don't see something like that during the day.\" Authorities in Texas said there were reports of sonic booms in the area Sunday as well. Watch video of meteor-like fireball \u00bb . Early speculation was that it might have been debris from two satellites -- one American, one Russian -- that rammed into each other in space a week ago. But the U.S. Strategic Command, which tracks satellite debris, said it was not. \"There is no correlation between those reports and any of that debris from the collision,\" command spokeswoman Maj. Regina Winchester told CNN Monday. So what was it? \"I don't know,\" she responded. \"It's possible it was some kind of natural phenomenon, maybe a meteor.\" Meteor fireballs bright enough to be seen in the daytime are rare but not unheard of. Two of the most recent fell in October in the Alice Springs region of Australia and last June just west of Salt Lake City, Utah. The one over Australia was unique because the asteroid that caused it was discovered and tracked before it reached Earth's atmosphere, according to the Sydney Observatory's Web site. It says the asteroid was about 6.5 feet wide. A sonic boom also was heard in connection with that event, the Australian observatory says. On Friday, the National Weather Service reported that its office in Jackson, Kentucky, had received calls about \"possible explosions\" or \"earthquakes\" in that area. \"The Federal Aviation Administration has reported to local law enforcement that these events are being caused by falling satellite debris,\" the service said Friday. \"These pieces of debris have been causing sonic booms, resulting in the vibrations being felt by some residents, as well as flashes of light across the sky. The cloud of debris is likely the result of the recent in-orbit collision of two satellites on Tuesday February 10, when Kosmos 2251 crashed into Iridium 33.\" CNN's call Monday to NASA to get its take on the fireball over Texas was not immediately returned. Garcia said he had been told NASA may have called him. The FAA had asked pilots Saturday to keep an eye out for \"falling space debris,\" warning that \"a potential hazard may occur due to re-entry of satellite debris into the Earth's atmosphere.\" FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said Sunday there had been no reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft in flight. He said the FAA had received no reports from pilots in the air of any sightings, but had gotten \"numerous\" calls from people on the ground in Texas, from Dallas south to Austin. As of Monday morning, Herwig said his agency had no information about what the fireball was. iReport.com: Did you see the fireball? Send photos, video . He also said the FAA had rescinded its warning to pilots to look out for space debris. Garcia, the videographer, was out covering a marathon race Sunday morning when he caught a glimpse of the blaze. In the video, it appear as a meteor-like white fireball blazing across the clear sky. \"I remember shooting it and wondering what I shot, and then looking around and seeing if anyone saw it with me, and everyone was just focused on that marathon that we were shooting at the time,\" he told CNN Newsroom. Whatever it was, Garcia said he's \"just grateful I got a shot of it. And, hopefully, that'll help\" people figure out what it was.","highlights":"Video shot in Austin, Texas, shows meteor-like object in sky Sunday morning .\nFireball sightings, reports of sonic booms come days after satellite collision in space .\nFAA told U.S. pilots to watch for \"falling space debris\"","id":"5311cecdb7bd6e9b7b1146f47592bda1d9383de5"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Once upon a time, the iconic lead singer of Led Zeppelin and the golden girl of bluegrass would never have been mentioned in the same sentence. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's \"Raising Sand\" was an unlikely collaboration that won five Grammys. But since they won five Grammy awards -- including album of the year for their surprising collaboration, \"Raising Sand\" -- their names have been inextricably linked: RobertPlantandAlisonKrauss. If they were 20 years old and ran in Hollywood circles, tabloids might be calling them Robekrauss or Aliplant. Plant, however, is 60 -- in fantastic shape, and with a full head of the golden ringlets that became his trademark during the 1970s. At 37, Krauss is elegant and ethereal. And while both are dead serious when talking about their craft, the rest of the time, they're like two silly junior high kids -- he, the charming prankster with a secret crush, and she, the beautiful prom queen who pretends not to be amused. Clearly, they're both having the time of their lives, and are excited about their current musical journey -- which pushes each out of their respective comfort zones and into new territory. Now, he's a little bit country and she's a little bit rock 'n' roll. Watch Plant and Krauss rib each other \u00bb . I compliment Krauss on her hair as a stylist touches her up. \"It's not mine,\" she whispers. Two feet away, Plant clears his throat loudly and points to his own golden locks. \"Why, your hair looks lovely, too, Robert,\" I say. \"Well, you know who I am,\" he replies. We are in Coldplay's vacated dressing room, two nights before Plant and Krauss swept the evening at the 51st annual Grammy Awards. This is an excerpt from our conversation in the basement of Staples Center in Los Angeles the night of their rehearsal. CNN: First of all, this is the screwiest collaboration I had ever heard of. How did this happen? Robert Plant: It's just sheer luck, really. I never sang with anybody before, you know -- only once ever in my life, on \"Led Zep IV\" with Sandy Denny [the late English folk singer, in 1971]. So this is a whole new thing. I've also been coming to the United States for 40 years -- you wouldn't believe it looking at me -- and I've never worked with Americans! This is all brand new for me. Alison Krauss: Were we both nervous? We both were. We thought, \"What are we going to do in there?\" We went into the studio originally saying, \"We'll give it three days and see what it's like.\" Plant: Alison's reputation is 24 karat, and I'm an old rock 'n' roll singer. Even the band was kind of going, \"Oh wow, how is this going to work?\" It was great when we kicked in together, and I could just feel the room -- I don't want to say it, but the room lifted! CNN: Musically, you're polar opposites. How did you blend your different perspectives? Plant: As we got started, it was Alison's world. She knew how she wanted to proceed, and we exchanged a lot of ideas musically. And then we both agreed that because we both produced records ourselves, that we needed an intermediary to guide -- somebody to separate us, or to make the journey more clear. And Alison knew T Bone Burnett from \"O Brother, Where Art Thou,\" and he kindly enlisted for the gig, and he brought a lot of great songs to the show. CNN: You challenged one another to sing in different ways than you're used to. Plant: When she goes up for these wailing notes on stage, that's where I want her to go with this new project -- occasionally visit these places where she lets rip, and just lets it really come out. Krauss (melodramatically): It's just reckless abandon! It's just crazy! Plant: I don't know why I'm being so serious. She just kicks ass and nobody knew it! CNN: Now this is all making sense. With Alison, it's letting go, and with you, Robert, it's kind of containing things. Plant: I'm being bullied, basically. Pushed around. CNN: But you like it. Admit it, you love it. Plant: Oh, I do! I haven't even gotten off to being bullied enough yet. CNN: Did you have this much fun working with Zeppelin? Plant: I can't remember. Honestly, I haven't got a clue. I was a totally different guy then. It was 28 years ago. I didn't look as good as I do now, and I didn't share the couch with another Leo. CNN: Alison, did you listen to Led Zeppelin growing up? Krauss: We all have, yeah. (Plant is shaking his head and mouthing the word \"No.\") My brother was and is such a huge fan of the band, and I remember growing up and he would be in his bedroom yelling about the records and how great they were. CNN: Robert, were you familiar with Alison's work? Plant: Yeah, to some degree, but not as intensely as I became. And also, I didn't understand the history of where Alison's from [bluegrass], and has been since she was a child. In fact, both of us can sit there talking about music, and neither of us can recognize the artists we're referring to. It's amazing. I mean, all the rock 'n' roll, and black Mississippi and Chicago stuff that I go raving on about, she's going, \"Hmm.\" Krauss: I didn't grow up on that, yeah. CNN: Has he made you listen to his music collection? Plant: We share. Krauss: I bring bluegrass. It's the same people. Same blue-collar people. Just one was south of the Delta, and one was Virginia and Tennessee and North Carolina. So we've got lots in common -- but it's the presentation and the whole musicality of it that's different. CNN: Your collaboration has worked out so well that you're back in the studio in Nashville, working on a second album together. Plant: We'd like to keep it going. CNN: Do you think there's going to be an album No. 3, and an album No. 4? Plant: I'd have to move to Nashville, wouldn't I? CNN: Or she moves to England. Plant (to Krauss): Could you stand the climate? Krauss: I'll get a heating pad. Plant: And a season ticket for Wolverhampton Wanderers football club. That's important. CNN: You gained a lot of fans with this project, but there are those Led Zeppelin diehards who've been holding their breath for a reunion tour -- especially since you reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert at Wembley in 2007. Plant: Well, we had a really good night, and we had great rehearsals, and it was very emotional -- and if you like, quite elevating. But it was the right thing to do to do it that way. There's no bandwagon. We've already been around the world, and did what we did when we were young men. CNN: That sounds like a man who's looking forward, and not back. Plant: Only last week, I was being grilled again by Alison to get into shape and get it right. And that's fantastic! I really want that. I don't want to go around, everybody thinking, \"That's what he did.\" Because this is what I do, and every day, it should be more interesting. CNN: And in the meantime, you've been recognized by the Grammys. Plant: We've already won by doing this. We've brought our gifts, and we've shared them, and the whole surrounding musically is so beautiful, that that's our reward. The fact that it worked. The fact that it wasn't some embarrassing moment of two people trying something out, and saying goodbye, and then meeting at a party years later and saying, \"Oh, Christ, there's Alison Krauss! Oh, no!\"","highlights":"Robert Plant, Alison Krauss collaborated on \"Raising Sand\"\nDuo confesses they were nervous working together, but it worked .\nAlbum won album of the year at Grammys .\nPlant on Led Zeppelin reunion: 2007 show was \"emotional,\" but that's probably it .","id":"639c56d5333032b8295dc33f2292de4fb0f63619"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Allendale, South Carolina, are investigating whether a funeral home fit a 6-foot, 5-inch man into his coffin by severing his legs. The wife of James Hines reportedly said the funeral home told her that her husband's coffin was long enough. A former Cave Funeral Services employee has alleged since James Hines' death from skin cancer in 2004 that Hines was too tall for his coffin and that the funeral home took extreme measures to make him fit, Allendale County Coroner Hayzen Black told CNN. Officials exhumed Hines' body Tuesday, Black said, and a fair amount of \"undesirable evidence\" was found, although he could not comment further. The coroner's office handed the case over to law enforcement officials for a criminal investigation, he said. Allendale Police Detective Donnie Hutto told CNN affiliate WJBF-TV that he could not comment on the condition of the body. A Cave Funeral Services employee had no comment when asked about the matter. But Ruth Hines, widow of the dead man, told WJBF that the allegations and exhumation of Hines' body are difficult for her. \"I'm just going through quite a bit,\" she said. \"It's like starting all over again, and it's left me with hurt and numbness.\" \"According to the measurements on the casket, and the funeral director, we asked him, 'Was this suitable for his length?' and he said, 'Yes that will be perfect,'\" Ruth Hines said. Hines told WJBF that her family has used Cave Funeral Services for a number of years, and she isn't sure what the family will do in the future if the allegations are true.","highlights":"At 6'5'', former employee says James Hines was too tall for coffin after death in 2004 .\nEmployee told authorities that funeral home took extreme measures to make him fit .\nOfficials exhume body Tuesday, find \"undesirable evidence,\" county coroner says .\nCave Funeral Services employee would not comment .","id":"783c2db85e095a0048b48331cb027bd2aaad2c58"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Virginia Military Institute cadet has been charged with rape and sodomy after a female cadet reported she was the victim of sexual assault. Stephen J. Lloyd, 21, is being held in the Rockbridge Regional Jail in Lexington, Virginia, according to a spokesman for the Rockbridge County Sheriff's Office. The alleged assault took place over the weekend, VMI superintendent retired Gen. J.H. Binford Peay said in a statement, and Lloyd was arrested by VMI police on Tuesday. \"After the female cadet made her report, the systems and procedures that are in place to address the safety of all cadets and to provide support were immediately placed into operation,\" Peay said in the statement. The case has been referred to the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorney and the state's criminal justice system, Peay said. Of VMI's 1,428 cadets, 111 are women, school spokesman Lt. Col. Stewart MacInnis told CNN affiliate WSLS-TV.","highlights":"Accused cadet is being held in the Rockbridge Regional Jail in Lexington, Virginia .\nThe alleged assault took place over the weekend .\nCase has been referred to the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorney .","id":"c54e12817ddc45894ab8f8ade37132d6fc36d8a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A receptionist with a gunshot wound in her stomach played dead under her desk and called 911 on Friday after a shooting massacre in a Binghamton, New York, immigration center. Zhanar Tokhtabayeba, who was taking an English class at the center, says she hid in a closet during the rampage. It is unclear how much time passed from the moment the woman and her colleague were shot until she placed the 911 call, police said. But by the time law enforcement arrived at the American Civic Association, about two minutes after the 10:31 a.m. call to 911, the shootings had ceased and 14 people were dead in the center, including the suspected gunman, law enforcement officials said. Four more people were wounded in the attack, in what the city's mayor has called the \"most tragic day in Binghamton's history.\" The incident has sent shockwaves through Binghamton, a city of about 50,000 about 140 miles northwest of New York City, as police work to confirm the gunman's identity. A senior law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation identified the suspect as Jiverly Wong, who is believed to be in his early 40s. Authorities executed a search warrant at Wong's home in Johnson City, near Binghamton, and spoke to the suspect's mother, the source said. Binghamton police Chief Joseph Zikuski said Wong, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was unemployed at the time of the shooting. He told CNN's Susan Candiotti that Wong had recently worked in a vacuum repair shop. Christine Guy said she worked with Wong a few years a go at Endicott Interconnect Technologies, a high-tech electronics company in Endicott, New York, where he was an engineer. He went by the name \"Vaughn,\" which is what co-workers called him, she said. View photos from the scene in Binghamton \u00bb . \"He was quiet -- not a violent person,\" said Guy, who now lives in Wellington, Colorado. \"I can't believe he would do something like this. Police are still investigating motives but said the use of a car to block the back door of the building suggested premeditation. \"It is our understanding he had ties to the civic association,\" Zikuski said. Watch Zikuski give a timeline of the shooting \u00bb . The shooter, who was carrying a satchel of ammunition, was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot to the head, Zikuski said. In all, law enforcement removed 14 bodies from the building and 37 survivors, Zikuski said. Watch Binghamton's mayor extend his condolences \u00bb . Two semi-automatic handguns -- a .45-caliber and a 9-millimeter -- were found at the center, where immigrants were believed to be taking citizenship and language classes. Most of those who managed to survive the incident hid in a boiler room and storage closets during the rampage. \"I heard shootings, very long time, about five minutes, and I was thinking when it will be stopped, but it was continued. No screaming, yelling, just silence, shooting, silence, shooting, silence,\" said Zhanar Tokhtabayeba, who was taking an English class. \"It's free English class and it's very good, but now I'm scared to go,\" she said. Others in the building also reportedly described lulls between the gunshots. \"They told me they tried to be quiet and run away,\" Than Huynh, 45, a high school teacher who translated for some of the Vietnamese survivors during police interviews, told the New York Times. At 10:31 a.m., authorities received a 911 call from the receptionist, who said she'd been shot in the stomach, Zikuski said. View a timeline of recent U.S. shootings \u00bb . She told police that a man with a handgun also shot and killed another receptionist before proceeding to a nearby classroom, where he gunned down more victims, Zikuski said. While the gunman continued to fire, 26 others in the center hid in a boiler room downstairs, where law enforcement found them. It took another two hours or so for officers to clear the building. Some men who were led out of the building in plastic handcuffs were not considered suspects, the chief said. Wilson Medical Center spokeswoman Christina Boyd said the Binghamton hospital was treating two females and one male for gunshot wounds. Another victim, a male Binghamton University student, was treated and is in stable condition at Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, hospital spokeswoman Kathy Cramer said. Watch store owner describe police 'flooding the streets' \u00bb . One man who owns a business across the street said he didn't realize anything was wrong until police cars came rushing to the scene. \"We were thinking that there's some sort of dispute, some disagreement,\" Richard Griffis told CNN. \"But then it became obvious it was more than a disgreement, there must be some sort of gun involved because of the way they were surrounding the building.\" President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama offered their condolences to the grieving community. Are you there? See submitted images, send your own . \"Michelle and I were shocked and deeply saddened to learn about the act of senseless violence in Binghamton, New York, today,\" he said. \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and the people of Binghamton.\" Vice President Joe Biden, who was in New York on unrelated business, also condemned the acts and called on Americans to stop the cycle of violence. \"I'd ask you to keep all those folks in your prayers,\" he said. \"I think it's time that, we gotta figure a way to deal with this senseless, senseless violence.\" Watch Biden call shootings 'senseless' \u00bb . Nearby apartments were evacuated, and Binghamton High School was locked down for most of the afternoon. The American Civic Association helps immigrants and refugees with a number of issues, including personal counseling, resettlement, citizenship and reunification, and provides interpreters and translators, according to the United Way of Broome County, which is affiliated with the association. Rashidun Haque, who owns a nearby convenience store, said police had him and his four customers stay inside and away from the windows. \"I'm really shaky, because this kind of thing -- it's a small city, it's a beautiful city, but nothing goes down serious like this,\" Haque said. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Marylynn Ryan and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Survivor didn't hear screams, just \"shooting, silence, shooting, silence\"\nNEW: Former co-worker describes shooting suspect as \"quiet,\" not violent .\nLaw enforcement finds 14 dead in immigration center, 37 survivors .\nShootings occurred at American Civic Association, which helps immigrants, refugees .","id":"e12973d2a5745a7381e0c19ae14106ecf0eaceb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eight-year-old Sandra Cantu came home from school, kissed her mother, and left to color and play with a friend who lived a couple of houses down. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared on Friday, according to police in Tracy, California. That was at 3 p.m. Friday. By Tuesday -- despite an intense search by hundreds of search-and-rescue personnel and volunteers over three days -- the little girl in the pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings had yet to be found. The mysterious disappearance of Sandra from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy, California -- about 60 miles east of San Francisco -- has baffled law enforcement officials. A dozen different agencies are looking for her. Watch Nancy Grace on the case \u00bb . \"The entire weekend was filled with just a massive search effort -- a manhunt involving multiple freeways, agents checking cars, volunteers going door-to-door,\" said Sebastian Kunz, a reporter with KNEW-AM radio in San Francisco, who is covering the case. \"A lot of people are pulling for this little girl.\" On Monday night, Tracy police and FBI agents searched six locations, some in the mobile home park and some in Tracy, and all of them connected to two men. Authorities did not call the men suspects, and did not name them publicly. They said both live in the mobile home park but did not say how or if they are related to Sandra. \"We're looking for evidence that will lead to the discovery of Sandra's whereabouts,\" Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters Monday night. \"We operate on the assumption she is alive and well.\" Sandra came home from school about 3 p.m. Friday. She asked to go play with a friend who lived a few houses down in the same mobile home park. \"I told her it was OK,\" Sandra's mother, Maria Chavez, told CNN's Nancy Grace, dabbing tears. \"And that was the last time I saw her.\" Surveillance camera footage recorded the girl playing in the park. But her parents reported her missing about 8 p.m. Friday, when she was supposed to be visiting a second friend. \"We just know that she had gone to the first house, and played for just a very short time. And then she was on her way to another friend's house,\" said Lisa Encarnacion, the spokeswoman for Sandra's family. \"And we don't know, we can't confirm that she was there or she was not.\" The mobile home park has less than 100 units. There are about 80 registered sex offenders living in a five-mile radius around it. The family has not looked at the list of offenders to see if they may know any of them, Encarnacion told Nancy Grace. And so the search continues. A reward fund set up for information leading to Sandra's return grew to $7,000 Monday. More than 150 tips poured in, police said. But, at least for now, none has yielded information on the 4-foot-tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl.","highlights":"Tracy, California, police, FBI, volunteers search for girl missing since Friday .\nSome search sites are linked to two men who have not been named as suspects .\nSandra Cantu played with one friend on Friday, left for a second friend's house .\nIt's not clear whether she ever got to the second house, distraught family says .","id":"896a51d66f6bfafc25d0811a0d8b9b69820fc032"} -{"article":"NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia (CNN) -- Suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick will go to work for a construction company in Newport News, Virginia, after he leaves federal prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation, his lawyer said Thursday. Football player Michael Vick listens as his lawyers make the case for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The details emerged in a Chapter 11 confirmation hearing in Virginia Eastern Bankruptcy Court to determine how Vick, 28, will work his way out of bankruptcy. Vick's lawyer, Michael Blumenthal, told the court that the embattled footballer will take the stand first thing Friday and explain how he intends to turn over a new leaf after spending nearly two years in prison on a federal conspiracy charge. Vick's 23-month sentence ends in July, but he is expected to be released from the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, in May and serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement, most likely in Virginia. He is a native of Newport News. The sports agent who landed Vick's landmark 10-year, $140 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons also testified that he expects Vick will be back in the game as soon as September -- if the NFL reinstates him. Vick is in great shape and could once again command millions of dollars if he returns to football, Joel Segal told the court. The decision to reinstate Vick rests with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, with whom Segal said he had consulted. Vick was suspended from the NFL after his conviction but remains under contract with the Falcons, Segal said, though he does not expect the Falcons to retain Vick's rights if he is reinstated. Vick and many of his creditors are depending on a return to football as his main source of income. But Segal admitted that he has no way of knowing whether Vick will be reinstated, because the decision lies with Goodell. In the meantime, Vick is ready to \"get back in the community in a positive light\" and demonstrate remorse for his actions, Segal said. He has agreed to participate in a documentary about him that will net him $600,000, Segal said. He will also work 40 hours a week for W.M. Jordan, a construction company based in Newport News. The employment is not part of the official 61-page agreement tentatively worked out between's Vick's lawyers and numerous creditors. The parties involved in the hearing will continue to present evidence and testimony in an effort to convince the judge that Vick qualifies for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Attorneys and representatives from the creditors, including Bank of America, the Atlanta Falcons and the City of Newport News, to name a few, packed the courtroom Thursday as the hearing got under way. Vick's mother sat in the gallery with his fianc\u00e9e, who blew him a kiss during one break in the proceedings. Among the terms included in Vick's plan of reorganization: . \u2022 Vick will retain the first $750,000 of his income. \u2022 A percentage of his income above $750,000 will go to a trust fund. CNN's Eric Fiegel contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Agent Joe Segal expects Vick to return to football as soon as September .\nNEW: Vick is ready to return to community in \"positive light,\" show remorse .\nSuspended player is seeking Chapter 11 confirmation from Virginia judge .\nVick will work 40 hours a week for Virginia-based W.M. Jordan, lawyer says .","id":"bf8767bb77a8e67a6d614acbed6c823d5b82b353"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If you have a stash of pistachios in your house, pistachio ice cream in your freezer or trail mix in your backpack, don't eat any of it. The FDA says it and the California Department of Public Health are taking \"a proactive approach.\" Wait until an inquiry into possible salmonella contamination is further along, advises FDA Associate Commissioner David Acheson. Kraft Foods Inc. notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last Tuesday that it found salmonella in roasted pistachios during routine testing. The nuts were traced to Setton Farms in Terra Bella, California, about 75 miles south of Fresno. Setton announced a recall, Kraft removed its Back To Nature Trail Mix from store shelves, and Kroger -- a grocery chain with stores in 31 states -- recalled Private Selection shelled pistachios from its retail stores. See the FDA's complete recall list . \"Ultimately, the question is what should consumers do, and our advice to consumers is that they avoid eating pistachio products and keep checking the FDA Web site for the latest information,\" Acheson said. Watch why it's important not to eat the nuts \u00bb . An investigation is under way into how the pistachios came to carry the bacteria. Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Acheson stressed at a news conference Monday that the potential problems with pistachios were unrelated to this year's recall of peanut products, including peanut butter. The pistachio investigation also involves the California Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Setton Farms told the FDA that it anticipates recalling about 1 million pounds of products nationally in the next few days, which covers its crop output last year. Several people have told the FDA that they suffered gastrointestinal illnesses after eating pistachios, and the CDC was doing a genetic analysis, looking for any link between the people and salmonella strains, Acheson said. He said there could be some results by the end of the week. He said the FDA is \"ahead of the curve\" in the current investigation. \"I want to emphasize that this recall was not triggered because of an outbreak, in contrast to some of the previous situations, for example, like the peanuts where people were getting sick and it was determined that peanuts, peanut butter was the likely cause,\" Acheson said. \"This is a situation that the recall is being triggered because of ... action taken on the part of the food industry,\" he added. \"What we're doing here is getting out ahead of the curve. It's a proactive approach by the FDA and the California Department of Health.\" Jeff Cronin, spokesman for the advocacy organization Center for Science in the Public Interest, had a mixed reaction to Acheson's comments. \"I think it's partly the case,\" Cronin said. \"It's good that the FDA is proactively issuing advice to consumers.\" But \"this still begets the question of 'how did this contamination happen in the first place?' Is this an isolated problem, or are we going to be hearing the same kind of horror stories that we heard about ... the company that produced the peanuts?\" He said he wondered when was the last time the FDA visited Setton Farms and whether it had known of problems there. In February, the Texas Department of State Health Services ordered the recall of all products shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America's plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant. The company's peanut butter and peanut paste products produced at its plant in Blakely, Georgia, were linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella poisoning that affected 600 people, nine of whom died. According to state health officials and many experts, the deadly outbreak of salmonella was fueled by poor oversight by food safety regulators and a slow response by federal agencies. The first problem is that almost nothing can stop companies from shipping contaminated food, William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner, told a U.S. Senate committee in February. He also said there are not enough federal inspections. Other critics said the FDA stepped in too late in the peanut case to prevent a bigger problem. Food safety experts say the underlying cause of the problem is that the century-old system of regulation is broken. In the peanut case, the experts say, the federal government failed to oversee the safety of products coming out of the Blakely plant and was slow to identify it as the source of the salmonella.","highlights":"FDA: Don't eat pistachios until possible salmonella contamination is investigated .\nKraft Foods notified FDA of salmonella found during routine testing .\nThe tainted nuts were traced to Setton Farms in Terra Bella, California .\nSetton Farms announced a recall of 1 million pounds of pistachio products .","id":"3c96fc71d826610b57e0b56beae1472bc7f79634"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Guitarist Carlos Santana signed on as the first rock 'n' roll resident artist at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's new concert hall, The Joint. Santana will not play any other shows west of the Mississippi River over the next two years. The two-year deal calls for Santana to play 36 shows a year, starting May 27, the hotel said. The Joint, which holds 4,000, opens next month with Paul McCartney in a show that sold out earlier this month in just seven seconds. Santana said his show -- \"Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits\" -- will \"mix up a little practical spirituality with a rebel-from-the-street vibe, and with lots of incredible music.\" \"My wish is for it to be a night that will move you to dance, to cry, to laugh and to feel the totality and fullness of being alive,\" Santana said. Santana, who has sold 90 million records over the past 40 years, is credited with blending American rock with Latin jazz. Santana's deal is exclusive, meaning he will play no other shows west of the Mississippi River over the next two years, according to the news release announcing it. Santana's residency is produced by AEG Live, the same company that brought Celine Dion, Elton John, Bette Midler and Cher to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. \"Now we are setting the standard for rock 'n' roll residencies with this new deal,\" said John Meglen, AEG Live president.","highlights":"Guitar player Santana to play 36 shows a year, starting May 27 .\nLas Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's new concert hall holds 4,000 seats .\nAEG Live president: \"Now we are setting the standard for rock 'n' roll residencies\"","id":"182a90328cea3d382f90a2e5e1b4083d3eab538e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The venerable CBS soap opera \"Guiding Light\" will go dark in September after 72 years and 16,000 episodes, the network announced Wednesday. Gina Tognoni is one of many performers who have appeared on \"Guiding Light\" over the years. The daytime drama's declining viewership led to the decision, according to a CBS spokeswoman. The show, which the Guinness Book of World Records lists as the longest-running television drama, first aired on NBC radio in 1937 as a 15-minute serial, the spokeswoman said. It moved to television on the CBS network in 1952 as 15-minute drama. It later went to 30 minutes, and on November 7, 1977, it expanded to one hour and introduced the wealthy Spaulding family as foils to the show's middle-class Bauers, who were a mainstay of the show for much of its run. In 1979, the show did a groundbreaking storyline when the character of Roger Thorpe (played by the late Michael Zaslow) raped his wife, Holly (Maureen Garrett). The marital-rape story line reflected a significant real-life case in 1978 -- the state of Oregon v. John J. Rideout. It was the first time in modern U.S. history that a man was charged with raping his wife and then put on trial. It prompted national debate about whether a man had absolute sexual rights with his spouse. Rideout was acquitted. Among the actors who went on to greater fame after roles on the show: Kevin Bacon, James Earl Jones and Taye Diggs. The last episode is set to air on September 18, the spokeswoman said. The show is produced in New York.","highlights":"\"Guiding Light\" originally was radio serial on NBC, debuted in 1937 .\nShow moved to CBS, which put it on TV in 1952 .\nLast episode of show to air September 18 .\nKevin Bacon among the stars who got their start on show .","id":"126f00ba494daa2ab04c0bb023f9e0321e52456c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Diego Maradona's Argentina side have suffered their worst-ever World Cup defeat -- and heaviest loss in over 60 years -- going down 6-1 to Bolivia at La Paz's high-altitude Hernando Siles' stadium. Bolivia players celebrate another goal as they humiliated Argentina 6-1 in La Paz. Marcelo Martins opened the scoring for the hosts in the 12th minute but Argentina levelled 13 minutes later when a long-range shot from Luiz Gonzalez bounced in after deceiving goalkeeper Carlos Arias. Joaquin Botero, who helped himself to a hat-trick, netted his first in the 34th minute from the penalty spot and Alex Da Rosa added a third just before the interval. Botero headed home the fourth five minutes into the second-half, before Argentina's night got even worse when they had substitute Angel Di Maria sent off. Botero celebrated his treble soon after Di Maria's dismissal and Didi Torrico completed the rout from long range with three minutes remaining. The last time Argentina have lost by a five-goal margin was 5-0 to Colombia in 1993 and the home media made their feelings about the result perfectly clear. \"A historic humiliation,\" said sports newspaper Ole on its Web site, adding: \"This is our worst defeat in the qualifiers. What now.?\" The result leaves Argentina in the fourth and final South American World Cup qualification place, five points behind leaders Paraguay, who scored an injury-time equalizer to draw 1-1 in Ecuador. Meanwhile, Brazil are up to second in the table, two points behind Paraguay, after a comfortable 3-0 home victory over Peru at Porto Alegre. Luis Fabiano scored twice with Felipe Melo adding the other goal. Chile are third in the table after a 0-0 home draw with Uruguay, who lie in the play-off fifth position.","highlights":"Argentina crushed 6-1 by Bolivia in their heaviest defeat for more than 60 years .\nJoaquin Botero scores a hat-trick for the hosts in match played at high altitude .\nBrazil up to second place in South American qualifying after 3-0 win over Peru .","id":"ee653fe427240dd112b55acdceb1b40461b5702f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from last weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne after presenting \"misleading\" evidence to stewards. Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP after presenting \"misleading\" evidence to stewards. The McLaren driver and Toyota's Jarno Trulli were called to an FIA hearing in Malaysia -- the site of this weekend's grand prix -- on Thursday to discuss an incident during Sunday's race. Trulli finished third at Melbourne's Albert Park, only to later be handed a 25-second penalty by race stewards which relegated him to 12th position and saw Hamilton lifted into third. However, following Thursday's hearing, Trulli has been reinstated in third position. McLaren had complained that veteran Italian Trulli had illegally passed Hamilton under yellow flags following an accident late on involving Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber -- who were running second and third at the time. Trulli had decided not to appeal the original decision but the FIA, the sport's governing body, said it had received new information and pressed ahead with a second hearing. \"The stewards, having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, consider that Lewis Hamilton, and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009,\" the FIA said in a statement. It said Hamilton and McLaren had violated its rules and retrospectively disqualified him from the race. Meanwhile, Trulli believes justice has been served after Thursday's decision. \"I am happy because I wanted some justice and I got it,\" he told PA Sport. \"I am happy for myself and the team and I have to thank the FIA because it does not happen very often they reconsider something. \"It must have been really hard for them, but they had common sense to really try and understand what was going on. I have always been honest and it has paid off.\"","highlights":"World champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP .\nStewards say Hamilton and McLaren team presented \"misleading\" evidence .\nHamilton was involved in incident with Toyota driver Jarno Trulli in Melbourne .","id":"283f930303a08ffe34541c47cd507c0f198b73d1"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, wore an outfit from designer Britt Lintner to greet President Obama and his wife, Michelle, while Michelle Obama wore J.Crew, according to spokeswomen for both sides. Sarah Brown, left, wears a dress from an American designer. Michelle Obama wears J.Crew. Both women later changed and wore other designer outfits for the formal pre-G-20 summit dinner at 10 Downing Street, the British prime minister's official residence. Wednesday morning, Sarah Brown wore a one-of-a-kind navy dress with red lining by the American-born Lintner, a spokeswoman for 10 Downing Street said. The designer specially made the dress in navy for Brown, but retails the garment in black for $720, Lintner said. Michelle Obama's outfit included a $158 green skirt and $298 bead and rhinestone cardigan from J.Crew, the store's Web site showed. Brown also wore a pair of Astley Clarke earrings, according to a spokeswoman from 10 Downing Street. The Astley Clarke Web site sells earrings from less than $100 to more than $10,000. The first ladies' choices of outfits during this summit are being closely watched by the world's media, both in terms of style and comparative cost. Both women pay for all of their clothes themselves and receive no clothing allowance, according to spokeswomen for both sides. Lintner first designed a dress for Brown for the British Fashion Council Awards in November 2007, Lintner said. She sells to clients only through her West London studio and said she started her company out of frustration over the selection of workwear available for women. Although the clothes are expensive, she said, they are made to last. This is not the first time Michelle Obama has chosen an \"off the rack\" outfit. She has worn J.Crew before, including in American Vogue. When appearing on \"The Tonight Show\" with Jay Leno, she wore a J.Crew ensemble, on which she commented, \"You get some good stuff online.\" After the photo call, Obama and Brown visited Maggie's Cancer Caring Center, where Brown is a patron. The spouses of the G-20 leaders have several events scheduled during their stay in London. On Tuesday, Brown will be host of a dinner for G-20 spouses. The dinner will take place at No. 11 Downing Street, the London residence of the chancellor of the exchequer, while the G-20 leaders take a working dinner next door at No. 10. As well as the spouses of the G-20 leaders, prominent women in British sport, arts, fashion, charity and business are also expected to attend. Downing Street has said those invited are \"all intended to show off British talent.\" Those invited include \"Harry Potter\" author J.K. Rowling, supermodel Naomi Campbell and Olympic gold medal runner Kelly Holmes. Downing Street sources said Michelle Obama will be seated between Holmes and Rowling. The spouses also will visit the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. They are expected to watch some short performances of opera and ballet, the Prime Minister's Press Office said.","highlights":"Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, greets dignitaries in American designer's outfit .\nMichelle Obama wears J.Crew at London, England, summit .\nBoth women pay for all of their clothes themselves .","id":"ba7eccc4ff60c5cb2f3f6c9200b4c52489cdc539"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, wore an outfit from designer Britt Lintner to greet President Obama and his wife, Michelle, while Michelle Obama wore J.Crew, according to spokeswomen for both sides. Sarah Brown, left, wears a dress from an American designer. Michelle Obama wears J.Crew. Both women later changed and wore other designer outfits for the formal pre-G-20 summit dinner at 10 Downing Street, the British prime minister's official residence. Wednesday morning, Sarah Brown wore a one-of-a-kind navy dress with red lining by the American-born Lintner, a spokeswoman for 10 Downing Street said. The designer specially made the dress in navy for Brown, but retails the garment in black for $720, Lintner said. Michelle Obama's outfit included a $158 green skirt and $298 bead and rhinestone cardigan from J.Crew, the store's Web site showed. Brown also wore a pair of Astley Clarke earrings, according to a spokeswoman from 10 Downing Street. The Astley Clarke Web site sells earrings from less than $100 to more than $10,000. The first ladies' choices of outfits during this summit are being closely watched by the world's media, both in terms of style and comparative cost. Both women pay for all of their clothes themselves and receive no clothing allowance, according to spokeswomen for both sides. Lintner first designed a dress for Brown for the British Fashion Council Awards in November 2007, Lintner said. She sells to clients only through her West London studio and said she started her company out of frustration over the selection of workwear available for women. Although the clothes are expensive, she said, they are made to last. This is not the first time Michelle Obama has chosen an \"off the rack\" outfit. She has worn J.Crew before, including in American Vogue. When appearing on \"The Tonight Show\" with Jay Leno, she wore a J.Crew ensemble, on which she commented, \"You get some good stuff online.\" After the photo call, Obama and Brown visited Maggie's Cancer Caring Center, where Brown is a patron. The spouses of the G-20 leaders have several events scheduled during their stay in London. On Tuesday, Brown will be host of a dinner for G-20 spouses. The dinner will take place at No. 11 Downing Street, the London residence of the chancellor of the exchequer, while the G-20 leaders take a working dinner next door at No. 10. As well as the spouses of the G-20 leaders, prominent women in British sport, arts, fashion, charity and business are also expected to attend. Downing Street has said those invited are \"all intended to show off British talent.\" Those invited include \"Harry Potter\" author J.K. Rowling, supermodel Naomi Campbell and Olympic gold medal runner Kelly Holmes. Downing Street sources said Michelle Obama will be seated between Holmes and Rowling. The spouses also will visit the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. They are expected to watch some short performances of opera and ballet, the Prime Minister's Press Office said.","highlights":"Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, greets dignitaries in American designer's outfit .\nMichelle Obama wears J.Crew at London, England, summit .\nBoth women pay for all of their clothes themselves .","id":"6fdf312748efbdb31b2b97b57fca3accc526da24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer Natalie Cole told CNN's Larry King she is searching for a kidney after an illness caused both of her kidneys to fail. Singer Natalie Cole continues to tour, despite being on dialysis three times a week. Before she finished telling King Tuesday night about her battles with drugs, illnesses and her search for a kidney, dozens of e-mails flooded the CNN studio. They were all offers from people saying they would get tested to see whether their kidney could be donated. King handed a thick stack of paper to Cole. \"These are all e-mails from dozens -- dozens of people offering to be tested to see if they can match, who want to give you a kidney,\" King said. Cole stared at the papers for a moment. \"There are some great human beings out there. That's all I can say,\" Cole said. Watch Natalie Cole's interview with Larry King \u00bb . \"I'm on a very long list, which is why we are looking to donors,\" said Cole, the daughter of legendary crooner Nat King Cole. Cole said her kidney troubles date back to February 2008 when she was diagnosed with hepatitis C. Cole said she attributes the hepatitis C from her well-publicized struggles to stop using cocaine and heroin. Cole said she has been sober for some time now after two stints in a rehabilitation clinic. Cole said she underwent chemotherapy in an aggressive way to fight the virus. Within four months of getting chemotherapy, both of Cole's kidneys failed. \"I couldn't breathe. I -- I went into -- literally, my kidneys stopped functioning. They stopped, you know, processing the fluid that was starting to build up in my body.\" Since then, Cole has been on dialysis three days a week and has been searching for a kidney, she told King in one of the first public interviews about the issue. Cole won six Grammy awards for her 1991 critically acclaimed album \"Unforgettable ... With Love ,\" a jazzy tribute to her father. She won a Grammy this year for her new album \"Still Unforgettable\" and another Grammy for her work on another album. Cole said that she has still been able to tour this year even with her kidney ailment. \"I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It's -- it's amazing,\" Cole said.","highlights":"During \"Live King Live,\" dozens e-mail offering to see whether they are a match .\nSinger to Larry King: \"I'm on a very long list, which is why we are looking to donors\"\nNatalie Cole says she was diagnosed with hepatitis C in February 2008 .\nShe links the illness to her struggles to stop using cocaine and heroin .","id":"fadd7e88a99defaed6624e1449b61bf62cb4b7c3"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- If money is power, China is now in a powerful position to play a critical role at the Group of 20 summit in London. U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao in London on April 1. So powerful, in fact, that some analysts speak of a \"G-2\", referring to the first meeting between the new U.S. president and his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the G-20. What matters most in the G-20, some say, is Barack Obama and Hu Jintao's meeting on the eve of the summit. \"This is a summit of symbolism, where the meeting itself is the message,\" said China analyst Victor Gao. To be sure, the closest U.S. allies are Great Britain in Europe and Japan in Asia. But with its growing economic and military clout, China is now a major player at the G-20. China \"appears to be actively setting the agenda,\" said Glenn Maguire, economist at the investment bank Societe Generale. China is awash with cash, its economy is still growing and its banking system is solvent. It is seeking a bigger role as global powers seek to reshape the economic and financial framework. The global economic crisis has shown just how codependent the U.S. has become with China. Watch how China is throwing its weight around before the summit \u00bb . For years, China has exported far more than it has imported, racking up a huge trade surplus and accumulating nearly US$2 trillion in foreign currency reserves. More than half of that money has gone to buying U.S. government debt. It's partly those Chinese dollars that have enabled the United States to keep its interest rates, including home mortgages, so low, helping create the housing bubble that burst late last year. As America's biggest creditor, Beijing is now worried about its over-investment in U.S. Treasury debts. \"We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S.,\" Premier Wen Jiabao said last month. \"Of course, we are concerned about the safety of our assets.\" He called on the Obama administration to \"maintain its good credit, honor its promises and guarantee the safety of China's assets.\" Washington has tried to reassure Beijing. \"Not just the Chinese government, but every investor can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States,\" President Obama said in response to Wen's worries. Still, Victor Gao said, \"China is concerned that the massive printing of money by the United States will lead to massive inflation, which will decimate the underlying value of China's massive dollar holdings. Each dollar China holds now is hard-earned money mostly from the exports.\" Watch Gao relate China's perspective at the summit \u00bb . With some 40 percent of its growth reliant on the exports of its products, China's economy has been hit hard since late 2008, as U.S. and Western markets for Chinese goods shrank. Annual economic growth dropped from nearly 12 percent in 2007 to 9 percent last year. This year's growth rate could slump to 8 percent or lower -- potentially leading to even more factory closures and widespread job layoffs. To cope with this downturn, Beijing in November announced its own $586 billion stimulus package. It aims to encourage spending by Chinese consumers and businesses and create millions of jobs. But analysts say China cannot do it alone. \"It's almost impossible for China to engineer enough of an increase in domestic consumption to make up for the contraction in demand that we're seeing in Europe and the United States,\" said Michael Pettis, who teaches economics at Peking University. Put simply, Hu Jintao needs President Obama to succeed with his economic prescriptions -- and vice versa. Such a congruence of goals is viewed positively in Beijing. \"The degree of close U.S.-China cooperation in the process of coping with the global financial crisis will directly affect how fast the global economy can extricate from the difficult time,\" said a commentary in Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper. Before the G-20 meeting, China's central bank chief, Zhou Xiaochuan, floated the idea of dumping the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, replacing it with a super-sovereign international reserve currency. Zhou's proposal has received extensive support from other countries, according to political analyst Gao, who's also a key player in the private equity business in China. Gao said: \"It shows that the defects in using the U.S. dollar as the main reserve currency in the world are becoming more and more obvious, and more countries in the world are becoming more and more unhappy with the United States in its irresponsible way of handling its financial and budgetary matters, often at the expense of other countries.\" But Peking University professor Zha Daojiong cautions against \"over-interpreting\" what Zhou seems to be saying. Instead of reducing the role of the U.S. dollar, Zhou may be asking for a greater role of the Chinese currency in \"special drawing rights\" (SDRs), an international type of reserve currency established in 1969 by the International Monetary Fund. SDRs operate as supplements to the existing reserves of IMF member nations. \"Rather than alluding to a goodbye to the U.S. dollar, Zhou may as well be making a case -- implicitly -- for including the (Chinese) renminbi into the list of currencies when the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank work on the SDR in the future,\" Zha explained. Meanwhile, China hopes the G-20 meeting will reach a consensus on how to deal with the global crisis. Said Victor Gao: \"It is equally important to identify the root causes, and make fundamental changes to the international financial system, including cross-border financial regulation, increasing transparency, bringing the hedge funds into the regulatory framework, enhancing risk management, and preventing countries from excessive and irresponsible financial and budgetary activities,\" Gao said. Pointing the finger squarely at the United States, he said China hopes the U.S. will learn from its mistakes to avoid a repeat of the crisis. Before leaving Beijing for London, President Hu Jintao remained circumspect. \"We will continue our contribution to international economic development,\" he said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. He called for efforts to resist trade protectionism while also calling for a revamp of the international financial system.","highlights":"Some say meeting of U.S., Chinese leaders on summit's eve is of most importance .\nWith its growing economic and military clout, China is a major player at the G-20 .\nChina is dependent on exports to the West, so there is a congruence of goals .\nThe degree of U.S.-China cooperation will directly affect global economic recovery .","id":"2f863b62b000ac680d19ded29e5dd0d4604875da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arctic reindeer herders in northern Scandinavia are getting a view from space to help them look after their herds as the region copes with climate change. Snow worries: Satellite maps of snow coverage and melt can help reindeer herders. Using satellite-based snow melt maps supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) backed program Polar View, herders are able to view the depth of snow and judge where the best foraging spots are to take their reindeer. \"Snow is of paramount importance for reindeer herding, because its quality determines whether reindeer are able to access the pastures that lie beneath it for much of the year,\" Anders Oskal, the Director of the International Center for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR) told the ESA. \"Detailed circumpolar snow information is, thus, becoming increasingly important following the recent changes in the Arctic climate.\" Oskal is working with S\u00e1mi reindeer herders in Finnmark, Norway, to help them maintain and develop sustainable reindeer husbandry. According to Oskal, Finnmark is the area of Norway that is predicted to experience the largest temperature increases, raising concerns about whether ice layers will form over pastures preventing reindeer from foraging. Under the Polar View initiative, Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) have been providing snow melt maps for Norway and Sweden, as well as snow cover maps for Eurasia, for the last 18 months. The ICR partnered with Polar View in a trial of the maps to examine how satellite observations could help by gathering information on snow change in a timely manner for such vast circumpolar regions. \"The experience so far has definitely been positive, and the reindeer herders are extremely interested in the future utilization of Polar View products that can relate important information about local snow conditions,\" said Oskal. \"These products could have important consequences for herders' decisions regarding winter pasture quality and potential migration routes.\" In addition to climate change, reindeer herders also have to face a loss of pastures because of infrastructure development, such as roads, hydroelectric power dams and cabin resorts. The same technology would help the ICR to monitor the different forms of land-use change over time.","highlights":"S\u00e1mi herders using satellite-based maps of snow to judge best areas .\nClimate change has made it harder to find foraging spots for reindeer herds .\nTechnology could also be used to monitor land-use change over time .","id":"b9284dba3f3deaaf60bd03ee5fac7839b8076f11"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former President John F. Kennedy saw a proposed ban on above-ground nuclear tests as a way to thaw U.S.-Soviet relations after the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to recordings released Thursday. President John F. Kennedy expresses a desire to thaw U.S.-Soviet relatations, on newly released recordings. \"If it does represent a possibility of avoiding the kind of collision that we had last fall in Cuba, which was quite close, and Berlin in 1961, we should seize the chance,\" Kennedy said in a July 1963 meeting with top government scientists. He signed a treaty with the Soviets and the British the following month that banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater or in space. Kennedy's presidential library in Boston, Massachusetts, released the four-minute recording of the meeting, held just four months before his assassination. The scientists taking part included John Foster and Norris Bradbury, the directors of two of the top U.S. nuclear laboratories; Glenn Seaborg, then-head of the Atomic Energy Commission; and a member of the commission, John Palfrey. Kennedy expressed hope that the treaty could produce \"the possibility of a detente\" between Washington and Moscow, \"which may not come to anything but which quite possibly could come to something.\" The meeting took place just nine months after the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba brought the world's major nuclear powers to the brink of war. Kennedy said the Soviets were having \"domestic, internal economic problems\" and he was worried about the rise of China after a major diplomatic split in 1960. \"I don't think anybody can say with any precision, but there isn't any doubt that the dispute with China is certainly a factor,\" Kennedy said, adding, \"They want to avoid a nuclear struggle or ... they want to lessen the chances of conflict with us.\" But he said the rising nuclear ambitions of China, which would conduct its first tests the following year, could force the United States to resume its own tests. \"It may be that the Chinese test in the next year, 18 months, 2 years, and we would then make the judgment to see if we should go back to testing,\" he said.","highlights":"Kennedy's presidential library released four-minute recording of the meeting .\nMeeting held just four months before his assassination .\nKennedy on recording: \"We should seize the chance\"\nKennedy hoped for \"possibility of a detente\" between Washington and Moscow .","id":"28e6f26031c0f05ace1b903c1203277ac311244a"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Wearing a plaid green A-line spring skirt from her new fashion line, paired with a black patent leather belt and black leather gladiator sandal stilettos, \"Sex and the City\" actress Kristin Davis is the perfect combination of sweet and fierce when we meet up after her fashion show at the Belk department store in Atlanta, Georgia. Kristin Davis surrounded by models and Belk store official Arlene Goldstein. It's a look that totally says her character, Charlotte, with a little bit of screen pal Carrie. Davis is so much like her character, adorable and upbeat, I expect Carrie or Samantha to drop in on our conversation and say something to shock her. As any true fan knows ... OK ... as every woman knows, watching \"Sex and the City\" was like being front row at a fashion show with a plot. TV show and movie costume designer Patricia Field dressed the characters in haute couture as they skipped down the streets of New York City in $600 stilettos. But is this reality? Most sane women wouldn't choose to walk even one city block in high heels. And most women certainly can't spend a month's rent on a belt or bag, even if they have a truly fabulous party to wear it to. So, what about us, the fashionistas on a budget? Are we to be ignored, forced to wear boring clothing and practical shoes? Luckily, no; designers are catching on. Target features affordable lines from high-end designers like Alexander McQueen and Isaac Mizrahi. All of the pieces in Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line Bitten cost less than $20 before the clothing store that carried them went under. Davis is the latest celebrity to jump on the clothing label bandwagon, designing a line for Belk department stores. Will she meet the same fate as Parker? Davis has the following to be successful. Although her character was by far the most conservatively dressed (Carrie strolling through town in just a bra top, anyone?), she had the most wearable wardrobe, and Davis became a fashion icon along with the rest of the ladies. Her favorite piece from her line? \"I can't decide, impossible to choose!\" she says. So I choose for her: definitely the gladiator heels. \"It's important for women to have a strong shoe,\" she says. \"Then you can wear anything on top. With a strong shoe on, you're good to go.\" She admits she didn't have a defined style before meeting Field, who bluntly told her that \"Sexy Secretary\" was going to be her look. Davis' philosophy is a good one: Stick with what works. She takes the look that Field defined for her \"Sex and the City\" character. Original it's not, but everything coming down the runway is something the stylish Charlotte York would definitely wear. Davis is in touch with all of us real women out there, saying, \"I don't want to make clothing that only skinny actresses could wear.\" Her solution? Dresses, shoes and swimsuits worthy of a \"Sex and the City\" episode that you don't need Park Avenue pockets to afford. It's versatile enough to look good on every body type. \"Everyone has body issues. I really wanted to create pieces that looked good on different kinds of bodies. I had all of my family members trying on the outfits!\" she says with a laugh. Davis won't spill any secrets from the scripts of the \"Sex and the City\" movie sequel, which comes out in May 2010, but she admits it's a \"happy\" movie. She does hint that our famous foursome might have to cut back a little on their clothing expenses as art imitates life. And she's willing to share some fashion tips: How to look like you stepped out of the wardrobe room on the set of the next \"Sex and the City\" movie? Green. \"It's THE color\" she says. And hey, who doesn't need to save some green? It all works out perfectly. I left the meeting with Davis to check out her displays. Then I skipped out into the streets of Atlanta, in a pair of her new gladiator stiletto sandals. That I got on sale, of course.","highlights":"\"Sex and the City\" actress Kristin Davis says women need strong shoes .\nThe actress says her new fashion line fits different types of bodies .\nShe says \"Sex\" movie sequel will have characters spending less .\nGreen will be the hot color in the latest movie, Davis says .","id":"35402c8b38d2e28a748d1d6fe81086fcf0cdd1ee"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PES) has a tough task on its hands. Not only does FIFA look good, it plays well too -- and gameplay was always the area where PES had the edge. Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is the cover star of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. If you've played a PES game before you'll know what to expect, which is both a plus and a minus, depending on your point of view. The ball pings around nicely, the weight of pass remains just about right and long passes are much improved. It mostly feels like a game of computer football should. The game plays fast and given shots from distance almost never fly in, scoring is still a challenge and goals still get you punching the air. For a series that's always short on official team and league licenses -- leading to silly-sounding approximations of players' names (Ryan Gills anyone?) and daft team titles -- PES gains the UEFA Champions League, which is a small coup. Read our FIFA 09 review here. Game modes are much the same as before, including the venerable Master League, but the new addition of Be A Legend, where you try to take one player to the top, does not feel finished. The graphics are serviceable, with some player likenesses uncanny and others way off. The sound is no better than average and the commentary remains hit and miss. And it's not unfair to say the game menus and their annoying and repetitive music are badly in need of a revamp. Online play is not great and given the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are built for broadband multiplayer, PES is lagging -- literally. You might say the game needs revolution rather than evolution and for next season's release publishers Konami must up their game. Nevertheless, PES' reputation is built on a fun offline two-player experience and nothing has changed there. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 might not be cutting-edge in its presentation and options, but you still can't beat a 10-minute match with a mate beside on you on the sofa.","highlights":"CNN Football Fanzone reviews Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 .\nPES 2009 is little changed from previous incarnations in the series .\nReviewer: While flawed, PES 2009 is still good fun in offline two-player mode .","id":"ef93833d1d00370b274649f43770ac3f3859a725"} -{"article":"PAU, France (CNN) -- Take a pen, start with the nib at the bottom left corner of the page. Gently drag the pen diagonally from bottom left to top right and you have a quick and easy graphic representation of the price differential between the standard BMW 3-series and its haba\u00f1ero cousin the M3 coupe over the last four generations (and 20 years). Quad exhaust pipes and M-badging distinguish the M3 from standard 3-series coupes . The car in my hands is, supposedly, a 3-series. You know the 3-series. You may well own one. You almost certainly know someone who owns one. It is the ubiquity of the 3-series that has seen BMW become a more mainstream player (without making an obvious lurch down-market) while the mainstream has made an obvious lurch up-market to plug the gap. Ford's new Mondeo couldn't be clearer in its 3-series aspiration. But this latest M3 has substantially less in common with the vanilla 3-series than I have with a gorilla (98.4 per cent shared DNA). Eighty per cent of the M3's body panels are brand new, from the aluminum hood to the composite fenders and carbon-fiber reinforced plastic roof. And let's get back to that graph. This UK-specification car costs \u00a350,000 (\u20ac74,000). With the options as tested (including the gorgeous 19\" alloy wheels, one of which I pranged on a curb while rectifying a going-the-wrong-way-down-a-one-way-street maneuver -- I'm blaming the co-driver for this navigational error, and so should you) we're talking close to \u00a355,000 (\u20ac81,000). It looks good. It looks purposeful and aggressive and more -- what's the word -- obvious than its M3 predecessors, with the engorged dome on the hood to accommodate the 4-liter V8 and the Aston-like side air-intakes with integrated side-light repeaters and M3 badging. But it still looks like a pumped-up family car rather than a purpose-built sports car (though it sits between Porsche's Cayman S and 911 Carrera in price). It may just be possible to buy one and pretend to one's spouse that it's a sensible family car -- providing, that is, that the 22.8 mpg (12.4 liters per 100 km) combined fuel economy (and the regularity of trips to the gas station this necessitates) doesn't give the game away. Inside it's typical BMW -- leather seats that adjust to accommodate any driver (including those such as me who are short of body but long of leg) and a chunky leather steering wheel stitched with the cyan, blue and scarlet colors of BMW's M division. On the road the M3 is -- simply -- lovely. Over 20 years BMW's M cars have evolved from homologation specials (road car versions of track racers) to sedate luxury saloons that can transfer themselves into sporting monsters. Some earlier enthusiastic driving from my co-driver made it necessary to drive slowly, in sixth gear, behind the slipstream of a motor home to conserve fuel while on a desperate hunt for a gas station. In some sports cars this would require skill and dedication. Not so in the M3, it drives however you want to drive. It can pootle as competently as it can hustle. And boy can it hustle. When questioned later that day, a BMW spokesman denied any knowledge of the cars having had their limiters disabled. But I can state that I was passenger in a car that supposedly tops out at 155 mph (200 km\/h) at a staggering 176 mph (283 km\/h). The question of whether this delimited limiter is an \"undocumented feature\" or a manufacturer's attempt to woo motoring journalists with a set-up that isn't representative of the sale car, will only be resolved once the first customers take delivery of their new M3s. There is, of course, more to the M3 than flat-out speed on the straight. It's a car that allows drivers a turn of speed on twisty roads with confidence and sure-footedness. You can take corners faster, without fear of picking gorse from your teeth. Take a corner a little over enthusiastically and there's a comforting orange light on the dash to tell you that the DSC (dynamic stability control) has kicked in. When the DSC is engaged flatters the abilities of average drivers. Disengaged it allows skillful drivers an awful lot of wheel-spinning sideways action, as I discovered while given a few hectic laps of the Pau-Arnos circuit in the hands of a pro. What's wrong with it? In common with the M5 and M6 there's the frustrating short indicator stalk that ALWAYS clicks three times, even if you try and cancel it (and in an effort of trying to switch the right indicator off you inevitably find yourself signaling left and vice versa). There seems to be no substantial difference between fifth and six gears. You engage the clutch, throw the lever and -- well, nothing much. But then you really start struggling to find fault. The cup holders don't have an elegant glide and the driver's one isn't as accessible as it could be. While the electric thingum that extends telescopically to hand you the seat belt looks cheap. Harsh criticism. Cup holder aficionados and those who demand milled-aluminum electric hand-me-my-belt thingums may have to look elsewhere. Incidentally, BMW do have a name for the electric thingums. I prefer my own. Just as I prefer the term \"paddle shifts\" to \"SMG\" -- another minor grumble -- paddles shifts would be a welcome option, and one that BMW assured the assembled press would be added as an option in the future. BMW estimates that M3 buyers will be predominantly male and aged 31-50. They will own a number of high performance cars but use the M3 as their everyday conveyance. In the light of this market research, the most obvious criticism of the new M3 -- its price -- is something of an irrelevance. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Fourth generation BMW M3 coupe .\nPower from 420bhp V8 engine .\nTarget market 31-50 year old males in multi-automobile households .","id":"53566679e856bdc6be42a6f60240e381f80262fb"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Actress Keira Knightley released a violent commercial Thursday highlighting the problem of domestic violence. In the two-minute film, Knightley is beaten by an abusive boyfriend after she arrives home from a day of filming. Actress Keira Knightley's public service spot was directed by Joe Wright of \"Atonement.\" The commercial, made for the charity Women's Aid, was launched online. It will be shown on television and in movie theaters, the group said. The film, called \"CUT,\" was directed by Joe Wright, who directed Knightley in \"Atonement.\" At the end, the words \"Isn't it time someone called cut?\" appear on screen. According to the Web site for Women's Aid, two women are killed by a current or former partner in the United Kingdom in an average week. In a statement on the charity's Web site, Knightley said, \"I wanted to take part in this advert for Women's Aid because while domestic violence exists in every section of society, we rarely hear about it.\" \"We may not think we know someone who has experienced domestic violence, but this does not mean that it is not happening,\" she said.","highlights":"Two-minute ad shown in U.K. depicts actress being beaten by boyfriend .\nCharity's spot will be on television and in movie theaters .\nWomen's Aid says two women in U.K. killed by current or ex-partner each week .","id":"089fedd06609cf3aaa5204a0cf2895e35dcdcf92"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- \"Why do I find it hard to write the next line?\" If you recognize the lyric then brace yourself for some good news. Spandau Ballet, pictured aboard HMS Belfast, on Wednesday. Twenty years since their acrimonious split, Spandau Ballet -- the pin-up boys who helped shaped the sound of 1980s glam pop -- have announced the first dates of what band members say will be a full world tour. The Tony Hadley-fronted band, who enjoyed worldwide success with hits such as \"True\" and \"Gold,\" will launch their comeback in Dublin, Ireland, on October 13 before playing seven dates across the UK. Wednesday's announcement took place onboard HMS Belfast, a retired Royal Navy moored in the Thames that was the scene of a key early gig by the band in 1980 that launched them on the road to global stardom. \"It is impossible to stress too highly how achingly fashionable Spandau Ballet were in the winter of 1979 and the summer of 1980,\" GQ magazine editor Dylan Jones writes in a biography of the band. Formed at a London school in 1979, Spandau Ballet went on to sell 25 million records worldwide, emerging out of the post-punk \"New Romantic\" music scene. Along with fellow British band Duran Duran, their sound, style and attitude came to define an era dominated by ostentatious glamour, gold lame suits and big hair. \"Not only did their albums sell by the millions, but their look and style impacted on the fashion world and beyond,\" said a press release, summing up the band's influence on the decade. \"They created their own style, combining creativity with entrepreneurship and the 'can do' spirit of early 80s youth at a time of crisis and upheaval eerily reminiscent of 2009. Spandau Ballet are both commercially and culturally enormous.\" Following the band's split in 1989, several members including Hadley unsuccessfully sued main songwriter Gary Kemp for a larger share of songwriting royalties. Since then, Hadley has appeared in the London production of the hit musical \"Chicago\" and also won an 80s revivalist reality TV show \"Reborn in the USA.\" Several other members of the band have carved out moderately successful acting careers.","highlights":"Iconic 1980s glam pop band Spandau Ballet to reform for world tour .\nBand will play together for first time in 20 years in Dublin on October 13 .\nSpandau Ballet's sound, style and attitude came to define the 1980s .\nBand split in 1989; several members unsuccessfully sued songwriter Gary Kemp .","id":"33c470605ba720ce63585146f040f2e5a13c9e41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Insurance giant AIG will have to return to the Treasury Department the $165 million it just paid out in executive bonuses, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday in a letter to congressional leaders. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said AIG will have to return $165 million in bonuses for executives. \"We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid,\" Geithner wrote. \"In addition, we will deduct from the $30 billion in assistance an amount equal to the amount of those payments.\" That would be a double payment, essentially a $165 million penalty on AIG for issuing the bonuses. The move comes after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed in a letter to Congress that this year, after receiving federal bailout money, AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of more than $1 million each. Watch congressional reaction to AIG bonuses \u00bb . Cuomo also wrote that 11 of the employees no longer work for the company. The largest bonus paid was $6.4 million; seven other people also received more than $4 million each. AIG is under fire for awarding the bonuses while being kept afloat by more than $170 billion from the U.S. government's financial bailout. On Tuesday, two key senators also announced a plan to impose a hefty tax on retention bonuses paid to executives of companies that received federal bailout money or in which the United States has an equity interest. Sens. Max Baucus, D-Montana, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are the chairman and top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, respectively. They said companies would not be allowed to restructure the payments to those executives through deferred compensation to avoid the tax. Grassley and Baucus said all retention bonuses would be subject to a 35 percent excise tax for excessive compensation to be paid by the company and an additional 35 percent tax to be paid by the individual. \"Millions of Americans are losing their jobs -- millions. And to some degree, they're losing their jobs because of actions taken by some of these firms,\" Baucus said. \"At the same time, they're giving themselves bonuses. I mean, give me a break. What are these people thinking? That's part of the problem. They're not thinking.\" All other nonretention bonuses of more than $50,000 would be subject to the same tax, the senators said. \"We're trying to address what I think taxpayers would say is salt in their wounds,\" Grassley said. \"The taxpayers are bearing a great deal to get this economy going, help get these corporations turned around, and I think taxpayers are willing to help. \"But when they see the lack of sensitivity on the part of corporate directors -- by giving these bonuses and doing other outrageous things -- there's just so much that the taxpayers of this country are going to stand for.\" The provisions would apply to bonuses paid out after January 1, 2009, so it would affect the AIG bonuses in question. \"We should not be here. We should not be in this position,\" Baucus said. \"AIG should not have promised those payments to retain those employees, and the Treasury should have blocked the issuance of the checks. It did not. And employees themselves should not have cashed them in. We should not be here, but unfortunately we are.\" Senior Finance Committee aides said the senators had not yet worked out whether individuals would pay income tax on the bonuses as well as the proposed excise tax, or if a combination of the two would be used. Watch why Americans are angry \u00bb . \"You'll have to wait to see when we introduce the legislation,\" one of the aides said. \"If our bosses had made a decision, we'd tell you what it was,\" said another. See a snapshot of facts, attitudes and analysis on the recession \u00bb . On Monday, President Obama said he planned to attempt to block bonuses to executives at ailing insurance giant AIG, payments he described as an \"outrage.\" Obama said he asked Geithner to \"pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.\" Obama said he would work with Congress to change the laws so that such a situation cannot happen again. Watch Obama say he's outraged by bonuses \u00bb . The president spared AIG CEO Edward Liddy from criticism, saying he got the job \"after the contracts that led to these bonuses were agreed to last year.\" But he said the impropriety of the bonuses goes beyond economics. \"It's about our fundamental values,\" he said. iReport.com: Sound off on AIG . Under pressure from the Treasury, AIG scaled back the bonus plans and pledged to reduce 2009 bonuses -- or \"retention payments\" -- by at least 30 percent. That has done little to temper outrage over the initial plan, however. Who's insured by AIG? \u00bb . Liddy will face intense questioning about the bonuses when he testifies Wednesday before the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets. CNN's Ted Barrett, Dana Bash and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: AIG will have to return bonuses given to executives, Treasury secretary says .\nAIG paid 73 people bonuses of $1 million or more each, New York AG reports .\nNew plan proposes retention bonuses would be subject to a 35 percent excise tax .\nGrassley: Plan would address taxpayer feeling of \"salt in their wounds\"","id":"790c7051e6a83e1141d4ecf64621a5a6074fcf41"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A series of major international sporting events, a weak currency and its perennially sunny perch on the tip of South Africa are making Cape Town one of the hottest sailing destinations of 2009. Lucky strike: The port city of Cape Town is set to benefit from several major sporting events . The Indian Premier League cricket tournament was recently relocated to South Africa because of security concerns, and now Cape Town is slated to host the opening match on April 18. Both the Lions Tour rugby and the FIFA Confederations Cup football will follow the cricket tournament, heading down to South Africa later this year. Combined with the arrival of the World Cup in 2010, South Africa has suddenly become the ultimate holiday spot for sports fans. Calvyn Gilfellan, chief executive of Cape Town Routes Unlimited -- the region's tourism board -- told CNN the boost to the region had arrived at a crucial time. \"When the financial crisis started people went into gloom and doom but these events are helping a lot to restore confidence in the industry. \"The fact that we have a positive exchange rate also helps us a lot as a destination,\" he said. But South Africa's government is so focused on ensuring the success of the upcoming games that it recently denied a visa to The Dalai Lama. Critics contend that South Africa bowed to pressure from the Chinese government in refusing Tibet's spiritual leader entry to attend a peace conference that was partially intended to help promote the World Cup. As the focus strengthens on these international events, the Cape Town region looks set to benefit more than many from the expected surge in tourism. Gilfellan says this is largely due to the city's location. \"We are lucky to be in such a wonderful spot. A lot of these events revolve around the marine industry and revolve around the harbor.\" This weekend harbor will play host to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival -- one of many upcoming festivals in the area. Cape Town's picturesque Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, set against the backdrop of Table Mountain, has become South Africa's most visited tourist attraction. Commodore of the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) John Martin, told CNN the Cape Town port was used widely for business, leisure and sports. As well as being the country's second biggest functioning port for trade, the port played host to racing yachts in events such as the Volvo Ocean Race and the Clipper Round-the-world Challenge. \"We have several major yachting events that stop here and we are very proud of that.\" Martin said the popularity of the port means water space is \"at a premium,\" but there are hopes a new harbor and breakwater will be constructed in the next few years. Still, Cape Town has the capacity to cater for foreign visitors on super-yachts and international cruise-liners. \"Cape Town is a real focal point for refueling and repairs and it's also quite cheap here so people tend to stay for a while,\" he said. Gilfellan said she felt the surge of massive sporting events would undoubtedly have spin-off benefits for the marine industry. The Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket, which starts this month, had been tipped to go to England, but ultimately South Africa was chosen for its sunny weather. The tournament, which will feature 59 matches across six venues, will run from 18 April to 24 May . The 2009 British and Irish Lions tour officially kicks off on May 30 in Rustenberg. Matches will be held in Cape Town on June 13 and June 23. The eight-team Confederations Cup runs from June 14-28, and will take place across four cities. The event marks the first time an African nation will host an international FIFA tournament. The landmark event foreshadows the much-anticipated World Cup football tournament in June 2010, for which qualifying matches are currently being held. Although that's still a year away -- there are signs that the excitement in South Africa is already palpable. A new television commercial that began airing last month features Spain and Liverpool star, Fernando Torres, and Brazilian icon Kaka showing off their football skills. The advertisement ends with Torres saying \"Ke Nako\", which in South Africa's Sotho language means \"it's time.\" It seems for Cape Town and the whole country -- this could not be more true. Mike Steere contributed to this report.","highlights":"MainSail's 'Port of the Month' is Cape Town, South Africa .\nThe area is one of South Africa's most popular tourist destinations .\nCape Town is set to benefit from major international sporting events .\nThe port is the country's second biggest and hosts major yacht races .","id":"80a0815c031a30278e3e332aa8d8f76eab563078"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Asia's economic growth will tumble to the slowest pace since the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report released Tuesday. Customers buy vegetables at a market in Quezon City in suburban Manila, Philippines, on September 16. \"The short term outlook for the region is bleak as the full impact of the severe recession in industrialized economies is transmitted to emerging markets,\" said Jong-Wha Lee, acting chief economist for the ADB. The Asian Development Outlook 2009 forecasts that economic growth in developing Asia will slip to 3.4 percent in 2009, down from 6.3 percent last year and 9.5 percent in 2007. Growth could improve to 6 percent in 2010, if the global economy experiences a mild recovery next year, the report says. \"The concern for the region, and especially for the region's poor, is that it is not yet clear that the [United States], European Union and Japan will recover as soon as next year,\" Lee said. The slowdown should prompt Asian countries to expand their economic base and not be as dependent on exports, according to the report. Despite the downturn, the report says Asia is in a much better position to cope with the current crisis than it was in the late 1990s. \"Large foreign currency reserves and steadily declining inflation rates will provide policymakers with the necessary tools to nurse their economies through the hard times ahead,\" the report said. A number of Asian governments, including China, Japan and South Korea, have already responded quickly to the global financial crisis with stimulus packages and changes in monetary policy, helping to stem some of the downturn. In November, China announced plans to inject $586 billion (4 trillion yuan) into its economy to offset declines in industrial and export growth. That economic stimulus plan included the loosening of credit restrictions, tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending.","highlights":"Economic growth in developing Asia forecast to slip to 3.4 percent in 2009 .\nGrowth could improve to 6 percent in 2010, report says .\nReport: Slowdown could prompt Asian nations to not be as dependent on exports .","id":"c5c20ea7f6ed5487ae34d8f724107db1ccb2fbd8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met with his NATO allies in Strasbourg, France on Friday to talk about his plans for the war in Afghanistan, his \"front line in the war on terror.\" Protesters outside the White House in February have a simple idea for the controversial prison. But the U.S. war on terror has some dark secrets and Obama hasn't really wanted to talk about them. In Spain, a crusading judge named Baltasar Garzon is reviewing the case of several men who say they were tortured at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Washington, Senator Patrick Leahy has been asking similar questions that people around the world want answered: . Did the U.S. really torture prisoners, did it secretly transfer some to other countries specifically to be tortured and did senior officials authorize it? Leahy says: \"We can't turn the page unless we first read the page.\" There are ample grounds to believe crimes were committed. Individual prisoners have described being tortured in U.S. custody or being dispatched to other nations with the same terrible result. An investigation by the International Committee of the Red Cross also reported evidence of it. While he was in office, George W. Bush said flatly \"the United States does not torture.\" But the Bush administration defined 'torture' so narrowly that its use of the word has been contested as well. The effort to find out just what happened has been moving slowly, both inside and outside the United States. The Obama administration hasn't encouraged it. Obama said recently that \"generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than looking backwards.\" That's easy to understand. Millions of Americans are grateful to America's ex-president and his aides, as well as U.S. soldiers and spies, for keeping the country safe after 9\/11. Any investigations or potential prosecutions could set off a national debate complicating everything else Obama wants to accomplish. But the U.S. has signed international treaties on torture and war crimes, suggesting it's legally obligated to prosecute any cases that come to light. Countries in Europe, Africa and the Americas have found a way to face their secret crimes. The United States has to decide if it wants to take its own turn.","highlights":"Leading figures in U.S., Europe want the U.S. to answer torture allegations .\nClaims come from prisoners and the Red Cross .\nSo far, President Obama has not encouraged inquiries .\nOther countries faced up to secret crimes, now U.S. needs to decide what to do .","id":"8a05f8156d7757e3e0f37a330d04db1e556c9371"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Suits were swapped for jeans and sneakers throughout London's financial district today, as bankers heeded warnings to dress down to avoid the potential wrath of G-20 protestors. Bankers in London head to work in casual attire. Many city workers have been urged to dress down to avoid attention from protesters. \"Only about 20 percent of people probably just refused to dress down. Everybody else is in jeans,\" said Jesse Feldman, a banker at French investment bank, Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 G\u00e9n\u00e9rale. All week banks and investment firms located in London's City neighborhood have been advising employees to not dress in regular business attire. \"Staff are permitted to wear casual clothing -- jeans\/trainers -- commencing March 30. Avoid briefcases\/branded bags\/computer cases: Put materials in rucksacks or carrier bags where possible,\" U.S. bank, J.P. Morgan told employees in an email statement last week quoted on City news Web site Hereisthecity.com. Employees at Rothschild investment bank in London were told simply not to bother coming into work at all today. Among those who did commute to the office, bystanders said that the bankers are still easy to spot, conspicuously reading UK newspaper The Financial Times or dressing in a uniform business casual look. \"On the tube this morning I thought it was ridiculous because all these bankers couldn't have looked more like bankers trying to dress down,\" Feldman told CNN. Instead of jackets, ties and Oxford shoes, polo shirts, khakis and loafers now fill the streets around the City and much of central London. \"I saw two bankers wearing matching baby blue sweaters, tight jeans and Church's -- ridiculous,\" Feldman added, referring to the up-scale brand of traditional English shoes. One Web site that covers news and gossip in the City has been tracking the banker backlash to the warnings. \"It's a mixture: people are falling into two types. The banks and the funds are certainly encouraging the staff to wear casual dress, but some are determined they won't cower to protestors and are still showing up in suits,\" said Vic Daniels, publisher of HereistheCity.com. On Monday, Bloomberg quoted one City professional, Graham Williams, 66, who said: \"We're not pansies ... most of us have played rugby or boxed. \"If any of those guys do get violent against us individually because we are wearing a suit, we will take action.\" The site also offers humorous advice for bankers to respond to protestors by dumping \"large blocks of ice\" to \"render them harmless,\" and encouraging bankers to \"find your inner G20 [sic] spot.\" Despite the jokes, precautions proved valuable Wednesday as thousands of angry anti-capitalist protestors converged on the City for demonstrations to coincide with the G-20 summit. By midday protestors had started smashing windows at a branch The Royal Bank of Scotland. Earlier in the day 11 people were arrested after being stopped in an armored personnel carrier. Thousands of police are continuing to patrol the streets in anti-riot gear.","highlights":"Fearing protesters bankers dressed down for work in London today .\nBanks and businesses in the City warned employees not to wear suits .\nSome said bankers remained conspicuous despite attempts to dress casually .\n\"We are not pansies,\" said one defiant City worker, still wearing a suit .","id":"e69821ef560e8e32a4f6b136b55092bd1a61afab"} -{"article":"ESTERO, Florida (CNN) -- Alana and Joe Consolo should have had the excitement of a young couple enjoying their first house, but the South Florida pair was walking through it recently with a healthy dose of fear. Alana and Joe Consolo tour their Florida house after it was gutted because of concerns about the drywall. They've been caught in a maelstrom of headline news events that would make your head spin. Both were laid off as the economy soured. The nation's housing crisis cut their Florida house's value in half. And now their home's interior is being rebuilt because it contained Chinese-made drywall that they say has made them sick. The Consolos are among homeowners in several states who allege Chinese drywall has emitted corrosive gases they believe have given them headaches and upper respiratory problems and caused household systems such as air-conditioning units to fail. \"I'm holding back tears,\" Alana Consolo said as she walked through the house, which is in the middle of the reconstruction project. \"I have chills and I'm angry -- really, really angry -- and really sad, too.\" The Consolos moved into the home in Estero, near Fort Myers, less than three years ago. But they moved out six weeks ago, and even though it's being rebuilt, they doubt they'll return there to live because they've yet to be convinced they'd be healthy. \"The last time that we saw the house in this condition,\" Alana said, looking at the gutted interior, \"we came in excited, holding our hands, planning on where we were going to put our [baby] room for our new family.\" Watch the Consolos tour the gutted home \u00bb . Concerns about Chinese-made drywall emerged in Florida last year but by now have spread to other states. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said it's investigating complaints in Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Washington and North Carolina. And class-action lawsuits are lining up against Chinese manufacturers as well as suppliers and builders. The Florida Department of Health said complaints it received -- more than 180 as of Thursday -- generally involve homes built between 2004 and 2007, around the time that a building boom and post-hurricane reconstruction caused a U.S. drywall shortage and spurred imports from China. A study done for the Florida department by private laboratory Unified Engineering Inc. found that samples of certain Chinese drywall gave off a sulfurous odor from \"volatile sulfur compounds\" when exposed to extreme heat and moisture. It also found that vapors \"in the residential atmosphere created a corrosive environment in the presence of moisture,\" according to Unified's report. But state and federal officials said they're still testing to determine whether the drywall poses health risks. The Consolos, who now have a 4-month-old daughter, said they first noticed a problem in December when their smoke detectors kept going off inexplicably. An inspection revealed that copper wiring inside the house had turned black. And the couple said they suffered from headaches and upper respiratory problems while living in the house. So they moved out. Now the house, which had Chinese-made drywall, has been stripped. The builder, Lennar Homes, is footing the bill for the reconstruction and a nearby rental house for the Consolos. Moving out came at a trying time for the family. Both were laid off about a year ago by Countrywide Bank, where they were mortgage loan originators. Joe Consolo is now a restaurant manager. Also, the nation's housing crisis hit their home. Purchased for $528,000, it has recently been appraised for $280,000. Trying to get out from under a bad investment, they went to their bank to do a short sale. \"The value had decreased so much, we were throwing money out the window,\" Alana Consolo said. Two offers for $250,000 and $255,000 were rejected. So, they made a business decision: They stopped paying their mortgage and declared bankruptcy. The Consolos are now three months behind in their payments. They're not sure yet if foreclosure is in their future, but they don't think it will be easy to sell a house that's had drywall issues. The Gypsum Association said that enough drywall was imported from China since 2006 to build 30,000 complete homes. Most of the Chinese drywall, it said, ended up in southwest Florida during the housing boom. As for the Consolos' health problems, Alana said her headaches stopped after they moved out of the house. Joe said he's been hospitalized twice for pneumonia, and he's been diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease of the blood. The Consolos said they believe drywall was the cause. Lennar Homes, the Consolos' builder, said it has identified at least 80 homes it built with Chinese drywall. It is offering to gut and rebuild those homes for free. \"They're doing what's responsible, we believe,\" Alana Consolo said. \"We're repairing the homes by removing every piece of drywall from the home and replacing all affected copper,\" said Chris Marlin, a vice president for Lennar Homes. Lennar also is suing Chinese manufacturers and their U.S. suppliers. But while the Consolos' home is being rebuilt, their lives still are filled with stress and unanswered questions. They said they think foreclosure may be the best way to get away from a house that they think has made them sick and that they don't believe they could sell because of the housing crisis and drywall issues. \"There's the fear, 'Are they taking everything out?' \" Alana Consolo said. \"We want to have more children, and Joe has an autoimmune disorder. [Going back is] just a risk I'm not willing to take.\" She added, \"The economy started it. The Chinese drywall cemented it for us.\"","highlights":"Florida couple's house being revamped; they say Chinese drywall made them sick .\nDrywall concerns came after layoffs, home devaluation .\nFamily living in different home at builder's expense while theirs is fixed .\nHomeowner says she's \"really, really angry\"","id":"d3971a4e160e46e97ee194b4a4740bd28399c94f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arctic reindeer herders in northern Scandinavia are getting a view from space to help them look after their herds as the region copes with climate change. Snow worries: Satellite maps of snow coverage and melt can help reindeer herders. Using satellite-based snow melt maps supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) backed program Polar View, herders are able to view the depth of snow and judge where the best foraging spots are to take their reindeer. \"Snow is of paramount importance for reindeer herding, because its quality determines whether reindeer are able to access the pastures that lie beneath it for much of the year,\" Anders Oskal, the Director of the International Center for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR) told the ESA. \"Detailed circumpolar snow information is, thus, becoming increasingly important following the recent changes in the Arctic climate.\" Oskal is working with S\u00e1mi reindeer herders in Finnmark, Norway, to help them maintain and develop sustainable reindeer husbandry. According to Oskal, Finnmark is the area of Norway that is predicted to experience the largest temperature increases, raising concerns about whether ice layers will form over pastures preventing reindeer from foraging. Under the Polar View initiative, Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) have been providing snow melt maps for Norway and Sweden, as well as snow cover maps for Eurasia, for the last 18 months. The ICR partnered with Polar View in a trial of the maps to examine how satellite observations could help by gathering information on snow change in a timely manner for such vast circumpolar regions. \"The experience so far has definitely been positive, and the reindeer herders are extremely interested in the future utilization of Polar View products that can relate important information about local snow conditions,\" said Oskal. \"These products could have important consequences for herders' decisions regarding winter pasture quality and potential migration routes.\" In addition to climate change, reindeer herders also have to face a loss of pastures because of infrastructure development, such as roads, hydroelectric power dams and cabin resorts. The same technology would help the ICR to monitor the different forms of land-use change over time.","highlights":"S\u00e1mi herders using satellite-based maps of snow to judge best areas .\nClimate change has made it harder to find foraging spots for reindeer herds .\nTechnology could also be used to monitor land-use change over time .","id":"ae7836c9f85adcf6ecd951013251183f0f831606"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actress Demi Moore's frequent postings on Twitter put her in the middle of a life-and-death drama Friday when a woman sent her an online message threatening suicide. Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are both active members of the Twitter social-networking site. Moore, who was in southern France where her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, is filming a movie, quickly replied to the threat saying, \"Hope you are joking.\" Twitter followers who saw the message tracked it to a San Jose, California, home, where police found a 48-year-old woman. The police took her into custody for a psychological evaluation, according to a police spokesman. About two hours after the initial exchange, Moore posted this message -- known as a \"tweet\" -- on Twitter: \"Thanks everyone for reaching out to the San Jose PD i am told they are aware and no need to call anymore. I do not know this woman.\" A San Jose police spokesman said a \"concerned citizen\" -- not Moore or Kutcher -- called his department at 4:37 a.m. to report seeing the threat on Twitter. Police went to the residence that the caller provided and found the woman unharmed but in need of help, Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said. \"We determined she did meet the criteria for a 72-hour psychological evaluation, and she was taken to a hospital for that treatment,\" Lopez said. Both Moore and Kutcher post tweets from their cell phones several times a day. Kutcher has 675,000 subscribers following his Twitter postings, while 380,000 have signed up to follow Moore. Twitter attracts many readers who enjoy seeing the behind-the-scenes writing, photos and video from celebrities who have embraced the social-network technology. This unusual access also allows subscribers to send messages to celebrities, who sometimes reply. The original tweet to Moore on Friday, which was still online several hours later, read: \"getting a knife,a big one that is sharp. Going to cut my arm down the whole arm so it doesn't waste time.\" Moore, who apparently knew others were trying to locate the person who wrote it, tweeted that she \"was very torn about responding or retweeting that woman's post but felt uncomfortable just letting it go.\" She assured readers that \"the twitterverse is on the case.\" Two hours after the first message, Moore wrote: \"And if it is a joke it is not funny and nor is this an appropriate outlet for such a serious matter Time for us to move on.\" Her husband, who is known as a constant tweeter, posted his own praise of Moore: \"Wifey is pretty amazing, huh?\" \"Lot of pain in the world... Reach out to someone you don't usually reach out to just to say hi. They might be lonely,\" Kutcher tweeted.","highlights":"Demi Moore was recipient of suicide threat on Twitter .\nMoore helped put word out; police later took troubled texter into custody .\nMoore: \"The twitterverse is on the case\"","id":"b4f4c25b77e47ed6545a7f164cf345846ac3fd9b"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Big Al, the used car dealer with that small lot down on the corner, may be your mother's cousin, but that doesn't mean you'll get the best used car deal in town from him. He sells all brands of cars, has no visible shop or mechanical staff, and he is the only one that stands behind the quality of his cars ... until the rear tires clear his driveway. The numbers of items inspected on the cars range from 100 to 300. A better used car? If shopping for regular used cars, whether it be at a dealer or private party, just isn't cutting it for you, there may be a better solution -- choosing to buy from a new-car dealer who also operates a Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) used car program. These programs are operated jointly by the manufacturer and the dealer, and practically guarantee the quality, condition, and future long life of the car, truck, crossover, or SUV you're interest in. It's in the dealer's and the manufacturer's best interest to find the best used cars available for these programs, so most of the cars sold through them are clean, undamaged cars coming off of two- or three-year leases or out of rental-car fleet service. Restrictions on which vehicles are allowed in the program, such as age and mileage, vary. Some cars in CPO programs could be as young as six months and have only 6000 miles on them, as in BMW's program, and others could be as much as five years old and have a maximum of 80,000 miles on the odometer, in the case of Volvo. Inspection and warranty . Although the content and extent of each brand's certified pre-owned program varies, one of the constants is the complete vehicle inspection offered by every program. Though the number of items -- or points -- inspected on the vehicle varies from 100 to 300, as a consumer you should feel comfortable knowing that everything important on the car was inspected by the dealer, under the guidelines of the manufacturer, and the worn or bad parts were replaced, if necessary, before the vehicle was put into the program. Aside from the inspections, the length and coverage of the certified-vehicle warranty also varies from program to program, and the buyer should make absolutely sure that the original manufacturer is offering the warranty, as opposed to a third-party or extended-warranty company. Depending on a vehicle's age, condition and mileage, it may in fact be cheaper to buy an uncertified used car from a dealer and then purchase a separate extended warranty for the vehicle. The CPO bumper-to-bumper warranties can be a bit complicated, so be sure to do your homework and become familiar with all the ins-and-outs. Some of the warranties start when the car is sold to you, and some warranties start from the date of the original sale or in-service date of the vehicle, but are extended up to six years or 100,000 miles. Certified used car buyers should be sure to read and understand every paragraph of the vehicle and powertrain warranties offered with the vehicle so there are no surprises later. Some warranties also require the buyer to pay a predetermined deductible amount for each repair; some don't (BMW, for instance, charges a flat fee of $50 for any warranty repair). Some CPO warranties are even transferable to the next owner after you, which may be an attraction when it comes time to sell it. In most cases, the original long-term powertrain and corrosion penetration warranty will still apply. You also get perks . Beyond the usual vehicle inspection thoroughness and the length of the certified-vehicle warranty, the various manufacturers and dealers offer a large menu of extras on their certified pre-owned vehicles as enticements to a deal. What if you buy a CPO vehicle, load your kids into it, and it stops running halfway to grandma's house? Most programs offer 24\/7 roadside assistance for such situations on a CPO vehicle (Hyundai, for instance, offers this feature for a full ten years and unlimited mileage from the original in-service date). Some offer temporary vehicle loans while your vehicle is being repaired. Others go even further than that, offering trip interruption insurance that will pay you up to $1,500 toward your living expenses while your CPO vehicle is being repaired and\/or partial reimbursement for a taxi, shuttle or rental car during the repair period. What if you sign on the bottom line, take the vehicle home, and nobody likes it? Some companies offer a no-strings return policy after three days or 150 miles of home-based test driving (Mercedes-Benz offers seven days and 500 miles). Others offer special financing rates on CPO vehicles to make the deal as attractive as possible. Another potential deal-sealer is a free Carfax report on the car before you buy it, a feature offered by Lexus. A few CPO programs include the Carfax Buyback Guarantee as well. Still other goodies could include free lock-out service, free car washes on each warranty visit, and preferential treatment in the service queue. Infiniti offers free tire changing, lock-out, jump start, an oil filter change, and emergency fuel delivery in addition to other benefits. Others offer free trip routing and maps. Jaguar, for instance, sweetens its deals with British Airways companion tickets, free membership in the Hertz #1 Club, free magazines, and a Jaguar club liaison. It's all there, in the fine print. Is it worth it? Due to the costs involved in the inspection, certification and warranties process, a certified used car will almost always be more expensive than a normal used car or one from a private party out of the classifieds. How much more? From two to eight percent higher, according to Kelley Blue Book research. Premium-brand vehicles will be priced even higher because there are more items to warranty on a luxury car than there are on a basic Chevrolet or Ford. But, look at it this way: You can get a thoroughly inspected and guaranteed, slightly used two-to-five-year-old vehicle for far less money than you'd have to pay for it new. Add to that attractive interest rates, with lots of extra perks in the deal, including the security of a longer warranty. Can Big Al match that? We don't think so. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Certified pre-owned programs may save you money .\nManufacturers and dealers may also toss in perks .\nBuying a CPO vehicle will cost 2 to 8 percent more .","id":"e256aa1224bfd9031e339962742730f8756d4304"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A 100 meter boat with a full tropical garden is not something you're likely to see very often. In fact, before now, you've probably never seen it. Wally Island: The vessel that has all the comforts of home . However, the giant mega-yacht 'Wally Island' offers exactly that. Designed by super-yacht designers Wally is still in the design stage as the company has not yet managed to sell the concept to a buyer. The vessel boasts over 1000 square meters in forward deck space, allowing for such features as a full garden and pool, a tennis court, or several heli-pads. View photos of Wally Island \u00bb . The designers intended to offer the owner the opportunity to live completely independently on the vessel. The boat, the designers said, could make life just like at home on a personal estate for its owner. Although the interior spaces are pushed towards the aft of the vessel, there is still room for an owners suite and six further double-king sized suites. In addition to this there are numerous rooms for entertaining guests. What do you think of Wally Island? Have you seen a better super-yacht? Share your thoughts in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"The 99-meter vessel Wally was designed by super-yacht designers Wally .\nWally Island is still in the design stage awaiting a buyer .\nThe deck contains a tropical garden, or can be converted to a tennis court .","id":"84dba55ef449b9ab0383a9759154bafd681672ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A car bomb exploded Saturday in Somalia's capital, killing 15 people and wounding 24, a government spokesman said. Gunfighting has plagued the streets of Somalia's capital in recent months, stalling efforts to restore order. The car was heading toward headquarters of the African Union Mission in Somalia in late morning when a bomb went off before it reached the building, which is guarded by police, Abdi Gobdon said. The attack also threatened a group of nearby African Union peacekeepers. African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping condemned the \"cowardly and terrorist\" suicide attack in Mogadishu, which he said comes during a time of \"renewed efforts to further peace and reconciliation\" to the troubled nation. Somalia has been wracked by violence and lawlessness since the government was overthrown in 1991. A drought and high food and fuel prices also have increased the need for humanitarian assistance. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your story . On Saturday, various officials met in Djibouti with the aim of expanding the Somalian parliament and electing a president for the Transitional Federal Government, Ping said. The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution January 16 expressing its intent to send U.N. peacekeeping forces back to the unstable nation, and the AU plans to send additional troops to Somalia in coming weeks, Ping said. The United Nations' World Food Programme considered suspending delivery of food to Somalia after the killings of two aid workers in early January but then decided that would hurt the very people the program is trying to help.","highlights":"African Union official condemns attack that also wounded 24 .\nBomb went off before car reached African Union mission headquarters .\nU.N. Security Council recently adopted resolution aimed at bringing in peacekeepers .\nViolence, lawlessness have plagued Somalia since government overthrown in 1991 .","id":"1f4b0fc74030dc7176b71951f08b3a1f0920f612"} -{"article":"This story is part of an ongoing series of profiles by CNN about economic survival in this time of financial crisis. Leah Bird and her husband Ed Wright stand in front of their new home: a 1974 Airstream trailer. (CNN) -- They bid farewell to their beloved trips to the opera and museum, the beach and Buddhist temples. They ate one last time at their favorite restaurants serving Indian curried chicken and warm bowls of Vietnamese pho. Leah Bird and her husband, Ed Wright, have traded their comfortable two-bedroom apartment and jobs in Beverly Hills, California, for life in a trailer on a five-acre Oregon farm. No longer do the couple hear roaring fire trucks in the street or chatter from patrons dining at outdoor cafes. On this farm, the dominant silence is occasionally interrupted by the sounds of frogs and crickets. \"It's not necessarily a lifestyle that has ever seemed attractive to me,\" says 28-year-old Bird, between tending to the farm animals: two sheep, two Nubian goats, miniature horses and geese. \"I always saw myself as more of a metropolitan person, but you know, without money, this was our best option.\" The couple's drastic lifestyle change -- one they chose -- came last October when Wright, 48, lost his job managing life insurance portfolios for millionaires at a private firm in Beverly Hills. His niche company, which relied heavily on capital flow, had felt the pain of the credit crunch. Once making over $100,000 a year, Wright soon joined the growing number of Americans facing unemployment in the economic downturn. iReport.com: Tell us how you're surviving . With meager savings, Bird and Wright knew they couldn't maintain their costly Los Angeles lifestyle in an area where, they say, image is everything. Even if they had stayed in Beverly Hills, they would have needed to move into a smaller apartment and rely on Bird's modest salary as a financial manager. Exhausted from the rat race, Wright decided they needed another option. \"I've been in Los Angeles for a long time and I've had to start over before,\" Wright says. \"You spend two or three years getting back on your feet and then what? It's a struggle if you aren't making a lot of money.\" Then Wright's parents offered to let the newlywed couple live on their family farm in rural Douglas County in southern Oregon until the couple bounced back. Wright agreed immediately. He says he wanted to move there to help his elderly parents manage the sprawling property. His wife, however, was more reluctant because she still had her job. But Bird says she soon agreed to move to the farm because it was the fastest way to cut expenses. \"I did it out of immediate necessity,\" says Bird, who grew up in more of a suburban setting near Tucson, Arizona. \"I don't think I was ready to leave L.A.\" While Wright wanted to make the move north, he wasn't ready to move in with his parents. At Christmas, the couple purchased a 1974 Airstream trailer, shaped like an oblong silver bullet, from Craigslist for a few thousand dollars. The trailer living quarters are cramped, with about 300 square feet, a major downgrade from the couple's 1,400-square-foot apartment in California. iReport.com: From Beverly Hills to Hillbillies . The couple moved to Oregon in mid-January, after a two-day drive from Los Angeles, hopeful the farm would give them the needed break from city life and a chance to focus on finding new careers. In Los Angeles, they lived in a neighborhood with about 20,000 people. Now, the closest town has fewer than 20,000 people. \"We're not going to lie to you and say everything is hunky dory,\" Wright says. \"It's hard being out here.\" \"I feel like a fish out of water,\" Bird added. \"I'm so out of my element.\" Their mornings now begin at the crack of dawn. They clean the living space for the animals, pick up manure and fix the landscaping. Afternoons are spent job hunting, a challenging feat in a region where lumber and nursing are the two dominant fields. For now, they are spending their savings until they find employment. Their trailer's bedroom has just enough room to stuff in a queen-size bed. A narrow window by the bed looks out on the farm, where they can see deer roaming the land in the mornings. There is no dining room, a difficult adjustment for the couple, who once enjoyed entertaining guests over dinner and wine. The living room furniture consists of colorful pillows piled against the wall on the floor facing the television and a desk for their laptops. Their new kitchen has just enough space for one person to stand and work. There is one toilet , which is currently being remodeled, and no shower. The couple bathe at Wright's parents' house; they admit that they only shower a few times a week now. Most of their belongings from Los Angeles, expensive furniture and art accumulated over the years, remain in storage. While the couple miss these things, they say their new lifestyle will help them survive the troubled economy. They also hope it will teach them to live simpler lives. In many ways, Bird and Wright are enjoying the serenity of their slower-paced lifestyle. They are spending more time together, and Bird says she is getting closer to Wright's parents. After the initial culture shock in the first month, Bird says she is slowly adapting to farm life. She learned how to build a fire pit, and she plans on growing a fruit and vegetable garden in the spring. She wants to buy more productive animals like cows. With the garden and some cows, she says, the couple won't have to purchase vegetables or milk from the grocery store. Her husband is remodeling their trailer by adding amenities to the kitchen and bathroom. Wright, who has always been interested in philosophy and religion, says he sees his unemployment as a time for \"soul searching.\" The couple are still mulling their career options. Wright, who is also an amateur musician, is looking at new job opportunities for the future. He has dabbled with the idea of starting his own bar since he knows so many musicians in the industry, he says. He and his wife are thinking about joining the Peace Corps together, or maybe building a log house on the farm. The options are limitless, they say. A few weeks ago, surrounded by giant pine trees in the cold winter air, the couple walked outside and looked up. For the first time in a long time, they could see the stars shining brightly in the dark sky. CNN's Shirley Zilberstein contributed to this report.","highlights":"Leah Bird and Ed Wright have have traded their Beverly Hills life for a trailer on a farm .\nWright, who once made $100,000 a year, was laid off from an insurance firm .\nThey feed animals, clean manure and fix the landscape .\n\"I feel like a fish out of water. I'm so out of my element,\" Bird says .","id":"22fb969f7c86161e133eb88c8e46cd2cd826eeb0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sometimes, a T-shirt just doesn't cut it. Allie Tompkins, 19, gets her first tattoo at Fatty's Tattooz on Monday. For those who want a more permanent way to showcase their support for Barack Obama, Washington's tattoo parlors are ready to help. \"There's nothing more memorable than a tattoo,\" said Matt Jessup, better known as \"Fatty,\" the owner of Fatty's Custom Tattooz and Body Piercing. His shop is celebrating what it has dubbed the \"Obamathan,\" where customers can get a free \"Obama '08\" logo tattoo if they buy another tattoo worth $200. The Obama tattoo, Fatty says, is worth $70. \"A lot of people are feeling very inspired and taken by this moment in our nation's history. And for many people, they are in town for this historic event, they want something to remember it by,\" he said. At Fatty's and other tattoo shops in the area, there have been multiple inquiries about getting inked with an Obama image, they say, but only a few people have actually gone through with. The most popular choices so far have been the Obama logo, the word \"hope,\" and the now iconic red-and-blue Obama hope poster by Shepard Fairey. T.J. Mohler, who works at Jinx Proof Tattoos, said business has been up as people flood the city, but only \"about two or three\" customers have gotten an Obama tattoo. One of those people is Mohler himself, who opted for a 5 x 7-inch Obama image on his leg. \"When I look back in 50 years, it will remind me of the time and how excited everyone is,\" Mohler said. None of the shop owners reported any history of George W. Bush tattoos. \"No such thing,\" said Jason Anthony, owner of Midtown Tattoo. Fatty says he's hoping the number of people getting Obama art will grow as more visitors arrive and word about the Obamathon gets out. \"We're still rolling with it through the week, so I'm hoping that we'll get more interest,\" he said. On Wednesday, Fatty has plans to tattoo a portrait of Obama's face on one customer. That piece of art is worth $600, but the customer is getting it for free because she was the winner of one of the shop's promotions. But for those wary of permanent ink, there are some alternatives available. Glam Rock Art is a Washington business specializing in airbrush tattoos and body art. Owner and artist Nicole Graves has ordered custom Obama stencils in response to requests from customers. Fatty's also offers a removable option -- the Obama piercing. It's an orbital ring with a blue bead that costs $44, in honor of the 44th president. And if a customer has a change of heart post-tattoo, Fatty says all is not lost. \"Come on back and I'll cover it up with something else,\" he said.","highlights":"Tattoo parlors offering permanent memories of Barack Obama's inauguration .\nMost popular tattoos: Obama logo, \"hope,\" iconic red-and-blue Obama poster .\nOwner: \"A lot of people are feeling very inspired and taken by this moment\"\nTemporary options include Obama piercings, airbrush tattoos .","id":"8091f8e6cffc65e0f0a4dbd5994dc4820ef1bd71"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Thousands of documents about reported UFO sightings -- ranging from calm accounts by professional pilots to unhinged rants about the extraterrestrial menace -- have been released by the British Ministry of Defence. Taiwan resident Lee Chun-hung took these pictures showing a ball of fire trailing across the sky. The 4,500 pages cover sightings that were reported from 1986 through 1992. The British military released them to a curious public as part of a four-year project to transfer all such documents to the National Archives. One highlight from the batch released Monday involves the captain of an Italian airliner. He shouted \"Look out!\" to his co-pilot in April 1991 after claiming to see a beige \"missile-shaped object\" shoot past the cockpit. In that instance, the defence ministry ruled out a missile and \"all the usual explanations,\" wrote David Clarke, a UFO expert and journalism instructor at Sheffield Hallam University, who worked with the National Archives to prepare the new materials for release. \"The end result was this was a genuine UFO and the file was simply closed,\" he wrote. \"There was nothing more they could do.\" The newly released documents also carry an account by a U.S. Air Force pilot who says he was told to shoot down an unidentified flying craft over eastern England. But before he could fire, the object disappeared. The next day, a man arrived to debrief the pilot and \"he was told in no uncertain terms that what he had seen on his radar was top secret and he wasn't to speak about it to anyone,\" Clarke wrote. The first set of files was made available to members of the public in May. It covered reported UFO sightings from 1978 to 1987, and included hundreds of police reports taken from witnesses who described seeing lights or strange objects in the sky. People who reported having seen UFOs typically describe various shapes and colors of lights, moving in formation or hovering in the sky. Witnesses reported orange, red, white and green lights that were diamond-shaped, square, or cigar-shaped. They reported them to police, who have a standard 16-question form specifically for UFO sightings. \"The vast majority of them are just ordinary people who've seen something unusual and thought that they ought to tell someone about it,\" Clarke has said. The Ministry of Defence said it examined the reports solely to determine whether enemy aircraft had infiltrated British airspace. Once it was determined that no enemy aircraft were in the sky, it did not investigate further. \"The Ministry of Defence has no other interest or role regarding UFO matters and does not consider questions regarding the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life-forms,\" it said in May. That left many incidents unexplained.","highlights":"Documents about reported UFO sightings released by UK defense officials .\nIncludes account by airliner captain who saw beige \"missile-shaped object\"\n4,500 pages cover sightings that were reported from 1986 through 1992 .","id":"2a93e61fd7f1dcb4450dd46730d14a9f40bda1da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just like some U.S. officials looking into the mystery, the man who captured video of an apparent fireball plunging from the sky over Texas on Sunday is perplexed about what it was. Video captured in Austin, Texas, shows a meteor-like object in the sky Sunday morning. \"I don't know what I saw in the sky. It was something burning and falling really fast,\" Eddie Garcia, a videographer for News 8 Austin, told CNN Monday. \"I'm looking in the viewfinder and I see, just, something flying through the sky. And it kind of looks like it could be dust, it could be something, and then I look up and, no, it was something burning in the sky,\" he said. \"And you know, this is something that you see at night clearly during a meteor shower or something like that, but you don't see something like that during the day.\" Authorities in Texas said there were reports of sonic booms in the area Sunday as well. Watch video of meteor-like fireball \u00bb . Early speculation was that it might have been debris from two satellites -- one American, one Russian -- that rammed into each other in space a week ago. But the U.S. Strategic Command, which tracks satellite debris, said it was not. \"There is no correlation between those reports and any of that debris from the collision,\" command spokeswoman Maj. Regina Winchester told CNN Monday. So what was it? \"I don't know,\" she responded. \"It's possible it was some kind of natural phenomenon, maybe a meteor.\" Meteor fireballs bright enough to be seen in the daytime are rare but not unheard of. Two of the most recent fell in October in the Alice Springs region of Australia and last June just west of Salt Lake City, Utah. The one over Australia was unique because the asteroid that caused it was discovered and tracked before it reached Earth's atmosphere, according to the Sydney Observatory's Web site. It says the asteroid was about 6.5 feet wide. A sonic boom also was heard in connection with that event, the Australian observatory says. On Friday, the National Weather Service reported that its office in Jackson, Kentucky, had received calls about \"possible explosions\" or \"earthquakes\" in that area. \"The Federal Aviation Administration has reported to local law enforcement that these events are being caused by falling satellite debris,\" the service said Friday. \"These pieces of debris have been causing sonic booms, resulting in the vibrations being felt by some residents, as well as flashes of light across the sky. The cloud of debris is likely the result of the recent in-orbit collision of two satellites on Tuesday February 10, when Kosmos 2251 crashed into Iridium 33.\" CNN's call Monday to NASA to get its take on the fireball over Texas was not immediately returned. Garcia said he had been told NASA may have called him. The FAA had asked pilots Saturday to keep an eye out for \"falling space debris,\" warning that \"a potential hazard may occur due to re-entry of satellite debris into the Earth's atmosphere.\" FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said Sunday there had been no reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft in flight. He said the FAA had received no reports from pilots in the air of any sightings, but had gotten \"numerous\" calls from people on the ground in Texas, from Dallas south to Austin. As of Monday morning, Herwig said his agency had no information about what the fireball was. iReport.com: Did you see the fireball? Send photos, video . He also said the FAA had rescinded its warning to pilots to look out for space debris. Garcia, the videographer, was out covering a marathon race Sunday morning when he caught a glimpse of the blaze. In the video, it appear as a meteor-like white fireball blazing across the clear sky. \"I remember shooting it and wondering what I shot, and then looking around and seeing if anyone saw it with me, and everyone was just focused on that marathon that we were shooting at the time,\" he told CNN Newsroom. Whatever it was, Garcia said he's \"just grateful I got a shot of it. And, hopefully, that'll help\" people figure out what it was.","highlights":"Video shot in Austin, Texas, shows meteor-like object in sky Sunday morning .\nFireball sightings, reports of sonic booms come days after satellite collision in space .\nFAA told U.S. pilots to watch for \"falling space debris\"","id":"f6ab014104858f8bcef436218232981f2d370197"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Beckham revealed that he has missed playing football \"at the highest level\" after being presented as an AC Milan player ahead of his three-month loan deal from the Los Angeles Galaxy. David Beckham parades his new AC Milan kit after completing his three-month loan to the Italian club. Beckham, 33, has negotiated a move to the Serie A giants in a bid to remain match fit and stay in the thoughts of England manager Fabio Capello. His move to LA Galaxy from Real Madrid last year was perceived at the time as a step backwards to a league that has still to establish itself on the world stage, and the former England captain admitted that a move to Milan represented a move back into the mainstream. \"Moving to America was a big step for me because there was a lot of people who were criticizing the move, but I still believe it was a move where I wanted to challenge myself and I was able to challenge myself in different ways,\" Beckham told a packed press conference in Milan. \"But I have always said that I would always miss playing at the highest level. I'm not saying that in America they won't get to the highest level -- it will take time and it will happen. But with five months off during the season I personally can't do that. \"I needed to be able to be playing top-flight football to keep myself fit, to keep myself in contention for other things that are going on.\" Beckham, who began the press conference by addressing the assembled media with a few words in Italian, will be in the stands to watch his new team take on Udinese on Sunday. He will then join them at a training camp in Dubai and could make his debut when the Serie A season resumes with a trip to Roma on January 11. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder added: \"I'm really happy to be here, it is a great honor. I hope to add to the team, I hope to give everything that I've always given in my career. \"To be able to have the chance to play for another one of the biggest clubs in the world, I've played for the biggest club in England, the biggest club in Spain and now I'm going to be playing for the biggest club in Italy, is amazing. \"I've been very lucky in my career to have done that, and I'm just going to enjoy it because I think to be given this opportunity is incredible.\" added Beckham.","highlights":"David Beckham presented to the media ahead of his loan spell with AC Milan .\nThe England midfielder revealed he missed playing football \"at highest level\"\n33-year-old will be at Milan on loan for three months from Los Angeles Galaxy .","id":"50194f58208f1498f980440feda5d066bf1d2426"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Saturday he will give in to a rebel demand that he impose Islamic law, or sharia, in an effort to halt fighting between Somali forces and Islamic insurgents. President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed says sharia law in Somalia will not be strict. However, Ahmed told a news conference he won't agree to a strict interpretation of the law, which forbids girls from attending school, requires veils for women and beards for men, and bans music and television. The president, speaking at his palace in the capital, Mogadishu, said local elders and religious leaders, acting as liaisons with the militants, brought him a message saying the rebels wanted a truce in the two-year-old fighting. He also asked African peacekeepers to stand down. Ahmed, who was elected January 31, said he would ask the AU contingent to leave once there is a solid political solution to the conflict. More than 40,000 Somalis have returned to abandoned neighborhoods in Mogadishu over the past six weeks, despite some of the heaviest fighting in months, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday. They are part of the more than a million residents who have been displaced by fighting in Somalia, including 100,000 who fled to neighboring countries last year alone, according to the United Nations. Ethiopian troops entered the country at its request in December 2006. The Ethiopians ousted the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamic movement that had claimed control of Mogadishu earlier that year. Ethiopia's action had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. But various Islamist groups -- including al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- rejected the presence of Ethiopian forces and mounted an insurgent campaign against the Ethiopians and the transitional government. From Mohamed Amiin Adow for CNN .","highlights":"Concession is attempt to halt fighting between Somali forces, Islamic insurgents .\nPresident Ahmed says he won't agree to a strict interpretation of Islamic law .\nPresident also has asked African peacekeepers to stand down .","id":"6b54ba62fa3a976b3839df3e8a73b454bfbc52bd"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe described the U.S. government and Western nations as \"quite stupid and foolish\" Tuesday for trying to be involved in the African country's affairs. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has ignored international calls for him to step down. Mugabe made the comments at the funeral for a former senior soldier, just days after a top U.S. diplomat said the United States no longer supports a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and his political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, that might pave the way for economic, health and other reforms. Jendayi Frazer, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Sunday that the U.S. felt a viable unity government was not possible with Mugabe in power. At the funeral, Mugabe reacted: \"The inclusive government ... does not include Mr. Bush and his administration. It does not even know him. It has no relationship with him. Watch U.S. say Mugabe needs to go \u00bb . \"So let him keep his comments to himself. They are undeserved, irrelevant and quite stupid and foolish. Who are they to decide who should be included or should not in an inclusive government?\" Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, signed the unity deal September 15, but Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the MDC have failed to implement it because they cannot agree on who should control key ministries. Under the power-sharing proposal brokered by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe would remain president while Tsvangirai would become prime minister. Watch what options the international community has in Zimbabwe \u00bb . U.S. President George W. Bush and other leaders have urged Mugabe to step down amid a cholera epidemic that the United Nations says has killed more than 1,000 people since August. Mugabe blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe's worst economic and humanitarian crisis since independence from Great Britain 28 years ago. The nation is facing acute shortages of fuel, electricity and medical drugs. The inflation rate -- the highest in the world -- is 231 million percent. Mugabe, referring to Bush's call for him to leave office, said: \"We realize that these are [the] last kicks of a dying horse. We obviously [are] not going to pay attention to a sunset administration. Zimbabwe's fate lies in the fate of Zimbabweans. They are the ones who make and unmake the leaders of the country. Their decision alone is what we go by.\" Bush leaves office January 20. Tsvangirai announced Friday that his party will withdraw from efforts to form a unity government unless 42 kidnapped party members are released or brought to court to face formal charges by New Year's Day.","highlights":"President Robert Mugabe describes U.S. and West as \"stupid and foolish\"\nPower-share deal is stalled because of dispute over control of ministries .\nZimbabwe faces cholera epidemic, economic crisis .\nMugabe has resisted international calls for him to step down .","id":"cfee25047af56c96372a9c0eb83fafbb8d74fa15"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of people filled a college auditorium Wednesday to pay their last respects to an El Reno, Oklahoma, woman slain along with her four children last week. Summer Rust's children -- clockwise from top, Autumn, Kirsten, Evynn and Teagin -- carve pumpkins. About 300 people attended the service at Redlands Community College for Summer Rust, 25; her son, Teagin, 4; and daughters Evynn, 3, and Autumn and Kirsten, both 7, CNN affiliate KOCO reported. Rust's white coffin was placed in front of the podium, flanked by the smaller caskets carrying her children. Each casket had a picture of the victim, surrounded by flowers. A slide show of the family played on an overhead screen throughout the service. \"I've preached a lot of funerals, but none like this one,\" said the Rev. Gerald Van Horn. \"This has been on my heart ever since I heard about it. I first learned of it from the news, and I said, 'In El Reno? No way.' ... We don't have to deal with tragedy very often, but it has come, and the reality of it has sunk in. Searching my heart on what to say, I have found it difficult.\" He told mourners that God is near and feels their pain but acknowledged that Rust and her children \"will be greatly missed.\" The bodies were found January 12 in Rust's apartment in El Reno, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. According to the document, each of the victims was suffocated and strangled. Crime scene investigators said each body had ligature marks around the neck. Rust's boyfriend, Joshua Steven Durcho, 25, admitted choking her to death but said the children were not there at the time, according to an affidavit filed last week. He was arrested in Hamilton County, Texas, officials said. A spokeswoman at the Canadian County, Oklahoma, Sheriff's Office said Durcho was being held in the county jail after waiving extradition. Durcho's cousin found Rust's body and called officers, who found the children's bodies in the apartment, says an affidavit written by a special agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. An apparent acquaintance of Durcho's told police he came to her apartment Monday afternoon and told her he had \"choked\" Summer Rust to death and he was leaving Oklahoma, according to the affidavit. The affidavit says Durcho told the woman \"that the children were at their grandmother's residence ... while he and Summer worked out their relationship problems.\" Rust's mother, Susan Rust of Carson City, Nevada, said Durcho was unemployed and had been living with Rust and her children. Authorities in Texas said Durcho was arrested after a state trooper attempted to stop his car because the trooper suspected that the driver was drunk. When the trooper ran the license plate on the car, it matched the tag number of a vehicle sought by Oklahoma police.","highlights":"NEW: Preacher says he found funeral for mom, four kids \"difficult\"\n300 mourners attended service at Redlands Community College .\nBodies found January 12 in apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma .\nWoman's boyfriend, Joshua Steven Durcho, admitted choking her, affidavit says .","id":"75a2911c8d7e595b556ae2aa40ba2d1ad9c5f485"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first-ever pictures of planets outside the solar system have been released in two studies. The box shows a planet orbiting the star Fomalhaut. The dot shows the star's location. Using the latest techniques in space technology, astronomers at NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used direct-imaging techniques to capture pictures of four newly discovered planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. \"After all these years, it's amazing to have a picture showing not one but three planets,\" said physicist Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. \"The discovery of the HR8799 system is a crucial step on the road to the ultimate detection of another Earth,\" he said. None of the planets is remotely habitable, scientists said. Both sets of research findings were published Thursday in Science Express, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A team of American, British and Canadian astronomers and physicists, using the Gemini North and Keck telescopes on the Mauna Kea mountaintop in Hawaii, observed host star HR8799 to find three of the new planets. Scientists estimate that HR8799, roughly 1.5 times the size of the sun, is 130 light years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. The individual planets in this planetary family are estimated to be seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter. Astronomers say the star is too faint to detect with the human eye, but observers could probably see it through binoculars or small telescopes. \"This discovery is the first time we have directly imaged a family of planets around a normal star outside of our solar system,\" said Christian Marois, the lead astronomer in the Lawrence Livermore lab study. About the same time, NASA astronomers using the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope surprised the space community by locating a fourth planet. NASA's newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, is estimated to be roughly three times Jupiter's mass and 10.7 billion miles from its host star, Fomalhaut. NASA's images show Fomalhaut b orbiting the bright southern star Fomalhaut, which is said to be 16 times brighter than our sun and 25 light years away in the constellation Piscis Australis (Southern Fish). \"Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star,\" Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas said. \"We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off.\" Previous planet-hunting efforts have relied on the traditional Doppler, or \"wobble,\" technique, which works by measuring the gravitational influence a planet exerts on its host, or parent, star. By studying these gravitational \"tug-of-wars,\" astronomers have been able to study a star's velocity or brightness to infer the presence of a planet. iReport.com: Are you an aspiring astronomer? Share your photos of space . To determine whether the faint objects orbiting HR8799 were indeed planets and not other stars, astronomers studying the three newly discovered planets (HR8799b, HR8799c and HR8799d) compared images from studies conducted in different years. In all the documented pictures, the three objects were found to be orbiting in a counter-clockwise direction around HR8799, proving that they were planets and not just background objects coincidentally aligned in the image. According to the the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, there have been 322 planets found outside our solar system. The latest findings bring that total to 326. The extrasolar planets found have mostly been gaseous in their composition. Both studies indicate that direct-imaging techniques can only aid our efforts in one day finding an Earth-like planet.","highlights":"Astronomers have new images of four likely planets outside Earth's solar system .\nImages were recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and a telescope in Hawaii .\nThe planets are probably too faint to detect with the human eye .\nResearch findings published Thursday in the journal Science Express .","id":"7a2b4622ff3c65d31d23b692566dba4265263520"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Leslie Morgan Steiner is the author of \"Crazy Love,\" a new memoir about domestic violence, and the anthology \"Mommy Wars,\" which explores the polarization between stay-at-home and career moms. Leslie Morgan Steiner says domestic violence afflicts the well-to-do as well as the poor. (CNN) -- For two days, news reports called her \"the 20-year old victim\" allegedly attacked by R&B singer and dancer Chris Brown in his car early February 8 in Los Angeles, California. We all now have good reason to believe that the alleged victim was pop singer Rihanna, Brown's girlfriend. The story has dominated the general media with good reason. Both singers are young, apple-cheek gorgeous, immensely talented and squeaky clean -- the last couple you'd imagine as domestic violence headliners. Perhaps the only good that will come from the Rihanna\/Brown publicity is destruction of our culture's misconception that abusers and their victims can only be universally poor, uneducated and powerless. Brown, whose first song debuted at No. 1 and whose first album topped the Billboard Hot 100, appeared on a Disney sitcom and in Sesame Street, Got Milk? and Wrigley's Doublemint Gum commercials. Barbados-born Rihanna has been big-brothered by music industry legends like Jay-Z and Kanye West and is signed to the Def Jam Recordings label. She has been astonishingly successful in the short time she has been on the music scene, attaining five Billboard Hot 100 No. 1's with \"SOS,\" \"Umbrella,\" \"Take a Bow,\" \"Disturbia\" and T.I.'s \"Live Your Life.\" Like Rihanna, I had a bright future in my early 20s. I met my abusive lover at 22. I'd just graduated from Harvard and had a job at Seventeen Magazine in New York. My husband worked on Wall Street and was an Ivy League graduate as well. In our world, we were the last couple you'd imagine enmeshed in domestic violence. Many of my ex-husband's attacks also took place in our car. For reasons I never understood, the enclosed, soundproof space brought out his worst violence. He punched me so fiercely that my face had bruises from his fist on one side and from hitting the window on the other. As trapped in the car as I was in our marriage, it was there that I endured tirades about how controlling I was with money, how flirtatious and na\u00efve I was with other men, how defiant and disrespectful I was of my husband's authority. So, I suppose I have more understanding than most about the shame, fury, confusion and disappointment Rihanna may be experiencing. What's hardest for outsiders to fathom is how lethal a cocktail love, hope and sympathy can be. I first fell for my husband the night he confided how he, like Chris Brown, had been traumatized as a young boy by domestic violence in his home. \"He used to hit my mom ... He made me terrified all the time, terrified like I had to pee on myself,\" Brown said during a 2007 interview with Giant magazine. Brown hasn't explained what happened in the recent incident, but this week he released a statement saying that he's sorry and saddened by it. Our culture encourages women to nurture men, making it predictable that many experience a seductive empathy for abusive men, as well as the misguided hope that love can obliterate an ugly past. In my case, it took four years, myriad terrifying attacks, and the intervention of the police and family court before I understood how little I could help my ex get over his abusive childhood. I certainly felt alone during my abusive relationship, but unfortunately I was in good company. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that between 1 million and 3 million women in America are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend each year. Every day, on average, three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. At some point in our lives, 25 percent of American women will report being physically abused or raped by intimate partners, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, these statistics, grim as they are, fail to highlight the root of the abuse cycle. A national survey showed that 50 percent of men who frequently assault their wives also frequently abuse their children. Witnessing abuse, as Chris Brown and my ex-husband did as young boys, is a form of abuse itself. Tragically, many victims of childhood abuse grow up to be abusers themselves. I always sensed that my husband didn't want to be hurting me -- he knew exactly how excruciating love and fear felt mixed together -- but his childhood rage overpowered his adult sensibilities. A few months after I left my marriage, I happened across another couple in another car, late at night on an empty street. I slowed down as a well-dressed woman about 25 years old was walking away from a white Honda, brushing off a tall, handsome young man wearing a sports coat and jeans. Suddenly she turned and tried to run. He grabbed her with his long arms and shoved her up against a dirty storefront. Even from my car I could see the fear on her pretty face. Without thinking, I jerked my car over and got out. By this time the man had let the woman go and she'd slid behind the wheel of the car. He stepped back as I approached, his anger displaced by uncertainty and shame at being interrupted. I didn't look at him. I leaned into the car as she sat clutching the wheel, crying and staring straight ahead. \"I just left a husband who beat me for three years,\" I said. \"You do not have to put up with this. You do not deserve to be treated like this.\" \"I know,\" she whispered as fresh tears poured down her face. She sniffed loudly and shook her head. She wouldn't look at me. Her eyes were rimmed red, but I could see resolve in them. \"You're right,\" she said. \"It's just taking me longer than I thought.\" As I left, I gave the man a long stare. The spell had been broken and his face was open, sorrowful, filled with hope and fear -- a look I had seen dozens of times on my husband's face. How long would that look last before he got angry again? I could feel the woman's determination as I got back into my car. I knew she would be all right, one day. The man, I was less certain about. Family violence is a criminal act; perpetrators, while often former victims themselves, need to accept culpability. Until we can prevent children from witnessing and becoming victims of abuse, the cycle will repeat itself: there will be many more Chris Browns and \"alleged victims\" in our headlines and in our homes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Leslie Morgan Steiner.","highlights":"Leslie Steiner: I was victim of domestic violence many years ago .\nShe says such abuse is prevalent and cuts across all demographic groups .\nOur culture encourages women to nurture even abusive men, she says .\nSteiner: Exposing children to such violence perpetuates cycle in next generation .","id":"8778e1c05fcb0af7164bf0e108731c7507b38b05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in South Dakota and Nebraska on Friday suspended a search for a missing Nebraska family after a relative told authorities he spoke to his kin and said they are doing well. The Schade family of Creighton, Nebraska, is not missing, a relative says. Law officers still don't exactly know the location of Matthew Schade of Creighton, Nebraska; his wife Rowena, and their two children -- a daughter, 11, and a son, 8. But authorities think they might be in Nebraska because officials received a tip that a brush truck they suspect the couple stole from a volunteer fire department in South Dakota has been found abandoned in Antelope County, Nebraska. A brush truck is a type of small fire truck. The family was last seen on March 20 in Knox County, where Creighton is located. Knox Sheriff James Janecek said the family had gone missing after an officer went to their house on a domestic abuse complaint. Matthew Schade had been on probation for burglary and is wanted for violation of probation and failure to report a change of address, Antelope County Attorney Michael Long told CNN. Schade's father, Chet Schade, contacted the Knox sheriff's office on Thursday afternoon. He confirmed he had spoken with all four family members and said they were alive and well. The Knox County sheriff's office is urging the couple \"to contact authorities immediately to resolve the situation.\" \"They could only help themselves by giving us a call,\" Janecek said. Searchers had been searching for the family in South Dakota's Black Hills until it was determined the couple possibly made their way back to Nebraska. \"The investigation clearly shows the Schade family is no longer in the Black Hills area,\" said the sheriff's office in Pennington County, South Dakota. Investigators think the Schades might have gone camping on U.S. Forest Service property in the Black Hills. Schade had visited the area in the past, and law officers found the family's Ford Taurus on Tuesday in Silver City, South Dakota. CNN's Kara Devlin and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Law officials says they still don't know location of family .\nMan's father says he spoke to all four family members .\nFamily's car found abandoned in South Dakota on Tuesday .\nSheriff says family went missing after deputy check on domestic abuse complaint .","id":"ea399aea85d66cf944fc8884c8196fdfe4246dd3"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Wednesday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says Flynt and Francis have brought some absurdity to the financial news. (CNN) -- I have to mention tonight the headline that caught my eye on the CNN Ticker earlier today: \"Porn Industry Seeks Federal Bailout.\" Yeah, you heard me. The porn industry wants a bailout. Leave it to Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and \"Girls Gone Wild\" CEO Joe Francis to take the absurdity of what is going on now with our federal bailout program to a whole new level. According to their press release, the adult entertainment industry needs $5 billion of your tax money because it, too, has been hit by the economic downturn. They concede the $13 billion industry is in no fear of collapse, but say in this environment, why take chances? I don't really think this requires commentary or condemnation, just thought you would enjoy it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Hustler, \"Girls Gone Wild\" owners seek $5 billion bailout .\nLarry Flynt and Joe Francis say porn industry isn't suffering, but why take chances?\nBrown says this doesn't require commentary or condemnation .","id":"bc3f96a46b6c8441d04547b6acd79689122724b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After his inauguration, if President Barack Obama needs real-time intelligence on crises around the world, he is likely to do it in the Situation Room, the ultra-secure conference room in the White House. It's a place this new president may be seeing a lot of. Interconnected crises: Afghan children hold toy guns in an anti-Israel protest. During the election campaign, Obama often talked about Iraq, a war he opposed, and his plan to withdraw troops within 16 months. He stressed the need to increase U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He criticized Russia for moving its troops into Georgia. Ultimately, however, the campaign hinged on the economy. Substantive debate over the long list of international challenges facing the United States never happened. As soon as he lowers his hand after taking the oath of office, this new president is responsible for steering the United States through the stormy waters of foreign policy dangers. He must decide not only which issues to take on, but when to take them on. But, in this interconnected world, the U.S. president cannot dictate the timing of world events. Crises can hit at any time. An effective president must be ready to act quickly while, at the same time, keeping his long-term focus on strategic priorities. And everywhere he looks, a raft of questions need answering. So, where does Obama start? Israel-Palestinians . The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians conflict flared up again with deadly results just as Obama prepares to take office. The Bush administration's last ditch efforts at forging a final status agreement between Israel and Palestine is in tatters. Will the new president continue the Bush policy of close alliance with Israel? Or will he talk tough to his Israelis allies, urging them to refrain from air attacks and to stop building new settlements while, at the same time, pressing the Palestinians to stop their rocket attacks on Israel and crack down on terrorism? Should he pull out all the stops, trying for a high-stakes strategy of brokering peace and a two-state solution? Or should he just try to put out the immediate fire? Iraq . President Obama takes office as the new Strategic Framework Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, along with the Security Agreement governing the presence of U.S. forces in the country, goes into effect. U.S. forces will now operate under new rules with the Iraqi military officially taking the lead. U.S. forces are scheduled to be withdrawn by the end of 2011. But will Iraqi soldiers and police be up to the task of guaranteeing security for Iraqi citizens? By December 31, 2011 will Iraq really be stable enough for U.S. troops to leave? Afghanistan . Obama wants Afghanistan, not Iraq, to be the central front in the battle against terrorism. With attacks by the Taliban and other extremist groups on the rise, Afghanistan is sinking into chaos. Obama calls the situation \"urgent\" and wants to send more troops. Commanders in Afghanistan are asking for up to 30,000 additional troops, joining the 36,000 already there. But, beyond the number of soldiers, what is Obama's strategy to win the war in Afghanistan? Can he convince NATO allies to contribute more troops when they refused similar requests from President Bush? Can he \"regionalize\" his approach to the war, involving countries like Iran in the solution? How will he carry out his plan to target al Qaeda? Can U.S. forces finally capture Osama bin Laden? Iran . Iran's political power in the region is growing. Tehran is moving forward with efforts to enrich uranium and, some fear, ultimately produce enough for a nuclear bomb. In one of the most controversial issues of the U.S. presidential campaign Obama said he was willing to talk with the United States' enemies. Will he follow through with Iran? What if Israel carries out a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities before the talking is over? Pakistan . Pakistan's border regions have become havens for terrorists including, experts believe, Osama bin Laden. The Bush administration focused its relationship with nuclear-armed Pakistan on the military under General Pervez Musharraf, an uneasy alliance dictated by the war on terrorism. But concentrating on the military meant ignoring Pakistan's civilian government. How will Barack Obama balance the need to work with the military and security forces of Pakistan without undermining Pakistan's already-weakened democracy which, in turn, leads to more instability? Russia . In the wake of war in Georgia, U.S.-Russian relations are in their worst state since the end of the Cold War and the potential for serious conflict between Washington and Moscow is growing. Russia experts are urging Obama to review the relationship from top to bottom, establishing with Moscow new \"rules of the game\" that would avoid the current cycle of U.S. lecturing and Russia blustering. Will Obama follow their advice and work with Russia as an equal on challenges like Iran and nuclear non-proliferation? Financial meltdown . The world-wide financial crisis is not just an economic issue; it can limit the ability of the new president to project U.S. power internationally. Potentially it could destabilize countries. Many other nations, including America's friends, blame the origins of the crisis on the U.S., and Obama will need as many friends as he can get -- plus a coordinated world response -- to end this meltdown. A World Transformed . One of the biggest challenges facing the new U.S. president is not a country, or an international leader, it's the world itself in which power -- economic and political -- is shifting. New players are emerging: Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the so-called \"BRIC\" countries. Non-traditional issues like climate change are playing an increasing role in the United States' foreign policy. So is competition for energy supplies. From his seat in the White House Situation Room, President Obama will see a world filled with threats -- and opportunities. By establishing his priorities early, he can be ready for both.","highlights":"Israel-Palestinians flared up again during the presidential transition period .\nIraq and Afghanistan and their role in the war on terror .\nObama will need international help to battle the global financial meltdown .\nHow Obama reacts to crises will define his presidency .","id":"69d224af808b5a92af6352209448fe1de62b7571"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- When singer-pianist Peter Cincotti showed up to speak to CNN in 2004, he was fresh-faced and impeccably dressed in a suit and shiny shoes. Peter Cincotti rose to fame as a jazz pianist. His new album features pop songs. Seated at a piano, and under the watchful eye of his very sweet mother Cynthia, Cincotti performed the standard \"How High the Moon,\" showing off piano skills you'd expect from someone far beyond his 21 years. His debut album had just topped the Billboard traditional jazz chart -- the youngest artist to claim such a feat. Now 25, Cincotti is still fresh-faced, but he sings to a very different tune. Looking trendy in a fitted sweater, his hair a little looser, his personality more playful -- mom didn't come to this interview -- Peter has gone pop. \"He's this great jazz pianist,\" says producer David Foster, who worked on Cincotti's new album. \"And he just turned the whole thing 180 and wrote these incredible pop songs.\" To Cincotti, whose pop debut \"East of Angel Town\" was released last week on Warner Bros. Records, the switch isn't that big a deal. \"I'm a musician,\" he says. \"I was just playing what I love then, and I'm playing what I love now.\" Watch Cincotti do what he loves \u00bb . Enlisting Foster to help navigate the transition was crafty: Foster is a 15-time Grammy winner with an undeniable knack for generating pop hits. He also has a reputation for getting his way in the studio. But Cincotti, a native New Yorker, didn't make things easy. \"He's a control freak, too, so we butted heads a lot,\" says Foster. \"And he actually made me come to New York to make the record. And I don't like New York because I'm claustrophobic and I don't dig elevators. But he made me come here for three months. That's how much I loved his music.\" Cincotti smiles when he recalls the expletive-ridden voicemail message Foster left him expressing his displeasure over having to vacate his Los Angeles base to work on the project. \"I saved that message,\" Cincotti says. \"It's great.\" Cincotti talked to CNN about new beginnings, old influences and playing piano in the fast lane. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: What do you love about pop? Peter Cincotti: To be honest I don't even categorize (my music) as that. It's just what I'm doing now. This is my first record that I've written everything. It's my first record of original material so the style changed and that's basically what I'm doing right now. CNN: When a 25-year-old is writing songs, what experiences are you drawing on? Cincotti: Well, this record is ... kind of like a debut, and I wanted to write about things that I never sang about before in songs. Things that either happened to me, personal experiences. And I didn't want to write a record of \"I love you and you love me.\" So a lot of the subject matter I think is a bit atypical of what's out there right now ... at least to me. CNN: You've been playing the piano since you were how old? Cincotti: I started when I was 3. My grandma bought me this ten-key toy piano, and she taught me how to play \"Happy Birthday.\" It was my third birthday, and I sat down and I never stopped. CNN: Which pianists have inspired you over the years? Cincotti: There are so many. I'm still going through phases. I'll just listen to a certain musician. The first guy I remember ... I got my first cassette ... it was a Jerry Lee Lewis tape. I remember I was 5 years old and I went with my uncle to the record store. And I always liked \"Great Balls of Fire\" ... and I just couldn't stop trying to play like Jerry Lee Lewis. So he was the first piano player guy that really got under my skin. And then that led to many others ... piano players like Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel. From Art Tatum to Shirley Horne ... CNN: Jerry Lee Lewis played fast. Do you like to play fast? Cincotti: Back then I did. Back then I was fascinated. The faster the better. Now, if it's called for, sure. CNN: What was it like working with David Foster? Cincotti: It was great. He was a pain in the ass! In a good way. And I was a pain in the ass back to him. But I love working with him. There was no BS. It was just a very honest relationship. And I went through a period of taking my time figuring out what kind of producer I wanted for this record, and when he and I met ... we said \"let's just do one song together and see if it works out.\" I was honored that he was interested, but at the same time I wanted the record to be right for what the vision was. But we got together and did 11 songs in three days. And it was one of those things that just clicked and happened. I couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else. CNN: What do you have against Los Angeles? Cincotti: I don't know if I have anything against it, but I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. CNN: Like New York? Cincotti: Like New York. CNN: You're a New Yorker through and through aren't you? Cincotti: I guess so (laughs).","highlights":"Peter Cincotti had hit jazz album, now has album of pop songs .\nNative New Yorker insisted Angeleno David Foster come to N.Y. to produce .\nCincotti started playing piano when he was 3; an early influence was Jerry Lee Lewis .","id":"d128ea1eeca18c92fad8467d380c19bcd74c8323"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Google's ambitious plan to offer a 3-D street level view of communities across three continents hit a snag when angry residents of a UK village blocked the search engine's camera car from photographing their homes. Broughton, can be seen from the air on Google Earth, but not from the ground. Fearing the appearance of their well appointed properties on the Web site would attract criminals scouting for burglary targets, villagers in Broughton, north of London, summoned the police after spotting the car. \"I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane,\" resident Paul Jacobs told The Times of London. \"My immediate reaction was anger: How dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime. \"This is an affluent area. We've already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it's an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.\" Google's Street View project to map 360-degree images of roads and homes across the world has generated numerous complaints over privacy, despite automated software that blurs faces and car licence plates. A Google spokesman, quoted by the UK Press Association, said: \"Embarking on new projects, we sometimes encounter unexpected challenges, and Street View has been no exception. \"We know that some people are uncomfortable with images of their houses or cars being included in the product, which is why we provide an easy way to request removal of imagery. Most imagery requests are processed within hours.\" The spokesman added: \"We take privacy very seriously, and we were careful to ensure that all images in our Street View service abide by UK law.\"","highlights":"Villagers in Broughton summoned police after Google car arrived .\nResidents say the Street View service will help burglars scout targets .\nGoogle says it isn't breaking any laws .","id":"cc9722663f76c0e2c449c3587a656c1790c1946b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has blocked the imminent release of dozens of sex offenders who have served their federal sentences after the Obama administration claimed many of them remain \"sexually dangerous.\" The Supreme Court has blocked the release of sex offenders after claims they remain dangerous. Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday ordered that the men be kept in custody while the case works its way through a federal appeals court, which had ruled as many as 77 North Carolina inmates should be released, some as early as next week. At issue is whether the government has the power to indefinitely detain prisoners who have served their sentences but could pose a public threat upon release. Such laws are known as \"civil commitments.\" The Justice Department filed papers with the high court Friday, asking that any release be put on hold until the justices have more time to consider the larger legal issues raised in their appeal. Such an early release \"would pose a significant risk to the public and constitute a significant harm to the interest of the United States,\" wrote Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who took office this month. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act passed by Congress in 2006 included a provision allowing indefinite confinement of sex offenders. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled lawmakers had overstepped their authority, prompting the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. The law was named after the son of \"America's Most Wanted\" host John Walsh. The boy was kidnapped and murdered by a suspected child molester in 1981. Four inmates brought suit against the law. They were serving sentences of up to eight years for sexual abuse of a minor or possessing child pornography. Their detention was to have ended two years ago, but corrections officials and prosecutors determined they remained a risk for further sexually deviant behavior if freed. The inmates argued such continued imprisonment violates their constitutional right of due process. The justices' actions means the men remain behind bars for now. The case is U.S. v. Comstock (08A863).","highlights":"As many as 77 North Carolina inmates are scheduled to be released .\nObama administration claims many of them remain \"sexually dangerous\"\nThe men must remain in jail for now .","id":"55228e3ccafd1dd142c193f6b1e1f7357beea056"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- NATO-led troops killed 12 insurgents in a firefight Friday in Afghanistan, and a civilian caught in the crossfire was apparently killed by militants, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. U.S. Marines fire 120mm mortars on Taliban positions on April 3 in Now Zad in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The incident occurred south of Kabul in the eastern Afghan province of Logar, when Afghan security forces and ISAF troops were conducting an operation. It comes as NATO members meet in Europe to discuss the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as human rights groups this week urged NATO and the U.S. military to avoid civilian casualties and develop a well-coordinated condolence payment system for civilians victimized in the war. Troops saw a large group of insurgents placing a roadside bomb. The militants retreated to a compound and attacked ISAF troops with small arms. Troops surrounded the compound and urged them to surrender peacefully after it was cordoned off. It also asked the people in the compound to release women and children but no civilians left. Troops assaulted the compound and 12 male insurgents were killed in gunfire. Troops found one woman who was killed in the crossfire by insurgent small arms fire, ISAF said. An investigation is being conducted by Afghan National Security Forces at the site. Initial indications show that the woman was killed by insurgent small arms fire. Eight AK47 rifles, two rocket propelled grenade launchers, several rocket canisters, 82mm mortars, and two heavy machine guns were found in the compound. \"ANSF and ISAF are making significant progress against insurgent groups in Logar province who are involved in murdering civilians with IEDs,\" said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, ISAF spokesman. \"Today's firefight illustrates the difference between ISAF troops who risk their lives to protect civilians, and insurgents who deliberately and tragically place civilians at risk.\" Also, ISAF reported the death of a soldier from the NATO-led force Friday in eastern Afghanistan. The soldier died of wounds and another was injured after what was described as a \"hostile incident.\" \"On behalf of the men and women of the International Security Assistance Force, I offer our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of the brave soldier killed, and our support to the soldier wounded in this incident,\" Blanchette said. \"As we recognize their sacrifice in our battle against a vicious insurgency, we will continue supporting the Afghan National Security Forces so that the Afghan people reap the tangible benefits of peace in their day-to-day lives.\" Overnight in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, troops killed four militants in an operation targeting a mid-level Taliban commander responsible for attacks against Afghan civilians and coalition forces. The commander directed attacks in December in Musa Qala, including one that killed 12 Afghan civilians.","highlights":"Afghan forces investigating death of woman caught in crossfire of gunbattle .\nNATO says 12 militants also died in the battle in Logar province .\nNATO said initial indications are the woman was killed by militants .","id":"11985544e10ab6e31b85fa88afc85df7c67afde6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Following this week's tough talks on the global financial crisis, President Obama on Friday shifted his tone to reflect upon his regrets, his frustrations and his hopes for the younger generation. \"There's nothing more noble than public service,\" President Obama says. Obama's remarks came after a woman from Heidelberg, Germany, asked if he ever regretted having run for president. The question yielded a lengthy response from Obama, who is participating in his first overseas trip in office. \"That's a good question,\" Obama said at a packed town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France. \"Michelle definitely asked that question. \"You know, there have been times, certainly during the campaign, and there have been times over the last several months where you feel a lot of weight on your shoulders. There's no doubt about it,\" the president said. With his wife, Michelle, looking on, Obama continued, \"During the campaign, the biggest sacrifice -- the thing that was most difficult was that I was away from my family all the time.\" Watch Obama weigh in on his regrets and sacrifices \u00bb . The president joked that he was jealous of not only Europe's high-speed rail but also the fact that campaigns there only last a few months. Obama announced that he was running for president on February 10, 2007, and was inaugurated nearly two years later. \"So I was away from home all the time, and that was very difficult, because not only do I have a wonderful wife, but I have two perfect daughters, and so, you know, I missed them a lot,\" he said. The president expressed disappointment about the lack of privacy and anonymity he's experienced since assuming office. \"You know, it's very frustrating now,\" he said. \"It used to be when I came to Europe that I could just wander down to a cafe and sit and have some wine and watch people go by and go into a little shop and watch the sun go down. \"Now I'm in hotel rooms all the time. And I have security around me all the time. So just losing that ability to just take a walk, you know? That is something that is frustrating.\" Take a look at Obama's European itinerary \u00bb . After a couple of minutes of going over his regrets, Obama paused. \"But -- having said all that, I truly believe that there's nothing more noble than public service,\" he said, adding that service doesn't mean one has to run for president. Obama pointed to Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations and community work as examples of other ways to serve. \"But the point is that what I found at a very young age was that if you can only think about yourself -- 'How much money can I make? What can I buy? How nice is my house? What kind of fancy car do I have?' -- that over the long term, I think you get bored,\" he told the audience of mostly students. \"I think if you're only thinking about yourself, your life becomes diminished, and the way to live a full life is to think about what can I do for others, how can I be a part of this larger project of making a better world,\" he said. Obama said with all the challenges facing the world now, the younger generation has an abundance of opportunities to make a difference. \"It would be a tragedy if all of you who are so talented and energetic -- if you let that go to waste, if you just stood back and watched the world pass you by,\" he said. \"Better to jump in, get involved -- and it does mean that sometimes you'll get criticized and sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you'll be disappointed -- but you'll have a great adventure. And at the end of your life, hopefully you'll be able to look back and say, 'I made a difference.' \"","highlights":"President Obama says being away from family biggest sacrifice of campaign .\nObama says his lack of privacy is \"frustrating\"\nObama says today's challenges are opportunities for youth to make a difference .\nQuestion about regrets leads to Obama's lengthy response at French town hall .","id":"ac2343bdbe34dd041241d936b20caf43f6bf42eb"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett has been hospitalized in the latest stage of her battle against cancer, a producer working with the actress said Monday. Farrah Fawcett, shown here in 2004, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2006. \"She is not unconscious, she is not unresponsive, and she is not comatose,\" Craig Nevius told CNN. He added that Fawcett \"is surrounded by family and friends.\" She \"has a real iron will\" and is \"a fighter,\" he said. Nevius has been working with the 62-year-old on a documentary about her fight with cancer. Earlier, he told People magazine that Fawcett had checked into \"a Los Angeles hospital.\" Fawcett was diagnosed in 2006. People magazine reported that she has anal cancer. Early in 2007, Fawcett said she was told her cancer had gone into remission. Her official Web site has posts from February, 2007 celebrating the news. But the cancer returned later that year. Fawcett was a model best known for bit parts and commercials, and as \"Six Million Dollar Man\" actor Lee Majors' wife, when she shot a best-selling pinup poster in early 1976 at the behest of a Cleveland, Ohio, company called Pro Arts. Photographer Bruce McBroom placed Fawcett -- then known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors -- in the Indian blanket-draped front seat of his 1937 Chevy and snapped away. The poster, with Fawcett's million-dollar smile front and center and right nipple obvious through the fabric of her red bathing suit, became a sensation. Soon after the photo shoot, Fawcett was asked to join the cast of a new Aaron Spelling TV show, \"Charlie's Angels,\" about a trio of female detectives who work for a mysterious man named Charlie. Fawcett, who played Jill Munroe, was the last to be cast -- co-star Kate Jackson was the known name at the time -- but, thanks to her poster, Fawcett became the series' breakout star. The highly rated TV series kicked off what came to be known as \"jiggle TV,\" series full of young actresses who appeared in bikinis at the drop of a hat. \"Denunciations of 'massage parlor television' and 'voyeurism' only brought more viewers to the screen, to see what the controversy was about,\" wrote Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh in their exhaustive reference, \"The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.\" \"Charlie's Angels\" turned out to be a huge hit, and shows ranging from the sitcom \"Three's Company\" to the drama \"Baywatch\" owe the show a debt. Fawcett didn't stay with \"Angels\" long. At the end of the first season, unhappy with her contract, she left the show, replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Fawcett's career stagnated for a time after \"Charlie's Angels,\" as she appeared in a handful of forgettable films and divorced Majors. But her career received a major boost with her starring role in \"The Burning Bed,\" a 1984 made-for-television movie co-starring Paul LeMat. In the film, Fawcett played an abused wife who sets fire to her husband's bed as he lies sleeping. Fawcett received an Emmy nomination for her performance. Around that time, Fawcett became romantically involved with actor Ryan O'Neal, with whom she had a son, Redmond, in 1985. Redmond O'Neal was arrested Sunday morning for narcotics possession. In recent years, Fawcett has appeared sporadically in the public eye. She posed nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1997, she appeared on \"The Late Show with David Letterman,\" an interview that became notorious for Fawcett's apparent incoherence. She later said she was just having fun with Letterman. She reunited with her \"Charlie's Angels\" co-stars, Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, for an awards-show appearance in 2006. Fawcett has been making a documentary, \"A Wing and a Prayer,\" for NBC about her cancer battle. \"She is an icon, and you don't become an icon by being weak,\" Nevius said Monday. \"All you have to do is look back at her 30-year-plus career to see that she is not somebody that has ever stepped down or backed down from a challenge of any kind. \"","highlights":"NEW: Farrah Fawcett not unconscious, unresponsive or comatose, says producer .\nActress in Los Angeles hospital battling cancer .\nActress diagnosed with disease in 2006; after remission, cancer recurred in 2007 .\nFawcett best known for 1970s pinup poster, role in \"Charlie's Angels\" TV series .","id":"43f880129a48751b9d857e6f0f4a79aba4d7e06a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Malawi's decision to reject pop star Madonna's adoption of a local child has reignited global debate about the ethics of international adoption. Author Melissa Fay Greene poses with her family, which includes biological and adopted children. Some international aid groups have praised the decision as best for the child, a 4-year-old girl named Chifundo James. \"I think it really highlights the bigger picture that there are so many children living in poverty in Malawi, and while Madonna has good intentions ... children would be better off staying in their own communities whenever possible,\" said Karen Hansen-Kuhn, policy director for ActionAid USA, a development group that also works in Malawi. \"We really need to stay focused on the needs of Malawi and of all the children there,\" she added. To get another perspective on the situation, CNN also talked with Melissa Fay Greene, an author and mother of five adopted children. Greene, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, is the mother of four biological children, four children adopted from Ethiopia and one adopted child from Bulgaria. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation: . CNN: What's your initial reaction to the news that Madonna's adoption of a Malawian child has been rejected? Greene: Surprise. ... It was awfully tricky with Madonna's first adoption, when the child turned out to have devoted family members nearby. [The singer's adoption of a Malawian boy was finalized last year.] And if that's true with this child also, it seems a similar sticky situation. That's not the situation for the majority of orphanage children around the world, who don't have caring grandparents or aunts and uncles a short walk or bike ride away. I think it gives people an odd perspective on what international adoption can mean for children who don't have any support network outside the walls of an orphanage. You often hear attacks on international adoption as robbing a child of his or her culture, and that's both true and false. It's true that an internationally adopted child loses the rich background of history and religion and culture and language that the child was born into, but the cruel fact is that most children don't have access to the local, beautiful culture within an orphanage. ... There's a culture in orphanages that children are eager to escape from, and it's a culture of being reared as a group and not being doted upon by parents. For any child, that's the bottom line. The fact is that a human child wants that mommy or daddy or both. We're just wired to want that and to need that. And there's no way an institutional setting can give a human baby what the child needs. It's impossible. So you have to balance priorities. ... I think what some of the human rights group say is absolutely accurate: that international adoption does not begin to solve the problems of the world's orphaned children. It's truly not the answer. ... At the same time, international adoption, even though it doesn't solve the whole problem, it solves a problem for a few. I think it can be a brilliant solution to the problem of adults wanting a child in their lives or wanting more children in their lives and the problem of children who want parents in their lives. CNN: How is it different for a celebrity person seeking an [international] adoption than for yourself? Greene: We don't jet in, take a child and fly out with a child. For an average citizen trying to adopt, it takes most of a year. First of all, you work with a country that already has international adoption regulations in place, so you have a bureaucracy dealing with international adoption. A big part of that is determining that the child is a true orphan, that there is no one who can care for the child. And in the case of our older kids' adoptions, people had to come to court to testify that there was no one to take the children. So you don't run the risk of 'Oh, whoops, there's a grandmother down the street.' ... CNN: There's been some chatter today online questioning why a person wouldn't adopt an orphaned child from their own country. Greene: Within the adoption world, it's a non-issue. There are children all over the world who need families, and some find their children in Philadelphia, and some find their children in Bulgaria, you know? ... It's just outsiders who look on and judge disapprovingly, but then they don't go on to adopt the neighborhood children, right? ... There are many children who need help, and anyone who wants to reach out and adopt a child from foster care or from a Russian orphanage should reach out and do it. CNN: What has the experience been like for your own foster children? Greene: We're a white Jewish family in Atlanta, but Atlanta is a major city for eastern African immigrants. So our children are in touch with the Ethiopian diaspora, and they feel very much a part of that. Atlanta is full of Ethiopian restaurants, markets, festivals. For a while, my kids were playing on weekends with an Ethiopian soccer league. I have an Ethiopian baby sitter who speaks to them only in Amharic so they won't lose their language, and we always have Ethiopian food here. Two years ago, we went back to Ethiopia with the kids and had a big reunion for one of my sons and his extended family ... We just consider ourselves sort of part of this amazing bicontinental family. CNN: The first time you adopted internationally, can you tell me what your ethical considerations were and how you worked through that personally? Greene: Our first adoption was of a boy in rural Bulgaria. An incredibly poor orphanage. The kids were hungry, thirsty, no education. I first met our son, Jesse, when he was 4. He was 4 years old, and he did not know what his own name was ... When he first came, he was just so anxious about food. When he would wake up, he was just shaking, wondering if there was going to be enough food. So I started waking him up with food. He had issues with water. He wasn't sure if there was going to be enough water to drink, so I bought him a little canteen so he could wear his water all of the time. Do I have ethical issues about taking him out of that orphanage? I don't. CNN: Is there anything else you wanted to add? Greene: I admire Madonna. And I don't understand why everyone attacks Madonna. I think that she is in part trying to raise the world's consciousness about the African orphan crisis. You know, 95 percent of the children orphaned by AIDS [globally] are in sub-Saharan Africa. You don't hear world leaders talking about it. Where is the global outrage? ... So, into the breach steps a celebrity. But don't attack her for it, you know. Maybe her methods are not what ours would be, but how many of us are Madonna? But at least she is out there; she's creating a school. Obviously, she's fallen in love with the Malawian children to such an extent she wants to make some of them her own. And I think that it's great. I just don't understand why the world's attacking her. Let other people step forth and do something. At least she's trying. That's my feeling.","highlights":"Malawian judge rejects Madonna's request to adopt a 4-year-old girl .\nMove reignites debate about the ethics of international adoption .\nSome aid groups say children are best left in their home countries .\nA mother of 5 adopted kids says adoption can be a \"brilliant solution\" for some .","id":"f3c9452b863cc555fb49ad91726b8106851d9d21"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A large ice shelf is \"imminently\" close to breaking away from part of the Antarctic Peninsula, scientists said Friday. Scientists are investigating whether the ice breakup is caused by global climate change. Satellite images released by the European Space Agency on Friday show new cracks in the Wilkins Ice Shelf where it connects to Charcot Island, a piece of land considered part of the peninsula. The cracks are quickly expanding, the ESA said. Scientists are investigating the causes for the breakups and whether it is linked to global climate change. The Wilkins Ice Shelf -- a large mass of floating ice -- would still be connected to Latady Island, which is also part of the peninsula, and Alexander Island, which is not, said professor David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey. The ice shelf experienced a great amount of changes last year, the ESA said. In February 2008, the shelf dropped 164 square miles (425 square kilometers) of ice. In May it lost a 62-square-mile chunk. That meant the \"bridge\" of ice connecting Wilkins to the islands was just 984 yards wide at its narrowest location, the ESA said. Further rifts developed in October and November, said Angelika Humbert of the Institute of Geophysics at Germany's Muenster University. \"During the last year the ice shelf has lost about 1800 square kilometers (694 square miles), or about 14 percent of its size,\" Humbert said. Antarctica's ice sheet was formed over thousands of years by accumulated and compacted snow. Along the coast, the ice gradually floats on the sea, forming massive ledges known as ice shelves, the ESA says. Several of these ice shelves, including seven in the past 20 years, have retreated and disintegrated. The Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the past century before it began retreating in the 1990s. \"It had been there almost unchanged since the first expeditions which mapped it back in the 1930s, so it had a very long period of real stability, and it's only in the last decade that it's started to retreat,\" Vaughan said. Wilkins is the size of the state of Connecticut, or about half the area of Scotland. It is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened. If the ice shelf breaks away from the peninsula, it will not cause a rise in sea level because it is already floating, scientists say. Some plants and animals may have to adapt to the collapse. The Antarctic Peninsula is the piece of the continent that stretches toward South America.","highlights":"A large Antarctic ice shelf is cracking and may break away .\nScientists are investigating whether or not climate change is to blame .\nSatellite photos show cracks in the Wilkins Ice Shelf .\nThe ice sheet formed over thousands of years by accumulated snow .","id":"081e728adb742dc87aa6d9a2d25b6d7199a0e617"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Johanna Sigurdardottir was sworn in as Iceland's prime minister on Sunday, becoming the world's first openly gay premier and the first woman to take the post in Iceland. Johanna Sigurdardottir is a former flight attendant and union leader. Sigurdardottir, 66, took office less than a week after the Cabinet resigned amid fallout from Iceland's financial collapse. A former flight attendant who entered politics via the union movement, Sigurdardottir was minister of social affairs and social security in the outgoing Cabinet, which resigned Monday. Iceland has been in political turmoil since October, when its currency, stock market and leading banks collapsed amid the global financial crisis. The island nation's Nordic neighbors sent billions of dollars to prop up the economy, as did the International Monetary Fund in its first intervention to support a Western European democracy in decades. But weekly demonstrations -- some verging on riots -- finally forced Prime Minister Geir Haarde and his coalition to resign en masse on January 26. The country's president turned to the Social Democratic Alliance party to form a new government, and they selected Sigurdardottir to lead it. She has been a member of Iceland's Parliament for 30 years, and was in her second stint as minister of social affairs. She started her career as a flight attendant for the airline that became IcelandAir. She was active in the flight attendants' labor union during her 11 years with the airline, according to her official resume. She briefly led her own political party, which merged with other center-left parties to form the Alliance party. Sigurdardottir is Iceland's first female prime minister, although not the North Atlantic nation's first female head of state -- Vigdis Finnbogadottir became its fourth president in 1980. Sigurdardottir lists author and playwright Jonina Leosdottir, 54, as her spouse on her ministry Web site. She has two children from an earlier marriage. Her prime ministership may be short-lived. The government she is forming is only due to last until the next elections, which must take place by May and could be held in April. A statement posted by the new government on Iceland's Web site promised elections \"as soon as circumstances allow,\" and said the interim government \"will base itself on a very prudent and responsible policy in economic and fiscal matters.\" The statement added that the government will treat as priorities \"the principles of sustainable development, women's rights, equality and justice.\" Stonewall, a leading British gay and lesbian rights group, welcomed Sigurdardottir's appointment as a milestone. \"It really does matter. It is helpful\" to have an openly gay prime minister, said Gary Nunn, a Stonewall spokesperson. \"We are trying to foster the ambition that young people can be anything they want to be.\"","highlights":"NEW: Johanna Sigurdardottir sworn in Sunday .\nSigurdardottir was social affairs minister in outgoing Cabinet .\nPredecessor Haarde resigned after the collapse of Iceland's main banks .\nShe has been a member of Iceland's Parliament for 30 years .","id":"45f082a9280d94f7426a7d5b8736df38c4d03f88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Artillery shells slammed into a hospital Sunday in the northern Sri Lankan district of Mullaittivu, where civilians -- including a growing number of children -- are being treated as government forces and Tamil rebels continue to clash. A Sri Lankan soldier walks through Mullaittivu, the former military headquarters of the Tamil rebels. More than 200 civilians and at least 30 children have been injured in the last three days of fighting, a relief worker told CNN Sunday. \"That is the absolute minimum (number of injured),\" the aid worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of jeopardizing the work of relief organizations, said. Government officials are accusing aid organizations and foreign media of sensationalizing civilian casualties. \"It looks as if it's convenient for certain agencies to exaggerate the numbers so that this can be converted to a humanitarian crisis in the public eye, \" Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dr. Palitha Kohona told CNN. On Sunday, Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to \"continue with the military offensive until we liberate the remaining area under LTTE (the rebel group) control,\" according to Sri Lanka's state-run news agency. Watch a report on civilians caught in fighting \u00bb . A \"handful\" of United Nations staff are working around the clock to save a growing number of children caught in the crossfire, a U.N. spokesman said Saturday. Children as young as 4 months old were being treated in local hospitals for shrapnel injuries and other \"wounds of war,\" spokesman James Elder told CNN. \"There is just intense fighting in a small area where children and other civilians are,\" Elder said. \"The space (where conflict is taking place) is shrinking and the fighting is augmenting.\" Thursday, U.N. aid workers rescued 50 critically injured children and 105 adults, he said. \"We are trying to get as many people out of there as we can,\" Elder said. Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians and urged the Tamil Tigers to promise the same. \"We have declared a safe zone for civilians, the coordinates of which were announced by the security forces,\" Rajapaksa said on his government's Web site. \"It is unfortunate that the (Tamil Tiger group) is exploiting this declared safe zone for civilians by placing their heavy artillery within the safe zone and using it as a launching pad to attack security forces and indiscriminately kill civilians.\" The fighting has created a \"nightmarish\" situation for civilians in the conflict zone, Elder said. An emerging shortage of humanitarian supplies and diminished access to clean water, sanitation, and food are compounding a crisis, he said. Sunday, Sri Lankan soldiers seized a key rebel stronghold in a surprise attack deep in Tamil held territory. Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. The The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.","highlights":"Sri Lankan hospital hit by artillery shells .\nChildren young as 4 months treated in local hospitals for shrapnel injuries .\nAid workers rescue 50 critically injured children and 105 adults .\nSri Lankan President has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians .","id":"6bddf2cd9b8ffcc366e907bcd84fbe87d0ba7613"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- George Obama, the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, told CNN on Sunday that he was released from a Kenyan jail hours after his arrest on suspicion of marijuana possession. George Obama was arrested in Kenya on suspicion of marijuana possession, according to police. Kenyan police did not confirm whether George Obama was still in their custody. Obama spoke to CNN from his cell phone, and a relative also said he was released. He said he was arrested on Saturday and released later that day. Obama was arrested on suspicion of possession of cannabis, known in Kenya as bhang, and resisting arrest, Inspector Augustine Mutembei said. He was held at Huruma police post in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and scheduled to appear in court Monday, Mutembei said. But Obama told CNN all charges against him were dropped. Police would not comment on that. Speaking from behind bars on Saturday, Obama denied the allegations. \"They took me from my home,\" he said. \"I don't know why they are charging me.\" George Obama and the president barely know each other, though they have met. George Obama was one of the few people closely related to the president who did not attend the inauguration in Washington. In his memoir, \"Dreams from My Father,\" Barack Obama describes meeting George as a \"painful affair.\" His trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known. CNN tracked down George Obama in August 2008 and found him at a small house in Huruma, a Nairobi slum, where he lives with his mother's extended family. His birth certificate shows he is Barack Obama's half brother. The two men share the same Kenyan father. In the memoir, Barack Obama struggles to reconcile with his father after he left him and his mother when he was a child. Barack Obama Sr. died in a car accident when George was 6 months old. And like his half brother, George hardly knew his father. George was his father's last child and had not been aware of his famous half brother until he rose to prominence in the Democratic primaries last year. Unlike his grandmother in Kogela, in western Kenya, George Obama received little attention from the media until reports about him surfaced in August 2008. The reports sprung from an Italian Vanity Fair article saying George Obama lived in a shack and was \"earning less than a dollar a day.\" The reports left George Obama angry. \"I was brought up well. I live well even now,\" he said. \"The magazines, they have exaggerated everything. \"I think I kind of like it here. There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges,\" Obama said. Obama, who is in his mid-20s, said at the time that he was learning to become a mechanic and was active in youth groups in Huruma. He said he tries to help the community as much as he can.","highlights":"George Obama says he's out of jail, that charges against him have been dropped .\nKenyan police won't confirm George Obama's statements .\nGeorge Obama was arrested in Kenya on suspicion of marijuana possession .\nMan is half-brother of U.S. President Barack Obama .","id":"81141c4bfa8647836c0941d3661d3ee129044853"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Heidi Newfield goes into Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards with five nominations. It's more than any other female, but she still considers herself the dark horse -- and in many ways, she is, especially since she's up for top female vocalist against such heavyweights as Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. Heidi Newfield says she considers herself an underdog at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards. For 10 years, Newfield was the lead singer of the honky-tonk trio Trick Pony. Her soulful debut solo album, \"What Am I Waiting for,\" was released in August to stellar reviews -- many from critics who scoffed at the high-energy antics of her former band. If you spend any time with the petite blonde from Northern California, you're struck by how many times she says, \"Please\" and \"Thank you.\" There's a smile for everyone -- waiters, doormen, cameramen -- and she steers conversation away from herself to ask how others are doing. Newfield is a nice girl. But her life changed when a fellow musician told her to stop being so nice, as she revealed in the following interview with CNN: Watch Newfield talk about her nominations \u00bb . CNN: What went through your head when you received five nominations for this year's Academy of Country Music Awards? Heidi Newfield: I thought one or two would be so fabulous, that would be so great. And they kept calling my name, and you know, I won't lie -- I'm going to tell on my husband -- the tears started flowing, and we were just really happy. All the hard work, all the time, and all the road -- and just the experience over time starts to play back in your mind, just like a movie.This is a really special time. CNN: Was it validation that leaving Trick Pony was the right thing to do? Newfield: People tell you, \"You can't do this.\" You know in country music oftentimes it does not work when a front person leaves a group. In other genres -- pop, rock, hip-hop and rap -- people can leave all the time and do amazing things on their own. Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Sting -- there's a gazillion people. But in country, we have that tight-knit, almost family relationship with our fans, so when you change something up, they don't always like that very much. CNN: Did you feel guilty about leaving Trick Pony? Newfield: No, not an ounce of guilt. I left Trick Pony with my head held high. I felt like I left with total dignity and class, and I didn't leave anybody hanging. I fulfilled every obligation, no matter how hard it was -- and it was hard. There was a lot of drama, and they weren't exactly happy with me. I don't mind saying this, but it was miserable the last several months. But my intuition was saying it's time to make a change. So did I stay too long? I don't know. I mean, everything happens for a reason. Had I left three years ago, maybe I wouldn't have been the same person I am today. CNN: John Popper from Blues Traveler kind of gave you a kick in the pants. Newfield: Oh, I love Poppy! We talk all the time, I kid you not. John was on a USO tour with us for 2\u00bd weeks, so we got to know each other really well. Every night, he would come on stage and do a [harmonica] number with me. On the last night of the tour, we were in Germany, and we were at this pub, and Poppy said to me, \"You love this, and it's clear you're a musician -- but you need to learn to stop being so nice. You need to speak your mind and step up and step up for yourself.\" His actual words were, \"When you learn to be a b----,\" that's what he told me. And I thought, \"Well, my philosophy is I don't think you ever, ever, ever have to be a diva or a prima donna to make it to a certain level.\" I think you can always treat people with respect and be nice, and I always plan on doing that. But what he said was right. When you start to believe in yourself, that's when there's no limit to what you can do. CNN: Your debut solo album, \"What Am I Waiting for,\" shows a lot of growth. It's much more introspective and mature, whereas Trick Pony's music was brash and not as multidimensional. Newfield: When my producer Tony Brown and I first sat down to talk about making this album, one of the first things that came out of his mouth was, \"We have to show people who you really are. We need to cut songs, and you need to explore parts of your vocals that you never got a change to showcase.\" All the ACM nominations are validation that we are on the path to doing just that and being taken seriously as an artist -- as a singer, as a songwriter and as a musician. We made a record that made people say, \"Hey, this girl can sing.\" And that's what I had always hoped. CNN: Still, it's a building process, and in a lot of ways, you're starting from scratch. Newfield: At this one fair that I went to, they had my name spelled H-e-d-y instead of H-e-i-d-i. Hedy Newfield. And I thought, \"Oh, that's just great.\" And, of course, you go up to the promoter and say, \"Come on, hook a sister up here.\" So we're fixing that. CNN: Of the five awards you're up for at the ACMs, you have to be most thrilled about top female vocalist. [Newfield is up against Underwood, Swift, Lee Ann Womack and Miranda Lambert.) Newfield: I'm the biggest dark horse ever. I'm the big underdog, but I like to be the underdog. I hope the makeup's rockin'. I hope I look good at that moment when they call out, \"Carrie Underwood.\"","highlights":"Heidi Newfield is up for five Academy of Country Music Awards .\nNewfield pursuing solo career after being lead singer of Trick Pony .\nSinger doesn't want to be a diva but takes advice about not being so nice .","id":"b49e4009008598848211b8108c649f8b18f858ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Parts of the Texas town of Wheeler were evacuated Saturday as strong, shifting winds fanned wildfires that had already destroyed three buildings, law enforcement officials said. Wildfires in the Texas panhandle are being fed by sustained winds of about 40 mph. Two homes and one business had been burned down by a fire that had grown to engulf about 8,000 acres by Saturday night, said Lewis Kearney, a spokesman for Texas emergency services. Another 12 homes had been damaged, and 300 homes and 60 business were threatened, according to a report from state emergency officials. The heavy winds -- sustained at about 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph -- were making it hard for helicopters and other firefighting vehicles to battle the blaze, Kearney said. Further complicating matters were three other smaller fires, about 100 acres each, elsewhere in the state that had already stretched emergency resources. There were no immediate reports of injuries in the Wheeler fire. About 200 residents of the town of about 1,400 people on the eastern edge of the Texas panhandle were evacuated Saturday, state officials reported. The fire was believed to have started at about 4 p.m. ET Saturday, according to the state report.","highlights":"NEW: Wind-driven fire had grown to 8,000 acres Saturday night .\nTwo homes and one business destroyed, hundreds threatened in Wheeler .\nWind gusts up to 60 mph hampered helicopters and other firefighting vehicles .","id":"9fa3b932140bb7d4275c5093a24242fc6ee69e21"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pro-Tibet activists jumped security barriers and scuffled with police outside the Chinese embassy in London Sunday as hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest a visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. A pro-Tibet protester runs past a police cordon outside the Chinese Embassy in London. Protesters carrying Tibetan flags chanted \"China Murderers,\" and \"China Out of Tibet,\" as Wen, on a three day trip to Britain, arrived at the embassy. China has long been criticized by the international community for its human rights record in Tibet. Tibetans are pushing for autonomy from China and greater religious freedom. Wen was greeted at the embassy by a firecracker display in honor of the Chinese New Year before being escorted inside by security personnel. A group of protesters attempted to jump over security blockades when Wen's motorcade arrived at the embassy. Several were wrestled to the ground by police and arrested. Police said five people were detained, according to the UK's Press Association. Approximately 150 Chinese counter-protesters were also at the demonstration chanting pro-Chinese slogans. Watch demonstrations outside the Chinese embassay in London \u00bb . Wen is due to meet British opposition party leaders on Sunday before sitting down with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday. Brown was among a number of international leaders who skipped the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, amid an intense campaign from human rights groups opposed to China's international policies and human rights record.","highlights":"Protesters carrying Tibetan flags chanted \"China Murderers\"\nPolice say five activists arrested .\nWen Jiabao on three day visit to UK .","id":"920f852c08f4fad73ac66079c5d61d2d2026e7a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A judge ordered Tuesday that the man accused of killing singer and actress Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew be moved from a state prison to the Cook County jail to make it easier for his lawyer to meet with him. Jennifer Hudson, at the October premiere of \"The Secret Life of Bees,\" hasn't performed in public since the killings. William Balfour, 27, has been held at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, Illinois, since he was arrested in early December in what defense lawyer Joshua Kutnick called \"a difficult position.\" \"[Balfour] has exhibited, to me, patience,\" Kutnick told CNN after Tuesday's hearing. \"He understands that this case is not going to be over this week or next week or next month,\" Kutnick said. \"He realizes in order for us to establish that he's not guilty, that we're going to have to go through all the steps of fighting the case.\" Kutnick said the defense is conducting its own investigation of the killings and has subpoenaed the prosecution's evidence. Nothing has been handed over yet, he said. He would not speculate on when the case might go to trial. \"You're talking about some time down the road,\" Kutnick said. Balfour, indicted a month ago, entered a not guilty plea last week. Tuesday was the first time Balfour has been before Judge Marjorie Laws, who was appointed last week after prosecutors asked that Judge Evelyn Clay be removed from the case. Prosecutors did not make public their reasons for wanting a new judge. While Judge Laws ordered Balfour to be moved to Chicago, Kutnick said he expects it might just be for 10 days. \"The sheriff of Cook County does not always obey those orders because he is dealing with his own problems such as jail overcrowding,\" Kutnick said. \"He's doing OK\" despite \"being incarcerated under a difficult position,\" Kutnick said of Balfour. \"When any inmate is serving a sentence on a parole violation, they're kept in what's called the receiving unit,\" Kutnick said. \"It's very restrictive. They don't get the kind of free time and privileges that general population gets, so that is very difficult for him.\" Hudson has not performed in public since the deaths, but she is scheduled to sing the national anthem Sunday at the Super Bowl. Balfour first was detained for questioning October 24, the day that Hudson's mother and brother were found shot to death. At the time, authorities said they were holding Balfour for an unspecified parole violation. Prosecutors have portrayed Balfour as a jealous man who killed three people in a rage at the thought that his estranged wife had a boyfriend. Balfour is the estranged husband of Hudson's sister, Julia Hudson, and stepfather of one of the victims, 7-year-old Julian King. He also has been charged with one count of home invasion. Balfour denies the charges, and his attorney told the court in December there was no forensic evidence linking him to the killings . Hudson won a best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Effie in the 2006 film version of the Broadway musical \"Dreamgirls.\" She competed on the third season of the TV singing competition \"American Idol\" and was among the top seven contestants before her elimination.","highlights":"William Balfour has been at Illinois' Stateville Correctional Center since December .\nJudge orders Balfour moved to county jail to make attorney visits easier .\nSuspect charged in killings of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew .\nHudson is set to sing national anthem at the Super Bowl .","id":"339b8095b3f0f8cf73da88c4bd52a66142d421ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An immigration judge with the U.S. Justice Department has granted a stay to John Demjanjuk, the Nazi war crimes suspect who had been ordered deported to Germany, his lawyer said Friday. John Demjanjuk appears in court in Jerusalem in 1987 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. John Broadley said the stay was ordered after Judge Wayne Iskra in Arlington, Virginia, decided to reopen deportation proceedings. \"In the four years since his deportation was ordered, his health has seriously deteriorated,\" Broadley told CNN in a telephone interview. Broadley had argued that Sunday's plan to send Demjanjuk to Germany, which has issued an arrest warrant for him, and putting him through the rigors of a trial there would be tantamount to torture. Demjanjuk -- a Ukrainian -- is accused of involvement during World War II in killings at a Nazi German death camp in Poland. He denies the allegations. The retired auto worker celebrated his 89th birthday Friday with his wife at their home in Cleveland. Broadley said Demjanjuk suffers from pre-leukemia, kidney problems, spinal problems and \"a couple of types of gout.\" German authorities issued the warrant for Demjanjuk on March 10, accusing him of being an accessory to 29,000 counts of murder as a guard at the Sobibor death camp from March to September 1943. Demjanjuk says he fought in the Soviet army and later was a prisoner of war held by the Germans. Demjanjuk has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for well over two decades. He was extradited from the United States to Israel, where he was convicted in 1986 of being \"Ivan the Terrible,\" a guard at the notorious Treblinka extermination camp. The conviction was overturned by Israeli courts on appeal and he returned to the United States. The United States filed new charges against him in 1999, again alleging that he had been a concentration camp guard. A federal judge found in 2002 that Demjanjuk had been a guard at the Sobibor death camp, where a quarter of a million people were killed during World War II, and at two other concentration camps. Prosecutors argued that Demjanjuk concealed his history when he came to the United States in 1952. He was stripped of U.S. citizenship and has been awaiting deportation since 2005, despite fighting his case all the way to the Supreme Court. CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Judge reopens deportation hearings on accused former death camp guard .\nNEW: John Demjanjuk's attorney says client's health \"has seriously deteriorated.\"\nDemjanjuk, 89, has been fighting charges of war crimes for more than two decades .\nGermany accuses him of being accessory to 29,000 murders at Sobibor .","id":"fda8bc70b80bba64403fedee42c1bd993de476fe"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the first time since media coverage was banned in 1991, the return of the body of a fallen member of the U.S. armed forces was opened to news outlets late Sunday. A transport plane carries caskets of U.S. servicemen in this photo the Pentagon released in 2005. The U.S. Air Force informed media on Sunday that the family of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers consented to allowing coverage of his casket being returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Myers, 30, of Hopewell, Virginia, was a member of an engineering unit based in Britain. He died Saturday in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military reported. In February, President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates overturned a policy that dated back to the first Persian Gulf war. They agreed to allow reporters to observe the remains of American troops being returned to the U.S. military mortuary at Dover, as long as families agreed. The policy was supposed to take effect on Monday, and no reason was given why reporters were allowed to view the proceedings on Sunday. Watch report on lifting of the ban \u00bb .","highlights":"Family of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers consents to coverage of his casket's return .\nBody of Myers brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday night .\nThis is first time that media coverage has been allowed since ban in 1991 .\nIn February, President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates overturned policy .","id":"246fee6f3582fbd73b3abd3ea1b4af76e7d8cfba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Connecticut woman attacked Monday by her friend's pet chimpanzee was taken Thursday from a Connecticut hospital to the famed Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a hospital spokeswoman said. She would not divulge the victim's condition nor the reason for the move. Travis, seen here as a younger chimp, was fatally shot by police after attacking Nash, authorities say. Charla Nash, 55, was transferred by airplane and ambulance to the clinic, where doctors in December performed the first facial transplant in the United States. The attack has raised questions about whether exotic animals should be kept as pets. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday that primates and crocodiles should be added to a state list of animals citizens are not allowed to own. Nash initially was taken to Stamford Hospital, where she underwent seven hours of surgery after she was attacked by the 14-year-old chimp, named Travis. Nash's friend, Sandra Herold, 70, had called Nash for help in getting the animal back inside her house after he used a key to escape. When Nash arrived at Herold's Stamford home, the chimp, who has been featured in TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, police said. Doctors said Wednesday that Nash had received extensive injuries to her face and hands. A Stamford police officer fatally shot the nearly 200-pound chimp after the primate turned on him inside a police cruiser, police said. Herold told reporters at her home that she and the chimp slept together and that she considered him like a son.","highlights":"Charla Nash, 55, transferred from Connecticut by airplane .\nFriend's chimp mauled and bit her on Monday .\nWoman received extensive injuries to face, hands, doctors have said .\nConnecticut's attorney general wants primates banned as pets in that state .","id":"27616d370c21befb5334174c2417a160e016317d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The blog \"Stuff White People Like\" is wildly popular with fans who've embraced the hilarious, satirical sendup of the white middle class that -- according to the list -- have an ongoing love affair with things such as coffee (No. 1), organic food (No. 6), yoga (15) and the Toyota Prius (60). Blogger-turned-author Christian Lander is the force behind \"Stuff White People Like.\" The site also has spurred an outpouring from those who view it as offensive and racist. Now devotees and detractors alike have more to discuss with the release of the book \"Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions\" by the blog's creator, Christian Lander. Filled with photos and some content from the blog, the guide includes new entries exclusive to the book. Lander also worked with a designer to create things such as flow charts on \"How to Name a White Child\" and \"White Career Trajectories\" as well as a test of the reader's \"whiteness.\" As befitting the genius behind such a site and book, Lander is a bit of a ham (actually, make that Canadian bacon since he hails from Toronto, Ontario). Watch Lander talk about what he likes \u00bb . The origins of \"Stuff\" date from January 2008, he said, because of an instant messenger conversation between him and his friend Miles about the HBO drama \"The Wire.\" Miles, who is Filipino, tossed off that he didn't trust any white person who didn't watch the series. That exchange started a back-and-forth between the two about what white people were doing instead of watching the show. \"We said, 'Oh, they are going to plays, they're doing yoga, they're getting divorced,' \" recalled Lander, who couldn't pass up the gold mine of ideas and started blogging. \"The goal was to literally make Miles and a few of my friends laugh, and it just took off.\" Within six weeks, Random House came calling, and a book deal was finalized. CNN talked to the blogger-turned-author about his \"whiteness,\" whether he is like Stephen Colbert but instead mocks earnest, left-wing types, and why \"Stuff White People Like\" will never make the list of \"Stuff White People Like.\" CNN: Where do you get your ideas? Christian Lander: Farmers' markets. CNN: How do you get your ideas at farmers' markets? Lander: Keeping my eyes open. I just see what people are up to. And the mirror is another good place to look for inspiration. I really make fun of myself. CNN: So what makes you an authority on white people? Lander: Look at me [laughing]. I mean, I have liberal arts degrees; I look like this. I'm on the inside. CNN: Do you ever worry about offending people? Lander: No. I'm glad when I offend people with this because it's not offensive. What's been great about it is the title draws people in, and right away they are like, \"What is this? Am I going to get offended by this?\" Then they read it, and it's not what they expect. People see the title and they expect \"Stuff White People Like\" to be entries like mayonnaise, or dancing poorly, these old stereotypes that are really outdated and aren't even funny anymore. You're sort of expecting it to be the lame white guy stuff and you go, \"Oh my God, this is all the stuff I actually like.\" It's playing off white stereotypes, but it's not stereotypes in a demeaning way. CNN: If those are old stereotypes, could your stuff be considered \"new stereotypes\"? Lander: No, because they're true [laughing]. I consider these valid observations. It's an update on this idea of a yuppie. In the '80s, the idea of the yuppie was really about just consumerism: I have an expensive BMW, I have these things, and it's buying, buying, buying. I think that that attitude is still there, but the materials changed into where it's \"My carbon footprint's lower, my music taste is better, I visited more countries than you.\" The quest for status is still there. CNN: What are some of the entries that elicited the most negative responses and really pushed people's buttons? Lander: One was written by Miles. Now Miles is Asian, and I can't stress that enough. He wrote post No. 11, which is \"White People Like Asian Girls.\" That has been by far the most commented on. The other ones have all been pretty level in terms of drawing responses from people. CNN: What are some of the things that have been rejected from the list? Lander: People send in stuff all the time, and one of the things is that people just don't get what I am going for here. They send in [suggestions such as] guns, NASCAR, trailer parks -- these old stereotypes that are not what I'm after. The one I reject a lot is people say, \"Well, you know what, 'Stuff White People Like' should be on the list of 'Stuff White People Like.' \" I'm just like, \"All right, postmodern hero, you're not the first person to send this in. I'm not putting it on the list.\" CNN: Entry No. 92 is book deals, so we are assuming you like that one. What are some other things on the list you like? Lander: There are things that I like that I am ashamed that I like. My favorite entry, which I wrote and where I attack myself the most, is \"Knowing What's Best for Poor People.\" That was one that definitely applies to me, and I sort of recognize the ego that's behind that one and how ridiculous that one is. CNN: What's some stuff white people don't like? Lander: Other white people. That's it. The wrong kind of white people. CNN: Who are the wrong kind of white people? Lander: Anyone you blame for everything that's wrong in America are the wrong kind of white people. Not only do they hate them because they create all of these problems, but if those kinds of people start liking anything on this list, they immediately become unacceptable. CNN: Stephen Colbert made the list, and he's renowned for making fun of the right wing. Do you consider yourself a type of Stephen Colbert for the lefties? Lander: I don't know because Stephen Colbert, in his heart of hearts, is a lefty and so am I. I consider myself a self-aware, left-wing person who's not afraid to recognize the selfishness and contradictions that come on the left. I think a lot of people who are on that side really fail to do that a lot of the time. I think the people I write about here are very, very self-righteous and believe that everything they do is right, and they are very resistant to cast a critical eye to themselves. It was really fun for me to write in a cathartic way, sort of like I am attacking my own pretentiousness and my own ridiculousness. It's just amazing because these people are so self-aware but so unaware at the same time.","highlights":"Popular \"Stuff White People Like\" blog now a book .\nBlog and book have its fans and detractors .\nAuthor says, \"It's playing off stereotypes\"","id":"277cdaf576b2d186cf423a85dfca92862a2b0aa5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that despite President Bush's low approval ratings, people will soon \"start to thank this president for what he's done.\" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says \"there is no greater honor than to serve this country,\" \"So we can sit here and talk about the long record, but what I would say to you is that this president has faced tougher circumstances than perhaps at any time since the end of World War II, and he has delivered policies that are going to stand the test of time,\" Rice said in an interview that aired on CBS' \"Sunday Morning.\" The secretary of state brushed off reports that suggest the United States' image is suffering abroad. She praised the administration's ability to change the conversation in the Middle East. \"This isn't a popularity contest. I'm sorry, it isn't. What the administration is responsible to do is to make good choices about Americans' interests and values in the long run -- not for today's headlines, but for history's judgment,\" she said. \"And I am quite certain that when the final chapters are written and it's clear that Saddam Hussein's Iraq is gone in favor of an Iraq that is favorable to the future of the Middle East; when the history is written of a U.S.-China relationship that is better than it's ever been; an India relationship that is deeper and better than it's ever been; a relationship with Brazil and other countries of the left of Latin America, better than it's ever been ... \"When one looks at what we've been able to do in terms of changing the conversation in the Middle East about democracy and values, this administration will be judged well, and I'll wait for history's judgment and not today's headlines.\" Asked by CBS' Rita Braver why some former diplomats say Americans are disliked around the world, Rice said that's \"just not true.\" \"I know what U.S. policy has achieved. And so I don't know what diplomats you're talking to, but look at the record,\" she said. Rice said she wasn't bothered by criticism about her or the administration's polices, saying if a person in her business is not being criticized, \"you're not doing something right.\" \"I'm here to make tough choices, and this president is here to make tough choices, and we have. And yes, I -- there are some things that I would do very differently if I had it to do over again. You don't have that luxury. You have to make the choices and take the positions that you do at the time,\" she said. Asked about historians who say Bush is one of the worst presidents, Rice said those \"aren't very good historians.\" \"If you're making historical judgments before an administration is already out -- even out of office, and if you're trying to make historical judgments when the nature of the Middle East is still to be determined, and when one cannot yet judge the effects of decisions that this President has taken on what the Middle East will become -- I mean, for goodness' sakes, good historians are still writing books about George Washington. Good historians are certainly still writing books about Harry Truman,\" she said. Rice, 54, said she has enjoyed working in the Bush administration during the last eight years, first as national security adviser, then as secretary of state. \"There is no greater honor than to serve this country,\" she said, adding that there is also no greater challenge. Rice said when the new administration takes over, she plans to return to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and write two books -- one on foreign policy and one about her parents.","highlights":"Condoleezza Rice says Bush's policies will \"stand the test of time\"\nRice says she's not bothered by criticism; says she's \"here to make tough choices\"\nSecretary of state says historians criticizing Bush \"aren't very good historians\"\nRice says she plans to write a book about foreign policy .","id":"96617c3972f17395cdc748dfb264ff1994ef19cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for tighter controls over tourism and other forms of pollution in Antarctica Monday, arguing for greater global cooperation to help preserve the continent's environmental and scientific research value. The Dry Valley region of Antarctica has seen an increase in visits by tourists. Addressing a joint session of the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, Clinton said the Obama administration is concerned about the growing popularity of tourism in the southern polar region. She said the United States is proposing new international limits on the number of landings from tourist vessels, as well as greater cooperation to prevent potentially hazardous discharges from those ships. At the same time, the United States is proposing new requirements for lifeboats on tourist ships \"to make sure they can keep passengers alive until rescue comes,\" Clinton noted. Aside from worrying about the environmental impact of tourism, the U.S. is \"concerned about the safety of the tourists and the suitability of the ships that make the journey south,\" she said. Watch Clinton say how the Antarctic has been protected from war \u00bb . The issue of tourism in the Antarctic has become an increasingly divisive issue in recent years, pitting scientists and preservationists against a travel industry seeking to capitalize on a growing demand for adventure and nature-oriented tours. Over 46,000 tourists visited Antarctica in the 2007-2008 tour season -- almost four times as many visitors as during the 2000-2001 season, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. Clinton's remarks came as the United States helped mark the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, a model for \"how agreements created for one age can serve the world in another,\" Clinton said. Clinton noted that President Obama sent the U.S. Senate an amendment to the treaty Friday that would spell out how the international community should better prevent and respond to environmental emergencies in Antarctica. The amendment would cover the question of liability tied to environmental damage in the ecologically sensitive region. In addition, the United States has proposed an extension of the treaty's marine pollution rules \"in a manner that more accurately reflects the boundaries of the Antarctic ecosystem,\" she noted. \"The treaty is a blueprint for the kind of international cooperation that will be needed more and more to address the challenges of the 21st century,\" Clinton said. \"It is an example of smart power at its best: governments coming together around a common interest and citizens, scientists and institutions from different countries joined in scientific collaboration to advance peace and understanding.\" Clinton argued that the treaty \"and its related instruments remain a key tool in our efforts to address an urgent threat of this time: climate change.\" A number of international scientific research stations have been established in Antarctica in part to help explore the probable causes and effects of global warming. Twelve nations initially signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959; 47 nations abide by it today. The accord specifies that Antarctic territory cannot be used for military purposes. It bans, among other things, nuclear testing and the disposal of radioactive waste material on the continent. It also protects freedom for international scientific research in the region.","highlights":"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls for limits on tourism in Antarctica .\nU.S. is proposing new limits on the number of landings from tourist vessels .\nClinton addressed Arctic Council and Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting .\nTwelve nations signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959; 47 nations abide by it today .","id":"fa8ef4345125004038109c06b1a3bf30ac006718"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Clarence B. Jones, author of \"What Would Martin Say?\" is Scholar in Residence at the Stanford University Martin Luther King Jr. Research & Education Institute. He was a lawyer and speechwriter for Dr. King. Clarence Jones says America is indebted to Martin Luther King Jr. for breaking its addiction to segregation. Next week, the day after our national holiday commemorating the 80th birthday of Dr. King, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, the first African-American elected as president. Obama's election would not have been possible without the transformative effect of Dr. King's struggle, leadership and legacy in dismantling segregation and institutional racism in the United States. America owes a great debt to Dr. King. Prior to him, our nation was like a dysfunctional drug addict or alcoholic, hooked and addicted to segregation and institutional racism. His \"tough love\" of nonviolent direct action civil disobedience forced America to confront its conscience and the immorality of racial injustice. Dr. King enabled our country to embark on an extraordinary journey of recovery to reclaim its soul. He enabled us to reactivate those precepts enshrined in our Declaration of Independence: \"all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.\" In twelve years and four months, from 1956 to April 4, 1968 -- except for President Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation -- Martin Luther King Jr. may have done more to achieve racial, social and political justice and equality in America than any other person in our country's history. Dr. King had confidence in the democratic future of America. He believed that we, as a people, would be able to \"transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.\" I met Martin Luther King, Jr. for the first time 49 years ago when he visited my home in California to enlist my assistance in the defense of a criminal tax indictment against him by the state of Alabama. Only six months earlier, I had graduated from Boston University Law School. I worked for him as a law clerk, political organizer, personal lawyer and, at his request, I drafted speeches for Dr. King until his death on April 4, 1968. He was an ordained Christian minister before he was a civil rights leader. His religious faith and abiding belief in God were the fuel that ignited the engine of his moral leadership. President-elect Obama's religion and belief in God appear central to his political leadership. During the 40 years following Dr, King's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, the most recurring question asked of me has been: \"Who today, what black leader, if anyone, is most like Dr. King?\" I would consistently answer that Dr. King was sui generis, one of a kind And, then ask rhetorically: \"Who today is most like Michelangelo, Mozart, Galileo, Copernicus, Aristotle, Beethoven or Shakespeare?\" Since Obama's election, I have been asked: . \u2022 Is Barack Obama another Martin Luther King Jr? \u2022 What would Dr. King say about the election of Obama? \u2022 Does the election of Obama, as the first African-American president of the United States, mean that Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled? \u2022 Does Obama's election indicate that racism for all practical purposes no longer exists in America? \u2022 Will Obama's election have any impact on the number of African-American men incarcerated or the high percentage of out-of-wedlock births within the African-American community? There are no easy answers to these questions, but it is clear that those of us in the civil rights movement of the 1960s never anticipated the event we will witness Tuesday. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the assumption of the presidency by former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, some of us who worked closely with Dr. King, concluded no fundamental change in race relations in America could be accomplished successfully and sustained unless it was done under the political leadership of a white man from the south, people like Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Our belief was predicated on the political assumption that America would be more willing to follow a white southern political leader on the issues of race relations and equal economic opportunity than a politician from another part of our country. We never contemplated the realistic possibility of a black president of the United States in our lifetimes. The 1965 Voting Rights Act sparked the prairie fires of subsequent black voter registration and voting which dramatically altered the political landscape of America. It was this legislative foundation that fostered and facilitated the political possibility of a successful Obama candidacy for president. \"We Shall Overcome\" was our national anthem of the Civil Rights Movement under Dr. King's leadership. President-elect Obama, like a masterful musical composer with perfect pitch, successfully updated, translated and rearranged \"We Shall Overcome\" to a \"Yes, We Can\" surround-sound mantra for the cell phone, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Internet-blackberry generation. This may be the most enduring 21st Century tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Clarence Jones.","highlights":"Clarence Jones: Martin Luther King cured U.S. of addiction to racial segregation .\nHe says King's work helped make Barack Obama's victory possible .\nJones: Leaders assumed only white Southern presidents could make progress .\nHe says they never anticipated election of an African-American president .","id":"8f05c204b988bb631c575aceac971244df630b60"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Deep into injury time in one of Manchester United's most important games of the English Premier League season a 17-year-old Italian on debut hit a stunning winner and lifted himself to instant stardom. Man of the moment: Seventeen-year-old Federico Macheda is now a legend at Manchester United . Federico Macheda was the teenager who came on as a substitute and scored late on Sunday for the Red Devils -- helping them to a 3-2 win after they had earlier trailed 2-1 to Aston Villa at Old Trafford. The finish was of the highest quality -- as he curled the ball past Villa goal-keeper Brad Freidel from a wide angle. His fine touch, turn and shot were made all the more amazing given their significance in the context of both the match and season. But, who is this 17-year-old hero? And how did he get to live his fairytale? Born in Rome in 1991 (yes, 1991), Macheda, known by team-mates as \"Kiko\", is a striker who developed his game through the ranks of the Lazio youth programme in Italy -- where he is considered as one of the brightest talents of the future. He made a move to Manchester United in September 2007, and quickly moved up the ranks -- starting out in the under-18 side, before progressing to the senior reserve team. He officially signed a professional contract with the club on his 17th birthday, in August 2008. Although Sunday's goal puts his name permanently on the minds of all Manchester United faithful, it's not the first time he has made an impression. Just six days before he scored a thrilling hat-trick for the reserve team in a 3-3 draw against Newcastle at St James' Park. He has also represented Italy at under 19 level. What did you think of Macheda's goal? Can he go on to become a top club and international player? Share your thoughts in the Sound Off box below. Macheda was eventually booked for celebrating with the crowd after his strike -- though he later revealed he had hugged family members -- who were in the crowd to see his debut. He was named man of the match for his goal (after playing just 30 minutes) and although he wasn't allowed the bottle of wine he won for the honor -- he told Manchester United television \"this is the best day of my life.\" In the post-match interview on Sky Sports, Macheda said: \"I think this is the day of my dreams -- to score a goal like that on my debut.\" The Manchester United Supporters' Web site has since been inundated with comments praising Macheda, and there are even several proposed supporters' chants being drafted for their new star. English-based Italian football journalist Gabriele Marcotti told CNN he had been impressed by Macheda's progress at a young age -- but felt it was important he didn't get ahead of himself. \"When a guy scores like that on debut there's always excitement. But, he needs to keep his feet on the ground and keep working,\" Marcotti said. Marcotti said the reaction from Italian fans was likely to be mixed. While there would be happiness that he is emerging as a great prospect for Italy in future, there is also concern that players like Macheda are moving to England at a young age and the Italian clubs who train them gain very little in compensation, he said.","highlights":"Federico Macheda scores stoppage time winner for Manchester United .\nThe 3-2 win for Red Devils is crucial in context of Premier League season .\nMacheda, a product of Lazio's youth programme, is just 17 years old .\n\"This is the best day of my life,\" Macheda said after the victory .","id":"2345f4ae6ee224bea065cc0ef268a954860510f2"} -{"article":"EVERETT, Washington (CNN) -- Meet Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln with his parents, Dean and Kryssia Lincoln, at their home in Everett, Washington. Abraham, 23, may not look like America's 16th president, but he is a distant relative -- and he uses \"mrprez16\" in his e-mail address. \"I've always joked [that] Dean, my father, looks like President Abraham Lincoln. It's through his bloodline that we're related.\" Dean claims to be a third cousin five times removed. \"There were three brothers that came to America from England in 1635,\" he says. \"We're related to Samuel Lincoln, the same one Abraham Lincoln is related to.\" \"I'm tall and fairly thin,\" Dean adds. \"He didn't have a moustache. If I shaved and grew a beard like him, I'd probably look a lot like him.\" Dean's son, Abraham, looks more like his mother. \"I got the color of my skin from my mother, the Hispanic side,\" Abraham says. \"I have the height from my dad, similar to Abraham Lincoln's height -- though not quite there, three inches shorter.\" Watch Abraham Lincoln speak of his iconic namesake \u00bb . Kryssia, Abraham's mother, is from El Salvador. \"I loved the name Abraham,\" she says. \"I always did. I think it sounds so elegant and in Spanish, it's 'Aab-ra-haam'. In the Bible, Abraham is the 'father of our faith.' \" \"I never knew I was going to marry a man with the last name 'Lincoln,' never dreamed about it. So when I got married (in 1982) to my husband, Dean Lincoln, and we had our second child, and it was a boy,\" she says, snapping her fingers, \"sure enough, I wanted to name him Abraham. \"We didn't have to argue very much because of course the heritage that he has ... and his great-grandfather's name was Abraham.\" See photos of the Lincolns \u00bb . At the Lincolns' home in Everett, Washington, the dining room table is full of genealogy lists, old family photos and letters, some dating back to the Civil War. Dean carefully unfolds one of the letters. It's from William Lincoln, a Union soldier and Dean's great-great-great-grandfather. \"The 'Rebs' are getting just where ol' Sherman wants them,\" William Lincoln wrote home to his wife. \"He will rout them soon and drive them back to their holes.\" \"We ain't heard from the election to any certainty yet. But the soldiers think, if Lincoln is elected, we have hopes of the war playing out.\" Of his famous name, Abraham says, \"At first, people don't believe me. I usually have to pull out my driver's license. They'll usually crack a few jokes ... sort of breaks the ice.\" \"Once in school, a teacher came to my name in roll call. He decided to stop the class and told me to 'make sure I never drive a Ford car.' 'Don't ever let my wife convince me to go to a theater.' \"He asked if I knew John Wilkes Booth. Those are the most common ones. I think he was waiting to get a reaction outta me, but I told him that I'd heard them before.\" Word spread quickly through his high school that this freshman wanted to be called \"Mr. Prez.\" The nickname stuck. And because of his Hispanic roots, some of his classmates even called him \"El Presidente.\" \"I think I've heard every one in the book. I still get a chuckle every time someone thinks they've come up with a new one,\" Abraham says. Abraham grew up in Everett, where, coincidentally, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is based. When he was 16, the local newspaper asked if he would write a letter to crew members returning from a mission to Iraq. Abraham's letter read, in part: . \"Dear Lincoln crew, . \"My name is Abraham Lincoln. I want to thank you for making me proud to know that the men and women on board the Abraham Lincoln, a ship with the same name as me, are out there fighting as true American heroes.\" At first, Abraham had no desire to walk in the shadow of such a great leader. Then, at the University of Washington, he took a political science class. \"There was something about politics that drew me,\" he says. \"I loved the history behind it. That's when I made up my own mind: That was the path I wanted to go.\" Abraham spent a semester in Washington, D.C., as an intern for former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts. On his list of places to visit? The Lincoln Memorial and Ford's Theatre. \"The whole atmosphere of that city, knowing someone I was related to, a descendant of mine, had such a huge impact and changed the world as we know it ... And to have a huge memorial dedicated to such a great president.\" This past summer, Abraham married Jenae, whom he met as a church youth leader. He says she likes the history behind the name and the attention they receive. Abe is working as a paralegal. He wants to attend law school and -- you guessed it -- pursue a career in public service or politics. \"If anything, President Abraham Lincoln is a great model to follow after. So if you have the name, might as well go down the same path.\" Of the similarities between Presidents Lincoln and Obama, Abraham says, \"Lincoln came into office with a nation divided in the Civil War, and Obama is the first African-American president, hoping to transcend party lines dividing America.\" Since Abraham's birthday comes eight days after his famous namesake's, the Lincoln family will celebrate President Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday together with their own son's birthday. Meanwhile, Dean is growing a beard again. Kryssia wants him to shave the mustache and don a suit to honor President Lincoln's birthday . She says of her son: \"No, I don't think he looks like Abraham Lincoln, the president. But he has the name and he serves well the name ... And I think there's a future for my son. \"I just know in my heart he will keep honoring that name. It's very special.\"","highlights":"Abraham Lincoln of Washington state is a 23-year-old paralegal .\nNation's 16th president was a distant ancestor .\nAbraham's mother says she knew it was the perfect name .\nModern-day Abraham Lincoln hopes for career in public service or politics .","id":"58f6a7c436c5ef9760014630a0671bba6897e95d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, \"Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism,\" will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian E. Zelizer says so far the Obama presidency resembles that of Lyndon B. Johnson. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- While pundits have compared President Obama to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, less attention has been paid to another, perhaps more apt parallel -- Lyndon Baines Johnson. Sometimes the similarities are striking. Both aimed high, seeking major legislation to reshape America -- Johnson with civil rights and Medicare, Obama with health care and energy legislation. Both Johnson and Obama understood that Congress was a credit-claiming institution whose members did not like to have proposals rammed down their throats. Johnson's style of political leadership was famous. A creature of the Senate, Johnson loved to lean on legislators and intimidate them into supporting his agenda. As Senate majority leader from 1955 to 1961, Johnson had been famous for subjecting colleagues to the \"Treatment\" whereby the hulking Texan cornered a legislator in the hallway, stood eye to eye and made his arguments about a bill until he received assurances of support for particular legislation. Although Johnson slightly changed his posture once he was president, he still relied on this kind of interaction to build support. As president from November 1963 until January 1969, Johnson worked closely with the Southern committee chairmen and ranking Republicans who dominated the House and Senate. Johnson sought to achieve a delicate mix of maintaining control over deliberations -- thinking of ways to obtain what he wanted without giving the appearance of it being a presidential-led idea -- all while responding to the concerns of the chairmen. The back-and-forth deliberations with House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills over the creation of Medicare in 1965 have become the classic example of how a president can work the chamber while allowing a congressional leader into the room to shape a bill in ways with which he'll be comfortable. Johnson agreed to redesign the particulars of the legislation so that the final program would protect the fiscal integrity of Social Security (under which it was included) and contain long-run costs. Thus far, Obama has taken a similar approach with the economic stimulus and, more recently, with his budget proposal. The president outlined to Congress the basic ideas he wanted in the final product but then left to lawmakers the work of designing the details. While the downside has been that Obama relinquished control over the structure of the legislation, House and Senate Democrats have felt invested and empowered to produce what Obama's team viewed as successful results. The second similarity is that Johnson, like Obama, distanced himself from the arguments of liberals who said that conservatives did not need to be feared. Johnson was consumed by his fears of a right-wing resurgence, even after trouncing Republican Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election. Johnson constantly warned advisers that the most dangerous political force in the country as far as he was concerned was not the left on college campuses but what he called the \"reactionary element\" within the GOP, and he took this into consideration when shaping legislative proposals. With domestic policy, Johnson avoided programs that could be tagged as \"socialistic,\" and on foreign policy he worked hard to demonstrate a tough stance against communism. Recently released telephone conversations have revealed that Johnson was obsessed with the 1966 midterm elections after the 1964 election was over, realizing that historically those results were not likely to be good for the White House. Obama has been reluctant to embrace liberal arguments about an end to the Age of Reagan, courting conservative journalists such as David Brooks instead of liberal pundits such as Paul Krugman. He accepted compromises on legislation in response to moderates in both parties and agreed to a financial bailout that pleased Wall Street, not Main Street. And his administration has steered clear of explicitly nationalizing banks, a step that could be called socialist. Obama has even touched on sensitive subjects such as deficit reduction and Social Security reform, which are much more appealing to the right than left. During one important conversation, Obama told the centrist Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana that he need not worry about his administration going too far on spending since he identified himself as a New Democrat, a reference to members of the party who in the Clinton years believed that they needed to accept some of the arguments of the conservative movement. Finally, both presidents understood the strategic importance of leveraging social movements to their political advantage. During the height of the struggles over civil rights, Johnson frequently pointed to the growing power of the grass-roots civil rights movement as he tried to pressure undecided legislators to support legislation to end public segregation and then to ensure voting rights for African-Americans. Johnson made it clear that the movement had become a potent force in American life, winning the hearts and minds of citizens, and that it could cause political trouble for his opponents. Obama has shown glimmers of a similar strategy with regard to the budget. The administration recently announced that it was trying to mobilize the \"net roots\" operation from the 2008 campaign to build pressure on wavering representatives and senators to support his plans on health care and the environment. The comparisons between Johnson and Obama likewise offer reminders about what could go wrong for the current president. After all, Johnson was a politician who looked like a transformative president in 1965 but within three years found himself to be a defeated man who withdrew from the Democratic primaries. Johnson's fears of the right, moreover, pushed him and America deeper into the deadly war in Vietnam. The social movements that LBJ used to his benefit in 1964 and 1965 turned against him as the administration plunged deeper into Vietnam, a lesson worth thinking about for the current administration. Johnson's policy of respect for committee chairmen prompted him to make compromises over social policy -- such as cuts in social spending in 1968 -- that weakened his support among the very Democrats he needed to win re-election. Johnson was never fully aware of how his greatest political skills could also become the source of his downfall. Obama's challenge is to harness the best parts of this comparison -- such as how Johnson handled Congress to produce dramatic legislative results -- without repeating the destructive characteristics that shattered Johnson's White House. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian E. Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian E. Zelizer: The Obama presidency resembles that of Lyndon B. Johnson .\nZelizer says both aimed high and worked skillfully with congressional leaders .\nA president can shape legislation without dictating the details, professor says .\nZelizer: Obama has gotten big results from Congress by keeping leaders on his side .","id":"cf47e12f21467d004a46b744115314ad8f915248"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Robert Pires is confident Villarreal -- nickname 'the Yellow Submarine' -- can torpedo the Champions League dreams of former club Arsenal in Tuesday's quarterfinal first leg clash in Spain. Robert Pires made his final apearance for Arsenal in the 2006 Champions League final defeat against Barcelona. \"We can beat them, for sure,\" said the former French internationa\\. \"We would not come on the pitch if we were not convinced that we are good enough to go through. \"I would say that I expect a spectacular game between two teams that look like each other a lot. Hopefully we will see many goals.\" The 35-year-old spent six successful seasons at Highbury, and made his last appearance for the Gunners in the 2006 Champions League final when he was substituted in an early tactical change following the sending off of goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. Such an exit was not the way Pires wanted to bring the curtain down on an Arsenal career which had seen him help guide Arsene Wenger's side through an unbeaten Premier League campaign in 2003\/2004. \"I have always had a tremendous relationship with the Arsenal fans and these games will be the occasion for me to say goodbye to them,\" Pires told www.setanta.com. \"Not having been able to say goodbye to them is a pain to me. \"I wanted to have the chance to thank the Highbury public for their support, but I could not do it because my last game was the Champions League final with Barcelona. \"Then I announced my departure to Villarreal three days later and did not see them again. Sincerely, this draw is emotional to me, and fills me with nostalgia as well, that is for sure.\" Pires was sent off in the 3-0 weekend defeat at Almeria that saw midfielder Santi Cazorla break an ankle in a match that left Manuel Pellegrini's team in fourth place. Spain international midfielder Marcos Senna is, though, expected to be fit to face the Gunners. Arsenal striker Robin van Persie misses the trip to Spain with a groin injury, but Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott have been passed fit for the clash at El Madrigal after a virus and knee injury respectively. Manager Arsene Wenger paid tribute to his players on arrival in Spain and maintained that he is \"confident\" of a positive outcome over the two legs. Midfielder Andrey Arshavin is ineligible having played for Zenit St Petersburg during the group stages. Striker Eduardo (groin) and midfielder Abou Diaby (thigh) remain sidelined, while long-term absentee Tomas Rosicky continues his recovery.","highlights":"Robert Pires believes Villarreal can upset Arsenal's Champions League dream .\nPires' final game for Arsenal came in 2006 Champions final loss to Barcelona .\nArsenal striker Robin van Persie misses the trip to Spain with a groin injury .","id":"2dfdcae5329624556ee722563ae69ae63dacbcbe"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea has positioned what is thought to be a long-range missile on its launch pad, a U.S. counter-proliferation official said on Wednesday. A North Korean soldier stands guard in the border village of Panmunjom on December 1, 2004 in South Korea. The official confirmed a Japanese media report. North Korea recently informed a pair of U.N. agencies that it plans to launch a satellite. The launch is slated for sometime between April 4-8, according to Yonhap, South Korea's state-sponsored news agency. North Korea is technically capable of launching a rocket in as little as two to four days, according to Kim Taewoo, an expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, but who doubts a launch will come that soon. It would not make sense for Pyongyang to make such a move after going through official channels with its plans, Kim said. \"The North could delay the launch if they experience problems with the weather, or within the leadership, but I don't see any reason why they would fire it ahead of time,\" Kim said. North Korea's announcement has triggered international consternation. U.S. and South Korean officials have long said the North is actually preparing to test-fire a long-range missile under the guise of a satellite launch. Watch what might motivate Pyongyang to pursue missile tests \u00bb . Japan said this month that it could shoot down the satellite that North Korean officials said they plan to launch. What the North Koreans would be testing may not be known until an actual launch. A U.N. Security Council resolution in 2006 banned North Korea from conducting ballistic missile activity. Japanese officials said they could shoot down the object whether it is a missile or a satellite. \"As the U.N. resolutions prohibit (North Korea) from engaging in ballistic missile activities, we still consider it to be a violation of a technical aspect, even if (the North) claims it is a satellite. We will discuss the matter with related countries based on this view,\" Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said this month. The United States has no plans to shoot down the North Korean rocket, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday, but will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang carries out a launch. \"We are doing our best to dissuade the North Koreans from going forward, because it is provocative action,\" Clinton said. \"It raises questions about their compliance with the Security Council Resolution 1718. And if they persist and go forward, we will take it up in appropriate channels.\" South Korea echoed Clinton's statements. \"The South Korean government believes that if the North conducts its launch despite continuous warnings of the South Korean government and the international community, it is a provocative action that constitutes a serious threat to the security of northeast Asia and the Korean peninsula,\" said Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young. \"The launching of the long-range rocket is a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 1718, and we strongly urge North Korea to immediately stop such measures.\" The North Korean Taepodong-2 missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers) that -- if true -- could strike Alaska or Hawaii.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. Secretary of State Clinton says U.S. has no plans to shoot rocket down .\nN. Korea positions what analyst is believes is long-range missile for launch .\nTaepodong 2 rocket could launch either a warhead or a satellite .\nNorth Koreans have said they intend to launch a communications satellite .","id":"733e66bb63927f78091b5877fc6a9c589d45268c"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Regular programming has just been interrupted by a news conference. A slender black man in a suit steps up to a podium, flanked by American flags and a White House logo. Michael Lamar was laid off in January but has a new job as a Barack Obama look-alike. \"I wish I could announce such an economic package,\" he says, \"but there is a bank in Turkey that did it. It is Garanti. I wish we had Garanti in America.\" Don't be fooled. This is a commercial on Turkish TV. The actor is a 44-year-old Barack Obama look-alike from Whitehall, Pennsylvania, named Michael Lamar. And he is shilling for a Turkish bank. In the month before the real Barack Obama is to visit Turkey, this ad campaign went out all across the country on television and on billboards, using the iconic, Warholian image of the American president to sell low-interest loans. The \"Mad Men\" behind the concept say their Obama look-alike was the perfect guy to sell what they described as Garanti Bank's own economic stimulus package. \"We probably wouldn't be doing this commercial if it was the previous president,\" said Can Celikbilek, a copy writer at the advertising company, Alametifarika. \"But in the case of Obama, he does represent hope, not only for the States but for the whole world.\" For Obama look-alike actor Lamar, there was some irony about getting flown to Turkey to star in a commercial for a bank. He is a recent casualty of the global economic crisis. \"I was laid off in January of this year from JP Morgan Chase Bank in the U.S.,\" Lamar said, in a telephone interview from Pennsylvania. \"After 18 years in the company, I was just laid off. One of the cutbacks. I'm currently unemployed right now.\" Or, was unemployed. Lamar's striking resemblance to the American president has suddenly offered the former software analyst a possible new career for supporting his wife and child. \"I'm available full-time now,\" Lamar said. \"I'm going to see where this leads me.\" Lamar is now being represented by a casting agency in Los Angeles that specializes in celebrity look-alikes. Since he discovered his new \"talent,\" he has traveled to the Netherlands to appear in a commercial for a liquor chain and to Paris, where an activist organization brought him in to meet lawmakers at the National Assembly, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about racism and racial profiling in France. \"This was very exciting for me, a true privilege!\" Lamar said. During his brief visit to Turkey, locals did double-takes when they saw Lamar walk past. \"Even in the studio, the crew [members] were like, 'Oh! Is that Obama?\" said Celikbilek of Alametifarika advertising. Using the image of an American president to promote anything in Turkey is a remarkable reversal. U.S. approval ratings in Turkey plunged to 9 percent, according to a 2007 Pew Research poll, making America less popular in Turkey then almost anywhere else in the world, even though the two countries are NATO allies. There was widespread anger among Turks at the war in neighboring Iraq. But the election of Barack Obama appears to have dramatically improved perceptions of America. \"Bush was a dictator who attacked other countries,\" said Abdurrahman Ozdemir, who sells cigarettes from a small stall on the street. \"But we love Obama ... because he does not want to go to war with other countries.\" \"We started to love and like America because of Obama,\" said a 33-year-old woman named Begum Arinc. \"I don't want to see people dying. I don't want to see any war. That's why I want to believe in Obama.\"","highlights":"Michael Lamar strikes an Obama-like figure in ads for a bank in Turkey .\nLamar worked for JP Morgan Chase for 18 years before being laid off .\nPresident Obama will be in Turkey soon on presidential visit .\nU.S. approval ratings in turkey have plunged in recent years .","id":"ecfebf767f211d75f76bb755bd146d1dc5156637"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Norwegian Tony Andre Hansen has been stripped of his Olympic showjumping bronze medal -- and banned for our-and-a-half months by the International Equestrian Federation -- after his horse tested positive for a banned substance at the Beijing Games. Hansen was Norway's highest-scoring rider as the nation finished third in the Olympic team showjumping. The 29-year-old Hansen was the best performer in a four-rider Norway team which won bronze under a scoring system where the top three count. Without his scores, his teammates -- Morten Djupvik, Stein Endresen, and Geir Gulliksen -- drop out of medal contention. The fourth-placed Switzerland team of Steve Guerdat, Christina Liebherr, Niklaus Schurtenberger and Pius Schwizer will now be awarded the bronze medals by the International Olympic Committee. The United States won gold, beating Canada in a jumpoff in Hong Kong, where the equestrian events were staged last August. Hansen's horse, Camiro, tested positive for capsaicin, a banned pain relieving medication. He was provisionally suspended and did not complete the individual jumping competition. However, he is free to return to competition on January 3 as his suspension was backdated. \"It is each person's duty to ensure that no prohibited substance is present in his or her horse's body during an event,\" said the FEI. Although the drug can be used out-of-competition as a legal medication, it is also classed as a doping substance if used to inflame a horse's legs. This is done to encourage horses to jump higher because striking an obstacle becomes more painful. Hansen is the fourth rider disqualified and suspended in cases involving capsaicin: Germany's Christian Ahlmann was suspended for four months, Brazil's Bernardo Alves for three-and-a-half months, and Irish rider Denis Lynch got a three-month ban.","highlights":"Norwegian Tony Andre Hansen is stripped of his Olympic showjumping gold .\nHansen's horse horse tested positive for banned substance at Beijing Games .\nThe fourth-placed Switzerland team have now been promoted to third position .","id":"dd445f03d1e413cd1e9417c857fef4c2553d8010"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would make suing for pay discrimination easier by altering a time limit on such suits. The act is named for Lilly Ledbetter, seen here in 2008. Her discrimination lawsuit victory was overturned in 2007. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed 250-177, would give workers alleging unequal pay the right to sue within 180 days of their most recent paycheck. Current law says such employees must sue within 180 days of receiving their first unfair paycheck. Supporters of the new legislation say that, under the current law, an employer merely needs to hide unfair pay practices for three months before being able to continue them without penalty. The act, named for a former Goodyear Tire employee who sued the company for gender discrimination in 1998, would effectively overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision on the limit. Ledbetter was awarded $360,000 in back pay by a federal judge in Alabama, but the verdict was overturned in a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in May 2007. The court said that even though she filed her complaint within 180 days of when she first learned that she was getting paid less than comparable male employees, she had failed to file within 180 days of the first unequal paycheck. After Tuesday's House vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber had \"taken a bold step\" in passing the legislation. \"In doing so, it has injected fairness, reason and common sense back into policy,\" Pelosi said. The legislation, which passed the Senate on Thursday, now goes to President Barack Obama, who has promised to sign it into law. It is the first major piece of legislation Congress has sent to Obama for his approval. On the campaign trail, Obama and Republican nominee Sen. John McCain debated the bill. Obama heavily emphasized what he called the plan's benefits to working women, while McCain criticized it as a boon for trial lawyers. Pelosi said Obama called to congratulate her on the bill's passage. Obama danced with Ledbetter at one of his inaugural balls, and she spoke at the Democrat National Convention at which he accepted his party's nomination. \"My case is over -- I will never receive the pay I deserve,\" Ledbetter said in that speech. \"But there will be a far richer reward if we secure fair pay for our children and grandchildren, so that no one will ever again experience the discrimination that I did.\"","highlights":"President Obama has promised to sign Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act .\nAct would alter time limit for pay-discrimination suits, makes them easier to file .\nLimit would be based on date of most recent unfair paycheck, not the first .\nAct named for woman whose discrimination victory was overturned in 2007 .","id":"44f0c8c7c19b94858959a3b95f8490b5f3345705"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Dr. Thomas H. Murray is chief executive of The Hastings Center, a nonprofit research institute on bioethics in Garrison, New York. Murray was formerly director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Case Western Reserve University and president of the Society for Health and Human Values. Thomas Murray says doctors have responsibility for welfare of children conceived through IVF procedure. GARRISON, New York (CNN) -- The birth of octuplets to a California woman last week raised a boatload of issues that can distract us from the central ethical question posed by the case: How do we take children's well-being into account in reproductive medicine? Yes, it's puzzling why an unemployed single woman who already had six children wanted a passel more. And it is not crazy to wonder who will pay for these children's needs over the years, beginning with what is sure to be a gobsmacking bill for neonatal intensive care. For now, we can put aside the lifeboat problem: A human uterus is not built for eight passengers; the odds for each child to be born alive and healthy go down as the number in the lifeboat goes up. Her physicians offered to reduce the number of fetuses she was carrying; citing her moral convictions, she declined. As of the last reports, all eight survived. Still, knowing what we do about the many risks that come with being born too soon and too small, their medical course is likely to be complex and unsteady. What this case really does is split wide open a fault line running through infertility treatment in American medicine. People who show up at fertility clinics are adults. In the typical case, they've been trying to get pregnant for a year or more without success. When all goes well, a cycle of IVF (in-vitro fertilization) results in a pregnancy and the birth of one, perhaps two, healthy babies. As a son, a father, and now a grandfather, I can attest that there is no more important or enduring relationship in our lives than the one between parents and children. Whether that relationship is forged through infertility medicine, adoption or the old-fashioned way matters not at all: What counts is that adults who want to love and raise a child are matched with a child who needs just that love and care. The point of infertility treatment, after all, is to create a child. But that child-to-be is not the clinic's patient -- the would-be parents are. I believe that the interests of those children deserve at least as much consideration as the wishes of the prospective parents. The vast majority of infertility patients are no doubt fierce advocates for the well-being of the child they so earnestly seek to bring into their lives. What happens, though, when the client's request shows little consideration or regard for the welfare of the would-be children? What happens if a woman in her early 30s with six children wants eight embryos implanted all at once? A responsible physician could turn down such a request, citing professional guidelines that counsel implanting one, at most two, embryos in women younger than 35. How Nadya Suleman ended up with eight is a mystery. That's what Nadya Suleman is claiming. Perhaps there is a physician somewhere willing to defy the wisdom of his or her peers; perhaps Suleman used fertility drugs rather than IVF as she claimed. Whatever the case, this guideline is based on safety. Carrying more than a couple of fetuses is dangerous to the pregnant woman and to the health and survival of the fetuses in her womb. Citing safety is a prudent way to turn down requests an infertility physician thinks are ill-considered. But sometimes that gambit isn't available. A psychiatrist friend who conducted intake interviews for a well-respected clinic described a rough-looking couple who carried for their up-front payment thousands of dollars in cash stuffed in a bag -- drug money, she was certain. She was able to discourage the couple from following through on their plan. Here's the rub: Her concern was the ultimate well-being of the child that the clinic was being asked to help create. But the ideology of American infertility medicine allows physicians to escape from making any judgments about the suitability of prospective parents. There is understandable worry that cracking the door to considerations about parents' motives and capacities would blast it wide open for nasty, petty stereotypes and prejudices. That would be an awful result. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine acknowledged in a 2004 report that fertility programs may withhold services when they can provide \"well-substantiated judgments\" that the child will not receive adequate care. But that same report has a huge loophole. Providers can abdicate almost all responsibility to anticipate the welfare of the children they help create by claiming \"an obligation to treat all patients who would benefit from medical treatment.\" The statement goes on to say that \"except when significant harm to a future child is likely,\" they \"should not be required to make assessments of a patient's child-rearing abilities or other child welfare issues.\" It's time for the profession -- and business -- of reproductive medicine to accept their firm, inescapable ethical obligation to give the interests and well-being of the children they help to create the same consideration they give to the desires of the adults they serve. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Thomas Murray.","highlights":"Thomas Murray: The case of the birth of octuplets in California raises questions .\nHe says doctors typically cater to the wishes of their patients, the parents .\nIn IVF cases, the doctors also have responsibility for children's welfare, he says .\nHe says doctors shouldn't use a loophole to evade their responsibility .","id":"0fce8167ab54100aa39029fd96d49bbd2ff62982"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police said they are pursuing leads in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found Monday stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her Tracy, California, home. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared March 27. Her body was found at a dairy-farm pond near her Calilfornia home. \"We are heading in a direction,\" Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters. \"To comment on that would compromise the investigation, and I can't do that.\" A search warrant was executed at the Tracy mobile home park where the girl lived, and a related search was to be conducted Tuesday at a nearby church, he said. He implied more than one person may have been involved in the death of Sandra, who had been missing since March 27. \"Investigators are looking at additional information they received since yesterday and, hopefully, that will lead us to Sandra's killers,\" he said. Asked if his use of the plural meant police were looking for more than one person, he responded, \"We have no specific suspects, ma'am.\" Sheneman also implied the killer likely was familiar with the location where the body was found. He said he himself was unfamiliar with the location where the girl's body was found, despite having lived in the community for nearly 12 years. \"Someone would have to be familiar with that area to know to go there,\" he said. Watch how the suitcase was found \u00bb . Sheneman said police had no one in custody, despite having interviewed hundreds of people regarding the case. \"Everyone that we speak to right now is being considered a person of interest,\" he said. \"We're not eliminating anyone.\" The autopsy was being conducted Tuesday, but it was not clear when the report would be available. \"It's going to be some time before we hear from the coroner,\" Sheneman said. \"I can't tell you when that's going to be.\" More than 10 search warrants have been executed as part of the investigation and \"a lot\" of evidence has been recovered, Sheneman said. The day Sandra was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman. Police said Monday the girl's clothing helped them identify the body.","highlights":"NEW: Police imply person or persons involved in Sandra Cantu's death from area .\nPolice plan to church near mobile park home where Sandra's family lived .\nSandra was found in suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her California home .\nSandra had been missing since March 27 from her home in Tracy, California .","id":"a1706a9e4b39e4233e70b396cb6855db06651e14"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Computer hackers have embedded software in the United States' electricity grid and other infrastructure that could potentially disrupt service or damage equipment, two former federal officials told CNN. The ex-officials say code also has been found in computer systems of oil and gas distributors. The code in the power grid was discovered in 2006 or 2007, according to one of the officials, who called it \"the 21st century version of Cold War spying.\" Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano would not confirm such a breach, but said Wednesday that there has been no known damage caused by one. \"There have been, to my knowledge, no disruptions of power on any grid caused by a deliberate cyberattack on our infrastructure -- on the grid,\" Napolitano said. \"Nonetheless, we remain in constant protection, prevention, education, resiliency mode and we work with the utility sector particularly on that.\" Watch security officials explain threat \u00bb . The U.S. power grid isn't the only system at risk. The former officials said malicious code has been found in the computer systems of oil and gas distributors, telecommunications companies and financial services industries. Napolitano said the vulnerability of the nation's power grid to cyberattacks \"has been something that the Department of Homeland Security and the energy sector have known about for years,\" and that the department has programs in place to fight such attacks. Security experts say such computer hacking could be the work of a foreign government -- possibly Russia or China -- seeking to compromise U.S. security in the event of a future military conflict. Former CIA operative Robert Baer said he is not aware of a specific breach like the one the former officials describe. But he said people in the intelligence community assume that such attacks from countries like China go on all the time. \"Their foreign intelligence service has been probing our computers, our defense computers, our defense contractors, our power grids, our telephone system. ... I just came from a speech at the national defense university and they were hit by the Chinese trying to get into their systems,\" Baer said. \"They are testing and have gotten in portals. It's a serious threat.\" Baer said if the software was embedded by a foreign government, he doubts it would be used to launch a surprise attack. Instead, he said, that government likely would keep the bugs in place in case of a future conflict with the United States. \"It's deterrence in the event of war,\" he said. \"They will have another weapon at their disposal, which will be to turn off our power.\" When the coding is found, it can be destroyed. But experts said that's easier said than done. \"If you have somebody who knows what they're doing writing that code and embedding it in a clever way, you can look right at it and not recognize it,\" said Scott Borg, director and chief economist at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, an independent research institute. And even when it's found, Borg said, confirming the source of a cyberattack can be next to impossible. \"Anonymity is a fact of life in the cyberworld,\" he said. \"It's very easy to run an attack through somebody else's computer. It's very easy to embed code in Russian or Chinese when you're not Russian or Chinese. \"So it's very difficult to be confident on where anything like this comes from.\" Critics of the utilities industry have accused it of not doing enough in the past to defend against cyberassaults. But Ed Legge, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents shareholder-owned electric companies, said the industry takes the threat seriously and has made progress in closing some of the loopholes that would allow such attacks. President Obama has started a 60-day review of all the nation's efforts at cybersecurity that is expected to be completed by April 17, Napolitano said. While utility grids are owned by industries, not the government, Napolitano said her department will continue working with power companies and other industries to help prevent an attack that could cripple power or other vital services. \"Can we continue to work to enhance efforts within critical infrastructure like the utility grid? Yes,\" she said. \"Are we continuously looking for ways to enhance and educate for the prevention and protection of the cyberworld? Absolutely. \"Is this a priority of the president's and of all of us that are involved with safety and security? You bet.\"","highlights":"2 ex-federal officials say U.S. electrical grid, other infrastructure targeted .\nHomeland Security doesn't confirm a breach, says no damage caused by one .\nExpert says this kind of code could be difficult to detect .","id":"ce2b3c2ff6e2ba93ea4d490c0573e8f03012b957"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The pilot of a small Cessna 172 aircraft reported stolen from a Canadian flight school has been captured, authorities said. The pilot was flying a plane similar to this one -- a Cessna 172 -- before he landed in Missouri. The pilot reportedly stole a small Cessna 172 aircraft from a Canadian flight school, flew hundreds of miles across the Midwest, landed on a dirt road in Missouri late Monday and took off on foot, federal officials said. Federal, state and local authorities launched a manhunt for the pilot, who was identified by the FBI as Adam Leon, 31, a native of Turkey who became a Canadian citizen last year, according to FBI spokesman Richard Kolko. He was formerly known as Yavuz Berke, though officials did not indicate a reason for the name change. He was taken into custody at an Ellsinore grocery story after a brief manhunt, according to Missouri state police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A federal law enforcement source said the pilot parked the plane under what appeared to be a bridge or culvert, apparently in an attempt to hide it. The plane had been intercepted and tracked by U.S. military aircraft as it flew from Canada into U.S. airspace and meandered southward for several hours before landing, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said. It landed in the town of Ellsinore, population 360, in southern Missouri, a dispatcher with the Carter County Sheriff's Office said. A spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the pilot flew \"erratically\" over the course of the afternoon, at time reaching 14,000 feet in altitude, then dropping as low as 3,000 feet. The Cessna departed the school in Ontario at about 3 p.m. ET and flew over Lake Superior less than half an hour later, according to NORAD officials. F-16 fighter jets intercepted the pilot near Michigan's upper peninsula border with Wisconsin at 4:43 p.m., and tracked the Cessna until its safe landing. The NORAD spokesman, Mike Kucharek, said military pilots who intercepted the Cessna had tried repeatedly to get the pilot's attention and at one point, the pilot appeared to acknowledge that he saw the other aircraft. \"He looked at them,\" Kucharek said. But the pilot had not communicated with NORAD or the Federal Aviation Administration, Kucharek added later in the evening. At 9:20 p.m., the pilot was believed to have had roughly 30 minutes of fuel left, Kucharek said. \"We don't want to suppose the motive of the individual,\" Kucharek told CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\" after the landing. \"But it certainly made a day for the professional pilots that were flying these missions and a very serious situation from a NORAD perspective.\" Officials allowed the pilot \"to play his hand\" because they \"[didn't] want to provoke the situation,\" Kucharek said. A federal law enforcement official told CNN the pilot is a naturalized Canadian citizen, but declined to give his name or country of origin. The source said the pilot was a flight school student for a \"brief\" period and only clocked a few hours of flight time. Canadian officials have received some information that the pilot is \"not a happy individual,\" the official said. The Cessna departed at about 3 p.m. ET and flew over Lake Superior less than half an hour later, according to NORAD officials. F-16 fighter jets intercepted the pilot near Michigan's upper peninsula border with Wisconsin at 4:43 p.m., and have tracked the Cessna since. Earlier in the evening, the Wisconsin National Guard deployed two F-16s of its own in an attempt to get the pilot to establish communications with FAA air traffic controllers. The state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, was evacuated for less than an hour as a precaution. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the plane was reportedly stolen from a flight school in Thunder Bay, Canada, and the pilot had been identified as a student at the flight school. Both Lt. Cmdr. Gary Ross of NORAD and Brown of the FAA said the 14,000-feet altitude is above the level at which the FAA requires use of oxygen. Brown said it was not clear whether the Cessna had supplemental oxygen on board. Ross says the plane is a long-range version of a Cessna 172. It was fully fueled, giving it about seven hours of flying time. Ross said if NORAD officials believe the aircraft poses a threat, \"we take seriously any intent to harm any of our citizens or critical infrastructure.\" He added that \"all options are on the table although we continue to move towards a resolution that doesn't call for [lethal force].\" CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Adam Levine and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FBI identifies pilot as Adam Leon of Turkey, who is now a Canadian citizen .\nNEW: Pilot, formerly known as Yavuz Berke, captured after landing plane, fleeing .\nCessna aircraft was reported stolen from Canadian flight school .\nF-16 fighter jets intercepted plane, but pilot didn't respond .","id":"cc1ce0035a99e495a7c4d0395a09376ff9cf0afe"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It's no secret that \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell often shows no mercy toward aspiring singers. Quirky, tattooed contestant Megan Joy Corkrey discovered that Wednesday night during the elimination round on the popular singing competition. Megan Joy said she and Simon Cowell remain on good terms. Megan Joy, who dropped her last name, told Cowell that she \"didn't really care\" about his criticisms of her Tuesday night performance of Bob Marley's \"Turn The Lights Down Low,\" which he described as \"boring, indulgent and monotonous.\" Those comments sealed the 23-year-old single mother's fate. Host Ryan Seacrest asked Cowell if he would be using the \"save\" rule in Megan's case. Cowell demurred: \"Megan, with the greatest respect, when you said that you don't care -- nor do we. So I'm not going to pretend that we're even going to contemplate saving you,\" replied Cowell. \"I don't care that Simon didn't like that song,\" Joy said in an interview with CNN on Friday. \"I truly didn't and I still don't. I still loved it, I sang it the way I wanted to.\" Watch what CNN's Michelle Wright said about Megan Joy \u00bb . Despite all the bickering, Joy says that she and Cowell remain on good terms. After Wednesday's program, she says they both laughed and he told her that he enjoyed watching her. Watch what CNN's Lisa Respers France thought of performance \u00bb . Furthermore, the self-described \"dork\" says her \"American Idol\" experience has opened new doors to her future. \"Before all this competition, I thought I was just going to be a stay-at-home mom,\" Joy said. \"Now, I am interested to see all sorts of different things I could possibly try and dabble. ... I'm excited to just see what's out there.\" And those bizarre moments onstage Wednesday when she flapped her arms and squawked like a bird? Joy says that's just her personality. \"I do a lot of sound effects all the time, bird noises, animal noises,\" she said. \"Wednesday, I kind of had a feeling it was going to be me ... so I decided that I'm just going to be myself and be silly out there.\"","highlights":"Megan Joy dropped from \"American Idol\" on Wednesday night .\nShe had dismissed judge Simon Cowell's criticism; Cowell dismissed her .\nJoy says \"Idol\" has opened up new worlds for her .","id":"899df0fd859b4c43b75d25482bcd471d93911b0c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In anticipation of more flooding next week, residents of Fargo, North Dakota, began stacking sandbags Wednesday for the second time in just over two weeks along the banks of the Red River. A trucker relaxes April 1 on sandbag pallets in Fargo, North Dakota, which is preparing for more flooding. They hoped to fill 1 million, said Fargo spokeswoman Karena Lunday. \"If we get a million, that will be a total of 4 million we've made since the flood started,\" she said. The first sandbag effort began about March 23. The Red River crested at nearly 41 feet at Fargo on March 28, breaking a record that had held since 1897, when the Red River reached 40.1 feet. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Tuesday, predicting that melting snow -- and possibly rain -- will start to raise river levels on the Red River south of Oslo, Minnesota, this week. Lunday said forecasters expected the river to crest there between April 16-18, possibly reaching 35 feet on April 14. \"I don't think people are as worried as they were the last time, but the possibility of getting up to 40 feet is a concern,\" Lunday told CNN. The Red River meanders along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, so many other cities also were bracing for flooding.","highlights":"Fargo spokeswoman says city has goal of filling 1 million more sandbags .\n\"I don't think people are as worried\" as they were in late March, she says .\nNational Weather Service issued flood warning due to precipitation forecast .","id":"021ea5c8d96f0466c810ec304059095437886dab"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Wendell Lawing's eyes light up as the 88-year-old man talks about his last flight in a B-17 bomber. Wendell Lawing, 88, recently flew on a B-17 for the first time since World War II. \"We were going to Berlin, and we were flying around 20,000 feet. Suddenly, Me 109s headed out of the clouds,\" said the Atlanta native, referring to Germany's Messerschmitt fighter aircraft. \"We had a big fight, a running fight, and I personally saw my waist gunner shoot down one of those Me 109s right outside the window.\" Seconds later, his bomber was struck in the plane's radio room. Lawing, who was the radio operator, already had moved farther back in the plane. \"I was back at the waist gun. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here today. We were set afire, and I was told to bail out, and I bailed out.\" The Liberty Belle, a restored World War II-era B-17 like the one Lawing flew in, starts a nationwide tour this weekend in Atlanta. Its mission is to remind Americans of the sacrifices made by their fathers and grandfathers over the skies of Europe. It's also sure to spark the memories of servicemen who flew in them. Lawing's plane went down on the outskirts of Berlin in 1945. Two of his crew mates never got out of the plane. As he tells a small crowd the story at Atlanta's Peachtree DeKalb Airport, he is overcome with emotion and walks away briefly to gather himself. When he returns, Lawing talks about how he was captured on the ground and spent the next several months as a prisoner of war before U.S. Gen. George Patton's Third Army freed him. Lawing is one of two veteran bomber crew members who have been invited out to the airport by the Liberty Foundation. The foundation is responsible for resurrecting and flying this B-17, often referred to as the \"Flying Fortress\" because of the 13 machine guns carried aboard the plane. Of the 12,732 B-17s built during the war years, only 12 continue to fly. \"Our role is to fly this aircraft as a flying museum, to teach younger people the history of WWII,\" said Ron Gause, a foundation volunteer and part-time pilot of the Belle. \"It is in honor of those men and women who fought and died for us. And to honor those men who are still living. Some of them fly on the aircraft with us, and we get to hear their stories of what happened to them during WWII. That's the icing on the cake.\" But it's not just veterans who get to relive the B-17. Each weekend, for nine months out of the year, the plane tours the United States, providing an opportunity for young and old to take a 30-minute flight on the Liberty Belle. \"It's a wonderful 30 minutes. You get to move to all of the combat positions other than my seat,\" said Ray Fowler, the Liberty Belle's chief pilot. \"The best seat in the house is the bombardier seat in the front. It's a great experience.\" But this \"experience\" doesn't come cheap. It costs $430 for nonmembers of the foundation to fly a mission. Fowler said the money allows the group to keep the plane airborne. \"About half that is to break even just to fly the plane. The rest goes to operating costs.\" The fuel costs are the weekend's single largest expenditure. It costs roughly $91,000 to fill the tank, and the four engines burn 200 gallons of fuel an hour. \"There are a lot of forces trying to put these things in a museum,\" Fowler said. \"We want to keep these things flying for the public. It's strictly based on public donations, and we hope to keep it flying for years.\" The Liberty Belle was built in 1945 but never saw combat. No longer needed, the plane was sold for scrap before being passed around to several entities before the Liberty Foundation bought it in 2000 and restored it. Liberty Foundation founder Don Brooks then had it painted as the \"Liberty Belle\" to honor his father who flew on the original Belle in the 390th Bomb Group during the war. Fowler, who is a Continental Airlines pilot when he is not flying the Belle, said it's important to remember the high casualties B-17 crews suffered during World War II. \"It's just staggering to think about,\" he said of the more than 45,000 B-17 crewmen killed or wounded during the war years. \"But we tell everybody never pass up an opportunity to tell these guys thank you.\" Jonathan Swift, 84, can't say how many missions he flew. The former bombardier remembers at least 30. \"I was just busy and didn't keep up with it,\" he said. \"Somebody asked me if I ever got shot at,\" Swift said, recalling, \"Yes, every mission and you were scared.\" He said he's grateful for what the Liberty Foundation is doing. \"Of course it means a lot to me. ... Thousands [of B-17s} were just destroyed,\" he said. Lawing said he's also appreciative. Lawing ended his first flight aboard a B-17 since his fateful leap in 1945, gingerly climbing out through the fuselage hatch to show his fellow passengers how he escaped. His smile reveals that at least this day, the Liberty Belle's mission has been a success.","highlights":"Liberty Foundation begins tour of World War II-era B-17 in Atlanta this weekend .\n\"Our role is to fly this aircraft as a flying museum,\" foundation volunteer says .\nPublic gets chance to meet airmen, fly 30-minute missions on Liberty Belle .","id":"888365079140455f4a27131b91c2ae7b2baed766"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hip hop is one U.S. commodity that has made it past the trade embargo to Cuba. Cuban rap duo \"Doble Filo\" say hip hop allows them to embrace social issues. Cuba has developed a homegrown rap movement, inspired by the sounds and fashions of U.S. hip hop. But what makes Cuban rappers different is that rather than celebrating bling, girls and guns, their lyrics address social issues in a country where free speech is tightly controlled. Cuban rap began to surface in the 1990s, a grassroots affair, with songs recorded in rappers' bedrooms and distributed on cassette tapes. The island's fledgling hip hop scene was given a boost in 1999, when it was endorsed by the government as \"an authentic expression of Cuban Culture.\" In the following years the government set up the Cuban Rap Agency (CRA) to promote the scene, as well as a record label, \"Asere Productions,\" and a rap magazine called \"Movimiento.\" Government approval helped Cuban hip hop emerge from the underground, but some see that endorsement as a gilded cage. Formed in 1996, rap duo \"Doble Filo\" (\"Double Edged\") have been part of the Havana scene since the beginning and work with the Cuban Rap Agency. But rapper Irak Saenz admits there are contradictions in being part of the system. \"It does limit our creative freedom,\" he told CNN. \"The CRA has an agenda that goes with the government's agenda. It doesn't limit me but it does force me to be creative in how I express my ideas.\" Along with fellow Cuban rap duo \"Los Aldeanos\" (\"The Villagers\") \"Doble Filo\" work with U.S. hip hop audio\/visual label, Emetrece Productions. But \"Los Aldeanos\", who formed in 2003, are part of a younger generation of Cuban rappers. They don't belong the CRA, and nor do they want to. They are defiantly underground and outspoken. \"Hip hop is an art form speaks the truth about how people are living,\" says Aldo Rodriguez, one half of Los Aldeanos. Their track \"Ni\u00f1ito Cubano\" is about a young boy growing up during Cuba's \"special period\", when the fall of the Soviet Union brought hardship to the island. Their forthright lyrics about life in Cuba don't make them any friends among Cuba's authorities, and that limits their opportunities on the island. \"Our lyrics don't always go with the standard Cuban rhetoric and often that won't get airplay,\" says Rodriguez. \"I can be famous in other countries, but here they won't let me play a concert in a theater.\" Listen to Doble Filo and Los Aldeanos here \u00bb . Doble Filo's Saenz has performed the U.S. with fellow Cubans \"Obsesion\", a tour that included playing on the same bill as U.S. rap stars Kanye West and The Roots. He says that where his generation of rappers was forced to limit the way it talked about the realities of daily life, the new generation is bolder with its lyrics. Bian Rodriguez, also known as El B, the other member of \"Los Aldeanos,\" says hip hop gives voice to the concerns of ordinary Cubans. \"People tell me they need this music, not just because they can identify with what we are saying, but because they feel that maybe we can say things they might be afraid to say publicly,\" he told CNN. Like most other Cuban rap groups, \"Los Aldeanos\" aren't yet in a position to make a living from their music. El B has won Cuba's Red Bull freestyle rapping championship three years in a row, but he still has a day job as a primary school teacher. A lack of funds and equipment means the island's hip hop producers have to use a certain amount of ingenuity when it comes to recording their music. Doble Filo's producer Edgaro explains that in the group's early days, he would make tracks by looping the last few bars of songs on cassette tapes. These days, Edgaro produces songs on his PC, but the software is pirated from copies brought into the country and circulated on the streets. It simply isn't available in the stores. More about Cuba's arts: Carlos Acosta takes CNN on a tour of Havana. \u00bb . As the scene develops the groups are getting more ambitious. Doble Filo are now incorporating live musicians into their sound, weaving in elements of traditional Cuban music, and they are set to release their debut album \"Despierta\" (\"Wake up\") through Emetrece Productions. Emetrece is run by Melisa Riviere, a Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of Minnesota. More than just promoting good music, she says Emetrece is trying to educate, and to challenge the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Like Cuba's rappers, she sees hip hop as a tool for social change. As El B puts it, \"I think one of the things people take from the music is the idea that we can do anything, we can change anything, we can be anything we want.\"","highlights":"Cuba's homegrown rap scene is known for its socially conscious lyrics .\nRap groups \"Doble Filo\" and \"Los Aldeanos\" speak out about life in Cuba .\nThey say hip hop lets them talk about issues ordinary Cubans cannot .","id":"c69110c2fd220bff1e1b4c5aba310422a0e48bb4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 93-year-old World War II medic who froze to death last month in his Bay City, Michigan, home left his entire estate to a local hospital, an estate attorney told CNN Wednesday. Martin Schur poses with his wife, Marian, in 1976. Local and state officials agree that Schur's death was avoidable. The attorney would not disclose the exact amount left behind by Martin Schur. But his nephew said his uncle indicated to family members two years ago that he had saved up more than a half-million dollars over the years. Schur and his wife, Marian, who died more than a year ago, did not have any children. \"I just know at one time he said he had over $600,000 in savings,\" said William Walworth. \"That's what he told me and my brother, and he was proud that he was able to save and build his estate up to that.\" Cathy Reder, an attorney negotiating on behalf of Bay Regional Medical Center and the Schur family, said she was filing paperwork in probate court Wednesday for the court to determine the validity of the will. A hearing has been set for March 17. Reder would not specify the amount left to the hospital, other than to say it's more than $1. \"The will leaves everything to Bay Medical Center,\" she said. The hospital had no immediate comment. Walworth said his uncle was a frugal man who hadn't eaten at a restaurant for over 30 years. \"He was very tight, and he was very frugal. But he did manage to save a lot of money.\" He said it's possible his uncle's estate could be less than $600,000, but he believes it's still \"sizable.\" \"Knowing my uncle, that's him,\" Walworth said. \"He loved his community. He loved Bay City, Michigan.\" He added, \"Hopefully his death is not in vain and we can learn from this, and he's still able to save lives. ... He was a very unique, special person in my life. I'm proud of what he was able to do in his life.\" He said he hopes his uncle's message will spur others to \"look out for their neighbor.\" The size of the estate -- if it's as large as the nephew believes -- adds another tragic twist to Schur's death. The power company limited his electricity because he owed about $1,000. Watch neighbor say the death is \"unforgivable\" \u00bb . Schur's death last month shocked Bay City, a town of about 37,000 on Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. The World War II veteran's frozen body was found in his home January 17, just four days after a device that regulates how much power he uses -- installed because of failure to pay -- shut off his power. A medical examiner said the temperature was 32 degrees in the house when Schur's body was found. The medical examiner told The Bay City Times that Schur died a \"slow, painful death.\" \"It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning,\" Dr. Kanu Virani told the paper. The Michigan State Police launched an investigation into Schur's death for possible criminal violations. \"We have to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again, whether it's Bay City or in any one of the cold weather states,\" Bay City Mayor Charles Brunner said last week. The death has prompted a review of Bay City Electric Light & Power's rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power. It also resulted in Bay City residents protesting Monday to the city about its handling of the whole situation. A neighbor who lives down the street called Schur's death \"unforgivable.\" \"This can't be allowed to happen in this country,\" said Jerome Anderson. Walworth said he believes his uncle's death was \"preventable.\" \"It should never have happened. It's a tragic loss,\" he said. \"I had a lot of fond memories of my uncle, and that's the type of memory I don't want to have: Him freezing to death.\" Utility officials said Schur owed about $1,000 resulting in a \"limiter\" being put on his home. Limiters are devices that cut power as a warning for people who haven't paid their bills. Limiters can be reset to restore a lesser degree of power until a bill payment is worked out. In Schur's case, the limiter was never reset, and it's unclear whether he knew how to do that. Schur had been living alone since his wife died, Walworth said. Unlike private utilities regulated by the state, Bay City runs and oversees its own utilities and therefore doesn't fall under Michigan's public service commission. By law, Michigan requires private companies to prohibit cutting off service to senior citizens between November and April. Seniors must register for the program. The city has begun questioning whether its rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power need a major overhaul. The utility has stopped its practice of cutting power to customers who don't pay their bills. The utility also has removed all \"limiters\" on homes. Walworth said someone should have looked at Schur's payment history and made direct contact to see whether something was wrong. He's hoping the nation will learn from his uncle's death. \"Hopefully, some good can come out of this. I'm still an optimist.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Martin Schur, 93, froze to death in his home last month; leaves estate to hospital .\nAttorney won't disclose amount; relative says it's likely in excess of $500,000 .\n\"Hopefully his death is not in vain and we can learn from this,\" nephew says .\nThe death has prompted a state investigation into the manner in which he died .","id":"c75537f6bc16f4932453256c03930b993daa16cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Her school has become a symbol of the kind of crumbling infrastructure that President Obama hopes his stimulus bill will improve. South Carolina student Ty'Sheoma Bethea was invited to the speech after she wrote a letter to lawmakers. But on Tuesday, Ty'Sheoma Bethea became the face of the issue, when she joined first lady Michelle Obama as her guest for the president's first speech to a joint session of Congress. The White House invited Bethea, a student at the J.V. Martin Junior High School in Dillon, South Carolina, after a letter she sent lawmakers appealing for help rebuilding her school made its way to the president. The eighth-grader flew with her mother, Dina Leach, from South Carolina to Washington to attend Tuesday night's speech. On Wednesday, back home in South Carolina, Bethea explained what she wanted the president to do. \"I just want for him to help my school out and to get us a bigger and better school and build us a new one, and I would thank him for that.\" she told CNN. The eighth-grader was inspired to write the letter by Obama, who mentioned her school in his first presidential news conference on February 9. After visiting the school, he referenced J.V. Martin as evidence of educational institutions that would benefit from school construction funding in his $787 billion stimulus package. iReport.com: 'A very emotional moment' In her letter, Bethea described the dilapidated condition of her school, which was built in 1896, and said the funds would improve the building and the quality of education. \"We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself, and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina, but also the world. We are not quitters.\" Watch Obama quote Bethea in speech \u00bb . Obama repeated Bethea's statement about not quitting during his address. \"It was great to hear the president say my quote,\" Bethea said Wednesday. \"We are not quitters because anything is possible, and I don't think we should give up so easily. We should work harder for it.\" Poorly maintained and ill-equipped schools in South Carolina's \"corridor of shame\" were an issue during the Democratic primary as evidence that education reform had to be an imperative for the next president. The schools became an issue again last week when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, said he might turn down some of the money in the stimulus. And South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said turning down money was an \"insult\" to blacks. \"We have legislation here now with the money to do something about the schools, do something about water and sewage along that corridor in these 12 counties. And now the governor says, 'I don't want to accept the money.' That's why I called this an insult, that's why I said this is a slap in the face, because a majority of those counties are, in fact, inhabited by African-Americans,\" Clyburn said on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. In his speech Tuesday, Obama vowed that education is among the priorities of his administration. He urged Americans to take advantage of the promise of an education. Watch Obama discuss education \u00bb . \"In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. It is a prerequisite,\" he said. \"It is our responsibility as lawmakers and as educators to make this system work, but it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it.\" Obama said. iReport.com: What would you fix first? \"So tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be a community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.\"","highlights":"Student Ty'Sheoma Bethea joins Michelle Obama for president's speech .\nBethea wrote a letter to lawmakers appealing for help rebuilding her school .\nPresident Obama has referenced school as example of needy infrastructure project .\nSouth Carolina's poorly maintained schools have been a recurring issue .","id":"63801a4c2b2de965bf534cb382c530edf9d7c518"} -{"article":"LONGMONT, Colorado (CNN) -- A Colorado solar-energy company has high hopes for the economic stimulus bill that President Barack Obama will sign Tuesday in Denver. AVA Solar CEO Pascal Noronha holds one of the solar panels his company produces. Obama touts that the stimulus bill will help create up to a half a million so-called \"green\" jobs in the field of alternative energy. Colorado has a growing green energy industry. Executives of AVA Solar, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, are among green energy industry representatives invited to the bill signing. AVA Solar has its plant in Longmont, about 30 minutes north of Denver. The plant, set to begin production in the spring, will construct solar panels for solar power plants. Once production is up to speed, CEO Pascal Noronha says, the plant should create enough solar panels a year to power 40,000 U.S. homes. Noronha says AVA Solar needs two things: Government loans to expand its factory, and more government assistance to help power companies commit to building large solar power plants in the United States. iReport.com: What would you fix first? Noronha says those two moves would help AVA Solar create 1,000 to 2,000 new jobs in its factory, plus added employment for its suppliers. The company, founded in 2007, currently has 175 employees. Without the stimulus, Noronha said, AVA Solar is on track to create 420 new jobs by the end of this year. AVA Solar currently operates on $175 million in U.S.-based private venture capital. In 2007 the company also received $3 million in seed money from the U.S. Department of Energy. Noronha says Obama is on the right track in terms of the stimulus bill. \"What everybody needs is a little seed money because five years from now there's no question [that] solar has to replace the oil that we import,\" Noronha says. \"What the government needs to do is provide the traction that is needed to get the first few projects on the ground.\" \"We need money from the federal government ... to facilitate production immediately,\" the CEO adds. \"Otherwise, we will be sitting and waiting for projects in the U.S., and if we have to wait one year or two years -- when we're able to produce a solution for this country today -- that is a really good reason for the government to say, 'Here it is, let's go.' \" Noronha says his company's biggest customer base is in Germany, a country that is far ahead of the United States in embracing solar energy. Obtaining U.S. customers is a priority, he explains. \"As a company we would very much like to have customers here in the U.S.,\" Noronha says. \"The government needs to be able to facilitate these customers by making it possible for them to put large-scale power plants up.\" Noronha is optimistic about the stimulus bill and the direction of the Obama administration. \"If you look at the vision of the president, you know he is looking out in the future and saying we've got to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,\" Noronha says. \"Well, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, there is only renewable energy. And there are two forms that are promising -- one is wind and the other is solar. And solar, you've got the sun's resources all over the world.\"","highlights":"Solar-panel company has high interest in stimulus bill .\nCreation of \"green\" energy jobs is among hallmarks of stimulus bill .\nAVA Solar of Colorado says it needs seed money to expand, hire more employees .\nObtaining customers in the United States is a priority for the company .","id":"023fac38fb00b209162b0cbd4bf7c2d9f0430620"} -{"article":"JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- Jose Molinar knew something wasn't right. He hadn't heard from his wife for a few hours, which was not sitting well with him. Marisella Molinar was killed while driving her boss, a target of cartels, across the border into El Paso, Texas. Marisella Molinar worked as a secretary for a top prosecutor in Juarez, Mexico, Jesus Huerta Yedra. She was employed in the office for more than 10 years and though she lived across the border in El Paso, Texas, with her husband, she drove about 20 minutes over the Juarez-El Paso border every day to the job she loved. The growing violence over rival drug cartels had concerned the couple, but Mexico was a part of their lives and they were sure the violence stayed between rival drug gangs, who were fighting over a lucrative drug route into the United States. Without fail, Marisella Molinar would call her husband every day when she arrived to work, went out for lunch and when she was leaving the office. But on December 3, 2008, by around 5:30 p.m., Jose Molinar still hadn't heard from his wife. He called the office in Mexico and was told she was giving her boss a ride over the border so he could do some Christmas shopping. Jose Molinar turned on his television, and his life changed forever. \"As soon as the image came up, I saw her truck,\" said Molinar, who was watching the news out of Juarez, \"and I knew what happened right then and there.\" Watch Jose Molinar talk about the moment he knew his wife was killed \u00bb . Marisella Molinar was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her passenger, Jesus Huerta Yedra, was a target of the cartels that day. As Molinar's car was about a mile away from the border crossing back to the United States, gunmen walked up to her car and fired 85 rounds from an AK-47 into their intended target. One shot hit Marisella Molinar, a mother of two and proud grandmother, in the chest, killing her instantly. \"She wasn't involved, she didn't have anything to do with this!\" said Jose Molinar in a recent interview with CNN. \"She was the guy's secretary and she was giving him a ride to meet his wife here in El Paso who was Christmas shopping.\" But instead of making it home to help her husband hang Christmas lights, Marisella Molinar became yet another victim in the drug war taking place just steps from the U.S. border. The violence generated by the war of the drug cartels for control of drug routes translated last year into some 6,000 killings. More than 1,600 of them occurred in Juarez, three times more than the most murderous city in the United States. This year, in two months, the body count in Juarez is 400. Mexican military and police in riot gear now patrol the once popular streets of Juarez. Gone are the Americans shopping, dining and partying. The bars and restaurants are shuttered -- many closed for good. Americans don't come here anymore. In March 2008, the Mexican military joined with Mexican states and local law enforcement in the fight against drug cartels in border cities. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has waged a war against business as usual with the cartels who controlled drug routes through Mexico and into the United States. The fallout has led rival drug gangs to launch all-out war not only with the military, but also with each other, because the once-established drug routes are now up for grabs. The violence has been the worst in Juarez, where cartels have killed police officers, forced the chief of police to resign and threatened public officials. \"They started killing police officers, and not when they were doing police work, but when they were coming out of their homes and getting into their cars to go to the police station,\" said Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, whose own family has recently received death threats. At the city's only morgue, bodies are piling up. The mayor said there are far too many dead for the small facility to handle. The majority of the dead are unidentified members of the cartels. Just last week, the mayor said, 50 corpses were buried in mass graves because no one claimed the bodies. Officials from both sides of the border said the drug war may go on for years. Beheadings, bodies riddled with gunfire and blood-stained streets will continue daily, they said. They added that the appetite for illegal drugs is too great in the United States, and the drug routes are too lucrative for the battles to end. \"It's not going to be won quickly,\" said Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the Mexican government, adding that the Mexican president is committed to fighting the cartels. \"He can't talk about a time frame in this type of situation. We know the monster is big, but we don't have an idea of how big it is.\"","highlights":"Marisella Molinar, a secretary, was killed nearly a mile from her U.S. home .\nHusband: \"She wasn't involved, she didn't have anything to do with this!\"\nMore than 1,600 deaths in Juarez last year, 400 already this year .\nCartels have killed cops, forced police chief to resign, threatened public officials .","id":"89962faad9e856aeabc1a402d80544ba962d55e6"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities have detained the country's former drug czar on suspicion that he may have accepted $450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers, Mexico's attorney general said Friday. Noe Ramirez Mandujano was in charge from 2006 through August of fighting organized crime in Mexico. Noe Ramirez Mandujano was in charge from 2006 until this August of the attorney general's office that specializes in combatting organized crime. Ramirez is accused of meeting with members of a drug cartel while he was in office and agreeing to provide information on investigations in exchange for the bribes, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza said at a news conference Friday. The arrest was part of an ongoing investigation called \"Operation Limpieza,\" or \"Operation Cleanup,\" the attorney general said. The operation targets officials who may have passed information to drug cartels. The arrest was announced Thursday night, four days after the house arrest of Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, the director for International Police Affairs at Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency and the head of Mexico's Interpol office. Authorities say more than 30 officials have been arrested since July in connection with the anti-corruption operation. Interpol, which is based in France, announced Wednesday it is sending a team of investigators to Mexico to investigate the possibility that its communications systems and databases may have been compromised, a prospect raised by the arrest of Gutierrez, the top official working with the agency in Mexico. \"A war of master proportions\" between authorities and narcotics traffickers and traffickers among themselves has left more than 4,300 dead so far this year, according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent research and information organization. By comparison, the council said in a report this week, there were 2,700 drug-related deaths in 2007. \"Homegrown drug cartels operating from both within and outside the country are engaging in a vicious turf war to seize control of major trafficking corridors while engaging in almost open warfare against the mobilized forces of the state,\" the council said about what it calls \"narco-fueled crime.\" Mexican leaders have been trying to tamp down the violence by tightening controls on money-laundering and cracking down on corruption among local and municipal police forces infiltrated by drug traffickers. It may not be enough. \"Due to pervasive corruption at the highest levels of the Mexican government, and the almost effortless infiltration of the porous security forces by the cartel, an ultimate victory by the state is far from certain,\" the Hemispheric Council concludes. Drug trafficking in Mexico is a $20 billion- to $50 billion-a-year industry, as much as the nation earns from tourism or remittances from Mexicans living in the United States, said Robert Pastor, a former National Security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and now a professor of international relations at American University in Washington. He has been studying Latin America for more than four decades. \"This is a huge industry with an extraordinary capacity to corrupt and intimidate the country. And they're doing both right now,\" said Pastor, also a former director of the Carter Center's Latin American and Caribbean Program. The drug cartels are paying some Mexican officials bribes of $150,000 to $450,000 a month, authorities have said. This in a country where the per capita income is $12,500 a year and one of every seven Mexicans lives in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook.","highlights":"Noe Ramirez Mandujano arrested, suspected of taking $450,000 a month in bribes .\nAbout 30 officials arrested in massive operation investigating collusion with cartels .\nReport: 4,300 dead this year in war between authorities and narcotics traffickers .\nDrug cartels pay some officials bribes of $150,000 to $450,000 a month .","id":"2009042c49da8b92c1a40f29cb9ff483d13c7ccd"} -{"article":"AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) -- The nationalities of the people killed in the Turkish Airlines plane crash near Amsterdam's main airport have been identified as five Turks and four U.S. citizens. Masked investigators work at the crash site Thursday. Among the dead were two Boeing employees, among four onboard the flight, their company said late Thursday in a posting on its Web site. A third was hospitalized, and a fourth employee's fate was not yet known, the company said. None of their identities have been released. Investigators were trying to determine what caused the crash of the aircraft, a model with a good safety record flown by a well-respected airline at one of the world's most modern airports. The crash split the plane into three parts, as it was arriving at Schiphol from Istanbul, Turkey, around 10:40 a.m. (4:40 a.m. ET). Flight 1951 went down in a farmer's field about 500 yards short of the runway in favorable weather conditions. It had 135 people onboard. Among those injured in the crash, 63 remained hospitalized Thursday, six of them in critical condition, said Theo Weterings, the mayor of Haarlemmermeer municipality, where Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is located. Another 25 passengers were severely injured, an official said Tuesday. Authorities have confirmed the nationalities of all but 15 of the passengers and crew, Weterings said. Those on board the flight included 53 Dutch, 51 Turkish, seven Americans, three Britons, and one each from Germany, Bulgaria, Finland, and Taiwan. Watch crash survivors return home \u00bb . \"I want to express my deepest sympathies again to the victims of TK flight 1951,\" Weterings said. One week ago, an employees' union accused Turkish Airlines of \"inviting disaster\" by ignoring aircraft maintenance, it emerged Thursday. The Turkish Civil Aviation Union alleged on its Web site on February 18 that Turkish Airlines \"is ignoring the most basic function of flight safety, which is plane maintenance services.\" \"The company administration does not understand the consequences of ripping people from their jobs and inviting a disaster.\" The union, which represents 12,000 Turkish Airline employees, is involved in an ugly dispute with the company's management. Watch how survivors described crash \u00bb . Turkish Airlines posted a statement on its Web site on Thursday saying it takes safety seriously and that it followed all \"maintenance procedures of the plane manufacturer, national and international authorities directives\" for the plane. Two days before the crash, the company statement said, the pilot of the plane reported failure with the \"Master Caution Light\" while taxiing. The part was replaced, and \"after this replacement, the plane had eight take-offs and landings and there were no problems,\" Turkish Airlines said. In the wake of the disaster, Turkish Airlines executives and officials from Turkey's Transportation Ministry said the Boeing 737-800 had last been inspected December 22. See where 737-800 has been involved in previous incidents \u00bb . \"There was no problem with maintenance in the records of the plane,\" Candan Karlicetin, executive board chairman of Turkish Airlines, said in a news conference just hours after the crash. Teams of investigators arrived at the crash site just after daybreak and set up a large white tent. They fanned out over the debris field, where the white fuselage of the Boeing lay in three pieces. A special Turkish Airlines flight landed in Amsterdam Thursday morning from Istanbul, carrying about 70 relatives of those on board the fatal flight. The relatives were accompanied by trauma specialists, the airline said. The flight data and voice recorders were recovered. Turkish officials have also ruled out weather conditions as a possible reason for the crash. Dutch and Turkish authorities say they await the results of an international investigation into the cause. Aviation experts say Turkish Airlines has a relatively good safety record, though in 2003, more then 70 people were killed when a Turkish Airlines domestic flight crashed in fog near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Turkey's flagship carrier had been expanding its routes and fleet of aircraft in recent years. Hollywood actor Kevin Costner was recently hired to star in an advertising campaign for the company. Costner's commercials were to be broadcast in 70 countries. An employee in Turkish Airlines' advertising department said the promotional campaign was suspended in the wake of the fatal plane crash. CNN's Jim Bittermann in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Ivan Watson in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Two Boeing employees -- among four on flight -- were killed, company says .\nNEW: Their identities have not been released .\n63 people remained in the hospital, six in critical condition, mayor says .\nPlane crashed near Amsterdam's main airport, splitting into three parts .","id":"142d81f46c852980162ca3cb93c37e3b8f34f04c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With thousands of Americans looking for jobs, many businesses are saying: Sorry, we're not hiring. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending out another message: Come right this way. Donna Gill Lumpkin is one of more than 270,000 people to apply for about 2,950 jobs at the FBI. After years of being outgunned in the battle for job applicants by corporations who could pay bigger salaries, hundreds of thousands of job seekers are applying for FBI positions. The FBI announced a hiring blitz in January to fill more than 2,100 professional staff positions. The job postings run the gamut from scientists to accountants to auto mechanics. In addition, the bureau said it wants to hire 850 FBI agents. What happened next caught many at the FBI by surprise. More than 270,000 people applied over about six weeks. The FBI said about 70,000 people seek positions in a normal year. But this isn't a normal year. Just ask Donna Gill Lumpkin, a divorced mother of two who lives in Maryland. Gill Lumpkin lost her job selling radio ad time in November. \"The competition is really stiff,\" she said. \"There's a lot of people out of work. A lot of people looking for a job.\" Gill Lumpkin has applied for a job as an FBI recruiter. If the FBI thinks she has the skills for the post, that's just one step toward a job. She'll have to undergo an FBI background check and take polygraph and drug tests. Watch the applications pile up at the FBI \u00bb . The FBI official in charge of human resources concedes the FBI is benefiting a bit from the sour economy and getting a flood of applications this year. \"In years past it was often difficult to find people with the science and technology background or chemistry background or a biology background because we were competing with the private sector,\" said FBI Assistant Director John Raucci. Raucci said during the dotcom explosion, the FBI had a difficult time competing with dotcom start-up salaries. \"Now, what we offer is stability, we offer a job and I think a very exciting environment in which to work,\" said Raucci. Raucci said the average starting salary at the FBI is about $35,000 per year. But he adds those with extraordinary academic credentials and prior job experience start at a much higher rate. Donna Gill Lumpkin said the stability of a job with the federal government and the good benefits such as health insurance attracted her to apply. \"In this tough economic climate right now the federal government, I think, is one of the most steady and stable places anyone could be.\" The stakes are high for Gill Lumpkin, who has a 12-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son. She said her children are covered under her ex-husband's health insurance. But she needs coverage for herself. And she is not able to put any money away right now for her children's college years. \"Right now the college fund is on pause,\" said Gill Lumpkin. \"It's the survival fund. We are trying to survive.\"","highlights":"Hundreds of thousands of job seekers are applying for FBI positions .\nAverage starting salary at the FBI is about $35,000 per year .\nFBI no longer has same level of competition from private sector .\nFBI has openings for agents, but also for those in various support roles .","id":"d05e99a62f7629764fc0122bb798b4d91f6c7077"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has apparently released a new audio message calling for a jihad, or holy war, against Israel for its Gaza campaign. Osama bin Laden, in an undated photo, apparently taped a message calling for jihad against Israel. The 22-minute message contains \"an invitation\" from bin Laden to take part in \"jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza.\" The audio message was posted on a radical Islamist Web site that has posted other statements from bin Laden in the past. CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the message, but the speaker's voice was similar to other recordings that bin Laden has made. While not naming President-elect Barack Obama, bin Laden refers to the future of the United States in the face of the current global economic crisis. Watch as experts discuss Osama message \u00bb . \"[America is] now drowning in a global financial crisis,\" he said. \"They're even begging all nations, small and large, for help. America is no longer feared by its enemies nor respected by its allies. \"The decline of the American power is one of the main reasons for Israel's rushed and barbaric aggression on Gaza in a desperate attempt to take advantage of the last days of [President] Bush's term in office.\" He appears, however, to refer to Obama, saying \"Bush leaves his successor with the worst inheritance ... two long guerrilla wars and no options. He either withdraws and faces military defeat, or carries on and drowns his nation in financial trouble.\" Watch Obama comment on bin Laden's message \u00bb . The message also names Vice President-elect Joe Biden. \"Here is Biden, the vice president of the president-elect ... [he] says that the crisis is bigger than they expected and that the American economy, all of it, is open to collapse,\" bin Laden said. On December 20, Biden said in an interview that the economy \"is in much worse shape than we thought it was in.\" White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the message \"demonstrates [bin Laden's] isolation and continued attempts to remain relevant at a time when al Qaeda's ideology, mission and agenda are being questioned and challenged throughout the world.\" He noted that the message also appears to be \"an effort to raise money as part of [al Qaeda's] ongoing propaganda campaign.\" \"The United States promotes an alternative, hopeful ideology while continuing to partner with over 90 countries to pursue terrorists wherever they are,\" Johndroe said. The last time bin Laden released an audio message was in mid-May, timed to coincide with Israel's 60th anniversary. That message urged his followers to liberate Palestine. Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on December 27 to stop Hamas rocket strikes on southern Israel. The death toll in Gaza was nearing 1,000 on Wednesday, including more than 300 children, according to Palestinian medical sources. The Israeli toll stood at 13, including three civilians, according to Israeli police and military officials. Bin Laden, who is about 51, is the head of the al Qaeda terrorist network, which was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States that killed 2,751 people. He's been in hiding since the U.S. assault on Afghanistan that followed the 9\/11 attacks. The U.S. government is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture. President Bush, whose term ends next week, told CNN's Larry King on Tuesday that he remains optimistic that bin Laden would be found. Asked by King, \"Are we ever going to find bin Laden?\" Bush replied: \"Yes, of course, absolutely. We've got a lot of people out there looking for him, a lot of assets. You can't run forever.\" The message is important to the incoming U.S. president because it signifies that bin Laden is still \"out there,\" said Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who served on both the congressional and the presidential September 11 commissions. \"It's a reminder of President-elect Obama's inheritance of some of the difficult problems out there that he has to confront,\" said Roemer, who is president of the Center for National Policy. \"Al Qaeda is trying to be relevant with this tape,\" Roemer said. \"They seek competition with Hamas, Hezbollah, the ongoing battle between Israel and the Palestinians. ... \"This reminds us of what bin Laden said right after 9\/11. He said it wasn't 19 Arab armies or 19 Arab states that attacked the United States. It was 19 post-graduate students. It reminds us how much the world has changed, and how many different threats are out there today.\" CNN's Octavia Nasr and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House says Web message shows bin Laden's isolation .\nMessage says global economic crisis is reducing U.S. power in the world .\nAudio message posted on radical Islamist Web urges jihad in Gaza's defense .\nSpeaker's voice was similar to recordings that bin Laden has made in the past .","id":"d587168f3e9152154a97822c37c72dbeecf760ba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The global economy is in the doldrums but the market for merchandise featuring the world's new mega-star shows no sign of tailing off. Obama T-shirts and merchandise are flying off the shelves at the moment. At the inauguration ceremony for U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday, thousands wore T-shirts, caps and watches featuring his image and even popping bottles of Barack bubbly. Pens, pin badges and $5 cookies emblazoned with Obama's image are hugely popular in the U.S. while the Internet is helping to satisfy demand for other items around the world. Here are some pieces of merchandise available online: . Barack Obama action figure: 15-centimeter (6-inch) tall, electroplated statue in a gold suit could be yours for $39. However, the seller says that due to high demand the action figure is sold out. Barack Obama thimble: If you're curious, then these are made out of porcelain so would be unsuitable for conventional sewing. Obama face masks: These flew off the shelves when they first hit the markets in Japan in December and could be a hit at a fancy dress party. Barack Obama earrings: To symbolize Barack Obama's African heritage, these earrings have a photograph of the president on a tiny map of the continent made from wood. Replica inauguration tickets: The government printed 250,000 tickets for the inauguration in Washington, but some were reportedly sold online for $40,000. Pick up a framed replica then for just a few dollars. Have you purchased any Obama merchandise? Share your stories with us . Obama campaign poster: A set of six Obama campaign posters are on sale for $3,000. New York Times inauguration newspaper could be yours for $10.50, plus $12.80 to post it from the U.S. of course. \"RUN DC\" T-shirt: Was Obama in the 1980s hip-hop band? He certainly looks like it when dressed in geeky glasses, trilby hat and chain.","highlights":"Barack Obama merchandise is a big hit among new president's supporters .\nT-shirts, earrings, champagne and cookies are popular items .\nObama face masks and Spiderman comic featuring Obama fly off shelves .","id":"3a8a6d9b9cfa2e53e3916d723488226d7dc8b28c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hugh Hefner founded Playboy magazine 55 years ago and turned the adult-oriented publication into a multimillion-dollar empire. CNN anchor John Roberts recently sat down with Hefner, now 82, and talked about Steven Watts' new book, \"Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream.\" Hugh Hefner, 82, says that \"staying young is what it is all about for me.\" John Roberts, CNN anchor: Mr. Hefner, good to see you. Hugh Hefner: It is my pleasure. Roberts: You have over the decades certainly supported political causes, you've supported Democratic causes. I'm wondering what your thoughts are regarding the pending inauguration of Barack Obama and where you think the country is headed in the next four years. Hefner: Well, where the country is headed is obviously a question we would all like to know. But I, certainly, [say] this [is] a time for a change. I supported Obama. I'm delighted that I lived to see a black president. I think he's a very good man. I think we've had ... eight of the worst years in my memory. And we hope that Obama can make some difference. Watch the interview with Hugh Hefner \u00bb . Roberts: You know in the 1950s and through the '60s and the early '70s you were such a factor in the sexual revolution in this country. With the election of Barack Obama, do you believe that the cultural revolution has come to an end? Hefner: It's always ongoing. You know, we remain essentially a puritan people. And so I think that conflict is always there. One got a remarkable revolutionary change in pop culture and in moral values in the '60s and '70s, and then there was a backlash. And that backlash, I think, has influenced government. And, um, the Christian right has had, played a major role in all of that. And I think that the complicated problems with religion being involved with politics hopefully will come to an end for a while at least. Roberts: Now in 1953, when you first launched Playboy magazine, you seemed to be the right publication for the right time. I know that you were very heavily influenced by the Kinsey Report, which had come out not too long prior to that. But 55 years later, is Playboy magazine still relevant? And if it is, how do you keep it relevant? Hefner: Well, I don't think obviously it will ever play the same kind of role that it played back in the 1950s and '60s. But I do think that a magazine of quality always has a place. Increasingly, obviously fewer people are reading magazines and fewer people are reading newspapers and books, but I think that part of that is a change that Playboy is always, is also embracing. We're very much involved with the Internet. We were the first magazine to use [the] Internet and have our own Web site. So I think that we'll continue to publish and publish both the magazine and then publish through electronics. Roberts: The new Steven Watts biography is a fascinating, very fascinating look at your entire career, from your roots all the way up until the present. And he says, looking back over it, that \"the key to his approach was that he edited Playboy for himself. Aiming it at his own tastes and values.\" Was that also a key to your success as well that you approached this with such a personal passion? Hefner: I think so, but I think that is one of the things that makes magazines unique. They do speak with a personal voice. And I think it is one of the things that makes magazines special. Roberts: Now this, of course, has been a family enterprise. You founded the magazine, your daughter Christie took over as CEO of the company in 1982. She has been there for 26 years, but she's stepping down later on this month. Will you be able to still maintain that same - I don't want to say \"quality\" because I'm sure the quality was there -- but can the business continue in the fashion it has for the past 55 years? Hefner: Well, only time will tell. If you're talking in terms of family connections, I have two teenage sons. As a matter fact, there was an interview with Marston and Cooper in the current January issue. Roberts: I saw it. Hefner: Marston has just turned 18 and is at Trinity College. Cooper will be graduating in June and will be going to USC, and both have an interest in the magazine. Roberts: So you'll be able to continue that legacy into the future? Hefner: That is my hope. Roberts: Hugh, in the early part of the 1980s you ran into a number of problems. You were attacked on a number of different fronts by Reagan conservatives, the feminist movement, business started to suffer. Of course, there was the murder of 1980 Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten and charges that you had exploited her. A recent article in the Baltimore Sun described those times this way. It said: . \"Many now viewed Hefner as an anachronism: A creepy old guy padding around the mansion in slippers, pajamas and smoking jacket, pathetically cavorting with the same young bimbos and living the dissolute life of an aging Lothario -- the sexualized Peter Pan who refused to grow up.\" How did you overcome all that and survive another 25 years in the way that you have? Hefner: Well, I think that's probably the great question. One of the big questions is \"Why is the brand so hugely popular again?\" There was a period in the '80s and '90s on which we were in the shade, and the brand has become hugely popular again. Part of it because of the television show. The television show is a global phenomenon. And what is unique about it is the fact that it is more popular with women than with men. Roberts: I know. The program you are talking about is girls gone wild ... sorry, \"Girls Next Door.\" It's heading into its sixth season. And one of the statistics I saw is that 78 percent of the viewers are women. How do you think you've tapped into that market? Hefner: Well, we certainly didn't anticipate it. The original notion of doing the show through the eyes of the girlfriends seemed inspired because it took a lot of the pressure off of me. Because I'm a very busy guy. I still am very busy involved with the business and with the magazine. So the notion of doing a reality show through the eyes of the girls was a good idea because it took the pressure off the old man. What we didn't anticipate, of course, was as a result ... it is a hugely popular phenomenon with women and that, of course, is really welcome. Because we knew that we were going to have the guys so the fact that the magazine and the brand is now hot with young women bodes well for the future. Roberts: Of course, the three principals in \"Girls Next Door\" are Holly, Bridget and Kendra, and we know that there has been a bit of a change in the relationship between you and Holly, at the very least. Will they be back again next year for the next season? Hefner: Yes, all three of the girls are scheduled for season six. It will be a season of transitions and we will be meeting some of the new girls, too. Roberts: You're 82 years old now? Your latest girlfriends are a pair of 19-year-old twins, Karissa and Kristina Shannon. You are 63 years older than they are. A lot of people would say, \"How do you do it?\" And other people might say, \"Are you ever going to grow up?\" Hefner: Well, I'm never going to grow up. Staying young is what it is all about for me. Holding on to the boy and, um, long ago I decided that age really didn't matter and as long as the ladies ... feel the same way, that's fine with me. Roberts: Well, you're definitely the youngest 82-year-old I've ever seen. Hugh Hefner, thanks for being with us today. Hefner: My pleasure always. Roberts: Take care. Hefner: Thank you.","highlights":"New book about publisher is \"Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream\"\nNow 82, publisher-playboy says he still has no plans to \"grow up\"\n\"You know, we remain essentially a puritan people,\" Hefner says .\nHefner's latest girlfriends are a pair of 19-year-old twins .","id":"edfd5023aaca8b6570286cfb31b2e61d9d3d8476"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Mega-rich Middle Eastern investors are the latest wave of businessmen being linked with some of the biggest clubs in English soccer. Sulaiman Al Fahim eyes Chelsea, while Liverpool's fans also see a change of ownership looming. They follow an influx of 'foreign' owners led by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, and Americans at Manchester United and Liverpool. Sheikh Mansour, a member of the oil-rich Abu Dhabi royal family, has transformed the financial fortunes of Manchester City -- a team long in the shadow of its more successful neighbor United -- since buying the club last summer. He bought Brazilian Robinho for a record \u00a332.5 million ($45 million) at the start of the season, has spent millions more on players in the January 2009 transfer window and had a bid to sign Kaka, a former World Player of the Year, for a record-busting \u00a3100 million ($138 million) fail. At the weekend British newspapers suggested that two of the Premier League's \"Big Four\" are attracting the attention of wealthy Gulf investors. Not for the first time, the Kuwaiti Al Kharafi family was linked with Liverpool FC, currently owned by Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Meanwhile, Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim, an Emirates property mogul and TV personality, is fronting an audacious bid to buy a controlling interest in Chelsea from Abramovich. Jassim al Kharafi has shot down speculation that his family is interested in buying Liverpool. The Kharafis, who made much of their estimated $9.7 billion fortune in construction and fast-food interests, have been in talks with Liverpool before. They considered a bid last year after the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, abandoned his efforts to buy the club. But that may not be the end of the story. Some analysts think potential suitors are biding their time, as Liverpool's current American owners approach the deadline for refinancing their takeover of the club. That would mean renegotiating the terms of a whopping \u00a3350 million ($550 million) loan by July. Most analysts think it highly unlikely in the current economic climate that the banks will want to refinance the loan. So if the Kharafi family denies interest in the club, that may be an act of brinkmanship to drive down the price as the July deadline looms. Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim, on the other hand, has already successfully overseen one takeover. He came to the public's attentions after fronting the Abu Dhabi United Group's bid for Manchester City, only to be removed when he made several audacious claims concerning City's future transfer policy. Now he's back, fronting a collection of investors who want to get their hands on Chelsea FC. \"It's not entirely clear if Chelsea is for sale, but regardless of that, we first need to see if we are in a position to buy it,\" Al Fahim told Arabian Business.com. \"Given that Roman Abramovich has invested over \u00a3500 million ($694 million) into the club, it would not be cheap...but through a number of investors, there is money available to put together a deal.\" The moves highlight just how important money from the region has become. Manchester City has already smashed the British transfer record after signing Robinho and paid what many think are generous fees for other players during a slow transfer window. Middle Eastern investors have been offered the chance to buy anyone from Newcastle United, who are enduring a poor season in the Premiership, to Charlton Athletic, struggling in the second tier of English football. Companies based in the Gulf have been involved in huge sponsorship deals, like the Dubai-owned Emirates Airline who gave Arsenal \u00a3100 million for naming rights for their stadium. Not everyone is happy however. UEFA president Michael Platini has criticized the influx of foreign owners into the Barclays Premier League, claiming that clubs are losing touch with their roots as a result. \"Do you want in Liverpool an Arab sheikh as president with one Brazilian coach and nine or eleven African players?\" Platini said at a news conference last October. \"Where is Liverpool in that? We have to make some rules.\" Is Platini right? Have your say. With half a dozen Premier League clubs known to be up for sale, and Arab investors looking like the only ones willing to do the buying, Kharafi and Fahim won't be the last names the footballing world hears from the Middle East. What do you think? Is Platini right to be wary of foreign owners? Is the Premier League becoming too dependent on Middle Eastern money? Or is the influx of money and big names a refreshing shot in the arm for European football? Have your say.","highlights":"Two new Arab investors look to buy Liverpool and Chelsea .\nThey're the latest businessmen to look at buying a Premier League club .\nThe region has pumped millions of dollars into the game in recent years .\nUEFA boss Platini is wary of foreign owners. What do you think? Have your say .","id":"57fe1401e97cda271a7c61eb5f99a3490ccc8d6b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Every dog has his day, but Sir Lancelot -- or at least his carbon copy -- has a second one. Edgar and Nina Otto show off 10-week-old Lancey, a clone of \"the most human of any dog we've ever had.\" A Boca Raton, Florida, couple paid a California firm $155,000 to clone their beloved Labrador retriever, who died from cancer a year ago. The clone, a 10-week-old puppy dubbed Lancey, was hand-delivered to them earlier this week by Lou Hawthorne, chairman of BioArts International, a biotechnology company. \"One minute with Lancey and you know he's special. He's both extremely aware and very sweet,\" Hawthorne said in a BioArts statement. Edgar and Nina Otto said they began thinking about cloning Sir Lancelot about five years ago. \"I said 'Well, you know, it wouldn't hurt to have his DNA frozen,' and that's what we did,\" Nina Otto told CNN affiliate WPBF. The Ottos were one of five families to bid and win a BioArts auction for a chance to clone their family dog, according to a BioArts statement. Lancey is the world's first commercially cloned dog, the company said; the Ottos are the first of six current clients to receive their clone. Sir Lancelot's DNA sample was sent to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, which provides cloning services to BioArts. Researchers there put the DNA into an egg, and Lancey was born November 18, according to BioArts. The Ottos said they have had many beloved dogs over the years -- and have nine others currently -- but maintain Sir Lancelot was special. \"Sir Lancelot was the most human of any dog we've ever had,\" Edgar Otto said in the BioArts statement. \"He was a prince among dogs.\" In an interview with WPBF, Edgar Otto said Sir Lancelot \"was a very, very, very special dog to us. And we've given a lot more to the Humane Society than we've ever spent on this project.\" Watch the Ottos talk about Lancelot and Lancey \u00bb . For its part, the Humane Society of the United States says it's against the commercial cloning of animals. \"Given the current pet overpopulation problem, which costs millions of animals their lives and millions in public tax dollars each year, the cloning of pets has no social value and in fact may lead to increased animal suffering,\" the organization said on its Web site. \"For those looking to replace a lost pet, cloning will not create an animal identical to the one who is gone; cloning cannot replicate an animal's uniqueness. Cloning can only replicate the pet's genetics, which influence but do not determine his physical attributes or personality.\" The Ottos, however, said replicating Sir Lancelot's genetics is enough for them. Edgar Otto said he realizes Lancey might not be just like their departed dog, but \"if he's different, we're not going to love him any less.\" Edgar Otto is the son of the late Edwin Otto, who was part of the founding of NASCAR and a \"motorsports pioneer,\" according to www.ottomotorsports.com.","highlights":"Couple won auction to clone family dog, biotech company says .\nLancey is world's first commercially cloned dog, company says .\nDNA of deceased dog sent to S. Korea, and cloned puppy born November 18 .\nHumane Society says it's against commercial cloning of animals .","id":"d43fb2b8f2a2c85e4cce3e32c94cf81aeba8c9be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Los Angeles police have launched an internal investigation to determine who leaked a picture that appears to show a bruised and battered Rihanna. Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, before the Grammys on February 8. The close-up photo -- showing a woman with contusions on her forehead and below her eyes, and cuts on her lip -- was published on the entertainment Web site TMZ Thursday. TMZ said it was a photo of Rihanna. Twenty-one-year-old Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, on a Los Angeles street before the two were to perform at the Grammys on February 8. \"The unauthorized release of a domestic violence photograph immediately generated an internal investigation,\" an L.A. police spokesman said in a statement. \"The Los Angeles Police Department takes seriously its duty to maintain the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence. A violation of this type is considered serious misconduct, with penalties up to and including termination.\" A spokeswoman for Rihanna declined to comment. The chief investigator in the case had told CNN earlier that authorities had tried to guard against leaks. Detective Deshon Andrews said he had kept the case file closely guarded and that no copies had been made of the original photos and documents. Brown was arrested on February 8 in connection with the case and and booked on suspicion of making criminal threats. Authorities are trying to determine whether Brown should face domestic violence-related charges. Brown apologized for the incident this week. \"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,\" the 19-year-old said in a statement released by his spokesman. \"I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.\" CNN's Brittany Kaplan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Los Angeles police investigating leak of photo of a battered woman .\nTMZ Web site says photo is of R&B singer Rihanna .\nRihanna allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, on February 8 .\nThe two were scheduled to perform at the Grammys .","id":"095847ff43bfc2c06e4bac2e12f0336d3628b110"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton was in the White House on multiple occasions when her husband had sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, according to newly released documents. The National Archives released 11,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's schedule as first lady. The National Archives on Wednesday released more than 11,000 pages of Clinton's schedule when she was first lady. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign pushed for the documents' release, arguing that their review is necessary to make a full evaluation of Clinton's experience as first lady. But the documents also provide a glimpse into Clinton's life during her husband's publicized affair. The scandal involving former president Bill Clinton and Lewinsky, first broke in the national media on January 21, 1998. According to the documents, Hillary Clinton started that day at a private meeting in the White House. She later made an appearance at a college in Baltimore, Maryland, and stayed there until late in the afternoon before returning to the White House for a black-tie dinner. Watch where Hillary Clinton was during the scandal \u00bb . The schedules reveal where Clinton was, but provide no indication of how she dealt with the controversy. Carl Bernstein, who wrote a biography of Hillary Clinton, said there was much more going on behind the scenes. \"She was on the telephone with her aides, she was trying to learn more about what the press was doing, she did not want to give the impression of a firestorm that was raging outside,\" he said. On the day her husband made his first public admission -- August 16, 1998 -- she was on a trip to Martha's Vineyard. She had no public schedule for the days that followed. And on December 19, 1998 -- the day the House voted to impeach her husband -- the calendar shows a holiday party. A dance between the president and first lady is listed as \"optional.\" The papers show Hillary Clinton had no public schedule on the day independent counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to investigate Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, or on the day Bill Clinton was deposed in the case. On the day the affair began -- November 15, 1995, according to Starr's report -- Hillary Clinton had a private meeting and a meet-and-greet with then-Vice President Al Gore and Nobel Prize winners. Lewinsky said she and the president had an encounter in the bathroom outside the Oval Office study on January 7, 1996. This is the same day the president and his wife had a small dinner gathering at the White House, according to the documents. The president and Lewinsky also had a sexual encounter on February 4, 1996, according to Lewinsky. On this day, the president and Hillary Clinton went to the National Governors Association annual dinner. Hillary Clinton kept up a busy schedule as the affair spiraled into impeachment. Thousands of pages are marked by redactions -- blacked-out information like the names of people who attended meetings. \"This is not about someone who is eager to shine a light on her full record. That's the point. And at the same time, some of this is understandable -- when you're running for office, the slightest thing can be misinterpreted,\" Bernstein said. But the schedules also show her involvement in policy -- she dove into health care reform just three days after her husband's inauguration in 1993, and dozens of related events followed. Despite her efforts, the Clinton health care reform foundered in Congress. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the trove of documents \"shows she was a co-president,\" revealing an \"extraordinary extent of meetings for an unelected official to be meeting with cabinet officials.\" The documents cover nearly 2,900 days. An additional 27 days will be posted in the near future, the archives said. The documents are among those at the center of a legal battle between the archives and Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group that has long urged a speedier release of files from the Clinton White House years. In a court motion this month, the archives promised to release the schedules by the end of the month but said it will need \"one to two years\" to process remaining documents, including more than 20,000 pages of call logs -- well after the November 4 presidential election. A Clinton spokesman said the lawsuit had nothing to do with the release, and the Clinton team had nothing to do with the redactions. A key aide to the Clintons actually fought to un-redact some parts, the spokesman said. According to the archives statement, 4,746 of the schedules have redactions that largely relate to privacy concerns including Social Security and telephone numbers and home addresses. \"We'll look them over, and may ask the court for relief if it looks like something important is missing,\" Fitton said of the redacted information. He said Judicial Watch continues to demand phone logs from Clinton's time in the White House. The documents are from the files of Patti Solis Doyle, director of Clinton's scheduling as first lady, the archives said in a statement. Doyle stepped down as Clinton's presidential campaign manager in February after a string of poor showings in primaries. \"Arranged chronologically, these records document in detail the activities of the first lady, including meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities for the eight years of the Clinton administration,\" the archives said. The records were simultaneously released on CD-ROM at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and at the archives in Washington. The documents are also available for view on the Clinton Library's Web site. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Alexander Mooney and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Documents shed light on Clinton's schedule during affair and resulting scandal .\nPapers also document her involvement in policy, specifically health care reform .\nMore than 11,000 documents cover nearly 2,900 days .","id":"f5aae446dc4aa909082b7292676704a0b5d8af7f"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- An Australian author imprisoned last month for insulting the king and crown prince of Thailand was on his way home Saturday after receiving a pardon from the king. Harry Nicolaides behind the bars of a Thai holding cell. Harry Nicolaides, 41, was arrested last August over his 2005 book titled \"Verisimilitude.\" The book includes a paragraph about the king and crown prince that authorities deemed a violation of a law that makes it illegal to defame, insult or threaten the crown. CNN has chosen not to repeat the language because it could result in CNN staff being prosecuted in Thailand. Mark Dean, a lawyer for Nicolaides, said he was released Friday and taken to the Australian embassy in Bangkok, where he stayed until leaving for Australia at about midnight. \"He is obviously very relieved and grateful that the pardon was granted,\" Dean said. Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty last month. He faced a term of up to six years before the plea. Watch shackled Nicolaides at court \u00bb . His lawyers then requested the pardon. King Bhumibol Adulydej had pardoned foreigners in similar cases in the past. Dean said Nicolaides was deported from Thailand, but that he did not know of any other stipulations related to the pardon. In an interview with CNN International, Dean avoided repeating what Nicolaides wrote, but said the passage was presented as a rumor, not a fact. \"This is probably not the best time to repeat the passage that was found to be offensive,\" Dean said. \"But it concerned the crown prince of Thailand and a rumor that was being circulated in Thailand about the crown prince.\" Nicolaides had been living in Thailand since 2003, lecturing at two universities about tourism. He was about to leave Thailand when he was arrested on August 31. It is not clear why the authorities waited three years after the publication of his book to bring charges against him. Fifty copies of the book were published, and only seven were sold. Thailand's king is highly revered in the Buddhist nation. But even he has said in the past that he can be criticized. Thailand's prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, also has told CNN he is concerned about what he called misuse of the law. Still, other cases of violating the law are pending before the Thai Criminal Court, involving both Thais and foreigners.","highlights":"Harry Nicolaides, 41, was arrested last August over his 2005 book .\nThe book includes a paragraph about the king and crown prince .\nAuthorities deemed it a violation of a law that makes it illegal to insult the crown .\nMan's lawyer says he was relieved and left for Australia at about midnight .","id":"1d4420b379c8e2a6918cd1443cacb28b81165417"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- If there were any justice, the divas who've been trading off the No. 1 slot -- Mariah, Madonna, and newcomer Leona Lewis -- would also be slugging it out with a platinum-blond dark horse from Scandinavia. Swedish singer Robyn performs in London on April 19. Enter Sweden's Robyn, who arrives Stateside with \"Robyn,\" an album that's a veritable parade of Songs of the Summer. After landing a few mediocre teen-pop hits in the '90s (namely \"Show Me Love\"), she's forsaken her white-soul dullness for hooky dance-pop greatness with help from electro-favoring fellow Swedes like the Teddybears and the Knife. From the girly hip-hop of ''Konichiwa Bitches'' to the Eurodisco defiance of ''With Every Heartbeat,'' she's developed a real backbone to go with that asymmetrical 'do. Not since Pink's \"M!ssundaztood\" has an easily dismissed young thrush made so unexpected a leap to career artist. That comparison starts with Robyn's first single, ''Handle Me'' -- a less nasty but even hookier version of Pink's lounge-lizard-repelling \"U + Ur Hand.\" But she hardly sticks to playing a tough cookie: The next song, \"Bum Like You,\" offers an amusing, knowing lesson in How to Fall for a Jerk 101. Meanwhile, in the pensive, timbales-'n'-synths-driven \"Who's That Girl,\" Robyn decries her guy's impossible standards. \"Good girls are pretty, like, all the time,\" she sings. \"I'm just pretty some of the time.\" Her album, however? Fantastic all of the time. EW Grade: A E-mail to a friend . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"EW: Singer achieves hooky dance-pop greatness .\nRobyn had early success in the 1990s with hits such as \"Show Me Love\"\nHer look and style has been compared to singer Pink .","id":"bc928cf8714e0a3f2d0d3774e76dae64ef84c203"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Marines have been making children's Christmas dreams come true for nearly 60 years, but the corps may be seeing fewer smiles this year. Volunteer Betty Whelan sorts donated toys in a Toys for Tots center in Boston, Massachusetts. With demand up due to the poor economy and toy donations down, Toys for Tots, the Marine Corps' program that distributes Christmas toys to children in need, is facing one of its toughest years, according to Bill Grein, the Toys for Tots Foundation vice president. Grein said the program last year distributed approximately 16.6 million toys and books, but this year he doesn't think they will be able to reach that number. \"We always run out of toys before we run out of children,\" he said, but this year \"it's a major problem.\" Grein said that the program is getting more requests than in previous years and cities like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miami, Florida; Fresno, California; Atlanta, Georgia, and many others are hurting for donations. \"Every kid deserves a present,\" said Marine Sgt. Daniel Sampson of the Toys for Tots program in Boston, Massachusetts. \"Right now, we're not sending out as much as we should be.\" In the Washington area, the Marines need to find toys for 82,000 children, but \"we are tens of thousands of toys behind,\" Master Sgt Timothy Butler said. If they can't fill the need and get every child on the list a toy for Christmas, Butler said, \"It's gonna break my heart.\" Last year, the Marines were able to raise $13,000 in donations from people at Union Station, a major commuter hub in downtown Washington, but this year the Marines will be \"lucky to get half that,\" Staff Sgt. Johnny Noble said. In Atlanta, Toys for Tots administration chief Edward Barrett said they had received 241,814 donations, well short of their goal of 800,000. Barrett understands that the economy has a lot to do with the lack of contributions, and he estimates that donations are down by about 30 percent this year. In San Francisco, California, Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Anthamatten said the Toys for Tots program there was also seeing a 30 percent decrease in toy and monetary donations. In Boston, last minute donations came to the rescue. According to volunteer Kay Carpenter, the Boston Toys for Tots program used money that came in last week to buy $15,000 worth of toys, hopefully, enough to fill all of their orders. But, nationally, Toys for Tots bins are still empty. \"We're Marines and we set goals,\" Edwards said, \"and when we can't achieve those goals that's frustrating.\" CNN's Bethany Swain contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Marines' Toys for Tots program has distributed donated toys for 60 years .\nBad economy has resulted in more requests for toys and fewer donations .\nMarines will fall short of 16.6 million toys distributed last year .\nIn Atlanta and San Francisco areas, donations down 30 percent .","id":"e48522648be20bb709bff82ff7e042e2499c8a8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What appears to be a separated human foot inside a shoe -- possibly the sixth discovered in Canada's British Columbia in the past 15 months -- has been found on a riverbank, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Wednesday. Some of the feet found this year washed up on Westham Island, south of Vancouver, British Columbia. The shoe -- a left New Balance running shoe -- was found about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday on the south arm of the Fraser River by a Richmond, British Columbia, couple, police said. It was turned over to the British Columbia Coroners Service for examination and DNA testing, authorities said. Before Tuesday, five feet -- all inside running shoes -- had washed ashore in southern British Columbia since August 2007. One of them, a right New Balance shoe, was found May 22 on Kirkland Island. That foot was determined to belong to a female, authorities said. View a map of where the feet washed ashore \u00bb . The provincial coroners' office said in July that DNA tests determined that two of the five feet -- a right foot found February 8 and a left foot found June 16 -- were from the same male, but they said they didn't know to whom any of the feet belonged. What was initially thought to be a sixth foot inside a running shoe, found in June, was determined to be a hoax. Authorities said a \"skeletonized animal paw\" was put in the shoe with a sock and packed with dried seaweed. \"Obviously, due to the fact that a hoax was perpetrated previously and then extensively reported on, we want to proceed cautiously [with Tuesday's discovery] until we know what exactly we are dealing with,\" said Constable Annie Linteau, an RCMP spokeswoman. The provincial coroners' service said in July that the five sets of remains found to that point appeared \"to have naturally separated (disarticulated) from the body.\" There was no forensic evidence, such as tool or trauma marks, on the remains to suggest that they had separated in any way other than decomposition, the service said. Authorities are investigating multiple possibilities on the origin of the feet, including foul play and the chance they could belong to victims of a plane crash. Missing persons files are also being reviewed. Four of the five feet discovered between August 2007 and June 2008 were in running shoes made between 2003 and 2004, and the other was made in 1999, according to police. Royal Canadian Mounted Police have released photos of the shoes, hoping someone can help identify the remains. Here is a timeline of the discoveries in British Columbia, according to police: . August 20, 2007 . The first foot is found by an American man and his 12-year-old daughter boating near Jedidiah Island. The shoe is later identified as a Campus brand running shoe, primarily white with blue mesh, and is believed to be a size 12. It is determined that it was produced in 2003 and distributed primarily in India. August 26, 2007 . The second foot is found on Gabriola Island by a resident walking on a trail. The shoe is a size 12 men's Reebok running shoe, primarily white in color. It was produced in 2004 and was distributed globally, though mostly in North America. It was first available March 1, 2004, but is no longer available. February 2 . A third foot is found by two forest workers on Valdez Island. The shoe is a size 11 blue and white Nike running shoe, made in 2003 and sold in Canada and the United States from February 1 to June 30, 2003. May 22 . The fourth foot is found on Kirkland Island by a man walking along the shoreline. The size 7 blue and white New Balance running shoe was made in 1999 and distributed in major retail stores. DNA tests later determine that the remains belonged to a female. June 16 . A fifth foot is found on Westham Island, in the same type of Nike shoe as the foot found February 2. DNA tests later determine that both feet belonged to the same male.","highlights":"Shoe with what appears to be human foot found on riverbank, Canadian police say .\nIf it is a human foot, it would be the sixth found in British Columbia since 2007 .\nAll of the separated feet were found washed ashore in running shoes .\nAuthorities investigating multiple possibilities, including foul play and a plane crash .","id":"86d3cf2c66e22123687e239e5b2734f54ef14268"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The wife of accused swindler Bernard Madoff pulled $15.5 million out of a Madoff-related brokerage firm in Massachusetts in the weeks before his arrest, authorities there disclosed Wednesday. Bernard Madoff is under 24-hour house arrest in his Upper East Side luxury apartment. The withdrawals by Ruth Madoff took place in November and December, according to a complaint filed by state regulators against Cohmad Securities, a firm they said was \"intertwined\" with Madoff's New York-based company. The regulators say Cohmad has refused to provide information about its ties to Madoff, who is accused of running a Ponzi scheme that may have cost investors up to $50 billion. Daily wire transaction reports show Cohmad was aware of transfers to and from Madoff-related accounts, the filing states. \"For example, the few reports produced by Cohmad show that Ruth Madoff withdrew $5.5 million on November 25, 2008 and withdrew $10 million on December 10, 2008,\" investigators said. Bernard Madoff, 70, was arrested December 11 and is currently under house arrest in his Manhattan luxury apartment. He faces one charge of securities fraud in connection with an international scheme that has cost some investors their life savings and could face up to 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine if convicted. In January, prosecutors tried to revoke his $10 million bail after he mailed more than $1 million worth of diamond-studded jewelry to friends and family, a move they said showed he was trying to move assets out of government hands. But a judge ruled Madoff was neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk. Prosecutors and Madoff's lawyers have agreed for a second time to push back the deadline for an indictment or probable cause hearing for the former investor, sources close to the case said Wednesday. The previous deadline of Wednesday -- which was itself a delay -- has now been moved back another 30 days. Madoff and the Securities and Exchange Commission already have agreed to a partial civil judgment against the disgraced investment manager, one that could eventually force him to pay fines and return investors' money. Under the terms of the deal, Madoff will keep a previously reached agreement to freeze his assets and not to violate any other securities laws, but it does not require him to admit or deny any allegations. CNN's Allan Chernoff and Amy Sahba contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ruth Madoff made withdrawals in November and December .\nMoney taken from Massachusetts company \"intertwined\" with New York company .\nMadoff faces one charge of securities fraud and could face up to 20 years in prison .","id":"f90e6e64c3862a562b81057b898fd24fc362cf4a"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: For more than two decades, world-renowned photojournalist Peter Turnley has covered nearly every significant news event and world conflict in Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya, Haiti, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq. His photographs have graced the covers of Newsweek, National Geographic, Le Monde, Le Figaro and The London Sunday Times. Peter Turnley took this photo of an Obama supporter on Inauguration Day. NEW YORK (CNN) -- On Sunday morning, I boarded a bus in Brooklyn with a group of approximately 40 citizens from New York, all African-American, each of whom would not have missed for almost anything the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I have been a photojournalist for the past 25 years and have had the incredible opportunity to witness many of modern history's defining moments: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, the end of apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela walking out of prison in 1991, and most of the world's conflicts of the past three decades. This moment means 'everything is possible' \u00bb . When our bus pulled into Maryland on the eve of the inauguration, I knew after hearing the words of my fellow passengers, in some sense fellow pilgrims, that I was in the midst of a moment of history like maybe no other I had ever witnessed -- certainly in terms of its historic magnitude, and certainly not in America. It is the words of these passengers, and those of many others that I have met in the past two days, that are representative to some degree of what this moment means. Read more on the AC360 blog.","highlights":"Photographer Peter Turnley covered President Barack Obama's inauguration .\nHe traveled by bus with 40 African-Americans from Brooklyn, New York .\nMoment was like no other \"in terms of its historic magnitude,\" Turnley says .","id":"6374622dc8d44ade1b2d395288d6b587eba595d4"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Decision-making can be challenging for anyone, but when a couple needs to make a collective decision, the challenge becomes greater, psychologist Dr. Josh Klapow says. Remind your partner that you are a team and collaboration is needed when facing differing opinions. The key is to recognize that the decision-making process is the same regardless of the type of decision, Dr. Klapow says. \"Making decisions as a couple is not so much about what you decide on, but rather how you go about the process of making the decision,\" he says. \"If you approach each decision with the same game plan, then over time, you will become experts at decision-making.\" Dr. Klapow shares his five \"smart\" (set, monitor, arrange, recruit and treat) steps to collective decision-making. Set a specific goal . Make sure you are very specific about what you want, Dr. Klapow says. For example, a goal of saving money is not specific enough; however, saying that you want to save an extra $100 per month by automatic deduction from your paychecks to pay off your credit card is specific. \"The more specific you are, the better,\" he says. Monitor your discussion . As you are discussing the decision at hand, make sure you are staying on track, Dr. Klapow says. \"Very often couples will start discussing a goal and stray to some other topic, which can lead to frustration,\" he says. \"If you notice yourself or your spouse getting off the subject, quickly come back to the specific goal.\" Oprah.com: The five best things to do for your relationship . Arrange the situation for success . Decision-making doesn't work well when someone is tired, hungry, short of time or preoccupied with other activities. \"Before you start the discussion, make sure each of you is in the right frame of mind and you have the time,\" Dr. Klapow says. If not, take a break from the discussion because it likely won't be productive. Recruit support from one another . A collective decision means that sometimes there will be a compromise, Dr. Klapow says. If you are going into the discussion to win, then you are not making a collective decision -- you are fighting a battle, he says. \"Remind each other that you are a team and that you are in it to win collectively, not necessarily individually,\" he says. Treat yourselves . Because decision-making can be one of the toughest challenges a couple faces, celebrate the success of a decision together. \"A hug, a celebratory reward -- anything that acknowledges that together you have accomplished this task -- will help keep you motivated to make decisions together again,\" Dr. Klapow says. From The Peete's \"Oprah & Friends\" on Sirius XM Radio show . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Psychologist Dr. Josh Klapow gives tips for couples on decision-making .\nBe specific about what you want, Dr. Klapow says .\nKlapow: Stay on track while you are discussing your goals .\nCollective decisions require a compromise, Dr. Klapow says .","id":"b6331b978d2bb29c403341084ed7d8955d95be71"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the first time since media coverage was banned in 1991, the return of the body of a fallen member of the U.S. armed forces was opened to news outlets late Sunday. A transport plane carries caskets of U.S. servicemen in this photo the Pentagon released in 2005. The U.S. Air Force informed media on Sunday that the family of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers consented to allowing coverage of his casket being returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Myers, 30, of Hopewell, Virginia, was a member of an engineering unit based in Britain. He died Saturday in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military reported. In February, President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates overturned a policy that dated back to the first Persian Gulf war. They agreed to allow reporters to observe the remains of American troops being returned to the U.S. military mortuary at Dover, as long as families agreed. The policy was supposed to take effect on Monday, and no reason was given why reporters were allowed to view the proceedings on Sunday. Watch report on lifting of the ban \u00bb .","highlights":"Family of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers consents to coverage of his casket's return .\nBody of Myers brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday night .\nThis is first time that media coverage has been allowed since ban in 1991 .\nIn February, President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates overturned policy .","id":"c3be141cb44a6e8eba17aa24ce8447f36e32619f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A British-owned cargo ship on Monday became the latest vessel to be seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. International naval patrols have been stepped up in the Gulf of Aden following increased pirate attacks. The 32,000-tonne Malaspina Castle was taken early on Monday and was believed to be heading towards Somalia's pirate-infested coast, the European Union's Horn of Africa maritime security center said. \"Few details are known at this stage, but the mixed-nationality crew is believed to be safe,\" a statement on the London-based organization's Web site said. The vessel, which is operated by an Italian company, carried a crew of 24, from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia and the Philippines, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported. \"There have not yet been communications from the Malaspina Castle that we are aware of, so information is limited,\" said Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers' Assistance Program in quotes carried by the Telegraph. He added: \"It is likely to be taken towards the Somali coast and negotiations will begin soon.\" Meanwhile, the BBC reported that a Taiwanese fishing boat, with a crew of 29, was also hijacked Monday approximately 260km (160 miles) from the Seychelles. The latest attacks follow a string of incidents in the pirate-plagued waterway off Somalia at the weekend, with a French yacht, a Yemeni tugboat and a German ship also reported to have been seized. Last year, pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. In response, a number of countries have deployed warships from their navies to the region, including the United States, China and Japan. Monday's seizure of the Malaspina Castle was immediately condemned by the UK ship masters' union Nautilus, which has long urged governments to take stronger action to deter piracy. Nautilus assistant general secretary Mark Dickinson told the British Press Association: \"Over the last 10 years, most governments have not really done very much about this. \"More recently they have been motivated to act and there is an EU naval coordination force patrolling off the Gulf of Aden.\" He added: \"I'm not sure that this is going to be a long-term thing and I'm also worried that the pirates will start seizing ships well away from the areas being patrolled. \"In Somalia, piracy is like a big, successful industry and the authorities there need to act. The pirates are treated like local heroes. People look up to them and girls want to marry them. They are seen by some locals as good people but they are ruthless.\"","highlights":"32,000-tonne Malaspina Castle was taken early on Monday .\nCrew of 24, from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia and the Philippines .\nEU's maritime security center believes crew is safe .\nAttack took place despite increased international naval patrols in Gulf of Aden .","id":"fb8417237edc7481db45286494d1561ab308de29"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers with a Malaysian university said they have uncovered evidence of an iron industry that dates to the 3rd Century, A.D., and proves that ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia were more advanced than once thought. The archaeologists from the Universiti Sains Malaysia found the remains of an iron smelting site, tools to pump oxygen into the iron smelting process, rooftops of buildings, beads and pots, said Mokhtar Saidan, a professor and leader of the team. The discovery was made after a month of excavation at Lembah Bujang, a historical site in Malaysia. \"This is the first discovery of the earliest iron industry in Lembah Bujang and has been dated conclusively. This date also adds on to the facts and data on the early history of Southeast Asia,\" he said. He said coal from the site was sent to a laboratory in Florida that said elements in the coal dated to the 3rd Century. The professor said the discovery confirms that human civilization in the area was more advanced than thought and the site probably was a place for exporting iron in the 3rd Century.","highlights":"Researchers uncover evidence of Malaysian iron industry dating to 3rd Century .\nProves ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia more advanced than thought .\nDiscovery was made after a month of excavation at Lembah Bujang .","id":"b569afa19f98e60543ffdbe6b6e47f65565844d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three police officers -- shot to death after responding to a domestic argument call -- will lie in repose at Pittsburgh's city-county building later this week, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl told reporters Monday. A statue at Pittsburgh's police memorial is decorated with a bouquet after the deaths of three officers on Saturday. The public will be allowed to view the officers -- Stephen Mayhle, Paul Sciullo III and Eric Kelly -- from 4 p.m. Wednesday until 10 a.m. Thursday, Ravenstahl said. City offices will close at 2 p.m. Wednesday and remain closed Thursday, he said, adding that city offices were already closing for the Good Friday holiday. Following the viewing, the officers' bodies will be taken in a procession to an event center, where a public ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Ravenstahl said. Individual funerals will be held for the officers later. A fund for the officers' families has been established at a local police credit union, Ravenstahl said. Watch mayor tell of plans to honor slain officers \u00bb . The three officers were shot to death Saturday after arriving at a Pittsburgh home in response to a 911 call about an argument. Court papers said the argument was triggered by a urinating dog. Richard Poplawski, 22, is in custody in connection with the shootings. He was hospitalized over the weekend after he was shot in the leg during a four-hour police standoff; his whereabouts were unclear Monday. Police said Saturday that he would be charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and other charges. Details of the incident were included in the police complaint seeking an arrest warrant for Poplawski. The complaint says Margaret Poplawski called 911 about 7 a.m. Saturday to report that her son was \"giving her a hard time.\" She told police she awoke to discover that \"the dog had urinated on the floor,\" and awakened her son \"to confront him about it.\" The two had an argument, and Margaret Poplawski told her son she was calling police to remove him from her home, according to the complaint. When Mayhle and Sciullo arrived, she opened the door and let them in. \"Mrs. Poplawski reported that as the officers entered approximately 10 feet into the residence, she heard gunshots, turned and saw her son about six feet away with a long rifle in his hands, at which point she fled downstairs after asking him, 'What the hell have you done?'\" the complaint said. Margaret Poplawski reported she stayed in the basement during the standoff, and heard her son yell, \"Yeah, I've been shot,\" and \"I'm standing down, come in and help me,\" according to the complaint. Kelly was a 14-year veteran of the department, Police Chief Nathan Harper has said, while the other two had worked there for two years each. Watch officers respond at the scene \u00bb . The chief said Sciullo was the first to approach the home, and was shot in the head as he entered the doorway. When Mayhle tried to help his fellow officer, he also was shot in the head. Kelly arrived at the scene and was shot before he could aid the other two officers, Harper said. Harper said the suspect fired from a bedroom window, shooting at an armored vehicle carrying a SWAT team -- preventing those officers and medics from reaching the wounded policemen. Two other officers, Timothy McManaway and Brian Jones, were injured. McManaway was shot in the hand and Jones, who was trying to secure the rear of the house, broke his leg trying to get over a fence, Harper said. Autopsies showed that Kelly died of gunshot wounds to the trunk and lower extremities, Sciullo died from gunshot wounds to the head and trunk, and Mayhle was shot in the head, the complaint said. \"We have never had to lose three officers in the line of duty on one call,\" Harper, the police chief, said. \"They have paid the ultimate sacrifice.\" Authorities believe Poplawski, wearing a bullet-proof vest, aimed more than 100 rounds at police, using an AK-47, Harper said Saturday. Police had responded to calls from the home two or three times previously, Harper said.","highlights":"Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III were shot to death on Saturday .\nThey were responding to 911 call about an argument at a Pittsburgh home .\nSuspect Richard Poplawski is in custody; his whereabouts unclear on Monday .\nMayor describes plans for procession for fallen officers, lying in repose .","id":"960ee66a90b153dfae33ac7e7397f2aaa0bc4dfd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans of the character Easy Rawlins don't want to hear it, but author Walter Mosley says he has officially moved on. Author Walter Mosley found fame with his Easy Rawlins mysteries and has debuted a new series. The prolific writer seemingly wrapped up his beloved series -- which spawned the 1995 film \"Devil in a Blue Dress\" starring Denzel Washington -- in 2007 with the 10th Easy Rawlins mystery, \"Blonde Faith.\" The ending saddened die-hard fans who had faithfully followed the adventures of the Los Angeles, California-based everyman-turned-private investigator whose stories played out in an era from the Jim Crow 1940s to the politically charged 1960s. Now Mosley, who has found success writing everything from erotica to science fiction, has launched a new mystery series with the release of his book \"The Long Fall\" (Riverhead). The book features an ex-boxer named Leonid Trotter McGill, the latest colorfully named Mosley character. Three of his previous books involved ex-convict Socrates Fortlow, and another trio concerned bookseller Paris Minton. But the new novel takes Mosley to a different place and time. Instead of mid-20th century Los Angeles, \"The Long Fall\" is set in modern-day New York, where McGill is finding it hard to leave his less-than-stellar past behind. That past includes a childhood as a red-diaper baby abandoned by his union organizer father and left to fend for himself at an early age, a loveless marriage to an unfaithful woman named Katrina and a son who's a burgeoning criminal mastermind. Moreover, he's at work on a case where you just know people are going to die. Such page turners are nothing new for Mosley, who is known for his strong, black male characters and his passionate musings on race, politics and the writing life. McGill's creator recently spoke with CNN about the new mystery novel, why he doesn't miss Easy, and how the changes in the United States are mirrored in his writing. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Why leave Los Angeles for a setting in modern-day New York? Walter Mosley: I have been a resident of both cities. The new series being contemporary and about a character who in some murky ways reflects where America is right now, New York seemed the right place for that. CNN: How so? Where do you think America is right now? Mosley: I think that America has made a decision, after about 20 years of going in one direction, to go in another direction: to leave rampant and amoral kind of deregulation and also rampant and immoral wars and say, \"Maybe we should be doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing,\" or redefining what the right thing is, at any rate. Those kinds of decisions, there are only two places [the setting] can be, and that's either in Washington, D.C., which I feel is very limiting because it's a one-business town, or New York, where everything from economics to government is centered. So I decided on New York. CNN: McGill is trying to leave behind his shady past. Do you feel like America is trying to do the same? Mosley: Yes, I think that's exactly what's happening. I think America is trying to seek redemption after having done many things wrong in the eyes of the world in general. Leonid McGill is trying to seek redemption after a long criminal history. His history is somewhat forgivable, but still it's criminal. CNN: Did you approach this book differently than you did when you were writing the Easy Rawlins mysteries? Mosley: Yes and no. All books are different, so each of the Easy Rawlins books I wrote I approached differently. [Leonid] is a new character and he has a unique life that I had to begin to learn. I knew Easy very well, but Leonid I had to learn who he was. CNN: In your new book, I love that McGill's wife's name is \"Katrina\" and she leaves lots of destruction in her wake. Mosley: [chuckling] It's true, but the first story I wrote about Leonid [a story called \"Karma\" published in the anthology \"Dangerous Women\"] was before the hurricane and that was a long time ago. It's funny that it worked out like that. CNN: What do you like about McGill? Mosley: This is the first time in my experiments in crime fiction that I've written a hard-boiled detective character. This is going all the way back to the beginning of the genre in the '30s, where you have a guy who gets thumped upside the head a lot and he's just as bad as the people he's after. In the old style, you never knew what was going on inside the hard-boiled character's head, but in these stories I am actually discovering the underlying character of the hard-boiled detective, and for me that's been a great deal of fun. CNN: You've written so many various genres. What is it about the genre of crime fiction that appeals to you? Mosley: Originally I got into it because you can talk about worlds that people wouldn't read about ordinarily unless they had a particular interest in it. Everybody reads crime fiction and they read it to find out about different worlds. I like writing in different genres. There's all this stuff that I really enjoy doing because I think they all serve different purposes. And listen, I'm known as a crime writer, people like it and I enjoy it. CNN: For your fans, a lot of them miss Easy Rawlins. Do you miss him at all? Mosley: No, he's right there on the shelf. All I have to do is reach up and pull him down. I'm finished with that. I'm moving on.","highlights":"Writer Walter Mosley is best known for his Easy Rawlins mystery series .\nHis new book, \"The Long Fall,\" introduces the character of Leonid McGill .\nUnlike past books, the new novel is set in modern-day New York .\nMosley says he enjoyed first time writing a \"hard-boiled detective\" novel .","id":"ffe7ffa24182279146f74e352ac8a1f04f201610"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite a hardline U.S. policy, there is no reason why federal officials can't negotiate directly with pirates who are holding a U.S. captain hostage off Somalia, a counterterrorism expert said Thursday. Pirates have been plaguing commercial shipping vessels in the waters off the coast of east Africa. Nor is there anything to stop an independent party from paying for his release, said Juan Carlos Zarate, who served as deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism under former President George W. Bush. \"The U.S. has a very clear policy of no concessions; that's different than no negotiations,\" said Zarate, now is a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The U.S. policy against concessions translates into a policy against paying for the release of hostages, he said. \"That means no ransoms, nothing of value in return for the safe release of hostages,\" he said. But, he added, \"It's also important to note that there's nothing in U.S. policy that restricts family members or private companies -- like a shipping company -- to actually pay a ransom. There's nothing that the U.S. government can do other than potentially to prosecute if that money is going to a known terrorist organization, which is a fine line.\" Nevertheless, he said it is U.S. government policy to discourage private companies from making payments to hostage takers. \"The U.S. has a very clear sense that, if you start to pay ransoms, you in essence create an industry for kidnapping,\" he said. \"And, frankly, it's why you see an uptick in the piracy problem in East Africa. It's a for-profit venture. It's very lucrative at low cost for the pirates and it's, in part, fueled by the fact that shipping companies in other countries have been paying ransoms for the release of ships, cargo and personnel.\" Zarate predicted the standoff off Somalia will not be resolved soon. \"I don't see or forecast the use of massive force inadvertently because of the potential for hurting our citizen,\" he said, referring to Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama who was taken hostage after four gunmen boarded it on Wednesday. \"And so I think this is going to take a while, and it may involve some third-party negotiations.\" Though he approves of the government's handling of the situation so far, Zarate said the situation not an easy one. \"This, to a certain extent, is the U.S. government's nightmare scenario,\" said Zarate, who oversaw the U.S. government's counterterrorism strategy from 2005 to 2009. \"We had always planned for, but hoped that this kind of situation wouldn't happen -- where a U.S. vessel was taken or a U.S. citizen was taken in those waters,\" he said. He called the standoff \"a classic hostage situation, which is difficult to resolve. It is certainly difficult to resolve on the high seas where we have limited levers to play.\" iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? Zarate said the hostage holders appear to be in the stronger position, though at first glance -- four men holding a fifth aboard a 28-foot powerless lifeboat in the ocean hundreds of miles from shore -- that may not appear to be the case. \"I think they have the upper hand, in part, because we value the life of our citizens,\" he said. \"They may not value their lives as much, and they may not be using the same rational calculus that we would in this situation.\" But, he said, the pirates may not be able to turn that advantage into victory. \"I think the good guys will win,\" he said. iReport.com: 'Stop the pirates, Obama!' \"I think we'll find a way out of this. I think the FBI hostage negotiators, the naval personnel on scene and others will find a way of negotiating their way out of this. They're professionals; they know how to do that. But it's difficult.\" CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this story.","highlights":"Paying ransom encourages more kidnappings for money, Juan Carlos Zarate says .\nStandoff in high seas difficult because \"we have limited levers to play,\" he says .\nAttempts to free American captain off Somalia \"going to take a while,\" he says .\n\"The good guys will win... but it's difficult,\" former Bush security adviser says .","id":"b214f49060baaf032ad14c2f9f24407254040f6a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was among three people killed in a crash in Fullerton, California, early Thursday, according to the team and a hospital spokesman. Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed Thursday, hours after his fourth MLB start. Adenhart, 22, of Silver Spring, Maryland, died at UC Irvine Medical Center, according to spokesman John Murray. \"The Angels family has suffered a tremendous loss today,\" Tony Reagins, the team's general manager, said in a written statement. \"We are deeply saddened and shocked by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nick's family, friends, loved ones and fans.\" One person was arrested in connection with the three-vehicle accident, which occurred about 12:23 a.m. Thursday in Fullerton, south of Los Angeles. Witnesses say a red minivan ran a red light and struck two vehicles at an intersection, police Lt. Craig Brower said. One of the vehicles, a gray Mitsubishi, slammed into a power pole, Brower said. Two of its passengers were declared dead at the scene, he said. The other two were transported to UC Irvine Medical Center. Murray said Adenhart underwent surgery and died at the hospital but did not know whether he died during or after the procedure. Brower said the remaining passenger was in critical condition. The Angels said the two dead at the scene were the female driver of the Mitsubishi and another male. No other members of the Angels organization were involved, the team said. Adenhart reportedly was \"in bad condition at the scene,\" team spokesman Tim Mead said, and there wasn't much that could be done for him at the hospital. He died \"mid- to late morning,\" Mead said. A passenger in the minivan was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Brower said. The third vehicle sustained minor damage, and its driver was unhurt, he said. Police did not identify any of the dead. The minivan's driver fled the scene and was later arrested, Brower said. Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, of Riverside will face charges of manslaughter, felony driving under the influence and hit-and-run, he said. Footage from the scene showed the minivan with a smashed front end and the Mitsubishi, which was heavily damaged. Debris littered the intersection where the crash took place, and it was cordoned off with yellow police tape. The Angels' game Thursday night with the Oakland A's was postponed at the direction of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. No information was released as to when the game would be played. \"Major League Baseball is in mourning today upon the news of this tragedy that has taken Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others,\" Selig said in a statement. \"Nick was just 22 years of age, with a wonderful life and career ahead of him. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my sincere sympathy to the families and friends of all three victims and to the entire Angels' organization. I send my deepest condolences to Nick's parents, Jim and Janet. The hearts of everyone in baseball are with them at this most difficult time.\" The Angels quoted Adenhart's family in the team statement, saying they express \"sincere gratitude for all the help the Angels have provided.\" \"He lived his dream and was blessed to be part of an organization comprised of such warm, caring and compassionate people,\" Adenhart's parents said. \"The Angels were his extended family. Thanks to all of Nick's loyal supporters and fans throughout his career. He will always be in everyone's hearts forever.\" Funeral and memorial arrangements were pending, the team said. Adenhart pitched in a game against the Oakland A's on Wednesday night in Anaheim, California, making a \"brilliant effort\" despite the Angels' 6-4 loss, according to MLB.com. In his fourth major league start, Adenhart pitched a scoreless six innings, with seven hits, three walks and five strikeouts. \"I thought he pitched a terrific game,\" manager Mike Scioscia told MLB.com after the game. \"He gave us a chance to win. He has better tools out there now. He pitched ahead a lot and was able to get back in counts and put guys away.\" \"It felt good to work out of some jams early,\" Adenhart told MLB.com. \"My curveball was really working for me, and then my change came on later when I felt I needed it.\" Jim Adenhart had flown out from Baltimore, Maryland, and was at Wednesday night's game to watch his son's start, his first of the season, Mead said. He remained in California on Thursday, and Janet Adenhart was expected to fly out later in the day. The Angels drafted Adenhart in the 14th round of the June 2004 draft, according to the team statement. He was in his fifth professional season and made the Angels' Opening Day roster for the first time. \"Adenhart earned his spot in the Angels rotation via a spring training in which he recorded a 3-0 record and a 3.12 ERA over the course of six starts,\" the team statement said. \"During that span, he struck out 18 while allowing only five base on balls.\" Adenhart made his major league debut May 1 against Oakland, the team said. At the time, he was the youngest active-roster pitcher in the majors. Adenhart was a 2004 graduate of Williamsport High School in Williamsport, Maryland. His baseball coach there, Rod Steiner, told CNN affiliate WHAG, \"After watching last night, as well as he pitched ... things seemed to be going so smooth. This is the last thing that you ever imagine.\" He remembered Adenhart as a hard worker who knew he wanted to be a major-league pitcher while still in high school and worked hard to achieve that goal, despite a setback when he had to undergo shoulder surgery. He said area residents who didn't even know Adenhart followed his career and cheered him on. \"He touched a lot of lives.\" CNN's Rosalina Nieves and Irving Last contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adenhart, 22, pitched six scoreless innings in Wednesday's game .\nThree people killed in crash early Thursday in Fullerton, California .\nOne man arrested, will face charges in wreck, police say .","id":"99f2dedae35b2606a1f48a08cdc624dd84fb3a5b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nearly one-fifth of American 4-year-olds are obese, and children of color are at higher risk, according to new research. Obese children are at risk for early onset of diabetes, fatty liver and musculoskeletal problems. Researchers calculated the body mass index from a sample of 8,550 Hispanic, black, white, Asian and Native American 4-year-olds. The children were born in 2001, and in 2005, their height and weight were measured -- 18.4 percent of them were obese. \"Significant differences in the prevalence of obesity between racial\/ethnic groups were evident at 4 years of age,\" the researchers wrote in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Using body mass index, they found that 31.2 percent of American Indian\/Native Alaskans, 22 percent of Hispanics, 20.8 percent of blacks, 15.9 percent of whites and 12.8 percent of Asians were obese. \"It's surprising that there are large differences by racial\/ethnic group by that age,\" said Sarah Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University and lead study author. Anderson and co-author Robert Whitaker's analysis showed that children were becoming obese even before encountering soda and candy vending machines in schools. \"These results really do point to the need for us to focus attention on early childhood and the need for research to understand how these differences can emerge so early,\" Anderson said. \"To do that, we may need to understand the different family and cultural factors that are at play in these children's lives.\" The cause for the early health disparities is hard to pinpoint, childhood obesity experts said. \"It's always possible there are biological factors within ethnic groups,\" said Dr. Tom Robinson, director of the Center for Healthy Weight at the Stanford University School of Medicine. \"We know most of the changes that have occurred in body fat tend to occur from being in an environment that promotes very easy access to high-caloric foods and limited opportunities for physical activities.\" Michael Rich, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, called the disparities between ethnic groups disturbing. \"The expectations, lifestyle, behaviors are different on a cultural and socioeconomic basis,\" he said. \"Kids who live in the inner city, whose neighborhoods are perceived as dangerous, stay at home more, sit more, eat more snacks, because that's all they can get at the local bodega. There are no supermarkets to get produce. That's what mom is eating, so that's what kid is eating. What we're dealing with here is whole life issues.\" Previous research has shown that older children are becoming less active and spending more time in front of a computer or TV. \"That is displacing physical activity,\" said Dr. Sarah Barlow, director of the Obesity Center at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. \"You can imagine strollers, less outdoor play -- all those kinds of things that have shifted how much activity younger kids are getting. At the same time, portion sizes are increasing for everybody.\" According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults fare no better. Approximately 45 percent of blacks, 36.8 percent of Mexican Americans and 30 percent of whites are obese. \"It's a very bad sign if we see obesity at a young age,\" Robinson said. \"When we see children obese at age 4, we're likely to see complications -- high blood pressure, abnormal lipids -- which can lead to heart disease and stroke, diabetes in children.\" Diseases commonly seen in 40- or 50-year-olds are presenting in 6- and 7-year-olds. Obese children are developing type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and musculoskeletal problems, which occur because their bodies can't carry that much weight, doctors said. Calculate your child's body mass index. \"The heavier you are as a child, the likelier that extra weight will follow you through life,\" Robinson said. \"That's why we see adolescents who need weight-loss surgery, because they have life-threatening complications from obesity.\" If you have an obese child... The first step is for the parents to acknowledge that the child is overweight, instead of making excuses or comparing him or her to heavier children. Many of the parents of obese children are overweight themselves, which makes that acknowledgment difficult, said Rich, who is also director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital in Boston. \"While it's important to focus on it and take it seriously, it's also important not to give up or feel hopeless,\" he said. \"Then you won't try. You want to look at it for what it is and not be defeated by it.\" When you're trying to help your child achieve a healthy weight, remove the stigma attached to obesity. \"It should always be about health, not about losing weight,\" Rich said. \"You're trying to build the positive.\" He recommended the 5-2-1-0 plan. Eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables, cut screen time down to two hours or less, exercise at least one hour, and have zero soda and sugary drinks. Such changes, which are not seismic shifts to lifestyles, can help the child get into a health weight. \"It's easier to start that way, rather than try to change habits when they're 8 or 12 or 16,\" said Barlow, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. While it's possible for some kids to outgrow the excess weight, she warned parents not to count on that. \"We've seen over time that the environment doesn't promote that,\" she said.","highlights":"Research: 18.4 percent of 4-year-olds in the United States are obese.\nNative Americans, Hispanics, blacks at most risk; whites and Asians at lowest risk .\nSocioeconomic and lifestyle factors play a role in likelihood for obesity .","id":"f752684b4f024594c6f885d95fecc3927507a4c9"} -{"article":"NORFOLK, Virginia (CNN) -- Negotiators aboard a U.S. Navy warship are trying to secure the release of an American freighter captain who is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia, according to Maersk Line Ltd. Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia. The crew aboard the destroyer USS Bainbridge could see the lifeboat where pirates have been holding Capt. Richard Phillips since Wednesday, the company said in a written statement issued at 5 p.m. ET. Phillips has not been hurt, the statement said. Phillips, who has received provisions and batteries for his radio, has been in touch with the crews of the Alabama and the Bainbridge, the statement said. The pirates are the same four men who hijacked Phillips' vessel, the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama, early Wednesday hundreds of miles off the Horn of Africa. The Alabama's 20-person crew later regained control of the ship, which is owned and operated by the Norfolk-based Maersk Line Ltd. In a written statement, Maersk spokesman Kevin Speers noted that \"there have been many questions about how the crew re-captured the ship and how the captain came to leave the ship.\" But he would not clarify the matter. \"Our immediate focus has been to bring the current situation to a safe resolution,\" he said. \"There will be time for due diligence and retrospective review once we have the safe return of all parties and the opportunity for a full de-briefing.\" The U.S. Navy, which is in charge of the situation, requested the help of the FBI. FBI negotiators in the United States are in touch with the crew of the Bainbridge, which arrived on the scene earlier Thursday to assist, a senior U.S. defense official said. According to Maersk's last communication with the Navy, the 28-foot lifeboat was disabled and \"dead in the water,\" Speers said Thursday morning. \"We are encouraged that most of the crew is safe. They have been resilient and courageous throughout this crisis,\" Speers said. \"But we will remain on watch, staffing our situation room and our family hot line until this situation is resolved and the captain is safely returned.\" On Thursday, the Maersk Alabama resumed its journey to Mombasa, Kenya, with an 18-person armed security detail on board, according to Joseph Murphy, the father of the ship's first officer. Maersk and U.S. military officials confirmed the cargo ship had left the area on Thursday, but would not say where it was heading, citing security concerns. See how pirate attacks have increased \u00bb . Gen. David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that the Bainbridge would be getting backup shortly. \"I can tell you, there are definitely going to be more ships in that area in the next 24 or 48 hours, because there are two more sailing to it right now,\" he said. \"Needless to say, we want to ensure we have all the capacity that may be needed over the course of the coming days.\" Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, told CNN's Barbara Starr in Bahrain that, \"We have been moving forces in that direction.\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama had been staying apprised of the situation. \"Obviously, his main concern is for the safety of the captain and the rest of the crew on the ship, and he will continue to receive those updates,\" he said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said an international coalition of countries is working to address the piracy threat, but the area in question is immense. \"I think the ocean area we're referring to is three times the size of Texas,\" she told reporters. iReport.com: 'Stop the pirates, Obama!' Referring to continuing problems with piracy in those waters, she said instability in Somalia has contributed to the flourishing of \"an old scourge.\" The Alabama was loaded with food aid when the pirates hijacked it Wednesday, 350 miles off Somalia's coast -- a distance that used to be considered safe from pirate attacks. It was the first time in recent history that pirates targeted an American ship. Watch how pirates work off Somalia \u00bb . The pirates were armed with AK-47 assault rifles while the ship's crew carried no weapons, according to Ken Quinn, the second officer of the ship. Crew members managed to take one of the four pirates hostage, Quinn said. The crew -- apparently minus the captain -- locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear, where they remained for about 12 hours with their captive, whom Quinn said they had tied up. Watch Quinn describe the hijacking to CNN \u00bb . The pirates reneged on their agreement to exchange Phillips for one pirate whom the crew had captured. The pirate was released unharmed, according to Quinn, who spoke to CNN on Wednesday via a satellite call. The pirates had scuttled the small boat they used to reach the ship, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat and some money. \"We returned him, but they didn't return the captain,\" Quinn said. The U.S. Navy issued a warning several days ago to ships in the area that pirates were operating farther offshore. Watch former Navy captain discuss options \u00bb . There are emergency rations to last 10 days on the lifeboat, but the conditions are most likely \"uncomfortable,\" according to Murphy. \"There's no toilet facilities or anything like that,\" he said. \"The captain has a VHF radio, and I'm sure that he's in voice communication with the ship itself. The problem is, of course, that ... the [radio's] battery is going to die, and I'm not really sure how they're going to continue communication after that.\" iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? It is common for crews of merchant vessels to travel through the area unarmed despite the risk of pirate attacks, experts said. An armed crew could provoke a firefight that would endanger the crew's lives or its cargo, which often contains flammable or explosive material. John Reinhart, chief executive and president of Maersk Line Ltd., said the crew can try to outrun the pirate boats or turn fire hoses on anyone trying to board the ship, \"but we do not carry arms.\" Watch company spokesman say how captain is held \u00bb . The vessel was carrying relief supplies for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services. The U.N. agency said its portion of the cargo included nearly 4,100 metric tons of corn-soya blend bound for Somalia and Uganda, and another 990 metric tons of vegetable oil for refugees in Kenya. CNN's Jason Carroll contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Backup heading to scene of standoff, Gen. David Petraeus says .\nMaersk Alabama leaves scene with armed detail as negotiations for captain continue .\nFBI assists in negotiations with pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips in lifeboat .\nU.S. Navy warned that pirates increasing range of operations .","id":"e6b25fcddf4b2d7f882c91c8588c2bf8ee7c6fc2"} -{"article":"MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida (CNN) -- No piece of equipment is more crucial to a soldier in the field than his rifle. And America's most elite troops are about to get a new series of rifles designed for their unique and dangerous missions. CNN was given an exclusive look at two new rifles for an elite group of U.S. troops. \"The difference is, I'm gonna have a weapon that's gonna fit the situation,\" an Army Ranger staff sergeant said. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is about to start training its SEALs, Green Berets and other Special Operations troops in the use of Mark 16 and Mark 17 rifles. Within a year, the new rifles should be in action against terrorists and insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan and hot spots the public may never hear about. The usually secretive SOCOM gave CNN an exclusive chance to see and even fire the new weapon recently at its headquarters near Tampa, Florida. Watch a preview of the new weapons \u00bb . The contractors working with SOCOM to develop the weapon say it is more versatile and more accurate, jams less and lasts longer than the current rifle used by many Special Operations troops, the M-4. The Mark 16 (Mk16) fires a 5.56 mm round, the same size used for decades in M-16s and M-4s. The Mk17 fires a larger 7.62 mm round that is used in some U.S. military machine guns, but it's not the same round as in the AK-47, the world's most widely used assault rifle. Both of the new rifles are designed to kill regardless of the situation. \"Whether that's a soft target, a guy without body armor, or whether that's an enemy force within a vehicle that you need to shoot through a window or the side of the vehicle and you want to ensure that round is not deflected,\" said Tucker Campion, a retired Navy SEAL who now is a civilian contractor working on the new rifles. \"We want a round that, when it hits the enemy soldier, provides the maximum amount of damage.\" Even though they fire different-size bullets, each rifle is largely interchangeable with the other. By changing only a few parts, including the bolt and the barrel, a soldier can switch from a gun that fires the lighter 5.56 mm round to one that shoots the heavier 7.62 mm round in a matter of minutes. That's just one example of the rifle's versatility. Each gun comes with three interchangeable barrels, and each gives the troops a specific advantage. \"If you were going to clear an urban environment, buildings, rooms, you'd probably throw the short barrel on there,\" the staff sergeant said. CNN is honoring the Ranger's request not to identify him, because in battle, anonymity is crucial for Special Operations troops. \"If you're in Afghanistan and you're walking in the mountains and the hills and all that, and your distance is going to be a lot greater to the enemy, and you're probably going to want to throw the longer barrel on there so you get that extra reach,\" the Ranger said. Even though the rifles fire the same bullets as existing weapons, they are designed to be much more accurate. \"If you look at a current inventory assault rifle, you get 350 to 400 meters,\" Campion said of their range of accuracy. \"Put a long barrel in (the new rifle), and now you're at 6 to 7 (hundred meters). So we're extending the standoff between us and the enemy.\" A longer standoff means an American can shoot an enemy soldier from farther away; thus, the American is safer. One of the main goals was to design a gun that lasts longer. Campion says the M-4 is designed to fire 6,000 rounds over five years. But the Mk16 and Mk17 were designed for Special Operations, who are likely to fire 6,000 rounds in less than one year. The new rifles are designed to handle the greater rate of use and last twice as long. The design changes that make the Mk16 and Mk17 last longer also make them more reliable. Nothing is worse for a GI in battle than for his rifle to jam at the wrong moment, but it happens with all kinds of guns. These new rifles are designed to reduce those jamming problems as much as possible. The new rifle also comes in a Mk13 model, which includes a grenade launcher mounted below the barrel. To those who will use the rifles in the field, what they need first and foremost from the new weapons is success. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Military will train an elite group of troops with versatile new rifles .\nMark 16, Mark 17 rifles designed for their unique and dangerous missions .\nUsually secretive Special Operation Command gave CNN an exclusive look .\nThe new rifles are designed to handle the greater rate of use and last twice as long .","id":"d61de590315d686ef1c43f12f478116264431aa9"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco is executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization that seeks to protect people's rights. A lawyer from Chile, he was educated there, in Spain and at Harvard Law School. Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco says conviction of Peru's ex-president is a warning to those who deny human rights. (CNN) -- Peruvians are celebrating an extraordinary victory this week: the conviction of their former president, Alberto Fujimori, for death squad killings carried out during his rule in the 1990s. The Peruvian Supreme Court found him guilty of egregious human rights abuses, including the massacre of innocent civilians, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison -- a stiff message to other leaders that justice can eventually catch up to even the most powerful. It is one of the first times a nation's own independent courts have convicted a former leader for such serious human rights crimes and it sets an important precedent for a region that suffered so much from political violence and rights violations. Equally significant, the ruling came after a lengthy televised trial, which was clearly fair to the defendant -- despite Peru's previous history of authoritarianism and weak rule of law. Fujimori came to office in 1990 on the promise of crushing a vicious Maoist insurgency but, in the process of restoring order, he corrupted and weakened Peru's most vital government institutions -- including parliament, the courts and law enforcement. Just a few years ago, Fujimori had near-total control of Peru's judiciary. For a decade, his government used bribery, extortion, and intimidation to concentrate power in the presidency, subverting the democratic process and eliminating normal checks by the judiciary, legislature, and media on government abuses. He led Peru from 1990 to 2000, presiding over the war with the Shining Path guerrillas and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. He was convicted of authorizing killings and kidnappings by paramilitary death squads. Fujimori is to be tried separately on multiple corruption charges. The landmark decision fits within a global trend of increasing accountability for former heads of state. Just 20 years ago, it was exceedingly rare for even the most brutal leaders to be brought to book. In the late 20th century, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, Milton Obote, Ferdinand Marcos, Anastasio Somoza, Jean-Claude \"Baby Doc\" Duvalier and Mobutu Sese Seko, to name just a few, were never brought to trial. Since then, however, the tide has turned. In October 1998, London police arrested General Augusto Pinochet on a warrant from a Spanish judge for human rights crimes. The arrest and the subsequent decisions by the British House of Lords to reject Pinochet's claim of immunity were a wake-up call to tyrants everywhere, but more important, they gave hope to victims elsewhere that they too could bring their tormentors to justice. In country after country, particularly in Latin America, victims were inspired to challenge the amnesty laws of the 1980s and 1990s that had allowed the perpetrators of atrocities to go unpunished and, often, to remain in power. Thanks to these efforts, former leaders in Argentina, and Uruguay have also faced human rights trials. Pinochet's arrest also strengthened a nascent international movement -- spurred by the killings in Bosnia and Rwanda, and facilitated by the end of the Cold War -- to make certain the worst abuses are punished. After the creation of UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the world established the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so. The ICC is now investigating crimes in the Central African Republic, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in March the court indicted President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur. The Fujimori case stands out, though, because it was Peru's national court system which demonstrated the will, capacity, and independence to try its former president. A second panel of the Supreme Court will now review an appeal by Fujimori. One can hope the second panel will be as transparent and fair as the first. Even after this verdict, impunity for past atrocities continues to be a major problem in Peru and throughout the region. It is likely, however, that yesterday's verdict will help give momentum to efforts currently underway in many Latin American countries to bring other human rights violators to justice. The verdict will also send a powerful message to current heads of state who may be tempted to use abusive tactics to resolve their political problems. As Fujimori discovered yesterday, crimes they may be able to get away with while in power can come back to haunt them years later. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco.","highlights":"Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco: Peruvian court verdict in Fujimori case sends strong message .\nFujimori was convicted for allowing death squads to murder innocents .\nSince Pinochet case, Vivanco says, courts have been holding leaders accountable .\nVivanco: Leaders who deny human rights may suffer for it years later .","id":"02513f615bdb7eed39e407edda28dc7e88d1c8e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three former guerrilla leaders -- who helped command what one activist called \"one of the most brutal rebel movements in modern days\" -- were sentenced Wednesday in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for crimes against humanity. Amputee victims of Sierra Leone's civil war take part in football training at a beach in Freetown. The U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone found the men guilty in February of crimes that included murder, rape, sexual slavery and forced marriages stemming from a civil war that lasted from March 1991 to January 2002. They were arrested in March 2003, said Peter Anderson, spokesman for the U.N. court. The rebels -- former leaders in the Revolutionary United Front guerrilla movement -- were known for hacking off civilians' hands and feet during the war, which stood out for its viciousness even on a a continent that has suffered many horrific conflicts. Presiding Judge Pierre Boutet of Canada read the sentences. Former Revolutionary United Front \"interim leader\" Issa Hassan Sesay was sentenced to 52 years in prison, former commander Morris Kallon to 40 years, and former chief of security Augustine Gbao to 25 years. Sesay and Kallon had been found guilty on 16 counts, and Gbao was found guilty on 14. The former rebels received credit for the six years each already has served in prison, Anderson told CNN. He said they will be imprisoned in another country, maybe Rwanda, because the prisons in Sierra Leone do not meet the standards of the U.N. court. Kallon was the only one of the three to express sorrow at his sentencing, Anderson said. \"He really had made a genuine expression of remorse,\" which is considered a stronger statement than regret, the court spokesman added. The court noted several mitigating factors at the sentencing, but \"in view of the gravity of the crimes, their impact was limited,\" a statement from the court said. The court noted that the crimes \"were committed upon a massive scale across several districts of Sierra Leone\" and that \"the impact of all these crimes upon the Sierra Leonean society has been enormous.\" \"The Chamber concluded that the inherent gravity of the criminal acts for which Sesay, Kallon and Gbao have been convicted is exceptionally high,\" the statement said. Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa division, had called the verdict \"very significant.\" \"The RUF were renowned for leading one of the most brutal rebel movements in modern days. Everyone knows about the signature atrocity of limb amputation, but there was also horrific sexual violence, abductions, use of child soldiers and forced marriages,\" she told CNN by phone from Senegal in West Africa. Eight people have been convicted of war crimes connected with the conflict -- some on the rebels' side and some on the government's. The U.N. Special Court's mandate is to try only \"those who bear greatest responsibility for atrocities committed in Sierra Leone.\" The trial of Sesay, Kallon and Gbao lasted nearly five years. The three had pleaded not guilty on all counts. The Special Court cannot impose the death penalty. The Revolutionary United Front seized most of Sierra Leone from the government and fought international and African peacekeepers. International forces retook the capital, Freetown, in 2000. The trial of the three former leaders was the last of three to be held at the Special Court. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is on trial separately at an international court in The Hague, Netherlands, for his role in the conflict. The prosecution rested in the Taylor case in January after a year of presenting its arguments. Sierra Leone is known for its diamond wealth, but 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The Special Court is an independent tribunal established jointly by the United Nations and the Sierra Leone government. It is mandated to bring to justice those most responsible for atrocities committed in Sierra Leone after November 30, 1996.","highlights":"Three rebels in Sierra Leone sentenced for crimes against humanity .\nU.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone found the men guilty in February .\nMen convicted of crimes such as murder, rape, sexual slavery, forced marriages .\nCharges stem from civil war that lasted from March 1991 to January 2002 .","id":"82b0e2f94c6c12c92bb9c4bead648fca5c747bbf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities searched a church near where an 8-year-old California girl was found dead Monday in the hopes of finding clues that would lead to her killer. Mourners leave condolences for Sandra Cantu, who was found dead on April 6 in Tracy, California. The body of Sandra Cantu of Tracy, California, was found stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond. Cantu had been missing since March 27. Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told CNN's Nancy Grace he would not elaborate on what evidence led them to Clover Road Baptist Church. He would say only that detectives developed probable cause that persuaded a judge to sign a search warrant. Lane Lawless, the church's pastor, told CNN affiliate KCRA he was questioned for about three hours by police, adding that he had nothing to do with Cantu's disappearance or death. \"We have fully cooperated with the police,\" Lawless told KCRA. \"We have answered all their questions.\" Authorities also searched the mobile home park Tuesday where the girl lived. Watch report on murder investigation \u00bb . \"Investigators are looking at additional information they received since yesterday (Monday) and, hopefully, that will lead us to Sandra's killers,\" Sheneman said. Asked if his use of the plural meant police were looking for more than one person, Sheneman responded, \"We have no specific suspects.\" Watch Sheneman say there has not been an arrest in the case \u00bb . Sheneman also implied the killer likely was familiar with the location where the body was found. He said he himself was unfamiliar with the location where the girl's body was found, despite having lived in the community for nearly 12 years. \"Someone would have to be familiar with that area to know to go there,\" he said. Watch how the suitcase was found \u00bb . Sheneman said police had no one in custody, despite having interviewed hundreds of people regarding the case. \"Everyone that we speak to right now is being considered a person of interest,\" he said. \"We're not eliminating anyone.\" The autopsy was being conducted Tuesday, but it was not clear when the report would be available. \"It's going to be some time before we hear from the coroner,\" Sheneman said. \"I can't tell you when that's going to be.\" More than 10 search warrants have been executed as part of the investigation and \"a lot\" of evidence has been recovered, Sheneman said. The day Cantu was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman. Police said Monday the girl's clothing helped them identify the body.","highlights":"NEW: Police search church near mobile park home where Sandra Cantu lived .\nPolice would not say what evidence led to search of church .\nCantu was found in suitcase in a pond near her California home .\nCantu had been missing since March 27 .","id":"9bc6734ed55d75382fbbd6fafec91b16c313ef23"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British man who has just claimed the world land sailing speed record is now planning to better his speed -- on ice. Greenbird, driven by Briton Richard Jenkins has claimed the land sailing speed record . Using just wind power, Richard Jenkins drove his vehicle, the Greenbird, to 202 km\/hour (126 miles\/hour) in late March on the dry Lake Ivanpah near the border of California and Nevada in the western United States. Greenbird is a carbon fibre composite craft -- described by the makers on their Web site as \"part airplane, part sailboat and part Formula One car\" -- that uses solid sails to harness the power of the wind. It weighs 600 kg and is able to travel up to four or five times greater than the speed of the wind -- at which point the downward force of the wings increases the craft's weight to nearly a ton. The only metal in the structure is in the wing bearings and the wheel. Jenkins told CNN the record came after the team, which is sponsored by UK-based green electricity company Ecotricity, made gains in all aspects of the vehicle's design. \"It's a real mixture of everything -- all of the margins are so tight you have to make a little gain in every place.\" The technologically advanced Greenbird works by using the flow of air over its vertical sail to push it forward. It transfers the side force of wind into downward energy to keep it from taking off -- a similar concept to that used in Formula One race cars. Greenbird's record speed defeated the previous record set by American Bob Schumacher in 1999. Schumacher, in what he described as a \"boat\" called the \"Iron Duck,\" managed 116 miles per hour. View a photo gallery of the successful speed record attempt \u00bb . Jenkins told CNN he had been working towards the record for about 10 years and was ecstatic to have managed the feat. \"We had been working on this for a long time. It started when I was at university...so it was great to finally achieve the record.\" The 32-year-old said bad weather and attracting sponsorship had been the main challenges in preparing to set the record. \"You have to be very lucky for the weather to be right at the right time. For years I thought we were going to be unlucky.\" With the land sailing record under his belt, Jenkins now plans to return to work on his Greenbird ice sailing craft -- which he feels has the potential to be even quicker than the Greenbird land racer. \"Theoretically it should be a lot faster, but currently ice yachts are not as quick as land yachts. We are not completely sure why.\" Jenkins said his next ice sailing attempt would likely take place in December this year on Canyon Ferry Lake in Montana, where the ice is large and secure enough for the vehicle. It is also important to make attempts before snow falls on the ice, creating more drag, Jenkins added. Ice sailing is significantly more risky than land sailing, he told CNN. \"Depending on when you go, the ice can be a lot more unstable. There is the risk that you could go through a water-hole into the ice. We try not to think about it,\" Jenkins said. For more about the Greenbird land and ice craft, go to Greenbird.co.uk .","highlights":"Greenbird, driven by Richard Jenkins, claims the land sailing speed record .\nThe land yacht reaches 202 km\/hour (126.1 miles\/hour) on a dry lake in California .\nMakers describe craft as \"part airplane, part sailboat and part Formula One car\"\nJenkins is now aiming to better the speed in Montana in his ice-sailing craft .","id":"ab7b0a046836c640dcb1d270abedc8eb92da3d25"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN's Ed Henry traveled with Barack Obama to Europe on the his first overseas trip as president. President Obama speaks during a news conference after the G-20 summit in London, England, on April 2. ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- One of the most revealing moments of President Obama's European tour came early in the trip at the close of the G-20 summit in London, England, where expectations were sky high for the new guy. He had just scored some victories on the financial crisis, while also taking some lumps. And now he had to face the media. Pushed by a reporter on why he couldn't get more done, the president was ready with a comeback about how it was far easier for American and British leaders to get their way at summits in years gone by. \"Well, if there's just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy, that's a -- that's an easier negotiation,\" the president said to laughter from reporters. \"But that's not the world we live in, and it shouldn't be the world that we live in.\" In two simple sentences, the president accomplished a lot. In the first sentence, he made a fair point about how no U.S. president -- Barack Obama or George W. Bush -- can simply wave a magic wand and get the world to follow his lead. And in the second, with the line about how \"it shouldn't be the world that we live in,\" he was trying to send a signal to Europe that he's not planning to bully them. Again and again, Obama said he was here to listen and learn -- not to lecture colleagues such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Left unsaid, since it was plain enough to see, was what Obama was really saying: I'm not President Bush. That was clearly Obama's biggest accomplishment on this trip. He was able to effectively press that reset button administration officials have been talking about in order to make the case that traditional U.S. allies should come back into the fold, and it seemed to work. I remember sitting in the front row during a news conference at a palace in France to hear Sarkozy positively gush, \"And it feels really good to be able to work with a U.S. president who wants to change the world and who understands that the world does not boil down to simply American frontiers and borders. And that is a hell of a good piece of news for 2009.\" Those are the style points where Obama clearly scored, and not just with European leaders. A new CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 79 percent of Americans surveyed feel that Obama has had a \"more positive\" effect on how people in other countries view the U.S. Only 19 percent of those surveyed thought he's had a \"more negative\" effect. The much tougher question is on substance, and whether Obama was able to capitalize on those warm feelings to accomplish what he set out to do before this trip. On that he basically has an incomplete because the early record here in Europe has been mixed. At the London summit, the president pushed for big money to be pumped into the world economy, and the leaders responded with $1.1 trillion. But that money is being directed to the International Monetary Fund to help developing countries, not pumped into the large economies to stimulate growth as U.S. officials had hoped. And Obama was also able to help prevent Sarkozy and others from getting a global supercop to oversee markets across all borders, a bit of a victory in his effort to make sure new regulations do not go too far. Perhaps the biggest victory came on the sidelines of the G-20 and had nothing to do with the financial crisis. Obama had his first face-to-face with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and they seemed to thaw those recently icy relations. Most important, is the two men agreed to begin intense negotiations to drastically reduce each side's nuclear stockpiles. This could be a dramatic step forward for world peace, so pay close attention to this development. But a cautionary note: There's a lot of heavy lifting left before this becomes a reality, and we may not know until Obama's visit to Moscow in July whether or not this deal has legs. At the NATO summit in France and Germany, the president was hoping to get a boost in resources for the war in Afghanistan. He did get allies to cough up about 5,000 troops, but in the form of police and security trainers -- not combat troops. So with Obama already committing 21,000 more U.S. troops to the mission, this is a very U.S.-heavy effort, something to keep a close eye on in the days ahead. In Prague, Czech Republic, at the European Union summit, Obama delivered a speech about nuclear nonproliferation to more than 20,000 people -- a boisterous crowd reminiscent of the campaign. He even used the old line \"yes we can\" to answer critics who think he can't follow through on ridding the world of nuclear weapons. But the most important moment of that stop in the tour came a few hours before the speech. It was when the infamous 3 a.m. phone call that Hillary Clinton talked about in the campaign finally arrived. Except it came at 4:30 a.m., when spokesman Robert Gibbs woke the president with the news that North Korea had tested a missile. He basically passed the test of his first international crisis (with -- ahem -- Secretary of State Clinton at his side, no less), although so far the administration has gotten nowhere at the United Nations despite a clear case against North Korea. Welcome to the U.N., sir. And finally, in Turkey the president officially began his outreach to try and repair the U.S. image in the Muslim world. Most interesting is that he got personal, alluding to the fact that he grew up in Indonesia and his father was Muslim -- politically risky given that last year he spent so much time having to deny false rumors that he's Muslim. \"The United States has been enriched by Muslim-Americans,\" Obama said. \"Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country -- I know, because I am one of them.\" The speech was very well-received in this Muslim-majority nation. But it will take far more than one speech to fix tensions flared by everything from the war to Iraq to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. In all, that's a hefty agenda to confront in just eight days abroad. It's no surprise then that I've noticed the president has been looking very tired on this trip. One aide told me that Obama was planning to go out for a nice unofficial dinner with first lady Michelle Obama in Prague on Saturday night but it was canceled because they simply needed some sleep. The fatigue has been complicated by the fact that Obama has been battling a nasty cold, telling aides he feels like he's got an \"acorn up my nose\" -- an interesting turn of phrase I had never heard before but seems to mean the president is stuffed up. And that brings me back to that brandy Roosevelt and Churchill shared decades ago. Obama made a legitimate claim about the difficulty of calling the shots in the current global environment, where small and mid-sized countries hold more sway than before. But right now all I can focus on is the brandy itself. After eight long days on the road, and very little sleep, I'm pretty ragged, too. That sounds like a pretty good way to cap things off.","highlights":"Obama: World's fate no longer decided by Roosevelt and Churchill sitting over brandy .\nEuropeans respond favorably to president's message that it's a new era .\nObama meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; relations start to thaw .\nLots of heavy lifting to be done to make lofty goals reality, CNN's Ed Henry cautions .","id":"43ffa238a41ea4409fae77dc00373918ea7873dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Who controls the past controls the future.\" President Reagan's former aides say Obama's budget repudiates Reaganomics. It's a line from George Orwell's novel \"1984.\" But it could also serve as the rallying cry for two groups battling over President Obama's ambitious domestic agenda -- and the legacy of two former presidents. Critics of Obama's proposed $3.5 trillion federal budget say he's poised to jeopardize the economic gains unleashed by President Reagan. They say he will make the same mistakes that President Lyndon B. Johnson did when he committed massive amounts of federal money to create a slew of anti-poverty programs dubbed \"The Great Society.\" \"The Great Society created a lot of programs and wasted a lot of money,\" said Kenneth Khachigian, a former Reagan speechwriter and adviser. \"The biggest war on poverty was the economic boom started by Reagan.\" But others like Joseph Califano Jr., Johnson's senior domestic adviser, say the notion that the Great Society was a failure is one of the \"greatest political scams\" in American history. Republican leaders who have labeled Obama's budget proposals socialist are rehashing the rhetoric their predecessors used to attack Great Society programs like Head Start 40 years ago, Califano says. \"I'm hearing the same round of arguments,\" Califano said. \"The Republicans said that if you provide Head Start and preschool education to poor kids, it would 'Sovietize' our kids and be communistic.\" 'Failure' of the Great Society . The clash between both points of view centers on Obama's plan for reviving the nation's economy. The Senate and the House of Representatives passed similar versions of Obama's $3.5 trillion budget for 2010 last week. The budget didn't receive a single Republican vote in either chamber. Both chambers will meet after Easter recess to produce a final budget. Even before last week's vote, though, Obama's budget was creating a partisan wedge. Proponents said it would use trillions of dollars to transform education, spark a green industrial revolution and provide health care to all Americans. CNN political analyst David Gergen said Obama's budget \"set forth the most ambitious reform agenda of any president since Lyndon Johnson.\" Gergen's comment could be taken as a compliment or a reprimand, depending on one's historical point of view. Craig Shirley, author of \"Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All,\" took it as a warning. His model for reviving the nation is Reagan, who moved \"power from the government to the people\" by cutting taxes and making government less intrusive. Shirley, alluding to an alleged Reagan quip that \"Johnson declared war on poverty and poverty won,\" says out-of-wedlock births, illiteracy and bloated federal programs increased during the Great Society. He says Medicare and Medicaid, two vaunted Great Society programs that provide health care to the poor and elderly, are now virtually bankrupt. \"All evidence says that the Great Society was a failure,\" Shirley said. Khachigian, Reagan's speechwriter, says Obama's budget would also create tension between people who fought their way up the economic ladder and those who did not. Under Obama, the well-off would be \"brought back down through higher taxes and subsidizing benefits for people who have not worked as hard.\" Obama's budget is influenced by the president's previous job as a community organizer, Khachigian says. \"You can't have been a community organizer and not have in your mindset that agencies of the government exist to, as Obama said, to 'spread the wealth,' '' Khachigian said. If Obama wants to look at an economic blueprint for lifting the nation out of a nasty recession, he should look at Reagan, Khachigian says. Reagan's tax cuts helped end the deep recession he inherited when he came into office, he said. The economy took off, and everyone benefited. \"I would argue that the biggest war on poverty took place when the economy started booming in 1983,'' Khachigian said. The 'myth' of Reagan's tax cuts . Other analysts had a different take on the legacy of the Reagan Revolution and what it can teach Obama. Will Bunch, author of \"Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future,'' says Reaganomics is built on a fable. Reagan didn't prove that tax cuts and small government lead to economic growth, because he never consistently did both, he says. Bunch says Reagan did cut taxes in 1981 but raised them in succeeding years. He also expanded the federal government and created a huge national debt. \"His initial 1981 tax cuts went so far that he was actually forced to increase taxes a half-dozen times in the years that followed, something you never hear about,\" Bunch said. Obama would do better to follow the example of Johnson, not Reagan, says Califano, Johnson's senior domestic adviser. He says Johnson's Great Society was designed to give the most vulnerable Americans -- the poor, the elderly, the disabled and racial minorities -- the same opportunities as the affluent. \"The Great Society saw government as providing a hand up, not a handout,\" said Califano, who wrote about his time with the president in \"The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.\" He says the Great Society proved that government wasn't incompetent. Johnson persuaded Congress to pass at least 100 Great Society proposals. Programs awarded college students financial aid, gave struggling families food stamps and gave millions of Americans access to health insurance for the first time. It also reduced poverty, Califano says. About 22 percent of Americans lived below the poverty line when Johnson took office in 1963. By 1970, when the impact of Great Society programs was being felt, the poverty rate dropped to 12.6 percent, Califano says. (The poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5 percent, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.) Califano, who calls Obama's budget a logical extension of the Great Society, says Obama personally benefited from the Great Society \"crown jewel\": the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ensured African American participation at the polls. \"My God, Obama wouldn't be president if Lyndon Johnson hadn't passed that civil rights law,\" Califano said. \"He would not have gotten the votes to get elected.\" Robert Weisbrot, co-author of \"The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s,'' says the Great Society also helped lay the foundation for the modern environmental movement with its passage of clean air and water laws. Read why Weisbrot says Obama can't create another Great Society . \"We can find much to celebrate in those years in the 1960s when we see a burst of reform when the government is ready to face problems openly and decisively,\" Weisbrot said. There may be, however, one point of agreement for supporters and critics of Obama's domestic agenda. It was expressed by Khachigian, Reagan's former speechwriter. When asked whether he was miffed that some people were now comparing Obama to Reagan, he said his opposition to Obama's budget was based on something deeper: fear. He says the nation could become a Failed Society if Obama's approach doesn't end a brutal recession. \"It's not a matter of pride but of practicality,\" he said. \"If this doesn't work, we're all in deep doo-doo.\"","highlights":"Clash over Obama's budget centers on America's future, and past .\nReagan aides say Obama forgets lessons of Reaganomics .\nAuthor says Reagan raised taxes and increased size of government .\nLBJ's senior aide says Johnson's Great Society was a success .","id":"4d6ad7b3de18a9f5cddac3a601ff9a2160134dac"} -{"article":"BINGHAMTON, New York (CNN) -- Authorities defended the timeliness of police response to Friday's massacre at an upstate New York immigration services center as funerals were set to begin Sunday for two of the 13 slain. Jiverly Wong, 41, has been identified by police as the gunman in the Binghamton, New York, rampage. \"No decisions by the police had any bearing on who died,\" Broome County District Attorney Jerry Mollen told reporters Sunday. The first officers arrived at the American Civic Association about three minutes after the first emergency calls were made Friday, according to a timeline by the Binghamton Police Department. Officers did not enter the building for about 40 minutes, police said. \"No one was shot after police arrival, and none of the people who had been shot could have been saved, even if the police had walked in the door within [the] first minute,\" Mollen said. \"The injuries were that severe.\" Police said Jiverly Wong, a 41-year-old Vietnamese immigrant from an ethnic Chinese family, fatally shot his victims and then turned his gun on himself. City officials on Sunday released a list of all the victims. A receptionist at the American Civic Association called 911 at 10:31 a.m. Friday while she hid under her desk, said Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski. She was shot in the stomach and pretended to be dead before crawling under the desk, he said. Watch Zikuski give a timeline of the shooting \u00bb . Four people, including the receptionist, remained in serious condition in local hospitals but were expected to survive, the chief said. Wong had been taking English classes at the association and was upset about recently losing a job, police said. But officials on Sunday were still trying to determine a motive. Zikuski said the first 911 calls were in \"broken English,\" and dispatchers \"could not determine what was the problem.\" But two minutes after the first calls, officers were being dispatched to the civic association, and the first units arrived one minute later, the chief said. He said in these types of situations officers have orders to enter a building if shooting is still happening inside, but in this case the shooting had stopped. At 10:38 a.m., one of the wounded called with a description of the gunman. The department's tactical squad did not move in until 11:13 a.m., Zikuski said. Mollen said the issue of the police response was \"an obvious question\" that will be investigated, but \"now's not the time.\" \"We need a lot more information before any reasoned, intelligent response can be given to you,\" he said. Those who knew Wong said they were not surprised by his actions, Zikuski said Saturday. \"Some of this behavior on his [Wong's] part wasn't a total shock,\" the chief said. \"Apparently people were making fun of him. He felt he was being degraded because of his inability to speak English, and he was upset about that,\" Zikuski said. Wong came to the United States in the late 1980s and lived in Binghamton before moving to California in the early 1990s, police said. He returned to Binghamton in July 2007, Zikuski said. Wong became a U.S. citizen in 1995 and married and divorced while living in California, where he had been convicted on a misdemeanor charge of writing bad checks, according to Zikuski. Police found at the center two semi-automatic handguns, a .45-caliber and a 9 mm, licensed to Wong. The guns were purchased locally, and Wong made trips to a firing range \"at least once a week, sometimes more than that,\" Zikuski said. Wong had attempted to purchase \"a number of firearms,\" the chief said. Purchasing a gun in New York takes about two weeks, Zikuski said, and Wong would return to a store during that period, \"cancel that order and purchase another one.\" Wong was wearing body armor during the shooting. Investigators are \"looking into that\" because New York limits body armor purchases to law enforcement, Zikuski said. Funerals for two victims were held Sunday afternoon at a local mosque. An interfaith memorial service for all the victims was held Sunday evening, and hundreds of people took part in a candlelight vigil afterward. Watch relatives remember one of the victims, Roberta \"Bobby\" King \u00bb . \"In a strange way, this tragedy has brought everyone together,\" Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan said. \"We are a good community, a nonviolent community,\" Ryan said earlier of the city of about 50,000 people about 140 miles northwest of New York City. \"And we are going to spread the word that this is a community that will come together and heal.\" More details emerged over the weekend about the shooting. Wong used his car to barricade the center's back door and entered through the front of the building, authorities said. Ryan said the car belonged to Wong's father. Wong lived with his parents in Johnson City, near Binghamton, the site of a law enforcement search Friday. \"They took a computer hard drive -- they took an empty long gun case and some other bags,\" the mayor said. Wong was known to practice target shooting there, acquaintances told state police. Angela Leach, a representative of the American Civic Association, read a statement through tears at a news conference Saturday. View photos from the scene in Binghamton \u00bb . \"Whatever drove this individual to do what he did I cannot possibly fathom,\" Leach said. \"But we will come out of our grief and sadness more resolute in our mission and more dedicated than ever to help people realize the dream of American citizenship.\" One of the victims was Omri Yigal's wife, Dolores, Yigal told CNN. A native of the Philippines, she was taking English classes at the center to better herself. Yigal said he had no anger for the shooter. \"My thoughts are on my wife. I don't have time for that now,\" he said. Yigal said he felt \"grief for my wife and that's it.\" \"She's come so far,\" he said haltingly. He crossed his arms and his eyes to the ground. \"So much,\" he said. CNN's Allan Chernoff and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities defend police response; two funerals held Sunday .\nGuns found at scene registered to suspected shooter, authorities say .\nSuspect was taking English classes, also upset at losing job, police say .\nGunman kills 13 people, then self at Binghamton, New York, immigration center .","id":"bcb6d3b92f0a711247b8ae3f55651cad47d251c9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A pair of Republican congressmen ripped Congressional Black Caucus members for ignoring Cuba's \"myriad gross human rights abuses\" Thursday, saying this week's caucus trip to the island nation ignored the plight of political prisoners under the Castro regime. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, blasts members of the Black Caucus on Thursday for their trip to Cuba. They also urged the Obama administration to refrain from easing trade embargo or travel restrictions until the Cuban government releases all \"prisoners of conscience,\" shows greater respect for freedom of religion and speech, and holds \"free and fair\" elections. The call from Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, came three days after the administration signaled that new rules on family travel and remittances to Cuba may be announced before President Obama goes to the Summit of the Americas on April 17. It also followed statements from several Black Caucus members Tuesday arguing for consideration of an end to the trade embargo and other diplomatic restrictions placed on Cuba for five decades. Watch CNN's Ed Hornick discuss the story \u00bb . \"Yes, we have history -- we have good history and not-so-good history,\" said Rep. Laura Richardson, D-California. \"But the point is it's history, and we need to move forward.\" Three members of the caucus were visiting the Latin American School of Medicine, where students from nations including the United States study, when they received an invitation to Fidel Castro's home for a meeting. \"Former President Fidel Castro is very engaging, very energetic,\" said CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee, also a from California Democrat. \"Our conclusion is, given the new direction in our foreign policy, that it's time to look at a new direction in our policy toward Cuba. Watch Lee discuss her visit to Cuba \u00bb . \"The 50-year embargo just hasn't worked,\" she said. The caucus members, who also visited current Cuban President Raul Castro, \"did nothing to publicly show any concern for the myriad gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the Cuban government or the tragic fate of hundreds of Cuban democracy and human rights activists,\" Smith said. \"Yet they held press conferences at which they heaped and lavished praise and affection for a government the United States Department of State only six weeks ago called 'totalitarian.' \" A 2008 State Department human rights report cited, among other things, numerous accounts of beatings of Cuban political prisoners, harsh and life- threatening conditions for dissidents, and severe restrictions on freedom of movement and religion, Smith said. \"Over the past 50 years, the Castros and their secret police have been directly responsible for killing thousands of nonviolent, courageous pro-democracy activists and for jailing and torturing tens of thousands of others. And they continue to this day to perpetrate their brutal crimes,\" he said. \"Before the Obama administration even thinks about permitting further travel to Cuba, or altering the trade embargo on Cuba, both the White House and Congress have a moral obligation, a duty, to ensure that the Cuban dictatorship releases all prisoners of conscience, makes substantial progress in respecting freedom of religion, speech and, press and assembly, and holds free and fair elections.\" Lee responded Thursday that it made no sense to continue what she characterized as a failed policy. \"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but by any objective standard our current policy toward Cuba just hasn't worked. Simply put, it's time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba,\" she said in a statement. \"I am convinced, based on the meetings which were held, that the Cubans do want dialogue, they do want talks, and they do want normal relations with the United States of America. And I believe that it's in the United States' best interest to do that.\" On Monday, the White House adviser for the Summit of the Americas, Jeffrey Davidow, refused to be pinned down about when the administration might announce its easing of the restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. \"I really could not say. But I would not be surprised if it came before the summit,\" he said. \"They're going to happen. I can't tell you exactly when.\" Before he was elected president, Obama promised to ease restrictions on Cuban-Americans traveling to visit family in Cuba and sending them money.","highlights":"NEW: Black Caucus Chairwoman responds to GOP criticism on Thursday .\nMembers of the CBC recently visited Cuba, met with Fidel and Raul Castro .\nGOP reps blast trip, citing Havana's \"myriad gross human rights violations\"\nN.J. congressman: Travel, trade restrictions should continue until Cuba reforms .","id":"241bc2e13224f8ad79cd58d09ac23ab6fd2f45e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"It's time to talk to Cuba.\" Fidel Castro is not in power, but he's still a big part of Cuba. He welcomed the U.S. delegation. That frank assessment from Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, has resonated loud and clear from the island of Cuba -- 90 miles from the southernmost point of Florida -- to the halls of Congress. For the first time in nearly 50 years, relations between the two nations, which have a history steeped in tension, have seemed to ease a bit. That was apparent this week as a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus traveled to the communist country on a fact-finding mission, with plans to deliver a report to the White House. Watch CNN's Ed Hornick discuss the story \u00bb . \"Our purpose was to see if there were preconditions on the Cuban side. We heard that there were no preconditions,\" Lee said Wednesday. \"And, in fact, we wanted to find out if they were interested. We have to remember that every country in Latin America, 15 countries, have normal relations with Cuba. ... We're the country which is isolated.\" Watch Lee discuss her visit to Cuba \u00bb . But even more significant were the meetings the group had with Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro and with his brother and predecessor, 82-year-old Fidel Castro, a controversial political and social figure. President Obama has said he is in favor of changing the relationship with Cuba. The $410 billion budget Obama signed in March makes it easier for Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. It could also allow the sale of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba. Three provisions attached to the omnibus spending bill loosened restrictions enacted by former President Bush after he came to office in 2001. Analysts see the lawmakers' trip and Obama's campaign rhetoric as a way for the new administration to start thawing relations with Cuba before the Fifth Summit of the Americas. The summit will bring together the U.S. president and 33 other leaders from the Western Hemisphere in mid-April in Trinidad and Tobago. Watch more on the lawmakers' meeting \u00bb . It's a point that Fidel Castro seemed to hint at. In a letter published Tuesday in the online version of Granma, a state-run Cuban newspaper, Castro wrote that an unnamed caucus member told him \"he was sure that Obama would change Cuba policy but that Cuba should also help him.\" \"I value the gesture of this legislative group,\" Fidel Castro wrote. \"The aura of [the Rev. Martin] Luther King is accompanying them. Our press has given broad coverage of their visit. They are exceptional witnesses to the respect that U.S. citizens visiting our homeland always receive.\" U.S. citizens are allowed to visit Cuba, an island shrouded in a virtual blackout to the U.S. and other parts of the world, but must apply for special licenses to do so. Though it is illegal, some citizens travel to a country like Mexico or Canada and then into Cuba. Not everyone is eager for change. Cuban-American members of Congress, in particular, have voiced outrage over the easing of relations. Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, who was born in Cuba, doesn't want to see changes to the embargo. \"Having tourists on Cuban beaches is not going to achieve democratic change in Cuba,\" Martinez has said. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat and Cuban-American, said in a recent speech that the Cuban government is \"pure and simple a brutal dictatorship. ... The average Cuban lives on an income of less than a dollar a day.\" Fidel Castro led the 1959 revolution that overthrew Cuba's Batista dictatorship. The United States broke diplomatic ties with the nation in 1961. The next year, the U.S. government instituted a trade embargo. Both policies remain in effect. Interactive: A look at the Fidel Castro's life \u00bb . The State Department, per its Web site, officially recognizes the country as \"a totalitarian police state which relies on repressive methods to maintain control. These methods, including intense physical and electronic surveillance of Cubans, are also extended to foreign travelers.\" Although Castro was credited with bringing social reforms to Cuba, he has been criticized around the world for oppressing human rights and free speech. Lee said she hopes the meeting in Cuba this week will help open diplomatic channels between the two nations. \"It's time to change our direction in our foreign policy. The president is doing a phenomenal job in the world, reshaping America's image and role in the world,\" she said. \"So we want to make sure that we have the proper information to make recommendations to the president, our secretary of state and our speaker with regard to U.S. policy toward Cuba.\" Interactive: Learn more about Cuba \u00bb . Though the current stance of the U.S. government toward Cuba fits well with an older generation of Cuban-Americans who despise Castro, not all are of that mind-set. Namely, members of a younger generation see great benefits of opening trade and direct tourism between the United States and Cuba. Jessica Rodriguez, who owns Cuba de Ayer restaurant in Burtonsville, Maryland, is part of that younger generation looking to change the views of her community. \"I think it would be good to open up some of those doors. I have so many customers who say, 'Oh, I'd like to go to Cuba.' And I say, 'Me too.' \" \"I think it would be great for the world to see Cuba for itself,\" she added. Some Cuban-Americans like Tessie Aral, owner of a Miami, Florida, travel agency that specializes in trips to Cuba, see the financial benefits of lifting the travel ban. \"I think a lot of Americans are going to want to travel to Cuba because it's been the forbidden fruit for so long,\" Aral said. \"For our country to tell us which country we can travel to, I think that's just archaic.\" Others in Congress see opening greater relations with Cuba as vital to the United States. A group of senators and other supporters unveiled a bill March 31 to lift the 47-year-old travel ban to Cuba. \"I think that we finally reached a new watermark here on this issue,\" said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, one of the bill's sponsors. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, another sponsor of the bill, issued a draft report in February that said it was time to reconsider the economic sanctions. Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Nonetheless, there is more political and diplomatic work to be done before restrictions on travel and trade could be lifted. Though it's a first step, Lee sees it as a crack in the proverbial ceiling. \"We went to Cuba to listen to Cuban officials to make sure that we had the information and the facts that were necessary to bring back and at least let our administration know what we believe is possible.\" CNN's Jim Acosta, Arthur Brice and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Members of Congressional Black Caucus met with Cuba's Castro brothers .\nLawmaker says \"it's time to talk with Cuba\" and ease travel, trade restrictions .\nPresident Obama has said he is in favor of changing the relationship with Cuba .\nBut some members of Congress are against relations opening .","id":"e2916a3e3101e7fa16f479b14ea6d846c61ed3ee"} -{"article":"BUZZARDS BAY, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A crew member aboard a freighter seized by pirates off east Africa said Wednesday that the crew had captured one of four pirates who hijacked their vessel, but they released him in a failed hostage trade. Shane Murphy is one of the crew members on board the U.S. ship that was hijacked off Somalia's coast. The crew of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama had hoped their release of the pirate would lead the pirates to release Capt. Richard Phillips, but it did not, crew member Ken Quinn told CNN in a satellite telephone call. Instead, the four pirates -- who had scuttled their boat when they boarded the ship armed with AK-47s -- took Phillips with them aboard the ship's 28-foot lifeboat, Quinn said. The crew had earlier overpowered the pirates and forced them off the ship, according to messages from first officer Shane Murphy. Murphy relayed the information in quick phone calls to his wife and father in his home state of Massachusetts -- where his father, Joe Murphy, is a maritime instructor, and his son once lectured about dealing with hostage situations. Watch Shane Murphy's wife recall the conversation \u00bb . Joe Murphy, who teaches at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said the crew sent a distress signal to which the U.S. Navy responded immediately from almost 200 miles away. The ship had eluded the pirates for more than three hours off the coast of Somalia before being boarded, Joe Murphy said his son reported. After hiding from their attackers, then leading them to believe they were more in command of the situation than they really were, the crew jumped the pirates, capturing one of them, the elder Murphy said his son told him. \"It was by sheer force,\" he said. \"They have no weapons -- it must have been, obviously, that they overpowered them.\" He said three other pirates \"had gone into the water.\" Pentagon officials confirmed that four hijackers had boarded the Maersk Alabama Wednesday morning, and that one had been in custody. Joe Murphy said his son was in contact with the pirates Wednesday evening, helping negotiate for the release of the captain. He said he can only shake his head at the timing of the attack. Two weeks ago, Shane Murphy visited his father's class to lecture the students on situations like the one he now faces. \"This is a classic example of Murphy's law,\" Joe Murphy said. \"I teach the course, my son goes to sea and he gets captured.\" He said that, despite his concerns, he has faith that his son's experience and knowledge will help wrap up the tense situation. \"Hopefully, it's all going to work out,\" he said. \"I think this is going to end as a very positive story.\" CNN's Jason Carroll and Tom Watkins contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Maersk Alabama eluded pirates for more than three hours .\nCrew says hijacker released in hopes of freeing captain, but hijackers reneged .\n4 hijackers boarded Maersk Alabama off coast of Africa .\nCrew member details story in quick phone calls to wife, father in U.S.","id":"b3995561405141185ab01e410eb751318324e97a"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Reporters, editors and photographers at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer prepared their final contributions to the paper, toasted one another with shots of Wild Turkey and packed up their desks in an \"eerily clean\" newsroom as the final edition of the paper went to the presses Monday night. SeattlePI.com will continue to cover breaking news, Managing Editor Dave McCumber says. The paper -- which was the oldest continually operating business in Seattle -- published its final print edition Tuesday as the P-I makes a transformation into an online-only news outlet. A skeleton crew of 20 to 25 staffers will remain at the new Seattle PI.com while more than 140 staffers will lose their jobs. \"Its been an opportunity to experience your community first-hand,\" staff photographer Meryl Schenker said of her 13 years with the paper. \"You meet people from all walks of life, and that's been a real privilege.\" P-I journalists coming into the newsroom Monday morning were told by management that they would \"put the paper to bed for the last time\" that day. Other reporters and photographers on assignment when the news broke received texts about it from their colleagues. The P-I is the largest paper to go under in an economic climate where newspapers are facing a steep drop in advertising revenues and readership. At the same time, newspapers are also forced to compete with Web sites that republish news stories but do not share the costs of producing them. Last month, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, published its final edition after nearly 150 years. Last October, the Christian Science Monitor also announced that in 2009, it would replace its daily print edition with its Web site. It also offers subscribers weekly print and daily e-mail editions. P-I Publisher Roger Ogelsby said there was no way for the paper to survive in the current environment. See the final front page . \"It was a combination of time and really rotten economic conditions that caught up with us,\" Ogelsby said. The announcement came a little more than two months after Hearst Corp. which owns the paper, announced that it would either sell the P-I or close it. For months, the paper's staff prayed a buyer would come through while covering the city and the drama surrounding their own future. \"There's some relief in knowing,\" Managing Editor David McCumber said. \"And some excitement about SeattlePI.com. We'll be the first paper to go online only. So I am glad the globe will keep spinning on the roof and there will still be a P-I in Seattle even if it will be online only.\" The Web site will solicit contributions from the community, link to other sites and continue to cover breaking news, McCumber said. iReport.com: Are you a newspaper person? \"We want to engage as many people in the community as possible with the Web site. It's going to be different, there's no question,\" he said. P-I staffers who lost their jobs and those who remained said that in its new form, the P-I will no longer be able to cover Seattle with the same depth and resources it once had. Watch as staff puts out the final print edition \u00bb . \"I wrote about the port of Seattle. Looked at some of the ways the port was mismanaging public dollars,\" said investigative reporter Ruth Teichroeb, who lost her job after 11 years with the paper. \"I've looked at vulnerable adults who were being mistreated in group homes across the state. I have written about children at a state school for the deaf who were mistreated for decades. Those are the kinds of stories that the city is losing now.\" The P-I's rival, the Seattle Times, will still publish a daily newspaper, but that paper also has been plagued with financial difficulties, prompting some Seattleites to worry that they may soon live in a no-newspaper town. Under a joint operating agreement, the Times and P-I shared production costs while remaining editorially independent. That competition was good for both papers, P-I columnist Mike Lewis said. Watch more on the end of the final print edition \u00bb . \"You lose two things. You specifically lose all the stories the P-I might be doing, but you also lose a competitive news environment. It makes us a lot sharper, and it certainly has made them a lot sharper.\" David Lonay, a subscriber since 1950, told CNN affiliate KIRO he'll miss the morning ritual of picking up the paper. \"The first thing I do every day is get the P-I and read it,\" Lonay said, according to KIRO. \"I really feel like an old friend is dying.\" Sitting in a downtown cafe near the P-I, Jesse Stewart said he doesn't read either local paper because of the environmental issues involved with producing newspapers and the convenience factor of reading news online. \"I get to work and pull up my Google news. I guess I am part of the problem.\"","highlights":"The P-I abandons print format in transformation to online-only news outlet .\nNews comes two months after Hearst Corp. said it would sell the paper or close it .\nStaff of 20 to 25 will remain at seattlepi.com; more than 140 others lose jobs .\nOne Seattleite doesn't read papers: \"I get to work and pull up my Google news\"","id":"47588b2c1a4142c5d01d405b58ef63fd2a013ad7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is news that will be greeted with despair and joy in equal measure in family homes across the globe -- Computer games might be good for children. According to scientists at Brunel University in West London, \"young people can experience huge benefits from participating in multi player online role playing games\". Children playing online games have their imaginations stimulated, not stunted. On the one hand, parents will be pleased to learn that their offspring aren't wasting their time as they sit boggle-eyed in front of a computer screen, and may actually be learning important life skills needed in adulthood. But on the other, it's just another excuse for their children to spend hour upon hour locked away in their bedroom neglecting school studies and family duties. Still, there's always the off switch. Dr Simon Bradford and Nic Crowe of Brunel University's School of Sport and Education have just completed a three-year study of 13-16 year olds playing Runescape -- a massively popular online with over nine million members worldwide. The findings are in contrast to ongoing criticism that children are spending too much time indoors -- either voluntarily watching television and playing computer games or at the request of concerned parents afraid to let them play in the street or in parks, where they could be the victim or a perpetrator of crime. This so-called \"bedroom culture\" is, it is often argued, creating a generation of monosyllabic, culturally illiterate group of youngsters who are ill-prepared for the impending roles and responsibilities of adulthood. Researchers have found that far from constricting young people's imagination, Runescape and similar multiplayer virtual games enhance brain activity. They offer an opportunity to experiment with different identities such as gender, race or ability. Gamers can also benefit from opportunities that they may not have access to in the real world. \"Virtual environments, like Runescape,\" says Nic Crowe, \"form important new leisure spaces for the many young people who occupy them. In the real world, where streets or town centers have become inaccessible to many young people or are considered risky by them or their parents, it is not surprising that virtual public space has become increasingly attractive as a leisure setting.\" Runescape is one of the most popular multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) and attracts all age groups, but is particularly popular with teenagers. Players can explore a virtual world which takes its inspiration from children's fantasy games and books -- think Dungeons and Dragons and JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings -- incorporating dungeons, vast landscapes, forests and towns, with monsters to slay, quests to complete and treasure to find. The Runescape website describes the game as \"an evolving world of remarkable depth and flexibility\". \"Our research\", says Nic Crowe, \"explored how Runescape's appeal lay in the provision of an environment in which young people can experiment (symbolically) with the cultural institutions and structures of the material world -- a space in which young people can establish their presence, identity and meaning in ways that might not be accessible or permissible in their everyday lives.\" Runescape isn't just about combat. If you don't want to fight the monsters you can take on the role of a craftsman providing the tools of battle. Players can also trade goods and services and build up skills through interaction with other characters. The study revealed that many of the players were entrepreneurial, engaging in business deals online. Dr Simon Bradford says \"At a time when emerging technologies such as the Internet, and computer games in particular, continue to be subject to suspicion and concern, it is important that we also recognize the benefits of what is an increasingly popular and important activity for our young people.\" The Brunel University research findings follow hot on the heels of claims by computer giant IBM that online games are helping to groom future business leaders. Multiplayer online games are teaching children the core skills which are required to lead a team. Online games like Runescape, World of Warcraft and Everquest allow players to join forces and work in closely-knit teams to achieve a goal that may take hours or sometimes weeks to complete. With the help of Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Seriosity (a company who specialize in computer work solutions) IBM's research paper \"Virtual Worlds, Real Leaders\" suggests that MMORPG's can train leaders to deal with motivational, social and emotional needs of their team. \"If you want to see what business leadership may look like in three to five years, look at what is happening in online games,\" says Byron Reeves, professor of communication at Stanford University. According to IBM, online games also give leaders the freedom to fail and to experiment with different approaches which, they say, is something that any Fortune 500 company that hopes to innovate needs to understand. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Three-year study of 13-16 year olds playing online game Runescape .\nVirtual environments are important new leisure spaces for young people .\nOnline games give leaders the freedom to fail and to experiment .","id":"b98cf71c2e8de12acd04b94f089b69838b5f498d"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic \u00a515 trillion ($150 billion) stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world's second largest economy. Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso has announced a $150 billion stimulus package. Steeped in a recession, with a surge in bankruptcies and sentiment among its largest manufacturers at a record low, Japan has seen unemployment reach a three-year high. The stimulus plan is meant to keep Japan's economy from cracking open, coalition party officials told CNN. It is the biggest-ever supplemental budget to boost the ailing economy. Japan has been hit hard by the global financial slump. Although Japanese banks were spared the brunt of the credit crisis, the drop in exports to the United States has sent the country into its worst recession since World War II. Aso needs the package to boost Japan's economy and his government's popularity. \"This could help save his life as prime minister,\" said Satoru Ogasawara, a Tokyo-based economist for Credit Suisse. The Aso administration's approval rating fell below 10 percent two months ago, but has been buoyed by the stimulus package and the recent North Korea rocket launch, Ogasawara said. If approved, the package could add two points to the country's gross domestic product, Ogasawara said. But its long-term impact remains an open question. \"It will help the economy from collapsing from this point ... [but] unless the package improves productivity or increases demand, it will be a short-term fix,\" Ogasawara said. Jesper Koll, president and chief executive of TRJ Tantallon Research Japan, said the stimulus package was unlike the \u00a512 trillion injections into the economy in the past eight months. \"This is the first designed with real business input, and that's reflected in the package,\" he said, referring to a series of meetings Aso held with business leaders last month. \"That's outside the normal technocratic, bureaucratic fix. ... It isn't just pork-barrel money for the boys.\" Koll cites details of the plan -- such as tax breaks for gift-giving, environmentally friendly cars, or measures to increase employment in health care -- as a step forward. \"This goes way beyond grand-standing fiscal policy. It's very specific. For Japan, that's something,\" he said. Still, Japan now has one of the highest amounts of public debt in the world - a rate which could approach 200 percent of GDP next year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. \"The government has since spent billions and billions of dollars to support the economy,\" Kirby Daley, a strategist for brokerage Newedge, said. \"Japan has been trying this and has now gone into almost two lost decades and will likely enter a third lost decade if they continue down this policy path. It has not worked in Japan. It will not work again.\" Among the package's highlights: . -- \u00a51.9 trillion for unemployment benefits and the promotion of job sharing. -- \u00a53 trillion to boost struggling companies. -- \u00a51.6 trillion to promote green initiatives, such as the purchase of environmentally friendly cars and energy-efficient electronics. -- \u00a52.6 trillion for infrastructure, such as airport runways, train networks and road extensions. -- \u00a51.7 trillion for health and welfare. The proposed stimulus package helped a rally in Japanese stocks this week, with the Nikkei 225 Average briefly breaking the 9000-point level for the first time in three months on Friday morning trading. The Nikkei hit a 26-year record low last month.","highlights":"Japan announces \u00a515 trillion ($150 billion) in extra spending Friday .\nThe stimulus plan is meant to keep Japan's economy from cracking open .\n\u00a51.9 trillion allocated for unemployment benefits and the promotion of job-sharing .","id":"97795922bcd3739b9e8b18ad14d28ee79e729431"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More troops, new legislation, improved troop training and added civilian expertise highlight President Obama's strategy to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Obama, here with Hillary Clinton on Friday, calls the situation in Afghanistan \"increasingly perilous.\" Obama on Friday announced his plan to tackle what he called an \"international security challenge of the highest order.\" Stressing soberly that \"the safety of people around the world is at stake,\" Obama said the \"situation is increasingly perilous\" in the region in and around Afghanistan, where the United States has been fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban for more than 7\u00bd years after attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. \"The United States of America did not choose to fight a war in Afghanistan. Nearly 3,000 of our people were killed on September 11, 2001, for doing nothing more than going about their daily lives,\" said Obama, who has vowed to make Afghanistan the central front in the fight against terrorism. \"So let me be clear: Al Qaeda and its allies -- the terrorists who planned and supported the 9\/11 attacks -- are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. Watch how the U.S. will target terrorist safe havens \u00bb . \"And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban -- or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged -- that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.\" Obama said it is key Americans understand that Pakistan \"needs our help\" against al Qaeda. \"Al Qaeda and other violent extremists have killed several thousand Pakistanis since 9\/11. They have killed many Pakistani soldiers and police. They assassinated [former Pakistani Prime Minister] Benazir Bhutto. They have blown up buildings, derailed foreign investment and threatened the stability of the state. Make no mistake: Al Qaeda and its extremist allies are a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within.\" Watch Obama's speech on Afghanistan, Pakistan threats \u00bb . Flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Obama called on Congress to pass a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Richard Lugar, R-Indiana. The legislation authorizes \"$1.5 billion in direct support to the Pakistani people every year over the next five years -- resources that will build schools, roads and hospitals and strengthen Pakistan's democracy,\" he said. He also urged Congress to pass legislation that would create opportunity zones in the border region. The goal is to develop the economy and bring hope to places plagued by violence. Obama said, \"We will ask our friends and allies to do their part,\" including at a donors conference next month in Tokyo, Japan. \"After years of mixed results, we will not provide a blank check. Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders. And we will insist that action be taken -- one way or another -- when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets. \" Obama said the United States must work with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and others to help Pakistan get through the economic crisis. \"To lessen tensions between two nuclear-armed nations that too often teeter on the edge of escalation and confrontation, we must pursue constructive diplomacy with both India and Pakistan.\" Afghan President Harmid Karzai watched the speech on CNN from Kabul, said Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Karzai \"is extremely grateful and will issue his statement of support,\" Holbrooke said. Obama stressed that \"Afghanistan has been denied the resources that it demands because of the war in Iraq\" and now a commitment must be made. Obama said he is sending another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan, along with hundreds of civilian specialists, such as agricultural experts, educators and engineers. The troops -- which are in addition to the 17,000 announced earlier -- will be charged with training and building the Afghan army and police force. The stakes are high as al Qaeda and the Taliban have escalated the insurgency and the number of U.S. troops deaths spiked last year -- the highest yearly death toll for them in the war. Obama said the soldiers and Marines \"will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and east\" and will work with Afghan troops along the border. He said such an effort will bolster \"security in advance of the important presidential election in August.\" Watch Obama tell terrorists U.S. will defeat them \u00bb . Obama said the coalition \"will accelerate\" efforts to \"build an Afghan army of 134,000 and a police force of 82,000 so that we can meet these goals by 2011 -- and increases in Afghan forces may very well be needed as our plans to turn over security responsibility to the Afghans go forward.\" He said Afghanistan's government has been \"undermined by corruption and has difficulty delivering basic services to its people\" and its economy is undercut by \"a booming narcotics trade that encourages criminality and funds the insurgency.\" Watch Obama's remarks on the Afghan situation \u00bb . Obama said the United States will set clear benchmarks for international assistance and won't ignore attention to corruption. He said the United States will develop a new contact group for Afghanistan and Pakistan that would include not only NATO allies and other partners but also Central Asian states, Gulf nations and Iran, Russia, India and China. Reacting to Obama's plan, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin, said he is pleased the president is focusing on al Qaeda and is addressing the role of Pakistan but expressed concern the strategy could remain \"overly Afghan-centric.\" Citing Friday's suicide attack on a mosque in the Pakistani tribal region near Afghanistan, Feingold said, \"This new administration must ensure that we do what we must not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan.\" He said, \"As the bombing near the Khyber Pass this morning highlights, we need to fully address the inextricable links between the crisis in Afghanistan and the instability and terrorist threats in Pakistan.\" The bombing killed at least 48 people and wounded 80 to 90 others. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised Obama's plan, saying it is \"a significant pivot\" away from the Democratic Party's left wing. \"So the president's decision to continue Secretary Gates, follow [U.S. Central Command chief] Gen. [David] Petraeus' advice -- which may be somewhat exasperating to his own political left -- I think is in the best interest of the country and I think he's going to enjoy pretty strong Republican support for the plan,\" the Kentucky Republican told reporters.","highlights":"Intelligence shows al Qaeda planning attacks on U.S., President Obama says .\nPart of Afghan strategy is $1.5 billion annually for five years in aid for Pakistan .\nU.S. to send 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan as well as 17,000 announced earlier .\nHundreds of civilian specialists also to be deployed .","id":"612f1dddc44980ac7dc14c92e84a360239c0af84"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drinks group, has bought a minority stake in Innocent, the British fruit drink and \"smoothie\" maker that boasts of its ethical stance. Coca-Cola faces allegations about labor abuses as well as health and environmental concerns. Innocent said on its Web site the U.S. firm had paid \u00a330 million ($44 million) for a stake of \"between 10 and 20 percent\" to fund plans to expand in Europe. Innocent employs 275 people, has a turnover of more than \u00a3100 million and sells about two million smoothies each week. Its three founders, who set up the company 10 years by selling smoothies at a London music festival, insisted its ethical stance would not be compromised and they would continue to run and manage the business. Are ethics and business compatible? Tell us what you think . \"Every promise that Innocent has made -- about making only natural healthy products, pioneering the use of better, socially and environmentally aware ingredients, packaging and production techniques, donating money to charity and having a point of view on the world -- will remain,\" co-founder Richard Reed said. \"We'll just get to do them even more.\" Coca-Cola \"has been in business for over 120 years, so there will be things we can learn from them. And in some small ways we may be able to influence their thinking too.\" James Quincey, group business unit president for Coca-Cola Europe, said: \"We are delighted to have the opportunity to invest in Innocent's future. We have long admired their brand, their products and their unique approach to business.\" But the investment is sure to open up Innocent to charges that its ideals are being diluted. Coca-Cola has been criticized over negative health effects resulting from consumption of its products. It has also faced allegations about labor abuses in Colombia and environmental concerns in India, among other places. Sales of Coke are holding up well amid the global economic crisis thanks to strong growth in China and India. In February the company reported a 4 percent rise in sales volumes in the last three months of 2008 and a 10 percent increase in comparable earnings.","highlights":"Coca-Cola buys a minority stake in Innocent, the British fruit drink maker .\nInnocent said Coke paid \u00a330 million for stake of between 10 and 20 percent .\nCompany insists its ethical stance will not be compromised .\nCoca-Cola faces allegations about labor abuses and environmental concerns .","id":"b488ed4a2566ed4787fd8478f141e0bc2bc583ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two people were killed and two were severely wounded Tuesday in a shooting at a courthouse in Landshut, Germany, police said. A police car sits outside the courthouse in the German city of Landshut. The gunman, a 60-year-old man, was among the dead, Bavarian Police said in a statement. It happened around 10:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. ET) during a break in a court proceeding about inheritance, Landshut police spokesman Leonard Mayer told CNN. The man began shooting once he stepped outside the courtroom, police said. He wounded three people before turning the gun on himself, Mayer said. One of the victims, a woman, died about 2 1\/2 hours later, Bavarian Police said. Watch more about the shooting \u00bb . The lives of the two wounded victims are not in danger, he told CNN. The courthouse has no metal detectors or security checks that would have turned up the shooter's weapon, Mayer said. This latest shooting in Germany took place less than a month after a school massacre in the southwestern town of Winnenden, in which a total of 16 people were killed.","highlights":"German TV: Two people killed in a shooting at a courthouse .\nReport: Gunmen believed to have killed himself .\nCourt spokesman: Reported that there was \"no more danger\"\nLandshut is about 55 kilometers northeast of Munich .","id":"2d1f4554e1ed330f58ad407ff092639db803a044"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates in ships are searching for the lifeboat containing four pirates and their hostage -- the captain of a freighter they failed to hijack earlier this week -- according to a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation. Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia. The pirates are using ships they have already hijacked and larger ships from which they are launching skiffs, the official said Friday. One of the pirated ships is the German cargo ship Hansa Stavanger, seized April 4 off the coast of Somalia. The U.S. military has been monitoring communications between the pirates, the official said. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has now joined the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge in the area. A third ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, which has a large medical facility on board, will be there within a day. Richard Phillips, the hostage, tried to escape from the pirates Thursday night by jumping out of the lifeboat, a U.S. official said Friday. Watch what it's like inside a lifeboat \u00bb . Phillips was believed to be trying to swim to the USS Bainbridge, which is in communication with the four gunmen holding Phillips in the 28-foot boat off Somalia's coast, the official said. Some of the kidnappers jumped into the water, recaptured Phillips, and returned him to the lifeboat, according to the official. Watch what happened when captain tried to escape \u00bb . The pirates fired shots, the military official said, but had no further details. A Defense Department official told CNN that Phillips appeared to be tied up by the pirates after the escape attempt. The U.S. official -- who did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the situation -- said the escape attempt is being viewed by negotiators as an \"optimistic sign\" that Phillips is in good health. He has been held since Wednesday, when the hijackers seized control of his U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama. Watch expert talk about hostage escape attempts \u00bb . The captain's wife Andrea Phillips thanked everyone for their support in a statement. \"My husband is a strong man and we will remain strong for him,\" she said. \"We ask that you do the same. \" Phillips' 20-man crew regained control of the vessel, and they and the vessel are en route to Mombasa, Kenya, according to the father of one of the crew members. The ship's owners -- the Norfolk, Virginia-based Maersk company -- would not say how the crew regained control. \"There will be time for due diligence and retrospective review once we have the safe return of all parties and the opportunity for a full debriefing,\" it said in a statement. For the U.S. Navy, the show of strength is more than just a means to resolve a hostage situation, said Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Attacks in the area have picked up so drastically in recent months that the Navy has to reposition some of its fleet to deal with the threats, he said. iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? The pirates have shown no signs of giving in. The Maersk Alabama was on its way to Mombasa, Kenya, with a cargo of food aid when it was attacked Wednesday. It was the first time in recent history that pirates had targeted an American ship. The ship was hijacked some 350 miles off Somalia's coast, a distance that used to be considered safe for ships navigating in the pirate-infested waters. CNN's Mike Mount and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Shots fired in escape attempt, captain apparently tied up, military officials say .\nPirates using other hijacked ships to look for lifeboat as Navy ships arrive .\nCaptain's escape attempt viewed as \"optimistic sign\" of his vitality .\nRichard Phillips, captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, is being held by four gunmen .","id":"c260da4ffefaecadb5da294414b3944d910901d9"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an investigation into whether there is a connection between improperly sterilized endoscopy equipment and a veteran's positive HIV test. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, requested that the VA look into potential contamination at its facilities. This comes after more than 10,000 veterans were possibly exposed to HIV and hepatitis at three VA facilities while undergoing colonoscopies and other procedures with equipment that had not been properly cleaned. The VA sent letters to those veterans offering free testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. \"The VA prides itself on being accountable, and we are extremely concerned about this matter, and as a result we have initiated an investigation,\" Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the VA's undersecretary for health, said in a news release Friday. \"We have an obligation to provide those who have served and sacrificed for our Nation the care they deserve.\" Along with the positive HIV test, the VA says 16 other veterans have tested positive for hepatitis B and hepatitis C at two VA facilities. Of all the 17 positive test results, 11 were at the VA's Murfreesboro, Tennessee, facility, and six were from the VA's Augusta, Georgia, hospital. Thousands of other veterans are being tested at the VA hospital in Miami, and the VA says it is waiting to verify results there. So far, 3,174 veterans have been notified of their test results. VA officials decline to say where the veteran who tested positive for HIV was treated. Watch more on the contamination controversy \u00bb . Officials stress that the positive results don't necessarily mean the equipment is to blame. The VA is conducting an epidemiological investigation at the facilities to determine if the veterans who have tested positive for hepatitis have similar strains of the virus. Meanwhile, lawmakers are also calling for an investigation. In a letter last month to Gen. Eric Shinseki, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, requested that the VA Office of Inspector General \"begin an investigation into the potential problems of contamination; whether any patient has contracted an infection from unsterilized equipment; and, most importantly, how we can prevent such problems from happening again.\" The VA says it's reviewing procedures at other facilities. So far, it says, it has encountered no additional problems. In the meantime, the VA has brought in additional personnel to help with testing and counseling in Miami, Murfreesboro and Augusta. It has also set up a toll-free number that VA patients and their families can call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for additional information: 1-877-575-7256. The VA says it will pay for treatment for the infected vets even if they didn't get hepatitis or HIV from the dirty equipment. \"We are making sure to take corrective measures to ensure veterans have the information and the care necessary to deal with this unacceptable development,\" Kussman said.","highlights":"Agency seeing whether veteran's AIDS infection, endoscopy equipment linked .\n16 other vets at 2 VA facilities also test positive for hepatitis .\nMore than 10,000 vets possibly exposed to HIV, hepatitis while having procedures .\nEquipment used in procedures at 3 VA facilities hadn't been properly cleaned .","id":"cb108b8ca523b2cff8e7d029a8031e6ecdefa5e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For fans of The Beatles, 09\/09\/09 will mark a new invasion. The Fab Four will be made even more so when the remastered Beatles catalogue is released in September. Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music have announced that as the date for the release of the entire original Beatles catalogue, digitally remastered. That includes all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the UK. The package will also contain the LP version of \"Magical Mystery Tour\" (initially released as a double-EP in Britain, though available on CD since 1987) and the collections \"Past Masters Vol. I and II\" combined as one title. The release marks the first time that the first four Beatles albums are being made available in their entirety on compact disc, and it also coincides with the release of \"The Beatles: Rock Band\" video game. Robert Levine, executive editor for Billboard, said the timing is genius in terms of marketing. \"Most bands, when they do a big project like this they pay for publicity,\" Levine said. \"The Beatles got paid for 'Rock Band' and then they are using that for publicity to rerelease a catalogue. It's pretty amazing.\" Blog: A Beatles fan reflects on the news . Levine pointed out that media have evolved tremendously since 1964, when the band first burst onto the American scene with an appearance on \"The Ed Sullivan Show.\" Back then, there were only three major television networks, and engineering of albums was much less sophisticated, Levine noted. Previous rereleases have sold well in the past -- indeed, Beatles albums have sold steadily for decades -- and Levine said he expects this one to do even better. \"I think if you were to look at pure catalogue, old bands selling old albums, the Beatles are the kings -- commercially as well as artistically,\" Levine said. \"A lot of [music] has been remastered better in the past 22 years, and remastering technology has come a long way.\" Piers Hemmingsen, the author of two books on Beatles music and head of the Web site Capitol6000.com, said there has long been a clamor among fans for good, high-quality versions of Beatles songs. \"The technology that was available back then was very limited, and with the newer technology they are able to do far more with what they have than they have ever been able to do before,\" he said. \"For people who are plugged into iPods and the whole digital music scene, it's going to be a lot better for them.\" In acknowledgment of the more technologically advanced listeners, each CD will contain, for a limited time, an embedded brief documentary film about the album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-released studio chat from the Beatles. The remastering project was four years in the making. Engineers used de-noising technology and cleaned up glitches like electrical clicks and microphone vocal pops, so long as it didn't affect the original integrity of the songs. They also slightly boosted the volume levels. Andrew Croft, publisher of Beatlology Magazine, said the announcement of the release of the remastered recordings \"is long overdue in the Beatles community and for music fans alike.\" He also said the quest to improve the original recordings is not new. Croft said bootleg releases over the years used rare and obscure vinyl pressings from countries like Japan and Germany to compile the best of the best recordings of The Beatles songs, presenting to the public a better sound that Apple could not offer prior to the remastering. \"While the new remasterings will replace a library full of bootlegs of their commercial releases, there remains a massive market for their more obscure tracks, outtakes and live performances,\" Croft said. The 14 remastered albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set. A second boxed set, \"The Beatles in Mono,\" includes all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two additional discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on \"Past Masters\"). The mono \"Help!\" and \"Rubber Soul\" discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all of the original inserts and label designs. Even with the release date, what is old has become new. Diehard Beatle-ologists may take note that the release date could be viewed as a nod to the Beatles track \"One After 909\" from the \"Let It Be\" album -- or a reference to the White Album's \"Revolution 9.\" (John Lennon, who was born on October 9, occasionally talked about his fondness for the number 9.) Hemmingsen said making the music more accessible and attractive to a younger audience helps spread Beatlemania to a new generation. \"Their music is catchy, memorable, interesting and listenable,\" said Hemmingsen, who was a youngster in England when the Beatles hit the scene and has been a fan ever since. \"The time that they evolved their music was an interesting time and their music reflected that time.\" Levine said the band has always captured fans from across generations. \"The songs have lasted for a long time because they are great songs,\" he said. \"It's just that simple. Those are amazing, amazing albums.\"","highlights":"The Beatles' remastered catalogue will be released in September .\nRelease includes all 12 Beatles albums and two later works .\nBeatles expert says music now more accessible to digital music fans .\nRelease date of 09\/09\/09 could be a nod to \"One After 909\" song .","id":"d56ac6810d20cdce0b66826ab524e837229e9a43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Madonna is in Malawi this week attempting to adopt a second child from the African nation. A judge ruled Monday that she will have to wait until Friday to learn a decision. Dominic Nutt of Save the Children UK has urged Madonna to rethink her adoption of a girl from Malawi. In the meantime, a children's group is saying that she should not adopt and that the child would be better off in her own country. Madonna has brushed off questions from reporters, saying it is \"none of their business.\" CNN's Kiran Chetry, spoke with Dominic Nutt, the spokesman for Save the Children UK, Monday on \"American Morning.\" Chetry: You heard Madonna ... say it's no one's business. Over the weekend, you came out, though, and urged Madonna to rethink this adoption. What is your biggest concern? Nutt: Well, our biggest concern is that we believe that in the most -- in the majority of cases, orphans, so-called orphans, in fact [are] not orphans -- they have at least one parent living -- and even those that don't, have a wider family that can look after them. And we believe that children in poverty should be best looked after by their own people in their own environment. And that people like Madonna and organizations like Save the Children are best off helping those families by building schools and supporting them to look after these so-called orphans and not transporting them to live across the world in mansions, in pop stars' mansions, that sort of thing. Watch charity explain position on international adoptions \u00bb . Chetry: Now, Madonna also is doing both, I guess you could say, because she founded that organization, Raising Malawi, right, back in 2006, did a documentary as well, trying to bring attention and money to the plight of the children there. Nutt: Well, absolutely right. So she's obviously accepted the logic of the Save the Children argument, it's help children on the ground. If you really do love a child and you want the child to do well, then help them in their own world. Now, look ... something like 10 million children a year die across the world because of poverty before the age of 5. You cannot possibly help all those children by moving them. amFIX: Your thoughts on whether Madonna should adopt . So, what we're saying clearly is not that Madonna is wrong or families and parents or want-to-be parents who do go for international adoption are wrong. But it must be a last resort. They must make sure there is no family network to support them, and if they don't help that child, that child is in peril. The life of that child is in peril. Otherwise ... you are better off supporting that child in its own environment. Chetry: All right, well, here's what a couple of people who actually live there say. One of them is a resident of ... Malawi, who said, \"We're poor people. If a child's mother dies, it's hard for the man to bring the child up.\" He's saying that because apparently in this situation, the child she's trying to adopt, Mercy James, both -- neither parent [is] living, according to our report. And then I want you to hear also from the Law Commission of Malawi, one member of it, and what he said about this adoption. Let's listen. Unidentified male: If you project 20 years from now, where will the child be if the child is left in the orphanage where it is, or if it gets a chance to get an education with Madonna. Chetry: The figures also from UNICEF show that for every 1,000 births in Malawi, 120 children die. The life expectancy in that country is only 44 years old. And most children over the age of 10 do not attend school. So, wouldn't life be better for some of these children who have no living parents, who would at least be in another country where their basic needs could be met and they could get a decent education? Nutt: Well, would it not be better to solve the problems of Malawi and help Malawians solve their own problems by educating their children and feeding their children and helping their children so they can get off that cycle of poverty? Not just literally transporting the whole population of Malawi. If we are concerned about the population of Malawi being in a very difficult situation, we can't transport them all to Queens in New York or to Kensington in London to make that difference. The difference has to be made on the ground. Otherwise, we really are shuffling the deck chairs on the deck of the Titanic. Chetry: All right, well, they're not necessarily mutually exclusive. So, the question that I have is: Is your issue really with Madonna? I mean, you mentioned celebrity and living in mansions. But what about just ... some middle-class ... working people who are unable to have children themselves and would like to try to help out a child in need overseas. Are you against that type of adoption? Nutt: No, no. All I'm saying is that it's definitely a last resort. Because I know the pain of trying to have a child. I've been trying, my wife, for years, and we just got lucky four weeks ago. But I know that heartache and that lack of being able to bring up a child in a loving environment. But we know from our case studies in working in Liberian orphanages that in many cases, these children are [picked] off the Internet, without much research going on, and sometimes it doesn't work out, and the children can be sent back to their own country. And all that has happened is that that child's life has been messed around with. So, of course, it's difficult. And I wish I could give you an easy answer and offer you a magic wand, but if you challenge poverty on the ground in these countries, you can in the end do very well by these children. Save the Children's been doing it for 90 years across the world, and it's making a difference. ... You say it's not mutually exclusive, of course, but you can bet your bottom dollar that by investing in children, you'll get a much bigger impact and better outcome than by taking one or two children here and there as a matter of willy-nilly choice. Chetry: All right, Dominic Nutt, spokesman for Save the Children UK, thank you for your point of view this morning. And we also want to let people know that we did reach out to Madonna's spokeswoman. So far, we're just getting \"No comment.\"","highlights":"Save the Children spokesman: Children should be raised by extended family .\nCelebrities, groups best help children by supporting their communities, he says .\nMadonna is trying to adopt a girl from Malawi .","id":"a45986d5153d43ab6ae26fcc813e50b103f28058"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's energetic response to Monday's earthquake has been generally praised despite his comparison of the ordeal of survivors staying in emergency tents to a camping weekend. An elderly local resident bursts into tears during a visit by Silvio Berlusconi, wearing a fireman's helmet. Berlusconi has visited the town of L'Aquila, the epicenter of the 6.3-magnitude quake, every day this week, talking to survivors and pledging government help to rebuild houses. He scrapped a visit to Russia that was planned for this week. The PM has even been greeted with applause on occasions, according to CNN correspondent Paula Newton, who interviewed him on Wednesday. \"He was very tired when I saw him, you could tell he hadn't had much sleep,\" Newton said. \"In general he thrives on these events and politically it will probably give him a boost, if only temporarily.\" However, she added that his visit to a dormitory where students were buried under rubble had upset some of the parents and relatives. \"They were kept well back and he did not meet with them,\" she said. Watch Berlusconi talk about the disaster \u00bb (Italian version) \u00bb . \"One relative, in obvious anger, asked another 'why is he here?' and another replied \"he's taking care of elections, of course.\" And true to form Berlusconi has been unable to avoid putting his foot in it. During a visit to one tent village where thousands who had lost their houses were staying, Berlusconi told German television \"they should see it like a weekend of camping.\" The trademark gaffe sparked predictable outrage. \"He is a completely insensitive man who thinks wisecracks can solve every problem,\" Rina Gagliardi, a former senator of the Refoundation Communist Party, told Agence France-Presse. \"He can never be negative, but an earthquake disorients him because he can't blame the left for causing it, so his response is extreme optimism,\" she said. Berlusconi is of course renowned for such off-the-cuff remarks. In November he described Obama as \"handsome and suntanned.\" He was also forced to issue an apology to his wife, Veronica Lario, in 2007 after she read reports of him approaching several women at an awards dinner and declaring: \"If I wasn't married, I would marry you straight away.\" Lario received the apology after sending a letter criticizing her husband to a newspaper in which she said his behavior was \"unacceptable\" and \"damaging to my dignity.\" Despite the most recent criticism, Berlusconi has won praise from the media for his limelight-hogging visits to the region. People in the temporary camps also say they are being well looked after by the authorities although they are desperate to collect their own things from their homes. In his interview with CNN on Wednesday Berlusconi said every effort was being made to assess which houses were safe to enter. \"This is an aerial view of Onno, and you can see, unfortunately, how the town has been totally destroyed,\" the prime minister told CNN. \"Here, we can go into greater detail and concentrate on individual houses. This helps us to assess the damage right away and tells us how much it will cost to rebuild.\" The Italian government has said it will cost 1.3 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars) to repair or rebuild about 10,000 buildings damaged in the quake. \"We have the plans for reconstruction and intend to start immediately with the building projects,\" Berlusconi told CNN. \"We will build a new town near the capital, L'Aquila, and keep the possibility open for many families to stay, for the time being, in hotels along the coast, less than a hour away, in pleasant and comfortable circumstances.\" Berlusconi said the plan for the new town would involve low-rate mortgages. \"This is not an alternative to the reconstruction,\" he said Wednesday. \"These are additional houses.\"","highlights":"Italy PM's response to Monday's earthquake has been generally praised .\nBerlusconi has compared ordeal of survivors in tents to camping weekend .\nPM has visited town of L'Aquila every day this week, assessing damage .","id":"4d720d7483374fd512643c8080c8d922d8941ead"} -{"article":"MONT TREMBLANT, Quebec (CNN) -- Natasha Richardson came to Mont Tremblant ski resort in eastern Canada last month for what was supposed to be a skiing getaway. Actress Natasha Richardson died after suffering an epidural hematoma in a fall during a ski lesson. But what she may not have known is some doctors have been arguing that if a person here is in need of urgent care at a medical trauma center, he or she may not be able to get there fast enough. The only way to get to the closest trauma center from here is to drive 2\u00bd hours to Montreal. No helicopter medical service is available. The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail obtained 911 recordings from Monday, March 16, when Richardson fell on a beginners slope on a sunny, clear day at the resort. The first request for help came in at 12:43 p.m., an urgent call that a woman had fallen on the slopes. That woman was Richardson. Seventeen minutes later, at 1 p.m., an ambulance arrived, but Richardson had been able to walk away from the fall and was headed back to her hotel room. Ten minutes later the ambulance was told to stand down, the call canceled. What Richardson couldn't have known is that she suffered an epidural hematoma. It's a condition where a blood clot forms between the skull and the outer layer of the brain. Too much pressure can cause brain damage and even death. Symptoms include dizziness, headaches and nausea. \"The person seems to be fine and walks it off, and that's one of the problems with an injury such as this,\" said Dr. Liam Durkan, a neurologist with the Montreal Neurology Institute. \"Anytime there is any sort of process expanding in the skull, which is a closed space, once the symptoms are apparent, it can be a matter of 30 minutes to an hour to 90 minutes before there is a major deterioration.\" Two hours after her initial fall, while Richardson was back in her hotel room, she was feeling the symptoms. The clock was ticking and she needed to get to a trauma center fast. With the closest trauma center 2\u00bd hours away, time may have been running out on her. It's recommended that anyone with an epidural hematoma get to the trauma center within 30-90 minutes. At 2:59 p.m., another ambulance was dispatched to the resort. This time, the paramedics went inside and worked on Richardson for 33 minutes before transporting her to the closest hospital an hour away, but it is not a trauma center. Inside the ambulance, Richardson drifted in and out of consciousness. \"It is a rapidly deteriorating situation and the distance might have been just too much by ambulance, road ambulance or air ambulance. It's difficult to say,\" said Durkan, who did not treat Richardson. Depending on the severity of the injury at the time, he said, even helicopter services may have been too late. Some trauma doctors have argued for air transport here since the mid-1990s. They say the safest and fastest way to move anyone suffering a trauma injury such as Richardson's is by helicopter. Helicopter transport is common practice in the United States and other areas of Canada. But in the Quebec region, very few places have access to air transport. In an open letter to the citizens of Quebec sent to the Montreal Gazette, Dr. Michael Churchill Smith, director of professional services at the Montreal General Hospital, said incidents like Natasha Richardson's should serve as a wake-up call to Quebec. \"It is no longer morally acceptable for our citizens who, in the moment of their greatest needs, do not have access to a rapid transit system that gives them the best chance to not only survive, but to survive with a quality of life.\" Daniel LeFrancois, director of Quebec's pre-hospital care, told the Gazette that cost is prohibitive when a one-hour flight costs $6,000. It's a question of resources and priorities focusing on \"the biggest gain for the biggest need,\" he said. Richardson was taken from Mont Tremblant to a hospital in St. Agathe, which does not have the facilities to help someone with a severe head trauma. Richardson was transferred to the trauma center in Montreal about 7 p.m., more than six hours after her initial fall. Twenty-four hours later she was flown to a New York hospital, where she was taken off life support and died. No one can answer the question whether a helicopter service could have saved Richardson's life. She refused services immediately after her fall, but with the clock ticking immediately after she felt symptoms from her injury, 2\u00bd hours may have been too far away even if she'd gotten help immediately.","highlights":"Resort where Natasha Richardson was injured is 2\u00bd-hour drive from trauma center .\nNo helicopter medical services are available .\nWith epidural hematoma, survival window without treatment is about 90 minutes .\nSome Canadian trauma doctors have argued for air transport since 1990s .","id":"342e84907b32e0e5b226cbc3ef094aba3114b7e1"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Regular programming has just been interrupted by a news conference. A slender black man in a suit steps up to a podium, flanked by American flags and a White House logo. Michael Lamar was laid off in January but has a new job as a Barack Obama look-alike. \"I wish I could announce such an economic package,\" he says, \"but there is a bank in Turkey that did it. It is Garanti. I wish we had Garanti in America.\" Don't be fooled. This is a commercial on Turkish TV. The actor is a 44-year-old Barack Obama look-alike from Whitehall, Pennsylvania, named Michael Lamar. And he is shilling for a Turkish bank. In the month before the real Barack Obama is to visit Turkey, this ad campaign went out all across the country on television and on billboards, using the iconic, Warholian image of the American president to sell low-interest loans. The \"Mad Men\" behind the concept say their Obama look-alike was the perfect guy to sell what they described as Garanti Bank's own economic stimulus package. \"We probably wouldn't be doing this commercial if it was the previous president,\" said Can Celikbilek, a copy writer at the advertising company, Alametifarika. \"But in the case of Obama, he does represent hope, not only for the States but for the whole world.\" For Obama look-alike actor Lamar, there was some irony about getting flown to Turkey to star in a commercial for a bank. He is a recent casualty of the global economic crisis. \"I was laid off in January of this year from JP Morgan Chase Bank in the U.S.,\" Lamar said, in a telephone interview from Pennsylvania. \"After 18 years in the company, I was just laid off. One of the cutbacks. I'm currently unemployed right now.\" Or, was unemployed. Lamar's striking resemblance to the American president has suddenly offered the former software analyst a possible new career for supporting his wife and child. \"I'm available full-time now,\" Lamar said. \"I'm going to see where this leads me.\" Lamar is now being represented by a casting agency in Los Angeles that specializes in celebrity look-alikes. Since he discovered his new \"talent,\" he has traveled to the Netherlands to appear in a commercial for a liquor chain and to Paris, where an activist organization brought him in to meet lawmakers at the National Assembly, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about racism and racial profiling in France. \"This was very exciting for me, a true privilege!\" Lamar said. During his brief visit to Turkey, locals did double-takes when they saw Lamar walk past. \"Even in the studio, the crew [members] were like, 'Oh! Is that Obama?\" said Celikbilek of Alametifarika advertising. Using the image of an American president to promote anything in Turkey is a remarkable reversal. U.S. approval ratings in Turkey plunged to 9 percent, according to a 2007 Pew Research poll, making America less popular in Turkey then almost anywhere else in the world, even though the two countries are NATO allies. There was widespread anger among Turks at the war in neighboring Iraq. But the election of Barack Obama appears to have dramatically improved perceptions of America. \"Bush was a dictator who attacked other countries,\" said Abdurrahman Ozdemir, who sells cigarettes from a small stall on the street. \"But we love Obama ... because he does not want to go to war with other countries.\" \"We started to love and like America because of Obama,\" said a 33-year-old woman named Begum Arinc. \"I don't want to see people dying. I don't want to see any war. That's why I want to believe in Obama.\"","highlights":"Michael Lamar strikes an Obama-like figure in ads for a bank in Turkey .\nLamar worked for JP Morgan Chase for 18 years before being laid off .\nPresident Obama will be in Turkey soon on presidential visit .\nU.S. approval ratings in turkey have plunged in recent years .","id":"59f7dc5b5d5da6b8ba756d23e43a2553f53149d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, will go on trial March 16 on six charges including murder and incest. Josef Fritzl admitted fathering seven children by his daughter during her 24-year captivity. The Austrian Press Agency reported Thursday the trial was expected to last about five days and be held behind closed doors. Further details about the case would be announced Friday, it said. Fritzl, 73, was charged in November with incest and the repeated rape of his daughter, Elisabeth, for 24 years. But he was also charged with the murder of one of the children he fathered with her, an infant who died soon after birth. State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Michael Fritzl died from lack of medical care. In all, Fritzl faces six charges at trial: murder, involvement in slave trade (slavery), rape, incest, assault, and deprivation of liberty, Sedlacek's office said. If convicted, he could face life in prison. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's then-19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions. Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow Kerstin to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Hospital staff became suspicious of the case and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Fritzl confessed to police that he raped his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity, and burned the body of the dead infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins who died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984, her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police. Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the 18-year-old girl had run away from home. He backed up the story with letters he forced Elisabeth to write. Elisabeth Fritzl and all but three of her children lived in the specially designed cellar beneath her father's home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna. The other three children lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife; Fritzl had left them on his own doorstep, pretending his \"missing\" daughter Elisabeth had dropped them off. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. In addition to murder, he will face the following charges: .","highlights":"Josef Fritzl accused of keeping daughter captive for decades, on trial March 16 .\nFritzl faces murder charge as one of 7 children he fathered by daughter died .\nOther charges include incest, rape, assault and involvement in slave trade .","id":"a25e8006e5b206565aad85f820381e1d58840ab3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government is establishing a new system for updating medical records of servicemen and women during and after their military careers, President Obama announced Thursday. President Obama made veterans' affairs a big priority in the 2008 campaign and continues to do so. The joint virtual lifetime electronic record will, among other things, help ensure a streamlined transition of health care records between the Pentagon and the Veterans Administration. It will provide \"a framework to ensure that all health care providers have all the information they need to deliver high-quality health care while reducing medical errors,\" the White House said in a background statement. \"When a member of the armed forces separates from the military, he or she will no longer have to walk paperwork from a [Defense Department] duty station to a local VA health center. Their electronic records will transition along with them and remain with them forever,\" Obama said in remarks delivered near the White House. The system will \"cut through red tape\" and allow new veterans to start receiving their benefits more quickly, he promised. During the announcement, Obama was joined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. \"We welcome this news. ... This is a huge day for veterans and troops,\" Paul Rieckhoff, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told CNN. \"This is a good way for [Obama] to come back from Iraq and make a powerful statement.\" The White House recently proposed a significant budget increase for the Veterans Administration, including an 11 percent hike in fiscal year 2010. In March, however, the administration abandoned a controversial plan to charge private insurers for treatment of veterans' service-connected ailments. Veterans' representatives and members of Congress angrily opposed the proposal, which White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said was never finalized.","highlights":"NEW: \"This is a huge day for veterans and troops,\" chief of veterans group says .\nGovernment is establishing a new system for updating medical records .\nJoint virtual lifetime electronic record aims to streamline data between Pentagon, VA .\nObama: System will \"cut through red tape,\" allow new vets to get benefits faster .","id":"9ed8f14201d86fc62466be015f77cfd5eb4e3f92"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is completing a book on the history of national security politics since World War II, to be published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian Zelizer says it's not enough for Republicans to oppose Obama's plans, they must offer their own ideas. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- One of the best Marx Brothers movies, \"Horse Feathers,\" played in movie theaters at the height of the Great Depression in 1932. In the film, the comedian Groucho Marx played the new president of Huxley College, Quincy Adams Wagstaff. During one of the most memorable scenes, Groucho introduces himself to faculty and students by singing about his philosophy of governance: \"Your proposition may be good\/But let's have one thing understood\/ Whatever it is, I'm against it!\/And even when you've changed it or condensed it, I'm against it\/ I'm opposed to it\/On general principle. I'm opposed to it.\" If Republicans want to rebuild their party after the calamity of 2008, the party leadership needs to avoid the Quincy Adams Wagstaff approach to politics. When Obama proposed his economic recovery bill last week, the first words to come out of House Minority Leader's John Boehner's mouth sounded a bit like Wagstaff. With the economy imploding and the international economic crisis worsening, Boehner said: \"Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of the package and all of the spending in this package, we don't think it's going to work. And so if it's the plan that I see today, put me down in the 'no' column.\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been more restrained in his response, leaving open the door to compromise. If Boehner is simply acting as Dr. No to get a better deal, Republicans can come out of the negotiations over the economic recovery bill as partners, planting the seeds for a new Republican approach toward dealing with economic matters. But if Boehner's plan is for his party to act as an oppositional force -- trying to block, delay and prevent legislative action -- then the GOP could find itself in big trouble. If the Republicans don't agree with Obama's approach, given the severity of the crisis, they need to offer an alternative rather than just sitting still. To be sure, there is the possibility that if the economy continues to deteriorate after a bill has passed and the public loses faith in Obama, the House GOP could reap the benefit from their opposition. They could say \"we told you so.\" But even that would be a high-risk maneuver, particularly given the state of public opinion about the Republican Party. Even if a bill passes and the economy continues to struggle, voters would be looking at a Republican Party that didn't have anything better to offer. The public likes hard-working politicians. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal ideas didn't always work -- some like the National Recovery Act were downright failures -- but voters valued a president who tried to offer arguments about how to end the crisis and who rolled up his sleeves to make the nation better. The election of 2008 revealed that the Republican Party lacks the kind of big ideas that Ronald Reagan used in 1980 to bring the conservative movement into power. The various factions of the conservative movement came together around the themes of anti-communism, deregulation and tax cuts. Reagan didn't just sell tax cuts for the wealthy as good in themselves, but connected them to supply-side economics, which claimed that cuts would stimulate investment, generate economic growth and ultimately bring more revenue into the coffers of Treasury. Even after the Soviet Union collapsed, Republican leaders found ideas to sell their movement to the public. Newt Gingrich and a cohort of young Republicans focused on sharp attacks about the dangers of government intervention and corruption of government. For a short time it seemed that under George W. Bush, the war on terrorism would provide a new thematic focus to Republican efforts. But this was not to be. The controversies over Iraq and the continued dangers in countries such as Afghanistan undermined Republican claims of superiority on national security policy. Controversies over the erosion of civil liberties and due process in the pursuit of terrorism also weakened their claims. When the economy collapsed in fall 2008, Republicans' arguments about the wisdom of tax cuts and deregulation were made suspect. Americans might not always like government, but they dislike being broke even more. Sen. John McCain struggled in his campaign, not just because of the weaknesses of his campaign, but because his party seemed to lack any answers as Wall Street and Main Street spun out of control. Furthermore, the fact that the federal government continued to expand under Bush -- both when Republicans and Democrats controlled Capitol Hill -- made it difficult to sell Republican arguments about the dangers of big government. Back in the 1970s, when Republicans felt as if they were in the political wilderness, they invested a great deal of their resources into the market of ideas. Conservatives built think tanks like the CATO Institute, established talk radio shows, and financed academic scholarship about conservatism so that when opportunities arose in the elections of 1980 and 1994, Republicans had something to say. At some point, Republicans have to tap into the 1970s enthusiasm about generating ideas if they want to rebuild their party and win over the hearts and minds of voters. Simply reviving the philosophy of the 1970s won't work. Rather the GOP needs to offer new arguments and new policies to achieve economic recovery. If they repeat what happened in the 1930s, when Republicans sounded a lot like Groucho Marx and just said no as FDR rebuilt the nation, they are likely to remain on the outskirts of power for decades to come. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: House Republicans are signaling they will oppose stimulus plan .\nHe says Republicans are in trouble if they simply act as an opposition force .\nDemocrats gained sway for decades by seeking to improve the economy, he says .\nZelizer: If GOP opposes stimulus plan, it should offer alternatives of its own .","id":"436b4645aa8b511908c9f4958adb19055b20e4bf"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected U.S. missile struck a village Wednesday in Pakistan's tribal region, killing three Taliban militants and wounding four others, according to local officials and media reports. People inspect the damage from a suspected U.S. missile strike in northwest Pakistan last month. The strike is the 12th missile attack this year, compared with three attacks during the same period in 2008. The missile -- fired from an unmanned drone -- was targeting a pickup truck carrying suspected militants near the town of Wana in South Waziristan in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, according to Nasim Dawar, an official with the South Waziristan administration. Witnesses and intelligence sources said the drone was flying low and the militants fired at it before the missile strike, Dawar said. Two nearby shops were destroyed in the missile attack, he said. The U.S. military in Afghanistan routinely offers no comment on reported cross-border strikes. However, the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely. Journalists Janullah Hashimzada and Nazar Ul-Islam contributed to this report.","highlights":"Witnesses say missile was fired from drone plane flying low over village, official says .\nMilitants fired back at pilotless drone, according to official in Pakistan's tribal region .\nStrike is the 12th this year, compared to just three in same period last year .\nU.S. military in Afghanistan routinely doesn't comment on reports of drone attacks .","id":"83693e32ed3819b76d17b6341caff5aa14f8a5a0"} -{"article":"NORFOLK, Virginia (CNN) -- Negotiators aboard a U.S. Navy warship are trying to secure the release of an American freighter captain who is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia, according to Maersk Line Ltd. Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia. The crew aboard the destroyer USS Bainbridge could see the lifeboat where pirates have been holding Capt. Richard Phillips since Wednesday, the company said in a written statement issued at 5 p.m. ET. Phillips has not been hurt, the statement said. Phillips, who has received provisions and batteries for his radio, has been in touch with the crews of the Alabama and the Bainbridge, the statement said. The pirates are the same four men who hijacked Phillips' vessel, the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama, early Wednesday hundreds of miles off the Horn of Africa. The Alabama's 20-person crew later regained control of the ship, which is owned and operated by the Norfolk-based Maersk Line Ltd. In a written statement, Maersk spokesman Kevin Speers noted that \"there have been many questions about how the crew re-captured the ship and how the captain came to leave the ship.\" But he would not clarify the matter. \"Our immediate focus has been to bring the current situation to a safe resolution,\" he said. \"There will be time for due diligence and retrospective review once we have the safe return of all parties and the opportunity for a full de-briefing.\" The U.S. Navy, which is in charge of the situation, requested the help of the FBI. FBI negotiators in the United States are in touch with the crew of the Bainbridge, which arrived on the scene earlier Thursday to assist, a senior U.S. defense official said. According to Maersk's last communication with the Navy, the 28-foot lifeboat was disabled and \"dead in the water,\" Speers said Thursday morning. \"We are encouraged that most of the crew is safe. They have been resilient and courageous throughout this crisis,\" Speers said. \"But we will remain on watch, staffing our situation room and our family hot line until this situation is resolved and the captain is safely returned.\" On Thursday, the Maersk Alabama resumed its journey to Mombasa, Kenya, with an 18-person armed security detail on board, according to Joseph Murphy, the father of the ship's first officer. Maersk and U.S. military officials confirmed the cargo ship had left the area on Thursday, but would not say where it was heading, citing security concerns. See how pirate attacks have increased \u00bb . Gen. David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that the Bainbridge would be getting backup shortly. \"I can tell you, there are definitely going to be more ships in that area in the next 24 or 48 hours, because there are two more sailing to it right now,\" he said. \"Needless to say, we want to ensure we have all the capacity that may be needed over the course of the coming days.\" Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, told CNN's Barbara Starr in Bahrain that, \"We have been moving forces in that direction.\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama had been staying apprised of the situation. \"Obviously, his main concern is for the safety of the captain and the rest of the crew on the ship, and he will continue to receive those updates,\" he said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said an international coalition of countries is working to address the piracy threat, but the area in question is immense. \"I think the ocean area we're referring to is three times the size of Texas,\" she told reporters. iReport.com: 'Stop the pirates, Obama!' Referring to continuing problems with piracy in those waters, she said instability in Somalia has contributed to the flourishing of \"an old scourge.\" The Alabama was loaded with food aid when the pirates hijacked it Wednesday, 350 miles off Somalia's coast -- a distance that used to be considered safe from pirate attacks. It was the first time in recent history that pirates targeted an American ship. Watch how pirates work off Somalia \u00bb . The pirates were armed with AK-47 assault rifles while the ship's crew carried no weapons, according to Ken Quinn, the second officer of the ship. Crew members managed to take one of the four pirates hostage, Quinn said. The crew -- apparently minus the captain -- locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear, where they remained for about 12 hours with their captive, whom Quinn said they had tied up. Watch Quinn describe the hijacking to CNN \u00bb . The pirates reneged on their agreement to exchange Phillips for one pirate whom the crew had captured. The pirate was released unharmed, according to Quinn, who spoke to CNN on Wednesday via a satellite call. The pirates had scuttled the small boat they used to reach the ship, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat and some money. \"We returned him, but they didn't return the captain,\" Quinn said. The U.S. Navy issued a warning several days ago to ships in the area that pirates were operating farther offshore. Watch former Navy captain discuss options \u00bb . There are emergency rations to last 10 days on the lifeboat, but the conditions are most likely \"uncomfortable,\" according to Murphy. \"There's no toilet facilities or anything like that,\" he said. \"The captain has a VHF radio, and I'm sure that he's in voice communication with the ship itself. The problem is, of course, that ... the [radio's] battery is going to die, and I'm not really sure how they're going to continue communication after that.\" iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? It is common for crews of merchant vessels to travel through the area unarmed despite the risk of pirate attacks, experts said. An armed crew could provoke a firefight that would endanger the crew's lives or its cargo, which often contains flammable or explosive material. John Reinhart, chief executive and president of Maersk Line Ltd., said the crew can try to outrun the pirate boats or turn fire hoses on anyone trying to board the ship, \"but we do not carry arms.\" Watch company spokesman say how captain is held \u00bb . The vessel was carrying relief supplies for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services. The U.N. agency said its portion of the cargo included nearly 4,100 metric tons of corn-soya blend bound for Somalia and Uganda, and another 990 metric tons of vegetable oil for refugees in Kenya. CNN's Jason Carroll contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Backup heading to scene of standoff, Gen. David Petraeus says .\nMaersk Alabama leaves scene with armed detail as negotiations for captain continue .\nFBI assists in negotiations with pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips in lifeboat .\nU.S. Navy warned that pirates increasing range of operations .","id":"889863804febbd48c20ba883e530d720de21a037"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who was sought by police in Texas after four children were burned with sulfuric acid has turned himself in, authorities said Monday. Tracy Lynn Escobedo is taken into custody for allegedly burning four children with sulfuric acid. Tracy Lynn Escobedo, 27, called CNN affiliate KXII-TV and asked that a crew videotape him as he turned himself in Sunday. \"I would never throw acid at nobody. It was an accident,\" Escobedo says repeatedly on the video as he surrenders to Cooke County sheriff's deputies. \"I ran because I was scared. I hurt my kids. It was an accident. ... I would never hurt my kids. I love them.\" Escobedo is charged with four counts of injury to a child, the sheriff's office said. The children involved were ages 14, 7, 4, and 18 months, authorities said. In the incident last week near Gainesville, Texas, a container of sulfuric acid ruptured in a pickup truck, police said. Cynthia Stout -- a woman believed to be the mother -- and three of the children were left at a cafe by Escobedo, who took the baby with him, authorities said. Escobedo then gave the baby to another woman, believed to be a relative, at a residence, authorities said. When police arrived at the cafe, Stout attempted to flee and resist arrest, but was taken into custody, authorities said. She was being held on suspicion of child endangerment. It was unclear why sulfuric acid was in the truck. Cooke County Sheriff Michael Compton said all four children are being treated at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Speaking to CNN early Monday, Compton said the condition of the 7-year-old \"is not very good, I don't think. The others are stable.\" The state has temporary custody of the children, Compton said.","highlights":"Suspect says four children accidentally burned with sulfuric acid .\nTracy Lynn Escobedo's surrender documented by local TV station .\nChildren hospitalized; three stable, one \"not very good,\" police say .","id":"9fbe38bbf883072e79306b05932b54cb79698dc4"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- February marks the beginning of Black History Month, a federally recognized, nationwide celebration that provides the opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African-Americans have played in the shaping of U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be, and why does it take place in February? We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice. - Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) on founding Negro History Week, 1926 . Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered a pioneer in the study of African-American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month, and has been called the \"Father of Black History.\" The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries . He received his education during the four-month term that was customary for black schools at the time. At 19, having taught himself English fundamentals and arithmetic, Woodson entered high school, where he completed a four-year curriculum in two years. He went on to receive his Master's degree in history from the University of Chicago, and he eventually earned a Ph.D from Harvard. Disturbed that history textbooks largely ignored America's black population, Woodson took on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation's history. To do this, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He also founded the group's widely respected publication, the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week. Woodson believed that \"the achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization.\" Woodson chose the second week of February for the celebration because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population: Frederick Douglass (February 14), an escaped slave who became one of the foremost black abolitionists and civil rights leaders in the nation, and President Abraham Lincoln (February 12), who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in America's confederate states. In 1976, Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month. The month is also sometimes referred to as African-American Heritage Month. (Source: http:\/\/blackhistorypages.net\/pages\/cgwoodson.php, http:\/\/www.chipublib.org\/002branches\/woodson\/woodsonbib.html)","highlights":"Use this information to understand the origins of Black History Month .","id":"4a8f1047c71958a93ca3ec7baad5f7306189f6fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chronic seizures can present a risk for adolescents, whose bodies and metabolism are changing. Jett Travolta was the elder of John Travolta and Kelly Preston's two children. A seizure disorder caused the death of Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, a source at a Bahamas funeral home told CNN. \"Literally dozens of different disorders can cause seizures: genetics, stroke, brain tumor, lack of oxygen, low blood sugar, drugs, even certain medications,\" said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. Another expert said the teen years bring risks for those with seizures. \"Adolescence is a time, even if you don't talk about children with any seizure disorder, where things change in a child,\" said Dr. Shlomo Shinnar of Montefiore Medical Center in New York. There are effective drugs to treat seizures. As children grow, their bodies and metabolism change, perhaps causing a need to adjust their dosage, said Shinnar, a professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Management Center at Montefiore. \"Seizures during adolescence can get better or worse or stay the same,\" he said. And the risk of seizures is higher for children with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy, Shinnar said. Jett Travolta had a developmental disability that his parents have linked to Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory disorder of the artery walls that most commonly occurs in young children. An autopsy of the actors' son was completed Monday, and the body was cremated that evening, the funeral home source said. Jett was found unconscious in the bathroom Friday while on vacation with his family. Michael Ossi, an attorney for Travolta, told CNN last week that Jett had a seizure that morning at the family's home in a resort area. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital and pronounced dead on arrival, according to local police. People.com reported that Travolta, Preston and their 8-year-old daughter Ella Blue arrived in Florida on Monday night with Jett's ashes. The reports that a seizure disorder caused Jett's death were preliminary, Gupta said. \"It tells us more about what did not happen than the ultimate cause of death. It rules out brain injury, bleeding on brain, skull fractures, rules out heart problems due to Kawasaki disease, which is the disease the Travoltas say their son suffered,\" he said. Kawasaki disease, believed to be caused by an infection, inflames the heart muscles. In 2001, Travolta told CNN's Larry King that his son had a near brush with death related to the condition. \"I was obsessive about cleaning -- his space being clean, so we constantly had the carpets cleaned. And I think, between him, the fumes and walking around, maybe picking up pieces or something, he got what is rarely a thing to deal with, but it's Kawasaki syndrome,\" Travolta said of his then-2-year-old son. Dr. Cam Patterson, general cardiologist at the University of North Carolina and a genetics expert who follows Kawasaki disease, told CNN, \"There is no real good link at all between Kawasaki disease and cleaning products. \"Kawasaki disease is due to an abnormal immunnologic response, probably to an infectious agent or infection we don't yet understand,\" Patterson said. \"There is nothing that links environmental toxins to this problem.\" Someone with Kawasaki could have seizures for one of two reasons, but they would be rare, he said. \"One, sometime in the past one of the arteries in the brain ruptured and caused stroke,\" he said. \"Two, if the artery had enlarged enough, it could be pressing on parts of brain and that could cause seizure. Both possibilities are unusual for Kawasaki disease.\" A very small study released in 1991 found an association between cases of Kawasaki disease in homes where carpet had been cleaned in the past 30 days. \"It's very easy to find correlations, but doesn't mean causative,\" Patterson said. The next step would have been to conduct more tests, by taking toxicological tests and brain examinations to see what could have caused the seizure. \"Even with physical evidence and a deeper look by neuropathologists, we still may never have an answer,\" Gupta said on CNN's American Morning. CNN's Stephanie Smith and Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seizures in teenagers can be caused by dozens of disorders, genetics .\nSeizure said to have caused the death of Jett Travolta, 16 .\nFamily has linked seizures to Kawasaki disease; experts say it's unlikely .","id":"754b2c34ac688815d2e8836434cadf75ea1b21da"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Jack R. Nerad is Executive Editorial Director for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com, and co-host of \"America on the Road,\" heard on more than 300 radio stations. In the 1980s he served as Editor of Motor Trend magazine. Nerad is the author of \"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hybrid and Alternative Fuel Vehicles,\" published recently by Alpha Books. Jack Nerad says bankruptcy would drive car buyers away from GM and imperil suppliers. (CNN) -- The events of the past week have been unprecedented in the auto industry and in the annals of American business. As the events have unfolded, there is the strong implication from the administration's automotive task force that Chapter 11 bankruptcy, followed by restructuring and \"cleansing\" of General Motors' balance sheet, is a potential scenario in the ongoing efforts to keep the giant automaker alive. GM's new chief executive, Fritz Henderson, acknowledged as much on CNN Sunday. \"You can't rule options off the table. So you basically say we will spend time to try to get it [done] outside of bankruptcy. But if we can't, we're not going to compromise our goals. We're going to get it done inside our bankruptcy. Our preferred approach is still to do it outside, but you can't rule out going in.\" Over the past few weeks pundits of all stripes have appeared on financial news networks suggesting that entering Chapter 11 is GM's only way to future viability. \"Get on with it,\" they say, and save us the agony. It is the only way, they argue, General Motors can get relief from its immediate cash-flow issues, tear up or substantially modify its union contracts, dump unnecessary brands, close plants and \"right-size\" its operations. But those pundits who propose Chapter 11 fail to acknowledge that General Motors is a consumer-facing company whose success or failure is in the hands of millions of average Americans. This group will decide to buy or not buy General Motors vehicles based on what they know, hear and even feel about GM's future. As talk of imminent bankruptcy swirls in the press, the news they hear about General Motors certainly is not reassuring, as they consider which brand to buy. How does that manifest itself in the car-buying public? We at Kelley Blue Book asked 500 potential new-vehicle buyers a string of related questions that yield answers to that multi-billion dollar question. Their response is telling. Asked \"How likely would you be to buy a car from General Motors if they were to go bankrupt,\" 42.1 percent of new-vehicle buyers said they were either \"not at all likely\" or \"not very likely\" to do so. Even with a warranty guarantee from the federal government, consumers are not very enthusiastic about considering a GM purchase. Such a guarantee only moves the needle about three percentage points with 39.8 percent saying they were either \"not at all likely\" or \"not very likely\" to purchase a GM vehicle in such a situation. Asked, \"How likely would you be to buy a car from General Motors if they were allowed to keep operating but had to renegotiate their contracts and agreements with suppliers and laborers?\" the responses changed. Given that scenario, only 31.6 percent of new-vehicle buyers said they were either \"not at all likely\" or \"not very likely\" to purchase a GM vehicle, and they were out-numbered by the 41.5 percent who said they were either \"very likely\" or \"extremely likely\" to do so. While one must keep in mind that consumers don't always do what they say they are going to do, the import of this is clear: Bankruptcy puts a damper on consumer confidence and vehicle demand. There are other reasons to question the wisdom of a Chapter 11 filing as well. Beyond its potentially chilling effect on consumer demand, there is a domino effect on the supplier community. Many GM vendors have operated for years on ever-declining, razor-thin margins and are heavily dependent on GM for cash-flow. If that cash-flow ceases for even a relatively short period of time it could well send many of those suppliers into bankruptcy and force others simply to close their doors. The likely bankruptcies of supplier companies would have a ripple effect through the entire American vehicle manufacturing industry, causing hardships for the healthier companies as well. Further, while a \"quick-cleanse\" bankruptcy is contemplated, it is very difficult to imagine that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of one of the largest industrial companies in the world would not take a year or more to unravel, rather than weeks or months. And if GM languishes in bankruptcy it is hard to imagine consumers flocking to buy its new vehicles. Nor is it likely the government would subsidize those operations through the potentially lengthy proceedings. The implications of the pronouncements made by President Obama and the auto industry task force indicate clearly that they believe a figurative hammer is needed to move the stakeholders -- the United Auto Workers union, pensioners, bondholders and creditors -- to accept settlements that are, at best, unpalatable to them. The threat of bankruptcy is that hammer. But the question should be asked: Is the hammer the task force is holding over the head of the GM stakeholders in an effort to get concessions, the same hammer that will drive away consumers and require the federal government to make larger and larger cash infusions or see GM founder? So while some toss out the idea of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy as being a magic elixir for GM, which has found itself trapped in an unprecedented credit crunch and a sharp recession, we have to believe that bankruptcy is a bankrupt idea. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack R. Nerad.","highlights":"Jack Nerad: Some argue that a quick bankruptcy is best course for GM .\nHe says bankruptcy will reduce sale of GM cars, even with government warranty .\nNerad says GM suppliers could be driven into bankruptcy by such a move .\nHe says bankruptcy is being used as a hammer for GM to get concessions .","id":"3e1ac93d0159958832e8484acf76c3e59593f3d3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden brushed aside recent criticism by predecessor Dick Cheney that moves by the Obama administration had put the United States at risk, telling CNN on Tuesday that the former vice president was \"dead wrong.\" Vice President Joe Biden sits down for an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger and Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. \"I don't think [Cheney] is out of line, but he is dead wrong,\" he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. \"This administration -- the last administration left us in a weaker posture than we've been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world. \"... I guarantee you we are safer today, our interests are more secure today than they were any time during the eight years\" of the Bush administration. In an interview with CNN's John King last month, Cheney said President Obama had been \"making some choices that in my mind will raise the risk to the American people of another attack.\" Biden said former President Bush had not been fully aware of the country's position in the world. Watch Biden lash out on Bush and Cheney \u00bb . \"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office, and he was a great guy, enjoyed being with him. He said to me, he said, 'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said, 'Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one's following.' People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.\" \"... I think the biggest thing we're doing is, I'm operating in concert with the president,\" he said. \"There are not -- there are -- look, everybody talks about how powerful Cheney was. His power weakened America, in my view.\" But he did not deny reports of disagreement within the Obama administration as well, over the president's plan to widen involvement in Afghanistan. A report last week said Biden had warned about the possibility of getting into a quagmire, while military advisers pushed for more troops. Watch more on Obama's Afghanistan plan \u00bb . \"Well, look. Without commenting specifically on who took what position, there was a healthy debate. There is a healthy debate within our administration.\" The vice president said that he condemned a new Afghan law that would allow men to rape their wives, but that those issues were not the focus of the U.S. presence in that nation. \"I am not prepared to send American troops to die for that,\" he said. As the president made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Biden said that he had no concerns that a recent uptick in violence in Iraq might affect plans to withdraw most U.S. troops from that country by the summer of 2010. \"I'm not worried about that at all. We will draw down along the timeline we suggested,\" the vice president said. Watch the full interview \u00bb . Also not a concern for Biden: the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The vice president said he was not worried that Israel's new government, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would order such an attack. \"I don't believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill-advised to do that. And so my level of concern is no different than it was a year ago.\" A day after North Korea's rocket test sparked alarm from world leaders, Biden called for a tougher response from Moscow and Beijing. \"What I'd like to see is a strong condemnation and a united effort on the part of the Chinese, Russians in the six-party talks to say, 'enough is enough, there will be greater sanctions, we will squeeze down even harder on North Korea,' \" he said. He added that China could \"do a great deal more,\" although he was uncertain it would. \"I think this puts the onus on China and Russia and South Korea and Japan, et cetera, along with us, to be bolder in our condemnation.\" On the domestic front, Biden said that the administration's economic plan would prevent up to 4 million jobs from being lost and stabilize the economy, but that \"it will take at least another year before you start to see employment,\" and in the meantime, jobs will continue to disappear. Watch Biden answer iReporters' questions \u00bb . \"There will be an additional job loss. ... You're not going to see reports this calendar year saying there was no job loss this month. That is not going to happen. ...There will continue to be job losses the remainder of this year. The question is will they continually go down before they begin to rebound, and employment -- we go down to zero job loss and back to employment.\" He said it was \"too premature\" to begin discussing another stimulus package, though he has not ruled one out.","highlights":"VP Biden speaks Tuesday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Gloria Borger .\nBiden says recent criticism from former vice president Cheney is \"dead wrong\"\nHe says Bush administration left the country in weakest shape since WW II .\nBiden calls for tougher response from Moscow and Beijing on N. Korea rocket launch .","id":"3dceddc0bbcad4753918f9793f9f21673b02920d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It took about 110 years and some delicate surgery on his most private parts, but Henry -- a lizard-like creature from New Zealand -- is now a dad. Henry, the oldest tuatara to mate at Southland Museum, enjoys a cold shower in his home in New Zealand. Henry, a tuatara who, as far as curators at Southland Museum in New Zealand know, had never mated before, hooked up with Mildred, a younger woman of about 80, in March. In July she laid 11 healthy eggs and, this week, all 11 of them hatched -- the last one on Wednesday. \"Eleven out of eleven,\" curator Lindsay Hazley said Friday morning. \"Bloody brilliant. We had a champagne breakfast to celebrate.\" Henry was the oldest tuatara ever to mate at the museum, on New Zealand's South Island, Hazley said. Tuataras are the only living descendants of an order, related to dinosaurs, that flourished 200 million years ago. They're endangered, only living on a handful of islands in New Zealand, which makes Henry's happy news all the more important to supporters of the species. But it didn't come easy. Until about six years ago, Henry was a nasty, irritable fellow who showed no interest in mating and would attack females when they were introduced. Hazley, who has been breeding tuataras for the past 35 years, eventually had to put him in \"solitary confinement.\" But in 2002, veterinarians discovered that a lump in Henry's nether regions was a cancerous tumor. They removed it and, over the next few years, his mood -- and interest in the ladies -- improved. Now, Henry lives peacefully with Mildred and two other females. Breeders are hoping he'll show interest in Lucy, who is about the same age as Mildred, later this year. Female tuataras only lay eggs every two or three years, so Mildred likely won't be interested. Watch a curator take care of the reproducing dinosaur kin \u00bb . Henry's newfound libido does have some limits, however. Hazley said Juliet, a youthful 22 year old, appears to be too hot to handle for the centenarian -- who could live to be 200 years old if he stays healthy. \"I think he's a bit shy to mate with such a young woman,\" Hazley said. \"After a bit of experience with Mildred and Lucy, maybe he'll be interested in Juliet next year.\" Maxing out at about two-and-a-half feet long, tuataras are much smaller than their ancestors. The word \"tuatara\" is derived from a Maori word meaning \"spiny back.\" In Maori legend, they are messengers of Whiro, the god of death and disaster, and they were featured on one side of a New Zealand five-cent coin that was phased out in 2006. It's been a baby boom at Southland Museum lately. Hazley said another 10 babies were born to another couple recently -- swelling the ranks of the 50 or so tuataras that were already there. Friday morning, Hazley was working to install a camera so Henry's international fan base can watch him and other tuataras on the Internet. But they shouldn't expect any images of the proud dad playing with his batch of hatchlings. \"If it's small and it moves, it's food,\" Hazley said. \"He'd have them for lunch.\"","highlights":"110-year-old endangered male tuatara dinosaur descendant produces offspring .\nHenry and his near 80-year-old mate Mildred produced 11 eggs -- all hatched .\nHenry, disinterested in sex for four decades, lashed out at females .\nBut his reptile dysfunction changed when a cancerous lump was removed .","id":"9d7bd9ee311099e9406aa503df7108962c847642"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of child abuse reports in Jamaica increased dramatically in 2008, the nation's Office of Children's Registry reported Saturday. The office received 3,784 child abuse reports last year, up from only 425 complaints in 2007, a significant increase for a nation with a population of about 2.8 million. OCR Registrar Carla Edie told the Jamaican government news service, JIS, that the people of Jamaica have become \"increasingly mindful of their legal responsibility to report such incidents,\" and are increasingly concerned about child safety, given a recent trend of violence against minors in the country. According to JIS, a police report issued late last year said that, between January 1, 2008 and November 1, 2008, 73 children were murdered and 383 cases of carnal abuse were reported. Flogging and other forms of physical abuse are a part of Jamaican culture, Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne told JIS in an interview. \"There are many parents who even threaten to 'murder' their children, even some as young as two years old,\" Lightbourne said. Regarding official child abuse reports, Edie also said that the large increase can be attributed to growing awareness that the Office of Children's Registry is the department responsible for tracking and acting on such information, and not other government and police agencies that handled those reports in the past. In addition, \"if someone has information of suspected child abuse and fails to make a report to the Registry, that person can be charged a maximum fee of $500,000 or-and six months imprisonment,\" Edie told JIS. In response to increased demand, the OCR will increase its operating hours and staff.","highlights":"Child abuse reports in Jamaica have risen dramatically in past year, officials say .\nJustice Minister: Flogging, other forms of physical abuse are part of Jamaican culture .\nIn 2008, 73 children were killed in 10-month span, according to police report .","id":"edadaf5556e83d5f498d4fd4b4e132a73e66376e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration is abandoning a controversial plan to charge private insurers for treatment of veterans' service-connected ailments. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met with veterans' groups on Wednesday. In an statement Wednesday night, the White House said that although the president believes the plan would raise more money for veterans' care, the administration is dropping the idea after hearing the objections of veterans groups. \"The President listened to concerns raised by the VSOs [veterans service organizations] that this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families' ability to access health care,\" the White House said. \"Therefore, the president has instructed that its consideration be dropped.\" News of the change of heart originally came from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who disclosed the decision to reporters while meeting with a group of veterans on Capitol Hill. \"President Obama has listened to the concerns expressed by veterans' leaders and veterans' service organizations,\" Pelosi said. \"We will leave no veteran behind.\" Veterans' representatives and members of Congress have angrily opposed the proposal, which White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said was never finalized. Leaders from 11 veterans groups discussed their position in a meeting Wednesday afternoon with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. \"We stood firm on our stance that there is no way to support charging veterans' insurance companies for service-connected treatment,\" said Jim King, executive director of AMVETS, a leading veterans' advocacy organization. Emanuel indicated that the proposal was \"a dead issue,\" King added. \"The administration was quick to say [that if veterans were] going to fight it, [the White House wasn't] going to push it.\" Another attendee, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff, said Emanuel was quick to come back after hearing the veterans' groups stand firm and tell them, \"Let's clarify, it is dead.\" \"They made the right move -- they listened to us. Now we can move on to bigger more important issues,\" Rieckhoff said. The meeting was very short, said King. Despite the difference in opinion, King said the atmosphere was cordial and \"everybody seemed comfortable.\" On Monday, the groups met with President Obama, Emanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, director in charge of defense spending for the Office of Management and Budget. The administration saw the plan as a way of raising more than $500 million in revenues for the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, veterans groups saw it is a violation of what they said is the government's moral obligation to treat veterans injured during service to their country. In addition, they believed it would lead to veterans and their families losing their private insurance or premiums rising because of the high costs of treating many service-related injuries. The head of the Senate Veterans Affairs committee, Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said Tuesday his committee would \"not advance any such legislation.\" His counterpart in the House, Bob Filner, D-California, said his committee wouldn't take up the proposal either. In a statement released by his office, Filner said the idea is \"DOA\" and said the budget \"cannot be balanced on the backs (or legs, or kidneys, or hearts) of our nation's combat-wounded heroes.\" The president pushed back during the meeting on Monday, telling the groups that private insurance companies were getting a free ride. He challenged the veterans to come up with an alternative way to raise revenues. AMVETS planned to propose that billings be pursued more aggressively for injuries not related to service. But AMVETS director King said Emanuel didn't ask for suggestions in Wednesday's meeting. A 2008 Government Accountability Office study found that about $1.7 billion in treatment that could have been charged to private insurance never was, nor was it collected by the VA. CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House chief of staff meets with veterans groups .\nAdministration wanted to charge private insurers for treatment of veterans .\nVets' groups and members of Congress have angrily opposed the proposal .","id":"757f901812e9edffbefc1e605d8e422d11d17fbb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You don't find many churches making theatrical films. You especially don't find many churches making films starring Kirk Cameron about a firefighter in a crumbling marriage addicted to online porn. Kirk Cameron stars in \"Fireproof,\" a film he was attracted to for its many themes, he said. But that's the case for Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. In fact, the film, \"Fireproof,\" was the church's third movie. It was also an unexpected hit. In September it debuted at No. 4 at the box office, eventually bringing in $33.5 million and spawning two books: a novelization, also called \"Fireproof,\" which is in The New York Times' best-seller list's Top 20; and a companion journal to the movie, \"The Love Dare,\" which has sold more than 2 million copies. Last week \"Fireproof\" debuted on DVD and climbed to No. 3 on Billboard's DVD chart, beating out \"The Hulk\" and \"Saw V,\" among others. \"You don't often see movies made by churches do big numbers,\" said Billboard's Anthony Colombo. \"Having [distributor] Sony behind it helps. Having Kirk Cameron helps, but for it to come out and do 136,000 pieces [DVDs] in its first week is pretty impressive.\" \"It should not be working,\" said Alex Kendrick, one of the pastors behind the film. \"All I can say is we prayed for months and asked for it to honor God.\" Kendrick said that Sherwood's pastors gathered for prayer two years ago and asked God to give them an idea for their next movie. They were just coming off making \"Facing the Giants,\" a movie shot entirely in Albany on a $100,000 budget. It starred no professional actors -- just members of their church -- but made $10.2 million at the box office and sold 250,000 copies on DVD, launching the church into the national spotlight. The church leaders lit upon the idea of troubled relationships. \"Families and marriages are crumbing and we want to do something about it,\" said Kendrick, recalling the idea's genesis. \"God give us the idea. We had no clue what would happen with it.\" \"Fireproof\" began with a $500,000 budget and a fresh crop of church member\/actors, but the film got a left-field boost when Cameron, best known as the 1980s heartthrob from the TV series \"Growing Pains,\" read the script and asked to get involved. \"All throughout the movie ... there are issues of communications, money, sex, addiction, porn, extramarital affairs, feeling respected at work but not at home, feeling respected by friends but not at home,\" Cameron told CNN. The themes resonated with the actor and devout Christian, a husband of 17 years, and father of six, he said. That and the \"cool action scenes,\" he added. The makers of \"Fireproof\" tapped into the church market, arranging screenings for the National Baptist Pastors' convention before release and using word-of-mouth among church leaders. However, says Cameron, the film was pitched to general audiences, not necessarily Christians. \"'Fireproof' was never marketed as a Christian movie. This is a movie about marriage,\" Cameron said. \"The fact is, though, the gospel is presented, is done well, and it's a central part of the storyline.\" Although many critics panned \"Fireproof\" -- \"as sincere, uncynical and subtlety-free as a Sunday school lecture,\" said Variety -- audiences embraced it. \"There's a huge market out there that's underserved. That market is there and a lot of people don't want to go there but there is a huge untapped market,\" Cameron said. Paul Dergarabedian, a box office analyst for Hollywood.com, said he was shocked when the movie debuted in the top five its opening weekend. \"With 'Fireproof,' they really cracked the code with the major success with the film and have this appeal across the board,\" he said. \"They didn't follow traditional marketing methods but they didn't need them for this film. ... Maybe that's why it worked out so well.\" He added, \"You're talking about a very successful property. ... The powers that be that put this together are really on to something.\" Churches are using \"Love Dare\" and its companion curriculum as a teaching tool, says publisher B&H Publishing's Andrea Dennis, who calls \"Fireproof\" \"a marriage movement.\" For Valentine's Day more than 9,000 churches are scheduled to show the film, many displaying the admonition \"Fireproof Your Marriage\" on their signs. B&H believes \"Love Dare\" could hang around on the best-seller list -- where it's already been for 19 weeks -- along the lines of Rick Warren's \"The Purpose Driven Life.\" And the filmmakers have kept their success close to home. Alex Kendrick said the church used the profits from the movie to buy 82 acres of land and build a recreation center for the town, equipped with eight tennis courts, eight basketball courts and an equestrian area. A baseball diamond is on the way. He's confident \"Fireproof\" will remain a successful brand. \"When something grows the only reason it happens is people say it worked and you should try it,\" Kendrick said. \"When it works and there's a legitimate impact, people want to be a part of it.\"","highlights":"\"Fireproof\" about a firefighter having marriage problems .\nFilm was produced by a church, aimed some marketing at churches .\n\"Fireproof\" successful in theaters, now success on DVD, has become a brand .","id":"cec6c19114465fba5c2586ebe869369fa1ed12ef"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Packing on the pounds over the holidays? Adam Sandler can sympathize. He recently put on some weight himself. Adam Sandler had to cope with more than just falling gumballs in his latest comedy, \"Bedtime Stories.\" The comedian got buff for the movie \"You Don't Mess With the Zohan\" (in which he showed a lot of skin), but then he said he let himself go just a bit. \"[For 'Zohan'] I worked out like a madman,\" he told CNN. \"And then I started getting fat again.\" Concern over his physical conditioning led to an unintended consequence -- a broken bone. \"[One Saturday] I ate so much food, that I was laying in bed. I was fat as heck and I said, 'I better play some ball.' I went out and played basketball, broke my ankle. I said, 'Maybe I should have stayed fat.' \" The mishap occurred as he was filming his latest comedy, \"Bedtime Stories.\" In scenes that involved walking around, Sandler needed a body double. \"I'm shooting the movie with the cast on,\" he said. \"We did about six, seven weeks of shooting. If I was standing here and I had to walk to the door, I would stand up [then the camera would cut to] a guy with my outfit on that took the walk.\" Sandler is on the mend, but he said his ankle is still a little swollen. \"Bedtime Stories\" opens Christmas Day.","highlights":"Adam Sandler wore cast for part of \"Bedtime Stories\" filming .\nSome scenes required a body double after star broke ankle .\nSandler says he let himself go after \"You Don't Mess With the Zohan\"","id":"219db76c779d82ae3b9b517e37e08b7f75d823e3"} -{"article":"RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) -- Lawyers for convicted September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui urged an appeals court panel Monday to throw out his guilty plea and grant their client a new trial. They argued Moussaoui did not have an adequate defense and lacked key information to defend himself. Zacarias Moussaoui is serving a life sentence at the federal prison in Colorado known as Supermax. Legal analysts believe the appeal has only a slim chance of success. In arguments before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for Moussaoui said he was confused about the charges he was pleading guilty to, and he did not have access to information that would have shown he was not supposed to be part of the 9\/11 plot. One defense lawyer characterized Moussaoui as \"unknowing.\" Defense lawyers point to statements, later made public, from the man who plotted the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who said Moussaoui was not intended to be a participant. Moussaoui did not know what Mohammed had said because it had been classified. \"A guilty plea that is invalid is invalid,\" defense attorney Justin Antonipillai told the three-judge panel. A Justice Department lawyer strongly countered, telling the court Moussaoui's plea was voluntary and unconditional. Referring to a letter Moussaoui sent the district court at the time of the plea, Justice Department attorney Kevin Gingras said, \"He understands what he is pleading guilty to.\" Gingras told the court Moussaoui knew in general that there was information that could help his defense but chose to plead guilty anyway, thereby waiving any right to now challenge that decision. \"He understood there was stuff out there,\" Gingras said. \"He knew the gist,\" referring to redacted copies of appeal court rulings about what detainees might testify to and the 9\/11 commission report. In April of 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy charges, and in May of 2006 he was sentenced to life in prison after a jury decided not to impose a death sentence. Moussaoui, who is being held at the maximum security federal prison in Colorado known as Supermax, was not in the courtroom for the hearing. It's expected to be several months before a ruling is issued. His attorney was met with mostly skeptical questioning by the judges. \"He insisted on pleading guilty and was allowed to do so only after extensive efforts to assure that it was knowing and voluntary,\" said former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey, adding the district judge presiding over the case tried to make sure Moussaoui's rights were protected. Moussaoui's attorneys argued his original defense team, which vehemently tried to dissuade him from pleading guilty, should have been able in an unclassified way to brief their client on the contents of the classified information so he knew the full scope of the evidence. They had \"one hand tied behind their backs,\" Antonipillai said. The judges hearing the case and the Justice Department attorney pointed out he probably would have received some of that material if he had gone to trial instead of pleading guilty. \"It is his choice to pull the plug\" on the process and plead guilty, Gingras said. Another argument made by Moussaoui's team was that he was denied the right of counsel because he could not hire a lawyer he wanted. After telling the court he did not want the court-appointed attorneys to represent him, Moussaoui tried to be his own attorney. But after constant outbursts the judge ended that effort. The court-appointed lawyers then took over the defense, but Moussaoui never had a good relationship with them. He wanted a Muslim lawyer from Texas, Charles Freeman, to be his attorney, but Freeman did not have security clearance. Moussaoui was arrested in August of 2001 in Minnesota after instructors at the flight school he was attending reported he was acting suspiciously and did not have much flying experience. Throughout his legal proceedings he changed his story -- at first claiming he was not supposed to be part of the September 11 attacks and then saying he was scheduled to fly a fifth plane that day and then reversing himself back to his original claim of non-involvement. His sentencing trial, which included evidence collected by the FBI relating to the 9\/11 attacks, was supposed to showcase how a high-profile terrorism suspect could be tried in federal civilian court. But his trial ended up delayed for several years over a series of legal fights, including his attempt to defend himself, which included rants in the courtroom and the defense trying to gain testimony from some of the high-ranking al Qaeda detainees in U.S. custody. Several relatives of those who died in the 9\/11 attacks traveled to Richmond for the hearing. Rosemary Dillard, whose husband was on the plane that went into the Pentagon, told CNN, \"People need to know this process works.\" Abraham Scott, whose wife worked in the Pentagon, said attending the hearing shows \"we are still interested. ... We are still supporting the legal process.\" Both Dillard and Scott attended every day of the 2006 sentencing trial. With the prospect that more terrorism suspects could be tried in federal courts with the promised closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Dillard and Scott say Moussaoui's case shows the civilian trials can work. However, the appeal judges grappled with such key questions as how to guarantee a terrorism detainee access to classified information without compromising national security, and how to determine what degree of involvement in a terrorist plot is needed to justify a death sentence. Analysts say some detainees, because of evidence and other reasons, should be brought to trial in other systems. \"The extraordinary challenges of balancing national security with the rights of a terrorism defendant in a civilian trial vividly illustrate why the new administration should consider the use of military tribunals for at least some of the Guantanamo detainees,\" said former U.S. attorney Coffey.","highlights":"Defense lawyers say 9\/11 conspirator lacked key info to defend himself .\nZacarias Moussaoui sentenced to life in connection with September 11 attacks .\nProsecutors say Moussaoui's guilty plea came voluntarily .\nLegal analysts believe appeal stands little chance of success .","id":"1c545f72ab4235e1753b639b53b9833358dcb316"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I wanted to believe the man in front of me wasn't a rapist. I knew he was a former Sudanese soldier, I knew he wanted to talk about rape in Darfur. A humanitarian group working on Darfur issues had introduced him to us. They told us his testimony was important to hear. A woman left homeless by conflict in Darfur walks along railway tracks. Last year in Darfur aid workers told me children as young as five were being raped in the huge displacement camps that are home to several million Darfuris. In some camps, they told me, rape had become so common that as many as 20 babies a month born from rape were being abandoned. As I sat inches from Adam --not his real name -- I feared the revulsion I knew I would feel at my own questions as I asked about rape and his involvement. I have interviewed rape survivors in Darfur. I have two daughters. I am a human being with a conscience. It would be hard to listen to his replies. He told me he was conscripted by force in to the Sudanese army in the summer of 2002. He thought he was being taken for six months' national service and then would be released. The conversation was slow going at first. We were both holding off from delving into the sordid details he'd come to discuss. His answers were short, he told me he got no pay from the army, only food and drink. He said he was rounded up in an army truck from a market in Darfur and trained to kill. He said he was armed with Kalashnikovs and told to \"shoot targets.\" Watch ex-soldier describe brutal attacks on children to Nic Robertson \u00bb . Then, he says, his officers told him \"we will be taken to a patrol and then soon after that we were asked to join other people to go and burn and kill people\". That's when he says he realized he wasn't getting national service training, that in fact, he was being forced into war against his will, with his own people. \"They are black,\" he told me, noting the difference between the lighter skinned rulers of Sudan and the darker farmers of Darfur. \"I am black,\" he said, \"this shouldn't be happening.\" But, he said, worse than being told to kill his own people, was that if he tried to resist, he himself would be killed. \"The order is that the soldiers at the front, and there are some people who are watching you from behind, if you try to escape or do anything you will get shot. The order is that we go to the village, burn it and kill the people.\" It felt as Adam was beginning to open up a little -- not easy, given the topic, and the lights and cameras all around us. He was beginning to talk a bit more, answer questions with more than one or two words. But it was following a pattern: I'd have to lead the way. We were both waiting for the inevitable. How he came to know of rape in Darfur. And that's when he said it. Watch warrant being issued for president \u00bb . He brought up the rape by himself. He was talking through a translator but his voice was quiet. I thought I heard anger, heard him slow and his voice drop: \"I had no choice,\" he said \"but I will say that I didn't kill anybody but the raping of the small children, it was bad\" I knew this was going to be difficult and now it had begun. What happens with the children, I asked. \"They cry out,\" he answered. \"And what happens when they cry out?\" \"Two persons will capture her while she is crying and another raping her, then they leave her there,\" came his reply. Silence. \"What do I ask now?\" I thought. Be forensic. Get the story. This is important testimony, I reminded myself. And so we continued, Adam describing in detail how soldiers raped girls as young as 12. How officers ordered them to do this to make people flee their villages, run away and never come back. Through all of this, Adam didn't once mention whether he actually had been directly involved in the raping. He said he tried to desert the army as soon as he could, but was caught and tortured. He showed me the scars where he said he was tied down beneath a tree and officers set fire to tires above him, dripping burning rubber on his body. Eventually, he said, he did get away, went to his sisters, tried joining the rebels to fight the army. But even there, his troubles were far from over. Incredibly, he said, the rebels didn't trust him; he was kept at their camp and only escaped when it was bombed by the army. The end of his story, but we weren't really done. One more question. Had he been forced to rape children? \"Yes I did, they were government orders,\" came his reply. How many? \"Well it didn't feel like raping, I was feeling very bad but as I was ordered, I had to do something. What I did was take off my trousers and lay myself on top of the girl but I didn't feel like raping, so I lay there for about 15 minutes.\" I want to be sure I understand him. \"So you didn't actually penetrate the girls?\" I ask. No, he says, \"because I had no feeling for it, my penis didn't actually wake up, so there was no actual penetration,\" he replied. There were other people in the room, the translator, a cameraman, our producer Jonathan Wald, but I had forgotten they were there. My thoughts were entirely locked on Adam. What more could I ask? I was emotionally drained. There was no way of knowing whether he was telling me the truth. Only in the measure of his voice was there a clue. Here, sitting on an office chair, thousands of miles away from Darfur, the memories come flooding back. The many, traumatized women and children we've interviewed, distraught families, unable to protect themselves. The pain we put them through, to recount, to relive, their nightmares. Each time, I've asked myself can I justify the suffering these questions cause? Each time, I tell myself it is only their own accounts that can cast light on the darkened corner of humanity they inhabit. Only their own accounts that can help break their cycle of suffering. Time and again, though, it seems telling the world their stories has little tangible impact on their reality of their lives. And now I'm face-to-face with a man who says he was part of the suffering, albeit by his own account not complicit and not guilty. I am left with the thought perhaps Adam's words carry even greater power. If his story is true -- and it mirrors other accounts emerging from Darfur -- then it implicates the government in these terrible crimes. He says he has trouble sleeping at nights. I can understand why. He is not alone. Aid workers say millions of women in Darfur not only have trouble sleeping at nights, but live in fear of rape 24 hours a day.","highlights":"Former soldier says he was armed with a Kalashnikov and told to kill .\n\"Adam\" describes taking part in rape attacks on children in Darfur .\nVictims included girls as young as 12, he says .","id":"61daaa777f91245c586c6167f201191b94521e8a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Vladimir Putin spent the Russian New Year boogying to the hits of ABBA after spending $30,000 to fly a tribute band to a lake town north of Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew an ABBA tribute band to Russia for a private concert. According to Bjorn Again founder, Rod Stephen, Putin disco pointed to the ABBA classics \"Super Trouper\" and \"Mamma Mia\" at a gathering of only eight guests. Stephen said he received a phone call from the Kremlin prior to Christmas. \"It was pretty mad. It was the type of phone call everyone gets everyday from Moscow. I thought someone was taking the piss.\" Stephen said an agent in Moscow then set the gig up, and he was told it was for Russia's \"number two.\" He said the band were flown to Moscow and then had a nine-hour bus trip to Lake Valdai -- where Putin has held high-level meetings in the past -- on January 22 (the traditional date of Russian New Year's eve). \"The band and crew were searched at checkpoints by people with appropriately sized weapons,\" Stephen said. He said the band played behind a heavy gauze curtain, which made it hard for them to see the audience. However, the could make out Putin's profile and that of the other seven guests. Stephen said it was initially \"roaring\" at the venue. \"When the band started people were sitting on sofas. But then Putin was up and dancing to Super Trouper and Mamma Mia, pointing fingers up and down.\" The band played for an hour before being shown out as the guests went to watch a fireworks display. Stephen said they were paid $30,000 and their expenses covered. He described it as the \"weirdest\" gig the band had done. \"I've had phone calls from the agency saying 'don't talk to anyone else we are getting grief from the Kremlin,' but there was no non-disclosure contract.\"","highlights":"Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has revealed a love for ABBA's hits .\nABBA tribute band founder says he flew group to Russia for private concert .\nRod Stephen says there were only eight people in the audience .","id":"a727d15bb73aa29bd4639e0a95fcfc776cf0c3f3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Asked about part of the entertainment business he particularly enjoys, Greg Behrendt -- stand-up comedian, author, TV writer and producer -- had an unusual answer. Greg Behrendt co-wrote \"He's Just Not That Into You,\" based on a popular episode of \"Sex and the City.\" \"My instrumental punk and ska band called the Reigning Monarchs,\" he said with a laugh. \"There's seven guys in the band. ... We play shows around Los Angeles.\" But the co-author of \"He's Just Not That Into You,\" now a film starring Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson and Ben Affleck, admits that stand-up comedy remains a longtime passion. In fact, it led -- in a roundabout way -- to \"He's Just Not That Into You.\" \"I was a stand-up who had an HBO special called 'Mantastic,' and it was directed by Michael Patrick King, who became an executive producer of 'Sex and the City,' \" Behrendt said. One thing led to another, and Behrendt soon joined a mostly female writing team on \"Sex and the City.\" He observed that he was the only straight male writer for the show and offered the group valuable and realistic insight into the world of men. \"Sure, I felt a little bit like a token,\" he said. \"It's not like those women needed my help, but I think there are days when you can't write in a perspective you don't live.\" That perspective, along with colleague Liz Tuccillo's female point of view, gave way to \"He's Just Not That Into You.\" The book is based on a popular episode of \"Sex and the City,\" in which Carrie's boyfriend (played by Ron Livingston) offers the line to Miranda as she puzzles over a date. The book is a wake-up call for women who obsess and worry about relationships, with an overarching message that if women find themselves doing the chasing, it's likely the guy simply isn't interested. \"We were raised to pursue women. ... Most of the guys I know enjoy the pursuit,\" he said. \"But that doesn't mean women should be wallflowers.\" As a comedian-turned-relationship expert -- one who is, by the way, now happily married and writing a book with his wife -- Behrendt said he hoped women would realize their worth when they read the book or watch the film. \"[Women] deserve great things, and they get to decide what their relationships are, and not other people,\" he said. \"You often hear women say, 'I don't know if he's ready to get married.' Why are you waiting for his decision? We always put our fates in other people's hands.\"","highlights":"Greg Behrendt is the co-author of \"He's Just Not That Into You,\" now a film .\nBehrendt joined a mostly female writing team on \"Sex and the City\"\n\"He's Just Not That Into You\" is a book for women who worry about relationships .\n\"We were raised to pursue women,\" Behrendt says .","id":"300f9b979d033ca0deda4543dba945543b8a0f76"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Mandy Moore is getting a license to wed rocker Ryan Adams. Mandy Moore has been with Ryan Adams for about a year. Moore's publicist confirmed Thursday the 24-year-old singer-actress is engaged to marry Adams, 34, who is known for producing rock music with a country influence. Spokeswoman Tracy Bufferd gave no details about wedding plans. Rumors first surfaced almost a year ago that Moore and Adams were dating as paparazzi photos surfaced of the couple out together in Los Angeles. Moore's role as a bride in the 2007 movie \"License to Wed\" may help her as she moves toward the altar. The romantic comedy featured Robin Williams as \"Reverend Frank,\" who put Moore's character and her fiance through a \"marriage preparation course\" before they could get hitched in his church. Her first success as a recording artist came in 1999 with her debut album, \"So Real,\" which went platinum with the help of her top 10 single \"Candy.\"","highlights":"Singer-actress Mandy Moore engaged to rocker Ryan Adams .\nMoore has had top 10 music success, better known for movie roles .\nAdams a prolific singer-songwriter as soloist and with Whiskeytown, Cardinals .","id":"5adcde44f312af50f5e78a133efaa75a263f0350"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A crusading Sri Lankan journalist shot dead last week knew he would be killed -- he said so in a dramatic, posthumously published column touching a raw nerve in his war-torn island nation. A candlelight vigil in the Sri Lankan capital in memory of slain journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga. Lasantha Wickrematunga, editor-in-chief of The Sunday Leader, was gunned down execution-style January 8 but spoke from the grave three days later when the newspaper published \"And Then They Came For Me.\" That posthumous column anticipated his slaying by government forces and defended the craft of journalism in his country, a profession under fire during its bitter civil war. \"Diplomats, recognizing the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice. But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience,\" Wickrematunga wrote. \"People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it's a matter of time before I am bumped off.\" Wickrematunga wrote that he was twice assaulted and his house was fired upon. \"Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. \"In all of these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me,\" he wrote. Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa, asked about threats to journalists, voiced assurance that no journalist or media institution had cause to fear any threats or attacks by the government, according to a statement on the government's official Web site. Watch Sri Lanka's foreign minister discuss press freedom \u00bb . \"The government had no interest whatever in seeking disgrace through any attacks on the media,\" he said, and he assured media leaders that the culprits would be captured and brought to justice, the statement said. Hostility against journalists and their institutions has been high as the Sinhalese-dominated government forces work to eradicate the last vestiges of Tamil Tiger separatists in the Jaffna peninsula, the rebel-held northern region. The 25-year-old civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesman for Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement, said harassment of journalists has been common, and cited these examples from the past year: two journalists killed, another journalist shot at, more than 50 reports of intimidations and threats, 12 media personnel arrested, 16 journalists physically assaulted, one tortured, one assaulted in an abduction attempt, the circulation of a list with 27 journalists targeted for killings, the proposal of a censorship law, and the naming of some journalists as terrorists or terrorist supporters. On January 6, 15 masked gunmen entered Maharajah TV studios outside the capital, Colombo. The journalism watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists said the attackers shot at and destroyed broadcast equipment, held staff members at gunpoint, and attempted to burn down the station's facilities. CNN on Wednesday interviewed the head of Maharajah TV, Chevaan Daniel, about the incident. Afterward, Sri Lanka's defense secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, called for the arrest of a person who had talked to CNN, Deshapriya said. CPJ said the government-run media has criticized Maharajah TV for its coverage of a suicide bombing in the capital and \"undermining\" a presidential victory speech after government troops took Kilinochchi -- which had been the de facto capital of the Tamil Tigers movement. Government officials have condemned strikes on Colombo and have ordered probes. Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program director, said that \"far too often the government or its unofficial allies have been prime suspects behind attacks on journalists and media organizations,\" despite government condemnations and investigations. As the civil warfare first unfolded, Tamil journalists were targeted, Dietz said. But in the past year and a half, mainstream journalists, such as those who raise questions about the government's military activity, have been facing a crackdown -- even if they are from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group or sharply critical of the Tamil rebel movement. This includes Wickrematunga, who questioned the government's successes and value of its military actions. \"That really got under the skin of the government,\" Dietz said. \"It's one thing to insult the president, but another thing to insult the military during wartime.\" \"This killing is the worst,\" said Dietz, who compared it to the impact that would be felt if a New York Times or Washington Post columnist were killed in the United States. Wickrematunga's killing spurred a demonstration in Colombo by 4,000 people, which Reporters Without Borders said was the largest since the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa took power three years ago. Another protest was to be held on Thursday in London. The title of Wickrematunga's column was inspired by a poem by a German theologian about how Germans failed to react to Nazism in the past century before it was too late. In his rendition of the poem, Wickrematunga wrote: \"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.\" Wickrematunga pronounces his pride in his profession's attempt to chronicle life in a country at war and his paper's work to bravely represent all people -- \"Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled.\" He casts the paper as an independent organ that faithfully records events. He said the paper lacks a political agenda and wants to see Sri Lanka as a \"transparent, secular, liberal democracy.\" \"No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism,\" he wrote, adding that \"countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.\" \"I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not traveled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands.\" He also castigates the country's president, who had been a long-time friend. \"In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one too.\"","highlights":"Lasantha Wickrematunga gunned down execution-style January 8 .\nPosthumous column anticipated his slaying by government forces .\nGovt.: Says no journalist, media institution should fear attack by government .\nCivil war with Tamil Tigers has killed more than 65,000 .","id":"8eb10504edaf0b096e9e5919ae6cb9ce5824ae38"} -{"article":"On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" CNN host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. King recently traveled to Arizona, to explore the debate over how to control illegal immigration. A fence separates the United States from Mexico in the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma Sector in San Luis, Arizona. SAN LUIS, Arizona (CNN) -- The Yuma desert is below: San Luis, Arizona, to one side and San Luis, Mexico, to the other. On this clear day, the Colorado River is glistening, birds playfully circling over what any map defines as the U.S.-Mexico border in this area. But from a helicopter above, the border is a steel barrier that stands out along the riverbank and against the desert sands, and is the dividing line that gets the most attention from those crying to cross illegally and those who believe recent efforts to bolster U.S. border security have been riddled with wrong choices. Just this past week, eight Democrats in Congress wrote President Obama urging him to halt any further construction of the fence, one of the many border- and immigration-related political debates that have carried over from the Bush administration. To the Border Patrol agents stationed in Yuma Sector, there is no debate. To them, the fence is a success story. From a Vietnam War-vintage Huey helicopter, pilot Chad Smith points across the border to Mexico's Highway 2 and then to the barriers that help stop illegal immigrants from making a sprint into southern Arizona. \"You can see the triple-layer fencing,\" Smith tells us as he lowers the helicopter and hovers over what was once a major crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. \"Steel fence right on the border, the pedestrian fence about 90 feet north of that, and then the chain-link fence with the barbed wire.\" The fence has three layers in areas where there is an urban neighborhood on the Mexican side. Smith is among those who say their flights are less hectic now because while you can still clearly see the trails in the sand and in some hilly areas below, there is considerably less traffic. \"I've flown before and come back and had 70-plus [illegal immigrants logged in a tracking book],\" Smith said. \" I know guys who have gone on a flight and come back with 100-plus illegals in their logbook. Now it is in single digits, typically.\" It is a fascinating view from above: Old trails in some places, and the remnants of newly placed white sandbags in others. \"It forms a pretty good bridge for them to drive across.\" Smith says of the sandbags. When they are spotted from above, Border Patrol agents on the ground are called in to destroy the makeshift crossings. Congress in 2006 -- with then-Sen. Barack Obama's support -- authorized nearly $3 billion for 670 miles of fencing stretching from California to Texas. There are more lights, sensors and cameras, and there are also more agents like Mike Lowrie driving patrols and chasing tips called in from colleagues monitoring the camera feeds at the Yuma Sector headquarters. Standing alongside the steel barrier at a point in which there is just one layer of fencing, Lowrie shakes his head when told that some in Washington want to stop additional construction in other areas. \"This used to be a very high-trafficked area, and now it is not,\" Lowrie told us. Asked to define \"high traffic,\" Lowrie says, \"In the Yuma Sector, we would get about 800 a day. Now, 25 maybe, or 10.\" Nodding toward the barrier, he continued: \"Numbers don't lie. We didn't have it three years ago, and we were getting massive numbers of illegal entries. We have it now, and we don't.\" But there are voices on both extremes of the immigration debate that say the role of the fence is exaggerated, or that say the barrier's benefit in slowing illegal traffic is offset by other costs. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose tough stance against illegal immigrants has earned him global media coverage, says the fence is fine, but: \"We just arrested 150 in the past 14 days. They're still coming.\" And Father John Herman, a Roman Catholic priest whose Spanish language Masses are packed with illegal immigrants, blames the fence for more risky crossings in less-populated desert areas. \"We know that the way enforcement has gone has driven many people into the desert and caused more deaths. Needless deaths. If we could only get together and work for comprehensive immigration reform.\"","highlights":"Eight Democrats in Congress wrote Obama to halt building of border fence .\nBorder Patrol agents say fence has drastically cut number of border crossings .\nThen-Sen. Obama voted to authorize almost $3 billion for building 670 miles of fence .\nCritic says barrier has forced illegal immigrants to make riskier desert crossings .","id":"d3a9f148042d2228d99b345e6891562675de7991"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to U.S. cycling legend Lance Armstrong was stolen from a team truck in California just hours after he rode it Saturday on the first day of a nine-day race. Lance Armstrong is racing in the California Amgen Tour as he attempts a comeback after retiring in 2005. Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong is racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week as he continues his latest comeback after retiring from the sport in 2005. Armstrong's first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. Armstrong announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. \"There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered,\" the Texan wrote before going out and finishing fifth in Sunday's testing first stage won by Spain's Francisco Mancebo. Swiss Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who started the day in the yellow jersey after winning Saturday's time-trial prologue, pulled out midway through the stage feeling unwell. Armstrong improved from 10th to fifth overall, one minute five seconds adrift, with Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, the two-time defending champion, in second place behind Mancebo. \"Holy hell. That was terrible,\" commented Armstrong who had a puncture. \"Maybe one of the toughest days I've had on a bike, purely based on the conditions. I'm still freezing.\" The bicycle that was stolen is not the one that Armstrong rides every day during the race. The stolen bike is used only for time trials, a race in which cyclists ride individually at staggered intervals over a set distance and try to get the best time. The thieves took four bikes from a truck Armstrong's Astana team had parked behind a hotel in Sacramento. The other three bicycles belonged to team members Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych, Astana said. Armstrong, 37, won the Tour de France, considered the premiere bicycle race in the world, a record seven times from 1999-2005. The 750-mile Amgen Tour of California ends Sunday. It is the second major race in which Armstrong has participated since announcing his comeback in September. He raced last month in the Tour Down Under in Australia, finishing 29th. Armstrong said he is aiming for another Tour de France victory this summer and was not expected to contend in the Australian race, which he used to gauge his fitness level after more than three years out of the saddle.","highlights":"Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind bicycle stolen from team truck in California .\nFour bicycles stolen from truck Armstrong's Astana team parked behind hotel .\nCancer survivor Armstrong is currently fifth overall in Amgen Tour of California .\nArmstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times from 1999-2005 .","id":"3952898f89ec848963b1adce369fd06001ee6234"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A gay rights group is welcoming the likely appointment of the world's first openly gay prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir of Iceland. Protesters in Reykjavik celebrate the prime minister's resignation on Monday. Sigurdardottir, the country's 66-year-old minister of social affairs and social security, is on track to succeed Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who resigned Monday following the collapse of the country's main banks, currency and stock market. Negotiations are underway between Sigurardottir's Social Democratic Alliance Party and potential coalition partners. If they succeed, she will become interim prime minister until Iceland next goes to the polls, which must happen by May. \"We really warmly welcome that,\" said Gary Nunn, a spokesperson for Stonewall UK, a British gay-rights group. \"At a time when we've just seen a black man elected to the highest office in America, it gives us hope that we will see an openly gay prime minister here some day.\" \"It really does matter. It is helpful\" to have an openly gay prime minister, Nunn said. \"We are trying to foster the ambition that young people can be anything they want to be.\" Britain has only one openly lesbian member of Parliament, Angela Eagle of the Labour party, Nunn said. The United States currently has three openly gay members of Congress -- Democratic Reps. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Jared Polis of Colorado. Stonewall considers it a higher priority to have significant numbers of openly gay lawmakers than an openly gay prime minister. \"For a head of state of to be gay is great and really encouraging, but it's really important for Parliament to represent the people it serves,\" he said. Sigurdardottir has been a member of Iceland's Parliament for 30 years, and is in her second stint as minister of social affairs. She started her career as a flight attendant for the airline that became IcelandAir. She was active in the flight attendants' labor union during her 11 years with the airline, according to her official resume. Sigurdardottir briefly led her own political party, which merged with other center-left parties to form the Alliance party. She would become Iceland's first female prime minister, although not the North Atlantic nation's first female head of state -- Vigdis Finnbogadottir became its fourth president in 1980. Sigurdardottir lists author and playwright Jonina Leosdottir, 54, as her spouse on her ministry Web site. She has two children from an earlier marriage.","highlights":"Johanna Sigurdardottir is on track to succeed Prime Minister Geir Haarde .\nHaarde resigned after the collapse of Iceland's main banks, currency .\nSigurdardottir is currently the minister of social affairs and social security .\nNegotiations are underway between Sigurardottir's party and potential partners .","id":"7ea9da477e02efb57b35122d01143ded9f3a0f35"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Twenty-five years after the hit single \"West End Girls,\" can the Pet Shop Boys pull off songs that make you want to dance like it's 1984, but still reflect a social consciousness of 2009? Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, shown at the BRIT Awards in February, are releasing their 10th studio album. The answer is the title of their latest album: \"Yes.\" The British duo will release their 10th studio album on April 21 in the United States through Astralwerks. \"Yes\" has been out in the United Kingdom through Parlophone\/EMI since March 23, and entered the Billboard UK albums chart at No. 4. \"We thought that 'Yes' just kind of summed up the theme of the album. It's a positive, upbeat, euphoric pop album,\" keyboardist Chris Lowe said. \"It's almost an answer to the question, 'Is that the Pet Shop Boys?' 'Yes!' \" Given how many different projects the duo has been involved with, it's a valid question. In addition to the studio albums, they've written a musical, \"Closer to Heaven,\" and a soundtrack to Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film classic, \"The Battleship Potemkin.\" For \"Yes,\" the Pet Shop Boys worked with Xenomania, a production group known for collaborating with Cher and other pop stars. Xenomania co-wrote three of the tracks on \"Yes\" with Lowe and vocalist Neil Tennant, who write most of their own songs. Watch the official video for \"Love, etc.\" on YouTube . The Pet Shop Boys, who recently won an award for outstanding contribution to music at the 2009 BRIT Awards, \"felt very much at home\" at the house outside London, England, that Xenomania has devoted entirely to music, Tennant said. Every bedroom has a studio, and bands hang around downstairs waiting to record amid the sounds of instruments, record mixing and talking. \"You can hear this cacophony of music all day long,\" he said. Like a vinyl record, \"Yes\" is divided into two distinct halves: the happy pop introduction and the more \"weird\" experimental conclusion, Tennant said. The album also features guitar performances by Johnny Marr. \"Love, etc.\", the album's first track and currently No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart, is a social statement about how money, shopping and celebrity don't necessarily bring happiness, while the third track, \"Beautiful People,\" imagines that it must be great to have wealth and fame, Tennant said. \"At the end of the day, it's an old-fashioned sentiment, but love is more important, really,\" Lowe said of \"Love, etc.\" \"Pandemonium,\" a love song inspired by the relationship between actress Kate Moss and singer Pete Doherty, was originally written for Kylie Minogue to sing, but she didn't use it, Tennant said. Media reports that they'll never work together again are incorrect, however, he said. \"I think they exaggerated that,\" Tennant said. \"Yeah, so that's not true.\" (In a BBC story, Tennant and Lowe said they, like many songwriters, hadn't heard back from Minogue after submitting their material. \"We won't be doing it again,\" Lowe told the BBC.) Perhaps the most out-of-character song stylistically is the finale, \"Legacy,\" a meditation on politicians leaving office (\"You'll get over it\" is the main message). Tennant identified it as his favorite because of the poetry and the mystery in the music -- \"it continues to fascinate me,\" he said. \"The Way It Used to Be,\" a favorite track for both Boys, charts a relationship from its romantic beginning to its melancholic end, wondering \"what is left of love\" and longing to \"leave our promises behind \/ rewind and try again.\" With all this talk of love, Tennant is private about his own love life. As far as love in the album goes, though, \"Some of it's real, and some imagination; some of it's memory,\" he said. The duo did not meet in a pet shop, but in an an electronics shop in London in 1981. Tennant needed a piece of equipment for his synthesizer and, when he and Lowe started talking about music, the two hit it off. \"I'm always struck since then by the sort of amazing look of our meeting,\" Tennant said. \"We happened to be in the same place at the same time, and it changed the rest of our lives. I always think it was an extraordinary thing.\" They started making music as a hobby with an acoustic guitar and a synthesizer, and played drums by banging on the table, Lowe said. \"It's all been a gradual process really. We never sat down really and said, 'Let's become pop stars,' \" Lowe said. When they first recorded \"West End Girls\" together, the musical group did not have a name, Tennant said. They took the name Pet Shop Boys because they had friends who worked at a pet shop in West London known as the \"pet shop boys.\" They thought the name fit with popular rap groups such as the Beastie Boys. \"It has actually no meaning whatsoever. Chris used to be embarrassed by it,\" Tennant said. While influenced by hip-hop, electronic disco, and other genres from the beginning, the Pet Shop Boys have always emphasized the songs themselves, Lowe said, and they're not \"purist\" about what kinds of instruments get used. In the beginning, they sampled everything from animal noises to broken glass for their songs. They even recorded the sound of a woman walking down a street in high heels for \"West End Girls,\" and the ambience of a cathedral for the 1987 single \"It's a Sin,\" Lowe said. Their songwriting has perhaps gotten more sophisticated and experimental over time, Tennant said. \"In the '80s I never sang any harmonies on records. Now I do loads of harmonies. I'm turning into Brian Wilson!\" Tennant said. \"Yes\" continues the Pet Shop Boys' tradition of having one-word titles for albums, such as \"Please,\" \"Bilingual,\" and the more recent \"Fundamental.\" The convention just developed and became a style that the duo decided to keep, Tennant said. \"It's like e.e. cummings not having any capital letters -- it's a signature thing,\" Tennant said. The duo is determined to branch into new areas. Lowe and Tennant's next project is a ballet slated for 2011 based on a story by Hans Christian Anderson. Tennant said it is instrumental, and includes a mixture of electronic music and strings. \"The challenge of telling a story through music and dance is something that we're interested in,\" Lowe said. Plans to tour the United States in the fall are under discussion, the duo said.","highlights":"The Pet Shop Boys' new album comes out in the United States on April 21 .\n\"Yes\" has two distinct parts: the upbeat introduction and the more mysterious end .\nSinger Neil Tennant says he never sang any harmonies in the 1980s .\nTennant and Lowe did not meet in a pet shop, but in an electronics shop .","id":"85a69fd42374a9d11ae708c6fec8c5d015650855"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Singapore lawmaker was in intensive care Monday after a man set him on fire at a community event, a hospital official told CNN. Seng Han Thong of the ruling People's Action Party underwent skin graft surgery at Singapore General Hospital Monday morning and was in stable condition, said hospital spokeswoman Junaidah Hameed. Seng suffered burns to his face and chest after a man in his 70s came up behind him as he was sitting down for lunch, poured thinner on him and set him on fire, party official George Tan told reporters. An event organizer who rushed to Seng's aid and tried to douse the flames was also injured, the hospital said. Seng had gone to the community center in his parliamentary district to hand out money to residents -- a tradition among many politicians ahead of the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 26 this year. The attacker was a 70-year-old former cab driver who has been in and out of a mental clinic in recent months, the English-language daily newspaper the Straits Times reported. Tan, the party official, said the man had met Seng at several meet-and-greets and complained about \"evil spirits in his house.\" \"No matter what the reason is, and whatever condition the person is in, that is no reason to commit such a crime against anyone, not just against an MP [member of parliament],\" Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng told reporters at the hospital. Two years ago, Seng was attacked at another community event by another cab driver, the newspaper said. In that incident, the cab driver punched Seng because he was upset that the lawmaker was not helping him get his revoked license reinstated. CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man in his 70s poured thinner on lawmaker and set him on fire while he had lunch .\nSeng Han Thong of the ruling People's Action Party is in intensive care .\nHe suffered burns to his face and chest and underwent skin graft surgery .\nAttacker is a former cab driver who has been in a mental clinic, media says .","id":"aa39fe656e398f23087e3c6d5f805983a06721e5"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- The park bench facing Lake Washington is covered with flowers, poems, a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and graffiti. Fans leave flowers and mementos in honor of Kurt Cobain near his Seattle home. \"I miss your beautiful face and voice,\" one dedication reads. \"Thank you for inspiring me,\" says another. \"RIP Kurt.\" Fifteen years ago Wednesday, at a house adjacent to the park, Kurt Cobain's dead body was discovered by an electrician. The Nirvana frontman, 27, had committed suicide, police later ruled, killing himself with a shotgun while high on heroin and pills. His death ended a battle with hard drugs and added Cobain to a long list of legendary musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, whose careers were cut short by their addictions. Cobain's ashes were reportedly scattered in a Washington state river and a New York Buddhist temple. Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl eventually formed other bands. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, stayed in the limelight with an acting career and legal problems surrounding her own drug problems. Frances Bean, the couple's daughter, has largely lived outside the public eye. What was unclear when Cobain died was whether the music Nirvana created would endure or fade away like the grunge craze it helped to inspire. \"At one point I thought, 15 years on, no one would really know who Kurt Cobain was outside of a group of diehard fans,\" said Jeff Burlingame, a Cobain biographer who grew up with the musician in Aberdeen, Washington, and knew him when he was a teenager who, without a place to sleep, crashed on mutual friends' couches. But Nirvana's music endured, and Cobain even found fans in his hometown of Aberdeen, which he had derided as a small-minded town. \"The old-timers who were there when Kurt was around really took offense to some of the things he said about the area, so they had no real reason to honor him,\" said Burlingame, who co-founded the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee. A famous son is a famous son, though. Now, visitors arriving in Aberdeen are greeted with a sign that reads \"Come As You Are,\" after a famous Nirvana song. Cobain Memorial Committee members, who include Cobain's paternal grandfather, hope to establish a community center in the late rocker's honor that would give area youth a place to play music and pursue artistic interests. A concert will be held Friday in Seattle to honor Cobain and raise money for the center. When Cobain died, he left behind a fortune that was estimated in the millions. Even more money poured in over time from the royalties from his songs. But a lawyer hired by Love, Rhonda Holmes, says most of that money is missing. According to Holmes, Love recently discovered that \"managers, assistants, CPAs, lawyers, people like that who were supposed to be entrusted with carrying for their well-being and finances basically looted the estate.\" Forensic accountants are now trying to determine where tens of millions of dollars from Cobain's estate ended up and how it could be recovered, Holmes said.","highlights":"Kurt Cobain died 15 years ago, a suicide at 27 .\nCobain, frontman for band Nirvana, has been influential in music .\nEven his hometown has honored him; Cobain had derided it .\nAttorney for Courtney Love, Cobain's widow, says many \"looted the estate\"","id":"9ea356a682fa803869e65029dbcb81c0df42b7c4"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five U.S. soldiers were killed Friday in a suicide bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul -- the single deadliest attack on U.S. troops in more than a year, the U.S. military said. A suicide truck bomber breached the outer security barrier of Iraqi National Police headquarters in southern Mosul, and detonated his explosives, killing eight people and wounding 60 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. A U.S. soldier was also among the wounded, the U.S. military said. The ministry said those killed include five Americans, two Iraqi policemen and an Iraqi soldier. At least two individuals suspected of being involved in the attack were detained, the U.S. military said. It is the deadliest attack on U.S. forces since March 10, 2008, when five U.S. soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Baghdad. Despite a number of military operations in this volatile city during the past year, Mosul remains one of the most violent places in Iraq. Last year the U.S. military said Mosul was the last urban stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq. Mosul is the provincial capital of Nineveh and is about 260 miles, or 420 kilometers, north of Baghdad. Watch a suicide bomb attack kills 5 U.S. soldiers \u00bb . U.S. and Iraqi military forces plan to pull out of Mosul to allow Iraqi police to control security in the city. But police are not quite ready yet, according to an Iraqi general. \"We need to bring the police to the required level. The deadline is the end of July, and it's not enough time to prepare the police,\" said Gen. Hassan Karim, commander of Nineveh operations for the Iraqi army. \"(That) means we'll need U.S. forces to stay in Mosul.\" CNN's Nic Robertson contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Attack is deadliest on U.S. forces in more than a year .\nSuicide bomber explodes truck at national police headquarters in Mosul .\nFive Americans among eight dead; 60 others wounded .\nMosul, 260 miles north of Baghdad, called last urban stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq .","id":"e66cd5d0c9242f7fbdccbded7b44b46946539ea6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A form of liquid morphine used by terminally ill patients will remain on the market even though it is an \"unapproved drug,\" according to a decision by the Food and Drug Administration. Last month, the FDA warned nine companies to stop selling unapproved pain-relief drugs. After talking with hospital and hospice organizations, which expressed concern that taking the product off the market would result in hardship for terminally ill patients and their caregivers, the agency decided to extend the usage of morphine sulfate oral solution 20 mg\/ml. The agency wants to ensure there is no shortage of the drug while patients wait for an approved product to take its place. \"While the FDA remains committed to ultimately ensuring that all prescription drugs on the market are FDA approved, we have to balance that goal with flexibility and compassion for patients who have a few alternatives for the alleviation of their pain,\" Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of the FDA's Center for drug Evaluation and Research, said Thursday. \"In light of the concerns raised by these patients and their health-care providers, we have adjusted our actions with regard to these particular products.\" Last month, the FDA sent warning letters to nine companies telling them to stop manufacturing 14 unapproved narcotics that are widely used to treat pain. Seven of those companies made or distributed the oral morphine. The morphine elixir is widely used by terminal patients in hospital and home hospice care settings and is manufactured by Lehigh Valley Technologies Inc., Mallinckrodt Inc. Pharmaceuticals Group, Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. and Cody Laboratories, Inc. In its warning letter last month, the agency gave the companies 60 days to stop manufacturing the drug before enforcement action was taken. Thursday's announcement did not prompt immediate reactions from the companies. A spokesman for Cody Laboratories said the firm did not have all the details of the decision. Other companies did not immediately return calls from CNN. The FDA estimates there are several thousand drugs, mostly older products, marketed illegally without FDA approval in this country. Once an illegally marketed drug is identified, enforcement action begins because the agency does not have information on the quality of these drugs and has not had an opportunity to approve their labeling. In 1976 the agency began a program to bring companies manufacturing these drugs into compliance. Thursday's announcement applies only to the morphine sulfate elixir 20mg\/ml, and the warning letters sent to the other product manufacturers are still in effect. Currently there are no approved morphine sulfate oral solution 20mg\/ml products on the market. Until there are, the FDA says it will allow companies making and distributing the unapproved drugs to continue, until 180 days after any company receives approval to manufacture a new morphine replacement drug of the same dosage. The FDA says it expects all companies marketing unapproved drugs to submit the necessary applications to get approval for those drugs.","highlights":"FDA decides to extend the usage of morphine sulfate oral solution 20 mg\/ml .\nHospital, hospice groups had said pulling drug would cause hardship .\nFDA said until alternatives are developed, easing of pain must remain a priority .\nFDA estimates several thousand drugs marketed without approval .","id":"1ea9dd5aceb24120aa8d349a8990352f8ceb921b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a dramatic break from previous policy, the United States will join direct talks between U.N. and European powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, the State Department announced Wednesday. Wednesday's announcement is the latest step by the Obama administration to engage Iran diplomatically. The Obama administration has asked the European Union's international policy chief, Javier Solana, to invite Iran to new talks with the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. \"If Iran accepts, we hope this will be an occasion to seriously engage Iran of how to break the logjam of recent years and work in a cooperative manner to resolve the outstanding international concerns about its nuclear program,\" Wood said. Iran so far has refused Security Council demands to halt its production of enriched uranium, which it has said will be used to fuel nuclear power plants. The United States has accused Tehran of concealing efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency said it has failed to resolve questions about the aim of Iranian program. Watch how U.S. policy on Iran is changing \u00bb . The Bush administration had insisted that Iran first stop its nuclear program before any talks with the United States or its allies could go forward. Wednesday's announcement is the latest step in the Obama administration's efforts to engage the Islamic republic diplomatically after nearly three decades without formal ties. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, briefly addressing the administration's decision Wednesday, told reporters that \"pursuing very careful engagement on a range of issues that affect our interests and the interests of the world with Iran makes sense.\" \"And there's nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon,\" Clinton said at the State Department, where she was meeting Panama's foreign affairs minister. Her comments came in response to a reporter's question about engaging Iran. Washington, which has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980, has participated in previous talks only as an observer. Wood would not speculate about whether a meeting involving Iran and the rest of the group might lead to direct one-on-one meetings of U.S. and Iranian officials. \"It's a little early to talk about that right now,\" he said. Iran has so far responded coolly to the American overtures. In a statement carried on Iranian state television Wednesday evening, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Washington \"has no right to suggest how other nations should live.\" \"Those who have nuclear bombs are backward nations, because the time for threats is over,\" Ahmadinejad said. And in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency, Ahmadinejad said Iran was \"ready to cooperate\" toward nuclear disarmament, as long as those efforts did not create obstacles for countries that wish to produce nuclear fuel for civilian power. No date has been set for the next meeting of the \"P-5 plus 1\" group, which includes the five Security Council permanent members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- as well as Germany. But Wednesday's announcement comes amidst a variety of signals from both sides that a major diplomatic shift was in the winds. In March, President Obama delivered a televised message to the Iranian people offering new diplomatic engagement. And Clinton sat down with an Iranian official at a recent conference in the Netherlands on Afghanistan, but the two diplomats had no one-on-one contact. During his presidential campaign, Obama called for talks with Iran without pre-conditions -- a proposal sharply criticized by Clinton, then his chief opponent for the Democratic nomination, among others. Big obstacles to a U.S.-Iranian thaw remain, including reports from Tehran on Wednesday that Iranian authorities have charged an American journalist with espionage. Clinton told reporters that the the U.S. had asked the Swiss -- who represent U.S. interests in Iran -- for up-to-date information about Roxana Saberi, who has been jailed for nearly three months. During the March 31 meeting in the Netherlands, the United States delivered a note to Iran that asked for a response on the status of Saberi and American citizens detained or missing in Iran. U.S. officials say they are still awaiting a response from the Iranians to the note. CNN's Charley Keyes contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"Engagement\" with Iran \"makes sense,\" Secretary of State Clinton says .\nNEW: Ahmadinejad says U.S. \"has no right to suggest how other nations should live\"\nE.U. official asked to invite Iran to new talks with Security Council members, Germany .\nU.S., having no diplomatic relations with Iran, has stayed out of those talks to date .","id":"94460531cf2af801ec7d86649a25061181d2efb9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas couple who were burned to death in the Texas wildfires Thursday had been packing their truck to evacuate their home but were unable to escape fast-moving flames, a relative told CNN Friday. A house burns after wildfires raced through rural Montague County in Texas. \"I think they underestimated how fast it was moving,\" said Carol Quinn, the daughter-in-law of victim Matt Quinn. \"I think this was very fast and very hot. ... It is an awful story.\" Matt Quinn, 80, and his wife, Cathy, were two of the three confirmed fatalities in Thursday's fires. Matt Quinn was a former reporter for the Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV and had spent his life in journalism. The Quinns lived in rural Montague County. The couple's son Chris, 30, was hospitalized in fair condition with second- and third-degree burns and was expected to recover, Carol Quinn said. Chris had gone to look for his cat as the family prepared to leave in advance of the fires. \"There were three of them. Chris went to get his cat and put the cat in the carrier,\" Carol Quinn, who lives in Orlando, Florida, told CNN. \"When he came back, the truck was totally engulfed in flames. \"The flames were closing in, and he didn't know if Matt and Cathy were in the truck, and he took off running.\" The family did not live in a mandatory evacuation area but faced gusty winds and a wall of flames 30 feet high, she said. She said they had called the sheriff's department shortly before their truck was engulfed. Another person was killed just west of Dallas and Fort Worth in what's being called the Cement Mountain fire, the Texas Fire Service reported Friday afternoon. Wildfires are also burning in Oklahoma. In Midwest City, one of the places hit hardest by the flames, fire officials said at least one of the fires appears to have been intentionally set -- although they stopped short of calling it arson. See where the fires are burning \u00bb . \"We'd like to make the distinction and understand that there's a difference between being intentional and having intent with malice,\" said city Fire Marshal Jerry Lojka. \"So we haven't proved that there was malice, but we do know that the fire was intentionally set.\" Winds that at times reached hurricane-force levels blew through towns and neighborhoods, fueling fires that burned some homes while sparing others. Watch what is left of homes -- rubble \u00bb . More than 101,000 acres in Texas were burned, destroying 32 buildings, according to Bill Beebee of the Texas Forest Service. About 140 structures in Oklahoma have been destroyed, most of them in south-central Oklahoma and Oklahoma County, according to the Department of Emergency Management. At least 49 people were injured. Health officials said that with two exceptions, injuries from the fires were moderate or minor. A motorist was severely injured after losing control of a vehicle on a smoky road. Also, a Lincoln County firefighter was in stable condition at the Integris Baptist Burn Center in Oklahoma City. The fires burned all the way into Oklahoma City, and by Friday afternoon, firefighters were once again battling blazes that had flared up again within the city limits. iReport.com: Are wildfires affecting you? Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency for 31 counties. The state also was hit with severe weather. Henry's order marks a first step toward seeking federal assistance, if necessary, by allowing state agencies to make emergency purchases. \"We are doing everything we can to deliver resources to firefighters and first responders on the front lines. They have done an amazing job under very challenging conditions, and we owe them a great debt of gratitude. Their heroism has helped save lives and property,\" Henry said in a written statement. \"Our thoughts and prayers are with the scores of families and individuals who lost homes or businesses,\" he said. Midwest City and the nearby towns of Choctaw and Nicoma Park were especially hard hit. By late Friday afternoon, the fires were under control and firefighters were putting out hot spots, the governor said. CNN's Hank Bishop, Mark Bixler, Aaron Cooper and Deb Krajnak contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: One person killed in fire just west of Dallas and Fort Worth .\nNEW: Former television reporter, wife die in Texas wildfire while waiting for son .\nNumber of injured in Oklahoma wildfires rises to at least 49 .\nOklahoma governor declares emergency for 31 counties .","id":"6dd5c375385e9ef8c79f3b420fc2e01b355825fe"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- For Miley Cyrus, star of Disney's popular television series \"Hannah Montana\" and its big-screen adaptation \"Hannah Montana: The Movie,\" art is not far from real life. Miley Cyrus, here in \"Hannah Montana: The Movie,\" says filming in Tennessee was relaxing. The 16-year-old actress and singer reconnected with her Southern roots for the filming of \"Hannah Montana: The Movie.\" Traveling to Tennessee to shoot the movie, Cyrus said, helped keep her grounded. \"It actually gave me time to relax, and it was when my career was just starting to take off ... when I was just starting to travel,\" Cyrus said. \"It was at a time when I needed to go back home and it couldn't have been more of a perfect time.\" In the film, opening in theaters Friday, Cyrus plays Miley Stewart, a typical teenage girl who lives a double life as a famous pop star named Hannah Montana. Eventually, Hannah begins taking over Miley's life, leading Miley to take a soul-searching journey back home to decide what she really wants: notoriety or normality. Miley shares the screen with her father, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus, who felt that a trip home would be beneficial to his daughter. Watch Miley and Billy Ray discuss the film \u00bb . \"This is definitely an example of art imitating life imitating art. ... It's so important to be aware of where you're at and be focused on where you're going but, more importantly, never forget where you came from,\" the elder Cyrus said. \"You can't fake going home. That was her home.\" Both on-screen and off, Miley said, she and her father share a close friendship, calling herself a \"daddy's girl 100 percent.\" Between the endless tabloid headlines and the paparazzi's persistence, keeping friends and family near at hand, Miley said, helps remind her of who she really is: \"I think just have good friends, good family and a good team. That's what people miss the most, just having a good team.\" Co-star Lucas Till, who plays Miley's love interest in the film, remarked on Miley's down-to-earth personality. \"She's really nice and really [endearing], and she really cares about people,\" he said. \"She's a good friend, very loyal.\" The two shared an on-screen kiss that, Till said, \"could have been more meaningful.\" Watch Till talk about kissing Cyrus \u00bb . \"There was a lot more there to that kiss than you see,\" he said. Asked whether Till was a good kisser, Miley replied, \"Meh, he's OK. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. I think I was too busy thinking about my next line to think about it.\" During her film's opening weekend, Miley is planning on surprising select audiences at undisclosed theater locations across the country. Moviegoers who see \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" this weekend could also be treated to surprise appearances by stars of the film, live performances and more. Miley said she was excited to give back to her fans. \"I have the best fans in the world,\" she said. After playing \"Hannah\" for three years, Miley said, she's not ready to quit anytime soon. \"I can't be Hannah until I'm 30, but I want to keep doing it as long as possible,\" she said. CNN's JD Cargill and CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article.","highlights":"Miley Cyrus stars in a big-screen version of \"Hannah Montana\"\nMuch of movie shot in Tennessee; Cyrus said it gave her \"time to relax\"\nCyrus kisses co-star Lucas Till in film but said she was focused on her lines .","id":"0ec4590db94212436cdb84558322a09f54f56e03"} -{"article":"TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- In Tel Aviv's wholesale fashion headquarters, where textile merchants follow in the legacy of fathers and grandfathers, many Israelis are looking for the latest in tech fashion: the iPhone. Mobile phone store Z-Tov Ltd. in Tel Aviv carries iPhones among other cell phones and products. It's at Z-Tov Ltd. that consumers shop for the latest models of Samsung, Philips and Motorola. The local mobile phone chain even carries the 8GB and 16GB models of the highly coveted iPhone. One customer asks the clerk whether the store sells the 16GB iPhone. But when he hears the price, the customer walks off in disappointment. Z-Tov sells the 8GB iPhone for about 2,600 NIS, or about U.S. $753. The current market price in the United States is $399. The store clerk says the store pays a 50 percent tax to import iPhones from outside the country. But the price doesn't hinder iPhone's popularity here, appealing mostly to young men quick to upgrade their 8GB to a 16GB model as if memory size is a barometer of male bravado. Apple has yet to make its presence official in Israel. The company has limited its iPhone products to four markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Still, as in other parts of the world, the iPhone has strong reception along Mediterranean shores. The coveted phones make their way through customs in both official and unofficial passages; consumers buy them abroad for friends and acquaintances to resell on the gray market. But before the phone can work on a local network, it must be unlocked or \"jailbroken,\" tech lingo for reprogramming the iPhone to work on network carriers not affiliated with Apple. Apple maintains strategic deals with several hand-picked wireless carriers; namely AT&T in the United States. In order to protect these alliances, Apple issues this disclaimer to customers planning to reprogram the iPhone: Unlock at your own risk. The standard one-year warranty on jailbroken iPhones is null and void. At Z-Tov, unlocking the iPhone is big business, and Arik Steinman's services are in high demand. For 100 NIS (about U.S. $30), Steinman, a Russian immigrant, will unlock an iPhone in about 20 minutes, replacing the factory-provided SIM card with the customer's SIM of choice. For an extra 50 NIS (about U.S. $15), he'll change the language program to Hebrew. Steinman, who maintains a growing collection of unused AT&T SIM cards, said he unlocks an average of 30 to 40 iPhones a week. Steinman has no formal technical background; he said he learned the technique through various sources. \"In the beginning, it wasn't simple; now it is simple,\" he said with a smirk. Last year, as many as 1 million iPhones may have been unlocked and activated by carriers not paying Apple a kickback, according to industry experts. Anosh Ishak, a businessman and developer based in Atlanta, Georgia, said his iPhone is a \"valuable business tool\" that he uses on international trips, notably to Israel, where he'll pop out his U.S. SIM and replace it with one that will run on a local network. Ishak said he paid $20 to a friend of a friend to unlock his phone so he can stay with his current phone carrier, T-Mobile. When he purchased the iPhone from an Apple retail store in Atlanta, he made it clear he wasn't planning to sign on with AT&T. \"They told me that they wouldn't sell me the phone if they knew I was going to unlock it,\" Ishak said. Determined, Ishak told the salesperson that he had the right to buy the merchandise and that the store could not control it. How did the Apple salesperson respond? \"To tell me he'll pretend like he didn't hear it,\" said Ishak. Apple representatives declined to comment on the unlocking phenomenon and iPhones making their way overseas, referring CNN to a Wired article that quoted Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium in February. Cook described the unlocked iPhones floating around the world as \"a good problem to have,\" according to Wired, preferring to focus on Apple's 10 million quota -- even if it means doing away with its carrier exclusivity. \"The demand for the iPhone is so intense in the markets where we aren't offering it that people are exporting it out of the U.S. in many different ways and then running it on local carriers,\" Cook said. \"Of all the problems we face, this is the one I face looking at with a little bit of a smile. Because it means there's great demand for the phone. And to have people stepping over each other to have the phone isn't a bad thing,\" Cook said.","highlights":"Z-Tov sells the 8GB iPhone for about 2,000 NIS, or about U.S. $790 .\nApple has yet to make its presence official in Israel .\nIn Israel, selling and unlocking the coveted iPhone is big business .\nApple COO Tim Cook: Unlocked iPhones \"a good problem to have\"","id":"28473f26337edc2e6c8664068b4ddd0f3acee6b7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton had $6.4 million in presidential campaign debt at the end of November, according to a report filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. Hillary Clinton says she hopes to have her campaign debt paid before her possible confirmation as secretary of state. The amount, though still significant, represents the lowest level of debt the New York senator's failed presidential campaign has reported this year. Clinton's campaign debt reached its peak, $12 million, at the end of June and has gradually fallen since then. Clinton said she hopes to pay off her debt before her possible confirmation as secretary of state. Clinton has also officially forgiven the $13.2 million she personally loaned her campaign. Under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, presidential candidates who loan their campaigns money from personal funds may only be paid back if they do so by the national party convention -- in this case, the Democratic National Convention held last August in Denver. Clinton began November with $985,000 in her campaign account and raised nearly $290,000 by the end of the month. Her campaign paid out $1.2 million, mainly to unpaid vendors, ending the month with $188,000 in the bank. The $6.4 million in remaining debt is owed to a total of 16 creditors. The largest unpaid amount is owed to Penn, Schoen & Berland, a political consulting and polling firm that advised Clinton during her presidential bid. The firm's president, Mark Penn, served as chief strategist to Clinton for most of her campaign until he was forced out of his position in April after revelations that he lobbied for a U.S.-Colombia trade deal on behalf of the Colombian government despite Clinton's opposition to the measure. However, he never left the campaign entirely.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton still owes more than $6 million in presidential campaign debt .\nClinton has officially forgiven the $13.2 million personal loan to her campaign .\nShe hopes to have debt paid before her possible confirmation as secretary of state .","id":"ac818ace58f4844649a9b7f4ae1ae4fb4fa842fd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Mike Galanos hosts \"Prime News\" from 5-7 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays on HLN. \"Prime News\" uses the day's most powerful headlines as a starting point for diverse perspectives, spirited debate and your points of view. Mike Galanos says child pornography charges are too harsh for teens caught \"sexting.\" ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- \"Sexting.\" Have parents out there ever even heard of this term? Whether you want to admit it or not, teenagers are sending sexual messages and naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends and girlfriends. In most cases it's the girl sending a picture or message to the guy. If you're thinking to yourself right now, \"What's the big deal?\" then you should think again. This practice can ruin our teenagers' lives. Six teens in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, were charged as juveniles with possessing child pornography after three girls sent nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves to three boys. It gets even worse. A 13-year-old boy in Middletown, Ohio, is facing felony pandering obscenities charges after taping a sex act and showing it to friends at a skating party. A felony? Yes this kid needs to be punished but we don't need our 13 or 14-year-olds charged with child porn and lumped in with adult pedophiles and labeled as sex offenders. I've spoken with several attorneys on our show and it seems there is no one reason prosecutors are opting to charge teens with child porn instead of lesser charges. Some may be doing it to \"send a message.\" Some may feel they have an obligation to charge these teens with the most serious offense possible and, according to the law, naked pictures of underage kids are usually considered child porn. And others may feel they are left with no options since there aren't really any laws that apply specifically to sexting. In any case, it's clear we need to change our laws to catch up with technology. A great illustration of why change is needed now is the story of Phillip Alpert, of Orlando, Florida. He didn't ask, but his girlfriend sexted him naked pictures of herself, according to the Orlando Sentinel. When they broke up, he mass e-mailed the photos to get back at her. Alpert, 18, was convicted of transmission of child porn and he will carry the label of \"sex offender\" until he is 43. He lost friends, was kicked out of school, he can't even move in with his dad because his dad lives near a school. Should Phillip be punished? Yes. Should the six teens in Pennsylvania face consequences? Yes. But let's kick them off cheerleading squads and sports teams. Make them do community service and take classes on sex crimes. Educate other teens on the dangers of sexting. Pay a price, yes, but these young people shouldn't pay for this for the rest of their lives. And if you think this couldn't happen to your kid, think again. Sexting is more prevalent than you think. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy teamed up with CosmoGirl.com and asked over 1,200 teens about their sexual behaviors in cyberspace. According to their study, 39 percent of teens (that's ages 13-19) are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages over IM, text or e-mail and around the same number of teens are receiving such messages. Half of those teens, 20 percent, are sending or posting nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves. That's frightening. Why are our kids doing this? On our show, psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser said, \"What I'm finding is a lot of girls are doing this because they're hoping it will help them get or keep a boyfriend.\" The numbers agree with Stacy. According to the study, 51 percent of girls say it's \"pressure from guys\" that's making them send sexual messages and pictures of themselves. So guys are expecting this and our girls are saying \"OK.\" It makes me wonder how much progress we've really made in how young women are viewed and treated. The bottom line: We need to educate, not incarcerate, our teens and it has to start with parents. Don't let the culture indoctrinate your little boy or girl about sex before their time. So strike first as a parent. If your kids are older, let them know a digital record is for life. When little Suzie tries to win the affection of little Bobby by sexting him a picture, she is putting her future at stake. There is no control over that image or video once it gets out. But that doesn't mean little Suzie should be charged as a child pornographer. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mike Galanos.","highlights":"Mike Galanos: Teens are sending explicit photos of themselves to other kids .\nHe says parents should be aware of what's happening and educate children .\nGalanos: Sexting should be punished but not treated as child pornography .","id":"59e460487dfbea4a916eb1286d1c429b81d68cf0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Voters in Nashville, Tennessee -- a city that has seen a dramatic increase in its immigrant population -- rejected a measure Thursday that would have made English the only language used for government business in its metropolitan area. Nearly 57 percent of those who cast ballots Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee, voted against the measure. With all 173 precincts reporting, 41,752 voters, or nearly 57 percent, voted against the proposed amendment, with 32,144 voters supporting it, according to unofficial results posted on the Nashville city government Web site. \"No person shall have a right to government services in any other language,\" the proposal read. The measure would have included government meetings. The Metropolitan Council, which submitted the measure, could have mandated exceptions to protect public health and safety. Elise Shore, southeast director of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said her regional office in Atlanta, Georgia, was monitoring the Nashville balloting. \"We just elected our first black president. There are the forces of globalization and conducting business around the world ... in the face of this, we see these measures?\" Shore asked. The proposal \"sends a strong message ... this is a negative message. In fact, it invites discrimination,\" she said. In a newspaper editorial published Thursday, The Tennessean urged voters to defeat the proposal. \"This amendment would exclude and marginalize those residents and visitors to Nashville simply because English is not their native tongue,\" the editorial said. The polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m. Before the measure was defeated, a spokesman for U.S. English Inc., an action group that supports English-only laws nationwide, said the Nashville proposal was a good one. \"Government programs are aimed at helping people reach self-sufficiency and success,\" Rob Toonkel said. \"Allowing use of a second language doesn't encourage them to learn English.\" \"The key word [of the amendment] is 'actions that bind the government,' \" Toonkel said, which would cover transactions such as getting a city contract. If a non-English speaker needs help filling out a form, and someone in that agency speaks their language, they should be helped, he said. \"But you shouldn't be able to come in, pick up a form [in another language] and leave.\" According to Toonkel, about 30 states and more than 100 localities have made English their official language, and he said his organization believes such laws are legal. Raul Gonzalez, legislative director for the National Council of La Raza, said the message of the proposal is discriminatory. \"What it ... says is, 'If you speak a language other than English, you may not be welcome here,' \" Gonzalez said. La Raza is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on reducing poverty and discrimination and improving opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Gonzalez said similar English-only laws across the country \"have so many exceptions they are meaningless.\" In an editorial earlier this month, The Tennessean quoted the referendum's sponsor, Councilman Eric Crafton, who said the bill was needed to save the city $100,000 to $150,000 in annual translation and related costs. However, metro officials told the newspaper such services are provided by employees already on the city's payroll. The council passed a similar bill in 2007, but it was vetoed by then-Mayor Bill Purcell, who called it \"unconstitutional, unnecessary and mean-spirited,\" according to The Tennessean. U.S. Census data from 2000 showed an increase of 210 percent in the immigrant population of the Nashville metro area, including Davidson County, since 1990. During that decade, immigrants accounted for 45 percent of the overall population increase in the city. More than two-thirds, or 67 percent, of the area's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was much higher than the rate for the state overall, which was about 58 percent. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey, taken between 2005 and 2007 for the Nashville metro area, shows a population of 613,632. Of that number, 61,843 were foreign-born, with most of the immigrants coming from Latin America. About 73,000 residents speak a language other than English at home and, of those, 35,290 speak English less than \"very well,\" the survey found.","highlights":"NEW: 57 percent vote against English-only measure in Nashville, Tennessee .\nProposal: \"No person shall have a right\" to government services not in English .\nMeasure would \"exclude and marginalize\" some residents, newspaper says .","id":"84715d4fc1b5e56a7239d1a1d84ece7be51eadc3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On Inauguration Day, there's one scene at the White House that won't be playing out exactly as it has during past transitions: the traditional moving of the outgoing first family's belongings. President Bush walks out of the White House Oval Office on January 10. Anita McBride, chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush, tells CNN that the Bushes have moved almost all of their belongings out of the White House ahead of schedule. \"There won't be ... the moving trucks for the Bushes coming here,\" McBride said, adding, \"The only things really left for President and Mrs. Bush are their personal belongings and luggage that they'll take that day.\" McBride said Mrs. Bush directed residence staff early -- in the summer of 2008 -- to prepare the White House for the personal transition. \"It's probably the librarian in her,\" McBride said of Mrs. Bush, a former librarian. \"Maybe we've got a bit of a Dewey Decimal system of move-out process, but that certainly made it easier for the residence staff, and they very much appreciate it,\" McBride said. The actual clearing out of the Bushes' belongings began over the summer, McBride says, when many items were packed and taken to Crawford, Texas. Then, during the Christmas holiday, the Bushes moved their personal things out of Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, according to McBride. That means on Inauguration Day, while President Bush and Mrs. Bush, along with President-elect Obama and his family, are at the Capitol, staff in the White House residence will have more time to unpack and prepare the Obamas' personal belongings. \"They have rehearsed this over the last few weeks, everyone has their marching orders, it will be all hands on deck,\" said McBride. \"The residence staff will be here that morning, and they know what their jobs are when the moving truck for the Obamas' move-in arrives,\" she said, adding, \"Their things will be unpacked, and their clothes will be in their rightful place, and whatever furniture that they may have selected from the White House furniture collection will be in the place that they want it to be.\"","highlights":"The Obamas' belongings will be moved into the White House on Tuesday .\nMost of the Bush family items are already moved to Crawford ranch, Dallas home .\nBush move started last summer, according to a White House aide .","id":"3a0a3241e9d1c494d6914e8d73558d315941dc39"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The international race among sailors, kite surfers and wind surfers to be the fastest wind-powered boat on the planet is rapidly gaining momentum as speeds reach all-time highs. Quick sailor: French trimaran l'Hydroptere is one of the boats battling for the outright world sailing speed record. The outright world sailing speed record -- which did not change hands for 11 years after 1993 -- has been bettered four times this year alone. The new holder of the record, Alexandre Caizergues, of France, claimed it with an average speed of 50.57 knots (almost 60 miles per hour) over 500 meters on his kite board off the coast of Namibia last month. Caizergues' attempt was eventually ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) this month, when it was decided that kite boards would be eligible for the outright record. Meanwhile, another Frenchman, Alain Thebault, has also been closely challenging for the record on his vessel l'Hydroptere. Thebault's crew hold the 500m speed record in the boat class, and also have the overall speed record in the one nautical mile category. Then there is the Australian sailor hoping to spoil the party for the French . Paul Larsen, aboard British yacht Vestas SailRocket, has unofficially nabbed the fastest boat record from l'Hydroptere with an average speed of 47.4 knots. Larsen achieved the speed in 22 knot winds, and shortly before his unusual \"boat\" became airborne and flipped. Larsen's speed is just awaiting formal approval from the WSSRC. Thebault held the record with a speed of 46.88 knots. Even the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race has had a speed record of its own with current leader Ericsson 4 claiming the world record for the most distance sailed in a 24-hour period during the event's first leg. According to a spokesman from the WSSRC, interest in speed sailing is steadily building, and the close competition has been giving it a boost. \"Certainly towards the end of the year it's been very hectic. I think what has happened is that a number of competitors have been at the top end and they have all been competing against each other at the same venues. The development of new technologies is one factor that has increased interest in trying to break these records. \"The fact that kite boards have developed has helped ... but there is still a lot of people out there that want to achieve these records,\" the spokesman said. He said that a lot of syndicates had been involved in speed sailing for some time, and that many were only now starting to feel the benefits of their developmental work. \"It does seem if you are going for a specially designed boat it takes a few years before you get the design right,\" he said. The spokesman said the WSSRC had received about 50 formal applications for speed attempts during 2008. He said the council's job was not to promote the attempts but simply to oversee them in a fair and independent manner and ratify successful efforts. The WSSRC had a number of commissioners based around the world, he said.","highlights":"Kite boarder Alexandre Caizergues, of France, holds the world sailing speed record .\nThe World Sailing Speed Record Council oversees and ratifies record attempts .\nThe WSSRC had about 50 formal applications for record attempts in 2008 .","id":"2c9c4ee471b8cdf7d127761e25b94e413d13dd4d"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Demonstrators stormed a hotel Saturday where Asian leaders were to meet, forcing the indefinite postponement of the Association of South East Asian Nations summit. Thousands of anti-government protesters block a busy intersection during rush hour in Bangkok. Participating Asian leaders were on their way out of the country, according to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He declared a state of emergency in Chonburi province and the southern coastal city of Pattaya, where the summit was to be held, but rescinded the order hours afterward. Thousands of \"red shirt\" protesters, named for the color of their attire, have rallied for days to demand Abhisit's resignation. The demonstrators flooded into the summit site after smashing through the hotel's glass doors, but were otherwise nonviolent. Hundreds of them streamed in, without police interference. Protesters hugged the officers and shook their hands. The red shirts have given the prime minister repeated deadlines to resign, but those have come and gone. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon he was disappointed by the summit's delay. \"I understand the circumstances that led the Thai government to take this difficult decision. While I had hoped to have exchanges with the leaders of ASEAN and its dialogue partners, I continue to look forward to engaging again with them in the near future,\" Ban said. \"I strongly value the long-standing relationship between ASEAN and the United Nations, and their cooperation in various fields. I hope for an early restoration of normalcy in Thailand and for the settlement of differences through dialogue and peaceful means,\" he added. The protesters are loyal to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup. Thaksin now lives outside of Thailand. The protesters have said Abhisit's government was not democratically elected and want him to resign and schedule elections. Abhisit, who has held the position for four months, has rejected calls for him to step down. Lawmakers named the 44-year-old, Oxford University-educated Abhisit prime minister in December in the wake of months of demonstrations against Thaksin and his ruling party, People Power Party. On Tuesday, protesters rushed Abhisit's motorcade while it was struck in traffic. He escaped unharmed. Protesters opposed to Thaksin took to the streets last year wearing yellow shirts, occupied the Government House and blockaded Bangkok's major international airport, stranding throngs of tourists who provide much of the country's revenue. The demonstrations ended in early December when a court ruled that the People Power Party was guilty of electoral fraud and threw Thaksin's brother-in-law out of the prime minister's seat. The red shirt protesters said this week they would not take over the airports. Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Demonstrators storm a hotel Saturday where Asian leaders were to meet .\nThousands of \"red shirt\" protesters demand resignation of Thai Prime Minister .\nState of emergency declared in Chonburi province and coastal city of Pattaya .\nProtesters are loyal to ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 coup .","id":"f5e29618e732ce51f57853f8622872246077d35f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A form of liquid morphine used by terminally ill patients will remain on the market even though it is an \"unapproved drug,\" according to a decision by the Food and Drug Administration. Last month, the FDA warned nine companies to stop selling unapproved pain-relief drugs. After talking with hospital and hospice organizations, which expressed concern that taking the product off the market would result in hardship for terminally ill patients and their caregivers, the agency decided to extend the usage of morphine sulfate oral solution 20 mg\/ml. The agency wants to ensure there is no shortage of the drug while patients wait for an approved product to take its place. \"While the FDA remains committed to ultimately ensuring that all prescription drugs on the market are FDA approved, we have to balance that goal with flexibility and compassion for patients who have a few alternatives for the alleviation of their pain,\" Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of the FDA's Center for drug Evaluation and Research, said Thursday. \"In light of the concerns raised by these patients and their health-care providers, we have adjusted our actions with regard to these particular products.\" Last month, the FDA sent warning letters to nine companies telling them to stop manufacturing 14 unapproved narcotics that are widely used to treat pain. Seven of those companies made or distributed the oral morphine. The morphine elixir is widely used by terminal patients in hospital and home hospice care settings and is manufactured by Lehigh Valley Technologies Inc., Mallinckrodt Inc. Pharmaceuticals Group, Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. and Cody Laboratories, Inc. In its warning letter last month, the agency gave the companies 60 days to stop manufacturing the drug before enforcement action was taken. Thursday's announcement did not prompt immediate reactions from the companies. A spokesman for Cody Laboratories said the firm did not have all the details of the decision. Other companies did not immediately return calls from CNN. The FDA estimates there are several thousand drugs, mostly older products, marketed illegally without FDA approval in this country. Once an illegally marketed drug is identified, enforcement action begins because the agency does not have information on the quality of these drugs and has not had an opportunity to approve their labeling. In 1976 the agency began a program to bring companies manufacturing these drugs into compliance. Thursday's announcement applies only to the morphine sulfate elixir 20mg\/ml, and the warning letters sent to the other product manufacturers are still in effect. Currently there are no approved morphine sulfate oral solution 20mg\/ml products on the market. Until there are, the FDA says it will allow companies making and distributing the unapproved drugs to continue, until 180 days after any company receives approval to manufacture a new morphine replacement drug of the same dosage. The FDA says it expects all companies marketing unapproved drugs to submit the necessary applications to get approval for those drugs.","highlights":"FDA decides to extend the usage of morphine sulfate oral solution 20 mg\/ml .\nHospital, hospice groups had said pulling drug would cause hardship .\nFDA said until alternatives are developed, easing of pain must remain a priority .\nFDA estimates several thousand drugs marketed without approval .","id":"daccc5b8b8f5afd56baff8d00bb93f94d84f2b9e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has added his brother-in-law to a military board in a move analysts say paves the way for an heir, according to South Korea's state-sponsored Yonhap news agency. Kim Jong-il has named his brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek to a top military board. The addition of his kin to the powerful National Defense Commission also solidifies his standing, Yonhap said. Kim was reappointed Thursday as chairman of the military board in his first major public appearance since a reported stroke in August. His brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, is considered his right-hand man, according to Yonhap. Jang, who has been married to Kim's sister since 1972, currently serves as a director of the Workers' Party, Yonhap said. \"Kim wants to keep the military in check and secure loyalty to both the military and the party,\" Cha Doo-hyeogn, a North Korea expert, told Yonhap. Kim also increased the number of members in the military agency to 13, from eight, Yonhap said. \"Overall, the power of the National Defense Commission was strengthened,\" Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman, Kim Ho-nyoun, told Yonhap in a briefing. There were no other major changes in the new parliament, which signifies that Kim, 67, is prepared to maintain the status quo as he readies someone to take over from him, analysts told Yonhap. Kim's recent health problems and long absence from public functions have prompted speculation on whether he is ready to groom an heir to the world's only communist dynasty. But the secretive nation shields its internal affairs from international scrutiny. Analysts told Yonhap that Jang may serve as caretaker for Kim's successor, who will possibly be one of his three sons.","highlights":"North Korean leader Kim Jong-il added his brother-in-law to a military board .\nAnalysts say move paves the way for an heir to be named .\nJang Song Thaek is considered to be Kim's right-hand man .","id":"994dbaed7c56007286995f7fa6d7d8103cd4d87c"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Owning a professional sports franchise is my dream job. (I'm willing to relocate.) Of course, I could never afford my own team. There's a better chance I'll miraculously develop an unhittable slider, or learn to punt. NFL team owner Robert Kraft got his start in the paper business. You obviously must be exceedingly wealthy to become an owner. Did you ever wonder how all these people made all that money? I sure hope you did, because we went and did all this research. Here's a list of nine billionaire owners and how they built their fortunes. 1. Rich DeVos, Orlando Magic (NBA) In 1959, DeVos and high school friend Jay Van Andel started selling all-purpose cleaner. Their business grew to become Amway, which now brings in $6 billion each year under the ominous-sounding Alticor name. Whether you see Amway as an empowering direct sales company or a something resembling a cult, it sure was good to DeVos. Forbes estimates his wealth at $3.5 billion, making the paltry $85 million he spent on the Magic in 1991 a minor investment. 2. Robert L. Johnson, Charlotte Bobcats (NBA) Lower on my list of dream jobs is running a cable network that caters to urban youth. So I'm all kinds of envious of Robert L., who founded BET and sold it to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001. His fortune was depleted by an expensive divorce, but Johnson's estimated net worth is still $1.1 billion. His resume is full of firsts BET was the first African-American owned company traded on the NYSE. He was the first African-American billionaire in the U.S. And, in 2002, he became the first African-American majority owner of a professional sports franchise. 3. Robert Kraft, New England Patriots (NFL) I'd never given it much thought, but I'd always assumed Kraft bought the Patriots with big cheese money he'd inherited. But Kraft got his start in the paper business. His wife, Myra, is the daughter of Massachusetts philanthropist Jacob Hiatt. After Kraft finished Harvard Business School, he went to work with his father-in-law's packaging company. In 1972, Kraft founded International Forest Products, which is now part of the Kraft Group -- a diversified collection of companies ranging from Gillette Stadium to the New England Revolution (Major League Soccer) to Carmel Container Systems (Israel's largest packaging plant). Kraft is seen as a savior in New England -- before he bought the team in 1994, the Pats seemed destined for relocation to St. Louis. Plus he's made them really, really good, winning three Super Bowls this decade. Another reason I'm so keen on owning a team is the access to foreign heads of state. In 2005, Kraft met Vladimir Putin, who walked off with one of Kraft's Super Bowl rings. Kraft now claims it was a gift, but that might just be what you say when a Russian leader steals your jewelry. Mental Floss: How ex-presidents and prime ministers make ends meet . 4. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Seattle Mariners (MLB) Despite America's strong resistance to Japanese ownership -- and despite his admitted lack of interest in baseball -- Hiroshi Yamauchi became majority owner of the Seattle Mariners in 1992. Yamauchi is the man credited with transforming Nintendo from playing-card company to video game giant. His 55-year tenure saw incredible growth. But that doesn't mean there weren't a few bumps along the way. Forays into instant rice, taxi service and short-stay hotels (also known as \"love hotels\") did not pan out. 5. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys (NFL) Jerry Jones built an oil empire in the early 1970s, striking gas in the first thirteen wells he drilled. His father had given him a head start; Pat Jones sold the Modern Security Life Insurance Company for millions. An undersized guard, Jones was captain of the 1965 Cotton Bowl-winning Arkansas Razorbacks. Future Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson was a teammate, and Johnson's successor, Barry Switzer, was a Razorbacks assistant. Jones bought the Cowboys for an estimated $140 million in 1989. He immediately made waves by firing Tom Landry -- the only coach in Cowboys history -- and replacing him with his college buddy (the aforementioned Jimmy Johnson, who was coaching the University of Miami). After a rocky 1-15 start in 1989, the Cowboys went on to win three Super Bowls in the 1990s. Mental Floss: A brief history of stadium naming rights . 6. Malcolm Glazer, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL), Manchester United (English Premier League) Malcolm Glazer inherited a small jewelry repair business from his father. But it was Malcolm's investments in Florida trailer parks that started his financial ascent. He went on to become president and CEO of First Allied Corporation, which now owns 6,700,000 square feet of retail space. He was also chairman of Gilbert\/Robinson, Inc., which managed over 100 restaurants, including Houlihan's and Darryl's. Today, the Glazer family oversees strip malls and nursing homes throughout the land. Glazer also has a large stake in Zapata, an oil company founded by George H.W. Bush. Glazer made five previous attempts to join the elite ranks of NFL ownership, including a failed 1993 bid to bring an expansion team to Baltimore. The New York Times said Glazer had \"a reputation as a franchise window shopper, one who looks at virtually every team that comes up for sale.\" But in 1995, he outbid George Steinbrenner for the downtrodden Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Under his leadership, the franchise was righted, earning a Super Bowl title in 2003. Glazer also bought Manchester United, and fans weren't exactly pleased. 7. Stanley Kroenke, Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), St. Louis Rams (NFL -- partial owner) Kroenke is a self-made man who also married mega-rich. He earned his estimated $2.1 billion fortune in real estate, developing shopping centers across the country. Then he went ahead and married a Walton -- Ann Walton. Sam's niece. She's worth another $3+ billion. A sports junkie, Kroenke also owns Major League Soccer franchise Colorado Rapids and a share in Premier League's Arsenal F.C. 8. Daniel Gilbert, Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) With $5,000 he'd earned delivering pizzas -- and after a stint as a TV reporter -- the future Cavs owner started a small mortgage company called Rock Financial in 1985. In 1999, the company was bought by Intuit for $532 million. Three years later, Gilbert bought it back for $64 mil, renaming the company Quicken Loans. He purchased the Cavaliers for $375 mil in 2005. He also owns Fathead, which makes wall decals and tiresome ads. On the side, Gilbert is working to beat Michigan's steroid-free bench-pressing record. 9. Stephen Bisciotti, Baltimore Ravens (NFL) At 48, Stephen Bisciotti is one of the NFL's youngest owners. He made his money in staffing -- specifically, finding talented engineers for the aerospace industry. With Jim Davis, Bisciotti founded Aerotek in 1983 (he was 23). Their staffing company, now known as the Allegis Group, had revenues of $4.4 billion in 2005. Bisciotti bought 49 percent of the Ravens in 2000, and purchased the rest from Art Modell in 2004. Mental Floss: What your favorite teams were almost called . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The NFL's Malcolm Glazer got started as an owner of Florida trailer parks .\nThe Cleveland Cavaliers head was a pizza deliveryman and TV reporter .\nBaltimore Ravens chief found talented engineers for the aerospace industry .\nRussia's Putin walked off with NFL owner Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring .","id":"4176159e5751d6110183eadb2e564cc50f3d93d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Incumbent leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won a third term in office after a landslide victory in Algeria's presidential election, media reports said Friday. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrives to cast his vote at a school in Algiers. Bouteflika's victory came despite calls from his political opponents for voters to boycott the polls. They claim the election was a charade, with the other presidential candidates -- from left-wing parties to Islamists -- standing no real chance. The 72-year-old was elected with over 90 percent of the vote, Reuters.com quoted the official in charge of organizing Thursday's presidential election as saying. \"Bouteflika has won ... 90.24 percent of the votes cast,\" Interior Minister Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni told a news conference. Algerian lawmakers, most of them loyal to the president, cleared the way for him to stand for re-election last year by abolishing constitutional term limits. Critics said that would allow him to serve as president-for-life. Supporters of Bouteflika say he deserves credit for steering the North African country, an oil and gas producer, back to stability after a bloody civil conflict in the 1990s that killed an estimated 150,000 people. But critics say he is using the threat of renewed violence from Islamic militants to mask the country's deepening economic problems. \"I continue to regard the restoration of civil peace as a national priority, as long as hotbeds of tension and pockets of subversion survive,\" Bouteflika, running for a third term, said in his final campaign speech on Monday, Reuters.com reported. He has also promised to spend $150 billion on development projects and create 3 million jobs, his remedy for an economy in which energy accounts for about 96 percent of exports but where other sectors have been choked by red tape and under-investment.","highlights":"Bouteflika, 72, win third term comfortably with 90 percent of vote .\nLawmakers abolished constitutional term limits last year .\nPolitical opponents claim vote was a charade .\nAlgeria is fighting an Islamic insurgency and an ailing economy .","id":"f8bf8957ce92ffec582b10d89b487bae0f0515c9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top Democrats have expressed concern over President Obama's plan to draw down nearly two-thirds of U.S. forces in Iraq by August 2010, while some key Republicans are offering praise. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this week questioned the need to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq until 2011. At issue: Obama plans to leave between 35,000 to 50,000 residual forces in the war-torn country, serving in a training or advisory role to the Iraqi military. All U.S. troops have to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, under an agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year. There are currently 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, indicated earlier this week that the residual force Obama is planning to leave in Iraq is too large. Pelosi on Wednesday told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: \"I don't know what the justification is for 50,000, a presence of 50,000 troops in Iraq. ... I do think that there's a need for some. I don't know that all of them have to be in [the] country.\" Pelosi clarified her concerns after Obama announced the plan at an event Friday at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. iReport.com: Do you think troops should be pulled, or should numbers increase? \"As President Obama's Iraq policy is implemented, the remaining missions given to our remaining forces must be clearly defined and narrowly focused so that the number of troops needed to perform them is as small as possible,\" Pelosi said in a press release. \"The president's decision means that the time has come at last for Iraq's own security forces to have the prime responsibility for Iraq's security.\" Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California, co-founder of the Out of Iraq House Caucus, was critical of the plan. \"I am deeply troubled by the suggestion that a force of 50,000 troops could remain in Iraq beyond this time frame,\" she said in a statement Friday. \"Call such a troop level what you will, but such a large number can only be viewed by the Iraqi public as an enduring occupation force. This is unacceptable.\" Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said that while he supports Obama's \"step in the right direction,\" the new troop plan does not \"go far enough.\" \"You cannot leave combat troops in a foreign country to conduct combat operations and call it the end of the war. You can't be in and out at the same time,\" Kucinich said in a release Friday. And top Senate Democrats echoed some of their House colleagues' skepticism. \"That's a little higher number than I expected,\" Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Thursday. The third-ranking Senate Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said, \"It has to be done responsibly, we all agree. But 50,000 is more than I would have thought.\" On Thursday afternoon, the president briefed bipartisan leaders from the House of Representatives and Senate -- including Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, at the White House about the troop plan. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that 50,000 is \"somewhat larger\" than what he expected. However, he said he has always believed \"a few tens of thousands\" of troops would be needed for noncombat missions such as training and fighting terrorism. Watch Obama announce the new Iraq plan \u00bb . Before the White House meeting, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and a close Obama ally, said he was anxious to get the troops home. But he defended the administration, saying it is \"trying to strike the right balance\" between ending the war and maintaining stability in Iraq. Rep. John McHugh of New York, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said later that Obama assured him the plan to withdraw all combat forces will be revisited if conditions on the ground in Iraq deteriorate. \"The president's objective to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq is one we should pray for, plan for and work toward,\" McHugh said in a statement. \"However, I remain concerned that the security situation in Iraq is fragile, and we should work to mitigate any risks to our troops and their mission. I specifically raised these points with the president this evening.\" McHugh added, \"Our commanders must have the flexibility they need in order to respond to these challenges, and President Obama assured me that there is a 'Plan B.' \" On Friday morning, McCain, who criticized Obama's plan to pull combat troops from Iraq in the presidential race, offered warm praise for the new proposal. In a speech on the Senate floor, McCain said Obama's decision is \"reasonable\" and that he is \"cautiously optimistic that the plan that is laid out by the president can lead to success.\" McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that a \"failing situation in Iraq has been arrested and reversed\" due to the \"dramatic success of the surge strategy,\" referring to President Bush's plan in 2007 to send additional troops to Iraq. He also praised Obama's willingness to leave behind a significant residual force and reassess the situation if conditions change in the future. \"We are finally on a path to success\" in Iraq, McCain said. \"Let us have no crisis of confidence now.\" Obama touted his opposition to the Iraq war during the presidential campaign, a position popular with liberal groups such as MoveOn.org. But according to a new CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, many Democrats may not be satisfied with Obama's plan. When asked if the U.S. should keep the same number of troops in Iraq that are currently stationed there, 12 percent of Democratic respondents agreed -- compared with 58 percent of Republican respondents. Watch more on the poll \u00bb . Asked if U.S. forces should be removed by \"next spring,\" 87 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of Republicans surveyed were in favor. But the survey suggested that half of all Americans think the United States is winning the war in Iraq, the highest percentage since that question was first asked in a CNN poll in 2004. \"This indicates that the public thinks the surge worked, but that hasn't changed their view of the war in Iraq at all,\" said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. \"As a result, nearly seven out of 10 favor the idea of removing most U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring, a proposal that was a key part of Obama's presidential campaign last year.\" The CNN\/Opinion Research poll was conducted February 18-19, with 1,046 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. CNN's Ted Barrett, Mark Preston and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama announces drawdown of combat troops in Iraq by August 2010 .\nSome Democrats question size of residual force to remain in Iraq .\nDemocratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich says new troop plan does not \"go far enough\"\nSen. John McCain offers praise, calling Obama's plan \"reasonable\"","id":"20d84bc0377bfeed0813a5b266b286bc0f8cce78"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mother and her infant were killed by a tornado that hit Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Friday, a family member told CNN. Powerful tornado winds ripped through Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Friday, leaving a trail of destruction. About 36 people were injured, at least two of them critically, officials said. Early Saturday, officials said about 250 homes had been damaged or destroyed. The woman who was killed, Kori Bryant, was at home with her daughter, Olivia, when the tornado struck, said family member Mark McClure. Another family member, who found the mother and daughter after the tornado, said attempts were made to resuscitate the infant, but she couldn't be saved, according to McClure. The baby was found in her car seat. Her parents had put her in the seat, thinking it would be safer for her, McClure said. The Bryants were in the hallway with the baby when the tornado struck. The woman's husband, John Bryant, was found about two houses away, McClure said. His back and ribs were broken, and a lung had collapsed. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Hospital, and he will undergo surgery when his blood pressure stabilizes, McClure said. John's brother told him yesterday that his wife and daughter had died, McClure said. The bad weather began about noon when a band of severe thunderstorms swept across the state from the southwest, said Donnie Smith, a public information officer with the Tennessee Department of Emergency Management in Nashville. Just before 1:40 p.m., the tornado hit Murfreesboro in Rutherford County, 30 miles southeast of Nashville, he said. Thirty-six people were treated for tornado-related injuries at Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro, said hospital spokeswoman Martha Tolbert. The search-and-rescue effort was continuing into the evening, Smith said. Watch damage caused by tornado in Murfreesboro \u00bb . Elsewhere in the region, the town of Mena, Arkansas, is cleaning up after a tornado roared through, killing three people and damaging or destroying more than 100 homes, an Arkansas official said. The town looked like a \"war zone\" as soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard went house to house searching for victims of the twister that hit Thursday night, said Capt. Christopher Heathscott. About 50 soldiers also helped with security and food distribution. Mena, population 6,000, took a heavy hit on the west side of town, as the storm swept through downtown before heading up state Highway 71, said Tommy Jackson from the state Department of Emergency Management. \"It looks like a war zone out here,\" said James Reeves, also from the department. Watch scenes of devastation in Mena \u00bb . The tornado damaged the county hospital, Mena City Hall, a middle school, churches, a library, the Masonic lodge and the courthouse -- which houses the 911 emergency dispatch center and a detention center, Reeves said. He said electricity and gas were out in the western half of the city. Two plants at an industrial park were destroyed, said reporter Charles Crowson of CNN affiliate KTHV-TV. He said utility crews were trying to stop a gas leak there. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told Crowson the county detention center was \"uninhabitable.\" There were 18 inmates in the jail at the time of the tornado, and they were moved to neighboring jurisdictions, he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . CNN's Melissa Roberts and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Parents in hallway with baby in car seat when tornado hit Murfreesboro .\nMother died, father found two houses away when tornado hit .\nTornado hit Mena, Arkansas, on Thursday; 3 people confirmed dead .","id":"28699006f091e78bdc413c24d2b1362c2af7ded4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates off the eastern coast of Africa fired on U.S. sailors Saturday as they tried to reach the lifeboat where an American captain is being held, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told CNN. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, is now at the scene. The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, back to the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, the official said. Capt. Richard Phillips reportedly offered himself as a hostage to the pirates during an attack Wednesday on the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean. The Alabama was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, with a cargo of food aid when it was hijacked about 350 miles off the Somalia coast. The American crew regained control of the vessel, but the Maersk company would not say how. There are about 20 crew members. The Alabama arrived Saturday in Mombasa, along with an 18-person armed security detail on board. \"For security reasons, the vessel will berth in a restricted area of the port and will not be accessible to the media. FBI agents will debrief members of the crew on board the vessel before they disembark. The crew will not be available to the media in Mombasa,\" Maersk Ltd. said. Watch the latest Maersk briefing \u00bb . The U.S. Navy -- which is in charge of the situation -- requested help from the FBI to resolve the standoff. The FBI is launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI's New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Agents from the office were scheduled to leave for Africa sometime this weekend, the officials said. Phillips lives in Underhill, Vermont, where neighbor and longtime family friend, Tom Walsh, told CNN the captain's wife, Andrea, was surrounded by relatives. \"If they need us to help with anything. That's kind of the way it is in these communities. ... just showing that we're concerned. We want to do whatever she needs,\" Walsh said. \"She has a lot of family there.\" Watch more about the hostage situation \u00bb . Earlier Saturday, pirates sailing a hijacked German cargo ship returned to port after failing to reach the area of the standoff with the Bainbridge, a local journalist told CNN. The German ship Hansa Stavanger was among several pirated vessels trying to sail to the area some 300 miles off the Somali coast, a Somali journalist told CNN. The pirate crew had intended to help the pirates holding Phillips but turned back because of the U.S. naval presence, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger is now at the Somali port of Eyl, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger was hijacked April 4 off the Somali coast. Pirates have been searching the waters off Africa's coast for the Alabama's lifeboat, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation said Friday. They are using hijacked vessels and skiffs launched from larger ships, the official said. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has joined the Bainbridge in the area. A third ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer -- with a medical facility aboard -- should be there by the end of the day. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on how the pirates are being handled . Phillips is being held by four gunmen in the covered, fiberglass lifeboat. He jumped overboard at one point to try to escape, but one of the pirates jumped into the water after him and brought him back onboard the 28-foot boat. The pirates fired shots, the military official said, without providing further details. Phillips appeared to be tied up by the pirates after the escape attempt, a Defense Department official told CNN. For the U.S. Navy, bringing in more firepower is more than just a means to resolve a hostage situation, said Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Attacks in the area have picked up so drastically in recent months that the Navy has to reposition some of its fleet to deal with the threats, he said. The pirates have shown no signs of giving in. Meanwhile, the acts of piracy were having an effect on tourists disembarking from ships in Mombasa. \"Well, we got the international news stories on television on the ship and everybody's concerned about the route that we were on because there was always the possibility that we would be approached by pirates,\" one male passenger said. CNN's Stephanie Elam, Mohammed Jamjoom and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gunfire from pirates forces sailors, who did not return fire, to turn back .\nNEW: FBI launches criminal investigation into hijacking, hostage-taking .\nMaersk Alabama arrives in Mombasa, Kenya under armed guard .\nCapt. Richard Phillips is being held by four gunmen in covered, fiberglass lifeboat .","id":"04997b28992926869e1b401ca48e2b718361afad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Brian Burton, a little known DJ operating under the name of Danger Mouse, released \"The Grey Album\" in 2003, he brought to mainstream attention a new form of musical genre made possible by the advance of modern technology and the Internet. He also inadvertently sparked a debate about record labels' monopoly of music ownership. \"The Grey Album\" consists of a series of \"mash-ups,\" songs made by splicing together elements from two or more separate tracks, the vocals from one, the music from others. Burton used the vocal tracks from rapper Jay Z's \"Black Album\" and music from The Beatles' \"White Album\". The album was well received. His decision to bring together the world's biggest hip hop star with the best-selling band of all time probably contributed to its positive reception by the critics. It was described as \"the most creatively captivating\" album of the year by The Boston Globe and voted best album of 2004 by Entertainment Weekly. But its success probably owes just as much to the controversy it caused. While Jay Z had released his \"a capella\" vocal tracks with the intention that they could be used as sampling material, Burton had borrowed the Beatles' music without permission from the copyright holders, EMI Music. EMI moved swiftly to block sales of the album but anti-copyright activists stepped in, and battle lines were drawn. Downhill Battle, a group that campaigns for a fairer music industry, organized an online protest, dubbed \"Grey Tuesday\" in which they offered up the album to download for free on approximately 170 Web sites as a form of deliberate civil disobedience. With over 100,000 downloads, Downhill Battle claims that \"The Grey Album\" was the number one album in the United States on the day. The two groups represented polar opposite points of view. EMI's position was that they earn a livelihood out of the music. By blocking the sale of this album they were simply protecting their investment. Downhill Battle, on the other hand, argued that while copyright holders should get a cut of the proceeds from the sale of music, the licence fees were far too high and too large a proportion goes to the music label and not to individual artists. Moreover, they argued, music was built on a tradition of sharing and much that is good has come from one artist passing the baton to another, who might give a different interpretation, even improve, on an original work. \"The reason we have copyright is to ensure that creators are able to benefit from the things that they do so that they can keep creating,\" says Nicholas Reville, Director at Downhill Battle. \"What's happened to copyright with music recently is that it has been used as a way to restrict creativity, limit art and censor what people are allowed to do. \"What made 'The Grey Album' so significant was that it brought together two of the most popular musical acts from two different eras into a totally new piece of art that was considered by everybody as culturally significant. There's no reason why any society would not want that creation to exist.\" Reville says that Downhill Battle's argument is that copyright should exist but that laws should be reviewed so that bedroom musicians everywhere can have access to sample music without needing a lawyer to guide them through the legal quagmire. The \"mash-up\" is not a new phenomenon. In Indian music there is a tradition of borrowing tunes and melodies and incorporating them into new compositions. Western folk music also encouraged the practice of passing on songs for reinterpretation by new generations. As a musical genre, the \"mash-up's\" origins lie in the birth of hip hop, when DJs such as Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash began using the drum sections form vinyl records as a back-beat for MC's to rap over. The development of the Internet has simply fast-forwarded the culture of borrowing by making it all that much easier -- \"mash-up\" artists have access to so much more music than their forebears. And peer-to-peer and social networking sites mean that \"mash-ups\" have found a distribution system that by-passes the usual gate-keepers - record companies and music stores. \"There are elements of this idea that have been around for a long time,\" says Rupert Evans of yourspins.com. \"Mozart wrote a piano concerto where every time you finished a bar you're meant to roll a dice to see what it was you played next. \"People have always been into the idea of how you can break things down and put them back together and I think it's something that's been highlighted recently due to technology and the hip hop 'vibe' has taken it and tried to twist it around. \"When people first started recording music it meant you were stuck with just one version. There isn't supposed to be a definitive version.\" It would seem that artists are beginning to cotton on. At yourspins.com musicians such as Moby, Robbie Williams, Roots Manuva and Natasha Bedingfield have released their work for remixing by the public. The musicians provide the user with a selection of variations on the different elements of a song -- bass line, drum, vocals, etc. -- which can be put together in any order. The result is \"as many versions of the song as there are atoms in the universe,\" says Evans. There is one large distinction between what Danger Mouse was doing with \"The Grey Album\" and the music produced by remixers on yourspins.com. While \"The Grey Album\" was championed as an original work of art, Evans does not believe that the same can be said of yourspins.com's remixes. \"It's a hard distinction to defend but [Danger Mouse] picked a couple of things himself. There was some creativity in saying: 'I can put this and that together', whereas we are giving people a toolkit,\" says Evans. In yourspins.com's legal framework, the copyright still belongs to the artist who can even sell on the remix if they wish. Evans says that the laws have relaxed since he first set up yourspins.com. \"At the beginning a lawyer was telling me that every time someone wanted to go on my Web site they would have to sign a paper saying that they weren't going to claim copyright over what they had created, and the artist was going to have to sign a paper giving permission every time, which obviously wouldn't have worked,\" he says. Technology is breaking down the barriers between musicians and their audiences, allowing both sides to interact in ways that would have been unimaginable thirty years ago, but the record companies are still holding on stubbornly to their monopoly of the market, and it seems there is still a fair way to go before musical culture becomes truly democratic. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A little-known DJ, Danger Mouse, released \"The Grey Album\" in 2003 .\nIt pioneered a new genre -- \"mash-ups\" -- splicing elements from two different tracks .\nVocals are from Jay Z's \"Black Album\" and music from The Beatles' \"White Album\"\nIt ssues of copyright and the relationship between artists and audiences .","id":"47df478a7b15bba5261d148647d8fcd1b78d3dbc"} -{"article":"(Oprah.com) -- Are you truly happy? If you were presented with a group of people you've never met, could you determine who was really satisfied with their life? A panel of five people took a test to see how happy they really are. Based on this picture and a brief description, see if you can tell who is the happiest! From left to right: Peggy, Noreen, Lachelle, David and Lorrie. Peggy (pictured on far left) is a 44-year-old married mother of two teenage boys who works as the bookkeeper of the family business. Last year, both her father and her sister died, and her mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Noreen (second from the left) is a 52-year-old divorced mother of two college kids. She's an avid swimmer and works in the operations department of a major airline. Lachelle (middle) is 27 years old, married and has no children. She works two jobs and has two dogs. Last year, four of her friends and two of her family members died within six months of each other. David (second from the right) is 53 years old, and he's been a funeral director for 30 years. He is married and has two sons. Lorrie (pictured on far right) has been married for 15 years and has six children. She works in retail and also serves as the vice president of her PTA. Peggy, David and Lachelle scored the highest on the satisfaction scale, while Noreen and Lorrie scored the lowest. Satisfaction for Peggy is achieved by surrounding herself with happiness. The most important thing? Her husband. \"He is there for me. He doesn't only love me, he appreciates me and makes me feel good,\" Peggy says. Happiness doesn't depend on money, she says. It's about enjoying the simple things. \"Every morning I have a ritual. After the boys have left, [my husband and I] get in the hot tub, and it's our time. We talk about what is going on for the rest of the day. It is just our quality time just to stay connected.\" David, the funeral director, says he's developed phrases that help him keep a positive outlook. \"I will say, 'It's a marvelous Monday. It's a terrific Tuesday,'\" he says. Although he deals with death daily, David says his job is anything but depressing. \"Most people look upon funeral service as a sad profession. I look upon it as a profession where I'm helping people at a very difficult time in their lives,\" he says. \"Being successful in life is not what really matters. Being significant in life is really the core root of what matters.\" Lachelle says she lives by the philosophy, \"Negative out, positive in.\" She says she believes happiness is a conscious effort. \"It's about claiming what's yours. If you want a positive life, you need to think positively and act positively,\" she says. \"I do my best not to compare myself with others. I've always felt that what one person has may not be destined for me.\" Dr. Robert Holden has dedicated his life to studying the pursuit of happiness. The psychologist is the founder of the Happiness Project in England and the author of 10 best-selling books, including \"Happiness Now!\" Dr. Holden says those looking for happiness often don't realize they already have it. It's a lesson that he says he was lucky to learn at age 18 from a spiritual teacher. \"He said, 'Look, actually, Robert, you're already happy.' And I said, 'Well, that's great, but I don't feel it. So tell me, what do I have to do?'\" Dr. Holden recalls. \"And he said, 'You have to understand that the pursuit of happiness is a mistake. It's like, you don't chase happiness out there. You learn that you're happy inside you, and then you go running. Then you go into the world.'\" When looking at the guests who scored the highest on the happiness scale, Dr. Holden says he instantly recognizes the keys to their satisfaction. For David, it's his job. \"Your job just helps you to have a great perspective on life, which is, 'We're just here for a short spell, and it's really important to make the most of it,'\" Dr. Holden says. Lachelle uses the law of attraction to stay happy, Dr. Holden says. \"Lachelle, basically what I see is that you've chosen to be an optimist. You have had some difficult times in your life, and you've had bad circumstances, but you've made great choices. And this is how the law of attraction works,\" he says. \"What I found is that basically we have beliefs about life, and our perception gathers evidence to prove that our beliefs are right. So an optimist believes that good things can come from bad situations.\" After taking the happiness test, Noreen found that she received the lowest score possible -- a 5 out of 35. So how can Noreen find fulfillment? Dr. Holden says to look within her heart. \"What really occurs to me is ... you are such a good person. ... But I realized that you've not made some of the best choices in your life in the past,\" Dr. Holden says. \"Those choices, I think, are being motivated really by a lack of what I call self-acceptance, which is where we somehow don't believe we deserve any more than we have.\" The law of attraction could make a big difference for Noreen, Dr. Holden says. \"The way the law of attraction works is that as we increase our self-acceptance, we attract more happiness,\" he says. Dr. Holden says Noreen needs to realize she is, indeed, a great person. One way she can do that is to surround herself with people who already know that. \"I think it's also great to have some friends around you who can remind you, because we do forget,\" Dr. Holden says. Noreen says she feels like she's taking her first step on the road to happiness. \"I feel like I'm starting. I can feel it,\" she says. Lorrie scored in the middle range of the satisfaction test and says people often mistake her for being happy because she puts on a false front, whether she's being a room mom for one of her six children or attending a PTA meeting. Dr. Holden gets to the root of her dissatisfaction. \"You're so good at helping everybody else, I think you're in danger of leaving yourself out of your own life,\" Dr. Holden says. \"What we have here is a classic what I call a martyr ethic, which is where we're putting everybody else first instead of ourselves.\" In fact, Dr. Holden says Lorrie can help herself and give an important gift to her family -- her own happiness. \"I know you ... want your children to be happy, and I tell you this: You can't just tell them to be happy. You show them with your example. And that's the big key,\" Dr. Holden says. Lorrie can start today by simply asking for help. \"I think the big mistake here, and it's a common one, is that we try to do our lives by ourselves,\" Dr. Holden says. \"It's time to stop being a super mom and start being a real mom.\" From \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" \"How Happy Are You?\" E-mail to a friend . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Expert: Many looking for happiness don't realize they already have it .\nFuneral director finds happiness in job by helping grieving people .\nLachelle claims happiness even in a bad situation .\nExpert: Good friends can remind you that you're a good person .","id":"e4794151cef68cf90472edc9229711e7572cfa11"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nearly eight years later, Connie Chung still remembers being surprised. \"Stonewalling is what gets politicians in trouble, when they ... try to cover up,\" Connie Chung says. It was one of those television moments that linger in the national consciousness, like Barbara Walters sitting down with Monica Lewinsky, Dan Rather with Saddam Hussein, or Jay Leno asking Hugh Grant what the hell he had been thinking. Chung was with ABC then, and she got the \"get\" -- the first interview with Gary Condit, the California congressman at the center of the Chandra Levy media frenzy. The former Washington intern, you'll recall, had been found murdered in Rock Creek Park, and law enforcement sources let it be known that the married Condit had been having an affair with her. In an interview airing Sunday on \"Reliable Sources\" (10 a.m. ET, during CNN's \"State of the Union with John King\"), Chung says she was surprised when Condit refused to acknowledge the romantic relationship. \"Stonewalling is what gets politicians in trouble, when they stonewall or they try to cover up,\" she says. \"I think that the general public and the news media wanted him to be honest, and if he could be honest about that part of the story, then he could be -- then he would be believed when he was answering other questions as to whether or not he had anything to do with her disappearance.\" I often focus on media excess and media mistakes on the program, but we also try to highlight good journalism. The segment includes two Washington Post reporters, Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham, who cracked the Levy mystery in a 13-part series last year. They did what the D.C. police could not: They identified Ingmar Guandique, an illegal Salvadoran immigrant, as Levy's likely killer. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for the imprisoned suspect this week. But Horwitz and Higham talk about how they were roundly criticized for resurrecting the case and accused of sensationalizing it. It's clear that Levy's case became a huge deal in 2001 because of the Condit connection. At the same time, Chung says, \"The news media had changed. This was the gradual evolution of what the news media was doing. There was flavor of the week, the story du jour.\" The Levy frenzy became the precursor for the missing-women TV melodramas that followed: Laci Peterson, Stacy Peterson, Natalee Holloway. The stories of women who were not celebrities, whom no one had heard of before, became national soap operas because they drove cable and morning show ratings. At least, in Levy's case, the soap opera appears to be drawing to a close.","highlights":"Congressman wouldn't admit affair with murdered former intern .\nHonest answer might have helped Gary Condit, news anchor says .\nChung recalls scandal for \"Reliable Sources\" Sunday on CNN .","id":"4ef74e484fc5ff577a5d99fbdc6d9456523b9254"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Tuesday aimed at combating piracy along the Horn of Africa by allowing military forces to chase pirates onto land in cases of \"hot pursuit.\" French troops on the lookout for pirates in the Gulf of Aden on November 25. Military forces from various countries, including the United States, are patrolling pirate-infested waters off Somalia, where attacks have surged this year. Nearly 100 vessels have come under fire, according to the International Maritime Bureau, and almost 40 vessels have been hijacked. The Security Council resolution, which passed unanimously, expands upon existing counter-piracy tools, including a stipulation that would allow for national and regional military forces to chase pirates onto land -- specifically into Somalia where many of the pirates are based. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was at the U.N. on Tuesday for a discussion of the piracy problem and the Security Council vote. \"I wouldn't be here seeking authorization to go ashore if the U.S. government -- perhaps most importantly the president of the United States -- were not behind this resolution,\" Rice said after the vote. Asked if she thought U.S. troops would soon be on land chasing pirates, Rice would not speculate. \"The United States is part of an international effort,\" she said. \"We do have naval forces that have been involved in this effort. What this (resolution) does is to authorize that the boundary of the maritime cannot become a safe haven boundary for pirates. What we do -- or do not do -- in issues like hot pursuit, we'll have to see ... case by case.\" Earlier, in remarks to the Security Council, Rice described the growing problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia as \"a symptom.\" \"It's a symptom of the instability, the poverty, the lawlessness that have plagued Somalia for the past two decades,\" she said, adding that the Bush administration \"does believe that the time has come for the United Nations to consider and authorize a peacekeeping operation.\" Asked about reports that two more ships were attacked by pirates this week, Rice said those show \"the increasing problem that this is. The pirates are a threat to commerce, they are a threat to security and perhaps most importantly they are a threat to the principle of freedom of navigation on the seas.\" With increased patrols in the area by several countries, reports of exchanges of fire have become more frequent. In one of the most recent piracy attacks, Indian officials said Saturday they had captured 23 people suspected of trying to take over a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden. In addition to the 12 Somali and 11 Yemeni suspects, Indian navy officials also seized two small boats and \"a substantial cache of arms and equipment,\" the Indian military said in a statement.","highlights":"Military forces from various countries are patrolling pirate-infested waters off Somalia .\nNearly 100 vessels have come under fire in the area, with almost 40 being hijacked .\nThe resolution allows national, regional military forces to chase pirates into Somalia .\nU.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush backed the move .","id":"b8be6b1ec009ab5a36eeb31e611bb5cdf698f927"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said Sunday he believes U.S. troops will be out of the country by the end of 2011. Gen. Ray Odierno says the U.S. is working with Iraq to maintain security improvements as it looks to withdraw. On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" chief national correspondent John King asked Odierno to rate his confidence, on a scale of 1 to 10, that U.S. troops would be out by the end of the timeline agreed by the U.S. and Iraqi governments. \"As you ask me today, I believe it's a 10 -- that we will be gone by 2011,\" Odierno responded. One of the key architects of the troop \"surge\" strategy in Iraq, Odierno said conditions in the war-torn country have \"improved significantly\" in the past year or so. \"Obviously, we still have some very serious incidents ... but, again, it's much safer,\" he said. Nine U.S. troops were killed in March, the lowest monthly toll since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, he said. Watch Odierno share his assessment with CNN's John King \u00bb . \"So, there's been a clear improvement of security here,\" Odierno said. \"The issue is: Can we maintain that? Can the Iraqis maintain it? And that's what we're working through now. We want them to be able to maintain this stability as we pull out.\" But less than two weeks into April, the U.S. toll for the month is already at nine. Asked whether the attacks were a sign of increased coordinated violence, Odierno responded that \"there are some cells out there who are still capable of conducting suicide attacks,\" though he described the cells as \"very small.\" Watch as general discusses joining Facebook \u00bb . The U.S. military has made it more difficult for foreign fighters to get into Iraq through Syria, but there is still support for the Iraqi insurgency coming from Iran, he said. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraqi national security adviser, said the Iraqi government is making improvements in handling its own security. \"We, the government of Iraq and the security forces in Iraq are much more suited now for this fight,\" al-Rubaie told \"State of the Union.\" \"And we believe that now we are leading and we are planning and carrying out most of the combat operations in the country, \" he said, \"and the United States forces are moving or transitioning to a more support role, more training, more providing more logistical support, rather than engaging in a huge military or kinetic combat operations.\" Al-Rubaie was mum when asked how President Obama has differed from former President George W. Bush. Watch al-Rubaie discuss Iraq's future \u00bb . \"I don't want to elaborate on differences,\" al-Rubaie said. \"But I believe that President Obama understands the situation in Iraq and I believe he wants to stick by ... the withdrawal agreement.\" Odierno described Obama as \"very attentive.\" \"He listens. He's incredibly intelligent. He talks through the issues,\" Odierno said. \"He makes a decision and then we execute those decisions, and that's all you can expect out of your commander-in-chief. And I've been very pleased with the interaction that I've been able to have with him.\"","highlights":"On scale of 1 to 10, \"I believe it's a 10,\" Gen. Ray Odierno says of timetable .\nU.S., Iraq agreed that U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by end of 2011 .\nConditions in Iraq have \"improved significantly\" in the past year, general says .\nIraqi national security adviser: We're getting better at handling own security .","id":"67862e757225815b3b96bf18f91bd9abf1da4584"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Eric Cantor, a Republican serving his fifth term representing the 7th District of Virginia, was elected last month as the Republican Whip, the party's second-highest position in the House of Representatives. He also serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Eric Cantor says Republicans want to make sure the massive economic stimulus plan is used wisely. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bolstered by wide Democratic margins in both chambers of Congress, the new administration assumes power Tuesday with a broad public mandate to repair the feeble economy. But with such a free hand over current stimulus efforts comes great danger. Costing at the very least a hefty $825 billion, the plan's potential for taxpayer waste and special-interest-driven giveaways is enormous. We Republicans believe we can help mitigate those risks if we are given a meaningful place at the table. President-elect Barack Obama was correct to point out recently that no one party has a monopoly over sound ideas. Rather than presenting an obstacle, House Republicans intend to use the full force of our ideas to help Democrats produce a better package to help pull the country back from the economic abyss. Specifically, we want to keep the stimulus bill -- as well as all other future economic \"rescue\" measures -- limited in scope and transparent. Our country has no other choice. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a sobering report that this year's deficit will likely climb to over 8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, or $1.2 trillion. That's higher than at any point since World War II -- and those figures don't even account for the forthcoming stimulus. Such heavy borrowing runs the risk down the line of rampant inflation, which scares away foreign capital while making the purchasing power of the dollar weaker for American consumers. While deflation may be the more immediate threat that the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are correctly focused on, uncontrolled spending and borrowing could easily necessitate much higher Treasury interest rates to keep foreigners financing our mounting debt. Especially given the looming entitlement crisis, this poses heavy danger for businesses and families alike. Let's not lay the groundwork for future financial catastrophe. Let's lay it for future growth. The stimulus can do that by focusing exclusively on strengthening businesses, boosting job creation and lifting consumer confidence. Our preferred strategy is to provide meaningful tax relief directly to middle-class taxpayers and the small businesses that they operate or work for. Particularly in down times, tax cuts can lift an economy by encouraging work, investment and business expansion. That should be the aim of the $300 billion in tax cuts the president-elect has pledged -- an apparent recognition, however overdue, that tax cuts are in fact stimulative for the economy. But we also accept that these are dizzyingly uncertain economic days for our country. The Democrats have proposed additional spending for infrastructure and the like, ostensibly to compensate for stagnation in the private sector. Like bears sniffing out food at a campfire pit, those looking for a piece of the multi-billion dollar pie have flooded Washington with a cascade of requests, some capable of spurring immediate and lasting growth, others falling hopelessly short. In order for the public to know that money is not wasted, two things are needed. First, we need to reconcile the American people's demands for swift action with the fact that a good bill requires time -- time to hold hearings, read the bill in painstaking detail, and root out waste. Second, Democrats have to live up to President-elect Obama's vow for \"unprecedented transparency.\" The GOP welcomes and strongly encourages the president-elect's idea to post all contents of the bill online for the American people to judge. Lastly, any new spending must be introduced with the clear understanding that it is temporary rather than permanent. It is not always easy to terminate spending programs once they have been funded, but our bleak long-term budget outlook requires significant sacrifices over the coming years. We trust the Democrats' assurances that the economic stimulus will not be turned into a grab bag for favored interests. Serving as the honest and fair check on majority power, we will work to ensure they keep their word. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eric Cantor.","highlights":"Rep. Eric Cantor: Obama has a mandate for plan to spark the economy .\nPlan's potential for waste and special-interest giveaways is enormous, he says .\nCantor: We support Obama's idea of making the plan transparent .\nHe says best strategy is to provide tax relief to middle class, small business .","id":"e12f8302aa319f17a9c7d76d6ff56e0bb41e0e56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Monday detailed what his campaign called a four-part \"economic rescue plan\" for the middle class. \"I'm proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities, and help struggling homeowners,\" Obama said at a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio. \"It's a plan that begins with one word that's on everyone's mind, and it's easy to spell: J-O-B-S.\" Obama's plan comes as aides to Sen. John McCain said their candidate would likely wait to lay out any further plans until the Treasury issues a report or recommendations on what to do with the bailout. McCain has already unveiled a plan to buy $300 billion in troubled mortgages and renegotiate the terms directly with homeowners. On Friday, he endorsed the idea of suspending the current requirement that seniors start drawing down their retirement plans -- IRAs and 401(k)s -- once they reach age 70\u00bd. Obama on Monday proposed a temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years, and penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s in 2008 and 2009. The Democratic candidate called for new legislation that would give families the option of withdrawing as much as 15 percent of their retirement savings --- up to a maximum of $10,000 --- without facing a tax penalty this year or next. He also called for a temporary lifting of taxes on unemployment insurance benefits. The Illinois senator also proposed a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners acting in good faith, and a new effort to address the growing credit crisis at the state and local level. Under the Obama plan, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury would provide much the same kind of backing to state and municipal governments as the recent federal bailout did to the commercial credit market. \"We can't wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now -- who don't know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don't know if next week's paycheck will cover this month's bills,\" Obama said. \"We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class ... and we need to do it right now.\" The McCain campaign said Obama's economic rescue plan was a political move that would not provide solutions. \"It is clear that the economy is hurting, that Americans need across-the-board tax relief, and yet Barack Obama has proven unwilling to break with the left-wing of his party and stand up for the American taxpayer,\" spokesman Tucker Bounds said. Fact check: Obama's tax plan and small businesses . \"Interestingly, Barack Obama called [for] a moratorium on foreclosures, which is a policy he had previously labeled 'disastrous' when it was proposed by a political opponent. Proving yet again that Barack Obama's positions on the issues are tied to elections, not solutions for the American people,\" he said. During the primaries, Obama criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton's plan, which, unlike his, included a freeze on interest rates. Earlier Monday, McCain delivered a speech that a senior aide predicted would \"begin a turnaround for the campaign.\" On the new tone, the aide said the campaign decided to go \"back to basics\" with McCain on what he can offer. McCain told voters Monday that they should elect him because \"what America needs in this hour is a fighter.\" \"I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it,\" McCain said at a rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Watch what's going on in battleground Virginia \u00bb . \"Let me give you the state of the race today and some straight talk. We have 22 days to go. We're 6 points down. The national media has written us off,\" McCain said to a sea of boos. CNN's most recent poll of polls shows Obama leading McCain by 8 percentage points, 50 to 42 percent. \"Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and Sen. [Harry] Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. ... But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them,\" he said. Obama's campaign dismissed the Arizona senator's remarks as a \"political speech about where he is in the polls.\" Watch where the election stands \u00bb . \"Less than 12 hours after his campaign announced that Sen. McCain would finally have some new ideas on the economy, he decided that it was more important to give a new political speech about where he is in the polls,\" said Obama-Biden communications director Dan Pfeiffer. McCain advisers downplayed weekend reports that the Arizona senator would be unveiling several economic proposals over the final three weeks of the campaign, saying it was likely he would lay out one or two new ideas, but not the swarm that had been rumored. They also downplayed a Sunday suggestion by McCain surrogate Lindsey Graham that a new economic plan rollout might focus on plans to cut taxes on capital gains and dividends, saying that the South Carolina senator had good ideas but that they had not yet been approved by the campaign. CNN's national poll of polls consists of six surveys: ABC\/Washington Post (October 8-11), Fox News\/Opinion Dynamics (October 8-9), Newsweek (October 8-9), Reuters\/C-SPAN\/Zogby (October 10-12), Gallup (October 10-12) and Diageo\/Hotline (October 10-12). It does not have a sampling error. CNN's Dana Bash and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Barack Obama lays out four-part plan for middle class .\nNEW: Obama proposes 90-day moratorium on foreclosures .\nJohn McCain says Obama would drive country further into debt .\nMcCain to voters: \"What America needs in this hour is a fighter\"","id":"def412b0e999b797223d508a07868c64613ae325"} -{"article":"GENEVA, Alabama (CNN) -- The gunman who authorities said launched a shooting rampage over three south Alabama towns, slaying 10 people in his path before killing himself, was once a police officer in Samson, the small town hit hardest by the deadliest crime in the state's history. Authorities identified the shooter, seen in a yearbook photo, as Michael McLendon, 28, of Kinston, Alabama. Authorities identified the shooter as Michael McLendon, 28, of Kinston, Alabama, in Coffee County. Speaking at several news conferences on Wednesday, authorities also released a detailed timeline of the rampage -- which lasted less than an hour -- and identified the victims. Investigators late Wednesday said they were closer to finding a motive behind why McLendon would fatally shoot his mother in his hometown of Kinston before moving on to open fire in Samson and then Geneva. \"Evidence collected does indicate his reasons -- what the reason are I can't get into right now,\" said Lt. Barry Tucker of the Alabama Bureau of Investigations. \"He was somewhat depressed about job issues, but the information we have does not specify [the motive] was job-related.\" Coffee County District Attorney Gary McAliley told the newspaper in nearby Dothan that McLendon likely planned the rampage for a while. He said investigators have found dozens of ammunition boxes, military and survival gear and medical supplies at McLendon's Kinston home. The Alabama Bureau of Investigation said authorities recovered a phone list and a notebook from the home, \"but there is no evidence that indicates a hit list of any kind.\" Tucker said the notebook contained, \"a couple of pages of notes, people he worked with, places he worked -- it was over a year old.\" Asked whether the notes expressed grievances against others, Tucker said no. The assault Tuesday ended at the Reliable Metal Products plant in Geneva, 24 miles from Kinston. Police said McLendon engaged in a shootout before killing himself inside the building. McLendon shot and killed at least 10 people, including two children, and wounded at least four others, officials said. McLendon, who had no known criminal record before carrying out the rampage, worked briefly as a police officer in Samson, but failed to complete the \"required training\" at the police academy in Montgomery in 2003, according to Alabama State Trooper Capt. Marc McHenry. He \"didn't last a week and a half\" at the academy and received no firearms training there, Murphy said. \"We believe he fired in excess of 200 rounds during the assaults,\" Alabama State Police Cpl. Steve Jarrett said. See photos of the shooting scenes \u00bb . The rampage began Tuesday afternoon when McLendon shot and killed his mother before setting fire to the home he shared with her in Kinston, near the Alabama-Florida state line. He then headed to Samson, where he opened fire on his uncle's front porch as his uncle and other relatives stood outside with the neighbors from across the street. Mayor: \"Shock and disbelief\" \u00bb . Those neighbors happened to be the family of Geneva County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers, who was later involved in a shoot-out with the gunman, unaware that McLendon had shot and killed his wife and young daughter and critically injured his nearly 4-month-old baby, Ella Kay. A family friend found the couple's 4-year-old son hiding in the Myers' home after the shooting. Five people, including Myers' wife, Andrea, and their 1\u00bd-year-old daughter, Corinne Gracy, were killed on the porch. McLendon then opened fire on his grandmother, who was standing in the doorway of her home next door. Watch deputy ask for prayers for wounded daughter \u00bb . Alina Knowles was in her home in Samson when she heard the gunman fire on the porch so many times that it sounded like a horror film. After the shooting stopped, Knowles saw the gunman flee the area and drive around the block. Watch the aftermath of the shooting spree \u00bb . Knowles, a certified nurse assistant, looked around for survivors. She saw members of Myers' family dead on the porch, but nobody's chest was moving to signal they were alive. Then she heard Myers' baby girl, Ella Kay, crying. \"[I] picked her up, came between the two vehicles,\" she said. \"Saw him coming up the road, ducked so he wouldn't see me, as he was coming up this way I ducked, was still ducking and moving around their van trying to keep him from seeing me with that baby.\" Knowles said she knew if she wasn't careful, the gunman would target her. \"I would have been dead,\" she said. \"I would have been on that ground there.\" Knowles was able to get the deputy's child and herself to safety. But the horror of the events sticks with her. \"I was scared,\" she said. \"The scene I saw, there was no words for it. None at all. There is no describing what I saw.\" McLendon then shot and killed two bystanders in Samson before heading to Reliable Metal Products. There, he exchanged fire with Myers and another officer in the parking lot before entering the building, where he shot and killed himself. \"We truly are shocked at this,\" said Col. Christopher Murphy, the director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety. \"This event formed the single deadliest crime recorded in Alabama.\" Watch a timeline of the shootings \u00bb . Samson Mayor Clay King said he knew McLendon and all of the victims in the small southern Alabama town. Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper talk about the investigation \u00bb . \"I coached him in both T-ball and Little League baseball along with my two sons,\" he said of McLendon. McLendon worked nearly two years at food manufacturer and distributor Kelley Foods in Elba, about 25 miles north of Samson. He quit his job last week, the company said. The company didn't specify what his position was, but said he was a \"reliable team leader\" who was well-liked. \"I can't describe what happened, why it happened,\" Geneva County Sheriff Greg Ward told CNN affiliate WTVY. \"It's just a sad day for Geneva County.\" Watch Sheriff Ward talk about the shootings \u00bb . \"He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business,\" said Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith. Smith represents Geneva County, where all but one of the victims were killed. Smith said she had been briefed about the incident by state and local law enforcement. Watch CNN's Sean Callebs say who was shot first \u00bb . Another mass killing occurred in southern Alabama in 2002, when Westley Devon Harris gunned down six members of his 16-year-old girlfriend's family at their farm in Luverne. Harris was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty in 2005. CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Officials say suspect was depressed about job issues .\nPolice say gunman \"fired in excess of 200 rounds\" during the assaults .\nShooter trained briefly at state police academy but \"didn't last,\" officials say .\nPolice say Michael McLendon killed his mom, grandparents, aunt, uncle .","id":"368e42ce1c5dd3d64dc8d37ace099289ab587637"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York celebrates the centennial of its most famous New Year's tradition Monday, as organizers of the Times Square ball drop have given the crystal globe an environmental makeover. Technicians prepare the New York Times Square ball Thursday for the event's 100th anniversary. This year the 1,415-pound ball has been outfitted with more than 9,500 energy-efficient light-emitting diodes that will illuminate the ball's more than 600 crystals. The LEDs will use the same amount of electricity as about 10 toasters, say event officials. That's a dramatic overhaul from 1907's first Times Square ball, which was made from iron and wood and was covered with about 100 light bulbs. Watch the computer-controlled ball \u00bb . New York police estimate about a million people will crowd Times Square to watch the ball drop from a flagpole atop the One Times Square building at midnight. Another billion people worldwide are expected to watch the spectacle on video, said Tom Chiodo, a spokesman for the Times Square Alliance. Of those viewers, 100 million will be in the United States, he said. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be joined by Iraq war veteran Karolina Wierzchowska, who was also a Ground Zero guard worker and a New York Police Academy valedictorian -- to push the button for the ball drop at 11:59 p.m. Weather forecasts indicate clear skies for the celebration, with temperatures in the 40s -- a mild departure from inclement weather gripping much of the Northeast. In an effort to help people stay warm, New York City sanitation workers will be passing out \"goody bags\" from the Times Square Alliance that will include mittens and hats, said Chiodo. The event will include musical performances from Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, Kid Rock, Lenny Kravitz, Lifehouse, The Bravery, and alums from Fox TV's \"American Idol,\" Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis. Security inside Times Square will be tight and everyone should expect to have their bags searched at least three times, said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on CNN's \"American Morning.\" In addition to a heavy police presence on the ground, Kelly said the NYPD's counterterrorism unit, radiation detectors and helicopters will also be patrolling the crowds. Kelly said that once the Times Square attendees pass the entrance gates, they will not be able to leave. New York's terrorist threat level remains at orange -- the nation's second highest level -- as it has since the September 11, 2001, attacks. \"We certainly haven't let our guard down,\" Kelly said. As the ball drops, the new year will be greeted with a massive fireworks explosion, some 168 shots in the first five seconds alone, and a downpour of two tons of fireproof confetti. Some of the confetti includes New Year's wishes that were written by visitors to the city in nearly two dozen languages. Over the past week, visitors from across the country wrote their messages on a Times Square \"Wishing Wall.\" \"I want to turn the world green and the water clean,\" one person wrote. \"Let my husband stop snoring,\" another wrote, while others were more serious: \"That my mom will get her kidney transplant\" and \"Peace in Pakistan.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Times Square ball fitted with energy-saving light-emitting diodes .\nA million people to attend, officials say, a billion expected to watch on video .\nPerformers: Hannah Montana, Kid Rock, Lenny Kravitz, Carrie Underwood .\n1907 ball was made of iron and wood and covered with about 100 light bulbs .","id":"f3fbb3773503ee514b74b57cfa592218906f091c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A few hundred people on Sunday marched in Brooklyn to protest last week's fatal beating of a 31-year-old Ecuadorean man -- an incident authorities say may have been a hate crime. Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten December 7 after leaving a party at a church. The demonstrators -- holding signs reading \"No more hate crimes\" -- walked a half-mile in the neighborhood where police say Jose Sucuzhanay was hit in the head with a bottle and beaten with an aluminum baseball bat on December 7. Sucuzhanay died of his injuries Friday at Elmhurst Hospital, hours before his mother arrived in New York from Ecuador, his family said. Police said Sucuzhanay's attackers yelled racial slurs; no arrests have been made in the case. One of his brothers, Diego Sucuzhanay, said Sunday he is convinced the attack was a hate crime. \"Nothing was taken from him,\" said Diego Sucuzhanay, who didn't join the demonstration, opting instead to help his mother make arrangements to return the body to Ecuador. Watch marchers protest against hate crimes \u00bb . Police said Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel had left a party at a church when several men approached them in a car in Brooklyn's Bushwick section, about a block from the brothers' home. The men shouted anti-gay and anti-Latino vulgarities and attacked the brothers, police said. Romel, 34, escaped with minor scrapes and has talked with detectives. Police have released a sketch of one possible suspect in the case. Police are offering a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the attack. In a statement, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the attack \"a pointless and gutless crime.\" He promised authorities would find and prosecute those responsible. Family spokesman Francisco Moya said Jose Sucuzhanay had lived in the United States for more than a decade and was a legal resident. Diego Sucuzhanay said Jose set up a successful real estate business in a low-income area, thinking he could make a difference there. He said his brother wanted to help everyone and hired a diverse team, including four African-Americans and two Latinos. He was raising two children: a 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. \"We were proud of him,\" Diego Sucuzhanay said. He said the family had wanted Jose's mother to get to his bedside before he died. Doctors told them Jose was brain dead since the attack, and that machines kept him alive until his heart failed Friday. At a press conference Sunday outside the hospital, Diego Sucuzhanay touched his chest and said: \"My heart is broken, but my brother's [memory] will live on. \" Asked in an interview with CNN how his brother would be remembered, he paused several seconds and answered: \"For being the victim of a hate crime.\" Though he didn't participate in the demonstration, he said he was grateful to those who did, and that everyone needs to practice tolerance. \"We definitely have to speak out,\" he said.","highlights":"Police say December 7 beating of Jose Sucuzhanay may have been a hate crime .\nAuthorities say attackers shouted racial slurs; Sucuzhanay died Friday .\nBrother: He'll be remembered as \"a victim of a hate crime\"","id":"233636cc350459e9238e2079c86c595980e72e6c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama called his former Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, a hero at a bipartisan dinner Monday night and encouraged politicians to reach across the aisle. President-elect Barack Obama greets Sen. John McCain on stage after praising him at a bipartisan dinner. \"I could stand here and recite the long list of John's bipartisan accomplishments ...\" Obama said. \"Campaign finance reform. Immigration. The Patients' Bill of Rights. All those times he has crossed the aisle and risked the ire of his party for the good of his country. And yet, what makes John such a rare and courageous public servant is not the accomplishments themselves, but the true motivation behind them.\" McCain returned the gracious feelings at the dinner. \"I am very grateful to the president-elect and to all of you for this very considerate gesture, and for allowing me to play a small role in the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, even if it isn't the one I had in mind a few months ago,\" McCain said. \"Tomorrow, the President-elect will accept the burdensome privilege of leading America to its next accomplishments and its future greatness,\" McCain went on to say. \"He has my sincere best wishes for his success, and my promise of assistance. For his success will be our success.\" After praising McCain, Obama urged everyone to take the bipartisan dinner past \"just an inaugural tradition\" and turn it into a \"new way of doing the people's business in this city.\" \"We will not always agree on everything in the months to come, and we will have our share of arguments and debates,\" Obama said. \"But let us strive always to find that common ground, and to defend together those common ideals, for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now.\" On the eve of his inauguration, the president-elect even made time for a joke. \"I'm here tonight to say a few words about an American hero I have come to know very well and admire very much -- Sen. John McCain,\" Obama said as he opened his speech. \"And then, according to the rules agreed to by both parties, John will have approximately 30 seconds to make a rebuttal.\" Obama's speech at the bipartisan dinner capped a day filled by appearances, including visiting wounded soldiers and exhorting Americans to spend more time in the service of others. In Washington people took in the sights of pre-inauguration activities and concerts. \"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before,\" said Nancy Wigal, who lives in Vernon Square. \"People are walking lighter, standing taller and are reaching out to one another. It feels like hope. It feels like shared happiness.\" Wigal said Obama's inauguration has given residents hope that change actually will happen. \"It's all because of Obama -- we dare to feel positive that we may have actually elected a leader, not just a politician,\" she said. \"There are impromptu progressive dinner parties, cookouts and house parties. We finally feel like a real change has come to town.\" Obama began his day with a surprise visit to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He met with 14 patients injured in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Obama visited a National Day of Service project, stopping by the Sasha Bruce House, an emergency shelter for homeless teenagers in the Washington area. Watch Obama speak about service on the eve of his inauguration \u00bb . The shelter provides a variety of services, including counseling, job training, and substance abuse prevention assistance, for up to 15 teenagers at a time. Roughly 30 teenagers are spending the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday volunteering at the shelter by helping to renovate a dorm room. Obama rolled up his sleeves and pitched in during the visit, using a roller to help paint a couple of walls and a piece of furniture. He also quoted King to the teenagers, noting that \"everybody can be great [because] everybody can serve.\" \"Don't underestimate the power of people who join together to accomplish amazing things,\" Obama added. Given the crisis America is currently in, \"we can't allow any idle hands. Everybody's got to pitch in.\" Wigal said Obama's actions and words make her believe the president-elect has the skills needed to help the country move forward. \"Those of us who live and work here, who try to create, shape, influence and move policy forward, are feeling as if we can finally do something that'll result in forward motion,\" Wigal said. \"We believe we have a leader who listens to those who work the issues every day and know the real solutions.\" For Wigal, that's exactly what makes Inauguration Day so important. \"Tomorrow is going to be the biggest day in our country's history since its creation,\" she said. During Monday's activities Obama also cited the heroics of U.S. Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who safely landed a crippled commercial airliner in the Hudson River last Thursday, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. \"If everybody did their job as well as he did [his] job, we would be in pretty good shape,\" Obama said. Obama has personally invited Sullenberger to the inauguration. Obama later joined Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a high school where students were making blankets and greeting cards, among other things, for soldiers overseas. Speaking to the students, Obama again invoked King's memory, noting the slain civil rights leader had \"dedicated his life to working at the grassroots level ... on behalf of justice and equality.\" \"I am making a commitment to you, as your next president, that we are going to make government work,\" Obama said. But, he warned, \"government can only do so much. If we're just waiting around for someone else to do it for us ... it never gets done. We're going to have to take responsibility, all of us.\" Incoming first lady Michelle Obama, joined by Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president-elect, spent the morning at a separate volunteer service event at RFK Stadium, where people were assembling care packages for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is traditionally viewed as a day to encourage greater volunteerism.","highlights":"NEW: John McCain: President-elect \"has my sincere best wishes for his success\"\nBarack Obama praises Sen. John McCain's leadership at bipartisan dinner .\n\"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before,\" D.C. resident says .\nObama urges students to join him and take responsibility .","id":"09d4badc73423e8ba0cb825b9172e76ef0366c71"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Japan is grappling with its worst economic crisis since the end of World War II, the nation's economic and fiscal policy minister said Monday. A businessman walks past a homeless man taking a nap at a Tokyo park. The comments from Kaoru Yosano followed news of Japan's gross domestic product falling 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter in 2008. \"This is the worst economic crisis in the post-war era,\" Yosano said at a press conference, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency. The global economic crisis has pummeled Japan, which depends largely on its auto and electronics exports. The slump in exports has led to tens of thousands of layoffs across Japan. \"Behind [the contraction in GDP for] the October-December quarter is a terrific downturn in exports,\" he said, according to Kyodo. \"Like other major countries, our country cannot avoid the pains of structural change,\" Yosano said. To stimulate the economy, the Japanese parliament needs to act quickly on key budget measures, he said, referring to bills related to a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008 and early passage of the state budget for fiscal 2009. Asked about Japan possibly producing a new economic stimulus plan in the short term, Yosano said wide-ranging discussions would be needed first. \"After seeing this level [of GDP], it is our duty to think of various policy options,\" he added.","highlights":"Economic and fiscal policy minister says worst economic crisis since end of WWII .\nJapan's gross domestic product fell 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter in 2008 .\nA slump in exports has led to tens of thousands of layoffs across Japan .","id":"cad7bb326d9dfb6de80b97778c26fbb06c32e475"} -{"article":"AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- In her best year as a mortgage broker, Laura Glick says she made \"six figures.\" This week she was one of more than 1,200 people attending a job fair and applying for one of 150 jobs paying between $7 and $12 an hour at a new Kohl's department store in a Denver, Colorado, suburb. Laura Glick says she has a good resume but even getting an interview is difficult. She has been out of work for seven months and never thought it would take her this long to find a job. It's not the kind of job she thought she would be applying for, but she has a case of the jitters just the same. \"Your heart starts to race, and you get nervous even though it is not some big job like you used to have,\" she said. \"I'll take anything at this point.\" Glick is not alone. Many other people have lost their jobs in this tough economy. A record number of jobless claims was set last month, when first-time claims hit a 26-year high of 589,000 claims in one week. Last week's claims also broke the half-million mark, 524,000, according to a new government report cited on CNNMoney.com. Glick, 29, has been living on about $1400 a month in unemployment benefits, barely enough to cover her rent and health insurance. To get by she has stopped eating out, given up cigarettes and has stopped taking her pets to the vet for regular checkups. \"Its feels very degrading, some of the places I'm applying,\" Glick said. \"It's really difficult, and its hard to stay positive, but that's the only way you're going to get something is staying positive. And I'm hoping everything happens for a reason and the doors that have been closed are going to be the ones that lead to open ones.\" Watch could you be an entrepreneur \u00bb . Job seekers have been pouring into a hotel ballroom all week for one of the prized jobs. They fill out paperwork and then are taken up to a hotel room in groups of ten or so. The beds have been removed from the room, and they sit in a circle while store managers holding clipboards ask questions. Most are told they will hear back within three weeks. But some get word right away. \"Hey guess what. I got the job,\" exclaimed Rebecca Erickson, speaking to her mother on her cell phone. When the other applicants filed out the managers asked her to stay behind and offered her a job. She was so excited she forgot to ask how much the job pays. \"It's only part-time, but I'll take it. There's always room for advancement, and with it being a new store opening you never know, a full-time position may open up,\" she said. Erickson, a 31-year old single mother of three, has been unemployed for about two months and has been supporting her family on about $1400 a month in unemployment benefits and food stamps. \"It's awesome; It's great; I love it,\" she said. \"To know that I got a job and they have had over a thousand applications come in for this job, and to know that I am the one to get it is just awesome.\" A store opening such as this one is rare. With unemployment at 7.2 percent nationwide and retail sales down for six straight months, there are more going-out-of-business signs than grand-opening signs. Most of the applicants came alone, but a set of identical twins came here as a team. \"Where ever he goes, I go,\" said Jeri Hines, here with his brother Jerell. The 23-year-olds seem to always have a smile on their faces and insist on working together. They have spent the past year doing odd jobs such as raking leaves and shoveling snow while working on a comic book. \"Its about a girl running around looking for treasure,\" Jerell said. As the Hines twins make their way up to the interview room, their strategy is simple. \"Be really energetic and be sure they know everything they can about you,\" Jerell Hines said . On the way out their smiles are still in place, they flash a thumbs up sign and in unison call out, \"Keep your fingers crossed.\"","highlights":"1,200 people hoping for a job applied at Colorado store hiring 150 .\nMortgage broker once earned six figures, hopes for $7- to $12-per-hour job .\nStore openings are rare with retail sales down for six straight months .\nA single mother of three is excited after getting a part-time job .","id":"eddab12d60c386eedc80f45c36cc9802489da1ae"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A newspaper advertisement for a Miami car dealership reads more like a coupon for bags of potato chips: \"Buy one, get two!\" It's estimated that 900 automotive dealerships will have shut their doors by year's end. The ad speaks to the desperation of car dealers as Big Three auto manufacturers beg Washington for billions in bailout dollars to combat sales that keep dipping to all-time lows. \"The first thing people think when they come in is, 'It's a fake ad. It's a normal car dealer ad. It's a gimmick.' But it's not,\" said Ali Ahmed, sales manager at Rob Lambdin's University Dodge in Miami. To be fair, there is a catch to the buy-one-get-one-free offer: You must first buy a new Dodge truck at full retail price before you're eligible to receive a second truck for about $3,000 in tax, tags and dealer fees. \"We've been fielding phone calls and e-mail inquiries from every state in the country looking to get this buy-one-get-one deal,\" Ahmed said. About 700 dealerships, most of them selling cars from U.S. automakers, have shut their doors since the beginning of the year. The number is expected to hit 900 by year's end. Last month, National Automobile Dealers Association Chairwoman Annette Sykora told the House Financial Services Committee some 19,700 dealerships will still be around by the end of 2008, compared with 50,000 in the 1940s. Auto sales are at a 15-year low, she said, which affects more than the Big Three automakers. Dealers are slashing personnel and expenses. Sykora herself has had to cut staff by about 20 percent at her dealerships, she said. iReport.com: Ask the automakers your questions . Sykora, a third-generation car saleswoman who sells Big Three automobiles at dealerships in Slaton and Levelland, Texas, said she recently sat down with the superintendent of Slaton schools. \"We started discussing what would happen if the dealerships in my hometown were to close,\" she said during her November 19 testimony. \"The loss of tax revenue would force them to cut programs and teachers. \"Many displaced dealership families might have to leave town in search of work in other places, compounding the loss. This same scene would play out in hundreds of communities in the U.S.\" Dealerships, Sykora explained, are independent businesses, not arms of the automakers. They invest in land, equipment, buildings and take out millions of dollars in loans to put the vehicles on their lots and showroom floors. She also said car dealerships are a prime source of advertising revenue for local media, they support charities and Little League teams and they are integral to the tax base, she said. \"One-fifth of the nation's retail purchases are automobiles. By getting automotive retailing back on track, Congress can effectively leverage the economic engine of the automobile industry to get this economy running on all cylinders again,\" she said, pleading with Congress not to let the Big Three file for bankruptcy. Watch what the automakers are asking for \u00bb . With the world's economy reeling, expensive items like cars are not high priorities for families and businesses. It doesn't help that the credit crunch is making it difficult to get loans, which the majority of U.S. consumers need to purchase vehicles. Also compounding matters is consumer confidence, which hit an all-time low in October and didn't improve much in November, according to the nonprofit Conference Board, which maintains indices on consumers' trust in the marketplace. According to Autodata, car sales have plummeted since last year. In the United States, the number of sales of passenger cars and light trucks in November 2008 was down 36.7 percent from November 2007 -- from about 1.18 million to 747,000. Also, as of November 2008, automakers had sold about 12.35 million cars and light trucks, compared with 14.76 million during the same time period last year -- a drop of 16.3 percent, according to Autodata's summary of U.S. light vehicle retail sales. Comparing November 2008 sales with those in November 2007, Autodata reported that General Motors saw a 41.3 percent drop, Ford a 30.5 percent drop and Chrysler 47.1 percent. But it's not just U.S. automakers taking a hit: Toyota's vehicle sales declined 33.9 percent, Honda's dipped 31.6 percent and Nissan's dropped 42.2 percent during that time period, Autodata reported. \"It's definitely a tough climate right now,\" said Matt Lee, floor manager for Major World Auto in New York. \"A lot of people are saying it's a perfect storm of gas prices and financing and consumer confidence.\" Major World Auto used to sell about 150 cars a month. It now sells about half that, Lee said. And of the 15 to 20 salespeople who used to roam the salesroom floor, about 10 are left, he said. \"Salesmen actually just walked out because they're not making enough money to support their family,\" he said. Major World has stopped bringing in new models because it can't sell the cars it has. Like University Dodge in Miami, it is resorting to some creative sales pitches, including zero-percent financing for 72 months and rebates of up to $7,500. But even with the bargains, car dealers are having trouble getting customers into the showrooms. In a recent CNN visit to Major World, which lasted about two hours, only one customer walked onto the lot -- to browse. \"Where you would see five people a day coming in to at least look at a car per salesmen, you're getting maybe one person a day or two people a day,\" salesman Jamie Krinsky said. If the Big Three file for bankruptcy, Sykora told Congress last month, sales and confidence will continue to plummet. \"Imagine how banks would react to a dealer who has asked for millions of dollars to finance new and used inventories from an automaker going through 'reorganization,' \" she said. Watch whether a bailout would come too late for dealers \u00bb . The government can help boost auto sales in many ways, Sykora said, citing two proposed tax incentives: one that would make interest payments on car loans tax deductible and another that would encourage consumers to upgrade their older cars for more fuel-efficient models. \"Cash for clunkers\" programs are in place in Texas and California, she said. \"Whether it's my dealerships in Texas or it's the dealership in your community, the fact is local dealerships will be a major factor in our economic recovery,\" she told the House committee. \"To get the economy back on track, we must restore consumer demand, and the only way to do that is to restore consumer confidence.\" CNN's Alina Cho and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dealer: Dealerships to dwindle to 19,700 by 2009, compared with 50,000 in 1940s .\nConsumer confidence, credit crunch major factors in plummeting auto sales .\nAutodata says November sales about 747,000, compared with 1.18 million last year .\nNew York dealership: Salespeople \"walked out\" because pay won't support families .","id":"46a26a21b686f3b7e4c37dc8548d49d8e7c81358"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rick Warren -- the man at the center of an inaugural firestorm -- has built his career on an uncontroversial reputation. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. The irony of the furor over Warren's selection to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony is that the California minister first drew notice for his determination to expand the evangelical agenda beyond hot-button social issues like opposition to same-sex marriage. Warren has been described as the next Billy Graham, an evangelical leader with a moderate reputation and mass-market appeal -- although instead of massive open-air rallies and an out-sized television presence, Warren focused on forging partnerships with unlikely allies working to protect the environment and fight AIDS. As a pioneer of the mega-church movement, Warren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages for a wider audience. He penned \"The Purpose-Driven Life,\" a spiritually based self-help guide that brought mainstream best-seller status to a muted religious message. In his model, everyday concerns were a top priority: Attendees at his Saddleback Church -- now more than 20,000 strong -- could expect free classes on home finance, or assistance with child care needs. Warren urged ministers to adopt a Madison Avenue approach: to super-charge the growth of congregations by fine-tuning their pitch for the \"un-churched.\" He released bullet-point sermons with crossover potential, along with material to help churchgoers follow along. The church atmosphere he called for was a relaxed one, with dressed-down ministers leading services in nontraditional venues, featuring easy-listening music chosen with younger listeners in mind. But even as Warren's nonpartisan appeal led to increasingly high-profile roles -- like host of this summer's presidential faith forum, featuring Sens. Obama and John McCain -- controversy grew over his conservative stands on social issues. The headlines may be new, but Warren's positions aren't. During the last election cycle, he sent thousands of pastors an e-mail laying out what he viewed as non-negotiable issues for evangelicals deciding on their pick at the polls, from stem-cell research and abortion to same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, after Obama announced Warren as his choice, prominent liberal groups and gay rights proponents criticized the selection. Some said the choice signaled that Obama is not interested in advancing gay rights or protecting abortion rights. iReport.com: What do you think of the choice? Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said Wednesday that he feels a \"deep level of disrespect\" because of the choice of Warren and is calling on Obama to reconsider the move. Read more about the criticism of Obama's choice . On Thursday, Obama defended his decision to tap Warren. \"And I would note that a couple of years ago, I was invited to Rick Warren's church to speak, despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues like abortion. ... \"And that dialogue, I think, is part of what my campaign's been all about: That we're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is to be able to create an atmosphere ... where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.\" But progressive commentators said Warren is a symbol of division. \"When Obama advances a progressive agenda on social issues, as he's certain to do, Warren will continue to speak out on the other side,\" wrote the Washington Monthly's Steve Benen. \"Only now, he'll do so with the added authority that comes with being the president's hand-chosen pastor for the inauguration's invocation. Warren's status will soar, and his criticism of Obama's policies -- or Democrats' in general -- will resonate that much louder.\" Warren himself is working to contain the fallout from his support for California's Proposition 8. In an interview set to air this week, he denied that his stand against same-sex marriage meant he was homophobic. \"Of course not. I have always treated them with respect,\" he said. \"When they come and wanna talk to me, I talk to 'em. When the protesters came, we served them water and doughnuts.\"","highlights":"Pastor Rick Warren first drew notice for trying to expand past hot-button issues .\nWarren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages for a wider audience .\nPresident-elect Barack Obama chose Warren to deliver invocation at inauguration .\nGay, abortion rights activists angry about Obama's choice .","id":"81435265f4fd47ede8eee0a39cc60141c8be34cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Numerous wildfires were roaring Thursday through parts of Oklahoma and Texas, engulfing one town and searing neighborhoods in others, including one in Oklahoma City. Hurricane-force winds continued to kick the flames even higher. Firefighters in Bowie, Texas, try to get a grass fire under control. Bowie is about 70 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The fires had engulfed so many miles of turf, and flying embers had sparked in so many different places, that hours after the first blazes were reported Thursday morning, safety officials still weren't sure how many fires they were facing. In Texas, the 100-person town of Stoneburg was \"burned over,\" by a 25,000-acre fire said Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Misty Wilburn. The town, northwest of Dallas near the Oklahoma state line, had been evacuated, she said. Seventy-five to 100 homes had been destroyed in Oklahoma, and 13 people were confirmed injured -- two of them critically, according to emergency officials. Watch homes in Oklahoma burn \u00bb . Wilburn said Texas authorities were working at least nine major fires Thursday evening, seven in the west of the state and two in the north. \"Everything we have is committed to fires,\" she said. \"Everyone is maxed out.\" Feeding the flames were strong winds that were gusting as high as 76 mph, the strength of a Category 1 hurricane, and grounding many emergency aircraft that can't fly safely in those conditions. On the southwest side of Oklahoma City, fires had engulfed eight homes, and were believed to be destroying many more. In Choctaw, Oklahoma, dozens of homes had been destroyed, and the high school was on the verge of burning, police dispatcher Silva Schneider said just before 8 p.m. Aerial video footage of the central Oklahoma city of about 9,000 people showed row after row of houses in several different neighborhoods engulfed in flames. The Oklahoma towns of Velma, Sparks, Wellston, Healdton and Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City, had all been ordered into mandatory evacuations because of the fires, which officials say are finding plenty of easy fuel because of dry conditions throughout the Southwest. \"It's a bad day in Oklahoma,\" said Albert Ashwood, director of the state's emergency management department. Grass fires were being reported west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with the smell of smoke already wafting through the cities. Ashwood said weather experts fear that heavy winds as night falls could drive the wildfires into more heavily populated areas. A spokesman for the Texas Forest Service said fires in the state were burning in numerous counties in areas near Fort Worth, Wichita Falls and Amarillo. Watch video of wildfires in Bowie, Texas \u00bb . He said there were so many blazes that firefighters were having to ignore some of them, and that winds were so high that most fire-fighting aircraft were unable to fly. The National Weather Service had categorized much of Texas and Oklahoma an \"extremely critical fire weather area\" Thursday because of the dry conditions and winds. Large portions of western and central Texas and western Oklahoma are in a drought, according to the service. A firefighter who was working near Lindsey, Oklahoma, was in critical condition with third-degree burns over 35 percent of his body, according to a hospital spokeswoman. A motorist in Oklahoma also was hospitalized after driving into an area with heavy smoke, authorities said. iReport.com: Are wildfires affecting you? While the blazes seemed overwhelming in spots, firefighters were making some progress on some fronts. In Breckenridge, Texas, a fire that started in an old landfill and burned several hundred acres had been contained just north of the city limits, according to fire officials. But even as that blaze came under control, the fire department received reports of another fire. Wilburn said that as nightfall approached, Texas had been able to get some firefighting aircraft in the air and that five of the fires were at least partially contained. CNN's Hank Bishop and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: In Texas, the 100-person town of Stoneburg has been \"burned over\"\nNEW: In Oklahoma,13 people are confirmed injured, two of them critically .\nWhole neighborhoods of Oklahoma City have been seared .\nTexas, Oklahoma officials say fires multiplying so fast they've lost count .","id":"86ad28f20e0e710a2208b675189a7a7b9e6e9ce5"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's prime minister believes the driver of the truck that struck his car, killing his wife, deliberately drove toward them, his party told CNN. Morgan Tsvangirai leaves the hospital Saturday after being treated for injuries from a car crash. Members of his political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, and former U.S. diplomat also say the crash raises suspicions of foul play. The prime minister left a hospital Saturday, a day after his wife, Susan, was killed in the collision, officials said. A ball cap covered Tsvangirai's bandaged head. Tsvangirai was taken to a hospital in Gaborone, Botswana, on Saturday for medical treatment, a Botswanan government source and a source with the prime minister's party. \"He's badly bruised and is receiving treatment,\" the Botswanan government source said. The source with the prime minister's party said Tsvangirai will return to Zimbabwe on Wednesday to attend the funeral of his wife. The couple, who were married in 1978, have six children. The crash happened on a two-lane highway between Tsvangirai's hometown, Buhera, and the capital, Harare. It comes only weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai's political party said Friday that it was too early to tell whether the crash was anything other than an accident. But on Saturday, MDC members told CNN that Tsvangirai thought the crash was deliberate. Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general, speaking during a tearful press conference, said Tsvangirai should have had better security. Watch how the accident threatens to derail the unity government \u00bb . \"If there had been a police escort maybe what happened yesterday could have not have happened,\" Biti said. \"(A) police escort would have warned oncoming vehicles of a VIP arriving. I think authorities must understand the omission. \"We hope that this omission will be rectified, that the prime minister must be given the protection that ought to be accorded to a prime minister.\" Biti said the MDC would launch its own investigation. Analysts say the crash raises suspicions of foul play. One former U.S. diplomat called for an outside investigation, saying it was not the first time one of Mugabe's political foes had been killed or injured in a car crash. Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, took office last month under a power-sharing deal with Mugabe following a contentious election. The MDC reached the agreement with Mugabe in September after months of angry dispute that included violence. More than 200 deaths, mainly opposition supporters, were reported leading up to and after the election. \"I'm skeptical about any motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe involving an opposition figure,\" said Tom McDonald, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2001. \"President Mugabe has a history of strange car accidents when someone lo and behold dies -- it's sort of his M.O., of how they get rid of people they don't like.\" Watch more on the fatal crash \u00bb . McDonald cited the car crash deaths of Defense Minister Moven Mahachi in 2001, Employment Minister Border Gezi in 1999 and Elliot Manyika, a government minister and former regional governor, last year. \"So when I hear that Tsvangirai was in an accident, it gives me pause,\" McDonald said. Now an attorney with the Washington law firm Baker Hostetler, he urged a full independent investigation. However, he added that traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe. The highway Tsvangirai was traveling on was only two lanes and tractor-trailers were common, McDonald said. Vehicles in the country were often in bad shape and drivers inexperienced. \"It's certainly plausible that this was just one of those tragic things,\" he said. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Morgan Tsvangirai in Botswana for medical treatment on Saturday .\nNEW: Prime minister will return to Zimbabwe on Wednesday to attend wife's funeral .\nTsvangirai believes fatal car crash was deliberate, officials say .\nHead-on collision bound to raise suspicion of foul play, analysts say .","id":"a210a653a08fd0460b52c7eb68bdbde0c40ea63b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- For Miley Cyrus, star of Disney's popular television series \"Hannah Montana\" and its big-screen adaptation \"Hannah Montana: The Movie,\" art is not far from real life. Miley Cyrus, here in \"Hannah Montana: The Movie,\" says filming in Tennessee was relaxing. The 16-year-old actress and singer reconnected with her Southern roots for the filming of \"Hannah Montana: The Movie.\" Traveling to Tennessee to shoot the movie, Cyrus said, helped keep her grounded. \"It actually gave me time to relax, and it was when my career was just starting to take off ... when I was just starting to travel,\" Cyrus said. \"It was at a time when I needed to go back home and it couldn't have been more of a perfect time.\" In the film, opening in theaters Friday, Cyrus plays Miley Stewart, a typical teenage girl who lives a double life as a famous pop star named Hannah Montana. Eventually, Hannah begins taking over Miley's life, leading Miley to take a soul-searching journey back home to decide what she really wants: notoriety or normality. Miley shares the screen with her father, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus, who felt that a trip home would be beneficial to his daughter. Watch Miley and Billy Ray discuss the film \u00bb . \"This is definitely an example of art imitating life imitating art. ... It's so important to be aware of where you're at and be focused on where you're going but, more importantly, never forget where you came from,\" the elder Cyrus said. \"You can't fake going home. That was her home.\" Both on-screen and off, Miley said, she and her father share a close friendship, calling herself a \"daddy's girl 100 percent.\" Between the endless tabloid headlines and the paparazzi's persistence, keeping friends and family near at hand, Miley said, helps remind her of who she really is: \"I think just have good friends, good family and a good team. That's what people miss the most, just having a good team.\" Co-star Lucas Till, who plays Miley's love interest in the film, remarked on Miley's down-to-earth personality. \"She's really nice and really [endearing], and she really cares about people,\" he said. \"She's a good friend, very loyal.\" The two shared an on-screen kiss that, Till said, \"could have been more meaningful.\" Watch Till talk about kissing Cyrus \u00bb . \"There was a lot more there to that kiss than you see,\" he said. Asked whether Till was a good kisser, Miley replied, \"Meh, he's OK. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. I think I was too busy thinking about my next line to think about it.\" During her film's opening weekend, Miley is planning on surprising select audiences at undisclosed theater locations across the country. Moviegoers who see \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" this weekend could also be treated to surprise appearances by stars of the film, live performances and more. Miley said she was excited to give back to her fans. \"I have the best fans in the world,\" she said. After playing \"Hannah\" for three years, Miley said, she's not ready to quit anytime soon. \"I can't be Hannah until I'm 30, but I want to keep doing it as long as possible,\" she said. CNN's JD Cargill and CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article.","highlights":"Miley Cyrus stars in a big-screen version of \"Hannah Montana\"\nMuch of movie shot in Tennessee; Cyrus said it gave her \"time to relax\"\nCyrus kisses co-star Lucas Till in film but said she was focused on her lines .","id":"b97e72a283d480204d1fd2df4b74abad23ddc944"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: John Kerry, a Democrat, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the junior senator from Massachusetts. John Kerry says Barack Obama sent a message that fight against terror will respect America's values. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thursday was an important day for the rule of law in the United States of America. With a handful of signatures to executive orders, President Obama ordered the eventual closure of Guantanamo Bay prison and CIA \"black site\" prisons, and placed interrogation in all American facilities by all U.S. personnel under the guidelines of the Army Field Manual. In a season of transformational changes, these are among the most meaningful, because they send a powerful message that America's struggle against terrorism will once against honor some of the most cherished ideals of our republic: respect for the rule of law, individual rights, and America's moral leadership. The president understands all too well that the threat our nation faces from terrorism is all too real. And we should all agree that sometimes, in the name of national security, it is necessary to make difficult ethical decisions to protect the American people. However, I and many others believe that the use of torture and indefinite detention have not only tarnished our honor but also diminished our security. In this global counterinsurgency effort against al Qaeda and its allies, too often our means have undercut our efforts by wasting one of our best weapons: the legitimacy that comes from our moral authority. Torture plays directly into a central tenet of al Qaeda's recruiting pitch: that everyday Muslims across the world have something to fear from the United States of America. From Morocco to Malaysia, people regularly hear stories of torture and suicide at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other overseas prisons. The result has been a major blow to our credibility worldwide, particularly where we need it most: in the Muslim world. Once permitted, torture and lawlessness are not easily contained. Coercive interrogation techniques found their way from high-level terrorists at Guantanamo to low-level detainees at Abu Ghraib. Years later, images of abuse there remain fixtures across the Arab and Muslim world. And as John McCain has argued, the use of techniques like waterboarding leaves its scars on a democratic society as well. Torture elicits lies -- not just from those experiencing it, but from those who seek to conceal it. After years of Orwellian denials and legalistic parsing, what a relief it was to hear our new attorney general-designee finally acknowledge what we know to be true: that yes, \"waterboarding is torture.\" As we move forward, President Obama is wise to \"reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals\" -- but the American people should know that closing a prison conceived outside the rule of law will not be easy. Reclaiming Guantanamo and its inhabitants into our legal system from what former Vice President Dick Cheney called \"the dark side\" will be an enormous challenge and a thicket of thorny legal and policy issues. However, we are already seeing the international system reorganize itself around an America that is willing to be a moral leader. Countries such as Portugal and Ireland have made welcome offers to join Albania in resettling detainees who cannot be returned to their home countries. Already we are seeing the fruits of a good faith effort with our allies. Still, it will take time and effort to overcome numerous hurdles, many handed over from the previous administration: looming questions about the inadmissibility of evidence improperly coerced; the difficulty of returning detainees -- including many cleared for departure -- who would face torture or worse in their home countries; and the fact that we already know some released from Guantanamo have returned to the battlefield. In some cases we simply lack evidence to charge men we know to be extremely dangerous to the American people. And even as we embrace long-overdue change, we owe it even to those we believe made grave mistakes to acknowledge the urgency of the moment they inherited, the sacred responsibility to protect American lives which they strove to honor, and the humbling reality that there are no easy answers when it comes to such life-and-death matters. But the American story is one of perfectibility and striving for ever-greater fidelity to our ideals -- it is a journey from colony to republic, from slavery to freedom, from sexism to suffrage, from stark poverty to shared prosperity. The president himself famously said, \"The union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.\" It is true that today we face unprecedented, unorthodox, and vastly destructive enemies that respect neither borders nor rules of war. But this is not the first new challenge America has evolved to meet. Sometimes that evolution requires us to admit mistakes, learn from them and grow as a nation. The desire to do better has always been a core part of America's greatness. Last week Barack Obama and his administration wrote a new chapter in that old story. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Kerry.","highlights":"John Kerry: Barack Obama's early decisions were victories for rule of law .\nHe says president sent message that America's values will guide terror fight .\nKerry: Torture weakened U.S. national security by sending wrong message .\nHe says closing Guantanamo will be an enormous challenge for administration .","id":"82c9e740a29de6e69cba01c4830ee19ea0117d27"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates in ships are searching for the lifeboat containing four pirates and their hostage -- the captain of a freighter they failed to hijack earlier this week -- according to a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation. Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia. The pirates are using ships they have already hijacked and larger ships from which they are launching skiffs, the official said Friday. One of the pirated ships is the German cargo ship Hansa Stavanger, seized April 4 off the coast of Somalia. The U.S. military has been monitoring communications between the pirates, the official said. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has now joined the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge in the area. A third ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, which has a large medical facility on board, will be there within a day. Richard Phillips, the hostage, tried to escape from the pirates Thursday night by jumping out of the lifeboat, a U.S. official said Friday. Watch what it's like inside a lifeboat \u00bb . Phillips was believed to be trying to swim to the USS Bainbridge, which is in communication with the four gunmen holding Phillips in the 28-foot boat off Somalia's coast, the official said. Some of the kidnappers jumped into the water, recaptured Phillips, and returned him to the lifeboat, according to the official. Watch what happened when captain tried to escape \u00bb . The pirates fired shots, the military official said, but had no further details. A Defense Department official told CNN that Phillips appeared to be tied up by the pirates after the escape attempt. The U.S. official -- who did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the situation -- said the escape attempt is being viewed by negotiators as an \"optimistic sign\" that Phillips is in good health. He has been held since Wednesday, when the hijackers seized control of his U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama. Watch expert talk about hostage escape attempts \u00bb . The captain's wife Andrea Phillips thanked everyone for their support in a statement. \"My husband is a strong man and we will remain strong for him,\" she said. \"We ask that you do the same. \" Phillips' 20-man crew regained control of the vessel, and they and the vessel are en route to Mombasa, Kenya, according to the father of one of the crew members. The ship's owners -- the Norfolk, Virginia-based Maersk company -- would not say how the crew regained control. \"There will be time for due diligence and retrospective review once we have the safe return of all parties and the opportunity for a full debriefing,\" it said in a statement. For the U.S. Navy, the show of strength is more than just a means to resolve a hostage situation, said Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Attacks in the area have picked up so drastically in recent months that the Navy has to reposition some of its fleet to deal with the threats, he said. iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? The pirates have shown no signs of giving in. The Maersk Alabama was on its way to Mombasa, Kenya, with a cargo of food aid when it was attacked Wednesday. It was the first time in recent history that pirates had targeted an American ship. The ship was hijacked some 350 miles off Somalia's coast, a distance that used to be considered safe for ships navigating in the pirate-infested waters. CNN's Mike Mount and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Shots fired in escape attempt, captain apparently tied up, military officials say .\nPirates using other hijacked ships to look for lifeboat as Navy ships arrive .\nCaptain's escape attempt viewed as \"optimistic sign\" of his vitality .\nRichard Phillips, captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, is being held by four gunmen .","id":"e339da0a88c1881b65fe5ca24c10ee19fa7d152b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama declared Monday that his stimulus plan is \"starting to work\" and that 2,000 transportation projects -- costing much less than expected -- are under way. President Obama on Monday says the transportation projects will help create or save jobs. \"Competition for these projects is so fierce, and contractors are doing such a good job cutting costs, the projects are consistently coming in under budget,\" Obama said Monday. The president gave a rapid-fire list of savings: a bid for road work in Connecticut is $8.4 million less than the state budgeted; Louisiana has a project coming in $4.7 million less than expected; projects in Colorado are averaging about 30 percent under the state forecast; and some bids in California are nearly half of what the state projected. The administration said those savings will stretch the agency's $48 billion stimulus budget. \"Our recovery dollars can go further, and we can do more projects,\" said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. \"This is great news.\" LaHood hosted the president and vice president at his department's headquarters in Washington for the announcement. Officials did not give an overall estimate of money saved from competitive bids. The three leaders also claimed a victory in the amount of transportation work approved so far, saying the agency has approved its 2,000th infrastructure project as part of the stimulus. \"Some may have thought it would have taken months to get to this point,\" Obama said, \"but we have approved these projects in just 41 days.\" Watch as Obama says projects are coming in ahead of schedule \u00bb . The stimulus bill was signed February 17, but transportation dollars did not begin flowing until later. The president said the 2,000th transportation project to receive stimulus funds is one to widen and add an overpass to a stretch of Interstate 94 near Portage, Michigan. Vice President Joseph Biden plans to attend the groundbreaking in June. Obama said the highway projects from the stimulus bill will create or save 150,000 jobs by the end of next year. He pointed to the aggressive contractor interest in transportation projects, along with tax cuts going to millions of families from the stimulus plan, and implied it marks a turning point in the economic recovery effort. \"Today, I think it's safe to say that this plan is beginning to work,\" the president said.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama: \"Projects are consistently coming in under budget\"\nStimulus dollars have funded 2,000 transportation projects, officials say .\nAdministration says savings will stretch $48 billion stimulus budget for infrastructure .\nOfficials didn't give overall estimate of money saved from competitive bids .","id":"035d19e567a5dea62ee20060b1f998e259c0ab44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Todd Palin and nine aides were found in contempt Friday by the Alaska Senate for failing to appear to testify in the Legislature's \"troopergate\" investigation of his wife, Gov. Sarah Palin, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Democratic Party said. Todd Palin, shown campaigning in Virginia in 2008, didn't testify, but submitted a statement in the case. But a Senate resolution said no one should be punished, because the 10 did submit statements to the investigator, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The investigation concerns the governor's firing of the state's public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan. A bipartisan commission in the state Legislature investigated allegations that Palin fired Monegan after he refused to sack her ex-brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten. The governor, first elected in 2006, has denied wrongdoing. In court papers, Palin called her sister's ex-husband a \"rogue trooper\" who threatened the governor's family during a bitter divorce and custody battle. Complaints from Palin's family led to a five-day suspension for the trooper in 2006 after his superiors found he had illegally shot a moose using his wife's permit, drove his patrol car while drinking beer and used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson \"in a training capacity.\" In an interview last year, Wooten said, \"I made mistakes. I 'fessed up to them. I was punished appropriately, and I'm moving on.\" Palin was Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona's running mate in his unsuccessful campaign last year for U.S. president.","highlights":"Todd Palin, nine aides found in contempt by Alaska Senate for failing to appear .\nThe 10 won't be punished because they submitted statements, newspaper says .\nLegislature's \"troopergate\" investigation concerns firing of public safety chief .","id":"ee56cf617587a3ffcc8514505acbb704c4c07ab3"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- If anybody had a reason to doubt whether Tyler Perry has become one of the most bankable brands in all of movies, be skeptical no longer. The domestic dramedy maestro's latest release, Tyler Perry's \"Madea Goes to Jail,\" ran away with a big victory on the typically slow Academy Awards weekend, grossing a hefty $41.1 million, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers. That opening sum is the biggest of all time for a Tyler Perry film, besting the $30 million debut of 2006's \"Madea's Family Reunion.\" Too, it's the top bow in the history of indie studio Lionsgate, improving upon all the Tyler Perry and \"Saw\" flicks that came before it. The movie's per-theater average of $20,236 ranks in the top 40 for all wide openers ever. And, no surprise, \"Madea Goes to Jail\" achieved all this success with a solid A CinemaScore grade from a crowd that included mostly older women. Watch Tyler Perry talk about his success \u00bb . Second place went to \"Taken,\" which added another $11.4 million to its four-week tally, bringing said total to $95.2 million. Fellow strong holdover \"Coraline\" (No. 3) was next with $11 million. \"He's Just Not That Into You\" (No. 4) declined a sharp 56 percent to bank $8.5 million on its third weekend. And Best Picture favorite \"Slumdog Millionaire\" rounded out the top five with $8.1 million -- a sum that brings its domestic total to $98 million. Reigning champ \"Friday the 13th\" suffered one of the biggest drops ever, a stunning 81 percent, to finish in sixth place with $7.8 million. And this weekend's other major new release, the cheerleader comedy \"Fired Up!\" (No. 9), grossed a weak-but-expected $6 million. The film garnered an okay CinemaScore grade of B from a crowd comprised of mostly younger ladies. Overall, the weekend was up nearly 30 percent over the same frame a year ago, when \"Vantage Point\" led the way. Eight of the past nine weekends have improved upon the previous year's grosses. And I'd be remiss if I didn't take a quick peek at the main Oscar contenders, for whom the box office report is mixed headed into the ceremony. \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" leads the way with $124.2 million. The aforementioned \"Slumdog Millionaire\" should clear the $100 million mark in the next several days, whether it wins the top prize or not. Then it's a big jump down to \"Milk\" ($28.2 million), \"The Reader\" ($23.2 million), and \"Frost\/Nixon\" ($17.4 million). And let's not forget multiple nominee \"The Dark Knight,\" which may not be up for Best Picture, but did finally become the fourth movie ever to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Madea Goes to Jail\" won big this weekend, grossing a hefty $41.1 million .\nPer-theater average of $20,236 ranks in the top 40 for all wide openers ever .\nSecond place went to \"Taken,\" which added another $11.4 million to its tally .","id":"44a766f04108118fd464144e2688147c6876b9a6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The romantic comedy \"New In Town\" puts co-stars Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. at odds through most of the film. But behind the camera, the story was completely different, the pair told CNN. Harry Connick Jr. and Renee Zellweger enjoyed working with one another on the set of \"New In Town.\" \"I had a great time. [Connick is] such a nice guy. He shows up on set and makes everyone laugh, and it's just a nice day at work,\" Zellweger said. Connick agreed, saying the off-camera friendship with his co-star made the on-camera experience an enjoyable one. \"Renee is the type of person that I got to know quickly. Well, I became friends with her quickly. She's a very mysterious, wonderful young lady,\" Connick said. Directed by Jonas Elmer, the film follows Zellweger as Lucy Hill, a Miami, Florida-based corporate shark who travels to a small Minnesota town to oversee the closing of a small factory. Upon arrival, Lucy clashes with the factory's union representative, Ted Mitchell, played by Connick. As the two begin to understand one another, their icy relationship soon melts into romance. But the romance between Lucy and Ted is only one side of the story. Zellweger said she was instantly drawn to the role for its humor. \"I loved the physical comedy part of Lucy Hill's experience. I laughed out loud when I imagined the scenarios, and I could not wait to go and play around with that,\" she said, \"I wanted to go to work every day and laugh, and I did.\" Famous for her roles in such comedies as \"Nurse Betty\" and \"Bridget Jones's Diary,\" Zellweger is no stranger to the comedic scene. With \"New In Town,\" the actress was eager to once again play a part that would make audiences laugh. \"I think the laughter, that's therapeutic,\" she said. At a time when the country is struggling through a financial recession, Connick said, \"New In Town\" provides that necessary therapy. While the film centers on the troubles of one rural American town, it showcases a dilemma familiar to the entire country. \"I think there's a good balance of what people are really feeling right now, and you walk away from this movie with a real feeling of hope and like, 'We're going to be all right,'\" he said. \"New In Town\" opens in theaters everywhere this Friday. CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this story.","highlights":"Zellweger and Connick became friends quickly on the \"New In Town\" set .\n\"I wanted to go to work every day and laugh, and I did,\" Zellweger says .\nThe film offers hope during the country's hard times, Connick says .\n\"New In Town\" opens in theaters everywhere this Friday .","id":"22cca21783f20fff9be1d5f6aa8aef0ae288ae3a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 24-year-old teacher from Holyoke, Massachusetts, is in custody after allegedly leaving town with a 15-year-old student, city officials said Tuesday. Lisa Lavoie, a 24-year-old teacher, is charged with enticement of a child. Lisa Lavoie and the male student were found in Morgantown, West Virginia, Monday night after apparently being together for a week, Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan said. Investigators have charged Lavoie with enticement of a child. On February 13, the student's parents informed school officials of a possible relationship between the teacher and their son. That was late on a Friday afternoon, and when officials went to the school to question Lavoie, she was gone for the day. The next week was a vacation week for the school. The student was reported missing on February 16, at the start of the vacation week. Lavoie wasn't reported missing until she didn't show up for school Monday. Officials said the pair were in Vermont on Thursday before showing up in West Virginia on Monday. No details were provided on how their alleged movements were traced. Officials couldn't take the pair into custody until after gathering enough evidence to obtain a warrant from the district attorney's office, said Holyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott. They got the warrant Monday and asked police in Morgantown to arrest Lavoie. She has been placed on administrative leave pending conclusion of the investigation, Sullivan said. If convicted, Lavoie could lose her teaching license in Massachusetts, the mayor said. She has been with the school only five months and her job is not protected under contract, he said.","highlights":"A missing teacher and her 15-year-old student were found in West Virginia Monday .\nPolice say the two were together during a weeklong vacation .\nThe teacher, 24-year-old Lisa Lavoie, has been suspended pending an investigation .\nInvestigators have charged Lavoie, of Massachusetts, with enticement of a child .","id":"a0f6defc30ed849896d5c4b65dd95dcf85e4ba55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Beckham was upstaged on the day his AC Milan future was finally resolved as teammate Filippo Inzaghi fired a hat-trick in the 3-0 success over Atalanta at the San Siro on Sunday. David Beckham congratulates hat-trick hero Filippo Inzaghi as the San Siro enjoys a double celebration. Milan confirmed in a brief statement a deal had been reached with Los Angeles Galaxy over England international Beckham. \"AC Milan announces that the player David Beckham will remain at the club until June 30, 2009,\" it read. The 33-year-old midfielder will then return to the United States to play for the Galaxy between July and October. \"I'm grateful to both clubs for allowing this dream to come true,\" Beckham said in a statement posted on www.gazzetta.it. What do think of Beckham's move to play in the U.S. and Italy? \"It will enable me to play for Milan and the Galaxy in the same season, with the possibility of been able to keep up my commitments with Major League Soccer and the development of soccer in the United States, something which I'm very passionate about.\" The deal follows weeks of negotiations between the two clubs during which Milan baulked at the size of the transfer fee Galaxy were demanding -- thought to be around \u00a312million. Galaxy's chief executive, Tim Lieweke, admits the deal is one which suits both clubs. \"I'm sorry that it had to go for so long, for him and for us and particularly for the fans,\" he told the Los Angeles Times. \"This is a good solution. It allows him to finish the season with Milan. We will see him in July.\" Coach Carlo Ancelotti admits Beckham has exceeded all expectations during his first two months as an AC Milan player. \"Beckham has done more than we could have possibly expected from him,\" Ancelotti told PA Sport. \"He has settled in very well with the squad and given a huge contribution up to now. \"He is very professional and we are all very, very happy that he is staying.\" He added: \"The aim was to keep him until June 30 and we have done that. He is very happy with the solution that has been found and we will make the most of having him now and then we will see.\" Sunday's victory gave Milan a five-point gap over fourth-placed Fiorentina, who lost 2-0 at home to Palermo. Ancelotti said Inzaghi had helped lift the club out of a crisis after their UEFA Cup exit. \"He gave us a real helping hand. It was a tough match and for most of the first half Atalanta caused us problems,\" he said. \"Then Pippo's ability to find the right place to be in allowed us to end the match well. We were in a crisis and now I hope that this result has put an end to the crisis.\" Only the top three in Serie A will go straight into next season's Champions League group stages with the fourth place finisher having to negotiate two qualifying rounds. With his contract uncertainty behind him, Beckham seemed to have a new lease of life and he was even given a free role behind forwards Inzaghi and Pato by Ancelotti. The former England captain dictated the play and helped open the way for Milan to take a seventh-minute lead when Marek Jankulovski firied across goal for the unmarked Inzaghi to score. Milan had to wait until the 71st minute for Inzaghi's second. He beat the offside trap to latch onto Pato's chip and take the ball around Consigli before slotting home. Moment's later Inzaghi was once again in the right place at the right time to tap in Gianluca Zambrotta's pass from close range. After that Ancelotti took both Inzaghi and Beckham off to give the fans the chance to show their appreciation for both players. There was no change to the top three in Serie A as Inter Milan and Juventus both won on Saturday, 2-0 at Genoa and 1-0 at Torino respectively. Serie A top scorer Marco Di Vaio also scored a hat-trick as Bologna thrashed Sampdoria 3-0.","highlights":"Filippo Inzaghi fires hat-trick in Milan's 3-0 win over Atalanta at the San Siro .\nDouble celebration for fans as David Beckham's Milan future is also resolved .\nBeckham will stay at San Siro for rest of season and the rejoin L.A. Galaxy .","id":"1abdff8f53bcc566a7f4123fe7fc4856deb26ca5"} -{"article":"Friedrich Nietzsche said, \"Without music, life would be a mistake.\" Music is a big part of many people's lives. For some, music is life. Sean Forbes, 26, started a nonprofit called D-PAN, or Deaf Performing Artists Network. But not everyone can have music in their lives, and one man is trying to change that for the deaf community. Sean Forbes, 26, started a nonprofit called D-PAN, or Deaf Performing Artists Network, which creates American Sign Language-enhanced music videos. Forbes spoke with CNN's Nicole Lapin about how D-PAN works. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Forbes: Really, the story here of how the whole thing came up was, I was in a car with three girls, and I went to school at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. So we took a road trip to Gallaudet University, and on this trip I was singing all of these songs to my friends. And it's just something I've been doing for a while. So I'm signing all of these songs and all the sudden, a light bulb goes on above my head, when I'm like, wouldn't it be cool if there were music videos with deaf performers in them, signing the song, signing the lyrics of the song. Watch Nicole Lapin's interview with Sean Forbes \u00bb . That was really where the idea started from, and I instantly went back to RIT, and I had a friend make me a video of me signing an Eminem song and that's how the whole thing really started. Lapin: Eminem, Christina Aguilera. You started translating really popular music videos, and tell me about these shoots, because this is a really big production you put on. Forbes: Yeah. I mean, we had hearing and deaf people behind the scenes creating this. We had interpreters; there were probably about 20 people on the production set for these videos. Lapin: What was the reaction from some people in the deaf community that never experienced music before, never experienced it before you and D-PAN? Forbes: For me it was just awesome to see all of these deaf people who have never been involved with music be involved in these videos for the first time. A lot of the people who are in the videos never experienced music before. So for them, it was just an awesome experience, and they were really thrilled to be a part of it. Lapin: And a lot of people on our Web site, CNN.com, are thrilled to be part of your experience, being introduced to your story. A lot of questions also came in; I want to bring some to your attention. Ashley has this question for you Sean. \"Has anyone ever told you that D-PAN would not be successful and if so, how did you respond?\" I'm sure you had some haters out there. Forbes: I've had, you know, I've approached a few situations before where they didn't only tell me that D-PAN wouldn't be successful, but they told me that I would never be successful as a deaf musician. And I always laughed it off, because I knew deep inside of me, this is what I wanted. And I wouldn't let anyone tell me no, I wouldn't take no for an answer. So those people who told me no, look at me now.","highlights":"Sean Forbes, 26, started a nonprofit called Deaf Performing Artists Network .\nD-PAN creates American Sign Language-enhanced music videos .\nForbes: 'A lot of the people ... in the videos never experienced music before'\nInspiration came during road trip when he was performing for friends in car .","id":"f12d279942752df05c332d30dbe6055d5221692e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Staffers at a federal prison in central Florida fired shots to break up a large-scale fight that sent eight inmates to hospital emergency rooms Sunday afternoon, officials said. Eight inmates were injured Sunday in a fight at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, officials said. Authorities did not say what led to the fight at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County. A statement from the prison said one inmate suffered a gunshot wound, but did not say whether the person was struck by a prison staff member's bullet. The other seven were \"stabbing\/shooting victims,\" said a spokesman for Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the inmates were taken. The hospital did not elaborate. No prison staffers were seriously hurt in the incident, which the FBI is investigating, said Charles Ratledge, spokesman for the prison. The fight broke out in the recreation yard of the United States Penitentiary No. 2, a high-security facility, about 2:20 p.m. The Coleman complex consists of four institutions. The other three facilities -- another U.S. penitentiary, a medium-security and a low-security facility -- were not affected, said Bureau of Prison spokeswoman Traci Billingsley. \"The inmates ignored staff orders to stop their assaultive behavior, and shots were fired by institution staff to prevent possible loss of life,\" Ratledge said. Five medical evacuation helicopters -- three from the hospital -- landed at the prison and transported the injured inmates on the 15- to 20-minute flight to Orlando Regional, hospital spokesman Joe Brown said. The prison complex is in near Coleman in Sumter County, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida. The community was never endangered by the fight, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said. CNN's Nick Valencia, Susan Candiotti and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Staffers had to fire shots to break up large-scale fight, officials say .\nEight inmates wounded, one by gunshot, at prison complex in Florida, officials say .\nOfficials: Fight happened at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex's recreation yard .\nNo staff members were hurt during the brawl, spokeswoman says .","id":"a6c0b96db23069e2d793c791e1a754be93fca048"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two crew members were taken to a hospital after a FedEx cargo plane crashed on landing Tuesday morning at the Lubbock, Texas, airport, officials said. A damaged FedEx ATR-42 lies beside a runway early Tuesday at the Lubbock, Texas, airport. The injuries appeared to be minor, said James Loomis, director of Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. There was a small fire on the plane, the Federal Aviation Administration and FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said. Munoz said she was not sure about the extent of the damage. The plane is an ATR-42 twin-turboprop aircraft and landed short of the touchdown zone at 4:37 a.m. CT (5:47 ET), Loomis said. Munoz said the plane had been traveling from Fort Worth Alliance Airport and skidded off the runway amid light freezing rain. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . Neither official could immediately say what caused the accident, and Munoz didn't know why parts of the plane caught fire. The plane was operated by Empire Airways, which is under contract with FedEx Corp., based in Memphis, Tennessee.","highlights":"Fire reported as plane goes off runway in freezing rain at Lubbock, Texas, airport .\nTwo crew members hospitalized with apparently minor injuries, official says .\nATR-42 twin-turboprop operated by Empire Airways under lease to FedEx .","id":"e35326f5716a2544d03d84a0b8de6280834ec95e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The new district attorney of Boulder County, Colorado, said he plans to take a fresh look at the investigation into the 1996 slaying of JonBenet Ramsey. The DA's office assumed responsibility for the investigation in 2002. But District Attorney Stan Garnett told CNN that he wants to decide during his first 30 days in office whether the case should be returned to Boulder police. \"I'm trying to determine whether it's efficient to have the ongoing investigation handled by my office or somebody else,\" said Garnett, who was sworn in as district attorney January 13. The DA's office is relatively small, he said, with 27 lawyers and six investigators handling between 2,000 and 2,500 felony cases a year. Although the Ramsey case has not generated news since last year, tips and information regularly come in to authorities. Whoever is handling the investigation is charged with checking them out and deciding whether they are worth pursuing, Garnett said. He said reports that he is considering reopening the case are inaccurate. \"It's not closed. It hasn't been solved, and it's been open the whole time.\" The case is one of the nation's most famous unsolved murders. On December 26, 1996, John Ramsey discovered the body of his 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet, in the basement of the family's Boulder home. The girl had been strangled and beaten. A ransom note was found on the stairs of the home, demanding $118,000. Early in the case, Boulder police said JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were under \"an umbrella of suspicion\" in her death. But they were never formally named as suspects, and a grand jury refused to indict them. Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer. In July, Garnett's predecessor, Mary Lacy, issued a public apology for the suspicion surrounding the Ramsey family after a DNA test performed using new technology showed that DNA found on JonBenet's underwear and under her fingernails belonged to an unidentified man. The test results, Lacy said, were \"powerful evidence\" that allows investigators to think the Ramsey family were victims, not suspects. That same third-party DNA exonerated John Mark Karr, a one-time teacher, after he was arrested in Thailand and brought to Colorado. Authorities said Karr told a University of Colorado professor in e-mails that he was involved in JonBenet's death. He told reporters after his arrest that he was with the child when she died, although he called her death an accident and said he loved her. Lacy was widely criticized, including by then-Gov. Bill Owens, for the handling of Karr's arrest. Boulder police also have long faced criticism over their handling of the investigation. But, Garnett said Friday, \"I've been very impressed by the Boulder P.D. They are a fine department now and have handled a number of cases very well. ... They've done a very nice job.\" The department has 24 investigators, four times as many as the DA's staff, he said. Garnett was elected DA in November to replace Lacy, who could not run again because of term limits. Before he was elected, he served as a trial lawyer for 22 years, according to the DA's Web site.","highlights":"Stan Garnett says he'll take fresh look at JonBenet Ramsey case .\nGarnett says he hopes to decide who should follow up on tips .\nCase was taken from Boulder police in 2002 .\nLast year, prosecutors exonerated JonBenet's mother, father and brother .","id":"983d7faaf44e86045c21e396f742f6eccf424bea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Severe winter weather was creating Christmas week travel headaches across the country Monday, canceling flights and closing major highways. Traffic backs up Monday on a Chicago, Illinois-area highway after an early-morning accident. Air travelers heading for three major East Coast airports -- Newark-Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York -- faced delays of almost two hours on Monday, the FAA said. More than 130 miles of the New York State Thruway were shut down for a time Monday morning from Henrietta, near Rochester, to the Pennsylvania state line. Dozens of vehicles slid off the icy roadway, CNN affiliate WIVB-TV in Buffalo, New York, reported. Even after the highway was reopened, officials warned of icy pavement and poor visibility from blowing snow. See the scenes of winter across the U.S. \u00bb . According to the National Weather Service, Buffalo got a record 7.4 inches of snow on Sunday, and several more inches were in the forecast for Monday, the first full day of winter. Police agencies in western New York were advising motorists not to leave home. Two New York towns, Wales and Lancaster, banned travel altogether, WIVB reported. iReport.com: What's it like where you are? Schools were closed Monday in Boston, Massachusetts, as icy roadways prevented buses from operating, CNN affiliate WCVB-TV reported. On the other side of the country, long lines formed before dawn Monday at airline counters at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where two major carriers, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, suspended service Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration was reporting no delays at the airport Monday afternoon, but Alaska and Horizon said they would only resume limited operations. Some travelers may have to wait until midweek or later to get flights out of the airport, CNN affiliate KOMO-TV reported. Supplies were running low at airport concessions for those enduring the wait, the Seattle station said. To the south, travelers also spent the night in the Portland, Oregon, airport after airlines canceled many flights on Sunday. Airlines canceled more than 100 flights at Portland International Airport on Monday, CNN affiliate KATU-TV reported. Watch a roundup of the worst winter weather \u00bb . More than 11 inches of snow was on the ground Monday morning in Portland, CNN affiliate KGW-TV reported, an amount not seen since 1968. Vehicles on all Portland roads were required to have snow chains, KGW said, but drivers were advised to stay off roads completely. Seattle's Amtrak station also was packed with stranded holiday travelers after the winter storm stopped trains in their tracks Sunday in the Pacific Northwest. Watch driving woes in Walla Walla, Washington \u00bb . In Marysville, Washington, workers at an industrial complex Monday morning found the roof of a building there had collapsed, apparently because of heavy snow, according to CNN affiliate KIRO-TV. The structure is used by a company that manufactures steel buildings; no injuries were reported. The icy cold in Indianapolis, Indiana, likely caused water pipes to burst at Martin University early Monday, officials told CNN affiliate WRTV-TV. \"We had just installed brand new computers in the building, and so we're really just still trying to assess the damages to the university,\" university spokeswoman Danita Hoskin told WRTV. It was 2 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 17 degrees, at 7 a.m. Monday in Indianapolis, according to the National Weather Service. In Greene County, Ohio, near Dayton, a 79-year-old woman died after being found outside her home on Sunday, CNN affiliate WHIO-TV reported. It was 6 degrees in the area at noon Monday. Car travel was often dangerous Sunday in parts of the northern United States. In Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, a newspaper deliveryman died of heart failure caused by hypothermia a day after his car became stuck in a snowdrift on his route early Sunday, officials told CNN affiliate WISC-TV. A snowplow driver found Donald L. Blum, 54, of Monticello, about seven hours after Blum's car became stuck. Blum was taken to a hospital, where he died Monday, WISC reported. Before he died, he told authorities that he had stayed with the vehicle because of the severe weather and because he had certain health conditions, WISC reported. In western Michigan's Berrien County, drivers blinded by blizzard conditions drove into a 30-vehicle pile-up on Interstate 94 on Sunday afternoon. Dozens of other vehicles also were involved in a series of other nearby wrecks, including one that killed a 31-year-old Illinois man, police said. Michigan resident Eric Teschke said he had just told his friend who was driving that they should probably slow down when trouble began. \"I look up and I just see a sea of cars and I go, 'Oh, crap, oh, crap.' And I just go 'We can't stop,' \" Teschke said. \"So we're sliding for about 15 seconds, knowing what's going to happen. Bam, slam into the back of several cars and a semi.\" Michigan State Police's Matthew Churchill said it was the worst pile-up he's ever seen. \"Vehicles were actually crashing right in front of us, and there was really nothing we could do except to try to stay out of the way and try to get to the people and keep them in their vehicles where they could be safe,\" Churchill said. White-out conditions and the pile-ups forced police to shut down a six-mile stretch of I-94 near Lake Michigan for hours Sunday afternoon. Watch people cope with the wintry blast \u00bb . Many Californians, however, welcomed the snowfall that blanketed the Sierra Mountains. \"We're Southern Californians, so a chance to be in the snow is a wonderful, wonderful day for the kids,\" said one mother as she waited for snow chains to be fitted on her tires for a day trip into the mountains Sunday. Even more heavy snow will be dumped Monday on the Great Lakes region, New York state and New England, said forecaster Michael Eckert with the National Weather Service in Camp Springs, Maryland. The wind and cold will add to the misery of those who are snowbound, he said. \"Some gusts have been 30 to 40 mph,\" Eckert said. \"Temperatures over the upper Great Lakes have fallen below zero, and those cold temperatures are going to move to New England states on Monday. We'll see wind-chill temperatures below zero over much of the Northeastern U.S.\" In Illinois, Chicagoans were warned to stay inside as subzero temperatures and high winds continued to sweep the area, WGN said. About 9,300 customers in northern Illinois were without power Sunday night. It was so cold in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, the Target Holidazzle Parade was canceled Sunday night because of dangerous wind chills, KARE-TV reported. By Christmas Eve, the high is forecast to reach only 16 degrees, but with mostly sunny skies. CNNRadio's Patty Lane contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman freezes outside of Ohio home, TV station says .\nDelays of almost two hours reported at Newark, New Jersey, airport .\nMore than 11 inches of snow on ground in Portland, Oregon, CNN affiliate reports .\nBroken water pipes cause damage at an Indiana university .","id":"e52c445fa06e3cd9bf6f4327d82cf1c21a74c977"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man shot and killed seven patients and a nurse at a Carthage, North Carolina, nursing home Sunday before being wounded during a shootout with a police officer, authorities said. Relatives of the nursing home's patients gathered at a nearby church, where they learned details of the shooting. Three other people, including the police officer and a visitor to the nursing home, were wounded in the attack, Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said. The police officer was treated and released, McKenzie said. The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said. The man accused of carrying out the attack, 45-year-old Robert Stewart, was in custody, and his condition was unknown Sunday night, McKenzie said. Stewart was not an employee of the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center, and he did not appear to have been related to any of the patients, she said. \"There is still more to be uncovered as far as his purpose in being there,\" she said. A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL-TV that Stewart was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and other weapons. The officer who stopped him, Justin Garner, \"acted in nothing short of a heroic manner\" and probably stopped the carnage from being worse, Krueger said. Watch stunned community react \u00bb . Jerry Avant Sr. told WRAL that his son, Jerry Avant, a 39-year-old registered nurse, was the employee who was killed in the shooting. He said a doctor told him that his son had been shot more than two dozen times. Watch father of slain nurse and ex-wife of suspect react \u00bb . The doctor \"said he undoubtedly saved a lot of lives,\" Avant Sr. said, speaking of his son. Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a police officer, and other charges are pending, she said. Carthage is about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh. See map showing Carthage, Raleigh \u00bb . Sunday's slayings were the latest in a series of high-profile in March, including the killings of 10 people by an Alabama man who was then killed by police. In addition, a man shot and killed a pastor in a southern Illinois church and stabbed two parishioners, and a 17-year-old in Germany killed 15 people in two small towns before dying in a shootout with police. In Carthage, crisis counselors were setting up in the town's First Baptist Church to aid survivors of the latest killings. \"I don't know the emotion entirely has set in,\" McKenzie said. \"This is a small community built on faith, and faith will get us through.\"","highlights":"Slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, district attorney says .\nNurse also among those killed at nursing home in Carthage .\nMan suspected of carrying out attack was shot; condition unknown, police say .\nPolice officer also wounded in shooting .","id":"6b86cc1a489c2d11d8510ceeca44c4c59d9249b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a tourist was found off the coast of Thailand Tuesday, but six others remain missing after a ferry sank over the weekend near a popular diving destination, authorities said. Survivors of the ferry sinking disembark the Thai police boat that rescued them. The body is believed to be that of Austrian tourist Gabrielle Jetzinger, the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office told the Thai News Agency. A Thai naval helicopter spotted the body floating face down about 12 nautical miles from Phuket's Promthep cape, and a Thai navy patrol retrieved the floating corpse. The body has been sent to a government hospital for an autopsy, the agency reported. Authorities are still searching for the five tourists and one crew member who remain missing. They are thought to be German, Austrian, Japanese, Swiss and one Thai crew member, the news agency said. The tourist boat, the Choke Somboon 19, was taking passengers from the Similan Islands to Phuket -- an area popular with tourists from around the world. It capsized during a heavy storm Sunday night, said Lt. Sattawat Srirattanapong with the Phuket City police. Survivors included 15 international tourists and eight Thais, who were picked up by a rescue boat Monday morning. Phuket and the Similan Islands are famous for their diving spots, attracting international tourists each year from November to May.","highlights":"Body thought to be of Austrian tourist found off Thai coast .\nFive tourists, one crew member still missing after ferry sank at the weekend .\nBody was spotted by Thai rescue helicopter near Phuket's Promthep cape .\nThe ferry sank during heavy storm about 12 miles from shore .","id":"3b2021837521fc9da67b99f6d3b77441994c0c94"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Todd Rundgren has it backward. Todd Rundgren's new album was inspired by touring and his thoughts on militarism. Not just his songwriting and recording methods, though those, too, are unorthodox. It's the whole music business-pop star arrangement, which is based on musicians determined to hit the Top 40 and then doing it again and again -- with occasional artistic detours -- that he's subverted. He likes it that way. He describes the creation of his music as \"very plastic,\" in the sense of flexible: He creates songs in the studio, piece by piece, and \"it allows me to edit the stuff practically all the way up to the final mix process.\" One can easily look at his career the same way, with the detours having been the point of the journey. \"It's unconventional, but if you have those tools available, it becomes the logical way to do things,\" he said of his creative process. Rundgren's new album, \"Arena\" (Hi Fi), sounds like a throwback to his more song-friendly works, which was (mostly) deliberate, he says. The album's 13 power-chord rockers are a tip of the guitar to his recent touring with the New Cars (filling in for Ric Ocasek) and his subject matter, militarism and \"what I saw as a loss of masculine integrity,\" he explained. \"The people who have been running the country are liars and cowards and hypocrites and perverts,\" he said. \"And I wouldn't want all the rest of the men in the world to think that's how you succeed in life. Now that they are out of here, we have to ... reclaim what our traditional ideals were: You protect the weak, you bear up under the horrible burdens, and you seek the truth. ... You sacrifice for others.\" Not exactly Top 40 material, but in Rundgren's career, it's the Top 40 hits that have been accidents. He started his solo career in the early '70s with a handful of them -- \"We Gotta Get You a Woman,\" \"Hello, It's Me,\" \"I Saw the Light\" -- but quickly began devoting his time to album-length experiments, with occasional hit-single forays (\"Can We Still Be Friends,\" his band Utopia's \"Set Me Free\"). Rundgren also became an in-demand producer, with results ranging from No. 1 singles (Grand Funk Railroad's \"We're an American Band\" and \"The Loco-Motion\") to classic albums (XTC's \"Skylarking,\" Meat Loaf's \"Bat Out of Hell\"), no two of which sounded exactly alike. Listen to Rundgren talk about his work with XTC and Grand Funk Railroad \u00bb . He says his goal is to bring out the best in whomever he's working with, to make a record that's true to the artist's personality. Ironically, for someone so steeped in technology, he's not a fan of using studio tricks -- AutoTune and the like, which remove all the rough edges from performances -- for the sake of creating something \"perfect.\" \"Part of the problem is, there are two ways to make music. One is to be revelatory, and one is to be obfuscating,\" he said. \"You create a different image of yourself for people instead of actually revealing something truly about yourself. And you can say the difference is the difference between Michael Jackson and Tom Waits, or something like that. ... The material Madonna writes is to a persona. The persona is what's being marketed, and the music is just part of the merchandise.\" Rundgren himself composes from the inside out, putting technology at his disposal. (He's often been ahead of the tech curve, going back to the late '70s, when he created music videos and software programs and Utopia played on the interactive television service QUBE.) \"I start with a rhythm idea and then add chords,\" he said, creating arrangements as he goes. Lyrics often come last. \"Most people have the song before the arrangement,\" he said. \"I do it the other way around.\" On \"Arena,\" the songs -- which all have one-word titles (\"I'm close to a haiku,\" Rundgren joked) -- include \"Mad,\" in which Rundgren sings about being \"at the end of my patience\"; \"Gun,\" which offers the warning, \"You better run\/'Cause I'm young, dumb and I've got a gun\"; and \"Today,\" which says, \"Now it's time to break the chain.\" The work is timelier than he could have imagined, he says. \"The irony of it is that the album was finished by June 1; then the s*** hit the fan three months later,\" he said, referring to the economic meltdown. \"It's what I've been talking about. We've been indulging ourselves for a long time, and the record is about the kind of militance required to solve problems that tower so high we can't see the top of them.\" For someone who writes such audience-friendly hooks, he's skeptical about much of today's pop music -- and its performers. The music may sound technically perfect, but it lacks soul and grit. \"That kind of approach is reinforced all the time by programs like 'American Idol,' where you have to look a certain way and smile a certain way and deliver the song a certain way,\" he said. \"And if you're outside of that, you're going to get bumped. It just makes music all come out kind of the same. \"The thing that makes it different -- the thing that makes it interesting every once in a while -- is when someone comes along and you think that they're not simply using this as a marketing tool for themselves,\" he continued. \"You see them, and obviously music is the thing that redeems them. ... That to me is what makes music exciting, is when suddenly you see someone and you realize they were meant for music.\" And Rundgren? He's still meant for music, too. He's preparing to produce a new New York Dolls album, 36 years after he produced the group's debut. There's also talk he'll perform his 1973 album \"A Wizard, A True Star\" live. It's a full schedule doing something he loves, even if there's virtually no chance he'll be topping the charts. \"The record I made now is kind of a result of where I found myself at. I'm only going to be able to do this for a while longer; I'm 60 now. And regardless of how I behave when I'm on stage, I have the same issues that any 60-year-old does,\" he said, admitting to post-concert aches and pains. He laughed. \"I know I can't stop time, but there will be plenty of time to croon for people.\"","highlights":"Todd Rundgren's new album is \"Arena,\" full of power-chord rockers .\nRundgren started career with pop hits, quickly detoured into new areas .\nNew album, about threats to masculinity, is timelier than he imagined, he says .","id":"27643a169471882d86ea0c6f53d52dbb83971b9c"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Millard Fuller, who founded Habitat for Humanity International along with his wife, has died, officials said Tuesday. He was 74. Millard Fuller appears with President Bush at a Habitat for Humanity event in Tampa, Florida, in 2001. Fuller died early Tuesday \"after a brief illness,\" said a statement on the Web site of the organization he currently headed, Fuller Center for Housing, in Americus, Georgia. \"Family and friends are mourning the tragic loss of a great servant leader and a genuine heart,\" the statement said. Fuller had suffered from chest congestion for three to four weeks, said Holly Chapman, spokeswoman for the Fuller Center. He died about 3 a.m. en route to a hospital, she said. With his wife, Linda, Fuller founded Habitat for Humanity International in 1976. The Alabama native rose \"from humble beginnings\" to become a \"young, self-made millionaire,\" according to his biography on Habitat for Humanity's Web site. He and a college friend began a marketing firm while still in school, \"but as his business prospered, his health, integrity and marriage suffered,\" the biography said. \"These crises prompted Fuller to re-evaluate his values and direction. His soul-searching led to reconciliation with his wife and to a renewal of his Christian commitment,\" it said. The Fullers sold all their possessions, gave money to the poor and began searching for a new direction. They found Koinonia Farm, a Christian community near Americus in rural southwest Georgia, the biography said. Along with Koinonia founder Clarence Jordan and a few others, the couple initiated several enterprises, among them a housing ministry that built modest homes on a no-interest, nonprofit basis and made them affordable to low-income families. Homeowner families were expected to use their own labor to help defray costs on their home as well as homes for other families. Money to build homes was placed into a revolving fund, enabling more to be built, according to the biography. In 1973, the Fullers moved to Africa to test their housing model, the biography said. Their project was launched in Zaire -- now the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- and was a success. \"Fuller became convinced that this model could be expanded and applied all over the world,\" the biography said. When Fuller returned to the United States three years later, he met with a group of associates to create Habitat for Humanity International. According to its Web site, Habitat has provided shelter for more than 1.5 million people in more than 3,000 communities. \"I see life as both a gift and a responsibility. My responsibility is to use what God has given me to help his people in need,\" Fuller once said, according to Habitat's Web site. Former President Carter, a key Habitat supporter, fellow Georgian and a close friend, issued a statement Tuesday saying Fuller \"was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known.\" \"He used his remarkable gifts as an entrepreneur for the benefit of millions of needy people around the world by providing them with decent housing,\" Carter said. \"As the founder of Habitat for Humanity and later the Fuller Center, he was an inspiration to me, other members of our family and an untold number of volunteers who worked side-by-side under his leadership.\" See celebrities working on Habitat projects \u00bb . In 1996, President Clinton awarded Fuller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, calling Habitat \"the most successful continuous community service project in the history of the United States.\" Fuller left Habitat for Humanity in 2005 amid a dispute with the organization's board. Habitat said in a statement at the time his termination culminated \"several months of differences between the Fullers and the board over allegations of inappropriate personal behavior of Millard Fuller toward a now-former female employee,\" according to an article in the February 2005 edition of Christianity Today magazine. The organization noted there was insufficient evidence to corroborate the complaint, according to Christianity Today, but said Fuller engaged in \"a pattern of ongoing public comments and communications ... that have been divisive and disruptive to the organization's work.\" For his part, Fuller told the magazine he feared the board used the controversy to push him out to find a \"high-paid bean counter\" instead of someone with \"strong Christian commitment.\" \"We've overloaded the board with 'money' people, all of whom are nominal Christians, but many of whom are not spiritually grounded,\" he told the magazine. \"Some seem put off by my overt declaration of Jesus.\" After his departure, Fuller founded the Fuller Center for Housing, which its Web site describes as \"a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide.\" The center was founded after Fuller \"set out to expand his missionary vision\" by returning to his roots at Koinonia Farm, a cooperative community dedicated to peace and service. A new mission statement was issued at Koinonia dedicating the Fuller Center as \"a Christ-centered, faith-driven organization witnessing the love of God by providing opportunities for families to have a simple, decent place to live,\" according to the site. Funeral services are scheduled for Wednesday, said Chapman, the Fuller Center spokeswoman. Fuller will be buried at Koinonia Farm, according to the center's Web site. CNN's Hank Bishop contributed to this report.","highlights":"Millard Fuller and wife Linda started organization in 1976 .\nHabitat says it has provided housing for 1.5 million-plus people .\nFuller received Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 .\nFuller left Habitat in 2005 amid dispute with governing board .","id":"b4ef558a0ea5a7c1520697cec7e585785bc98bfd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Back in my day (a day not long ago, as it turns out), you could go down to the local record shop and plunk down your paper-route money for little disks of plastic that were embedded with the latest sounds of your favorite musical performers. A self-admitted tech geek, Chris Pirillo is president of Lockergnome.com, a blogging network. Whether your tastes ran from Al Jarreau to \"Weird Al\" Yankovic, you could be assured that those purchased disks were yours -- for keeps. You could play 'em over and over until they were scratched beyond repair, you could lend 'em to friends, you could amplify 'em at illicit Charleston dancing parties, you could sell 'em to used record stores or you could store 'em away in a safe deposit box in hopes they'd gain value as collector's items. You could even make precious mix tapes for your soda-sharing sweetheart with songs copied from 'em, though this made recording industry executives more than a little nervous. And it wasn't long before their weaselly whimpers of protest began. As the digital age arrived to usher in more perfect ways to copy and distribute (aka \"pirate\") what these executives saw as their property, those whimpers turned to howls. They've only grown louder since. So the recording industry has had a good gig going. It's easy to see why its upper crust is miffed at lowly hoi polloi tampering with its bread and butter (or pizza. Or pie. Whatever crust suits your fancy). One can imagine some mad scientist under the employ of said recording industry locked away in an underground bunker somewhere cooking up a scheme so dark, so evil, that its repercussions would completely remap the way media would be controlled -- with consumers being suckered into paying much, much more for much, much less. This scheme would come to be known as DRM. Digital rights management or devious rental misappropriation? That's right. Rental. You see, you don't really buy music for keeps anymore. I mean, how can you when this is the sort of thing that can happen? It's a bit like buying your dream car, driving it around for a while, then being told it's got to be given back to the factory because the dealership where it was purchased no longer has a legal association with the factory. Sorry if you thought you could drive it around until it was worn out beyond repair, if you thought you could lend it to your friends, if you thought you could drive it to the illicit Charleston dancing party, if you thought you could sell it to a used car dealer or if you thought you could store it under a tarp in your garage for the next couple of decades in hopes it would gain value as a collector's item. Being used to the old, tangible business model, you were under the impression that you'd actually bought something. No one told you that you were merely borrowing someone else's property for a while (and paying for the privilege to do so). Like a sharecropper. Like a serf. Like a sucker. And most people do feel like suckers when DRM locks them out of something that they feel they have every right to use, often to the point of attempting to circumnavigate this crappy, unfair system by means that might lead to trouble. I can only conclude that, like bootleggers at the repealing of Prohibition, viruses and spyware acquired in pursuit of overcoming content restrictions wouldn't prosper in a DRM-free world. Really, it's hard to take alarm from DRM-happy organizations such as the MPAA as anything but a double dose of dookie when you find out that 2007 was a record box office year in spite of all the pirates and ne'er-do-wells and whatnot! Who, exactly, is getting plundered? It's no wonder blogger Cory Doctorow finds DRM to be one of the most offensive digital constructs on the planet. It's inevitable. It'll go away or change dramatically. Let's hope sooner rather than later. (This column was written before Apple announced that iTunes would be, at some point in the future, capable of providing DRM-free music throughout its entire library. This was pretty big news, considering how many people use iTunes to manage their music library. This isn't to say that the DRM-free tracks available at Amazon or eMusic are any less valid, but let's face it: just about everybody who carries an iPod or iPhone also uses iTunes as the gateway for purchasing music.) I subscribe to Rhapsody, so I can listen to just about anything from my desktop, and subscriptions are my preferred method of content consumption. I have an XM satellite radio subscription, I pay for just about every channel on digital cable and I have been known to purchase hard copies of content in the past (DVDs, CDs, 8-track tapes, etc.) But DRM? It's no good. It's downright evil. I find it very difficult to purchase something outright when I'm told that I can only play it X times, only on X devices or for X long. That's counter-intuitive and consumer unfriendly. There are certainly exceptions to the rule, but not when the content is a commodity. I once found four different versions of the same song on my wife's system. One had been purchased on Rhapsody, another on iTunes, another on Napster and the fourth was an MP3! Quadruple madness! I don't care how good a song is, she doesn't need to have four copies of it (three of which are completely useless without the proper systems in place). The MP3? It's as perfect as it needs to be, playable on just about anything these days. That's consumer friendly.","highlights":"Services that limit when and how you play digital music are ripping off consumers .\nDigital rights management, or DRM, means you don't really own the music you buy .\nPirillo: It's hard to buy a song when I'm told I can only play it X times, on X devices .\nPirillo: I prefer subscription music services like Rhapsody or XM satellite radio .","id":"d81639b8ffe8d43c077128935d53352caab5653d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspect accused of killing a minister at an Illinois church had marked the day of the attack as a \"day of death\" or \"death day\" in a planning book, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Terry J. Sedlacek, shown in a family photo, has been charged with first-degree murder. There were \"words to those effect,\" written in a day planner belonging to Terry J. Sedlacek, the man accused in Sunday's attack at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois, said William Mudge, the Madison County state's attorney. Mudge said he hadn't seen the planner and could not recall the exact wording that police described to him. He said police found the book in Sedlacek's home. Lt. Scott Compton of the Illinois State Police said he hadn't seen the planner and could not confirm Mudge's account. Authorities have charged Sedlacek, 27, with first-degree murder in the killing of the Rev. Fred Winters. He also was charged with two counts of aggravated battery related to the stabbing of church members Terry Bullard and Keith Melton. Sedlacek was seriously wounded in the melee, authorities said. Melton, one of the two church members stabbed in the attack, described the scene that erupted during Sunday service. Winters had been preaching for a while when the gunman approached him, Melton told CNN. \"It just seemed a lot out of place for someone to be walking to the front to take a seat at that point in the service,\" Melton said. Watch Melton say they're \"still very stunned\" \u00bb . Winters stopped his sermon and asked the man what he could do for him, Melton said. The assailant fired a weapon and hit the pastor's Bible, causing \"confetti\" to fly into the air, Melton recalled. \"It was a bit confusing just at first,\" Melton said, adding that he could see from the pastor's reaction that what happened was not part of the service. Watch the aftermath of the church shooting \u00bb . Melton was one of two men who first jumped the assailant, he said. \"By the time the second shot rang out, there were a number of us who sprang into action,\" Melton said. Winters jumped off the stage, Melton said, and was met by the gunman. The two wrestled and more shots rang out. The attacker's .45-caliber weapon jammed at that point, authorities said. The assailant tried to get away but was subdued by church members, some of whom blocked the entrances while others grappled with the gunman. \"There were men everywhere,\" Melton said. It was minutes before Melton realized he had been stabbed, he said, attributing the delay to adrenaline. He was treated and released from a local hospital. Bullard, another church member, also was stabbed in the attempt to subdue the gunman. Sedlacek is being treated at a hospital after suffering serious knife wounds. \"When he was tackled by two of the members, we don't know whether he fell on the knife, injuring himself at the time, or whether [his injury] was self-inflicted during the struggle,\" said Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent. Watch police describe the church members' \"heroic action\" \u00bb . Trent said police are trying to determine a motive, noting that church members did not recognize the gunman. In August, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch profiled Sedlacek in an article on Lyme disease, and quoted his mother, Ruth Abernathy, as saying he began acting strangely during his junior year in high school. He seemed confused and stopped participating in activities that had interested him, she told the newspaper. She said a doctor had diagnosed Sedlacek as mentally ill before a battery of tests revealed that he had Lyme disease, according to the paper. The newspaper reported that even years later, Sedlacek, then 26, had lesions on his brain and was taking several medications, including an anti-seizure drug. The Post-Dispatch identified him as a resident of Troy, Illinois, in suburban St. Louis. A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that mental illness associated with Lyme disease is highly unusual, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America said Lyme disease \"is not known to cause violent behavior.\" But a study published in 2002 in the American Journal of Psychiatry and carried out in the Czech Republic found that 36 percent of 900 psychiatric subjects had antibodies to the bacterium linked to Lyme disease, versus 18 percent of 900 healthy control subjects. The Illinois shooting is believed to be the nation's first in a church since July, when a 58-year-old man opened fire in a Knoxville, Tennessee, church during a children's play. Two people were killed and six wounded in the shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. See a U.S. map of other recent church shootings \u00bb . Jim Adkisson pleaded guilty last month in a deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole, court officials said. CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Prosecutor: \"Words to those effect\" found in planner inside suspect's home .\nAssailant's approach to pulpit \"seemed ... out of place,\" Keith Melton says .\nTerry J. Sedlacek, 27, charged with first-degree murder .\nPolice still looking for motive in Illinois church attack that killed pastor .","id":"b6d2a95b42afa6d825bb2dda6e068466bd34c063"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1,300 Palestinians died and about 5,400 others were wounded during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza, the Web site of the Palestinian Authority's Central Bureau of Statistics said Monday. A Palestinian man Monday prays in the rubble of his home, destroyed during Israel's offensive in Gaza. Louay Shabana, head of the agency, said more than 22,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Shabana put the economic destruction at more than $1.9 billion. The fighting largely stopped Sunday with a cease-fire. Israel has said 13 of its citizens -- including 10 soldiers -- were killed during the offensive, which started December 27. Israel said its offensive was aimed at stopping Hamas militants from firing rockets into southern Israel. Gaza is in need of humanitarian, economic, sanitary and social help as a result of the Israeli attacks, Shabana said. The attacks destroyed public sector and private buildings in Gaza, affecting even the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's facilities and halting economic and social services, the statistics agency said. Watch Palestinians recover bodies from rubble \u00bb . Gaza's gross domestic product was slashed by 85 percent during the 22 days of war, and it could take a year for the economy to recover, the agency said in a preliminary report. About 80 percent of crops in Gaza were destroyed, according to the agency. \"The pervasive sense here among the population is one of overwhelming grief, so many families have been destroyed in so many ways,\" said John Ging, the top United Nations official in Gaza. Ging, UNRWA's Gaza director of operations, said the bill could reach \"billions of dollars.\" Among the dead were 159 children, two of whom died in an UNRWA school that was shelled Saturday, Ging said. Gaza's main border crossings, which Israel often closed in response to Hamas rocket attacks, were open Monday. Infrastructure repairs were being made, but 400,000 people still had no water, according to Ging. Streets in some northern Gaza towns were flooded with sewage, and about 50 U.N. facilities were damaged, he said. More than 170 supply trucks crossed into Gaza on Monday, less than a third of the daily number that crossed in 2005, said John Holmes, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. Israel tried to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer said in a posting Monday on the IDF Web site. \"This was not a war against the Palestinians,\" he said. \"It was an operation of self-defense against Hamas and related terror organizations. Unfortunately, this task was made extremely difficult by Hamas, as they made the choice to use civilians as human shields.\" Israel began the offensive in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants after showing eight years of restraint, the officer said. The operation's goal, he said, \"was to improve the security situation in southern Israel, and to facilitate peaceful living for the Israeli civilians living there.\" \"We asked ourselves how to accomplish this, and the answer was to hit Hamas hard -- to strike the tunnels, the terrorists themselves, and all of their assets -- in order to prevent them from committing war crimes by firing rockets that target our civilian population,\" the officer said. He said seven rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since Sunday's cease-fire declaration. \"We want to give this cease-fire a chance, but if Hamas chooses not to, we will utilize all of our means,\" he said.","highlights":"Israeli offensive caused $1.9 billion in economic destruction in Gaza, official says .\nIt could take a year for Gaza's economy to recover, Palestinian agency says .\nU.N. official: 159 children among 1,300 people killed in Gaza during offensive .","id":"f3211169c2ce0164dcec9cf0032a08ed11edc1d9"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi leaders are applauding President Obama's plan to withdraw most U.S. troops from the country by August 2010. U.S. troops will cede security measures to Iraqi security forces including the police, shown here, and the army. Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi's office released a statement Saturday saying he received a call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton informing him of Obama's announcement of the withdrawal. \"Mr. al-Hashimi welcomed the American administration's commitment to withdrawing its troops from Iraq according to the agreed-on schedule and stressed that every possible effort should be exerted to increase the readiness of Iraqi security forces and improve their performance,\" the statement said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Obama called him to tell him about the plan Friday. The prime minister said Iraqi security forces have proven their ability to provide security across Iraq \"which qualifies them to take over full security responsibilities from American forces.\" Obama said Friday he plans to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010. Watch Obama say \"Our combat mission will end\" \u00bb . Between 35,000 and 50,000 troops will remain to help execute a drawdown plan under which all U.S. forces will be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. That was a deadline set under an agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year. \"Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,\" Obama said in a speech at the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visited neighboring Iran, where the supreme leader warned him that the United States is planning a prolonged stay in Iraq. \"Occupying military forces are laying the groundwork for a long-lasting stay in Iraq, and that is a great danger,\" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Talabani on Saturday, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. \"Occupying military forces should leave Iraq as soon as possible,\" Khamenei said, according to IRNA. \"Every day their exit is delayed will be a detriment to the Iraqi nation.\" On Friday, Talabani met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who described Tehran's ties with Iraq as \"growing and deep,\" according to IRNA. The two leaders vowed to expand their political, cultural and security relationships.","highlights":"Sunni vice president supports withdrawal of most troops by end of August 2010 .\nIraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says Iraqi security forces are qualified to take over .\nObama said up to 50,000 support troops will remain till December 31, 2011 .","id":"898d3ebc43cb7e41371e63345322bfa648e1b097"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At 44-years-old Abhisit Vejjajiva is Thailand's youngest prime minister in more than 60 years. But perhaps more immediately significantly, he is the country's third prime minister in four months after a period of immense upheaval in Thailand. After just two days of taking office, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva talked to CNN's Dan Rivers for Talk Asia. Thailand's recent political turmoil, which included national demonstrations and the forced closures of international airports, dates back to the 2006 coup that overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the former People's Power Party leader. In September, the Constitutional Court forced out his replacement Samak Sundaravej, finding that he had violated the constitution by appearing as a paid guest on a television cooking show. In turn he was replaced by Thaksin's brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, who immediately found himself beset by opposition demonstrations that accused him of leading a proxy government for Thaksin. He too was thrown out by a Constitutional Court ruling. Abhisit was named as the new Prime Minister on December 15, and his biggest challenge will be to steady a country that until recently was known as one of the most region's most stable. A career politician, Abhisit was born in Newcastle in the north east of England to wealthy Thai-Chinese parents and attended Eton, one of the UK's top private schools before studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University. While highly critical of the corruption and cronyism in Thai politics, Abhisit's own route to power has not been as he may have wanted it. As leader of the Democrat Party since 2005, he failed to win either of the elections he contended. He was chosen by the Thai parliament to be Prime Minister during a special session. His selection was contingent on support of factions from the now banned PPP who changed allegiance, many of whom he had previously criticized. Abhisit now leads a coalition government with a small majority consisting of a number of parties and interests, leading political commentators to speculate about the length of his tenure in office, many suggesting more than a year in power would be a success. Countering accusations of inexperience, Abhisit can still boast 17 years of political practice, having become a parliamentarian at the age of 27. As well as being young and cosmopolitan, he has gained a reputation as being above the sleaze and corruption that has dogged many other Thai politicians, while he publicly opposed the bloodless military coup that removed Thaksin from office 2006. However critics have said that his policies are borrowed heavily from Thaksin and that his party's decision to boycott the snap election in 2006 led to the constitutional crisis and coup against Thaksin. Most of Abhisit's support comes from the educated middle classes and gaining support, or at least lessening the divisions between sections of Thai society is something he has been immediately faced with. \"He needs to send a clear signal of change that he is a leader who will reach out to all,\" said Bunranaj Smutharak, a spokesman for Abhisit's Democrat Party. \"We are confident the long turmoil over the past two years will be brought to an end by this change in government,\" he said. \"What we set out to do is reunite the country.\"","highlights":"Abhisit is Thailand's third Prime Minister in four months, youngest in 60 years .\nLeader of Democrat Party since 2005, now leads coalition government .\nCareer politician who was educated at Eton and Oxford University in the UK .","id":"88ff0abf36b0179567b7513be0d78f37b3b42c58"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani troops have been moved to the Indian border amid fears of an Indian ground incursion, two Pakistani military officials told CNN on Friday. File image of a Pakistani soldier . The troops were deployed from Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, where forces have been battling Taliban and al Qaeda militants in North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Pakistan's armed forces have been on high alert in anticipation of a possible conflict with India following last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which killed 160 people. India believes the 10 men who carried out the attacks were trained at a terrorist camp in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. A senior official said the troops had been moved from areas where there are no active military operations, and emphasized that troop levels have not been depleted in areas where soldiers are battling militants, such as the Swat Valley and near Peshawar, capital of the North West region. In addition to the move, leave for all military personnel has been restricted and all troops were called back to active duty, the senior official said. Asked for a reaction to the development, Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the United States, said, \"Pakistan does not seek war, but we need to be vigilant against threats of war emanating from the other side of our eastern border.\" He said Pakistan's conduct since the Mumbai attack \"has been consistent with international expectations. There is no justification for threats against Pakistan.\" \"Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and will continue to act against terrorists,\" he added. \"We are a country of rule of law and need evidence to prosecute anyone for the crime of terrorism.\" U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States has been \"in close contact\" with India and Pakistan in probing the Mumbai attack and fighting terror. He is hoping that \"both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times.\" In London, England, Pakistani envoy to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan countered the report, noting that winter redeployments are normal and that only police and not the army had their vacation canceled. While he criticized India's \"coercive diplomacy\" and regretted India's \"war hysteria,\" he underscored the fact that the two countries don't want to go to war. Tensions increased between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan following the November 26 attacks in Mumbai, where militants launched a coordinated strike against luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other targets. India has criticized Islamabad for not doing enough to counter terrorism, and it has accused elements within the Pakistan government and military of complicity in fueling terrorism in the region. On Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned India to refrain from launching any strikes against Pakistan, according to a report in The Nation newspaper. Another unnamed Pakistani military official told CNN that the Pakistani military has been taking precautionary measures to safeguard borders in the face of mounting military threats from India over the Mumbai attacks. \"Naturally, you have to take certain steps to stem that expected tide of Indian operations,\" he said, \"You can't fight on both fronts so we have redeployed certain military elements from the western border to the northern border to meet Indian operations.\" The official said that while Pakistan has tolerated U.S. missile strikes from Afghanistan into Pakistan, he believes the government and public would not stand for an Indian incursion. In the Indian capital of New Delhi on Friday, three military chiefs briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the security situation. An Indian officer said Indian soldiers have spotted Pakistani troop movements along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The Line of Control divides the disputed region between the area controlled by India and the area administered by Pakistan. Indian defense spokesman Sitanshu Kar said India isn't carrying out a troop buildup along its western borders but \"is monitoring the situation closely.\" He also said he is \"not aware\" of military reports about Pakistani troop mobilization along the Indian border. \"But we are keeping a vigil,\" Kar said. Since the division of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- now wracked by an 18-year, bloody separatist campaign that authorities say has left at least 43,000 dead. There also was a limited border conflict in 1999 between the countries in Kashmir. CNN's Sara Sidner, Mukhtar Ahmad, Nic Robertson and Harmeet Singh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan has moved troops to border with India amid rising tensions, officials say .\nPakistan forces on high alert after terror attacks last month in Mumbai .\nIndian defense spokesman: India \"is monitoring the situation closely\"\nThe two countries have fought three wars since 1947 .","id":"eaaa2aeb62f681f1997809cd83c2963f2e7c3d96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Los Alamos National Laboratory announced Wednesday it is notifying nearly 2,000 current and former employees and visitors that they may have been exposed to beryllium in the lab and may be at risk of disease. Officials are trying to determine the source of beryllium found at Los Alamos National Laboratory. \"Letters went out to all of them today,\" said Kevin Roark, a spokesman for the New Mexico laboratory. Concern over possible exposure to the hard, gray metal, which is purified for use in nuclear weapons and reactors and also used in bicycle frames and golf clubs, was first raised last November, when a box containing beryllium was received at the laboratory's short-term storage facility, he said. \"The package appeared to have damage or degradation of the packing materials, which prompted us to test the area for additional contamination,\" he said. Surface contamination was found, but it turned out that the box was not the source, Roark said, adding that the source has not been determined. Since the contaminated area had not been tested for the presence of beryllium since 2001, everyone who has entered the restricted-access area since then is being alerted, he said. \"It's just one building at one technical area,\" Roark said, noting that the laboratory covers 36 square miles and has nearly 10,000 employees. Beryllium is hazardous only when its fine, particulate form is inhaled, he said. It was found on surfaces, not in the air, he said. Find out more about beryllium \u00bb . Roark said the alert was sent because \"we think it's the responsible, prudent thing to do to let people know we discovered this contamination and to answer their questions if they have any concern about potential for exposure.\" There are no reports of sickness and \"we don't expect anyone to be ill,\" he said. The laboratory said about 240 employees and 1,650 visitors were potentially at risk because they visited the contaminated areas. About 2 percent of the exposed employees could become sensitized, a smaller percentage of whom could develop chronic beryllium disease, Roark said. Inhalation of powdered beryllium can result in chronic beryllium disease, which can impair lung function in people who are susceptible. The risk to the visitors would be \"extremely low\" because of the activities they performed and their short exposure time, Roark said. An operator will be available at the laboratory at 505-665-7233 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time, Monday through Friday.","highlights":"Los Alamos lab visitors, employees may have been exposure to beryllium .\nSpokesman: Risk to visitors \"extremely low\" due to short exposure time .\nBeryllium is purified for use in nuclear weapons; also used in bike frames, golf clubs .\nInhalation of powdered beryllium can impair lung function .","id":"cb48b2be9d7392d5ca0dfd3136cf853edf383c93"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California's Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will hear the appeal of a challenge to Proposition 8, a voter-approved measure outlawing same-sex marriage. California's voter-approved measure banning same-sex marriage has sparked protests throughout the state. In a written statement, the court said it will not block the implementation or enforcement of the law in the meantime. Proposition 8 passed with about 52.5 percent of the vote, making California one of several states to ban same-sex marriage in the November 4 elections. But unlike the other states, California had already been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples since May, after a state Supreme Court ruling legalized the unions. The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed legal challenges to the vote, asking the high court to rule the ballot-initiative process was \"improperly used\" to strip away a right protected by the state constitution. iReport.com: Share your view on same-sex marriage . The court said arguments in the case could be heard as early as March. In its May 15 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in California, the justices seemed to signal that a ballot initiative like Proposition 8 might not be enough to change the underlying constitutional issues of the case in the court's eyes. The ruling said the right to marry is among a set of basic human rights \"so integral to an individual's liberty and personal autonomy that they may not be eliminated or abrogated by the legislature or by the electorate through the statutory initiative process.\" In the hours after the proposition's apparent passage, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles and other cities across California in protest. Observances in support of same-sex marriage were held in cities across the country Saturday.","highlights":"Three groups file challenge to Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage .\nGroups say ballot initiative \"improperly used\" to strip away state constitutional right .\nCourt says it will not interfere with enforcement of the law before it hears appeal .\nState Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in May 15 ruling .","id":"f034095d818feab7c3f497c7dc3b7a1515f6605a"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- At least 43 civilians were killed Sunday when they were caught in the crossfire between Pakistani forces and Taliban militants, a Pakistani military official said. The official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the incident happened in Charbagh, a district of Swat Valley in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. The mountainous Swat Valley region used to be a popular destination for tourists and skiers, but today it is a Taliban stronghold. The Pakistani government and the army have come under criticism in recent weeks for allowing the security situation in Swat to deteriorate in the past few months. Islamabad has said there are plans for a new strategy to fight the Taliban, but they have yet to offer details. The Taliban are imposing their strict brand of Islamic law in the region -- banning music, forbidding men from shaving, and not allowing teenage girls to attend school. Watch a report on civilians killed in crossfire \u00bb . Government officials say the Taliban have torched and destroyed more than 180 schools in the Swat region. Many families have fled the area, and have been followed by many Pakistani police officers who are too scared to take on Taliban forces, a Pakistani army spokesman told CNN last week. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996 -- harboring al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden -- and ruled it until they were ousted from power in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States. Since then, the Taliban have regrouped and are currently battling U.S. and NATO-led forces. U.S. President Barack Obama has called Afghanistan the \"central front\" in the war on terror and has promised to make fighting extremism there, and in neighboring Pakistan, a foreign policy priority. He is expected to send as many as 30,000 additional U.S. troops to battle Taliban forces. Richard Holbrooke, the administration's new envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is scheduled to make his first trip to the region this week.","highlights":"Swat Valley region used to be a popular destination for tourists and skiers .\nTaliban are imposing their strict brand of Islamic law in the region .\nPakistan government criticized for allowing security in Swat to deteriorate .","id":"6661db756f0339ca21b890bb9e66f9d1080913d6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton was sworn in as the 67th U.S. secretary of state Wednesday afternoon after the Senate approved her nomination by a vote of 94-2. Hillary Clinton gets sworn in Wednesday in her Senate office by Judge Kathryn Oberly. Former President Clinton and her Senate staff looked on as Clinton's childhood friend and D.C. Court of Appeals Associate Judge Kathryn Oberly swore her in on a Bible belonging to the former first lady's late father in a ceremony in her Senate office. The senators who opposed Clinton's confirmation were Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, and David Vitter, R-Louisiana. Keeping with tradition, America's new chief diplomat will be treated to a welcoming ceremony with employees Thursday morning in the State Department, agency officials said. Immediately after the ceremony, Clinton submitted her resignation from the Senate with identical one-sentence letters to Vice President Joe Biden, who serves as president of the Senate, Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson and New York Gov. David Paterson. Paterson must appoint a replacement in the Senate. The governor, who had said he would not name his choice until after Clinton's confirmation, told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Monday that he had not made a decision. \"I'm actually, I think, narrowing the field to about half of the people who are involved, and then I would hope, in the next few days, to get down to one,\" he told CNN's John Roberts. Some of the better-known candidates, including Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Steve Israel, have pledged not to wage a primary fight against Paterson's pick in the 2010 special election to finish the final two years of Clinton's term. Clinton's confirmation was held up Tuesday when Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn objected to a voice vote, demanding a roll-call vote instead. Cornyn said he knew that Clinton would be confirmed but said he delayed the vote because he wanted more time to talk about the foundation run by her husband. The former president signed an agreement with the Obama transition team pledging to limit foreign donations and to release annual disclosures of new donations to his foundation. \"My concern is not whether our colleague Sen. Clinton is qualified to be secretary of state or not. She is,\" Cornyn said. \"But we should not let our respect for Sen. Clinton or our admiration for the many good works of the Clinton Foundation blind us to the danger of perceived conflicts of interest caused by the [foundation's] solicitation of hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and some domestic sources,\" he said. \"The perception and reality must be that the office of secretary of state is viewed around the world as beyond reproach.\" Clinton was defended by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who used his first floor speech since the end of the presidential campaign to urge his colleagues to confirm her quickly as secretary of state. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's cabinet . \"I think the message that the American people are sending us now is they want us to work together and get to work,\" McCain said. \"I think we ought to let Sen. Clinton, who is obviously qualified and obviously will serve, get to work immediately.\" McCain confidantes told CNN that the senator developed a genuinely deep admiration for Clinton during the drawn-out Democratic primary process. Both senators also sit on the Armed Services Committee and had become close on several congressional delegation trips abroad. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-1 last week in favor of Clinton's nomination, with Vitter casting the sole dissenting vote. CNN's Dana Bash, Ed Hornick and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. John McCain urges colleagues to confirm Hillary Clinton .\nChildhood friend swears in Clinton on Bible belonging to her late father .\nClinton submits letter of resignation from the Senate .\nFormer President Clinton pledges to limit foreign donations .","id":"38d002d483f84d96084ea71bcfa0fb00b8583ffb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canada's public radio is asking listeners to pick 49 songs that will \"best define\" the country to the incoming president of its southern neighbor. Canadians are voting on the 49 songs that best define their nation, for President-elect Barack Obama's benefit. Online voting for \"49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel\" ends Friday, and CBC Radio 2 will unveil and play the picks on the day of Barack Obama's presidential inauguration Tuesday. \"One of the best ways to know Canada is through the depth and breath of our artistic expression,\" Denise Donion, CBC's executive director, said on the station's web site. Obama's taste in music runs the gamut from old-school R&B to blues and classical. \"His playlist could definitely benefit from some Canadian content,\" the station said. Listeners can pick from 100 songs. They range from classical (Montreal Symphony Orchestra), to classic rock (The Band, Rush), to more contemporary fare (Feist, Arcade Fire). You can check out the entire list at http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio2\/obamasplaylist\/ .","highlights":"CBC Radio 2 asks listeners to pick 49 songs that best define Canada .\nThey're building playlist so Barack Obama can better understand neighbor to north .\nOptions have wide range: classical, classic rock, contemporary fare .","id":"19281aedd1c30570ad623390510ef968d59c35bd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Adventurer Steve Fossett's ill-fated flight was simply going to be a \"Sunday drive,\" but one camper who thinks he saw the plane said the craft was fighting headwinds. Steve Fossett was the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon and the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling. Details from a National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday present facts about the accident that occurred September 3, 2007, after Fossett, 63, took off from the airport of the Flying M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada. These fact-finding reports, which are routine, do not give causes for crashes. Officials eventually discovered the wreckage at an altitude of about 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas near Mammoth Lakes, California, after a hiker reported finding Fossett's personal effects, including identification cards, about a half-mile from the wreckage. DNA tests confirmed that skeletal fragments found near Fossett's personal effects were his. In 2002 Fossett became the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon. Three years later he became the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling. Fossett also set world records in round-the-world sailing and cross-country skiing. The NTSB said the single-engine Super Decathlon \"collided with terrain while maneuvering in remote mountainous terrain approximately eight miles west-northwest of Mammoth Lakes, California, destroying the plane and killing the pilot.\" The cause of death was \"multiple traumatic injuries\" and \"the airplane was severely fragmented and a severe post crash fire burned most of the structure and surrounding vegetation.\" The accident site was 65 miles south of the departure point. A camper thinks he saw the plane about 30 miles north of the accident site. \"The airplane was heading into the wind, and it looked like it was standing still due to the wind,\" the NTSB report said. The ranch's chief pilot prepared the plane for flight after Fossett told him at breakfast that he wanted to fly the Super Decathlon. The plane was commonly used for spotting cattle. It had hit a barbed wire fence several months earlier during a landing roll, and a new speed propeller was put on the plane. It was returned to service a month later and was flown 10 to 12 hours. The report noted that the pilot's wife said the \"purpose of the flight was pleasure\" and that she \"characterized it as 'a Sunday drive.' \" \"The pilot gave no indication that he planned to perform aerobatic maneuvers, and he was not wearing a parachute, which is required for aerobatics. He was seated in the front seat of the tandem two place airplane,\" the report said. It had been previously reported that Fossett was scouting locations for an attempt to break the land speed record in a rocket-propelled car. Fossett arrived at the airport about 8:15 a.m. and conducted a preflight of the airplane in the presence of the chief pilot. A ranch employee saw the plane around 8:25 or 8:35 a.m. nine miles south of the departure strip and flying south about 150 to 200 feet about the ground. The airplane, which flew during downdrafts, was expected to return by 10:30 or 11 a.m. When the plane didn't return, a search began. Pilots in the region were interviewed in the aftermath of the crash. One pilot said there was no \"big turbulence\" and he did not have to slow up because of \"rough air.\" Another pilot reported blue skies but remembers \"random clear turbulence\" in a descent into Reno, Nevada. He remembers a \"random rough chop\" interrupting a smooth ride, calling it a \"weird day.\" A third pilot reported windiness during takeoff but said there was smooth air and dropped-off winds when he got above 10,000 feet. The accident area was \"about 300 feet below the crest of a ridge\" and \"the steep terrain was sparsely forested with Ponderosa pines averaging 40 to 60 feet tall. Numerous boulders and rock outcrops surrounded by grassy areas covered the ground.\"","highlights":"NTSB releases facts about the September 3, 2007, accident that killed adventurer .\nSteve Fossett was first to circle the globe solo in a balloon .\nDNA tests confirmed that skeletal remains were Fossett's .","id":"1e71736abf69ccb6ec7cf089e3b589f33dbe2b9d"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Here are some things that it's okay to lie about: . \"I can totally do a headstand in yoga class.\" 1. The number of sexual partners you've had plus or minus five . 2. That you totally just washed your hands . 3. That the reason for your bags is not, in fact, that you were out late partying but that you were up late reading \"Twilight\" 4. That you're naturally toned . 5. How much you paid for that (ridiculously cheap) pair of shoes . 6. How much you paid for that (ridiculously expensive) bag . 7. That you're not planning on seeing \"Marley & Me\" 8. That your favorite magazine is, duh, The New Yorker . 9. That you can not do a headstand in yoga class . 10. That you made that lasagna yourself . 11. Your height and weight on your driver's license . 12. That this is your natural hair color . 13. That you totally read \"The Feminine Mystique\" and it changed your life . 14. That you stayed at work a full hour after your boss left . 15. That you didn't just fart right now . 16. That you don't know all the lyrics to \"I'll Make Love To You\" by Boyz II Men . 17. That of course you floss every day, Dr. Smith! 18. That you never ever, ever look at so-and-so's Facebook page! 19. That you just love your friend's boyfriend\/husband . 20. That you really adore that pink sweater and thanks so much Grandma! 21. That you always recycle . 22. That you had only one glass of wine last night not five because that would be excessive . 23. That your current boyfriend is totally the best sex of your life . 24. That you're not the jealous type . 25. That you read all sections of the paper, not just the Style and Entertainment sections . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"You can lie about your height and weight on your driver's license .\nTell people you made the lasagna yourself .\nFeel free to lie about your natural hair color -- or your eye color .\nOf course you don't know all the lyrics to \"I'll Make Love To You\" by Boyz II Men .","id":"4fbaf01100e4d6ee1823f1b25ba309fe73ffb6d9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- All 18 people aboard a helicopter that crashed off the coast of Scotland have been recovered alive, a Royal Air Force officer told CNN. A Super Puma helicopter, similar to the one in this file photo, went down about 120 miles east of Aberdeen. The Super Puma ditched about 120 miles east of Aberdeen while approaching an offshore platform. \"Everyone has been recovered from the water,\" said James Lyon, assistant controller of the RAF's aeronautical rescue coordination center at RAF Kinloss, Scotland. \"We don't know their condition, but we believe there are no major injuries.\" Five helicopters were scrambled when the Super Puma helicopter ditched. \"Some were recovered by helicopter and some by boat from the platform,\" Lyon told CNN. The RAF was providing helicopter assistance to the Aberdeen Coast Guard in the rescue. Lyon said earlier that rescuers had been picking up emergency signal beacons from the lifejackets of the 18 people. He did not know if the pilot transmitted a mayday before the aircraft ditched. View a map of the crash site \u00bb . \"We believe it was quite close to the platform it was supposed to be landing on,\" he added. The area is home to a number of offshore oil rigs. Lyon said he did not know which one the helicopter was heading to or where it was coming from. The RAF received its first report of the crash at 6:43 p.m. (1:43 p.m. Eastern time). Lyon said the Super Puma is regularly used to transport people to and from oil platforms in the North Sea and as far as he was aware it has a good safety record. Weather at the crash site is relatively good, though slight fog is hampering visibility, he said. A spokesman for BP told the UK's Press Association: \"The 16 passengers and two crew who were on board have been accounted for and have been rescued. Three people are on the ETAP Platform and a further 15 are on the Caledonian Victory rescue vessel. \"The priority of the company is the safety of all personnel involved in this incident and we have implemented our full emergency response procedures.\"","highlights":"Royal Air Force says civilian helicopter carrying 18 people ditches in North Sea .\nRAF officer says all rescued alive, no immediate details of any injuries .\nRescue aircraft on the scene, more in the area off Scotland .","id":"5dc49d01c3f35a29b3890bc3bae06d90518df442"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's time this debate was settled once and for all. Football or soccer? What do you think the round-ball game should be called? While it may be a basic discussion; arguing whether the beautiful game should be called \"football\" or \"soccer\" is one of the most fundamental debates of the code. On the face it, the answer should be simple. The world body -- FIFA -- has the word \"football\" in its title. End of story? Not quite. The term soccer was coined as slang for \"association,\" in England in the 1880s. The Oxford University Association Football Club's Web site explains that former England captain Charles Wreford-Brown is commonly credited with its origin. Soccer would have been used to differentiate between University sports rugby football (\"rugger\") and \"association\" football. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, the word soccer is a British term, not an American one. Soccer is more commonly used in countries that play other forms of football, i.e. Americans also play gridiron football and Australians who play \"Aussie Rules\" football -- a completely different sport entirely. Soccer was initially referred to as football in the United States. In 1913 the United States of America Football Association was formed. In later years, it became the United States Soccer Football Association and today is known as the United States Soccer Federation. Meanwhile they now have the Football Federation of Australia, it's hard to imagine a change to the national side's \"Socceroos\" nickname anytime soon. The \"Footyroos\" doesn't quite have the same sound to it. Now, you may be sitting back in Britain reading this and wondering why there should be any debate at all about the name of football? If you are thinking that, just remember one of the most popular shows in Britain is called \"Soccer Saturday\", so it's not as clear cut as you may think! Even the sport's governing body seems to be open to both options. At next year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the area where fans will gather during the tournament is to be called \"Soccer City\". Maybe the word \"football\" just doesn't work? We'd like you to tell us whether the game should be called football or soccer and why. Let us know in the SoundOff box below. You can also vote in the quick vote on the Football Fanzone homepage. Or, if you really want to make your case -- why not post us a video or photos at the Football Fanzone page on iReport.com. Olivia Sterns contributed to this report .","highlights":"CNN asks: Should the 'beautiful game' be called football or soccer?\nThe word \"football\" appears in the name of the game's governing body .\nIt's alternative \"soccer\" is still widely used around the world .","id":"06786986a80b3b329f8cd309d160ade9f0aeb9d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistan's former president said his country is being treated \"unequally\" to other countries, despite being a staunch ally of the United States in its war on terror. Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says anti-American sentiment in Pakistan is high. \"Pakistan is being treated so unequally while we are the ones who are in the lead role fighting the global war on terror,\" said Pervez Musharraf, interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer for \"The Situation Room.\" \"This is what hurts Pakistan. It hurts the leadership. Indeed, it hurts the government. It hurts the people of Pakistan,\" said Musharraf, speaking from Dallas, Texas, during a book tour in the United States. The interview took place amid reports Friday of U.S. drones striking militant targets in Pakistan just days after the start of the Obama administration -- which has made combating al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the Pakistan tribal region near Afghanistan its most immediate national security priority. Musharraf was asked whether he is comfortable with the continuation of the attacks, even with a new U.S. president in place. \"Nobody in Pakistan is comfortable with the strikes across the border. There is no doubt in that. Public opinion is very much against it,\" he said. \"But as far as this issue of the new president -- President Obama having taken over and this continuing -- but I have always been saying that policies don't change with personalities; policies have national interest, and policies depend on an environment. \"So the environment and national interest of the United States being the same, I thought policies will remain constant,\" he said. Watch Musharraf address the reported U.S. air strike \u00bb . Musharraf also addressed a statement he made about the $10 billion in assistance from the United States that Pakistan has received, calling it a \"pittance for a country which is in the lead role to fight terrorism.\" He emphasized his gratitude to the United States for the funding, but said the amount is low compared to billions spent in Afghanistan and \"maybe over a trillion dollars\" in Iraq. \"Please don't think that this $10 billion was such a great amount that we ought to be eternally grateful while we know that we deserve much more and we should have got much more and we must get much more if we are to fight the global war on terror,\" he said. Musharraf stressed that Pakistan was \"in the lead role fighting a war for you for 10 years, between '79 and '89,\" a reference to Pakistan's alliance with the United States and the Afghan mujahedeen rebels during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Musharraf emphasized that for 42 years, up until 1989, Pakistan had been a \"strategic partner\" of the United States. But many Pakistanis felt abandoned by the United States after the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan. Musharraf said the 1989 \"peace dividend\" went to Europe -- East Europe. Pakistan was \"left alone\" from 1989 to 2001, and during that period, the militant Taliban movement took control of Afghanistan. \"What did Pakistan get out of fighting for 10 years with you? Nothing, sir,\" he said, explaining why public opinion in Pakistan has been \"so much against the United States.\" Musharraf said public opinion in his country is strongly against strikes by U.S. drones against militants in the Pakistani tribal region. While al Qaeda and the Taliban must be confronted, he said, \"public opinion is certainly against the methodology being adopted.\" Watch Musharraf says Pakistan is not sponsoring terrorism \u00bb . Musharraf, once Pakistan's army chief, resigned under intense political pressure in August as the ruling coalition began taking steps to impeach him. He swept to power in 1999 in a bloodless coup. Asked why al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is thought to be somewhere in the border region, hasn't been found, he replied: . \"I would like to ask the United States why he hasn't been found. They have their intelligence. There are -- you have more intelligence capability. I would like to ask the United States, why Mullah Omar has not been found, who is the leader of all of the Taliban in Afghanistan?\"","highlights":"\"We are ... in the lead role fighting the global war on terror,\" Musharraf says .\nHe says Pakistan receives small amount of U.S. aid compared to Afghanistan, Iraq .\nOpinion of U.S. is low due to drone strikes in Pakistani tribal region, Musharraf says .","id":"cda5eb92b8666207f981570b396bb339a09005ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others? Imaging techniques help scientists look at the basis for principles of social psychology in the brain. Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images. A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the \"oops area\" becomes extra active, while the \"reward area\" slows down, making us think we are too different. \"We show that a deviation from the group opinion is regarded by the brain as a punishment,\" said Vasily Klucharev, postdoctoral fellow at the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands and lead author of the study. Watch to learn more about the study \u00bb . Participants, all female, had to rate 222 faces based on physical beauty on a scale from 1 to 8. Afterwards, researchers told each participant either that the average score was higher or that it was lower than her rating. Some participants were told the average rating was equal to her rating. The researchers then chatted with the participant before suddenly asking the participant to do the rating again. Most subjects changed their opinion toward the average. The two leading theories of conformity are that people look to the group because they're unsure of what to do, and that people go along with the norm because they are afraid of being different, said Dr. Gregory Berns, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Berns' research, which he describes in the book \"Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently,\" found that brain mechanisms associated with fear and anxiety do play a part in situations where a person feels his or her opinion goes against the grain. Participants looked at projections of three-dimensional objects, and had to identify which shapes were similar. As with the new study in Neuron, participants tended to shift their opinion to the majority view, although in this case the problems had objectively correct answers. The effect was also more potent in this experiment because actors were in the room to simulate a group with a shared opinion, he said. But brain images revealed participants were not lying just to fit in. Changes in the activation of the visual part of the brain suggest the group opinion actually changed participants' perceptions of what they saw. One reason behind conformity is that, in terms of human evolution, going against the group is not beneficial to survival, Berns said. There is a tremendous survival advantage to being in a community, he said. \"Our brains are exquisitely tuned to what other people think about us, aligning our judgments to fit in with the group,\" Berns said. The most famous experiments in the field were conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. He found that many people gave incorrect answers about matching lines printed on cards, echoing the incorrect answers of the actors in the room. But unlike Berns' finding that fear and anxiety relate to this effect, Asch saw conformity studies reflections of people's reliance on one another for knowledge of the world, experts say. The darker side of conformity relates to Stanley Milgram's experiments of the 1960s and 1970s, in which most people obeyed orders to deliver electric shocks to an innocent person in the next room. As in these studies, subjects caved into social pressure, presumably going against their own previous moral convictions. Read more about the Milgram study . The research calls into question decision-making bodies that operate by consensus, Berns said. For example, in the U.S. legal system, many cases are decided by the unanimous judgment of the members of a jury. \"You can't separate those judgments from the fact that you have 12 people who have to come to a unanimous decision, and have to conform their opinion to each other, so of course it will distort how they view evidence,\" he said. \"Any type of group decision-making process that does not require unanimous decisions is likely to make a better one,\" Berns said. \"That applies to committees in particular.\" What does it take to break the conformity effect? Asch talked about the power of the \"minority of one.\" When a unanimous group pressures the individual, that group is weakened as soon as one person breaks off. \"Anyone inclined to draw too pessimistic conclusions from this report would do well to remind himself that the capacities for independence are not to be underestimated,\" Asch wrote in a 1955 \"Scientific American\" article describing his research. \"He may also draw some consolation from a further observation: Those who participated in this challenging experiment agreed nearly without exception that independence was preferable to conformity.\"","highlights":"New study looks at how people change opinions of the beauty of images .\nBrain imaging shows group opinion actually shifts perception in the brain .\nSolomon Asch studied conformity in famous experiment in 1950s .\nResearcher: Rethink committees that decide by unanimous consent .","id":"5e52ecc2ae91d1b7fa9589f1aa8d399a316df163"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran Tuesday successfully launched its first satellite into orbit, a step hailed by Iran's president as a \"source of pride\" for the Islamic republic, according to state-run news outlets. Reported satellite launch took place on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran. U.S. Department of Defense officials confirmed the launch, and the State Department expressed \"grave concern.\" \"Developing a space launch vehicle that could ... put a satellite into orbit could possibly lead to development of a ballistic missile system,\" State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. \"So that's of grave concern to us.\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to discuss Iran in meetings Tuesday with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. On Wednesday officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China will meet in Germany to discuss next steps on Iran. Wood said that Undersecretary William Burns, who is representing the United States, will seek input and discuss some ideas the Obama administration has about how to move forward. Watch Iran launch its first satellite \u00bb . Two U.S. officials confirmed that Iran had launched a low-earth orbit satellite, CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr said. There were no indications of any weapons activity on the two-stage rocket, although the rocket is capable of launching long-range weapons, the officials said. \"I wouldn't think of this in terms of highly advanced technology,\" one U.S. official said. But it does suggest Iran's two-stage rockets are increasingly reliable. The Pentagon said Tuesday the launch is \"clearly a concern of ours.\" \"Although this appears to be satellite, there are dual-use capabilities that could be applied to missiles, and that's a concern to us and everybody in region,\" Department of Defense spokesman Geoff Morrell said. The launch of the satellite Omid -- which means \"Hope\" in Farsi -- was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution in Iran, according to Iranian media reports. Iran said the satellite had already completed its first mission -- to transmit a message from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who spoke at the launching ceremony Monday night. In his message, Ahmadinejad congratulated the nation and said the successful launch improves Iran's status in the world, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. He stressed that both the satellite and the Safir rocket used to launch it were made entirely by Iranian technicians. Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said that despite the small size of the Omid satellite, it will open the way for an Iranian space program. He said Tehran plans to launch another satellite in the future. In August, Iran performed a test of a rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit. Iranian officials declared that mission a success, but U.S. officials disputed that. Senior U.S. officials had expressed concerned about the test of the rocket, saying Iran could use the rocket to deliver warheads. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iran's president hails launch of first satellite into orbit as \"source of pride\"\nUnited States confirms Iran launched low-earth orbit satellite Monday night .\nLaunch coincides with 30th anniversary of victory of Islamic revolution .\nIn August, Iran said it tested rocket capable of launching satellite into orbit .","id":"ef290c7d2c15ea1fadd4720307d428e06192c51f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Hugo Chavez on Thursday ordered the nationalization of the Banco de Venezuela \"to put it at the service of Venezuela\" after denying approval for its sale. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela says the banks owners aren't interested in selling but he's buying anyway. The leftist president said in a televised address to the nation that he heard \"a few months ago\" that the bank's Spanish owner -- Grupo de Santander -- was planning to sell the bank, which was privatized a few years ago, to a Venezuelan banker. The banker had asked the Venezuelan government for permission needed to complete the deal, Chavez said. \"I sent a message to the Spaniards: No. And to the Venezuelan banker: No,\" Chavez said. \"Now the government wants to buy the bank, wants to recover it, because it's called the Bank of Venezuela, to put it at the service of Venezuela.\" Chavez said he was told Wednesday that the owners now were no longer interested in selling. \"So now I am telling them I am interested in buying. We are going to nationalize the Banco de Venezuela.\" In a written statement issued Friday, Banco de Santander said it had planned to sell the bank to a Venezuelan private investors group, but \"found afterward that the Venezuelan government was interested in [acquiring] Banco de Venezuela, and conversations are under way to that effect.\"","highlights":"Banco de Venezuela's Spanish owner asked for permission to sell, Chavez says .\nChavez refused prospective buyer and seller's request for sale .\nBank now will be \"at the service of Venezuela,\" Chavez says .","id":"e36f685ab51077313653aec461ee3d515dd783a3"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Thursday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says John Thain, according to CNBC, spent $28,000 on curtains. (CNN) -- John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, resigned Thursday from the company that bought Merrill out, Bank of America. As far as we can tell, his departure couldn't come soon enough. Not long ago, Thain was credited with keeping Merrill alive long enough to be rescued. Now we learn the man who asked for, then quickly withdrew, his request for a $10 million bonus still managed to live large while Merrill teetered on the brink and workers paid the price. According to CNBC, Thain spent more than $1.2 million in company funds to spruce up his office, hiring a world-class designer to decorate in full decadence. The list includes an $87,000 \"area rug,\" $28,000 for curtains, a $68,000 credenza and the perfect finishing touch: a $1,400 wastebasket. This is what passes for corporate responsibility? CEO John Thain: picking out fancy new curtains while the walls are tumbling down. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Brown: Departure of John Thain couldn't come soon enough .\nThain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, has resigned from Bank of America .\nBefore he left, Thain reportedly spent more than $1.2 million to spruce up his office .","id":"9f2f62c293f19bc4318c8ba08f71133fc69ffb90"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack Obama's presidential transition, already disrupted by the sudden withdrawal of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, may face another challenge in the confirmation hearings of his pick for attorney general. Eric Holder likely will face a grueling round of questions from Republicans during his confirmation hearings. While the Senate is expected to easily confirm the majority of the president-elect's Cabinet appointments, it increasingly appears that attorney general designate Eric Holder could face a grueling round of questions next week from Senate Republicans who are already emboldened by charges of \"pay-to-play\" politics against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a federal investigation into Richardson, who Obama picked as his commerce secretary. \"Republicans are seeing enough different stories in the taints of possible corruption around Democratic politicians lately,\" said Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. \"Where they can score some political points around this corruption issue, they will try to do it.\" Holder has drawn heavy criticism from Republicans over his involvement in former President Bill Clinton's last-minute pardon of Mark Rich, a major Democratic donor and billionaire financier charged with federal tax evasion. Clinton pardoned Rich in the final hours of his administration on January 20, 2001. Holder was a deputy attorney general at the time. Senate Democrats have long braced for a tough committee hearing over Holder, especially after Republicans successfully delayed its start to obtain more time to review his lengthy record in both the public and private sector. But after Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the judiciary committee's ranking Republican, unexpectedly took to the Senate floor Tuesday to castigate Holder over a wide range of issues -- even comparing him to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who was forced to resign -- Democrats may have to brace for a tougher fight than they expected. \"President-elect Obama chose not to seek my advice or even to give me advance notice in my capacity as ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee,\" Specter said. \"Had he done so, I could have given him some facts about Mr. Holder's background that he might not have known.\" Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, said it's not surprising Republicans are targeting a particular appointment. \"There always seems to be one appointee where the Senate opposition directs its firepower,\" Hess said. \"This year the designated fall guy seems to be Eric Holder. He's going to be made to grovel.\" Holder played a significant role in the heavily criticized Rich pardon, having communicated with Rich's lawyers frequently before it was issued, according to the New York Times. Critics have charged that the Justice Department should have blocked the pardon, and Holder later said he wished he had handled the matter differently. Supporters of Holder say his role in the pardon was limited, but Senate Republicans, seemingly eager for at least one high-profile fight with the incoming president, are set to put the Rich pardon front-and-center when his Judiciary Committee hearing kicks off next week. For a Republican Party still reeling from a demoralizing Election Day, Holder's hearing will likely be the GOP's first chance to put heat on the president-elect in a very public way, and in the process demonstrate that it intends to stand up to the new administration despite its minority status. \"With Holder they are going to look to score some points on the evening news,\" Keyssar said. But the Rich matter is only one issue on which Republicans plan to grill Holder. Also at issue, according to Republicans, will be Holder's involvement with the Elian Gonzalez case and potential conflicts of interests with his work over the past eight years with a corporate law firm. \"There are going to be some tough questions that Holder will have to answer,\" a Senate Republican aide said. \"We want to have a fair, open discussion for his qualifications for the job.\" Republicans say they are not specifically looking to block Holder's nomination, and the GOP would be unable to do so even if it tried given the Democrats' overwhelming majority in the Senate. \"We don't want to be obstructionist. It's not a partisan thing, it's about examining his qualifications to be No. 1 at Justice,\" the Republican aide said. Still, the opposition party often claims victory when it mounts a sizeable resistance to a particular nominee, as 42 Democrats did in 2001 to President Bush's first attorney general, John Ashcroft. But Obama can ultimately take solace in the fact that a new president's Cabinet appointments are rarely held up in the Senate, no matter which party controls the chamber. According to the U.S. Senate Web site, the Senate has confirmed 98 percent of all Cabinet appointments since 1798. In fact, the Senate hasn't rejected any cabinet pick for nearly 20 years. It last rejected John Tower, former President George H.W. Bush's pick for defense secretary, in 1989. Republicans also know that at a time when Americans expect Congress to confront the country's ongoing financial crisis and recent flare-ups abroad, it might be in their interest not to delay confirmation of several important posts or appear overly partisan when it comes to confirming the majority of the president-elect's appointments. \"When these things get bad, it delays the whole process,\" Hess said. \"By the time the person finally gets the person he wants it's March. Republicans don't want this to happen.\"","highlights":"Confirmation hearings for attorney general-designate Eric Holder begin next week .\nRepublicans criticize Holder for his role in Clinton pardon of Marc Rich in 2001 .\nGOP unlikely to block Holder from becoming Obama's attorney general .","id":"a8be36cf0882f92cf3de751edcc1172c788eacd0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Consumers who bought \"Caylee Sunshine\" dolls and Michael Vick dog toys were misled into believing that a portion of their purchases would go to charity, according to a lawsuit filed this week. The \"Caylee Sunshine\" doll cost $29.99 before Showbiz Promotions halted its production. The Florida Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit Thursday against Showbiz Promotions and its owner, Jaime Salcedo, seeking $10,000 in penalties for each violation under the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. But Salcedo denies the allegations, saying he has been trying to resolve the disputes and compensate charitable organizations. The Jacksonville-based entrepreneur claims he has been working with the attorney general's office for more than one year to settle the issue. The suit also asks that Salcedo stop running the Web site, www.cayleedoll.com, his short-lived vehicle for selling dolls that critics said were modeled after slain Florida toddler Caylee Anthony. Salcedo says the doll was not meant to be Caylee, but rather a tribute to her memory. The dispute began with the attorney general's investigation into complaints about dog chew toys in the likeness of suspended NFL star Michael Vick, who is serving a federal prison sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation. Consumers said they ordered and paid for merchandise from the company but did not receive the items, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also claims that Showbiz Promotions told consumers that a portion of the proceeds would go to local animal shelters, another promise Salcedo allegedly never made good on. \"Defendant Salcedo began cooperating with the Attorney General and made attempts to either make delivery on consumer orders for the Vick Dog Chew Toy or to provide refunds. However, numerous consumer complaints remain unresolved,\" the complaint alleges. But Salcedo claims the scope of the damage is less extensive. Of 200 complaints that he says the attorney general's office received, all but 10 were resolved. \"Those people purchased on PayPal, so the only way I had to get in touch was going though e-mail. If they don't respond, then I can't help them,\" he said in a telephone interview Friday. Salcedo also insists that his company made donations to animal shelters in forms of merchandise, including Vick chew toys, T-shirts and hats. \"They'd rather have $100 in toys because they can sell them or auction them off,\" he said. \"We said they could have either and every time they said they wanted the toys.\" The suit also addresses Salcedo's promotion of the Caylee Sunshine Doll and other members of the Sunshine Doll Collection, including Gracie Sunshine and Hope Sunshine. The dolls set off a firestorm of controversy with its launch in January, drawing allegations that Showbiz Promotions was attempting to profit off the death of Caylee Anthony, whose mother is facing trial for her murder. Members of the public, media pundits and the Anthony family called for production of the dolls to be halted. One month later, Showbiz Promotions pulled the plug on the Sunshine Collection, citing high manufacturing costs and tepid consumer response. The company had fulfilled just five orders and provided refunds for 20, according to Salcedo. The lawsuit alleges that the product's Web site, www.cayleedoll.com, falsely claimed that \"100% of the profits\" from the Sunshine Doll Collection would go to charity, accusing Salcedo of fabricating a donation receipt and posting it on the site so visitors could view \"the first donation\" made to charity. The receipt -- a purported screen grab from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Web site -- shows an \"online credit card donation confirmation\" for $5,000 in the name of Showbiz Promotions, according to the lawsuit. Salcedo says he never posted any such image on the site. The alleged receipt is attached as an exhibit to the lawsuit, along with another purported receipt in Salcedo's name that the attorney general's office says is the only existing NCMEC donation associated with Salcedo or Showbiz Promotions. See exhibits attached to the lawsuit . \"The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children confirmed that their records showed that a donation was made by Jaime Salcedo on March 12, 2009 at [5:28 p.m.] in the amount of $10,\" the lawsuit states. \"The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children confirmed that they had no record of a donation from Showbiz Promotions in any amount or any additional donation from Jaime Salcedo.\" Salcedo insists that the receipt for $5,000 is not real -- and says his company had nothing to do with it. \"They're saying this was posted on our Web site and clearly it was not. That is clearly something that someone made and sent to them and they're jumping the gun,\" he said. Furthermore, he does not deny making a $10 donation to NCMEC out of his own pocket. \"We had nothing left to give to charity apart from what I give every year, which is $10,\" he said. \"If giving $10 every year to charity is a crime, then I'm guilty.\"","highlights":"Showbiz Promotions and its owner accused of misleading consumers .\nFlorida Attorney General's Office: Company never gave portion of sales to charity .\nOwner Jaime Salcedo accused of fabricating donation receipt to trick customers .\nSalcedo denies allegations, says he did everything possible to resolve dispute .","id":"eb164dd822fb043388ef0da6a6564a1bfcb47056"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two people were shot and killed Friday at a community college in Dearborn, Michigan, in what police believe was a murder-suicide, an official said. The Henry Ford Community College campus in Dearborn, Michigan, was locked down after the shooting. A man and woman were found dead in a classroom building on the campus of Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn Deputy Chief Gregg Brighton said. Investigators believe the man shot the woman but would not provide further information, Brighton said. A shotgun was involved in the incident, which occurred in a classroom that was not being used, he said. \"We're in the very preliminary stages,\" Brighton said. \"We've just made the scene safe. The crime lab is on the scene with detectives.\" Watch Brighton describe the scene \u00bb . Police responding to a report of gunfire at the school had entered the south hallway of the Fine Arts Building when they heard another gunshot, Brighton said. \"We were in the building when we heard the shotgun blast, and when we finally got to that room, we had two deceased parties,\" he said at a news conference. \"We believe this is a murder-suicide.\" The campus was briefly in lockdown and will remain closed for the rest of the Friday, a school official said. The school's emergency system immediately notified students, faculty and staff about the shooting via e-mail and cell phone, said Marjorie Swan, vice president and controller of the college. \"Our hearts go out to the family and the friends of the young woman who lost her life today,\" Swan said.","highlights":"NEW: Police believe man shot woman in murder-suicide .\nNEW: School offers condolences to \"young woman who lost her life today\"\nMan, woman found dead in classroom building at Henry Ford Community College .\nScene is contained, campus will remain closed for rest of Friday .","id":"9fa554303139df354ef14e5ed8213b36aa3d6342"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actor Bruce Willis married model-actress Emma Heming over the weekend in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the actor's publicists announced. It is the second marriage for actor Bruce Willis, 54, and the first for model-actress Emma Heming, 30. A small, private ceremony was held at the actor's home in the islands in the West Indies on Saturday, according to publicists Rogers and Cowan. It is the second marriage for Willis, 54, and the first for Heming, 30. The couple met through friends and have been together for more than a year, the publicists said. At the wedding were Willis' daughters, Rumer, 20; Scout, 17; and Tallulah Belle, 14. Their mother and Willis' first wife, actress Demi Moore and her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, also attended the ceremony. Willis and Heming will have a civil ceremony when they return to California, the publicists said.","highlights":"A small, private ceremony was held at the actor's home in the West Indies .\nWillis and Heming will have a civil ceremony when they return to California .\nWillis' first wife, Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, attended the wedding .","id":"5e3d38f2d33dfb9ed8baec327903c40a4e1a65ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The flu has forced an early end to Billy Bob Thornton's musical tour of Canada, his publicist said Saturday. Thornton's publicist says Boxmasters band member, crew, have flu; will rejoin tour on Tuesday. The news was reportedly greeted with loud applause at a Friday night show in Montreal after Thornton called Canadian concert-goers \"mashed potatoes with no gravy\" in a radio interview Wednesday. The Boxmasters' final Canadian dates -- in Montreal and London, Ontario -- were canceled because \"one of the band members and several of the crew have the flu,\" said Thornton publicist Arnold Robinson. Thornton's electric hillbilly band will rejoin Willie Nelson's tour when it returns to the United States for a show in Stamford, Connecticut, on Tuesday, after they have \"a few days off to recuperate,\" Robinson said. The trio was the opening act for Nelson until they were loudly booed in Toronto, a day after the actor-musician's bizarre interview with a CBC radio host. Ironically, the comments that offended Canadians included Thornton's assessment that they were \"very reserved\" and \"it doesn't matter what you say to them.\" \"It's mashed potatoes with no gravy,\" Thornton told CBC host Jian Ghomeshi. \"We tend to play places where people throw things at each other and here they just sort of sit there,\" he said. Watch Thornton's interview \u00bb . The audience at Thursday night's show in Toronto loudly booed the Boxmasters, with some shouts of \"Here comes the gravy!\" The Toronto Star newspaper reported. Thornton's remarks about Canadians came near the end of his controversial interview with on the CBC's \"Q\" program, which began with the host's brief mention that, in addition to being the Boxmaster's lead singer and drummer, Thornton was an \"Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director.\" Thornton, apparently upset with any reference to his movie career, was unresponsive to Ghomeshi's questions until the men finally declared a truce to talk about music. Watch more about the controversy \u00bb . He \"simply elected not to engage with the interviewer because of the direction of the interview from the outset,\" Robinson told CNN. Video of the interview, which has been viewed by millions online, may leave the audience wondering whether this was a controlled performance by Thornton or a public breakdown that revealed true anger over a perceived insult of his music. Thornton promotes a mythology that his \"cosmic cowboy\" music came together years ago after a fight over coleslaw at a Los Angeles chicken restaurant. His long and successful career as an actor, director and screenwriter does not fit with his struggling musician story he tells in interviews about the Boxmasters.","highlights":"Band will rejoin tour Willie Nelson tour in Connecticut on Tuesday, publicist says .\nNews reportedly greeted with cheers at Friday night show in Montreal .\nThornton has been catching heat from Canadians for comment in radio interview .\nThornton said Canadian concert-goers were \"mashed potatoes with no gravy\"","id":"a82a4126797bbe77d79d2864fa20168c0dec1cdc"} -{"article":"MADISON COUNTY, Virginia (CNN) -- Amidst the tranquility of a fishing trip at the Rose River Farm in Madison County, a wounded warrior says he almost feels \"semi-normal again.\" Retired Navy Capt. Ed Nicholson's Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing helps rehabilitate wounded servicemembers. The amputee is one of about 1,000 servicemen and veterans who have reaped the benefits of the therapeutic art of fly-fishing, with the help of retired Navy Capt. Ed Nicholson. \"The demons of war, you just don't set them aside,\" says Nicholson, 67. \"But once you get out on the river, the serenity is incredibly healing.\" While recovering from cancer surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2004, Nicholson witnessed wounded and disabled men and women -- many of them amputees -- struggling with their injuries. \"Other than being in Vietnam and seeing people in the process of getting hurt, I never really had a full appreciation for the recovery part and what happened after they came home. My recovery was nothing compared to what they were facing. It planted the seed that maybe there's something I could do,\" Nicholson says. The solution was obvious to Nicholson, who says being an outdoorsman is in his blood: Get them out of the hospital and into nature. Through free classes and outings, Nicholson's organization, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, helps rehabilitate injured and disabled servicemembers and veterans. \"We would run these classes that would better prepare them to be fishermen when the weather got nice and we could move outside, start casting lessons and go fishing,\" he says. Nicholson and ty flying instructor John Colburn saw that the discipline of tying flies, which requires patience and training, benefited veterans recovering from injuries. And it helped them relax. \"You have a guy who lost a leg and we get him out there wading in a stream -- he gets a boost. Or a guy who lost an arm, we start him casting. He has a chance to use his new arm and actually do something that's enjoyable,\" says Nicholson. Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes . \"Ed [is] showing us that if you have the will, they will find a way,\" says Army Staff Sgt. Brian Mancini, who lost his right eye after being hit by an explosive device in Iraq in July 2007. \"It shows you that life's not over, it's only beginning.\" Watch Mancini describe how Nicholson's program helped his healing process \u00bb . One soldier with a brain injury says tying flies, building fly rods and casting have helped him with his motor skills. Others on the catch-and-release outing describe feeling normal for the first time in a long time. Watch wounded servicemen discuss the role of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing in their recovery \u00bb . \"Between the pain, the medication, the realization that their life has been changed, they're doing something that gives them a great deal of pleasure and that they can look forward to,\" Nicholson says. Watch Nicholson as he helps wounded soldiers through fly-fishing \u00bb . First Lt. Ferris Butler, an active participant in Project Healing Waters, agrees. \"If you compound losing body parts with losing friends, just getting in the water is a release,\" he says, adding that fishing gave him enhanced dexterity because it helped him learn to walk on prosthetics in the water. Since 2005, Nicholson's program has grown to more than 50 locations nationwide with \"more to come,\" he says. With support from The Federation of Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited, the group is establishing long-term relationships with hospital and military staff, participants and volunteers. Participants across the country can attend outings during the spring, summer and fall. An indoor component focuses on classroom activities. Nicholson, who rises early and spends the better part of his day running operations for his organization, once thought he'd spend his golden years enjoying his favorite pastimes: fishing and hunting. But he says he welcomes the direction his life has taken. \"I'm doing something that gives me as much satisfaction and gratification of anything that I've really done. I loved serving my country. I was proud to serve for 30 years. But I'm incredibly satisfied with what I'm doing now.\" Want to get involved? Check out Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing and see how to help.","highlights":"Retired Navy Capt. Ed Nicholson helps wounded servicemembers through fly-fishing .\nProject Healing Waters Fly Fishing aids the physical, emotional healing processes .\nSince 2005, Nicholson's program has grown to more than 50 locations nationwide .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"fc7d6925738b17fb38aed78adf9e4d22412e03d8"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man police say was driving drunk when he ran a red light and struck a car, killing a Major League Baseball pitcher and two others has been charged with murder. Fans gather around a memorial for Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart on Friday. Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, was charged with three counts of murder, driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crime, the Orange County district attorney's office announced Friday. Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was among those killed in the crash in Fullerton, California, early Thursday morning. Adenhart was beginning his first full season in the majors and had pitched his fourth Major League game hours earlier. Gallo, whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit, according to police, faces up to life in prison if convicted on all charges. According to the DA's office, Gallo was driving a minivan 65 mph in a 35 mph zone at about 12:35 a.m. Thursday. He was on probation and his license had been suspended after a previous drunk-driving charge. Watch Adenhart's agent describe his friend \u00bb . Authorities say he ran a red light and hit the car Adenhart was in, killing the pitcher, 20-year-old California State University student Courtney Stewart and law student Henry Pearson, 25. A fourth victim, 24-year-old John Wilhite, a former baseball player at California State, remained in critical condition Friday. A driver in a third car suffered minor injuries. Adenhart died at UC Irvine Medical Center, where he underwent surgery, according to spokesman John Murray. The Angels' game Thursday night with the Oakland A's was postponed at the direction of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. \"Major League Baseball is in mourning today upon the news of this tragedy that has taken Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others,\" Selig said in a statement that accompanied the announcement. \"Nick was just 22 years of age, with a wonderful life and career ahead of him.\" After the wreck, Gallo fled the scene, according to the district attorney. He was captured about 30 minutes later. Adenhart pitched in a game against the Oakland A's Wednesday night in Anaheim, California, making what was characterized as a \"brilliant effort\" despite the Angels' 6-4 loss, according to Major League Baseball's Web site, MLB.com. In his fourth major league start, Adenhart pitched a scoreless six innings, allowing seven hits, three walks and five strikeouts. \"The Angels family has suffered a tremendous loss today,\" Tony Reagins, the team's general manager, said in a written statement. \"We are deeply saddened and shocked by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nick's family, friends, loved ones and fans.\"","highlights":"Driver also faces charges of DUI and leaving the scene .\nAdenhart, 22, pitched six scoreless innings in Wednesday's game .\nThree people killed in crash early Thursday in Fullerton, California .","id":"5b52dd51f097dd9b8440348349ed6688a5b999cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former Utah policeman is a suspect in at least three of Monday's four rush-hour shootings near Dallas, Texas, including one of two fatal attacks, police said Tuesday. CNN affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City, Utah, provided this file photo of the Dallas suspect, Brian Smith. The suspect, Brian Smith, tried to commit suicide after the Monday-evening shootings and was in a hospital in serious condition, Dallas police detective Lt. Craig Miller said. Police used ballistic tests to link Smith, a Utah state police officer for 12 years, to the shootings in which one driver was killed, one was injured by shattered glass and one escaped uninjured, Dallas police detective Lt. Craig Miller said. Miller said it is unclear if Smith was involved in the other fatal shooting, which was the first attack of the evening. Four motorists were attacked along a three-mile stretch near and on the LBJ Freeway, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Dallas, on Monday evening, police said. The first attack, which happened in Garland, Texas, about 5:41 p.m., killed Jorge Lopez. Garland police said Lopez, 20, was sitting in his Nissan at a traffic light when a man in a pickup pulled alongside him and fired shots into his car, killing him. A few minutes after the Garland shooting and two miles away on LBJ Freeway, a gunman fired at two tractor-trailers. While one driver escaped injuries, William Scott Miller, 42, of Frankfort, Kentucky, was shot to death behind the wheel of a United Van Lines truck, police said. \"He was going to be traveling home,\" Craig Miller said. \"He was about to park his rig. He was going to get on a plane to fly to be with his wife and children for the Christmas season and then come back to this location.\" Miller called the truck driver a hero, saying he was able to control his rig before he died -- preventing other motorists from being hurt. The fourth attack came a mile west on LBJ Freeway when gunfire shattered the windshield of another tractor-trailer. The bullets missed the driver, but flying glass caused minor cuts, police said. Miller said video from the Garland shooting is available, and specialists were trying to enhance it to bring out details. Businesses along the other routes also may have video that will help police, he said. A friend of Lopez's said he was \"a straight-up good guy, never had problems with anybody, never started anything with anybody.\" \"So that's why this seems so out of the blue,\" Lopez's friend said.","highlights":"NEW: Former Utah state police officer named a suspect some of Monday's shootings .\nNEW: Police: Suspect tried to kill himself, was hospitalized in serious condition .\nTwo drivers were shot and killed, another wounded in Dallas rush hour Monday .","id":"78481995d5fbdebddf21258edb4ee247de59d1bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tornado descended on Murfreesboro, Tennessee Friday, killing two people and injuring another 30, an official said. Powerful tornado winds ripped through Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Friday, leaving a trail of destruction. Two people were critically injured by the tornado, which hit the city, located about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, around 1:40 p.m., Donnie Smith, public information officer with the Tennessee Department of Emergency Management in Nashville said. The search-and-rescue effort was continuing into the evening, Smith said, \"so it's possible that may not be all.\" Many homes were damaged, others were destroyed and power lines were down across Murfreesboro, said Randy White, a public information officer with Rutherford County Emergency Management. The bad weather began around noon, when a band of severe thunderstorms swept across the state from the southwest, Smith said. Elsewhere in the region, the town of Mena, Arkansas, is cleaning up after a tornado roared through, killing three people and damaging or destroying more than 100 homes, an Arkansas official said. The town looked like a \"war zone\" as soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard went house to house searching for victims of the twister that hit Thursday night, said Capt. Christopher Heathscott. About 50 soldiers also helped with security and food distribution. Gov. Mike Beebe planned to fly over Mena on Friday afternoon. Mena, population 6,000, took a heavy hit on the west side of town, as the storm swept through downtown before heading up state Highway 71, said Tommy Jackson from the state Department of Emergency Management. \"It looks like a war zone out here,\" said James Reeves, also from the department. Watch scenes of devastation in Mena \u00bb . The tornado damaged the county hospital, Mena City Hall, a middle school, churches, a library, the Masonic lodge and the courthouse -- which houses the 911 emergency dispatch center and a detention center, Reeves said. He said electricity and gas were out in the western half of the city. Two plants at an industrial park were destroyed, said reporter Charles Crowson of CNN affiliate KTHV-TV. He said utility crews were trying to stop a gas leak there. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told Crowson the county detention center was \"uninhabitable.\" There were 18 inmates in the jail at the time of the tornado, and they were moved to neighboring jurisdictions, he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . There were 24 reports of tornadoes in the area Thursday night, said CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, and wind gusts reached more than 70 mph. \"So a significant severe weather event last night, and we expect similar action later on today, although it's all moving to the east,\" he said Friday morning. \"It went from Oklahoma across the border toward Arkansas.\" Winds will continue to be gusty until later in the afternoon, Marciano said. As the storms moved east, thunderstorms were predicted, and there was a chance for more tornadoes. Large hail and damaging winds were predicted for the Southeast later Friday. In Mena, officials set up three shelters, but fewer than 50 people had sought refuge in them. In this rural community, most people are staying with friends and family, Reeves said. All three victims were elderly, officials said. A man and a woman died when houses collapsed, and another woman died after being struck by debris. Beebe sent 30 National Guard soldiers to the town Thursday, and 20 more are expected Friday. CNN's Melissa Roberts and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Tornado hits Murfreesboro, Tennessee Friday; 2 dead, 30 injured, official says .\nArkansas National Guard troops go house to house searching for tornado victims .\nTornado hits Mena, Arkansas, on Thursday; 3 people confirmed dead .\nCounty hospital, City Hall, courthouse were among buildings damaged by storm .","id":"d4d2e512a04fecb067cd7b4fcbec71b47a935f44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 93-year-old World War II medic who froze to death last month in his Bay City, Michigan, home left his entire estate to a local hospital, an estate attorney told CNN Wednesday. Martin Schur poses with his wife, Marian, in 1976. Local and state officials agree that Schur's death was avoidable. The attorney would not disclose the exact amount left behind by Martin Schur. But his nephew said his uncle indicated to family members two years ago that he had saved up more than a half-million dollars over the years. Schur and his wife, Marian, who died more than a year ago, did not have any children. \"I just know at one time he said he had over $600,000 in savings,\" said William Walworth. \"That's what he told me and my brother, and he was proud that he was able to save and build his estate up to that.\" Cathy Reder, an attorney negotiating on behalf of Bay Regional Medical Center and the Schur family, said she was filing paperwork in probate court Wednesday for the court to determine the validity of the will. A hearing has been set for March 17. Reder would not specify the amount left to the hospital, other than to say it's more than $1. \"The will leaves everything to Bay Medical Center,\" she said. The hospital had no immediate comment. Walworth said his uncle was a frugal man who hadn't eaten at a restaurant for over 30 years. \"He was very tight, and he was very frugal. But he did manage to save a lot of money.\" He said it's possible his uncle's estate could be less than $600,000, but he believes it's still \"sizable.\" \"Knowing my uncle, that's him,\" Walworth said. \"He loved his community. He loved Bay City, Michigan.\" He added, \"Hopefully his death is not in vain and we can learn from this, and he's still able to save lives. ... He was a very unique, special person in my life. I'm proud of what he was able to do in his life.\" He said he hopes his uncle's message will spur others to \"look out for their neighbor.\" The size of the estate -- if it's as large as the nephew believes -- adds another tragic twist to Schur's death. The power company limited his electricity because he owed about $1,000. Watch neighbor say the death is \"unforgivable\" \u00bb . Schur's death last month shocked Bay City, a town of about 37,000 on Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. The World War II veteran's frozen body was found in his home January 17, just four days after a device that regulates how much power he uses -- installed because of failure to pay -- shut off his power. A medical examiner said the temperature was 32 degrees in the house when Schur's body was found. The medical examiner told The Bay City Times that Schur died a \"slow, painful death.\" \"It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning,\" Dr. Kanu Virani told the paper. The Michigan State Police launched an investigation into Schur's death for possible criminal violations. \"We have to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again, whether it's Bay City or in any one of the cold weather states,\" Bay City Mayor Charles Brunner said last week. The death has prompted a review of Bay City Electric Light & Power's rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power. It also resulted in Bay City residents protesting Monday to the city about its handling of the whole situation. A neighbor who lives down the street called Schur's death \"unforgivable.\" \"This can't be allowed to happen in this country,\" said Jerome Anderson. Walworth said he believes his uncle's death was \"preventable.\" \"It should never have happened. It's a tragic loss,\" he said. \"I had a lot of fond memories of my uncle, and that's the type of memory I don't want to have: Him freezing to death.\" Utility officials said Schur owed about $1,000 resulting in a \"limiter\" being put on his home. Limiters are devices that cut power as a warning for people who haven't paid their bills. Limiters can be reset to restore a lesser degree of power until a bill payment is worked out. In Schur's case, the limiter was never reset, and it's unclear whether he knew how to do that. Schur had been living alone since his wife died, Walworth said. Unlike private utilities regulated by the state, Bay City runs and oversees its own utilities and therefore doesn't fall under Michigan's public service commission. By law, Michigan requires private companies to prohibit cutting off service to senior citizens between November and April. Seniors must register for the program. The city has begun questioning whether its rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power need a major overhaul. The utility has stopped its practice of cutting power to customers who don't pay their bills. The utility also has removed all \"limiters\" on homes. Walworth said someone should have looked at Schur's payment history and made direct contact to see whether something was wrong. He's hoping the nation will learn from his uncle's death. \"Hopefully, some good can come out of this. I'm still an optimist.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Martin Schur, 93, froze to death in his home last month; leaves estate to hospital .\nAttorney won't disclose amount; relative says it's likely in excess of $500,000 .\n\"Hopefully his death is not in vain and we can learn from this,\" nephew says .\nThe death has prompted a state investigation into the manner in which he died .","id":"306bdce94136cb52a66de8c64bd7f41e824a4113"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thursday brings one of the biggest slates of Hollywood entertainment to open on Christmas Day in many years. Tom Cruise stars as would-be Hitler assassin Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in the World War II drama \"Valkyrie.\" Stars such as Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Adam Sandler are featured in a slew of big-budget movies hoping to lure people into theaters this holiday season. Here are the top five movies opening Thursday: . 1. \"Valkyrie\" -- Tom Cruise stars in the true story of a German military officer who conspires to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Cruise plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a proud military man who realizes that Hitler must be stopped before Germany and Europe collapse under Nazi rule. Joining Cruise are three-time Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh as Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow and twice-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson as Gen. Friedrich Fromm. United Artists is releasing the film. 2. \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" -- Brad Pitt stars in this fantasy drama about a man who ages backward. He's born in his 80s and then gets younger as the years pass. \"Button\" is based on the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and runs two hours and 47 minutes. The cast includes Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett, who is creating Oscar buzz this year as well for her portrayal of Daisy in \"Button.\" The film, released by Paramount Pictures, already has won several film critics' awards. 3. \"Marley & Me\" -- Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston learn life lessons from an out-of-control canine they decide to adopt. This comedy-drama is adapted from the best-selling novel by John Grogan. Some audiences expecting a feel-good comedy such as \"Turner & Hooch\" or \"Beethoven\" may be surprised by this painfully realistic portrayal that could leave audiences teary-eyed at the end. The supporting cast includes Alan Arkin and Kathleen Turner. The PG-rated film gets a 20th Century Fox release. 4. \"Bedtime Stories\" -- Funny guy Adam Sandler shoots for the family crowd with this fantasy comedy about a hotel handyman who tells his niece and nephew a bedtime story, only to find out that his fantasy stylings are coming true. Sandler's film, which also stars Guy Pearce, Courteney Cox and Keri Russell, is getting mixed reviews so far. It's rated PG for mild rude humor and mild language. 5. \"The Spirit\" -- Based on a graphic novel about a masked crusader, \"The Spirit\" will cater to the so-called fanboys who hope the film's PG-13 rating will push the envelope on violence and other cool stuff. iReport.com: Will you see any of the new movies on tap during the holidays? Gabriel Macht plays Denny Colt, aka The Spirit, in this story of a man who fakes his death so he can fight a coldblooded killer known as the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). Eva Mendes is along for the ride, which could be a plus for the film's desired demographic of young men 13 to 21. Lionsgate is distributing.","highlights":"Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt among group of stars with films opening on Christmas Day .\n\"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" already is generating Oscar buzz .\n\"Valkyrie\" and \"The Spirit\" expected to appeal to action-movie fans .\nFamily films include \"Marley & Me\" and \"Bedtime Stories\"","id":"b48cc7c7596cb5291ffd1475042ba306de3597b2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Members of the international community have welcomed Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the United States -- and the first African-American to take leadership of his country. Barack and Michelle Obama pictured before the inauguration Tuesday in Washington. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said: \"I believe President Obama will exercise outstanding leadership and achieve great success, leading his distinguished team on each field including foreign policy, national security, economy, environment\/energy, in overcoming the serious economic situations and other difficult challenges. \"I am confident that Japan and the United States, which are in the position of leading the world, can create a better future, by putting together our expertise, will, passion and strategy. With this conviction, I intend to work hand in hand with President Obama, to further strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance, and make efforts towards the peace and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the world.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement: \"With your election, the American people has vigorously expressed its confidence in progress and in the future, as well as its resolve to have an open, new, strong and caring America that you embody. \"As you are entering office, I should like to convey to you, on my behalf and on the behalf of the people of France, my very best wishes for great success at the head of the American nation.\" UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking from Downing Street, said the new president was a \"man of great vision and moral purpose\" in comments reported by the UK Press Association. \"The whole world is watching the inauguration of President Obama, witnessing a new chapter in both American history and the world's history. He's not only the first black American president but he sets out with the determination to solve the world's problems.\" Watch world reaction to Obama's inauguration . In a statement Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: \"The greatest democracy in the world has again proven that it is a beacon and example for many countries. The entire State of Israel rejoices with the United States and welcomes President Obama, who took the oath of office this evening. \"Barack Obama's journey to the White House has impressed and inspired the entire world. I am convinced that the United States' deep and abiding ties with Israel will strengthen further. The values of democracy, brotherhood and freedom that constitute the building blocks of American society are also shared by Israeli society, together with the faith in man's power and ability to change and influence his surroundings. \"We wish the incoming President success in his office and are certain that we will be full partners in advancing peace and stability in the Middle East.\" In a speech to mark Australia Day, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: \"I believe from everything I have seen, read and heard and from the conversations that I have had with him that the American people have chosen well in their new president.\" Calling Barack Obama \" the hope of our time,\" Rudd added that \"Australia as always stands ready to work with America in the great challenges that lie ahead.\" Mwai Kibaki, president of Kenya, birthplace of Obama's father, said: \"On behalf of the government and the people of Kenya and on my own behalf, I extend our message of best wishes on the auspicious occasion of your inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. \"On this special day we recall the remarkable journey you have traveled to become the leader of your great country. Through that journey you have inspired many young and old people, not only in America but around the world with a strong message of hope. ... \"We, the people of Kenya, cherish the many years of bilateral ties with the U.S.A. and look forward to even stronger relations in areas that are mutually beneficial to our two countries.\" Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said: \"In my conversations with Senator Barack Obama before the elections and President-elect Obama after his election, it was made clear that the special relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines will continue unabated. Our ties run deep. Over two and a half million Americans are of Filipino descent.\" Mexican President Felipe Calderon said: \"I want to wish him, sincerely, ... great success in the work as the new President of the United States, Barack Obama.\" Calderon committed to work together on problems shared by the United States and Mexico and said that work Obama does to improve the U.S. economy will also be a boon to Mexico. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, visiting Gaza and Israel following the three-week conflict, told reporters: \"I sincerely hope that President Obama will take as a matter of priority these Middle East policies.\" South Africa's former president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter to Obama posted on the Nelson Mandela Foundation Web site: \"Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done. Amidst all of the human progress made over the last century the world in which we live remains one of great divisions, conflict, inequality, poverty and injustice. \"Amongst many around the world a sense of hopelessness had set in as so many problems remain unresolved and seemingly incapable of being resolved. You, Mister President, have brought a new voice of hope that these problems can be addressed and that we can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.\"","highlights":"Leaders around the world offer their congratulations to Obama inauguration .\nFrench president: U.S. has vigorously expressed confidence in progress .\nUK PM Brown: New president is a \"man of great vision and moral purpose\"\nKenya president: We recall your remarkable journey to become leader .","id":"917d7fcb842bf247161d5ac3b0632782e3aa92a2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama painted a bleak economic picture of the country Saturday, hours before he met with his economic team. President Obama delivers his weekly radio and Internet address, which focused on the economy. \"We begin this year and this administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action,\" he said in his weekly radio and Internet address. \"Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last 26 years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits,\" Obama said. The president pleaded for urgent action, saying, \"If we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.\" Watch Obama's weekly address \u00bb . Obama's remarks came as he is lobbying for quick congressional passage of an $825 billion stimulus package to pump up the economy. Watch the partisan politics involved \u00bb . The president revealed more details of his stimulus package, which he said would add more than 3,000 miles of electric lines to transport alternative energy across the country. Obama also said the plan would save taxpayers $2 billion by making three-quarters of federal buildings more energy efficient and would \"save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.\" The White House also released a report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which calls for greater investment in Pell Grants for college students, a $2,500 college tax credit for 4 million college students and the tripling of the number of fellowships in science to help spur innovation. Obama promised full accountability for government spending. After a stimulus bill is passed, a Web site, www.recovery.gov, will show taxpayers how their money is being spent, he said. In the Republicans' response, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers criticized the Democratic plan. Watch the GOP radio address . \"The $800 billion plan largely ignores the fact that we cannot keep borrowing and spending our way back to prosperity,\" said McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington. \"Instead of letting American families keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars, this plan proposes to spend additional money -- billions -- on such programs as new government cars, global warming studies and a billion extra dollars for the U.S. Census.\" Balancing the budget and enacting tax cuts \"are central to moving our economy forward,\" she said. Watch what Republicans want \u00bb . The president is calling for the plan, which he hopes will create up to 4 million jobs over the next two years, to be passed by Congress and at his desk for signing by February 16, which is Presidents Day.","highlights":"New Web site, www.recovery.gov, will show how money is spent, Obama says .\nGOP rebuttal criticizes Democratic plan's priorities .\nObama uses weekly address to press for passage of plan .\nPackage includes new electric lines, more funding for college students .","id":"e97128932ea29463b870b6adb8458561314744f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There is a lot of excitement around the potential of \"stereoscopic\" movies (\"3-D\" to you and me). Much of it has been drummed up by director James Cameron's forthcoming blockbuster \"Avatar\" and Dreamworks boss Jeffery Katzenberg, who is releasing more than a dozen 3-D pictures this year. The title character looks over a note from her \"other parents\" in \"Coraline.\" After seeing \"Beowulf\" and \"Journey to the Center of the Earth,\" two recent entries in the 3-D sweepstakes, it was easy to conclude that this fad wouldn't last any longer than it did last time around, in the 1950s. But after seeing the captivating \"Coraline,\" the first stereoscopic stop-motion animated feature, I've changed my mind. Maybe this really is the next phase for motion pictures -- and what's more, maybe that's not such a bad thing. In the hands of \"Nightmare Before Christmas\" director Henry Selick, 3-D isn't a gimmick or the ocular equivalent of an obstacle course. It's an aesthetic enhancement, layering the story and literally bringing depth and texture to the visuals. Adapted by Selick from Neil Gaiman's novella (the same Neil Gaiman who co-scripted \"Beowulf,\" incidentally), \"Coraline\" is a contemporary fairy tale about a bored, blue-haired 11-year-old kicking around a big old house in rainy, empty Oregon. Her parents are writers. They basically leave her to her own devices, so when Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) discovers a diminutive door hidden behind the wallpaper, her mom (Teri Hatcher) agrees to fish out the key, revealing ... a brick wall. It's only at night, when she dreams, that the door magically opens to a tunnel, and Coraline passes through to the house next door: a fabulous mirror image of her own home, right down to an identical mom and dad. Identical, except that these parents give her pancakes, presents and their full attention. That, and the buttons stitched into their skulls where their eyes should be. Any parent will immediately recognize that this \"other mother\" and \"other father\" are too good to be true (they're prettier and more talented, and they obviously don't work for a living), but Coraline is entranced by the dazzling, super-saturated night-world, with its garden of snapping dragons, a circus of performing mice and all the treats she can eat. In her dreams, the grass isn't just greener -- it's emerald. In one of Selick's embellishments on the novel, there's a facsimile of the only other child in the valley. He's an irritating boy named Wybie, who's very much improved in his all-smiling, mute incarnation, in Coraline's opinion. At least until he musters up a scowl ... Selick's movie can be intense and even disturbing; it could easily freak out impressionable adults, let alone their offspring. But I prefer to think of it as a feel-good movie for overworked parents. There's also a redoubtable talking cat (voiced by Keith David) to ensure that everything will come out all right. Tapping into primal fantasies and fears, the film also echoes classic fantasy stories from the Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum. The tunnel suggests the rabbit hole Alice fell down, and the crazy mirror manner in which the \"other\" world reflects back on reality reminds us of the doubling of actors in the film version of Oz. \"Coraline\" isn't perfect. I could have done without either the downstairs neighbors -- two elderly showgirls -- or the acrobatic Russian barker upstairs (a little carny goes a long way). But the whimsy is always offset with comic mischief and the menace of Hatcher's genuinely creepy Other Mother. The model work is extraordinary in its eccentric, jury-rigged genius. A shower spouts rusty water -- fabricated from plastic, apparently. And if you examine the blooms in Other Father's garden too closely, you might see they have been fashioned from popcorn. You can't taste it -- not yet -- but in its 3-D incarnation (about half the movie's release prints will be in traditional 2-D), you'll feel you could reach out and touch. With an dreamily sinister and seductive score by Bruno Coulais, \"Coraline\" never stops taking artistic risks. I hope there's a brave enough audience out there willing to take the plunge. \"Coraline\" runs 100 minutes and is rated PG. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Coraline\" makes the most of its 3-D -- and its clever, creative storytelling .\nMovie is based on Neil Gaiman story about girl who finds new set of parents .\n\"Coraline\" is intense but also whimsical and wonderful .","id":"6fc217ed216b0004a06112f2c2cd3b1ebd0abab1"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Key Illinois Democratic legislators are circulating a letter urging support for the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested this week on federal corruption charges relating in part to the selection of President-elect Barack Obama's successor as a U.S. senator. Barack Obama says he has never spoken with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich about the vacant Senate seat. State Rep. John Fritchey, head of the House Civil Judiciary Committee, sent the letter Thursday asking Democratic colleagues to say by Friday whether they support a move for impeachment and would like to be added as a co-sponsor of legislation. Blagojevich also is a Democrat. \"Faced with a significant budget shortfall, a national recession, and a vacant United States Senate seat, we cannot afford to allow Illinois to operate without effective leadership in the [Illinois] executive branch,\" said the letter, also signed by Reps. Thomas Holbrook, David Miller and James Brosnahan. \"Simply put, it is imperative to replace Gov. Blagojevich as soon as is practicable.\" The letter said the impeachment filing was being prepared, and the lawmakers said they expected the process -- the state House would bring charges against Blagojevich and he would be tried by the state Senate -- would take \"a matter of weeks rather than months.\" The lawmakers' move coincided with increasing calls for Blagojevich's resignation. President-elect Barack Obama called again Thursday for Blagojevich to step down, saying the embattled governor can no longer effectively serve the people of Illinois. Watch as Obama says Senate seat belongs to the people \u00bb . \"I hope that the governor himself comes to the conclusion that he can no longer effectively serve and that he does resign,\" Obama said, speaking before announcing his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Obama said he was as \"appalled and disappointed as anyone\" by the allegations against the Democratic governor, and said he was confident his staff was not involved in the alleged scandal. Federal officials said Blagojevich was looking to sell or trade Obama's open seat in the U.S. Senate. Obama said he had never spoken to the governor on the subject, adding he was confident that \"no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat.\" He had asked his staff to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor's office about the vacancy, he said. \"This Senate seat does not belong to any politician to trade. It belongs to the people of Illinois, and they deserve the best possible representation,\" he said. \"They also deserve to know that any vacancy will be filled in an appropriate way so that whoever is sent to Washington is going to be fighting for the people of Illinois.\" Earlier Thursday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she is prepared to go to the Illinois Supreme Court to have Blagojevich declared unfit to serve if he does not resign. Explainer: Federal complaint against Blagojevich \u00bb . \"Obviously the easiest way for us to move on in the state of Illinois is for Gov. Blagojevich to do the right thing for the people and to resign,\" she told CNN's \"American Morning.\" She added, \"If he fails to, the two other options are obviously the Legislature moving forward on impeachment, or I have the opportunity to actually go to our Illinois Supreme Court and ask them to declare, basically, that our governor is unable to serve,\" she said. In that case, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, would become acting governor, she said. Madigan said she won't wait long to take action. \"We would like a signal from the Legislature if they're going to move forward on impeachment proceedings. ... I think there are obviously numerous members of the Legislature calling for impeachment proceedings,\" she said, noting that the Legislature, which is adjourned, will meet Monday to discuss the possibility of holding a special election for Obama's successor. Fritchey, in the letter to Democratic lawmakers, commended Madigan's willingness to go to the Supreme Court, but said \"both the duration as well as the outcome of such a proceeding are inherently uncertain and speculative.\" Watch what was in the complaint against Blagojevich \u00bb . \"We would also note the comments of the attorney general indicating her support of impeachment proceedings as an appropriate course of action at this time,\" the letter said. Quinn said at a news conference earlier Thursday that the governor had lost the confidence of the people. \"I think the governor has one duty right now and that's the duty to resign,\" he said. Should he became governor, Quinn indicated he might lean toward appointing a successor to Obama's seat, saying an election would be expensive and time-consuming. \"Time is of the essence for all of us in America right now, to make sure we get our economy on the straight path to recovery,\" he said. Blagojevich -- who is free on his own recognizance -- returned to work Wednesday, his 52nd birthday. He has not commented on the charges, but his lawyer, Sheldon Sorosky, told reporters Tuesday night that his client \"feels he didn't do anything wrong.\" Sorosky said, \"He hopes the people of Illinois have faith in him, because he will be vindicated.\" White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Thursday that President Bush believes the governor's arrest marks a \"very serious situation,\" and he believes the charges are \"astounding.\" Some details of the alleged scandal became clearer Wednesday, as a law enforcement official close to the investigation identified Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. as the person referred to in the federal criminal complaint as Senate Candidate 5. Of the six candidates mentioned in the complaint, Candidate 5 is the only one whom Blagojevich said engaged in discussion through an emissary about possibly raising money for the governor in exchange for the Senate position. Jackson firmly denied wrongdoing at a Wednesday news conference. \"I reject and denounce 'pay to play' politics and have no involvement whatsoever in any wrongdoing,\" he said. \"I did not initiate or authorize anyone at any time to promise anything to Gov. Blagojevich on my behalf. I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, to plead my case or to propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat. Period.\" The law enforcement official said there was no evidence -- other than the governor's taped remarks -- that Jackson or others on his behalf ever approached the governor in an improper way. The official also emphasized that no conversations with Jackson were picked up on bugs or wiretaps, and there is no evidence that he was aware of anything improper. According to the complaint, Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris -- who was also arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges -- were \"conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits\" for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a U.S. senator to replace Obama. Federal investigators also allege the two were trying to have Chicago Tribune editorial board members fired by leveraging state assistance to the parent company of the newspaper, the Tribune Company, in its sale of Wrigley Field. Explainer: Illinois governor is in hot water \u00bb . The governor and his chief of staff are also accused of sullying other areas of state business: trying to rescind $8 million of state funds to Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital because the hospital's chief executive officer had not contributed $50,000 to Blagojevich, and expecting a highway contractor to raise $500,000 in contributions in exchange for money for a tollway project. \"Because of the unimaginable allegations that were in the federal complaint, it really calls into question absolutely everything that the governor has authority to do,\" Madigan said Thursday on CNN's \"Situation Room.\" She said she had spoken to the governor only once this year, and perhaps not at all last year. Watch whom Blagojevich has considered \u00bb . \"That sounds incredible, because I do serve as attorney general, so I'm the lawyer for the state, but we've been well aware for years that there are problems with this governor and so I haven't had anything to do with him,\" she said. She did not elaborate. Quinn said earlier this week that he had not spoken to the governor since summer 2007. Blagojevich and Harris are each charged with a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and a count of solicitation of bribery, authorities said. iReport.com: Do you trust your leaders? The count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the count of solicitation of bribery carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. CNN's Ed Henry and Ed Hornick contributed to this report.","highlights":"Illinois legislators circulate letter to garner support for impeachment .\nBarack Obama repeats call for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to step down .\nPresident Bush believes the charges against Blagojevich are \"astounding\"\nIllinois attorney general says resigning is \"right thing\" for governor to do .","id":"ff14c451cae58f4c6e73ecbfc64995ae4a5013a2"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Grammy-winning rapper Coolio was charged Tuesday with possession of cocaine and a smoking device, and battery against an airport screener who allegedly found the illegal drugs in his luggage, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. Coolio's \"Gangsta's Paradise\" was used in the movie \"Dangerous Minds.\" Coolio -- whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr. -- was arrested Friday while attempting to board a flight at Los Angeles International Airport, the office said in a written statement. \"At one point, Ivey allegedly grabbed a screener's arm to prevent the search,\" the statement said. Coolio, 45, was freed on bail and ordered to appear in court for arraignment April 3, it said. He is best known for his 1995 hip-hop hit \"Gangsta's Paradise.\" Efforts to reach his publicist were unsuccessful.","highlights":"Grammy winner Coolio arrested at Los Angeles International Airport .\nHe is accused of possessing illegal drugs, paraphernalia .\nPolice say he grabbed screener's arm to prevent search of luggage .","id":"8c1d02cf04a80b4fc0d1ef1fe51db1a254f9917e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Annie Lennox has incredible eyes. Annie Lennox's new album, a best-of, will be her last with Sony. They're a translucent blue-green, both kind and inviting in one glance, then piercing and all-knowing in another. At 54, Lennox's orbs are as captivating today as they were when they stared at us from under that fiery orange crew cut in the music video for the Eurythmics hit \"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).\" That was 1983. Yes, Lennox's Eurythmics days seem like a lifetime ago for the Scotland-born singer-songwriter, especially when you consider the successful solo career she's enjoyed since her partnership with Dave Stewart. It's that body of work -- songs like 'Why\" and \"No More 'I Love You's' \" that are showcased on her newest album, \"The Annie Lennox Collection.\" It's Lennox's fifth solo outing, and her final album with her record label of 30 years, Sony Music Entertainment. \"It's like a demarcation line in a way because there is that body of work to look back on in retrospect,\" says Lennox. \"And the future is ahead of me and that's very interesting because I'm really not sure exactly what that's going to mean logistically ... how that's going to pan out. But I'm very excited about it because of Internet technology.\" Watch Lennox talk about catharsis \u00bb . Lennox, who's won Grammys, BRIT Awards and an Academy Award (for co-writing \"Into the West\" from \"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King\"), says she's become somewhat of a voracious blogger, using her MySpace page and official Web site not only as a repository for her musical work, but also to lend a voice to her humanitarian efforts. In 2007, Lennox formed the SING Campaign, a nonprofit initiative to help fight the HIV pandemic in Africa. The initiative has its own anthem, called \"SING,\" which features vocals from Madonna and Celine Dion among others, and is included on Lennox's new album. She also recorded two new tracks to celebrate the release, one a cover of Irish band Ash's hit song \"Shining Light.\" \"It's one of those incredible anthemic songs that just stay with you,\" she says. \"It's like when you heard Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah.' It's almost like a revelation when you hear it.\" Lennox spoke to CNN about tapping into her inner divas to make those theatrical music videos, the pitfalls of fame and why she celebrates her naivet\u00e9. CNN: Who is your \"shining light\"? Annie Lennox: Ordinary people who don't necessarily have the spotlight shone on them, who do extraordinary things. Those people always inspire me. A lot of people that are working in nongovernmental organizations inspire me very much, because I think those people are really risking life and limb to make a difference to people's lives in really impossible circumstances. And they really give me the sense that if they can do that, I can do something, too. CNN: How do you feel about where you are in life right now? Lennox: Of course now I'm in that middle-age place, age-wise, and youth is no longer really something that I'm a part of anymore. And that started happening for me when I was about 40, to be honest with you. I had my kids and my focus went elsewhere. And I think I've changed so much through having children ... inside myself. It's been a kind of evolution and a maturity. And that has informed the SING Campaign a lot, because my focus is really on women. ... I understand what it is for a woman to want to protect their children and give them the best they can. And so I identify with that. ... I can let go of some of the things I was maybe focused on when I was younger and I'm focused on different things. CNN: Over the years your music videos have served as an outlet to explore different personas. Is that a cathartic experience for you? Lennox: Performance feels quite cathartic, to be honest with you. It's a good feeling. And songwriting is cathartic because you have something you want to express. ... Ultimately when you've completed that songwriting process there is a sense of yes ... completion. It's out. It's expressed. It's done. And then you can communicate it to other people in performance. CNN: You come across as extremely fearless in your videos. Yet you've said as a person you're quite shy. You don't seem shy to me. Lennox: No I'm not shy right now, but I can be quite shy. It depends on the circumstances. ... Shyness is actually quite crippling. When one is shy it's not helpful. But a lot of being on stage has given me that opportunity to go beyond my normal persona. CNN: Which music video are you most proud of? Lennox: Quite a few. I think that \"Broken Glass\" is just ... it's hilarious. A lot of the things I do have got humor in them. But the fact that we had John Malkovich who came in and Hugh Laurie who was there ... we had a big cast. CNN: A lot of your songs are about pain and failed relationships. Do you still feel that you have a lot to learn about love? Lennox: I think we all do. I think the world needs to be a far more loving place. And I think we are confused between erotic love [and] unconditional love. I think our sexuality is a very different thing from our love. ... We are a society fixated with sexuality and it can be very cruel. When the love, and the respect and the consideration [are] missing, people live very isolated existences. CNN: What has fame taught you? Lennox: I think fame for fame's sake is a very toxic thing. ... And people in this society have this idea that they wanna be famous, and they don't know what for. And they pursue \"celebrity\" for itself. I would say that without something to offer, whether it be that you're an actor, you have a craft, you have something to offer people, if you're a writer, a painter, a musician ... when it's just about you and your actual life it's a little bit cannibalistic. The industry of celebrity is quite a savage one and when you fall foul of it, and your privacy is so brutally invaded ... you may be having difficulties in your own life as we all do ... and all the images of you, your dogs, your children, the inside of your house ... they're all splattered across every front page, I think that's [a] very unhealthy place to be. And I think it's sad that people caught it so vociferously. CNN: Well you obviously raised two children. How difficult was it to shield them from your fame? Lennox: It hasn't been too difficult. Part of my work is public, but I make a distinction between that and who I am as a person in private. ... I was very careful that ... I wasn't telling stories to gossip papers, and showing my life and [my children] were gently kept away from that. CNN: Fame also serves as a useful platform, and you've been very involved with various charities, notably HIV\/AIDS. Do you ever feel frustrated that you you're not making as big a difference as you would like? Lennox: I had to think about this very carefully because I understand that there are so many problems in the world. Infinitely. And there always will be. That will never change, no. ... And if you make this decision to get involved, don't think that there's just an end result and that's what you're aiming for. No, it's the day-to-day commitment. It's the small steps that really count, in my opinion. CNN: I've read that you consider yourself to be quite naive. Is that still true? Lennox: I still have an aspect of naivet\u00e9, and I think it's a valuable thing, because if I was jaded and cynical 100 percent as I could be, you know I would be less human and I think my acknowledgment that I can be naive is fine. It's part of being human.","highlights":"New Annie Lennox CD is a best-of collection; it's her last album with Sony .\nLennox says she's changed a great deal from the Eurythmics days .\nSinger very much involved in AIDS prevention, motherhood issues .","id":"9b986a44799c41672d4d4c364a3076359eaaa820"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Donald Trump, businessman and CEO of The Trump Organization, knows a little something about money. Donald Trump says President Obama is trying to solve the nation's economic woes, but it's \"trial and error.\" Trump spoke with CNN's Larry King about whether there should be executive pay limits, if there should be a stimulus plan and when there could be an end to the economic downturn. The following is an edited portion of the interview. Larry King: Is Obama right or wrong to go after these executives with salary caps? Donald Trump: Well, I think he's absolutely right. Billions of dollars is being given to banks and others. You know, once you start using taxpayer money, it's a whole new game. So I absolutely think he's right. King: What about the whole concept of bailouts? Trump: Well, it's a little bit different. A lot of people are not in favor of bailouts. You know, we talked about all the different things going on in this country. Let's face it, Larry, we are in a depression. If they didn't do the bailout, you would be in depression No. 2 and maybe just as big as depression No. 1, so they really had to do something. The problem is they're giving millions and billions of dollars to banks and the banks aren't loaning it. If you are a prime customer of a bank and if you need 10 cents, you can't get it. The banks are out of business. They're not loaning. Now, billions of dollars has been given. They're supposed to be loaning out that money and they're using it for other purposes, so it is a real mess. King: If you were in the Senate, would you vote for the stimulus plan? Trump: Well, I'd vote for a stimulus plan. I'm not sure that all of the things in there are appropriate. Some of the little toys that they have are not really appropriate, and they're a little surprising that they seem to want it, because the publicity on it has been terrible. I would certainly vote for a stimulus, but I would really vote for banks having to loan out the money because they're not doing that. King: In your adult career, have you ever seen it worse? Trump: No, this is the worst ever. This is the worst I've ever seen. 1990 was a bad period of time, but this is far worse, and this is worse on a really global basis. I'm looking at different countries. Every country is bad. Now they're blaming us because of what happened. You know, why not blame the United States? But every country is in trouble. King: Can you put the blame anywhere? Trump: Well, look, it's something that, to a certain extent, happens. You go up, you go down. You have recessions. If you just look at the charts over the period of 150 years, you've had good times (and) you've had bad times. Certainly, there's been a lot of greed. There's been a lot of stupidity. You know, like I say, today the banks don't have money, they don't loan money. But if you went to a bank two years ago and you wanted a $300 million loan, they'd say 'No, we don't want to do that, but we'll give you $400 million,' so I guess, to a certain extent, that's part of the problem. King: If you had the power, if you could wield, what would you do? Trump: Well, the biggest problem we have is it's trial and error, Larry. I mean we've never had anything like this before. It is absolute trial and error. They're trying. The new president is trying. Bush left him with a mess -- a total mess in many different ways. I really think he's doing the best he can, but it is trial and error. They try something, if it works, great. If it doesn't work -- and the problem is you don't really know if it's going to work for quite some time. If it's really wrong -- and it could be wrong -- we're going to really have a mess in two years.","highlights":"Donald Trump says executives should have caps on their salaries .\nTrump: 'We are in a depression'\nBanks are getting billions, but they aren't loaning money to people, Trump says .\nTrump: Obama is \"doing the best he can, but it is trial and error\"","id":"d83cc14a481a8c127801df4cbbcee0854eb40cc7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elephant seals equipped with electronic tags and robotic mini submarines using sonar were just two projects during the International Polar Year (IPY) that aimed to investigate the effects of global warming in polar regions. An elephant seal with a custom-designed electronic tag. The tags fell off when the animals molted. The fourth IPY, which began in March 2007 and actually covered two full years, ended last month, after 160 scientific projects were undertaken by researchers from over 60 countries. A joint project by the International Council for Science (ICSW) and World Meteorological Organization. (WMO), the IPY hoped to spearhead efforts to better monitor and understand the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The project had international funding of about US$ 1.2 billion over the two-year period. \"The International Polar Year 2007\/2008 came at a crossroads for the planet's future,\" said Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of WMO in a press statement. \"The new evidence resulting from polar research will strengthen the scientific basis on which we build future actions.\" Researchers found that in the Arctic during the summers of 2007 and 2008, the minimum extent of year-round sea ice decreased to its lowest level since satellite records began 30 years ago. According to a report published by the IPY organizing committee in February, their research indicates that global warming is affecting Antarctica in ways not previously identified. Other evidence of climate change came from IPY research vessels that found warming waters in the Southern Ocean and an increase in melting ice that is creating fresher bottom water around the coast of Antarctica. Among efforts to study the effects of climate change on Antarctica, was aNorwegian Polar Institute project to study marine mammals. Custom-designed tags were attached to elephant seals to study the animals' habits, although researcher realized the tags could also help with field research on climate change. The electronic tags -- which fell off when the seals molted -- sent back data on temperature and salinity the oceans around Antarctica, particularly around the Fimbul Ice Shelf in east Antarctica. While ice-shelf melt has been recorded in the west of Antarctica, scientists are concerned that it could happen in the east as well. Another project to study the underside of an Antarctic glacier deployed an autonomous robot submarine. The team from the U.S. and British Antarctic Survey sent the \"Autosub\" on six missions to study the Pine Island Glacier and how changes in ocean temperature were affecting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Using sonar, the submarine picked its way around the glacier and sent back data that created three-dimensional maps that scientists used to determine where and how the warmth of the ocean waters was melting the glacier's base. \"If [the West Antarctic Ice Sheet] were to melt completely, global sea levels would rise by as much as 5 meters,\" said Stan Jacobs, the U.S. lead scientist on the project. \"Because so little is known about ice-sheet behavior, this research will take us a step further in understanding how ice sheets will contribute to sea-level rise.\"","highlights":"Scientists using robot submarines and elephant seals equipped with electronic tags .\nThe projects' aim is to study effects of climate change on Antarctica .\nThe International Polar Year ended last month after two years of research .\nThe IPY featured 160 scientific projects by researchers from over 60 countries .","id":"c8d985687532f2b544e03f79580d961758876af3"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lankan soldiers have seized a key rebel stronghold after launching a surprise attack early Sunday morning, the head of Sri Lanka's army announced. Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka says a key Tamil town has been taken in a national TV broadcast Sunday. Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. \"Our troops fought their way through a 40 km (25 mile) thick jungle track,\" Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address on Sunday. \"This is the long awaited victory and I am happy to say that our heroic forces today captured the Mullaittivu town after 12 years,\" the Sri Lanka Army chief said. There is no confirmation from the rebels that the strategic garrison has been overtaken. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 and established a military garrison there, according to the government. In recent days, the military has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The re-capture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea. \"The area that the LTTE has dominated has shrank phenomenally,\" Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, C.R Jayasinghe, told CNN. \"They lost... about 90 percent of what they had.\" Despite major government gains, critics point to ongoing civilian casualties resultant from the conflict. \"This is an important strategic success for the army, but literally tens of thousands of people, children, are in the line of fire,\" United Nations spokesman James Elder said in a phone conversation Sunday. \"Some Sri Lankan U.N. staff are trapped there,\" he added. \"Convoys are going to the area, delivering emergency supplies, but these are not sufficient for the number of people in need.\" Sri Lankan authorities are barring journalists and humanitarian aid workers from areas where heavy fighting is taking place. Amnesty International spokesman Shuransu Mishra estimated that \"over a quarter of a million of the population, mostly Tamils, are trapped between the two sides.\" The organization says greater access and protection for aid workers and journalists are needed as news agencies struggle to report an accurate picture of the conflict. \"The Sri Lankan authorities are doing little to ensure the safety of the country's media, or to prosecute those responsible for murdering or attacking them,\" Amnesty International spokeswoman Yolanda Foster said in a written statement on Friday. \"They (Sri Lankan authorities) are also directly responsible for subjecting journalists to harassment and interrogation,\" she said. At least 14 journalists have been killed since the start of 2006, according to the statement. Others have been driven from the country by death threats, or in fear of detention and torture by government authorities, it said.","highlights":"Rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996, established a military garrison there .\nMilitary making significant progress to recapture rebel strongholds .\nEarlier this month troops regained control of key northern town of Elephant Pass .\nTamils want independent homeland, war since 1983 has left more than 65,000 dead .","id":"174cf1e044a2493cc998cbed0c8ea063f560560f"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Instead of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, celebrity-seekers at Tuesday's Macworld keynote address had to settle for crooner Tony Bennett. And instead of blockbuster news from Apple Vice President Philip Schiller, attendees got changes in iTunes pricing, a series of software upgrades and a $2,800 17-inch notebook. Apple Vice President Philip Schiller delivers the MacWorld keynote address Tuesday in San Francisco. Among Mac users and industry observers, reaction to the 90-minute keynote, which Apple says will be its last at Macworld, was predictably mixed. \"Tony Bennett got a standing ovation. Apple, not so much,\" said Philip Elmer-DeWitt, who writes an Apple column for Fortune magazine. \"It wasn't up to Steve Jobs' standards. Phil is not the showman that Steve is, but he didn't have much material to work with.\" \"I think Phil did a great job,\" countered Chuck Freedman, an IT specialist from suburban Detroit, Michigan. \"Yes, we miss Steve, but Phil handled everything well. I'm here to see what Apple's doing next, not how much weight Steve has lost.\" So what is Apple doing next? Pre-Macworld rumors about an iPhone Nano and a preview of the Snow Leopard operating system proved unfounded. Instead, Schiller introduced upgrades to Apple's iLife and iWork software suites, unveiled a 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro with a more powerful battery, and announced tweaks to iTunes' 99 cents-per-song pricing model. The result earned Schiller consistent applause but not the wild cheering that greeted Jobs' 2007 announcement of the iPhone, for example. Watch Schiller's keynote address at Macworld \u00bb . \"It was a real solid presentation,\" said Mike McGuire, a media analyst with Gartner Market Research, citing Apple's emphasis on revamping its core products amid a challenging economic climate. \"There's not the frenzied hoopla [of past years]. But maybe this isn't the best time for that.\" From a consumer perspective, the day's biggest news may have been the price changes at iTunes, Apple's wildly successful online music store. Beginning April 1, songs on the site will cost $1.29, 99 cents or 69 cents, although more songs will be sold at the lower price than at the higher price, Schiller said. Apple did not elaborate on how songs will be priced, although observers expect most new hits to cost $1.29 and older songs to be cheaper. \"Apple is essentially leaving that up to the [music] labels,\" McGuire said. \"It'll be interesting to see how the labels and the artists deal with that.\" After his iTunes announcement, Schiller yielded the spotlight to Bennett, who glided onstage with a four-piece band to sing \"The Best is Yet to Come\" and his signature \"I Left My Heart in San Francisco.\" iReport.com: See a mobile photo from Macworld, send your own images . Attendees seemed bored during Schiller's demonstration of the revamped iWork, Apple's software for office use. Some also expressed skepticism about Apple's plans to launch a beta version of iWork.com that will allow users to review and edit documents collaboratively online. But they perked up when Schiller mentioned a new app that will let people use their iPhones as remotes to run multimedia business presentations. Audience members -- including former Vice President Al Gore, an Apple board member -- showed more enthusiasm for the upgraded iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band software, which is bundled together as iLife '09 and goes on sale in late January. The new iPhoto has face-recognition software that will make it easier for users to create galleries of friends and family members. It also contains GPS geotagging that will allow users to sort their photos geographically. Apple is also focusing on improved video editing. \"We decided to completely rewrite iMovie and come up with a whole new version,\" Schiller said. \"We've added so much depth and so much power, we really believe it's going to be the video-editing product that everybody uses.\" Watch Schiller unveil Mac's new photo application \u00bb . The new version has better precision editing, video stabilization, easier audio editing and smoother transitions, Schiller said. The new iLife will also have a feature for aspiring musicians. Learn to Play, part of Garage Band '09, includes software for nine free basic lessons for guitar and nine free basic lessons for piano\/keyboards. It also includes Artist Lessons with video instructions from such famous musicians as Sting, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sarah MacLachlan, who will teach users how to play their songs. Watch Fogerty give a lesson on how to play 'Proud Mary' \u00bb . Schiller showed a video of Fogerty explaining how to play the chords for the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic \"Proud Mary.\" Apple's third major announcement at the conference focused on a 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro notebook. At less than 1 inch thick and weighing in at 6.6 pounds, it would be the world's lightest notebook of its size, Schiller said. New technology will allow its battery to be recharged up to 1,000 times, more than three times the industry standard. It can last up to eight hours on a single charge and runs on less than 50 percent the energy of a single lightbulb, Schiller said. He also touted the notebook's improved screen. The new MacBook Pro will cost $2,799 and starts shipping in late January. This was the first Macworld keynote since 1997 not to be delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the tech visionary who relinquished his usual Macworld appearance last month amid concerns about his health. At past Macworlds -- the annual gathering of Mac users, consultants and partners -- fans stood for hours in lines that snaked around the block to watch Jobs unveil gadgets in his trademark jeans and black mock turtleneck. Recent Macworld keynotes introduced such major Apple products and services as iTunes (2001), the iPod Shuffle (2005) and the iPhone (2007). See \"A decade of Macworld\" timeline \u00bb . But Apple is changing the way it does business. Thanks to its Web site and its network of retail stores, the company can reach more than 100 million customers around the world directly, which makes Apple less reliant on trade shows like Macworld to spread its message. The biggest topic of discussion at Macworld, however, was not a potential Apple product or even the contents of Schiller's speech but the mystery surrounding Jobs' absence from the trade show celebrating the company he co-founded. Attendees were heartened by Jobs' announcement Monday that his recent weight loss was caused by a hormonal imbalance that can be remedied and that he will continue as Apple's CEO while he gets treatment. Concerns about Jobs' health have hounded Apple since 2004, when he was treated for pancreatic cancer.","highlights":"Conference attendees say presentation lacked star CEO's showmanship .\nApple vice president unveiled software updates, iTunes pricing revamp .\nUpgrades to 17-inch MacBook Pro laptop were also announced .\nIt was first Macworld keynote since 1997 not delivered by Steve Jobs .","id":"4ede581ea592ad3e4a6f8534d7cac3f5687e102f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two pirates in Somalia vowed revenge Monday, after the U.S. military killed three pirates and freed a U.S. ship captain who had been held hostage for several days. Crew members of the Maersk Alabama celebrate after hearing the Navy had rescued their captain from pirates. The pirates told a Somali journalist that they were angered by the U.S. action, as well as a French raid Friday that killed two pirates and one hostage and freed four hostages. \"We have decided to kill U.S. and French sailors if they happen to be among our future hostages,\" said Abdullahi Ahmed, a member of a pirate group based at Harardhere, a coastal town in central Somalia. President Obama said Monday the United States will confront pirates and hold them \"accountable for their crimes.\" Obama added that he is proud of the military's actions in rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips from his pirate captors. Members of the U.S. Navy shot and killed three pirates who had been holding Phillips hostage in a lifeboat on Sunday evening, a military official said. The pirates seized Phillips after a failed attempt to hijack his ship, the Maersk Alabama. For five days the pirates held Phillips in the lifeboat as U.S. Navy ships closed in and lingered nearby. On Sunday, U.S. Navy snipers opened fire on the lifeboat after seeing one pirate point an AK-47 at the captain's back, the U.S. military said. The shootings occurred as one pirate was aboard the USS Bainbridge negotiating over Phillips' fate. Watch how SEALs shot three pirates \u00bb . Three pirates in the lifeboat were killed. Phillips was not hurt. He was taken to another U.S. Navy vessel, the U.S. military said, where he received a medical checkup and spoke by phone with his wife in the United States. Watch admiral tell how rescue went down \u00bb . Pirates in Somalia identified the slain men as Mohamed Ahmed Adawe, Nur Dalabey and Khalif Guled. Two of them -- Dalabey and Guled -- were among the \"most experienced men\" in a group that has hijacked seagoing vessels for money, Ahmed said. They were killed two days after the French military freed four hostages, including a child, who had been held by pirates for nearly a week on the yacht, Tanit, off Somalia's coast. In that operation, a hostage and two pirates were killed, the French Defense Ministry said, while three pirates were captured. Watch how pirates roam a vast area of ocean \u00bb . The military actions angered Ali Nur, a pirate who is based in Gara'ad, a coastal village in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, in northern Somalia. \"From now on, after the killings by the U.S. and France, we will add some harsher steps in our dealings with hostages, particularly American and French hostages,\" Nur told a journalist. The U.S. military acknowledged Sunday that its actions to rescue Phillips could increase the risk of violence. \"This could escalate violence in this part of the world. No question about it,\" U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters. Nur issued a warning to the United States. \"The killing of our boys was aggression, and the U.S. will see what they get from their operation,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Obama promises U.S. will confront piracy .\nPirates vow to kill U.S., French mariners if they become hostages .\nU.S. Navy killed three pirates in rescue of cargo ship captain .\nFrench forces killed two pirates in rescue raid Friday .","id":"d1a714bc13f3bcbfeba4acd91b693b6ad0f24b07"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Another body was found in the same 92-acre parcel west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the remains of 10 other people have been discovered, police said Thursday. An Albuquerque, New Mexico, police forensics team member digs at the burial site. The latest discovery was made Tuesday, and the remains were recovered Wednesday, Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said. Like the others, it was sent to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, he said. A woman walking her dog found the first bodies earlier this month on the property, which had been graded in preparation for development. The graves are on about 10 acres, police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said earlier, but that area keeps expanding. So far, 11 bodies have been found, including those of a first-trimester fetus with those of a pregnant woman. Police believe the bodies were buried sometime in the earlier part of the decade, Walsh said Thursday. Authorities have identified two of the remains, Walsh said. Body No. 8 belongs to Gina Valdez, who was born in 1982, he said. Valdez was pregnant, and the remains of her fetus were with her. Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz told reporters that Valdez had a prior criminal history that included arrests for prostitution and drug charges, according to CNN affiliate KRQE-TV. Earlier, police had identified another set of remains as belonging to Victoria Chavez, a prostitute and drug user who was last seen in 2003 and reported missing in 2004. Authorities are investigating how the two women's paths may have crossed, Walsh said. Valdez's father, Dan Valdez, told KRQE she was 22 when he reported her missing four years ago. Despite her rough lifestyle, he said, \"she was my daughter and didn't deserve to be buried in the desert.\" Hamby said earlier there is housing south and east of the vacant land. After rain caused flooding, surrounding neighbors complained to the developer, who made culverts to divert the water, apparently bringing the first remains to the surface.","highlights":"NEW: Eleventh body found at site west of Albuquerque, New Mexico .\nOne body found earlier has been identified as a prostitute reported missing in 2004 .\nFirst bodies were discovered two weeks ago by a woman walking her dog .","id":"ab74e81328681a6b9875f4a2559a84da618e9016"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The battle for control of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama began with a bold move by some of the crew to jump the pirates, crew members say. The crew of the Maersk Alabama exchange some words with media after the ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. A scuffle ensued, and one of the sailors stabbed a pirate in the hand in the battle to retake the container ship, one of the sailors told CNN. Snippets of information are starting to emerge about how the Alabama's crew managed to retake the ship after it was hijacked by pirates Wednesday about 350 miles off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean. The Alabama docked Saturday night in Mombasa, Kenya. Its captain, Richard Phillips, is being held by pirates in the ship's lifeboat in the Indian Ocean. Crew members smiled broadly as they stood on the ship's deck under the watchful eyes of security teams. Although they were kept away from the media, CNN's Stan Grant got close enough to ask them what happened after the pirates climbed aboard the ship. A crew member said he recalled being awakened around 7 a.m. as the hijacking began. View a timeline of the attack and its aftermath \u00bb . \"I was scared,\" Grant quoted the man as saying. Some of the crew managed to hide in a secure part of the Alabama as the pirates stormed the ship, the sailor said. As the men described the clash, a crew member pointed to one shipmate and said, \"This guy is a hero. He and the chief engineer, they took down the pirate. ... He led him down there to the engine room and then they jumped him.\" The shipmate added that he stabbed the pirate in the hand and tied him up. Another crew member shouted, \"Captain Phillips is a hero.\" The father of first mate Shane Murphy on Saturday offered thanks for the \"tremendous outpouring\" of support his family has received from the public and government officials, including U.S. Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Capt. Joseph Murphy told reporters the safe arrival of his son in Kenya is \"the best Easter present.\" Joseph Murphy, an instructor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said he had spoken to his son but that he didn't have details on the standoff. \"He said, 'Dad, this has been unbelievable.' He said the facts will be known very soon. He said he couldn't speak about anything,\" Joseph Murphy said. \"I said this is going to be a tough sea story to overcome. He's got a great sea story here.\" Joseph Murphy said Saturday that he and the Alabama crew's primary concern was for the ship's captain. \"He's made a tremendous sacrifice for his crew. Just incredible courage. We're very, very thankful. He's done everything he could possibly do and he has saved our son,\" he said at a news conference. \"We believe that Captain Phillips will survive the situation. We want him to know he has the support of all of us -- the American people and people around the world.\" Phillips became a captive sometime during the hijacking Wednesday. Since then, the destroyer USS Bainbridge has arrived on the scene to try to free Phillips with the help of the FBI. An attempt by Phillips to escape from the 28-foot covered lifeboat was thwarted by a pirate who dove into the Indian Ocean after him. Phillips' captors appear to have tied him up afterward, Pentagon officials said. The Alabama resumed its course on Thursday for Mombasa, its original destination, carrying food aid and an armed 18-person security detail. Maersk president and CEO John Reinhart told reporters Saturday that the crew will stay on board in Mombasa while the FBI conducts an investigation. The agency will look into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI's New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Reinhart said the crew has reported being in good health and that the entire crew has \"showed the professionalism of a true mariner.\" \"We will make sure they're safe,\" he said. \"We know what food they want -- we'll get the food to them.\" He said the crew has asked the company to do everything it can to get Phillips home safely -- an effort he said Maersk is working on with the Navy. \"That means don't make a mistake, folks,\" Reinhart said. \"We have to be perfect in our execution.\" CNN's Stan Grant, Susan Candiotti, Stephanie Elam, Mohammed Jamjoom and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Crew member stabbed pirate in the hand to retake Maersk Alabama, sailor says .\nAnother sailor recalls being awakened at 7 a.m. as pirates stormed ship .\nCrew shares snippets of their stories after docking in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday .\nShip, crew will remain in Kenya while FBI investigates standoff in Indian Ocean .","id":"2cef7a45ca94dec80f825cf0d35f6894db3065d0"} -{"article":"GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (CNN) -- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said Friday that government prosecutors are trying to determine who put microphones and video cameras in the presidential palace. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom: \"Organized crime\" may be behind cameras found in the presidential palace. \"It's a serious allegation, it has never happened before in Guatemala,\" he told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol. He said he did not know who was responsible for the breach of security, but added, \"One of the possibilities is organized crime.\" He said \"a lot of people\" had access to the palace and his office. Colom noted that Mexican President Felipe Calderon's anti-narcotrafficking efforts may have pressured drug cartels to move their smuggling to other countries, including Guatemala. Calderon said in June that his campaign against drug traffickers was working. Mexico has seized more cocaine and money from drug cartels than anywhere else in the world and this summer Mexican authorities seized at least 16,000 arms, including more than 1,000 grenades. Colom said Friday that he has already taken measures to ensure his security and that of his family. The president said that the discovery of the microphones and cameras explain, to him, some strange experiences he's had recently. He said he was in his office when the Guatemalan military called him and asked permission to seize a plane suspected of carrying illegal drugs. Within moments of approving the action, the plane disappeared. He is convinced the call was being monitored. Colom took office in January and is Guatemala's first leftist president in 53 years. CNN's Claudia Palacios contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Alvaro Colom says microphones, cameras found in palace .\nHe says \"organized crime\" may be involved .\nMexico's anti-trafficking campaign may have pushed criminals to Guatemala, he says .","id":"c0e651eafde429761721b3784fd71d6d36da5908"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A portrait painted 400 years ago and kept anonymously in an Irish home for much of the time since is now believed to be the only painting of William Shakespeare created during his lifetime. The portrait of William Shakespeare is thought to be the \"only\" portrait painted during his lifetime. The image reveals a wealthy Shakespeare of high social status, contradicting the popular view of a struggling playwright of humble status, according to Stanley Wells, a professor who chairs London's Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Wells, a distinguished Shakespeare scholar, arranged for three years of research and scientific testing which confirmed it was painted around 1610, when Shakespeare would have been 46 years old. \"A rather young looking 46, it has to be said,\" Wells said. Shakespeare died in 1616. The Cobbe portrait -- named after the Irish family that owns the painting -- shows Shakespeare with rosy cheeks, a full head of hair, and a reddish brown beard. The most common portrait of Shakespeare is a gray image showing a bald Bard with a small mustache and beard, and bags under his eyes. The identity of the man in the portrait was lost over the centuries -- until Alec Cobbe saw a portrait from Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library. That painting, which fell into disfavor as a Shakespeare portrait about 70 years ago, turned out to be one of four copies of Cobbe's portrait. The portrait \"shows a man wearing expensive costuming, including a very beautifully painted ruff of Italian lacework which would have been very expensive,\" Wells said. \"It establishes, for me, that Shakespeare in his later years was a rather wealthy, a rather well affluent member of aristocratic circles in the society of his time,\" Wells said. \"There's been too much of a tendency to believe that Shakespeare, being the son of a glover, coming for a small town in the middle of England, that he necessarily retained a rather humble status throughout his life.\" Wells reads even more into what he sees in Shakespeare's newly-found face. \"I think it's plausible as a portrait as a good listener, of somebody who would have been capable of writing the plays, clearly the face of a man of high intelligence,\" he said. \"It's the face of a man, I think, who betrays a good deal of wisdom in his features. But, of course, as somebody (King Duncan) says in Shakespeare's story Macbeth, 'there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.'\" It should be noted that Shakespeare's King Duncan paid a price for judging Macbeth to have the face of an honorable man. Macbeth later murdered the king. The public can read Shakespeare's face from the original painting at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon where it goes on display for several months starting April 23. The portrait then returns to the Cobbe family, which inherited it when an ancestor married England's Earl of Southampton -- a friend of Shakespeare who likely commissioned its painting.","highlights":"Shakespeare group unveil \"only\" portrait of playwright painted during his lifetime .\nPainting on display after three years of research and testing .\nIt was painted in about 1610 -- or six years before Shakespeare's death .\nIdentity of man in painting was lost until owner saw a copy of it in a museum .","id":"2c97987873065931d5bc093b247ed00948866fc6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The practice of moving research involving human subjects from wealthy countries to less wealthy countries has grown in recent years, raising a number of ethical and scientific issues that need to be addressed, researchers said in a journal article Wednesday. More and more clinical trials are being moved to less wealthy nations, a medical journal article reports. \"The question is proportionality,\" said Dr. Kevin Schulman, director of the Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and one of the study authors. \"We should test products where we are going to market them. The populations who take risks to participate in clinical research should be the ones that we anticipate will get the benefits of the research.\" He and his co-authors reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that in November 2007, about one-third of clinical trials (157 of 509) were being carried out entirely outside the United States, many of them in developing countries. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of countries where such trials were being carried out more than doubled, while the number in the United States and Western Europe decreased, the researchers at Duke University said. The shift appears to have been driven at least in part by economics -- a top medical center in India charges about a tenth what a second-tier U.S. medical center would charge per case report, the authors said. Another incentive to move such work abroad: other countries' regulatory environments can be less burdensome. The authors reported one study that found only 56 percent of 670 researchers surveyed in developing countries said their work had been reviewed by a local institutional review board or a health ministry. Another study reported that 18 percent of published trials carried out in China in 2004 adequately discussed informed consent for subjects considering participating in research. In addition, recruitment of study subjects can be easier in developing countries, where a trial subject may get more than a year's pay to participate or participation could be his or her sole means of being able to get treatment, the authors said. Transparency is yet another issue. \"We know little about the conduct and quality of research in countries that have relatively little clinical research experience,\" they wrote. Schulman put it more bluntly. \"We've seen problems with people cheating on clinical trials,\" he said. He acknowledged that similar problems have arisen in the United States, but said such misdeeds were less likely to be found out when they happened abroad. Of critical importance is the fact that some populations' genetic makeup may affect their response to medication, the authors said. For example, they said, some 40 percent of people of East Asian origin have a genetic trait that impairs ethanol metabolism and limits response to nitroglycerin treatment. \"This finding may affect the relevance of trials involving cardiac, circulatory and neurologic disorders that are treated with nitroglycerin or nitric oxide-dependent therapies,\" they said. The authors called for regulations governing trials to be reduced while ensuring ethical conduct, for greater use of centralized oversight boards and for research contracts to be written using standardized terms. \"Key strategies for clinical trials should be outlined in formal clinical-development plans, publicly vetted, and submitted to regulatory agencies,\" they said. Alan Goldhammer, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the industry will study the suggestions and weigh whether to incorporate them. \"We're constantly taking a fresh look at all our documents and revising them as appropriate,\" he said. \"The last thing any company wants to have happen is for a trial site to be called into question and that data then not used for review by the regulatory agency, which could put its approval status in limbo.\" The matter has gained in importance with the announcement by the Obama administration that the government will carry out tests to determine which drugs work best. A spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, who said she could not be identified because she had not sought permission to talk to the news media, said the agency has begun training and educating regulators in countries where clinical trials are being carried out for companies that are seeking U.S. approval for their drugs.","highlights":"In November 2007, one-third of clinical trials were done outside of United States .\nTrials in India, for instance, carry only about one-tenth the costs .\nAuthors say genetic makeup in countries may affect response to medication .\nReport written in the New England Journal of Medicine .","id":"ce6032831682dc1d1dfee5c09ec7b42b61bb40fc"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- This year, the Oscars are on Hugh Jackman's shoulders. Hugh Jackman plans to offer viewers \"a good time\" at the Oscars. He hosts the big show Sunday night. The Australian actor, who earned rave reviews for his hosting of the Tonys, now has the Academy Awards to contend with. It's a job that's put Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg and David Letterman on the firing line, with only Billy Crystal and Johnny Carson emerging more or less unscathed in the last couple of decades. But with typical verve -- after all, this is the guy who won a Tony for playing song-and-dance man Peter Allen in \"The Boy from Oz\" -- Jackman cracks jokes about the task, telling ABC that one of his distinctions is that he's the \"tallest\" Oscar host in recent years. To CNN's Brooke Anderson, he was equally at ease. \"Ultimately, the way I see it is if I'm not going to have a good time, then how can anyone else have a good time,\" he said. Watch Hugh Jackman talk about doing it the Australian way \u00bb . Even if he's not having a good time, you may not want to get in his way. After all, this is the guy who's played the fearsome, sharp-clawed Wolverine in the \"X-Men\" movies and gets a solo turn as the superhero in the forthcoming \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" Jackman talked with Anderson about musical numbers, Heath Ledger and performing \"drunk and nude.\" The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Are you feeling any nerves, or is it just pure excitement at this point? Hugh Jackman: It's more, it is more excitement. I'm not impervious ... there has been moments in my life where I've been nervous going on stage, that's for sure, and I know I'll have a butterfly or two, cause yeah, you wanna have a couple. But ultimately, the way I see it is if I'm not going to have a good time, then how can anyone else have a good time. You know, you're the host -- it's not really about you. Ultimately, it's your job to set the tone. Watch Hollywood prepare for the Oscars \u00bb . CNN: And the butterflies give you a little bit of adrenaline, I would expect. Jackman: Yeah, and I'll be drinking from about 9 a.m., so that's why I'm impervious. CNN: Now you're a triple threat [a dancer, actor and singer]. I need confirmation on a couple of things. Are you doing a musical number with Beyonce? Jackman: Oh, that's a good question. Look, I'm old school, I don't want to give too much away. But I didn't fully deny it, did I? There's going to be some surprises, that's for sure. CNN: Stars of \"High School Musical\" as well? Jackman: OK, I'll give you that. Yes, they're going to be up on stage. CNN: This is really a reinvention of the Oscars this year. The ratings have been low. Traditionally a comedian hosts the show. How do you feel about being part of the reinvention this year? Jackman: I'm thrilled and honored, and that's honestly how I feel. I don't worry about the ratings or anything like that. I'm really excited by what is planned for the night, and I can tell you it's different. It really is different. I mean having someone as tall as me is a big change. ... It's really not going to be funny at all. No, but there's so many things I love about what they're doing with the show. Forget ratings, you should always reinvent -- you should always be doing something different. What this night is going to be about is spontaneity. We're going to set an atmosphere that will allow things to happen that you won't expect. And the other thing that I and the creators wanted to keep at the top and forefront of the night is that it should only happen on that night -- whatever happens, it could only happen on Oscar night, and only this year will it happen. So there's going to be some things in there where you're like, \"Oh!\" CNN: How daring is it going to be? Will there be YouTube moments where people will be talking about the Oscars this year after it happens? Jackman: One of my favorite moments at the Oscars was when the streaker came across David Niven. And we're upping it a level and we're just going to do most of the show naked. Um, well, there hopefully will be YouTube moments. CNN: \"The sexiest man alive\" [is] going to be up there nude? Jackman: Drunk and nude, yes. So that's our new fresh approach. It's the Australian way. CNN: Are you going to work that \"sexiest man alive\" title into the show? Jackman: There's a few jokes floating around. Of course I will be about 8 feet away from two-time sexiest man alive Brad Pitt, so yes, there's great temptation to use something there. CNN: And political jokes -- will there be many of them that you will work into the act? Jackman: Hmm ... there may be some, but it won't be top-heavy. CNN: OK, so lots of surprises. You've got experience with award shows, how is this different than hosting the Tonys? Jackman: The Tony Awards is watched by more people in the theater than at home on television. So, the Oscars, it's slightly different, there's about a thousand here [in the theater] and a billion out there. But really, if I hadn't done the Tony Awards, I'd be a hell of a lot more nervous. I mean I'm trained as an actor, that's what I do, it's not like I'm trained to be a host. But having done that, the thing that I think surprised me more than anything was how much fun I had because anything can happen. You're always amongst people who are, they're pros. There's people out there, and if you played with them, they'll generally play back, and that's the thing I like about it. CNN: Heath Ledger was a fellow Australian. Do you think [it will] be a fitting tribute for him to posthumously win an Oscar? Jackman: You know of course, I can't help [but] feel sentimentally for him to be recognized. I think everyone recognizes his talent, his contributions. He was a friend of mine -- I knew him -- so I would love him to get that kind of public recognition. His family will be there; I can't help but feel that will be great. So that's the only category that I will give my preferences. I have a few others. I've had a few little sly bets going. I've got to talk to all those people backstage: Hey, I thought you should have won! CNN: How do you balance your home life with your busy schedule? Jackman: You abandon your family at this point in time. Literally, they're in New York. People have said, \"Oh, is the family coming out?\" and I've said [to my family] don't bother coming -- I leave at about 7 in the morning and I get home at about 11 at night, so right now it's Skype. God bless Skype. CNN: The kids are understanding? Jackman: Yeah, they're cool. My son, who's named Oscar by the way, he goes, \"You know what the headline should be? 'Oscar's dad hosts the Oscars.' \" And I was like, that's pretty good. Yeah, he'll stay up and watch it. iReport.com: Who do you think will win at the Oscars?","highlights":"Hugh Jackman hosts Oscars on Sunday night .\nAustralian actor jokes that he's going to host \"drunk and nude\"\nJackman hopes that fellow Aussie Heath Ledger wins best supporting actor .","id":"cd59be1b2a756ac2ac87156560e534e90a04ad32"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama is likely to name Steven Chu, a physicist who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, three Democratic officials close to the transition said. Steven Chu explains his Nobel-winning theory on superfreezing gases in 1997. The three officials said the announcement is expected next week in Chicago, Illinois, and that Obama will also name Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration, as the newly created \"climate czar\" inside the White House. Chu won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics and is highly respected in energy circles. But some Democrats have privately expressed concern that Chu has no political experience as he takes on the monumental task of passing a landmark energy reform bill early next year. Although Browner is seen as a shrewd inside player who could help the incoming energy secretary navigate Capitol Hill, Obama will face questions about how effective his team will be going up against oil companies and other special interests that do not want to change the status quo. \"Energy is going to be a huge fight,\" one Democratic official said. \"They need someone with the gravitas and force of personality to make it happen.\" Democrats have privately floated some other big names for energy secretary in recent days, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. But a source close to Schwarzenegger said the governor wants to serve out the rest of his term. A source close to Powell said the retired general will take \"no formal Cabinet role\" in an Obama administration but is leaving the door open to an informal troubleshooting role -- such as Mideast envoy -- if the incoming president has a specific mission that needs to be filled. iReport.com: What do you think of Obama's cabinet picks so far? Energy is one aspect of the president-elect's one-year goal to create 2.5 million jobs by 2011. The plan, which Obama announced Saturday, aims to put Americans to work updating the country's infrastructure, making public buildings more energy-efficient and implementing environmentally friendly technologies, including alternative energy sources. During his campaign, Obama said he would invest $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy. He proposed increasing fuel economy standards and requiring that 10 percent of electricity in the United States comes from renewable sources by 2012.","highlights":"Physicist Steven Chu to be named as nominee next week .\nFormer EPA chief Carol Browner picked as new \"climate czar\"\nNobel Prize winner Chu has some wondering about lack of experience .\nObama's energy team will face tough fight next year, officials warn .","id":"b407edf30428da3d8389a4b707d195e134ce3f67"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An audio message attributed to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the highest ranking former member of Saddam Hussein's regime still at large, salutes the \"People of Palestine\" and calls on them to fight back against Israel in Gaza. A 1999 file image of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who served under Saddam Hussien's regime and who is still at large. \"We say to the people of Gaza, give more resistance and we will be with you in the field, and know that our victory in kicking out the invaders is your victory as well, because the main assailant on the nation and on Palestine is the American imperialism,\" the recording said. \"A salute to the martyrs of the massacre, and our condolences to their families.\" Al-Douri's recording follows reports of a similarly defiant message from al Qaeda's deputy chief a day earlier. Ayman al-Zawahiri reportedly vowed revenge for Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza and called Israel's actions against Hamas militants \"a gift\" from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. Israel is in the 12th day of a military operation against Hamas militants, who have been firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Al-Douri's 30-minute recorded message was broadcast Wednesday on al-Raei Iraqi satellite television over an old picture of al-Douri, wearing his Iraqi military uniform. CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the voice on the tape. This is not al-Douri's first purported audio message. There have been at least four others over the past three years in addition to a statement attributed to him. Al-Douri, 66, served as vice-chairman of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council. He remains at large nearly six years after the war in Iraq began. He has previously been reported killed and captured, although those reports later turned out to be erroneous. He was the King of Clubs (No. 6) on the U.S. military's card deck of most wanted regime officials. The U.S. military says he has helped finance the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq with Iraqi funds he transferred to Syria before Hussein's government collapsed in April 2002. But it says his influence has waned while he has been in hiding. U.S. officials say al-Douri played key roles in the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 and in putting down Kurdish and Shiite revolts after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.","highlights":"Al-Douri was vice-chairman of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council .\n30-minute recorded message broadcast on al-Raei Iraqi satellite television .\nCNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the voice .\nU.S. says he has helped finance the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq .","id":"ac6b4711b2131b9c11bf7d630411b3a223ab0743"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Decorating in the midst of a financial recession is not easy. But Thom Filicia, host of the Style Network's \"Dress My Nest,\" author of \"Thom Filicia Style\" and former cast member of \"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,\" insists that it can be done. \"Paint is very affordable. Pick a color that has life and personality,\" Thom Filicia says. \"I always tell people, 'Start with what you have.' Work as much with what you have as possible, and then fill in where necessary,\" Filicia said. CNN recently asked the design guru about decorating on a budget and helpful tips to make your home look its best. CNN: When you walk into a room that you're going to redesign, where does your mind first go? Thom Filicia: I look at the layout, I look at the way the space is being used, and I try to figure out what the best use of the space is; that it works really well, it looks good, that you're getting the best views, you're seeing the space, and that you're getting through the space. CNN: And that's focusing mainly on furniture? Filicia: That really focuses on all the furniture. You want to look at where the rug is and where the sofa is and coffee tables and chairs -- just how the room works. Even if it's great-looking stuff, it sometimes doesn't look as good as it can look. CNN: What can people on a tight budget do to rearrange their living room and make it look better with what they have? Filicia: Make sure that your furniture layout works. Make sure that the things you love to look at, you're seeing. Make sure things aren't cluttered. Paint is very affordable. Pick a color that has life and personality. You could do an accent wall behind your sofa. You could use a low-[volatile organic compound] paint so it's environmentally friendly. You can use inexpensive up lights. You put them on either side of a piece of furniture or behind a tree. You always want to have a Lutron dimmer you plug into the wall. And then plug your lamps into the Lutron dimmer, and you can dim the whole room. CNN: As far as accessories go, like flowers and pillows, where do you draw the line on too much or not enough? Filicia: I like to keep things clean and straightforward. I think one floral arrangement is usually enough, or maybe a couple really small cute little ones. Pillows should function. You want to sit on a sofa and be comfortable. Start with three: one lumbar in the center and maybe a pair of pillows left and right. Add a throw, a rug for underfoot. Those things start to add layers to the room and make it a little more acoustical. CNN: What are some common designing rules that people always tend to follow but that you can actually break? Filicia: People think that dark walls make a room smaller. It actually makes the space bigger. All the corners recede, and it adds a lot of depth. Also, I think that color definitely adds a lot of warmth to spaces. CNN: What's the most common mistake that people make? Filicia: People just don't trust their instincts, and they're not willing to take a risk. Have fun with it. It's only decorating. People tend to go with beige and white just because they're afraid or they don't want to make a commitment. CNN: If someone had just enough money to do one thing in their room, what would you tell them to focus on? Filicia: The first thing you want to really focus on is a great sofa, because it is really the anchor for the room. In a bedroom, the anchor piece is your bed. Start with your anchor piece, and that's where you spend your most money. CNN: You have a new book out now, is that right? Filicia: Yup, I have a book out right now, which is called \"Thom Filicia Style,\" and it's a great book. It's a lot of fun. It's got a lot of great tips in it. It talks about my philosophy; it talks about color and texture. It's a very comprehensive book with case studies. CNN: Can you give us some tips for making a place eco-friendly on a tight budget? Filicia: It's very easy to use eco-friendly cleaning supplies, environmentally friendly lighting throughout your house using low wattage or eco-friendly bulbs. Also, just turning your lights off when you're not in a room; when you're brushing your teeth not keeping the water running; taking shorter showers. These are all really simple, easy ways that we can all help Mother Earth repair and heal and replenish itself.","highlights":"Thom Filicia of \"Dress My Nest\" gives home decorating tips .\nStyle expert says designing on a budget is simple .\n\"People just don't trust their instincts, and they're not willing to take a risk,\" he says .\nFilicia says there are easy ways to make your home eco-friendly .","id":"017df5c4fe1e79eb26957ff6a8b4c1e41cd966ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedian Mark Russell was at a recent event in Chicago, Illinois, when he found himself sitting next to Valerie Jarrett, an adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Moving the Obamas into the White House will take about six hours. Russell asked her whether President Bush's staff members were going to remove all the Os from their computer keyboards, alluding to the 2001 incident in which President Clinton's departing staff removed Ws from some White House computers. Jarrett said no, but that didn't stop Russell from speculating what really happened when President Bush's daughters, Barbara and Jenna, gave Obama's two daughters a tour of the White House recently. \"The Bush daughters showed Sasha and Malia Obama around,\" Russell joked. \"Barbara showed them where all the bedrooms were, and Jenna showed them how to make a fake ID.\" Russell sees humor in the presidential transition, but the actual operation to move both families in and out of the White House is serious business. The clearing out of the Bushes' belongings began over the summer, when many items were packed and taken to Crawford, Texas, says Anita McBride, chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. Then, during the Christmas holiday, the Bushes moved their personal things out of Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, according to McBride. On January 20, the Obamas move in -- a side of Inauguration Day that most people never see: a grueling, precisely timed workday involving scores of staffers that follows six months of careful planning. Gary Walters worked at the executive mansion from 1986 until 2006 as chief usher in charge of moving presidential families in and out of the White House. From his Virginia home, Walters described how the complicated Obama move in to the White House is completed in only a few hours. In the morning, after the Bushes and Obamas depart the executive mansion for the Capitol Hill swearing-in ceremony, moving trucks will roll up to the south side of the White House, Walters said. The drivers put down their tailgates, allowing most of the White House's 93 staff members to begin unloading Obama family items, he said. \"Staff members all have been given very specific jobs on that day, almost down to the minute as to what their responsibilities are,\" Walters said. The move is designed to be seamless, painless and invisible while millions of Washington visitors -- and millions more watching on TV -- follow the inauguration ceremonies and the parade that follows. By about 5 p.m., before the Obamas move from the parade viewing stand to their new home, the presidential move must be complete. \"Their clothes will be in their closets; everything will be put away,\" Walters said. \"There should be no full or half-empty boxes will in view. Furniture will be set in proper places. Their favorite foods will be in the kitchen or the pantry. The chief usher will welcome them into their home and ask them what they would like to do before going out to enjoy the inaugural balls.\" Incoming first lady Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, will also be moving into the White House residence, which has 24 rooms on the second and third floors. The Obamas have hired California decorator Michael Smith to use an allocated $100,000 to redecorate the space. Watch what decorator may do with the White House \u00bb . \"I think they're going to find that this is really conducive to family life,\" President Bush told CNN's Larry King. \"President-elect Obama has got a 45-second commute to see his girls.\" In the West Wing of the White House, the political jostling has begun among new staffers to grab workspaces near the center of power: the Oval Office. There, the carpet is changed with each new administration to suit the incoming president, Walters said. Possibly, the office desk will be changed, as will paintings that will be hung on the wall. Books on the Oval Office shelves will be changed per the new commander in chief, as will accessories to be placed around the room, Walters said. Staffers may tote in a new sofa and chairs -- or busts of past presidents. Following tradition, Bush is expected to leave a personal letter written to Obama. Past letters have offered the new president private words of advice and reflection. Several Democratic presidents have chosen to hang a Thomas Sully painting of President Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, said political scientist and historian Martha Joynt Kumar, an expert on the White House. \"In the residence, many presidents have brought their personal paintings to decorate their living space.\" After movers tote out boxes of office materials from Bush staffers, the West Wing will become a dusty workspace, with empty bookshelves and the odd three-ring binder left behind, say veterans of the White House press corps. As in previous moving periods, contractors may come to slap on a coat of paint or lay carpet as the new crop of staffers finds their workspaces. \"It was incredible,\" former Clinton staffer David Seldin said, recalling his experience on Inauguration Day 1993. \"I think people were overwhelmed with the sense that it was real and the sense that something that you had been working on as a political campaign is actually becoming part of the government.\" On Tuesday, once the whirlwind moving operation is finally done, Chief Usher Stephen Rochon will probably greet Obama the same way Walters did Bush in 2001. Standing near the doorway to the White House North Portico, Walters recalls, he said, \"Hello, Mr. President, welcome to your home.\" Oh, and about those Os on White House keyboards -- two Bush officials told CNN on Sunday that outgoing aides won't be getting payback on the incoming Democratic administration. There is an understanding that Bush will be furious if there are any pranks, especially after cordial transition between the two administrations, the officials said.","highlights":"Ex-White House usher details whirlwind moving operation for Bush, Obama .\nScores of staffers switch out Bush, Obama furniture, clothes, etc. in six hours .\nObamas allocated $100,000 to redecorate 24 private rooms in the White House .","id":"31143351fd07ae5ee583cb28f97a33759673e721"} -{"article":"BOCA RATON, Florida (CNN) -- Edgar and Nina Otto say they had no idea how their four-legged clone would react to them. But last week, after waiting several months, the yellow Labrador puppy bounded off an airplane at Miami International Airport, right into their arms. Lancelot Encore is his name, or Lancy for short. Nina and Edgar Otto say their cloned puppy crosses his paws like the original dog did. The puppy Lancy looks and acts just like Lancelot, their first Lab, who died a year ago, say the Ottos. That's not surprising, because Lancy is Lancelot's clone. \"We just got him because we wanted to have Lancelot more than just the 11\u00bd years,\" Nina Otto said. The Ottos submitted the winning bid of $155,000 at an auction with a San Francisco biotech company that had Lancelot cloned in South Korea. Watch Lancy at home with the Ottos \u00bb . \"Did I ever think that I was going to spend $150K on a dog? No,\" Edgar Otto said, adding, \"This is a really sweet dog, and ... we're very happy that we did it.\" Edgar Otto is the son of Edward Otto, a co-founder of NASCAR. So money was really not an issue for this family. They got the idea five years ago and had a sample of Lancelot's DNA extracted and banked when they heard that cloning was possible. So far, the Ottos say Lancy is eerily similar to Lancelot. They say Lancy walks just like Lancelot and crosses his paws like him, too. \"I only was hoping to get the essence of Lancelot back,\" Nina said. \"I know I've gotten that. Anything else is icing on the cake.\" But is it the same dog? \"It's as close as you can get,\" Edgar said. The Ottos have nine other dogs, as well as cats, birds and sheep, all living on a spectacular 12-acre spread in Boca Raton, Florida. \"This dog was immediately accepted by the nine dogs,\" Edgar Otto said. \"There was no baring of teeth, not ever a single growl. So, the pack accepted him.\" Four customers who also placed winning bids in an auction by BioArts International will have their dogs cloned, and those pets will be delivered in the coming months. BioArts is collaborating with South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation to produce the dog clones. Cloning dogs is considered difficult because of their complicated reproductive physiology, but the procedure has been perfected in South Korea, according to industry experts. In Lancy's case, his DNA was placed inside an egg from a South Korean dog and implanted in an Irish setter in South Korea. About two months later, 1.3-pound Lancy was born in a single litter birth. BioArts says it's an expensive process and the company is still analyzing whether pet cloning can be a viable, profitable business. \"I would love to see more families be able to have this experience,\" said Lou Hawthorne, the BioArts CEO. \"But due to the complexity and cost of the process, availability is going to be limited for the foreseeable future,\" he said. Lancy is a robust 17-pounder today, and quite healthy according to the Ottos. He romps around their yard like any puppy would. But, the Ottos say, he's taken a particular fondness to a bush planted at the spot where his original, Lancelot, died last year. \"This is the only guy that's gone to that bush, and he started burrowing in the bush,\" Edgar Otto said. \"I don't know what to make of that, but we have nine dogs and let them play everyday out here, and this guy just hung out there,\" he said. But this story is not without its critics. The Ottos can do whatever they want with their money, but \"a shelter dog just lost out on a great chance of having a home,\" said Cherie Wachter of the Humane Society of Broward County, Florida. Each year, the Humane Society euthanizes 3 million to 4 million pets in the United States. \"I think, until the day comes when animal shelters across this country have empty cages all the time ... maybe then think about cloning,\" Wachter said. But the Ottos have a whole zoo full of pets and have donated more than $300,000 to their local Humane Society. \"The only reason I don't go to the Humane Society is because I would bring every one of them home,\" Nina Otto said. But this process appears to open up a whole new horizon for pet lovers with money in the bank. Edgar Otto says he's a futurist. \"Think about this,\" he said philosophically. \"You could have your favorite dog with you your entire life. I don't think that's too far-fetched.\"","highlights":"Edgar and Nina Otto paid $150,000 to clone their late dog using stored DNA .\nCalifornian and South Korean companies collaborate on the cloning .\nCloned puppy eerily walks like original and crosses paws like him .\nCouple owns nine other dogs as well as cats, birds, and sheep .","id":"0e9c45eb536d5704fd348b805266d1e5914ebc47"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When it comes to the sport of wrestling, longtime adversaries Iran and the United States are friendly enemies. Andy Hrovat, right, seen wrestling Reineris Salas of Cuba, is among the U.S. wrestlers touring this winter. A U.S. freestyle men's wrestling team will go to the Islamic republic -- where the sport is widely popular -- for a prestigious tournament in March. Nine American wrestlers will take part in the Takhti Cup competition, scheduled for March 12-13, according to state Iranian media and USA Wrestling -- the national governing body for Olympics wrestling in the United States. \"In Iran, wrestling and soccer are the two major sports,\" said Gary Abbott, director of communications for USA Wrestling in Colorado Springs, Colorado. \"They know their wrestling as well as anyone in the world. They treat our athletes like kings.\" Relations between the United States and Iran ended after Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held Americans hostage there for 444 days. More recently, the two countries have been at odds over Iran's nuclear ambitions and have been sharply critical of each other's policies and actions in the Middle East. But Abbott said there has been a history of U.S. and Iranian wrestling exchanges despite the politics. Both sides are always looking for opportunities to compete. Abbott said Iran is one of the top wrestling powers in the world, along with countries such as the United States, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Competing in a wrestling-crazy society like Iran is special to Americans, who look forward to getting on the mats before large crowds in sold-out arenas. \"For the common citizen, an American wrestler in Iran is like Michael Jordan going over there,\" Abbott said, referring to the world-famous American basketball legend. USA Wrestling said the trip is one of several overseas events this winter for American wrestlers. U.S. teams also will also be competing in Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Cuba, Bulgaria, Belarus, Turkey, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. The team going to Iran includes four men who have represented the United States in the Olympics.","highlights":"Longtime adversaries Iran and the United States are friendly enemies on the mat .\nU.S. freestyle men's wrestling team will participate in Iran tournament .\nSport of wrestling is hugely popular in the Islamic republic .\nU.S. official says of Iran: \"They treat our athletes like kings\"","id":"f6d7e6c13a6e3e3dc9100b381d27c12e595138c9"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria -- Incident details: \"Armed pirates chased, boarded and hijacked a fishing trawler underway\" southeast of Mogadishu, Somalia. \"Several persons armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machetes attempting to climb onboard with use of rope\" at Lagos anchorage, Nigeria. The Yemeni coast guard patrols the Gulf of Aden in March. Reading the International Maritime Bureau's Live Piracy Report a catalog of piracy reports from around the world, two names crop up with disturbing frequency: Somalia and Nigeria. The list reads like a history book telling tales of the buccaneers of old -- daring raids, kidnappings and ransoms. But these days, Africa's pirates are using automatic weapons and grenades. Thousands of miles apart, Somalia's and Nigeria's pirates have no communication, and their circumstances are very different. Somalia is a barren, dusty failed state, and Somali pirates operate in the vast Gulf of Aden. Pirates in Nigeria operate from the sprawling metropolis of Lagos harbor to the riverine creeks of the Niger Delta region. But they're after the same thing: money. Watch how negotiations with pirates take place \u00bb . And to get it they seem to be feeding off each other's ideas. \"One of the interesting things about piracy offshore West Africa is that it has started to mimic piracy trends off the Horn of Africa, places like Somalia,\" explained Rolake Akinola, West Africa analyst at Control Risks. \"Some of the tactics used are increasingly sophisticated. Sophisticated weaponry is used by some of those pirate groups, and it's becoming much more violent.\" The tactics employed often involve small speedboats pulling up alongside their target, boarding and, often resorting to violence, kidnapping the crew or cargo. Watch a shipping company chief describe being hijacked \u00bb . Ransoms can run into the millions of dollars. In Somalia last year, the hijacked Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star was released after a $3 million ransom was dropped by helicopter to the pirates. Local governments in Nigeria's Niger Delta often keep a special fund to pay kidnappers. Hundreds have been kidnapped in the past few years, with American and British hostages in particular considered \"high-value.\" In countries where the majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day, the ransoms are considerable amounts of money. And the money is often splashed out on flashy Humvees, flat-screen TVs and more weapons. Visiting pirates in the swamps of the Niger Delta, we were taken to the commander's new home. Surrounded by mud huts in the mangroves, a generator powered a refrigerator filled with bottles of champagne that the men drank as they played on their imported pool table. They were all young men who complained about the lack of job opportunities and were enticed into piracy by promised riches on show at the commander's house. Off Somalia's coast, a NATO-led task force is trying to crack down on Somali pirates. And the U.S. Navy is making frequent visits to West Africa to train local navies to combat pirates. \"The task force are doing a fantastic job, and they are very much welcome,\" said Michael Howlett, divisional director of the International Maritime Bureau. He pointed out that in February, for every eight attacks, there was only one hijacking. But the bureau also says 2009 has seen a spike in pirate attacks, particularly off the east coast of Somalia. More than 15 attacks were reported by March. With their attacks, pirates are challenging not just international shipping lanes but Africa's rule of law. The pirates are now operating hundreds of miles from their bases. Somali pirates operate freely along the coastlines of Kenya and Tanzania, with the potential to threaten tourists on the beaches. In March, Somalis hijacked a yacht and its crew of seven off the Seychelles. Earlier this year, unknown Nigerian gunmen attacked the presidential palace in Equatorial Guinea. They were eventually chased away by a military helicopter. To combat the problem, analysts like Akinola are agreed: More is needed than military force. \"Governments need to look at some of the social and underlying economic issues that allow piracy, so issues around governance and the provision of social services to populations in many of the countries affected.\"","highlights":"Risk experts say pirates in East and West Africa are after the same thing .\nTactics and weapons are becoming more sophisticated .\nRansom money is spent on luxury cars, more weapons .\nInternational Maritime Bureau says 2009 has seen a spike in pirate attacks .","id":"ebc8d0ea9d5e63eece303768a0e30ec8023548d8"} -{"article":"ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- The honors were late but still well-received Wednesday for members of the first all-African-American, all-female unit to serve overseas in World War II. Mary Crawford Ragland said when they came home from service, there were no parades for them. During the war, nearly 1,000 women from the \"Six-Triple Eight\" Central Postal Battalion moved mountains of mail for millions of American service members and civilians that clogged warehouses in England and France. Their service to their country had been overlooked for years, starting with when they returned to the United States from assignments overseas. \"There was no parade,\" said Mary Crawford Ragland. \"We just came home.\" The 82-year old was among those gathered Wednesday at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, where a U.S. Army support group called the Freedom Team Salute presented them with certificates of appreciation, timed with Black History Month. Watch women receive their honors \u00bb . The group also gives a letter of appreciation signed by the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Army, an Army lapel pin and an Army decal. For Alyce Dixon, 101, it was worth the wait. \"They asked me because I'm one of the oldest survivors, and I can still talk,\" she said with a smile. Nearly 800 women that were part of the 6888th were first stationed in Birmingham, England, for three months, moved to Rouen, France, and finally settled in Paris, according to the Army's Web site. They were responsible for redirecting mail to more than seven million people -- all U.S. armed forces in the European Theater of Operations, including Army, Navy, Marine Corps, civilians and Red Cross workers. As Army units quickly moved throughout Western Europe and into Germany, a massive mail snag occurred because of a manpower shortage. Soldiers continued to move, fighting battles across the continent, but weren't getting their mail. Morale began to drop. That's when the Army turned to the \"Six-Triple-Eight\" When Dixon and the other women arrived at a warehouse in early 1945, they found the building had no heat. Inside the warehouse, the windows were painted black to keep the light from coming out at night against bombing raids. Because there was no heat, the women donned long johns and anything else they could layer on. But the temperature was nothing compared with the daunting challenge of sorting the mail. When they walked inside the warehouse, it was stacked to the ceiling with undelivered packages and letters. \"They had 90 billion pieces of mail,\" Dixon told CNN, some of it from hometown friends and family addressed only to \"Junior, U.S. Army or Buster, U.S. Army,\" she said. \"We had to figure it out,\" she said. Even when there were complete names, it wasn't easy. There were 7,500 soldiers named Robert Smith in the European Theater of Operations, according to the Museum of Black WWII History Web site, and the women had to keep them straight. Because all undeliverable mail passed through them, they were charged with keeping information cards on everyone in the European Theater of Operations, according to the Army site. Because frontline soldiers were often moved frequently, the women often had to update information several times a month. While it was an arduous task, the women knew the importance of their job. For soldiers in the field, letters from loved ones brought important personal connections that kept their morale going. So they kept on sorting. Eight hours at a time, three shifts per day, seven days a week, they kept on sorting. And because of them, 65,000 letters went out each shift to soldiers across Europe. On Wednesday, the favor was finally returned.","highlights":"Women were enlisted to help with backlog of mail that was decreasing morale .\nThey worked in freezing conditions but sorted 65,000 letters a shift .\nWomen had to find who letters addressed to \"Buster\" or \"Junior\" were for .\nWomen responsible for mail for more than 7 million service members and civilians .","id":"efc8c5c441a5a0cf9a727887c1f195e994854626"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama affirmed his support for a woman's \"right to choose\" on Thursday, the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that led to the legalization of abortion, as thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on the National Mall to challenge his position. President Obama issued a statement defending Roe v. Wade for protecting \"women's health and reproductive freedom.\" Roe v. Wade \"not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters,\" Obama said in a statement. The landmark 1973 decision held that a woman's right to abortion was protected by the right to privacy under the Constitution's 14th Amendment, voiding most state laws against abortion at the time. Nellie Gray, who helped organize the anti-abortion March for Life on the Mall, invited Obama to speak at the rally. \"America needs your strong leadership as president of all the people to stop the intentional killing of an estimated 3,000 pre-born boys and girls each day and the brutalizing of mind, heart and body of pregnant mothers.\" Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said she believes that while abortion should remain an option, increasing the availability and affordability of birth control and reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies is the real solution. \"I think what everyone ought to be interested in doing, whether they are or not, is reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies,\" Gandy told CNN. \"Because if we reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, it will by definition reduce the number of abortions and reduce a lot of the pain and despair that has befallen women in these economic times, who cannot afford to enlarge their families when they don't have a job and they don't have a way to put food on the table for the kids that they have now. \"If we could all work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, it would dramatically change the debate on this issue.\" Obama has so far not struck down rules reinstated by the Bush administration eight years ago, prohibiting U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services. The \"Mexico City policy\" was initially put in place by President Ronald Reagan and suspended during Bill Clinton's presidency. Its opponents refer to it as the \"global gag order.\" About 20 anti-abortion rights lawmakers spoke at the rally Thursday, pushing for a renewed effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. \"At what instant does life begin?\" asked Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, focusing on younger crowd members who answered, \"Conception!\" \"And the next question is, \" he continued, \"President Obama, when did your life begin?\" Other legislators detailed their plans to keep the issue on the table in Congress and on the minds of voters. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, told the crowd she plans to introduce what she calls the \"Juno Bill,\" referencing the hit 2008 film of the same title in which a high school teenager gives her baby up for adoption. \"It will provide a tax credit to those women, just as we allow abortions to be tax deductible, it will provide a tax credit so that they can carry out their pregnancy, give that baby to a loving arm and not have to worry about the consequences or the costs involved,\" she said. Throughout the rally, speakers urged bold action for their cause. Gandy said the fight will also continue on the pro-abortion rights side. \"There's no question we have a pro-choice president now, but he can't do it alone,\" she said. \"He can't pass legislation. He can't stop what's going on at the state and local level and so the battle rages on ... at the congressional level, at the state and local level and certainly at the Supreme Court.\" She said the number of unwanted pregnancies is rising, as congressional action has increased the cost of contraception for college students and low-income women, \"something we hope this administration will reverse.\" Two pieces of federal legislation are pending, she said. The first will expand accessibility and availability of birth control, and the second, the Freedom of Choice Act, is a codification of Roe v. Wade. NOW will continue pursuing both at the congressional level, she said, but noted that even though Congress has a Democratic majority, it does not have a pro-abortion rights majority. \"So that will continue to be an uphill battle,\" she said . CNN's Paul Courson and Mary Grace Lucas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama: \"Government should not intrude on our most private family matters\"\nObama released statement on Roe anniversary while protesters descended on Mall .\nRally organizer to Obama: Stop intentional killing\" of unborn babies .\nFormer President Bush typically spoke by phone to rally each year .","id":"0d3a96c6f4696c698d13e2c1e2f230736f970228"} -{"article":"MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- At least 39 civilians were killed in Somalia's capital Monday after a convoy of African Union peacekeepers was hit by a roadside bomb, causing the troops to open fire, officials and eyewitnesses said. Islamist militia display weapons Monday in defiance of newly elected President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Maj. Ba-Huko Barigye, spokesman to the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISON), said an explosion targeted a contingent of Ugandan troops. At least one soldier was injured and one of the vehicles damaged, Barigye said. Ahmed Dirie Ali, spokesman of Hawiye Traditional Elders -- a major group of local clan leaders -- condemned the civilian deaths. And Mogadishu's deputy mayor, Abdifatah Ibrahim Shaweye, accused AMISOM of killing innocent civilians deliberately during a \"brutal attack,\" an allegation Barigye denied. \"The deputy mayor has got the wrong information,\" he said. \"They are targeting AMISOM, but the people who have died are all Somali civilians, who have nothing, whatsoever to do with AMISOM.\" Officials say the incident happened on Maka al-Mukarama road, which connects the presidential palace and the airport in southern Mogadishu. The incident occurred on the same day that the new Somali president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was attending an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006, to depose an Islamic government led by Ahmed that had taken control of Mogadishu. But at the summit, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged continued support for national reconciliation efforts in Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since 1991. \"It is important that these efforts should have a tangible effect in improving the security environment for the Somali people and humanitarian actors,\" Ban said in a statement released by his office. \"The United Nations will provide strong logistical support to the African Union's AMISOM force and help develop Somali security forces.\" He also encouraged AU leaders to consider a plan that will incorporate AMISOM into a larger U.N. peacekeeping force in the months ahead. AMISOM was set up to take over from Ethiopian forces, which were supposed to be withdrawn soon after the December 2006 invasion that deposed the Islamic Courts Union, which Ahmed once led. But the Ethiopians and the country's U.N.-backed transitional government were soon battling Islamist guerrillas, including the militia al-Shabaab -- which the United States has designated as a terrorist group with links to al Qaeda. The transitional government eventually signed a peace agreement with a new movement led by Ahmed, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. But al-Shabaab has rejected the deal and continued fighting. The militia overran the town of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional government, within hours of the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops last week. Ahmed was elected president Saturday by lawmakers in Djibouti, and many Somalis view him as a final hope to challenge the militia and its extremist ideology. CNN's Amir Ahmed and Ahmednor Mohamed Farah for CNN contributed to this report.","highlights":"Roadside bomb strikes African Union peacekeepers, AU mission says .\nOfficials: Civilian deaths occurred on road between presidential palace, airport .\nMogadishu deputy mayor, AU spokesman disagree over cause of civilian deaths .","id":"6607969f6f7d260ba2517c919b8ebda209a7989b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN has asked its journalists across the country to offer their thoughts on how the economic crisis is affecting their cities. In this installment, All Platform Journalist John Couwels reports from Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has announced that it will lay off employees. ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Orlando: What first comes to mind? Walt Disney World or Universal resorts, perhaps? The two parks are the nation's biggest tourist draws. As a new resident of Orlando, I find that the tourist areas are more removed from the city than I thought. Still, some people in the area where I currently live either work or have business dealings at tourist attractions. As with every city in the United States, Orlando is dealing with the fallout of an economic slowdown. Tourism officials expect an 8 percent to 10 percent drop in tourism dollars for 2009. Nonetheless, during a recent visit to Disney's Magic Kingdom with my family, I experienced a packed park. My first visit in 10 years: The park did not seem any different except for the $129 I paid for a six-month Florida resident pass. Disney World recently announced a major loss in income and that layoffs are expected. Sources within Disney say the layoffs could begin this week. Disney will not say how many people will be eliminated while it restructures and consolidates operations. I have not heard panic among businesses and city officials over the Disney announcement, despite the fact Disney World says it is the biggest single-site employer in the United States with 62,000. Disney spokesman Mike Griffin said: \"We are bigger than the Pentagon.\" Disney told me cuts would be significant, affecting back office workers. Griffin said guests visiting the parks would not see any difference. Danielle Courtney, spokeswoman of the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she was sure that \"Disney will provide a value experience for their guests.\" But she said Disney is doing what every other business is doing: cutting costs. Orlando's economic and development director, Bill Billingsley, said the city has not lost a significant amount of jobs. Billingsley is concerned about the Disney layoffs but optimistic on the limited effect on the city's economic health. From the big corporations to the funky little tea and sandwich shop east of downtown, businesses are feeling the pinch. The owner of Pom Pom's Teahouse and Sandwicheria was telling my friend how she had to cut everyone's hours to part time to save on expenses. The store has been open since 2006. Owner Pom Moongauklang, a trained pastry chef, told me she's doing whatever it takes to stay open. Pom cut her four employees' hours instead of their jobs, lowered prices and extended hours to 24 hours on the weekends. Pom said of the 60- to 70-hour work week: \"It's killing me, but it's working.\" Along the epicenter of tourist hotels, restaurants and T-shirt shops, International Drive business owners say they are hurting. Aby Aly, owner of a gift shop selling goods from T-shirts to plush dolls, said that \"business is off by 35 percent, and people are not buying.\" As I drive around town, I do not see a large number of closed-down stores. Like other cities, Orlando has seen big national chain closures like Linen-N-Things and Circuit City. Yet at two of the area's outlet malls, you would never know there is an economic crisis. I waited 10 minutes in line to enter the parking lot. In the suburbs where foreclosures are their highest, more businesses have closed their doors. As I looked for a house to rent I was surprised how a one-bedroom condo in downtown was the same price as a four-bedroom house only five miles away. Real estate agent Sue Bee Laginess said the city has a glut of homes and condominiums for sale or rent. She said her office has seen business double from four months ago because of the low prices. The agent said owners have either lowered prices, been foreclosed on or are selling the house for the amount owed to the bank. For one store in my new quaint neighborhood of College Park, business has never been better: Top Drawer Consignments. Fred Rodgers, a former Disney designer and one of the store's owners, said \"the tough economy is helping us.\" Shoppers say they save money buying used furniture. Yet College Park has not been immune from the economic crisis; real estate offices and gift shops have closed there, too. Despite the downturn, Orlando officials believe their city has fared better than most. Orlando's economic development director told me Orlando is building a medical city that will add 10,000 jobs in the coming years. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer will give his State of Orlando speech Wednesday, the same week the area's biggest employer could begin layoffs.","highlights":"Resort mecca Orlando, Florida, feels the pinch of economic slowdown .\nDisney World reports it will have to lay off employees .\nConsignment store bucks trend; business good there .\nCity officials say upcoming medical development will add 10,000 jobs .","id":"8aeadc31a8fcd1dc537039828d8ae845f8b55f30"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The news this week might have made Corky Ra roll over in his mummiform, his specially commissioned $40,000 bronze final resting place. Ron Temu, a licensed funeral director, is in charge of mummification practices for Summum. The founder of Summum, a small Utah-based spiritual group, died in January 2008 at age 63. That was after his community -- one that practices meditations and a modern form of mummification, makes its own sacramental wine and considers itself less of a religion than a way of life -- began to make national headlines with its journey to the Supreme Court. It began with a push to erect a monument listing Summum's seven guiding principles in a Utah municipal park that has long displayed a monument listing the Ten Commandments. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado, ruled in 2007 that free speech guarantees Summum the right to erect a monument. But the Supreme Court unanimously agreed Wednesday with the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, which argued that displays on public property, privately donated or otherwise, amount to \"government speech\" and fall under the discretion of local officials. Beyond the headlines about what the ruling means to parks, 9\/11 memorials and other monuments is an obscure group that wants recognition that its Seven Aphorisms are as valid as the Ten Commandments. The aphorisms are the principles of psychokinesis, correspondence, vibration, opposition, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender. \"A lot of people are so tired of being told how they have to worship,\" said Su Menu, 58, who has subscribed to Summum's teachings for more than 30 years. \"It's not about dogma; it's about becoming the best you can be. Whatever path you discover that leads you in that direction, that's where you need to be.\" The group was founded in 1975 after Claude \"Corky\" Rex Nowell, who was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he had encounters with \"advanced beings,\" which he chronicled in his book, \"Summum: Sealed Except to the Open Mind.\" Nowell legally changed his name to Summum Bonum Amon Ra, but still used the first name Corky. To those who follow his teachings, the idea that Ra would be visited by some kind of higher power was no more far-fetched than any other religious leader's claims. Menu's legal name is Summum Bonum Neffer Menu, although the piano teacher professionally still goes by Sue Parsons. What Ra gave to her was a better sense of, and appreciation for, herself, she said. She grew up in the Midwest, in what she described as a very conservative Christian environment. \"For a long time, I felt like a terrible person because I couldn't worship and feel exactly like my parents,\" she said Thursday. Summum is \"about an ongoing progression of the soul and discovery of that, of what's in you. ... It made me feel like I'm OK, and I've become a stronger person because of it. I don't see how anybody can come to the conclusion that that's bad.\" Summum practitioners \"believe in one source,\" Menu said, \"but we just don't label it as God. We just call it creation. We call it Summum,\" which is a Latin term meaning \"the sum total of all creation.\" The community meets in a small copper-colored pyramid off Interstate 15 in Salt Lake City, and includes people of various religious backgrounds. Tapping into Summum's teachings does not require anyone to give up ties to other faith traditions. The various religious texts -- including a copy of the Quran, the Hebrew Bible and The Book of Mormon -- found in the pyramid, as well as the multitude of Buddhas, are a testament to Summum's inclusion of any and all spiritual philosophies. Also in the pyramid is a menagerie of mummified animals. Some cats, including Vincent, Oscar and Smokey, stand in row, across the room from Dobermans named Butch and Wendy, as well as Menu's beloved poodle, Maggie, who was mummified at a cost of about $12,000. The process devised by Summum preserves the body by soaking it in mummification fluids for at least 77 days before, among other things, slathering it with lanolin, wrapping it in gauze, painting it with multiple layers of butyl rubber and eventually sealing it in a mummiform. The process can take about six months to complete, and it is during this time that the soul of the living is guided into its next lifetime. About 1,500 people from across the globe, and from many different religions, have requested these mummification arrangements through their local funeral homes, said Ron Temu, a licensed funeral director and longtime Summum practitioner. But so far only one, the Summum founder, has actually been mummified. An artist was commissioned to create Ra's mummiform, the face of which looks just like his. Though he's already sealed inside it, it is not yet on display in the pyramid. \"We're still working on the gold leaf,\" Temu said Thursday. \"Once that's done, we'll have him in there.\" Summum does not require attendance or membership, so there is no way to know the number of adherents. Menu estimated that \"hundreds of thousands\" of people across the globe have studied Summum's teachings, which are broadcast online, \"but once they learn the meditations, they're free to go live their own lives.\" The meditations, of which there are many, are less about what is said than the way they make people feel, which is a good thing, because some are in a language unknown to Menu and other practitioners. There are those that are said in English, too, and then there is the Meditation of Sexual Ecstasy, which is less about words and more about actions between lovers. \"We're one humanity, but we all have our path and we all have our own experiences,\" Menu said. \"We're just learning lessons this lifetime around.\"","highlights":"Summum takes monument fight to Supreme Court and loses .\nSpiritual group practices meditation and mummification .\nGroup meets in pyramid in Salt Lake City, Utah .\nFounder Corky Ra is preserved in a mummiform soon to be displayed .","id":"5c546d8d0e6ac20efe2ba4ee18ba452d6825b72a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists expect some great travel spots to be altered or ruined by global climate change. Glaciers in the European Alps may melt as soon as 2050, some scientists say. Some of the changes are already taking place. Others are expected to be seen in coming decades. There are two ways to look at this: Either stay home (which might be less depressing and won't add more airline emissions) or get a move on it and see the hot spots you just can't miss. For those who want to head out, CNN got advice on the best pre-warming travel destinations from Bob Henson, author of \"The Rough Guide to Climate Change\" and a writer at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Here are Henson's top five choices: . Great Barrier Reef, Australia . Warming temperatures can spell disaster for coral reefs, which depend on a delicate balance of ocean temperature and chemistry to bloom into colorful displays. Many of the world's reefs already are experiencing \"bleaching\" in which algae living in the coral die and leave behind whitened skeletons. The Great Barrier Reef -- which is composed of about 2,900 individual reefs and is off the northeast coast of Australia -- is seeing limited bleaching now, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority expects the problem to grow in coming decades. Henson said the reefs' colorful displays are not to be missed. \"It's a feast for the eyes in terms of color, texture variations -- it's just amazing to see,\" he said. \"It's wonderful to be enveloped in the warm water and look down just a few feet below at this amazing spread of ocean life.\" Boats of people with snorkels typically launch into the reefs from Cairns, Queensland. If you go, tread lightly, Henson said. Visitors can damage the reefs if they get too close. New Orleans, Louisiana . How much sea levels will rise as the world warms is one of the trickiest parts of the climate change equation. If huge hunks of ice -- such as parts of Greenland and the western shelf of Antarctica -- melt, then the rise is expected to be more dramatic. \"Nobody knows whether they're going to completely melt or not, but we do know it's not going to happen in the next 10 years,\" Henson said. But for cities near the coast such as New Orleans, which already sits below sea level, rising waters could spell trouble for tourists and residents alike, even in the relative near term. \"In the next several hundred years, life there may be difficult, and the cities may become impractical unless we can build large structures to keep the waters at bay,\" he said. Henson doesn't expect New Orleans to be underwater anytime soon. But travel to the Louisiana city may become more difficult in the future, he said. Scientists expect floods to become more frequent. \"It's sobering to be in New Orleans and look up at the levees that sit above you and keep out the Mississippi River,\" he said. \"You're standing below the level of the river, looking up.\" Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Colorado . Herds of tiny pine beetles are munching away at Colorado's forests, turning the evergreens a sickly red and destroying large patches of trees. Cold snaps -- which, in mountain terms, mean about five nights of minus-30 temperatures -- usually kill off the native beetles. But winters are warming, and Henson and others said they worry the beetles can't be stopped. The beetle infestation \"has reached epidemic proportions as a result of climate issues,\" said Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain National Park. The beetles are causing problems all over America's mountainous west, but the issue is particularly visible at Patterson's park, northwest of Denver. Henson recommends visiting the park this decade to ensure you can still see the dense forests in decent shape. Some of the reddened forests look beautiful in a strange way, Henson said, but visitors should note that the color isn't natural for pine trees. \"Come soon. It's happening quickly,\" he said. Visit in the summer or early fall and take a breathtaking drive to 12,183 feet, Patterson said. Or, come in the winter and enjoy snowshoeing and nearby skiing. Many of the park's 355 miles of hiking trails are open year-round. Alpine Glaciers, Switzerland . The European Alps sit at a lower altitude than the Rocky Mountains, and their glaciers and ski resorts are therefore more susceptible to melting, Henson said. A climate expert in Austria recently told National Geographic that the Alps' famed glaciers will disappear entirely between 2030 and 2050. A 2006 report had said they would melt by the end of the century. Henson said he once took a train through the Alpine glaciers. They're worth seeing before they go -- whenever that happens, he said. \"They're beautiful; the light blue quality of the meltwater is really stunning,\" he said. Amazon rain forest, Brazil . Deforestation continues to be the major environmental issue in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rain forest. But as locals and corporations chop down the Amazon's rich forests to create farmland and to harvest biofuels, climate change may make things worse. \"The fear is that there will be kind of a feedback where trees are cut down, and it gets warmer and drier\" in the forest until it can't grow back, Henson said. The best way to visit the forest is by boat, Henson said. That way, you'll leave less of a mark on the struggling ecosystem. Of course, getting to a boat on the Amazon is not simple, and the long trip can create a lot of heat-trapping pollution. Henson said the destination might be one of those better left alone by tourists.","highlights":"Global warming may ruin many of nature's wonders .\nRising sea levels could make visiting New Orleans difficult in the future .\nGlaciers in the Alps may melt by the middle of the century .\nEncouraged by warmer winters, pine beetles are ruining forests in Colorado .","id":"3cbe4a406a16af1346d754cc9f7b398e6cc8ef11"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some of the security officials at this weekend's Super Bowl will be scrutinizing the body language and demeanor of fans as part of the effort to spot suspicious and possibly dangerous people in the crowd. Fans take in the sights Thursday at the NFL Experience at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The Transportation Security Administration says it will have several teams of behavior-detection officers working with local police in Tampa, Florida, as an added security measure for the high-profile game. TSA spokesman Christopher White said that the officers are being sent at the request of the local police and the FBI, and that it's the first time such officers are assisting with a major sports event. \"Unlike technology, the human detection officers can be anywhere,\" White said. \"They can be completely unobtrusive.\" The TSA officers will be wearing their uniforms and working in teams with police along the stadium's security perimeter but won't work inside the stadium as fans watch the game. They'll also be around key hotels associated with the Super Bowl, the airport and other transportation centers in Tampa. Watch what goes on at Super Bowl media day \u00bb . According to White, if a TSA officer observes someone displaying unusual behavior, a local police officer will follow up by questioning the person. This month, the TSA also held a four-hour training session on behavior detection for about 100 Tampa-area police. The TSA officers themselves undergo an initial seven days of training before being paired with experienced officers and having follow-up training. Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union said such behavior screening is a bad idea. \"There is no scientific evidence behavior profiling works to pick out terrorists or criminals,\" Steinhardt said. The TSA uses behavior screening daily at airports. White said officers also have helped out at such high-profile events as last week's presidential inauguration and the Republican and Democratic national conventions.","highlights":"TSA will scan body language and demeanor of fans attending big game .\nTSA says behavior-detection officers will work in tandem with Tampa police .\nACLU says there's no hard proof that such screening works .","id":"23174f035f7d27f12dfab1590b22e3706fd3f5ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The congressional showdown over Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' nomination to President Obama's Cabinet may focus less on her qualifications than on the issue of abortion, analysts said. Then-presidential candidate Barack Obama listens to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius during a January 2008 rally. Obama on Monday nominated Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Cabinet nominations require Senate confirmation, and anti-abortion groups already are making their views known. Analysts suspected that Obama would face a battle over abortion if and when he makes a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, but religious conservatives could use Sebelius as a warm-up for the seemingly inevitable fight. Calling Sebelius an \"enemy of the unborn,\" Catholic League President Bill Donohue said the Kansas governor's nomination is particularly disturbing because the health and human services secretary is one of the few members of the administration who can directly affect abortion policy. \"Sebelius' support for abortion is so far off the charts that she has been publicly criticized by the last three archbishops of Kansas City,\" Donohue said in a statement. Watch why filling the Cabinet post is urgent task \u00bb . The liberal group Catholics United has come to Sebelius' defense, saying the Kansas governor has taken several steps to lower the abortion rate in her state. The group also has posted excerpts of a 2006 speech in which Sebelius said she opposed abortion. \"My Catholic faith teaches me that all life is sacred, and personally I believe abortion is wrong,\" she said then. \"However, I disagree with the suggestion that criminalizing women and their doctors is an effective means of achieving the goal of reducing the number of abortions in our nation.\" In May, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, said that Sebelius' stance on abortion had \"grave spiritual and moral consequences.\" He asked that Sebelius no longer receive Communion until she repudiated her stance and made a \"worthy sacramental confession.\" Naumann was reacting to Sebelius' veto of state Senate Bill 389 and the subsequent House version, titled the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, either of which would have tightened abortion regulations in Kansas. In shooting down SB 389 in April, Sebelius wrote that the bill was problematic because it included no exceptions for pregnancies that endanger a woman's life and it allowed for individuals to seek court orders preventing a woman from obtaining an abortion, even if the procedure was necessary to save her life. \"I am concerned that the bill is likely unconstitutional, or even worse, endangers the lives of women,\" Sebelius said in a statement. She further said that Kansas had striven to lower its abortion rates through adoption incentives, extended health services for pregnant women, sex education and support services for families. Another lightning rod for Sebelius is attendance by Dr. George Tiller and his staff at a 2007 reception she held at the governor's mansion in Topeka. The doctor, who specializes in late-term abortions and once received the National Abortion Federation's highest honor, won the reception at a charity auction held for the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. Tiller is presently facing charges relating to his practice. Last month, a district judge denied a motion to dismiss the case, meaning Tiller will go to trial on 19 misdemeanor counts relating to how he procured second opinions for late-term abortions, according to The Wichita Eagle. Though Sebelius is dogged by many on the religious right, GOP Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts of Kansas seem willing to give her a pass on her stance on abortion. Brownback, who sought the GOP presidential nomination and is one of the leading anti-abortion voices in the Senate, recently released a statement with Roberts, congratulating Sebelius and expressing an eagerness to work with their fellow Kansan on health issues. The senators said they expect to have several differences of opinion with the Obama administration -- especially on health care funding and nationalized health care -- but they make no mention of the abortion issue. David Brody, who covers the White House for the Christian Broadcasting Network, said the omission could pose a problem for anti-abortion advocates hoping to down Sebelius' nomination. \"It's a problem, and Sam Brownback has been in long step with them on the abortion issue. That's a setback for them,\" he said. Meanwhile, progressive groups have lent their outright support to Sebelius. Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a health care advocacy group, said Sebelius \"represents the knowledge, background, caring that I think is necessary for that position.\" Sebelius, 60, is the daughter of former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, who led that state from 1971-1975. The two-term governor has been credited for her bipartisanship and her success as a Democrat politician in a longtime red state. Her work with insurance companies -- both as an insurance executive and as Kansas' insurance commissioner -- will also lend itself to the work of the Cabinet post, her supporters said. However, those who are predicting a tussle over her Cabinet nomination concede that her experience will not be the bone of contention when she goes before the Senate. \"The pro-life groups have an itchy trigger finger on this. The inbox was full before Sebelius was nominated. They're ready for a fight,\" Brody told CNN. In a column last week, Brody wrote that Democrats have solid numbers in the Senate, and Sebelius could sail through confirmation hearings because some GOP moderates, such as Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, are supporters of abortion rights. Brody added that Sebelius is so qualified, the abortion issue may not be enough to derail her nomination. The abortion fight, however, may be one that Obama's team wants to avoid, he said Monday. \"Do they want to be sucked in, if you will, to a fight over abortion? Or do they want to leave that for a summer battle over a Supreme Court nominee potentially?\" Brody asked. \"That's the danger here for the Obama administration, to be a distraction.\"","highlights":"Catholic League president refers to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as \"enemy of the unborn\"\nProgressive groups defend Kansas governor, praise bipartisanship .\nArchbishop chastised Sebelius over abortion bill that she called unconstitutional .\nSebelius nomination likely to get backing of Democrats, moderate Republicans .","id":"1b6da3911df7b9d6fd84262ea683cb3445e3e99c"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Suspected Taliban militants blew up a bridge early Tuesday in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, suspending NATO supply lines. A Pakistani policeman sits near a police check post in the tribal area of Khyber Agency on February 12, 2008. The blast occurred about 6 a.m. Tuesday in the Khata Kushta area of Jamrod in the Khyber Agency in Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The bridge connected Landi Kotal and Jamrod. Transport has been suspended, and authorities are assessing damages. Engineers also are on location and work is under way to open a temporary route. Details were unclear on the size of the blast, but most of the iron bridge was destroyed, local officials said. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported. Authorities are looking for alternate supply routes for NATO supply trucks and traffic going from Pakistan to Afghanistan, because the route is the main one between the two countries. All vehicles must cross the bridge when going from Peshawar toward the crossing point into Afghanistan. This is the first time militants have targeted a bridge or roadway in efforts to disrupt NATO supplies, a local official said. Previously, militants have targeted truck depots where supply convoys wait to cross into Afghanistan or have attacked trucks on their way through Pakistan and into the Khyber Agency. On Monday, at least 35 suspected militants were killed as part of ongoing operations in the Swat Valley, the Pakistan military confirmed to CNN. Government security forces engaged 70 to 80 suspected militants with artillery and attack helicopters about 11 p.m., after observing their movements in the Khwaza Khela District of the Swat Valley, the military said. Though only 35 militants were confirmed dead, many more were injured in the attack and the death toll was expected to rise, the military said. Also on Monday, a Taliban FM radio sermon announced that militants had killed 16 Pakistan army soldiers in the Swat Valley. Officials at the Swat media center said that report was false.","highlights":"Suspected Taliban militants blown up a bridge in Pakistan's Khyber Agency region .\nKhyber Agency is in border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan .\nNATO supply lines suspended; No deaths or injuries were immediately reported .\nAt least 35 suspected militants killed as part of operations in the Swat Valley .","id":"42c72e53f180d6250a72c016e074892739363e4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Artillery shells slammed into a hospital Sunday in the northern Sri Lankan district of Mullaittivu, where civilians -- including a growing number of children -- are being treated as government forces and Tamil rebels continue to clash. A Sri Lankan soldier walks through Mullaittivu, the former military headquarters of the Tamil rebels. More than 200 civilians and at least 30 children have been injured in the last three days of fighting, a relief worker told CNN Sunday. \"That is the absolute minimum (number of injured),\" the aid worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of jeopardizing the work of relief organizations, said. Government officials are accusing aid organizations and foreign media of sensationalizing civilian casualties. \"It looks as if it's convenient for certain agencies to exaggerate the numbers so that this can be converted to a humanitarian crisis in the public eye, \" Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dr. Palitha Kohona told CNN. On Sunday, Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to \"continue with the military offensive until we liberate the remaining area under LTTE (the rebel group) control,\" according to Sri Lanka's state-run news agency. Watch a report on civilians caught in fighting \u00bb . A \"handful\" of United Nations staff are working around the clock to save a growing number of children caught in the crossfire, a U.N. spokesman said Saturday. Children as young as 4 months old were being treated in local hospitals for shrapnel injuries and other \"wounds of war,\" spokesman James Elder told CNN. \"There is just intense fighting in a small area where children and other civilians are,\" Elder said. \"The space (where conflict is taking place) is shrinking and the fighting is augmenting.\" Thursday, U.N. aid workers rescued 50 critically injured children and 105 adults, he said. \"We are trying to get as many people out of there as we can,\" Elder said. Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians and urged the Tamil Tigers to promise the same. \"We have declared a safe zone for civilians, the coordinates of which were announced by the security forces,\" Rajapaksa said on his government's Web site. \"It is unfortunate that the (Tamil Tiger group) is exploiting this declared safe zone for civilians by placing their heavy artillery within the safe zone and using it as a launching pad to attack security forces and indiscriminately kill civilians.\" The fighting has created a \"nightmarish\" situation for civilians in the conflict zone, Elder said. An emerging shortage of humanitarian supplies and diminished access to clean water, sanitation, and food are compounding a crisis, he said. Sunday, Sri Lankan soldiers seized a key rebel stronghold in a surprise attack deep in Tamil held territory. Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. The The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.","highlights":"Sri Lankan hospital hit by artillery shells .\nChildren young as 4 months treated in local hospitals for shrapnel injuries .\nAid workers rescue 50 critically injured children and 105 adults .\nSri Lankan President has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians .","id":"48c35edae9b199e970a36cc6bde838ac14173050"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Bedraggled, hungry and dazed, the refugees arrived on the shores of Thailand after fleeing one of the most repressive governments in the world -- the hard-line military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma. This picture provided to CNN is said to show refugees being towed out to sea by the Thai army. But a CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that for hundreds of Rohingya refugees -- members of a Muslim minority group -- abuse and abandonment at sea were what awaited them in Thailand, at the hands of Thai authorities. Extraordinary photos obtained by CNN from someone directly involved in the Thai operation show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose and abandoned. One photo shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea. Watch the backstory on the investigation \u00bb . For days, accusations have been carried in several regional papers that the Thai army has been systematically towing boat-loads of Rohingya refugees far out to sea and setting them adrift. The army denied it, and the Thai government has launched an inquiry. CNN's investigation -- based on accounts from tourists, sources in Thailand and a Rohingya refugee who said he was on a boat towed back out to sea -- helps to piece together a picture of survival thwarted by an organized effort not just to repel arriving refugees, but to hold them prisoner on shore, drag them in flimsy boats far out to sea and then abandon them. Watch CNN's investigation into reports of refugees being set adrift \u00bb . Three tourists recently voiced concern to CNN over what they had seen -- and in some cases photographed -- near Thailand's tourist areas. One tourist provided CNN with photos last week of refugees detained by Thai authorities on a beach near a tourist site, with the refugees prone on the sun-bleached sand while guards stood nearby. \"Whenever someone raised their head or moved, they [guards] would strike them with a whip,\" said Australian tourist Andrew Catton. A CNN crew traveled to a remote stretch of the Thai coast four hours north of the tourist island of Phuket to investigate the growing reports that the Thai military was secretly detaining Rohingya refugees before towing them out to sea and setting them adrift. In an isolated beach area, debris including sandals and campfire remnants indicated that large numbers of people had been there but were nowhere to be seen. The crew then traveled to a nearby island, where residents reported that refugees who had escaped were living in the jungle. In one hamlet, villagers had captured a Rohingya man they believed had been living in the jungle for days. The refugee, who identified himself as Iqbal Hussain, told CNN he was on one of six boats in a makeshift refugee fleet that arrived in Thailand in December. He said all six boats with their refugee cargo were towed back out to sea in January, and five of the six boats sank. His boat made it back to shore, and he hid in the jungle for days until nearby villagers captured him. In broken English and using sign language and drawings, he described what happened to the other men on the boats: . \"All men dead,\" he said, putting the number of dead at several hundred. The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in rickety boats for years, in search of a better life. In Thailand, many instead have found deprivation and the possibility of desertion far off shore, according to the CNN investigation. The source who provided CNN with photos of refugees in a boat being towed out to sea stressed that the Thai army had given the refugees food and water, but he also confirmed that the boats had been pulled for more than two days into international waters before they were set adrift. His account directly contradicts briefings by senior Thai army sources who denied any such operation was undertaken. A source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. But the source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was always given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. CNN asked the government for comment and was told that an investigation was being launched and that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has plans to call an emergency meeting once the country's foreign minister returns from Cambodia. Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, gave no timeline for the foreign minister's return or the emergency meeting. He did say the government is taking the matter very seriously.","highlights":"CNN finds evidence hundreds of Rohingya refugees abandoned at sea by Thai army .\nPhotos show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose .\nThe army denies setting refugees adrift; Thai government has launched an inquiry .\nRohingya have been fleeing persecution of the hard-line military regime in Myanmar .","id":"2f01017a67ce0a9e43b33b41912eb74fbab2c158"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Relatives of missing 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings have given DNA samples, and the mobile home where she lived is no longer off-limits as a crime scene, authorities in Florida said Friday. Haleigh Cummings, 5, was last seen as she was put to bed about 8 p.m. February 9. The blue double-wide trailer near the tiny town of Satsuma, Florida, has been turned over to the child's father, but he does not plan to live there, said Capt. Dick Schauland of the Putnam County Sheriff's office. The 25-year-old father, Ronald Cummings, \"is just not comfortable\" living in the trailer where his daughter was last seen, Schauland said. Authorities have collected DNA samples from Haleigh's father, her mother and other people connected to the case, including the father's 17-year-old girlfriend, Misty Croslin, Schauland added. Police have said they think Haleigh was abducted but have provided few details of their investigation. Watch Hailey's grandmother plead for her return \u00bb . Croslin said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. February 9. She said she went to sleep herself about 10 p.m. but woke at 3 a.m. to find Haleigh missing and a back door propped open by bricks. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. Haleigh's younger brother later told family members that a man dressed in black came into the trailer and took Haleigh from her bed. Go inside Haleigh's bedroom . Authorities have used cadaver dogs to search the area near the trailer. The searches were suspended a week ago, Schauland said. Haleigh was reported missing on the same day a memorial service was held for Caylee Anthony, a Florida girl who had been missing for months before her remains were found in December. Her mother has been charged with murder. Haleigh's case received wide publicity as television crews made the short trip from Caylee's service in Orlando to Haleigh's home in Satsuma, east of Gainesville in northern Florida. Caylee Anthony's grandfather, a former police officer, later traveled to the command post to comfort and advise the missing child's father. Family members of Ronald Cummings and Haleigh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, set up camp under tents near the police command post, going on camera to beg for the child's safe return. The relationship between Cummings and Sheffield has been described as \"rocky.\" The two shared custody of the children, with each parent caring for the children every other weekend. Schauland said authorities have received about 2,400 tips from across the country: \"all kinds of folks, psychics.\" Asked how the family was holding up, he said, \"It's really tough on them, as you can imagine. ... I can't imagine what they're going through.\"","highlights":"Missing child Haleigh Cummings' kin give DNA samples .\nMobile home where Haleigh last seen no longer a crime scene .\nDouble-wide has been released to girl's father .\nPolice think 5-year-old was abducted from her bed February 9-10 .","id":"25860ddbd5e2419576f708d28a37ab32c82bd2df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An outspoken Saudi human rights advocate who was imprisoned without charge for nearly eight months was freed this weekend, according to a fellow human rights activist. Matrook al-Faleh, shown in 2004, was seized after he criticized prison conditions, says Human Rights Watch. Matrook al-Faleh \"is doing very well\" after leaving Al-Hayer maximum security prison near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, late Saturday, said colleague Mohammed al-Qahtani, who visited al-Faleh on Sunday. \"He is very healthy and his morale is quite high -- surprisingly after eight months,\" said al-Qahtani. Both men are Saudi college professors. It's unclear why al-Faleh was arrested. A Human Rights Watch report condemning the arrest and urging al-Faleh's release said his detention came two days after he publicly criticized conditions in a prison where two other Saudi human rights activists are imprisoned. It was also unclear why he was held for so long. According to al-Qahtani, Saudi law mandates that no one can be held for more than six months without charge. \"The criminal code says you charge him or release him, but sometimes they do not respect the law they issued,\" al-Qahtani said. An official at the Saudi Interior Ministry said he had no details about al-Faleh's case. Jamila al-Uqla, al-Faleh's wife, spoke to CNN in May, shortly after her husband was detained. She described how her husband had been arrested without charge and interrogated repeatedly. Al-Faleh had decided to go on a hunger strike to demand that he be told why he was being held, she said. His wife stressed that she and al-Faleh are patriotic Saudis. \"My husband is transparent and doesn't hide anything,\" said al-Uqla. \"He says whatever he sees. He has loyalty to his country and the interests of his country.\" It was not Al-Faleh's first brush with the Saudi legal system. Al-Faleh, Abdullah al-Hamid and Ali al-Dumaini, who runs a Saudi discussion Web site, were arrested in 2004 for circulating a petition meant for then-Crown Prince Abdullah which called for a constitution guaranteeing basic human rights. A court sentenced al-Faleh, Abdullah al-Hamid and Ali al-Dumaini, to six, seven and nine years respectively. But King Abdullah pardoned them in August 2005, Human Rights Watch said.","highlights":"Saudi professor Matrook al-Faleh imprisoned for eight months without charge .\nHe was released from a prison near Riyadh late Saturday, fellow activist says .\nRights group: Al-Faleh's detention came after he criticized prison conditions .","id":"d6cbc5e0cd3b3bc70e2dfd7c81b9d37c9132726e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Almost three years after losing her right leg in a bomb explosion in Iraq, Tara Hutchinson decided to post her photo and profile online to ask for help. Dave Mahler spent his entire career in technology and decided to apply his know-how to help veterans. The soldier was having financial problems last fall and needed $1,000 for one month's mortgage on her house in San Antonio, Texas, where she is being treated for her injuries. Her husband, who is also in the Army, is still deployed in Iraq. Hutchinson, 32, is among dozens of active-duty U.S. troops and veterans who have asked for help through USAtogether.org, which listed their stories and specific needs online. The charity is one of many set up to help U.S. troops beyond the compensation and benefits the government offers, but it's not run by a church group, a veterans association or even a military family. Watch how some veterans are having tough times back home \u00bb . Instead, it was founded by a group of Silicon Valley professionals in California. The project is the brainchild of Dave Mahler, whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes an engineering degree, 13 years at Hewlett-Packard designing servers and software, co-founding a start-up and serving on nonprofit boards -- but no military background. Mahler also happens to live four miles from a Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, which he had driven past for 25 years but never visited, he said. It was on his mind a year and a half ago when he was looking for a new community service project and decided to focus his energy on helping U.S. troops hurt in the line of duty. Hatching a plan over coffee . Mahler described what he did next as a \"very startup-oriented thing.\" He called a senior person at the hospital out of the blue and invited her out for coffee to learn how he could help. Mahler said he was ready to sweep the halls or read to a veteran but envisioned something with more leverage. \"I had a bias towards wanting to use the things that we've learned in Silicon Valley and across the country in building Internet properties to apply that technology into this arena,\" Mahler said. So after finding out that there was usually an outpouring of help once a community knew about a veteran's financial plight, he decided to start a Web site showcasing specific stories and needs. Anyone who wanted to help could browse through the requests and decide exactly whom to support. Mahler, 52, said the goal was to get rid of all the bureaucracy in the process by combining elements of Craigslist -- the popular go-to place for online classifieds and forums -- and Kiva.org, a micro-lending Web site that lets users browse profiles of entrepreneurs in the developing world and choose someone to give a small loan to. \"The unique thing about Kiva, and to some extent Craigslist, is that it's one to one. You're not giving money to some organization and then they decide who to give it to,\" Mahler said. Visitors to USAtogether.org can search for requests by ZIP code, branch of service or type of need. Requests can be filled quickly, so the organization is looking for more service members and their families to list their needs, Mahler said. A recent visit to the site showed only two open appeals for help. Hutchinson said her request for assistance with a mortgage payment was filled within a couple of months of posting and has made a big difference. \"There are a lot of people who believe that Americans are not giving, [but] I think that we're the most giving culture in the world,\" Hutchinson said. \"I am so grateful that there are people who were willing to help me.\" Volunteers stay connected . Hutchinson didn't have any apprehension about posting her story online. But for some visitors, the pictures and requests for baby items, appliances and even job leads can be uncomfortable to see, Mahler said. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs declined to comment on whether it had any qualms about veterans listing their stories on the site. \"That's a personal choice,\" said VA spokesman Jim Benson. USAtogether has no office or employees, keeping the operation \"outrageously efficient,\" Mahler said. The handful of Silicon Valley professionals who run the nonprofit organization work on a volunteer basis out of their homes, using Skype conference calls, text messages and other technology to communicate. The volunteers check out service members, who must meet eligibility criteria. They also make sure the requests are appropriate and within limits. Direct financial assistance is limited to $1,000, for example, and someone asking for a plasma-screen TV might be coached to request help with an electric bill instead. The assistance is meant to be a short-term safety net, so service members with recurring financial problems are referred to the many other groups that help veterans. Hearing the service members' stories can take a toll on the team, Mahler said. \"I've spent my entire career in technology, and the reality of it is, when you're building the next widget that's smaller or faster or cheaper, it's really impersonal,\" Mahler said. \"In this case, you're focusing on people's lives, and it's a very emotional business. It is draining when you first hear the stories. But that is for the most part balanced when we're able to get folks assistance.\"","highlights":"Silicon Valley professionals start Web site to connect donors with troops in need .\nFounder models site on Craigslist and Kiva.org, so people can decide who to help .\nVeterans and active-duty troops can list their stories, photos and specific requests .\n\"I am so grateful that there are people who were willing to help me,\" soldier says .","id":"a3e981643ab4033bc49620724b9ccac1e8cb120c"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Two young Iranian parents smiled at me, showing mock desperation as their little boy and girl eagerly dragged them into a shop famous for its pistachio ice cream sandwiches. Around the corner, filling the side of a 15-story building, a government-sponsored propaganda mural showed a perverted American flag, with skulls for stars and falling bombs for stripes. Iranian women must wear a scarf, but many leave a tuft of hair showing at the forehead. That bizarre mixture -- of saber-rattling politics alongside the personal warmth of individual locals -- is what struck me on my recent 12-day trip to Iran to film a public-television show. I found Iran to be perhaps the most misunderstood and fascinating land I've ever visited. And I learned a lot. The country is not free. It seems that people -- motivated by fear of Western influences and love of their children -- have forgone democracy for their theocracy. Parents told me, \"We do not want our girls to grow up to be Britney Spears,\" and they are willing to sacrifice some freedom to achieve that goal. They feel their \"revolution of values\" provides an environment where they can raise their children free from the cheap sex, drug abuse and crass materialism of the West. Iranian women must wear a scarf, but many leave a tuft of hair showing at the forehead. After several days, that provocative tuft attracted my eye like cleavage. Making sure that what they can show is as beautiful as possible, Iranian women, per capita, lead the world in nose jobs. Faces are beautifully made up, and -- when so much else is covered -- can be particularly expressive and mysterious. Eye contact is riveting. Before arriving in Iran, I was so afraid of anti-Americanism that we had nearly left our big expensive TV camera in Athens and considered flying in with a less obtrusive model. But once there, I found people curious, courteous and quick to smile -- especially when they learned we were American. I've never had such fun with people or found them so chatty than on the streets of Iran. Tehran is modern and bustling, with thriving shopping malls, cars clogging the streets and most people wearing Western-style clothes. Unlike many Muslim capitals, minarets do not dot the skyline, and I barely heard a call to prayer. And yet it's clearly a theocracy. Multiple TV stations broadcast religious programming (along with BBC and CNN) that's perfect for praying -- images of the sun setting on the sea, or the pilgrimage center in Mecca in real-time. In the United States, billboards and ads encourage us to consume, but in Iran, government-sponsored billboards, Muzak and TV programming is all about the teachings of great holy men. I asked my guide if it's okay to be non-Muslim in Iran. \"Yes,\" he said, \"We have religious freedom, as long as it is not offensive to Islam.\" Christian? \"Sure.\" Jewish? \"Sure.\" Bahai? \"No. We believe that Mohammed -- who came in the 7th century -- was the last prophet, so the Bahai prophet (19th century) is offensive to Islam.\" I asked, \"What if you want to get somewhere in the military or government?\" My guide answered, \"Then you better be a Muslim -- a practicing, Shiite Muslim.\" Every film crew stops at the former U.S. Embassy. It was here in 1979 that a gang of revolutionary students stormed what they called the \"Den of Spies\" and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. For Iranians back then, it was a proud moment of triumph against the nation that had meddled in their affairs for years. The embassy wall is still covered with anti-American murals painted at that time. But the hostage crisis was 30 years ago. Most Iranians weren't even born then. It's ancient history to our young guide. With our work done, we hurried to catch our flight home. As we crawled through Tehran's traffic, our driver cursed, \"Death to traffic.\" Shocked, I said, \"What? I thought it was death to America.\" He said, \"Here in Iran, when something frustrates us and is out of our control, we say 'death' to that.\" Then I thought, when people in my society say, \"Damn those teenagers,\" they don't mean they wish them to die and burn in hell for eternity ... they just want the kids to turn down the music. Boarding our plane, the Air France flight attendants -- so stylish with hair flowing freely -- seemed to welcome us as if onto a life raft. Women pulled off their scarves, wine was poured, and we flew west with the raw footage of a program we hoped would humanize a proud country of 70 million people. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c\/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nRecently Steves has been working on a series on Iran .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours .","id":"1b0369fdfa9e7b8aceae7df175e2236bd4602e88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Deep-sea explorers say they have solved \"one of the greatest mysteries in naval history\" with the discovery of what was \"the world's mightiest and most technically advanced warship\" when it sank in 1744. The HMS Victory sank in 1744. The HMS Victory -- the predecessor to a historic British flagship of the same name -- was found \"far from where history says it was lost,\" Odyssey Marine Exploration said in a news release Monday. The find in the English Channel exonerates Adm. Sir John Balchin, one of \"the greatest admirals in English history,\" because it shows that the ship went down in a violent storm, not due to any mistakes he made, Odyssey said. It did not specify the ship's exact location. Maritime lore said the ship went down in the northern part of the Channel Islands, south of England near the coast of France. Stories about treasures -- including gold -- that may have been on the ship have existed ever since its disappearance. This HMS Victory was a predecessor to the historic British ship that took the same name and which served as Admiral Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In court papers seeking exclusive salvage rights, Odyssey says the wreck site \"consists of cannons and other unidentified objects. Odyssey believes that potentially valuable cargo may be located at or near the site.\" The papers were filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, where Odyssey is based, seeking exclusive salvage rights. There were nearly 1,000 people aboard -- \"900 sailors, plus a complement of marines and 50 volunteers drawn from the noblest families of England,\" Odyssey said in information about the ship released together with the Discovery Channel, which chronicled the find. Based on reports from the time, there may be as much as four tons of gold on the ship, Odyssey and the Discovery Channel said. \"Additional research indicates that there were large quantities of both silver and gold coins aboard. ... Research suggests that this prize money will also likely be located at the wreck site. \"... However, no coins have been located at the site to date, and no accurate assessment as to their value can be made prior to location, recovery and analysis.\" The potential treasure also comes in another form -- bronze weaponry. \"The site's anticipated ordnance collection\" includes \"the single largest collection of bronze cannon in the world\" and \"the largest consignment of bronze guns ever manufactured and preserved today,\" Odyssey said. Two cannons have been recovered -- \"a 12-pounder featuring the royal arms of George II\" and a \"42-pounder bearing the crest of George I,\" it said. \"The huge 42-pounder recovered is the only known example of a gun of this type and size currently in existence on dry land. The only other artifacts recovered to date were two small brick fragments that were brought into U.S. federal court in order to file an admiralty arrest of the site.\" Admiralty arrest is a step mandated under international maritime law. The discovery could set up a legal battle with the British government. If it really is the HMS Victory, \"her remains are sovereign immune,\" the British Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in a statement on its blog Monday. \"The wreck remains the property of the Crown. We have not waived our rights to it. This means that no intrusive action may be taken without the express consent of the United Kingdom.\" In its statement, Odyssey said it \"has been cooperating closely\" with the ministry, and \"all activities at the site have been conducted in accordance with protocols agreed with MOD and Royal Navy officials.\" The ship has deteriorated to the point that recovering it is impossible, Odyssey said. \"A plan is being developed for an archaeological excavation of the site, and artifacts will be recovered in accordance with a scientific project plan, which will be submitted to the UK MOD for review and approval.\" The company has proposed that it be paid \"with either ... a percentage of the value of the collection that has been recovered, conserved and presented to the UK government, or a percentage of the coins or other artifacts that the government decides to (sell).\" The ship was found nearly 100 km (62 miles) \"from where the ship was historically believed to have been wrecked on a reef near the Channel Islands,\" Odyssey's statement said. \"Having discovered it in deep water far from where history says it was lost has served to exonerate Admiral Balchin and his officers from the accusation of having let the ship run aground on the Casquets due to faulty navigation,\" said Greg Stemm, Odyssey's chief executive officer, in the statement. Odyssey said the \"prevailing belief\" about the ship's fate was that it had \"smashed into the Casquets, a group of rocky islets\" north of Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Islands. But the evidence, Odyssey's statement said, suggests \"the ship sank as the result of a violent storm and suggests that the design and construction of the ship contributed to her loss.\" Odyssey released press materials about the ship in cooperation with the Discovery Channel, which chronicled the find and will be showing it in a program this week called Treasure Quest. \"The English Channel is a treacherous place to navigate,\" Discovery Channel President John Ford told CNN Radio. \"The ship was returning from Portugal and got caught up in a storm. And despite being judged unsinkable at the time, sort of like the Titanic was, this very, very large ship went down in a storm and vanished without a trace.\" CNN Radio's April Williams contributed to this report .","highlights":"Team says it has discovered the wreck site of HMS Victory .\nVictory sank in 1744 between England and France .\nIf find is confirmed, it could set up a legal battle with the British government .\nReplacement HMS Victory served as Nelson flagship for Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 .","id":"2837940cbe2c0d6c0163c5e41e243150b73c10d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Madonna said she hopes the Malawian girl she wants to adopt and the boy she already adopted \"will one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country.\" A judge has rejected Madonna's adoption application. A Malawian judge this month rejected the American pop star's petition to adopt 3-year-old Chifundo \"Mercy\" James, but her lawyer has filed an appeal. \"I want to provide Mercy with a home, a loving family environment and the best education and health care possible,\" Madonna said in an e-mail to The Nation, a Malawian newspaper. \"And it's my hope that she, like David, will one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country.\" Madonna's statement, which her publicist provided to CNN, steered away from commenting on her legal battle. \"Though I have been advised that I cannot publicly discuss the pending appeal regarding my desire to adopt Mercy, I do want to say how much I appreciate the level of support that I have received from the people of Malawi and my friends around the world,\" she said. The judge who ruled against the adoption said she had \"a gripping temptation\" to approve it, but decided doing so would open doors to child trafficking, court records show. \"Anyone could come to Malawi and quickly arrange for an adoption that might have grave consequences on the very children that the law seeks to protect,\" Justice E.J. Chombo wrote in her ruling. The judge also said she thought the child was in good hands at an orphanage. Another Malawian judge approved Madonna's adoption of David Banda in 2006. Chombo's ruling followed weeks of criticism by human-rights activists, who accused the mother of three of using her fame to circumvent a residency law for foreigners adopting in the southern African country. Save the Children UK had also urged Madonna to let the child be raised by her relatives in her home community. The denial was applauded by a coalition of Malawian nonprofits. \"Inter-country adoption is not the best way of providing protection to children. ... Supporting children from outside our country only helps five of the 1.5 million orphans we have,\" said Mavuto Bamusi, national coordinator of the Malawi Human Rights Consultative Committee. Malawi government officials have said that they supported Madonna's second adoption. The recently divorced singer was married to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie. She has been involved with Malawi for several years and made a documentary, \"I Am Because We Are,\" to highlight poverty, AIDS and other diseases devastating children in that country. She also co-founded a nonprofit, Raising Malawi, which provides programs to help the needy.","highlights":"Madonna is appealing a Malawian judge's rejection of her adoption petition .\nThe pop star did not meet residency requirement for adoption, judge says .\nCritics say Madonna tried to use fame to circumvent adoption process .\nMadonna has a son she adopted from Malawi .","id":"ef1ebcd691646a5d71cd008ad7b798aba65a7438"} -{"article":"LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (CNN) -- Chilling winds and more snow were expected for Kentucky on Tuesday, bad news for more than a quarter of a million people still without power after an ice storm. Ice covers nearly everything in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Tuesday. Forecasters said as much as 3 inches of snow could fall in areas of Kentucky, one of several states dealing with snow. The snowfall could hamper efforts of Kentucky National Guard troops that have been going door-to-door to check on families. The storm has been blamed for at least 16 deaths, several from carbon-monoxide poisoning caused by exhaust from generators, authorities said. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has called the ice storm \"the biggest natural disaster that this state has ever experienced in modern history.\" Beshear toured areas in western Kentucky over the weekend, the hardest hit area, where National Guard troops also were focusing their efforts. In a statement, Beshear said the call-up of troops \"represents the strongest possible effort to relieve human suffering and ensure the safety and well-being of our citizens.\" iReport.com: Share photos of icy, snowy weather in your town . One of the people guard members checked on was 83-year-old Paul Jenkins, who was using water stored in buckets, had no power and was relying on kerosene for heat. \"When we lose power, we're in trouble 'cause all we got is electric,\" said Jenkins, who lives in Breckinridge County west of Louisville. Kentucky wasn't the only place battling icy conditions. The National Weather Service put out winter storm advisories Tuesday for areas in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Virginia. In many areas, trees remain in roads or even on homes. Louisville resident John Randolph pointed to tree branches that fell onto his two-story suburban home. \"Just the overall power of the branches falling was actually pretty frightening\" when the ice storm was setting in, Randolph said. He added: \"The baby slept through the night and didn't wake up once. My wife and I, once we heard the first branches falling, we didn't go back to sleep the whole night. We didn't know what to do. ... Ultimately, we sort of just stayed in our bedrooms, and I just kind of went outside periodically and assessed the situation.\" Randolph's home -- which escaped serious damage -- is among those without power. See images of the ice storm's aftermath \u00bb . Arthur Byrn, mayor of Mayfield -- one of the cities suffering from the storm -- told CNN Radio that authorities were conducting a \"door-to-door welfare check of the entire Graves County area, which is 38,000 people.\" Graves County is in the southwest corner of Kentucky, near the Missouri and Tennessee lines. Byrn said it could take as long as two months for the county to have 100 percent of its power back. iReport.com: Tour ice storm damage in Elizabethtown, Kentucky . \"It's quite disconcerting to go out at 7 o'clock at night and not see a light anywhere other than [a headlight] coming down the street,\" Byrn said. \"Devastation is sometimes an overused word, but I would say that's what we had.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti and Andy Rose contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Forecast calls for up to 3 inches of snow following ice storm .\nAbout a quarter-million still without power from last week's storm .\nNational Guard troops continue visiting houses to check residents' welfare .\nStorm blamed for at least 16 deaths, several from carbon-monoxide poisoning .","id":"c199a35715775531ce8d3d03c8517029a2e82e77"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Norway has condemned the ransacking of the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo by Tamil demonstrators. The entrance to Sri Lanka's embassy in Oslo on Sunday. Video posted on Norway's TV 2 Web site showed demonstrators smashing through re-enforced glass at the embassy on Sunday. The aftermath showed embassy offices that had been trashed, with furniture, artwork and potted plants dumped on the floor. Countertops had been bashed and splintered. \"Please help the Tamils. Stop the massacre of Tamils,\" a sign carried by one of the demonstrators said. The foreign ministry said it has requested that police tighten security at the embassy, which is located in an office building. \"I deeply deplore the fact that unauthorized persons unlawfully forced their way into the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo and caused extensive damage,\" said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. \"This is a violation of Norwegian law and an action that is totally unacceptable.\" Rohitha Bogollagama, Sri Lanka's foreign affairs minister, called for authorities to \"seek immediate arrest of the perpetrators of this serious act of terror\" during a CNN interview in New Delhi, India. The attack came as Sri Lanka's president ordered military troops to restrict their offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels while the nation celebrates the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The two-day celebrations began Monday. The order was meant to allow the thousands of Tamils trapped by the fighting to travel for the New Year, said a statement from the office of President Mahinda Rajapakse. Troops are in the midst of an intense military push in northern Sri Lanka, where they have snatched back large swaths of land from the Tamil rebels. The rebels have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. A statement on the Sri Lankan defense ministry Web site called on Norway to \"bring the perpetrators to justice immediately.\" \"The perpetrators can be readily identified on the CCTV recording which has been made available to the authorities,\" the statement said. \"The demonstrations, which had been building up in intensity in the past few days, provide an indication that something was being planned.\" CNN's Harmeet Singh and Iqbal Athas contributed to this report .","highlights":"Norway's FM says actions by Tamil protesters are \"totally unacceptable\"\nThe foreign ministry has requested that police tighten security at the embassy .\nSri Lanka foreign affairs minister calls for authorities to arrest perpetrators .\nTamil rebels have fought for an independent homeland since 1983 .","id":"ae07838a5f4600c7a494f8a38bf8f878932d7a65"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Florida Law enforcement officials said Monday they had launched an investigation into a tragic boating accident near St. Augustine, Florida, that took the lives of five people and seriously injured seven others. CNN affiliate WJXT shows the scene of the deadly boating accident near Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has taken over as the lead agency involved in the investigation. The incident took place on Sunday around 7:15 p.m., in the intracoastal waterway in St. Johns County, Florida, about 20 miles north of St. Augustine. According to FWC investigators, a 22-foot boat with 12 people on board rammed into the rear and right side of a 25-foot tugboat. \"We are still investigating and haven't come to any conclusions yet,\" said Carol Pratt, spokeswoman for FWC. She said they still do not know who was driving the boat. They also are waiting for victims' next of kin to be notified before releasing any of their names and ages. The tugboat was at a dock and boat launch under construction on the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Valley, said Jeremy Robshaw, a spokesman for St. Johns County Fire and Rescue. Robshaw said rescuers couldn't initially reach the end of the unfinished dock, but laid plywood sheets on the structure to get to crash victims. No one was onboard the tugboat, which is registered to F&A Enterprises in St. Augustine. The seven injured were taken to Shands Jacksonville Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Two patients remain in critical condition, one is considered serious and three are in fair condition. A hospital spokesman did not have information on the seventh victim. FWC told CNN that they hope to release more information on the incident and on their investigation. As in any accident, toxicology studies will be done on the driver of the boat, to determine whether he or she was impaired, spokesman Carol Pratt told CNN.","highlights":"Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission takes lead in the investigation.\nBoat crashed into tugboat, barge and dock under construction .\nFive people killed; remaining seven taken to hospital with serious injuries .\nRescuers had to use plywood panels to reach the passengers .","id":"1327bf1d60cb9ec40fcc2e7214d1583dce45bbdf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chris Nowinski's professional wrestling career didn't end with a pink slip or a celebratory sendoff, but with a swift kick to his chin. Chris Nowinski was a WWE wrestler when he suffered a concussion, but didn't realize how badly he was hurt. Nowinski played college football at Harvard -- a defensive tackle. He was a promising newcomer to World Wrestling Entertainment. At the time he suffered the injury -- the hit that would cut his career short -- he was performing in a summer 2003 tag-team match as his WWE character, Chris Harvard, a blonde, blue-eyed symbol of Ivy League elitism. Nowinski didn't know he had suffered a concussion. He didn't know that he shouldn't have been wrestling immediately afterward, and he didn't know that this was probably the sixth concussion of his athletic career. There was a lot Nowinski didn't know about concussions. Hard hits were nothing new to Nowinski, 28, a tree of a man who had played sports since childhood. Blows to the head punctuated many of the games and matches in his career, he said. Sometimes he blacked out. \"The sky would change colors, or I would see stars, and get really dizzy, and I would just collect myself on the field or in the ring, and continue going, because that's what I thought I was supposed to do,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I didn't realize that it was a serious brain injury.\" Nowinski continued to wrestle, which aggravated the injury, he said. He developed post-concussion syndrome, a condition characterized by prolonged concussion symptoms. \"After my last concussion ... I was stuck with four years of headaches and immediate memory problems and depression and sleep-walking,\" Nowinski said. He said he still endures migraines and memory loss. \"My head just feels differently all the time,\" he said. Concussions are common, particularly among athletes in heavy contact sports. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least 300,000 sports-related concussions occur annually in the United States. Nowinski waited a year and a half for his head to clear so he could return to the ring -- a day that never came. So, the fallen wrestler decided to change what he considers the sports world's biggest liability. He's now on a mission to eliminate the \"damage\" from head injuries in athletics. His task is two-fold: To educate coaches, parents and athletes about identifying and treating concussions and to help facilitate research to pin down the injury's long-term effects. \"I knew I had the information that could prevent suffering for a lot of people, a lot of people that I cared about,\" said Nowinski. \"It wouldn't have been right for me to just go on with my life, make money, do whatever, while that information just sat in my head.\" He wrote \"Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis from the NFL to Youth Leagues,\" published in 2006. He's been speaking before youth leagues, sports conferences and other public events for more than three years. And he and a group of top neurologists have recently formed The Sports Legacy Institute. Part of that organization's purpose will be to study the effects of multiple head injuries, investigating cases of a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, Nowinski said. CTE is a dementia-like condition caused by repetitive blows to the head over an extended period of time, according to the National Institute of Health. Hoping to prove to the rest of the world that multiple concussions have permanent, sometimes ruinous consequences, Nowinski began to work with a University of Pittsburgh neuropathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu, who found the condition in the brains of two deceased former National Football League players, Terry Long and Mike Webster. With Nowinski's help in obtaining the brain tissue, Omalu diagnosed the condition in two other former players who died, Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk. Both Long and Waters committed suicide. In the case of Waters, Omalu said, \"Major depression was the cause of his suicide ... And the underlying causation here was trauma.\" But aside from the research and studies that garner headlines and national attention, a large part of Nowinski's task lies in his clear-spoken testimony. In smaller groups, in schools and other events, often away from the stare of the cameras, Nowinski tells people what he knows. Despite the repeated occurrence of concussions amid practice, games or matches, Nowinski says many coaches and players -- from youth leagues to professionals - still don't know how to properly treat concussions or even how to identify them. And what's worse, he said, just like in his case, athletes often try to play while they are still injured. A second concussion suffered while a player is recovering from the first could result in death, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Furthermore, some studies show that there are cumulative long-term effects from multiple concussions. Nowinksi says he's had mixed reactions to his message. Some, like Carmen Roda, president of the Westport, Connecticut-based PAL football program, say Nowinski's lecture is imperative for coaches. \"Bottom line, if they care about kids, they should listen to this lecture,\" Roda said. Others have shown more resistance. \"I['ll] go to schools to speak, and the football coach will refuse to show up to the talk,\" Nowinski said. But the former wrestler says the biggest hurdle to better practice and treatment of concussions are the professional sports leagues. He is particularly critical of the NFL. \"They need their best players on the field to sell tickets,\" Nowinski said. \"And a lot of these problems from playing through concussions don't show up until these guys are retired. So their incentive to protect them while they're players is not where it should be.\" NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league puts its players' interests as first priority and the individual teams \"do an excellent job in the care and management of concussions that affect NFL players.\" Dr. Joseph Maroon, the neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers and a member of the league's committee on mild-traumatic brain injury, applauds the NFL's efforts to protect its players. Asked about studies that suggest long-term damage from concussions, Maroon said there are other factors that could affect the ability of a person's brain to function normally. \"It's extremely difficult and quite impossible to ascribe problems that develop 20 or 30 years after someone played to a concussion that's experienced 20 or 30 years before,\" he said. Nowinski said players still do not understand the seriousness of concussions. They need to be educated, he said, and the \"tough-it-out\" culture inherent to football and other sports needs to change. \"If within a few years, everybody doesn't know that playing through concussions is a terrible idea, then I'll be surprised and disappointed,\" he said. \"The idea is we make the change that needs to be made as quickly as possible,\" Nowinski said. \"And then I can do something else.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Chris Nowinski played football at Harvard, then wrestled professionally .\nStill suffers effects of six concussions .\nNowinski says athletes ignore dangers to get back in contests .\nNFL says it is taking steps to study effects on players .","id":"b3a042c7471a118beacfc2b6c5f548576443cfb1"} -{"article":"AUGUSTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Walking into the Colur Tyme Tattoo Parlor is a lot like walking into a head shop. One wall is lined with gang monikers and symbols, the other with bongs for smoking marijuana and other drugs -- one even shaped like a skull. The Colur Tyme Tattoo Parlor was set up by authorities to get at the heart of gang members. Only this head shop was a setup. It was a police front in a sting operation to bust gangs in this Georgia river city that most people associate with the Masters Tournament -- not violent thugs with high-powered weapons. Authorities said some guns sold to the shop were used in crimes just hours earlier. The tattoo parlor was the brainchild of Richmond County Sheriff Ron Strength, who wanted to snuff out gangs carrying out violent crimes in his east Georgia community. The idea was to create a place where the gang members would feel right at home, said sheriff's Lt. Scott Peebles. And that they did. \"We put the idea in their heads that there's no way these guys are in law enforcement,\" he said. On Wednesday, more than 100 sheriff's officers, state investigators and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives carried out a major bust after an 18-month joint investigation into the gang activity. Watch cops set up tattoo parlor \u00bb . Sixty-eight suspects were arrested on charges ranging from trafficking of illegal weapons to serious drug offenses. Authorities seized more than 300 weapons, including high-powered assault rifles. Rich Marianos, a special agent with the ATF, said such gang activity is spreading across the nation, with small-town gangs increasing their ties with gangs in major cities. For instance, New York gangs have begun moving as far south as the Carolinas, where they set up operations to buy and sell guns and drugs, he said. Chicago gang activity extends more than 60 miles into the Illinois city's suburbs for narcotics and weapons trading. In fact, Marianos said the ATF has begun seeing some Chicago gangs establishing a \"pipeline\" for illegal arms more than 500 miles away in Mississippi. \"It's not just an urban problem,\" Marianos said. \"We're seeing it all over the country.\" The ATF, he said, has seen one of the most dramatic increases in gang activity in the last three years and is cracking down. \"We want to look at a way to go after these offenders and prevent it before it happens,\" he said. \"[We're] making the community safer by disarming the bad guys -- not taking guns away from the American citizen, but going after the people who shouldn't have them in the first place.\" That's why setting up a tattoo parlor in Augusta was key. Strength, the Richmond County sheriff, said he remembers when the worst crimes in these parts were lawn mower thefts and vandals pushing over birdbaths. But those days are long gone, with gangs such as the Georgia Deadly Boys and Fairington Gangster Thugs causing mayhem on a regular basis. \"In the past 2 1\/2 years, we've noticed some major changes,\" he said, \"with the type of criminal offenses they were involved in.\" So he devised the undercover business. The Colur Tyme Tattoo Parlor on Tobacco Road was set up on the outskirts of Augusta. It's a location not heavily patrolled by police, but staffed 100 percent by undercover agents. Business was slow at first, but then things took off. Gang members soon began dropping in to sell guns, drugs and even stolen cars, authorities said. Every transaction was recorded by surveillance cameras around the store. Soon the shop had so much business the Richmond County Sheriff's Office had to call in reinforcements from the ATF. Four federal agents helped the sheriff's deputies man the counters; others worked behind the scenes. Vanessa McLemore, ATF special agent in charge, said the teams had to coordinate their behaviors so it seemed like they fit in the store. \"They spent a lot of time together learning each other's mannerisms, learning each other's body language. It had to be a brotherhood,\" she said. On the store counter was a jar of colored markers to invite clients to write their favorite gang affiliation on the wall. Peebles said agents used the wall for intelligence. \"At the very least we got names,\" he said. The shop even put up its' own MySpace page. \"You think it, we ink it\" was the MySpace slogan. It featured the back of a tattooed man, and below in large red letters agents told visitors to the site, \"We buy what others won't.\" Authorities said the guns came rolling in, and then came this week's bust. \"Today marks the end of one era and the beginning of another,\" McLemore said. \"The era that is ending is one that has brought destruction and decay to the streets of Augusta.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Tattoo parlor run by cops leads to major bust of Georgia gangs .\nAuthorities even set up a MySpace page as part of the ring .\nATF says big-time gangs are gaining ground outside major cities .\nATF agent: \"We're seeing it all over the country\"","id":"7d4ebaf84a227392d525a63cb9c49be90fb4b679"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bolivians are widely expected to approve a new constitution Sunday that would allow leftist President Evo Morales to run for another term this year, which he can't do under the current document. The new constitution would eliminate term limits and allow President Evo Morales to run again for president. The new constitution would replace the 1967 charter and give greater voice to the indigenous people who make up most of the country. It would also give more power to the central government. Morales, speaking at rallies in La Paz and Cochabamba this week, said the new document will propel the nation. \"Once approved, this will be the refoundation of Bolivia and the refoundation of a new state where there will be equality and we will all have the same rights and the same obligations,\" he said. Others say the referendum is a way for Morales to keep himself in power, a move that could plunge the country into further violence, division and uncertainty. That effort, critics say, is in ample evidence as some regions fight to break away and as the deaths of up to 30 peasant government supporters a few months ago led to accusations of a right-wing massacre. \"What will be opened is a new chapter of violence,\" said Carlos Toranzo, an investigator in La Paz with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a policy institute associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany. As campaigning on Sunday's referendum came to a close Thursday with massive festive rallies for each side, Bolivians gave voice to the chasm that separates them. \"What this constitutional project does is divide us,\" said Fernanda San Martin, who was at the final opposition rally in the city of Santa Cruz. \"What it does is feed hate and racism in the country.\" Efrain Tico Quispe, at a rally in favor of the new constitution, sees it from a different perspective. \"For them, it's division. It doesn't benefit them,\" he said. \"But for humble people of our class, it serves us well.\" The referendum has two parts: a straight yes-or-no vote on adopting the new constitution and a question asking Bolivians whether the maximum amount of private property that can be owned should be 5,000 or 10,000 hectares (12,355 or 24,710 acres). The wide-ranging constitution would give the government a greater role in the economy and more control over natural resources, broaden nationalization of private industries and increase the rights of indigenous people. The new document also would eliminate term limits for all elected offices and would allow the president to run for re-election to a second consecutive five-year term. The current constitution limits the president to one five-year term. Under provisions of the new constitution, current terms would not be counted, so Morales could run in December and in 2014. In return for support for the constitution, Morales reportedly has agreed not to run in 2014 if he wins this year. But Morales, who was elected in December 2005 by the largest margin since civilian rule was restored in 1982, would still be in office for nine years. That part bothers those who see the vote as a way for Morales to keep himself in power. Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute in Washington, warns against politicians \"who use democracy to concentrate power.\" Sunday's vote comes after a long and troubled path that saw the referendum postponed three times. Morales, who campaigned on a promise to change the constitution, convened a constitutional assembly in July 2006, with a referendum scheduled for August 2007. The assembly did not have a draft document ready until December 2007. After much wrangling and accusations that opponents were locked out of crucial votes, the Bolivian congress approved a referendum in February 2008, scheduling it for May. But the government suspended that vote in March because some of the nation's nine departments, or states, wanted to hold local referendums on greater autonomy during the May balloting. In August, Morales said the referendum would be held in December. That vote also was postponed after unrest in Pando department in which pro-government peasants were killed. In October, an agreement was reached to hold the referendum January 25, 2009. Hakim and others understand why many Bolivians are eager for the vote, particularly in a country with 85 percent indigenous or mestizo lineage and only 15 percent white. \"There's a certain amount of ethnic identity that's involved. That's really important,\" said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. \"People believe that somehow this is going to translate into something positive for their lives.\" A turning point came with the election of Morales, the nation's first Indian president. \"In Bolivia, you have a society that was very segregated,\" Hakim said. \"There was a lot of repression against Indian groups. There's a lot of impatience in the country. They feel that past governments have neglected them. They feel that the international communities and the United States have ignored them.\" Morales, who won a recall vote last summer by a two-thirds margin, also is eager for a vote. The referendum is as much about him as it is the constitution. \"It's a very important development,\" said Erasto Almeida, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, a political research and consulting firm. \"Morales came into office with an agenda of radical change. The new constitution is an important step to consolidate this agenda.\" Analysts and everyday Bolivians agree that the referendum is nearly certain to pass. DeShazo notes that more than 100 new laws will be required to put the constitution into play. That will take time. Almeida points out that Morales had to compromise on many issues \"as the result of a long and difficult negotiation.\" More than 100 of the 411 articles in the constitution Morales' party drafted in 2007 were changed as a result of negotiations with congress, DeShazo said. \"The fact that Morales made concessions and made the constitution more moderate makes the constitution more resilient,\" Almeida said. He sees a couple of ways in which the opposition might try to make trouble for Morales. \"He's going to get about two-thirds [of the vote]. That's what's expected,\" Almeida said. \"If he gets lower, you could have more tension because the opposition will be emboldened.\" If Morales gets significantly more of the vote than expected and tries to ram through his agenda, the opposition also could be energized, Almeida said. Toranzo, the La Paz investigator with the Ebert Foundation, has a more dire forecast. \"From Monday on,\" he said, \"Bolivians won't know what to respect: what was before or what will come. This will destabilize the country.\" He also thinks Bolivia's faltering economy may factor into Sunday's vote. The constitution was formulated, he said, \"during a time of fat cows, but it is being voted on during a time of skinny cows.\" Though spirited, the campaign has been relatively trouble-free. About 3.8 million Bolivians are eligible to cast ballots in the mandatory voting. Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center, is head of a nine-person group of observers sent by former President Carter, who frequently monitors elections. The Organization of American States has sent a 65-person delegation, and the European Union has 45 observers, she said. \"It's fairly quiet now. It's fairly calm,\" she said Friday. \"There were some protesters. There was a little bit of rock-throwing. But there has been no real violence, no deaths. There's more real calm than previous events in Bolivia.\" Hakim agrees, to a point. \"It's a drama that's playing itself out now,\" he said. \"The degree of polarization and friction does not leave me terribly optimistic. On the other hand, things haven't gotten out of hand.\" CNN's Gloria Carrasco in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"New constitution would eliminate term limits, give more voice to indigenous people .\nSome say it's just way for president to keep himself in power .\nCritics express concern that dramatic change could lead to violence, divisions .\nPolicy investigator: \"Bolivians won't know what to respect\" under new constitution .","id":"c4f554d23c234d3cfd4737848faba1a8019f7790"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Regular readers of AOL Autos know that we have done a series of stories on the development and increasing popularity of cars that run -- or will eventually run -- on alternative fuels. The mandatory use of CNG in public service vehicles began in New Delhi, India in 2000. We've written about hybrids, clean-diesel engines, fuel-cell technology, ethanol and more. That brings us to another entry in the auto industry's ongoing research and development of green-technology: compressed natural gas (CNG). Scientists are trying to determine which alternative fuel will best strike a balance between being environmentally friendly and commercial viability. CNG might be the answer. Vehicles running on CNG have actually been around since the early 1990s, but have not been a dominant force in the marketplace mostly because the infrastructure (i.e. re-fueling stations) is not yet in place to support high-volume sales of CNG-powered cars. Presently, there are only about 1,600 CNG refueling stations in the U.S, compared with up to 200,000 gas stations. Currently there is only one CNG-powered model sold on the consumer market that is actually manufactured as a CNG-powered car. That's the Honda Civic GX, which boasts an EPA-estimated fuel economy of 24\/36 miles per gasoline-gallon equivalent. AOL Autos: Best hybrids . Rich Kolodziej, president of Natural Gas Vehicles for America said there are other natural-gas-powered vehicles on the road -- about 130,000, he estimates -- but that the vast majority of those are part of commercial or transit fleets or have been converted from gasoline-powered cars. \"They're mostly fleet vehicles, like transit buses, delivery trucks, and the fleets maintained by the gas company, the electric company, etc,\" he said. \"We don't have hard figures about conversions, but I'd bet that about 25 percent of those 130,000 were once gasoline-powered vehicles that have been converted to CNG vehicles,\" Kolodziej said. \"There are a growing number of companies making certified conversion systems and installing them.\" NGVAmerica maintains a list of certified conversion systems on its Web site: www.ngvc.org. AOL Autos: Fuel-efficient used cars . Some of those 130,000 are also natural-gas-powered vehicles manufactured and sold by Ford, Chrysler and GM back in the early '90s, he says -- back when the U.S. manufacturers were still in the business of making CNG-powered cars. But we'll get back to that later. But with the price of gasoline currently averaging over $4 a gallon nationally, Kolodziej predicts there will be more and more demand for CNG-powered vehicles like the Civic GX. \"I went to a conference a couple of months ago, and every manufacturer we talked to said that their phones were ringing off the hook, from people who are saying they'd be interested in buying a CNG-powered car,\" Kolodziej said. \"And there are more and more people and companies who want to get into the conversion business.\" AOL Autos: Hybrid SUVs . The cost of conversions varies by the type of vehicle, Kolodziej noted. \"But most cost in the $10,000 range. Most conversion systems are certified for Ford and GM models, among others,\" he said. On the financial side, natural gas is about 30 percent less expensive than gasoline when it is purchased at a refueling station. It's about 50 percent less expensive when you fill 'er up at home, via home refueling appliance that tap into your natural gas line, Kolodziej said. Owners of the Honda Civic GX in New York and California who have natural gas piped into their homes can purchase the \"Phill\" re-fueling system for about $3,500. This Phill system can be used whether your CNG vehicle was manufactured that way or converted, he said. AOL Autos: Luxury cars with best gas mileage . \"The Phill is about the size of a pay phone, and you hang it on the garage wall, and vent it like a dryer and plug it into a gas line and also into an electric socket,\" Kolodziej explained. The primary environmental benefit of a CNG car is that it produces 90 percent fewer smog-forming pollutants (oxides of nitrogen), compared to the output of a conventional gas engine, said Steve Ellis, manager of alternative fuels for American Honda Motor Co. The Civic GX has reaped many environmental awards. This year, it was named by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) as the \"greenest vehicle in the nation -- for the fifth consecutive year.\" The GX, which was first introduced in 1998, has the cleanest internal combustion certified by the EPA, Ellis noted. AOL Autos: Most-popular fuel-efficient cars . The Civic GX is not a high-volume vehicle in terms of sales. Ellis said annual sales have fluctuated between 500 to 1000 units a year since it was rolled out, with sales of 1,100 units last year. He expects that to go up in 2008. For comparison purposes, about 40,000 Honda Civic Hybrids were sold last year, with sales of 48,000 anticipated for this year. Most of the sales of the Civic GX are concentrated in southern California, followed by Phoenix and Salt Lake City -- primarily because those markets are where many of the 1,600 re-fueling stations are presently located. \"As the infrastructure builds up, we'll sell more of them in other markets,\" Ellis predicted. \"Right now, this is a car that people use regionally. If you live here in Los Angeles, you can drive to Las Vegas and back and not worry about being able to find a refueling station. As for cost, the GX natural-gas vehicle is priced at about $24,500, compared to $17,000 for a comparably-equipped Civic LX, Ellis said -- except that buyers get a $4,000 tax credit on the purchase of the GX. And until recently, California buyers got an additional $3,000 rebate from the California Air Resources Board. \"But the program was so popular, they are out of funds, and looking to add more money to the coffer so they can continue with the rebates,\" Ellis said. \"But people who buy a Civic GX, when we ask them about the math, in term of comparing those two Civics, they sort of give us blank stares,\" Ellis continued. \"Most of these folks who are buying the GX are trying to get out of having to commute to work every day in a pick-up truck, SUV or even a passenger car that's only getting 15 or 20 miles a gallon. And they're also the same kind of people who've said they'd pay $25 or $50 a week to be able to drive in the car-pool lane.\" Interestingly, many of the automakers, like Volkswagen, Mercedes, Fiat, GM Opel, Ford Europe, Peugeot and Renault, do produce CNG-powered vehicles for other countries, said NGVAmerica's Kolodziej, who noted that \"about 1.5 million of the natural gas vehicles have been sold in Brazil, another 1.5 million in Argentina, another 1.5 million in Pakistan, and so on.\" And, once upon a time, in the early '90s, U.S. automakers did sell CNG vehicles in the United States. \"But the federal government kept adding more loopholes to the energy policy that was supposed to encourage the increased manufacture and sales of CNG vehicles,\" Kolodziej said. \"Then the government opted not to expand the coverage of the program the way the law allowed -- or the way the automakers expected. Without that demand pull, the U.S. automakers didn't believe they could sell enough of them here.\" \"U.S. automakers zigged when they probably should have zagged\" added Ellis of American Honda. \"They turned their backs on CNG and began to focus on bio-fuels.\" But, noted Ellis, \"We're definitely keeping our stake in the CNG business, because we know we can add it to other platforms. We used to think of the Civic GX as 'The Little Engine That Could' -- you know, saying, 'I think I can, I think I can' in terms of becoming more commercially viable. \"But, with gas prices going up and up, now we're thinking more along the lines of 'I know I can, I know I can.' And more and more people are genuinely interested in going more green because of the environmental impact,\" he said. \"A lot of people got into the hybrids, and then, after a while, began to ask, 'How can I do more?' And they're looking to natural-gas-powered cars as the answer to that. \"So, we're in this for the long haul,\" noted Ellis, who said the company is definitely looking to do bigger business and make a profit from the GX. \"Now, it's just a matter of society continuing to change, and to continue to become more environmentally-minded. As they do, we think there will be increasing interest in CNG, and we'll see a shift in emphasis toward CNG and away from bio-fuels.\"","highlights":"Scientists trying to determine which alternative fuel is best for future .\nSome say compressed natural gas could be the answer .\nOnly only one CNG-powered model sold on the consumer market today .\nAbout 1,600 CNG refueling stations in U.S, compared to 200,000 gas stations .","id":"fab6925dffecf7712792d699f6f950fa4ceebb91"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A mother and her teenage son are kidnapped. The kidnappers place a cell phone in the car of the boy's father so they can communicate their ransom demands. The son is burned with a blowtorch. The mother implores the father to pay the ransom. A terrifying scenario, but one that the FBI and police say was all orchestrated by the mother to get some fast cash from her ex-husband. The mother, Alejandra Arriaza, her boyfriend, Angel Ponce, and his nephew, Joel Boza, were charged Tuesday with federal kidnapping counts. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison. According to an FBI affidavit, all three have admitted their roles in the phony kidnapping. \"We took it very seriously and believed a couple of lives were at risk,\" said Jim Leljedal of the Broward County, Florida, sheriff's office. \"And then to find out that one of the victims was involved in the plot was pretty surprising.\" The three suspects will have a detention hearing Wednesday in a federal court in Miami, Florida. The U.S. attorney's office would not comment on the case. According to the FBI affidavit, written by special agent Scott Wilson, the plot was Arriaza's idea. It began, court papers say, when she and her boyfriend found out her ex-husband had recently come into some money from the sale of a business, and that he kept a large amount of cash in his home. The father and son are not named in the affidavit, which refers to the father as \"H.P.\" and to his 17-year-old son as \"N.P.\" The affidavit says that the plot began Thursday when Arriaza told her son she wanted to take him to Wal-Mart to purchase an Apple iPhone. When they got back to their car, a masked intruder appeared from the back seat, pointed a gun at the son's back and told him and his mother that they were being kidnapped, according to the affidavit. The kidnapper placed thick tape over the son's eyes and instructed his mother to drive to a mobile home in southwest Miami, where a second person, who introduced himself as \"El Negro,\" was waiting. The affidavit says the men forced N.P. to sit in a chair, where they bound his hands. His torso was bound to the back of the chair with shrink wrap, and his legs were bound with tape. The boy's head was wrapped in thick tape from the top to the tip of his nose, and he was put in a closet, where he spent the night. The next day, according to the FBI affidavit, the kidnappers called the boy's father on a cell phone they had placed in his car. The father then called authorities, who began to record the phone calls. At one point during the abduction, the son told the kidnappers that his father had about $50,000 in a bank, the affidavit says. When the kidnappers felt that the father was not complying with their demands, they threatened to burn his son, and at one point, according to the affidavit, \"the kidnappers put a lit blowtorch close to the phone, so he could hear it.\" During another phone call, Arriaza, who is the father's ex-wife, told him that kidnappers were burning their son's feet. She implored him to pay the kidnappers their ransom, the affidavit says. At one point, Wilson wrote, the kidnappers held the blowtorch so close to N.P. \"that it burnt the hair off his leg.\" \"I think they wanted to impress him with the seriousness so that he would relay ... to his father to come up with some money,\" Leljedal said. Under the FBI's guidance, the father arranged to pay the ransom. But late in the evening of April 10, before the ransom was paid, law enforcement located the mobile home and rescued the son, who immediately identified his mother's boyfriend, Angel Ponce, as one of the men inside the unit where he was being held. A search of the home turned up a fake gun, a blowtorch, tape and three cell phones. According to the affidavit, Ponce said Arriaza came up with the idea to have herself kidnapped, along with her son, to get money from her ex-husband. Arriaza later admitted her involvement in the kidnapping and said her son had no involvement in the ruse, according to the FBI. \"We don't think she meant to harm to her son. She just wanted to collect from her ex,\" Leljedal said. In the end, he said, it was all about one thing: \"The basic motive of greed.\"","highlights":"Woman, boyfriend, third man charged in bizarre fake kidnapping .\nFeds say abduction was staged to collect $50,000 from woman's ex-husband .\nThey said kidnappers bound teen with tape, burned him with blowtorch .\nDetention hearing set for Wednesday in Miami federal court .","id":"43d9f7e7ae17fa6a6ba9d9a7c8961f4500b3ef6b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- After about 30 hours of deliberation, a jury on Monday convicted music producer Phil Spector of second-degree murder in the death of actress Lana Clarkson more than six years ago. Phil Spector will not remain free on bail pending his May 29 sentencing. Wearing a black suit with a red tie and pocket square, Spector showed no reaction as the verdict was announced. Now 69, he faces a sentence of 18 years to life in prison when he is sentenced May 29. Asked if he agreed to the sentencing date, Spector quietly answered, \"Yes.\" Prosecutor Alan Jackson said he believed the jury reached the correct verdict, and he acknowledged the strength and backing of Clarkson's family. But defense attorney Doron Weinberg said Spector's defense team disagreed and planned to appeal. \"We don't believe justice was done,\" Weinberg said. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler declined to allow Spector to remain free on bail pending sentencing, citing Spector's years-long \"pattern of violence\" involving firearms. Watch the lawyers give their views of the verdict \u00bb . \"This was not an isolated incident,\" Fidler said, noting Spector's two previous firearm-related convictions from the 1970s. \"The taking of an innocent human life, it doesn't get any more serious than that.\" Spector's wife, Rachelle, was in the courtroom to hear the verdict Monday, as was Clarkson's mother, Donna. Clarkson, 40, was found dead, slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector's Alhambra, California, mansion with a gunshot wound through the roof of her mouth in February 2003. A mistrial was declared in Spector's first trial in September 2007. After deliberating 15 days, jurors told Fidler that they were unable to reach a verdict. Spector was also charged with second-degree murder in that trial. Jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction. In closing arguments at the retrial, prosecutor Truc Do called Spector \"a very dangerous man\" who \"has a history of playing Russian roulette with women -- six women. Lana just happened to be the sixth.\" Weinberg argued that the prosecution's case hinged on circumstantial evidence. He said the possibility that Clarkson committed suicide could not be ruled out. Do pointed out, however, to jurors that Clarkson bought new shoes on the day of her death -- something a suicidal woman would not have done, the prosecutor said. A female juror who declined to be identified told reporters the jurors considered all the evidence and testimony to reach their verdict. \"This entire jury took this so seriously,\" she said with tears in her eyes, before adding that \"it's tough to be in a jury,\" because another person's life is in the jury's hands. Clarkson starred in the 1985 B-movie \"Barbarian Queen\" and appeared in many other films, including \"DeathStalker,\" \"Blind Date,\" \"Scarface,\" \"Fast Times at Ridgemont High\" and the spoof \"Amazon Women on the Moon.\" She was working as a VIP hostess at Hollywood's House of Blues at the time of her death. In the 2007 trial, Spector's attorneys argued that Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup and grabbed a .38-caliber pistol to kill herself while at Spector's home. But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace. Five women took the stand and claimed he had threatened them with firearms. His driver testified that he heard a loud noise and saw the producer leave the home, pistol in hand, saying, \"I think I killed somebody.\" Spector's retrial began in October. Fidler ruled that jurors could consider the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter against Spector. Spector's professional trademark was the \"Wall of Sound,\" the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label -- named for Spector and his business partner, Lester Sill -- in the early 1960s. iReport.com: What do you think of this verdict? The roaring arrangements were the heart of what he called \"little symphonies for the kids\" -- among them No. 1 hits like the Ronettes' \"Be My Baby\" and the Righteous Brothers' \"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.\" Spector co-produced the Beatles' final album, \"Let It Be,\" and worked with ex-Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon on solo projects after the group broke up. His recording of Harrison's 1971 benefit concert for war relief in Bangladesh won the 1972 Grammy award for album of the year. Spector has won two Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, but he stayed out of the public eye for two decades before his 2003 arrest in Clarkson's death.","highlights":"NEW: Defense says it will appeal; \"We don't believe justice was done\"\nPhil Spector guilty of second-degree murder at retrial .\nHe faces 15 years to life in prison for shooting death of Lana Clarkson .\nRenowned music producer accused in death of actress in 2003 .","id":"0a3ff2f0a147c158845afa44d2a012064896566b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rapid-fire TV news bulletins or getting updates via social-networking tools such as Twitter could numb our sense of morality and make us indifferent to human suffering, scientists say. Scientists say updates on networking tools such as Twitter are often to quick for the brain to fully digest. New findings show that the streams of information provided by social networking sites are too fast for the brain's \"moral compass\" to process and could harm young people's emotional development. Before the brain can fully digest the anguish and suffering of a story, it is being bombarded by the next news bulletin or the latest Twitter update, according to a University of Southern California study. \"If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality,\" said researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. The report, published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition, studied how volunteers responded to real-life stories chosen to stimulate admiration for virtue or skill, or compassion for physical or social pain. iReport.com: Growing pains for Twitter, Facebook? Brain scans showed humans can process and respond very quickly to signs of physical pain in others, but took longer to show admiration of compassion. \"For some kinds of thought, especially moral decision-making about other people's social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and refection,\" said Immordio-Yang. She said the study raises questions about the emotional cost, particularly for young people, of heavy reliance on a torrent of news snippets delivered via TV and online feeds such as Twitter. She said: \"We need to understand how social experience shapes interactions between the body and mind, to produce citizens with a strong moral compass.\" USC sociologist Manuel Castells said the study raised more concerns over fast-moving TV than the online environment. \"In a media culture in which violence and suffering becomes an endless show, be it in fiction or in infotainment, indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in.\" Research leader Antonio Damasio, director of USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, said the findings stressed the need for slower delivery of the news, and highlighted the importance of slow-burn emotions like admiration. Damasio cited the example of U.S. President Barack Obama, who says he was inspired by his father, to show how admiration can be key to cultural success. \"We actually separate the good from the bad in great part thanks to the feeling of admiration. It's a deep physiological reaction that's very important to define our humanity.\" Twitter, which allows users to swap messages and links of 140-characters or less, says on its Web site that it sees itself as a solution to information overload, rather than a cause of it. This function, it says, \"means you can step in and out of the flow of information as it suits you and it never queues up with increasing demand of your attention.\"","highlights":"USC study says rapid-fire Twitter and news updates are too fast for brain .\nScans show humans respond rapidly to pain, but not compassion, admiration .\nScientists say reliance in Twitter or news snippets could harm moral compass .","id":"75f93b94258d503679f511c9790a9761e4ccd016"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Listen closely and you'll hear squeals of disgust from a watchdog group tracking congressional pork in the nation's capital. Research on swine odor is one of the projects listed in the \"Pig Book,\" released Tuesday. Citizens Against Government Waste is out with its annual \"Pig Book\" -- a list of lawmakers whom the group considers the most egregious porkers, members of the House and Senate who use the earmarking process to funnel money to projects on their home turf. Fittingly perhaps, the list includes nearly $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa. \"In fiscal year 2009, Congress stuffed 10,160 projects into the 12 appropriations bills worth $19.6 billion,\" the group said in a report released Tuesday. The amount marks a 14 percent increase over 2008. The \"Pig Book\" also names dozens of what it considers the most blatant examples of pork-barrel spending. See a list of those projects \u00bb \"Taxpayers are ready to revolt,\" said Tom Schatz, the organization's president. \"Despite repeated claims by members of Congress that earmarks have been reduced, the Pig Book belies that claim.\" Included in the funding is $3.8 million for the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy -- a group dedicated to finding a new use for the stadium that the Detroit Tigers baseball team played in from 1896 through 1999. An additional $1.9 million went to the Pleasure Beach water taxi service project in Bridgeport, Connecticut, requested by then-Rep. Chris Shays. A bridge fire more than a decade ago means beach-goers have to travel a couple of extra miles to get to the beach. Alaska led the nation in pork per capita, at $322 a person. At the bottom of the list was Arizona, with less than $12 per resident. Sen. John McCain does not request earmarks for his home state. See where each state ranks \u00bb . Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, topped the list of senators receiving earmarks, with a total of $653 million. The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, was second, with $445 million. Hawaii Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono, both Democrats, topped the list for earmarks in the House of Representatives. Abercrombie's pet projects received a total of almost $257 million; Hirono's received almost $153 million. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, was granted the organization's so-called \"Porkasaurus\" award for earmarking $143,000 for the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. \"Sen. Reid is fond of saying that earmarks have been around since we were a country. Now he must be blaming it on the dinosaurs,\" Schatz said. Some recipients of the earmarks disagreed with the characterization of their projects as \"pork.\" Kathleen Wendler, a member of the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy's board of directors, argued that the $3.8 million dedicated to the old ballpark was critical to revitalizing the surrounding Detroit neighborhood. The money \"is not pork at all,\" she said. The ballpark, if properly utilized, can be an \"economic development generator for the local business district. This project will help draw younger people into the neighborhood. It will help save the neighborhood in the long run.\" To qualify for the \"Pig Book,\" a project must meet at least one of these standards: It was requested by only one chamber of Congress; was not specifically authorized; was not competitively awarded; was not requested by the president; greatly exceeded the president's budget request or the previous year's funding; was not the subject of congressional hearings; or served only a local or special interest. -- CNN's Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Senate Appropriations Committee leaders from both parties top earmarks list .\nNEW: Some recipients of earmark funds say their projects are not pork at all .\nWatchdog group releases its annual list of lawmakers it considers the worst porkers .\nCitizens Against Government Waste has criteria for citing projects as pork .","id":"5398861b6e337040cb5c1953ae21fef73fb5182f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Annette Gordon-Reed won the 2008 National Book Award for \"The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.\" A law professor at New York Law School and a history professor at Rutgers University, she will speak at the dedication of a new visitors center Wednesday at Monticello. Annette Gordon-Reed says Thomas Jefferson's ideals have been a powerful force in American life. (CNN) -- Does the legacy of Thomas Jefferson speak to Americans today? Or perhaps we should ask about Jefferson's legacies, for there are many. His fingerprints are everywhere. Politics, government, race, slavery -- our third president's life and words touch on so many aspects of the nation's journey from rebellious colony to world superpower that it is impossible to understand the country's history without dealing with him in some fashion. Even today, Jefferson's name is regularly invoked in the news -- the latest example being writers harking back to the forceful action he took against the Barbary pirates 200 years ago. His soaring language in the Declaration of Independence -- \"all men are created equal\" and pronouncement of the right to \"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness\" -- galvanized many during his lifetime. Those words have resonated across the years with diverse groups of Americans seeking to gain full citizenship in the United States. Working-class whites, blacks, women, immigrants, gays -- all have turned to the Declaration as a form of promise, a credo for the nation to live up to. It is particularly interesting to ponder Jefferson's legacies at this moment in American history. The election of the country's first African-American president has brought an intense focus on America's past, specifically the history of relations between the races. Again, it is not possible to consider that history in any serious way without thinking of Jefferson. The great and often remarked-upon paradox is that the man who wrote about the equality of all mankind, and who wrote insightfully and forcefully about the evils of slavery, was also a lifelong slave owner in a racially based slave system. He was not alone in this, of course. Some of the most prominent founders -- including four of the first five presidents -- owned slaves, too. All these men, at various points in their lives, claimed to abhor the institution that provided their sustenance. Jefferson tends to be held to a higher standard on this question largely because he, not George Washington, James Madison or James Monroe, wrote the Declaration of Independence. And, as hard as it may be for some to believe now, he early on developed a reputation as a dangerous radical. There was his attitude toward religion. Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and, to the consternation of many, insisted upon the separation of church and state. There is no doubt that he would enthusiastically endorse President Obama's statement on his recent trip to Turkey that \"one of the great strengths of the United States\" is that it does not consider itself \"a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.\" And, of course, there was his politics. Jefferson was, in the eyes of many, a \"leveler\" bent on destroying all social distinctions; a move that his detractors felt would eventually lead to the breakdown of racial barriers. Indeed, during the period leading up to the American Civil War, later generations of white Southerners emphatically repudiated Jefferson's Declaration and, in some cases, the man himself. They knew that whether he truly believed those words or not, the ideas embodied in the Declaration mattered greatly. The logic of Jefferson's words, the conclusions that one could draw from them, could not be contained. They would transcend their original context and find meaning for generations of Americans yet unborn. Those who feared that outcome -- and those who welcomed it -- were right: Jefferson's words have made a profound difference. Then there is Jefferson's life, more specifically the place where he lived it: Monticello, the image on the back of the American nickel. Each year, thousands of people from all over the world make the trip up the 867-foot little mountain to visit a place that was home not only to Jefferson, but to hundreds of enslaved blacks who labored in his fields, plantation industries and house. Indeed, enslaved men and teenage girls shaved off the top of the mountain, digging with their hands and shovels to level the ground to make it ready for Jefferson's architectural masterpiece. And then, other enslaved people helped build the house and maintained it over the years. Tangled bloodlines are also a part of the Monticello story. Jefferson's wife, Martha, brought to the mountain the six children her father, John Wayles, had with an enslaved woman named Elizabeth Hemings. Later, long after Martha's death, one of those children, Sarah (Sally) Hemings, would have children with Jefferson, playing out a common scenario in the plantation South. Many enslaved families lived at Monticello for generations; some spending far more actual time on the land than Jefferson or any member of his legal white family. Take Betty Brown, a Hemings, though not a child of John Wayles. She came to the mountain in 1772 as the 15-year-old personal maid to Martha. She was, probably, the last person to leave the place, residing there into the 1830s, long after Jefferson's death and long after his property, including human beings, had been sold to pay the enormous debts on his estate. So Monticello, perhaps the most well-known slave plantation in the world, stands as one of Jefferson's most important and enduring legacies. It is more than just a white family's legal residence, a place of arresting beauty. It is a site where some of the most compelling and tragic dramas of American history were played out. Slavery in all its aspects -- forced labor, separated families, the whip, the owners and the owned linked together by slavery's law and by blood -- can be found there. For many Americans -- most importantly the numerous school children on field trips -- Monticello has been, and will be, their only firsthand experience of an American slave plantation. For that reason, as we have grown and matured as a nation, it has become a place not only to celebrate the contributions and genius of one man -- although there is that, and rightly so. It is a place to learn much and to think hard and intelligently about America's past -- the awe-inspiring and the awful -- a vista from which to contemplate and prepare for America's future made possible, in part, by Jefferson's vision. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Annette Gordon-Reed.","highlights":"Annette Gordon-Reed: Thomas Jefferson still relevant today .\nShe says his words in Declaration of Independence resonate in all kinds of ways .\nHis affirmation of freedoms coexisted with his ownership of slaves, she says .\nShe says Monticello is a slave plantation and a place to celebrate Jefferson's ideals .","id":"d546915a1e933da4410e6f04ef53c32ee47c03fc"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- If you're a comedy fan, you've probably heard of him by now. Comedian Brian Regan, 50, is famous for his clean jokes about everyday life. He is on tour. Famous for his clean jokes about everyday life, comedian Brian Regan is at the peak of his career, gaining new followers with every performance. On a recent Saturday night, he dazzled a sold-out audience of more than 2,000 people near Atlanta as part of his 2009 comedy tour. The easygoing 50-year-old comedian with a boyish smile and energetic presence pranced back and forth across the stage Saturday telling jokes that brought laughter to issues both serious and silly -- from the stressful economy to the quirks of text messaging. Regan, a Miami, Florida, native, has been performing stand-up comedy since 1980 by starting at small venues and comedy clubs. His breakthrough came in the late 1990s after the release of his album \"Brian Regan Live,\" which sold 150,000 copies despite the comedian's relative obscurity at the time. The album featured simple routines that made fun of childhood memories such as Little League baseball games and seat belts. His witty, clean style of humor on the album, which resonated with a wide audience from college kids to grandmothers, catapulted him to success. Since then, he has gone on to release three DVDs. Punchline Magazine, a comedy publication, named Regan's most recent DVD, \"The Epitome of Hyperbole,\" one of the top five comedy DVDs of 2008. Nowadays, he routinely appears on television, including specials on Comedy Central and slots on the \"Late Show With David Letterman.\" His tour this year will visit more than 80 cities, nearly twice as many as four years ago. CNN.com sat down with Regan to learn more about his brand of comedy and what's in store for the future. CNN: How did you become interested in comedy and stand-up? Brian Regan: This isn't the main reason, but when I was in college [Heidelberg College in Ohio], my name was Rip for Rip van Winkle. I had a 7 a.m. class, and I missed it almost every day. I would wake up and run across campus. I remember thinking, \"What's going to happen if I don't wake up for things?\" And then a comedian performed at our college, and I went to the show, and I noticed the show started at 8 p.m. and I was like, well, the hours are good. I can handle a job that starts at 8 p.m. CNN: Who are some of your influences? Regan: I love Steve Martin. He took silliness to a level of brilliance, I think. CNN: How do you get your ideas? Regan: I used to try and sit down with a blank piece of paper. I would stare at the paper, and it just continues to stay blank. I've learned that for me, it's easier for me to go out and live my life and do my thing. CNN: You don't really use the crass language many comedians rely on. Is there a reason for that? Regan: I don't really know those words [laughing]. I used to have a few jokes here and there with a four-letter word in it. I was always 90 to 95 percent clean with my jokes anyways, and I'm kind of anal so, why be 95 percent something when you could be 100 percent something? It worked out, and people really seem to respond to it so I guess that other 5 percent wasn't that important anyways. CNN: Do you try to incorporate the economy into your jokes? Regan: I do a few jokes about the economy but from an everyday person perspective. People like to laugh, and they especially like to laugh during difficult circumstances. One of the best shows in New York I had was the week after 9\/11. I was surprised this comedy club was even going to have a show. They said people were looking for a diversion. I went up and said I'm not trying to make light of what happened, I'm just trying to forget about it for an hour. I find it's similar to what is happening with the economy. Obviously, it's not as serious as 9\/11, but people are looking for an escape. I think people want to laugh. CNN: How can comedy help people through tough times? Regan: I think comedy is a good way to deal with anything. I hear about people in the hospital who are ill, and they use humor to help them through it. I think it's a great remedy for many things. They say a formula for comedy is comedy equals tragedy plus time. A difficult or uncomfortable situation takes place, and then you laugh about it later down the road. Sometimes I wonder if I could be so mentally healthy to subtract the time part. Like what if there is a flat tire, and it's raining outside? Instead of laughing a month later, why not laugh while you are changing tires in the rain? CNN: Your fan base has really grown in the last five years. How does the fame feel? Regan: It's been a slow gradual thing for me. I've never had a single event or television show that did it. I just pick up a couple more fans and a few more fans, and before you know it, it's like hey man, things are going OK. CNN: What's in store for the future? Regan: This is what I like doing, and I will hopefully do it forever. If something else comes along, I'd be open to that. CNN: What about a television show? Regan: I'm not really interested in being an actor. But I would like to get on a television show that would capture my comedy and in that role do a little acting. I'd like to do something that has to do with my comedy.","highlights":"Brian Regan has become a top-ranked comedian by keeping material clean .\nRegan's humor is observational, focuses on everyday life .\nOne inspiration for comedy career was being able to sleep in, Regan says .\n\"Comedy is a good way to deal with anything,\" Regan says .","id":"8c3e77019c3a2d99a6e5931b9d7479567edb81fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Penny Ireland's family is so scattered around the world that Facebook, the popular social networking site, has become the family's No. 1 way to communicate. The fastest-growing age group on Facebook is women older than 55, Inside Facebook says. \"We call it our living room,\" the 56-year-old mother said by phone from her home in Houston, Texas. \"Everybody can tell what everybody else is doing.\" \"Everybody\" includes Ireland's five kids and her 83-year-old mother, who has a Facebook profile she accesses daily, Ireland said. While online social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are known hang-outs for younger adults and teenagers, older generations in recent months have been taking to the medium at a faster rate than any other age group, according to industry reports. Many of these older folks use social networks to keep tabs on younger family members and they often find fruitful connections with their peers after they've friended all of their kids and grandkids, according to an informal survey by Stanford University professor BJ Fogg. Join a conversation on this topic at CNN's Facebook page . The trend is still relatively confined. Only about 7 percent of people older than 65 have online social-networking profiles, according to research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. But Facebook's popularity is growing most quickly among women older than 55, according to a site called Inside Facebook, which tracks Facebook's growth. There are now about 1.5 million female users older than 55 on the site, the group says -- roughly a 550 percent increase over six months ago. By comparison, membership among people younger than 25 grew by less than 20 percent over the same period, Inside Facebook says. Facebook now says it has 200 million users, making its user base larger than the populations of all the world's countries except China, India, the United States and Indonesia. Such a vast presence, coupled with news media buzz about all social media, has pushed online social networking to a \"tipping point,\" said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Fogg, the Stanford instructor, said the trend has spread outward from college towns, where Facebook was first adopted, and inward from the American coasts. Facebook today has a global presence, with 70 percent of users living outside the U.S., the site says. \"We've reached critical mass where there's been enough talk about Facebook and people have gotten so many invitations from their friends, they're going, 'OK, what is this Facebook thing? I've got to get onboard or I'm going to be left in the dust,' \" Fogg said. Parents who are interested in their kids' online activities contribute to the sharp increase in older users on Facebook, said Linda Fogg-Phillips, a 49-year-old who, with her brother, co-taught a six-week class at Stanford called \"Facebook for Parents.\" \"Parents are finally at the point where they realize this is not going away. They better figure out how to get on it and they'd better figure out how to use it,\" said Fogg-Phillips, who is a mother of eight in Las Vegas, Nevada. \"It's a snowball effect. It's viral in a good sense.\" Older people often must overcome fears about privacy issues before they will join Facebook, Fogg-Phillips said. Once they do, they often find unexpected uses for the network, she said. iReport.com: Facebook, Twitter growing pains? That was the case for Craig Costa, a 55-year-old fly-fishing guide in Park City, Utah, who said family members forced him to join Facebook. Costa still finds parts of the site annoying, and isn't comfortable having his personal information made public, but he has connected with old friends he wouldn't have otherwise -- including his ex-wife, who now is a Facebook friend of his current wife. \"It's been really interesting because so many people have a connection to me,\" he said. \"I was married before and my wife is now talking to my ex-wife. And some of her old friends are telling old stories about me to my wife. It's just bizarre for me.\" Costa said he also can more easily keep up with his 28-year-old son, who lives in New York and also keeps a Facebook page for his dog. Karen Essman, 61, uses Facebook but said she has trouble convincing her peers to join social-networking sites. They often don't understand the interface or are afraid of scams, she said. \"It's a little bit more difficult for older people,\" she said. Margaret Brooks, 63, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, joined the site because there was no other place for her to see her 18-year-old grandson's artwork. She asked to be his friend online, and at first she worried he wouldn't respond. \"I did think, 'Oh my goodness, I'm old grandma. He doesn't want to have anything to do with grandma on Facebook,' \" she said. \"But he did, and every time I send something to him he sends something to me.\" Joanne Woeppel joined Facebook so she could keep tabs on her 13 grandkids. But the Web site also has helped the 71-year-old keep up with other people without changing her routine. \"I'm pretty much what you would call a loner. I'm content in my own company. I can find things to do to entertain myself that I don't need to be out and about,\" she said by phone from her three-bedroom house near Dallas, Texas. \"I don't go out to socialize.\" A former call center worker and aspiring sci-fi author, Woeppel visits the online social network about once a day. Spending time on Facebook, which she joined in September, helps her feel connected to family all over the country -- especially to the youngsters, she said. She has family members who live nearby, but says she's found a way to communicate with them in their own language through Facebook. \"Let's face it, kids that age aren't really interested in talking to people my age very much. It's more, 'Hi grandma how are ya? ... Bye!' \" she said with a laugh. \"That's basically what I get from my grandkids, so if I can engage them through just a little bit of chit-chat [online], it's a lot more than I can get over the phone.\"","highlights":"Women older than 55 make up the fastest-growing age group on Facebook .\nExpert says the site has hit a \"tipping point,\" causing older people to join .\nSome older family members use the site to get in touch with younger generations .\nOne mother says Facebook has become her family's \"living room\"","id":"f53d0701ee872fc413454db8b124c7f95964ff19"} -{"article":"MANAMA, Bahrain (CNN) -- Efforts to protect ships from pirates in the waters off Somalia's east coast face a tremendous challenge: The vastness of the area makes it difficult to get to ships that are in danger. The crew of the Maersk Alabama talked with media after the ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. \"To put it in perspective, draw a box from Houston to Chicago to New York City down to Jacksonville, Florida. It's an immense body of water,\" U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters Sunday. When the Maersk Alabama, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, reported an attempted attack by pirates the day before the pirates successful attempt on Wednesday, \"our closest vessel from all the navies that were out there -- we have 16 navies that are patrolling those waters -- and the closest one was the USS Bainbridge, and it was over 300 nautical miles,\" Gortney said. The next day, when the Maersk company reported pirates had boarded its ship, \"we were closing Bainbridge as quickly as we [could], but 22 knots, 300 miles, it takes a while to get there.\" View a timeline of the attack and its aftermath \u00bb . He added, \"There's about a 10-minute window from when the pirates are able to get onboard that we have time to act.\" Things are different on the north side of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden, where many piracy incidents have taken place. That area is \"a little bit more concentrated,\" Gortney said, speaking from Bahrain. \"We've had more successful attempts\" at breaking up piracy efforts in that region, he said. \"But out on the east coast of Somalia, such a vast area, we simply do not have enough resources in order to cover all those areas.\" Gortney spoke to reporters by telephone Sunday after Navy snipers shot and killed three pirates who had held Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips hostage since Wednesday. Phillips was freed by the U.S. Navy uninjured. Watch how U.S. forces believed Phillips was in danger \u00bb . Phillips graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, which trains mariners on the dangers of piracy, the president of the academy said. \"The sea is a dangerous place -- pirates [are] just one of the many dangers,\" Adm. Rick Gurnon of the academy told reporters after the rescue. The academy \"tries to educate you and prepare you to keep you from danger, but it doesn't always work.\" He noted that while Phillips' story had a happy ending, more than 200 mariners remain captives at sea, and called on the international community to beef up security in the waters by arming crews, increasing warships and reducing the ability of Somalis to obtain ships from coastal safehavens. \"It will certainly take hard work and money and focus,\" he said, \"but we've got to stop it or we begin to risk lives in areas of the world that are vital for national security.\" Chris Voss, former FBI international kidnapping negotiator, told CNN that the pirates from the impoverished, war-torn nation need an alternative way to make money. \"Unfortunately, they found themselves in a position where they could start piracy in the region and it's become a virus,\" Voss told CNN. \"It's easy money ... and once it gets into a culture, it's very difficult to get out, and the only way to get it out is attack on multiple levels.\" Asked whether he was concerned that this incident, including the deaths of three of the four pirates involved in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and the kidnapping of Phillips, could escalate violence in the region, Gortney responded, \"Yes ... This could escalate violence in this part of the world. No question about it.\" But some experts believe the rescue may help set a tone that will eventually deter piracy in the region. \"This one incident, if it is the only time that we take this robust action, will not deter,\" retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told CNN. \"But this incident, the next incident, the next incident after that -- a long term pattern will certainly have a deterrent effect against piracy.\"","highlights":"U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney: \"It's an immense body of water\"\nGortney: Size of a box from Houston to Chicago to New York to Jacksonville, Florida .\nGortney: \"There's about a 10-minute window ... that we have time to act\"\nGortney spoke after U.S. Navy snipers killed three pirates, freeing U.S. hostage .","id":"a91d9dc6a9ad7fa6aca2c9ca4d9c7aefd1503585"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man with a pistol killed one person and wounded three others at a cafe in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Saturday morning, a police spokesman said. Police officers stand next to the body of the victim killed by the cafe gunman in Rotterdam. Patrons at the cafe managed to capture the shooter, a 45-year-old man, and hold him until police arrived, Rotterdam Police spokesman Gerde Jung told CNN. Police arrested the man and recovered his weapon, Jung said. The shooting was probably the the result of a quarrel the man had earlier, but details of that argument were unclear, Jung said. All of the victims were male, he said.","highlights":"Gunman shoots one person dead, wounds three others at a Rotterdam cafe .\nPatrons at the cafe manage to capture the 45-year-old man .\nPolice: Shooting was probably the the result of a quarrel .","id":"770becc2572faf9b98e57a31f3c1596d99d58df2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan killed a female Canadian soldier and wounded four other troops, the Canadian military said Tuesday. Trooper Karine Blais, 21, is the second Canadian female soldier to die in Afghanistan. Trooper Karine Blais was killed Monday when the troops' armored vehicle struck the bomb. The attack occurred north of Kandahar in the Shah Wali Kowt District of Kandahar province. Blais' death was the 117th Canadian troop fatality in the Afghan war, and she is the second Canadian female soldier killed in Afghanistan. The first, Capt. Nichola Goddard, was killed in a May 2006 firefight with insurgents in Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been based during the conflict. Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance, commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, called the 21-year-old Blais \"an energetic soldier who gave 100 percent to every challenge she faced using a unique sense of humor based on her honesty and frankness.\" Vance said Blais \"demonstrated the qualities of a future leader\" and was \"respected by all members of her squadron.\" \"Our thoughts are with the friends and family of our fallen comrade during this difficult time,\" the Canadian Forces said in a news release. \"All members of Task Force Kandahar are thinking of the family and friends of our fallen comrades during this sad time. We will not forget their sacrifice as we continue to bring security and hope to the people of Kandahar province.\" Blais, from the 12th Canadian Armored Regiment at Valcartier, Quebec, near Quebec City, was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22th Regiment Battle Group. A chopper evacuated the four other troops to a medical facility at Kandahar airfield. Before Monday's attack, the last Canadian deaths in Afghanistan occurred March 20 when four soldiers were killed in two roadside bombings.","highlights":"Female soldier killed, four other troops wounded in roadside bombing .\nKarine Blais, 21, is second Canadian female soldier killed in Afghanistan .\nThere have been 117 Canadian troop deaths in the Afghan war .","id":"eb0443895ed7a25fca949f9fbc4bf9f0af839875"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The declaration of a state of emergency in Thailand following violent clashes between anti-government and security forces marks the latest escalation in a long-running political crisis which has plunged the southeast Asian country into frequent bouts of disorder and instability. The scene from the streets of Bangkok on Monday showed widespread protests against the government. This weekend's protests, which included forcing the postponement of a summit of Asian leaders in the southern coastal city of Pattaya and demonstrations on the streets of Bangkok, were orchestrated by red-shirted supporters of the controversial and corruption-tainted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin -- a multibillionaire media tycoon elected in 2001 on a populist platform that promised universal healthcare and cash handouts to poor villagers -- was ousted from power in a bloodless army coup in 2006 and has been in exile abroad since being sentenced last October to two years in prison after being convicted of a corruption charge by Thailand's Supreme Court. But Thaksin remains a polarizing figure in Thailand, commanding substantial support in the countryside. Until last year, Thaksin's allies had remained in power with the government headed by the exiled prime minister's brother-in law, Somchai Wongsawat, despite disruptive protests by the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose supporters dressed in yellow and represented Thailand's traditional ruling class, suspicious of Thaksin's populist model of democracy. But the PAD achieved its goal of ousting Somchai in December after a week-long occupation of the prime ministerial Government House offices and blockading Bangkok's main airports, stranding thousands of tourists. Thailand's Constitutional Court subsequently disbanded Somchai's People Power Party for electoral fraud and barred Somchai from office for five years, paving the way for Thai lawmakers to elect opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister. iReport.com: \"Red shirts\" take to streets . But Thaksin's supporters insist that Abhisit was not democratically elected and have vowed to protest until fresh elections are held. On Sunday, Thaksin told protesters via a video link from an unknown location that he would return home to lead them in a march on the capital if necessary. \"Now that they have tanks on the street and the soldiers are coming out, so it is time for the people to come out for a revolution,\" Thaksin said. Writing in a blog, CNN's Bangkok Correspondent Dan Rivers said he saw five possible scenarios emerging from the current crisis. Firstly, Abhisit could call a snap election, which he would be unlikely to win because Thaksin's allies continue to lead polls. Secondly, he could resign, resulting in the creation of another coalition which would struggle to unify the rival factions, leaving open the likelihood of further protests from one side or the other. Thirdly, Thaksin could return from exile to lead a red-shirted uprising; a scenario which Rivers describes as \"messy and bloody.\" iReport.com: \"Numerous buses set ablaze\" Fourthly, the army could again intervene, as it has done in the past, although Rivers says that would do little to heal the deep divisions between both sides. Finally, Rivers said, Abhisit could choose to ride out the protests or \"get tough.\" But both strategies would likely damage his standing. \"Trying to ignore the protests will leave him looking even weaker; ordering a violent crack-down may simply harden the resolve of the red shirts and provide fodder to their questionable claims that Abhisit has dictatorial tendencies,\" Rivers said.","highlights":"Thai state of emergency is latest episode in ongoing political crisis .\nThailand has been unstable since former PM Thaksin ousted in coup in 2006 .\nThaksin's supporters insist current government is illegitimate, want new elections .\nThaksin: \"It is time for the people to come out for a revolution\"","id":"c18ba9ecd1d3c8d44ad8ff4aec05fe8f219f47e6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Male singers regularly photographed wearing a hat are usually covering up a receding hairline. Jason Aldean has had six Top 10 country singles. His new album, \"Wide Open,\" is just out. But not Jason Aldean. He has a full head of hair, and wears a cowboy hat to signify his commitment to country music. The same is true for his well-fitting jeans and cowboy boots. It's a formula that seems to be working. The 32-year-old rising star has just notched his sixth Top 10 country single with \"She's Country,\" the lead track off his third CD, \"Wide Open\" (Broken Bow). We caught up with the Georgia native in his dressing room before a recent sold-out show at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, California. The following is an edited version of the interview. Jason Aldean: Definitely a cowboy hat in L.A. makes you stand out a little bit. CNN: It's a fashion statement in L.A. Aldean: It is! You've got to wear it with confidence, too. Watch Aldean talk about his new album \u00bb . CNN: Are you nervous about your new album? Aldean: I wouldn't say I'm nervous. If you have an album that you're kind of on the fence about, then yeah, you would be kind of a little nervous. CNN: Have you ever had one of those -- or if you had, would you admit it? Aldean: When we went in to record the second album (2007's \"Relentless,\" which went gold), I think it was a good album, but I felt like I was under a lot of pressure recording that album -- more than the other two. You hear people talking about the sophomore slump and all that stuff, and so I think all that stuff sort of got to me after a while. Combined with being on the road 200 to 250 days [a year], I just didn't have that much fun recording it. I was exhausted. And so going into this third album, I just feel like mentally, I was back in the right place. CNN: As an artist, do you ever really think you got it right? Aldean: If at any point you're recording an album and you think it's the greatest thing that you've ever done, and you'll never be able to top it, then you should probably quit. Michael Jackson -- he made \"Thriller,\" so I can see why he might have said, \"I'm done.\" But even he kept making records. CNN: Were you a Michael Jackson fan growing up? Did you moonwalk as a kid? Aldean: Of course! I had my glove and everything. Used to wet my hair so it looked like a Jheri curl. (Cracks up) CNN: Who else did you listen to as a kid? Aldean: Guns N' Roses -- the '80s rock stuff. Then I was into John Mellencamp, and Bob Seger and a lot of the Southern rock stuff -- the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band. I listened to a lot of different kinds of music. CNN: Are you finding that the economy has affected ticket sales? Is it harder to sell out shows these days? Aldean: I think everybody has kind of seen a little bit of a hit. We're no different. We've tried to make it more affordable for people to come to a show with lower ticket prices [most of the time in the $20-40 range]. Maybe go in and play a show for less money than we would normally go in to play a show for, just so people can afford to come out and buy a ticket. I mean, you're looking at 200 bucks if you've got a wife and two kids -- and then by the time you come there and buy a couple of T-shirts, or some drinks or whatever, you're spending three, four hundred dollars, and right now, people are a little hesitant to do that. CNN: What do you consider an expensive ticket? Aldean: If Elvis was still around, I don't know if I'd pay 80 bucks to go see him. I surely would not pay 80 bucks to go see me! CNN: From a financial standpoint, touring is more important to an artist than selling records these days. Aldean: The music industry is so different now than it was even when I hit the scene in 2005. If you go to Wal-Mart and you want a song, you've got to buy the whole album for ten bucks -- or you can go to iTunes, and if you want a song, you can pay a dollar to get it. So in return, the record label is going to make less money, which is us making less money to pay them back. The way it works is the record label basically fronts the money for us to record an album. As the money comes back in off of that, they take that and repay the debt that we owe them. So if they're not making enough to repay that debt, they're not going to keep us employed on the label for very long. CNN: As an artist, do you worry about that? Aldean: Oh, absolutely. I think every artist worries about that. As a consumer, I think iTunes is a great thing. As an entertainer, not so much. I would much rather have somebody buy an album as a whole. Bad thing about purchasing singles -- if you have an artist you like and you keep doing that, there's not going to be music enough for you to go and get, because they're not going to have a deal anymore. But who knows? Record labels may one day be out all together, and people may be making their own music and selling it on their Web sites. CNN: That seems to benefit established artists more than up-and-coming ones. Aldean: Radio's really accepted us, and proven that they're really going to play my stuff as long as I give them something good to play. Fans are coming out to the show, so I mean what more could I ask for? My original plan when I got started in this deal was just to be able to make a good living for my family and play music. I've been able to do that, which is all I've ever wanted.","highlights":"Jason Aldean riding high with new hit, \"She's Country\"\nGeorgia native conscious of ticket prices, giving value .\nAldean: \"[I] would not pay 80 bucks to go see me!\"","id":"1f76b07bf9d1f71424b609790a147e6f3741f68d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board began four days of hearings Tuesday on how to stem the \"drastic increase\" in medical helicopter accidents. Smoke rises from Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after a helicopter crash in May. Over a recent 12-month period, the board probed nine fatal medical helicopter accidents that killed 35 people, a development that one board member called \"alarming.\" Medical helicopters \"provide an important service to the public\" in swiftly transporting ill and injured patients and donor organs, the board said on its Web site. Chopper pilots must operate \"safely and quickly\" in bad weather, at night or on \"unfamiliar landing sites,\" the board added. \"This hearing will be extremely important because it can provide an opportunity to learn more about the industry so that possibly we can make further recommendations that can prevent these accidents and save lives,\" said Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the hearing's board of inquiry. Watch Sumwalt's remarks at hearing \u00bb . Flying at night in poor weather conditions likely contributed to the crashes in Texas and Alaska of three medical helicopters that killed 11 people, the NTSB said. The three crashes occurred near South Padre Island, Texas, in February 2008; Huntsville, Texas, in June; and Whittier, Alaska, in December 2007. iReport: Watch smoke pour from a medical chopper crash in Michigan . A December 2007 accident in Cherokee, Alabama, was likely caused by the pilot flying too low over trees, the NTSB said. The helicopter was shining a searchlight on a hunter who had been lost as rescue personnel on the ground tried to reach him. The pilot, a paramedic and a flight nurse were killed, the NTSB said. Among the issues to be discussed at the hearing will be flight operations, aircraft safety equipment, training and oversight. Expert witnesses such as pilots, medical personnel, managers and Federal Aviation Administration officials will give sworn testimony on what has been an \"ongoing concern\" of the safety board, which issued a report on emergency medical services operations in 2006. The NTSB said there were 55 EMS-related aviation accidents -- both fatal and nonfatal -- between January 2002 and January 2005 that could have been prevented with \"simple corrective actions.\" In those crashes, 54 people were killed, and 18 were seriously injured, the NTSB said. The agency recommended to the FAA in January 2006 that all medical chopper operators be required to develop and implement risk evaluation programs, use dispatch and flight procedures that include up-to-date weather information, and install \"terrain awareness and warning systems\" on their aircraft. A fourth recommendation would require medical flight operators to follow federal regulations regarding their flights. The recommendations have not been fully implemented, the NTSB said.","highlights":"Transportation safety board beginning four days of hearings .\nBoard examines reported \"drastic increase\" in accidents and deaths .\nNine air ambulance crashes killed 35 people during one-year period .\nBoard's 2006 safety recommendations not fully implemented, it says .","id":"4929e54ae3f6711b4bd8da27a46d0f8a90c3b3bf"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Firefighters will need at least until midweek to get control of wildfires that have destroyed more than 900 homes and other structures in Southern California, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman says. High winds have fanned blazes from Santa Barbara to Anaheim since Thursday, scorching an estimated 40,900 acres of land. Sustained winds eased Monday, but locally gusty conditions and humidity in the single-digit range could continue into Tuesday, the National Weather Service predicted. \"If we were being very optimistic, we would be looking at the middle of the week,\" Los Angeles County fire Capt. Dennis Cross said. \"If the weather forecast holds and we continue to get the great work being done in the last 24 hours, we're hoping midweek.\" The most extensive losses have been in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in the Sylmar district of Los Angeles, where winds clocked as high as 70 mph drove a wall of flames across the hillsides and destroyed nearly 500 of the park's 608 mobile homes on Saturday. iReport.com: Map shows fire's devastation . A two-day search that ended Monday found no human remains amid the scorched wreckage, authorities said. But Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said authorities still haven't accounted for the residents of 166 homes, and he wanted them to check in with investigators. \"Help us bring full closure to this,\" Moore said Monday evening. Watch how fires destroyed hundreds of homes \u00bb . Moore said residents of the mobile home park would be allowed to return Tuesday \"to come in and collect their belongings.\" The largest of three fires, the Freeway Complex fire, had set ablaze nearly 29,000 acres in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties. Most of the damage was in Orange County, in the Los Angeles suburbs of Anaheim and Yorba Linda, where more than 100 homes were destroyed. Fire officials said the blaze, with 3,700 firefighters and other emergency personnel battling it, was about 40 percent contained Monday. Watch how it may take days to contain fires \u00bb . iReporter Carol Menke said she last saw her home in the Hollydale Mobile Home Estates in Brea Canyon around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. \"I know our firefighters are the best and the bravest in the world, but that wall of fire looked insurmountable,\" she said at the time. iReport.com: 'Insurmountable' wall of flames looms . Firefighters on Sunday night told Menke that one home was destroyed and one damaged in Hollydale, but neither was hers. See damage in Sylmar via satellite photography \u00bb . \"I am so thankful that I am at a loss for words. My heart goes out to those not as fortunate,\" she said. The Sayre fire, which destroyed the mobile home park in Los Angeles' Sylmar district, was about 40 percent contained Monday morning after burning about 10,000 acres. Five firefighters and one civilian suffered minor injuries in the blaze, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported. See images from the Los Angeles County fire \u00bb . In Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles, firefighters said they had a wildfire 95 percent contained after it destroyed more than 100 homes. Among the losses in the 1,900-plus acres it incinerated were a monastery and several mansions in a community where celebrities have homes. The fire destroyed the $11 million Montecito, California, home of Christopher Lloyd, star of \"Back to the Future\" and \"Taxi.\" He showed the charred remnants to ABC's \"Good Morning America\" on Monday. Lloyd talks about his destroyed home . \"It's amazing, its just gone,\" Lloyd told \"Good Morning America.\" \"Rebuilding would be -- it's too much. You can't rebuild that.\" Investigators believe the Santa Barbara County blaze was \"human-caused,\" having eliminated \"all accidental causes,\" said Doug Lannon, a spokesman for the state fire agency. iReport.com: Share wildfire photos, video . Authorities said they believe the fire started in the Tea Garden Estate, a privately owned multiple-acre property about one mile north of Santa Barbara's exclusive Westmont College. Although the fire did not hit the college campus, 15 faculty members lost their homes nearby, according to the college's Web site. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared states of emergency for the four affected counties after the fire damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and closed major freeways. The move frees any state resources needed, and makes the counties eligible for federal assistance grants. CNN's Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Search of mobile home park ends; no one found dead .\nMore than 900 homes, structures destroyed by three fires .\nSingle-digit humidity, wind gusts pose problems for firefighters .\nSanta Barbara County fire has human cause, officials say .","id":"f1bde9d7a588ec3d4a19b0d6fedad09c7fe6fb5c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The head of the U.N. Children's Fund has expressed concern over a Saudi judge's refusal for a second time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. UNICEF's Ann Veneman said consent cannot be free if either party is too young to make an informed decision. \"Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights,\" said Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF. \"The right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision.\" The most recent ruling, in which the judge upheld his original verdict, was handed down Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza, where late last year the same judge rejected a petition from the girl's mother, seeking a divorce for her daughter. Have your say by clicking here . A relative said the judge, Sheikh Habib al-Habib, \"stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty.\" The family member, who requested anonymity, added that the mother will continue to pursue a divorce for her daughter. The case, which has drawn criticism from local and international rights groups, came to light in December when al-Habib declined to annul the marriage on a legal technicality. The judge ruled that the girl's mother -- who is separated from her father -- was not the girl's legal guardian and therefore could not represent her in court, Abdullah al-Jutaili, the mother's attorney, told CNN at the time. The girl's father, according to the lawyer, arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, who is a close friend of his. At the time of the initial verdict, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, al-Jutaili told CNN. The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said. Last month, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to him for reconsideration. Under the complicated Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect, but that a challenge to the marriage was still ongoing. The appeals court in Riyadh will now take up the case again and a hearing is scheduled for next month, according to the relative. The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom recently. While rights groups have petitioned the government for laws to protect children from such marriages, the kingdom's top cleric has said that it's OK for girls as young as 10 to wed. \"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger,\" Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in remarks last January, according to the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. \"A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong, and they are being unfair to her.\" Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry. \"We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls,\" he said, according to the newspaper. \"We should know that sharia law has not brought injustice to women.\" Sharia law is Islamic law. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism. CNN was unable to reach government officials for comment. Christoph Wilcke, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told CNN in December that his organization has heard of many other cases of child marriages. \"We've been hearing about these types of cases once every four or five months because the Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger -- especially so when girls are traded off to older men,\" Wilcke said. Wilcke said that although Saudi ministries might make decisions designed to protect children, \"It is still the religious establishment that holds sway in the courts, and in many realms beyond the court.\" In December, Zuhair al-Harithi, a spokesman for the Saudi government-run Human Rights Commission, said his organization is fighting against child marriages. \"The Human Rights Commission opposes child marriages in Saudi Arabia,\" al-Harithi said. \"Child marriages violate international agreements that have been signed by Saudi Arabia and should not be allowed.\" He added that his organization has been able to intervene and stop at least one child marriage from taking place. Wajeha al-Huwaider, co-founder of the Society of Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, told CNN that achieving human rights in the kingdom means standing against those who want to \"keep us backward and in the dark ages.\" She said the marriages cause girls to \"lose their sense of security and safety. Also, it destroys their feeling of being loved and nurtured. It causes them a lifetime of psychological problems and severe depression.\"","highlights":"UNICEF: Marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights .\nJudge said girl could petition \"once she reaches puberty,\" relative tells CNN .\nGirl's father arranged her marriage to a 47-year-old to settle debts, lawyer says .\nGirl's mother says she will continue to seek daughter's divorce .","id":"229f23e4237b2e11e01d7cb982d6d96ff5bc9146"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Benjamin Franklin said that nothing is certain in this world but death and taxes. The federal government allows taxpayers a $500 exemption for housing victims of a Midwestern disaster. In our more fast-paced times we might add the certainty of having to replace our iPods at least once every two years, but you get the point. Taxes are a part of the fabric of modern human society, yet they are totally beguiling to most ordinary folk. With laws like this, it's no wonder. 1. The jock tax . You can thank Michael Jordan for this one. After Jordan's Chicago Bulls put the hurt on the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 NBA finals, the state of California began to enforce a nonresident income tax on visiting performers, especially athletes. Basically, the tax applies to any income earned while competing or performing in California, and it allowed California's Franchise Tax Board to reach into the pockets of Jordan, Pippen, et. al. to extract some revenge for the hard-court beatdown. Not to be outdone, Illinois, and eventually 18 other states, instituted a jock tax, making a patchwork quilt of tax laws that basketball, baseball, and other sports figures have to consider. Thanks to these regulations, it's more difficult to file a professional athlete's tax return than to map the human genome on a Commodore 64. 2. The crack tax . In 1983, Arizona became the first state to implement a \"Cannabis & Controlled Substances Tax\" in order to boost state revenues and further punish those found guilty of possession. It works like this: if you are in possession of an illegal drug or illegally produced liquor (aka moonshine), you need to go down to the state tax collection agency and pay the tax on your illegal substances. You are then given tax stamps to affix on your illegal goods. Sounds insane, right? Well, part of the code now on the books in more than 30 states says that the tax collection agency is not allowed to rat you out to the local law enforcement agency. This should put every drug dealer's mind at ease, yet so few of them pay their required taxes. The truth is, many of these taxes are levied in arrears after the local constabulary has caught the criminal dealer. It's really an additional fine for dealing that gets paid straight to the state coffers. And what of those few people that pay the tax? Records show that the vast majority of them are stamp collectors. Mental Floss: 10 controversial stamps . 3. Take in a midwesterner . For 2008 and 2009, the IRS is allowing a $500 exemption for each person that you help house from a Midwestern disaster (e.g. the floods in Iowa and surrounding states). In typical IRS fashion, the rules dictating who can and cannot be counted for this charitable act are both coldly technical, and moderately vague. Need more info? Check out the scintillating IRS Publication 4492-B. It's a great beach read. 4. It's not a tattoo tax, it's a body art tax . Arkansas has added getting a tattoo to its list of services that require an additional 6 percent state tax. One other service that's subject to the tax is electrolysis. Mental Floss: Your tattoo might not mean what you think . 5. Hide the window, the taxman is coming . You'll never have to worry about this last tax since it was repealed in 1851, but it's just too silly not to mention. In 1696, a tax was placed on British homes based on the number of windows the home had. Previously the tax was levied per household, no matter the size of the house or the number of residents. The law changed, however, to levy higher taxes on larger homes with, presumably, more windows. Instead of paying the higher taxes, people just bricked up the windows that they found to be extraneous. An astute visitor to England can still see evidence of this law today in the scores of walled up windows in older buildings throughout the country. Mental Floss: 4 other times our economy tanked . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"In 1983, Arizona was first state to tax holders of illegal drugs or moonshine .\nSimilar laws in 30 + states say collectors aren't allowed to rat out taxpayers .\nIf you house a victim of a Midwestern disaster, IRS offers $500 tax exemption .\nArkansas taxes tattoos, electrolysis; out-of-state pro-athletes taxed in 19 states .","id":"dae4b4c9fe51d530124db370629334db6a3c4bb8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Perhaps it really WAS destiny. \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" the little film that overcame tremendous odds simply to earn an American release, won eight Oscars Sunday night at the 81st annual Academy Awards, including best picture. \"Most of all we had passion and we had belief, and our film shows if you have those two things, you have everything,\" said producer Christian Colson, surrounded by many members of the film's huge cast and crew. It was a supremely unlikely success story. \"Millionaire,\" which combines elements of Bollywood melodrama and documentary grit, features no stars. It's set largely among the poverty-stricken districts of Mumbai, India, and one-third of the film is in Hindi. Its initially reluctant director, Danny Boyle, is better known for brash British films such as \"Trainspotting\" and \"28 Days Later.\" And the film almost went straight to DVD in America, thanks to the folding of initial studio Warner Independent Pictures (like CNN, it's a unit of Time Warner). But the film's orphaned, poverty-raised hero, played by Dev Patel, overcomes his challenges to earn a spot on the game show \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire\" -- not necessarily to win money, but to connect with his lost love. On the show, he's told that perhaps he is a figure of destiny. \"It is written,\" the show's smarmy host tells him, somewhat mockingly, after Patel's character aces several questions. List of winners, nominees . \"Slumdog's\" filmmakers were jubilant at the wins, which also included Oscars for best director (Boyle), best adapted screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), score (A.R. Rahman), cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle), song, sound mixing and film editing. Boyle jumped up and down as he accepted his award, saying he'd told his children that if he ever won, he'd bounce like Tigger from \"Winnie-the-Pooh.\" Rahman was equally appreciative. \"All my life I've had a choice between hate and love, and I chose love, and now I'm here,\" he said. Gallery: See what the stars are wearing \u00bb . \"Slumdog's\" main competition, \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,\" won just three Oscars, all in minor categories. The film had led the pack with 13 nominations. The rest of the Oscar broadcast alternated between host Hugh Jackman's smooth song-and-dance numbers, some comic moments from Steve Martin, Tina Fey and Ben Stiller, and politics, generally focused on gay rights and California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8. Sean Penn won best actor for playing Harvey Milk in \"Milk,\" the story of the first openly gay man elected to major public office. Penn earned laughs and applause for his speech. iReport.com: What do you think of the winners? \"You commie homo-loving sons of guns,\" the sometimes truculent actor began, to laughter. \"I did not expect this, and I wanted to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me, often. But I am touched by the appreciation.\" After a series of thank-you's, he turned serious in talking about gay marriage. \"For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think it's a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that support,\" Penn said. \"We've got to have equal rights for everyone.\" Dustin Lance Black, who won original screenplay for \"Milk,\" also gave an impassioned speech in favor of gay rights. \"I think [Milk] would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight ... that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.\" Heath Ledger won best supporting actor for his performance as the Joker in \"The Dark Knight.\" His parents and sister accepted the award for the actor, who died in January 2008. \"This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath's quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here -- his peers -- within an industry he truly loved,\" said Ledger's father, Kim. Ledger is only the second actor to win a posthumous actor. Peter Finch won best actor for 1976's \"Network\" two months after he died in early 1977. Other winners included Kate Winslet, who won best actress for her performance in \"The Reader\"; Penelope Cruz, who won best supporting actress honor for \"Vicky Cristina Barcelona\"; and \"WALL-E,\" which won best animated feature. Most of the winners, if not foreordained, were expected. The evening's sole shock came with best foreign-language film, which went to the Japanese film \"Departures.\" Among the films it beat were France's \"The Class\" and Israel's \"Dances With Bashir,\" two of the best-reviewed films of the year. The Oscars moved at a steady pace, largely thanks to Jackman's brisk, jokey work. Only the introductions to the four acting categories, in which previous winners read tributes to current nominees as if they were about to appear on \"This Is Your Life,\" considerably slowed the show, which ran close to three and a half hours. At various points, Jackman cracked wise about downsizing -- \"Next year,\" said the \"Australia\" star, \"I'll be starring in a movie called 'New Zealand' \" -- performed songs about each best picture nominee in various musical styles, and paid tribute to various celebrities as if pointing out VIPs in a nightclub. He even physically carried Anne Hathaway on stage to play Richard Nixon in a \"Frost\/Nixon\" send-up. Blog: Behind the scenes . But it was \"Slumdog Millionaire\" that carried the evening. At one point, Resul Pookutty, who won for sound mixing, seemed overwhelmed as he accepted his Oscar. \"I dedicate this award to my country,\" he said. \"Thank you, Academy, this is not just a sound award, this is history being handed over to me.\" Given the import of East meeting West, the movie business can say the same thing.","highlights":"\"Slumdog Millionaire\" wins eight Oscars, including best picture and director .\nSean Penn wins best actor for \"Milk\"\nKate Winslet wins best actress for \"The Reader\"\nHeath Ledger wins best supporting actor for \"The Dark Knight\"","id":"b2128c5aad67d77423355e3c6cad635d3c7312bd"} -{"article":"LOUISVILLE, Colorado (CNN) -- While the economy sputters here on Earth, space entrepreneurs in Colorado are looking to the heavens. Diane Dimeff and Scott Tibbitts of eSpace, a not-for-profit that helps aerospace companies test space technology. In a cavernous testing facility called the \"Incubator,\" specialized equipment recreates the unique conditions of a journey into space -- from platforms that mimic the violent shaking at liftoff to chambers that replicate space's bitter cold and complete vacuum. This is home to eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a not-for-profit partnership between SpaceDev, Inc., a private aerospace company, and the University of Colorado. Launched last month, eSpace helps fledgling aerospace companies try out new gadgetry and meet NASA specifications. \"One of the most important things in making space hardware is that it's going to [have to] work in space, because you can't repair it,\" said Scott Tibbitts, executive director of eSpace. \"It's up there, it has to work.\" Tibbitts believes that in the near future, NASA's programs will be supplemented more often by entrepreneurial space ventures. He thinks eSpace can help these companies work toward making space exploration more affordable and accessible to private citizens. \"Our goal is to help small aerospace companies to get off the ground,\" said eSpace director Diane Dimeff. eSpace will help entrepreneurs \"to commercialize their technology and to help develop the work force that will fuel their growth.\" The center's Incubator doubles as the headquarters of SpaceDev, which Tibbitts founded almost by accident more than a dozen years ago. He developed a paraffin actuator, a mechanism filled with a waxlike substance that melts when it reaches a certain temperature, flipping a switch. The device worked on hot-water heaters, but Tibbitts thought it might have high-tech applications elsewhere. \"I ended up contacting NASA and they said yeah,\" Tibbitts said. \"So we started building them for spacecraft instead of water heaters, and the business was built around that.\" But it wasn't quite that simple. The first actuator for NASA cost $32,000 to make, and Tibbitts had to sell his Triumph sports car to raise the money. Also, Tibbitts' specialty was hot water heaters, not spacecraft. Products for NASA have to go through rigorous testing and be made to strict specifications. \"I knew nothing about it,\" he said. \"We'd ask NASA, 'Can we use Super Glue?' And they'd say, 'No, you can't use Super Glue.' \" Tibbitts' goal with eSpace is to help entrepreneurs avoid making the same mistakes. eSpace mentors new companies and helps guide them on the long journey from the workbench in the family garage to the launch pad. A important part of the process is access to the sophisticated testing equipment at the Incubator, located in a suburb northwest of Denver. \"The people making the hardware can test the hardware in that chamber and see if it's going to work in the harsh conditions of space,\" said Tibbitts while leading a tour of the facility. \"This is a half-a-million-dollar chamber. That's not something a small company can afford.\" Dimeff hopes eSpace's collaboration with the University of Colorado will help guide young engineers into careers in space technology. To facilitate this, eSpace will fund three hands-on projects for graduate students to design aerospace technologies with commercial applications. \"They have great skills for the aerospace industry, and they would never have thought of going into the aerospace industry but for this program,\" Dimeff said. A few miles down the road, another space hardware company is hoping to benefit from eSpace's programs. \"I think the eSpace concept is really a very important one,\" said Michael Tupper, executive vice president of Composite Technology Development Inc., which makes resins, thermal insulation and other products. \"We can be much more effective when we are working with other entrepreneurial companies and combining our capabilities and technologies,\" he added. \"So eSpace will both create a network of companies and will also help with the educational basics.\" Tupper sees huge growth ahead in space technologies and in technologies developed for space making their way back to Earth. High-temperature insulation his company developed for space is being repurposed for use in wind turbines and geothermal equipment. In that way, eSpace could help prepare engineers for a variety of jobs beyond the aerospace field -- a key benefit in a battered economy. \"The space market is a vital market, and it does require a lot of jobs,\" Tupper told CNN. \"But I think it's quite clear the terrestrial market has more jobs in larger industries. We're going to be needing to hire more and more people.\"","highlights":"The eSpace center helps fledgling aerospace companies try out new gadgetry .\neSpace boasts the \"Incubator,\" which recreates the conditions of space .\nIts equipment can mimic the violent shaking at liftoff and space's bitter cold .\neSpace director: \"Our goal is to help small aerospace companies get off the ground\"","id":"ac7cdcaa8cc9f40e94ab545133652690f1c32e5f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Call it the second coming. Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves star in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\" Klaatu the spaceman first visited these parts in Robert Wise's 1951 Cold War classic \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" when he threatened to blow us all up unless we stopped threatening to do the job for him. Klaatu wasn't exactly greeted with open arms back then -- he was shot and hounded for his troubles -- and if the earth has moved on over the past half century, you wouldn't know it from the trigger-happy welcoming committee that surrounds his luminous snowball of a space craft in New York's Central Park. Where sci-fi films in the 1950s used to see red(s), today they go green. Directed by Scott Derrickson (\"The Exorcism of Emily Rose\") and scripted by David Scarpa (\"The Last Castle\"), \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" 2.0 ditches the Cold War theme. Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) means to save the planet, but war isn't the problem. Mankind is the problem. The filmmakers have come up with an effective Spielbergian prologue, cutting from the Himalayas in 1928 to contemporary biology professor Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), whisked from her home by uniformed men in response to an undisclosed national emergency. It's strange to think that in the final hour the government will turn to molecular biologists for guidance, though true to form (as in the 1951 original) the scientists are quickly overruled by the politicians. But once Keanu-Klaatu emerges from his blubbery placenta spacesuit, the movie shifts into familiar fugitive thriller terrain and the tension slowly drains out of it. Dr. Benson helps him escape to New Jersey where he can meet with an alien undercover agent in McDonald's, and she can introduce him to a true world leader, a Nobel laureate played by John Cleese. If you're going to cast a top star as an alien being, Reeves seems a solid choice. He's always been able to process human emotion with a Spock-like detachment. \"This body is going to take some getting used to,\" Klaatu cautions shakily in his first scene, but in fact he gets the walking-talking thing down pat in no time. He's a messianic figure -- he fires lasers out of his wrists, like a reverse-stigmata and he has the power to resurrect the dead (though unlike Jesus, Klaatu killed the guy in the first place). The climax even includes a plague of robotic locusts. But the movie never comes up with a convincing explanation for why his superpowers don't extend to, say, picking up a telephone. Apparently the aliens have been monitoring us for at least 70 years, but Klaatu is taken aback to discover our emotional side. Mostly he learns this from Jaden Smith, who plays Dr. Benson's stepson Jacob. It's not necessarily a good emotional side: Jacob is a whiny, obstinate and disobedient little boy that would lead most extraterrestrials -- and not a few of the rest of us -- to reach for the destruct button. Still, it's surely remiss to wipe out the species before lending an ear to Johann Sebastian Bach. The original movie is beginning to show its age, but at least it holds up as a story. That's more than you can say for a preachy, draggy blockbuster that espouses a radical message of Luddite technophobia at the same time as it conspicuously plugs Honda and LG Electronics, and dresses up its half-baked thinking in blinding (but not that brilliant) CGI wizardry. Johnny Carson used to joke that his 1964 bomb \"Looking for Love\" was so bad it was transferred to flammable nitrate film stock. If they're so determined to be green, perhaps the producers of \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" would consider something biodegradable. \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" is rated PG-13 and runs 103 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" a remake of 1951 classic .\nKeanu Reeves plays Klaatu, alien come to earth to tell humanity to straighten up .\nNew version suffers from preachy script, long, dull scenes .","id":"3e58f6bb8081ed045bd8890b4114e47bdac11ff6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose forthcoming book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Police tape surrounds the scene of a shooting in southern Alabama on Wednesday. (CNN) -- Carnage in Germany, carnage in Alabama, and one of the most saddening aspects of the killings is this: . The impulse to ask \"why,\" while present, seems somehow muted. There will be a search for answers -- why did Michael K. McLendon, the gunman in the American South, murder 10 people, why did Tim Kretschmer, the gunman in the German South, murder 15 people -- but even when a tentative answer is arrived upon, it almost certainly won't mean much. Because the real answer we're searching for -- the answer that will stop these bursts of bloodshed -- seems destined to ever elude us. There is always an impulse to blame obscene killing sprees on outside stimuli. In the years just after World War II, comic books were cited as an incitement for young people to harm each other. Violent television programs were subsequently blamed, as video games sometimes are today. The connective theory has long been: if society desensitizes people to violence, if violence becomes a commodity, then it will proliferate. If people are passively taught that violence is everywhere, then violence will sprout, if not everywhere, then many wheres. But to place the brunt of the blame for this on outside forces is to duck a truth that we are understandably reluctant to face: the impulse to murder without remorse seems to be, in some people, almost like a learned language, deriving from somewhere deep and difficult to find. Thankfully, it remains relatively rare, although during weeks like this one it is not easy to take much comfort in that. Yet with each new torrent of killings, with each new demonstration that, to some among us, the idea of spreading heartache and horror is not only acceptable, but attractive... With each new demonstration of that, we find ourselves once again looking for lessons, in a search that can seem perpetually futile. Are the gunmen in cases like these out to make a name for themselves? If so, they are ordained to fail; there was a time when multiple, random murders were enough to give the perpetrators such notoriety that their names became catchphrases. Charlie Starkweather, whose name means nothing to most people today, had more than one movie made about him after his killing spree on the American Plains in the 1950s. There was a time when we could ascribe, to people who murdered without mercy, a dark desire for the worst kind of fame. But that's gone. Those names you read in the second paragraph of this story -- Michael McLendon, Tim Kretschmer -- may be freshly in the news today, but you will have forgotten them in a month or two. That's one more numbing sign of just how ordinary extraordinary violence has become: the names fail to stick. The protagonists are interchangeable. How to stop this? There has long been a debate over whether the death penalty is a deterrent to murder, but this week the murderers themselves are both dead, and almost certainly they considered that probability before they set out to kill. The learned language of violence seems to contain a concession, on the part of those who absorb it, that their acts may very well conclude with their own dying -- and that the price, in their minds, is acceptable, even, perhaps, sought. Which may be the most chilling lesson of all. Because if even death for those who do it is not enough to stop the profane slaughters around the globe, then our impotence in the face of this feels all the more profound. Whatever our need may be to grasp for answers, the killers, by dying on the day they kill, deny us the chance for even that scant solace. It's the ultimate taunt; it is as if they are saying: You want to know why? You'll never know. Which leaves us with only one certainty: . Before long -- in a matter of days, or weeks, or months -- we'll be asking these questions again. The names will change; the specks on the map will be different. But somewhere, someone who has learned the wordless language of spreading hurt and grief will do this once more, and we will pause anew in our daily lives to wonder what has become of us. And feel all the more empty at the silence that greets our question. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: The real reason mass murderers kill people is elusive .\nHe asks whether outside influences play a role in inciting violence .\nGreene: These days, killers seeking lasting fame seem destined to fail .\nHe says killers who commit suicide prevent us from knowing their motives .","id":"e3870139ff69e4bc4205573ceac254467b06d208"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canadian researchers say they have discovered the smallest known North American dinosaur, a carnivore that roamed areas of the continent 75 million years ago and weighed less than most modern-day house cats. Researchers say Hesperonychus, whose name means \"western claw,\" was about 1.6 feet tall. Hesperonychus elizabethae, a 4.4-pound (2-kilogram) creature with razor-like claws, ran through the swamps and forests of southeastern Alberta, Canada, during the late Cretaceous period, the researchers said. The diminutive dinosaur likely hunted insects, small mammals and other prey, perhaps even baby dinosaurs, said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the University of Calgary's Department of Biological Sciences. \"It's basically a predator of small things,\" Longrich said. Longrich co-wrote a paper on the dinosaur with University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie. The paper appeared in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers said the clawed dinosaur was slight, ran on two legs and had dagger-like teeth. It had an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on its second toe, the researchers said. Although fossilized remains of Hesperonychus were collected in 1982, they remained unstudied until Longrich came across them in the University of Alberta's collection in 2007, the university said. Because of their size, some of the fossilized parts had been thought to be from juveniles. Longrich said he suspected the claws had come from another, smaller adult species, but said finding a fossilized pelvis in which the hip bones were fused -- which happens only once an animal is fully grown -- convinced him. \"The claws were kind of a bread-crumb trail that we followed along,\" until finding the well-preserved pelvis, Longrich said. Longrich and Currie determined that Hesperonychus, whose name means \"western claw,\" stood about 1.6 feet (50 centimeters) high. Albertonykus borealis, a 2.5-foot-long insectivore, had been previously thought to be the smallest North American dinosaur. Longrich came across the dinosaur's bones in storage at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller and decided to analyze them, Canadian Broadcasting Company reported in September. A dinosaur smaller than Hesperonychus has been found in China, Longrich said. He said he found searching through museums' storage more productive in the short term than working in the field. \"People collect stuff so much more quickly than they can process,\" he said. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hesperonychus elizabethae, a 4.4-pound carnivore, lived 75 million years ago .\nRemains discovered in '82; scientist began studying them in 2007 .\nCanadian researchers say it ran through swamps and forests in Alberta .","id":"f35156615303452418fae49d4bf36285a9602c40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" is exactly what it purports to be, no more, no less: a two-hour version of a \"Hannah Montana\" TV episode. Miley Cyrus stars as Hannah Montana -- and Miley Stewart -- in \"Hannah Montana: The Movie.\" Hannah's popularity becomes too much for Miley Stewart (Cyrus). Miley retreats to Tennessee, learns what really matters, performs some songs and kisses a boy, and everything turns out all right in the end. Peter Chelsom -- whose checkered career includes the terrific \"Funny Bones\" and \"Hear My Song\" as well as the bomb \"Town & Country\" -- handled the direction. It's a sunny movie for Easter weekend. There are no Blofelds threatening the world, no sexual intercourse with pies, no bodies shot into pieces by machine guns smuggled in cocaine. Just sweet Miley Cyrus, her soul-patched dad and the huge Disney movie machine humming along. Watch Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus talk about \"Hannah\" \u00bb . Which means that perfect counterprogramming is \"Observe and Report,\" which walks a fine line between brilliant and revolting. CNN.com's Tom Charity thinks it's great; the New York Press' Armond White calls it \"the ugliest, most hate-filled comedy since 'Borat.' \" (Which, for many, could make \"Observe\" a must-see; if White wanted to discourage people, he should have said \"the ugliest, most hate-filled comedy since 'Waiting.' \") Also opening this weekend is \"Dragonball: Evolution,\" and, for a handful of markets, there's \"Anvil!: The Story of Anvil,\" about an '80s metal band that never grasped the brass ring but whose history certainly makes for entertaining watching. That film is earning a 98 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes and 83 percent at Metacritic, some of the highest marks of the year. Watch a preview of \"Dragonball\" \u00bb . On the DVD front, more 2008 holiday movies have found their way on to video, including \"Yes Man,\" \"Bedtime Stories,\" \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" and \"Doubt,\" the latter of which was nominated for five Oscars. That's five more than \"Yes Man,\" \"Bedtime Stories\" or \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" for what it's worth. Bob Mould, Neil Young and the Doves released albums last week; among the acts putting out albums Tuesday are Fastball and Silversun Pickups. (And now \"The Way\" is running through my mind.) Watch an interview with country star Jason Aldean \u00bb . So, not a bad Easter weekend -- and it will conclude (more or less) with the final round of the Masters golf tournament. Miley Cyrus will probably not be there. She's got some wholesome singing to do.","highlights":"\"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" opens this weekend, starring Miley Cyrus .\n\"Observe and Report\" is \"Hannah's\" opposite: crude and cutting .\nMasters golf tournament ends Sunday .","id":"16d0e9810a29b4f6eef2d480785db3db845b6c00"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A military junta that toppled Guinea's government announced its new leader Wednesday in a nationwide radio address. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara wrapped in the Guinean flag Wednesday. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara declared himself president of the National Council for Democracy, which he called a transitional body that will oversee the country's return to democracy. In effect, that would make Camara president of Guinea, which was thrown into turmoil Monday after the death of President Lansana Conte. Camara also declared a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. local time. Guinea's parliament is holding negotiations with the military, Africa News reporter Mamdou Dian Donghol Diallo told CNN. \"For the time being the situation is calm and negotiations are under way,\" Diallo said. \"There is no traffic. Everyone is staying inside their homes.\" Camara, previously the spokesman for the National Council for Democracy, suspended the government, constitution, political parties and trade unions, Diallo said from Conakry. The newly formed government, made up of 26 military personnel and six civilians, is negotiating a power-sharing deal that would reflect its ethnic make-up, Diallo said. But some in the military may not support the new leadership, he said. International institutions, including the African Union, have condemned the coup. Guinea, in western Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, has had two presidents since gaining independence from France in 1958. Conte came to power in 1984, when the military seized control of the government after the death of the first president, Sekou Toure. The country did not hold democratic elections until 1993, when Conte was elected president. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2003 amid allegations of electoral irregularities. Worsening economic conditions and dissatisfaction with corruption and bad governance prompted two massive strikes in 2006, the CIA World Factbook says. A third nationwide strike in early 2007 sparked violent protests that resulted in two weeks of martial law. To appease the unions and end the unrest, the Factbook says, Conte named a new prime minister in March 2007. Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its mineral wealth, according to the British charity Plan UK. The country hosts large refugee populations from neighboring Liberia and Ivory Coast.","highlights":"NEW: Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara named de facto president of Guinea .\nCoup leaders impose overnight curfew; government, constitution suspended .\nPresident Lansana Conte died Monday after near 25-year rule .\nCoup condemned by African Union .","id":"ff71e85d00060cb92d516896d07570af46b167f6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jewish students and faculty at California universities fear for their safety on campus because of threats aimed at them over the Middle East conflict, the father of a slain Wall Street Journal reporter said Friday. Judea Pearl, the father of slain reporter Daniel Pearl, says anti-Semitism is on rise on college campuses. Judea Pearl, whose son, Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped and killed by al Qaeda extremists while on assignment in Pakistan in 2002, told reporters at a news conference that anti-Semitic e-mail and verbal threats have escalated since Israel's three-week invasion of Gaza in January. Pearl teaches computer science on UCLA's Westwood campus. On the school's Web site, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block issued a statement about the university's policy. \"The conflict in the Middle East and current events in Gaza are some of the most highly controversial issues of our time, stirring deep emotions on all sides,\" the statement read. \"We have a responsibility to protect the freedom of expression. We also all have a responsibility to listen and engage -- respectfully -- even as we must understand that not every campus forum on a controversial topic will satisfy passionate and concerned members of the campus and broader communities,\" said Block. Pearl and officials at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where the news conference was held, are concerned that administrators on college campuses across the country are not doing enough to foster freedom of expression while protecting Jewish students and faculty members from acts of intimidation on campuses. \"The verbal abuse is there, the intimidation is there, the feeling of helplessness is there, not only among students but among faculty,\" said Pearl. Pearl cited an incident several years ago in which he was threatened. \"I received hate messages from someone at UCLA who did not identify himself and said, 'I saw you in Ackerman Union and I know where your office is and I'm going to beat the (expletive) out of you,'\" Pearl said. \"I handed it to the campus police, and they did not do anything.\" UCLA spokeswoman Elizabeth Boatright-Simon told CNN there is no record of Pearl's complaint to campus police but said the university plans to meet with him. Wiesenthal Center officials cited another incident three weeks ago at San Jose State University where the consul general of Israel was verbally abused and forcibly driven from the stage during a guest-speaking engagement aimed at fostering understanding of Jewish culture. The diplomat, Akiva Tor, had to be escorted out of the room by security officers and campus police before the event ended, according to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center and Michelle Salinsky, president of Spartans for Israel, the group which co-sponsored the speaking event. \"We were extremely concerned about our safety and Mr. Tor's safety,\" said Salinsky, a senior majoring in political science. \"Mr. Tor said he's never felt more disrespected. This was clearly an infringement of our expression of free speech. I think a lot of Jewish students do not feel safe on campuses because of the escalation of hate perpetrated against Jews.\" San Jose State University spokeswoman Pat Harris told CNN the sponsors of the event were responsible for moderating the speaking forum but maintained that officers and security personnel acted appropriately. In a statement, the university president Jon Whitmore defended the university's policies but expressed concern about the event. \"Our campus places high value on the free exchange of ideas in a manner that is inclusive and respectful of differing views,\" the statement read. \"At a recent campus event, numerous members of the audience with views differing from the invited speaker were so vocal in their expression of opposition and so uncooperative with the moderator's requests for orderly means of handling questions and answers that they disrupted the event and did not allow the speaker to respond to posed questions. The university fully endorses the free expression of ideas and opinion, but does not condone behavior and methods of expression that disrupt free and orderly discussion.\" As part of an effort to promote tolerance, the Wiesenthal Center announced plans to unveil a public service campaign next month which will be distributed online at Columbia University, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, San Jose State University and the University of Chicago, among other campuses. \"There are a lot of Jewish kids in California and elsewhere who are beginning to look elsewhere and saying maybe the UC system is not a user friendly place to go and we can't accept that,\" said Cooper.","highlights":"Judea Pearl says anti-Semitism on rise since January's Gaza conflict .\nPearl's son, Daniel Pearl, was killed in 2002 by al Qaeda extremists .\nPearl claims he received a threat, but UCLA police did nothing .\nUCLA spokesman says there is no record of Pearl's complaint .","id":"3447caeafb093d967917149ac86e9ee558b018e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police on Saturday arrested a registered sex offender suspected of luring a 15-year-old girl on Myspace.com, authorities said. William Joe Mitchell, a registered sex offender, is suspected of luring a 15-year-old girl online. William Joe Mitchell was apprehended at a \"The Flying J Truck Stop\" just outside of Winchester, Virginia, authorities said. Virginia State Police arrested him without incident. Detectives received a tip Saturday that he was at the truck stop, located off Interstate 81, according to the Polk County sheriff's department. Personal items belonging to the teenager were found in his car, according to the sheriff's statement. Mitchell had allegedly been communicating with Alyssa Frank on the popular Web site Myspace.com, officials said. Mitchell, 46, told Frank he was 24 years old, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told CNN. Virginia and Polk County, Florida, authorities and the U.S. Marshals Service in Tampa, Florida, were working together on the case. Polk County Sheriff's detectives found Frank earlier this week, one day after she disappeared. She was found wandering around a Wal-Mart store in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and had apparently been abandoned by her alleged abductor. A store employee called police after noticing the girl. Mitchell took Frank to the store in an apparent attempt to \"dump her,\" Judd said. Mitchell, in leaving the girl, told her not to draw attention to herself or he would kill her, Judd said in a statement. Frank is believed to have left her house in Bartow, Florida, before dawn Monday to rendezvous with Mitchell, Judd said. He then apparently took her to Alabama. Mitchell brought her back to DeFuniak Springs, which is between Pensacola and Tallahassee on the Florida Panhandle. Polk County authorities said Mitchell faces charges including solicitation to commit a lewd act; enticing a child via the Internet; interference with custody; and traveling to meet a minor. He also is sought on warrants from Jacksonville, Florida, and Alabama, said Polk County sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Wood. The teen's father, Rodger Frank, told CNN Saturday he had no idea his daughter had been communicating with Mitchell. He urged parents to talk to their kids about what they are doing online. \"We've had serious talks about [not putting] information of your own out there to the people,\" he said. \"The Internet is for information. It's not a playground.\" Frank said he is installing spy software on his computer to help him monitor what his daughter is doing. \"We think our children are well-behaved,\" he said. \"We have to watch them harder. We don't know everything.\" Speaking with Rodger Frank, Judd warned others who are trying to take advantage of young people. \"We'll hunt you down like the felon and criminal you are,\" he said. \"You keep your hands off our children.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police arrest registered sex offender William Joe Mitchell at Virginia truck stop .\nMitchell suspected of luring teen girl on Myspace.com .\nGirl found in Wal-Mart parking lot earlier this week, after alleged abduction .\nGirl left house in middle of night to meet up with Mitchell, sheriff said .","id":"6cacd5daf1681c98f9af78d03f328a6435c2c70e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Dutch-based finance and insurance group ING is cutting up to 7,000 staff in an effort to help save $1.4 billion. The Dutch financial giant ING is cutting up to 7,000 jobs this year in an effort to save $1.4 billion. It also announced Monday that CEO, Michel Tilmant, was stepping down. Tilmant will continue to serve ING as an adviser until his retirement in August, ING said in a statement. His designated replacement is Jan Hommen, currently chairman of ING's supervisory board. Shareholders must still approve Hommen's transition to CEO. In October, the Dutch government injected $13.4 billion into ING to shore the company caught in the global financial crisis.","highlights":"Dutch-based finance and insurance group ING is cutting up to 7,000 staff .\nMove part of effort to help save $1.4 billion over the next year .\nIt also announced Monday that CEO, Michel Tilmant, was stepping down.","id":"f126bb4a13adb713f6cec5dbefb9ad05a8fd8084"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 31-year-old Ecuadorean man who was beaten last Sunday in what New York City authorities say may have been a hate crime has died at a Queens hospital, his brother said Saturday. Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten after leaving a party at a Catholic church. Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother, Romel, had left a party on December 7 at St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church when several men approached them in a car in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, police said. The men allegedly began shouting anti-gay and anti-Latino vulgarities at the two men. Jose Sucuzhanay suffered severe head trauma and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital. He died Friday night from his injuries. Romel Sucuzhanay, 38, escaped with minor scrapes and has talked with detectives on the case. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she was \"horrified to learn that anti-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) and anti-Latino slurs were used by one or more of the assailants, raising this event to the level of a hate crime.\" Watch how attack has outraged the Latino community \u00bb . Quinn said she was in touch with the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force. According to police, however, the attack has not been categorized as a hate crime. \"This is a wake-up call and shows how far we still must come to address the devastating problem of hate crimes in our communities,\" said Diego Sucuzhanay, Jose's brother, in a written statement. \"Only by exposing these crimes and working together will we be able to make a difference.\" No arrests have been made in the case. Police are offering a $22,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the attack. Sucuzhanay's mother arrived Saturday in New York from the family's home outside Quito, Ecuador, only to learn that he son had died, said family spokesman Francisco Moya. He said the victim had lived in the United States for more than a decade and was a legal resident, working as a real estate broker. A news conference is expected to be held Sunday afternoon.","highlights":"Immigrant dies from injuries sustained in possible bias attack .\nJose Sucuzhanay, brother assaulted by group of men after leaving party .\nGroup allegedly yelled anti-gay, anti-Latino vulgarities at men .\nMother learned of son's death shortly after arriving from Ecuador .","id":"cf33bfc5f71f300edb6fbd30a8b6fad12daccfd2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The number of homicides in New York City rose about four percent in 2008 compared with the previous year, preliminary figures from the city's police department showed. There were 516 homicides in New York City in 2008, according to preliminary police figures. The NYPD's CompStat data showed 516 homicides in the city last year, up from 496 in 2007. That's still a dramatic change from 1990, when 2,262 homicides earned New York the title of \"murder capital\" of the nation. Though the figures are subject to change, the 2008 tally also represents a drop from the 596 homicides investigated in New York in 2006. The NYPD, which began compiling the report in 1963, cited its Operation Impact as a chief reason for the improvement in recent years. The operation places more uniformed officers in concentrated areas where crime rates are high, the NYPD said.","highlights":"There were 516 homicides in the city last year, up from 496 in 2007 .\nThat's still a dramatic change from 1990, when there were 2,262 homicides .\nThe NYPD cites its Operation Impact as a chief reason for the improvement .\nThe operation places more uniformed officers in areas where crime rates are high .","id":"4ab13b5bec86e8136bb3909a89da001a664da7f8"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- It's probably good that I'm not rich. Money, it seems to me, sends people in one of three directions: . Lisa Kogan cites the increase in intelligent, witty, creative women as a reason she can be cheerful. It accelerates an innate inclination to be generous, or it accelerates a kamikaze inclination to party with the Olsen twins, or it sucks away your sense of purpose and produces a desperate need to eat nothing but those little white cheddar Cheez-It crackers while staring blankly at an endless cycle of \"Will & Grace\" reruns. I like to think that if I were rich, I'd be the kind of person who looks at the world and decides to fund cancer research and build schools and feed the hungry, and save whoever needs saving, but there's an excellent chance I'd be the kind of person who looks at the world and decides never to get out of bed again. In fact, despite my very real (and utterly inconvenient) need to earn a living, I'm still the kind of person who leans toward the whole Cheez-It thing. To begin with, I have a slight tendency toward depression (think Sylvia Plath listening to a freshly downloaded acoustic set from Leonard Cohen). And when this particular brain chemistry is confronted with the incredibly unsettling knowledge that people no longer work like dogs to get ahead, they work like dogs just to stay where they are, well, a girl starts needing a few good reasons to get up, put on a little lipstick, and venture out. But it's no secret that it's not pretty out there. Food prices are soaring, the housing market is plummeting, the middle class is disappearing, the climate is changing, and Madonna is touring. This is all the more reason to keep a soothing thought or two close at hand. Someday soon, I promise, we can sit down together and come up with a breathtaking bucket list that finally commits us to skydiving with Morgan Freeman just as we've secretly prayed we would, but today I'm offering a different kind of list. Oprah.com: How you (yes, you!) should live your life . Good reasons to put on a little lipstick and venture out (or at least put on clean pajamas and raise your window shade a couple of inches): . \u2022 Junior high is just one long daisy chain of nonstop mean, and you have officially survived it. That's right, my friend, you may have to face locusts, drought, and World War III, but you can now go forth secure in the understanding that seventh grade is over. You get to wake up each and every morning without worrying that Arleen Posner got the same Frye boots as you. You will never have to read \"Beowulf,\" be groped by a 13-year-old reeking of his father's Aqua Velva, or feather your bangs again. The enormity of this revelation must not be underestimated. \u2022 Javier Bardem walks among us. \u2022 My delightfully decadent friend Stephen Whitlock recently discovered a recipe for bacon ice cream (DavidLebovitz.com), and get this -- the first step involves candying the bacon! Let's all take a moment of hushed reverence to contemplate this. Oprah.com: Five friends every woman should have . First came the polio vaccine, then Neil Armstrong made a giant leap for mankind, and today we actually have the technology to combine pork fat with butter fat, salty with sweet, crunchy with creamy. I firmly believe that what chicken soup does for the common cold, bacon ice cream will one day do for the premenstrual woman. \u2022 One word: Spanx. We can now have our scoop of bacon ice cream and wear a clingy Diane Von Furstenberg jersey wrap dress too. \u2022 Intelligent, witty, creative women appear to be on the rise. I like men. I like men so much that I even had a baby with one of 'em, but the baby is now 5, and it's nice to be able to show her some brilliantly talented females -- Rachel Maddow (MSNBC host), Mindy Kaling (playwright, producer, actress, \"The Office\"), Janice Lee (her debut novel, \"The Piano Teacher\", hits stores in January, and it's an absolute knockout) -- who are very good at what they do. As role models go, Dora the Explorer only takes a mom so far. Besides, check out Dora's expressionless little brow -- I'm pretty sure it's coursing with Botox. \u2022 Ordinarily, I would not include houseguests on my list of bright spots, but Mabel, the dog I am currently babysitting, is causing me to rethink my position. Mabel suffers from a chronic greeting disorder that manifests itself as follows: I leave the room for 10, maybe 12 seconds. Upon reentry, Mabel welcomes me with a level of enthusiasm usually reserved for soldiers returning from three years in a POW camp -- a one-dog mariachi band of pure, unmitigated joy. Unless my boyfriend and our daughter sense that I'm carrying a pizza, my return from nine or 10 hours at the office rarely merits more than a mumbled \"They never came to fix the dishwasher.\" There's something to be said for a bit of good old-fashioned, uncomplicated affection, even when it comes from a shedding, slightly incontinent 14-year-old beagle. \u2022 Tony Soprano is either dead or eating onion rings, but Don Draper is alive and mesmerizing every week on \"Mad Men.\" \u2022 You know those little stain remover pens that everybody keeps in their bags and desk drawers? I couldn't care less about them. Life is inherently messy, and I accept the odd spot of cranberry juice as part of God's great plan for me and the vast majority of my T-shirts. But the other night at our local diner when Julia accidentally catapulted her chocolate milk shake across our booth, there was my pal Valerie, dry cleaner's pen, ice water, and paper napkins at the ready. Val is just one of those intuitive, insightful, ironic, wildly generous, deeply adorable women who, despite working two jobs, is quietly, unequivocally there for the people she loves. If you need a complex carbohydrate, she's got the whole grain pasta salad. If you need a sock puppet, she's got the glue gun. If you need a boost, she's got the ceramic vase brimming with sunflowers. The woman once went on vacation, and I was absolutely bereft. Two weeks without Valerie Soll feels like a house without books. You see, Javier Bardem, bacon ice cream, and all the mad men in the world don't change the hard truth that plans frequently fail and dreams have been known to dim. But come the morning, there are your friends offering sweet salvation and good gossip and the occasional glass of Sauvignon Blanc with lunch. If ever there was a reason for hope, I think maybe that's it. By Lisa Kogan from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" November 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Columnist shares a few excellent reasons to venture out in the world .\nReason one: You survived junior high, \"Beowulf,\" feathering your bangs .\nReason three: Friend invented bacon ice cream .\nReason seven: Don Draper is mesmerizing every week on \"Mad Men\"","id":"a187209d7645822575d12a2025f48f548f921818"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter and dumping her body in Texas' Galveston Bay went on trial Tuesday on capital murder charges in the child's death, court officials said. Kimberly Dawn Trenor has pleaded guilty to an evidence-tampering charge, her attorney says. Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 20, pleaded guilty last week to tampering with evidence in the case, but she pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge, said her attorney, Tom Stickler. Trenor's husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 25, also faces capital murder and evidence-tampering charges, but is being tried separately and has not been arraigned. The body of Trenor's daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers, was found in October 2007 in a large plastic blue container on an uninhabited island in Galveston Bay. Jurors in Trenor's trial also will determine her sentence on the evidence-tampering charge, which carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison, according to The Houston Chronicle. Riley Ann's case drew national attention after a fisherman found her body. Authorities were unsure of her identity, and police dubbed her \"Baby Grace.\" After authorities distributed composite sketches of the girl nationwide, Sheryl Sawyers, the girl's paternal grandmother, contacted police from her Ohio home to say the drawing resembled her granddaughter. DNA testing confirmed the child's identity. According to an affidavit, Trenor told police Riley had been beaten and thrown across a room and that her head was held under water before she died on July 24, 2007. She said the couple hid the girl's body in a storage shed for one to two months before they put it in the plastic container and dumped it into the bay. The disposal of the girl's body led to the evidence-tampering charge. A medical examiner said Riley's skull was fractured in three places, injuries that would have been fatal. A capital murder charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, the Chronicle reported. A cross has since been erected on the island where the toddler was found, which was named Riley's Island in her honor, according to the Houston newspaper. Trenor and the girl moved to Texas from Ohio in May 2007 to be with Zeigler, whom Trenor had met on the Internet. While in custody, Trenor gave birth this summer to another child, who is now in the care of relatives, her attorney, Tom Stickler, said.","highlights":"Kimberly Dawn Trenor accused of killing her 2-year-old known as \"Baby Grace\"\nChild's body was found in plastic container on island in Texas' Galveston Bay .\nTrenor could receive sentence of life in prison if convicted .","id":"c98cc500690d8e285e48badd83fe04c0bd706621"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former hospital worker systematically shot and killed four people in upstate New York on Saturday, authorities in two counties said. Former hospital worker Frank Garcia, 34, has been accused in the shooting rampage. Frank Garcia, 34, was arrested Saturday afternoon. Garcia knew all four victims, police said, but they didn't reveal details about the relationships. \"The individuals who were shot were known to the suspect. It was not necessarily a random act,\" Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said. The first two victims -- Mary Sillman, 23, and Randall Norman, 41 -- were fatally shot before 5 a.m. at Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport, where Garcia was once employed, O'Flynn said. Another woman was wounded and is undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital, he said. The second shooting happened at a house in nearby Ontario County on Saturday afternoon. Christopher Glatz, 45, and his wife, Kim, 38, were killed \"execution-style\" while their two teenagers were in the suburban Rochester home, Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero said. The teens were not wounded, but it is unclear whether they witnessed the event. Povero said neighbors reported Garcia went door-to-door looking for the Glatzes' home. \"He was in fact looking for the residence,\" Povero said. \"He was saying different things to different people, but he was clearly looking for that home.\" Ballistic evidence has connected the two crime scenes, Povero said. Investigators found the matching brass cartridges from a pistol found on Garcia when he was arrested, he said. Garcia was arrested at a restaurant Saturday afternoon, CNN affiliate R-News in Rochester reported. Garcia was to be arraigned Saturday night in Monroe County, where the first shootings occurred, on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the second degree, O'Flynn said. Sillman was a certified nursing assistant at Lakeside's long-term care center, hospital officials said. \"During Mary's brief time within the system, those who worked closest with Mary described her as warm, kind and compassionate toward the residents of Lakeside Beikirch Care Center,\" Lakeside interim CEO Michael Stapleton said in a statement. Garcia likely will face similar charges in Ontario County, Povero said. \"This certainly speaks to a tragedy that is enormous, not only the taking of the lives that were taken, but the people that were left behind, the person in Brockport and the two teenage children who were present when their mother was systematically murdered,\" Povero said.","highlights":"Suspect went door-to-door in search of victims' residence, authorities say .\nChristopher Glatz, 45, and wife Kim, 38, were shot \"execution-style\" in home .\nThe couple's teenage children at suburban Rochester home but were not injured .\nMary Sillman, 23, and Randall Norman, 41, shot at a hospital earlier Saturday .","id":"d99e0018c847ddac253d3cf84200eec048e2a9b2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the main stumbling blocks to talk with Iran has been the condition that Iran suspends its uranium enrichment. Now, the Obama administration may take that option off the table, at least for now. This is from an Iranian nuclear plant in the central province of Isfahan on April 9. The United States and its European allies, which have just invited Iran to a fresh round of nuclear talks, are coming to the realization that if Iran's nuclear program isn't quite at the point of no return, it will be soon. With 5,500 centrifuges, roughly enough for about two weapons worth of uranium a year, Iran isn't going to just shut down its enrichment facility as a goodwill gesture. For years, Iran has been willing to endure sanctions and economic isolation. What it hasn't been willing to do is suspend enrichment. Iran maintains enriching uranium for nuclear energy is its right. Now the West seems to have come around to Iran's way of thinking. Last week during a speech on proliferation in Prague, Czech Republic, President Obama admitted as much when he said, \"We will support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections.\" The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has long argued to allow Iran to maintain a small face-saving nuclear enrichment program under the guise of \"research and development.\" Allowing such a program under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, at least while negotiations continue, would involve strict IAEA inspections -- something which may give the international community the kind of insight into Iran's nuclear program which it has long sought. It would also give Iran the cover to come back to the table without claiming it never gave in to the West. Rather, Tehran can boast the international community came around to its point of view. Preventing Iranian enrichment may be an ultimate pipe dream, but officials hope the right package of incentives, coupled with the threat of tougher sanctions, which could cripple its stumbling economy, could deter Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb. If adopted, the new strategy will undoubtedly be condemned by Israel, which has warned the U.S. that it has until the end of the year to put an end to Iran's uranium production before it takes matters into its own hands. However, moving beyond the issue of enrichment helps Obama inch closer toward engagement with Iran, something he promised during the campaign and has begun to undertake with small, albeit significant, steps, most noticeably his New Year's message to the Iranian people. Those who watch Iran closely say Obama's outreach is being warmly received in the region. While the response from spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamanei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems vague at first glance, experts argue the regime is being quite conciliatory, even flirting with the U.S. overtures and opening the door for talks. Now the administration is taking another leap, inviting Iran to several meetings on Afghanistan as a way to engage on issues of mutual interest. The U.S. is also seriously considering allowing U.S. diplomats around the world to interact with their Iranian counterparts and setting up a U.S. interests section in Iran. Officials say not to expect any dramatic breakthroughs before the Iranians head to the polls to elect a new president in June. But Obama's conservative critics, including several Republican lawmakers, worry Obama is making it too easy for Iran to come back to the table and is giving credibility to Iran's defiant Ahmadinejad in his bid for re-election. The goal of stopping Iran from building a nuclear weapon remains, but the tactics are shifting and the rules of the game have changed. Obama and his advisers are betting that by finally giving Iran what it thinks it wants, the U.S. and its allies will get what they need -- a way to bring Iran to the table and start meaningful negotiations, which have eluded them for the past four years.","highlights":"White House may drop key condition that Iran suspend its nuclear program .\nObama administration hopes change will bring Iran to negotiation table .\nObama says he supports Iran's nuclear program \"with rigorous inspections\"\nIsrael wants U.S. to force Iran to end its uranium production program .","id":"eeb352ccc0104358ad9185b31631246e76257b34"} -{"article":"MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (CNN) -- Since the beginning of the year the family clinic at the Children's Hospital of New Jersey has seen an influx of young children coming in for flu shots. New Jersey requires children from 6 months to 5 years old to get the flu vaccine to attend daycare or pre-school. The rush for vaccinations is prompted by a new law that makes New Jersey the only state requiring children between 6 months and 5 years old to get the flu vaccine to attend a licensed daycare or pre-school. The deadline for the flu shot requirement was December 31. Some parents are upset about the requirement. John General and Alnisa Bernabela brought their 4-year-old twins Jahmein and Jameir to the clinic last week for the flu shots. \"I'm really not okay with it because I think it should have been my choice,\" said Bernabela. \"By them forcing this, I feel like our rights have been violated,\" said General, holding his crying son Jameir being vaccinated. Last fall, hundreds of parents with the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice challenged the flu shot requirement at a rally in Trenton, New Jersey. The NJCVC and parents interviewed by CNN, expressed concern about the safety of influenza vaccines and possible long-term effects on young children. But the New Jersey Department of Health says the new law is for the public good citing Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention numbers showing an average of 20,000 children under age 5 are hospitalized nationwide each year because of influenza complications. \"Parents are certainly concerned about the health and safety of their children,\" says Dr. Christina Tan, state epidemiologist for the New Jersey Department of Health. \"But it's equally important to understand that the flu vaccine is safe and effective in preventing illness, not only in children, but also among the community as a whole.\" Many doctors support the decision, saying it helps protect a higher risk population. Some parents object to mandatory vaccines \u00bb . \"Kids under the age of 5 are targeted by this recommendation because when they get the disease they get sicker than adults do. They also are the ones who are more likely to transmit the flu because they are in closed quarters,\" said Dr. Nwando Anyaoku, who heads the clinic at the Children's Hospital of New Jersey. She says influenza tends to peak in New Jersey towards the end of January through early February. Jennifer Frank says she's committed to the public health goal but not on the state's schedule. Her 2-year-old son Caleb was hospitalized twice for extreme eczema as an infant. At one point, he was on a feeding tube, and she says he couldn't get vaccinated. \"There was literally no clear space to put a needle,\" says Jennifer Frank. Caleb's doctors were stumped and couldn't make a diagnosis for his condition. Since then, the Franks with their pediatrician's approval, have Caleb on a delayed vaccination schedule. As a result, they didn't meet the state's December 31 flu shot deadline and now their local board of health has banned Caleb from pre-school. \"When he gets his shots, that same rash flares up,\" says Joshua Frank, the father of Caleb. \"You know, it's frightening. It's very real. And for them to say, 'Well, we don't care, even though your doctors agree with you,' is outrageous.\" The Franks have appealed the local board of health's decision all the way to the state level, but officials have not wavered. While New Jersey does offer medical exemptions for some children, the rules are specific, and eczema is not considered a valid medical reason for delaying the flu vaccine. \"By allowing broader exemptions this could potentially erode the very core of protection,\" says Tan. But the Franks believe the new law should include an appeal procedure, especially for families like theirs that are willing to vaccinate their children. New Jersey Republican Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk has been working on legislation to allow parents to decide which vaccines they want their child to receive. \"The bill gives conscientious objection so that people can opt out of certain vaccines. Maybe they want some vaccines and not others and this would give them the right to do that,\" said Vandervalk. For now, though, Caleb must remain out of school. He's confused as to why he can't return. \"He doesn't understand what's going on,\" says Jennifer Frank. \"It's been hard to explain it to him.\" The New Jersey Department of Health says it won't immediately know what kind of effect the new flu shot requirement will have on the state's population. \"As far as trying to identify whether there's actually a drop in disease incidence in the community, that's going to be a longer term type of evaluation that we're starting to look at,\" says Tan. American Morning correspondent Alina Cho contributed to this report .","highlights":"New Jersey requires flu vaccine for children to attend daycare, pre-school .\nSome parents oppose new law; believe it should be their choice to vaccinate kids .\nFlu vaccine is safe; many doctors believe law protects a higher-risk population .","id":"a4dc64d4e5835f95e5a8b434dcf01dcfa9df0db5"} -{"article":"SAMSON, Alabama (CNN) -- \"Get home now.\" Sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers' wife and toddler daughter were killed; his son and baby daughter survived. Geneva County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers quickly hung up the phone after he got his friend's message on Tuesday and started for the town of Samson, having no idea what had happened to his wife or his three children. Then, another urgent message: . \"We got notified on the radio that a trooper was chasing a suspect that had fired shots,\" Myers told reporters on Wednesday. Instead of heading home, the deputy drove to Reliable Metal Products plant in the nearby town of Geneva, where he engaged in a shoot-out with the suspect, who then entered the building and shot and killed himself. Myers had no idea that 30 minutes earlier, the suspect had shot and killed his wife and 1\u00bd-year-old daughter, Corinne Gracy, and shot and wounded his 3-month-old baby girl, Ella Kay. They were victims of the bloodiest rampage in Alabama's history, carried out by Michael McLendon, who killed 10 people before turning one of his guns on himself. A family friend found the couple's 4-year-old son hiding in the Myers' home after the shooting. Watch Josh Myers tell his story: \"I need help\" \u00bb . \"He was present when it happened,\" Myers said. \"He knows something's wrong. He asked where mama was, and I had to tell him she was with Jesus. This is going to take a long time to work through it.\" Andrea Myers, 31, was holding Ella Kay and talking with her neighbors on their porch across the street when the gunman -- identified by police as Michael McLendon -- opened fire. The neighbors turned out to be McLendon's relatives, although it was unclear why he targeted them. He said his neighbor Alina Knowles saved his wounded daughter's life. iReport.com: Officials investigate . \"She ran up on the porch and got my baby girl and took her to safety,\" Myers said. Knowles said she scooped up Myers' crying 3-month-old daughter and ducked behind a minivan as McLendon cruised down an adjacent street, still firing at people. Read Knowles' full account . The 10 people McLendon killed before he shot himself to death included his mother, grandmother, other relatives and strangers. Ella Kay, who was shot in the leg, will have surgery on Wednesday at a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, to remove the bullet or shrapnel that is near her femoral artery, Myers said. A day after Tuesday's shootings, Myers stood in front of his home, across the street from the house where his family was killed, and spoke to reporters. Watch report on Alabama rampage \u00bb . \"It's supposed to be me out here getting shot, not my family,\" Myers said, speaking barely above a whisper. \"I'd step out on the street any day and take a bullet for anybody in this community. Anybody. I take that risk when I go to work every day, I take that risk when I'm off. \"Nobody's family should have this done,\" he added, holding pictures of his wife and daughters.","highlights":"Deputy sees body of Alabama gunman having no idea what awaited him at home .\nJosh Myers had responded to report trooper was chasing shooter .\nGunman killed Josh Myers' wife and 18-month-old daughter on their porch .\nPolice say Michael McLendon killed 10 people that day in southern Alabama .","id":"4b7c3182db7eeb59743539dba88e656d7210c1a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For years after his NFL career ended, Ted Johnson could barely muster the energy to leave his house. In healthy brain tissue, virtually no protein tangles, which show up as brown spots, are visible. \"I'd [leave to] go see my kids for maybe 15 minutes,\" said Johnson. \"Then I would go back home and close the curtains, turn the lights off and I'd stay in bed. That was my routine for two years. \"Those were bad days.\" These days, the former linebacker is less likely to recount the hundreds of tackles, scores of quarterback sacks or the three Super Bowl rings he earned as a linebacker for the New England Patriots. He is more likely to talk about suffering more than 100 concussions. \"I can definitely point to 2002 when I got back-to-back concussions. That's where the problems started,\" said Johnson, who retired after those two concussions. \"The depression, the sleep disorders and the mental fatigue.\" Until recently, the best medical definition for concussion was a jarring blow to the head that temporarily stunned the senses, occasionally leading to unconsciousness. It has been considered an invisible injury, impossible to test -- no MRI, no CT scan can detect it. Watch more on what goes on in athlete's brains \u00bb . But today, using tissue from retired NFL athletes culled posthumously, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE), at the Boston University School of Medicine, is shedding light on what concussions look like in the brain. The findings are stunning. Far from innocuous, invisible injuries, concussions confer tremendous brain damage. That damage has a name: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). On Tuesday afternoon, researchers at the CSTE released a study about the sixth documented case of CTE in former NFL player Tom McHale, who died in 2008 at the age of 45, and the youngest case to date, an 18-year-old multi-sport athlete who suffered multiple concussions. While CTE in an ex-NFL player's brain may have been expected, the beginnings of brain damage in an 18-year-old brain was a \"shocking\" finding, according to Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, and co-director of the CSTE. \"We think this is how chronic traumatic encephalopathy starts,\" said McKee. \"This is speculation, but I think we can assume that this would have continued to expand.\" CTE has thus far been found in the brains of six out of six former NFL players. \"What's been surprising is that it's so extensive,\" said McKee. \"It's throughout the brain, not just on the superficial aspects of the brain, but it's deep inside.\" CSTE studies reveal brown tangles flecked throughout the brain tissue of former NFL players who died young -- some as early as their 30s or 40s. McKee, who also studies Alzheimer's disease, says the tangles closely resemble what might be found in the brain of an 80-year-old with dementia. \"I knew what traumatic brain disease looked like in the very end stages, in the most severe cases,\" said McKee. \"To see the kind of changes we're seeing in 45-year-olds is basically unheard of.\" The damage affects the parts of the brain that control emotion, rage, hypersexuality, even breathing, and recent studies find that CTE is a progressive disease that eventually kills brain cells. Chris Nowinski knows well the impact of concussions. He was a football star at Harvard before wrestling professionally with World Wrestling Entertainment. In one moment, his dreams of a long career wrestling were dashed by a kick to his chin. That kick, which caused Nowinski to black out and effectively ended his career, capped a career riddled with concussions. \"My world changed,\" said Nowinski. \"I had depression. I had memory problems. My head hurt for five years.\" Nowinski began searching for studies, and what he found startled him. \"I realized when I was visiting a lot of doctors, they weren't giving me very good answers about what was wrong with my head,\" said Nowinski. \"I read [every study I could find] and I realized there was a ton of evidence showing concussions lead to depression, and multiple concussion can lead to Alzheimer's.\" Nowinski decided further study was needed, so he founded the Sports Legacy Institute along with Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and the co-director of the CSTE. The project solicits for study the brains of ex-athletes who suffered multiple concussions. Once a family agrees to donate the brain, it is delivered to scientists at the CSTE to look for signs of damage. So far, the evidence of CTE is compelling. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, along with other research institutions, has now identified traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of late NFL football players John Grimsley, Mike Webster, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk and Terry Long, in addition to McHale. Grimsley died of an accidental gunshot wound to the chest. Webster, Long and Strzelczyk all died after long bouts of depression, while Waters committed suicide in 2006 at age 44. McHale was found dead last year of an apparent drug overdose. \"Guys were dying,\" said Nowinski. \"The fact of the matter was guys were dying because they played sports 10 or 20 years before.\" So far, around 100 athletes have consented to have their brains studied after they die. Ted Johnson was one of the first to sign up. He said he believes that concussions he suffered while playing football explain the anger, depression and throbbing headaches that occasionally still plague him. Johnson said he played through concussions because he, like many other NFL athletes, did not understand the consequences. He has publicly criticized the NFL for not protecting players like him. \"They don't want you to know,\" said Johnson. \"It's not like when you get into the NFL there's a handout that says 'These are the effects of multiple concussions so beware.' \" In a statement, the NFL indicated that their staffs take a cautious, conservative approach to managing concussions. While they support research into the impact of concussions, they maintain that, \"Hundreds of thousands of people have played football and other sports without experiencing any problem of this type and there continues to be considerable debate within the medical community on the precise long-term effects of concussions and how they relate to other risk factors.\" The NFL is planning its own independent medical study of retired NFL players on the long-term effects of concussion. \"Really my main reason even for talking about this is to help the guys who are already retired,\" said Johnson. \"[They] are getting divorced, going bankrupt, can't work, are depressed, and don't know what's wrong with them. [It is] to give them a name for it so they can go get help.\" \"The idea that you can whack your head hundreds of times in your life and knock yourself out and get up and be fine is gone,\" said Nowinski. \"We know we can't do that anymore. This causes long-term damage.\"","highlights":"NEW: Researchers find start of brain damage in 18-year old athlete who died .\nNEW: Same type of brain damage found in sixth dead NFL player .\nDamage from repeated concussions is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy .\nSymptoms can include depression, sleep disorders, headaches .","id":"8b1f3fc296e18e2207cdb9ea725e3431421646bc"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- The lawyer for the main suspect in last year's deadly terrorist attack in Mumbai was removed Wednesday, delaying the high-profile trial that was set to begin. Soldiers patrol in Mumbai on the eve of the trial of a key suspect in last year's attacks in the Indian city. The trial start for Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, is expected to be moved to Thursday as officials scramble to settle the lawyer issue. Kasab is thought to be the only one of 10 gunmen to survive the three-day siege, which killed more than 160 people in November. As the trial was to begin, the judge removed attorney Anjali Waghmare because she also was representing a witness in the case. Waghmare argued that she had no idea that the person was a witness in the terror case, and she was representing this person in a different case. But the judge declared that it was a conflict of interest. An Indian court appointed Waghmare two weeks ago to represent Kasab, and it was unclear who would replace her. Kasab demanded that his attorney be replaced with a Pakistani lawyer. But the judge denied that request and said that a Pakistani lawyer may be able to be brought in as a consultant from outside the courtroom. Kasab, a Pakistani national, faces more than a dozen charges, including murder, conspiracy to wage a war against the nation and terrorism. During the proceedings Wednesday Kasab seemed relaxed and smiled many time at the large crowd of journalists in the courtroom. Kasab also requested newspapers to be brought in so that he could see what the media was writing about him. Prosecutors last month accused him of trying to delay the trial by insisting that the 11,000-page document detailing the charges against him -- which was written in English and the local Marathi language -- be translated into Urdu, the official language of Pakistan. The court rejected his request. Wednesday's trial was to take place in a makeshift court set up in a jail where Kasab -- who has been communicating with the judge via videolink -- is being held. Indian authorities have long blamed the Mumbai attacks on Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based militant outfit, but the group has denied responsibility. The violence initially heightened tensions between the two nuclear states. India has urged Pakistan to destroy what it calls terrorist infrastructure in that country. The two nations are longtime rivals that have fought three wars since their independence from the British, and conducted countering nuclear weapons tests in 1998. CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"Main suspect's lawyer removed as she represents a witness in the case .\nTrial was to start Wednesday, unclear when court proceedings will resume .\nMohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, is accused of being the only gunmen to survive siege .\nThe November siege targeted victims at Mumbai hotels, hospitals, railway stations .","id":"e1db70731bb05173d447b116cce6cfea6c9b4aaa"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose forthcoming book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says Navy SEALs demonstrate an extraordinary devotion to duty. (CNN) -- There is a beach in Coronado, California, just across the bridge from San Diego. It offers a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean, which is why it attracts tourists who are drawn to the sun. I thought about that beach yesterday, when the news from the Indian Ocean near the Horn of Africa was flashed around the world -- the news that the captain of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama had been rescued from Somali pirates by U.S. forces operating off the USS Bainbridge. That beach in California seems quite placid, even sedate. The historic, red-gabled Hotel del Coronado sits upon it -- the place where the Marilyn Monroe-Jack Lemmon-Tony Curtis movie \"Some Like It Hot\" was filmed. The feeling of the place is one of genteel manners, of delicate tradition. You almost expect to see guests carrying parasols and making reservations to play croquet. But down the beach there is another kind of tradition. That's what I was thinking about on Sunday. When I have stayed on Coronado, I walk down that beach toward the Naval Amphibious Base. I remember a makeshift fence separating the beach from the far reaches of the base. But it was easy to walk around, and no one appeared to take it especially seriously. I haven't been back since September 11, 2001; I would be very surprised if the barriers aren't more formidable now. On that part of the beach, on the outskirts of Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, I saw Navy SEALs in training. Here, the Navy winnows the men who would be SEALs from the ones who fall short. It was a humbling thing to witness. As the Navy itself puts it, SEAL training is like few other competitions: . \"Prospective SEALs go through what is considered by many military experts to be the toughest training in the world. ... The most important trait that distinguishes Navy SEALs from all other military forces is that SEALs are Maritime Special Forces, as they strike from and return to the sea. SEALs (Sea, Air, Land) take their name from the elements in and from which they operate. Their stealth and clandestine methods of operation allow them to conduct multiple missions against targets that larger forces cannot approach undetected.\" They looked so young, those prospective SEALs on Coronado beach. The maximum age to apply to be a SEAL is 28. They all know what they're getting into when they sign up, but to see their faces -- including the faces of the ones who were falling behind, who probably weren't going to make the cut, who were gasping for air on the arduous runs along the beach and having trouble during the maneuvers in the ocean -- was to see a devotion to the concept of duty on a level few of the rest of us will ever know. Maybe you, during the recent days when Capt. Richard Phillips was held captive on that lifeboat off the coast of Africa, were asking yourself who in the world could come to his rescue. Who had the training, and the courage, to carry out such a mission. We probably don't ask ourselves that kind of question often enough. Usually, military operations are talked about in the abstract, as if they're lines on a chalkboard, or brightly glowing diagrams on a computer screen. But once in a while, like now, we stop to focus on what we ask of the people who serve in our stead when the task seems all but impossible. Ronald Reagan would sometimes quote a line that summed up our wonder at those who make the choice to serve our country in this way: \"Where do we find such men?\" We find them among us, although we usually don't know it when we see it. On Coronado, on Orange Avenue, there was a bar called McP's, owned by an ex-SEAL named Greg McPartlin. Whenever I would stop in there, groups of guys from the naval base would be having a cheeseburger, maybe listening to a local acoustic band play a guitars-only version of The Beatles' \"We Can Work It Out.\" You'd sit among them, and it was easy to forget what brought them to this strip of sand. It wasn't for vacation, or relaxation. Where do we find such men? Sometimes at the next table over, listening to the music. From the Navy SEALs' creed: . \"My loyalty to country and team is beyond reproach. I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans, always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions. I voluntarily accept the inherent hazards of my profession, placing the welfare and security of others before my own. I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men. ... In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission. ... I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.\" Where do we find such men? Over the weekend, we learned the answer anew. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Navy SEALs go through training in San Diego .\nNavy says they go through what may be toughest military training in the world .\nHe says SEALs show a devotion to duty that few of us can ever attain .","id":"b631894b5b3b6b81d3028a38941e3a13a104fe00"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Piracy off the coast of Somalia can't be stopped until there is some authority to bring pirates to justice, according to the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. U.S. Vice Admiral William Gortney: Need to hold pirates off Africa's east coast accountable. Because there is no working government in Somalia and no country is willing to take captured pirates, bring them to trial and detain them, there is no deterrent for pirates to stop attacking ships, Vice Admiral William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday. \"The problem is there's not a way to -- until we have a mechanism [to hold them] accountable and try them for their actions, there's no way to -- to finish the problem,\" Gortney said. The United States is making a deal with a country in the eastern Africa region to hold and try pirates captured by the U.S.-led Combined Task Force 151, a new maritime anti-piracy mission started earlier this month. He said an official announcement would be made after the deal with the country is official. In the past three months, piracy attacks have averaged about 12 to 14 a month off the east coast of Africa. As of mid-January, the attack numbers are already at the average of the past three months, according to Gortney. \"That [number] should tell you that we're not -- we're not being 100 percent successful on the deterrence of the attempt. And that's where we have to go after,\" Gortney said. The United States is expecting other nations to join the anti-piracy task force, but at the moment, the United States is the only country in the task force with just three ships off of the waters of Somalia. There are ships from some European and Asian countries patrolling the waters independently as well, primarily guarding cargo ships from their own countries. Pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 in the waters off the coast of Somalia in 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau. See how pirate attacks peaked in 2008 \u00bb . Pirating off of Somalia has increased during the past four to five years as fishermen from Somalia realize that pirating is more lucrative than fishing. Additionally, pirates are able to get away with the crimes because of the lack of government and overall lawlessness in the country. Gortney said statistically the chances of ships being pirated off of Somalia less than one percent, but it won't be stopped until piracy is \"disincentivized.\"","highlights":"Gortney: No working Somali government, country willing to detain, try accused pirates .\nU.S. currently only nation with ships dedicated to anti-pirate task force .\nAsian, European nations have own ships independently patrolling region .","id":"0f5fce82058d1aa7b7140b6dd6e8676ba05a5fc9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British military officials on Sunday said Prince William had not breached any rules when he used a Royal Air Force helicopter to drop in at his girlfriend's house. Chinhook helicopters are normally used for transporting troops and equipment in war zones. The prince, second in line to the throne, landed a Chinook helicopter -- normally used for transporting troops -- in a field next to the home of Kate Middleton, according to the News of the World tabloid. The paper said the trip had caused fury among some in the military who saw it as a waste of time and money at a time when British forces are thinly-stretched, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defense said the maneuver was part of a planned training exercise designed to help the prince learn to fly in combat situations. \"Battlefield helicopter crews routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations,\" a statement said. \"These highly honed skills are used daily in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.\" The Ministry said that due to a shortage of landing fields available for practice, an offer to land near the Middleton house on April 3 was readily accepted. It said no one got on or off the aircraft, which spent 20 seconds on the ground. Britain's air forces have already come under criticism for allowing William, 25, to fly a Chinook to attend a bachelor party, accompanied by his brother, Prince Harry. William, a second lieutenant in the British Army, graduated as a pilot earlier this month following a detachment to the Royal Air Force. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Prince William drops in at girlfriend's house using RAF Chinook .\nMinistry of Defense says operation was standard training procedure .\nNewspaper says the landing has angered some in the military .","id":"341aaf44a18561cd561bc1004adf2818e257176e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman who was beheaded near Buffalo, New York -- allegedly by her husband -- may have been on the phone with her sister when she was killed. Muzzammil Hassan has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. Asma Firfirey of suburban Cape Town, South Africa, told the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger that she was on the phone with her sister, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, last week when she heard Hassan tell her husband to calm down. She said she heard Hassan say the two could talk about their impending divorce the following day. Then she heard something that sounded like her sister struggling to breathe, she said. \"I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died,\" Firfirey said in the interview, reported in English by South Africa's News 24. Police have charged Hassan's husband, Muzzammil Hassan, with second-degree, or intentional, murder in the death of his wife, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. Her decapitated body was found at the offices of Bridges TV, the television network where Muzzammil Hassan was chief executive officer and Aasiya Hassan was general manager. Hassan told Orchard Park police his wife was dead, led officers to her body and was arrested Thursday, said Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz on Tuesday contradicted a CNN report that quoted him as saying Hassan confessed to the crime. A Buffalo attorney told CNN on Tuesday that he expects to represent Hassan but declined further comment, saying details had not yet been worked out. Hassan came to America from Pakistan 25 years ago and became a successful banker, but he and his wife were troubled by the negative perception of Muslims, Voice of America reported in 2004. Speaking in December 2004, Hassan said his wife, then pregnant, was worried about that perception and \"felt there should be an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling really strong about their identity as an American Muslim.\" \"So she came up with the idea and turned to me and said, 'Why don't you do it?' \" he said. \"And I was like, I have no clue about television. I'm a banker. ... And her comment was, 'You have an MBA. Why don't you write a business plan?' \" Bridges TV began as a television network for Muslim-Americans, aimed at overcoming the negative stereotypes associated with the religion. \"There should be a Muslim media,\" Muzzammil Hassan told VOA, \"so that Muslim children growing up in America grow up with the self-confidence and high self-esteem about their identity both as Americans and as Muslims.\" In the past few years, according to a former employee who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, Bridges TV transformed itself into more of a cross-cultural network seeking to bridge the gap between all cultures. Most of their employees were not Muslim, the former employee said, and Muzzammil Hassan himself was not devout. Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce February 6, police said, and Muzzammil Hassan was served with divorce papers at the station. That night, he showed up at the couple's home, she notified authorities and he was served with a restraining order. Police are not commenting on details of the crime, except to say the woman's body did not appear to have been moved. They also would not divulge what Muzzammil Hassan told police or the suspected motive. The law firm representing Aasiya Hassan refused to comment, only confirming that she had filed for divorce. Benz told CNN on Tuesday that police had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's address, but no one was arrested. Firfirey, as well as a Pakistani woman identifying herself as another of Aasiya Hassan's sisters, characterized her as living in fear. Firfirey said the last time she saw her sister was in May 2008, when she visited South Africa. When she arrived, she was badly injured, and Firfirey's family paid the equivalent of about $3,000 for her to be treated, she said. Aasiya Hassan returned to America, she said, because she wanted to complete her MBA degree and \"didn't want to leave her children with that monster.\" She said she calls Muzzammil Hassan \"the fat man with evil eyes.\" Aasiya Hassan would have graduated March 6, Firfirey said. A woman in Pakistan using the name Salma Zubair posted on a blog that she is the sister of \"this brutally murdered woman.\" \"She lived her 8 years of married life with fear in heart,\" Zubair wrote. \"He had already frightened her enough that she couldn't muster up her guts and leave him, and when she finally did gather that much strength he killed her so brutally. She lived to protect her children from this man and his family and she died doing so.\" She said Aasiya Hassan \"had always been a very loving person, not even one person in this world can say a small wrong word about her ... she had always dreamed a life of a happily married family, which she did her best to achieve.\" Both women said they were worried about the couple's children, ages 4 and 6. Firfirey said they were being cared for by a colleague of the couple. Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children from a previous marriage. Members of Muzzammil Hassan's family did not return calls from CNN on Monday. The former employee told CNN that Aasiya Hassan was popular at the station and was very kind. Muzzammil Hassan was known among employees for having a temper -- he sometimes would yell at and demean his wife, but at other times appeared to be a loving husband and father, the former employee said. Bridges TV released a statement Monday saying its staff was \"deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya Hassan and the subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the families of the victim.\" Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, said Aasiya Hassan's death serves \"as a wake-up call to call of us, that violence against women is real and cannot be ignored ... the Muslim community is not exempt from this issue. We, the Muslim community, need to take a strong stand against domestic violence.\" CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"New York man charged with second-degree murder after wife found beheaded .\nPolice: Woman's decapitated body found at TV station where she, husband worked .\nReport: Sister says she may have been on phone with victim when she was killed .\nAasiya Zubair Hassan had filed for divorce from Muzzammil Hassan days earlier .","id":"82d29fc8e25cdcf1a32f09434c52303873e268c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The sole survivor of Sunday's shooting rampage in Wisconsin \"played dead\" after a sheriff's deputy shot him three times, Wisconsin's attorney general said Tuesday. Tyler Peterson, a sheriff's deputy, shot and killed six people, police said. After Tyler Peterson shot him once, Charlie Neitzel, 21, begged him to stop. But Peterson fired again. Neitzel fell to the floor, was shot a third time, and didn't move. \"Playing dead until Peterson left, Neitzel survived,\" Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. Neitzel underwent surgery Tuesday and was in stable condition Tuesday night, a hospital employee told CNN. The families of the six slain young people -- all current or former graduates of Crandon High School in Crandon, Wisconsin, asked that media leave them alone in their grief, Van Hollen told reporters. But the families of the victims also wanted it known that they had met with Peterson's family. \"They hold no animosity toward them,\" Van Hollen said, conveying the families' wishes that the Peterson family be allowed space and time to heal. On Sunday around 2 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) Peterson, a full-time Forest County Sheriff's deputy, went to a party at a home in the small town of Crandon apparently to make amends with an ex-girlfriend, a friend of Peterson's told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Peterson argued with Jordanne Murray, accusing her of dating someone else, said Van Hollen. Peterson lost control after people called him a \"worthless pig,\" Peterson's friend Mike Kegley told the paper. Peterson left the party and got a police-style AR-15 rifle from his truck, forced his way back into the apartment and fired about 30 rounds at about 2:45 a.m. (3:45 a.m. ET). Six people were killed. According to The Associated Press, investigators found three bodies on or next to a couch -- Lindsey Stahl, 14; Aaron Smith, 20; and Bradley Schultz, 20. Murray, 18, was found in the kitchen. Lianna Thomas, 18, was found in a closet, and Katrina McCorkle, 18, was just outside it. Both had apparently been trying to hide, Van Hollen said, according to AP. Neitzel was the last person shot, Van Hollen said. Less than 20 minutes later, a patrolling Crandon police officer, reported hearing gunfire and approached the apartment building to investigate, Van Hollen said. The officer, Greg Carter, 21, said he saw Peterson exit the building with a rifle, and momentarily lost sight of him. Then, Carter \"heard multiple rounds of gunfire\" and Carter's windshield burst, Van Hollen said. Van Hollen said Peterson drove \"aimlessly\" through three Wisconsin counties and made false calls to authorities to \"throw police off his tail.\" He eventually stopped in Argonne, Wisconsin, where he spoke to friends and confessed, Van Hollen said. Peterson was killed in a shootout with law officers Sunday after negotiations for his surrender failed. The details of the negotiations are not being released at this time pending an ongoing investigation, Van Hollen said Tuesday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Charlie Neitzel, 21, begged Tyler Peterson to stop shooting, AG said .\nAG: After Peterson fired second time, Neitzel dropped to floor and didn't move .\nPeterson was shot three times in the head; once in bicep, AG said .\nPeterson opened fire on a party of young people Sunday, killing six .","id":"30eb7a454f62538127c045c99d88a9dd05d16f7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first guests checked back into the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident hotels Sunday, marking the reopening of the two luxury venues damaged by terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month. Guests arrive Sunday at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai. Along with new guests, the hotels' five restaurants were booked with diners, representatives of the Taj Mahal said. \"Today has been an incredibly moving day. The Taj has been reopened, after a massive concerted effort, in dedication to all of those who lost their lives in the attacks on Mumbai,\" said Ratan Tata, the chairman of the company that owns the the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Representatives at the Oberoi-Trident marked the reopening of that hotel with a multi-religion prayer meeting. Watch as the Taj Mahal hotel reopens . \"All the 550 guest rooms, including the executive floors, of the hotel are ready to receive guests,\" a hotel spokesman said, adding the business was reopening with \"heightened security,\" There were still portions of both hotels that could not reopened because of damage, including the Heritage wing of the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi wing of the Oberoi-Trident. The scene Sunday is a far cry from November 26 when the hotel and many other locations in Mumbai were paralyzed by a mass of coordinated attacks. Terrorists using bombs, gunfire and fire caused the deaths of more than 160 people over three days of sieges throughout the city that is India's commercial capital. They took hostages at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels. The assaults also targeted a historic train station, a Jewish cultural center and other landmarks. CNN's Harmeet Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace Tower, Oberoi-Trident luxury hotels reopen .\nBoth were targeted by gunmen in last month's attacks in which around 160 died .\nParts of both hotels still closed because of damage suffered during three-day sieges .","id":"c249dd1f242b1d7005cb80b05e614adc2dead9d2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A medical ailment that has worried male members of string sections across the music world for over 30 years has been exposed as a hoax. Male cellists of the world can breathe easy again. A senior British lawmaker confessed to making up the condition known as \"cello scrotum\" -- which relates to chafing from the instrument -- after reading about another musically-related ailment called \"guitarist's nipple\" in the British Medical Journal in 1974. Elaine Murphy, who is a member of The House of Lords and a trained doctor, came clean about the prank she devised with husband John in a letter to the BMJ published on Wednesday. She said: \"Perhaps after 34 years it's time for us to confess that we invented cello scrotum. \"Reading (Dr) Curtis's 1974 letter to the BMJ on guitar nipple, we thought it highly likely to be a spoof and decided to go one further by submitting a letter pretending to have noted a similar phenomenon in cellists, signed by the non-doctor one of us. \"Anyone who has ever watched a cello being played would realize the physical impossibility of our claim.\" Murphy's confession may have been hastened by the fact that cello scrotum was referenced by a medical researcher in the BMJ late last year. The article, entitled \"A symphony of maladies,\" focused on health problems among musicians and contained references to such ailments as fiddler's neck, flautist's chin and cellist's chest. Fiona Godlee, editor of the BMJ, told Britain's Independent newspaper: \"It seems the BMJ has been deliciously hoaxed. It is wonderful it has been going all these years and no one realized. \"We frown on misconduct and medical fraud is taken very seriously. But in this case I hope I am right in saying that no harm has been done.\" Murphy was made a life peer in 2004 and is active on mental health and ageing issues in the House of Lords.","highlights":"Elaine Murphy is a member of The House of Lords and a trained doctor .\nShe made up cello scrotum ailment after reading about guitarist's nipple in 1974 .\nCello scrotum was referenced in a British Medical Journal article last year .\n\"A symphony of maladies\" focused on health problems among musicians .","id":"2680316181c03516001100ae617a1356b38a30db"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia declared an end Thursday to its 10-year anti-terror \"operation\" in the autonomous republic of Chechnya. Russian forces have been operating in Chechnya since Boris Yeltsin's order in 1999. The end to the offensive could see the withdrawal of thousands of troops from the Muslim-majority region, where Russia has fought two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The head of the Federal Security Service \"canceled the decree declaring a counterterrorist operation in the territory of the republic as of midnight of April 16,\" Russia's anti-terror committee said. It said it did so to create \"the conditions for the future normalization of the situation in the republic, its reconstruction and development of its socio-economic sphere,\" it said in a statement. The late president Boris Yeltsin ordered the counter-terrorist operation in 1999. Since then, the region has been relatively stable.","highlights":"Russia declares end to 10-year anti-terror \"operation\" in Chechnya .\nThousands of troops could be withdrawn from Muslim-majority region .\nFormer president Boris Yeltsin ordered the counter-terrorist operation in 1999 .","id":"b938eb3d00e7eb31e878e1c9a12e4db4bb2b7329"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- After all the anticipation and hubbub, the weekend is coming to an end and the box office results are here: \"Watchmen\" (No. 1) grossed $55.7 million during its first frame, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers. \"Watchmen\" led the weekend box office, grossing $55.7 million during its first weekend. That's a solid sum, to be sure, although it's certainly on the low end of most projections. \"Watchmen\" premiered in more theaters (3,611) than any other R-rated movie in history, and it averaged an impressive $15,413 per venue, despite a potentially problematic long running time. It also scored the biggest debut of 2009 so far. Nonetheless, the movie's $55.7 million take (including $5.5 million from 124 IMAX screens) is substantially smaller than the $70.9 million that 300, the last R-rated graphic-novel movie from director Zack Snyder, earned on its opening weekend two years ago. And aside from that theater-count statistic (which almost any film could break at any time, really), there will be no major records to report on this weekend (for example, \"Watchmen's\" debut was just the fifth-best opening ever for an R-rated movie). I'd argue, in fact, that this opening is a bit soft, considering the great expectations that came with Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's landmark comic book -- not to mention \"Watchmen's\" hefty grosses from screenings at midnight on Friday and throughout its first day. After attracting some major initial interest, banking $25.1 million on Friday, the film's audience dropped off dramatically during the weekend: It grossed $19 million on Saturday and is expected to bring in just $11.5 million on Sunday. These are all big numbers, don't get me wrong, but, when combined with the fact that the film got a lukewarm CinemaScore grade of B from an audience that was largely comprised of older men, it all points to a rapid downward trend that may be difficult to reverse in the weeks to come. Elsewhere -- yes, there were other movies playing at the multiplex this weekend! -- a number of films continued to do what \"Watchmen\" must now aspire to, perhaps in vain: They stayed strong deep into their long runs. Tyler Perry's \"Madea Goes to Jail\" (No. 2) grossed $8.8 million on its third weekend; the film, Perry's biggest yet at the box office, has banked $76.5 million to date. \"Taken\" (No. 3) also moved along like the unstoppable force it has been for more than a month now, earning $7.5 million and bringing its six-week sum to $118 million. Best Picture winner \"Slumdog Millionaire\" (No. 4) was next with $6.9 million, which boosted its domestic haul to $125.4 million. And \"Paul Blart: Mall Cop\" (No. 5) took its eight-week total to $133.6 million thanks to another $4.2 million gross. iReport.com: What did you think of 'Watchmen'? Meanwhile, \"Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience\" (No. 9) completely fell off the map, dropping a staggering 78 percent to gross just $2.8 million. According to Box Office Mojo, that's the 15th biggest second-weekend decline of all time. Overall, the cumulative box office was up nearly 8 percent over the same frame a year ago, when 10,000 B.C. opened big, making this the fifth consecutive \"up\" weekend at the multiplex. So, all in all, I'd say today's was a good report, indeed. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" premiered in more theaters than any other R-rated movie in history .\nTyler Perry's \"Madea Goes to Jail\" (No. 2) grossed another $8.8 million .\nBest Picture winner \"Slumdog Millionaire\" took the No. 4 slot with $6.9 million .","id":"0e5f0aee64f74c0c7953914fbe445e45f048541c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just as \"Y2K\" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes \"Twenty-twelve.\" The sun shines through the door of the Seven Dolls Temple, in the Maya ruins of Dzibilchaltun in Mexico. Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012. The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America. (Some scholars believe the cycle ends a bit later -- on December 23, 2012.) Speculation in some circles about whether the Maya chose this particular time because they thought something ominous would happen has sparked a number of doomsday theories. The hype also has mainstream Maya scholars shaking their heads. \"There's going to be a whole generation of people who, when they think of the Maya, think of 2012, and to me that's just criminal,\" said David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin. \"There is no serious scholar who puts any stock in the idea that the Maya said anything meaningful about 2012.\" Find out more about the history and culture of the Maya \u00bb . But take the fact that December 21, 2012, coincides with the winter solstice, add claims the Maya picked the time period because it also marks an alignment of the sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and you have the makings of an online sensation. Type \"2012\" into an Internet search engine and you'll find survival guides, survival schools, predictions and \"official stuff\" to wear, including T-shirts with slogans such as \"2012 The End\" and \"Doomsday 2012.\" Theories about what might happen range from solar storms triggering volcano eruptions to a polar reversal that will make the Earth spin in the opposite direction. If you think all of this would make a great sci-fi disaster movie, Hollywood is already one step ahead. \"2012,\" a special-effects flick starring John Cusack and directed by Roland Emmerich, of \"The Day After Tomorrow\" fame, is scheduled to be released this fall. The trailer shows a monk running to a bell tower on a mountaintop to sound the alarm as a huge wall of water washes over what appear to be the peaks of the Himalayas. 'Promoting a hoax' One barometer of the interest in 2012 may be the \"Ask an Astrobiologist\" section of NASA's Web site, where senior scientist David Morrison answers questions from the public. On a recent visit, more than half of the inquiries on the most popular list were related to 2012. \"The purveyors of doom are promoting a hoax,\" Morrison wrote earlier this month in response to a question from a person who expressed fear about the date. A scholar who has studied the Maya for 35 years said there is nothing ominous about 2012, despite the hype surrounding claims to the contrary. \"I think that the popular books... about what the Maya say is going to happen are really fabricated on the basis of very little evidence,\" said Anthony Aveni, a professor of astronomy, anthropology and Native American studies at Colgate University. Aveni and Stuart are both writing their own books explaining the Mayan calendar and 2012, but Stuart said he's pessimistic that people will be interested in the real story when so many other books are making sensational claims. Dozens of titles about 2012 have been published and more are scheduled to go on sale in the coming months. Current offerings include \"Apocalypse 2012,\" in which author Lawrence Joseph outlines \"terrible possibilities,\" such as the potential for natural disaster. But Joseph admits he doesn't think the world is going to end. \"I do, however, believe that 2012 will prove to be... a very dramatic and probably transformative year,\" Joseph said. The author acknowledged he's worried his book's title might scare people, but said he wanted to alert the public about possible dangers ahead. He added that his publisher controls the book's title, though he had no issue with the final choice. \"If it had been called 'Serious Threats 2012' or 'Profound Considerations for 2012,' it would have never gotten published,\" Joseph said. Growing interest . Another author said the doom and gloom approach is a great misunderstanding of 2012. \"The trendy doomsday people... should be treated for what they are: under-informed opportunists and alarmists who will move onto other things in 2013,\" said John Major Jenkins, whose books include \"Galactic Alignment\" and who describes himself as a self-taught independent Maya scholar. Jenkins said that cycle endings were all about transformation and renewal -- not catastrophe -- for the Maya. He also makes the case that the period they chose coincides with an alignment of the December solstice sun with the center of the Milky Way, as viewed from Earth. \"Two thousand years ago the Maya believed that the world would be going through a great transformation when this alignment happened,\" Jenkins said. But Aveni said there is no evidence that the Maya cared about this concept of the Milky Way, adding that the galactic center was not defined until the 1950s. \"What you have here is a modern age influence [and] modern concepts trying to garb the ancient Maya in modern clothing, and it just doesn't wash for me,\" Aveni said. Meanwhile, he and other scholars are bracing for growing interest as the date approaches. \"The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy, I'm sorry to say,\" Stuart said. \"I just think it's sad, it really just frustrates me. People are really misunderstanding this really cool culture by focusing on this 2012 thing. It means more about us than it does about the Maya.\"","highlights":"December 21, 2012, marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on a Mayan calendar .\nSome think the date is ominous, others say it may signal the dawn of a new era .\nTheories are fabricated on the basis of very little evidence, Maya scholar says .\n\"The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy,\" another scholar warns .","id":"ab41c378e07f32c864b5952796469b75b8b37dc5"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- U.S. envoy George Mitchell was in Israel on Thursday for his first visit since right-wing politician Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister. U.S. envoy George Mitchell, right, meets Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday in Jerusalem. It is Mitchell's third visit to the region since President Obama appointed him as special envoy for Middle East peace. Mitchell plans to meet with Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians Thursday, as well as Palestinian leaders -- including President Mahmoud Abbas -- in the West Bank and Jerusalem on Friday. The former senator and seasoned diplomat has not been shy in articulating the U.S. desire to see a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has led to speculation that the new Israeli government and the Obama administration may find themselves on a collision course. Netanyahu has indicated he wants serious negotiations with the Palestinians to continue, but he has not explicitly stated his support for Palestinian statehood. Questions about the new Israeli government's commitment to a negotiated peace process came up when the new foreign minister, nationalist politician Avigdor Lieberman, declared the Annapolis process \"null and void.\" The Annapolis process, launched by the Bush administration in 2007, paved the way for the resumption of Israeli and Palestinian talks after they stopped earlier in the decade. After meeting Lieberman on Thursday morning, Mitchell said he had reiterated the U.S. stance. \"U.S. policy favors, with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two-state solution which would have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish state of Israel,\" Mitchell said. \"We look forward also to efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace throughout the region.\" Lieberman said the two men had a \"great opportunity to exchange some ideas\" and spoke about close cooperation. \"We spoke to coordinate our position regarding the Palestinian issue, regarding the area problems,\" he said. \"We are looking forward to the next meeting for some really deep dialogue about security, about economy, about all problems in the entire region.\" The Israeli foreign minister said Israel will do everything necessary to improve the Palestinians' economic situation. But in a statement after his meeting with Mitchell, he emphasized that Israel expects an \"unequivocal commitment\" from the international community to Israel's security and to the Jewish state. Mitchell met Wednesday night with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who told the U.S. envoy that the countries' bilateral relationship is \"deep and close.\" \"It is possible to reach cooperation and understanding on all issues that are on the table,\" said Barak. The issue of Iran and its nuclear program was also a topic Thursday. After Mitchell met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, the president said he emphasized dialogue on the issue. \"It is our common interest that dialogue with Iran will expose if there is an opportunity with Iran or is it all a hoax,\" Peres said. \"We all want a world that is clean of nuclear bombs, but the problem is that those holding the bombs are religious fanatics, extremists, that do not cringe from all methods of killing. \"We need to create a wide international cooperation regarding the matter of Iran,\" he said. \"All this talk about a possible attack by Israel in Iran are not true. The solution to Iran is not a military solution.\" Lieberman said the subject of Iran is a \"major problem\" for Israel and the whole region. \"If you are looking for a stable solution to the Palestinian problem, before everything else you have [to] stop the intensification and the spreading of the Iranian threat,\" Lieberman said in his statement. CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"George Mitchell to meet with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .\nNetanyahu has not explicitly said he supports Palestinian statehood .\nIsrael's foreign minister has said Annapolis peace process is \"null and void\"\nIsraeli President Shimon Peres meets with Mitchell, supports dialogue with Iran .","id":"6d297fec3f849878cf612ba2aaa39ac2b7f55541"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The two young women were as different as could be when they met in a small farming village outside Uganda's capital in 2004. Orphans perform at the opening ceremony for their new home in Mutungo, Uganda. Brittany Merrill was a 19-year-old Southern Methodist University broadcast journalism student from an affluent family in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. She was teaching literature in Uganda for the summer when she decided to visit Mutungo, a crowded shantytown of mud huts and wooden shacks, where children in torn clothes ran around in bare feet, and people lingered in the noisy streets to avoid the oppressive heat inside their homes. At 22 years old, Sarah Kamara felt God had called on her to take in homeless children begging on Mutungo's streets. In addition to her own daughter, Kamara was caring for 23 children in her one-room home. Some were AIDS orphans, others had been abandoned by families who had too many children. But Kamara took them in, alienating herself from neighbors, relatives and her husband, who briefly separated from her in protest. Despite Kamara's broken English and Merrill's culture shock, the two found common ground in their compassion for the children, whose zeal for life was unmitigated by the poverty, disease and death that had brought them to Kamara's home. \"They taught me about what is meaningful in this world and gave me purpose,\" Merrill said of the children. \"Their love and faith has challenged my heart. They shook me out of my complacency.\" Merrill left Uganda determined to help Kamara realize her dream of opening a full-fledged orphan home, where sets of \"mamas\" and \"uncles\" would care for children in separate living spaces, nurturing their emotional, physical and spiritual needs. Four years and roughly $800,000 later, the two brought their vision to life with the opening of the Ranch on Jesus Orphanage in March. The home, which will accommodate 180 orphans at capacity, is named after the nonprofit ministry that Kamara and her husband, Theophilius, started after they met Merrill in 2004. Local dignitaries and the orphans' relatives, who couldn't afford to care for them, attended the opening. It was a rousing celebration of song and dance, ceremonial ribbon-cuttings and speeches that highlighted how cultural barriers crumbled before the wills of the two women. See images from the opening ceremony \u00bb . \"Here in Africa, ladies don't do such big, big things,\" Kamara said after the ceremony. \"I'm a young lady, and Brittany is also a young lady, but the Lord has used us in a great, great way.\" After Merrill's first trip to Uganda, she knew her life's path had been irrevocably altered. She started using her free time to take classes in nonprofit management at SMU and read up on fundraising before securing a loan from her father to buy property for the orphanage. She expanded upon her vision in her senior year, forgoing a social life so she could draw up facility plans and file paperwork for a nonprofit. \"My friends thought I had fallen off the face of the Earth,\" she said. She also began fundraising in earnest, sharing her vision with family and friends at fundraising dinners in Atlanta and Dallas, Texas, and relying on word of mouth to expand her pool of donors. By the end of 2005, she had put her vision on paper with the creation of the Ugandan Children's Orphanage Fund. After graduation, her dream of becoming a journalist was replaced by new goals. As her friends started marrying and taking jobs stateside, Merrill was visiting Uganda with greater frequency, bringing along more recent graduates from the United States each time. \"I'd never been involved in community service, never planned on being in Africa, this wasn't my plan for my life, so to watch my own heart change to learn to love people who are different from me in every possible way, that's something that has really changed me and the way I see the world, and my role in the world in the context of others,\" she said. Merrill's dedication to Uganda grew as the Mutungo Orphanage Project made headway, first with the construction of a temporary orphanage, and then with the groundbreaking in 2007 of a facility consisting of family-style apartments for the children and caregivers. Meanwhile, the Kamaras founded Ranch on Jesus Ministries, a nonprofit that runs the orphanage and a nearby school serving children from the orphanage and others from Mutungo. As Merrill's relationship with the community grew, so did her ambitions for development projects in the region. By the time she moved to Uganda in 2007, the Ugandan Children's Orphanage Fund had become the Ugandan American Partnership Organization, and the foundation had started two more projects with the help of Ugandan entrepreneurs and community leaders and more fundraising on the part of Merrill and board members in Dallas, Atlanta and Birmingham, Alabama. \"When our relationships are bad, the projects suffer. When our relationships are strong, our projects thrive, they don't feel forced,\" Merrill said. \"To me, it's really amazing to see how some of the most beautiful and bountiful relationships come out of transcending race, culture and economic status.\" So far, the Amaazi Project has successfully drilled six water wells in rural villages in Eastern and Northern Uganda, providing more than 3,000 villagers with clean water. The Akola Project has grown into a crafts cooperative in a village of the same name. The cooperative provides more than 100 widows with an additional source of income through making jewelry. Merrill credits her youthful inexperience with helping the organization succeed. \"I think that because we were so young, we started with a blank slate and we didn't think we knew the answers. We learned to listen, we came in with open ears and an open heart and listened to the people in the community about their ideas for development,\" Merrill said. \"Because of that, we've been successful with developing projects and forming strong relationships with people we work with.\"","highlights":"Orphanage starts with 23 children in Sarah Kamara's ramshackle home .\nAmerican college student Brittany Merrill raises funds to build bigger orphan home .\nVision for orphan home grows out of meeting between the two women in 2004 .\nRanch on Jesus Orphanage will house 180 orphans in Mutungo at capacity .","id":"cbed8e68dba559e48a8863e0062d190d6b34594f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Donald Trump visited \"Larry King Live\" on Wednesday night to tout his new book, \"Think Like a Champion.\" In a wide-ranging interview, Trump shared his thoughts on how to prosper in this economy, Bernie Madoff, how President Obama is doing, taxes and his daughter's love life. On CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Wednesday night, Donald Trump said it's a great time for entrepreneurs. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: Why this book? Donald Trump: A lot of people wanted me to do a book right now about these troubled times that we're all in. And it's been sort of interesting. They're great times, as an entrepreneur. I don't think I've ever seen better times as an entrepreneur. But the world is a mess, and the country is a mess. King: Why [is it a] good time for an entrepreneur and not necessarily for others? Trump: Well, this is a time for smart people. This is a time for entrepreneurial people. This is a great time for people like me -- and maybe people like you, Larry, because I know you're a great investor. ... Weren't you involved with [Bernie] Madoff? King: A little bit, yes. You weren't, huh? How did you resist him? Trump: Honestly, I got lucky. He might have duped me like he did a lot of other people. He is a disaster. But now he's where he belongs. King: With troubled times like this for the average guy, is this the time to think like a champion? Watch Larry King's entire interview with Donald Trump \u00bb . Trump: This is the best time to think like a champion. As an example, the house is being foreclosed. You go see your bank -- maybe you can make a deal, maybe you can't. But you can make a deal with a bank on another house, and much better than the one you're living in. ... They'll do any deal to get rid of their product. They have houses by the thousands. And you go see that bank and you make a deal. King: How do you assess [Barack Obama]? Trump: Well, I really like him. I think that he's working very hard. He's trying to rebuild our reputation throughout the world. The previous administration was a total disaster, a total catastrophe. And, you know, the world looks at us differently than they used to. ... He was handed a pretty bad deck of cards. And I'm not saying I agree with everything he's doing. ... I do agree with what they're doing with the banks. Whether they fund them or nationalize them, it doesn't matter, but you have to keep the banks going. King: Do you assess him as a champion? Trump: Oh, yes, he's a champion. I mean, he won against all odds. When he first announced, people were giving him virtually no chance. And he's just done something that's amazing. King: Is fear harmful in this [economic] situation, Donald, or is it realistic? Trump: Well, I think it's realistic. People are afraid. They're scared. They're losing their jobs. They're losing their homes. And certainly there is a word known as fear, and there's nothing wrong with being fearful. But you have to do something about it. And that's what I write about in the book. You go out. You go to the right place, where there's better employment. You get a trade where they really need people. King: Have you had to lay off people? Because it seems everyone has had to do that. Trump: It's a sad thing, but whether it's \"The Apprentice\" or not, the fact is you have to say to some people: \"You're fired.\" The world is different. King: You said that this is a good time to buy real estate. What about financing? What if you want to buy and you can't get the mortgage? Trump: Larry, this is a great time to buy real estate. And as far as financing is concerned, the only financing you should be thinking about is seller financing. If the seller won't give you financing, don't do it, because the banks are not doing their job. They're not providing financing for deals. King: New York state is planning a so-called millionaire's tax. It would affect those with incomes starting at $300,000. Yea or nay? Trump: Well, it's a ridiculous thing. Albany is going to destroy ... this state. And they are raising taxes on rich people. The rich people have lots of options, Larry. One option is Palm Beach, Florida. You move down to Palm Beach; it's not the worst thing in the world. I don't have to live on Fifth Avenue. I don't have to live on Park Avenue. It's hard, psychologically, for me to leave, but very easy physically. King: Why don't patriots want to pay taxes? Trump: Well, I don't know that that's necessarily unpatriotic. I think they want to pay taxes. Obviously, you have to pay taxes. But they want to pay a reasonable tax, and they don't want to see the money squandered. Money in this country is being squandered. King: OK. But then we would debate reasonable. Trump: Well, you always debate reasonable. I think unreasonable is the war in Iraq. I mean, there's $1 trillion right there. And, more importantly, thousands of people -- both on our side and the other side -- hundreds of thousands of people killed and maimed and so badly hurt, I think it's just a shame. Now, to me, that's unreasonable. And, by the way, ... Saddam Hussein did not knock down the World Trade Center. King: Has the economy at all cramped your lifestyle? Anything you had to change? Trump: No, because I think I understand life. I think I understand how to live. I'm enjoying my life. I don't really live in an as extravagant a way as people think. As an entrepreneur, this is the best time I think I've ever seen in business. King: There's buzz that your beautiful daughter Ivanka is engaged or getting engaged. What's up? Trump: She has a beautiful boyfriend. He's a great guy, but they are not engaged. King: Would you like them to? Is he the kind of guy you would except as a son-in-law? Trump: He certainly is a wonderful guy. But it's all up to her. If she's happy, I'm happy.","highlights":"Trump advises to take advantage of low prices, get seller to do the financing .\nTrump: Obama rebuilding U.S. reputation; previous administration was a disaster .\nHe's mad about possible higher taxes in New York, says he could move to Florida .\nTrump likes the guy his daughter is dating, but she's not engaged .","id":"6dd35e262de260514f3bf5aec228006bc7a5d1f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama visits Mexico with many issues on the table, but reinstating the ban on assault weapons in the U.S. isn't likely to be one on which the two countries can reach agreement. Mexican federal police officers this week display an arsenal seized near the U.S. border. Mexican officials say criminals use assault weapons from the U.S. in the violent border region. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., say reinstating the ban would stop the deadly flow of weapons across the border. Under the Clinton administration in 1994, Congress banned possession of 19 military-style assault weapons. The ban was allowed to expire 10 years later during the Bush administration. Earlier this year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Obama would like to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons, noting, \"I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico at a minimum.\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month that as a senator, she supported a measure to reinstate it. And the urban policy section of the White House Web site says Obama and Vice President Joe Biden \"support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.\" Obama still supports reinstating the ban, as he did during the presidential campaign, but there are no plans to reintroduce it anytime soon, according to an administration official. Obama thinks more can be done to stop the illegal flow of weapons to Mexico within existing laws, the official said, noting that the president has taken steps to deploy more law enforcement to curb the illegal flows of drugs, weapons and cash in both directions across the border. The administration is unaware of any broad-based efforts in Congress to reinstate the ban, the official said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CBS on Thursday that reinstating the ban \"simply is not part of the plan that we're talking about here.\" Watch what Napolitano says about drug violence \u00bb . The Obama administration says the U.S. shares responsibility for the situation in Mexico, but as far as the ban goes, \"there's a lot on our plate,\" White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. Watch what's on the table for Obama's trip to Mexico \u00bb . Gun rights advocates stress that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to own firearms without restriction. Gun control supporters interpret the amendment to mean that states shall keep militias but that an individual's right to own firearms may be restricted. Those who support the assault weapons ban as a way to curb violence cite figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that say American gun sellers supply the Mexican drug cartels with 95 percent to 100 percent of their guns. But others say that claim cannot be substantiated -- and argue that less that 20 percent of weapons used in crimes in Mexico are traced to the U.S. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association of America, says U.S. rights are not the cause of Mexico's wrongs. In a commentary on CNN.com, LaPierre wrote that to believe U.S. freedoms are fueling the violence \"you have to believe these butchers and beheaders break every Mexican law they want except Mexican gun laws, which they honor -- while they break American gun laws.\" \"Everything Mexico's murderous thugs are doing is already illegal. At issue is not the absence of law, but the absence of political will to enforce the laws that both nations already possess,\" he wrote. On the other side, however, there are those who say loopholes in America's gun laws fuel violence in both Mexico and the United States. \"We need to realize that the Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves here because our gun laws have loopholes so large that criminals and gun traffickers can easily drive gun-laden trucks through them,\" former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, wrote in a commentary for CNN.com. \"We need to prevent Mexican criminals and the traffickers who supply them from buying guns by changing our gun laws and strengthening U.S. law enforcement's ability to crack down on corrupt gun dealers.\" On the eve of Obama's arrival, Calderon told ABC he thought the weapons ban was \"very good legislation.\" \"During that period, we didn't suffer a lot, like we suffered in the four or five years,\" he said. And Sarukhan told CBS this weekend, \"There's a direct correlation between the expiration of the assault weapons ban and our seizures of assault weapons.\" He said, \"We cannot determine how Congress and the administration will move on this. What we will say is that this is one of the instruments by reinstating the ban that could have a profound impact on the number and the caliber of weapons going down to Mexico.\" Obama was to meet Thursday with Calderon in Mexico City ahead of his trip to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas. But Mexico isn't the only consideration when it comes to gun control. In the United States, gun control is a wedge issue -- and one that can carry serious political ramifications. Democrats tend to shy away from remarks that could be interpreted as anti-gun, especially in swing states and districts. (Remember the frenzy that ensued after then-candidate Obama said people in small towns get bitter and \"cling to guns or religion\"?) Democrats are usually thought of as the party more likely to enforce ownership restrictions, while Republicans are associated with ownership rights. As a candidate, Obama promised, \"I'm not going to take away your guns.'' Any other message would have been unpopular in the traditionally Republican states he won such as North Carolina and Virginia. Other Democrats, such as Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb of Virginia, also are getting elected with the help of NRA supporters. Even so, with a Democrat in the White House and a Democrat-controlled Congress, there's been a surge in requests for background checks of potential gun buyers, according to the FBI, and some gun owners say they think restrictions are somewhere on Obama's to-do list. Asked Thursday if it's just too politically difficult now to reinstate the ban, Gibbs said, \"I think the president believes that we can have a greater outcome in the short term working to enforce the laws that are on our books.\"","highlights":"Mexico: U.S. ban on assault weapons would curtail flow of weapons into country .\nBan instituted in 1994 during Clinton era and expired 10 years later .\nPresident Obama has no immediate plans to try to reinstate ban, official says .\nObama meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City .","id":"a7bb84d81c1efc4152636ddd71e5abb0c6006529"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Journalist Karl Penhaul spent several weeks tracking the gangs of the Mexican underworld, the corrupt officials who support them and the cops trying to halt the violence. This is the second of three exclusive reports. Part one looked at the violent rules gangs live by. The faithful leave this \"Holy Death\" statue offerings including cigarettes and cocaine, visible in the nose. CULIACAN, Mexico (CNN) -- A baseball cap dangles from a cement cross. The slogan on the hat reads \"power, money, respect.\" On the brim there's the logo of the classic gangster movie \"Scarface.\" Etched on the gravestone, the words: \"Jesus Guadalupe Parra. 12 December 1986 to 25 August 2008.\" \"Lupito,\" as friends and family knew him, went down in a hail of bullets before he reached 22. Authorities said he died alongside three others in a gunfight with a rival drug gang high in the Sierra Madre mountain range that is the backbone of Mexico's Pacific coast state of Sinaloa. A printed banner draped over his tomb offers a deeper insight. It shows a photo of him alongside a marijuana plantation and an AK-47 assault rifle fitted with a 100-round ammunition drum. The drab grave of this cartel triggerman, at the Jardines de Humaya cemetery in state capital Culiacan, stands in stark contrast to the mausoleums of dead capos, or drug bosses. Those are elaborate two- and three-story constructions, some perhaps 25 feet high, made of bullet-proof glass, Italian marble and spiral iron staircases. A bricklayer at work in the cemetery told me the fanciest cost between $75,000 and $150,000. He said grateful drug barons often pay for loyal hitmen to be buried here, the city's toniest graveyard. Like so many other people we've met over the last few weeks, he declined to give his name or speak on camera. \"I can't. El patron [the boss] would kill me,\" he said. Days later I track down Lupito's cousin, Giovanni Garcia, on the phone. He's an undertaker and by coincidence he took the call that Lupito had been shot. \"My cousin loved that way of life,\" Garcia said briefly before turning down a recorded interview. \"We can't talk. You must understand how things are around here these days. It's not a good time.\" That Sunday, I linger at Lupito's graveside. Three young men show up. They look about the same age as the dead gunman, the same cropped-hair, one heavily scarred around his eye. In the breeze they struggle to light a dozen foot-high candles. I introduce myself. A few grunts later and I can see this conversation is going nowhere fast. \"We couldn't make it to the burial. This is the first time we've come to pay our respects,\" one of them explained. He never offered his name. Drug rivalries have been known to spill over at funerals so many mourners opt to stay away leaving only the closest relatives to bury their dead quietly and without public complaints. I stick around hoping to meet more talkative mourners. My wait is cut short. A fourth man appears between the tombstones some 20 yards away, apparently having seen me. As he talks into a phone I hear him say: \"Hey, take your chance. Go grab f**king baldy.\" I look around. No other bald men in sight -- just me. Time to leave. At Jardines de Humaya and across town at the 21 de Marzo cemetery, rows of recently dug graves are filled with the young foot soldiers of Mexico's drug war. A crosscheck of their names in the obituary columns of the local newspaper reveal tales of men in their late teens and early 20s, gunned down in firefights, shot in cold blood on their doorsteps or killed in prison clashes. Jesus Gaston earns around $40 for every three graves he digs. But he can see the lure of easy money in the drug trade is little more than a mirage. \"The easy money lasts for just a few days because it's all about time before they kill you too. You kill somebody and somebody will come back for you,\" he said. \"Some how, some way they will find you.\" When the reality boils down to kill or be killed, it's unsurprising the hitmen and the narco-traffickers want to improve their odds of survival. Most days, you can hear a brass band or a cowboy trio thumping out tunes in a small building on a Culiacan side street. It's a shrine to a highway robber called Jesus Malverde. In the century since he died he's become known as the patron saint of the drug trade. Watch men pay respects to their narco-saint \u00bb . Men in cowboy hats and ostrich-skin boots duck in and out of view. Some try to conceal their faces behind a musician's trombone or tuba. The day I dropped in, one man was paying around $600 for a band to play for three hours. Off camera he told me it was his way of repaying a favor to Malverde. I asked him about that favor and he said he was celebrating a bumper harvest -- of beans and corn. He said he was shy about appearing on camera. I told another man, who gave his name as \"Rosario,\" that he looked like a stereotypical narco. He had the ostrich-skin cowboy boots and shaved head. Besides that he seemed to be spending a small fortune, by Mexican standards, on live music, foot-high candles and fresh flowers to place at Malverde's altar. Rosario laughed off my suggestion and laughed again in my face as he told me he was paying tribute to Malverde after a good few months working as a carpet fitter in Arizona. It was refreshing to find a straight-talking trombone player at the shrine, Jaime Laveaga. He makes his living playing music and he's clear about who his main clients are. \"It sounds bad to say it but Culiacan is a city with a big drug mafia. They like brass band music and they love to celebrate -- 15th birthdays, weddings, family birthdays. They even celebrate their dogs' birthdays,\" he explained. Needless to say, the Catholic Church takes a dim view of those who worship Malverde and another growing cult known as the \"Holy Death,\" which critics say is also popular among thieves and narcos. \"People are looking for easy solutions where they don't have to make any sacrifices. If they don't find any support for their killings or their drug trafficking from the Catholic Church then they look for other options,\" Father Esteban Robles, spokesman for the Culiacan diocese told me. \"They're looking for something that will justify their actions.\" Tomorrow, Penhaul examines how the gangs dispose of their victims and what officials are doing to stem the violence.","highlights":"Graveyards in Mexican town show tributes to gang leaders and hitmen .\n\"Lupito,\" who a relative said loved hitman life, was killed when he was 21 .\nCartel bosses are buried in mausoleums surrounded by bullet-proof glass .\nFollowers pay bands, leave tributes including cocaine at shrines to cult heroes .","id":"a289b21d3afb5a67306e6dcc091f7b35705fc672"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- David and Christina Macfarlane always dreamed of opening a restaurant. And with David's background as a White House chef, they certainly have the in-house culinary ability. David and Christina Macfarlane in their Minneapolis restaurant, L'Ecosse. But they never imagined they'd be doing it in one of the toughest economic times ever, and they wondered if it would even be possible. \"The banks were like, 'You're opening a restaurant now?' \" Christina says. \" 'Yeah, we're opening a restaurant now.' \" David was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but moved to the United States with his family in his early teens and soon found his passion for the palate. Soon after high school, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he ultimately spent years cooking -- two of which were spent in the kitchen at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as a chef for President Clinton at the beginning of his first term in 1992. Looking at a picture of himself and the former president, David describes a favorite memory. \"He said that was the best meal he ever ate. I was pretty geeked about that.\" See more about that favorite meal \u00bb . But the Macfarlanes wanted more time as a family -- something not suited to David's high-profile job. They moved a number of times before settling down in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, suburbs where, most recently, David worked for Fusion Culinary -- until his position was eliminated, that is. Christina says that as dismayed as David was over the job loss, she saw it as \"a blessing.\" \"I thought, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!' \" she says, adding that she saw it as the perfect opportunity to follow through with their dream. Now, despite the battered economy, the two stand behind the bar in their new restaurant, L'Ecosse, which, incidentally, is French for \"Scotland.\" However, they have a slightly different take on the menu than perhaps they would have had if times were perkier. \"We went to over a dozen restaurants looking at menus, pricepoints, [and] realizing the struggles in the economy,\" Christina recalls. The two concluded that while people are still eating out, they aren't seeking \"fancy\" food -- in other words, they weren't seeking the type of fare one might typically associate with state dinners at the White House. David says that's all a misconception anyway. \"Comfort food,\" he says. \"That's what the president wanted most.\" Some of the president's favorite foods, David says were nachos and salsa, tuna sandwiches, or just warm milk and cookies. \"[President Clinton] wasn't looking for any of the fancy frou-frou stuff. We did that for state dinners or we did that for dignitaries that would come in, but ... at lunchtime when the president would be in the Oval Office by himself, [he'd say] 'Lemme have a tuna sandwich.' \" At L'Ecosse, tuna and warm cookies are on the menu. Keeping with his Scottish upbringing, David's menu also is largely UK-centric: meat pies and fish and chips are two of the specialties. He does it all with fresh, local ingredients and says he can keep prices down because he does a lot of the work himself and with the help of a very minimal staff. Watch the chef talk about keeping it simple \u00bb . Everything on the breakfast and lunch menus is priced under $10, and the two say that when they expand to a full dinner menu once their liquor license is approved, they want to keep prices similarly low. \"The reason we did that was so nobody had sticker shock,\" David says. \"They're very good items, but they're also inexpensive items and you're not going to break the bank.\" \"If you want to come in and get Bill Clinton's favorite, it doesn't have to be $15 during the day. And that's what we want people to understand -- we understand where you're at.\" As Christina puts it, \"You are going to get great food that your mother used to make for you.\" And, ideally, the bill won't send you into debt.","highlights":"Former White House chef opens restaurant to serve \"comfort food\"\nMenu designed to take the \"sticker shock\" out of dining .\nFormer president was fan of salsa, tuna sandwiches, warm cookies and milk .\nOwners say prices lower due to local ingredients, minimal staff .","id":"c37ca8d1da7ba73fadda466aa0f9c2d182cdcfa6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of mourners filled a Tracy, California, high school gym Thursday to remember slain 8-year-old Sandra Renee Cantu. Sandra Cantu, 8, had been missing almost two weeks before her body was found. The little girl made national headlines after she went missing March 27 from a mobile home park in Tracy where she lived with her family. She was on her way to a friend's home and her playful skipping down an alley was caught by a surveillance camera. Police later found her body stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a nearby dairy farm. Photos of Sandra, flowers and stuffed animals covered the front of the stage. Family members, friends and state dignitaries memorialized the child during a ceremony that lasted just over an hour. The printed program called the memorial service \"A Celebration of Life,\" and organizers said they hoped the service would help ease the pain the community has suffered since Sandra's disappearance. \"We are left with the haunting image of her skipping on the streets of Tracy. But today she is skipping on the streets of gold, into the arms of a loving God\", said Brent Ives, mayor of Tracy. Cindy Sasser, principal at Jacobsen Elementary School told mourners, \"We should all strive to be like Sandra -- always smiling, wanting to help, to look out for others and to be caring.\" The service included a video that showcased some of the family's favorite photos. People from across California attended, filling the gymnasium, cafeteria and the football stadium at West High School. Melissa Huckaby, 28, a Sunday school teacher who lived in the same mobile home park as Sandra's family, has been charged with murder, kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14, and rape by instrument. If convicted, she would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett said this week. A private memorial service for Sandra was held Wednesday. Her casket, signed by classmates, was taken to a nearby burial site by a horse-drawn carriage.","highlights":"NEW: Photo montage shown at service for Sandra at a high school in Tracy .\nGirl, 8, disappeared March 27; her body was found in suitcase on April 6 .\nPolice arrested Melissa Huckaby, 28, and charged her with killing and raping Sandra .\nIf convicted, Huckaby faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole .","id":"054de19b1c5e94bdf6132f842e2cfbdb5b7055ed"} -{"article":"HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- It's been more than a year since a racial slur threatened to end the television career of Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman. But the incident still weighs heavily on his mind. Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman watches his son's baseball game this month in Honolulu, Hawaii. A&E briefly suspended his top-rated reality show in late 2007, and his reputation was on the line. Now, with his show back on the air and at the top of the network's ratings list, Chapman insists that he does not want the controversy to be forgotten. \"They said, 'It'll pass,' and I said to the guy, 'You know what? I won't let it.' \" Chapman, 56, spoke candidly about accusations of racism on a recent windy Saturday afternoon on the sidelines of 8-year-old son Garry's baseball game. It was his other son, Tucker, who recorded a profanity-laced conversation with his father and reportedly sold the recording -- which included Chapman repeatedly using the \"n-word\" -- to the National Enquirer in 2007. Some African-American leaders called for the cancellation of his show. Chapman said he was advised to lay low for several weeks, but he refused. \"All the spin doctors ... all those guys told me, 'Dog, say that you were this, say you were that, [but] if you go out there, you're done.' I said, 'I'm going out in a hail of glory. You may call me a convict ... but you ain't gonna call me something I'm not. I'm going out swinging.'\" Chapman said his meetings with leaders of the black community were more than an attempt to redeem himself in the public eye and get his show back on the air. In a February 8, 2008, foreword to his book, \"You Can Run But You Can't Hide,\" he writes that \"giving up cussing is just the first step toward my evolution as a human.\" He said he was referring to his use of the racial slur, which he admits -- even on the recording -- knowing that it would spark public outrage. But as a former prison inmate of mixed ethnicity -- he is part Native American -- Chapman said he felt he could use the word without it defining him as a racist. \"I was with 38,000 black men at the age of 22 in the '70s, the [prison] guards -- whether they're black or white -- called them that [the slur] every day,\" he said. \"Once I said it and met with leaders of the black community and realized what that word meant, that's when I said, 'I will never again utter that word. Ever.' \" He said, \"I don't give a damn that [it] was a private call they burglarized; I knew not to do that. I didn't know not to say the word because what it would do, but I do now. Now if you catch me [saying it], you won't have to stop my show, I'll resign.\" Controversy is something that Chapman draws on; it defines his character both publicly and privately. He ran with motorcycle gangs before he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to a five-year prison term in 1977. He maintains his innocence and served a fraction of the sentence. His determination to prove he was the world's best bounty hunter led him to Mexico in 2003, where he and his team captured the heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune, Andrew Luster, who was convicted in absentia on charges of rape. The Mexican government charged Chapman and his team with kidnapping and demanded their extradition, but the charges later were dropped. His life story of an ex-con-turned-vigilante is the hallmark of his celebrity and leads many people to tune in to his show, which began in 2004. Chapman said his fans perceived the racial slur incident differently. \"Not one black person to this day has walked up to me and said anything bad; it's all been the whites,\" he said. \"[Others said], 'You know here's a bounty hunter, was convicted, went to prison, 30 years later he's arrested 7,000 people. You think he might say a couple bad words.' That's the good things that were said to me.\" His 10-year-old daughter, Bonnie Jo, heard about what happened on the radio. \"And she goes, 'Dad, you know you can't use that [word], you're not a rapper. OK, love you, Dad, see you.' And I'm like, 'And is that what your friends are saying?' 'Yep, they know you're not a rapper. They know you're Dog the Bounty Hunter. And it was over, just like that.\" While some of his viewers have forgotten the controversy, Chapman does not want it to go away -- particularly the accusations that were leveled against him in the media. \"You better not forget the s*** you put me through over that. I ain't lettin' 'em forget it. Ever. You think black guys forget it? It hurts my feelings to hear it [the slur]. So, yeah, there's such a thing as passing, but I never heard of that. It ain't passing.\" He added, \"I understand the saying now, 'Lest ye forget.' Don't ever forget that. Please don't forget that, that I went through that. That I learned.\"","highlights":"Use of slur threatened to end TV career of Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman .\nChapman says he does not want the controversy to be forgotten .\nChapman was heard repeatedly using racial slur in recording sold to tabloid .\nReality show has returned successfully to A&E network .","id":"50f10538392b2abdaf9ebfdefe58d72d370f883d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A 47-year-old charity worker who says she has never been kissed is now a YouTube sensation after a singing performance that wowed the notoriously harsh talent judge Simon Cowell. The YouTube video of Susan Boyle's performance has had more than 5 million hits. Susan Boyle, from West Lothian in Scotland, appeared on the television show \"Britain's Got Talent\" last weekend with an inauspicious start. Slightly plump and with short brown curly hair, Boyle stood somewhat uncomfortably in the middle of the stage wearing a gold lace sheath. She told the judges and the audience of the show that she was single, she lived with her cat, Pebbles, and she had never been kissed. \"I'm trying to be a professional singer,\" Boyle asserted, as the audience laughed. \"I'm going to make that audience rock.\" When she added that she wanted to be as famous as Elaine Paige, who's been called the \"first lady of British musical theater,\" some members of the audience snickered and rolled their eyes. But after Boyle sang the first few notes of \"I Dreamed a Dream\" from the musical \"Les Miserables,\" the audience erupted in wild cheers and applause, and two of the three judges' jaws dropped. The applause lasted the length of her performance, which ended with the crowd on its feet. Cowell, who also serves as a judge on \"American Idol\" and who's known for his stinging criticism of those he deems to have no talent, said Boyle's performance was fantastic. \"I knew the minute you walked out on that stage that we were going to hear something extraordinary,\" he proclaimed. His fellow judge, Piers Morgan, said it was \"the biggest surprise I have had in three years on this show.\" \"When you stood there, with that cheeky grin, and said, 'I want to be like Elaine Paige' everyone was laughing at you. No one is laughing now. That was stunning. An incredible performance,\" Morgan said, adding he was reeling from shock. Amanda Holden, the third judge, had tears in her eyes and described Boyle's singing as \"a privilege to hear.\" A clip of her performance on YouTube.com has had more than 5 million hits, and many fans say they were moved to tears by the story. Boyle said after the show that she felt \"bloody fantastic.\" Each of the three judges voted \"yes\" to Boyle's return to the actual competition round of the show. The performance this weekend came during the auditions.","highlights":"47-year-old British charity worker wows Simon Cowell with singing .\nClip of Susan Boyle singing has become a YouTube sensation .\nBoyle, from West Lothian, Scotland, said she wanted to be a professional singer .","id":"037aed364e37751b9006496b2c531babf5843648"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Basketball great Charles Barkley began serving a three-day sentence in Arizona's infamous Tent City on Saturday, jailed by the same sheriff whose autobiography he endorsed 12 years ago. Charles Barkley bristled at the implication he should be wearing stripes instead of a red-and-bue sweatsuit. \"You come here when you screw up,\" Barkley said at a news conference hours after he reported at the Maricopa County jail. \"I don't blame anybody for this situation but myself.\" Barkley, 45, pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor drunken-driving charges stemming from a New Year's Eve arrest after he left a Scottsdale, Arizona, nightclub. A judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail, but his sentence was reduced in exchange for Barkley's attending an alcohol-awareness course. At the news conference, Barkley sat next to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed \"Toughest Sheriff in America.\" Arpaio is known for giving inmates old-fashioned, black-and-white-striped uniforms, making some of them live in tents and reinstituting chain gangs, even for women. \"I'm an equal incarcerator,\" Arpaio said of Barkley, who will be sleeping in one of the tents. \"We don't discriminate.\" He said Barkley has been \"a gentleman, cordial.\" \"He's taking his medicine,\" Arpaio said. \"I hope that something comes out of this.\" In a free-wheeling news conference, Barkley spoke out against drunken driving, made some observations about President Obama (\"Rush Limbaugh and a lot of jackasses are giving him a hard time right now\") and commented on felony charges singer Chris Brown faces for allegedly beating his girlfriend, singer Rhianna. Watch Barkley speak at news conference \u00bb . \"I wish both of them the best, but it's never acceptable to hit a woman. Period,\" Barkley said. Barkley wore a red-and-blue sweatsuit, not the black-and-white stripes that other inmates -- who watched the news conference through a chain-link fence --were wearing. Barkley said it's because he's on the jail's work-release program, and bristled at questions about it. \"None of the work-release people do that,\" he said. \"But if y'all really, really want to put me as low as I can go, I can do that and make you feel better. \"I know when [someone is] famous, you like to see people humiliated.\" Arpaio, who joked with Barkley over the pink underwear he routinely issues inmates, held up a copy of his 1996 book, \"America's Toughest Sheriff.\" On its back cover, alongside endorsements by Limbaugh, Arizona Sen. John McCain and others, is one from Barkley. \"This man, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is a role model for all Americans,\" Barkley wrote in the blurb. Barkley is a basketball commentator for TNT, which like CNN is a Time Warner company. A star for the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns, Barkley was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 1993 and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2006.","highlights":"Charles Barkley begins serving 3-day jail sentence in Maricopa County, Arizona .\nThe jailer is the sheriff whose autobiography Barkley endorsed 12 years ago .\nBarkley speaks out against drunken driving during topically diverse news conference .\n\"He's taking his medicine,\" Sheriff Joe Arpaio says of his famous inmate .","id":"1b6b366433a53d03c661f099c875b53b7f8f0312"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President George W. Bush granted pardons Tuesday to 19 citizens charged with a variety of crimes, but none was prominent. President Bush walks down the White House Collonade on Tuesday as he departs for Camp David. Presidential pardon lists are being closely monitored in the final weeks of the Bush administration, particularly to see whether former vice presidential aide Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby will be granted the presidential favor. One of the men pardoned is Charles Winters, who died almost 25 years ago. His son had worked on winning a presidential pardon for his dad, who had helped smuggle weapons to Jews fighting in what was then Palestine in the late 1940s. A Protestant from Boston, Massachusetts, Winters spent 18 months behind bars. He was the only U.S. citizen to serve time for helping fly weapons to Jews struggling to create Israel. A 20th person received a commutation of a life sentence for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. That individual, Reed Raymond Prior, was ordered released from prison in February 2009. He will have served more than 12 years. \"We commend President Bush's decision to grant a commutation to Reed Prior, who is deserving of a second chance,\" Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said in a written statement. \"Of course, clemencies only underscore the larger problem -- the systemic injustice caused by mandatory minimum sentences that fill the prisons with low-level drug offenders in the first place.\" Bush has granted 191 pardons and nine commutations, far fewer than Presidents Clinton and Reagan in their two-term administrations. Read the full list of pardons . Among the more notable who have applied for some form of clemency are: . \u2022 Former Rep. Randall \"Duke\" Cunningham, Republican from California, who was convicted of receiving bribes. \u2022 Publishing executive Conrad Black, who was found guilty of fraud. \u2022 Former junk bold salesman Michael Milken. \u2022 Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, convicted of accounting fraud. The parents of John Walker Lindh, who was given a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to supporting terrorists in Afghanistan, held a news conference last week urging Bush to commute their son's sentence. It is unclear how many more requests Bush may grant before leaving office, although administration officials have said they do not expect any last-minute announcements, as was seen when President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich, setting off a firestorm of controversy. A commutation reduces a convict's prison term, but the conviction remains on the person's record. A pardon, however, wipes the slate clean by erasing the record of the conviction. A president has the sole authority to grant clemency and to whom, although a Justice Department office usually reviews applications and makes recommendations after considering standards such as a person's degree of remorse and ability to lead a responsible and productive life after release. Those applying for a pardon through the Justice Department are required to wait at least five years after their conviction or release from confinement. Roughly 1,300 requests for commutation and 860 pardon applications are still pending. There is a long tradition of presidents issuing pardons and commutations during the holiday season.","highlights":"President Bush continues a Christmas tradition by issuing pardons .\nConvicted Cheney aide Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby is not among those pardoned .\nPosthumous pardon issued for man who ran guns to Israeli Jews in late 1940s .\nLife sentence of man convicted of methamphetamine commuted .","id":"c09342103be91dd0c3d05296b5895e8e30bed088"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While there may be a fascination with Nadya Suleman and her brood, she is hardly the first. \"Jon & Kate Plus 8\" is one of the more popular shows featuring a large family with multiples. The mother of 14, dubbed \"Octomom\" after the birth of her octuplets in January, is the target of much speculation these days as to whether she and her multitude will become the subjects of a reality show. But programming centered on large families and those containing multiples has long been popular. With so many struggling to keep up with the homework and extracurricular activities -- as well as the financial responsibilities -- of one or two children, American viewers seem fascinated with watching parents juggle life with so many kids. \"People tell me all the time, 'But for the grace of God it could be me,' \" said Bill Hayes, founder of Figure 8 Films, the production company behind the popular shows \"Jon & Kate Plus Eight\" and \"18 and Counting,\" the latter of which features the Duggar family. \"People relate that it's a challenge to have any children, much less so many.\" \"Jon & Kate Plus Eight\" has been a ratings juggernaut and follows the lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin and their eight children, including fraternal twin girls and a mixed-sex set of fraternal sextuplets (three girls and three boys). Watch Kate Gosselin discuss the challenges of parenting \u00bb . Hayes' company brought the family's story to television, as well as that of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, who are the parents of 18 children (all conceived without the use of fertility drugs). The Duggars recently announced they're soon to be first-time grandparents. Viewers enjoy watching wholesome, family programming, especially when the subjects are as relatable as the Gosselins, Hayes said. The couple is often shown dealing with the stress that comes with having eight children under the age of 9. \"Family is very important for many people,\" he said. \"Most of us struggle with our family lives. It's not easy typically in most families. We're fortunate that Jon and Kate are very emotionally honest and they come clean.\" Fame comes with a cost, however, and the couple has become tabloid fodder with stories of interfamily squabbles and marital discord. Cable networks like TLC, Discovery Health (which are both a part of Discovery Communications) and WE: Women's Entertainment have found success with programming about super-sized families. Imitation is the sincerest form of television, comedian Fred Allen once said, and TLC in particular has made the most of its large families. In addition to the Gosselins and the Duggars, the network recently debuted \"Table for 12,\" which chronicles the daily experiences of Eric and Betty Hayes and their three sets of multiples. All told, the Hayeses have 10 children, including a special-needs child. Eileen O'Neill, president and general manger for TLC, said viewers tune in to see how it all works. \"There's that innate kind of curiosity about a family on a scale of the Duggars or 'Jon & Kate,' whether it's multiples or sheer number,\" O'Neill said. (She should know: She's a twin herself.) \"Those logistics are fascinating as well as entertaining and ultimately inspiring. So many of us are part of families or run a family and I think seeing it on a super-sized level is inherently appealing.\" As more women turn to fertility medication to help them conceive, the odds of multiple births increase. Maureen Doolan Boyle is executive director of MOST (Mothers of SuperTwins) a Long Island, New York-based organization that has worked with more than 20,000 families since its founding in 1987. Attitudes about multiple births vary around the world, Doolan Boyle said. In some cultures a large brood is welcomed; in others, it's viewed as a \"freak show\" or a curse. Canada's Dionne quintuplets, a group of five girls born to an Ontario farming family in 1934, became such a sideshow. When the girls were 5 months old, the provincial government declared the parents unfit and put the sisters under the care of a doctor and other guardians. The Dionnes were put on display in a nursery across the road from their family's farmhouse, becoming a huge tourist attraction. They even appeared in a handful of films before their parents regained custody in 1943. That \"freak show factor\" is one of the reasons there has been so much buzz surrounding Suleman and her family of 14 children, said Michael Levine of LCO, a Los Angeles-based public relations firm. Watch whether Suleman is close to signing a deal \u00bb . As reality shows push boundaries to gain viewers, Levine said he understands the interest in a series on the octuplet mom and her family, but adds that he has doubts a deal can be struck because of the liability issues surrounding putting the children on television. \"What was novel three years ago is no longer novel, and I predict craziness to be the order of the day when it comes to reality television,\" he said. Still, he sees the attraction: \"Big families provide a very wonderful context for a lot of conflict and complexity that most people can relate to,\" he said. TLC's O'Neill said there are no plans at this time to have a Suleman show on her network. \"We are watching that story develop at a distance and hoping for the best for that family,\" O'Neill said.","highlights":"Reality shows about large families bring big ratings for cable networks .\nTLC is one that has found success featuring super-sized families .\nBuzz surrounds possible show featuring octuplet mom and her children .\nExpert: Such large families offer \"freak show\" factor .","id":"bde0440a4b7031128f6d589c0c02b280151e3eb0"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In the movies, \"the suburbs\" are never just a place. They're a state of mind, a mythology we all know in our bones. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio share a happy moment in \"Revolutionary Road.\" The myth goes something like this: The suburbs are comfortable, maybe even beautiful, but their serenity is rooted in a friendly American conformity, so that the people who live there have to repress their true selves, which will emerge when they drink too much and have affairs, or rage at each other for their dishonesty, which was all caused in the first place by ... the suburbs. The best thing about \"Revolutionary Road,\" a cool-blooded and disquieting adaptation of Richard Yates' 1961 novel about a powerfully unhappy Connecticut couple, is that it doesn't end with that rote vision of bourgeois anomie. It only begins there. Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) are about 30, with two kids, and both believe they can evade the traps of the existence they've chosen. The year is 1955, and Frank has a New York job that bores him, marketing business machines. He takes solace in feeling superior to his work, and also in his midday martinis and occasional dip into the secretarial pool. April, meanwhile, wanted to be an actress, and still feels she's meant for higher things. Watch DiCaprio and Winslet talk about their reunion \u00bb . Moved to reach for something more, April comes up with a plan: She and Frank will sell their home and move to Paris, where she'll work as a government secretary and he will ... find himself. (It's like a '60s fantasy a decade ahead of time.) \"Revolutionary Road\" was directed by Sam Mendes, who made the glibly scathing \"American Beauty,\" only here he wants us to share not just Frank and April's misery but the frail reveries that hold them together. The escape-to-Paris idea is naive, impractical -- a pipe dream. Yet it's fueled by something Mendes captures about the '50s, an era when people often had deep imaginative sparks that exceeded their ability to voice them. Winslet has the tricky job of making us see the glimmer of wisdom in April's cockeyed plan, and she pulls it off, even as DiCaprio's Frank -- chipper, forthright, wholesome even in betrayal -- tugs the couple back to reality. \"Revolutionary Road\" has deception, adultery, operatic shouting, the then-forbidden specter of abortion, and a few scenes that spotlight the remarkable performance of Michael Shannon as John Givings, a mathematician who's been hospitalized for insanity, and who proves how unfit for society he is by making every acid comment cut to the truths that no one else will speak. The film is lavishly dark -- some might say too dark -- yet I'd suggest it has a different limitation: For all its shattering domestic discord, there's something remote and aestheticized about it. April brings a private well of conflict to her middle-class prison, but Winslet is so meticulous in her telegraphed despair that she intrigues us, moves us, yet never quite touches our unguarded nerves. EW Grade: B+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Revolutionary Road\" story of two suburbanites wanting to break free .\nLeonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give good performances .\nMovie suffers from some glibness, but many parts cut through .","id":"f8e81666343a546623d2ad7c5005ec5a3b6d073b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- India is trying to reclaim the famous metal-rimmed glasses and some other artifacts from freedom leader Mahatma Gandhi that are up for auction next week in New York, a top official said Saturday. Mahatma Gandhi was known for his peaceful opposition to tyranny, which led to India's independence. \"The government will be doing whatever is required to get them back,\" India's culture ministry secretary Jawhar Sircar told CNN. He said there were \"several options\" in place for India. When asked whether India planned any indirect participation in the bidding reportedly scheduled next week at the Antiquorum auction house on New York's Madison Avenue, he said it is one of the \"speculative\" options. \"I can't disclose what (exactly) those options are. But we are doing something,\" Sircar remarked. The glasses are scheduled to be auctioned off along with Gandhi's pocketwatch, sandals, bowl, and plate with letters of authenticity, according to the Web site for Antiquorum, which specializes in watches. The glasses and other items are estimated to sell for as much as $30,000, the Web site said. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Auction scheduled to take place in New York .\nGlasses and other items estimated to sell for as much as $30,000 .\nIndian official: India has \"several options\"\nGandhi's pocketwatch, sandals, bowl, and plate among items on auction .","id":"23bc3d595c3d8f6046a2c84b497c0538296a1f31"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Nathaniel Frank is author of \"Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America\" and is senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara, that has focused on gender, sexuality and the military. He also teaches on the adjunct faculty at New York University. Nathaniel Frank says there's no evidence that letting gays serve openly would harm the military. (CNN) -- This week, four senior retired officers wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post predicting \"grave harm\" to the military if President Obama moves forward with his vow to let gays serve openly. \"Our experience,\" they wrote, \"and that of more than 1,000 retired flag and general officers,\" suggest that lifting the ban would harm unit cohesion, recruitment and retention, and would ultimately \"break the All-Volunteer Force.\" The argument is an old one, and was an effective canard in defeating President Clinton's move to lift the ban in 1993. But it has never been rooted in fact or evidence, and the effort of these officers to defeat equal treatment this time around will face mountains of opposing data and a dramatically changed cultural landscape. The officers who oppose openly gay service do not base their arguments on any new information. In addition to their own experience -- an impressive credential that's nevertheless too vague to hang an argument on -- the officers rely on a single poll. They cite an unscientific survey -- it does not draw from a representative sampling but from newspaper subscribers -- indicating that 58 percent of the military oppose lifting the ban and that, if it's lifted, 24 percent claim they will leave or consider leaving after their tour ends. But it's na\u00efve at best, and disingenuous at worst, to confuse this opinion survey with a sound prediction of actual behavior. When both Britain and Canada proposed lifting their gay bans in the 1990s, similar opinion surveys found much higher numbers -- about two-thirds in both cases -- claiming they, too, would leave. In each case, no more than three departures were attributed to the policy change. Three. In fact, the evidence showing that openly gay service works is overwhelming. Since 1957, when the U.S. military began doing its own studies on gays in the military, every last bit of research has shown that openly gay service works. Studies of foreign militaries include a 1993 Government Accountability Office study of allied nations that found that \"the presence of homosexuals in the military is not an issue and has not created problems in the functioning of military units\"; a 1994 assessment by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences finding that predicted negative consequences of ending gay exclusion in the Canadian Forces never materialized; the 2000 assessment of the British Ministry of Defense, calling its new policy of equal treatment \"a solid achievement\" with \"no discernible impact\" on recruitment or other critical variables; and four academic studies conducted by the Palm Center, where I work, finding that lifting bans in Britain, Israel, Canada and Australia had no negative impact on military readiness, including on recruitment and retention. The officers writing in The Washington Post question the relevance of foreign militaries to this debate, mocking the idea that the U.S. military \"must emulate Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada.\" But they failed to note that 24 of our closest allies let gays serve openly, including Britain, whose combat-tested soldiers and sailors serve shoulder to shoulder with U.S. forces. While our military and culture are unique in the world, it's an astonishing vote of no-confidence in American troops to say that they are not capable of doing what 24 other militaries have done successfully. Ours is a professional, disciplined fighting force, and the assertion that a diverse military would lack order and discipline is, as Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq War veteran, has said, \"an insult\" to him and the entire U.S. military. But it's not just foreign militaries that provide real evidence on gay service. A majority of U.S. troops know of, or suspect, gays in their units, giving the lie to the most basic assumption underlying the gay ban: that openly gay service could never work. After all, gays are already serving, and serving openly, without causing problems. Yet despite the law's failure to keep many open gays out, the ban's persistence means that gay troops are subject to random dismissals and are often unable to access military support services for fear of being found out and fired. Even extensive research by our own military has concluded the gay ban is unnecessary, including a large 1993 study by the RAND Corporation -- a think tank created by the military itself -- and two official military studies -- a 1989 study by the Defense Personnel Security Research Center and the Navy's 1957 Crittenden report -- which all found sexual orientation is irrelevant to military performance. Indeed, neither the military nor anyone else has ever turned up a shred of evidence tying openly gay service to impairment of the military. When the officers' claims are pitted against the wealth of actual facts and research on this issue, they are shown for what they really are: fear and intolerance, rooted in a world that's largely disappeared. Indeed, the vast majority of these retired officers, including the authors of this week's op-ed, retired before the current \"don't ask, don't tell\" policy even began in 1994. Their military is not the same as today's, where three-quarters of troops are \"personally comfortable\" with gays and lesbians, and \"don't ask, don't tell\" is considered \"a joke.\" These officers attribute current efforts to lift the ban to \"gay rights activists,\" when in fact, according to consistent polling, four-fifths of the American public favors repeal, including majorities of Republicans, conservatives and even churchgoers. It also includes many retired officers who did serve under, and used to support, the current policy, such as Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who sees the ban as a threat to military readiness. The officers say there is \"no compelling national security reason\" to accept the \"risks\" of lifting the ban, which they say include the likely loss of \"experienced personnel who are not easily replaced.\" But under current policy, more than 800 \"mission-critical specialists\" have been fired just because they're gay, including more than 60 Arabic linguists. Due to the military's overall struggle to meet its recruiting goals, it has had to lower standards and admit convicted felons. Kicking out capable troops while replacing them with ex-convicts is not a recipe for good order and discipline. Forcing soldiers to lie to each other is not good for morale or cohesion. Drumming out Arabic linguists at a time when we don't have enough to translate what our enemies are saying is bad, not good, for national security. If these officers care more about our nation than about preserving an embalmed military culture, they'll cease and desist. The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Nathaniel Frank .","highlights":"Nathaniel Frank: Some retired military officers oppose letting gay troops serve .\nHe says they don't understand wide acceptance of gays today in military .\nHe says many other nations have approved gay service without harm .\nFrank: Polls vastly exaggerate number of officers who might leave .","id":"4a36de5870c5814e2ca9149c94ec96168ddee3f7"} -{"article":"SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (CNN) -- The official count of confirmed deaths grew to 15 Friday afternoon, one day after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook north central Costa Rica, a government emergency official said. iReporter Leonardo Diaz photographed the damage in Plaza Mayor Shopping Center in San Jose. Reinaldo Carballo, a spokesman for the federal Commission for National Emergencies, said the updated death toll came from information given to the agency by Costa Rica Vice President Rodrigo Arias. In addition, Carballo said, rescuers were trying to reach 300 tourists stranded in a hotel in Varablanca. Carballo said he did not know the tourists' nationalities or the name of the hotel. There were conflicting reports on the number of dead from Thursday's earthquake. The Commission for National Emergencies had issued a news release earlier Friday saying the quake had killed four people. Also earlier Friday, Red Cross official Milton Chaverri told CNN there were 14 dead and 22 missing. Red Cross spokeswoman Fiorella Vilca said Friday afternoon there were nine dead and 42 missing. The discrepancy may result from the fact that the Commission for National Emergencies reports only deaths it has confirmed, Carballo said. About 32 people were injured, he said. On Friday, the U.S. government dispatched a team of 34 U.S. military personnel and four helicopters from Honduras-based Joint Task Force-Bravo to Costa Rica to assist. Survivors described the suddenness and brutality of the quake. Landslides, tumbling rocks and collapsed buildings caused widespread devastation and death. \"I saw how the earth moved and how it took my family -- my aunt, my cousin and her babies,\" Miguel Angel Marin told CNN affiliate Teletica TV. \"It was very hard because I wanted to save them, but I couldn't.\" A sobbing Vilma Cambronero was asked what happened to her family. \"Some are well,\" she said. \"Others are buried.\" An unidentified woman told Teletica, \"Everything started to move and everything fell on top of us. It was a miracle we got out.\" More than 1,200 people were stranded, without a way to get out of towns or homes, Chaverri said. Another 1,000 people were living in shelters, he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . \"Many people were injured, many buildings were damaged and landslides blocked roads in the area,\" the U.S. Geological Survey said. The dead included three young girls, officials said Friday. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez was scheduled to tour the affected area Friday. On Thursday, he appealed for calm. The remote area near Alajuela, where the quake hit strongest, is difficult to reach, and officials said they were having to rely on helicopters for medical evacuations and to airlift supplies. Randall Picado, a government rescue official, said many residents were without water and other necessities. About 400 volunteers and Red Cross personnel were giving aid in 15 communities, Chaverri said. The temblor was felt throughout Costa Rica and in southern and central Nicaragua, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site. \"I felt the earthquake,\" Costa Rican office worker Erick Solorzano told CNN in an iReport message. \"I work in a sixth floor, and it was very strong. We felt the building was going to collapse.\" About 2,000 aftershocks have been felt in San Jose, the capital, and other cities throughout the nation, Red Cross spokeswoman Vilca said. The Geological Survey placed the earthquake's epicenter at 20 miles (32 kilometers) north-northwest of San Jose at a depth of 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers).","highlights":"NEW: Rescuers trying to reach 300 tourists stranded in hotel .\nNEW: \"I saw how the earth moved and how it took my family,\" survivor says .\nReports on number of people killed in quake conflict; up to 42 may be missing .\nMore than 1,200 stranded, 1,000 more in shelters, Red Cross official says .","id":"752e202a0ecdebe8e66537e1a4d358703aa6290b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Television and YouTube singing sensation Susan Boyle has promised to be on her best behavior if she wins the right to sing for the queen. Susan Boyle sings \"I Dreamed a Dream\" -- and becomes a worldwide sensation. The 47-year-old Boyle, who says she has never been kissed, was catapulted into the spotlight after her rendition of \"I Dreamed a Dream\" from the musical \"Les Miserables,\" on the television show \"Britain's Got Talent\" at the weekend. The winner of the show gets to sing for the queen at the Royal Variety Show. Boyle has a long way to go though -- having just won through to the second round after judge Simon Cowell described her first performance as \"extraordinary.\" Still, she was already thinking of how she would behave. \"Whatever comes my way, I am ready. It would be lovely to sing for the queen. There would be less of the carry on from me, and more of the singing. Watch Boyle tell CNN 'it must have been a miracle' \u00bb . \"She is a very regal lady, very nice, so I would be nice too, and just get up there and give it a bit of wellie (try),\" Boyle told the show's Web site. Boyle said she was trying to take her new found fame in her stride. \"It's a challenge. Life is a challenge sometimes but this is different. And I like to test myself. \"If it all gets too much and they lock me up, I want a great big strait-jacket with spots on it. A pink one... and a big zip on the back so I can escape.\" A clip of Boyle's performance had more than 11 million views on YouTube by Thursday, and the world's media have beaten a path to her door in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland. Watch Boyle's singing wow the world \u00bb . Cowell is reportedly already trying to piece together a record deal for Boyle, an unemployed charity worker, who lives with her cat, Pebbles. For fans of Boyle, who attracted laughs and sniggers when she first appeared on stage before winning a standing ovation, the album cannot come quick enough. CNN has been inundated with hundreds of messages of support for Boyle. Simone said: \"I've been so depressed all day but hearing this woman sing and reading her story gave me a pick-me-up... I look forward to hearing more of her and I hope to buy her CD as soon as it hits the shelves.\" Cynthia wanted Cowell to move quickly. \"She brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. I hope Simon does get her a record contract...I'll buy her CD. Never judge a book by it's cover. Susan Boyle, you go, girl!\" Jim described Boyle's talent as \"unbelievable\" and \"beautiful.\" \"I wish Susan the very best in her new life and hopefully someone has put her under contract. Thank you for such a beautiful song.\" Larry wanted to offer Boyle a kiss. \"I have just heard you sing for the first time -- thanks to CNN -- and I must tell you this: You are a fabulous talent, simply amazing to me that no one took advantage of your voice and passion up until now. I am a happily married man, but if I were not, and if I was in the audience, I can guarantee you that I would ask for a kiss, and if you were gracious enough to indulge me, well that would have been one of the great highlights of my life. Looking forward to the first of many albums.\"","highlights":"Unexpected star grabs spotlight with more than 11 million YouTube hits .\nSusan Boyle fans want her to release an album -- now .\nPerformance on \"Britain's Got Talent\" won standing ovation .\nThe unemployed charity worker lives in northeast Scotland with pet cat .","id":"501981818af32cfe828a5abab8cf7217df416420"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Everyone aboard US Airways Flight 1549 survived when the plane crash-landed into the Hudson River, and that may be due as much to diligent rescue training as luck. Passengers and crew line up outside the plane as boats move in to rescue them. The Coast Guard rescuers who quickly got to the scene and many of the ferries and boats that first responded train for water rescues. \"We, the Coast Guard, we do train for these type of events and these type of situations, scenarios, and one thing we do try to do is try to coordinate with our other maritime agency partners [so] that incidents like this go off without a hitch or as safely as possible,\" said Coast Guard Lt. C.K. Moore, who helped coordinate the response. Within minutes of the plane crash-landing into the water, the aircraft was surrounded by ferry boats that had been making their regularly scheduled trips across the Hudson and other boats coordinated by, and including, the Coast Guard. The passengers had begun exiting the plane -- getting into rafts or standing on the wings. But as more people began to exit, the plane started to become submerged and passengers' feet started getting cold. See photos of the crash and rescue . The quick response may have helped save the lives of passengers, who if not for the rescuers may have been subjected to the frigid Hudson water. It's one of the things Moore said the Coast Guard focuses on during water rescues, especially in the winter. After only three minutes in cold water, people can lose the use of their arms and legs, according to the Oregon State Marine Board. At the time of the crash it was 21 degrees outside, the water temperature in the Hudson was 32.5 degrees and winds were blowing at 15 mph. Oregon State Marine Board: Surviving cold water immersion . Thankfully for passengers, ferry captains like Brittany Catanzaro came quickly to their rescue. Watch passengers describe what happened \u00bb . She was at the helm of a New York Waterway ferry during a normal commute across the river when she looked to her right and saw a plane in the water. \"I had to do a double-take,\" she said. But Catanzaro knew exactly what to do. She said she and her crew train each month for water rescues. \"We have to do man overboard, and we're constantly drilling. Constantly,\" she said. \"And when something comes, you already know how to take effect and how to put everything together, so it just went very smoothly.\" Catanzaro immediately told her crew to get life jackets on, take extras to throw in the water, and prepare a cradle to help bring passengers onto the boat. The boat was the second on the scene. \"When I got there, my crew went to work and started pulling out people,\" she said. \"Some people were sighing with relief, some people were crying. It was nerve-wracking.\" In all, Catanzaro's crew helped bring 24 people aboard. \"I was telling my crew, even if we pulled out one person, that was one more person we saved,\" she said. \"And to pull out 24 people, that's 24 people.\" The Coast Guard was able to pluck at least 35 people from the water and wing of the plane. Catanzaro's crew and the Coast Guard were able to take nearly half the plane's passengers out of the Hudson. That's a credit to their training, Moore said, which is done exactly for this scenario. \"We do train with each other from time to time to understand what each other can bring to the table when it comes to -- to search and rescue,\" he said. \"This is one of the situations where this has come to fruition, and it's a great -- it's a great thing to see it happen like this.\"","highlights":"Coast Guard, ferry training enable quick response, rescue .\nFerry captain says they drill each month for man overboard scenarios .\nBoats help pluck passengers off wings, out of the water .\nCoast Guard lieutenant: \"It's a great thing to see it happen like this\"","id":"3396db18936fcaaf1e8839da7dc50ca6ba2b6ce9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man suspected in the slayings of his girlfriend and her four children admitted choking the Oklahoma woman to death, but said the children were not present at the time, according to an affidavit filed in the case. Joshua Steven Durcho was arrested Tuesday after a car chase with police. Joshua Steven Durcho, 25, was arrested Tuesday night in Hamilton County, Texas, officials said. He is suspected of killing Summer Rust, 25; her son Teagin, 4; and daughters Evynn, 3, and Autumn and Kirsten, both 7. All five bodies were found in Rust's apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City, on Monday. Durcho's first cousin notified authorities he found the body of Rust, who is identified in the affidavit as Summer Dawn Garas. Police also found the children's bodies in the apartment, according to the affidavit, written by a special agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and filed Tuesday in Canadian County, Oklahoma, District Court. \"The Medical Examiner's Office has reported to our agents that the preliminary assessment of the cause and manner of death for all five individuals was asphyxiation, suffocation and strangulation,\" the affidavit said. \"It was also reported that each body had ligature marks around the neck. The ligature marks were also observed by OSBI crime scene investigators.\" A spokeswoman for the state medical examiner's office told CNN on Wednesday that the cause of death for Summer Rust and Teagin was strangulation, and that a ligature -- which could include a string, cord or wire -- was used to strangle them. Autopsies on the three girls were being conducted Wednesday, the spokeswoman said. A woman told police Durcho came to her apartment Monday afternoon and told her he had \"choked\" Summer Rust to death and that he was leaving Oklahoma, according to the affidavit. The woman asked Durcho about Rust's children, the affidavit said, and \"Durcho told her that the children were at their grandmother's residence ... while he and Summer worked out their relationship problems.\" The woman called Durcho's mother and told her what he had said about killing Rust, the affidavit said. Durcho's mother drove to the apartment to check on the woman, but no one answered her knocks. She then called her nephew, Durcho's cousin, to accompany her, leading to the discovery of Rust's body, according to the document. About 6:30 p.m. Monday, the affidavit said, Durcho went to the home of another cousin, a female, and told her \"he was in trouble and that he was headed out of state.\" Durcho was driving Rust's 1989 white Ford Thunderbird, the document said, and asked his cousin to swap cars with him, but she declined. A surveillance video showed Durcho at a truck stop on Interstate 40 about three hours later, driving the Thunderbird, the affidavit said. Early Tuesday morning, a text message was sent from a cell phone in Durcho's possession to his mother's cell phone, according to the affidavit. Tracking and cell phone records showed Durcho's phone was located in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the time. Later that morning, Durcho called his mother, with the call shown to be from the Abilene, Texas, area, the affidavit said. Durcho's mother said \"Durcho told her he loved her and had to go,\" according to the document. Police said Durcho was arrested after a car chase Tuesday night. A Texas state trooper attempted to stop the car Durcho was driving because the trooper suspected the driver was drunk, according to Erin Mangrum of the Canadian County sheriff's office. When the trooper ran the license plate on the car, it matched the tag number of a vehicle sought by Oklahoma police. The car sped off, Mangrum said, and during the ensuing chase the car crashed. Durcho suffered only minor injuries and was taken into custody, Mangrum said. A court hearing was to be held for Durcho on Wednesday in Hamilton County, according to CNN affiliates. The Hamilton County district attorney's office did not immediately return a call from CNN. Durcho was being held in the county jail Tuesday night, Mangrum said. Rust's mother, Susan Rust of Carson City, Nevada, said Durcho was unemployed and had been living with Rust and her children.","highlights":"NEW: Affidavit describes suspect's actions after slayings .\nMother, son strangled with ligature, autopsy shows .\nSuspect arrested after chase in Texas .\nFamily found dead in Oklahoma apartment on Monday .","id":"e6cb97ec15d19a91641c5319f6faba063ffa6b1d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Republican Leslie Sanchez was director of the White House Initiative on Hispanic Education from 2001 to 2003 and author of \"Los Republicanos: Why Hispanics and Republicans Need Each Other.\" She is CEO of the Impacto Group, which specializes in market research about women and Hispanics. Leslie Sanchez says Republicans should treat Hispanics as part of the mainstream of America. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the members of the Republican National Committee prepare to choose a party chairman to serve for the next two years, the calls for new \"Hispanic outreach\" initiatives are flying -- in my view, unnecessarily. It is probably true that President Obama's election marks the beginning of a post-partisan, post-racial America, or at least a time when these issues are less divisive than in years past. But will the two political parties be as able to look beyond the stereotypes of Latinos and what the Latino experience is in this country, as they have for other ethnic and racial groups? As Republicans, we need to win at least 35 percent of the Hispanic vote to win the presidency. In 2008, John McCain got 31 percent, slightly exceeding the average for the past eight presidential elections. We've had our high points (George W. Bush 2004, 44 percent) and low points (Bob Dole 1996, 21 percent). Ten years ago, as an RNC press aide, I was given the responsibility for developing a team that would design a multimillion-dollar ad strategy to appeal to the nation's emerging Latino electorate. We conducted seminal research on Hispanic voting patterns that is still of value today. For example, we identified a \"GOP Upside\" of another 25 percent of Hispanics who were voting Democrat on the generic presidential ballot question but would be interested in voting for a Republican who offered a campaign agenda focused on family, education and job-creation issues. So it is mystifying to me to hear the ongoing references to the party's need to find \"a new way\" to speak to the nation's largest minority bloc. It's like being asked to reinvent the wheel. This isn't just a Republican problem. Democrats do this too, relating to Latinos as if we're primarily poor, immigrant or both. It doesn't work anymore, if it ever did. And although the anti-immigrant rhetoric spouted by Tom Tancredo and others was offensive to Hispanics and projected a \"We don't want you here\" image for the GOP, the fact is that it was offensive to a lot of other people, too. In the age of Obama, that kind of exclusive message is just not marketable. If Republicans truly want to develop a winning strategy for appealing to Hispanics, they need look no further than Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. They appealed to them not as Hispanics or immigrants but as Americans with an equal stake in the future of the country. What Hispanics want, and what we as Republicans want them to want, is to be included in the American experience. During the period in which Hispanics constituted a small minority of the overall nation, efforts like Richard Nixon's to ensure that they were counted in the national census were important because it meant inclusion. When people believe that they are already part of a community, such patently obvious efforts come across as patronizing. Hispanics, especially young professionals like me who were born and raised here in the United States, believe that we deserve more than a couple of high-profile meetings and a few Spanish-language ads. That was certainly true during the 2008 presidential campaign, which had little to interest Hispanics at all. McCain trumpeted his record as a champion of comprehensive immigration reform to Hispanics, while his campaign tried to make him more palatable to Republican conservatives by de-emphasizing his record as a champion of comprehensive immigration reform. McCain was hurt among Latinos by the perception that he caved in on immigration enforcement and abandoned his own bill. Obama's campaign message to Hispanics, though delivered largely in Spanish through his campaign Web site, was patronizing. In the summary of issues for his Latino Blueprint for Change, Obama talked about a narrow group of issues that, in my view, are important to only a small percentage of Latinos. For example, on education, his message focused largely on English as a second language and in-state tuition for undocumented students. On immigration, he tried to counter the Republicans. On jobs and the economy, he highlighted the minimum wage. These issues, which may have been important to a majority of Hispanics when Cesar Chavez was leading striking farm workers, are not at the top of the list for Hispanics today. To remain largely focused on them is to patronize millions of upwardly mobile Hispanics who are not immigrants and who don't think of themselves as hyphenated Americans. Which is probably why Obama's echoing of Chavez's \"S\u00ed, Se Puede!\" during his concession speech after the Texas primary was met with silence and blank stares. Hispanic political sophistication is increasing alongside Hispanic economic progress. A new HispanTelligence Research report suggests that the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States will increase to 4.3 million over the next six years. We need to appreciate that it is not the message as much as it is the audience. Speaking past Hispanics or down to Hispanics is not the way to invite them into a long-term relationship. We no longer see ourselves as hyphens or as members of the Hispanic community only; we see ourselves as Americans, with a broad array of interests. Before the development of the virtual world, communities were defined by geography, ethnicity, religion, income, race and other elements that were as apparent to those inside a community as outside it. Now, through social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, which the Obama campaign exploited to new degrees of success, people are developing their own communities of common interest. Hispanics want to see the political parties realize that they do, in fact, belong to the larger community called \"America\" as well as myriad interest groups. We may choose to define ourselves as part of certain \"ethnic\" or \"interest\" groups. It's not the job of a political party to define us. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Leslie Sanchez.","highlights":"Leslie Sanchez: Republicans are talking about a new outreach to Hispanics .\nShe says Hispanics are part of the American mainstream with broad interests .\nSanchez: Candidates, including Obama, talked about narrow issues .\nShe says Hispanics want to be seen as Americans, with a stake in the future .","id":"eeac2c62d8bbdd73ce8ec2a68c9649016ae905fb"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jon Hamm has a confession to make: He hates his hair. Jon Hamm poses with his partner, Jennifer Westfeldt, at the premiere of \"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\" That may come as a surprise to fans of the actor, whose slick-backed hair is part of his signature look on \"Mad Men\" -- the show that just earned him another Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a TV drama. In the new movie \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" Hamm sports a slightly different 'do, with his bangs combed rakishly over one eye. It was in the context of promoting the sci-fi remake that Hamm revealed his tonsorial frustration. \"It's the bane of my existence. Goofy hair,\" he said in a self-deprecating interview with CNN. \"It never looks good ... It's a pain.\" Hamm says he's always worn his hair long, but had to cut it for AMC's TV series, in which he plays a 1960s Madison Avenue ad executive. He says stylists on the show, armed with hair spray and blow dryers, mold his coiffure into a hard shell. Helmet hair has come in handy at work. \"I've had a piece of the set fall on my head and my hair didn't move,\" he said. \"I had seven stitches in my head and my hair didn't move. That's impressive.\" Whether it's his hair, good looks, acting chops or a combination thereof, Hamm's star is on the rise in Hollywood. Apart from his co-starring role in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" Hamm recently completed work on the murder mystery \"The Boy in the Box.\" He hosted \"Saturday Night Live\" this fall, he's due to play Tina Fey's love interest on \"30 Rock\" and he continues to receive accolades for his work on \"Mad Men\" (nominations for an Emmy and a Golden Globe so far). How does that make Hamm feel? \"Exciting is the right way to say it. It's been a good year. It's very exciting,\" he said. \"I get to read a lot more scripts. I get to meet interesting people. I get to work with interesting people ... It's fun to be sort of invited to the party.\"","highlights":"\"Mad Men\" star Jon Hamm earned another Golden Globe nomination .\nHamm says hair is a pain -- especially short and lacquered for \"Mad Men\"\nActor currently appearing in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\"","id":"143b622e3ff61d190866dc981f7499ec443b8814"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ricky Gervais says he's not sure if the lead in \"Ghost Town\" -- an anti-social, cynical dentist named Bertram Pincus -- was written for him. Ricky Gervais has established a career playing characters with an abrasive edge. And he's not sure if he wants to know. \"I'm scared to ask,\" he says in a phone interview from Los Angeles, California. \"[Writer-director David Koepp] says that when they first had the idea, that it should be played by me, [and] they never looked back. Now I don't know whether that was as they were coming up with it, or whether it was because they found out no one else was available. Steve Carell had said no, Will Ferrell had said no, Jack Black had said no, Ben Stiller had said no ... everyone had said no, and they went, 'Oh, is there no one ... I wonder if HE'S available.' \"I don't know which is closer. I'd like to think the first one's closer.\" But, he adds, he was more than happy to take the role. \"When I read it, I thought, 'This is me,' \" he says. \"It was my voice; it's something I could have written. Even the lines sounded like that grumpy misanthrope I often play. And then they made it even more me.\" Watch a clip from \"Ghost Town\" with Mr. Moviefone \u00bb . Indeed, Gervais, 47, has risen to fame playing characters who are, let us say, less than friendly. On the original UK version of \"The Office,\" which he created with longtime writing partner Stephen Merchant, he played David Brent, the socially tone-deaf general manager of a paper company branch office who continually shocked co-workers with his immature jokes and patronizing attitude. He followed that as Andy Millman in \"Extras,\" a borderline performer always angling for the main chance. And in \"Ghost Town,\" which came out on DVD Sunday, Gervais' Dr. Pincus can't stand to communicate with the ghosts he starts meeting after a near-death experience. He does have a bit of redemption. He strikes up a romance with Gwen (Tea Leoni), an antiquities expert, and ends up helping out a few of his late comrades. But in Gervais' portrayal, Pincus retains his abrasive edge. The movie earned generally good reviews and a decent box office upon its late-summer release, with the Boston Globe's Ty Burr comparing Gervais to a Hollywood legend. \"Someone once said about W.C. Fields that he had the rare ability to despise amusingly. I can imagine no greater compliment than to say that Ricky Gervais seems, at his best, like a young Fields,\" Burr wrote. That kind of misanthrope is the furthest thing from the Gervais of the phone interview, an engaging man who answers questions with patience and thoughtfulness. Asked why British actors play socially unpleasant roles so well, he ponders the question, makes asides to how often British actors play villains and \"bumbling fops\" and soon offers a disquisition on the differences between British and American culture. Watch more insight on interviewing Ricky Gervais \u00bb . \"I think we play the loser well because England's full of them,\" he says. \"We celebrate our losers, we celebrate our underdogs, we celebrate those people -- [and then] we build them up and then we don't like them anymore. Whereas Americans celebrate success. Americans are brought up to believe they can be the next president of the United States. British people are told it won't happen to you. It sounds like a generalization, but it's true.\" He adds that he just finished writing a film with Merchant called \"The Man from the Pru,\" set in early-'70s England. \"It's about class, and it's about can you escape being born living, growing up and dying in the same street,\" he says. \"I know that's the same the world over ... but it's because Britain is so small and so diverse. \"You really couldn't get out of your class before celebrity came along. The American class system always seemed a bit fairer to me, because it was built on achievement as opposed to blood.\" Since Gervais likes to write his own material, he's careful about the roles he takes, even with Hollywood beckoning. \"Ghost Town\" was a good fit, he says, because he and Koepp hit it off so well. \"The whole thing was really collaborative,\" he says. \"I'm not usually an actor for hire, but this was great.\" Indeed, it's the collaboration that made it, he says. He welcomes that kind of bouncing ideas back and forth, and says he'd love to do something with Steve Carell, who plays the American version of Brent, Michael Scott, on the U.S. version of \"Office.\" The two had a memorably hilarious exchange at this year's often unfunny Emmy show. \"I would love to host anything with Steve Carell,\" he says. \"I would do a cat show with Steve Carell. I would do Computer Nerds' Mr. Universe with Steve Carell. So if anyone asks me if I will host a show with Steve Carell, the answer's yes.\" Perhaps that could happen soon: Gervais' name is often bandied about in rumors about awards show hosting duties. However, he adds, he remains in the dark about it all. \"I'm on a list,\" he says. \"But I don't know what that means.\"","highlights":"Ricky Gervais plays misanthropic dentist in \"Ghost Town,\" now out on DVD .\nRole was \"me,\" he says, \"something I could have written\"\nGervais rose to fame with UK \"Office,\" \"Extras\"","id":"fd75db5d18079961541763009b64b959ff269509"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just days before he was sworn in, President Obama was giving his daughters a tour of the Lincoln Memorial when one of them pointed to a copy of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address carved into the wall. President Obama strides into history as the nation's first black president. Obama's 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, told her father that Lincoln's speech was really long. Would he have to give a speech as long? Obama's answer was completed by his older daughter, 10-year-old Malia. \"I said, 'Actually, that one is pretty short. Mine may even be a little longer,' \" Obama told CNN recently. \"At which point, Malia turns to me and says, 'First African-American president, better be good.' \" The story is light-hearted, but it touches on a delicate question: Will people hold Obama to a different standard because he is the first African-American president? Americans appear split by race on that answer. According to a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 53 percent of blacks say the American public will hold Obama to a higher standard than past presidents because he is black. Most whites -- 61 percent -- say Obama's race will not matter in how he will be judged. The question divided several people who were racial pioneers themselves. Alexander Jefferson was one of the first blacks allowed to become a fighter pilot. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who escorted bombers in World War II. \"We had to be twice as good to be average,\" he says. Obama won't face the same pressures he did because his presidential predecessor was so inept, Jefferson says. \"No, the world is ready for him,\" he says. \"The [George W.] Bush debacle was so depressing.\" Jefferson was shot down by ground fire on his 19th mission and spent a year in German prison camps. He wrote about his POW experiences in \"Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW.\" Jefferson says he dealt with the pressures of being a racial pioneer by drawing on the strength of black leaders who opened doors for him. \"I sit on the backs of everyone who came before me,\" says Jefferson, who attended Obama's inauguration with other Tuskegee Airmen. Jefferson says he would have emotionally imploded if he'd thought too much about the pressures of representing all blacks and dealing with the racism he encountered when he returned home to a segregated America after the war. \"I did what I had to do so I didn't go stark-raving mad,\" he says. \"There wasn't all this self-analysis and back and forth. I was too damn busy with a wife, a child and a mortgage.\" Michele Andrea Bowen couldn't avoid a bout of constant self-analysis. She was one of the first African-American students admitted to a doctorate program in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. \"I know Obama is going to be held to a different standard,\" says Bowen, author of \"Up at the College\" and books such as \"Holy Ghost Corner,\" which celebrate black faith and culture. Bowen says she faced relentless scrutiny, and so will Obama. \"You know that it was hard for you to get in it, and you know they're watching you,\" Bowen says. \"And you know that they're judging you by a critical standard that's sometimes not fair.\" Bowen says a white classmate, her partner in dissertation, once confided to her that he received the same grades as she did, even though he knew his work was inferior. \"It toughened me up,\" Bowen says. \"It can give you headaches and stomachaches. I learned you have to be thankful that God blessed you with that opportunity. At some point, you stop worrying, and you trust God.\" 'Would Bush have been president if he were black?' Perhaps Obama will avoid those stomachaches because of the massive good will his election has generated. But that could change quickly if Obama makes a controversial decision or a mistake, says Andrew Rojecki, co-author of \"The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America.\" Rojecki says people who say Obama isn't going to be held to a different standard because of his skin color didn't pay attention to his campaign. He says Obama had to deal with challenges that other candidates didn't have to face. Obama's run for office was almost ended by his association with his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary sermons shocked many. But Republican presidential nominee John McCain's relationship with the Rev. John Hagee, who was accused of anti-Semitism, never threatened to end his campaign, Rojecki says. \"Obama was held responsible for what his minister said, and McCain was associated with Hagee, but somehow that didn't stick,\" says Rojecki, a communication professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Even people who regard themselves as the most progressive, open-minded supporters may subconsciously hold Obama to a different standard, Rojecki says. He says several academic studies show that it often takes people longer to associate good qualities to blacks when different faces are flashed across a screen. \"They have these stereotypes buried in their subconscious,\" he says. \"That's why people cross the street when they see a young black man. They'd rather not take a chance.\" Obama virtually had to be perfect to overcome those stereotypes, Rojecki says. He was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, he has an Ivy League-educated wife and adorable daughters, and he ran a great campaign. \"He's the perfect symbol of achievement,\" Rojecki says. White candidates for office don't have to have an uninterrupted life of achievement to be considered for the Oval Office, Rojecki says. \"If George W. Bush were black, do you think he would be president?\" Rojecki says. Jefferson, the Tuskegee Airman, says Obama should have at least one consolation. The problems he confronts now are so immense that anyone, even someone who was considered by many to be perfect, would not be able to escape withering judgment. \"If the president was Jesus Christ, '' Jefferson says, \"they would still debate if he's qualified.\"","highlights":"Racial pioneers say they felt pressure to be extraordinary .\nPoll shows Americans split by race over how Obama will be judged .\nRacial pioneer says pressure can make person \"stark-raving mad\"","id":"6aa76987ed86cac1efc0c6f39e1c1d50e599688a"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Michelle Obama dazzled on the dance floor Tuesday night at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, wearing an elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created for her by 26-year-old designer, Jason Wu. First lady Michelle Obama dazzled in a Jason Wu original gown. The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes, Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver embroidery. The first lady accessorized with diamond chandelier earrings, a white gold and diamond ring and a stack of diamond bangles by jeweler Loree Rodkin. The president summed up his wife's look best before their first dance -- to Beyonc\u00e9's rendition of \"At Last\" -- when he said, \"First of all, how good-looking is my wife?\" Michelle Obama has worn Wu once before, during an interview with Barbara Walters. Wu, one of America's leading young designers, debuted his first collection in February 2006 and has since earned accolades such as Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award. Watch InStyle.com's Joe Berean discuss the gown \u00bb . Obama was likely introduced to the designer in one of her favorite Chicago, Illinois, boutiques, Ikram. The new first lady has made a conscious effort to support young, diverse talent in the fashion community. In choosing Wu, who is originally from Taiwan, Obama continues a tradition of wearing American designers who hail from other countries. They include Cuban-American designers Isabel Toledo, who designed her yellow lace inauguration ensemble; Narciso Rodriguez, designer of the red and black dress she wore on election night; and designer Thakoon Panichgul, originally from Thailand, who designed the floral dress she wore the evening her husband accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Michelle Obama's style statement is one meant to inspire ethnic and class diversity in the world of fashion. Aside from being a socially conscious purveyor of style, Obama also sends a clear message of hope and promise by choosing colorful, reasonably priced pieces. Watch the Obamas enjoy the night \u00bb . She prefers bright, cheerful shades such as yellow, electric blue, red and purple, and has been seen on multiple occasions in head-to-toe looks from moderately priced American retailer J.Crew. In fact, daughters Malia and Sasha braved Tuesday's chilly weather in coats from the brand's children's collection. Michelle Obama was first seen in J.Crew during a visit to the \"Tonight Show\" with Jay Leno on October 27. \"This is a J.Crew ensemble,\" she told the host. \"We ladies, we know J.Crew.\" The first lady also said she had a penchant for Internet shopping, saying, \"When you don't have time, you gotta click!\" Obama wore J.Crew again at the Kids' Inaugural Concert on Monday. She gave the colorful ensemble a luxe spin with dangling green sapphire earrings from Loree Rodkin and a Deco-inspired belt buckle. InStyle magazine Fashion Director Hal Rubenstein appreciates Obama's straightforward approach to fashion. \"People tend to think classic looks are synonymous with boring, but they're not,\" he explains. \"Michelle Obama has a specific style that works for her. She has a lady-like approach to style that is elegant and inspiring. \"What we'll see as a result is this idea of looking put-together and sophisticated, as opposed to being daring or flamboyant. It's all about looking polished, like you know what you're doing.\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"First lady's elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created by 26-year-old Jason Wu .\nThe one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes .\nMichelle Obama has tradition of wearing American designers from other nations .\nHer time-saving shopping secret -- buying on the Internet .","id":"1318a81b85a51655f3100df18e81ad8dbba93fc5"} -{"article":"DECATUR, Georgia (CNN) -- One falling tree saved John Kiefer from another. Windstorms in Atlanta, Georgia, uprooted several trees, including this one that fell through John Kiefer's home. Kiefer was sitting on his sofa Monday morning while a brief but intense windstorm blew through the Atlanta, Georgia, area, including Decatur. He heard a tree crash in his backyard and got up to investigate. That tree knocked down a chain-link fence, and Kiefer was getting worried about several other large backyard trees that were swaying in the wind. \"And as I'm watching those move and sway, this crashed down,\" he said. \"This\" was a 50-foot red oak in the front yard that fell onto his living room, splitting his house in half and coming to rest a few inches above where he had been sitting on the couch. \"Yeah, it's a mess,\" he said as he surveyed the tangle of broken wood beams, plaster, bricks and gray insulation. Curiously, Kiefer's electricity was still on, and cable TV was still playing less then 10 feet away from the massive tree trunk in his living room. An ancient upright piano and various collectibles on it were unharmed. Kiefer had been away over the weekend, visiting a son in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his three dogs were still at the kennel where he boarded them. They'll be staying there a bit longer. Three years of drought in Georgia have weakened trees' root systems, and recent heavy rains loosened the soil around them, said Kiefer, who works at a plastics recycling company in nearby Stone Mountain. The windstorm brought down hundreds of trees in the area, including one that crushed a car, killing the person inside, and one that fell on a nursing home, where no one was hurt, CNN affiliate WGCL reported. Service was disrupted on Atlanta's MARTA rail transit system, according to WGCL. Power and traffic signals were out in many areas. Watch CNN report about dangerous storms \u00bb . Despite having a tree lying across his living room, Kiefer seemed remarkably calm, but that was a new development. \"Couple of hours ago my knees where shaking pretty good,\" he admitted. But, he said, God was looking out for him. \"Actually, he saved my life,\" Kiefer said. \"When I came outside to investigate that noise, that was my warning to get up off that couch. And then, not to go back in the house when it got real windy, but to stand right there where that tree stopped. There are no coincidences.\"","highlights":"Brief but intense windstorm blows through Atlanta, Georgia .\nWinds brought down hundreds of trees, including one that killed person inside car .\nAnother tree fell on a nursing home; no one was hurt .","id":"f3411f6542c30e33fa800544352f265843b82aca"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Porn icon Marilyn Chambers was found dead in her Los Angeles home Sunday night, but investigators do not suspect foul play, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman. Marilyn Chambers rose to fame as an adult-film actress in the 1970s. Chambers began her career in 1970 as a model for Ivory Snow soap, and starred two years later in the porn classic \"Behind the Green Door.\" \"She was a really nice girl,\" said actor Ron Jeremy, who co-starred with Chambers in adult films starting in the 1970s. Chambers' death was a \"total shock,\" Jeremy said, because they had been scheduled to sign a contract Monday to perform together in an off-Broadway \"tongue-in-cheek\" re-enactment of the porn classic \"Deep Throat.\" \"What's strange is that she was at a stage where she was totally happy and totally content with her life,\" Jeremy said. \"Her life was falling together, and she was doing really well.\" A family member found Chambers, 56, in the mobile home where she lived in the Canyon Country area and called police Sunday evening, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitemore said. The death appeared to be from natural causes, although toxicology tests have not been completed, Whitemore said. The coroner's investigation has not been completed, and no cause of death has been determined, according to a spokesman with the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office. Although her career was mostly in X-rated films, Chambers' fame was boosted by the irony that her face had graced the Ivory Snow box, a soap advertised as \"99 and 44\/100 percent pure.\" Chambers eventually co-starred with all of the best-known porn actors of the 1970s and 1980s, Jeremy said.","highlights":"NEW: She had been set to sign contract for off-Broadway show with Ron Jeremy .\nMarilyn Chambers starred in some of the most famous porn movies of '70s .\nChambers, once a model for Ivory Snow, was in \"Behind the Green Door\"\nChambers' body was found Sunday; investigators do not suspect foul play .","id":"e2707bd49a426e85dd6791cff8c0d1bb53fc2f3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama has talked of ripping out the White House bowling alley and replacing it with a basketball court. The former reserve player for Punahou High School's 1979 state championship team brings an enthusiasm for pickup basketball games to a place where golf, baseball and football have been the most-discussed sports. Reggie Miller says he'd pick Barack Obama for his squad because he likes the president-elect's team approach. And if he puts hoops in the White House, Reggie Miller, the retired basketball star and sports broadcaster, wants in. \"I would love to be the first to go there and play,\" said Miller, whose record-breaking 2,560 three-pointers with the Indiana Pacers electrified basketball fans. Today Miller, 43, is an NBA analyst for TNT, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting, parent company of CNN. Miller and others have said Obama's playing style yields clues to the type of president he will be. Miller, who said he backed Obama in the election, spoke Monday to CNN.com. iReport.com: What would you like to ask Obama? CNN: Do you know Barack Obama? Reggie Miller: I have never met him personally, but from afar, obviously I admire the man and the courage and the strength, the wisdom. I respect how much of a family man he is. CNN: Where does basketball fit in your view of Barack Obama? Miller: It seems like he has a regular pickup game, which I like because as a ballplayer, you like to do the same routine. ... He plays with the same guys, he likes to get a good sweat in. ... When you get a good workout in, you feel good for the rest of the day. It helps clear the mind. CNN: He's a left-hander; he likes to fake right and go to the left? Miller: I've seen clips of his Punahou [high school] days, when he played in Hawaii, and I saw that HBO special with Bryant Gumbel when they had that informal game. ... He is a point guard, and most point guards are right-handed, so it would be definitely be difficult to guard a point guard that was left-handed. And in that [HBO] clip, I loved his decision-making, because it looked like he tried to get everyone involved, until it was game point and it was tied up. Obviously, the commander in chief decides the game [Obama made the winning shot], and I like it. I think that trickles down into, you let your colonels, your generals do all the little work, but when it's time to make the big decision and win the game -- then it's the commander in chief, top dog, numero uno. But I will say this, if I was playing against him in a pickup game, I would definitely force him right because it looks like he loves to go left. CNN: Does he remind you of anyone you played against? Miller: Well, it's funny because you don't play against a lot of left-handed point guards. Greg Anthony of the Knicks, a left-handed point guard from UNLV. ... [Nate] \"Tiny\" Archibald, I believe he was left-handed as well. CNN: From what you've seen, how good a player is Obama? Miller: I would not mind picking him up on my squad; if there were 10 guys and we had to pick, he could definitely be in my squad. Because he knows what his strength is -- making sure that everyone gets involved, and that's the kind of point guard I want. Those are guys like Magic Johnson, Mark Jackson, John Stockton, it's not all about them; it's about let's make sure our team is good. He's going to get the ball to everyone. CNN: Speaking of being commander in chief, what are the lessons that you take away from Obama's basketball that you think would be useful? Miller: If you look at his demeanor, he's very cool; you have to be cool under pressure. You can't make hasty decisions. You've got to look at the full picture as a whole and then you assess it. And I think from a strategic and a political standpoint, I think that very much sums up Mr. Obama. You look at him during the debate and during the campaign, he pretty much never got too high and never got too low; he just kind of stayed right in the middle. When you're making the decisions that he's going to be making, for our economy, for Iraq, Afghanistan, you want someone who's levelheaded who's going to look at the big picture, who's going to rely on his Cabinet, which would be the other players. You want them to all be on same page, which you want your starting five to be, and then you go out there and execute it. CNN: You think he's going to have an impact on the sport of basketball by example? Miller: It's not just basketball, I think sports in general. You know he's already said yes, \"I think we should have a BCS\" [playoff system for deciding the nation's college football championship], and I think everyone agrees with him. I think his love of basketball is only going to help the high school, collegiate and professional ranks. ... For sports in general, it's good to have a person in the White House who's physically fit, who loves sports but also understands and knows how to run a country. CNN: In that order? Miller: I don't know about that order. I think I would probably start with running the country first. I think what we do is more entertainment and letting people escape. I think running the country is a little more important than worrying about the BCS title game. I think getting jobs is probably first and foremost and getting our economy straight and getting our troops home, I think those are the most important things for the president-elect. But if he does find time to get a BCS playoff, that would be nice.","highlights":"Reggie Miller: Barack Obama's basketball style offers clues to his leadership .\nHe says Obama tries to involve the whole team but also will take final shot .\nMiller: Obama's interest in sports and fitness is a good example for the U.S.","id":"a1a8afb093bcadee0b2abc7aefd78a4f33b158c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship bound for Mombasa, Kenya, was attacked Tuesday by Somali pirates, according to a NATO source with direct knowledge of the matter. Pirates attacked The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, but were unable to board. \"The pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at the vessel, which sustained damage,\" said a statement from New York-based Liberty Maritime Corporation, which owns the vessel. The ship was carrying U.S. food aid for African nations, the statement said. The pirates never made it onto the ship and the vessel is now being escorted by a coalition ship, still bound for Mombasa, officials said. Two senior defense officials said the Liberty Sun was being escorted by the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge. It is the ship carrying Richard Phillips, the captain of the container ship Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked last week. Phillips spent days as a hostage of the pirates before being rescued Sunday. Katy Urbik of Wheaton, Illinois, said her son, Thomas, was aboard the Liberty Sun at the time of the attack. She shared the e-mails he sent as the ship came under fire. \"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets,\" said one e-mail sent Tuesday afternoon. \"We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. [A] rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out. \"Navy is on the way and helos and ships are coming. I'll try to send you another message soon. [G]ot to go now. I love you mom and dad and all my brothers and family.\" \"My heart stopped after I realized there wasn't going to be a 'just kidding' after his comment,\" Katy Urbik said. About 1\u00bd hours later, Thomas Urbik sent another e-mail to his mother, which said, \"The navy has showed up in full force and we are now under military escort ... all is well. I love you all and thank you for the prayers.\" In an e-mail only hours before the attack, Urbik's son tried to assure his mother that his crew was safe and taking precautions. \"Don't worry too much. I am fine and we are being well monitored by the U.S. Navy, who is demanding we send them a report every six hours on our position and status,\" Thomas Ubrik's e-mail said. He added, \"We in fact are going to be the second American ship to arrive into Mombasa after the Maersk Alabama. It should be interesting to say the least. ... We have had several drills to prepare ourselves to secure ourselves in the engine room. [W]e can do it pretty quick by now.\" The company said the ship had dropped off food aid last week at a Sudanese port and the ship was going around the Horn of Africa to reach Kenya when it came under attack. However, the exact location of the attack remained unclear. Earlier Tuesday, pirates off the coast of Somalia seized two freighters, proving they remain a force to contend with just days after the U.S. Navy dramatically rescued an American captain held by other pirates. First, pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday hijacked the MV Irene EM, a 35,000-ton Greek-owned bulk carrier, according to a NATO spokesman and the European Union's Maritime Security Center. The crew of the Greek carrier was thought to be unhurt and ships have been warned to stay clear of the area for fear of further attack, the Security Center said. Later Tuesday, pirates on four skiffs seized the 5,000-ton MV Sea Horse, a Lebanese-owned and Togo-flagged vessel, said Cmdr. Chris Davies of NATO's Maritime Component Command Headquarters in Northwood, England. Details about the ship and its crew weren't immediately available. NATO has an ongoing anti-piracy mission off Somalia called Operation Allied Protector. The mission involves four ships covering more than a million square miles, Davies said. A U.S.-led international naval task force, Combined Task Force-151, is also patrolling in the region. Tuesday's hijackings came two days after sharpshooters from the U.S. Navy SEALs killed three pirates who had been holding Phillips hostage on the water for days. Phillips had offered himself as a hostage when pirates attacked the Alabama on Wednesday, officials said. The ship had been on its way to deliver aid to Mombasa, Kenya. A fourth pirate had been aboard Bainbridge when the shootings occurred and was taken into custody. Watch the tough tactics the Navy uses \u00bb . The incident follows four freighters being seized over the past two days by pirates off the Somalian coast, proving they remain a force to contend with. Pirates on Monday hijacked two Egyptian fishing boats carrying a total of between 18 and 24 people, the Egyptian Information Ministry told CNN. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry is working to end the hijacking, the ministry said. Egyptian boats are known to use Somali waters illegally for fishing, taking advantage of the lawless state of the country and the lack of enforcement of its maritime boundaries. Those who have tracked pirate activity in Somalia say it started in the 1980s, when the pirates claimed they were trying to stop the rampant illegal fishing and dumping that continues to this day off the Somali coast. Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. Some experts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the pirates. CNN's Mike Mount, Barbara Starr and David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"Crewman e-mailed hours before attack that Navy was monitoring the ship .\nCrewman e-mails, \"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets\"\nFour freighters seized in last two days .\nGreek 35,000-ton bulk carrier and Lebanese-owned, Togo-flagged both seized .","id":"5902cb1eb3660dc6a606279432681903145e287a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seydou Keita wrecked any chance of a Bayern Munich comeback in their Champions League quarterfinal return with a second half equaliser as Barcelona drew 1-1 for an emphatic 5-1 aggregate win. Bayern scorer Franck Ribery embraces Barcelona's Lionel Messi after Bayern's European exit. Primera Liga leaders Barcelona arrived in Germany with a comfortable first leg cushion and will now host Chelsea in their semifinal first leg at the Nou Camp on April 28. No side in the tournament's history had overturned a four goal deficit and Bayern were always up against it. \"We were much better in the personal duels, things were a bit more normal, and we played the way you need to against such a good team,\" said Germany defender Philipp Lahm. \"But unfortunately we have still lost the tie.\" And Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer -- who was scathing after the first-leg debacle -- said the Germans had gone some way to redemption. \"I think the team has rehabilitated itself, although Barcelona's equalising goal was needlessly conceded\", said Beckenbauer. After going close in the first-half, Franck Ribery finally unpicked the Barcelona defense on 47 minutes before Keita equalised for the Spanish with less than 20 minutes left. No Spanish side has ever won the treble of league, Kings Cup and Champions League, but Barcelona are on course to take all three titles as coach Josep Guardiola hopes to lead the Spaniards to a third European title after 1992 and 2006. France striker Thierry Henry succumbed to a high temperature for Barca, while Bayern's Germany strikers Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose were ruled out with calf and ankle injuries respectively. That left Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni as the lone forward with Ribery playing just behind him. Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann was booed by his own fans before kick-off, but this result on the back of the weekend's 4-0 win over Frankfurt in the German league will have taken some of the pressure off the ex-Germany coach.","highlights":"Seydou Keita wrecks Bayern Munich comeback bid as Barcelona progress .\nBarcelona led Champions League tie 4-0 from first leg and won 5-1 on agg .\nSpanish giants now face Chelsea at Nou Camp in semifinal first leg clash .","id":"38270488da3a4e0f0672fb408ec2e48ddacc3646"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Tom Wilkerson is chief executive officer of the United States Naval Institute, a nonprofit professional association which describes itself as an independent forum for examining issues related to the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. He spent 31 years in the military, rising to major general of Marines and, in his last assignment, serving as commander, Marine Forces Reserve. Retired Major General Tom Wilkerson says the U.S. should attack the pirates at their bases. (CNN) -- It is well past time to take a serious look at piracy off the coast of Africa. Initially, the U.S. ignored the threat, and when public outcry about our seeming indifference became louder, we formed a combined task force of international navies in the Gulf of Aden under command of a U.S. Navy rear admiral to \"deter, disrupt and thwart\" the pirates. Today, it is clear that initiative has failed. In fact, this bit of muscle-flexing did so little to intimidate pirates operating out of Somalia that they have actually increased the number of attacks in the last month. Significant among those attacks, pirates on Wednesday boarded and temporarily held a U.S.-flagged vessel, the container ship Maersk Alabama. The U.S. crew and its captain retook the vessel, but at the price of the captain becoming a hostage to the four pirates in one of the Maersk Alabama's lifeboats. Several hours later a U.S. warship, the Aegis destroyer USS Bainbridge, arrived on scene and, as I write, the standoff with the pirates continues. What an embarrassing and frustrating event! A bunch of maritime thugs brazenly seized a vessel flying the flag of the nation with the most powerful navy the world has ever known. The fault does not lie with the ships and sailors of Combined Task Force-151. They have been given the proverbial mission impossible -- stop pirate attacks in an area four times the size of Texas with only three U.S. Navy ships and a total of 12 to 15 allied\/friendly warships. Not gonna happen! But embarrassment aside, there is real potential for loss of life and for continued attacks on vessels plying these waters. The issue is simple but difficult -- how do we eliminate the pirate threat? Strangely, we seem unable to learn from our own history. In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson said \"Enough\" to paying 20 percent of the U.S. national budget as tribute to Barbary pirates. His response was clear and successful -- build a strong naval task force, equip it with a sizeable contingent of Marines, and send it to attack and defeat the pirates in their lair. The sailors and Marines sent on that mission did just that -- and in the process wrote a stirring page in our nation's early history. The problem today is that we have refused to take the Jefferson model. We've confined our anti-piracy efforts to the open seas and left the pirates' home bases on land as a sanctuary. Thus, the pirates continue to operate with relative freedom and stealth. We and our allies only respond, never seizing the initiative. The Jefferson model is a better answer: Take on the pirates where they are, rather than guessing where they will be. In short, attack them at their home bases. There they are vulnerable. There is where they plan and prepare for raids on vessels. There is where they arrange ransom for held ships and crew members. From these bases, pirates are free to conduct raids without fear of reprisal, let alone interference from organized justice. They are free to venture out to prey upon one of the 33,000 ships that pass near their coast each year, knowing that they can return to the absolute security of their land bases and enjoy their spoils. It is time to change strategy and take the fight to the pirates, as our military predecessors did with great success more than 200 years ago. In the 21st century, anti-piracy measures should ideally be the responsibility of local and regional law enforcement. Unfortunately, the non-functioning government of Somalia is unable to bring police or military forces to bear against criminal piracy launched from its own territory. The predicament has done much to foster piracy, greatly growing the number of pirates and further encouraging their lawless behavior. They are well aware that the rewards of their activities far exceed the risks. With the potential to make millions of dollars through extortion, the Somalia-based pirates take comfort in having no fear of being arrested in their homes for their crimes, and obviously have little fear of being caught on the high seas despite the presence of the combined task force. Of course, attacking pirate land bases in Somalia as the U.S. did against the Barbary pirates in Tripoli two centuries ago is not a simple proposition. Even without a functioning government present in Somalia, the U.S. and other countries whose ships are threatened are not free to conduct military operations on Somali soil at will. There are many complicated legal issues concerning sovereignty and laws of armed conflict that need to be thought through before any real action can be initiated. However, these issues must be explored so that the option of a more forceful policy can be duly considered. iReport.com: How should the U.S. respond? Some may argue that the destruction of the ships and bases of pirates is merely attacking the symptom without curing the disease. They believe that piracy cannot be defeated until its causes are sufficiently addressed. These causes are usually identified as abysmal economic conditions and the lack of a strong national infrastructure. Previous attempts to undertake larger scale law-and-order projects in Somalia, however, have resulted in a tragedy now memorialized in the national psyche simply as Black Hawk Down. Hence my argument for consideration of smaller-scale actions targeted specifically against the criminal pirates. Retaliatory and preemptive strikes on known bases are certainly not the only options in dealing with the Somalia pirates, but current policy has already proven to be fairly futile in dissuading attacks. iReport.com: 'Stop the pirates, Obama!' Those who desire to combat piracy by bringing stability to Somalia must accept that the noble effort will take several years, potentially leaving thousands of ships vulnerable to attack in the meantime. One thing is for certain: Allowing the pirates to have sanctuary while also giving them a clear advantage in the rules of engagement is not going to stop their activities any time soon. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tom Wilkerson.","highlights":"Tom Wilkerson: Pirates based in Somalia represent threat to crews and cargo .\nHe says U.S. strategy so far has failed to deter piracy .\nWilkerson: We should follow example set 200 years ago by Thomas Jefferson .\nHe says the U.S. needs to attack the pirates at their bases .","id":"c0b7b73c85a143ea1ee853f6b87daa2ce506240b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Retired Gen. Colin Powell has a choice blend of political and military experience, and many thought he'd make a great president, but Powell said Wednesday that he just didn't have it in him. Colin Powell, left, embraces Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel at the inauguration Tuesday. His wife, Alma, had feared that such an endeavor would change their family life. She also had concerns about Powell's safety, he said Wednesday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"But I was a soldier. That wasn't my concern,\" he said. \"I never found inside of me the internal passion that you've got to have to run for elected office.\" Many GOP pundits had hoped Powell, who served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush's father and President Clinton, would make a run at the Oval Office. The former four-star general and Vietnam War veteran's military credentials are staunch, rivaled only by his accomplishments as a statesman. Watch Powell explain why the White House wasn't for him \u00bb . In addition to chairing the Joint Chiefs, the lifelong Republican served as national security adviser under President Reagan and oversaw the 1989 invasion of Panama that toppled Gen. Manuel Noriega as well as Operation Desert Storm during the 1991 Gulf War. He has two Presidential Medals of Freedom to his name. As Bush's secretary of state, he spearheaded efforts to increase U.S. foreign assistance throughout the world, and he helped develop Bush's HIV\/AIDS prevention and treatment program, which is credited with being the largest such endeavor ever. However, Powell drew heavy criticism over his remarks before the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Powell made the assertion while attempting to convince the world body that the U.S. should go to war with Iraq. Powell abruptly retired from Bush's Cabinet in 2005, but he did not cite his time a secretary of state Wednesday when explaining why he never sought the presidency. \"I never woke up a single morning to go think about this, to talk to people about it and find in my heart and soul the passion that a Barack Obama or a John McCain or a George Bush or a Bill Clinton had,\" he said. \"It just wasn't me, and you've got to be true to yourself, and I've tried to be true to myself.\" The stance is not new for Powell, who held a news conference in November 1995 to announce that he would not run for president. \"To offer myself as a candidate for president requires a commitment and a passion to run the race and to succeed in the quest,\" he said then, \"a passion and commitment that, despite my every effort, I do not yet have for political life, because such a life requires a calling that I do not yet hear.\" No stranger to advising presidents, Powell told CNN that Obama has a great deal of work ahead. Not only does he have to deal with the crisis du jour -- like righting the economy at home -- he needs to keep his eyes on crises abroad while never foregoing long-range planning. Watch what Powell says Obama must do \u00bb . \"You can never avoid it,\" he said. \"Once you're the president, every crisis comes to your desk, and you have to deal with it. ... But that doesn't mean that you can't stand back and look farther out.\" Repairing America's broken image and poverty alleviation -- both at home and abroad -- will pose major challenges, he said, and both have wide-ranging implications. Poverty incubates terror, and it is incumbent upon the U.S. to stamp out the hunger, unemployment and illiteracy that breed suicide bombers and other insurgents, Powell said. He called poverty alleviation \"one of the most important challenges facing the world.\" \"For those of us who are wealthy, we should reach out not only to our own citizens who need help, but the rest of the world,\" he said. \"If you want to get rid of sources of terrorism, if you want to get people moving in the right direction, you've got to help them get jobs, clean water, health care for their kids, educate their kids -- and America has a great responsibility to do this.\" Obama also needs to consider what other nations think of the U.S. and help repair the American reputation. The challenge is daunting, but Powell said America's good standing is \"recoverable.\" The sea of diverse faces in attendance at Obama's inauguration ceremony speaks to the reverence that America still enjoys in the world, said the son of Jamaican immigrants and father of three. If Obama can turn the economy around and rectify situations in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, he will begin repairing the nation's image, \"because there's still a solid, residual level of affection and respect for the United States of America.\" But Powell acknowledges that his former boss and Obama's predecessor made things difficult. \"Iraq and the Guantanamo situation -- which I have been preaching for years should have been closed years ago -- Abu Ghraib and a lack of progress in the Middle East and a certain way in which we deal with the world on international issues, I think damaged our reputation with the world,\" he said. Obama is off to a good start, he said, and is doing the right thing by reaching across the aisle for help. It was gracious of Obama to hold a dinner in Sen. John McCain's honor after a testy campaign and gracious of McCain to accept, and Powell said he hopes that spirit will permeate Obama's presidency. Powell conceded, though, that bipartisanship won't always be the answer to Obama's problems and said the 44th president will need to rely on the wisdom of those who forged the country more than two centuries ago. \"We're supposed to be a partisan country. That's the way the founding fathers intended for us to move forward,\" he said. \"People have strong views on both sides of an issue. Argue it out. Fight it out, just like they did in that summer of 1787 when they were writing the Constitution -- and then ultimately both sides make compromises in order to achieve consensus, and then you move the country forward.\" CNN's John Roberts contributed to this report.","highlights":"Powell: I just didn't have the passion that a Barack Obama or George Bush has .\nMany in GOP felt former Joint Chiefs chairman, secretary of state could be president .\nPoverty \"one of the most important challenges facing the world,\" ex-general says .\nIraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib among factors damaging U.S. reputation in world .","id":"24bdae5cf775120993b5ae9c9a2ae3047a828aa2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For Sherrie Muldoon, the credit card debt was $46,244. But the relief she felt after paying it off was priceless. So much so that the Colorado resident and her husband threw a party Saturday for friends and family after mailing off the final check. The event at a community center featured a cake decorated with the debt amount in green icing, CNN television affiliate KUSA reported. The couple had been paying the debt for three years and seven months, Muldoon told CNN, adding that the last payment they made recently was for $1,500. \"When we mailed that last check ... I sat down in the car, I looked over to my husband and I just burst out into tears,\" she said. iReport.com: Have you paid off a huge debt lately? The typical American household with at least one credit card has nearly $10,700 in credit card debt, according to CardWeb.com. The average interest rate runs in the mid- to high teens, according to the Web site. Muldoon said the soaring costs of their nine credit cards left them with two options: Either file for bankruptcy or make a drastic lifestyle change. They opted for the latter, she told KUSA. \"We changed everything ... to bare-bones minimum,\" Muldoon told CNN. \"Basically, if it wasn't essential to support life, we didn't do it.\" The Muldoons are part of a national trend in easing off credit card use. Total consumer borrowing fell 3.5 percent in February, from the month before, according to the Federal Reserve. A government report shows the tumble in consumer credit was caused by a sharp decline in credit card use. The ailing economy and controlled spending caused by unemployment have contributed. Muldoon said she found a way to make money by doing extra jobs, including teaching fitness classes at night and cleaning office buildings on the weekends. Watch Muldoon describe how she whittled away at debt \u00bb . \"Dan says I'm obsessed. I prefer the term 'focus-driven,' \" Muldoon told KUSA. \"There were times last winter when dinner was white rice and gravy. That was what there was. We weren't starving to death, but I can't tell you the last time I had a steak.\" Muldoon said the quest to save money extended to the party, which she hosted using items that were either on sale or had been purchased with coupons. No steak was served there, either: She used ham from \"a couple of pigs\" she raised last year. Despite the merriment, she had one regret: She had paid full price for the black balloons that adorned the party room. \"I had some anguish over that,\" she said. \"But I moved past it fairly quickly.\"","highlights":"Sherrie Muldoon: \"When we mailed that last check ... I just burst out into tears\"\nHow did they pay off $46,244 in less than four years? Drastic lifestyle changes .\nShe also took extra jobs on weekends, such as cleaning office buildings .\nEven party was on the cheap; she served ham from a couple of pigs she raised .","id":"762e5abdbf0e803552b600ee03e628c020f98569"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They left home with hope in their hearts, thousands of fans true to the Liverpool anthem, dreaming of reaching another Wembley FA Cup Final. The disaster at Hillsborough football stadium in 1989 resulted in the deaths of 96 football supporters. But what began as a day out in the spring sunshine 20 years ago ended as the darkest hour in the history of British football. I had settled into Row B Seat 2 of the press box in the south stand at Hillsborough, home to Sheffield Wednesday and neutral venue for the game. From there I would have had an uninterrupted view of the semifinal showdown between Liverpool and Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. Clough, one of the legends of the British game, had been denied an FA Cup Final with Forest a year earlier, when his side lost to Liverpool at the same stage of the competition and at the same venue. The atmosphere in the ground for the 1989 semifinal exploded as the teams emerged onto the pitch. But none of us was prepared for what was to follow. The match action lasted less than six minutes. I can't remember a single kick. What I do recall quite vividly are the scenes of distress, desperation and death at the Liverpool end that destroyed so many families and shocked the world. Looking to my left and behind Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar's goal, I was drawn to a huge mushroom-like effect among the crowd in the central standing enclosures around kick-off time. See Liverpool players and fans paying tribute to victims of Hillsborough disaster \u00bb . The match had not long started when the first signs of a major problem surfaced. Fans began frantically attempting to climb over the perimeter fence to escape the crush at the Leppings Lane end of the ground. I didn't know it at the time, but the swell was the exit point of a tunnel that ran under the stand. Through it hundreds of Liverpool fans had attempted to make their way without realizing the two caged pens it led to were already overcrowded. Many had the life squeezed out of them in that tunnel. Others were trampled or crushed to death on the terraces. The lucky ones clambered to safety, many collapsing on the pitch. Some fans were hoisted up into the stand above by fellow supporters, but the main escape route was over the high perimeter fence and later through a small gate that was forced open as police -- who initially thought they were dealing with a pitch invasion -- recognized the true scale of the problem. Advertising boards were used as makeshift stretchers and some of those being carried away had their heads covered by coats. The Sheffield Wednesday gymnasium became a mortuary. The Liverpool end of the pitch resembled a casualty station with frantic efforts being made to treat the injured and save lives while others wandered aimlessly around the pitch in a daze. I will always remember the bid to revive one young fan in front of the main stand. Those efforts seemed to go on forever before finally hundreds of spectators let out a huge cheer as the lad at last showed some sign of life. I still wonder to this day whether or not he made it. Meanwhile I had an open phoneline to a copytaker at The Press Association and described those shocking events unfolding in front of me, including news of the first fatalities. For the second time in four years I had gone to cover a football match and ended up filing a disaster report. In 1985 I had been in Brussels with Liverpool to cover their European Cup final against Juventus, when 39 fans, mainly Italian, were killed at the Heysel stadium as a wall collapsed after trouble on the terraces. That match eventually went ahead after a delay of 85 minutes. Within hhours of returning from Belgium, I was among a small group of football writers summoned to No. 10 Downing Street for a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher planned draconian measures to combat what became known as the English disease, but it was the appalling events at Sheffield that finally became the catalyst for change. The Hillsborough tragedy was played out in full view of 53,000 spectators and TV cameras. People who came to watch a football match went home haunted by scenes of carnage and chaos that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Later, in an area beneath the empty south stand, FA chief executive Graham Kelly faced media at an impromptu press conference and expressed his shock, sadness and sorrow. Understandably, he didn't have all the answers as questions were fired his way. What led to the disaster is well documented. Lord Justice Taylor, a High Court judge commissioned by the government to produce a report, concluded that police operational errors were largely to blame for allowing the gates to be opened to relieve congestion outside the ground. Many questioned why the kickoff to the game had not been delayed. English football was quick to react with perimeter fences pulled, followed by the phased-in arrival of all-seater stadia. In the aftermath grieving fans turned Liverpool's Kop stand and the Anfield pitch into a shrine draped with thousands of scarves, flags and flowers. A permanent memorial to the victims was later erected adjacent to the Shankly Gates -- named after the club's most famous manager -- and which bear the title of the Reds' anthem: You'll Never Walk Alone. The oldest victim at Hillsborough was 67, the youngest 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley, a cousin of current Liverpool captain and England international Steven Gerrard. Gerrard was six weeks away from his ninth birthday at the time of tragedy. There is nothing Liverpool would want more than to mark the 20th anniversary season with at least one gleaming trophy. They did it in 1989, beating Forest when the semifinal was later replayed, then going on to defeat city rivals Everton after extra time at Wembley. On that occasion they returned home with hope in their hearts.","highlights":"96 Liverpool fans died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster on April 15, 1989 .\nFans were crushed against stadium fencing during an FA Cup semifinal .\nLiverpool fans say there are still unanswered questions regarding the disaster .\nCurrent Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard lost a family member in the tragedy .","id":"1764344415dfb5791a7bde67eeedfa9eb72373bf"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Promising \"a new era of openness in our country,\" President Obama signed executive orders Wednesday relating to ethics guidelines for staff members of his administration. Members of the National Economic Council brief President Obama on the economy Wednesday. \"Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,\" Obama said. In his first full day in office, Obama touched upon many of the major issues facing his administration, and even carved out time to retake the oath of office. The move was aimed at dispelling any confusion that might arise from Tuesday's oath, which Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed by mixing up the order of the words. The do-over was also intended to erase any questions regarding the legitimacy of Obama's presidency, although per the Constitution, Obama became president at noon Tuesday without taking the oath. Earlier in the day, Obama said he would issue a pay freeze for his senior staff members. The new president has also promised swift action on the beleaguered economy. House Democrats, at Obama's urging, have signed an $825 billion economic recovery package that the president says will save or create up to 4 million jobs and invest in health care, energy and education. Watch Obama address his staff \u00bb . House Republican leaders, however, asked to meet with Obama on Thursday to offer major changes to the recovery proposal. \"The challenge as we see it is to create a plan that helps middle-class taxpayers and small businesses without wasting money or exploding our national deficit,\" the leaders wrote in a letter to the new president. Rep. Paul Ryan, the top Republican on the House Budget committee, argued that the main tax provision in the Democrats' plan -- cutting payroll taxes -- was not an effective way to jump-start the economy. House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence declined to say whether the Democrats' package would get any Republican support if it didn't change significantly. Obama also moved fast to address a campaign promise to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The administration is drafting executive orders calling for the closure of the detention facility, according to two administration officials. Obama began the day with a moment of solitude in the Oval Office. When he arrived, he spent 10 minutes alone there, reading a note left for him on a desk by outgoing President George W. Bush. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met with the president 10 minutes later to discuss the daily schedule, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Obama called Middle East leaders, including King Abdullah of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Gibbs said. On Sunday, Israel and Palestinian militants declared a cease-fire after 22 days of fighting in Gaza. First lady Michelle Obama joined her husband in the Oval Office at 9:10 a.m., shortly before the first couple departed for the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral. Later in the day, Obama and the first lady greeted those who came to the White House for a formal open house. Obama joked, \"Don't break anything.\" Obama also met with his economic team and top brass from the Pentagon. iReport.com: What do you think Obama should do first? Later in the afternoon, he met with the Ambassador to Iraq, the commander in Iraq, and the \"theater commander\" in the region for an update on the situation in Iraq. \"The meeting was productive and I very much appreciated receiving assessments from these experienced and dedicated individuals. During the discussion, I asked the military leadership to engage in additional planning necessary to execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq,\" he said in a statement. \"In the coming days and weeks, I will also visit the Department of Defense to consult with the Joint Chiefs on these issues, and we will undertake a full review of the situation in Afghanistan in order to develop a comprehensive policy for the entire region,\" he said. He plans to tell the top U.S. officers that he wants them to plan to have combat forces out of Iraq in 16 months, as he promised during his election campaign, an adviser said.","highlights":"NEW: Obama retakes oath of office Wednesday night .\nNEW: Obama meets with military advisers to assess situations in Iraq, Afghanistan .\nAdministration drafting executive orders calling for Guantanamo Bay's closure .\nPresident to freeze pay for senior staff, signs ethics guidelines .","id":"67b5d3585801f63765a11f7b59d145bd73ccad21"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The possibility of engine fires has prompted General Motors to recall nearly 1.5 million passenger sedans manufactured between 1997 and 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Monday. The recall involves certain GM vehicles in which oil apparently can leak and ignite. The recall covers certain mid- and full-size passenger sedans under GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac brands. The affected vehicles have naturally aspirated 3.8 liter V6 engines -- that is, engines that use atmospheric pressure rather than a mechanical blower to bring in air for combustion -- according to documents that GM filed with federal regulators last week. On Friday, the federal government acknowledged the filing and agreed to the plan. The problem involves a potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold during hard braking. When a car operates under normal conditions, the manifold can get very hot. Oil that runs below the manifold's heat shield could ignite and spread to plastic channels that hold spark plug wires. As a solution, the company recommends a change in the bracket that holds spark plug wires, which will be done free of charge. Owners and dealers affected by the recall will be notified by letter next month with details. The vehicles involved are: \u2022 1997-2003 Buick Regals. \u2022 1998-2003 Chevrolet Luminas, Monte Carlos and Impalas. \u2022 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigues. \u2022 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand Prix. GM issued a recall on a similar engine in 2008, according to the company's filing with the government. That problem was traced to a faulty gasket on the engine rocker cover.","highlights":"Recall involves certain Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac sedans .\nProblem involves potential for oil to leak on the exhaust manifold, then igniting .\nGeneral Motors to send details to owners next month .","id":"d09e2a84197b6e9a61a7d985e32d75ccc8207474"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the leaders of Madagascar to resolve their differences after an anti-government rally a day earlier turned violent and left more than two dozen people dead. Protesters rally Saturday before violence broke out near the Presidential Palace. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ban deplored the violence and called Sunday on authorities \"to urgently initiate a fair process by which those responsible will be brought to justice.\" Ban also blamed the \"tragedy\" on a \"lack of restraint on all sides.\" \"The Secretary-General calls upon all concerned parties to resolve their differences through peaceful and democratic means and through the exercise of responsible leadership,\" according to the statement. A police official said the death toll from Saturday's violence outside the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Antananarivo had risen to 26. More than 80 were injured during the demonstration, officials said. The capital city was quiet as mourners attended a public ceremony for the dead. The violence stemmed from an ongoing dispute over who is in charge of the government. Andry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarivo, took to the streets one week ago, declaring himself the Indian Ocean island nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Watch an iReport on the Madagascar violence \u00bb . But President Marc Ravalomanana has fired him and put someone else in the mayoral job. Rajoelina had called the rally to unveil his new government at the May 13th Plaza, according to Brittany Martin, an American citizen who is a Harvard Fellow and lives in Antananarivo. Martin said the rally was peaceful in the morning hours of Saturday, until gunshots rang out in the afternoon after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks ago, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. See pictures from last week's upheaval \u00bb . Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. Anger has risen in Madagascar, where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year, over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Rajoelina has urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government could be established in the nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map \u00bb . \"What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time,\" said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he had received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try and disperse the crowd. Journalist Dregoire Pourtier in Antananarivo, Madagascar, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ban blames the \"tragedy\" on a \"lack of restraint on all sides\"\n26 dead, more than 80 wounded during an anti-government rally on Saturday .\nViolence stems from a dispute over who is in charge of the government .\nAndry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarivo, declares himself Madagascar's leader .","id":"bdb08a4da4a31e08483804504e36cae7e74a1ccd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama stepped into office with big approval ratings met with high expectations as he faces a deteriorating economic situation, an unpopular war in Iraq and the Middle East conflict. The economy has been the main focus of the first week of President Obama's presidency. In his first week, Obama has focused on the economy, but he's also addressed other campaign promises. Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst, describes Obama's first week as a \"neat balancing act.\" As Obama signs executive orders signaling a clear change of direction, he's also working hard to get bipartisan support for his economic stimulus, Schneider said. \"Mr. Obama doesn't have to do that. He could get a stimulus bill passed almost entirely with Democratic votes. But Obama doesn't want to be yet another president who divides the country,\" he said. The president has been working the phones with his party and made an unusual trip to Capitol Hill to meet with the opposing party to rally support for his $825 billion economic aid package. Following a meeting Tuesday with GOP congressman, Obama said he respects the \"legitimate philosophical differences\" between Democrats and Republicans on how to stimulate the economy. \"I don't expect 100 percent agreement,\" he said. \"But I hope we can put politics aside.\" Watch more on Obama's economic push \u00bb . Throughout the election season, Obama campaigned on his plan to restore economic equilibrium, and in his first public remarks after winning the election, he vowed to \"confront this economic crisis head-on.\" Obama faces his first test with Congress on Wednesday when the House of Representatives votes on his economic recovery plan. The president has said he hopes to have the plan passed by Congress and on his desk for signing by mid-February. Obama also has wasted no time in putting his military and diplomatic agendas into action. In his first week, he already promised to send as many as 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to boost the U.S. presence on the ground and increase development and reconstruction assistance. Seeking to demonstrate the Obama administration's early commitment to the country, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met last week with Afghan women legal professionals who were in Washington on a State Department training program on justice reform in Afghanistan. Obama also has pledged to crack down on militants in neighboring Pakistan. During the campaign season, Obama received a lot of criticism for saying that if it were necessary to root out terrorists, he would send U.S. forces into Pakistan without the country's approval. The president has called Afghanistan and Pakistan the \"central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism,\" and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that missile strikes in Pakistan will continue to root out al Qaeda members. \"Let me just say, both President Bush and President Obama have made clear that we will go after al Qaeda wherever al Qaeda is. And we will continue to pursue this,\" Gates said. As Obama seeks to stabilize the region, his administration has been advocating multilateralism and stressing \"smart power\" diplomacy by using all the tools of foreign policy available. Obama dispatched newly appointed Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region and tapped diplomatic heavyweight Richard Holbrooke as his special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama also gave his first formal interview as president to Al-Arabiya, an Arab news channel, sending a message to the region that he wants a dialogue. \"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,\" Obama told the Dubai-based satellite television network. \"We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect.\" Watch how Obama is reaching out to Muslims \u00bb . During his run for the White House, Obama pledged to improve ties with the Muslim world, draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Two days after his inauguration, Obama issued an executive order to close the camp within a year. Another order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army Field Manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of \"enhanced interrogation\" methods. Guantanamo Bay and reports of torture there were huge points of contention for the Bush administration and were widely considered to have damaged the reputation of the United States. In another reversal of his predecessor, Obama struck down a rule that prohibited U.S. money from funding international family-planning clinics that promote abortion or provide counseling or referrals about abortion services. In a statement, Obama said that family planning aid has been used as a \"political wedge issue,\" adding that he had \"no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.\" As Obama moves into the second week of his presidency, polls show that most Americans approve of the way he is handling his job so far. Former President Carter said he thinks Obama is \"doing just great.\" \"I was particularly gratified that he carried out his promise, which didn't surprise me, that he would start working on the Middle East peace process the first time he was in office and not wait until the last year he was in office,\" Carter said on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Carter said he has confidence in Obama on economic issues, but he cautioned that the expectations for the new president are too high. \"I think a lot of the expenditures that will come as rapidly as possible might not occur until maybe 18 months from now -- some earlier. So we're going to have to be patient,\" he said. President Bush also won praise during the first week of his first term for staying on message. He built his first week around education and received positive reviews in the media during his honeymoon period. Bush's predecessor, however, was not met with such a warm welcome. President Clinton's showdown with Congress over the question of gays in the military and the withdrawal of his attorney general nominee overshadowed early efforts to move ahead with his agenda.","highlights":"President Obama faces first test with vote on $825 billion economic stimulus plan .\nObama reverses Bush policy on abortion, orders closing of Guantanamo Bay camp .\nObama grants first formal interview of his presidency to Arab news channel .\nNew administration advocating multilateralism, \"smart power\" diplomacy .","id":"908185f6bb76f8720981fbfb478d3a2fac062c01"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan killed a female Canadian soldier and wounded four other troops, the Canadian military said Tuesday. Trooper Karine Blais, 21, is the second Canadian female soldier to die in Afghanistan. Trooper Karine Blais was killed Monday when the troops' armored vehicle struck the bomb. The attack occurred north of Kandahar in the Shah Wali Kowt District of Kandahar province. Blais' death was the 117th Canadian troop fatality in the Afghan war, and she is the second Canadian female soldier killed in Afghanistan. The first, Capt. Nichola Goddard, was killed in a May 2006 firefight with insurgents in Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been based during the conflict. Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance, commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, called the 21-year-old Blais \"an energetic soldier who gave 100 percent to every challenge she faced using a unique sense of humor based on her honesty and frankness.\" Vance said Blais \"demonstrated the qualities of a future leader\" and was \"respected by all members of her squadron.\" \"Our thoughts are with the friends and family of our fallen comrade during this difficult time,\" the Canadian Forces said in a news release. \"All members of Task Force Kandahar are thinking of the family and friends of our fallen comrades during this sad time. We will not forget their sacrifice as we continue to bring security and hope to the people of Kandahar province.\" Blais, from the 12th Canadian Armored Regiment at Valcartier, Quebec, near Quebec City, was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22th Regiment Battle Group. A chopper evacuated the four other troops to a medical facility at Kandahar airfield. Before Monday's attack, the last Canadian deaths in Afghanistan occurred March 20 when four soldiers were killed in two roadside bombings.","highlights":"Female soldier killed, four other troops wounded in roadside bombing .\nKarine Blais, 21, is second Canadian female soldier killed in Afghanistan .\nThere have been 117 Canadian troop deaths in the Afghan war .","id":"e9699c0c4652c6b270109dcaf1c610e4144db443"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, embroiled in a bitter divorce with his wife, Linda, told Rolling Stone magazine he can \"totally understand\" O.J. Simpson, the former football great found liable for the deaths of his wife and another man. Linda and Hulk Hogan enjoy happier times at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards in New York in 2006. \"I could have turned everything into a crime scene like O.J., cutting everybody's throat,\" Hogan said in the interview for a feature that will run in Friday's edition of the magazine. \"You live half a mile from the 20,000-square-foot home you can't go to anymore, you're driving through downtown Clearwater [Florida] and see a 19-year-old boy driving your Escalade, and you know that a 19-year-old boy is sleeping in your bed, with your wife ... \"I totally understand O.J. I get it,\" Hogan said. A spokeswoman for Rolling Stone magazine confirmed the quote to CNN. Watch report on Hogan's statements \u00bb . It has been widely reported that Linda Hogan, 49, is dating a younger man. She filed for divorce in 2007 after nearly 25 years of marriage. Simpson was found not guilty of murder in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, but was found liable for their deaths by a civil court jury. Simpson later was found guilty in a Las Vegas, Nevada, armed robbery case and sentenced in December to up to 33 years in prison. A spokesman for Linda Hogan said Wednesday that the statement amounts to a death threat and that her attorney is \"weighing all options necessary to protect his client.\" \"Sadly, his recent comments remind us that his definition of fair is much different than what the law dictates,\" Linda Hogan said in a written statement. Her spokesman, Gary Smith, linked the comments to the 55-year-old Hogan's three-decade career, during which he held multiple championship titles and, during his heyday in the 1980s, was easily the most popular wrestler in the world. \"We have always maintained that the fear that Linda has had to live with comes from the rage and instability much too often associated with pro wrestlers,\" Smith said in the statement. CNN was unable to reach Hulk Hogan's publicist for comment on Wednesday. In comments to Access Hollywood, a spokesman said the comments were not intended as a threat and that Hogan \"in no way condones\" Simpson's actions. \"As part of a larger conversation, he referred to it to exemplify his frustration with his own situation,\" the spokesman said. Hulk Hogan's real name is Terry Bollea. His wife alternately goes by Linda Hogan and Linda Bollea. CNN's Marc Balinsky and Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hulk Hogan, in a bitter divorce with his wife, Linda, talks to Rolling Stone magazine .\n\"I could have turned everything into a crime scene like O.J.,\" Hogan said .\nSpokesman for Linda Hogan says the statement amounts to a death threat .\nHulk Hogan spokesman: Comments not a threat, just expression of frustrations .","id":"2519def98126a96e55d53fe175621df82451a16a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Mojave boneyard in the California desert is where old airplanes go to die -- a wasteland of decrepit planes, titanic heaps of titanium and aluminum waiting to be scrapped for metal in India or China. Plane boneyards are a rich source of spare parts for MotoArt to create their functional furniture. But for Dave Hall and Donovan Fell, the boneyard is only the beginning. They own MotoArt, a company based in California that turns old aircraft parts into high-end furniture and functional art. From beds and desks to light fixtures and wall partitions, Hall and Fell say they are doing more than reinventing cast-offs from retired planes, they're creating pieces of aviation history. \"Once they are gone we can never get them back again,\" said Hall of the abandoned planes at Mojave. \"So what we like to do is actually take these aircraft parts and preserve them and give them a second life in some really fun, functional art.\" MotoArt began in 2000 when Hall and Fell, former co-workers at an architectural sign company in Los Angeles, collaborated on an art exhibition that showcased Fell's polished B-17 bomber propeller sculptures. See before and after photos of recycled plane parts \u00bb . \"We sold out the entire show, and the gearheads all loved it,\" said Fell. It was then that the duo realized their unique art project could have a much wider audience. Encouraged by the success of the exhibit, the duo began exploring the nearby Mojave boneyard for more than just propellers -- B-25 rudders for desks, 747 jet engine cowlings for beds, F-4 ejection seats for, well, ejection seats. \"Who's never wanted an ejection chair?\" laughs Fell, sitting in the company's studio in Los Angeles, where the MotoArt team bring back the treasures they find in the Mojave Desert. Watch Dave Hall at work at the Mojave boneyard \u00bb . The duo's most popular pieces of 'functional art' are their desks, ranging from the sleek 8-foot DC-9 tail stabilizer desk, which retail at around $15,000, to the imposing 14-foot DC-4 conference table, which costs a whopping $60,000. According to Hall, hundreds of hours are sometimes spent cutting, sanding, polishing and surfacing a single piece. It took the MotoArt team 220 hours to turn a single 747 cowling, the large shiny aluminum strip covering a jumbo jet engine, into a spectacular 8.5-foot diameter chrome receptionist's desk. Hall said it takes hundreds of hours to produce a fuselage partition, from using a chainsaw to slice 10-foot sheets out of the main section of a plane, to polishing and readying it for the showroom floor of the Dutch carmaker Spyker, which has commissioned MotoArt to create exhibitions for the company around the world. Hall and Fell began the company out of their garage, and now have 15 employees and a 12,000 square-foot studio with a showroom that could double as an aviation museum. \"It's like a larger version of my room when I was 10 years old,\" says Fell of the MotoArt headquarters. But MotoArt is anything but child's play -- in just nine years the company has carved out a niche in the high-end furniture market, creating a multi-million dollar business thanks to a wide range of corporate clients. The company counts Boeing, Microsoft, Red Bull and the United States government as happy MotoArt customers, as well as a number of airplane enthusiasts and celebrities. But for Hall and Fell, it is the preservation of the planes that gives them the greatest satisfaction. \"It's heartbreaking to see these planes that have serviced our country for decades being crunched up and destroyed, and it gives us a little piece of heart that we are able to recycle this and give it a second life,\" he said.","highlights":"Men at MotoArt search boneyards for old plane parts to recycle into furniture .\nThey use B-25 rudders for desks, 747 jet engine cowlings for beds .\nMotoArt prides itself on preserving aviation history with functional art .","id":"426a0c906d6c55dd240f5eac8bb30758d5d1f286"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- President-Elect Obama's mother-in-law will be moving to Washington with the first family, at least temporarily, his transition team has confirmed. Marian Robinson will be the latest in a line of presidential in-laws who, for good or ill, lived under the same roof as the president. President Dwight Eisenhower and his mother-in-law, Elivera Doud, pose for pictures with some of the grandchildren. Here are four stories that confirm the old truism: While America can choose its president, the president can't choose his in-laws. 1. Ulysses S. Grant and 'The Colonel' You would think that the Civil War was settled at Appomattox, and no question of its outcome would have been raised in the White House of Ulysses S. Grant, who, after all, was the general who won the war. But you would be wrong, because living with Ulysses and Julia Grant was the president's father-in-law. Colonel Frederick Dent (his rank seems to have been self-selected) was an unreconstructed Confederate, a St. Louis businessman and slaveholder who, when his daughter Julia went to the Executive Mansion early in 1869, decided to relocate there as well. The Colonel didn't hesitate to make himself at home. When his daughter received guests, he sat in a chair just behind her, offering anyone within earshot unsolicited advice. Political and business figures alike got a dose of the Colonel's mind as they waited to meet with President Grant. When the president's father, Jesse Grant, came from Kentucky on one of his regular visits to Washington, the White House turned into a Civil War reenactment. According to \"First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives\", by Bonnie Angelo, Jesse Grant preferred to stay in a hotel rather than sleep under the same roof as the Colonel. And when the two old partisans found themselves unavoidably sitting around the same table in the White House, they avoided direct negotiations by using Julia and her young son, named for the president's father, as intermediaries, Betty Boyd Caroli writes in \"First Ladies\": \"In the presence of the elder Grant, Frederick Dent would instruct Julia to 'take better care of that old gentleman [Jesse Grant]. He is feeble and deaf as a post and yet you permit him to wander all over Washington alone.' And Grant replied [to his grandson and namesake], 'Did you hear him? I hope I shall not live to become as old and infirm as your Grandfather Dent.'\" Mental Floss: 5 feisty first daughters . The Colonel remained in the White House -- irascible and unrepentant -- until his death, at age 88, in 1873. 2. Harry S Truman and the Mother-in-Law from Heck . Harry Truman and Bess Wallace met as children. He was a farm boy; she was the well-heeled granddaughter of Independence, Missouri's Flour King. When they married in 1919, Truman was a struggling haberdasher, and Bess's mother, Madge Wallace, thought Bess had made a colossal social faux pas. Until she died in 1952, Madge Wallace never changed her mind about Harry Truman. Her Bess had married way below her station. Madge had plenty of opportunities to let her son-in-law know it. The newlyweds moved into the Wallace mansion in Independence, and the three lived together under the same roof until the end of Madge's life. When Harry Truman was elected senator, \"Mother Wallace,\" as Truman judiciously called her, moved with her daughter and son-in-law to Washington. In the family's apartment, she shared a bedroom with the Trumans' daughter, Margaret. And when Truman became president, she moved with them into the White House, where she cast her cold eye on the new commander-in-chief. \"Why would Harry run against that nice Mr. Dewey?\" she wondered aloud, as Truman was fighting for his political life in the 1948 presidential race, according to \"First Mothers\" by Bonnie Angelo. And when Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur for insubordination, Mother Wallace was scandalized. \"Imagine a captain from the National Guard [Truman] telling off a West Point general!\" In December 1952, shortly before Truman's term ended, Madge Wallace died, at age 90. For the 33 years they lived together, she never called her son-in-law anything but \"Mr. Truman\" to his face. Mental Floss: Presidential siblings and the headaches they caused . 3. Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Mother-in-Law of the Year . If Truman's story sounds like the set-up for a film noir, his successor's relationship with his mother-in-law might have been a Technicolor musical. Elivera Mathilda Carlson Doud, Mamie Eisenhower's mother, was \"a witty woman with a tart tongue,\" Time magazine wrote, and Dwight Eisenhower thought she was a hoot. \"She refuted every mother-in-law joke ever made,\" Time wrote. There was no question that she would join her daughter and son-in-law in the White House. Ike called her \"Min,\" the name of a character in the Andy Gump comic strip. Ike and Min \"constituted a mutual admiration society, and each took the other's part whenever a family disagreement would arise,\" said Eisenhower's son, John. The New York Times observed, \"The president frequently looks around him sharply, and inquires, 'Where's Min?'\" Widowed shortly before Eisenhower became president, Min spent the winters in the White House and summers at her home in Denver. It was while visiting his mother-in-law's home that Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in 1955. Two years later, in failing health, Min returned permanently to Denver. She died in 1960, at age 82. 4. Benjamin Harrison and the Reverend Doctor . Benjamin Harrison's father-in-law, John Witherspoon Scott, bore a double title: \"reverend doctor.\" Scott was born in Pennsylvania in 1800, did post-graduate work at Yale and took a professorship in mathematics and science at Miami University, in Ohio. He was also a Presbyterian minister and an outspoken abolitionist. The reverend doctor was rumored to have shielded runaway slaves in his home as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Whatever the truth, Miami University dismissed him for his anti-slavery beliefs. He accepted a post at Farmer's College, a prep school in Cincinnati, where he became a mentor of a student named Benjamin Harrison. During his visits to the Scott home, Harrison became friendly with the reverend doctor's daughter, Caroline. Young Harrison spent so many evenings at the Scotts' home that he got the nickname \"the pious moonlight dude,\" according to \"The Complete Book of the Presidents\" by William A. DeGregorio. He and Caroline were married in 1853 at the bride's house. The reverend doctor officiated. John Witherspoon Scott later became a clerk in the pension office of the interior department. He gave up the position when Harrison was elected president in 1888. A widower since 1876, Scott moved into the White House with his daughter and their family. It was the president's custom to lead the family in a half-hour of Bible reading and prayer after breakfast, Anne Chieko Moore and Hester Anne Hale wrote in \"Benjamin Harrison: Centennial President.\" When the president was absent, his father-in-law took his place. Caroline Harrison died in October 1892, two weeks before her husband lost the presidential election. Her father died the next month, at age 92. An obituary described John Witherspoon Scott as \"a man of wonderful physical vigor, tall, broad chested and well preserved mentally.\" Mental Floss: The bizarre history of White House pets . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Several U.S. presidents had in-laws move into White House with them .\nPres. Truman's mother-in-law scandalized by his firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur .\nPres. Eisenhower and his mother-in-law had \"mutual admiration society\"\nPresident Grant's father-in-law gave his opinion freely at the White House .","id":"27f5e9422ddb2ee156abedf0e3cf9a937c303dcb"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- One could say she has the determination ... but lacks the drive. Driving agency estimates woman has spent more than $2,888 in exam fees. A 68-year-old South Korean woman this week signed up to take her driving test once again -- after failing to earn a license the first 771 times. The woman, identified only as Cha, first took the written portion of the exam in April 2005, said Choi Young-cheol of the Driver's License Agency in the southwestern city of Jeonju. At the time, she made her living selling goods door-to-door and figured she would need a car to help her get around, Choi told CNN. She failed the test. She retook the test the next day and failed again. And again. And again. \"You have to get at least 60 points to pass the written part,\" said Kim Rahn, who wrote about the unflappable woman in the Korea Times, an English-language daily. \"She usually gets under 50.\" In the beginning, Cha went to the license office almost every day. Now, she no longer works but still turns up once a week, Choi said. The office estimates she has spent more than 4 million won ($2,888) in exam fees. Cha's last failed attempt was Monday. She tries for the 772nd time either Thursday or Friday. -- CNN's Kathy Paik and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"68-year-old South Korean woman has signed up to take her 772nd driving test .\nShe first took the written portion of the exam in April 2005 .\nLicense office estimates she has spent $2,888 on test applications .","id":"0c0a7aea4e4f8a97e9bc15d27865bdebaa562b03"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- She's been called the \"mother of the believers,\" a middle-aged woman possibly responsible for recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers in Iraq and involvement in at least 28 terrorist operations. Television picture reportedly showing Samira Ahmed Jassim during her alleged confession. Now she's in jail, arrested on January 21 in what an Iraqi commander called \"heroic\" security force operations that unfolded without \"any losses.\" Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad command, identified the suspect as Samira Ahmed Jassim, also known as Umm-al-Moumineen, or \"the mother of the believers.\" The arrest is considered a major stride in confronting the challenge of female suicide bombers, more than 30 of whom detonated themselves last year. Atta couldn't say where she was detained for intelligence reasons. That's because the authorities are after more targets. The bombers were recruited in Baghdad and Diyala province for the Ansar al-Sunna militant group, said Atta, who added police were aware of the identities of the women, including their fake names on fake IDs, and were on the hunt for them. They said they were also trying to verify Jassim's confessions. Atta played a DVD for reporters with excerpts of the confessions of Jassim, who is in her 40s or 50s. Wearing a black robe and veil, she said she was asked by a man named \"Shaker\" to recruit women for an Ansar al-Sunna operative named Hareth, also known as Abu Rami. She spoke about a number of the women she recruited, spending days talking to prospective operatives and persuading them to carry out attacks. Jassim said she would deliver a recruit to Shaker. Later, she returned and picked up the recruit, dropping them at locations like the Muqdadiya police station, a Sons of Iraq office and a Baghdad car park. One woman she recruited didn't even look at Jassim when she was picked up for a job. She just whispered Quranic verses en route to a bombing. Another woman -- described as psychologically challenged -- came from a financially hard-up family. In November, 18 would-be female suicide bombers turned themselves in to coalition forces in northern Iraq. The women, whose ages and names were not released by the military, gave themselves up after being persuaded by religious leaders and family members to \"cease their training in suicide operations and reconcile,\" the U.S. military said. The women were connected to al Qaeda in Iraq suicide bombing cells, but it was not clear where they had been training or operating. The statement also did not say where the women turned themselves in, though the northern city of Mosul and surrounding parts of northern Iraq are still a hotbed for insurgent activity and considered the last stronghold for al Qaeda in Iraq. Troops have launched operations targeting members of families of suspected female bombers trying to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls. Intelligence gathered from detainees indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women with three main characteristics: those who are illiterate, are deeply religious or have financial struggles, most likely because they've lost the male head of the household. Females always have played a role in the insurgency in Iraq, helping feed militants, hiding them in their homes and helping to sneak weapons around the country. They have proven to be highly effective in their operations, because of the cultural convention that women are not to be searched by men for cultural and religious reasons. The U.S. military has created a program called the Daughters of Iraq, analogous to U.S. backed Sons of Iraq, to conduct searches of women.","highlights":"Jassim also known as Umm-al-Moumineen, or mother of the believers .\nArrested on Jan. 21 in what an Iraqi commander called \"heroic\" security operation .\nConsidered a major stride in confronting challenge of female suicide bombers .\nTroops have launched operations targeting families of suspected bombers .","id":"8162d5e123157eb21c047281ac6fd43718b5250f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mike Myers' \"Love Guru\" may speak of \"yin and yang,\" but the Hollywood version of bad balanced by good might be the Razzies and the Oscars. Mike Myers' \"The Love Guru\" was one of the year's biggest bombs. The day before the Motion Picture Academy releases the Oscar nominations -- honoring the movie industry's best -- the Golden Raspberry Award foundation reveals nominations for the Razzies, which recognize the worst films of 2008. And in 2008, Razzie founder and self-styled \"Head Raspberry\" John Wilson said, the bad seemed to outweigh the good among the 578 movies released. \"We are saying that it wasn't just the economy that tanked,\" Wilson said. \"So did the quality of the movies being offered to those of us who don't have as much money to buy tickets.\" \"All of the voting was very close this year,\" he said. \"There just was too much stuff to choose from.\" The bumper crop of \"putrid motion pictures\" may be partly a result of last spring's writers' strike \"when nobody was rewriting, polishing or improving anything and it was still getting filmed,\" Wilson said. Bombs also happen when studios hedge their bets with high-priced stars by having them \"do what worked before, coming back to same well.\" Which brings us back to Myers' \"Love Guru,\" which followed his hugely profitable \"Austin Powers\" franchise. Myers' portrayal of \"a platitude-spouting mystic\" leads the Razzie list for worst picture, Wilson said. It may also have been the biggest box office bomb: the film, expected to be a summer hit, lost $30 million, he said. Other worst picture nominees include \"Disaster Movie\" and \"Meet the Spartans\" -- both featuring the same writer-directors and essentially the same cast. The latter film \"somehow managed to work references to Britney Spears into an ancient Spartan 'plot,' \" Wilson said. Also competing for the top dishonor is \"The Happening,\" which Wilson described as \"an eco-disaster tale whose 'villain' drew more guffaws than gasps,\" and Paris Hilton's \"The Hottie and the Nottie,\" which earned three Razzie nominations overall. \"She really is neither a movie star or an actress,\" Wilson said of Hilton. The movie -- for which Hilton was listed as executive producer -- sold only $27,000 in tickets but cost about $2 million to make. Other Razzie nominees include actor-comedian Eddie Murphy, who received two nominations for \"Meet Dave\"; Oscar winner Al Pacino, who earned a Razzie nod for making \"two rotten movies this year,\" in Wilson's words (he's referring to \"88 Minutes\" and \"Righteous Kill\"); and \"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,\" which was singled out as \"Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.\" Despite the opinions of Wilson and the Razzie voters, it was the year's third-highest-grossing movie. And a rare Razzie for \"Worst Career Achievement\" will go to \"Bad Movie Uber-Meister\" Uwe Boll for \"In the Name of the King,\" Wilson said. The film, based on a video game, had a $60 million budget, yet brought in under $5 million at the box office, he said. Wilson said he began the Razzies in 1981 as a counterpoint to the Oscars. It takes guts to show up in person to accept a Razzie, but some notable actors have embraced the infamy, Wilson said. Tom Green, who made \"a horrible little thing called 'Freddy Got Fingered' \" several years ago, \"insisted that he made the film with the intent of sweeping the Razzie Awards,\" Wilson said. Green showed up to accept his three awards with great enthusiasm, he said. \"At the end of the ceremony, he launched into a harmonica solo and we had to pry his hands off the podium and physically remove him from the stage,\" Wilson said. The classiest and most memorable acceptance speech came in 2005 when Halle Berry showed up to get her worst actress Razzie for her \"Catwoman\" performance. Berry, who won a best actress Oscar for \"Monster's Ball\" in 2001, was given a one-minute standing ovation, Wilson said. \"She had her Oscar in one hand and her Razzie in the other,\" Wilson said. Berry's speech was a parody of her Academy Award acceptance and \"she was quite funny,\" he said. \"She said that her mother had taught her that if you cannot accept valid criticism, you also, by the same token, are not entitled to bask in the glory when you get the good reviews,\" he said. The appearance and her sense of humor earned Berry a lot of respect, he said. The awards show -- a \"shorter parody\" of the Oscars -- can be seen only by members and journalists in person at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood on February 21. It cannot be televised or streamed online because studios would likely withhold permission for clips used in the presentation to be shown, Wilson said. Unlike the Oscars and other honors, Golden Raspberry Awards are not meant as recommendations for people to rent the DVDs, Wilson said. \"If you were going to do that, I would suggest you put away all sharp implements before putting the DVDs in your machine,\" he said.","highlights":"Razzie Awards, honoring Hollywood's worst, are a counterpoint to Oscars .\nAmong this year's leaders: Mike Myers' \"The Love Guru\"\n\"Bad Movie Uber-Meister\" Uwe Boll will receive Razzie for career achievement .","id":"2daee20dcac238802e53440d0e95cddfd0e97b81"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office asked police to do more investigative work before a decision is made on whether charges will be filed in the domestic violence case against singer Chris Brown, according to a spokeswoman for the DA. Chris Brown attends a party saluting music producer Clive Davis in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday. The LAPD's chief investigator in case, Detective Deshon Andrews, told CNN he hand-carried his findings to the district attorney Tuesday afternoon. Prosecutors looked at the files and then asked Andrews for \"an additional investigation,\" DA spokeswoman Jane Robinson said. Andrews said that to keep photos and documents from leaking to the media, he has kept the case file closely guarded and allowed no copies of the material to be made. Watch the latest about the case \u00bb . Police have refused media requests to hear the 911 call that led to their investigation early Sunday, but Andrews said it mostly recorded the sound of \"a screaming woman.\" Brown, 19, turned himself in Sunday night after police said they were looking for him. He was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. Brown was later released on a $50,000 bond. He is expected to appear in court on March 5. Police said Brown and a woman were in a vehicle near Hollywood's Hancock Park early Sunday when they became involved in an argument. The woman \"suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker,\" police said. Police did not identify the woman, but sources close to the couple told CNN the alleged victim was his girlfriend, singer Rihanna, 20. Brown's lawyer has not responded to several requests for comment. CNN's Jennifer Wolfe and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: L.A. DA's office wants more investigation of Chris Brown case .\nPolice: Brown turned himself in after woman accused him of attacking her .\nPolice haven't named woman; sources say it was girlfriend Rihanna .","id":"7d84704eae7b9e4190891ffd73d430854a359018"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As a career military officer, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry is familiar with sacrifice for his country and long stretches away from home. Karl Eikenberry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 26. But he apparently doesn't want any more separation from his wife, Ching Eikenberry. If he is approved as the next U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan he wants her to come with him. That could collide with State Department rules. Afghanistan is designated \"an unaccompanied post\" by the department because of the dangers of the war and terror attacks. That means family members are not allowed. Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, who as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee was running Eikenberry's confirmation hearing last week, was in favor of the idea. \"I know you are hoping to take your wife there with you, and I think I certainly, and I think the committee is entirely supportive,\" Kerry said. \"I think it would be a terrific message and a strong boost of morale for the Embassy, and obviously wherever possible we should try to encourage that. So I hope that will be facilitated.\" Said Eikenberry, \"Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for that support.\" There was no immediate reaction from the State Department.","highlights":"Karl Eikenberry awaits Senate confirmation to be next ambassador to Afghanistan .\nIf approved, Eikenberry wants to take his wife with him .\nBut that request could collide with State Department rules .","id":"8c41254688f35e408ad4cdbec1404ffffdf2b7ba"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- With the explosive growth of the light truck segment as well as the impending onslaught of winter, I thought it would be fitting to write about four-wheel drive systems. There are a few different types available; and there are special maintenance practices that might cause some confusion. So let's get enlightened! Four-wheel drive systems can make driving safer on wet road conditions. 4WD systems can be classified as Part Time 4WD, Full Time 4WD, and Permanent 4WD. Part Time 4WD is the most basic of all 4WD systems. It gives the driver the choice of driving in two-wheel drive or 4WD. That sounds pretty good! However, the downside is that you shouldn't engage the 4WD on pavement unless it's very slippery. That's because, with this system, when you engage 4WD you lock the front and rear wheels together through the transmission and transfer gearbox. This is great for straight-ahead traction and very slippery surfaces. However, on dry pavement it makes for odd cornering, and handling characteristics. Also you can harm the drive train components by driving in 4WD for extended periods of time on dry pavement. Consequently, you may find yourself having to stop the vehicle to engage or disengage, depending on the road conditions. AOL Autos: Top 5 SUVs . So why choose this type of system? Two good reasons: . \u2022 It's less costly to build and therefore to buy . \u2022 It's very durable under heavy stress (generally more durable than the other 4WD systems, since it has fewer components) Full Time 4WD is the most commonly used system on the market. Full Time 4WD offers both two-wheel drive mode and 4WD, depending on road conditions (driver must engage and disengage the 4WD). In addition, the 4WD mode offers both a high and low mode for when the going really gets tough (driver shifts to high or low). AOL Autos: Top 5 crossover vehicles . Besides a transmission and transfer gearbox, a center differential couples the front and rear wheels. This differential allows the front and rear wheels to turn at different speeds as needed (unlike Part-Time 4WD system) for better handling. When the wheels start to spin due to slippery road conditions, the system reacts to wheel spin by progressively locking the front and rear wheels together to optimize traction. Although Full-Time 4WD requires the driver to engage it, once engaged it offers more \"control\" through the high and low mode selection (based on road conditions) and better cornering and handling on varying road conditions due to the differential. AOL Autos: Best luxury wagons . Permanent 4WD is similar to Full-Time 4WD but it has no two-wheel drive mode. The vehicle is always in 4WD, so you don't have to determine whether conditions are right to engage it. AOL Autos: Cars with best Blue Book values . We still have transmission, transfer gearbox and center differential coupling the front and rear wheels. The only difference is that torque (or power) is constantly being applied to all the wheels, giving maximum traction in all weather and road conditions. Current systems have high and low modes for when the going gets tough; however, most importantly, the system does the thinking for you ... it automatically applies as much lock up (to all the wheels) as necessary for maximum traction. AOL Autos: Best-selling trucks and SUVs . Next, a few definitions of common 4WD-drive terms that you may have heard of: . Locking Differential - locks both wheels on the axle, forcing them to turn together to allow maximum traction . Limited-Slip Differential - detects slippage in one wheel and sends torque to the other wheel that is not spinning. It operates is automatically. On-The-Fly-Shifting - allows the 4WD to be engaged while driving the vehicle (many systems require that you stop the vehicle in order to engage the 4WD). Manual Hubs - In order for 4WD to work, you must have a means of engaging the front wheel drive mechanism. This is done through the front hubs. On vehicles equipped with manual hubs, the operator must manually \"lock in\" the front wheels by turning a mechanical switch. Automatic Hubs - Instead of manually \"locking in\" the front wheels in order to drive in 4WD, automatic hubs \"lock in\" the front wheels by a simple flip of an electrical switch in the comfort of your warm, cushy, SUV or pickup. Transfer Gearbox - an auxiliary gearbox attached to the transmission, which allows you to shift into a high and low range of 4WD for serious pulling or hauling. 4WD Maintenance Tips . 4X4s have a transfer case, locking hubs, and front and rear differentials (some have an additional center-coupling differential). The maintenance of the transfer case is the same as on a standard transmission. Therefore, when checking the fluid, you are checking for (1) proper level, (2) the presence of moisture, (3) the presence of wear particles... either in the form of metal or friction material. A small amount of wear material is acceptable. However, excessive wear material can be an indication of a problem. One of three types of lubricants is used, depending on the carmaker. These lubricants are: ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid), 30W motor oil, or 90W-gear oil. The maintenance interval (which involves changing the lubricant) for transfer cases that use ATF and 30W motor oil is every 50,000 miles. For 90W gear oil the recommended interval is 80,000 miles. In regards to the locking hubs, maintenance is extremely critical. Locking hubs come in two forms: automatic and manual. Regardless of which one you have, they must be disassembled, cleaned and lubricated every two years or 24,000 miles. Snow, ice, water, salt, and mud usually find their way into these mechanized units, rendering them useless and costing the owner big bucks! By keeping up the maintenance on them you minimize expense and downtime. With respect to differential maintenance, there's not a whole lot to do except check the fluid level every oil change and visually inspect for any leakage. The technician should check the gear lubricant for proper level, color, and consistency. Low lubricant level indicates a leak; a milky color indicates moisture in the lubricant; and the presence of metal in the lubricant indicates mechanical wear. Check your owner's manual for the recommended fluid change intervals. And check your owner's manual for specific operating instructions of your 4X4 system because the various systems function differently. There you have it, four wheeling made easy. Now go out and climb a mountain! Tom Torbjornsen is a veteran of 37 years in the auto service industry, an automotive journalist registered with IMPA.","highlights":"Vehicles can have Part Time 4WD, Full Time 4WD or Permanent 4WD .\nPart Time 4WD: Don't drive for extended time on dry pavement with 4WD engaged .\nFull Time 4WD offers both two-wheel drive mode and 4WD .\nMaintenance is extremely critical for locking hubs on 4WD vehicles .","id":"c7a33abb0ad33f7b0255eb8c1acee0e6311afbb7"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- \"Che\" the movie met Che the myth in Cuba this weekend, and the lengthy biopic of the Argentinean revolutionary won acclaim from among those who know his story best. Actor Benicio Del Toro stars in \"Che,\" which details Che Guevara's role in the 1950s Cuban revolution. The movie was screened Saturday in the Yara movie theater in central Havana as part of the 30th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema. \"Che\" also played Sunday at Havana's Karl Marx Theater. \"Che\" stars Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro in the title role, for which he won a best actor award at this year's Cannes Film Festival. But it's one thing to make a movie about Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara and the Cuban revolution and show it in France, quite another to screen it in Cuba. Speaking to CNN outside the Karl Marx Theater, the bilingual Puerto Rican actor admitted some anxiety. \"This is Cuban history, so there's an audience in there that probably, that could be the biggest critics and the most knowledgeable critics of the historical accuracy of the film,\" Del Toro said. Watch Del Toro talk about the movie in Cuba \u00bb . It appears he needn't have worried. Audiences gave the movie hearty ovations. And Granma, the official mouthpiece of the Cuban government, gave Del Toro a glowing review. \"Del Toro personifies Che in a spectacular manner, not only his physical appearance but also his masterly interpretation,\" the state newspaper said. After the showing, Del Toro characterized the public reaction as \"sensational, a shot of adrenaline,\" Granma said. \"The dream was to make this movie and to bring it here, where it all began.\" The movie has two parts: \"El argentino,\" which portrays Guevara's role in the 1950s Cuban revolution, and \"Guerrilla,\" which shows Guevara's efforts in Africa and Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who also directed Del Toro in the 2000 film \"Traffic,\" for which Del Toro won an Oscar. At 4 hours and 17 minutes, \"Che\" can test viewers' stamina. But that wasn't a problem in Havana. It's a story Cubans know by heart. But this time, it's told by outsiders. Catalina, a history professor who would give only her first name, was a tough critic. \"The movie is well-done. It has good intentions,\" she said. \"But in my opinion, in the first part, the scenes in the jungle seemed a bit like a caricature.\" Though some debated the details of this story they know so well, most -- like a young Guevara lookalike who identified himself only as Daniel -- were pleased. \"It has captured history to perfection,\" he said. \"It has been well thought out and well-created.\" Others, like student Susel Paraza, were torn about seeing their history told by others. \"What hurt me a little,\" she said, \"is that it wasn't us, the Cubans, who thought to make a movie like this but instead a foreign director with foreign actors who have recreated this story very well.\" Other foreign actors have played Guevara, most notably Egyptian-born Omar Sharif in a 1969 U.S. production titled \"Che!\" Soderbergh's \"Che\" has been shown at six film festivals worldwide and will have a limited opening in the United States on December 12. It is scheduled for widespread U.S. distribution starting January 24. Although many may not know Guevara's history, his image is recognized worldwide from a photograph taken by Alberto Korda at a Havana memorial service in March 1960. Titled \"Guerrillero Heroico\" (Heroic Guerrilla), the image of a somber, long-haired and bearded Guevara wearing a beret with a lone star became what the Maryland Institute College of Art called \"the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century.\" The image has been emblazoned on everything from T-shirts to posters and even tattoos. \"There is no other image like it. What other image has been sustained in this way?\" Trisha Ziff, the curator of an exhibition on the iconography of Guevara, asked in a 2007 interview with the BBC. \"Che Guevara has become a brand. And the brand's logo is the image, which represents change. It has becomes the icon of the outside thinker, at whatever level -- whether it is anti-war, pro-green or anti-globalization.\" Guevara was 31 years old when the photo was taken. He has been dead for 41 years, longer than he was alive. Jonathan Green, former longtime director of the UCR\/California Museum of Photography, has been quoted as saying, \"Korda's image has worked its way into languages around the world. It has become an alpha-numeric symbol, a hieroglyph, an instant symbol. It mysteriously reappears whenever there's a conflict. There isn't anything else in history that serves in this way.\" CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Che\" stars Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro in the title role .\nThe official mouthpiece of the Cuban government gives Del Toro a glowing review .\nThe movie played Sunday at Havana's Karl Marx Theater .\n\"Che\" will have a limited opening in the United States on Friday .","id":"3f991b8bc29652f4664c0880249f333a37ea2ac5"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Taliban gunmen executed a young couple for trying to elope in rural Afghanistan, a local police chief told CNN Tuesday. The woman was forced by her parents to become engaged to a man she did not like, said Police Chief Gabar Furdali, and decided to leave home with another man. Local Taliban commanders found out and set out to punish them, said the police officer in the village of Man De Khe in the Kash Rud district of Nimruz province, a remote southwestern province that borders on Iran and Pakistan. The Taliban gathered residents of Kash Rud to watch the execution of the two. The man, Abdul Aziz, and the woman, who was not named, were shot to death, the police officer said. He did not say when the killings took place. NATO troops who patrol the country have \"limited presence in that particular area,\" a spokesman told CNN. The killings were not \"within our area of responsibility, but we are aware of the reports\" said the spokesman for the NATO mission who declined to be named, in line with policy. There is a tradition of \"honor killings\" in the region that long predates the Taliban, said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University. Journalist Tawab Qurayshi contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police chief says couple were killed for planning to elope .\nHe says woman wanted to get away from forced engagement to another man .\nIncident happened in Nimruz province, a remote area that borders Iran and Pakistan .\nNATO aware of the reports but said it was not their area of responsibility .","id":"ef8171573c008b3ae4afc5c0e1cf5de0bd2b20d9"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Antiviolence protesters stretched out 16,000 coconuts on Brazil's world-famous Copacabana beach Saturday, each one representing a victim of urban violence. Protesters used dummies to represent victims of violence on Brazil's Copacabana beach this week. Activists from ONG Rio de Paz led a protest march Saturday morning that included residents and tourists who usually can be found on the beach on weekends. The protesters strung up a sign on the sand that said \"Shame\" in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French. They finished with a minute of silence for the victims of violence. Rio de Paz said the coconuts represent victims of violence, homicides, dead police officers and those who have been shot in gunfights between authorities and gangs of narcotics traffickers. The figure itself was obtained from official information from the Rio de Janeiro governmental Institute of Public Security. It was the second protest staged this week on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach by the group Rio de Paz. On Tuesday, the group created a mock cemetery in the sand with mannequins representing 9,000 people who Rio de Paz says have been slain and secretly buried since January 2007. Rio de Paz President Antonio Carlos Costa said he believes that about 6,000 of the missing people were killed, many by drug traffickers fighting for territory in Rio's slums and poor neighborhoods. Others, he said, were killed by hit squads and police acting on their own. \"In general, they are assassinated by police -- police acting outside of their regular work hours,\" Costa said Tuesday. \"They are also assassinated by narcotraffickers. The bodies are disposed of in secret cemeteries in the metropolitan Rio de Janeiro area or incinerated alive by narcotraffickers in what they call 'microwaves.' \" To illustrate the point, demonstrators also constructed facsimiles of the \"microwaves\" that narcotics traffickers and death squads reportedly use to cremate remains of those they have abducted. CNN's Fabiana Frayssinet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Protesters line up coconuts on Brazil's Copacabana beach .\nRio de Paz says coconuts represent victims of urban violence, drug wars .\nProtesters string up sign in sand that says \"Shame\" in four languages .\nEarlier, group staged mock cemetery in beach sand representing missing people .","id":"bf3d658ac3a6a53ba24b46c1894c83a7cd4c90db"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- Argentina ended their magnificent World Cup campaign as they started it, stunning hosts France in their own back yard with a sensational performance to claim the tournament's bronze medal with a 34-10 victory. Argentina players celebrate another try on their way to a stunning 34-10 victory over France. The result, secured thanks to Pumas tries by Felipe Contepomi and Omar Hasan in the first half and Federico Martin Aramburu, Ignacio Corleto and Contepomi again in the second, brought back memories of the shock 17-12 win earned by the South Americans on the tournament's opening night. That Stade de France triumph was built around sturdy defense and although they showed the same resolve here at the Parc des Princes, their attacking edge came to the fore this time. The tries by Aramburu and Corleto were especially memorable, and helped earn the Argentinians a record success over the French. Contepomi added three conversions and a penalty to give himself a 19-point personal haul for the night, while Les Bleus could only manage a try from Clement Poitrenaud -- converted by Lionel Beauxis -- and a Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penalty. It was a disappointing way for their head coach Bernard Laporte to depart -- he takes up a post in the French government now -- but departing Pumas coach Marcelo Loffreda, who is off to Leicester Tigers, was all smiles at the final whistle. With the pressure off, the shackles were well and truly removed from the hosts, who were the more fired-up of the two sides throughout. Indeed, they bossed the majority of a fiery opening 40 minutes, but somehow found themselves 17-3 behind going into the break. Les Bleus, throwing the ball around like the country's teams of old, had a try disallowed in the 10th minute when Imanol Harinordoquy was adjudged to have passed forward prior to Elissalde touching down. The likes of Yannick Nyanga and Christophe Dominici were finding gaps in the Pumas defence but all they had to show from a dominant opening 20 minutes was an Elissalde penalty, for Patricio Albacete's hands in the ruck. Their lack of cutting edge was ruthlessly punished by Argentina, who scored two tries in four minutes around the half-hour mark. Contepomi, who had levelled matters with a 22nd-minute penalty, was the first player to go over, running onto a delayed Agustin Pichot pass to force himself over in the left corner. Then, after Juan Martin Hernandez had crashed a drop goal against the post, the Pumas retook possession and prop Hasan was there at the bottom of a pile of bodies to ground. The try needed the say-so of the video referee and Contepomi -- like he had after his own try -- added the extras for 17-3. It was a bizarre scoreline, given France's dominance of the early possession. Even when they were encamped on Argentina's line in the last five minutes of the first half, the hosts still could not break through their opponents' obdurate rearguard. Nyanga came closest to scoring in the second minute of injury time, but dropped the ball as he was attempting to ground. The half ended with Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and Raphael Ibanez receiving yellow cards after another heated exchange, but the start of the second period was engagingly open. France needed to score first to make a game of it but they were hit by Aramburu's sucker punch in the 53rd minute. And what a try it was. Aurelien Rougerie's chip-and-chase was fielded by Felipe Contepomi before Corleto set off on a magnificent 50-yard winding run. The ball was fired out to the right -- through the hands of Manuel Contepomi and Hernandez -- to Aramburu, who jinked inside Dominici to ground. Contepomi missed the conversion but the France supporters were already whistling with their team 22-3 down. Sebastien Chabal was brought on for the final 20 minutes, and almost immediately he was floored by a late hit by Juan Manuel Leguizamon. It earned the London Irish flanker a yellow card, but Argentina made light of their numerical deficit by running in a sensational fourth try. Off turnover ball, Horacio Agulla was set clear down the left. His inside pass was taken by Corleto and just as he did in the opening game of the tournament, he scorched past the covering defense to dive over in the corner. The try France deserved came in the 69th minute, the recalled Poitrenaud easing over in the left corner following an initial Harinordoquy break. The night belonged to the Pumas, though, and Contepomi rounded things off with his second try of the night with three minutes left to add insult to injury for the French. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Argentina stun France once again to claim third place in the rugby World Cup .\nThe Pumas go over for five tries against France's single try in a 34-10 victory .\nThe result brought back memories of their 17-12 success in the opening game .","id":"478ef1b06186a8099c87426f0999f45ea0dc63ec"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's central bank introduced a $10 billion note worth less than 20 U.S. dollars, as the once-prosperous southern African nation battles against spiraling hyperinflation. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe at Zanu-PF National Political Commissar Elliot Manyika's burial last week . The new note, expected to buy just 20 loaves of bread, comes just a week after Zimbabwe issued a $500 million note to ease a cash shortage. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono said the $10 billion note was being introduced for the \"convenience of the public ahead of the festive season.\" On Thursday, the U.S. dollar traded for about 600 million Zimbabwe dollars, and the hyperinflation was expected to continue. People slept overnight at the bank doors, hoping to get money for the next day. President Robert Mugabe apologized to his ZANU-PF party supporters Thursday for the problems Zimbabweans were facing but insisted his nation has turned a corner in its fight against its worst humanitarian crisis, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported. Shortages of most essentials such as electricity, fuel, medicine and food have become a common feature in Zimbabwe, forcing people to flee the country. Zimbabwe has slashed zeros from the amount of its worthless currency during the past two years -- the latest being 10 zeros in August. Once one of Africa's most promising economies, Zimbabwe is reeling under its worst humanitarian and economic crisis. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,000 Zimbabweans since August, forcing hundreds to cross the border into South Africa and Botswana to seek treatment. Five million people are in need of food aid in a nation that once exported food to its neighbors, the United Nations says. But Mugabe -- blamed for the crisis by his critics -- said the worst was over. He said he was optimistic about resuscitating the power-sharing deal he signed with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in September, the Herald reported. \"We will be inviting the two leaders -- Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara -- to come and discuss the way forward,\" Mugabe said. The deal has yet to take effect, as Tsvangirai blamed Mugabe for grabbing all key ministries such as home affairs, local government, finance, home affairs, information and defense. Mugabe said Western nations and neighboring Botswana were against the formation of an inclusive government in Zimbabwe. \"I was reading recent utterances by Condoleezza Rice that African leaders are not prepared to topple President Mugabe and bring about regime change,\" he said. \"She condemned this inability on the part of African leaders. How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe, organize an army to come? It is not easy. I do not know of any African country that is brave enough to do that. \"Botswana is making some stupid noises. They are just hollow noises to assure the MDC that the Botswana government supports it and also in response to Britain and America that Botswana is a good mouthpiece of the white men.\" The MDC is Tsvangirai's opposition party -- Movement for Democratic Change. On cholera, Mugabe said the country was failing to import adequate water treating chemicals because of the sanctions imposed by the west.","highlights":"The new $10 billion notes comes a week after a $500 million note was issued .\nReserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor: New note issued ahead of \"festive season\"\nThe country slashed 10 zeros from the amount of its worthless currency in August .\nFive million people are in need of food aid, the United Nations says .","id":"072263adb43949cb124282a001b5e1f1dec59672"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The woman allegedly assaulted by singer Chris Brown in Hollywood early Sunday was his girlfriend, singer Rihanna, according to sources close to the couple. Chris Brown attends a party saluting music producer Clive Davis in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday. While Los Angeles Police have a policy against identifying alleged domestic violence victims, two people who know both Brown and Rihanna confirmed she was the woman police said had \"suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker.\" Brown, 19, turned himself in to police Sunday night after police said they were looking for him. He was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. Brown was later released on a $50,000 bond and given a March 5 court date. \"Detectives investigating the alleged domestic violence felony battery booked him for criminal threats,\" a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department said. \"At the time the case is presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, additional charges may be filed.\" Brown, nominated for two Grammy Awards, was scheduled to perform at the show. His girlfriend, singer Rihanna, abruptly canceled her planned Grammys performance, but neither her spokesman nor the show organizers gave a reason. \"Rihanna is well,\" her spokesman said in a written statement. \"Thank you for concern and support.\" Watch the latest developments in the case \u00bb . Brown, 19, and Rihanna, 20, were seen together Saturday night at a pre-Grammys dinner at the Beverly Hills Hilton, about five miles from where police said the alleged incident happened at 12:30 a.m. Sunday. The police statement said Brown and a woman were in a vehicle near Hollywood's Hancock Park when \"they became involved in an argument.\" \"After stopping his car, Brown and the woman got out and the argument escalated,\" police said. After receiving a 911 call at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found the woman at the scene of the alleged fight, but Brown had left, the department said. Investigators were treating the incident as a possible felony battery case, police said. Executives with Brown's record label at the Grammy Awards told CNN they knew nothing about the incident and declined further comment. Brown was nominated for two Grammys this year, including in the best male R&B vocal performance category for his song \"Take You Down.\" He also shares a best pop collaboration with vocals nomination with Jordin Sparks for \"No Air.\" The introduction to the CBS broadcast of the Grammys, apparently pretaped, listed both Brown and Rihanna as performers.","highlights":"Brown has been arrested in connection with a domestic violence incident .\nPolice: Brown turned himself in after woman accused him of attacking her .\nBrown a no-show at Grammy Awards, where he was to perform Sunday .\nPolice haven't named woman; Brown's girlfriend, Rihanna, cancels performance .","id":"f724d892c3976ac7d736aadbf96bf8ac8e004100"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Over 28,000 Liverpool fans marked the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in a special memorial service at Anfield on Wednesday. Liverpool supporters at the Kop end paid their respects in an emotional afternoon at Anfield. A total of 96 supporters died on April 15, 1989 before the FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, the worst-ever tragedy in English sporting history. To commemorate the anniversary, the city of Liverpool came to a standstill at 3.06 pm (1406 GMT) with the bells of the two cathedrals and its civic buildings ringing out in memory of those fans who lost their lives. On Anfield's famous Kop, 96 candles were lit while commemorations took place at Hillsborough and also in Nottingham. Members of the current Liverpool team stood somberly as hymns were played before a roll call of the dead was read out. Club legend Kenny Dalglish, who was Liverpool manager at the time of the disaster, then read a short prayer. The mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotherham, who was at the game 20 years ago, helped organize the emotional memorial. \"Hillsborough affected so many lives, not just on Merseyside but across the whole of the UK,\" he said. \"I attended the match 20 years ago and the passing years do not diminish the importance and the poignancy of this occasion.\" Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, whose 10-year-old cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley was the youngest victim of the tragedy, spoke of his feelings this week. \"Time has gone by, but the scars will never ever be healed and the fans will never ever forget. So you can always rely on our supporters to be there for you when you need them.\" The Liverpool fans died in a crush which started just before the kick-off as the gate at the Leppings Lane End was opened with terrible consequences. The match started but when the scale of the tragedy became clear, it was swiftly abandoned at 3.06 pm. In the immediate aftermath, the British government commissioned Lord Justice Taylor to conduct an inquiry which would have a far-reaching impact on football. Taylor was deeply critical of the police operation at Hillsborough, but his most significant recommendations were the removal of perimeter fencing and the creation of all-seater stadia. His report also cleared Liverpool fans of blame for the tragedy after lurid tabloid headlines provoked revulsion on Merseyside. Prime minister Gordon Brown paid reference to the controversy in an interview released on Liverpool's official television channel. \"It was wrong for people to blame, as some did, Liverpool fans on that day,\" he said. \"That's probably what matters most -- that people understood that the behavior of Liverpool fans in helping each other was magnificent. \"Let's never forget the fans who cruelly lost their lives on a day when we know the people of Liverpool were trying to help each other,\" he added. However, the people of Liverpool are still angry and bitter at the lack of justice for those who died -- and that frustration surfaced when Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport took to the stand to address the crowd. As Burnham spoke, the crowd rose as one to sing \"Justice for the 96\". The Kop chant boomed around the stadium and Burnham, an Everton fan, was left in no doubt about the strength of feeling over the lack of accountability from officialdom over the tragedy. Fittingly, the ceremony was concluded with Gerry Marsden leading the fans in singing Liverpool anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.","highlights":"A special memorial has marked the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough tragedy .\n96 Liverpool supporters died in crush at the Leppings Lane End of the stadium .\nThe Taylor Report into the deaths led to all-seater grounds in English football .","id":"546384c04dbf28110b402efaeb0ec77249ef3533"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday. Sen. Joseph Lieberman says a number of Somali-Americans support terrorist groups. The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, \"a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group\" with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department. \"Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf of al-Shabaab,\" noted the committee's chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut. Al-Shabaab -- also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement -- was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008. The hearing highlighted the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota before traveling to Somalia and blowing up himself and 29 others in October. The idea that Ahmed was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The incident -- the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen -- was the \"most significant case of homegrown American terrorism recruiting based on violent Islamist ideology,\" Lieberman said. \"The dangers brought to light by these revelations is clear: radicalized individuals trained in terrorist tactics and in possession of American passports can clearly pose a threat to the security of our country,\" said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Segments of the Somali-American community have been made vulnerable to recruitment by al-Shabaab because of a particularly tumultuous adjustment to American life, noted Andrew Liepman, deputy director for intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center. \"Despite significant efforts to facilitate their settlement into American communities, many Somali immigrants face isolation,\" Liepman said. \"The (tough) adjustment to American society has reinforced their greater insularity compared to other more integrated recent immigrant communities and has aggravated the challenges of assimilation for their children,\" he said. Somalis began arriving in the United States in significant numbers following the U.S. intervention in Somalia's humanitarian crisis in 1992, Liepman said. The Somali-American population is now concentrated in clusters primarily in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle, Washington; and San Diego, California. The potential recruitment of young Somali-American men has been made possible by \"a number of factors that come together when a dynamic, influential and extremist leader gains access to a despondent and disenfranchised group of young men,\" Liepman said. Many refugees, he said, \"lack structure and definition in their lives\" and are \"torn between their parents' traditional tribal and clan identities and the new cultures and traditions offered by American society.\" Liepman pointed out that there was no evidence of a radicalization of the entire Somali-American community, now believed to number between 70,000 and 200,000 people. In fact, he said, the Somali-American community has been victimized by a \"small group of extremists who are essentially terrorizing their own community, who are recruiting and radicalizing young people within that community.\" \"We don't have radicalized communities. We have radicalized clusters of (young) people,\" emphasized Philip Mudd, a director of the FBI's national security branch. The potential terrorist indoctrination and recruitment was a consequence of these clusters, Liepman said, and is the product of \"the refugee experience of fleeing a war-torn country combined with isolation, perceived discrimination, marginalization and frustrated expectations. \"Local criminal familial and clan dynamics make some members of this community more susceptible to (this) sort of extremist influence\" of groups such as al-Shabaab, he said. Liepman said there is a serious concern about individuals being indoctrinated by al Qaeda and al-Shabaab while in Somalia and then returning to the United States \"with the intention to conduct attacks.\"","highlights":"Committee focused on recruitment of Somali-Americans by group with al Qaeda ties .\nHearing highlighted case of the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen .\nRecruitment is a result of \"refugee experience\" and \"isolation,\" official says .","id":"2852e705c0f720a45f84d82b433f358b3ce37237"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new sleeper virus that could allow hackers to steal financial and personal information has now spread to more than eight million computers in what industry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen. Experts say a single infected laptop could expose an entire network to the worm. The Downadup or Conficker worm exploits a bug in Microsoft Windows to infect mainly corporate networks, where -- although it has yet to cause any harm -- it potentially exposes infected PCs to hijack. Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure, says while the purpose of the worm is unclear, its unique \"phone home\" design, linking back to its point of origin, means it can receive further orders to wreak havoc. He said his company had reverse-engineered its program, which they suspected of originating in Ukraine, and is using the call-back mechanism to monitor an exponential infection rate, despite Microsoft's issuing of a patch to fix the bug. \"On Tuesday there were 2.5 million, on Wednesday 3.5 million and today [Friday], eight million,\" he told CNN. \"It's getting worse, not better.\" Hypponen explained to CNN the dangers that Downadup poses, who is most at risk and what can be done to stop its spread. How serious is it? It is the most serious large scale worm outbreak we have seen in recent years because of how widespread it is, but it is not very serious in terms of what it does. So far it doesn't try to steal personal information or credit card details. Who is affected? We have large infections in Europe, the United States and in Asia. It is a Windows worm and almost all the cases are corporate networks. There are very few reports of independent home computers affected. What does it do? It is a complicated worm most likely engineered by a group of people who have spent time making it very complicated to analyze and remove. The real reason why they have created it is hard to say right now, but we do know how it replicates. How does it spread? The worm does not spread over email or the Web. However if an infected laptop is connected to your corporate network, it will immediately scan the network looking for machines to infect. These will be machines that have not installed a patch from Microsoft known as MS08-067. The worm will also scan company networks trying to guess your password, trying hundreds and hundreds of common words. If it gets in, even if you are not at your machine, it will infect and begin spreading to other servers. A third method of spreading is via USB data sticks. How can I prevent it infecting my machine? The best way is to get the patch and install it company-wide. The second way is password security. Use long, difficult passwords -- particularly for administrators who cannot afford to be locked out of the machines they will have to fix. What can I do if it has already infected? Machines can be disinfected. The problem is for companies with thousands of infected machines, which can become re-infected from just one computer even as they are being cleared.","highlights":"A new sleeper virus has now spread to more than eight million computers .\nIndustry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen .\nThe worm exploits a bug in Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows software .\nVirus could allow its creators to hijack entire networks .","id":"0b56c1f070cd19b82c464278aa4958a572cfa878"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three professors and a former professor at Columbia University's Teachers College received hate mail this week, the New York Police Department said. It's the campus that was shaken by several bias crimes directed at black and Jewish professors in 2007. Columbia University's Teachers College is once again the target of a hate campaign. Three professors received manila envelopes Tuesday with images of swastikas in them. The fourth, a former professor who is an African-American, was sent a manila envelope containing an image of a noose, according to NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne. Among those receiving a swastika image was Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Jewish psychologist who has studied psychological principles in the context of the Holocaust, police said. In 2007, her office door was spray-painted with a swastika. (A swastika is the right-angles cross symbol used on Nazi Germany flags). The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into the incident. No arrests have been made. \"The TC community deplores these hateful acts, which violate every Teachers College and societal norm,\" said an e-mail Wednesday to faculty and students from the college's president, Susan Fuhrman; and dean, Tom James. No arrests were been made in the 2007 incidents. Police declined to say if they believe there is a connection between those cases and the mailings this week.","highlights":"Three professors, one former one at Columbia University receive hate mail this week .\nJewish psychologist at Teachers College among those receiving swastika .\nIn 2007, same psychologist's office door was spray-painted with a swastika .\nNYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading investigation; no arrests made .","id":"93a1bc04a8742eefcc0160751155820ed34e9f2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Conservationists have found a new population of orangutans in a steep, mountainous corner of Indonesia -- a discovery that significantly adds to the number of the endangered red-haired primates. The orangutans were discovered in a mountainous corner of Indonesia. About 65,000 orangutans are thought to remain in the wild, limited to rain forests on two islands in Malaysia and Indonesia: Borneo and Sumatra. The latest population was found in the eastern edge of Borneo, with conservationists counting 219 nests. Even by conservative estimates, that raises the total number of the orangutan population by at least a couple of hundred, maybe thousands. \"We rarely have something positive to report in the conservation world. Most of the stories are about declining population or animals dying. It's all pretty negative,\" said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist with the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy. \"So to find a substantial population of potentially several hundred to several thousand animals is very exciting.\" Locals in the area had long spoken of an orangutan population in the hard-to-access limestone mountains of the Kalimantan province. A group of conservationists reached the area in December after driving for a day, taking a boat for another, and then hiking across steep mountainous terrain for two, Meijaard said. The remoteness of the area has meant that the animals have been undisturbed by development. Elsewhere, the orangutan's forest habitat has been cut down for timber extraction and palm oil, used in food and cosmetics. Orangutans, a species of great apes, with hair that is usually reddish-brown instead of the black or brown. The name is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words for \"orang\" (person) and \"hutan\" (forest). They spend most of their time on trees, subsisting on fruit and leading a solitary existence except to mate. The expedition in December found the nests crammed into just a few miles in the 2 million-acre forest. \"The immediate steps include going back to the area to see how far the population ranges and to put better protection in place,\" Meijaard said.","highlights":"Conservationists have found a new population of orangutans in Indonesia .\nDiscovery significantly adds to number of the endangered red-haired primates .\nLatest population was found in the eastern edge of Borneo .","id":"22e6c248c710d3efa82d1cfdecd1a26fd4c415f0"} -{"article":"A woman was jailed for eight years by a British court Friday for her part in the kidnap of her own daughter. Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan were both involved in the plot to kidnap Shannon. Nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was locked in an apartment for 24 days after going missing from her home in February last year. After a massive police investigation, Karen Matthews, 33, was found guilty last month of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. She was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court in West Yorkshire, northern England, the British Press Association reported. Her former partner's uncle, Michael Donovan, 40, was also convicted of the same offences and received an eight-year jail term, PA said. Prosecutors say Donovan abducted Shannon as she was on her way home from school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. They claim he gave her Temazepam -- a type of sleeping tablet -- and travel sickness pills and kept her tethered to an elasticated strap attached to a roof beam through a loft hatch when he went out. Meanwhile Matthews kept up a \"wicked and dishonest lie\" as her daughter became the subject of a massive police search operation and a reward fund offered by a local newspaper grew to $50,000, jurors were told. Donovan planned to release Shannon and then \"discover\" her, prosecutors said. According to PA, Matthews told five versions of what happened to Shannon, ranging from being a distraught mother whose daughter had gone missing to blaming the crime on her former partner Craig Meehan and other members of his family. It also emerged in court that Donovan abducted one of his own daughters after he became involved in a custody battle with his former wife, PA said.","highlights":"Girl, 9, drugged, tethered, as part of kidnap plot staged by mother and uncle .\nKaren Matthews, 33, and Michael Donovan, 40, jailed for 8 years .\nGuilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice .\nProsecutors say Shannon was tethered to roof beam, given sleeping tablets .","id":"16227e77cf515993fa35ba21dde683c4f0ed20cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He had a 1966 Volkswagen bus, scraggly beard and a penchant for the arts. She had blonde hair and liked the Grateful Dead. That was all they needed. Craig Rutman poses poolside with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir before a 1997 show in Reno, Nevada. \"I knew right away she was not like other girls, other girls,\" muses Mark Goldfarb of Woodstock, New York, quoting the Grateful Dead song, \"Scarlet Begonias.\" On a fateful day 28 years ago, Goldfarb began a shaggy odyssey of love at a Grateful Dead concert when he literally bumped into his future wife, Diane. Over the years, he has been to more than 125 Grateful Dead concerts. The band literally changed his life. Goldfarb, who now makes moccasins for a living, is excited about the Grateful Dead's new tour. The surviving members of the band will be reuniting for 19 shows this year. He went to see them during their last organized tour five years ago. \"What was special about the Dead is you had a group of highly talented musicians who were able to get a sense of the audience,\" Goldfarb said. \"When the audience was off, the band would be off. There was a lot of back-and-forth energy.\" Back in the late '70s and well into the '80s, Goldfarb traveled the West Coast in a Volkswagen van playing music for a belly-dancing troupe at Renaissance festivals. Along the way, he went to Grateful Dead concerts whenever he could. He sent a photo of his now short-haired self to show the \"then and now\" contrast. Though he lives now in Woodstock, New York, he missed the two large music festivals in his town. A businessman now, Goldfarb says he feels he's grown up in a lot of ways. The old bus is gone, but he dreams of getting another. iReport.com: See the before-and-after contrast of this Deadhead . \"I was a huge fan, I still love the music, but like I said times change. Interests change,\" he says. Readers across the board said the band has stood the test of time because of the personal connection they brought to the music they played. iReport.com: What does the Grateful Dead mean to you? Indeed, the revival has Craig Rutman of Apex, North Carolina, excited to revisit his past. His brother, a caterer, often provided food for the band and this gave Rutman access to members of the band. He has seen more than 200 shows and been backstage to meet the band. He and his young daughter Laura met bandmember Bob Weir poolside in Reno, Nevada, in 1997. Rutman said Weir is always cordial and friendly. \"Whether it was backstage or poolside, whenever I saw him, Bobby always took the time with whoever came by to talk, share a joke or sign an autograph,\" Rutman said. After the pool-side meeting, the Rutmans attended what would be the toddler's first show. iReport.com: See photos poolside with Weir and at the concert later that day . \"I sat way in the back of a general admission show to keep her from the crowd and the loud music, but we had a wonderful time nonetheless,\" Rutman said. Steve Maaske of Omaha, Nebraska, said one of his fondest memories is seeing the band in East Troy, Wisconsin, on the \"Wave the flag\" tour. He even plans to make the Chicago, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado, stops on the current schedule. It's a good year for a new Dead tour, he says. \"We have a new 'just off the shelf' president in Barack Obama, some clear optimism for the future of this country, and hey, gas prices for that VW bus are lookin' pretty good about now.\" iReport.com: See a picture of a colorful Volkswagen bus at the show . Greg Sarafan, 19, of Suffern, New York, last saw the band at a summertime Obama rally at Pennsylvania State University. He's hoping to catch them on tour, and says he was amazed to see the diversity of people interested in the band. \"I was sitting next to people that were my father's age and older. It was an interesting experience,\" he said. Sarafan likes to create works of art inspired by the band and has decorated his car with dancing multi-colored bears. He says the music is timeless, and he learned about it from his parents. iReport.com: See a picture of the tie-dyed fruit falling near the tree . Like his father many years before him, Sarafan as a young man snuck out of the house to see the Grateful Dead perform. Does Dad know? \"He does now,\" responds Sarafan, who says he was in trouble at first, but things slowly changed between father and son. \"When I reminded [my father] that he did sneak away to see the Grateful Dead, he kinda didn't care as much,\" he said. Geoff Feusahrens of Monterey, California, also represents the younger generation of Grateful Dead fans. He was born in 1979 and never got to see the band in its heyday, but likes classic rock and the Grateful Dead in particular. \"I like how they are a jam band,\" says Feusahrens, who has seen the band perform about eight times. \"You go to their concerts and you hang out. There's lots of people there and good music and history and I just fell in love with it.\" He got married October 11, 2008, and decided to have a cake decorated with a Grateful Dead motif. Though the wedding was mostly traditional, he had Deadhead cufflinks and rock-themed tables at the reception. One of the tables had a Dead theme and \"Eyes of the World,\" one of the band's songs, was played. iReport.com: See Feusahrens all gussied up for the occasion . He plans to see the last show on the 2009 tour when it stops nearby in Mountain View and previously saw them perform during the 2004 series. The band figures importantly in his life. Feusahrens and Goldfarb, too, have in common precious love affairs joined together by the Grateful Dead. Perhaps the band's own lyrics from that same song, \"Scarlet Begonias,\" say it best. iReport.com: See Goldfarb's expression of \"grateful\" feelings about his wife . \"Well, I ain't always right but I've never been wrong. Seldom turns out the way it does in a song.\"","highlights":"iReport.com: Grateful Dead tributes shared as band plans new tour in 2009 .\nMark Goldfarb met his wife at a Dead concert and drove a Volkswagen bus .\nCraig Rutman has seen more than 200 shows and met the band members .\nSteve Maaske says now is the perfect time for a tour after the historic election .","id":"da5cb4e6f430dbf893cba90b3a5016721c92dd24"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Daniel Rendon Herrera, Colombia's most-wanted drug kingpin suspect, was arrested early Wednesday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced at a news conference. Police escort suspected drug kingpin Daniel Rendon Herrera, left, on Wednesday in Bogota, Colombia. The government had offered $2.1 million, or 5 billion pesos, for information that would lead to the arrest of Rendon, also known as Don Mario. Officials said Wednesday that they will determine how that reward will be paid. Rendon, who was captured in the Uraba region of northwestern Colombia, was transferred to the capital, Bogota, on Wednesday afternoon. A live TV broadcast of his arrival at the Military Airport of Catam, on the outskirts of Bogota, showed a somber-looking Rendon being led off an airplane to a police van. Rendon was wearing a two-toned, gray and blue shirt and gray pants, and his hands were bound in front of him with white plastic cuffs. The arrival was broadcast on CNN affiliate Caracol TV. Uribe, whose news conference also was televised, said he learned of the arrest while meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Colombian president called Rendon \"one of the most feared narcotraffickers and criminals in the world.\" The president's Web site also carried news of the arrest. The United States had issued an extradition order for Rendon, whom 300 members of an elite police unit captured. Thirty members of Rendon's gang were arrested with him, El Tiempo newspaper said on its Web site. Authorities had been concentrating on Rendon's capture for the past nine months and moved undercover operatives into the area where he was hiding on April 6, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. Authorities nearly captured Rendon twice in the past few months, but he escaped, Santos said at the military airport. The suspect was found in the jungle, where he had been hiding for two days. \"He was virtually like a dog,\" Santos said. Telephone intercepts, human intelligence and cooperation from the United States were crucial in Rendon's capture, El Tiempo newspaper said. Santos also issued a message Wednesday to a cartel suspect he identified only as \"El Cuchillo,\" the Knife. \"My message is that he give up, because he is next,\" Santos said. \"We are getting close.\" Rendon is the brother of the imprisoned Freddy Rendon Herrera, known as \"El Aleman\" (the German) for the efficiency with which he ran his drug operation.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect had been hiding in jungle for two days, defense chief says .\nDaniel Rendon Herrera is Colombia's most-wanted drug kingpin suspect .\nRendon \"one of the most feared narcotraffickers\" in world, Colombian leader says .\nThirty members of gang also arrested, report says .","id":"1656cf86bac4931f4904a1661808496181f93d96"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A grand jury Tuesday indicted three New York police officers on charges related to the alleged sodomy of a man on a Brooklyn subway platform in October. Michael Mineo says New York Police officers sodomized him inside a Brooklyn subway station. The indictments came after two other officers told the grand jury they saw Officer Richard Kern assault 24-year-old Michael Mineo with a police baton in October, authorities said. \"I think that both officers who stepped forward acted in a responsible, if not a heroic, way,\" Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said Tuesday. \"I think both of them deserve a great deal of praise for doing that.\" Kern, 25, faces charges including aggravated sexual abuse, a felony that could put him in prison for up to 25 years if convicted. Officers Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz, both 26, face charges including hindering prosecution. Both are accused of trying to cover up the incident by falsifying records. All three pleaded not guilty Tuesday at their arraignment before Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge John Walsh. Authorities say Kern and Morales approached Mineo, a Brooklyn tattoo artist, on October 15 after seeing him walking down a street smoking what they believed to be marijuana. As the uniformed officers approached Mineo, he fled. The officers chased him into a Brooklyn subway station, where they apprehended him on the platform, authorities said. Cruz and a transit policeman, Kevin Maloney, joined the other officers and helped to subdue Mineo, who was then handcuffed with his hands behind his back, according to authorities. Mineo claims Kern used his retractable police baton to sexually assault him on the subway platform. Witnesses said they heard Mineo's cries. Mineo's lawyers said he showed officers he was bleeding, but they provided no medical attention and didn't call a supervisor as Mineo requested. Kern gave Mineo a summons for disorderly conduct, and Mineo was released, authorities said. Mineo sought treatment at an area hospital, and hospital staff notified police that they treated a patient who claimed to be a victim of police brutality. Hynes said that based on forensic information gathered by a medical examiner and the police lab, there was enough evidence to move the case to a grand jury. The grand jury started hearing testimony October 28. Maloney and another officer testified that they had seen Kern assault Mineo with his baton. After Tuesday's arraignment, Kern was released on $15,000 bail; the other two officers were released on their own recognizance. Cruz's defense attorney called the case \"paper thin.\" Kern's attorney said Mineo's accusations were motivated by money, saying Mineo is planning to file a civil suit. Mineo's attorneys would not explain why their client ran from police. The attorneys said they plan to file a civil suit, but they did not give information on the damages they plan to seek. Mineo said he still suffers the effects of the attack. \"I relive this every day,\" Mineo said Tuesday. \"Nobody should have to go through something like this.\"","highlights":"Officer accused of assaulting man with police baton at Brooklyn subway station .\nTwo other officers accused of trying to cover up the incident .\nTwo officers who aren't charged told grand jury they saw assault .\nDistrict attorney: Testifying officers \"deserve a great deal of praise\"","id":"5850beb8e752f79c43d1e5e683b349d3465d4fcb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- My eyes stung, I was coughing, my nose was running. Along with cameraman David Hawley and freelance producer Kareem Khadder, I had just been tear-gassed -- not for the first time last Friday -- during a day-long clash between Palestinian kids and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Na'alin, on the West Bank. An Israeli soldier confronts Palestinian protesters during a demonstration Friday in the West Bank village of Jayyus. We had gone there to gauge the Palestinian view of Tuesday's Israeli elections. Na'alin, and many other towns and villages like it in the West Bank, are in the forefront of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Here, it all comes down to the most basic element in the century-old conflict: control of the land. Na'alin is an old town, with factories and workshops, surrounded by olive groves. But in recent years neighboring Israeli settlements, built since the June 1967 war, have increasingly encroached on Na'alin's farmland, and Israel, on grounds of security, has built its security barrier around the town. As a result, Na'alin residents say they have lost access to much of their land, their water sources, in short their livelihood. Beginning two years ago, every Friday they hold protests against Israel's settlement expansion and barrier building. Most Na'alin residents are not ideological hotheads; before the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000, many worked in Israel. Most are still fluent in Hebrew and do business with Israelis looking for a good deal on car repairs and other services. For that reason I thought Na'alin would be a good place to see what Palestinians were thinking. What I heard was universal pessimism. No one I spoke with expressed the slightest hope that any of the leading candidates --Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu, Kadima's Tzipi Livni, Israel Beitenu's Avigdor Lieberman and Labour's Ehud Barak -- would do anything to remove the settlements that are slowly closing in on Na'alin. As we sheltered from the tear gas behind a house, Na'alin resident Hani Khawaja told me, \"I don't expect anything to come out of the elections that will please the Palestinians. Just killings, expulsions and land confiscations.\" Another man, Ayub Srour, had a slightly different approach. He prefers Israeli leaders to be honest about their intentions, and not raise hopes only to dash them later. He wants Likud leader and long-time hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu to win. \"At least he's honest. He says he'll expel us, and he will expel us. He says he's slaughter us, and he will slaughter us.\" I've covered almost every Israeli election since 1996. With each election, the Palestinian feeling of despair and hopelessness only deepens. Since the last election in the spring of 2006, Palestinians have seen Israel and Hezbollah go to war, West Bank settlements continue to expand, Hamas and Fatah fight it out in Gaza with Hamas taking control in June 2007. They've also seen a series of Israeli incursions into Gaza, culminating recently in the 22-day Israeli offensive that left large parts of the strip in ruins. Meanwhile many Palestinians say their leadership -- often described as moderate and pro-western -- in Ramallah is incapable of reversing the trend of settlement expansion. The same leadership has been unable to convince Israel to remove few of the hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints that make travelling around the West Bank a test of patience and endurance. In short, when Palestinians look back over the last 15 years since the Oslo Accords were signed, they've seen their lot only go from bad to worse. As a result, more and more Palestinians are convinced the only way to beat the Israelis is to join them, to discard failed attempts at creating a Palestinian state in an ever smaller, ever more economically unviable territory, and go for what is known as the one-state solution. That would mean Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza relinquishing their dream of an independent Palestinian state, and instead insisting on equal rights in the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, an area that is, for all intents and purposes, under Israel's control anyway. The one-state solution is an anathema to many Israelis, who are well aware that, with their higher birth-rate, Palestinians (those living within Israel proper, plus Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza) could well become a majority within a generation. Israelis increasingly worry the national struggle between Israel and the Palestinians will be transformed into an internal struggle, for equal rights for all those living within historic Palestine. Those fears prompted Israel's current caretaker prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to warn as far back as November 2007 that if Israel doesn't move quickly to achieve a two-state solution, it will be in a position not unlike South Africa during the apartheid area, whereby a minority -- in this case Israeli Jews -- rules over a restive majority -- the Palestinians -- by means of force, repression and discriminatory laws. Many Palestinians argue that is already the case, citing Israeli restrictions on movement, residence, and work. The bedrock of Israeli antipathy toward the Palestinians is part of the reason for the growing strength of the Israel Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) Party, led by Avigdor Leiberman. He argues that Israel's Palestinian minority (they make up about 20 percent of the population) as a potential fifth column working against the aims of the Jewish majority. Leiberman has focused much of his fire on Palestinian Knesset members such as Ahmed Tibi, accusing him and others of sympathising with Israel's enemies, Hamas and Hizballah. His solution is to compel all of Knesset members -- and possibly all Israeli citizens -- to take an oath of loyalty to the state. Another of Leiberman's proposals is to redraw Israel's boundaries to exclude as many of its Palestinians as possible. Tibi responds that Leiberman's growing clout is symptomatic of \"an obvious fascist phenomena invading Israeli society. During the last years, racism became mainstream.\" Back in the town of Na'alin, the kids throwing stones at Israeli troops do have some odd companions. Young Israelis, some of them self-described anarchists, also take part in the protests. They don't throw stones, but they do offer useful advice. \"Laththam! Laththam!\" one Israeli with black tattoos on his arms tells a young boy, no older than 12, hurling rocks with a home-made sling. \"Laththam\" is Arabic for \"cover your face,\" the advice imparted because if Israeli troops can identify stone throwers, they arrest them. There still is cooperation of sorts between Palestinians and Israelis, but it's an increasingly rare commodity. And this election probably won't do anything to bridge the growing gap between the two -- the curious friendship in Na'alin notwithstanding.","highlights":"CNN correspondent finds moods of universal pessimism in West Bank town .\nIsrael votes Tuesday after election campaign dominated by the country's right .\nMore and more Palestinians see \"one-state solution\" as only way forward .\nIsraelis oppose one-state solution for fear Palestinians would be majority .","id":"598e63850f6c2608050e6bee414f2fe2db687a4e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former CIA station chief in Algeria is under investigation by the State and Justice departments after being accused of raping at least two women while he held the post, a source confirmed to CNN on Wednesday. Two Algerian women allege that the CIA's former Algeria station chief raped them at his home, a source says. The women told investigators that they think date-rape drugs were used in the assaults, which are said to have occurred at the officer's official residence, according to the source. The story was first reported by ABC News. The allegations were made in the fall, when the unidentified officer was still serving as station chief. In October, soon after the allegations were made, the man returned to the United States for a previously scheduled trip and was ordered not to return to his post, the source said. A senior U.S. official confirmed that the case is under investigation but refused to comment on the details. State Department spokesman Robert Wood issued a brief statement in response to a CNN inquiry, saying that \"the individual in question has returned to Washington and the U.S. government is looking into the matter,\" and referring reporters to the Justice Department. The women, who are Algerian citizens, brought their allegations to a U.S. government official, and federal authorities then launched an investigation. A search of the station chief's residence in Algeria was approved by a U.S. District Court judge after a request from the Justice Department. The search found pills believed to be of a type commonly used in date rape, the source said. In that search, authorities also found about a dozen tapes that are thought to show the officer engaged in sexual acts, the source said, including some in which women are believed to be in a semiconscious state. CNN's source had not seen the tapes but had been briefed on their content. Some of the tapes include date stamps indicating that the recordings happened when he would have been serving in Cairo, Egypt, before his tenure in Algeria. The investigation includes his time in both posts as well as other locations where he traveled. The identity of the officer could not be learned, and CNN was unable to reach a representative of the officer. It is against the law to reveal identities of covert officers. When the allegations surfaced in the fall, they were viewed as \"tremendously explosive, no doubt about that,\" the source said, especially because Algeria is a Muslim country. The Justice Department and the CIA would not comment on the allegations or any investigation. \"I can assure you that the agency would take seriously and follow up any allegations of impropriety,\" CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said. The officer has not been charged, the source said. The source would not speak for attribution because the investigation is ongoing and the source was not authorized to speak publicly. One federal law enforcement source said that no developments or activities relating to the case are \"imminent.\" A station chief heads the CIA's office in a foreign country, establishing a relationship with its host intelligence service and overseeing agency activities in the country. CNN producers Jim Barnett, Pam Benson, Carol Cratty and Elise Labott contributed to this story.","highlights":"Source: Two Algerian woman say CIA officer raped them in Algeria .\nWomen say date-rape drugs were used in assaults .\nSource: Man was relieved of job as CIA's Algeria station chief after allegations .\nTapes showing apparently semiconscious women, sex acts found, source says .","id":"42b6eea161681de3a83ad655e7a8eb662f715ce0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Key structural changes have been identified in the brain images of some patients with mild cognitive impairment which could help determine who's at greatest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, studied MRI scans of 84 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 175 patients with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, and 139 images of healthy brains. \"Our initial goal was to locate similarities in the patients with Alzheimer's disease to those with MCI, in the hopes of finding a method to predict [MCI patients'] likelihood of developing the disease,\" said lead study author Linda McEvoy, assistant project scientist at UCSD's department of radiology. Neuroimaging results for the patients with Alzheimer's disease were as expected, according to the study, which was published online in the journal Radiology. Atrophy, which is loss of brain tissue, was visible throughout the brain. The temporal and parietal lobes, which affect cognitive function, saw the most damage. What surprised researchers were the differences in images from the MCI patients. More than 50 percent of the brains in the MCI group showed atrophy similar to the Alzheimer's disease patients. The other half of the MCI patients showed only small amounts of tissue damage. Watch Dr. Gupta explain the findings \u00bb . \"Although the symptoms for the entire MCI group were primarily memory problems, other parts of the brain were impacted in over half the group,\" McEvoy said. \"And even though these patients [with Alzheimer's-like atrophy] don't have problems with their cognitive function now, their MCI will likely develop to that in the future.\" Researchers also evaluated the brains of the MCI group one year after initial testing. They found that patients who earlier had mild cognitive impairment plus signs of atrophy were getting worse. Twenty-nine percent of the group had since been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and the others had begun to show signs of more serious cognitive decline. The condition of patients in the MCI group whose scans showed minimal signs of atrophy the previous year remained about the same. \"Only 8 percent of this group had developed Alzheimer's disease. The rest of the patients were stable and their symptoms had not increased,\" McEvoy said. Bill Thies, chief medical and scientific officer for the Alzheimer's Association, underscored the significance of these findings. \"What this study really shows is how different people with MCI can be, despite having similar symptoms. We can now use this information to create new treatments,\" he said. There are several drugs on the market that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, but none that prevent its progression. Clinical trials may be able to use this data to select a better pool of candidates when testing new drugs. \"If they use a MCI patient with loss of brain tissue, someone who we now know is progressing fast towards Alzheimer's disease, we'd be able to quickly figure out if drug 'X' is slowing things down or not helping at all,\" Thies added. In addition, researchers hope that within the next few years patients could regularly be tested by their physicians to determine their risk of developing Alzheimer's. \"If nothing else it would be good information for their family members to have early on, to be better prepared for the future.\" McEvoy said. Over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and an estimated three and a half million have mild cognitive impairment.","highlights":"Key structural changes seen in brain scans of some patients with memory loss .\nOne year later, many patients with brain changes had developed Alzheimer's .\nMemory-loss patients without these changes were mostly stable one year later .\nBrain scans could identify who gets Alzheimer's, help with drug testing .","id":"7b3b9b2a059214d700960db08973a1a67528670b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Clark Howard, the Atlanta, Georgia-based host of a nationally syndicated radio show, is host of a television show designed to help viewers save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off during these tough economic times. The show airs at noon and 4 p.m. ET Saturdays and Sundays on HLN. Clark Howard says use the Internet to hook up with powerful networking groups. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Many years ago, I had the opportunity to start an Atlanta-based civic program called Career Action. The program's goal was to provide free resources to help the jobless and underemployed find steady work. That was 1979. Today, it's 2009 and the need for job assistance is greater than ever as unemployment continues to rise. The conventional wisdom about education and employment -- that as your level of education rises, the less likely you are to be impacted by layoffs -- has been completely flipped on its head. This recession knows no boundaries in terms of education, skill level, training or years on the job. So, what do you do if you're laid off or have your hours cut at work? First, don't panic! You're going to need to apply for unemployment insurance. I'm hearing a lot of people badmouthing unemployment compensation. There's nothing shameful about it. Employers pay premiums over time during the good years to provide for those who get laid off in lean times. It's not beneath you to accept this insurance money. Next, you need to triage your finances so you know which debts to prioritize and which to neglect if your money runs out. Paying your car note is central to finding employment for most people. It's practically higher than paying your mortgage or rent. In fact, you may need to live with friends or relatives until you can get back on your feet. What shouldn't you prioritize paying? Your credit cards. People say, \"But that will hurt my credit...\" Look, if you're in a situation where there's no money coming in and you have to decide between paying the mortgage and putting food on the table, chances are your credit is already damaged. Once you get organized financially, it's time to job hunt. Looking for work is a full-time job and you need an action plan. Start by reviewing your list of contacts, but understand that people don't like to be called and asked if there's a job. But they do love to give advice that may lead to a job opportunity. Visit in person with your contacts if possible. I'm also a big believer in networking groups and unemployment support groups. Networking for jobs has become something of a lost art in our country because people think the Internet replaces everything else. It doesn't. However, there are ways to use the Internet to hook up with powerful networking groups. There's even a new organization called LaidOffCamp that is like a free day camp for the underemployed. According to the movement's Web site, it's \"an ad-hoc gathering of unemployed and nontraditionally employed people (including freelancers, entrepreneurs and startups) who want to share ideas and learn from each other.\" You never know whom you might meet. When you are job hunting on the Internet, be sure to check out screen-scraper sites like SimplyHired and Indeed.com. They're both \"one-stop shops\" that collect content from all the traditional job sites such as Monster and Yahoo! HotJobs, plus the career pages of individual company sites. In addition, The Boston Globe recently recommended several specialty sites when you're looking for work in a specific field. BioSpace.com is geared toward the science and biotechnology fields; Idealist.org focuses on the nonprofit charity world; and for those who are 50 years or older, there's a site called WorkForce50.com. In the course of your job search, you may find that you need money immediately and can't sit around waiting for a job offer to materialize. In that case, certain skill sets -- Web design, programming, marketing and videography, to name a few -- lend themselves to consulting work or freelancing on a project. The Internet also offers a variety of sites that match freelancers up with employers. A recent article in The San Francisco Chronicle suggested ELance.com, oDesk.com, Guru.com and crowdSPRING.com as starting points. And if you can afford it after all of your necessities, it's always a great idea to keep your mind sharp by taking classes to improve your skills or learn new ones. You can never be too smart.","highlights":"Clark says you're going to need to apply for unemployment insurance .\nYou need to know which debts to prioritize, which to neglect if your money runs out .\nClark suggests you join networking and unemployment support groups .\nWith certain skills, try consulting work or freelancing on a project .","id":"c561323d63d4cbeeb64e57cdf3d27e2b9982a31f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The pilot who landed a crippled US Airways jetliner on the Hudson River thought there would have been \"catastrophic consequences\" if he tried to make it to a nearby airport, a National Transportation Safety Board official said Saturday night. US Airways Flight 1549 remained in the icy Hudson River on Saturday. Instead, pilot Pilot C.B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger decided to ditch the plane in the Hudson River close to vessels moving about the water \"to improve chances of recovery,\" NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said. It was the first time the public heard comments from Sullenberger and first officer Jeffrey B. Skiles describing Thursday's emergency landing. Skiles was flying US Airways Flight 1549, bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, when he noticed a flock of birds less than 90 seconds after the plane had taken off from New York's LaGuardia International Airport, Higgins said. In an instant, the plane was rocked by loud thuds and both engines went out, Higgins said. Watch the plane hit the water \u00bb . \"He commented on the formation, and he said the next thing he knew, the windscreen was filled with birds. There was no time to take evasive action,\" Higgins said. Sullenberger took control of the aircraft while Skiles began complicated procedures to try to restart the engines, Higgins said. Sullenberger thought the plane was moving \"too low, too slow\" to risk returning to LaGuardia through the maze of buildings. Nor did Sullenberger think the powerless aircraft could make it over the densely populated New Jersey area to Teterboro, Higgins said. \"There could be catastrophic consequences if we didn't make it,\" she quoted Sullenberger as saying. Watch CNN's Lisa Sylvester report on the pilots \u00bb . City officials, passengers and aviation experts have lauded Sullenberger and the flight crew for their handling of the landing and also praised first responders who acted quickly to minimize passengers' injuries in below-freezing temperatures. All 155 people on board the plane survived. \"These are both very experienced pilots. They knew what they had to do,\" Higgins said. Neither Sullenberger nor Skiles attended the news conference. Earlier in the day, the NTSB revealed the content of communications between the cockpit and controllers at LaGuardia in the brief period during which the incident unfolded. \"This is cactus 1549, hit birds, we lost thrust in both engines,\" Sullenberger told controllers at approximately 3:27 p.m. Thursday. \"We're turning back towards LaGuardia.\" Controllers immediately began preparations to clear a runway for an emergency landing, but less than a minute later, Sullenberger reported that the aircraft wouldn't make it, Higgins said. The last communication from the plane to controllers, Higgins said, was the pilot saying, \"We're gonna be in the Hudson.\" Watch a former pilot tell how to water-land a plane \u00bb . Higgins also quoted two of the flight's attendants, who were in jump seats at the front of the aircraft when they heard a loud thud shortly after takeoff. \"It was a sound that neither one of them had ever heard before,\" Higgins said. \"They said all the engine noise ceased. They described it as complete silence, like a library.\" Efforts to raise the jetliner from the river proved successful late Saturday, as cranes lifted it clear of the water about 11:30 p.m. ET following several hours of work by crews in frigid conditions. Video from the scene showed the right side of the aircraft with the engine intact but its covering mangled. It was not clear visually whether the damage was from an in-flight incident or from the landing impact. Investigators planned to tow the plane on a barge to an undisclosed location for their examination. Watch water wash over the plane \u00bb . Searchers using sonar think they have found the left engine on the river bottom. Divers will try to confirm the finding, Higgins said. Watch workers begin the retrieval process \u00bb . The flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- both crucial to determining exactly what happened Thursday -- remained on the aircraft, which was still largely submerged in the Hudson River but was secured to moorings. Strong currents and cold water thwarted divers' efforts to retrieve the recorders from the tail section of the jetliner, Higgins said. Also Saturday, authorities released audio and transcripts of two 911 calls from people who said they saw that the plane was in trouble. Listen to callers report plane in the river \u00bb . One caller said he saw the plane descend and reported hearing a loud noise shortly after the aircraft took off. \"Oh, my God! It was a big plane, I heard a big boom just now. We looked up, and the plane came straight over us, and it was turning. Oh, my God!\" a man calling from the Bronx told a 911 operator at 3:29 p.m., three minutes after the plane left LaGuardia. Minutes later, at 3:33 p.m., a woman called 911 and reported seeing the plane in the water. \"A plane has just crashed into the Hudson River,\" she told an operator. \"A US Air big DC-9 or -10 has crashed into the Hudson River. ... Oh, my gosh!\" CNN's Mike Brooks, Jeanne Meserve, Richard Davis and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Crews hoist US Airways Flight 1549 from icy Hudson River .\nPilot said aircraft was flying \"too low, too slow\" to risk returning to airport .\nPlane in air less than 90 seconds when collision occurred .\nOne engine in river, one still attached, investigators say .","id":"cedcd6b696012abb2a02795c1edefe8ce1c001fb"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Singer Chris Brown, sought by Los Angeles police after an alleged domestic violence incident, turned himself in Sunday, police said. Chris Brown attends a party saluting music producer Clive Davis in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday. Brown, nominated for two Grammy Awards, was a no-show Sunday night at the nationally televised awards show. He was scheduled to perform at the show. His girlfriend, singer Rihanna, abruptly canceled her planned Grammys performance, but neither her spokesman nor the show organizers gave a reason. \"Rihanna is well,\" her spokesman said in a written statement. \"Thank you for concern and support.\" Police have not identified the alleged victim, who they said \"suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker.\" Brown, 19, and Rihanna, 20, were seen together Saturday night at a pre-Grammys dinner at the Beverly Hills Hilton, about five miles from where police said the alleged incident happened at 12:30 a.m. Sunday. The police statement said Brown and a woman were in a vehicle near Hollywood's Hancock Park when \"they became involved in an argument.\" \"After stopping his car, Brown and the woman got out and the argument escalated,\" police said. After receiving a 911 call at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found the woman at the scene of the alleged fight, but Brown had left, the department said. Investigators were treating the incident as a possible felony battery case, police said. Executives with Brown's record label at the Grammy Awards told CNN they knew nothing about the incident and declined further comment. Brown was nominated for two Grammys this year, including in the best male R&B vocal performance category for his song \"Take You Down.\" He also shares a best pop collaboration with vocals nomination with Jordin Sparks for \"No Air.\" The introduction to the CBS broadcast of the Grammys, apparently pre-taped, listed both Brown and Rihanna as performers.","highlights":"NEW: Police: Brown turned himself in after woman accused him of attacking her .\nBrown a no-show at Grammy Awards, where he was to perform Sunday .\nBrown, woman were in vehicle when alleged fight started, authorities say .\nPolice haven't named woman; Brown's girlfriend, Rihanna, cancels performance .","id":"8fe31c035d0e43f589f42950c5c6be539ccd23d1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Ariel Binns is cute, smart, outgoing and looks remarkably like first daughter Sasha Obama. Young model Ariel Binns, right, resembles Sasha Obama. The similarity has not gone unnoticed by the fashion industry. Harper's Bazaar magazine cast the 6-year-old Brooklyn, New York, first-grader with model Tyra Banks in a photo spread showing an African-American family in the White House. Binns, a child model, was peering out from under a big wooden desk in an image reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's time in office. When it comes to fashion there's nothing like a powerful brand to boost sales, especially if that brand is a dynamic first family. \"Marketers are finally waking up to it -- you know -- black is beautiful,\" says global branding expert David Rogers who predicts African-American models will play a more prominent role in fashion photography as a direct result of the Obamas. \"It's just going to become part of the fabric of the fashion imagery of pop culture, which is a great thing,\" says Rogers. Watch young first daughter look-alike model \u00bb . At Wilhelmina Kids, a modeling agency in New York for kids and teens, agents say there is increased demand for first daughter look-alikes. \"It's a trend because, what little girl doesn't want to emulate the first kids?\" said Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina, which represents Binns. Unlike the Bush twins or Chelsea Clinton, global branding experts say the appeal of the Obama girls is unique -- and infinitely marketable. After the first kids appeared in their J.Crew outfits on Inauguration Day, the company's Web site got so many hits, it crashed. \"The most visible, most exciting family in America is this beautiful black family and so people are ready and looking for those kinds of images,\" says branding expert David Rogers, adding that a lot of Americans want to identify and, \"find some sort of connection with this family.\" There is a downside. The Obamas were not happy when toy manufacturer Ty Inc. came out with African-American dolls named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia even though the company said the dolls did not look like the Obama girls. First lady Michelle Obama's office said it was \"inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes.\" New York clinical psychologist Judy Kuriansky says many famous families face similar problems. \"I can certainly understand Michelle Obama being protective of her children. Many celebrities in Hollywood feel that way too. They don't want their children exposed to the public, because once the child is exposed to the public image, not only are they owned, but they could be used in many different ways and it takes away from the child growing up as a normal, average child.\" Still, some say the celebrity of Sasha and Malia has a positive effect by presenting a positive and prominent image of young African-American girls. Asked whether she believes the Obama girls will open up possibilities for her own child, Ariel Binns' mom Dawn Crooks says, \"I think it will. I hope it does.\" As for the overall effect, branding expert Rogers says he believes using look-alikes will take diversity to a whole new level.","highlights":"One young model is getting jobs because she looks like an Obama daughter .\nExpert: \"Marketers are finally waking up to it -- you know -- black is beautiful\"\nJ.Crew's Web site crashed after Obama girls wore the brand on Inauguration Day .","id":"aa15bdeac06a41f6e810e370c02ef6bff839efc0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer Chris Brown's arrest on a domestic violence charge prompted Wrigley to suspend its Doublemint gum campaign that uses Brown as a spokesman. \"Wrigley is concerned by the serious allegations made against Chris Brown,\" Wrigley spokeswoman Jennifer Luth said. Brown was arrested Sunday night in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident in Hollywood early Sunday morning, police said. He was released on a $50,000 bond and given a March 5 court date. A Doublemint commercial features Brown singing about the gum to the tune of his hit song \"Forever.\" \"We believe Mr. Brown should be afforded the same due process as any citizen,\" Luth said. \"However, we have made the decision to suspend the current advertising featuring Brown and any related marketing communications until the matter is resolved.\"","highlights":"Chris Brown has been featured in ad for Wrigley's gum .\nBrown was arrested Sunday in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident .\nWrigley's spokesperson: We've suspended Brown ads until \"matter is resolved\"","id":"4a366da724fd9e6db666114f8831abcf26a0eaec"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI will not visit Israel's Holocaust museum when he makes his first trip to the region as pope in May, though he will visit a memorial that is part of the site, his ambassador to Israel said Tuesday. Pope Benedict XVI, shown at the Vatican during a prayer Sunday, has spoken out forcefully against the Holocaust. He will also become the first pontiff to visit the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Islam, said the envoy, papal nuncio Antonio Franco. Foreign heads of state normally visit the Holocaust museum, which is part of the Yad Vashem complex in Jerusalem. But it includes controversial wording describing the role of Pope Pius XII during World War II, which is why Pope Benedict balked, an Israeli official said. Critics have accused Pope Pius of doing too little to prevent the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler. A caption in the museum says he maintained a neutral position during the years of mass extermination of Europe's Jews. The Vatican defends him and is gradually opening its archives in an effort to show that he acted behind the scenes. Franco gave the news of Pope Benedict's visit to Yad Vashem at a news conference in Jerusalem. Pope John Paul II also did not visit the museum section on his historic pilgrimage to Israel in 2000, Father Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said as he confirmed that Pope Benedict will not do so. An official with Israel's Foreign Ministry said the decision was made jointly because of the sensitivity of the matter. Yigal Palmor conceded that there is an argument over the wartime pope's actions during the Holocaust and noted that the museum has a sign stating that the facts are in dispute. He said that Pope Benedict may visit other parts of the Yad Vashem complex, which is divided into several compounds, and that the pontiff will lay a wreath at the site's Hall of Remembrance, which is part of the protocol for visiting heads of state. The announcement that Pope Benedict will visit only part of Yad Vashem also follows international outrage over his rehabilitation of a rebel bishop who denied the Nazis systematically murdered 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. The Vatican ordered the bishop, Richard Williamson, to recant, and said the pope was not aware of Williamson's views on the Holocaust when he lifted the excommunication of the bishop. Pope Benedict, who was born in Germany and forced to join the Hitler Youth as a teenager, has spoken out forcefully against the Holocaust on a number of occasions, including on a visit to the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Pope Benedict will make his pilgrimage to the Holy Land May 8-15 with stops in Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, according to the itinerary released by the Vatican. He will be celebrating Mass in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, the city where Christians believe Jesus preached and lived. Some 50,000 pilgrims are expected to attend that event, the bishop of Nazareth said. In Jerusalem, a city holy to all three of the major monotheistic faiths, Pope Benedict will visit the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which Catholics believe is the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The pope will also meet Israel's chief rabbis and enter the Dome of the Rock with the chief Muslim cleric in the Holy Land, the grand mufti of Jerusalem. He will also meet Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli President Shimon Peres, as well as Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Franco said. CNN's Guy Azriel in Jerusalem and Alessandro Gentile in Rome contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Benedict XVI to be first pontiff to visit the Dome of the Rock .\nNEW: Trip to be May 8-15 with stops in Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth .\nIn Jerusalem, he'll visit Yad Vashem's memorial section, will skip museum .\nPope Pius XII criticized for WW II actions; Vatican says he acted behind the scenes .","id":"80d07e1785c3fc09fdaf41a1af6367c5f177555e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Five people got the lavish ride of a lifetime as the only passengers on a transatlantic flight, causing environmental groups to criticize the major carrier for leaving a wasteful carbon footprint. American Airlines has faced criticism for a transatlantic flight carrying only five passengers. Using about 68,000 liters (15,000 imperial gallons) -- or 13,000 liters per passenger -- of jet fuel for the nine-hour trip from Chicago to London, American Airlines is being accused of unnecessary waste. Each passenger left a footprint of 35.77 tons of carbon dioxide, enough to drive an average car 160,000 kilometers (100,000 miles). \"Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel. Through no fault of their own, each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full,\" Friends of the Earth's transport campaigner Richard Dyer said. Because of a mechanical malfunction, AA flight 90 was 14 hours late leaving Chicago's O'Hare airport on February 8. Though most passengers made other arrangements to London, five lucky passengers unable to be rebooked made the 6,400 kilometer (4,000 mile) flight in business class, with two crew members per passenger. American Airlines said it chose to continue with the flight because of the full load of passengers waiting at London's Heathrow airport to return to the United States. \"With such a small passenger load we did consider whether we could cancel the flight and re-accommodate the five remaining passengers on other flights,\" says American Airlines' European spokesperson Anneliese Morris. \"However, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly to the U.S. on the same aircraft.\" Morris was quick to point out that despite the staggeringly low passenger count, the flight did carry a full cargo load. \"We sought alternative flights for the west-bound passengers but heavy loads out of London meant that this was not possible. The only option was to operate the flight,\" Morris said. \"This put the aircraft in London Heathrow for the following day, enabling us to operate a full schedule and avoid further inconvenience to our passengers and cargo customers.\" Environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth say that international governments should hold the aviation industry accountable for the amount of CO2 they produce each year, and point to instances like this to show that airlines should pay a fuel tax to rein them in. \"Governments must stop granting the aviation industry the unfair privileges that allow this to happen by taxing aviation fuel and including emissions from aviation in international agreements to tackle climate change,\" Dyer said. But despite these accusations, Kieran Daly, air transport intelligence editor for Flight International magazine, said the amount passengers carried was irrelevant. \"Airlines are still a business. The cargo had to be flown and perhaps some of it was time-sensitive,\" Daly said. \"It's just not practical for an airline to tell its customers that it won't fly until it has a full passenger load. Customers won't be happy and the airline will quickly be out of business.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Environmental groups angry with American Airlines after five-passenger flight .\nThe passengers were unable to be rebooked after flight delayed by 14 hours .\nAA says canceling flight would have left many more stranded in London next day .\nThe transatlantic flight did carry a full cargo load, according to the airline .","id":"bd01bf5f9c113e1f2ce8ef01a8ad9f8cebdecba7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An apparent natural gas explosion in downtown Bozeman, Montana, leveled three businesses Thursday morning, according to city and state officials. An explosion rocks downtown Bozeman, Montana, on Thursday in a photo from iReporter Sean Gallik. \"When we say gone, we mean gone. These three businesses are gone,\" said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who added that the state is providing help for clean up, and to businesses and residents who are affected. One person remained unaccounted for Thursday evening, Bozeman Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn said. \"The situation remains unsafe for anyone to enter,\" Winn said. \"So in terms of a search -- we are unable to do so at this time.\" Winn said city crews are making progress cleaning up the area, but the damage is great. He said a meeting was planned Friday morning to give business owners and residents information about when they can return. \"It literally looks like a bomb went off in downtown Bozeman,\" he said. iReport.com: Photos from the scene . \"Roofing material, construction material is scattered for three or four blocks,\" he said. \"It was a very violent explosion.\" Schweitzer added that the situation would \"not be over in 24 hours.\" The blast occurred about 8:15 a.m. on the town's Main Street, Fire Chief Jason Shrauger told CNN. The city government declared a local emergency after the blast. Initially, 11 people were reported missing, but 10 were later accounted for, Winn said. It was not clear what triggered the blast. Bozeman is in south-central Montana, about 100 miles southeast of the state capital, Helena.","highlights":"One person unaccounted for .\nThree businesses destroyed in downtown Bozeman, Montana .\nEleven people initially reported missing after natural gas explosion .\nIt was not clear what triggered the blast .","id":"26855713436f551490bdb7958898c076ca22bde3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Evander Holyfield failed in his bid to become the oldest heavyweight champion when he lost on points to giant Russian Nikolai Valuev in Zurich, Switzerland on Saturday. Holyfield struggles to escape the reach of seven-foot Russian world champion Valuez in Zurich. One judge scored the bout a draw while the others had Valuev winning 115-114 and 116-112 thus denying 46-year-old Holyfield the heavyweight title for the fifth time. American Holyfield will take time to consider whether to return to the ring after his defeat. \"I will go home and think about the future,\" he said. \"But I knew I could still do it. \"I fought very well and won the fight but I did not get the decision. I think I showed tonight that I still can box and that age does not matter.\" Valuev said it was an honor to fight a legend like Holyfield. \"I am proud to have been in the same ring with him,\" he said. \"He was very fast and hard to hit. I can only advise people not to get hit by him. I expected a tough fight and that is what it was. Holyfield is a great fighter and he proved it tonight.\" With Valuev controlling the centre of the ring in the opening rounds, Holyfield danced around his opponent, hitting with occasional single shots. He did well to stay away from Valuev\u00b4s long left jab and hit him with a big left in the fourth, but the Russian answered with a strong right uppercut. Much to the delight of the crowd, the fifth was a good round for Holyfield who first landed a right-left combination to the body and later connected with a big left hook to the head. Both men were on target during a mid-round exchange in the sixth, but Valuev\u00b4s left jab looked more effective. In the seventh, the crowd raised the roof when Holyfield fired in a combination to the head. Valuev\u00b4s corner urged him to be more aggressive and he eventually landed a strong right in the eighth when Holyfield seemed to tire a little. The seven foot Russian remained on the front foot as there was a big exchange during the ninth, and in the 10th Holyfield landed a strong right-left combination. Valuev finished better and pushed his opponent in the corner in the 12th . After the final bell, both men hugged each other, with either fighter claiming the win. When the scorecards were read, boos rang out as the crowd favorite's narrow defeat was confirmed.","highlights":"Evander Holyfield failed in bid to become oldest heavyweight champion .\nLost on points to giant Russian Nikolai Valuev in Zurich, Switzerland .\nAmerican Holyfield, 46, will take time to consider whether return to ring .","id":"e395b6df9fc850d50ee891a233cc1f31f309d7f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Wimbledon have confirmed plans to hold an exhibition event on Centre Court to test conditions under the new roof ahead of next year's tennis championships. Wimbledon first unveiled plans for a retractable roof over Centre Court in 2004 with capacity increased to 15,000. The special one-off event has been scheduled for Sunday, May 17, just over a month ahead of next year's Championships where Rafael Nadal defends the title for the first time. Former British number one Tim Henman, four times a semifinalist at the grass-court grand slam and a member of the All England Club, has been lined up to play. The club's chief executive, Ian Ritchie, explained the need for a pre-tournament event: . \"The key thing for the new roof is the atmospherics and humidity conditions, \" he told BBC Radio Four on Tuesday. \"We need to get 15,000 people inside to test the humidity. It's a roof over a grass court and it's not like a football or rugby pitch, we need it to be absolutely bone dry. \"We have to test the air conditioning and playing surface as well.\" Former champion John McEnroe is also being lined up to make a sentimental return to Centre Court. \"We are looking to put together a good raft of people to come and play. \"We will probably put several matches on as we want to put on a day of entertainment and enjoyment to try to get a maximum crowd to come and see it,\" said Ritchie. Wimbledon first announced plans for a retractable roof over Centre Court in 2004, with the redevelopment increasing the capacity to 15,000. It will mean an end, on Centre Court at least, to the famous Wimbledon rain delays, which have frustrated spectators and players alike over the years, arguably costing Henman his best chance of Wimbledon glory in 2001 when he lost a protracted semifinal to eventual winner Goran Ivanisevic.","highlights":"Wimbledon to test new roof over Centre Court with special event in May .\nFormer British number one Tim Henman and John McEnroe lined up to play .\nNew roof will house increased 15,000 capacity on most famous court in tennis .","id":"f5e25c04927b6344169d27c1124155fad36e62ab"} -{"article":"LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- His job was to drive the bus. But Meher Mohammad Khalil is now being hailed as a lifesaver. On Wednesday Meher Mohammad Khalil went back to the place where gunmen attacked his bus. When gunmen jumped out of bushes and began spraying bullets at the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team Tuesday, Khalil quickly sized up his options and got everyone to safety. \"First I thought there were some firecrackers going off. Then, when I saw the elite force cars in front of me taking fire, I immediately lost my voice,\" Khalil told CNN on Wednesday. \"At that time, the other elite car that was with us gave me cover, and then, when I saw he was giving me cover, my courage and my patience returned. Watch CNN's interview with Khalil \u00bb . \"I decided to take the vehicle from there, and one way or another, even if I had to drive over someone, I would take this bus and escape.\" Watch the gunmen attack \u00bb . Khalil returned to the scene of the attack in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday to honor those who were killed and to place flowers in their memory. One of the dead was Zafar Khan, a friend and fellow bus driver who had been in a vehicle behind Khalil. \"My eyes filled with tears that these were people that I was eating with and who died in doing their duty.\" Khalil had been part of a convoy heading to Gaddafi Stadium, where the Sri Lankan cricket team was to continue a match against Pakistan. Six police officers were killed, in addition to Khalil's friend Khan who was driving a bus with the match umpires. See where the attack happened \u00bb . The Sri Lankan cricketers praised Khalil's quick thinking and action, saying he saved their lives. Six team members were injured by broken glass and shrapnel. Team captain Mahela Jayawardene wrote on his Web site of Khalil: \"He probably saved our lives, showing remarkable bravery in the face of direct gunfire to keep the bus moving.\" Crowds mobbed Khalil as he paid his respects at the place where his life changed in an instant. \"He is a hero, a real hero, a real man of the people,\" a man in the crowd said. Private donors in Lahore have rewarded Khalil with 300,000 rupees (more than $3,000) -- a small fortune for a Pakistani bus driver. Today, Khalil says all he can feel is pain of the loss of life. And he called on the attackers to recognize that their victims are humans just like them, with mothers and sisters. \"For God's sake, please stop this terrorism and let this nation breathe a sigh of relief,\" he said. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Meher Mohammad Khalil's bus came under intense gunfire in Lahore, Pakistan .\nCricketers thank bus driver for steering them away from attack, saving their lives .\nKhalil returned to scene of attack, where crowds hailed him as a hero .","id":"fb4d3d5e1b0d74027f0b5e96dc0f3d9c271c985e"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Thousands of youths demonstrated in central Athens Friday as anger flared in the Greek capital following the shooting of another teenager. High school students protest in front of their school in the western Athens suburb of Peristeri. A group of youths targeted the French Institute, a language and cultural institute, and police scrambled to the scene to contain the incident. The situation began heating up during a protest rally Thursday that followed the bizarre shooting of a high school student in an Athens suburb earlier this week. The 17-year-old was hit in the hand by an unknown assailant as he was talking to a group of schoolmates in the western suburb of Peristeri. Initial police reports showed the student -- the son of a leading trade unionist -- was hit with a .38-caliber handgun. Police said no officers were patrolling the region at the time of the incident. The mysterious shooting has enflamed widespread student anger over the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old boy December 6, which sparked Greece's worst riots in decades. Watch more about the flare-up of protests \u00bb . Students rallied Friday in response to the shooting of the 17-year-old. One of the rallies was planned for central Athens; the other in the suburb where the student was shot. Later in the day, scores of artists are scheduled to gather in central Athens to stage a protest concert in response to the initial shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Daily protests since the December 6 shooting, including riots, have thrown Greece into turmoil and have become a simmering anger about the conservative government's handling of the economy, education, and jobs. A string of labor unions called on workers to march on Parliament Friday to protest the voting of the 2009 state budget, which calls for additional belt-tightening measures in response to the global financial crisis. Student unions were also gathering to across the country to determine their course of action for the next few weeks. At least 800 high schools and 200 universities remain shut as thousands of youths have seized the grounds and campuses in protest. The unrest is threatening the government's hold on power, with some opposition groups calling for fresh elections. Stores and international businesses have been attacked, and at least 280 people have been detained by police. Of that total, 176 were arrested, 130 of them for looting. Of the two officers involved in the death of the 15-year-old, one is charged with premeditated manslaughter and the other with acting as an accomplice.","highlights":"17-year-old shot by unknown assailant in Athens suburb of Peristeri .\nPolice said no officers were patrolling the region at the time of the incident .\nFirst protests flared on Dec. 6 after police killing of 15-year-old boy .\nSimmering anger exists about government's handling of economy, education, jobs .","id":"bd2119d765c5523120b9e8e33b6f526695dd5a30"} -{"article":"TAIJI, Japan (CNN) -- Mention a dolphin to someone in the United States and they'll think about a trip to Sea World or the 1960s-era TV program \"Flipper.\" Residents in Taiji, Japan, have been hunting dolphins for hundreds of years. Talk about a dolphin in rural Japan and some people think of dinner. Fishermen hunt dolphins about every day in Taiji, a town of about 3,000 in southwestern Japan that juts into the Pacific Ocean. Locals know they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it's a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering, say, chickens or cows. Watch fishermen catch dolphins \u00bb . \"I know there are many different ways of thinking in different societies, but for us who've been eating this for a long time ... it's an awkward thing to be criticized for,\" says Kayoko Tanaka, a retired middle school teacher. \"I either fry dolphin meat or turn it into a stew.\" That disgusts Ric O'Barry, a 68-year-old retired dolphin trainer from Miami who makes a second home in Taiji, where he goes to unusual lengths to fight against the tide of local tradition. O'Barry sometimes dresses as a woman or wears a large surgical mask to disguise his Western identity on trips to spots overlooking the ocean. He prowls the cliffs with a video camera, hoping to catch fishermen in the act with footage that could stir emotions and raise awareness in the West. \"This here is ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth,\" says O'Barry, who trained five dolphins to play \"Flipper\" on the TV series of that name. \"It's absolutely barbaric and it needs to stop.\" He says the dolphins face a cruel fate. \"It takes a very long time to die. They bleed to death. And some of them are dragged in the boats with hooks while they're still alive,\" he says. \"Many of them are gutted while they're still alive.\" Looming beyond questions of whether the slaughter is humane, however, are larger and more complex questions of culture and perspective. To some puzzled people in rural Japan, the question comes down to this: What's the difference between killing and eating a dolphin and killing and eating a fish? Or a chicken? Or a cow? Most Japanese do not eat dolphins -- it's common in a few small fishing villages -- but the government respects the rights of people in towns like Taiji, says Joji Morishita, the international negotiator for Japan's Fisheries Agency. Many Japanese consider the deer a sacred messenger from the gods, he says, but they would never suggest that people in other parts of the world stop venturing into the woods on a quest for venison, Morishita says. \"We don't like to play God to say this animal is just for food and this is not,\" he says. \"Because we know nation to nation we have totally different ideas.\" That's obvious in the growing clash between Australia and Japan over whale hunting. Japanese ships crisscross the Antarctic Ocean each winter to capture and kill up to 1,000 whales. Whaling is allowed under international law when done for scientific reasons, which Japan cites as the legal basis for its hunts. Legal justifications aside, however, the whale hunts offend many people in Australia, where new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has turned up the political pressure on Japan. His government has dispatched a customs ship to monitor and videotape the whalers. And Rudd says Australia could even file charges against Japan in an international court to try to stop the whaling. Back in Taiji, the fishermen are well aware of the Western sentiment that motivates whaling opponents. They realize the danger to their way of life that can come with prying cameras from other countries. When CNN trained its cameras on fishermen gutting some freshly killed dolphins, the fishermen erected some tarps to obstruct the view. Representatives of the Taiji Fishermen's Union declined CNN requests for an on-camera interview. So did the town's mayor and several others. And O'Barry says he's gotten into a few shouting matches with fishermen, who resent him and his camera. So what does O'Barry say to their claim that he has no right to tell them to abandon a tradition that has flourished in their small corner of the world for more than 400 years? \"If someone came to my hometown and told me what to do, what to eat, I'd be outraged,\" he says. \"But that's not going to stop me from doing it. I mean, tradition? It used to be traditional for women not to vote. So do we keep that going because it's traditional and cultural? Of course not.\" Complicating the debate are findings suggesting that eating dolphins may not be good for one's health. The Japanese government said in 2005 that bottlenose dolphin meat contains 12 times more mercury than blue fin tuna -- high levels of mercury in fish can cause health problems in pregnant women and young children. A city councilman in Taiji, Junichiro Yamashita, grew so concerned about mercury levels that he persuaded locals schools to stop serving dolphin meat at lunch. He even plucked some of his hair, sent it off for testing and discovered that it contained seven times as much mercury as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. The mercury findings have not swayed Masaru Matsushita, a Taiji fish dealer. He says that dolphin activists like O'Barry only see their needs without understanding the culture in his town. \"I understand that they think the dolphin in a cute animal, and I agree they're cute doing performances,\" he says, \"but it is our culture to eat dolphins.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Dolphin hunts have been carried out in Japanese town for centuries .\nWesterners protest \"barbaric\" slaughter of the marine mammals .\nLocal residents say other nations have no right to criticize dolphin hunts .\nJapanese government has found unsafe mercury levels in dolphins .","id":"603b0e58d72bcf5104cbfe12838ed6fecb22523f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian newspapers, an archbishop and civil liberties campaigners expressed shock and revulsion on Monday after photographs were published of sunbathers apparently enjoying a day at the beach just meters from where the bodies of two drowned Roma girls were laid out on the sand. Photographs of the dead Roma girls on a beach caused outrage in Italy. Italian news agency ANSA reported that the incident had occurred on Saturday at the beach of Torregaveta, west of Naples, southern Italy, where the two girls had earlier been swimming in the sea with two other Roma girls. Reports said they had gone to the beach to beg and sell trinkets. Local news reports said the four girls found themselves in trouble amid fierce waves and strong currents. Emergency services responded 10 minutes after a distress call was made from the beach and two lifeguards attended the girls upon hearing their screams. Two of them were pulled to safety but rescuers failed to reach the other two in time to save them. Watch why the photos have generated anger \u00bb . The Web site of the Archbishop of Naples said the girls were cousins named Violetta and Cristina, aged 12 and 13. Their bodies were eventually laid out on the sand under beach towels to await collection by police. Photographs show sunbathers in bikinis and swimming trunks sitting close to where the girls' feet can be seen poking out from under the towels concealing their bodies. A photographer who took photos at the scene told CNN the mood among sunbathers had been one of indifference. Other photos show police officers lifting the bodies into coffins and carrying them away past bathers reclined on sun loungers. \"While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away,\" Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported. Corriere della Sera said that a crowd of curious onlookers that had formed around the bodies quickly dispersed. \"Few left the beach or abandoned their sunbathing. When the police from the mortuary arrived an hour later with coffins, the two girls were carried away between bathers stretched out in the sun.\" The incident also attracted condemnation from the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crecenzio Seppe. \"Indifference is not an emotion for human beings,\" Seppe wrote in his parish blog. \"To turn the other way or to mind your own business can sometimes be more devastating than the events that occur.\" Recent weeks have seen heightened tensions between Italian authorities and the country's Roma minority amid a crackdown by Silvo Berlusconi's government targeting illegal immigrants and talk by government officials of a \"Roma emergency\" that has seen the 150,000-strong migrant group blamed for rising street crime. That has provided justification for police raids on Roma camps and controversial government plans to fingerprint all Roma -- an act condemned by the European Parliament and United Nations officials as a clear act of racial discrimination. Popular resentment against Romanies has also seen Roma camps near Naples attacked and set on fire with petrol bombs by local residents. In a statement published on its Web site, the Italian civil liberties group EveryOne said Saturday's drowning had occurred in an atmosphere of \"racism and horror\" and cast doubt on the reported version of events, suggesting that it appeared unusual for the four girls to wade into the sea, apparently casting modesty aside and despite being unable to swim. \"The most shocking aspect of all this is the attitude of the people on the beach,\" the statement said. \"No one appears the slightest upset at the sight and presence of the children's dead bodies on the beach: they carry on swimming, sunbathing, sipping soft drinks and chatting.\" CNN's Jennifer Eccleston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Italian outrage over photos of sunbathers at a beach where two Roma girls drowned .\nPhotos showed girls' bodies lying on sand covered in beach towels .\nNewspapers report beach goers eating lunch, sun bathing as bodies carried away .\nIncident occurred amid heightened tensions between authorities, Roma minority .","id":"a93225ce80ed55f9ccb1cc4e882531cc0395faf6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida company is suspending launch of its \"Caylee Sunshine\" doll following a public outcry that included members of slain toddler Caylee Anthony's family. The \"Caylee Sunshine\" doll would have cost $29.99 but sales of the doll have been suspended. Jaime Salcedo, president of Showbiz Promotions, told CNN that the Jacksonville-based company intended for the dolls to honor children who die young and raise money for charity. But on Tuesday the company announced on its Web site that it is suspending the promotion. The dolls were scheduled to go on sale at noon Tuesday for $29.99, according to the company's Web site. The dolls have blond hair, rather than Caylee's brown hair, and wear jeans and a T-shirt that says \"Caylee Sunshine.\" According to the Web site, each doll plays the song \"You are My Sunshine.\" \"However, after reviewing the response to our media introduction of the Sunshine Caylee Doll and listening to the advice of the general public, we feel that it is best to suspend the launch,\" said a statement on the Web site -- called the \"Caylee Anthony Tribute Site\" -- signed by Salcedo. \"While we still feel it is important to raise awareness and raise money to help stop this type of crime from being committed, we feel we can be more effective using traditional methods,\" the statement said. Watch Nancy Grace grill Salcedo \u00bb . Caylee was 2 when she was last seen in June. Her skeletal remains were found last month in woods about a half-mile from her grandparents' home. Her mother, Casey Anthony, 22, faces charges including first-degree murder in her death. \"Holding a Caylee Sunshine Doll can help us remember that all the children taken from this world prematurely are dancing, playing and singing their sunshine song forever,\" the Web site says. Brad Conway, attorney for the girl's grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday, \"This is an example of another person trying to profit from the tragedy of Caylee's death. \"He has never met my clients, spoken to my clients and has not gotten authority of any type to do this,\" Conway said. \"And after I have a chance to research it, I will likely take whatever legal action I can.\" Salcedo appeared Monday night on \"Nancy Grace\" on CNN's sister network HLN to defend the doll. The criticism, he said, was \"not something that we did not expect. We actually have been over it several times ... and for that exact purpose, we did not create the Caylee Sunshine Doll in the likeness of Caylee Anthony. We thought that that would be way off base in this,\" he said. \"The fact that you gave the little doll blond hair, how does that somehow remove the sleaze from this whole thing?\" Grace asked. Showbiz Promotions said on the site http:\/\/www.cayleedoll.com\/ that 100 percent of its profits would be given to charity. Salcedo told Grace that \"a portion of the sales are going to charity.\" He would not be more specific, however, saying he did not know how much would be donated because none have been sold. Salcedo also refused to name the charity that would receive the money. \"We contacted a few of the biggest organizations in the world, and especially in the United States,\" he told Grace. \"They don't want to partner up because it's -- it's a policy that they have to follow. They cannot get themselves involved with a case that they're handling.\" Pressed on the issue, he said he had contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, but \"their answer was real simple. They don't speak about Caylee Anthony on their Web site. It's not that it's good or bad. They can't do it. They don't raise funds using the name of any children or any situation that they're following. So it was difficult for us. That is the organization that we want to give to.\" A disclaimer on the site says, \"The Inspirational Caylee Doll is being used to bring awareness to missing and exploited children around the world. Any similarities or likeness to Caylee Anthony are false ... CayleeDoll.com is not affiliated with Caylee Anthony, her relatives or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, nor do we make any claim thereof.\" The \"comments\" portion of the Web site mainly contains posts from people saying they are disappointed the doll was suspended. \"Thank you for making this doll and bringing awareness to the situation because Caylee is not the only child that has fallen victim to this type of crime, and it's heartbreaking that people ignore it and just turn away,\" one post said. But another post said, \"I want to thank you for not proceeding with the making of this doll. I understand your point and what you were trying to do. I just think that making a doll based on a child's death is too painful for the public.\" \"This is just one more atrocity,\" said a posting on the Orlando Sentinel Web site. \"I have no doubt there have been so many people other than myself who literally began to cry when they ran the video of Caylee singing that song just days before she was killed. Thank goodness the public spoke out loudly enough to stop this.\" Caylee Sunshine T-shirts ($12.99) and bracelets and stickers ($3 each) are still offered for sale on at www.cayleedoll.com. Showbiz Promotions' Internet sales are the subject of an investigation by the Florida attorney general's office, according to the office's Web site. Consumers allege they ordered and paid for merchandise from the company's Web sites, including www.vickdogchewtoy.com and www.wheresmyplea.com, but did not receive the items, the office said. The first Web site offers a dog chew toy in the likeness of Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback who is imprisoned on charges related to dog fighting, for $7.77. The second Web site is no longer operational.","highlights":"Dolls have blond hair; Caylee Anthony had brown hair .\nCompany planned to charge $29.99 for dolls .\nPresident Jaime Salcedo said he hoped to raise awareness, money for charities .\nPromotion was criticized by public, members of slain tot's family .","id":"dd8b106a3a2b16c718083ce8ff78f7e6e958b497"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Paul O'Neill, who was appointed treasury secretary in 2001 by President Bush, says the federal government is not doing enough to fix the U.S. financial system. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says he's hoping for a \"V-shaped\" recession. O'Neill appeared on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS\" on Sunday to talk about his outlook on the recession and what the Treasury Department should demand of major financial institutions in order to get the U.S. economy back on track. Following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Fareed Zakaria: Looking at the current economic crisis, do you think there is any prospect of what people call a \"V-shaped recession,\" that is, a quick recovery? Or are we in for a long, perhaps years of sluggish growth, what economists call an \"L-shaped recession\"? Paul O'Neill: You know, I've got to tell you, I'm praying for a V- shape. But I'm one who doesn't believe we're going to start moving back up until there is a credible fix for our financial system. And I think, in spite of all of the things that have been done now by the federal government, we're not quite there. If I were secretary, I would do this. I would order the 19 major financial institutions to put on the Internet the classifications of their assets by investment grade rating, beginning with AAAs down through BBB-minuses, which is the final level of investment grade ratings. And for those parts of their asset holdings that can't be rated investment grade -- or, in fact, as they say, can't be valued or can't be fairly valued -- I would create a new device which I call a \"quarantine account.\" One could make a judgment about the value of these institutions, and the institutions could make a self-judgment, about how much more lending capacity they had, if the quarantined assets are set aside. Watch O'Neill offer his advice to Obama administration \u00bb . Zakaria: The basic idea -- the basic proposal you're making is transparency. Let everyone understand what's on the banks' books. O'Neill: Right. Zakaria: Isn't that a lot like Tim Geithner's stress test? O'Neill: Well, I don't think so. Let me ask you a question. How do you think it's possible to do a so-called \"stress test,\" if 30 or 40 percent of the assets in the institution can't be valued? Here's another plea I have: If you can't value the assets, please don't buy them with my money. Zakaria: You mean the government shouldn't be buying these toxic -- these assets. So you think the Treasury Department's proposals so far are all wrong. I mean, it sounds like you think they're doing all of the wrong things. O'Neill: Well, you know, excuse me, but I'm not one who cares much for the notion of separating the idea of the government as some disembodied entity that has a life independent of me. The money that they're committing and spending is at least in part mine. I'm a substantial taxpayer, and I don't want my representative to buy assets with my money that I wouldn't buy. Why would I want to do that, Fareed? Why should we want them to do that? Zakaria: But this is a pretty frontal assault then on the Treasury's bank plan so far. O'Neill: Well, you know, I don't mean to be offensive to this administration or the last one, but it seems to me, if you're an intelligent investor, you invest in things where there is truth and transparency. And you have a shot, if you're a good leader, at earning the cost of capital and maybe even something more. And I think that basic principle ought to apply to how our government thinks about what it's doing in the name of \"we, the people.\" You know, I really don't like this idea that somehow the government can do things that intelligent people wouldn't do, and we don't notice. Zakaria: One of the other things the government is doing is running up large deficits. There's this large fiscal expansion. Now, you were opposed to the Bush tax cuts, because of your concern about what they would do to the deficit. At that time, the deficit projection was $500 billion, and to you that seemed just too much. The deficit projections now are going to be in the $1.75 trillion range. There are many people who say, you know what, this is that once-in-a-75-year moment where the government has to spend money because nobody else is spending money. Do you buy that? O'Neill: I think, honestly, I'm not so much worried about the stimulus and its components as I am about what I consider to be an essential job -- to get a floor under the financial system, so that we can go back to economic growth in this country and around the world, because there is no hope until we do that. There's not enough ink in the printing presses at the Federal Reserve to print enough money to fill the void created by the absence of real economic growth in our society and around the world. Zakaria: When you were treasury secretary, you were famously suspicious of the financial sector. I mean, you thought there was a little too much attention being paid to it. You looked around at all those Bloomberg screens in the Treasury Department and said, you know, what do these guys make? In a way, reflecting your background in Alcoa. Do you look at this unraveling and feel like the financial sector and the financial system got overweight and fat? I mean, what happened here? O'Neill: We had a whole lot of people who were the public face of all of this financial activity that got ever more exotic. And I think, in truth, very few of them understood the detailed business activity that was going on underneath them. They were all kind of floating up here in the ether. And I think it's true, if you listen to the commentary, even today, what some of these people are saying, they had no idea what was going on. It just felt really good, and it seemed like they were making a lot of money. Zakaria: And do you think that, on the bank issue, are you hopeful that Geithner may, when he unveils the plan, have some of the components that you're suggesting? Or is it your sense they're just headed in the wrong direction? O'Neill: You know, show us the money. Let us see for ourselves. If I was buying a company, I would not put up with someone else giving me a certification that the assets were worth something. I'd go and look in the boiler room and find out if there's rust on the valves. You know, we're talking about providing the wherewithal for intelligent investors to make decisions that they can rely on the facts. And I think the administration hasn't gotten to the point yet of insisting that the big 19 financial institutions put their facts on the table, and for that matter, a place like General Electric put all of its facts on the table, so investors can make an informed decision. I've said this to some people, and they've said -- some of them have said, \"We'd be happy to do that, and we would be OK with that.\" Some other major financial institutions have said, \"Oh, my God, if we did that, people would see how bad it really is.\" I think knowing how bad it really is, is the only way we're going to create a foundation for going forward, Fareed.","highlights":"U.S. should demand major financial institutions come clean, ex-Treasury chief says .\n\"There is no hope\" until U.S. stabilizes financial system, O'Neill says .\nO'Neill: Many people in the financial sector \"had no idea what was going on\"","id":"cdcfe11f1f65bbd66cf63e7cc3e83c938ae3b3f6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bucking tradition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will bypass Europe and travel to Asia on her maiden voyage overseas, diplomats familiar with the planning said Tuesday. Bill Clinton looks at his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she is sworn in on February 2. Clinton is expected to visit China, Japan and South Korea on her first trip overseas. The diplomats said she may also add other stops, including one in Southeast Asia. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because Clinton's schedule was still being finalized. The State Department has not commented on her travel plans. Making Asia Clinton's first overseas destination illustrates the Obama administration's desire for a broader partnership with China and its commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, as well as strengthening ties with Tokyo and Seoul, the diplomats said. The White House said President Barack Obama told Chinese President Hu Jintao in a Friday phone call that he looked forward to \"to early contacts and exchanges between senior officials of our two countries.\" Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month she hoped to make an early trip to Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation where Obama spent part of his childhood. Clinton said she wanted to restart Peace Corps programs there, which were suspended in the 1960s. Traditionally U.S. secretaries of state make Europe or the Middle East their first official trip overseas. But given that Vice President Joseph Biden is headed to Europe this week for a security conference in Germany, and special envoy George Mitchell is currently in the Middle East, Clinton is free to break with tradition. However British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Secretary Walter Steinmeier will be Clinton's first foreign guests to the State Department on Tuesday. Clinton was sworn in as America's 67th secretary of state on Monday -- for a second time. Watch Clinton being sworn in \u00bb . Biden administered the oath to Clinton in a ceremonial star-studded gathering at the State Department, with actor Chevy Chase and designer Oscar de la Renta among those on hand. \"It is an overwhelming honor ... to assume this position,\" Clinton said. \"We have a lot of work to do [to ensure that] America's future can be even brighter than our storied past.\"","highlights":"Hillary Clinton will bypass Europe and travel to Asia on her maiden voyage overseas .\nU.S. Secretary of State Clinton expected to visit China, Japan and South Korea .\nTrip illustrates Obama administration's desire for a broader partnership with China .\nTrip also highlights commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue .","id":"16b80e877d872e43069710569643eaa70da136df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You may have noticed: Clint Eastwood has become respectable in his old age. \"Gran Torino,\" says Tom Charity, is all about Clint Eastwood. And that's a great thing. To judge by the release pattern and some of the more reverent reviews, you would think the 78-year-old director's second movie of the season (after \"Changeling\") was another prestige picture with Oscar firmly in its sights, along the lines of \"Million Dollar Baby\" or \"Letters from Iwo Jima.\" Nominations may be forthcoming, or they may not (we'll find out January 22), but trust me, \"Gran Torino\" is not that kind of animal. It's a crude but pungent stab at popular filmmaking, blue-collar and bare-knuckle. Which is not to say it's disappointing. On the contrary, it's an entertaining star vehicle that does its job well. Other films around right now tackle \"important\" themes -- the Holocaust, justice, alienation -- but \"Gran Torino\" is all about Clint: the suspicious squint, granite composure and bad-ass attitude. Is Eastwood important? If you have grown up with this enduring American icon, there's no question about it. Apparently Nick Schenk's screenplay wasn't written specifically for him, but after seeing the film it's impossible to imagine it with anyone else. Eastwood's Walt Kowalski is a Korean War veteran and retired auto worker, a grumpy old man and the last white guy holding on to his property in an inner-city neighborhood that's been taken over by Asian-Americans. The movie opens at his wife's funeral. (How many times have we seen Eastwood with a wife on screen? Not too often.) Walt's not happy, of course, but more than anything, he seems pissed off. His kids are a sore disappointment. The grandkids merit nothing more than a growl. At the wake, even the priest, Father Janovich (freckle-faced Christopher Carley), is quickly shown the door. Walt is alone now, and he means to keep it that way. He sits on a deck chair out on his front porch, a cooler of beer beside him, the American flag hanging limp over his square patch of lawn. It's a portrait of implacable American isolationism -- until the teenage son of his Hmong next-door neighbor encroaches on Walt's turf. Thao (Bee Vang) nearly gets his head blown off trying to steal Walt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino. To apologize, and to thank the white guy for stepping in to save him from the gangbangers who put him up to the stunt, Thao reluctantly reports for a week of whatever chores Walt might ask of him. The grudging mutual respect that develops between them is entirely predictable, but in Eastwood's clean, unfussy but discreetly patient direction, even a banal task -- like wrestling an old fridge out of the basement -- assumes the bonding power Alan Ladd and Van Heflin found in digging out a stubborn tree stump in \"Shane.\" Like other Eastwood heroes before him, Walt sacrifices his independence by accepting that others depend on him. The relationship is also laced with plenty of gruff humor. If you're feeling indulgent, the film has almost as many laughs as a comedy. The older man introduces Thao to his barber (John Carroll Lynch) for a lesson in guy talk -- which turns out to be the art of barking invective with impunity. (PC, it's not.) Meanwhile, Walt's own racist (Archie) Bunker mentality thaws when Thao's self-assured sister Sue (Ahney Her) introduces him to the pleasures of Thai food. All the while, the neighborhood punks hover in the background, waiting for the right moment to test whether Dirty Old Harry is firing anything more than blanks these days. Schenk's screenplay isn't subtle, and some of the young cast struggle to camouflage its crudeness, but Eastwood revels in the pragmatic design and roughneck humor of the piece. Walt may be a dinosaur, but he carries a big footprint. In a similar way, \"Gran Torino\" is no classic, but at least it's a star vehicle worthy of a true legend. \"Gran Torino\" is rated R and runs 116 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Gran Torino\" is vintage Eastwood, right down to the attitude .\nStar vehicle, directed by Eastwood, about old man, his car and neighbors .\nMovie is made for Eastwood, and Eastwood makes the movie .","id":"382044a82c4be02f27685c75aa967a10cdeccde7"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- More than 100 people were killed and several dozen wounded when an overturned petrol tanker exploded in Kenya early Sunday, authorities said. The blast is the second multi-fatality incident in the east African country in four days. A supermarket fire in Nairobi on Wednesday killed at least 27 people, with another 57 still missing. The tanker explosion occurred near Molo, a small town in the Rift Valley Province -- about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the capital, a spokesman for the Kenyan police said. The tanker overturned along a highway spilling gallons of gas which hundreds of residents rushed to scoop up, said Titus Mung'ou of the Kenyan Red Cross. \"People were lining up trying to get the fuel,\" he said. \"They were siphoning off petrol for over an hour. Some people had drilled holes in the tanker and were charging a fee for the assembled crowd.\" The vehicle exploded about an hour later, apparently after one of the residents lit a cigarette or started a fire at the crash site, Mung'ou said. Four policemen, who were trying to control the crowd, were believed to be among the victims, Mung'ou said. Another 117 people were wounded in the blast, police said. The figures are expected to rise, officials said. The Red Cross sent more than 80 people to help with rescue efforts. Those who were seriously wounded were flown to a hospital in Nairobi. Meanwhile, the death toll from last week's Nairobi supermarket fire rose to 27 on Sunday, the Red Cross said. Rescue workers found the latest victims as they searched through the rubble of the scorched structure in downtown Nairobi. The fire ignited Wednesday afternoon during a somewhat busy hour in the 24-hour Nakumatt supermarket. Police launched a criminal investigation to look into allegations that security guards locked people into the burning building. Employees of the supermarket refused to comment on the allegations. The fire angered Kenyans for what they perceived as a lack of disaster preparedness. Emergency numbers failed to work and water ran out during attempts to put out the fire, said Mung'ou of the Kenyan Red Cross. \"There is the need to strengthen the capacity in handling fires,\" Mung'ou said.","highlights":"Tanker explosion occurred near Molo, a small town in the Rift Valley Province .\nKenyan Red Cross: Residents rush to scoop up gas from overturned tanker .\nVehicle exploded an hour later after a resident lit a fire, Red Cross official says .","id":"473acc059bdc96a892ffa3b65595a44b4386365f"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide because she wanted her family to donate her liver to her cancer-stricken father, state media reported Thursday. The girl, Chen Jin, swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills after she discovered a medical note in her mother's purse that said her father was dying of liver cancer and had three months left to live, the news agency Xinhua said. Jin's mother returned home after visiting her husband in the hospital to find the front door locked. The mother climbed in through a back window and found two empty bottles of sleeping pills. \"Mom, I'm sorry I couldn't stay with you any longer,\" read a note that the teen had left next to her. \"Please give my liver to dad and save him after my death.\" The incident occurred January 24 in Jiangsu province in east China. The teen was taken to the same hospital as her father, where she remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness, Xinhua said. Doctors say that even if she pulls through, she will need surgery for burns she suffered from an electric blanket on her bed when she lost consciousness, the China Daily newspaper said. According to Chinese media reports, the family -- whose monthly income is about 1,000 yuan ($146) -- has already spent nearly 100,000 yuan ($14,600) in medical expenses since the father was diagnosed with cancer more than a month ago. The mother, who is also in poor health, retired early more than eight years ago. The woman told China Daily she is now trying to keep her husband from learning of their daughter's desperate act of love.","highlights":"A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide to save her cancer-stricken father .\nGirl swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills when she learned of father's liver cancer .\nThe teen remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness .","id":"72ee78d8286ccf3097ca3c3e01e22b80d654afee"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Barack Obama's inauguration marks a profound manifestation of the Rev. Martin Luther King's dream, civil rights leaders say, but the movement would be foolish to drop its guard now. Christine King Farris sits next to a photo of her brother as she reads to kids to commemorate his birthday Thursday. King did not fight tirelessly and ultimately give his life so African-Americans could take office; he fought for the disenfranchised and downtrodden, no matter their color, said Charles Steele, president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King and Steele's father helped found. \"President-elect Barack Obama is just a piece of the puzzle,\" he said. \"This tells us that we are at a station, but it's not our destination. We've got to get back on the train.\" Steele said he worries that those who espouse King's dream may grow lackadaisical because an African-American has taken the reins of the free world. But it is imperative, he said, that they \"march now more than ever before.\" Steele points to 1963, when tens of thousands of protesters converged on Washington to demand equal rights. It was there King delivered his \"I Have a Dream\" speech from the Lincoln Memorial steps. President Kennedy's administration was considered the most receptive ever to the concerns of the civil rights movement, Steele said. But rather than sit back and hope Kennedy did the right thing, King and thousands stormed Washington to lay out demands that later would yield the Civil Rights Act and National Voting Rights Act. Those down for the cause today must do the same with Obama, Steele said. \"Back in the '60s we were fighting for President-elect Barack Obama; we just didn't know it was him,\" Steele said. \"It was civil rights, not politics, that got us to this position, and we can't forget that.\" Andrew Young remembers pickets outside City Hall the day he took office as Atlanta's second black mayor in 1982. Young, a former King lieutenant, said he was initially confused when he noticed some of the protesters were his supporters. \"I said, 'I haven't changed.' They said, 'Yes, you have. You're in charge,' \" recalled Young, who also has been a U.S. congressman and U.N. ambassador. \"They were there reminding me I was the man.\" Obama, too, needs to be reminded of the concerns of the African-American community, Young said, warning civil rights supporters not to assume Obama owes them something. \"He is one of the fruits of our labors,\" Young said, \"and all he has to do is plant more seeds and grow more trees that bear more fruit.\" Young's words rang true with Kee-Shawn Smith, 19, a sophomore at the historically black Clark Atlanta University. She said King and Obama have \"set the way\" for African-Americans and it's time to concentrate on race, the human one. \"America gives you that one thing -- opportunity,\" she said. \"A lot of African-Americans have to realize we have the same opportunities as any other race, any other culture. ... People should take strides to do better than [Obama].\" Neither Obama's election nor the King holiday represent that \"we just want African-Americans to have this. It's more a global perspective,\" said Jeffrey Harrell, 20, a junior at Morehouse College, another historically black school. \"It's about everybody.\" Today, there are still immigrants and women fighting for rights, there are people who are hungry and others without homes, Harrell said. \"Until everyone is able to take part in what's called the American dream, the struggle's not done,\" he said. Harrell also said he was struck by the timing of the inauguration, which falls the day after the King holiday, and he wasn't alone in his belief that it was more than coincidental. \"It shows it's supposed to be this way,\" he said. His words struck a theme, as poet and author Maya Angelou called the timing \"amazing\" and said it was as if \"someone in the outer sphere\" planned it. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a close friend of King's who will deliver the benediction at Obama's inauguration, said the timing of the two events \"reflects the mysticism of the movement.\" Details: Is it coincidence or \"divine order\"? \u00bb . Young chuckled upon hearing Lowery's words relayed and added, \"I always say that coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. ... I can't think of a nicer birthday present for Martin Luther King.\" King's only living sibling, Christine King Farris, told CNN that she, too, felt the timing was \"in divine order.\" Watch Christine King Farris talk about her brother, Obama \u00bb . King Farris spent part of Thursday morning, her brother's birthday, reading to children at the national park bearing his namesake. She read tales about the shenanigans of a mischievous young King and his brother, Alfred Daniel -- M.L. and A.D. -- who once conspired to get out of music practice by loosening a leg on the piano stool. The prank sent the piano instructor crashing to the floor, King Farris recounted, to the giggles of elementary and preschool students. But she also spoke of her brother's prophecy when he once told their mother, \"One day, I'm going to turn this world upside down.\" Farris said afterward it's important that children understand that though King is portrayed as larger than life, he was once a child like them. It's a necessary lesson in a nation that has struggled with the concept of \"equitable opportunity.\" \"It's going to take some time because it deals with attitudes and, really, the upbringing of children and young people to understand that although we are different in color, in hue and so forth, we are still together. We should be like brothers and sisters,\" she said. Setting aside race and working together is paramount to the success of Obama's presidency, Angelou said, and with each day it grows more vital. \"We needed President-elect Obama desperately, and he needs us,\" she said. \"We need to be up and doing. ... What he needs are a lot of foot soldiers. He needs a lot of us going out trying to help, to allow him to become the president he's come here to be.\" CNN's John Blake contributed to this report.","highlights":"SCLC president says King supporters must \"march now more than ever before\"\nAndrew Young: \"I can't think of a nicer birthday present for Martin Luther King\"\nMaya Angelou: \"We needed President-elect Obama desperately, and he needs us\"\nMartin Luther King Jr.'s sister spends his birthday teaching lesson to children .","id":"d154dfa2ebb98e88e2ebb9d633b4471c41216b49"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad has announced he has pulled out of a peace deal in the violence-plagued Swat Valley, saying the government is not serious about implementing Islamic law, or sharia, in the region. Supporters of cleric Sufi Mohammad gather as they march during a peace rally in the Swat Valley. Mohammad brokered the cease-fire in late February between the Pakistani government and his son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah, who commands the Taliban in Swat Valley. With the deal, the area would come under sharia law, which -- under the Taliban's strict interpretation -- would prevent women from even being seen in public without their husbands or fathers. Mohammad has set up a protest camp at the headquarters of his son-in-law's Taliban-aligned group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), according to a police official. The headquarters are located in Batkhelah in the Malakand agency of North West Frontier Province. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mohammad expressed frustration that President Asif Ali Zardari had not signed off on the peace deal. He blamed the Pakistani government for any bloodshed that might follow. Watch how peace talks have hit a hurdle \u00bb . Mohammad's pullout does not automatically mean the deal is over. The Taliban, itself, has not announced whether or not it too is pulling out. A lawmaker with the Awami National Party (ANP) of the North West Frontier Province -- where Swat is located -- said he did not expect fighting to resume. \"God willing, there won't be anything that happens to take this [peace] out of our hands,\" said Hashem Baber of the ANP. The province's government will send a contingent to meet with Mohammed and hear his complaints. \"We'll meet and talk and if they have an complaints, we'll try to push those away and solve the situation to get back to the peace deal,\" Baber said. Critics of the cease-fire have called it a major concession by the Pakistani government in an attempt to hold off Taliban attacks. Indeed, after the deal went into effect, Fazlullah proclaimed himself the Emir of Swat. Swat Valley was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. It is near the Afghanistan border and is 186 miles (300 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants from areas of the North West Frontier Province . As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly attacks, beheadings and destruction of girls' schools. They also continued to gain ground, setting up checkpoints throughout the area. Sufi Mohammad was released from jail last year by Pakistani authorities after he agreed to cooperate with the government. He was detained in 2002 after recruiting thousands of fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Fazlullah took over TNSM during Sufi Mohammed's jail stint and vowed to continue his fight to impose fundamentalist Islamic law in the region. Last May, Pakistan's government announced it reached a peace deal with militants in Swat Valley. In the months that followed, the Taliban seized control of the region and carried out a violent campaign against government officials, including local politicians. The head of the secular Awami National Party -- which represents the region -- was forced to flee to Islamabad amid death threats from the Taliban. Pakistan is under enormous pressure to control the militants within its borders, blamed for launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting militants. The United States -- using unmanned drones -- has carried out several airstrikes inside Pakistan on suspected militant targets, including one on Wednesday that killed three suspected Taliban militants in the tribal region. Such incursions have infuriated many Pakistanis and their leaders. Pakistan's military operation in the region is unpopular among Pakistanis, but efforts to deal diplomatically with militants have not worked in the past. Pakistan's previous leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reached a cease-fire deal with militants in South Waziristan in 2006 which was widely blamed for giving al Qaeda and the Taliban a stronger foothold in the region. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pro-Taliban cleric pulls out of peace deal in violence-plagued Swat Valley .\nCleric says Pakistani government not serious about implementing Islamic law .\nMohammad brokered cease-fire between Pakistani government and son-in-law .","id":"2a973569b2f61e56ce2a7e9b87435cd5f312b874"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain on Tuesday proposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling as part of his plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help combat rising gas prices. Sen. John McCain says it's time for the federal government \"to put our own reserves to use.\" \"The stakes are high for our citizens and for our economy,\" McCain, the presumed Republican nominee for president, said at a press conference Tuesday in Houston, Texas. Hours later, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush on Wednesday will ask Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling. Bush has long called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, but Perino said he now wants to go further. \"For years, the president has pushed Congress to expand our domestic oil supply, but Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked such action,\" she said. Earlier in the day, McCain, describing the high price of fuel, confused the cost of gallons versus barrels, which drew laughs from the crowd and the candidate himself. He quickly corrected himself. \"And with gasoline running at more than $4 a barrel ... a gallon ... I wish ... $4 a gallon, many do not have the luxury of waiting on the far-off plans of futurists and politicians,\" he said. \"We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use.\" McCain's plan would let individual states decide whether to explore drilling possibilities. Watch a McCain adviser describe the proposal \u00bb . The proposal could put McCain at odds with environmentalists who say it is incongruous with his plans to combat global warning. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a McCain ally, opposes offshore drilling. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist had expressed opposition to exploring coastal waters, but he said this week he supports McCain's plan to lift the moratorium and would not rule out letting his state choose to drill offshore. \"It's the last thing in the world I'd like to do, but I also understand what people are paying at the pump, and I understand the drag it is on our economy,\" Crist told the St. Petersburg Times. \"Something has to be done in a responsible, pragmatic way.\" The current law, which has been in effect since 1981, covers most of the country's coastal waters. Many officials from coastal states oppose offshore drilling because of the risk of oil spills. Environmentalists want offshore drilling to stop to protect oceans and beaches from further pollution. \"The next president must be willing to break with the energy policies, not just of the current administration, but the administrations that preceded it, and lead a great national campaign to achieve energy security for America,\" McCain said Tuesday. McCain on Monday said incentives could possibly be provided for states that choose to permit exploration off their coasts, adding that \"exploration is a step toward the longer-term goal.\" Tuesday's discussion marks the first in a series of talks about America's energy security that McCain will hold during the next two weeks as he lays out his plan to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. McCain opposes drilling in some parts of the wilderness and says those areas must be left undisturbed. \"When America set aside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we called it a 'refuge' for a reason,\" he said. McCain also criticized the energy policy of Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama. \"He says that high oil prices are not the problem, but only that they rose too quickly. He doesn't support new domestic production. He doesn't support new nuclear plants. He doesn't support more traditional use of coal, either,\" McCain said. \"So what does Sen. Obama support in energy policy? Well, for starters, he supported the energy bill of 2005 -- a grab bag of corporate favors that I opposed. And now he supports new taxes on energy producers. He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea too -- and a lot of good it did us.\" McCain argues that a windfall profits tax will only increase the country's dependence on foreign oil and be an obstacle to domestic exploration. \"I'm all for recycling -- but it's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970s,\" he said. Obama on Tuesday blasted McCain for changing his stance on offshore drilling. \"John McCain's support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades,\" he said. \"It's another example of short-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-term leadership we need to solve our dependence on oil,\" he said. Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson also criticized McCain's plan, saying it would ruin his state's tourism industry and would not solve the problem. \"I thought John McCain was serious when he said he wanted to make America less dependent on oil. I didn't think he was a flip-flopper. He knows that more drilling isn't the solution to high gas prices,\" Nelson said Tuesday. Obama said a windfall profits tax would ease the burden of energy costs on working families. He also wants to invest in affordable, renewable energy sources. Controversy over offshore drilling surfaced in the United States in 1969, after a crack in the seafloor led to a huge oil spill off Santa Barbara, California. During the 1970s, when many Arab nations launched an oil embargo, many U.S. officials pushed for the exploration of offshore drilling of the coastal United States. Environmentalists responded with loud protests. CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report .","highlights":"President Bush plans to ask Congress to lift offshore drilling ban Wednesday .\nMcCain says he opposes ban; states should decide .\nCurrent law bans drilling in most of the United States' coastal waters .\nMcCain would consider incentives for states that allow coastal exploration .","id":"96acdf79b891d1cecec948f33e41fbddb2275e4a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's foremost aviation showcase celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The Spitfire is one of the aircraft from Farnborough's inaugural show getting airborne once again to celebrate the airshow's 60th year. The 46th Farnborough International Airshow will commemorate the first show ever held in 1948 at this year's event in Hampshire which runs from July 14 to 20. \"As we look back on the past 60 years, we also are excited to continue looking forward to the next 60 years,\" said John Cairns, Head of Services at Farnborough International Limited (FIL) which runs the biennial airshow. To mark the occasion, Farnborough's world-renowned flying display will include aircraft which flew at the first show like the Swordfish, Spitfire, Sea Hawk and Sea Fury. Adding a modern twist to the mix will be the debut of The Blades, the world's only globally accredited aerobatic airline. The airshow was first established as a way for the British public to see and learn about the best of aviation. Staying true to its original purpose, on both Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July -- Farnborough's \"public weekend\" -- there will be a four-and-a-half-hour flying display. Highlights include perennial favourites the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force aerobatic team who will close the show with their aerial gymnastics, as well as the debut of the Aero Sekur Shooting Stars, an Italian ladies' parachute team who will be providing daily skydiving displays. \"Farnborough, in essence, has always been about innovation, and I am delighted that to a long line of distinguished 'Farnborough Firsts' I am able to add some very worthy new firsts, including the first ever women's parachute team to appear at the Airshow; the world's first aerobatic airline and the first business aviation jet to have been developed at Farnborough,\" continued Cairns. As well as displaying aircraft for the public, Farnborough has also established itself as one of the world's premier showcases for the aviation business world. This year, 1,500 companies from 35 countries as diverse as Colombia and Bahrain will be exhibiting planes and other technologies in a show that is predicted to be Farnborough's biggest to date. On the trade days which run from Monday 14 to Friday 18 July, business attendees will be able to see the world's latest aerospace innovations in the air. A full range of civil, business and defence aircraft will take part in flying displays. These include the Airbus AB380; HAL helicopters; the Kestrel JP10 (originally conceived at Farnborough airfield); the MiG 29; the EADS Eurofighter; the F 16 and F18; the MB 346; the AB 609; MB 311. In 2006, Farnborough trade week accumulated $42 billion worth of orders including $550 million in business aviation orders. The Airbus A380 also made its UK debut at Farnborough that year. \"Our intention has always been to build on the success of the 2006 event, and to ensure that this year's show delivers an incomparable business service for our exhibitors and their customers, ensuring that they can gain maximum benefit and opportunity from attending Farnborough Airshow -- whether that is taking orders, making sales or developing new business,\" said Amanda Stainer, the Airshow's Exhibition and Events Director. To find out more about Farnborough International Airshow go to: www.farnborough.com\/ .","highlights":"Farnborough International Airshow celebrates its 60th year in 2008 .\nFlying displays will include Spitfire and Sea Hawk planes which first flew in 1948 .\nAerospace industry will be represented by 1,500 companies from 25 countries .\nProfessionals will be able to see the MiG 29 and the F 16 fighter jets in the air .","id":"011f4daee8769ab22e1b70b0a02bbc0f06239cf3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Czech Republic's practice of surgically castrating convicted sex offenders is \"invasive, irreversible and mutilating\" and should stop immediately, the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee said in a report made public Thursday. The central European country castrated at least 94 prisoners in the 10 years up to April 2008, when investigators from the Council of Europe, a human-rights forum, visited the Czech Republic. The Council of Europe condemned the practice as \"degrading.\" The procedure is being performed even on first-time, non-violent offenders, such as exhibitionists, its investigation revealed. Prisoners have to request castration under Czech law, but many fear they will be jailed for life if they do not, the investigation found. \"In practically all the cases, these patients indicated that their application was at least partially instigated by fear of long-term detention,\" the report said. \"Some patients claimed that the treating sexologist had explicitly told them that surgical castration was the only available option to them and that refusal would mean lifelong detention.\" And it warned that some \"significantly\" mentally retarded people had been castrated. \"In at least five cases, legally incapacitated offenders were surgically castrated,\" the report said. \"In all of these instances, the court-appointed guardian had signed the consent form; in two cases, the guardians were mayors.\" The investigators found only two convicts who had spontaneously volunteered for castration, while others they interviewed said mental health staff specializing in sexuality had recommended it. \"The other patients interviewed indicated that the treating sexologist had suggested surgical castration, in several cases within a week of the patient's admission to hospital,\" the report said. \"Some of the sexologists interviewed by the delegation themselves affirmed that for certain patients there was no alternative treatment to surgical castration.\" The Czech Republic defends the practice as voluntary, saying castration aims permanently to reduce testosterone levels in order to diminish the offender's sexual urges. The process, officially called \"therapeutic testicular pulpectomies ... are performed upon a written request of an adult man,\" the Czech government responded. It said the operation had to be approved by a committee of experts. \"Prior to the performance of such intervention, the patient must express his consent with its performance. Castration is considered with respect to men who cannot manage their sexual instincts and are sexually aggressive,\" the Czech government said, saying the Council of Europe had not proven its case sufficiently for the country to abandon castration. It argues the procedure is effective in reducing repeat offenses. But the Council of Europe questioned the statistics on repeat offenses and said even if they were correct, castration was not an appropriate way to reduce recidivism. \"The committee's delegation came across three cases in which sex offenders had committed serious sex-related crimes, including serial rape and attempted murder, after they had been surgically castrated,\" the human-rights group said. \"Surgical castration is no longer a generally accepted medical intervention in the treatment of sex-offenders,\" the report said. It said candidates for castration often received information about the procedure which was too technical to understand -- or no information at all. \"Several patients who had undergone surgical castration told the delegation that they would never have applied for surgical castration had they been properly informed,\" the report warned. It condemned the practice as \"an irreversible intervention that always leads to infertility and, in the long run, a significantly increased risk of osteoporosis,\" also warning of possible depression and changes in appearance. It said it was impossible to determine how many people had been castrated in keeping with a 1966 law. The Council of Europe delegation visited the Czech Republic from March 25 to April 2, 2008. It issued its report and the Czech response on July 23, 2008. It made them public on Thursday at the request of the Czech government, it said.","highlights":"Council of Europe says Czechs should abolish it castration law for sex offenders .\nCoE says some choose castration fearing refusal means long jail sentences .\nGroup alleges some choosing castration include non-violent and first offenders .\nCzech Republic defends procedure as voluntary and effective .","id":"4e6244ee360cea35b8885c47bd111f4df3acbd09"} -{"article":"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN -- Relations between Arab nations and the United States hinge on American leaders living up to their rhetoric about commitment to lasting peace in the Mideast, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal told CNN Saturday. Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal talks with CNN's Nic Robertson about U.S. relations with Arab nations. \"President Obama, in his statement yesterday, said that he's genuinely making the effort to accomplish a peaceful resolution,\" al-Faisal, who served as Saudi ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2007, told CNN's Nic Robertson in an interview Friday. \"We've heard this before,\" al-Faisal said. \"We need to see implementation. We need to see facts on the ground change. We need to see rhetoric change. We need to see presence on the ground.\" He said he was encouraged by Obama's appointment of George Mitchell as Mideast envoy, saying, \"Mitchell comes with a track record of success.\" But he suggested Mitchell spend some time in the region to make real progress. \"American envoys, when they've dealt with the Middle East, have always come and gone,\" he said. \"I think it would be wise for Sen. Mitchell ... to pitch his tent in Ramallah or in Jerusalem, let's say, and spend a year, two, perhaps three years on the ground dealing with the daily aspects of making peace there.\" Watch as al-Faisal talks about how the U.S. and the Mideast could build trust \u00bb . The United States' backing of Israel, in light of the latest Israeli military operations in Gaza, does not improve its standing in the Arab world, he said. \"What happened in Gaza, people have called it a tragedy,\" al-Faisal said. \"I'd go further and say it was a catastrophe in all aspects of that word. The killing and the destruction was so barbaric by Israel, and unprecedented in a such a small area like Gaza. They [Israelis] claim that they were very careful about collateral damage and they targeted only Hamas, as they call them, militants and operatives. Well, look at the figures. \"More than 400 children killed out of 1,300 [total deaths]. That doesn't show any precision of targeting. Israel claims that these are mishaps of war. If they are mishaps of war, well, why should you have a war? \"I think this is one of the issues that makes the relationship between the Arab world in general and Saudi Arabia in particular threatened when it comes to dealing with the United States,\" al-Faisal said. \"... And President Bush, I think callously and unforgivably, gave Israel a green light to do everything that they wanted to do in Gaza without restraint.\" U.S. and Israeli officials should recognize that operations like the recent one only serve to strengthen Hamas, as \"Israel is a radioactive element in the area. Anyone it touches becomes heroic and legitimate ... because he or she is a victim.\" Al-Faisal said he believes the United States and Israel should negotiate with Hamas. Reminded that the two nations consider Hamas a terrorist organization, he said, \"I think this is another of the things that has to be reviewed by President Obama.\" He believes that negotiations with Hamas should not undermine the Palestinian Authority, saying the authority's President Mahmoud Abbas \"in my view, is the most tailor-made Palestinian leader for making peace and bringing stability and security to the Palestinian people.\" Israel's operation in Gaza came after what it said was a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas militants into southern Israel. Asked how to stop the rockets, al-Faisal said he thinks the key is to bring Hamas into the political fold. \"Put it the other way,\" he said. \"How can we convince Israel itself not to provoke Hamas into firing rockets?\" Israel claims that Hamas fired first, and al-Faisal said these claims underscore the importance of having someone on the ground like Mitchell. \"To see who is telling the truth in a case like that is needed, and a necessity today, more than at any other time,\" he said. The United States has called for nations like Saudi Arabia to accept Israel and normalize relations with the nation, he said, but Israel must make the first move. \"Israel has to normalize relations with Palestine before Saudi Arabia will normalize relations with Israel. Everybody asks us to recognize Israel and to normalize ... nobody asks Israel to recognize Palestine and normalize relations with Palestine. I think that's unfair.\" Arab nations stand ready to make peace with Israel, he said, but Israel has not demonstrated an equal willingness. \"That's the pity of it.\" He said Obama should ask Israel to accept the Arab peace plan. \"And when the Israelis accept the Arab peace plan, the Arab world has already set up a mechanism to deal with that issue. They've chosen Egypt and Jordan to sit down with the Israelis and deal with the Arab peace initiative.\" Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN the nation does not publicly discuss contacts with Arab nations with which it has no official diplomatic relations. Israel welcomed the Saudi peace initiative, he said, and is willing to negotiate with all Arab countries, including the Palestinians. Asked about his confidence in Obama, al-Faisal said, \"I'll have confidence when I see things done on the ground, and President Obama can do something and gain the confidence and support of the Arab and Muslim nations by showing that he has done things on the ground and not simply expressed a wish for that.\" If not, he said the Arab world's relationship with the United States is at stake. \"Popular sentiment, already America is at its lowest level in the history of its engagement with the Arab and Muslim world,\" he said. \"In terms of government relations, that is something that will have to be decided by the leaderships in the Arab world and America, but it's not a pretty picture.\"","highlights":"Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal says U.S.-Arab relations hinge on U.S. role in peace .\nSays U.S. lost Arab support by backing Israel in Gaza \"catastrophe\"\n\"Israel is radioactive in region ... Anyone it touches becomes heroic, legitimate\"\nAl-Faisal believes U.S. and Israel should negotiate with Hamas .","id":"ebcf0eda18a95d0bab184a4949f4b45cf1072225"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A Zimbabwe High Court judge is trying to take the country's first lady to court, accusing her of using political muscle to wrest from him a farm he was given during the land seizures. Judge says Grace Mugabe, pictured with her husband, effectively took his farm by force. The matter has not been given a date, however, amid reports that other judges have been refusing to hear it. High Court Judge Ben Hlatshwayo is suing a company owned by Grace Mugabe, wife of President Robert Mugabe, for grabbing Gwina Farm in Banket, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of Harare. The farm is near Mugabe's rural home. The judge said he acquired the farm in December 2002 as part of President Mugabe's controversial land grabs, in which Mugabe took land from white commercial farmers and distributed it to black Zimbabweans. In an affidavit, filed at the High Court in Harare, the judge said the \"unlawful conduct\" by Grace Mugabe's company, Gushungo Holdings, amounted to spoilation -- or taking of the farm by force. He said emissaries of the first lady have been visiting the farm frequently and issuing instructions to workers, according to court documents. \"There is clearly no lawful basis for such interference, which conduct, by its very nature, amounts to spoliation,\" Hlatshwayo wrote in the papers. Lands and Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa said the judge had been given alternative land as compensation for the farm that Grace Mugabe wants to have. Mutasa opposes the judge's affidavit. Hlatshwayo said he had been operating his farm in \"quiet, undisturbed, peaceful possession, occupation and production\" since it was allocated to him. Since the land grabs, Zimbabwe has been facing acute shortages of food that critics say is a result of Mugabe giving the land to inexperienced peasant farmers. But Mugabe blames the West for the shortages, saying Western countries are sabotaging him after he took the land for his people. Mugabe says the land reform was meant to reverse colonial imbalances remaining after British rule. The legal wrangle comes after Grace Mugabe was accused of assaulting a journalist in Hong Kong who wanted to take photos of her while she was on a shopping spree. Lawmakers were supposed to debate a bill next week for a constitutional amendment that would create the new posts called for under the deal, including the post of prime minister for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The delay could prolong the country's political and economic crisis. The delay comes a day after the MDC accused Mugabe's ZANU-PF of backtracking on the implementation of a power-sharing deal the party signed with Tsvangirai in September. Tsvangirai agreed last week to join the unity government if \"outstanding issues\" were addressed. While government officials could not be reached for comment, Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was quoted by the state media as saying the delay in debate on the constitutional-amendment bill would push back next week's deadline. A coalition government is seen by many as a panacea to halt the meltdown of Zimbabwe's economy. The country is also facing its worst humanitarian crisis, with acute shortages of all essentials such as fuel, food, electricity and public-health delivery system. A ravaging cholera outbreak has affected 65,000 people and claimed close to 3,500 lives since its outbreak in August.","highlights":"Zimbabwe High Court judge sues country's first lady over seized farm .\nJudge accuses Grace Mugabe of using political muscle to wrest from him farm .\nJudge said he acquired farm in 2002 as part of controversial land grabs .\nFormation of Zimbabwe unity government delayed as debate postponed .","id":"1461d5fae736202e232f8733681042dbdbe289a8"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For more than a year, the criminal justice students jotted details of Chandra Levy's final movements onto a huge timeline taped to a classroom wall, culled the Internet and public records for scraps of information, and pored over the model skeleton laid out on a table in their lab at Bauder College in Atlanta, Georgia. Antonio Wilson, from left clockwise, Lashaun Bates, Jennifer Gosdin and Charna-Marie Dixon. They spent hours with the slain intern's mother, Susan Levy, who flew from her home in California to Atlanta just to talk to them. Chandra Levy had studied criminal justice in college, too. They began with a list of five suspects, then narrowed it down to one. On December 28, they mailed their findings to the police chief in Washington, D.C. They never heard back. But on Saturday, the text and phone messages began to fly. There's a suspect, they told each other with excitement. An arrest is imminent. \"It completely validates 15 months of work,\" their teacher, Sheryl McCollum, said that Saturday morning. \"We knew this case was solvable. There was no reason for it not to be solved.\" Meet the members of the campus crime club \u00bb . A week ago, the police chief in Washington, D.C., called Levy's parents and told them a suspect in the 2001 slaying soon would be arrested. \"I got a call from the Washington police department, just to give me a heads up that there's a warrant out for the arrest,\" said Susan Levy, the victim's mother. She added that police did not provide a name, but sources later identified him to CNN as Ingmar Guandique. Guandique is serving a 10-year prison sentence for two assaults in Washington's Rock Creek Park that occurred around the time of Levy's disappearance. Levy's remains were found in the park. For the Bauder College students, the break in the case was no cause for self-congratulations. They can't disclose their findings to the public. It's part of the deal they make at the start of each investigation. Even though they couldn't name their suspect, or even discuss details of what they found, they didn't carry themselves like people who had missed the mark when they met with CNN on Monday. There were big smiles and, in more reflective moments, small tears. Antonio Wilson and Jennifer Gosdin, two students who last year shared logs of their progress with CNN, said they hoped Levy's mother, father and brother can now find some comfort and peace. If they were able to help the Levys in some way, they are glad. Wilson, who hopes to be a probation officer, said he got more out of the experience than he ever expected. \"It's not my area, but I loved it,\" he said. \"Once you get involved in it, it becomes personal,\" Gosdin agreed. For Naomi Barkley and La-Shawn Bates, the case got personal when they met Susan Levy. \"You could see the hurt in her face,\" Bates recalled. \"You can't help but want to make it right for her. McCollum was in Florida with her family when the news of a suspect broke. She was on the phone with Susan Levy before the sun came up in California. Yes, Levy said, it's true, adding that she was grateful to the students for keeping people focused on her daughter's case, McCollum recalled. McCollum worked as a victims' advocate in the criminal justice system in Fulton County, Georgia, for 25 years before taking a teaching job at Bauder College. In 2005, she launched the Cold Case Investigations Research Institute. It's a fancy name for a campus crime club. The students aren't graded, and they don't receive class credits. But the payoff for the hours they invest includes hands-on experience working real cases and access to experts and criminal justice professionals. Using real-life cases is the best way to groom the next generation of crime-solvers, McCollum believes. Many of the 850 students at Bauder College juggle full-time jobs and families with their course work. About 80 of them are members of the crime club. They are joined by students at two other campuses: Auburn University-Montgomery and Faulkner University in Alabama. Auburn students examined crime scene and geographic details, while Faulkner students delved into the victim's profile. The Bauder students focused on the suspects. Past cases include Tupac Shakur, the hip-hop artist gunned down in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Wayne Williams, the man convicted in the Atlanta child murders case. Students found the Williams case solvable, but Shakur's slaying was ruled \"undetermined.\" The Levy investigation was deemed \"solvable.\" It seemed to carry special meaning for the students. \"With Chandra, she was a criminal justice major at one time, and she had aspirations of going into the federal government; a lot of our students do as well,\" McCollum said at the outset of the project. \"The students became completely dedicated once they met the family members of the victims,\" McCollum said. \"The victims are real people, the cases are real cases, and the research is real investigative work.\"","highlights":"Group can't divulge whom it named as a suspect in Chandra Levy case .\nArrest warrant \"completely validates 15 months of work,\" professor says .\nProfessor recalls Levy's mother being grateful that students kept spotlight on case .\nAbout 80 students at Bauder College are members of crime club .","id":"16b16e078acc4017410b49a89f213b30f12827f5"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Natasha Richardson, the Tony Award-winning stage actress and member of the famed Redgrave acting clan, died Wednesday from injuries suffered in a ski accident. She was 45. Comedian Joan Rivers says actress Natasha Richardson had \"such a family.\" On Wednesday night's \"Larry King Live,\" comedian Joan Rivers remembered Richardson for her marriage to actor Liam Neeson and used her sharp wit to recall her own skiing experience. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: You knew Natasha Richardson. What was your reaction? Joan Rivers: Oh, [it] shouldn't have happened. We were more acquaintances than friends. But we spent one amazing day on a boat with my whole family and she and Liam and the boys. And they were such a family. King: What was the occasion? Rivers: We were all in the Caribbean, and we all kind of knew each other from dinner parties and so forth. And we met at the airport, and we said, \"Oh, let's get together, with the kids.\" And it was one of those wonderful days. We laughed and talked and had lunch, and the kids were jumping off the boat and we were drinking wine. She was just amazing and darling. King: Have you seen her work on Broadway? Rivers: I've seen her work. I love actresses who go back and forth. I always have such great respect for someone who goes to Broadway and then film and goes back again. I saw her in \"The Philadelphia Story\" years ago in London when she won an award. She was very young in a musical version of that. King: What was your read on them as a couple that day? Rivers: Totally happy, totally devoted to each other. That's what kills me. I mean [it] just shouldn't have happened. ... And they made such a good-looking couple, too. He doted on what she said, she doted on -- it was just perfect. King: How did you learn of this yesterday? Rivers: One of our mutual friends called me and said, do you know about -- I just saw them recently in the thing that Prince Charles gave in England, and a mutual friend said, did you heard about what happened to Natasha? I said, what are you talking about? And he said, she's brain-dead. Watch King talk to celebrities about Richardson \u00bb . King: So you knew yesterday? Rivers: I knew yesterday. And I knew yesterday that she was brain-dead. And I was told, which is, again, so dear, that they kept her alive purposely to bring her back to New York, so that the boys could say goodbye to her before -- . King: Really? Rivers: Yes. King: That's both beautiful and sad. Rivers: Look at this, it gets me crazy. It's sad. King: Do you ski? Rivers: I had a terrible fall about 12 years ago. And I lay there in the snow and I said to myself, \"If I get up, I'm not coming back and I got up.\" King: You're like, \"Goodbye.\" Rivers: Goodbye. And I swear to you, I laid on the ground and I go, \"If everything works, that's it. That's it.\" King: You've heard the doctor. What do you make of this? There must have been something previously. It was a slight fall? Rivers: You don't know; you hit your head wrong. You walk out of your house and it's over. We all know that, especially at this age. You understand that it's over, it's gone. It's just not that [Richardson's] age, not with a good marriage, not with two young boys. It shouldn't be. King: John Kennedy said life isn't fair. Rivers: It isn't. It isn't. And anyone who doesn't get up in the morning and say, \"How lucky I am,\" is an idiot.","highlights":"Joan Rivers says Natasha Richardson and her family sailed in Caribbean together .\nStage actress and husband Liam Neeson were \"totally devoted,\" Rivers recalls .\nRivers says life can be taken in a flash: \"You walk out of your house and it's over\"","id":"8d047167e1811f774065b22b834d09609cde9567"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The collective cry throughout India of \"Jai ho\" (May you win) received a resounding answer when composer A.R. Rahman took home two Oscars for the movie \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" Composer A. R. Rahman, \"The Mozart of Madras,\" celebrates his double Oscar win -- for Best Score and one for the song \"Jai Ho\" from the film. Rahman's wins -- one for the song \"Jai Ho\" and the other for Best Score -- were just two reasons for Indians to erupt in boisterous celebrations Monday morning. \"Slumdog,\" which was shot in the streets and slums of Mumbai bagged eight golden statuettes in total, including one for Best Sound Mixing. Indian Resul Pookutty shared it with fellow sound editors who worked on the film. \"This is the finest hour of Indian cinema in the global scenario,\" said Anand Sharma, the country's junior external affairs minister. Indians crowded around television sets in dorm rooms, restaurants and homes, exhaling in relief as Rahman's name was announced as the winner. They high-fived each other, hugged, shrieked and wept. \"I cannot describe this feeling,\" said Nikhil Jyonti, a Mumbai resident. \"I'm bursting with pride for India.\" In the Mumbai slum of Dharavi, where many of the scenes in \"Slumdog\" were shot, a television was set out for the street children to watch the ceremony. Few in the teeming slum of one million people had heard of the Oscars, but they knew Rahman's win was a source of pride for the country. Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches film tells the story of a tea-boy at a Mumbai call center who earns a spot in the Indian version of the quiz show \"Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?\" He raises the suspicion of the show's host when, despite the lack of a formal education, he begins to answer the increasingly difficult questions with ease. The movie also won four Golden Globes and a host of honors at other award shows. While the overwhelming sentiment was one of pride Monday, the movie has faced backlash from many Indian movie critics who took exception to its depiction of Mumbai's underworld without highlighting any of the city's achievements. Among the most notable criticisms was one offered by Amitabh Bachchan, considered the most successful movie star in Bollywood history, and a former real-life host of the Indian \"Millionaire.\" The film,\" he said, \"projects India as the third world's dirty underbelly ... and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots.\" But most Mumabikers, still reeling from a terrorist attack in their city in November, embraced the movie while looking for something positive to root for. They found that in Rahman, a composer who has consistently broken barriers in his musical scores for dozens of Bollywood hits and is known as the \"Mozart of Madras.\" Rahman has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide -- more than the Beatles -- but has remained relatively unknown in Europe and the United States. Director Spike Lee used one of his songs in his 2006 heist film, \"Inside Man.\" Many hope the Oscar win will bring Rahman greater exposure. Rahman and Pookutty, however, aren't the first Indians with Academy Awards to their names. In 1992, legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray received an honorary award for his contribution to world cinema. And in 1982, Bhanu Athaiya shared an Oscar for costume design for the movie \"Gandhi.\" CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report .","highlights":"India celebrated composer A.R. Rahman winning two awards at last night's Oscars .\nRahman won Best Score and Best Song for the film \"Slumdog Millionaire\"\nIndian Resul Pookutty also won Best Sound Design for \"Slumdog Millionaire\"\nIndian-made documentary \"Smile Pinky\" won Best Documentary Short .","id":"d021a70f4ea8102a89c9b71e76d68dc3b8cb0826"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration is looking into a report that Louisiana Sen. David Vitter had an angry altercation with an airline worker at Washington Dulles International Airport last week. Louisiana Sen. David Vitter reportedly went into a \"tirade\" with a Washington Dulles International Airport worker. The agency is not doing a formal investigation, TSA spokesman Sterling Payne told CNN, but it is gathering information to determine if one is needed. \"We are looking into the reported incident,\" Payne said. An aide to Vitter said Friday morning the Republican senator had not been contacted by the TSA and maintains the media account of the incident is overblown. Roll Call had a report in its gossip column earlier this week, based on an unnamed eyewitness, that Vitter arrived at the airport 20 minutes before his United Airlines flight was scheduled to depart. The door to the boarding bridge was already closed, but Vitter opened it anyway, triggering an alarm. The paper said an airline worker warned him not to enter the walkway, which led to a \"tirade\" by Vitter who \"remained defiant.\" The source told Roll Call the senator left the area before airport police arrived. Vitter has refused to answer reporters' questions about the incident, but in a statement Wednesday described his actions more innocently and the Roll Call report \"silly.\" \"After being delayed on the Senate floor ensuring a vote on my anti-pay raise amendment and in a rush to make my flight home for town hall meetings the next day, I accidentally went through the wrong door at the gate,\" he said. \"I did have a conversation with an airline employee, but it was certainly not like this silly gossip column made it out to be.\" Vitter has been the subject of unwelcome headlines before. In 2007, he was linked to a Washington, D.C., prostitution ring. He denied allegations he had relationships with prostitutes, but apologized for \"a very serious sin.\" Joel DiGrado, Vitter's spokesman, said the congressman would not comment further on the issue. CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"TSA gathers information about alleged incident involving Louisiana Sen. David Vitter .\nVitter reportedly had angry confrontation with airport worker .\nVitter says media account of incident is overblown .","id":"12b465ad1ad3ab453a0ec3d267d5903903ff87e2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the National Mall crowded Metro stations around Washington on Tuesday, slowing movement to a crawl after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. A security tower stands over the crowd that came to watch Barack Obama's inauguration. \"All of our stations are overcrowded,\" said Lisa Farbstein, spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. \"It's taking hours for people to get back into the stations.\" Police were holding people outside some Metro stations until there was room for them to get in, Farbstein said. But as evening fell and celebrations moved indoors, observers said crowd flow on the Metro system was smoother, if still an effort in patience. As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Metro had counted 973,285 passenger trips, setting a record with several hours and many miles yet to go. \"Throughout the weekend, we've effectively dealt with record-breaking crowds,\" said Metro General Manager John Catoe. \"By 5 p.m., people had taken nearly 874,000 trips, breaking yesterday's ridership record with nine more hours of service to go.\" Monday's 866,681 passenger trips had been the Metro record. The Metro numbers were just one record-setting tally in a day that lived up to expectations in sheer crowd size alone. Crowds on the National Mall were so large that the National Park Service began closing portions of it by 9 a.m., three hours before Obama took his oath of office. A crowd of 1.5 million people packed the Mall for the inauguration, according to an analysis of satellite imagery provided to CNN by IHS Jane's, a leading information provider on defense, international risk and national security. Officials said the massive security for the event was running smoothly, although there had been what they described as minor miscommunications, such as a Metro station entrance being closed when it was not supposed to be. The crowd was orderly, and there had been no reports of major incidents or concerns. FBI spokesman Jason Pack said there had been no arrests related to the inauguration so far. FBI and partner agencies investigated about a dozen reports of suspicious incidents or people, but none was anything serious. About 957 people visited the medical tents on the mall for various first-aid needs. Some security screening lines ran slowly, officials said, but there had not been any major systemic problems. Earlier in the day, federal officials were reviewing an unspecified threat to disrupt the inauguration, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The FBI was investigating two \"streams of intelligence\" suggesting that Somalia-based terrorist organization Al Shabaab may have been plotting an attack timed to coincide with the event, the FBI and Homeland Security said in a joint threat advisory obtained by CNN. Security officials made some readjustments to inauguration security as a precaution and did not change the threat level, an administration official said. The ceremony went off without incident. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement, a \"Foreign Terrorist Organization\" in February. The State Department calls it \"a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al Qaeda. Many of its senior leaders are believed to have trained and fought with al Qaeda in Afghanistan.\" Also Tuesday, a false alarm prompted police to temporarily close a 25-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike, authorities said. Investigators had received a tip that a man headed to Washington was threatening the inaugural, but they eventually determined \"there is no danger to the public,\" FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver said. Two law enforcement sources said the man's mother phoned in a tip to authorities saying her son was traveling in a vehicle containing a bomb. New Jersey State Police stopped a man in a vehicle on the highway Tuesday afternoon, questioned him and searched his vehicle, several law enforcement sources said. Officials said he never posed a threat. It's unclear what, if any, action might be taken against the mother. Tuesday in Washington, tens of thousands of police officers, federal agents and National Guardsmen were deployed on land, water and in the air in an unprecedented effort to make sure the inauguration was secure. The security effort involved Secret Service agents; 8,000 police officers from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions; 10,000 National Guardsmen; about 1,000 FBI personnel; and hundreds of others from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service and U.S. Capitol Police. Another 20,000 members of the National Guard were ready to respond if there was an emergency, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Security planners drew up procedures to deal with improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers and the use of a weapon of mass destruction. A recent intelligence assessment, however, said a lone wolf would pose the greatest potential threat. Chertoff said an individual or small group planning to do harm is difficult to detect. \"Whether the motivation is racism or some psychological disorder ... in an open society, it is impossible to keep a single individual from doing some damage,\" he said. Watch the anti-sniper detail prepare \u00bb . Federal officials acknowledged that the inauguration of the first African-American president could make an attractive target. Since Obama's election, the number of threats against him has increased, according to a recent federal intelligence assessment. The FBI has been especially aggressive in examining white supremacist groups. They have ramped up their anti-Obama comments, officials said, but it appears to be more talk than action. Because inaugural events are spread over four days, security is especially challenging. Organizers say they started their security planning the day after the last inauguration and ramped up their efforts in July. CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Pam Benson, Kevin Bohn, Carol Cratty and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.","highlights":"Metro stations packed; some wait hours to get home .\nPossible plot from Somali group; threat level remains same .\n58 agencies are involved in the massive inaugural security effort .\nBecause of crowding, parts of National Mall were closed off at 9 a.m.","id":"6c74dca4accb1d786d2e9a0db48e15b8a388011d"} -{"article":"Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist and a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Read his column here . Ruben Navarrette says Mexico isn't a failed state, but the fate of its drug war is important for US. SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- You may have heard the rumor that, as a result of a bloody drug war that has claimed more than 7,000 lives since January 2007, Mexico is on the verge of being declared a \"failed state.\" Drawing a lot of its oxygen from cable demagogues and talk radio, the chatter intensified several weeks ago when the Pentagon issued a report warning that our neighbor -- along with Pakistan, no less -- could face a \"rapid and sudden\" collapse because \"the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels.\" How's this for pressure? The police chief in Ciudad Juarez resigned last week after drug traffickers began to make good on their promise to kill police officers in that city until the chief stepped down. The Mexican drug war is the real deal, and so is the threat to both Mexico and the United States. The casualties are mounting. The killings are becoming more brutal, and now include the beheading of soldiers. The cartels are essentially terrorizing the Mexican people in the hopes of convincing them to put pressure on the government to relent in its efforts to put the bad guys out of business. Take it from someone who has known Mexican President Felipe Calderon since before he took the job -- back when we were in graduate school together nearly a decade ago -- that's not going to happen. Calderon was brave enough to take on the drug cartels by arresting their leaders, confiscating their product, and -- most importantly -- seizing the large shipments of cash that they need to operate. And he's smart enough to know that letting up on the pressure before the task is done would only make matters worse and basically hand Mexico over to the drug lords . Meanwhile, there is no question that Americans will pay a price if the drug violence spills over the border. Just a few days ago, the U.S. State Department issued a blunt travel advisory warning Americans with plans to travel in Mexico to be extra careful. \"Recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades,\" the advisory reads. \"Large firefights have taken place in towns and cities ... and during some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area.\" Firefights will put a crimp in the tourist industry. But, Mexicans are quick to point out the irony. Here Americans are worried about their safety in Mexico when one of the reasons the Mexican government is having such a difficult time fighting the drug cartels is because the enemy has plenty of money and guns. And both are coming from the north. According to most estimates, about 90 percent of all the cocaine flowing into the United States comes from Mexico and about 90 percent of the guns seized in drug-related violence come from the United States. Former President George W. Bush and Congress deserve credit for pushing through $400 million in emergency aid in the Merida Initiative to help the Mexican government fight the cartels. And even though Mexico is still waiting for delivery of most of those funds, there were signals this week that the Obama administration understands the stakes involved. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced new measures to prevent the violence from spreading to this side of the border and told Congress that the issue demands the \"utmost attention.\" Attorney General Eric Holder called the drug cartels a \"national security threat\" to the United States and said Americans \"simply can't afford to let down our guard.\" Even so, this business about Mexico on its way to being a \"failed state\" is just a lot of hot air. The rumors of our neighbor's demise have been greatly exaggerated. A country of 110 million people, Mexico is still a functioning democracy with press freedoms and bold leaders, like Calderon, who are tackling the issue of drug violence head on. There is plenty of reason for optimism. Frankly, one reason the doomsday talk about Mexico catches on is because it distracts Americans from our own problems. I learned a long time ago that, for many of my countrymen, Mexico serves a purpose in tough times by providing something to which we can feel superior. Even with the banking bailouts, mortgage crisis, a plummeting stock market and rising unemployment, the thinking goes, we can at least be grateful that we're not Mexico. For Mexican-Americans like me, that's cold comfort. I expect a lot more of my country -- the United States -- than I do the country that my grandfather left behind a hundred years ago when he legally immigrated north. And right now, what I expect is for all Americans to realize -- and for the Obama administration to never forget -- that it's impossible to feel safe when there is a wildfire in the neighborhood. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette.","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette: Mexico's drug war is serious, but it's not a \"failed state\"\nHe says the United States has a lot at stake in the outcome of the fight .\nNavarrette: Mexico's president is smart and brave and knows he can't surrender .\nThe country has a big population, free press and bold leaders, he says .","id":"186143e6f4386ebe89933bb929e843e635786403"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An e-mail from one of the crewmen aboard the Maersk Alabama tells a gripping tale of sailors fighting back against pirates who had taken over their ship. Crewman Matt Fisher hopes other ships can learn lessons from the Maersk Alabama takeover and recapture. It also contains some of the lessons they learned and hope to pass on to others who could face the same danger. Crewman Matt Fisher sent the e-mail to a fellow sailor aboard another Maersk ship. The U.S.-flagged Alabama was already heading to Kenya when he sent it, but it was before the U.S. Navy rescued the cargo ship's captain, who was held hostage on a lifeboat by the four pirates. \"The pirates got up to the bridge very quickly once they were onboard,\" Fisher wrote. \"We had a locked cage door over the ladder well from main deck, but it only took a second for them to shoot it off. They then got to the bridge up the outside ladders.\" Fisher said that Capt. Richard Phillips and three other sailors were on the bridge when the pirates arrived, adding that he didn't know why they stayed. The rest of the crew, Fisher said, headed below and took positions in the engine and steering areas. One sailor kept watch in the engine control room, he said, while another \"was out on deck tracking the pirates' movement.\" \"We kept swinging the rudder side to side,\" Fisher wrote. \"The pirates' boat capsized, though I'm not sure exactly when or what caused it. After about 20 minutes, the engine was killed, I don't know by whom.\" After the engine was killed, the sailors shut off the power to the ship as well as the fuel line to the ship's emergency diesel generator. \"I think this was critical,\" Fisher wrote. \"The pirates were very reluctant to go into the dark.\" Fisher said the sailors were safe where they were, since the pirates had no grenades and would never have been able break through with only firearms. The only problem, he said, was the heat and a shortage of water. \"In the future, we will store food and water in various spots for emergency usage,\" he said. \"I think we will also run a fresh water line into the steering gear.\" Fisher said the sailors were able to sneak up to the engine room water fountain and filled some bottles, and the sailor who'd been on deck tracking the pirates dropped fruit and sodas from the ship's galley through a standpipe to the hidden sailors. At one point, Fisher wrote, the pirates sent one of the four sailors who had remained on the bridge to hunt for the other crew members -- unescorted. He escaped and joined his comrades. Later, one of the pirates escorted another sailor into the engine room, again searching for the missing crew members, but one of the sailors \"was able to jump him in the dark and we took him prisoner.\" \"No one else came down into the E\/R (engine room),\" he said. \"As the day went on, the pirates became desperate to get out of there.\" Phillips finally talked the pirates into taking a small boat used for rescuing a sailor who falls overboard. The three remaining pirates and the captain went down into the boat, and the sailors, now in control of their ship again, dropped food, water and fuel to them. But the small boat wouldn't start. The sailors on board the ship dropped the lifeboat into the water and took it -- and their prisoner -- to the stranded boat with the pirates and the captain, intending to trade boats and prisoners. \"We were supposed to exchange their guy for the Captain, but they ended up keeping him,\" Fisher wrote. \"They motored off in the lifeboat. They had no way of getting back aboard, so we followed them.\" A few hours later, the USS Bainbridge arrived on the scene. Watch crew arrive in the United States \u00bb . \"We stayed close by for some time, but then the Navy asked us to head out,\" Fisher said. \"I heard that several other pirate vessels were heading our way and the Navy wanted us out of the way. That's about it.\" Eventually, Navy SEALs shot and killed three of the pirates aboard the lifeboat. Phillips was freed, and the remaining pirate was taken prisoner. But the Maersk Alabama, with U.S. Navy protection aboard, was nearing Mombasa, Kenya, by that time. At the end of his e-mail, Fisher went over the what the Alabama's crew had learned. \"Have a well-fortified location with food and water supply. Kill all the lights. Leave the alarms going, the noise helped cover our movements through the house. Flashlights and radios are very handy, as well as the sound-powered phone.\" \"It was a pretty stressful situation,\" Fisher wrote. \"I have to say I am impressed with how the entire crew responded. We didn't have anybody who wanted to give up.\" Fisher also said he was \"pretty confident\" that his captain would come out of the ordeal \"OK.\" Watch Capt. Phillips arrive in Kenya \u00bb . \"They have to know that if they kill him they'll be done,\" he said.","highlights":"Matt Fisher, crewman on Alabama, sent e-mail to sailor on another Maersk ship .\nFisher tells how crew hid from the pirates and eventually overtook them .\nKey lesson: \"Have a well-fortified location with food and water supply\"","id":"6598437ba30801abc2d6109d6f7ee40fcd4d8e65"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture when there was no intent to cause severe pain, according to a Bush-era memo on the tactics released Thursday. Attorney General Eric Holder says government workers who followed protocol won't be prosecuted. \"To violate the statute, an individual must have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering,\" said an August 2002 memo from then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee to John Rizzo, who was acting general counsel for the CIA. \"Because specific intent is an element of the offense, the absence of specific intent negates the charge of torture. ... We have further found that if a defendant acts with the good faith belief that his actions will not cause such suffering, he has not acted with specific intent,\" Bybee wrote. The Bybee opinion was sought on 10 interrogation tactics in the case of suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. The memo authorized keeping Zubaydah in a dark, confined space small enough to restrict the individual's movement for no more than two hours at a time. In addition, putting a harmless insect into the box with Zubaydah, who \"appears to have a fear of insects,\" and telling him it is a stinging insect would be allowed, as long as Zubaydah was informed the insect's sting would not be fatal or cause severe pain. \"If, however, you were to place the insect in the box without informing him that you are doing so ... you should not affirmatively lead him to believe that any insect is present which has a sting that could produce severe pain or suffering or even cause his death,\" the memo said. Other memos allowed the use of such tactics as keeping a detainee naked and in some cases in a diaper, and putting detainees on a liquid diet. On waterboarding, in which a person gets the sensation of drowning, the memo said, \"although the waterboard constitutes a threat of imminent death, prolonged mental harm must nonetheless result\" to violate the law. Authorities also were allowed to slap a detainee's face \"to induce shock, surprise or humiliation\" and strike his abdomen with the back of the hand in order to disabuse a detainee's notion that he will not be touched, the memos said. Bybee noted in the memo that the CIA agreed all tactics should be used under expert supervision. Other memos said waterboarding can be used only if the CIA has \"credible intelligence that a terrorist attack is imminent\" and if a detainee is believed to have information that could prevent, disrupt or delay an attack, and other methods fail to elicit the information. Another memo to Rizzo, from Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven G. Bradbury on May 10, 2005, noted that nudity could be used as an interrogation technique. \"Detainees subject to sleep deprivation who are also subject to nudity as a separate interrogation technique will at times be nude and wearing a diaper,\" it said, noting that the diaper is \"for sanitary and health purposes of the detainee; it is not used for the purpose of humiliating the detainee and it is not considered to be an interrogation technique.\" \"The detainee's skin condition is monitored, and diapers are changed as needed so that the detainee does not remain in a soiled diaper,\" the memo said. Another Bradbury memo laid out techniques and when they should be used in a \"prototypical interrogation.\" \"Several of the techniques used by the CIA may involve a degree of physical pain, as we have previously noted, including facial and abdominal slaps, walling, stress positions and water dousing,\" it said. \"Nevertheless, none of these techniques would cause anything approaching severe physical pain.\" All of the CIA techniques were adapted from military \"survival evasion resistance escape\" training, according to a May 30, 2005, memo from Bradbury to Rizzo. \"Although there are obvious differences between training exercises and actual interrogations, the fact that the United States uses similar techniques on its own troops for training purposes strongly suggests that these techniques are not categorically beyond the pale,\" the memo said. The memo said waterboarding and other techniques were used on Zubaydah; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and identified as \"KSM\" in the memo; and another suspected al Qaeda leader, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. \"The CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including KSM and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques,\" the memo said. \"These legal legal memoranda demonstrate in alarming detail exactly what the Bush administration authorized for 'high value detainees' in U.S. custody,\" said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement. \"The techniques are chilling. This was not an 'abstract legal theory,' as some former Bush administration officials have characterized it. These were specific techniques authorized to be used on real people.\" In releasing the memos in response to a public records request from the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, the Obama administration informed CIA officials they will not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics. Attorney General Eric Holder promised in a separate statement that officials who used the controversial interrogation tactics were in the clear if their actions were consistent with the legal advice from the Justice Department under which they were operating at the time. \"My judgment on the content of these memos is a matter of record,\" President Obama said in a statement released from the White House. Obama prohibited the use of \"enhanced interrogation techniques\" such as waterboarding shortly after taking office in January. Such techniques \"undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer,\" he said Thursday. The president said that while United States must sometimes \"protect information that is classified for purposes of national security,\" he decided to release the memos because he believes \"strongly in transparency and accountability\" and \"exceptional circumstances surround these memos and require their release.\" Obama argued that \"withholding these memos would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time.\" \"This could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past, and fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States,\" he said. He added that the officials involved in the questionable interrogations would not be subject to prosecution because the intelligence community must be provided \"with the confidence\" it needs to do its job. The president pledged to work to ensure the actions described in the memos \"never take place again.\" CNN's Kate Bolduan and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Memo: To violate torture law, must have intent to inflict severe suffering .\nObama says releasing memos vital to maintaining transparency, accountability .\nLegal memos offered guidance to CIA on \"enhanced interrogation\"\nNo prosecution for actions consistent with memos, official says .","id":"824d9efb5469b8c61dce6df7304f3338113ad741"} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met Thursday in Cairo amid escalating cross-border violence between Israel and Hamas. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni meets Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. The session follows the end of a tenuous 6-month-long cease-fire between the Israeli military and Hamas militants in Gaza. Egypt mediated the first truce and is trying to negotiate an extension despite what Israel says are dozens of rockets fired by Hamas into the Jewish state this week. Livni criticized Hamas after her meeting with Mubarak. \"Hamas needs to understand that Israel's basic desire to live in a tranquil region doesn't mean that Israel is willing to accept ongoing shooting at its population,\" she said, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. \"Enough is enough. We cannot accept this situation, and the situation will change.\" Egypt expressed concern about a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, an Israeli Foreign Ministry statement said. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said this week that it would help countries and organizations deliver aid through Egyptian territory to Palestinians in Gaza. Livni also met with the head of Egyptian intelligence Thursday and is scheduled to talk with the Egyptian foreign minister. Israeli military officials said Hamas militants fired more than 65 rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Israeli air force said it killed a Hamas militant who was part of a group launching the rockets into Israel. An Israeli police spokesman said no one had been injured in the latest barrage of rocket attacks. But emergency workers with Magen David Adom, Israel's Red Cross agency, treated 57 people suffering from shock, half of them children, an agency official said, adding that 200 ambulances were standing by in the area. \"I think the circumstances are extremely tragic, that Muslim zealots of Hamas have decided to shatter and ruin the Christmas celebrations of the Christian brothers in the Holy Land, both in the West Bank and of course in Gaza itself,\" Israeli Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog said. \"If things deteriorate further, then of course we'll have to take necessary action, which will be very painful,\" Herzog said, adding that civilians had gathered in shelters in southern Israel to try to stay safe amid the rocket attacks. Asked about the possibility of Israel coming up with a new strategy, Herzog responded, \"The new strategy could be, of course, an all-out conflict against Hamas, which is a possibility that voices in Israel are calling for. We are trying to show restraint.\" Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization whose military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military. Israel and the U.S. State Department consider Hamas a terrorist organization, though it also operates an extensive social services network in the territories. Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said, \"Our position is clear: We will answer quiet with quiet, and we will answer attacks with measures designed to protect our people.\" Olmert has threatened to respond to the ongoing attacks. The truce between the Hamas government in Gaza and Israel expired Friday. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Hamas agreed to end militant attacks on Israel from Gaza, and Israel agreed to halt raids inside the territory and ease its blockade on humanitarian goods. In reality, the truce had started breaking down two months ago. Rocket attacks by militants became more frequent, and Israel resumed airstrikes inside Gaza. \"We really appreciate the Egyptian efforts. ...,\" Herzog said. \"The Egyptians have tried endlessly and tirelessly in the past few weeks to bring Hamas back to cease-fire mode.\" Olmert said Sunday that Israel will \"take the necessary measures\" to respond to the rocket attacks and \"will know when to respond correctly and with the necessary responsibility.\" \"A responsible government is neither eager for battle, nor does it shy away from it,\" he said.","highlights":"Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hold talks .\nMeeting follows end of cease-fire between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza .\nIsrael: Hamas militants fired 65-plus rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday .\nIsraeli prime minister has threatened to respond to ongoing attacks .","id":"2c4eb099a4e3b9212b5815ac774428d85e912e77"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The French Navy captured 11 suspected pirates off the coast of Kenya Wednesday, the French Ministry of Defense announced. The French frigate Nivose, pictured last year patrolling the Gulf of Aden. The Navy tracked the pirates overnight after they attacked a ship called the Safmarine Asia. The French launched a helicopter from the frigate Nivose to head off the attack Tuesday night, then seized the suspected pirates Wednesday morning, the statement said. Both the European Union and the United States have been patrolling the region since an upsurge in piracy off the coast of Somalia last year. U.S. snipers killed three pirates holding a U.S. ship captain hostage Sunday. The captain, Richard Phillips, was held in a lifeboat for days after his ship, the Maersk Alabama, was seized last week . But pirates in Somalia vowed revenge, saying that an attack on another ship, the Liberty Sun, was a response to the killing of Phillips' captors. \"It was a revenge,\" Hassan Mohamud told a Somali journalist. \"The U.S. ship escaped by a matter of chance.\"","highlights":"French Ministry of Defense says they were captured off the coast of Kenya .\nNavy tracked pirates overnight after they attacked ship called the Safmarine Asia .\nHelicopter launched from frigate Tuesday night; 11 captured Wednesday .","id":"d95006e3d974c78a512920f598776ee5b3db2b9c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- George Harrison's closest friends and family gathered in Hollywood on Tuesday to dedicate the late Beatle's star on the Walk of Fame. From left, musicians Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Paul McCartney join Harrison's relatives for dedication of his star. \"There's someone here from every important stage of George's life and career,\" Harrison's widow, Olivia, said. Harrison, who was 58 when he died of cancer in 2001, becomes the second Beatle with a Hollywood star. John Lennon was the first. The new star is next to the iconic Hollywood headquarters of Capitol Records, the distributor of much of Harrison's music for the past five decades. Tuesday's ceremony coincided with the Capitol\/EMI announcement that it will release Harrison's first solo greatest hits collection -- \"Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison\" -- on June 16. Actor Tom Hanks said the world changed for him in January 1964 when he heard his first Beatles song. \"That's when we escaped the doldrums and moved on to a brighter, better, more joyful future,\" Hanks said. Superstar musicians Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne attended the star's dedication, but they did not address the crowd. Scores of Harrison fans showed up for the event, with some traveling from as far as Liverpool, England. \"We all have deep feelings for George, because he was such a deep-feeling person,\" Olivia Harrison said. \"He was a beautiful, mystical man, living in a material world,\" she said. \"He was funny as the day is long and just as perplexing.\" His son, Dhani, 30, joked about his father's star. \"It's good, it's lovely and it's nice and shiny and I'm glad it's not outside of Frederick's of Hollywood,\" he said. Harrison was just 15 when schoolmate Paul McCartney asked him to join his and John Lennon's band, the Quarrymen. The band evolved into the Beatles and the rest is history. Harrison played lead guitar and sang for the Beatles. Songs penned by Harrison included \"Taxman,\" \"While My Guitar Gently Weeps,\" \"Something\" and \"Here Comes the Sun.\" Harrison was a pioneer of what has since become a tradition of rock stars supporting charitable causes with their music. In 1971, he helped organize the star-studded \"Concert for Bangladesh\" at New York's Madison Square Garden. In addition to his post-Beatles solo career, Harrison played with several groups -- most notably the Traveling Wilburys, alongside Petty, Lynne, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Harrison's star next to Hollywood headquarters of Capitol Records .\nHarrison, who died of cancer in 2001, is second Beatle with star after John Lennon .\nSome fans travel from as far as Liverpool, England for dedication of Harrison's star .\nHarrison penned many Beatles songs before launching successful solo career .","id":"d81650f455a89e222eda130ca83e7d9687f8833d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA scientists say new data provided by twin spacecraft analyzing the sun will help them more accurately predict how so-called solar tsunamis wreak havoc on our planet. NASA says new data on so-called solar tsunamis will help predict how they will affect our planet. The tsunamis -- powerful explosions known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs -- produce solar cosmic rays that can interfere with technology, causing power blackouts and disrupting air traffic communications and cell phone networks. NASA says images captured by its twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft have enabled scientists to map the tsunamis in 3D to examine their structure, velocity, mass and direction. The solar ejections, its says, can release billions of tons of high-velocity plasma into space, producing a shockwave that generates cosmic rays which then plow into our atmosphere. These can create the brightly-colored auroras, more commonly known as the Northern or Southern lights, but also have more damaging effects, posing particular threats to spacecraft and astronauts. Solar physicist Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington said the new data from the STEREO craft -- launched into orbit in October 2006 -- will revolutionize the study of cosmic weather patterns. \"Before this unique mission, measurements and the subsequent data of a CME observed near the sun had to wait until the ejections arrived at Earth three to seven days later,\" he said in statement. \"Now we can see a CME from the time it leaves the solar surface until it reaches Earth and we can reconstruct the event in 3D directly from the images.\"","highlights":"NASA says new data will enable scientists to map solar tsunamis in 3D .\nSolar ejections can wreak havoc on Earth, causing power and radio blackouts .\nNew data could help predict what effects the phenomena will have, NASA says .","id":"94918fc7bfb14fd5cacfb38dc88bb3d68ee2b3f3"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Roy Bennett, the former Zimbabwean opposition activist who was arrested Friday shortly before he was due to become a Cabinet minister, has been charged with conspiracy to commit banditry, sabotage and terrorism, his lawyer told CNN. Roy Bennett, left, pictured with MDC leader Morgan Tzvangirai, is also the party's treasurer. The Movement for Democratic Change nominated Bennett to be deputy minister of agriculture in a national unity government with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1980. Bennett was arrested on Friday while on his way to South Africa, where he has been living for three years. Bennett, who is also the party's treasurer, was pulled from an aircraft at the airport in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, the MDC said. Police accuse him of funding the acquisition of weapons to commit the crimes he is charged with. Bennett will appear in the Mutare magistrate's court on Monday, his lawyer Trust Maanda told CNN. Bennett, a white coffee grower, is an old foe of Mugabe's government. His farms were seized during the country's controversial land reform program. He has previously being jailed for assaulting Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in parliament. Hundreds of party members and supporters Friday surrounded the Mutare police station where Bennett was being held, the party said. The incident happened the same day that other MDC ministers in the new unity government took their oaths of office. The swearing-in eventually took place but was delayed, the MDC said, because Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party wanted to appoint more ministers than they were allowed in the new government. Under the power-sharing deal signed in September, the ruling ZANU-PF party gets 17 cabinet posts and the MDC gets 13. Mugabe brought a \"bloated\" list of 22 Cabinet ministers to the swearing-in ceremony, but the MDC leadership insisted Mugabe stick to the 17 agreed Cabinet posts. The stalemate lasted for more than an hour, until Mugabe's party agreed that only 17 of their proposed ministers take office. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Zimbabwean minister gaces accusations of banditry, sabotage and terrorism .\nRoy Bennett pulled from aircraft as he was about to fly to South Africa .\nMDC supporters rallied at police station where Bennett was held .","id":"1ab42010a1590df610d0563df78ed53cca40a3ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yes, she is 28. Yes, she is a Sunday school teacher, and yes, her name is Melissa Huckaby. Melissa Huckaby of Manteca, California, is also a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher. But the woman from Manteca, California, said she wants people to know that she is not that Melissa Huckaby. This Melissa Huckaby lives about 14 miles from Tracy, California, where the other one was arrested and accused of raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. That hasn't stopped national talk shows from calling her and people from threatening her, forcing her friends to bring guns to church in an effort to protect her. Her MySpace page has been mistaken so many times for the one of the murder suspect that she has had to shut it down, Huckaby said. \"They hear the name, and a lot of people think it's me,\" Huckaby told CNN affiliate KOVR-TV. \"I was getting hate mail.\" Even Melissa Huckaby of Manteca has noticed the similarities with her namesake in nearby Tracy. Watch how the Manteca woman deals with the confusion \u00bb . Not only are they the same age and both teach Sunday school, the two women resemble each other slightly. Melissa Huckaby of Tracy is accused of killing an 8-year-old playmate of her 5-year-old daughter. Melissa Huckaby of Manteca has two daughters -- 8 and 5. But that's where the similarities end, the Manteca woman said, noting that she's never even received a speeding ticket.","highlights":"\"They hear the name, and a lot of people think it's me,\" woman tells TV station .\nMelissa Huckaby shares name and age of suspect in 8-year-old girl's slaying .\nWoman receives hate mail, threats; she takes MySpace page down .\nManteca, California, woman says she's never even gotten a speeding ticket .","id":"f2e86c74a31ddf1dba826bfea5ede396e249c21a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rapid-fire TV news bulletins or getting updates via social-networking tools such as Twitter could numb our sense of morality and make us indifferent to human suffering, scientists say. Scientists say updates on networking tools such as Twitter are often too quick for the brain to fully digest. New findings show that the streams of information provided by social networking sites are too fast for the brain's \"moral compass\" to process and could harm young people's emotional development. Before the brain can fully digest the anguish and suffering of a story, it is being bombarded by the next news bulletin or the latest Twitter update, according to a University of Southern California study. \"If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality,\" said researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. The report, published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition, studied how volunteers responded to real-life stories chosen to stimulate admiration for virtue or skill, or compassion for physical or social pain. iReport.com: Growing pains for Twitter, Facebook? Brain scans showed humans can process and respond very quickly to signs of physical pain in others, but took longer to show admiration or compassion. \"For some kinds of thought, especially moral decision-making about other people's social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and refection,\" said Immordio-Yang. She said the study raises questions about the emotional cost, particularly for young people, of heavy reliance on a torrent of news snippets delivered via TV and online feeds such as Twitter. She said: \"We need to understand how social experience shapes interactions between the body and mind, to produce citizens with a strong moral compass.\" USC sociologist Manuel Castells said the study raised more concerns over fast-moving TV than the online environment. \"In a media culture in which violence and suffering becomes an endless show, be it in fiction or in infotainment, indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in.\" Research leader Antonio Damasio, director of USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, said the findings stressed the need for slower delivery of the news, and highlighted the importance of slow-burn emotions like admiration. Damasio cited the example of U.S. President Barack Obama, who says he was inspired by his father, to show how admiration can be key to cultural success. \"We actually separate the good from the bad in great part thanks to the feeling of admiration. It's a deep physiological reaction that's very important to define our humanity.\" Twitter, which allows users to swap messages and links of 140-characters or less, says on its Web site that it sees itself as a solution to information overload, rather than a cause of it. This function, It says, \"means you can step in and out of the flow of information as it suits you and it never queues up with increasing demand of your attention.\"","highlights":"USC study says rapid-fire Twitter and news updates are too fast for brain .\nScans show humans respond rapidly to pain, but not compassion, admiration .\nScientists say reliance on news snippets could harm moral compass .","id":"264101067de43e6de29d9eabbf1d4d5c61d8f07f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It was inevitable that a tragedy on the scale of Hillsborough, when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death during an FA Cup semifinal with Nottingham Forest, would have a transformative effect on English football. A Liverpool supporter Wednesday, outside Anfield. Ninety-six fans died from the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. But there was little reason to believe 20 years ago that, rather than being pushed even further towards the margins of society, the sport was on the brink of a revolution that would give birth to a global sporting phenomenon. Even before Hillsborough, it had seemed as if there was something irredeemably rotten at the heart of English football. Hooliganism, a scourge synonymous with the English game, had receded from its peak in the 1970s but English clubs were outlawed from European competition after rampaging Liverpool fans caused a wall to collapse at Brussels' Heysel Stadium before the 1985 European Cup final, causing the deaths of 39 people, mostly supporters of the Italian side Juventus. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, showing little understanding or patience for the traditions of the sport, had virtually ghettoized fans, promoting a scheme to have each supporter issued with an identity card. On the field, sides such as Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest were renowned for their attractive play but elsewhere a corrosive cult of long ball football pervaded the game. That trend seemed to find vindication when arch-exponents Wimbledon, who in the course of a decade had bullied and scrapped their way through four divisions to reach the top flight, defeated Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final, prompting match commentator John Motson to declare that \"the Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.\" With its clubs banned from Europe, many top British players opted to leave England altogether -- Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes to Barcelona, Glenn Hoddle to Monaco, Chris Waddle to Marseille -- adding further to the sense of terminal malaise. Hillsborough had not been caused by hooliganism but the tragedy was a product of the environment that hooliganism had created; stadiums resembling decrepit fortresses, the fans caged inside steel bars and heavy-handed policing which treated all supporters equally -- as potential troublemakers. Coupled with Heysel and a fire at Bradford in 1985 in which 56 fans died, it also served to reinforce the belief that going to a football match was something which could put your life in danger. In \"The Last Game: Love, Death and Football,\" a book examining the lasting impact of the events of 1989 on the sport, author Jason Cowley describes Hillsborough as English football's \"psychological moment, the point of no return.\" \"The culture of the game had to change definitely if football was ever to be perceived as anything more than the preserve of the white, working class male, a theatre of hate and of violence, often racist and misogynistic excesses, if it was to survive at all,\" says Cowley. English football not only survived but within a few years had reinvented itself, in the elite \"Premier League\" division of the country's top clubs at least, as an internationally recognized super brand capable of attracting the world's best players and broadcast around the planet. The engine for this transformation, in the wake of Hillsborough, was the Taylor Report, an inquiry into the causes of the disaster which called for the steel fences inside grounds to be dismantled and for the phasing out of the traditional terraces of standing fans with all-seater stadiums. Initially clubs received government funding to help them meet the costs but the sport was about to receive an injection of cash that would radically change its financial prospects. Despite its poor reputation, there remained a huge appetite for televised football -- ironically, itself a by-product of the fact that many supporters were no longer going to matches. Realizing this, the country's top clubs broke away from the game's traditional power structure, setting up the Premier League and selling TV rights for \u00a3191 million ($286 million) to media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's newly established satellite television venture, BSkyB. The money was a shot in the arm for football, while Sky's coverage regenerated interest in the sport by repackaging it as something shiny, exotic and exciting. On a Europe-wide scale, the replacement of the old knockout format European Cup with the Champions League achieved something similar, creating a clique of continential superpowers. The television rights boom also convinced many in the sport that football could actually be profitable. Some clubs raised more cash by floating on stock markets and others, such as Bolton, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, invested in shiny flying saucer-like new stadiums. But the success of the Premier League also owed something to events on the pitch. If Hillsborough marked a nadir for English football, the 1990 World Cup in Italy -- and Paul Gascoigne's tears during the national side's epic semifinal defeat by West Germany -- offered a moment of catharsis that rekindled many casual fan's residual love for the game. Subtle changes to the rules implemented worldwide by FIFA, including banning back passes to goalkeepers, automatic sendings off for professional fouls and changing the offside rule to give the benefit of the doubt to forward players, gradually made the game a more attractive spectacle. Meanwhile, the emergence of Alex Ferguson's young and exciting Manchester United team as the Premier League's dominant force, perfectly captured the spirit of the new age yet grounded the game in the traditions of the past. Finally, the 1995 Bosman Ruling, which granted players across Europe freedom of movement when out of contract, and the end of restrictions on the number of foreign players teams could field, created an international transfer market which lifted the horizons of the English game and brought genuine world class stars including Eric Cantona and Dennis Bergkamp, and eventually Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres, to the Premier League. Still, for many football fans, the glamour and wealth of the Premier League, with its homogenized stadiums and corporate entertainment suites -- in which clubs are bought and sold by global plutocrats from Siberia to Texas via Thailand and Abu Dhabi -- represents a betrayal of the sport's traditional values. \"There's still a powerful nostalgia among fans of my generation for a lost, less aggressively commercial era of football, when the game seemed less cynically concerned with exploiting the loyalty of those who pay to watch and with selling itself to a global audience,\" says Cowley. Yet in a week when four Premier League sides featured in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and public appetite for the game appears insatiable, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that English football is in a better state than anyone who witnessed the horror at Hillsborough 20 years ago could ever have dared believe. More importantly, it is virtually inconceivable to imagine the circumstances in which 96 fans died ever being repeated in an English stadium.","highlights":"English football has been transformed in 20 years since Hillsborough tragedy .\nDisaster created impetus for all-seater grounds, improvements in infrastructure .\nTop clubs also benefited from creation of Premier League and sale of TV rights .\nThe English Premier League is now the world's most watched sporting league .","id":"3d62d584ddca6142049b1093809cfebabdd84c18"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It was inevitable that a tragedy on the scale of Hillsborough, when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death during an FA Cup semifinal with Nottingham Forest, would have a transformative effect on English football. A Liverpool supporter Wednesday, outside Anfield. Ninety-six fans died from the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. But there was little reason to believe 20 years ago that, rather than being pushed even further towards the margins of society, the sport was on the brink of a revolution that would give birth to a global sporting phenomenon. Even before Hillsborough, it had seemed as if there was something irredeemably rotten at the heart of English football. Hooliganism, a scourge synonymous with the English game, had receded from its peak in the 1970s but English clubs were outlawed from European competition after rampaging Liverpool fans caused a wall to collapse at Brussels' Heysel Stadium before the 1985 European Cup final, causing the deaths of 39 people, mostly supporters of the Italian side Juventus. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, showing little understanding or patience for the traditions of the sport, had virtually ghettoized fans, promoting a scheme to have each supporter issued with an identity card. On the field, sides such as Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest were renowned for their attractive play but elsewhere a corrosive cult of long ball football pervaded the game. That trend seemed to find vindication when arch-exponents Wimbledon, who in the course of a decade had bullied and scrapped their way through four divisions to reach the top flight, defeated Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final, prompting match commentator John Motson to declare that \"the Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.\" With its clubs banned from Europe, many top British players opted to leave England altogether -- Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes to Barcelona, Glenn Hoddle to Monaco, Chris Waddle to Marseille -- adding further to the sense of terminal malaise. Hillsborough had not been caused by hooliganism but the tragedy was a product of the environment that hooliganism had created; stadiums resembling decrepit fortresses, the fans caged inside steel bars and heavy-handed policing which treated all supporters equally -- as potential troublemakers. Coupled with Heysel and a fire at Bradford in 1985 in which 56 fans died, it also served to reinforce the belief that going to a football match was something which could put your life in danger. In \"The Last Game: Love, Death and Football,\" a book examining the lasting impact of the events of 1989 on the sport, author Jason Cowley describes Hillsborough as English football's \"psychological moment, the point of no return.\" \"The culture of the game had to change definitely if football was ever to be perceived as anything more than the preserve of the white, working class male, a theatre of hate and of violence, often racist and misogynistic excesses, if it was to survive at all,\" says Cowley. English football not only survived but within a few years had reinvented itself, in the elite \"Premier League\" division of the country's top clubs at least, as an internationally recognized super brand capable of attracting the world's best players and broadcast around the planet. The engine for this transformation, in the wake of Hillsborough, was the Taylor Report, an inquiry into the causes of the disaster which called for the steel fences inside grounds to be dismantled and for the phasing out of the traditional terraces of standing fans with all-seater stadiums. Initially clubs received government funding to help them meet the costs but the sport was about to receive an injection of cash that would radically change its financial prospects. Despite its poor reputation, there remained a huge appetite for televised football -- ironically, itself a by-product of the fact that many supporters were no longer going to matches. Realizing this, the country's top clubs broke away from the game's traditional power structure, setting up the Premier League and selling TV rights for \u00a3191 million ($286 million) to media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's newly established satellite television venture, BSkyB. The money was a shot in the arm for football, while Sky's coverage regenerated interest in the sport by repackaging it as something shiny, exotic and exciting. On a Europe-wide scale, the replacement of the old knockout format European Cup with the Champions League achieved something similar, creating a clique of continential superpowers. The television rights boom also convinced many in the sport that football could actually be profitable. Some clubs raised more cash by floating on stock markets and others, such as Bolton, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, invested in shiny flying saucer-like new stadiums. But the success of the Premier League also owed something to events on the pitch. If Hillsborough marked a nadir for English football, the 1990 World Cup in Italy -- and Paul Gascoigne's tears during the national side's epic semifinal defeat by West Germany -- offered a moment of catharsis that rekindled many casual fan's residual love for the game. Subtle changes to the rules implemented worldwide by FIFA, including banning back passes to goalkeepers, automatic sendings off for professional fouls and changing the offside rule to give the benefit of the doubt to forward players, gradually made the game a more attractive spectacle. Meanwhile, the emergence of Alex Ferguson's young and exciting Manchester United team as the Premier League's dominant force, perfectly captured the spirit of the new age yet grounded the game in the traditions of the past. Finally, the 1995 Bosman Ruling, which granted players across Europe freedom of movement when out of contract, and the end of restrictions on the number of foreign players teams could field, created an international transfer market which lifted the horizons of the English game and brought genuine world class stars including Eric Cantona and Dennis Bergkamp, and eventually Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres, to the Premier League. Still, for many football fans, the glamour and wealth of the Premier League, with its homogenized stadiums and corporate entertainment suites -- in which clubs are bought and sold by global plutocrats from Siberia to Texas via Thailand and Abu Dhabi -- represents a betrayal of the sport's traditional values. \"There's still a powerful nostalgia among fans of my generation for a lost, less aggressively commercial era of football, when the game seemed less cynically concerned with exploiting the loyalty of those who pay to watch and with selling itself to a global audience,\" says Cowley. Yet in a week when four Premier League sides featured in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and public appetite for the game appears insatiable, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that English football is in a better state than anyone who witnessed the horror at Hillsborough 20 years ago could ever have dared believe. More importantly, it is virtually inconceivable to imagine the circumstances in which 96 fans died ever being repeated in an English stadium.","highlights":"English football has been transformed in 20 years since Hillsborough tragedy .\nDisaster created impetus for all-seater grounds, improvements in infrastructure .\nTop clubs also benefited from creation of Premier League and sale of TV rights .\nThe English Premier League is now the world's most watched sporting league .","id":"b70a52f65d02d6b7831a98b166c52b2648917f5f"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg this week, a presidential spokesman said. The Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Laureate did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend, said Thabo Masebe. South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship it will host next year. \"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet,\" Masebe said, adding that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China. The Dalai Lama's fellow laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said he would boycott the event. Watch the controversy surrounding South Africa's decision \u00bb . Former president F.W. De Klerk, another laureate, backed Tutu, saying in a statement that he would also not participate in the conference if the Dalai Lama remained excluded. De Klerk said that the decision to refuse the visa made a \"mockery\" of the peace conference. \"The decision to exclude the Dalai Lama is irreconcilable with key principles on which our society is based including the principles of accountability, openness and responsiveness and the rights to freedom of expression and free political activity,\" he said. \"South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democracy and should not allow other countries to dictate to it regarding who it should, and should not admit to its territory - regardless of the power and influence of the country.\" A representative of the Dalai Lama said he was not surprised by the decision. The Tibetan government in exile thinks that China has pressured many countries to refuse a visit by the Dalai Lama, according to Chhime Chhoekyapa, an aide in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. The peace conference was billed as an opportunity to showcase South Africa's role as a human-rights champion ahead of its hosting of soccer's World Cup next year. It was to bring together Noble Laureates and top soccer officials. In addition to Tutu and De Klerk, laureates Nelson Mandela and Martti Ahtisaari, Sepp Blatter, president of soccer's international governing body, and actress Charlize Theron were invited to attend. The event had the blessing of the Nobel Committee.","highlights":"Spokesman: \"Not in South Africa's interest for him (Dalai Lama) to attend\"\nSouth Africa says it is worried focus will switch away from 2010 World Cup .\nIt added South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China .\nFellow laureate Desmond Tutu said he would boycott the conference .","id":"f701379a5310f8eb1b9f0c1e8df173d9dc1b77fc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 2,100 registered North Carolina sex offenders were found on the social networking site MySpace, the state attorney general's office said Tuesday. North Carolina bans sex offenders within the state from social networking sites where children are members. In response to a subpoena from state Attorney General Roy Cooper, \"MySpace turned over the names, IP and e-mail addresses of 2,116 convicted North Carolina sex offenders found on its social networking Web site,\" Cooper's office said in a written statement. Cooper has requested similar information from Facebook, another popular social networking site, the statement said. MySpace has told North Carolina authorities that the sex offenders it identified have been removed from the site. North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation is sharing the sex offenders' information with all 100 sheriffs in the state, Cooper's office said. \"It's no secret that child predators are on these Web sites,\" Cooper said in the statement. \"Turning over information about these predators to law enforcement helps, but MySpace, Facebook and other social networks need to do much more to protect kids online.\" North Carolina passed a law last year banning sex offenders within the state from social networking sites where children are members, making it a felony offense. Sex offenders on social networking sites is not a new issue. Last month, Newsweek magazine reported that Facebook said it had removed 5,585 convicted sex offenders from its site between May 2008 and January 2009. MySpace also announced it had removed 90,000 sex offenders in a two-year period, the magazine said. Last June, the Texas attorney general's office said it had arrested seven convicted sex offenders who violated their parole conditions by creating MySpace profiles, according to an article on the TechNewsWorld Web site. Cooper and Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, for more than three years have led a group of attorneys general in working to make social networking safer, Cooper's office said. The group is pushing social networks to use technology such as age and identity verification to better protect users who may be children. After discussions with the group, MySpace became the first social networking site to develop technology aimed at finding and removing sex offenders, the North Carolina statement said. Cooper is pushing Facebook to take similar steps. But, Cooper's office said, \"the information provided by MySpace does not include sex offenders who have not been convicted, are not registered or may be using aliases on the site. Cooper remains concerned about other sex offenders on the site who may be lying about who they are, and is continuing to ask MySpace to do more to protect children on the site.\"","highlights":"Site provided names, IP and e-mail addresses of offenders it found, AG says .\nSimilar information requested from Facebook networking site, he says .\nMySpace says that sex offenders it identified have been removed from site .\nNorth Carolina officials sharing sex offenders' data with all sheriffs in the state .","id":"0d4254ab5376e449171215e7b51a6a6a9a4b2e64"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- They could probably smell him coming for miles. Circus performers Andrea and Daniel Raffo with their son, Davian. \"Breakfast, boys,\" Daniel Raffo proclaimed as his cats jumped with excitement in their cages. Raffo set down his wheelbarrow, filled with Grade A beef. Using a pitchfork, he fed his Bengal tigers. It's the morning ritual at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Raffo is the show's tiger trainer. He's a fifth-generation circus performer from Argentina. On this morning, the show awakes in Miami, Florida. \"You get up in the morning; you wash the animal, clean it up; you feed them, then you play with them a bit,\" Raffo said. \"And then during the day, you spend some time with your family.\" He lives in a trailer with his family so he can stay close to the tigers. He, wife Andrea and son Davian are all on a two-year tour with Ringling Bros. But why would anyone live on the road like this, with a 4-year-old? Andrea is also part of the circus, performing an aerial ballet, hanging by her hair high above the crowds, just like her mother and grandmother, who taught her the act. \"I can finish my act and then go up and see my son, so it's good, 'cause we're always together,\" Andrea Ayala Raffo said. The Raffos keep a home in Florida but are rarely there. \"Home is actually my trailer, when we travel, and have dinner every night and watch TV. That's really my home,\" Andrea Raffo said. And these lives on wheels come with real family needs. Just outside Section 405 at Miami's American Airlines arena, across from the Mexi-go Taqueria and Nacho Time food stands, school is in session. Jonathan Leiss is a licensed teacher with the circus. He uses a nationally recognized home-schooling curriculum. He pitches a one-room schoolhouse in every city where the show pitches its tent, for all of the school-age children of the circus. School is open five days a week. He teaches all the subjects, and every one of his students gets personal attention. \"I would describe it as a rigorous curriculum,\" he said. \"We don't want to allow anything to slip through the cracks because we're traveling. This is a real school.\" Leiss added, \"If I was teaching in a public high school, I could have 120 students. That's a lot less opportunity to really address what each student needs.\" Katherine Stuart is one of the students. The 8-year-old is growing up quickly, surrounded by circus people from 32 countries. One of the performers is teaching her Spanish. She says she likes to wash the elephants, and she loves the travel. \"You can see all these different places and what it looks like, and I also wanted to know what each state looked like, so I get to do it,\" she said. Katherine's dad is Mike Stuart, the general manager. With his wife, Mary, and son Tylar, 3, he hits about 36 cities a year. When CNN arrived at his temporary office at the Miami arena, Katherine was reading with Mike. Tylar was with Mom, playing a \"Blues Clues\" game on the computer. \"This is a 24\/7 job, so I make time pretty much every day to sit with my kids, go out with my kids,\" Mike Stuart said. The Stuarts, like most of the 350 circus members, live on a train, with all of a home's amenities. But finding a park or a playground is a must for them. \"I have a house in Massachusetts. I probably see it once a year, maybe for a week or two,\" Stuart said. \"But, more or less, we travel on the train. It's year-round, basically. ... So really, home is wherever the circus takes me.\" One disadvantage is that the kids do not have a lot of friends to play with. But the family is always together. \"I think there's a lot of people who travel for their jobs, that are not fortunate enough to travel with family, where this job allows us to be able to do that,\" Mary Stuart said. The Stuarts believe that their lives and the lives of their children have been enhanced by the real-world learning experiences. \"Instead of just reading it in books, they're going to see these things, and to me, that's more fulfilling,\" Mike Stuart explained. Citing privacy reasons, the circus did not allow CNN to see the train. With any traveling family, there will inevitably be spiritual needs. Sister Dorothy Fabritze is a full-time circus worker and Catholic nun who holds religion classes, working across cultures, sharing the circus lifestyle. \"I saw that these people needed to find that they too were a parish, that they too were a community,\" she explained. \"We can support and walk with each other in this journey that we call life.\" Fabritze arranges for clergy to visit the circus weekly. She's a former missionary who spent 16 years in Papua New Guinea. Here, she says, she hopes to be a biblical presence amid the glitzy backdrop and colorful characters, from acrobats to clowns to animal trainers. \"Some come asking for Bible study. We'll do that. Some come forward and say, 'My child needs the sacrament, with confession and communion. Can you help me?' Of course I can,\" she explained. For about two years, Fabritze also worked backstage, opening and closing the curtain between acts, for 800 shows in two years. She remembers those times as \"God moments.\" \"They knew that I'd be there, and they would just come over and in the darkened area just talk to me about whatever they wanted to talk, and wonderful things happened. Wonderful spiritual things happened, just because I was there,\" she said. And although things may sometimes seem, quite literally, a bit upside down here, it's just life under the big top at the greatest show on Earth.","highlights":"Dad is a tiger tamer, Mom hangs by her hair, and they travel with son .\nLife with a traveling circus includes one-room school and religious classes .\nCircus general manager and family travel to 36 cities each year .\nParents say children learn from traveling, meeting workers from other countries .","id":"6c9c9fbb54ce4e1408cf9857120b230d4b0872ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The operation on Ronaldo's injured left knee \"went well\" but the Brazilian striker faces a lengthy rehabilitation as he bids to save his football career. Ronaldo leaves the field in agony after suffering his latest injury blow against Livorno. Ronaldo had surgery in Paris on Thursday, the two-hour operation perfomed by Dr. Eric Rolland with Dr. Gerard Saillant, who carried out a similar repair to his right knee in 2000, in attendance. \"The operation went well,\" said Saillant. \"The intervention was of the same type as the one in 2000. The healing period should last nine months,\" he said in sports paper L'Equipe. Ronaldo was injured playing for AC Milan in a 1-1 draw with Liverno on Wednesday night and teammate Clarence Seedorf gave CNN a graphic description of the incident. \"It was like a film I already saw,\" said the Dutch star who was on the pitch when Ronaldo suffered his previous serious injury. \"I saw his reaction, I was frozen by the reality, a bad, bad thing. My heart went out to him because it was his second injury. I hope he has the will to come back,\" added Seedorf. Ater the two-hour operation at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, the three-time FIFA World Player of the Year is likely to need about 10 days of physical therapy, L'Equipe said. Ronaldo, 31, has battled serious injuries throughout his career, and has played sparingly since joining Milan from Real Madrid in January 2007. Wednesday's match was only his fifth in Serie A this season after injuring his thigh during preseason training on July 31. He returned in November, but has been in and out of the team due to a series of recurring problems. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ronaldo recovers in Paris following surgery on his ruptured left knee tendons .\nThe surgeon who performed the two-hour operation said it went \"very well\"\nRonaldo sustained injury playing for AC Milan against Livorno on Wednesday .","id":"6f826e922f615d6e264be1cb352bd8a281a47be9"} -{"article":"(Parenting) -- How to weigh whether to have another child -- and what to know about raising an \"only\" Couples feel more pressure to have second child than first, says one expert. My husband and I decided to be a one-child family long before our son Oliver was born. With several years of reproductive-health scares behind me, conceiving a child felt like a Powerball win; I didn't need another chance at the jackpot. Scott thought we could avoid the inevitable slings and arrows of sibling warfare. We both hail from large families, in which continuation of the family name is assured through siblings and cousins. We were content with our decision, and our families took it well, too. A few months after Oliver was born, I bagged up my maternity clothes for a tag sale, and Scott started researching permanent birth-control options. But one afternoon while absentmindedly sorting through blue and green baby clothes, the thought hit me like a punch: \"I'll never sort through pink clothes.\" For years I'd imagined myself the mom of a daughter. After all, it had been a popular refrain throughout my adolescence (\"I'll never tell my daughter what I think about her clothes,\" I'd intone to my mother). And I secretly hoped that my daughter would continue the tradition of attending my all-women alma mater. It wasn't that I was disappointed with a son. To be honest, I was relieved the day we found out we were having a boy because I could work the experience of being the older sister to three younger brothers to the fullest. Hearing the door clang shut on my fantasy daughter, however, made me doubt. When acquaintances asked, \"So, are you having any more?\" my voice quivered when I answered no. A woman in my local mothers' group worried aloud, \"How would you feel if something happened to Oliver and you didn't have any more children?\" Did I really need another child as an insurance policy? One night when the anxiety felt particularly overwhelming, I asked Scott, \"Is it okay if we hold off on that vasectomy for a while?\" \"It's normal to wonder if you're making the right choices and decisions, no matter how many kids you have,\" says Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., author of I'm OK, You're a Brat! Setting the Priorities Straight and Freeing You From the Guilt and Mad Myths of Parenthood. \"Even if you decided to have two or more children, you'd wonder if your life would have been easier with only one child.\" Choosing to have one . Haseena Correia of Valley Stream, New York, mom to Zachary, 2, has long planned to have one child. \"Once I understood how much work it takes to have a career and raise a child at the same time, I pretty much decided one was all I could handle,\" she says. Correia says being a one-child family allows her the right balance. \"It gives me the joy of being a mother, but it's not too overwhelming to the point where I don't have any time for myself or my husband,\" she says. Financial barriers were also a factor in their decision. \"With a mortgage, skyrocketing taxes, and two cars, we have to be a two-income family. Having another child is financially just not an option for us,\" she says. At some point, parents will need to ponder: . \u2022 Can we cope emotionally and physically with another child? \u2022 How will we juggle another child with our jobs? \u2022 Where do we want to be in three years? Five? \u2022 How will another child affect our finances? What about our marriage? \u2022 If we wait any longer to decide, will our choices be limited by our age? There are social and emotional pressures to consider, too. \"If your friends are having second -- and third -- children, you can feel left out,\" says Susan Newman, Ph.D., author of Parenting an Only Child. \"Or you or your spouse may want more kids, but the other doesn't.\" Sorting out our feelings on most of these things was actually easy for me and Scott. (It was the emotional pull that gave me second thoughts.) We have similar goals for the future, and we realized that with our temperaments, one child would be best for our marriage. We're happy for our friends who are having second and third children, but for us, Oliver completes our family. When you don't have a choice . Sometimes the twists and turns of life narrow your choices or eliminate them completely. Jennifer Lawler of Eudora, Kansas, always thought having four kids sounded perfect. But when her daughter Jessica was born with life-threatening health problems and Lawler's uterine fibroids compromised future pregnancies, she and her husband knew Jessica would be their only child. Lawler says, \"Raising our daughter was going to take a lot of emotional, physical, and financial resources. If I had any more children, I didn't think I could handle it.\" Time made the situation easier. \"It's a process of acceptance,\" says Lawler. \"One thing that was helpful for me was not to focus on the past or the future. I put my energy toward making this the brightest moment. There were times when we thought Jessica wouldn't live, talk, or walk. She's done all those things, so I feel relief and gratitude.\" Answering to everyone . As you work out what's best for your family, you'll face some tough questions all around: . \u2022 From yourself: Laura Miller of Ottawa, Kansas, mom to Emma, 6, is undecided about having more children. \"If finances and circumstances ever allow, we might have another child,\" she says. \"But we're happy the way our family is now.\" She admits she still has fears. \"My husband and I both have brothers and sisters --I can't imagine not having them to lean on. But after we're gone, Emma will be alone.\" In my darkest moments, I've been known to worry about the unthinkable: With no other children, what would I do if I lost Oliver? But, of course, parents of onlies don't own the front and center on worry. \"Parents fear for all their children,\" says Newman. \"Families with a number of children are equally devastated and blown apart when a child dies -- the pain is no less just because you have others.\" We need to accept that something so dramatic as death is highly unlikely and try not to live our lives in a state of anxiety. \u2022 From others: \"The pressure to have a second child is often greater than for the first,\" says Newman. But the fact is that the friends, family, and even strangers who are exerting pressure aren't the ones who'll be caring for these future children till they reach adulthood. After Lawler's daughter was born, she answered her questioners with \"We're going to take care of Jessica.\" Sometimes intrusive questions and opinions can drive us nuts, which is why it can be helpful to look within before lashing out. \"When you are affected by this pressure, it means you're looking for that person's approval,\" says Jeffers. \"Ask yourself, 'Why am I reacting this way? Am I afraid of criticism from this person?' As soon as you stop needing their approval, you can relax and appreciate the decision you made.\" Once a mom is feeling calmer, she can answer the critics with, say, \"I understand you really want this, but it's not right for me\" or \"Well, thanks for passing on your ideas.\" \u2022 From your child -- it happens: Many onlies will ask -- loudly, often -- for a little brother or sister, or wonder aloud why they're stuck being an only child. A straightforward answer is the best bet, says Lise Youngblade, Ph.D., associate director of the Institute for Child Health Policy at the University of Florida in Gainesville. \"The last thing parents want to do is get into a negotiation,\" she says. Instead, respond with something like \"We've decided that our family size is just right. There are lots of different kinds of families, and this is how ours is.\" With an older child, you can point out that many of the advantages he enjoys as an only -- his own specially decorated bedroom, for instance, or the one-on-one time he has with Mom and Dad -- may be things he wouldn't have with a brother or sister. You can also try asking your child what he thinks would be the benefits of having a sibling. It could be as simple as having a bunk bed. If a child's demands don't abate, Jeffers points out that \"children complain, period.\" Parents with two or three kids sometimes hear, \"Mommy, it's time to send the baby back to the hospital.\" In my case, it took me time to say goodbye to my fantasy daughter, but when Oliver was 18 months old, I finally said to Scott, \"Let's do it,\" on the vasectomy. I'm very happy with my son and our decision, and I've looked for other ways to indulge my daughter needs. I volunteered as a Big Sister and counseled a 15-year-old on boyfriends. When I spot cute girly-girl dresses, I buy them for my friend's daughters. And I console myself that when I go through menopause, there won't be two hormonal women under this roof. E-mail to a friend . Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"Some couples decide to have one child .\nHealth, financial, emotional issues to consider .\nPressure to have second child greater than for first .\nMom: A \"process of acceptance\" when you can't have another child .","id":"61db1052501f599bd421ddb955bc40c15a84f48d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The chairman of India's UB Group, which includes Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, made the winning $1.8 million bid on a number of Mahatma Gandhi's personal items on auction. Mahatma Gandhi was known for his peaceful opposition to tyranny, which led to India's independence. Vijay Mallya was expected to return the items to the Indian government, according to CNN-IBN, CNN's sister station in India. Controversy surrounded the sale Thursday of Gandhi's items -- among them his metal-rimmed glasses, pocket watch, sandals, bowl and plate -- prompting the seller, James Otis, to ask that the items be withdrawn from the auction. India voiced strong objections to the auction. Its Ministry of External Affairs said the bidding would \"commercialize and thereby demean the memory of the Father of the Nation and everything that he stood for in his life, beliefs and actions.\" On Tuesday, a New Delhi court issued an injunction to stop the sale. Watch the auction stoke high interest \u00bb . But the Antiquorum auction house in Manhattan went ahead with the auction as scheduled. The Indian government had rejected an offer from Otis, who had asked the Indian government to expand its spending on the poor in exchange for the items. India's government already spends a large amount of money on the country's disadvantaged sectors, India's culture minister Ambika Soni told reporters Thursday. Still, the government had hoped Otis would not allow the public to bid on the items. Soni, the culture minister, said that India's government exercised several options to stop the auction at the Antiquorum in New York. Gandhi, who waged a long struggle against British rule in India, was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic on January 30, 1948. He is still widely revered for his insistence on non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress. Many Indians believe selling Gandhi's items for profit is outrageous. \"I feel very sad about it because Gandhi himself never believed in private possessions,\" said Varsha Das, director of India's National Gandhi Museum, using a term of endearment for Gandhi. \"He gave away everything. He did not even have a home to live in.\" CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mallya expected to return items to Indian government, CNN-IBN reports .\nIndia's Ministry of External Affairs: Bidding would \"commercialize\" Gandhi's memory .\nControversy prompted seller James Otis to ask that items be withdrawn from auction .","id":"21625ba548d4b7a26110b15b7d31ede8d11218db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Georgia company whose peanut products have been blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak shipped some products even though they had tested positive for the bacteria and no other tests indicated they were safe, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The FDA confirmed Friday the Peanut Corp.'s Blakely, Georgia, plant shipped tainted product without retesting. Previously, Peanut Corporation of America had said it shipped products only after subsequent tests on them came back negative. Items made with its peanut products have been linked to more than 500 cases of illness, including eight deaths. The agency said the company's management told FDA inspectors last month during an inspection of the plant that they shipped products that first had tested positive for salmonella, but only if they later had tested negative. But, it said, \"FDA determined that certain information provided by PCA management during the inspection was not consistent with the subsequent analysis of the company's records.\" As a result, the agency amended its report Thursday. \"In some situations the firm received a positive salmonella test result, followed by a later negative result, and then shipped the products,\" said the FDA report, which was included in an e-mail to CNN. \"In some other situations, the firm shipped the products [which had already tested positive] before it had received the [second] positive test results.\" Watch Senate hearing on food safety amid peanut recall \u00bb . In some cases, it said, \"no additional testing appears to have been done.\" No one from the company returned a call seeking comment. Federal authorities have initiated a criminal investigation into the company.","highlights":"Government confirms PCA shipped salmonella-tainted product without further testing .\nPCA had said it shipped products only after subsequent tests returned negative .\nFDA: Data provided by company \"not consistent with the subsequent analysis\"","id":"901692ac154bb88bd56690dfb2415653f6819baf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship bound for Mombasa, Kenya, was attacked Tuesday by Somali pirates, according to a NATO source with direct knowledge of the matter. Pirates attacked The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, but were unable to board. \"The pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at the vessel, which sustained damage,\" said a statement from New York-based Liberty Maritime Corporation, which owns the vessel. The ship was carrying U.S. food aid for African nations, the statement said. The pirates never made it onto the ship and the vessel is now being escorted by a coalition ship, still bound for Mombasa, officials said. Two senior defense officials said the Liberty Sun was being escorted by the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge. It is the ship carrying Richard Phillips, the captain of the container ship Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked last week. Phillips spent days as a hostage of the pirates before being rescued Sunday. Katy Urbik of Wheaton, Illinois, said her son, Thomas, was aboard the Liberty Sun at the time of the attack. She shared the e-mails he sent as the ship came under fire. \"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets,\" said one e-mail sent Tuesday afternoon. \"We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. [A] rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out. \"Navy is on the way and helos and ships are coming. I'll try to send you another message soon. [G]ot to go now. I love you mom and dad and all my brothers and family.\" \"My heart stopped after I realized there wasn't going to be a 'just kidding' after his comment,\" Katy Urbik said. About 1\u00bd hours later, Thomas Urbik sent another e-mail to his mother, which said, \"The navy has showed up in full force and we are now under military escort ... all is well. I love you all and thank you for the prayers.\" In an e-mail only hours before the attack, Urbik's son tried to assure his mother that his crew was safe and taking precautions. \"Don't worry too much. I am fine and we are being well monitored by the U.S. Navy, who is demanding we send them a report every six hours on our position and status,\" Thomas Ubrik's e-mail said. He added, \"We in fact are going to be the second American ship to arrive into Mombasa after the Maersk Alabama. It should be interesting to say the least. ... We have had several drills to prepare ourselves to secure ourselves in the engine room. [W]e can do it pretty quick by now.\" The company said the ship had dropped off food aid last week at a Sudanese port and the ship was going around the Horn of Africa to reach Kenya when it came under attack. However, the exact location of the attack remained unclear. Earlier Tuesday, pirates off the coast of Somalia seized two freighters, proving they remain a force to contend with just days after the U.S. Navy dramatically rescued an American captain held by other pirates. First, pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday hijacked the MV Irene EM, a 35,000-ton Greek-owned bulk carrier, according to a NATO spokesman and the European Union's Maritime Security Center. The crew of the Greek carrier was thought to be unhurt and ships have been warned to stay clear of the area for fear of further attack, the Security Center said. Later Tuesday, pirates on four skiffs seized the 5,000-ton MV Sea Horse, a Lebanese-owned and Togo-flagged vessel, said Cmdr. Chris Davies of NATO's Maritime Component Command Headquarters in Northwood, England. Details about the ship and its crew weren't immediately available. NATO has an ongoing anti-piracy mission off Somalia called Operation Allied Protector. The mission involves four ships covering more than a million square miles, Davies said. A U.S.-led international naval task force, Combined Task Force-151, is also patrolling in the region. Tuesday's hijackings came two days after sharpshooters from the U.S. Navy SEALs killed three pirates who had been holding Phillips hostage on the water for days. Phillips had offered himself as a hostage when pirates attacked the Alabama on Wednesday, officials said. The ship had been on its way to deliver aid to Mombasa, Kenya. A fourth pirate had been aboard Bainbridge when the shootings occurred and was taken into custody. Watch the tough tactics the Navy uses \u00bb . The incident follows four freighters being seized over the past two days by pirates off the Somalian coast, proving they remain a force to contend with. Pirates on Monday hijacked two Egyptian fishing boats carrying a total of between 18 and 24 people, the Egyptian Information Ministry told CNN. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry is working to end the hijacking, the ministry said. Egyptian boats are known to use Somali waters illegally for fishing, taking advantage of the lawless state of the country and the lack of enforcement of its maritime boundaries. Those who have tracked pirate activity in Somalia say it started in the 1980s, when the pirates claimed they were trying to stop the rampant illegal fishing and dumping that continues to this day off the Somali coast. Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. Some experts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the pirates. CNN's Mike Mount, Barbara Starr and David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"Crewman e-mailed hours before attack that Navy was monitoring the ship .\nCrewman e-mails, \"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets\"\nFour freighters seized in last two days .\nGreek 35,000-ton bulk carrier and Lebanese-owned, Togo-flagged both seized .","id":"3df3a64f986937476210c463ed18767bc4a098ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Baptist minister who was fatally shot Sunday as he led services at a church in suburban Saint Louis, Missouri, was carrying out work he believed in fervently, a church official said Monday. The Web site for First Baptist Church of Maryville includes a photo of slain Pastor Fred Winters. \"I believe that he would want us to know that he died doing exactly what he believed passionately about,\" Worship and Music Pastor Mark Jones told reporters outside First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois, about Pastor Fred Winters, who was killed the day before. Jones expressed gratitude for an overwhelming response from the public that has included more than 1,000 e-mails of support. They will be compiled \"into a huge book of love\" to be given to Winters' widow, he said. Investigators have charged Terry J. Sedlacek, 27, with first-degree murder in the killing. Sedlacek was further charged with two counts of aggravated battery related to the stabbing of parishioners Terry Bullard and Keith Melton. Their wounds were not life-threatening, said Illinois State Police spokesman Ralph Timmins. Sedlacek himself was seriously wounded in the melee, Timmins said Sunday. Asked what led Sedlacek to the church, Jones said, \"We're scratching our heads on that one.\" Watch response of grieving church \u00bb . Jones said another church official visited Sedlacek's family on Monday. \"We wanted them to know that we're praying for them, we're praying for the attacker,\" Jones said. Speaking of Sedlacek, Jones added, \"Maybe he, too, needs to go back to the Bible and read the book and ask the question, 'Is this really God's word? Do I need to reconsider some things?' \" Watch aftermath of shooting in church \u00bb . Winters and the gunman exchanged words before the gunman fired four shots during Sunday morning services, hitting the minister's Bible and then hitting Winters himself, said Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent. \"The only thing we know is that the suspect said something to the pastor, and the pastor said something back to him -- we don't know what that was,\" Trent told reporters Sunday. \"It was almost as if the pastor may have recognized him, but we're not sure about that at all.\" Trent said the gunman's .45-caliber pistol jammed after he shot Winters. The man then pulled out a knife before being subdued by some of the approximately 150 worshippers attending the church in southern Illinois. \"When he was tackled by two of the members, we don't know whether he fell on the knife, injuring himself at the time, or whether [his injury] was self-inflicted during the struggle,\" Trent said. Watch police describe \"heroic action\" of parishioners \u00bb . Trent said police were trying to determine a motive in the shooting, noting that church members did not recognize the gunman. Last August, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch profiled Sedlacek in a story it did about Lyme disease. His mother, Ruth Abernathy, told the newspaper he began acting strangely during his junior year in high school; he seemed confused and stopped participating in activities that had interested him. The newspaper identified him as a resident of the Troy, Illinois, in suburban St. Louis. Abernathy told the paper her son was initially diagnosed with mental illness and then later diagnosed with Lyme disease. Lyme disease diagnosis, effects and treatment has caused disagreement in the medical community. A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that mental illness associated with Lyme disease is highly unusual, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America said Lyme disease \"is not known to cause violent behavior.\" But a study published in 2002 in the American Journal of Psychiatry and carried out in the Czech Republic found that 36 percent of 900 psychiatric subjects had antibodies to the bacterium linked to Lyme disease, versus 18 percent of 900 healthy control subjects. The Illinois shooting is believed to be the nation's first in a church since July, when a 58-year-old man opened fire in a Knoxville, Tennessee, church during a children's play. Two people were killed and six wounded in the shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Jim Adkisson told police he targeted the church because of its \"liberal teachings,\" according to court papers. Adkisson pleaded guilty last month in a deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole, court officials said. CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Fred Winters \"died doing exactly what he believed passionately about\"\nWhat led to attack? \"We're scratching our heads,\" says Music Pastor Mark Jones .\nTerry J. Sedlacek , 27, charged with murder in Winters' death, aggravated battery .\nPolice: Attacker, two worshippers who tried to subdue him suffered knife wounds .","id":"23fa40f154a13176c5a007f9b0f190a3b3b6b853"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mountain gorillas in a national park in Congo appear to be hanging on well despite such dangers as civil warfare and poaching, according to an ongoing census. Park rangers conducting the census in November. Workers have identified 75 \"habituated\" gorillas in Virunga National Park, three more than there were in the last census nearly a year and a half ago, said Samantha Newport, the park communications director. Habituated gorillas are those who are accustomed to contact with humans. They are easier to spot than non-habituated gorillas, thought to number around 120. Newport said the census should be completed by around January 20 and officials hope that more habituated gorillas will be identified. She said the fact that gorillas have survived amid civil war in the region is \"nothing short of a miracle.\" Laurent Nkunda's Tutsi armed force that had been fighting Congolese soldiers and their militia allies has had control of large swaths of the 8,000 square-kilometer park. The gorilla section is in a strategically important area near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda. Officials have long said that the 250-square kilometer gorilla reserve in the southern part of Virunga National Park is where around 200 of the world's 700 mountain gorillas live.","highlights":"Census of mountain gorillas in DR Congo doing well despite war, poaching .\nSo far, 75 gorillas found which are accustomed to human contact .\nThat's three more than last census and conservationists hope to identify more .","id":"4115c7fc9241f25284e7c4424eeff51d86be0496"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Students will examine Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous \"I Have a Dream\" speech. Also, they will compose responses to Dr. King in which they compare his historic vision of racial equality in the United States to the reality of present-day life. Procedure . In class discussion, have students define the following terms: racism, prejudice and discrimination. Have them give examples of each. Inform students that, on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his vision of racial equality in America in his historic \"I Have a Dream\" speech. Then, point out that in his speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of being judged not by the color of one's skin, but by the content of his or her character. Direct your students to read or watch Dr. King's famous \"I Have a Dream\" speech and discuss its content in class. Then, challenge each student to compare Dr. King's dream to the reality of life in the U.S. in the year 2009. Direct each student to compose a response to Dr. King, explaining what life is like in the U.S. today and to what extent his dream has been realized. (Encourage students to be creative in their responses. For example, students could write a letter, a speech, a song or a poem, or produce a brief video.) After students share their responses to Dr. King, pose the following questions for class discussion: . Correlated Standards . Social Studies . II. Time, Continuity and Change Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time. X. Civic Ideals and Practices Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/strands\/ ) are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/ ).","highlights":"Students will examine Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s \"I Have a Dream\" speech .\nStudents will compose responses to the speech based on life in 2009 .","id":"1e6a7ae3be782cbda34ba3e4e478ef2436a3336a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The woman and children held captive in a cellar for years by their incestuous father will take years to recover from their disturbing ordeal, doctors warned Wednesday as the family at the center of the case remained in psychiatric care. The bathroom used by Elizabeth Fritzl, who was held captive for more than two decades, and her three children. Members of the Fritzl family will also be offered the chance to adopt new identities in an effort to help them lead normal lives, officials said. Hans-Heinz Lenze, the head of local social services said the family was \"doing as well as can be expected in the circumstances\" and said any change of identity would be the family's decision. Elizabeth Fritzl -- now 42 -- spent more than two decades in the windowless basement after being drugged, handcuffed and locked up by her father, Josef Fritzl, as an 18-year-old. Repeatedly raped, she gave birth to seven children by Fritzl, one of whom died as an infant. Three of the children -- Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5 -- remained imprisoned underground with their mother. The other three lived in an apartment upstairs with Fritzl and his wife who believed Elizabeth had abandoned them after running away from home. Elizabeth and five of the children were continuing to receive treatment at a local clinic near Amstetten after being reunited on Sunday. Kerstin, whose hospitalization at the weekend finally brought the family's plight to the attention of authorities, remained in a coma at a nearby hospital. \"It is astonishing how easy it worked that the children came together, and also it was astonishing how easy it happened that the grandmother and the mother came together,\" clinic director Berthold Kepplinger said. But Kepplinger warned that the family would require extensive counseling. \"We're talking of 20 years of darkness, incest and its effects and other illnesses they might have suffered from.\" Kepplinger said the two sets of children were tentatively getting to know one another, adding that the two boys who had lived underground had an unusual way of communicating with each other. A policeman who had accompanied the boys to hospital after their discovery on Sunday said the pair had \"screamed with excitement\" during the car journey as they experienced the outside world for the first time. \"The two boys appeared overawed by the daylight they had never experienced before,\" said Chief Inspector Leopold Etz. \"The real world was completely alien to them... We had to drive very slowly with them because they cringed at every car light and every bump. It was as if we had just landed on the moon.\" In an interview with the Austrian newspaper, Oesterreich, psychiatrist Max Friedrich, who treated the abducted teenager Natascha Kampusch, estimated it would take \"between five and eight years\" for the children to recover from their experiences. Another psychologist, Bernd Prosser, told Austrian television that it would be impossible for the four held prisoner underground to lead normal lives. \"I am afraid it is too late for that.\" Kampusch, the Austrian girl abducted as a 10-year-old and held captive in a basement for more than eight years until she escaped in 2007, also offered her help to the family on Tuesday, but questioned the decision to move them from the cellar into psychiatric care. \"Pulling them abruptly out of this situation, without transition, to hold them and isolating them to some extent, it can't be good for them,\" said Kampusch, now 20, in an interview with Austrian TV station Puls 4. \"I believe it might have been even better to leave them where they were, but that was probably impossible. This case is not like mine, where that was not my environment. They were born there and I can imagine that there is a strong attachment to that place.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Austrian family held captive in a cellar will take years to recover, doctors say .\nFamily are undergoing treatment at a local psychiatric clinic .\nChildren kept underground may never lead normal lives, psychiatrist warns .\nFamily have been offered opportunity to adopt new identities .","id":"d97b093a03fee1ade5e991595b5f3aa3a7ac7d88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Witnesses caught up in the terrorist attack on Mumbai have spoken of how they ran for their lives, smashed windows to escape and sheltered in hotel rooms as the horror that has claimed more than 100 lives unfolded. An Indian police officer directs people leaving the Taj Mahal after gunmen attacked the hotel overnight Wednesday. One of the targets for the gunmen was the Taj Hotel, one of Mumbai's most famous landmarks. Anthony Rose, an Australian visiting Mumbai to produce a travel show, told CNN Thursday that he checked into the Taj hotel just a minute before attackers stormed into the lobby Wednesday night. \"They came in with all guns blazing,\" Rose said. \"It was just chaos.\" Watch Rose's comments on terror attacks \u00bb . Rose and others found refuge in a hotel ballroom, where they waited for six hours hoping to be rescued. Although they could hear explosions and gunfire nearby, there were no sirens or police evident, he said. Watch how terror attacks have shaken India. \u00bb . Help never arrived and the group were forced to smash a thick glass window and climbed down to the street on curtains. \"As soon as the hotel was on fire, we knew we had to go,\" Rose said. Meanwhile Manuela Testolini, founder of the In A Perfect World children's foundation and ex-wife of music icon Prince, described how she saw someone shot in front of her at the Taj before sheltering with 250 other terrified people in the darkened ballroom. Watch Testolini describe her escape \u00bb . Testolini was eating dinner at a restaurant across the street from the Taj when she saw the gunmen approach. \"We heard some gunshots,\" she said. \"My colleague saw someone get shot just outside of the glass doors of the restaurant. Obviously, that prompted us to jump up and run.\" Testolini left all her possessions and scurried through the kitchen of the restaurant to the sound of gunshots behind her, before heading with colleagues and restaurant staff to a darkened ballroom in the Taj. There they waited for two hours, listening to constant bullet barrages and grenade attacks outside. Another witness, Yasmin Wong, a CNN employee, was also staying in the Taj Hotel. She said she hid under her bed for several hours after she was awoken by gunfire. Watch Wong's comments on attack \u00bb . She then received a phone call from the hotel, telling her to turn her lights off, put a wet towel by the door and stay in her room until told otherwise. So Wong sat in the dark, watching smoke rise outside her hotel window. \"I saw a guy outside the window above me who had smashed the window and was hanging out,\" Wong said. \"At that point, authorities told us to run out of the hotel.\" Wong said she passed dead bodies in the hotel's halls as she searched for an exit, finally leaving through the pool entrance. Wong said: \"I thought it was going to end but it seemed to never end.\" Meanwhile Mark Abell spoke to CNN from a hotel room near the Taj. Watch Abell describe attack on Taj \u00bb . \"I came back from dinner last night at nine with a colleague, came into the lobby,\" Abell said. \"The security fences weren't operating; the hotel shook with an immense blast. Three or four minutes later, there was another large blast, the whole building shaking. \"I looked outside to see a crowd running. It was chaos, gunshots; it looked all very, very nasty.\" The Oberoi Hotel, which also has a reputation as one of Mumbai's most famous hotels, was also targeted by the gunmen. Gautam Patel was staying in the Trident Hotel, which is adjacent to the Oberoi, when the attacks began. Watch Patel describe the evacuation \u00bb . \"I was up on the 11th floor and while I was on a conference call, I heard two large noises, and they sounded like thuds from within the room, and that's when we realized that there was something serious happening. \"When I heard the two thuds, that's when I looked out window and onto my left I could see the Oberoi Hotel -- there was a restaurant in the Oberoi Hotel -- which was under flames,\" Patel said. \"We left our room, walked down the fire exit, the hotel staff met us down at the bottom of hotel and put us into large banquet hall where we saw about 150 to 200 people. The lights were out, so we were just told to huddle there until we heard further.\" \"We stayed there for about one hour, that's when we heard another large two bangs. We couldn't tell if they were from outside or within the hotel, then we heard some gunfire. Twenty, 30 minutes past that, one of the senior advisers of the hotel mentioned we would be escorted to the back of the hotel, put into groups of 10 people and told to run to the neighboring cinema hall, where we would be safe. \"I think most of the activity was happening in the lobby,\" Patel said. \"People were talking, rumoring about the fact that terrorists were in the hotel, so there was a search by room-to-room, so I think the activity was happening in the hotel and the front of the hotel.\" New York-based filmmaker Smriti Mundhra and her parents were staying in an apartment near the Oberoi. Watch Mundhra talk about the scene outside her door \u00bb . \"We're all safe in our apartment right now, following instructions by the police to stay at home with the doors locked and away from windows,\" Mundhra told CNN. \"Just as we were getting ready for bed last night, I heard a little bit of commotion on the street and some police sirens and didn't really think much of it. Then my parents came in and told me something was going on in the neighborhood. So we watched the news and realized essentially there's a terrorist attack happening just outside our door.\" \"We've been indoors since we've been hearing things from out of the window -- bombs and police sirens and all kinds of chaos,\" Mundhra continued. \"I've been watching in on TV and it's very hard to connect the two, that all of that is happening right outside our doors. \"We haven't really been in touch with our neighbors, we've just been locked down in to our apartment. \"We were told to stay indoors, not leave our houses, stay away from windows. I know that the people who are in buildings surrounding the Oberoi have been advised to keep lights off and windows and blinds closed and we've done all of that, and just keeping an eye on our family.\"","highlights":"Witnesses speak of their horror at being caught in Mumbai terror attacks .\nHotel guests describe how they saw people shot in front of them, fled for their lives .\nWitness at Taj: \"They came in with all guns blazing. It was just chaos\"\nDiner: \"My colleague saw someone get shot just outside of the glass doors\"","id":"f6f66ebb47f44136eb27248bb3ea0cdb36d2c9ad"} -{"article":"Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi walks Anjali Rao through the streets of Tokyo. She stunned global cinema audiences with her controversial and Oscar-nominated performance as a lonely deaf girl in the film \"Babel.\" Rinko Kikuchi is one of Japan's hottest young actresses and models, recently working with Karl Lagerfeld as the new face of Channel. Despite her success, she remains an unconventional figure in Japan, at odds with the traditional demure image of the Japanese woman and forging a career on her own terms. Talk Asia follows her on a modelling assignment, discusses how her life has changed since \"Babel\" and revisits the unique location of one of the film's most important scenes. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rinko Kikuchi was Oscar-nominated for her performance in the film \"Babel\"\nShe has recently worked with Karl Lagerfeld as the new face of Channel .\nShe challenges the traditional demure image of the Japanese woman .","id":"66cac7fb53c3d297b3bba63f91c8e9086735a2cd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More timely now than when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, \"Sunshine Cleaning,\" an agreeable, midrange independent film, makes light work of heavy burdens. Amy Adams gets to work cleaning up as Rose in the indie comedy \"Sunshine Cleaning.\" Sisters Rose (Amy Adams) and Norah (Emily Blunt) struggle with menial jobs and periods of unemployment. Together, they're also coping with the nasty emotional residue of their mom's long-ago suicide -- a trauma that is likely responsible for their current troubles. Self-esteem isn't a strong suit for either of them. As \"Sunshine Cleaning\" dawns, they're both scraping by. If Norah is out of work before we've settled into our popcorn, she's not overly concerned by her situation. Rose, on the other hand, is desperate to graduate from cleaning other people's middle-class homes. It's not just that the humiliation of laundering for her old cheerleader team is getting her down; she needs the money to put her \"difficult\" kid (Jason Spevack) into the kind of school that will give him a chance. It's Rose's married boyfriend -- and old high school sweetheart -- Mac (Steve Zahn) who spies a new niche for the sisters. A homicide detective, he's watching the cleaning crew bag the blown brains of a shotgun enthusiast when he overhears the proprietor of the building grousing about the \"three grand\" it's costing him. Granted, blood and intestinal juices aren't everybody's cup of tea, but that kind of return sure beats washing Mrs. Johansson's drapes for $30 an hour. \"CSM: Crime Scene Maid\" isn't a job you're likely to find down at the employment office, but somebody must be doing the dirty work. Rose and Norah -- incorporated -- find that the stench takes some getting used to, and there's a whole new arsenal of cleaning fluids to master, but they get to work with a positive attitude and like to think they're doing their bit to put the world right. From this unusual setup, the movie might have skewed in any number of ways. The sisters might have uncovered evidence of corruption and murder, for instance, perhaps implicating Mac? \"Sunshine Cleaning\" is nowhere near so abrasive or generic as such a scenario. Written by Megan Holley and directed by Christine Jeffs (\"Sylvia\"), it instead puts a sympathetic, gentle comic gloss on the characters' fundamentally forgivable foibles and imperfections. Norah tracks down the daughter of one suicide (Mary Lynn Rajskub) to present her with mementos that should have been destined for the junkyard. Blunt's edgy performance keeps us guessing. Norah's a bit of a flake, but she's animated by her anger and her rebellious streak. If she's hard to read, it's because she's still young and doesn't know herself yet. Rose is easier to understand. She's determined to seize this chance to dig herself out of the hole and recapture the promise she used to see in herself. Adams has a knack for putting a brave face on things -- something about the way she tilts her chin up while her mouth goes in three directions at once. She keeps our rooting interest in Rose alive even when her choices seem misguided or naive. A subplot concerning Rose's son bonding with Joe (Alan Arkin), the sisters' lovable but infuriating father (you know the kind: He buys bulk orders of shrimp off the back of a truck) tips us too far into the realm of indie quirk. The character is a useful sounding board, and an amusing grouch, but it's just about impossible to imagine this man bringing up these girls. Ironically, for a movie that's marketed with the one-liner \"Life's a messy business,\" Holley's script has been polished to within an inch of its life. Emotions are experienced most vividly when they're raw, but in \"Sunshine Cleaning,\" feelings come filtered through neat-and-tidy grace notes. The film flirts with dangerous material, but it's too intent on putting the sunny side up to get its hands dirty. The way director Jeffs tells it, not only is suicide painless it can be positively feel-good. That's not to say there isn't a lot to enjoy in this well-acted and humanistic comedy. Buoyed by its up-and-coming stars and its optimistic message, it should do very nicely with discriminating audiences. ... It might even clean up.","highlights":"Tom Charity: Up-and-coming stars, optimistic message buoy \"Sunshine Cleaning\"\nTwo struggling sisters become a crime-scene cleanup crew .\nMovie presents feelings in neat-and-tidy packages, reviewer says .","id":"eb12300d435ae9c534ff2b247a0e73a4e0fd41ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If a bed and 14 other antiques up for sale in New York next week look familiar, it might be that you saw them in a movie. An American Renaissance gilt, carved, inlaid and ebonized bed is expected to go for $500,000. Pieces of furniture owned by two very rich 19th-century Americans were destined for a trash pile before they were rescued for the silver screen. They will find new life on the auction block next week. Made by the Herter Brothers in the 1870s, the furniture sat in Warner Brothers' Hollywood props department since 1942, when the studio bought it at an estate auction for a fraction of the original cost. Warner Brothers, owned by CNN parent Time Warner Inc., could get $2 million from the auction, and it means valuable space will be cleared out in the props department storage. One studio source said using such expensive -- although authentic -- props on movie sets doesn't make business sense. Jon King, director of Bonham's, the New York auction house that will put the furniture on sale next Thursday, said he did not have the studio's permission to reveal in which movies the furniture might have been used. You can watch post-1942 Warner Brothers period films to find them. \"You have to go slow-motion and stop and start an awful lot,\" King said. \"I would imagine that if any of these were in movies they might steal the scene away from the actors,\" said King, an expert in 19th-century furniture. A New York Times article about the furniture, published in 1995, said it appeared in Warner Brother's \"Saratoga Trunk,\" a 1945 movie starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. Few records were kept over the decades to track the pieces' appearances, a studio source said. King said he saw Herter Brothers furniture from the same estate in Alfred Hitchcock's \"Psycho,\" filmed in 1960 on Universal's lots. Universal bought its furniture at the same 1942 estate auction that Warner Brothers attended. The studio sold its collection years ago, King said. The furniture -- in American Renaissance and American Aesthetic styles -- was made with \"very exotic and very expensive materials\" for two very rich California men -- Gov. Milton Slocum Latham and railroad magnate Mark Harper, King said. The most dramatic piece is an ornate bed commissioned for the master bedroom at Latham's Menlo Park, California, home. It could sell for $500,000, King said. \"A lot of people in the field regard that as the finest bed ever made in the 19th century in America,\" King said. \"Basically, the quality of carving and the number of things going on in there in the bed, it's just amazing.\" Changing times and tastes made the furniture obsolete for anything but a period movie by 1942. Movie studios were scouring the country for cheap furniture for their props departments, King said. But recent decades have see a steep rise in values for Herter Brothers craftwork, he said. King said next week's sale is significant for collectors because \"this is the last studio collection.\" The Herter Brothers -- German immigrants who set up their furniture-making shop in New York City after the Civil War -- also made furniture for the White House, where some pieces remain.","highlights":"The furniture was owned by two wealthy 19th-century Americans .\nStudio bought it at an estate auction in 1942 for a fraction of its original cost .\nAuction house not allowed to reveal in which movies the furniture was used .\nYou can watch post-1942 Warner Brothers period films to find the antiques .","id":"928a1034c8a5ad1ccefa8c44113abac3e0b02b73"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard has denied assaulting a man during a nightclub brawl last month, a court in Southport, northern England, heard on Friday. Gerrard leaves court on Friday after pleading not guilty to actual bodily harm and affray. Gerrard, 28, issued a not guilty plea to affray and assaulting company director Marcus McGee, 34, at the Lounge Inn, Southport, after Gerrard scored twice in Liverpool's 5-1 win at Newcastle, reported the UK's Press Association. The Liverpool captain was charged with occasioning actual bodily harm and affray along with co-defendants John Doran, 29, and Ian Smith, 19. Dozens of photographers were kept back from the magistrates' court entrance in a penned area as Gerrard arrived in a dark blue suit. Nick Evans, prosecuting, asked for the case to be heard next on April 3 after a 10-week break to prepare it. But after submissions from the defense solicitors including Gerrard's, Richard Green, the magistrates adjourned the case back to the court at Southport on March 20. Gerrard, a father of two young daughters, spoke only to confirm his name and address and say he intended to plead not guilty along with the other defendants.","highlights":"Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard denies assault charges in court on Friday .\nAlleged incident came hours after Gerrard scored twice in win at Newcastle .\nGerrard pleaded not guily and will return to the court in Southport on March 20 .","id":"33616071f2a49cd89221cd6eb1b07f6b86fd6f8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australian Tim Cahill dealt Liverpool a desperate and potentially damaging blow with the goal that salvaged a 1-1 draw for bitter rivals Everton and stopped the Reds returning to the top of the Premier League. Tim Cahill earned Everton the point they deserved with a header three minutes from the end to deny Liverpool. Liverpool had grabbed the lead when Steven Gerrard, captaining the Anfield club for the 250th time, swept home a low drive midway through the second half for his 14th goal of the season. But Cahill earned Everton the draw their contribution deserved when he met Mikel Arteta's 87th minute free-kick with a powerful header from inside the six-yard box. Spain striker Fernando Torres returned to Liverpool's starting line-up for the first time since November following hamstring problems, for the 209th Merseyside derby. And Torres should have broken the deadlock in the first half when he surged between Joleon Lescott and Phil Jagielka only to prod his shot against a post from a few meters. Referee Howard Webb was kept busy as the tackles flew in and he lectured Phil Neville, Joleon Lescott and Arteta after a series of fouls on Gerrard. Webb later refused Liverpool a penalty two minutes after the interval when Torres went down theatrically after being nudged by Jagielka. Everton believed they were entitled to a spot kick when Martin Skrtel looked to send Victor Anichebe tumbling. The referee again waved away the appeals, and the complaints were still raging on the pitch -- and the touchline -- as Liverpool surged away for Gerrard to crash home a 30-yard drive to put the hosts ahead after 68 minutes. It had been more than 10 hours since Everton had conceded a goal and it looked as though it would be enough to send Liverpool back to the top ahead of Manchester United. Cahill had other ideas -- and the sides will go through it all again on Sunday when Liverpool host Everton in an FA Cup fourth round clash.","highlights":"Australian Tim Cahill denies Liverpool win with late goal as Everton draw 1-1 .\nLiverpool had grabbed the lead when Steven Gerrard struck after 68 minutes .\nMerseyside rivals clash again on Sunday at Anfield in FA Cup fourth round .","id":"1a08d5cc23fdc16cb343989af3b8649f51424ede"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Police evacuated a major department store in central Paris Tuesday after finding five sticks of dynamite inside, French police told CNN. Paris's Printemps department store, which has been hit by a security alert, pictured last month. CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported the dynamite was not rigged to explode, but police did not immediately confirm the report. French news agency AFP said it received a letter in the mail Tuesday morning, claiming to be from an Afghan revolutionary group and saying that a bomb was at the renowned Printemps department store. The news agency alerted the police, who evacuated the store, AFP told CNN. The letter specified three locations where explosives had been placed, and urged the news agency to contact the police \"quickly or you will have blood on your hands,\" according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN which AFP confirmed was accurate. \"I assure you that this is not a prank,\" the letter said. The bomb squad found the dynamite around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET), police said. It is not clear if the explosives were found where the letter said they would be. See where Printemps is located in Paris \u00bb . AFP said the letter was signed by a group called \"Front Revolutionaires Afghan,\" or Afghan Revolutionary Front. BFM-TV reported the group is calling for the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by the end of February 2009. \"Make sure the message is relayed to your president of the republic that he withdraw his troops from our country (Afghanistan) before the end of February 2009 or we will strike again your capitalist department stores but without warning,\" the letter said. It is the second time in a week that AFP has received a warning about the store. The agency said it received a phone call from a similar Afghan group a few days ago regarding the store, but at the time, police chose not to evacuate. Printemps, one of France's most renowned stores, is popular with tourists and locals alike and located on the Boulevard Haussman. Most of the store reopened later in the day, although the area where the dynamite was found remained closed. Jim Bittermann, CNN's senior European correspondent based in Paris, said: \"These kind of stores at this time of year are absolutely packed with shoppers.\" He added that France has a considerable number of troops in Afghanistan. In August, 10 French soldiers were killed in fighting near the Afghan capital Kabul. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier this year that his government was willing to commit more troops to the war in Afghanistan. \"We cannot afford to see the Taliban and al Qaeda returning to Kabul,\" Sarkozy said during a state visit to the UK in March. \"Whatever the cost, however difficult the victory, we cannot afford it. We must win.\" Paula Newton, CNN's international security correspondent, said that the group involved was previously unheard of. \"This may be termed a hoax attack but it will cause real anxiety on the ground.\" CNN's Jim Bittermann and Niki Cook contributed to this report .","highlights":"Bomb squad found the suspicious package around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET)\nPolice: Could not confirm French TV reports that package contained dynamite .\nPrintemps is an upscale department store on the Boulevard Haussman .\nAlert came after letter from group claiming Afghan links, criticizes Sarkozy .","id":"a607d46ebd1c746c3ca147a52b9cd8c5d3d4f2a3"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- William Potts picks up his daughters from school every day. People consider him a generous neighbor and a good father. William Potts smuggled a firearm aboard a flight, hijacked the plane and forced the crew to fly to Cuba. But few know how this eccentric American ended up in Cuba. \"I came to Cuba 25 years ago. I hijacked an airplane,\" said Potts, who was convicted of air piracy. Potts says he was enthused by Fidel Castro and his revolution. He imagined a racial and social utopia that could be replicated in his own country. In 1984, he smuggled a firearm aboard a commercial flight and forced the crew to fly to Havana, Cuba. No one was injured. \"In my revolutionary naivete, I came looking for military training,\" he says. Instead, he ended up in jail. He spent 13 years behind bars in Cuba. In 1971, the United States and Cuba signed an agreement in which each government agreed to prosecute hijackers or return them to the other country. Potts, who married after being released from prison, is now divorced and lives on the outskirts of Havana with his two daughters, ages 4 and 7. He makes some money letting his neighbors use his prized Internet connection. But the New Yorker is homesick and says his elderly parents need help. \"I committed a crime and paid for it,\" he says. \"Now what I want is to return home because I have to attend to my family.\" Watch Potts explain why he thinks he deserves a pardon \u00bb . He says the time is right. Potts wrote a letter to President Obama asking for a pardon that would let him return to the United States without fear of being jailed. There are thought to be 700 American fugitives hiding in Cuba. Members of the Black Panthers, Puerto Rican independence movement members and common criminals have sought sanctuary on the island. For the most part, they try to go unnoticed. Perhaps the most famous is black activist Assata Shakur, who was convicted for killing a police officer in New Jersey in 1973 but escaped from prison in 1979 and ended up in Cuba. Potts says he wants to leave behind his radical days and expects that Obama will finally allow him to do that.","highlights":"William Potts hijacked a plane 25 years ago and forced crew to fly to Cuba .\nPotts served 12 years in a Cuban jail and now lives outside Havana .\nPotts asking Obama for pardon to allow him to return to U.S. to care for family .\n\"I committed a crime and paid for it,\" he says .","id":"fe2f923bcfed3e5e6e19e1662b5a0cddeeda7ffe"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations humanitarian chief Wednesday criticized a two-day pause in the fighting between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels as \"inadequate.\" U.N. Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes said he would have liked a \"proper humanitarian pause.\" John Holmes, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told reporters that the 48-hour break in hostilities was not sufficient, even as fighting resumed in the northeast of the country. The brief cessation of hostilities was announced by the Sri Lankan government on April 12 and allowed the U.N. and its partners to bring in necessary aid, said Holmes. He said he would have liked a \"proper humanitarian pause\" that lasted longer than two days, but hoped the break allowed for some progress to occur. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon had originally welcomed the announcement by the Sri Lankan government. However, Ban also expressed his concern that, \"This is less than the full humanitarian pause of several days I had pressed for.\" But Ban added that the pause \"is nevertheless a useful first step and an opportunity to move towards the peaceful and orderly end to the fighting now so badly needed.\" The government of Sri Lanka has been battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) rebels in a civil conflict that has lasted nearly 25 years. The LTTE has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the nations of the European Union. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict officially began in 1983. The most pressing concern now, according to Holmes, is the fact that over 100,000 people are currently crowded in a \"very small pocket of land\" that is about five square miles, or about twice the size of New York's Central Park. \"It is a very small area indeed for what we believe is very large number of people\" Holmes explained. The crowded population, primarily comprised of Tamil civilians, is subject to the continuing Sri Lankan government assaults. The British and French foreign ministers released a joint statement as well on Wednesday, claiming that the LTTE is also using Tamil civilians as human shields. Holmes also called attention to the fact that the press has been barred from covering the civil strife in Sri Lanka. Ultimately, Holmes and the United Nations would like to see a peaceful end to the hostilities, but \"its pretty clear, frankly, that a ceasefire as such is not something available at present circumstances.\"","highlights":"U.N. humanitarian chief criticizes a two-day pause in fighting as \"inadequate\"\n48-hour cessation of hostilities announced by Sri Lankan government on April 12 .\nCeasefire allowed the U.N. and its partners to bring in necessary aid .\nSri Lankan government has been battling LTTE rebels for nearly 25 years .","id":"2e27188d33a8d6c256d8764765d7314b55e6c7d8"} -{"article":"OXON HILL, Maryland (CNN) -- Crew members of the Maersk Alabama, safely back in the United States after being attacked by pirates last week off Somalia, recounted their ordeal Thursday. Navy personnel recover the lifeboat from which Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued Sunday. \"They start firing before they climb, with AK-47,\" crew member Zahid Reza said. \"I was scared for my life. I was almost close to that. And they tried to shoot me many times,\" he said, pointing to his head. \"Pointing gun all over. Here, there, in the back.\" Pirates tried three times to board the U.S.-flagged cargo ship before their fourth attempt was successful, fellow crew member William Rios said, adding that the groups of pirates were different but that he thinks they were working together. Rios said he was working on deck when he was called back to lock down the ship. Then, he said, there were gunshots, and an alarm went off to alert all crew members to wake up and get on deck. \"We went to our training,\" he said, declining to provide details: \"If I tell you all what we did, pirates, they would know.\" Watch the crew praise their captain \u00bb . The pirates intended to ask for a $3 million ransom, Reza said. He said he and the ship's chief engineer took one of the pirates hostage. Reza said he persuaded the pirate -- whom he described as a young man, maybe 18 or 19 -- to trust him, pointing out that he is Bangladeshi and the pirate was Somali. \"His name is Abdul,\" Reza said. \"I told him, 'Trust me. I am Muslim; you are Muslim.' \" He told Abdul he would take him to the engine room to find more crew members. When they got there, the room was dark, he said, and he didn't know the ship's chief engineer was in there. He said the chief engineer jumped the pirate first, then Reza stabbed him with his knife, and the two men tied the pirate's hands and feet. Reza said he intended to kill the youth, but the chief engineer told him, \"No, we need him alive.\" Watch Reza talk about wanting to kill the pirate \u00bb . \"He was fighting me and chief engineer, to get away from us. A lot of yelling, shouting and screaming.\" Rios said he went to the lifeboat, where Capt. Richard Phillips was being held, to exchange Abdul for Phillips but was unsuccessful. The captain -- who offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the freedom of his crew -- was rescued by U.S. Navy SEALs on Sunday. The SEALs, on the nearby guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, fatally shot three pirates and rescued Phillips. A fourth pirate was arrested. \"I feel great they got killed,\" Reza said. \"I am happy.\" He said he was proud of the Navy. Phillips arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, aboard the Bainbridge on Thursday. The crew arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland overnight. Watch crew arrive in U.S. \u00bb . Rios said Phillips is \"outstanding; he's extraordinary; he's [a] very brave man.\" Another crew member, John White, said they were \"damn lucky to be alive.\" Rios called for more security in the Gulf of Aden. \"Put more military to patrol the waterway for us transporting material back and forth,\" he said. \"... All the countries got to get involved with this.\" Reza echoed the call. \"I think government should get involved,\" he said. \"They should think about our safety, yes. ... This piracy is getting bigger and bigger.\" CNN's Paul Courson, Virginia Nicolaidis and Dugald McConnell contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Maersk Alabama crew tell about pirates' takeover of ship .\nNEW: Crew member says he gained confidence of, tried to kill pirate .\nNEW: \"I feel great they got killed,\" crew member says of pirates .\nNEW: Crew calls for international effort to secure shipping lanes .","id":"43e41c714e792216f0dfcaa9df3c31190b5ed00e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 23-year-old Mexican beauty queen and seven men were taken into custody late Monday after being found in vehicles containing weapons and cash in central Mexico, police said Tuesday. Laura Zuniga and seven men were found in vehicles with guns and $50,000, Mexican police say. Laura Zuniga and the men were traveling in two vehicles that contained AR-15 assault rifles, handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash, said Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez de Velazco, secretary of public security for the state of Jalisco. The eight were stopped in Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, and will face arms charges and an investigation by a federal organized crime team, Najera said. Police, who had received a tip that a group of armed men were in a home, \"detected\" the vehicles as they were traveling to investigate the call, Najera said. One of the men in the vehicles was 29-year-old Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, who is Zuniga's boyfriend and the brother of \"one of the greatest capos of narcotraffic,\" Najera said. Najera said Urquiza's brother, Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, is a member of the Juarez cartel and already was in police custody. All eight were filed before the news media Tuesday. Zuniga, wearing blue jeans and a gray sweater, raised her handcuffed wrists to cover her face in a police picture. Zuniga is from Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, a center of drug activity. In July, she won the title Nuestra Belleza Sinaloa. That gave her the right to compete two months later in the national Nuestra Belleza Mexico in Monterrey, where she won \"The Election of the Queens,\" one of five special recognitions, and came in third overall. In October, she won the title \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. According to the Nuestra Belleza Mexico Web site, she is to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest.","highlights":"Mexican police: Laura Zuniga, seven men face arms charges, federal probe .\nZuniga, men found in vehicles with weapons, $50,000, police say .\nZuniga won state beauty contest, finished third in national competition .\nShe won \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" title in October .","id":"64a43cb424014e3433332f0cd65758ea3fd7b283"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than half the Christian population has fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in reaction to a campaign of killings and intimidation, according to the United Nations. Christian women attend a religious service Sunday at a church in Baghdad. An estimated 13,000 Christians have left because of oppression the U.S. government blames on al Qaeda in Iraq. Mosul, in Nineveh province, is one of the last Iraqi cities where al Qaeda in Iraq has a significant presence and routinely carries out attacks. An estimated 2,300 families have fled Mosul this month, but the exodus has started to ebb, Nineveh province's Deputy Gov. Khasro Goran said Tuesday. No Christian family has left the city over the past seven days, and at least 100 families returned to their homes in and around Mosul during that time, Goran said. Authorities said they believe Christian demonstrations earlier this month may have prompted the attacks. Hundreds of Christians took to the streets in Mosul and surrounding villages and towns demanding adequate representation on provincial councils, whose members will be chosen in local elections in January. The violence that followed those protests left at least 14 Iraqi Christians dead and prompted the Iraqi government to dispatch more security forces to patrol the city. Violence has declined as a result, Iraqi officials said. Last week, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said the anti-Christian attacks and threats are partly \"due to elements of al Qaeda that still enjoy some ability to operate up there.\" \"This is an attempt, it appears, to try to inflame tensions and fault lines that exist between religious and sectarian groups,\" Morrell said. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is helping many of the displaced families, most of whom have fled to nearby villages in Nineveh province. About 400 others have crossed into Syria, but many have said they no longer feel safe there, according to the refugee agency. Syria already hosts more than 1 million Iraqi refugees. The U.N. agency said many of the Iraqi Christians told stories of intimidation and death threats. \"One woman said she and her mother left Mosul early last week, two days after someone called one of her colleagues at work and said that all Christians should leave the city immediately or be killed,\" according to a UNHCR news release. \"She said she was unnerved but decided to leave only after hearing reports that 11 people had been killed at a checkpoint by militiamen dressed as police officers. She and her mother escaped with a couple of bags and all the money that they had in the house -- they did not dare go to the bank to remove their savings.\" A nurse told UNHCR that the threats against Christians in Mosul began months ago \"with phone calls, letters and messages left on doors.\" In other violence Tuesday in Mosul, four police officers were killed and four wounded when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Gunmen in cars ambushed police as they were on their way to start work in west Mosul's al-Amil neighborhood, the official said. Also Tuesday in Baghdad, six civilians died and 23 were hurt in four bombings, the official said. In eastern Baghdad, in the Shiite al-Baladiyat neighborhood, a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday afternoon, killing one civilian and wounding five others, the official said. Earlier, a parked car exploded near a busy outdoor market in the western al-Jihad neighborhood, killing at least five people and wounding 11 others, the Interior Ministry official said. No other details were available about the blast. Two roadside bombs exploded in central Baghdad's al-Nahdha commercial area, wounding seven people, the official said. The first blast hurt four civilians, while the second wounded three, the official said. Also Tuesday, the Iraqi army and police discovered 20 decomposed bodies in the basement of an abandoned house in Tal Afar, a town about 43 miles (70 kilometers) west of Mosul. There was no indication of how the victims -- who could not immediately be identified -- were killed, the official said. Authorities discovered the bodies after receiving tips from local residents. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Authorities find 20 decomposed bodies in basement of Tal Afar house .\nIntimidation, killings chase 13,000 Christians from Mosul, U.N. agency says .\nExodus is slowing, and some have returned, Iraqi official says .\nFour police, five civilians killed Tuesday in Mosul and Baghdad, ministry says .","id":"117429e635d713d0805f72ea958211243d5536e8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- After a week when he could not be traced, Egyptian striker Amir Zaki is back at his Premier League club side Wigan Athletic in northern England. Wigan and Egypt striker Amir Zaki has mended relations with his club manager. According to Wigan manager Steve Bruce the two have patched up their differences after he launched a verbal tirade against the 26-year-old striker. Zaki told Al-Hayat TV that the pair \"ended up laughing\" about his absence -- when he failed to return from international duty and had a hamstring strain which no one knew the seriousness of. But, it wasn't all laughs a week ago. On Wigan's club Web site, Bruce had said of Zaki: \"I just feel it's time that we went public on just what a nightmare he has been to deal with. I can honestly say that in all my time in football I have never worked with someone as unprofessional. \"I have already fined him the maximum allowed but this just seems to have no effect,\" Bruce said. After giving Zaki a fine for his misdemeanor the Wigan manager also revealed it was the fourth time he had gone AWOL after international duty. Are players selling their fans and clubs short when they go AWOL? How do you think should they be punished by clubs? Zaki's case certainly isn't the first high profile instance of a player going missing. Inter Milan striker Adriano sparked kidnap fears after failing to return earlier this month, following a World Cup qualifier in South America. It was not the first time the Brazilian had failed to report back to his club following international duty. After a two-week absence, Adriano later announced he was taking a break from professional football at a news conference in Brazil. He told reporters: \"I've lost the happiness of playing. I wouldn't like to go back to Italy, I want to live in peace here in Brazil. \"I don't know if I'm going to stay for one, two or three months without playing. I'm going to rethink my career.\" Other notable cases include Nigerian forward Ayegbeni Yakubu, who failed to return to club duty at Premier League side Everton after the African Cup of Nations last year. When he returned to Everton,Yakubu was hit with a maximum \u00a380,000 fine. Manager David Moyes said at a news conference at the time: 'Yakubu's back in it now. That episode has ended. He let us down by not coming back. But it's over and we've moved on.\" German club Schalke fined defender Rafinha a record $1million for making an unauthorized trip to the Beijing Olympic Games and spending a total of 35 days away. One of the most bizarre examples was that of Moroccan defender Youssef Rossi, who surprised everyone when he returned to training at Dunfermline Athletic a year after having his wages stopped by the Scottish club. Rossi had previously gone AWOL from the club and returned to training with Raja Casablanca back in his homeland.","highlights":"Egyptian striker Amir Zaki was AWOL after failing to return to Wigan .\nWigan manager Steve Bruce described Zaki as \"unprofessional\"\nAdriano went AWOL for two weeks and later said he was taking a break from football .\nHow do you think AWOL players should be punished by their clubs?","id":"84a146c536406ab396d5d2d5e3d0726f29a5fc0a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A day before embarking on a trip to Latin America, President Obama described his planned talks with Latin American leaders as discussions among equals. President Obama refuses to criticize Latin American leaders. \"Times have changed,\" Obama told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol Wednesday. Referring to his planned meeting later this week with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, he said, \"My relationship with President Lula is one of two leaders who both have big countries, that we are trying to solve problems and create opportunities for our people and we should be partners. \"There's no senior partner or junior partner.\" Obama and Lula da Silva are among leaders scheduled to attend the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Obama refused to criticize the leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, who have taken measures to change their constitutions to extend their holds on power. \"I think it's important for the United States not to tell other countries how to structure their democratic practices and what should be contained in their constitutions,\" he said. \"It's up to the people of those countries to make a decision about how they want to structure their affairs.\" Asked how he plans to interact with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States who once described former President George Bush as the devil, Obama offered no criticism. \"Look, he's the leader of his country and he'll be one of many people that I will have an opportunity to meet.\" Though he said he believes the United States has a leadership role to play in the region, Obama qualified that role, saying, \"We also recognize that other countries have important contributions and insights. We want to listen and learn as well as talk, and that approach, I think, of mutual respect and finding common interests, is one that ultimately will serve everybody.\" Asked about Cuba, Obama, who recently eased restrictions on travel and sending money to the island, offered a prod and a carrot to Havana. \"What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted,\" he said. \"And if there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we can see a further thawing of relations and further changes.\" Obama sought to distance his administration from that of his predecessor, noting that he plans to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where \"some of the practices of enhanced interrogation techniques, I think ran counter to American values and American traditions.\" He said his team has spoken with the Spanish government about a Spanish judge's call for an investigation into the role of Bush administration officials in the detention of five Spaniards at Guantanamo. But he did not dwell on his predecessor's legacy. \"I'm a strong believer that it is important to look forward and not backward and to remind ourselves that we do have very real security threats out there.\" Though the U.S. image abroad may have suffered in recent years, \"there's a reason why there are consistently so many immigrants to our country from Latin America,\" he said. Obama lauded Mexican President Felipe Calderon, with whom he is to meet Thursday in Mexico City, as having done \"an outstanding and heroic job in dealing with what is a big problem right now along the borders with the drug cartels.\" He vowed that the United States can be counted on to help. \"We are going to be dealing not only with drug interdiction coming north, but also working on helping to curb the flow of cash and guns going south,\" Obama said. Obama described himself as \"a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform,\" and said he has met with the congressional Hispanic Caucus \"to try to shape an agenda that can move through Congress.\"","highlights":"Obama heading to Summit of Americas this week in Trinidad and Tobago .\nHe says U.S. should not tell \"countries how to structure their democratic practices\"\n\"We want to listen and learn as well as talk,\" Obama says .","id":"1e3a03ed2aa2c544b6aff7aa91815742f374127a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Archaeologists believe they have unearthed only a small fraction of Egypt's ancient ruins, but they're making new discoveries with help from high-tech allies -- satellites that peer into the past from the distance of space. The enclosure wall of the Great Aten temple in Egypt, as seen from the QuickBird satellite. \"Everyone's becoming more aware of this technology and what it can do,\" said Sarah Parcak, an archaeologist who heads the Laboratory for Global Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. \"There is so much to learn.\" Images from space have been around for decades. Yet only in the past decade or so has the resolution of images from commercial satellites sharpened enough to be of much use to archaeologists. Today, scientists can use them to locate ruins -- some no bigger than a small living room -- in some of the most remote and forbidding places on the planet. In this field, Parcak is a pioneer. Her work in Egypt has yielded hundreds of finds in regions of the Middle Egypt and the eastern Nile River Delta. Parcak conducted surveys and expeditions in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt in 2003 and 2004 that confirmed 132 sites that were initially suggested by satellite images. Eighty-three of those sites had never been visited or recorded. In the past two years, she has found hundreds more, she said, leading her to amend an earlier conclusion that Egyptologists have found only the tip of the iceberg. \"My estimate of 1\/100th of 1 percent of all sites found is on the high side,\" Parcak said. These discoveries are of no small significance to the Egyptian government, which has devoted itself anew to protecting archaeological sites from plunder and encroachment. The Supreme Council of Antiquities has restricted excavation in the most sensitive areas along the Nile -- from the Great Pyramids at Giza on the outskirts of Cairo to the carvings of Ramses II in the remote south. Antiquities officials hope the move will encourage more surveys in the eastern Nile Delta in northern Egypt, Parcak said, where encroaching development in the burgeoning nation of 82 million poses the greatest threat to the sites. Old and modern methods . Parcak's process weds modern tools with old-fashioned grunt work. The archaeologist studies satellite images stored on a NASA database and plugs in global positioning coordinates for suspected sites, then tramps out to see them. Telltale signs such as raised elevations and pot shards can confirm the images. As a result, the big picture comes into view. \"We can see patterns in settlements that correspond to the [historical] texts,\" Parcak said, \"such as if foreign invasions affected the occupation of ancient sites. \"We can see where the Romans built over what the Egyptians had built, and where the Coptic Christians built over what the Romans had built. \"It's an incredible continuity of occupation and reuse.\" The flooding and meanders of the Nile over the millennia dictated where and how ancient Egyptians lived, and the profusion of new data has built a more precise picture of how that worked. \"Surveys give us information about broader ancient settlement patterns, such as patterns of city growth and collapse over time, that excavations do not,\" said Parcak, author of a forthcoming book titled \"Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeology.\" The vagaries of climate in the region make satellite technology advantageous, too. \"Certain plants that may indicate sites grow during certain times of the year,\" Parcak said, \"while sites may only appear during a wet or dry season. This is different everywhere in the world.\" Archaeologists working in much more verdant climates, such as Cambodia and Guatemala, also have used the technology to divine locations of undiscovered ruins. They have been able to see similarities between the vegetation at known sites and suspected sites that showed up in fine infrared and ultraviolet images covering wide areas of forbidding terrain. \"For the work I do [in Egypt], I need wet season images as wet soil does a better job at detecting sites with the satellite imagery data I use,\" Parcak said. \"I can pick the exact months I need with the NASA satellite datasets.\" Benefits of a bird's-eye view . Remote subsurface sensing has been used in archaeology in one form or another for years, though the term \"remote\" doesn't necessarily imply great distance. Typically, a surveyor has wheeled a sensing device over a marked-out area to determine what lies below. The sensing devices employ any of an array of technologies, such as Ground Penetrating Radar. They bounce signals off objects below the surface and translate the data into images that a scientist's trained eye can decipher. Multispectral imaging encompasses technologies that \"see\" what the human eye can't, such as infrared and ultraviolet radiation. Scientists have used it for years to study the Earth's surface for a variety of purposes. Until resolution of these images improved, though, the only way to produce a sharp image was to be relatively close to the ground. For those lugging unwieldy gear across jungle and desert, an effective bird's-eye view can change the world. It lets them leave behind the days and days of meticulous \"prospecting\" and get results from airplane-mounted sensors or, later on, a flyover by an advanced satellite. One of the most advanced is called QuickBird, which has been in orbit since 2001 and can provide high-resolution images of 11-mile-wide swaths. The satellite can collect nearly 29 million square miles of imagery data in a year, according to DigitalGlobe, which developed and operates QuickBird. The company, based in Longmont, Colorado, is working on an upgrade. WorldView-2, to be launched in 2009, will offer sharper resolution of visual and multispectral images than QuickBird, according to the company's Web site. In the end, though, a tool is only as useful as its wielder. \"Most of the advances have come through processing on the ground by end users such as Dr. Parcak,\" said DigitalGlobe spokesman Chuck Herring.","highlights":"Sharper resolutions allowing scientists to use satellites to locate ruins sites .\nPictures from commercial satellites have been sharp enough only for past decade .\nImages have helped archaeologist Sarah Parcak find hundreds of Egyptian sites .\nColorado company's new, advanced imaging satellite to be launched in 2009 .","id":"673819197ada36615ef2f20b251f9ee567cd4580"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached an important milestone Wednesday in her quest to pay the debt from her failed 2008 presidential bid: For the first time in eight months, her campaign committee reported having more money in the bank than it owes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign committee reported owing $2.3 million in debt at the end of March. On a day most Americans were preoccupied with filing their federal income taxes, Clinton's campaign committee filed finance documents with the Federal Election Commission, reporting a total of $2.3 million in debts at the end of March, compared with $2.6 million in the bank. The nation's top diplomat has been steadily chipping away at unpaid campaign bills since suspending her White House bid in June 2008, when her debt peaked at $25.2 million. That amount covered $12 million owed to vendors, as well as the $13.2 million she loaned her campaign from personal funds. Clinton's campaign was unable to repay that personal loan by the time the Democratic National Convention convened in Denver, Colorado, last August, the deadline mandated by the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The former New York senator was forced to forgive the entire loan amount. Her campaign owed $6.4 million to 16 creditors at the end of November; $5.9 million to five creditors at the end of December; and the current $2.3 million owed to just one creditor at the end of March. That creditor is Penn, Schoen & Berland, a political consulting and polling firm that advised Clinton during her presidential bid. The firm's president, Mark Penn, was Clinton's senior campaign strategist until he stepped down last April amid revelations that he had lobbied on behalf of Colombia for a U.S.-Colombia trade deal that Clinton opposed. Penn remained involved with the campaign. Earlier this year, Clinton and her supporters raced to pay as much of the debt as possible by the time she was confirmed and sworn in as the nation's 67th secretary of state on January 21. As of that date, Clinton became subject to a federal law known as the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from personally soliciting or accepting political contributions. The Hatch Act allows others to keep raising money on Clinton's behalf, without her direct involvement. This week, longtime Clinton ally James Carville, a CNN contributor, sent a fundraising e-mail to Democrats on behalf of Clinton's campaign, requesting contributions of as little as $5 in exchange for a chance to win one of several prizes, including spending a day with former President Bill Clinton. \"I won't spend a lot of time trying to convince you to help Hillary,\" Carville e-mailed. \"I know what she means to you, and I'm sure you know how important it is for her to have her campaign pay off all its obligations.\" It's unclear whether the campaign will use the $2.6 million in the bank to clear its $2.3 million in debts in the short term. Continued fundraising indicates that it will not. Additional operating expenses and other outlays could emerge. Any extra money from the campaign could be donated to political causes or returned to donors. Clinton's campaign reported raising $938,000 in contributions in the first three months of 2009. In addition to tapping traditional fundraising, the campaign also generated money by selling or renting various campaign assets to other organizations. It received $2.6 million from Clinton's \"Friends of Hillary\" U.S. Senate campaign committee for the sale of unspecified assets and an additional $2.2 million from renting out its lists of campaign supporters. Organizations that have rented Clinton's lists include the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the inaugural committee of then-President-elect Barack Obama, and the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Those organizations each paid $274,297. Clinton's political action committee, HillPAC, rented the lists for $822,492. Among the Democratic candidates who have rented Clinton's campaign lists are Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln; Virginia gubernatorial candidate and former Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to fill Clinton's seat; and New York congressional candidate Scott Murphy, who hopes to succeed Gillibrand in the U.S. House.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton owes $2.3 million in campaign debt from failed 2008 presidential bid .\nHer campaign committee reported having $2.6 million in bank at end of March .\nClinton ally James Carville recently sent fundraising e-mail to Democrats .","id":"f8f301c97ccd81571fb2b7b5c39c3df24a8b7944"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Editor's note: Watch MainSail on CNN International at the following times: Thursday 16th April at 1230 GMT; Saturday 18th April at 0700 and 1730 GMT; Sunday 19th April at 0300 and 0730 GMT; Monday 20th April at 0300 GMT. CNN's MainSail anchor Shirley Robertson has won two Olympic gold medals in an extremely successful sailing career, but, she has never climbed to the top of a huge mast. Tall task: MainSail host Shirley Robertson takes on the world's biggest aluminium mast . Until now, that is. On this month's MainSail programme, Shirley reaches the top of the tallest aluminium mast in the world - aboard the 56 meter Perini Navi vessel, Salute. The mast reaches a remarkable 250 feet (76 meters) into the air, and even with a small swell and light breeze, the top of the mast can swing through as much as ten meters -- five meters each side -- of its center point. Going up the mast is a dangerous job, but it is also a common necessity on any large yacht -- whether it be to check the rigging or complete a repair. Shirley has to wear all of the appropriate safety equipment for the climb -- which she has to do alone. Fortunately for Shirley, she doesn't have a big fear of heights and she receives some expert instruction, too. Watch Shirley climb the mast \u00bb You can also watch the full MainSail show and catch up with the latest news and features on the MainSail homepage.","highlights":"CNN's MainSail host Shirley Robertson is a double Olympic gold medalist .\nRobertson has never climbed a big mast before this .\nShe takes on the 250 foot mast aboard the 56-meter yacht Salute .","id":"60dd9761a2358b4a88467a9e474a73f220e8f8f6"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The YouTube and Carnegie Hall generations collided Wednesday night in New York City as a nearly sold-out audience looked on in amazement. Images from musicians' videos are projected during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra concert in New York. Almost 100 musicians from around the world -- the world's first symphony orchestra comprised of members who auditioned solely online -- played their debut gig. They may have forever changed the audition process in their journey. The YouTube Symphony Orchestra bore a new era of classical performance at Carnegie Hall, and according to a YouTube employee, that's exactly what they wanted to do. \"We hope this is game changing in the sense it redefines audition space, it brings people closer together and lets them collaborate, transcending geographical and linguistic boundaries,\" said marketing manager Ed Sanders. Participants were chosen from more than 3,000 YouTube video submissions from more than 70 countries and territories spanning six continents, according to a press release. Watch orchestra play \u00bb . Their YouTube channel has received more than 15 million page views thus far with members hailing from more than 30 countries. The symphony orchestra's members participated in the three-day Classical Music Summit at Julliard and their Carnegie Hall debut served as the finale. Michael Tilson Thomas directed the performance and also served as the artistic adviser and conductor to the orchestra. He refined and nurtured each member through their musical selections online until the entire orchestra met in the real world a few days ago. \"For us it's somewhere between a classical music summit conference and a scout jamboree with an element of speed dating thrown in,\" Thomas said. While some participants traveled from as far as South Korea, Malaysia and Lithuania, bass player Kurt Hinterbichler lives in New York City. A theoretical physicist working on his doctorate at Columbia University, Hinterbichler was enamored at being chosen to participate. \"Carnegie Hall is still sort of the unofficial pinnacle of achievement of the classical music world,\" he said. \"You know once you've made it to Carnegie Hall you've really made it.\" So, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? \"Upload, upload, upload [YouTube videos],\" joked Thomas, updating the old \"practice, practice, practice\" punchline. Violin player Jennifer Lindsay, who is a systems engineer by day, said she was floored when she learned she was selected. \"YouTube gave me this opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall. There's no other way that someone like me who is not even a professional musician would have ever made it.\" World-renowned composer Tan Dun created a piece especially for the orchestra titled \"Internet Symphony No. 1, Eroica.\" Dun told YouTube his inspiration for this piece came from the streets of many international cities. \"On the streets of New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, I heard the street noise...then I thought this is the spirit beyond, this is the spirit of today.\" Dun has also created music for the movie \"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon\" and the Beijing Summer Olympics. The symphony orchestra played to a Carnegie Hall audience that was almost 90 percent of capacity. Audience members seemed to love not only the performance, but the idea as a whole. Peter Newton and his wife were on vacation in New York from London and decided to attend the concert. \"The mixture between the music and democracy... it's interesting that at the end of the day, you bring them together for this performance,\" he said. Aaron Polsky attended the performance in support of his sister, who helped organize it. He was amazed at how limitless the performance seemed. \"I think it's great... there are really no boundaries other than owning a computer and an Internet connection.\" Musicians Lindsay and Hinterbichler both said they had no doubts the event would be a success. \"Absolutely do not underestimate the motivational power of playing at Carnegie Hall,\" Lindsay said. Hinterbichler agreed, \"We've got world class conductors, it will come together.\" In the spirit of YouTube, Travis Threlkel designed videos that accompanied all 15 musical selections. The lights in the room changed from green to red during some segments to match the mood of the selection. Dun said he thought the concert would be a hit with the Internet community. \"The whole world tonight is Googling around what's happening in Carnegie Hall,\" he said. Hinterbichler said he still did not grasp the vast reality of the situation. \"It's going to be one of those life experiences you know. I probably won't know what it means until ten years down the line when I look back at it,\" he said. So, what will the folks at YouTube come up with next? \"There should be a live Internet performance [by the orchestra],\" said Newton, the audience member. After Wednesday night, that certainly seems like a possibility.","highlights":"The YouTube and Carnegie Hall generations collided Wednesday in New York City .\nYouTube Symphony Orchestra played a live concert to an amazed audience .\nOrchestra assembled from musicians around the world who \"auditioned\" online .\nSo, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? \"Upload, upload, upload videos\"","id":"88d89c24c370bccffb45a24b00a68b9ccca09efb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama visits Mexico with many issues on the table, but reinstating the ban on assault weapons in the U.S. isn't likely to be one on which the two countries can reach agreement. Mexican federal police officers this week display an arsenal seized near the U.S. border. Mexican officials say criminals use assault weapons from the U.S. in the violent border region. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., say reinstating the ban would stop the deadly flow of weapons across the border. Under the Clinton administration in 1994, Congress banned possession of 19 military-style assault weapons. The ban was allowed to expire 10 years later during the Bush administration. Earlier this year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Obama would like to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons, noting, \"I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico at a minimum.\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month that as a senator, she supported a measure to reinstate it. And the urban policy section of the White House Web site says Obama and Vice President Joe Biden \"support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.\" Obama still supports reinstating the ban, as he did during the presidential campaign, but there are no plans to reintroduce it anytime soon, according to an administration official. Obama thinks more can be done to stop the illegal flow of weapons to Mexico within existing laws, the official said, noting that the president has taken steps to deploy more law enforcement to curb the illegal flows of drugs, weapons and cash in both directions across the border. The administration is unaware of any broad-based efforts in Congress to reinstate the ban, the official said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CBS on Thursday that reinstating the ban \"simply is not part of the plan that we're talking about here.\" Watch what Napolitano says about drug violence \u00bb . The Obama administration says the U.S. shares responsibility for the situation in Mexico, but as far as the ban goes, \"there's a lot on our plate,\" White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. Watch what's on the table for Obama's trip to Mexico \u00bb . Gun rights advocates stress that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to own firearms without restriction. Gun control supporters interpret the amendment to mean that states shall keep militias but that an individual's right to own firearms may be restricted. Those who support the assault weapons ban as a way to curb violence cite figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that say American gun sellers supply the Mexican drug cartels with 95 percent to 100 percent of their guns. But others say that claim cannot be substantiated -- and argue that less that 20 percent of weapons used in crimes in Mexico are traced to the U.S. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association of America, says U.S. rights are not the cause of Mexico's wrongs. In a commentary on CNN.com, LaPierre wrote that to believe U.S. freedoms are fueling the violence \"you have to believe these butchers and beheaders break every Mexican law they want except Mexican gun laws, which they honor -- while they break American gun laws.\" \"Everything Mexico's murderous thugs are doing is already illegal. At issue is not the absence of law, but the absence of political will to enforce the laws that both nations already possess,\" he wrote. On the other side, however, there are those who say loopholes in America's gun laws fuel violence in both Mexico and the United States. \"We need to realize that the Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves here because our gun laws have loopholes so large that criminals and gun traffickers can easily drive gun-laden trucks through them,\" former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, wrote in a commentary for CNN.com. \"We need to prevent Mexican criminals and the traffickers who supply them from buying guns by changing our gun laws and strengthening U.S. law enforcement's ability to crack down on corrupt gun dealers.\" On the eve of Obama's arrival, Calderon told ABC he thought the weapons ban was \"very good legislation.\" \"During that period, we didn't suffer a lot, like we suffered in the four or five years,\" he said. And Sarukhan told CBS this weekend, \"There's a direct correlation between the expiration of the assault weapons ban and our seizures of assault weapons.\" He said, \"We cannot determine how Congress and the administration will move on this. What we will say is that this is one of the instruments by reinstating the ban that could have a profound impact on the number and the caliber of weapons going down to Mexico.\" Obama was to meet Thursday with Calderon in Mexico City ahead of his trip to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas. But Mexico isn't the only consideration when it comes to gun control. In the United States, gun control is a wedge issue -- and one that can carry serious political ramifications. Democrats tend to shy away from remarks that could be interpreted as anti-gun, especially in swing states and districts. (Remember the frenzy that ensued after then-candidate Obama said people in small towns get bitter and \"cling to guns or religion\"?) Democrats are usually thought of as the party more likely to enforce ownership restrictions, while Republicans are associated with ownership rights. As a candidate, Obama promised, \"I'm not going to take away your guns.'' Any other message would have been unpopular in the traditionally Republican states he won such as North Carolina and Virginia. Other Democrats, such as Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb of Virginia, also are getting elected with the help of NRA supporters. Even so, with a Democrat in the White House and a Democrat-controlled Congress, there's been a surge in requests for background checks of potential gun buyers, according to the FBI, and some gun owners say they think restrictions are somewhere on Obama's to-do list. Asked Thursday if it's just too politically difficult now to reinstate the ban, Gibbs said, \"I think the president believes that we can have a greater outcome in the short term working to enforce the laws that are on our books.\"","highlights":"Mexico: U.S. ban on assault weapons would curtail flow of weapons into country .\nBan instituted in 1994 during Clinton era and expired 10 years later .\nPresident Obama has no immediate plans to try to reinstate ban, official says .\nObama meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City .","id":"0feb009b1a66e4579904098c597aa0069844dbbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Boston, Massachusetts, are searching for a man suspected in the murder of one woman and the armed robbery of two others, all of whom, they say, he may have met through their Craigslist ads for personal services. Julissa Brisman, 26, was described as \"a really sweet, goofy, energetic kid.\" Officers discovered New York resident Julissa Brisman, 26, unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel on Tuesday night. She was transferred to Boston Medical Center, where she died shortly afterward. Police said Brisman, a model, offered massages via Craigslist, a popular online classified ad service. The confrontation between Brisman and her killer seems to have begun as an attempted robbery, police said. \"It appears that there was a struggle between the victim and the suspect in the threshold of the hotel room immediately prior to the shooting,\" the Boston Police Department said in a statement on its Web site. Police speculate the man may also be responsible for the recent robberies of two other young women who offered personal services via Craigslist. Four days before Brisman's slaying, a 29-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint at a Westin Hotel in Boston. Police spokesman Joe Zanola would not disclose the details of her Craigslist ad but said she and Brisman were \"involved in similar professions.\" On Thursday night at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, according to Warwick's police chief, Col. Stephen McCartney. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, according to McCartney. He said that no conclusions could be made but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Matthew Terhune, a photographer who met Brisman when he took pictures of her for a calendar last year, described her as \"just a really sweet, goofy, energetic kid.\" He added that she was enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous and was contemplating counseling fellow recovering addicts. He had been unaware of her side job as an Internet masseuse. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, said the Boston Police Department, which is asking the public's help in identifying the man. Representatives from Craigslist did not respond to a request for comment.","highlights":"26-year-old died after attack at Boston hotel on Tuesday .\nPolice say she posted Craigslist ad offering massages .\nMan may be behind two recent robberies, they say .\nBoston police seek public's help identifying man on video .","id":"e7e92d67345a3abfcd7aa3d91c275a0dcb99cb28"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Is cheese the answer for Cayuga County, New York? Larry Rosenbaum surveys the field where he hopes to build a high-end specialty cheese factory. Like small towns all across America, this agricultural community is suffering, with unemployment approaching 10 percent. Entrepreneur Larry Rosenbaum thinks he can do his part to turn things around. For a decade, the insurance man by trade has been dreaming of building a factory for high-end specialty cheese. One key selling point: His product would meet the strictest standards of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. Rosenbaum says the demand for kosher and halal cheese is high but the selection is slim. So he's been eyeing a plot of barren farmland between Aurelius and Auburn -- two Cayuga towns -- as the future home of a $40 million, 64,000-square-foot factory that would churn out feta and brie. The goal is for his company, Saratoga Cheese Corp., to produce 30 million pounds of cheese in the first year and distribute it domestically and internationally. \"It's the beginning of a trend of bringing back manufacturing industry to New York,\" said Rosenbaum. According to the Public Policy Institute of New York State, manufacturing in New York declined more than 30 percent between 1997 and 2007. Watch Rosenbaum talk about his plans \u00bb . Rosenbaum estimates that Saratoga Cheese Corp. would bring 75 factory jobs and 150 temporary construction jobs to the region. Plans also include 50 yeshiva work-study students to be placed on participating farms. In addition, several rabbis and imams would supervise production. If Saratoga Cheese can get off the ground, it could mean a boost for local farmers like Dale Hemminger, who has agreed to supply kosher milk to Saratoga Cheese Corp. Hemminger says it could be a crucial new market for his milk. And though he was at first skeptical of Rosenbaum's plan, Hemminger says he admires Rosenbaum's vision. But that vision is still $10 million short of becoming reality. Rosenbaum has secured $30 million in government grants, loans and private funding, but needs $40 million before Saratoga Cheese Corp. can break ground. Given the recession, securing the final amount is proving no small feat. According to Bill Teator, a board member of Saratoga Cheese Corp., the best-case scenario is a combination of investment by a kosher dairy company and private lending. Teator says that though investors are confident about the business plan, the economic environment makes it tough to secure the needed cash. But support from local lawmakers is abundant. Republican state Sen. Michael Nozzolio is optimistic that Saratoga Cheese Corp. will find a home in his 54th District. And with an estimated $140 million in local revenue hanging in the balance, there's reason to hope. Recession or not, Rosenbaum is steadfast in his belief. For him, it's not a question of if the factory will get built, but when. \"We're not going to quit until we make it,\" says Rosenbaum. It's a persistence that is necessary in a recession that has proved legendary.","highlights":"Entrepreneur has long dreamed of building high-end specialty cheese factory .\nHe sees plot of barren farmland as future home of $40 million feta-and-brie plant .\nKey selling point: Product would meet strict standards of Jewish, Muslim faiths .\nHe hopes factory can help turn around declines in manufacturing, employment .","id":"b5861c30426c333e8835f234fe9b9baf4da4a2bb"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- The lawyer for the main suspect in last year's deadly terrorist attack in Mumbai was removed Wednesday, delaying the high-profile trial that was set to begin. Soldiers patrol in Mumbai on the eve of the trial of a key suspect in last year's attacks in the Indian city. The trial start for Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, is expected to be moved to Thursday as officials scramble to settle the lawyer issue. Kasab is thought to be the only one of 10 gunmen to survive the three-day siege, which killed more than 160 people in November. As the trial was to begin, the judge removed attorney Anjali Waghmare because she also was representing a witness in the case. Waghmare argued that she had no idea that the person was a witness in the terror case, and she was representing this person in a different case. But the judge declared that it was a conflict of interest. An Indian court appointed Waghmare two weeks ago to represent Kasab, and it was unclear who would replace her. Kasab demanded that his attorney be replaced with a Pakistani lawyer. But the judge denied that request and said that a Pakistani lawyer may be able to be brought in as a consultant from outside the courtroom. Kasab, a Pakistani national, faces more than a dozen charges, including murder, conspiracy to wage a war against the nation and terrorism. During the proceedings Wednesday Kasab seemed relaxed and smiled many time at the large crowd of journalists in the courtroom. Kasab also requested newspapers to be brought in so that he could see what the media was writing about him. Prosecutors last month accused him of trying to delay the trial by insisting that the 11,000-page document detailing the charges against him -- which was written in English and the local Marathi language -- be translated into Urdu, the official language of Pakistan. The court rejected his request. Wednesday's trial was to take place in a makeshift court set up in a jail where Kasab -- who has been communicating with the judge via videolink -- is being held. Indian authorities have long blamed the Mumbai attacks on Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based militant outfit, but the group has denied responsibility. The violence initially heightened tensions between the two nuclear states. India has urged Pakistan to destroy what it calls terrorist infrastructure in that country. The two nations are longtime rivals that have fought three wars since their independence from the British, and conducted countering nuclear weapons tests in 1998. CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"Main suspect's lawyer removed as she represents a witness in the case .\nTrial was to start Wednesday, unclear when court proceedings will resume .\nMohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, is accused of being the only gunmen to survive siege .\nThe November siege targeted victims at Mumbai hotels, hospitals, railway stations .","id":"6c4eab8fc3b8edce57c8cb22230a5c9abcddb855"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- After a week when he could not be traced, Egyptian striker Amir Zaki is back at his Premier League club side Wigan Athletic in northern England. Wigan and Egypt striker Amir Zaki has mended relations with his club manager. According to Wigan manager Steve Bruce the two have patched up their differences after he launched a verbal tirade against the 26-year-old striker. Zaki told Al-Hayat TV that the pair \"ended up laughing\" about his absence -- when he failed to return from international duty and had a hamstring strain which no one knew the seriousness of. But, it wasn't all laughs a week ago. On Wigan's club Web site, Bruce had said of Zaki: \"I just feel it's time that we went public on just what a nightmare he has been to deal with. I can honestly say that in all my time in football I have never worked with someone as unprofessional. \"I have already fined him the maximum allowed but this just seems to have no effect,\" Bruce said. After giving Zaki a fine for his misdemeanor the Wigan manager also revealed it was the fourth time he had gone AWOL after international duty. Are players selling their fans and clubs short when they go AWOL? How do you think should they be punished by clubs? Zaki's case certainly isn't the first high profile instance of a player going missing. Inter Milan striker Adriano sparked kidnap fears after failing to return earlier this month, following a World Cup qualifier in South America. It was not the first time the Brazilian had failed to report back to his club following international duty. After a two-week absence, Adriano later announced he was taking a break from professional football at a news conference in Brazil. He told reporters: \"I've lost the happiness of playing. I wouldn't like to go back to Italy, I want to live in peace here in Brazil. \"I don't know if I'm going to stay for one, two or three months without playing. I'm going to rethink my career.\" Other notable cases include Nigerian forward Ayegbeni Yakubu, who failed to return to club duty at Premier League side Everton after the African Cup of Nations last year. When he returned to Everton,Yakubu was hit with a maximum \u00a380,000 fine. Manager David Moyes said at a news conference at the time: 'Yakubu's back in it now. That episode has ended. He let us down by not coming back. But it's over and we've moved on.\" German club Schalke fined defender Rafinha a record $1million for making an unauthorized trip to the Beijing Olympic Games and spending a total of 35 days away. One of the most bizarre examples was that of Moroccan defender Youssef Rossi, who surprised everyone when he returned to training at Dunfermline Athletic a year after having his wages stopped by the Scottish club. Rossi had previously gone AWOL from the club and returned to training with Raja Casablanca back in his homeland.","highlights":"Egyptian striker Amir Zaki was AWOL after failing to return to Wigan .\nWigan manager Steve Bruce described Zaki as \"unprofessional\"\nAdriano went AWOL for two weeks and later said he was taking a break from football .\nHow do you think AWOL players should be punished by their clubs?","id":"6e082453a3901f9518aa987a95c3aeac3b4b54f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Capt. Richard Phillips, whose capture and dramatic rescue in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Africa last week captivated the nation, returned home to Vermont on Friday. Capt. Richard Phillips says, \"I'm not the hero. The military is the hero. Thank them.\" Phillips landed shortly after 4:30 p.m. at Burlington International Airport. He was met by family members, who climbed the steps of his plane to greet him. He then strolled across the tarmac with his family, his arm wrapped around his daughter, Mariah, who wiped away tears. \"I just want to thank you for your prayers and support of my family while I was gone,\" Phillips said after landing in Vermont. \"I'm just a bit part. I'm a seaman like all the other seamen out there.\" Watch Phillips' happy homecoming \u00bb . Close-up camera shots of Phillips on Friday showed what appeared to be rope burns on his forearms, presumably from being tied by the pirates. Phillips spoke for a short time and mostly thanked the military for saving him. \"I'm not the hero,\" he said. \"The military is the hero. Thank them.\" Watch Phillips thank military, Maersk \u00bb . He offered no details of what happened to him during his time as a hostage besides calling it \"indescribable.\" He also took the time to thank crew members on his ship. \"We did it. I told you it wasn't going to be 'if'; it was going to be 'when,' \" he said. \"We did what we were trained to do. We're just seamen. [We] do the best with what we've got, and my crew did an excellent job, and I'm so proud of them that they're all home and they're with their loved ones.\" Watch how crews train for pirate attacks \u00bb . He had just completed an 18-hour flight out of Mombasa, Kenya, on a jet owned by Maersk. Family members said they planned to spend some quality time together later Friday at their home in Underhill, Vermont -- Phillips' mother-in-law was making brownies and his best friend planned to bring over chicken pot pie and Phillips' favorite beer, they said. Phillips offered himself as a hostage last week, when four pirates boarded his U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama. The pirates held him aboard a lifeboat for several days in a standoff against the U.S. Navy. Navy sharpshooters shot and killed three pirates, freeing Phillips. The other pirate had been taken into custody. The captain's wife, Andrea, also spoke at his homecoming, calling it \"one of the happiest moments of our lives.\" She said she was extremely proud of his bravery, but also acknowledged the captain would say he was just doing his job. \"I have always been proud to call myself an American,\" Andrea Phillips said. \"Today, I'm even prouder. To everyone who has been involved in this that made this day possible, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Through this past week, having Richard back safe was all that my family and I ever wanted. Now our prayers have been answered, and we have a lot of people to thank.\" The 53-year-old Vermont native was praised Thursday by engineer John Cronan, one of the 19 other crew members. \"He went above and beyond the call to ensure our safety,\" Cronan told CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"I can't thank that man enough. He is the reason I'm here tonight.\" Watch Cronan tell King about the experience \u00bb . Asked whether she wants to see Cronan continue working as a merchant mariner, Cronan's fiancee said it was up to him. \"John and I have an agreement,\" said Heather Giardinelli, who works as a pharmaceutical marketing researcher. \"He doesn't tell me how to do my job, and I won't tell him how to do his.\" Asked whether he plans to return to sea, Cronan said, \"Yes, sir. However, the Staten Island Ferry has become much more appealing.\"","highlights":"Capt. Richard Phillips: \"I'm a seaman like all the other seamen out there\"\nWife: \"Having Richard back safe was all that my family and I ever wanted\"\nPhillips spent five days as hostage after Somali pirates assaulted ship .\nMaersk crew member: \"I can't thank that man enough\"","id":"6692e2833b58298bcbc495cfde06cfaa15878452"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Male singers regularly photographed wearing a hat are usually covering up a receding hairline. Jason Aldean has had six Top 10 country singles. His new album, \"Wide Open,\" is just out. But not Jason Aldean. He has a full head of hair, and wears a cowboy hat to signify his commitment to country music. The same is true for his well-fitting jeans and cowboy boots. It's a formula that seems to be working. The 32-year-old rising star has just notched his sixth Top 10 country single with \"She's Country,\" the lead track off his third CD, \"Wide Open\" (Broken Bow). We caught up with the Georgia native in his dressing room before a recent sold-out show at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, California. The following is an edited version of the interview. Jason Aldean: Definitely a cowboy hat in L.A. makes you stand out a little bit. CNN: It's a fashion statement in L.A. Aldean: It is! You've got to wear it with confidence, too. Watch Aldean talk about his new album \u00bb . CNN: Are you nervous about your new album? Aldean: I wouldn't say I'm nervous. If you have an album that you're kind of on the fence about, then yeah, you would be kind of a little nervous. CNN: Have you ever had one of those -- or if you had, would you admit it? Aldean: When we went in to record the second album (2007's \"Relentless,\" which went gold), I think it was a good album, but I felt like I was under a lot of pressure recording that album -- more than the other two. You hear people talking about the sophomore slump and all that stuff, and so I think all that stuff sort of got to me after a while. Combined with being on the road 200 to 250 days [a year], I just didn't have that much fun recording it. I was exhausted. And so going into this third album, I just feel like mentally, I was back in the right place. CNN: As an artist, do you ever really think you got it right? Aldean: If at any point you're recording an album and you think it's the greatest thing that you've ever done, and you'll never be able to top it, then you should probably quit. Michael Jackson -- he made \"Thriller,\" so I can see why he might have said, \"I'm done.\" But even he kept making records. CNN: Were you a Michael Jackson fan growing up? Did you moonwalk as a kid? Aldean: Of course! I had my glove and everything. Used to wet my hair so it looked like a Jheri curl. (Cracks up) CNN: Who else did you listen to as a kid? Aldean: Guns N' Roses -- the '80s rock stuff. Then I was into John Mellencamp, and Bob Seger and a lot of the Southern rock stuff -- the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band. I listened to a lot of different kinds of music. CNN: Are you finding that the economy has affected ticket sales? Is it harder to sell out shows these days? Aldean: I think everybody has kind of seen a little bit of a hit. We're no different. We've tried to make it more affordable for people to come to a show with lower ticket prices [most of the time in the $20-40 range]. Maybe go in and play a show for less money than we would normally go in to play a show for, just so people can afford to come out and buy a ticket. I mean, you're looking at 200 bucks if you've got a wife and two kids -- and then by the time you come there and buy a couple of T-shirts, or some drinks or whatever, you're spending three, four hundred dollars, and right now, people are a little hesitant to do that. CNN: What do you consider an expensive ticket? Aldean: If Elvis was still around, I don't know if I'd pay 80 bucks to go see him. I surely would not pay 80 bucks to go see me! CNN: From a financial standpoint, touring is more important to an artist than selling records these days. Aldean: The music industry is so different now than it was even when I hit the scene in 2005. If you go to Wal-Mart and you want a song, you've got to buy the whole album for ten bucks -- or you can go to iTunes, and if you want a song, you can pay a dollar to get it. So in return, the record label is going to make less money, which is us making less money to pay them back. The way it works is the record label basically fronts the money for us to record an album. As the money comes back in off of that, they take that and repay the debt that we owe them. So if they're not making enough to repay that debt, they're not going to keep us employed on the label for very long. CNN: As an artist, do you worry about that? Aldean: Oh, absolutely. I think every artist worries about that. As a consumer, I think iTunes is a great thing. As an entertainer, not so much. I would much rather have somebody buy an album as a whole. Bad thing about purchasing singles -- if you have an artist you like and you keep doing that, there's not going to be music enough for you to go and get, because they're not going to have a deal anymore. But who knows? Record labels may one day be out all together, and people may be making their own music and selling it on their Web sites. CNN: That seems to benefit established artists more than up-and-coming ones. Aldean: Radio's really accepted us, and proven that they're really going to play my stuff as long as I give them something good to play. Fans are coming out to the show, so I mean what more could I ask for? My original plan when I got started in this deal was just to be able to make a good living for my family and play music. I've been able to do that, which is all I've ever wanted.","highlights":"Jason Aldean riding high with new hit, \"She's Country\"\nGeorgia native conscious of ticket prices, giving value .\nAldean: \"[I] would not pay 80 bucks to go see me!\"","id":"c47ac41e638aa0e34e9bdcb82137278765904705"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Journalist Karl Penhaul spent several weeks tracking the gangs of the Mexican underworld, the corrupt officials who support them and the cops trying to halt the violence. This is the last of three exclusive reports. The first focused on the violent rules gangs live by and the second looked at how gangsters are honored in death. Forensic investigators and federal police dig bodies out of mass graves in the desert near Juarez. JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- Heat waves shimmer over the desert. A team of forensic experts clad in white overalls excavate three shallow graves. The sand gives up nine bodies -- seven men and two women. At least one of the victims' hands were cuffed behind their back. Others had been trussed up with duct tape. The stale stench reveals that the corpses had been dumped there several days earlier and were decomposing fast. That grisly find in mid-March came a week after thousands more soldiers had been deployed to Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The arrival of the soldiers and more federal police agents had coincided with a short lull in the killings. Snapping photos of the scene from behind the police line was Lucio Soria, photographer for Juarez's main newspaper, El Diario de Juarez, and its sister paper, PM. PM is a perfect example of Mexico's so-called \"red press,\" newspapers that specialize in covering violence. Soria seems like a perfect ambassador. \"I've gone for a week and a half without taking pictures of dead people. I was thinking 'Hell, what am I going to do?' At this rate I'll end up taking pictures for the social pages,\" he said. Soria realizes snapping pictures of blood and gore may seem heartless. But he stays cheerful, cracking dark jokes with colleagues, all while listening to police communications on a radio scanner and searching for clues about where to find the next drug war victim. \"It might seem ugly, but that's our job,\" Soria said. He and fellow photographers have been busy in recent months. Last year, Juarez became the poster city for Mexico's narco-violence, with more than 1,600 gang killings. Watch musicians play \"narco-ballads\" honoring hitmen \u00bb . This year, Mayor Jose Reyes is trying to turn a page on the killings and make Juarez a showcase for solutions. Military and federal police convoys patrol the streets around the clock. Cops armed with AR-15 assault rifles, identities obscured by ski masks, hang off pickup trucks that speed around in twos and threes. Watch cops round up gang suspects \u00bb . Soldiers strike a warlike pose behind heavy machine guns mounted on American-made Humvees. Whether it's working depends on whom you ask and how hard you read between the lines. \"I think this is very effective because it closes transport routes for the movement of [cartel] personnel and weapons,\" said a state officer, assigned to guide us, at a federal police checkpoint. The officer, known only by his call sign Trojan One, seemed confident. The agent in command of the checkpoint was less convinced. \"Of course organized crime is trying to avoid us. I'm not sure what methods they use to operate. We don't know how they work,\" said the officer, identifying himself only as Aztec One. On another day we ran into a three-truck federal police operation staking out a house in a middle-class Juarez neighborhood. See photos of police, gang life in Mexico \u00bb . The commander said his men believed they had made what he termed a \"major\" cocaine bust. When I met him they had already been waiting almost 24 hours for a judge to issue a search warrant. When they gained access they discovered some 500 half-gram bags of cocaine. In Juarez those bags sell for around $8. Now do the math, 500 half-gram bags at possibly 60 percent purity means around 150 grams of pure cocaine -- hardly a major strike in the drug war. Reyes' solution has been to hand the military all civilian police functions, even down to traffic control. Mexico's military has little experience in urban warfare, little experience in policing and has been unable to shake a decades-old reputation for human rights abuses. When I bump into Reyes at a transfer-of-command ceremony at city hall I ask him what he's doing about alleged corruption and complicity among politicians and businessmen, who permit the cartels to move their shipments and help launder the proceeds. \"My opinion in Juarez is that that kind of political corruption does not exist,\" he said adamantly. Two weeks later, in Monterrey, I caught up with outspoken lawyer Raquenel Villanueva. She knows a thing or two about politicians colluding with Mexico's mafia. Watch how drug lords pay tribute to a highway bandit, looking for luck \u00bb . Mexican media have dubbed her the \"devil's advocate\" for her role in defending a string of senior cartel figures and their hitmen. Last year, she was detained for 90 days, accused her of being a member of the Gulf Cartel. She was freed without charge. Throughout her career, she's survived four assassination attempts and taken 10 bullets, two of them in the head. Her office is crammed with religious iconography: crosses, paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe and a four-foot-high wooden statue of Saint Jude Thaddeus. Two bullets are encrusted in the effigy after the last attempt on her life in 2000. \"I know about official corruption and exactly who is doing what because my clients tell me,\" she said. \"To win the drug war you have to tell the Americans to take better care of their young people, tell them to stop being so cold and materialistic,\" Villanueva lectured. \"Then you have to end corruption and that means changing the government cabinets of half the countries in the world.\"","highlights":"Border city of Juarez last year had more than 1,600 gang killings .\nMayor turns to military to control trafficking, violence .\nOpinions vary on whether tactics are working .\nLawyer puts some blame on \"materialistic\" Americans .","id":"ef5729e2480d0abe3a335d04496cdc9f68963eb1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An archeological team is set to break new ground in its excavation of an Egyptian temple where doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony may be buried. An excavation of an Egyptian temple my reveal where doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony are buried. A ground-penetrating, radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna and its surrounding area, west of Alexandria, was completed in March, following three years of digging, according to a statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Taposiris Magna is one of the ancient towns located on Lake Mariut, which is today called Abusir. According to the council, the radar revealed three possible spots of interest where a tomb might be located. Recently, the team discovered a large, previously unknown cemetery outside the temple enclosure. \"The discovery of this cemetery indicates that an important person, likely of royal status, could be buried inside the temple. It was common for officials and other high-status individuals in Egypt to construct their tombs close to those of their rulers throughout the Pharaonic period,\" according to the council. The expedition has so far turned up 27 tombs, 20 of them shaped like vaulted sarcophagi, and seven simple burial chambers that are reached by staircases. Inside these chambers, the team found 10 mummies, two of them gilded. Other discoveries include an alabaster bust of Cleopatra, and 22 coins bearing her \"beautiful\" image, according to council Secretary-General Zahi Hawass. The discovery contradicts some recent reports that describe her as unattractive, he said. \"Among the most interesting finds is a unique mask depicting a man with a cleft chin. The face bears some similarity to known portraits of Mark Antony himself,\" Hawass said. The love story of Antony and Cleopatra has been a favorite theme for writers and filmmakers. The 1963 Oscar-winning movie of the couple starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who themselves became star-crossed lovers. Cleopatra ruled Egypt between 51 B.C. until her suicide in 30 B.C., following Mark Antony's naval defeat against Caesar's adopted son Octavian at Actium in the Mediterranean. Mark Antony, once a general in Caesar's army, killed himself before Cleopatra took her own life, after being falsely informed that Cleopatra already had died.","highlights":"Archeologists to search three sites that may contain tombs of Cleopatra, Mark Antony .\nBust of Cleopatra, 22 coins bearing her image have been found so far .\nAntony, Cleopatra committed suicide in 31 B.C. after battle of Actium .","id":"ead19faf4ea6f4d25742525fbb3cfe1efe936230"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA scientists say new data provided by twin spacecraft analyzing the sun will help them more accurately predict how so-called solar tsunamis wreak havoc on our planet. NASA says new data on so-called solar tsunamis will help predict how they will affect our planet. The tsunamis -- powerful explosions known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs -- produce solar cosmic rays that can interfere with technology, causing power blackouts and disrupting air traffic communications and cell phone networks. NASA says images captured by its twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft have enabled scientists to map the tsunamis in 3D to examine their structure, velocity, mass and direction. The solar ejections, its says, can release billions of tons of high-velocity plasma into space, producing a shockwave that generates cosmic rays which then plow into our atmosphere. These can create the brightly-colored auroras, more commonly known as the Northern or Southern lights, but also have more damaging effects, posing particular threats to spacecraft and astronauts. Solar physicist Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington said the new data from the STEREO craft -- launched into orbit in October 2006 -- will revolutionize the study of cosmic weather patterns. \"Before this unique mission, measurements and the subsequent data of a CME observed near the sun had to wait until the ejections arrived at Earth three to seven days later,\" he said in statement. \"Now we can see a CME from the time it leaves the solar surface until it reaches Earth and we can reconstruct the event in 3D directly from the images.\"","highlights":"NASA says new data will enable scientists to map solar tsunamis in 3D .\nSolar ejections can wreak havoc on Earth, causing power and radio blackouts .\nNew data could help predict what effects the phenomena will have, NASA says .","id":"3697d2424a27bb27daf44bf7859c7a4f0b26ceb9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department threw aside diplomatic language Tuesday, attacking Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for creating what it calls a \"catastrophe\" by throwing many international aid workers out of the country. President Omar al-Bashir ordered the expulsion of aid groups after he was indicted on war crimes charges. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a direct challenge to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Tuesday, warning that he and his government \"will be held responsible for every single death that occurs in\" the refugee camps of the Darfur region. Al-Bashir ordered the expulsion of 13 international aid groups from the Sudan earlier this month after he was indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes. While other aid groups remain in Sudan, the United Nations said the 13 expelled groups provided roughly half the assistance delivered in Darfur. Nearly 300,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict, and millions are homeless, according to the U.N. Calling the situation in Darfur \"horrendous,\" Clinton said President Obama's administration will appoint a special envoy for Sudan \"in the coming days.\" On Wednesday, retired Air Force Gen. J. Scott Gration was appointed as U.S. special envoy for Sudan, the White House announced in a written statement. \"Sudan is a priority for this administration, particularly at a time when it cries out for peace and for justice. The worsening humanitarian crisis there makes our task all the more urgent,\" President Barack Obama said in the statement. \"General Gration's personal and professional background, and his service to the country as both a military leader and a humanitarian, give him the insights and experience necessary for this assignment.\" Gration, a former fighter pilot, served as assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs. Fluent in Swahili, he was raised partly in Africa, where his parents were missionary teachers . Clinton said the real question now is what kind of pressure can be brought to bear on al-Bashir and the government in Khartoum to make them understand \"that they will be held responsible for every single death that occurs in those camps.\" State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters, \"It's just a catastrophe that Bashir has created. We're going to continue to make this case and we're imploring others to make this case that he needs to reverse that decision he took. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, could possibly be at risk and it's irresponsible, the action he took, and he needs to reverse it and reverse it immediately. People's lives are at risk.\" Clinton said countries that support al-Bashir's expulsion order \"have the responsibility to persuade the government in Sudan to change its decision to let the aid workers back, or they must replace with money and personnel those who have been expelled so that innocent lives are not lost and further undermined.\" Clinton said the United States is \"very concerned\" and is looking for more effective ways to convince the Sudanese government that \"they have assumed an even greater sense of responsibility and infamy in the eyes of the world by turning their backs on these refugees whom they created in the first place.\" Wood said it is clear that Bashir is the sole person at fault. \"Bashir is to blame for this crisis on the ground,\" he said. His actions have only made things a lot worse. We are trying to get him to reverse this decision. We want to call on all those who have influence with the government of Sudan, institutions like the African Union, the Arab League, to do what they can to get Bashir to reverse his decision.\" Obama, during his election campaign, made the crisis in Darfur a major focus. Since then, some have criticized him for putting it on the back burner. Seeking to rebut that view, Wood listed all recent steps the administration has taken to resolve the situation. Last week, he said, Obama discussed the deteriorating situation in Sudan with U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon. U.S. officials have been meeting in New York, Washington and Khartoum with delegations from what Wood called \"like-minded nations.\" Last weekend, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Sudan met with UNAMID (the African Union\/United Nations operation in Darfur) and visited a camp for internally displaced people. And last week in New York, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice spoke with the president of South Sudan and the Sudanese ambassador to the U.N. Wood said the U.S. has been reaching out to the Arab League, the African Union and other countries with influence on Sudan, trying to convince them the decision to expel some aid groups \"not only costs lives but serves to further isolate the country.\" Asked whether the U.S. supports a move to defer the ICC indictment of Bashir, Wood said it does not support \"any deferral.\"","highlights":"State Department says Sudan president throwing out aid agencies is \"catastrophe\"\nHillary Clinton warns Sudan president will be \"responsible for every single death\"\nOmar al-Bashir wanted aid groups out after indictment on war crime charges .\nSpokesman: Bashir must reverse decision because \"people's lives are at risk\"","id":"411b17529f42ef0498d4cf551c9e316bd952c2f9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Painfully hot, they make your eyes water, your heart race and can turn your face embarrassingly red. Chilies have been used for many millenia both for their medicinal benefits and exciting falvor. Once only a staple of cuisine from far flung regions of the world, chilies can now be found in almost any dish around the globe. Last week an Indian woman wolfed down 51 \"ghost chilies,\" -- the world's spiciest -- in two minutes and smeared the seeds on her eyes for an entry into the Guinness World Records. Anandita Dutta Tamuly, 28, achieved the bizarre and fiery undertaking in the Indian north-eastern state of Assam. She was cheered on by British chef Gordon Ramsay, who also attempted a bite of the hot stuff before begging for water. A single seed can cause watering eyes, as well as a burning sensation in the mouth that can last up to five hours. A chili's spiciness is measured in Scoville units; the number of times a chili extract must be diluted in water in order for it to lose its heat. The \"ghost chili\", also known as bhut jolokia, has more than 1 million Scoville units, while Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units and jalapeno peppers from 2,500 to 8,000 units. Chilies have formed part of the diet in the Americas since approximately 7,500 BC and owe most of their fame to their sometimes unbearably spicy flavor. But they have also long been recognized for their health benefits. Scientific research --and legend-- have attributed health wonders to chilies over the years. Diego Alvarez Chanca, a physician on explorer Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, first wrote about the pepper's medicinal effects back in 1494. Below we look at effects eating chilies has on the body. Skin . Other than for its flavor-enhancing qualities, chili is, oddly enough, used to fight the summer heat. As the chili causes extreme sweating and blood rushing to the face, it cools the body down when the sweat evaporates, making it useful for combating heat. These same heat inducing properties are said to have a cumulative effect and over time are believed to alleviate pain when used in treatments for anything from arthritis and psoriasis to shingles and severe burns. Brain . The substances that give chili peppers their intensity when eaten or applied on the skin are called capsaicinoids. When consumed, capsaicinoids connect with pain receptors in the mouth and throat that are normally responsible for sensing heat. Once activated by the capsaicinoids, these receptors send a message to the brain that the person has consumed something hot. The brain responds to the burning sensation by raising the heart rate, increasing perspiration and releasing endorphins, called the body's \"natural painkillers\" and \"happy hormones.\" Stomach . Chilies have long been associated with soothing the digestive system, by acting as stomach cleansers. According to the UK Food Guide, chili helps to settle stomach upset and encourages the production of good digestive acid. Chili aficionados believe the fruits can also induce weight loss because the substance that makes them \"hot\" speed up the body's metabolism. However, one study by the American Institute of Cancer Research performed in Mexico showed in 2003 that a high consumption of chilies (approximately nine to 25 jalapeno peppers per day) is in fact associated with stomach cancer. Immune system . Red chilies contain high amounts of carotene and vitamin C. It is said that chilies contain more vitamin C than citrus fruits. Chili peppers are also a good source of vitamin B6 and are very high in potassium, magnesium and iron, giving them a reputation for naturally boosting the body's immune system. Heart and other cardiovascular effects . A 2006 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that after adding chili to the diet, bad cholesterol, that can often lead to heart problems, took a longer time to develop into heart diseases.","highlights":"An Indian woman last week wolfed down 51 \"ghost chilies\" in two minutes .\nThe ghost chili has 1 million Scoville units, the measurement of a chili's heat .\nChilies have also long been recognized for their health benefits .","id":"02f38e837cd5c3c169d778f3659a95194387fe5a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Every dog has his day, but Sir Lancelot -- or at least his carbon copy -- has a second one. Edgar and Nina Otto show off 10-week-old Lancey, a clone of \"the most human of any dog we've ever had.\" A Boca Raton, Florida, couple paid a California firm $155,000 to clone their beloved Labrador retriever, who died from cancer a year ago. The clone, a 10-week-old puppy dubbed Lancey, was hand-delivered to them earlier this week by Lou Hawthorne, chairman of BioArts International, a biotechnology company. \"One minute with Lancey and you know he's special. He's both extremely aware and very sweet,\" Hawthorne said in a BioArts statement. Edgar and Nina Otto said they began thinking about cloning Sir Lancelot about five years ago. \"I said 'Well, you know, it wouldn't hurt to have his DNA frozen,' and that's what we did,\" Nina Otto told CNN affiliate WPBF. The Ottos were one of five families to bid and win a BioArts auction for a chance to clone their family dog, according to a BioArts statement. Lancey is the world's first commercially cloned dog, the company said; the Ottos are the first of six current clients to receive their clone. Sir Lancelot's DNA sample was sent to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, which provides cloning services to BioArts. Researchers there put the DNA into an egg, and Lancey was born November 18, according to BioArts. The Ottos said they have had many beloved dogs over the years -- and have nine others currently -- but maintain Sir Lancelot was special. \"Sir Lancelot was the most human of any dog we've ever had,\" Edgar Otto said in the BioArts statement. \"He was a prince among dogs.\" In an interview with WPBF, Edgar Otto said Sir Lancelot \"was a very, very, very special dog to us. And we've given a lot more to the Humane Society than we've ever spent on this project.\" Watch the Ottos talk about Lancelot and Lancey \u00bb . For its part, the Humane Society of the United States says it's against the commercial cloning of animals. \"Given the current pet overpopulation problem, which costs millions of animals their lives and millions in public tax dollars each year, the cloning of pets has no social value and in fact may lead to increased animal suffering,\" the organization said on its Web site. \"For those looking to replace a lost pet, cloning will not create an animal identical to the one who is gone; cloning cannot replicate an animal's uniqueness. Cloning can only replicate the pet's genetics, which influence but do not determine his physical attributes or personality.\" The Ottos, however, said replicating Sir Lancelot's genetics is enough for them. Edgar Otto said he realizes Lancey might not be just like their departed dog, but \"if he's different, we're not going to love him any less.\" Edgar Otto is the son of the late Edwin Otto, who was part of the founding of NASCAR and a \"motorsports pioneer,\" according to www.ottomotorsports.com.","highlights":"Couple won auction to clone family dog, biotech company says .\nLancey is world's first commercially cloned dog, company says .\nDNA of deceased dog sent to S. Korea, and cloned puppy born November 18 .\nHumane Society says it's against commercial cloning of animals .","id":"c6e3dfc99d1fac7db68b6b7b764a9e780490f9ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An archeological team is set to break new ground in its excavation of an Egyptian temple where doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony may be buried. An excavation of an Egyptian temple my reveal where doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony are buried. A ground-penetrating, radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna and its surrounding area, west of Alexandria, was completed in March, following three years of digging, according to a statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Taposiris Magna is one of the ancient towns located on Lake Mariut, which is today called Abusir. According to the council, the radar revealed three possible spots of interest where a tomb might be located. Recently, the team discovered a large, previously unknown cemetery outside the temple enclosure. \"The discovery of this cemetery indicates that an important person, likely of royal status, could be buried inside the temple. It was common for officials and other high-status individuals in Egypt to construct their tombs close to those of their rulers throughout the Pharaonic period,\" according to the council. The expedition has so far turned up 27 tombs, 20 of them shaped like vaulted sarcophagi, and seven simple burial chambers that are reached by staircases. Inside these chambers, the team found 10 mummies, two of them gilded. Other discoveries include an alabaster bust of Cleopatra, and 22 coins bearing her \"beautiful\" image, according to council Secretary-General Zahi Hawass. The discovery contradicts some recent reports that describe her as unattractive, he said. \"Among the most interesting finds is a unique mask depicting a man with a cleft chin. The face bears some similarity to known portraits of Mark Antony himself,\" Hawass said. The love story of Antony and Cleopatra has been a favorite theme for writers and filmmakers. The 1963 Oscar-winning movie of the couple starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who themselves became star-crossed lovers. Cleopatra ruled Egypt between 51 B.C. until her suicide in 30 B.C., following Mark Antony's naval defeat against Caesar's adopted son Octavian at Actium in the Mediterranean. Mark Antony, once a general in Caesar's army, killed himself before Cleopatra took her own life, after being falsely informed that Cleopatra already had died.","highlights":"Archeologists to search three sites that may contain tombs of Cleopatra, Mark Antony .\nBust of Cleopatra, 22 coins bearing her image have been found so far .\nAntony, Cleopatra committed suicide in 31 B.C. after battle of Actium .","id":"a9918c553a55c0266a0d293bee28fdf22c2cac75"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo's sixth-minute strike saw holders Manchester United become the first English team to win in Porto, reaching the semifinals of the Champions League 3-2 on aggregate in the process. Ronaldo scores in spectacular style as Manchester United reached the Champions League semis. The European Player of the Year fired a spectacular 35-yard strike into the top corner as United remained on course to become the first team to retain the Champions League -- and will now face Premier League rivals Arsenal for a place in the final in Rome. The stunning goal was Ronaldo's 20th of the season but only his second in the Champions League since scoring the opener in last year's final in Moscow. After drawing the first leg 2-2 at Old Trafford, Porto only needed a low-scoring draw to reach the last four, but in truth they never looked threatening against a United defense superbly marshalled by Nemanja Vidic and the returning Rio Ferdinand. In fact, had Vidic been able to keep his close-range effort under the crossbar after John O'Shea had got the faintest of touches to a Ryan Giggs corner just before the interval, United would surely have completed their task in the first 45 minutes. \"We were very solid at the back tonight and that stability helped us,\" United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. \"The return of Rio Ferdinand alongside Vidic was a major boost and scoring an early goal helped settle us. It was a great strike by Cristiano and although we didn't score a second goal, I thought we never looked in danger of conceding,\" he added. The result puts Ferguson head-to-head with his old foe, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, for a place in the final against either Chelsea or Barcelona. It also keeps alive United's dreams of claiming an astonishing five trophies this season after also winning the English League Cup and the Club World Cup.","highlights":"Manchester United beat Porto 1-0 to reach the Champions League semifinals .\nCristiano Ronaldo scores a sixth-minute stunner to put holders into last four .\nUnited become first English team to win in Porto and now face rivals Arsenal .","id":"08b0692ce44366a7956a0db76edcba73952e1457"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Mojave boneyard in the California desert is where old airplanes go to die -- a wasteland of decrepit planes, titanic heaps of titanium and aluminum waiting to be scrapped for metal in India or China. Plane boneyards are a rich source of spare parts for MotoArt to create their functional furniture. But for Dave Hall and Donovan Fell, the boneyard is only the beginning. They own MotoArt, a company based in California that turns old aircraft parts into high-end furniture and functional art. From beds and desks to light fixtures and wall partitions, Hall and Fell say they are doing more than reinventing cast-offs from retired planes, they're creating pieces of aviation history. \"Once they are gone we can never get them back again,\" said Hall of the abandoned planes at Mojave. \"So what we like to do is actually take these aircraft parts and preserve them and give them a second life in some really fun, functional art.\" MotoArt began in 2000 when Hall and Fell, former co-workers at an architectural sign company in Los Angeles, collaborated on an art exhibition that showcased Fell's polished B-17 bomber propeller sculptures. See before and after photos of recycled plane parts \u00bb . \"We sold out the entire show, and the gearheads all loved it,\" said Fell. It was then that the duo realized their unique art project could have a much wider audience. Encouraged by the success of the exhibit, the duo began exploring the nearby Mojave boneyard for more than just propellers -- B-25 rudders for desks, 747 jet engine cowlings for beds, F-4 ejection seats for, well, ejection seats. \"Who's never wanted an ejection chair?\" laughs Fell, sitting in the company's studio in Los Angeles, where the MotoArt team bring back the treasures they find in the Mojave Desert. Watch Dave Hall at work at the Mojave boneyard \u00bb . The duo's most popular pieces of 'functional art' are their desks, ranging from the sleek 8-foot DC-9 tail stabilizer desk, which retail at around $15,000, to the imposing 14-foot DC-4 conference table, which costs a whopping $60,000. According to Hall, hundreds of hours are sometimes spent cutting, sanding, polishing and surfacing a single piece. It took the MotoArt team 220 hours to turn a single 747 cowling, the large shiny aluminum strip covering a jumbo jet engine, into a spectacular 8.5-foot diameter chrome receptionist's desk. Hall said it takes hundreds of hours to produce a fuselage partition, from using a chainsaw to slice 10-foot sheets out of the main section of a plane, to polishing and readying it for the showroom floor of the Dutch carmaker Spyker, which has commissioned MotoArt to create exhibitions for the company around the world. Hall and Fell began the company out of their garage, and now have 15 employees and a 12,000 square-foot studio with a showroom that could double as an aviation museum. \"It's like a larger version of my room when I was 10 years old,\" says Fell of the MotoArt headquarters. But MotoArt is anything but child's play -- in just nine years the company has carved out a niche in the high-end furniture market, creating a multi-million dollar business thanks to a wide range of corporate clients. The company counts Boeing, Microsoft, Red Bull and the United States government as happy MotoArt customers, as well as a number of airplane enthusiasts and celebrities. But for Hall and Fell, it is the preservation of the planes that gives them the greatest satisfaction. \"It's heartbreaking to see these planes that have serviced our country for decades being crunched up and destroyed, and it gives us a little piece of heart that we are able to recycle this and give it a second life,\" he said.","highlights":"Men at MotoArt search boneyards for old plane parts to recycle into furniture .\nThey use B-25 rudders for desks, 747 jet engine cowlings for beds .\nMotoArt prides itself on preserving aviation history with functional art .","id":"49f3fc868e1b488d507d67151166061855f8d4bb"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Legendary football coach and broadcaster John Madden is retiring, he announced Thursday. John Madden appears at the TV Critics Association Press Tour in Beverly Hills, California, in 2008. \"It's been such a great ride ... the NFL has been my life for more than 40 years, it has been my passion -- it still is,\" he said in a statement released by NBC Sports. Madden, 73, was a Hall of Fame coach for the Oakland Raiders, but is best known to millions as an ebullient football commentator. He won 16 Emmy awards for outstanding sports analyst\/personality, NBC said.","highlights":"Legendary football coach and broadcaster John Madden announces he is retiring .\n\"The NFL has been my life for more than 40 years, it has been my passion,\" he says .\nMadden is best known to millions as an ebullient football commentator .","id":"0a8250b682993c54b33bfa0562ca3190423ab417"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nearly two centuries ago Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed an obscure redistricting law that helped his party stay in office and, more importantly, codified one of the most enduring legacies in U.S. politics: gerrymandering. The U.S. House of Represenatives, home to many beneficiaries of gerrymandering. Now a part of an American lexicon often heard in Washington's K Street bars and among \"inside-the-beltway\" crowds, the term is seen as a combination of the governor's name and the word \"salamander,\" because of the salamander-like shape one electoral district took on after the redistricting. Elected governor in 1810, Gerry signed the redistricting bill two years later, enabling greater and perhaps disproportionate Republican representation in the Massachusetts legislature. The controversial move has become a favorite across the country among incumbent parties, which pack opposition voters into districts already lost in an effort to minimize the opposition's influence over the state's broader electorate. But some political analysts cry foul. \"In the end, democracy comes out the big loser,\" former federal prosecutor Edward Lazarus wrote in a 2004 column for CNN. \"The effect of such partisan gerrymandering is to block new entrants into high political office and to make the result of almost every congressional election a foregone conclusion. This, in turn, effectively disenfranchises all those voters who don't support the preordained winner,\" he wrote. In 2006, the Supreme Court threw out part of a Texas congressional map, but found the overall redistricting plan orchestrated by House Republicans acceptable. The redistricting helped Republicans in Texas defeat four Democratic congressmen in the 2004 elections. The court ruled that the redistricting plan, promoted by then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, unfairly weakened the voting strength of Latinos in two congressional districts. \"A state may not trade off the rights of some members of a racial group against the rights of other members of that group,\" wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. \"The question is therefore not whether line-drawing in the challenged area as a whole dilutes minority voting strength, but whether line-drawing dilutes the voting strength of the Latinos in [Texas'] District 23.\" The court ordered that District 23 be redrawn. States are constitutionally required to redraw congressional districts every 10 years in line with population shifts documented by the U.S. Census Bureau, a part of the Department of Commerce. This year, controversy re-emerged when President Barack Obama announced a decision to cross party lines and nominate U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, to run the Commerce Department. The move sparked criticism from leaders of minority groups concerned that the Census Bureau under Gregg, who voted to abolish the Commerce Department in 1995, might lack the resources needed to accurately count minorities. The White House promised to work directly with bureau's director to assuage those concerns, but that response drew further criticism from House Republicans concerned about greater executive influence in the Census Bureau. In a letter to the president, House Republicans Patrick McHenry and Darrell Issa described the White House as \"circumventing the secretary of commerce\" and called it \"both outrageous and unprecedented,\" suggesting the Obama administration could affect U.S. census results and congressional districting due out in 2010. The move, they say, could insulate Democratic congressional power. The White House said it recognizes the importance of an accurate census count \"free from politicization\" and added it \"has not proposed removing the census from the Department of Commerce.\" \"From the first days of the transition, the census has been a priority for the president, and a process he wanted to re-evaluate,\" it said in an earlier statement. The method through which the Census Bureau collects data has long been a topic of partisan bickering. Republicans have generally favored the \"door-to-door\" approach, which actually is done primarily by self-enumeration through the U.S. mail. Democrats commonly prefer a statistical sampling method meant to fill in \"population gaps\" they say occur because some members of minority groups and homeless populations are missed by the door-to-door approach. A 1999 Supreme Court ruling said statistical sampling could not be applied to the redistribution of congressional seats, but it did not put gerrymandering of the political landscape entirely off limits. So, almost 200 years after Elbridge Gerry helped coin the term, gerrymandering remains a key part of American politics. CNN's Bill Mears and Keating Holland contributed to this report.","highlights":"Term coined after Massachusetts Gov. Gerry signed redistricting law in early 1800s .\nPolitical parties can use tactic to pack opposition voters into districts already lost .\nGerrymandering still a key part of American politics .\nIt's already becoming an issue with the 2010 census looming .","id":"99ebae832611b60ef5b954d5ca8d7c20a4adbe31"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal safety officials want the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately ground a type of small sports aircraft, saying six of the planes have broken up in flight in the past three years, killing 10 people. The National Transportation Safety Board questions the safety of the Zodiac CH-601XL. In an urgent letter to the FAA, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board says there is \"substantial circumstantial evidence\" that aerodynamic \"flutter\" preceded some, if not all, of the fatal accidents, and that more accidents are likely to occur if action isn't taken. Flutter is a condition in which airflow around the plane causes unsafe structural vibrations. The vibrations can quickly cause the plane to break up if it is not sufficiently dampened, the safety board said. The aircraft involved is the Zodiac CH-601XL, a single-engine, two-seater that was designed by Zenair Inc. It is built by various manufacturers and also sold as a kit. In making its recommendation, the safety board said it reviewed six fatal accidents, including crashes in Spain and the Netherlands, and said flutter is the likely cause of the accidents. The board said it also considered other incidents that did not result in deaths. The NTSB said two other countries, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, have grounded the aircraft. The FAA had no immediate response to the safety board's recommendation. A Zenair official did not immediately return a reporter's phone call. But the NTSB letter says Zenair contends that the flutter problem can be addressed by proper cable tension, and asserted that a November 2005 certification flight test confirmed the plane is protected from flutter. But the safety board said the type of testing used may not be adequate to uncover all susceptibility to flutter. The NTSB said the FAA certified the CH-601XL as a Special Light Sport Aircraft in 2005. This type of certification does not require that the FAA approve the airplane's design. Instead, the airplane model is issued an airworthiness certificate if the manufacturer asserts that the plane meets industry-accepted design standards and has passed a series of ground and flight tests. The safety board is asking the FAA to prohibit further flight of the Zodiac CH-601XL until the board can determine that the airplane is no longer susceptible to aerodynamic flutter. \"The NTSB does not often recommend that all airplanes of a particular type be prohibited from further flight,\" NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said in writing comments. \"In this case, we believe such action will save lives. \"Unless the safety issues with this particular Zodiac model are addressed, we are likely to see more accidents in which pilots and passengers are killed in airplanes that they believed were safe to fly.\" The safety board also found that the stick-force gradient -- a measure of the force applied to the control stick and the increase in lift that results -- was not uniform throughout the range of motion, particularly at high vertical accelerations or increased gravitational forces. The lessening of the gradient at high gravitational force could make the airplane susceptible to being inadvertently over-controlled by the pilot, which could create a condition in which the airplane is stressed beyond its design limits, leading to an in-flight structural failure. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"National Transportation Safety Board questions safety of the Zodiac CH-601XL .\nOfficials: Six planes have broken up in flight in past three years, killing 10 people .\nZenair, designer of plane, has said proper cable tension addresses issue .\nFAA had no immediate response to the safety board's recommendation .","id":"8091f0935eac505249205f0ccd565ffa40beb255"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Over 28,000 Liverpool fans marked the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in a special memorial service at Anfield on Wednesday. Liverpool supporters at the Kop end paid their respects in an emotional afternoon at Anfield. A total of 96 supporters died on April 15, 1989 before the FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, the worst-ever tragedy in English sporting history. To commemorate the anniversary, the city of Liverpool came to a standstill at 3.06 pm (1406 GMT) with the bells of the two cathedrals and its civic buildings ringing out in memory of those fans who lost their lives. On Anfield's famous Kop, 96 candles were lit while commemorations took place at Hillsborough and also in Nottingham. Watch fans mark Hillsborough \u00bb . Members of the current Liverpool team stood somberly as hymns were played before a roll call of the dead was read out. Club legend Kenny Dalglish, who was Liverpool manager at the time of the disaster, then read a short prayer. The mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotherham, who was at the game 20 years ago, helped organize the emotional memorial. \"Hillsborough affected so many lives, not just on Merseyside but across the whole of the UK,\" he said. \"I attended the match 20 years ago and the passing years do not diminish the importance and the poignancy of this occasion.\" Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, whose 10-year-old cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley was the youngest victim of the tragedy, spoke of his feelings this week. \"Time has gone by, but the scars will never ever be healed and the fans will never ever forget. So you can always rely on our supporters to be there for you when you need them.\" The Liverpool fans died in a crush which started just before the kick-off as the gate at the Leppings Lane End was opened with terrible consequences. The match started but when the scale of the tragedy became clear, it was swiftly abandoned at 3.06 pm. In the immediate aftermath, the British government commissioned Lord Justice Taylor to conduct an inquiry which would have a far-reaching impact on football. Taylor was deeply critical of the police operation at Hillsborough, but his most significant recommendations were the removal of perimeter fencing and the creation of all-seater stadia. His report also cleared Liverpool fans of blame for the tragedy after lurid tabloid headlines provoked revulsion on Merseyside. Prime minister Gordon Brown paid reference to the controversy in an interview released on Liverpool's official television channel. \"It was wrong for people to blame, as some did, Liverpool fans on that day,\" he said. \"That's probably what matters most -- that people understood that the behavior of Liverpool fans in helping each other was magnificent. \"Let's never forget the fans who cruelly lost their lives on a day when we know the people of Liverpool were trying to help each other,\" he added. However, the people of Liverpool are still angry and bitter at the lack of justice for those who died -- and that frustration surfaced when Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport took to the stand to address the crowd. As Burnham spoke, the crowd rose as one to sing \"Justice for the 96\". The Kop chant boomed around the stadium and Burnham, an Everton fan, was left in no doubt about the strength of feeling over the lack of accountability from officialdom over the tragedy. Fittingly, the ceremony was concluded with Gerry Marsden leading the fans in singing Liverpool anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.","highlights":"A special memorial has marked the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough tragedy .\n96 Liverpool supporters died in crush at the Leppings Lane End of the stadium .\nThe Taylor Report into the deaths led to all-seater grounds in English football .","id":"0647205294c2f2241f01de151e403ea4bab7a8ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The French navy on Wednesday captured 11 suspected pirates off the coast of Kenya, Franc'e mnistry of defense announced, while other pirates who had held a Greek vessel for nearly a month let it go. Pirates attacked The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, but were unable to board. The navy tracked the pirates overnight after they attacked a ship called the Safmarine Asia, then seized them at dawn Wednesday morning, the ministry said in a statement. The Greek-flagged Titan cargo ship was carrying a load of iron to South Korea when pirates seized it. Twenty-four crew members were on board -- 17 Filipinos, three Greeks, three Romanians and a Ukrainian. They are in good health, said Tilemahos Gasteratos, spokesman for the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry. The European Union, NATO and the United States have been patrolling the region since an upsurge in piracy off the coast of Somalia began last year. U.S. snipers on Sunday killed three pirates holding hostage a U.S. merchant ship captain. Richard Phillips was held in a lifeboat for five days after his ship, the Maersk Alabama, was attacked last week. The freed Maersk crew members are expected to return to the United States on Wednesday evening. Pirates in Somalia vowed revenge. Pirates said an attack Tuesday on another U.S.-flagged merchant ship, the Liberty Sun, was in response to the killing of Phillips' captors. \"It was a revenge,\" Hassan Mohamud told a Somali journalist. \"The U.S. ship escaped by a matter of chance.\" \"We sent out 14 boats full of well-armed men and we are looking for vessels of U.S. and French nationals,\" said Mohamud. He is a pirate leader based Gara'ad in Puntland, a semi-autonomous Somali region with a long coastline along the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. \"The U.S. and French governments should know this because they started the aggression on us,\" he said. Other pirates in the region have also vowed revenge. Two days before Phillips was rescued, the French military freed four hostages, including a child, who had been held by pirates for nearly a week on a yacht off Somalia's coast. In that operation, a hostage and two pirates were killed, the French Defense Ministry said. Three pirates were captured. Separately, a court in Puntland sentenced 27 Somali pirates to prison after the judge said they had been caught red-handed. Shiekh Mohamed Abdi Aware, the presiding judge, read the verdict to the media. He said that each of the pirates would face three years in prison. A crew member aboard the Liberty Sun managed to e-mail his mother while the ship was under fire. \"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets.\" Katy Urbik said her heart stopped as she read that in an e-mail from her son Thomas. \"We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. [A] rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire too but put out,\" the message from her son continued. \"Navy is on the way and helos and ships are coming. I'll try to send you another message soon. [G]ot to go now. I love you mom and dad and all my brothers and family.\" amFIX: Full interview with Katy Urbik . Ubrik, of Wheaton, Illinois, said her son e-mailed again half an hour later. \"The Navy has showed up in full force and we are now under military escort ... all is well. I love you all and thank you for the prayers,\" his message said. The ordeal followed a tense week for the family, said Ubrik, who had closely followed news of the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and the kidnapping of its captain. She said of receiving her son's shocking e-mail: . \"My heart stopped as soon as I realized there wasn't going to be a 'just kidding' after his comment. Because I had heard from his earlier [Tuesday] morning, saying they had a plan with the Navy, they were being monitored, they had been practicing drills to get into the engine room.\" \"I opened up my e-mail and it was one of those surreal moments where, am I really reading this?\" After the thwarted attack on the Liberty Sun, the vessel was being escorted by the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge -- the same ship carrying Phillips after his dramatic rescue Sunday. Watch the tough tactics the Navy uses \u00bb . About 20 U.S. citizens are aboard the Liberty Sun. The ship was delivering humanitarian supplies from the U.N. World Food Programme, CARE and other groups, two senior defense officials told CNN. Pirates off the coast of Somalia seized two other freighters Tuesday. First, they hijacked the MV Irene EM, a 35,000-ton Greek-owned bulk carrier, according to a NATO spokesman and the European Union's Maritime Security Center. The crew of the Greek ship was thought to be unhurt, and ships have been warned to stay clear of the area for fear of further attack, the security center said. Later Tuesday, pirates on four skiffs seized the 5,000-ton MV Sea Horse, a Lebanese-owned and Togo-flagged vessel, Cmdr. Chris Davies said from NATO's Maritime Component Command Headquarters in Northwood, England. Further details about the ship and its crew weren't immediately available. The two freighters seized Tuesday are the third and fourth vessels to be hijacked in two days off the Somali coast. Pirates on Monday hijacked two Egyptian fishing boats carrying a total of between 18 and 24 people, the Egyptian Information Ministry told CNN. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry is working to end the hijacking, the information ministry said. Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. Some experts say companies are making the problem worse by paying the pirates. About 16,000 ships a year pass through the region, according to the French Foreign Ministry. CNN's Pierre Meilhan, Christine Theodorou, Niki Cook, Mike Mount and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pirates had held Greek ship and its load of iron for nearly a month .\nFrench navy tracked pirates overnight after they attacked a merchant ship .\nGreek 35,000-ton bulk carrier and Lebanese-owned, Togo-flagged freighters seized .\nPirates: Attack Tuesday on the Liberty Sun was a response to the killing of pirates .","id":"5f18a812ba8368fffb7391835223253cfdec27c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt Thursday announced his intention to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, a move that sets up what is likely to be a showdown between two prominent families in one of the country's most politically divided states. Former House Republican Whip Roy Blunt announced he will run for a Missouri Senate seat. Making the official announcement in St. Louis, Missouri, the former House Republican whip indicated he would run on a platform of keeping Democratic control of both Congress and the White House in check. \"Common sense and open debate are in danger of being suppressed by the overreaching liberal monopoly in Congress and the White House,\" he said, according to prepared remarks. \"Never has Washington been in greater need of hearing from people who work hard, pay their taxes and want solutions to urgent economic problems and the ongoing threat of terrorism.\" \"My sense is Missourians and Americans are not well served by one-party rule,\" Blunt also said, citing the massive stimulus measure signed by President Obama that won little Republican support. Blunt's announcement comes two weeks after Democrat Robin Carnahan jumped into the race. Carnahan is another Missourian with prominent name recognition who enjoys widespread support. \"The Missouri Senate race is shaping up to be one of the most competitive races of the cycle,\" said Nathan Gonzalez, political editor of the Rothenberg Report. \"It has attracted two of the biggest names of the state that has a history of closest elections.\" Both Blunt and Carnahan are seeking the Senate seat set to be vacated by longtime Missouri Republican Kit Bond. Blunt, a six-term congressman representing the state's conservative southwestern corner, is a longtime Missouri politician with high name recognition across the state and solid support among his party's conservative base. He has run for statewide office several times during his nascent political career, having served as secretary of state for two terms before losing the Republican primary for governor in 1992. His son Matt also served as the state's governor from 2005-2009, but ultimately decided not to seek another term because of low approval ratings. Blunt faces a state that has become increasing Democratic in the last several election cycles. The state's other Senate seat went Democratic in 2006 with Claire McCaskill's narrow win, and Democrat Jay Nixon was elected governor of the state in 2008. But Republicans still hold edges in the state's House and Senate chambers and have a majority of the state's nine congressional seats. While Blunt is likely to enjoy the support of the party's establishment, he could face a competitive primary challenge from former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, a vocal critic of her party's leadership who narrowly lost a bruising primary bid for governor last year. Even though she is not particularly popular in her party, Steelman's message of reform could resonate if the GOP's national approval ratings remain low throughout the next two years. \"Republicans would like to avoid a primary in the Senate race, but she's not the kind of person they will be able to just shove out of a race,\" Gonzalez said. \"She relishes in being in an outsider role.\" But should Blunt make it to a general election facing Carnahan, the race will likely become a hard-fought and high-profile battle of two powerful political names. Carnahan's father, Mel, served as governor of the state from 1993-2000 and died in a plane crash while running for the U.S. Senate. Carnahan still won the seat, defeating then-Republican Sen. John Ashcroft, and Carnahan's wife Jean held the post for two years. Carnahan's brother is also a U.S. congressman representing the outskirts of St. Louis. But national Democrats are eager for a match-up against Blunt, who was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and has been linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. \"As one of the faces of the same old Republican Party, Roy Blunt enters this race with a whole lot of baggage and a whole lot of questions to answer,\" said Eric Schultz, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's communication's director. Democrats will also highlight Blunt's stalwart support of former President Bush, especially when it comes to economic policies. \"I'd hate to be him, and explaining my votes on the Bush positions,\" DSCC chairman Bob Menendez said of Blunt last week. \"They got their ideas into law. It created one of the worst economies I have ever seen.\"","highlights":"Ex-Republican whip wants to keep Democratic control in check .\nDecision comes two weeks after Democrat Robin Carnahan announced bid .\nBoth candidates have high name recognition in Missouri .","id":"344bd13e2e5dbfd448eeefcc70cbcc436cce3edd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Lillo Brancato Jr., an actor who appeared in \"The Sopranos,\" was acquitted of the 2005 killing an off-duty New York City police officer but found guilty of attempted burglary. Lillo Brancato Jr. appeared on \"The Sopranos\" and played alongside Robert De Niro in \"A Bronx Tale.\" Brancato, 32, was also acquitted of two counts of burglary, but could face three to 15 years in prison on the attempted burglary charge. He has already served three years, according to his attorney, Joseph Tacopina. Police officer Daniel Enchautegui, 28, was killed trying to break up a burglary attempt at his neighbor's house in the Bronx in December 2005. During the trial, Brancato said there was not a break-in. Brancato said he knew the owner of the home, and that he and friend Steven Armento, 51, were drinking at a strip club when they decided to go hunt for valium. Brancato told the jury that the owner, a Vietnam veteran, gave him permission to come to his house and take painkillers or other pills whenever he wanted. Brancato admitted to breaking a window at the home, but said it was strictly because he was going through intense heroin withdrawal that night and he said he was trying to wake up his friend to get the drugs. When Brancato and Armento entered the home, the next door neighbor -- Enchautegui -- came outside to investigate. That's when prosecutors said Armento shot the officer through the heart with his .357 Magnum. Armento was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in November. The jury in that trial took less than six hours to convict Armento. Enchautegui was shot in the chest by Armento when he interrupted the alleged robbery, but managed to shoot both suspects multiple times before dying. \"This jury spoke loud and clear, that Lillo had nothing to do with the murder of this police officer,\" Tacopina said. Brancato appeared on six episodes of the hit HBO series \"The Sopranos\" as a wannabe mobster in 2000. As a teen, Brancato starred alongside actor Robert De Niro in \"A Bronx Tale.\"","highlights":"Lillo Brancato Jr. played a wannabe mobster on \"The Sopranos\"\nBrancato faces up to 15 years for attempted burglary conviction .\nActor said homeowner allowed him to come and get drugs when needed .\nAs a teen, Brancato starred alongside actor Robert De Niro in \"A Bronx Tale\"","id":"086bfc14f8388cb3ba19b66990b6a39ec2fe8834"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chen Xiao had pretty much given up making her own decisions and so decided to throw open her life to the whims of China's hundreds of millions of Internet users, known in China as netizens. Beijing resident Chen Xiao decided to put her life up for sale after an unhappy 2008. \"It's your right to arrange Chen Xiao's life, and it's my obligation to serve you,\" read her online shop. Since December, Chen has been allowing others to decide what she will do each day, because, for the most part, last year was awful, she said. Her hometown was hit by blizzards, her country rocked by a devastating earthquake, friends divorced and her clothing shop went bankrupt. \"Every time I had a plan for what I wanted my life to be like, nothing would come of it. It was very disappointing. I figured if other people came up with things for me to do, I might stumble upon something new and better,\" she told CNN. What she stumbled upon was not only a new life but a new way to make a living. She charges about $3 an hour, and she's been asked to do almost everything from delivering pet food to caring for stray cats to taking a hot lunch to a homeless man. What surprised her the most was not so much the varied requests but being able to find happiness in the process. \"If somebody asks you to do something, something simple, and you do it, it can make you very happy. You can change from a gloomy person to a very bright one. It can help give you a new sense of self-esteem,\" she said. So far, the most meaningful assignment she was given was attending a child's birth -- the father was a complete stranger who just wanted someone to take pictures and share the moment. There are limits to what she will agree to do. She will not do anything illegal, immoral or violent, but she said that has not stopped some from asking. \"When I first started there was this man who would send me these really disgusting text messages. His words were over the top... nauseating,\" she said. There was also a man who wanted to meet her for a few private hours at a ski chalet. When she turned up with a friend to take photographs, he backed out and then demanded a refund, but Chen refused. In many ways she is just a glorified errand girl, but with a unique China twist. Chen is another example here of how in China the Internet is crossing over from cyberspace to the real world. Chen does not know how much longer she will keep taking cyberrequests. For now it is a good way to survive the financial crisis when many others are losing their jobs and businesses are going broke. \"When people stop needing me, I'll go back to my original life. But I don't know what will come,\" she said. China's netizens will most likely make that decision for her as well.","highlights":"26-year-old Chen Xiao put her life online, asking people to fill it with tasks .\nDecision came when she discovered she didn't know what to do with her life .\nCharging $3 per hour, Chen has attended births, met strangers among other tasks .\nChen will not do anything illegal, immoral or violent .","id":"d4114d3ca9af0d2351b482fb4259f3d18952f461"} -{"article":"On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. This week, King traveled to North Carolina to look at the financial crisis' impact on health care. Doug Pegram, of North Carolina, is one of many unemployed Americans struggling with medical bills. WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (CNN) -- For Doug Pegram, it is on the one hand simple math: His medical bills cost roughly $300 a month and a health insurance policy would cost $550. \"Two or three hundred dollars goes a long way,\" Pegram said. Especially when you are living on unemployment benefits. Simple math, and a huge gamble: Pegram has a rare disorder, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, that in some patients can be life-threatening. \"If anything happens, that's another story,\" Pegram told us. \"But you have to do what you have to do sometimes, and you just hope for the best. And do it.\" Watch Pegram describe his tough choices \u00bb . Life on the edge started in November, when Pegram lost his job at Hanesbrands Inc., the clothing manufacturer where he had worked for three years. Ironically, Pegram's job as a senior analyst included writing reports for Hanes management on sales and economic trends. \"Every couple months, it [layoffs] went through the company and a few people here and there and it got worse and worse,\" he said. \"I knew it was in the future somewhere.\" Now, he is looking for a job and keeping his fingers crossed his condition doesn't worsen. Ehlers-Danlos is a group of inherited disorders that affect connective tissues. In Pegram's case, it means constant pain in his legs and some other joints. \"One type is you can have heart failure if you don't get checked out, so it's pretty serious that you actually go to the doctor,\" Pegram said. His monthly visit costs $150 -- and patients like Pegram who are without insurance are asked to pay up front. His medications run about $126 at a discount pharmacy. Pegram has old bills showing that when he was at Hanes and insured, the same medication cost the insurance company $68 because of its discount. His doctor also accepted a lower negotiated rate from the insurer. \"So everything is inflated,\" he said of his medical costs now. He could have signed up for the COBRA health coverage available to workers as they lose their jobs. It was that policy Pegram said would have cost him $550 or \"almost half of what you get every month\" in jobless benefits and leave him \"not able to pay for a place to live, and food, and all that.\" Watch President Obama's summit on health care \u00bb . In an interview at his condo, we asked Pegram: \"Should you be doing more? If you had insurance, would you be doing more, seeing more doctors?\" \"Yes, I would be.\" \"And what's the risk of not doing that?\" \"I could go downhill quicker. It's a debilitating condition, so eventually I could, I don't know.\" Yet he is remarkably upbeat about his health and about the prospects of finding a job before his benefits run out in a few months. \"I think I will find something before then,\" Pegram said, while conceding he might be forced soon to lower his sights and look for work that pays less than his Hanes position as long as it provides health care coverage. The jobless rate in the Winston-Salem metropolitan area was 7.6 percent in December 2008, up from 4.4 percent one year earlier. With the higher unemployment comes increases in the number of residents without health insurance. Dr. Bruce Wham has been a practicing dentist for 26 years and an amateur economist for the past year or so. \"Most people feel like it is going to get worse before it gets better,\" Wham said when we visited his practice. \"Talking to patients, talking about automobile purchases, any kind of renovations of houses, even education -- sending their kids to college, there is a lot of concern about purchasing those things or how they are going to do those things and dentistry is sometimes considered more of a luxury than a necessity and we get pushed to the back lot.\" One way Wham can tell if a longtime patient is about to lose his or her job is if they suddenly schedule treatments and repairs they had been putting off. It is a sign they are about to lose their insurance coverage. \"Especially if there is something that they need to get done or have been 'treatment-planned' for and they have been told by the dentist, the hygienist, to replace this, yes, they are more likely to want to come in and get that done as soon as they can,\" Wham said. The flip side: A patient who needs major work who instead endures the pain, or asks Wham if there is a cheaper, though perhaps temporary, solution. \"If there is anything that can be delayed or pushed back, that is what they are doing. They are asking us, 'Is there any way that we can hold off? Is there anything less involved, less costly until I get my job, until I know my insurance is going to be back?' in effect. \"And so we do a lot of that, not necessarily temporary restorations, but things that might not last as long and that may not be as costly to try to tide people over for the short term.\" So it maybe is not in the best interest of the patient in the long term, but maybe better on their wallet in the short term? \"Better on their wallet. That is exactly right.\"","highlights":"As jobless rate rises, so does the number of people without health insurance .\nNorth Carolina patient pays twice as much for medication than when he was insured .\nDentist says economy causes some patients to consider treatment a luxury .","id":"bb7968e810827ac9d9c1a2859f2514c94fc326a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of mourners filled a Tracy, California, high school gym Thursday to remember slain 8-year-old Sandra Renee Cantu. Sandra Cantu, 8, had been missing almost two weeks before her body was found. The little girl made national headlines after she went missing March 27 from a mobile home park in Tracy where she lived with her family. She was on her way to a friend's home and her playful skipping down an alley was caught by a surveillance camera. Police later found her body stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a nearby dairy farm. Photos of Sandra, flowers and stuffed animals covered the front of the stage. Family members, friends and state dignitaries memorialized the child during a ceremony that lasted just over an hour. The printed program called the memorial service \"A Celebration of Life,\" and organizers said they hoped the service would help ease the pain the community has suffered since Sandra's disappearance. \"We are left with the haunting image of her skipping on the streets of Tracy. But today she is skipping on the streets of gold, into the arms of a loving God\", said Brent Ives, mayor of Tracy. Cindy Sasser, principal at Jacobsen Elementary School told mourners, \"We should all strive to be like Sandra -- always smiling, wanting to help, to look out for others and to be caring.\" The service included a video that showcased some of the family's favorite photos. People from across California attended, filling the gymnasium, cafeteria and the football stadium at West High School. Melissa Huckaby, 28, a Sunday school teacher who lived in the same mobile home park as Sandra's family, has been charged with murder, kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14, and rape by instrument. If convicted, she would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett said this week. A private memorial service for Sandra was held Wednesday. Her casket, signed by classmates, was taken to a nearby burial site by a horse-drawn carriage.","highlights":"NEW: Photo montage shown at service for Sandra at a high school in Tracy .\nGirl, 8, disappeared March 27; her body was found in suitcase on April 6 .\nPolice arrested Melissa Huckaby, 28, and charged her with killing and raping Sandra .\nIf convicted, Huckaby faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole .","id":"12a6befbe4842bd94aa91c1b4446d7a695ae9d0f"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- So you're finally ready to settle down and make that marriage proposal? There's no better time to do it than engagement season, which, lucky for you, is now! Get inspired by these uber-romantic celebrity proposals. Brandon Routh popped the question to Courtney Ford while on a picnic. Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict . Although the set of a slasher movie seems an unlikely place for romance to bloom, that's just where it happened for actors Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict. Shortly after shooting began in 1999 on their film \"Hollywood Horror,\" the co-stars started spending time together. Seven years later, on Christmas Day 2006, Hardrict, 32, told Mowry, 30, that he wanted to give her a promise ring. Then, as her entire family looked on, the \"Lincoln Heights\" actor yelled, \"Psych!\" and got down on one knee to present her with a 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring. Antonio Pierce and Jocelyn Maldonado . Antonio Pierce, an NFL linebacker, met Jocelyn Maldonado during a celebrity appearance at an ESPN Fantasy Football Draft. Maldonado, a model at the event, instantly caught his eye. Pierce and Maldonado (who now hosts Mets Weekly) were inseparable over the next six months. In February 2007, Pierce treated Maldonado to a helicopter ride above Manhattan, New York, before dining at Brooklyn's The River Caf\u00e9. Famous for its chocolate Brooklyn Bridge cake, Pierce conspired with the restaurant's manager to place the engagement ring atop the confection, which was covered with pink rose petals. Howie Dorough and Leigh Boniello . Backstreet Boy Howard \"Howie\" Dorough got more than he bargained for after hiring Leigh Boniello to be the band's webmaster in December 2000. Boniello went on tour with the group and quickly grew close to Dorough. Six years later, the couple attended a New Year's Eve party at the New Jersey home of Boniello's father. \"I figured, what better timing,\" says Dorough, \"because all of her family was going to be there, including her 92-year-old grandmother.\" Just before the stroke of midnight, Dorough made a toast and presented Boniello with a custom-designed three-stone diamond engagement ring. Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford . Three years before actor Brandon Routh donned those famous blue tights, he tended bar at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood. During a party there in 2003, actress Courtney Ford repeatedly poured out the drinks he made her as a ruse to chat him up. \"I kept asking him for another drink, telling him the one before was too strong,\" she recalls. In 2006, Routh purchased the 3-carat diamond ring that had caught Ford's eye during an earlier visit to Neil Lane. But since the two were traveling for the Superman Returns press tour, Routh asked Gilbert Adler, one of the film's producers, to hold the ring until they arrived in England. \"Poor man!\" says Routh. \"He carried it around for two and a half weeks.\" Finally, while picnicking in Glastonbury, Routh popped the question. Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter . Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter became friends after meeting at a party in 2006 and Sanchez immediately pegged him as perfect husband material. She found out for certain that he felt the same way just two days before Christmas 2007, under a full moon at midnight, in a bay off the coast of the Puerto Rican island Vieques. The two were seated in a double kayak, taking in the bioluminescent organisms shimmering in the water all alone, except for a tour guide in a second kayak. The scene should have been pure bliss, except that Sachez was concerned when their guide speedily paddled away. \"The guy knew to take off so Eric could propose, but imagine how I felt floating in this huge bay in the middle of the night with nobody around,\" Sanchez explains. \"I started calling back, 'Senor, hello! Come back!' until I realized something was going on.\" After an \"amazing speech,\" Winter pulled out a 4.3-carat brilliant-cut diamond ring by Michael Barin, Sanchez's favorite jeweler. But her joy was soon laced with anxiety over the fact that such a costly bauble was surrounded by acres of sea. \"I said, 'Put it away, please. I don't want it to drop in the water!'\" Anna Chlumsky and Shaun So . Actress Anna Chlumsky, 27, best known for her role in \"My Girl,\" was awaiting her seven-year anniversary with college sweetheart and army reservist Shaun So, 28, and hoping he might pop the question. While they were having breakfast at a caf\u00e9 in her neighborhood a week before their anniversary, Chlumsky described a cocktail ring a friend was selling. So, who had been carrying an engagement ring for two weeks in anticipation of the perfect moment, pulled out the 1-carat, cathedral-mounted, radiant-cut bauble and asked, \"Does it look anything like this?\" Guiliana DePandi & Bill Rancic . It started out all business: Giuliana DePandi was interviewing Bill Rancic, first-season winner on \"The Apprentice\" and co-host of the Chicago, Illinois, TV show \"In the Loop with iVillage.\" But when the cameras stopped rolling in April 2006, a whirlwind -- and adventurous -- romance began. Eight months later, when Rancic, 36, popped the question during a chopper flight over Chicago, complete with champagne, Giordano's deep-dish pizza (DePandi's favorite) and Michael Bubl\u00e9 tunes piped into the headset. \"Bill told me we were going to look at Christmas lights,\" says DePandi. \"It was dark in the helicopter, so I didn't really get a look at the ring until the next day, when I went into shock for the second time,\" she says of the 4-carat cushion-cut diamond in a micro pav\u00e9 setting Rancic helped design. Jeri Ryan and Chistophe Eme . \"He was hot!\" Shark star Jeri Ryan, 39, recalls of first glimpsing her future husband, Christophe Em\u00e9, 38, at a food-related charity event four years ago. \"He looked good in his chef's hat, and he had this ornery little spark in his eye that I really enjoy.\" After dating for two years, the couple opened Ortolan, their celebrated French restaurant in Los Angeles, California. The proposal came soon after. \"One night, Christophe covered my eyes and took me into our bedroom,\" recalls Ryan. There the die-hard romantic had placed candles, champagne and a canvas painted with the messages \"And you come with me forever\" in French and \"Grow old along with me\" in English. Em\u00e9 then presented Ryan with a made-to-order cushion-cut solitaire set in pav\u00e9 diamonds. Jason Priestley and Naomi Lowde . Fate has looked after Jason Priestley. On Valentine's Day 2000 the actor met Naomi Lowde, a makeup artist from Hertfordshire, England, while walking back from a play rehearsal in London. \"I was smitten,\" says Priestley, now 36. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum and Lowde, 27, immediately began dating, and in 2002 they moved back to California together. That's when fate took another turn: On August 11, 2002, Priestley was driving his race car on a Kentucky track when he hit a wall at 180 mph. Though he sustained three skull fractures, a broken back and a bleeding artery in his neck, he pulled through. \"It was a tough time, but it was also magical because we kept each other's spirits high,\" says Lowde. \"We pushed two beds together in the hospital and put Swifty, our French bulldog, in the middle. We were together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months.\" In May 2004 Priestley arranged another trip to London, England -- to the very street corner where he and Naomi first met, where he presented her with an emerald-cut, three-diamond ring by Steven Pomerantz. Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell . What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas -- and for Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell, that's not a bad thing. Nearly four years ago the two ran into each other poolside at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. \"I was working on a documentary, and Jerry offered to help,\" recalls Romijn, 35. \"He spent a week operating the microphone, but later he told me he would have done anything. I don't think he really cared about the project, if you know what I mean.\" For their first date the couple went to see the Blue Man Group with friends, and O'Connell had Romijn in stitches. \"It was this whole Jerry show in my ear. That's how it is with Jerry. You get sucked into it!\" Evidently: A year and a half later, on September 18, 2005, O'Connell, 33, proposed to Romijn in New York with a diamond ring from Simon G. \"I got down on one knee, asked her to marry me and said, 'You better say yes' a couple of times -- there was a little bit of a pause on her part,\" says O'Connell. Romijn's take? \"Not true!\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict got engaged on the set of a slasher movie .\nBackstreet Boy Howard \"Howie\" Dorough proposed on New Year's Eve .\nRebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell first met in Las Vegas, Nevada .\nJason Priestley proposed on the street corner where he and Naomi Lowde met .","id":"d271bf998bac72de1e32a1ccd1c6221615558eb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Van Johnson, whose boyish looks and earnest manner made him a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1940s and '50s, died Friday in an assisted-care facility, a friend told CNN. Van Johnson and Judy Garland in \"In the Good Old Summertime,\" one of many musicals in his lengthy career. Johnson, 92, died around 11 a.m. of natural causes at the Tappan Zee Manor in Nyack, New York, where he had lived for seven years, said Wendy Bleiweiss. Johnson's career stretched over six decades and across genres, from comedies and war films, such as \"The Caine Mutiny\" and \"30 Seconds Over Tokyo,\" to Broadway musicals and television shows, including a guest spot as the Minstrel on the campy 1960s series, \"Batman,\" according to Turner Classic Movies' Web site. The red-haired, freckle-faced actor's youthful charm earned him a huge teen following in his heyday. He became known as the \"voiceless Sinatra,\" despite a singing voice that landed him roles alongside June Allyson and Judy Garland in \"Two Girls and a Sailor\" and \"In the Good Old Summertime,\" according to TCM.com. Johnson was born August 25, 1916, to a plumber and housewife in Newport, Rhode Island. He was 16 years old when he left Rhode Island for New York City so he could forge a career in acting, Bleiweiss said. A few years later, he got his break from Lucille Ball, she said. \"She saw this redhead kid and said, 'Let's give him a break. He seems like he can do some acting,' \" Bleiweiss said. Johnson made his Broadway debut in 1936 in \"New Faces of 1936\" before legendary director-playwright George Abbott hired him as a chorus member and understudy to the three male leads in Rodgers and Hart's \"Too Many Girls\" in 1939. The next year, Abbott cast him as a chorus boy and Gene Kelly's understudy in Rodgers and Hart's groundbreaking musical \"Pal Joey,\" according to TCM.com. His film debut followed in 1940 with a role in the chorus of \"Too Many Girls.\" While en route to a screening in 1942, he was in a car wreck that left him with a metal plate in his head and kept him out of the military. But that didn't stop him from acting in war films. Two years later, he received top billing in \"Two Girls and a Sailor.\" Other big roles included \"A Guy Named Joe,\" \"Brigadoon\" and \"The Caine Mutiny.\" In 1947, Johnson married former actor Eve Lynn Johnson, who had previously been married to a close friend of Johnson's, Keenan Wynn. The two did not have children and divorced in 1968, according to TCM.com . Johnson had a daughter, Schuyler Van Johnson, by another woman, according to TCM.com. As Johnson entered middle age, his features grew heavy but he still managed to find offbeat roles in films including \"The Bottom of the Bottle,\" an unabashed melodrama in which he played an alcoholic, and \"23 Paces to Baker Street\" as a blind detective. As film roles became scarce, Johnson filled the gaps with stage work. He appeared in \"The Music Man\" in London, England, in 1961 and returned to Broadway in 1962 for \"Come on Strong.\" In Woody Allen's 1985 comedy, \"The Purple Rose of Cairo,\" Johnson played one of the actors trapped inside the film screen in a parody of sorts of films from the 1930s. In 1987, Johnson was praised for his work in the Broadway production of \"La Cage aux Folles.\" He last appeared on stage four years ago in \"Love Letters\" in a community theater in nearby Suffern, New York, but decided afterward that he would do no more, Bleiweiss said. \"He said he had seen it and done it all and now he was just going to sit back and take it easy. Those were his words,\" she said. Johnson retained much of his youthful energy as he grew older, and became a frequent interview subject on the old days of Hollywood and his lengthy career, TCM.com said. Bleiweiss said she met Johnson when he moved into the home, where she was a case manager at the time. \"He still was tall and striking,\" she said. \"He was one of the all-time old actors.\" His ability to communicate was hampered by the loss of his hearing. Instead, he passed the time by painting, needlepoint and crocheting, she said. Though he didn't cook, he loved watching cooking shows and reruns of \"The Golden Girls,\" she said. Bleiweiss said Johnson was estranged from his daughter and stepchildren for most of his life, but children brightened his day. \"When he saw them, he'd smile and wave to them,\" she said. \"It always brought a smile to his face.\" A private service will be held.","highlights":"Johnson died Friday morning at 92 in an assisted-living facility in Nyack, New York .\nHis career stretched over six decades and across genres, from war films to musicals .\nJohnson's youthful charm earned him nickname the \"voiceless Sinatra\" in his heyday .\nHe got top billing in \"Two Girls and a Sailor;\" praised for role in \"La Cage aux Folles\"","id":"b92c5051749b877c7858baeabedf9f0466f5608e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For three years, family, friends and her college sorority sisters have been looking for Jennifer Kesse, wondering what happened to her. Jennifer Kesse would be 26 now. She has been missing since January 24, 2006. Last week, on the third anniversary of Kesse's disappearance, an inmate in a Florida prison said he might have the answer. David Russ, a convicted killer being held at the Seminole County Jail, spoke last week with the missing woman's father, Drew Kesse, claiming he had information that could lead to a break in the case. Details are being withheld from the public. In a jailhouse phone call with CNN, Russ hinted he'd eavesdropped on other inmates. He also was outspoken about his skepticism toward investigators. \"The investigators have messed this case up from the beginning and cannot be trusted,\" he said. That's why he asked to speak directly with the missing woman's father, he said. Orlando police are just as skeptical of Russ. They said he provided information they already had. \"His information is not some big break in the case,\" said Sgt. Barbara Jones of the Orlando Police Department. \"We are still hoping for new tips that could lead us to finding Jennifer Kesse.\" The 24-year-old financial adviser was just back from a Caribbean vacation with her boyfriend and was getting back into her routine. She went to work at her new job, came home to her new condominium and called her parents. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . At 10 p.m., she called her boyfriend, who lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Then, her family believes, she went to bed. The next morning, she got up and showered for work. Her clothes were neatly laid out on her bed, her family says, suggesting she may have tried on a few outfits before deciding what to wear to the office. Then, she disappeared, her family said. She did not show up for work that Tuesday morning and her employer reported her missing. Police found Kesse's Chevy Malibu two days later. It was parked in a gated lot about one mile down the road from the condominium complex where she lived. Inside the vehicle, police found some of Kesse's personal items, but her purse, wallet, two cell phones and briefcase were missing. The car doors were locked and the car keys were not found. Police later released a video surveillance tape of the car being parked in the lot by someone other than Kesse. The grainy video partially shows a person walking away from the car, past a parking lot gate. Police are uncertain if this person of interest is a man or a woman, because the image is partially obscured by the gate. The person is described as 5 feet 4 inches, with a short haircut, wearing light-colored clothes and dark shoes. The video is time and date-stamped at noon on the day Kesse disappeared. Forensic tests on the vehicle came back inconclusive, Sgt. Jones said. No blood or other trace evidence was found to show that Kesse had been injured in the vehicle. Drew Kesse said that every Tuesday, landscapers worked at the condo complex near his daughter's parking space. The landscapers said they didn't see Kesse leaving her apartment and getting into her car, which she did every weekday morning between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. \"The only theory we could come up with is that she walked out her front door and was kidnapped somewhere between her front door and the parking lot where her car was. We think since the landscapers didn't see her, she must not have even made it out of the hallways or stairwells of the condo complex,\" Drew Kesse said. He added that there weren't any surveillance cameras in the hallways or stairwells at the time his daughter was living there. Sgt. Jones said investigators have developed forensic evidence from Kesse's car that could someday match with a person of interest and identify a suspect. Police have also released a photo of a green clover tattoo on Kesse's left hip. Anyone with information leading to Jennifer Kesse or the person responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the tip line at 1-800-423-TIPS. The reward is $10,000. Kesse would be 26 years old and has blonde hair, green eyes, is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds.","highlights":"Inmate calls missing woman's father, says he heard other inmates talking .\nPolice say inmate's information is nothing new .\nJennifer Kesse was 24, disappeared three years ago near Orlando, Florida .\nInformation? Call 1-800-423-TIPS. A $10,000 reward is offered .","id":"c734aec613af5127ee4777e1bc45a11e7bcc5839"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terrorists are likely to use a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next five years, a blue-ribbon panel assembled by Congress has concluded. Police watch over travelers at New York's Grand Central Terminal before Thanksgiving. They are more likely to use a biological weapon than a nuclear one -- and the results could be devastating, the chairman of the commission told CNN. \"The consequences of a biological attack are almost beyond comprehension. It would be 9\/11 times 10 or a hundred in terms of the number of people who would be killed,\" former Sen. Bob Graham said. He cited the flu virus that killed millions of people in 1918 as an example. \"Today it is still in the laboratory, but if it should get out and into the hands of scientists who knew how to use it for a violent purpose, we could have multiple times the 40 million people who were killed 100 years ago,\" he said. Watch how officials worry about a biological terror attack \u00bb . The U.S. government \"needs to move more aggressively to limit\" the spread of biological weapons, the commission said in its report. Graham warned that such measures would be costly, but were necessary. \"The leadership of this country and the world will have to decide how much of a priority ... they place on avoiding the worst weapons in the world getting in the hands of the worst people in the world,\" he said. \"It is not going to be cheap. It is not going to be accomplished without some sacrifices. It won't be accomplished without putting this issue ahead of some other competing national and international goals. But I think our safety and security depend upon doing so,\" he added. Graham said a biological attack was more likely than a nuclear one because it would be easier to carry out. Biological weapons \"are more available,\" he said. \"Anthrax is a natural product of dead animals. Other serious pathogens are available in equally accessible forms.\" \"There are so many scientists who have the skills to convert a pathogen from benign, helpful purposes into an illicit, very harmful weapon,\" he added. But the commission warned that there is also a threat of nuclear terrorism, both because more countries are developing nuclear weapons and because some existing nuclear powers are expanding their arsenals. \"Terrorist organizations are intent on acquiring nuclear weapons,\" said the report, which was published Tuesday on the Internet and will be officially released Wednesday. CNN obtained a copy of the report Monday evening. It cited testimony before the commission from former Sen. Sam Nunn, who said that the \"risk of a nuclear weapon being used today is growing, not receding.\" The report recommends a range of measures, including increased security and awareness at biological research labs and strengthening international treaties against the spread of biological and nuclear weapons. \"Many biological pathogens and nuclear materials around the world are poorly secured -- and thus vulnerable to theft by those who would put these materials to harmful use, or would sell them on the black market to potential terrorists,\" the report warned. The commission expressed particular concern about the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, and about Pakistan, which it described as \"the intersection of nuclear weapons and terrorism.\" While observing that Pakistan is a U.S. ally, the report said, \"the next terrorist attack against the United States is likely to originate from within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas\" in Pakistan. The tribal areas lie in northwest Pakistan where the government exerts little control; the United States says it is a haven for militants from both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Congress created the commission to investigate and report on WMD and terrorism in line with a recommendation from the 9\/11 Commission, which compiled a report on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Commissioners heard testimony from more than 250 experts from around the world over the course of their six-month investigation. CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Next terror attack on U.S. likely to originate in Pakistan tribal areas, report says .\nTerrorists with biological weapons could kill millions, panel's chairman says .\nBiological attack more likely than nuclear attack, report says .\nNumber of nations with nuclear weapons also growing, panel says .","id":"c6070fa393cc75cdb6de525e881a5bc729a68338"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces shelled a house where they had ordered about 100 Palestinian civilians to take shelter, killing about 30 people and wounding many more, witnesses told the U.N. Ambulance drivers wait for Israel and the Red Cross to give them the green light Thursday to leave Gaza City. Israel Defense Forces said it is looking into the allegations. \"Credible eyewitness accounts\" described the incident, which occurred in the volatile Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun, said Allegra Pacheco, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Palestinian territories. Pacheco spoke to CNN on Friday. Witnesses reported that \"about 100 civilians were evacuated\" to a house Sunday, and the structure was shelled Monday, she said. The witnesses told the U.N. that two of the survivors said their children died. \"There was no order given to move civilians from one building into another,\" Israeli security sources said. However, Pacheco said, \"The eyewitness accounts that we have received state that the IDF ordered them to go into this house.\" See images from the conflict (Warning: graphic images) \u00bb . Officials are simply passing along witness reports and not making \"accusations of deliberate actions or any legal conclusions on the part of the IDF,\" Pacheco said. \"There needs to be further fact-finding on what occurred in this house,\" she said, adding that U.N. officials have yet to speak to the IDF and the Israeli government. Her remarks came a day after the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a blunt press release saying ambulances obtained access to several houses in Zeitoun \"affected by Israel shelling,\" days after they asked to go into the neighborhood. The release slammed Israel -- an uncharacteristic move for the agency, which is known for its neutrality and quiet, behind-the-scenes activities. According to the release, the ICRC had wanted \"safe passage for ambulances\" to the neighborhood since Saturday, but didn't receive IDF permission until Wednesday. The ICRC and the Palestine Red Crescent Society \"found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were 12 corpses lying on mattresses,\" the ICRC said. Watch how the conflict is taking a toll on children \u00bb . Rescue teams found 15 wounded people and three corpses in other houses, said the ICRC, which casts the shelling as a single incident. \"The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable,\" the ICRC said. Pacheco said she could not say if the incident witnesses described to the U.N. was the same incident in the ICRC report. But they took place in the same area, she said. \"In the Zeitoun area, it's been a closed area, and there has been fighting and there have been injured. There are other homes and buildings where there were injured who were not evacuated,\" she said. Witnesses told the U.N. they had been calling for ambulances to collect dead and wounded people in the Zeitoun buildings, she said. \"This was very much similar to what the ICRC reported yesterday as to what the medical personnel found when they went into the neighborhood,\" Pacheco said. The Israeli army built earthen walls that made ambulance access to the neighborhood impossible, the ICRC said. \"The children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart,\" the ICRC said. Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's head of delegation for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, called the shelling incident \"shocking.\" See how the Gaza conflict unfolded \u00bb . \"The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded,\" he said in the ICRC news release. Pacheco on Friday described \"a serious protection crisis\" in Gaza where civilians are \"very vulnerable\" to death and injury. \"There is no safe space for civilians. There are no bomb shelters, safe havens, places to flee,\" she said.","highlights":"Israeli sources denied it ordered civilians moved \"from one building into another\"\nRed Cross uncharacteristically says Israel failed to abide by humanitarian law .\nChildren, wounded taken to ambulances on a donkey cart, Red Cross says .\nU.N. says it's not casting blame; it's unsure if U.N., Red Cross reports are the same .","id":"3926ed52c10c3e2d1b45fe1130bdbb4dd636f2fb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Nafees A. Syed, a junior at Harvard University majoring in government, is an editorial editor at The Harvard Crimson as well as a senior editor and columnist for the Harvard-MIT journal on Islam and society, Ascent. She is chairwoman of the Harvard Institute of Politics Policy Group on Racial Profiling. Nafees Syed says President Obama's early words and actions send a powerful, positive signal to Muslims. CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- President Obama has given the Muslim community around the world the message we have been waiting for. He reassured Muslims in America that \"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers.\" For those like me who were critical of his standoffish attitude toward Islam during his campaign, this signaled a welcome change. Even more important was his subsequent statement: \"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.\" In traveling throughout Western Europe in the past two years, I heard several anti-American comments; these Europeans were challenging me, a Muslim, about American foreign policy in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. In Muslim countries, I've heard admiring comments about how great it must be to live in a rich country like America, followed by accusations that, \"your President Bush doesn't like us Muslims.\" As a Muslim-American, I have found myself in a difficult position. In America, I've had to explain Islam to other Americans, and abroad, I've had to explain America to those in the Muslim world. Obama has done all Americans a favor by extending a hand of friendship to the Muslim world. For me personally, it has alleviated the pain of witnessing the country I love engage in a foreign policy that I could not approve of as a Muslim and as an American -- a foreign policy that created mutual distrust between Americans and Muslims. And Obama has followed up on his statements with actions. In his first steps as president, Obama has initiated the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq and appointed former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, well-respected for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process, as special envoy for the Middle East. For the past few weeks, I've heard overwhelming praise from Muslims for Obama's recent actions. Obama has recognized a key fact that former President George W. Bush did not: Muslims in America and elsewhere are strongly affected by the situation of other Muslims in the world. There is a popular saying of the Prophet Mohammed's that the Muslim community is like one body: If one part hurts, the entire body feels the pain. Muslims are very aware of this message and, in the last 20 years, three conflicts have continuously dominated the Muslim consciousness: Chechnya, Kashmir and, most notably, Palestine. Obama recognized this when he chose his first interview as president to be with a reporter from Al-Arabiya, indicating he would actively engage Arab media. The Palestinian-Israeli issue dominated the interview, with Obama promising to work toward a solution involving both sides of the conflict. To understand the challenge Obama faces in changing America's role in the conflict, one must realize the situation he walked into as president. Muslims around the world were watching the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians in a Gaza military campaign conducted with a green light from the Bush administration. Obama is essentially trying to rebuild a relationship that has been destroyed. However, Obama's tone of respect and not condescension, a clear break with the past, improves the chances that such a relationship could arise. His interview with Al-Arabiya was filled with reassuring statements that America is \"ready to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest,\" that \"the language we use has to be a language of respect.\" After years of hearing rhetoric of \"a crusade\" and \"Islamofascism\" from the U.S. government, Obama's policy of listening, not dictating, has generated optimism in the Muslim world. I am sure that the Muslim world will respond with goodwill as well. Already, Obama is very well-respected there for his intelligence, eloquence and experience living in the largest Muslim country, Indonesia. Muslims abroad are just as willing as those in America to taste his message of hope and change. To win over the skeptics abroad, Obama will just have to do what he is doing in America: reach out to all sides for solutions and follow up his words with concrete action. In the meantime, the next few weeks will see Muslims around the world taking the hand America is extending after a long hiatus. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nafees Syed.","highlights":"Nafees Syed: Obama is reaching out to Muslim world with words, actions .\nShe says Muslims worldwide have a shared concern about key issues .\nSyed: Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya talked of respect and partnership .\nShe says Bush administration used harsh language of crusade, Islamofascism .","id":"52d89155efaf90e4e5fdbb3834f680235dd56efa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A struggling German soccer team is offering a refund to its fans who traveled to another city to watch it suffer a 4-0 loss. Cottbus are second from the bottom of the German Bundesliga. More than 600 Energie Cottbus supporters saw their team suffer its sixth loss in seven games when it received a 4-0 drubbing Friday at the hands of another team, Schalke. Cottbus are second from the bottom in the German Bundesliga's ranking and is in danger of being relegated to a lower league at the end of the season. The team posted a Web statement Saturday headlined, \"Sorry, Energie Fans!\" In it, the team said its players \"did not manage at any time to stand up to a high-class opponent with our particular qualities of passion, dedication and one-on-one duels.\" \"Certainly one can lose at Schalke,\" the team manager Steffen Heidrich said in the statement. \"Nevertheless we did not put up enough defense against the class of the individuals of this opponent.\" The team said it will announce details in the coming weeks of how fans can receive a refund on their admission ticket. \"I welcome the apologetic gesture of the team to its fans,\" Heidrich said. \"Real compensation must actually be given in the coming matches.\" CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 600 supporters watch their team suffer its sixth loss in seven games .\nEnergie Cottbus are second from the bottom in its league's ranking .\nThe team will announce details of how fans can receive a refund on their ticket .","id":"0d3cfc9fcfe3a78d14ea3696b0a8d5e189fad731"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will leave her post by noon on January 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn in to office. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has resigned effective January 20. In an e-mail to the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, outgoing HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt asked Gerberding and several other senior officials from his team to submit their letters of resignation. \"She did so, and it was accepted, and it is effective January 20,\" CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter said. Leavitt explained his move this way: \"The next phase of Transition involves the departure of our team on January 20, and the arrival of President-elect Obama's team later that day,\" his e-mail said. \"In order to create a clear path for leadership transition, I am attaching a list of senior leaders who will become the acting heads of their respective agencies and offices (or in some cases, remain as heads of their respective agencies and offices) until the new administration appoints individuals to various leadership positions.\" In addition to the change at CDC, Assistant HHS Secretary Charlie Johnson will serve as acting secretary, Leavitt said. CDC's Chief Operating Officer William H. Gimson III will take over as interim director at the agency until the next HHS secretary appoints a new one, the e-mail added. Gimson and Gerberding were traveling and unavailable for comment.","highlights":"Dr. Julie Gerberding will leave her post by noon on January 20 .\nOutgoing HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt asked her for resignation .\nChief Operating Officer William H. Gimson III will take over as interim director .","id":"817fc75b78ff3b5a722a942a2ac7e947560b1669"} -{"article":"BAIDOA, Somalia (CNN) -- Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed Tuesday appointed a new prime minister -- but the previous prime minister is refusing to accept his dismissal. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, in a photo from August, could face sanctions from Kenya. The Somali parliament on Monday backed Nur Hassan Hussein, who has been prime minister for about 13 months, in his power struggle with the president. Tuesday, the president named Mohamed Mohamud Guled, a close ally of the transitional federal government, as the new Somali prime minister. The move is likely to deepen the political impasse in a country already struggling with an Islamist revolt, a refugee crisis and rampant lawlessness that has fueled a wave of piracy off the Horn of Africa. Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The United Nations-backed transitional government took office after Ethiopian troops ousted an Islamist government at the end of 2006, but controls little of the country outside the southwestern city of Baidoa. Yusuf said Sunday he was firing Hussein for being ineffective. Hussein said the president did not have the power to fire him. The vast majority of members of parliament backed Hussein Monday in a vote of confidence. But Tuesday Yusuf announced he had \"decided to appoint the new premier to pull the country out of the current violence and non-functioning government.\" He said Guled would form a Cabinet, which the president would appoint without asking parliament to confirm it. Kenya warned it could impose sanctions against Yusuf on Tuesday, saying the power struggle between him and Hassan endangers peace efforts in Somalia. Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula singled out Yusuf in a sharply worded statement that called his current standoff with Hassan \"totally destructive, unhelpful to the region and to Somali society in general.\" Wetangula said Yusuf and his family could face targeted sanctions over his Sunday decision to sack Hassan. \"President Abdullahi Yusuf is a party to the summit deceleration and the Djibouti peace process and should not therefore take any unilateral decisions which hinder the attainment of peace in Somalia,\" Wetangula said. \"The current peace initiatives are at a critical stage and require support of all the peace loving Somalis and the region as a whole. The deviation from this path is certainly to bound to jeopardize the peace process.\" Kenya is a major player in international efforts to stabilize Somalia. The chaos in Somalia has driven sharply higher numbers of desperate people to seek passage across the Gulf of Aden, with smugglers packing as many as 150 people into boats as small as 25 feet (8 meters) for the crossing, according to a spokesman for the aid group Doctors Without Borders. \"It is a very, very dangerous journey and the smugglers are very, very cruel with the refugees,\" Andreas Koutepas, a field coordinator for the group in Yemen, told CNN's \"Inside Africa.\" \"We have many incidents of stabbing or people suffocating and just being thrown in the sea.\" In addition, smugglers want to avoid detection by the Yemeni coast guard -- \"So sometimes they just disembark people in deep water,\" Koutepas said. \"And since most of the people cannot swim, they just drown.\" At least 24 people have drowned off Yemen in December so far, he said, and another half-dozen are unaccounted for. But since many of the refugees \"consider themselves already dead\" if they remain, \"They take their chances with this trip, no matter how dangerous the trip is. It's a quite tragic situation.\" CNN correspondent David McKenzie and journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed fired country's prime minister on Sunday .\nPM refuses to leave; parliament backs him; Yusuf appoints new PM .\nKenya threatens sanctions on Yusuf, says he's undermining peace efforts .\nSomali has been without effective central government since 1991 .","id":"c72b8775c0bcaa4f3240cf4e1187294decad4155"} -{"article":"STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- Four men behind a Swedish file-sharing Web site used by millions to exchange movies and music have been found guilty of collaborating to violate copyright law in a landmark court verdict in Stockholm. A Pirate Bay server, confiscated by police last year, on display in Stockholm's Technical Museum. The four defendants -- Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstrom, three founders and one patron of The Pirate Bay -- were sentenced to one year in jail and also ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to several major media companies including Warner Brothers, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI. The defendants are free without restrictions while they appeal the judgment. The Pirate Bay allows users to exchange files including movies, music, games and software, but does not host the files itself. It claims more than 3.5 million registered users. The court case, which involved both a criminal case and a civil claim brought by the media companies, marks a key victory for anti-piracy campaigners, who had long targeted the Web site. Should the perpetrators of Internet piracy be punished? Have your say . The year-long prison terms are for violating Swedish law, while the damages are compensation to the media giants in the civil case -- though the court ordered the men to pay just one-third of the 110 million kronor ($13 million) which the companies had asked for. Friday's verdict did not include an order to shut down The Pirate Bay site. Its owners have consistently shrugged off legal threats and police raids, posting letters from entertainment industry lawyers on their Web site with mocking responses. When Dreamworks studio demanded that the site act over file-sharing of Dreamworks' movie \"Shrek 2,\" The Pirate Bay threatened to sue for harassment and lodge a formal complaint \"for sending frivolous legal threats.\" \"It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ... morons,\" the response continued, suggesting that studio representatives perform a sexual act. The response closed with an obscenity. Site owners dismissed the effects of a police raid in 2006, saying the site had been down longer on other occasions due to illness or drunkenness than when \"the U.S. and Swedish government forces the police to steal our servers ... yawn.\" But Magnus Eriksson, who in 2003 co-founded the \"loosely formed group of theorists, artists and programmers\" that spawned The Pirate Bay, says there are serious issues at stake. He does not think copyrighted material should be free for everyone, \"but that it already is.\" \"The control over what people communicate is lost and we have to adapt to this new state of things,\" he said via e-mail. \"To monitor all communications, fight all new digital technologies and spread a culture of fear in what should be a free and open communication network is not a desirable option.\" Entertainment companies claim The Pirate Bay has hurt their box office profits, part of an annual loss the Motion Picture Association of America claims to be about $6 billion a year worldwide. \"Hollywood studios are businesses. They're there to make money,\" said association lawyer Thomas Dillon. \"It costs $100 million to make a feature film, so of course they're quite keen to get some back. So I don't accept this argument that there's some benefit to culture in allowing people to make copies of commercial films and getting them for free.\" Monique Wadsted, a Swedish lawyer for the MPAA, said The Pirate Bay was also harming individual artists. A victory for the entertainment companies \"will, of course, be for all authors all around the world, some kind of redress... because what is going on now is actually a plundering of the author's works,\" she said via e-mail. \"If some authors find it good to market their products using file-sharing or whatever, they are free to do that,\" she added. \"But that is not what is happening at the moment. What's happening at the moment is that authors' and rights holders' works are file-shared against their will and that is not acceptable.\" She argued that The Pirate Bay \"is specifically tailored for copyright infringement.\" The prosecution claims the site provides a search engine that helps people find and download copyrighted material including movies, music and games -- in effect, enabling copyright theft. The site's supporters say they're doing nothing wrong under Swedish law because the site doesn't actually put the copyrighted material on the Web site. Internet piracy and illegal downloading from peer-to-peer systems are some of the biggest piracy problems in Europe, the MPAA argues. Internet piracy is growing at a faster rate in Europe than anywhere else in the world, the MPAA says, because of increased broadband use, weak laws, and lenient public perceptions. Sweden's official efforts to battle online piracy have been weak, the MPAA says. Eriksson, the co-founder of the group that led to The Pirate Bay, says the MPAA's argument that file-sharing hurts movie studio revenues is \"nonsense.\" \"Cinema is doing better than ever,\" he said by e-mail. \"They only claim this because they calculate losses by looking at the number of downloads and imagining that all of them would have been a purchase if they hadn't been downloaded first.\" Eriksson said what was at stake in the Swedish courtroom was the future of the Internet itself. \"The Internet revolution meant that we created a global network where any digital entity could connect and exchange information with any other,\" he said. \"Anti-piracy efforts must be seen in the light of a counter-revolution against this that goes all the way to the very infrastructure of the net.\" He suggested that even if The Pirate Bay is convicted of facilitating making works public through its indexing service, which he does not expect, Internet piracy will not stop. \"The prosecution can't understand that The Pirate Bay is just one stratification of a social and technological change that is decentralized,\" he said. \"Piracy does not have a head that you can cut off, and The Pirate Bay is just a technology allowing communication, a part of the Internet infrastructure.\" CNN's Neil Curry in Stockholm, Sweden, and Mairi Mackay in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four men sentenced to a year, fined $3.6M in Sweden over file-sharing Web site .\nProsecutors said The Pirate Bay lets users download copyrighted material .\nSite allows users to exchange movies, music, games, but does not host the files .\nSupporters said The Pirate Bay doesn't put copyrighted material on Web site .","id":"dcbf4951f7aba2e8fa74ad423ea743d1c90048dc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal law enforcement authorities are discussing what to do with the lone surviving pirate captured Sunday off Somalia's coast after a successful military rescue abruptly ended a five-day hostage standoff at sea. A Kenyan police officer guards the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama at a Mombasa port Sunday. According to sources familiar with the case, U.S. government officials are weighing potential legal hurdles they may face if the young Somali captive is flown to New York or Washington to face federal criminal charges. Officially, the government is virtually mum on the discussions. \"The Justice Department continues to review the evidence and other issues to determine whether to seek prosecution of this individual in the United States,\" said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Justice Department National Security Division. Sources who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the matter said the detained Somali youth remains in military custody, but is likely to be turned over eventually to the FBI for transport to the United States. Watch how the Navy deals with pirates \u00bb . New York-based FBI agents are assisting Nairobi-based agents in collecting evidence and conducting interviews. Some officials say it appears most likely the captive initially would be flown to New York to stand trial. However, sources stress no decisions have been made on when or where the young pirate would face justice. Investigators face the early and potentially difficult task of determining whether the Somali suspect is at least 18 years of age. Initial reports from the Horn of Africa have indicated the young man is anywhere from 16 to 19 years old. Officials note that authoritatively establishing his identity and date of birth in a lawless country, where records are often lost or burned, if they ever existed at all, may be problematic. Even if officials determine the Somali youth is a juvenile, he could be presented to a magistrate in a U.S. District Court. Justice Department records indicate such occurrences are rare, with juveniles accounting for less than 1 percent of criminal defendants. The latest available figures show among the thousands of federal prisoners, about half of the 200-plus defendants 17 or younger are held for trial as adults, while the other half are detained as juveniles. Whether adult or juvenile, the Somali captive could be charged under an international treaty to which the United States is a signatory that carries penalties of up to life in prison. Watch how U.S. could deal with captured pirate \u00bb . The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation has been used to prosecute pirates in other countries. The agreement allows for pirates and hostage takers on the high seas to be prosecuted in any country which signed the treaty, without regard to which national flag a ship was flying. Former FBI official and CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, who supervised international operations for the FBI, recalls agents providing critical help in winning the conviction in a Kenyan courtroom of 10 pirates captured in 2006 with the help of the U.S. military. The USS Nassau had come to the aid of an Indian ship on which pirates were holding 16 Indian hostages. Shots were fired, prompting the pirates to surrender. \"The government of Kenya wanted to prosecute the case, so the Justice Department and State Department agreed to that. We said 'Let's teach them to fish',\" Fuentes said. Watch report on pirates' deadly new goal \u00bb . He said FBI agents ended up spending six months working with Kenyan authorities on how to conduct interviews, handle and protect evidence, and shape a prosecution that would stand up in any courtroom in the world. The pirates were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. Officials familiar with the current case say the lone Somali suspect in U.S. military custody could be turned over to Kenya or another country in the region if barriers to a U.S. prosecution appear to be daunting. However, because the ship was U.S.-flagged and the seized sea captain was a U.S. citizen, federal authorities will want to prosecute the case on U.S. soil if at all possible, according to one federal law enforcement official. Another official said it was probable that if a charge against the Somali is filed in a U.S. court, the action would be filed under a court seal and kept secret from the public until the suspect suddenly appears in court to hear the charge read by a magistrate judge. Officials indicate such developments are not likely to occur soon.","highlights":"Legal hurdles abound if Somali captive is flown to United States for prosecution .\nSuspect in U.S. military custody could be turned over to Kenya or another country .\nComplicating issue is suspect's age, reportedly between 16 and 19 .","id":"58448edf337bcecdb83a68e66c108b313bb318a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's friendly interactions with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has set off a wave of controversy, but analysts said the leaders' next steps will show if relations have truly improved or if Obama was overstepping boundaries. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presents a book to President Obama at the Summit of the Americas. Chavez and Obama were both at the Summit of the Americas, which ended Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago. On the first day, Obama reached out his hand to Chavez and was seen smiling and patting the Venezuelan leader on the shoulder as the two shook hands. \"With this same hand I greeted Bush eight years ago, I want to be your friend,\" Chavez said, his office reported. On the second day, as cameras jockeyed for position, Chavez got up and gave Obama a book, \"The Open Veins of Latin America,\" which documents centuries of American abuse in the region. After the exchange, the book skyrocketed to become one of Amazon's best-sellers. Obama joked about the move at a news conference Sunday, saying while he had meetings with all the leaders involved, \"I think it's just that President Chavez is better at positioning the cameras.\" \"And in all these conversations, here's what I emphasized, that we're not going to agree on every issue, but that, as long as we are respectful of democratic processes, as long as we're respectful of principles of sovereignty for all nations, that we can find areas where we can work in common,\" he said. Relations between the United States and Venezuela grew progressively worse under the presidencies of Chavez and George W. Bush. Chavez -- whose anti-U.S. rhetoric has included calling Bush the \"devil\" -- announced Saturday he is considering naming an ambassador to the United States, signaling a potential shift in the tense relations between the two nations. Chavez expelled the American ambassador in September, prompting the United States to expel Venezuela's ambassador. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, told CNN on Sunday it was \"irresponsible\" for Obama to have been seen \"laughing and joking\" with Chavez. \"This is a person who is one of the most anti-American leaders in the entire world,\" Ensign said on \"State of the Union.\" \"He is a brutal dictator, and human rights violations are very, very prevalent in Venezuela. And you have to be careful.\" Watch criticism of the meeting \u00bb . Republican Newt Gingrich joined the criticism Monday, saying enemies of the United States will use Obama's friendly encounter with Chavez as propaganda. \"Everywhere in Latin America, enemies of America are going to use the picture of Chavez smiling and being with the president as proof that Chavez is now legitimate, that he is acceptable,\" the former House leader said on NBC's \"Today\" show. But Democrats such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota downplayed the moment, saying, \"All the president did was shake his hand like George Bush [did].\" Obama's senior adviser said Sunday the administration isn't worried about how the gesture is perceived. \"I'm not concerned about the message that it sends. I'm concerned about what flows from it. Words and handshakes are nice, but they're not enough,\" David Axelrod said on CBS' \"Face the Nation.\" Stephen Hayes, a CNN contributor and writer for the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, said it's not the handshake that irks Republicans but that Obama \"seemed to actually be enjoying it.\" \"Conservatives at least were looking for something from the president who would have said, 'Hey, enough is enough, we want to go forward. We want to put the arguments of the past in the past, but you've got to own up to the arguments you've made,' \" Hayes said Monday on CNN. Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center's Americas Program, said Obama was trying to send a message that he wants to start a new beginning with Latin America. \"So President Chavez is also responding to this new atmosphere, this new style and attitude that Obama is presenting and needed to respond in kind,\" she said. McCoy, who briefly spoke with Chavez at the summit, said he told her he is ready to give Obama a chance and see if they can have a more cooperative relationship. But she said, \"I don't expect it's going to be smooth sailing. President Chavez's whole foreign policy is predicated on challenging U.S. leadership.\" Obama went into office arguing that relations with Latin America had turned sour and that the U.S. needed to form new partnerships. David Gergen, CNN's senior political analyst, said Obama is trying to make good on that pledge. \"I think most political advisers would tell the president, you know, it's fine to shake hands, hold the smiles,\" he said, adding that the gesture shows some inexperience on Obama's part. \"What the real test here is going to be in policies and in the actions. And I think Barack Obama has to somehow make a balance between being open, reaching out and also not surrendering or retreating on basic American principles and on showing some toughness,\" Gergen said. William Bennett, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist, agreed it's too early to tell if anything has changed. \"Image is one thing. Reality is another. Substance is another. Things that need to get accomplished is another. That will be the test,\" Bennett said. Obama said Sunday he didn't know how the images from this weekend would play politically, and he indicated he really didn't care. \"One of the benefits of my campaign and how I've been trying to operate as president, I don't worry about the politics. I try to figure out what's right in terms of American interest, and on this one I think I'm right,\" he said. CNN's Kristi Keck, Suzanne Malveaux and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shake hands at summit .\nGOP senator: It's \"irresponsible\" to be seen \"laughing and joking\" with Chavez .\nIt's OK to shake hands, but Obama shouldn't seem too friendly, CNN analyst says .\nResponding to critics, Obama says, \"I don't worry about the politics\"","id":"87a6ec8b7a5e41c4eec57c56a0c2a7fbb4b893c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shark attacks on humans were at the lowest levels in half a decade last year, and a Florida researcher says hard economic times may be to blame. Fewer people in the water means less chance for sharks to attack, ichthyologist George Burgess says. Sharks attacked 59 people in 2008, the lowest number of attacks since 57 in 2003, according to George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, part of the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. There were 71 attacks in 2007. \"One can't help but think that the downturn in the economy played a part in it,\" Burgess said. Fewer people, especially outside of the United States, have the resources to go to the beach, he said. \"To have a shark attack, you have to have humans and sharks in the water at the same time,\" Burgess said. \"If you have a reduction in the number of people in the water, you're going to have a reduction in the opportunities for people and sharks to get together.\" \"We noticed similar declines during the recession that followed the events of 2001, despite the fact that human populations continued to rise,\" the ichthyologist said. Sharks killed four people in 2008, Burgess said: one in California, one in Australia and two in Mexico. Forty-one of the 59 attacks worldwide came in the United States, and 32 of those occurred in Florida. Surfers accounted for 57 percent of shark attacks, swimmers and waders were the targets in 36 percent of the attacks, and divers the rest, he said. Burgess said the U.S. tends to see more attacks because of a large number of surfers, who are a favorite target of sharks. And neither the economy nor the attacks tend to keep American surfers from practicing their sport. \"All they have to do is drive to the beach with the board and get into the water, and the rest is free,\" he said. And while an attack may make them a bit more wary, he said, \"I've yet to find a surfer who says he or she won't go back into the water after a bite or a nip.\" When the economy improves, shark attack numbers are likely to go up again, according to Burgess, predicting the number of attacks in the next decade will surpass those of the past 10 years. \"We're putting so many people in the water that humans are dictating the shark attack situation,\" he said.","highlights":"Sharks attacked 59 people worldwide in 2008, Florida researcher reports .\nFour people killed by sharks last year .\nEconomic downturn means fewer people hitting beaches, researcher says .\nSurfers account for 57 percent of shark attacks .","id":"72f0c366e1f31b292d8fb0e9d8b9b1291955ce59"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The massacre of students and a teacher within the seemingly safe hallways of Columbine High School reverberated so strongly that its reflection can be found in the creations of multiple artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers over the past decade. \"Elephant,\" musician Marilyn Manson, and the bestseller \"Nineteen Minutes\" entered the spotlight post-Columbine. \"It wasn't the first school shooting, but it became the extreme case,\" said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. \"The word 'Columbine' became a word that represented something much, much larger than that particular high school.\" Columbine, in some ways, represents the broad insecurity triggered by extreme acts of violence. Littleton, Colorado, is as picturesque as the set of a family film. And thanks in part to the 24-hour news cycle, the world witnessed scenes that appeared to be out of a movie: bloodied victims escaping through windows and frightened teens scurrying to safety as law enforcement descended. Film critic Desson Thomson said films such as Gus Van Sant's \"Elephant\" do not have to reach far into the American psyche to tell a tale of horror in a post-Columbine world. \"Columbine is now a little like the way 9\/11 is engrained in our cultural perspective, so that something like 'Elephant' doesn't even have to directly allude to it,\" he said. \"Because we were so immersed in Columbine...the filmmakers know that the audience has that reference point, so it doesn't take much to even poke at that for all of that dimension to come swimming through our consciousness.\" \"Elephant,\" which won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, dramatized a normal day at a high school that is about to become the scene of a planned mass slaughter by a pair of friends. Television shows such as \"Law & Order\" and \"Cold Case\" also delved into the lives of fictitious teens on murderous rampages. But music is the one medium that seemed almost primed for an interpretation of the day's events. Shock rocker Marilyn Manson weathered speculation that his songs may have influenced the pair of young murderers. He addressed the issue in a Rolling Stone magazine article in 1999. \"When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's guilty,\" Manson wrote. \"We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them.\" The spotlight on Manson didn't discourage other artists from referencing Columbine in their songs, music videos and lyrics. Genres from rock to rap reflected on the tragedy. Manson himself released an album titled \"Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)\" that contained songs alluding to the massacre. In the single \"The Nobodies,\" Manson appeared to reiterate statements from his first-person piece in Rolling Stone with the lyrics \"Some children died the other day, We fed machines and then we prayed, Puked up and down in morbid faith,You should have seen the ratings that day.\" Music, TV and film were not the only media that reacted to the shootings. In 2005, an independent video game developer released \"Super Columbine Massacre RPG!,\" a role-playing game that allowed users to imagine themselves as the Columbine gunmen and act out the violence. Scott Steinberg, publisher of DigitalTrends.com, said the game is not indicative of the game market as a whole. He pointed out that that 85 percent of video games are rated \"E for everyone\" \"E10 plus\" or \"T for Teen.\" Fewer violent video games are being produced today, Steinberg said, despite the perception that the industry mostly produces \"spray and slay\" entertainment. \"The industry is becoming a lot more sensitive in realizing that we have a medium that reaches more people than ever,\" Steinberg said. iReport.com: How did Columbine affect you? Littleton, Colorado, was also very much on the mind of bestselling author Jodi Picoult when she came up with the idea for her popular 2007 novel \"Nineteen Minutes.\" \"I have three children and I was watching all of them, at different points in their school careers, being bullied,\" she said. \"It got me wondering why, in a post- Columbine world, we haven't figured this out yet.\" Picoult's novel told the story of a bullied, alienated high school student who commits an act of violence. Records have since been released disputing that Klebold and Harris were outcasts or the targets of bullying. Picoult said it was powerful for her to speak with Columbine survivors. She received a standing ovation from families in Littleton during a book event held there. \"It was really moving,\" she said. \"You realize that the people who want to talk about it the most are the people who lived through it. The one thing I think we have learned, and the one thing I thing pop culture is good for, is the more that we see it pop up, the more we are reminded that this is a worthy subject.\"","highlights":"Columbine tragedy provided fodder for several creative works .\nMusicians, writers, filmmakers and game developers responded with projects .\n\"Elephant\" an example of film that tackled the tragedy .\nMarilyn Manson responded to allegations his music helped inspire massacre .","id":"bd3613befdbc600506e4b823f9a6b92372fdf427"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Alice Temperley likes to camp. Which is why the British fashion designer, who escapes her London workshop to rusticate in a tepee on her Somerset country estate, was recently commissioned by One & Only Le Saint G\u00e9ran to erect a similar structure on their beach in Mauritius. \"It's escapism to the nth degree,\" says designer Bill Bensley of the tents at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, in Thailand's Golden Triangle. The 17-foot-high tepee is decked out with beads, streaming ribbons, and embroidered patches -- a look Temperley likens to \"a jewelry box that glistens in the sand.\" The resort offers cookouts by the tent -- marshmallows included -- served by a liveried butler. By any definition, this is an indulgent experience, but given its availability in a structure originally designed for the life nomadic, it signals a shift in our perception of both luxury and escapism. Suddenly, a heightened sense of well-being may owe less to four sheltering walls than to a temporary shedding, not just of our inhibitions but also of all the weighty paraphernalia that clutters up a sedentary life. Tents pitched in far-flung locales have always had romantic cachet -- who could forget Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in \"Out of Africa.\" And now there's a trend of textile pleasure domes being adapted for use in diverse settings across the globe. \"They provide an experience that you could miss in an ordinary concrete box,\" says designer Bill Bensley of the tents at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, in Thailand's Golden Triangle. \"Guests can hear the sound of elephants munching their way through the jungle. It's escapism to the nth degree.\" Travel + Leisure: See the world's best tented camps . That sentiment is evident in Bensley's design for the resort. He drew inspiration from northern Thailand's hill-tribe villages as well as camps he visited in Botswana, and he filled the 15 tents with metal craftwork from local artisans, along with explorer-themed antiques (an old compass, rifles, primitive fishing tools). Like Temperley, Nairobi-based fashion designer Anna Trzebinski is also dabbling in the world of hotels, opening the tented Lemarti's Camp near Kenya's Laikipia Plateau last year. She stitches tents of locally loomed cotton in the same workshop where she creates beaded tunics and accessories inspired by indigenous Kenyan designs. Set on platforms above a river bend, the camp's tents are furnished with tables and beds built with wood from dhow boats, and decorated with African-themed found objets d'art: crocodile skulls, elephant shoulder blades, beaded walking sticks and clubs. \"For me, a tent should be the veil between you and Mother Africa, a sheer shield to protect but not in any way disconnect you from her presence. To be under canvas on a comfortable bed, with the smell of acacia blossoms -- in the old safari days this was intoxicating enough, but now we have the ability to improve on the concept.\" And that's exactly what Banyan Tree is doing with one of its latest resorts, the Banyan Tree Maldives Madivaru, on a coral atoll in the Maldives. Created by Dharmali Kusumadi, one of the group's head designers, it's by far the most cosseting tented property available today. Only 18 guests at a time can stay on the private island. Rooms come in the form of three conjoined tents facing a cobalt-blue lagoon: a king-size platform bed dominates the air-conditioned sleeping tent, while the bathing pavilion has a claw-foot tub. A butler and massage therapist are at guests' beck and call. Spas, too, are employing tents to help travelers abandon worldly cares. In Arizona's Sonoran Desert, Miraval Tucson Resort & Spa guests take treatments in one of six new tents styled by Irish-born designer Clodagh. \"For me, a tent evokes impermanence,\" she says. \"It reflects the impermanence of the spa treatment as well.\" Set in a botanical garden shaded by paloverde trees, each of the tents has natural cleft-stone flooring, an acacia-wood bench, and walls made of saguaro and ocotillo cacti. Tipping the indulgence scale, Taj Hotels' Rambagh Palace, in Jaipur, has put up two new spa suite tents patterned after a 16th-century Mughal encampment. When India's royalty went camping, their tasseled tents were made of velvet and embroidered silk. Devised by husband-and-wife hotel design team Amit and Shalini Gehlot, the billowing pavilions contain handwoven carpets, royal pennants, and love swings made from salvaged shesham wood. And if that's not adequate escapism, this month Taj opens Banjaar Tola, a safari lodge with 18 tented suites in the bamboo forests of Madhya Pradesh, a four-hour drive from Jabalpur. Created by one of India's top architects, Sanjay Prakash, each tent has bamboo floors, solar-powered heated pools, and traditional artwork from nearby Chattisgarh. Definitely fit for a mogul on the move. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Shane Mitchell is a special correspondent for Travel + Leisure.","highlights":"A resort in Mauritius commissioned a 17-foot-high tepee from a fashion designer .\nTextile shelters are being adapted for use in diverse settings across the globe .\nThe tented Lemarti's Camp near Kenya's Laikipia Plateau opened last year .","id":"79b44cad2749556273c2f8cae873c095711655bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the wake of the tragic shootings at Columbine High School, some schools across the country turned themselves into near-fortresses. Kindergarden students huddle beneath desks in a lockdown drill. Such drills have become common. They installed metal detectors and security cameras, banned backpacks, required students to carry IDs and posted police in the hallways -- all in the name of keeping students safe. Now, 10 years after those highly publicized shootings in which two young men killed 13 people and themselves, school security has taken another dramatic turn. Some of the noticeable security measures remain, but experts say the country is exploring a new way to protect kids from in-school violence: administrators now want to foster school communities that essentially can protect themselves with or without the high-tech gear. \"The first and best line of defense is always a well-trained, highly alert staff and student body,\" said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, an Ohio-based firm specializing in school security. \"The No. 1 way we find out about weapons in schools is not from a piece of equipment [such as a metal detector] but from a kid who comes forward and reports it to an adult that he or she trusts.\" See how many homicides have occurred in schools since 1992 \u00bb . The Obama administration plans to create secure schools indirectly, by improving overall education, getting kids more involved in their studies and strengthening school communities, said William Modzeleski, a high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Education who handles school security. The trend is reflected in security funding, some of which comes from federal grants. Allocations for the Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools program were cut by a third between 1999 and 2008, to about $294.8 million last year. And a program that has put about 6,300 police officers in public schools since Columbine was scrapped by the U.S. Department of Justice after 2005, according to Corey Ray, a spokesman for the department. Ray said he's hopeful President Obama's stimulus package will put more police officers in schools. They act as law enforcement officers as well as counselors and mentors to students, he said. Meanwhile, money for a school counseling grant program has increased since Columbine, with $52 million set aside for this fiscal year, compared to $20 million in 2000, the first year the program was funded, according to budget numbers compiled for CNN by the Department of Education. So while there's more money available for counseling, there's still been a steady decline in federal spending for other aspects of school security. Some critics say a lack of available funding for high-tech security upgrades may be behind the shift toward less-costly and more indirect violence prevention measures. \"Right now, the economic situation is affecting [school security funding]. Particularly the technology components of security are going to suffer because there's just not going to be the money to do these kinds of things,\" said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. \"We're in the process of laying off teachers and staff.\" Trump, the security consultant in Ohio, said schools have lost their focus on security since Columbine. But he added that many effective security programs cost little or no money -- only the time it takes to train teachers and students how to spot potential problems and how to react if a shooting were to occur. While metal detectors may not be the best tools to prevent school shootings, they still can be useful in some crime-ridden school districts and, along with security cameras, should not be abandoned entirely, Modzeleski said. Some evidence suggests strong school communities -- where kids feel like they can come forward with problems -- can prevent violent crime. A 2008 Secret Service report found that in more than 80 percent of instances of school violence, at least one person, usually a fellow student or peer, had knowledge of the attackers' plans. If people who suspect a problem feel comfortable enough in school to tell a teacher or a principal, then attacks could be prevented, Modzeleski said. After Columbine, many states and school districts made quick moves to increase school security, experts say. Modzeleski said this was a \"kneejerk\" reaction to the tragic, but rare, event; and a decade later, policies are settling into a middle ground. \"Immediately after any of these incidents I think there's the immediate rush for more security,\" he said. \"That's what I would call the kneejerk reaction to any type of these events: 'We need more cops; we need more metal detectors; we need more cameras.' After that settles in, I think people come to their senses and say, 'Hey, if we're going to keep our kids safe in schools, we need more than that.'\" iReport.com: How did Columbine affect you? After Columbine, some states started requiring schools to prepare for school shootings with lockdown drills, much in the way they prepare for fires or other disasters. About once a month in Fort Wayne, Indiana, public and private school students pull down window shades and huddle in the back corners of dark classrooms while their schools go into lockdown mode, said John Weicker, security director at Fort Wayne Community Schools. A school administrator roams the halls to make sure all doors are locked and all students are hidden from what might be a school shooter if this scenario was not a drill. \"You're training the kids,\" Weicker said. Similar drills -- which, in some states, are attended by armed and masked SWAT teams -- are now practiced routinely in nearly three-quarters of schools, according to a recent survey of 445 administrators funded by the American Association of School Administrators. It's difficult to say whether these policies are working, but by some measures, school safety has improved in the decade since Columbine. Watch parents remember children lost at Columbine \u00bb . On average, there have been about half as many deaths per year since Columbine as in the seven school years before the tragedy, according to a 2007 report from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In the school year immediately following the Columbine shootings, the number of in-school homicides dropped from 33 in the 1998-1999 school year to 13 in the 1999-2000 year, the report says. Several experts say the tragedy brought awareness to the issue of school security, which on the whole has been positive. They worry, however, that attention has been waning in the past few years. A 17-year-old student in Fort Wayne, Indiana, however, said that while he is reassured by tight school security, it's a good thing that the Columbine shootings rarely enter his mind. \"There's a couple times that we'll talk about it in like a history class,\" said Travis Armstrong, a high school junior. \"Because that did happen back a while ago, and therefore it is considered history.\"","highlights":"10 years after Columbine, schools are taking a new look at security .\nImmediately after the shootings, schools added cameras and metal detectors .\nNow they're trying to foster safer and better school communities .\nMeanwhile, overall funding for school security has dropped by about a third .","id":"b668104a6daf61baa364abb0e7cabd8da5d3a9da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One evening last winter, Mike Harris was watching his local TV news when he saw a segment that caught his attention: Parents were using software to monitor their kids' cell phones. As more kids carry cell phones, some parents use software to monitor their calls and texts. Harris, an investigator for the Child Sex Internet Investigations Unit in Jefferson County, Colorado, thought the service could be a new tool for combating sexual predators. Equipping his phone with the software, Harris posed as an underage child on social-networking sites and began luring pedophiles. He immediately got results. Since then, Harris has made 83 arrests of alleged sexual predators -- 44 of them with the help of the monitoring program. \"It makes life easy for me as an investigator. It saves me hours of time, which obviously means I have more time to go out and catch offenders,\" he said. The software also documents text messages and other data that can be used in court, he said. \"Now all I have to do is go into the account and pull everything out that was done between that sex offender and me.\" Programs such as My Mobile Watchdog and Mobile Spy are becoming increasingly popular with parents as more school-age children are carrying cell phones. Parents say the services help them protect their kids against predators and also reduce \"sexting,\" the growing practice of using mobile phones to share sexually explicit text messages and pictures. In 2008, Jessica Logan, a Cincinnati, Ohio, teen, hanged herself after her nude photo, meant for her boyfriend, was sent to teenagers at several high schools, exposing her to ridicule and taunts. The monitoring programs work like this: Once a child's phone is equipped with the software, the parent or law enforcement officer creates a list of contacts -- close relatives, trusted friends -- who are authorized to communicate with the minor's phone. An online file, accessed by the parent, stores all activity related to the child's phone, including text messages and shared photos. Any unauthorized number that contacts the child's phone gets flagged, and the parent or guardian receives a real-time text message alerting them to the infraction. Parents pay a monthly fee -- about $10 -- for the service, which only works on so-called \"smart phones\" with Web access. My Mobile Watchdog also will alert parents if their child has removed the software from their phone. eAgency Mobile Solutions of Newport Beach, California, is the creator of My Mobile Watchdog. Bob Lotter, the company's CEO, said he never imagined the software would become a tool for authorities cracking down on online sexual predators. \"The threat is huge,\" Lotter said. \"There are so many different ways out there for child predators [to find victims] -- through Google, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook and a host of other sites.\" A Lakewood, Colorado, woman said she outfitted her 12-year-old daughter's phone with monitoring software after the girl was sexually assaulted by a man she met on MocoSpace, a mobile chat network. \"I wasn't going to take away her cell phone, and I knew I had to do something,\" said the woman, whose first name is Wendy. CNN.com is not printing her last name in accordance with its policy of not identifying the victims of sexual assault. Wendy said the service has given her more peace of mind and her daughter a greater awareness of the responsibilities of having a cell phone. Other parents haven't been so transparent. James Green of Sulphur, Louisiana, equipped his daughter's cell phone with monitoring software but didn't tell her what it was. He told her the icon was a GPS system. \"I wasn't going to get my 15-year-old a cell phone and not know how she was using it,\" Green said. Over time, Green found the software wasn't just useful for tracking his daughter's behavior; it also helped him discover more about the nature of his child. \"It's good to know how she's treating people and how others are treating her,\" Green said. \"I think it's a caring father that wants to know what's going on in her life ... wanting to know how she feels.\" When Green's daughter discovered the software on her phone, she wasn't angry, he said. \"She understood that I cared about her.\" A Chandler, Arizona, mother found that monitoring her daughter's phone calls and texts gave her new insight into her daughter's life. \"We talk a lot more about what's going on in her life,\" said Trisha, who requested her last name not be published. \"It's really opened up communication between the two of us.\" Some privacy advocates might object to parents digitally eavesdropping on their kids without their children's consent. But an Asheville, North Carolina, mother, who fitted her son's phone with the software without his knowledge, disagrees. \"I monitor my employees at the workplace,\" said the woman, who owns a small business and asked that her name not be disclosed. \"And this is my son. So to me it's not like I'm wiretapping him. Besides, privacy in my house is earned.\"","highlights":"Colorado officer uses cell-phone monitoring software to catch sexual predators .\nInvestigator has made at least 44 arrests with the help of the service .\nSoftware is increasingly popular with parents as more kids carry cell phones .\nService provides parents with online record of kids' calls, texts and shared photos .","id":"226b58a6317a1ebbd96586781310a9baffe7c479"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose forthcoming book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says kin of Columbine victims don't have the luxury of moving on after the 10th anniversary is marked. (CNN) -- The weddings that will never be held. The birthdays when there will be no one to embrace. The first jobs that will never be greeted with a parent's proud smile of congratulations. Those are the things -- the sacred things, perhaps the sole things -- that we should pause to think about Monday. Because while the rest of the world considers anew the meaning of what happened 10 years ago at the school in Littleton, Colorado, the people who matter -- the only people who truly can fathom the meaning -- are the people with the wounds in their hearts that will never quite heal: . The mothers and fathers of the children who were murdered. The brothers and sisters who were left with the empty and soundless spaces in their homes and in their lives. For the rest of us, it's all guesswork, and the anniversary provides a circumscribed time to think about it somberly. But by tomorrow we will have moved on to other concerns, while the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers -- the grandfathers and the grandmothers -- will return to that which they can never wish away: . The weddings that won't ever come. The birthdays when there is only silence. Is it possible to break that April day from 10 years ago into its incremental elements, as if by doing so we will be able to find a possible future remedy? If we think enough about the saturation of our society with violent images, from the movies we watch to the video games our children play to the stories on the evening news -- is that what can explain Columbine? If we dissect the live television coverage of that day when millions stared for hours on end -- was it those unblinking pictures that made the scenes still so hard to shake? Is there a resolution to be discovered in debates about the guns that were used, the need for security checkpoints? Those are all just details, not answers. Those are merely facts to be noted. What is worth paying attention to is that we, as a people, have developed, without really wanting to or knowing we were doing it, the thousand-yard stare that you see in the eyes of certain homicide detectives who have been doing their jobs for a very long time. It is a look of utter numbness -- a look that is the opposite of cynical, a look of sorrowful surrender. It is a look that says, of the bearer of those eyes: . My eyes are dead because I know that what they have witnessed is only prologue. My eyes show nothing because they must be prepared for what they know they will be seeing again. To encounter those eyes -- to see the thousand-yard stare -- in a police officer is one thing. But to see it in a country. ... Yet that is what the many years of nonstop killings have done to us. Columbine -- that word, that label -- is the way we sum up this kind of thing, but labels like that are at core our way of conceding our inability to process the despair. There was murderous madness that came before Columbine, and murderous madness that came after. We tell ourselves on each new occasion that what has happened is shocking, but the word has become all but meaningless. The only genuinely shocking thing would be if the cruelty and the killings were to somehow suddenly cease. We can blame all of this on our modern times veering out of control, if we wish, but it really speaks of something more elemental and dark, of factors beyond our earthly understanding. The most deadly attack upon sons and daughters at a school did not occur at Columbine 10 years ago, or at Virginia Tech two years ago. On May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan, 44 people, most of them elementary school pupils in their classrooms, were slaughtered by a man who set off a series of bombs and then killed himself to raise his toll to 45. He was a member of the local school board; he was angry about a tax assessment. The madness and the heartache do not belong to a certain era or to a certain place on the map. Nor do the heartache, and the unending echoes of days like those, belong to the rest of us, however honorable we may wish our intentions to be. We -- the rest of us -- will move on by tomorrow. The anniversary will be over. Leaving the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers. And the lesson? The lesson we never seem to learn? It can be found in words that have been quoted and paraphrased many times, in many languages, over many centuries. But still we can't seem to get it right. What is it that we seek? Something that sounds so simple, something like a prayer: . To tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of the world. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Kin of Columbine victims live with the pain every day .\nGreene: Most Americans see such violence with numb eyes and can look elsewhere .\nThe pain of these incidents predated the horror of Columbine, Greene says .\nHe says people eternally have sought to tame human savagery .","id":"baaa1e04b6ba30dc36193e73400470a0259de128"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Boston, Massachusetts, are searching for a man suspected in the murder of one woman and the armed robbery of two others, all of whom, they say, he may have met through their Craigslist ads for personal services. Julissa Brisman, 26, was described as \"a really sweet, goofy, energetic kid.\" Officers discovered New York resident Julissa Brisman, 26, unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel on Tuesday night. She was transferred to Boston Medical Center, where she died shortly afterward. Police said Brisman, a model, offered massages via Craigslist, a popular online classified ad service. The confrontation between Brisman and her killer seems to have begun as an attempted robbery, police said. \"It appears that there was a struggle between the victim and the suspect in the threshold of the hotel room immediately prior to the shooting,\" the Boston Police Department said in a statement on its Web site. Police speculate the man may also be responsible for the recent robberies of two other young women who offered personal services via Craigslist. Four days before Brisman's slaying, a 29-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint at a Westin Hotel in Boston. Police spokesman Joe Zanola would not disclose the details of her Craigslist ad but said she and Brisman were \"involved in similar professions.\" On Thursday night at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, according to Warwick's police chief, Col. Stephen McCartney. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, according to McCartney. He said that no conclusions could be made but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Matthew Terhune, a photographer who met Brisman when he took pictures of her for a calendar last year, described her as \"just a really sweet, goofy, energetic kid.\" He added that she was enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous and was contemplating counseling fellow recovering addicts. He had been unaware of her side job as an Internet masseuse. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, said the Boston Police Department, which is asking the public's help in identifying the man. Representatives from Craigslist did not respond to a request for comment.","highlights":"26-year-old died after attack at Boston hotel on Tuesday .\nPolice say she posted Craigslist ad offering massages .\nMan may be behind two recent robberies, they say .\nBoston police seek public's help identifying man on video .","id":"7c93af23eca0885b5e315f2da99dd823f1414194"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British author J.G. Ballard, whose boyhood experience in a World War II internment camp became the novel and film \"Empire of the Sun,\" died Sunday at age 78, his literary agent said. He had suffered from cancer for several years. Ballard's semi-autobiographical \"Empire of the Sun\" was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg. \"J.G. Ballard has been a giant on the world literary scene for more than 50 years,\" Margaret Hanbury said Monday. \"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels, which have been published all over the world.\" Ballard was born in a Western enclave in the Chinese city of Shanghai in 1930. The Japanese occupied the city in 1937, and Ballard and his family were placed in a civilian internment camp in 1943. He began writing science fiction in the 1950s, with his work taking on a strongly psychological, apocalyptic bent in later decades. But, \"Empire of the Sun,\" his semi-autobiographical account of the war years, became his best-known work, and it was made into a film by director Steven Spielberg in 1988. Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg adapted another of Ballard's novels, \"Crash,\" in 1996. Its plot -- people sexually aroused by car accidents -- drew the novel an initial reaction of \"beyond psychiatric help\" from his publisher and an adults-only rating for the film.","highlights":"Celebrated author J.G. Ballard dies at age of 78 from cancer .\nBallard began writing science fiction in 1950s .\nHis semi-autobiographical novel \"Empire of the Sun\" was made into film .","id":"b69a50e20de5017a187f36dc9688186f83abfbf6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five Filipino soldiers were killed and 24 others wounded during an overnight gun battle with a faction of a Muslim separatist group in the Philippines' southern region, a military spokesman said. Filipino soldiers check weapons captured from Moro Islamic Liberation Front militants in November. The fighting in Basilan province broke out after ongoing peace negotiations with rogue members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hit an impasse, said Maj. Ramon Zagala. Early reports indicated the fighters were from a rogue faction of the front, but the military later identified them as members of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network, Zagala said. Abu Sayyaf members were seeking refuge in MILF-controlled towns, drawing a military response, Zagala said. The militants retaliated Sunday with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, he said. The splinter group originally believed to have been involved in the firefight, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, issued a statement accusing Filipino troops of using artillery and \"indiscriminately\" launched airstrikes.The statement, posted Monday on a pro-Moro Website, included no report of casualties. The government of the Philippines has been involved in peace negotiations with Moro Islamic Liberation Front since 2003. CNN's Tess Eastment contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Abu Sayyaf members drew military response, military spokesman says .\nFilipino soldiers fight rogue faction of a Muslim separatist group .\nFighting began after negotiations hit an impasse, military in Philippines says .\nMilitants were trying to occupy part of a province, military says .","id":"305f816017918ba88c9cc85d1467ec3baca02e9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot who made a treacherous crash-landing on New York's Hudson River look like a routine maneuver got a hero's welcome Saturday in his California hometown. Chesley B. Sullenberger was honored Saturday with a celebration in his hometown of Danville, California. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger put his US Airways jetliner down on the Hudson minutes after both engines failed, then walked the length of the drifting Airbus A320 twice to make certain that all 155 people on board got off safely. He was greeted by several thousand cheering people gathered around the town square in Danville, California, for a celebration in his honor. Mayor Newell Arnerich presented Sullenberger with a ceremonial key to the city, an upscale suburb near San Francisco. Sullenberger, who has avoided public comment since the January 15 incident, made very brief remarks. He thanked the crowd for an \"incredible outpouring of support.\" \"Circumstance determined that it was this experienced crew that was scheduled to fly on that particular flight on that particular day,\" Sullenberger said. \"But I know I can speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do. Thank you.\" Watch Sullenberger address the crowd \u00bb . Sullenberger's wife, Lorrie, fought back tears as she spoke of her husband. \"I have always known him to be an exemplary pilot. I knew what the outcome would be that day, because I knew my husband,\" she said. \"Mostly for me, he's the man that makes my cup of tea every morning.\" Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board continue to piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina. The jet's left engine, which apparently tore away from the plane on landing impact, was raised from the bottom of the Hudson on Friday. Sullenberger reported to air controllers that his plane had hit birds shortly before both engines shut down. On Saturday, the NTSB said a preliminary examination of the left engine found evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\" the same kind of damage reported on the right engine. An NTSB spokesman said that there was no evidence of organic material such as a dead bird in the left engine but that was not surprising because the engine had been under water for a week. Although the NTSB has not officially confirmed reports of a bird strike, the agency's findings and statements have not done anything to discount the bird-strike reports. Both engines will be shipped to the manufacturer in Ohio, where NTSB investigators will tear them down completely for examination.","highlights":"NEW: Left engine shows evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\" NTSB says .\nThousands greet US Airways pilot in Danville, California .\n\"We were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do,\" he says .\nInvestigators continue to piece together what happened .","id":"cc89b776fb6c12771c636c9fbf25fdc32d03d23e"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Senior North Korean officials say the communist regime has \"weaponized\" its stockpile of plutonium, according to a U.S. scholar, in a move suggesting that North Korea may have significantly hardened its stance on nuclear negotiations. Selig Harrison said North Korean officials claimed to have enough plutonium for four or five warheads. Selig Harrison, one of the few U.S. scholars granted access to senior North Korean officials, said at a news conference in Beijing that the officials told him they had weaponized 30.8 kilograms of plutonium, enough for four or five warheads. The director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, who just returned from a five-day visit to Pyongyang, said senior North Korean officials told him the warheads will not be open for inspection. If it is true, the news portends a gloomy outlook for the future of the six-party talks that began in 2003 with the goal of getting North Korea to end its nuclear program. \"It does change the game,\" Harrison said. South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia are participating in the talks. A 2007 agreement calls for scrapping nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula in return for energy aid to the North, normalized relations between the North and the United States and Japan, and a formal peace pact. Watch a report on North Korea's nuclear negotiations \u00bb . The North Koreans told Harrison they want the rest of the fuel aid that Japan has promised them. North Korea had agreed to disable the reactor that had produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. But the United States and its allies have asked it to give up the plutonium it already has, an estimated 30 kilograms, as well as details of any other bomb-producing programs. Harrison said one possible reason for Pyongyang's tough new stance could be the declining health of leader Kim Jong Il, who reportedly suffered a stroke last year and may no longer be involved in day-to-day decisions. \"People I talked to have many indications that some important things are submitted to him, but he is not working in the way he used to,\" Harrison said. He said military hard-liners have taken the lead in demanding from the United States a full declaration and verification of all nuclear weapons sent to South Korea between 1957 and 1991. The hard-liners also seek full normalization of relations with Washington before more talks about scrapping their nuclear arsenal. On Tuesday, during her Senate confirmation hearing for the secretary of state position, Sen. Hillary Clinton made it clear: de-nuclearization first, then diplomatic normalization. President-elect Barack Obama has stated his willingness to talk to the North Korean leader. Harrison also said the North demanded the completion of the light-water reactors as compensation for the dismantling of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. The light-water reactor, which is not capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, was promised to North Korea in the early 1990s for the North giving up its nuclear weapons. Its construction has been suspended. North Korea has long considered its nuclear program integral to its national security. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. In June, it acknowledged producing about 40 kilograms of enriched plutonium. CNN's John Vause contributed to this report.","highlights":"News may bode ill for future of talks to end North Korean nuclear program .\nNorth Korean officials tell U.S. scholar they want rest of promised fuel aid .\nOne possible reason for tough stance could be declining health of leader Kim Jung Il .\nMilitary hard-liners seek normalization of relations with Washington before more talks .","id":"7c368607c8b60d4067d217cdfe5a95e69a9df2b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ukraine's Security Service launched a raid on the country's state-run gas company Wednesday, searching for documents related to a gas deal with Russia, a spokesman for the company said. Ukrainian security service agents let employees leave a room at Naftogaz's headquarters. A group of about 30 gunmen wearing masks and carrying machine guns entered the offices of Naftogaz and took control of every floor of the company's building in the capital of Kiev, Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said. Operatives from the security service then began a search for various company documents, including those pertaining to the Russia-Ukraine gas deal signed in January to end a weeks-long gas dispute, Zemlyansky told journalists, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. The Security Service opened a criminal case on Monday into alleged misappropriation of 6.3 billion cubic meters of transit gas worth over 7.4 billion hryvnia ($880 million) by a group of Naftogaz officers, Interfax reported. Taras Shepitko, a deputy chief of an Energy Regional Customs division under the State Customs Service, was detained as part of the case. Ukrainian Security Service operatives confirmed to Interfax that the operation was related to that criminal case. The armed troops were there simply to protect the investigators, the service told Interfax, citing attempts to hinder the investigation. Naftogaz called police when the armed men stormed in but the police retreated soon after they arrived, Zemlyansky said. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow, Russia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ukraine's Security Service raids country's state-run gas company .\nNaftogaz: Raid was to search for documents related to gas deal with Russia .\nSecurity Service investigating alleged theft of gas by Naftogaz officers .","id":"e5535fb8dc8be171ce8653a0763dfd2ecef376a0"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- An Indian paramilitary trooper shot dead six colleagues and fled his military camp with an AK-47 rifle in the remote northeastern state of Manipur, a spokesman for his unit said Thursday. Indian Assam Rifles paramilitary soldiers on duty in the eastern state of Manipur. \"He shot dead one junior commissioned officer in a fit of rage after having an altercation with him and then turned the gun on five other troopers (who arrived at the scene),\" said Shamsher Jung, the spokesman for the Assam Rifles. Authorities launched a manhunt for the trooper. The Assam Rifles are stationed in Manipur, on the India-Myanmar border, to combat some 30 active insurgent groups that are believed to be operating there. The rebels want a separate homeland and have accused the Indian government of exploiting the region's natural resources, while doing little in return to help the indigenous people who live there. In the last decade, thousands have died in separatist violence. -- CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Trooper shot one junior commissioned officer in a fit of rage, spokesman said .\nHe then turned his gun on five other troopers who arrived on the scene .\nTrooper part of Assam Rifles, stationed in Manipur on India-Myanmar border .","id":"1cebd0e4046f235feb216aafc27934ff329af736"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Every time her cell phone rings, Christy Harness thinks of her husband. More consumers download ringtones to their cell phones than full-length songs. The 34-year-old native of Jackson County, Georgia, set her ringtone to Sugarland's \"All I Wanna Do,\" a song that, she says, perfectly expresses the way she feels about him. \"I kind of put myself in [the singer's] place because ... she's in love with this guy. If he's not around, she misses him. Basically, I think the song relates to me and [my husband] and our relationship,\" Harness said. These days, ringtones do much more than alert mobile phone users of a call. Ringtones seem to have become vital fashion statements, a way for people to showcase their personalities and even their feelings about who is calling. According to a 2008 study by Ipsos MediaCT, a marketing research company, approximately one-third of mobile phone users download ringtones, and about 40 percent of users change their ringtones frequently. Ipsos research shows that ringtones are the most common type of mobile music content downloaded by users, compared to full-length songs and ringback tones, tones that replace the typical ringing signal heard by the caller. \"I find regular ringtones kind of dull, so I wanted something exciting,\" said Gordy King, a 51-year-old from Salt Lake City, Utah. King said he gets a kick out of annoying his mostly Republican co-workers with his Barack Obama ringtones, even playing them over the intercom at the electrical supply warehouse where he works. \"It's fake news people saying 'Barack Obama has won the election,' \" he said. \"I really like Barack Obama. I think [my ringtone] probably says that I'm nonconventional and it says I lean a little more liberal. I don't know anyone else who has that ringtone.\" Using a ringtone creator application on Facebook, King said he also makes his own ringtones by downloading sound files onto his computer and editing them to be shorter and louder or softer. Donald Kaplan found a perfect fit with his ringtone choice. Kaplan, of New York, changed his ringtones often before finally settling on the theme song from \"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.\" \"I'm thinking of sticking with it. I notice that when people hear my phone ring they get amused ... I think that people really connect with that movie,\" Kaplan said. But that's not always the case. Kaplan said one of his co-workers wasn't exactly pleased with the ringtone. The co-worker sent a mass e-mail to the office, telling everyone to keep their cell phones on silent. \"The ringtone drove him crazy and he tried to be tactful but I knew that [the e-mail] was directed specifically to me,\" Kaplan said. \"I could tell that this particular ringtone just drove him up the wall ... just the repetition of the sound.\" For some, one ringtone simply isn't enough. Many mobile phone users set specific tones to specific people so that the tones act as audible caller IDs. \"I group people,\" said Natasha Khan, a 26-year-old from McLean, Virginia. \"I group all my best girlfriends together, the people I don't want to talk to together, work contacts together, and family together.\" Khan said when her best friends call she hears \"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,\" by Cyndi Lauper, and when she gets a call from people she doesn't particularly like, her phone rings \"Bugaboo\" by Destiny's Child. \"Bugaboo,\" about a woman irritated by a male caller, contains such lines as, \"It's not hot that you be callin' me.\" \"The 'Bugaboo' ringtone has gotten me in trouble,\" Khan said with a laugh. \"This guy -- I forgot that he was on that list and I told him I needed his number and he said, 'Oh, I'll call you' and he realized he was on the list.\" Customizing a phone with multiple ringtones can be expensive. Depending on the wireless carrier or the service plan, ringtones cost anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99. That may not deter cell phone users. Analysts at Screen Digest, a UK-based firm covering global media markets, predicted that mobile music sales will double from $1.6 billion in 2008 to $3.2 billion in 2012. But there are also free ways to get ringtones, like the ringtone creator application on Facebook -- one of several ringtone applications on the social-networking Web site -- that make setting ringtones all the more appealing. \"The ringtone creator was fun,\" said King. \"No matter how big or little the song or sound effect ... you could select a snippet and edit it.\" Many mobile phone users like to be creative and have fun with their ringtones, and their ringtone choice can reveal much about their personalities. Khan's default ringtone, she said, is typically an upbeat dance song like her current one, \"Forever\" by Chris Brown. \"I think the day can be so mundane and work can bog you down, so I like any chance I can get to get some joy,\" Khan said. \"It's just a break in the day to feel good randomly.\"","highlights":"Ringtones are one way for people to showcase their personalities and feelings .\nOne third of cell-phone users download ringtones; 40 percent change ringtones often .\nVirginia woman uses Destiny's Child's \"Bugaboo\" as ringtone for dreaded callers .\nUtah man customized a pro-Obama ringtone to annoy Republican co-workers .","id":"6c6856a9a3c913d6de1915f50b7f8bf00bc5d3e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Muzak, the company that put pop, string-filled arrangements of rock songs in your elevator, filed bankruptcy papers Tuesday after it missed a $105 million payment to creditors. The Muzak company is best known for background music piped into places such as elevators. The pipeline of easy listening will continue to flow as Muzak restructures its debt during the Chapter 11 process, the company said. \"Muzak is a solid business with an outstanding customer base, but we are burdened with substantial debt obligations established over a decade ago,\" Muzak CEO Stephen Villa said. Muzak's cash flows doubled in the last three years, Villa said, \"demonstrating that our business continues to perform well even in today's challenging environment.\" Along with its ubiquitous elevator offerings, Muzak and its 14 affiliates -- all privately owned -- produce on-hold messages and install sound systems, digital signs and drive-thru systems for retail businesses. Bankruptcy documents showed Muzak owes its largest creditor -- U.S. Bank, as indentured trustee -- about $370 million, nearly all of it due this year. Muzak spokeswoman Meaghan Repko said the filing was voluntary and in cooperation with the creditors. The weakened global economy was not a factor, she said, noting the company's profits have been rising in recent years. The Chapter 11 protections will allow Muzak time to restructure the debt, which was incurred a decade ago, she said.","highlights":"Muzak creates musical material often called \"elevator music\"\nCompany missed $105 million payment to creditors .\nCash flow is up, says CEO, but company has \"substantial debt obligations\"","id":"ee6276fb800f644d85525441dc649679ebb431d2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jon Opsahl said he doesn't think domestic terrorist-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson served nearly enough time for his mother's murder, but he's relieved the saga ended with Olson's Tuesday release from prison. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Tuesday after serving seven years. Olson, a member of the self-styled revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army -- perhaps best known for kidnapping Patricia Hearst -- was released from a California prison after serving seven years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. She was released to her husband just after midnight and is expected to serve her yearlong parole term in Minnesota -- over the the objections of police unions and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Her sentence stems from her involvement in the 1975 attempted bombings of two police cars and the slaying of Myrna Opsahl during a bank robbery that same year. Back then, Olson went by her birth name, Kathleen Anne Soliah. After her 1976 indictment in the attempted bombings, she changed her name and started a new life in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was not apprehended until 1999. \"I've really got nothing to say. She did her time, as minimal as that may have been,\" said Jon Opsahl, who was 15 when his mother was killed. \"One of those years -- just one -- was for the murder of my mom and the bank robbery up in Carmichael.\" Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four, was depositing money at the Crocker National Bank for her church when she was shot by Olson's co-defendant Emily Montague Harris, according to court documents. Harris was sentenced to eight years; she served four and was released on parole in February 2007. Jon Opsahl, now 49, said he never understood why it took so long to bring his mother's killers to justice. While charges were filed in the bombings within months, no charges were brought in his mother's murder until 2002. \"You expect thugs to do what thugs do, but you don't expect the district attorney to turn a blind eye to the murder of an upstanding citizen,\" Jon Opsahl said Monday. Olson's release Tuesday will cap an oft-strange storyline that spans more than three decades and which saw Olson wear the hats of college student, 1970s radical, housewife and philanthropist. Attorney Andy Dawkins met Olson, now 62, shortly after she moved to St. Paul through friends in the reggae band, Pressure Drop. Fred Peterson, Olson's husband, played trumpet in the band, Dawkins said. \"She did good deeds everywhere. She raised three wonderful daughters. It was always a shock to all of us that the Sara we know had that past,\" Dawkins said. After attending the University of California, Santa Barbara, Olson moved to Berkeley in the early 1970s. There, she met Angela Atwood in 1972, and the two became best friends and roommates, Olson told L.A. Weekly in a 2002 interview shortly before she was imprisoned. After Atwood and five other SLA members were killed in a 1974 gunfight with the Los Angeles Police Department, Olson appeared at a memorial in Berkeley's Ho Chi Minh Park to eulogize her friend. \"SLA soldiers, although I know it's not necessary to say, keep fighting. I'm with you, and we are with you,\" Olson told the crowd. Almost a year later, Olson took part in two bank robberies to help fund the SLA, according to court documents. During the Carmichael robbery, Olson \"entered the bank with a firearm and kicked a nonresisting pregnant teller in the stomach. The teller miscarried after the robbery,\" the documents said. In August 1975, Los Angeles police found homemade bombs under two squad cars. They were designed to explode when the car moved, but neither device detonated. Authorities cast the attempted bombings as payback for the bloody shootout that left Atwood and other SLA members dead. A probe into the gunbattle helped police arrest Hearst, the granddaughter of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst, who claimed she had been kidnapped, raped and brainwashed by the SLA. In her book \"Every Secret Thing,\" Hearst put Olson at the center of the Carmichael robbery. Olson soon left California. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, \"she evaded capture for 23 years, and in the meantime, became a doctor's wife, mother of three, community volunteer, veteran of charity work in Africa and practicing Methodist living in an upscale neighborhood in St. Paul.\" Though authorities said a 1999 \"America's Most Wanted\" episode marking the 25th anniversary of the L.A. shootout led to Olson's arrest, the show's Web site mentions neither Olson nor Soliah among its almost 1,100 \"captures.\" Her Minnesota friends and neighbors were shocked, even incredulous, when she was arrested. They pleaded with a judge to grant her bail. The Sara Olson Defense Fund began selling cookbooks, titled, \"Serving Time: America's Most Wanted Recipes.\" It would help that Olson was generous with her time. She was active in the church. She volunteered for political campaigns. Dawkins said he had a blind client to whom she used to read The New York Times. Olson's philanthropy, coupled with the connections of her husband, a respected emergency room doctor, made raising the $1 million bail relatively easy, said Dawkins, who remembers that some members of the community had so much faith in Olson they put up their children's college funds. On October 31, 2001, Olson pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to ignite a destructive device or explosive. She later tried to rescind the plea, saying \"cowardice\" prevented her from telling the truth. A superior court judge, however, denied her request and in January 2002 sentenced her to 20 years to life in prison, a sentence the parole board later reduced. Olson was charged with Opsahl's slaying that same week and pleaded guilty in 2003 to second-degree murder. Olson received a sentence of five years to life. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that Olson's sentence was reduced for good behavior and for her work on a maintenance crew that cleaned the main yard of the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. Dawkins said \"it's right\" that Olson served time, but he is glad she is being released. He expects many hugs await her in St. Paul and that she will soon be back to her generous ways. \"I really believe who we knew in St. Paul was the true Sara Olson,\" he said. The Los Angeles Police Protection League disagrees and has loudly opposed her early release. Sgt. Paul Weber, the league's chief, called her a sociopath who \"never said she was sorry.\" He also lashed out at those who rush to defend her. \"Enough with the BS that she was unfairly targeted by law enforcement for her youthful indiscretions -- she is a criminal,\" Weber said in a Monday statement. Corrections officials say it's important that she be reunited with her family during her parole -- it helps reduce recidivism -- but Minnesota legislators, the governor and the St. Paul Police Federation have asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to keep her in California over the next year. \"Letting a domestic terrorist like Kathleen Soliah set the terms of her parole is an insult to the memory of Myrna Opsahl and all the men and women of LAPD past and present,\" the St. Paul union said in a letter last week. Jon Opsahl, however, just wants to put Olson out of his mind. \"Get her out of here,\" he said. \"I don't want to see or think about her again.\"","highlights":"NEW: Governor, police unions oppose Olson serving parole in Minnesota .\nOlson evaded capture for more than 20 years living as Minnesota housewife .\nOlson was member of Symbionese Liberation Army, which nabbed Patricia Hearst .\nCourt documents say Olson kicked pregnant teller during 1975 bank robbery .","id":"a248472dec3af8292ae0d3333b197b042f051b40"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Sky News, the British-based 24-hour news broadcaster, will not show a controversial appeal for aid for the people of Gaza, it announced Monday. Protesters demonstrate in London Sunday against the BBC's decision not to show Gaza aid appeal. Sky News joins the BBC in refusing to show the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group of 13 leading British aid agencies. The BBC, Britain's public broadcaster, has been criticized by politicians and religious leaders for refusing to show the appeal, which launches Monday. There have been demonstrations against the decision at BBC buildings in England and Scotland. Sky News said airing the appeal would compromise its reputation for fairness. Do you agree with the decision? Send your comments . \"Broadcasting an appeal for Gaza at this time is incompatible with our role in providing balanced and objective reporting of this continuing situation to our audiences in the UK and around the world,\" John Ryley, the head of Sky News, said Monday in a statement on the company's Web site. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) includes the British Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children and 10 other charities. British broadcasters, led by the BBC, originally declined to air the Gaza appeal, but in the face of criticism from government ministers and others, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 changed their minds. CNN was not approached to broadcast the ad, a DEC spokesman said. About 5,000 people demonstrated in front of the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday over the broadcaster's stance. Seven people were arrested. About 50 people protested at its Glasgow headquarters Sunday. The corporation received about 1,000 phone calls and 10,000 e-mails of complaint in the three days after it announced its decision Thursday. But the BBC is sticking with its position, director general Mark Thompson wrote in a blog post on the corporation's Web site. \"We concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its wider coverage of the story,\" he wrote Saturday. \"Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programs but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story,\" he wrote. \"Gaza remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues -- the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it -- are both at the heart of the story and contentious,\" he added. The BBC, which is funded by an obligatory license fee paid by every British household with a television, is required by its charter to be impartial. The DEC is \"disappointed that the BBC declined to support the Gaza appeal,\" a spokesman told CNN. \"It might limit the reach of our key message to the general public.\" The spokesman, who asked not to be named, said the BBC had to make its own decision about impartiality. \"That is a decision they must make. We have no view on that subject,\" he said. Many readers of Thompson's blog post did have a view, however. The statement received hundreds of comments, most of them critical of the BBC. A commenter who signed in as bully--baiter said the BBC was taking a side no matter what it did. \"Sorry Mr. Thompson but you cannot have it both ways. If deciding to accede to the DEC request would be seen as political then deciding not to accede to it is also political. Don't insult me with your disingenuous attempts to suggest it is otherwise,\" the commenter wrote. Other commenters simply rejected Thompson's position out of hand. \"I think the reasons for blocking help for a grave humanitarian disaster are simply astounding,\" brit--proud wrote. \"How can simply bringing food, medicines and homes to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians be seen as political impartiality? How stupid do the BBC think the British public are?\" The corporation had its defenders as well. \"The last thing I want to do, is fund the BBC to broadcast propaganda,\" SternG wrote: \"There's no way I will pay the BBC to air the DEC's politically-motivated 'appeal' for Gaza. Gaza is run by a government which is internationally recognized as a terrorist group, including by the EU. There is no doubt that some aid\/fund will be 'procured' by Hamas.... Good decision BBC.\" British broadcasters have refused to air some previous DEC appeals, the umbrella organization's spokesman said. A planned 2006 appeal for aid to victims of the war in Lebanon was scrapped because \"there were genuine concerns, shared by the aid agencies, about the deliverability of aid.\" Thompson cited doubts about whether DEC members could get aid to Gaza as a secondary reason for declining to take the ad.","highlights":"Sky News said airing the appeal would compromise its reputation for fairness .\nBBC refused to broadcast ad, saying it would compromise appearance of impartiality .\nDemonstrations against BBC decision took place in England and Scotland .\nUK charity group Disasters Emergency Committee to launch appeal for Gaza aid .","id":"c002e056059267a4b756c08606d2e06a2d554f6a"} -{"article":"GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israel bombed a Hamas government compound early Tuesday, leveling at least three structures, including the foreign ministry building, eyewitnesses and Hamas security sources told CNN. Relatives mourn three boys from the same family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday in Gaza. A Gaza-based journalist, whose name was withheld for security reasons, told CNN he heard 18 blasts in the area and that two fires were burning at the compound early Tuesday. More bombs continued to drop over Gaza through the morning. With Tuesday's bombs, Israel appeared to extend its airstrike campaign in Gaza to a fourth day. The strikes -- which Israel says are aimed at stopping the firing of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel -- have killed more than 375 Palestinians, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday. At least 60 civilians have been killed in Gaza, U.N. officials said. About 650 people have been wounded there, according to the Palestinian medical sources. Monday, Israel's defense minister said the nation was in an \"all-out war\" with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. \"We have stretched our hand in peace many times to the Palestinian people. We have nothing against the people of Gaza,\" Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's parliament. \"But this is an all-out war against Hamas and its branches.\" Israel continues to strike Hamas targets in Gaza, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN. Mortar fire along the Gaza border late Monday killed one Israeli soldier and wounded four others, he said. Earlier Monday, columns of smoke rose over Gaza City as warplanes carried out strikes. Though there was no indication of an Israeli military ground operation in Gaza, Israeli tanks cruised along the territory's edges. Watch rocket fire force a reporter to take cover \u00bb . Iyad Nasr, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the streets of Gaza were largely empty during airstrikes Monday morning. Despite the airstrikes, militants fired more than 40 rockets and mortar shells into Israel on Monday, according to Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. More than 150 rockets have been launched into Israeli territory since the campaign began, Israel Defense Forces said. Watch damage in Sderot \u00bb . Six Israelis have died over the past three days, five of them civilians. One of the rocket strikes killed an Israeli at a construction site in Ashkelon, 6 miles (10 kilometers) north of Gaza, and wounded eight others, a hospital spokeswoman said. Rocket strikes killed an Israeli and wounded two others at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, according to Israeli police and hospital spokespersons. Rocket attacks also wounded two people, one seriously, in Ashdod. One woman who was critically injured during the attack died later during an operation, according to Israeli medical sources. The White House on Monday called on Hamas to halt rocket fire against Israel, so calm can be restored in Gaza. Watch the White House blame Hamas \u00bb . Israel has struck more than 300 Hamas targets since Saturday, its military said. The Israeli air force carried out at least 20 airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, Israeli military sources said. Hamas security sources said the targets included the homes of two commanders of Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in the Jabalya refugee camp just north of Gaza City. Neither commander was among the seven people killed in those strikes, the sources said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on a report by Dr. Mu'awiya Hassanein that a strike near a mosque in Jabalya killed five children in a nearby home. The situation triggered protests in Iran, Greece, Britain and Lebanon, and the Iranian government declared a day of mourning for Palestinians in Gaza. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei urged the world's Muslim populations to unite against Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza. Watch a demonstration in London \u00bb . \"All true believers in the world of Islam and Palestinian fighters are duty-bound to defend the defenseless women and children in Gaza Strip and those giving their lives in carrying out such a divine duty are 'martyrs,' \" Khamenei said through Iran's official news agency IRNA. U.S. and Israeli officials told CNN that Hamas militants in Gaza have received support from Iran in the past in the form of weapons, training and cash. \"We know of Hamas operatives, commandos and soldiers who were trained in Iran itself. We know that. So there is a close cooperation and exchange of know-how and activities,\" said Isaac Herzog, a member of the Israeli Security Cabinet. Iran denies any involvement with Hamas. But an Iranian official told CNN Iran has ties to Shiite groups such as Hezbollah, a political party in Lebanon with alleged terrorist roots. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Hamas for the rocket attacks, but also had strong words for Israel. \"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I have also condemned the excessive use of force by Israel in Gaza. The suffering caused to civilian populations as a result of the large-scale violence and destruction that have taken place over the past few days has saddened me profoundly,\" he said in a prepared statement. The U.N. Security Council called for both sides to immediately end the violence, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the campaign could last \"for some time,\" and his Cabinet voted to call up 7,000 reservists. So far, about 2,000 reservists have been activated, according to the government. Read analysis of what may happen next . Hamas pledges it will defend its land and people from what it calls continued Israeli aggression. Each side blames the other for violating an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. The truce formally expired December 19, but it had been weakening for months. Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian parliament member, flatly blamed the violence on the Israeli \"occupation\" of the Palestinian territories and dismissed Israeli claims that it is targeting only Hamas. Watch why one Palestinian lawmaker blames Israel \u00bb . \"This is not a war on Hamas; it is a war on the Palestinian people,\" he said. \"The Israeli politicians are using this bloodbath, which is the worst since 1967, for their election campaigns. This is insane.\" Watch Barghouti warn \"violence breeds violence\" \u00bb . Both Barak and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will be vying in February for the prime minister's post against Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Both Barak and Netanyahu have previously held the post. The ongoing assault and threat of Israeli military ground incursion caused panic in Gaza City, the territory's densely populated capital, a U.N. humanitarian official told CNN on Monday. \"It's very bad, people are running in all directions because of the bombings that are happening everywhere,\" Karen AbuZayd said from Gaza City. AbuZayd is the commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides assistance to about 80 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Israel allowed more than 50 trucks carrying relief aid into Gaza on Monday -- in addition to 40 on Sunday -- Israeli military sources said. The U.N. is expecting 100 trucks Monday, but a U.N. official said it will not be enough to alleviate the worsening humanitarian situation. In the West Bank, Saeb Erakat, adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Israeli and Hamas leaders to put another cease-fire in place. The power base of Abbas' Fatah party is in the West Bank. The party is locked in a power struggle with Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and wrested Gaza from Fatah in violent clashes last year. Abbas, a U.S. ally, wields little influence in Gaza. Learn more about Gaza's political history \u00bb . CNN's Paula Hancocks and Shira Medding contributed to this report.","highlights":"Israeli bombs level Hamas foreign ministry, two other buildings, source says .\nBarak: Israel in 'all-out war' with Hamas .\nTehran declares day of mourning as protests erupt in Europe, Mideast .\nIsrael, Hamas blame each other for violating Egyptian-brokered cease-fire .","id":"2a177a705028dc406adb032304f199094e43bd3c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Each year, Dr. Paul Dell and his wife, Ruthie, host Hand Camp, a refuge for children and teens with upper-limb abnormalities. Campers get to try arts and crafts, archery, and rope climbing in an environment away from teasing. The Dells, along with their staff of therapists and volunteers, work with the kids and their parents, offering advice and answering medical questions. More than 300 participated in this year's Hand Camp in Starke, Florida.","highlights":"Many of the campers are patients of the camp's co-founder, Dr. Paul Dell .\nParent sessions are held to give advice to families, especially about teasing .\nThe camp is free and will hopefully stay free, co-founder Ruthie Dell says .","id":"ac19c7c394491dfbf19af9b82c9f5bcf0bb3d944"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Natasha Richardson was hospitalized after she fell on a ski slope at a Quebec resort, a resort spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday. Actress Natasha Richardson was transferred Tuesday to an undisclosed location in the United States. Richardson was taken to a hospital near Station Mont Tremblant before she was transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal following her fall on Monday, according to the statement. However, she was transferred Tuesday to an undisclosed location in the United States, according to Michelle Simard, spokeswoman for Hopital du Sacre-Coeur. Simard said she had no further details. Richardson fell on a beginners' trail Monday during a ski lesson at Station Mont Tremblant, said the statement from the resort, located about 80 miles northwest of Montreal. She was not wearing a helmet, the resort said. At the time, Richardson was accompanied by a veteran female ski instructor, who called the ski patrol, the statement said. The ski patrol members examined her and found no visible sign of injury, according to the statement. \"As standard protocol, the ski patrol insisted that Ms. Richardson be transported to the base of the hill in a rescue toboggan,\" the resort statement said. Once at the base of the hill, staffers advised Richardson to seek additional medical attention, but she declined. Accompanied by the instructor, Richardson went to her hotel, where she was again advised to see a doctor, the resort said. As a precautionary measure, the instructor stayed with her, the statement said. The statement offered no details on Richardson's condition or injuries, but said resort staffers and police were providing support to Richardson's family and friends. Richardson, 45, has appeared in many television, film and stage roles, including the movies \"Nell\" and \"The Parent Trap.\" She won a Tony award in 1998 for her performance as Sally Bowles in \"Cabaret.\" She is married to actor Liam Neeson and is the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave. The Montreal Gazette reported that Richardson's two sons with Neeson were skiing with her at the time of her fall, and that Neeson flew to Montreal from a Toronto film set to be with her at the hospital.","highlights":"Actress Natasha Richardson fell on a beginners' trail in Quebec, Canada .\nActress had no \"visible signs of injury,\" resort spokeswoman said .\nAmbulance was called after Richardson was \"not feeling good\" an hour after fall .","id":"02d1ea93c9abed566593c21f9a3291cd5939a06f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cornelia Wallace, ex-wife of four-time Alabama Gov. George Wallace, has died, the governor's office announced. She was in her late 60s. The cause of death was not immediately known. \"She served as first lady during a very turbulent time and our thoughts and prayers are with her family today,\" Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and wife Patsy said in a statement. Cornelia Wallace first met her husband at a party in the Alabama governor's mansion when her uncle, James Folsom, was governor and she was only eight years old, Time Magazine reported in 1972. She was 19 years younger than Wallace. At the time, Wallace was a state legislator married to his first wife, Lurleen, who also served as Alabama governor. The then Cornelia Ellis went to the semifinals of the Miss Alabama contest before becoming the star of the Cypress Gardens water ski show in Florida, Time reported. She married John Snively III, a millionaire whose family once owned the Gardens. The couple had two sons but divorced seven years later. After Lurleen Wallace died of cancer in 1968, George Wallace got back in touch with Cornelia Ellis Snively and they married in 1971. The following year, Cornelia Wallace was beside her husband when he was shot in a 1972 assassination attempt in a Maryland parking lot. George and Cornelia Wallace divorced after his failed bid for the U.S. presidency in 1976. George Wallace died in Montgomery on September 13, 1998.","highlights":"Cornelia Wallace was in her late 60s .\nShe was with Wallace when would-be assassin shot him in 1972 .\n\"She served as first lady during a very turbulent time,\" Gov. Bob Riley says .","id":"120226dfefcfbb4ed655c6d43e3a90d4822d0380"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A heavy snowstorm caused chaos Friday at Madrid's Barajas Airport, where flights were suspended for hours before Europe's fourth-busiest airport reopened in the late afternoon. A woman enjoys the snow in Madrid, where the airport suspended flights because of the weather. Planes were flying again at 4:40 p.m. (10:40 am ET). \"It's a huge snowstorm. You don't see this in Madrid often,\" an airport spokeswoman said. The airport has 1,205 daily inbound and outbound flights. But for the first time, the airport halted operations due to a weather problem, the spokeswoman said. The temporary shutdown began about noon (6 a.m. ET). Visibility was low, and the storm was so intense that the airport's snow clearing and de-icing equipment couldn't keep up, said the spokeswoman, who by custom is not identified. The first plane to depart when the airport reopened was a Finnair flight bound for Helsinki, a second spokeswoman said. The delays from the storm affected hundreds of travelers at the airport. Many others could not even reach the airport because of poor road conditions. Madrid is one of the highest capitals in Europe, at an elevation of 646 meters or 2,120 feet, but it does not often snow in the city itself, especially with the ferocity seen Friday. Watch snowy scenes from Madrid \u00bb . As children and even some adults gleefully tossed snowballs, city officials urged motorists to stay off the roads and use public transportation. Large traffic jams formed on the major highways leading from Madrid to Barcelona and other cities, and numerous vehicles ran off the roads and got stuck in the snow. iReport: Are you snowed in in Spain? Send us your photos, videos . Bus service was suspended in many areas, although subways and commuter trains were operating, with delays in some cases. Weather forecasters said the snow was expected to continue through Saturday morning, although diminishing in intensity.","highlights":"Airport reopens after suspending flights for hours Friday .\nMadrid is one of the highest capitals in Europe, at an elevation of 646 meters .\nHowever, it rarely has heavy snowfall of the kind seen Friday .","id":"9fe8ca8417d5b259ea16e98d7d6f984f0ad281c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The West African country of Guinea, reeling after the death of President Lansana Conte, is staring at the prospect of widespread political instability amid an apparent coup. Lansana Conte came to power in a military coup in 1984. Journalist Mohammed Kayta in Conakry said the Guinean military seized control of the capital city's streets in an apparent coup. He reported that the military was holding negotiations to determine who will succeed Conte, who ruled the country for nearly 25 years. The action followed an announcement on national radio Tuesday by army Capt. Foamed Dadis Camara that government and national institutions had been dissolved, according to Le Jour, a national newspaper, and the subsequent announcement by Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare that the government continued to function. Soldiers were out in force, including around the offices of the president and prime minister in Conakry, local journalist Barry Minkalou told CNN. The streets were calm, with no reports of injuries or violence, he said. Camara said Tuesday an \"advisory council\" of civilians and soldiers would be set up. The Foreign Office in Great Britain said it was \"concerned by reports of a military coup. \"We condemn any attempt to seize power by force, and call on all parties to ensure respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and to safeguard the well-being of their own citizens and foreign nationals in Guinea,\" the office said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who issued a statement commending Conte and passing along condolences, urged \"a peaceful and democratic transfer of power\" and exhorted \"the armed forces and all stakeholders to respect the democratic process.\" The United Nations told its personnel in Guinea to stay off the streets. \"All U.N. staff have been encouraged to stay at home,\" the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' spokesman in Guinea, Faya Foko Millimouno, told CNN. \"Only the military is in the street now.\" The U.S. Embassy in Conakry warned Americans in the country \"to be particularly alert to their surroundings, and to be prepared for any eventuality.\" Aboubacar Sompare, president of the National Assembly, announced Conte's death. \"We regret to announce to the people of Guinea the death of Gen. Lansana Conte after a long illness,\" Sompare said, according to Le Jour. Conte was 74. A 40-day period of national mourning has been declared. Conte came to power in a military coup on April 3, 1984. Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its mineral wealth, according to the British charity Plan UK. The country hosts large refugee populations from neighboring Liberia and Ivory Coast.","highlights":"Guinea President Lansana Conte dies; 40 days of mourning declared .\nArmy captain says government institutions dissolved .\nPrime minister insists government is functioning .\nConte's death was announced by president of the National Assembly .","id":"2bf59300cea5e1a5dfb0fb705d5fc38e8aab59f1"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia judge threw the book at Brian Nichols on Saturday, giving him four consecutive sentences of life without parole for a 2005 shooting rampage that started in an Atlanta courthouse. Brian Nichols tells the court Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, \"I will not bring dishonor to the decision to spare my life.\" \"I'm giving you the maximum -- every day I could give you. If I could give you more, I would,\" Superior Court Judge James Bodiford told Nichols. Nichols, 37, was convicted last month of 54 counts for a deadly shooting rampage that began March 11, 2005, in the same courthouse where he stood trial. Nichols, who was being tried for rape, shot three people to death as he escaped from the downtown courthouse that day and a federal agent the next day in Atlanta's Buckhead district before being captured in neighboring Gwinnett County. \"I know that the things that I've done caused a lot of pain, and I am sorry,\" Nichols, who remained seated, told the court before sentence was pronounced. \"And I just wanted to say that I will not bring dishonor to the decision to spare my life.\" Watch victims' family members react to the sentence \u00bb . Nichols was spared a death sentence Friday after the jury deliberating his fate announced that it could not agree on a sentence. Bodiford gave Nichols the maximum sentence on all the non-murder charges, and ordered them to be served consecutively. Those terms ranged from five years for escape to life for armed robbery. Other charges included aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, robbery by force, theft by taking, hijacking a motor vehicle and false imprisonment. \"It's a large number of years. It's many lifetimes,\" Bodiford said. Bodiford ordered that Nichols serve his time in the Georgia state penal system, forgoing the possibility of sending him to the federal maximum-security prison in Colorado. Bodiford implored Nichols' family and attorneys never to trust Nichols again. \"There's ample evidence that trusting him will get you killed,\" he said in concluding the sentencing hearing. Jurors told Bodiford on Friday night that they were deadlocked, with nine in favor of death and three in favor of life without parole. Under Georgia law, the jurors must reach a unanimous decision in order to impose a death sentence. In the absence of a unanimous jury verdict, the decision fell in the hands of Bodiford. Defense lawyers said Nichols, who confessed to the killings, suffers from a mental disorder. The jurors unanimously found the necessary aggravating circumstances in the four murders, but they were split over the death penalty. After nine weeks of testimony, the jury found Nichols guilty of 54 counts, which included the four murders plus numerous aggravated assaults, carjackings and kidnappings. The shootings began in the Fulton County Courthouse, where Nichols was set to stand trial for rape. He overpowered a sheriff's deputy and took her gun before proceeding to the courtroom of Judge Rowland Barnes, killing him and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau. Sgt. Hoyt Teasley chased Nichols to outside the courthouse, where Nichols fatally shot him. Nichols killed off-duty U.S. Customs Agent David Wilhelm as he worked on a house in Buckhead the next day. He was captured later that day after a standoff with police in the apartment of a woman he had taken hostage in Gwinnett County. The case drew nationwide attention, in part because of the cost of Nichols' representation: about $2 million at last accounting. Nichols had attempted to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but the Fulton County District Attorney's Office would not take the death penalty off the table.","highlights":"Judge: \"I'm giving you the maximum -- every day I could give you\"\nBrian Nichols was convicted of killing four people in 2005 shooting rampage .\nNichols: \"I know that the things that I've done caused a lot of pain, and I am sorry\"\nJury split 9-3 in favor of death, but decision must be unanimous .","id":"9d1db54d42c818fedea9acbb83fd180b6b44b800"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian star Kaka has rejected a world record transfer move to Premier League Manchester City and decided to stay with AC Milan. Kaka opted to stay with AC Milan despite the riches on offer. The 2007 world player of the year was set to earn $750,000 per week with City, who were reported to be willing to pay a staggering $147 million to acquire his services. The devoutly religious Kaka explained his reasons on the club's television station. \"I believe I have made the right choice. \"To have gone to Manchester City could have been a great project but in the past few days I have prayed a lot to understand what the right team would be and in the end I have decided to remain here. \"I don't want anything else, I just want to be well and be happy in the place where people love me.\" Italian prime minister and Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi originally broke the news that the devoted fans of the Rossoneri wanted to hear. Interviewed on Italian TV's Sky Italia late on Monday night, Berlusconi confirmed that Milan had offered Kaka the chance to \"make himself a fortune, but said he has \"higher values.\" Berlusconi continued: \"He is staying with us, there are things which are more important than money: we are happy. \"When I heard he would prefer to stay, that he didn't think he would be missing a great opportunity and he prefers the values of our flag, the values of closeness and friendship, the warmth and the affection that all the fans have shown him in these days, I said 'hooray' and we hugged. Kaka is staying at Milan.\" Fans of former European champions Milan had staged a series of protests since City's audacious move for Kaka became public late last week. They intensified after Kaka played in the 1-0 home win over Fiorentina which improved Milan's Serie A title chances as arch-rivals and league leaders Inter Milan slipped up. Have your say: Should Kaka have stayed at AC Milan or taken the money? City, who are being backed by Sheikh Mansour's Abu-Dhabi investment group, finally admitted defeat in a statement on their club Web site www.mfc.co.uk from executive chairman Gary Cook: . \"Whilst Manchester City Football Club has an obvious interest in world-class players of the quality of Kaka, we owe it to our fans that such a transfer must work on every level; commercially, financially, in terms of results on the field and within Manchester City's broader community.\" Cook and a City delegation returned to Manchester without ever managing to meet 26-year-old Kaka face to face, dealing instead with Milan officials and his father Bosco Leite. Manager Mark Hughes, who completed the signing of striker Craig Bellamy from West Ham on Monday, will also be hoping to finalize a deal to acquire midfielder Nigel De Jong from Hamburg as he strengthens his squad in the January transfer window. City, who are struggling in 11th in the Premier League and out of the FA Cup, signed Kaka's Brazilian international teammate Robinho from Real Madrid shortly after their new Abu Dhabi owners took over last summer. Robinho has proved an immediate success with 12 goals, but City are aware of the need to attract more world class players to their ranks, hence the ulitmately fruitless attempt to sign Kaka. In a separate development, Robinho moved quickly to deny reports that he had stormed out of City's training camp in Tenerife because they had failed to sign his friend Kaka. \"I had made Manchester City aware that I needed to return to Brazil because of a family matter,\" he told BBC Sport. \"I will return to the club and hope to sort this out as soon as possible.\" He added: \"I feel it is important to underline that I did not return to Brazil because of the Kaka deal. \"He is one of my good friends and it would have been great to see him at Manchester City -- but it had nothing to do with his decision to stay in Milan. \"I am committed to helping Manchester City become the force the owners assured me they will become.\"","highlights":"AC Milan's Kaka turns down big-money transfer to Manchester City .\nBrazilian star Kaka was reportedly set to earn $750,000 per week at City .\nMilan owner Silvio Berlusconi said Kaka had \"higher values\" than money .\nRobinho denies reports he left City training camp after a row over Kaka .","id":"6bc757c6a12320a41b45d13bc4d540461814c2ae"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Qatari man held for years in military custody in the United States was charged Friday in federal court with conspiracy \"to provide material support and resources\" to al Qaeda, prosecutors announced. Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was a student at Bradley University in Illinois when he was arrested in 2001. The Supreme Court was to hear arguments in April on a challenge by the suspect, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, to the principle that the president has the authority to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely and without charges. The Justice Department on Friday asked the high court to dismiss that pending appeal. \"Because the military detention challenged by the petitioner has ended, no live controversy remains in this case,\" said Obama administration lawyers in their brief. Al-Marri's lawyers oppose such a move, saying the fundamental constitutional question of military detentions needs to be answered. The federal indictment means the case will be transferred to civilian courts for prosecution. Andy Savage, one of al-Marri's lawyers, visited him at the naval brig in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday to show him the indictment charging him with terrorism. \"He denies it,\" Savage said. \"I'm sure he'll enter a not guilty plea.\" Savage said he was disappointed in the information contained in what he called a brief indictment. \"We'd like information about what he's supposed to have done,\" he said. \"You'd think after 7\u00bd years they'd have a little more to say. \"The most important thing to him is he now has some definition of his future. Before, he didn't know if he'd be charged, be repatriated or held forever.\" The decision by the Obama administration to criminally charge al-Marri after he spent seven years in custody -- more than five years in South Carolina -- is the latest twist in the ongoing legal saga of the only remaining \"enemy combatant\" held in the United States. He had been accused of being an al Qaeda sleeper agent, but until this indictment he had never been charged with a criminal or terrorism-related offense. He will be transferred at some point to Peoria, Illinois, to face a criminal trial. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled April 27. A Justice Department official said the White House will release an official presidential order to transfer al-Marri into civilian custody. Al-Marri's lawyer applauded the move. \"This indictment is an important step toward restoring the rule of law and is exactly what should happen when the government suspects an individual of terrorist acts. This case is now finally where it belongs: in a legitimate court that can fairly determine whether Mr. al-Marri is guilty of a crime,\" said Jonathan Hafetz, an ACLU attorney who is representing him in the pending high court appeal. President Obama last month ordered a prompt and thorough review of the \"factual and legal basis\" for the continued detention of al-Marri. Obama late Friday issued a presidential memorandum ordering Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to facilitate al-Marri's transfer, calling it \"in the interest of the United States.\" Since his initial arrest on credit card fraud charges in December 2001, al-Marri, a 43-year-old legal resident of the United States, has remained in \"virtual isolation in the brig,\" his attorneys said. They were suing the government to improve his jail conditions and are challenging the constitutionality of his detention. They said his cell at the brig in South Carolina is only 9 feet by 6 feet and he is allowed little contact with the outside world, including his family. Military officials deny mistreatment. The case posed a sticky legal dilemma for the high court and the current and previous administrations. President George W. Bush ordered al-Marri confined in military custody, and the Bush Justice Department had been filing the appeals opposing al-Marri's legal claims. At issue was whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by Congress after the September 11, 2001, attacks, gave the president the power to order the indefinite military detention of an accused terrorist seized on domestic soil. Al-Marri arrived in the United States the day before the 2001 terrorist attacks as a computer science graduate student at Bradley University in Peoria. He had earned an undergraduate degree there a decade earlier. Weeks later, he was arrested after authorities found hundreds of credit card numbers belonging to others in his home. At an early court hearing, a prosecutor said al-Marri was believed to be an associate of al Qaeda, the Islamic terrorist group responsible for the 9\/11 attacks. The case against al-Marri escalated when investigators further examined his computer and interrogated al Qaeda detainees, the government said. Although al-Marri was not charged with terrorism-related offenses, Bush in June 2003 issued a formal declaration naming him an \"enemy combatant\" and transferring him to military custody. That move sent him out of the normal criminal justice system into indefinite military detention. The declaration alleges al-Marri engaged in \"hostile and warlike acts\" working as an \"al Qaeda sleeper agent\" who was planning to \"hack into the computer systems of U.S banks,\" for a possible follow-up to the 9\/11 attacks. The Pentagon said he had trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan, met al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and \"volunteered for a martyr mission,\" according to the government's filing with the high court. A lawyer for Jose Padilla, an American citizen detained as an enemy combatant, said the government's actions in the al-Marri case echo those in Padilla's, in which he says criminal charges were filed shortly before the case was to go to the Supreme Court. \"This is deja vu all over again -- what the Bush administration did with Padilla, the Obama administration is trying to do with al-Marri,\" he said. \"Transferring al-Marri out of the brig is the right thing to do. Moving to dismiss the case is not.\" The case is U.S. v. al-Marri (09-CR-10030). CNN's Carol Cratty and Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri charged with conspiracy to provide support to al Qaeda .\nThe native of Qatar will be prosecuted in civilian courts .\nHe was arrested weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks .\nFormer President Bush declared him an \"enemy combatant\" in 2003 .","id":"b0036f56a07b266a1759bf500f52376eb606f696"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Author John Updike, regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific writers in modern American letters, died Tuesday, his publicist said. He was 76. John Updike won many literary awards. His books, such as \"The Witches of Eastwick,\" were also best-sellers. Updike passed away Tuesday morning after battling lung cancer. He lived in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. \"He was one of our greatest writers, and he will be sorely missed,\" said Nicholas Latimer, vice president of publicity at Updike's publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. Updike was a rarity among American writers: a much-esteemed, prize-winning author whose books -- including \"Rabbit, Run\" (1960), \"Couples\" (1968), \"The Witches of Eastwick\" (1984) and \"Terrorist\" (2006) -- were also best-sellers. Updike won the Pulitzer Prize twice: for \"Rabbit Is Rich\" (1981) and its successor, \"Rabbit at Rest\" (1991). iReport: Share your tributes to John Updike . The \"Rabbit\" series, about an angst-ridden car dealer in a town much like Updike's hometown of Shillington, Pennsylvania, spanned four novels, a novella and four decades. In the books -- which also included 1971's \"Rabbit Redux\" and a 2001 novella, \"Rabbit Remembered\" -- onetime basketball star Harry \"Rabbit\" Angstrom negotiates marriage, divorce, wealth and health problems, never quite understanding the larger forces shaping his life. \"Rabbit is not a character calculated to inspire affection, but he is an unflinchingly authentic specimen of American manhood, and his boorishness makes his rare moments of vulnerability and empathy that much more heartbreaking,\" wrote Time's Lev Grossman in naming \"Rabbit, Run\" to Time's \"All-Time 100 Novels\" list. Updike was incredibly prolific, penning essays, reviews, short stories, poetry and memoirs. His works frequently appeared in The New Yorker, including a famed 1960 essay about Ted Williams' final game, \"Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.\" \"No writer was more important to the soul of The New Yorker than John,\" said David Remnick, the editor of the magazine, in a statement. \"Even though his literary career transcended any magazine -- he was obviously among the very best writers in the world -- he still loved writing for this weekly magazine, loved being part of an enterprise that he joined when he was so young. \"We adored him,\" Remnick continued. \"He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him.\" The magazine said that Updike had written 862 pieces for it over the years, including 327 book reviews, 170 short stories and 154 poems. He was well-regarded in his adopted home state of Massachusetts. \"John Updike's place among America's literary greats is forever secure, as is his special place in every Red Sox fan's heart for his magnificent 'Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,' \" Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement. \"We honor his memory and his contributions, and Massachusetts today bids him a sad and wistful adieu of our own.\" Updike never won a Nobel Prize, but one of his characters, Henry Bech, received one in \"Bech at Bay\" (1998). His works, particularly given their sexual content, could be as divisive as they were poetic. Many critics accused him of misogyny, and others accused him of using his graceful prose to cover thin subject matter -- and Updike put out his prose by the ream. \"It seems to be easier for John Updike to stifle a yawn than to refrain from writing a book,\" the literary critic James Wood wrote in the London Review of Books in 2001. But his frank discussion of sex also garnered him many readers, the cover of Time magazine (for 1968's \"Couples\") and a lifetime achievement Bad Sex in Writing award from Great Britain's Literary Review. He was criticized by Norman Mailer, hailed by fellow author (and Updike obsessive) Nicholson Baker in \"U and I\" and even appeared as an animated version of himself on a \"Simpsons\" episode as the ghostwriter of a Krusty the Klown book. \"[I] was flattered to be asked to be one of the many voices that they worked into the endless saga of Springfield,\" Updike said, noting that the hardest part of his performance was \"producing a chuckle.\" John Hoyer Updike was born March 18, 1932, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Shillington. From an early age he took to reading and writing, and earned a full scholarship to Harvard, where he headed the Harvard Lampoon. Upon graduation, he accepted a one-year fellowship to Oxford University in England. By the time he was 23, he had been offered a position at The New Yorker, which was to become his literary home over the next 50-plus years. Updike's first novel, \"The Poorhouse Fair,\" came out in 1959. The next year, in \"Rabbit, Run,\" he introduced Angstrom, who was to become one of the most famous characters in American fiction. When introduced, Rabbit is a man fleeing his pregnant wife, the songs on the car radio reflecting both the era and his life. Over the course of the \"Rabbit\" books, the character would routinely infuriate his spouse, mistresses and offspring, try to make things right, and never quite succeed. His attitude didn't help. \"Men are all heart and women are all body. I don't know who has the brains. God maybe,\" the character said in \"Rabbit, Run.\" \"Rabbit, Run\" was successful, as were Updike's other '60s books, including \"The Centaur\" (1963), which featured a teacher much like Updike's father, and the short story collection \"The Music School\" (1966). But it was \"Couples\" that made Updike a household name. The book, about a group of spouses engaging in the sexual revolution in suburban Massachusetts, became a No. 1 best-seller. Updike's interests ranged widely. He wrote about an African state in \"The Coup\" (1978). He discussed the relationship between science and religion in \"Roger's Version\" (1986). He revisited \"Hamlet\" in \"Gertrude and Claudius\" (2000). And he created a group of promiscuous witches in \"The Witches of Eastwick\" (1984), which became a hit movie in 1987 starring Jack Nicholson as the devil. Though Updike's work routinely sold well, he was painfully aware of the decline of what's come to be called \"literary fiction.\" In a 2000 interview with Salon, he lamented its difficulties. \"When I was a boy, the best-selling books were often the books that were on your piano teacher's shelf. I mean, Steinbeck, Hemingway, some Faulkner. Faulkner actually had, considering how hard he is to read and how drastic the experiments are, quite a middle-class readership,\" he said. \"But certainly someone like Steinbeck was a best-seller as well as a Nobel Prize-winning author of high intent. You don't feel that now.\" And yet, Updike himself never lost his zest for the written word, and the pleasure brought by jotting, tuning, refining -- creating -- a new story, even as the years drifted by. \"An aging writer has the not insignificant satisfaction of a shelf of books behind him that, as they wait for their ideal readers to discover them, will outlast him for a while,\" he wrote in AARP The Magazine late last year. \"The pleasures, for him, of book-making ... remain, and retain creation's giddy bliss. Among those diminishing neurons there lurks the irrational hope that the last book might be the best.\" Updike's most recent novel, \"The Widows of Eastwick,\" came out in 2008. A collection of stories, \"My Father's Tears and Other Stories,\" is due out later this year.","highlights":"John Updike, author of \"Rabbit\" books and \"The Witches of Eastwick,\" dies .\nUpdike, 76, had been suffering from lung cancer .\nPulitzer Prize winner was titan of American letters .","id":"e19aa8bcd13b10380ae048655d101be0d1705424"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The space shuttle Discovery is on pace for a Sunday launch after NASA engineers repaired a leaky gas venting system, officials said Saturday. Space shuttle Discovery readies for launch, which now appears on pace for Sunday. The leak had canceled a planned launch on Wednesday. NASA hopes the seven-member crew can take off around 7:40 p.m. Sunday on a mission to the international space station, where they will deliver supplies needed to expand the station's crew to six people. \"The vehicle is looking real good ... ,\" lead shuttle flight director Mike Moses said. \"Basically, I think I can sum this up by just saying we're good to go tomorrow and we're looking forward to getting the count going.\" A leak in a hydrogen gas vent line forced Wednesday's delay. Repairs went smoothly, Moses said. The line funnels flammable hydrogen away from the launch pad during takeoff. The shuttle crew will be delivering the final parts needed for an expanded solar energy power system that will allow the station to double its crew to six people. The crew also will be dropping off Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will replace NASA's Sandy Magnus on the space station. The shuttle also will carry a replacement for a failed unit in a system that converts urine to drinkable water, NASA said. Watch an explanation of why Wednesday's launch was scrubbed \u00bb . Kathy Winters, the mission's chief weather officer, said Sunday appears to offer only a 20 percent chance of weather that would scrub the launch. The crew, led by commander Lee Archambault, is expected to board Discovery at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Officials said the crew has been training and resting for the mission since Wednesday. Earlier this week, Magnus, station commander Michael Fincke and Russian engineer Yury Lonchakov had to take shelter in their Soyuz spacecraft -- a lifeboat of sorts -- when a piece of debris from an earlier mission hurtled uncomfortably close to the station. The debris, moving about 20,000 mph, came within three miles of the station but caused no damage. Wednesday's launch postponement was the latest in a series of delays for Discovery as it tries to make the 28th shuttle mission to the space station. The launch had been delayed previously to allow time to check a \"flow-control valve in the shuttle's main engines,\" NASA said last week. That resulted from damage being found in a valve on the shuttle Endeavour during its November 2008 flight. Three valves were cleared and installed on Discovery, it said. CNN's Kim Segal and John Zarella contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Repairs to leaky hydrogen gas vent line went well, NASA says .\nNASA hopes launch, scrubbed this week, will happen Sunday evening .\nShuttle launch postponed Wednesday because of leak in a venting system .\nShuttle to deliver supplies to the International Space Station .","id":"f8a7691c1ef0d0ab9a4520c6f037ae5944f013b1"} -{"article":"(RealSimple.com) -- Overwashing, overapplying, and product overkill won't improve your skin. Rein in your regimen to get real results. Want beautiful skin like model Megan Gale? Don't overdo it, experts say. Cleansing and exfoliating . You don't need to wash or scrub as often -- or as vigorously -- as you may think. \"Many women go overboard here, figuring it will make their skin look better if they do both more frequently,\" says dermatologist Leslie Baumann. \"But that only damages the skin's natural barrier and creates dryness and irritation.\" Combination skin . How often: Wash your face twice a day, and gently exfoliate once or twice a week; this is enough to keep skin balanced and encourage cell turnover, according to experts. What to look for: A mild cleanser that isn't too rich or too drying, says Mary Lupo, a dermatologist in New Orleans, Louisiana. Use an exfoliant that contains gentle particles or acids to remove dead cells without abrading your skin. Where to find it: Cleanser -- Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash, $6 at drugstores. Exfoliant -- St. Ives Elements Microdermabrasion Scrub, $7 at drugstores. Dry skin . How often: Cleanse skin at night, when it's dirtiest. Rinse with cool water in the morning to help maintain natural oils. If skin is flaky, exfoliate once a week, says Lisa Donofrio, a professor of dermatology at Yale University. What to look for: A cleansing oil or creamy wash that has moisturizing ingredients, such as glycerin. If you have sensitive skin to boot, avoid products that contain fragrances or alcohol, which can irritate. Where to find it: Cleanser -- Laura Mercier Purifying Oil, $40, www.sephora.com; or CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, $11.50 at drugstores. Exfoliant -- Your safest bet is to use a wet washcloth. Oily\/acne-prone skin . How often: Lather up two to three times a day (as needed) but never more; overwashing kicks oil glands into overproduction. Exfoliate once or twice a week, but skip this if you have acne; the friction can make it worse. What to look for: An oil-free, non-comedogenic foaming cleanser that contains salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide to prevent breakouts. The scrub should contain mild acids to keep the pores open and clean. Where to find it: Cleanser -- Aveeno Clear Complexion Foaming Cleanser, $7 at drugstores. Exfoliant -- Bior\u00e9 Pore Unclogging Scrub, $6 at drugstores. Sensitive skin . How often: Wash once a day if your skin is irritated by nearly everything or if you have eczema or psoriasis; twice a day if your skin is dirty. Forget about exfoliating, as it's too abrasive for your skin type. What to look for: Hypoallergenic and fragrance- and soap-free cleansers. Calming ingredients, like green tea, chamomile, feverfew, and aloe, are a bonus. As a general rule, the fewer ingredients in a product, the better. Where to find it: Cleanser -- La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermo-Cleanser ($19.50, www.laroche-posay.com). Apply with your fingers. \"Think of the way you'd touch a newborn,\" says Barbara Reed, a Denver, Colorado, dermatologist. Portion control . \u2022 Use a quarter-size amount of cleanser on most skin types. \u2022 A dime-size dollop of scrub will do. \u2022 A pea-size dab of cleanser is plenty for sensitive skin. Real Simple: Best facial cleansers . Moisturizing and protecting . No matter what your skin type, moisture is important. \"If your skin isn't hydrated, it can't protect itself from the free radicals that cause damage, discoloration, and wrinkles,\" says dermatologist Leslie Baumann. Year-round daily sun protection is also a must. Fortunately there are moisturizers with SPF available for every complexion. Combination skin . How often: Each morning, apply moisturizer with SPF after cleansing your skin. Reapply if you're spending more than 30 minutes outside, as sun-screens break down in sunlight over time. What to look for: A medium-weight lotion with skin-protective antioxidants, such as green tea, coenzyme Q10, and vitamin C, and broad-spectrum sun protection with an SPF of 15 or higher. Where to find it: L'Or\u00e9al Paris Revitalift UV Daily Moisturizing Cream with Mexoryl SX SPF 15, $22 at drugstores; or Clinique Super-defense SPF 25 Age Defense Moisturizer Dry Combination, $43, www.clinique.com. Dry skin . How often: To help seal in water, apply moisturizer with SPF once a day, right after cleansing, while your skin is still damp. Reapply at midday if your skin begins to feel tight, and use a cream at night. What to look for: A rich cream that contains antioxidants, plus hyaluronic acid, glycerin, or ceramides. \"Hyaluronic acid and glycerin bind in moisture, and ceramides prevent water loss from the skin,\" says Donofrio. Where to find it: Dove Pro Age Day Moisturizer SPF 15, $14 at drugstores; or Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer SPF 15, $10.50 at drugstores. Oily\/acne-prone skin . How often: Moisturize every morning. Oily skin needs the right type of moisture and lightweight, non-comedogenic sun protection. Reapply as needed, since blotting away shine can remove sunscreen. What to look for: An oil-free, featherweight lotion, serum, or gel with antioxidants. If you're acne-prone, avoid products with cocoa butter, cinnamon, or coconut oil, as they can trigger breakouts, says Baumann. Where to find it: DDF Ultra-Lite Oil-Free Moisturizing Dew SPF 15, $38, www.ddfskincare.com; or Clean & Clear Soft Oil-Free Day Moisturizer SPF 15, $8.50 at drugstores. Sensitive skin . How often: In the morning, apply moisturizer to skin that has been dabbed dry. Ingredients penetrate wet skin more deeply, which is often a good thing, but this can irritate sensitive skin. What to look for: Fragrance-free lotions or creams that contain anti-inflammatories, such as chamomile, green tea, feverfew, and caffeine. Avoid lipoic acid, as it can be irritating. Where to find it: Eucerin Redness Relief Soothing Moisture Lotion SPF 15, $14 at drugstores; or Dermalogica Super Sensitive Faceblock SPF 30, $45, www.dermalogica.com for locations. Portion control . Use a nickel-to quarter-size amount of moisturizer with SPF for face coverage. Real Simple: Seventeen affordable moisturizers . Treating and troubleshooting . Nighttime is best for targeting fine lines, blemishes, and discoloration. That's when the skin repairs itself, and the sun isn't around to degrade the active ingredients in the treatments. Careful and consistent use of effective products (most also provide moisture) will gradually yield great results. Combination skin . To keep it smooth: Four nights a week, use a cream with retinol, a potent, tried-and-true wrinkle reducer. Try: Philosophy Help Me Retinol Night Treatment, $45, www.philosophy.com. To clear it up: Use a 5 percent benzoyl peroxide or 2 percent salicylic acid gel nightly. Try: B. Kamins Medicated Acne Gel 5, $26, www.bkamins.com; or Neutrogena Rapid Clear Acne Eliminating Gel, $8 at drugstores. To even tone: Retinol evens tone, but for darker spots, at night use a formula that also has skin-lightening licorice, kojic acid, soy, or vitamin C. Try: RoC Multi-Correxion Night Treatment, $25 at drugstores. Dry skin . To keep it smooth: As dry skin can be sensitive, apply gentle retinols every other night with a moisturizer. Try: Av\u00e8ne R\u00e9trinal Cream .05, $56, www.skincarerx.com. Other nights, just moisturize. To clear it up: Heal blemishes using a moisturizing 2 percent salicylic acid treatment or a sulfur-based salve once or twice a week. Try: AcneWorx Gentle Moisturizing Clear Acne Treatment Gel, $20, www.amazon.com. To even tone: Slather on a rich cream that contains skin-brightening ingredients, like coffeeberry extract, each night. Try: Reval\u00e9Skin Night Cream, $99, www.skincarerx.com. Oily\/acne-prone skin . To keep it smooth: Nightly use of a retinol gel or serum softens fine lines (skip it on nights you treat blemishes, as below). Try: Replenix Retinol Plus Smoothing Serum 3X, $56, www.skincarerx.com. To clear it up: Oily skin can take a 5 or 10 percent benzoyl peroxide gel twice a day, says Sonia Badreshia-Bansal, a dermatologist in Danville, California. Try: Clean & Clear Persa-Gel 10, $5 at drugstores. To even tone: Each night smooth a thin layer of a lightweight vitamin C serum over your face to gradually lighten any discoloration. Try: Avon Anew Alternative Clearly C 10% Vitamin C Serum, $20, www.avon.com. Sensitive skin . To keep it smooth: Every third night, apply a mild retinol (see dry skin). Or use peptides nightly on lines. Try: Olay Regenerist Night Recovery Moisturizing Treatment, $18 at drugstores. To clear it up: Treat blemishes with a 2 percent salicylic acid treatment and follow with moisturizer. Try: Exuviance Blemish Treatment Gel, $16, www.exuviance.com. Avoid benzoyl peroxide, which can be irritating. To even tone: Consider a nightly application of a lotion with a gentle lightener, like a niacin derivative or vitamin C. Try: NIA 24 Intensive Recovery Complex, $110, www.skincarerx.com. Portion control . \u2022 A pea-size amount of a retinol cream is adequate. \u2022 A dime-size dollop of a skin brightener or moisturizer will do the trick. \u2022 A sunflower seed--size dot of an acne salve is all your spots require. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Overwashing, overapplying and product overkill won't improve your skin .\nWhich of these regimens should you be using for your type of skin?\nDry skin types should apply moisturizer with SPF once a day .\nSensitive skin should only apply a mild retinol every third night to fight aging .","id":"ace8153406b2442cc5da8e60031921f2b16380ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first person ever convicted in Idaho of knowingly spreading the HIV virus is facing new charges for the same offense, authorities said Thursday. An Ada County, Idaho, grand jury on Tuesday returned an indictment charging Kerry Thomas, 45, with seven counts of knowingly transferring the HIV virus, Jean Fisher, Ada County deputy prosecutor, told CNN. In 1990, Thomas was charged with four counts of HIV transmission and two counts of statutory rape, Fisher said. As part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty only to the rape charges. According to Fisher, Thomas received a 12-year sentence and had to serve three years before being eligible for parole. He was later granted early release. In 1996, however, Thomas was again charged with one count of HIV transmission, and a jury convicted him, Fisher said. He received a 15-year sentence with a seven-year minimum. Now out on parole, Thomas faces possible life in prison on the new charges because prosecutors are seeking his designation as a \"persistent violator.\" It was not immediately known whether Thomas was in custody Thursday. He was not listed online among the inmates in the Ada County Jail. Asked why Thomas would continue to spread the virus, which causes AIDS, Fisher said, \"That's the $64,000 question, for a person who has been to prison twice.\"","highlights":"Kerry Thomas was indicted for second time for knowingly transferring HIV virus .\nIn 1990, Thomas was charged with four counts of HIV transmission .\nIf convicted, Thomas could face life in prison .","id":"07b7896df4416a8b90a702513a6a2a0e1715f570"} -{"article":"NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A singer took center stage at a Nashville honky-tonk to promote his new album. He had the good looks and easy charm of a movie star. Kevin Costner is putting his energies into music. His new record is \"Untold Truths.\" Only in this case, he was a movie star. Kevin Costner recently celebrated the release of \"Untold Truths\" -- his debut country record -- with a free show at The Stage on Broadway. He was backed by his band, Modern West, which also features guitarist John Coinman and bassist Blair Forward -- two men he met 20 years ago in an acting class. The three have been making music on and off since then, with Costner on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. Back in the day, they called themselves Roving Boy. Truth be told, the 2008 incarnation -- Kevin Costner and Modern West -- does not sound like a movie star's vanity project. It's contemporary Americana set against a Western backdrop. Costner sings about freight trains, dusty avenues and broken dreams in a voice that's pleasant, if not terribly distinct. In faded jeans and a toffee-colored cashmere sweater, he commands the stage with the same understated sex appeal he has on the big screen. At 53, Costner is the soft-spoken, heroic everyman we've seen time and again in such movies as \"Dances With Wolves,\" \"The Bodyguard\" and \"Field of Dreams\" -- except today he's wielding an acoustic guitar instead of a baseball bat. The mission statement from \"Field of Dreams\" seems to apply to his philosophy as a recording artist: \"If you build it, they will come.\" Plenty of fans did come to his show that night, but earlier in the day, we caught up with the busy superstar during his rehearsal -- which he had opened up to a group of local college students in a Grammy-sponsored \"SoundCheck\" session. Listen to Costner kick it with his band \u00bb . CNN: Even though your album, \"Untold Truths,\" is being marketed as a country album, your sound is really more rootsy than traditional country. Kevin Costner: Yeah. It's just music. CNN: What made you decide to put out an album? Costner: My wife said, \"Look, you are the happiest by far when you are making music. Why don't you keep on making music?\" CNN: People may not know this, but you've been making music for a long time. Costner: Yeah, for a long time. I have been doing a lot of things for a long time. (chuckles) It's not like we called up and said, \"Hey, we have a garage band. Can we show up?\" We have been working really hard at this for three years. All of it has been under the radar just because we have not felt like publicizing it. It has kind of happened in the way we wanted it to -- which was more of a grassroots situation, people discovering the band. CNN: When you were talking to the students, you spoke a lot about being fearless. Costner: Their choices are going to be questioned not only by their colleagues, but by their parents. You only get one shot at this life. They can go to college and learn a lot of things, but they should also be encouraged to try things, even if they don't succeed. I am trying -- even if I don't succeed. You know, failure is completely underrated in America. (smiles) CNN: With this new project, there's the possibility of having your head handed to you on a platter. Costner: Well, that will happen no matter what I do -- so I'm not worried about that. I have to get over my own bar on what I think is acceptable. CNN: And what is that? Costner: I don't know. It's just a moment when you feel you've given an honest effort. CNN: You have trouble stuffing everything you want into a three-hour movie, let alone condensing things into a three-minute song. How do you -- . Costner: I don't have that hard a time! CNN: Oh, come on! Costner: I make jokes about it a lot. You know, I make one-hour, 59-minute movies! But yeah -- telling the story, I don't believe in some conditional running length. I just believe in telling the story -- musicially or cinematically. CNN: You met John -- one of your guitar players -- in an acting class 20 years ago. Costner: Yeah, a long time ago. Blair (his bass player), the same. Like anybody with good sense, you keep people who have been really true and honest with you around you. CNN: Which is more cutthroat, the movie business or the music business? Costner: There is cutthroat stuff in everything -- these corporations going under, and people ducking for exits, pointing fingers. You know, it is a cycle of life. Then someone else will take that spot, some heavy hitter. Maybe it is good to take a lesson. You have to be a little humble because maybe one day, you are not that big, swinging dog you think you are. CNN: Do you ever feel like that in your own career? Costner: Well, I am aware that a career that takes chances isn't always going to ring a bell. It is not the greatest risk in the world to not be the most popular person, or the number one person, because that is a pretty fleeting thing to begin with. CNN: Do you read reviews? Costner: No. Sometimes they are read to me. \"Look what he said!\" I am like, \"Please don't show me.\" CNN: Are you planning to make more albums? Costner: I will be making more music. We'll see where it lands. We made a record. We made it as good as we could make it, and now we let it go. And we go and write a better song. CNN: In the meantime, you have a show to put on. Costner: There is a moment for two hours when you are really burning, and that is a great feeling. Some people like to jog because that somehow does something for them. When you perform, for me, it's like filling up the gas tank.","highlights":"Kevin Costner has band, Modern West; new album just out .\nCostner has actually played music for years, band happened organically .\nCostner not bothered by reviews, tries to do things because he loves them .","id":"aa013dd069ccc33e7ffb64d9e1c05cfb7b791bcb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South African Giniel De Villiers is the new leader of the Dakar Rally after he won Thursday's 12th special stage and Spaniard Carlos Sainz was forced to pull out following a dramatic crash. The stricken Volkswagen of Carlos Sainz after he careered down a ravine on stage 12 of the Dakar Rally. De Villiers, who was claiming his third stage triumph, brought his Volkswagen across the line in four hours, six minutes and 43 seconds -- over 16 minutes ahead of team-mate Mark Miller, who lies second overall. American Robert Gordon (Hummer) was third on the stage, the same as his overall position. The route from Fiambala to La Rioja was reduced by 30 kilometers, leaving the special stage at 223km, as organizers accepted the Argentinian authorities' request to shorten it because of the archaeological discoveries made a month ago in the Fiambala region of Catamarca province. Two-time world rally champion Sainz, who was leading after six stage victories, had his dream of winning his first Dakar ended when, 79km into the stage, his Volkswagen crashed into a dry riverbed. His co-driver, Frenchman Michel Perin, suffered a shoulder injury and both had to be evacuated by helicopter for medical attention. Perin told PA Sport: \"We had made a small mistake in the first part. We took the wrong direction at a Y crossing but it was not too bad because we did end up on the right trail. We were tailing Giniel De Villiers, who had started about 10 minutes after us, so it was still sort of okay. There was a hidden way-point indicated as 'danger' -- but it should have been indicated as 'extremely dangerous'. \"The car behind us, Nani Roma's car, would have fallen in the same hole as we did if we had not been there already. I'm okay, I just have something broken in my arm, but I'm all right.\" De Villiers said: \"It was really a tough stage. In places we would go around in circles for 15 minutes to find the right trail. It was very dangerous and the sand was really soft. \"We stopped one time to deflate our tyres, then a second time in a huge canyon with tons of boulders. My co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz had to get out of the car to find a way out. It was really a tough day.\" Miller added: \"I can tell you that this was a very demanding stage. I cannot even imagine how the amateurs will make it to the finish today. It was not just difficult, navigation was almost impossible. \"It was a long series of horror situations from start to finish. \"These were the longest 200km in my life. The sun and the sand were so bright that I could not see anything.\" He added: \"It's not good news to know that Carlos had to withdraw. He has an important place in the team.\" In the motorcycle class, title holder Cyril Despres (KTM) kept his hopes of winning his third crown alive after taking his third stage in a time of 3:57:37 to climb into second spot in the overall standings. However, Despres' Spanish team-mate Marc Coma did not make things easy for the Frenchman as he crossed the line 1:23 behind, to remain out in front with a 1:29:48 advantage. The 12th stage has been the most difficult since the rally began on January 3 in Buenos Aires, with competitiors struggling through sand dunes and rain in western Argentina. Sainz had held a commanding lead in the overall standings at the start of the day, having won six of 10 previous stages.","highlights":"Dakar leader Carlos Sainz crashes out of rally during Thursday's 12th stage .\nThe Spaniard's Volkswagen careers into a ravine 79 kilometers into the stage .\nSainz's retirement hands the race advantage to South African Giniel De Villiers .","id":"9b6783ce3532879da528cc281770eb17cce0de14"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Two hundred years after his birth in a log cabin in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln continues to fascinate. Abraham Lincoln is invoked by politicians of both parties, observes historian Ronald C. White Jr. His moral clarity, his extraordinary gifts with language, his decisive role in preserving the Union and what some consider his ultimate martyrdom combine to make of Lincoln a mythic figure with a firm hold on our collective imagination. In conjunction with the bicentennial of his birth, a slew of new books on the 16th U.S. president have appeared. Among the best-reviewed is the biography \"A. Lincoln\" (Random House) by historian Ronald C. White Jr., who drew on new research for his portrait. CNN talked with White about Lincoln's impact on the country, President Obama's affinity for him and what lessons Lincoln has to offer Americans of today. The following is an edited version of White's comments: . CNN: Thousands of books have been published about Lincoln. Why did you decide to write a new biography? Ronald C. White Jr.: Probably surprising to many is how many new discoveries have been made about Lincoln just in the last 15 to 20 years. For example, about 20 years ago, a professor in Illinois wondered if there were still Lincoln legal papers laying around in the almost 100 courthouses in Illinois. So he got together a group of students, and they began searching those courthouses, and they found [thousands] of Lincoln legal documents. ... I wanted to treat more of that part of Lincoln's life -- he spent nearly 24 years as a lawyer. This is just an example of what we have discovered only in recent years. See iReporters don stovepipe hats like Lincoln . CNN: More than 100 years after his death, why does Lincoln still fascinate us? White: I think for many he embodies the best of America. The fact that a man of such humble origins, with less than one year of formal education, could, in his term, have the \"right to rise.\" He felt that America was a land where we should not put any shackles or weights upon people. One reason he hated slavery so much was that it puts weights upon people. ... I'm going to be speaking in Italy and Germany in April, and people there are fascinated with Lincoln for the same reason. Now, to be sure, Obama has shone a large spotlight on Abraham Lincoln. I think this is somewhat responsible for rediscovering this man at the beginning of the Lincoln bicentennial in the year 2009. CNN: Why do you think Barack Obama has made such a point of aligning himself with Lincoln? White: It's become commonplace for politicians of both parties to invoke Lincoln -- literally wrap themselves in the mantle of Lincoln -- especially at political conventions. But when I read \"The Audacity of Hope\" it came through to me that this is something quite genuine. As Obama is seeking to define his own vocation as a politician, he found in Lincoln -- Lincoln's inclusive spirit, Lincoln's humble demeanor, Lincoln's great gift with words -- he found here some of the very values that he wished to inculcate into his own life. ... I think he picked up on the symbolism of Lincoln, using the very same ceremonial Bible [for his swearing-in], picking as his theme a \"new birth of freedom,\" re-enacting the final 137 miles of the train ride [Lincoln took to Washington for his first inaugural]. It's fascinating that here this African-American politician is finding a model and a mentor, and I think it is the values that Lincoln represents that Obama is finding. CNN: Some people have noted temperamental similarities between Lincoln and Obama. Is there any justification for that comparison? White: I think there is. Obama comes across as a person of kind of calm, reassuring demeanor. He is a person who likes to circle around questions and problems. He was as interested, as I've come to understand, when he taught law in Chicago, in asking questions as in coming up with answers. This is exactly the way Lincoln approached reality. They both have a real sense for oratory, how less is more; they have a compelling way of speaking. ... To be sure there are real differences. [Obama] had an education far beyond Lincoln's. It's yet to be determined how Obama will emulate Lincoln. I would argue that Lincoln had to teach himself to be president. He was very aware of his inadequacies, certainly in administration and military policy. And I think with all the fanfare for Obama I think he understands that he has to teach himself how to be president, too. iReport.com: Send your rendition of Lincoln's second inaugural speech . CNN: [Historian] Henry Louis Gates suggests Lincoln's attitudes on race were not as enlightened as some would like to think. In your book, you say it's important to consider the context in which Lincoln articulated his racial views. White: This is the difficulty ... with understanding the context. Lincoln's racial attitudes ... were left of center and moving in that direction, toward the left. ... Lincoln said in one of his debates with Stephen Douglas, \"It's not that I'm about to marry a black woman, it's not that I think blacks should serve on juries.\" ... He then comes back and says, \"But this black woman, in terms of her right to eat the bread she earns from her own hands is every bit my equal and the equal of every person here because if you're referring to the Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal.\" Even the most radical abolitionist would probably not have granted social equality [between blacks and whites]. CNN: What did you discover about the evolution of Lincoln's religious views? White: His religious odyssey comes to more of a full scope during his presidency. ... We see him re-appropriating elements of the Christian faith -- not his parents' tradition -- but a more rational, logical, thoughtful old-school Presbyterian tradition [after he became president]. This is a story that has not often been told, and I think it's an important part of understanding the moral core of Abraham Lincoln. It wasn't simply that he had an ethic, which he certainly did, but there was a theological kind of undergirding of that ethic that came to the forefront more in his years as president. CNN: Do you feel Lincoln is our greatest president? White: Well, there are a lot of great presidents. ... Certainly the times make the man. Lincoln led us through the greatest crisis of our nation's history -- an internal crisis -- even as Franklin Delano Roosevelt is one of our greatest presidents, who led us through two other great crises -- the Great Depression and World War II. It's hard to compare people of different eras, but I think Lincoln sort of incarnates the best values of the American experience. CNN: What can we all learn from Lincoln? White: If there is an ultimate value in doing a biography of Lincoln, it is that Lincoln offers some wisdom for today. We don't have to be political leaders to catch the values -- his humility, the strength of his character and moral vision, the fact that words fiercely mattered to him and should matter to us. ... He said at the second inaugural, \"With malice toward none, with charity for all.\" I was intrigued to find ... that people wore mourning badges right after his death that said, \"With malice toward none, with charity for all.\" Lincoln didn't just speak these words, he had come to embody these words for the people who knew him and loved him. And so these values are not simply back there in the 19th century. They're values that we can embody and work with in the 21st century.","highlights":"Ronald C. White Jr. is author of new Lincoln biography, \"A. Lincoln\"\nLincoln \"embodies the best of America,\" White says .\nHistorian sees some comparisons with President Obama: demeanor, writing ability .\nLincoln's character, moral vision still pertinent, White says .","id":"c518d078e84f5f33712a92586847fe7bced9fb94"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Friday said she would do the job again -- but only if she could work for her current boss. Dana Perino said goodbye to the White House press corps at her last briefing as White House spokeswoman Friday. \"I wouldn't do it for anybody but President Bush,\" Perino said as she briefed reporters for the last time Friday. \"If given the chance to do it over again, would I? Yes,\" Perino said. \"But would I ever come back and do this? No. ... I think it's good to get off the stage.\" Perino also thanked the White House press corps. \"We all have difficult jobs, we all work long and tough hours, and it's been an exciting challenge,\" said Perino, 36. \"I know I had some big shoes to fill when I got here -- and I still only wear a size six.\" Watch Bush's farewell address \u00bb . And she wished President-elect Barack Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, \"all the very best.\" \"Please go easy on him -- for a week,\" Perino joked with reporters. In the 80-year history of official White House press secretaries, only two women have been named to the job: Dee Dee Myers, who served former President Bill Clinton, and Perino. It's been 15 months since Bush named Perino to succeed Tony Snow, who later died of colon cancer, as White House press secretary. View key moments in the Bush presidency \u00bb . \"It was about two weeks into the job when I realized that I am never going to be like Tony Snow,\" Perino said. Her first goal was to make briefings less heated. She still pushed back, but chose her confrontations carefully. \"If I was testy all the time as a woman in this position, I can only imagine what people would have said about me, so there is a delicate balance, I think, in this position.\" During her time behind the White House podium, Perino sparred almost daily with the media on a number of contentious issues, including the president's decision to \"surge\" troops into Iraq. Perino said there are some things that she would have done differently. \"I'm sure that I'll have lots,\" she said Friday when asked if she had any regrets. \"I'm going to go on a six-week trip with my husband, and I'm sure there will be long-enough flights for me to think about all the things we could have done better. View iconic images from Bush's time in the White House \u00bb . \"Any press secretary always wants to be more proactive, but news happens all over the world,\" Perino said. \"And now with the 24\/7 news cycle, in many ways, sometimes, you feel like you're just trying to keep up with that.\" \"That's not a regret or a disappointment. It's just a fact of life,\" she added. As she begins to look beyond her years in the West Wing, Perino, a native of Wyoming who was raised in Colorado, says she is looking forward to spending more time in her own neighborhood in Washington with her husband, Peter McMahon, and their dog, a Hungarian Vizsla named Henry. Watch Perino prepare for life after the White House \u00bb . She is also looking forward to sleeping in. When asked what she will miss the least from her time in the White House, Perino said, \"Absolutely has to be getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning. \"I don't mind working long hours, I don't mind working hard, but getting up when the four is still on the clock is something I hope I never have to do again unless I'm catching a flight to some exotic location,\" she said. After January 20, Perino does plan to take a vacation -- which she says will include volunteer work for President Bush's HIV\/AIDS relief program in Africa. CNN's Elaine Quijano and Scott J. Anderson contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House spokeswoman Dana Perino gave last news briefing Friday .\nPerino, 36, succeeded Tony Snow, is only second woman to hold post .\nPerino plans six-week vacation, will volunteer with HIV\/AIDS relief program in Africa .","id":"17f2235806a71b190364d40b324a66e7face482b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The often scathing critic Simon Cowell called Susan Boyle -- the breakout singing sensation from \"Britain's Got Talent\" -- a \"little tiger.\" Judge Piers Morgan admits that he expected Susan Boyle's audition to be a joke before she began singing. On CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" she showed she's no one-trick pony. During a taping of the show Friday, she nailed a verse of Celine Dion's \"My Heart Will Go On\" after King asked her to sing. \"Amazing. That was just absolutely stunning,\" said \"Britain's Got Talent\" judge Piers Morgan, who was also a guest. \"To sing that with no musical backing is unbelievable. You have the voice of an angel, Susan.\" The 47-year-old Boyle's frumpy attire and awkward mannerisms drew snickers and eye-rolling from her audience before she belted out a pitch-perfect number from \"Les Miserables\" at an audition for the talent contest, making her an overnight sensation. Watch Boyle sing on Larry King \u00bb . An unemployed charity worker who lives alone with her cat in Scotland, Boyle has inspired millions with a performance that flies in the face of pop music's penchant for pre-processed princesses. A clip of her audition had more than 19 million views on YouTube by Friday evening. Boyle, who did a repeat performance of \"I Dreamed a Dream\" via satellite on CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\" Thursday night, told King she was aware of the snickers her appearance prompted at the audition. \"That doesn't bother me because I knew I had to get on with my act ... ,\" said Boyle, again speaking by satellite. \"I wasn't sure how I would be received, so I just thought I'd give it a whirl.\" Watch Larry King interview Susan Boyle \u00bb . Morgan, too, acknowledged the laughter, including his own. \"I sort of feel like apologizing to Susan,\" he said. \"I'm sorry, because we did not give you anything like the respect we should have done when you first came out.\" He said the judges had been through a long day with \"lots of terrible auditions.\" \"And then you came out and we thought you were going to be a bit of a joke act, to be honest with you,\" he said. \"And then I can remember ... that second when you had begun to sing, and I had never heard a more surprising, extraordinary voice coming out of somebody so unexpected.\" To win the show, which would give her the chance to sing in front of Queen Elizabeth II, Boyle must survive a live semifinal next month and then a final performance if she gets through that. Watch how things have changed in Boyle's hometown \u00bb . \"She's the most odds-on favorite ever on 'Britain's Got Talent' at this stage of the competition,\" Morgan said. \"But Susan knows there are two big hurdles left. Anything can happen in a live show.\" There's already been talk of a recording contract and world tours for Boyle. But she said she's staying focused on the competition for now. She said she has no plans to get a makeover or alter her wardrobe -- \"Why should I? Why should I change?\" -- but did predict one big lifestyle change. \"I won't be lonely,\" she said. \"I certainly won't be lonely anymore.\"","highlights":"Susan Boyle sings Celine Dion's \"My Heart Will Go On\" for Larry King .\nAsked if she's considering a makeover, Boyle says \"Why should I change?\"\n\"Britain's Got Talent\" judge Piers Morgan apologizes for initial reactions .\nBoyle says she predicts one big change: \"I certainly won't be lonely anymore\"","id":"c0148f8eaba969e42b19704fdda68490613a5b14"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Twenty-five years ago, America discovered \"one of England's loudest bands,\" courtesy of documentarian Marty DiBergi and his film, \"This Is Spinal Tap.\" Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer will perform Spinal Tap and Folksmen songs on tour. It was all parody -- DiBergi was director Rob Reiner, and cohorts Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer played the heavy-metal musicians in Spinal Tap -- but for a fictional band, Spinal Tap has had a long afterlife. The film gave birth to several catchphrases, including one -- \"up to 11\" -- that's made it into the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. There are Web sites devoted to the Tap, including at least one, http:\/\/tap-albums.s5.com\/, that offers a complete discography of the fictional band's nonexistent albums. And Guest, McKean and Shearer have never left their spandexed alter egos behind. The band reunited for a 1992 album, \"Break Like the Wind,\" and again for a 2001 tour. For the latter, the opening act was another Guest-McKean-Shearer collaboration, the Folksmen from Guest's film \"A Mighty Wind.\" Now Shearer, McKean and Guest are hitting the road again, but not as Spinal Tap or the Folksmen. They're playing ... themselves. \"We're trying very hard to get across the idea that this is us, and only us,\" says Shearer in a phone interview discussing the trio's \"Unwigged & Unplugged\" 30-date acoustic tour, which kicks off Friday in Vancouver, British Columbia. \"And because we don't often appear as ourselves -- because we most often appear as characters -- we're trying to dress it up as a treat, a rare treat, to see us as ourselves.\" The group will be performing both Spinal Tap and Folksmen songs, though, Shearer adds, \"[we'll be] doing these songs kind of in a different way because we're approaching them as ourselves and not as these characters.\" Have no fear, however, Tap fans: A new album, \"Back from the Dead,\" is due out in June. Shearer took some time out from tour preparations to talk about Spinal Tap's origins, the similarities between Tap and Metallica, and how \"Start Me Up\" became more closely identified with the Folksmen than the Rolling Stones. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: It's been 25 years since \"This Is Spinal Tap,\" but it's been much longer since Spinal Tap came together. Do you remember what brought it about -- and who it's based on? Shearer: You know, I would like to make a little book composed of all the bands that people have guessed Spinal Tap actually is -- there would be a lot of bands in there. And in fact it is about a lot of bands -- it's never been about one band. When we did this, the Pythons had already done [the Beatles parody] the Rutles, so there had been a piece that ... was a really specific spoof of a really specific band. That was something we didn't want to do -- that had been done. Our notion was to ... sort of encapsulate everything we know about rock 'n' roll -- and everything we found funny or amusing about bands -- into one band. So it was a process of smooshing all that stuff into this fictional band. CNN: Are you familiar about this new movie called \"Anvil\"? [The documentary, about a real heavy-metal band, has been compared to \"This Is Spinal Tap.\"] . Shearer: I've been reading about it and hearing about it a lot, but I haven't seen it. ... It sounds interesting. The last thing I've seen along that line was \"Some Kind of Monster.\" ... Was that amazing. That was stupefying. ... I heard they had a therapist. But it wasn't really a therapist -- it was a life coach. Which is different -- and worse (laughs). Even more humiliating. It's one thing to have somebody who's a therapist, but ... did you ever see \"Starting Over\"? The daytime series on NBC? CNN: No. Shearer: Oh, four or five women in a house with two life coaches. Oh my God, it was just shocking. Well, \"Some Kind of Monster\" is in that vein. CNN: How do you guys go about writing songs? The songs on the first album were wonderful pastiches of various heavy metal-type things. On the second album you had more styles and brought in guest musicians, including [renowned session pianist] Nicky Hopkins for \"Rainy Day Sun.\" Shearer: My God, yeah. Nicky had actually come in, I think, to audition for the movie but couldn't do the movie or something, but we'd always dreamed to work with Nicky. How we write the songs -- ... every one is a different experience. In the case of Tap, it's what seems like a funny idea sort of leads to a riff or some lyrics. In the case of the Folksmen, I think there was more -- at least the stuff Michael and I wrote together -- a sense these certain kinds of songs that became clich\u00e9s in that era of folk music, and we sort of have to touch each of these bases. CNN: Like \"Blood on the Coal,\" a combination of coal mining and train song. Shearer: Yeah! We saved you the time. It was a twofer. ... There were a lot of songs in that era that were kind of based loosely or less loosely on the Bible, so we wrote \"The Good Book Song,\" and then of course the great clich\u00e9 of folk music is the rambler or wandering song, so we wrote \"Never Did No Wanderin',\" about a guy who just stayed home. CNN: Since you're going to be performing as you, are you worried that people will show up wondering where the costumes are, or perhaps yell out, \"Hey Harry, I want to hear Smithers,\" or \"Hey Chris, do Harlan Pepper\"? Shearer: Each seat will be [affixed] with Taser equipment to discourage that. ... Hopefully, we'll be so entrancing that they won't be even thinking of talking to us, except if we ask for questions. But as to what people are expecting, we're trying very hard to get across the idea that this is us, and only us, and because we don't often appear as ourselves -- because we most often appear as characters -- we're trying to dress it up as a treat, a rare treat, to see us as ourselves and doing these songs kind of in a different way, because we're approaching them as ourselves and not as these characters. CNN: Are you planning to do covers on the order of \"Start Me Up\"? [The Folksmen covered the Rolling Stones song on the \"Mighty Wind\" soundtrack.] . Shearer: \"Start Me Up\" is actually the only song that we didn't write that's in the show. I can't resist [it] -- none of us can -- but I have a personal affection for it. After the Super Bowl a few years ago in Detroit, where the Stones played halftime, a few weeks later I met somebody who said that \"the soundtrack record of 'A Mighty Wind' is my 6-year-old son's favorite CD, and at the Super Bowl that day during halftime, I was in the kitchen making lunch for him and his sister, and the 6-year-old ran into the kitchen as excited as I'd ever seen him in his life and said, 'Daddy daddy daddy, they're doing a Folksmen song on the Super Bowl!' \"","highlights":"Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean performing as themselves .\nTrio has been Spinal Tap, the Folksmen in different movies .\nShearer: \"We're approaching [songs] as ourselves and not as these characters\"","id":"33b20a1663b0ba72ce0ac02cbe63cf0c2f54b7e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Don Henley, a founding member of \"The Eagles,\" is suing a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, claiming the candidate is misusing two of his popular songs. Don Henley performs at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival on May 2, 2008. The suit filed Friday in federal court in California claims Charles DeVore is using Henley's hit songs \"The Boys of Summer\" and \"All She Wants to Do Is Dance\" without authorization. The suit comes from two campaign videos that DeVore posted on YouTube that used Henley's music, according to the lawsuit. In one of the videos, DeVore's campaign changed the words of \"All She Wants to Do Is Dance\" to lyrics that attacked Sen. Barbara Boxer, the lawsuit alleges. Mike Campbell, who co-wrote \"Boys of Summer,\" is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. \"Don Henley and Mike Campbell brought this action to protect their song, 'The Boys of Summer,' which was taken and used without their permission,\" Henley's spokesman said. \"The infringers have vowed to continue exploiting this and other copyrighted works, as it suits them, to further their own ambitions and agenda. It was necessary to file a lawsuit to stop them.\" DeVore, a member of the California State Assembly, is running against Boxer, a Democrat, in the 2010 election, according to his Web site. DeVore mentions Henley's legal actions on the Web site. \"We're responding with a counter-claim, asserting our First Amendment right to political free speech,\" the site said. \"While the legal issues play out, it's time to up the ante on Mr. Henley's liberal goon tactics. By popular request, I have penned the words to our new parody song.\" DeVore then posted the lyrics of a song he called \"All She Wants to Do Is Tax.\" CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Don Henley files lawsuit against Republican running for Senate seat .\nHenley claims Charles DeVore used his songs without permission .\nDeVore is running against California Sen. Barbara Boxer .","id":"a94065bf69472793e5d1d17ae34af4d5f4cca0aa"} -{"article":"In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. After a one-on-one interview with President Obama on Wednesday, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Juan Carlos L\u00f3pez is traveling with Obama to Mexico City and to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calder\u00f3n in Mexico City on Thursday. MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- It's the return of an American president to Mexico City. Although George W. Bush visited the country several times, he never made it to this city of more than 20 million people, and it is President Obama's first visit to Latin America. Obama's relationship with Mexico started on shaky ground, although the first foreign leader he met with as president-elect was Mexican President Felipe Calder\u00f3n. Reports from the Pentagon and the CIA considered that Mexico was at risk of becoming a failed state, something that didn't sit well with the Calder\u00f3n government. Washington corrected course and even admitted its own responsibility in Mexico's growing drug war, which killed 6,000 last year alone. Statements by Cabinet members and Obama himself calmed things down, but tensions arose again. Congress ended a pilot program that allowed Mexican trucks into U.S. territory, as contemplated in the North America Free Trade Agreement; Mexico, in line with the treaty, retaliated by imposing fees on 90 U.S. products. Even so, the bilateral relationship is at a high point and large-scale protests aren't expected when Obama visits the Mexican capital. But there are pending issues, such as immigration reform, trade and a pressing question in this capital: Who will the next U.S. ambassador be? Local media have been reporting that Carlos Pascual, a Cuban-American expert on Europe and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is Obama's choice, but the fact that he wrote a report for the Brookings Institute on Iraq and the importance of reconstructing a failed state wasn't well received in political and government circles. Obama and Calder\u00f3n have a lot to sort out in this one-day visit. Then comes the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, where Obama will face 33 heads of state, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who called Obama ignorant on Latin-American issues, and other leaders who want Cuba, a member of the Organization of American States suspended since 1962, to be reinstated. Although Obama lifted some restrictions on travel and remittances to the island by Cuban-Americans, many in the region want more, including the lifting of the decades-old embargo, something Obama says he is not considering. It is not clear if Obama will be welcomed in the same way he was by Europe two weeks ago, but so far the signs are positive -- to have a U.S. president saying he is willing to listen to and treat Latin American neighbors as equals is something the region isn't used to.","highlights":"Lopez: Obama's relationship with Mexico started on shaky ground .\nBut now, the bilateral relationship is at a high point, he says .\nLopez: Pending issues, such as immigration reform, trade .\nThere also is high interest in who will be U.S. ambassador to Mexico, he says .","id":"772ad132e8d7c35dca95205fd288f2160a5195b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 5,000 patients of a South Dakota urology clinic may have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV when the facility reused single-use medical products, state health officials said Friday. Clinic workers told inspectors they've been reusing products since the clinic opened its doors in 2002. The Siouxland Urology Center in Dakota Dunes has been ordered to contact nearly 5,700 former patients treated there since 2002. A routine inspection found the facility was reusing sterile saline bags, tubing and other medical supplies from cystoscopies -- a diagnostic procedure that looks at the lower urinary tract. \"We witnessed the practice while we were in the facility,\" during a January inspection, said Barb Buhler of the South Dakota Health Department. Siouxland Urology has since been put under a provisional license and has been very cooperative, according to state officials. \"Siouxland Urology Center informed certain of its patients by U.S. mail that a prior cystoscopy procedure could have potentially exposed them to an infectious disease,\" the facility's Web site said. It added that \"the risk of infection from our past procedure is very minimal and we are unaware of any blood infections in our patients caused by the cystoscopy practice.\" The clinic, which primarily serves clients from South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, is offering free blood tests to those possibly affected to rule out the presence of viruses .Watch more on the possible exposure of urology patients \u00bb . On January 21, South Dakota Department of Health inspectors entered an examining room where a cystoscopy was about to take place, and noticed that a saline bag, which was hanging on a pole, was dated January 19, said Bob Stahl, of the South Dakota Department of Health. The inspectors, who are registered nurses, questioned the clinic staff. The clinic staff said they routinely reused saline bags and tubing, although both are clearly marked \"for single use only,\" Stahl said. \"They used the bags and tubing on multiple patients,\" Stahl said. He said the workers at the clinic told the inspectors they'd been reusing bags and tubing since the clinic opened in 2002. They said they didn't see anything wrong with the practice, Stahl said. \"It was their standard operating procedure,\" Stahl said. \"They told the inspectors that this was a common practice all over the country. We disagreed and told them this was not a common practice.\" He said that the clinic had been inspected seven times since it opened, and no one had noticed that the clinic was reusing equipment. \"It was just by chance that this saline bag was hanging there. We run across these things by luck at times,\" Stahl said. \"We're fortunate that the team was able to identify this.\" Fluids from patients can retreat into saline bags and tubing while the equipment is used, and reusing the tubing or saline bags could put patients at risk for contacting diseases from previous patients. A 1-liter bag of saline and tubing costs about $4, according to Mary Jo Lallis, account manager for PSS World Medical, Inc., a medical supply company. CNN's Greg Morrison and Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands of patients of a urology clinic possibly exposed to hepatitis and HIV .\nClinic routinely reused single-use saline bags and tubing .\nStaff told inspectors it was \"common practice\" everywhere; inspectors disagreed .\nNearly 5,700 former patients will be contacted, offered free blood tests .","id":"13b405c65bfb4b0a57dc1bea181e52c6a32b6f6b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates captured a Belgian ship and said they were taking it to the coast of Somalia after the vessel was reported missing early Saturday, NATO and pirate sources told CNN. The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien tracked seven pirates Saturday back to their mother ship. The Pompei, a Belgian-registered ship believed to have a mostly Belgian and Croatian crew, was one of two vessels that came under attack near the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles on Saturday, the sources said. The second ship escaped the attack after a brief exchange of gunfire with pirate vessels, the pirate source added. Meanwhile, Dutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen after tracking the pirates to their \"mother ship\" in the western Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a NATO maritime spokesman said. The Belgian government tried to communicate with the Pompei \"without success\" before the ship was confirmed to have been hijacked, according to an official. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . \"This morning we received two different channels, a silent alert, that there was a problem on the boat, which is a Belgian boat on its way to Seychelles,\" Belgium Government Crisis Center spokesman Peter Martens told reporters. \"We tried to have a contact with the ship but without success until now.\" The archipelago where the attack occurred is roughly 800 miles off the Somali coastline. \"Somali pirates are getting wilder and out of control,\" pirate spokesman Ali Sugulle said on April 11. \"They go too far away from the Somali [coast] and go to the Kenyan coast even.\" The European Union, NATO and the United States have been patrolling the waters off Somalia since an upsurge in piracy in the region last year. No NATO vessels were in the region at the time of the attack, said Cmdr. Chris Davies from NATO's Maritime Component Command Headquarters in Northwood, England. Meanwhile, the Dutch rescue operation happened after pirates launched an unsuccessful attack on petroleum tanker MT Handytankers Magic, NATO Cmdr. Chris Davies told CNN. The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien was with the NATO fleet patrolling the region. After the Dutch disarmed the pirates, they released them, Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman from the maritime headquarters, told CNN. Because the crew was on a NATO mission, they lacked the jurisdiction to hold them, according to reports. The MT Handytankers Magic is part of a fleet belonging to Handytankers, a company that distributes petroleum products in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the United States, according to the company's Web site. Last week pirates attacked a U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama, off the Somali coast. The crew regained control of the ship but the captain was taken hostage and held for five days on a lifeboat. The crisis ended when U.S. Navy sharpshooters shot and killed three of the pirates who were holding the captain. Journalist Mohammed Amiin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The Pompei, a Belgian-registered ship, was one of two vessels attacked .\nNEW: Islands where attack occurred are roughly 800 miles off Somali coast .\nDutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen .\nPirates were disarmed and freed because crew lacked jurisdiction to hold them .","id":"5287b0245b7fdd31a74768bb05356867fc6e2655"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Tuesday left open the possibility of criminal prosecution for Bush administration officials who drew up the legal basis for interrogation techniques that many view as torture. President Obama says any congressional investigation should be conducted in a bipartisan fashion. Obama said it will be up to Attorney General Eric Holder to decide whether or not to prosecute the former officials. \"With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more a decision for the attorney general within the parameter of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that,\" Obama said during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House. \"There's a host of very complicated issues involved there. As a general deal, I think we should be looking forward and not backward. \"I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively, and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.\" Watch as Obama says U.S. can be protected and live up to its ideals \u00bb . The president added that any congressional \"accounting of what took place\" should be done \"in a bipartisan fashion outside of the typical hearing process that can sometimes break down ... entirely along party lines.\" It is important, he said, for the \"American people to feel as if this is not being dealt with to provide one side or another political advantage.\" Obama's remarks came five days after the administration released four Bush-era memos detailing the use of terror interrogations such as waterboarding, a technique used to simulate drowning. One memo showed that CIA interrogators used waterboarding -- which Obama has called torture -- at least 266 times on two top al Qaeda suspects. Obama reiterated his belief that he did not think it is appropriate to prosecute those CIA officials and others who carried out the interrogations in question. \"This has been a difficult chapter in our history and one of [my] tougher decisions,\" he added. The techniques listed in memos \"reflected ... us losing our moral bearings.\" The president's apparent willingness to leave the door open to a prosecution of Bush officials seemed to contradict White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who indicated Sunday that the administration was opposed to such an action. Obama believes \"that's not the place that we [should] go,\" Emanuel said on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"It's not a time to use our energy ... looking back [with] any sense of anger and retribution.\" On Monday, Obama asserted during a visit to CIA headquarters that he had released the documents primarily because of the \"exceptional circumstances that surrounded these memos, particularly the fact that so much of the information was [already] public. ... The covert nature of the information had been compromised.\"","highlights":"President: It's up to attorney general to decide about prosecution on interrogations .\nPresident Obama repeats belief that CIA officers shouldn't be prosecuted .\n\"I do worry about this getting so politicized,\" president says .\nAdministration has released Bush-era memos detailing use of terror interrogations .","id":"f0851e85725f62ba505a8d62f48e9a9852489acc"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Fort Lauderdale official said that only one person was on a plane that slammed into a vacant house Friday, a crash called \"not survivable\" by a fire official. Bystanders watch the flames after the plane crash Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The twin-engine Cessna crashed about 11:15 a.m. in a neighborhood not far from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, from which it took off, the city official said. Video from the scene showed a small house virtually cut in two as firefighters poured water on smoking debris. Chaz Adams -- spokesman for the city of Fort Lauderdale, which owns the airport -- said that there was only one person aboard and that a previous report of four passengers was incorrect. The Federal Aviation Administration also said the flight plan listed one person on board, and witnesses at the airport have told the FAA that only one person boarded the aircraft. Adams said three people live in the house that was hit, but \"the house was vacant when the plane down.\" He said the plane was headed to Fernandina Beach, north of Jacksonville, Florida. Seconds after takeoff, the pilot reported trouble. \"The tower cleared it to come back and try to land at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The plane crashed attempting to return to the airport,\" Adams said. Watch an iReporter describe the crash \u00bb . Donald Widing, chief of fire rescue for Oakland Park, said, \"the crash was not survivable.\" \"The fire is under control. The emergency is contained,\" he said a little more than an hour after the crash. \"What we're doing now is making sure that the scene is safe enough to introduce our first responders to do a complete primary and secondary search of the aircraft wreckage itself and the occupancy.\" He added, \"we are concerned with the plane's fuel tanks and have to save the house and the scene before we can conduct any further search-and-rescue operations.\" Watch firefighters tackle the blaze \u00bb . Asked whether more than one home in the area was impacted, Widing said, \"we're still assessing the damage.\" He said \"the majority of the fire\" was \"contained on the property that was affected.\" However, he said, there may be minor fire damage and some heat damage elsewhere. Nation Transportation Safety Board officials were going to the scene. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: City spokesman, FAA say one person aboard small plane .\nHome where plane crashed appears empty, chief says .\nPilot reported trouble after takeoff from executive airport .\nTwin-engine Cessna was bound for Fernandina Beach .","id":"4bf0f67b7a5a8abf644bbbc3aca08eb63d76b60b"} -{"article":"BELLINGHAM, Washington (CNN) -- After 11 years of living illegally in the United States, it was not until Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez was nearly deported that he finally received permission to work here. No longer illegal: Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez holds up the card authorizing his employment in the United States. Arreola was one of 28 illegal immigrant workers arrested in February after agents from U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement raided a car engine repair business. According to the immigrants, a small army of federal agents surrounded Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham Washington, and began searching for workers who could not show they had authorization to work in the United States. \"My blood ran cold,\" Arreola said in Spanish. \"We went to the back door, but they were waiting for us. There was a bus already there, and they put us on it.\" As he was being taken to an immigration detention center, Arreola said he thought of his wife and the five children they have had while living here and who are U.S. citizens by birth. He expected to be deported back to Mexico, Arreola said, and he was doubtful about when he would see his family again. \"I would have been there and they would have been here,\" he said. \"I would have had to come back. I couldn't take them there. My children don't know anything about Mexico. They go to school here.\" Watch Arreola and others discuss the raid \u00bb . Typically, cases like Arreola's end in deportation. According to ICE, some 5,173 people were arrested last year in similar worksite raids. However, the Bellingham raid was the first of its kind to take place during the Obama administration. During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Obama's criticism of government immigration policies that split up families had given some people in immigrant communities hope that the raids would end if he were elected. \"Under the Obama administration, we didn't expect it to happen that people would be dragged out in handcuffs,\" said Rosalinda Guillen, a Bellingham immigrant rights advocate. Many in the area strongly opposed the raid, Guillen said. \"This is a really heavy Obama-supporting county,\" she said. \"So a lot of folks here had been in involved in the election.\" Immediately after the raid, she said, \"the calls, the e-mails started and networks were activated.\" Guillen said the controversy over the raid was featured heavily on Hispanic radio stations and that a charity called Los Ni\u00f1os Fund was created to help the children of the jailed immigrants. During a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security the day after the Bellingham raid, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano distanced herself from the action. Worksite enforcements, she said, should focus \"on employers who intentionally and knowingly exploit the illegal labor market.\" Napolitano promised lawmakers that she would \"get to the bottom\" of what happened in Bellingham. Napolitano's comments turned the heat up on the already boiling debate over how immigration policies should be reformed. \"Get to the bottom of what? Law enforcement officers enforcing the law?\" asked Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit group that advocates more border security and decreasing the number of illegal immigrants entering the country. \"The message is if you are hiring illegal aliens, 'no problem.' If you are in the country illegally, unless you commit a serious felony we are not going to bother you, so it's a de facto amnesty,\" Mehlman said. \"Even if the administration cannot get an amnesty through Congress this year, what they are going to do is through administrative decisions allow everybody to remain here and send the signal that more people are welcome.\" Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said there was no policy shift and that other worksite immigration inspections had taken place since the Bellingham raid. But Rosalinda Guillen said people in the pro-immigrant rights community were heartened by the fact that shortly after Napolitano ordered a review of the Bellingham case the immigrant workers who were still in immigration detention were released. \"I was just flabbergasted,\" Guillen said. And the same immigration agents who had arrested the workers, she said, now promised them visas that would allow them to work temporarily in the U.S. \"Homeland Security drove them to the place where they had to go to fill out the paperwork for the work permits,\" she said \"That is totally unheard of.\" A spokeswoman for the ICE Seattle office declined to comment on the case because the raid is under review and the investigation into the company where the immigrants worked is still ongoing. Several days after the workers' release, ICE agents again searched Yamato Engine Specialists. The company did not respond to repeated CNN requests for comment, but a statement posted on its Web site reads: \"It has been and continues to be Yamato's policy to hire people only if they meet the legal requirements for employment.\" Several of the workers who were arrested said immigration agents have asked if they suffered any abuse while working for Yamato. Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez said the company did not mistreat him during the months he worked there soldering car engines. But Yamato did not verify his immigration status when he first arrived at the company, Arreola said. \"I filled out my application and did the interview. They asked if my papers were good,\" Arreola said. \"You say 'yes,' otherwise you don't get the job.\"","highlights":"Immigration raid led to detention of 28 people in Washington state .\nRaid was first of its kind under the new Obama administration .\nHomeland security chief says she was unaware of raid, ordered investigation .\nFoes of illegal immigration angry about \"de facto amnesty\" for freed detainees .","id":"66d88cb02d8506be3c46b32faaa9b425c40c78ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama, visiting CIA headquarters Monday, defended his decision to release Bush-era memos on interrogation tactics, saying the country will ultimately be stronger as a result. President Obama met with CIA workers and Director Leon Panetta, left, in Virginia on Monday. The president's remarks came in the wake of criticism from a former CIA chief and others that his decision compromised national security and encouraged terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. Obama also met with CIA Director Leon Panetta, Deputy Director Stephen Kappes and other officials, and talked to employees about the importance of the agency's mission to national security. The president asserted that he had released the documents primarily because of the \"exceptional circumstances that surrounded these memos, particularly the fact that so much of the information was [already] public. ... The covert nature of the information had been compromised.\" Watch Obama talk about \"exceptional circumstances\" \u00bb . Obama added that he ended the controversial interrogation techniques mentioned in the memos because the United States \"is stronger and more secure\" when it can deploy both power and the \"power of our values, including the rule of law.\" \"What makes the United States special ... is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy, even when we are afraid and under threat, not just when it's expedient to do so,\" he said. Watch Obama talk about the importance of values \u00bb . Although abiding by the rule of law can make battling groups such as al Qaeda more difficult, he added, it is ultimately why \"we'll defeat our enemies. We're on the better side of history.\" Panetta, while introducing the president, promised that the CIA would abide by the president's order barring controversial enhanced interrogation techniques. He also agreed that it was possible to protect the country and its values at the same time. Obama's visit to the CIA's Langley, Virginia, headquarters came a day after former CIA Director Michael Hayden said the decision to release the four memos undermined the work the agency is doing. Hayden, President George W. Bush's CIA director from 2006 to 2009, said the release of the memos emboldens terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. \"What we have described for our enemies in the midst of a war are the outer limits that any American would ever go to in terms of interrogating an al Qaeda terrorist. That's very valuable information,\" Hayden said on \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"By taking techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine, more difficult for CIA officers to defend the nation.\" He added, \"if you look at what this really comprises, if you look at the documents that have been made public, it says 'top secret' at the top. The definition of top secret is information which, if revealed, would cause grave harm to U.S. security.\" Obama said last week that withholding the memos \"would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time.\" \"This could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past and fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States,\" he said in a statement. The memos include details on terrorist suspect interrogations such as waterboarding, a technique used to simulate drowning. Obama has called the method torture. One memo showed that CIA interrogators used waterboarding at least 266 times on two top al Qaeda suspects. The administration also has come under criticism from human rights organizations after announcing that CIA officials would not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics. Watch for details on the interrogation techniques \u00bb . Obama believes \"that's not the place that we go,\" White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"It's not a time to use our energy ... looking back [with] any sense of anger and retribution.\" Attorney General Eric Holder has promised that officials who used such interrogation tactics would be in the clear if their actions were consistent with Justice Department legal advice under which they were operating at the time. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the release of the memos is consistent with how Obama conducts government. \"It's about transparency. It's about accountability. And he released them. And on the other hand, he said to those CIA employees who were following what the Department of Justice told them they could do, they would not be subject to further prosecution, because it's also about closing this chapter so we can move on to the future,\" Napolitano said.","highlights":"Release has been criticized as damaging to national security .\n\"We're on the better side of history,\" he tells CIA workers .\nCIA chief says it's possible to protect country, values at same time .\nEx-CIA chief under Bush says Obama emboldening terrorist groups .","id":"07f9cfad434664c9de16f46e1a63fc7fb55a0355"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jennifer Muzquiz was \"goth\" in high school. She had, and still has, multicolored hair, a \"face full of piercings,\" and an all-black wardrobe, even though she no longer identifies with the goth subculture. And while her style had always earned her her fair share of strange glances, she says everything changed for the worse after the Columbine school shootings on April 20, 1999. Jennifer Muzquiz, in all black, decided to study at home after feeling shunned as a goth after Columbine. It was on that day that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and teachers in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The massacre was one of the deadliest school shootings in history, and it had a profound effect on students and teachers across the country. As the media and the public groped for meaning behind the incident, there were plenty of theories about the motive behind the massacre. One of these was that Harris and Klebold were members of the goth subculture, or \"trench-coat mafia\" as they were known at Columbine, and thus had been outcasts. This theory has been widely refuted, but for goth students around the country, the damage was done. \"As a result [of Columbine], the public were afraid of the 'goths' and 'punks' and 'metalheads' at school,\" says Muzquiz, who was a high school senior at the time. \"Parents, often successfully, lobbied to get trench coats and all-black attire banned in their local schools. School administrators started considering these groups to be gangs and harassment of students was rampant, with unwarranted backpack searches, detainment in the hallways by security guards, and being called into the administrative offices for questioning.\" Rumors ran rampant about kids who \"looked like they were going to bring a gun to school,\" and Muzquiz says her classmates quickly learned if they wanted to cause trouble for a student, all they had to do was report that student had a list of enemies. \"They could simply report to administrators that the person had an 'enemies list' and the school would quickly swoop in to rectify the situation, even when it wasn't the truth. ... The accused would forever be known as 'the kid with the list' and ostracized,\" she says. Because of this and the new dress code restrictions, her goth friends \"were afraid to go to school.\" Muzquiz herself caught so much flak for her appearance that she went into home studies. And though she was no longer in school, discrimination couldn't be avoided. People in town would cross to the other side of the street to avoid her and her friends, she says. iReport.com: 'Sadly, teens still tend to shun those who are different than they are' Muzquiz was even interviewed by the national media about her experiences after Columbine. At first she regretted it and feared backlash. \"I had already gotten enough crap since Columbine about wearing all black,\" she says. But she was glad she did it after receiving e-mails from other students who identified with her and thanked her for the interviews, including one girl who was suicidal until reading an article about her. \"One girl even had e-mailed me and said [she] was coming home to write a suicide note ... and kill herself after school. She read the article about me and it made her think twice,\" says Muzquiz. \"In the article, I said it's not worth letting these people get to you. It's not up to them to tell you that you're wrong. She thanked me.\" \"[To have] a 14-year-old e-mail me ... it was just, like, whoa, I don't care who says anything bad ... I helped someone,\" says Muzquiz. \"To this day that just sticks with me. Anything I do in my life -- nothing's going to measure to that, the fact that I helped someone realize that there's more to life.\" Things changed for teachers after Columbine, too. Many say they realized they weren't just responsible for their students' knowledge, but for their overall well-being. \"Life was never the same after that day,\" says Barbara Rademacher, a veteran teacher from Rogers, Arkansas. Schools across the country instituted new security measures such as see-through backpacks and metal detectors, and teachers were trained to deal with violent behavior. But more than that, says Rademacher, \"teachers and students are always just a little afraid.\" \"What Columbine said to me as an educator was that we in the education community hold people's lives in our hands. ... We as educators have a much higher duty, a much higher call, than just to teach our subject areas. ... Columbine was to education what 9\/11 was to the United States: a shattering wake-up call, a disaster so profound, it permanently changed our world view.\" iReport.com: 'Education is literally a matter of life and death' Kym Godwin remembers a similar wake-up call after the shooting. She was a first-year teacher in Ilwaco, Washington, at the time. \"I think most people who go into teaching have the desire to go out there and change the world and enlighten kids and bring them to this great level of knowledge,\" she says. \"I remember when it happened, all of a sudden, it was like: 'How can I give them all of this knowledge if I can't keep them safe?' I realized at that moment that my job wasn't just giving them academic learning, it was also about protecting them and making them feel like they're in a safe place.\" This realization hit home for her when her school had a lockdown. Teenagers from another part of town had entered the school, allegedly looking for a student there. A school security guard apprehended them right outside the door to Godwin's classroom. \"I remember thinking, what would happen if somebody actually walked in the door? ... And that's when it hit me, that the kids have to be able to trust me as their teacher to protect them regardless of who walks through that door. I told the kids, this is real, and I am the one in control and I will protect you. ... And I found out afterward that virtually every teacher in the building did the exact same thing. The kids looked to us and knew we were there to keep them safe.\" Godwin also means \"safe\" in a different way. It includes protecting her students from physical harm, yes, but also protecting them from bullying or social stigmas that could potentially lead to violent behavior. Some investigators have said there is evidence to suggest the Columbine shooters were victims of bullying or ostracism, and Godwin says this is a nationwide problem. \"What happened at Columbine could happen virtually anywhere. Kids get picked on, and it could get to a point where they snap. They're human beings,\" she says. iReport.com: 'My students are my kids'","highlights":"Columbine shootings forever changed atmosphere in schools nationwide .\nJennifer Muzquiz says she was discriminated against as a \"goth\"\nTeachers became concerned with protecting students from physical, emotional harm .\niReport.com: How did Columbine affect your life?","id":"7a3d9e8aeed8f0dde5b9436e6d93617080ac2f2e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan army launched an operation against Tamil rebels in the country's north early Monday, the military said, claiming to have rescued thousands of civilians trapped in a government safe zone. The Sri Lankan army has relaunched its attacks on Tamil rebels in the country's north. A rebel Web site, TamilNet, said government forces were engaged in a fresh ground offensive. A TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported heavy shelling, rocket fire and gunfire. Thirty civilians died in shelling Sunday, rebels said. The government of Sri Lanka has been battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) rebels in a civil conflict that has lasted nearly 25 years. \"Thousands of civilians who had been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists in the government declared No Fire Zone (NFZ) were rescued early hours this morning, 20 April, as the troops engaged in a massive scale rescue mission, were able to open a safe passage for the civilians,\" the Ministry of Defense Web site said. More than 10,000 civilians are trying to seek refuge with soldiers, the military said. The upsurge in hostilities follows a two-day cessation last week for the Sinhala and Hindu New Year. The U.S. State Department on Thursday called for a cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers to allow civilians to escape the fighting. \"We call upon the government and military of Sri Lanka, and the Tamil Tigers, to immediately stop hostilities until the more than 140,000 civilians in the conflict area are safely out,\" acting spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement. \"Both sides must immediately return to a humanitarian pause and both must respect the right of free movement of those civilian men, women and children trapped by the fighting.\" Watch the heavy toll of fighting on civilians \u00bb . A brief cessation of hostilities announced by the Sri Lankan government on April 12 allowed the United Nations and its partners to bring in aid, but a renewed government offensive has left civilians trapped in a war zone. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his humanitarian chief John Holmes called the brief halt in fighting inadequate and have pushed for a longer humanitarian pause in fighting. The most pressing concern now, according to Holmes, is the fact that more than 100,000 people are crowded in a \"very small pocket of land\" that is about five square miles, or about twice the size of New York's Central Park. \"It is a very small area indeed for what we believe is a very large number of people,\" Holmes told reporters Wednesday. Overcrowding is also a problem in camps housing displaced people, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). As of Monday, some 65,000 displaced people were crammed into camps in Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mannar, with 35,000 more expected to arrive within 48 hours, the organization said in a statement. ' UNICEF said it feared for children trapped in the escalating fighting and is worried that the worst is yet to come. The group appealed for donations to help cover \"the most immediate needs of the affected population in health and nutrition, water and sanitation, protection and education.\" The crowded population, primarily comprised of Tamil civilians, is subject to the continuing Sri Lankan government assaults. The British and French foreign ministers released a joint statement as well on Wednesday, saying that the Tamil Tigers are using Tamil civilians as human shields. The Tigers have been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict officially began in 1983. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that it has helped evacuate more than 10,000 sick and injured patients, and their caregivers, from Putumattalan in rebel-held territory since February. \"These evacuations have saved many lives,\" said Morven Murchinson, the Red Cross medical coordinator in Sri Lanka. \"It is vital that they continue, because more sick and wounded people are arriving every day at the makeshift medical facilities in Putumattalan.\" The Red Cross says there's an acute shortage of medical supplies in the region, which it is trying to rectify.","highlights":"NEW: Fears voiced by UNICEF for children trapped in the escalating fighting .\nUpsurge in hostilities follows cessation for New Year .\nU.N. humanitarian chief: Large number of people crowded in very small area .\nTamil Tigers, Sri Lanka government locked in conflict lasting nearly 25 years .","id":"fca5f405f9be35220bd06035be08e11f4b46e5e6"} -{"article":"ABUSIR, Egypt (CNN) -- Today, I met Cleopatra's lawyer. Well, not her lawyer but someone who is determined to defend the legendary queen against centuries of bad publicity. Kathleen Martinez, an archaeologist from the Dominican Republic, wants to mend Cleopatra's tattered reputation. Kathleen Martinez is a young archaeologist from the Dominican Republic who has toiled for three years on a barren hillside overlooking the coastal highway linking Alexandria with the Libyan border. According to the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, it's here, at a spot known as Abusir, that the tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra might be located. I met Martinez in a dusty tomb full of bones at the excavation site. She recounted to me that, as a young girl, she listened in on a scholarly discussion in her father's library about Cleopatra. \"They were speaking very badly about her and about her image,\" she recalled. \"I got very upset. I said I didn't believe what they are saying, that I needed to study more about her.\" Martinez went on to earn a law degree but continued to be fascinated by the saga of Cleopatra. Four years ago, she managed to convince Zahi Hawass, the untiring director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, to allow her to start excavating at Abusir. Her fascination with -- and admiration for -- Cleopatra is intense. The last queen of Ancient Egypt, she told me, \"spoke nine languages, she was a philosopher, she was a poet, she was a politician, she was a goddess, and she was a warrior.\" In short, Martinez believes, Cleopatra was a woman way ahead of her times. And given that history is written by the victors -- in Cleopatra's case, the Romans -- her press was somewhat less than complimentary. It was \"bad propaganda,\" in Martinez's words. For that reason, she told me, \"I want to be Cleopatra's lawyer.\" With Hawass, Martinez is now working on a book about Cleopatra to repair all that damage. The tale of Antony and Cleopatra has fueled the popular imagination for centuries. Ill-fated lovers were a favorite theme for William Shakespeare, and the Roman noble and the Egyptian queen certainly fit the bill. Marc Antony was a no less fascinating character than Cleopatra. In his youth, he led a life of heavy drinking and womanizing. According to the Roman historian Plutarch, Antony accumulated debts of 250 talents, the equivalent of $5 million, before reaching 20. To escape his creditors in Rome, he fled to Greece, where he studied with the philosophers of Athens, before being called to join the Roman legions in the east, then serving under Julius Caesar. After Caesar's assassination, Marc Antony became embroiled in a series of power struggles and eventually ended up in Egypt. Egypt was the enemy of his former ally, Octavian, who would go on to become the Emperor Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Octavian defeated Antony's forces at the battle of Actium in 30 B.C. Shortly afterward, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, he by his own sword, she by a poisonous asp. Octavian, according to Plutarch, allowed them to be buried together \"in splendid and regal fashion.\" But no one knows where. The sudden focus on Antony and Cleopatra has also reignited an old debate over the latter's looks. Was Cleopatra a stunning beauty a la Elizabeth Taylor, or somewhat less spectacular? Researchers from Newcastle University in England claimed in 2007 that, based upon coins found from the period, she was quite homely, with \"a shallow forehead, long, pointed nose, narrow lips and a sharply pointed chin.\" See gallery of tomb that might be Cleopatra's \u00bb . The same researchers didn't have a very flattering assessment of Marc Antony either, saying he had \"bulging eyes, a large hooked nose and a thick neck.\" No Richard Burton. This does contradict Plutarch's description of Marc Antony as having \"a noble dignity of form; and a shapely beard, a broad forehead, and an aquiline nose [that] were thought to show the virile qualities peculiar to the portraits and statues of Hercules\"? Hawass hasn't had much to say in defense of Marc Antony, but he claims the coins found in Abusir show Cleopatra was \"beautiful.\" At Abusir, he showed me one of the coins with Cleopatra's likeness. \"The only thing you can see here is her nose is a bit big.\" That's because, Hawass insisted, \"when you draw a face on a coin you cannot draw the beauty of a queen, and therefore I think that the lady who captured the hearts of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony cannot have been ugly.\" Egyptians, who are intensely proud of their country and its ancient heritage, may be forgiven for their insistence on this point. I tend to take the middle ground on this one. Beauty is more than skin deep, and what seems to have captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony was not physical but rather inner beauty. Watch report from CNN's Ben Wedeman on Cleopatra \u00bb . Plutarch wrote in his \"Life of Antony\" that \"for her beauty was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her.\" In other words, she was plain. Plutarch goes on to write, however, that she was intelligent, charming and has \"sweetness in the tones of her voice.\" The mystery of what Cleopatra really looked like may never be solved. In any event, it's just one of many mysteries in Egypt. Others include the obvious ones: How were the pyramids built? Who built them? Why were they built? How old is the Sphinx? Hawass dismisses with lusty contempt the people who espouse the more fantastic theories (that aliens built the pyramids, that the Sphinx is more than 10,000 years old), labeling them \"pyramidiots.\" But there are other historical mysteries out there that have yet to be answered. Some archaeologists are trying to find the tomb of Alexander the Great (who died in Babylon but, according to some ancient historians, was buried in Egypt). Others are searching for the remains of the lost army of Cambyses -- 50,000 soldiers dispatched on a mission by the Persian Emperor to attack the Oracle of Amon (today's Siwa Oasis in western Egypt) only to disappear during a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert. There has been plenty of excitement in the past few days over reports that Martinez and her team are about to find the long-lost tomb of Antony and Cleopatra. Alas, the enthusiasts are going to have to be patient. The summer residence of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is just down the road from the site. For security reasons, no one is allowed on the hillside where the excavations are taking place from May through November. So unless Mubarak decides to overrule his security detail, the solving of this mystery will have to be put on hold for at least another five months. We've waited 2,000 years. I guess we can wait a few more months.","highlights":"Kathleen Martinez has toiled for three years in Egypt looking for Cleopatra's tomb .\nMartinez says the Egyptian queen has gotten an unfair reputation over the centuries .\nCleopatra spoke nine languages and was a philosopher and poet, Martinez says .\nSo was Marc Antony's lover beautiful or plain or ugly? That debate rages on .","id":"02c4bd643c56ba95d43934c2eb00bed5c6372a05"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- For 65 years, Elisabeth Mann has carried with her the pain only a Holocaust survivor can know. Elisabeth Mann, the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust, sits with her children, Nancy and Thomas. The only one in her Hungarian Jewish family to make it out of the Nazi death camps, life for a long time felt like punishment. Branded in her mind are the images of, for example, a pile of babies set ablaze, snarling dogs and the laughter of an SS officer pointing to the black smoke of incinerated bodies that filled the sky. And on her heavy heart is the anguish, including the blame she feels for her brother Laci's death. He was 13 and not feeling well when the family arrived by cattle car at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Watch Mann describe the brutal trip to the camp \u00bb . \"I told him to go with my mother because mothers are the people who take care of sick children,\" she cried, while sitting in her Los Angeles, California, home. \"I didn't know that with my advice I killed my brother because all the mothers and all the children were taken to the gas chamber right away.\" Given the horrors she's lived and witnessed, one might think Mann, now in her 80s, would be among those demanding that Nazi war criminals be brought to justice. And yet she's uncomfortable with the ongoing attempts to deport to Germany for trial John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, man allegedly linked to mass killings at Sobibor, a death camp in Poland. Demjanjuk insists it wasn't him. The pursuit of him -- and of suspects like him -- isn't one Mann supports. She said she never wanted revenge, because \"I did not want to be like them.\" Mann doesn't think going after war criminals now is worth the cost and energy, nor does she think the legal process will make a difference to such men who've already lived a full life. Watch Mann explain why money is wasted in the hunt \u00bb . \"What is punishment for a person who is capable to do such horror, such horrible things to living people?\" Mann, an artist, wondered aloud. \"I cannot imagine that that person has a soul or conscience or heart. ... He simply wouldn't feel it. ... What kind of punishment could you give to a person like that?\" Her argument doesn't work for Efraim Zuroff, who has spent nearly 30 years hunting Nazis responsible for the Holocaust, a systematic effort that wiped out 6 million Jews, or two-thirds of European Jewry. \"It has to be clear to everybody that the Holocaust was not a natural disaster. ... It was created by man, against man,\" he said from Jerusalem, Israel, where he coordinates Nazi war crimes research for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. \"When responsibility can be determined, people have to be held accountable.\" On Monday, the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day, the center released its latest status report on Nazi war criminal investigations and prosecutions. Demjanjuk tops the list of the 10 most wanted. Others on the list include Sandor Kepiro, a former Hungarian officer who allegedly helped kill 1,200 people in Novi Sad, Serbia, as well as Milivoj Asner, a onetime Croatian police chief, now believed to be living in Austria, who allegedly persecuted and deported to the Nazi camps hundreds of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies. In a written statement about the report, Zuroff said that since the start of 2001, there have been 76 convictions, at least 48 indictments, and hundreds of investigations have been launched. Central to these actions has been a project Zuroff has helped oversee called Operation: Last Chance, a push -- started in 2002 -- to support worldwide government efforts to pursue aging Nazi war crime suspects. While some countries have stepped up, including the U.S., Germany, Serbia and Spain, others, such as Australia, Austria and Ukraine, have shown a \"lack of political will\" and have failed to act, the statement says. \"The easiest thing in the world is to just forget,\" Zuroff, 60, said by phone. \"The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the murderers. ... We don't think people deserve a prize for reaching an old age.\" Mann's own children couldn't agree more. Like Zuroff, they think pursuing Nazi war criminals is the least that can be done to honor victims. \"I'm definitely in favor of going after these folks, regardless of their age,\" said Mann's daughter, Nancy. \"A lot of people suffered, and are still suffering, because of the crimes that were done in the past.\" Watch daughter explain that 'murder is murder' \u00bb . Thomas, Mann's son, said that going after Nazi war criminals \"sends a message to our society and the world that it's not OK to do these things,\" and that it helps bring awareness \"to people who don't know about the Holocaust, and there are lots of them.\" Watch son on why punishment falls short \u00bb . He told the story of a college freshman in Southern California who stood up during a presentation his mother was giving and said she'd never heard of the Holocaust. \"That really brings it home,\" Thomas said. By pursuing suspected Nazi criminals, the process \"reminds people that this did happen\" and shows that \"people do care that this happened.\"","highlights":"A Holocaust survivor isn't convinced Nazi hunting is worth it .\nHer children, and a decades-long Nazi hunter, say justice must be served .\nMeantime, the deportation case of alleged Nazi criminal, John Demjanjuk, continues .\nTuesday marks Holocaust Remembrance Day .","id":"18115bc7331b07e7df919552a37a05a09dcb1f87"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Walking into the Khatmul Nabeen Masjid (mosque), you can for a moment forget that you're in Afghanistan. Beautiful buildings, walkways, flowerbeds and even a grass soccer pitch. Mohammed Asif Mohseni is said to be behind the law. Young men and women, dressed in Muslim attire, walk around freely and with smiles. Smiles are a bit of a rarity in today's Kabul, a polluted city of survival and despair, so this was both shocking and refreshing to me. We didn't have an appointment but we were hoping to interview Mohammed Asif Mohseni, a conservative Shia cleric. He is said to be the man behind the controversial Shia state law, a law critics say strips Afghan Shia women of many rights. While security was checking our bags, one guard said that Mohseni had been waiting for us. I tried explaining that we did not have an appointment. Nonetheless, we were sent back to where Mohseni was waiting. Before entering the room I was cautioned by a guard to make sure none of my hair was showing below my headscarf. They were apologetic; one even asked me to zip up my sweater higher because too much of my neck was exposed. I complied, tucking in my hair and zipping my sweater as high as it could go. Now paranoid about the design holes in my scarf that exposed parts of my hair, I took off my shoes to enter. As we walked in, Mohseni, an older man with a white beard wearing a Shia-style turban called a \"dulband\" was sitting on a brown couch. He looked at the two men who brought us in and said, \"These aren't the two I was waiting for.\" I explained that we just showed up for an interview because we did not have a number to reach him. He smiled and said, \"I guess you are in luck.\" Mohseni welcomed us and asked me to translate his warm welcome to our Scottish cameraman. As the interview started, I noticed that Mohseni avoided my eyes. I wondered if it was because I was female. I was also prepared for verbal attacks; a journalist friend told me that when he brought a western journalist to interview Mohseni a few days ago, the journalist ended up having more questions thrown at him than he was able to ask. But it didn't take long for Mohseni to warm up and explain why Shia state law is just and a part of Islam. Those who don't agree don't understand it, he said. \"The law ... which I created I see as correct for both men and women,\" he said. \"We have given rights to both men and women, even better than rights given to women in the West. We give women more in this law.\" I asked him about reports that if a woman does not comply in having sexual relations with her husband, then the husband can refuse to feed her. \"Yes, I said that,\" Mohseni said looking me in the eye. \"When a couple marries, sex is a part of marriage, and they agree to that.\" He went on to explain that a woman isn't obliged to have sexual relations every single night or if she is told by her doctor to refrain. But otherwise it is her obligation and something she signed up for when she got married. He calls it the wife's duty. Mohseni added that a wife wearing makeup \"prevents a man from thinking about other women on the streets and he can just think of his wife.\" He continued: \"It is natural that women (wear makeup). Don't they in the West? Their women wear it on the streets and in shops. Women should put make-up on for their husbands as it will increase the love and attraction between the two.\" The cleric also explained that a woman is not required to ask the permission of a man to leave the house if she has a job and needs to go to work. But they do need to get permission if they are leaving for other reasons. More importantly, he said, a couple needs to make clear the day they marry whether or not she will need permission to leave the home. If they disagree then they should not get married. \"Like, you are working for CNN,\" he said. \"If your boss tells you, you'll be working for 8 hours a day, then you're responsible for that. It's the same here. They both have to agree on it.\" According to Mohseni, the West is imposing its beliefs on the Muslim world because they don't understand. However, it's not just people in the West who are opposed to this law. Many Afghans, men and women, have vehemently resisted it. They fear it will set women back after the progress that has been made in the last seven years. Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, has been working for a year now, trying to amend certain articles within the law. \"I feel discriminated. Clear-cut. I don't feel equal in this country,\" she told us. Samar said the law does not represent Islam. It blatantly contradicts the constitution of Afghanistan, which states that men and women are equal. Critics have labeled the law as \"Talibanistic,\" but Samar says even many of the Taliban's actions were not enshrined in law. She admitted that a law for Shias is necessary but that it should be what is stated in Sharia or Islamic Law. \"One of the very important pillars in Islam is justice, there is no justice in this law,\" she said. Samar also pointed out the absurdities in the law, such as the edict on makeup. \"If she doesn't (put on make-up), will the husband go complain to the police that she didn't put (on) the lipstick? Or, 'I like red but she put on pink.'\" However, Samar didn't blame the clerics alone for creating the new law; she blamed various parts of the government for allowing it to pass. \"I think they -- all of them -- took the whole issue very superficially. And none of the state institutions, ministry of justice, parliament, senate and the office of the president, really didn't look at the law as serious as they should,\" she said.","highlights":"Mohammed Asif Mohseni is said to be man behind Shia State Law .\nCritics say the law strips Afghan Shia women of rights .\nMohseni: \"Law ... which I created I see as correct for both men and women\"\nAfghan human rights campaigner says law does not represent Islam .","id":"0e9cebe13bff5ecd2f03f28094414aaaa3cfcdb4"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Police think it started with a dispute over an ex-girlfriend. Threats were made on social networking sites and via text messages. The suspects, clockwise from top left are: Lernio Colin, Angel Cruz, Peter MacDonald and Christopher Harter. A murder plot was hatched and, police say, in the early hours of last Saturday morning, a Florida man was gunned down in his car. But the suspects apparently killed the wrong man. Now four men are in custody, and will face charges of first degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted murder. The four are Angel Cruz, 23; his brother from Oregon, Christopher Harter, 29; Peter MacDonald, 18; and Lernio Colin, 20. They have all appeared before a judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They have not entered pleas and are being held without bond, according to state prosecutors. Detectives are executing search warrants today, and much about the case is still not known. \"The victim was with two other males, in the vehicle,\" said Mike Jachles of the Broward Sheriff's Office. \"One of those men was the intended target,\" Jachles told CNN. Witnesses said multiple shots were fired, according to police. Henry Mancilla, 24 was sitting in the driver's seat of a gold Mitsubishi Galant at an intersection in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. \"They were exiting the vehicle when shots were fired, striking Mancilla,\" said Jachles. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Mancilla was with two other men in their early 20s, Tony Santana and Nick Pappas. One of them was the intended victim, but police are not saying who. \"The four men acted in unison in planning and executing this murder. Mancilla was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he ended up the victim,\" said Mike Jachles. The three victims said they had been \"jumped\" earlier in the evening by the same four men and fled the scene in a red Chevy Impala, according to a sheriff's detective affidavit released Monday afternoon. Later, a blue Chevy Silverado pickup truck belonging to the defendant Cruz drove up to the three men, according to the affidavit. The victims say they armed themselves with a baseball bat and a walking cane, when the truck turned around and drove towards them. That's when the shots were fired. Christopher Harter told police he was in the vehicle at the scene, but said he left the vehicle and then heard four or five gunshots, according to the affidavit. Harter also told police he saw his brother, Angel Cruz, in possession of a semi-automatic pistol three weeks prior to the incident. \"It could have been a case of mistaken identity, but our investigation will determine that,\" Jachles told CNN. Threats were posted on social networking sites and sent via cellular text messages by the suspects to the intended victim, said police. Police said they have not subpoenaed those records and are not releasing the names of those Internet sites. The Broward County State Attorney's office could seek the death penalty.","highlights":"Henry Mancilla, 24, shot to death as he sat in his car with two others .\nOne of the other men was the target, police say .\nThreats exchanged over the Internet, and murder plot was hatched, police say .\nFour men in custody; police executing search warrants .","id":"705c7ba899a33612903f16a0de957585e74157b2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Much has been made of the electric car driving to the rescue of ailing automobile manufacturers and saving the planet at the same time. But what if that eco-savior came on two wheels instead of four? Lean, green electric machine: KLD is hoping to kickstart the electric scooter industry with its new engine. A high price tag, a limited range, sluggish performance and the tendency not to work when they get wet, have meant that electric scooters are a rare sight on the roads. However, KLD Energy Technologies, an electric engine company based in Texas, believes that its new electric motor can overcome all these problems and kick-start the sector. It's teaming up with Vietnamese motorbike manufacturer Sufat to produce an affordable electric-powered scooter that has a performance just as good as a normal petrol-powered bike. \"We chose Vietnam [to launch the bike] because there are 22 million scooters in a country of 85 million people. That's a lot of people riding scooters in a contained area and the pollution is a concern. All governments in southeast Asia are looking for solutions [to pollution problems], but so far there hasn't been one. We believe that we've found that solution,\" Christian Okonsky, founder of KLD Energy Technologies told CNN. Rather than looking at making batteries more efficient, KLD has improved the performance of the engine itself. The company has built an engine using nano-crystalline composite materials, which it believes is 10 times more efficient than traditional iron core motors, giving an output of 2500 hertz. Together with a computerized motor control, the KLD engine is compatible with any type of battery. Top speed of the KLD scooter is about 55 mph, which is almost double that of many electric scooters and delivers twice as much torque, accelerating from 0 to 50 mph in ten seconds. The engine also doesn't require a transmission. The range on a full charge depends on the type of battery used, although in tests KLD says that its motor system extends the distance a battery can go before a charge is required by 40 percent. Cost-efficiency of components and years of technological development have created the engine KLD has the sole license to produce. \"The nano-crystalline material was developed 20 years ago, but it was incredibly expensive and people couldn't figure out how to use it in a motor. Even 10 years ago a computer, to run this kind of high frequency engine, would have been more like the size of a desk top computer. The magnets we use today that cost 20 cents 10 years ago would have cost $4 to $5,\" said Okonsky. Vectrix Electrics is another company that has been developing electric scooters, so far selling only in North America and Europe. While the performance of its scooters is comparable to KLD's, their models sell at a much higher price tag around $11,000. Earlier this month Vectrix reported financial difficulties and has been forced to make staff cuts. Okonsky, however, remains positive that the KLD scooter engine will be successful and that there is a market for electric-powered scooters. By the end of the year KLD is aiming for 2,000 scooters a month to be produced by Sufat with its electric engine. The projected retail price is around $1500, only slightly more than Sufat's existing bikes that sell in Vietnam for between $800 and $1250. \"Among two-wheelers a scooter is the best for electric drive,\" auto industry analyst John Wormald of Autopolis told CNN. \"A motorcycle is too performance-driven, so it's not really suitable, but a scooter would be. For many electric bikes with very limited battery capacity, the power is just an assist and the battery can be heavy which isn't great, if you're cycling.\" Yet the market for electric bikes -- the pedal variety with a battery pack -- has been booming, particularly in China. According to the China Bicycle Association, sales of electric bikes in China stood at 58,000 in 1998, compared with the 20 million recorded just a decade later in 2008. Watch the report on electric bikes \u00bb. However, rather than replacing cars, the majority of electric bikes are affordable substitutions for bicycles, as Chinese cities continue to grow and daily commutes get longer. Their impact in reducing pollution then is open to question, as car sales in the country continue to rise. Ultimately the real eco-credentials of electric vehicles depends on how the electricity is generated, but for helping to relieve vehicle exhaust-filled streets, especially in Asia's two-wheel dominated city centers, electric mopeds could go a long way. As the idea of electric vehicles as viable substitutions for petrol-powered ones becomes more widely accepted, Okonsky's bigger challenge will be convincing skeptics that the old problems of electric scooters have been overcome. \"I'm always asked, 'What happens if I go through a puddle, will it still work?' The answer is yes,\" Okonsky said. In fact, Okonsky says that they've tested their engine underwater and it still works. Expect a video of the trial on KLD's Web site soon.","highlights":"Electric scooter developed with same price and performance as petrol models .\nEngine's developers say it is much more effectual than other electric motors .\nHuge scope for electric scooters, primarily in Asian cities, if made affordable .","id":"2116ad938f7d0be76325fa276160bbdd6399f577"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phone batteries to a car company with global pretensions, BYD is a Chinese company that has roared onto the international stage energized by its workaholic founder Wang Chuanfu. Building his own dreams: Wang Chuanfu has turned BYD into an international company in less than 15 years. Wang's hands-on approach to running a business with 130,000 employees -- he still eats in the company canteen and lives in a BYD-owned housing complex -- isn't too far removed from how he built the company from scratch in 1995 when he was 29 years old. Wang trained as an engineer and studied the patents of other companies' mobile phone batteries, even taking them apart to see how they were made. He raised some start-up capital from a relative to create his own mobile phone battery-making business in Shenzhen, the special economic zone just north of Hong Kong. BYD's business approach differed from the likes of Sony and Sanyo by substituting an automated system for one of China's biggest resources, physical labor. Employing thousands of people was cheaper than installing expensive robotic assembly lines, and by 2000 BYD had become the biggest mobile phone battery maker in the world. Wang bought a failing Chinese car company in 2003 to enter the automobile market, and BYD now has a number of models available in China, including a plug-hybrid car cheaper than the market-leading Toyota Prius. The success of BYD has attracted plenty of attention from industry analysts and investors from the West, including Warren Buffet. The billionaire American has invested $250 million in BYD, making even more people in the West sit up and take note of the company. Wang isn't content to just compete in the hybrid and electric car market in China; he aims to keep BYD's meteoric rise going and make it the world's biggest car maker by 2025. \"It is a big ambition. In January and February 2009 China was the world's biggest automobile consuming market for those months. So based on this, China can sell more than 10 million automobiles this year. So maybe China can exceed the USA and become the biggest market in the world,\" Wang told CNN. BYD stands for \"Build Your Dreams\" and Wang is trying to fulfill the aspiration among many in China of creating a national champion; a brand with international respect and reputation of quality. Wang believes the electric car can be that product, and BYD the company to do it. \"For new energy vehicles...China is on the same level or even leading other countries. In the field of new energy cars, China hopes that Chinese companies can catch up with the rest of the world and catch up with the pace,\" said Wang. But the term \"Made in China\" still has a stigma attached to it. The scandals of tainted milk and toys that had to be recalled rocked China in 2008 and diminished the reputation of Chinese products abroad. \"This kind of 'Made in China' is different from other types of 'Made in China.' Our products have never been recalled, unlike many of our competitors. Judging from that, products made in China are sometimes better that those made elsewhere. As long as there are high-standards, Chinese manufacturing companies can definitely meet those standards,\" said Wang. China also has acute environmental problems. It is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and Wang is aware that being an entrepreneur also means having an eye on the environmental impact of his business. \"As an entrepreneur, I think I have to consider both aspects. One part is the creation of a new business mode, or the revelation of new business competition. The other is that it's for social responsibility, making our Earth bluer. \"Urban pollution, reliance on petroleum and emission of carbon dioxide are three problems that entrepreneurs have to consider for basic social responsibility,\" said Wang.","highlights":"Founder of car and battery company BYD that aims to be world leader .\nWang Chuanfu started the company in 1995 when he was 29 years old .\nMade mobile phone batteries then expanded into car manufacturing .\nBillionaire Warren Buffet has invested $250 million in the company .","id":"a5851d4fc16a05c9e2c3906f2e1206e51299e3d5"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A former police officer tearfully apologized Monday for his role in an elderly Atlanta woman's shooting death during a botched drug raid, and another told a judge he prays daily for the victim. \"I used to think I was a good person,\" ex-cop Gregg Junnier said before breaking down on the witness stand during a sentencing hearing in a federal courtroom in Atlanta, CNN affiliate WXIA reported. Junnier and two other ex-officers, Arthur Tesler and Jason Smith, face prison in connection with the November 2006 drug raid that left 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston dead in a hail of gunfire. Investigators later determined the raid was based on falsified paperwork stating that illegal drugs were present in the home. The killing prompted a major overhaul of the Atlanta police drug unit. Smith, like Junnier, apologized during Monday's sentencing hearing. The proceedings were expected to resume Tuesday. \"I pray daily for Ms. Johnston. I also pray other officers in Atlanta will have the moral fortitude I didn't have,\" Smith testified Monday, according to WXIA. Smith, Junnier and Tesler pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death. Smith and Junnier also pleaded guilty to state charges of voluntary manslaughter and making false statements, and Smith admitted to planting bags of marijuana in Johnston's house after her death. Tesler was convicted on one state count of making false statements for filling out an affidavit stating that an informant had purchased crack cocaine at Johnston's home in a crime-plagued neighborhood near downtown Atlanta. The informant denied having been to Johnston's home, leading to investigations by local authorities and the FBI, and the breakup and reorganization of the Atlanta police narcotics unit. Police said Johnston fired at them with an old pistol during the raid, and they shot back in self-defense. Johnston's one shot went through her front door and over the officers' heads; they responded with 39 shots, hitting Johnston five times. \"Her death was the foreseeable culmination of a long-standing conspiracy in which the officers violated their oaths of office,\" Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon-Peter Kelly said, according to CNN affiliate WSB. The officers \"regularly swore falsely\" to get warrants and make cases, he said. Federal prosecutors said officers cut corners to make more time for lucrative side jobs providing additional security to businesses, often while on duty and for cash payments. Johnston's family was not in court Monday. But U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes heard a letter from Johnston's niece during the hearing, and family spokesman Markel Hutchins told WXIA he hopes an FBI report of the case can be used to prompt additional charges at the local level. \"The real culprit in this is the culture within the Atlanta Police Department and the higher-ups that laid the foundation. Why aren't they being held accountable?\" Hutchins asked. The probe also led to guilty pleas by the police sergeant in charge of the narcotics unit and another officer who admitted to extortion, federal prosecutors said.","highlights":"Sentencing hearing begins for three former Atlanta police officers .\nKathryn Johnston, 92, killed in her home during botched drug raid in November 2006 .\nThe officers pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights .\nOfficers \"regularly swore falsely\" to get warrants, assistant U.S. attorney says .","id":"83a19537f7878da1783afb895acdc17a08e23cfa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Jessica Lange took a tumble in her Minnesota vacation cabin Tuesday, but a publicist said her injuries were not serious. Lange, who turns 60 next month, suffered bruised ribs, a broken collarbone and a small cut on her forehead, spokeswoman Leslee Dart said Wednesday. \"She will be completely fine and expects to be released from the hospital imminently,\" Dart said. Lange began her movie career in 1976 playing King Kong's love interest in the 1976 version of \"King Kong\" but later was nominated for six Oscars -- two of which she won. She won best supporting actress for her role in \"Tootsie\" in 1982 and best leading actress for \"Blue Sky\" in 1994. Lange owns a lakeside cabin not far from Cloquet, Minnesota, where she was born in 1949.","highlights":"Jessica Lange hurt in fall at Minnesota vacation home .\nLange suffered bruised ribs, a broken collarbone and a small cut .\nActress, 60, expected to be \"completely fine,\" says publicist .","id":"4744f26cc26ba68987cd4e9f5271a3f0d69d7f4c"} -{"article":"OSWIECIM, Poland (CNN) -- Israel's vice prime minister compared Iran to Nazi Germany on Tuesday at the site of one of World War II's most notorious death camps. Israel's vice prime minister Silvan Shalom said Tuesday \"Israel can never live with\" a nuclear Iran. The Islamic republic's alleged efforts to acquire nuclear weapons are \"not far away, not at all, to what Hitler did to the Jewish people just 65 years ago,\" Silvan Shalom said at the former Auschwitz camp. \"Israel can never live with the idea that Iran will hold a nuclear bomb,\" Shalom added, reiterating long-standing Israeli policy. He was speaking as Israel observes its Holocaust memorial day, remembering the roughly 6 million Jews who were killed by the Nazi regime during World War II simply for being Jewish. A day earlier, Iran's president caused an uproar at a United Nations anti-racism conference by accusing Israel of having a racist government and committing genocide. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the West made \"an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering ... in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine.\" Dozens of European diplomats walked out of the speech, but a majority of the conference delegates stayed, and there was some cheering. Iran denies its nuclear program is aimed at building bombs, but Israel and the United States do not believe it. CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iran's nuclear effort compared to Nazi Germany's killing of Jews .\nIsrael's vice prime minister speaks on Holocaust remembrance day .\nIran denies nuclear program has military purposes .","id":"151041c0510b69237193908decf5f51d76de139c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 22-year-old college student in Boston, Massachusetts, has been charged with murder in connection with the death of a woman who may have been contacted through a Craigslist ad, police said. Police found Julissa Brisman, 26, unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds on April 14. She later died. Philip Markoff, a pre-med student at Boston University with no criminal record, also was charged with the armed robbery and kidnapping of another victim, Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced Monday evening. Markoff, who was under police surveillance, was arrested earlier in the afternoon after a traffic stop south of the city, police said. Markoff is suspected in the death of New York City resident Julissa Brisman, 26, who was found unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel on April 14. She was transferred to Boston Medical Center, where she died from her injuries shortly afterward. Police said that Brisman, a model, offered massages via Craigslist, a popular online classified ads service. The confrontation between Brisman and her killer seems to have begun as an attempted robbery, police said. \"It appears that there was a struggle between the victim and the suspect in the threshold of the hotel room immediately prior to the shooting,\" the Boston Police Department said in a statement posted on its Web site. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blonde man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, said the Boston Police Department, which had asked for the public's help in identifying the man. Police did not release a photo of Markoff on Monday. Four days before Brisman's killing, Markoff allegedly robbed a 29-year-old woman at gunpoint at a Westin Hotel in Boston, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said. A police spokesman would not disclose the details of her Craigslist ad but said she and Brisman were \"involved in similar professions.\" \"This is a compelling case with a myriad of evidence -- with computer evidence being a part of it,\" Conley said, adding that additional search warrants would be executed this week. Markoff's arraignment was set for Tuesday morning at the Boston Municipal Court. It was not immediately clear if he had retained defense counsel. Davis and Conley warned there may be other victims that come forward in the case. \"We would like to make one final pitch to those out there who may have been a victim of robbery at the hands of Philip Markoff, especially those who may have used Craigslist in the manner in which the victim used Craigslist,\" he said. Authorities received more than 150 leads in the case, which Davis credited to the popularity of the Web site. \"The public came forth, they were fascinated by this crime,\" he said, adding, \"I wish we had this level of cooperation in every homicide that occurred.\" Davis said Boston investigators were working with police in Warwick, Rhode Island, in what could be a related case. On April 16 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, according to Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, according to McCartney. He said no conclusions could be made, but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Watch police say assailant is perusing Craigslist ads \u00bb . Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said the company was \"horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence.\" He promised that Craigslist would evaluate the incident to see if additional measures could be introduced to further protect users. CNN's Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police make public plea to \"those who may have been a victim\" on site .\nPolice charge 22-year-old Phil Markoff in woman's slaying .\nSuspect also charged in kidnapping, armed robbery of another victim .\nWoman found with gunshot wounds was model who advertised on Craigslist .","id":"55f841a34ed4f8371f4d160cc1674c1cbaf96292"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, have arrested a man whom they accused of having terrorized students, their parents and the administration of a grade school for three months. Alberto Enrique Hernandez Magallanes, 62, is accused of making phone and written threats asking for money. \"There have been threats against several schools, but this is the first time we have been able to make an arrest,\" said Arturo Sandoval, Chihuahua State Ministerial Police spokesman, after police acted Tuesday. Alberto Enrique Hernandez Magallanes, 62, is accused of making phone and written threats asking for money in exchange for not hurting the children. Police said he sent school administrators notes in packages that included bullets. Citing security concerns, police asked that the name of the school not be divulged. The spokeswoman for Chihuahua's state prosecutor, Daniela Gonzalez, described it as a private school with a student body drawn primarily from middle- to upper-class families. \"School administrators were anxious and afraid,\" Gonzalez said. \"The letters were escalating in demands until they reached the $50,000 figure. They feared for their safety and the safety of the children.\" Gonzalez said police helped her negotiate with Hernandez, who agreed to accept $10,000 and a sport utility vehicle. After he collected the money, Hernandez ran to his home, half a block from the school, where he was arrested, Gonzalez said. Police said they confiscated rifles, guns and ammunition. Sandoval said investigators don't think Hernandez is linked to Mexico's drug cartels that have laid siege to Ciudad Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas. \"He is a person that, because of the current insecurity climate in the city, has taken advantage of the situation,\" the police spokesman said.","highlights":"Police say suspect sent school administrators notes in packages with bullets .\nAuthorities in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, arrest Alberto Enrique Hernandez Magallanes .\nSpokesman: Letters escalated \"in demands until they reached the $50,000 figure\"\nPolice won't release name of private school, citing security concerns .","id":"ba84a4e209cba6ad21d4624d35bd3df358d29506"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a time of economic turmoil, most Americans are being frugal with their money, but one freshman congressman is taking cost-cutting to a new level. Rep. Jason Chaffetz unfolds the cot that fits into a closet in his office. Newly elected Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, opted out of renting an apartment in Washington, instead deciding on a cot in his office every night. \"I will save $1,500 a month doing this,\" Chaffetz said. \"I get paid a very handsome salary, no doubt about it, but you know, I've got expenses and a future for my kids and my family, too. \" In a stroke of luck, Chaffetz was one of the few freshmen members of Congress to have the chance at an office with a window when he drew number six out of 55 in the office lottery. His office in the Longworth House Building comes with a half-bathroom, a closet that fits a cot, and what he calls his \"breakfast nook\" where he stores Fig Newtons, granola bars and mixed nuts. Watch more on the thrifty congressman \u00bb . The building also has a gym with a shower room, where Chaffetz starts his day about 5:45 each morning. \"My home is in Utah. My wife and kids are there,\" he said. \"I'm here to work.\" Cutting out travel to and from the office allows Chaffetz more time to serve his constituents and return more of their e-mail and phone calls, he said. The savings are certainly a plus for the congressman, who has three children to provide for, car payments and a mortgage to pay. But Chaffetz said his decision had a larger meaning. \"We are now $10 trillion in debt. $10 trillion. Those are expenses that have to be paid at some point,\" he said. If he can tighten his belt in these tough economic times, Chaffetz said, Congress should be able to as well. \"Our country has to learn to do more with less,\" he added. Although he is a relatively unknown freshman in the House, word of Chaffetz's sleeping arrangement is spreading. Republican Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois, whose office is adjacent to Chaffetz's, said he isn't the first to sleep in his office, and he won't be the last. \"This is a job that you have to have, really, two homes. One in your district where you're there on the weekends and then one here during the week, and it's expensive,\" Rep. Biggert said. \"I'm really glad we have a neighbor here to make sure that the neighborhood is safe at night when we're not here,\" she joked, adding that Chaffetz is actually projecting the right image of the Republican Party by being a \"fiscal conservative.\" Chaffetz said he is finally getting used to sleeping on his not-so-comfortable cot, but that doesn't mean he rests easy at night. \"My biggest challenge is what goes on in the hallway at night,\" Chaffetz said. \"There's this cleaning machine that comes down the hall at night. And it's got that obnoxious beep, beep, beep.\" Despite the din, Chaffetz has no plans to search for another form of housing -- unless his back gives out. \"I've got to keep my back in check, but so far, so good,\" Chaffetz joked. \"But look, our troops are sleeping on a lot worse than this.\"","highlights":"Jason Chaffetz says he'll save $1,500 a month by choosing cot over apartment .\nIf he is tightening his belt, Congress should also be able to, he says .\nChaffetz, R-Utah, is a freshman congressman .\nChaffetz says noises in the hallway can make it difficult to sleep at night .","id":"eec8bb4d949072476e9b8e55ac89ea2901ade0f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Sudanese plane that was hijacked shortly after taking off from Nyala in the country's Darfur region, presumably by rebels, has landed in Kufra, Libya, said Sudan's ambassador to the United States. \"I believe since it started in the sovereign state of Darfur. ... It is more likely something to do with the rebels in that area,\" John Ukec said. About 87 passengers and 10 crew members are thought to be on board, Ukec said. It was unclear how many hijackers were on board. The hijacker or hijackers wanted to land the plane in Egypt, but the Egyptian government refused them permission, Ukec said. However, an Egyptian civil aviation official disputed that. \"The hijacked plane never entered Egyptian airspace,\" said Capt. Shirbeeni, the head of Egypt's civil aviation control. \"It never requested to land on Egyptian soil. ... We understand that it had a tank that would allow it to fly for four hours. It flew directly toward Kufra.\" A reporter from Al-Shuruq, a Dubai-based Sudanese network funded by Sudan's government, said passengers on the plane include some officials from the interim government of Darfur, Sudan's war-torn region. Libya's state-run Jamahirya television, citing civil aviation sources, reported that the hijacked plane landed in Kufra, in eastern Libya. \"We are in contact with Libyan officials because of this dangerous event,\" Murtada Hassam Jumaa, an official with Sun Air airlines, told Al-Shuruq. \"We want to resolve this situation as soon as we can in a way where we can guarantee the safety of all our passengers.\" Asked whether the airline received any threat before the flight took off, he said, \"There were no signs of any terrorist or criminal activity on the plane. We checked the plane like we do with all other planes. We followed the regular security checkup. We still don't have any information on what type of weapons were used.\" Jumaa also said 87 passengers were on board the plane. The hijacking follows a Monday attack involving Sudanese government troops at the Kalma refugee camp, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from Nyala. It was unclear whether the incidents are related. The United Nations African Mission in Darfur said the government of Sudan reported that its military and police forces were granted a search warrant for drugs and weapons and raided the camp in executing the warrants. UNAMID said 60 government vehicles surrounded the camp. The refugees resisted the government's attempts to enter the camp, however, and \"the situation escalated into confrontation and exchange of gunfire, with no indication as to who started it.\" The gunfire lasted about two hours, UNAMID said. \"On the basis of information provided to the UNAMID team while on site, the casualty toll amounted to 64 killed and 117 wounded, of which 49 were evacuated by UNAMID to the Nyala hospital,\" the organization said in a written statement. Sudanese military and police were heavily armed, the organization said, but the refugees had only sticks, knives and spears. Sudanese security forces reported that they were met by a human shield of women and children, with gunfire coming from behind them, prompting them to return fire. \"UNAMID strongly condemns the excessive, disproportionate use of lethal force by the [government] security forces against civilians, which violated their human rights and resulted in unacceptable casualties,\" the UNAMID statement said. CNN's Hosam Ahmed in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers include officials from Darfur's interim government, reporter says .\nSudanese plane hijacked shortly after taking off from Darfur region .\nAlmost 100 passengers and crew were aboard plane .\nIt isn't known whether hijacking is related to government gunfight with refugees .","id":"81cd433ee694c711344d5296ef22609d71f86601"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jon Hamm has a confession to make: He hates his hair. Jon Hamm poses with his partner, Jennifer Westfeldt, at the premiere of \"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\" That may come as a surprise to fans of the actor, whose slick-backed hair is part of his signature look on \"Mad Men\" -- the show that just earned him another Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a TV drama. In the new movie \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" Hamm sports a slightly different 'do, with his bangs combed rakishly over one eye. It was in the context of promoting the sci-fi remake that Hamm revealed his tonsorial frustration. \"It's the bane of my existence. Goofy hair,\" he said in a self-deprecating interview with CNN. \"It never looks good ... It's a pain.\" Hamm says he's always worn his hair long, but had to cut it for AMC's TV series, in which he plays a 1960s Madison Avenue ad executive. He says stylists on the show, armed with hair spray and blow dryers, mold his coiffure into a hard shell. Helmet hair has come in handy at work. \"I've had a piece of the set fall on my head and my hair didn't move,\" he said. \"I had seven stitches in my head and my hair didn't move. That's impressive.\" Whether it's his hair, good looks, acting chops or a combination thereof, Hamm's star is on the rise in Hollywood. Apart from his co-starring role in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" Hamm recently completed work on the murder mystery \"The Boy in the Box.\" He hosted \"Saturday Night Live\" this fall, he's due to play Tina Fey's love interest on \"30 Rock\" and he continues to receive accolades for his work on \"Mad Men\" (nominations for an Emmy and a Golden Globe so far). How does that make Hamm feel? \"Exciting is the right way to say it. It's been a good year. It's very exciting,\" he said. \"I get to read a lot more scripts. I get to meet interesting people. I get to work with interesting people ... It's fun to be sort of invited to the party.\"","highlights":"\"Mad Men\" star Jon Hamm earned another Golden Globe nomination .\nHamm says hair is a pain -- especially short and lacquered for \"Mad Men\"\nActor currently appearing in \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\"","id":"e4d85ac20037426dffbb85611491be7c8fed2fa0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Canadian ski resort gondola cars that were left dangling and swaying with terrified skiers inside failed because ice buildup snapped a supporting tower, the resort said Thursday. One gondola car is suspended above an icy creek at a ski resort near Whistler, British Columbia. In a rare occurrence called ice-jacking, water seeped into the lower section of the lift tower and turned to ice Tuesday at Whistler Blackcomb resort, 177 kilometers (110 miles) north of Vancouver, a resort official said in a press release Thursday. The lift hangs from a tower that is spliced into two parts. Extremely cold temperatures caused the ice buildup that exerted 800 tons of pressure between the two parts that hold the tower together, causing them to rupture, according to Whistler Blackcomb. The section of the lift affected by the accident had 15 cars going up the mountain and 15 coming down at the time, but they weren't carrying a lot of passengers, according to Doug Forseth, senior vice president of the resort. He said 53 passengers had been rescued from the stranded cars. No skiers at the Whistler, British Columbia, resort were seriously injured. \"The towers are not normally designed to allow for any water penetration and so this failure is a very unusual situation,\" said Warren Sparks, senior vice president of Doppelmayr Canada, the engineering firm that investigated the accident. They are trying to figure out what caused the water to pool. He said independent structural engineers are examining the tower from Vancouver-based CVMM Consulting Engineers. \"The evidence so far indicates a sudden rupture rather than a fatigue failure over an extended period,\" Sparks said. At least two gondola cars broke away and hit the ground, both from relatively low heights near the tower that split, and caused the system's heavy cable line to slacken, according to Tyler Noble, a reporter for CNNRadio affiliate CKNW in Vancouver. \"One hit a bus stop and the other hit a house,\" Noble said Wednesday. \"Another one was suspended over a creek, but everyone is out of that car.\" The broken Excaliber Gondola was not operating Thursday. Whistler engineers checked eight similar towers across the two mountains of the resort. All passed those inspections, and are open Thursday, the release said. The British Columbia Authority says it does not expect to rescind operating permits on any lifts at the resort, other than the Excaliber Gondola. Jeff Colburn, general manager of Silver Mountain Resort in Kellogg, Idaho, said a lift tower at his resort was similarly damaged by ice in December 2006. The damage was discovered in the morning before the slopes opened, so no one was endangered, he said. The damaged tower was replaced in about three weeks, Colburn said, and the resort's business was not significantly disrupted. \"We check our towers in the summer now, and we also check before we open up for ski season as well just to make sure they don't have any water in them, and we've worked with the manufacturers,\" he said. Holes have been drilled in the bases of towers so that water can drain out, Colburn said. CNN's Ashley Fantz and Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Ice-jacking\" caused a lift at a Canadian ski resort to fail, Whistler resort says .\nWater in supporting tower caused it to rupture .\nTwo gondola cars broke away and hit the ground, one dangled over frozen creek .\nLift tower at Idaho resort suffered similar damage in December 2006 .","id":"d045ab88559bb064104ce13dff081da1d76cba3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Game show host and comedian Howie Mandel's irregular heartbeat scare is over, his publicist said Tuesday. Howie Mandel had an irregular heartbeat, but he did not have a heart attack, his publicist said. \"Howie has been released from the hospital and will be back at work tomorrow,\" said Lewis Kay. \"He appreciates everyone's concern.\" Mandel, 53, checked into a Toronto hospital Monday so doctors could monitor his condition, Kay said. He was in Toronto, filming segments for a new show \"Howie Do It.\" The hour-long prank show debuted on NBC Friday. Mandel is the host of the American version of the game show \"Deal or No Deal,\" which has brought huge ratings for NBC.","highlights":"NEW: Howie Mandel released from Toronto hospital .\nHost of \"Deal or No Deal\" had been admitted with irregular heartbeat .\nComedian was in Toronto, Canada, filming segments for a new show, \"Howie Do It\"","id":"ba295636bdcc7b3f42a30f6e0d1f6e66b65ab983"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When travel author Beth Whitman was in Vietnam, she witnessed a group of young American male travelers rough-housing in the streets outside of the Rex Hotel. Americans traveling to sites around the world like the Blue Mosque in Istanbul should be respectful. In their youthful, loud exuberance, they ended up ripping each other's shirts as they horsed around. \"I thought to myself that those shirts probably cost maybe 20, 30, 40 dollars apiece, and here you are in a culture where the people may not be even making that much on a monthly basis. \"It's that sort of thing, just not being aware how off-putting that can be to the local culture.\" Such behavior, while seemingly harmless, can help to cement the moniker of \"the ugly American,\" which came to refer to loud, rude and thoughtless behavior of U.S. citizens abroad. The term came about as a result of the book \"The Ugly American,\" and more than 50 years after its publication, those from the United States continue to battle an image of arrogance and nationalism. Written by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, the novel chronicled American foreign policy and diplomacy failures in a fictitious developing nation. In the book, the American ambassador to the country is portrayed as crude and inept. That enduring legacy has not been easy to shake, and even the U.S. president knows the score. During a recent trek to Turkey, President Obama said in his remarks at the Tophane Cultural Center in Istanbul that he knows the \"stereotypes of the United States are out there.\" \"Sometimes it suggests that America has become selfish and crass, or that we don't care about the world beyond us,\" he said. \"And I'm here to tell you that that's not the country that I know and it's not the country that I love.\" Whitman, the author of the \"Wanderlust and Lipstick\" guides and publisher of \"Traveling with Kids,\" often gives lectures and workshops -- many geared toward female travelers -- and speaks on the importance of Americans being stellar representatives of their homeland while abroad. \"It's about being respectful of the country and the culture, treating the people respectfully and not flashing around your money and your material possessions,\" Whitman said. \"It's up to every individual to be that ambassador and portray their country well.\" Author Ann Hulbert wrote a piece for The New York Times Magazine a few years ago about her desire not to be mistaken for an ugly American when her family traveled to Istanbul and the Turkish coast. Hulbert took the step of vetoing one of her teenage son's T-shirts, worried that the message on it, \"The Fighting Quakers. Beat them 'til they reach consensus,\" might be misunderstood in the Muslim country. \"I think that when you are a big and powerful country, it's easy for the rest of the world to feel that you don't deal with the kind of consideration and humility that other people do,\" said Hulbert, who researches the areas she visits prior to her trips. iReport.com: Ever been to the Netherlands? Share your travel pics . Christopher P. Baker, who is a Cuba travel expert and award-winning author of the best-selling guidebook \"Moon Cuba,\" said he has concerns about what will happen if and when travel restrictions are completely lifted from that country. He recalled two years ago when he was reviewing one of Havana's first five-star hotels that had just opened. Standing in the lobby with one of the hotel's executives, he witnessed a man, dripping wet from the pool and wrapped in a towel, emerge from the elevator. The man walked through the bar, down the stairs and into the marble lobby just as the staff tried to intercept him, Baker said. \"I heard them say, 'We don't allow guests in the lobby dressed this way,' and the man said, 'Yeah, I know' in this deep American brogue,\" Baker said. \"Behavior like that is not necessarily common to Americans, but it's the type of thing that can give Americans a bad name.\" Manners and lifestyle expert Thomas P. Farley runs the site What Manners Most and said Americans tend to be seen as free-spirited and not nearly as guarded as natives of some of the other countries -- as evidenced most recently by first lady Michelle Obama putting her arm around Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. \"That's something that maybe sent shivers up the spine of a lot Britons, but in the final analysis, people really looked at that as a nice gesture and something very American to do,\" said Farley, who added that travelers should be as respectful in other countries as they would be if they were in someone else's home. The Obamas may actually be aiding in changing the perception themselves. Travel writer Beth Whitman said the mere election of President Obama has helped to improve America's reputation worldwide. \"It helped to change how we are viewed, but the real key is the behavior once a person arrives in a country,\" Whitman said. \"Some of [the ugly American perception] will exist no matter who is in office, and that's why everyone has to take responsibility for being the very best representative of their country that they can.\"","highlights":"Decades after the publication of \"The Ugly American,\" the perception persists .\nPresident Obama spoke of perception of Americans as \"selfish and crass\"\nTravel expert urges visitors to be \"respectful of the country and the culture\"\nElection of Obama may be helping change America's reputation abroad .","id":"cdfdfe6983d81dd728fb2e3ffd0e87271d9270f1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The day I interviewed Neil Diamond, he was sitting in a little room to the side of a studio, and a makeup artist was smacking him in the face with a powder puff. He was wearing a white wife-beater T-shirt and looked like he wanted to flee. Neil Diamond is riding high with a huge world tour, a successful album and a humanitarian award. It was November, and Diamond had just come off the first two legs of his biggest world tour yet -- with 64 shows in 50 cities and nine countries already under his belt. In a moment, he would step in front of a camera to begin a round of 70 or so interviews -- beamed via satellite to local television stations -- to talk up the remaining 20 dates, where he'd thrill diehard fans with such nuggets as \"Cherry Cherry,\" \"Song Sung Blue\" and \"Sweet Caroline.\" Ours was the only in-person interview he -- or someone in his camp -- had agreed to do. The singer-songwriter (who turned 68 on January 24) stepped into the studio, a man ready for his close-up. He had slipped a black button-down shirt over his T-shirt, and suddenly he looked like Neil Diamond -- the same Neil Diamond who next week will be feted by The Recording Academy as its \"2009 MusiCares Person of the Year,\" joining an elite club that includes Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Sting, Bono and Quincy Jones. He's working on a follow-up to last year's CD, the Rick Rubin-produced \"Home Before Dark\" -- which earned Diamond his first-ever No. 1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. That album came after 2005's \"12 Songs,\" also produced by Rubin, which re-invigorated his recording career. As for live performance, he's rarely had problems filling arenas -- but he remembers when he did. Watch Diamond talk about giving back \u00bb . CNN: The man in black. This has become quite the trademark. Neil Diamond: Yeah. I still wear black, but I got sparkly somewhere along the way -- especially if you are playing in an 18,000-seat arena, you like to be seen by somebody in the back. CNN: I've been to a Neil Diamond concert, and everybody stands up, and they sing every word to every song. Don't you ever want to tell them, \"I'm singing -- listen!\" Diamond: No, I don't -- but I did in the very beginning when I first realized on my first few records that people were singing along. I thought, \"You shouldn't be singing. That's my job. Let me sing and you listen.\" But then I realized that it's a compliment. They knew the music, they loved it and they wanted to sing. So I said, \"All right, let's sing together.\" [chuckles] . CNN: Whenever you hit the road, you're one of the year's top ticket draws and play to more than a million fans per tour. [Diamond had the fifth highest-grossing tour of 2008, taking in $60 million in ticket sales.] . Diamond: It's truly not until the last leg that you finally get the show down. You are relaxed with it, you are not worried about the intricacies of the show, and the last shows are always the best and the most fun. CNN: After 40 years in the business, do you still get nervous? Diamond: I don't know if it's nerves. I get excited. I want things to go right. I want the audience to love the show. CNN: For this tour, you've donated all the proceeds from merchandise sales [T-shirts, programs and other souvenir items] to the victims of Hurricane Ike in Texas. We're talking about a figure that's somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars. Diamond: Hurricane Ike hit southern Texas so fiercely [in September 2008, while Diamond was on tour], and has been forgotten about by the rest of the country -- but these people are still in desperate straits, and are in dire need of our help. And I saw what was going on. The mayor of Houston took me around, and he told me about it and introduced me to some people. The next day, I drove down to some of the hardest-hit areas, and I just felt that I had to do something, and I felt that maybe my audience would help me out with it. So we just say the merchandise and whatever you buy goes down to those people to rebuild their homes. They are still living in tents and cars down there. So to all the people down in Oak Island, Galveston, Galveston Bay and Houston, help is on the way -- and that's the message that I want to bring and spread around. The Eagles just made a substantial donation to this fund. CNN: Has that inspired new songwriting for you? Diamond: I don't know if it has inspired new songwriting -- I don't do a lot of writing when I am out touring -- but it has inspired a reality in me of what's going on. You tend to live in a bubble when you are traveling and touring. I missed the election completely. I actually worked and performed election night. The wonderful people of Green Bay, Wisconsin, came and filled the place, and I said to them, \"I appreciate you coming down, because there is something really good on television.\" I missed the election completely. I got off the stage and tuned into the concession speech. But I heard it was very dramatic, and I'm happy with the outcome. You tend to miss things when you're on the road. CNN: Right before the Grammys, you're being honored by The Recording Academy as its \"2009 MusiCares Person of the Year.\" Diamond: Well, it's a wonderful honor any time the Grammys extend an honor to you. [Diamond has received 12 nominations over his career, but has only won one award.] But the real satisfaction I get from that benefit -- that big dinner -- is that the money will be going to musicians who are facing very difficult times. It's not the most secure job in the world, and there are musicians who are facing medical emergencies and financial difficulties who will benefit from the money that is being generated. It's a cause that's very close to my heart. I have been very fortunate, and I have been successful. CNN: When you tour, you sell out 20,000-seat arenas -- but do you ever worry about a day when you might walk out on stage and there are only two or three people in the audience? Diamond: Well, that did happen to me very early in my career. So yeah, that has occurred to me. I'm always a little amazed that people show up, and I don't know where they came from -- but I'm thrilled that they are there. CNN: Do you ever wonder what you would have done had this all not worked out? Diamond: I do, and I don't like any of the choices that I would have made, or any of the places that I would have been. CNN: I hear you earned a fencing scholarship to NYU. Diamond: Yeah, I did. But you can't make a living as a fencer these days. CNN: So this is definitely much better. Diamond: Yes, this is a lot better. I love singing. I have been singing since I was a little boy, so to make a life in music as a writer and as a singer -- I think I have the best job in the world. CNN: At the end of the tour, you're only taking two days off, and then you begin working on your next album. Don't you believe in vacations? Diamond: I'm not the kind of guy that's good at laying on the beach for too long. If I'm laying on the beach, it's with a guitar and a legal pad, and I'm thinking about music.","highlights":"Neil Diamond to receive Recording Academy's Person of the Year honor .\nDiamond continues to sell out arenas, recently had No. 1 album .\nMoney from merchandise sales on tour going to Hurricane Ike victims .","id":"f6f46aa872450faa3ba4679c75840cb5bd05a2cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan military claimed it has struck a decisive blow against Tamil rebels in the taking of a rebel naval base at Chalai. Troops at Elephant Pass, the isthmus connecting the Jaffna peninsula to the rest of Sri Lanka. The \"capture of Chalai by army troops several hours ago drove a decisive blow to the entire Tiger organization, now in its death throes with the loss of the biggest Sea Tiger base in the eastern coastal belt,\" said a statement posted on the military's Web site. The military also said it had killed at least four rebel leaders and 10 other rebels in the fighting Thursday evening in Chalai, a community known for its bazaars. Government troops and Tamil rebels are locked in a battle for the remaining rebel strongholds in the north of Sri Lanka, where the the country's ethnic Tamil minority has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983. Watch a report on risks facing journalists in Sri Lanka \u00bb . Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area where the fighting is taking place, and the onslaught has intensified as government forces have closed in on the rebels. The aid agencies have asked for increased access to northern Sri Lanka, calling it a nightmarish situation. Earlier this week, the conflict forced the closure of Pudukkudiyiruppu hospital in the Vanni region, the last functioning medical facility in the area of fighting. Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse rejected calls Wednesday for a negotiated end to the fighting. He said there would be no political solution, the online edition of The Island reported. Some in the international community have suggested negotiations to give the rebels an opportunity to surrender.","highlights":"Military says it killed at least 14 rebels in the fighting .\nGovernment troops, rebels battling for remaining rebel strongholds in north .\nAid groups say as many as 250,000 civilians are trapped in the area .\nEthnic Tamil minority fighting for an independent homeland since 1983 .","id":"6e83cfe1b5692e4ccb51f9b24107c06c0810a9c8"} -{"article":"KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police in Pakistan arrested lawyers holding a public protest to demand that the government immediately restore judges the previous president had ousted, Karachi's police chief told CNN Thursday. Lawyers shout slogans Thursday in Karachi on the eve of a march to Islamabad. Among those detained were Muira Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and leader of the Karachi lawyers movement, and retired high court justice Rasheed Razvi, police Chief Wasim Ahmed said. The lawyers were arrested under an order that outlaws public gatherings. The police chief also said authorities had credible information that there was a terror threat against the march and he had warned the lawyers before they started that it would be a public danger. Up to 500 lawyers in the Karachi group planned to join thousands of other demonstrators heading to the capital, Islamabad, as part of a four-day \"Long March.\" The demonstrators plan a massive sit-in at the parliament building Monday. \"Our movement is a peaceful movement,\" organizer Razvi, president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, said before his arrest. \"When we protested the last time, there were hundreds of thousands of people and not one grass was broken, not one leaf was broken.\" The demonstrators began walking from the gates of the Sindh High Court, heading to a dozen buses that waited to ferry them to their next stop: the city of Hyderabad. \"The rule of baton and bullets cannot last,\" the protesters chanted. They want President Asif Ali Zardari to live up to a promise to reinstate judges sacked by then-President Pervez Musharraf. Among the dismissed judges was the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. After sweeping into power in parliamentary elections last year, Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went. The government responded to the recent intensification of protests by banning political demonstrations in two of the country's biggest provinces -- Punjab and Sindh. It also detained several hundred activists Wednesday. But the protesters said they will not be deterred. Their movement now, they said, isn't so much about reinstating Chaudhry as it is about restoring the office of the chief justice. \"We will start the long march from the province as we have promised the nation,\" Razvi said. The country's largest opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), is backing the lawyers -- but for reasons of its own. Party head Nawaz Sharif accuses Zardari of being behind a February Supreme Court decision that bars Sharif from holding public office. The court also stripped Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, of his post as chief minister of Punjab -- the Sharif party's power center. Supporters of PML-N have responded by holding massive rallies, some of which have turned violent in recent days. CNN's Thomas Evans and Zein Basravi contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Lawyers arrested at start of 'Long March' protest to the capital, Islamabad .\nProtesters heading to Islamabad to take their case to parliament .\nThey want judges removed by previous president be restored to office .\nPresident Zardari's party had vowed to reinstate judges after winning election .","id":"d67d2ec75f58b39b220ba0d2b1b679c81adeca5b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Pfizer is near a deal to buy rival drugmaker Wyeth for $68 billion, according to news reports late Sunday citing people familiar with the deal. Pfizer's world headquarters is in New York. A deal was imminent and likely to be announced Monday, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported. \"It is our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation,\" said Michael Lampe, a Wyeth representative. Pfizer was not immediately available for comment. Pfizer, the world's leading drugmaker in terms of sales, has been in talks to buy Wyeth. Pfizer's stock slipped 1 percent on the news Friday, while Wyeth gained about 8 percent. On January 13 Pfizer said it was cutting up to 8 percent of its R&D staff, about 800 jobs. Spokesman Raymond Kerins said that was to \"raise productivity.\" But analysts say Pfizer is clearly trying to beef up its drug pipeline through an acquisition, adding that the company seems to have given up on its own R&D staff coming up with a blockbuster to replace Lipitor. This cholesterol-cutting drug peaked in 2006 with nearly $13 billion in annual sales but will lose its patent protection in 2011, when generic versions will become available. Les Funtleyder, pharma analyst for Miller Tabak, said Pfizer is \"not feeling that they're getting the efficiency out of their R&D unit.\" He said Pfizer would probably rather do a deal with Wyeth over other competitors, because there is less overlap in the companies' pipelines. Funtleyder said Pfizer already has a diabetes franchise, which would overlap with Eli Lilly & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb, both of which also focus on diabetes treatments. Pfizer probably has its eyes on Wyeth's Alzheimer's drug pipeline, he said. But he cautions that a merger won't be a success unless Wyeth's pipeline is successful, which remains to be seen, he said. \"If Wyeth comes out with an Alzheimer's drug that works, then the deal works,\" he said. Pfizer is probably also focused on Wyeth's blockbuster children's vaccine Prevnar, as well as its experimental biotech drugs, said Michael Krensavage of Krensavage Asset Management. Sales of Prevnar, which combats meningitis and blood infections, jumped 12 percent in the first nine months of 2008 compared with the same period the prior year, to $2.1 billion. If a deal does go through, Funtleyder warns, Wyeth staffers should brace for layoffs. \"I can say with pretty good confidence that this is going to lead to some head count reduction,\" he said.","highlights":"\"It is our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation,\" Wyeth rep says .\nPfizer was not immediately available for comment .\nPfizer said this month it was cutting up to 8 percent, or 800 jobs, of its R&D staff .","id":"ee47ecf5ed7af51d771cb1089d3c7d05edb76943"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died, her publicist, Patty Freedman, told CNN on Thursday. Actress Eartha Kitt, shown at a benefit for the Actors Fund in 2003, performed almost until the end of her life. Kitt, 81, died in New York, where she was being treated for colon cancer, Freedman said. Her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, was by her side. She was performing almost until the end, taping a PBS special six weeks ago in Chicago, Illinois. The show is set to air in February. The ringtone version of her recording of the saucy Christmas song \"Santa Baby\" was certified gold earlier this month. Kitt was well known for her distinctive voice and made a name for herself in her portrayal of Catwoman in the television series \"Batman.\" That role produced Kitt's recognizable sultry cat growl. She worked in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television during her lengthy career. According to Kitt's official Web site, she was nominated for a Tony three times, a Grammy and Emmy twice. According to the biography on that site, Kitt lived in Connecticut near her daughter and four grandchildren. Kitt was ostracized at an early age because of her mixed-race heritage, the biography says. At age 8, she was sent from the cotton fields of South Carolina by her mother to live with her aunt in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, the site said. As a teen, she auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe, was hired as a featured dancer and vocalist, and toured worldwide with the company. This launched Kitt into a life of roles in the entertainment field. According to the book \"Contemporary Black Biography,\" she was adored in Europe in the 1950s as a cabaret singer. In the United States, her dance career led to a critically acclaimed stint on Broadway, including the play \"New Faces of 1952,\" which was later made into a movie. Broadway stardom landed Kitt a recording deal that led to a string of best-selling records, including \"Love for Sale,\" \"I Want to Be Evil,\" \"Santa Baby\" and \"Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa.\" She recorded more than 20 albums, worked in hundreds of television and movie roles, and was invited as a guest to the White House several times. CNN's David Daniel contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kitt died in New York, where she was being treated for colon cancer .\nHer daughter, Kitt Shapiro, was by her side .\nHer recording of saucy Christmas song \"Santa Baby\" was certified gold last week .\nKitt made a name for herself in as Catwoman in \"Batman\" TV series .","id":"4ea509ddbfe4a3e0adcf72bd6d41c6141098f2b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A convicted sex offender who was sentenced to death for killing a 9-year-old Idaho boy is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges related to the killing of a 10-year-old California boy. Joseph Edward Duncan III will answer charges in the 1997 abduction and murder of Anthony Martinez. Joseph Edward Duncan III is expected to appear in court in Riverside County, California, to answer to charges in the 1997 abduction and murder of Anthony Martinez, said a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's office. Investigators have charged Duncan with murder in Anthony's death. Law-enforcement officials also are investigating whether Duncan, who committed his first sexual offense at the age of 12, can be tied to other crimes, according to CNN affiliate KTLA in Los Angeles, California. Martinez was kidnapped on April 4, 1997 from an alley near his home in the city of Beaumont, the station reported; the boy's naked body was discovered a little over two weeks later. Duncan has confessed to killing Martinez and crushing the boy's head with a rock, KTLA reported, citing court documents. Authorities reportedly discovered the boy's body by following vultures to a remote section of a nearby canyon. The body was partially buried under a pile of rocks and bound with duct tape, according to KTLA. Duncan, a high school dropout and drifter, was sentenced to death last August for the torture and murder of Dylan Groene, a 9-year-old Idaho boy. He was convicted of kidnapping Dylan and his then 8-year-old sister before torturing them at a remote campsite and fatally bludgeoning members of their family. In 2007, Duncan pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping counts in state court for the hammer-attack murders of three other Groene family members. If convicted of murdering Martinez, Duncan can be sentenced to death again.","highlights":"Joseph Duncan committed his first sexual offense at the age of 12 .\nHe was sentenced to death last August for the murder a 9-year-old boy .\nDuncan could be sentenced to death a second time if convicted again .","id":"c2c17d21bb08171dc88f44c4bf8ce8973e46f65f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Stop brooding over the financial crisis, and start packing. Some tour operators are offering packages to Hawaii at prices lower than a year ago. The economic downturn has dealt a heavy blow to the global travel industry as travelers have tightened their grasp on their wallets. But there is a silver lining to the meltdown. The turmoil has roiled currency markets, making some once-pricey trips more affordable. Other popular spots are rolling out deals and special packages in a bid to lure travelers. Whether you're paying in dollars, pounds or euros, there's a travel deal out there for you. Here's a look at four of them. Cool as ice . Iceland was once prohibitively expensive for many people, but now the tiny island nation is rebranding itself as a budget destination. Iceland's economy was booming a few years ago, fueled by the availability of cheap credit. But the collapse of the country's financial system has reversed its fortunes. The government has nationalized the banking system and the Icelandic currency -- the krona -- went into freefall. Now the Icelandic Tourist Board is wooing travelers by highlighting the favorable exchange rate. Icelandair is offering a Christmas special for travelers from the U.S. The package - which includes airfare, a three-night hotel stay, a visit to the Blue Lagoon and airport transfers - starts at $699 a person for a double room. For European visitors, it's promoting a number of three-night city breaks (flights and hotel included). Packages from London start at \u00a3249. See photos of Iceland and other places you can catch a bargain \u00bb . Surf's up . The downturn in the U.S. has hit Hawaii tourism hard. Visitor arrivals are expected to tumble nine percent this year, making it the biggest annual drop since 2001, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. Hawaii has suffered from a sharp decline in flights from the mainland. Aloha Airlines and ATA accounted for roughly 20 percent of flights to the Big Island from North America before going out of business earlier this year. In response to slumping visitor arrivals, Hawaii's Visitors and Convention Bureau has teamed up with a variety of travel wholesalers to offer air-hotel packages. \"The savings being offered mean the cost of a Hawaii vacation can now be less than a year ago,\" John Monahan, the bureau's chief, said in a statement. Liberty Travel is offering free nights at several hotels. Classic Vacations is offering an air credit of up to $500 for stays of five nights or longer booked through the end of the year. London calling . While a trip to London still can't be called cheap, the British pound's recent decline means costs are falling dramatically for foreign visitors, particularly Americans. Concerns of a deep recession in the UK have sparked the pound's decline. In the last three months, the pound -- which traded near $2 in August -- has lost roughly 20 percent of its value against the dollar. Aside from the falling pound, some hotels are offering special promotions. The Hoxton Urban Lounge, a stylish boutique hotel located near London's financial district, routinely sells rooms for \u00a31 a night. But travelers should be warned: Snagging one of the rooms can be tough. The last time the hotel offered the promotion, the rooms -- which normally cost from \u00a359 to \u00a3199 -- sold out in 26 minutes. The next sale is scheduled for January. Into the wild . If you fancy a walk on the wild side, now's the time to net yourself a bargain. Amid the financial market meltdown, investors have been flocking to safe-haven investments. The aversion to risk has hit the currencies of several emerging market economies, including the South African rand. The rand touched a record low against the euro and a six-year low against the dollar last month. The drop in the rand means adventure trips like safaris are becoming more affordable for foreign tourists. Several luxury safari lodges have recently cropped in and around South Africa's Kruger National Park -- an ideal perch for viewing the wildlife that roams the unspoiled landscape. A luxury tent at Tanda Tula Safari Camp currently runs around 4,250 rand per person per night. At the current exchange rate, that comes to about $430 -- or roughly $160 less than you would have paid in early August. Have some useful travel tips? Share them in the SoundOff below.","highlights":"Travel deals to popular destinations are a silver lining of the financial meltdown .\nWeak currencies make countries like Iceland and South Africa more affordable .\nDiscounts are being rolled out to lure budget-conscious travelers .","id":"890c7f53206523213ebe2ad4274df82f50500244"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British singer Amy Winehouse has been charged with \"common assault\" in connection with an incident last September, and will appear in court later this month, Scotland Yard said Friday. Amy Winehouse performs at last year's V Festival in Chelmsford, England. In the incident, on September 26, the singer allegedly hit a fan at a charity ball, British media reported. A spokesman for the 25-year-old Winehouse said in a statement that she \"voluntarily attended a police station in London yesterday morning. \"She was questioned by appointment in relation to an accusation made after the Berkeley Ball last year. \"She was charged with common assault and will attend a court hearing in the coming weeks.\" Winehouse is facing the possibility of another potentially damaging court case after husband Blake Fielder-Civil last month asked his lawyer \"to commence divorce proceedings on the grounds of Amy's adultery,\" his lawyer, Henri Brandman, said. That came after Fielder-Civil saw photos of her cavorting with another man during her recent holiday in the Caribbean, while he sat in a British jail.","highlights":"Winehouse allegedly hit a fan at a charity ball in September .\nShe will appear in court later this month .\nTroubled singer also facing divorce proceedings from jailed husband .","id":"5a8ffc8fb5dd7652611451dd753882148b18a6a1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The numbers were good for \"Knowing.\" In \"Knowing,\" a physics professor (Nicolas Cage) ponders patterns in a list of numbers. The film, about a physics professor who sees clues for disastrous events in a time capsule's list of digits, overcame some pretty long odds at the box office -- going against the Paul Rudd-Jason Segel comedy \"I Love You, Man,\" the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen romantic thriller \"Duplicity\" and some fairly scathing reviews -- to emerge as the weekend's No. 1 film. Though star Nicolas Cage wouldn't have predicted the outcome, in an interview before the film's release, he did talk about the power of positive thinking. \"I'm a huge believer of the human spirit,\" he told CNN. \"I think people are amazing. I think what we have accomplished is incredible. ... If you think positive and you apply the guts and ingenuity that mankind has been doing forever, at least in our existence, I believe we get through anything.\" Cage's character, John Koestler, is a science professor whom Cage describes as \"someone who is reawakening to his faith.\" He begins the film believing that everything is random, but as the film continues -- and he seeks to alert the world of a coming catastrophe -- \"he believes there is cause and effect and perhaps even a divine mind,\" Cage said. The film begins in 1959, with students burying items in a time capsule at an elementary school. One of the children, however, creates an image of seemingly random numbers. Fifty years later, when the capsule is opened, Koestler's son receives the page of numbers, and his father realizes that they correspond to major disasters of the past half-century. Koestler determines that three events have yet to occur and sets out to meet the clairvoyant child's now grown daughter. The final event threatens life on Earth itself, and the group begins a race against time, with unusual consequences. Critics were not impressed. The film earned a 25 percent rating on the review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com, with some reviewers in full-on mockery mode. Watch Mr. Moviefone review \"Knowing\" and other films \u00bb . \"It's increasingly hard to believe that Cage won an Oscar in 1996 (for 'Leaving Las Vegas'),\" wrote USA Today's Claudia Puig in a 1\u00bd-star review. \"In the past decade, he has made some awful choices, and his range has seemed to grow more limited.\" \"It's so inept that you may wish you were watching an M. Night Shyamalan version of the very same premise,\" wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, referring to the director whose last two films, \"Lady in the Water\" and \"The Happening,\" were two of the most detested films of recent years. But the film's apocalyptic theme obviously strikes a chord, something director Alex Proyas (\"Dark City\") saw early on. Proyas told CNN in a pre-release interview that \"you can read [the film] as biblical if you choose to,\" but he prefers to see it as \"spiritual.\" \"I try to leave it very open-ended,\" he said. \"I try to think of it as more a spiritual place than a biblical one.\" Cage's character, he said, is on a spiritual quest in the midst of what could be global destruction. Rose Byrne, who plays the clairvoyant child's daughter, Diana, called the film \"kind of a theological discussion.\" \"That's always an exciting topic,\" she said. \"It's bridging the gap between science and spirituality. That always makes things thought-provoking, and I like that with any piece of art.\" Byrne said that \"Knowing\" taps into some of the end-times anxiety that's been in the air in recent years, which perhaps could help find an audience. (As she was talking before the film's release, she didn't realize how much of an audience.) \"I think it's a common thing in life,\" she said of end-of-the-world fears, referencing one of the latest making the rounds -- the Mayan calendar's Long Count end in 2012 -- in making her point. Proyas observes that given such worries, the film can be a wake-up call for such concerns as global climate change. \"There is a symbolic aspect to what is happening and what the story is about, and to get people to pay attention to what could happen,\" he said. But, he adds, it's also just a movie. \"I believe in the entertainment value of movies -- very much so,\" he said. \"I ... want to make it good for the audience. I really want people to be there and experience something powerful and resident, both in terms of ideas and emotions ... and also with this film trying to do something different. It's a challenging film, and it takes some unexpected turns.\"","highlights":"\"Knowing\" was weekend's No. 1 film .\nApocalyptic thriller stars Nicolas Cage as professor who sees clues in numbers .\nFilm taps into themes of religion, spirituality, end-times concerns, say makers .","id":"01c49c859556151a7ef19fc39286e16d6ea57a90"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary singer\/songwriter Aretha Franklin sang \"My Country 'Tis of Thee\" at the inauguration Tuesday. Aretha Franklin says cold weather affected her voice during her performance at the inauguration on Tuesday. CNN's Larry King talks with \"The Queen of Soul\" about the reality of the nation's first black president, singing at the inauguration and the much-talked-about hat she wore. Larry King: Where'd you get that hat? Aretha Franklin: Well, I bought it at a little millinery that I frequent out in Detroit. King: What was that like for you (Tuesday)? Franklin: Oh. What a tremendous, mammoth morning, evening, the ball, everything, from one event to the other, was just too much. King: How did you find out you were singing? Franklin: My agent called me and he told me that he had received an invitation and a telephone call, asking for my presence and performance at the swearing-in and the inauguration. King: Did you choose the song? Franklin: Yes, I did. King: Is that a tough song to sing? Franklin: No, not at all, but (Tuesday) it was. Mainly because of the temperature outside. I don't have to tell you, it was freezing, if you were there. Some singers it doesn't bother, and others it does. I don't care for it. It affected my voice. Watch Franklin sing at inauguration \u00bb . King: You sang at Martin Luther King's funeral. What do you remember about that? Franklin: There were very, very long lines, of course. I recall walking in the street behind the bier, somewhere maybe about 200, 300 feet from the bier, I think. I recall Leontyne Price being there, as well as Eartha Kitt. They shuttled us from one point to the other. The passing of a great man was at hand. King: How did you feel yesterday about seeing a young black man elected president? Franklin: Oh boy, how do you put it into words? There's a love affair going on with the country and Barack. I think it's the age of Barack. People have just fallen head over heels in love with him. His ascent to the presidency was miraculous. But we have to remember that he's not going to work miracles right off the top. It's going to take time. Watch Franklin discuss joy of seeing nation's first black president \u00bb . (There's) a lot of problems, and there's a plethora of things to deal with for he and his administration. King: One thing, with your magnificent voice, is it hard to sing outdoors? Franklin: It depends on the temperature. Yesterday, Mother Nature was not very kind to me. I'm going to deal with her when I get home. It, by no means, was my standard. I was not happy with it, but I just feel blessed because it could have been five above zero or five below zero like it is in Detroit. I was still blessed to be able to pretty much just sing the melody, but I wasn't happy with it, of course. King: It was great to listen to. Franklin: I was delighted and thrilled to be there. That was the most important thing, not so much the performance, but just to be there and to see this great man go into office -- the promise of tomorrow coming to pass.","highlights":"Aretha Franklin: Cold weather affected rendition of \"My Country 'Tis of Thee\"\nFranklin on Obama presidency: \"It's the age of Barack\"\nFranklin says she bought much-talked-about inauguration hat at Detroit millinery .","id":"bc802d0e95bb4e4de24b978c7fffb8d787061ce3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original \"Star Wars\" films, has revealed he is suffering from prostate cancer but is still feeling \"fantastic.\" David Prowse signs autographs during the opening day of \"Star Wars Celabration IV\" in Los Angeles in 2007. Prowse, who wore the black suit and helmet to play the Dark Lord of the Sith, told a British radio station he had been undergoing radiotherapy at a hospital in south London and was helping its fundraising appeal. \"I'm involved with the Royal Marsden Hospital appeal because I'm undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, would you believe,\" he told Absolute Radio. \"I'm having my very last treatment this morning.\" \"I've had two months' radiotherapy treatment at the Royal Marsden. It's the most fantastic hospital you could ever wish to go to.\" James Earl Jones did the voice for Vader, Luke Skywalker's father, (and also for CNN promotional links) in the films as Prowse's western English accent was thought to be unsuitable for the part. Prowse, 73, added he was fighting the disease. \"The only thing I've had is hot flushes and my wife tells me I'm going menopausal,\" he said. \"It's amazing what can be done so long as you catch it early.\" \"Every man over the age of 50 should have a PSA test (a blood test for prostate cancer) and that just gives you some indication of whether you have prostate problems.\"","highlights":"David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in \"Star Wars,\" has prostate cancer .\nProwse says he is undergoing radiotherapy at hospital in south London .\nActor said every man over 50 should have a blood test for prostate cancer .","id":"aea0ea7033300668312bb68162a6b0d70739e48c"} -{"article":"MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Gunmen attacked a convoy Sunday in Somalia and took several hostages, including two foreign aid workers from the group Doctors Without Borders. Medecins San Frontieres workers, shown here, were abducted and released in March in Sudan. Local staff said a three-car convoy was traveling from Rabbure to Hudur in southwestern Somalia, escorted by local bodyguards, when gunmen seized the group. The district commissioner of Rabbure said the only people released were elders accompanying the staff, with the local and international staff kept as hostages. Doctors Without Borders, widely known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres, did not immediately release the identities or nationalities of the hostages. MSF is an international medical group that works in more than 60 countries. It says it helps people \"threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.\" Michel Peremans, international coordinator for operational communications for MSF Belgium, which operates in the region, confirmed that the organization had lost contact with two of its staff in Somalia. Rabbure is in the Bakole region, which is under the control of the group al-Shabaab, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Al-Shabaab was once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which took over most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006. The United States says the group is affiliated with the al Qaeda terrorist network, and the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion that drove the ICU from power in 2006. The ICU's former leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, became president after Ethiopian troops withdrew in January. Al-Shabaab rejected the peace agreement that led to the Ethiopian withdrawal and is now fighting Sheikh Ahmed's government. Attacks on aid workers in the region are common, and U.N. staff came under attack this year. In Sudan, on the other side of Ethiopia, four workers from Medecins Sans Frontieres were abducted in March and released a few days later. All four -- an Italian doctor, a Canadian nurse, a French coordinator and a Sudanese guard -- worked for the Belgian section of the humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres. Sudan last month ordered 13 major aid groups to leave the country after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity. CNN's Mohammed Amin and Carol Jordan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gunman seized convoy in southwestern Somalia, let elders go, abducted workers .\nDoctors without Borders has not yet released the names of those abducted .\nAttacks on aid workers are common in the region .","id":"e3a868932cca03b08e9dee10293e1b9618f136b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's being hailed as the \"face of the economic crisis,\" and now Henrietta Hughes has become something of a media star after reaching out to President Obama in an emotional plea for help. President Obama talks to Henrietta Hughes at a town hall rally in Fort Myers, Florida, on Tuesday. Her message: My son and I are homeless, and we need immediate help. \"I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in,\" Hughes told Obama Tuesday at a town hall rally in Fort Myers, Florida, as he pushed for passage of his stimulus plan in the Senate. \"The housing authority has two years waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.\" Hughes said she had been homeless after her son lost his job and, subsequently, their home. Although her son has been looking for work, Hughes says, so far, no luck. The Fort Myers-Cape Coral area -- in heavily Republican Lee County, which went for GOP presidential nominee John McCain in the 2008 election -- has seen record housing foreclosure rates. Watch CNN's Ed Hornick discuss the story \u00bb . According to the White House, the area had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, with 12 percent of housing units receiving a foreclosure-related notice. Median housing prices in the Fort Myers metropolitan area have plummeted from $322,000 in December 2005 to less than $107,000 in December 2008, the Obama administration notes. And nearly 12,000 jobs have been lost in Fort Myers in the past year. The president offered Hughes a kiss on the cheek and a promise: \"We're going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you.\" Watch more of Hughes' emotional plea to Obama \u00bb . Some questioned the circumstances of Hughes' appearance at the event. Blogger Michelle Malkin, in a story on the conservative Web site TownHall.com on Wednesday, said that if Hughes \"had more time, she probably would have remembered to ask Obama to fill up her gas tank, too.\" \"The soul-fixer dutifully asked her name, gave her a hug and ordered his staff to meet with her. Supporters cried, 'Amen!' and 'Yes!' \" she added. One reader questioned Hughes' motives and asked how the homeless woman got to the rally at all. \"How does a 61-year-old homeless woman who's living in a pickup truck with her son JUST HAPPEN to get a ticket so she can VERY PUBLICALLY ask Prez. Obama for a HOUSE? Anyone? Who pushes her up on stage? She's right at the front of the crowd. Did she just happen to get a seat there?\" asked reader Erik E. In Fort Myers, a city of about 60,000, people began lining up for tickets to the Obama event over the weekend. Many camped out overnight, with tents and sleeping bags springing up near the front door, and all tickets were given away in less than an hour. White House spokesman Joshua Earnest said Wednesday that after she spoke, the administration connected Hughes -- who did not vote in the 2008 election because she didn't have a home -- with local housing officials, who happened to be in the crowd. On Wednesday, the head of the local housing authority, Marcus Goodson, said he met with Hughes. He said he's working on finding her a housing unit with a shorter waiting time and that he's emailed a White House staff member with the update. But it wasn't just officials reaching out. Chene Thompson -- the wife of state Rep. Nicholas Thompson, R-Fort Myers -- offered Hughes and her son a house in nearby La Belle rent-free, according to a spokeswoman, and she is interested in taking it. \"Basically, I offered Ms. Hughes and her son the opportunity to stay in my home rent-free for as long as they need to,\" Thompson told WBBH-TV in Fort Myers. \"I'm not a millionaire, I'm not rich, but this is what I can do for someone if they need it.\" Hughes will check out the house in the coming days, according to Thompson's office. In the meantime, she has set up shop in the district office where she gave media interviews. And help for the woman whose story touched the president keeps pouring in. A Web site, HenriettaHughes.com, was set up featuring video clips of the homeless woman at the rally and information about her plight. The site hails her as \"the face of the economic crisis.\" The owner of the site said Hughes has \"brought to [light] the homeless [an] unemployment problem we have in the United States.\" \"As a local southwest Florida resident, I have seen countless stories like Henrietta's. I wanted to take this opportunity to promote awareness of our plight on a national level. If you as equally concerned as I am, please bookmark this site and sign up for updates,\" the owner wrote on the site. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus package . And Fort Myers Mayor Jim Humphrey, a Republican, said Wednesday that his \"community has responded\" to Hughes' story. \"I even received a phone call from a lady in Ocala wanting to offer her $50 a month, so what we're seeing is, this should be a nonpartisan issue,\" he said. Watch Humphrey discuss Hughes' story \u00bb . Linda Bergthold, a health policy expert, wrote on the liberal blog HuffingtonPost.com that it was a touching moment that highlighted a community coming together. \"It would have been interesting had Obama turned to the crowd and asked anyone who had a solution for Henrietta to step forward afterwards. But he didn't have to. People came forward anyway,\" she wrote Wednesday. \"The dilemma Ms. Hughes described is not limited to her. ... Her request was a compelling one and it only highlights issues of homelessness that will surely get worse as the economic downturn deepens.\" CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama discussed economy in hard-hit Fort Myers, Florida .\nHenrietta Hughes, a homeless woman, issued an emotional plea for help .\nWhite House and local housing officials offered her assistance .\nConservatives question how she got to the rally in the first place .","id":"b381b3f6e3d8757695cc0d1ec2b96277d6b6d9e3"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Frances Fragos Townsend, a CNN contributor on national security issues, formerly served as President George W. Bush's chief anti-terrorism and homeland security adviser. Townsend has spent more than two decades in the fields of intelligence and criminal justice and has served during the past three administrations. Townsend is currently a consultant to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a member of President Bush's Intelligence Advisory Board, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program. Frances Townsend says the director of the CIA is not a post for on-the-job training. (CNN) -- Leon Panetta is an impressive man with many laudable achievements to his credit. Mr. Panetta served eight terms in Congress and worked in the Clinton White House as chief of staff to the president and director of the Office of Management and Budget. But his impressive credentials are insufficient to allay the well-founded concerns of senior Democrats and Republicans that he is the wrong man to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Panetta is a seasoned political operative and a proven manager -- both of which would be useful to him as CIA director -- but more is required. Accurate and actionable intelligence is among our most effective tools in fighting against terror threats. The nation has gone more than seven years without a terrorist attack and much of the credit for that lies with the men and women of the intelligence community: in the CIA, FBI, and Defense and Homeland Security departments, among others. Career intelligence officials need a leader they can count on to protect their mission from inappropriate political interference and who would be willing to defend their efforts when, as is often the case, they are attacked based on less than accurate or complete facts. Because of the critical role the intelligence community plays in protecting our nation, the director of the CIA is not a position for on-the-job training. President-elect Barack Obama had a competent, qualified career intelligence official to nominate. John Brennan served for decades at the CIA under numerous directors and in both Democratic and Republican administrations. Just prior to his retirement, Mr. Brennan served as the director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the predecessor to the current National Counterterrorism Center. John Brennan had no loyalty to the policies of the Bush administration and in fact at times voiced his disagreement. Mr. Brennan's loyalty was to the mission and role of the intelligence community in protecting our nation. Unfortunately, the incoming administration permitted the vicissitudes of party politics and special interests to derail this nomination. [In a letter to Obama obtained by CNN in early December, Brennan said he was dropping out of consideration for the job because of strong criticism by people who associated his work at the CIA with controversial Bush administration policies on interrogation techniques and the pre-emptive war in Iraq.] . The next CIA director has many important issues to confront. He or she must continue to ensure adequate resources for the intelligence community and continue to build our human and technical intelligence capabilities. The new director will necessarily review detention, interrogation and rendition policies. And at the same time, the CIA director must seek new ways to gain the intelligence advantage on crucial priorities such as terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and a host of regional issues in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Regardless of who becomes the next CIA director, the nation is fortunate that from the deputy director on down, the CIA is run by career officials who will continue to do the nation's business. But they will continue to require the tools necessary to do the job. Before abrogating Bush Administration policies on interrogation and detention, the new CIA director must learn: what is legal; what is effective; and how have these policies been implemented. A new administration may choose to make more limited use of these tools or add additional procedural safeguards. But any decision must be made with caution. Tools that the Justice Department deem legal and the intelligence community determines are effective must not be taken away because they are politically unpopular. The nation and the intelligence community deserve better and must be led with the same courage that they have displayed. President-elect Obama is off to a strong start, taking daily intelligence briefings and asking probing questions. If Mr. Panetta is to be the next CIA director, he will need to earn the trust, confidence and respect of career intelligence officials. Mr. Panetta will need these career intelligence officers to best advise the new president on the CIA capabilities at his disposal to support critical foreign policy and national security objectives. The most important objective will remain protecting American lives. Mr. Panetta is smart and no doubt a quick study. Let's pray if he is confirmed that he is up to the difficult job ahead of him. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frances Townsend.","highlights":"Frances Townsend: Leon Panetta has had a fine career in government .\nShe says his lack of intelligence experience is raising questions .\nTownsend: CIA crucial to U.S. security and needs leader who will back staff up .\nShe says CIA director is too important for on-the-job training .","id":"04e2d981d1bf347242f31be6cc949aa448aab946"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jenny's phone number is for sale, but not for a song. \"867-5309\/Jenny\" originally appeared on Tommy Tutone's \"Tommy Tutone 2\" album. Bids for a New Jersey version of the number, stuck in the minds of millions since Tommy Tutone's \"867-5309\/Jenny\" hit the Top 10 in 1982, had reached $5,100 on eBay as of Monday morning. The song is about a guy who finds Jenny's name and number scribbled on a bathroom wall. \"This is really, in my opinion, one of the last cultural remnants of the '80s pop culture era ... other than the mullet,\" said Spencer Potter, a 28-year-old DJ who is selling the number he got for free five years ago. While Potter is overlooking the fact that \"867-5309\" is an active phone number in dozens of other area codes, it does get called a lot by curious people. Potter said he has gotten about 40 calls a day since he got the area code 201 version for his Weehawken, New Jersey, DJ business. \"The minute we plugged the phone jack into the wall, it began ringing,\" Potter said. Mostly, Potter said, the callers are \"a lot of '80s fanatics\" and he lets the calls ring through to his voice mail. When he did answer a call three years ago, Potter found his own Jenny on the line. \"She had been using my number to give out to guys that she didn't like at bars,\" he said. \"It was a bum phone number.\" The young lady from Hoboken, New Jersey, told Potter she was just curious about who might be getting the calls. Potter ended up asking her out. \"I figured if she was having to give out a bum number that often then she was probably pretty cute,\" he said. \"We ended up meeting for drinks. We dated for awhile and it was actually a great friendship.\" Potter recently moved from Weehawken and decided to try to make money off the infamous digits with an eBay auction. Potter's DJ business goes with the number, a necessary provision to get around phone company rules against selling telephone numbers, he said. Phone companies technically own the numbers, not the customers. Potter said Vonage, the company that assigned the number, gave him permission to transfer it as part of the sale of his business. EBay halted a 2004 auction by the purported holder of the 212 area code version of the number, The New York Times reported. A Philadelphia-area resident who holds the toll-free versions -- both 800 and 888 -- said he values his numbers in the millions. Jeffrey Steinberg said his best offer so far, rejected several years ago, was for $1 million from a national weight-loss company. He acquired the numbers in the early 1990s for a pizza delivery campaign and has licensed them for other advertisers in the years since. Potter said when his auction ends next Monday, February 9, he hopes to make at least $40,000. He said he would use the money to take a Caribbean vacation -- away from his ringing phone. . CNN's Laurie Segall and CNN Radio's April Williams contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man selling his \"867-5309\" phone number on eBay .\nDigits made famous by 1982 Tommy Tutone hit song .\nAlong with phone number, auction winner will get DJ business .","id":"df56e8058f9a62fb6c4199c1b6a5a7adb8b9a0b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea said Saturday any sanctions or pressure applied against it following its rocket launch earlier this month will be considered a \"declaration of war.\" A North Korean soldier looks into South Korea from the demilitarized zone on April 9. In an announcement on state-run television, the country said it was ready to step up efforts to develop nuclear weapons and poised for a military response to any moves against it. \"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK are always keeping themselves fully ready to go into action any moment to mercilessly punish anyone who encroaches upon the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK even a bit,\" it said. On Monday the United Nations condemned North Korea -- which refers to itself as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK -- for launching a rocket. The United States called the launch a \"provocative act\" that violated a 2006 Security Council resolution prohibiting Pyongyang from conducting ballistic missile launches. Pyongyang insists the April 5 launch was a successful mission to place a communications satellite into orbit. The United States says the rocket's payload did not reach orbit. The U.N. statement says the rocket launch was \"in contravention\" to a 2006 Security Council resolution that demanded that North Korea not launch any ballistic missiles. The 15-member council also voted unanimously for a statement by the council's president demanding the country make no more launches. \"The Korean People's Army will consider sanctions to be applied against the DPRK under various names over its satellite launch or any pressure to be put upon it through 'total participation' in the PSI (Proliferation Security Initiative) as a declaration of undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war against the DPRK,\" the announcement on state TV said. \"Now that the group officially declared confrontation and war against the DPRK, its revolutionary armed forces will opt for increasing the nation's defense capability including nuclear deterrent in every way, without being bound to the agreement adopted at the six-party talks,\" it continued, apparently referring to the Security Council. Referring to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the statement added, \"The Lee group of traitors should never forget that Seoul is just 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the Military Demarcation Line.\" That line was established by the 1953 Armistice Agreement between the two Koreas -- which are still technically at war. A Friday report North Korea's official KCNA news agency, seemed to blame the \"war hysteria\" on the United States and South Korea after the two countries carried out a combined air force operation in South Korea. The \"'South Korea-U.S. military alliance' oft-repeated by them is, in essence, nothing but a 'war alliance' and 'alliance for aggression' aimed at invading the DPRK,\" the report said. \"When a nuclear war will break out due to the war chariot of the 'South Korea-U.S. military alliance' is a matter of time,\" it said. \"The U.S. and South Korean warmongers would be well advised to stop acting rashly, properly understanding who their rival is.\"","highlights":"North Korea says sanctions applied against it will be \"declaration of war\"\nPyongyang ready to \"mercilessly punish anyone\" who applies pressure .\nU.N. has condemned North Korean rocket launch .","id":"1e6e4aa8c4f1a70c4707e0970208f36fd9b2d131"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three people were killed and 10 wounded when a hospital treating victims of Sri Lanka's civil war was shelled for a fourth time in two days, the International Committee of the Red Cross told CNN Tuesday. A civilian, injured during fighting in rebel territory, lies on a bed at a hospital in Vavuniya on January 16, 2009. Artillery shells slammed into the hospital in the northern district of Mullaittivu on Monday evening. Strikes on the hospital on Sunday -- including one that hit the pediatric ward -- left 11 people dead, including some children, according to an aid worker who spoke to witnesses. Government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in a battle for the remaining rebel strongholds in northern Sri Lanka, where the the country's ethnic Tamil minority has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983. Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. International humanitarian aid agencies have asked for increased access to the region, calling conditions in northern Sri Lanka a \"nightmarish situation.\" Sarah Crowe of UNICEF told CNN Monday that aid from the United Nations was getting into the war zone only every few days. Watch video an aid group says shows civilians suffering \u00bb . \"We need open access,\" she said. \"These children and families need to be protected and they need to get out fast.\" Hundreds of civilians, including children, have been wounding in fighting since the end of last week. Government officials have accused aid organizations and foreign media of sensationalizing civilian casualties. \"It looks as if it's convenient for certain agencies to exaggerate the numbers so that this can be converted to a humanitarian crisis in the public eye, \" Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dr. Palitha Kohona told CNN. Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to \"continue with the military offensive until we liberate the remaining area under LTTE (the rebel group's) control,\" according to Sri Lanka's state-run news agency. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians and urged the Tamil Tigers, as the rebels are commonly known, to promise the same. A handful of U.N. staff are working round the clock to save a growing number of children caught in the crossfire, a U.N. spokesman said Saturday. Children as young as 4 months old were being treated in area hospitals for shrapnel injuries and other wounds of war, spokesman James Elder told CNN. \"There is just intense fighting in a small area where children and other civilians are,\" Elder said. \"The space [where conflict is taking place] is shrinking and the fighting is augmenting.\" Last Thursday, U.N. aid workers rescued 50 critically injured children and 105 adults, he said. \"We are trying to get as many people out of there as we can,\" Elder said. CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"3 dead as hospital treating Sri Lanka's civil war victims shelled for fourth time .\nGovernment forces, Tamil rebels locked in battle for last rebel strongholds .\nHumanitarian aid agencies call for increased access to northern Sri Lanka .\nMore than 200 civilians injured in past 3 days of fighting, says relief worker .","id":"2fcf35bb8543a20305dbed5e610dcd69ee244486"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After nearly 150 years in business, the Rocky Mountain News published its final edition Friday, the victim of a bad economy and the Internet generation. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, published its last edition Friday after 150 years. The final front-page headline simply says: \"Goodbye, Colorado.\" \"It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to you today. Our time chronicling the life of Denver and Colorado, the nation and the world, is over.\" The Rocky Mountain News' owner, E.W. Scripps Co., made the announcement to the newsroom at noon Thursday, ending three months of speculation and drama over its fate. The News had been put up for sale in December. The Rocky Mountain News was the latest victim in an era of shutdowns, layoffs and cutbacks plaguing the newspaper industry. \"It's in a free fall and nobody knows where the bottom is. It's kind of like water in the toilet swirling around and nobody knows what's left when you're done flushing,\" media critic Eric Alterman said. Watch how the economy and Internet are taking a toll on the industry \u00bb . Newspapers across the country are under pressure as readership declines, along with advertising revenue, while more and more Americans get their information online. \"All newspapers are under great pressure. They'll survive, but they'll survive in different forms, their costs base will have to be dramatically lowered,\" said Mort Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News, which has the seventh highest circulation in the country. The dramatic decline in advertising dollars in a brutal economy has forced newspapers to cut costs by firing cartoonists, columnists and others, leaving them searching for jobs in a struggling industry. Pia Catton lost her job as arts editor of the New York Sun five months ago, when the newspaper closed. She has taken a short-term job editing a book, but she thinks she may need to look at different careers soon. \"There will always be a market for news, you will always need to know immediately what's happening. Will there be a market for newspapers? That's another question,\" she said. The Rocky Mountain News had more than 200 editorial employees, according to the Columbia Journalism Review's Web site. Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Scripps, told employees the newspaper was the victim of a terrible economy, an upheaval in the newspaper industry and multimillion-dollar annual losses. \"Denver can't support two newspapers any longer,\" Boehne said. \"It's certainly not good news for you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver.\" The News has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post since 2001, which combined the papers' business operations in an effort to save money, but left the editorial departments separate. The News' closure leaves Denver with one major newspaper, like most American cities. \"We've been, sort of, hanging on the edge for so long,\" said Mel Pompanio, a presentation editor for the paper. \"What a huge loss for Colorado today.\" This week, the San Francisco Chronicle announced it was in danger of being sold or closed if it doesn't stop losing millions. Officials from the Hearst Corp., owners of the Chronicle, said the paper lost $50 million in 2008 and is on pace to lose more this year. \"It's difficult. It's hard,\" Lynn Bartels, a political reporter and 26-year employee for Scripps, said of the News' closing. \"I haven't returned any phone calls yet, because I don't need to be reporting and crying at the same time. I've done that enough.\" Long faces dominated the newsroom in video posted on the paper's Web site. A few sobs could be heard, too, as the announcement of the closing began to sink in among employees. \"I could say stupid things like 'I know how you feel.' I don't,\" Boehne said. \"We are just deeply sorry. I hope you will accept that.\" CNN's Richard Roth contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"It's in a free fall and nobody knows where the bottom is,\" media critic says .\nNEW: As readers shift to online news, newspapers get by with layoffs, cutbacks .\nRocky Mountain News' closure leaves Denver with one major paper, The Denver Post .\nScripps exec tells newsroom the economy, industry turmoil sealed paper's fate .","id":"17cefb0cc026a5da94646d98a65e8e2dbd52273b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Online and on the air, talking about sports has almost always been a guy thing. Former athletes and coaches banter on a more-or-less equal footing with other guys who've never played a down or never hiked a ball but have a head full of stats and an encyclopedic knowledge of the manly arts. Meshall Shuman zooms in on Hattie Lemon at a recent taping of \"Ladies in the Locker Room\" It's almost insulting to say the obvious, but there are plenty of women who know their sports, too. And they have their own sports show, one that offers an alternative to the \"testosterone ceiling\" of the guys' club. It's called \"Ladies in the Locker Room,\" and TV subscribers in the Atlanta, Georgia, area have been tuning in to its unique brand of sports commentary, analysis and trivia since 2004. Watch the 'Ladies in the Locker Room' \u00bb . The show is the brainchild of Hattie Lemon, a prolific writer, director, producer and actor whose independent crime series \"Atlanta Homicide\" is featured on the CoLours TV network. \"Ladies in the locker room are not women who think they know everything about sports; they just know the men who do,\" Lemon said. It's one of the catchphrases she uses to describe the show that immediately disarms most critics who otherwise wouldn't respect an all-female sports show. \"It's all women, all sports, all sexy,\" Lemon said. \"It's a combination of my love of sports and my love of media.\" Each year for the past five years, Lemon has recruited a new group of personalities and production crew members to punch out about a half-dozen shows. The show is captured live at sports clubs and restaurants across the Atlanta metro area, with additional time in the studio to create produced segments to add to the mix. Photo gallery: Making 'Ladies in the Locker Room' \u00bb . And for the second time in the show's history, Lemon is traveling to the Super Bowl with a handful of her ladies and a production crew to create a version of the show featuring interviews with the celebrities and stars flocking to football's big game. Soma Balber, a self-professed superfan of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and one of the show's commentators for the 2008-09 season, first got to know Lemon when she began playing a recurring role in \"Atlanta Homicide.\" They got to talking about sports, and Balber was asked to be a part of the show. \"It's kind of nice to show the audience that women can have fun watching sports,\" Balber said. \"And we want to educate women about sports as well.\" Lemon, who describes herself as a huge fan of professional football, says she hopes her show will lead more men to understand that women love sports, too. \"When women talk about sports, sometimes men look at us as groupies,\" Lemon said. \"Men don't think women understand sports.\" As for men who have never played sports but still know all the stats? They get the \"man pass.\" It's not fair, she says, but \"it is what it is. I just hope we get more women talking about sports.\"","highlights":"Hattie Lemon created show to merge loves of sports and media .\n\"Ladies\" offers commentary, analysis and trivia .\nLemon and her crew are traveling to the Super Bowl next week .","id":"015007887b47cb2267f7082c2ef90b58fe96589f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three crew members died in a fiery Navy helicopter crash near Corpus Christi, Texas, a military spokesman said, and a fourth is hospitalized in critical condition. The Navy MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter crashed in a field about four miles south of Corpus Christi on Wednesday just after 8 p.m. It caught fire after impact, said Ed Mackley with the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command. Copter wreckage came to rest near guide wires of a 1,000-foot TV tower for Public Broadcasting System affiliate KEDT, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Authorities refused to tell The Associate Press whether the Sea Dragon collided with the tower. A witness reported a huge fireball and booming noise shortly after the crash. Rescuers found bodies of three crew members about 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, Mackley said. Watch smoke and flames after the crash \u00bb . Witness J.D. Batten told the Caller-Times he was walking on his property about two miles from the crash site when he heard a helicopter overhead. \"I saw a red-glowing fireball shoot hundreds of feet up into the air,\" he told the paper. \"I heard a giant boom a second later. It was then dead silent, and I couldn't hear the helicopter anymore.\" A fourth crew member was in critical condition at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, Mackley said. \"Our hearts and prayers go out to the families,\" Mackley said. Authorities did not immediately identify the victims. The aircraft was part of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15 out of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, a military spokesman told the Caller-Times. The Caller-Times quoted a Navy spokesman who said the aircraft was on a training mission and the crash occurred during heavy fog. A military investigation will try to determine what caused the crash, Mackley said. First responders to the crash site were hindered by downed power lines, according to the Caller-Times report. The paper said firefighters and a busload of military personnel searched the muddy area surrounding the crash site for hours. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Chopper reportedly went down near 1,000-foot TV tower .\nCrash took place during heavy fog, reports Caller-Times newspaper .\nFourth victim in critical condition at Texas hospital, military says .\nThree killed when MH-53 Sea Dragon crashed in field near Corpus Christi .","id":"4812ff31b67a92cc88177d90b8510e8c40bd3c91"} -{"article":"DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- If there's anything in which Qatar takes pride -- aside from a massive construction boom -- it is providing its Qatari minority and the hundreds of thousands of expatriates working and living here with plenty of shopping opportunities. City Center Mall booked \"Freestyle Football\" artist Iya Traore, from Guinea, to help draw more crowds in Doha . You can nary drive a kilometer in Doha -- few Qataris actually walk the streets -- without passing a shopping mall. And few of those malls are lacking hordes of people strolling from store to store. From the pricey jewel-adorned head scarf fashions to budget-conscious it-could-be-rat-leather shoes, food courts to suit Eastern and Western tastes, to perfume shops selling essences for more per ounce than many people earn in a month -- shoppers in Doha are spoiled for choice. I'm lucky to have a few Qatari national friends in Doha. Each time I visit, I'm treated to a familiar, and always entertaining, routine ... passing time at a succession of shopping centers. Yes, many of you may think this pastime -- especially in America -- is for the kiddies. You are right. And yes, my friends and I are in our 30s. But there's a more sophisticated, Arab cultural aspect to \"hanging out\" at a Starbucks at Landmark Shopping Center or drinking mint tea at one of the restaurants in the renovated Souq Waqif. For many \"shoppers\" -- male and female -- these centers are an opportunity catch up with friends, and discretely flirt and mingle ... even if only by exchanging messages via Bluetooth on the cellphone. And unlike many teenyboppers cruising the malls of America, most of the adults here are a shop owner's dream: high-end, impulse purchasing consumers with a lot of money to spend -- and a lot of time to kill. Little surprise then, that shopping mall developers and management have taken to providing more entertainment options to pull in the crowds: The obligatory movie theater, for example. One mall's basement is host to a skating rink. At a recent stop at City Center-Doha Mall, thumping hip-hop beats had kids dropping their McDonald's ice cream cones and running to the center atrium to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out there's this athlete literally center stage of the mall, kicking and balancing a soccer ball -- OK, football -- about his head, shoulders, legs and back with such skill he might put Ronaldo to shame -- and doing this to the beat of hip-hop African tunes for what seemed more than just a few minutes. Guinean native Iya Traore's \"freestyle soccer\" routine mesmerized the crowd. Ironically, it distracted them from shopping -- but kept shoppers in the Mall longer and gave people something new to talk about. Apparently his athletic tricks have landed him television and live performances in Japan, Turkey, Mali, Germany, France and, increasingly, in the Arab world. Africa would seem a long way to book an act to attract more shoppers. But then again, the stakes are high in an increasingly competitive shopping mall-packed Qatar. As long as the mall remains an outlet to spend petro-dollars -- and Doha's main, all-access social networking scene -- mall developers will have to step up their game to keep consumers happy. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh hangs out at a shopping mall in Doha, Qatar .\nSpending time in shopping malls is a popular pastime for local residents .\nMall managers hire entertainers to attract customers and their dirhams .\n\"These centers are an opportunity catch up with friends and discretely flirt\"","id":"5d58585d36453b92dd9932c726b2dffa83a4cf6f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- State officials said Monday that they suspect a drug reaction or toxins killed 21 horses as they were prepared to compete in a Sunday polo match in Wellington, Florida. Blue tarps obstruct the view of horses that died at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Florida. State officials and local law enforcement also announced Monday that they are launching investigations into the deaths as scientists work to pinpoint what exactly killed the horses. Officials believe that the \"very rapid onset of sickness and death\" points to toxins or a drug reaction and also allows them to rule out other possibilities. \"At this time, there is no evidence that these horses were affected with an infectious or contagious disease, as there are no other horses affected at this time,\" according to Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services spokesman Terence McElroy. Officials are continuing to conduct tests, and Florida agriculture scientists are performing necropsies on the animals. \"We'll be testing blood and tissue to see what the common denominator was here: Was it something injected? Was it bad water? And so forth,\" McElroy said. John Walsh, the Lechuza Caracas polo club president, said he was told that there was no contagious virus airborne or disease and that the incident was an \"isolated\" one. Watch Walsh talk about the devastating deaths \u00bb . \"This was a mistake of a combination of something, and whether the mistake was at the barn, whether the mistake was at the feed company, whether the mistake was at the vitamin company,\" Scott Swerdlin of the Palm Beach Equine Clinic, who treated some of the horses, told CNN affiliate WPTV. \"We don't know, but we're going to find out.\" James Belden, a veterinarian at the Left Bank Equine Clinic who also treated some of the horses, told WPTV that he and others don't suspect foul play. \"I think this is an accident,\" he told WPTV. \"A terrible accident.\" McElroy said that despite the early indications, he does not want to jump to conclusions about what happened. \"Obviously, this is a tragic situation, and we are working hard to determine what happened,\" he said. \"But it would be irresponsible to speculate on what may have killed the horses. We will wait until the facts are in before making any specific comments on the case.\" Officials in the state Agriculture and Consumer Services Department will investigate the case with the help of the department's Division of Animal Industry, the department's Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies. The horses were part of the Venezuela-based Lechuza Caracas team and were being kept at the team's trailers on the grounds of the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Fifteen horses that seemed disoriented died before Sunday's match, said McElroy, and their bodies were sent to the state-run Kissimmee Diagnostic Laboratories near Orlando, Florida. Luis Escobar, a player on the opposing Team Blackwatch, was on the grounds when the horses began to fall ill. \"I thought it was something temporary, and I saw a veterinarian and thought maybe it was one or two horses, and the vet was going to give something to help them out, and it was going to be done,\" he said. \"But it wasn't.\" Two horses initially collapsed, and as veterinarians and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the polo club, said Sunday. Watch as vets search for clues \u00bb . Escobar said soon things got worse, and other horses started to get sick. Peter Rizzo, executive director of the United States Polo Association, was at the match and saw the horses drop. \"It was surreal,\" he said, calling the deaths \"unprecedented.\" \"It is a horrible tragedy,\" he said. Some of the 15 horses died immediately, but some lingered for about 45 minutes, Swerdlin said Sunday, according to a report in the Sun-Sentinel newspaper. The clinic is the International Polo Club's consulting veterinarian group, the newspaper said. Six of the 21 horses were kept overnight in the same trailer in Wellington, said McElroy, and died sometime between Sunday and Monday. Their bodies have not been taken to the Kissimmee lab. Escobar said he's never seen anything like the scenario that unfolded Sunday night. He says the players and trainers do \"everything possible\" to keep the horses in optimum condition, saying \"they are babied every single day, all day long.\" The U.S. Polo Association, the sport's governing body, is opening their own investigation. Celeste Kunz, chief examining veterinarian at the New York Racing Association and a 19-year veterinarian, said Monday that she suspected a tainted substance was injected into the horses. \"[It was] something that was administered for it to work in a short amount of time and have an animal succumb that quickly,\" Kunz said. \"My thought is that something was injected, because it would have to affect the central nervous system.\" Escobar, from his experience with the animals, agreed. \"When something like this happens, if there was disease or illness or virus, other horses would already be coming out,\" he said. \"Anything that would come whether it's something like this or a small stomachache, we see it, because we are there with them all the time.\" Anabolic steroids are not likely to have caused the deaths, either, Kunz said. \"It takes at least five days for [anabolic steroids] to really work, and the effects aren't real obvious at first,\" she said. \"Most of the time, [anabolic steroids] are used to build up their muscularity.\" Each team brings between 40 to 60 horses for matches. The ponies are continuously switched out throughout a match to keep them from overexerting themselves, O'Connor said. The horses were between 10 and 11 years old and were valued at about $100,000 each, club spokesman O'Connor said, according to the Sun-Sentinel. CNN's Kimberly Segal and John Zarrella contributed to this report.","highlights":"21 thoroughbred horses died at International Polo Club Palm Beach .\nOfficials say they have ruled out infectious or contagious disease .\nVeterinarians say a mistake was made; they don't suspect foul play .\nState and local officials are investigating .","id":"f214b025c698bad999fab9d9a735ce7f8afae277"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The plastic surgeon who operated on hip-hop star Kanye West's mother the day before she died abruptly walked off the set of CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Tuesday, saying he was honoring a request from her family. \"I think I'm taking up your air time,\" Dr. Jan Adams tells CNN's Larry King before walking off. \"I want to thank you for this opportunity,\" Dr. Jan Adams told King. \"Basically, I had come here to talk about things in the press that aren't accurate about me. \"But I have a tremendous amount of love and respect for the West family. They asked me not to go on. And I've said from the very beginning, I don't have a side in this,\" Adams said. \"They are my side, and I'm going to respect their wishes. I'm going to apologize to you because I think I'm taking up your air time, but I will not be on the show and I'm not going to discuss any of that. I'm going to honor their wishes.\" When King asked Adams if he would ever answer questions regarding the West case, he said, \"I will talk with them,\" meaning her family. \"When they are comfortable, then I will be comfortable. If they are never comfortable, then I will never be comfortable. They are what's important to me,\" Adams said. Asked whether he wanted to speak out, Adams said he did not, removed his earpiece and left the set. Watch Adams walk off \u00bb . Earlier, as the show began, King said Adams had received a letter from West's family, saying that if Adams discussed West's case on the show, the family would ask the Medical Board of California to decertify him. Adams' brief appearance and walkout followed discussions with his attorney and \"Larry King Live\" producers. \"To the extent there are issues about even why he's here, why this is in the media, it relates to the relationship he had with his patient,\" Alan Tenenbaum, one of West's attorneys, told King. Watch CNN's Lola Ogunnaike describe the backstage drama \u00bb . \"So until he gets clearance from the family, I don't think it would be fair or right for him to talk about these things.\" The letter from West family attorneys asking Adams not to go on the show was faxed to one of Adams' attorneys in California, Tenenbaum said. Watch Larry King discuss the strange scene \u00bb . West, 58, died November 10 after she was found unresponsive and in respiratory distress at her home, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said. Her funeral was held Tuesday in Spencer, Oklahoma. An autopsy was inconclusive pending the results of toxicology tests, coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said last week. But preliminary reports indicate West may have died from complications of cosmetic surgery, which was performed by Adams the day before, he said. Adams told TMZ.com that he performed a tummy tuck and breast reduction on West and that her death was unforeseen. But another Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon said he had recently refused to perform a procedure on West until she had medical clearance for a condition he feared could lead to a heart attack. \"The preliminary information we had indicated that she had several minor medical issues, but I can't comment on those,\" Winter said. West was taking some medications, Winter added, but could not say which ones and in what dosages pending the toxicology reports. West was in good condition before the surgery, Winter said. Investigators are talking with Adams about the surgery. Adams told TMZ.com that West's death could have been caused by a heart attack, pulmonary embolism or massive vomiting. He said he consulted with her for months and she changed her mind several times about going forward with the surgery, TMZ.com said. TMZ.com, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner. Legal documents filed in California show that Adams faces disciplinary action from the state Medical Board for multiple DUI convictions and that he has paid nearly $500,000 in at least two malpractice lawsuits. Last week, Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Andre Aboolian said through his publicist that Donda West consulted him in June about a procedure. Publicist Jo-Ann Geffen said West contacted Aboolian again two weeks ago to say she was ready to go forward, but Aboolian said he needed a medical clearance before he would perform the surgery. \"I always insist on a medical clearance for women over 40, and in this instance it was particularly important because of a condition she had that I felt could have led to a heart attack,\" Aboolian said, according to Geffen's statement. West was scheduled to see an internist for the appropriate tests, but did not keep the appointment, Geffen said. Donda West was a major influence on her son's life, as the music producer-singer-songwriter has often said -- including in lyrics to some of his songs. She regularly attended her son's concerts and was at his performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Dr. Jan Adams says family of Kanye West's mother \"asked me not to go on\"\nAdams says he does not want to speak, removes his earpiece and leaves the set .\nDonda West died November 10, a day after cosmetic surgery .\nPreliminary reports: West may have died from complications from the surgery .","id":"32eba890fecfde97d14ad42d9ce57aae1223c55a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billy Powell, keyboardist with the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died of a heart ailment at his condo in the Jacksonville, Florida, suburb of Orange Park, police said Thursday. He was 56. Billy Powell, center, poses with other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2006. Powell, who died early Wednesday, had survived the band's October 1977 plane crash in Mississippi that killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant; guitarist Steve Gaines; Gaines's sister, vocalist Cassie Gaines; an assistant road manager; and the pilot and copilot. Powell was seriously injured in the crash. More than 40 fans left messages on a fan Web site. \"Billy, you are truely free now. Rock on with Ronnie and the gang. You also will be forever missed,\" read a note signed by traceyspruill. \"I cannot believe the hurt that I have felt from being a Skynyrd fan, but I realize that it only hurts so much because I love the members of this band like my own family. We will always miss you, Billy. I can hear your fingertips rolling off those ivory keys right now. Thanks for being you. Rest in peace and may God bless you,\" another fan wrote. According to Orange Park Police Lt. Mark Cornett, Powell called 911 around midnight Tuesday from his condo at the Club Continental, complaining about chest pains. \"When paramedics and police arrived, they found him unresponsive on the bed,\" Cornett said. Powell was pronounced dead at the scene, and his cardiologist signed the death certificate at 1:52 a.m. ET Wednesday. According to the officer, Powell missed an appointment with the same doctor on Tuesday. Powell joined the original Skynyrd band in 1972, but he worked for the Jacksonville, Florida-based band for several years before that as a crew member. Among the Southern rock band's acclaimed songs are \"What's Your Name,\" \"Freebird\" and \"Sweet Home Alabama,\" all released in the 1970s. \"Sweet Home Alabama\" reached the top 10 in 1974. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Two years after the plane crash, Powell, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington and Leon Wilkeson formed the Rossington-Collins Band. It broke up in 1982. A new Lynyrd Skynyrd band formed in 1987 and included Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie's brother. It began a tour in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the plane was headed when it crashed. The band's last album, \"Vicious Cycle,\" came out in 2003.","highlights":"Billy Powell called 911 Tuesday night complaining of chest pains, police say .\nParamedics found him unresponsive and he was pronounced dead at the scene .\nPowell, 56, survived 1977 plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant and 5 others .\n\"Thanks for being you,\" one mourning fan writes on Lynyrd Skynyrd Web site .","id":"9e3f452541aed64bdd94b6825371e0fd19bf9aa4"} -{"article":"HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- Battered by the current economic recession, Hawaii's economy could get a strong boost from two key sporting events. The Pro Bowl this year was played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. It will return there in 2011. The National Football League's Pro Bowl Game will return to Honolulu in 2011 -- an event that is expected to bring millions of dollars in revenue. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann is also hoping to lure the 31st Summer Olympic Games -- but not to his city. He's actively supporting Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Games. \"How does that play out for Hawaii? Well, obviously if we get the Olympics -- that is (the) USA -- we benefit from a Discover America campaign that we'd like to see with visitors coming prior to Chicago to Hawaii or after, and visiting other parts of our country,\" the mayor said. \"What I really want to do is promote Hawaii as a great place for some of these teams to come and do a little R&R (rest and relaxation) or training before they go on to the Olympics in Chicago.\" Hannemann will head to Chicago, Illinois, this weekend to court International Olympics Committee members, who are in the Windy City to evaluate its plan to host the Games. On October 2, the IOC will choose among Chicago; Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; or Tokyo, Japan, as the 2016 host city. Hannemann co-chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Olympic Task Force, along with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, which he said aims \"to bring the Olympics to America in 2016.\" Hawaii's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, and the economic recession means fewer people are visiting the island state. With three-quarters of the state's population living in Honolulu, Hannemann said, workers are especially hit hard in the capital city. \"The slowdown in tourism has resulted in shorter hours, in some cases even a decrease in their wages, and hopefully a last resort is some of them are being laid off as a result of some of these businesses going out of business,\" he said. \"So our job is just to continue to do what we can to work with private industry to shore up the tourism industry. It is our No. 1 industry, nothing comes close.\" Tourism accounts for between $10 billion and $12 billion each year compared to Hawaii's second-largest industry, which is military spending, according to Hannemann. That accounts for between $3 billion and $4 billion annually, the mayor said. Last month, the Hawaii Tourism Authority voted to allow the NFL's Pro Bowl game to return to Hawaii in 2011 and 2012. The game has been held the week after the Super Bowl at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu since 1980, and has sold out every time. Next year, it will take place in Miami, Florida, before the Super Bowl -- raising concerns that it will not be as much of a draw because no Super Bowl players will participate in the game. Hawaii authorities agreed to allow the game to return to the state under the condition that the NFL would consider returning the Pro Bowl to the Sunday after the Super Bowl \"depending on the success, or failure, of the 2010 game in Miami,\" according to the NFL. Hannemann said the tens of thousands of people who attend the game annually have then spent \"at least $30 million\" across the state of Hawaii. Losing the game would not only be an economic loss for the state, but a \"major downer\" for residents, he said. \"People (have) said, 'Oh, my goodness, now we lost the Pro Bowl. We've had it here for over 20 years, it's been a sell-out. What's going on here? ... Everything's going to go out of Hawaii,' \" Hannemann said. \"So I got involved, I went and talked to some of the commissioners there, I changed their votes, and we're able to keep the Pro Bowl here.\" But hosting the Pro Bowl will come at a cost. Hawaii will have to pay $4 million each year it hosts the game. In a recent commentary in the East Oahu Sun newspaper, writer Joe Edwards questioned whether the cost of hosting the game would come at the expense of projects more vital to residents -- such as a long-awaited rail transit project. \"Don't get me wrong: I like the Pro Bowl. I've been to several. It's a great show. But our own citizens, and our own football team, should come well before the NFL,\" Edwards wrote. Hannemann insists that despite the recession, he will be able to deliver on his campaign promise of a public rail system in Honolulu, which is scheduled to break ground this year. \"Even under the rubric of a stimulus package, we're going to get some monies there to push this out,\" Hannemann said, noting that Hawaii's senior U.S. senator, Daniel Inouye, is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He also said the measure is supported by President Barack Obama, who was born and grew up in Hawaii. \"These are tough times, but if there's a necessary project -- what I call a need-to-have versus a nice-to-have -- I'm going to make all the justification in the world and then we're going to do it,\" he said.","highlights":"NFL's Pro Bowl will return to Hawaii in 2011 .\nMayor hopes Chicago gets the Olympics -- and that attendees stop off in Hawaii .\nHawaii's economy is heavily dependent on tourism .\nOne writer questions the cost of hosting the Pro Bowl .","id":"2bb7ebc7645e899dbb65b04881a96c22bc4e4607"} -{"article":"BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- One person credits bad weather and the other a long line. An investigator works the scene of the plane crash Friday outside Buffalo, New York. Those are the reasons two would-be passengers did not fly on Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed Thursday outside Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground. \"It could have been me,\" David Becony said from his home in Springville, New York, as he watched television reports on the crash and its fiery aftermath. \"My wife would have been with all those families\" who had loved ones on the plane. Becony missed the flight from Newark-Liberty International Airport to Buffalo Niagara International Airport because bad weather had delayed his earlier flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Newark. Unable to get another flight and unable to find a hotel room near the airport, the supervisor for a demolition company decided to camp out on a seat in the terminal. Watch how airlines have reacted to crash \u00bb . When he found out the plane he was to have taken had crashed, he called his wife, Marti, at their home outside Buffalo. \"He broke down, and I broke down,\" she said. \"We just couldn't believe it.\" Becony spent a sleepless night in Newark and then returned Friday morning to Buffalo -- on another Continental Connection flight. It wasn't a smooth ride, Becony said of his Friday flight. \"It was weird, shaky, knowing it was the same type of aircraft.\" That type of aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air for Continental Connection's regional service. \"I'm still in shock, really,\" said 49-year-old Becony, a Catholic. \"God was looking over me.\" Becony is keeping his unused ticket for Flight 3407 as a reminder of how close he came. His wife said friends and family called all morning to check on his safety. \"It is wow,\" she said. \"It's been unbelievable. We're happy. We're sad for everybody else.\" Asked how her husband's close call would affect the family, which includes two children and two grandchildren, she said, \"I think we'll probably appreciate each other a lot more.\" Susan Reinhardt, 49, a marketer for Verizon, had a confirmed seat on a 4:30 p.m. flight from Newark to Buffalo, but it was delayed for four hours because of bad weather, and she was looking for alternatives. Using her Blackberry to search Continental's Web site, she noted that the 7 p.m. flight was delayed by only about 20 minutes, so she asked the gate agent whether she could get on the standby list for that flight. \"He said, 'It's pretty open ... easy eight standby seats. You won't have a problem getting on it,' she said . \"I said, 'Can you put me on standby?' He said, 'No, you've got to go on the customer service line.' \" But that line \"was a gazillion deep because of all the delays,\" enough to dissuade her from making the switch. \"I said, ehhh.\" When she heard about the crash, Reinhardt was happy for her good fortune but shaken nevertheless. \"The heart-wrenching piece for me was, I was at the gate talking to this gate agent, and a young woman came up and she wanted to know: Should she stay on the 7 o'clock flight because of all the delays? Did the gate agent think the 4:30 was going to get out before the 7? \"He said, 'No, you will still get in before the 4:30,' and she said, 'OK, I'm going to stay on the 7 o'clock; I'm calling my boyfriend.' And she did.\" For a while, the two women stood together at the gate, both of them using their Blackberries to study the flight information. Then, they went their separate ways. \"I said, 'Good for you. Have a nice trip.' That's the killer for me.\" Reinhardt said her flight was uneventful. She and the other passengers landed at the airport in Buffalo shortly before 11 p.m., oblivious to what had happened just minutes before and a few miles away. \"I walked out, and I saw all these people standing there, and I'm thinking, 'It's Thursday at 11 at night. Why are all these people in Buffalo? Who are they waiting for?' Watch witnesses describe fiery crash \u00bb . \"They were waiting for that plane that didn't come in. Of course, I didn't know that until I got to my car, and then my phone starts ringing.\" Reinhardt said the close call has made her \"a little more philosophical where, if it wasn't my time, OK, it wasn't my time. What is the meaning of my life now? What am I supposed to do because it wasn't my time? I've had several people say, you know, sometimes you can't ask why. It just is the way it is.\" Reinhardt said she plans to go to one of the memorial services. \"I think I need to do that for some kind of closure.\" CNN's Tom Watkins contributed to this report.","highlights":"David Becony misses flight due to bad weather that delayed previous flight .\nSusan Reinhardt says line to switch flights was \"a gazillion deep\"\nClose call has made both of them more reflective, they say .","id":"9e51b0e616337cd993355517f7e7068b5e792699"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- NYPD officers on counter-terrorism patrol helped deliver a baby during morning rush hour in the middle of New York's bustling Penn Station Wednesday. Caesar Penn Boothe was delivered under the Penn Station departures sign at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday. \"Forget the ambulance, forget everything else -- I'm going to have the baby right here,\" new mother Marie Boothe recalled at a news conference later in the day. Three members of the police department's counter-terrorism patrol team who were in the station and an Amtrak police officer stepped in to help deliver the seven-pound baby boy under the departures sign at 7:20 a.m. The newborn was greeted by fellow commuters in typical New York City fashion. \"They started yelling, 'Name him Penn, after Penn Station!'\" said Marie Medina, one of the NYPD officers who aided in the special delivery. Caesar Penn Boothe, whose middle name reflects his birthplace, was taken to Bellevue Hospital along with his mother, and the two were reported to be doing well.","highlights":"\"Forget the ambulance ... I'm going to have the baby right here,\" said mother .\nBaby named Caesar Penn Boothe; middle name reflects his birthplace .\nThree counter-terrorism patrol officers and Amtrak police officer helped deliver baby .","id":"66a241321e61cb8bd708b827281c5e7dbb906036"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Buy a $175,000 package to attend the Oscars and you might buy yourself trouble, lawyers for the Academy Awards warn. The 81st annual Academy Awards will be held on February 22 from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. The advertising of such packages -- including four tickets to the upcoming 81st annual Academy Awards and a hotel stay in Los Angeles, California -- has prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to sue an Arizona-based company. The Academy accused the company Experience 6 of selling \"black-market\" tickets, because tickets to the lavish movie awards show cannot be transferred or sold. Selling tickets could become a security issue that could bring celebrity stalkers or terrorists to the star-studded event, says the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in the Central District of California. \"Security experts have advised the Academy that it must not offer tickets to members of the public and must know identities of the event attendees,\" the lawsuit says. \"In offering such black-market tickets, defendants are misleading the public and the ticket buyers into thinking that purchasers will be welcomed guests, rather than as trespassers, when they arrive for the ceremony.\" Experience 6 did not return calls from CNN for comment. On Tuesday morning, tickets to the event were still being advertised on the company's Web site. The Oscars will be presented February 22 from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. The Academy Awards broadcast will air on ABC. Hugh Jackman is scheduled to host.","highlights":"Academy sues Arizona-based company over sales of Oscar packages .\nTickets to lavish movie awards show cannot be transferred or sold, Academy says .\nPackage includes four tickets to 81st annual Academy Awards, L.A. hotel stay .\nSelling tickets could become a security issue, according to lawsuit .","id":"f24225ef0e0b719208c4055c7d7e0f16a362d3d7"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Supermodel and television host Tyra Banks said Sunday she's \"concerned\" about Saturday's melee at an \"America's Next Top Model\" audition at a New York hotel but said she didn't know what caused the disturbance. Supermodel Tyra Banks, who hosts \"America's Next Top Model,\" says she's not certain what triggered the fight. \"We are concerned by the events that occurred Saturday afternoon in the vicinity of the New York City casting call for the next cycle of 'America's Next Top Model,' \" Banks, who hosts and produces the show, said in a joint statement with executive producer Ken Mok. \"At this time, we still don't know all the details of what happened or what triggered the incident. We appreciate the efforts of the NYPD and will assist them in any way possible in this matter,\" the statement said. It remained unclear Sunday what happened in the crowd waiting for the audition at the Park Central New York Hotel in Manhattan. Three people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot, police said. Six people were injured and two of them sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said. Watch police try to control the screaming crowd \u00bb . The audition was shut down after the incident, authorities said. Calls to Park Central management were not immediately returned Saturday. The \"Top Model\" competition, aired by the CW network, is in its 12th cycle.","highlights":"Police: 3 people were arrested Saturday after melee at a TV show audition .\n\"America's Next Top Model\" audition was held at a New York hotel, police say .\nTyra Banks, show's host, says she doesn't know what triggered the melee .\nAuthorities: Six people were injured; two sought treatment at a hospital .","id":"37130325cfc7a6da21bfc8aa84c76163d3ae2fb0"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Letters containing white powder were mailed to 16 U.S. embassies across Europe, according to the State Department on Wednesday. Emergency services surround U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain. The substance has proved to be harmless in 15 locations with results still pending for the final embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said. He said the list of U.S. embassies where the powder was received includes Berlin, Germany; Bern, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Bucharest, Romania; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France; Reykjavik, Iceland; Riga, Latvia; Rome, Italy; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; and The Hague. An envelope, containing what testing revealed to be white flour, prompted the U.S. Embassy in Madrid to close the staff entrance on Wednesday, a U.S. embassy official told CNN. Mail at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid is received near the front entrance and was closed amid security concerns, he said, though most employees remained at work. \"We know where the package is coming from,\" the official said, but declined to elaborate. The official spoke on coindition on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. He described the incident as \"very serious\" but went on to say there is probably \"more commotion\" outside the embassy, where local media reported police and ambulances had gathered. A similar letter was mailed to the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Tuesday, embassy spokeswoman Melissa Ford said Wednesday. She said the contents of that envelope \"still aren't in,\" contrary to Wood's statement. \"It usually takes more than 24 hours (for the cultures), so perhaps we'll know later today or early tomorrow,\" Ford told CNN. CNN's Elise Labott and Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sixteen U.S. embassies in Europe receive mail containing white powder .\nTests show powder harmless in 15 cases; results pending in 16th case .\nU.S. embassy official in Madrid: \"We know where the package is coming from\"","id":"edce56899d02d56f9e0f512aeb427bf27fae594d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- -- Federal officials have fined Exxon Mobil more than $6 million after it violated a three-year-old agreement to decrease air pollution at four of its refineries. Exxon Mobil's refinery in Baytown, Texas, is one of four that the EPA said had high sulfur emissions. The Justice Department announced Wednesday that the oil giant agreed to pay $6.1 million after Environmental Protection Agency officials determined the company had not sufficiently reduced sulfur emissions in its refineries in Baytown and Beaumont, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Torrance, California. Exxon Mobil had paid a $7.7 million fine in its original 2005 agreement with the government and promised to install new emissions controls at the refineries. The petroleum company said after the latest settlement its refineries now meet the required EPA standards on sulfur emissions. The company's role in environmental pollution has been in the spotlight ever since the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the company to pay $507 million in punitive damages from the incident, down from an original $2.5 billion judgment.","highlights":"EPA says company had not sufficiently reduced sulfur emissions at four refineries .\nThe facilities in question are in Texas, Louisiana and California .\nExxon Mobil says refineries now meet EPA standards on sulfur emissions .","id":"d4f28a51af3fd56dbafd357f0c64657b087b8502"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University . Economist Jeffrey Miron says the stimulus guideline should be -- first, do no harm. CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- When libertarians question the merit of President Obama's stimulus package, a frequent rejoinder is, \"Well, we have to do something.\" This is hardly a persuasive response. If the cure is worse than the disease, it is better to live with the disease. In any case, libertarians do not argue for doing nothing; rather, they advocate eliminating or adjusting policies that are bad for the economy independent of the recession. Here is a stimulus package that libertarians can endorse: . Repeal the Corporate Income Tax: Repeal would spur investment, improve the transparency of corporate accounting, slash compliance costs, and avoid the distortions caused by the special-interest provisions in the tax code. Repeal can work fast, by raising companies' share prices, increasing cash flow, and allowing corporations to lessen their need for bank lending. Thus repeal provides short-run stimulus and enhances long-run efficiency. Recent estimates suggest that tax cuts are at least as effective as spending increases in raising GDP. The adverse impact on the deficit is likely to be less than the $300-$350 billion in revenue the corporate tax takes in per year, since repeal spurs growth and therefore the revenue from other taxes. Increase Carbon Taxes While Lowering Marginal Tax Rates: Reasonable people disagree about how much the U.S. should reduce its use of fossil fuels, but crowded highways, air pollution, and global warming all suggest that some reduction is desirable. The effective way to accomplish this is higher gasoline or other carbon taxes, not the messy, complicated green spending in the Obama plan that will morph into pork in many cases. If higher carbon taxes are combined with lower marginal tax rates, the private sector faces better incentives on both counts. This approach avoids the higher deficits implied by Obama's green initiatives. Moderate the Growth of Entitlements: The elephant in the room amidst the stimulus debate is the impending imbalance in Social Security and Medicare as the baby boom generation moves into retirement. Without reductions in benefits, taxes will have to increase substantially, generating a major drag on the U.S. economy. A reasonable response is to raise the age of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare, consistent with the increases in life expectancy and health that have occurred in past decades. This restructuring would reassure markets about the U.S.'s long-run fiscal balance. This means foreigners will continue to be willing to hold U.S. debt, so U.S. borrowing costs will remain moderate. Eliminate Wasteful Spending: Most discussion of the stimulus focuses on areas where, according to proponents, government spending should be higher. Much current expenditure, however, is wasteful. Examples include agricultural subsidies, bloated transportation projects like the Big Dig in Boston, misguided infrastructure projects like the New Orleans levees (why encourage people to live below sea level?), ineffective weapons systems, pork barrel spending, and subsidies for Amtrak and the Post Office (buses are more efficient than railways, and Fedex is more efficient than the Post Office). Everyone knows the U.S.'s long-run deficit picture is dismal. We should address this by cutting inefficient spending now. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan: President Obama plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq over the next eighteen months, while expanding U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. It is hard to see, however, that any good arises from dragging out our Iraq exit or from staying in Afghanistan. The government should move toward faster withdrawal, and from both countries. The U.S. can redeploy these troops where useful, or release the resources to civilian uses. Limit Union Power: Later this year, Congress is likely to vote on the card check bill, a new law that facilitates unionization. The law eliminates the presumption of a secret ballot, which means union organizers can pressure employees into accepting representation. Laws that protect unions are problematic. Unions raise wages above market levels, increasing unemployment. Thus the Obama administration can signal American business that it cares about efficiency, not just redistribution of wealth, by opposing the card check bill. Better yet, it can repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, which inflates labor costs in federal contracts. Renew the U.S. Commitment to Free Trade: One crucial danger in the current environment is that the U.S. and other countries will embrace protectionist policies. The U.S. enacted prohibitive tariffs during the Great Depression, and many trading partners retaliated. World trade plummeted, contributing to the economic misery. The Obama fiscal stimulus risks reviving this insanity, since both the House and Senate bills require that certain stimulus-funded projects use U.S. equipment and goods. The administration should oppose these provisions. More generally, President Obama and his economic advisors should state -- no, scream -- that America is unambiguously committed to free trade. Expand Legal Immigration: Radical changes in immigration policy seem unlikely in the near future, but one specific change is compelling: an increased quota for H-1B visas, which go to workers with technical skills seeking employment in U.S. industry. The annual quota for such visas was 195,000 as recently as 2000, but it now stands at only 65,000. A major increase in this quota would be a boon to American scientific and engineering productivity. More broadly, expanding immigration is the most effective method the U.S. has for aiding poor citizens of foreign countries and for influencing repressive governments. Stop Bailing out Businesses that Took on Too Much Risk: Popular opinion blames deregulation and private sector greed for the financial meltdown, but the reality is more subtle. Existing regulation was ineffective at preventing excessive risk-taking, and the private sector did its best to profit from the incentives that were in place. The extreme increase in risk-taking, however, would not have occurred absent policies that encouraged such risk (e.g., Fannie Mae or the Fed's reassurances about housing bubbles) or past bailouts that cushioned the losses from private risk-taking. One crucial response to any crisis is learning to avoid the next one. The lesson this time is that rewarding risk generates more risk. The U.S. should therefore stop bailing out banks, automakers, homeowners, or anyone else. The libertarian view, then, is that many desirable policy changes involve less government, not more. Even changes that are inconsistent with the Keynesian stimulus framework, such as reductions in military spending, make sense when the spending is wasteful. It is tempting to believe that every problem has a solution, but the reality is not so nice. It is possible, even likely, that the best we can do is fix things we know how to fix, and then get out of the way. This may not ameliorate the current situation, but it avoids making things worse. In economics as in medicine -- first, do no harm. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeffrey Miron.","highlights":"Jeffrey Miron: Key rule of stimulus plan should be: first, do no harm .\nHe says plan should repeal the corporate income tax, raise retirement age .\nMiron says \"buy American\" rules should be avoided and free trade backed .\nMiron: Government shouldn't make it easier for unions to organize .","id":"345d190230262d3a94d9ce54159555b68bf288fa"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Natasha Richardson, a film star, Tony-winning stage actress and member of the famed Redgrave acting family, died Wednesday after suffering injuries in a ski accident, according to a family statement. She was 45. Natasha Richardson fell on a beginners' slope in Canada. Richardson, wife of actor Liam Neeson, was injured Monday in a fall on a ski slope at a Quebec resort about 80 miles northwest of Montreal. Richardson's family released a statement saying, \"Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.\" According to a statement from Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, Richardson fell during a lesson on a beginners' trail. Watch a report on Richardson's life \u00bb . \"She did not show any visible sign of injury, but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor,\" the statement said. Richardson, accompanied by her instructor, returned to her hotel, but about an hour after the fall was \"not feeling good,\" the statement said. An ambulance was called, and Richardson was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. From there she was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Friends and colleagues were saddened by her death. \"Natasha was brilliant, beautiful, funny, talented beyond measure, as emotionally raw as she was razor sharp,\" said Jodie Foster, who worked with Richardson in \"Nell,\" in a statement. \"Tasha loved fiercely and that love continues in all of us who knew her. May Liam, her beautiful boys and her loving family hold her close as they move through this tragic moment.\" \"Natasha combined the best of [her parents, Vanessa] Redgrave and [Tony] Richardson: the enormous depth and emotional force of a great actor on the one hand, and the intelligence and objectivity of a great director on the other. She was a one-of-a-kind, a magnificent actress,\" said director Sam Mendes in a statement. Mendes directed Richardson in her Tony-winning \"Cabaret\" performance. Richardson was practically born to perform. Her grandfather, Sir Michael Redgrave, was a famed British actor. Her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, is an Oscar-winning actress, and her father, the late director Tony Richardson, helmed such films as \"Look Back in Anger,\" \"The Entertainer\" and the Oscar-winning \"Tom Jones.\" Natasha Richardson's uncle Corin Redgrave, aunt Lynn Redgrave, and sister Joely Richardson are also noted performers. But being part of a family of actors wasn't always easy for Richardson. Her parents divorced when she was 4 and her mother, involved in controversial political causes, gave away a lot of money, putting the family in financial straits, according to the BBC. Then there was the family heritage, of which Richardson once said, \"Though my name opened doors it didn't get me work, and a lot of pressure comes from having a mother who is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation,\" the BBC reported. In 2007, Richardson worked with her mother in the film \"Evening.\" Richardson said she made one point to director Lajos Koltai about the relatives working together. \"This is a unique opportunity,\" she said she told him. \"This is the one time my mother and I are going to play mother and daughter on screen, so you've got to take advantage of it.\" Watch Richardson talk about working with her mom \u00bb . Richardson's first film role was a bit part in her father's \"The Charge of the Light Brigade\" (1968), made when she was 4. After a handful of roles through her teens and early 20s, she broke through as Mary Shelley in Ken Russell's film \"Gothic,\" and followed that up as Patty Hearst in Paul Schrader's 1988 film of the same name. iReport.com: Share memories of Richardson . Richardson's other notable films included \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (1990); the TV movie \"Zelda\" (1993); \"Nell\" (1994), alongside Neeson, whom she married in 1994; the 1998 remake of \"The Parent Trap\"; and \"Wild Child\" (2008). Watch Larry King and his panel talk about Richardson's career and death \u00bb . But some of Richardson's greatest successes were on the stage. At 22, she played opposite her mother and Jonathan Pryce in a London production of Anton Chekhov's \"The Seagull\"; the performance earned her the London Drama Critics' most promising newcomer award. She won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of \"Cabaret\" and earned raves for her Blanche DuBois in a 2005 production of \"A Streetcar Named Desire.\" She was scheduled to perform in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's \"A Little Night Music\" this year, following a January benefit performance of the show. She and Neeson have two children, Michael and Daniel. Richardson was married to Robert Fox from 1990 to 1994.","highlights":"Actress Natasha Richardson fell Monday while skiing .\nRichardson appeared fine, but became ill soon after .\nActress, 45, was daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, wife of Liam Neeson .\nFamily says they are \"shocked and devastated,\" thank all for support .","id":"4178e02b7d7c6a3e7371d4bf260cdb3b17da8629"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen married National Football League star Tom Brady Thursday in an \"intimate\" sunset ceremony, US Weekly magazine reported on its Web site. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen attend a Metropolitan Museum of Art gala May 5, 2008, in New York City. The couple wed at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, in front of mostly immediate family members, the entertainment magazine reported. The two had dated since 2006. The bride wore a Dolce & Gabbana gown. Her three dogs, which attended the ceremony, wore matching Dolce & Gabbana floral lace collars, the Web site said. Bundchen, 28, is the highest-paid model in the world, the business Web site Forbes.com reported last year. New England Patriots quarterback Brady has gone to the Super Bowl four times, winning three of those games.","highlights":"Couple weds at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, US Weekly reports .\nBride wears a Dolce & Gabbana gown; her three dogs attend the ceremony .\nShe's world's highest-paid model; he's gone to the Super Bowl four times .","id":"275c394041684222a3258c62ffc5773d931c9806"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescuers have found the body of a man who was one of six people aboard a small airplane that crashed Sunday evening near the northern shore of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Cessna 206 single-engine aircraft went down about a half mile off the coast of Quebradillas. The man's body was found Monday less than 150 feet from shore, Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad said. The Coast Guard launched two more search missions Tuesday morning for four men and one woman still missing. Authorities have not released their identities, nor the name of the man found Monday. \"The Coast Guard will continue to search as long as there is the possibility of finding any survivors,\" Castrodad said. Eighteen divers will conduct searches Tuesday in the area where the body was found, the Coast Guard spokesman said. Volunteer divers from Arecibo found the body Monday, said Jose Daniel Echeverria, spokesman for the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency, which also is involved in the search. As of Tuesday, the Coast Guard will have conducted 12 search operations, eight done by four HH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Borinquen and four by the Cutter Matinicus, Castrodad said. The search is complicated, he said, by the roughness of the area. \"It's like a cliff,\" he said. \"The surf is very rough. It's hard to get in that area.\" Smaller boats from the emergency management agency and the Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces for Rapid Action are being used because they can reach areas that the Coast Guard cutter cannot, Castrodad said. The private plane, chartered by Tropical Aviation Corp., took off from the Dominican Republic and was on its way to an airport in Puerto Rico when it went down Sunday evening, officials said. The four males and one female onboard were returning to Puerto Rico after spending the weekend in the Dominican Republic, said Noemi Corporan, service manager for Tropical Aviation. The passengers were San Juan residents and had flown to the Dominican Republic on Friday, she said. The airplane took off from Casa de Campo International Airport in the Dominican Republic and was supposed to land at the Luis Mu\u00f1oz Marin International Airport in Carolina to clear U.S. customs before going on to the Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, the Coast Guard said. A 911 emergency operator notified the Coast Guard at 6:51 p.m. Sunday that an aircraft had crashed into the waters off Quebradillas. Searchers found a debris field in the area late Sunday. In the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, a man who said he spent the weekend with the missing passengers said he urged them not to leave Sunday night because of severe weather. Retired businessman Manuel \"Manolin\" Lecaroz, 64, told El Nuevo Dia newspaper that the group left because one of them had business to conduct Monday morning. He did not have a premonition, Lecaroz said. \"It's just that you can't fly when the weather is bad.\" The winds and heavy rains that were still being felt in Puerto Rico on Monday had ruined the group's chances to spend the weekend fishing and playing golf in the Dominican Republic, which is 79 miles (127 kilometers) away. \"It rained every day,\" Lecaroz told the Puerto Rican newspaper. \"The wind was blowing very hard, so much that we couldn't go out in the boat any day.\" As they left Sunday night, group members hugged Lecaroz and talked about returning later this month to fish and golf, he said.","highlights":"Coast Guard launches search missions for five still missing after plane went down .\nDivers find man's body near shore of Quebradillas, Puerto Rico .\nSearch complicated by the roughness of the area, U.S. Coast Guard official says .\nSix onboard private plane returning to Puerto Rico from Dominican Republic .","id":"d33bd66df24862142da64e3968774aaf1eaf496d"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, California (CNN) -- Reality television featuring law enforcement officers on the beat is nothing new. A show featuring a lawman who makes jailed inmates wear pink underwear and uses actors to trick suspects, however, is a new twist. Maricopa Co. Sheriff Joe Arpaio now has his own TV show, \"Smile: You're Under Arrest.\" Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- whose showy brand of justice has raised charges of discrimination and civil-rights abuses while making him a hero among fans of his tough-on-crime attitudes -- will star in \"Smile: You're Under Arrest.\" The show, which premiers this weekend on Fox Reality Channel, features Arpaio and other officers using elaborate ploys crafted by comedy writers and carried out by professional actors to arrest suspects with outstanding warrants. In one, a suspect is invited to a fake fashion shoot and told he's going to become a supermodel, according to Fox Reality's Web site. In another, a suspect is tricked into what he thinks is a job as a movie extra and, after a staged argument between the film's \"director\" and another actor, gets promoted to the starring role. \"It's kind of fun to show how stupid they are and, as I say, the looks on their face,\" Arpaio, 76, said of the suspects wanted for DUIs, drug charges, missed court dates and other offenses. Watch Arpaio explain his methods \u00bb . But Arpaio's critics aren't amused. They say they fear the show will give the controversial sheriff positive publicity, ignoring what they call a darker side to his 16-year tenure as top lawman in the county that includes Phoenix. \"It's going to celebrate a sheriff that's frankly scaring this community, a sheriff that has seen violent crime increase significantly in his county, a sheriff that is racially profiling the Latino community, and I doubt that the show is going to reflect that,\" said Paco Fabian, spokesman for the immigrant-rights group America's Voice. In a statement on the group's Web site, Fabian calls Arpaio a \"modern day Bull Connor,\" comparing him to the public safety commissioner in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama, whose use of attack dogs and firehoses on civil rights demonstrators made him a symbol of racial intolerance. Dubbed \"America's Toughest Sheriff,\" Arpaio makes many of his county's 10,000 or so inmates live in tents. He reinstituted chain gangs -- including crews for women and juveniles -- banned smoking, coffee and movies in his jails and, most recently, moved to require all inmates with money in their jail accounts to pay for their own meals. And then, of course, there's the pink underwear. \"They were stealing the white underwear, smuggling the underwear out of the jail,\" Arpaio told CNN. \"So you know what? Give them pink. The other reason is they hate pink. Why would you give the 10,000 inmates the color they like?\" Earlier this year, the mayor of Phoenix wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general's office, asking the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate Arpaio's aggressive illegal immigration crackdowns. Mayor Phil Brown wrote that Arpaio's sweeps show \"a pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests.\" The letter came after Arpaio, who had already been the target of hundreds of lawsuits, launched a series of what he calls crime-suppression patrols in largely Latino neighborhoods. Critics say the patrols use racial profiling to unfairly target Hispanic drivers and pedestrians, while Arpaio says they have resulted in the deportation of hundreds of illegal immigrants, including some with criminal records. \"We are the only ones cracking down on the state's human smuggling law,\" Arpaio said. Fabian said America's Voice is considering putting pressure on companies that advertise during Arpaio's show. Either way, the series offers another moment in the spotlight for a lawman who has never shied away from it. \"I'm not going to brag,\" Arpaio said, \"but there isn't anybody in the world who doesn't know who this sheriff is.\" CNN's Brooke Anderson and Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Maricopa Co., Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio now has own TV show .\nArpaio proud of sometimes unorthodox methods, has been criticized for them .\nShow, \"Smile: You're Under Arrest,\" gets people with outstanding warrants .","id":"0a6e74e3116ca8246fa2d09929b59746973721f2"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Gul Bibi and her three children fled the Taliban's bloody interpretation of Islamic law in Pakistan's Swat Valley, hoping one day to return. A pro-Taliban delegation attends a meeting with government officials in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday. But now that the Pakistani government has recognized Taliban rule in the region in exchange for a temporary cease-fire, she said those hopes have been dashed. She warned that the government's deal with the Taliban will have worldwide implications. \"The whole point is, if it's not contained to Swat, it's going to spill all over in Pakistan and the West also doesn't realize the seriousness of the situation,\" Bibi said. \"Probably your next 9\/11 is going to be from Swat.\" Watch Gul Bibi talk about Taliban threat \u00bb . The chief minister of North West Frontier Province announced on Monday that the Pakistani government will recognize the Taliban's interpretation of strict Islamic law, or sharia. The Taliban's interpretation of sharia has included banning girls from school, forcing women inside and outlawing forms of entertainment. This form of Islamic law is already in effect in parts of North West Frontier Province where the Taliban have control -- including Swat, which is located about 100 miles northwest of Islamabad. Provincial minister Amir Haider Hoti said the people of the region want sharia which fills the \"vacuum\" left by a lack of access to Pakistan's judicial system. He said he hoped it would bring peace to the region, where Pakistani forces have battled militants aligned with the Taliban. It is difficult to gauge the concerns of residents in Swat, because the government does not allow journalists into the area due to the ongoing military operation. Also, residents risk their lives if they openly criticize Taliban rule. Bibi -- who used a false name to protect her identity -- told CNN that people in Swat do not support the Taliban's version of Islamic law. A strict Muslim herself, Bibi said she observes the teachings of the Quran, and the Taliban's interpretation of sharia has nothing to do with the Muslim religion. \"They are killing people, they are beheading people, there is no accounting for what they are doing,\" Bibi said. Their oppression is also focused on women. The Taliban have destroyed dozens of girls' schools in the region. Bibi is living in a house in Islamabad with other women who have fled Taliban rule in Swat. \"For God's sake, in the West you must realize this: no education for women,\" she said. \"You are going to destroy an entire generation.\" She dismissed the government's peace deal as a concession to the Taliban. But she remains hopeful that she can return to the picturesque Swat Valley with her three children. \"I want peace more than anyone else,\" Bibi said. \"It's my home, it's where I want my children to go back to, it's where I want to live. \"I love Swat. It's because of my love and my passion for Swat that I am speaking.\"","highlights":"\"Probably your next 9\/11 is going to be from Swat,\" says woman who fled the town .\nPakistani government agreed Monday to let Taliban rule the area .\n\"They are killing people, they are beheading people\" the woman says .\nShe says Taliban's anti-women moves will \"destroy an entire generation\"","id":"a41a0903c98e82b846263ad441d45a187674e649"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the leaders of Madagascar to resolve their differences after an anti-government rally a day earlier turned violent and left more than two dozen people dead. Protesters rally Saturday before violence broke out near the Presidential Palace. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ban deplored the violence and called Sunday on authorities \"to urgently initiate a fair process by which those responsible will be brought to justice.\" Ban also blamed the \"tragedy\" on a \"lack of restraint on all sides.\" \"The Secretary-General calls upon all concerned parties to resolve their differences through peaceful and democratic means and through the exercise of responsible leadership,\" according to the statement. A police official said the death toll from Saturday's violence outside the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Antananarivo had risen to 26. More than 80 were injured during the demonstration, officials said. The capital city was quiet as mourners attended a public ceremony for the dead. The violence stemmed from an ongoing dispute over who is in charge of the government. Andry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarivo, took to the streets one week ago, declaring himself the Indian Ocean island nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Watch an iReport on the Madagascar violence \u00bb . But President Marc Ravalomanana has fired him and put someone else in the mayoral job. Rajoelina had called the rally to unveil his new government at the May 13th Plaza, according to Brittany Martin, an American citizen who is a Harvard Fellow and lives in Antananarivo. Martin said the rally was peaceful in the morning hours of Saturday, until gunshots rang out in the afternoon after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks ago, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. See pictures from last week's upheaval \u00bb . Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. Anger has risen in Madagascar, where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year, over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Rajoelina has urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government could be established in the nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map \u00bb . \"What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time,\" said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he had received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try and disperse the crowd. Journalist Dregoire Pourtier in Antananarivo, Madagascar, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ban blames the \"tragedy\" on a \"lack of restraint on all sides\"\n26 dead, more than 80 wounded during an anti-government rally on Saturday .\nViolence stems from a dispute over who is in charge of the government .\nAndry Rajoelina, the mayor of Antananarivo, declares himself Madagascar's leader .","id":"88435d3e984257758fbfc3d4774600ac8494e228"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq will not grant an operating license to security firm Blackwater Worldwide, an Interior Ministry official said Thursday. Heavily armed Blackwater guards scan downtown Baghdad, Iraq, from a helicopter in 2003. Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said the ministry denied the request mainly because of a September 2007 shooting incident in which security guards employed by Blackwater fired on a crowd and killed 17 Iraqis, according to the government. A U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad, who asked not to be named, confirmed the report. \"We have been informed that Blackwater's ... operating license will not be granted,\" the official said. \"We don't have specifics about dates. We are working with the government of Iraq and our contractors to address the implications of this decision.\" Blackwater has one of the biggest security contracts in Iraq. The U.S. State Department, which contracted the company to protect American diplomats and other employees, is also \"looking at the implications\" of the decision, said Robert Wood, the department's acting spokesman. Wood didn't say what specific plans the State Department has to protect its employees, but he told reporters that State will encourage contractors to abide by Iraqi law, as required under the recently approved U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, and will make sure its personnel are protected. \"We're formulating how to go forward,\" he said. Watch report on Iraq's refusal to grant license to Blackwater \u00bb . Wood refused to say whether two other security companies working in Iraq, Triple Canopy and Dyncorp, would take over security operations, but did say those options were being considered. Earlier this month, five former Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and other serious crimes stemming from their involvement in the September 16, 2007, shootings in a Baghdad square. A sixth former security guard has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. Blackwater says its employees were returning fire after they were attacked by armed insurgents, but an Iraqi investigation concluded that the guards randomly fired at civilians without provocation. The company does not face any charges. But the Baghdad incident exacerbated the feelings of many Iraqis that private American security contractors have operated since 2003 with little regard for Iraqi law or life. The indictment of the five men represents the first prosecution of non-Defense Department contractors under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA). The act was amended in 2004 to allow the Justice Department to prosecute such personnel providing services \"in support of the mission of the Department of Defense overseas.\" A security agreement approved in December 2008 specifies U.S. civilian contractors will no longer be immune from Iraqi prosecution for crimes committed in Iraq. Iraq has required the licensing of private security companies since 2004, but the provision was not strictly enforced. Last year, the State Department renewed Blackwater's contract over strong objections from the Iraqi government. Starting January 1, the Iraqi government has mandated that all contractors obtain licenses to operate. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: State Department looking at options for protection of diplomats .\nAmerican security contractor loses right to operate in Iraq .\n2007 shooting of 17 civilians led to decision, Interior Ministry spokesman says .\nFive ex-Blackwater guards have pleaded not guilty to charges related to incident .","id":"7ea6e7f324b4cd8acbf6e258ec53c621a8644b79"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Didier Drogba muscled his way through for a late winner to put Chelsea into the FA Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday. A bare-chested Drogba is congratulated by Salomon Kalou after scoring the winner at Wembley. The all-London clash rarely hit the heights on a difficult pitch, but Drogba's 84th minute strike gave Guus Hiddink's men a deserved victory and leaves them in contention for three trophies. Dutchman Hiddink, who took temporary charge of the Blues in February and has lost only one match, said Drogba had proved his worth again. \"He is proving already he is so dangerous, very strong and physically fit,\" he told Press Association. \"We respect each other very much but also challenge each other without thinking this is a big name.\" Arsenal went ahead in the 18th minute as Theo Walcott's volley deflected past Petr Cech, but Florent Malouda equalized for Chelsea just after the half hour mark. Chelsea looked the stronger against an Arsenal team missing key defenders and goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and it came as no surprise when Ivory Coast star Drogba scored a typical winner. He latched on to Frank Lampard's hopeful volleyed through ball, shrugged off Mikael Silvestre before rounding Lukasz Fabianksi to roll the ball into an empty net. Ivory Coast international Drogba scored the winning goal against Manchester United in the 2007 FA Cup final and may get the chance to repeat the trick. Quintuple chasing United play Everton in the second semifinal, also at Wembley, on Sunday. Chelsea, who are a still challenging third in the Premier League and semifinals of the Champions League, showed their character after falling behind to Walcott's strike. The England international winger connected with a chipped cross from Kieran Gibbs and his effort took a cruel deflection off Ashley Cole's arm to beat Cech. Arsenal had made a fine start, but without injured central defender William Gallas and with Fabianski showing a lack of authority in goal, Chelsea came back strongly into the game. Malouda went close with a cross shot which eluded Fabianski, but he was not be denied soon afterwards as picked out by Lampard he cut inside Emmanuel Eboue and beat Fabianski at his near post. More slack defending from Denilson allowed Nicolas Anelka time to shoot and his shot hit the post with Fabianski beaten. Walcott looked occasionally dangerous on the flank and twice sent in crosses which might have been converted, but Chelsea looked the more threatening and the teams were spared extra time when Drogba powered through to score. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was left to rue their defensive errors and the performance of his 20-year-old Polish goalkeeper. \"He's a great goalkeeper but it was not his greatest day,\" Wenger said. \"Inexperience, yes. It was a game when any mistake could be costly.\"","highlights":"Didier Droba winner ends Arsenal's long unbeaten run and puts Chelsea in final .\nTheo Walcott put Arsenal ahead before Florent Malouda equalized .\nManchester United and Everton play in second FA Cup semifinal on Sunday .","id":"fb9365cd235bdcdc9e9c9530b97773928a44a7ae"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- After a long apprenticeship, it's been an astonishingly fast rise for R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan. Jazmine Sullivan is up for five Grammys next month, including best new artist. Before she was in her teens, Sullivan sang on \"It's Showtime at the Apollo.\" At 13, she met Stevie Wonder. Soon she was performing regularly at the jam sessions called Black Lily in her hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She went to that city's performing arts high school and was signed to a contract by Jive Records, where she was paired with producers such as Timbaland and Cool & Dre. It didn't work out -- then. But soon, Sullivan signed with Clive Davis' J Records, and suddenly she was everywhere. Her debut single, \"Need U Bad,\" hit No. 1 on Billboard's R&B\/Hip-Hop chart, and her album \"Fearless\" hit the Top 10 on Billboard's album chart. Now she's up for five Grammys on February 8, including best R&B performance (for \"Bust Your Windows\") and best new artist. CNN's KJ Matthews talked with Sullivan about her inspirations, who she's bringing to the Grammys and the mysterious person behind \"Bust Your Windows.\" The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: How would you describe your sound? Jazmine Sullivan: I can't really describe it; that's the whole thing. Once you hear the CD, you'll hear that one sound doesn't sound like the next. You know, I've been influenced by so many different styles and different genres of music that I felt like that should be represented on my first album, so when you get it, you get a taste of gospel, jazz, R&B, hip-hop, reggae, pop ... everything is on there, there's something for everybody to enjoy. I didn't want to exclude anybody from the album. CNN: Let me ask you this: When you saw or heard the other nominees in the best new artist category who happen to be a little bit more well-known, was it intimidating? I mean, you got the Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, Adele ... Sullivan: Yeah, the Jonas Brothers, specifically. I didn't even know they were new artists because they are so huge, so, you know, so after, when my name was called after theirs, I thought, \"Wow, they're new artists, too?\" I got a little scared, I tell you that. But I'm just so honored to be mentioned to be in the same categories with such wonderful artists, so I'm looking forward to February and the Grammys and just being in that atmosphere. CNN: I was looking at your background, and I didn't know that you're a protegee of Missy Elliott. I was thinking to myself, you would think that you would do rap, but you're this big voice, this soulful voice. You might not equate that with Missy. Sullivan: Yeah, and a lot of people don't know that Missy Elliott ... grew up in the church, and she's really into vocalists. When I met her, was I was about 13 or 14, [and] she was ecstatic about me. When nobody else was there to support me, Missy was there, so she's a good friend of mine, and I'm happy to have her by my side. She's definitely taught me a lot of things. CNN: So everybody wants to know, the guy behind \"Bust Your Windows\" -- is there one? Sullivan: We won't talk about that on camera -- that's an off-camera conversation -- but it's definitely a song that relates to a lot of women especially. You know, even if they really haven't busted windows out of anybody's car, they have wanted to. A lot of women have been through that, so I'm glad that my music is touching those people . CNN: \"Need U Bad\" is rising as well. What's the thought process behind that one? Sullivan: \"Need U Bad\" ... a lot of men actually pointed out to me that women don't come out and admit that they made mistakes and say that they actually need the male, so I think that was kind of cool. I haven't thought of it like that when I was writing it. So, you know, it's a song for the fellas, saying that we appreciate them and we need you as much as you need us. But on the flip side, I do a song like \"Bust Your Windows,\" so on the album you have a lot of different perceptions and everything. CNN: How old are you? You look like you're 10. Sullivan: I'm 21 years old. CNN: Success that early, that's sometimes tough for people. Sullivan: Well, I've been in this industry for a very long time. I started out when I was 12; I got signed when I was 16, so it wasn't an overnight success story at all. I put a lot of hard work into it, and this is just a byproduct of all of that. CNN: It's great that you write your own music too, because a lot of people don't do that. You have a lot more creative control. Sullivan: Most definitely, and I've dealt with not having that control when I was younger and I was signed. I wasn't writing at all, and so I've been through all of that. So now to be in a position where I write my music, and I have that control -- it feels so much better. CNN: All right, the big question: Grammy night. What are you wearing? Who are you bringing? What are you going to be doing? Sullivan: I'm bringing my mother. She's been my rock and my support ever since I was a baby. She was my first huge fan, that what she is. I don't know what I'm wearing. I'm trying not to think about that. I want to perform. Hopefully I can get on stage and I can show everybody who I am and what I'm about. But I haven't thought about the dress or the shoes or the hair or anything about that. CNN: You're just trying to enjoy the moment. Sullivan: Enjoy, yes.","highlights":"R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan is up for five awards next month .\nSullivan's hits include \"Need U Bad\" and \"Bust Your Windows\"\nSinger is a protegee of Missy Elliott's .","id":"211cf4156f8adf05f208b8ae997c053a041030d6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, checked herself into \"a medical facility to address some personal issues,\" her London publicist confirmed Friday. Kelly Osbourne is struggling with \"some personal issues,\" according to her spokeswoman. The British Press Association cited an unnamed source saying Osbourne, 24, is being treated at the Hazelden retreat in Oregon. \"Kelly Osbourne has voluntarily entered a medical facility to address some personal issues,\" spokeswoman Caroline Barrett said in a statement e-mailed to CNN. \"Her family stands by and supports her.\" Osbourne was jailed in London in January on a charge of assaulting a British newspaper gossip columnist at a London nightclub last summer. She was freed on bail. She's been absent in recent weeks from a British radio talk show in which she dispenses life advice to young people. Her father, who rose to fame with the heavy metal group Black Sabbath, and mother Sharon revealed nearly five years ago that Kelly Osbourne entered the Promises rehab facility in Malibu, California, for treatment of a painkiller addiction. Their revelation came in an appearance on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" in May 2004. \"We just had to take evasive action very quickly, because the amount of pills that was found in her bag was astounding,\" Ozzy Osbourne told Larry King. Kelly Osbourne gained fame as a teenager when her family opened up their lives to cameras for an MTV reality show \"The Osbournes.\" She used the exposure to launch her own music career.","highlights":"Kelly Osbourne in \"medical facility to address some personal issues\"\nDaughter of Ozzy Osbourne had been doing radio advice show .\nKelly Osbourne first became known from MTV's \"The Osbournes\"","id":"796503aa4c16cd8e867665075bbd2a0b9776c7c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Don't believe the hype. Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan in \"Watchmen,\" the film version of the popular graphic novel. \"Visionary\" director Zack Snyder, as the marketing would have it, has filmed Alan Moore's \"unfilmable\" graphic novel by treating the comic book panels as his storyboard and his Bible. Doesn't it bother anyone that this is about as far from the definition of \"visionary\" as it's possible to get? The visionary sees what others do not see. Snyder -- whose previous films were a remake (\"Dawn of the Dead\") and another scrupulously faithful comic book adaptation (\"300\") -- is more in the line of a fancy photocopier, duplicating other artists' imagery with a forger's intensity. A visionary transforms the world. Snyder slavishly transcribes what's set down 5 inches in front of his face. Alan Moore, who has refused to have his name on the movie (ditto its Moore-based predecessors, \"V for Vendetta\" and \"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen\") and who has declined all reimbursement to protest the entertainment industry's fundamental lack of respect for intellectual property, counts as a bona fide visionary. His 1986 comic book is a landmark in the history of the form, a masterpiece of pop cultural angst, filtering Cold War nihilism and disillusionment through the inspired pulp idiom of mundane masked crimefighters and one genuine, possibly radioactive, superhero. In Moore's alternative 1985, Nixon is still president, the U.S. having won in Vietnam. The Soviets are effectively neutered by America's not-so-secret weapon, Dr. Manhattan, a kind of quantum ghost in the machine capable of reconstituting matter (and nuclear warheads) at will. Watch the stars at the premiere \u00bb . Moore's meta-comic switched back and forth in time with the same facility as Dr. Manhattan morphed between New Jersey and Mars, cutting between a doomsday conspiracy threatening to engulf the Earth and flashbacks relating the biographies of half-a-dozen \"watchmen,\" a generation of intrepid masked avengers forced to hang up their capes and Spandex when public opinion turned on them in the late 1970s. (It's easy to discern the book's influence on subsequent films \"The Incredibles\" and \"Mystery Men.\") With its parallel stories and virtuoso zooming and panning visual tropes, Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' \"Watchmen\" always felt cinematic. You could sense Martin Scorsese and \"Taxi Driver's\" Travis Bickle in Moore's squalid New York and vigilante anti-hero Rorschach, but proposed movies by Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass failed to materialize, foundering on the comic book's sophisticated narrative chicanery. The solution proposed by Snyder and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse is simply to ignore the problem and stick to the text. In fairness, this strategy has proved wildly popular in adaptations of the \"Harry Potter\" books, for instance, \"Twilight\" and \"300.\" The fans seem to demand it -- just as there is now a common assumption that a longer, unexpurgated DVD edition is inherently superior to the shorter, tighter theatrical version. \"Watchmen\" the movie provides ample evidence that more is more, but less might have been closer to Moore in spirit (that is, anarchic, witty and compelling). Clocking in at an exhausting 163 minutes even without some of the book's various subplots, the film forfeits momentum and suspense for a jerky succession of expository dialogue scenes, interspersed with occasional flashes of grotesque ultra-violence. It's all invariably filmed in Snyder's spasmodic, stop-go trademark style and accompanied by a jukebox score that ranges from Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen to Nena's \"99 Luftballoons.\" On the few occasions where the filmmakers do exercise their imaginations -- in a credit montage relating the glory days of the crimefighters Weegee-style, and in a neat improvement on Moore's climax -- the results are actually ingenious and sharp. iReport.com: Fan underwhelmed by \"Watchmen\" But too many key scenes ring hollow, undermined by flat staging and tone-deaf treatment. One of them is the ridiculous moment when Dr. Manhattan's faith in humanity is restored by the revelation of ... Well, see it for yourself, and then compare with the infinitely more nuanced passage in the graphic novel. The considerable limitations of Swedish-Canadian actress Malin Akerman are cruelly exposed as Laurie, aka Silk Spectre II, and if Matthew Goode (playing Adrian Veidt) is the smartest man in the world, then we're really in trouble. Jackie Earle Haley and his \"Little Children\" co-star Patrick Wilson fare better as, respectively, the angry reactionary Rorschach and mildly conflicted Dan Dreiberg, while it's hard to take your eyes off Billy Crudup's naked blue avatar, Dr. Manhattan -- for various reasons. I guess an honest reproduction of a great comic book is better than the trivialization that often passes for adaptation, and in this case the material is so ingrained with audacious ideas the movie can't be counted a complete cop-out. But if it was really going to honor the original, \"Watchmen\" had to put the fear of God in us, to rekindle that prospect of imminent nuclear annihilation that haunted the Cold War world. And it had to remind us these rather sorry comic book characters were, as Moore insisted, more human than super. iReport.com: \"Watchmen\" very good, but not for kids . Snyder flunks that test. Yes it will hit the box office like a tidal wave, but ultimately the numb, enervating \"Watchmen\" is living on borrowed time. No smiley face here. \"Watchmen\" runs 162 minutes and is rated R. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" is so devoted to the comic book it misses vision, says Tom Charity .\nFilm is based on renowned graphic novel about misfit crimefighters .\nA few good performances, but overall the film feels lifeless .","id":"30e66d199dbe706d77ec8210610458dd3a9c621c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistan cricketers have been told they will not be allowed to appear in the highly-lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) this coming season because of fears over security. Danish Kaneria, in action against India last December, was hoping to play in the Indian Premier League. Stars from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and, for the first time, England will be competing in the action that starts on April 10. Several Pakistan stars had also signed for IPL franchises while another five, including leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, were scheduled to appear at a players' auction to be held in Goa, India, on Thursday. However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said players would not be allowed to play in the IPL this coming season on government advice. \"We have informed the IPL and Indian board that our players can't take part in the IPL this year,\" PCB chief operating officer Saleem Altaf told Reuters.com. The decision follows concerns for players' safety because of the tense relations between Pakistan and India after the Mumbai militant attacks in November. Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik, who plays for Delhi, said the players would abide by the directives of the government and PCB. Meanwhile, another former captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq is among several top Pakistan players who have successfully challenged a domestic ban imposed following appearances in the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL). Provincial Sindh High Court on Monday suspended the 2007 action taken by the PCB which must appear in court later this month to explain their action. Players affected by the 2007 ruling also include Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami and Azhar Mahmood who along with Inzamam, played for Lahore Badshahs. Last year, the Badshahs named after a Pakistani city and with a number of Pakistani players won the ICL 20s Indian championship. \"The honorable court has suspended this relevant clause of the PCB rules and allowed the players to appear in domestic cricket with immediate effect,\" Zahid Fakhruddin Ibrahim, the legal counsel for the players, told Reuters.com. Lahore coach Moin Khan, a former Pakistan captain, said the suspension of the ban was good for Pakistani cricket. \"Some of the ICL players can still play for Pakistan and when they play in domestic cricket, youngsters will learn from them,\" Khan commented. \"The ban had hurt the players financially as well as cricket-wise, so it's a great decision.\"","highlights":"Pakistan cricketers miss IPL season over security fears .\nPakistan players not competing on government advice .\nEngland stars making debuts in the league starting in April .","id":"a87478d9bcc94a9489803511ce1dfa9c6f244474"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A seventh minute goal from Brazilian teenager Alexander Pato proved enough to give AC Milan a 1-0 home victory over Fiorentina in a match totally dominated by Manchester City's $150 million bid for playmaker Kaka this week. Pato (right) and David Beckham celebrate Milan's only goal at the San Siro on Saturday evening. The goal was created by David Beckham who beat two defenders to a loose ball. He poked it back to Marek Jankulovski who played in Pato inside the penalty area. There still appeared no danger to the Fiorentina goal, but Pato hit a stunning strike from the left that went in off the far post. Fiorentina should have equalized on 66 minutes when Juan Vargas got to the byline and crossed to Mario Santana but the Argentine put his shot too close to goalkeeper Christian Abbiati who managed to save. The result leaves Milan in third place on 37 points, six points behind leaders and city rivals Inter, who have a game in hand. Jose Mourinho's side travel to Atalanta on Sunday. Jankulovski collected a late red card for timewasting, but Milan held on to secure the three points. Meanwhile, Milan supporters made their opposition to the Kaka bid, and his possible departure, perfectly clear throughout the match -- unveiling a host of banners and singing songs pleading with the Brazilian to stay at the San Siro. Reggina remain deep in relegation trouble after suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Siena. Mario Frick's goal 15 minutes from time was enough to give the Bianconeri three points which sees them leapfrog Sampdoria and move up to the relative comfort of 14th spot. Siena in contrast, stay second from bottom and could slip to the foot of the Serie A standings if Chievo beat Napoli on Sunday.","highlights":"Alexander Pato scores seventh minute goal as AC Milan defeat Fiorentina 1-0 .\nThe win puts Milan within six points of Serie A leaders and rivals Inter at top .\nMilan supporters display displeasure at Kaka's possible departure from club .","id":"f70a4ee96e39f6fbc69507c459233ff1fdfb0dec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A military junta that toppled Guinea's government announced its new leader Wednesday in a nationwide radio address. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara wrapped in the Guinean flag Wednesday. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara declared himself president of the National Council for Democracy, which he called a transitional body that will oversee the country's return to democracy. In effect, that would make Camara president of Guinea, which was thrown into turmoil Monday after the death of President Lansana Conte. Camara also declared a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. local time. Guinea's parliament is holding negotiations with the military, Africa News reporter Mamdou Dian Donghol Diallo told CNN. \"For the time being the situation is calm and negotiations are under way,\" Diallo said. \"There is no traffic. Everyone is staying inside their homes.\" Camara, previously the spokesman for the National Council for Democracy, suspended the government, constitution, political parties and trade unions, Diallo said from Conakry. The newly formed government, made up of 26 military personnel and six civilians, is negotiating a power-sharing deal that would reflect its ethnic make-up, Diallo said. But some in the military may not support the new leadership, he said. International institutions, including the African Union, have condemned the coup. Guinea, in western Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, has had two presidents since gaining independence from France in 1958. Conte came to power in 1984, when the military seized control of the government after the death of the first president, Sekou Toure. The country did not hold democratic elections until 1993, when Conte was elected president. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2003 amid allegations of electoral irregularities. Worsening economic conditions and dissatisfaction with corruption and bad governance prompted two massive strikes in 2006, the CIA World Factbook says. A third nationwide strike in early 2007 sparked violent protests that resulted in two weeks of martial law. To appease the unions and end the unrest, the Factbook says, Conte named a new prime minister in March 2007. Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its mineral wealth, according to the British charity Plan UK. The country hosts large refugee populations from neighboring Liberia and Ivory Coast.","highlights":"NEW: Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara named de facto president of Guinea .\nCoup leaders impose overnight curfew; government, constitution suspended .\nPresident Lansana Conte died Monday after near 25-year rule .\nCoup condemned by African Union .","id":"f4467ab342f0ad79aad68a80f15659f52620186f"} -{"article":"Congressman Jared Polis . (D) Colorado: District 02 . Congressman Jason Chaffetz . (R) Utah: District 03 .","highlights":"Video: Hand-held cams track freshmen moves .\nTwo freshman representatives document their experience for CNN .\nRep. Jared Polis is a Democrat representing Colorado's Second district .\nRep. Jason Chaffetz is a Republican representing Utah's Third district .","id":"fd4bd93f0e11cec9a6c3f50441b6023b1e582581"} -{"article":"AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- The Austrian who reportedly admitted holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering seven children with her will plead insanity, his lawyer said. Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children. Attorney Rudolf Mayer said he believed 73-year-old Josef Fritzl had a mental disorder, The Associated Press reported. Mayer said someone who was mentally ill \"didn't choose\" to do what police allege he did. Mayer said Fritzl would be confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a prison if he was certified as insane and convicted, AP reported. Police said last week that Fritzl had confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a secret cellar dungeon in his home, fathering seven children with her and burning the body of one who died in infancy in a furnace. Meanwhile, Fritzl's sister-in-law has said his wife did not know her daughter was held captive in their basement for decades because she had been trained not to ask questions under her husband's tyrannical rule of the household, . \"He was such a tyrant,\" said the woman identified only as Christine R. in a Saturday interview conducted and translated by AP. \"He tolerated no dissent,\" Christine R. added. \"Listen, if I was scared myself -- I was scared of him at a family party and I did not feel confident to say anything in any form that could possibly offend him -- then you can imagine how it was for a woman who spent so many years with him.\" Watch what the sister-in-law has to say \u00bb . In the televised interview, Christine R. added detail to the bizarre story of 73-year-old Fritzl who was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter captive in a dungeon under the home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven kids -- with six of them surviving. Christine R. also said Fritzl committed an unrelated rape in 1967, served 18 months in prison for that crime and that her sister continued to stay married to him in a desperate attempt to keep their family together. Recent media reports also claimed Fritzl had been convicted of rape. Austrian police have said they are looking into the claims. The horrifying story has shocked many locally and across the world. On Sunday, members of the Amstetten religious community held a Mass to remember Fritzl's family. After the Mass, members of the church signed a banner outside a church in support of the victims. Watch church members sign the banner \u00bb . The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel two weeks ago, when Fritzl's daughter, Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions and was hospitalized. The 19-year-old girl, who had been locked in the basement her entire life along with her mother and two brothers, was in an artificially induced coma in an Amstetten clinic. She was suffering from a kidney ailment that worsened because she did not receive medial treatment sooner, authorities said. Watch how Fritzl led double life \u00bb . Fritzl told his wife that their daughter Elisabeth, who is now 42, ran away from home at age 18. The couple adopted three of the children who Josef said were left on their doorstep as infants by his runaway daughter. In the interview Christine R. said her sister, Rosemarie, truly thought that her daughter had ran away to join a cult. \"She never believed him being capable of it,\" said Christine R. \"We were all taken in by him and believed that she (referring to Elizabeth), was in a cult and that she wouldn't come out.\" It may have been Fritzl's strict rule over the household that made it possible for him to keep his gruesome secret hidden for so long, Christine R. said. The unspeakable ordeal has taken a toll on the whole family, Christine R. said, stating that she spoke to her sister on the phone recently. \"Five or six days after Kerstin went to the hospital I called my sister and asked her how the girl was doing,\" Christine R. said. \"She said that she herself was doing badly, and the girl herself was doing badly and she wished with all of her heart that the girl would pull through.\" Fritzl is being held in police custody. He has yet to be charged, but he can be held by police for 14 days without formal charges while the investigation is under way. That amount of time can be extended by a judge. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Lawyer of Austrian incest suspect says his client has a mental disorder .\nFritzl imprisoned and raped daughter, also fathered her children, police say .\nWife of Josef Fritzl was too scared to question him, her sister says .\nFritzl's wife focused on keeping family healthy, according to her sister .","id":"23790638f73ff2925bb53df1ab070bc820992d42"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.COM) -- As a fiction writer, I struggle to tell useful truths by telling the lie that I am someone other than myself. I'm a fat girl trying to survive rape in my first novel, the resentful brother of a mentally ill twin in my second. In my third novel, which I'm close to finishing, I'm the husband of a drug-addicted nurse lost in a maze of her failures and fear. Author Wally Lamb says writing personal stories can free you from painful memories and imprisoning secrets. Writing fiction invites me to move beyond the limitations of my own experience and better understand the un-me, the other. I am similarly invited to do so each time I go to jail. For the past eight years, I have run a writing workshop for inmates at the Janet S. York Correctional Institution, Connecticut's high-security prison for women. Someone asked me recently if I ever felt afraid of my students. Our class, after all, includes individuals who have committed armed robbery, gang-related assault, and homicide. But no, I don't fear these women, because through their autobiographical writing, I come to know them not merely as their convictions but as complex human equations that go far beyond \"good versus bad\" or \"us versus them.\" Listen to the voice of one of my students. \"I am Barbara Parsons, who has been a healthcare worker, a business manager, a homemaker, a gardener, and a killer -- and who is consequently a state prison inmate.\" Molested by her grandfather when she was 4, Parsons shot and killed her abusive husband when he revealed that he had molested her granddaughter. Convicted of \"manslaughter due to emotional duress,\" she challenges readers to think beyond stereotype. \"I am sure you have a dark side, too,\" she writes. \"Look at me. Who would ever have thought that I, an average neighbor from rural Connecticut, could be capable of murder?\" Oprah.com: How to make peace with your past . Most of my students begin as you might begin: by writing safe pieces -- narratives about fun family vacations, loving tributes to favorite relatives. But sooner or later their painful memories call to them and demand to be examined. With pen in hand, an inmate may, for example, begin to explore the connection between the incest she endured as a young girl and her subsequent drug addiction. She may discover a link between her embezzlement conviction and her lifelong inability to please an emotionally distant mother. Along with that growing clarity, she will confront anger, shame, grief, and the need to stop making excuses and take responsibility. Doing so will lessen her heartache and promote her recovery if she stays with it, but she may surrender to the pain before she gets to experience the gain. She may become too busy, too tired, too headachy, too blue to come to class. Before long, her seat will go to the next woman on the waiting list. Addicts are particularly vulnerable to cold feet when truth telling begins to overpower manipulation and self-deception. Yet if the writer reflects honestly and un-self-pityingly on the damage she has both endured and caused -- and if she takes the critical next step of sharing her words with the group and receiving feedback -- she will begin to defy the gravity of her painful past. But a person need not go to prison to access the therapeutic value of autobiographical writing. Which of us has not put walls and razor wire around our concealed sadnesses and past regrets? Who among us was raised by a perfect family? Who does not have hilarious, life-affirming stories to share and debilitating secrets to dispel? Which of us is so self-aware that we could not reveal ourselves more deeply by reflecting on our lives with fingertips on the keyboard -- and then sharing our discoveries with other writers and bearing witness to theirs? In doing so, we discover that \"the other\" and we are more alike than different, variations on a theme of humanity and circumstance. Michelangelo, the 16th-century artistic genius, once said this about his work: \"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.\" My inmate students, you, and I are damaged angels-in-waiting who have the potential to sculpt our best selves with the aid of paper and pen. Oprah.com: 6 ways to get your creativity flowing . The rehabilitative power of our words invites us to test our still-wet wings, tentatively at first and then with greater and greater assurance. And as that happens, we rise above the concrete and razor wire of painful memories, baffling personal mysteries, and imprisoning secrets. Our load lightens, our perspective changes. We fly away. 3 tips for writing your personal Story . Voice . In writing, as in life, voice is crucial. Your voice has been honed by your family, your ethnic heritage, your neighborhood, and your education. It is the music of what you mean in the world. Imitate no one. Your uniqueness -- your authenticity -- is your strength. Revisions . Learn to love revision. Listen to suggestions about what you might add, cut, reposition, and clarify in your work-in-process. Welcome such feedback with gratitude and humility, returning to your words with sharper insight. Make mistakes, lots of them, revising draft after draft of your continuing story. Your errors will be educational, and if your pencil outlives its eraser, then you will know you're getting it right. Oprah.com: How to write your own memoir . Plot . Regarding plot -- the twists and turns and episodes of your life -- outline as much or as little as you like, but expect surprises. In fact, invite surprise. Each time you begin some next chapter, your composition of yourself will be at risk. But that's okay -- that's good -- because you will not live fully if you never take side trips and detours. \"Writing is like driving at night in the fog,\" E.L. Doctorow once noted. \"You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.\" By Wally Lamb from O, The Oprah Magazine . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Author Wally Lamb: Sculpt our best selves by writing our own stories .\nHe teaches writing to female prisoners at a high-security prison .\nWriting about past history, confronting emotional issues can help progress .\nLamb says your uniqueness is your strength, but welcome feedback .","id":"e3a136a69995e5d198c911664c5a5f02f2019f3d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Juliana Redding was 21, an aspiring actress and model who, like so many others before her, had moved from Arizona to southern California in pursuit of the Hollywood dream. She wound up the victim in a real life murder mystery -- one few people are willing to talk about in any detail. Juliana Redding, an aspiring model and actress, was found murdered in her Santa Monica apartment. By the age of 18, Redding had earned her first film credit, appearing in a 2005 independent film called \"Kathy T Gives Good Hoover,\" about college students and the graffiti culture. In 2006, she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, California, with her pet Yorkshire terrier. She was also taking college courses while working part-time in a trendy Venice Beach bar. Friends grew worried in March when they couldn't reach Redding for a few days. They called her mother in Redding's hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Her mother called the Santa Monica police. Watch why this case is so baffling \u00bb . Police found Redding dead inside her apartment. \"The manner of death is homicide,\" said Sgt. Rinaldi Thruston of the Santa Monica Police Department. Although there are unconfirmed reports that the cause of death was blunt force trauma, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office denies that. \"Those media reports are not accurate. The cause of death was not blunt force trauma. The file has been sealed by police, so we cannot disclose the actual cause of death.\" Police also would not disclose whether a weapon was used or whether Redding's apartment had been broken into, which would give clues as to whether she knew her assailant and opened the door for him or her. Thruston also refused to say whether Redding had been sexually assaulted. \"We have made no arrests in this case nor do we have any suspects or persons of interest at this time,\" Thruston said. He said police have collected evidence from the crime scene that could link a potential suspect to the crime. Police are hoping they will continue to get tips and leads from the public. According to friends, Redding had been dating another actor for two years and they had broken up about six months before her slaying, but remained friends. It is unclear whether she had a new boyfriend, but police have been interviewing all of Redding's known friends and neighbors. \"We believe the police are doing what they can to solve this case, but we really prefer no media attention,\" her mother said. Early in the investigation, there were reports of blood found on the sidewalk or wall outside Redding's apartment. Police will not comment on the forensic results of that blood or any specific evidence at the crime scene. They also will not reveal whether any of Redding's neighbors heard screams or other sounds of a struggle. At this point, there are more questions than answers. If anyone has any information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Juliana Redding's death, please call the Santa Monica Police Department tip line at (310) 458-8449.","highlights":"Aspiring actress found dead in Santa Monica apartment in March .\nPolice have released few details about the crime .\nFile sealed by police; coroner unable to disclose cause of death .\nHave information? Call (310) 458-8449 .","id":"efc168a0eaf3466b8d2c1ba0e903ecbbe0c9518b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bruce Windsor is known as many things: church deacon, soccer coach, father of four. But facing potential financial problems, he's now known as something else: suspected bank robber. Bruce Windsor listens Friday as a judge tells him he faces kidnapping and robbery charges. Police say the 43-year-old owner of a real estate company walked into the Carolina First Bank in Greenville, South Carolina, late Thursday with a mask and a handgun. In court documents filed Friday, police said he forced two bank employees into an office at gunpoint and demanded money. Police arrived minutes later with the suspect still inside, touching off a tense 90-minute standoff before he released the hostages and surrendered. His actions were \"out of character\" for a man who has never been in trouble with the law before, friends and relatives said. His tearful sister, defending him as he stood before a judge, said, \"He must have just snapped under the pressure.\" In his initial appearance for a bond hearing, Windsor was in an orange jail jumpsuit, shackled and with his hands cuffed. In a quiet voice, he answered \"yes, sir\" as the judge explained the charges to him: two counts of kidnapping, one count of robbery and two counts of pointing firearms at a person, charges that could carry more than 30 years in prison if convicted. A police detective told the judge Windsor said he had been experiencing financial problems. But police spokesman Cpl. Jason Rampey told CNN they could not yet say for certain whether money problems were the motive for the alleged robbery. His attorney said in court Windsor had been married for 16 years and was the father of four children. Reports say the oldest is 11. Attorney Sidney Mitchell told the judge he was \"a model citizen up until yesterday,' and we've obviously got a lot of talking to do with him,\" Rampey said. The judge allowed his family to stand with him during the court appearance. His sister clutched his arm, crying through most of the brief hearing. His wife stood behind him, appearing to rub his back. His pastor at Brushy Creek Baptist Church, where Windsor is a deacon, stood at his side. His sister told the judge Windsor coaches one of his children's soccer teams and picks them up every day from school. \"He would never, ever hurt his family,\" she said in a halting voice. Sobbing, she said, \"I can't imagine the desperation that must have caused this.\" The incident, she said, \"doesn't even register.\" Windsor then spoke up, saying, \"I've never stolen anything in my life.\" But the judge reminded the court \"this is a very serious incident,\" setting the bail at just over $1.5 million. On Thursday, SWAT officers surrounded the Carolina First bank as the suspect allegedly made the hostages move with him at gunpoint inside until he surrendered. Bank owner Art Seaver, who nervously watched the standoff unfold at the scene, met with his employees before they reopened Friday morning for a \"time of reflection and a time of healing.\" Asked if everything was back to normal, he told CNN affiliate WSPA, \"No. What is normal?\" Two different images of Windsor unfolded the day after the incident. The man his pastor called \"one of the best fathers I know, anywhere\" and the man court documents said \"forced the victims to move with him at gunpoint during the attempted robbery. The victims were held by the accuser against their will for over an hour.\" Rampey said Greenville's crisis negotiating team just happened to be training on Thursday for hostage scenario when the call came in for the real thing. As SWAT officers took up positions outside, negotiators talked to the suspect, who then allowed the hostages to go. SWAT officers said in court documents they \"challenged the subject at gunpoint\" before he lay down on the ground and surrendered. No shots were fired and no one was injured.","highlights":"Police say man robbed a Carolina First Bank in Greenville, South Carolina, Thursday .\nSuspect, Bruce Windsor, 43, owns a real estate company and is a church deacon .\nHe had no criminal history but was facing financial difficulties, detective testifies .\nRobbery resulted in a tense standoff with two bank employees held hostage .","id":"9c8732b0f17734a2988a7d2b14a911b5fc0ad63f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An oil painting was returned Tuesday to the estate of a Jewish art dealer who was forced to consign the painting and other artwork under Nazi Germany before fleeing the country. \"Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe\" was done in 1632 by an unknown artist. The painting, \"Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe,\" was done in 1632 by an unknown painter from the Northern Netherlandish school, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in southern New York. It was owned by Max Stern, an art dealer who had a gallery in Dusseldorf, Germany, until 1937, when the Nazis' Reich Chamber for Fine Arts ordered him to liquidate the gallery and its inventory, the statement said. Stern, who died in 1987, left no heirs. He and his wife had founded the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, which directly benefits Concordia University and McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to a statement from U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The painting was returned Tuesday -- Holocaust Remembrance Day -- to Clarence Epstein of Concordia University on behalf of the executors of the estate, said Lou Martinez of the immigration agency. It was returned in a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, he said. The painting had been owned by Philip Mould Ltd., a London, England, gallery, when Lawrence Steigrad, a New York art dealer, bought it in 2008, the New York attorney's office said. Neither had any idea of the painting's past. Philip Mould Ltd. had purchased the painting the year before from Lempertz Auction House. The same auction house sold the painting in 1937 after Stern was forced to liquidate, without receiving any proceeds from the sale, the New York attorney's office said. Immigration agents used information from a Holocaust claims office in the New York state Banking Department to look into Steigrad's gallery. The art dealer \"confirmed the painting was in his possession.\" and he eventually allowed agents to seize the painting, the attorney's office said.","highlights":"Art dealer Max Stern was forced to liquidate his gallery in 1937 .\nStern died in 1987 with no heirs .\nHis art restoration project benefits three universities .\n\"Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe\" was returned Tuesday .","id":"5ea804ffbebb9af8251e19a8e7f37d1e23c4b3a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A controversial comment by the top U.N. envoy to Somalia \"motivates\" those who have carried out recent fatal attacks against journalists in the war-torn country, the head of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said Wednesday. Friends and relatives prepare to bury Said Tahlil, a journalist killed on February 4. Earlier this month, the U.N. special representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, compared the role of Somalia's media with the infamous Rwandan radio station that was used to incite participation in the 1994 genocide in that country. A day after his remarks, suspected Islamist gunmen shot and killed Said Tahlil Ahmed, the director of independent HornAfrik Radio in Mogadishu, in broad daylight in the Somali capital. Ould-Abdallah's statement \"motivates the criminals and warlords who have been committing unpunished crimes against journalists to keep on their merciless war against media,\" according to Omar Faruk Osman, head of the NUSOJ. It also \"raises serious questions regarding the willingness of (Ould-Abdallah) to help protect Somalia's endangered media professionals,\" Faruk Osman said. He called on the U.N. official to \"immediately withdraw allegations against Somali media and make (a) public apology.\" \"If the U.N. ambassador does not meet our demand, it only confirms a hidden and dangerous agenda by the U.N. official,\" he said. Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Ould-Abdallah to \"immediately retract\" his statement. In a February 3 Voice of America interview, Ould-Abdallah reacted angrily to allegations that African Union troops the day before had indiscriminately fired on Somali civilians after their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb. HRW has also called for an independent investigation into that incident, which killed at least 13 -- most of them civilians. \"What happened is to divert attention from what is going on here and, as usual, to use the media to repeat Radio Mille Collines, to repeat the genocide in Rwanda,\" Ould-Abdallah said in the VOA broadcast. Faruk Osman said that while not all Somali journalists are perfect, \"they are working in an extraordinarily difficult environment by the fault of politicians, and toothless diplomats.\" \"The comparison with Radio Mille Collines is insulting, ignorant and dangerous, as that radio had become a legitimate military target in Rwanda,\" the NUSOJ secretary-general added. On Saturday, another Somali journalist, Hassan Bulhan Ali, was stabbed five times in the stomach and heart during a tribal reconciliation meeting in the central town of Abudwaq, according to NUSOJ. Bulhan, 38 and director of Radio Abudwaq -- was critically wounded. \"Somali journalists have paid an enormous price to continue reporting on the crisis in Somalia,\" said Georgette Gagnon, HRW's Africa director. \"The U.N. should be making every effort to support independent Somali media and civil society at this critical time, not comparing journalists to war criminals.\" Somali radio stations in Mogadishu recently agreed to take steps to avoid broadcasting any messages of incitement, according to Shabelle Media. The stations agreed not to air live sermons by Muslim clerics or live news conferences or interviews by insurgent groups in an effort to avoid promoting their political agendas, according to the Shabelle report. The statements will instead be recorded and \"checked and edited,\" before they are broadcast, it said. CNN regularly works with Somali journalists who are employed by Shabelle Media. The Committee to Protect Journalists lists Somalia as the seventh most deadly nation in the world for journalists, with 11 Somali journalists killed since 2007, including Said Tahlil Ahmed and another this year. Members of the news media work under duress there amid a war between a weak transitional government and insurgents, the committee said.","highlights":"Somali journalists say U.N. envoy's quote motivates attacks on them .\nHe appeared to compare Somali journalists with Rwandan radio staion during genocide .\nJournalists want an apology and the remark retracted .\nRwandan radio was used to encourage participation in genocide in 1994 .","id":"fb9b13561a7bb6b5d32cc2543748638f7e96dbef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Surviving economically in downtrodden Elkhart, Indiana, may require doing some things you don't want to do. Elkhart, Indiana, has become the poster child for the nation's economic downturn. \"Here in Elkhart, I've never seen things as bad as they are,\" lifelong resident Yvonne Sell said Tuesday. \"When you open the newspaper, unless you want to be a topless dancer, there's nothing.\" Elkhart became the poster child for the nation's economic downturn when President Obama visited there Monday and then mentioned it several times during his first White House press conference. Unemployment in the Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana, area was 15.3 percent in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, the fourth highest of any U.S. metropolitan area. Elkhart's unemployment rate has spiked more than 10 percentage points in the past 13 months. But is it really that bad in Elkhart? According to Sell and several other business owners and workers, it is. Sell and her four co-owners are in the process of selling Blessing Music Co., which has sold, rented and repaired musical instruments for school bands since 1916. \"We're not making money. It's just too tight,\" Sell said. The company has high overhead and a \"considerable\" high-interest loan, and credit continues to be a problem, she said. Sell said she isn't hopeful that any government plan will kick-start commerce in Elkhart or elsewhere. The banks, which started the mess, have already been bailed out, she said, but \"I'm not seeing them loosening their purse strings.\" Small businesses as well as individuals need credit -- not government spending -- to keep the economy churning, she said. Take, for example, recreational vehicles, one of the town's knotted lifelines: Sell said she knows plenty of people willing to purchase RVs, but they can't without a bank loan. \"People won't buy them because they're too scared,\" she said. \"I don't personally see how spending the amount of money [Congress is] talking about spending is going to stimulate the economy.\" Robert Dunlop runs a different kind of business, but he agrees with Sell. \"Unfortunately, when you drop a ton of money to pay billion-dollar bonuses on the East Coast, it kind of sucks on the Midwest,\" said Dunlop, president of J.A. Wagner Construction Co. in Elkhart. \"If banks can free up a little bit of credit so that people can buy products and get people back to work, that would be good for this area.\" People in Elkhart who were interviewed said they don't have much confidence in the government's ability to resolve the crisis, though Dunlop said he thinks tax relief would help some. \"Unfortunately, you still have to have a job to have relief from the tax burden, and a lot of these people are behind in house payments and, quite frankly, it's a vicious cycle: You don't have a job, you can't make your house payment, you're not out buying anything. Even if you reduce the tax burden to those people, they still need to have some sort of income. When that occurs, they start buying things, which creates more jobs, which then starts the cycle back up again.\" Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore echoes that view. He said people need jobs so they have money to spend and support industries such as RVs. The Democrat supports the stimulus plan Obama was touting in his town Monday because it will get residents to work quickly. \"It's jobs, jobs, jobs,\" Moore told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Tuesday. Watch what Elkhart's mayor says about the president's visit \u00bb . \"We have 16 shovel-ready projects ready to go ... These are not pie-in-the-sky items; they're not pork. ... These are projects we will have to do,\" Moore said. But gift shop owner Joanie Smith said she thinks government programs are no solution. \"I think that the government and the banks are the biggest problem, because we have checks and balances to make sure what happened didn't happen, and obviously it didn't work,\" she said. \"They've already bailed out the banks; I don't know why the banks aren't lending money or offering the assistance that most businesses run with.\" Smith saw traffic at her gift shop start dropping off at the end of 2007. \"I have a store that is full of wonderful things, but nothing anybody needs,\" Smith, owner of The Picture Show for 27 years, said with a tense laugh. \"We're just in a real reality-check area right now. It's hard not being negative.\" Smith has survived in retail by being financially conservative -- she doesn't have any loans to repay and has cut hours for her two employees, she said. Several years ago she downsized her shop from more than 4,000 square feet to a cozy 1,200. Smith said she feels protective of Elkhart and its image. \"It's a real entrepreneurial city,\" she said. \"We still manufacture here. We still create here. And unfortunately we've lost so much of our diversity of businesses here to China.\" Despite these lean times, Smith said she is determined to stay in business. \"Women love to come in here and shop, and we want to be there for them.\"","highlights":"Elkhart, Indiana, entrepreneurs sweating out tough economic times .\nSeveral express doubt the federal government can get commerce moving .\nLoosening of credit would get people spending again, they say .\nPresident Obama visited Elkhart on Monday, mentioned it during press conference .","id":"916375f45a7a99cad7fb4a1cea92e7ffa269a128"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The actors of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" won outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, and Heath Ledger posthumously won best supporting male actor at the 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" actors Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto and Anil Kapoor accept the film-cast prize. \"It was overwhelming enough to be nominated, but to win this is unbelievable,\" said \"Slumdog\" actor Anil Kapoor of the award given to him and his cast mates at Los Angeles' Shrine Exposition Center. The cast's win comes two weeks after the modestly budgeted movie, about a poverty-raised orphan in Mumbai who goes on the Indian version of \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,\" won the Golden Globe award for best drama. The film has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including for best picture. \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,\" the big name when the Academy Award nominations were announced earlier this week, was shut out at the SAG Awards. The movie leads all films with 13 Oscar nods. Ledger, who was 28 when he died just more than a year ago of an accidental prescription drug overdose, won his award for his role in \"The Dark Knight,\" 2008's box-office king. Ledger's performance was widely praised, and he won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor two weeks ago. He also is considered the front-runner for an Academy Award for supporting actor. Watch a roundup of SAG winners \u00bb . Actor Gary Oldman accepted the SAG award for his friend. \"He was an extraordinary young man with an extra ordinary talent, and it is wonderful that you have acknowledged that and honored that talent tonight,\" Oldman said. Josh Brolin, one of four actors who lost to Ledger on Sunday night, compared the SAG awards to \"a big campfire we're all showing up for.\" \"It's not a competition,\" Brolin said. \"We're just happy to party together.\" Meryl Streep echoed Brolin's words when she accepted for best leading actress in a movie for her role in \"Doubt.\" \"Can I just say there's no such thing as the best actress,\" Streep said. Streep was dressed as if she might ready for Brolin's campfire, wearing black pants, a black blouse and no jewelry except for earrings. \"I didn't even buy a dress,\" she said. Watch SAG awards fashion \u00bb . Sean Penn, chosen as best leading male actor in a movie for \"Milk,\" told the four actors he won against that he wept when he watched their work. \"You're stunning,\" Penn said. Penn's took a brief political turn when spoke about \"Milk,\" the story of a gay San Francisco politician assassinated in 1978. \"This is a story about equal rights for all human beings,\" Penn said. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the Oscar race . Kate Winslet's win as best supporting actress for her performance as Hanna Schmitz in \"The Reader\" could help her best actress Oscar nomination for the same role. Watch an overwhelmed Winslet backstage \u00bb . Winslet was nominated for SAG's lead actress in a movie for \"Revolutionary Road,\" but lost to Streep. The SAG Awards are watched closely by Oscar fans, but they're not always a guarantee of Oscar gold. Last year, for example, Julie Christie won the SAG's outstanding lead actress for her work in \"Away From Her.\" At the Academy Awards, she was beaten by Marion Cotillard, who played French singer Edith Piaf in \"La Vie en Rose.\" Most of the SAG trophies handed out during the first half of Sunday night's show were for TV categories. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney won for their roles in HBO's \"John Adams.\" Giamatti got the trophy for best male actor in a TV movie or miniseries for his role as President John Adams, while Linney won the female actor award for her portrayal of first lady Abigail Adams. Watch Linney say 'I've been very lucky' \u00bb . Veteran actress Sally Field won her first SAG Actor trophy after seven nomination over the past 14 years. Field won outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series for her work on \"Brothers & Sisters.\" Hugh Laurie won best male actor in a TV drama series for a second time for his work in \"House.\" He won the same trophy two years ago. \"I actually had $100 on James Spader,\" Laurie said. \"This is just not my night.\" Spader was also up for the best actor award. The TV drama ensemble award was given to the cast of AMC's \"Mad Men.\" The evening began with NBC's \"30 Rock\" sweeping best actor and ensemble trophies. Tina Fey won the outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series category, while Alec Baldwin won the male honor for his \"30 Rock\" role. The 10 actors in the \"30 Rock\" cast also captured the trophy for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series. The 16 SAG categories include honors for both television and film actors. James Earl Jones was given SAG's 45th Life Achievement Award. \"Whatever medium he tackles, he consistently delivers,\" actor Forest Whitaker said. Jones' trademark deep voice has been heard in movies as \"the most evil voice in the entire universe... and the voice of God,\" Whitaker said. Jones used his acceptance speech to salute the late actor Paul Newman. \"Somebody down here likes you,\" Jones said to Newman. In 1956, Newman starred in \"Somebody Up There Likes Me.\" The 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards aired on TNT and TBS. Both TNT and TBS are units of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.","highlights":"\"Slumdog Millionaire\" gets outstanding performance by cast in motion picture .\nMeryl Streep gets SAG award for best leading actress in a movie .\nSean Penn named best leading male actor in a movie .\nAlec Baldwin, \"30 Rock\" ensemble cast win television awards .","id":"ac44712b6a734b8fbae8521f969c9976c59e91eb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One can only imagine the sights this hat has seen. Perched atop a man who towered over his peers at 6 foot 4 inches, this hat must have had quite a view. \"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life\" will be on display through January 2011. It may have been there when a divided nation -- a devastating Civil War on the horizon -- elected a politician from Illinois as president. It could have watched as this president, so desperate to preserve the Union, carefully drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, thus changing the course of American history. And we know for sure that this hat was witness to a tragic April night when the same president was fatally shot while enjoying a play. The iconic top hat, part of a collection of items associated with Abraham Lincoln, is now on display at the National Museum of American History. Nearly three years in the making, \"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life\" is part of the Smithsonian Institution's bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth and a rare glimpse into the life of one of our nation's greatest presidents. Nearly two centuries later, still adorned with a black band of mourning for a son who died too early, Lincoln's hat is worn-down, yet strangely magnificent. Maybe it is the hat's history that gives it such a majestic quality. Or perhaps it is simply that a top hat always commands a certain reverence -- an attribute that may reveal a great deal about the vanity of its owner. \"Why would somebody who is 6 foot 4 inches decide to wear a tall hat?\" asks Harry Rubenstein, curator of the exhibit. \"He clearly has this desire to stand out in the crowd, to make his place in it.\" Rubenstein hopes this is the type of intimate detail about our 16th president's life that people will take away from the ongoing Lincoln exhibit. \"This is the first time we've brought together all of the museum's best Lincoln objects to tell the story of Lincoln's life,\" Rubenstein says. \"And I think it's a different kind of story that emerges -- one that's more intimate and more personal and one that brings this story to life in very tangible ways.\" Watch descriptions of items in the Lincoln exhibit \u00bb . The Smithsonian Institution started its Lincoln collection more than 140 years ago, Rubenstein says. The exhibit, which opened in January, houses more than 60 items from Abraham Lincoln's life, spanning his humble beginnings, his political career, his life in the White House, and even relics recovered in the wake of his assassination. Rubenstein says the collection includes \"little personal objects of things he touched and used at pivotal moments in his life,\" like his office suit, his gold pocket watch -- and a coffee cup he left on a windowsill the night of his assassination. The exhibit is also home to more significant objects, such as the inkstand Lincoln used to draft the Emancipation Proclamation, and a patent model of a device he invented for lifting boats over sand bars. See photos from the exhibit \u00bb . Also on display is memorabilia from the 1860 presidential election campaign -- such as a replica poster portraying a young and masculine Lincoln splitting rail -- that reveal a candidate not impervious to the somewhat superficial aspects of the American political system. Rubenstein says that although Lincoln scoffed at his party's attempts to brand him as \"Old Abe the Rail Splitter,\" he understood the importance of appealing to the masses and creating an image to \"link him and his ideals in an iconic kind of way.\" Perhaps no one is more aware of the power of Lincoln's iconic image than President Barack Obama, who frequently cited his Illinois predecessor as a source of inspiration for his own presidency. While Rubenstein warns against drawing too much of a comparison between presidents -- the two Illinoisans have been linked by their reformist platforms, their penchant for eloquent speeches, and even for their physical likenesses -- he acknowledges the significance of the symbolic timing: As the first African-American becomes president, the nation celebrates the 200th birthday of the man who ended slavery. \"We have a president from Illinois -- the land of Lincoln -- who has found inspiration in the Lincoln story. ... It's clearly an historic moment,\" Rubenstein says. Nonetheless, as the nation celebrates Obama's momentous election, \"An Extraordinary Life\" is a reminder of the relevance of Lincoln's legacy today and commemorates the incredible life that he led. \"It is amazing ...here is this individual from a family in the middle of the woods in Kentucky ... [struggling] to educate himself,\" Rubenstein says. \"To then take on this incredible responsibility, [and] beyond that, his ability to articulate those ideas to inspire not only his generation, but for us today ... it's an extraordinary odyssey that he took.\" Visit \"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life\" at the National Museum of American History on the National Mall, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., in Washington, D.C. The exhibit runs through January 2011. For more information, or to view the online exhibit, visit the museum's Web site.","highlights":"National Museum of American History exhibit honors Abraham Lincoln .\nExhibit is part of Smithsonian Institution's bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birth .\nShow brings together \"all of the museum's best Lincoln objects,\" curator says .\nAmong objects on display are Lincoln's hat, suit, coffee cup, pocket watch .","id":"4eefb39ff98d7ff28974048ee1304c6b601da41c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The future of Iceland's elected government was in question Sunday after another weekend of street protests and the resignation of the government's commerce minister -- both responses to the country's financial mess. Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde, left, talks with business minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson in October. The minister, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, resigned Sunday, saying the government had failed to restore confidence in the three months after the collapse of several of the country's leading banks, currency and stock market. Senior government officials from the two parties that make up Iceland's coalition government -- the prime minister's Independence Party and the Social Democrats party -- met Sunday to discuss the government's future but nothing was resolved, a spokesman for the prime minister said. Another meeting was scheduled for Sunday night and it was \"highly likely\" that the parties would decide whether the current government would remain, the spokesman, Kristjan Kristjansson, said. Sigurdsson's resignation followed Saturday's demonstration in which about 6,000 to 7,000 people in front of the parliament building called for the government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde to step down. Protests have been staged regularly since the collapse, but Saturday's was one of the biggest to date, a spokesman for the prime minister said. Saturday's demonstration was peaceful, the spokesman, Kristjansson, said. Watch iReport of Saturday demonstration . Riot police intervened during protests earlier in the week, using pepper spray and arresting some demonstrators. In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Sigurdsson said he was taking his part of the responsibility for the economic situation in the country. But he also said that there were many more who shared responsibility, Urdur Gunnarsdottir, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CNN. No other officials were named. The night before he resigned, Sigurdsson dismissed the head of the country's financial supervisory authority and requested the authority's board resign. Haarde announced Friday he has a malignant tumor on his esophagus and would not run for re-election as chair of the Independence Party. He also proposed that early elections be held on May 9, two years ahead of schedule. The country's five-party parliament has not yet taken up the proposal, Kristjansson told CNN. Iceland's financial system and currency collapsed in October following a series of bank failures, forcing the International Monetary Fund to intervene. Iceland sought IMF help after its government was forced to nationalize three banks to head off a complete collapse of its financial system. Trading on the country's stock market was suspended for nearly a week, and inflation jumped to more than 12 percent. The IMF announced in November it would pump about $827 million into the Icelandic economy immediately, with another $1.3 billion coming in eight installments. Iceland's Nordic neighbors -- the governments of Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden -- announced they would lend Iceland another $2.5 billion. In his resignation letter, Sigurdsson said after the country's financial crash, he hoped the government would re-create trust and restore the country's finances. But he said the effort failed, and he was resigning to help facilitate a restoration of public trust. Sigurdsson is legally entitled to keep receiving his salary for several months after his resignation, but said in his letter he would not accept it. CNN's Per Nyberg in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Leaders meet to discuss future of Iceland's coalition government .\nBusiness minister resigns after collapse of the country's leading banks, stock market .\nBusiness minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson says many share responsibility for problems .","id":"ad025f6cd780dfc645fc18b54167264c5629e766"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India Friday announced it has banned import of Chinese toys for six months. The move was announced by India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade of the Commerce Ministry. The ministry notification gave no reason for the six-month ban effective immediately. In 2007, there were recalls in the United States of Chinese-made toys over concerns of excessive amount of lead paint. Also that year, China suspended export of a bead toy that was contaminated with a \"date rape\" drug, Chinese media reported. Some children who swallowed the beads vomited and lost consciousness.","highlights":"India say it has banned import of Chinese toys for six months .\nNo reason given for embargo .\nMove follows 2007 recalls in the U.S. on Chinese products .","id":"aadee19cb8c3afe90bd21ae36fea1b12420b0378"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Boston-based wedding planner Bernadette Smith has helped arrange the same-sex nuptials of nearly 75 Massachusetts couples during her five-year career. But she's never seen quite the surge in business as she has during the past few months. Wedding planners have seen a surge in same-sex couples traveling to New England to tie the knot. Smith's calendar first started filling up when the 1913 law that banned gay marriage for out-of-state couples was lifted in July 2008. But, she says, things became even more hectic when Proposition 8, the California ballot proposal restricting marriage to heterosexual couples, passed in the November elections. Now Smith and other wedding planners have seen a surge in gays and lesbians traveling to New England to tie the knot. And the trend is growing quickly: On April 3, Iowa's Supreme Court found its gay-marriage ban unconstitutional; four days later, the Vermont legislature gave same-sex couples the right to marry; and on April 16, New York Governor David Paterson announced he would introduce a bill to legalize gay marriage. Not surprisingly, hotels and resorts that cater to same-sex weddings are cashing in. One is the Hob Knob in Martha's Vineyard; its Escape & Elope package includes an intimate ceremony, along with Champagne and massages. And all their wedding packages come with access to Tulle, a destination wedding-and-gown specialist that can accommodate not just one picky bride, but two. Another property capitalizing on the ruling is the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, Connecticut. The inn's \"At Last\" package includes all the traditional trimmings of a wedding: rehearsal dinner, couples' massage, garden ceremony, and officiant, along with either \"his and his\" or \"hers and hers\" stylists. The hotel also offers 25 percent off room rates on the couples' wedding anniversary for life -- much better than a Tupperware set. Travel + Leisure: 50 best romantic getaways . For those who want to plan their own ceremony, Bernadette Smith suggests the Exchange Conference Center overlooking Boston Harbor -- it's where she'll be saying \"I do\" this summer. Anne P. Worcester, chief marketing officer of Market New Haven, a tourism and commerce organization for the New Haven area, suggests a few other same-sex-friendly Connecticut venues. There's the New Haven Lawn Club, known for its large ballroom and experience in gay weddings; the Union League Caf\u00e9 (\"arguably the best restaurant in all of New Haven,\" she says); and the quintessentially romantic carousel at Lighthouse Point. For those traveling long distances, the Omni New Haven Hotel can accommodate out-of-town couples and their guests with in-house ballrooms, restaurants and a spa. Travel + Leisure: Great romantic weekend getaways . Anne Stanback, executive director of Love Makes a Family (a pro-gay marriage organization in New Haven, Connecticut) has become an expert on same-sex wedding planning since she arranged her own nuptials without the help of bridal magazines. \"We may not see the lesbian version of Modern Bride until a few more states legalize marriage for same-sex couples, but I have no doubt we eventually will,\" she says. Now gay advocates in Iowa would like to create the same kind of wedding infrastructure available in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Greg Nooney, who started one of the state's few gay-wedding Web sites, began receiving inquiries just days after the decision was finalized on April 3. Nooney admits that building a roster of gay-friendly vendors won't happen overnight. \"It is taking some people a little time to get their bearings,\" he says. One place that wasted no time in promoting itself as gay-friendly is the Sioux City Holiday Inn. Manager Larry Jenson says the property has held commitment ceremonies in the past and looks forward to hosting same-sex couples in the future. Despite the fast pace of change across America, however, wedding experts say all the feedback has been positive. \"People may be surprised at just how few ripples the change in the marriage law has caused here,\" says Anne Stanback, of Connecticut. \"There has been no backlash, there have been no protests. Just lots and lots of people who are pleased.\" Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Surge in business for wedding planners where same-sex marriage is legal .\nWhen California's Proposition 8 passed, more gay couples came to Massachusetts .\nGay advocates in Iowa would like to create the same kind of wedding infrastructure .","id":"8ab5480f049ae6a88b717d12999d15fb1d9a6a0e"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Monday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says nonemergency legislation needs time to be read by the public and Congress. (CNN) -- Whether by omission or commission, both the White House and Congress get a dose of blame for not living up to the new era of transparency promised by President Obama. The president's old campaign Web site still has this commitment there for all to see: . \"As president, Obama will not sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House Web site for five days.\" Well, the president broke that promise barely a week after taking office when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Bill dealing with equal pay for men and women. A good bill, and certainly one that could have survived a five-day comment period. So, maybe the White House folks just forgot? But then there is Congress and the Stimulus Bill. How fast could you get through it? According to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, lawmakers had just 13 hours to read 1,100 pages of material that would cost the American taxpayer $787 billion. That's less than a minute and a half per page, with no time for bathroom breaks. No wonder so many of our lawmakers didn't seem to notice that last-minute exemption clearing the way for bailed-out companies like AIG to pay out big bonuses. So, the House tried to clean up the mess last week by rushing through another bill -- a tax on AIG bonuses. That bill was just 11 hours old before it went on the floor to be argued and then quickly approved. And the list goes on well before the president took office. The bank bailout got all of 29 hours, the rescue of Fannie and Freddie was only available for 19 hours. This is how bills could literally become, to borrow a phrase, too big to fail -- and too fast to stop. The Sunlight Foundation is calling on Congress to allow the American people three days, 72 hours, to read a nonemergency bill online before debate begins. We strongly agree. And yes lawmakers, you can have three days to read it over, too, before taking a stand. As for President Obama's promise of a five-day public review once a bill leaves Capitol Hill headed for his desk, it would be nice if he kept his word on this going forward. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Brown: Obama said he'd post legislation on Web for 5 days before signing it .\nHe broke that promise with the Lilly Ledbetter Bill, Brown says .\nCongress also should take more time to study bills, she says .","id":"fc7cce001fe33ba4e9dcb713d2c4acae3909e1a1"} -{"article":"LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Toiling in what is the opium capital of the world, farmers in southern Afghanistan are swapping out their poppy plants for wheat crops. A farmer harvests wheat in a field on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, last summer. The farmers are participating in programs sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is offering seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation to the region in an effort to stop poppy crops and, ultimately, the production of opium and heroin. Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year. Opium cultivation in the country, which has 34 provinces, dropped by about 20 percent in a year, the U.N. reported in August. \"It's a challenge to deliver assistance in a war zone -- you can hear fighter jets flying above us right now,\" said Rory Donohoe, a USAID development officer. \"At the end of the day, what we found is successful is that we work in areas that we can work,\" he told CNN in a recent interview in Helmand province. \"We come to places like this demonstration farm where Afghans can come here to a safe environment, get training, pick up seeds and fertilizer, then go back to districts of their own.\" Watch Afghans speak about the change in their farming practices \u00bb . Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals. Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID. Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan. \"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away,\" said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah. \"The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear.\"","highlights":"USAID offering seeds, other help to encourage Afghan farmers to grow wheat .\nAgency trying to wean Afghan farmers from poppy production .\nPoppy plants used to produce opium and heroin .\nOpium, heroin has been a major source of revenue for the Taliban .","id":"db5bc72803732b42b0714604f1f8901235936d7d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A motel owner in New Zealand -- fed up with one too many incidents of rowdy behavior -- has banned an entire town from checking in as guests. Steve Donnelly, an Australian, has been accused of racism following his decision. Steve Donnelly, the owner of the Supreme Motor Lodge in the town of Palmerston North, said he decided to yank the welcome mat for the 16,000 residents of Wainuiomata because \"each time they visited, our life became less exciting.\" \"I'm not Santa Claus. I can't figure out who's naughty and who's nice,\" he said. \"So we went ahead and banned all of them.\" Wainuiomata, near the capital, Wellington, is about two hours' drive from Palmerston North. Donnelly said he banned the town after three groups of people from Wainuiomata checked in on separate occasions over a six-month period, riling other guests at the 51-room hotel. \"We have moms and dads who come here with two or three kids to relax,\" he said. \"They don't want some loudmouth spitting on the pavement, flirting with girls and swearing.\" The \"no vacancy\" extends to the members of parliament, as Wainuiomata lawmaker Trevor Mallard found out when he came to test the ban. \"He's barging in here with a TV camera, trying to book a room to prove a point,\" Donnelly said. \"We just stood at the front door and said, 'You're not welcome here. Go away.'\" By \"we,\" Donnelly is referring to himself and his general manager, Malcolm Glen -- a Scotsman known in the community as \"Basil Fawlty\" after the iconic and paranoid John Cleese character in the British sitcom \"Fawlty Towers.\" News of the ban sent some former guests complaining, and others accusing Donnelly, an Australian, of racism. Many wanted to know whether he was violating the Human Rights Act, which prohibits hotel owners from discriminating based on race. \"Some people are making it out to be about the big Aussie brother giving his poor little Kiwi cousin a hard time,\" Donnelly said. \"They were flabbergasted that there wasn't a law that stopped me. But it's like having a pub. You don't have to have a reason why you won't serve alcohol to any group of people.\" Donnelly, who's owned the 25-year-old motel for the past two and a half years, said he might annul the ban in the future -- if Wainuiomata adjusts its behavior.","highlights":"Steve Donnelly owns Supreme Motor Lodge in town of Palmerston North .\n16,000 residents of Wainuiomata, near Wellington have been banned .\nDonnelly says guests from the town are always rowdy .\nHe says he might annul ban in the future -- if Wainuiomata adjusts behavior .","id":"35694797aa3b9dbab5a32e9ba5833e83038db062"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Taliban in Pakistan have issued a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Pakistani government, by declaring the country's entire legal system \"un-Islamic.\" Taliban representatives leave talks in Peshawar in February after reaching a deal on Sharia law in Swat. \"Let the judges and the lawyers go to Islamic university,\" said Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman in Pakistan's Swat Valley. \"(After) they learn Islamic rules, Islamic regulation, they can continue to work.\" In a telephone interview Tuesday with CNN, Khan demanded the imposition of Islamic sharia law all across the country. He also called for the creation of jaziya, an Islamic tax, to be levied on all non-Muslims in Pakistan. And Khan denounced any Pakistanis who disagreed with his interpretation of Islam, calling them \"non-Muslims.\" The Taliban militant echoed statements made by Sufi Muhammed, an Islamist fundamentalist leader who helped broker a peace deal between the Pakistani government and the Taliban in Swat Valley. Last week, the deal led to the implementation of sharia law in Swat, an alpine region that was once one of Pakistan's most popular destinations for foreign tourists. Speaking before an audience of tens of thousands on Sunday, Sufi Muhammed declared democracy and Pakistan's judicial system \"un-Islamic.\" Since reaching his peace deal with the government in Islamabad, Muhammed has been appointing qazis, or clerics, to serve as judges in Islamic courts in Swat. The rise of the Taliban in Swat has alarmed and frightened some members of local civil society there. \"This is a time bomb for the country,\" said Aftab Alam, the head of the lawyers' association in Swat district. Speaking by telephone from the town of Mingora, Alam claimed Taliban militants have kidnapped, ransomed and even killed lawyers in recent months. \"The only sane voice against the militants, the only sane voice against the criminals, is the lawyer community,\" he said. \"And this is why we have been declared by them, I mean the militants, liable to death.\" This week, some secular Pakistani political parties publicly condemned the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam. But many other prominent officials appear unwilling or unable to challenge the creeping Taliban conversion of Pakistani society. For example, Ali Ahmed Kurd, one of the leaders of the lawyers protest movement which helped bring down the government of military ruler Pervez Musharraf, declined to comment on Tuesday when asked by CNN about Sufi Mohammed's comments. In recent months, videos have emerged showing what appear to be Taliban militants in Swat meting out vigilante justice. One video shows men beating a woman accused of adultery with a cane. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan initially claimed responsibility for the public caning in interviews with Pakistani TV stations. But in his interview with CNN on Tuesday he reversed his position, accusing \"opponents of Islam\" of making fake videos to hurt his movement's image. Meanwhile, in another Taliban-run region called Orakzai, details emerged of militants forcing a small community of Sikhs to pay a jaziya or \"minority tax\" of 10.5 million rupees, roughly 18,000 dollars earlier this month. During his interview, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said that if his vision of an Islamic society is fulfilled in Pakistan, terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden will be welcome to travel and live openly here. \"Sure, he's a Muslim, he can go anywhere,\" Khan said. Khan added that he would like to see sharia law implemented beyond Pakistan, even in America, a country he knows intimately. For four years, the Taliban spokesman lived in the United States, working as a painter near Boston.","highlights":"Taliban in Pakistan demand imposition of Islamic sharia law across country .\nGovernment-Taliban deal has led to implementation of sharia law in Swat Valley .\nFundamentalist leader declares Pakistan's judicial system \"un-Islamic\"\nSecular Pakistani political parties have condemned strict interpretation of Islam .","id":"bb89d42bd5e815198c0f73961213edbc6298bd53"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A conference of Islamic prosecutors in Iran worked Wednesday to draft an indictment against Israeli leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. Palestinian women walk past a building destroyed during Israel's campaign in Gaza. The charges stem from Israel's late-December offensive into Gaza against Hamas militants. The Israeli military has been accused of using excessive and indiscriminate force in civilian areas. Israel is \"a regime that only understands the language of violence and force,\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the gathering, in calling for the prosecution of Israeli \"criminals.\" \"I am confident that there will come a day when all Zionist criminals will be brought to justice,\" he said on the second day of the conference in Tehran, the capital of Iran. The Iranian president regularly rails against Israel and has called for the Jewish state's elimination. Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said: \"The day when this conference will start dealing with human rights in the countries that are members of this organization will be the day that their claims concerning Israel will be deserved to be heard, not before. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, let alone commit suicide bombings.\" \"The accusations themselves are nothing more than the hysterical, hostile coverage of the media in these countries and not based on solid facts,\" he continued. Human Rights Watch, in a report released last month, said there was evidence that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza by firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas. Israel has rejected that claim. Israel also has said that the offensive was to defend against repeated rocket attacks by Palestinians. The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday its forces \"operated in accordance with international law\" during recent fighting in Gaza, but said there were a few incidents in which \"intelligence or operational errors\" occurred. This is the conclusion of probes that emerged from Operation Cast Lead, in which Israel was broadly criticized for its actions in Gaza. Phosphorus shells can be used to create a smokescreen for troops. In creating the diversion, the element ignites when exposed to oxygen and can cause severe burns. The Israeli offensive was launched December 27 and ended January 17 with a cease-fire. Of the 1,453 people estimated killed in the conflict, 1,440 were Palestinian, including 431 children, a U.N. report recently said. Thirteen Israelis died -- three civilians and six soldiers were killed by Hamas, and four soldiers were killed by friendly fire -- the report said. A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister called the U.N. report an example of the \"one-sided and unfair\" attitude of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which had requested it. The two days of meetings in the Iranian capital have included more than 200 senior judicial officials from the Organization of the Islamic Conference -- an association of 56 states. The organization might ask the U.N. International Court of Justice to charge Israeli leaders with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. The court would not be obligated to act.","highlights":"Islamic prosecutors draft indictment against Israeli leaders over Gaza offensive .\nIranian President Ahmadinejad says \"Zionist criminals\" should face justice .\nHuman Rights Watch says evidence Israel committed war crimes .\nIsraeli spokesman says claims are \"hysterical, hostile... not based on solid facts .","id":"711bdb9a31a13dc06fd144951cc12d098207356e"} -{"article":"EL PASO, Texas (CNN) -- Sitting in high school, math and history lessons never captured Danny Santos' imagination. The drug-fueled streets of the Texas-Mexico border provided his education, and he was an excellent student. Danny Santos, 21, works two part-time jobs and still doesn't make as much as he did as a drug mule. Santos says he became one of the thousands of American and Mexican teenagers recruited into the dangerous world of drug smuggling. \"I didn't care. I had no conscience,\" Santos said at a boxing gym in El Paso, Texas. \"You're young, and you're na\u00efve, and you think it's easy.\" Santos' journey into the underworld of teenage drug smuggling offers a glimpse into how drug cartels lure teenagers into doing their dirty work. US. Customs and Border Protection officials in El Paso and San Diego report that in recent months, they've seen a rise in the number of juvenile drug smugglers getting busted at border checkpoints. They're often called mules. These teenagers are usually hired only to smuggle drug loads across the border. It's a short drive or walk that offers quick cash but can carry serious consequences. Watch how teens get drugs across the border \u00bb . Drug cartels \"just need someone who can legitimately cross the border,\" said Bill Molaski, the El Paso Port Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As an American, Santos could freely cross the El Paso-Juarez border and not raise suspicion. At age 15, Santos says, he met \"a guy\" at a party who introduced him to drug kingpins in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. \"You start off as a driver,\" Santos said. \"People feel like they can trust you, then you move up to something bigger.\" Two weeks later, he got a $4,000 job offer to drive his first load of marijuana across a bridge into El Paso. It was the beginning of a four-year smuggling career. \"I can't say I wasn't nervous,\" Santos said. \"You kind of project yourself into another time of happiness or joy. ... You just have to forget you have something illegal in the car.\" In all, Santos says, he earned $50,000 making about 20 mule runs, driving right through heavily guarded border checkpoints. Santos, who is now 21, says he was arrested once but spent only a few days in jail. He said charges were dropped. Because he was younger than 18 when he was arrested, and juvenile cases are sealed, CNN could not confirm his story through court records. Young smugglers don't fit a stereotype. Several sources said that both American and Mexican teens are lured into the work. Teenage boys and girls alike are involved. Many smugglers come from middle-class families. \"There's a lot of money in the trade, a lot of inducement for a lot of young people to get involved,\" El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez said. His office is responsible for prosecuting juvenile smugglers. Federal and state authorities say drug cartels recruit young smugglers from schools. Depending on the size of the drug load that's being smuggled, a kid can be paid a couple hundred dollars up to $5,000. Mexican officials say cartels have placed classified advertisements in Mexican newspapers with cryptic messages offering young people a job with good salary and benefits. A phone number is included in the ad. The officials say a cartel member sets up a meeting to determine whether the kid is up to the job. But Rodriguez offers a chilling reason why teenagers should avoid the lure of easy money. \"We had a kid here who lost a load and had some of his toes chopped off,\" Rodriguez said. Santos says he got out of the smuggling business two years ago. Now he spends every day training at a boxing gym in El Paso. Boxing and smuggling can both be vicious worlds, but at least boxing is legal. However, it's a slow climb to the top of the boxing world. He's chasing the golden dreams of boxing championships and hoping to make more money boxing than he did smuggling. Santos is working two part-time jobs, and he says it takes him two months to earn the money that he used to make in one day of drug smuggling. He spent almost all the money he made smuggling. But he has no regrets. \"The peace of mind is good,\" Santos said after a bruising workout. \"I sleep good, eat good. I feel better now.\"","highlights":"Danny Santos, 21, says he made $50,000 in four years as a drug mule .\nSantos smuggled drugs across U.S. border from Juarez, Mexico .\nHe was arrested once, as a juvenile, but said charges were dropped .\nSantos now works two part-time jobs as trains as a boxer .","id":"19f5639896f56854802d8c7fc4a48b0e722474f8"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Briton bested competitors from 51 other countries to win the recent World Barista Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. The World Barista Championship poured into Atlanta, Georgia, this year after serving Denmark last year. Winner Gwilym Davies said the caffeinated competition was more difficult than other events he has participated in. \"In sports, I was able to run harder, or tackle harder ... but this, I still have to keep composed, and watch the shots,\" the pushcart owner told CNN on Sunday. \"I found it tougher.\" Each competitor served four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks. Despite incurring a penalty for running 17 seconds over the 15-minute limit, Davies' prowess steamed him to the fore of the competition. Watch contestants battle for title \u00bb . \"It brings together a group of people from all around the world and we currently have a structure of 61 nations that are part of the family,\" said Cindy Chang, executive director of the World Barista Championship. The competition was held during the annual meeting of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, which attracted thousands of participants from around the world. In addition to winning an espresso machine, Davies will travel extensively this year representing the specialty coffee community. In what some view as a strange twist, none of the champions over the past decade has come from a country that grows coffee. \"It does seem kind of perplexing, because what we look for in this competition is for the baristas to tell a story, show that they have a broad coffee knowledge,\" said Chang. \"And the baristas from coffee-producing countries seem to have an easy access to this.\" Davies said he owes his success to his willingness to improvise. \"There were 256 different drinks that we could have made,\" he said. \"We tried a few and added the ingredients. But it was still a bit risky ... and we got away with it!\" The next world championship is to be held next year in London, England. CNN's Felipe Bernal contributed to this story.","highlights":"Gwilym Davies wins this week's World Barista Championship in Atlanta .\nEach competitor served 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 signature drinks .\nStrange twist: None of past decade's winners hail from a coffee-growing country .","id":"c992559dc57f70df598222d9b1e90e15872493dd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chris Cornell has taken to Twitter like Tweety Bird took to making mischief. Chris Cornell's new solo album, \"Scream,\" was produced by Timbaland. He acknowledges it's an odd mix. Not to suggest he's using the popular social networking service to cause trouble. Hardly. The 44-year-old rock musician said he enjoys the open stream of chit-chat with his fans. \"It's actually created an environment where I can answer simple questions that someone's probably had forever,\" said Cornell. \"And I don't mind answering them. And I can actually have conversations with fans that are quick, but still more meaningful than the typical situations you're put into. I've really liked it.\" His more than 200,000 followers can revel in bite-size musings about life on the road (\"crowd was amazing last night\") or sweet tweets to his wife, Vicky (\"hi baby! i miss you!\"). Watch Cornell talk about his Twitter fascination \u00bb . The former front man of Soundgarden and Audioslave -- who is also known for singing the James Bond theme \"Casino Royale\" -- is the first to admit he's a fan of experimenting. His new solo album, \"Scream,\" has him meshing his rock vibe with dance-floor beats by the much sought-after producer Timbaland. The collaboration has left some people scratching their heads. Nine Inch Nails lead singer Trent Reznor took a swipe by twittering: \"You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell's record?\" Ouch. The album debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, but it took a substantial tumble the second week. But Cornell -- who said he's never met Reznor nor read or responded to his tweet -- was more than ready for criticism. \"You could kind of see it coming,\" he said. \"Some of it is a script that was written just by putting [me and Timbaland] together. And most of the negative responses fit that script perfectly: 'You can't put these two things together. We don't like it! We're not going to let you! So we're gonna say bad stuff.' \" For Cornell, working with Timbaland required him to \"rinse away everything that I knew about songwriting and recording.\" He said the biggest challenge was in having to relearn how to sing to a different rhythm, his raspy voice needing to match up with slick studio beats rather than sliding loosely around the live, loud accompaniment he's so used to. \"To me it seemed like an exciting thing to just go and do,\" he said. \"I think this is as good as any album I've ever made, and I listen to it probably more than any other record I've ever made.\" Cornell spoke to CNN about Timbaland, Twitter and throwing stuff out windows. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Some people have said that you've lost your musical identity in this album. Chris Cornell: I don't have one, really. I don't want to have one. If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving. CNN: So you would be happy to be experimental on your next album? Cornell: Absolutely. CNN: So what was it like working with Timbaland? Cornell: He didn't really have a particular direction in mind in terms of what he wanted me to do. He did what Timbaland does, and I did what I do. We just wrote songs, which is really the best thing that came out of it. ... It doesn't sound like anybody else's record. It doesn't sound like music I've ever heard. It defies genre, and yet it's very much a song-oriented album as well as an album-oriented album. ... The music never stops. I've performed it that way. It's almost like a movie soundtrack. CNN: How often do you Twitter? Cornell: It depends. When I'm out on the road, depending on the day, a couple times a day I'll spend a half-hour or an hour or so. I've found that doing vocal warm-ups and Twitter at the same time, cause I'm a multitasker. I can watch CNN -- because I do -- and then I can be online and do vocal warm-ups all at the same time. And only one of those things is way too boring. CNN: I read a couple of your tweets, and you said that you were having trouble sleeping. Is that an occupational hazard? Cornell: Probably, yeah. I think everybody has a hard time when you play ... [a] show and then you're finished at 1:30 in the morning. It takes me an hour and a half to be able to eat after that and then to be able to sleep after that. It's hard. CNN: What is the biggest misconception about being a rock musician? Cornell: My first answer would be that it's just all a big party. But then I've been in that situation or seen bands like that where it is all a big party. I think overall there's this idea that it isn't work, that it isn't something that you have to put pretty much 100 percent of your focus and your being into, that it's like winning the lottery in a sense. And I think if you're a musician that's had any kind of success there is a component to that. There's some aspect to timing and luck, there's talent obviously as well. But it's a lot of traveling. It's a lot of waiting, it's a lot of leaving one city going into another city only to see the venue you're going to play in when you arrive, playing for the audience and then leaving and going to the next city. CNN: Have you ever thrown a really big object through a window? Cornell: Yeah. I threw an amplifier, a small one, through a window only because me and a few friends of mine that were out on tour together just made the observation [that] our generation just doesn't do stuff like that. So we sort of did it as kind of a ritualistic, \"OK, let's participate in the real thing.\" There was a piece of duct tape on the amplifier that had my name on it. So I had to run down to the alley and take that tape off so that they wouldn't know who threw it off to the street.","highlights":"Chris Cornell's new album is \"Scream\"\nFormer Soundgarden, Audioslave front man working with producer Timbaland .\nRock star life takes work, Cornell says .\nSinger once threw amplifier out window to sample old-school rock star activity .","id":"1245d64e27a233fd0297721b152aca854f4bba1b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Neenah Pickett is on a mission to find love, and it's the kind that has a countdown and can be monitored by any curious voyeur. No, she's not the newest bachelorette to feed America's reality TV addiction. The New Jersey media consultant is the brains and heart behind \"52 weeks 2 find him!\" a Web site dedicated to the search for her husband. \"This whole process has been me really realizing I need to find new ways to be proactive,\" said Pickett, 43, who might typically get roped into long hours at work or the embrace of a comfortable couch. \"I'm past the stage of believing it'll just happen.\" So she's putting it all out there on her site. She's blogging. She's asking friends and strangers to weigh in with advice. She's pushing herself to do things and act in ways she never has before. And a little more than 14 weeks into the self-imposed challenge, she's pretty exhausted. \"I can't believe how hard it is,\" she said of the journey so far, which has brought her more dates in two months than she'd had in two years. \"But that's why the deadline is so important.\" Setting goals and working hard -- no doubt, it's the American way. Singles scramble to avoid renewing online dating subscriptions. They sign up for \"speed dating\" events to feast on a smorgasbord of quick-and-easy first impressions. TV viewers beat up \"The Bachelor\" when he regrets selecting the mate he's chosen after a limited number of episodes. And how-to books that promise, within a set timeframe, discovery of the One, fly off bookshelves. When it comes to matters of the heart, though, does finding love on a deadline make sense? \"It sounds good from a marketing standpoint, but life doesn't work like that,\" said Blaire Allison, \"The Love Guru,\" who coaches people when it comes to matters of the heart. She should know. About five years ago, when she was 27, Allison posted a site called \"Marry Blaire,\" with the hope -- albeit somewhat in jest -- that she'd be engaged within six months. Like Pickett, she felt that setting aside time to focus on her personal life was necessary. \"It's OK to say, 'I want to be a partner in a law firm in three years' ... but we're taught to not be open about our desires about marriage, because we don't want to scare off the guy,\" she said. By being honest, \"you end up attracting men who want the same thing as you.\" A funny thing happened along the way, though. Allison found \"my One,\" as she calls him, ended up living with the guy and felt essentially married. But she walked away when she realized that she hadn't taken time to know herself. She was young, caught up in the societal pressures and so worried about finding him that she'd never bothered to look within. Through self-discovery, she fell \"totally in love with myself,\" she said. \"Now, I'm ready for a partner in my life again, but there's no rush; there's no urgency; there's no fear.\" And nothing is more attractive than a woman who is happy with herself, said Sam van Rood, a \"Love Doctor\" based in London, England. He said that putting a deadline on the search for love sounds like \"a risky approach\" and that allowing time for self-evaluation is most important, no matter the gender. To get where he is, personally and professionally, he had to examine and fix his own mindset when it came to love and romance. \"I used to see an ice queen, and I'd run and impale myself on her cold, bitter heart,\" said van Rood, 35, who's engaged to be married next year. \"Now I have the loveliest, warmest woman I've ever met. In helping myself, I've ended up helping other people.\" For 23 years, Janet Page has been offering her own brand of assistance by way of an evening course offered at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. It was traditionally called \"I Will Be Married in One Year,\" but the psychotherapist has changed the course name in recent years to better represent her curriculum and those she wants to reach, including gays and lesbians who can't marry: \"Find Your Dream Mate While Finding Yourself: The Twelve-Month Plan.\" Too many people are caught up in the fantasy of how love works and happens, she said. They are prepared to work hard on the job or in school, but they haven't done their homework to achieve true and lasting love. Women, for example, think that outward appearances will reel men in, but men don't give enough attention to how they look, she said. And simple things, like making a conscious effort to smile more often, can make a difference. Get advice from matchmakers on what to wear, where to go . \"Women who don't smile are perceived as hostile. Women perceive men who don't smile as being unsafe,\" Page said. \"But of course, your best smilers in the world are sociopaths,\" she added. Though \"love doesn't have a time limit on it,\" Page said giving people time constraints can be important, especially if what they need to do is some of the hard, looking-within kind of work. If people were told to spend five years on this process, they'd wait until year four to focus, she said. \"You have to give people deadlines.\" And it's the deadline of 52 weeks that works for Pickett, who had never allowed herself this time to focus on her heart and the search for love. This \"grand effort,\" as she calls it, is simply her attempt to see whether she can add to what is already \"a full life\" and one that she loves. If she doesn't find him by the end of the year, she's prepared to take a year off to re-evaluate where she is. \"At that point, I'll probably need a year off from dating,\" she said with a laugh.","highlights":"A woman sets up a Web site for help in her 52-week search to find The One .\n\"Love Guru\" and \"Love Doctor\" weigh in: Does setting deadlines make sense?\nExperts say loving oneself should come first, and fantasies need to go .\nSetting aside time to do self-examination is a, however, a deadline worth making .","id":"29a1a4e087656990febd6d77cbe2fe16b6e36251"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nine of the 11 Pakistani nationals being held in an alleged terror plot in northern England were released Tuesday, according to police. Police officers guard a house in Manchester, England, following raids and arrests of terror suspects. The arrests were made the week before Easter and came quickly after Britain's chief terrorism officer, who has since resigned, exposed a list of people who were suspected of planning an al Qaeda-linked attack. Britain's Greater Manchester Police said the men were released into the custody of the U.K.'s border agency, which will determine whether they can legally remain in England. Police and the border agency said they want the men deported, even though investigators apparently were unable to find enough evidence to charge them with crimes. \"We are seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security. The government's highest priority is to protect public safety,\" said a statement from the agency. \"Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country, we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate.\" Twelve people originally were arrested April 8, and one had been released before Tuesday. Two people remained in custody, authorities said. Police said that at the time of the arrests, their investigation compelled them to take action, even without the blunder made by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick. The document he was carrying when photographed outside 10 Downing Street contained the names of those to be arrested, and a source said photographers were able to easily read the names when they enlarged the photographs. Once the word was out, police rushed to make the arrests. Authorities said those actions would have been taken in the following 24 hours anyway. The men -- ranging in age from 18 to 22 -- were arrested in Manchester, about 200 miles northwest of London. They had been held for 13 days without being charged. Police will need to seek an extension by Wednesday to be able to continue holding the two remaining suspects without charges. Police say they are continuing to review evidence collected in the case and are searching at least one more house . CNN's Paula Newton in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"Border officials want men deported despite lack of evidence to charge them .\nAgency: We want to remove men \"on grounds of national security\"\nMen had been held in association with alleged terror plot in northern England .\nWidespread arrests made after police official photographed with name of suspects .","id":"d7f26a3dad22ce50560017c1b4ee47844a89d4c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Besides charting the nature of space and time and penning the bestseller \"A Brief History of Time,\" Stephen Hawking has another distinction: He beat the life-expectancy odds for people with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Stephen Hawking, shown in Pasadena, California, in March, is hospitalized but said to be \"comfortable.\" Most people with ALS survive only two to five years after diagnosis. Hawking, on the other hand, has lived more than 40 years since he learned he had the disease, which is also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease in America and motor neuron disease, or MND, in the United Kingdom. Hawking, 67, was taken to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, England, on Monday in a \"very ill\" condition, and spent the night in the hospital. He was said to be \"comfortable\" Tuesday. Bob Hawkins, 75, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who learned of his ALS diagnosis last year, said Hawking, with his long life and ability to communicate through a voice synthesizer, gives him hope. The physicist should be a role model for people with the disease as well as those without it, Hawkins said. \"The man is brilliant, and he has striven through a lot of adversity to accomplish all of the things he has accomplished,\" Hawkins said. \"He should be an inspiration for anyone.\" The British physicist also embodies the idea of empowering people with ALS to live life to the fullest, said Dr. Lucie Bruijn, scientific director for the ALS Association, in an e-mail. This empowerment theme is part of the mission of the ALS Association, she said. \"To have achieved so much in his lifetime while battling Lou Gehrig's Disease is quite remarkable,\" she said. ALS affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, which results in muscle weakness and atrophy. The disease causes the death of motor neurons, meaning the brain loses its ability to control muscle movement. Hawking has had direct involvement in promoting awareness and research into his disease. He recently agreed to be a patron of the MND Association in Northampton, England, meaning he will lend his name to the charity and support it by attending events, fundraising, or other activities. He has participated in some of the organization's high-profile events, said Mel Barry, communications manager at the MND Association. \"He's a very busy man, so it's wonderful that he's publicly supporting us with his very heavy workload,\" she said. Hawking's case is also unusual because his condition was diagnosed at a young age, said Sharon Matland, vice president of patient services at the ALS Association. People typically are between 40 and 70 when they learn they have ALS; Hawking found out at age 21. Some very rare cases manifest in the late teens, Bruijn said. There have been other rare cases of people living long lives with ALS, although none as famous as Hawking. Barry said she knows of a man in Ireland who has lived with the disease for 30 years -- but only about 5 percent of people with ALS live longer than 10 years. ALS affects 350,000 people worldwide and up to 30,000 people in the United States, the ALS Association estimates. \"It totally upsets your entire way of living,\" Hawkins of North Carolina said. \"It slowly takes over your entire muscle structure and eventually your limbs are affected, your speech may or may not be affected. The only part of your body that isn't affected is your mind.\" Still, patients experience different symptoms, and some do have cognitive impairment, Matland said. They may have trouble making day-to-day decisions, such as choosing which bills to pay first. Hawkins said he first experienced weakness in his legs and arms, typical symptoms of the disease. People with ALS may also find it difficult to lift their arms or feet, Matland said. \"You drop things or you can't grasp things as you might have been able to do in the past,\" she said. Loss of voice is another potential symptom, but some people are able to speak until they die, Barry said. The nature of the disease is that it's very different in each person, she said. Most people with ALS become dependent on a wheelchair -- sometimes within six to eight months, but the time frame varies, Matland said. Typically, the ultimate cause of death is respiratory failure, because ALS affects the muscles used for breathing, she said. David Niven, the English actor known for his roles in \"Around the World in 80 Days\" and \"The Pink Panther,\" died of ALS at age 73. He suffered from the disease for more than a year. A variety of ongoing clinical trials seek to find an effective treatment for ALS in the U.S. Drugs in these trials include lithium, ceftriaxone, and memantine, according to the ALS Association. A recent study showed there may be a genetic component to the disease. In the UK, the MND Association is funding a trial for lithium, which has produced promising results in mice, Barry said. Psychiatrists currently prescribe lithium, a mood-stabilizing drug, for bipolar disorder and other conditions. An FDA-approved drug called riluzole has been shown to prolong survival for some ALS patients, but extends the life span by only three to six months, Barry said. Typically, palliative care is the main treatment -- managing symptoms rather than stopping or curing them. Stem cell therapy may hold promise for the disease, but the general perception is that research into it is not sufficiently advanced, according to the MND Association. To raise money for research in the U.S., the ALS Association hosts walks across the country. Hawkins said he will be participating in the 2009 Fayetteville, North Carolina, Walk to Defeat ALS in May. \"I would encourage everyone to recognize how terrible this disease is, and encourage them to support the ALS Association and research projects,\" he said. CNN's Jennifer Pifer Bixler contributed to this report.","highlights":"Stephen Hawking is a rare case of someone who has survived decades with ALS .\nALS affects 350,000 people worldwide and as many as 30,000 people in the U.S.\nSymptoms vary from person to person; some lose their speech but others do not .\nClinical trials are in progress for a variety of treatments .","id":"1cbd686f1b936be5d67565a7cb88e292601cc1bf"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Move over Susan Boyle. A week after the Scottish woman became a global sensation following a barnstorming audition on \"Britain's Got Talent,\" a 12-year-old Welsh boy with a Motown voice has been hailed for his \"life-changing\" performance on the TV show after earning a standing ovation from Simon Cowell. Jafargholi impressed the \"Britain's Got Talent\" judges with a rendition of \"Who's Loving You.\" Shaheen Jafargholi's prospects looked bleak when the infamously hard to impress Cowell brought the audition to an abrupt halt just one verse into his rendition of \"Valerie,\" the Zutons' song covered by Amy Winehouse. \"You've got this really wrong,\" Cowell told him. \"What do you sing apart from that?\" Jafargholi instead offered to perform \"Who's Loving You,\" written by Smokey Robinson and performed by a young Michael Jackson with the Jackson Five, bringing screams of delight from the audience as he launched into a note-perfect rendition that brought a beaming Cowell and fellow judges Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden to their feet. \"This is how one song can change your life,\" Cowell told him. \"This may be the start of something special for you young man.\" Watch Shaheen Jafargholi perform on \"Britain's Got Talent\" \u00bb . Writing in his blog for the show, Morgan said Jafargholi had been the stand-out act of the show and tipped him as a possible challenger to Boyle for the TV talent show's \u00a3100,000 ($146,000) prize. \"Once Simon got him to sing the right kind of song for his voice, he was sensational. Like a young Stevie Wonder,\" Morgan said. In an interview for the show, Jafargholi said he had been singing since he was two years old. \"When I was a bit older my mum got me some singing lessons and my voice just got bigger and bigger,\" he said. \"Hopefully this is going to be my big break.\" Last week's performance by Boyle, the 47-year-old with a Broadway voice who claimed to have never been kissed, brought the show global attention, with her version of the Les Miserables' tune \"I Dreamed a Dream\" gaining more than 32 million hits on YouTube as well as earning her a string of U.S. media appearances, including on CNN's Larry King Live. Jafargholi has some way to go to match Boyle's success. By Monday morning a YouTube link to his performance had been watched just 330,000 times. Who do you prefer? Susan Boyle or Shaheen Jafargholi? Sound Off below .","highlights":"12-year-old Welsh boy shines on \"Britain's Got Talent\" with Motown voice .\nShaheen Jafargholi earned standing ovation from judge Simon Cowell .\nCowell had earlier halted Jafargholi's audition and got him to change songs .\nShow has become a global hit following Susan Boyle's performance last week .","id":"b09075f9cf84037c0d16ccb4562881bf5649b6f3"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Four people in two states have been arrested as part of an investigation into the Final Exit Network, an organization that police believe helped a Georgia man end his life in June, authorities said Thursday. Claire Blehr, 76, of Georgia, and Thomas E. Goodwin, 63, of Florida and Georgia, were two of the four arrested. John Celmer, 58, lived in Cumming, north of Atlanta. Cumming police, the Forsyth County coroner and the man's relatives all had suspicions that his death was an assisted suicide, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation, the agency said in a news release. The GBI on Wednesday set up a sting operation at a residence in adjoining Dawson County, using an undercover agent who had posed as a terminally ill man seeking assistance with his suicide, the statement said. Claire Blehr, 76, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Thomas E. Goodwin, 63, of both Punta Gorda, Florida, and Kennesaw, Georgia, were arrested, the GBI said. Meanwhile, authorities in Baltimore, Maryland, arrested Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert, 81, of Baltimore in connection with the investigation. A second person, Nicholas Alec Sheridan, 60, also of Baltimore, was arrested Wednesday night, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said Thursday. All four face charges of assisted suicide, tampering with evidence and violation of the Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the GBI said. The Final Exit Network, based in the north Atlanta suburb of Marietta, identifies itself on its Web site as \"an all-volunteer organization dedicated to serving people who are suffering from an intolerable condition. Network volunteers offer you counseling, support and even guidance to self-deliverance at a time and place of your choosing, but you always do the choosing. We will never encourage you to hasten your death.\" Celmer suffered from \"very, very severe mouth and throat cancer,\" his 85-year-old mother, Betty Celmer, said from her home in the Buffalo, New York, suburb of East Amherst. \"They were rebuilding the whole mouth,\" she said. \"He was suffering terribly, that I know.\" She said her son had undergone numerous surgeries and \"sounded depressed.\" When he died, she said she had no idea his death might have been a suicide. In a statement released by the GBI, Celmer's widow, Susan, said that she and her family \"are gratified that the GBI and other law enforcement agencies have pursued this matter vigorously and that their investigation has led to the arrests reported today.\" She said she will not comment further and requested privacy, referring future questions to her attorneys. An e-mail to Jerry Dincin, a man listed as Final Exit Network's vice president and treasurer on its Web site, was not answered Thursday. A call to Final Exit was answered by a recording. The method used in the suicide was helium inhalation, according to the GBI statement. People pay $50 to join the Final Exit Network, according to the GBI, and complete an application process. They are then visited by an \"exit guide\" assigned to the case. \"During the visitations, the member is instructed to purchase two helium tanks of a specific size and brand and a specific type of hood known as an 'exit bag,' \" according to the GBI statement. \"On the day of the event, the member is visited by the 'exit guide' and a 'senior exit guide.' The senior exit guide instructs the member through the process.\" Goodwin and Blehr were told the GBI agent suffered from pancreatic cancer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. At the Dawson County residence on Wednesday, Goodwin allegedly walked the undercover agent through the steps and demonstrated how he would hold the agent's hands to stop him from removing the exit bag, Bankhead said. The GBI said that after the death occurs, \"all evidence is removed from the scene by the 'guides' and discarded, as evidence indicated happened in the Cumming case.\" Goodwin's former neighbors in Kennesaw told CNN he moved to Florida a few years ago but still owns his large home there and returns to check on it occasionally. Kay Makarenko, 69, who lives behind Goodwin's home, said she was shocked to hear of his arrest. \"I said, 'It can't be the same Ted Goodwin.' \" After the arrests Wednesday, authorities in Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Montana began executing search warrants and conducting interviews as part of the probe into the Final Exit Network, the GBI said, adding that GBI agents were in each state except Colorado to assist. In Phoenix, Arizona, police have linked the 2007 death of a 58-year-old woman to the Final Exit Network, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said Wednesday, according to CNN affiliate KPHO-TV in Phoenix. Thomas said the woman, Jana Van Voorhis, was not terminally ill but suffered from mental illness and depression. He said a police investigation turned up records of visits from Final Exit guides to Voorhis, according to KPHO. No arrests have been made, but Thomas said he expects his office to wrap up its investigation and decide if charges are warranted within 60 days. CNN affiliate WDIV-TV in Detroit, Michigan, reported that search warrants were executed regarding two Michigan residents who sit on Final Exit's board of directors. The Final Exit Network Web site features a \"Wall of Fame\" with photos of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, among others. Kevorkian was released on parole in June 2007 after serving more than eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence in the 1998 death of a man suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. \"We believe the needs of those who are suffering are paramount,\" the organization says. \"We applaud the work of organizations that seek legislative action to strengthen our right to die a peaceful and painless death at the time and place of our choosing. However, we feel that legislative change will not come soon enough for the many people who need help now and in the interim.\" Betty Celmer, meanwhile, declined to share her thoughts on assisted suicide or the Final Exit Network's alleged involvement in her son's death, saying she lacks specifics. \"He's in a far better place,\" she said. \"That's the only comment I'm going to make.\" CNN's Ashley Broughton and Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Widow says she's gratified \"investigation has led to the arrests\"\nAuthorities probing group that police believe helped Georgia man end his life .\nAfter Wednesday arrests, authorities in eight states execute search warrants .\nFinal Exit Network's Web site: Volunteers offer \"guidance to self-deliverance\"","id":"89c287366b534611432fcae9f1a08cb306f32cd5"} -{"article":"Smokers with high levels of a carcinogen byproduct (NNAL) are at higher risk of developing lung cancer. Smoking is a lot like Russian roulette: You never know who will end up developing lung cancer and who won't. But Dr. Jian-Min Yuan, as well as other researchers from the University of Minnesota, say they are one step closer to determining a smoker's risk for developing the disease. In a study, they tracked the carcinogen and nicotine levels in nearly 500 smokers through a simple urine test and discovered a link between the level of a specific carcinogen and lung cancer. Their findings were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference. Why did researchers track only the levels of one carcinogen? We all know that tobacco smoke is bad: It's loaded with 60 different carcinogens, which cause all sorts of health risks. There is one carcinogen in particular that researchers suspected for years contributed to human lung cancer. But there were never any scientific human studies showing this relationship. This carcinogen is known as NNK. It releases into your body when you inhale smoke, quickly passes through the liver, gets metabolized and releases NNAL, a byproduct of NNK, into the bloodstream. University of Minnesota researchers were tracking the NNAL levels via urine samples. Watch Dr. Gupta explain the findings \u00bb . How much did a person have to smoke to develop high levels of NNAL? The exact amount is a little tricky to determine because a lot depends on how honest a person is about how many cigarettes he or she smoked per day. Additionally, the type of cigarette and how deeply a person inhales could affect the amount of carcinogens in the body. Researchers say a person with high levels of NNAL and high levels of nicotine (equivalent to smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day) is 8.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared with a smoker with lower levels. While the researchers point out that not everyone who has a high level of NNAL is going to develop lung cancer, it does help assign a number to a risk that was hard to quantify before. Isn't smoking bad for you regardless? What is the benefit of having this type of information? There is nothing healthy about smoking. Even if this test pegs you at low risk of developing lung cancer, it doesn't mean you won't develop a dozen other cancers commonly cause by smoking. If you smoke, the No. 1 thing you should do is quit. But that is easier said than done. If it were easy, 23 percent of adults in the United States would not smoke regularly. One benefit of knowing whether a smoker is at increased risk for lung cancer is for his or her doctor to screen the person regularly for abnormalities, in the hopes of catching the cancer early. Lung cancer is but one consequence of smoking, so this type of testing is not going to fix everything. But as far as lung cancer goes, it may give people a better idea of when and how often to get screened. Reported by CNN's Danielle Dellorto .","highlights":"First study to quantify link between carcinogen byproduct and lung cancer rates .\nResearchers tracked levels of byproduct (NNAL) using urine samples .\nSmokers with high levels of NNAL doubled their risk of developing lung cancer .\nTest could identify high-risk people, aid in early detection and treatment .\nBottom Line: This test may one day be used to identify smokers at high risk for lung cancer, but won't help against smoking's other health hazards.","id":"452b798ea454d485129c9c37b436efebd1314249"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jon Opsahl said he doesn't think domestic terrorist-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson served nearly enough time for his mother's murder, but he's relieved the saga ended with Olson's Tuesday release from prison. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Tuesday after serving seven years. Olson, a member of the self-styled revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army -- perhaps best known for kidnapping Patricia Hearst -- was released from a California prison after serving seven years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. She was released to her husband just after midnight and is expected to serve her yearlong parole term in Minnesota -- over the the objections of police unions and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Her sentence stems from her involvement in the 1975 attempted bombings of two police cars and the slaying of Myrna Opsahl during a bank robbery that same year. Back then, Olson went by her birth name, Kathleen Anne Soliah. After her 1976 indictment in the attempted bombings, she changed her name and started a new life in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was not apprehended until 1999. \"I've really got nothing to say. She did her time, as minimal as that may have been,\" said Jon Opsahl, who was 15 when his mother was killed. \"One of those years -- just one -- was for the murder of my mom and the bank robbery up in Carmichael.\" Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four, was depositing money at the Crocker National Bank for her church when she was shot by Olson's co-defendant Emily Montague Harris, according to court documents. Harris was sentenced to eight years; she served four and was released on parole in February 2007. Jon Opsahl, now 49, said he never understood why it took so long to bring his mother's killers to justice. While charges were filed in the bombings within months, no charges were brought in his mother's murder until 2002. \"You expect thugs to do what thugs do, but you don't expect the district attorney to turn a blind eye to the murder of an upstanding citizen,\" Jon Opsahl said Monday. Olson's release Tuesday will cap an oft-strange storyline that spans more than three decades and which saw Olson wear the hats of college student, 1970s radical, housewife and philanthropist. Attorney Andy Dawkins met Olson, now 62, shortly after she moved to St. Paul through friends in the reggae band, Pressure Drop. Fred Peterson, Olson's husband, played trumpet in the band, Dawkins said. \"She did good deeds everywhere. She raised three wonderful daughters. It was always a shock to all of us that the Sara we know had that past,\" Dawkins said. After attending the University of California, Santa Barbara, Olson moved to Berkeley in the early 1970s. There, she met Angela Atwood in 1972, and the two became best friends and roommates, Olson told L.A. Weekly in a 2002 interview shortly before she was imprisoned. After Atwood and five other SLA members were killed in a 1974 gunfight with the Los Angeles Police Department, Olson appeared at a memorial in Berkeley's Ho Chi Minh Park to eulogize her friend. \"SLA soldiers, although I know it's not necessary to say, keep fighting. I'm with you, and we are with you,\" Olson told the crowd. Almost a year later, Olson took part in two bank robberies to help fund the SLA, according to court documents. During the Carmichael robbery, Olson \"entered the bank with a firearm and kicked a nonresisting pregnant teller in the stomach. The teller miscarried after the robbery,\" the documents said. In August 1975, Los Angeles police found homemade bombs under two squad cars. They were designed to explode when the car moved, but neither device detonated. Authorities cast the attempted bombings as payback for the bloody shootout that left Atwood and other SLA members dead. A probe into the gunbattle helped police arrest Hearst, the granddaughter of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst, who claimed she had been kidnapped, raped and brainwashed by the SLA. In her book \"Every Secret Thing,\" Hearst put Olson at the center of the Carmichael robbery. Olson soon left California. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, \"she evaded capture for 23 years, and in the meantime, became a doctor's wife, mother of three, community volunteer, veteran of charity work in Africa and practicing Methodist living in an upscale neighborhood in St. Paul.\" Though authorities said a 1999 \"America's Most Wanted\" episode marking the 25th anniversary of the L.A. shootout led to Olson's arrest, the show's Web site mentions neither Olson nor Soliah among its almost 1,100 \"captures.\" Her Minnesota friends and neighbors were shocked, even incredulous, when she was arrested. They pleaded with a judge to grant her bail. The Sara Olson Defense Fund began selling cookbooks, titled, \"Serving Time: America's Most Wanted Recipes.\" It would help that Olson was generous with her time. She was active in the church. She volunteered for political campaigns. Dawkins said he had a blind client to whom she used to read The New York Times. Olson's philanthropy, coupled with the connections of her husband, a respected emergency room doctor, made raising the $1 million bail relatively easy, said Dawkins, who remembers that some members of the community had so much faith in Olson they put up their children's college funds. On October 31, 2001, Olson pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to ignite a destructive device or explosive. She later tried to rescind the plea, saying \"cowardice\" prevented her from telling the truth. A superior court judge, however, denied her request and in January 2002 sentenced her to 20 years to life in prison, a sentence the parole board later reduced. Olson was charged with Opsahl's slaying that same week and pleaded guilty in 2003 to second-degree murder. Olson received a sentence of five years to life. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that Olson's sentence was reduced for good behavior and for her work on a maintenance crew that cleaned the main yard of the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. Dawkins said \"it's right\" that Olson served time, but he is glad she is being released. He expects many hugs await her in St. Paul and that she will soon be back to her generous ways. \"I really believe who we knew in St. Paul was the true Sara Olson,\" he said. The Los Angeles Police Protection League disagrees and has loudly opposed her early release. Sgt. Paul Weber, the league's chief, called her a sociopath who \"never said she was sorry.\" He also lashed out at those who rush to defend her. \"Enough with the BS that she was unfairly targeted by law enforcement for her youthful indiscretions -- she is a criminal,\" Weber said in a Monday statement. Corrections officials say it's important that she be reunited with her family during her parole -- it helps reduce recidivism -- but Minnesota legislators, the governor and the St. Paul Police Federation have asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to keep her in California over the next year. \"Letting a domestic terrorist like Kathleen Soliah set the terms of her parole is an insult to the memory of Myrna Opsahl and all the men and women of LAPD past and present,\" the St. Paul union said in a letter last week. Jon Opsahl, however, just wants to put Olson out of his mind. \"Get her out of here,\" he said. \"I don't want to see or think about her again.\"","highlights":"NEW: Governor, police unions oppose Olson serving parole in Minnesota .\nOlson evaded capture for more than 20 years living as Minnesota housewife .\nOlson was member of Symbionese Liberation Army, which nabbed Patricia Hearst .\nCourt documents say Olson kicked pregnant teller during 1975 bank robbery .","id":"a276a85997d8d7bbe794ea4214e707c5ff861f71"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Sesame Street\" may not be a real place, but tell that to some of the people Michael Davis met when researching and talking about his new book, \"Street Gang.\" Bert, left, and Ernie have been mainstays of \"Sesame Street\" since the beginning. \"I met a lot of people who I worked with in New York or got to know in New York -- transplants -- who said to me, 'When I first arrived here in New York, I had this strange desire to find Sesame Street,' \" he said. Well, to paraphrase the famous theme song, who wouldn't want to get to \"Sesame Street\"? For two generations, the fictional block of brownstones inhabited by curious children, friendly adults and some odd-looking Muppets has helped shape childhood education by offering exercises, games and life lessons all wrapped up in a television-friendly format. It's a model that's proved durable and influential, says Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson. \"If I were to make a list of the top 10 most significant American TV shows ... I'd put 'Sesame Street' on the list. The fact that it's still on the air attests to its [significance],\" he said. See \"Sesame Street\" in pictures \u00bb . \"The idea they came up with was kind of radical: If you can sell kids sugared cereal and toys using Madison Avenue techniques, why couldn't you use the same techniques for teaching counting, the alphabet and basic social skills? And it works.\" Indeed, as Davis notes in \"Street Gang\" (Viking), the genesis of \"Sesame Street\" was when the 3-year-old daughter of a Carnegie foundation executive was fascinated by television, waking up to watch the broadcast day begin and memorizing commercial jingles. He talked about his daughter with a friend, producer Joan Ganz Cooney. In the liberal ferment of the mid-'60s, both wondered whether educational TV could go beyond the staid classroom shows of the era. Cooney became the driving force of \"Sesame Street.\" She put together the plan, helped recruit talent, located financing and oversaw production. \"Sesame Street\" became the foundation for the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), which created other educational shows such as \"The Electric Company\" and \"3-2-1 Contact.\" \"She is just such an impressive woman,\" said Davis, adding that Cooney gave her blessing to his book project without any requirements but one: that he \"get it right.\" \"She's just one of those extraordinary public figures.\" Cooney didn't hold much back in telling her story to Davis, and neither did others. From its debut on November 10, 1969, the show was a hit -- within a year, it was on the cover of Time magazine -- but it was not without its personality clashes. The original Gordon, Matt Robinson, was a producer uncomfortable in the spotlight. Northern Calloway, who played David, struggled with mental illness. The show's primary songwriters, Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss, were constantly in competition; Raposo \"fairly seethed with envy\" when Moss' \"Rubber Duckie\" hit the Top 20, Davis writes. The book provides balanced biographies of a number of principals, including producer Jon Stone, whom Davis calls \"the heart of the book.\" \"I wanted people to say, 'Wow, this guy Jon Stone, he really was the Orson Welles of \"Sesame Street.\" ' Without him, the show wouldn't have been what it became,\" Davis said. But for all the backstage machinations that affect any creative enterprise, \"Sesame Street\" stayed true to education, in all its forms. One show matter-of-factly included a breast-feeding Buffy Sainte-Marie; others featured a boy with Down syndrome, Jason Kingsley. EW: Stars who dropped by \"Sesame Street\" Jim Henson, who was famous as creator of the Muppets when \"Sesame Street\" began, invented a world of (literally) colorful characters -- Oscar, Big Bird, the Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie -- and, with his puppeteering crew, gave them soul. And when Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) died, the show dealt with his passing honestly. Over the years, the show has taken its knocks. Critics from the left have complained about its merchandising; critics from the right disliked its avowed commitment to diversity. In the '90s, \"Barney\" stole its thunder, and cable drained its audience. As \"Sesame Street\" comes up on its 40th birthday, some critics wonder whether it's still necessary. But for all that, says Thompson, the show remains important, both in its pioneering educational style and in its clever business model. And it takes its charges seriously, he points out. \"One thing I still like about 'Sesame Street' is that it's not artsy,\" he said. For Davis' part, doing the book -- which succeeded a TV Guide article he did on the show's 35th anniversary -- gave him renewed respect for its creators' achievements. And he's found out through his Web site, http:\/\/www.streetgangbook.com\/, that \"Sesame Street\" still has the magic to move children -- mothers of autistic children credit the show with helping the kids' development -- and adults. \"Somebody said, 'I was OK when my mom explained to me there was no Santa Claus,' \" he recounts. \" 'But I cried my eyes out the day I realized Kermit was a puppet.' Isn't that great?\"","highlights":"\"Street Gang\" is a new book that chronicles the history of \"Sesame Street\"\nShow was unique when it went on air in 1969, using TV techniques for education .\nMuch behind-the-scenes activities, but show has stayed true to goals .\nAuthor Michael Davis has heard countless stories about \"Street's\" benefits .","id":"ce137f38b5e2f793d25cee8b458a8add47692734"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer Rihanna, through her lawyer, asked a judge Thursday not to prohibit her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, from having contact with her while he faces felony charges of assaulting her. Chris Brown attends his arraignment in Los Angeles on Thursday. Attorney Mark Geragos is at right. The judge granted Rihanna's request. Brown, 19, allegedly attacked Rihanna, 21, during an argument in February that began when she found a text message from another woman on his cell phone, according to a sworn police statement. Brown appeared before a judge Thursday on the two felony counts, but his arraignment was delayed until next month at the request of his lawyer. Authorities charged Brown on Thursday with felony counts of assault and making criminal threats, the Los Angeles County, California, District Attorney's Office said. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from probation to four years and eight months in prison, the office said. While Los Angeles County Judge Kristi Lousteau warned Brown \"not to annoy, harass, molest, threaten or use force or violence against anyone,\" Lousteau did not issue a \"no contact\" order that would have kept Brown away from the woman he is accused of beating. Watch a discussion of the charges -- and Brown's future \u00bb . Rihanna's lawyer, Donald Etra, stood near Brown and his lawyer, Mark Geragos, during the brief hearing. Rihanna was not in the courtroom. Referring to the \"no contact\" order that could have been imposed, Etra told reporters after the hearing, \"Rihanna requested that no such order be issued.\" Etra said the less stringent protective order against harassment and threats signed by Lousteau was \"more than sufficient in this case.\" Etra did not respond when reporters asked if the singer was cooperating with prosecutors in the case against Brown. Brown, dressed in a suit and tie, said little during the hearing, except to answer \"yes\" when the judge asked him if he wished to waive his right to a speedy trial in exchange for a delay in arraignment. He then signed a waiver, which also allows Geragos to appear without him in court for hearings on routine issues. Lousteau ordered Brown to return to court on April 6 for formal arraignment. Court documents released Thursday revealed details about the case against Brown, including a police statement that the incident began when Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, found a text message on Brown's cell phone from \"a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with.\" Watch panelists discuss whether Rihanna will testify \u00bb . A search warrant used by police to obtain cell phone records related to the case included the sworn statement by Los Angeles Police Detective DeShon Andrews in which he detailed what allegedly happened in the early morning hours of February 8. Read the affidavit (PDF) \"Brown was driving a vehicle with Robyn F. as the front passenger on an unknown street in Los Angeles. Robyn F. picked up Brown's cellular phone and observed a three-page text message from a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with. \"A verbal argument ensued and Brown pulled the vehicle over on an unknown street, reached over Robyn F. with his right hand, opened the car door and attempted to force her out. Brown was unable to force Robyn F. out of the vehicle because she was wearing a seat belt. When he could not force her to exit, he took his right hand and shoved her head against he passenger window of the vehicle, causing an approximate one-inch raised circular contusion. \"Robyn F. turned to face Brown and he punched her in the left eye with his right hand. He then drove away in the vehicle and continued to punch her in the face with his right hand while steering the vehicle with his left hand. The assault caused Robyn F.'s mouth to fill with blood and blood to splatter all over her clothing and the interior of the vehicle. \"Brown looked at Robyn F. and stated, 'I'm going to beat the s--t out of you when we get home! You wait and see!' \" The detective said \"Robyn F.\" then used her cell phone to call her personal assistant Jennifer Rosales, who did not answer. \"Robyn F. pretended to talk to her and stated, 'I'm on my way home. Make sure the police are there when I get there.' \"After Robyn F. faked the call, Brown looked at her and stated, 'You just did the stupidest thing ever! Now I'm really going to kill you!' \"Brown resumed punching Robyn F. and she interlocked her fingers behind her head and brought her elbows forward to protect her face. She then bent over at the waist, placing her elbows and face near her lap in [an] attempt to protect her face and head from the barrage of punches being levied upon her by Brown. \"Brown continued to punch Robyn F. on her left arm and hand, causing her to suffer a contusion on her left triceps (sic) that was approximately two inches in diameter and numerous contusions on her left hand. \"Robyn F. then attempted to send a text message to her other personal assistant, Melissa Ford. Brown snatched the cellular telephone out of her hand and threw it out of the window onto an unknown street. \"Brown continued driving and Robyn F. observed his cellular telephone sitting in his lap. She picked up the cellular telephone with her left hand and before she could make a call he placed her in a head lock with his right hand and continued to drive the vehicle with his left hand. \"Brown pulled Robyn F. close to him and bit her on her left ear. She was able to feel the vehicle swerving from right to left as Brown sped away. He stopped the vehicle in front of 333 North June Street and Robyn F. turned off the car, removed the key from the ignition and sat on it. iReport.com: Chris Brown fans: Share your reaction . \"Brown did not know what she did with the key and began punching her in the face and arms. He then placed her in a head lock positioning the front of her throat between his bicep and forearm. Brown began applying pressure to Robyn F.'s left and right carotid arteries, causing her to be unable to breathe and she began to lose consciousness. \"She reached up with her left hand and began attempting to gouge his eyes in an attempt to free herself. Brown bit her left ring and middle fingers and then released her. While Brown continued to punch her, she turned around and placed her back against the passenger door. She brought her knees to her chest, placed her feet against Brown's body and began pushing him away. Brown continued to punch her on the legs and feet, causing several contusions. \"Robyn F. began screaming for help and Brown exited the vehicle and walked away. A resident in the neighborhood heard Robyn F.'s plea for help and called 911, causing a police response. An investigation was conducted and Robyn F. was issued a Domestic Violence Emergency Protective Order.\" At the end of his statement, Andrews said Brown sent a text message nine days later apologizing. \"In the text message, Brown apologized for what he had done to Robyn F. and advised [Rihanna's assistant] Ford that he was going to get help.\" Brown issued a public apology for the incident last month. \"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,\" he said in a statement released by his spokesman. \"I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.\"","highlights":"NEW: Rihanna's lawyer says she requested there be no \"no contact\" order .\nChris Brown's arraignment delayed until April 6 .\nBrown charged with assault, making criminal threats .\nVictim identified as \"Robyn F.\"; \"Robyn F.\" is Rihanna .","id":"b99db085c80c16714843dc597872b7ca70fdccbd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British surgeon amputated the arm of a wounded teenager in Congo, Africa, with help from instructions sent to him by text message. British surgeon David Nott, center, with two colleagues in a Congo field hospital where he carried out the operation. David Nott texted his surgical colleague Meirion Thomas, who is one of only a handful of UK surgeons familiar with the difficult procedure of removing the collar bone and shoulder blade. David Nott realized that teenager J, whose arms had been ripped off and who was now gangrenous, had only a few days to live. \"I knew that the only way to save this boy's life was to do a forequarter amputation, and I knew that Professor Meirion Thomas was really the expert,\" Nott said. Nott, a vascular surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, who volunteers one month a year with humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, had never performed such an operation. Watch an interview with Nott \u00bb . Thomas replied almost immediately with 10 steps Nott should follow to carry out the procedure and then signed off with \"Easy! Good luck.\" David Nott followed his colleague's instructions step by step: \"I felt I had like my guardian angel on my left shoulder showing me what to do. I just got on with it, and everything he told me, I just did\". Nott and his team embarked on the three-hour operation with just one pint of donated blood. Teenager J is said to have made a full recovery while Nott stayed to keep an eye on his wounds. Thomas said, \"All I did was tell David the 10 steps, and I knew that he would follow them.\"","highlights":"Text message taught British surgeon how to amputate the arm of teenager in Congo .\nDavid Nott texted colleague Meirion Thomas, an expert in forequarter amputation .\nNott embarked on the three-hour operation with just one pint of donated blood .","id":"18a732b4759a70051e51315aa1ea665621d96a3f"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A 12-year-old girl died Monday after she was struck by a warning shot fired as a vehicle accelerated toward an Iraqi police station, said the U.S.-led military coalition. The incident occurred in Hurriya in Nineveh province, according to a news release from Multi-National Corp-Iraq. A vehicle accelerated as it approached the Hurriya police station, where coalition forces and Iraqi police were conducting security operations, it said. \"The coalition forces and Iraqi police waved and yelled for the vehicle to stop,\" the news release said. \"After the vehicle failed to stop, coalition forces fired two warning rounds.\" The girl, who was standing about 100 meters (about 328 feet) behind the vehicle, was hit by one of the rounds, the release said. Troops attempted to treat her at the scene, but she died while being transported to a hospital. The incident was under investigation, the release said, adding that Col. Gary Volesky, commander of U.S. forces in Nineveh province, \"expresses his condolences to the girl's family for the unfortunate accident.\" The news release did not say what happened to the vehicle.","highlights":"Shots were fired at vehicle that accelerated toward Hurriya police station .\n12-year-old was standing behind car and was hit by one round .\nShe died while being transported to the hospital .","id":"51fa4a6644ffab5e68c141aee9cab628886d3924"} -{"article":"ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (CNN) -- African leaders have chosen Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi as chairman of the African Union, according to Ethiopian and Libyan official news agencies. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will chair the African Union for one year. At a closed session on Monday, the 53-member Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government elected Gadhafi to replace the Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, who held the position for the last year. Chairmanship of the AU went to the northern African nation because the post is a rotating position held by heads of state for one year. According to Libya's official news agency, Gadhafi will attempt in his new role \"to take a decision on establishing an executive instrument for the AU, to push Africa forward to become African united states, such as the United States of Africa.\" U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood answered only in general terms about how the United States would deal with its former adversary as the AU president. \"In terms of our working with the AU, we're going to continue, because we have a lot of interests and joint interest in terms of trying to bring peace and stability and economic development and delivery of humanitarian assistance to the continent where it's needed,\" Wood said. \"And so the AU is an important partner for us. It will continue to be. And we'll just have to see how it goes.\" The United States named Libya a state sponsor of terrorism in 1979 and severed diplomatic relations in 1981 after years of strained relations following a 1969 coup that left Gadhafi as head of the government. But the two countries moved closer after Libya agreed to pay restitution to families of victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and announced its decision to abandon a weapons of mass destruction program. The United States removed Libya from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and restored full diplomatic relations in 2006.","highlights":"Gadhafi replaces the leader of Tanzania, who held the post for the last year .\nThe chairmanship is an annual rotating position .\nGadhafi will try in his new role to push Africa \"to become African united states\"\nU.S. says the African Union is an \"important partner\"","id":"6f277349ec3fed546e8029b3bb7a7e3d073fd067"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- What recession? Christie's, the famed auction house, this week sold a nearly 36-carat diamond for $24.3 million, which it said was the highest price for a diamond sold at auction. The 35.56-carat diamond dates back to the 17th century. The previous record was a mere $16.5 million for a 100-carat diamond in 1995, Christie's said. \"In the midst of these challenging times, we were thrilled to achieve an historic price for an historic diamond,\" said Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie's Europe and auctioneer for Wednesday's sale. The 35.56-carat Wittelsbach blue diamond, dating to the 17th century, was purchased by international jeweler Laurence Graff, the auction house said in a release. Graff was bidding against Aleks Paul of Essex Global Trading, a professional of Russian origin based in New York, Christie's said. \"Known as 'Der Blaue Wittelsbacher' since 1722, it is one of very few diamonds which can claim 17th century heritage, incredible rarity and exceptional beauty.\" The diamond, mined in India nearly 400 years ago, has been privately owned since 1964. Until 1723, Christie's said, all diamonds worn by European royalty came from India. The diamond has a royal lineage. Christie's traces it thus: King Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) selected the diamond in 1664 as part of a dowry for his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa (1651-1673). She had become engaged to Leopold I of Austria (1640-1705), who later became Holy Roman Emperor. When she died in 1673, her husband retained the diamond, which was passed on to his heirs. In 1722, the diamond entered the Wittelsbach family when the Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1701-1756) married the Bavarian Crown Prince, Charles Albert (1697-1745). It was worn by successive rulers until the abdication of King Ludwig III (1845-1921) in 1918. The world's largest deep blue diamond is the \"Hope Diamond,\" a 45.52-carat stone housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Diamonds apparently are recession-proof. Christie's reported jewelry sales of $226 million for the first half of 2008, calling it \"the best jewelry season ever seen at auction.\" Sales for the first six months of this year marked a 32 percent increase over the same period in 2007, Christie's said. According to Christie's, key diamonds the company sold in the first half of 2008 included a 13.39-carat fancy intense blue diamond that fetched $8.9 million in Geneva on May 14 and the pear-shaped potentially flawless 38-carat Onassis diamond, which sold for $7.1 million on June 11 in London.","highlights":"Christie's sells nearly 36-carat diamond for $24.3 million .\nAmount said to be highest price for a diamond sold at auction .\nJewel was mined in India nearly 400 years ago .","id":"c511f362afef6d0a62c8a15e76d1c9258f9c1aba"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Pentagon staff to draw up plans for shutting the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said. A detainee is seen through a fence in July at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The camp holds about 250 suspected terrorists, down from a peak of roughly 750 men from 40 countries. It houses several top al Qaeda figures, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the confessed architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Gates \"has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down, what would be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, while at the same time, of course, ensuring that we protect the American people [from] some very dangerous characters,\" Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday. Morrell described it as a contingency plan in case the new administration wants to take it up early in the new year. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close the camp at Guantanamo but hasn't set a specific timetable. Gates will continue as defense secretary when Obama takes office. \"I would like to see it closed,\" Gates told Charlie Rose in a PBS interview. \"And I think it will be a high priority for the new administration.\" Officials close to the Obama team said in November that the incoming administration is pondering options, including trying some of the Guantanamo Bay inmates in federal courts, setting up a special national security court to deal with cases involving the most sensitive intelligence information, and releasing some inmates. In an October 31 interview with CNN, Obama said only that he would close the facility \"as quickly as we can do prudently.\" \"I am not going to give a time certain because I think what we have to do is evaluate all those who are still being held in Gitmo,\" he said. \"We have to put in place appropriate plans to make sure they are tried, convicted and punished to the full extent of the law, and that's going to require, I think, a review of the existing cases, which I have not had the opportunity to do.\" In May, Gates told a Senate committee that efforts to shut down the facility were \"stuck\" over what to do with the inmates.","highlights":"Camp holds about 250 inmates, down from peak of about 750 .\nDefense Secretary Robert Gates asks Pentagon staff to draw up closure plans .\nGates anticipates possible move by Barack Obama to close camp .\nPresident-elect has pledged to shut down Guantanamo .","id":"9cf8043205c190dfaa3b202095b3fa28d4213aa2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The brutal winter storm that caused havoc from Texas to Maine has paralyzed swaths of Kentucky, where officials are working to cope with what they say is the worst power outage in the state's history. \"We are kind of in a state of emergency. It's pretty bad,\" said iReporter Dwight Stanley of Louisville, Kentucky. Andrew Melnykovych, spokesman for Kentucky's Public Service Commission, said it is \"an indescribable mess everywhere.\" Ice storms covered parts of the state Friday, with moderate snowstorms expected to continue into Saturday morning, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures that dipped into the teens on Friday are expected to rise to the upper 30s to lower 40s on Saturday, the weather service said. Larry Holeman, deputy emergency management director of rural Grayson County, called his hard-hit community \"a war zone.\" The emergency reflects the challenges faced in states such as Kentucky, where many rural and remote regions struggle to keep warm and dry under dire weather conditions. Nine weather-related deaths have been reported, with two confirmed, said the office of Gov. Steve Beshear. A previously confirmed death has since been found to be unrelated to the weather. In western Louisville, three adults were found dead Friday morning of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator the family brought indoors, Mayor Jerry Abramson said. The deaths prompted authorities to issue a stern warning about the dangers of carbon monoxide. \"We've lost three citizens because people weren't listening to the fire department when they look into the cameras and talk on the radios and say, 'listen up, carbon monoxide kills,' \" Abramson said in a press conference Friday afternoon. \"We can't talk enough about it.\" The storm caused the largest power outage in Kentucky's history, with more than 607,000 customers out of power. Watch residents of Grayson County, Kentucky, try to cope with outage \u00bb . But Melnykovych said that while the state is saying 607,000 customers have lost power, he thinks the number is closer to 650,000 because the state figure comes only from utilities it regulates. When Hurricane Ike hit in September, 600,000 customers lost power. Melnykovych said the temperature was around 75 degrees and power outages were more of an \"inconvenience than a life-threatening situation.\" iReport.com: Send your wintry weather photos, videos . \"Hurricane Ike didn't have this kind of impact,\" he said. Of the state's 120 counties, 78 have declared emergencies. So have 47 cities, the governor's office said. At least 113 emergency shelters have been opened. Jewel Tomes, who lives in Leitchfield, took shelter at a high school after a complex for the elderly lost power and was \"thrilled to have a place to come to.\" \"The high school here was generous, and more than 500 people have been sheltered here, and we have had cots and blankets and three meals a day. And we had medication,\" she said. Around 93,000 customers on 55 water systems remain without access to water because of outages and storm damage. Photos of storm's impact \u00bb . Crews across the state were working to clear roads of snow, ice and trees. A key concern is getting generators to water treatment facilities because of the large number of people without water. The Kentucky National Guard, which has had 620 soldiers on duty, is bolstering to 1,000 the number of soldiers aiding recovery efforts. Three of the battalions are headed to Paducah, Owensboro and Benton in the west and others are headed to other hard-hit spots. The state said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will operate out of a National Guard center in Frankfort. Beshear praised the Obama administration's prompt reaction to the storm. \"They really hit the ground running,\" he said. \"They're working very hard to get all the equipment and supplies here that we need.\" For a third day, Beshear on Friday visited regions of the state slammed by the storm. \"Western Kentucky has obviously been hit very badly by this storm,\" Beshear said Friday. It's the first ice storm for Debbie Pelissero, who moved to Lexington from San Diego in May. She took pictures of the \"peaceful and surreal\" scenes for her California family. \"I never saw anything like it before. I've never lived in anything like this,\" she said, watching crews salt the road for the next expected storm. The newcomer is learning a basic principle about her new Kentucky home, uttered by the governor. Kentuckians, he said are \"a very resilient bunch.\"","highlights":"NEW: 3 die of carbon monoxide poisoning in Louisville, mayor says .\nNEW: Moderate snowstorms expected to continue into Saturday .\nNine weather-related deaths have been reported, governor says .\nMore than 607,000 customers without power, state says .","id":"bd116985790cc70d4e13b5b05c8670010f92f981"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to redeploy some troops away from the site of a border temple at the center of a tense military standoff in its second week. Thai soldiers take a rest near the Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province. The decision came after the two sides met to resolve the impasse. Government officials from both nations plan to meet again to decide how many troops will remain at the site of the Preah Vihear temple, the Thai News Agency reported Monday. At a later meeting, the two sides plan to discuss how to tackle the thorny issue at the center of the ongoing dispute -- the question of whether land around the temple belongs to Thailand or Cambodia. The 11th century temple sits atop a cliff on Cambodian soil but has its most accessible entrance on the Thai side. The two countries differ on whether some territory around the temple forms part of Thailand or Cambodia. The decision to redeploy troops took place after a Monday meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Last week, an eight-hour meeting between Thai and Cambodian officials ended with both sides agreeing on only one point: that troops each country has amassed at the site of the temple will not fire on each other. The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962. Thailand claims, however, that the 1.8 square mile (4.6 sq. km) area around it was never fully demarcated. Thailand says the dispute arose from the fact that the Cambodian government used a map drawn during the French occupation of Cambodia -- a map that places the temple and surrounding area in Cambodian territory. This month, the United Nations approved Cambodia's application to have the temple listed as a World Heritage Site -- a place the U.N. says has outstanding universal value. The decision re-ignited tensions, with some in Thailand fearing it will make it difficult for their country to lay claim to disputed land around the temple. Opposition parties in Thailand used the issue to attack the government, which initially backed the heritage listing. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985, portrayed the U.N. recognition as a national triumph in the run-up to the general elections. Analysts believe that the nationalist sentiments stirred up by the military standoff helped Hun Sen's ruling party win enough seats in Sunday's parliamentary elections so that it can form a government without the need for a coalition. The current flare-up began July 15, when Cambodian guards briefly detained three Thais who crossed into the area. Once they were let go, the three refused to leave the territory. Cambodia claims Thailand sent troops to retrieve the trio and gradually built up their numbers. Thailand denies that, saying its troops are deployed in Thai territory.","highlights":"Cambodia, Thailand to redeploy some troops away from the site of a border temple .\nTwo sides plan to discuss issue of who the land around the temple belongs to .\nFlare-up began when Cambodian guards detained three Thais who entered area .\nCambodia claims Thailand sent troops to retrieve the trio and built up their numbers .","id":"901a8addcf431f8a23b3c324bb85939ea5de7133"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Predatory mice are threatening the albatross population on a remote south Atlantic island and have caused the birds' worst nesting season on record, a British bird charity says. Baby albatross on a remote Atlantic island are threatened by killer house mice. The research from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds indicates bad news for the Tristan albatross, whose only home is Gough Island in the middle of the south Atlantic. House mice not native to the island are threatening the Tristan albatross with extinction, the RSPB said. The mice are also threatening the native population of bunting, one of the world's largest finches, the RSPB said. \"Without removal of the mice, both the albatross and the bunting that live there are doomed to extinction,\" Grahame Madge, a conservation spokesman for the RSPB, told CNN. The mice on the island eat the chicks of the albatross and bunting before they make it to the fledgling stage, the RSPB said. This makes it especially difficult for the albatross population to survive because the birds lay eggs only once every two years -- a very low reproductive rate compared to other birds, Madge said. \"What [the mice] are affecting is the ability of the albatross to produce enough young to sustain the population,\" he said. Adult Tristan albatross are threatened by longline fishing at sea, a practice in which boats put up numerous 100-meter long fishing lines baited with squid or fish. The albatrosses are attracted to the bait and while some manage to steal it successfully, many more get snagged and drown, Madge said. Because of the impact from house mice, introduced to the island by sealers in the 18th and 19th centuries, conservation alliance BirdLife International earlier this year listed both the Tristan albatross and the Gough bunting as critically endangered -- the highest threat level before extinction. Gough Island, a British territory almost midway between Argentina and South Africa, is a place of stunning natural beauty. The island is not inhabited by humans. Gough Island and nearby Inaccessible Island are both listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. A survey of the albatross on Gough Island in January showed 1,764 adults incubating eggs, the RSPB said. A later survey revealed only 246 chicks had survived to fledgling. \"We've known for a long time that the mice were killing albatross chicks in huge numbers,\" said RSPB scientist Richard Cuthbert, who recently visited the island to assess the problem. \"However, we now know that the albatrosses have suffered their worst year on record.\" The bunting suffer because the mice eat their eggs and chicks, and may also compete with them for food in the winter, Cuthbert said. \"The decline in bunting numbers is alarming,\" said Peter Ryan of the University of Cape Town, who has been studying buntings on the island since the 1980s. \"Without urgent conservation action to remove the mice, both the albatross and the bunting are living on borrowed time.\" The RSPB has been studying whether it is possible to remove the mice. It said trials so far look promising, but it urged the British government to step up funding for the project. It said eradicating the mice from Gough Island would solve the primary conservation threat facing both bird species. The RSPB said it had been working with New Zealand conservationists on a program to remove the smaller mice by dropping poisoned bait from helicopters. Tristan albatrosses are one of 22 species of albatross in the world. Albatrosses principally live in the southern Atlantic but some also live in the Pacific, the RSPB says. Albatrosses are among the largest flying birds, weighing up to 25 pounds (22.5 kilograms). One species -- the wandering albatross -- has a wingspan of 11 feet, the RSPB says. The birds can fly thousands of miles without a pause, and their only need to touch land is to nest and raise their young, the RSPB says.","highlights":"Predatory mice are threatening the albatross population on a south Atlantic island .\nHouse mice not native to the island are killing and eating chicks .\nMice are also threatening the native population of large finches .","id":"1134c1a554bd5bb4dc9c2190780c404b917a5a4e"} -{"article":"(Real Simple) -- Learn how to be plugged in without being impolite. (This is one user manual worth reading.) If you run into someone while you're listening to your iPod, remove both earbuds to talk to her, experts say. 1. You're walking down the street and listening to your iPod when you run into someone you know. Do you need to remove both earbuds to talk to her? Jodi R. R. Smith: If you're having more than a two-minute conversation, then, yes, both buds need to come out -- whether you turn off the device or not. And that goes for your Bluetooth earpiece, too. Jodi R. R. Smith is the president of Manner-smith Consulting, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the author of \"From Clueless to Class Act: Manners for the Modern Woman.\" Joni Blecher: Yes. People want to know that the person they're talking to is really paying attention to them. Joni Blecher is editorial director of LetsTalk.com. Her blog, Somethin' to Talk About, covers the latest technology. Sue Fox: Remember -- etiquette is all about making the other person more comfortable. How comfortable could your friend be trying to talk to you when you've got something in your ears? Sue Fox is the founder and president of EtiquetteSurvival.com, an etiquette consulting firm. 2. Is it rude to check your PDA at a friend's house? Blecher: A little bit. But if you arrive at a friend's home and explain that you need to check a few e-mails before you visit so you can give her your full attention, she will probably understand. Smith: It depends on how you're using it. If you're checking on something relevant to your visit, then no. If you find yourself perusing other e-mails, you will send the message that you're bored. Will Schwalbe: Think of your PDA as a crossword puzzle. Anywhere it's acceptable to work on a crossword puzzle, it's OK to check your PDA. Will Schwalbe is a coauthor of \"Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.\" Real Simple: Tips for dealing with obnoxious co-workers . 3. How quickly must I respond to an e-mail? Are the standards different for work e-mails versus personal e-mails? Schwalbe: It's all about consistency. If you're going to deviate from what you usually do, use your out-of-office assistant or automatic-response setting to let people know why they might not be hearing from you as quickly as they're used to. You don't want them to think they've insulted you somehow or that you are ignoring them. Judith Kallos: Not responding quickly -- within hours and certainly by the end of the day -- to any e-mail might make the other side feel as though she's being overlooked. It's particularly important to respond promptly to business e-mails because that is professional and courteous. Judith Kallos oversees NetManners.com, a Web site dedicated to the topics of e-mail and Internet etiquette. Anna Post: The sooner you can reply properly, the better. Never leave someone hanging. Anna Post is the resident technology-etiquette expert at the Emily Post Institute, in Burlington, Vermont. 4. If someone calls you, can you e-mail the person back or send a text message if you're not in the mood to talk? What if you text or e-mail someone and the person calls you back? Pier M. Forni: Unless the person has requested something specific or you sense a tinge of urgency, there's nothing uncivil about replying with a \"Can we talk later?\" text message. Pier M. Forni is the author of \"The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude\" and a professor of Italian literature at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. Schwalbe: Think about what is the best way to respond. If someone called you to get directions somewhere, for instance, reply via e-mail so you can send along a map. Blecher: If you text someone because you don't want to talk and the person calls back, don't answer. If you do answer, the other person will sense your foul mood immediately and might get offended. Just text back that you can't talk now but will call later. Your friend will thank you. Real Simple: 18 common phrases to avoid in conversation . 5. Is using BCC (blind carbon copy) on an e-mail considered sneaky? Schwalbe: Yes, and it's dangerous too, because your BCC can be exposed if the blind recipient hits Reply All or forwards the e-mail to someone else. To protect yourself from this, forward the message separately with an explanation. Kallos: Using it to make someone look bad or e-tattle on someone is not appropriate. BCC is best used to protect your contacts' e-mail addresses from being exposed to strangers. Smith: BCC can be sneaky but also useful. If you feel that an e-mail discussion you had could turn into a larger issue, you could BCC your boss to make her aware of the situation. Just don't inundate her with copies of every e-mail you send. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Remove iPod earbuds when you're talking to someone, experts say .\nAuthor: Anywhere it's OK to work on a crossword puzzle, you can check your PDA .\nThe sooner you can reply to an e-mail properly, the better, an etiquette expert says .","id":"bb3be13a69864d2a3c23e6aee251e2a961c743b6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Ricardo Montalban, star of the hit TV series \"Fantasy Island,\" died Wednesday in Los Angeles, a family spokesman said. Ricardo Montalban attends the opening of a theater named for him in 2004 in Hollywood, California. Montalban, 88, was in deteriorating health over the past several days but \"died peacefully\" at 6:30 a.m. at his home, son-in-law Gilbert Smith said. He understood \"it was his time,\" Smith said. The cause of death was not given. Montalban rose to prominence as one of the most visible Hispanic actors in post-war Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. But his star grew as he took on television roles as the mysterious host Mr. Roarke on the hit drama \"Fantasy Island\" and as Captain Kirk's archnemesis Khan Noonien Singh in \"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.\" Born in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 25, 1920, Montalban knew at an early age that he wanted to be an actor. He moved to Hollywood as a teenager, and his first big break came when he was cast in a small part in a 1941 play, Tallulah Bankhead's \"Her Cardboard Lover.\" After starring in 13 Spanish-language films in Mexico, Montalban made his American feature film debut in 1947 in \"Fiesta.\" Montalban became a member of the MGM stable and was often cast in the role of the steamy Latin lover opposite such female stars as Lana Turner and Esther Williams. While working on \"Across the Wide Missouri\" with MGM's biggest star, Clark Gable, Montalban suffered an injury to his spinal cord that, despite surgery, would plague him for decades to come, according to Turner Classic Movies. It was during this early stage in his career that Montalban dedicated himself to changing Hollywood's stereotypes of Latinos. \"When I first came to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under contract in 1945, that's when the image was at its worst,\" Montalban said. \"They didn't realize that by trying to be colorful, they were very insulting.\" Montalban played a wide range of film roles over the years, often relishing the chance to play in comedies. As he approached midlife in the 1960s, Montalban made numerous guest appearances on television shows including \"The Untouchables\" and \"The Lieutenant,\" eventually landing a recurring role as Damon West on the popular medical drama \"Dr. Kildare.\" During this period, Montalban secured his place in science-fiction history playing the evil but charismatic Khan in the first season of \"Star Trek.\" Montalban's dignified demeanor and rich accent added flair to the small screen on a number of television shows. It also established him as a popular pitchman for Maxwell House Coffee and Chrysler. It was the role of the wise and benevolent Mr. Roarke on the 1970's hit TV series \"Fantasy Island\" that perhaps earned Montalban his greatest number of fans, something he called \"very rewarding.\" iReport.com: Share your memories of Montalban . But he said he tired of hearing fans shouting \"Zee plane, zee plane\" when they saw him. The line was featured in the show's opening credits by another character, Tattoo. \"They think they are the only ones that thought of saying that,\" he told CNN during the 1990s. \"People mean well, but the joke gets a little tired at times.\" Montalban never tired of fighting for the rights of Latinos in Hollywood. For almost 20 years, he served as president of Nosotros, an organization he founded for the advancement of Hispanics in the entertainment industry. \"The ideals of Nosotros continue. As our community of Latinos in show business increases, so will our participation in all of the many aspects of our industry,\" he said in 1987.","highlights":"Montalban's health was deteriorating, but he \"died peacefully\" in his home .\nMontalban rose to fame as one of MGM's most visible Hispanic actors in 1950s .\nThe Mexican-born actor was best known for his roles on \"Fantasy Island,\" \"Star Trek\"\nMontalban was dedicated to changing Hollywood's stereotypes of Latinos .","id":"f1559739e64938664306553ed1aee5598adfbe31"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It was an understated gesture, but one that reverberated around the footballing world. Seville forward Frederic Kanoute reveals a pro-Gaza T-shirt after scoring against Deportivio La Coruna. When Frederic Kanoute scored for Seville against Deportivo La Coruna last week in the Copa del Rey he slowly lifted his jersey and revealed a black shirt embossed with the word 'Palestine' in various languages. Within a few seconds it was gone but by then Kanoute, a French-born Muslim who plays for Mali, had made his political point. It earned him a booking for lifting his shirt and, later, a \u20ac3,000 ($4,000) fine for breaking article 120 of the Spanish FA's rule book which states that \"revealing messages of a religious or political nature on the pitch is strictly prohibited during the time of play.\" See images of footballer's political protests \u00bb . Yet for many in the Arab world, Kanoute's gesture made him something of a hero. Bloggers buzzed with praise for the striker, whilst the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Spain was quick to thank Kanoute for his support. \"[Kanoute] has shown himself to be very brave by supporting our region in a public act like he did,\" Mahmud Aluanen, a spokesman for the mission, told Radio Marca. Should football and politics mix? Tell us what you think. \"Sportsmen are human beings, and they cannot hide their feelings. They have all the right in the world to express their opinions in areas that question human rights. I am sure that all Palestinian children, who love Spanish football, will be moved by this gesture.\" High profile players like Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o also lined up to praise Kanoute's actions, according to Spanish newspaper Marca. Footballers have always made political gestures. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Yugoslav players plying their trade in Europe's top leagues organized a series of symbolic protests, the most famous being Lazio's Sinisa Mihajlovic who wore a T-shirt saying 'Peace, not war.' However, it's not just international politics that gets footballers going, as Liverpool FC player Robbie Fowler proved when he revealed a T-shirt that supported striking dock workers during a game in 1997. FIFA has campaigned long and hard to try and remove overt political gestures from football, suspending national football associations when their internal politics impinge on the game whilst strongly disapproving of actions on the field of play that may harm football's impartiality. There are plenty of other forums, they argue, for players to air their political views rather than on the pitch. What do you think? Should footballers be free to make political statements on the pitch? Should politics and sport be kept separate? Or is the commonly used maxim that 'football and politics don't mix' a fallacy?","highlights":"Seville striker Kanoute launches pro-Gaza T-shirt protest after scoring a goal.\nKanoute is booked and fined $4,000, but some players and fans back him .\nShould footballers mix sport and politics? Have your say.","id":"fa091e2cce74ae82713b5fa362b1efbd4dc78c70"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spanish giants Real Madrid have retained their position as the richest football club in the world -- according to an annual survey issued by accountancy firm Deloitte. Spanish champions Real Madrid remain the richest football club in the world. English and European champions Manchester United and Spanish league leaders Barcelona remain in second and third places respectively in the latest \"Football Money League\" report on the world's 20 biggest clubs ranked by revenue. Despite their lofty position in the list, United, along with the rest of the English Premier League clubs have been affected by sterling's recent fall in the money markets. \"If the exchange rate value of the pound had not depreciated, there would have been nine, rather than seven English clubs in the top 20 and Manchester United would have topped the Money League ahead of Real Madrid,\" Dan Jones, partner in the Sports business group at Deloitte, told Reuters.com. The impact of the current economic downturn on club revenues was not measured in the report from the 2007-2008 football season. Fenerbahce became the first Turkish club to feature in the list, while German champions Bayern Munich climbed three places to fourth, reaching the top five for the first time in five years. Scottish champions Celtic, Spanish side Valencia and German club Werder Bremen all dropped out of the list which is comprised solely of clubs from Europe. World's wealthiest football clubs by revenue: . 1. Real Madrid (Spain) 365.8m euros 2. Manchester United (England) 324.8m 3. Barcelona (Spain) 308.8m 4. Bayern Munich (Germany) 295.3m 5. Chelsea (England) 268.9m 6. Arsenal (England) 264.4m 7. Liverpool (England) 210.9m 8. AC Milan (Italy) 209.5m 9. Roma (Italy) 175.4m 10. Inter Milan (Italy) 172.9m 11. Juventus (Italy) 167.5m 12. Lyon (France) 155.7m 13. Schalke (Germany) 148.4m 14. Tottenham (England) 145m 15. Hamburg (Germany) 127.9m 16. Marseille (France) 126.8m 17. Newcastle (England) 125.6m 18. Stuttgart (Germany) 111.5m 19. Fenerbahce (Turkey) 111.3m 20. Manchester City (England) 104m .","highlights":"Spanish champions Real Madrid are top of the latest Deloitte football rich list .\nManchester United and Barcelona are second and third in the annual rankings .\nThe fall in value of sterling has affected English clubs' positions in annual list .","id":"609d892cf43bb50b184dae61b8042ed2a93f3757"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sonic booms and at least one fireball in the sky were reported in Texas on Sunday, less than a week after two satellites collided in space and a day after the Federal Aviation Administration asked U.S. pilots to watch for \"falling space debris,\" authorities said. Video captured in Austin, Texas, shows a meteor-like object in the sky Sunday morning. There were no reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft in flight, FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said. Herwig told CNN the FAA received no reports from pilots in the air of any sightings but the agency recieved \"numerous\" calls from people on the ground from Dallas, Texas, south to Austin, Texas. Video shot by a photographer from News 8 TV in Austin showed what appeared to be a meteor-like white fireball blazing across a clear blue sky Sunday morning. The photographer caught the incident while covering a marathon in Austin. On Saturday, the FAA told pilots through its routine notification system that \"a potential hazard may occur due to re-entry of satellite debris into the earth's atmosphere.\" The notice did not specify a time or location. Watch video of meteor-like fireball \u00bb . Herwig said most of the reports the FAA received came in about midday Sunday in an area of Texas from Dallas south to Austin. iReport.com: Did you see the fireball? Send photos, video . He said he was not certain where the information that sparked the FAA notification came from, but it was \"probably from NORAD,\" or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which tracks man-made objects in space. Calls to NORAD headquarters in Colorado were not immediately returned. Lisa Block, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said her agency had received calls from residents surprised by sonic booms about 11 a.m. She said calls came from an area from Dallas to Houston. Last week, the Russian and U.S. space agencies said two satellites, one Russian and one American, collided about 496 miles (800 kilometers) above Siberia, Russia. The collision on Tuesday produced two large debris clouds, NASA said. The satellites collided at 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) per second, producing 500 to 600 pieces of space debris, the U.S. Strategic Command said. CNN's Monte Plott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video shot in Austin, Texas, shows meteor-like object in sky Sunday morning .\nFireball sightings, reports of sonic booms come days after satellite collision in space .\nFAA told U.S. pilots to watch for \"falling space debris\"\nNo reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft, FAA spokesman says .","id":"3fca9a7334698cf129de02e53c3c68de3e06ce6a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has added his brother-in-law to a military board in a move analysts say paves the way for an heir, according to South Korea's state-sponsored Yonhap news agency. Kim Jong-il has named his brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek to a top military board. The addition of his kin to the powerful National Defense Commission also solidifies his standing, Yonhap said. Kim was reappointed Thursday as chairman of the military board in his first major public appearance since a reported stroke in August. His brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, is considered his right-hand man, according to Yonhap. Jang, who has been married to Kim's sister since 1972, currently serves as a director of the Workers' Party, Yonhap said. \"Kim wants to keep the military in check and secure loyalty to both the military and the party,\" Cha Doo-hyeogn, a North Korea expert, told Yonhap. Kim also increased the number of members in the military agency to 13, from eight, Yonhap said. \"Overall, the power of the National Defense Commission was strengthened,\" Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman, Kim Ho-nyoun, told Yonhap in a briefing. There were no other major changes in the new parliament, which signifies that Kim, 67, is prepared to maintain the status quo as he readies someone to take over from him, analysts told Yonhap. Kim's recent health problems and long absence from public functions have prompted speculation on whether he is ready to groom an heir to the world's only communist dynasty. But the secretive nation shields its internal affairs from international scrutiny. Analysts told Yonhap that Jang may serve as caretaker for Kim's successor, who will possibly be one of his three sons.","highlights":"North Korean leader Kim Jong-il added his brother-in-law to a military board .\nAnalysts say move paves the way for an heir to be named .\nJang Song Thaek is considered to be Kim's right-hand man .","id":"2619de95bb223c91827921b3b5cf27251fefb442"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States and Russia were absent Wednesday as representatives from countries from around the world gathered to sign a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs. French troops examine cluster bombs collected after the Lebanon conflict of 2006. Some 111 countries were due to adopt the Convention on Cluster Munitions at an all-day signing ceremony in Oslo, Norway. But four of the biggest cluster bomb makers -- Russia, China, Israel and the United States, which claims the devices are a vital part of its defense strategy, stayed away. Cluster Munition Coalition activists behind the agreement expressed disappointment at the absence of the big four, but insisted it wouldn't undermine the treaty as it passes into international law. \"Obviously it's very disappointing that those countries aren't here, but at the same time, the strong message that this treaty sends will make it very clear to those countries that these are unacceptable weapons and inappropriate in future conflicts,\" CMC Co-Chair Richard Moyes told CNN from Oslo. \"The treaty and the stigma that it builds will make it practically and politically much more difficult for them to use these weapons again in the future,\" Moyes added about the absent countries. \"Many of their partners will no longer be allowed to use these weapons, and clearly recognize these weapons as far too costly in humanitarian terms.\" Cluster munitions, which break apart in flight to scatter hundreds of smaller bomblets, are described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a \"persistent humanitarian problem.\" Most of a device's bomblets are meant to explode on impact, but many do not. Credible estimates show the weapons fail between 10 and 40 percent of the time, leaving civilians at risk of harm from unexploded ordnance, the ICRC says. In addition to calling for a total, immediate ban of the weapons, the Oslo accord calls for strong standards to protect those injured. It urges that contaminated areas be cleaned up quickly and weapons immediately destroyed, the CMC said. The agreement requires the destruction of stockpiles of the weapons within eight years, said Thomas Nash, coordinator of the Cluster Munition Coalition. Earlier this year, a U.S. State Department representative called it \"an absolute moral obligation\" to rid a battlefield of unexploded ordnance after battle, but the insists cluster munitions are an important part of its defense strategy that can be regulated post-conflict. During the 34-day war in Lebanon in 2006, the United Nations estimated that Israel dropped 4 million bomblets, 1 million of which may not have exploded, according to the ICRC. More than 250 civilians and bomb-disposal operators have been killed or injured by them in southern Lebanon since the war ended. Cluster bombs were also used in the 1999 war in Kosovo. In more than 20 countries, according to the ICRC, cluster bombs have created lasting \"no-go\" areas, rendering them as dangerous as minefields. Laos is the most affected country. Millions of bomblets dropped during the Vietnam War continue to kill civilians more than three decades later.","highlights":"United States, Russia absent from signing of cluster bomb ban treaty signing .\nU.S., Russia, China, Israel are top four cluster bomb producers .\nU.S. insists the devices are important part of its defense strategy .","id":"ee893a5e348206eaca5f610550415024e333623b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French fishermen suspended their blockade at three English Channel ports Thursday, allowing ferry traffic and freight to move through after two days of disruption, union leaders said. French fishing boats blockade the port of Boulogne. The French ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne were open again after French unions met Thursday and agreed to stop the blockade. Union leaders have yet to agree on how the rest of their protest will develop, and whether the suspension will become permanent. The fishermen began their blockade of the three ports Tuesday to protest European Union fishing quotas, which they say threaten their livelihoods. The flotillas forced a halt to all cross-Channel traffic, including passenger ferries and freighters, stranding tourists on both sides of the waterway and causing a backlog of freight trucks. P&O, the largest ferry operator on the Channel, said it had resumed running normal services to Calais. \"It is our hope that we'll be able to continue doing that throughout the day,\" spokeswoman Michelle Ulyatt said. LD Ferries, which operates services to Boulogne, said it had canceled four sailings Thursday as a result of the dispute. \"We do not yet have any information on whether any of our services will be affected beyond 16th April,\" the company said in a statement. French fishermen held four hours of talks with Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier in Paris on Wednesday, the French news agency Agence France-Press reported. Barnier offered the local industry \u20ac4 million ($5.3 million) in aid, but refused to budge on the fishermen's key demand that the European Union increase fishing quotas, AFP reported. Both France and the European Union have ruled out any renegotiation, pointing out that French cod quotas have already been raised 30 percent since 2008, AFP said.","highlights":"French fishermen lift port blockades at Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne .\nFishermen are protesting over European Union fishing quotas .\nBlockades shut all cross-Channel traffic at the three ports .\nFerry operator P&O says it is resuming normal Dover-Calais services .","id":"8bc3e81e5bacfc0baef15842b45764e30e88d000"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I wanted to believe the man in front of me wasn't a rapist. I knew he was a former Sudanese soldier, I knew he wanted to talk about rape in Darfur. A humanitarian group working on Darfur issues had introduced him to us. They told us his testimony was important to hear. A woman left homeless by conflict in Darfur walks along railway tracks. Last year in Darfur aid workers told me children as young as five were being raped in the huge displacement camps that are home to several million Darfuris. In some camps, they told me, rape had become so common that as many as 20 babies a month born from rape were being abandoned. As I sat inches from Adam --not his real name -- I feared the revulsion I knew I would feel at my own questions as I asked about rape and his involvement. I have interviewed rape survivors in Darfur. I have two daughters. I am a human being with a conscience. It would be hard to listen to his replies. He told me he was conscripted by force in to the Sudanese army in the summer of 2002. He thought he was being taken for six months' national service and then would be released. The conversation was slow going at first. We were both holding off from delving into the sordid details he'd come to discuss. His answers were short, he told me he got no pay from the army, only food and drink. He said he was rounded up in an army truck from a market in Darfur and trained to kill. He said he was armed with Kalashnikovs and told to \"shoot targets.\" Watch ex-soldier describe brutal attacks on children to Nic Robertson \u00bb . Then, he says, his officers told him \"we will be taken to a patrol and then soon after that we were asked to join other people to go and burn and kill people\". That's when he says he realized he wasn't getting national service training, that in fact, he was being forced into war against his will, with his own people. \"They are black,\" he told me, noting the difference between the lighter skinned rulers of Sudan and the darker farmers of Darfur. \"I am black,\" he said, \"this shouldn't be happening.\" But, he said, worse than being told to kill his own people, was that if he tried to resist, he himself would be killed. \"The order is that the soldiers at the front, and there are some people who are watching you from behind, if you try to escape or do anything you will get shot. The order is that we go to the village, burn it and kill the people.\" It felt as Adam was beginning to open up a little -- not easy, given the topic, and the lights and cameras all around us. He was beginning to talk a bit more, answer questions with more than one or two words. But it was following a pattern: I'd have to lead the way. We were both waiting for the inevitable. How he came to know of rape in Darfur. And that's when he said it. Watch warrant being issued for president \u00bb . He brought up the rape by himself. He was talking through a translator but his voice was quiet. I thought I heard anger, heard him slow and his voice drop: \"I had no choice,\" he said \"but I will say that I didn't kill anybody but the raping of the small children, it was bad\" I knew this was going to be difficult and now it had begun. What happens with the children, I asked. \"They cry out,\" he answered. \"And what happens when they cry out?\" \"Two persons will capture her while she is crying and another raping her, then they leave her there,\" came his reply. Silence. \"What do I ask now?\" I thought. Be forensic. Get the story. This is important testimony, I reminded myself. And so we continued, Adam describing in detail how soldiers raped girls as young as 12. How officers ordered them to do this to make people flee their villages, run away and never come back. Through all of this, Adam didn't once mention whether he actually had been directly involved in the raping. He said he tried to desert the army as soon as he could, but was caught and tortured. He showed me the scars where he said he was tied down beneath a tree and officers set fire to tires above him, dripping burning rubber on his body. Eventually, he said, he did get away, went to his sisters, tried joining the rebels to fight the army. But even there, his troubles were far from over. Incredibly, he said, the rebels didn't trust him; he was kept at their camp and only escaped when it was bombed by the army. The end of his story, but we weren't really done. One more question. Had he been forced to rape children? \"Yes I did, they were government orders,\" came his reply. How many? \"Well it didn't feel like raping, I was feeling very bad but as I was ordered, I had to do something. What I did was take off my trousers and lay myself on top of the girl but I didn't feel like raping, so I lay there for about 15 minutes.\" I want to be sure I understand him. \"So you didn't actually penetrate the girls?\" I ask. No, he says, \"because I had no feeling for it, my penis didn't actually wake up, so there was no actual penetration,\" he replied. There were other people in the room, the translator, a cameraman, our producer Jonathan Wald, but I had forgotten they were there. My thoughts were entirely locked on Adam. What more could I ask? I was emotionally drained. There was no way of knowing whether he was telling me the truth. Only in the measure of his voice was there a clue. Here, sitting on an office chair, thousands of miles away from Darfur, the memories come flooding back. The many, traumatized women and children we've interviewed, distraught families, unable to protect themselves. The pain we put them through, to recount, to relive, their nightmares. Each time, I've asked myself can I justify the suffering these questions cause? Each time, I tell myself it is only their own accounts that can cast light on the darkened corner of humanity they inhabit. Only their own accounts that can help break their cycle of suffering. Time and again, though, it seems telling the world their stories has little tangible impact on their reality of their lives. And now I'm face-to-face with a man who says he was part of the suffering, albeit by his own account not complicit and not guilty. I am left with the thought perhaps Adam's words carry even greater power. If his story is true -- and it mirrors other accounts emerging from Darfur -- then it implicates the government in these terrible crimes. He says he has trouble sleeping at nights. I can understand why. He is not alone. Aid workers say millions of women in Darfur not only have trouble sleeping at nights, but live in fear of rape 24 hours a day.","highlights":"Former soldier says he was armed with a Kalashnikov and told to kill .\n\"Adam\" describes taking part in rape attacks on children in Darfur .\nVictims included girls as young as 12, he says .","id":"f337a24b685c632474464c610155e7ab1d8b25d4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Packing on the pounds over the holidays? Adam Sandler can sympathize. He recently put on some weight himself. Adam Sandler had to cope with more than just falling gumballs in his latest comedy, \"Bedtime Stories.\" The comedian got buff for the movie \"You Don't Mess With the Zohan\" (in which he showed a lot of skin), but then he said he let himself go just a bit. \"[For 'Zohan'] I worked out like a madman,\" he told CNN. \"And then I started getting fat again.\" Concern over his physical conditioning led to an unintended consequence -- a broken bone. \"[One Saturday] I ate so much food, that I was laying in bed. I was fat as heck and I said, 'I better play some ball.' I went out and played basketball, broke my ankle. I said, 'Maybe I should have stayed fat.' \" The mishap occurred as he was filming his latest comedy, \"Bedtime Stories.\" In scenes that involved walking around, Sandler needed a body double. \"I'm shooting the movie with the cast on,\" he said. \"We did about six, seven weeks of shooting. If I was standing here and I had to walk to the door, I would stand up [then the camera would cut to] a guy with my outfit on that took the walk.\" Sandler is on the mend, but he said his ankle is still a little swollen. \"Bedtime Stories\" opens Christmas Day.","highlights":"Adam Sandler wore cast for part of \"Bedtime Stories\" filming .\nSome scenes required a body double after star broke ankle .\nSandler says he let himself go after \"You Don't Mess With the Zohan\"","id":"7281cafe4454bc3961e11bc386ceff7232f8383b"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag. Santa and his helpers stand under palm trees at Baghdad's first public Christmas festival. Welcome to the first-ever public Christmas celebration in Baghdad, held Saturday and sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Once thought to be infiltrated by death squads, the Ministry now is trying to root out sectarian violence -- as well as improve its P.R. image. The event takes place in a public park in eastern Baghdad, ringed with security checkpoints. Interior Ministry forces deployed on surrounding rooftops peer down at the scene: a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and tinsel; a red-costumed Santa Claus waving to the crowd, an Iraqi flag draped over his shoulders; a red-and-black-uniformed military band playing stirring martial music, not Christmas carols. On a large stage, children dressed in costumes representing Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups -- Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Arab Muslims not defined as Sunni or Shiite -- hold their hands aloft and sing \"We are building Iraq!\" Two young boys, a mini-policeman and a mini-soldier sporting painted-on mustaches, march stiffly and salute. Watch the celebration in Baghdad \u00bb . Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. \"All Iraqis are Christian today!\" he says. Khalaf says sectarian and ethnic violence killed thousands of Iraqis. \"Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism,\" he says, \"and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties.\" In spite of his claim, the spokesman is surrounded by heavy security. Yet this celebration shows that the security situation in Baghdad is improving. Many of the people attending the Christmas celebration appear to be Muslims, with women wearing head scarves. Suad Mahmoud, holding her 16-month-old daughter, Sara, tells me she is indeed Muslim, but she's very happy to be here. \"My mother's birthday also is this month, so we celebrate all occasions,\" she says, \"especially in this lovely month of Christmas and New Year.\" Father Saad Sirop Hanna, a Chaldean Christian priest, is here too. He was kidnapped by militants in 2006 and held for 28 days. He knows firsthand how difficult the lot of Christians in Iraq is but, he tells me, \"We are just attesting that things are changing in Baghdad, slowly, but we hope that this change actually is real. We will wait for the future to tell us the truth about this.\" He just returned from Rome. \"I came back to Iraq because I believe that we can live here,\" he says. \"I have so many [Muslim] friends and we are so happy they started to think about things from another point of view and we want to help them.\" The Christmas celebration has tables loaded with cookies and cakes. Families fill plates and chat in the warm winter sun. Santa balloons hang from trees. An artist uses oil paint to create a portrait of Jesus. In the middle of the park there's an art exhibit, the creation of 11- and 12-year-olds: six displays, each about three feet wide, constructed of cardboard and Styrofoam, filled with tiny dolls dressed like ordinary people, along with model soldiers and police. They look like model movie sets depicting everyday life in Baghdad. Afnan, 12 years old, shows me her model called \"Arresting the Terrorists.\" \"These are the terrorists,\" she tells me. \"They were trying to blow up the school.\" In the middle of the street a dead \"terrorist\" sprawls on the asphalt, his bloody arm torn from his body by an explosion. Afnan tells me she used red nail polish to paint the blood. A little plastic dog stands nearby. \"What is he doing?\" I ask. \"He looks for terrorists and searches for weapons and explosives,\" Afnan says. Her mother, the children's art teacher, Raja, shows me another child's display called \"Baghdad Today.\" \"This is a wedding,\" Raja explains. \"Despite the terrorism, our celebrations still go ahead. This is a park, families enjoying time. And this is a market where people go shopping without fear of bombings. This is a mosque where people can pray with no fear.\" In the middle is a black mound that looks like a body bag. Policemen and Interior Ministry forces surround it. \"This is terrorism,\" she tells me. \"We killed it and destroyed it, and our lives went back to normal.\" A Christmas tale perhaps, I think, but one that many Iraqis hope will come true.","highlights":"Iraq's first public Christmas party decorated with Jesus, Santa, Christmas tree .\nCelebration put on by Interior Ministry to \"strengthen community ties\"\nKids' art projects show Baghdad scenes, including one with toy as dead \"terrorist\"\nChristian priest at celebration says Baghdad changes give him hope .","id":"b6b3b2f3865e15287b4cdd580352992ab04891ce"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- After heated arguments, the Iraqi parliament turned down the first draft of a bill Saturday that would have allowed foreign troops, including British forces, to remain in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires on December 31. A British soldier attends an Iraqi army training session Thursday in Iraq's Basra province. Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman said the measure was sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking before resubmitting it to lawmakers. There is no parliamentary deadline for the measure to pass. The bill does not apply to U.S. troops because the United States last month reached a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government that calls for American troops to leave Iraqi cities by June 2009, and to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. But after December 31 other foreign troops would not be authorized to remain in Iraq. This could cause a problem for Britain, which has the second-largest number of troops in Iraq after the United States. Britain was the leading U.S. ally during the invasion of Iraq and still has about 4,000 troops based outside the southern city of Basra. Five other nations -- Albania, Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania -- have a total of fewer than 2,000 troops Iraq, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq Web site. British troops will begin leaving Iraq in May 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a joint statement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a visit to Iraq on Wednesday. Watch the planning to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq \u00bb . Othman said some legislators argued that the bill had not been assigned to committees, as is the custom before a measure's first reading. The session became so contentious that the speaker threatened to resign, lawmakers said. Lawmakers will take a holiday break for Christmas and New Year but could be called back into session by the parliament speaker, Othman said. Watch Britain's PM talk on withdrawing UK troops \u00bb . Wrangling over the bill on non-U.S. troops began Wednesday when the first reading took place. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Measure sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking, lawmaker says .\nIt would have allowed foreign troops to remain in Iraq after December 31 .\nBill doesn't apply to U.S. troops, who are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011 .\nLawmakers questioned legitimacy of legislation's first reading or raised other issues .","id":"f58aae26aaa3b7d17badf0088516aa56f7cc248b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Development threatens to engulf Civil War battlefields, a preservationist group said as it released its annual list of endangered battle sites on Wednesday. Civil War reenactors fire a cannon at the Gettysburg, Pennsylavnia, battlefield in 2003. \"In town after town, the irreplaceable battlefields that define those communities are being marred forever,\" said James Lighthizer, the head of the Civil War Preservation Trust. \"As we approach the sesquicentennial of the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history, we need to be more aware than ever of the importance of preserving these sacred places for generations to come.\" The group says it has helped save more than 25,000 acres of Civil War battlefields in 18 states. Topping the 2009 list of endangered battlefields is Monocacy, Maryland, where the Preservation Trust wants to prevent a trash-processing facility with a 350-foot smokestack from being built nearby. In Virginia, the group is fighting to keep a Wal-Mart Supercenter from going up on the edge of the Wilderness Battlefield, which also is on this year's list. On that site, 160,000 Union and Confederate troops fought a two-day battle in 1864. \"These hallowed battlegrounds should be national shrines, monuments to American valor, determination and courage,\" actor Richard Dreyfuss said in prepared remarks. \"Once these irreplaceable treasures are gone, they're gone forever.\" Dreyfuss has been involved in a pair of Civil War documentaries. Rounding out the group's Top 10 list of endangered battlefields are: .","highlights":"Development threatens to destroy historic Civil War sites, group says .\nTrash processing center may be built near Maryland battlefield .\nWal-Mart proposes store adjacent to Virginia's Wilderness battlefield .\nSites are \"irreplaceable treasures,\" actor Richard Dreyfuss says .","id":"c25ceced32725f9ef158da6143b054d3e863a986"} -{"article":"KINGLAKE, Australia (CNN) -- Two men, who were arrested Thursday in connection with the deadly wildfires that have swept through southeastern Australia, were released without being charged, police said. Bushfires have destroyed huge tracts of the Australian countryside. Victoria state police had told CNN that the two -- who had been taken into custody and were \"assisting\" police earlier -- had been behaving suspiciously in or near Marysville, a town where roughly 100 people have died in the fires. It was not immediately clear what the behavior was or why the men were released. Meanwhile, authorities said they fear the death toll from the fires, which sat at 181 on Wednesday, could reach as high as 300. Authorities are basing that figure on the number of people who remain missing and the number of homes that have been destroyed. Rescue workers have not been able to thoroughly investigate many of those homes because of the intense heat. Firefighters have battled blazes since Saturday -- including several new fires that broke out Tuesday night and which officials say almost certainly were the result of arson. About 35 separate fires continued burning Thursday morning, authorities said. But none of those blazes posed an immediate threat to villages and their intensity had lessened, according to police. Authorities were saying Wednesday that more than 500 people have been injured, nearly 1,000 homes destroyed, thousands left homeless and at least 365,000 hectares (901,935 acres) of the Australian countryside burned black. See a map of the area \u00bb . Those numbers were expected to continue to rise Thursday. Arson is thought responsible for all the destruction in the towns of Marysville and Kinglake. As many as half the homes in Kinglake have burned to the ground, police say. Watch how survivors of the fires are facing looters, scammers and vandals \u00bb . John Brumby, the premier of the hard-hit state of Victoria, said many of 20 fires burning Wednesday were suspected to have been started by arsonists -- an act described earlier by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as \"mass murder.\" \"There seems little doubt these were deliberately lit -- a number of them last night,\" Brumby said on national television. \"I think words escape us all when it comes to describing deliberate arson.\" Seven Network reporter Sarah Cumming said two major fires blazing west of Melbourne at Healesville and Bunyip State Park were in danger of joining up despite being 18 kilometers apart. Watch as residents return home to destruction \u00bb . Several fires started by lightning between the two blaze fronts were exacerbating the situation, she said. In Marysville, officials warned that as many as 100 people, or one-fifth of the town's population, might be dead, with many bodies believed to be still buried under debris. Photos: Bushfires leave path of destruction \u00bb . Likely to add to the fatality figure was the discovery by forensic scientists that some skeletal remains initially thought to be single bodies were actually two people fused together by searing temperatures. iReport.com: Raging fire approaches home . As efforts to help those affected by the wildfires gather pace, tent cities have sprung up in Whittlesea, just north of Melbourne. Relief agencies have pitched camps for those forced out of their homes. Many fire victims have grown increasingly frustrated, kept from returning home -- or to what is left of their homes -- by authorities because of safety concerns. Watch a koala bear being rescued \u00bb . Fires were Wednesday threatening a gas plant and a reservoir supplying Melbourne, Cummings added. She said firefighters were counting on three days of relative calm weather before high winds were expected to fan flames again. CNN's John Vause contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Released men had been behaving suspiciously .\nNEW: Authorities say death toll may have jumped from 181 to around 300 .\nNEW: About 35 separate fires continued burning Thursday morning .\nArson thought responsible for the destruction in the towns of Marysville and Kinglake .","id":"70b364d57646e241be6a7287a2305f3547dd7400"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If your organization has the right stuff, it could display one of the U.S. shuttles that NASA plans to retire from service in 2010. Space Shuttle Endeavour comes in for a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California last month. The space agency sent a notice this week to museums, schools and similar institutions to gauge their interest and qualifications for properly housing Discovery, Atlantis or Endeavour. The shuttles are to be retired by September 30, 2010, but they won't be available until about a year later, NASA spokesman Michael Curie said Thursday. \"These are national assets, national treasures and something that NASA feels the public would want to see displayed publicly for years to come,\" Curie said. Space shuttle Discovery already has been offered to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. \"We have the information, and of course, we're thrilled to be considered for this artifact,\" said Claire Brown, director of communications for the museum. But no action has been taken at this point, and the institution doesn't have a plan for incurring the cost, she added. The privilege of showing off a shuttle won't be cheap -- about $42 million. This figure will include $28.2 million for the removal of hazardous chemicals -- such as ammonia, used as a coolant, and nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine, used as fuel; $5.8 million for moving the shuttle via a carrier aircraft to its new location; and $8 million for preparing the shuttle for display, Curie said. A carrier aircraft will be the only way to deliver a shuttle to a landlocked location, and such aircraft will no longer be in NASA's budget once the shuttle program ends. After chemicals are drained from the shuttle, its estimated weight will be about 170,000 pounds, Curie said. Whatever facility receives a shuttle must have experience in displaying space hardware and major historical artifacts, NASA said. The shuttles will be released without their engines, which, along with other components, will be offered separately. The deadline for responding to NASA is March 17. NASA emphasizes that it will pay special attention to ensuring that the shuttles will retire to \"appropriate places.\" The agency wants them to remain in the United States, and private collectors likely would not meet NASA's goal to have the orbiters and engines displayed publicly, Curie said. \"We really feel that these are artifacts that are important to the history of the country and that as many people as possible should have the opportunity to see them if they can,\" Curie said. Asked whether NASA had considered trying to sell the shuttles on eBay, he laughed: \"No, that probably wouldn't be the prudent thing to do with something paid for by taxpayers' money.\" In January 2004, President Bush called for an eventual shift in focus from the space shuttle program to the new Vision for Space Exploration program, which NASA describes as \"a sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system.\" Bush has said he wants astronauts to return to the moon by 2020. However, President-elect Barack Obama has a team reviewing options for the direction of space exploration. CNN's A. Pawlowski contributed to this report.","highlights":"NASA gauges interest of museums and schools for properly housing shuttles .\nDiscovery, Atlantis and Endeavour will be retired by 2010 .\nDiscovery has been offered to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum .\nThe privilege of showing off a shuttle won't be cheap -- about $42 million .","id":"66f06c5f613267d05834db21b15f96d189366db7"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- For years Ahmad has been unable to find true love. So the 27 year-old bachelor who lives in Tehran is turning to a professional matchmaker. Jafar Ardabili's matchmaking service provides one option for Iranian singles. \"I'm searching for a love that lasts,\" Ahmad said. What's unusual is Ahmad's matchmaker wears a turban, a robe and could be the first-ever Iranian cleric who plays cupid. \"First they say 'wow',\" Jafar Ardabili said, \"then they take a closer look and say 'since he's a cleric we have faith in him.'\" Ardabili made his first love match 10 years ago while he taught at a Tehran university. One of his students had a crush on a person, so Ardabili arranged for the two to meet. A few months later they married. The set-up worked so well that Ardabili and his wife opened the Amin International Family and Cultural Institute, a service that matched Iranian singles in a supervised setting. In Iran, Islamic law restricts social interaction. \"You can't just go after someone in public and say would you like to live with me?\" Ardabili said. \"Especially the women, who often don't have any right to choose their companion, but in our institute women do have the right to choose.\" Ahmad would love nothing more than one of those women to choose him. On a Thursday morning he anxiously sat in the institute's waiting room. Ardabili had arranged for Ahmad to meet a young lady. Could she be the one? Ahmad had paid a $100 fee, submitted a picture and his information. In return he has access to thousands of other applicants. Once applicants approve of one another's pictures and profiles Ardabili arranges up to two meetings inside his office. After each meeting, the applicants report back to Ardabili. \"When there's no connection they look like wrinkled potatoes,\" Ardabili said. And when cupid's arrow hits the mark? \"They look very eager. They're as happy as an ice cream cone.\" Watch Ardabili describe how his service works \u00bb . The third meeting for couples takes place outside the institute without supervision. If all goes well, Ardabili arranges for the families to meet and then the couple ties the knot. \"You feel good because you're serving humanity,\" Ardabili said. Ardabili said that during the past 10 years his institute has had more than 50,000 applicants. More than 2,000 of his couples have married without a single divorce, he said. Ardabili gave credit to his 10-member staff that offers counseling to married couples, even sex therapy. \"We want to reduce divorce, give families a strong foundation,\" Ardabili said. On his Web site, Tehran's matchmaking mullah has posted wedding pictures of some of his success stories. Ahmad can't wait to see his picture among them. \"At this very moment I'm counting down the days.\"","highlights":"Iranian cleric, wife runs matchmaking service .\nService offers option for social interaction between Iranian singles .\nCleric claims his service has married 2,000 couples without a divorce .","id":"8dd1ae5c4e9e021784a519afe91c656bdccdf8fc"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A top official in Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley was kidnapped Sunday -- a day after a cease-fire between the government and Taliban militants was supposed to go into effect. Girls study this week in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where education fhas been an issue in peace talks. Kushal Khan was on his way to take up his new post as the District Coordination Officer when unknown gunmen kidnapped him and six members of his security guards near Mingora, the valley's main city, officials said. Khan was nabbed a day after the provincial government declared a permanent cease-fire agreement with Taliban militants in the valley. Yet, hours after the announcement, Maulana Fazlullah -- the Taliban commander in the area -- was playing down the agreement with aggressive rhetoric in a radio broadcast. Fazlullah said militants will continue their fight to impose Islamic law, or sharia, in the region. Watch cease-fire deal with Taliban \u00bb . Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. It is situated near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 km) from the capital city of Islamabad . Watch what sharia law requires . The valley boasted the country's only ski resort until it was shut down after militants overran the area. The area was also a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts and visitors to the ancient Buddhist ruins in the area. In recent months, however, militants have unleashed a wave of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives across the North West Frontier Province. The militants want to require veils for women, beards for men and ban music and television. The fighting has displaced nearly half of Swat's population, officials said. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants. As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly bombings, beheadings and kidnappings -- and said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out. On Saturday, the government of the province said it had reached a deal with the Taliban for a permanent cease-fire. It marked a major concession by the Pakistani government in its attempt to hold off Taliban militants. The agreement means boys' schools will reopen on Monday and camps will be set up for Swat residents who have fled the fighting or whose homes had been destroyed. Watch what sharia law requires \u00bb . CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report .","highlights":"Provincial govt. struck permanent cease-fire with Taliban in Swat Valley Saturday .\nEstablishment of strict Islamic law in the region is key to the agreement .\nSwat Valley was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations .\nCentral govt. launched an intense military offensive against militants in late July .","id":"77b6a69765b339ea3badc9efdb5b4816db6cb859"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 23-year-old Mexican beauty queen and seven men were taken into custody late Monday after being found in vehicles containing weapons and cash in central Mexico, police said Tuesday. Laura Zuniga and seven men were found in vehicles with guns and $50,000, Mexican police say. Laura Zuniga and the men were traveling in two vehicles that contained AR-15 assault rifles, handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash, said Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez de Velazco, secretary of public security for the state of Jalisco. The eight were stopped in Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, and will face arms charges and an investigation by a federal organized crime team, Najera said. Police, who had received a tip that a group of armed men were in a home, \"detected\" the vehicles as they were traveling to investigate the call, Najera said. One of the men in the vehicles was 29-year-old Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, who is Zuniga's boyfriend and the brother of \"one of the greatest capos of narcotraffic,\" Najera said. Najera said Urquiza's brother, Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, is a member of the Juarez cartel and already was in police custody. All eight were filed before the news media Tuesday. Zuniga, wearing blue jeans and a gray sweater, raised her handcuffed wrists to cover her face in a police picture. Zuniga is from Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, a center of drug activity. In July, she won the title Nuestra Belleza Sinaloa. That gave her the right to compete two months later in the national Nuestra Belleza Mexico in Monterrey, where she won \"The Election of the Queens,\" one of five special recognitions, and came in third overall. In October, she won the title \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. According to the Nuestra Belleza Mexico Web site, she is to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest.","highlights":"Mexican police: Laura Zuniga, seven men face arms charges, federal probe .\nZuniga, men found in vehicles with weapons, $50,000, police say .\nZuniga won state beauty contest, finished third in national competition .\nShe won \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" title in October .","id":"85a52a9b6b3243163aced3b9960f40c6fb5bb97d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Critics took to the social networking site Facebook to voice their fury over Pope Benedict's remark that condoms do not prevent HIV. Pope Benedict XVI's anti-condom comments have raised the ire of some Facebook users. Thousands have pledged to send the pontiff millions of condoms to protest the controversial comment he made to journalists as he flew to Cameroon last week. \"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms,\" the pope told reporters. \"On the contrary, it increases the problem.\" Pope Benedict XVI has made it clear he intends to uphold the traditional Catholic teaching on artificial contraception. The Vatican has long opposed the use of condoms and other forms of birth control and encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease. About a dozen Facebook groups have sprung up, mostly from European countries, criticizing the pontiff. \"The clergy aren't supposed to have sex at all, but they are free to tell people how to conduct themselves? That's like a girl who wears no make-up as the CEO of CoverGirl,\" one member posted on the page, \"Condoms for Pope Benedict XVI.\" \"It frightens me that a man who has devoted his life to moral guidance ... and is undeniably a learned, intelligent man can be at the same time so narrow-minded, bigoted and irresponsible,\" posted another person on a different page. The online campaign added another voice to a deluge of criticism, which includes the governments of France, Germany and Belgium. Aid agencies and other health organizations have also chimed in. The Lancet, a British medical journal, urged the pope Saturday to issue a retraction for the \"outrageous and wildly inaccurate\" statement to journalists aboard his plane. \"When any influential person, be it a religious or political leader, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record,\" The Lancet said in an editorial. \"Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV\/AIDS worldwide.\" Some in the Catholic Church have rallied to the pontiff's support. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Bishops Conference, told Times Online in Britain that Benedict was simply pointing out that condoms \"had not solved and could not solve the AIDS problem.\" Despite the controversy, the pope's pilgrimage spurred excitement in Africa. An estimated 1 million people turned out to hear him preach a Mass in Angola on Sunday, the last major event of his trip. He spoke of the need for reconciliation in the country, which has endured a brutal civil war. \"Look to the future with hope, trust in God's promises and live in his truth. In this way you will build something that will stand and endure,\" he said.","highlights":"Facebook users plan to send condoms to Pope Benedict XVI .\nPope Benedict XVI recently said condoms are not the answer to stop HIV\/AIDS .\nVatican has long opposed use of condoms, other forms of birth control .","id":"c635946d034ab779910eefcd4dee21bd45db0627"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 23-year-old beauty queen and seven men arrested in vehicles loaded with weapons and cash near the central Mexico city of Guadalajara have been transferred to Mexico City, the state news agency said Wednesday. Laura Zuniga and seven men were found in vehicles with guns and $50,000, Mexican police say. Laura Zuniga and the men were traveling Monday night in two vehicles that contained AR-15 assault rifles, 38-caliber specials, 9 mm handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash, said Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez de Velazco, secretary of public security for the state of Jalisco. Police, who had received a tip that armed men were in a home, detected the vehicles in the city of Zapopan as authorities were en route to investigate the call, Najera said Tuesday. Inside one of the vehicles, authorities found Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, 29, who is Zuniga's boyfriend and the brother of \"one of the greatest capos [bosses] of narcotraffic,\" Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, a member of the Juarez cartel already in police custody, Najera said. All eight were filed before the news media Tuesday. Zuniga, wearing blue jeans and a gray sweater, raised her handcuffed wrists to cover her face in a police picture. Watch footage of the eight arrested and weapons seized \u00bb . They were transported in a heavily armed 30-vehicle convoy late Tuesday to Guadalajara International Airport and flown to Mexico City, the official Notimex news agency reported. The federal organized crime team in Mexico City will investigate, and the suspects will face arms charges, Najera said. Zuniga is from Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, a center of drug activity. In July, she won the title Our Sinaloa Beauty. That gave her the right to compete two months later in the national Our Mexico Beauty in Monterrey, where she won \"The Election of the Queens,\" one of five special recognitions, and came in third overall. In October, she won the title \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Mexican newscasts referred to her Wednesday as \"Miss Pistols\" and likened her situation to \"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.\" According to the Nuestra Belleza Mexico Web site, she is to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest. A statement issued Wednesday by Lupita Jones, director of Our Mexico Beauty, said the organization will wait to see what happens in the legal system. \"In order to determine the situation with Miss Laura Zuniga, Our Mexico Beauty will be watching the case and will take appropriate action once the results of the authorities' investigation are known,\" said the statement, published on the Web site for CNN affiliate Televisa Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Mexican newcasts refer to arrested beauty queen as \"Miss Pistols\"\nMexican police: Laura Zuniga, seven men face arms charges, federal probe .\nZuniga, men found in vehicles with weapons, $50,000, police say .\nZuniga set to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest .","id":"794eca8352b25d88d9988d1c8c3a7164085cfe01"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Congolese rebels seized a major military camp and a spacious gorilla park in a renewed bout of heavy fighting that sent thousands fleeing, according to the United Nations and park officials. Young gorillas play in Congo's Virunga Park, which was taken over Sunday by rebels fighting army forces. The fighting comes after a tenuous week-old U.N. brokered cease-fire between rebels and government forces fell apart Sunday. Fighting between the rebels under renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda and Congolese army regulars in the eastern province of North Kivu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo displaced thousands of civilians, according to U.N. spokesman Michele Bonnardeaux. The rebels also seized the headquarters of Virunga National Park in eastern Congo after intense fighting with the Congolese army, according to a statement by park officials. The rebels have used Virunga Park as a base but have never seized its headquarters before. The 3,000 square mile (7,800 square kilometer) park has a gorilla facility and is home to 200 of the 700 endangered mountain gorillas in existence. \"Over 50 rangers were forced to flee into the forests and abandon the park station, in fear of their lives,\" the park statement said. \"They have seized the entire gigantic infrastructure [of the park headquarters] which is stategically very close to the main road heading north into Goma,\" said park spokeswoman Samantha Newport by phone from Goma, about 40 kilometers from the fighting. \"The situation is eastern Congo is very dangerous,\" she said. \"It's the first time they've [rebels] ever had the audacity\" to take over the park. Watch as park ranger describes the violence as it explodes behind him \u00bb . Newport said the rebels have set up roadblocks so the rangers are making their way through woods south to safety. She said the gorillas and other wildlife in the park are in danger of getting caught in the crossfire. A park ranger described the takeover. \"When the rebels started approaching the park station we thought we were all going to be killed,\" said Park Ranger Bareke Sekibibi, 29, who spoke by cell phone from the forest earlier as he fled, according to the park statement. \" We are not military combatants, we are park rangers protecting Virunga's wildlife.\" Although the civil war in the Congo officially ended in 2003, recent fighting in eastern Congo between government forces and rebels has caused tens of thousands to flee their homes . The conflict and humanitarian crisis in Congo have taken the lives of some 5.4 million people since 1998, and that 45,000 people continue to die there every month, according to an International Rescue Committee report in January.","highlights":"Congolese rebels seize military camp and Virunga Park's gorilla sanctuary .\nFighting breaks week-old cease-fire between rebels and government forces .\n50 park rangers fled for their lives; very rare mountain gorillas in danger .\nCongo's war has taken 5.4 million lives since 1998; 45,000 people die every month .","id":"8b5644172615314e781931ebd18c7fcefd27e7bf"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Mandy Moore is getting a license to wed rocker Ryan Adams. Mandy Moore has been with Ryan Adams for about a year. Moore's publicist confirmed Thursday the 24-year-old singer-actress is engaged to marry Adams, 34, who is known for producing rock music with a country influence. Spokeswoman Tracy Bufferd gave no details about wedding plans. Rumors first surfaced almost a year ago that Moore and Adams were dating as paparazzi photos surfaced of the couple out together in Los Angeles. Moore's role as a bride in the 2007 movie \"License to Wed\" may help her as she moves toward the altar. The romantic comedy featured Robin Williams as \"Reverend Frank,\" who put Moore's character and her fiance through a \"marriage preparation course\" before they could get hitched in his church. Her first success as a recording artist came in 1999 with her debut album, \"So Real,\" which went platinum with the help of her top 10 single \"Candy.\"","highlights":"Singer-actress Mandy Moore engaged to rocker Ryan Adams .\nMoore has had top 10 music success, better known for movie roles .\nAdams a prolific singer-songwriter as soloist and with Whiskeytown, Cardinals .","id":"2a34d74c816a6db0fabe856af197aa6dcb1a89af"} -{"article":"BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNN) -- Hundreds of Christians packed the Church of the Nativity on Thursday for a midnight Mass in what is thought to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ. A worshipper touches a star at the point where tradition says Jesus Christ was born in the Church of Nativity. The standing-room-only service included singing and organ music. There were also large crowds outside the church, one of the most sacred places in Christianity. So many people had flocked to the area this Christmas season that there were no rooms left at the inns and hotels in Bethlehem. Some took this as a sign that tourism in Bethlehem was on the upswing. Christmas is the one time of year when the West Bank's small, shrinking Christian communities show everyone else that they are still there. Before the midnight Mass, Palestinian scout groups representing Christians throughout the West Bank did as they always do on this day -- they marched, banging their drums loudly and, in a way, trying to make a point. Watch Bethlehem's Christmas celebrations \u00bb . The drumbeat has been heard by more and more people, locals say, as tourism has skyrocketed this year. \"This year, tourism is much better than last year -- we reached 1,250,000,\" said Victor Batarseh, the mayor of Bethlehem. \"All our hotels are full around Christmastime. We have 30,000 tourists coming in.\" Tourists in record numbers were on hand this year, braving an unusually cold, gray and windy day to watch the parade of drums and holiday songs. \"It's kind of neat to see it in the Middle East, and they're playing Christmas carols and the songs we know,\" said one American tourist. \"I'm loving it, it's just been an incredible atmosphere and just a wonderful learning experience,\" said another. The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem also came to the birthplace of Jesus, as he does every Christmas Eve, allowed through normally tightly shut gates by Israeli troops. The heavy security is a testament to ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. \"My Christmas wish is that we will have real peace, based on justice and freedom,\" said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian parliament member. \"My Christmas wish is that the justice that Jesus Christ gave his life for will happen sometime in his birthplace in Palestine.\" CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hundreds of Christians pack Church of the Nativity Thursday for midnight Mass .\nThe church is thought to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ .\nLarge crowds gathered outside the church -- one of Christianity's most sacred places .","id":"be68aa2b477fb6339396d88161c38c17490a02d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The long-running Carlos Tevez affair was finally brought to a close on Monday as West Ham and Sheffield United reached an out-of-court settlement. Tevez scored a crucial winning goal at Manchester United on last day of the 2006-07 season. West Ham will be paying United an undisclosed compensation fee to settle the dispute, meaning an independent tribunal chaired Lord Griffiths will not reconvene to rule on the controversy. A statement from Blades chairman Kevin McCabe and West Ham chief executive Scott Duxbury released to the Press Association said: \"Both clubs are pleased to announce that a satisfactory settlement for compensation has been reached which brings the dispute between Sheffield United and West Ham to an end. \"The tribunal will not be resuming.\" The Tevez controversy began in 2006 when the Argentina international and his fellow-countryman Javier Mascherano were signed by West Ham under third party ownership deals which contravened Premier League rules. Mascherano was later loaned to Liverpool, but Tevez stayed at Upton Park and played a crucial role as West Ham narrowly avoided relegation. He scored the winning goal as the Hammers beat Manchester United on the last day of the season to send Sheffield United down. Tevez later joined Premier League champions Manchester United, but the row lingered on with Sheffield United continuing to insist that West Ham had gained an unfair advantage. The affair has sparked three separate inquiries, the first of which led to a $8 million fine for West Ham, but crucially no points deduction. But United refused to give up and in September 2008 an independent arbitration ruled in their favor in a claim for compensation from West Ham. The Premier League and the Football Association promptly announced another fresh inquiry, but the out-of court settlement looks set to bring the affair to an amicable conclusion. West Ham, whose Icelandic owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson has been hard hit by the global economic downturn, were reported by Sky Sports News to be paying the compensation fee, which could rise to $35 million, in installments. The money will certainly be welcomed by Sheffield United, who are pressing for promotion from the Championship to the Premier League. \"We are two clubs with a fantastic footballing history who now want to move on and focus on the business of playing football -- hopefully for us against the Hammers in the Premier League next season,\" said McCabe.","highlights":"Carlos Tevez now starring for Premier League champions Manchester United .\nTevez scored crucial goal as West Ham avoided the drop in the 06-07 season .\nRelegated Sheffield United claimed West Ham had gained an unfair advantage .","id":"9737c08308d1331fb63ce9fdc9594c1fc08e15e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fourteen thoroughbred horses dropped dead in a mysterious scene Sunday before a polo match near West Palm Beach, Florida, officials said. Teams are trying to figure out what happened at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Florida. State and local veterinary teams are trying to figure out what happened at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, as team Lechuza Caracas prepared to compete in a U.S. Open match. Two horses initially collapsed, and as vets and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, said Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the polo club. \"A total of seven died on our property,\" O'Connor told CNN. Seven other horses died en route to a Wellington horse farm and a veterinary hospital. The cause of the deaths has not been determined, and necropsies and blood tests were underway, he said. O'Connor said each team brings between 40 to 60 horses for matches, and they are continuously switched out throughout a match to keep the horses from overexerting themselves. A meeting will be held to determine whether Lechuza Caracas will compete at a later date, he said. \"Everybody is kind of in shock and trying to figure out what happened,\" he said. \"Nobody can recall an incident in which this many horses have died at once.\" CNN's Samira Simone contributed to this report.","highlights":"14 thoroughbred horses drop dead unexpectedly before a polo match .\nMatch set at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida .\nCause of deaths not determined; necropsies and blood tests are underway .\nPolo club spokesman: \"Everybody is kind of in shock\"","id":"0c428f94592926ac1fb2c848430f1238dca8465e"} -{"article":"NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A singer took center stage at a Nashville honky-tonk to promote his new album. He had the good looks and easy charm of a movie star. Kevin Costner is putting his energies into music. His new record is \"Untold Truths.\" Only in this case, he was a movie star. Kevin Costner recently celebrated the release of \"Untold Truths\" -- his debut country record -- with a free show at The Stage on Broadway. He was backed by his band, Modern West, which also features guitarist John Coinman and bassist Blair Forward -- two men he met 20 years ago in an acting class. The three have been making music on and off since then, with Costner on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. Back in the day, they called themselves Roving Boy. Truth be told, the 2008 incarnation -- Kevin Costner and Modern West -- does not sound like a movie star's vanity project. It's contemporary Americana set against a Western backdrop. Costner sings about freight trains, dusty avenues and broken dreams in a voice that's pleasant, if not terribly distinct. In faded jeans and a toffee-colored cashmere sweater, he commands the stage with the same understated sex appeal he has on the big screen. At 53, Costner is the soft-spoken, heroic everyman we've seen time and again in such movies as \"Dances With Wolves,\" \"The Bodyguard\" and \"Field of Dreams\" -- except today he's wielding an acoustic guitar instead of a baseball bat. The mission statement from \"Field of Dreams\" seems to apply to his philosophy as a recording artist: \"If you build it, they will come.\" Plenty of fans did come to his show that night, but earlier in the day, we caught up with the busy superstar during his rehearsal -- which he had opened up to a group of local college students in a Grammy-sponsored \"SoundCheck\" session. Listen to Costner kick it with his band \u00bb . CNN: Even though your album, \"Untold Truths,\" is being marketed as a country album, your sound is really more rootsy than traditional country. Kevin Costner: Yeah. It's just music. CNN: What made you decide to put out an album? Costner: My wife said, \"Look, you are the happiest by far when you are making music. Why don't you keep on making music?\" CNN: People may not know this, but you've been making music for a long time. Costner: Yeah, for a long time. I have been doing a lot of things for a long time. (chuckles) It's not like we called up and said, \"Hey, we have a garage band. Can we show up?\" We have been working really hard at this for three years. All of it has been under the radar just because we have not felt like publicizing it. It has kind of happened in the way we wanted it to -- which was more of a grassroots situation, people discovering the band. CNN: When you were talking to the students, you spoke a lot about being fearless. Costner: Their choices are going to be questioned not only by their colleagues, but by their parents. You only get one shot at this life. They can go to college and learn a lot of things, but they should also be encouraged to try things, even if they don't succeed. I am trying -- even if I don't succeed. You know, failure is completely underrated in America. (smiles) CNN: With this new project, there's the possibility of having your head handed to you on a platter. Costner: Well, that will happen no matter what I do -- so I'm not worried about that. I have to get over my own bar on what I think is acceptable. CNN: And what is that? Costner: I don't know. It's just a moment when you feel you've given an honest effort. CNN: You have trouble stuffing everything you want into a three-hour movie, let alone condensing things into a three-minute song. How do you -- . Costner: I don't have that hard a time! CNN: Oh, come on! Costner: I make jokes about it a lot. You know, I make one-hour, 59-minute movies! But yeah -- telling the story, I don't believe in some conditional running length. I just believe in telling the story -- musicially or cinematically. CNN: You met John -- one of your guitar players -- in an acting class 20 years ago. Costner: Yeah, a long time ago. Blair (his bass player), the same. Like anybody with good sense, you keep people who have been really true and honest with you around you. CNN: Which is more cutthroat, the movie business or the music business? Costner: There is cutthroat stuff in everything -- these corporations going under, and people ducking for exits, pointing fingers. You know, it is a cycle of life. Then someone else will take that spot, some heavy hitter. Maybe it is good to take a lesson. You have to be a little humble because maybe one day, you are not that big, swinging dog you think you are. CNN: Do you ever feel like that in your own career? Costner: Well, I am aware that a career that takes chances isn't always going to ring a bell. It is not the greatest risk in the world to not be the most popular person, or the number one person, because that is a pretty fleeting thing to begin with. CNN: Do you read reviews? Costner: No. Sometimes they are read to me. \"Look what he said!\" I am like, \"Please don't show me.\" CNN: Are you planning to make more albums? Costner: I will be making more music. We'll see where it lands. We made a record. We made it as good as we could make it, and now we let it go. And we go and write a better song. CNN: In the meantime, you have a show to put on. Costner: There is a moment for two hours when you are really burning, and that is a great feeling. Some people like to jog because that somehow does something for them. When you perform, for me, it's like filling up the gas tank.","highlights":"Kevin Costner has band, Modern West; new album just out .\nCostner has actually played music for years, band happened organically .\nCostner not bothered by reviews, tries to do things because he loves them .","id":"5db7c40c47448ab55b7b7a06c20c24b3833f554d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Move over Susan Boyle. A week after the Scottish woman became a global sensation following a barnstorming audition on \"Britain's Got Talent,\" a 12-year-old Welsh boy with a Motown voice has been hailed for his \"life-changing\" performance on the TV show after earning a standing ovation from Simon Cowell. Jafargholi impressed the \"Britain's Got Talent\" judges with a rendition of \"Who's Loving You.\" Shaheen Jafargholi's prospects looked bleak when the infamously hard to impress Cowell brought the audition to an abrupt halt just one verse into his rendition of \"Valerie,\" the Zutons' song covered by Amy Winehouse. \"You've got this really wrong,\" Cowell told him. \"What do you sing apart from that?\" Jafargholi instead offered to perform \"Who's Loving You,\" written by Smokey Robinson and performed by a young Michael Jackson with the Jackson Five, bringing screams of delight from the audience as he launched into a note-perfect rendition that brought a beaming Cowell and fellow judges Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden to their feet. \"This is how one song can change your life,\" Cowell told him. \"This may be the start of something special for you young man.\" Watch Shaheen Jafargholi perform on \"Britain's Got Talent\" \u00bb . Writing in his blog for the show, Morgan said Jafargholi had been the stand-out act of the show and tipped him as a possible challenger to Boyle for the TV talent show's \u00a3100,000 ($146,000) prize. \"Once Simon got him to sing the right kind of song for his voice, he was sensational. Like a young Stevie Wonder,\" Morgan said. In an interview for the show, Jafargholi said he had been singing since he was two years old. \"When I was a bit older my mum got me some singing lessons and my voice just got bigger and bigger,\" he said. \"Hopefully this is going to be my big break.\" Last week's performance by Boyle, the 47-year-old with a Broadway voice who claimed to have never been kissed, brought the show global attention, with her version of the Les Miserables' tune \"I Dreamed a Dream\" gaining more than 32 million hits on YouTube as well as earning her a string of U.S. media appearances, including on CNN's Larry King Live. Jafargholi has some way to go to match Boyle's success. By Monday morning a YouTube link to his performance had been watched just 330,000 times. Who do you prefer? Susan Boyle or Shaheen Jafargholi? Sound Off below .","highlights":"12-year-old Welsh boy shines on \"Britain's Got Talent\" with Motown voice .\nShaheen Jafargholi earned standing ovation from judge Simon Cowell .\nCowell had earlier halted Jafargholi's audition and got him to change songs .\nShow has become a global hit following Susan Boyle's performance last week .","id":"7a7c6449157e710392b4100eec1981468546d65b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Troops in Jamaica captured an armed man Monday who had barged onto a Canadian airliner, robbed passengers and held six crew members hostage, Jamaica Information Minister Daryl Vaz said. A hostage-taker commandeered a CanJet flight at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The crew members were not harmed, Vaz said. The hijacking suspect, described as a \"mentally challenged\" man in his 20s, had demanded that the Boeing 737 be flown to Cuba. The military captured him around 7 a.m. local time. The FBI helped Jamaican authorities handle the situation at the Jamaican government's request, a U.S. government source told CNN. The CanJet flight from Halifax, Canada, had made a scheduled landing at Sangster International Airport in the Jamaican resort city of Montego Bay and was scheduled to continue to Santa Clara, Cuba. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in Jamaica, told reporters that he planned to travel to Montego Bay to meet with Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding. Harper has been following the airplane security breach and may meet with the plane's crew later today. \"The hijacking is that from a mentally challenged youngster and not anything that would be of concern in terms of an international incident,\" Vaz said. The suspect gained access to the plane Sunday night through the terminal in \"a breach of security\" that \"will be investigated,\" Deputy Police Commissioner Owen Ellington told CNN. The gunman fired a shot in the boarding bridge as he entered, said CanJet Airlines Vice President Kent Woodside. No one was hit. CanJet Flight 918 was carrying 174 passengers and eight crew members, Woodside said. All the passengers were Canadian, he said. The suspect took an undisclosed number of passengers and crew members hostage before releasing all the passengers and two crew members, said Elizabeth Scotton, a spokeswoman for the company that manages the airport. Two of the six crew members who remained inside the plane Monday locked themselves in the cockpit, Vaz said. The suspect's father and Golding, who flew in by helicopter, were among those who negotiated with the gunman before his capture. The country's minister of national security also was at hand. The released passengers were taken to a hotel, and the airport was shut down for a time, Vaz said. The airport reopened shortly after the standoff, Woodside said. A CanJet airliner was on its way to Jamaica, he said, to take passengers on to Cuba or back to Canada. Christian Gosselin, a passenger on the flight, told his father that the gunman demanded cash from the plane's occupants. Vaz confirmed the account. \"The guy wanted to have all their money,\" said Gosselin's father, Alphonse. \"He [my son] told his girlfriend to take all the money and just take her passport and credit card and put it in her back pocket.\" Christian Gosselin was part of a 25-person wedding party headed to Cuba. He and his girlfriend were released by the hostage-taker, and they spoke to his father in New Brunswick, Canada, while waiting for another flight. \"I didn't ask them too many questions; I was more concerned for their safety,\" the father said. \"They were a bit shaken up. It was quite an experience.\" Another passenger, Brenda Grenier, called her husband and said the man apparently got aboard the plane as airport workers were loading bags. Grenier and her daughter were safe, her husband said by phone from his home in Nova Scotia, Canada. CNN's Joyce Joseph, Janet DiGiacomo, Jessica Jordan, Saeed Ahmed and Mike Brooks contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FBI helped Jamaican authorities to end hijack attempt, U.S. source says .\nCanadian PM says he'll be meeting with Jamaican PM .\nHostage-taker captured by military described as \"mentally challenged\"\nFlight 918 flew in from Halifax, Canada, when armed man boarded plane .","id":"27b709e76be7af932ce6dd05412a7e97da77c2fa"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- They came from all corners of the world, braved fiercely cold temperatures and stood together on the Mall in Washington to share in one historic moment -- when Barack Obama became the 44th president and the first African-American elected to the post. Crowds at the inaugural parade cheer and snap photos of President Obama on Tuesday. Millions of people packed the Mall early Tuesday to watch Obama's inauguration and later hit the parade route to catch a glimpse of the new president. For many, the inauguration was the realization of a dream they never thought could be fulfilled. This is America happening,\" said Evadey Minott of Brooklyn, New York. \"It was prophesied by [the Rev. Martin Luther] King that we would have a day when everyone would come together. This is that day. I am excited. I am joyful. It brings tears to my eyes.\" Obama's speech: How did he do? L.J. Caldwell of Somerset, New Jersey, said Obama's inauguration capped five decades of struggle for African-Americans. \"When you think back, Malcolm [X] fought. Then we come a little further, Rosa Parks sat. Then come up a little further, and Martin [King Jr.] spoke. Then today, President Obama ran, and we won.\" Watch Obama say Americans have \"chosen hope over fear\" \u00bb . iReporter Barbara Talisman, 48, of Chicago, watched Tuesday from a spot on the Mall near the American Museum of Natural History. \"The historical significance of today and importance of our work made it necessary for me to be here and not at home. I want to be a witness,\" Talisman said. Kim Akins, 43, of Chicago, Illinois, who lives just blocks from Obama's home, made the trek to Washington with her 8-year-old daughter, Chloe. Vanessa Reed of Centerville, Virginia, took her daughters to a spot on the inaugural parade route. \"I was going to take my daughter here if it was the last thing I did,\" she said. \"It's breathtaking. ... It's overwhelming.\" Vanessa Reed of Centerville, Virginia, who brought her two young daughters to the inauguration, reflected on Obama's speech as she sat with her daughters across from the presidential reviewing stand at the end of the parade route. \"It was beautiful. It spoke to the issues of the moment,\" said Reed, who worked for the Obama campaign. \"I am proud this country saw what we saw in him.\" Patrick Bragg, 44, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contemplated the day as he tried to stay warm standing over steam vents on H Street. Patrick Bragg says he rode a bike 18 miles to get to downtown Washington on Tuesday morning. \"I've been sitting here thinking -- it's really beautiful,\" said Bragg, who rode a bike 18 miles from Bethesda, Maryland, to attend Tuesday's ceremonies. \"This is what I would consider the true representation of all of America. Obama gives everyone space at the table.\" Some of those attending Tuesday recalled how they were part of the effort that culminated in the historic day. \"You remember why you are doing it all, why you were working so hard on the campaign making phone calls, knocking on doors and getting slammed in the face sometimes,\" said iReporter Vanessa Palmer of the University of South Florida in Tampa. Howard University student Shakuwra Garrett, 18, said she felt like \"a part of history.\" \"I can carry this with me the rest of my life,\" Garrett said. \"It's an accomplishment for all of us.\" The accomplishment crossed borders and oceans for some of those at Tuesday's inauguration. \"The dream came true,\" said Fatima Cone, 39, who came to the U.S. from Ivory Coast, where her mother wears an Obama T-shirt. She conveyed the excitement her family feels in West Africa. \"The fight is the same for all blacks. It's the same story. It's the same fight wherever you come from,\" Cone said. Canadians Peter and Susan Butler drove down from Toronto, Ontario, to see the event and \"support the American people.\" iReport.com: Are you in Washington? Share your story . \"This is a world event,\" Susan Butler said. \"We can tell our grandchildren we were here.\" Briton Simon Ginty called the Obama inauguration \"an international moment.\" Simon Ginty of Manchester, England, said the world was celebrating Tuesday. \"This is an international moment as well as an American moment. I'm excited to see how Obama changes things. I imagine things are gonna be on the up,\" Ginty said. Eli Bracken, an iReporter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, drove into Washington early Tuesday to try to see the inauguration, but large crowds kept him away from the Mall. Watch a satellite image of the crowd \u00bb . Instead, he watched on TV from a McDonald's restaurant on E Street near the Canadian Embassy. The eatery went silent during the inaugural prayer, he said. \"It was just cool that everybody knew they were witnessing something awesome,\" Bracken said. \"There were people gathered around every car they could just to hear it.\" Dartmouth College student Amarita Sankar, 18, watched Obama's speech on the grounds of the Washington Monument. \"Whenever I hear him speak, I want to be a better person. That's what you want in a leader, \" Sankar said. Margaret Trowelle of Jersey City, New Jersey, gets strangers to autograph an inauguration hat Tuesday. Margaret Trowelle of Jersey City, New Jersey, showed off a hat she had signed by others she's met in the nation's capital. \"Everyone is so friendly,\" she said. Benica Tripleti from Eastern Kentucky University was among a group of 54 people headed to the Mall. She said she had one goal: \"to see Obama's head.\" Kathie Easom and Christine Hannon of upstate New York were looking to plant themselves on the Mall and watch the proceedings on a screen. \"It's a once in a lifetime event,\" Easom said. Eight rows behind the inauguration stand, Sylvia Schoen of Phoenix, Arizona, waited in the morning cold. \"It's freezing. It's worth it. It's worth it,\" she said. Watch the atmosphere surrounding the inauguration \u00bb . \"Obama's cause is all about the future. I think that's why everyone's so excited right now,\" Schoen said. \"It's like we can do anything. Look what we just did, the people. The people did this. Not the politicians. We did it.\" Harvard University student Megan Starr, 21, was impressed with the crowd. \"I've never seen people excited about politics before,\" she said. \"Usually they are politically apathetic, but people are getting involved.\" Woodie Lee Durham of Buffalo, New York, says Tuesday marks a milestone for African-American influence. In a seating section for the disabled on the Mall, Woodie Lee Durham of Buffalo, New York, said Tuesday was a landmark for African-American influence on America. \"It is no longer a question; this is the answer,\" Durham said. Of the millions who came to hear Obama speak, many made sure to hit the parade route, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the new president. \"Obama! Obama!\" throngs of people cheered as the limo carrying the new president made its way down the street. Obama and his wife, Michelle, stepped out of the presidential limo for a couple of minutes and walked the parade route, waving to supporters as they passed. Meghann Curtis, 30, of New Jersey was at the Mall for the inauguration but also managed to snag a seat at the parade. \"It was majestic. That's the word that keeps coming to mind,\" she said. \"They are elegant and tall and gorgeous,\" Curtis said of the Obamas. \"There is something breathtaking about the two of them.\" Many reached for their cameras, trying to capture a permanent memory of the moment. Supporters waved American flags, and some even sang as they waited for their chance to greet President Obama. See photos of Obama's inauguration \u00bb . After 12 hours of waiting, many of them in the cold, Karin Riggs, 29, of Seattle, Washington, and her bandmates marched into history. The trumpet player was one of 177 participants, from 26 states, performing with the Lesbian and Gay Band Association -- the first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group in history to be invited to march in a presidential inaugural parade. \"We were not just making history for our organization. We were making history for the LGBT community,\" she said by phone. Danielle Davis and son Carson, 6, of Chantilly, Virginia, got into their parade seats at 10:40 a.m. Davis said the experience was worth dealing with freezing weather and a long wait. \"It was exciting, thrilling,\" she said. \"I am so glad to be a part of history.\" CNN's Adam Levine, Ed Hornick, Valerie Streit, Scott J. Anderson and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Jersey woman calls inauguration, parade \"majestic\"\n\"This is America happening,\" says New York woman .\nBarack Obama's election shows American people \"can do anything,\" woman says .","id":"5a971b728a7e6447c618bd15f4263b7603d0a7a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If there is one thing that Africa can learn from the global financial crisis it's that the West doesn't always get it right, Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai told CNN. Two young boys plow their dry cornfield in Kwale, Kenya which has been blighted by drought. \"It sends a message that anyone can make a mistake. Nobody has a blueprint and nobody is a know-it-all,\" she said of the current turmoil engulfing the global banking system. \"I can tell you I never would have thought we could experience what we're experiencing in America now,\" she added. \"Because for one we never would have thought that the Americans could be caught 'asleep,' not monitoring their financial system and therefore waking up one day and finding out that their most respected institutions are collapsing right and left.\" The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the global financial crisis will have a \"major impact,\" on low-income countries. In a recent report, \"The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries,\" the Fund singled out sub-Saharan Africa as particularly vulnerable to the crisis, as lower global growth reduces export demand and depresses commodity prices. And last month, anti-poverty campaign group ActionAid forecast Africa's income would drop by $49 billion dollars between 2007 and the end of this year. Most of that, it said, would be due to a fall in export earnings, aid and income from rich countries now in recession. \"Although developing countries didn't make this crisis, it has become all too clear that they are in the firing line when it comes to suffering its worst effects,\" Claire Melamed, Head of Policy at ActionAid said in a statement accompanying the report. \"There is a real risk that development will start to go backwards in many countries as the money dries up and that the recession will lead to worsening poverty and terrible consequences for the men, women and children caught in its grip,\" she added. Wangari Maathai said many Africans had become so accustomed to their daily struggles that they assumed life could not get any worse. \"Some of the impact that the western banks or the Western people are experiencing we've been experiencing for decades,\" Maathai said. \"We've been raising and educating children who cannot get any employment. Long ago our hospitals collapsed, our infrastructure collapsed, our education system collapsed. \"That's why people are saying it can't get any worse, but you and I know it can get worse,\" she said. Now 69, Wangari Maathai has long campaigned for human rights and the empowerment of Africa's most impoverished people. Watch Revealed: Wangari Maathai \u00bb . More than thirty years ago she founded the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting campaign to simultaneously mitigate deforestation and to give locals, especially women and girls, new purpose. They have since planted more than 40 million trees. In 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote sustainable development, democracy and peace, and has recently repeated calls for Africans to 'rise up' and demand greater accountability from their governments. See photos of Maathai receiving the Nobel Peace Prize \u00bb . \"What Africa needs to know is that now that the world has its own crisis in its own hand, if they don't take care of themselves and place themselves in a position where they can be assisted, they will suffer, the people will suffer,\" Maathai told CNN. Earlier this month, the group of 20 industrialized nations agreed an unprecedented rescue package worth $1.1 trillion to tackle the global economic crisis. It included $750 billion dollars for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), three times the Fund's previous lending capacity, as well \"special drawing rights\" to an additional $250 billion. Of the commitment, Maathai said: \"I'm glad that the G20 identified that they must help the poor people, but the biggest problem for the poor developing countries in Africa is that they are already facing so many challenges.\"","highlights":"Nobel Peace Laureate says Africans need to take responsibility for future .\nWangari Maathai says global economic crisis shows West is fallible .\nMaathai of the West: \"Nobody has a blueprint and nobody is a know-it-all\"","id":"9fa5a8933c795e5660ddfc195a34862756e2bf8e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is using his claims of a successful rocket launch to shore up his political strength within his country. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses North Korea on CNN's \"American Morning\" on Tuesday. Albright, who was secretary of state in the Clinton administration, told CNN's \"American Morning\" that \"it was a huge mistake for the United States to stop talking to North Korea\" when the Bush administration took over. The communist nation launched the rocket over the weekend in defiance of international opposition. Satellite images released Monday appear to show the rocket in flight, according to a nonprofit institution that focuses on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. The following is a transcript of Albright's conversation with CNN's Carol Costello. Carol Costello, CNN: We do have this video from North Korea of this rocket taking off. What do you make of that? Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: Well, I think that the North Korean leadership is living in a parallel universe of acting as if the launch was a success, when tracking and everything has shown that in fact, it is a failure. And I think it proves a point, which is that the North Koreans, Kim Jong-Il is doing this for his own internal reasons -- because on Thursday, tomorrow, there will be a rubber stamp by the parliament of his leadership -- and the problems that he's generally had since he had his stroke. So this is part of their kind of Orwellian approach of saying that \"This is what happened, and wasn't it a success,\" when we know it wasn't. Costello: The U.N. Security Council hasn't been able to come up with any sort of resolution because apparently that body is split. President Obama made a really big deal of this and said this was like a clear violation. It sort of seems like the United States is stuck, and it can't do anything about North Korea. Albright: Well, I don't think that's true, because what has happened is there have been individual condemnations by leaders of various countries. And I have to say from my own experience of the United Nations, it does take a while to get the 15 members [of the Security Council] together. But the saddest for me is the fact that the U.N. passed a resolution, 1718, which said that this was not acceptable. So the truth is that the U.N. has to live up to its own resolutions. And Ambassador Rice, I think, is working very hard up there in order to get some action, but there have been condemnations already throughout the world. And the bottom line here is that President Obama's speech, for instance, in Prague, when he talked about the importance of cooperation generally on a whole nonproliferation regime -- it's very clear that there's going to have to be a lot of work on that and that President Obama laid out a very, very important set of goals. amFIX: Your thoughts on the rocket launch . Costello: And, you know, there has been some criticism that President Obama turned to the U.N. to try to solve this crisis. I want to read you a quote from Politico. It interviewed Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House. I want to read you his quote. Newt Gingrich said, \"The embarrassing repudiation of the United States appeal to the United Nations Security Council Sunday afternoon is a vivid demonstration of weakness. This is beginning to resemble the Carter administration's weakness in foreign policy.\" How would you respond to that? Albright: Well, I think that it's just kind of typical of Newt Gingrich, frankly. But the bottom line here is, I think the United States and President Obama has made very clear the leadership of the United States, his concern about, generally, proliferation issues. I think his trip, for instance, laid out a whole set of issues that prove that American leadership is essential, the respect that he gained for American leadership. And I think you're going to see additional ways that we all work together, because the issues that are out there that have to be dealt with require cooperation, and they will require international organizations and cooperation through NATO and a number of activities. So I'm very confident that President Obama is going to be able to prove American leadership. Costello: Well, I guess many Americans look at it this way, you know: You talk about sanctions, but sanctions have been instituted against North Korea before, and it hasn't really worked. North Korea just seems to kind of do what it wants. You've met Kim Jong-Il. I mean, what does he want? Albright: Well, what he wants is respect. And I have to say that part of the problem here is -- and as you mentioned, I met Kim Jong-Il. We were in the middle of negotiations with him. In fact, we had a missile moratorium. And President Bush came in and canceled those talks. It was confusing to everybody. And I do think that what is important now is to get the North Koreans back into the six-party talks, to make it clear to them that the only way that they are going to have respect is to abide by international regulations and to try to deal with the fact that they would be better off if, in fact, they allowed their people to be fed and an economy that functions, rather than be living in this way where poverty is rampant, and hunger, in every way in North Korea, and a leadership that is shaky. But the bottom line is, I think it was a huge mistake for the United States to stop talking to North Korea. And in the interim period, they were able to develop material in order to create nuclear weapons, and so I hope very much that the six-party talks continue. Costello: We'll see. Madam Secretary, thanks so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you.","highlights":"Former secretary of state: U.S. made \"huge mistake\" stopping talks with North Korea .\nMadeleine Albright says North Korean leader is seeking respect internationally .\nKim Jong-Il also using rocket launch for internal political reasons, Albright says .\nAlbright says President Obama proving U.S. leadership in response to launch .","id":"99d5270d65f452d516e20d091f2bfc3cb2df2aff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australia's prime minister Friday slammed those engaged in human trafficking after an explosion aboard a boat carrying Afghan refugees killed three people and injured more than 40 others near Ashmore Reef, off Australia's northwest coast. \"People smugglers are engaged in the world's most evil trade and they should all rot in jail because they represent the absolute scum of the earth,\" Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters. \"We see this lowest form of human life at work in what we saw on the high seas yesterday. That's why this government maintains its hardline, tough, targeted approach to maintaining border protection for Australia. And that's why we have dedicated more resources to combat people smuggling than any other government in Australian history.\" The boat was carrying 49 refugees, officials said. In addition to the three killed, two others were missing. Rudd would not comment on the cause of the explosion, citing the ongoing investigation. The prime minister acknowledged that human smuggling was an increasing problem exacerbated by \"global factors\" but defended his government's border security policies. \"Our staff, our naval staff, our coast watch staff, our aerial surveillance staff and others, our police, are doing a first class job backed up by our intelligence officers as well, also in collaboration with partners across the region,\" the prime minister said. \"Because it is a global phenomenon and we are finding push factors operating from around the world, our active partnership with international governments and international agencies like the UNHCR is equally critical. This is a fight on many fronts. It is a fight which we have been engaged in for some time and a fight which other governments around the world are equally engaged in with us.\" Rudd said the refugees' requests for asylum \"will be treated under the normal provisions of the law through the examination of each of their individual cases.\"","highlights":"Explosion on boat carrying Afghan refugees killed three people and injured 40 .\nRudd: 'People smugglers are engaged in the world's most evil trade'\nRudd would not comment on cause of explosion, citing the ongoing investigation .","id":"12cfa3a55e04c285d29962638da841173aea9dfb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Monday gathered together every confirmed member of his Cabinet for the first time as president and challenged them to cut $100 million in the next 90 days. President Obama meets Monday with his Cabinet, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right. Agencies will have to report how they saved on expenses at the end of the period. The federal government has \"a confidence gap when it comes to the American people,\" Obama said at the White House. \"We've got to earn their trust. They've got to feel confident that their dollars are being spent wisely.\" The edict is part of Obama's \"commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending\" and \"reform the government,\" a senior administration official said. One potential Cabinet officer was missing from the meeting -- Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary-designate. The Senate has not voted on whether to confirm Sebelius to the post. Obama made his savings request as the House of Representatives and Senate were returning from recess this week, ready to start reconciling their versions of the fiscal 2010 budget resolution. The president's budget request is $3.67 trillion. Watch how the administration hopes to cut costs \u00bb . In the context of the federal budget, $100 million in savings is a small amount, critics said. \"Any amount of savings is obviously welcome,\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said. \"But [$100 million is] about the average amount we'll spend every single day just covering the interest on the stimulus package that we passed earlier this year.\" White House press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that ordinary Americans nevertheless would appreciate the savings effort. \"Only in Washington, D.C., is $100 million not a lot of money,\" Gibbs said. \"It is where I'm from. It is where I grew up. And I think it is for hundreds of millions of Americans.\" The administration also contends the order signaled an important demonstration of fiscal responsibility. \"None of these savings by themselves are going to solve our long-term fiscal problems,\" Obama said. \"But taken together, they can make a difference, and they send a signal that we are serious about how government operates.\" The White House offered examples of how agencies already have started cost-cutting measures, including: . CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to the report.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama says, \"We've got to earn [the public's] trust\"\nNEW: Obama meets with Cabinet to discuss how agencies can cuts costs .\nAgencies will have to report how they saved on expenses after 90 days .\nCritics say $100 million in savings is a small amount .","id":"0a72d04b9b36a08f5c014fd8c8ecee670a8fce1b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dozens of international envoys walked out during a speech by Iran's president Monday as he accused Israel of having a \"racist government\" and committing genocide. European Union delegates leave during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech Monday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of making \"an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering ... in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine.\" Many delegates at the controversial U.N. anti-racism conference in Geneva, Switzerland, cheered his words as a minority of diplomats -- mostly from Europe -- collected their papers and briefcases and left the room. Cameras at the scene showed empty seats where delegates from France, Finland and Denmark had been sitting. The British and Spanish delegations also walked out, both countries' foreign affairs divisions confirmed. Watch delegates make their exit \u00bb . U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement criticizing Ahmadinejad for using the conference \"to accuse, divide and even incite.\" Ban said he had spoken to the Iranian president and asked him not to focus on \"divisiveness\" in his address. \"It is deeply regrettable that my plea to look to the future of unity was not heeded by the Iranian president,\" Ban said. \"This is the opposite of what this conference seeks to achieve. This makes it significantly more difficult to build constructive solutions to the very real problem of racism,\" Ban said in a statement following Ahmadinejad's speech. During Monday's speech, Ahmadinejad paused a moment, then continued: \"In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine. \"It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defend those racist perpetrators of genocide,\" he said, echoing Tehran's official line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel was established in 1948 as a homeland for Jewish people after the Holocaust, on land also claimed by Palestinians. Ahmadinejad said Zionism, the Jewish national movement, \"personifies racism\" and accused Zionists of wielding economic and political resources to silence opponents. He also blasted the United States-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. \"Wasn't the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists and their allies in the then-U.S. administration?\" he demanded. At least two protesters in brightly colored wigs interrupted Ahmadinejad as he began to speak, shouting: \"You're a racist!\" in accented English. But some delegates cheered as he began his speech while security officers dragged the protesters from the chamber. Later in the address, more protesters shouted at him from a balcony, leading him to pause and look down for a moment, a smile playing across his lips. He also blamed the United States for the world economic crisis. Israel withdrew its ambassador from Switzerland in protest before the conference, which the United States and a number of other countries are boycotting. Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., called Ahmadinejad's remarks \"vile,\" \"hateful\" and \"inciteful,\" and praised Ban's condemnation. Speaking at a Holocaust remembrance service in Jerusalem, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Ahmadinejad's address \"constitutes an acceptance of racism, rather than the fight against it.\" \"It is hard to fathom why despots such as Hitler the Nazi, Stalin the Bolshevik and Ahmadinejad the Persian chose the Jews as the main target for their hatred, their madness and their violence,\" Peres said. \"Perhaps they targeted the Jewish people because of its spiritual power - a nation poor in material possessions, but rich in values -- for he who is infected with megalomania fears the power of the spirit.\" New Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared during the Holocaust commemoration event that Israel will not allow \"Holocaust deniers to carry out another Holocaust against Jews.\" A number of European countries had vowed to walk out if Iran's president made offensive remarks. \"The UK unreservedly condemns Iranian President Ahmadinejad's offensive and inflammatory comments. Such outrageous, anti-Semitic remarks should have no place in a U.N. anti-racism forum,\" said Peter Gooderham, Britain's envoy to the U.N. in Geneva. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quick to \"unreservedly condemn\" the Iranian president's words. Britain decided against boycotting the event being held in Geneva, although other Western countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, and the United States withdrew in advance over concerns that the conference would devolve into a platform for some nations to attack Israel. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he instructed the country's ambassador to the U.N. to leave the conference along with his European colleagues after Ahmadinejad spoke \"in an unacceptable way.\" Koucher explained that France \"would not tolerate anyone holding the conference hostage and using it as a platform for making heinous remarks.\" Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters that he believed the vocal opposition to Ahmadinejad's positions was a \"very positive thing\". The major problems with Iran, according to Harper, are continued threats against Israel and against the Israeli people, along with persistent nuclear ambitions. Ahmadinejad was the first speaker at the conference because he was the only head of state to respond to the invitation, conference spokesman Ramu Damodaran told CNN. \"Invitations are sent to all member states. They decide at what level they wish to be represented,\" he explained. Ahmadinejad \"was the only head of state who had confirmed as of today -- and when you arrange the list of speakers, heads of state get precedence over non-heads of states.\" The United States, among others, is refusing to send any envoys at all to the Durban Review Conference. While rejecting the boycott, Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, urged reporters \"not allow this one intervention to mar the conference. \"I prefer to move on,\" she said at a news conference after Ahmadinejad's speech. She also criticized the delegates who walked out during his speech, saying his \"unsavory remarks\" did not \"provide justification for anyone to walk out of the conference.\" Pillay said Sunday that she regrets -- and is \"shocked\" by -- the United States' decision to boycott. The U.S. State Department said Washington's decision was based in part on a conference document that \"singles out\" Israel in its criticism and conflicts with the United States' \"commitment to unfettered free speech.\" Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland and Italy are among those also boycotting the conference . CNN's Atika Shubert contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. calls remarks vile, hateful, inciteful, praises U.N. condemnation .\nDozens go as Iran's president says Israel is genocidal, has \"racist government\"\nU.N. secretary-general says Iranian leader is trying \"to accuse, divide and even incite\"\nBut some delegates cheer; security officers drag protesters from speech chamber .","id":"17d75813505081f80b9077e48116fc007d19ccca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspected killer of a 20-year-old pregnant Camp Lejeune Marine is in a North Carolina jail late Friday after being extradited from Mexico, law enforcement sources said. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, 22, was extradited Friday to the United States and held on a murder charge. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, 22, was arrested in Mexico in April 2008. He has been indicted on charges that include financial card transaction fraud, obtaining property by false pretenses and first-degree murder in the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. Laurean, who is being held without bond, was booked into the Onslow County Detention Center about 9 p.m. ET, according to a police statement obtained by CNN. An arraignment is scheduled for Monday, the statement read. Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in December 2007; her charred body and that of her fetus were found beneath a fire pit in Laurean's backyard near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where both were stationed, in January 2008. Investigators accompanied Laurean, who fled to Mexico, back to the United States on Friday morning, two law enforcement sources said. Laurean will stand trial in Onslow County, North Carolina, for Lauterbach's killing. North Carolina prosecutors allege Laurean killed Lauterbach on December 14 and used her ATM card 10 days later before fleeing to Mexico. He was arrested in San Juan Vina in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Because he holds dual citizenship in the United States and Mexico, he could not be immediately deported and had to go through the extradition process, authorities have said. Before Laurean's extradition to the United States, Camp Lejeune spokesman Maj. Cliff Gilmore said the slaying suspect would go into the civilian jail in Onslow County and stand trial in a civilian court. He was listed as a deserter shortly after he disappeared following Lauterbach's death. He remains on deserter status, but is still considered an active-duty Marine, Gilmore said. \"[Laurean] will be treated like any other inmate in our detention center, and he will be prosecuted by the district attorney's office,\" Rick Sutherland, inspector general of the Onslow County Sheriff's Office, said in a written statement. The FBI said in a news release Thursday the sheriff's office asked for help in finding Laurean after he disappeared January 12, 2008. If convicted, Laurean would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Mexico's extradition policy prohibits U.S. authorities from seeking the death penalty against fugitives it hands over. Asked by a Mexican reporter at the time of his arrest whether he killed Lauterbach, Laurean replied, \"I loved her.\" Authorities found Lauterbach's body after Laurean's wife, Christina, produced a note her husband had written claiming the 20-year-old woman slit her own throat during an argument, according to officials. Although a gaping 4-inch wound was found on the left side of Lauterbach's neck, autopsy results indicated that the wound would not have been fatal and may have occurred after death. Lauterbach died from blunt-force trauma to the head, according to the autopsy. Prosecutors have said there was no evidence that Christina Laurean was involved in or aware of Lauterbach's slaying before she gave the note to authorities. As part of the effort to apprehend Laurean, authorities had seized a computer belonging to his sister-in-law that Christina Laurean was using to communicate with her husband, a law enforcement official had told CNN. Lauterbach had accused Laurean of raping her, and it is unclear whether he was the father of her unborn child. Her relatives have said they believe he was. Laurean had denied the rape allegation and said he had had no sexual contact with Lauterbach. Mary Lauterbach, the slain woman's mother, has said she's unconvinced that the Marine Corps took her daughter's rape allegation and other allegations of harassment seriously. Relatives said that Lauterbach's car was keyed and that an anonymous person had punched her in the face. \"Those particular actions should have been taken much more seriously because the Marines were aware of them,\" she has said. In a statement issued after Lauterbach's death, the Marine Corps said Laurean's denial of the rape allegation \"was believed to be significant evidence.\" CNN's Rich Phillips, Carol Cratty and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Cpl. Cesar Laurean, 22, booked in North Carolina jail about 9 p.m.\nCamp Lejeune spokesman: Laurean to be tried in civilian court in North Carolina .\nLaurean accused of killing Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, in 2007 .","id":"c314125c9439aac01a40a7944087d0dc7fe68dcd"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Timothy Connick was in agony for six years. In bed at night, it felt as if a pair of scissors was sticking out of his foot. \"I turn over, and it's just like they're getting jammed in more.\" Timothy Connick got relief from chronic pain through a peripheral nerve stimulator implanted above his hip. Connick, 52 from Lynn, Massachusetts, injured his foot falling from a loading dock at work 11 years ago. \"I fell about seven feet onto the concrete and smashed my heel. It started hurting that moment and kept hurting for six years after that.\" Connick is among millions. As many as one in three American adults suffer from chronic pain, according to the American Chronic Pain Association. The organization defines chronic pain as \"pain that continues a month or more beyond the usual recovery period for an injury or illness or that goes on for months or years because of a chronic condition.\" It's usually not constant, the group says, but can disrupt the sufferer's life. Over the years, Connick consulted multiple doctors and tried two dozen medications for pain management, but nothing eased the pain and the resulting depression. \"It was pretty much a no-win situation as long as that pain was going to be there,\" he recalls. He was eventually referred to neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander, director of the nerve injury unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. \"Pain is the No. 1 reason why patients seek medical care, but until recently it hasn't been part of the medical school curriculum,\" she says. \"Many physicians and nurses feel uncomfortable and unqualified to treat these patients.\" Oaklander sees many patients whom she describes as \"bouncing around the health care system\" for years with no firm diagnosis. She divides chronic pain sufferers into two groups. \"One is the group that has an ongoing cause of their pain,\" she says. \"The classic example of that is patients with arthritis. They have pain in their joints every day.\" Much more difficult, she says, is the second group: \"Patients who have chronic pain without an obvious cause of tissue injury.\" Connick falls in the second category, Oaklander says, noting that X-rays show broken bones, but not nerve damage. \"It was only many years later when he was examined by a neurologist that his underlying nerve injury was identified and able to be treated,\" she said. Health Minute: The struggle of managing chronic pain \u00bb . Oaklander says pain medications can help most patients, but there are other options. For instance, she says, if the pain is related to an orthopedic problem, physical therapy may be the best choice. In Connick's case, relief came through surgery to implant a peripheral nerve stimulator above his hip. Based on pacemaker technology, the stimulator is placed under the skin and works by giving off benign pulses that override pain signals to the brain, Oaklander explains. She cautions that minor surgery is involved, and the device works in only about half the patients who get it. For Connick, it made all the difference. \"The day they put it in and I turned it on, I was up seven flights of stairs before they stopped me. Everything that I hadn't been able to do and everything that made me happy was back available to me again and I knew it right away.\" These days, Connick is back at work loading trucks. He's on his feet all day and doesn't complain about any pain. Oaklander concludes: \"If you have chronic pain, don't take no for an answer....I think it's important for chronic pain patients to keep a sense of purpose, optimism and hope despite the indignities that many are subjected to.\" E-mail to a friend . Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News. Linda Ciampa of Accent Health contributed to this report.","highlights":"As many as one in three American adults suffer from chronic pain .\nChronic pain continues a month or more beyond usual recovery period .\nExpert: Pain is the top reason patients seek medical care .","id":"83b2a428429f462c3e823740ae943cf8f04f5500"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Stephen Plumlee started feeling dizzy and nauseated shortly after his flight from Sarasota, Florida, landed in Atlanta, Georgia. He was wheeled off the plane by paramedics, but instead of being taken to a hospital emergency room downtown, he was treated in the atrium of the busiest airport in the world. The AeroClinic joins a growing field of easy-access medical facilities found in pharmacies and retail outlets. The AeroClinic, a new retail medical facility, offers quick, inexpensive care to travelers and some of the airport's 55,000 employees. \"We're kind of the stop in between the hospital during your travels,\" said Dr. Dominic Mack, chief medical officer for the clinic. The AeroClinic joins a growing field of easy-access medical facilities found in pharmacies and retail outlets around the country. You could say it falls somewhere between the newer, small clinics and the larger full-service after-hours clinics that have been around for many years. For about $80, a patient can be treated by a doctor or physician assistant for a minor acute illness such as strep throat, upset stomach or headache. That was the reason behind Derrick Gross' visit. The medical sales representative lives in Atlanta, but travels at least three days a week. He says he's too busy to see a regular doctor, and when he saw the sign while passing through the airport, he decided to make an appointment. Gross spent about 20 minutes with physician assistant Sabrina Jackson going through a battery of tests to try to determine the source of his headaches. Health Minute: Airport clinic gives travelers a health-care alternative \u00bb. He received a supply of ibuprofen when the tests revealed no obvious medical problems. \"I took a chance by coming here today and I'm satisfied,\" Gross said. He agreed to follow up with his primary care physician. Mack said he treats a lot of patients like Gross. \"You have 250,000 passengers who come through Atlanta Hartsfield every day, and people are sick. What they do is delay their care or they don't get their care at all.\" Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general and frequent flier, sees the need first hand. \"I've traveled almost 40,000 miles in the last month and I know there are a lot of people who spend time in airports and a lot of people don't get the care they need,\" he said. As a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Satcher believes the concept of a quick-care health facility inside an airport is a good one so long as patients continue to have contact with a primary care physician at home. He serves on the board of directors for The AeroClinic and is one of the privately held company's original investors. He wants potential patients to understand the restrictions of a facility such as The AeroClinic. \"This is not the place to go when you're having chest pains. ... (But) obviously, if you have a minor illness this is an opportunity to seek care while you're traveling and not have to wait until you get back home.\" The clinic's 12 staffers also offer preventive care including physical exams, routine vaccinations and monitoring of chronic diseases. The facility accepts some insurance coverage. In the fall, The AeroClinic, will open a second facility in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, airport. The staff plans to offer flu shots at mobile kiosks in the airport concourses. For now, travelers must go out of the airport security zone to reach the facility. Stephen Plumlee didn't mind the inconvenience. \"I was so out of it, I didn't know what was happening. But everyone has been very helpful.\" After he rested for a couple of hours and recovered from the nausea, an imbalance in his inner ear was diagnosed. He was given medication to help him cope with the flight home and sent on his way. \"This has been good,\" concluded Plumlee. \"It's been fine to be able to do it in the airport, not have to go to some other part of the city and find my way back.\" E-mail to a friend . Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News.","highlights":"New retail medical facility offers care to Atlanta airport travelers, employees .\nTreatment available for minor acute illnesses such as strep throat, headache .\nPhysical exams, vaccinations, monitoring of chronic diseases also offered .","id":"7f997a307cb436508622045b5cf9489e48277e31"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least seven Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded when a bomb exploded near a Shiite holy shrine in northern Baghdad on Wednesday morning, an Interior Ministry official said. The Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, seen in 2007, is holy to Shiite Muslims. The bomb detonated near the Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in the Kadhimiya district, the official said. The Kadhimiya shrine is one of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims around the world. On Tuesday, a parked car bomb killed at least nine people and wounded more than a dozen others, also in Kadhimiya. This is the third straight day of deadly attacks in the capital, striking mostly Shiite areas. On Monday, seven bombings in Baghdad left at least 32 people killed and more than 130 wounded. Iraqi officials have warned that they expect a rise in attacks. The country's president and his deputies urged security forces to intensify their efforts to secure the country. The government has blamed the ousted Baath party and al Qaeda in Iraq for Monday's attacks, saying they were meant to create sectarian divisions. The U.S. military also pointed the finger at al Qaeda. \"The nature of the attacks and targets are consistent with past al Qaeda in Iraq attacks. We see this as coordinated attack by terrorists against predominantly Shia targets that they gauge as vulnerable to instigate sectarian violence,\" the U.S. military said.","highlights":"Three days of attacks in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad leave dozens dead .\nBomb near revered Shiite shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim kills 7 on Wednesday .\nParked car bomb in same area of Baghdad kills at least 9 people on Tuesday .\nAt least 32 killed on Monday in seven bombings around Iraqi capital .","id":"93cb528105fe482149ee7f5a62878b59d0508084"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- \"I like L.A., but there sure are a lot of ugly bastards running around here,\" says James Hunter, with a set of grotesque joke teeth in his mouth -- and tongue firmly in cheek. James Hunter has received raves for his recordings, but has yet to break through to big-time success. Midway through a lengthy tour, it's nice to know his sense of humor is intact. The boyish 46-year-old British retro-R&B singer is in a dressing room at the Sunset Strip's House of Blues, sitting in a throne-like chair festooned with Mexican Day of the Dead skulls. It's oddly fitting. Like that festival, Hunter is remembering -- through his music -- those who are no longer with us. His classic soul-inspired sound and concert style harkens back to the golden days of R&B and the men who practiced it: Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke and guitarist Lowman Pauling, among others. \"I think I probably stole a couple of tricks from people who were already dead by the time I started,\" he replies, when asked about his stage moves. Indeed, an hour later he's on stage and it's clear that if you put him in the \"Back to the Future\" DeLorean, traveled back to 1955 and dropped him off with Marvin Berry's band at the \"Enchantment Under the Sea\" dance, he'd be right at home. Watch Hunter perform for a sound check \u00bb . That authentic old-school sound has made him a cult favorite among jazz and blues aficionados. His first two albums -- 2006's \"People Gonna Talk\" and last year's \"The Hard Way\" -- were acclaimed by critics and the cognoscenti, with the Boston Globe calling \"The Hard Way\" \"one of the year's smoothest and best discs.\" He's also earned praise as a dazzling live performer, one who is known for guitar acrobatics performed with a smile. But he has yet to achieve the mainstream success of British retro-soul contemporaries Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Adele. Could it be because they've found a way to blend contemporary lyrics with an older sound? Hunter acknowledges he doesn't do enough of that in his own music: \"I think that's my downfall, to be honest. I think they picked up on a trick that I'm trying, that I've mastered. I mean, I think they're as much immersed in contemporary stuff as the old days. I think that's pretty cool. I'm trying to do that. \"Stylistically, I'm more embedded, not in tradition -- I mean I'm not into genres -- but styles, you know,\" he continues. \"The sound of things. I've got my preference in the sound and stuff. But, you know, I think I can afford to go their way a little bit, not because it's successful, but because it works.\" Interestingly, few American acts have embraced the retro-soul sound with the fervor of their British counterparts. Hunter has his theories on why that's the case. \"It could be because you guys invented it, you know. I think it's possible,\" he says. \"I'm not sure these days, but initially you had the Stones and people like that, even the Beatles who were much more in awe in this American music than Americans were. It all tends to be on your doorstep and you tend to be more cavalier to the stuff that's already there. It's like the thing when John Lennon told the reporters that he wanted to see Muddy Waters and they said, 'Where's that?' \" But despite the love he has for the music of the classic soul era, Hunter understands that going forward, a healthy irreverence is what will keep it fresh for audiences -- and himself. \"I think the downfall of any type of music is to treat it with too much reverence, because the people at the time weren't treating it with reverence and they were sort of bashing it out, that was the beauty of it, the spontaneity,\" he says. \"But, when people are trying to preserve stuff -- you've got to be loyal to this or that kind of music -- that's so much nonsense.\"","highlights":"James Hunter known for old-school R&B recordings .\nBritish guitarist has earned raves, but still no big-time success .\nHunter admits that he's trying to combine contemporary lyrics with old sound .","id":"ef937b3e91341cd822d0930ecd9a3ccf14e958fd"} -{"article":"MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva has broken her own world record in the women's pole vault with a leap of 5.04 meters as she warmed up for her Olympic defense. Isinbayeva broke her own women's pole vault world record on her third attempt in Monaco. The record came at the Monaco Grand Prix on Tuesday on her third and final attempt at the height. Her previous record of 5.03 meters was set in Rome on July 11. Isinbayeva is the reigning Olympic and world champion. Asafa Powell claimed his third 100 meters success inside a week when he raced clear in his season-best time of 9.82 seconds. Powell shaved 0.06sec off his previous season-best of 9.88, set last Tuesday in Stockholm, where he saw off fellow Jamaican and world record holder Usain Bolt. On Tuesday Powell was too hot for Davis Patton of the U.S. (9.98) and Nesta Carter of Jamaica (10.02), the fourth best time of the season all the more impressive given the calm conditions. \"I am very happy,\" said Powell. \"I feel great, very fresh. I've got a world record in my legs. I am very confident. My goal is to be consistent.\" A tough headwind had compromised Powell's attempts to have a tilt at Bolt's mark although he still cruised to a weekend victory at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in 9.94sec. Other Tuesday highlights saw Jamaica's Melaine Walker set a year mark in the women's 400m hurdles in clocking 53.48 sec. Walker, who shattered her own personal best of 54.14 in the process, will hope her performance augurs well for the Beijing Games, where Aussie two-time world champion Jana Rawlinson will not be competing owing to a toe injury. Kenyan Daniel Kipchirchir Komen also set a year best mark in the 1500m, crossing the line in 3 min 31.49sec to take 0.08sec off compatriot Augustine Kiprono Choge's June 1 showing in Berlin. The 23-year-old's win tempered the disappointment of missing out on an Olympic berth. Britain's Martyn Rooney also improved his personal best in the 400 meters for the second successive race, following up his win in the London Grand Prix with victory in 44.72 seconds. The Monaco Grand Prix was the last major international track and field meeting before the Beijing Olympics which start on August 8.","highlights":"Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva breaks her own women's world pole vault record .\nLeaps 5.04 meters on her third and final attempt at height at Monaco meeting .\nJamaican Asafa Powell wins third 100 meters race in a week in 9.82 seconds .","id":"516b0e1ce8b5945b5a381720b42ba3a095440563"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tax day is an annual stress test for millions of Americans, but Wednesday's Internal Revenue Service filing deadline may be the toughest one yet for many who can't pay their mortgages or rent, let alone a big tax bill. Jonathan Hermosa wears a costume this week to beckon customers to a tax service office in New York. \"Our message to taxpayers [is] that we're going the extra mile to help those of you in economic distress,\" IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told the National Press Club in Washington on Monday. \"We want to get you your refunds as quickly as possible. And if you think you can't pay, please come in and let's talk about it. There are steps we can take to help.\" iReport contributor Crystal Gress will need to follow some of those steps. The Coplay, Pennsylvania, bank call center employee said she doesn't know how she's going to pay the $1,200 she owes the IRS. It's the first time she's had a balance due on April 15. \"I'm really scared because I've never had to do it before,\" said Gress, 23. \"I'm used to getting a return, but this past year has been really rough.\" Watch who's more likely to get audited \u00bb . Gress adjusted her withholding last year to increase her take-home pay to cover bills; she intended the change to be temporary, but car repairs and other expenses kept coming up, she said. She used an estimating tool on tax preparer H&R Block's Web site and got the bad news. \"I was like, 'Oh, crap. I owe money.' And I don't know what to do now,\" she said. \"... I waited until yesterday to do my taxes because I didn't want to submit them.\" People who know they're getting a refund tend to file as early as possible, while those with a balance due tend to file late in the season, IRS spokesman John Lipold said. Watch last-minute tips from CNN's Gerri Willis \u00bb . \"A lot of people who were getting refunds in the past are not getting them this year,\" said Brian Joubert, owner of L&B Tax Service with five locations in the Atlanta, Georgia, area and Houston, Texas. Because his clients usually pay their preparation fees out of their refunds, Joubert's company has had to make changes to accommodate them, including cutting fees in select cases, holding checks until payday or taking payments in installments. \"We've had more people to pay with a credit card this year than I've ever seen,\" said Joubert, who has been in the tax preparation business for 12 years. \"I feel like a department store in some sense.\" The IRS has a monthly payment plan, but it comes with an upfront fee, stiff penalties and interest, making it more costly than a commercial loan. But a loan isn't an option for Gress, whose credit rating is hurt by lingering debt from admittedly unwise earlier choices. After her monthly rent, utilities and car payment, \"I barely have enough to buy ramen noodles,\" Gress said. iReport.com: Read more of Gress' story . She tried to refinance her $5,000 used car but was turned down, and getting a loan from her family is not an option, she said. Her fianc\u00e9 doesn't make much at the auto body shop where he works, and she can't work a second job because of long hours at the call center and recent hip surgery. \"I've been looking at every option to pay my taxes,\" she said, acknowledging she'll probably have to go with the costly IRS installment plan. She won't be alone. Between 2 million and 3 million taxpayers a year follow that route, Lipold said. Watch what protesters are planning for tax day \u00bb . Others in similar situations might consider filing for an extension, but they still have to pay extra on any balance not paid by midnight Wednesday. \"Bring your checkbook when you go to file an extension,\" said Amy McAnarney, executive director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block. \"The tax that isn't paid by April 15 is subject to interest and penalties, so it's best to pay as much as you can even if you are requesting an extension.\" In rare cases, the IRS will negotiate with the taxpayer and settle for a smaller amount in what is called an offer in compromise. In 2008, the agency worked out 11,000 offers in compromise (out of about 150 million individual returns) worth about $200 million, Lipold said. \"The IRS understands that a lot of people are having problems right now economically and is willing to work with them,\" he said. \"If you're having a problem, call now.\" Watch how your car could earn you a tax break \u00bb . In contrast to Gress, Joe and Patty Lewis are getting a large tax refund for the first time. The Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, couple are due $7,000, which they said they hope will help save their home, which is in foreclosure. Joe Lewis' job as a senior systems analyst was eliminated in January 2008, and at 56 he hasn't found anyone willing to hire him. His $1,800 monthly unemployment benefit -- of which $900 goes to COBRA health care coverage -- runs out at the end of April. iReport.com: Watch Patty Lewis' iReports . Patty Lewis, 55, is a former executive with a furniture company who is disabled and no longer able to work. She first shared her story on iReport.com. The $7,000 is mostly a refund of the penalties they paid when they cashed in Joe's 401(k) and a deduction for their considerable medical expenses, Patty Lewis said. The Lewises are in talks to take that money and a lump-sum payment of her private long-term disability insurance and make a deal with their lender to settle their mortgage debt, she said. \"If I cash it in, I'll be screwing myself by a couple hundred thousand dollars,\" she said. \"But if it's something that's going to save me from foreclosure, I'm willing to do anything I can to secure my home. I'm offering my lender everything that I possibly have. I'm praying to God.\" Until Joe can find a job, \"I'm going to have to live on $900 Social Security a month, which is going to be extremely difficult, but our house is everything to us and it's the only thing that I have to offer,\" she said. Their property taxes are $500 a month, she noted. The couple has filed for mortgage assistance available through national economic stimulus legislation, but Patty Lewis said she doubts they'll get it. \"The administration is not looking at people who have been out of work since this recession started -- December 2007, January 2008. That's when my husband lost his job. And they know that a huge part of foreclosures is due to job loss, but yet they still keep addressing the subprime and adjustable-rate victims,\" she said. \"And there's nothing out there for us at all. ... How can they structure the payments in order for you to pay that mortgage payment every month?\"","highlights":"NEW: More clients using credit cards to pay fees, tax preparer says .\nTough economic times make it hard for some to pay tax bills .\nIRS offers installment payment plans, may be willing to negotiate .\nCouple hopes to use refund to save house from foreclosure .","id":"881f5c1f0347ccddc21af9d45daa91566d699a56"} -{"article":"Distance runner Gilbert Tuhabonye survived the ethnic violence in his native Burundi in 1993 and rebuilt his life in the U.S. He now coaches in Austin, Texas and has been attempting to qualify for this year's Olympics. He'll be writing about his preparations and giving his views on athletics leading up to the Games. CNN -- May 20, 2008 . Athletes and non-athletes alike often have the dream of going to the Olympic Games -- it's the ultimate experience in sports. He may have not finished the London Marathon, but Gilbert Tuhabonye has overcome greater setbacks. I am no exception and this year, I decided to go for it, but first I needed a qualifying time in the marathon. I decided that the Flora London Marathon was my best shot at getting a qualifying time that might land me a spot on the team of my country -- Burundi. I trained hard in the U.S. and was feeling very good about the upcoming race. A few weeks before I was heading out to London, I started to experience pain in my sciatic nerve, which started to pull at my hamstring. I continued to train and hope for the best, knowing that I have pushed my body many times before and worked through injury. When I arrived in London and tried to run, my hamstring really gave me a lot of pain, but I did not panic. I thought it was from sitting on the plane over to London from Texas for ten hours. I continued to train and to stay hydrated and hope for the best. The marathon is a race that must always be respected. You have to have a strategy and a back up plan. So, on the day of the race, I really felt good and tried to warm up. My hamstring was not cooperating. When I hit mile two, I knew that it was going to be rough and dialed back my time per mile time from 5:15 to 5:42 thinking I could make up the time later. By mile 3, the pain was so terrible, I knew that the Olympics were out of the question. At mile 4 and 5 I thought that I would just finish the race, I could not quit. Things began to get worse for me from that point. The rain had started and I was looking for the medical tent. There, they wrapped me up and told me to wait, but I just couldn't. I headed back to the course and started to walk. The rain was really coming down at that point and I became upset. My dream was washing away through my tears onto the streets of London. I had never been in this part of a marathon before, but I knew a friend who was running and I tried to find her to help her and encourage her along the way. Finally, a taxi driver saw me and double-backed, picked me up and dropped me off at my hotel. It was time to regroup and figure this out. This was not the worse thing that has ever happened to me. I have survived worse situations. Watch Gilbert Tuhabonye talk about his experiences \u00bb. I started to reflect upon the fact that every time I try and train hard for a marathon, something happens. Perhaps this is just not the right time for me. Perhaps God has something else in mind for me. I am being stubborn and pushing for something that is not supposed to be right now. Now, I am home in Austin, Texas some weeks later. Watch Gilbert coaching his Gilbert's Gazelles \u00bb. Thankfully, my hamstring was not torn. I have done physical therapy and massage therapy to repair the damage. I have been working hard at strengthening my core to support the rest of my body. I know that I still have that marathon in me, but it was not meant to be for this year. There are so many issues with these Olympics -- the humidity, the pollution and now, the terrible crisis and suffering of the Chinese people hit by the earthquake. They are the ones who need our help, our hope and our prayers.","highlights":"Marathon runner Gilbert Tuhabonye writes for CNN.com leading up to the Olympics .\nTraining has been tough and there is still some way to go if he is to qualify .\nSurvived ethnic cleansing in Burundi to make a new life in the U.S.","id":"8dc60f3eee54d2ad270963e15e318e7fe83f82e9"} -{"article":"Editor's note: William Jelani Cobb is Associate Professor of History at Spelman College, and author of the forthcoming \"Change Has Come: Barack Obama and the Meaning of Progress.\" He blogs at http:\/\/americanexception.com\/ . William Jelani Cobb says Somalia's piracy problem was fueled by environmental and political events. (CNN) -- The drama of an American ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates led last Sunday's talk shows. Just hours before Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued, the piracy incident was discussed as one of the \"tests\" of President Obama that Joe Biden warned about during the campaign. Others wondered whether wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched our military resources too thin to respond effectively to these kinds of provocations. Many expressed outrage at the brand of naval gangsterism that by some estimates generated as much as $80 million in 2008. Clearly this escalating pattern of pirate attacks may soon constitute an international crisis. But what this situation actually reveals is how little we've learned in the nearly eight years since George W. Bush declared war on terror. Somalia is like Afghanistan in that we had a great deal of interest in the place during the Cold War and more or less forgot about it afterward. The United States supported the government of Said Barre during the 1980s primarily for the same reason we began funneling aid to the Afghan rebels: anticommunism. Barre was a regional counterpoint to the Marxist regime next door in Ethiopia and strategically important enough for his human rights abuses to be tolerated. And like Afghanistan, Somalia quickly fell into disarray after the Cold War ended and the United States cut off support. During the early post-Cold War era, the United States developed a more narrowly defined set of interests and it was common to hear American foreign policy circles express disdain for \"nation-building\" projects. But two decades later we continue to deal with the consequences of our abrupt exit from both countries. Our fleeting humanitarian concern with Somalia ended with the downing of two Blackhawk helicopters in 1993. But that incident actually served as a kind of foreshadowing and highlighted yet another link to Afghanistan: The forces that attacked American troops in Mogadishu were reportedly linked to al Qaeda. The 9\/11 attacks and Afghanistan's role in sheltering al Qaeda should have given us reason to re-examine other regions where similar blowback might take place. In short, we might well have looked at what was going on in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, and seen trouble on the horizon elsewhere. The Somali situation was further complicated by a series of economic and ecological problems that have struck the region in the past decade. In the wake of the government collapse, the Somali coast became a target of illegal commercial fishing. This is a problem across East and Southern Africa but rampant in Somalia. According to one report, some 700 vessels were illegally operating in the region and fishing the local stock to near depletion. As recently as 2006 Somali fishermen complained to the U.N. that illegal fishing was driving them to the brink of economic collapse. To add to the burden, the coast also became a favorite locale for nuclear waste dumping. In 2005, U.N. officials confirmed that barrels containing illegally dumped nuclear waste had cracked open during the tsunami that year and begun washing ashore. The situation was widely reported by international news outlets with virtually no consequences. No matter what we think of their current methods, it's impossible to solve the piracy problem without addressing the illegal fishing issue. Somalia lacks a functioning navy -- or government. Similarly, we were not talking about the over-fishing and nuclear waste issues -- to the extent we do talk about them now -- before the Somalis began to respond in kind. These environmental violations will undoubtedly cost lives and the West has more or less ignored Somali pleas. Our intense and highly selective outrage began when the Somalis started targeting commercial vehicles. Faced with this response it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Western consumer products, carried by these ships are more valuable than Somali lives. Given the recent history of unstable states like Afghanistan and Iraq, piracy is actually one of the milder problems we could have expected from the region. In a worst-case scenario, the region could become an incubator for terrorist cells or a depot for training international jihadists -- if it hasn't already. Resolving this problem will likely involve precisely the kind of nation-building the United States once disdained and are now engaged in with Afghanistan. They amount to the back-end costs of the Cold War. These pirates are not romantic heroes and their actions have generated an entirely different set of problems in Somalia, but they have our attention. In light of this incident we should recognize there are two sets of victims here: innocent workers taken hostage by pirates and those people living along the poisoned and depleted Somali coast who may well see these pirates as heroes. We should also know that part of combating terrorism means addressing the conditions in which it flourishes. Extortion and kidnapping on the high seas is certainly wrong, but by ignoring the dumping of nuclear waste and the threats to the regional food supply, we effectively created a niche for these pirates. And Capt. Phillips' ordeal is a clear signal that humanitarian concerns are not the soft aspects of foreign policy, but rather the key to protecting our national interests abroad. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of William Jelani Cobb.","highlights":"William Jelani Cobb: Somalia piracy being seen as test of Obama's foreign policy .\nHe says piracy developed in wake of political and environmental problems .\nCobb: U.S. cared about Somalia, like Afghanistan, during the Cold War .\nHe says U.S. lack of interest in the country helped to let piracy develop .","id":"150277be5f77a137278ba9651d0052853e0af9bf"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Federal officials said Monday they are probing allegations by a former investigator into the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history that he was kidnapped and tortured by men who said they were national intelligence agents. Claudio Lifschitz shows off the scars he says kidnappers carved on his back. Claudio Lifschitz, 43, said three hooded men threw him into the back of a truck on Friday night and put a plastic bag over his head. They then questioned him on details of the probe into the bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, he said. Eighty-five people died and more than 200 were injured in one of the bloodiest anti-Semitic attacks in the world since World War II. \"The police are investigating [the alleged kidnapping] as we speak,\" said Miguel Ambrosio, legal secretary in the office of federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral. \"Once the judge heard the details of the alleged incident, he ordered an investigation to the police via telephone.\" Lifschitz said his abductors tortured him while asking about the AMIA investigation. \"I heard the noise of a blowtorch, and that's when the worst started, and I started to feel a burn on my left arm, and I could smell my hair on my arm burning,\" Lifschitz told CNN. \"Then I felt them slicing my back with a knife.\" Images of Lifschitz taken after the alleged kidnapping showed bloody marks on his back where the letters 'AMIA' had been scratched. The assailants also carved numbers into his arm; the significance of the digits is unclear. Lifschitz said he was released a few hours after being abducted. He was treated for injuries in a hospital. \"They told me that I wouldn't die unless they wanted me to,\" he said Sunday. Lifschitz, who has also worked as a lawyer for Argentine Federal Police, is the former legal secretary for Judge Juan Jose Galeano, who headed the investigation into local connections to the AMIA bombing until he was removed from the case. Lifschitz has testified that Galeano mishandled the investigation, including allegedly making a $400,000 bribe to a key witness. Galeano was taken off the AMIA investigation in 2003 and was removed from his position as a judge in 2005. The investigation in the AMIA bombing has dragged on for nearly 15 years, with no indictments and a series of accusations of cover-ups and corruption. Argentina, Israel and the United States have blamed the Mideast-based Hezbollah terrorist organization for the attack. In March 2007, Interpol issued arrest warrants for five Iranian officials and a Lebanese national in connection with the bombing. Tehran has repeatedly denied any involvement. Former Argentine President Carlos Menem also has been investigated to see whether he was involved in a cover-up. Menem appeared in federal court Monday on an issue related to the AMIA attack investigation but declined to testify. He did submit a written statement denying that he had any involvement in a cover-up. Lifschitz said his alleged abductors were interested in the possible Iranian connection. \"They started to ask about information about the SIDE (State Intelligence Secretariat) related to the AMIA attack,\" Lifschitz told CNN. \"And then they asked me about cassettes of conversations between the Iranians. That shows that the SIDE doesn't deny that they had intercepted some phone lines with the help of some judges. \"They were afraid that I had copies of these tapes and I would present them to a judge, but I told them that I don't have any copies of the tapes.\" Lifschitz, who said he is a non-practicing Jew, also told CNN the men were interested in his religion. \"I always wear a rosary around my neck, and they grabbed me by the neck and said, 'Why are you wearing this if you're a Jew?'\" In addition to the AMIA attack, a similar deadly anti-Semitic terrorist attack took place on March 17, 1992, when 29 people died and more than 250 were injured in a bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. No one has been prosecuted in that case. Argentina has one of the world's largest Jewish populations, estimated around 250,000. Jewish leaders from around the world called for an investigation into the attack on Lifschitz. \"We trust Argentine authorities will quickly find those who carried out this brutal attack on Mr. Lifschitz,\" said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. \"This awful incident undermines Argentina's important progress to bring to justice those responsible for the murderous attack on AMIA's headquarters.\" Earlier this month, an Argentine court ordered the seizure of property owned by a former Iranian diplomat in Buenos Aires sought for his role in the 1994 AMIA attack.","highlights":"Lawyer says he was tortured by men claiming to be Argentine Intelligence agents .\nClaudio Lifschitz says he was abducted Friday and men scarred his arm and back .\nHe says they asked about the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires .\nPolice are investigating the allegations, a judge's official says .","id":"0e5706764afefc3e2729669aa990a27c00a57e2e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The commander of a U.S. Navy submarine that collided with another Navy ship last month has been relieved of duty, according to a U.S. Navy statement issued Tuesday. The submarine USS Hartford and amphibious ship USS New Orleans are shown in Navy photos. U.S. Navy Cmdr. Ryan Brookhart was relieved by his superior officer, who cited a loss of confidence in his ability to command, according to the statement. While the investigation into the collision is still ongoing, Brookhart's commander, Rear Adm. Michael J. Connor, decided there was enough evidence to remove him from his leadership position. Brookhart has been reassigned to administrative duty in Bahrain. Cmdr. Chris Harkins, deputy commander of Submarine Squadron Eight, based in Norfolk, Virginia, has taken over as commander of the USS Hartford, according to Navy officials. Brookhart was in command of the Hartford, a nuclear-powered submarine, when it collided with the USS New Orleans (LPD 18) on March 20 in the Strait of Hormuz. Fifteen sailors aboard the Hartford were slightly hurt in the incident, and both vessels suffered extensive damage, according to U.S. Navy officials. The submarine also punched a hole in the fuel tank of the New Orleans, causing thousands of gallons of fuel to pour from the ship. When the incident occurred, both vessels were headed to ports in the Persian Gulf to stock up on provisions and allow for some recreation, Navy officials said. There were about 200 sailors in the sub and 1,000 sailors and Marines aboard the ship. The Strait of Hormuz is between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, linking the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. It is heavily used by oil tankers. Both vessels are on regularly scheduled deployments to the U.S. Navy Central Command area of responsibility and conduct Maritime Security Operations.","highlights":"Superior officer cited a loss of confidence in removing the Navy commander .\nU.S. Navy Cmdr. Ryan Brookhart reassigned to administrative duty in Bahrain .\nFifteen sailors were slightly hurt in the incident; two vessels damaged .","id":"e739ea8482e1d2f60fcb42b12cd2cc877e69aee3"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- In ancient China, a hat tells of social rank. For the six Ngan siblings, hats tell the story of their rise to fortune. A shop assistant displays a Beijing 2008 Olympic Games baseball cap. The Ngan siblings grew up in a poor rural village in China's Fujian province in the 1960s and 1970s in the newly established communist China. People in Fujian and elsewhere in mainland China would speak of the fortunes that could be made in the booming Hong Kong economy. Occasionally, the talk would lead some to move to the international capitalist enclave. Today, the siblings operate their own headwear making and cosmetic trading businesses. One sister's company is the only licensed headwear manufacturer for the upcoming Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. \"Everybody has opportunities in Hong Kong, it's up to you if you'll take the chance, and make use of your talents,\" says the third and the eldest sister, Ngan Po Ling, Pauline. If the hat fits, wear it . None of the Ngan siblings wear hats regularly. They say hats don't really fit their oriental faces. The eldest brother Ngan Shun Kwing, without any other job offers, found work at a hat factory when he first arrived in Hong Kong in 1972. Four years later, Ngan Shun Kwing started his own hat company with his second brother. \"Doing your own business is better than being employed,\" Ngan Shun Kwing, now 55, says. \"I have no qualifications, nobody hires me. And, when can you earn millions as a factory worker?\" The family united in 1980 when the parents and four younger siblings obtained approval to move to Hong Kong. Some of them, including their father, helped with the hat business. The company grew and later branched out to Global Headwear Ltd., which owns factories in China, Cambodia and Bangladesh with more than 10,000 workers, offices in six U.S. cities and major clients include Polo Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch. The three Ngan brothers and some of their children manage the corporation, which has also diversified in mining and recycling. The three sisters are also entrepreneurs, but only the fourth sibling, Ngan Po Wan, Wendy, 45, is out of the headwear trade. She started Kingstar International Trading Ltd. in 1992 with her husband and the company is now the Hong Kong, Macau and China distributor of world-famous skin care products, including Guinot and La Colline. Pauline, 48, also started a company with her husband, Ngan Hei Keung. In 1986 the couple began trading headwear and promotional goods and later the company formed the group, Mainland Headwear Holdings Ltd., which was listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2000. \"My elder brothers' success is the spur and encouragement,\" Pauline says, \"For us the younger ones, we follow their path.\" Mainland Headwear is a world leader in licensed headwear manufacturing. The company holds sole license to manufacture headwear for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and worldwide exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute FIFA World Cup headwear in Greater China and Japan from 2007 to 2014. Watch a spokeswoman lead a tour of the plant \u00bb . Ngan Shun Kwing, Pauline and Wendy attributed their success to their parents' upbringing and tough rural life in Mainland China, which nurtured their exceptional diligence and determination in facing all challenges in life. From harsh rural life to Hong Kong . Back in the quiet life in Chishui town in Dehua, Fujian, life was very different from Hong Kong's. The siblings ate sweet potatoes in congee (rice porridge), while receiving new clothes and enjoyed meat only once a year during the Chinese New Year. At night, they hardly had electric lights on. They spoke Fujian's Chinese dialect Hokkien and the national language Putonghua. The family did small businesses. Ngan Shun Kwing and Pauline were sent to the nearby mountain Daiyun Shan to learn from farmers during the Cultural Revolution's \"Down to the Countryside Movement.\" \"The hardest life in the world is being a farmer.\" Ngan Shun Kwing says. \"If you can endure a farmer's life in China, nothing is even harder.\" Pauline stayed with a family of six children whose mother died. As a young woman, she was assigned to a heavy responsibility in taking care of the family and the farm animals. \"Living in a society that rejects you, abandons you, look down on you, your inside gets even stronger,\" Pauline says. So when she arrived in Hong Kong, she was even more determined to work hard and become a successful person. The trip headed to Hong Kong was the Ngan siblings' first time on a train. The contrast between the rural and city lives created many exciting first-time experiences for the Ngan siblings when they landed in the city -- seeing airplanes, the hundreds of lights above their heads, ringing a door bell and using a coin-operated telephone. And, the first time to learn English and Cantonese -- the dominant Chinese dialect used in Hong Kong and parts of southeast China. \"We didn't even know there's something called Cantonese,\" Ngan Shun Kwing says. \"Even a coolie [unskilled laborer] needed to speak Cantonese to get hired.\" Father Ngan encouraged the younger four siblings to study English. He told his children that English would secure a better career and provide opportunities abroad. \"My father is a very far-sighted person.\" Wendy says, \"He did something that helped us a lifetime. If we didn't study English, I could have worked in a factory for my whole life.\" In the first few years in Hong Kong, Pauline and Wendy had full days; two hours in English class, working two part-time jobs until 10 at night, and then more language studies until 3 in the morning. Although some classmates in the English class once looked down on them as mainland migrants, Wendy says she is grateful for her experiences; she says she now carries herself with greater confidence. \"Now as we [classmates] meet up, they would show respect and admiration for what we've become,\" Wendy says. Siblings share close relationship . Despite being in the same industry, the siblings claim different clients in the headwear market and do not have direct competition. The siblings are thankful for their self-made fortune. \"People respect our ... family, not because of our businesses, but our unity,\" Pauline says. The siblings' closeness can be understood in measurable terms: Pauline and Wendy are literally next-door neighbors; the three siblings living in the U.S. are just two to five minutes drive away. The siblings are bond by their love for work and food. When the siblings get together, they drink and chat for the entire night. They also share a favorite song -- You gotta fight, then you can win (\"Ai piah jia eh iah\"), originally sang in the Chinese dialect of Hokkien. The song was first published in 1988 in Taiwan, and quickly became popular among Chinese communities around the world. The song tells of the Ngan siblings' heartfelt thoughts, and of those who strived for a better living in their diasporas from villages to cities, from homeland to abroad. Pauline says she's been lucky in her life. Not many people can go through the variety of experiences she had, including the backward life in rural China, the Cultural Revolution, and Hong Kong's economic miracle. Looking back, Pauline still thinks of the \"Hong Kong Dream\" rather undreamed of. \"Today's life is like heaven,\" Pauline says, \"When I was a kid, when I think of a heaven, it's not even as beautiful as today's life.\" The Ngans joined the hundreds of thousands who defined China's first modern Horatio Alger stories. Today, Hong Kong is known as a center of international finance. However, without first establishing itself as a hotbed for the textile and manufacturing industries, the city would have never made this economic progression.","highlights":"\"Everybody has opportunities in Hong Kong,\" Ngan Po Ling, Pauline says .\nMainland Chinese siblings began their fortune in headwear making .\nPauline's company is the Beijing Olympics' licensed headwear manufacturer .\nParents' upbringing and tough life experiences in China paved their success .","id":"5c4907cc004ceedb376c75ee3c52d10bae4d3707"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Farmers in Argentina blocked highways and rural routes throughout the country to protest anew the lack in progress in negotiations with the government over export taxes on farm goods. Farmers stage a \"tractorazo\" in Esperanza, Argentina, on March 12 in protest against taxes on exports of soybeans. Argentine television news channel Todo Noticias showed images of trucks and cars stopped along rural routes in the provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Rios on Thursday. In the town of Armstrong, 250 miles northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires, protesters stopped traffic on Route 9, burned car tires and waved Argentine flags. The roadblocks were the latest in a year-long conflict between the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Argentina's large farming sector over export taxes on soybeans. Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean exporter. The country has been hard hit by recent drops in global commodities prices, as well as a severe drought. Last year, demonstrations by farmers caused food shortages and blocked farm products from leaving the country. On Thursday farmers once again mounted roadblocks after lawmakers failed to reach quorum in Congress to debate a bill that would reduce the 35 percent soybean export tax. As farmers gathered Thursday afternoon on the nation's highways, Fernandez was announcing new money-sharing measures. \"Soy revenues will go to a fund that will be shared with the provinces and municipalities,\" Fernandez told lawmakers at the presidential residence in Olivos. \"Seventy percent of the fund will be controlled by the federal government and 30 percent by governors and local officials.\" \"It's never been our intention to take anything away from anyone,\" she said, alluding to complaints from farmers that the export taxes on soybeans were unfair. The president said $1.776 billion from the fund would be used for social infrastructure needs -- \"schools, houses, drinking water, sewers.\" Fernandez cited \"the moment of international crisis\" as the reason for her decision to create \"a federal solidarity fund.\" But farm leaders criticized the announcement as a political move during an election year. Fernandez has sent a bill to Congress that would move mid-term congressional elections up four months, from October to June. \"The government again will lose again with ideas like these; this is an attitude that will only serve to provoke farmers,\" Eduardo Buzzi of the Argentine Agrarian Federation told Todo Noticias. \"The people are still being strangled by these taxes.\"","highlights":"Roadblocks are the latest in a year-long conflict over export taxes on soybeans .\nLawmakers failed to reach quorum in Congress to debate a bill to cut the tax .\nFernandez announces fund from soy revenues for provinces, municipalities .\nFarm leaders criticize announcement as election ploy .","id":"4d657d0881d07dd13089a92ccdffaf32ef8851bb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- People who go to Daytona Beach, Florida, by car this weekend will probably wish they hadn't -- they'll definitely stand out in a crowd. Bobby Mitchell, left, and Sheila Justin enjoy Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida. The city is being taken over by half a million motorcycle enthusiasts enjoying Bike Week, which began Friday and will end Sunday. The economy may be in a recession, but bikers aren't passing up the chance to soak up some sun and rev up their engines for a few days in Florida for the biggest motorcycle event in the country. \"Every indication we've had so far is that this year's going to be a good one,\" said Kevin Kilian, senior vice president of the Daytona Beach\/Halifax Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is the managing arm of the city's involvement in Bike Week, a 10-day event that Kilian said takes an entire year to prepare for. Events like Bike Week and its little brother, Biketoberfest, are what keep Daytona Beach running, Kilian said. With 8.5 million visitors each year, special events bring in about $1.3 billion. The two biker events alone generate $650 million of that, he said. The festival didn't always pack in a half-million people, though. In 1988, said Paul Crow, the Daytona Beach police chief at the time, the event had morphed into something very different from what it was when it started. He said he had to battle what he called \"the 1 percent problem\" -- the small group of gangs whose viciousness and threats against outsiders had allowed them to take over Bike Week. He decided he wouldn't have any more of their troublemaking, Crow said, so he created a task force that evolved into the office of special investigations for the Daytona Beach Police. Its specific purpose was to deal with the problem. Today, Bike Week has been restored as family-friendly event. The event has even drawn in other nearby Central Florida communities -- including Ormond Beach in the north and Port Orange and New Smyrna in the south -- giving bikers more events to attend and places to go. Bike Week caters to a wide demographic of people. \"These are people with a lot of disposable income,\" Kilian said. \"They can afford a $30,000 toy.\" Factors like the economy and this year's long hard winter probably got people more excited about Bike Week because it's a chance to get away, he said. \"Everybody needs a break.\" Ken Logan, 50, a radio producer from Orlando, Florida, has been going to Bike Week for four years. He said he goes to \"keep updated on motorcycle stuff as far as styles, what's done to them, meet people who enjoy bikes, to get patches and all the toy stuff, so to speak, and enjoy other people who enjoy the same thing.\" The ride from Orlando is only 35 minutes, and he said that's half the fun. \"Everybody should go -- whether you have a bike or not -- at least once, just to take it in and see what it's about,\" Logan said. Bobby Mitchell, 52, also a radio producer in Orlando, grew up in Daytona Beach and has been going to Bike Week his entire life. He said it's been more fun in recent years, though. \"It's more fun when you actually have a motorcycle,\" he said. \"You get out there and ride alongside people. You're part of the roar, the noise.\" Not only is Bike Week becoming more family-friendly, but it's more diverse as well, with more women participants, said Kathleen Tolleson, president and CEO of Roar Motorcycles. There's even a \"sisterhood bikeride\" in which 35 to 50 women ride together. Daytona Beach-based Roar Motorcycles specifically markets accessories and motorcycles for women. This year, Tolleson said, the company is unveiling a new motorcycle designed by women and made specifically for women and their needs. \"It's becoming more culturally acceptable, so more and more women are riding.\" she said. The bike has a lower seat so that a woman can use her legs and hips when picking the bike off the stand, and can put her feet firmly on the ground when stopped. Most bikes are designed for men, who have more upper body strength and longer limbs. \"Women,\" she said, \"need a lower center of gravity.\" The company is taking orders now, and the bikes will be available in six to nine months.","highlights":"Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida, began Friday and ends Sunday .\nBike Week caters to a wide demographic of people .\nBike Week and Biketoberfest generate $650 million, official says .","id":"9809c9cafc60c95c32c383cdad9f214a2488344d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Incumbent leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won a third term in office after a landslide victory in Algeria's presidential election, media reports said Friday. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrives to cast his vote at a school in Algiers. Bouteflika's victory came despite calls from his political opponents for voters to boycott the polls. They claim the election was a charade, with the other presidential candidates -- from left-wing parties to Islamists -- standing no real chance. The 72-year-old was elected with over 90 percent of the vote, Reuters.com quoted the official in charge of organizing Thursday's presidential election as saying. \"Bouteflika has won ... 90.24 percent of the votes cast,\" Interior Minister Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni told a news conference. Algerian lawmakers, most of them loyal to the president, cleared the way for him to stand for re-election last year by abolishing constitutional term limits. Critics said that would allow him to serve as president-for-life. Supporters of Bouteflika say he deserves credit for steering the North African country, an oil and gas producer, back to stability after a bloody civil conflict in the 1990s that killed an estimated 150,000 people. But critics say he is using the threat of renewed violence from Islamic militants to mask the country's deepening economic problems. \"I continue to regard the restoration of civil peace as a national priority, as long as hotbeds of tension and pockets of subversion survive,\" Bouteflika, running for a third term, said in his final campaign speech on Monday, Reuters.com reported. He has also promised to spend $150 billion on development projects and create 3 million jobs, his remedy for an economy in which energy accounts for about 96 percent of exports but where other sectors have been choked by red tape and under-investment.","highlights":"Bouteflika, 72, win third term comfortably with 90 percent of vote .\nLawmakers abolished constitutional term limits last year .\nPolitical opponents claim vote was a charade .\nAlgeria is fighting an Islamic insurgency and an ailing economy .","id":"e1b93d30e5f50cc0b0f781f232e36969a48aeec2"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- The recession has millions of consumers spending less, saving more and paying off debt. The fact that we are adjusting to the reality of this economy is good news, to be sure. There are items in any budget that can be scaled back easily. Financial expert Jean Chatzky warns there are items you should not cut out of your budget. But there's some spending areas where you shouldn't budge. Retirement planning . The Pension Rights Center counted about 20 corporations in December that announced changes to their 401(k) plans. Many others have discontinued or downsized their traditional pension plans. If your company is still offering matching dollars, you should keep kicking in money to grab them. \"To get that free money from your employer is so important for the long-term growth of your retirement nest egg. Especially now, with the down market, when you're dollar-cost averaging in at lower prices, that free money has more value in the long run,\" said Derek Kennedy, a financial planner in Cincinnati. If your company has cut back, it still pays to contribute. Also consider an Individual Retirement Account. You can get your money out any time and, after five years, use it without penalty for a first-time home purchase. Insurance . Don't cut your homeowners insurance thinking that because home values have dropped you don't need as much coverage. What you're paying for is the amount it would cost to rebuild your home and replace your belongings. If you need to save, boost your policy's deductible. Raising it to $1,000 from $500 could shave 25 percent off the cost. Exercise . Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota just completed a study that found that people who go to the gym at least eight times a month have significantly lower health costs than those who don't. You can get those same benefits by going for a brisk walk, running or riding a bike or by spending less than the cost of a monthly gym membership on a pair of dumbbells. Healthcare . Some cuts are fine -- generic drugs instead of name brand, for instance. But skipping doctor visits is a bad idea, and so is canceling your insurance. \"I've seen so many people go through horrendous financial nightmares and even bankruptcy because they don't have health insurance. This is just not one you want to mess with,\" said Jonni McCoy, author of \"Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Economy.\" Charity . Giving to others can make you feel better about yourself and your situation. If money is tight, donate items you no longer use, give canned goods, shop at thrift stores that benefit a charity or share some of your time. Oprah.com: Five steps to secure your financial future . By Jean Chatzky and Arielle McGowen, Oprah.com exclusive, March 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Financial expert Jean Chatzky: Don't cut house insurance coverage .\nContinue contributions to 401(k) if your company is matching .\nStudy finds exercise significantly cuts health care costs .\nGiving money, goods or time to charities can make you feel good .","id":"ef344ae6b2d6bc7e4d3d4b1e2354b73243906990"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Comic book fans have been waiting for years for a film to be made of \"Watchmen,\" the famed graphic novel about a group of misfit crimefighters battling a plot to eliminate their members while the world awaits nuclear war. Malin Akerman, who plays the second Silk Spectre, says \"Watchmen\" will make fans proud. Now that the film is complete and set for release Friday, the cast of the adaptation is confident the movie will meet fans' high expectations. \"We've heard a few comments from diehard fans where they're just saying, 'Wow, we're really impressed,' \" said Malin Akerman, who plays Laurie Jupiter\/Silk Spectre II in the movie. Praising director Zack Snyder, whose resume includes the highly successful \"300\" and \"Dawn of the Dead,\" Akerman said the film will make fans proud. \"This is just sort of a huge feat for Zack to take on. But him being a true fan, he came in with the mind of these fanboys and really kept that in mind and I think that he did a great job,\" she said. \"Watchmen\" had a long road to the screen. The original comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons came out in 1986 and 1987 and was compiled into a book. Since then it has been considered both brilliant -- it made Time magazine's list of the 20th century's greatest novels -- and unfilmable. Watch \"Watchmen\" stars talk about the film at its premiere \u00bb . Rights passed from studio to studio, with any number of directors attached (including Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass), before ending up with Warner Bros. (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) and Snyder. A longtime fan himself, Snyder said he was determined to remain true to the book. \"Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source material as possible,\" said Snyder's wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . Jackie Earle Haley, who stars in the film as Rorschach, said Snyder's passion for the film will lead to its success among dedicated fans. \"I think the film does to the comic book film genre what ['Watchmen'] the comic book does to the comic book genre,\" Haley said. \"I think Zack captured it ... and it's just an in-your-face, kick-butt comic book film, but it's got that extra depth, it's a little smarter.\" Fans of the comic book have been scrutinizing the film \"every step of the way,\" said Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But, he added, \"It's going to blow people away even with these high frigging expectations that everybody has.\" Indeed, there have been any number of challenges. The comic book is set in an alternative 1985 in which the United States and Soviet Union are on the verge of nuclear war, so there were period details to attend to. There are some superhero accessories, such as a flying machine nicknamed Archie, as well as the character Dr. Manhattan, a blue, extremely powerful and often naked Superman type. Carla Gugino lost herself in the part of Sally Jupiter, an early female crimefighter who is the mother of Akerman's character. That immersion -- which included age makeup for scenes in which Sally is in her 60s -- made the film easier to watch, she said. \"I look at it and don't feel like I'm watching myself, which then liberates you, because I am my own worst, harshest critic,\" she said. \"There was something about watching Sally older and I was like, 'Oh, that seems like a different woman ...' and I can sort of see her for what she is.\" iReport.com: Are you excited for \"Watchmen\"? Billy Crudup, who plays Dr. Manhattan, said seeing himself transformed with the effects of computer-generated imaging was astonishing. \"I was totally flabbergasted by the level of detail and sophistication that went into making Dr. Manhattan real,\" he said. In some cases, the actors were as excited as they expect fans to be. Morgan enjoyed delving deep into the character of Edward Blake, or The Comedian, and said the role allowed him to live his childhood dream. \"We got to play superheroes. We got to do something that I used to do when I was 12 years old,\" he said. \"This is always the guy that I wanted to be when I was 12 and I get to do it at 40 years old.\" CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" film has been anticipated since comic books in mid-'80s .\nFilm to be released Friday; stars are proud of finished product .\nActor Jeffrey Dean Morgan: \"We got to play superheroes\"","id":"3977b8081e9bd9b5fa04158f3a8fb57883723eab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of taxpayers across the country aren't getting their refund or stimulus checks because criminals have stolen their Social Security numbers in an identity theft scam, CNN has learned. Some victims don't learn about identity theft until the IRS questions them about income in their name. \"We see a lot of activity right now, because clearly folks who are trying to perpetrate a fraud have to get their claims in early before a true taxpayer files their return,\" said Nina Olsen, the national taxpayer advocate for the Internal Revenue Service. Olsen, whose independent office is set up to help taxpayers, said her office fielded several thousand complaints this year connected to the scam. The Federal Trade Commission reported that approximately 50,000 taxpayers complained about tax fraud and employment-related identity theft during 2006, compared with 18,000 in 2002. \"It's a huge nightmare,\" Olsen said. \"Basically, their life can be taken over by just about every approach, trying to prove that they are who they are and other people are not. And when you think about how central the Social Security number is to banking, to credit, to school applications, for financial aid, just for everything you can think of -- plus your taxes -- it has a significant impact on a person's life.\" That's what happened to Brenton King, a 25-year-old father and student from Orem, Utah. King said he was 17 when someone stole his wallet at a ski resort. Over the past four years, at least five people have used his Social Security number to report income. And since the criminals earned income on his number and never paid taxes, he and his wife, Jennifer, can't get any tax refunds from the IRS or their government stimulus check even though he reported the theft several years ago to police and the IRS. Under the government's economic stimulus plan, 130 million people were supposed to received tax rebate checks from $300 and up last year. \"We want to put that money in the bank,\" Jennifer King said. \"We want to be able to put money down on a home.\" The Kings said the ordeal has been frustrating because they know when they file their tax return every year that they won't get the money back that they are owed. Initially, they said, it was difficult dealing with the IRS, which they said made Brenton feel as if he were the criminal. \"The fear is it will happen for the rest of our lives,\" Brenton King said. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, said it takes the IRS an average of about a year \"to sort out who is the real taxpayer.\" \"In the meantime, the victim's tax accounts get frozen,\" Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a written statement. \"The IRS issues no refund. The money that the taxpayer was planning on doesn't come. The taxpayer waits in tax limbo, for months and months.\" Baucus, who led a hearing into the issue in 2008, said other taxpayers don't learn that they are victims of identity theft until years later. \"Victims first realize that other people are using their identities when the IRS contacts them. The IRS asks them why they did not report the income that appears on W-2 forms with their names on them,\" he said. And Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on Baucus' committee, said the IRS doesn't do enough to combat tax-related identity theft. He said the IRS does not prosecute, \"and that's not very helpful. It sends a signal that you get a free pass if you're using IRS instruments.\" But IRS spokesman Dean Patterson called preventing identity theft \"a top priority\" for federal tax collectors and said, \"we are committing significant resources to address the challenges posed in protecting taxpayers' identity information.\" \"We have established a special unit dedicated to resolving tax issues incurred by identity theft victims and special tracking codes to monitor returns and prevent further fraud,\" Patterson said in a written statement. \"Potential identity theft victims can contact the IRS if they suspect fraud.\" The IRS said it \"vigorously prosecutes identity thieves to the fullest extent of the law using tax-related laws that result in the toughest penalties possible.\" The agency said it was unable to provide details of how many cases it prosecuted, however. In the meantime, the Kings have signed up with Lifelock, a private company that helps identity-theft victims. Todd Davis, the company's CEO, said cases like theirs are \"like getting a disease that's incurable.\" \"Look, once your information has been compromised, it's not like when they steal your car,\" Davis said. \"Once they steal your car, you file a police report, you do an insurance claim or whatever it may be, you get your replacement car, it's over. Once they have your personal information, as exemplified by this couple in Utah, this information could be used over and over by multiple people.\"","highlights":"Tax fraud reports jump between 2002 and 2006, FTC reports .\nSenator says it can take a year for IRS to sort out identity theft .\nAgency says that preventing such fraud is a priority .","id":"1a405be1459179c2940eb26c018d79363828fbc1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen married National Football League star Tom Brady Thursday in an \"intimate\" sunset ceremony, US Weekly magazine reported on its Web site. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen attend a Metropolitan Museum of Art gala May 5, 2008, in New York City. The couple wed at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, in front of mostly immediate family members, the entertainment magazine reported. The two had dated since 2006. The bride wore a Dolce & Gabbana gown. Her three dogs, which attended the ceremony, wore matching Dolce & Gabbana floral lace collars, the Web site said. Bundchen, 28, is the highest-paid model in the world, the business Web site Forbes.com reported last year. New England Patriots quarterback Brady has gone to the Super Bowl four times, winning three of those games.","highlights":"Couple weds at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, US Weekly reports .\nBride wears a Dolce & Gabbana gown; her three dogs attend the ceremony .\nShe's world's highest-paid model; he's gone to the Super Bowl four times .","id":"ecba4bd57a776abcb97795b4e4862daf2836d0c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More timely now than when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, \"Sunshine Cleaning,\" an agreeable, midrange independent film, makes light work of heavy burdens. Amy Adams gets to work cleaning up as Rose in the indie comedy \"Sunshine Cleaning.\" Sisters Rose (Amy Adams) and Norah (Emily Blunt) struggle with menial jobs and periods of unemployment. Together, they're also coping with the nasty emotional residue of their mom's long-ago suicide -- a trauma that is likely responsible for their current troubles. Self-esteem isn't a strong suit for either of them. As \"Sunshine Cleaning\" dawns, they're both scraping by. If Norah is out of work before we've settled into our popcorn, she's not overly concerned by her situation. Rose, on the other hand, is desperate to graduate from cleaning other people's middle-class homes. It's not just that the humiliation of laundering for her old cheerleader team is getting her down; she needs the money to put her \"difficult\" kid (Jason Spevack) into the kind of school that will give him a chance. It's Rose's married boyfriend -- and old high school sweetheart -- Mac (Steve Zahn) who spies a new niche for the sisters. A homicide detective, he's watching the cleaning crew bag the blown brains of a shotgun enthusiast when he overhears the proprietor of the building grousing about the \"three grand\" it's costing him. Granted, blood and intestinal juices aren't everybody's cup of tea, but that kind of return sure beats washing Mrs. Johansson's drapes for $30 an hour. \"CSM: Crime Scene Maid\" isn't a job you're likely to find down at the employment office, but somebody must be doing the dirty work. Rose and Norah -- incorporated -- find that the stench takes some getting used to, and there's a whole new arsenal of cleaning fluids to master, but they get to work with a positive attitude and like to think they're doing their bit to put the world right. From this unusual setup, the movie might have skewed in any number of ways. The sisters might have uncovered evidence of corruption and murder, for instance, perhaps implicating Mac? \"Sunshine Cleaning\" is nowhere near so abrasive or generic as such a scenario. Written by Megan Holley and directed by Christine Jeffs (\"Sylvia\"), it instead puts a sympathetic, gentle comic gloss on the characters' fundamentally forgivable foibles and imperfections. Norah tracks down the daughter of one suicide (Mary Lynn Rajskub) to present her with mementos that should have been destined for the junkyard. Blunt's edgy performance keeps us guessing. Norah's a bit of a flake, but she's animated by her anger and her rebellious streak. If she's hard to read, it's because she's still young and doesn't know herself yet. Rose is easier to understand. She's determined to seize this chance to dig herself out of the hole and recapture the promise she used to see in herself. Adams has a knack for putting a brave face on things -- something about the way she tilts her chin up while her mouth goes in three directions at once. She keeps our rooting interest in Rose alive even when her choices seem misguided or naive. A subplot concerning Rose's son bonding with Joe (Alan Arkin), the sisters' lovable but infuriating father (you know the kind: He buys bulk orders of shrimp off the back of a truck) tips us too far into the realm of indie quirk. The character is a useful sounding board, and an amusing grouch, but it's just about impossible to imagine this man bringing up these girls. Ironically, for a movie that's marketed with the one-liner \"Life's a messy business,\" Holley's script has been polished to within an inch of its life. Emotions are experienced most vividly when they're raw, but in \"Sunshine Cleaning,\" feelings come filtered through neat-and-tidy grace notes. The film flirts with dangerous material, but it's too intent on putting the sunny side up to get its hands dirty. The way director Jeffs tells it, not only is suicide painless it can be positively feel-good. That's not to say there isn't a lot to enjoy in this well-acted and humanistic comedy. Buoyed by its up-and-coming stars and its optimistic message, it should do very nicely with discriminating audiences. ... It might even clean up.","highlights":"Tom Charity: Up-and-coming stars, optimistic message buoy \"Sunshine Cleaning\"\nTwo struggling sisters become a crime-scene cleanup crew .\nMovie presents feelings in neat-and-tidy packages, reviewer says .","id":"81c0f7e8bdcb8692be06332352f74b8389f3442b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This story is part of an ongoing series of profiles CNN is doing about economic survival in this time of financial crisis. Married couple Lindsay De Vore and Eliot Kohan on their delayed honeymoon to Orlando, Florida. (CNN) -- At age 23 and fresh out of college, Eliot Kohan was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. He was told he had four months to live. He survived. But the disease left him and his wife, Lindsay De Vore, who live in St. Paul, Minnesota, saddled with thousands of dollars of medical bills on top of their student loans and daily expenses. But their struggles taught them an important lesson in saving money. \"When you have medical issues, it's easy to spiral into some sort of depression,\" the 26-year-old a technology analyst for a private contracting company in St. Paul said. \"My goal was to keep moving forward. I wanted to create some stability for our us.\" All of that hard work saving for the past few years has paid off. The couple is elated to be closing next month on their first home in St. Paul, thanks to the troubled economy. De Vore and Kohan first told their story on CNN's iReport.com. Share your economic survivor story with CNN. The timing couldn't have been better for the couple to purchase a modest three-bedroom, one-story stucco house. De Vore and Kohan locked into a historically low mortgage rate of 4.9 percent this month. The couple selected a foreclosed home, slashing nearly $20,000 off the final price. \"We wouldn't have been able to buy this house if the economy weren't the way it is,\" said De Vore, 25, who works in the financial aid office at a private college in St. Paul. \"We were in the perfect position.\" There were more than 300,000 foreclosure filings reported nationwide in December, marking a 17 percent increase from the previous month and a 41 percent increase from December 2007, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service. Meanwhile, unemployment continues to climb to rates unseen in decades. Yet the rocky economy is having a positive effect on some Americans, who are finding it the ideal time to buy a home. Similar to many married couples, Kohan and De Vore envisioned owning a house perhaps two or three years down the road, they say. Soon the couple says they noticed interest rates and home prices dipping so low that they found themselves nabbing a home as soon as they could afford the down payment. But the couple's ability to afford their first home is a story about fiscal responsibility, patience and determination. De Vore and Kohan, who met in their freshman year at St. Paul's Hamline University in 2002, moved into a two-bedroom apartment during their last year of college. For the past five years, they have remained in the same collegiate apartment, furnished with Craigslist finds and family hand-me-downs. \"Money was a reason we've stayed here so long,\" Kohan said last week, bundled up with his wife because their apartment's heater broke. \"But at a certain point, we felt like we were growing out of it in more ways than just physically. We wanted a change of pace.\" The couple says they've always been tight with money, keeping credit card usage limited to emergencies and being picky about what they spend their money on. But they became more \"money-conscious\" in June 2006, when Kohan was diagnosed with leukemia. He needed a costly stem cell transplant, and the couple did not have enough money. The sickness was evident in his frail face and bruised body. Luckily, when he went on leave from his job, his employers offered to hold his position until he recovered. Back in his hometown of Fergus Falls, a small city in western Minnesota, Kohan's family and friends threw a benefit, raising $12,000 toward the costly medical bills. He soon recovered, but the experience forced him to refocus his goals in life, including buying a house.. The couple began saving in small ways. They bring their lunch to work and eat out only once or twice a month. They cut extra expenses that many couples in their 20s enjoy, such as nights at bars with friends and date nights to the movie theater. To save on gas money, Kohan takes public transportation, a 45-minute bus ride each way, to downtown Minneapolis for work. \"The house was a big motivation,\" says De Vore, who tracks their expenses meticulously each month. When the couple married a year after his leukemia diagnosis, she opted for a small, intimate wedding. That helped cut costs too, she said. They waited nearly nine months before heading on their honeymoon trip. Instead of a grand trip abroad, they settled for a smaller trip to Orlando, Florida. Knowing that higher education would help her earn more, De Vore is taking night classes to earn her master's degree in student affairs. Her tuition is free because she chose to attend the university where she works. By December, the couple began to realize all the saving had amounted to a down payment on a home. They wanted to invest in a home for at least 10 years, they say, so they can try to build equity. De Vore found the home through a real estate agent on her lunch break one afternoon in early January. It was \"nothing fancy,\" she says, but the 1960s ranch-style house had a spacious kitchen and a small yard with enough space for a dog that they want. She knew instantly that it would be their new home, she says. \"We worked hard. We didn't cut corners,\" she said. \"We did everything we did to get here, and it's worth it, to our opinion.\"","highlights":"The couple will close on their first home next month in St. Paul, Minnesota .\nThey benefited from low mortgage rates and prices on foreclosed homes .\nEliot Kohan's leukemia diagnosis helped him realize they had to start saving early .\n\"We worked hard. We didn't cut corners,\" Lindsay De Vore says .","id":"d13bcad8d388f592885d05dc147b1caf995c28b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Emmy-winning Patrick McGoohan, the actor who created one of British television's most surreal thrillers, has died aged 80, according to British media reports. Fans holding placards of Patrick McGoohan recreate a scene from 'The Prisoner' to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the show in 2007. The Press Association, quoting his son-in-law Cleve Landsberg, reported he died in Los Angeles after a short illness. McGoohan, star of the 1960s show 'The Danger Man,' is best remembered for writing and starring in 'The Prisoner' about a former spy locked away in an isolated village who tries to escape each episode. The Internet Movie Data Base Web site says the \"mysterious final episode caused such an uproar that McGoohan was to desert England for more than 20 years.\" In a long career in TV and movies, he was King Edward Longshanks in 'Braveheart,' and he won two Emmys for work on the 'Columbo' series starring Peter Falk. He also did a voiceover on 'The Simpsons' cartoon of his character in 'The Prisoner.' He was born in Astoria, New York to Irish emigrants but the family returned to Ireland shortly afterwards. McGoohan was raised in Ireland and England.","highlights":"Actor Patrick McGoohan dies age 80, media reports .\nMcGoohan best-known for creating and starring in 'The Prisoner' TV series .\nHe was an Emmy winning actor whose TV and Movie career spanned six decades .","id":"9a0c293f566117ca98df29881cb3c8d602ce3221"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Watch out! Lock up your loved ones! Another bloated, over-produced, high-concept monstrosity has escaped from the labs at Dreamworks Animation, and it's out to devour your kids. Susan, aka \"Ginormica,\" has to save the world in \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" But don't be too alarmed. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is relatively harmless -- a toothless satire with a knee-jerk feminist theme and a sorry excuse for a plot. That sounds harsh, I know. Who doesn't want to see a 50-foot woman careening through San Francisco on skates that turn out to be automobiles -- the ultimate demolition roller derby? But think about that, just for a second. Roller skates work because they have fixed wheels. Try it with motorcars and you won't get very far. Is that too picky? Perhaps, but you wouldn't find Pixar playing so fast and loose with the laws of physics, and that kind of inattention to detail is typical of the lackadaisical storytelling here and in other Dreamworks animated features. (The talent pool for this one includes the directors of \"Shrek 2\" and \"Shark Tale\" and the writers of \"Kung Fu Panda\" and \"The Rocker,\" incidentally.) High concepts, top-notch voice talent and scattershot pop cultural references are no compensation for a coherent script. The XXXL lady in question -- dubbed \"Ginormica\" by her U.S. military guards -- starts out plain and petite Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), until a meteorite hits her just minutes before she's supposed to tie the knot with unctuous chauvinist Derek (Paul Rudd). Her rapid growth spurt saves her from that particular fate worse than death, even if at first glance her new roommates don't look like much of an improvement. There's Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist who semi-advertently mutated with a bug; B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) an amorphous blue jelly-like blob who gets on just fine without a brain; Missing Link (Will Arnett), a gung-ho amphibian who's all mouth; and a giant dust mite called Insectosaurus who isn't voiced by anyone because he doesn't have anything to say. Sci-fi fans will have fun counting off the references to myriad classics -- \"Close Encounters of the Third Kind,\" \"Invaders from Mars,\" \"The Fly,\" \"The Creature from the Black Lagoon,\" \"The Blob,\" \"Mothra\" and \"Attack of the 50-Foot Woman,\" for starters -- and noting a few clever bits and pieces (Kiefer Sutherland, as General W.R. Monger, riffs on George C. Scott in \"Dr. Strangelove\"). The trouble is, once the introductions are over, the filmmakers can only launch their desperately limp plot: The White House turns to these monstrous superheroes to save the planet from evil Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), a squidlike creature with four eyes and twice as many legs, and a one-eyed tin robot to do his dirty work for him. Ginormica gets a kick-butt finale, and is a much stronger character -- in any number of ways -- than the movie's president. (In a genuinely witty casting touch he's voiced by Stephen Colbert.) That may be good politics or at least a sound marketing decision from the studio's perspective -- it's been awhile since a family animated feature produced a genuinely strong female character (unless you count \"Coraline,\" which was way too scary for my family) -- but Susan's self-esteem is an awfully long time coming. iReport.com: What do you think of 'Monsters vs. Aliens'? (Bizarrely -- and maybe it's just my imagination -- Gallaxhar bears a passing resemblance to President Obama. I wonder ... would that make Susan\/Ginormica a surrogate for Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton?) Visually, too, \"Monsters vs Aliens\" is undistinguished, although its shortcomings may be disguised if you seek out the 3-D version. Funny how 3-D movies tend to produce two-dimensional characters, with \"Coraline\" again the exception to the rule. Jocular and unpretentiously trashy, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" should be a lot of fun -- and it is, in places. But the truth is it's as hung up on itself as Susan's preening fiance. Hand on heart, I had a better time at \"Space Chimps.\" \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" runs 94 minutes and is rated PG. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" about Earth-born \"monsters\" taking on megalomaniacal alien .\nFilm's main character is almost 50-foot woman voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\n\"Monsters\" has great talent but no script to speak of, says Tom Charity .","id":"022174bd222ecb5e9030dcb18b1ccf19f1f95ab8"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A light earthquake shook Southern California Thursday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The magnitude 4.5 quake struck at 7:50 p.m. (10:50 p.m. ET) and was centered in San Bernardino, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles. A smaller magnitude 3.3 aftershock hit about an hour later. Although the quake was centered just a mile from San Bernadino's city hall, it was 10 miles below the surface, said Dr. Egill Hauksson, a seismologist with the Earthquake Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. \"It's unlikely that there's going to be damage,\" said Hauksson said. There are about 10 quakes of this strength every year in this area, he said. Initial estimates put the quake at a magnitude 5.0, but it was downgraded shortly afterward. The USGS said people reported feeling the earthquake as far away as San Diego.","highlights":"Southern California shaken by light quake Thursday evening .\nQuake centered in San Bernardino, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles .\nSeismologist: \"It's unlikely that there's going to be damage\"\nQuake downgraded to magnitude 4.5, it's felt all the way in San Diego .","id":"caaa16986766cffbdd942c9bde92b3e5a75e3d25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sooner or later, James Richter knows the rabbit-ear antennas on his old-fashioned television will listen for a signal and hear nothing. Old TV sets at a California recycling center last month. Many analog TV owners aren't ready to switch to digital. The 36-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, said he tried to convert his analog TV to digital but was turned down for a government coupon. He doesn't seem to mind. \"With the economy, I don't have enough cash to do cable, so I'm just really debating whether or not I really want to make that switch to digital,\" Richter said. Richter will have four months longer to make up his mind after Congress voted Wednesday to delay the end of TV's rabbit-ears era. On June 12, analog TV signals will end and only digital signals will remain. Old televisions like Richter's won't accept the new form of broadcast. People with cable TV or satellite service will not be affected. The switch had been scheduled for February 17, but Congress delayed the conversion -- which had been planned for years -- to accommodate people like Richter who had not been able to update their TVs. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration offered a program to help people buy converter boxes that make old TVs work in the new era. That giveaway didn't meet demand, though, and as of late January, more than 3.2 million people were on the program's waiting list. More than 6.5 million U.S. households, or 5.7 percent, were not ready for the crossover last month, according to an estimate from the Nielsen Company. There's been little made of the people behind those numbers, though, as media reports largely have focused on the mechanics of the switch and the politics of when and how it will happen. Many of those who haven't bought converters are poor, older than 55, rural residents or racial minorities, according to Nielsen's estimates. Some of them told CNN they couldn't afford to pay for cable or satellite TV service. While a person can live without TV, some of the late converts to digital depend on television for information and companionship. \"I live here by myself, so it will be a big deal for me,\" said Monica Lawson, a 42-year-old from rural Alto, Georgia. \"Even just a couple hours a day of having that extra interaction, it's a stress reliever for me.\" Lawson said she got a coupon to buy the digital converter box for her analog television as soon as they became available. She's attached the box to her TV, but her signal got worse. \"Basically I'm downgrading at this point,\" she said. \"I'll go from having four or five channels I can watch on a regular basis to having one channel I can watch every now and then -- if at all.\" Lawson, who is a real-estate appraiser and practices kinesiology, said she can't afford satellite service because her business has dropped with the economy. She falls into a category of people who may lose their TV coverage with the switch to digital. It's likely the result of a phenomenon called the \"cliff effect.\" While analog signals fizzle out over long distances, digital signals tend to stop completely at a certain falling-off point. \"With digital, you get a great picture or nothing,\" said Mark Wigfield, spokesperson for the Federal Communications Commission. Some remote areas of the country could lose reception when analog signals stop in June, said Shermaze Ingram, spokesperson for the National Association of Broadcasters, an advocacy group that has been trying to inform people about the switch since 2006. On the whole, studies show more people will get TV signals than will lose them in the switch to digital, Ingram said. The National Association of Broadcasters supports delaying the change until June in part because it will cause fewer people to go without TV after the change. \"There's no question that television is an important piece of the fabric of American life,\" Ingram said. Congress elected to delay the digital switch in part because lawmakers don't want people to go without TV. George Touchine, a 64-year-old from Gallup, New Mexico, said he has not gotten a converter coupon yet and cannot find the device in local stores. He said he will check back often, though, and hopes to be able to switch to digital in the coming days. Like Touchine, more than 12 percent of New Mexico households in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque TV market are not ready for the switch, making the area the least prepared in the nation, according to Nielsen. Being left out of the switch would be a big deal for Touchine. He is retired and says he spends a substantial part of his evening watching TV with his wife. \"I just watch the news all the time, that's all I want,\" he said. \"I get the weather, the news, what's going on -- all of it -- I want to know it.\" The annoyance of having to convert to digital may push Richter, the man in Atlanta, away from television entirely. iReport.com: 'You snooze, you lose' Richter said he left a bad job as a local truck driver four years ago and hasn't been able to find steady work since. He's given up luxuries like cable TV, an Internet connection and movie rentals to make ends meet. He said he applied for the free converter about a month ago but was turned down at least temporarily because all of the coupons had been given out. He doesn't buy the idea that he needs a television to alert him about emergencies or severe weather. \"I do have a radio and I also have a cell phone. If something's really, really bad, someone can call me,\" he said. \"And I figure if there's a nuclear war, it will be everywhere. Someone will let me know.\" If Richter eventually gets a free converter box, he'll consider joining the digital TV world. But if not, he said won't be angry at the government for the delays. He thinks he might be better off without all that extra noise.","highlights":"Congress delays nationwide switch to digital TV until June 12 .\nSome of those who haven't switched say they can't afford to pay for cable TV .\nFor some, TV is a companion and a source of comfort .\nFor others, television is an annoyance. One Atlantan may not switch to digital .","id":"054120d8b1df99fd7a0a08595b6e9a30a8902289"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lessons learned from previous successful airliner ditchings helped pilot C.B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger save 155 lives when he put his US Airways A320 jetliner down in the Hudson River, a fellow pilot told CNN. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 is seen just before it crashes into the sea off the Comoro Islands in 1996. Twenty-three people died when an Overseas National Airways DC-9 ditched off the Caribbean island of St. Croix in 1970, and 123 were killed in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 off the Comoro Islands near Africa in 1996. But Emilio Corsetti, an Airbus 320 pilot and aviation author, said those ditchings were actually successful \"because people were able to get out\" -- 40 in the 1970 crash and 52 in the 1996 incident. More may have survived if those planes were equipped like the Airbus 320 and if passengers followed standard evacuation procedures, Corsetti told CNN. Watch how to survive a plane crash \u00bb . In fact, Corsetti said, the 1970 crash helped lead to a redesign of seat belts. The belts aboard the DC-9 were \"metal-to-fabric,\" Corsetti said, depending upon tension to keep passengers strapped in their seats. \"Those things gave out... People were thrown out of their seats 10 rows up,\" said Corsetti, who has written a book, \"35 Miles from Shore,\" about the 1970 crash. On the Hudson River on Thursday, the impact was like \"being inside a car that crashes,\" passenger Alberto Panero said. Corsetti also said that the DC-9 didn't have life raft capacity for all those aboard. Unlike the A320's escape slides, which helped dozens of passengers get out, the DC-9s rafts could hold only three or four. In the 1996 crash, the Ethiopian Airlines 767 was attempting a water landing off the Grand Comoro Island during a hijacking. The plane had run out of fuel. While it is uncertain whether there was a struggle in the cockpit, video shows the 767 nearing the ocean's surface. As it does, the plane's left engine hits a reef, Corsetti said, sending it into a cartwheel. He said the majority of the 123 who died drowned. They had put on life vests and inflated them before they could get out of the splintered fuselage, he said, and were trapped against the bulkheads as water filled the wreckage. Sullenberger had other advantages, too, Corsetti said. Putting the jetliner down into the placid Hudson River probably helped him keep the plane level. The DC-9 pilot faced 8- to 15-foot seas in the 1970 ditching and the Ethiopian jet was dealing with offshore waves. Watch a pilot describe how plane went down \u00bb . The A320 also is equipped with a ditching button, Corsetti said, which closes all valves below the waterline, enabling it to float more easily. No matter the lessons learned from the earlier crashes, US Airways passengers were happy Sullenberger was in the cockpit Thursday. \"He's the man! He's absolutely the man!\" passenger Vince Spera said. \"If you want to talk to a hero, get a hold of him because that is the hero in this whole deal.\" CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lessons from 1970 DC-9 ditching into Caribbean, 1996 crash off Comoro Islands .\nDC-9 seat belt failure lead to new design; jet didn't have enough life rafts .\nPassengers in 1996 crash inflated vests before getting out, were trapped .\nA320s have a \"ditching button\" to close valves, allowing jet to float longer .","id":"269aa7f1af96f1f84def5ab7ac5fafd58cb82ad2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Our resident coach and technical expert Chris Meadows has plenty of experience in the sport and has worked with some of the biggest names in golf. Chris has worked with more than 100,000 golfers throughout his career. Growing up beside Nick Faldo, Meadows learned that success in golf comes through developing a clear understanding of, and being committed to, your objective. A dedicated coach from an early age, he soon realized his gift was the development of others. Meadows simple and holistic approach to learning has been personally shared with more than 100,000 golfers in a career spanning three decades. Many of his instructional books have become best-sellers, his career recently being recognized by the Professional Golfers' Association when he was made an Advanced Fellow of the PGA. Chris has been Living Golf's resident golf expert since 2003.","highlights":"Chris Meadows has worked with some of golf's big names .\nHe has personally coached more than 100,000 golfers .\nChris was made an Advanced Fellow of the PGA .","id":"3815142d07c8eac1e66f0ef865357e8e8d3caab9"} -{"article":"PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- If you're out of work like Steve Lippe, who was laid off from his job as a salesman in January, you know you already have problems. But looking at the fine print that came with his new unemployment debit card, he became livid. A brochure that goes out to Pennsylvanians seeking unemployment via debit card lists a number of fees. \"A $1.50 [fee] here, a $1.50 there,\" he said. \"Forty cents for a balance inquiry. Fifty cents to have your card denied. Thirty-five cents to have your account accessed by telephone.\" He was quoting fees listed in a brochure that goes out to every unemployed person in Pennsylvania who chooses to receive benefits via debit card. He was given the option when he filed for jobless payments: Wait 10 days for a check or get the card immediately. Like most of the 925,000 state residents who received unemployment benefits in February in Pennsylvania, he chose the debit card and only then, he says, did he learn about the fees. \"I was outraged by it,\" he told CNN. \"I was very noisy about it. I just couldn't believe it. An outrage is just too weak a word. It's obscene.\" According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 30 states offer direct deposit cards to the unemployed. Many of the nation's biggest banks have contracts with the individual states. JP Morgan Chase, for instance, has contracts with seven states and has pending deals with two others, according to Chase spokesman John T. Murray. About 10 states, the Labor Department says, pay by check only. The National Consumer Law Center says fees range from 40 cents to a high of $3 per transaction, if the debit card is used at an out-of-network ATM. Most banks give jobless debit card users one free withdrawal per deposit period, which averages every other week in most states. But consumer advocates, including the Law Center, say the unemployed \"should be able to obtain cash and perform basic functions with no fees.\" A key Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees bank regulation and theTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), told CNN she agrees wholeheartedly. \"Fees should not be attached to unemployment benefits that the taxpayers are paying to help Americans,\" Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, told CNN. \"Particularly, these fees should not be attached by banks that are getting TARP money and are being supported by taxpayer dollars.\" CNN asked some of the major banks involved in the debit card program for a response. Spokesmen for JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all directed us to the individual state governments for comment. The acting secretary of labor and industry for Pennsylvania is Sandi Vito. Via e-mail, her staff invited CNN reporters to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she was taking part at a public meeting at an elementary school. Afterward, she said, she would answer questions about the debit card fees. But when the meeting ended, her staff said she was too busy to talk. Watch Vito leave meeting in a hurry \u00bb . Her spokesman, Troy A. Thompson, spoke with CNN after Vito left. \"The distribution system for people getting their benefits has been improved by the use of debit cards, way above and beyond the distribution by check,\" he said. The U.S. Department of Labor provided what it called \"talking points\" to CNN when asked for comment on the fee structure. \"States can do a better job negotiating fees with banks,\" the department said. \"Many states have obtained terms far more favorable to claimants than those described in media reports.\" In addition, according to the talking points, the Labor Department said it was aware states are offering unemployment debit cards for good reasons: . \u2022 It is less expensive for claimants without bank accounts because they don't need to pay check cashing fees. \u2022 Claimants can use the card free at merchants and therefore don't need to carry excess cash. \u2022 Generally, these cards are safer and more secure than checks. \"We will be working with states as they gain experience with debit cards to resolve these problems related to fees,\" the Labor Department said.","highlights":"Pennsylvania one of several states offering debit cards in lieu of checks for jobless .\nSome who opted to go with debit cards outraged to get fees without notice .\nState labor official says debit cards have greatly improved distribution system .\nU.S. Department of Labor: States can do better in negotiating fees with banks .","id":"538d4891d3484a0efca5ad8f95d7d5b13af75374"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lankan soldiers seized a key rebel stronghold over the weekend, as humanitarian agencies feared for the safety of civilians. Sri Lankan troops at Elephant Pass, the isthmus that connects north Jaffna peninsula to rest of the country. \"It's an incredibly serious situation,\" James Elder, a U.N. spokesman, said Monday. \"We have a very large number of people, including tens of thousands of children, trapped in a fast-shrinking conflict zone.\" Government forces took the area in a surprise attack early Sunday, the head of Sri Lanka's army announced. Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. \"Our troops fought their way through a 40 km (25 mile) thick jungle track,\" Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address Sunday. \"This is the long-awaited victory and I am happy to say that our heroic forces today captured the Mullaittivu town after 12 years,\" he said. There has been no confirmation from the rebels that the strategic garrison has been overtaken. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 and established a military garrison there, according to the government. In recent days, the military has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The recapture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea. \"The area that the LTTE has dominated has shrank phenomenally,\" Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, C.R Jayasinghe, told CNN. \"They lost ... about 90 percent of what they had.\" Despite major government gains, critics point to ongoing civilian casualties resultant from the conflict. \"This is a critical moment in the conflict when the space for these people has shrunk,\" Elder said. The United Nations is \"calling on the ... Tamil Tigers to meet their international responsibilities and guarantee that these very large civilian populations to move freely and then can move away from the conflict and to areas where they can receive appropriate assistance,\" Elder said. \"Some Sri Lankan U.N. staff are trapped there,\" he said in a Sunday interview. \"Convoys are going to the area, delivering emergency supplies, but these are not sufficient for the number of people in need.\" Sri Lankan authorities are barring journalists and humanitarian aid workers from areas where heavy fighting is taking place. Amnesty International spokesman Shuransu Mishra estimated that \"over a quarter of a million of the population, mostly Tamils, are trapped between the two sides.\" The organization says greater access and protection for aid workers and journalists are needed as news agencies struggle to report an accurate picture of the conflict. \"The Sri Lankan authorities are doing little to ensure the safety of the country's media, or to prosecute those responsible for murdering or attacking them,\" Amnesty International spokeswoman Yolanda Foster said in a written statement on Friday. The Sri Lankan authorities \"are also directly responsible for subjecting journalists to harassment and interrogation,\" she said. At least 14 journalists have been killed since the start of 2006, according to the statement. Others have been driven from the country by death threats, or in fear of detention and torture by government authorities, it said.","highlights":"Government forces took the area in a surprise attack early Sunday .\nRebel Tamil Tigers gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 .\nEarlier this month troops regained control of key northern town of Elephant Pass .\nTamils want independent homeland, war since 1983 has left more than 70,000 dead .","id":"0d8c6be0ae7133772615b0e92672ac0918a81c7f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House has invoked executive privilege to keep President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, from having to testify Thursday about the firings of at least eight U.S. attorneys. The White House invoked executive privilege to keep . Karl Rove from having to testify Thursday. Rove, \"as an immediate adviser to the president,\" can't be ordered to testify and has been told not to appear, White House Counsel Fred Fielding told the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee called Rove and his deputy, Scott Jennings, to testify Thursday morning. The White House says it is trying to protect the president's ability to receive candid advice and offered to let top aides discuss the firings only if they were not placed under oath and no transcript was taken. \"It is regretted that the committee has forced this action, as the president's offer of accommodation to you and to the House Judiciary Committee could have provided information being sought in a manner respectful of presidential prerogatives and consistent with a spirit of comity,\" Fielding wrote. But Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, accused the White House of trying to cover up Rove's role in the firings. He questioned why Rove discussed the matter publicly when the issue first made news, but now \"is suddenly unable to talk it about when he is under oath.\" \"Mr. Rove has given reasons for the firings that have now been shown to be inaccurate, after-the-fact fabrications,\" Leahy said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. \"Yet he now refuses to tell this committee the truth about his role in targeting well-respected U.S. attorneys for firing and in seeking to cover up his role and that of his staff in the scandal.\" Mark Paoletta, a lawyer for Jennings, told CNN his client will appear before the Judiciary Committee but would refuse to answer questions he feels are covered by executive privilege. Former White House political director Sara Taylor testified under similar circumstances in July. The White House already has invoked executive privilege to block previous testimony by Taylor and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, who skipped a hearing in the House two weeks ago, and to keep Chief of Staff Josh Bolten from turning over documents subpoenaed as part of the inquiry. The panel voted to cite Miers and Bolten for contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas. The decision on whether to pursue any action on those citations lies with the Justice Department. The privilege claim can be challenged in court. But Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has said the courts would be unlikely to resolve any challenge before Bush leaves office. Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed the congressional investigation of the attorney firings as a \"witch hunt\" during a CNN interview Tuesday. Democratic congressional leaders, however, say administration officials have been unable to answer their most basic questions -- who compiled the list of prosecutors to be dismissed, and why were they selected? While the Bush administration has maintained that the prosecutors' firings were handled properly, the controversy has led to the resignations of at least three top Justice Department officials and triggered widespread criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who repeatedly told a Senate committee in April that he did not recall details of the firings. Critics say the attorneys were forced out for political reasons, such as for failing to bring voter fraud cases pushed by Republican activists, and administration officials have acknowledged that one was fired to allow a Rove protege to take a post in Arkansas. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Executive privilege to keep Karl Rove from testifying about attorney firings .\nWhite House says it is trying to protect president's ability to receive candid advice .\nWhite House invoked executive privilege to block other advisers' testimony .\nSenator accuses White House of trying to cover up Rove's role in the firings .","id":"63dff14195ae0d5fcfdd2aac0b2d71d54cfc5f8e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A distraught, sobbing Afghan Taliban member begged the court for mercy, but got none as an unmoved federal judge here Monday handed down maximum life sentences for convictions on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. A guard watches over a pile of burning drugs in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 25, 2008. Khan Mohammed, 38, of Nangarhar Province became the first person convicted and sentenced in the United States under a 2006 law that increased the penalty for a defendant found to be involved with terrorism and distributing illegal drugs. Mohammed, who had been extradited from Afghanistan, was convicted by a jury in May of plotting a rocket attack on U.S. military forces and Afghan civilians at Jalalabad Airfield. He also was found guilty of distributing between $1 million and $3 million worth of heroin into the United States \"to kill Americans as part of a jihad.\" Mohammed's court-appointed lawyer, conceding that \"what he did was wrong,\" urged U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to be lenient and sentence his client to only 20 years in prison. Then the full-bearded Mohammed, dressed in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit, addressed the judge. With tears streaming down his face, and choking back his words, he begged for only one or two years. \"I have little children and a woman. They depend on me,\" Mohammed began. \"I'm so worried about them.\" His lengthy emotional appeal went on to include his reason for selling opium. \"In my village that's how you have to make a living. There is no house there without opium,\" he said. Justice Department prosecutor Matthew Stiglitz, however, urged the court to \"send a message of deterrence,\" and warned against \"the confluence of drug trafficking and terrorism.\" \"No, he's not the Osama bin Laden of terrorism. No, he's not the Pablo Escobar of the drug world,\" Stiglitz told the judge. \"But this is where the rubber meets the road.\" Bin Laden is the head of al Qaeda, while Escobar, who died in 1993, was the most powerful of Colombian drug lords. \"Afghanistan is ground zero for opium, and an almost limitless source of funds to the Taliban,\" he argued. Kollar-Kotelly agreed fully with the prosecutors, and strongly admonished the Taliban defendant. \"You were convicted 99 percent by your own words,\" the judge declared, as she recalled how a \"courageous\" Afghan police chief wore an undercover wire to record Mohammed's plotting. \"The fact that no one died is only because you didn't get the missiles you wanted,\" she said. \"In 2006, you celebrated the Americans' use of the opium. It was a jihad. You knew the damage it could cause,\" the judge continued. \"Because of your undiluted hatred for the United States, you might well have launched other attacks had you not been arrested.\" She added, \"Terrorists stand unique among criminals. Deterrence is very important here.\" Then, concluding dramatically, the judge turned directly to the defendant. \"I heard your concerns for your family but no acceptance of responsibility for your action,\" the judge said. \"Defendants often express worry for their families, but if they considered the consequences of their actions beforehand, maybe they would have acted differently.\"","highlights":"Khan Mohammed convicted of plotting rocket attack, selling heroin .\nMohammed the first convicted under law increasing penalties for \"narco-terrorists\"\nCiting his family, Mohammed cries and pleads with judge to have mercy .\nJudge says Mohammed had \"undiluted hatred for the United States\"","id":"3e9990dc85182812d1e671834fd84551a9903326"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter whose absurdist and realistic works displayed a despair and defiance about the human condition, has died, according to British media reports. He was 78. The much-honored Harold Pinter received the French Legion d'honneur in 2007. Pinter's wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, confirmed his death. Pinter, who had been suffering from cancer, died on Christmas Eve, according to the reports. Fraser told the Guardian newspaper: \"He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten.\" Pinter was known for such plays as \"The Birthday Party\" (1957), \"The Homecoming\" (1964), \"No Man's Land\" (1974), \"Mountain Language\" (1988), and \"Celebration\" (2000). The works caught a linguistic rhythm -- the legendary \"Pinter pause\" -- and an air of social unease that resonated throughout the English-speaking world and in myriad translations. His movie credits, like his plays, span the decades and include \"The Quiller Memorandum\" (1965) and \"The French Lieutenant's Woman\" (1981). Pinter also wrote the screenplay for his 1978 play \"Betrayal,\" the story of a doomed love affair told backward, which was made into a 1983 film with Ben Kingsley, Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge. He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005. Pinter's later plays were more overtly political, with works such as \"One for the Road\" (1984) and \"The New World Order\" (1991) focusing on state torture. In commentaries, he became a blistering critic of the United States, writing in his Nobel lecture that the country \"quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.\" But Pinter could also be a man of great humor. In 2006, he recounted a story about a fall that had landed him in the hospital a year earlier. \"Two days later, I woke up to find that I'd been given the Nobel Prize in literature,\" he said. \"So life is really full of ups and downs, you see.\" Harold Pinter was born in London on October 10, 1930. He was the son of Jewish immigrants, his father a dressmaker, his mother \"a wonderful cook,\" he once recalled. In 1948 he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, then as now one of Great Britain's most renowned drama schools. But the RADA didn't take; Pinter hated the school and dropped out after two terms. He became an actor and turned to playwriting with his first work, \"The Room,\" in 1957. Later that year he wrote \"The Birthday Party,\" a \"comedy of menace,\" in the words of one critic, that helped make Pinter's reputation -- though, in an irony he could appreciate, after it closed in London due to scathing notices. Ensuing Pinter plays, including \"The Dumb Waiter\" (1957) and \"The Homecoming,\" made him Britain's most famous playwright, as influential to \"late 20th-century British theater [as] Tennessee Williams is to mid-century American stages,\" CNN.com's Porter Anderson wrote in 2006. \"What's generally meant as a 'Pinter play' in the purest sense usually revolves around one or more characters who are imposing on themselves a constricted, even deprived existence in order to hold off a presumed but uncertain threat,\" Anderson wrote. Pinter's plays featured sparse dialogue, often spiced with paranoia or simple befuddlement. In \"The Birthday Party,\" a boardinghouse resident is accosted by two malevolent visitors who insist it's his birthday; in \"The Homecoming\" -- which won the Tony Award for best play when it premiered on Broadway in 1967 -- a professor and his wife return to his working-class British family, where the wife becomes the center of attention. Pinter credited Samuel Beckett, among others, as an influence. (He starred in a production of Beckett's \"Krapp's Last Tape\" in 2006.) In turn, writers such as David Mamet and Sam Shepard followed Pinter's elliptical lead. \"One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness,\" Pinter once said. He was married first to the actress Vivien Merchant. Following a 1980 divorce, Pinter married writer-historian Lady Antonia Fraser.","highlights":"Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve, his wife tells British media .\nPinter, 78, had been suffering from cancer .\nHe won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 .","id":"3bdbeb973bd7e057229c4367f670c8b4e83ef026"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama's victory speech Tuesday night compares favorably with a number of historic orations, a linguist said Thursday. Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the presidency Tuesday night. \"His goal was to be understood by the widest possible audience during his victory speech, and he seems to have done a great job doing it,\" said Paul J.J. Payack, president of the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which analyzed the speech for content, tone and length. \"He's at his best communicating directly and forthrightly with this audience and using different types of rhetorical devices,\" Payack said, noting that the speech was written to a seventh- or eighth-grade level. That's lower than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 \"I Have a Dream\" speech (grade 8.8), President Reagan's 1987 \"Tear Down This Wall\" speech (grade 9.8) and even Obama's own 2004 Democratic Convention speech (grade 8.3), Payack said. In the four years since then, \"he has learned to speak more directly and more succinctly when he's giving a major address,\" the word aficionado said. He spoke admiringly of Obama's repeated use of the phrase \"Yes, we can,\" calling it \"very effective.\" \"That's a very short, direct sentence,\" Payack said. \"Almost like a drumbeat hammering into people's minds and hearts.\" He added, \"something like that comes across as a very effective rhetorical device.\" That phrase compares with Reagan's \"Tear Down This Wall\" and President Kennedy's \"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,\" delivered in his inaugural speech. At about 2,000 words, the speech was short enough not to lose the audience's attention but long enough to cite specifics and cover the subject matter, Payack said. Watch Obama's victory speech \u00bb . Twelve of those words were \"hope\" or variations of the word, which indicates optimism about the change (used nine times) he has promised to effect. Another 23 of the words were \"will,\" another way of making the speech forward-looking. Though most of Obama's verbs were in the active voice, 11 percent of the sentences were in the passive voice, a dependable method of deflecting responsibility, Payack said. He cited Obama's \"There will be setbacks and false starts\" as an example. \"He's spreading the responsibility around,\" Payack said. \"He didn't say, 'I will have setbacks. I will be wrong. I will make mistakes.' He used the passive voice for those types of constructions.\" But the vast majority of the hopeful references were in the active voice, he said. \"It's very personal and very active. 'I promise we, as a people, will get there.' \" The speech was notable for what it omitted, too, Payack said. In this case, the absence of a reference to the September 11 terrorist attacks indicates a change in tone, he said. In his closing phrase, Obama repeats the mantra, \"Yes, we can,\" which serves as a call to action, an acknowledgment that the country faces hard work, Payack said. Obama is saying, \"I'm asking you to do something big, but we can do it together,\" Payack said. \"We are the change; we are the hope.\"","highlights":"Linguist says Obama's speech was on seventh- or eighth-grade level .\nThat's lower than King, Reagan speeches .\nSpeech was optimistic and forward-looking, expert says .\nLack of 9\/11 reference was significant change in tone, linguist says .","id":"29c399ef0106bc9bb3dfa641e087f3ae4920627a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Subtlety may not be in Kevin Smith's vocabulary, but a lot of off-color words are. They're sprinkled liberally throughout the writer-director's new movie, \"Zack and Miri Make a Porno.\" Kevin Smith can't understand why the word \"porno\" is still a hot button for some people. The comedy stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as roommates and longtime friends who decide that the solution to their money problems is to make a porn film. Strong language is nothing new for Smith, whose first film, \"Clerks,\" put him on the map with its merrily scatological musings. Though the film had little violence or exposed skin, it was initially given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA based on the language. \"Zack and Miri\" was also a possibility for an NC-17, considered the kiss of death by studios because of distributing and marketing challenges, until Smith argued its merits to the ratings board and received an R. Since \"Clerks,\" Smith's films have been almost wistfully romantic (\"Chasing Amy,\" \"Jersey Girl\") or as joyfully profane as \"Clerks\" (\"Dogma,\" \"Clerks II\"). \"Zack and Miri,\" which opens Friday, is a blend of the two Smiths: full of sex and colorful language, but with a sweet side. Indeed, Banks told CNN not to be fooled by the film's tawdry talk. \"Kevin Smith is a huge romantic,\" she said. \"He likes to wrap up the romance in profanity, but the guy is more sweet than spicy.\" Watch why \"Zack and Miri\" is so controversial \u00bb . In an interview with CNN, Smith, 38, cheerfully acknowledged that this is not a film for prudes. The following is an edited version of the conversation. Kevin Smith: There's a bit of language in this picture. I'm not going to lie to you. ... I don't even think of it as salty. To me, it's just like part of a lexicon. CNN: Well, you do hear it a lot. Smith: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no doubt. We're raising our kid in a household where people curse, as an experiment. And I think our experiment is working, because I don't tame my language around the kid. I don't run up to her and yell [expletive] in her face, but I don't go out of my way to like not curse in front of her. And honestly, ironically, she doesn't curse. And I've tried to get her to curse for like friends and family, because it's always entertaining to hear a child curse, and she doesn't do it. CNN: Well ... I almost hesitate to ask, but tell me what the genesis was of the film. Smith: It's a movie I've been researching since I was like 12 years old, to be honest with you. And sometimes three or four times a day. ... But it only really came together when I saw Seth Rogen in \"40-Year-Old Virgin\" and instantly fell in love with him and was like, \"I got to work with this guy.\" ... So I started thinking about this movie, and immediately it kind of crystallized. Seeing Seth and thinking about porn, I was like, boom, \"Zack and Miri Make a Porno.\" I wrote the script with him in mind. And by the time I finished with it, \"Knocked Up\" was about to open, and the word was it was going to be huge, so I was like, we missed our window. This guy's going to be famous, and he'll want nothing to do with this movie. But I sent him an e-mail anyway where I said, \"Look, man, I wrote this flick with you in mind. Please give it a read.\" ... And I got an e-mail back within five minutes that said, \"When I first came to Los Angeles, an agent asked me what I wanted to do with my career. I said I wanted to be in a Kevin Smith movie. That has not changed. Please send me the script; I would be honored to read it.\" And I was, I was like cha-ching! You know, my God, it worked out. CNN: You're working with some professionals here, and by that I don't mean Seth and Elizabeth. I mean working with actual people with porn experience. Smith: We got ourselves a former pro. ... Traci Lords, man. Who, for the last 20 years, has not made an adult film. Has been keeping that industry at arm's length as she concentrates on a mainstream career and her musical career and stuff like that. But you know, it just seemed like if we're going to make this movie, Traci Lords would just fit into it so well. We approached her agent, and her agent was like, I don't know, it's got \"porno\" in the title, she ain't going to want to do it. Then she heard that Seth was in it, and she heard that I was making it, and so she was like, well, I'll at least read it. She came over to my house and read it. And I remember, I was sitting downstairs while she was upstairs reading it, and I was like, if I could go back in time and tell the 16-year-old version of me that Traci Lords is going to be hanging out in your living room ... my 16-year-old head would explode. First, the 16-year-old would be like, where'd you get a time machine, and then the 16-year-old would be like, does she want to have sex with us, and then I'd have to break it to the 16-year-old that, no, Traci Lords -- even many years from now -- [is] still not interested in your fat ass. So, she loved the material. ... Maybe it's time to embrace it and make fun of it. I said yeah, please do it. Katie Morgan is still active in the adult film industry, and she brought a kind of a current vision to it. She was able to kind of tell me where to put the camera to make things look as convincing as possible. So I was like, wow, man, this chick who most people know from porn has taught me how to direct. So if the movie looks any better than my normal stuff, it's probably because of Katie Morgan. iReport.com: Will you see 'Zach and Miri'? CNN: The title has created some challenges in terms of the marketing, that some newspapers are not taking ads for it and some buses and what have you. What do you make of that? Smith: I think it's strange that in this day and age, the 21st century, that people are hung up on a word, and the word is \"porno.\" It's not like we put salacious posters out there. ... The poster is literally stick figures. ... People are afraid like, what if my kid asks what porno is? Just tell them. Tell your kid that the porno's not for you. My kid asked me what a porno is, I'm going to be like, guess what? Hannah Montana is not in it. Not yet. Are you still interested? Of course she's not interested in it, because it has nothing to do with her world. So I just think its kind of sad that like some people lobby against it. Like, based on the dude who called in, or the many people that called in after the Dodgers ran a spot. ... Just tell your kid, man; just be honest with them. It's like, look, [the] movie's not for you. ... It's crazy to me, because it's like, some people think that it's real porn that's being advertised. Can you tell me the last porno that you saw that had the word \"porno\" in the title? Like, it doesn't exist. I don't think it's ever existed. CNN: I understand that you were able to convince the MPAA to give you an R rating. Did that require any cuts? And if not, were you surprised? Smith: Initially, I was kind of surprised that they gave us the NC-17. Especially because the two areas they focused on were easily addressed: one ... they felt [was] gratuitous thrusting in the first porno sequence between Katie Morgan and Jason Mewes, and the other was what we'll call the egregious bodily fluid shot. ... I was able to go to the appeals process with the film, where you show it to a different audience. ... [You] screen it for [theater owners], and then you get up and do 15 minutes on why you feel it should be an R. Joan Graves [of] the MPAA gets up and does 15 minutes on why she feels it's an NC-17, then you get 10 minutes to rebut, she gets 10 minutes to rebut. You leave the room, and that audience makes the vote. ... You have to win by a two-thirds majority [to have the rating changed]. And they changed the rating. [The] appeals group that we screened for ... flipped it, gave us an R. And I didn't have to make a single cut, so everything I wanted in the movie is in the movie. That's kind of cool as a filmmaker. CNN: Your own presidential debate. Smith: A little bit. ... It was kind of like \"Inherit the Wind,\" but about porn, not the Scopes Monkey Trial.","highlights":"Kevin Smith is a fan of being bluntly honest .\nWriter-director can't understand why some words, profanity bother people .\nNew movie \"Zack and Miri Make a Porno\" has rough language but sweet side .","id":"b414366d7e9a533ec14b07b6b49518fe1e898bda"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Kept in a derelict warehouse at Baghdad's airport for months, sleeping four to a bed with poor food and no money, hundreds of would-be contract workers are stranded, claiming they were duped by unscrupulous recruiting agents into coming to Iraq for nonexistent jobs. Men staying in an airport warehouse say they paid recruiters to take them to Iraq, believing they'd get jobs. The recruiters told the men -- from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Uganda -- that jobs were waiting for them with American defense contractor KBR, through a Kuwaiti company called Najlaa Catering Services. The recruiting agents charged them between $3,000 and $5,000 to make the trip to Iraq; many sold their farms or other valuables to raise the money. But when they arrived in Baghdad, they said, Najlaa housed about 1,000 of them -- 600 in the one-room warehouse -- in the compound within the airport, surrounded by private security guards. Showers are there, but are useless because the taps are nonfunctional. Many have questions about their visas and status in Iraq. Legally unable to stay, they lack the money to return home. Asked if their governments were helping them, the men said, \"Nothing, nothing.\" They said that when they protested, their guards fired guns upward to silence them. Watch footage of the men, warehouse \u00bb . Najlaa's officials in Iraq refused comment to CNN. The company's Kuwaiti office said the situation was \"under control\" and being dealt with. Some Ugandan men said the Iraqi police handcuffed and beat them. \"They say, 'If you are here for the U.S., we're going to show you the difference between the U.S. government and the Iraqi government. Let's see if the U.S. is going to help you,' \" one man said. Iraqi police would not answer questions regarding those allegations. As the men spoke to CNN on camera, an official in charge of them threatened to lock them out of the compound unless they returned inside within two minutes. KBR was not involved in recruiting the men. The company told CNN it does not condone unethical behavior, saying its contractors abide by its code of conduct, including training in human trafficking. The company said when it becomes aware of possible trafficking it works \"to remediate the problem and report the matter to proper authorities. KBR then works with authorities to rectify the matter.\" Meanwhile, men at a separate makeshift camp nearby said they were duped by different recruiters. They live off food donated by Iraqi workers, and say the men who brought them to Iraq have disappeared. The men in the makeshift camp said their immigration status is in limbo. Their passports have been taken, or pages with visas have been torn out. Help may be on the way. The men said United Nations workers had visited them. The world organization told CNN it is aware of the situation and is figuring out how to assist the men. The U.S. military told CNN it takes human rights abuses seriously and is looking into the matter. The Iraqi government has also confiscated the passport of a Najlaa official until a solution is found. But for the stranded men, help can't come soon enough. \"It's not fair,\" one said. CNN's Thomas Evans and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Men claim recruiters duped them into going to Iraq for nonexistent jobs .\nMen say they were charged between $3,000 and $5,000 to make the trip .\nOne group staying in derelict warehouse in Baghdad; another in makeshift camp .\nUnited Nations says it is trying to determine how to help the men .","id":"07182ffeb7ce2d93be006d16e0e92e7372fe01f8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andrew McMahon always wanted to be a rock star. When his band, Jack's Mannequin, started touring in spring 2005, the unexpected happened. Andrew McMahon, singer for the band Jack's Mannequin, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005. McMahon was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Four years later, McMahon, now 26, is still at it. He has a new album out called \"The Glass Passenger\" and has taken the driver's seat in starting a cancer research organization, the Dear Jack Foundation. CNN's Nicole Lapin spoke with McMahon about living and working with cancer and now singing about it. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Watch Andrew McMahon's entire interview \u00bb . Nicole Lapin: For those people who don't know, you were formerly the front man for Something Corporate. When you started touring there, you had a bout with leukemia. When you were 22, you were diagnosed. What happened there? You first thought it was just fatigue, but it was something a lot worse. Andrew McMahon: Yeah, I was on the road. It was actually Jack's [Mannequin's] first tour; we had actually just finished recording \"Everything in Transit,\" which was my first record apart from Something Corporate. I was on the road and just kept losing my voice. It was just this thing that I couldn't figure out. I always had kind of this really durable voice and was known for being able to go out all night and wake up the next morning and be signing like a bird. Sure enough, I went to my voice doctor in New York City after having to cancel a show, and he thought I looked pale and didn't think I looked well, and he took my blood. They sent me to the hospital for more tests, and I found out the next week [that I had leukemia]. Lapin: But you kept touring. McMahon: No, after that point I was in the hospital. I started in New York and eventually flew back here and was treated at UCLA by a great doctor there. I spent the better part of six to eight months kind of battling back from that. I had a stem cell transplant from my sister in that period of time, and I eventually got back on the road the following summer.","highlights":"Andrew McMahon is the lead singer for Jack's Mannequin .\nSinger was diagnosed with leukemia during first headlining tour .\nHe created Dear Jack Foundation to raise awareness of cancer .\nThe band has since released \"The Glass Passenger\"","id":"f902204731fbf3f8a984b1fafe6c2cabeafc63ab"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British bank Lloyds TSB has agreed to forfeit $350 million dollars to U.S. and New York authorities for criminally hiding information about prohibited dealings with Iranian and Sudanese customers. Prosecutors said that the bank's misconduct took place between 1995 and 2007. Under a settlement reached in a federal court in Washington late Friday, Lloyds acknowledged criminal conduct and forfeited $175 million to U.S. authorities and an equal amount to New York authorities. Court documents say for more than a decade Lloyds had been falsifying data which moved through U.S. institutions by \"stripping out\" of wire transfers any references to business deals involving customers in the two countries. Lloyds officials acknowledged they feared if the U.S. had been aware of the deals they would likely have been blocked because of restrictions on commercial deals with Iran and Sudan. \"For more than 12 years Lloyd's facilitated the anonymous movement of hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S.-sanctioned nations through our financial system,\" said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich. \"Lloyds stripped identifying information from international wire transfers that would have raised a red flag at U.S. financial institutions and caused such payments to be scrutinized,\" he said. Although the money must be forfeited, under terms of the deal Lloyds will not presently be prosecuted because it accepted responsibility and has vowed to abide by the U.S. laws. After two years the U.S. will forego prosecution and formally drop the criminal charge. In a statement, the bank said: \"We committed substantial resources to a thorough internal investigation, the results of which were shared with U.S. investigators and regulators. \"We are committed to running our business with the highest levels of integrity and regulatory compliance across all of our operations and have undertaken a range of significant steps to further enhance our compliance programs.\" In October, the British government agreed a deal with Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland to make a multi-billion investment in the three to help them through what Prime Minister Gordon Brown described as the \"first financial crisis of the global age.\"","highlights":"Bank accused of helping customers in Sudan and Iran avoid U.S. sanctions .\nViolations took place between 1995 and 2007 .\nU.S. Justice Department: Lloyds TSB acknowledged \"criminal conduct\"\nIt said Lloyds agreed to forfeit the funds in return for an end to its investigation .","id":"9793be302fa8a724e85d0d4c835fa9a7d52fa7b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nearly eight years later, Connie Chung still remembers being surprised. \"Stonewalling is what gets politicians in trouble, when they ... try to cover up,\" Connie Chung says. It was one of those television moments that linger in the national consciousness, like Barbara Walters sitting down with Monica Lewinsky, Dan Rather with Saddam Hussein, or Jay Leno asking Hugh Grant what the hell he had been thinking. Chung was with ABC then, and she got the \"get\" -- the first interview with Gary Condit, the California congressman at the center of the Chandra Levy media frenzy. The former Washington intern, you'll recall, had been found murdered in Rock Creek Park, and law enforcement sources let it be known that the married Condit had been having an affair with her. In an interview airing Sunday on \"Reliable Sources\" (10 a.m. ET, during CNN's \"State of the Union with John King\"), Chung says she was surprised when Condit refused to acknowledge the romantic relationship. \"Stonewalling is what gets politicians in trouble, when they stonewall or they try to cover up,\" she says. \"I think that the general public and the news media wanted him to be honest, and if he could be honest about that part of the story, then he could be -- then he would be believed when he was answering other questions as to whether or not he had anything to do with her disappearance.\" I often focus on media excess and media mistakes on the program, but we also try to highlight good journalism. The segment includes two Washington Post reporters, Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham, who cracked the Levy mystery in a 13-part series last year. They did what the D.C. police could not: They identified Ingmar Guandique, an illegal Salvadoran immigrant, as Levy's likely killer. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for the imprisoned suspect this week. But Horwitz and Higham talk about how they were roundly criticized for resurrecting the case and accused of sensationalizing it. It's clear that Levy's case became a huge deal in 2001 because of the Condit connection. At the same time, Chung says, \"The news media had changed. This was the gradual evolution of what the news media was doing. There was flavor of the week, the story du jour.\" The Levy frenzy became the precursor for the missing-women TV melodramas that followed: Laci Peterson, Stacy Peterson, Natalee Holloway. The stories of women who were not celebrities, whom no one had heard of before, became national soap operas because they drove cable and morning show ratings. At least, in Levy's case, the soap opera appears to be drawing to a close.","highlights":"Congressman wouldn't admit affair with murdered former intern .\nHonest answer might have helped Gary Condit, news anchor says .\nChung recalls scandal for \"Reliable Sources\" Sunday on CNN .","id":"3fc0feedd683b49702d0da9d7d3c36b7be02ca09"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Western cinema's relationship with martial arts has been a rocky one. Like many genres, kung fu has drifted in and out of fashion, but it has never regained the same popularity as its glorious heyday in the early 1970s. There's nothing funny about either Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris. And they've got the fists to prove it. After breaking into the United States and Britain with TV hardmen like The Saint and The Green Hornet duffing up the occasional bad guy, the revolution really kicked in at the cinema. When Bruce Lee -- who had already made waves in America as the Green Hornet's karate chopping sidekick, Kato -- appeared in the Chinese-made \"Jing wu men,\" or \"Fist of Fury,\" he established himself as the genre's poster boy. Lee found initial success in his native China, but with his next movies, \"Meng long guo jiang\" (\"The Way of the Dragon\"), which pitted him against U.S. karate champion Chuck Norris, and the classic \"Enter the Dragon,\" he became an international star. The plots of his films all followed a set structure: our gifted hero pursues a path of revenge or tough justice, accompanied by a stiff dose of morality. In this way his characters became representatives and protectors of the less powerful who have been unjustly treated. At the same time, the U.S. TV show \"Kung Fu,\" which started in 1972, raised the profile of martial arts, and, through the lead character Caine, built an image of the patient, wise man, who uses his skills in combat as a last resort when reasoning fails, and again, is motivated entirely by his unshakeable morals. The reluctant hero isn't a new concept: he's shared by the Far East and Wild West. The lone gunman in a western, too, tends to be loath to kill, and acts as the moral enforcer in a lawless place. But while the gunman in an isolated western town still commands the same respect from movie audiences as he lays down the law, our wise eastern mystic has almost entirely disappeared from Hollywood. The biggest martial arts stars today -- with the notable exception of Jet Li, who continues to take on a mix of serious art movies in China and gang-war films set on the streets of urban America -- are either laughed at or laughed with by western audiences. Kung fu superstar Jackie Chan has the impressive reputation of being almost indestructible. He does his own stunts and puts himself in some incredibly dangerous situations. But Chan is essentially a comedian. His stunts are used, in a very similar way to Chan's cinematic hero Harold Lloyd, to amaze and amuse an audience. We are shocked that someone could do the things he does, hanging off moving buses with a walking stick, leaping across buildings. He is almost superhuman, but it's done mainly for laughs. The other major kung fu stars have become figures of mockery. The Internet was awash with Chuck Norris gags pointing out just how strong he is (\"Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.\") while Steven Seagal has done himself no favors by appearing in some of the worst films ever made. Hollywood doesn't take them seriously -- and nor do we. Directors have also mocked the 70s obsession with kung fu that gripped the western world, with heroes from films such as \"Boogie Nights,\" \"Austin Powers\" and \"Starsky and Hutch\" fighting with cod seriousness while displaying laughable skills. So what has changed? Kung fu is not inherently funny. No matter how many times you watch \"Enter the Dragon,\" it never ceases to be awe-inspiring. Perhaps the answer is simple: we Hollywood film junkies have grown cynical. There is no room in our modern world for an unexplained, almost supernatural power against pointlessly evil adversaries. Have we have lost our ability to suspend our disbelief? So what can a real fan do? Are we condemned to trawling the movies of the 1970s in order to get our kung fu hit, harking back to a time when Chuck Norris really was feared and respected everywhere he went? The answer is no. While Hollywood seems to have dumped its one-time darling, kung fu is alive and flourishing in Asia, where it all started. Jet Li puts out some great offerings in China, and there is a rising star in the form of Tony Jaa, a Thai actor with amazing technical skill, whose films like \"Ong Bak\" have wowed audiences across the world. While Hollywood misses a trick and spends all its time laughing at its most skillful martial artists, the industry in Asia is doing what it has always done: bringing us all the high kicks, karate chops and spinning nunchucks we could ever want. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Kung fu has never regained its 1970s popularity in the West .\nThe genre has been mocked in movies like \"Austin Powers,\" \"Starsky and Hutch\"\nBut fans know the genre is alive and flourishing in Asia .","id":"6f760d67c7fd2f495ea756d817ca565033e0da9d"} -{"article":"VIENNA, Virginia (CNN) -- The acting chief financial officer of mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac was found dead Wednesday morning at his home, police said. David Kellermann, acting CFO of Freddie Mac, was found dead on Wednesday, police said. David Kellermann was found dead of an apparent hanging, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. There were no signs of foul play when officers arrived at the home in Vienna shortly before 5 a.m., said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for police in Fairfax County, Virginia. She said the death \"may have been an apparent suicide.\" A second Fairfax County police spokesman, Eddie Azcarate, said Kellermann's body was found in the basement. \"The exact cause of death ... we're going to wait for the medical examiner,\" he said. Police were called by someone inside the home, he said, but he didn't know who made the report. Watch why police don't suspect foul play \u00bb . Family members remained in the home, and several visitors went inside. Freddie Mac has been immersed in financial problems since last year, when the government took it over in the midst of the escalating subprime-mortgage loan crisis. Federal prosecutors in New York and Virginia have been investigating it, as has the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a March 11 company filing. Sharon McHale, Freddie Mac's vice president for public relations, issued a statement at midday, saying, \"Freddie Mac knows of no connection between David Kellermann's death and the regulatory inquiries that were discussed in our recent SEC filing.\" Neighbors indicated there was no sign that Kellermann had problems. \"They were very friendly with all the young families in the neighborhood ... terrific people,\" said neighbor Paul Unger. \"We saw him when he was out working in the yard. ... We didn't spend a lot of time together.\" \"We're beyond shocked,\" he said. \"He was a great family guy with a beautiful young child.\" They had the most decorated home at Christmas, Unger added. \"I cannot imagine what has happened. ... This is a nightmare.\" \"I asked the policeman what was going on and he told me. I was stunned, silent, shed tears. I feel terrible,\" Unger said. \"This is a solid, salt-of-earth kind of family ... and I just cannot imagine what would have driven him to it.\" Another neighbor said the family was very \"community-oriented,\" and liked hosting parties at their house. \"We're very, very upset right now,\" said the woman, whose daughter baby-sat for the Kellermanns' 5-year-old daughter. \"This is just too much for us.\" \"They were a very happy, happy couple. So it was a shock when we came upon it.\" Kellermann, 41, was a man \"of great talents,\" Freddie Mac's interim CEO, John Koskinen, said in a written statement. \"He dedicated those talents to Freddie Mac for more than 16 years, serving in many business and finance capacities before recently taking the reins as acting chief financial officer. \"His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him. But he will be most remembered for his affability, his personal warmth, his sense of humor and his quick wit.\" Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner offered his condolences in a written statement: \"On behalf of the Treasury family, we are deeply saddened by the news this morning of David Kellermann's death. Our deepest sympathies are with his family and his colleagues at Freddie Mac during this difficult time.\" Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. It supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Kellermann, who served as a senior vice president in addition to acting CFO, was named to those posts in September. He was responsible for the company's financial controls. This included overseeing financial reporting, compliance with tax requirements and regulations, and annual budgeting and financial planning. Before assuming his current posts, Kellermann was corporate controller and principal accounting officer. According to the March 11 company filing, Freddie Mac was subpoenaed for documents relating to accounting, disclosure and corporate governance matters in September, October, January and February. The filing also says that SEC staff was interviewing company employees. The government took over Freddie Mac last year. In September, it and Fannie Mae were placed under conservatorship by their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Both companies back mortgages held by private homeowners, and have received massive cash infusions from the government to keep them afloat. Kellermann held a master's degree in finance from George Washington University and a bachelor's in political science and accounting from the University of Michigan. He had served as a volunteer board member of the District of Columbia Coalition for the Homeless. \"We at [the Federal Housing Finance Agency] are very saddened by the death of David Kellermann,\" the agency said in a written statement. \"As the acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac during particularly challenging times, David was an inspiration to his staff and many others who were privileged to work with him.\" A spokesman for the SEC declined to comment. As part of its rescue of Freddie and Fannie last year, the government made $100 billion available to each to cover future losses -- amounts that President Obama has since doubled. In March, Freddie reported that it had asked the government for $30.8 billion after losing $50 billion in 2008. Nearly the entire loss came in the second half of the year, following the government takeover, and the company's losses deepened as the housing market continued its decline. CNN's Kate Bolduan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Freddie Mac says no known link between CFO's death, regulatory probe .\nNeighbors describe Kellermann and wife as friendly, happy, \"terrific people\"\nFreddie Mac CFO died by hanging, according to source familiar with the case .\nNo signs of foul play at home where David Kellermann found dead, police say .","id":"215f104b485df5a5a34ee342e5deec9bc2be35a6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Masks beneath masks, the click-clack of Mahjong tiles and the sheen of silk cheongsams: Taiwanese director Ang Lee (\"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon\"; \"Brokeback Mountain\") brings an intoxicating tale of lies, deceit and corruption to the screen with his latest film, \"Lust, Caution\". Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Tang Wei star in Ang Lee's latest film, \"Lust, Caution\" Japanese-occupied Shanghai, 1942. Mrs Mak, an impeccably coiffed Chinese lady, makes a telephone call from a cafe, then sits and waits. Cue a flashback to 1938, where her story begins. Mrs Mak is not the sophisticate she appears -- just a few years earlier, she was shy drama student Wong Chia Chi. Ang Lee's adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story tells the tale of a girl caught up in the winds of change of World War II. The fast-paced erotic thriller tracks Wong Chia Chi's transformation from bookish student to collaborator bait. The film has already received wide acclaim, winning Lee his second Golden Lion at Venice with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film already in the bag. \"Lust, Caution\" cleaned up at Taiwan's Golden Horse awards, scooping seven trophies including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, which went to Tony Leung Chiu Wai, and Best Newcomer, for Wei Tang. Wei Tang plays Wong Chia Chi, a student in Hong Kong whose fate is set when she meets Kuang Yu Min (Lee-hom Wang), a handsome fellow student who wants to use drama to provoke his compatriots to rebel against the Japanese. As Kuang's leading lady, Wong Chia Chi blossoms, but when Kuang urges his fellow players to move from inspiration to action, she finds herself at the center of a plot to ensnare and murder Japanese collaborator Mr Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). Dressed in cheongsams and primped and curled to perfection, Wong Chia Chi sets out on the biggest role of her life. As Mrs Mak, she gains Lee's trust through his wife, and the plot progresses as planned until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee. Cut to Shanghai three years later: Wong Chia Chi is caught in a listless existence when Kuang unexpectedly re-enters her life. He lures her back into the unfinished sting operation, and before long she and Mr Lee, now head of the collaborationist secret service, are engaged in a torrid affair that pushes her soul and her loyalty to the limit. Newcomer Wei Tang gives a startlingly assured and subtle performance. At times, she seems to mirror Wong Chia Chi's transformation into Mrs Mak from dowdy student to rouged mistress, but she rises to the challenge and ably carries the film on her slender shoulders. As she is thrust into the spotlight by Kuang, stripped mechanically of her virginity in readiness for her role as temptress, and placed alongside Mr Lee, Wei Tang, with serene stillness, lets Wong Chia Chi be swept along to her final destiny. Every diamond demands the right setting to sparkle, and Tony Leung Chiu Wai's generous performance as the enigmatic Mr Lee lets his co-star shine. Leung is pitch-perfect, and shows his quality as he lets Lee's beautifully impassive mask shift and slip, revealing a tightly-wound coil of repressed emotion beneath. Leung is remarkable: a highly skilled actor capable of expressing a world of emotion in the smallest muscle movement. The audience is left to imagine the horrors he unleashes during his interrogations of Chinese resistance fighters. The already-infamous sex scenes can appear a little clumsy and contorted at times, less intimate than acrobatic; it's when Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Wei Tang sit in silence that they most project how intimate and electric their connection really is. The lead characters are ably supported by a stirling cast, most notably a splendidly nuanced performance from Joan Chen as Mrs Lee, forced to turn a blind eye to her husband's affairs, both in business and of the heart, while Asian pop superstar Wang Leehom gives a convincing and impassioned performance as romantic, ruthless Kuang. As for the ambience, Ang Lee is known for his attention to detail, and at times the 30s luxe and glamour is perhaps a little too perfect, a little too glossy, with a depth of style usually reserved for more placid period pieces. (Note for fashionistas: while \"Atonement\" might inspire a 2008 trend for bias-cut 30s dresses, \"Lust, Caution\" will add perfectly formed cloche hats and cocktail rings to the mix.) But this chilling, thrilling film-noir-inspired tale is both poised and elegant, bloody and erotic; if not quite a diamond the size of a quail's egg, \"Lust, Caution\" is certainly a precious pearl of a movie. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ang Lee's latest film, \"Lust, Caution\" is a film-noir spy tale set in Shanghai .\n\"Lust, Caution\" is the follow-up to 2005's Oscar-winning \"Brokeback Mountain\"\nAsian cinema icon Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and newcomer Wei Tang star .\nToo perfect in parts, with OTT sex scenes, the film is still a killer thriller .","id":"a14bb99107d4dfce9630f8bd077bc8f03c4ffd2d"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian woman who had been in a coma for 17 years and whose right-to-die case was being debated in the Italian Parliament has died days after doctors began removing her feeding tube. A portrait of Eluana Englaro. She was in a vegetative state for nearly 17 years. The speaker of the Italian Senate announced the death of Eluana Englaro, 37, Monday night, then called for a moment of silence in the chamber. Even as the silence ended, one legislator declared, \"She has not died -- she was killed,\" prompting other right-to-die opponents to join in with calls of \"Murderers!\" Englaro had been in a vegetative state for 17 years, after suffering what doctors determined to be irreversible brain damage in a 1992 car crash, when she was 20 years old. For years, Englaro's father, Beppino, fought to have her feeding tube removed, saying it would be a dignified end to his daughter's life. He said that before the crash his daughter visited a friend who was in a coma and told him she didn't want the same thing to happen to her if she were ever in the same state. Confirming his daughter's death Monday, Beppino Englaro told Italian media: \"Yes, she is no longer with us, but I don't want to say anything further. I need to be left alone.\" But the intense debate swirling around her case will go on. Watch as Italians protest against her death \u00bb . When Englaro's death was announced, the Senate was debating a proposed law that would require doctors to provide nourishment to all incapacitated patients, and that would have forced doctors to resume feeding Englaro through tubes. Debate on that proposal as it would affect other patients is likely to continue in Parliament. Last year, a court ruled that the feeding tube could be removed, and Italy's high court upheld the ruling on appeal. Englaro was transferred last week to a private clinic, where the removal process began Friday -- even as the Senate took up a debate aimed at reversing that process. A decree aimed at preventing doctors from completely removing the feeding tube was passed unanimously Friday by Italy's Council of Ministers, with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leading the effort. \"I will do everything I can to save her life,\" Berlusconi said. \"We have to do everything possible to stop a person from dying.\" But President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree. According to a statement from Napolitano's office, \"An emergency decree cannot be in contrast with a court decision.\" The case has been a controversial one in Italy, a heavily Catholic country where the Vatican has great influence. Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims that \"euthanasia is a false solution to suffering.\" Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, president emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said Friday that Englaro had the right to be kept alive. \"It is the duty of the doctors, of society, and of the political institutions to administer her essential foods to keep her alive. No one has the right to take her life away from her,\" he said. Euthanasia is illegal in Italy, but patients have the right to refuse treatment. It is on that basis that Englaro argued his daughter should be allowed to die, because some time before her accident she had expressed the wish not to be kept alive while in a coma -- indirectly refusing treatment, he said.","highlights":"NEW: Woman in coma for 17 years in Italy has died, her father says .\nEluana Englaro has been in vegetative state since a car crash .\nHer father has fought for years to have her feeding tube removed .","id":"40ead0fc64c2035fdac051a1905cf07c2c0b8099"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama takes his first foreign trip Thursday, but domestic politics will loom large as he tackles the explosive issue of protectionism in a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the leader of the United States' largest trade partner. Trade will be a major issue when President Obama visits Canada beginning Thursday. At issue is a controversial so-called \"Buy American\" provision requiring the use of U.S.-produced iron, steel, and other manufactured goods in public works projects funded by the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Several Democratic-leaning unions and domestic steel and iron producers favor the provision; a large number of business and trade organizations are opposed. Administration officials altered the language in the final version of the stimulus bill to ensure that the provision will not trump existing trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA. Canadian companies will therefore still have the chance to sell products used in stimulus-funded projects. Canadian government officials, however, are still concerned by what they perceive as rising protectionist sentiment in the United States that could potentially spark a trade war and, in their opinion, deepen the global economic crisis. Canada has been hit hard by the global downturn. The country's critical manufacturing-based sales dropped 8 percent in December, reflecting roughly equal decreases in both volume and price, according to Statistics Canada, an agency charged with tracking key economic data for officials in Ottawa. In a recent letter to U.S. Senate leaders, Canada's ambassador to the United States warned that the U.S. was losing the moral authority to pressure other nations not to erect their own trade barriers. \"A rush to protectionist actions could create a downward spiral like the world experienced in the 1930s,\" wrote Ambassador Michael Wilson. \"In the end we got into this economic crisis together. We need to work together to build ourselves out of it.\" Some Canadian leaders also cite unresolved concerns over what they perceive to be vague and potentially harmful language in the \"Buy American\" provision. Specifically, they are questioning whether NAFTA and World Trade Organization rules will apply to state and city governments receiving stimulus money for local infrastructure projects. They also cite uncertainty over what rules of origin apply to projects covered under the stimulus bill. A number of components in Canadian products come from countries such as China and India, which are effectively excluded by the \"Buy American\" provision. \"This is no merely technical question; different parts of many products come from different places, and intricately entwined supply chains could be seriously disturbed if they have to be disentangled, to the detriment of both the U.S. and Canada,\" the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper editorialized Tuesday. \"Such questions cannot wait for judgments in trade litigation,\" the Globe and Mail argued. \"Canadian governments and businesses ... have to be ready for a long series of many minor battles.\" Obama stumbled over Canadian trade issues during last year's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Shortly before the Ohio primary in March, he was extremely critical of NAFTA. Many Rust Belt voters believe the accord has cost countless jobs by accelerating the erosion of the U.S. industrial base. During a debate with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama agreed that the United States should abandon the treaty if it could not be renegotiated. It was later revealed that one of Obama's economic advisers, Austan Goolsbee, had met with officials at Canada's Chicago, Illinois, consulate and allegedly assured them that Obama's trade rhetoric was more a function of politics than any deeply held policy position.","highlights":"President Obama leaves for Canada on Thursday; to meet with Canadian PM Harper .\nOne big issue: the \"Buy American\" provision in stimulus plan .\nBill now says that provision will not trump existing trade agreements like NAFTA .\nStill, Canadian officials worry about what they see as new U.S. protectionist tilt .","id":"949bd4791ae1d4c721a62ad3408cd222046e9552"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A female suicide bomber Friday detonated in a crowd of mostly women and children on their way to a religious festival, killing at least 38 people and wounding 50 others, an Interior Ministry official said. Devout Shia Muslims walk in Baghdad towards the holy city of Karbala. The attack took place around noon between the towns of Iskandariya and Mussayib, south of the capital, Baghdad, as hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims are making their way to Karbala for Arbaeen, one of the holiest Shiite events. Ten of those injured are in critical condition. The suicide attack comes on the heels of other bombings targeting Shiite pilgrims earlier in the week and are signs that the sectarian conflicts that devastated Iraq in recent years are not over. An explosion in Karbala on Thursday killed at least five Shiite pilgrims and wounded 50 near a shrine. On Wednesday, a double car bombing struck a Baghdad bus station where Shiite pilgrims gathered for the holy day. Sixteen people were killed and 43 were wounded. Also, two pilgrims were killed and 16 were wounded Wednesday in roadside bombings in Baghdad. The holy day commemorates the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and one of the most revered Shiite figures. He died in battle in the seventh century and is buried in Karbala. In recent years, insurgents have targeted Shiite pilgrims, who usually walk to Karbala from across Iraq as a demonstration of piety and as part of tradition. The city is about 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Baghdad. Last year, a flurry of attacks on pilgrims killed at least 48 people. In 2007, more than 180 pilgrims were killed in a series of attacks, most from suicide bombings in Babil province, through which the pilgrims pass. More than 30,000 Iraqi Security Forces troops have been deployed in and around Karbala this year to protect the anticipated millions of pilgrims heading there for Monday's commemoration, according to Karbala's military commander, Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi. CNN's Yousil Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Female suicide bomber detonates in a crowd on way to a religious festival .\nIn recent years, insurgents have targeted Iraqi Shiite pilgrims walking to Karbala .\n2 children killed in separate incident when unexploded mortar round exploded .","id":"f8a510f0c38ceb7bb716f785c71007801b88bd9e"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The international group Human Rights Watch is accusing Israel of firing weapons containing white phosphorus into Gaza. The group demands that the alleged practice cease. Israel is declining to say whether bursts like this over Gaza involve white phosphorus. The group's researchers in Israel \"observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over what appeared to be the Gaza City\/Jabaliya area\" on Friday and Saturday, the organization said on its Web site. \"Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an 'obscurant' [a chemical used to hide military operations], a permissible use in principle\" under the laws of war, the HRW posting said. \"However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire,\" the posting said. \"The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza's high population density, among the highest in the world.\" HRW said the use of white phosphorus in Gaza would violate \"the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life.\" Last week, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN: \"I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used.\" Now, however, Israeli officials have a different response to questions about the possible use of phosphorus: \"Any munitions that Israel is using are in accordance with international law. Israel does not specify the types of munitions or the types of operations it is conducting.\" Still, a doctor familiar with the material said it is not possible to tell, based on pictures of burns, whether white phosphorus was responsible. \"Dead tissue pretty much looks the same,\" said Dr. Peter Grossman, president of the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks, California. The chemical \"can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin,\" said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. Since January 3, when Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, news reports have circulated about the possible use of white phosphorus by the IDF. HRW's assertion was supported by munitions experts and some Palestinian doctors, including Nafiz Abu Sha'aban, who said the burns it caused were unlike anything he has seen in 27 years of practice. Watch footage of burn patients in Gaza . Though most severely burned patients have been sent to Egypt, the ongoing fighting has made it impossible to evacuate all of them, including one man with deep burns over 47 percent of his body, the doctor said. White phosphorus is known to burn flesh down to the bone. It's intended to provide illumination or to create a smokescreen in battle. Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when \"not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons.\" There is no prohibition per se against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted. For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated. A house north of Gaza City was hit Sunday by something that observers contend may have been white phosphorus. \"It's been burning since one o'clock in the morning,\" Munir Hammada told CNN 11 hours later. \"If you move it with your feet, it reignites. You can't put it out with water, only sand.\" Those characteristics match the properties of white phosphorus, which ignites on contact with air.","highlights":"Researchers in Israel saw bursts of white phosphorus over Gaza, group says .\nWhite phosphorus can burn people, set structures on fire .\nProtocol allows use when \"not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons\"\nGroup: Use in densely populated Gaza would violate international humanitarian law .","id":"6323691bf1a7e28d8e710a7b1b64e6282c36f38d"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with public health officials in 42 states to determine the cause of an outbreak of a particular type of salmonella called Typhimurium. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. According to CDC sources, at least 388 people have been infected with this strain since September 3, but most cases occurred between October 1 and December 31, the disease agency said. About 18 percent of cases were hospitalized as a result of their illness, and patients have ranged from two months to 98 years of age. California is reporting the highest case count with 55, followed by Ohio with 53 cases, Massachusetts with 39, Minnesota with 30 and Michigan with 20. The other 37 states are each reporting anywhere from one to 19 cases. The eight states that have not reported any cases connected to the outbreak are Montana, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alaska and Hawaii. King Nut peanut butter was identified as the source of an outbreak that may have contributed to one death in Minnesota, state public health officials said Friday in a news release. CNN was unable to reach the company for comment. CDC has not identified what food or foods might be causing this outbreak. CDC officials and state public health workers are conducting case control studies, which means they're tracking down people who have been infected as early as September to determine what they may have consumed, to find a common cause. Learn more about salmonella \u00bb . The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are in contact with the CDC, but without a determination of the cause of the outbreak, their involvement is limited. Various strains of salmonella have been linked to previous outbreaks, caused by contaminated eggs, meat, poultry, vegetables, pet food and even peanut butter. Contaminated tomatoes were blamed for a salmonella Typhimurium outbreak in fall 2006, which sickened at least 183 people in 21 states. Most of the victims had diarrhea and fever for about a week. Nobody died in that outbreak. Salmonella infections are caused by bacteria and if necessary can be treated with antibiotics, although some strains have become resistant to these drugs, according to the CDC Web site. Most people infected will develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps within a few days of infection, and their illness can last up to a week. Most recover without any treatment, but some may suffer dehydration and in severe cases require hospitalization. The youngest and oldest patients and chronically ill people with compromised immune systems are at highest risk for severe complications, according to the National Institutes of Health. Until a cause of the outbreak is confirmed, the CDC is recommending the following: . Consumers should thoroughly cook meats, poultry and eggs. They should also avoid consuming raw or unpasteurized milk and other dairy products. Produce should be thoroughly washed as well. Avoid cross-contamination of uncooked meats and produce to prevent spreading any potential salmonella. Frequent washing of hands during food preparation can also help reduce cross-contamination.","highlights":"At least 388 people infected with strain of salmonella since September 3 .\nType of salmonella called Typhimurium hospitalized approximately 69 people .\nCDC has not identified what food or foods might be causing this outbreak .\nConsumers urged to thoroughly cook meat, poultry and eggs, wash produce .","id":"6b6f6c4967ccacc3cf40c09335dc7fdfc5879b6d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Karma caught up with former Culture Club singer Boy George on Friday when a court sentenced the star to 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort, a court spokeswoman said. George O'Dowd, also known as Boy George, arrives at Snaresbrook Crown Court, in east London. Full details of the sentence weren't immediately clear. A jury unanimously found the pop star and DJ, whose real name is George O'Dowd, guilty of the charge last month after a seven-day trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in northeast London. The jury determined O'Dowd, 47, had chained male escort Audun Carlsen to a wall at his apartment in London's hip Shoreditch neighborhood. Carlsen had also said the singer beat him with a metal chain. Watch as Boy George arrives at court \u00bb . O'Dowd, who maintained his innocence, came to court Friday sporting a multicolored tattoo on his bald head, none of his trademark makeup, and a black winter coat. The star quit Culture Club in 1987 after a string of hits with the group, including \"Karma Chameleon,\" \"Do you really want to hurt me?\" and \"Church of the Poison Mind.\" He has since become a DJ and revived his singing career, releasing a single last year called \"Yes we can,\" inspired by Barack Obama and featuring clips of the U.S. president-elect. O'Dowd is no stranger to the law. In August 2006, he spent five days cleaning the streets of Manhattan as part of a community service sentence for falsely reporting a break-in at his New York City home. He has also publicly battled drug addiction.","highlights":"Former Culture Club singer jailed for falsely imprisoning a male escort .\nThe victim, Audun Carlsen, claimed he was also beaten with a chain .\nBoy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, has battled drug addiction .\nHe spent 5 days cleaning the streets of Manhattan in 2006 on community order .","id":"47026028c10cf39032ec4ab7b89ea78b679b80af"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI (CNN) -- India's Tata Motors Monday announced it would begin delivery of the Nano, billed as the world's \"cheapest car\", in July. Tata Motors expects to begin delivery of the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, in July. The four-door Nano is currently being built in \"limited numbers\" at a company plant in the north Indian hill state of Uttrakhand. Tata Motors, however, aims to make 350,000 Nanos a year from 2010 at another unit elsewhere in the country, a company statement said. \"It is to the credit of the team at Tata Motors that a car once thought impossible by the world is now a reality. I hope it will provide safe, affordable, four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car. We are delighted in presenting the Tata Nano to India and the world,\" company chief Ratan Tata told a news conference in Mumbai to announce the \"commercial launch\" of the $2,000 car. Watch more on the Nano \u00bb . Tata Motors said the Nano would initially be available through bookings or reservations filed on a request form priced around $6, or Rs 300. Tata will accept the bookings from April 9 to April 25. Within 60 days of the closure of bookings, Tata Motors will process and announce the allotment of 100,000 cars in the first phase of deliveries, through a computerized random selection procedure, it added. \"Deliveries will commence from July 2009,\" said the company statement.","highlights":"Tata Motors to begin delivery of the Nano in July .\nTata aims to make 350,000 Nanos a year from 2010 .\nCar is billed as the world's cheapest, costing $2,000 .","id":"5cdfc8ebd4eb5479bf95dac420379f8256a4528b"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The death toll from an outbreak of hepatitis B in India's western Gujarat state reached 38 on Sunday as authorities prepared to begin a vaccination drive against the disease. Hepatitis-B patient Mahir Husain, center, is comforted at a hospital in Ahmedabad. Malayappan Thennarasa, the top administrator of the affected Sabarkantha district, told CNN the toll had climbed to 38 and that shots would be administered free of cost starting Monday. Health officials have recorded 125 cases of the infection in two weeks. Authorities were carrying out raids at medical stores for bogus drugs and recycled syringes. Police have so far arrested five medical practitioners. One of them was charged Sunday with attempted murder. The doctor is accused of reusing syringes, Thennarasa said. Hepatitis B is a contagious liver disease resulting from infection with the hepatitis B virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It usually spreads through blood, semen, or other bodily fluids, often through sexual contact or sharing needles or syringes with an infected person. The disease can range from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, chronic illness resulting in long-term health problems or death, the CDC said.","highlights":"An outbreak of contagious liver disease hepatitis B kills 38 people in India .\nThe victims died in the state of Gujarat in western India in the past two weeks .\nOfficials have recorded 125 cases of the infection .\nDoctor is facing attempted murder charge .","id":"53b59f5b3d3c79622e1f0543358e4eb2c0768f8a"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Authorities were carrying out raids at medical stores in India's western Gujarat state for bogus drugs and recycled syringes after a hepatitis B outbreak left 32 people dead, officials said Saturday. Hepatitis-B patient Mahir Husain, center, is comforted at The Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad, Wednesday. Five medical practitioners were also arrested for violations, said Malayappan Thennarasan, the top administrator of the state's Sabarkantha district. One of those arrested is being held for allegedly reusing injection syringes, Thennarasan said. Health authorities have recorded 111 cases of hepatitis B infection in the district over the past two weeks, he added. \"Of them, 32 have died,\" he said. Health officials have launched an awareness campaign in the district, Thennarasan said this week. Hepatitis B is a contagious liver disease resulting from infection with the hepatitis B virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It usually spreads through blood, semen, or other bodily fluids, often through sexual contact or sharing needles or syringes with an infected person, the CDC says. The disease can range from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, chronic illness resulting in long-term health problems or death, according to the CDC.","highlights":"An outbreak of contagious liver disease hepatitis B kills 32 people in India .\nThe victims died in the state of Gujarat in western India in the past two weeks .\nOfficials record 111 cases of the disease in the Sabarkantha district .","id":"bd1237a535d4d078d3aea19c58fdbf0602ce5f0f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson carded a solid 69 in the opening round of the WGC-CA Championship but it was his highly unusual recovery shot on the 12th on the Blue Monster course at Doral which raised more than a few eyebrows. Stenson did not leave much to the imagination with his Doral antics. Stenson stripped down to the bare essentials -- a pair of white boxer shorts -- before wading into the mud to hack out his ball after an wayward tee shot. The watching galleries could hardly believe their eyes as the tall Swede peeled off his clothes. \"Shirt, trousers, socks, shoes, hat, the lot was off,\" he told the Press Association. \"Because of the mud I couldn't really afford to play in any of my clothes as they would have been a real mess down the last six or so holes so I had no option,\" Stenson explained. After getting the ball back on to the fairway, Stenson eventually made a one-over par bogey on the hole when he could have dropped at least two shots by taking a drop. \"If you are saving a shot, that has to be worth taking your shirt and trousers,\" he added. What do you think of Stenson's cheeky recovery shot ? The incident proved the main talking point on the day that Tiger Woods made his return to strokeplay golf and 32-year-old Stenson jokingly said it might offer a new avenue for sponsorships. \"Absolutely, you never know, after this I might have a new endorsement with PlayGirl or something like that.\" European Ryder Cup star Stenson is playing for the $1.4 million first prize in the tournament in Florida which has an elite 81-strong field. His recovery shot evoked memories of the last-hole drama at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie when tournament leader Jean Van de Velde waded into the Barry Burn after taking off his shoes and socks. The Frenchman at least spared the blushes of the crowds by keeping on his clothes but he made a hash of hole and lost his chance of winning the famous major.","highlights":"Henrik Stenson creates a stir with 'striptease' at top tournament in Florida .\nSwedish star strips down to the bare essentials to play his ball out of the mud .\nTactic works as he saves at least a shot and cards a three-under 69 .","id":"0e131caaf7f76f28f28041b6b94b3df822122f1e"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida boy remains in stable condition just days after he found his parents' long-forgotten handgun in a closet and accidentally shot himself in the head. Police are deciding whether or not to charge parents after their son found a forgotten gun and shot himself. Sheriff's detectives in Pinellas County, Florida, near St. Petersburg, say the boy found the .25-caliber European semi-automatic handgun in a box in a closet in their home. \"They are dealing with this very tragic situation, and at this point, no charges have been filed,\" said Cecilia Barreda of the Pinellas County sheriff's office. His stepfather found Jacob Larson, 12, with a gunshot wound to the head Friday. The stepfather called 911. Police say the shooting took place between 7:40 a.m., when his mother, Tracy Newman, leaves for work, and about 11 a.m., when his stepfather, Joseph Newton, returns home. The boy normally goes to school about 8:30 a.m. \"A few years ago, they moved, and [the gun] was stored in the closet. The mother never checked it, never fired it,\" Barreda said. \"They told detectives that they forgot they had stored it in a box inside a closet. Both her and her husband forgot about it,\" she said. Newman told detectives that she received the gun six years ago from a former employer. Police say that both she and her husband are cooperating in the investigation into the incident. The sheriff's office says it's unlikely that they will face charges. Florida law prohibits a person from leaving a loaded firearm where a minor might have access to it. Prosecutors do have some discretion, and depending on what happens with the gun, charges ranging from a misdemeanor to a felony can be filed in the event of death or serious injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that 17 states have child firearm access protection and safe-storage laws. Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett says that although laws are needed, an accident with a firearm can be a greater penalty than any judge could ever hand down. \"Sometimes, the injury of a child is more severe from a punishment standpoint than any kind of criminal charge,\" he said. The CDC says one child, on average, every three days died in accidental incidents in the United States from 2000 to 2005, the last year data are available. Bartlett said his office has filed charges in previous cases when there was culpable negligence on the part of a gun owner. But, he says, there are cases where accidents happen, not crimes. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says that 34 percent of children in the United States live in homes with at least one firearm, so people have to be aware. \"It's a horrible thing, and those parents will blame themselves from here out, and you have to look at things real close to see if it warrants any enforcement from our end,\" Bartlett said.","highlights":"Boy, 12, found .25-caliber gun in box in closet .\nPolice have not charged anyone in relation to incident .\nFlorida law prohibits leaving a loaded firearm where minor can access it .\nProsecutor: \"Sometimes, the injury of a child is more severe\" punishment .","id":"5bf1fd0835ce999e30eab0be1ed20c7f8ca5dd44"} -{"article":"INDIO, California (CNN) -- Parents danced with their young children to the infectious hip-hop beat of Lupe Fiasco on the main stage. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O is immersed in the music at Coachella. Twentysomethings wearing feathers in their hair jumped up and down to Somali emcee K'naan in the Gobi tent. In the portable toilets, an impromptu discussion broke out about the \"awesomeness\" of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O. The mercury may have hovered close to 100 degrees, and somewhere outside the desert oasis of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival there was a global recession, but you'd never know it from the carefree crowd on Day 3 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Although exact figures have yet to be released, about 50,000 revelers turned out for the final day of the 2009 festival for an eclectic lineup that included former Jam front man Paul Weller, rap pioneers Public Enemy, a reunion of Irish indie darlings My Bloody Valentine and a nearly three-hour set from The Cure. Promoters say the turnout exceeded expectations, and this year's attendance figure might be the third largest in the festival's 10-year history. The three-day ticket price may have been steep -- roughly $300, including service charges -- but when divided among the 131 acts on the bill, that breaks down to less than $2.50 per act. This was also the first year concert promoter Goldenvoice offered layaway, which is how 18 percent chose to pay. The strong showing is good news for Bonnaroo, All Points West, Lollapalooza and other festivals taking place this spring and summer. Coachella was also moved up one weekend, which allowed for more kids on spring break to attend. Although Coachella is one of several music festivals in the United States, it still carries a certain cachet that's hard to match. Perhaps it's the scenery -- listening to music on a grassy polo field surrounded by swaying palm trees and craggy desert mountains. Or maybe it's the thrill of discovering new artists and rediscovering old ones standing shoulder-to-shoulder with friends, strangers and the random Hollywood celebrity. Or maybe it's the wacky moments that seem to happen only under the blistering desert sun. Where else could you get Morrissey -- a well-known vegetarian -- complaining in the middle of his Friday set that the smell of burning animals was making him sick, and that he only hoped it was human? The Moz was referring to meat grilling in a food booth across the polo field. And when troubled British neo-soul singer Amy Winehouse dropped out of her Saturday performance because she couldn't get a visa, M.I.A. stepped into her slot on the main stage -- but she apparently wasn't happy about the upgrade. Despite a massive, adoring crowd and a highly charged set, the new mom exclaimed, \"This is the main stage? Next time, I'm back in a tent! I prefer the sweat!\" This was after her tongue-in-cheek nod to Winehouse, where she sang, \"They tried to make me do the Oscars, I said, 'No, no, no.' \" Then, there were the memorable music moments. Friday headliner Sir Paul McCartney didn't end his playful, hit-filled set until about 54 minutes past the midnight curfew -- for a potential fine of $54,000. (According to Benjamin Guitron, media relations officer for the Indio Police Department, the promoter agrees to pay $1,000 for every minute past 12 a.m.) On Saturday, Seattle, Washington, indie pop band Fleet Foxes drew an overflowing crowd to the Outdoor Theatre, charming the audience with its delicate, baroque harmonies. Sunday headliners The Cure played 31 songs from the group's vast catalog -- concentrating heavily on early material, and for the most part, staying away from the biggest radio hits. They, too, played well past curfew -- continuing with their third encore even after the sound from the main PA system was cut off. My Bloody Valentine -- whose four members reunited last year after a decade apart -- was also a crowd pleaser, although an interlude where they played a single chord at maximum decibels for a mind-numbing 15 minutes left fans scratching their heads. Perry Farrell is the only artist who's performed at all 10 Coachella festivals -- in Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Satellite Party, as his alter ego DJ Peretz and in other incarnations. This year, he dueted with Thievery Corporation on the main stage, then headed over to the dance tent, where he joined his wife, Etty, for an electronic set. \"I would probably silently be very depressed if they wouldn't invite me, to tell you the truth. My mental health depends on them,\" he said with a laugh. Despite a time of belt-tightening, festivalgoers are finding a way to let it all hang out. According to The Desert Sun, the local newspaper, even two former first daughters couldn't resist the draw of the desert. It said Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager dropped into Coachella on Saturday -- complete with Secret Service. Guitron couldn't confirm the report, but he did say, \"I wouldn't be surprised if they did show up. Dignitaries just kind of show up like everybody else.\"","highlights":"Coachella music festival wraps up Sunday .\nIntriguing moments include vegetarian Morrissey complaining about grilling .\nBoth Paul McCartney and The Cure run past curfew; Cure is cut off .","id":"e26934b680228bae1ca449f8dcfcc0d022538925"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Antiguan and Barbudan regulators Friday took control of U.S.financier Robert Allen Stanford's financial institutions on the twin-island nation, a day after federal agents served the Texas businessman with papers accusing him of running an investment fraud scheme. Customers queue outside the Stanford Group-owned Bank of Antigua in St. John's. The Financial Services Regulatory Commission of Antigua and Barbuda appointed receivers to manage Stanford International Bank Ltd. and Stanford Trust Company Ltd., the commission said in a statement. The receivers, Nigel Hamilton-Smith and Peter Wastell of Britain-based Vantis Business Recovery Services, are in Antigua with other recovery specialists to take control of the entities, the commission said. On Thursday, the FBI announced federal agents found Stanford in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and served him with papers accusing him and three of his companies of orchestrating a $9.2 billion investment fraud scheme. He has no criminal charges against him, and he was not taken into custody, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said. The FBI won't talk about a criminal investigation of Stanford's activities, but federal law enforcement officials familiar with the case leave no doubt that federal agents are investigating his financial dealings. But multiple officials indicated criminal charges are not imminent and would not discuss potential charges. Stanford has arranged to give his passport to one of his attorneys, who will offer it to federal authorities. CNN's efforts to reach Stanford or company representatives were unsuccessful. Watch more on the case \u00bb . In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Dallas, Texas, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stanford International Bank of using a network of financial advisers to sell about $8 billion of \"certificates of deposit\" to investors. The bank boasted it had a unique investment strategy that had allowed it to reap double-digit returns on its investments for the previous 15 years, the SEC said. The civil complaint alleged an additional scheme relating to $1.2 billion in sales. The Antigua-based bank claims its network has $51 billion in deposits and assets under management or advisement, with more than 70,000 clients in 140 countries. The allegations against Stanford and his companies have sparked runs on Stanford banks in Antigua and in Venezuela, where the government took over the local subsidiary after it recorded \"extraordinary\" withdrawals Tuesday and Wednesday, said Edgar Hernandez Behrens, Venezuela's superintendent of banks. The SEC complaint also named James Davis, SIB's chief financial officer; Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group; and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management. Meanwhile, Colombia's stock market and bank watchdog said Friday Colombians who invested in the Bogota stock market through Stanford's Colombian brokerage arm, Stanford Bolsa y Banca SA, run no risk of losing their funds. A Financial Services Superintendency spokeswoman told CNN that Stanford Bolsa y Banca managed three Bogota mutual funds worth a total of about $27 million (70 billion Colombian pesos) at current stock and currency market rates, together with individual client portfolios of around $98 million (250 billion Colombian pesos). She said extraordinary shareholder meetings had been called to decide whether the three mutual funds would be transferred to the management of another brokerage or would be liquidated. Individual clients have begun the process of transferring management of their portfolios to other brokerages, the Financial Services Superintendency spokeswoman said. Colombians were never able to deposit funds directly in Colombia with Stanford's international banking arm. CNN repeatedly tried calling the manager of Stanford Bolsa y Banca, but he declined to answer calls. In London, the England and Wales Cricket Board said it has terminated all contractual links with Stanford.","highlights":"Antigua and Barbuda regulators seize Stanford Group banks on islands .\nFinancier Allen Stanford accused of $9.2B investment, sales fraud .\nVenezuela has also seized local bank owned by Stanford Group .\nNo criminal charges are filed against Stanford .","id":"b40f348309302c22847f2bb15add2ec8e2b177a3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The pirate suspect arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama was all smiles on arriving in New York City late Monday, escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers. The unidentified pirate suspect arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama arrived in the U.S. late Monday. None of the officers would confirm his identity, but his arrival for trial in the United States had been widely expected. The suspect arrived at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building in Manhattan, which is linked to a federal detention facility where he was expected to be held pending an appearance in federal court. The timing of that appearance was not immediately available. He was walked through the rain, surrounded by media, as well as officers from federal and New York City law enforcement agencies. The suspect wore a dark jumpsuit and handcuffs, and what appeared to be a bandage on his left hand. Members of the media urged him to comment, but it was not clear whether he understood. He smiled broadly and laughed. He had been handed over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, defense officials said. The suspect, known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant,\" was brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship that was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of the failed hijacking on April 8 that turned into a hostage ordeal 350 miles off Somalia. Three pirates who were holding the Maersk Alabama's captain in the ship's lifeboat were killed by Navy SEALs four days later. The survivor had surrendered and was aboard the Bainbridge when the captain, Richard Phillips, was rescued, officials have said. From the Bainbridge, he was transferred to the USS Boxer for medical treatment. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . The surviving pirate was wounded when crew members of the Maersk Alabama took him hostage in the early hours of the pirate attack on the cargo ship, according to the military. The crew members had hoped to exchange him for their captain, but the pirates did not release Phillips when the crew returned their captive. \"I'm mad because, you know, I could have been dead right now,\" Ken Quinn, the Maersk Alabama's navigation officer, told CNN Radio on Monday. \"But at the same time he's just a little skinny guy, you know, from Somalia where they're all starving and stuff.\" Quinn said he wasn't angry at the single alleged pirate, noting that piracy in the region is fueled by the urge to survive hardship and poverty. He said the suspect told him that he wanted to go the United States, and asked whether Quinn could help him get there. \"I said, 'Yeah, you'll probably going to go anyway. I don't think you're going to need my help,'\" Quinn said. \"If he goes to jail here, it will be a whole lot better than living in Somalia.\" CNN's Mike Mount, Emily Anderson, Jennifer Rizzo and Steve Kastenbaum contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged pirate known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant\"\nAlleged pirate brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship .\nHanded over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, officials said .\nDiehl was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of a failed hijacking .","id":"80065edd073fd46cc80461c48db4ceed0293286e"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At Beijing's East Train Station, some travelers are literally carrying their lives on their back. Passengers crowd a railway platform in Beijing as New Year holiday migrations get underway. \"I don't know if I'm going to come back,\" said one migrant worker on his way to his home province. \"I might just end up working on the farm.\" He was weighed down by a giant pack filled with everything he could call his own. Millions of migrant workers are leaving the cities, returning to their homes in the vast Chinese countryside, for the Chinese New Year holidays. But not all will be celebrating. Many do not have jobs to come back to. They flocked to the urban areas during boom times to earn a better living. Some have not seen their families for years -- the trip home is too expensive. But they have sent money home faithfully every month. When they finally can go home, the journey is long. Watch passengers haul huge bags on journey home \u00bb . \"I will be standing on the train for 24 hours,\" said one man on his way to Zhejiang province on the country's eastern seaboard. Some will travel much farther. The migrant workers are among 188 million people heading home for the holidays, also known in China as Spring Festival. But the actual numbers might be much higher. Travel is already up significantly compared to last year, when brutal snowstorms stranded passengers for days. Watch this year's snowstorms grip part of China \u00bb . This year, more people seem to be going home than usual because of the global economic crisis. There are so many passengers trying to get from one place to another that tickets are hard to come by. Planes, trains and buses are fully loaded to destinations across the country. The train is the most popular option, cheaper than a plane and faster than a bus. But tickets are selling out fast. Some people have waited in line for hours, even days to get a ticket. \"I started standing in line three days ago,\" said one man. \"There's no way to buy the ticket.\" Others stood at the entrance to Beijing's East Station with signs. \"Need two tickets to Weihan\" or \"Want to go to Inner Mongolia.\" Some blame the ticket shortage on scalpers who are hoarding tickets, then re-selling them for a profit. One man said he wanted 100 yuan or $15 more per fare and indicated he had tickets to multiple destinations. The Chinese government has cracked down on scalpers, arresting more than 4,000. But many Chinese think scalpers are more of a solution, than a problem. One woman told us she bought a ticket from a scalper because there was no other way. All the tickets to her hometown were sold out days in advance. The desperate hunt for tickets is a sign this could be China's most massive mass migration ever. And with the Chinese economy slowing down so much, so fast, this may be the last time some people are making the trip.","highlights":"Downturn could make this year's Chinese new year migration biggest ever .\nMany will spend several days traveling to see family and friends .\nWith rail tickets scarce, scalpers are able to charge inflated prices .","id":"951f47abc7c66a5c97d0c2f135c53ec76677b475"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Somali suspect in the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama has been charged with piracy, a count that carries a minimum life sentence. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse arrives in the United States on Monday. He was charged with piracy Tuesday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse also has been charged with conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking and two firearm charges, according to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of New York. Muse \"conducted himself as the leader\" of the pirates who allegedly took over the Maersk Alabama, according to the criminal complaint. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Muse could be tried as an adult. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck had ordered the media and public out of the courtroom earlier while he evaluated Muse's age. Muse's father in Somalia told defense attorneys the young man was born on November 20, 1993 -- making him 15, the defense attorneys said. However, the prosecution argued otherwise, saying Muse made statements that suggest he is older. Before Peck closed the courtroom, Muse wiped his hand over his face at one point, and it appeared he was crying. He had worn a broad smile late Monday when he arrived in New York escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers. See timeline of events that led to piracy case \u00bb . Muse was arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship that pirates attacked on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . Peck read the young man his rights and said attorneys had been appointed to represent him because the suspect did not have the resources to hire representation himself. Muse said through an interpreter that he understood and said, \"I don't have any money.\" Pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship, on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. According to the criminal complaint, two of the 20 crew members -- all Americans -- saw lights heading toward the Maersk Alabama around 4:30 a.m. on April 8, while the ship was in the Indian Ocean. After a \"brief time,\" the lights disappeared, the complaint said, but about two hours later, the same crew members saw a small boat approaching and later heard \"what sounded like\" gunshots, the complaint said. Crew Member 1 then heard the ship's captain -- later identified as Capt. Richard Phillips -- on the radio saying that two pirates were on the ship's bridge. A third crew member, Crew Member 3, also heard the radio message and began shutting down the ship's power, the complaint said. The complaint said Muse, who was carrying a gun, was the first alleged pirate on the ship, and said the attackers used a portable ladder to climb on board. According to the complaint, Muse had fired his gun at Phillips, the captain said, and then took $30,000 from the ship's safe after he forced Phillips to open it. Watch Muse being hauled into court \u00bb . Muse demanded that the Maersk Alabama be stopped and that the crew give him the number of the ship's owner, the complaint said. The captain then ordered the crew to the bridge after Muse ordered him to do so, the complaint said, citing Crew Member 2. Muse then began canvassing the dark ship with Crew Member 2 as a guide, the complaint said. While they were going through the ship, Crew Member 3, who had not come to the bridge, tackled Muse to the ground, the complaint said. Crew Member 2 helped subdue Muse, and the two tied the young man's hands with wire and took him to the ship's safe room, where several crew members were hiding. After several hours, the remaining pirates said they would leave the ship if Muse was returned to them, and if a lifeboat was given to them. Phillips boarded the lifeboat with them and the ship's crew freed Muse, who then boarded the lifeboat, according to the criminal complaint. The boat floated a short distance from the Maersk, even as the Navy's USS Bainbridge arrived the next day. Over the next three days, officers on the Bainbridge communicated with the pirates by radio. \"In those communications, the pirates threatened to kill the captain if they were not provided with safe passage away from the scene,\" the complaint said. At one point, Phillips tried to escape and the pirates shot at him, the complaint said. On April 12, Muse boarded the USS Bainbridge and demanded safe passage for himself and the other pirates in exchange for Phillips' release. Muse also received medical treatment while he was on the warship, the complaint said. While Muse was away from the lifeboat, Navy SEALs shot and killed the three remaining pirates. The U.S. Navy recovered two loaded AK-47 assault rifles; two gunstraps, each containing three AK-47 magazines; one handgun magazine; and multiple cell phones and handheld radios from the lifeboat, according to the complaint. CNN's Deb Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Criminal complaint says pirate suspect \"conducted himself as the leader\"\nJudge rules piracy suspect will be tried as an adult .\nAbduwali Abdukhadir Muse also faces conspiracy charges .\nSuspect's father says he's 15; prosecution says boy indicated he's older .","id":"154a3e467a4f2dafb689f924467a890f10d5b760"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The pirate suspect arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama was all smiles on arriving in New York City late Monday, escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers. The unidentified pirate suspect arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama arrived in the U.S. late Monday. None of the officers would confirm his identity, but his arrival for trial in the United States had been widely expected. The suspect arrived at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building in Manhattan, which is linked to a federal detention facility where he was expected to be held pending an appearance in federal court. The timing of that appearance was not immediately available. He was walked through the rain, surrounded by media, as well as officers from federal and New York City law enforcement agencies. The suspect wore a dark jumpsuit and handcuffs, and what appeared to be a bandage on his left hand. Members of the media urged him to comment, but it was not clear whether he understood. He smiled broadly and laughed. He had been handed over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, defense officials said. The suspect, known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant,\" was brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship that was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of the failed hijacking on April 8 that turned into a hostage ordeal 350 miles off Somalia. Three pirates who were holding the Maersk Alabama's captain in the ship's lifeboat were killed by Navy SEALs four days later. The survivor had surrendered and was aboard the Bainbridge when the captain, Richard Phillips, was rescued, officials have said. From the Bainbridge, he was transferred to the USS Boxer for medical treatment. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . The surviving pirate was wounded when crew members of the Maersk Alabama took him hostage in the early hours of the pirate attack on the cargo ship, according to the military. The crew members had hoped to exchange him for their captain, but the pirates did not release Phillips when the crew returned their captive. \"I'm mad because, you know, I could have been dead right now,\" Ken Quinn, the Maersk Alabama's navigation officer, told CNN Radio on Monday. \"But at the same time he's just a little skinny guy, you know, from Somalia where they're all starving and stuff.\" Quinn said he wasn't angry at the single alleged pirate, noting that piracy in the region is fueled by the urge to survive hardship and poverty. He said the suspect told him that he wanted to go the United States, and asked whether Quinn could help him get there. \"I said, 'Yeah, you'll probably going to go anyway. I don't think you're going to need my help,'\" Quinn said. \"If he goes to jail here, it will be a whole lot better than living in Somalia.\" CNN's Mike Mount, Emily Anderson, Jennifer Rizzo and Steve Kastenbaum contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged pirate known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant\"\nAlleged pirate brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship .\nHanded over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, officials said .\nDiehl was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of a failed hijacking .","id":"5261f779da9fda188ebd793ff86bc37fec4aaf59"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's child-rights watchdog has sought a report from police investigating allegations by a tabloid that the father of a \"Slumdog Millionaire\" child star tried to sell her to an undercover reporter, the watchdog's leader told CNN. Rubina Ali has backed her father over newspaper allegations he offered her to an undercover reporter. \"We have sought a report from them and will take a decision after seeing it,\" said Shantha Sinha, who heads the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Meanwhile, authorities in Mumbai have recorded the statements of Rafiq Qureshi; his \"Slumdog\" daughter, Rubina Ali; and his former wife, Khurshida Begum, senior police inspector Prakash Salunke told CNN. Qureshi has denied allegations made in Britain's News of the World that he tried to sell 9-year-old Rubina for \u00a3200,000 ($290,000), Salunke said. In her statement, the child-actor favored her father, according to the police. Qureshi's former wife, whom he divorced several years ago, endorsed the allegations leveled against him by the British newspaper. Police are investigating, Salunke said. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" won eight Oscars this year, including best picture. Director Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches movie tells the story of a tea-boy at a Mumbai call center who earns a spot in the Indian version of the quiz show \"Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?\" He raises the suspicion of the show's host when, despite the lack of a formal education, he begins to answer the increasingly difficult questions with ease. The movie is set largely among the poverty-stricken districts of Mumbai, which is home to Rubina and other \"Slumdog\" child stars in real life.","highlights":"Indian child-rights watchdog requests police report on alleged offer to sell child star .\nFather of \"Slumdog's\" Rubina Ali, 9, alleged to have offered her to undercover reporter .\nFather has denied allegations in UK newspaper; Indian police are investigating .\n\"Slumdog Millionaire\" used real children from poor neighborhoods of Mumbai .","id":"be9b5dfb6df750f01b6e4288ef2d2854ce96c437"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran said Saturday that Morocco's decision to cut diplomatic ties between the two countries harms Muslim unity, state media reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says soldiarity in Islamic world needed to support Palestinians. \"The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that at the present juncture when the unity and solidarity of Islamic countries is necessary for supporting the Palestinian people, this act of Morocco harms unity of the Muslim world,\" Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a written statement, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported. Morocco decided to cut diplomatic ties with Iran Friday, blaming Tehran's \"inadmissible attitude\" against the African country as a reason for the decision for the move, Moroccan Press Agency said. The move ratchets up a feud between Sunni Morocco and Shiite Iran. On February 25, Morocco recalled its interim charge d'affaires from Tehran for a week of consultations, the statement said. Morocco has demanded that Iran explain \"unacceptable\" language in a statement it issued after Morocco expressed its solidarity with Bahrain, the statement said. Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf archipelago, embodies the Sunni-Shiite divide. With a majority Shiite population and a Sunni ruler, Bahrain has become a point of contention between Morocco and Iran, said Sandra Mackey, a Middle East analyst and author of \"The Iranians.\" Mackey said Bahrain's government has not allowed its Shiite majority into the political and economic power structure, \"so Iran has an interest in egging on this Shia foment in Bahrain -- in order to raise Iran's stature in the Persian Gulf.\" Morocco has ambitions to raise its stature among Arab states, and \"it would make some sense that they would jump on this,\" she said. \"They're far enough away where it's not going to impact on them directly,\" Mackey added. Mackey said other emirates would likely be more cautious about confronting Iran, she said, \"but the Moroccans can do it without posing any serious threat on their doorstep.\" There is potential for conflict within Bahrain, she said. \"The Shia are really pushing against this Sunni government and the Sunni government, I think, is in a fairly significant amount of trouble,\" she said. CNN's Tom Watkins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Friday because of \"inadmissible attitude\"\nThe move ratchets up feud between Sunni Morocco and Shiite Iran .\nRift related to Iran's reaction to Morocco's statement of solidarity with Bahrain .\nSunni-ruled Bahrain has become point of contention between Morocco and Iran .","id":"5732d184299d951ae857d0e36f8752acc5e04651"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The United Nations Sunday launched a special tribunal to prosecute the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A statue of slain former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri stands in Beirut. The tribunal convened at The Hague more than four years after Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005. The bomb, detonated as Hariri's armored motorcade passed through Beirut's fashionable seaside Corniche district, contained hundreds of pounds of explosives. It left buildings shattered and streets littered with the mangled wreckage of vehicles. The blast also killed 22 other people. The Lebanese army was out in force on the streets of Beirut Sunday as people turned out to pay their respects to Hariri, who is buried downtown in the Lebanese capital. The U.N. tribunal will have 11 judges, whose identities are being kept secret for their safety. Four will be Lebanese. The prosecution could take as long as 10 years, sources close to the tribunal said. Four senior Lebanese generals are being held over the bombing, which also killed 22 other people. But many Lebanese -- as well as the United States and U.N. investigators -- believe Syria ordered the assassination. Syria denies it. The tribunal's prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, refused to commit when asked at a news conference Sunday if Syrians would be charged. He said the public would have to wait and see. The U.S. State Department pledged its continued support of Lebanese judicial authorities and the tribunal's operations. The United States has promised to contribute $14 million; a request for an additional $6 million is pending approval from Congress. In a statement issued Sunday, acting State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said Hariri's death \"was an unsuccessful attempt to undermine Lebanon's sovereignty.\" He added: \"The Lebanese people answered his assassination with the Cedar Revolution, leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops and the most democratic Lebanese elections in decades.\" At the time of Hariri's death, neighboring Syria had immense political influence in the country, and had maintained troops in its smaller neighbor since the 1980s, after the fighting between Israel and the PLO in Lebanon. Hariri was admired for spearheading the rebuilding of Beirut after the country's civil war, from 1975 to 1990, and many Lebanese blamed Syria for the killing, citing Hariri's patriotism and strong sense of Lebanese independence. The killing sparked widespread protests that led to the eventual withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the election of an anti-Syrian bloc in parliament. The anti-Syrian movement is known as the March 14 Alliance, named after the day millions of supporters of Hariri took to the streets, and its actions have been dubbed the Cedar Revolution, for the nation's iconic cedar trees. Huge counter-protests also were staged by Lebanese supporters of Syria. Along the way, U.N. investigators tasked to probe the attack found links between Syria's government and Hariri's assassination. The Lebanese hope the tribunal will settle the case, but there are also fears it could further divide the nation and open up older wounds in the country. The special tribunal takes over from the Beirut-based International Independent Investigation Commission, which looked into 20 other attacks and found elements linking some of them to a criminal network behind the Hariri killing, the United Nations said. The trial will take place in a converted gymnasium in a suburb of The Hague. The U.N. says the case is expected to be ready for trial by 2010. --CNN's Cal Perry contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. tribunal for killing of former Lebanon prime minister to convenes .\nTribunal has 11 judges, whose identities are being kept secret for their safety .\nRafik Hariri killed in car bomb in Beirut in February 2005 .\nDeath led to protests and reduction of Syrian influence in Lebanon .","id":"5691704619da40d4207cf10c57fc809cbef52893"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five people were killed in a boating accident near Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday evening, a rescue official said. CNN affiliate WJXT shows the scene of the deadly boating accident near Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday. Twelve people were aboard the boat that crashed into 25-foot tugboat and barge at a dock and boat launch under construction on the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Valley, said Jeremy Robshaw, a spokesman for St. Johns County Fire and Rescue. The remaining seven were hospitalized for serious injuries, he said. The accident happened about 7 p.m. about 20 miles southeast of downtown Jacksonville. Robshaw said rescuers couldn't initially reach the end of the unfinished dock, but laid plywood sheets on the structure to get to crash victims.","highlights":"Rescue official: 12 people were aboard the boat near Jacksonville, Florida .\nBoat crashed into tugboat, barge and dock under construction .\nFive people killed; remaining seven take to hospital with serious injuries .\nRescuers had to use plywood panels to reach the passengers .","id":"420911971a27a10e76c7b6ccaa584f0bb6f1fee0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The sagging economy is taking a bite out of federal school-meal subsidies as more students take advantage of free or low-price breakfasts and lunches, nutritionists say in a report released Thursday. About 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program, a group reports. The School Nutrition Association surveyed more than 130 school nutrition directors from 38 states to produce its report, \"Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises.\" The nonprofit organization said that about 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program in 2008-09 than in the previous school year. That represents an average increase of 2.5 percent from 2007-08, the report says. These numbers hold true despite a slight decline in the number of students enrolled in public schools this school year, according to the study. More than three-quarters of the districts surveyed reported a rise in the number of students eating free meals under the U.S. Department of Agriculture program, the report says. Many of the school district employees who monitor the food programs complain that the federal subsidies fall far short of the rising costs. According to the association, the estimated average cost to prepare a school meal is $2.90, but the federal reimbursement is $2.57. School lunch programs are experiencing a potential loss of at least $4.5 million per school day, based on 30 million school lunches provided, the group says. The good news, according to association President Katie Wilson, is that \"this year, when hunger is more common, more students are able to eat a balanced, nutritious meal at school.\" Meals served under the USDA programs must meet nutrition guidelines based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For lunches, that means no more than 30 percent of calories can come from fat and fewer than 10 percent from saturated fat.","highlights":"Number of students eating subsidized meals rises 2.5 percent, nonprofit says .\nUse of USDA programs rises even as enrollment falls, report notes .\nSchools complain that USDA doesn't cover full cost of meals .\nSchool Nutrition Association surveyed 130 school food directors in 38 states .","id":"bf2922ce26624688cebf3b61e7fce92c73bf0f8b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Julia Carson, a former secretary who rose to become Indianapolis' first African-American congresswoman, has announced she has terminal lung cancer, a newspaper reports. Health problems have troubled Rep. Julia Carson, D-Indiana, for years. The 69-year-old former City-County Council member and state senator told the Indianapolis Star on Saturday that she had been on a leave of absence since September to seek treatment and rehabilitation for a leg infection. \"Then the second shoe fell -- heavily,\" Carson told the paper in a brief written statement. \"My doctor discovered lung cancer. It had gone into remission years before, but it was back with a terminal vengeance.\" Representing the Hoosier State's 7th District since 1997, Carson opposed the Iraq war resolution in 2002 and worked to honor historic civil rights figure Rosa Parks. Fellow Democrats praised her as a bright personality who successfully fought against abuse of the welfare system. Rozelle Boyd, a longtime Democratic member of Indianapolis' City-County Council told the Star he was surprised by Carson's announcement. \"She was able to walk with giants without losing the common touch,\" he told the paper. \"That is what I think was so very important to her and to the people of the district.\" Before entering the House, Carson served six years as a trustee for the city's Center Township, creating a $6-million surplus from the office's $20-million debt, the Star reported. Her mentor, former Democratic Indiana Rep. Andy Jacobs, has said Carson \"not only took cheats off the welfare rolls, she sued them to get the money,\" according to the Star. Early in her career, Carson worked as a secretary and then aide to Jacobs. After her work on the City-County Council, she won her first of two terms to the Indiana House, according to Congressional Quarterly. Later she won election to the state Senate, where she served until 1991. When Jacobs retired after serving 15 terms in the U.S. House, he endorsed Carson as his successor, and helped her win a difficult election in 1996 against GOP attempts to capture her seat, Congressional Quarterly reported. Carson was the first woman and first African-American Indianapolis had ever sent to Congress, according to her Web site. Among her other achievements, Carson led Congress to pass a House measure awarding Parks the Congressional Gold Medal, Carson's Web site said. The Star named her Woman of the Year in 1991 and 1974. \"Julia to me is one of the most beautiful people with a great personality,\" said State Sen. Glenn Howard, an Indianapolis Democrat. \"She cares about everyone, regardless of race or color.\" Carson has been beset by health problems. In January 1997, she took her House oath of office at Indianapolis' Methodist Hospital as she recovered from double-bypass surgery, according to the Star. She also has suffered from high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes, according to Congressional Quarterly. In 2004, Carson missed almost a third of House roll call votes, Congressional Quarterly reported, prompting tough questions about her health during that year's re-election campaign. Voters returned her to Congress by an 11 percent margin. She's the sponsor of the House National Defense Rail Act, legislation before Congress which would provide more than $40 billion to develop high-speed rail connections and short-distance corridors between larger cities, her Web site said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Indianapolis' first black congresswoman reveals lung cancer diagnosis .\nNEW: Julia Carson worked to honor Rosa Parks; fund national railroad links .\nBeset by other health troubles, cancer had been in remission, she said .\nIt \"was back with a terminal vengeance,\" she told Indianapolis Star .","id":"96dff7818485548018452997280a87bed4c266c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal's Andrey Arshavin became the first player to score four goals in a league game at Liverpool for 64 years but it was not enough to stop the Reds returning to the top of the Premier League after another 4-4 draw. Russian Arshavin hit four goals for the first time in his career in a dramatic eight-goal Anfield thriller. A week after crashing out of the Champions League 7-5 on aggregate after sharing eight goals in their quarterfinal second leg at Chelsea, Liverpool took their fans on another rollercoaster ride. A draw was going to be enough to take the Merseysiders above Manchester United -- they have two games in hand -- but it needed 90 minutes of drama before they edged ahead on goal difference. Russian striker Arshavin opened the scoring after 36 minutes and struck again after 67, 70 and 90 as Arsenal bounced back following their weekend FA Cup semifinal defeat. Fernando Torres, with a header after 49 minutes, and Yossi Benayoun (56) hit back after halftime before Arshavin sent Arsenal 3-2 ahead with 20 minutes left. Torres's second of the night after 72 hauled Rafael Benitez's side level two minutes later -- but it took Benayoun to salvage a draw for Liverpool in the third minute of time added on after that man Arshavin had hit number four after 90 minutes. It was the first time in his career that Arshavin had scored four in a match and he told Sky: \"I liked the game but of course it's not good for the team...almost basketball.\" Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said of his Russian star: \"His performance was outstanding. He had a quiet first half but when he comes into the game he is always very dangerous. He has personality and is a winner.\" Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez saw his team concede a quartet of sloppy goals but he could not fault their commitment to the cause. \"You never know,\" he said of the Reds' dwindling hopes of overhauling United. \"Today we made too many mistakes, but it's also very positive because the team showed character until the last minute.\" Benitez added: \"They (United) had it (the advantage in the title race) before and they continue in the driving seat. We have to keep pushing and showed today we will fight until the last game.\"","highlights":"Andrey Arshavin hits four goals as Arsenal draw 4-4 at Liverpool who go top .\nArshavin opened scoring after 36 minutes and added more on 67, 70 and 90 .\nFernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun replied with two goals apiece for Reds .","id":"bfbc920ef28d263fffa4db4cd5b8194f47013535"} -{"article":"INDIO, California (CNN) -- Parents danced with their young children to the infectious hip-hop beat of Lupe Fiasco on the main stage. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O is immersed in the music at Coachella. Twentysomethings wearing feathers in their hair jumped up and down to Somali emcee K'naan in the Gobi tent. In the portable toilets, an impromptu discussion broke out about the \"awesomeness\" of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O. The mercury may have hovered close to 100 degrees, and somewhere outside the desert oasis of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival there was a global recession, but you'd never know it from the carefree crowd on Day 3 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Although exact figures have yet to be released, about 50,000 revelers turned out for the final day of the 2009 festival for an eclectic lineup that included former Jam front man Paul Weller, rap pioneers Public Enemy, a reunion of Irish indie darlings My Bloody Valentine and a nearly three-hour set from The Cure. Promoters say the turnout exceeded expectations, and this year's attendance figure might be the third largest in the festival's 10-year history. The three-day ticket price may have been steep -- roughly $300, including service charges -- but when divided among the 131 acts on the bill, that breaks down to less than $2.50 per act. This was also the first year concert promoter Goldenvoice offered layaway, which is how 18 percent chose to pay. The strong showing is good news for Bonnaroo, All Points West, Lollapalooza and other festivals taking place this spring and summer. Coachella was also moved up one weekend, which allowed for more kids on spring break to attend. Although Coachella is one of several music festivals in the United States, it still carries a certain cachet that's hard to match. Perhaps it's the scenery -- listening to music on a grassy polo field surrounded by swaying palm trees and craggy desert mountains. Or maybe it's the thrill of discovering new artists and rediscovering old ones standing shoulder-to-shoulder with friends, strangers and the random Hollywood celebrity. Or maybe it's the wacky moments that seem to happen only under the blistering desert sun. Where else could you get Morrissey -- a well-known vegetarian -- complaining in the middle of his Friday set that the smell of burning animals was making him sick, and that he only hoped it was human? The Moz was referring to meat grilling in a food booth across the polo field. And when troubled British neo-soul singer Amy Winehouse dropped out of her Saturday performance because she couldn't get a visa, M.I.A. stepped into her slot on the main stage -- but she apparently wasn't happy about the upgrade. Despite a massive, adoring crowd and a highly charged set, the new mom exclaimed, \"This is the main stage? Next time, I'm back in a tent! I prefer the sweat!\" This was after her tongue-in-cheek nod to Winehouse, where she sang, \"They tried to make me do the Oscars, I said, 'No, no, no.' \" Then, there were the memorable music moments. Friday headliner Sir Paul McCartney didn't end his playful, hit-filled set until about 54 minutes past the midnight curfew -- for a potential fine of $54,000. (According to Benjamin Guitron, media relations officer for the Indio Police Department, the promoter agrees to pay $1,000 for every minute past 12 a.m.) On Saturday, Seattle, Washington, indie pop band Fleet Foxes drew an overflowing crowd to the Outdoor Theatre, charming the audience with its delicate, baroque harmonies. Sunday headliners The Cure played 31 songs from the group's vast catalog -- concentrating heavily on early material, and for the most part, staying away from the biggest radio hits. They, too, played well past curfew -- continuing with their third encore even after the sound from the main PA system was cut off. My Bloody Valentine -- whose four members reunited last year after a decade apart -- was also a crowd pleaser, although an interlude where they played a single chord at maximum decibels for a mind-numbing 15 minutes left fans scratching their heads. Perry Farrell is the only artist who's performed at all 10 Coachella festivals -- in Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Satellite Party, as his alter ego DJ Peretz and in other incarnations. This year, he dueted with Thievery Corporation on the main stage, then headed over to the dance tent, where he joined his wife, Etty, for an electronic set. \"I would probably silently be very depressed if they wouldn't invite me, to tell you the truth. My mental health depends on them,\" he said with a laugh. Despite a time of belt-tightening, festivalgoers are finding a way to let it all hang out. According to The Desert Sun, the local newspaper, even two former first daughters couldn't resist the draw of the desert. It said Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager dropped into Coachella on Saturday -- complete with Secret Service. Guitron couldn't confirm the report, but he did say, \"I wouldn't be surprised if they did show up. Dignitaries just kind of show up like everybody else.\"","highlights":"Coachella music festival wraps up Sunday .\nIntriguing moments include vegetarian Morrissey complaining about grilling .\nBoth Paul McCartney and The Cure run past curfew; Cure is cut off .","id":"b1502ba57a7d0f7db23e1bbb0848e9ec6aad5c80"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Police think it started with a dispute over an ex-girlfriend. Threats were made on social networking sites and via text messages. The suspects, clockwise from top left are: Lernio Colin, Angel Cruz, Peter MacDonald and Christopher Harter. A murder plot was hatched and, police say, in the early hours of last Saturday morning, a Florida man was gunned down in his car. But the suspects apparently killed the wrong man. Now four men are in custody, and will face charges of first degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted murder. The four are Angel Cruz, 23; his brother from Oregon, Christopher Harter, 29; Peter MacDonald, 18; and Lernio Colin, 20. They have all appeared before a judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They have not entered pleas and are being held without bond, according to state prosecutors. Detectives are executing search warrants today, and much about the case is still not known. \"The victim was with two other males, in the vehicle,\" said Mike Jachles of the Broward Sheriff's Office. \"One of those men was the intended target,\" Jachles told CNN. Witnesses said multiple shots were fired, according to police. Henry Mancilla, 24 was sitting in the driver's seat of a gold Mitsubishi Galant at an intersection in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. \"They were exiting the vehicle when shots were fired, striking Mancilla,\" said Jachles. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Mancilla was with two other men in their early 20s, Tony Santana and Nick Pappas. One of them was the intended victim, but police are not saying who. \"The four men acted in unison in planning and executing this murder. Mancilla was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he ended up the victim,\" said Mike Jachles. The three victims said they had been \"jumped\" earlier in the evening by the same four men and fled the scene in a red Chevy Impala, according to a sheriff's detective affidavit released Monday afternoon. Later, a blue Chevy Silverado pickup truck belonging to the defendant Cruz drove up to the three men, according to the affidavit. The victims say they armed themselves with a baseball bat and a walking cane, when the truck turned around and drove towards them. That's when the shots were fired. Christopher Harter told police he was in the vehicle at the scene, but said he left the vehicle and then heard four or five gunshots, according to the affidavit. Harter also told police he saw his brother, Angel Cruz, in possession of a semi-automatic pistol three weeks prior to the incident. \"It could have been a case of mistaken identity, but our investigation will determine that,\" Jachles told CNN. Threats were posted on social networking sites and sent via cellular text messages by the suspects to the intended victim, said police. Police said they have not subpoenaed those records and are not releasing the names of those Internet sites. The Broward County State Attorney's office could seek the death penalty.","highlights":"Henry Mancilla, 24, shot to death as he sat in his car with two others .\nOne of the other men was the target, police say .\nThreats exchanged over the Internet, and murder plot was hatched, police say .\nFour men in custody; police executing search warrants .","id":"e56fc5752db65ac1ae7f4175999841999c28b4eb"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Protesters clashed with riot police and 10,000 people marched on parliament in Greece as a 15-year-old boy killed by police was buried Tuesday. Tear gas fills the air near where the teen's funeral service was held. Thousands paid their respects to Alexandros Grigoropoulos at his funeral, but a small number of the protesters there grew violent at the end of the ceremony. Riot police lined up as night fell and a reasonably peaceful candlelight vigil was held in central Athens. Some 10,000 people marched on the country's parliament Tuesday to express their anger at the teenager's death, and also other issues like the economy, jobs, and allegations that the government is corrupt. Groups clashed with riot police at the parliament and across central Athens. Street riots started over the weekend after Athens police killed 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday. Police said six young protesters pelted a police patrol car with stones, and the teen was shot as he tried to throw a fuel-filled bomb at the officers. The shooting occurred in a neighborhood where there have been regular clashes with police, but it immediately sparked clashes and riots in Athens and Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city. The violence then spread to other municipalities. Watch iReporter John Kountouris' videos of the violence \u00bb . The events have exacerbated the unpopularity of the ruling party and left Greek Prime Minister Konstandinos Karamanlis scrambling to shore up support. Watch crowds gathered for funeral \u00bb . On Tuesday, he met with President Karolos Papoulias and cabinet members before briefing political leaders on the country's security situation. Opposition leader George Papandreou of the left-wing PASOK party said: \"The country does not have a government that can protect its citizens, their rights, or their safety. \"I told Mr. Karamanlis that our society, our citizens are experiencing a multiple crisis: an economic crisis, a social crisis, an institutional crisis, and a crisis of values. And the government is unable to address these crises; they have lost the confidence of the Greek people.\" See images of anarchy on Greek streets \u00bb . Karamanlis ruled out early elections and called for all political parties to stand together against violence. \"It's our responsibility to maintain a united stance against illegal acts,\" he said in statement. \"We must condemn in the strongest terms, with pure reason and not minced words - the violence, pillaging, and vandalism, that hampers social peace.\" The government called on union leaders to cancel a national strike planned for Wednesday, fearing it could lead to further violence. But the labor movement refused, saying the action was planned before the shooting of the boy and was unrelated to it. Cleaning crews worked for hours early Tuesday to clear the mess left by the riots, but evidence of the violence remained. In some places, entire rows of shops still have broken windows. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video of rioting . The mayor of Athens asked residents not to dispose of garbage for a day because many of the city's trash bins were destroyed in the violence. Karamanlis vowed again Tuesday that those responsible for the violence would be punished. \"I assured the president that no leniency will be tolerated in holding people accountable,\" he told reporters. \"No one has the right to use this tragic incident as an alibi for actions of raw violence.\" Athens police said 12 policemen were injured in Monday's violence and 87 people were arrested. There were 10 flashpoints across Athens where police confronted rioters, police said. Watch protesters clash with police \u00bb . Many of the young people who rioted holed up at universities, taking advantage of a decades-old rule that bars police from entering university grounds. The rule came into force after tanks crushed a 1973 student uprising protesting the ruling military junta. The dean of Athens University resigned Tuesday as a result of the students' violent behavior. Public and private schools and universities across the country were shut again Tuesday. Watch as iReporter witnesses the clashes . Demonstrators torched government buildings and the offices of the ruling conservative party in central Athens. They also set cars and trash containers ablaze. Monday, young demonstrators barricaded streets in Athens and Thessaloniki and hurled gasoline bombs as they battled police. Clouds of tear gas hung over the capital as police tried to disperse the crowds. The police officer who fired the fatal shot at the teenage boy has been charged with \"manslaughter with intent\" and suspended from duty, police said, adding that a second police officer was arrested Saturday on criminal accessory charges. Government officials, including the interior minister, have condemned the shooting. Authorities conducted an autopsy on the boy Monday in an effort to clarify the circumstances of the shooting, but the boy's family has called in their own investigators to verify state findings, the Athens coroner told CNN. CNN's Eileen Hsieh and Phil Black, and Journalist Anthee Carassava, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Funeral held for 15-year-old shot dead by police in Greece .\nAnti-government violence flares at funeral and outside parliament .\nProtesters are angry at government policies as well as the teen's death .\nAlexandros Grigoropoulos' death sparked riots across Greece .","id":"0190395505bcaaf318c75e343206c631ec40e693"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mac computers are known for their near-immunity to malicious computer programs that plague PCs. Some security experts say viruses are moving toward Mac as those computers become more popular. But that may be changing somewhat, according to computer security researchers. It seems that as sleek Mac computers become more popular, they're also more sought-after targets for the authors of harmful programs. \"The bad guys generally go toward the biggest target, what will get them the biggest bang for their buck,\" said Kevin Haley, a director of security response at Symantec. Until recently, the big target always was Microsoft Windows, and Apple computers were protected by \"relative obscurity,\" he said. But blogs are buzzing this week about what two Symantec researchers have called the first harmful computer program to strike specifically at Mac. This Trojan horse program, dubbed the \"iBotnet,\" has infected only a few thousand Mac machines, but it represents a step in the evolution of malicious computer software, Haley said. The iBotnet is a sign that harmful programs are moving toward Mac, said Paul Henry, a forensics and security analyst at Lumension Security in Arizona. \"We all knew it was going to happen,\" he said. \"It was just a matter of time, and, personally, I think we're going to see a lot more of it.\" The malicious software was first reported in January. It didn't gain widespread attention until recently, when Mario Ballano Barcena and Alfredo Pesoli of Symantec, maker of the popular Norton antivirus products, detailed the software in a publication called \"Virus Bulletin.\" Mac users at large, however, should not be alarmed by the incident, experts said. The program infects only computers whose users downloaded pirated versions of the Mac software iWork. The harmful software is a Trojan horse, meaning it tries to sneak into the computer with some sort of permission from the user. Computer worms travel differently. They wiggle their way into computers and replicate without the owner's approval or knowledge. The Mac program is called a botnet because infected computers become part of a network that is controlled by the program's author. The Mac botnet is significantly less threatening than computer worms like the much-publicized Conficker.c, said Jose Nazario, a senior security researcher with Arbor Networks. Conficker was thought to have infected up to 10 million computers, compared with thousands for the iBotnet, researchers said. There's also some question as to whether it is the first botnet to target Mac. Others have targeted both PCs and Apple computers. \"This isn't the first botnet that's been built using Mac computers,\" Nazario said. \"This is an interesting one in that it's a little more flexible and includes some new features. ... It's getting a lot of press mostly because it's Mac and people are talking about how Macs are immune to malware -- and, sure enough, they're not.\" The potential damage that could be caused by the Mac botnet is also less severe than other attacks, said Darrell Etherington, a contributor to theAppleBlog, which is not affiliated with the computer company. \"It's a very low-level attack,\" he said. \"Some people won't even notice the effect of it.\" It is in the interest of software companies like Symantec, who spread the news, and McAfee, which has downplayed the presence of the Trojan, to raise concerns so they can promote their antivirus software packages, he said. \"Yes, it is going to become a bigger problem and, yes, people have to become more aware, but I think that what McAfee and Symantec would like is for the panic to start and for people to start rushing to antivirus software,\" which isn't necessary yet, Etherington said. In a statement, Apple said it is working to prevent security problems. \"Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users,\" the statement says. Only about 7.4 percent of computer users work on Macs, according to Gartner, a technology research firm. That user base is proportionally more affluent than PC users, Etherington said, which may make Mac a bigger target. But overall, Macs are still far less vulnerable to attack than PCs, he said. Haley said news of the Apple botnet is significant in part because it's something other authors of malicious code can build from. \"I don't think it's a tipping point; I think it's an evolutionary step. We see virus authors often use what somebody else has done,\" he said. \"There's a model. There's something out there to follow.\"","highlights":"Researchers find computer malware aimed at Mac computers .\nThe \"iBotnet\" infects a small number of Mac users through pirated software .\nStill, researchers say it is a step in the evolution of harmful computer programs .\nAs Macs become more popular, they're more likely to be targets, experts say .","id":"aaba992e9f33d4404f3d25d3c0e94fef550a5413"} -{"article":"Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, CNN's Jaime FlorCruz writes about press freedoms covering the Olympics. Journalists surf the Internet at the main Olympics press center in Beijing. BEIJING, China (CNN) -- For many overseas reporters now in Beijing, covering the Summer Games has turned into an Olympian task. We go through tedious security checkpoints to cover events and conduct interviews even as we deal with bureaucratic and linguistic barriers. But we face one particularly irritating issue: China's limits on Internet access. Despite Beijing's earlier promise to allow open reporting and unfettered access to information, Internet access remains erratic and unpredictable. \"It's so counter-intuitive to find the Internet restricted, even if only selectively,\" one western journalist told me in Beijing. Last week, colleagues working in the Media Press Center faced a blank computer screen whenever they clicked on sites deemed sensitive to the Chinese authorities -- like Amnesty International and Falun Gong. That is attributed to China's sophisticated filter system, also known as the \"Great Firewall.\" Why the paranoia? Pro-democracy activists, as well as advocates for Tibet independence and the spiritual group Falun Gong, have Web sites carrying information and views that the Chinese authorities deem \"subversive.\" These sites reinforce Beijing's worst fears about cyberspace. China has groomed \"Internet police\" to patrol its networks and is constantly upgrading software to filter sites. Under Chinese law, using the Internet to \"harm national interests,\" \"spread rumors\" or \"leak state secrets\" is punishable by stiff prison terms. Journalists and politicians alike cried \"foul\" but other critics turned their criticism on the International Olympic Committee (IOC.) When Beijing submitted its Olympic bid seven years ago, the Chinese promised: \"There will be no restrictions on journalists in reporting on the Olympic Games.\" The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which monitors human rights and rule of law issues in China, has compiled documents that show that International Olympic Committee agreements with the Chinese government, from the start, were based on abiding by China's domestic laws. Those laws, the commission says, give authorities a lot of \"wiggle room\" to define actions that might \"endanger state security\" or \"disrupt social order.\" Chinese regulations, for example, include a \"service guide\" for the foreign media. That guide notes the regulations apply to \"the coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games and the preparation as well as political, economic, social and cultural matters of China by foreign journalists, in conformity with Chinese laws and regulations.\" China's \"Provisions on the Technical Measures for the Protection of the Security of the Internet,\" which went into effect in 2006, note the regulations are aimed at \"promoting the sound and orderly development of the Internet and safeguarding the state security, social order and public interests.\" Learn more how China monitors the Internet \u00bb . Last week, foreign journalists discovered Internet access to Web sites such as Amnesty International or sites with Tibet in the address were still restricted. After a media uproar, China seems to have relented. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said: \"If there are some needs to adjust on the Chinese side, we will do that.\" Amnesty International's site, for example, has been accessible since August 1. However, the site of Falun Gong remains taboo. Andrew Lih, a new media expert based in Beijing, says that \"unblocked sites are still subject to the sophisticated keyword blocking system of the GFW (the Great Firewall of China.)\" China has also tightened its grip on other media sources. The English version of Time Out, the monthly listings and entertainment guide, has been told to close. Freelance journalists are finding it hard to renew Chinese visas and accreditation for smaller, niche publications have become virtually impossible. Even a writer from Saveur, a food magazine, was denied a visa. Last Tuesday, relations between journalists and Chinese authorities soured again after police in the frontier region of Xinjiang roughed up and detained two Japanese reporters who were sent to cover a suspected terrorist attack. They suffered minor injuries and their equipment damaged during the scuffle. \"This is utterly unacceptable any time,\" says Jonathan Watts, president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China. \"It's particularly reprehensible just days before the Olympics at a time when China has promised complete media freedom.\" The incident has prompted a rare apology from the local police, who also offered to pay for the damage and medical bills.","highlights":"Internet access remains erratic for journalists in Beijing covering the Olympics .\nMany sites about Tibet and spiritual group Falon Gong are deemed \"subversive\"\nChina promised no restrictions on journalists when it bid for the Games .\nDocuments show IOC agreements were based on China's domestic laws .","id":"2fb9905261b181043a35a15501f584ca1c239b28"} -{"article":"ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNN) -- A second woman stepped forward Monday to say that Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo fathered a child out of wedlock when he was a Roman Catholic bishop. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo says Monday he will comply with justice on the latest paternity allegation. Benigna Leguizamon said Lugo fathered her son in 2002 in the city of San Pedro. She served notice that Lugo has 24 hours to acknowledge paternity or she will take legal action. \"I am waiting in good will,\" she said in an interview on CNN affiliate Telefuturo TV. \"But if they don't do something, oh, my God.\" Lugo, 57, acknowledged last week that he is the father of a 2-year-old child conceived in the months before he stepped down as bishop. He said last week he was making the admission \"with the most absolute honesty, transparency and feeling of obligation.\" Without acknowledging paternity, he expressed similar sentiments Monday about the latest allegation. \"We're going to act always in pursuit of the truth ... in this private matter,\" he said in a nationally televised announcement on Telefuturo. Last week's announcement came after a woman filed suit in a southern Paraguay city seeking a paternity test. \"It's true that there was a relationship with Viviana Carrillo,\" Lugo told reporters, naming the mother. \"I assume all the responsibilities that could derive from such an act, recognizing the paternity of the child.\" Leguizamon, 27, said Monday that last week's announcement had encouraged her to come forth. \"When I saw the case with Viviana, I was strengthened to make my accusation,\" Leguizamon said. She said she made the accusation to help her 6-year-old son, who is starting school. She will ask for a DNA test, she said. In last week's case, Judge Evelyn Peralta said she was treating it routinely. \"It is a case like any other, which involves the president and nothing more,\" she said. \"It will be processed at it should be.\" Some Cabinet members interpreted Lugo's acknowledgment of paternity as an indication of the change he has promised to bring about to achieve greater transparency in the public sector. \"This is the Paraguay that we want,\" said Liz Torres, minister of children's issues. \"This is the Paraguay of serious change in which there is no double standard or secrets. It seems to be an example, a very big lesson.\" But some opposition party members said it appeared that Lugo practically had been forced to acknowledge what happened and that he had not done so willingly. Sen. Julio Cesar Velasquez of the opposition Colorado Party called on the Vatican to excommunicate Lugo. Lugo was made a lay Catholic last year, around the time he assumed the presidency.","highlights":"Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo fathered son, woman says .\nLugo admitted to fathering another child out of wedlock last week .\nOn latest allegation, Lugo says he'll \"act always in pursuit of the truth\"\nOpposition lawmaker urges Vatican to excommunicate Lugo, an ex-Catholic bishop .","id":"6afe91716c2be7db2fb8910ee2b8d0ee083edf39"} -{"article":"MARANA, Arizona (CNN) -- I've been privileged in the past to witness Tiger Woods out on a golf course. And I can tell you, it's a painful, frustrating process. Golf fans flocked to Arizona to see Tiger make his long-awaited return to the tee. Not because the golf he produces isn't spectacular and at times utterly dazzling but it's the sheer volume of people he attracts that help convince me each and every time golf has to be one of the worst \"out on the course\" spectator sports going. That's just my opinion though. Try telling that to the legions who got themselves to Arizona this week once they heard the world's top player was making his return to the game after more than eight months. Woods' first competitive slice of action in the best part of a year wasn't due to get under way until around lunchtime here though judging by the fans already out on the course you'd have thought his tee-time was more like 7am. Even those jostling for position to catch a glimpse of him on the range or putting green were taking no chances and ensuring they arrived in plenty of time. Remember all of this was before he even teed off! The scene on that first hole was as expected bustling to say the least. The small gantries were packed anyway due to the whole array of talent on show through this week, but it got even more frenzied when the Woods-Jones match- up was announced. Mayhem to say the least! Those seated in the stands were the lucky ones, it was the unfortunate spectators trying to stand and strain every sinew to catch a glance of that first shot from the world number one I felt for. Even us media suffered! With seconds to go before the American struck his drive, one television camera crew, which really should have known better, blatantly blocked us from getting that prized shot. Only quick last-gasp thinking from our cameraman John saved the day. In case you were wondering that Woods drive was just majestic and he would go on to win the first two holes in fine style. When he strode off down the first fairway, there was a stampede with those looking to brave the soaring temperatures here in Arizona and follow him every step of the way. The Woods 'wow factor' is still very much alive and kicking. The question is will the so-called bionic knee hold up in the weeks and months to come?","highlights":"Fans jostle for a view of their hero on Tiger's return to competitive golf .\nWoods has been out of the game for eight months after a knee injury .\nSnell: \"The Woods 'wow factor' is still very much alive and kicking\"","id":"20a969e20907ac95b4fce51ae34bb02fe6ad8df0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Somali suspect in the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama has been charged with piracy, a count that carries a minimum life sentence. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse arrives in the United States on Monday. He was charged with piracy Tuesday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse also has been charged with conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking and two firearm charges, according to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of New York. Muse \"conducted himself as the leader\" of the pirates who allegedly took over the Maersk Alabama, according to the criminal complaint. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Muse could be tried as an adult. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck had ordered the media and public out of the courtroom earlier while he evaluated Muse's age. Muse's father in Somalia told defense attorneys the young man was born on November 20, 1993 -- making him 15, the defense attorneys said. However, the prosecution argued otherwise, saying Muse made statements that suggest he is older. Before Peck closed the courtroom, Muse wiped his hand over his face at one point, and it appeared he was crying. He had worn a broad smile late Monday when he arrived in New York escorted by a phalanx of law enforcement officers. See timeline of events that led to piracy case \u00bb . Muse was arrested in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship that pirates attacked on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . Peck read the young man his rights and said attorneys had been appointed to represent him because the suspect did not have the resources to hire representation himself. Muse said through an interpreter that he understood and said, \"I don't have any money.\" Pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship, on April 8 about 350 miles off the Somali coast. According to the criminal complaint, two of the 20 crew members -- all Americans -- saw lights heading toward the Maersk Alabama around 4:30 a.m. on April 8, while the ship was in the Indian Ocean. After a \"brief time,\" the lights disappeared, the complaint said, but about two hours later, the same crew members saw a small boat approaching and later heard \"what sounded like\" gunshots, the complaint said. Crew Member 1 then heard the ship's captain -- later identified as Capt. Richard Phillips -- on the radio saying that two pirates were on the ship's bridge. A third crew member, Crew Member 3, also heard the radio message and began shutting down the ship's power, the complaint said. The complaint said Muse, who was carrying a gun, was the first alleged pirate on the ship, and said the attackers used a portable ladder to climb on board. According to the complaint, Muse had fired his gun at Phillips, the captain said, and then took $30,000 from the ship's safe after he forced Phillips to open it. Watch Muse being hauled into court \u00bb . Muse demanded that the Maersk Alabama be stopped and that the crew give him the number of the ship's owner, the complaint said. The captain then ordered the crew to the bridge after Muse ordered him to do so, the complaint said, citing Crew Member 2. Muse then began canvassing the dark ship with Crew Member 2 as a guide, the complaint said. While they were going through the ship, Crew Member 3, who had not come to the bridge, tackled Muse to the ground, the complaint said. Crew Member 2 helped subdue Muse, and the two tied the young man's hands with wire and took him to the ship's safe room, where several crew members were hiding. After several hours, the remaining pirates said they would leave the ship if Muse was returned to them, and if a lifeboat was given to them. Phillips boarded the lifeboat with them and the ship's crew freed Muse, who then boarded the lifeboat, according to the criminal complaint. The boat floated a short distance from the Maersk, even as the Navy's USS Bainbridge arrived the next day. Over the next three days, officers on the Bainbridge communicated with the pirates by radio. \"In those communications, the pirates threatened to kill the captain if they were not provided with safe passage away from the scene,\" the complaint said. At one point, Phillips tried to escape and the pirates shot at him, the complaint said. On April 12, Muse boarded the USS Bainbridge and demanded safe passage for himself and the other pirates in exchange for Phillips' release. Muse also received medical treatment while he was on the warship, the complaint said. While Muse was away from the lifeboat, Navy SEALs shot and killed the three remaining pirates. The U.S. Navy recovered two loaded AK-47 assault rifles; two gunstraps, each containing three AK-47 magazines; one handgun magazine; and multiple cell phones and handheld radios from the lifeboat, according to the complaint. CNN's Deb Feyerick contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Criminal complaint says pirate suspect \"conducted himself as the leader\"\nJudge rules piracy suspect will be tried as an adult .\nAbduwali Abdukhadir Muse also faces conspiracy charges .\nSuspect's father says he's 15; prosecution says boy indicated he's older .","id":"1f5b3922d5a93459683089aa72917825ef3de30e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's Sunday night during TNT's coverage of the NBA playoffs, and announcer Kenny Smith, aka \"The Jet,\" is doing push-ups. TNT's Kenny Smith tries to connect personally with NBA fans through his Twitter feed. Not on camera, but on Twitter. \"Hawks look hot! CWebb, my boy Fabian and I doing 30- pushups P90X style every commercial.. getting summeer [sic] ready,\" writes Smith to his followers on Twitter, the microblogging site where you can \"tweet\" brief messages of up to 140 characters. Five hours later, Smith (@TheJetOnTNT) tweets a follow-up: \"Man, i think im gonna be sore.\" By Monday morning, though, he seems raring to go again: \"Im not sore today! the workout didnt kill me... Im back!!\" Welcome to today's intersection of sports and social networking, where college athletes, professional players and even broadcasters use tools like Facebook and Twitter to share their thoughts and experiences with fans. \"Sports personalities are tweeting now. They are giving fans a reason to tune in to see their comments,\" says Adam Ostrow, managing editor of Mashable, a blog devoted to online social media. Ostrow believes social networking sites like Twitter allow athletes to connect directly with fans without the filter of the traditional media. And while many athletes and teams have blogs and Facebook profiles, Twitter allows for a more personal connection between fan and sports, he says. NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) is both a prolific scorer and a prolific twitterer. His more than 700,000 followers get his tweets about everything from his diet to his recent trip to Graceland. Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) has more than 650,000 Twitter followers for such updates as \"Eating pizza at home w\/ the family. Good test today, kids go home tomorrow (sad), and a hellacious week of training coming up.\" Hockey players also are getting into the act. Washington Capitals ace Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) was on Twitter during the NHL All-Star game in January, tweeting about the festivities and responding to fan questions and comments. One athlete, Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva (@CV31), even got into hot water after tweeting during halftime of a game last month. Villanueva's entry read: \"In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.\" He did. Villanueva finished with a team-high 19 points, and the Bucks won. Now sports announcers are using Twitter to talk to fans about everything from game action to what they do when the cameras are off. Fox Sports (@MLBonFox) baseball commentators and reporters are using Twitter to share tidbits from players and behind-the-scenes moments that the normal fan may not even think about. Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, one of the network's wittier twitterers, shared this recent tender moment from the broadcast booth: \"Joe Buck: Cold in the booth in STL. Tim [McCarver] and I are bundled up. And snuggling. Hard to type. I think hypothermia is starting to set in!\" TNT is using the same approach to connect with basketball fans during the current NBA playoffs. Eleven members of the network's broadcast team have joined Twitter to provide insight into games, offer nuggets from players and solicit fan opinions. \"TNT is an interesting experiment if they add analysis they don't give on TV,\" said Ostrow of Mashable. \"More interesting if they give more non-basketball info.\" And they are. When Kenny Smith started on Twitter, he wasn't really sure what it was or how it would work. So he just answered the default question on his page: What are you doing? \"I want to have some fun with it,\" Smith told CNN. \"I love scavenger hunts. I might leave tickets to the conference finals somewhere and leave clues on my Twitter.\" Twitter gives announcers another way to connect with sports fans, Smith said. \"You can give an attitude [on Twitter],\" he said. \"They can hear you on the air, but [on Twitter, they] get to hear your voice.\" Smith hopes to continue revealing \"behind-the-scenes\" details in his tweets, because he wants his more than 1,000 followers to feel like they are there. And he plans to continue twittering beyond the NBA playoffs. Increasingly, sports fans use social networking to talk back. For the Stanley Cup playoffs, the NHL recently organized \"tweetups\" where Twitter users met face-to-face to talk about whatever brought them together. Events were organized in 21 cities in the United States and Canada. Laura Astorian, a self-described hockey blogger who follows the St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Thrashers, helped organize an NHL tweetup in Atlanta, Georgia. She said even though the city's hockey-fan base is relatively small, the fans rely on each other and use social networking sites like Twitter to communicate. \"The people who did come enjoyed the chance to sit down and talk hockey with like-minded people,\" Astorian said. \"We did have fun, and there was mention of using the tweetup strategy for our draft party in July.\"","highlights":"More pro athletes are using Twitter to share their thoughts and experiences with fans .\nPopular and prolific twitterers include Shaquille O'Neal and Lance Armstrong .\nSports announcers use Twitter to share behind-the-scenes details with fans .\nTNT has 11 broadcasters tweeting during the current NBA playoffs .","id":"b331c69d334bce546303983dcae604a5cb97f971"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Debbie Phelps, the mother of swimming star Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing, is the author of a new memoir, \"A Mother For All Seasons.\" Debbie Phelps, mother of Olympian Michael Phelps, tells Larry King her son has strong values. Phelps spoke with CNN's Larry King about her new book, a recent tabloid report detailing her son's partying ways and the infamous bong photo. The following is an edited version of the transcript. Larry King: You have this terrific new book coming. If I do say so myself, it's inspiring. Yet (Thursday's) lead story in the \"New York Daily News\" gate crasher column -- I don't know who writes that -- \"tsk, tsk,\" it says, \"Michael Phelps, partying your face off in public is not the way to reclaim your good guy image. The Olympian was been laying relatively low since his bong smoking scandal in January was out in full force Tuesday night at New York City hot spot Marquis\" -- I think is the name -- \"Michael was definitely having a good time, an eyewitness tells us, drinking straight from a bottle of Grey Goose. When the DJ started playing MIA's 'Paper Planes,' he got up started dancing like a loon and kept on yelling 'shots.' Phelps definitely had enough alcohol on hand for several four round. He ordered four bottles of Vodka.\" Is this tough for a mother? How do you react? Debbie Phelps: It's one thing that I learn at a very early age is I don't get caught up in gossip columns. I know my son. He has great values, lots of integrity. That's what I think about that. King: Did you talk to him about this? Phelps: I always talk to Michael. I talk to Michael every day. We talked about training today and things of that nature. King: But it would be normal to say, what happened, wouldn't it? I would say that to my son. Phelps: We give support. We give guidance. We give an ear to listen. And, again, I don't get caught up in gossip. King: Therefore, you don't believe it? I just want to establish what your feelings are. Phelps: I don't get caught up in gossip, Mr. King. King: What about something that wasn't gossip, the picture with the bong thing. It was a picture. Phelps: It's a picture, that's true. But, you know, a picture can say many things. It has many words. It has many meanings. It has many visualizations that you want to think. It depends on the person who is looking at that picture. You know, as a mom, I support all three of my children. I believe that no matter who you are in this country, in this world, there are obstacles that get into your life. I call them speed bumps in school sometimes. I heard someone say lightning bolts. That's another term for that. But, you know, how do we grow? How do we learn? You raise a child through 18. You send them off to college. You give them the roots. You give them the foundation to be a strong, young man, a strong lady. Life throws curve balls to you sometimes. How do you handle that curve ball? King: Michael is 23. That's an adult. He's an adult. Phelps: A young adult. King: Young adult. So one could say it's his life. He chooses to lead it. As our parent, we do our best to guide them, but 23 is 23. Do you view him still as a kid? Phelps: I view my 31-year-old daughter as a kid sometimes. You know, I look at each of my children independently and individually of themselves. They have many strong values, strong points, professionalism. I'm just very proud of all three of them and everything they've done. King: Do you think these kind of stories -- and you don't pay attention to them -- hurt your book? Phelps: I was asked many times and told many times, \"Debbie, you need to write a book some day.\" As an educator, I'm thinking, I would really like to do that. It became a personal goal of mine to be able to publish a book, not knowing exactly what it was going to be. Was it going to be my life? Was it going to be parenting? Was it going to be swimming? Was it just going to be motivational and inspirational? When I take a look at the book I was able to write, I have great pride in that book because it shows other people, every woman, but not even women -- men can read this book also -- the inspiration and motivation of life. King: The question is, \"Do you think these kind of stories might hurt the chance of people buying the book, which is what you want?\" Phelps: People are going to have to make that decision. King: Do you think it might? Phelps: Life is life. I do want to say, though, in reference to the Beijing Olympics, we, as a family, I think, made a great impression on the world, on the United States. My son has great love for me. It's a great bonding relationship. Families are very important. King: Is he still a role model, do you think? Phelps: You know, when I think of the word role model, I'll go back to me being a little girl. It was my mom and my dad. They were my role models when I was growing up. When I hear that role model in a sentence with my son, what I think about with Michael is what he does with and for children. It might be things people don't even know of -- his association with the Boys and Girls Club. For years, he has done that (and) his association with Make A Wish. He touches kids' lives. So if an individual, wherever they may be, may select my son as a role model, I say that my son has strong values. I say he's a human being. And I say that from obstacles that get in people's ways -- we all have them, Mr. King, and you know that -- what do you learn from them and how do you rise above the occasion?","highlights":"Debbie Phelps says she doesn't get caught up in gossip involving son, Michael .\nMichael Phelps reportedly seen partying at NY bar .\nPhelps apologized in January after photo shows him smoking from bong .","id":"755c1f25d1d5b30afe31896b6ba70e917763c275"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice John Paul Stevens is approaching his 40th year on the federal bench -- the last 34 on the Supreme Court, deciding thousands of cases. But he said his love of the law was nurtured decades earlier by a professor's dedication and the enduring power of a political dispute that blossomed into a landmark decision known as Marbury v. Madison. Justice John Paul Stevens swears in Vice President Joe Biden. Stevens has been on the court for 34 years. \"It was the beginning, well, of my whole legal career,\" Stevens told CNN in a recent exclusive interview. \"You read it today and you will find some current value in it. For me, that case inspired a lasting appreciation and respect for the rule of law.\" The 88-year-old justice, who sources said has no plans to step down anytime soon, is not alone in citing the 1803 high court ruling as a cornerstone of federal court authority. The landmark decision for the first time established the power of the Supreme Court to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional. It also helped codify the idea of separation of powers as a lasting hallmark of the American system of government. The case is the subject of a new book, \"The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall and the Battle for the Supreme Court\" (PublicAffairs Books), which includes Stevens' analysis of the opinion's impact over the years. Written by Clifford Sloan -- a former Stevens law clerk -- and David McKean, it offers an inside look at how the federal judiciary, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, muscled itself into equal footing with the other two branches of government. It is a struggle, Sloan noted, that continues to affect issues today, such as the president's authority in the war on terror, federal bans on late-term abortion and church-state disputes. \"There is a view of an enduring role for our courts that rises above the political pressures and cross-currents of the moment,\" said Sloan. \"There are imperfections, there are problems, but it's been the most protective regime for rights and liberties of any country in the world. And it's really attributable to the special role of the [Supreme] Court in safeguarding our rights and liberties that Marbury established.\" Immersed from the start in Marbury v. Madison . Stevens still has his law school notes from Northwestern University, which he entered in 1945. It was just months after leaving the Navy, where he served as an intelligence officer during World War II. At the time, he was thinking of becoming an English teacher, but Stevens said his brother Richard asked him to think about a law career. \"At the time I was trying to decide what to do, and it seemed like a sensible move,\" Stevens said, with his characteristic Midwestern modesty. It was as a freshman that he met his early mentor, Nathaniel Nathanson, who immersed his students in Marbury v. Madison from the start. \"I knew nothing about it before I went to law school, but it was a major part of our constitutional law course,\" Stevens recalled. \"We began with the case and we were still on it six or eight weeks later. We spent most of the first semester studying that one case, and the different issues that come out of it.\" Something must have stuck, because when he graduated two years later, Stevens had the highest GPA in the history of the law school. The justice gives credit for much of his budding success to Nathanson, a former Northwestern dean and faculty member for 47 years. \"He was very brilliant, he could ask good questions and get people to think about issues,\" said Stevens. \"He was a very decent and inspiring teacher.\" From political pot-boiler to legal treatise . One thing Stevens admires about Marbury v. Madison is \"there are a whole bunch of issues that are discussed in it. When is executive privilege something that the president can rely on; when should there be a remedy for a wrong?\" It was a big case that had humble beginnings. The behind-the-scenes intrigue reads more like a political pot-boiler than a legal treatise. The fight began in early 1801, in the closing days of the Federalist administration of President John Adams -- who had just lost the election to Thomas Jefferson, who was poised to take over the White House. Sloan noted, \"Adams was packing the federal government, the District of Columbia government, and the federal courts with midnight appointees. One of these was William Marbury.\" The Maryland financier was set to be justice of the peace of Washington, but somehow his commission was not delivered in time, in person by the State Department, as the law required. So when Jefferson -- a Democratic-Republican -- took over, he canceled all pending appointments, leaving Marbury and other Federalists in the outs, and enraged. Marbury sued the Jeffersonians to get his job back. The \"Madison\" in this case was none other than James Madison -- principal author of the U.S. Constitution, and then Jefferson's secretary of state. Marshall played two roles . As a backdrop, \"The Great Decision\" details fascinating tales of the capital at the turn of the 19th century, including \"the dust and grime of Washington\" -- not much different from our own, except perhaps for the grime. Among the tales: A senator's \"romantic interest\" -- as Stevens put it -- in Dolley Madison, wife of the future president; and Marshall's own physical prowess -- he reportedly could jump 6 feet and had a taste for fine whiskey. It was that man's failure as a bureaucrat and genius as a judge that led to the 4-0 decision. In February 1801, native Virginian Marshall -- an Adams ally -- was serving as both secretary of state and the newly named chief justice of the United States. \"He was the one who bungled the delivery of the commissions,\" said Sloan, \"so he was deeply involved in the underlying facts of the case. The genius of Marshall was that he got out of a very difficult jam by finding Marbury's appeal to have merit, but his direct appeal to the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional.\" Such direct appeals were allowed under federal law, but the high court ruled the law went too far by attempting to give one branch of government a power specifically denied it by the Constitution. The decision thus set precedents for both separation of powers and constitutional interpretation -- the court's right to declare a law unconstitutional. In Marshall's famous words, \"It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department\" -- the courts, he means -- \"to say what the law is.\" It put the case on sacred constitutional ground in the eyes of many subsequent justices. It was cited in Brown v. Board of Education, and the 1974 order for President Nixon to turn over secret White House tapes during the Watergate scandal. Stevens emphasizes separation of power . Sloan said his old boss in particular has a fondness for the stirring words of Marbury. \"It's not surprising that when justices like Justice Stevens are grappling with the very difficult questions that come before them and the deeply contested constitutional issues that they turn to that guiding star of the first principle of Marbury v. Madison, and get inspiration and strength from it.\" It was separation of powers Stevens chose to emphasize as a principal hallmark of Marbury. During a panel discussion a few weeks ago, he noted the wall between the courts and the executive can be breached. As an example, he cited public swear-ins of justices that have lately been held at the White House. Stevens said it is far preferable they be conducted at the Supreme Court itself -- such as his 1975 ceremony -- to underscore the \"very separate status\" of the justices. He later said the power he and his fellow benchmates enjoy today is embedded in that principle: . \"Marbury v. Madison established that idea of separation, something no other branch of government -- no political majority -- can take away from the judiciary.\"","highlights":"Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says case inspired his career .\n88-year-old justice's analysis of case is part of a new book .\nMarbury v. Madison is 1803 high court case dealing with separation of powers .","id":"29d81fe66738eb849f5d12c58b68afde0333f9f1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A group of student protesters were arrested Sunday after they called on President Bush to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and refused to leave the front gates of the White House. The protesters shouted, \"Hey Bush, you can't hide! Help us end this genocide!\" and \"President Bush! No more excuses!\" Federal police arrested 18 of them after they marched to the White House. Sunday's protest was one of many scheduled around the world for \"Global Day for Darfur\" to mark five years of ethnic cleansing in Sudan. The conflict has killed more than 200,000 people, and it has made refugees of more than 2 million others. In London 3,000 protesters gathered at the Sudanese Embassy. Also, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for Darfur peace talks. Watch a report from the protest in London \u00bb . In the U.S., Scott Warren, national student director of the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, said the students were bringing specific demands to the president, including bolstering the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan and stepping up pressure on China, Sudan's trading partner. \"In your last seven months, you can make peace in Sudan, and this is how you can do it,\" he said. Warren said the students knew the president wasn't home, but still hoped their message was heard. Bush was on his way back to Washington from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. \"It's not something we take lightly, and we do understand the implications of it. But we also understand that genocide is not just a casual issue,\" said student activist Ashley Kroetsch, who was among the 18 arrested. \"It is one of the worst crimes against humanity, and it requires a very severe response to end it.\" The Bush administration supports economic sanctions and implementation of existing agreements for peace and security in Darfur. Bush traveled recently to Africa, and spoke about genocide on several stops. \"We're trying to help them, but the truth of the matter is there are obstacles to peace in Darfur,\" he said at a stop in Tanzania. \"And that is one of the reasons we've imposed tough sanctions -- real, meaningful sanctions against those who are stopping progress toward alleviating the human suffering in Darfur.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Protesters shouted, \"Hey Bush, you can't hide! Help us end this genocide!\"\nSaturday was \"Global Day for Darfur\" marking five years of ethnic cleansing in Sudan .\nConflict has killed more than 200,000 people, and created two million refugees .\nIn London 3,000 protesters gathered at the Sudanese Embassy .","id":"d7232df2f2734cb81faed4211ff122735d3222a9"} -{"article":"ST. GEORGE, Utah (CNN) -- A young man whose arranged marriage to a young cousin led to the conviction of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was charged Wednesday with her rape. Prosecutors filed the rape charge against Allen Steed, 26, a day after a jury found Jeffs guilty of two rape-accomplice counts in connection with Steed's ill-fated 2001 marriage to Elissa Wall. Jurors found that Jeffs used his authority as leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, to push the girl into a marriage she did not want. Steed was 19 and his bride, who also was his first cousin, was 14 when Jeffs \"sealed\" them in spiritual marriage at a motel in Caliente, Nevada, where many FLDS weddings were performed. Three other couples also were married that day in separate ceremonies, according to testimony. Steed is accused of having sex with the girl against her will several weeks into the marriage. Steed testified for the defense at Jeffs' trial. He said his new wife was affectionate to him in private, but cold in public. He denied that he or Jeffs had forced sex on her. Wall agreed to be identified publicly as the trial ended in hopes of encouraging other women who feel trapped by polygamy to come forward. Watch Wall urge other girls to be brave \u00bb . She testified that she told Steed she was not ready and that her first sexual encounter made her feel dirty, used and trapped. Her pleas to church leaders to end the marriage were ignored, and Jeffs told her to submit \"mind, body and soul\" to her new husband, Wall told the jury. Her sisters testified that most of the women in the family also opposed the marriage but were powerless to stop it. According to the criminal complaint, the trial established that the pair had sex and that the young woman had convinced jurors she did not consent. Wall left the marriage and the FLDS in 2004. She is now remarried. An attorney for Steed could not be reached. Jeffs, 51, leads the 10,000-member FLDS, which is based in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Followers believe him to be God's prophet, who can lead them to eternal salvation. Listen to an example of Jeffs' preaching \u00bb . Jeffs could be sent to prison for the rest of his life when he is sentenced November 20. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Man whose arranged marriage led to conviction charged with rape .\nAllen Steed is accused of having sex with the girl, 14, against her will .\nSteed testified at sect leader's trial that he didn't force sex on new wife .\nFLDS leader Warren Jeffs convicted Tuesday of rape by accomplice .","id":"fcfa1fe0b50dfc5e7f249c1fb4f22010ec70c19e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The 2002 World Cup tournament was the first one held in Asia and was instrumental in bringing the world's attention to the continent's footballing talents. Michael Chopra was the first player of Indian parentage to play and score in the English Premier League. It was seen as Asia's chance to show the rest of the world what it had to offer on the pitch and with South Korea reaching the last four of the tournament, the rest of the world was impressed. However, since then few footballers of Asian origin have made an impact outside of the Asian Federation Cup (AFC) -- the largest league in terms of area and population. A new initiative, spearheaded by Chelsea FC, has been launched in the UK to search for talented youngsters from backgrounds not commonly found among today's top footballers such as India and Pakistan. See a gallery of the best Asian players . Chelsea have teamed up with the Football Association (FA), anti-racism campaigners Kick It Out and the Asian Media Group for the The Search for an Asian Star event to be held in May at Chelsea's training ground in Stamford Bridge, London. The search is aimed at players in the under 12, 13 and 14 age groups and is open to players based in London and the south-east of England who hail from Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi backgrounds. \"We realize there is a lack of representation of players from Asian backgrounds within the game and we hope that the competition will help inspire Asian youngsters,\" former Chelsea and England full-back Graeme Le Saux told thefa.com. \"We want to show that race is no barrier to joining our club and that opportunities for Asian players do exist. It is important all clubs share our ambition that players should only be judged on their talent and their potential.\"","highlights":"A new initiative is launched to find the Asian football stars of the future .\nPlayers aged 12 to 14 will be put through their paces by Chelsea FC staff .\nEnglish football currently boasts very few players of Asian descent .","id":"03dcb7d27a6f9e4db62f6fcd84d3a99219cc1818"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lankan cricketers have described for the first time how they feared some of their teammates had been killed during a deadly attack on the team bus by gunmen in Pakistan -- and paid tribute to the driver of the bus for saving their lives. Thilan Samaraweera is due to undergo surgery to have a bullet removed from his leg. Six police officers and a driver were killed in the ambush by around a dozen attackers armed with automatic weapons as the players made their way to Lahore's cricket stadium early Tuesday. Two players, Tharanga Paranavitana and Thilan Samaraweera, suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and leg respectively while six others suffered shrapnel wounds. But vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara told CNN he believed Paranavitana had been killed when he collapsed after being shot. \"I was lying on the ground. I heard Thilan (Samaraweera) groan and I heard Tharanga Paranavitana say something. I turned around and a bullet whizzed past my head and hit the seat in front of me. And then I got hit in the shoulder by shrapnel,\" Sangakkara said. \"Then I saw Tharanga Paranavitana get up and say 'I've been shot' and then he collapsed on the seat. I really thought he was seriously hurt or even dead.\" Read profiles of the wounded players \u00bb . Describing the initial moments of the ambush, Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss said there had been an explosion \"which someone said later was a rocket launcher that missed the bus and went over the top and hit somewhere in front of us.\" Watch footage of the gunmen staging their attack \u00bb . He said two cars then pulled up in front of the convoy, blocking its path. Gunmen jumped out of the cars and started firing, sending bullets ripping through the bus. \"By that stage everyone was on the ground,\" Baylis told CNN. \"Surprisingly it was very calm. There was not a lot we could do except keep low as possible and hope for the best. Every now and then someone would just yell out and say 'I'm hit.'\" Watch Bayliss talk about his experience \u00bb . Sangakkara said someone at the front of the bus had shouted to the players to take cover. \"Some of the guys looked up to see what was going on because the bus just swerved a bit and almost came to a stop,\" he said. \"Suddenly we heard a couple of explosions getting closer. And then someone from the front of the bus shouted 'They're shooting at the bus -- get down!' That's when we just hit the deck and suddenly we heard bullets thudding into the bus. It kept going for about a minute.\" Watch Sangakkara describe how players ducked for cover \u00bb . A Pakistani security official on the bus then shouted to the driver in Urdu to \"go, go go!\" Sangakkara said. \"I think we owe our lives to him -- he just put the bus in gear and drove straight through the carnage straight to the ground,\" he said. \"They tried to shoot the bus driver first and missed and the guy had the presence of mind to do what was needed to save all our lives.\" Baylis also praised the driver of the bus for his bravery. \"He jumped back in his seat with all the bullets coming through the bus and he got us into the stadium. It wasn't until we got into the stadium that we could see how hurt some of the players were,\" Baylis said. Once inside the stadium the players received medical attention. \"Everyone still seemed confused and shocked but the mood was quite upbeat,\" said Sangakkara. \"A few jokes were being cracked, people were talking to each other, making sure everyone was ok, everyone made a great effort to keep the mood lighter than it could have been in that situation and that's helped a lot of the guys to get through it.\" Sangakkara said he'd had some of the shrapnel removed from his shoulder inside the stadium. He also underwent surgery to remove some more after arriving home in Colombo earlier Wednesday. Paranavitana and Samaraweera are also expected to undergo surgery. Samaraweera still had a bullet in his leg, Sangakkara said. Meanwhile match referee Chris Broad criticized Pakistan's security forces for their conduct during the attack, claiming they had abandoned match officials traveling in the convoys as \"sitting ducks.\" The Englishman and other officials had been traveling in a minibus behind the Sri Lankan team bus when bullets ripped through the vehicle, killing the driver and critically wounding fourth umpire Ahsan Reza. Broad has been hailed as a hero for reportedly shielded Reza but he played down his bravery. \"I'm not a hero. Ahsan Raza took a bullet to the stomach or chest -- somewhere in the spleen and lung region. I was lying behind him on the floor of the van and there were bullets flying all around us,\" Broad said. \"I only noticed he was injured when I saw a large pool of blood had spilled on to the floor and out of the partially opened van door.\" Broad said police vans detailed to protect the vehicles in the convoy had apparently disappeared during the attack. \"I am extremely angry that we were promised high-level security and in our hour of need that security vanished and they left us to be sitting ducks. I am extremely fortunate to be here today.\"","highlights":"Sri Lankan vice-captain feared teammate had been fatally wounded .\nDriver praised for getting bus to stadium as bullets ripped through vehicle .\nAttack in Lahore killed driver, 6 Pakistani police, injured 8 Sri Lankan cricket players .\nMatch referee: Security forces left players, match officials to be \"sitting ducks\"","id":"9ed988a190601e9f8284b6a944938a090809f1af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A total of seven cases of a previously undetected strain of swine flu have been confirmed in humans in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. None of the patients has had direct contact with pigs. Swine flu is usually diagnosed only in pigs or people in regular contact with them. Five of the cases have been found in California, and two have been found in Texas, near San Antonio, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's Interim Deputy Director for Science and Public Health Program. The CDC reported Tuesday that two children in the San Diego, California, area, infected with a virus called swine influenza A H1N1, whose combination of genes has not been seen in flu viruses in either human or pigs before. The patients range from age 9 to 54, Schuchat said. They include two 16-year-old boys who attend the same Texas school, and a father and daughter in California. \"The good news is that all seven of these patients have recovered,\" Schuchat said. The first two cases were picked up through a special influenza monitoring program, with stations in San Diego and El Paso, Texas. The program aims to get a better sense of what strains exist and to detect new strains before they become widespread, the CDC said. Other cases emerged through routine and expanded surveillance. At this point, the ability for the human influenza vaccine to protect against this new swine flu strain is unknown, and studies are ongoing, she said. There is no danger from contracting the virus from eating pork products, Schuchat said. The new virus has genes from North American swine and avian influenza, human influenza and swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division. Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza, according to the CDC. It does not normally inflect humans, but cases have occurred among people, especially those who have had direct exposure to pigs. There have also been cases in the past of one person spreading swine flu to other people, the CDC said. In 1988, in an apparent swine flu infection in pigs in Wisconsin, there was antibody evidence of virus transmission from the patient to health care workers who had contact with the patient, the CDC said. Person-to-person transmission is believed to occur in a manner similar to the spread of the influenza virus: through infected people coughing and sneezing, the CDC said. People may contract swine flu by touching something with viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. From December 2005 to February 2009, 12 cases of human infection with swine flu were documented. Symptoms of swine flu in humans are expected to resemble regular human seasonal influenza symptoms, including fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, and coughing, the CDC said. Other reported symptoms include runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The new strain of swine flu has been resistant to the antiviral drugs amantadine and rimantadine, but has responded to the other licensed options: oseltamivir and zanamivir. The CDC is working closely with health officials in California and Texas to learn more about the virus. The agency expects to find more cases, Schuchat said. If swine flu can mutate to spread between humans, what does this mean for avian flu? Because of the virus subtype, it is less likely that avian flu would become transmissible from person to person, but still possible, said Dr. William Short at the division of infectious diseases at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The news is not cause for widespread panic, but people at risk -- those who live in or have traveled to the areas where patients live, or have been in contact with pigs -- should watch out for symptoms and get tested if they occur, Short said. The three criteria for a pandemic are a new virus to which everybody is susceptible, the ability to spread from person to person readily, and wide geographic spread, said Dr. Jay Steinberg, infectious disease specialist at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia. The new strain of swine flu only meets one of these criteria: its novelty. On the other hand, bird flu meets two of the criteria: novelty and geographic spread. If history is any indication, flu pandemics tend to occur once every 20 years or so, meaning we're actually due for one, he said. However, it is not likely to be the swine flu, he said. \"I can say with 100 percent confidence that a pandemic of a new flu strain will spread in humans,\" Steinberg said. \"What I can't say is when it will occur.\"","highlights":"CDC: Five cases found in California, two found in Texas .\nAll seven patients have recovered .\nSymptoms of swine flu in humans are expected to resemble human influenza .\nVaccine against human flu is not expected to work against swine flu .","id":"a9d829bce8b4d5de292848bdbc8103427ee670f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Piracy off the coast of Somalia has more than doubled this year, threatening to make international trade more expensive and offering terrorists a new source of income, says a report released Wednesday. A photo from the destroyer USS Howard shows Somali pirates in small boats hijacking the MV Faina last week. As of late September, 60 ships had been attacked in 2008, said the report by Chatham House, a London-based institute that analyzes international issues. The report comes amid a standoff between officials and pirates demanding a $20 million ransom for the release of a Ukrainian ship captured off the coast of Somalia last week. Money from the $18 million to $30 million in ransoms paid this year is helping finance the war in Somalia, the report says. One of the groups reportedly receiving ransom money is Al-Shabaab, which the United States listed as a terrorist organization this year. Asked to rank the problem on a scale of one to 10, report author Roger Middleton said it's middle range but could quickly deteriorate. \"At the moment, it's a five-six problem with the potential to be seven or eight,\" Middleton said. \"You're looking at a nine, 10 if it starts to be co-opted by international terror organizations.\" About 16,000 ships a year navigate the Gulf of Aden, which, as the southern gateway to the Suez Canal, is one of the most important trade routes in the world. The ships mostly transport oil from the Middle East and goods from Asia to Europe and North America. Having to change routes would add weeks of travel time and increase fuel consumption, driving up the cost of shipping. Insurance premiums for the Gulf of Aden have already increased tenfold, says the report, \"Piracy in Somalia: Threatening global trade, feeding local wars.\" Additionally, pirates are hampering relief efforts in Somalia. \"As a result of piracy,\" the report says, \"the World Food Programme has been forced to temporarily suspend food deliveries to drought-stricken Somalia. Canada is now escorting WFP deliveries but there are no plans in place to replace their escort when it ends later this year.\" Somalia's ambassador to Russia made the same point Wednesday. \"This has been a great problem for the Somalian government,\" Ambassador Mohamed Handule said. \"This hinders humanitarian aid a lot. The Somalian people are not getting it.\" Middleton noted that French officials are talking about offering a U.N. Security Council resolution to increase international presence in the area. \"This new move by the European Union to put more ships into the Gulf of Aden could be quite positive,\" he said. \"Some form of U.N.-sponsored coast guard might start to chip away at this. ... If America, Europe and Russia cooperate, it can be made much safer.\" He noted that France, Denmark, Netherlands and Canada offered escorts for World Food Programme ships that had been unable to enter Somali ports this year. \"A more general approach has focused on Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150), a coalition naval task force covering the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean,\" the report states. \"CTF 150's primary responsibility is to assist in the 'war on terror,' so piracy is lower on its list of priorities. However, some of the roughly 15 ships making up CTF150 have been involved in deterring pirate attacks.\" In addition, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1816 on June 2, giving foreign warships the right to enter Somali waters \"for the purposes of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea\" by \"all necessary means.\" But none of these measures has stemmed the problem. \"Piracy has been a problem in Somali waters for at least 10 years. However, the number of attempted and successful attacks has risen over the last three years,\" Middleton's report says. \"With little functioning government, long, isolated, sandy beaches and a population that is both desperate and used to war, Somalia is a perfect environment for piracy to thrive.\" Handule stressed that the problem has gotten worse since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 225,000 people in more than 10 nations, including Somalia. The problem is compounded, he said, because Somalia does not have a coast guard. \"Pirates are mostly young unemployed men, many of them fishermen who lost their boats, tackle and their jobs following the tsunami,\" Handule said. \"They started hunting on boats, and this process went our of control. They operate in groups of up to 12-15 people, however they all have associates ashore seeking information, negotiating about ransom, etc.\" Handule said officials estimate that there 25 groups with no central command. \"We believe their total number stands at about 1,000 people, counting those who help them on the ground,\" he said. Middleton's report also notes that Somalia's fishing industry has collapsed in the past 15 years, particularly as European, Asian and African ships increase their fishing in the area. Middleton offers five possible solutions to the piracy plague, including organizing shipping into a safe lane, providing a coast guard for Somalia, having a large international naval presence and refusing to pay ransoms. But he noted that none of these solutions can be easily implemented. \"It's not going to stop until Somalia has a stable government,\" he said. The CIA World Factbook notes that Somalia, a country about the size of Texas, does not have a permanent national government. \"Although an interim government was created in 2004, other regional and local governing bodies continue to exist and control various regions of the country, including the self-declared Republic of Somaliland in northwestern Somalia and the semi-autonomous State of Puntland in northeastern Somalia,\" the Factbook says.","highlights":"Sixty ships had been attacked by pirates in 2008, according to institute report .\nPirates want $20 million to release Ukrainian ship captured off Somalia .\nInstitute says piracy has halted flow of much-needed food into Somalia .","id":"cb6af6431637b5806e1a6772e3375c5dbbdd9282"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nneka and Chimezie Ononaku unwittingly poisoned their own four-month-old son Chinonso. A television image of Chinonso Ononaku, who died after being given the medicine \"My Pikin.\" Giving him what they thought was a baby teething medicine, they were in fact dosing him with anti-freeze. The bottle had been contaminated with a toxic chemical called diethylene glycol. More than 30 Nigerian children are thought to have died recently after taking the medicine. Nneka is angry. \"It's not easy carrying a pregnancy for nine months, [and] after that getting a drug from a pharmacy to kill your own child,\" she says. When Nigeria's Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) tested the medicine, \"My Pikin,\" the results were terrifying. It found the medicine contained almost 90ml of diethylene glycol per 100ml. \"It's a bottle of poison,\" the NAFDAC laboratory said. The \"My Pikin\" factory's managing director and eight others have been charged with negligence. The company could not be reached for comment. Nigeria is on the frontline in the global fight against counterfeit drugs. Undercover NAFDAC officers have taken to the streets in order to combat unregistered and often harmful drugs. Hawkers are charged with selling counterfeit drugs and forced to pay a fine. Watch more on the poisonings \u00bb . NAFDAC claims most of the counterfeit drugs come from India and China. And it's big business -- America's Centre for Medicines in the Public Interest predicts counterfeit drug sales will reach $75 billion in 2010. NAFDAC's director-general Dora Akunyili warns counterfeiting is not just a Nigerian problem. \"These criminals are cooperating, so we too need to cooperate if we can face them. Not only in Nigeria but internationally, because drug counterfeiting involves a trans-national criminal network and can only be dismantled through international co-operation.\"","highlights":"More than 30 Nigerian children have died after being given poisoned medicine .\nNigeria is on the frontline in the global fight against counterfeit drugs .\nCounterfeit drug sales predicted to reach $75 billion in 2010 .","id":"11e37c69fcbbb24d92401c1c5f5f76692790fef5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- \"Hey, Hey It's Esther Blueburger\" is the latest comic creation to emerge from the Australian film market. Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving and Terence Stamp star in the camp classic \"The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.\" An unabashed celebration of girlishness, the coming-of-age movie tells the story of Esther, a bespectacled and awkward teen. Looked down on as nerd at her posh private school, Esther (played by newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) reinvents herself after befriending Sunni, an older girl who goes to the local public school. Bearing a passing resemblance to the runaway U.S. indie hit \"Juno\", \"Esther Blueburger\" could well go on to imitate some of the worldwide success of its hipper American cousin. If the film is to do well, its kitschness can surely only work to its advantage. After all, many of the Australian comedies that have found success with an international audience have relied on more than just a smattering of camp. Oddly, from a country that brought the world \"Mad Max\" and Russell Crowe, many of the biggest comic hits fly in the face of the conventional stereotypes of Australian culture as straight-talking and macho. For every \"Crocodile Dundee\", in other words, there is a \"Priscilla, Queen of the Desert\", riding triumphantly over the horizon ready to unsettle the manhood and steal the laughs into the bargain. It was Paul Hogan's comic creation Mick \"Crocodile\" Dundee, the laidback survivalist from the outback that first put Australian comic films on the map over 20 years ago. The first \"Crocodile Dundee\" film was released in 1986 to huge commercial success worldwide -- it was the highest grossing film internationally that year -- spawned two sequels and was credited with boosting the Australian tourist industry. A lot of the laughs in the film come from the depiction of Mick Dundee (played by Hogan) as an unreconstructed, Aussie bloke struggling to come to terms with modern metropolitan life when he leaves small town Australia to visit New York. In one scene, for example, Dundee's reaction to meeting a cross-dresser on the streets of the Big Apple is to grab the man's crotch to verify his gender. Crocodile Dundee's comic book version of Australian identity may have worked well in the movie theaters, but it was viewed by many critics as hackneyed and out of touch with the reality of modern Australia. The arrival of the writer and director Baz Luhrmann in the early '90s seemed to breath fresh life into Australian film. The stunning critical and financial success of his debut feature, \"Strictly Ballroom\" in 1992 heralded a string of breakout hits that weren't afraid to show their feminine side. The story of a young ballroom dancer who flouts convention and risks the ire of the judges by dancing his own moves, \"Strictly Ballroom\" provoked a bidding war at the Cannes Film Festival after it won the Prix de Jeunesse award. Alongside a realistic portrayal of Australian small town life, there is a warm-hearted send up of the peculiar world of ballroom dancing. From the sequined costumes to the Cyndi Lauper soundtrack, the movie is also saturated in campness and kitsch. The benchmark set by Luhrmann, whose 2001 stellar musical feature \"Moulin Rouge!\" was also defiantly camp, was matched by \"The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert\" in 1994 and by \"Muriel's Wedding\" to a lesser extent the same year. \"Priscilla\" in particular created a huge stir when it was first released. Starring the venerable British actor Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving, it is the story of three drag queens driving across the outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a large bus they have named Priscilla. It has gone on to be regarded as a camp classic -- though perhaps not in South Korea, where it was reportedly banned for fear it might encourage homosexuality. Less overtly camp than \"Priscilla\", \"Muriel's Wedding\" celebrates the lighter side of femininity. The story of a socially awkward 'ugly duckling' whose daydreams of a glamorous white wedding are soundtracked by Abba music, the film was a surprise hit globally and launched the Hollywood career of Toni Collette -- who has a role in \"Esther Blueburger\". Muriel (played by Collette) tramps around in leopard skin inviting bitchy comments from her crass friends until she eventually plucks up the courage to head to the city. Like \"Strictly Ballroom\", it exposes the mean-spiritedness that can blight small town life -- in this case the small town in question is the kitschy fictional coastal setting of Porpoise Spit. As well as their camp credentials, one thing these films share in common is a reluctance to slip into stereotyped depictions of Australians. Questions of national identity are explored with more subtlety through a range of characters, and the image of the Aussie bloke immortalised in the character of Mick Dundee is made to look a dated simplification. Still, this onslaught of camp sometimes proves too much, even for some of the films' characters. As Bernadette (played by Stamp) tells her fellow drag queens at one point in \"Priscilla\": \"I'll join this conversation on the proviso that we stop bitching about people, talking about wigs, dresses, bust sizes, penises, drugs, night clubs, and bloody Abba!\" To which Weaving's character Tick snaps back: \"Doesn't give us much to talk about then, does it?\"","highlights":"\"Hey, Hey It's Esther Blueburger\" is the latest comedy film to come out of Australia .\nLike many successful Australian comedies it relies on a high dose of kitsch .\nFilms like \"Strictly Ballroom\" have subverted the macho Aussie stereotype .\n\"The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert\" caused a storm on its release .","id":"e5a8eab9e22b226b5e8104fe576f484efd8f41bc"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fifteen first ladies from African nations will attend a two-day summit in Los Angeles on health, women's issues and HIV\/AIDS, organizers said Friday. Actors Billy Zane and Sharon Stone, with Ted Alemayhu and Jean Stephane Biatcha, help announce the summit. The conference, which begins Monday, is organized by U.S. Doctors for Africa (USDFA) and African Synergy Against AIDS and Suffering, a nonprofit organization formed by 22 first ladies from Africa. Sponsors include the RAND Corporation, General Electric, the World Health Organization and others. \"Empowering Africa's first ladies is an innovative approach to bettering the lives of millions of Africans,\" USDFA Chairman Ted Alemayhu said in a written statement. \"The summit will pair these leaders with U.S. experts, key political figures and important organizations to create ongoing partnerships.\" The event will include a summit, a gala and a private party. Expected attendees include the first ladies of Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Swaziland and Zambia. Maria Shriver, the wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will give opening remarks, according to a USDFA statement. Other celebrities expected to attend include Maria Bello, Diane Lane, Jessica Alba, Sharon Stone, Blair Underwood, Joely Fisher, Kristin Davis and Camryn Manheim, USDFA told CNN. Grammy award-winning singer Natalie Cole will perform at the gala, the organization said.","highlights":"Two-day meeting begins Monday in Los Angeles; will include gala, private party .\nU.S. Doctors for Africa, African Synergy Against AIDS and Suffering set up event .\nUSDFA chairman: Summit will pair first ladies with experts, key groups, politicians .\nMaria Shriver, Jessica Alba, Blair Underwood, Natalie Cole, other celebrities to attend .","id":"d929a1d4a9dc204e88eac83f499f945438dbff9b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Editor's note: Watch Tarantino talking about the making of \"Pulp Fiction\" on The Screening Room podcast. To receive regular movie podcasts subscribe here. Quentin Tarantino's first trip to Sundance wasn't exactly a success. Tarantino's hyper-violent, super cool debut feature \"Reservoir Dogs\" scorched audiences and critics alike when it came out in 1992. \"If you do this in real life, they're going to fire your ass,\" scolded cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, veteran of films like \"Lethal Weapon\" and \"Charlie Wilson's War.\" The novice filmmaker was participating in a directors' workshop at the Sundance Institute -- the film trust founded by Robert Redford which also runs the Sundance Film Festival. Unfortunately, Tarantino's mentors were just not feeling his experimental approach. The following week, a new group of mentors arrived, including ex-Monty Python member and filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Tarantino and his editor steeled themselves for the inevitable disapproval: \"Then Terry Gilliam comes in and goes 'Oh, your scene. Just great!'\" recalls the director. He is talking at the Cannes Film Festival Cinema Masterclass, following in the illustrious footsteps of directors like Wong Kar Wai, Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese. \"It was just like, you know what, that's gonna be my career. People are gonna either really like me or they're really not and just get f***ing used to it 'cause this is the deal,\" Tarantino says. A second visit to Sundance in 1992 proved more fruitful. His debut feature, \"Reservoir Dogs,\" a sassy, hyper-violent gangster movie, was the hit of the year. French film critic and regular on the European film festival circuit, Michel Ciment still remembers the effect it had on him when it showed at Cannes later that year: \"It was a big shock. I remember it was the most striking new American film since 'Mean Streets' 30 years before.\" Despite the impact of his droll, assured debut, Tarantino recalls being convinced he was going to get fired in the first two weeks of production. \"I just thought it was too good to be true. I couldn't help but think something like 'they don't let people like me make movies,'\" he says, laughing. Follow-up movie \"Pulp Fiction\" was awarded the coveted Palm D'Or at Cannes two years later, cementing his reputation as a movie-maker to be reckoned with. It was filled with the dark humor and bloody violence that would become known as Tarantino trademarks. The B-movie-obsessed director admits to getting a kick out of creating humor in inappropriate situations. \"I'm trying to get you to laugh at things you've never laughed at before,\" he explains. He cites his \"bigtime\" influences as movie brats like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma, as well as Sergio Leone and Howard Hawks. In person, he is a great raconteur and his expletive-littered speech is not a million miles away from the dialogue that's so central to his movies. \"I tend to think of myself as more of a novelist who makes movies than a director per se,\" he declares. But he dismisses his apparent love of language as a product of writing for acting classes: \"I started writing as an actor and it was all about dialogue and writing scenes to do.\" Before moving into directing, Tarantino studied acting for six years and says learning to act for the camera gave him an insight into how directors put a movie together -- frame by frame. That was what really taught him how to write for the movies. \"All of a sudden I started seeing [film] in a whole different way. When you start doing that, then it's only a few short steps until you start composing shots of your own,\" he explains. Tarantino has shown himself to be one of the most music-savvy directors of this generation with his use of songs like \"Little Green Bag\" by the George Baker Selection in the opening sequence of \"Reservoir Dogs\" and Nancy Sinatra's \"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)\" in \"Kill Bill Vol. 1.\" He, not immodestly, puts that skill down to his great music collection. \"The thing is, I have one of the best soundtrack collections in America,\" he boasts. That probably accounts for his scathing determination never to use film composers: \"I don't trust any composers to do it. I would just never give anybody that kind of responsibility,\" he says, \"Who the f*** is this guy coming in here, throwing their s*** all over my movie?\" And he admits that his inner film buff enjoys the cornerstones of action cinema that some of his later movies have explored. \"I love action scenes, but they are hard, and in a way that's what's fun about them. These cool little puzzles. To me, action scenes are some of the most cinematic moments that you can do in film,\" he says. \"Kill Bill Vol. One\" and \"Kill Bill Vol. Two,\" starring Tarantino muse and Hollywood A-lister Uma Thurman, are his movie-geek nod to the kung fu genre. When he started filming \"Vol. One,\" Tarantino hadn't made a film for six years and with typical chutzpah challenged himself to choreograph astonishingly intricate fight scenes. \"If I throw my hat in the ring with the greatest action directors who ever lived ... I wanna be as good as them,\" he asserts. He continues to work his way through his action movie checklist. In his latest movie, \"Death Proof,\" a homage to sleazy 70s B-movies that stars Kurt Russell as a murderous stuntman, he puts his own spin on another of action film's fundamentals -- the car chase. Tarantino is critical of CGI being used so much in film today. All the seat-grippingly tense stunts in \"Death Proof\" are real and he specifically cast a stuntwoman, Zoe Bell, in one of the leading roles to achieve this. It may have been ambitious, but \"Death Proof,\" which is one half of \"Grindhouse,\" a B-movie-referencing double bill he made with fellow director Robert Rodriguez, got a critical mauling and didn't fare much better at the box office. But then Tarantino has long been resigned to people either loving or hating his movies.","highlights":"\"Reservoir Dogs\" and \"Kill Bill\" director Quentin Tarantino talks about his films .\nTarantino realised early in his career audiences would either love or hate his films .\nThe movie geek's second film \"Pulp Fiction\" won the Palm D'Or at Cannes .\nOn his style: \"I'm trying to get you to laugh at things you've never laughed at before\"","id":"c754e34d40dad4731f0c02732387fc91810a5e16"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Scientist and author Stephen Hawking is \"very ill\" and has been hospitalized, according to Cambridge University, where he is a professor. Stephen Hawking in Pasadena, California, in March. Cambridge University said the 67-year-old is \"comfortable\" and will stay overnight at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. Hawking, one of the world's most famous physicists, is also a cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician. Wheelchair-bound Hawking is perhaps most famous for \"A Brief History of Time,\" which explored the origins of the universe in layman's terms. The book is considered a modern classic. Hawking has Lou Gehrig's Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS), which is usually fatal after three years. Hawking has survived for more than 40 years since his diagnosis. On his Web site, Hawking has written about living with ALS. \"I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many,\" he wrote. He added: \"I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope.\" The disease has left him paralyzed -- he is able to move only a few fingers on one hand. Hawking is completely dependent on others or technology for virtually everything -- bathing, dressing, eating, even speech. He uses a speech synthesizer with an American accent. Hawking has been married and divorced twice. In 2004, police completed an investigation into accusations by Hawking's daughter that his second wife was abusing him. Authorities said they found no proof. His Web site says he has three children and one grandchild. Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on what turned out to be an auspicious date: January 8, 1942 -- the 300th anniversary of the death of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. A Cambridge University spokesman told CNN: \"Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge.\" Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university's department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: \"Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague, we all hope he will be amongst us again soon.\" At Cambridge, he holds the position of Lucasian Professor Mathematics -- the prestigious post held from 1669 to 1702 by Sir Isaac Newton. Hawking has guest-starred, as himself, on Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Simpsons. He also said if he had the choice of meeting Newton or Marilyn Monroe, his choice would be Marilyn. In October, CNN's Becky Anderson interviewed Hawking. The following are some quotes from that interview: . \"Over the last twenty years, observations have to a large extent confirmed the picture I painted in 'A Brief History of Time.' The one major development that was not anticipated was the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating now, rather than slowing down... We live in the most probable of all possible worlds.\" CNN's Jennifer Pifer contributed to this report .","highlights":"Physicist Stephen Hawking hospitalized Monday in \"very ill\" condition .\n67-year-old suffers from degenerative condition known as Lou Gehrig's Disease .\nHawking is considered by many to be world's greatest living scientist .","id":"8e77be9162d16995b3a231c098e0b25717b5b04b"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- One of the most destructive moments in Chinese history is bringing together -- at least temporarily -- this vast nation of more than a billion people, made up of disparate ethnic groups stretching across five time zones. Thousands chant \"China, keep moving\" during a rally in Chengdu's Tianfu Square. When millions of Chinese paused for three minutes of silence Monday, they personified the surge in patriotism and charity that has swept this country since a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake leveled large sections of Sichuan province in southwestern China. Moments after the observance ended, chants of \"Go, China, Go!\" broke out in Tiananmen Square, where a Chinese military crackdown in 1989 left hundreds dead. Sentiments have changed since the days of the anti-government protests. \"As Chinese we must be united,\" said a student. \"We Chinese can do it!\" Some of Monday's demonstrators waved Chinese flags while others hoisted banners with slogans like \"Rebuild Sichuan!\" iReport.com: Thousands rally in Chengdu . Horrific scenes of death and devastation -- covered heavily by the local media -- have triggered a surge of patriotism and charity. \"When one is in trouble,\" the Chinese say, \"help comes from all directions.\" In Beijing, Chinese officials, entertainers, athletes and artists attended a marathon concert, giving donations and calling on the public to give more. The benefit concert raised more than 1.51 billion yuan, or $216 million. More donations are pouring in through other channels. Watch report on how quake has united Chinese \u00bb . As of Sunday, Chinese nationals had donated more than 4.9 billion yuan ($700 million) in cash and goods for earthquake relief, according to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs. Live on Chinese TV, local businesses pledged to give money and build free housing for victims -- an unusual display of civic charity. As of last Saturday, Chinese enterprises had donated more than 3.5 billion yuan ($501 million) in cash and relief goods. \"Traditionally the Chinese people don't share as much with strangers. They share a great deal among friends and family, but not with strangers,\" according to China analyst Zhang Daxing. At The Bookworm, a Beijing bookstore, residents drop off relief goods that are promptly shipped to disaster areas. \"My guess would be about 350 boxes, which include kid's clothes, adult clothes, a lot of sleeping bags, tents, dried food, shoes, that type of stuff,\" said store owner Alex Pearson. Students in the Chinese capital have even taken to the street to collect donations. \"Although we cannot go to Sichuan to save them, we can still help them with donated money,\" one student said. Analysts say this unprecedented display of charity is partly in response to the quick action already taken by Chinese officials to the emergency. The Chinese media have repeatedly shown Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao comforting survivors. Many believe this has inspired Chinese residents to do what they can to help. Meantime, a new image of China is emerging around the world. \"The earthquake changed China's international image from an oppressor or an authoritarian government to a victim of natural disaster and human tragedy,\" said Wenfang Tang, professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh. The Chinese, at least for now, are more united as a people and more charitable, as citizens pull together in the wake of a massive earthquake. CNN's Sherisse Pham contributed to this report .","highlights":"Destructive moment in Chinese history has helped bring people together .\nChants of \"Go, China, Go!\" broke out after silence tribute to dead on Monday Sentiments have changed since the days of the anti-government protests .","id":"af7289b6b1863e2c0edf1b565d42f6ff149e034f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Pulitzer Prize winners for 2009 were announced Monday, with The New York Times capturing five of the awards. Writer Jon Meacham won a Pulitzer Prize in biography for \"American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.\" The Times garnered wins in the categories of breaking news reporting, investigative reporting, international reporting, criticism and feature photography. In the international reporting category, The Times won for its reporting on the battles in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the arts, \"Olive Kitteridge\" by Elizabeth Strout won for fiction, \"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II\" by Douglas A. Blackmon won in the general nonfiction category, and \"American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House\" by Jon Meacham won for the category of biography. Among the winners in journalism categories were the Las Vegas (Nevada) Sun for public service, the San Diego (California) Union-Tribune's Steve Breen for editorial cartooning and columnist Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post for commentary. For the first time, all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories were open for competition from news organizations that publish only on the Internet. Entirely online entries were previously permitted in only two categories: breaking news coverage and breaking news photography . Since 2006, online content from newspaper Web sites had been permitted in all Pulitzer journalism categories, but online-only newspapers were not allowed to submit entries. Despite the opportunity, there were no winners from online only news sites. Web sites for print magazines and broadcast outlets are not eligible to enter, said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. Amy Mitchell, deputy director for the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, said that allowing online-only publications to apply for the prestigious award is recognition of the growing importance of online media. \"Much of [media] comes from traditional press, but a lot is coming from non-traditional press as well, and that needs to be recognized along with what's being produced in traditional media,\" she said. \"We've clearly hit a point now where we've seen the audience migration to the Web accelerate.\" Mitchell said a survey of online journalists conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found some concerns about the possibility of online reporting changing the fundamental values of journalism. Those surveyed cited issues like a focus on speed and loss of accuracy as possible issues that could arise with journalism on the Web. But with those concerns, Mitchell said, comes the opportunity to tell stories in a multidimensional way. \"We see some tremendous reporting that could not exist in former modes of communication,\" she said, observing that media platforms such as text, photo galleries and video can not only be connected but be used to connect journalists to Internet users and Internet users to each other. \"Those are tremendous changes,\" she said. Robert M. Steele, the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University in Indiana, said the core values of accuracy and fairness have to be honored, no matter the method of reporting. Still, Steele said, further opening the Pulitzer Prizes to online publications \"gives further weight to the role that digital journalism plays in this era.\" \"In some ways, it's increased legitimacy for new forms of delivering journalism,\" Steele said. \"It also heightens the discussion about the distinction between basic information and substantive journalism. Just because somebody throws something online doesn't mean it is journalism.\" David Plotz, editor of Slate, said his site did not apply for the Pulitzers despite what he believes was his publication's exceptional political, technology and business coverage. \"We are not a hard-news site, and we don't do the kinds of stories and projects that have traditionally been awarded,\" Plotz said. Plotz said the recognition for online journalism is more than warranted. \"It's an overdue acknowledgement that some of the best journalism in the world and in America is being created not for print publication but for places that live entirely on the Web,\" he said. \"There's so much of it that doesn't ever get into a print publication and yet is as important to shaping the debate and to changing how people think about things as to anything you might read in one of our great newspapers or magazines.\" Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were also awarded to the following: Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles (California) Times for explanatory reporting; the Detroit (Michigan) Free Press Staff, and notably Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick and Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley (Arizona) Tribune for local reporting; and the staff of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times for national reporting. Also receiving awards were Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times for feature writing; Mark Mahoney of The Glens Falls (New York) Post-Star for editorial writing; and Patrick Farrell of The Miami (Florida) Herald for breaking news photography. In the arts, \"Ruined\" by Lynn Nottage won for drama; \"The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family\" by Annette Gordon-Reed won for history; \"The Shadow of Sirius\" by W.S. Merwin won the poetry category; \"Double Sextet\" by Steve Reich won for music.","highlights":"Prizes were awarded Monday for excellence in journalism and the arts .\nFor first time, online-only news sites could compete .\nSlate editor: overdue acknowledgement of quality Web-based journalism .","id":"cc649f6807b0d35ceb69b442694fdd1cf6fc174b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Dan Buettner is the best-selling author of \"The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest.\" Watch Buettner's reports from Greece all week on \"AC360\u00b0\" Greek-American Yiannis Karimalis, 73, lives in Ikaria nearly 40 years after a diagnosis of stomach cancer. Ikaria, GREECE (CNN) -- In 1970, when doctors diagnosed Greek-American Yiannis Karimalis with stomach cancer and only gave him a few months to live, he decided to move back to Ikaria, his birth island. There, he reasoned, he could be buried more inexpensively among his fellow Greeks. But when he moved back to the island he didn't die. He has lived nearly 40 years more. And when he returned to America on a recent visit, he discovered that his doctors were all dead. The people on this 99-square-mile Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea smugly tell this story as yet another example of what they've always known and scientists are now discovering: People in Ikaria live longer than in just about any other place in the world. A recent study of 90-year-old siblings, conducted by the National Hellenic Research Foundation, discovered 10 times more 90-year-old brothers and sisters here than the European average. Why is this important? Most scientists agree that the average human should live to age 90. (You have to have won the genetic lottery to live to 100.) But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says life expectancy in America is 78. Somewhere along the line, we're losing about a dozen years -- most of them to costly and potentially preventable chronic diseases such as heart attacks, diabetes and cancer. These diseases are dragging down our health care system and account for much of the reason why the National Institute on Aging says the average American suffers about three disabled end-of-life years during which they incur 90 percent of our lifelong health care costs. Ikarians are avoiding these diseases and reaching age 90 at a rate of about four times the rate that Americans do. They are getting the good years we're missing, dying quickly and less expensively. For the next two weeks, I'm leading \"The Blue Zones\" expedition, an AARP and National Geographic sponsored team of the world's best demographers, physicians, medical researchers and media specialists, to explore Ikarian longevity. We already have a few clues. Since at least the sixth century B.C., Icaria was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as a health destination -- largely for its hot springs believed to relieve pain, joint problems and skin ailments. Our team has reviewed reports of high levels of radon in these baths and will be exploring a theory that chronic exposure to low-level radiation may help protect DNA against the ravages of aging. For much of the ensuing two millenniums, people here lived in relative isolation. The people here evolved a unique diet that we believe is a more heart-protective version of the Mediterranean diet. We're doing pharmacological analyses of dozens of herbal teas and unique honey produced by bees that draw pollen of thyme, fir and erica. We think we'll find anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and probiotic properties in these locally produced products. We also know that people here have a vastly different character than the rest of the Mediterranean. They have volcanic tempers that quickly subside. Despite living on harsh, steep terrain, they're known for relentless optimism and three-day parties. They don't get stressed by deadlines. They go to bed well after midnight, sleep late and take naps. Anecdotally, we know that most people over 90 are sexually active. Do these people possess the true secret to longevity? We're not sure yet, but we'll certainly distill a few clues about living longer, better. Ikarian wisdom may not help you live to 100. But at least they may help you outlive your doctor. Follow and vote to direct Dan's expedition at aarp.org\/bluezones . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Buettner.","highlights":"Yiannis Karimalis moved back to Greece in 1970 after learning he had months to live .\nKarimalis returned recently to the U.S. to find all his doctors had died .\nKarimalis' home -- Greek island Ikaria -- boasts among longest life expectancies .\nTeam of experts are exploring Ikarian longevity .","id":"6d4fd29176041ec099ffe03a2a1e5f265e558949"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday amid tensions between the two countries about U.S. military incursions into Pakistan's tribal areas. Adm. Michael Mullen will meet with Pakistan's new prime minister and its military chief. Adm. Michael Mullen will meet with Pakistan's newly elected prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, and Pakistan's military chief, Gen. Parvez Kayani, Mullen's office said. Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been tense since the U.S. military sent ground forces into Pakistan's tribal regions earlier this month without Islamabad's permission. The incident prompted the Pakistani government to summon the U.S. ambassador to voice its disapproval, as well as deliver a \"demarche\" (a diplomatic petition or protest) through its ambassador in Washington. Last week, Kayani announced no foreign forces will be allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan in light of the \"reckless\" U.S. military ground operation. Kayani said Pakistan's \"territorial integrity ... will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations ... inside Pakistan.\" His announcement came amid media reports that several months ago, President Bush authorized U.S. special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without first seeking Islamabad's permission. Meanwhile, a suicide attack late Tuesday evening in the restive area of Swat killed three soldiers and wounded six others, the Pakistani military told CNN. Pakistan army spokesman Major Murad Khan said the driver of the suicide car bomb tried to ram the gate of a military checkpoint at a school in the Swat District. Troops shot from the check-post before the attacker reached his target, Khan said. The car exploded, and militants shot back as they ran away. The incident happened at a time when Muslims break their fasts in the month of Ramadhan. Swat militants loyal to banned religious leader Maulana Fazlullah have claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the military. The suicide attacker in the car was killed. A few others were also believed to have been killed or injured, but Khan said there were no confirmed numbers because it was dark and the militants removed the bodies of their dead and wounded. The explosion occurred at the Tutano Bandai school of Tehsil Kabal in Swat District in the North West Frontier Province. A military spokesman offer no additional details. CNN's Jamie McIntyre and Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adm. Michael Mullen to meet with Pakistan's new prime minister and military chief .\nRelations between U.S. and Pakistan tense since U.S. raid in Pakistani tribal region .\nSuicide attack kills 3 soldiers, wounds 6 others in Pakistan region of Swat .","id":"21dc7e508a38a9b8db5f2f9e7f5e727e49cfcdd8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A federal immigration board rejected an emergency appeal Friday for a stay of deportation filed by the lawyer for Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk. John Demjanjuk, shown at his 1993 Israel acquittal, is sought by Germany for alleged killings at a Nazi camp. The decision by the Department of Justice's Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia, clears the way for Demjanjuk's deportation to Germany, where he is being sought for his alleged involvement during World War II in killings at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland. The deportation of Demjanjuk would close a chapter in one of the longest-running pursuits of an alleged Holocaust perpetrator in history, while also paving the way for an extraordinary German war crimes trial. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are now free to pick up Demjanjuk at any point and take him into custody for transport to Germany, a board official said. The appeals board rejected Demjanjuk's emergency stay request because it concluded \"there is little likelihood of success that his pending motion to re-open the case will be granted,\" according to board officials. The pending motion argues that a deportation of Demjanjuk, 89, to Germany would constitute torture. \"In the four years since his deportation was [initially] ordered, his health has seriously deteriorated,\" Demjanjuk's attorney, John Broadley, told CNN in a recent telephone interview. Broadley said Demjanjuk suffers from pre-leukemia, kidney problems, spinal problems and \"a couple of types of gout.\" The board, however, has already signaled that argument will be rejected. Demjanjuk may make an additional expedited appeal for an emergency stay to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, though his chances of getting the board's ruling overturned are believed to be slim, according to Justice Department officials. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center found irony in Broadley's argument for his client. \"He wants to plead the sense of fairness that he regularly denied all of the victims at Sobibor,\" Hier said. Hier called Demjanjuk's comparison of his planned deportation to torture \"preposterous coming from a person that served the [Nazi organization] S.S. in a death camp. It is a preposterous argument and insulting to the survivors of the Holocaust.\" Hier said that 250,000 Jews were killed at the camp, and that none of the guards who worked there was blameless. \"You were there for one job: kill the Jews,\" he said. \"And that's what they did full-time.\" He called the evidence against Demjanjuk \"overwhelming.\" German authorities issued an arrest warrant for Demjanjuk on March 10, accusing him of being an accessory to 29,000 counts of murder as a guard at the death camp from March to September 1943. They studied an identification card provided by the U.S. Office of Special Investigations, and concluded it was genuine, before issuing the warrant. Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker living in Cleveland, Ohio, has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for more than two decades. He was previously extradited from the United States to Israel, where he was convicted in 1986 of being \"Ivan the Terrible,\" a guard at the notorious Treblinka extermination camp. The conviction was overturned by Israeli courts on appeal, and he returned to the United States. The United States filed new charges against him in 1999, again alleging that he had been a concentration camp guard. He was stripped of U.S. citizenship and has been awaiting deportation since 2005, despite fighting his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian, says he fought in the Soviet army and later was a prisoner of war held by the Germans. CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk loses an appeal to avoid deportation .\nGerman authorities seek him for alleged involvement in Nazi camp killings .\nThe retired autoworker denies all allegations .\nDemjanjuk, 89, lives with his wife in Cleveland, Ohio .","id":"43904b485bc0192e4dd497bdea1e02943b4d7997"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan army launched an operation against Tamil rebels in the country's north early Monday, the military said, claiming to have rescued thousands of civilians trapped in a government safe zone. The Sri Lankan army has relaunched its attacks on Tamil rebels in the country's north. A rebel Web site, TamilNet, said government forces were engaged in a fresh ground offensive. A TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported heavy shelling, rocket fire and gunfire. Thirty civilians died in shelling Sunday, rebels said. The government of Sri Lanka has been battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) rebels in a civil conflict that has lasted nearly 25 years. \"Thousands of civilians who had been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists in the government declared No Fire Zone (NFZ) were rescued early hours this morning, 20 April, as the troops engaged in a massive scale rescue mission, were able to open a safe passage for the civilians,\" the Ministry of Defense Web site said. More than 10,000 civilians are trying to seek refuge with soldiers, the military said. The upsurge in hostilities follows a two-day cessation last week for the Sinhala and Hindu New Year. The U.S. State Department on Thursday called for a cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers to allow civilians to escape the fighting. \"We call upon the government and military of Sri Lanka, and the Tamil Tigers, to immediately stop hostilities until the more than 140,000 civilians in the conflict area are safely out,\" acting spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement. \"Both sides must immediately return to a humanitarian pause and both must respect the right of free movement of those civilian men, women and children trapped by the fighting.\" Watch the heavy toll of fighting on civilians \u00bb . A brief cessation of hostilities announced by the Sri Lankan government on April 12 allowed the United Nations and its partners to bring in aid, but a renewed government offensive has left civilians trapped in a war zone. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his humanitarian chief John Holmes called the brief halt in fighting inadequate and have pushed for a longer humanitarian pause in fighting. The most pressing concern now, according to Holmes, is the fact that more than 100,000 people are crowded in a \"very small pocket of land\" that is about five square miles, or about twice the size of New York's Central Park. \"It is a very small area indeed for what we believe is a very large number of people,\" Holmes told reporters Wednesday. Overcrowding is also a problem in camps housing displaced people, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). As of Monday, some 65,000 displaced people were crammed into camps in Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mannar, with 35,000 more expected to arrive within 48 hours, the organization said in a statement. ' UNICEF said it feared for children trapped in the escalating fighting and is worried that the worst is yet to come. The group appealed for donations to help cover \"the most immediate needs of the affected population in health and nutrition, water and sanitation, protection and education.\" The crowded population, primarily comprised of Tamil civilians, is subject to the continuing Sri Lankan government assaults. The British and French foreign ministers released a joint statement as well on Wednesday, saying that the Tamil Tigers are using Tamil civilians as human shields. The Tigers have been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict officially began in 1983. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that it has helped evacuate more than 10,000 sick and injured patients, and their caregivers, from Putumattalan in rebel-held territory since February. \"These evacuations have saved many lives,\" said Morven Murchinson, the Red Cross medical coordinator in Sri Lanka. \"It is vital that they continue, because more sick and wounded people are arriving every day at the makeshift medical facilities in Putumattalan.\" The Red Cross says there's an acute shortage of medical supplies in the region, which it is trying to rectify.","highlights":"NEW: Fears voiced by UNICEF for children trapped in the escalating fighting .\nUpsurge in hostilities follows cessation for New Year .\nU.N. humanitarian chief: Large number of people crowded in very small area .\nTamil Tigers, Sri Lanka government locked in conflict lasting nearly 25 years .","id":"2fbf6096dfb1ece710e028e39b8d1ecf43cc3187"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The women hockey players gathered at the center of the rink and prayed. Tears wet their cheeks and most held hands. Then they lit 10 candles, the number on the jersey of the missing teammate, the one with the huge smile and even bigger heart, who died in last week's plane crash. Madeline Loftus, 24, was killed aboard Flight 3407. She was returning to Buffalo for a reunion hockey game. Madeline Loftus, known as Maddy, was one of 49 people to die aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407 last Thursday. She was returning to Buffalo State College to play in a reunion hockey game on Saturday, to meet up with her old classmates to play the game she loved so dearly. \"She popped into my head every time I got back to the bench,\" said former teammate Emma Wadsworth. Breaking down in tears, she said the game was filled with sadness because \"Maddy wasn't here.\" She described Loftus as an \"awesome teammate, a beautiful person always smiling, and always upbeat, and ready to cheer you up if you were having a bad day.\" Watch a promising life cut short \u00bb . \"She was just amazing,\" Wadsworth said. Her teammates said they decided to play the game out, because Loftus would've wanted them to play on. Loftus' No. 10 jersey hung from the bench near her friends and former players. \"It's a really hard time for her teammates, for her friends, for her family,\" said teammate Janelle Junior. Loftus, 24, of Parsippany, New Jersey, played two seasons at Buffalo State from 2002 to 2004 before transferring to St. Mary's University in Minnesota after her sophomore year. At St. Mary's, she was a marketing major who starred on the hockey team from 2004 to 2006. While there, Loftus helped form the Cardinal Athletic Council, a student-athlete outreach program to help with community service projects. \"Madeline was an important part of the university and athletic communities. Our thoughts and prayers now turn to Madeline's family, friends and teammates as they cope with this sudden loss,\" St. Mary's athletic director Nikki Fennern said in a statement. \"Maddy was the first senior to graduate from my program. She will always hold a special place in my heart,\" said Terry Mannor, St. Mary's women's hockey coach. \"Everyone who knew her will remember someone full of life and compassion. She was loved by everyone and will be greatly missed.\" Officials in Buffalo have said that it may take several days before all the bodies are recovered from the crash site, as investigators work through freezing temperatures and piles of wreckage. See photos of the crash site \u00bb . About 1,000 people gathered at a church in western New York Monday to remember the crash victims. The community memorialized the 50 victims, with religious leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities offering words of sympathy to the community. \"We've gathered today because western New York has entered a season of grieving,\" said Pastor Karl Eastlack of the Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church. Each speaker emphasized that everyone in the community is connected by the tragedy. One leader said we \"gather in our common desire to console one another.\" All 49 passengers and crew members aboard the 74-seat turboprop were killed when the plane crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York, on Thursday night. A 61-year-old man in the house was also killed. While investigators try to piece together the cause of the crash, portraits of those who died aboard the flight have emerged: . \u2022 Alison Des Forges spent four years in Rwanda documenting the 1994 genocide and had testified about that atrocity and the current situation in central Africa before U.N. and congressional panels. \u2022 Beverly Eckert was the widow of Sean Rooney, who died in the World Trade Center in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. After Sean's death, Eckert co-founded Voices of September 11, an advocacy group for survivors of the attacks and families of those killed. \u2022 Gerry Niewood was traveling with jazz guitarist Coleman Mellett for a show with musician Chuck Mangione and the Buffalo Philharmonic at Kleinhans Music Hall. \u2022 Co-pilot Rebecca Shaw's father said she loved to fly and \"couldn't believe she'd get paid\" when she took the job. Learn more about the victims . On the ice rink in Buffalo Saturday, Loftus' friends played with a heavy heart. This would have been her first time on the ice with her former Buffalo State teammates since her playing days. Jessica Aykroyd said she had spoken with Loftus right before she left for the airport. \"The last thing I have is: Can't wait to see you,\" Aykroyd said. Lindsay Welch said simply, \"Her friends and hockey is what she was all about.\" So passionate about hockey, Loftus was the first female to play on the boys' team in high school. In college, when she wasn't playing, she worked as a student assistant for the ice rink. \"She was a great student, she was a great hockey player and just a great person. Everybody loved being around her,\" said rink manager Jim Fowler. Those who knew her in Minnesota agreed. \"Her classmates were always eager to work with her on projects,\" said Thomas Marpe, dean of St. Mary's School of Business. \"Maddy was enthusiastic about life and especially about women's hockey.\" CNN's Ines Ferre contributed to this report.","highlights":"Madeline Loftus was a beloved student, hockey player who died aboard Flight 3407 .\nThe 24-year-old was returning to Buffalo to play in a collegiate reunion game .\nHer former teammates played the game Saturday with a heavy heart .\n\"She popped into my head every time I got back to the bench,\" former teammate says .","id":"1712d6a3a9ac92d2d9ba953ab7bc79ad21fc81be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen has claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide bombing attack on a building housing Yemeni security forces. Al Qaeda in Yemen have claimed that Ahmed bin Said bin Omar al-Mashjari, right, carried out Friday's attack. \"This attack was carried out in revenge for our brothers whose blood is on the hands of the infidel Yemeni forces,\" according to an e-mailed statement that included a photo of the alleged suicide attacker. The photo identifies the attacker as Ahmed bin Said bin Omar al-Mashjari -- also known as Abu Dajjana al-Hadarmi -- from Yemen's Hadramout governate where the attack took place. He is standing next to another man whose face is covered in front of a black-and-white banner. Both men have weapons slung across their shoulders; guns and ammunition belts are also pictured beneath the banner in the background. Al-Mashjari is wearing a black and white head covering, but his face is visible. The e-mailed statement was dated July 25, the day of the attack, but it was distributed and posted online on Sunday. According to Yemen's state-run news agency SABA, a suicide car bomber crashed the white 2003 KIA into the gates of the security camp in the southern city of Sayoun on Friday, prompting guards to open fire on the attacker. The SABA report gave no details on casualties. Yemen's Interior Ministry said four people were killed and 12 were injured, but the Yemen Post, an English-language newspaper that covers events in Yemen, put the number at 10 dead and about a dozen wounded. Hadramout's governor Saleh al-Khanbashi described the bombing as a criminal terrorist act, and threatened to track down and bring to justice those responsible, SABA reported. CNN Senior Arab Affairs Editor Octavia Nasr contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Web site shows photo of alleged suicide attacker along with statement .\nAl Qaeda's Yemen branch claims responsibility for suicide bombing attack .\nCar bomb exploded at a building housing security forces Friday in southern city .\nSources in the country put the death toll from blast between 4 and 10 .","id":"ece2038804b6dd2fc000f324bb79a97beb644f89"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea is to blow up a key part of its controversial Yongbyon nuclear reactor on Friday. Hyun Hak-Bong (right), North Korea's deputy negotiator to six-party talks, crosses the border into South Korea on June 5. The destruction of the plant's cooling tower is part of an agreement with the United States aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula in exchange for loosening some restrictions on the highly secretive Communist country. The North Korean government has invited news organizations, including CNN, to witness the event. Earlier this year, Pyongyang agreed to disable its nuclear reactor and provide a full accounting of its plutonium stockpile, \"acknowledge\" concerns about its proliferation activities and its uranium enrichment activity, and agree to continue cooperation with a verification process to ensure no further activities are taking place. North Korea has been taking Yongbyon's main reactor apart, but imploding the cooling tower is an exceptionally important psychological step given that the highly recognizable shape of the structure is synonymous with nuclear power plants. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says it would take a year to rebuild if North Korea decided to go back on its agreement, and that the construction could not be done in secret. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended U.S. diplomacy toward North Korea last week, saying the deal with Pyongyang made Asia and the U.S. safer. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, Rice said that \"North Korea will soon give its declaration of nuclear programs to China.\" China is the host of the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, along with Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States. Rice spoke in advance of her upcoming trip to Asia where she will be attending a meeting of G8 foreign ministers and meeting with her Asian counterparts. Rice said once North Korea submits its declaration, President Bush will notify Congress he intends to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and scrap some sanctions levied against North Korea because of nuclear concerns. But she noted that there would be no practical effect to loosening the restrictions because North Korea still was under the same sanctions because of other areas of U.S. law. Rice said a 45-day review would then begin to see if North Korea is telling the truth and living up to its end of the deal struck in the six-party talks. \"Before those actions go into effect, we would continue to assess the level of North Korean cooperation in helping to verify the accuracy and completeness of its declaration,\" she said. \"And if that cooperation is insufficient, we will respond accordingly.\" The United States softened its demand that North Korea publicly admit to having a highly enriched uranium program and to providing Syria with nuclear technology, key unanswered questions that have left negotiations stalled for months. North Korea has already handed over about 18,000 documents on its nuclear past to the U.S., which the U.S. says are critical to verify North Korea's claims. Rice said that the deal with North Korea wasn't perfect but offered the U.S. the best chance to learn about North Korea's nuclear history. \"We must keep the broader goal in mind: the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons and programs, all of them,\" she said. \"North Korea has said that it is committed to this goal. We'll see.\" Rice said that \"no final agreement can be concluded\" unless the U.S. verifies North Korea's claims. CNN State Department Correspondent Elise Labott contributed to this report .","highlights":"North Korea plans to destroy nuclear plant's cooling tower .\nImplosion is part of an agreement with the United States .\nU.N. says the cooling tower would take a year to rebuild .\nLong-term aim is to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons .","id":"47a98e094ad69d334e07d7f928d1b6403aaf227b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police officers responsible for protecting the British royal family handled firearms when drunk, traded pornography and steroids and sat on Queen Elizabeth II's throne in comical poses, it has been alleged in a London court. The former royal protection officer was responsible for security at Buckingham Palace. The allegations were made Tuesday by John Cooper, the lawyer for former royal protection officer Paul Page, who is accused of defrauding colleagues and friends to fund a life of luxury, The British Press Association reported. According to PA, the claims were made during a lengthy cross-examination of Adam McGregor, a colleague of Page who left service at London's Buckingham Palace in 2005, who has accused the former officer of \"conning\" him out of thousands of dollars. At one point Cooper \"suggested\" there had been a procedure among armed officers at the palace whereby one officer on duty would sleep while the others kept watch for their superior. McGregor denied any knowledge of this and all other allegations of wrongdoing among his colleagues at the iconic Royal residence. However, when pressed further he did admit to sitting on one of the thrones, but did not recall doing any \"comical poses.\" The court also heard that officers protecting the royals lost more than \u00a3250,000 ($365,800) to a spread betting venture called \"The Currency Club,\" one of a number of apparently successful sidelines Page allegedly set up to clear spiraling debts, PA said. According to the BBC, Page extracted around \u00a33 million ($4.4 million) from some 57 lenders or investors. Cooper suggested that McGregor had been \"one of those police officers\" using mobile patrols to deliver cash to other police officers based in Royal Protection who were involved in financial matters. The accusation was again denied by McGregor. He instead claimed he had been \"totally sucked in\" by Page. \"I was totally sucked in by Paul he is a very charismatic person,\" he said, before adding that he had acted \"very naively and very stupidly\" in some of his dealings with his former colleague. The prosecution claimed much of the money was promptly laundered by Page's wife before being gambled away, as Page himself hid his dishonesty behind a \" veneer of credibility\" fueled by a fleet of expensive cars and claims he was a highly \"adept\" property developer and market speculator, PA said. Father of five Page, 37, from Essex in south-east England, has denied five charges -- two of fraudulent trading, one of intimidation, threatening to take revenge and making a threat to kill between January 1, 2003 and March 30, 2007. His wife Laura, 42, denied \"being concerned in an arrangement facilitating dealings with criminal property,\" intimidation and threatening to kill.","highlights":"Paul and Laura Page accused of defrauding colleagues to fund a life of luxury .\nPage's lawyer suggested other royal officers were involved in wrongdoing .\nProsecution: Page's colleagues lost $365,800 to a spread betting scam .\nRoyal Protection service responsible for security of Britain's Royal family .","id":"309c4dec9922d4bc872eb460e63b97c94de6e130"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Italian international star Filippo Inzaghi scored a hat-trick as AC Milan went second in Serie A with a 5-1 win over Torino in the San Siro on Sunday. Beckham and Mathieu Flamini take part in an unusual goal celebration in the San Siro. The legendary goalscorer has now put away nine in the last six matches but it was his combination with England international David Beckham which electrified the Milan fans. Beckham, who had sat out the last two games because of a shoulder injury, set up Inzaghi for his opening two goals in the 13th and 37th minutes from a corner and a clever chip, both headed home. After the interval, Inzaghi completed his hat-trick on the hour mark before Kaka added a penalty for the fourth. Ivan Franceschini pulled one back for Torino in the 80th minute, but Massimo Ambrosini rounded off the Milan scoring in the final minute. The win sees Milan level on points with Juventus but with a better goal difference. They trail leaders Inter by 10 points. In the battle for the fourth and final Champions League qualifying spot, AS Roma beat Lecce 3-2 with captain Francesco Totti scoring twice. Fifth-placed Fiorentina hardly helped their cause with a 3-1 defeat to Udinese, missing the chance to move a place higher after Genoa lost 1-0 at home to Lazio on Saturday. Improving Roma are now three points behind Fiorentina and five adrift of fourth-placed Genoa. Kwadwo Asamoah put Udinese ahead in the 10th minute lead and Gaetano D'Agostino doubled the lead from the penalty spot early in the second half. Dario Dainelli pulled one back for La Viola after 67 minutes but D'Agostino's second sealed three points.","highlights":"Inzaghi continues impressive scoring streak with another hat-trick .\nReturning Beckham supplies assists for opening two goals in San Siro .\nFrancesco Totti scores twice as AS Roma beat Lecce 3-2 .","id":"c65c4a1ba2b20ef8f4a6628cbd53d41342afb159"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Spike Lee's last film, the gratifyingly tense and tricky \"Inside Man,\" was celebrated -- rightly -- for the way that Lee finally jumped, feet first, into the studio-genre-movie game. Director Spike Lee poses for a shot during the filming of \"Miracle at St. Anna\" in Rome, Italy. He cooked up a gourmet-popcorn heist thriller and stamped every moment with his personality. Lee, until now, has never made a movie -- good or bad -- that wasn't unmistakably his. His latest, \"Miracle at St. Anna,\" is the first Hollywood feature to tell the story of the African-American soldiers who fought in the U.S. armed forces during World War II , and as such it's a movie with a monumental mission. Unfortunately, that's more or less the only monumental thing about it. \"Miracle\" isn't powerful, it's muddled and diffuse, and the disappointment of the film begins with what a hard time I had finding Spike Lee in it. Based on a 2002 novel by James McBride, who also wrote the screenplay, the movie has a drifting, scattershot structure and no real organizing tone or style (if you wondered what Lee's frozen-figure-on-receding-background shots might look like in a wartime setting, then keep wondering). The bizarrely contrived framing device is set in the 1980s, when a postal worker named Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) mutters in anger at an old John Wayne war flick on TV, then shoots and kills a man who shows up to buy stamps. (He surely has his reasons, but does he really get away with stashing a loaded Luger under his post-office window each day?) Watch Spike Lee talk about the film \u00bb . After his arrest, Hector won't talk, but a reporter finds a clue in the form of a priceless artifact hidden in his apartment: the head of a statue that once adorned a bridge in Florence that was wrecked by bombs during World War II. From this labored and gimmicky setup, the film flashes back to the itch and fear of battle, as Hector, along with other members of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division and its ''Buffalo Soldiers,'' stalks the Tuscan countryside. It's September 1944, and as they try to cross the Serchio River, the men are ambushed. The sequence has thunderous explosions, jittery editing, blown-up bodies -- everything but the virtuosity of staging that might have made the chaos and carnage revelatory instead of just a Saving Private Ryan rehash. Four members of the division end up stranded behind enemy lines, all but abandoned by a racist commander. In addition to Negron, there's Staff Sgt. Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), a college-educated stoic devoted to his service; Sgt. Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), furious at the world and a loose cannon, with no loyalty to the country he's fighting for; and Pvt. Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller), a starry-eyed oversize simpleton who rescues, and befriends, an Italian urchin (Matteo Sciabordi). The dramatic focal point, if you can call it that, is the war of wills between Stamps and Cummings. These two play out a version of the assimilate-versus-agitate debate that has echoed through many decades of African- American life, though this one would be more convincing if Ealy, a dynamic actor, had been asked to project his anger more in period, with a little less proto-gangsta recklessness. The men arrive at a picturesque village, where they mingle with the locals and Stamps and Cummings stoke their rivalry over Renata (Valentina Cervi), a married woman who is lovely in a saintly way. The film then veers into an endless, murky subplot about the Italian resistance from which it never recovers. \"Miracle at St. Anna\" wants to do too many things at once to do any of them with much verve. It aspires to be a war epic, but it's dominated less by combat than by flat, meandering talk. It wants to salute the flesh-and-blood valor of the Buffalo Soldiers, but these unsung heroes are treated as such impersonally symbolic and stiff-jointed types that their heroism shines only faintly. The movie tries to be raw and real, yet it isn't above trotting out a tyke who might have stepped out of Cinema Paradiso II to tag along with the soldiers as a mascot of sentiment. There are vile Nazis on hand -- and also a nice Nazi who does a really good deed. \"Miracle at St. Anna\" winds up as a pastiche of racial-historical correction, showboat atrocity, murder mystery, love story, and windy meditation. Is it any wonder that it's less than the sum of its ambitious parts? As odd as it may sound to say about a war film, though, the real trouble with \"Miracle\" is that Lee's filmmaking is joyless. EW Grade: C- . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Spike Lee's film tells story of African-American soldiers during World War II .\n\"Miracle\" isn't powerful but muddled and diffuse, reviewer writes .\nMovie based on a 2002 novel by James McBride who also wrote screenplay .\nReviewer: \"Real trouble with 'Miracle' is that Lee's filmmaking is joyless\"","id":"7a2ae80b0997d7a5a4a7aee350e07dc4c1c197cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A California Sunday-school teacher accused of killing a young girl may have abducted another child, police said. Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was a friend of her own daughter. Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested earlier this month and charged with killing and raping 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was taken from a mobile home park in Tracy, California. Police said Huckaby was named in a January police report about the four-hour disappearance of a 7-year-old girl from the same mobile home park, CNN affiliate KOVR reported. After Huckaby returned the girl, the girl had to be taken to a hospital because she was under the influence of a strong muscle relaxant. Watch Nancy Grace for details \u00bb . Police were called to the mobile home park after the girl's mother reported her missing, according to KOVR. Police discovered that the girl was at a park with Huckaby. Huckaby said she had permission to take the girl, but the girl's family disputed that claim. About five hours after the girl was returned to her family, they discovered that she was under the influence of the drug. \"Her speech was slurred. She could barely walk. She could barely stand,\" the girl's older sister told KOVR. Police could not prove that Huckaby had drugged the girl and no arrest was made then. On April 11, Huckaby was arrested and charged with killing and raping Sandra Cantu. Huckaby -- a Sunday-school teacher who lives in the same mobile home park as Sandra's family -- has been charged with murder, kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14, and rape by instrument. If convicted, she would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, authorities said.","highlights":"NEW: Melissa Huckaby named in police report on January missing girl case .\nHuckaby charged in slaying of 8-year-old neighbor .\nShe faces special circumstances including kidnap, rape by instrument .\nDecision on whether to seek the death penalty will come later .","id":"d3a471b23237cf5893303c4b4deb2b50496b235d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The sagging economy is taking a bite out of federal school-meal subsidies as more students take advantage of free or low-price breakfasts and lunches, nutritionists say in a report released Thursday. About 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program, a group reports. The School Nutrition Association surveyed more than 130 school nutrition directors from 38 states to produce its report, \"Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises.\" The nonprofit organization said that about 425,000 more students are participating in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program in 2008-09 than in the previous school year. That represents an average increase of 2.5 percent from 2007-08, the report says. These numbers hold true despite a slight decline in the number of students enrolled in public schools this school year, according to the study. More than three-quarters of the districts surveyed reported a rise in the number of students eating free meals under the U.S. Department of Agriculture program, the report says. Many of the school district employees who monitor the food programs complain that the federal subsidies fall far short of the rising costs. According to the association, the estimated average cost to prepare a school meal is $2.90, but the federal reimbursement is $2.57. School lunch programs are experiencing a potential loss of at least $4.5 million per school day, based on 30 million school lunches provided, the group says. The good news, according to association President Katie Wilson, is that \"this year, when hunger is more common, more students are able to eat a balanced, nutritious meal at school.\" Meals served under the USDA programs must meet nutrition guidelines based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For lunches, that means no more than 30 percent of calories can come from fat and fewer than 10 percent from saturated fat.","highlights":"Number of students eating subsidized meals rises 2.5 percent, nonprofit says .\nUse of USDA programs rises even as enrollment falls, report notes .\nSchools complain that USDA doesn't cover full cost of meals .\nSchool Nutrition Association surveyed 130 school food directors in 38 states .","id":"0113354e89ebda83b483c1af954ba86498174bee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Take a handful of screen goddesses and a clutch of matinee idols, put them together and one thing's sure to happen. Nobody does love like they do in the movies: this month on the Screening Room, we've picked our favorite silver-screen romantic moments. No contest: Bogie and Bergman in undoubtedly the silver screen's top romantic movie moment . From rom-coms to heartbreak, these are the scenes that skip the schmaltz to make us believe that sometimes, Cupid really does get it right. And, just for balance, we've also picked those moments that made us cringe -- or long for a sick-bucket ... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Post your comments to the Screening Room blog and we'll publish the best. Read other CNN viewers' favorite romantic movie moments, and tell us yours >> . 1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Yep, it's a no-brainer. In a world full of slushy, happily-ever-after rom-coms, Bogie and Bergman find true romance in heartache, sacrificing their romance for the greater good. Bogie's \"hill of beans\" speech still gets us every time. Oh, the tragedy! Still, they'll always have Paris ... 2. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) Truly, madly sweetly: Blind flower-girl Virginia Cherrill recognizes Chaplin's tramp when she presses a coin into his hand. Deeply moved, as the scale of his sacrifice dawns on her, she wells up -- as did we; his expression shifts from shame to tentative delight. The most touching film moment of all time? 3. Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953) Audrey Hepburn's princess falls for Gregory Peck's noble hack (surely that's an oxymoron!) -- but while the ending is bittersweet, it's the playful scene at the Mouth of Truth, with its pitch-perfect comic timing, that captured our hearts. 4. From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953) \"Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.\" Army sergeant Burt Lancaster and troubled wife Deborah Kerr find refuge in their torrid, adulterous affair; the heat between them is tangible. With the tumultuous waves crashing over the embracing couple, Zinnemann creates one of old Hollywood's most iconic images. 5. Am\u00e9lie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) A sheer moment of joy, as Am\u00e9lie (Audrey Tautou) zooms through Paris on the back of Nino's (Mathieu Kassovitz) bicycle. The laughing couple freewheel down the cobbled streets past Sacr\u00e9 Coeur, filled with the delirious exuberance of new love. Ah, c'est l'amour. 6. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977) The highlight of Woody Allen's confessional masterpiece is Annie's (Diane Keaton) first meeting with Alvy (Allen) at the tennis club where we're blown away by her vitality, ebullient charm and fresh contrast with Allen's wound-up, navel-gazing New Yorker. La-di-da, la-di-da, la la! 7. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) Fellini's beautifully choreographed tableau in the Trevi Fountain sees young journalist Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) rendered helpless as buxom screen goddess Sylvia (Anita Eckberg) draws him into her spell. A paean to those fleeting moments between sunset and dawn when reality slips away to reveal something altogether more magical. Talking of which ... 8. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995) They've no time for mix-tapes, so Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) head to a record store's music booth to acid-test their compatibility. In its confined space, they nervously avoid each other's eyes, so painfully aware of each other's physical presence. A moment that evokes strong memories of those sweet first-love connections. 9. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003) Bob (Bill Murray), a movie star well past his sell-by date, and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a neglected newlywed, are two lost souls who are cast adrift, and come together, in Tokyo. Their parting moment, when Bob whispers his secret farewell to Charlotte, is all the more romantic for its mystery. 10. When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, 1989) Forget the orgasm scene in Katz's Deli. Forget the strolls in scenic Central Park. After ninety minutes of vacillating, Harry and Sally have one final bout of verbal sparring before they finally get it together for good. Now that's what we call New Year fireworks. ....................... And our most cringe-worthy moments... Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994) Out of the frying pan, into the fire: Hugh Grant escapes Bridezilla to pour his heart out to Andie MacDowell, who utters her painfully corn-dog response: \"Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed.\" You could have had Kristin Scott Thomas, you dolt! Howard the Duck (Willard Huyck, 1986) Please, no! Down in B-movie hell, we hid our eyes and winced as lovely Lea Thompson attempted to seduce a rather startled duck-shaped alien. There should be laws against that sort of thing. Wait a minute, there ARE laws against that sort of thing! The English Patient (Anthony Mingella, 1996) \"I've watched you - on verandahs, at garden parties, at the races ... \" Ralph Fiennes turns stalker in Mingella's improbable mush-fest. And don't even start us on the bit where he runs across the desert. As Seinfeld's Elaine says, \"Quit telling your stupid story about the stupid desert and just die already! Die!\" Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) Timeless romance? We think not. As Leo slips away, Kate Winslet's star-crossed lover cries, \"I'll never let go, Jack. I promise.\" And then does -- scurrying as quickly as her hands will paddle her to the safety of a lifeboat, a warm blanket and a nice cup of tea. Ah, the relief. Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones (George Lucas, 2002) \"I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.\" Any scene featuring Hayden Christensen's moody teen has us wincing, but he's most awkwardly shown up against Natalie Portman, who struggles nobly through Lucas' plodding love-lines. Georgie, please, leave out the romance. We're begging you. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Sound off and read others' thoughts in the Screening Room blog. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Films full of romance include \"Roman Holiday,\" \"City Lights,\" \"Am\u00e9lie\"\nBogart and Bergman's \"Casablanca\" farewell tops the list .\nList by no means complete; send us yours .","id":"a846a1acf0212692206db07c71c1407488c35dd1"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Friends and acquaintances of Philip Markoff, a medical student accused of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad, described the 23-year-old as a model student. Medical student Philip Markoff, 23, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. \"My girlfriend actually rode the elevator with him a lot alone; it's kind of freaking her out now,\" said Patrick Sullivan, who lived in the same apartment building as Markoff in Quincy, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. \"She thought he was kind of the all-American, good-looking guy,\" Sullivan said. \"When she saw him on TV yesterday, she even remarked, 'I can't believe it's him. I always thought he had such a great smile, and he was so nice to me.'\" James Kehoe, a friend of Markoff's from the State University of New York at Albany, where both attended college, said Markoff was \"one of the best students I've probably ever encountered.\" \"He would never put anything in front of his work,\" he said. \"He had great aspirations to be a doctor.\" Markoff, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Watch acquaintances describe a smart, good-looking guy \u00bb . Markoff was arraigned Tuesday and is being held without bail. His attorney, John Salsberg, told reporters after the hearing that Markoff is \"not guilty of the charges. He has his family's support. I have not received any document or report or piece of evidence other than what I heard in the courtroom. All I have at the moment are words -- no proof of anything.\" A Boston University spokeswoman said the school suspended Markoff, who has no criminal record, when it learned of the charges on Monday. \"This was a brutal, vicious crime. Savage,\" Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters. \"And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them.\" A procedural not-guilty plea was entered on Markoff's behalf, Conley said. Evidence from the scene suggests that Brisman \"put up a fight,\" prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said during the hearing Tuesday. Police have said that Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. She suffered blunt head trauma, Hickman said, and was shot three times at close range. One of the bullets passed through her heart, killing her, she said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the April 10 robbery of a woman at a Westin Hotel in Boston. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound, Hickman said. She was robbed of $800 and personal items and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth, the prosecutor said in court Tuesday. The victim was not identified. Megan McAllister, who identified herself as Markoff's fiancee, maintained his innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News. McAllister said Markoff \"is the wrong man\" and \"was set up.\" \"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public,\" she wrote. \"All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!\" She accused Boston police of \"trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new??\" Authorities believe the motive in Brisman's death was robbery, Conley told reporters. In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was killed showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, according to Boston police, who had sought public assistance in identifying the man. Police traced the Internet communications with Brisman to an e-mail account that had been opened the day before her death, Conley said. Using Internet provider information, they found the computer was at Markoff's residence in Quincy. Authorities put the home under surveillance, Conley said, and \"the case just begins to build from there.\" Markoff, meanwhile, is \"bearing up,\" Salsberg said. \"It's obviously a difficult time for anybody in these circumstances with the charges that have been brought against him. ... He's pleaded not guilty. He is not guilty.\" Authorities in Boston are working with police in Warwick, Rhode Island, on what could be a related case. On April 16 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney said. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, McCartney said. He said the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area,\" but that had not been determined. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told CNN the company is \"horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence.\" He promised that Craigslist will evaluate the incident to see whether additional measures could be introduced to protect users. CNN's Mary Snow and Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Procedural not-guilty plea entered in Craigslist slaying case .\nSuspect Philip Markoff has been suspended from Boston University med school .\nEvidence suggests that victim Julissa Brisman \"put up a fight,\" prosecutor says .\nMarkoff also charged in connection with an April 10 robbery .","id":"4878b1b3ce21e1e9456bc71b67111f5d2bb63f3e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mysterious deaths of 21 prized polo horses Sunday at a club in Florida provides a peek inside the private world of a sport that generally is off limits to all but the very wealthy. The Lechuza Caracas polo team may not recover from the loss of 21 ponies for years, a polo executive says. The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville and the state-run Kissimmee Diagnostic Laboratories near Orlando are conducting necropsies on the animals. Initial tests failed to reveal a cause, said Liz Compton, a representative of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Tissues, organ samples and blood are now being screened for toxic agents, she said. Scientists have ruled out any contagious disease because the animals died so quickly, said state Agriculture Department spokesman Mark Fagan. Authorities initially requested necropsies for only the eight horses that were insured, according to Sarah Carey, a representative of the veterinary school, which got the bodies of 15 horses. Later, the order was expanded to all 15 horses, she said. The U.S. Polo Association is among the parties cooperating in the investigation. \"In the meantime, we all mourn the loss of these horses,\" U.S. Polo Association Executive Director Peter Rizzo said in a news release. \"There are no words to describe the grief and sadness shared by everyone -- particularly the devastated owners of those magnificent horses.\" Watch what investigators are studying \u00bb . Players form strong emotional bonds with the horses they ride, said John Wash, operations president of the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, where the horses fell ill. \"I've heard a couple of polo players who were affected with this loss the other day, a couple of them I don't think have left their house since Sunday night,\" Wash said. \"There were a lot of tears there -- these big, tough guys just on their hands and knees, crying over what happened.\" The U.S. Open Polo Championship that was interrupted by the tragedy will resume Wednesday with semifinal matches, Wash said. Lechuza Caracas, the team whose horses died, was offered spare mounts from other competitors so they could remain in the competition, but the devastated team chose to withdraw, Wash said. The Wellington tournament is one of the sport's three major championships, on a par with the U.S. Open in tennis or golf. Authorities say they believe that the competition facility is safe for the other horses and that whatever killed the 21 horses entered their bodies away from the site. Fifteen of the animals fell ill shortly before they were to compete Sunday; some died immediately and others lingered for almost an hour. Six others died overnight Sunday to Monday as they were kept in the same trailer in Wellington. Animals are not kept overnight at the competition site, so no special precautions are in place regarding food, water or bedding, Wash said. Organizers are planning a short memorial and laying of wreaths in honor of the horses, he said. Grief counselors are on hand at the facility to help employees deal with the trauma, Wash said. \"The scene can be described as almost like an airplane crash that involved not human life, but horses,\" he said. \"It was horrific.\" Polo ponies in the United States are not drug-tested, but the U.S. Polo Association has been considering taking up the practice for several years, Wash said. \"People are calling for reform, and maybe that needs to happen, but until toxicology reports come back, and autopsy reports, we don't even know if [Sunday's incident is] anything related to that.\" The Humane Society of the United States has no record of abuse of polo ponies, but that may be a function of the sport's exclusive nature, society spokeswoman Holly Hazard said. \"We are learning about this, as is everyone else,\" she said. \"It may be that perhaps because it's not televised or not as popular as other sports, it's not something that either our constituents or our program is particularly focused on. \"But if there are either performance-enhancing drugs or some problem that is associated with this, we will investigate and we will offer a reward to bring whoever is responsible to justice.\" Keith Dane, director of the Humane Society's equine protection program, was en route to Florida on Tuesday to interview people involved in the incident and keep an eye on the investigation, Hazard said. No evidence has been brought forth suggesting someone deliberately poisoned the animals. \"I guess everything's possible,\" Wash said. \"I've heard all different rumors. I don't know if I even want to go there and think about that.\" Compton, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services representative, said authorities have seen no evidence of criminal activity in the case. \"Clearly, law enforcement has gotten involved, given the complexity and the scope of the deaths, and they are fact-finding and gathering information, and once we have a specific cause of death, then they can determine where their investigation will go,\" she said. The devastated team, Lechuza Caracas, is one of the top teams in the world. The loss could set it back for years, Wash said. \"It's just like baseball or basketball or football,\" he said. \"You're taking years of grooming, training, nurturing to create, really, a first string of horses. And for four polo players, it takes anywhere from six to eight horses per polo player to play a game of polo. So if you're taking 21 horses, they're probably 21 of your first-string horses ... and you've just lost every one of your best players. \"It's not like you could just go out and buy 21 new horses and start at that point.\" Polo ponies are thoroughbreds, many of them former racehorses retrained for the game, but they cover a wide range of ages, Wash said. When they get too old to play, they are retired to pasture or stud, he said. \"A polo horse is treated quite well,\" Wash said. \"In fact, when you're a polo horse, you might play three months here in Palm Beach, you might take three months off, you might play another three months, say, in Argentina or England, you take three months off. They're not pushed 12 months out of the year.\" CNN's Kim Segal and John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Investigators try to determine what killed 21 polo ponies in Florida .\nContagious disease ruled out; tissue samples sent for further study .\nPlayers form close bonds with horses, club executive says .\nHumane Society of the United States sends official to watch investigation .","id":"cb8ae84330bdb8d53924e81cd9e3b55c24296bab"} -{"article":"MARATHON, Florida (CNN) -- Juan Lopez reads meters with one eye and looks for snakes with the other. Lopez is a member of the \"Python Patrol,\" a team of utility workers, wildlife officials, park rangers and police trying to keep Burmese pythons from gaining a foothold in the Florida Keys. Members of the Python Patrol show off a giant snake that stretched more than 20 feet. Officials say the pythons -- which can grow to 20 feet long and eat large animals whole -- are being ditched by pet owners in the Florida Everglades, threatening the region's endangered species and its ecosystem. \"Right now, we have our fingers crossed that they haven't come this far yet, but if they do, we are prepared,\" Lopez said. Burmese Pythons are rarely seen in the middle Florida Keys, where Lopez works. The Nature Conservancy wants to keep it that way. Watch huge python wrap around a CNN reporter \u00bb . The Python Patrol program was started by Alison Higgins, the Nature Conservancy's Florida Keys conservation manager. She describes it as an \"early detection, rapid response\" program made up of professionals who work outside. Eight Burmese pythons have been found in the Keys. \"If we can keep them from spreading and breeding, then we're that much more ahead of the problem,\" Higgins said. Utility workers, wildlife officials and police officers recently attended a three-hour class about capturing the enormously large snakes. Lt. Jeffrey L. Fobb of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Venom Response Unit taught the participants how to capture pythons. \"There's no immutable laws of snake catching. It's what works,\" Fobb said as he demonstrated catching a snake with hooks, bags, blankets and his hands. \"We're doing it in the Florida Keys because we have a lot to protect,\" Higgins said. \"The Burmese pythons that are coming out of the Everglades are eating a lot of our endangered species and other creatures, and we want to make sure they don't breed here.\" Where the snakes are breeding is just north of the Keys in Everglades National Park. An estimated 30,000 Burmese pythons live in the park. The Everglades, known as the \"River of Grass,\" is a vast area with a climate perfect for these pythons to hide and breed. And breed they do: The largest clutches of eggs found in the Everglades have numbered up to 83. The snakes grow like they're on steroids. With a life span of 30 years, these pythons can weigh as much as 200 pounds. And the larger the snake, the bigger the prey. Biologists have found endangered wood rats, birds, bobcats and other animals in their stomachs. Two 5-foot-long alligators were found in the stomachs of Burmese pythons that were caught and necropsied, officials say. Officials also say Burmese pythons can travel 1.6 miles a day by land, and they can swim to reach areas outside the Everglades. This nonvenomous species was brought into the United States from Southeast Asia. Everglades National Park spokeswoman Linda Friar says biologists believe that well-intended pet owners are to blame for their introduction into the Everglades. \"These pets were released by owners that do not understand the threat to the ecosystem,\" she said. Higgins says 99,000 of the popular pets were brought into the United States from 1996 to 2006, the most recent data available. She says they are an easy species to breed, and you can buy a hatchling for as little as $20. The problem with these pets, Friar says, is that they get too big for their owners to handle. Making the owner aware of what to expect when the animal becomes full-grown is a priority. \"The pet trade is pretty supportive in educating people,\" Friar said. She hopes a \"Don't let it loose\" message campaign makes an impact on pet owners. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a supporter of restoring the Everglades, has introduced a bill that would ban importing the python species into the United States. The senator saw the need after learning about the effect these snakes were having on the park. \"Finding out many endangered species are being found in the stomach of the python,\" Nelson spokeswoman Susie Quinn said, \"we need to do a better job at protecting the resources.\" In the meantime, Lopez and the Python Patrol will continue to protect the Florida Keys by capturing the snakes and turning them over to biologists to perform necropsies. The Nature Conservancy plans to expand the program to all the areas that surround the Everglades, making these predators their prey. \"I would like to find them and get rid of them,\" Lopez said.","highlights":"\"Python Patrol\" aims to keep giant Burmese pythons from reaching Florida Keys .\nPet owners have been dumping the snakes in the Everglades .\nBurmese pythons can grow more than 20 feet long and eat animals whole .\nThe snakes \"are eating a lot of our endangered species,\" conservationist says .","id":"7a400f2b317104d1e2f3668639c6a6719f60ea28"} -{"article":"ROOSEVELT, New York (CNN) -- Lisa Brown was caught off-guard by the offers of help that came from strangers. Lisa Brown has to move out of her rental house because it fell into foreclosure and was sold at auction. \"I'm overwhelmed,\" she said. \"People helping people in these tough times. I never meant to solicit any help. This is incredible, really.\" Brown and her three daughters can't escape eviction. The family is being kicked out of a rental house because her landlord defaulted on the mortgage and the home fell into foreclosure. The house was sold at auction, and they have to move out by May 1. She didn't seek financial help, but it came anyway. An executive from Texas named Kelvin who saw Brown's story on CNN.com was moved by her \"unfortunate situation\" and wanted to help. He sent a check for $400. A New York man named Dave offered financial help as well as aid planning for the future. When Brown moved into the Long Island, New York, home last summer, she loved the spaciousness she never had in an apartment. \"It was bigger than what I had lived in,\" she said. Brown was also won over by the neighborhood, with its tidy homes and good schools. \"I wanted to come here, and I wanted to see my kids graduate from this school district.\" The bad news came just seven months after she moved in. A real estate broker came to the door and handed her an eviction notice, telling her she had to vacate. \"I was hysterical. I was like, 'What do you mean?' \" Watch Lisa Brown talk about why she has to move \u00bb . The broker explained that the landlord no longer owned the property and the lease was no longer valid. Brown had no idea the house was in foreclosure. As a tenant, she always paid her rent on time, and she assumed the mortgage was being paid. \"I didn't see there was a problem,\" she said. \"You know, I'm paying rent, and she's putting it toward her mortgage.\" Brown was astonished to learn that her landlord, who lives upstairs, rented the house when she knew that she was losing it. \"She knew that this house was foreclosing on her. She did nothing about it,\" Brown said. \"Nothing except take my money.\" Brown had been paying $1,900 a month in rent. She had also paid $5,700 for a security deposit and broker fees to secure the house. That money, she said, is gone. \"She will not give me my deposit back. Nothing.\" CNN tried to reach the owner for comment about the security fee, but no one answered the door, and the phone is disconnected. The broker who rented Brown the house and who was paid $1,900 said he didn't know that the house was in foreclosure. He also said the brokerage fee will not be returned. Dave, who lives on Long Island and who also read Brown's story on CNN.com, was perplexed that none of the fees were being refunded. To help recoup her losses, Dave offered help and sent a check for $5,000. Helping with Brown's immediate needs was not enough for Dave, a financial adviser who wanted to do something for her future. \"He offered me a retirement plan,\" Brown said. \"He came to my job, gave me his business card and said, 'I want you to get into this plan; I will help you with this.' \" Dave met Brown over coffee and set her up with a retirement account, something the 42-year-old said she has never had. He will make monthly contributions of $500 for 10 consecutive months to get her started. But Brown still has one problem: She has to move out. She has no legal right to stay. The bank that foreclosed on the house and owns it has offered her $1,000 to vacate. Brown's problem is not unique. Nearly 20 percent of all foreclosures are on rental properties, and tenants' rights in such situations are minimal, according to the Center for Housing Policy, a nonprofit organization that researches housing issues. In most states, when a bank forecloses on a landlord, the tenant has no guarantee of being allowed to stay in the property, and neither the bank nor the landlord has a legal obligation to tell the tenant about the foreclosure. So while the owners know what is going on, renters are usually kept in the dark. New York state Sen. Jeff Klein is aware that renters can run into problems. \"In many instances, they're actually paying their rent on time, and the owner of the property who is in foreclosure is pocketing the money,\" he said. Klein said that 50 percent of all foreclosures in New York involve rental properties, and he is working on a law to warn tenants of foreclosure proceedings ahead of time, to keep them from losing their security deposits and being evicted with nowhere to go. Similar laws are in place in California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Rhode Island. \"What we're facing here,\" Klein said, \"it's sort of the new homeless population unless we do something about it.\" His legislation is scheduled for a vote next week. Responding to the outpouring of help Brown has received, Klein said, \"It's great support for the Brown family, but that's why we need legislation for innocent, hardworking people like Lisa to protect them from reaching the point of desperation. People who play by the rules should not be penalized for the misdeeds and malice of others.\" Brown hopes to relocate in the same area so her daughters can stay in the schools they love and be near their friends. A caseworker for the Children's Aid Society, which administers the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund for the victims of the subprime mortgage crisis, saw Brown's story on CNN's \"American Morning.\" They are now in contact so the fund can help cover moving and transitional expenses. Brown may have to adjust some of her dreams, but she is optimistic. She said the one thing she has seen through this experience is \"the goodness of the human spirit is alive, and that's encouraging.\"","highlights":"Lisa Brown is being evicted because landlord defaulted on mortgage .\nA CNN viewer from Texas sent Brown $400 .\nAnother man gave her $5,000 and set up her retirement account .\nThe Children's Aid Society offered to cover Brown's moving expenses .","id":"237d1fb6d2646efbfc7728a699582ad3dabf6c7d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 47-year-old woman who became paralyzed after breaking her neck and back on a turbulent flight is developing some motion in her toes and regaining some sensation after two operations, her doctor said Wednesday. Dr. Trey Fulp, an orthopedic spine surgeon who performed the surgeries at McAllen Medical Center in McAllen, Texas, told CNN that the woman initially was paralyzed from the chest down. She underwent six hours of surgery Saturday and a more than five-hour operation late Tuesday, the surgeon said. \"She is very brave and is talking,\" Fulp said. \"If she walks again, I get the first dance.\" The woman was on Continental Flight 511 en route from Houston, Texas, to McAllen early Saturday, a one-hour trip that had been delayed more than three hours because of severe storms that barreled through the Houston area on Friday night. The woman's attorney, Ramon Garcia, said Tuesday that his client struck her head on the bathroom ceiling when the plane suddenly dropped during turbulence. \"We have a lady who got out of her seat and went to the bathroom,\" Garcia said. \"And while either in the bathroom or coming out of the bathroom is when this situation occurred.\" The woman was stretched out on the plane's floor for the remainder of the flight until paramedics could start treating her, the attorney said. Fulp said another physician was on the flight. When that doctor realized the woman couldn't get up, he held her until the flight landed 20 minutes later. Garcia said his client, a mother of three, did not want to be identified. Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark on Tuesday confirmed that the flight -- carrying 104 passengers and five crew members -- experienced turbulence and that two passengers and a crew member were transported to a hospital in McAllen. Clark said one passenger and the crew member were released, but the other passenger remains hospitalized. \"Our focus is assisting the customer who is still in hospital and her family,\" Clark said. Seat belt lights were illuminated during the turbulence, the spokeswoman said. However, it's not clear whether the passenger was already out of her seat when the light came on or whether she ignored the light and got up to go to the bathroom. Federal aviation authorities are investigating. The Federal Aviation Administration said it's providing crucial flight information to the National Transportation Safety Board. CNN's Melanie Whitley and Ekin Middleton contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Woman has two operations after injuries led to paralysis, surgeon says .\nNEW: \"She is very brave and is talking,\" surgeon says .\nWoman struck head on bathroom ceiling during turbulence on plane, lawyer says .\nFederal aviation authorities investigating flight from Houston to McAllen, Texas .","id":"63152b0a58de5f4e9e7deedf4a1931b92ee92d48"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- A U.N. report says hunger is on the rise globally and blames higher food prices. Populations within conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo are particularly vulnerable. The Food and Agriculture Organization has issued preliminary estimates classifying 963 million people as undernourished -- an increase of 40 million people over the past year. \"One out of seven people -- about 15 percent -- suffer chronically of not having enough to eat,\" said Mark Smulders, an FAO economist. The hunger report -- titled \"The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008\" -- said the world's financial and economic problems could throw more people into poverty. The number of hungry had been increasing over the years before the rise in food prices, with warfare and political instability continuing to be among the factors causing poverty. The preliminary estimates lack a firm country breakdown, but last year's figures are an accurate measure of where the problems are. About 907 out of 923 million undernourished people in 2007, or 65 percent of the hungry, live in India, China, the war-wracked Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Smulders said about 27 percent of the world's hungry live in India and 15 percent in China. The other countries each represent 4 to 5 percent of the world's total. There has been progress in fighting hunger in the Asian nations of Thailand and Vietnam, and in the sub-Saharan African nations of Ghana, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Mozambique and Malawi, the report said. Food prices have declined from their peak earlier in the year, but they are staying high compared to other years, the agency said. The Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index was 28 percent higher in October than it was two years before. \"Prices of major cereals have fallen by over 50 percent from their peaks earlier in 2008 but they remain high compared to previous years,\" the FAO said. The agency said the \"rural and urban poor, landless farmers and female-headed households are the worst hit by high food prices.\" -- CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. agency says food prices are to blame for an increase in hunger .\nFood and Agriculture Organization issues estimates 963 million undernourished .\nIt is an increase of 40 million people over the past year .","id":"3b2a90a4698a147c82202c1884e5a61a0157682d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The home life Diana Krall shares with husband (and fellow musical brain) Elvis Costello and their 2-year-old twin boys is a little nutty. Diana Krall's new album, \"Quiet Nights,\" was inspired by a trip she made to Brazil. \"It's zany in the most wonderful way,\" says the 44-year-old jazz singer-pianist. \"You have two little boys leaping off the furniture who think they're Buzz Lightyear while we're practicing and playing. It's just a happy house.\" Krall's domestic bliss -- \"domestic\" being a new concept for the ever-touring artist -- is suggested in the warm, intimate vibe of her latest album \"Quiet Nights.\" \"It's a very natural process for me, making a record. It ends up being a reflection of where I am at that time. My life is just tremendous right now. It couldn't be better,\" she says. No kidding. \"Quiet Nights\" debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album charts last week, a career high for Krall. A memorable trip to Brazil in 2007 inspired the Canadian chanteuse to take her 12th album in a bossa nova direction: The title track is the English version of the bossa nova classic \"Corcovado.\" She also covers \"The Girl from Ipanema\" -- though naturally in her whispery rendition she flips \"girl\" to \"boy\" -- and gives a fresh spin on Frank Sinatra's \"Where or When.\" Watch Krall find bliss in Brazil \u00bb . \"There was something about turning 'Where or When' into a bossa nova that changes the feeling for me of the song,\" Krall said. \"It's much more emotional than if I sang it in a swing feeling. I've always experimented with that.\" Krall brought arranger and conductor Claus Ogerman on board. He was a natural, having worked with Sinatra and Brazilian singer-songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim who wrote both \"Ipanema\" and \"Corcovado.\" And Krall co-produced the album with frequent collaborator Tommy LiPuma. \"One of the best parts of making a record is the dinner after where you all you go to the restaurant, you decompress, have some great wine and just tell stories and listen to Claus and Tommy and [engineer] Al Schmidt and all these people telling amazing stories,\" says Krall. Diana Krall recently sat down with CNN to share some stories of her own about a teenaged letter to Oscar Peterson, idolizing Harry Connick Jr. and Mickey Mouse pancakes. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: This is the first album you've made since becoming a mother. Does it feel different somehow? Diana Krall: I think [this album reflects my present] state of mind. It's not about loss, it's not preparing for loss. I'm not peeling grapes. Life has changed a lot and it's not just about performing and touring. It's motherhood and having a home for the first time, because I've always been on the road. So it's an incredible thing to be making Mickey Mouse pancakes in the morning while you're doing your interviews. CNN: You've been producing Barbara Streisand's new album. What has that been like? Krall: Incredible. I just am so thrilled with her performance on this album. [She gives] one of the most incredible performances I think of her career on a song called \"You Must Believe in Spring\" with a great pianist from New York named Phil Charlap. It's just piano and voice and it's so incredibly stunning. She said to me, \"Maybe it needs some strings or something.\" I said \"Don't touch it! Just leave it! It's gorgeous!\" It's been great working artist to artist and we had a lot of fun. We played cards. So when there were moments in the studio where there was something technical that had to be fixed, we'd deal the cards and we'd play gin rummy, which I'm lousy at. Thank goodness. CNN: This is the first album you've produced for another artist. Way to choose somebody really small to start off with. Krall: She chose me! I had a few phone calls and it was a little daunting, but it was a great experience and really, really intense, as you would expect it to be. CNN: Some people were a little put out by your record \"The Girl in the Other Room\" because you strayed from jazz. How did you process that reaction? Krall: Somebody's always put out with anything I do (laughs). \"Why'd you do 'The Look of Love?' \" \"Why don't you do 'The Look of Love' again?\" I don't know! I'm too busy trying to put the Lego back in the box, and making sure nobody's eating all the Play-Doh. That record did very well and a lot of people say to me, \"That's my favorite record.\" And I wrote [it] with my husband, so I don't really look back. I look forward. And I've got a pretty loyal audience. CNN: What would you say to your sons if they tell you they want to be musicians when they grow up? Krall: They should do whatever makes them happy. This is what they know so if that's what they choose to do -- who knows. They could be like my mom and my dad and be a teacher-librarian and a chartered accountant. That's fine too. A month ago I found this letter I wrote to Oscar Peterson when I was 16 years old and my mom had saved it for me and put it in a box in the attic. It was a five-page letter I wrote to Oscar Peterson saying, \"Dear Oscar, I'm 16 years old and I hear a professional musician's life is a very difficult one but I know this is the only life I want to have.\" And it was really enlightening for me to see the focus of a 16-year-old. It reminded me of how much I love the music and always wanted to do what I'm doing, so how lucky am I? CNN: But it's not all luck. Krall: I think it's a lot of luck. I think I started in a very good time. When I went to see that film \"When Harry Met Sally,\" and I heard Harry Connick playing the piano, I though there's somebody who's my age and he's playing the music that I love. And I felt like there was a kindred spirit and it inspired me to go, \"I want to do exactly what he's doing.\" And I still owe a lot of thanks to Harry. I've only met him like a couple of times, but he's still a favorite artist of mine.","highlights":"Diana Krall's new album, \"Quiet Nights,\" features bossa nova interpretations .\nSinger-pianist is producing Barbara Streisand's new album .\nShe's doing what she loves; \"How lucky am I?\" she says .","id":"4195f170a2545fee54cf9ae335f2022751577945"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- More than one million people in Darfur are at risk of losing food, water and shelter in coming months, following the expulsion of international aid groups by Sudan's government, the United Nations' chief humanitarian coordinator said Tuesday. A Doctors without Borders medic helps a sick child in a Darfur refugee camp. The statement by coordinator John Holmes comes after a joint U.N.-Sudanese assessment of the situation. The information was gathered from March 11-18 in hopes of stemming further troubles in Darfur after Sudan's government expelled 13 international relief organizations from the wartorn region. The announcement came on the same day that President Omar al-Bashir, now an indicted war criminal, ignored the threat of arrest by traveling abroad to Eritrea. Also Tuesday, a Sudanese staffer working for a Canadian relief group was shot dead in Darfur. A full report of the assessment will be released soon, according to the U.N., but an executive summary and recommendations were made available on Tuesday. \"While a significant effort is being made by the government, by the U.N., by the NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] which are left, to plug some of the immediate gaps in these areas, these are at the same time, 'Band-Aid' solutions, not long term solutions,\" Holmes said. The U.N. estimates that 1.5 million people in Darfur are dependent on healthcare support, 1.1 million need regular food aid, and another 1 million are in need of clean drinking water. The summary released Tuesday said the World Food Programme, which is still allowed to operate in Sudan, is carrying out a one-time-only distribution program in March and April, but that new partners will be needed to continue delivering food after April. After the International Criminal Court charged Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity on March 4, Khartoum expelled 13 international aid agencies and revoked the permits of three organizations in the country. Bashir -- the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes by the court -- has continued to say that humanitarian efforts in the country should be \"Sudanized.\" \"Within a year, we don't want to see any foreign aid group dealing with a Sudanese citizen,\" he said at a rally a week after his arrest warrant was issued. Holmes said that 13,000 to 14,000 aid workers in the region already were Sudanese nationals. Holmes said the cooperation and technical help from the Sudanese government on the assessment was a good step forward. But he called it \"only the first of many steps if the people in Darfur are not going to suffer major consequences from these expulsions.\" Sudan's U.N. Ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, has repeatedly said he has information implicating the ousted organizations in activities contrary to their humanitarian missions. He has yet to make any of that information public. One claim is that some organizations acted as spies for the International Criminal Court. Holmes denied those allegations, saying they remain unfounded. \"Despite claims that there are dossiers of evidence, we have not been given any of that evidence,\" he said. \"In the absence of that, no meaningful investigation can be done.\" The British aid organization, Oxfam, one of the agencies expelled from Sudan, released a statement in response to Tuesday's findings. \"Current stop-gap measures will only be effective for a short time,\" the statement said. \"As the rainy season arrives within the next two months, people living in weak temporary shelters, in flood-prone locations where latrines can fill and overflow, will become at extreme risk of disease and death. \"With the humanitarian capacity reduced by nearly 50 percent, responding to such emergency scenarios will be an enormous challenge for others to tackle,\" Oxfam said.","highlights":"Assessment of humanitarian needs in Darfur conducted by UN and Sudan .\nInfo collected in bid to stem further troubles after Sudan expelled 13 aid groups .\nAid groups kicked out after President Omar al-Bashir indicted on war crimes by ICC .\nThe U.N. estimates 1.1 million need regular food aid; 1 million need drinking water .","id":"3203df27ff37298b7649a90b1ac22a66e508f468"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The cause of a South Carolina wildfire that has charred about 19,600 acres appears to be a yard debris fire, the head of the state's Forestry Commission said Friday. Derek Boos sifts through the wreckage of his in-laws' house Friday after a fire in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The blaze seems to have been caused by a yard debris fire in the Woodlawn subdivision, an unincorporated part of Horry County, halfway between Conway and North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Forestry Commission Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones said. The fire began Saturday and rekindled itself Wednesday evening, according to the Forestry Commission. Officials said about 70 homes had been destroyed in the county, which contains a stretch of popular tourist spots, including Myrtle Beach. About 100 other homes were damaged, Horry County officials said. The blaze left only charred rubble and the smoldering, skeletal remains of some houses, even as adjacent homes went untouched. The fire swallowed up pines and dry brush, sending a smoky gray smudge into the sky that could be seen for hours from miles away Thursday. \"It's better now, but the smoke was pretty much everywhere,\" said Chavdar Pavlov, a CNN iReport contributor who lives 20 miles from where the fires raged. \"At nighttime, it was like snow in the air, but it wasn't snow; it was ashes.\" The Horry County Council's Brent Schultz said, \"The only way to describe this is tragic.\" At a Friday morning news conference, frustrated residents who had evacuated demanded to know when they could return home, yelling at Bob Grabowski of the Horry County Council. \"I just want to go home,\" one man cried out, prompting Grabowski to pause. \"Come on,\" others said. \"That will be addressed,\" he said. \"We'll get with you on that.\" About 2,500 people were evacuated Thursday, authorities said, and more than 400 people were in shelters. No fatalities or injuries have been reported from the blaze. Horry County said the fire was about 40 percent contained by early Friday. Watch as residents face uncertainty about their houses \u00bb . \"It's on everybody's mind and in everyone's conversation,\" said the Rev. Marion Brazell, whose Conway church was serving as a shelter. \"It's pretty flat area, so you can see the smoke from a distance.\" Brazell had not yet arrived at the church Friday, but he said he believed only Red Cross and other emergency workers were staying there. The evacuations occurred north of Conway, he said. He added good-naturedly, \"Shelters are often the last place people will go. They'll go to hotels and motels\" that may offer rooms for free. \"I'd rather go to a motel than sleep in my church. ... It's much more comfortable than sleeping in a cot,\" he said. The fire has mostly kept its distance from tourist areas, and as the South Carolina officials provided updates and warnings to residents, they urged visitors to stay. \"For tourists coming here for vacation, we should have no problems taking care of our guests and visitors that are going to come to Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach,\" Grabowski said. And North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley, answering a question about tourism, said Thursday: \"People who have reservations can certainly come onto the Grand Strand area and enjoy themselves. It is not affecting the majority of golf courses; there should be no reason that anyone is canceling their vacation.\" Hatley said she could not say if any golf courses had been damaged. \"The golf course property itself was not our first priority,\" she said. CNN's Mike Phelan, Lisa France and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Yard debris fire may be cause of blaze in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, area .\nFire about 40 percent contained early Friday in Horry County .\n\"I just want to go home,\" one resident yells; nearly 2,500 evacuated .\nFire has consumed about 20,000 acres, destroyed about 70 homes .","id":"ba1579987655eed5b79792e79aa5f6653f15a4c6"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian emergency officials have begun evacuating 800 families from an area at high risk from the expected eruption of a volcano that killed at least six people in November. Colombians make their way across a landslide in November after the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted. The Nevado del Huila volcano is on orange alert, meaning an eruption is probable within days or weeks, the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining said last week. An eruption would cause an avalanche down the Paez and Simbola rivers, officials said. The town under evacuation, Belalcazar, sits on the bank of the Paez River about a half-mile (less than a kilometer) from the junction with the Simbola River. It was the worst-hit area in November's eruption. The volcano's crater holds 52 million cubic meters (1.8 billion cubic feet) of lava, said Colombia's Caracol Radio. That's the equivalent of 13.8 billion gallons. The Colombian national emergency agency said Monday it is ready to evacuate thousands of residents if the volcano's condition turns to red, which means an eruption is imminent or ongoing. The snow-capped Huila, the highest active volcano in Colombia, last erupted on November 20. At least six people, including four children, died then. Gas and hot ash caused snow on the mountain peak to melt, sending mud, rocks and floodwater rushing down the Paez and destroying at least 20 homes and washing out five bridges, the presidential office said at the time. Much of the sparsely populated region about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Bogota is a reservation for Nasa indigenous communities. All six fatalities were native Indians, the government said. The youngest victim was a year old. The Huila volcano, which has a summit of 17,598 feet (5,364 meters), has erupted four times. The first documented eruption occurred in the 1500s, then it stood silent for more than 400 years, according to the Web site volcanolive.com. Colombian emergency officials said Monday they are asking the 800 families where they want to be moved to, Caracol Radio said. Scientists with the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining, commonly known as Ingeominas, said they did not detect any major action inside the volcano Monday, Caracol reported. Ingeominas and the National System for Emergencies are monitoring the volcano around the clock and have acquired new equipment, including additional telecommunication gear and an infrared camera to monitor Huila's temperature. Officials also plan to install a microphone on Huila to detect any new rumblings from inside the volcano, Caracol said. Officials already are monitoring the volcano with four stations that detect seismological activity, a video camera, a communications network and a system that measures mudflow, Caracol said.","highlights":"Eruption likely within days or weeks at Nevado del Huila volcano, agency warns .\nColombian volcano's eruption killed at least six people in November .\nSome 800 families under evacuation from high-risk area .\nEruption would cause avalanche down Paez and Simbola rivers, officials say .","id":"12002eabaff316b140e645b5fd836309e9d3a1c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Security forces aboard a U.S. naval vessel fired warning shots toward two approaching small boats off the Somali coast Tuesday, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The USNS John Lenthall is one of 14 fleet refueling ships operated by Military Sealift Command. The rounds landed in the water, prompting the boats to turn around, and no casualties were reported, the military news release said. It is unclear whether the boats were trying to attack the 41,000-ton USNS John Lenthall, the military said. \"It is clear they were not following the international rules of the road observed by mariners around the globe,\" it said. The release noted that the location of the incident, the types of boats involved and the maneuvering were all \"consistent with reports from previous attacks on merchant vessels in the region.\" The USNS John Lenthall is one of 14 \"fleet replenishment oilers\" in the Military Sealift Fleet Support Command, according to a U.S. Navy Web site. Oilers refuel Navy ships at sea and any aircraft they may be carrying. Attacks by pirates have increased dramatically off the northern coast of Somalia in the past year, prompting the United States and other nations to step up patrols in the region. In May, the U.S. Navy warned merchant ships to stay at least 200 miles off the Somali coast. But the U.S. Maritime Administration warns that pirates sometimes issue false distress calls to lure ships closer to shore. The pirates are often armed with automatic rifles and shoulder-fired rockets, according to warnings from the agency.","highlights":"Warning shots fired after two boats raise suspicions of piracy .\nBoats were approaching a U.S. Navy refueling ship .\nWarning shots land in water and boats turn away, military says .\nPirates known to prowl waters off African nation of Somalia .","id":"091097a575537792f98e18be526dfa2f2c996cb6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia is facing life-threatening food and water shortages leaving millions at risk for starvation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday. A growing percentage of Somalia's population has become dependent on humanitarian aid. \"The Somali people are going through unbearable hardship,\" said Pascal Hundt, head of the ICRC's delegation for Somalia, in a written statement. \"We are witnessing the worst tragedy of the past decade in Somalia.\" Somalia's last severe famine, from 1991 to 1993, devastated crops, killed between 240,000 and 280,000 people and displaced up to 2 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Humanitarian workers view Somalia's food crisis as one of the worst in the world. With winds ripping though the country, hundreds of thousands of Somalis are finding their crops as dry as the surrounding landscape, preventing harvests, killing livestock and leading to a mass risk of starvation. The continual armed conflicts in central and south Somalia have aggravated the situation, hindering people from accessing shelter and medical attention. A growing percentage of the population has become dependent on humanitarian aid. The ICRC, World Food Program and CARE plan to deliver four months worth of food to 435,000 Somalis within the next few weeks. International donors are being asked by the ICRC to provide some of the emergency money. Aid includes giving blankets, kitchen sets and other shelter supplies to 150,000 people. The WFP will be increasing the amount it spends in Somalia to $163 million in food assistance, the group said at a U.N. conference in Rome Wednesday. In addition to drought and armed conflict, high inflation on food and fuel have also exacerbated the situation. Similar factors have affected other developing nations in Africa and other parts of the world. Ethiopia's food crisis has affected 4.5 million people, said the United Nations Children's Fund. As a result of widespread food shortages and little rainfall, an estimated 126,000 children are in need of medical assistance to combat severe malnutrition, while the WFP projects $193 million will be needed for urgent food distributions.","highlights":"ICRC: Somalia facing life-threatening food, water shortages leaving millions at risk .\nWinds are leaving crops as dry as the landscape, preventing harvests .\nContinual armed conflicts in central and south Somalia have aggravated the situation .\nHigh inflation on food and fuel have also exacerbated the situation .","id":"504af03b0b07d40beb3a5e6be8d53f60f2ea58df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged businessman Robert Allen Stanford with orchestrating an $8 billion fraudulent investment program. Stanford presents a trophy to the winners of his Twenty20 cricket tournament in November 2008. Stanford is the tycoon who bankrolled the Twenty20 Super Series cricket competition in the West Indies last year. The Texan has also contributed millions of dollars to the West Indies Cricket Board in an attempt to boost their flagging fortunes. Rose Romero, Regional Director of the SEC's Fort Worth Regional Office in Texas, said, \"We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world.\" Stanford allegedly fabricated historical return data to prey on investors. The SEC says the investigation is on-going. Reuters.com reports three of Stanford's companies are involved in the SEC probe including Texas-based Stanford Group Co, Antigua-based Stanford International Bank and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management. The SEC Web site said Stanford International Bank CFO James Davis and Stanford Financial Group chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt also face charges. It added that U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor granted a temporary restraining order freezing the defendants' assets and appointed a receiver to marshal those assets, as part of a request for emergency relief for the benefit of defrauded investors. The SEC's complaint alleges that the fraud centered on a program in which Stanford International Bank promised \"improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates.\" SIB allegedly acted through a network of Stanford Group Company financial advisers to sell approximately $8 billion of \"certificates of deposit\" to investors. The bank boasted a unique investment strategy that it said allowed it to receive double-digit returns on its investments for the past 15 years, the SEC said. Early Tuesday, CNBC reported federal marshals were seen entering the offices of Stanford Financial Group in Houston. Reuters reported an eyewitness saw a sign taped to the window stating the company is now \"under the management of a receiver.\" Stanford Financial Group could not immediately be reached for comment. According to the SEC's complaint, a close circle of Stanford's family and friends operates SIB. Its investment committee, responsible for managing the bank's multi-billion dollar portfolio of assets, includes Stanford; Stanford's father, who lives in Mexia, Texas; another Mexia resident with business experience in cattle ranching and car sales; Pendergest-Holt, who had no financial or securities experience prior to joining SFG; and Davis, Stanford's college roommate. The SEC alleges an additional scheme relating to $1.2 billion in sales. Stanford Group Company advisers are accused of using materially false historical performance data to create a mutual fund program called Stanford Allocation Strategy, the release said. According to the complaint, the false data helped grow the program from less than $10 million in 2004 to more than $1 billion, generating SGC - and ultimately, Stanford - about $25 million in 2007 and 2008. In the UK, the Press Association news agency reported that the England and Wales Cricket Board has ceased negotiations with Stanford, who was expected to become a major backer of a proposed tournament in England from 2010.","highlights":"Robert Allen Stanford charged in alleged multi-billion dollar fraud .\nSecurities and Exchange commission says probe is continuing .\nSEC alleges fraud of 'shocking magnitude that spread tentacles throughout world'\nStanford is the tycoon who bankrolled the cricket Twenty20 Super Series .","id":"2002a7846e14337ccebdd3d4182f497362e57318"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cell phone images are providing evidence that a large number of civilians may have been mistakenly killed by U.S. troops operating in Afghanistan last month, two NATO officials said Sunday. The grainy cell phone video shows blankets and quilts covering bodies inside a building. The Afghan government, a United Nations review and other reports from the region state that as many as 90 civilians were killed in an August 22 airstrike, but the Pentagon has adamantly disputed the death toll. Another U.S. military official, who has seen the cell phone imagery but asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said Monday there were about 30 bodies, some covered and some in blankets. There were \"several children who appear to be pulled from the rubble,\" he said. The grainy cell phone video, viewed by CNN, shows rows of blankets and quilts inside a building. In the video, someone lifts the blankets to show the heads of those slain. People who appear to be mourners sit by their loved ones and wail. Watch: Video prompts Pentagon probe \u00bb . Though CNN has confirmed the military is reviewing the video, CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of the imagery. The U.S. military source, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, said the initial U.S. assessment was based largely on comparisons of satellite imagery of a 10-square-kilometer area from before the attack, taken August 14, and imagery captured after the attack, on August 24. Officials viewing the satellite imagery looked for fresh graves after the attack and found only 18 new plots, just in the village area, he said. A U.S. patrol then went to the area August 26. The patrol confirmed those graves but found no others, the source said. The cell phone images were recently shown to Gen. David McKiernan, the top NATO commander, who over the weekend asked for a high-level review of the previous military investigation. That probe concluded the United States was only responsible for a handful of civilian deaths. One of the NATO officials said it appears there were a number of villagers buried in the rubble that the U.S. troops did not see when they were searching the compound targeted in the airstrike. It is believed that after the U.S. troops left the compound, villagers pulled the bodies from the rubble and buried them. Locals apparently took cell phone images and showed them to U.N. investigators, who recently showed them to McKiernan, leading him to request a review. McKiernan learned of the cell phone imagery only after it was shown to him at the U.N. headquarters in Kabul a few days ago. \"In light of emerging evidence pertaining to civilian casualties in the August 22 counter-insurgency operation in the Shindand District, Herat province, I feel it is prudent to request that U.S. Central Command send a general officer to review the U.S. investigation and its findings with respect to this new evidence,\" McKiernan said Sunday in statement. \"The people of Afghanistan have our commitment to get to the truth,\" he said. Afghanistan's government and the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan concluded that 90 civilians were killed in the August 22 airstrike in the western Afghan province of Herat. UNAMA said it found \"convincing\" evidence that 60 children, 15 women and 15 men were killed in the strike. But the initial investigation by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan found that 30 to 35 Taliban militants and five to seven civilians were killed. The findings have been handed over to McKiernan. After the Afghan government concluded its investigation, ministers demanded a review of international troops within its borders. On August 25, Afghanistan's Council of Ministers called on the Defense and Foreign Affairs ministries to start negotiating a \"status of forces\" agreement with international forces -- which include U.S. and NATO troops. The council also asked that the ministries demand the international forces halt airstrikes on civilian targets, as well as house searches not coordinated with Afghan authorities and the illegal detention of civilians. That same day, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that he had fired two military commanders, including Gen. Jalandar Shah, the Afghan army corps' commander for western Afghanistan. The humanitarian watchdog group Human Rights Watch released a report Monday saying that U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan almost tripled from 2006 to 2007, \"fueling a public backlash.\" The report added that this year, there has been a \"massive and unprecedented surge in the use of airpower\" there. Karzai has blamed U.S.-led coalition forces for failing to coordinate their attack with the Afghan army. However, coalition officials said Afghan and coalition troops called in the airstrike as they embarked on a raid to arrest a Taliban commander in Shindand. The coalition investigation found that U.S. and Afghan forces began taking fire from Taliban militants as the forces approached the target in the early hours of August 22. \"The intensity of the enemy fire justified use of well-aimed small-arms fire and close-air support to defend the combined force,\" the coalition said in a statement released shortly after the strike. \"The type and application of fires were used in accordance with existing rules of engagement.\" Mullah Sadiq, a known Taliban commander, was among the militants killed, the coalition said. A U.S. military official, who declined to be named because the investigation is ongoing, cast doubt on reports that the strike killed civilians gathered in a room, reciting Quranic verses at 1 a.m. Regarding reports that most of the 90 deaths were children, the official said there were not 50 children in the entire village. The airstrike was on a legitimate target, he said, noting that coalition forces found a weapons cache -- including AK-47s, 4,000 rounds of ammunition and bomb-making materials -- as well as thousands of dollars in U.S. currency. Investigators also discovered \"firm evidence\" that militants had planned to attack a nearby coalition base, the coalition statement said. The airstrike disrupted the militants' plan, the statement said. The investigating officer interviewed more than 30 people, both Afghan and American, the statement said. He also viewed video taken during the engagement, topographic photos of the area before and after, reports from ground and air personnel involved, reports from local medical clinics and hospitals, intelligence reports, and physical data and photographs collected on the site. Last week, Karzai spoke to President Bush \"in general terms\" about the incident, the White House said in a statement. It gave no further details.","highlights":"NEW: Video shows rows of blankets, apparent mourners wailing by loved ones .\nLocals apparently pulled bodies from rubble after U.S. troops left compound .\nReports say as many as 90 civilians killed in strike; Pentagon disputes death toll .\nU.S. says it killed at least 30 militants, uncovered cache of weapons in strike .","id":"a433aab008ad2edca7f992f3a88f4f95fb4a6e22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A blast of Arctic air Tuesday morning has much of the nation -- from the Great Lakes to Oregon and down to Texas -- in its cold, icy grip. Snow covers a golf course in Summerlin, Nevada, near Las Vegas, on Monday. The temperature at International Falls, Minnesota, was 26 below zero at 8 a.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. To the south in Minneapolis, below-zero temperatures were leaving roadways covered in black ice, sending drivers spinning into numerous accidents, CNN affiliate KARE-TV reported Tuesday. Black ice, nearly invisible on roads, can form when car exhaust freezes on snow-covered pavement in sub-zero conditions, KARE said. Twin Cities drivers could find a little hope in the day's forecast high -- 4 degrees above zero by the afternoon. Temperatures hovering as low as 23 below zero have parts of Montana frozen in their tracks, according to CNN affiliate KFBB-TV. The forecast high Tuesday for Great Falls: 5 degrees. But regions of the nation far from Montana, and not as well equipped to deal with wintry weather, are also caught in the cold blast. Watch the mess in Portland, Oregon \u00bb . WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, predicts the temperature will barely get above freezing, to 36 degrees, on Tuesday. A winter weather advisory is in effect for northern Texas. In Las Vegas, Nevada, residents saw a rare snow accumulation. Snow-covered grounds were a treat for iReporter Rena Moretti, who's lived in Las Vegas on and off for about 10 years. \"It's unbelievable. If it snows it never sticks. I've never seen it like that,\" she said. Watch snow delight skiers but frustrate motorists in Nevada \u00bb In Denver, Colorado, where the temperature was minus 4, KMGH warned residents to expect more snow, with 2 to 3 feet expected in some parts of the Rocky Mountains. Watch ice cause havoc on Colorado roads \u00bb . While the snow is forecast to end Tuesday, the cold air mass should stick around all week. The station also warned commuters that driving would be a mess Tuesday morning. In Omaha, Nebraska, the frigid weather had shelters sending out crews looking for the homeless, according to KMTV. Watch blizzards shut down North Dakota \u00bb . \"We've had people that have been trying to make it here ... either have been too intoxicated or just too cold and just fallen down and haven't been able to make it,\" says Siena Francis House worker and guest Jerry Rayburn. According to the National Weather Service, the entire state of Iowa could be in for heavy snowfall Tuesday. Chicago, Illinois, no stranger to cold weather, is expecting a high of 22 degrees with snow, according to WGN. Meanwhile, on a frontal boundary, West Virginia and western Tennessee are on the alert for possible freezing rain, the weather service reports. And KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, said freezing rain and sleet were moving across the state. In New England, socked by a powerful ice storm last week, temperatures were warming back up into in the 40s and 50s, WCVB in Boston, Massachusetts, reported. But electricity may not be restored to some customers until the weekend, the station reported. One town, Lunenberg, Massachusetts, said school students would be getting an extended Christmas break, with classes not resuming until the new year, WCVB reported. Debris-clogged roads were blamed. \"They're passable for vehicles and emergency vehicles, but they're not passable for buses. That represents a danger, so, we can't get the kids safely to school, even if we were able to open school,\" School Superintendent Loxi Joe Calmes said, accoding to WCVB. Meanwhile, a cold, wet storm blew into Southern California. Twenty-four-hour rainfall totals were 1.44 inches at Los Angeles International Airport, almost 1 inch in Palm Springs, and an inch in San Diego, the weather service reported Tuesday morning. iReporters share their weather observations . Where is it not so cold? It was 69 degrees in Miami, Florida, early Tuesday morning, according to WFOR. The price for the warm weather -- possible thunderstorms, says the National Weather Service.","highlights":"NEW: Black ice plagues Minneapolis in sub-zero temperatures .\nNEW: Storm-struck Massachusetts city closes schools until new year .\nLarge swath of the United States beset by very low temperatures .\nEven places such as Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dallas, Texas, in wintry grip .","id":"03df907c0712a0cfadcea8ad1aa2dba383f02118"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Explorer Dennis Schmitt found an island nearly two years ago near Greenland. Fishermen pass by Greenland's Ilulissat fjord in this September 2004 picture. Such a discovery would usually elicit curiosity, even wonder perhaps, but it evoked mixed feelings for the explorer. The island was once thought to be a peninsula attached to Greenland by an ice shelf or a glacier. But such a large amount of ice melted, it revealed the distinct island. \"I very quickly realized two things,\" he told CNN's Anderson Cooper during a visit to the island earlier this year. \"One [was] that this was going to be significant because it was going to be an example of climate change.\" \"The other thing was that it meant it was really happening. It wasn't a joke. It wasn't just statistics. It was really happening.\" He calls his discovery Warming Island. Many climatologists and scientists say arctic ice melt and other changes in the Earth's climate are the result of an increase in the world's temperature, a trend widely called global warming. Many global warming experts say the phenomenon, if unchecked, is capable of altering the world's climate and geography. In the worst-case scenario, experts say oceans could rise to overwhelming and catastrophic levels, flooding cities and altering seashores. Other scientists and observers, a minority compared to those who believe the warming trend is something ominous, say it is simply the latest shift in the cyclical patterns of a planet's life. Most of the scientific community believes that some warming is occurring across the globe and through some layers of the atmosphere. But why it is occurring and what that means for the future is scientifically and politically contentious. The Earth's temperature averages about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (about 16 degrees Celsius). The average surface temperature has warmed one degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) during the last century, according to the National Research Council. The temperatures were relatively unchanged from 1880 to 1910, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They rose till about 1945, cooled until about 1975 and have risen steadily to present day. There are several possible reasons for the warming, scientists say. A change in the Earth's orbit or the intensity of the sun's radiation could change, triggering warming or cooling. The reason most cited -- by scientists and scientific organizations -- for the current warming trend is an increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases, which are in the atmosphere naturally and help keep the planet's temperature at a comfortable level. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, for instance, has increased by 35 percent since the dawn of the industrial age, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commonly referred to as the IPCC. The presence of methane is now 151 percent above pre-industrial levels, but the rate of increase has slowed in recent decades, according to the EPA. Meanwhile, nitrous oxide increased by about 18 percent during the past 200 years. Many scientists and experts who have studied global warming believe the increase is primarily the result of human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels, emissions from vehicles and the clearing of forests. \"For the last 30 years, there's no way there's anything natural that can explain it,\" Stephen Schneider, a professor of environmental studies at Stanford University in California, said. \"A vast bulk of the knowledgeable and honest community ... will say the science is settled and humans are at least a majority of the reason behind the warming,\" he added. Many scientific organizations share Schneider's view, ranging from the national academies of the countries that comprise the G8 to the National Research Council, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. But there are those who do not share his view, and among the skeptics is Richard Lindzen, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \"We've suddenly taken to reading tea leaves,\" he said. \"When we saw cooling from 1940 to 1970, we were proclaiming global cooling. Since then, there's been a few tenths of global warming, so we're proclaiming global warming.\" He believes the current warming trend is the result of natural variability, where a planet goes through phases of warming and cooling and the human contribution to it is minimal. \"The Earth is always getting colder and warmer,\" he said. \"It's always changing. In fact, this is true of any fluid-covered planet.\" Asked about glacial melt, which many observers point to as evidence of global warming, Lindzen said the way glaciers change and move are phenomena largely unexplained. \"We don't know why, but it's perfectly clear that glaciers change even though the temperature is cooling at the place that they've occurred,\" he said. \"What we're doing is cherry picking any event that occurs and then saying that's occurring due to global warming.\" Yet, for Schneider, it is a cause for concern and alarm. \"We're already in serious melt, nobody can explain it. The models don't predict it,\" he said. \"We don't know what's going on up there. All we know is that we could be triggering something really nasty.\" The greatest point of contention is the possible implications for future political and economic policies for the world's nations. The IPCC in February 2007 projected that if carbon dioxide levels doubled relative to pre-industrial levels, temperatures could rise between 3.6 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius) by 2100. The lower end of the range could cause more intense hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and flooding, Schneider said. The higher end could lead to the catastrophes commonly associated with the visions of Hollywood filmmakers. Uncertainties, however, plague such forecasts, which are based on computer simulations and models. The models contemplate factors associated with how the atmosphere, oceans and continents interact, all natural elements that have unpredictability intrinsic to them. \"Exactly how much it's going to warm up, we don't know,\" Schneider said. \"That it's going to warm up? I'd bet anything on that.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Earth has warmed one degree in past 100 years .\nMajority of scientists say greenhouse gases are causing temperatures to rise .\nSome critics say planets often in periods of warming or cooling .","id":"025c8069f148d69490998d48ed65c2db49d06f1e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To this day, Linda Haywood recalls the shame she once felt for her great-uncle. Jack Johnson was convicted of transporting a white woman across state lines for \"immoral purposes.\" \"I could see from the expression on my mother's face that it pained her to tell me about him,\" she recalled, \"but it wasn't just her. The shame was there for all the members of my family.\" Haywood's great-uncle, Jack Johnson, shocked the nation in 1908 by becoming the first African-American world heavyweight champion. Yet the boxer was arrested not long afterward for taking a white woman across state lines for \"immoral\" purposes. That case fell apart and the woman later became his wife, but then investigators charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier. An all-white jury's decision to convict him in that case has come to be widely viewed as a symbol of racial injustice. Now Haywood is working with Sen. John McCain and others to try to clear her great-uncle's name. McCain wants the Senate to pass a resolution urging President Obama to grant Johnson a presidential pardon. It would represent a final vindication for Haywood, a 53-year-old seamstress in Chicago who now views her great-uncle with pride. Her parents didn't tell her until she was 12 that she was related to Johnson, even though she saw his photo at school during lessons on black history. \"I remember seeing his picture on the wall of my sixth-grade classroom in Chicago in 1966,\" Haywood said in a voice tinged with sadness. \"It was up there next to pictures of Sojourner Truth and George Washington Carver as part of a black history week my teacher put together. I didn't have the first clue who the man was. My parents didn't want me to know.\" Her parents, she said, were trying to protect her from a legacy of racial injustice at a time when the country had yet to emerge from the long shadow of segregation. Haywood was stunned when she learned her great-uncle's story. Less than five years after winning the heavyweight title, Johnson was convicted for violating the Mann Act, which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for \"immoral\" purposes. Johnson was black and the woman was white -- enough to get even a champion imprisoned in early 20th century America. Justice Department lawyers decried it as a \"crime against nature\" for him to have a sexual relationship with a white woman. Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, later to become the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, set Johnson's bail at $30,000 -- the equivalent of more than $660,000 today. When a bail bondsman showed up, Landis jailed him, too, according to an account that filmmaker Ken Burns relays in his documentary, \"Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.\" An all-white jury convicted Johnson in less than two hours. \"Mr. Johnson was perhaps persecuted as an individual, but ... it was his misfortune to be the foremost example of the evil in permitting the intermarriage of whites and blacks,\" one of the prosecutors later said. Johnson's real crime, in the eyes of many, was committed three years earlier, when he successfully defended his boxing title against Jim Jeffries, a white boxer who came to be called the \"Great White Hope\" because many white fans saw him as the best chance to wrest back a boxing title from the African-American champ. Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion, had come out of retirement intending to reclaim a title that many Americans believed Johnson had no right to in the first place. Johnson beat Jeffries on July 4, 1910, before a stunned, almost entirely white crowd in Reno, Nevada. Race riots followed. More than 20 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Most victims were black. So when they \"couldn't beat him in the ring, the white power establishment decided to beat him in the courts,\" Burns said in his documentary. Johnson fled to Europe in 1913 while free on appeal. But after years of fights overseas -- including the eventual loss of his title in Havana, Cuba, in 1915 -- Johnson came home. He turned himself over to U.S. authorities at the Mexican border in 1920 and served ten months in prison. He died in a car wreck in 1946. \"Back then, if you were black and you were told that you did something wrong, you really had no recourse,\" said Haywood. \"You just accepted what was done because black people were basically powerless and voiceless. Jack may have been a rich boxer, but he couldn't fight the system.\" Today, in a very different America, Haywood's family is seeking justice. They've teamed up with Burns, McCain and Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, to urge the nation's first African-American president to grant Johnson a rare posthumous pardon. McCain and King introduced resolutions calling for a presidential pardon in 2005 and last year. The House passed it, but the Senate did not. The White House declined to comment when asked Obama's views on a possible pardon for Johnson. McCain, who says he made a mistake by once voting against a federal holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., sees the pardon as a way to right an old wrong. \"The Jack Johnson case is an ignominious stain on our nation's history,\" he said on the Senate floor this month, while introducing a new version of the resolution. \"Rectifying this injustice is long overdue. [The resolution recognizes] the unjustness of what transpired, and sheds light on the achievements of an athlete who was forced into the shadows of bigotry and prejudice. Johnson ... deserved much better than a racially motivated conviction.\" King, himself a former boxer, said in a written statement that Johnson was a trailblazer who became \"a victim of the times.\" For Haywood, the proposed pardon is also personal. It's about wiping the slate clean for future generations of her family. \"My mother used to say Jack was defiant,\" she remembered. \"No disrespect, momma, but he was being his own man. And I'm so proud of him. To think -- of all the families in the world, God gave him to us.\" Haywood has made sure her four children know the story of the country's first black heavyweight champion. \"They love him,\" she said. \"Especially my oldest son. He was a bit of a pugilist in high school. He got into his fair share of scraps. I think we know where he got that trait.\" Haywood says she'll go to Washington if Obama issues a pardon. With a bit of laughter, she promises to give a gracious, eloquent speech thanking him. With or without a pardon, she emphasizes, the stigma and the shame are gone. Today, Johnson's family feels only pride.","highlights":"Heavyweight champ Jack Johnson was arrested around 1908 .\nHis offense: Transporting a white woman across state lines for \"immoral purposes\"\nRelatives working with Washington powers to get Johnson a posthumous pardon .","id":"9d6099e37e18a854feb07db6e17a6099570c4bff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Workers at a Texas state school for mentally handicapped adults are believed to have been staging a \"fight club\" among residents, encouraging them to physically battle one another, police told CNN Tuesday. A cell phone containing videos of the alleged abuse at the Corpus Christi State School in Corpus Christi, Texas, was turned over to police last week, and authorities are expecting to file arrest warrants this week, Corpus Christi police Capt. Tim Wilson told CNN. The incidents are believed to have taken place in a school dormitory, Wilson said. \"This has been going on for some time,\" Wilson said. \"That is what makes this an exceptional case. It is not the workers abusing the clients, so to speak. The workers are not hitting them, but they are allowing these clients to fight with each other, thereby endangering their well-being.\" \"These people are charged with the care and custody of these clients, and they are exploiting (them),\" he said. Those involved will likely face charges of injury of a disabled person, Wilson said. The charge's severity can range up to a third-class felony, depending on the extent of a person's involvement, he said. The actual charges, however are left up to the Nueces County District Attorney, which is participating in the investigation along with the Texas Inspector General's Office, he said. Seven school employees have been placed on paid emergency leave by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, according to spokeswoman Cecilia Fedorov. Some former workers also will be interviewed, authorities said. Fedorov said the agency received a phone call Friday from the state Department of Family and Protective Services, saying they had been alerted to the situation by police and were opening an investigation into possible abuse or neglect. The employees on leave cannot come on to campus, but must sign in at the gate every day they are on leave, Fedorov said. State officials are awaiting the outcome of the investigation to determine whether they should take further action, she said. Wilson said Corpus Christi police received the cell phone a week ago, when a citizen found it and gave it to an officer working security at a hospital. The officer looked at several of the videos, then gave the phone to the police's forensic unit for analysis. More videos were found in the phone's memory. \"It appears it was some sort of a fight club,\" Wilson said. Twenty videos were found on the phone, with dates going back about a year. All the videos featured the school's \"clients,\" who are severely mentally handicapped, he said. On the videos, \"they (the clients) are not upset like they are being forced,\" Wilson said. \"They are being more goaded into it. There's a lot of voices on there from workers ... saying, 'Look at that, ha ha' ... laughing, stuff like that.\" No clients are seen crying, upset or injured on the videos, he said, but no workers are seen stopping the fighting. \"The fighting entails pushing, wrestling and some shoving,\" Wilson said. Police do not believe anyone was seriously injured, he said, but the investigation is ongoing. \"Four or five clients have been identified and at least five workers, possibly as many as 10,\" he said. \"Some are more active in staging the fights, and some others passively stand around not doing anything.\" The clients are all adult males, ranging in age from their late teens into their 30s, he said. As part of the investigation, the Inspector General's office has interviewed some of the clients, Wilson said. Asked whether the school had previously been investigated for abuse, he said, \"This is the exception. Over the years, we have had isolated instances of abuse we have investigated. Every once in a while, the school itself would report a case, but this appears to be organized.\" Police believe, based on the videos, the \"fight club\" was confined to one dormitory, he said. CNN's John Murgatroyd contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cell phone videos of alleged abuse at Corpus Christi State School given to police .\nThe Texas school serves adults who are severely mentally handicapped .\nSeven school employees placed on leave; arrest warrants are pending .\nNo clients are seen crying, upset or injured on the videos, police say .","id":"814244fa95a44bd11154eb44e367577bc76a5c77"} -{"article":"This story is part of an ongoing series of profiles by CNN about economic survival in this time of financial crisis. Jean Lindsay records a video telling people to get out of their nightgowns and look for work. (CNN) -- Jean Lindsay, a spunky 67-year-old with two masters' degrees, panicked after she failed to land a job in the garden center of a Lowe's home-improvement store. She started to wonder whether a woman of her age ever would be able to find work. She worried about her debt, and weeks of unemployment were turning into months. After the job interview, she stayed up most of the night in the fits of an anxiety attack -- vomiting and huddling under the bedcovers with her two dogs. \"God, I felt like I was falling off the ends of the earth,\" she said. A few days later, though, she tossed on a red sweater, plopped down in front of her computer, flipped on her Web camera -- and, suddenly, while streaming her story onto the Internet, things seemed OK. \"I know I can count on you to send me great letters of support and cheer,\" Lindsay told viewers on CNN's iReport.com. \"And remember, if you're going through this, I'm going through it too. There are lots of us going through this.\" Watch Lindsay's post . For Lindsay, like many people these days, the Internet has become both a tool for economic recovery and a cure for isolation. iReport.com: Share your survivor story . At a time when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that 1.07 million people 55 and older are unemployed and looking for work, the Internet is an increasingly useful tool for older people looking for jobs and a sense of community, said Deborah Russell the AARP's director of workforce issues. \"It's a great way of being able to network with people who are either in a similar situation or who may have some resources to help you,\" she said. The number of people who need this help is on the rise. Some older people are delaying retirement because of the economic recession; and, according to an analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute, those who are looking for work typically search for about a third longer than people younger than 55. Watch how one senior goes back to school for a living \u00bb . Lindsay had been out of work for about three months before her brother gave her a Web camera for Christmas last year. Almost immediately, she was hooked. Her brother intended her to use the Web cam mostly to communicate with family members who are spread out across the country, she said. But Lindsay didn't stop there. She got a creative jolt from filming quirky videos of her own. So, she started posting video monologues for the Internet world to see. In the past three weeks, she's posted nearly 40 videos on iReport. Her most popular video -- in which she talks about depression while wearing a plaid nightgown -- has been viewed by more than 140,000 people. \"I was in my nightgown at noon, and I wasn't getting at the job search very fast, and I thought, 'this is instructive,' \" she said, laughing. She signs off from the video simply: \"Get up, and get out!\" Watch Lindsay's tips for getting out of the house . Her own advice compelled her to do the same. Lindsay says sharing her failures as well as successes online is cathartic, but she also hopes it's helpful for people in similar circumstances. She's not shy about saying that she suffers from mild bipolar disorder. This economy can push people into depression and mental illness, she said, and she wants people to know they're not alone. The same goes for her job search. \"This has really invigorated me,\" she said of her forays with a virtual persona. \"It's something where I've had success. And the job search is not always successful -- it's dealing with a lot of rejection, especially when you're older.\" On iReport, Lindsay posts under the name \"infoaddict,\" which seems fitting for a former librarian and information technology expert with masters' degrees in literature and library information sciences. Like a good book, Lindsay says the Internet also opens new worlds for her. While she's not sure exactly how, she has a sense that all of her online storytelling will help her in the job search. If nothing else, the online videos market her computer skills, she said. Dan Beach, Lindsay's second cousin, who lives in Florida, said Skype, social media sites and online video have been \"a salvation\" for Lindsay. \"Frankly, I think she was very, very depressed. And I think this has brought her out enormously,\" he said. The 72-year-old added: \"It helps an older person feel younger because there is so much youth [online]. I've done the Facebook thing in the past couple of months myself.\" At first, Lindsay's online presence surprised him. \"She's gotten so much response to it, and I'm wondering whether she might try to make something out of that,\" he said. \"She's just the dotty aunt enough to be able to do that kind of thing. She's a charming person.\" iReport.com: Send us your job hunt stories . Lindsay, who said she needs a job because she has home-improvement debt and can't sell her house in this slumped market, said she is able to keep hunting for jobs partly because of her creative outlet online. She grew up loving to help her grandfather on his farm. Together, they would build manure loaders and chicken pluckers -- machines Lindsay found fascinating. Those experiences translated into her love for hardware stores, gardening and gadgetry. \"I love hardware stores, so Lowe's would have been perfect. I'm just a crazy old lady, I've just got catholic taste,\" she said. But she believes that something better than Lowe's is out there. She plans to apply to an office-supply store, an electronics store and for a telecommunications job she could do from her home in western New York. \"There is a real Catch-22 for people my age who are still hale and hearty and still have some talent left. We're probably fooling ourselves that we can go on and do anything,\" she said, \"but we can't live that way.\" Her online life helps ensure she won't have to.","highlights":"Jean Lindsay, 67, uploads videos about her struggles finding a job .\nLindsay says support from her online viewers keeps her moving .\nHer advice to depressed older people who are out of work: \"Get up, and get out!\"\nWeb skills are increasingly important in today's job market, AARP says .","id":"174abe13166361c268de2125b09b37bc08d58f11"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the fifth time this year, a U.S. Air Force nuclear weapons unit failed an inspection, this time because of failure to document its handling of nuclear missiles and other critical issues, Air Force officials said. In an Air Force file photo, an airman inspects a missile part at a training site. A \"nuclear surety inspection\" and \"unit compliance inspection\" was conducted this month on the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming by an Air Force inspector general. There was no risk to the unit's Minuteman III nuclear missiles, Air Force officials said. The unit has 90 days to correct the problems and pass another inspection. In the wake of recent problems, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top Air Force officials have indicated a zero tolerance for failing inspections, but no punishments are expected in this case, officials said. The inspection report found the maintenance unit failed to document tests conducted on missiles correctly, including tests on safety devices. The inspector general told the unit the failures indicated either a \"lack of competence\" or \"disregard for procedures,\" according to a source who has seen the report. Additionally, failures included having some personnel on duty without proper medical clearance and failure to inspect radiation detectors. Other units that failed inspections this year included two bomb wings and two missile units.","highlights":"Unit at Wyoming base fails to document missile handling, Air Force officials say .\nThe 90th Missile Wing has 90 days to make corrections .\nNo risk to Minuteman III nuclear missiles, officials say .","id":"1049a51c2ffdb80e9dc83a00ef0374858fd53dab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pulitzer Prize-winning author, radio host and activist Studs Terkel died in his Chicago, Illinois, home Friday at the age of 96. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel died at his home Friday at the age of 96. Terkel had grown frail since the publication last year of his memoir, \"Touch and Go,\" said Gordon Mayer, vice president of the Community Media Workshop, which Terkel had supported. \"I'm still in touch, but I'm ready to go,\" he said last year at his last public appearance with the workshop, a nonprofit that recognizes Chicago reporters who take risks in covering the city. \"My dad led a long, full, eventful -- sometimes tempestuous -- satisfying life,\" his son Dan said in a statement. \"The last time I saw him, he was up, about, and mad as hell about the Cubs,\" workshop President Thom Clark said in the statement. Terkel, known for his portrayal of ordinary people young and old, rich and poor, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for his remembrances of World War II, \"The Good War.\" iReport.com: Remebering the legacy of Studs Terkel . Terkel was born in New York but moved to Chicago, where his parents ran a small hotel. Terkel would sit in the hotel lobby watching droves of people arguing, fighting, ranting and telling stories. \"That hotel was far more of an education to me than the University of Chicago was,\" Studs told CNN in 2000. It seems that beginning would pave the way for Terkel's love of passing on people's oral histories. He could often be found behind a tape recorder talking to the people who would eventually become the basis for his books. Terkel became famous, if not synonymous with oral histories, for his ability to cast a light on the working class. \"Oral history preceded the written word,\" Terkel told CNN in 2000. \"Oral history is having people tell their own stories and bringing it forth. \"That's what history's about: the oral history of the unknowns that make the wheel go 'round. And that's what I'm interested in.\" In an interview with Lou Waters on CNN in 1995, Terkel spoke about his book \"Coming of Age,\" which explored the lives of people who have been \"scrappers\" all of their lives. Inside the book are the stories of people between the ages of 70 and 95, a group he called \"the truth tellers.\" \"Who are the best historians? Who are the storytellers?\" Terkel asked. \"Who lived through the Great Depression of the '30s, World War II that changed the whole psyche and map of the world, a Cold War, Joe McCarthy, Vietnam, the '60s, that's so often put down today and I think was an exhilarating and hopeful period, and, of course, the computer and technology. Who are the best ones to tell the story? Those who've borne witness to it. And they're our storytellers.\" After Terkel's wife died in 1999, he began working on a book about death, eventually called \"Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith.\" \"It's about life,\" Terkel said in 2000 when asked about the project. \"How can one talk about life without saying sometime it's going to end? It makes the value of life all the more precious.\"","highlights":"Terkel won Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for book about World War II, \"The Good War\"\nSon: \"My dad led a long, full, eventful -- sometimes tempestuous -- satisfying life\"\nTerkel once said death \"makes the value of life all the more precious\"\nAuthor believed elderly, those \"who've borne witness\" to life are best storytellers .","id":"11d6fa81a54afb7202e4d1dd8e7415adc1ce748d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN affiliates report on where job seekers are finding work across the country and how those looking for employment are coping with the situation. Job fairs are becoming more popular and are seeing record attendance. (CNN) -- A record number of senior citizens attended a job fair this week in Loveland, Colorado. The fair, which targeted people 50 and older, drew the biggest crowd -- about 900 people -- for the annual event. Nan Cooper, a job seeker, said applicants have to do more these days than just walk into a prospective employer's office with a resume. \"[Times] have changed radically,\" she told KMGH in Denver. \"I've spent countless, countless hours on the Internet and filling out applications.\" iReport.com: Share your job hunt story . She said she had even applied for jobs through the online auction site eBay. Read the full report on KMGH . Northeast: Job week seeks to solve 'disconnect' between employers, job hunters . Employers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area say they are having a difficult time filling 22,000 available positions. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said this week the city would increase its participation in a job placement program, both monetarily and through city organizations. The mayor made his remarks as part of a kickoff event for Imagine Career Week, which links high school students and employers. A spokesman for one of the groups sponsoring the week's events said there shouldn't be so many employers with open spots. \"At the same time, we have young people walking around famously saying that they can't find a job. There's a big disconnect there someplace,\" Paul Leger of the Allegheny Conference told WTAE. During the career week, students will visit businesses and prospective employers will visit classrooms. Read the full report on WTAE . Southeast: Wal-Mart to increase its N.C. workforce by nearly 6 percent . Wal-Mart said Wednesday it plans to add 3,000 jobs in North Carolina. The retail chain currently employs 51,000 people at 155 locations in the state. \"In a time when many are suffering, we want North Carolinians to know that we are here to stay,\" David Cameron, general manager for the Carolinas, told WRAL of Raleigh. He did not say where the jobs would be located. North Carolina is one of eight states with unemployment above 10 percent. Read the report on WRAL . Southeast: Military recruiter sees more potential airmen . Technical Sgt. Greg O'Conner is staying very busy these days. He is an Air Force recruiter in Bradenton, Florida. \"With the way the economy is, recruitment is up,\" he told Bay News 9. \"I get dozens of calls every day and walk-ins from young men and women interested in joining the Air Force.\" One of his recruits was 20-year-old Dakota Slentz, who cannot afford to go to law enforcement training school. He said the Air Force offers a chance for great experiences as well as a great salary. In statistics provided by the Department of Defense, the Air Force has reported meeting its recruiting goals each month of the fiscal year, which began in October. Read the full report on Bay News 9 . West: Sacramento project to bring thousands of jobs . A building developer in Sacramento, California, says plans to turn rail yards into a residential and commercial district will require thousands of workers over the next 20 years. Suheil Totah of Thomas Enterprises told KCRA that initial projects like building roads will mean jobs for 3,000 people. The company said more than 56,000 people will be needed for the project in the next two decades. The 244 acres will be converted into a mix of homes, businesses, entertainment venues and government offices. Read the report on KCRA . Around the nation . Tennessee will use federal stimulus money to hire 12,000 people ages 24 and younger, WSMV reports. A food company is converting a North Carolina textile plant and bringing 172 jobs, WXII reports.","highlights":"Job fair aimed at people 50 and older draws big crowd .\nPittsburgh area business executives meeting with high school students .\nWal-Mart adding 3,000 jobs in North Carolina .\nAir Force recruiter in Florida has seen increase in interest .","id":"74996e41c96c696df8040c1356035622a60ecb1b"} -{"article":"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- A bat that apparently had trouble flying instead tried to hitch a ride on the space shuttle Discovery, NASA officials said. The free tail bat was last seen clinging to the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank just before launch. The animal was last seen clinging on the foam of the external tank of the space shuttle moments before the Discovery launched, officials said. NASA officials had hoped the bat would fly away on its own, but admitted the bat probably died quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit. Discovery's seven-member crew, which lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, is on a 14-day mission to deliver supplies needed to expand the International Space Station. NASA officials noticed the bat before shuttle's liftoff and brought in a wildlife expert to look at video images of it. The expert said it appeared to be a free-tailed bat that probably had a broken left wing and an injured right shoulder or wrist. The launch pads at the space center are near the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, so NASA has sirens to scare away animals that get near the shuttles. The bat isn't the first to try hitching a ride into space. NASA officials said they noticed one of the creatures on a tank of a shuttle in 1998. That bat flew away as the shuttle's massive engines ignited. The crew of the Discovery safely docked at the International Space Station on Tuesday. It was unclear whether its stowaway was still clinging to the shuttle.","highlights":"NASA: Bat was last seen clinging on space shuttle Discovery before launch .\nWildlife expert says bat appeared to have broken wing or injured shoulder .\nDiscovery is on 14-day mission to deliver supplies to International Space Station .","id":"5b9836bb28c27d08cb40e5d40ee60962c14a2e16"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest, is professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, and a visiting professor at Emory University. His most recent book is \"God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush.\" Randall Balmer supports Obama's unusual broadening of a president's words to include nonbelievers. NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Obama's mention of \"nonbelievers\" in his inaugural address represents an important broadening of the circle of acceptability in American life, an acknowledgement of our growing diversity and a fuller embrace of the principles articulated in our nation's charter documents. One of the hallmarks of American life, dating to the 17th century, is its religious pluralism. The Atlantic seaboard during the colonial period was home to everyone from Puritans, Roman Catholics and Dutch Reformed to Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, Swedish Lutherans, Anglicans, Huguenots, Mennonites and Schwenckfelders. Jews arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654, refugees from South America after the Portuguese takeover of Recif\u00e9. Somehow it all worked, especially in the crucible of religious pluralism in the Middle Colonies: New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where William Penn launched his \"Holy Experiment\" of religious toleration. In the context of the New World, these religious groups learned to coexist with remarkably little conflict, and when it came time to configure the new nation, the founders in their wisdom elected not to designate any group as the state religion. \"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,\" the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads. This provision set up a kind of free market for religion in America, allowing religious groups to compete in a marketplace unfettered by government interference. Indeed, American history is littered with religious entrepreneurs (to extend the economic metaphor) who have peddled their wares in this marketplace and thereby contributed to the vigor and vitality of American religious life. The story of religion in America life has been one of expansion and ever-increasing diversity. Although Roman Catholics were present in the colonial period -- Maryland, named for the wife of Charles I, was founded by Catholics from England -- Catholics arrived in great numbers from Ireland, Germany and Italy over the course of the 19th century. Many Protestants, their hegemony threatened, resisted, sometimes with violence. Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe came as well. Most of the resistance was episodic. With notable -- albeit unfortunate -- exceptions, we Americans eventually rise to our better selves and embrace the principles of equality and toleration enshrined in our charter documents. And we can trace these changes in our rhetoric. The term \"Judeo-Christian,\" although coined late in the 19th century, became popular in the 1930s as the clouds of war were gathering in Europe. In 1955, after World War II, when so many sons of Jewish and Catholic immigrants fought the Axis powers, sociologist Will Herberg published a book entitled \"Protestant-Catholic-Jew,\" arguing that any of these religious expressions was legitimately \"American.\" The following decade saw still more changes. The civil rights struggle brought the vibrancy of African-American religious life to national attention, and Lyndon Johnson's signature on the Hart-Cellar Immigration Act in 1965 removed immigration quotas. In the decades since, the arrival of people from around the world, especially from South Asia and Southeast Asia, has literally recast the religious landscape of the United States. Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, Sikh Gurdw\u00e4r\u00e4s and Buddhist stupas have sprouted across the nation, from cities to the countryside. And our rhetoric has evolved as well. Whereas America might once have been described as a \"Protestant\" nation and then a \"Christian\" nation (to reflect the inclusion of Roman Catholics), we moved to \"Judeo-Christian\" and then \"Protestant-Catholic-Jew.\" More recently, we have talked about the \"Abrahamic Traditions,\" Jews, Christians and Muslims, thereby broadening the circle to include Islam, one of the three major monotheistic religions. Even with this broadening landscape, however, presidents have generally acknowledged only believers and failed to mention atheists or agnostics. Our rhetoric, in fact, has always lagged behind our reality. When President Obama declared, \"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers,\" he sent a signal that it's time, once again, to enlarge the circle of inclusiveness, consistent with the great American tradition of equality and toleration. Although I'm sure that Buddhists and Jains and Sikhs and countless other religious adherents would like to have been included in the president's roll call, the message was clear: We are a diverse nation, and the \"free exercise\" of religion guaranteed in the First Amendment also protects the exercise of no religion at all. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Randall Balmer.","highlights":"Randall Balmer: It's unusual for a president to include nonbelievers in his words .\nHe says America has widened its circle of religion for hundreds of years .\nBalmer says rhetoric has grown to include Jews, Muslims, Hindus .\nThe First Amendment makes it appropriate to recognize nonbelievers, he says .","id":"5ab7e96bffefe1ddcd7a6bc49936ebb96538f079"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The two youngest stars in \"Slumdog Millionaire\" will get \"a substantial sum of money\" that would \"change their lives for the better\" when they turn 18, but only if they stay in school, director Danny Boyle told CNN. Director Danny Boyle says the youngest actors in his film will get \"substantial\" money if they stay in school. Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, both 8, have been temporarily forced to stay away from school by the crush of journalists who have converged on the campus in Mumbai, Boyle said. \"The press attention that's been focused on them is really sad at the moment and they've had to leave school temporarily because the press outside the school is disrupting the school,\" Boyle said. \"So, we've withdrawn them from the school for a short while.\" Boyle, in a CNN interview Thursday, said the boys were paid \"way over and above what you could pay,\" despite media reports to the contrary. The success of the moderately budgeted film, about an orphan seeking fame and love through the \"Millionaire\" game show, drew a spotlight to the slums of Mumbai, India, where it was filmed. A controversy erupted this week when the children's parents told reporters they felt they were exploited and underpaid for their work. The Telegraph newspaper of London reported the children and their families still live in the same \"tangle of makeshift shacks\" in Mumbai where they lived when the casting director found them. Azharuddin's situation has gotten worse, the paper said, because \"his family's illegal hut was demolished by the local authorities and he now sleeps under a sheet of plastic tarpaulin with his father, who suffers from tuberculosis.\" This public relations challenge began just as Oscar ballots were mailed to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" is nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture and best director for Boyle. Boyle defended how his production company has treated the boys. \"We thought long and hard about how best can we benefit them and we decided to put in place an education plan for them,\" Boyle said. \"We put them in school, a very good school, which they're paid for to stay in until they're 18.\" \"If they stay in school until they're 18, a substantial sum of money is released to them then, which will effectively change their lives for the better,\" Boyle said. The Telegraph quoted their parents saying Azharuddin was paid less than $2,500, and that Rubina got about $700. \"The children were paid well,\" Boyle said. \"The families were paid well for their work, over and above what you could pay, way over and above what you could pay.\" \"Some of the figures that have been quoted have been very inaccurate,\" Boyle said. He said he would not quote the real numbers \"because to do so makes them vulnerable within their own community. There are people who would take advantage of them immediately.\" Even the trust fund is a target of \"gangsters,\" he said. \"The money that would be released to them when they are older, that is the kind of thing that can be mortgaged off by gangsters,\" he said. Boyle said the film's financial backers have agreed that charitable groups that help children of the slums will also see \"a slice of the profits.\" \"We've all agreed that we will sit down and dedicate a slice of the profits of the film to be distributed amongst people like those who run the school and other organizations who make a big difference to children's lives there,\" he said. \"We gained from the city, both from these two children and from the city, in general, and we'll make sure the film gives back some of the enormous success it's had,\" he said. -- CNN's Kareen Wynter contributed to this report.","highlights":"The children's parents say they felt they were exploited and underpaid for their work .\nThe kids reportedly still live in the same \"tangle of makeshift shacks\" in Mumbai .\nDirector says the boys were paid \"way over and above what you could pay\"","id":"095f4030bc41f552334f4b3152e90dfc3c193137"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The only surviving suspect in last month's attacks in Mumbai has written a letter to the Pakistan High Commission, or embassy, seeking legal aid, CNN's sister network in India reported Saturday, quoting a Mumbai police official. Flames and smoke gush from the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, on November 27. Investigators said that Mohammad Ajmal Kasab is from Faridkot village in the Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab province and that the other nine attackers also are from Pakistan. Pakistani officials have denied that assertion, blaming instead \"stateless actors.\" Rakesh Maria, Mumbai's joint police commissioner of crime, said Saturday that Kasab's three-page letter was written in Urdu. In the letter, Kasab confesses his role in the attacks, CNN-IBN said. The letter is to be delivered to the commission's New Delhi, India, office, possibly Monday, the network reported. Maria paraphrased parts of the letter at a news conference but did not release a copy to the media, CNN-IBN said. More than 160 people were killed in the three-day Mumbai siege that started November 26 and targeted 10 sites, including two luxury hotels, a train station and other landmarks. Of the 10 suspects, only 21-year-old Kasab survived, according to police. This week, Pakistani authorities banned a charity linked to the attacks and placed its leader under house arrest, Pakistan's information minister told CNN. The move came after the U.N. Security Council designated the charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, as a terrorist organization because of its links to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (known by the acronym LeT) and placed sanctions on the group. India has blamed LeT for training the attackers who carried out the Mumbai attacks.","highlights":"Mohammad Ajmal Kasab is only surviving suspect in last month's attacks .\nHe is from Pakistan's Punjab province, investigators say .\nMumbai official says Kasab wrote to Pakistani embassy seeking legal aid .\nHis letter also includes a confession, police official says .","id":"507ade0ad13fd4d2ddbd2feddf8a9d0cde56af49"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The world has certainly changed since Michael Jackson last staged a concert tour in 1997 to promote the \"HIStory\" album. Fans clamor in London as Michael Jackson announces his return to performing. Since then, other performers have gained prominence -- some who have even been tagged as heir-apparents to Jackson, such as Usher and the currently legally troubled Chris Brown. Now the original is back. Jackson announced Thursday that he'll perform 10 concerts in London in July. But is the world ready to receive Jackson, who has had his share of financial and legal woes, with open arms? Watch Jackson make his announcement \u00bb . Publicist and writer Howard Bragman said it's up to the public. \"He's playing off the fact that people have the wonderful ability to have short memories,\" Bragman said. It was only a few years ago that Jackson was acquitted of several charges, including child molestation, in a California trial. The case, coupled with the singer's eccentric behavior, had seriously damaged his reputation. See a timeline of Jackson's life \u00bb . Bragman said Jackson, who is slated to play the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena, is better off playing smaller venues rather than booking huge stadiums that may not sell out, an embarrassment a returning veteran can't afford to risk. \"It's sort of like the political thing, how you always want to get a small room and make it look full,\" Bragman said. \"Have reasonably priced tickets and do some of your classics. I certainly think that at one point there were tens of millions of Michael Jackson fans worldwide and I think there have to be still some Michael Jackson fans.\" Culture critic, filmmaker and former Billboard music editor Nelson George said British fans are much more forgiving of Jackson's troubles than are Americans, who expect celebrities to be \"saints and heroes,\" George said. \"The love for Michael Jackson in the UK is undiluted by any of the stuff that's been talked about here in the states,\" said George, whose soon-to-be-released book \"City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success\" offers some insight into the era in which Jackson's popularity exploded. \"He's a huge star there still and he will sell out all of those shows,\" George added. George recently returned from London, where he witnessed firsthand the adoration that European fans have for the singer. While there, he said he attended \"Thriller,\" a sold-out tribute to Jackson in London's West End. George points out that Jackson is pursing a similar path to the one the musical artist Prince took in 2007 when he played 21 nights at the O2 Arena. Given its London location, George observed the venue has the potential to attract fans from across Europe. Moreover, George said, the British have long been admirers of black music and culture. \"It's the perfect place for [Jackson] to play,\" George said. \"There will be fans there from all over the world, including the United States.\"","highlights":"Jackson set to play O2 Arena in the United Kingdom .\nRenowned publicist says Jackson smart to tackle smaller venue .\nFormer Billboard music critic: \"He's a huge star there still\"","id":"b40aa5418fc9c2ac286dd1cc1c0ea10e1284ad5e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From Capitol Hill to Springfield, Illinois, President Obama and Congress paid tribute Thursday to Abraham Lincoln on the bicentennial of his birth. Visitors greet an Abraham Lincoln impersonator in Washington on Thursday. \"It is an honor to be here: a place where Lincoln served, was inaugurated, and where the nation he saved bid him a last farewell,\" Obama said at the Capitol on Thursday. \"As we mark the bicentennial of our 16th president's birth, I cannot claim to know as much about his life and works as many who are also speaking today, but I can say that I feel a special gratitude to this singular figure who in so many ways made my own story possible -- and who in so many ways made America's story possible.\" White House officials say Obama's speechwriter had several conversations with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in crafting the speech. \"At a moment when we are far less divided than in Lincoln's day but when we are once again debating the critical issues of our time -- and debating them sometimes fiercely -- let us remember that we are doing so as servants of the same flag, as representatives of the same people and as stakeholders in a common future. That is the most fitting tribute we can pay and the most lasting monument we can build to that most remarkable of men, Abraham Lincoln,\" Obama said. Watch more on the Lincoln celebration taking place \u00bb . Obama will also speak later Thursday at an event in Springfield. Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama -- a Democrat who hails from the Land of Lincoln -- reminded audiences from coast to coast about the similarities between himself and the beloved political leader. At his presidential acceptance speech in Chicago, Illinois, on November 4, Obama used Lincoln as a guide for his ideology. \"As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies but friends. ... Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection,' \" Obama said. Watch a young student read one of Lincoln's speeches \u00bb . In Washington, a congressional tribute took place at the Capitol rotunda. Illinois senior Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, gave the keynote address. At the end, a wreath was placed at the Capitol. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield also opened its doors Thursday for a special celebration, featuring original documents including the Gettysburg Address. Watch CNN's Kyra Phillips take a tour \u00bb . Meanwhile, the Library of Congress marks the bicentennial Thursday by opening a special exhibit featuring Lincoln's handwritten speeches and artifacts, including the Bible used last month by Obama during his swearing-in. \"This exhibit, in a little more than 200 items, presents Lincoln, the man and the politician,\" said John Sellers, curator of the exhibit, which runs through May 9. Lincoln successfully fought a proposal for legalized slavery as development spread to the Western United States, and he eventually brought an end to slavery throughout the country. Among the manuscripts on display is a letter he wrote in impassioned defense of his Emancipation Proclamation. Watch actor Sam Waterson's reading of Lincoln speeches \u00bb . The librarian of Congress, James Billington, acknowledges that the materials are available on the Internet in \"digitized\" form, but he said \"there is something about seeing the original because, after all, Lincoln was a man of words, of rare eloquences.\" \"His words changed history,\" Billington said. The exhibit at the Library of Congress -- on Capitol Hill next to the U.S. Supreme Court -- was in the works for Lincoln's bicentennial long before the presidential campaign in which voters elected Obama. Billington said the exhibition is all the more profound as visitors explore the links between the anti-slavery Lincoln and the African-American Obama. There are also grim reminders of Lincoln's assassination. An original \"wanted\" poster with large black letters reads: \"$100,000 Reward. The murderer is still at large.\" The poster includes a photograph of John Wilkes Booth, who was on the run after being accused of firing the fatal shots at Ford's Theatre in Washington, where Lincoln was attending a play. \"This is the autopsy report,\" Sellers noted during the preview. \"Those are actual blood stains -- Lincoln's blood.\" Other, more lighthearted artifacts are also on display, including an 1860 letter from a girl urging presidential candidate Lincoln to grow a beard to help his prospects with voters. CNN's Paul Courson, Ed Hornick and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama says Lincoln \"in so many ways made my own story possible\"\nPresident Obama, Congress salute the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth .\nLibrary of Congress also opens an exhibit showcasing original items .","id":"c0a5376db84bae9c59de8292ec3ca36788de5e44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that both engines of the US Airways flight that ditched last month into the Hudson River contained bird remains. The feather found inside one of the engines of the plane that crashed into the Hudson River. The engines from US Airways Flight 1549 were sent to the manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the NTSB directed the analysis, it said in a news release. The plane's flight data recorder \"revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines,\" the NTSB said. The NTSB also said that an \"engine surge event\" in the right engine on January 13, two days before the accident, was caused by a faulty temperature sensor, which had been replaced. Investigators said last month they found a single feather and evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" on the aircraft. The find reinforces the pilot's report that the plane was brought down by a flock of birds. Pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, 58, told investigators his aircraft struck birds, disabling both engines, about 90 seconds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York. The feather, found on a flap track on the wing, was also sent to identification experts at the Smithsonian Institution last month. The pilot ditched the Airbus A320 in the Hudson River and passengers tried to flee the aircraft almost immediately after it settled in the water and began to float along the river current. All 155 crew members and passengers on the plane survived the incident, which New York Gov. David Paterson dubbed a \"miracle on the Hudson.\"","highlights":"Engines sent to manufacturer in Ohio after crash .\nLast month single feather, evidence of \"soft-body impact damage\" found on aircraft .\nPilot ditched plane in Hudson after he said aircraft hit flock of birds .\nAll 155 crew and passengers survived what was called \"miracle on the Hudson\"","id":"cf1a82b3585f0c1ee455a5db44d210e12babda9e"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Court hearings began Friday for 11 people, including two Spanish professional football players and a Serb-French football agent, who were arrested this week on charges of cocaine smuggling, a police source told CNN. Spanish police allege the group smuggled the drugs in from Argentina. The 11 are accused of taking advantage of their football contacts in Latin America, and their trips to the region, to organize the drug trafficking. Spanish police made the arrests on Thursday, mainly in Madrid, and seized 600 kilos (1,320 pounds) of cocaine they alleged had been shipped from Argentina to Spain earlier this month. The suspected leader of the group was identified as Zoran Matijevic, a Serb-born football agent, the international football federation, who now holds French citizenship, according to a police statement and the police source. His aides in the alleged scheme included Pedrag Stankovic, a former player on the second-division Hercules team from Alicante in southeast Spain; Carlos de la Vega Diaz, a current player for the second-division Rayo Vallecano team in Madrid, and Pablo Acosta, a football agent, according to the statement and the police source. The investigation began in the middle of 2008 after police began to notice a group running drugs from South America to Spain. A container with 45 packages of cocaine -- linked to the suspects -- was hidden in wind farm machinery. It left an Argentine port in February, stopped in Tangiers, Morocco and then crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, docking in the southern Spanish port of Algeciras. The cocaine container was finally driven by truck to Madrid, but before the suspects could get the cocaine and distribute it, the police moved in, arresting seven suspects in Madrid, three in the southeast port of Valencia and another in Alicante. The suspects include a Peruvian national, the police statement said. Authorities say Spain --- with its extensive coastline on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean -- is a major point of entry for drugs, for use in Spain or to be shipped elsewhere in the European Union.","highlights":"Two professional footballers and agent among 11 accused of drug smuggling .\nSpanish police accuse group of bringing in cocaine from Argentina .\nSuspected leader of group was identified as Zoran Matijevic, a football agent .","id":"cf1a5dc9d2163eccad8c033a11faf0b268398e8e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Internet auction to sell off the plaster cast that New Zealand Prime Minister John Key wore when he broke his right arm has raised close to NZ$ 20,000 for charity. John Key wears the cast during a TV interview on Friday. The online auction ended Sunday with a winning bid of NZ$18,500 (US$ 9,362), according to the New Zealand shopping Web site TradeMe, which conducted the bidding. The prime minister broke his arm in two places on January 17 when he tripped on some stairs at a Chinese New Year event in Auckland. Later, during a trip to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands for a Pacific Islands Forum meeting, several dignitaries -- including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd -- signed Kay's blue cast. The money will benefit the Fred Hollows Foundation in blindness prevention programs in the Pacific. The TradeMe listing said the foundation estimates there are about 5,000 blind people in the Islands, mainly needing cataract surgery. Another 15,000 suffer from poor vision and need eyeglasses. \"I am very surprised it got to that ... but I am delighted,\" New Zealand's national news agency quoted Key as saying about the winning bid. The cast, which was removed this weekend, is in \"excellent condition,\" Key said. \"Though I don't know whether is is $20,000 worth of condition.\" Bidders and curious clickers posed more than 180 questions during the auction period. \"Does it come with the arm?\" asked one. Another wanted to know if there was a chance of the the winner and Key \"exchanging numbers and hanging out in the future if we hit it off?\" A third asked: \"If I was successful with this auction do I also have ownership and rights to any genetic material that may (have been) left inside the cast and the right to clone it if I choose to?\" That person was told he or she would have to \"negotiate with John's lawyers for that particular right.\" The winning bidder was a headstone maker from Wellington, according to NZPA, the news agency.","highlights":"Auction to sell cast New Zealand's PM wore when he broke arm sold for charity .\nOnline auction ended Sunday with winning bid of NZ$18,500 (US$ 9,362)\nJohn Key broke his arm in two places when he tripped on stairs in Auckland .","id":"42509c7b1b3ebc2d82e1defb13f652ff587155f7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year, according to U.S. military officials. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with its high mountain terrain. The troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected build-up of U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout next year. Earlier this year, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, requested at least 20,000 additional troops be sent there to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The officials could not say what units are being tapped to go because those units are now being told of their deployment and the announcement has not yet been made public. The aviation brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies around the country. There are more than 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a Dutch soldier was killed Friday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO command confirmed. The soldier died in an improvised explosive device strike, according to a news release from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. \"Our sincere condolences and sympathies are with the family and friends of this brave soldier, especially during this holiday season,\" said ISAF spokesman Capt. Mark Windsor Royal Navy. \"This soldier's death is an irreplaceable loss to all of us who fight for the peace and stability of Afghanistan. ISAF will continue to fight for the cause for which this brave soldier gave his life.\" Eighteen Dutch troops have died in the Afghan conflict, according to a CNN count of casualty figures.","highlights":"Troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade; transport helicopters to be sent .\nThey are latest to be approved for expected build-up of U.S. troops next year .\nDutch soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO confirms .\nSoldier died in an improved explosive device strike .","id":"0ef9f24af07639c4868874a0b97833906f689205"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Troubled U.S. insurer AIG will end its shirt sponsorship deal with Premier League and European champions Manchester United next year. End of era: AIG will not renew its four-year sponsorship deal with Manchester United. It was widely believed that AIG would not renew their \u00a319 million ($27 million) per year shirt deal when the four-year contract expired in 2010, due to the financial troubles the company has suffered. And, on Wednesday, the company confirmed this. \"AIG's shirt sponsorship with Manchester United runs through May 2010. We have no plans to renew the deal,\" said a company statement. AIG is still restructuring after receiving a bail-out of $150 billion from the U.S. Government. They also have a \u00a35 million ($6.8 million) per year deal to run MU Finance, but it is not clear what will happen with that contract. Despite the loss of AIG, a Manchester United spokesman told the UK Press Association that the Premier League giants hoped to better the current deal it had with the U.S. insurer. Have your say: Can football's giant salaries survive the financial crisis? \"In line with industry practice, Manchester United is exploring the possibility of a shirt sponsor for the new 2010\/11 season. \"The club is in dialogue with a select number of top companies worldwide and has so far received sufficient interest to be confident it can improve on its current \u00a319 million annual partnership with AIG.\" Michael Stirling, managing director of Global Sponsors, predicts United will be able to find a new sponsor who will match those figures. \"I think they will do extremely well regardless of the crisis because they have done superbly in being the world club champions. There will be a lot of interest from major brands that want to be associated with the club, no matter the price,\" he told CNN. Massive Indian corporation Sahara are reported in the Indian media to be investigating the Red Devils' proposals, while Saudi Telecom is another company believed to be a potential new sponsor. World Club champions United also have strong links in both Malaysia and South Korea. Meanwhile, AIG have insisted they will honor their four-year agreement, leaving the Old Trafford club in a better position than when Vodafone gave just six months' notice before terminating their deal in 2006.","highlights":"AIG confirm they will not renew its four-year contract with Manchester United .\nThe Old Trafford club believes they can improve on the deal they had with AIG .\nIndia's Sahara and Saudi Telecom have been tipped as potential sponsors .","id":"fd18765d0cddd988849631fcbf705bf135e6824a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World number one golfer Tiger Woods has become a dad for the second time after wife Elin gave birth to a boy, Charlie Axel, on Sunday. Elin hands daughter Sam to Tiger after his victory at last year's U.S. Open. The couple already have a daughter Sam Alexis, who was born in June 2007, and proud dad Tiger announced news of the latest family addition on his official Web site on Monday. \"Elin and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our son, Charlie Axel Woods,\" said Woods who has been sidelined since knee surgery following his 14th major triumph at the U.S. Open last June. \"Both Charlie and Elin are doing great and we want to thank everyone for their sincere best wishes and kind thoughts. \"Sam is very excited to be a big sister and we feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. I also want to thank our doctors, nurses and the hospital staff for their personal and professional care. \"We look forward to introducing Charlie to you at the appropriate time, and again thanks from all of us for your kindness and support.\" The arrival of Charlie Axel comes as Woods prepares to return to the Tour with his earliest realistic comeback in three weeks at the Accenture World Match Play in Tucson where he would be the defending champion. However, reports suggest he may wait until the Tour comes to Florida, where he lives, next month. \"I have no restrictions -- it's just a matter of getting my golf endurance up. I don't have my golf stamina back yet,\" he said on his Web site. \"I am excited about returning to competition. Early on I didn't miss golf because I enjoyed staying home with Elin and Sam and I knew I wasn't physically able to play. \"The truth is, I would have embarrassed myself. Now I'm getting my feel and practice back. It's just a matter of playing more on the course. \"I'm working hard to get myself back into tournament shape and will return as soon as I'm ready.\" Woods position at the top of the world rankings -- he was 11 points clear at the time of surgery -- is currently under threat from Spanish star Sergio Garcia who has closed the gap to less than three points.","highlights":"World number one golfer Tiger Woods has become a dad for the second time .\nWife Elin gave birth to boy, Charlie Axel, on Sunday Woods says on Web site .\nArrival of Charlie Axel comes as Woods prepares for Tour return after surgery .","id":"74602224d617b23da0919436a906f5d5108c9a9a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swedish car manufacturer Saab, a fully owned subsidiary of General Motors, announced Friday that it will \"file for reorganization ... to create a fully independent business entity.\" The Swedish car maker says a formal reorganization is the best way to create an \"entity that's ready for investment.\" Under the Swedish court system, an independent administrator will be appointed to work closely with the Saab management team to formulate a reorganization proposal, which will be presented to creditors within three weeks of the filing. Saab said it will continue to operate as usual and in accordance with the formal reorganization process, with the government providing some support during this period. \"We explored and will continue to explore all available options for funding and\/or selling Saab and it was determined a formal reorganization would be the best way to create a truly independent entity that is ready for investment,\" said Jan Ake Jonsson, managing director for Saab Automobile. \"Saab has an excellent foundation for strong growth, assuming we can get the funding to complete engineering, tooling and manage launch costs. Reorganization will give us the time and means that help get these products to market, while minimizing the liquidity impact of Saab on GM.\" General Motors said this week that it plans shed tens of thousands of employees, close factories, cut product lines and wants billions of dollars in government funding to stave off bankruptcy. When all is said and done, GM said that by 2011 it could need a total of $30 billion, which includes the $13.4 billion in Treasury loans it has already received. In the near term, GM will most certainly need $9.1 billion in additional loans and could require an additional $7.5 billion in the next two years if auto sales don't improve.","highlights":"Independent adminstrator appointed to form Saab reorganization plan .\nAuto maker says plan considered to be the best way to attract future funding .\nSaab is a fully owned subsidiary of ailing U.S. auto maker General Motors .\nGM is fighting to stave off bankruptcy with job cuts, U.S. Treasury loans .","id":"9254e2f6d5183bc76ce7cc8aed69401d3f0a54c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama's two daughters had another reason to high-five their dad's election to the presidency Tuesday night: they're getting a puppy. President Bush's dog Barney walks in the White House Rose Garden in 2007. \"Sasha and Malia,\" Obama said in his victory speech at Chicago's Grant Park, \"I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House.\" The new White House pet will follow in the paw-steps of a menagerie of animals that have had the run of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the years. The Bush family shared their eight years at the White House with a cat, a feisty English springer spaniel and two Scottish terriers -- all of whom have their own pages on the president's Web site. The Clintons' Washington stay included a cat, Socks, who did not get along with their chocolate Labrador retriever, Buddy. And Millie the springer spaniel's canine view of life in the White House -- as \"told to\" then-first lady Barbara Bush -- became a best-seller that outsold the memoirs of President George H.W. Bush. While many presidents took to heart President Harry Truman's admonishment -- \"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog\" -- first pets have come in all shapes, sizes and species. Thomas Jefferson kept two grizzly bears in a cage on the White House lawn, while John Quincy Adams is said to have let his alligator use a bathtub inside. Calvin Coolidge walked his raccoons on a leash. Theodore Roosevelt's sons escorted their pet pony onto the White House elevator to cheer up a sick sibling. And perhaps the strangest of all: Martin Van Buren briefly owned two tiger cubs, a gift from the Sultan of Oman. Pets have sometimes been a boon to a president's image. But some have also taken a bite out of their popularity. Animal lovers howled in protest when Lyndon B. Johnson picked up his beagles, Him and Her, by the ears to provide photographers a better view. On the other hand, Richard Nixon -- running for vice president and accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions -- successfully defended himself in his famous \"Checkers Speech.\" The only gift he ever accepted was \"a little cocker spaniel dog\" that his daughter named Checkers, Nixon said. \"And I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it,\" he added. Come January, the Obamas will make history by becoming the first African-American family to move into the White House. But if Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, get what they've been promised, the new tenants will keep one long-standing tradition alive ... and wagging.","highlights":"President-elect Obama promises his daughters a puppy .\nWhite House has a history of president pets -- from dogs to tiger cubs .\nPresident Bush had three dogs and cat, President Clinton a dog and cat .","id":"1289a354c3a6ce16ce352ba676864c5c40e9d878"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Bedraggled, hungry and dazed, the refugees arrived on the shores of Thailand after fleeing one of the most repressive governments in the world -- the hard-line military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma. This picture provided to CNN is said to show refugees being towed out to sea by the Thai army. But a CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that for hundreds of Rohingya refugees -- members of a Muslim minority group -- abuse and abandonment at sea were what awaited them in Thailand, at the hands of Thai authorities. Extraordinary photos obtained by CNN from someone directly involved in the Thai operation show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose and abandoned. One photo shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea. Watch the backstory on the investigation \u00bb . For days, accusations have been carried in several regional papers that the Thai army has been systematically towing boat-loads of Rohingya refugees far out to sea and setting them adrift. The army denied it, and the Thai government has launched an inquiry. CNN's investigation -- based on accounts from tourists, sources in Thailand and a Rohingya refugee who said he was on a boat towed back out to sea -- helps to piece together a picture of survival thwarted by an organized effort not just to repel arriving refugees, but to hold them prisoner on shore, drag them in flimsy boats far out to sea and then abandon them. Watch CNN's investigation into reports of refugees being set adrift \u00bb . Three tourists recently voiced concern to CNN over what they had seen -- and in some cases photographed -- near Thailand's tourist areas. One tourist provided CNN with photos last week of refugees detained by Thai authorities on a beach near a tourist site, with the refugees prone on the sun-bleached sand while guards stood nearby. \"Whenever someone raised their head or moved, they [guards] would strike them with a whip,\" said Australian tourist Andrew Catton. A CNN crew traveled to a remote stretch of the Thai coast four hours north of the tourist island of Phuket to investigate the growing reports that the Thai military was secretly detaining Rohingya refugees before towing them out to sea and setting them adrift. In an isolated beach area, debris including sandals and campfire remnants indicated that large numbers of people had been there but were nowhere to be seen. The crew then traveled to a nearby island, where residents reported that refugees who had escaped were living in the jungle. In one hamlet, villagers had captured a Rohingya man they believed had been living in the jungle for days. The refugee, who identified himself as Iqbal Hussain, told CNN he was on one of six boats in a makeshift refugee fleet that arrived in Thailand in December. He said all six boats with their refugee cargo were towed back out to sea in January, and five of the six boats sank. His boat made it back to shore, and he hid in the jungle for days until nearby villagers captured him. In broken English and using sign language and drawings, he described what happened to the other men on the boats: . \"All men dead,\" he said, putting the number of dead at several hundred. The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in rickety boats for years, in search of a better life. In Thailand, many instead have found deprivation and the possibility of desertion far off shore, according to the CNN investigation. The source who provided CNN with photos of refugees in a boat being towed out to sea stressed that the Thai army had given the refugees food and water, but he also confirmed that the boats had been pulled for more than two days into international waters before they were set adrift. His account directly contradicts briefings by senior Thai army sources who denied any such operation was undertaken. A source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. But the source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was always given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. CNN asked the government for comment and was told that an investigation was being launched and that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has plans to call an emergency meeting once the country's foreign minister returns from Cambodia. Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, gave no timeline for the foreign minister's return or the emergency meeting. He did say the government is taking the matter very seriously.","highlights":"CNN finds evidence hundreds of Rohingya refugees abandoned at sea by Thai army .\nPhotos show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose .\nThe army denies setting refugees adrift; Thai government has launched an inquiry .\nRohingya have been fleeing persecution of the hard-line military regime in Myanmar .","id":"299f42c4de9783ec9f9269dffc54bf0f6fce6fae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A massive winter storm has left at least 17 people dead and more than a million homes across the Midwest without power, according to reports from several state emergency management agencies. A tree pulls on utility lines Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky, in a photo from iReporter Jacek Jasinski. Almost half those households are in Kentucky, where 45 shelters have been set up to help residents battling icy conditions, a spokesman for the governor's office said. \"One of our biggest concerns is [providing] power generators, especially for nursing homes out in the western part of the state that are without power,\" Jay Blanton, spokesman for Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, said Wednesday. The storm dumped ice and snow on a region that extends from Texas to Kentucky and left \"absolutely everything in northwest Arkansas ... at a standstill,\" an Arkansas police officer said. Watch ice damage trees in Arkansas \u00bb . \"It's hard to walk, let alone drive,\" Fayetteville, Arkansas, police officer Dan Baker said. \"It looks like tornado damage.\" He added, \"Our officers are wearing metal cleats just so they can walk the streets.\" iReport.com: Send your wintry weather photos, videos . Northwest Arkansas has been hit hard, and schools and universities were closed throughout the state. See the impact of the storms \u00bb . \"It's like a ghost town,\" Barbara Rademacher of Rogers, Arkansas, said Wednesday morning. \"It's just white and ice,\" Rademacher said while looking out her kitchen window at a street devoid of traffic and littered with the ice-weighted branches of oak trees. \"The roads are impassable, and there are shelters set up in every community because there are so many people with power out,\" she said. The storms were extending their reach into the New England states Wednesday. The National Weather Service issued freezing rain, ice and winter storm warnings from Texas up through the Ohio Valley and into New England. Watch how to have fun in the snow \u00bb . As of Wednesday, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission reported at least 27,621 homes and businesses affected by power outages across the state. The commission office was closed Wednesday because of the icy conditions. Heavy snow fell in many areas Tuesday into early Wednesday. Parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland were hit with 4 inches; parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were struck with 6 inches; and areas of Ohio were covered with 12 inches of snow, forecasters said. Ice storms blast the heartland . Weather-related flight delays were reported at New York's LaGuardia and Washington Dulles International airports as well as in Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Newark, New Jersey, a Federal Aviation Administration Web site indicated. Check on your airport . For Dorenda Coks, assistant manager at City Bites in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the winter blast was a completely new experience. Watch the terrible driving conditions in Oklahoma and Arkansas \u00bb . The Jamaica native is experiencing her first winter in Oklahoma and wasn't prepared for the cold. \"You just try to stay warm,\" Coks said. Oklahomans were due for some relief Wednesday as temperatures were expected to rise above freezing, according to meteorologist Andy Wallace of CNN affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. CNN's David Ariosto contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 17 deaths blamed on icy winter storm .\nKentucky opens 45 shelters for thousands without power .\n\"Everything in northwest Arkansas is at a standstill,\" police officer says .\nStorms drop ice, sleet and snow from Texas to Ohio Valley to New England .","id":"cf37348f78276689104c0e1c5a920da7583d3046"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The European Union on Monday removed the People's Mujajedeen of Iran from its list of terrorist organizations. Forty-seven groups remain on the EU's list. Iranian police guard French embassy in Tehran on January 25 during protest against EU decision. Here are some of the main ones. -- Aum Shinri Kyo: Doomsday cult in Japan. Responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Toyko subway that killed 12 and wounded some 5,000. -- Real IRA: Separatists in Northern Ireland. Responsible for the Omagh bombing in 1998 that killed 28 people. -- Jemaah Islamiyah: Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Indonesia and one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world. Carried out the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 that killed more than 200 tourists, most of them Westerners. -- PKK, or Kurdish Workers' Party: Marxist group fighting for an independent state for Turkish Kurds. -- Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. -- Hamas: Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that rules Gaza. Its military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and the Israeli military. -- Tamil Tigers, or LTTE: Ethnic separatists fighting the Sri Lankan government. Responsible for fatal attacks against soldiers and civilians since conflict with the government began in 1983. -- ETA: Basque separatists in northern Spain. Blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries during a 40-year campaign. -- FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia: Marxist insurgents who have been fighting the government since the 1960s. -- CNN's Tom Boltman contributed to this list.","highlights":"PMoI, or Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, opposed Iran govt. for decades .\nEU delisted group because of an order by the European Court of Justice .\nIran has accused the European Union of acting against international law .","id":"071fa29f07886b382e24de7a64aa999604876b98"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rapper Kanye West and his business manager face vandalism, battery and grand theft charges in connection with a scuffle with photographers at Los Angeles International Airport last September. Rapper Kanye West has been charged after an incident last year involving two photographers. The Los Angeles County district attorney declined to file felony charges, but L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo decided to charge West, 31, and Don Crawley, 33, with misdemeanors Wednesday. Police arrested West on September 11, 2008, after an altercation with two paparazzi, airport police said. The incident, which took place near the airport's Terminal 4, occurred between the rap star and Crawley -- his road manager and bodyguard -- and a photographer and a cameraman who were taking their photos, airport police said. The cameras of the paparazzi were damaged in the altercation, police said. West was charged with one count of vandalism, one count of grand theft and one count of battery, according to Frank Mateljan, the spokesman for the city attorney. Crawley was charged with two counts of vandalism, two counts of grand theft and two counts of battery, Mateljan said. If convicted of all charges, West could face up to two years and six months in jail, while Crawley could face up to five years, he said. Their arraignment hearing is set for April 14 at the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse, he said. West, a 10-time Grammy winner, and Crawley were in the airport to catch a flight to Honolulu, Hawaii, police said. The pair were outside of passenger security screening when the incident occurred. CNN could not immediately reach the star's publicist for comment. The celebrity Web site TMZ posted a video of the incident shot by one of its reporters, who was also in the terminal when the altercation occurred. The video was short and chaotic, and the man whom TMZ identifies as West never shows his face, which is shrouded in the hood of a gray sweatshirt. According to the Web site, after West grabbed the camera from the photographer, Crawley took it from him, leaving the rap star with the lighting component. The video shows the man in the gray sweatshirt and another man in a red sweatshirt -- whom TMZ identifies as Crawley -- each smashing parts of a camera on the ground. Then the man in red approaches the camera as it is filming. He reaches out for the camera, and it appears a struggle ensues. As airport officials arrive, the man walks off. TMZ reported that after the incident with the first photographer, Crawley grabbed the TMZ reporter's camera and allegedly broke it. Police stopped West and Crawley as they tried to leave to go through security to board the plane, the Web site said. TMZ is partly owned by AOL, part of CNN's parent company, Time Warner. West quickly became a hip-hop star after his first album, \"College Dropout,\" debuted in 2004, earning him a best rap album Grammy that year. He twice matched that feat with 2005's \"Late Registration\" and 2007's \"Graduation.\" West also has won three best rap song Grammys for his hits \"Jesus Walks,\" \"Diamonds from Sierra Leone\" and \"Good Life.\" His other four Grammys include two best rap solo performance awards, one for best rap performance by a duo or group, and one for best R&B song for his role in helping write \"You Don't Know My Name,\" a song performed by Alicia Keys. The platinum rapper is also known for controversial outbursts, most notably in 2005, when he went off script during an NBC telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina, saying, \"George Bush doesn't care about black people.\"","highlights":"Kanye West and his manager charged with vandalism, theft and battery .\nPair alleged to have been in scuffle that damaged photography equipment .\nIf convicted, the Grammy-winning rapper faces more than two years in jail .\nTMZ has video that it says is of the incident .","id":"70e194033502f8678778e555fbb09232f145fa8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven French soldiers were killed when their military helicopter crashed off the coast of Gabon, the country's official news agency said Sunday. A French ship with investigators on board look for clues near the crash site area. Two French soldiers survived the Saturday night crash, the agency said. French Defense Minister Herve Morin arrived in Gabon's capital of Libreville on Sunday and met with President Omar Bongo to coordinate recovery efforts for the body of one of the seven soldiers whose remains had not been found. According to the French minister, \"the cause of this tragedy remains unknown. It may be natural or human, or a combination of both.\" Divers were inspecting the helicopter, which was in water 35 meters (about 115 feet) deep, Morin said. French forces were in the former French colony for maritime security exercises with Gabonese soldiers when the incident happened.","highlights":"Seven killed, but two French soldiers survive the Saturday night crash .\nRecovery efforts underway for body of one of the seven soldiers still missing .\nDivers inspecting helicopter, which was in water 35 meters (about 115 feet) deep .","id":"efeda2d45419ab21b0643a338b4a442b752a4426"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two former presidents reflected on their greatest regrets in office Monday, each looking back to issues that continue to plague the nation years later. Former presidents and political rivals Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush now share philanthropic efforts. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton appeared together at a question-and-answer forum before the National Automobile Dealers Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. Asked his biggest regret after leaving office, Bush said he now wonders whether he should have tried to get Saddam Hussein to leave office at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. He told the gathering, \"I've thought a lot about it, but at the end of Desert Storm, the question was should we have kind of kept going on that road to death and all this slaughter until Saddam Hussein showed up and laid his sword on the table, surrendered. And the common wisdom was he wouldn't do that.\" But he said a conversation with an FBI agent who interrogated Saddam after he was captured has made him reconsider. Bush recalled their talk, \"I said, 'What if we just say he has to come to surrender, would he have done it?' And this guy said, 'I'm absolutely convinced he would have.' My experts tell me he wouldn't have.\" Bush said, \"We ended it the way we said we would\" as a military success, but noted a cleaner ending \"would have been perfect.\" He added, \"If we had tried to get Saddam Hussein to come and literally surrender and put his sword on the table, I think it might have been avoided some of the problems that we did have in the future from him.\" On a day that President Barack Obama dispatched George Mitchell to the Middle East as the latest U.S. envoy, Clinton discussed the failure to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. \"My No. 1 regret is that I was not able to persuade Yasser Arafat to accept the peace plan I offered at the end of my presidency that the Israelis accepted. \"If he had done that ... we had had seven years of progress toward peace. We had one year in 1998, the only year in the history of Israel where not a single soul was killed in a terrorist act. The Palestinians had more control over West Bank then than they do today,\" Clinton said. \"And if he had taken that deal, we would have a Palestinian state and we would have had, I think now, normal peaceful relations with Israel and all of its Arab neighbors.\" Clinton said a deal would have helped the U.S. handle other issues in the region, saying, \"We'd be much better positioned to deal with the problem of Iran, and we would have taken away about half the arguments of terrorists around the world by giving the Palestinians their state and creating a cooperative, positive interdependence in the Middle East, not a negative one. And so, I think that would have done more good to save more lives and help more people, and I wish I had been able to do that. \" Clinton also said he regretted not doing more to \"stop the Rwandan genocide,\" and succeeding on a new health care plan. He said \"presidents should share freely ... the mistakes they made\" with historians, because it teaches lessons. He said he shared problems during the lunch with Obama and the four living presidents, saying, \"You want each new president to make new mistakes, not the same ones.\" Clinton added, \"all of us know if you make enough decisions, you're going to make a few of them aren't right.\"","highlights":"Middle East leaves George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton with some regrets .\nBush wonders whether he should have pressed harder for Saddam's surrender .\nClinton looks back at Palestinian-Israeli peace process with some remorse .\nPresidents should share their mistakes as a learning tool, Clinton says .","id":"fd27854a983e015d11878f03203257fc4be42c33"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British reality TV star Jade Goody married Sunday after being told by doctors last week that her cancer is terminal. Jade Goody, pictured with fiance Jack Tweed Saturday, before Sunday's wedding . Goody, 27 tied the knot with boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, in Hatfield Heath, Essex, east of London, UK media reported. After the ceremony Max Clifford, the couple's publicist, told waiting reporters that there had been \"lots of tears and smiles and laughter\" and that the congregation gave the newlyweds a standing ovation after the signing of the register. Goody sprung to fame in \"Big Brother\" in 2002, going on to launch a range of her own products and host TV shows. But her return to the celebrity edition of the show in 2007 ended in international ignominy, after her taunting of Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Goody's behavior resulted in more than 40,000 complaints and sparked protests in India. Shetty said last week that she was unable to attend the wedding due to filming commitments but was praying for Goody. Read blog about how media covered wedding . In August 2008 Goody appeared on the Indian version of \"Big Brother,\" only to fly home after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. News of Goody's condition has sparked massive interest in the UK, both from the media -- which bid for rights to her story -- and among the public, who have contacted charities for information about cervical cancer. Critics have attacked Goody's decision to sell rights to what may be her final weeks, although the star has told British media that she wants to leave her children by a previous relationship -- sons, Bobby, five, and Freddie, four -- financially secure. Watch Jade Goody's wedding preparations \u00bb . But Clifford told ITN: \"Ironically, a big part of what she's doing now is to fund her children's education. To give them the education she never had.\" Charity Cancer Research UK said in a statement earlier this month that daily visits to its Web site had increased two- to three-fold since news of Goody's illness was announced. \"The publicity around Jade's diagnosis has led many more people to ask questions and seek information about cervical cancer,\" spokeswoman Emma Gilgunn-Jones said. Shetty, writing on her blog earlier this week, said that Goody had invited her to the wedding but had been unable to attend due to filming commitments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. \"Read an article on Jade Goody's deteriorating condition,\" wrote Shetty. \"It disturbed me 'cause the last time I spoke to her, she seemed very positive and we were all expecting that the doctors would be able to curb the cancer from spreading. This piece of news came as a shock - so I called her hoping it was only a rumor but she confirmed it. Shetty added that she was praying for Goody and that she hoped God \"gives her the strength to cope with this pain.\" \"She wants the best for her kids,\" Shetty wrote. \"I hope Jack makes a good father to them. I also hope for a miracle to happen for her children's sake.\" On Friday the UK's Ministry of Justice said it would allow Tweed, who was jailed in September 2008 for assault, to spend his wedding night with his bride, the Press Association reported. \"We are absolutely thrilled,\" the agency reported Clifford as saying. \"It will be the dream finish to her dream day, and it makes so much difference. Tweed, who was released early from jail in January, has to wear a tag and is subject to a 1900 GMT curfew. \"We'll get married if I have to drag her wheelchair down the aisle,\" he told ITN last week. The wedding dress, which media reports say included a pouch to hold Goody's medication, was donated by Harrods owner Mohamed al Fayed. Goody's bridesmaids were seen with the TV star Saturday, wearing plastic bald caps in a show of solidarity at the impact of her chemotherapy treatment.","highlights":"Publicist: Couple receive standing ovation, lots of tears, laughter, smiles .\nBritish 'Big Brother' star fast-tracked plans to get married after cancer spread .\nShetty says she was invited to ceremony but unable due to film commitments .\nCharities report marked increase in public seeking details about condition .","id":"06e08ce59b20e817f72b32293f0ce466775bf9ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester City have confirmed that absent Brazilian striker Robinho will be back in time for the Premier League side's return to training next week. Robinho had a reputation for partying prior to his British-record transfer to Manchester City last August. City manager Mark Hughes told the club's official Web site that Robinho, who cost mega-rich City a British record fee of \u00a332.5 million ($45m) when he signed from Real Madrid in August, will be spoken to after not joining the rest of the squad in a Tenerife training camp this week -- choosing instead to fly to Brazil to attend to a family matter. Hughes told mcfc.co.uk: \"Robbie left without permission, he felt that he had personal things that he needed to attend to. \"He made the decision to leave the camp, and go back to Brazil. That was not with my permission, and the situation at the moment is not really practical to get him back here with time differences and length of flights, so he will be back at the weekend ready to train when we are back in Manchester at the first available opportunity. \"Once he is back, I will sit down with him and explain my feelings, and decisions will be made after that. He has rung me, and he understands that we need to address this -- and we will. Then we will move on. Robinho's decision to fly to Brazil came on the same day that City announced they were pulling out of a world record transfer move for AC Milan star Kaka, a Brazilian team-mate of Robinho. However. Hughes has insisted that that two matters are completely unrelated. Robinho is no stranger to controversy and had a reputation as a party-goer prior to his move to Manchester last year. He was dropped by his former Madrid coach, and now England national coach, Fabio Capello, who questioned his attitude and Robinho's eventual departure from the Spanish club was acrimonious. In fact, in October 2007, Robinho failed to return to Madrid after appearing for Brazil in an international match, claiming he had missed his flight. Local newspapers later revealed that he had been seen partying in a popular Rio de Janeiro nightclub and he was subsequently fined and dropped by the club.","highlights":"Robinho will return to Manchester City in time for return to training next week .\nCity manager Mark Hughes reveals Robinho flew to Brazil without permission .\nHowever, Hughes says their failure to sign Kaka was not linked to his decision .","id":"19d534ea9bcb2703aa19c4fd447b5691e431b8e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pharmaceuticals giants Merck and Schering-Plough are planning to merge their operations under the name Merck in a deal worth $41.1 billion. Merck chairman and CEO Richard T. Clark will head the combined company. Under the terms of the agreement, Schering-Plough shareholders will receive just over half a Merck share and $10.50 in cash for each Schering-Plough share they own. Each Merck share will automatically become a share of the combined company. Merck shareholders are expected to own approximately 68 percent of the combined company, and Schering-Plough shareholders are expected to own approximately 32 percent. Merck Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Richard T. Clark will lead the combined company. \"We are creating a strong, global healthcare leader built for sustainable growth and success,\" Clark said in a media statement Monday. \"The combined company will benefit from a formidable research and development pipeline, a significantly broader portfolio of medicines and an expanded presence in key international markets, particularly in high-growth emerging markets. \"We look forward to joining forces with an outstanding partner we know well and that shares our commitment to patients, employees and the communities where we work and live.\" Merck added that its 2009 outlook has not changed, and it is committed to keeping its annual dividend at its current level of $1.52 per share. Both drug-makers reported better-than-expected quarterly results in early February, but announced steep job cuts. On a conference call with investors on February 3, Clark said the drug-maker was open to a takeover of a large pharmaceutical company.","highlights":"SP shareholders to get over half a Merck share and $10.50 in cash per share .\nMerck shareholders expected to own around 68 percent of combined company .\nBoth drug-makers reported better-than-expected quarterly results in February .","id":"c9fd2e518bac54801360a2c016a79b657ba101c3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies are investigating not only what went wrong, but also what went right Thursday when a US Airways flight ended in the Hudson River without any deaths or major injuries. The aircraft remains in the Hudson River on Friday. Workers hope to lift it out Saturday morning. \"Having a successful ditching is a very rare event,\" Kitty Higgins of the NTSB said Friday. \"We'll not only celebrate what worked here, but also learn what worked. So many times you're only focused on what went wrong. A lot of things went right yesterday.\" Divers struggled against strong currents and frigid water temperatures to retrieve critical pieces of the puzzle from the Hudson River, where US Airways flight 1549 ended up less than three minutes after it took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport Thursday afternoon. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- both critical to determining exactly what happened -- remained attached to the tail section of the aircraft, which was still partially submerged but secured to moorings. Watch a former pilot tell how to water-land a plane \u00bb . Workers will be at the site until midnight, rigging the aircraft so it can be lifted out Saturday morning, attached to a barge and moved to a secure location for investigation, Higgins said. Both engines from the Airbus A320 double-engine jet were on the river bottom, after the water landing's impact apparently detached them from the plane. Authorities are using side-scan sonar to locate the engines, Higgins said. iReport.com: Were you there? Send images . The engines also will be brought in as part of the investigation into what happened, including the possibility of bird strikes. \"I don't want to characterize anything at this point about this particular accident because we are just at the beginning stages,\" Higgins said, adding that this accident would be the first \"in a very long time\" where possible bird strikes may have been a factor. Watch water wash over the plane \u00bb . Meanwhile, passengers, city officials and aviation experts heaped praise on pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger and his crew, as well as first responders who acted quickly to minimize passengers' injuries in below-freezing temperatures and frigid water. The White House said President Bush called Sullenberger to praise him for \"his heroic efforts to ensure the safety of his passengers and the people in the area.\" New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sullenberger executed an \"incredibly skillful emergency landing.\" The pilot and crew of the flight will receive the key to the city, he told reporters Friday. \"We typically like you to land at our airports,\" he joked, but said the water landing worked out with the best possible outcome. Watch Bloomberg honor heroism \u00bb . \"We saw a lot of heroism in the Hudson yesterday,\" Bloomberg said. The mayor also gave certificates of appreciation to first responders who scrambled to help passengers to safety. Shortly after the flight, bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, took off at 3:26 p.m. Thursday, passengers noticed quickly that something was awry. See a map of the plane's flight path \u00bb . A source familiar with the situation told CNN that Sullenberger reported a double bird strike, which was taken to mean that birds were sucked into both the jet's engines. The FAA said witnesses reported seeing the plane hit a flock of birds. Sullenberger was given clearance to return to LaGuardia for an emergency landing, a source said, but instead, he was forced to find someplace else to ditch the plane. In crowded New York City, the Hudson River provided the best option. Watch how the landing and rescue happened \u00bb . After the plane came to a stop, passengers quickly got out, standing on the partially submerged wings or on the emergency exit chutes, which also serve as life rafts. New York Waterway Capt. Vince Lombardi, operating a ferry in the Hudson, said he noticed something in the water as the boat pulled out of Pier 70. \"I said to my deck hand, 'That's an odd-looking boat,' \" he told reporters Friday. \"He said, 'I think that's an airplane.' \" The ferry headed straight for the plane, he said. \"I was a little overwhelmed and scared for the people. The water is about 32 degrees. The outside air temp was in the 20s. We were worried if we didn't get them out right away, there would be casualties.\" As he arrived, he said, most passengers were calm, but some were cheering and crying. Some said, \"Get me out of the water, please, I'm cold.\" Watch a Coast Guard lieutenant talk about rescuing passengers \u00bb . Detective Michael Delaney, an NYPD diver, recalled seeing a woman in the water clinging to the side of a ferry \"in obvious distress\" when he arrived. \"We pretty much saw the distress that was in her face,\" he said. He and other divers pulled her off the side of the boat and swam her over to another boat and to safety, he said. The New York Waterway ferry reached the scene in less than four minutes, city officials said at a news conference on Friday. The first ambulance reached the shore in a minute and 12 seconds. Other boats arrived at the plane within seven minutes. About 25 people were treated at hospitals after the incident, but Bloomberg said Thursday there were no serious injures. Only a few people remained hospitalized Friday, according to the hospitals. They included a flight attendant with a deep laceration to her leg and a Coast Guard rescuer with a minor hematoma -- a localized swelling filled with blood. The flight attendant was in stable condition and the rescuer was in good condition. Most patients were treated and released, the hospitals said. With the air and water temperatures at the time of the incident, people could remain in the water only two to three minutes before the onset of hypothermia, said John Peruggia, chief of emergency medical services for FDNY. NTSB investigators planned to speak with Sullenberger and his co-pilot on Saturday, Higgins said. The agency wants to speak with Sullenberger before the media, so he has not been made available to reporters. NTSB investigators were interviewing other members of the flight crew Friday, Higgins said. CNN's Mike Brooks, Jeanne Meserve, Richard Davis and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Agencies hope to learn from plane in Hudson, spokeswoman says .\nNEW: Currents, cold temperatures hamper efforts to retrieve engines, flight data .\nFirst responders receive certificates of appreciation from mayor .\nMayor says he'll give key to the city to pilot and crew .","id":"696fe8d4509d7e9c0687356a620060f759215a7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After deliberating for only 45 minutes, a jury convicted an Alabama man Thursday of throwing his four children off a Gulf Coast bridge in January 2008, according to prosecutors. Lam Luong, 38, admitted throwing the children, who ranged in age from 3 years to 4 months, off the Dauphin Island bridge south of Mobile, according to CNN affiliate WKRG. Charged with five counts of capital murder, he changed his plea to guilty last week. However, Alabama law requires that all capital cases go before a judge and jury, WKRG said. The sentencing phase of Luong's trial will begin Friday, the Mobile County District Attorney's office told CNN. Jurors will decide whether he should receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole. A judge is not bound by the jury's decision, however, and Alabama law requires an automatic appeal in capital cases. Luong and his wife were having marital difficulties, prosecutors said. WKRG reported that during opening arguments in the trial, prosecutors told jurors Luong threw the kids off the bridge so he could see the look on his wife's face. Luong was on crack at the time, and he told investigators they could charge him if they found the children's bodies before breaking into laughter, jurors were told. The defense called no witnesses, but told jurors Luong was intoxicated at the time and was incapable of forming the necessary intent to be convicted of a capital offense, asking them to convict him of manslaughter, WKRG said. During the trial, jurors heard about the search for the children's bodies and saw graphic video of the bodies floating in the water, the station reported. A commercial fisherman recording rough weather off the coast of Venice, Louisiana, found one body, while two duck hunters and a Mississippi marine officer found the other three, according to WKRG. Luong looked down, away from the overhead screens, when the photographs of the children's bodies were shown. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lam Luong, 38, admitted throwing the children off the Dauphin Island bridge .\nProsecutors said Luong threw the kids so he could see the look on wife's face .\nThe four children ranged in age from 3 years to 4 months .\nThe sentencing phase of Luong's trial will begin Friday .","id":"3466ed5427b04eae88589d6ca31e87690fe06bdd"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- One of the original Kings of Comedy, Steve Harvey is the host of one of the most popular radio shows in the country, \"The Steve Harvey Morning Show.\" His first book, \"Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,\" is shooting to the top of the best-seller lists, and Oprah Winfrey says she loves everything it has to say! Harvey says this book has a special meaning for him. \"This is the first project that I didn't do for money,\" he says. \"Other than my foundation -- mentoring programs -- everything I do is for money. I tell jokes for a check; I'm on TV for a check. ... But this [book] right here I did purely to empower women.\" In his book, Harvey says the way a man introduces you gives good insight into the status of your relationship. If a man introduces you as a friend or says your name with no title at all, Harvey says you have nothing. \"We're very protective. We mark our territory. If a man loves you...he's willing to profess it. He'll give you a title after a while. You're going to be his lady, his woman, his fianc\u00e9e, his wife, his baby's mama, something,\" he says. \"If he's introducing you after six months, 'This is...Oprah,' you should be standing there going, 'This is going nowhere.'\" Oprah.com: Read an excerpt from this best-selling book! Man with a plan . Another thing women need to understand, according to Harvey, is that every man has a plan. \"Men don't come up to you to just talk. We come up to you with a plan,\" he says. \"We're looking across the room at you, and we don't care about your hopes and dreams. We don't care about what your future holds. We saw something we wanted.\" When a man approaches a woman, Harvey says, he already knows what we wants from her, but he doesn't know what it will cost. \"How much time do you want from me? What your standards? What are your requirements? Because we'll rise to the occasion no matter how high you set the bar if we want to,\" he says. \"The problem is, women have stopped setting the bar high.\" Oprah.com: What's your love type? The cookie . Though a woman might want many things from a man, Harvey says men only need three things: support, loyalty and sex. Or as Harvey calls it, \"the cookie.\" \"We've got to have your support. Whatever adventure we're out on, whatever pursuit in life, we need your support. Then we need your loyalty. That's your love. We've got to know that you belong to us,\" he says. \"And we've got to have a cookie. Everybody likes cookies. That's the thing about a cookie. I like oatmeal raisin...but if you've got vanilla cream, I'll eat that too.\" Kickin' it . In his book, Harvey tells the story of his father-in-law's first introduction to one of Harvey's daughter's boyfriends. \"[My 26-year-old daughter] was dating this guy who was about 30. He had been over to the house about four, five times. And my father-in-law was visiting from Memphis,\" Harvey says. \"He's in the kitchen and he's eating and [my daughter's] boyfriend is in there, and [my father-in-law] goes: 'So, son, sit down. Tell me, what's your plan for my granddaughter?'\" After plenty of hemming and hawing, Harvey says the boyfriend finally said that the two were just \"kickin' it.\" Harvey was pretty confident his daughter didn't have the same interpretation of the relationship, he says. \"I said: 'Cool. Let's bring my daughter in there. Let's inform her that she's just being kicked...let's see if that's what she wants to do,\" he says. \"They broke up the next day.\" Gone fishin' Harvey says men are like fishermen -- but women are actually the ones looking for a good catch. You won't be able to find one, though, until you up your standards. \"You've got sports fishermen, and you've got guys out there fishing to eat. You've got guys that are fishing to keep the fish, and you've got guys that are fishing to catch them, unhook them and throw them back,\" Harvey says. \"You've got to determine along the way which one of the fish you're going to be.\" Without ironclad standards, Harvey says you'll always end up back in the dating pool. \"You've got to quit lowering your standards,\" he says. \"Set your requirements up front so when a guy hooks you, he has to know this is business.\" And don't let the man set the pace of the relationship -- Harvey says it's always the woman who has total control. \"With all that power, why do you suddenly relinquish this power just because you want a guy to accept you? That's stupid,\" he says. \"Say: 'Look, if you want to be with me, this is what you got to do. This is what it takes to get to me.'\" When should you sleep with your new boyfriend? As an auto plant worker, Harvey says he had to wait 90 days to receive benefits -- and says the same probation period should apply to dating. \"In 90 days they checked me out. They determined if I was easy to work with, if I got along well with others, if I showed up when I said I was going to show up, if I was worthy.\" Women, Harvey says, hold the greatest benefit of all -- the cookie -- so there's no reason to give it away until you know your man deserves it. \"Slow down, ladies,\" Harvey says. \"Look, you cannot run us off.\" So what if you don't want to wait 90 days? Harvey says if you change the probation period, you do so at your own risk. \"You all keep changing the rules. And men are aware of the fact that you are changing the rules. We're aware of the fact that you act desperate. We're aware of the fact that you think there's a good shortage of good men out there,\" he says. \"We play on all of that. ... We created the term 'gold digger' so you won't ask us for nothing. We created the term 'nagging' so you can quit badgering us. These are terms that we created so you can require less of us.\" Mr. fix-it . Harvey says four little words can strike fear and dread into any man: We need to talk. \"You just drove a nail in his forehead,\" Harvey says. Men are fixers, not talkers, Harvey says, so it's better to get to the point. \"When you say, 'We need to talk,' we put up the barriers,\" he says. \"I tell ladies, just sit down and strike up a conversation.\" Oprah.com: How to talk to a brick wall . Turn off the text . Social networking Web sites and text messages can be a great way to keep in touch with friends, but Harvey says it's not the best way to date. \"You have nothing if you're texting a guy in a relationship,\" he says. \"We can text six women a minute. We can text it and push 'reply all.' I mean, since we're lying, we might as well lie to everybody.\" If you want the relationship to be more, take it face-to-face. \"Women talk about [how] chivalry's dead. Chivalry's not dead -- it's just not required anymore,\" he says. \"You've got to get a guy in your face. Look in his eyes. ... God has given you all this incredible thing called intuition. You've got to use that.\" Safety first . You know you've got a keeper when your man wants to make sure you're always safe, Harvey says. Every man wants to protect his woman, and Harvey says this instinct kicks in when his wife, Marjorie, scuba dives. \"I can't go home without her. We've got seven kids between us,\" Harvey says. \"They need their mother. I'm not a good mother at all.\" Although Marjorie is a certified diver, Harvey isn't a swimmer. \"I have a security guy who can swim,\" he says. \"So [he puts] on the snorkeling gear and when she goes down, I tell him, 'You swim over and just keep an eye on my wife.'\" Harvey also has instructions for everyone else on the boat. \"I told all the dive masters on the boat: 'If she does not come out of that water in 30 minutes, everybody in the water. Everybody. We're doing a dive search right here,'\" he says. \"I don't care if nobody [else] on the boat goes home. She goes home.\" Oprah.com: How to read his body language . From The Oprah Winfrey Show . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Comedian Steve Harvey says women set the bar too low when dating .\nHarvey: Workers wait 90 days for benefits; women should date 90 days before sex .\nTexting is not dating, says Harvey, just easier way for men to tell more lies .\nMen use terms like \"gold digger\" and \"nagging\" as weapons against women .","id":"665725037e4f048d59c363c7b23f25e1ce9f6890"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who admitted leaking nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya and then recanted his confession, has been released from house arrest after it was declared illegal by the Islamabad High Court, his attorney told CNN Friday. Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan meets the media outside his residence Friday. \"What the court declared is that he is a free citizen which means effectively... the basic human rights are available to him like any other citizen,\" said attorney Syed Ali Zafar. The Pakistani government was slow to acknowledge the high court's ruling. A spokesman said the Interior Ministry hasn't received the official court ruling, but will comply with whatever decision was made. Government attorneys said they expected an official announcement to be made by Saturday. But evidence of the end of Khan's house arrest seemed clear outside his home in an upscale part of Islamabad. Where a government security detail previously stood guard with machine guns, cars were parked and reporters roamed the area scratching for details. Khan made a brief appearance, saying he was outside because of the court's ruling, but gave few other details. In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she is \"very much concerned\" about Khan's release. Separately, acting deputy State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said: \"This man remains a serious proliferation risk.,\" he said. \"The proliferation support that Khan and his associates provided to Iran and North Korea has had a harmful impact ... on international security and will for years to come.\" Khan is widely regarded as a hero in Pakistan for his part in helping the country to develop nuclear weapons. In 2004, Khan was placed under house arrest following his admission on Pakistan television that he had been involved in a clandestine international network selling nuclear weapons technology from Pakistan to a host of nations including Iran and North Korea. Pakistan has so far refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.S. access to Khan to quiz him on the extent of the nuclear secrets he sold. \"Even if they had asked me I wouldn't have answered,\" he said last year. In May 2008, Khan denied his involvement with the spread of nuclear arms outside Pakistan. He explained in an interview with ABC News that the Pakistani government and then-President Pervez Musharraf forced him to be a \"scapegoat\" for the \"national interest.\" He also denies ever traveling to Iran or Libya and said that North Korea's nuclear program was well advanced before his visit.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. concerned at Abdul Qadeer Khan's release from house arrest .\nPakistani nuclear scientist Khan was placed under house arrest in 2004 .\nAdmitted selling nuclear weapons technology to Iran, N. Korea, Libya, then recanted .\nKhan is regarded as a hero in Pakistan for helping develop nuclear weapons .","id":"da950198a5cedc66ce2ec8c37c2cc3c33e62a011"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran is to send a female skier to the Winter Olympics for the first time at next year's Games in Vancouver, Canada, the head of the Islamic Republic's ski federation told state media Monday. Fatemeh Kiadarbandsari, competing at last month's World Ski Championships, in France. The chosen competitor will ski in \"full Islamic dress,\" Iran's National News Agency reported. Three women Fatemeh Kiadarbandsari, Mitra Kalhor and Marjan Kalhor are vying for the place on the national team alongside three male skiers, said Iranian Ski Federation head Isa Saveh-Shemshaki. Trials for the team will be held in December, two months ahead of the event. Iran has sent male athletes to every Winter Games since 1956. Skiing is hugely popular in Iran with some of the region's best slopes in the Zagros Mountains just a two-hour drive from the country's capital Tehran. At weekends during the seven-month ski season it is common to see long queues of traffic on routes to resorts. With a growing ski tourism industry, the price of the sport has steadily increased. But with fewer social restrictions on the pistes than in other areas of Iranian life, the sport remains a popular pursuit for the country's youth. Until recently, many slopes were strictly segregated with men and women skiing on different sides of the mountain. But while it is still illegal to travel in the same chair lift or gondola, the country's strict religious laws are visibly more lax at 3,000 meters. Iran took just three women among 53 athletes to last year's Beijing Olympics but the choice of 19-year-old female rower Homa Hosseini to carry the flag during the opening ceremony infuriated strict Islamists. Current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who faces an election this year, was forced to back down from an initiative ealry in his current term to encourage female participation in sport because of criticism from the country's religious leaders. One mullah reportedly said that women should not ski because the movement of their knees looked \"more like dancing than sport.\"","highlights":"Iran set to send female athlete to next year's Winter Olympics for the first time .\nOne female skier, three male skiers will be selected for Iranian Olympic team .\nSkiing is hugely popular in Iran with resorts just a two-hour drive from Tehran .\nMale, female skiers allowed to share slopes though not chair lifts, gondolas .","id":"11bf7ace4f13716bc37ac0ef0d94e15ee5a25cab"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The tribunal established to prosecute people allegedly responsible for the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others will officially convene at The Hague in Netherlands on Sunday. White wreaths with photos of Rafik Hariri at his tomb. The car bomb in Beirut in February 2005 transformed the turbulent nation's politics and sent shock waves across the Middle East and the world. \"All the necessary measures have been taken for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to commence functioning,\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote in his latest report to the U.N. Security Council. Daniel Bellemare, a Canadian, will be the U.N. tribunal's prosecutor. The trial judges and appeals chambers will take on their responsibilities on a date determined by Ban and the tribunal's president. The United Nations says the case is expected to be ready for trial by 2010. At the time of Hariri's death, neighboring Syria had immense political influence Lebanon, where it had had a troop presence from the 1980s, after the fighting between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. Hariri was admired for spearheading the rebuilding of Beirut after the country's civil war, from 1975 to 1990, and many Lebanese blamed Syria for the killing, citing Hariri's patriotism and strong sense of Lebanese independence. The killing sparked widespread protests that led to the eventual withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the election of an anti-Syrian bloc in parliament. The anti-Syrian movement is known as the March 14 Alliance, named after the day millions of supporters of Hariri took to the streets, and its actions have been dubbed the Cedar Revolution, for the nation's iconic cedar trees. Huge counterprotests also were staged by Lebanese supporters of Syria. Watch how Lebanon changed after Hariri's death \u00bb . Along the way, U.N. investigators tasked to probe the attack found links between Syria's government and Hariri's assassination. Three people detained for three years in connection with the case were released Wednesday by a Lebanese judge. Four Lebanese generals who have been held for nearly four years in connection with the attack remain in custody. The Lebanese hope the tribunal will settle the case, but there are also fears it could further divide the nation and open up older wounds in the country. Rami Khoury, a political analyst and a professor at the American University of Beirut, said the tribunal could serve as a political flashpoint, but he said the existence of the tribunal is important. \"It's an extraordinary symbol of the whole world coming in here, to the Arab world, and saying this has to stop, we're going to find who did it and hold them accountable,\" he said. \"So it's tremendously important, I think, in what it represents.\" The special tribunal takes over from the Beirut-based International Independent Investigation Commission, which looked into 20 other attacks and found elements linking some of them to a criminal network behind the Hariri killing, the United Nations said.","highlights":"U.N. tribunal for killing of former Lebanon prime minister to convene Sunday .\nRafik Hariri killed in car bomb in Beirut in February 2005 .\nU.N. says the case is expected to be ready for trial by 2010 .\nDeath led to protests and reduction of Syrian influence in Lebanon .","id":"69d5525a05e2d99933c30b45c721de7b724579db"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The United Arab Emirates has refused to grant a visa to a female Israeli tennis player, preventing her from competing in the Sony Ericsson World Tennis Association Tour in Dubai, the WTA said in a statement Sunday. The UAE has refused to grant a visa allowing Shahar Peer to compete in Dubai. Shahar Peer would have been the first Israeli athlete to participate in a professional sporting event in the UAE, CNN Sports correspondent Pedro Pinto said. The UAE has no diplomatic ties with Israel. Peer told CNN on Sunday evening she was \"very, very disappointed\" to be denied access to the tournament. \"Any player that qualifies should attend, and I was prevented,\" she said from Israel. \"I'm glad the WTA support me. A red line was crossed for every athlete in the world -- politics should be kept separate from sports.\" The governing body of women's tennis said it was \"deeply disappointed\" that Peer was being denied entry to the country hosting the tournament, but it did not cancel the competition, which began Sunday. The move runs counter to WTA policy, which says no player should be barred from competing in a tournament for which she has qualified. Dubai could lose its membership in the WTA tour next year over the ban on Peer, according to WTA rules. That would mean professional players could compete only in exhibition matches in Dubai, the results of which would not count in pro rankings. Government officials in Dubai have not responded to CNN's request to comment over their refusal to allow Peer to compete in the event. \"Ms. Peer has earned the right to play in the tournament, and it is regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right,\" said Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the tour. Watch Scott express disappointment \u00bb . \"Following various consultations, the tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the tour's board of directors.\" The patron of the Dubai Tennis Championships is Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum. Two million dollars in prize money is on the line. Al-Makhtoum told CNN in 2004 that Dubai would accept Israeli students to a school dedicated to students from the Middle East who are talented at sports. In 2003, Dubai hosted World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, which Israeli government officials attended. The Israeli flag -- among other member states' flags -- is still part of a globe monument in Dubai. Peer, 21, is ranked 48th in the world among female tennis players. She was allowed to compete at the Doha tournament in Qatar last year, where she received a warm welcome, according to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. Qatar, another Gulf Arab state, froze diplomatic ties with Israel after Israel's military offensive in Gaza last month. Peer downplayed the political undertones of her participation in last year's Doha tournament, telling Haaretz that she didn't come to Qatar \"to help the politics of course.\" But she added that if her playing in the tournament \"can help for peace or anything, I'd be really happy.\" Scott said the tour will \"review appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer\" as well as \"appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament.\" Peer was advised Saturday by tournament and WTA officials of the denial of her visa while she was participating in a tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, according to a WTA statement. The Dubai Tennis Championships runs through February 28.","highlights":"NEW: Shahar Peer, female Israeli tennis player, says she's \"very, very disappointed\"\nUnited Arab Emirates refuses to grant a visa to Peer .\nPeer needed the visa to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships .\nWorld Tennis Association unhappy, says move runs counter to its policy .","id":"ff82aff003b1a08fc0bc3c8a15ab299090a22ad7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Liberia's president has declared a state of emergency after hordes of ravenous caterpillars infested the country. The African armyworm caterpillar is chewing its way through Liberia's food crops. Tens of millions of the worm-like larvae have appeared in the northern part of the country, where they are destroying green crops like cabbage and collard greens and contaminating the water supply, Liberian Information Minister Laurance Bropleh told CNN Wednesday from the capital of Monrovia. \"I am not aware that they have been here before, ever, and certainly not in this great number,\" Bropleh told CNN. \"That is why it was so overwhelming initially when we first discovered it.\" The state of emergency covers the three northern Liberian counties of Bong, Lofa, and Gbarpolu, Liberian officials said. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told legislators Monday that 350,000 people in 62 communities in those three counties may have been affected. There are also indications the bugs have spread to neighboring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, Bropleh said. \"This is indeed a crisis,\" the president said Monday. Johnson Sirleaf said she appointed a task force, including members of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to identify the species and commence spraying. Investigators suspect the caterpillars are African armyworms, the FAO said. The infestation is \"quite alarming,\" said Winfred Hammond, the FAO representative in Liberia. Hammond said the caterpillars started showing up sometime during the week of January 12 but spread quickly. In just a week, he said, the caterpillars had spread to 50 villages. The pests multiply rapidly and adult moths are able to fly long distances at night, the FAO said. Worsening the situation, the area's water supply has been contaminated by the huge volume of feces dropped by the caterpillars, the FAO said. \"The plague is being described as Liberia's worst in 30 years,\" the FAO said. \"The last African armyworm outbreak in the sub-region occurred in Ghana in 2006.\"","highlights":"Liberia declares emergency after hordes of ravenous caterpillars infest country .\nTens of millions of the worm-like larvae have appeared in northern areas .\nUp to 350,000 people in 62 communities may have been affected .","id":"df7016dce9f5723a493bb021628f05beab6dc1c6"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Opposition lawmakers Tuesday ridiculed President Nicolas Sarkozy for taking France back into NATO's military command after more than 40 years, but were unable to stop the move when it came to a vote. French troops on patrol with the Afghan army as part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The National Assembly voted in favor of Sarkozy's plan, 329-238. Socialist Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister, told Prime Minister Francois Fillon: \"You tell us this would mean more independence and more influence. It would probably mean less independence and less influence.\" The move did not technically require parliamentary approval, but the president's party scheduled the debate to give opponents a chance to voice their opinions -- and to show a majority backed it. Asking the National Assembly to vote on the issue also showed how sensitive the matter is in France. France was a founding member of the NATO alliance in 1949 but it left the military structure in 1966 amid friction with the United States. \"To cooperate is to lose your independence,\" French President Charles de Gaulle said at the time. For the next 43 years, even though France selectively participated in NATO military operations, de Gaulle's principle remained the governing cornerstone of French foreign policy. If Paris took orders from NATO military commanders, it was reasoned, the nation would no longer have complete control of its destiny. Sarkozy, however, believes the opposite -- that cooperation in NATO is a guarantee of French independence. Rejoining NATO's military command, he argued, will give France a seat at the table for decision-making. From its earliest years, the organization's trans-Atlantic ties were strained because U.S. analysts warned that if the European allies failed to increase their contributions to the alliance, they risked losing the support of the United States, according to NATO. Meanwhile, the European nations felt the United States was trying to dominate the organization, according to NATO. De Gaulle's 1966 decision meant no French forces could be under permanent allied command and that France would have no participation in defense planning. In 1995, France rejoined NATO's military committee, which advises NATO's political authorities on military policy and strategy and provides guidance on military matters to NATO's strategic commanders. While France was still not a part of the military command, it contributed troops and funding to NATO activities, including actions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Half of all French troops outside the country are assigned to NATO military operations. Opponents of Sarkozy's move -- who include some members of his party -- believe de Gaulle, not Sarkozy, had it right. They started a last-minute petition drive to stop his march back into NATO. \"With this decision, France will return as a subordinate country and will lose its ability to represent another image in the world,\" said Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a member of the French National Assembly. The president's allies calculate Sarkozy's move will strengthen Europe's hand on defense issues. \"There will be more European weight in the way decisions will be made,\" said Louis Giscard d'Estaing, a member of the National Assembly's U.S. Friendship Committee. \"Therefore, the balance of power between the USA and Europe will be re-established within this French move.\" CNN's Sunaina Karkarey and Jim Bittermann contributed to this report .","highlights":"French National Assembly backs president's plan to rejoin NATO .\nPresident Nicolas Sarkozy's plan is politically sensitive .\nFrance was a founding member of NATO but left in 1966 .\nPresident Charles de Gaulle said in 1966 membership meant losing independence .","id":"7c1effcc8737c9a7cb4230ce4835b38badba41ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A California jury Wednesday recommended the death penalty after convicting a man on murder and arson charges in the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters who died in a 2006 blaze outside Los Angeles. Smoke rises over a flag flying at half-staff for fallen firefighters October 27, 2006, in Banning, California. Raymond Lee Oyler of Beaumont, California, was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder, including two special circumstances -- that the murders were committed during an arson and that multiple murders were committed -- making him eligible for the death penalty. Oyler was also convicted of 11 counts of arson and 10 counts of use of an incendiary device in those arsons. Sentencing is set for June 5. Firefighters Mark Loutzenhiser, 44; Jess McLean, 27; Jason McKay, 27; and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, died October 26, 2006, during a blaze called the Esperanza fire when the wildfire, fueled by Santa Ana winds, enveloped their engine. The fifth firefighter, Pablo Cerda, 23, died October 31, 2006, at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, where he had been taken after sustaining burns over 90 percent of his body. Days before being charged in Esperanza Fire, Oyler had been arrested and charged with two counts of arson in a June 2006 fire in the Banning Pass area. The 41,173-acre Esperanza fire outside Los Angeles destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings, mainly in the Twin Pines and Poppet Flats areas, which had been under mandatory evacuations. The firefighters died trying to protect a partially built house in Twin Pines, a rural mountain community.","highlights":"Jury convicts man on five counts of first-degree murder, 11 counts of arson .\n2006 fire outside Los Angeles, California, killed five firefighters .\nJury recommends death; sentencing set for June 5 .","id":"120b708d99de183e35b4bea20a9a35c2e97a0c70"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gunmen shot and killed a food monitor for the United Nations' World Food Program on Thursday, the second killing of a WFP humanitarian worker in Somalia in three days, a spokesman for the agency said Thursday. Mohamud Omar Moallim, a food monitor for the United Nations, was killed in Somalia on Thursday, the U.N. says. Peter Smerdon said Mohamud Omar Moallim, 49, was shot by unidentified gunmen while distributing food to displaced people at Daynile, 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Mogadishu. The gunmen put Moallim's body in a WFP vehicle and drove away, then pushed the corpse from the vehicle and drove on, Smerdon said. Moallim joined WFP in 1993 and worked until 1995 as a logistics assistant. He rejoined the agency in May 2006 as a food monitor. He was abducted in September 2008 for 16 hours outside Mogadishu. He leaves two wives and 11 children. Colleagues said Moallim was calm, extremely hard-working and highly responsible and was often consulted for advice and support by other staff members. On Tuesday, three masked men shot and killed 44-year-old Somali national Ibrahim Hussein Duale while he was monitoring food distribution at a school in Yubsan village, near the Gedo regional capital of Garbahare, the WFP said. Witnesses say the gunmen approached Duale while he was seated, ordered him to stand up and then shot him, according to the account on the WFP Web site. Duale leaves a wife and five children. He joined WFP in 2006 as a food monitor in the Gedo region, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia.","highlights":"U.N. aid worker shot by unidentified gunman while handing out food, U.N. says .\nAttackers threw body in car, drove off, then dumped body, says U.N. spokesman .\nAnother aid worker shot on Tuesday while distributing food at a school, U.N. says .\nBoth the slain humanitarian workers leave behind families .","id":"dc84e96cf7219f1b42d3a6f24759735e4ab63b85"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- The Disney family film update, \"Race to Witch Mountain,\" won the weekend box office in fine fashion, grossing $25 million according to Sunday's estimates from Media by Numbers. \"Race to Witch Mountain\" won the weekend box office in fine fashion, grossing $25 million. That's the second best opening ever for a movie fronted by Dwayne Johnson alone, trailing only the first feature that starred the artist formerly known as The Rock, \"The Scorpion King,\" which banked $36.1 million in its 2002 debut. \"Race to Witch Mountain's\" take was in line with expectations and garnered an okay CinemaScore grade of B+ from an audience that was 60 percent female. It should stay strong at the box office at least until \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" opens in two weeks. Also in \"Race to Witch Mountain's\" favor: weak competition from reigning champ \"Watchmen\" (No. 2), which dropped a hefty 67 percent from its big opening last weekend to gross $18.1 million. Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's landmark superhero saga is clearly slowing down, although it has grossed $86 million in 10 days. Freshman fright flick \"The Last House on the Left\" was next at No. 3, with an anticipated $14.7 million. That's a decent sum for a horror movie that had the added benefit of opening on \"Friday the 13th;\" indeed, it's in line with what most scary remakes tend to bring in on their first weekends. Thus, you can expect this film (which got a so-so B CinemaScore review) to fall off the map after this frame, since that's also what most horror movies do. \"Taken\" (No. 4 with $6.7 million) remained in the top five well into its second month at the multiplex. Tyler Perry's \"Madea Goes to Jail\" came in at No. 5 with $5.1 million. And the weekend's other new wide release, the Playboy-centric comedy \"Miss March,\" grossed an unsexy $2.3 million way down at No. 10. Meanwhile, the limited indie release \"Sunshine Cleaning,\" starring Emily Blunt and Amy Adams, scored the highest opening-weekend per-theater average thus far in 2009, dusting up a stellar average of $53,500 in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Overall, the box office was a little on the sluggish side, dropping nearly 17 percent from the same frame a year ago, when \"Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!\" was the big winner. Still, this is just the first \"down\" weekend in more than a month, which is comforting. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"This is the second best opening ever for a movie fronted by Dwayne Johnson .\n\"Watchmen\" dropped a hefty 67 percent from its big opening last weekend .\n\"The Last House on the Left\" came in at No. 3 with an anticipated $14.7 million .\nSee what other movies made the box office top 10 .","id":"257d3108c14b4d0a55cf09072d17e787122d5b45"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Italian capital Rome was spared major damage Saturday as some of the heaviest flooding in the past century reached its peak without bursting the banks of the Tiber river. A rescue boat patrols the swollen River Tiber in central Rome early Friday. Italian Civil Protection officials said the river will take several days to return to normal levels but there was no longer a risk of flooding. Civil Protection teams were also coordinating the removal of two barges that crashed against bridges after breaking their moorings on Friday. Italian media report that last night a young man from Ireland fell in the Tiber, but his body has not been found yet. Hundreds of volunteers and officials had been deployed around Rome ahead of the flood's peak, while sandbags were lined up to contain any possible river overflow. Firefighters Thursday had to rescue dozens of motorists stranded in their cars. Because of the intense rain, the streets of some northern Rome neighborhoods were already flooded by water and covered in thick brown mud. One woman died near Rome early Thursday when her car was submerged by a wave of water and mud in an underpass. The body of a second victim was found in the southern region of Calabria after a bridge collapsed. Earlier this month, much of the Italian city of Venice was underwater as some of the heaviest floods for several decades burst the city's famed canal networks and inundated historic landmarks such as St. Mark's Square.","highlights":"Flood waters subside in Rome .\nItaly has been hit by a wave of bad weather that has claimed two lives .\nOne woman died near Rome when her car was submerged by a wave of water .\nBody of a second victim was found in Calabria region after a bridge collapsed .","id":"cfd99ee2a25e28518c5f013419789439a01fc819"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Los Angeles police are searching for a serial killer dubbed the \"Grim Sleeper,\" who is thought to have killed 11 people. Alicia Alexander was one of the Grim Sleeper's victims in the 1980s. The killer, who police say murdered from 1985 to 2007, was nicknamed the Grim Sleeper because he seemed to take a break between homicides, police said. Authorities this week released a 9-1-1 tape recorded shortly after a killing in 1987, in the hope of producing clues. \"Yes ... I'd like to report a murder,\" an anonymous caller says on the tape. \"The guy that dropped her off was driving a white and blue Dodge van. He threw her out. ... He threw a gas tank on top of her. All that you can see sticking out is her feet.\" Watch the hunt for a serial killer \u00bb . Police found the scene just as the caller described and found the van. But they are still searching for the caller and members of the now-defunct church that owned the van. The killer is wanted in 11 deaths and another homicide attempt, police say. Detectives say they have the Grim Sleeper's DNA, and a $500,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and prosecution. The killer shot his victims, police said. Porter Alexander has waited two decades for the Grim Sleeper's arrest. His daughter Alicia Alexander became the Grim Sleeper's eighth victim in 1988, police say. \"No one should have to face anything like this,\" he said. \"To experience their daughters or sons taken away as early as she was.\" CNN's Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report.","highlights":"L.A. police this week released old 9-1-1 call: \"Yes ... I'd like to report a murder\"\nPolice have Grim Sleeper's DNA and are offering $500,000 reward for information .\nNickname given because killer took a break between murders, police say .","id":"b764e966efc20d45f950eed36552b4f0aa074ac3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Conjoined Egyptian twin boys Hassan and Mahmoud, who were successfully separated in Saudi Arabia Saturday, are recovering and are expected to lead normal lives, officials said. Conjoined twins Hassan, left, and Mahmud rest the day before separation surgery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. \"The twins' vital signs are good; they're doing excellent,\" said Sami Al-Shalan, spokesman for the King Abdulaziz Medical City facility in Riyadh where the surgery took place. \"The twins still have about 24 hours before a progress report can be issued. The anesthesia consultants are happy with the progress of the children.\" The boys are less than a year old and were brought to the kingdom on February 10. The delicate surgery took a little more than 15 hours. \"The twins' parents have visited them in the [pediatric intensive care unit], but they can't stay there long. They come and go,\" Al-Shalan said. Separating the boys' urinary system was a major challenge, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the Saudi minister of health, told CNN. So was separating the siblings' local veins and arteries, he said. \"We had to identify the arteries and the blood veins between each baby,\" Al-Rabeeah said. Watch Al-Rabeeah explain the operation \u00bb . The procedure was the 21st of its kind to be performed in the kingdom. The surgeries are performed free as part of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's philanthropic initiative. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Egyptian twin boys are less than a year old .\n21st procedure of this type to be performed in the kingdom .\n15-hour delicate surgery declared successful, surgeon says .\nSurgery free as part of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's philanthropic initiative .","id":"b3f41d7a0e2d77f1c7a043dec5a12edeaee4faed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chief executive of American Airlines, which has grounded almost 2,500 flights over the past three days, accepted \"full responsibility\" Thursday for failing to meet government inspection standards. \"I am profoundly sorry that we've gotten ourselves into this situation, and I thank our customers for their patience under very difficult circumstances,\" American CEO Gerard Arpey said Thursday afternoon. The airline canceled 933 flights on MD-80 jets Thursday and announced 570 would be scrapped Friday. Potential wiring hazards in wheel wells that could cause fires or problems with landing gear prompted the action. American canceled several hundred flights for the same reason about two weeks ago. Earlier Thursday, American said it expected all of its MD-80 jets to be flight-worthy by Saturday night. The airline has offered to make amends to travelers with refunds, vouchers and compensation for overnight stays. The cancellations have delayed and stranded more than 140,000 passengers. Roger Frizzell, an airline spokesman, said the inspections involve technical compliance as opposed to flight safety. Watch how air travelers deal with disruptions \u00bb . Although American was most affected by the inspections, the Federal Aviation Administration's orders for safety checks have also affected Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines and Midwest Airlines, which was the latest airline to ground planes: 13 on Thursday. The FAA launched its inspection campaign in March, after CNN obtained documents given to congressional investigators that showed more than 100 Southwest aircraft had not had mandatory safety inspections. At a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration's safety division, Nicholas Sabatini, was told that his agency's performance was woeful. \"I think [it's] approaching losing the confidence of the American people and the Congress,\" said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia. Lawmakers said the agency has become too close to the airline industry. Sabatini defended the FAA's record but said any lapse was cause for concern. \"We found we had achieved 99 percent safety compliance,\" he told lawmakers. But, he added, \"It's the other 1 percent that keeps me up at night.\" Passengers scheduled to fly on an American Airlines MD-80 between Tuesday and Friday can receive a full refund or apply the value of their ticket to a future flight, the airline said. People who stayed overnight as a result of a canceled flight can go to the company's Web site to inquire about receiving compensation. Arpey said that the MD-80 has been a great plane for American Airlines and that the inspection problems should have \"no impact on our long-term fleet plan.\" \"The FAA is stepping up their surveillance and doing their job,\" Arpey said. \"In this case, we failed to get it right, and we're trying very hard to get it right.\" He said American plans to hire an independent consultant to examine the company's inspection system. Meanwhile, airports are doing their best to keep frustrated travelers happy. \"Getting stuck at the airport is not like a day at the beach, but we sure are trying to make passengers as comfortable as possible,\" said Ken Capps, vice president of public affairs for Dallas\/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas. Eateries were staying open all night, some provided free pastries and coffee, and some even handed out diapers. The situation at American's hub at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, \"was what you might see on a normal Thursday morning,\" CNN's Susan Roesgen reported. American employees handing out free coffee and granola bars found few takers. Watch a report from O'Hare \u00bb . At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, American passengers reported frustration but complimented the carrier's efforts to get them to their destinations. \"We were rerouted,\" said Chad Duncan of San Angelo, Texas, who was in Georgia to watch practice rounds of the Masters golf tournament. \"They were very helpful and everything, but it's frustrating. Instead of having one stopover, we now have three.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: American Airlines says 570 flights will be canceled Friday .\n\"I am profoundly sorry,\" chief executive of American Airlines says .\nAmerican expects all of its MD-80 jets to be flight-worthy by Saturday night .\nAlaska Airlines, Midwest Airlines cancel flights Thursday for safety checks .","id":"e720a7f284f6b4e518ceb6f4cfeeb8da20ff6a8d"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S.-led forces captured two men believed to be senior al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, including one suspected of planning the 2006 kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, a military statement said. Jill Carroll, seen here in an interview following her 2006 release, was held for nearly three months in Iraq. Coalition forces captured the suspects in Baghdad on August 11 and 17, according to the statement. The suspects were identified as Salim Abdallah Ashur al-Shujayri, also known as Abu Uthman, and Ali Rash Nasir Jiyad al-Shammari, also known as Abu Tiba. Abu Uthman is suspected of masterminding Carroll's abduction, the statement said. Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted in January 2006 and freed unharmed in March of that year. Both men are suspected of overseeing car or suicide bombings targeting Iraqis with the intent of inciting sectarian violence, the statement said. Abu Tiba is suspected to have been in charge of as many 15 al Qaeda in Iraq \"attack cells,\" providing them with money, weapons and explosives, according to the statement. The men were also suspected of being connected to other kidnappings, the statement said. \"The capture of Abu Tiba and Abu Uthman eliminates two of the few remaining experienced leaders in the AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] network,\" the statement said.","highlights":"Abu Uthman suspected of masterminding Jill Carroll's 2006 kidnapping .\nUthman and another al Qaeda in Iraq suspect captured this month, military says .\nCarroll, a U.S. journalist, was abducted in 2006 but released unharmed weeks later .","id":"4c0f31a27600e7df49d049982de28a1fc2680be6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Austrian man who allegedly held his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years has been charged with murdering one of their children, prosecutors say. Josef Fritzl is accused of fathering seven children by his daughter during her 24-year captivity. Austrian State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek told CNN Thursday that Josef Fritzl, 73, was charged with murder because one of the seven children died in infancy. The other six children survived. Fritzl, a retired electrician from Amstetten, 75 kilometers (46 miles) west of Vienna, was also charged with rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery. The murder charge stems from the death of Fritzl's infant son, Michael Fritzl, who died from lack of medical care, the prosecutor said. Watch as Fritzl is charged with murder \u00bb . \"Although he realized how life-threatening M.F.'s situation was after being born, Josef F. did not call out for help,\" Sedlacek said, explaining the charge. The trial is expected to begin early in 2009 and if convicted of murder Fritzl could face 10 to 20 years in prison. Austria, like other European countries, has no death penalty. Prosecutors say psychiatric tests show that Fritzl is mentally fit to stand trial but Sedlacek has asked that Fritzl be confined to a \"mental asylum.\" Fritzl kept the daughter and all but three of the children in a cellar beneath his home in Amstetten, Austria, west of Vienna, officials say. Three of the children lived upstairs in the home Fritzl shared with his wife and several of their own children. Fritzl has been in custody since the case came to light in April, sparking worldwide attention. He had explained Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984 by saying the 18-year-old girl had run away from home, a story backed up by letters he forced Elisabeth to write, including one that begged her parents not to look for her. When Elizabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984 -- weeks before she was reported missing -- her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police. For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by her father, resulting in seven children, she said, according to the police statement. Fritzl's daughter and her children have since been receiving counseling although doctors warn that they will take years to recover. Members of the Fritzl family will also be offered the chance to adopt new identities in an effort to help them lead normal lives, officials said. Psychiatrist Max Friedrich, who treated the abducted Austrian teenager Natascha Kampusch, estimated it would take \"between five and eight years\" for the children to recover from their experiences.","highlights":"Austrian man who allegedly held daughter for 24 years charged with murder .\nProsecutors charge Josef Fritzl with murder because one of the 7 children died .\nExperts say infant might have survived if Fritzl had arranged for medical care .","id":"1779c9867eb78c1a226e35669052388396f3cb78"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Efforts by government troops to secure control of a main highway that links mainland Sri Lanka to the northern Jaffna peninsula came a step closer Thursday when they re-captured Pallai, a palm-fringed village under rebel control. Sri Lankan army troops have had there most decisive victories against the Tamil Tigers in recent weeks. The village is located past Elephant Pass, described as a gateway to the Jaffna peninsula, which the army re-captured on Wednesday. Whilst a column of troops are moving northwards from this town, another column that advanced from the outer fringes of the government-controlled peninsula advanced southwards to recapture Pallai. \"When the two columns meet we would have captured the entire A-9 highway,\" a senior army source told CNN. He spoke on grounds of anonymity since he is not authorized to talk to media. The A-9 highway links the hill city Kandy with Jaffna. The only stretch that remains to be recaptured is the area between Elephant Pass and Jaffna. Earlier this month, President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and end a quarter-century of civil war. Before he made that request government troops retook the separatists' former capital, Kilinochchi. Rajapaksa called the recapture of Kilinochchi \"a victory against separatism.\" \"The time is not far off when people of the north can breathe freedom again,\" Rajapaksa said. He invited the Tigers -- who have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983 -- to surrender as government troops closed in on their last remaining strongholds. The civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. The U.S. State Department has designated the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization.","highlights":"Sri Lankan government troops continue advance into rebel territory .\nTroops capture village on main highway linking mainland to Jaffna peninsula .\nCivil war with Tamil Tigers has killed more than 65,000 .","id":"c3f07bb5ef64ccfe266d03d21cc8b46e465c37d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An apartment left untouched since before the fall of the Berlin Wall has been discovered by a developer in the eastern German city of Leipzig, German media reports said Thursday. The fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the end of the communist regime in East Germany in 1989. The discovery, made by architect Mark Aretz, revealed a small one-bedroom apartment evidently abandoned quickly by its occupants as the Communist East German state disintegrated in 1989, Spiegel Online reported. A wall calendar showed August 1988, and the kitchen cupboard and drawers contained plastic crockery and aluminium cutlery along with communist-era food brands such as \"Vita\" Cola, \"Marella\" margarine, \"Juwel\" cigarettes and a bottle of \"Kristall\" vodka. \"When we opened the door we felt like Howard Carter when he found the grave of Tutankhamen,\" Aretz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. \"Everything was a mess but it was like a historic treasure trove, a portal into an age long gone.\" According to Aretz -- a developer who renovates properties in eastern Germany -- the occupant appears to have been a 24-year-old man from Leipzig who had been in trouble with the authorities, judging by personal documents left behind. The most recent document was dated May, 1989 -- a police search warrant for a caravan. There was also a stamped and addressed postcard written by the occupant, but he had never sent it, Spiegel said.","highlights":"Apartment found by developer in eastern German city of Leipzig .\nOccupant left in a hurry as East German state crumbled in 1989 .\nCommunist-era food brands such as \"Vita\" Cola, \"Marella\" margarine found .","id":"d5f232c6d7b07d6ea36de3fcc5963044f40d1211"} -{"article":"GLEN BURNIE, Maryland (CNN) -- At his GM dealership in suburban Washington, Maury Wilkins exudes calm as he gears up for an enormous challenge: protecting his decades-old family business. Zero-percent financing is one way Maury Wilkins and other GM dealers are trying to lure new buyers. With General Motors teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, Wilkins says luring customers back into his showroom boils down to two factors. \"Everything is confidence and perception,\" Wilkins told CNN in a recent interview. Confidence in the beleaguered General Motors Corp. is exactly what President Obama hopes to restore. Even as he forced out GM's CEO Rick Wagoner in late March, the president also made an extraordinary pledge. \"If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always,\" Obama announced from the White House a week ago. \"Starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty,\" the president said. Some critics have blasted that promise as untenable. \"That's pie-in-the-sky,\" says William Holstein, author of \"Why GM Matters: Inside the Race to Transform an American Icon.\" \"If General Motors goes away, how is the government ever going to maintain the network of suppliers?\" asks Holstein. Noting there are \"four or five thousand moving parts in a vehicle,\" Holstein wonders, \"How is the government going to maintain this incredible infrastructure of suppliers to make sure that every part, every body panel is available for years after General Motors goes away?... It's impossible.\" GM dealer Wilkins sees the government's guarantee as a consumer confidence-builder. Still, he's concerned about slumping sales figures. Nationwide, auto sales dropped 37 percent in March compared with a year ago. Wilkins' business was not immune. Though he says he's not in crisis mode, he does have contingency plans. Watch report from CNN's Elaine Quijano on Wilkins \u00bb . \"Our business model is 'what if, what if, what if,'\" Wilkins said, adding, \"if all these things are outside of our control, how do we make sure that we maintain our profitability?\" That means extra attention to facets of his business besides new-car sales, including used-car sales, service and parts, and collision repair. Already, Wilkins believes car sales have turned a corner. He says February was one of his dealership's best months. It was the result, he believes, of business adjustments he made, including altering inventory stocks. Wilkins also says credit for car buyers is finally beginning to loosen. Potential customer Jim Lally says that's what drew him into the showroom the day CNN visited. \"I heard about the zero-percent financing and the exceptional deals that are being offered right now,\" Lally said. While Lally hadn't decided on whether to buy a GM, his visit was another reason for Wilkins' cautious optimism, as his business tries to weather the economic storm.","highlights":"Suburban Washington GM dealer Maury Wilkins trying to lure back customers .\nHe supports Obama's guarantee: \"Everything is confidence and perception\"\nWilkins focuses on used-car sales, collision repair, service and parts .\nWilkins says adjustments started paying off in February, one of his best months .","id":"ca970a11f5590a3db1d27ce1e51e526b9d0eec13"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- President Obama mixed jokes with serious discussion Thursday during an appearance on \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.\" President Obama chats it up with Jay Leno on \"The Tonight Show\" on Thursday. While presidential candidates have used comedy shows for campaigning as far back as Richard Nixon's performance on \"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In\" in 1968, Obama became the first sitting president to appear before a late-night talk show studio audience. Obama complimented guitarist Kevin Eubanks on his suit, and he cracked jokes about the Secret Service and \"American Idol\" host Simon Cowell. Obama also remarked on his poor bowling skills, which were evident during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. He told Leno that he bowled 129 in the White House bowling alley and said his bowling skills are \"like Special Olympics or something.\" Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the president's remarks were not meant to poke fun of the Special Olympics. \"The president made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,\" Burton said. \"He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world.\" Obama later moved on to topical discussions of the economic crisis and the AIG bonus scandal. Watch some of Obama's appearance \u00bb . \"The problem with AIG was that it owed so much and was tangled up with so many banks and institutions that if you had allowed it to just liquidate, to go into bankruptcy, it could have brought the whole financial system down. So it was the right thing to do to intervene in AIG,\" Obama said. Obama said earlier this week that he'll \"take responsibility\" for AIG executives receiving those controversial bonuses -- roughly $165 million -- while the company took $173 billion in government bailouts. Congress is looking for ways to recoup all or some of that money. \"The larger problem is we've got to get back to an attitude where people know enough is enough, and people have a sense of responsibility and they understand that their actions are going to have an impact on everybody,\" he said. \"If we can get back to those values that built America, then I think we're going to be OK.\" Obama also said he was confident in his embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. \"I think Geithner is doing an outstanding job. I think that we have a big mess on our hands,\" he said. \"It's not going to be solved immediately, but it is going to get solved.\" Obama taped the show Thursday afternoon during a two-day swing through the Los Angeles area for town hall meetings focusing on the economy. iReport.com: Nice to see the \"real\" Obama . Obama also discussed the \"life in the bubble,\" musing over how Secret Service agents would not let him walk 750 yards from Air Force One to the Costa Mesa fairgrounds, where some of the day's activities were to take place. Obama said flying in Air Force One is \"pretty cool,\" especially because \"they give you the jacket with the [presidential] seal on it,\" he said. The only time Leno appeared to stop Obama in his tracks was when he asked the president whether he thought people intentionally lose basketball games when they play with him. \"I don't see why they would throw the game, except for all those Secret Service guys with guns around,\" he said. There's some political risk for Obama, according to Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, who also hosts CNN's \"Reliable Sources.\" AC360 blog: Laughing through the pain . \"He has to be very careful about his tone, because if he yuks it up too much and seems to be having too good a time, it will be quite a contrast there with the pain the people are feeling with the crumbling economy,\" Kurtz said. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"President compliments Kevin Eubanks' suit, pokes fun at Simon Cowell .\nObama on more serious topic: \"The problem with AIG is it owed so much\"\nHe says bonuses are problem, but larger issue is people feel lack of responsibility .\nPresident must be careful not to trivialize economic pain, media observer cautions .","id":"de9cceda5e77d76a97bce8a5f166e0d176ad37f0"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Up to 30,000 additional U.S. troops could be sent to Afghanistan next year, military officials said Saturday. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with its high mountain terrain. Roughly 31,000 U.S. troops currently are in Afghanistan. Of the additional troops, 20,000 will comprise four ground\/maneuvering brigades, said Col. Gregory Julian, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. That number is consistent with what Gen. David McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, called for in October, he said. The additional 10,000 likely refers to support personnel, Julian said. McKiernan requested the additional 20,000 troops be sent to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. On Friday, military officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year. Those troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected buildup of U.S. troops in the country in 2009. The brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region. Helicopters are the main mode of transportation for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies. The additional troops would nearly double the level of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Troop levels are likely to be maintained at this increased level for three to four years, Julian said Saturday, as U.S. forces continue to try to \"clear and hold\" more parts of Afghanistan from insurgents and militants and train Afghan military and police to be self-sufficient.","highlights":"20,000 in four ground\/maneuvering brigades, said U.S. forces spokesman .\nThe additional 10,000 likely refers to support personnel, said spokesman .\nOn Friday, Defense Secretary ordered 3,000 troops to Afghanistan for next year .","id":"7c8301dc8722da447bafe5852443325c020fae10"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reflected Thursday on the economic and political crises sweeping the globe, acknowledging in her Christmas Day message their impact on holiday festivities. Queen Elizabeth II attends a Christmas Day service at Sandringham in Norfolk, England. \"Christmas is a time for celebration, but this year it is a more somber occasion for many. Some of those things which could once have been taken for granted suddenly seem less certain, and naturally give rise to feelings of insecurity,\" she told Britons in a televised appearance from Buckingham Palace. \"People are touched by events which have their roots far across the world -- whether it is the global economy or violence in a distant land, the effects can be keenly felt at home.\" In her nine-minute message, she encouraged Britons to look for happiness and courage through helping others, and singled out World War I veterans and current troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as examples of courage and sacrifice. Military veterans of the First World War recently commemorated the \"service and enormous sacrifice of their own generation,\" the queen said. The families of soldiers now serving overseas carry an extra burden of worry while they are away, she added. \"In such times as these, we can all learn some lessons from the past. We might begin to see things in a new perspective, and certainly we begin to ask ourselves where it is that we can find lasting happiness.\" Watch excerpts of the queen's address \u00bb . It appears, she noted, that people who seem most contented and fulfilled are \"the people who have lived the most outgoing and unselfish lives -- the kind of people who are generous with their talents or their time ... those who use their prosperity or good fortune for the benefit of others.\" \"When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat. Instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future,\" the queen said. \"I think we have a huge amount to learn from individuals such as these.\" She expressed pride in her son, Prince Charles, who turned 60 last month and is one of the longest-serving heirs to the throne. He was baptized in the music room where the queen spoke, she said. Several clips -- including a few with the queen playing with Charles, as a toddler -- were shown throughout her comments. Charles has helped and supported young people through various charities, and his sons, princes William and Harry, are following his lead, the queen said. She closed her message with references to Jesus Christ, who she said lived an unselfish and sacrificial life, despite circumstances of great adversity. \"He makes it clear that genuine human happiness and satisfaction lie more in giving than receiving, more in serving than in being served. \"We can surely be grateful that 2,000 years after the birth of Jesus, so many of us are able to draw inspiration from his life and message.\"","highlights":"Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was giving her Christmas Day speech .\nQueen: Economic, political crises sweeping globe impacted on celebrations .\nShe encouraged Britons to look for happiness and courage through helping others .\nMessage was recorded from her Buckingham Palace residence .","id":"2f4e96a2fd6a18115a22f00a55f15c00e29bbc15"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Radical Islamist fighters seized control of the seat of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government Monday, raiding the parliament building and demanding that several lawmakers publicly surrender, according to a journalist who witnessed the spectacle. Members of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament are meeting in the neighboring country of Djibouti. Al-Shabab fighters took over the parliament building and the presidential palace in Baidoa, in the southwestern part of the country, a day after the Ethiopian troops who had backed up the transitional government left the country. The insurgents captured five members of parliament and paraded them through the city streets, with hundreds of residents looking on, the reporter said. The five were released after publicly surrendering. The situation left Somali lawmakers stranded in the neighboring country of Djibouti, where they often convene and where talks on forming a new government are under way. \"We have nowhere to return to,\" Parliament Speaker Aden Mohamed Nur told fellow lawmakers there. Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government took office after Ethiopian troops invaded the country at its request in December 2006. The Ethiopian invasion ousted the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist movement that had claimed control of the capital Mogadishu earlier that year. Ethiopia's invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. But various Islamist groups -- including the hard-line Al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- rejected the presence of Ethiopian forces and mounted an insurgent campaign against the Ethiopians and the transitional government. Ethiopia announced on Sunday that all its forces have left Somalia. Last week, as Ethiopian troops began pulling out of the Somali capital, forces from different Islamist groups -- including Al-Shabab -- took control of bases the Ethiopians abandoned around Mogadishu. The transitional government maintained very little control outside of Baidoa, even with the support of the Ethiopian forces. It has also been wracked by an internal power struggle between Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in December. In Washington, the State Department said U.S. officials are working to independently confirm the reports from Baidoa. But State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said members of one of the major Islamic factions, which signed a peace agreement in October in Djibouti, are already joining the transitional government. Duguid said the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, another offshoot of the ICU, will choose up to 200 new members of the transitional parliament. Another 75 members will be drawn from other opposition groups, and the expanded parliament is expected to elect a new president soon. \"We remain deeply concerned about the ongoing violence in southern Somalia, which continues to claim innocent lives,\" Duguid said. \"Lasting peace and stability in Somalia can only be established through the reconciliation process underway through the Djibouti Agreement and rejection of extremism.\" With Monday's takeover of Baidoa, the transitional government only has control of the presidential palace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and the road to the airport in the capital city, which it holds with the help of African Union forces. CNN's Ben Brumfield and journalists Mohamed Amiin Adow and Omar Faruk Osman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Islamist fighters seize control of Baidoa, Somalia .\nBaidoa is headquarters of Somalia's U.N.-backed government .\nTown's seizure leaves country's lawmakers stranded in nation of Djibouti .","id":"945fffce679de13fdb58262b52046702e5f93d50"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Bank cut China's economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent Wednesday, down a full percentage point from November's projection. Workers assemble toys on a production line at a factory in Shantou, in China's Guangdong province. Despite the downgrade, \"China is a relative bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global economy,\" said the World Bank's David Dollar. Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated projections that the nation's economy will grow by 8 percent in 2009, despite doubts expressed by domestic and international economic analysts. Some have forecast growth as low as 5 percent. \"I will admit it will be a difficult job [to reach 8 percent]. This being said, I also believe with considerable efforts it's possible for us to obtain this goal,\" Wen said at a news conference following the annual session of the country's rubber-stamp legislature. China has seen a sharp decline in demand for its exports since November as other major economies have struggled. In February, Chinese exports plunged 25.7 percent compared with the previous year's, Beijing reported last week. Even with the slowdown, China's economy -- the third largest in the world -- has gone from white-hot to merely robust. In 2007, China's gross domestic product grew at 13 percent. The two largest economies -- the United States and Japan -- are in recession. \"So a lot of things will go down in 2009 globally,\" Dollar said. \"But we see China's contribution as being very positive in keeping many markets from going down as far as they would otherwise.\" The World Bank expects China's economy to outgrow most others in 2009. In November, China announced plans to inject $586 billion (4 trillion yuan) into its economy to offset declines in industrial and export growth. That economic stimulus plan included the loosening of credit restrictions, tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending.","highlights":"World Bank cuts China's economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent .\nReduction is down a full percentage point from November's projection .\nLast week, Chinese Premier projected nation's economy would grow by 8% in 2009 .\nChina has seen a sharp decline in demand for its exports since November .","id":"31b99b917231bf8fbca37bb9f10ce485fecfcd14"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Playing the Nintendo Wii Fit could improve balance and help avoid falls in seniors, researchers taking part in a new study suggest. Researchers in Aberdeen think playing Wii Fit may improve the elderly's balance and lower risks of falling. The University of Aberdeen, Scotland and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) have embarked on a four month study on people over 70 to observe any changes in balance after regular use of the Wii Fit. The video game has different activities including yoga poses, push ups, strength, balance and aerobic exercises. The Wii Fit includes a balance board that records movements and gives feedback on performance. Dr Marie Fraser, a specialist registrar at Woodend Hospital in Scotland, UK, is carrying out the research. She told CNN: \"Falls are the most common cause of accidental injury in older people and the most common cause of accidental deaths in 75-year-olds and over.\" It is hoped that using the Wii Fit's balance board can improve elderly people's balance and confidence. Dr Alison Stewart, who devised the study said she came up with the idea while working in the Osteoporosis department at the University of Aberdeen, after seeing a large number of fractures in old people who had fallen. Stewart, a commercial research manager with the NHS, said she then decided to research how to improve older people's balance. She told CNN: \"There exists a medical fitness device that improves balance, but it is expensive and I could not get the funding. \"That's when I looked up the Wii and discovered it is very similar to the other equipment, but less expensive. \"What is great about the Wii is it also has an entertainment value. The fact that it is enjoyable also makes the compliance rate higher.\" The latest study comes as another pilot study at Southern Cross University, Australia looked at the benefits of using the Wii to help Parkinson's sufferers. A group of seven older people with and without the degenerative condition took part in the pilot project, and were put through an almost daily regime of playing the Nintendo Wii. Associate Professor Rick van der Zwan who led the research said initial results were \"positive.\" They ultimately hope to determine the effectiveness of computer games in developing muscle strength and co-ordination and reducing the risk of falls for people with Parkinson's. \"People generally start to develop the disease in their 50s or 60s. It leads to inertia and people become unstable on their feet,\" said Van der Zwan in a media statement. \"What we are trying to do is reduce the risk of serious harm. These people are nine times more likely to fall over than someone without the disease and falls in this older age group can be very serious.\" Van der Zwan now wants to recruit 15 more research participants to broaden the study. Since its launch in 2006 the Nintendo Wii has seen a huge rise in the number of elderly players. At one senior citizen home in north-east England, staff introduced the popular games console at Christmas in all five of its homes. \"Everyone loves it and we noticed it has improved the physical fitness of residents who play,\" Rachel Todd of McArdle Care told CNN. Todd believes the device's entertainment value not only improves residents' fitness levels, but also their mental fitness. Among the Wii Fit fans at the home are 74-year-old Ian Fisher and 86-year-old Betty Dennis. \"I always loved sports, particularly football\" Dennis told CNN. \"But I had a stroke six months ago and am now in a wheelchair.\" \"Since the Wii I really feel movement in my right arm has improved, which is all I need to play skittles.\" Her bowling partner Fisher told CNN he recently played the boxing game on Wii Fit with his four-year-old great-grandson. \"It really spans all ages, although my great-grandson knocked me out twice,\" the former bricklayer said.","highlights":"Researchers study whether Wii Fit can can improve older people's balance .\nResidents in English nursing home feel the physical and mental benefits of Wii .\nFalls are the most common cause of accidental deaths in elderly, says researcher .","id":"12a1e827236b9fcd38c514a53ea604932ec17dde"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford declared a state of emergency Thursday for a coastal county where a wildfire has consumed thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes. Scott Vereen sprays water on his family's home Thursday near Conway, South Carolina. \"This has already proved to be a devastating event for Horry County, and it isn't over,\" Sanford said in a written statement. The county includes some of the state's most popular tourist spots, including the Myrtle Beach area. By late afternoon, however, officials in North Myrtle Beach said the fire there was mostly contained. \"The fire is very contained on our end right now,\" said the city's director of public safety, William Bailey. \"We have hot spots. I would say we're about 75 to 80 percent [contained].\" But as he gestured toward the dark clouds behind him, he told people who had been evacuated: \"As you see with the smoke and activity behind us, we still got some issues that we're concerned about. We're doing everything we can to get you home.\" Authorities began alerting people in the city's Barefoot Resort area early Thursday after the fire jumped a highway and began consuming some houses. As of about 6 p.m. ET Thursday, the fire had consumed 15,500 acres, destroyed 69 homes and damaged 100 others, according to the Horry County Emergency Operations Center. While no fatalities or injuries were reported, some 2,500 people have been evacuated, officials said. About 440 people were in two shelters at the House of Blues and at the North Myrtle Beach Aquatic Center, the operations center said. Both the Barefoot Resort and the Pelican Bay subdivisions had been evacuated. In addition, three schools were evacuated because of heavy smoke. Eight vehicles had been destroyed as of Thursday afternoon, said Mayor Marilyn Hatley. Watch footage of coastal areas in flames \u00bb . Bailey said authorities were hopeful the weather would continue to cooperate. Low humidity had persisted for most of the day. \"We have the resources, we just need to get a weather break,\" he said. Authorities said the fire has been unpredictable. \"When we got our last report [Wednesday], we had no idea that it would be crossing over into the Barefoot Resort area,\" Hatley said at the morning news conference. \"The fire kind of created its own weather, and it just started the wind spinning.\" Nick Gentile, 64, told The Myrtle Beach Sun News that he left his Barefoot Resort home around 2 a.m. Thursday. \"They came around with a police car with a loudspeaker,\" he told the newspaper, still wearing his blue-plaid pajamas. \"You always read about stuff like this, but you never know when you are going to be in it.\" Helicopters were conducting water drops over portions of the area, Hatley said. The National Weather Service issued a dense smoke advisory for the county until 3 a.m. Friday. Thick plumes billowed high above buildings, prompting North Myrtle Beach school officials to close school Thursday, CNN affiliate WPDE-TV reported. Officials have not determined a cause for the fire, which began about noon Wednesday in Conway. CNN's Samuel Gardner contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wildfire has consumed 15,500 acres in Horry County, South Carolina .\nArea is home to popular tourist spots, including Myrtle Beach .\nSouth Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford declares state of emergency in county .\nNo injuries are reported, but fire damages dozens of homes .","id":"6f5a25007f8519a3c463a72637c50985585d4e80"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Shortly after midnight on January 24, a 16-year old boy from Powder Springs, Georgia, crashed his car into an oncoming vehicle. Garrett Reed, a star football player at Harrison High School, died instantly. Police believe he had been drinking. Kecia Evangela Whitfield, 43, is charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor and reckless conduct. According to police, the investigation revealed that a classmate's mother served alcohol to Reed. Police charged 43-year-old Kecia Evangela Whitfield with furnishing alcohol to a minor and reckless conduct, both misdemeanors. Whitfield was released on a $10,000 bond and awaits a court date in April. Records on file with the Cobb County solicitor general's office indictate she has not yet entered a plea or obtained a lawyer. She did not return CNN's phone calls. If convicted, she could receive up to a year in jail and fines totaling thousands of dollars. Toxicology reports for Reed will be released in six weeks, officials said. His death stunned the small community of Powder Springs and sounded an alarm for parents. \"What we have to realize is that our kids do think they are invincible,\" said Patti Agatston, a mother of another Harrison High School teenager who lives in Reed's neighborhood. \"We can't be enablers. We've got to be adults and say 'no.' \" At least ten states including Virginia, Minnesota and New Mexico-and Georgia, where Garrett's accident occurred, allow parents to give their own child alcohol, according to the Alcohol Policy Information System, a federal website that tracks alcohol laws. The alcohol can typically be given to the minor in the guardian's home or a private setting and there are no age limits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, nowhere is it legal to give alcohol to other people's children. Officials say teen binge drinking is reaching epidemic proportions, and states and municipalities are scrambling to implement \"social hosting\" laws that carry stiff fines for parents whose homes are used for drinking parties, whether they know about them or not. At least 24 states have enacted social hosting laws that fine parents several thousand dollars for each offense, said Jim Mosher, an expert tracking alcohol policies at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The fines, he said, are an effective deterrent. A 2005 study conducted by the American Medical Association reported that about one-third of teens said it was \"easy to obtain alcohol\" from their parents. That figure jumps to 40 percent when it comes to getting alcohol from a friend's parent. One out of four teens said they had attended a party where minors were drinking in front of parents. Some communities are using their zoning powers to create local social hosting laws. These laws usually result in misdemeanor charges and jail time is rare. Prosecutors' offices are often busy with other cases and don't bother to charge unless there is a serious incident or accident, policy experts said. \"It's very difficult for us to knock on a random door and say 'are you drinking?' \" said Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police Department, the agency responsible for investigating Reed's case. \"We usually have to respond to some kind of nuisance call.\" In Massachusetts in January, a court sentenced a mother to jail for serving alcohol to minors at a party in her home. A teenage boy died in an auto accident after leaving her party. In Charlottesville, Virginia, two adults served jail time in 2007 for providing alcohol at their son's 16th birthday party. Some parents consider giving a teenager a drink a rite of passage -- and that contributes to high teenage drinking rates, said Richard Yoast, director of the Department of Healthy Lifestyles and Primary Prevention at the American Medical Association. \"It's a myth that adults and children are buying into, and it creates pressure on the child to drink,\" Yoast said. \"The biggest problem to overcome is the fact that parents feel like they are helping their kids,\" said Denise Thames, director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Georgia, \"They often forget they are in fact breaking the law.\" The affluent suburbs near Powder Springs, where Reed's accident took place, are not immune. Police say there were several teenagers hanging out with Reed the night he died, including Whitfield's stepson. Several of Reed's close friends at Harrison High School said alcohol is easy to get in their community and students can find a drinking party each weekend if they want to. It is easier to get alcohol from older friends and relatives or parents than buying it with a fake ID, they said. \"As long as you have money, you can get it,\" said Eric Stallworth, a senior at Harrison High School, who was close friends with Reed. He described his friend as a charismatic and popular boy, who was fiercely competitive when it came to sports and dreamed of playing college football. While there is no county or city ordinance on social hosting in Powder Springs, or in Georgia, some parents are fighting back. The Cobb Alcohol Task Force, which also serves Powder Springs, is a volunteer group working to reduce teens' access to alcohol. The group launched a campaign called \"Adults Who Host Lose the Most\" to educate the public about the dangers of illegally providing teens with liquor. Surveys in Cobb County show the campaigns are working slowly, said Cathy Finck, Cobb Alcohol Task Force coordinator. In 2007, 68 percent of 10th grade students said obtaining alcohol was easy, a decrease from 73 percent the previous year. But that may not be enough to stop a fatal accident such as Reed's. \"Unless you get everyone to do it, kids will find out one place where they can get alcohol and you will have these kinds of incidences,\" Finck said. \"Everyone has to get on board.\" Ultimately, parents need to step up and take responsibility, said Shawna Snapp of Blue River, Oregon. Her son, Ryan Snapp, nicknamed \"Snapper,\" died two years ago in a car accident. He was 17 and the teenage driver had been drinking alcohol obtained from an adult. \"We're not here as parents to be their best friends,\" Snapp said. \"We are here to guide them for life.\"","highlights":"Star football player dies in crash that followed night of drinking .\nClassmate's mother is charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor .\nAMA: A third of teens say it's \"easy to obtain alcohol\" from parents .\nAt least 24 states have enacted social hosting laws carrying stiff fines .","id":"4d436a18ef0dd3cd4fb74fcf38951646fd9f797e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The photograph is a jarring image that shows Nazi Party members, shovels in hand, digging up graves of American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II. Members of the Nazi Party are forced to dig up mass graves of U.S. soldiers while American GIs look on. While the men dig up the site, U.S. soldiers investigating war crimes stand over them. Two crosses with helmets placed atop them -- the sign of a fallen soldier -- are visible. Two Germans are knee deep in mud. Another, with a handlebar mustache, has the look of a defeated man. The bodies of 22 American soldiers were found in at least seven graves, according to the photographer. On the back of the photo is written, \"Nazi Party members digging up American bodies at Berga.\" Berga an der Elster was a slave labor camp where 350 U.S. soldiers were beaten, starved, and forced to work in tunnels for the German government. The soldiers were singled out for \"looking like Jews\" or \"sounding like Jews,\" or dubbed as undesirables, according to survivors. More than 100 soldiers perished at the camp or on a forced death march. It was on this day six decades ago, April 23, 1945, when most of the slave labor camp soldiers were liberated by advancing U.S. troops. The emaciated soldiers, many weighing just 80 pounds, had been forced by Nazi commanders to march more than 150 miles before their rescue. Watch survivor break down in tears over liberation \u00bb . The new photograph was likely taken in May or June 1945 when U.S. war crimes investigators combed Berga. It was donated earlier this month to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by Jim Martin and his family, whose father, Elmore \"Bud\" Martin, is believed to have snapped the picture as part of the war crimes investigation team. The photo and dozens of others sat for years in Jim Martin's closet. Some of the photos, including graphic images of American corpses, were placed on record at the National Archives years ago. See shocking photos of the slave camp \u00bb . But the image of Nazi Party members digging up graves doesn't appear to be part of that collection. Martin said he was proud to hand over the photos. \"People have to see these. This is something that's history and it belongs with something that's historical to tell that story. It doesn't belong in my closet.\" \"To be honest, I'm kind of sorry I haven't done it sooner. We didn't realize what it was.\" Elmore Martin, who won a Silver Star for his valor in capturing images during the war, was 28 when he shot the photographs. Before the war, he worked as a photographer for the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. Martin's son said his dad, who died several years ago, struggled to keep a job when he returned home. \"I now see where it all started,\" he said. What Elmore Martin and the war crimes soldiers seen in the photo couldn't have known that day was how the case would evolve. The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging. But the U.S. government commuted their death sentences in 1948, and both men were eventually released in the 1950s. One other Berga commander, Lt. Willy Hack, was executed, but not by the United States. He died by hanging, justice carried out by the Soviets. Jim Martin said his father would have been upset at the freeing of the Berga commanders after the atrocities he documented. \"He knew it happened and to see that these people were released would be pretty devastating.\" Efraim Zuroff, who has spent nearly 30 years hunting Nazis responsible for the Holocaust, said the U.S. government commuted the sentences and freed hundreds of war criminals like those at Berga after the war, as the Cold War began to intensify. \"They were more concerned about keeping out Communists than admitting victims of the Nazis,\" he said. \"The realities out there were very conducive of letting these people off the hook.\" How should Americans feel six decades later that the government freed the Nazi commanders responsible for atrocities against U.S. soldiers? \"We're supposed to feel very pissed off about that, to be perfectly honest, and that feeling is very justified,\" Zuroff said. The German government has since made reparations to the soldiers held at Berga. Zuroff said now it's time for the U.S. government to do \"the right thing.\" \"To apologize,\" he said. The Army said it is trying to figure out the best way to honor the Berga soldiers. There are about 20 known survivors still living. \"The U.S. Army honors the service and sacrifice of all veterans who have fought our nation's wars. The Army is working to identify the most dignified and personal way to honor the soldiers held at the Nazi slave camp, known as Berga,\" Army spokesman Lt. Col. Willie Harris said in a written statement. The Army refused to answer further questions about the Berga case. Listen in as an elderly man learns about his brother's death at the camp \u00bb . Survivors have long wanted to know why the sentences of the commanders were commuted. In a letter dated June 11, 1948, to an attorney whose nephew died at Berga, the U.S. War Department said the sentences of Metz and Merz were commuted because they were \"underlings.\" The letter goes on to say that Metz \"though guilty of a generally cruel course of conduct toward prisoners was not directly responsible for the death of any prisoners, except one who was killed during the course of an attempt to escape.\" That soldier was Morton Goldstein. Survivors say Goldstein tried to escape but was captured. They say Metz stood him against a wall, walked up to him and shot him, execution-style, through the head. As his body lay on the ground, guards riddled him with bullets, according to survivors. The soldiers who survived were not called to testify at the war crimes trial against Metz and Merz, instead prosecutors relied on about a dozen soldiers' statements gathered through the course of the investigation. At the trial, Metz blamed any deaths at the camp on U.S. medics. \"They bore the sole responsibility for the medical care,\" Metz told the court, according to the book \"Given Up for Dead,\" by Flint Whitlock, citing trial transcripts. \"I ask you: Who must bear the responsibility? The answer is obvious: The U.S. medics.\" Those comments don't sit well with Berga survivors. \"He was terrible, absolutely terrible. He lied,\" said Tony Acevedo, a U.S. medic who catalogued the deaths in a diary at the camp. \"Everybody hated his guts.\" \"Even the German guards were scared of him.\" Flip through Acevedo's diary from the slave camp \u00bb . Berga survivors say they await any recognition from the Army that may come, especially after all these years. Morton Brooks, 83, said he constantly thinks about the day he was liberated. He was rail thin and had walked by political prisoners shot in the head during the forced death march. In the final hours before his rescue, his attitude was, \"Let them kill us,\" he said. \"I think all the time that I'm a survivor of this and I'm still around,\" said Brooks. \"To me, it just amazes me. I don't know how I got through.\" Jim Martin said he's still trying to process his father's role as a forgotten American war hero, armed not with a gun, but a camera. \"The worst part is I'm just finding it out,\" he said.","highlights":"New photo surfaces of Nazi slave labor camp where U.S. soldiers held during WWII .\nPhoto donated to U.S. Holocaust museum by family of U.S. war crimes photographer .\n\"People have to see these. This is something that's history,\" Jim Martin says .\nToday marks the anniversary of the liberation of the soldiers held at the camp .","id":"813c22a87bc40a3232f57d2e1729533c4496a14c"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- The little two-passenger smart fortwo is the most fuel-efficient car (not counting hybrids) in the U.S. market, with EPA fuel economy ratings of 33 mpg city, 41 highway. For high-mileage frugality, it appears to beat the five-passenger Toyota Yaris and its 29\/35-mpg ratings by a long shot. Look at the inside of your car's fuel door to find out whether you're required to use a certain octane gasoline. But wait! Premium fuel -- which cost about 12 percent more than regular at U.S. pumps last month -- is required for the fortwo. Suddenly the gap closes and the Smart no longer looks like as strong of a fuel-budget buster. And with the requirement, they mean it: smart says you'll lose your warranty coverage if you don't ante up. With premium fuel averaging about 24 cents more per gallon than regular, your choices at the pump can add up very quickly. If you drive a 20-mpg vehicle 15,000 miles a year, that's an extra $180, each year, toward those extra few octane points. If you have a thirstier truck or SUV or cover more mileage, it could amount to hundreds of dollars a year. New-car buyers, take notice. Add fuel requirements to your shopping checklist, because it will impact your wallet with every visit to the gas station, for years of ownership. The expensive stuff is typically recommended -- though not always required -- for luxury and high-performance cars, while less-expensive sedans, coupes, and SUVs only require 87-octane. But there are plenty of exceptions. Alan Hall, a spokesman for Ford, says that the automaker no longer has any models that require premium grade and only a few for which it's recommended. Regular unleaded is fine across all the models of Ford's Lincoln luxury brand, says Hall, so \"as a luxury car buyer you don't have that added premium of premium fuel.\" Ford now does all of its engine development and vehicle testing on 87-octane, regular-grade fuel. \"We don't want to give you a product that will have durability issues,\" explains Hall, if premium-grade isn't available everywhere. Another exception in the luxury-car realm is Hyundai; the automaker chose to tune the new high-performance V-8 engine in its Genesis sedan for premium fuel, but it also certified it for regular-grade. The automaker is the first to list power figures both with premium (375 hp) and regular (368 hp), letting owners opt for either top performance or a substantial savings at the pump. For the record, there's no measurable difference in fuel economy between the two grades, or any greater potential for damage, according to Hyundai. \"We wanted to give customers the choice,\" explained Hyundai spokesman Miles Johnson. \"If you want a few extra horsepower, go ahead and spend a little more at the pump.\" Along with several European automakers, the BMW Group recommends premium fuel for all of its vehicles -- including the economical MINI Cooper -- yet Ford doesn't even recommend premium for its sporty, V-8-powered Mustang GT. The high-performance, 540-hp Shelby GT500 is the only new Ford vehicle to carry the recommendation for premium ... and Hall concedes the engine will get a \"slight boost\" from premium. Throwing money away? You might have been led to believe at some point that your vehicle will do better with premium, but with most newer vehicles, that's simply not true. Provided yours just calls for 87-octane, chances are you won't notice the difference, according to a number of experts, and you're essentially throwing the money away. The best way to tell, advises John Nielsen, director of AAA's Auto Repair and Buying Network, is to simply look at the inside of the fuel door; if it says, \"use premium fuel only,\" and specifies a higher octane number (regular is typically 87, premium is 91 or higher), then the expensive stuff is actually required for the vehicle. But for people with vehicles only requiring 87-octane, Nielsen advises, \"Don't do it; it's a waste of money.\" Don't let the filthy images get to you either. If you've seen commercials for gasoline, you've likely heard that premium-grade will keep maintain your vehicle's full power and smoothness, and otherwise your valves and injectors will become clogged with 'gunk,' and you'll have to shoulder premature repairs. Typically, within the same brand of gasoline, between regular and premium, \"the difference is really just octane,\" confirms Prentiss Searles, Marketing Issues Manager at the American Petroleum Institute. To call a fuel regular, midgrade, or premium, Searles explains, only relates to octane; there's no other requirement that assures greater purity, more detergents, or better additives. Nielsen says that the emphasis on detergents and additives for premium fuels is also misleading because in most fuels you have plenty of detergents to keep modern computer-controlled engines clean. \"Unleaded is just fine,\" he insists. More drivers are discovering that. Last year, as gasoline prices crept past four dollars a gallon for regular grade and approached five dollars in some places for premium, many motorists with rapidly emptying wallets broke the premium habit and filled up their vehicle with regular for the first time. The market share of premium gas has been on a downward trend for many years -- going from 16.6 percent percent of U.S. sales in 1997 to just 9.5 percent in 2007, according to the Energy Information Administration -- and although 2008 data hasn't yet been released, it's anticipated that last year even more turned to the less-expensive nozzle. Pinging is a thing of the past . For cars made several decades ago, it was up to you to listen for deadly knocking or pinging sounds -- a sign that the fuel was prematurely detonating and could quickly cause damage to engine components. But since the 1980s, most vehicles have had knock sensors. These little microphones listen for the telltale 'ping' of early detonation and your car's electronics automatically retard ignition timing to smooth it out. You don't even need to worry that your knock sensors have broken, Nielsen says, because it would set off the 'check engine' light. The actual heat energy in gasoline is typically the same whether it's regular or premium, but the higher octane rating means it can burn in a more controlled fashion -- useful only if the engine can take advantage of it. \"Higher-octane gasoline doesn't make any more power, but it enables higher compression, or enables the turbochargers to produce more boost,\" says Nielsen. For vehicles that only require 87-octane, using a higher-octane fuel won't yield any noticeable difference from the driver's seat. It's a bit more complicated when premium is recommended. Look at the language in your owner's manual first, and if it mentions that regular is acceptable there will still likely be cautions of compromised performance; if it cautions against the regular use of regular you might be compromising your warranty. Honda spokesman Chris Martin advises against using regular for any vehicle for which premium is recommended. \"There could be some short-term knocking or pinging, but nothing lasting,\" he says. \"I wouldn't recommend it for the long term.\" Nielsen, of AAA, adds that drivers of high-performance or luxury vehicles for which 91-octane is recommended might actually negate their savings with regular depending on their driving style, seeing lower fuel economy. In a lot of cases, Nielsen sums, the fuel specs are simply an engineering issue; the engine was designed and tested with premium fuel, and they didn't design it to run on premium -- although it might do just fine. If your car wasn't built with an appetite for premium, save yourself the money.","highlights":"Fuel octane requirements can be found on inside of car's fuel door .\nUsing a higher-than-required octane won't make car run better, experts say .\nFord says it does all vehicle development on regular-grade fuel now .\nCheck the gas requirements for new fuel-efficient car to maximize savings .","id":"1a2a4413bbd96ae19b9a082d75e81859d8aed1fa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An estimated one percent of adults have active epilepsy, and many of them are getting insufficient treatment, according to a 19-state survey released Thursday. \"This is the first time that we actually have data from multiple states,\" said Rosemarie Kobau, lead author of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, in a telephone interview. \"What we learned is that, among adults with active epilepsy, more than a third of them reported not seeing a specialist for their epilepsy, and that's really unacceptable.\" A follow-up survey is planned to determine why so many people with seizure disorders said they had not seen a specialist in the past year, Kobau said. \"This is a highly specialized field,\" said Eric Hargis, the president and CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation, which collaborated with the authors of the study. \"It's not possible to get state-of-the-art care\" for the disorder from primary care doctors. One in six (16.1 percent) adults with active epilepsy with recent seizures said they were not taking their medication and two-thirds (65.1 percent) said they had had more than one seizure during the prior month. More than a fifth (20.4 percent) said cost was a barrier to seeking care from their doctor. Access to high-quality care is key to quality of life, Kobau said. People with recurrent seizures face substantial impairments in their daily activities; many are not allowed to drive and, as a result, depend on public transportation. In some areas, particularly rural ones, that can present a barrier to full participation in life, she said. That's not all. In addition to carrying stigma, people with epilepsy were more likely to live in households with the lowest annual incomes and to report being unemployed and unable to work. According to the 2005 findings, 1.65 percent of the population said they had been told by a doctor that they had epilepsy or a seizure disorder, the report said. Half of that group (0.84 percent) said they had active epilepsy -- defined as having had one or more seizures during the prior three months or currently taking medication. If the findings translate to the general population, that means a stadium filled with 60,000 people would contain 480 people with active epilepsy, Kobau noted, adding, \"Epilepsy is not rare.\" But that view was disputed by Dr. James King, a family physician in Selmer, Tennessee, and president of the American Association of Family Physicians. \"There are patients that can be managed fairly simply with seizure disorder,\" he said in a telephone interview. \"In my own personal practice, I'd say that I can manage at least half, if not more, of the patients that have seizure disorder.\" Many of the others are able to get by with just a one-time visit to a neurologist, said King, whose practice is 50 miles from the nearest neurologist, and 100 miles from the nearest neurologist who accepts Medicaid, the government program for the poor. \"There's only a handful of patients that are managed in my area by the neurologist.\" He said financial barriers -- from insurance to the cost of anti-seizure medication -- are a bigger problem. \"If you can't afford to buy it -- which is what I run into with a lot of the seizure medicine -- it doesn't really matter\" if patients see a neurologist or a family physician, he said. Many patients, forced to choose between paying their light bill or taking their anti-seizure medication, choose the former, King said. Epilepsy is a condition in which the normal activity of the brain malfunctions, causing recurrent seizures -- electrical storms in the brain -- that can be characterized by a range of symptoms, including sudden change in awareness, movement or sensation. Each year, about 200,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease, as was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts after he suffered a seizure last year at his Maine vacation home. \"Many people with epilepsy do lead normal, productive lives despite the hardship of having this disorder,\" Kobau said. The study, conducted by the federal government and published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, estimates that 2.7 million people in the United States have epilepsy, and that it costs some $15.5 billion in medical care and lost or reduced earnings or productivity each year. Hargis said the incidence of the disorder is expected to climb among veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, where head injuries are common. \"When you have a head injury, it's common for epilepsy to develop after a gestational period -- it could be a couple of months or it could be years,\" he said. And the aging population is also expected to boost the incidence of epilepsy. Conditions of aging, such as stroke and Alzheimer's Disease, are also associated with a higher incidence of epilepsy. The study was based on data from more than 120,000 adults in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.","highlights":"One in six adults with epilepsy who had recent seizures were not on medication .\nEpilepsy is a condition in which the normal activity of the brain malfunctions .\nStudy says about 200,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with the disease .","id":"f75ac22aa5daa1caefff133cd15f975b0d34267e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It's no secret that \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell often shows no mercy toward aspiring singers. Quirky, tattooed contestant Megan Joy Corkrey discovered that Wednesday night during the elimination round on the popular singing competition. Megan Joy said she and Simon Cowell remain on good terms. Megan Joy, who dropped her last name, told Cowell that she \"didn't really care\" about his criticisms of her Tuesday night performance of Bob Marley's \"Turn The Lights Down Low,\" which he described as \"boring, indulgent and monotonous.\" Those comments sealed the 23-year-old single mother's fate. Host Ryan Seacrest asked Cowell if he would be using the \"save\" rule in Megan's case. Cowell demurred: \"Megan, with the greatest respect, when you said that you don't care -- nor do we. So I'm not going to pretend that we're even going to contemplate saving you,\" replied Cowell. \"I don't care that Simon didn't like that song,\" Joy said in an interview with CNN on Friday. \"I truly didn't and I still don't. I still loved it, I sang it the way I wanted to.\" Watch what CNN's Michelle Wright said about Megan Joy \u00bb . Despite all the bickering, Joy says that she and Cowell remain on good terms. After Wednesday's program, she says they both laughed and he told her that he enjoyed watching her. Watch what CNN's Lisa Respers France thought of performance \u00bb . Furthermore, the self-described \"dork\" says her \"American Idol\" experience has opened new doors to her future. \"Before all this competition, I thought I was just going to be a stay-at-home mom,\" Joy said. \"Now, I am interested to see all sorts of different things I could possibly try and dabble. ... I'm excited to just see what's out there.\" And those bizarre moments onstage Wednesday when she flapped her arms and squawked like a bird? Joy says that's just her personality. \"I do a lot of sound effects all the time, bird noises, animal noises,\" she said. \"Wednesday, I kind of had a feeling it was going to be me ... so I decided that I'm just going to be myself and be silly out there.\"","highlights":"Megan Joy dropped from \"American Idol\" on Wednesday night .\nShe had dismissed judge Simon Cowell's criticism; Cowell dismissed her .\nJoy says \"Idol\" has opened up new worlds for her .","id":"319a55d58b8df1ffa124c3cc03c81521db05e22b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The bodies of seven of eight snowmobilers missing after Sunday's avalanches in southeastern British Columbia have been found, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday. Authorities found seven bodies a day after avalanches in British Columbia, Canada. One man still was missing, but rescue personnel suspended their search near Fernie, British Columbia, at mid-afternoon Monday because of heavy snowfall and dense low clouds, the RCMP said. The search will resume Tuesday morning, authorities said. All eight men -- and three others who escaped -- faced two avalanches Sunday afternoon about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) east of Fernie, a town in the Canadian Rockies about 300 kilometers (186 miles) southwest of Calgary, Alberta. The three survivors suffered minor injuries, and one of them was hospitalized overnight. The men had been in an area called Harvey Pass, which police called a popular backcountry snowmobile destination. Officials said an avalanche buried part of the group, and a second buried the rest as they tried to assist. \"Two of the buried riders managed to self-rescue within about 20 minutes. These two used their avalanche beacons to locate a third buried victim who they rescued after an additional 20 minutes of digging,\" police said. iReport.com: Wyoming avalanche training covers pulling people out of snow . A search command post was set up Sunday, but darkness and avalanche hazards prompted authorities to postpone the search until Monday. On Monday morning, before the bodies were found, authorities said searchers and police dogs were being dispatched to the rugged, snowy area, and crews would dig into any sites where searchers thought they might find any of the missing men. The snowmobilers resided in Sparwood, a small town just north of Fernie. Sparwood's mayor, David Wilks, said Monday morning that \"it certainly doesn't look good\" for the missing. \"Reality tells us if you're stuck in the snow for about 24 hours, bad things can happen,\" he said. The region has had previous coal mine disasters, \"but in recent memory, this is the largest single tragic event to hit this community,\" Wilks said. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video . He said the snowmobilers are men in their mid- to late 20s and described them as upstanding citizens, most of them working in coal mines or as businessmen. \"All were well aware of the dangers involved in snowmobiling. All are very cautious with what was going on,\" Wilks said. The mayor said temperatures had been as low as minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks, but the air had warmed up in the last two or three days to 25 degrees Fahrenheit. CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Seven found dead a day after Canadian avalanches .\nNEW: Search for eighth missing snowmobiler to resume Tuesday .\nGroup had been snowmobiling in southeastern British Columbia, Canada .\nTwo of 11 buried riders managed to rescue themselves, find third victim .","id":"3893375178d60098729232ff6e6a7102eaff5742"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africans waited on election results Thursday in a ballot that the ruling African National Congress party appeared on course to win in a landslide. ANC leader Jacob Zuma is expected to be South Africa's next president. South African media reported Thursday that the ANC had won around 65 percent of the vote with one third of ballots counted. Reports suggested the opposition Democratic Alliance could be on course to claim control of Western Cape province -- but the ANC was ahead in the country's eight other provinces. \"This party is an elephant. You cannot actually topple an elephant,\" presidential candidate Jacob Zuma told thousands of supporters at ANC headquarters in central Johannesburg, according to Reuters.com. Zuma, who danced and sang his trademark \"Bring me my machine gun\" anti-apartheid anthem, stressed the ANC was \"not yet celebrating victory.\" Final results are not expected until Saturday. All counting is done by hand in the country, which has 23 million registered voters. Members of parliament will elect the country's president next month. The Independent Electoral Commission said the number of people voting on Wednesday created long lines and a shortage of ballot boxes and papers in some districts and voting stations. Watch as South Africa waits for a winner \u00bb . \"We thank voters for their enthusiasm and patience as they waited to exercise their democratic right to vote,\" commission Chairwoman Brigalia Bam said Wednesday. Although the ANC is widely expected to win, it remains to be seen how much ground the two main opposition parties -- the Democratic Alliance and the Congress of the People -- will gain, and whether the ANC will be able to hold onto its two-thirds parliamentary majority. The ANC has gained votes in every election since 1994, when the country held its first democratic election. But the Congress of the People -- a breakaway faction of the ANC -- threatens the ruling party's grip on power. Voter shares feelings about ANC and new rival \u00bb . The ANC has been dogged by allegations of corruption and has been accused of failing to deliver services to the poor. And Zuma until recently faced fraud and corruption charges. The country's prosecuting authority dropped the charges two weeks before the elections, citing alleged political interference in the case. That decision sparked widespread outrage, with opposition parties accusing prosecutors of buckling under political pressure. Twenty-six parties vied in Wednesday's election. They included Islamic and Christian parties, and right-wing Afrikaaner and socialist groups. Learn more about some of South Africa's political parties . More than 5,000 domestic and international observers are monitoring the election, according to the electoral commission. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"African National Congress on course for landslide, South African media reports .\nReports says ANC has 65 percent of vote; official results expected Saturday .\nOpposition Democratic Alliance could claim control of Western Cape province .\nControversial ANC leader Jacob Zuma expected to become president .","id":"42595bca0805bae3185fd14e8e914f490bb8eac3"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said Wednesday he does not regret expelling the U.S. ambassador last year, maintaining again that the envoy was plotting with opposition politicians. Bolivian President Evo Morales maintains the U.S. ambassador was plotting against Morales' government. Bolivia declared U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg persona non grata in September and ordered him to leave. Goldberg denied that he encouraged anti-government demonstrators to commit violent acts. \"I don't regret having expelled the ambassador, Mr. Goldberg,\" Morales said in an exclusive interview Wednesday with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol. \"And now, with the events we are seeing and we are finding, it is confirmed that he was conspiring against the government, conspiring against the national territory. He is an expert in dividing countries, with external groups and in Bolivia.\" Morales also expelled a lower-level U.S. diplomat last month, accusing him of contacting opposition groups. Morales indicated Wednesday, however, that he is open to reviewing the issue since President Obama is in office. \"With the new times,\" he said, \"we expect to improve diplomatic relations. So we have to revise our politics. You can't conspire against us nor blackmail us. But if there's mutual respect, welcome.\" Morales also said an assassination plot against him and other government officials that he alleged last week was real. Three gunmen were killed and two others were arrested Thursday after a 30-minute firefight in the city of Santa Cruz. At least two of the gunmen were foreigners, Bolivian authorities said. Morales said last week he had been aware of the assassination plot, which was verified after the arrest of the gunmen. Opposition politicians expressed doubt about the plot, saying Morales had made similar allegations in the past based on flimsy evidence. The gunmen, he said Wednesday, wanted \"to take power violently and also undemocratically. But also, if they could not take power, divide a region of the country. ... And for that, they had to take lives.\" Morales did not mention who might want to divide the country, but five resource-rich eastern regions and the eastern province of Gran Chaco have been seeking greater autonomy. Earlier Wednesday, Morales addressed the United Nations in observance of Earth Day. He called for the nations of the world to accept a set of principles that would protect the planet's resources and \"right to life.\" Morales, the first indigenous president in Bolivia's history, told the U.N. General Assembly that people cannot put their interests above those of the Earth. \"Not just human beings have rights, but the planet has rights,\" he said. \"What's happening with climate change is that the rights of Mother Earth are not being respected.\" Telling the U.N. delegates that \"we have the challenge to agree on a universal declaration for the rights of Mother Earth,\" Morales outlined four principles that he asked them to consider: . Morales pointed out how indigenous people in Bolivia have rites and rituals to honor the Earth. \"We now must begin to realize that the Earth does not belong to us,\" he said. \"It's the other way around. We belong to the Earth.\" Earth Day was started in 1970 in the United States as a way to bring awareness to the ecological problems plaguing the planet. It is celebrated in many parts of the world.","highlights":"NEW: Bolivia's Evo Morales says ordering ambassador to leave was right move .\nNEW: Morales open to reviewing stances now that Barack Obama is president .\nMorales speaking on Earth Day: People can't put their interests above Earth .\nWith climate change, \"rights of Mother Earth are not being respected,\" Morales says .","id":"90aebb8748f98be76884b7a4e641f3bc173c78e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama said in an interview aired Sunday that the hardest decision he's made since taking office was to send more troops to Afghanistan. In a \"60 Minutes\" interview, President Obama said, \"I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney.\" Also in the interview on CBS' \"60 Minutes,\" Obama defended his decision to shut down the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and he countered criticism from former vice president Dick Cheney. \"I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney -- not surprisingly,\" Obama said. \"I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history.\" Obama was responding to comments Cheney made to CNN's \"State of the Union\" on March 15, when he said the president is making the nation less safe by closing the Guantanamo prison and ending interrogation practices that Bush administration critics consider torture for terror suspects. Just a month into office, Obama ordered 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the \"war on terrorism\" sparked by the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. \"I think it's the right thing to do. But it's a weighty decision because we actually had to make the decision prior to the completion of the strategic review that we were conducting,\" Obama said. Coming off a tumultuous week over the millions in bonuses paid out to employees of AIG, Obama said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's job is secure despite critics calling for his resignation. Obama joked that even if Geithner were to tender his resignation, the president would tell him, \"Sorry buddy, you've still got the job.\" Geithner has come under fire over the $165 million in bonuses AIG paid its top executives after the insurance giant received more than $170 billion in federal bailout money. A loophole in the recently approved economic stimulus bill, included at the behest of the Treasury, allowed AIG to pay the bonuses. \"It's going to take a little bit more time than we would like to make sure that we get this plan just right,\" Obama said. The president also stressed that his administration won't endorse a House bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid out by companies that receive bailout money. \"As a general proposition, you don't want to be passing laws that are just targeting a handful of individuals,\" Obama said. \"You want to pass laws that have some broad applicability ... you certainly don't want to use the tax code to punish people.\"","highlights":"Dick Cheney has drawn 'the wrong lesson from history,' president said .\nObama said his hardest decision so far is sending more troops to Afghanistan .\nHe wouldn't accept resignation from Treasury Secretary Geithner, Obama said .\nObama said he wouldn't endorse a 90 percent tax on bonuses, targeting just a few .","id":"0547b8a97e20e5ae051daca4899321e454f6e884"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stop, speed racers, stop. Police say the cars were pulled over on a dangerous stretch of Highway 18 near Grand Ronde, Oregon. So said Oregon State Senior Trooper David Petersen after he was able to catch up with six exotic sports cars on a stretch of Highway 18 near Grand Ronde on Thursday, according to a news release. Perhaps a more amazing feat was that he stopped all the cars simultaneously. \"They just were all good little soldiers and pulled right over,\" Oregon State Police spokesman Lt. Gregg Hastings told CNN. One of the drivers was later cited again on a different highway. The drivers of the cars -- consisting of Ferraris, a Lamborghini and an Acura NSX -- told Petersen they were part of a group of 20 similar cars making an annual road trip, the news release said. They were all cordial and cooperative, and were cited with speed racing, a class A traffic violation that can command a fine of $627, Hastings said. After receiving reports Thursday morning that several sports cars were speeding and passing in no-pass zones west of Grand Ronde, Petersen set up east of the casino town, near McMinnville, and waited. Five of the cars soon blew past him, running about 100 mph in a 55-mph zone, Hastings said. As Petersen pulled onto Highway 18 in pursuit, a sixth car passed him. \"I guess when you're going too fast, you're in a rock and a hard place,\" Hastings said. Highway 18 runs from Dayton, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley to the Pacific coast. The stretch where the cars were cited is considered particularly dangerous and the Oregon Department of Transportation provides additional funding to enforce traffic laws there, Hastings said. About two hours after the incident, another trooper pulled over the Lamborghini from the group in Multnomah Falls, about 90 miles east. The driver of the car, which bore the the license plate \"BADBUL,\" was cited for driving 90 in a 65-mph zone, according to a news release.","highlights":"Police: 6 exotic sport cars, mostly Ferraris, pulled over \"like good little soldiers\"\nPolite drivers reportedly told police they were making annual road trip .\nFine for speed racing is $627, police say .\nLamborghini with tag \"BADBUL\" pulled over again later in day, police say .","id":"859006fd2dab10226e6bc6b44f68d29b97c12b67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michigan authorities are investigating whether foul play led to the death of a 9-year-old quadriplegic girl whose body was found inside a public storage facility. Shylea Thomas, 9, of Flint, Michigan, was quadriplegic and used a feeding tube. \"This is a very sad and tragic case that hurts all of us involved in the ongoing investigation,\" Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference Wednesday. Shylea Myza Thomas of Flint, Michigan, hadn't been seen in six weeks, and relatives reported her missing Tuesday, Leyton's office said. Her adoptive mother, who is also her aunt, is in custody as a suspect, special assistant prosecuting attorney John Potbury told CNN. No charges have been filed pending the results of the autopsy, he said. Because of her physical disabilities, Shylea used a feeding tube. She suffered from quadriplegia because of a \"suffocation issue\" in her crib at 3 weeks of age, Leyton said. On Wednesday, Flint police found her body stuffed inside a garbage bag in a public storage facility in Vienna Township, near Flint, Leyton said. The bag was covered in mothballs \"in an apparent attempt to mask odors from the dead body,\" his office said in a news release. \"For her to have to live like that, and then to die and be stuffed into a bag and plastic bin in a storage facility, just breaks my heart,\" the prosecutor said. CNN affiliate WJRT reported that the suspect could face charges including murder, first-degree child abuse and welfare fraud. The station also reported that investigators are trying to determine why the girl's disappearance wasn't reported until six weeks after she went missing. Relatives told WJRT that they remember Shylea as a happy child, who loved music and whose smile was infectious. Watch a family in shock \u00bb . \"The last memory I actually have of Shylea is seeing her when she was in my care,\" said her second cousin, Josette Thomas. \"She was on the bed listening to the radio and smiling. Those are actually the memories I want to keep in my head. I don't want that memory to leave me.\"","highlights":"NEW: Child's adoptive mother is in custody as a suspect, official says .\nRelatives told police they hadn't seen Shylea Thomas in weeks .\nChild had \"suffocation issue\" in crib at 3 weeks of age, was quadriplegic .\nBody was found stuffed in trash bag, covered with mothballs .","id":"6f75c3e60957babbacf10b0b59dd89183a7db066"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Compact-camera manufacturers have begun testing the waters with a wealth of high-end features as they search for new ways to gain revenue, market share, and recognition. A prototype of Olympus' Micro Four Thirds model, one of several small cameras with big features. In earlier digital photography days, a camera with an extra megapixel of resolution, face recognition, or image stabilization could stand apart from the herd. But now that herd has grown larger, most folks who'll buy a digital camera already have done so, the economy has put consumer spending on ice--and camera makers are making some bolder bets with high-end features. Among them: Nikon's built-in GPS support to record where a photo was taken, Casio's high-speed video, and the Micro Four Thirds camera system from Panasonic and Olympus. Premium features aren't an easy sell. They tend to appeal to market niches rather than the mainstream. Early implementations are often rough around the edges. And it's hard enough to convince people to buy a new camera, much less one with the higher price of premium features. But winning those customers can have a good payoff with better profit margins. And that's critical in this day and age. Market research firm IDC expects that after years of growth, the shipments of digital cameras will decline in 2009. \"It's crowded, and it's getting crowdeder,\" IDC analyst Ron Glaz said of the digital camera market. \"We're anticipating that with the slowdown in economy and disposable income, we'll start seeing consolidation of the vendors.\" In other words, even though something in the neighborhood of 38 million digital cameras are sold annually, some companies will throw in the towel. Even as the compact-digital market saturated in recent years, digital SLRs showed strong market growth. Some high-end compact models are geared for those thinking of buying an SLR, but who want something less bulky and complicated. Another type: SLR owners who need something they can slip into a pocket or easily take on a trip. Dethroning Canon . The company to dethrone here is Canon, the leader of the compact camera market. Not only does it have seemingly innumerable cameras for every variation of consumer, but it also has long offered its G series for enthusiasts who are willing to pay a premium for high-end features. The current PowerShot G10 offers 14.7 megapixels of resolution, full manual controls, support for raw image format, a durable body, and a relatively fast lens. \"There have always been competitive products for the G-series. However, the range of competitors has expanded recently. Now, not only high-end point-and-shoot, but also low-end DSLR products are priced about the same as the G10,\" Canon said in a statement. The company has offered a new G-series model each year since 2006, and Canon believes the G10 to be the leading high-end compact camera in the United States. Canon shares dominance in the SLR market with Nikon, and in the compact market, Nikon's Coolpix P6000 is aimed straight at Canon's G10. The P6000's chief distinguishing feature is its built-in GPS receiver, which enables the camera to know where it is when a photo is taken. That location data is written into the image file through a process called geotagging that lets people sort their photos not just by when they were taken or by what folder on a computer they were stuffed into, but also by where they were taken. \"Having GPS in the camera makes all the sense in the world to me,\" Glaz said. \"People are now capturing thousands of pictures a year. There are only a few things they remember about them--I was in Paris, it was around the holidays.\" So location data is important, especially as software arrives that can convert a photo's latitude-longitude information into a place name. That will let people search for photos by typing in text, not just by looking at image thumbnails on a map. The Micro Four Thirds contenders . The P6000 and G10 are self-contained, one-off cameras. If you don't like them, you can wait a couple years and buy the next model in the category. But Olympus and Panasonic are trying something much more ambitious in the market: the Micro Four Thirds standard. The two companies already sell SLRs that use the earlier Four Thirds standard, which governs the sensor size along with the interchangeable lenses mounting system and communication with the camera body. Micro Four Thirds is a smaller variation that employs the same size sensor but smaller lenses, and cameras forsake SLRs' space-consuming flip-up mirror. \"We're looking at (Micro Four Thirds) as the ability to offer a high-end interchangeable lens camera in an extremely small, compact body at an affordable price that would appeal to individuals coming up from the point-ad-shoot space, looking for a more sophisticated camera system they could grow with,\" said Sally Smith Clemens, product manager for Olympus Imaging America. It's for the person who demands high image quality but wants to be able to fit a camera and three lenses in a small fanny pack. Casio's EX-FH20 camera can shoot slow-motion video. This one slows down time by a factor of 14 but has a native resolution of only 224x168 pixels. At 1000 frames per second, it's a 224x56 strip. So far, Olympus has only shown a slim Micro Four Thirds concept model, and despite some speculation to the contrary, that's all it'll show at the Photo Marketing Show in March, Smith Clemens added. But Panasonic already has its first first Micro Four Thirds model for sale, the $670 Lumix DMC-G1. While Olympus' Micro Four Thirds effort is steered initially toward small models resembling the rangefinder cameras from the film era, Panasonic's G1 is relatively expensive and bulky, smaller than an SLR but not something that fits into a pocket easily. Some wags have called the G1 a \"Barbie SLR.\" But it shows what can be done with Micro Four Thirds, leading Popular Photography magazine to name the G1 camera of the year. DxO Labs has found the G1's sensor quality to be superior to that of Canon's G10, boding well for Micro Four Thirds models. Sensor size has a lot to do with image quality--and price--and Micro Four Thirds sensors, at 17.3mm by 13mm are vastly larger that those used in compact cameras. That's important when shooting in dim conditions and when trying to get the best range of colors and tones. Panasonic's ambition . Panasonic, which hasn't had much success with its Four Thirds SLR line against giants Canon and Nikon, is eagerly pursuing the Micro Four Thirds direction. Along with the G1 and two lenses, a 14-45mm model and a 45-200mm model (the equivalent of 28-90mm and 90-400mm in 35mm camera terms), Panasonic plans to release three more lenses this year: a 7-14mm f4, a fast 20mm f1.7, and an image-stabilized 14-140mm f4-5.6. \"I do see this being a big part of our future,\" said David Briganti, Panasonic's national marketing manager for imaging. \"The only people having extreme success in the true digital SLR world are Canon and Nikon. Sony is a huge player in the digital compact camera space, but even Sony has struggled despite the huge efforts with their Alpha line. We'll still have Four Thirds models, and there will be potential for new models in the future, but we feel there's a huge opportunity that's been missed by camera manufacturers today,\" the step-up from ordinary compact cameras. Panasonic believes there are 23 million people in the market who are willing to buy digital SLRs, but only 7 million have done so, and Micro Four Thirds is aimed at the other 16 million. Micro Four Thirds, though, is a hybrid technology that remains unproven in the market, Glaz said. \"Nobody knows if people will buy them. The G1 is kind of in a no-man's land at this point,\" he said. Why not make things even easier by skipping the interchangeable lenses altogether and shipping an model with a big zoom range? In short, physics constraints preclude ultrazoom cameras with large image sensors, Briganti said. In general, the larger the sensor, the larger the lenses to support it must be. There is room for improvement, though. The G1 can't shoot video--despite not being encumbered by the mirror that makes video in SLRs so difficult. But Panasonic plans a new model this year that will support high-definition video, Briganti said. Casio's need for speed . Casio has long had a niche with its very slim compact cameras, but in 2008 it started offering a new selling point: super-high-speed video. Most digital cameras shoot video at 30 frames per second, but Casio's $1,000 EX-F1 can shoot much faster: 512x384-pixel resolution at 300 frames per second or 336x96 at 1,200 frames per second, for example. Later came the EX-FH20, which at $600 isn't as expensive, then at the Consumer Electronics Show, the still cheaper EX-FS10 and EX-FC100. These cameras also will take a high-speed burst of full-resolution still images, making it easier at least in theory to capture that exact moment when the your son's bat hits the baseball. \"The megapixel wars have peaked out,\" said Bill Heuer, head of Casio's digital camera division. \"We challenged R&D to come up with something to use technology to do things that haven't been done before...Our goal is to establish categories that are profitable to us and to the retailer.\" With the camera industry now operating at the breakneck speed of computing technology, it's certain other camera makers will try to stake their claims with high-end options. Fujifilm's $400 F200EXR has a sensor designed to work better in low-light conditions. But it's not just a research and development challenge. The industry now has to convince budget-constrained consumers that the new high-end features aren't just gimmicks but are actually advances worth spending money on. \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Compact-camera makers are testing the waters with high-end features like GPS .\nPremium features like high-speed video aren't an easy sell in a tough economy .\nAfter years of growth, shipments of digital cameras are expected to decline in 2009 .\nThe company to dethrone here is Canon, leader of the compact camera market .","id":"b95239b85ed1c88d0d39035d1e7f948efe1e024d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The fourteenth suspicious fire in a month's time hit a small community near Philadelphia before dawn Sunday. A huge fire spread through more than a dozen homes Sunday outside Philadelphia, authorities said. The seven-alarm fire in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, damaged more than a dozen homes and caused nearly $2 million in damage, according to city spokeswoman Kristin Geiger. No residents were injured, she said. It took 150 firefighters three hours to bring the blaze under control, and one firefighter broke his ankle, CNN affiliate WPVI reported. Watch a town fearful of what's next \u00bb . Authorities in the city announced a state of emergency on Sunday. In a statement, Coatesville City Manager Harry Walker said the declaration would allow him to \"promulgate whatever special rules and regulations necessary to protect\" citizens. It would also let him request assistance from other municipalities and \"enter into contracts, employ temporary personnel, rent equipment, purchase supplies without regard to the normal procedures and formalities prescribed by law,\" Walker wrote. Authorities have been imploring residents to remove anything flammable from outside their homes -- including porch furniture and trash. Standing outside the latest blaze early Sunday, resident Janet Jackson said it had broken out just behind her house. \"I woke up and everything was in flames,\" she said, adding, \"It's really scary. ... I mean we're all afraid to even be in our houses right now.\" Francis Dorsheimer said he had just arrived home when his family told him they needed to leave right away because a neighbor's house was on fire. He ran outside and saw flames \"shooting off the roof.\" \"Must have been like 15-foot flames or higher,\" he said. \"It was just unbelievable. All the smoke in the air -- you could hardly breathe.\" Watch the flames eat away at homes \u00bb . Beverly Rivera watched firefighters put out the blaze at the home that she had recently moved out of. She still had possessions inside. \"Whoever's doing this, this is just absolutely ludicrous,\" she said. Referring to suggestions that the fires may be the result of gang activity, Rivera said, \"If it's a gang, please stop, and find something else to do. Because this is, this is terrible. This is absolutely unreal.\" \"I never thought Coatesville would be on the map for something like this,\" she added. \"It's just awful. Just awful.\" Thirteen previous suspected arsons have occurred since the start of the year in Coatesville. Fifteen suspected arsons happened in 2008 -- including one that killed an 83-year-old woman, Geiger said. The fires do not appear to follow a clear pattern, she said. Three suspects were arrested in December, and confessed to some of the fires, said Geiger. The suspects -- two adults and one juvenile -- are still in custody, she said. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to whomever has been setting the latest fires. Federal officials have joined the investigation, WPVI reported. Two homes were first spotted in flames at 11:30 p.m. The blazes spread and burned 15 homes, causing damage estimated at about $120,000 per home or a total of $1.8 million. City officials expect a huge turnout at a city council meeting Monday when the fires will be discussed. Coatesville, about 45 miles west of Philadelphia, has about 11,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.","highlights":"NEW: Authorities in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, declare state of emergency .\nSince start of year, 14 suspicious fires have happened in a town near Philadelphia .\nWPVI: Federal investigators are now part of a probe into the possible arsons .\nNo residents were injured in a fire Sunday that damaged 15 homes, authorities said .","id":"099d93a0308a6c4208fdf5d9a1a03bd7b8c7720d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were dancing their way through 10 official inaugural balls after a day of pomp and circumstance that saw his first presidential address and excitement about her inaugural dress. Michelle Obama, dressed in Jason Wu, and President Obama at the Home State Ball Tuesday night. The Obamas were serenaded by Beyonc\u00e9 during their first dance at the Neighborhood Ball Tuesday night. Beyonc\u00e9 sang Etta James' \"At Last,\" from her role in the movie \"Cadillac Records\" as the couple laughed and took their first spin around the dance floor. Before the dance, Obama addressed the crowd, which erupted in applause when he entered the room. \"First of all, how good-looking is my wife?\" Obama joked. Watch the Obamas at the first ball of the night \u00bb . All eyes certainly were on Michelle Obama, who had kept her choice of a designer and dress style a secret until the moment she entered the dance floor. The first lady was clad in a long white gown designed by up-and-coming designer Jason Wu, 26. The gown made especially for the first lady is made of ivory silk chiffon, embellished with organza and Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver thread embroidery, according to one of Wu's publicists. Wu told CNN he didn't know that she had chosen his gown until her first ball appearance Tuesday night. \"It's thrilling. ... For a young designer, I couldn't ask for any more than this,\" said Wu, whose design style combines modern lifestyle dressing and haute couture, according to his Web site. He designed and delivered the dress at the request of Michelle Obama's aides in December, according to fashion expert Mary Alice Stephenson, contributing editor at Harper's Bazaar. Wu -- who has been in the business for three years, according to InStyle.com fashion director Joe Berean -- said he intended the gown to stand for everything that she and President Obama are about. Listen to Berean critique Michelle Obama's inauguration outfits \u00bb . \"It's about hope. It's about newness,\" he said. \"It's all a little dreamlike, and we're making history, and I wanted to really reflect that.\" The Neighborhood Ball, a first of its kind and one of the balls open to the public, was the first of 10 official balls that the Obamas were scheduled to attend. For the new president, the first was particularly important. \"I cut my teeth doing neighborhood work and this campaign was organized neighborhood by neighborhood,\" he said. For that reason \"this ball is the one that captures best the spirit of this campaign,\" Obama said. The Obamas then moved to their second ball -- the Home State Ball, for Illinois and Hawaii -- at the Convention Center. After greeting the crowd by saying \"Aloha,\" the president thanked many in the crowd who he said were old friends who had been part of the couple's lives for awhile. \"This is a special ball because it represents our roots,\" he said. The couple laughed and embraced as they danced. President Obama even let loose after his long day, twirling his wife around in a circle -- a move the crowd cheered. Time: See the glamour of past balls . Next, the Obamas made their way to the Commander-in-Chief Ball, attended by many members of the military, including wounded veterans. \"It is wonderful to be surrounded by some of the very best and bravest Americans,\" Obama said. \"Your courage, your grace and your patriotism inspire us all.\" Obama told the crowd that there is \"no greater honor or responsibility than serving as your commander in chief.\" Watch the Obamas as the Commander-in-Chief Ball \u00bb . Obama then introduced members of the military from Illinois stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan. After thanking them, Obama took time for lighter banter, polling the members of the military about whether they were Chicago Cubs or Chicago White Sox baseball fans. \"Terrible!\" quipped Obama, known to be a huge White Sox fan, as most said they were Cubs fans. Then Obama introduced his wife, who took a moment to emerge from backstage. \"I may have been stood up,\" he joked, before she came out for their next dance. Next, the Obamas turned their attention to the Youth Inaugural Ball, where people between the ages of 18 and 35 gathered. \"When you look at the history of this campaign, what started out as an improbable journey -- when nobody gave us a chance -- was carried forward, was inspired by, was driven by, was energized by, young people all across America,\" Obama said. The president thanked the young people who came out to vote in dramatically high numbers, especially compared to past elections. He said a new generation inspired an older generation, and \"that's how change happens in America.\" Afterward, the Obamas moved to the Home State Ball for Delaware and Pennsylvania, honoring Vice President Joe Biden. \"We are grateful to you, not only for the trust you bestowed, but also for a guy named Joe Biden,\" Obama said. Biden was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to Delaware, which he represented in the U.S. Senate. The Obamas then visited the rest of the parties earlier than scheduled and in quick succession, spending about five minutes each at the Mid-Atlantic, Western, Midwest, Southern and Eastern regional balls. At the Western Ball, singer Marc Anthony helped entertain about 11,500 guests, including film director Ron Howard and \"Curb Your Enthusiasm\" actress Cheryl Hines. When the Obamas arrived, someone shouted \"I love you\" to the president. \"I love you back,\" Obama responded. \"Michelle loves you, too.\" Before the couple's dance at the Midwest Ball, the president introduced the first lady by saying he'd \"like to dance with the one who brung me, and who does everything I do except ... in high heels.\" The first couple's last dance of the night -- at the Eastern Ball -- happened shortly after 12:35 a.m. Wednesday. Melanie Roussell, a spokeswoman for the committee, said that in keeping with tradition, the Obamas and Biden and his wife, Jill, would make appearances at each of the official balls. Quiz: First ladies gowns . There was more than chips and dip for the new president and his fellow partygoers. \"We will have a little more than light fare,\" said Roussell, who listed such menu items as penne Italiano and chilled chicken roulades with tomatoes, artichokes and pine nuts. The balls also featured plenty of music to suit just about everyone's taste. In addition to Beyonc\u00e9, the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center included recording artists Jay-Z, Faith Hill, Shakira and Alicia Keys. iReport.com: Are you in Washington? Share your story . Those not lucky enough to score a ticket or an invitation could watch on television. \"We are trying to make this the most accessible inauguration in history,\" Roussell said. \"We are encouraging people to plan parties in their own neighborhoods, and they can tune in and celebrate along with the president.\" CNN's Lisa Respers France, Mallory Simon and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama thanks youth for helping inspire, energize \"improbable journey\"\nObama says at military ball there is \"no greater honor\" than being commander .\nMichelle Obama wears silk chiffon Jason Wu gown with crystal rhinestones .\nCelebrities attending include Beyonc\u00e9, Jay-Z, Faith Hill .","id":"324e0169927616ffe530002eba247645a9011b6a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman in rural Papua New Guinea was bound and gagged, tied to a log and set ablaze on a pile of tires this week, possibly because villagers suspected her of being a witch, police said Thursday. Her death adds to a growing list of men and women who have been accused of sorcery and then tortured or killed in the South Pacific island nation, where traditional beliefs hold sway in many regions. The victims are often scapegoats for someone else's unexplained death, and bands of tribesmen collude to mete out justice to them for their supposed magical powers, police said. \"We have had difficulties in a number of previous incidents convincing people to come forward with information,\" said Simon Kauba, assistant commissioner of police and commander of the Highlands region, where the killing occurred. \"We are trying to persuade them to help. Somebody lost their mother or daughter or sister Tuesday morning.\" Early Tuesday, a group of people dragged the woman, believed to be in her late teens to early 20s, to a dumping ground outside the city of Mount Hagen. They stripped her naked, bound her hands and legs, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, tied her to a log and set her on fire, Kauba said. \"When the people living nearby went to the dump site to investigate what caused the fire, they found a human being burning in the flames,\" he said. \"It was ugly.\" The country's Post-Courier newspaper reported Thursday that more than 50 people were killed in two Highlands provinces last year for allegedly practicing sorcery. In a well-publicized case last year, a pregnant woman gave birth to a baby girl while struggling to free herself from a tree. Villagers had dragged the woman from her house and hung her from the tree, accusing her of sorcery after her neighbor suddenly died. She and the baby survived, according to media reports. The killing of witches, or sangumas, is not a new phenomenon in rural areas of the country. Emory University anthropology professor Bruce Knauft, who lived in a village in the western province of Papua New Guinea in the early 1980s, traced family histories for 42 years and found that one in three adult deaths were homicides -- \"the bulk of these being collective killings of suspected sorcerers,\" he wrote in his book, \"From Primitive to Postcolonial in Melanesia and Anthropology.\" In recent years, as AIDS has taken a toll in the nation of 6.7 million people, villagers have blamed suspected witches -- and not the virus -- for the deaths. According to the United Nations, Papua New Guinea accounts for 90 percent of the Pacific region's HIV cases and is one of four Asia-Pacific countries with an epidemic. \"We've had a number of cases where people were killed because they were accused of spreading HIV or AIDS,\" Kauba said. While there is plenty of speculation why Tuesday's victim was killed, police said they are focused more on who committed the crime. \"If it is phobias about alleged HIV\/AIDS or claims of a sexual affair, we must urge the police and judiciary to throw the book at the offenders,\" the Post-Courier wrote in an editorial. \"There are remedies far, far better than to torture and immolate a young woman before she can be judged by a lawful system.\"","highlights":"Woman suspected to be witch in Papua New Guinea burned alive .\nDeath adds to growing list of people accused of sorcery tortured or killed .\nVictims are often scapegoats for someone else's unexplained death .","id":"e3fd7eeef7e764e9683e3ce8db42afb0267f3908"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Navy has captured seven suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the first arrests by a U.S.-led task force set up to curb rampant piracy off the Horn of Africa, a Navy spokesman said Wednesday. Seven men suspected of trying to pirate a tanker raise their hands before their arrest in the Gulf of Aden. Sailors from the cruiser USS Vella Gulf arrested the men Wednesday in the western Gulf of Aden -- a waterway between Africa and the Middle East -- after a distress call from the 420-foot (128-meter) tanker Polaris. The tanker reported that men aboard a small skiff were attempting to board the ship using ladders, but its crew removed them before the would-be hijackers could get aboard, the Navy said. The Vella Gulf found and boarded the skiff, and the tanker's crew identified the men aboard the skiff as their would-be hijackers. The skiff's men were taken aboard the Vella Gulf, the flagship of the task force now patrolling the western Gulf of Aden, and eventually will be transferred to Kenya for trial, said Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet. Piracy has become a chronic problem off the Horn of Africa in recent years, with some pirates operating from largely lawless Somalia. Pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 in the waters off the coast of Somalia in 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The task force led by the Vella Gulf was set up in January in an effort to clamp down on the attacks in the region, the southern approach to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.","highlights":"Seven men captured after failed attack on ship, U.S. Navy says .\nMen tried to board tanker from skiff, but crew removed ladders, Navy says .\nNavy cruiser found skiff after tanker made distress call .\nCruiser was patrolling Gulf of Aden as part of U.S.-led, antipiracy task force .","id":"d653a32f345e045c5a1b9ee39049b8c8461eae32"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- After a lifetime of playing characters past-their-prime, Clint Eastwood appears to still be enjoying his own. Clint Eastwood stars as inspector Harry Callahan in \"Dirty Harry\" (1971). Just last week the 78-year-old actor, best-known for his portrayal of \"tough guys\" like \"Dirty Harry,\" was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival. The American film-maker accepted the Palme d'Or (only the second they've ever given for lifetime achievement), while he was in town promoting his new film \"Gran Torino.\" What is your favorite Clint Eastwood movie? Tell us below in the SoundOff box. Eastwood both directs and co-stars in \"Gran Torino,\" as a prejudiced Korean war veteran who comes to the rescue of troubled Asian teens who live next door. For Eastwood the honor caps a 40 year career acting, directing, producing and composing. During this time, he has won five Academy Awards, five Golden Globes and received many more nominations. The Hollywood veteran earned perhaps most acclaim for two films: \"Unforgiven\" (1992) and \"Million Dollar Baby\" (2004). For each of these films he was awarded both Best Director and Best Picture Oscars, as well as being nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Eastwood got his break in 1959, landing the role of Rowdy Yates in the television series \"Rawhide.\" A successful seven-year run helped turn Eastwood into a household name and landed him several other roles in so-called Spaghetti Western films, including the hit \"A Fist Full of Dollars\" (1964), directed by Sergio Leone. Leone then re-hired Eastwood for two more successful films: \"For a Few More Dollars\" (1965) and \"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly\" (1966). The trilogy earned Eastwood greater fame and a reputation for playing tough-guy, gun-slinging cowboys. Eastwood found another friend in director Don Siegel who gave him perhaps his most iconic role, starring in \"Dirty Harry\" (1971) as no-nonsense, \"loose-cannon\" cop Harry Callahan. The film was such a hit that it four spin off sequels were made: \"Magnum Force\" (1973), \"The Enforcer\" (1976), \"Sudden Impact\" (1983) (the highest grossing film of the series), and \"The Dead Pool\" (1988). In the 1990s Eastwood returned to westerns -- this time as director as well as star -- earning critical acclaim and a monumental nine Oscar nominations for \"Unforgiven\" (1992). Throughout the decade he also had considerable success helming blockbuster projects, like \"In the Line of Fire\" (1993), \"Bridges of Madison County\" (1995) and \"True Crime\" (1999). In 2000 Eastwood co-starred in the box-office hit \"Space Cowboys.\" In 2004, he put employed his entire array of movie skills directing, producing, scoring and co-starring alongside Hillary Swank in boxing drama \"Million Dollar Baby.\" Until his most recent return to the screen in \"Gran Torino,\" Eastwood had been concentrating on directing, releasing two films about World War II in 2006, \"Flags of our Fathers\" and \"Letters from Iwo Jima\" and directing Angelina Jolie to BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar nominations this year in \"Changeling.\" Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is the only other film-maker to have received the Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement from the Cannes Film Festival.","highlights":"Clint Eastwood wins a Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement .\nIngmar Berman is the only other filmmaker to have received this honor .\nEastwood directs and stars in his new film \"Gran Torino\"\n\"Dirty Harry\" star still enjoys playing gun-slinging \"tough guys\"","id":"c755e3d141094d17f4f35119748dffc304b64684"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Rapes targeting girls as young as seven are on the increase in Afghanistan where conditions for women are little better than under the Taliban, the U.N. and rights groups say. Conditions for women are little better than they were under the hardline Taliban regime, the U.N. says. In its annual report on human rights, the U.N. warned conditions were deteriorating in the war-ravaged country despite U.S.-led efforts after the 2001 removal from power of the hardline militia. \"Violence is tolerated or condoned within the family and community, within traditional and religious leadership circles, as well as the formal and informal justice system,\" said Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. The \"Afghan government has failed to adequately protect the rights of women despite constitutional guarantees.\" With a resurgent Taliban targeting NATO forces, government security forces and civilians, violence has been on the increase in Afghanistan.. The number of civilian casualties in 2008 totaled 2,118 -- the highest number recorded since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, the U.N. said, urging greater protecting for ordinary Afghans. Violence against women comes in the form of rape, \"honor killings,\" early and forced marriages, sexual abuse and slavery, the report says. \"The security is the big issue,\" said Suraya Pakzad, founder of the Voice of Women Organization, which promotes education and awareness of women's rights and protects women and girls at risk in Afghanistan. \"Because of security we, unfortunately, day by day, we have to pull out of areas where last year we operated, we have our operations. We were able to work with the women, but this year we cannot,\" she said. \"We have to leave the area because security is getting worse day by day.\" \"Rapes in the country have been growing tremendously, particularly child rapes within the ages of 9, 8, 7, even lesser than that,\" said Wazhma Frogh, director of Global Rights Afghanistan. \"So these are the issues that are all born by this lack of security where women have no place in ... security decisions.\" Domestic violence against child brides is widespread, said Suraya Pakzad, the founder of the Voice of Women organization, who was married at age 14 and has six children. She said girls as young as 10 face \"violation\" by husbands 40 years their senior. \"By the end ... women, or girls, run away.\" But women without husbands, especially widows, may have it even worse in Afghanistan, the report says. Without a spouse, the women are reduced to begging to feed their children. Options outside the home are limited where the Taliban holds sway in Afghanistan. The Taliban's interpretation of strict Islamic law, or sharia, has included banning girls from school and the workplace. Even in areas not overrun by the Taliban, women face risks outside the home. \"The assassination of the most prominent national female senior police officer, in Kandahar in September 2008, underscores the tremendous risks faced by women in public life,\" the report says.","highlights":"Afghan women's rights are little better than under Taliban, report says .\nRights group says girls as young as seven are regularly raped .\nUnited Nations calls for better protection for civilians .","id":"92951f554da698535bdeb09fc2bf9ffc2d028e6b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute and a professor at Columbia University. He also serves as special advisor to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. From 2002 to 2006, he was director of the U.N. Millennium Project. He is president and co-founder of Millennium Promise, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. He has twice been named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time magazine and is the author of the bestsellers \"Common Wealth\" and \"The End of Poverty.\" Jeff Sachs says the G-20 countries must take steps to cushion the poor from the financial crisis. (CNN) -- The G-20 meeting in London, England, on April 2 will be watched by the entire world with urgency and with a yearning for hope, vision and programmatic clarity. The preparatory work is not adequate. The G-20 discussions do not move sufficiently beyond financial regulation. I would like to suggest the following main points for G-20 leadership in the global recovery. The G-20 needs to combine stimulus, economic development and sustainability: stimulus to get the world recession reversed, development to ensure that all of the world (not merely the rich countries or the G-20) shares in the benefits, and sustainability to address the world's grave risks of climate change, water stress and loss of biodiversity. The world's 3 billion poor, especially the 1 billion poorest of the poor, are suffering powerful and destabilizing blows from the crisis, and these will get worse and threaten global security unless there is specific attention and action. The G-20 cannot limit its focus to regulating the financial sector, reforming the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, avoiding protectionism and reciting the measures that individual countries are taking. This would leave the world gasping for direction and hope. The G-20 must offer a vision that is big enough to quell global fears and action bold enough to protect the desperately poor while guiding the cooperative decision-making of the world's economic authorities. The G-20 must push forward based on real policy coordination. The world does not have a system of effective cooperation. The United States, for example, does not engage in comprehensive and deep coordination with other countries. The poor countries, with half the world's population, and the poorest countries, with roughly one-fifth of the world's population, have not been brought into the equation. The G-20 package for stimulus should include: . First, fulfillment by all countries of stimulus measures already announced and a commitment to undertake new joint stimulus measures, especially priority public outlays on infrastructure, the social safety net and sustainable energy, as may be needed during the coming years. Second, establishment of a high-level G-20 coordination group, backed especially by China, the European Union, Japan and the United States, to work full-time on coordinating monetary, fiscal and financial policies for stimulus and long-term recovery. Such cooperative macroeconomic programming does not now exist. Third, increased currency support extended from the world's five major central banks (the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the People's Bank of China) for emerging market economies facing the loss of loans from international banks (e.g. Eastern Europe). The Fed's currency swap lines to Brazil, Mexico, Korea and Singapore last fall played an important stabilizing role. The other central banks can and should do more, as can the Fed vis-\u00e0-vis other countries. Fourth, a G-20 commitment to gradual and orderly currency readjustments to help rebalance the world's financial and trade flows. The Asian currencies should gradually appreciate against the euro, which in turn should appreciate gradually against the dollar. Squabbling about bilateral rates between the dollar and Chinese renmenbi should be put to rest. G-20 actions for the poor should include: . First, establishment of an urgent special food security program, which would make grants to low-income, food-deficit countries (including Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan and elsewhere) to ensure that impoverished farmers can get the basic input they need (such as fertilizer and high-yield seeds) to grow more food. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero have joined to propose this new program and have mobilized backing from about a dozen countries. The United States' contribution should be at least $200 million per year over five years ($1 billion total), matching Spain, the largest donor country, and sending a powerful message of solidarity from the United States to the world. The hunger crisis is now afflicting 1 billion people and contributing to the deaths of millions of children each year. Second, full funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is facing a critical and potentially devastating cash shortfall during 2009-11. An incremental U.S. contribution of $350 million in 2009 would close the most urgent cash-flow gap and put the United States in the clear lead of protecting the Global Fund and championing the fight against the three pandemic diseases. Third, special urgent long-term financing of clean energy investments in the poor countries, especially solar, geothermal, wind and hydro, as a direct stimulus to the supplier countries (including the United States), a development boost for the recipient countries (notably in Africa and Central Asia) and a major spur to climate control and success in negotiations this year. Fourth, accelerated distribution by the World Bank and the regional development banks of their unused financing capacities, directed at infrastructure and the Millennium Development Goals. The G-20 would commit to accelerate the replenishment of those funds on an expedited and as-needed basis. Fifth, urgently completing the pending injection of capital for regional development banks to bolster their lending and grants. (The Asian Development Bank, for example, is in the process of a recapitalization, which should be strongly supported by the United States and the rest of the G-20.) Sixth, an urgent easing of the conditions the IMF sets on its grants and loans to poor countries. This will ensure that those countries can receive and utilize greatly increased IMF financial backing to preserve trade finance and to have the room to undertake needed stimulus measures. Seventh, an explicit commitment by all parties to take the steps needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the world's internationally agreed goals to fight extreme poverty, hunger and disease. (See http:\/\/www.milleniumpromise.org for details and ways to achieve them.) All parties should underscore their commitments to the goals, and the United States should emphasize its resolve to increase aid markedly by 2015. G-20 actions for sustainability should include: . First, a determination to \"green\" the stimulus in each country and to expand the development financing for sustainable infrastructure in the developing world, including solar power and efficient water use in sub-Saharan Africa. Second, a commitment to reach a climate agreement in Copenhagen, Denmark, which will steer large-scale investments in sustainable energy, next-generation automobiles, green buildings and so forth as a key plank of global recovery. Follow-up . I recommend that the United States offer to host the next G-20 meeting in September in advance of the U.N. General Assembly. China would be a logical host for the fourth G-20 meeting during early 2010. To enhance global coverage and legitimacy, the G-20 should be enlarged to be the G-22, to include representation of East and West Africa. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeffrey Sachs.","highlights":"Jeffrey Sachs: When G-20 meets, it must do more than just financial regulation .\nHe says the world's 3 billion poor are suffering from global economic crisis .\nSachs: World needs food security plan for poor nations with aid from U.S., others .\nHe says health and clean energy should be key priorities for the G-20 .","id":"8b17b62f5c4fffb3e9d107d0a0890fd379a84036"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The risk of being jolted by 1,500 volts of electricity hasn't scared them off. Neither have fears of falling off the speeding electric trains. Thousands of passengers ride on overloaded trains in Jakarta every day. So Indonesian railway officials on Monday will unleash a new weapon on commuters who squat on top of railway cars: spray them with colored dye, a local newspaper reported. The state transit agency told the English-language newspaper Jakarta Post that it hopes the \"unique approach\" will deter passengers riding illegally on rooftops. Trains are the cheapest and fastest form of transportation for office workers commuting between the capital city Jakarta and neighboring towns. Throngs of thousands cram the trains during the morning and evening rush hours, making it impossible for everyone to snag space inside packed cars. Under the new plan, security officials at each station will \"mark\" roof riders with dye as trains depart. When the passengers disembark at their destination, officials can then easily identify them. \"We will confiscate their IDs and give them a ticket,\" Akhmand Sujadi, regional spokesman for the transit agency Kerata Api, told the newspaper. \"We will send a copy of the ticket to their family, their local neighborhood unit head, their employer, or, if they're students, their headmasters.\" The offenders can reclaim their ID cards once they write a letter \"regarding their behavior, to be signed by the person who received their ticket.\" More than 320,000 passengers rode trains to and from work every day last year, the newspaper reported. The crush of passengers meant revenues of 248 billion Rupiahs ($26.8 million) for the system. But many commuters prefer to ride on top of passenger cars -- either due to a lack of space inside or because they can't afford the ticket, which start at 1,000 Rupiahs ($0.11) At least 53 rooftop riders died in the last two years, the newspaper reported. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Commuters who squat on train roofs in Indonesia targeted with colored dye .\nOfficials hope \"unique approach\" will deter passengers riding illegally .\nSecurity officials at stations will \"mark\" roof riders with dye as trains depart .\nWhen passengers disembark at destination, officials can easily identify them .","id":"ac2041fbc166a3f0fd1dc76fe9ee8dc73025064f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is planning to issue three executive orders Thursday, including one demanding the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year, according to a senior administration official and a congressional aide. A guard keeps watch from a tower at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A second executive order will formally ban torture by requiring the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods. A third executive order, according to the officials, will order a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases. The officials said new White House Counsel Greg Craig was briefing congressional Republicans Wednesday afternoon about the three executive orders. \"We've always said the process would include consultation,\" the senior administration official said of the closed-door meeting informing Republicans of the moves. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay became a lightning rod for critics who charged that the Bush administration had used torture on terror detainees. President George W. Bush and other senior officials repeatedly denied that the U.S. government had used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects. Obama's move will set off a fierce legal struggle over where the prison's detainees will go next. Watch experts debate the Gitmo dilemma \u00bb . \"The key question is where do you put these terrorists,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement issued Wednesday. \"Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you release them back into the battlefield?\" The meeting with Craig did not address how the administration plans to handle Guantanamo detainees, said Rep. Bill Young of Florida, the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations Committee. The executive orders \"will leave some wiggle room for the administration,\" he said. Young said he has \"quite a bit of anxiety\" about transferring detainees to United States facilities. \"Number one, they're dangerous,\" he said. \"Secondly, once they become present in the United States, what is their legal status? What is their constitutional status? I worry about that, because I don't want them to have the same constitutional rights that you and I have. They're our enemy.\" Watch what may happen to Gitmo's inmates \u00bb . He said he asked Craig what the government plans to do with two recently built facilities at Guantanamo, which he said cost $500 million. He said Craig had no answer, but pledged to discuss the issue further. Young said he suggested reopening Alcatraz, the closed federal prison on an island outside San Francisco, California -- in Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district. \"Put them in Alcatraz, where supposedly they can't escape from,\" Young said, but added the suggestion \"didn't go over well.\" The revelation coincided with a judge's decision on Wednesday to halt the September 11 terrorism cases at the behest of President Obama. On Tuesday, he directed Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ask prosecutors to seek stays for 120 days so terrorism cases at the facility can be reviewed, according to a military official close to the proceedings. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Laurie Ure contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama to issue 3 orders Thursday that break from Bush administration .\nNEW: Order 2 will ban torture by requiring use of Army field manual for interrogations .\nNEW: 3rd order will mandate review of detention policies and procedures .\nMilitary judge grants Obama's request to stay cases for 120 days .","id":"9fa5e3b5516f21faa209eaf2f02cdd9136aab07f"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Suspected Maoist rebels in eastern India who held up a train carrying 300 passengers Wednesday ended their siege after a four-hour standoff, officials said. An election official in Maharashtra Wednesday. Maoist rebels seized the train as India continued to vote. No one was hurt, said A.K. Chandra of India's east-central railway. The suspected rebels seized the train, apparently to protest that some former comrades are taking part in general elections that are under way in the country. The Maoists didn't want the former rebels \"to join the mainstream and, therefore, stopped this train,\" said Sarvendu Tathagat, deputy commission of the Latehar district in the state of Jharkhand. Jharkhand is a mineral-rich state where rebels -- known as the Naxalites -- claim to be fighting for the rights of the poor and the dispossessed who have not benefited from the state's resources. About 300 men, apparently unarmed, boarded the train, disabling its braking system as it passed through a dense forest. The hijackers released the train after \"persuasion\" by area villagers and railway officials, Chandra said. \"They wanted your (media) presence,\" he said of the hijackers' possible motive. Jharkhand has seen stepped-up deadly attacks by rebels while the country is in the midst of month-long general elections. The second round of the elections begin Thursday. On April 16, when the voting began, suspected rebels triggered an explosion that forced a bus carrying border security troops to stop in the same Latehar district. When the troops stepped out, the attackers killed at least six in a three-hour gun battle. And in neighboring Bihar state, suspected Maoists, who had called for a general strike, set eight trucks on fire, shot dead a driver, and blew up a government office on Wednesday, police said. The Maoist insurgency has claimed more than 6,000 lives since the late 1960s. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the rebels India's biggest security threat. The elections, covering more than 3 million square kilometers of the planet, will run until next month in several stages of scattered polling. Then, elections officials will count the vote electronically in a single day -- on May 16, three days after the last round of polling. It is an exercise that India undertakes every five years for its 1 billion-plus population. This year, the country is voting in 543 boroughs of the Lok Sabha, or the lower house of the Indian parliament. In the elections this year, 714 million registered voters are eligible to cast ballots. The number is up 43 million from the last vote.","highlights":"300 suspected Maoist rebels stop train as it passed through a forest in Jharkhand .\nOfficial: Train was \"stopped,\" not hijacked in region that has seen rebel attacks .\nMaoist insurgency has claimed more than 6,000 lives since the late 1960s .\nIncident comes as India is in the midst of month-long general elections .","id":"fdde7eb48e6fb877c56b5768d4c02fd6204c1e5e"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This is the first in a series of planned collaborations between CNN and the online investigative journalism organization, ProPublica.org. Silver State Bank grew impressively under CEO Tod Little. He says he was forced out for favoring slow growth. LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Sitting back in his leather chair, working as a consultant for a small Las Vegas bank, Tod Little is sure of one thing: Practically anyone, he says, could have made money as a banker in the go-go days of real estate in Nevada. Go-go days that lasted until the fall of 2008. \"It didn't take a rocket scientist to run a bank in this town for the past 10 years,\" Little told CNN. CNN's Special Investigations Unit and the online investigative journalism organization ProPublica.org got a brief look inside the collapse of a regional bank. What the two organizations learned was both old and new: bankers giving themselves large salaries and generous bonuses, at the same time they are lending millions of dollars on what, according to one lawsuit, were essentially parcels of bare dirt with little potential of big income. Silver State Bank had been in business in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson for 10 years when Little, the bank's founder and CEO left. The bank had grown impressively under his guidance, but Little said his managers wanted more and he was forced out. \"They wanted bigger salaries, bigger lifestyle, fancier offices. Whatever. However you want to view that,\" Little told CNN. One of those managers was new bank president Corey Johnson, who declined to answer any questions. Three other managers declined comment to CNN, as well. Silver State and others loaned money on the promise of Las Vegas' commercial real estate boom with the belief that undeveloped land would be turned into shopping centers, hotels and offices. Records show that land and houses were being \"flipped\" or resold over and over at huge profits. Bill Martin, a Las Vegas banker who once worked as a regulator for the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, said what was happening to Silver State was clear. \"They were over-advancing on construction, you know, more liberal advances on construction,\" Martin said. \"It all worked last year [and] the year before and the year before. So they just kept doing it.\" Banking regulators issued repeated so-called \"mild\" warnings to banks concerned they were amassing large amounts of commercial development loans and lowering lending standards. But Martin says those warnings -- delivered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation personnel often on a quarterly or semi-annual basis in their field visits to Silver State -- were ignored. One Silver State loan that turned out to be especially poor was to a Las Vegas developer who had been a longtime customer of the bank. According to bank records, a developer named Thomas Jurbala, received almost $100 million from Silver State during a 10-year period. In 2008, Jurbala came calling again and the bank approved a $24 million loan for a piece of ground in North Las Vegas far from the Last Vegas strip, supposedly valued at $48 million. It was a so-called \"interest reserve loan\" in which the bank not only loaned the principle amount but the interest, as well. Then, according to bank records, it booked the interest as revenue. Regulators say those sorts of deals are not uncommon in construction loans. But this particular piece of land was undeveloped with only a permit to build a casino there one day. It is near the Las Vegas Speedway and in court papers the developer said he hoped a casino could be built. However, the entire project was scrapped before a spade was ever turned, and the land sits empty surrounded by a fence. The project was scrapped because Silver State went under. Doug French, the man who made that loan, reluctantly agreed to sit down with CNN for a taped interview. He is now vice president at a Libertarian think tank in Auburn, Alabama. French told CNN that at \"the time\" he believed the land was \"very valuable.\" But when it all went up in smoke, he says, \"It's very humbling, believe me.\" French says mistakes at Silver State Bank were \"preventable,\" but according to a lawsuit filed by the developer, the loans were part of a series of loans, each one preceding the other -- to different corporations. At the time French left Silver State Bank, the bank told reporters he had resigned for \"personal reasons.\" But French told CNN he was fired from Silver State. According to Securities and Exchange Commission documents, he sold $1.8 million in Silver State stock from November 2007 through February 2008. That was on top of his $650,000 in salary and bonuses, according to bank records. He left the bank in March 2008. In September 2008, when Silver State Bank collapsed, a group of elderly Las Vegas deaf residents was especially hurt. The local chapter of the Deaf Seniors Association put an estimated $400,000 into certificates of deposit sold by Silver State. That money was to be used to help fund the group's annual national convention in Las Vegas in 2009. The group lost half of its money. The FDIC said after it seized Silver State that it did not have enough capital to cover business activities. \"I just can't believe it happened,\" one woman told CNN through a sign language interpreter. \"We're just so frustrated.\" The group is trying to raise funds in a more traditional manner by making quilts. They have a very long road ahead, its members say. Silver State Bank was the 25th bank to fail in the United States in 2008. As a result, the FDIC was left to cover more than a half-billion dollars in Silver State liabilities. Already this year, three U.S. banks have collapsed and experts predict many more will tumble as the economy continues to suffer.","highlights":"Bank CEO says he was forced out for favoring slow growth, not being powerhouse .\nFormer regulator: Silver State ignored repeated warnings from banking regulators .\nSilver State one of 27 that failed in 2008; many bankers believe 2009 will be worse .","id":"870ff5320f3b5355bca57b7e99585bfc3328f4cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The nation's new \"first dog\" has heightened interest in its breed -- Portuguese water dog -- but not necessarily a thorough understanding of the dogs' needs, a pair of owners and breeders told CNN. Bo the Portuguese water dog meets the camera. Bo was a gift to the Obama girls from Sen. Ted Kennedy. The dog, Bo, has triggered \"the most publicity the breed has ever had since its introduction into the U.S. in the late 1960s,\" the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America said in a news release. President Obama and his family welcomed Bo into the White House this week. Shortly afterward, the club's Web site was receiving a million hits an hour, said Susan Teasley, a club member. Jane Harding, a fellow member of the club, said she has \"received about a 10 percent increase in calls\" since Tuesday, and some of the other breeders she knows also have reported more calls. \"Thankfully, people want to know more about the breed,\" Teasley said. \"But water dogs are not for everybody, and it would be sad to see people getting the dog without doing the proper research.\" Portuguese water dogs are \"active athletes,\" far from couch potatoes, she explained. In fact, they are more likely to rip a couch into pieces than lounge on it, Harding said, recalling a friend who had lost a sofa that way. Watch more water dog fun \u00bb . Portuguese water dogs can be miserable and destructive when alone, Teasley said. And don't think you can close the door and keep them out. \"They want to be with you at all times -- even if it's in the bathroom or your bed,\" she said. Teasley and her husband breed Portuguese water dogs and often allow them to run free on the two and a half acres of land they own. They are \"not apartment dogs,\" she said. Harding agreed. \"They aren't for people who want a tie-out dog or an apartment dog. For people like that,\" she joked, \"we recommend a stuffed dog.\" Portuguese water dogs love the outdoors, particularly if they have a garden to eat from, Teasley said as she wrestled to keep 7-month-old Misty Morning from eating the family's flowers. Harding said she believes the first family will be successful with their new dog because \"they have access to the best trainers, and they want to make this work.\" For other Americans thinking about following suit, she cautioned, \"Buyers beware. Do your homework and first read the information on the breed.\" Teasley wants people to understand the breed to help avoid what she called the \"Dalmatian syndrome.\" After the movie \"101 Dalmatians\" came out in 1996, \"thousands of people rushed to get the dog, and thousands of dogs ended up in rescue kennels,\" Teasley said. What those who followed the Dalmatian trend may not have known is that Dalmatians shed profusely and they develop hearing problems, making it hard to train and call them, she said. Both Teasley and Harding advised owners to get a mentor, as they expect Sen. Ted Kennedy to be to the Obama family. Kennedy owns Portuguese water dogs himself and recommended the breed to the Obamas. Watch Obamas introduce dog \u00bb . \"For the first six to seven months of the puppy's life, they need training,\" Harding said. She has diligently trained 8-year-old champion Bessie, who she said \"produces phenomenal litters ... and has multiple titles\" from the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America. Such organizations provide guidance to first-time dog owners. But it takes time to get a membership, Teasley said. Prospective members must apply for a one-year associate membership before they can receive a permanent one, she explained. That provides a cushion while they decide whether the dog is the right fit. \"It sounds like I'm trying to discourage people from getting (a Portuguese water dog),\" Teasley said, \"But I'm not. We just don't want dogs to come back because owners don't know what they are doing.\"","highlights":"Breeders fear too many people will try to get dog like the Obamas' Bo .\nBreeder: Portuguese water dogs are \"active athletes,\" not couch potatoes .\nThey are more likely to rip up couch than to lounge on it .\nDogs bond quickly with family and want to be with them all the time .","id":"775d43323efd9f2f015678ef9a2478bc1d97c8b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rioting has flared near Belfast on Saturday after the arrests of three men in the killings of two soldiers in Northern Ireland last week, police said. Two people in masks prepare to throw petrol bombs Saturday in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Petrol bombs have been hurled at police in Lurgan, a town in County Armagh, 20 miles west of Belfast, police in Northern Ireland said. There are gangs of youths on the streets, authorities said, but there have been no arrests or injuries. Police announced the arrests on Saturday and said the three men have been taken to the police service's Serious Crime Suite in County Antrim. One of them, a dissident republican named Colin Duffy, is from Lurgan. They are the first arrests in connection with the March 7 shootings, which were the first fatal attack on British troops in the province for more than 12 years. The two British soldiers were shot dead at a base in Massereene, in Antrim, as they were preparing to ship out for duty in Afghanistan. The soldiers, Cengiz \"Pat\" Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, had already packed their bags and changed into desert uniforms, authorities said. Two masked gunmen with automatic rifles shot them as the soldiers picked up a pizza delivery at the barracks, authorities said. Two other soldiers and the two pizza delivery men were seriously wounded. The shooting has sparked fears of a return to the sectarian violence that Northern Ireland suffered until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a period known as The Troubles. A militant splinter group, the Real IRA, reportedly claimed it had carried out the attack on the soldiers. Two days after the soldiers were killed, a police officer was killed in a shooting southwest of Belfast. Constable Stephen Carroll was one of four officers who were responding to call in Craigavon when his vehicle came under fire and he was killed. Three people have been arrested in connection with the police officer's death. The Continuity IRA, a republican splinter group that does not accept the Good Friday Agreement, said it had killed Carroll, Britain's Press Association reported. Politicians from across the political spectrum have condemned the killings, with Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness calling the killers \"traitors to the island of Ireland.\" Sinn Fein is a predominantly Catholic party that wants Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and become part of the Republic of Ireland. The party is widely thought to be linked to the Irish Republican Army. Danny Kennedy, deputy leader of the loyalist Ulster Unionist Party, which wants Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, also condemned the attack as \"wicked and murderous.\"","highlights":"NEW: Petrol bombs hurled at police after arrests in connection with soldiers' killings .\nThree arrested over slayings of two soldiers in Northern Ireland last week .\nThree men also being held in Monday's killing of police officer .\nTwo republican groups have reportedly claimed responsibility for the killings .","id":"ae4eabe8af0ec5c6c64c45f274c428dd015f9f87"} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- Don Stratton says he's just a good ol' boy. He's simple and plainspoken. But he has a painful past he can't leave behind. When he talks about it, the old emotions surface. Don Stratton says he and others were abused at the Florida School for Boys during the 1960s. Stratton attended a Florida reform school as a teenager in the early 1960s. Nearly half a century later, he's telling a chilling tale of alleged beatings, sexual abuse and violent death at the hands of reform school workers. He said he believes the bodies of slain boys are buried in unnamed graves on the grounds of the former reform school in Marianna, Florida. \"These men are animals and need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,\" Stratton told CNN in an interview at his attorney's office in Tampa. Stratton wore a black cowboy hat with a Harley Davidson logo. Despite his tough exterior, he fought back tears as he recounted how he was physically and sexually assaulted. Stratton is among a group of men, now in their 60s, who are suing state agencies in Florida as well as two former reform school workers over alleged abuse they received as teenagers. The suit was filed this month. \"At 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, you'd hear a boy crying,\" Stratton told CNN. \"And then the door would open and you'd see these guys come in and come up to somebody they liked, and they'd just tell you, 'Come on with me, you're mine for tonight. You're my boy for tonight.' And they would take you and do what they wanted to do with you.\" \"They would take a leather strap, six inches wide and three feet long,\" he added, swinging his arm in a downward motion. \"It's like a shotgun going off. And they beat you until you're bloody.\" Stratton's attorneys said they've interviewed 80 former students who say they were abused. Stratton and the other alleged abuse victims who spoke with CNN all said the beatings took place in a small white cement building they called \"the white house.\" Gov. Charlie Crist has ordered an investigation into the alleged abuse. He has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to uncover records, interview students and find former administrators. The agency also was asked to determine who, if anyone, is buried beneath the 31 rusting white crosses on the school grounds. \"Whatever is below those crosses is crying out -- and it's screaming for us to bring justice,\" Stratton said. The truth of what happened at the Florida School for Boys may ultimately be lost to time. But investigators said they're making progress. \"There are challenges due to the length of time that has passed,\" said Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Heather Smith. \"We are confident that we can conduct a thorough and methodical investigation and establish, as much as we can, what happened here and what lies beneath in those grave sites.\" Smith said it was much too early in the investigation to say whether there would be an exhumation. Investigators said that, so far, the search for records from 50 years ago has been productive. They also have met with many of the men who have come forward. When they meet with Stratton, they will hear his claim that he witnessed the violent death of one boy who exposed himself to reform school workers on a dare. The boy was taken to \"the white house.\" Stratton said that later, while he was working in the kitchen, he saw a brown 1949 Ford pull up. \"They opened the back door and they carried him out and threw him in the back of the car,\" said Stratton, fighting tears. \"They took him out there and buried him in the woods,\" he said. \"I know they buried him somewhere, 'cause he never showed up again.\" Investigators will also hear Stratton's claim that he and many of the other boys were sexually assaulted. His story is so graphic that it cannot be repeated. He tearfully apologized to CNN. \"I don't pull no punches, but it's hard doing this on camera. See what I'm saying? This is tough, fellas,\" he said. \"We're all men here, know what I mean? I'm not ashamed of it, but I was 13 years old and I had no choice ... and it haunts me today.\" CNN has tried to find many of the men who are alleged to have committed the beatings and sexual assaults. Some have died. The lawsuit names former worker Troy Tidwell, a one-armed man who still lives near the reform school grounds in Marianna. It alleges he participated in physical assaults and failed to report the abuse. Tidwell refused to meet with CNN in December to respond to the allegations, but he recently told the Miami Herald that the boys were \"spanked\" but not injured. ''Kids that were chronic cases, getting in trouble all the time, running away and what have you, they used that as a last resort,'' Tidwell told the Herald. \"We would take them to a little building near the dining room and spank the boys there when we felt it was necessary.\" Tidwell, in his 80s, has hired a law firm to represent him in the lawsuit. In court filings, his lawyers are trying to get the suit thrown out. His attorney did not return CNN's calls for comment. \"You've got to realize what these guys did,\" Stratton said. \"They mentally abused us, and they beat us. Is that something you should say: 'I'm sorry fellas. You're an old man now, live out the rest of your life in a rocking chair.' Well, no way.\"","highlights":"Lawsuit alleges abuse at Florida reform school during 1960s .\nAttorneys say they have spoken to more than 80 former residents .\nFormer resident Don Stratton says he was beaten, saw boy carried away .\nGovernor has ordered investigation of what lies beneath 31 white crosses .","id":"6ccf82c26721f6acb41658573c86184fca9a3b8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Earth Day may fall later this week, but as far as former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell and other UFO enthusiasts are concerned, the real story is happening elsewhere. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, shown after his Apollo mission in 1971, claims there \"is no doubt we are being visited.\" Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments. He delivered his remarks during an appearance at the National Press Club following the conclusion of the fifth annual X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms. Mankind has long wondered if we're \"alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone,\" Mitchell said. \"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there.\" Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown \"had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities.\" They had been warned of \"dire consequences\" if they did so. But, he claimed, they \"didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story.\" Roughly 10 years ago, Mitchell claimed, he was finally given an appointment at Pentagon to discuss what he had been told. An unnamed admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash \"were confirmed,\" but the admiral was then denied access when he \"tried to get into the inner workings of that process.\" The same admiral, Mitchell claimed, now denies the story. \"I urge those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited,\" he said. \"The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time.\" A NASA spokesman denied any cover-up. \"NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this planet or anywhere else -- period,\" Michael Cabbage said Monday. Debates have continued about what happened at Roswell. The U.S. Air Force said in 1994 that wreckage recovered there in 1947 was most likely from a balloon-launched classified government project. Stephen Bassett, head of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), which hosted the X-Conference, said that the truth about extraterrestrial life is being suppressed because it is politically explosive. \"There is a third rail [in American politics], and that is the UFO question. It is many magnitudes more radioactive than Social Security ever dreamed to be,\" Bassett said.","highlights":"He says governments are concealing evidence that extraterrestrials exist .\nThe astronaut is from Roswell, New Mexico, the site of an alleged UFO crash .\nMitchell: Roswell residents \"told not to talk about their experience\" by military .","id":"8d60ee73bf82cd071361f4bbb64ae4b30fb3f4c5"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has been making the the rounds of major industrial facilities in the country's north, state-run media reported Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il meets people at a library in the country's north. It was the second time in as many days that state media reported Kim's activities. State media reported Wednesday that Kim had visited a steel company and expressed \"great satisfaction\" with workers' efforts. The steel factory tour generated no pictures, but his stops at a library and an electronics research facility in Jagang Province the day before did. Kim was shown bundled up in a parka with matching thick gloves. He was also wearing a fur hat and his signature dark sunglasses. The photos showed Kim engaged in conversation and active. South Korean media noted it was the first time since Kim reappeared in public October 4 -- after a hiatus of nearly 60 days -- that his activities have been reported two days in a row. Kim's disappearance during that period raised speculation about the North Korean leader's health. South Korean analysts said they believe the new reports are an attempt by the North Korean leadership to show Kim is healthy and in control. Last week, Francois-Xavier Roux, a French neurosurgeon at Saint-Anne Hospital in Paris, told a French newspaper that Kim had suffered a stroke, but is now better. The doctor said he last treated Kim in late October. The North has denied its leader was ever ill and state media has issued a series of reports portraying Kim as healthy and active.","highlights":"North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has appeared in public again .\nPictures show Kim healthy and active at library, research facility .\nSurgeon claimed he treated Kim for a stroke, North Korea denies any illness .","id":"63cc837f2d755fbd45ca141544913b2df4ebb53c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A pedestrian was struck twice by vehicles in Queens and dragged for 17 miles by the second vehicle before police found him dead in Brooklyn, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Wednesday. Surveillance video shows a body in the middle of the street. The badly mangled body was discovered under a van after several passing motorists motioned the driver to pull over, Kelly said. Police had not identified the victim Wednesday evening, he said. The first driver called 911 to report he thought he had struck a pedestrian but did not see anyone. It turned out the second driver, in a van, had driven over the man, whose body became lodged under its chassis, according to police. Kelly said the van driver stopped at one point during the drive on New York City's highways and roads because he noticed the vehicle was not driving properly. But he failed to find anything unusual, Kelly said. Police are retracing the route the van drove in an attempt to find body parts, he said. No charges have been filed, Kelly told reporters Wednesday afternoon.","highlights":"Pedestrian struck twice, dragged 17 miles by second vehicle, New York police say .\nMan struck in Queens, van stopped in Brooklyn, police say .\nBody was lodged under van's chassis, according to police .\nPolice retrace van's route, seeking body parts .","id":"2608534efde6bbe94a227e1fab001fe229c45914"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of visitors lined Constitution Avenue in Washington on Saturday morning for the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. The annual two-week National Cherry Blossom Festival runs through April 12. \"Jeopardy!\" host Alex Trebek served as the parade's grand marshal, waving to crowds from the back of a convertible. \"American Idol\" finalist Kimberly Locke, the cast of the musical \"Chicago\" and D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton were among the parade's stars. The cherry blossom trees were a gift of friendship to the U.S. government from Japan in 1912, according to the National Park Service. Their blooming has come to represent the definitive beginning of springtime in the nation's capital. The parade is part of the annual two-week National Cherry Blossom Festival, which is timed around the projected peak bloom period of the famous trees. This year, the trees reached their peak bloom this week, according to the park service. Many high school groups and marching bands also participated in the parade. Near the National Mall, large crowds mingled under the branches of the blossoming trees that line the Tidal Basin. On an unusually blustery day, the delicate pink and white blossoms blew from their branches like snowflakes. \"It's like being in a fairy tale,\" said Maria Podonyi, a visiting professor from Hungary. Podonyi brought her parents, who are visiting the United States from Hungary, to the festival. \"They haven't seen anything like this before,\" she said. \"It's wonderful. The festival is scheduled to run through April 12.","highlights":"\"Jeopardy!\" host Alex Trebek serves as parade's grand marshal .\nCherry blossom trees were a gift to U.S. government from Japan in 1912 .\nNational Cherry Blossom Festival marks the arrival of spring .","id":"fd759c7756a97fbc3cdcbedbbd5d4e2417855c03"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Iranian human-rights activist and Nobel laureate has joined the legal team of an Iranian-American journalist convicted of spying and jailed in Iran. Shirin Ebadi, a civil rights leader in Iran, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Shirin Ebadi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, took up the case of Roxana Saberi at the request of Saberi's family, her father, Reza Saberi, told CNN Wednesday. Ebadi heads the Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Iran. Saberi, 31, was sentenced Saturday to eight years in prison after a one-day trial that was closed to the public. President Obama, as well as other U.S. and international officials sharply denounced the decision. The Rev. Jesse Jackson has offered to travel to Iran to help seek Saberi's release. \"If our voices are heard in Iran today, I would be anxious to travel with a delegation to Iran, if we are permitted, and make an appeal for her freedom,\" said the longtime civil rights activist, according to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson, 67, spoke Tuesday at a peace conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. \"Whenever we've brought people out of captivity, whether in Syria, Cuba, Iraq or Yugoslavia, or Liberia, it's always opened a diplomatic door to reduce tensions,\" he said. Saberi's attorneys said they will appeal her conviction. Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi ordered the head of Tehran's Justice Department to make sure the appeals process is quick and fair. Jackson has offered in the past to help release American hostages, most recently in 2005. At that time, he said he was willing to use his role as a religious leader to help secure the release of Roy Hallums, who was kidnapped along with five others in Baghdad in November 2004. Hallums was freed in September 2005 when U.S. troops raided the farmhouse where he being held outside Baghdad. In 1984, Jackson secured the release of a Navy pilot held in Syria. In 1991, he helped secure the release of 500 \"international guests\" held in Iraq. And in 1999, he persuaded Yugoslavia to release three U.S. soldiers held there during the Kosovo conflict. Obama has called for Saberi's release, saying he is \"gravely concerned with her safety and well-being.\" Watch how U.S.-Iranian relations are complicated \u00bb . \"We are working to make sure that she is properly treated, and to get more information about the disposition of her case,\" Obama said Sunday. \"She is an American citizen, and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage.\" Iranian officials initially said Saberi was held for buying a bottle of wine. The Foreign Ministry later said she was detained for reporting without proper credentials. Saberi, who comes from North Dakota, has been living in Iran since 2003, said the Committee to Protect Journalists, a journalists' advocacy group. She has freelanced for National Public Radio and other news organizations, and was writing a book about Iranian culture. Iranian authorities revoked her press credentials in 2006, but Saberi continued to file short news items without permission, the journalists' group said. Saberi was detained in January, although no formal charges were disclosed. On April 9, word emerged that Saberi had been charged with espionage. \"Without press credentials and under the name of being a reporter, she was carrying out espionage activities,\" Hassan Haddad, a deputy public prosecutor, told the Iranian Students News Agency. Authorities also said Saberi had confessed. Her father said he thinks she was coerced into making damaging statements. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi offers to help in Iran .\nEbadi heads the Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Iran .\nJournalist Roxana Saberi worked for NPR, was writing a book, accused of spying .\nRev. Jesse Jackson offers to go to Iran to help negotiate Saberi's release .","id":"1eebbff3fc902e7084f7c4f34de5f00a84b646a4"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.COM) -- Here's a little fact of life that took me by surprise: Roughly 23 million women in this country are 40 to 49 years of age and about 6,000 of us turn 50 every single day. We are a thoroughly undefined constituency. Some of us are what the wonderful Wendy Wasserstein used to call \"bachelor girls,\" some of us are married, and a lot of us have had trial separations that seemed to go just fine...at least for the husband (with the struggling rock band), who went on to become the ex-husband (with the thriving law practice). Many of us have demanding kids or aging parents or a little of each. We juggle jobs, mortgages, student loans, and cancer treatments with low-fat diets, low-impact aerobics, low-grade depressions, a strong sense of irony, a dark sense of humor, and a full-bodied cabernet. We are tired. We are very tired -- we've thought seriously about penciling in a nervous breakdown for ourselves, but we've been through everything the world has to throw at us so many times that it's damn near impossible to get nervous about much of anything. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the coulda, woulda, shoulda moments that have come and gone, we've learned how to have a good laugh, an impromptu party, and an impure thought (or two) on a semiregular basis. We consider our options, our alternatives, our exit strategies. We take notes, we plan ahead, but we always leave room for serendipity. We are an entire generation of women who are making up our lives as we go along. Oprah.com: What Oprah has learned though the years . I know that it's human nature to want to glorify the past and preserve it in a delicious, if often inaccurate, cotton-candied haze. But the truth is that part of me (that would be the part of me that now needs an underwire bra and a pair of Spanx) really does miss my 20s. I still had that new car smell. I still thought terrorism would stay confined to the other side of the world. On the home front, I still kept standing up for brides (as if they needed my assistance to stand) while waiting politely for it to be my turn. And because it never occurred to me that my turn wouldn't come, I devoted an inordinate amount of time to trying to decide whether my wedding gown should be white or ecru -- by the time I hit 35, I'd have been okay with paisley. The Web had not gone mainstream when I was in my 20s, so any surfing I did (and coming from Detroit, that wasn't much) was in the ocean. And I grant you, my rearview mirror might be a little bit rose-tinted, but if memory serves, those oceans were fairly clean. Come to think of it, the glaciers were glacial, the bees were alive and well, a can of tuna didn't require a warning from the surgeon general, and the climate wasn't making any sudden moves. Color me crazy, but I've always been a sucker for a nice solid layer of ozone parking itself between me and a death ray. I'm also a great believer in time off for good behavior. I crave solitude. I like being unreachable once in a while, and in those days it was no big deal if somebody couldn't track you down for half an hour. You see, in the 1980s, we didn't know from e-mail or cell phones or Facebook or GPS, and a BlackBerry was nothing more complicated than a healthy treat that was high in antioxidants -- only guess what? Nobody had ever heard of antioxidants. I didn't need a baby aspirin every night or a Lipitor every morning. And I swear to God (that's another thing, God was still around when I was in my 20s), the closest anybody seemed to come to a genuine eating disorder was picking at a mixed green salad on a blind date until it was okay to go home and scarf down the contents of your refrigerator. But before I start turning into my great-uncle Saul, who never fails to tell me how he could've bought the entire Upper East Side of Manhattan for $225 back in 1936 (\"when an ear of corn still tasted like an ear of corn\"), let me say this: As much as I miss those days, I'm delighted and relieved to be done with being young. One quick glance in the mirror is all I need to know that time is most definitely a thief. Wait, strike that: One glance and I usually think I'm holding up pretty well -- it's upon closer inspection, that moment when I take a deep breath, put on my glasses, and turn up the dimmer switch, that I'm reminded gravity is not my friend. But if time has robbed me of a little elasticity and a lot of na\u00efvet\u00e9, it's left a few things in their place. Thanks to nearly 48 years at the big dance, a million mistakes, and one extraordinary psychiatrist, I've finally achieved the occasional touch of clarity. I'm getting to be resourceful. I'm getting to be resilient, and I hope that on my better days, I'm getting to be a little more calm, a little more contemplative, a little more compassionate. Oprah.com: How to make your midlife matter . Sometimes I think being middle-aged isn't about learning a lot of new lessons so much as learning the same old ones again and again. Here are a few of the lessons I keep learning: . \u2022 It is never a good thing when a shrinking portion of the population controls a growing portion of the money. It tends to make incredibly decent, hardworking, middle-class people sort of jumpy, and the next thing you know Kirsten Dunst is playing Marie Antoinette in a Sofia Coppola extravaganza. \u2022 Anyone who looks okay in ochre will look even better not in ochre. \u2022 War and famine bad, James Franco and spaghetti carbonara good. \u2022 What doesn't kill me does not make me stronger. It makes me anxious, bitchy, and vulnerable...but nobody wants to see that embroidered on a pillow. \u2022 This isn't exactly an old lesson I keep learning, but given that I'm lucky enough to have my own column, I'd like to use it to set right an unfortunate mistake. Remember a few years ago when we all got together and decided that sleep was the new sex? I've come to believe that we were dead wrong. What do you say we make actual ouch-you're-on-my-hair, did-you-hear-the-baby, jeez-that-was-my-eye, messy, intimate, life-affirming, really, really fun sex the new sex?! Because here's the thing: Between the economy, the environment, and the powder keg that is Pakistan, nobody's getting any sleep anyway -- so as long as we're all lying there wide awake... \u2022 Dorothy Parker was a genius. She wrote a gem of a poem called \"Indian Summer.\" It's very short, but I'm low on space, so I'll just cut to the end: . But now I know the things I know, . And do the things I do; . And if you do not like me so, . To hell, my love, with you! Bravo, Ms. Parker. And, finally, deep into my 40s, I couldn't agree with you more. By Lisa Kogan from O, The Oprah Magazine, February 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Columnist Lisa Kogan heads toward 50s with fond look back at younger years .\nBack then, she still had her \"new car smell\" and could enjoy solitude .\nSays women in her generation are tired, considering scheduling a breakdown .\nBut since no one is sleeping these days, she'd like life-affirming, really fun sex .","id":"ba0e843df62123a52ee420abf736201adedd46a7"} -{"article":"LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CNN) -- Carlotta Walls LaNier points out the only two African-Americans in her senior class as she flips through her high school yearbook. She pauses when she sees the picture on a page dedicated to \"Integration.\" Carlotta Walls LaNier and eight other members of the Little Rock Nine are invited to Obama's inauguration. It's been nearly five decades since LaNier graduated from Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. \"It shows how the 101st were on the grounds of the school,\" says LaNier. In 1957, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, an elite Army unit, escorted LaNier and eight other African-American students into the all-white public high school. The students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, were taunted and threatened by an angry mob. \"We knew we could not participate in extracurricular activities,\" recalls LaNier. \"There was one who could have been in the band, one who could have been on track. I was the one who played basketball ... I couldn't do that.\" Back then, LaNier thought once the doors of equality were open it wouldn't be long before an African-American became president. \"I had hoped to see something like that in the next 10 or 15 years when I was in high school but that didn't happen,\" says LaNier. What has happened is a new generation of students walks the halls at Central High. Even though the exterior looks the same as it did during integration -- the interior would be almost unrecognizable to LaNier and the other Little Rock Nine. Student: I can't believe it happened here, but I'm glad it did \u00bb . Today, the sea of mostly white faces has disappeared. The hallways are now filled with a more racially diverse student body. Students take a class to learn about the school's history and many say it's given them a greater appreciation for racial tolerance. \"Now it's definitely hard to imagine -- you walk into the halls and you see people of all different races are in the hallway. And in addition, the majority of our school is African-American now,\" points out Afshar Sanati, student body president. \"It is hard for me to walk inside the school every day and see how this place could have been such a hostile environment for nine African-American students.\" LaNier is still humble when she reflects on her experience. \"We all knew that we were giving up something for a bigger cause and [we were] happy that we did it,\" says LaNier. \"Because it has been 51 years, I think they were baby steps now. But they were big steps then.\" The steps taken by the Little Rock Nine were so big, in fact, they received personal invitations to attend President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. \"I think the Little Rock Nine set the foundation,\" says student Sarah Karney. \"I don't think [Obama's election] could have happened without them.\" Today, many students at Central High see themselves as the beneficiaries of an Obama presidency. \"Him being president means there actually is a chance for anyone to do what they want to do if they work hard enough,\" says Helena Liu, who says she doesn't see race when she looks at Obama. \"It doesn't depend on your race -- it depends on who you are, the quality of your character,\" says DeIvory Howard. \"[We've] got to get past just the color of our skins being newsworthy. It's really about all the things we knew we could do for this country and now we have the opportunity to show it and it's going to come through his leadership,\" says LaNier. \"And, we're looking forward to that.\" Senior Chris Bell couldn't agree more. \"This election proves that this America is just not the old America. It shows that America is ready for something different,\" says Bell. \"I just think ... that's amazing.\"","highlights":"Carlotta Walls LaNier, eight others integrated Little Rock Central High School .\nIn 1957 school was all-white; today it's predominantly African-American .\n\"Little Rock Nine set the foundation\" student says of Obama presidency .\nLaNier hopes Americans will focus on a person's ability; not their race .","id":"75c43facf1c1727335d1084bb16bcc199a117846"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A polar bear falls through thin Arctic ice while searching for food for his family. A humpback whale guides her calf on a perilous 4,000-mile journey. A herd of African elephants in search of water battles a sandstorm in the Kalahari Desert. \"Earth,\" a documentary in theaters Wednesday, follows families of polar bears and other animals. These dramatic scenes await viewers in \"Earth,\" a feature-length documentary hitting theaters Wednesday for Earth Day. For British filmmakers Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, surveying the whole planet for Earth's most exotic species and magnificent landscapes was a daunting task. \"We wanted to tell an epic story about the whole planet,\" co-director Fothergill told CNN in an interview. \"We spent a record 2,000 days in the field. We filmed in 46 countries worldwide, on every continent.\" Fothergill and Linfield shot the footage for the film while making \"Planet Earth,\" the Emmy-award-winning nature series that aired on the BBC and the Discovery Channel in 2007. See photos from \"Planet Earth\" \u00bb . But the filmmakers say \"Earth\" is not just a remix of the previous project. \"The movie has over 40 percent original footage. It has a very distinctly different story line than the TV series,\" said Fothergill, who believes small TV screens don't do justice to the images he and Linfield captured. Watch directors give behind-the-scenes look at 'Earth' \u00bb . \"It's very hard [on TV] to give people a true sense of what it's like to be there,\" he said. \"What we think is very special about the movie is its surround sound. When the lions roar, you get a real feeling for being there.\" \"Earth\" is the first of a series of movies set to be released under the newly branded Disneynature label -- a spin-off of \"True-Life Adventure,\" Disney's first nature documentary series of the '40s and '50s. Nature movies have made a big impression on national and international audiences in recent years. The 2005 documentary \"March of the Penguins\" cost roughly $3 million to make and sold over $127.4 million in tickets worldwide. Disney plans to release one feature-length film a year. The next one is \"Oceans\" in 2010 followed by \"Big Cats\" and \"Chimpanzees.\" In honor of Earth Day 2009, Disney promised to plant a tree for each person who goes to see the movie on its opening weekend. \"Earth\" examines the resilience of life in the face of ever-present danger through three stories of mothers and their young: polar bears in the Arctic, elephants in Africa's Kalahari Desert and humpback whales in the tropical oceans. Thirty-nine other exotic species from all corners of the world get supporting roles. The film is narrated by James Earl Jones, and George Fenton composed the score, which is performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. iReport.com: Tell us about nature and environmental issues near you . Over the course of five years, the filmmakers collected video footage from some of the most remote places on the planet, including the Aurora Australis in Antarctica, the peaks of the Himalayas, and the tropical birds of Papua New Guinea, to reveal the earth's intrinsic beauty and harsh realities. Central to the movie's storyline is the constant tug-of-war between the animal \"actors\" and their ever-changing environment. See iReporters' photos and video of local ecological issues \u00bb . \"Although the elephants and the humpback whales and polar bears are the animal stars, the other big star of the movie is the earth -- the planet itself,\" said Fothergill. \"Really the one thing that unites all of our planet and all the animals that live on it is the seasonality of it.\" Without the earth's 23.5-degree tilt to the sun there would be no seasons, no variation in daylight and darkness, said Fothergill. Fothergill and Linfield used state-of-the-art camera technology to capture nature's predator-prey interplay from great distances without disrupting the hunt. Aerial shots of the elephant herd, for example, were shot using a gyro-stabilized Cineflex aerial camera system mounted to the bottom of a helicopter. \"A lot of the breathtaking cinematography in the movie was only achieved through this special camera system,\" Fothergill said. \"We were ... almost a mile away from our action and we could still get all the close-ups we needed.\" The filmmakers used this technology to film a sequence of a wolf chasing a herd of caribou. \"Wolves are very shy animals and they run very fast. If you are on the ground, you can never keep up with the action. We filmed the whole hunt from our helicopters and because we were flying so high, the wolves could hardly hear us,\" added Fothergill. The filmmakers also used infrared cameras to film a dramatic nighttime sequence of 30 lions in Botswana joining forces to attack an elephant. Fothergill and Linfield couldn't use lights or normal cameras because they would have frightened away the animals. \"Probably the most dangerous single situation was filming the lions at night attacking the elephant,\" Fothergill said. \"Apart from the woman who was looking through an infrared sensitive camera, nobody else could see anything. We were right in the middle of the action and there was a constant concern that the elephants would come charging through our vehicle. That was pretty hairy.\" Another high-speed, high-definition camera, originally developed to film car crash tests, was used to capture an eye-popping scene of a Great White shark leaping out of the water to devour a seal in midair. The camera was able to film shots at 1,000 frames per second, slowing shots by as much as 40 times their original speed. The images were captured directly onto a computer allowing for an endless stream of video while maintaining the detail and clarity of the shot. \"In normal speeds it's gone in seconds, but in slow motion, when you see it lasting 40 seconds to a minute, you get a real sense of the beauty, the scale and the size and power of that shot which is exactly what we wanted,\" Fothergill said. Not a single image in the film was computer generated, Fothergill said. Time-lapse camera technology allowed the filmmakers to condense a year's worth of seasonal changes into a seamless 30-second shot. Fothergill says his formula for movie-making success is simple: \"A lot of waiting around, a lot of patience and a lot of failure.\" The filmmaker believes those failures -- missed opportunities, days of waiting for animals to appear -- paid off in the end. He hopes audiences will be entertained while escaping into the wonders of a world they don't often see. \"We wanted to give people this wonderful journey and say, 'Look, it's a really beautiful planet and it's still ... worth preserving.\"","highlights":"\"Earth,\" a movie about animals and their dramatic journeys, hits theaters Earth Day .\nThe documentary was shot by the same filmmakers who made \"Planet Earth\"\nThe movie is the first released under Disney's newly branded Disneynature label .\nDisney vowed to plant a tree for everyone who sees the film opening week .","id":"a518d809d42a0ad7d1ae2808dcb6d328ae15210c"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Well, here's what we've all been waiting for. Apple put out a couple of announcements on Tuesday related to its desktop computers. Apple on Tuesday announced a new Mac Pro high-end desktop powered by Intel's \"Nehalem\" processor. The company unveiled a new Mac Pro high-end desktop powered by Intel's \"Nehalem\" processor, a new and more graphics-intensive Mac Mini machine, and updated iMacs that include the lowest price point yet for the consumer desktops. Let's look at the new Mac Pro first: priced at $2,499 for the quad-core version and $3,299 for the eight-core version, those Intel \"Nehalem\" Xeon processors run at 2.93 GHz, and the interior of the machine has been cleaned up to make physical expansions easier. On the green front, it meets the new Energy Star 5.0 requirements that will go into effect later this year. The new iMac desktop is a 24\" machine that is priced at $1,499, the cost of Apple's previous 20\" iMac. The 20-inch is now $1,199. The 20\" is powered by a 2.66 GHz processor; the 24\" has processor speed options of 2.66 GHz, 2.93 GHz (for $1,799), or 3.02 GHz (for $2,199). The 24\" comes with a 640GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM expandable to 8GB; the 20\" comes with a 320GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM expandable to 8GB. \"Our flagship 24-inch iMac with twice the memory and twice the storage is now available for just $1,499,\" Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook, currently standing in at the helm of the company in place of iconic CEO Steve Jobs, said in a release. \"The Mac mini is not only our most affordable Mac, it's also the world's most energy efficient desktop computer.\" As for the new Mac Mini, the big upgrade is NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics that Apple says will improve its graphics performance as much as fivefold. The monitor-free machine costs either $599 for a lower-end edition (1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive) or $799 for the higher-end (2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive). All these machines, like the new Mac Pro, meet Energy Star 5.0 requirements. Rumors of new Apple desktop computers were first reported at AppleInsider. \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Apple on Tuesday announced a new Mac Pro high-end desktop .\nPowered by Intel's \"Nehalem\" processor, they're priced at $2,499 and $3,299 .\nApple also unveilved a new and more graphics-intensive Mac Mini machine .\nUpdated 24-inch iMacs have twice the memory and twice the storage .","id":"25f5f29f1286c1e5cf3a08537fe59bf718296f45"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, California (CNN) -- Director Antoine Fuqua, the force behind films such as \"Training Day\" and \"Shooter,\" turned his focus to creating CNN's exclusive short film \"From MLK to Today,\" which airs at 7 p.m. ET Monday. Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, 43, says he didn't believe he would see an African-American president in his lifetime. Before flying off to the Sundance Film Festival to premiere his latest action-thriller, \"Brooklyn's Finest,\" starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle, Fuqua, 43, stopped by the CNN newsroom in Hollywood to discuss the making of this film. He outlined his vision for the piece, which chronicles America's civil rights journey from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Barack Obama. CNN: As a filmmaker, you work with people like Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington. Why are you sitting here in our edit bay doing this project? Antoine Fuqua: Because it's Martin Luther King, and because it's Barack Obama's story. And because it's CNN. It's important to be a part of history, and a part of inspiring people today. I think this is one of the biggest times in my life -- besides my children. So why wouldn't I be here? What else would I be doing except flying to Sundance to promote my movie! [Laughs] Watch a clip from \"From MLK to Today\" \u00bb . CNN: You were born in the '60s, so you were very young during the civil rights movement. You were barely out of diapers when Martin Luther King was assassinated. Fuqua: I am familiar with the history because I love history. African-Americans -- I feel we cannot ever forget our past. Not in an angry or negative way -- just to know where we come from, so we get a better sense of where we're going, and how to get there, and what not to do. I don't think you can ever forget Martin Luther King and many other people who sacrificed, whose names we don't even know. CNN: What do you remember from your childhood? Fuqua: I remember being afraid at times. I remember the Black Panthers. When I was a little boy, the men that were around me were part of a movement. There was a lot of tension. There were a lot of weapons around. There was talk of FBI. I was a little kid, you know -- 6, 5 years old. I didn't really know what it meant. But there was a lot of fear -- a lot of fear of police, or of leaving your neighborhood. CNN: Did you experience much racism growing up in Pittsburgh? Fuqua: I remember a lot of racism. I mean, we used to get beat up by the police. We used to go to certain areas, and cops would slap you around, and grab you by your collar and treat you a certain way. I remember getting on a bus and drivers would treat us disrespectfully, assuming we were going to misbehave. And we were just going to school. I got into fights at school. ... No real reason, except for color of the skin. I don't think they even understood really. CNN: Did you understand? Fuqua: Not really. I didn't really understand it. I was used to it. I had an understanding of it at that age, which was I was black and they were white, and I was poor and they had money. CNN: Did you think there were certain things you couldn't accomplish because you were black? What about being a director? Fuqua: When I was a little kid, I used to sleep in my grandmother's basement, and I would read magazines, and books and things -- and I would dream of places I would go. I remember thinking, \"Well, if it's just a matter of money to leave my neighborhood, then I have to make money.\" Then I read something about craftsmanship -- which is not a word you used often in that time in the ghettos. If you learn a craft, then you can make a living for the rest of your life. So I went to school to be an electrical engineer. And when I was in school, I took a Baroque art class. They were talking about Caravaggio, who was a Baroque painter. Now he was from the streets in Italy, and he used to paint these very provocative paintings of people he lived with on the streets -- beggars, and prostitutes and things. It reminded me of my world -- in the sense of being a young kid on the streets, growing up, seeing a lot of provocative images that I was probably too young to see -- and I would express them, and I would do little illustrations or I would paint on a wall. Then I started to study [Akira] Kurosawa, who was a painter as well as a director. I saw his movies -- \"The Seven Samurai\" and all that -- and I thought, \"Wow, that's even more interesting, because it's a moving picture and you get to tell a story.\" CNN: And now you're telling the story of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama. Did you ever think you'd see an African-American president of the United States? Fuqua: Never. Never. Not in my time. I thought somewhere down the line it would happen, but not in my time -- because I still deal with racial situations. Sometimes people don't do it blatantly. They'll say something, or they'll behave a certain way when I know they don't normally behave that way. As a director, you run into walls where they say, \"Well, it doesn't translate well overseas. You know, you need to have a white movie star in it.\" There's some truth to that. So if Hollywood's not ready to embrace more stories about African-Americans -- and that's based on the money that the movies make -- then would the country really be ready to embrace a president? You know, the CEO of the country? And obviously, we are. We are ready. CNN: As a director, you have this story about an unbelievable presidential election, where a first-term senator wins. Would you have cast Barack Obama in that role? Fuqua: In a heartbeat, in a heartbeat. He's like a movie star. Look at the guy. He's dashing, he's charming, he's got a little swagger about him. He reminds me of Denzel in their way. [Fuqua directed Washington in the 2001 action-thriller \"Training Day.\"] I was with Denzel over Christmas, and they're very similar -- their mannerisms at times. CNN: In the short film you're directing for us, you've drawn the parallel between Obama and Martin Luther King. Fuqua: It is the passing of the torch between Martin Luther King and Barack Obama. I think Barack Obama is the \"dream.\" I mean, we're all the dream. I think it's a bigger picture than one man. CNN: What's the message you want to convey with your short film? Fuqua: Hope. A sense of the past. But more than anything, I would love people to walk away feeling like we've just begun.","highlights":"Director Antoine Fuqua is filmmaker behind CNN's \"From MLK to Today\"\nFuqua discusses life, experiences with racism and the hope Barack Obama brings .\nFuqua, director of \"Training Day,\" compares Obama with Denzel Washington .\nFuqua's latest feature-length project, \"Brooklyn's Finest,\" screened at Sundance fest .","id":"f6ba0b0763eaddec1b81ad80aadf8a9b23c2a40a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A Russian naval ship rescued a Dutch container vessel under attack by suspected Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the head of the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday. The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Sirius Star was recently released by pirates off Somalia. Two or three pirate speedboats were chasing the Dutch ship, with the goal of boarding it, when the Russians intervened, said Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau in London. He said the pirates fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the Dutch ship, but no injuries were reported. The incident occurred about midday Tuesday. The Russians chased one of the speedboats but the pirates got away, Mukundan said. He said he did not know where the Dutch ship was headed. \"It is important that the naval vessels continue to respond robustly to these pirates,\" he said. Watch how attacks peaked in 2008 \u00bb . Hijackings off the coast of East Africa have become a growing international concern, prompting a number of foreign navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden and neighboring coastal areas. The Gulf of Aden links the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. About 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route near Somalia each year. Most of the attacks are blamed on pirates based in largely lawless Somalia, a country racked by poverty and conflict. Watch CNN's exclusive interview with a pirate . According to the United Nations, there were 115 reported pirate attacks off the Somali coast in 2008, including 46 successful hijackings. Read blog on how CNN contacted a pirate . The troubling rise in Somali piracy has led the United Nations to step up efforts to tackle the crime. The first U.N. group to address piracy met Wednesday in New York. Mark Kimmitt, U.S. assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs chaired the \"contact group\" of two dozen nations and five multi-national organizations. He said the group was formed to \"establish a counter-piracy coordination mechanism,\" and the members believe more can be done to halt piracy. Still, Kimmitt noted that less than one percent of manifests off the Somali coast are attacked by pirates and only 50 percent of those have crew and passengers taken hostage. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution in December expanding counter-piracy measures off the Horn of Africa, including a stipulation that allows national and regional military forces to chase pirates onshore in Somalia when in \"hot pursuit.\"","highlights":"NEW: First United Nations group to address piracy meets in New York .\nTwo or three speedboats were chasing the Dutch container ship, IMB says .\nIMB: The pirates fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the Dutch ship .\nHijackings off East Africa have led international navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden .","id":"96011a3b4627fd8ddf504b6fb58fa79240f8d3b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A court has lifted a ban on identifying a man charged with one of a number of deadly wildfires that scorched southeastern Australia this month. A dirt track runs through the burnt out forest in the Kinglake region of Victoria state. The man, 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk, did not appear in Monday's hearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court, the Australian Associated Press reported. An order banning the publishing of Sokaluk's street address or his image remains in place. Public passions are running high in the aftermath of the fires that have killed scores of people. One T-shirt says, \"The bastards who lit Victoria's fires should: Burn in hell.\" Sokaluk is suspected of lighting a fire on February 7. He was charged with arson causing death, intentionally or recklessly lighting a bush fire, and possessing child pornography, Victoria state police said last week. The fire Sokaluk is accused of setting killed at least 21 people in Gippsland. See map of fire-hit areas \u00bb . Sokaluk's identity had already been revealed on social networking sites before the court lifted the suppression order on his name. There were 12 Facebook groups carrying details about Sokaluk, with one attracting more than 3,600 members. Watch more on arrest \u00bb . Robbie Shenton, who has joined one such group, told CNN: \"The judicial system had no right to suppress his name or photograph.\" Melbourne's Age newspaper reported Police had contacted Facebook seeking removal of Sokaluk's details. The death toll in a string of fires across Victoria climbed to 189 on Monday, police reported. The number of fires burning had dropped to six, from about a peak of about three dozen, the Country Fire Authority said. Watch a survivor tell his story \u00bb . Meanwhile, more than 150 detectives were working on the arson investigation, authorities said. The fires have destroyed more than 1,800 homes and displaced about 7,000 people. Priyanka Deladia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Court lifts ban on identifying man charged with starting deadly wildfire .\nBrendan Sokaluk, 39, did not appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court .\nOrder banning publishing of Sokaluk's address or image remains in place .","id":"79cba2455d5152654c7901935d879293dc2c7380"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The death of actress Natasha Richardson, who sustained a fatal head injury while skiing, has reignited the perennial debate around the safety of the sport. Head injuries are the most common cause of death among skiers . The 45 year-old died Wednesday, two days after falling on a beginners slope while having a private lesson at Canada's Mont Tremblant resort. While full details of the circumstances surrounding Richardson's death are not yet known, head injuries are the most common cause of fatalities among skiers worldwide. \"A typical death is a high speed collision with a static object after losing control -- a tree or a person,\" Dr Mike Langran a GP who works in Aviemore, Scotland and runs Ski-injury.com told CNN. \"Most ski deaths involve multi-trauma, but a head injury is by far the most common reason. \"There might be injuries to the abdomen or the chest or the neck but there nearly always is a head trauma as well.\" However, Langran, along with many other industry experts, maintains that skiing is a relatively safe sport. \"I don't regard skiing and snowboarding as a dangerous sport,\" he said. \"It's like many activities in life -- there are people who do silly things but in general these sports are safe.\" There are an estimated 200 million skiers in the world, and in the U.S. (one of the few countries to keep reliable data on skiers and ski injuries) an estimated 55 million people ski. Each year there are 39 deaths, which equates to about 2 deaths per million skiers. While children and beginners are most at risk of being injured while skiing, it's those more experienced on the slopes who are most likely to be involved in a fatal accident. \"When you look at fatalities it does tend to be younger males and often of better skiing ability who are maybe pushing limits a little bit harder, traveling a little bit faster,\" Langran said. In Austria, earlier this year a huge debate over the safety of skiing was sparked by a high-profile incident on the slopes, which involved a German politician. Deiter Althaus, minister-president of Thuringia state was charged with manslaughter after colliding with another skier, Beata Christandl, a 41 year-old Slovakian mother of four, who later died from multiple head injuries. He was accused by Austrian prosecutors of entering onto a slope against the direction of traffic while skiing at high speed. Althaus was left with a fractured skull and has no recollection of the accident. Althaus' accident may be typical of the kind that cause deaths in skiers but, The Austria Ski Federation says Althaus' case is very unusual. Each year, an estimated 10 million people ski in Austria's resorts and there are between 10 and 50 deaths during this time, according to Thomas Woldrich, Head of Leisure Skiing at the federation. \"There's a minimal risk to get hurt when skiing,\" Woldrich told CNN. \"When you're skiing approximately 14 days a year, the risk of having an injury is one in 55 years.\" Even so, a law was recently passed in Austria making it compulsory for children to wear helmets on Austrian ski slopes. \"We do have an extraordinary trend towards wearing helmets,\" said Woldrich. \"We have, especially among children, almost 100 percent of skiers wearing helmets on Austrian ski slopes.\" Whether or not skiers should be forced by law to wear helmets is a debate that continues energetically in many countries. The big question is do they make skiers safer. Langran says that while there is evidence to suggest that helmets will provide a moderate degree of protection for low speed impacts, there is no evidence for high speed collisions. \"As far as I'm aware there is no evidence that for high speed impacts -- you're talking about 30 mph plus impacts, which sounds a lot but that's the average speed of a good intermediate skier on the slopes -- there's no evidence that if you hit a tree at that kind of speed a helmet will protect you against a fatality.\" Indeed, there is evidence that wearing a helmet can give some skiers a feeling of invincibility, which can make them ski faster and more recklessly. So, what can skiers do to make themselves safer? It's all about knowing the risks and making informed choices, according to Sean Langmuir, a trained ski instructor who has coached both the Canadian National Ski Team and the British National Ski Team. \"People need to be better informed but they need to seek out that information for themselves,\" said Langmuir who is also Training Manager for British Association of Snowsport Instructors (BASI). \"A lot of people go on ski holidays and they can't ski very well and they won't go for a lesson immediately. It can help so much to get all that basic information.\" It is also important to have properly fitting equipment, according to Langmuir. \"It's not just a helmet, it can be the skis or the snowboard that you use can make a big difference to how you manage to control yourself. It's quite important to gain information from professionals before you go out about what equipment you will need.\" Skiers can also refer to the the International Ski Federation (FIS) Rules of Conduct as a guide for safety on the slopes. \"The single most important piece of advice is to ski or snowboard within limits of your ability,\" Langran told CNN. \"Don't go faster than you are able to and don't try slopes you shouldn't.\" FIS Rules of Conduct . 1. Respect for others A skier or snowboarder must behave in such a way that does not endanger or prejudice others. 2. Control of speed and skiing or snowboarding A skier or snowboarder must move in control -- adapt speed and manner of skiing or snowboarding to personal ability and to the prevailing conditions of terrain, snow and weather as well as to the density of traffic. 3. Choice of route A skier or snowboarder coming from behind must choose a route in such a way to not endanger skiers or snowboarders ahead. 4. Overtaking A skier or snowboarder may overtake another skier or snowboarder above or below and to the right or to the left provided enough space is available for the overtaken skier or snowboarder to make any voluntary or involuntary movement. 5. Entering, starting and moving upwards A skier or snowboarder entering a marked run, starting again after stopping or moving upwards on the slopes must look up and down the slopes to ensure no one is put at risk. 6. Stopping on the piste Unless absolutely necessary, a skier or snowboarder must avoid stopping on the piste in narrow places or where visibility is restricted. After a fall in such a place, a skier or snowboarder must move clear of the piste as soon as possible. 7. Climbing and descending on foot A skier or snowboarder either climbing or descending on foot must keep to the side of the piste. 8. Respect for signs and markings A skier or snowboarder must respect all signs and markings. 9. Assistance At accidents, every skier or snowboarder is duty bound to assist. 10. Identification Every skier or snowboarder and witness, whether a responsible party or not, must exchange names and addresses following an accident. Additional reporting by Hilary Whiteman .","highlights":"The death of Natasha Richardson on the slopes has reignited skiing safety debate .\nHead injuries are the most common cause of deaths among skiers .\nIndustry experts maintain that skiing is a relatively safe sport .\nAwareness, good training and well-fitted equipment can help keep skiers safer .","id":"25843df7a6e73bbb2e2180a2b0acf4bfb3bc6221"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nine Hutu tribal fighters and several Rwandan and Congolese troops were killed in fighting in eastern Congo, a United Nations spokesman said, as the two governments continued an unprecedented partnership to combat ethnic violence. Laurent Nkunda, seen here in November 2008, was reportedly arrested last week in Rwanda. The fighting against the Hutus in the Lubero region came a day after Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, of the rival Tutsi ethnic group, was arrested by Rwandan authorities. U.N. spokesman Jean Paul Deitrich told CNN on Saturday that no further details about the fighting were immediately available. Lubero is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of Goma, the regional capital. Nkunda's arrest early Friday raised hopes for peace in the war-ravaged region. International observers hope it will lead the roughly 1,500 fighters that follow him to join with government forces. Hear how Nkunda tried to flee capture \u00bb . Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have traditionally been on different sides of the conflict in eastern Congo -- which pits ethnic Tutsis, supported by Rwanda, against Congo-backed Hutus. The fighting is effectively an extension of the Rwandan genocide of the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed in ethnic battles between minority Tutsi and majority Hutu. A United Nations report last month accused Rwanda and Congo of fighting a proxy war in the region, using the ethnic groups. It said both sides had used child soldiers, and committed executions and rape, in the conflict. CNN's Katy Byron contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fighting comes day after Rwanda arrests Tutsi rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda .\nNeighboring nations have been on different sides of the conflict in east Congo .\nStruggle pits Tutsis, supported by Rwanda, against the Congo-backed Hutu .\nThe conflict is effectively an extension of the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s .","id":"f780da8559e3eaad6dafc3a39f89c23beeb8918e"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's fired chief justice was reinstated in a flag-raising ceremony at his house Sunday after the government bowed to protesters' demands following days of massive demonstrations. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will not renew his oath of office. The flag-raising was ceremonial. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will not renew his oath of office because his firing by former President Pervez Musharraf was deemed illegal. About 100 people gathered outside Chaudhry's residence, some dancing, some beating drums in a boisterous celebration. A growing protest movement had demanded that Chaudhry and other judges that Musharraf fired be re-seated. Buckling under pressure, the government of current President Asif Ali Zardari agreed. Along with Chaudhry, most of the sixty others who had been fired have also returned to their posts. Watch people cheer after Chaudhry is reinstated \u00bb . Two unresolved matters will immediately test Chaudhry on his return to office: . Some experts have surmised that one reason Zardari delayed acting on Chaudhry's return is because the Supreme Court wanted to look into the amnesty. Both Zardari and his late wife, one-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had been granted amnesty by Musharraf so they could return from exile in 2007 and participate in elections. The couple faced numerous charges of corruption. Bhutto was assassinated during a campaign rally. Her husband became head of her party and the new president of Pakistan. Zardari promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went. The political turmoil in Pakistan came just a year after the country celebrated a return to democracy. It has forced the government's attention away from a deadly fundamentalist insurgency in its tribal areas and an economy that is on the verge of collapse. The Obama administration Monday praised the Pakistani government's decision to reinstate Chaudhry, with the State Department saying the move \"brought Pakistan back from the brink.\" CNN's Reza Sayah and Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Celebrations outside chief justice's home mark reinstatement .\nAll judges fired by Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf to get jobs back .\nU.S. said the move \"brought Pakistan back from the brink\"","id":"8ccec4a760b848200857428863eba41512519305"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Emergency crews called off a search in Texas for the wreckage of a C-17 transport plane after reports Monday of a possible crash proved unfounded. Callers to the Olney Police Department said they saw a low-flying plane, and a spokesman for Sheppard AFB initially reported a crash, but then retracted the report. Air Force officials said an Air Force C-17 had been flying at low altitude near Olney, but the plane returned safely to Altus Air Force Base in southwest Oklahoma. CNN's Mike Mount and Adam Levine contributed to this story.","highlights":"Emergency crews call off search for C-17 transport plane .\nInitial Air Force reports of a crash were incorrect, Air Force spokesman says .\nPolice reported that callers said a plane was flying low to ground, then crashed .","id":"6647c6b77d0c600a7777c2f8aff08e7d2ce768c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- According to a Russian proverb, God makes the priests. Jesters come from the devil. Heath Ledger dominates as the Joker in \"The Dark Knight\" in a performance already garnering raves. You won't have any trouble believing that aphorism when you see Heath Ledger's mesmerizing performance as the Joker in \"The Dark Knight,\" Christopher Nolan's hotly anticipated and often brilliantly executed follow-up to \"Batman Begins.\" His face caked in cracked white greasepaint, his smile a grotesque red lipstick scar, kohl rimming his eyes, the Joker is a cruel kind of clown, the kind that is only interested in the last laugh. Slouched in his purple suit, Ledger gives him a lopsided shuffle, a permanently craning neck and an insinuating, deceptively neighborly voice. But there's something reptilian about the way his tongue flicks through his pursed lips like a pickpocket. He's hungry for trouble, a maniac for mayhem -- and in Gotham City, where crime is still running wild, he can make himself right at home. Ledger dominates this movie as a living presence, a live wire, dangerous and unpredictable. It's an astonishing performance, as extravagant and free (\"deranged\" might be a better word) as his Ennis Del Mar in \"Brokeback Mountain\" was inhibited and tongue-tied. See how Ledger made the Joker his own \u00bb . And \"The Dark Knight\" takes him -- and its world -- very seriously. Even more than Batman himself, the Joker would usually scream \"camp\" (and has in the TV series and other movies) but Nolan refuses to go there. His Gotham is cement and glass, a \"real\" city not so different from what we might find in any contemporary action thriller. (Chicago doubles for Batman's metropolis.) Unlike Tim Burton or Joel Schumacher, who directed previous Batman films, Nolan favors location work over studio artifice, and he seems determined to keep the computer-generated imagery within the bounds of gravity. Even the fetishistic attention to Batman's toys -- his suit, his weaponry and transport -- emphasizes utility and design; this is not a superhero in the supernatural sense. (He may not be a hero, either, according to the serious-to-a-fault script by Nolan and his brother Jonathan.) \"Batman Begins,\" which came out in 2005, was about the politics of fear, the power of nightmares. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) overcame his own phobia to turn fear back on the fear mongers and restore hope to Gotham. In \"The Dark Knight\" (Nolan must have been tempted to add \"of the Soul\" to the title), the Joker might be his shadow or his evil twin. In some sick way, they need each other. \"You complete me,\" the Joker lisps to Batman, mimicking (mocking?) \"Jerry Maguire.\" Watch co-stars defend Ledger \u00bb . The word is nowhere stated, but this Joker is unmistakably a terrorist -- he blows up hospitals, rigs bombs to commuter ferries, burns his own ill-gotten gains. (He even manages to put Gotham's crime syndicates under his thumb.) That makes Batman a kind of one-man Department of Homeland Security. And if he has to ride roughshod over civil liberties to get the job done -- eavesdropping on the entire city's cell phone data, for example -- then so be it. To their credit, neither Nolan nor Bruce Wayne is comfortable with this glorified vigilante figure. However, the only legitimate alternative turns out to be a civic crusader, District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Dent, who carries around a double-headed coin, may seem honorable, but he was once known as \"Two-Faced Harvey.\" With whom will he cast his lot? That's the movie's ultimate ideological battleground. iReport.com: Lining up for 'Batman?' Send photos, video . Unfortunately, if Dent gives the movie a classic character arc, Eckhart's disappointingly bland performance fails to nail the narcissism that must be the flip side to his zeal, making his ultimate about-face hard to accept. That's the film's most obvious flaw. Whenever the Joker and Batman are in the vicinity, the movie hums with finely tuned dread and anticipation. But the longer it goes on (and yes, it does go on too long), Dent triangulates the equation, ultimately pulling it out of whack. Still, for the most part, \"The Dark Knight\" is an exceptionally smart, brooding picture with some terrific performances. In a summer when action overwhelms intelligence (and even good sense), here's a movie that works on many levels. It even features the single most awesome truck stunt I've ever seen. And though Ledger's tragic death in January can't help but cast a morbid pall over the proceedings -- and that's saying something, given some of the film's plot points -- when he's on the screen the movie lights up. It's a bravura turn. I'll be surprised if Ledger doesn't get a posthumous Oscar for it. \"The Dark Knight\" runs 152 minutes and is rated PG-13. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"CNN.com reviewer: \"Dark Knight\" is an exceptional follow-up to \"Batman Begins\"\nHeath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker in Oscar-worthy performance, reviewer says .\nFilm pits Batman against the Joker, who's come to wreak chaos .","id":"fbbcb0474ad86dd0a78eaaaccc265a89d9c1fdca"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- As long as people have been making cars, other people have been figuring out ways to evaluate what they're worth. Kelley Blue Book offers one of the best online resources to find out how and why your car is worth X amount. In the case of Kelley Blue Book, they've vehemently pursued vehicle values for over 80 years and offer one of the best online resources for companies and private individuals to understand how and why their cars are worth X amount of dollars. We talked with Jack Nerad, the executive editorial director and executive market analyst for KBB.com, to explain some of the best ways that you can evaluate your vehicle's worth. Don't fool yourself . Surprisingly, one of the problems in properly evaluating a vehicle's worth has nothing to do with the vehicle. Think of the computer phrase IT guys like to use, \"It's a PICNIC error.\" Which stands for \"Problem-In-Chair-Not-In-Computer,\" meaning that nothing is really wrong with the computer, the real issue is the person using it. Nerad says that some people trick themselves into thinking their vehicle is worth more than it actually is. \"Where we get into difficulty is when people start fooling themselves about the condition of their car -- that they believe it is in excellent or pristine condition when actually if it has two or three years on it, it's going to have some miles on it, some wear and tear.\" AOL Autos: 2009 cars with best blue book values . You may have yelled at your family and friends every time they even considered bringing a coffee cup into the car, but it's still a used vehicle, uh, I mean pre-owned vehicle. \"Even if you've taken wonderful care of it, it's not going to be as fresh as it was when it left the showroom -- that's something people are going to have to keep in mind.\" Know the true condition . Although you have to be honest with yourself about how your car compares with others on the road, taking good care of it can pay off when selling. \"When you have a used car, condition, condition, condition are the three most important things,\" Nerad explained. AOL Autos: Best-selling sedans . \"So actually assessing your car's condition is crucial to getting the right value, understanding the right value and arriving at the right value. The good news is that at our Web site we give you a checklist that you can essentially go through and it includes things like mileage, equipment levels and also an assessment of condition, which helps you arrive at the appropriate value.\" Nerad said that the values KBB gives are estimated ranges of what the vehicle is worth rather than an exact dollar amount because they are factored remotely. Still, an estimate from the Web site is one of the best and simplest ways to calculate your car's worth. AOL Autos: 10 best cars of 2009 . Body shops can help, but a wash and wax might be better . \"Most often, it's been our experience that you're better off giving an honest discloser of the car's condition and selling it as is opposed to doing things like cosmetic changes, which can be pretty expensive and are kind of in the eye of the beholder,\" Nerad said. AOL Autos: Cars with the worst values . He mentioned that the person purchasing your vehicle might not care as much about some of the minor cosmetic flaws and would rather hold onto their money than pay for a car in pristine condition. \"I don't think too many people who are buying used cars, especially over a few years old, are expecting a car to be in perfect condition or even nearly pristine condition. I think they're expecting to buy something that has a few miles on it in all senses of that term.\" AOL Autos: Car cleaning tips . There is a difference between taking your car to the body shop and taking your car to have a wash and wax job done, however. Appearance is still one of your car's best selling points, and you should do everything you can, short of spending more than your car's worth, to make it look good. \"I think the thing that most helps is appearance. It's kind of like the curb value of your home. Appearance is going to catch people's eyes, and it's going to give off the impression that the car was taken care of. If the car is dirty and there are scratches on it, inside and out, if it doesn't appear to be taken care of, that's going to have a negative effect on what you're liable to get for it,\" Nerad explained. \"The good news on that cosmetic stuff, washing the car, giving it a wax job, cleaning the tires, those kind of things are pretty inexpensive to do. Even cleaning the interior out helps the added value. It's certainly worth doing to put your best foot forward that way.\" Understand the resale game . Since Kelley Blue Book released its 2008 resale value guide not too long ago, I asked Nerad about the assessment of car values. He explained that cars can have high resale values based on their actual resale value, their perceived resale value or simply their demand. The better you understand where your car fits into this system, the easier it will be to understand why your car is worth what is and how to sell it. \"For instance, a Honda, BMW or Volkswagen has a reputation for resale value in the marketplace, so it helps them to have good resale value,\" he said. Although not necessarily true for the brands just mentioned, Nerad notes that sometimes brand equity, the popularity of a particular brand, can override its current level of reliability, although it's not common. \"What we've found though, is there are really no major swings in this, there are changes, year to year changes and we adjust our site year to year, but they don't really move in a volatile way,\" he said. \"It's something that has a degree of predictability about it.\" Keep in mind that your car's resale value is public information; anyone can go online and look it up in 2 minutes. If you let the online experts do their job in evaluating your vehicle's worth, you're likely to sell the vehicle a lot faster than if you overprice it or exaggerate its condition. Keep it clean and happy selling.","highlights":"Expert for Kelley Blue Book explains how to evaluate your car's worth .\nPeople often fool themselves about the condition of the car, expert says .\nAppearance is one of your car's best selling points so make sure to wash it .\nResale values based on actual\/perceived resale value or simply demand .","id":"04545286e248fe30a29e792bf3a7169eebab0dfc"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Two satellites, one Russian and one American, have collided some 800 kilometers (500 miles) above Siberia, the Russian and U.S. space agencies, said Thursday. Debris from the collision poses no threat to the International Space Station. The collision on Tuesday produced two large debris clouds, NASA said. The satellites collided at 10 kilometers (6 miles) per second, producing 500-600 new pieces of space debris, the U.S. Strategic Command said. That debris is not believed to pose a threat to the International Space Station as long as the clouds continue moving in a lower orbit, according to NASA and the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos. \"There is some elevated risk, but it is considered to be very small to the ISS and to the other satellites that NASA has in orbit,\" NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey told CNN. She said experts were still assessing the effects of the debris. Mikhail Martirosov, from Russian mission control center, told Interfax news agency that the real threat from the debris will become obvious next week, once experts can calculate the trajectory of the fragments' descent. \"We have not received a warning of the possible danger to the ISS. The fragments may descend to the ISS orbit in several years, although I do not rule out that some fragments may go down within several days,\" Martirosov said. The Russian satellite was launched in 1993 and had been out of service at the time of the collision, Roscosmos said. The U.S. satellite was part of the Iridium global mobile communications system and is owned by a consortium headed by Motorola, the space agency said. It was launched in 1997. Iridium said in a statement Wednesday it \"expects to implement a network solution by Friday,\" and will \"move one of its in-orbit spare satellites into the network constellation to permanently replace the lost satellite\" within the next 30 days. CNN is \"one of the larger non-government users\" of Iridium, said Arnie Christianson, operations manager for CNN Satellites and Transmission. \"We do rely on it for communication in high-risk areas like Iraq, Afghanistan, and other remote locations,\" he said. \"Because of this collision, there may be a slightly longer hole in the coverage from one satellite to the next, but only in a very small area and for a very small amount of time. This is a collision, not an internal failure of the satellite or the system.\" The satellite crash may result in \"brief, occasional outages\" that may slightly disrupt service, Iridium said in the statement, adding \"this event is not the result of a failure on the part of Iridium or its technology.\" Christianson questioned how U.S. government, which tracks all space junk larger than a football, didn't see this coming. But he said the system will continue to work without any noticeable problems. A representative of Iridium could not immediately be reached for comment. NASA's Dickey said a collision like this one is very rare. \"This is the first impact between two intact satellites traveling at hypervelocity,\" she said. \"There have been some other occasions when things have accidentally collided in space, but they have been parts of rockets or parts of satellites and (produced) a very small cloud.\" Major Regina Winchester, of the U.S. Strategic Command, said: \"Space is getting pretty crowded. The fact that this hasn't happened before -- maybe we were getting a little bit lucky.\" Winchester said Strategic Command tracks more than 18,000 pieces of manmade objects in space every day. \"Any time there's an event that creates more debris, it's a concern,\" she said. \"All countries who have assets in space are going to be concerned simply because when there's more debris, there's a higher chance it's going to hit something.\" CNN's Yuri Pushkin in Moscow and Melissa Gray in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"One Russian and one U.S. satellite collide at 10 km per second .\nCollision is believed to be the first of its kind .\nNASA spokesman quoted as saying crash produced massive debris cloud .\nWreckage from collision expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere .","id":"9bb04cf539d8776aae484e32e0c483676a88d313"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shahid Afridi claimed six victims to pave the way for Pakistan to claim victory by four wickets in their opening one-day international against Australia in Dubai. Career-best figures from Shahid Afridi helped steer Pakistan to victory in the first one-dayer against Australia. The all-rounder secured career-best figures of six for 38 as Australia could only manage a paltry 168 in an innings that lasted just 38.5 overs. The world champions again lost their way in the middle overs, losing eight for 27 at one stage as they wilted against Afridi's spin. It could have been worse for the Australians who relied on a last-wicket stand of 46 runs between James Hopes (48 not out) and Ben Hilfenhaus (four) to give their score some respectability. Pakistan's reply always looked on track with Kamran Akmal hitting 48 at the top of the order before Misbah-ul-Haq anchored the innings with an unbeaten 30 from 68 balls. A near-capacity crowd filled the Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium as the venue hosted international cricket for the first time. The postponed series, which was originally due to be played last year, had been moved from Pakistan to neutral turf because of security concerns. Meanwhile, a superb half-century from Adam Gilchrist set Deccan Chargers on their way to a 24-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League in Cape Town. The Australian smashed a quickfire 71 and Rohit Sharma contributed 52 as Deccan reached 184 for six from their 20 overs. Bangalore's reply never really got going with captain Kevin Pietersen managing just 11 before he fell to a teasing delivery from Pragyan Ojha and a smart stumping from Gilchrist. Rahul Dravid gave them hope with a thumping 48 before holing out, and Virat Kohli posted 50, but with precious little support from their team-mates their efforts proved in vain.","highlights":"Shahid Afridi claims six victims to pave the way for Pakistan to beat Australia .\nPakistan reach required target to win first one-dayer in Dubai by four wickets .\nAdam Gilchrist half-century helps Deccan Chargers beat Bangalore in the IPL .","id":"78a669ab733b60d29ddaba3cd82e09e8b9e05b2c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Defense Department will release \"a substantial number\" of photographs showing abuse of prisoners at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Aggressive techniques to interrogate terror suspects are making headlines again. The release will be in response to an open-records lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the group said in a written statement. The statement released late Thursday said the photos were taken at facilities other than Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. \"These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib,\" Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney, said in the release. The photos are to be released by May 28, the ACLU said. The Department of Defense announced in a letter addressed to the federal court on Thursday that it would release the photos. In a copy of the letter posted on the ACLU's Web site, acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said that 21 photographs would be released and that the government \"also is processing for release a substantial number of other images.\" The lawsuit was filed in 2004 after the Bush administration denied a 2003 open-records request by the ACLU. The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled last year that the photos should be released. The Defense Department will not appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Dassin said in the letter. Attempts by CNN to reach the White House and Department of Defense for comment were not immediately successful.","highlights":"Photos showing abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan to be released, ACLU says .\nACLU filed lawsuit in 2004 against Bush administration for access to photos .\nDefense Department says it will not appeal court ruling, will release pictures .\nACLU: Pictures, taken at facilities other than Abu Ghraib, to be released by May 28 .","id":"54cd194ab52e8c4c6ea9a09a3d9f58acc6eec8eb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is keeping a close eye on Pakistan after this week's Taliban surge into the Buner district brought them just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. A Taliban fighter in the district of Buner, which is only 96 kilometers from Islamabad. A Pakistani government official said Friday that the insurgents had completely withdrawn from the district by the end of the week, but a human rights group said people in Buner were reporting that local Taliban remained in the district. And senior U.S. officials cautioned that any withdrawal by the Taliban was likely meaningless and that the fundamentalist group now holds large areas of the country with the government seemingly unable to stop them. \"We're certainly moving closer to the tipping point,\" Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on NBC's \"Today\" show Friday. In the interview from Afghanistan, Mullen said he was \"extremely concerned\" about indications the Taliban is moving closer to Pakistan's capital of Islamabad. Syed Mohammed Javed, commissioner of the Malakand Division that includes Buner, said the Taliban withdrew on Friday without any conditions. Earlier in the day, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told CNN that the militants would pull back from the district. Pakistani Express TV showed live footage of armed and masked Taliban militants in Buner, loading pickup trucks and driving away. Sufi Muhammed, an Islamist fundamentalist leader who has been negotiating on behalf of the Taliban, was on scene overseeing the withdrawal, police said. U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus credited about 300 Pakistan's Frontier Corps with driving Taliban militants out of Buner. The U.S. Central Command chief spoke to CNN on Friday after testifying before a Congressional panel about the need for the United States to boost its support for Pakistani counterinsurgency troops such as the Frontier Corps. But Amnesty International's regional chief said people in Buner are reporting a different situation. \"What we're hearing from people in Buner ... is that the Taliban that have moved out are the non-local ones,\" Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia Pacific director, told CNN. \"So the local branch of the Taliban are still in place in Buner.\" Amnesty International is concerned that those local Taliban will continue to enforce the Taliban's \"abusive and repressive\" control of Buner. Girls over the age of 7 are forced to wear a burka, a head-to-toe covering that the Taliban say is required of Muslims under its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia. \"I think we're going to see those harsh edicts stay,\" Zarifi said. The Taliban installed strict Islamic law when it took over Afghanistan after a two-year fight with warlords, many of whom surrendered without a fight. They fought with a coalition of some of those warlords known as the Northern Alliance from 1996 until U.S. forces, seeking the leadership of al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, added bombing raids to Northern Alliance ground operations and successfully drove the Taliban out of most of Afghanistan. iReport: Should the U.S. intercede in Pakistan? But the Taliban regrouped in 2004, launching a guerrilla war against the Afghan government while operating from the tribal areas of that country and Pakistan. Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials said that the \"retreat\" was likely meaningless. Control was the impetus behind the Taliban move into Buner, and the fundamentalist group now controls large areas of Pakistan, they said. The officials said, however, that they did not believe the Taliban's goal was to take over the government of Pakistan but rather to create instability by taking advantage of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's apparent inability to cope with the situation. Zardari, they said, does not understand the gravity of the situation, remains distracted by domestic politics and appears unable to make critical decisions to deploy the army to stabilize the country. State Department envoy Richard Holbrooke has been on the phone \"nonstop\" with officials in Islamabad and Washington, the officials said, providing frequent information to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama. Holbrooke's read on the situation, officials familiar with the conversation said, is that the Pakistani government does not know how to handle the situation and is looking to the United States for direction. A senior military official, however, presented a more dire case. Pakistan is \"rapidly deteriorating,\" he said. He said that he could not rule out the possibility of a military takeover in Islamabad, although he added that such a prospect was not in the immediate future. As for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, he said the weapons \"are safe for now\" but that the United States is monitoring the safety systems in place. Administration officials said that the Pakistani military had assured the United States it would not act without an express order from the civilian leadership. Earlier this week, Clinton warned that nuclear-armed Pakistan was in danger of falling into terrorist hands. Before the Taliban's apparent withdrawal Friday, a local Pakistani official expressed doubt about whether the militants would leave, as they pledged to local elders on Thursday. \"Nobody can trust them,\" Sardar Hussain Babik, the provincial education minister, said by phone from Buner. The Taliban have broken promises before and probably would do so again, he said. Militants who swarmed into Buner subsequently locked up courthouses, seized court documents and battled Pakistani troops who were sent to protect residents. The militants said they took control of the district to ensure that Islamic law was properly imposed. The Pakistani government called the land grab a breach of a recent peace agreement. CNN's Barbara Starr, Elise Labott, Ivan Watson, Tricia Escobedo and Samson Desta contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pakistan situation \"rapidly deteriorating,\" says senior U.S. military official .\nNEW: U.S. officials: Any Taliban withdrawal from Pakistani territory likely meaningless .\nNEW: Fundamentalists hold large areas of the country, military officials say .\nPakistan had reported Taliban withdrawal from captured district 60 miles from capital .","id":"8e0d86f794299fa3272ba76f70069d7450dac569"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government announced Friday that more than 4,000 former Gurkha soldiers are entitled to settle in Britain, but Gurkha supporters quickly denounced the measure as meaningless. Former Gurkha solider Tulbahadur Pun was awarded Britain's highest honor for bravery, the Victoria Cross. Supporters have fought for years for more rights for the Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers who have been part of the British Army for nearly 200 years. Gurkhas have fought alongside the British Armed Forces in every conflict in that period, including both world wars, and are known for their ferocity and pride. Despite their centuries of service, Gurkhas were not given the right to settle in the United Kingdom until 2004. And even then the order applied only to those discharged after the British handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, when the Gurkhas Brigade moved from Hong Kong to Britain. The government's announcement Friday applies to all Gurkhas, including those who left the army before 1997, if they meet one of five criteria. It also says around 6,000 of the Gurkhas' dependents may be able to apply for settlement in Britain as well. \"The guidance honors the service, commitment, and gallantry of those who served with the Gurkhas Brigade,\" Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said in a written statement. The Gurkha Justice Campaign, however, said the government's criteria for the Gurkhas' resettlement are unrealistic and too difficult for many of the soldiers to meet. \"Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy,\" the campaign said. \"The campaign for full Gurkha justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.\" The High Court ruled last September that the 1997 cut-off date was fair, but added that caseworkers needed revised guidance on deciding the cases of Gurkhas discharged before that date. Under the guidance, Gurkhas discharged before 1997 must meet one of five criteria to be considered for resettlement in Britain: . \u2022 Have three years' continuous residence in Britain, before or after service; \u2022 Have close family settled in the United Kingdom; \u2022 Have an award for gallantry, leadership, or bravery while in the brigade; \u2022 Have a chronic medical condition attributable to or made worse by army service; \u2022 Have served for 20 or more years. Actress Joanna Lumley, whose father served in the Gurkhas while she was a girl, has been an outspoken campaigner for their rights. She said the new criteria are harsher than she expected. \"They've given five bullet points which virtually cannot be met by the ordinary Gurkha soldier,\" Lumley told reporters Friday. \"This one page of criteria has taken the government four months to come up with. It has made me ashamed of our administration.\" She said most Gurkhas are allowed to stay in the United Kingdom for only two years, so three years of continuous residence is not possible. Most Gurkhas, she said, also have not been allowed to settle in Britain with their families. The requirement for having won an award discriminates against the ordinary soldier who has no award, she said. \"This sends out not only to the Gurkha soldiers, but to our own men fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the most appalling message: that unless you have been awarded a medal for gallantry, you're not a real soldier,\" Lumley said. Only officers are allowed to serve 20 or more years, she said, so most riflemen will not qualify for the service requirement. And proving that an injury is related to army service will be nearly impossible for most, she said. \"How on earth are men who were injured in the 1940s, '50s, '60s going to be able to prove that their long-term chronic illness is attributable to injures received during their service?\" she said. A Home Office spokesman said the government believes hundreds of Gurkhas will still be eligible to settle in Britain. \"We would not accept that,\" the spokesman said of Lumley's criticisms. \"We would say that the criteria as we see it is fair and balanced.\" The Gurkha brigade originated in the 19th century with Nepalese soldiers who impressed British imperial troops with their ferocity and military ability. The first Gurkha units were formed in 1815. They saw action in both world wars and were fundamental to the British military maintaining control of India in the 1800s. Today there are 3,400 troops in the Gurkha brigade, operating from bases in Great Britain. Most recently, Gurkha troops were used in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkan conflicts.","highlights":"British government unveils moves to let more former Gurkha troops live in the UK .\nGurkhas are part of British armed forces made up of Nepalese fighters .\nCampaigners say qualifying criteria mean most will not be able to settle in UK .\nFirst Gurkha units formed in 1815 and they fought in every campaign since .","id":"784742f99d3f4a8a0305665738ba886d1d53c70d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine. Danielle Brecker found this 1989 photo of friends on their Macs at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text. The Apple Inc. watershed product entered American consciousness amid fanfare, with a $1.5 million commercial, made by Ridley Scott, wowing audiences during Super Bowl XVIII. The piece's title, \"1984,\" invoked author George Orwell's message and stood as a warning against conformity. Two days after the ad ran, the Macintosh became available and life, as people knew it, changed. No longer were computers viewed as toys with which to play primitive games or as untouchable tools reserved for degreed engineers. We began to think different. \"The Macintosh demonstrated that it was possible and profitable to create a machine to be used by millions and millions of people,\" said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, research director for the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, California, think tank, and chief force behind \"Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley,\" an online historical exhibit. \"The gold standard now for personal electronics is, 'Is it easy enough for my grandmother to use it?' People on the Macintosh project were the first people to talk about a product in that way.\" Pang, 44, remembered being \"mesmerized\" by the computer when he first saw it up close in his college bookstore. He wasn't alone. Read about how iReporters are preserving Mac history . For graphic designers like Zo\u00eb Korstvedt, now a Los Angeles creative director, the evolving Mac, with each added feature, was ripe with ah-ha moments. To tinker with a piece, play with the text, \"to visualize on your computer was just insane,\" she said. \"My colleagues and I wonder how we did it [their jobs] before.\" No wonder, then, that when Korstvedt, 44, married her first husband in 1989, she used half of their wedding money to buy her first home computer: a Mac SE\/30, for which she forked over extra bucks for an upgrade to a whopping 8 megabytes of RAM. Nothing compared to the 12 gigs she now has. \"I was styling,\" she said with a laugh. Jeremy Mehrle, 30, of the St. Louis, Missouri, area is too young to know a world without Macs. This MacAddict began hoarding and tinkering with tossed-out computers, and then he discovered eBay. Today, the motion graphics designer's 1,400 square-foot basement is a museum to Apple computers, all-white and in gallery-style with about 80 fully-functioning machines on display. \"Some people think it's really cool. ... Others say 'It's Jeremy's thing, it's a little weird, whatever,'\" he said. \"I think if I had stacks everywhere, and you couldn't move in my house, people would be worried.\" What's Mehrle's hobby, however, became a career for Dan Foust, 38, of Bloomington, Illinois. \"Danapplemacman,\" as he's known on eBay, makes a living out of buying, and when necessary resuscitating, these computers before hawking them online to customers\/collectors in places as far-flung as Italy and Australia. So what would people pay for an original Macintosh? \"A complete boxed system?,\" he said. \"I can't put a price on that.\" The extremes to which people have gone in their love and loyalty for Apple (and specifically Macs) knows no bounds. Perhaps no one knows this better than Leander Kahney, news editor at Wired.com and author of Cult of Mac, as well as the more recently published Inside Steve's Brain. That would be Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' brain, of course. From his phone in a San Francisco coffee shop, Kahney told tales of people allotting their limited vacation time to Macworld conferences, a man who has traveled to 40 Apple store openings and those who shaved Apple logos into their heads. As for the Apple tattoos, those, at first, really bothered him. \"I'm a bit of a leftie,\" he said. The idea of \"corporate worship\" didn't initially sit well with him -- although he's not afraid to admit his own obsession. \"It's a very deep relationship people have with their computers. ... If the computer's not working, it's more important than the car breaking down.\" Speaking of worship, Israeli filmmakers Ron and Kobi Shely created \"MacHEADS: The Movie,\" a 50-minute documentary that'll be available next week on Amazon's video on demand service and, soon after, on iTunes. The film includes footage from The Church of Mac in Los Angeles, where a preacher and congregants gathered to glorify the computer at a service that ended with, \"Praise Steve.\" \"Although we read a lot about the [Mac] phenomenon,\" Ron Shely said by phone from Tel Aviv of the two-year film project, \"we didn't realize how big this social movement really is.\" And that, beyond the products, is what has been so powerful about the Mac brand, said Peter Friess, president of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. iReport.com: Got your own Mac Museum? Show us! Steve Jobs \"really has changed the world,\" Friess said. \"You hardly find people who changed cultures. He changed culture.\" Decades before Jobs' health became a topic of discussion, Friess was lucky enough to meet the man. At the time, German-born Friess was a lowly watchmaker, repairing clocks in the basement of Munich's Deutsches Museum, the largest science and technology museum in the world. The year was 1984, and Friess thought a Macintosh might come in handy, so he called Apple Germany to see if he might be able to get one. The answer, as he recalled it, \"'You're very lucky. Steve Jobs is in town. We'll come over and give you one.'\" Ever since, he's been amazed and exceedingly intrigued by every new computer. \"My wife goes crazy,\" Friess, 49, admitted. \"Every Apple computer I buy, the first thing I do is take it apart, just to see what's inside.\" For Gary Allen, 61, of Berkeley, California, his interest is less inside than it is outside the company's stores. He runs ifoAppleStore.com, the first three letters taken from his police dispatch days, meaning \"in front of.\" The site's genesis dates back to 2001 when Apple store No. 9 opened, in Palo Alto, and he and his son went early. Way early -- as in the night before. The crowds, and natural community, grew on Allen, who began seeing new-found friends at other openings. They were like groupies chasing a band. So he started a Web site, to help fans keep in touch, and soon other Apple enthusiasts began writing from across the globe, sharing tips about new stores, as well as testimonies and photos. The site, he said, averages about 4 million visitors a month. Allen, who guessed he's been to 22 store openings so far, once stood in the rain for days in Tokyo so he could snag the first spot in line. He's seen old friends at openings in Germany and Italy. Last summer, he and his now 21-year-old son experienced what he called \"the perfect storm,\" hitting Boston, Beijing and Sydney. Next stop: Paris. He may not speak the same language as the thousands who surround him in these various cities, but that doesn't much matter when people speak the same language of computer love. \"Apple enthusiasts, it turns out,\" Allen said, \"are the same wherever you go.\"","highlights":"Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the first Macintosh computer .\nApple launched the Mac in 1984 with Ridley Scott's landmark Super Bowl XVIII ad .\nSteve Jobs is credited for cult-like worship seen in tattoos, collections, Macquariums .\nFans flock to Macworld expos, Apple store openings and hoard eBay purchases .","id":"e2d72830b04ed5d5774158e52f66cfe8ed723ad3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Efraim Diveroli's father hoped his son would become a doctor or lawyer. Efraim Diveroli, 22, is doing his \"patriotic\" duty as an arms dealer, his grandfather says. What he got instead is a 22-year-old international arms dealer who faces a congressional inquiry for allegedly selling old Chinese ammunition to the U.S. military to equip allies in Afghanistan. Diveroli is president of AEY Inc., a South Florida company which, according to U.S. government documents, has done more than $10 million of business with the U.S. government since 2004. The papers also reveal the company struck it big in 2007 with contracts totaling more than $200 million to supply ammunition, assault rifles and other weapons to the Afghan National Army and police. The company's contract said it would get the ammunition from Hungary. But Army investigators found what the Afghan military got included corroded ammunition made in China as long as 46 years ago. The New York Times reported Thursday that AEY shopped stockpiles and ammo dumps in old Soviet bloc allies, from Albania to Kazakhstan. Albania was a big customer for Chinese armaments in the 1960s and '70s, the Times reported. Angelo Diveroli, Efraim's grandfather, told CNN affiliate WPLG-TV that his grandson is being targeted by \"jealous competitors\" in the international arms market. Since he was a boy, the grandfather said, Efraim Diveroli has known his way around weapons. Read the WPLG story . \"He's a genius about anything to do with weapons,\" the 72-year-old says. \"Ever since he was a little boy, I would take him to gun shows and he could identify every model of guns. People would ask: How can he do that so young? He has a gift, I would tell them.'' Michael Diveroli, Efraim's father, told CNN affiliate WFOR-TV that he wished his son had turned his intellect elsewhere. He said Efraim was \"a boy genius\" who is \"hard to control.\" Read the WFOR story . \"I would prefer he became a nice Jewish doctor or lawyer rather than an arms dealer,\" WFOR quoted Michael Diveroli as saying. Watch how father says son runs his own show \u00bb . But his son seem to have a good idea of the circles he was running in. \"What goes on in the Albanian Defense Ministry,\" the New York Times quoted him as saying. \"Who's clean? Who's dirty? Don't want to know about it.\" On a MySpace page Efraim Diveroli last updated in 2005, he says \"I probably grew up way to (sic) fast.\" But in a hint of where the then-19-year-old's future was heading, he wrote, \"I definately (sic) have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up alot (sic) of my time.\" The MySpace page also hints of his need for thrills. \"I'm one of those guys who needs to be entertained and having lots of fun all the time so if your (sic) also an undiagnosed case of ADD look me up,\" it says. He lists the weapon-heavy films \"Heat\" and \"Scarface\" among his favorites. A CNN search of Diveroli's Florida criminal record shows arrests, but no convictions, on offenses from misdemeanor battery to felony possession of stolen property. He has yet to appear in court on a March 3 arrest for driving under the influence. For now, relatives say Efraim Diveroli is out of the country. CNN attempts to contact him have not been successful. His grandfather told WPLG that Diveroli is now in Turkey or Albania doing his \"patriotic\" duty. \"He's all over the world getting what the military needs,\" Angelo Diveroli says. But in a MySpace message exchange with Radar magazine, a person thought to be David Packouz, a 25-year-old who was AEY's vice president, refers to Efraim Diveroli as \"my former scumbag partner\" and says he is motivated by money. \"Efraim Diveroli has a serious psychological illness called 'extreme greed,' \" Radar quotes him as writing in a report on its Web site. Packouz would not discuss AEY with CNN on Friday, saying he had no comment \"because of the ongoing investigation.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"22-year-old arms dealer faces congressional inquiry .\nCompany supplied ammunition made in China decades ago .\nCompany's contract called for bullets made in Hungary .\nGrandfather says dealer, 22, had \"gift\" for weaponry .","id":"3645d17362c0a487b77108661e1ad25e31f4e33f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California -- On Earth Day on Wednesday, Dr. David Jentsch marched at the head of a column of UCLA students and faculty members to the chant of, \"Stand up for science!\" Across the street a smaller but equally vocal group of animal rights advocates chanted, \"U-C-L-A, how many animals have you killed today!\" Animal rights activists say large numbers of animals are killed each year during medical trials. Until recently, Jentsch had never dreamed he would lead a political demonstration. But Jentsch's life took a sharp turn last month when his car was firebombed in his driveway. A radical group of animal rights activists claimed responsibility for the act. \"This is terror,\" Jentsch said. \"There is no two ways about it. It's extremism. It's an attempt to intimidate.\" It was the latest in a string of arson attacks against UCLA researchers who use animals in medical research projects. Since 2006, there have been seven attacks aimed at researcher's homes or cars. No arrests have been made in the cases, which are being investigated by an FBI lead task force on terrorism. \"We believe it's just a matter of time before someone is going to be hurt,\" said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Salvador Hernandez. \"The intent of these groups is to intimidate and coerce.\" Hernandez heads up the task force investigating the series of attacks and says their actions qualify as terrorist attacks. But animal rights advocate Chris DeRose says nothing could be further from the truth . \"There has never been one human being in this country being killed or even hurt,\" he said. He believes the university researchers are the bad guys. \"What I do condemn is what goes on behind those walls,\" he says. DeRose, founder of Last Chance for Animals, says he doesn't condone firebombing researchers' homes, but he doesn't condemn it either. Watch people against animal research at protest \u00bb . \"The reason these people are doing it is because they have been pushed ... nobody is listening ... over a hundred million animals a year are killed in universities and major hospitals in this country,\" he said. Jentsch argues that same medical research using lab animals has lead to many medical breakthroughs that benefit mankind. UCLA points to research advances in breast cancer treatments, Parkinson's disease and artificial heart technology that relied on experiments involving lab animals at their California facilities. Jentsch's own research involves studies aimed at treating drug addiction in humans. He studies the brains of monkeys that have been injected with methamphetamine. He says his experiments are peer-reviewed and adhere strictly to established rules for the treatment of lab animals. Watch supporters of animal research at protest \u00bb . Jentsch says that he hopes that this week's dueling demonstrations can lead to a dialogue. He believes many of the protestors voicing opposition to the UCLA labs do not endorse the string of violent acts aimed against him and other researchers, \"but it is essential for them to repudiate this type of activity.\" In the meantime, Jentsch says he refuses to be intimidated. \"I'm going to continue to live where I live, continue to educate people about my work,\" he said. \"I'm not going to stop.\"","highlights":"Dr. David Jentsch joins protest after his car was firebombed last month .\nActivists condemn use of animals as subjects for medical research .\nSince 2006, there have been seven attacks aimed at researcher's homes or cars .\nJentsch: \"This is terror. There is no two ways about it. It's extremism\"","id":"7e1aeff46a441a122f1fd94b9d83a043b9d195e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The sport of polo needs new oversight to protect its prized horses, the nation's largest animal protection organization said after reports that a pharmacy's mistake with medication may have killed 21 animals. People attend a memorial ceremony Thursday for 21 polo horses that died Sunday in Wellington, Florida. \"This tragedy has brought to light the absence of drug policies and regulation within the sport of polo,\" said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States. \"There are no prohibitions or testing requirements for the use of drugs or other performance-enhancing substances,\" Dane said in a statement. The HSUS statement called on the polo community \"to use this tragedy as a catalyst to begin implementing reforms to ensure that policies are enacted and enforced that will ensure better protection for the horses in its care.\" But a veteran Florida polo player is urging would-be reformers to take it slow. \"If you step back and look at the reality of the situation, it was a misformulation of a vitamin and mineral supplement that killed the horses, not performance-enhancing drugs,\" said Don Dufresne, who describes himself as an equine legal expert and horse lover. Watch what a pharmacy says happened \u00bb . \"If this were a pervasive problem in polo, and if this were to happen twice in the last year or something ... then yes, I think that (regulation) would be appropriate,\" said Dufresne, who is a member of the sport's equine welfare committee but emphasized he was not speaking for the panel. \"I don't see this as a pervasive problem,\" he said. \"We have no reports to my knowledge of anyone using performance-enhancing drugs other than vitamins and mineral supplements.\" The sport's governing body, the U.S. Polo Association, has been considering taking up such testing for several years, John Wash, operations president of the club where the horses fell ill Sunday, said this week. \"People are calling for reform, and maybe that needs to happen,\" he said. A tearful memorial ceremony for the horses was held Thursday evening at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida. As part of the service, bagpipers played and people tossed flowers into a pond on the grounds. Watch scenes from the memorial \u00bb . Play resumed in the U.S. Open Polo Championship after matches were postponed by the horse disaster Sunday and rain Wednesday. A veterinary pharmacy in Florida acknowledged Thursday that it incorrectly prepared medication used to treat the 21 horses that died. An internal investigation by Franck's Pharmacy in Ocala, Florida, \"concluded that the strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect. We will cooperate fully with the authorities as they continue their investigations,\" the company said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. \"We extend our most sincere condolences to the horses' owners, the Lechuza Polo team and the members of the United States Polo Association. We share their grief and sadness,\" the pharmacy's chief operations officer, Jennifer Beckett, said in the statement. The pharmacy said it prepared medication for the horses on orders from a veterinarian. Many teams commonly give horses injections of vitamin B12 and other nutritional supplements before competitions to prevent muscle cramps and help them recover after the match, Dufresne said. \"When you talk about polo ponies, we consider them equine athletes,\" he said. \"A horse is so important to your game as a player, you want the horses to be as healthy as they can be, to last as long as they can. ... \"You don't want to overexert a horse. A tired horse is an unsafe horse.\" The pharmacy that made the error is likely to be sued, which should put all pharmacies on sufficient notice to prevent future errors, he said. \"Everybody wants to ensure that what their horses are getting is correct and is not going to harm their horse. I thing everybody is going to become more aware of this and more cautious.\" Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told CNN that the agency is awaiting toxicology results from the animals and could not comment on the pharmacy's disclosure. \"Obviously, we are going to follow any and every potential lead to get to the bottom of this,\" she said. The horses were trained by Lechuza Polo, a Venezuela-based team. Its captain, Juan Martin Nero, told an Argentine newspaper earlier this week that he had \"no doubts\" vitamins administered to the animals were at fault. \"There were five horses that did not get the vitamin, and those were the only ones that survived,\" Nero said. Post-mortem examinations done by a University of Florida laboratory found significant hemorrhaging in several horses, but the findings did not single out a specific cause. CNN's Jim Kavanagh and Kim Segal contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Regulation not necessary after simple mistake, polo veteran says .\nNEW: Likely lawsuit should prevent similar errors, equine legal expert says .\nPonies' deaths demand reform, head of organization's equine unit says .\nPharmacy in Ocala, Florida, says it made mistake with dosage .","id":"2b63a1ca932e8c0b5966feb02b79b54b36745b92"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least seven Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded when a bomb exploded near a Shiite holy shrine in northern Baghdad on Wednesday morning, an Interior Ministry official said. The Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, seen in 2007, is holy to Shiite Muslims. The bomb detonated near the Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine in the Kadhimiya district, the official said. The Kadhimiya shrine is one of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims around the world. On Tuesday, a parked car bomb killed at least nine people and wounded more than a dozen others, also in Kadhimiya. This is the third straight day of deadly attacks in the capital, striking mostly Shiite areas. On Monday, seven bombings in Baghdad left at least 32 people killed and more than 130 wounded. Iraqi officials have warned that they expect a rise in attacks. The country's president and his deputies urged security forces to intensify their efforts to secure the country. The government has blamed the ousted Baath party and al Qaeda in Iraq for Monday's attacks, saying they were meant to create sectarian divisions. The U.S. military also pointed the finger at al Qaeda. \"The nature of the attacks and targets are consistent with past al Qaeda in Iraq attacks. We see this as coordinated attack by terrorists against predominantly Shia targets that they gauge as vulnerable to instigate sectarian violence,\" the U.S. military said.","highlights":"Three days of attacks in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad leave dozens dead .\nBomb near revered Shiite shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim kills 7 on Wednesday .\nParked car bomb in same area of Baghdad kills at least 9 people on Tuesday .\nAt least 32 killed on Monday in seven bombings around Iraqi capital .","id":"5220023d1befb546086f99244809896da680ea54"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Fethiye Cetin was 25 years old when she discovered her beloved grandmother's secret. Fethiye Cetin, with her grandmother, said she felt deceived when she learned her origins. The little old lady in the white headscarf was Armenian. Her real name was not Seher, but Heranus Gadarian. Cetin says at the age of nine, a Turkish gendarme captain ripped Heranus from the arms of her mother while they were on a brutal death march into the desert. A Turkish couple later adopted the Armenian girl, and gave her a Muslim name. When Cetin first learned about her grandmother's Armenian origins, she was shocked. \"I felt deceived,\" she says. \"I felt like going out into the street and screaming 'they are lying to us.'\" Instead Cetin, a Turkish human rights lawyer, wrote a book titled my \"My Grandmother.\" It describes the atrocities that Cetin's grandmother witnessed and suppressed since childhood. It also recounts Cetin's reunion, after her grandmother died, with Armenian relatives in the United States. The book, which has been translated into six languages, is helping chip away at a taboo in modern-day Turkey about what happened to the Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. According to the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul, in 1914 there were more then 2,000 Armenian churches scattered across what is now Turkey. Today, there are fewer then 50. Between 1915 and 1918, as Europe and the Middle East plunged head-long into World War I, Ottoman authorities organized mass deportations that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians living in eastern and central Anatolia. Watch more on this story \u00bb . Every April 24, Armenians around the world commemorate the anniversary of what they call the \"Armenian genocide.\" They say more then a million Armenians were killed in the massacres. The Turkish government vehemently rejects the figure. \"The people of Turkey do not believe that their ancestors were criminals, were killers,\" says Onur Oymen, a former ambassador who is now a member of the Turkish parliament. \"The historical fact says that the Armenians killed during this period more then 500,000 Ottoman citizens, Turkish citizens.\" \"Regardless of whether 1,000 people were killed or one person was killed, it was still a human\" says Cetin. \"I wrote this book to say that people felt pain, people suffered in 1915 -- to look at the events from a humanitarian perspective.\" The battle over history continues to claim victims. On January 19, 2007, Cetin's friend and client, Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink, stepped out of his office on to a busy boulevard in Istanbul to go to a nearby bank. He was gunned down in broad daylight by a 17-year-old Turkish ultra nationalist. Television cameras filmed Dink's body that afternoon, lying on the sidewalk covered with newspapers. \"Hrant Dink was defending democratization. Hrant Dink was supporting dialogue. And at the same time Hrant Dink was destroying the taboos of the system,\" Cetin said. \"Therefore Hrant Dink was dangerous for them and he was an important target.\" Before his murder, Dink received a six-month suspended jail sentence for \"insulting Turkishness,\" after he wrote an essay urging Armenians and Turks to overcome their mutual distrust. He was battling another court case at the time of his death, after he labeled the massacres of 1915 \"genocide\" in an interview. He was quoted by the Reuters news agency saying: \"Of course I'm saying it's a genocide, because its consequences show it to be true and label it so. We see that people who had lived on this soil for 4,000 years were exterminated by these events.\" An estimated 100,000 Istanbul residents poured into the streets in solidarity after Dink's murder, some of them chanting \"We are all Hrant Dink.\" But today, his surviving son is still defending himself in court for his father's genocide comments. During his visit to Turkey this month, President Obama was asked whether he would follow through on a campaign pledge to recognize what happened to the Armenians nearly a century ago as genocide. Obama said his views had not changed on the subject, but added: \"What I want to do is not focus on my views right now but focus on the views of the Turkish and the Armenian people. If they can move forward and deal with a difficult and tragic history, then I think the entire world should encourage them.\" Twenty-eight-year-old Aris Nalci, one of the new generation of Armenian journalists in Turkey inspired by Hrant Dink, said he opposed a proposed resolution in the U.S. Congress to formally recognize the Armenian genocide, arguing it would only hurt U.S.-Turkish relations. \"People and politicians in other countries are using this in a political way,\" says Nalci. \"It will not change the minds of the people walking in the streets and the people living here.\" But there is one area where the tiny -- and shrinking -- community of some 70,000 Armenians still living in Turkey is praying for American help. During a short meeting with Obama, Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Aram Atesyan urged him to do everything in his power to help Turkey and its northern neighbor Armenia normalize diplomatic relations. Borders between the two countries have been shut since 1993, but the two countries have recently engaged in a diplomatic rapprochement. On April 16, Turkey's foreign minister traveled to the Armenian capital to attend a regional summit. \"Turkey is our motherland and Armenia is our fatherland,\" Atesyan explained. \"And we are like orphans, stuck in between.\"","highlights":"Disagreement over events in 1915 continue to divide Turks and Armenians .\nArmenians say one million were killed in genocide .\nTurks reject claim that their forebears were involved in genocide .","id":"1507524e79b13d1dc26935bfa7c318ce89b22e7c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Nancy G. Brinker is the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, named after her only sister, Susan, who died from breast cancer in 1980. The organization describes itself as the \"world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find cures.\" Brinker served as Ambassador to Hungary in 2001 and Chief of Protocol of the United States during the Bush administration. Nancy Brinker says a bill by Sens. Ted Kennedy and Kay Bailey Hutchison would renew the fight against cancer. (CNN) -- During his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama urged a new effort \"to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American, including me, by seeking a cure for cancer in our time.\" It was a call to action that resonated for me, as it's a cause I've dedicated my life to pursuing. Nearly three decades ago I promised my sister, Suzy, who died at age 36 from breast cancer, that I would do everything I could to end the disease that took her life. A couple of years later, I too was diagnosed with breast cancer, at age 37. Fortunately my cancer was detected and treated much earlier than Suzy's, and it was much smaller and not nearly as aggressive. Following a mastectomy and four rounds of chemotherapy, I am now a 25-year survivor. We have made a lot of progress since the 1980s. We now have a basic understanding of breast cancer, which is the foundation for discovering the cures. And with this new understanding, we're moving toward more personalized treatments -- as each patient and each tumor is different, their treatment must reflect those differences. Yet while we are in position to experience significant advances, the sad fact remains that we are still facing an enormous cancer crisis -- cancer will claim the lives of more than a half-million people this year -- about 1,500 people a day. In all, 40 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, including approximately 1.4 million new cases this year alone. With the graying of the Baby Boom generation, we are about to experience a cancer tsunami. Thus I was inspired to hear our new president call for reigniting our nation's war on cancer. And it didn't take long for a bipartisan group of senators to answer that challenge. The group, led by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who have been working together and in close consultation and collaboration with the cancer community for more than a year, introduced the 21st Century Cancer ALERT (access to life-saving early detection, research and treatment) Act. This bill is an effort to address our shortcomings and renew our commitment to discovering and delivering the cures to cancer. In a period where Democrats control both the Congress and the White House and true bipartisanship is a rare and precious commodity, I am grateful to both senators, particularly Hutchison, for ensuring that this was a true partnership, and that everyone had a seat at the table. For Kennedy, this is obviously a personal issue. Hutchison has been with us in this fight since our early days, and this would not have happened without her leadership. The first step in saving lives is in detecting cancer early. If breast cancer is a guide, developing effective early detection techniques is critically important to increasing mortality rates. For example, when my sister died, only 77 percent of women who discovered their cancer before it spread beyond the breast survived at least five years. After nearly three decades of investments and advancements, the five-year survival rate has increased to 98 percent. Unfortunately, many cancers still do not have effective early detection methods. Ovarian cancer is a particularly devastating example: There is no screening diagnostic, thus a diagnosis is most often made after the cancer has spread. According to the American Cancer Society, when ovarian cancer is detected locally, the survival rate is 92 percent; however, only 1 in 5 cases are detected at this stage, dropping the overall five-year survival rate to only 45 percent. Mortality rates are even more disturbing for lung and pancreatic cancers. This has to change. This legislation seeks to address this by placing an emphasis on early detection and promoting the discovery and development of biomarkers so cancers can be detected at the earliest possible stage, when cancer is most treatable. It will also strengthen the cancer research process by promoting public-private partnerships and collaboration between government agencies. And the bill stresses translational research, so new discoveries and breakthroughs in the laboratory make their way to patients' bedsides as quickly as possible. At the same time, we have to remind ourselves as we push for science to develop the early detection methods that will save lives tomorrow, millions of our friends and loved ones do not have sufficient access to the detection and treatment methods available today. Tens of millions of people are uninsured and lack access to basic health care. Federal and state programs that provide support to underserved people with cancer are dramatically underfunded, leading to huge gaps in access. Even those with insurance often have difficulty accessing life-saving treatments, whether it is because they live in a rural community, have language barriers or are faced with roadblocks to participating in a clinical trial. The Cancer ALERT Act will begin to improve access to cancer care for underserved populations by expanding access to clinical trials and patient navigation services. One thing I've learned over this journey is that we can do anything if we just put our minds to it and show that we are committed to success. This effort is an important and promising step in showing that discovering and delivering the cures for cancer is still a national priority, and that we are committed to seeing it through. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nancy Brinker.","highlights":"Nancy Brinker: I made promise to my sister who died of breast cancer .\nA cancer survivor, Brinker says she's dedicated herself to fighting the disease .\nShe says new legislation would go far toward energizing fight against cancer .","id":"5d2bf2d50e15ab02d1644f80c73b9144e1a17f96"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was back in operation late Thursday after lightning hit the control tower and severe storms knocked out power to the area. The control tower and three of the airport's five runways were open, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. All systems were running on emergency generator power. A ground stoppage was already in place for arriving or departing flights when lightning struck the tower at 8:45 p.m., according to Bergen. People evacuated the tower and a smoky odor was investigated. At 9:10 p.m., the all-clear was given and controllers returned to the tower, she said. But at 9:20 p.m., the tower and parts of the airport were hit by a power outage. The outage affected all the airport's runway lights, Bergen said. During the outage, planes headed to Atlanta from other airports were being held on the ground, Bergen said, and arrivals were circling or being diverted to other airports. Atlanta's airport is one of the world's busiest.","highlights":"Lightning strikes a control tower at Hartsfield airport as people evacuated .\nPower outage follows lightning after severe storms roll through Atlanta area .\nOutage affects runway lights; arriving planes diverted or told to circle .","id":"85641b3836d1ae43d47179960595b419baf6450a"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Saana Nyassi considers himself lucky. Saana Nyassi is a player for the Seattle Sounders soccer team. He is also a malaria survivor. He is fortunate not just because he has a natural talent for soccer and the dedication to rise through the ranks in his native Gambia and eventually go to the United States to play for the Seattle Sounders. Before leaving the tiny West African nation for America, Nyassi contracted malaria. \"It's a killer disease,\" the midfielder, 20, says. \"You lose appetite. You are throwing up all the time. Your body gets warm. It's very serious.\" Nyassi recovered. But nearly a million people -- mostly young children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa -- do not survive the disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. On Saturday, before their game against the San Jose Earthquakes, Nyassi and his teammates will mark World Malaria Day by giving a check for $20,000 they raised for Nothing But Nets, a U.N. Foundation-sponsored campaign to supply anti-malarial bed nets to some of the poorest parts of the world. Watch how researchers are fighting malaria \u00bb . Nothing But Nets buys and delivers each bed net for about $10. The nets prevent mosquitoes from biting people while they sleep and passing on the parasite that causes malaria. Even though malaria was been wiped out in the United States, it still rages in countries in Africa, Asia and other developing parts of the world. \"The challenge is enormous because of the size,\" says Dr. Regina Rabinovich, director of Infectious Diseases Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which so far has dedicated over $1 billion to fighting and preventing malaria. Rabinovich, who also contracted malaria during a visit to Gambia, says the Gates Foundation is waging a war against the disease on several fronts. \"Keeping people from getting bitten by a mosquito, that's what a bed net does,\" she says. \"Not having the mosquito thrive, that's what insecticide does. By treating them, you keep someone else from being infected by another mosquito bite.\" While malaria can be treated, getting that treatment to people suffering from the disease who are often in remote places and with little access to health care is not always easy. There is no vaccine to prevent malaria. But Rabinovich argues that cases of malaria can be greatly reduced even before a vaccine is discovered. \"The really interesting thing about malaria is that they haven't depended on a magic silver bullet,\" she explains. \"Bed nets protect you about half the time, spraying protects you. It's been the combination of prevention and treatment that's effective. When we have a malaria vaccine it will join that toolbox.\" That malaria vaccine could potentially come from a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault nicknamed \"the swamp\" at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. There, larvae imported from India are carefully hatched into mosquitoes. Using funds from the Gates Foundation, Dr. Stefan Kappe is trying to genetically engineer the parasite that causes malaria and create a vaccine from it. With the vaccine that Kappe is working on, the malaria parasite would be unable to pass from the liver, where the parasites multiply, into the blood. \"We call this the 'you-can-check-in-but-cannot-check-out' approach,\" Kappe says. \"The immune system learns [and] is trained to recognize it -- and when the real parasite comes in, the one that can infect you, your immune system is very quickly able to eliminate it.\" If it is successful, the vaccine that Kappe is formulating will aim to prevent malaria every time it is administered -- a crucial element to fighting a disease that is passed from person to person by mosquito bites. \"You need to break transmission, you need to break the ability of the parasite to move to the mosquito and from the mosquito back to humans,\" he says. \"This liver infection is a great place to attack. If you prevent infection right there, then humans don't become infected, the mosquito that bites them the next time can also not become infected and cannot bring the disease to another person.\" The vaccine has already been proven effective 100 percent of the time in studies with mice, Kappe says. Now the researcher will begin human trials of a potential vaccine. Or, as he calls it, taking the difficult leap \"from mice to men.\" Until there is a vaccine, prevention and remedies as simple as bed nets will be crucial. Success playing soccer means Sanna Nyassi no longer needs to be wary of malaria, but that hasn't made him forget those that do. \"I was born poor,\" Nyassi says. \"But things are getting better for me. I have to look back at the other ones.\"","highlights":"Professional soccer player is also survivor of malaria .\nSaana Nyassi and Seattle Sounders teammates raise funds to fight malaria .\nResearcher looks for vaccine that can break malaria's transmission cycle .\n\"I have to look back at the other ones\" who are born poor, soccer player says .","id":"07c4bd23a4b7ab782a85d16d2fb6fac82de7c719"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Without seeing the water, the weather, or even his own boat, Dick Lancaster steered a 25-foot yacht to a silver medal at a sailing world championships this month. Crews from Italy and Australia do battle in the recent Blind Sailing World Championships in New Zealand. Lancaster's remarkable feat came at the recent Blind Sailing World Championships on Lake Rotorua, New Zealand. His silver medal added to two golds he has won at previous championships. The New Zealander, who gradually lost sight until he became completely blind in the last couple of years, is also the chairman of Blind Sailing New Zealand. Lancaster told CNN that sailing for the blind and visually-impaired is growing around the world. There is also hope that the sport may get its own category at the Paralympics. \"This year's event was as big as it has ever been. We had ten countries represented and most countries sent three teams.\" Attendance would have been stronger had it not been for the challenging financial climate, which had prevented some nations from traveling to New Zealand for the event, he said. Since the inaugural world championships in 1992, events have been held in Australia, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Italy and New Zealand. At this world championships Lancaster was sailing in the \"B1\" class which is for the blind, while the \"B2\" and \"B3\" classes have lesser levels of visual impairment. So, how exactly do blind and visually-impaired people manage to sail a large racing boat? Lancaster explained that it is not as difficult as it may sound. \"We sail with a four man crew. There is a blind person at the helm and another blind person on the mainsheet. There is also a sighted tactician, who's not allowed to touch anything, and a fourth sighted crew member. \"The most challenging thing for me has been the last few years when I have gone from B2 to B1 (blind). You have to rely on your feel a lot more now,\"he said. Even though he is unable to see, Lancaster says it's not impossible. \"There are plenty of people who sail at night-time -- so it's not too difficult.\" Contrary what many may presume, Lancaster said there were not too many crashes during races, though some areas of the course were challenging. \"At the start line and when you're going around a mark it gets pretty exciting at times. There's inevitably a few prangs on the water -- but I don't know if there's any more than in other sailing.\" New Zealand won the overall team trophy at the event.","highlights":"The Blind Sailing World Championships were held in New Zealand this month .\nBlind and visually impaired sailors work with sighted crew aboard the vessels .\nThe competition has been running since 1992 .","id":"2c14e350697d6d4a77d3aa73810a77fdc36cc193"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The following story about \"The Reader,\" by necessity, contains spoilers. If you'd rather not know about the plot, stop reading now. Kate Winslet and David Cross star in \"The Reader,\" which has received criticism from some quarters. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- One major contender's chances at Oscar gold may be damaged due to its sensitive subject matter. \"The Reader,\" which is up for five Oscars -- including best actress (for star Kate Winslet) and best picture -- is being slammed by \"Explaining Hitler\" author Ron Rosenbaum, who's asked Academy members to shun the post-World War II drama because the film \"asks us to empathize with an unrepentant mass murderer.\" Rosenbaum, who wrote his commentary for Slate.com, said that's not his only reason. \"It gives the impression that ordinary German people only learned the terrible things that happened in the death camps in the East after the war,\" he said in an interview with CNN. \"In fact, ordinary German people participated in Hitler's final solution, the extermination of the Jews -- it was no secret.\" Read Rosenbaum's essay . Based on the German book with the same title, \"The Reader\" stars Winslet as Hanna Schmitz, a former Nazi prison guard living in postwar Germany. She meets and has a secretive affair with teenager Michael Berg (David Cross), who often reads aloud to her at her request. Unbeknownst to Michael, Hanna is illiterate. Their affair ends abruptly when she mysteriously disappears. Eight years later, Michael is a law student. One day, while observing Nazi war criminals on trial, he's shocked to find Hanna as a defendant in the courtroom. The court finds her guilty of killing 300 Jewish women during the war and sentences her to life in prison. While behind bars, Michael sends her books on tape, which, over time, help Hanna finally learn to read. Therein lies the problem for Rosenbaum. \"What essentially it did,\" said Rosenbaum, \"was celebrate the enrichment of a life of a mass murderer when she learned how to read. ... Imagine if there were a film about Charles Manson learning how to play chess and what a better guy it made him.\" However, others in the Jewish community are applauding the film, including Ken Jacobson, deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Jacobson says \"The Reader\" opens itself up to criticism, but is worthy of an Oscar at the same time. \"I think it conveys a series of messages that actually are very powerful about the Holocaust, and it's not in the usual way,\" Jacobson told CNN. \"As time goes on, as we have Holocaust deniers emerging more and more, we need people to be able to relate personally to what happened,\" said Jacobson. \"I think this film does this in a very powerful way.\" The Weinstein Company, the studio behind \"The Reader,\" says it is proud of the film. \"It is sad that some people misinterpreted the film's message,\" the company said in a statement. \"It is not about the Holocaust,\" the company added, \"it is about what Germany did to itself and its future generations.\" Will Rosenbaum's piece, and the backlash he touched off, affect \"The Reader's\" Oscar chances Sunday? Entertainment reporter Tom O'Neil, who follows awards shows for the Los Angeles Times' TheEnvelope.com, doesn't think so. Given \"The Reader's\" five nominations, he believes Hollywood has already embraced the film. \"Oscar has taken special notice of 'The Reader' because it's not just your average Holocaust movie,\" said O'Neil. \"It doesn't beg for forgiveness when dealing with Nazis. It makes you think.\" Still, Rosenbaum says any further accolades for the drama would be unfortunate. \"I would be very disappointed in the intelligence level of Hollywood if it gave the best picture award to 'The Reader,' \" he said.","highlights":"Plot of \"The Reader\" involves a former Nazi prison guard .\nFilm is up for five Oscars, including best picture and best actress .\nAuthor says film asks audiences to \"empathize with ... mass murderer\"","id":"b0f17178ff8d37e5343119bd8917e262f386203d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For most Americans, mosquitoes are pests whose bites leave behind itchy bumps. But in other parts of the world, mosquitoes carry a disease called malaria that kills more than a million people each year. Mosquitoes, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, may transmit malaria to humans. A new malaria vaccine that's about to begin human clinical trials is dependent on mosquitoes -- a whole lot of them. Bioengineers have been growing millions of mosquitoes in a sterile environment, letting them feed on malaria-infected blood, irradiating the bugs, extracting the disease-causing parasites and storing them for use in vaccines. The announcement of the Food and Drug Administration's approval for clinical trials comes just days before World Malaria Day, which is Saturday. Check out the World Health Organization's site about malaria goals worldwide . The vaccine is unique among other candidates in that it uses the entire parasite and not just parts of it, said Dr. Stephen Hoffman, chief executive and scientific officer at Sanaria Inc., the Maryland-based biotechnology firm developing the vaccine. This technique was first shown to be effective in the 1970s, but the technology didn't exist to mass-produce it for the millions of people who need it, said Dr. Kirsten Lyke, principal investigator in the clinical trial site at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. At that time, people were immunized by being bitten by the irradiated mosquitoes. \"That is the only effective vaccine that anyone has ever really developed that works and does complete protection,\" said John Dame, chair of Infectious Diseases and Pathology at the University of Florida, who is not involved with the Sanaria trials. The vaccine takes the same basic approach as standard vaccines in use for diseases such as measles and polio. In those vaccines against viruses, weakened bacteria is injected, creating an immune response without causing illness. In the Sanaria vaccine, the body recognizes the malaria parasite as a foreign material, Lyke said. It goes to the liver, where a lot of the immune response is generated, but does not develop into a disease because the mosquito was irradiated, she said. Clinical trials will begin in May, Hoffman said, and will include 80 immunized individuals and 24 controls. About 3,000 mosquitoes were used to produce the vaccines for the first clinical trials, he said. If these trials are successful, researchers will initiate trials on adults in Africa, and then children. Among other vaccines in clinical trials currently, the one that is furthest along is RTS,S, developed by GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The company announced in December that this vaccine, based on a recombinant protein that uses part of the malaria parasite, was safely administered to African infants, with an efficacy of 65 percent in a three-month follow-up. Both the Sanaria and the GlaxoSmithKline projects receive support from the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a program at the nonprofit PATH established through an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dame, who used to be involved with the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, said he would guess the Sanaria vaccine will be more effective, but clinical trials will provide more information. He also noted that mass distribution to developing countries would require appropriate infrastructure, and may be more difficult depending on how long the immunization lasts. Each year, 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most people who die from the disease are young children in Africa south of the Sahara. Symptoms of malaria include fever, chills and flu-like illness, the CDC said. Although preventive measures exist, such as insecticide-treated nets and medications, there is no licensed vaccine on the market. Moreover, effective treatments are largely too expensive for the people who need them in poor countries. The parasite has become resistant to cheaper treatments, Lyke said. \"Individuals living on $1 or $2 a day can't even afford $8 medication,\" Lyke said. The U.S. military also has a keen interest in a malaria vaccine. The antimalaria drugs available have side effects such as stomach aches, said Dr. Tom Richie, director of the Navy component of the U.S. military malaria vaccine program, who provides oversight to the clinical trials. \"Malaria has been one of the most significant infectious threats to our military personnel when we deploy to tropical areas,\" Richie said. The disease was the leading cause of casualties in the South Pacific theater during World War II, and also a major problem in the Vietnam War, he said. There are five species of the malaria parasite known to infect humans. One called Plasmodium falciparum causes the vast majority of cases. Malaria was eliminated in the United States in 1951, but there are still cases in the country, mostly from people who acquired it in high-risk countries. In 2002, there were 1,337 cases of malaria in the U.S., and all but five had been acquired abroad. An international team at the Malaria Atlas Project recently published what researchers say is the most comprehensive map ever illustrating global malaria risk. Researchers told CNN the map offers hope that it is possible to eradicate the disease in many parts of the world. Hoffman, former head of a U.S. Navy malaria vaccine team, started the Sanaria effort himself in the breakfast room of his house in 2003. The company now has a more official corporate headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. \"I thought that the world needed a malaria vaccine, there was no question this was the best way to make one,\" he said.","highlights":"Sanaria Inc. is developing a malaria vaccine that uses the whole parasite .\nConcept is akin to live virus vaccines, such as those for polio and measles .\nThe method had been tried in the 1970s but wasn't feasible on mass scale .\nThe most advanced malaria vaccine, by GlaxoSmithKline, has been tested in Africa .","id":"c0cb734363a566de4250cf8d367cd24446608066"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The FBI has begun interviewing clients of deceased Garden City, New York, lawyer William Parente as part of an investigation into his financial dealings, according to FBI spokesman James Margolin. Stephanie Parente, 19, was found dead along with her sister and parents in a Baltimore hotel Monday. Margolin said the investigation was launched at the request of police in Baltimore County, Maryland, where Parente, his wife and their two daughters were found dead in a hotel room earlier this week. \"We're looking into Parente's business interests and whether there's any impropriety there and any crime was committed,\" Margolin said. Baltimore County police say Parente, 59, killed his family before committing suicide. There have been allegations of financial impropriety in the course of the investigation, said police spokesman Cpl. Mike Hill at a news conference Wednesday. A law enforcement source told CNN a cell phone belonging to Parente was recovered in the hotel room where the bodies were found. In an attempt to locate surviving family members, investigators contacted people in the phone's directory, and some of those people said they were Parente's investment clients. The New York attorney general's office confirmed it received a complaint alleging financial wrongdoing from attorney Bruce Montague of Queens, New York. CNN spoke with Montague's law partner, Steve Drelich, who said he was speaking on Montague's behalf because Montague is distraught over the death of Parente, whom he considered a personal friend as well as a financial adviser. Drelich confirmed Montague was a client of Parente's, and said the two had known each other about six years and that Montague had been investing with Parente for about that long. Drelich said Montague's estimated losses in investments with Parente total about $450,000. Drelich said recently Montague \"got nervous and asked [Parente] for his money back,\" in light of highly publicized scandals involving other investors and financial advisers. Drelich said when Montague kept asking Parente about the money, he was told \"it was in a Canadian bank and [Parente] was having trouble getting the money back.\" Montague finally received six checks late last week, Drelich said. \"Four of the six checks bounced. We were told there was no money in the account. ... We were told by the bank that the checks were bouncing,\" Drelich told CNN. Drelich said he doesn't know the amounts of the two checks that did clear for Montague. It was not until news broke about the Parente family deaths and apparent murder-suicide investigation that Montague contacted authorities, Drelich said. But Drelich emphasized that Montague was more upset with the deaths than any financial loss. \"You can always make more money,\" Drelich said. \"But Bruce is devastated about the family. He considered [Parente] a friend, but he's especially concerned about the family.\" Drelich said his office received calls from at least five other people who said they invested money with Parente, with callers claiming more than $4 million in total investments with Parente. Drelich said his office referred those callers to the state attorney general's office. Baltimore County police said Parente killed his wife, Betty, 58, on Sunday, April 19, using \"blunt force trauma\" and asphyxiation. Police said he killed his daughter Catherine, 11, around the same time, using the same method. Later that day, his daughter Stephanie, 19, a Loyola College sophomore, was killed also by blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to police. Citing hotel records, police said the room was accessed by its electronic key at around 4 p.m. on Sunday, making it plausible that Stephanie entered the room. Later that evening, police said, Stephanie's college roommate, worried that she had an exam the next morning and hadn't come home, called the room and spoke to William Parente. Parente told the roommate Stephanie would be spending the night. Police believe she was dead at the time. Parente died some time later by cutting himself, police said, but would not elaborate further on his death.","highlights":"FBI looking for financial impropriety after man's clients talked about money loss .\nPolice say William Parente killed wife, two daughters in hotel room .\nFamily ID'd as William and Betty Parente, Stephanie, 19, Catherine, 11 .\nPolice say Parente, an attorney, fatally cut himself .","id":"acad4f070995514e46f6e379d06d1c0c75775f23"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- An agreement aimed at ending violence and bloodshed that has erupted in Bolivian provinces has been reached between President Evo Morales and provincial governors, officials announced Tuesday. Leopoldo Fernandez Ferreira, governor of Pando province, talks to reporters a day before his arrest. The announcement on Bolivian television came just hours after the military arrested the governor of one of five provinces where violent clashes have occurred in the past three weeks, saying he had committed genocide in the deaths of 30 peasants. Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez Ferreira of Pando province was picked up at his office in Cobija and placed on a military plane for La Paz, the Bolivian capital. He did not resist. Groups in Pando and four other Bolivian provinces, backed by the local governors, have demanded greater autonomy and clashed with supporters of the federal government. Federal authorities say the 30 people who were killed Friday were federal supporters. Bolivian President Evo Morales said the arrest was legal and constitutional. \"This arrest is within the framework of the state where it happened, within the constitutional framework and no one can oppose it,\" Morales said at a news conference at the presidential palace. Officials said more arrests are possible. \"We will work day and night to avoid any more deaths or terrorist acts,\" presidential minister Juan Ramon Quintana said in another news conference. \"We will do everything we can to arrest those who have committed terrorist acts.\" As news of Fernandez's arrest spread across the country, many citizens talked about who else could be on the government's \"black list,\" as they were calling it. Besides demanding greater autonomy, opposition leaders in the five provinces want the cancellation of a constitutional referendum that would give the president more power. The opposition also is angry over tax money that Morales is diverting from the provinces to fund programs for the elderly. Learn more about the Republic of Bolivia \u00bb . Morales has said the opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. \"This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces,\" Morales previously said. Opposition leaders say they merely want their demands met. On Tuesday, they warned that Fernandez's arrest could destroy a shaky truce with the government. The arrest came hours after Morales returned Monday night from a quick trip to Chile, where presidents of the 12-nation Union of South American Countries met to discuss the Bolivian crisis. Watch leaders meet to discuss Bolivia \u00bb . Confronting its first crisis, the four-month-old UNASUR voted to create a commission to support Morales' democratically elected government, said Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet. She read a nine-point statement on Chilean TV that calls for the support of human rights and democracy and the preservation of Bolivia's territorial integrity. The statement condemns any attempts to overthrow the government. It also said the new commission will investigate the peasants' deaths. UNASUR is modeled on the European Union and aims to politically and economically integrate South American countries. On Tuesday, the United States announced it is organizing emergency evacuation flights for Americans in Bolivia and urged them to leave if the situation permits. A statement from the U.S. Embassy in La Paz said U.S. citizens need to sign an agreement to pay later for the cost of the flight. The embassy said some commercial flights are still available, although American Airlines suspended some flights until Sunday. The United States also continued to urge Americans to delay traveling to Bolivia. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador last week, accusing the American government of inciting the violence. The expelled ambassador, Philip Goldberg, called the charges \"false and baseless\" and said Bolivia was making a \"grave mistake.\" On Monday, the Peace Corps temporarily suspended operations in Bolivia because of \"growing instability\" there. All Peace Corps volunteers in the country have been moved to Peru. \"Our first priority is the safety and security of our volunteers,\" Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter said in a written statement. Protests started 21 days ago in Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz, Tarija and Chuquisaca provinces. The opposition groups have blockaded major roads and threaten to disrupt the nation's natural gas shipments, particularly to Brazil and Argentina. Anti-government protesters also have clashed with police and taken over offices and buildings in the five provinces. Much of the violence has taken place in Pando, where Morales declared martial law Friday. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, was elected in December 2005.","highlights":"NEW: Deal aimed at ending weeks of violence .\nBolivian military accuses governor of genocide .\n30 peasants killed Friday in clashes in Pando province .\nU.S. urges its citizens to leave Bolivia, announces emergency evacuation flights .","id":"a492e151cce8cd3ad61006769bc8da8caa012425"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The homeless Florida woman who made a tearful plea for help from President Obama earlier this year is still jobless and struggling financially. President Obama greets Henrietta Hughes during a town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, on February 10. Henrietta Hughes caught the nation's attention in February when she cried for help during one of Obama's town hall meetings. After her plea, Hughes was given a free home to live in temporarily, but she is still struggling to find a job and might soon lose that home, CNN affiliate WINK reported Thursday. Hughes, who is in her 60s, faithfully goes to an employment center in Fort Myers in hopes of finding a job. \"It's almost our second home,\" Hughes told WINK. She and her son have taken a computer class at the center to help land work. Hughes said she has applied for as many jobs as possible but has struck out. Her son has had no luck either. Now Hughes says she feels time is running out. The home she lives in was donated by the wife of a Florida lawmaker, Chene Thompson, who has been trying to sell the vacant home in the Fort Myers suburb of Lavelle since 2006. Once the house sells, Hughes will have to leave. But Thompson told CNN that she will do everything in her power to make sure Hughes is not back out on the streets even if her house sells. \"I've told Miss Hughes ... she will never again be homeless, even if I have to personally assist her with her rent,\" said Thompson, who is a longtime advocate of the homeless. Thompson said Hughes reminds her of her grandmother and that she and her son are \"upstanding, good-hearted people.\" \"Her concern is that she doesn't want to be a freeloader,\" Thompson said, but Hughes and her son have helped deter vandals who have targeted vacant homes in the area. \"They really are a blessing for me,\" Thompson said. But Hughes told WINK that she worries that she could end up living in her truck again if she has to move without a job. Her plea to Obama came as he promoted his economic stimulus plan at a town hall meeting in southwest Florida. After talking about the plan, the president opened the floor to questions from the crowd. \"I have an urgent need -- unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in,\" Hughes said at the time. \"The housing authority has two years' waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.\" Hughes said her son had lost his job, leaving them homeless. Obama gave Hughes a kiss on the cheek and a promise: \"We're going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you.\"","highlights":"Homeless Henrietta Hughes made tearful plea for help from President Obama .\nHughes still jobless, was given a free home but fears she will lose it .\nHughes and son striking out on jobs despite retraining, visits to job center .\nObama told Hughes he would help, \"but there are a lot of people like you\"","id":"8748a2bf63de21a18751dc0ca502eac1d36d3b34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An adoptive mother has been charged with murdering her 9-year-old quadriplegic daughter, prosecutors in Michigan said Friday. An official says Shylea Thomas, 9, had a \"suffocation issue\" at 3 weeks old that made her quadriplegic. Lorrie Thomas was charged with second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of Shylea Myza Thomas, said John Potbury, an assistant prosecutor with the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office in Flint, Michigan. Thomas is also charged with tampering with evidence. Thomas, who is the girl's biological aunt, made no immediate public statement. Police found the girl's body this week, stuffed inside a garbage bag in a public storage facility in Vienna Township, near Flint, said Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton. The bag was covered in mothballs \"in an apparent attempt to mask odors from the dead body,\" Leyton's office said in a news release. \"This is a very sad and tragic case that hurts all of us involved in the ongoing investigation,\" Leyton said. Shylea had not been seen in six weeks, but relatives did not report her missing until Tuesday, Leyton's office said. Thomas had been taken into custody earlier this week and held as a suspect. Because of her physical disabilities, Shylea had to use a feeding tube. She suffered from quadriplegia because of a \"suffocation issue\" in her crib at 3 weeks of age, Leyton said. Leyton said Shylea and other relatives had lived in \"absolutely filthy\" conditions. Relatives told CNN affiliate WJRT that they remember Shylea as a happy child who loved music and had an infectious smile. \"The last memory I actually have of Shylea is seeing her when she was in my care,\" said her second cousin, Josette Thomas. \"She was on the bed listening to the radio and smiling. Those are actually the memories I want to keep in my head. I don't want that memory to leave me.\"","highlights":"NEW: Adoptive mom charged with murder of quadriplegic girl, 9 .\nLorrie Thomas also was child's biological aunt .\nShylea had not been seen in six weeks, was reported missing Tuesday .\nBody was found in mothballs and trash bag at Michigan storage facility .","id":"9d0a7936fb39e4c097093bd9c72ba48b0f143ee2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Drugmaking giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to buy independent U.S. skincare specialist Stiefel Laboratories for up to $3.6 billion. The new business will operate under the Stiefel identity within the GSK Group. In a statement Monday, the two companies said the deal would create a new world-leading specialist dermatology business with combined revenues of $1.5 billion. Under the terms of the agreement GSK will acquire the total share capital of Stiefel for $2.9 billion. GSK also expects to assume $400 million of net debt upon closing. A further $300 million cash payment will be made depending on future performance. GSK's existing prescription dermatological products will be combined with Stiefel's and the new specialist global business will operate under the Stiefel identity within the GSK Group. The new business will have a broad portfolio of dermatology products including Stiefel's leading brands: Duac, for acne, Olux E for dermatitis and Soriatane for the treatment of severe psoriasis. GSK's key dermatology brands include: Bactroban, Cutivate and the recently launched Altabax. Stiefel, part-owned by buyout firm Blackstone Group, is the world's largest independent dermatology company, with a range of prescription and over-the-counter products. According to Reuters.com it was put up for sale a month ago and attracted interest from a number of large pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis and Johnson & Johnson. Following the announcement, GSK Chief Executive Andrew Witty said: \"As part of our strategy to grow and diversify GSK's business, we are continuing to make new investments through targeted acquisitions. This transaction will create a new world-leading, specialist dermatology business and re-energize our existing dermatology products. \"The addition of Stiefel's broad portfolio will provide immediate new revenue flows to GSK with significant opportunities to enhance growth through leveraging our existing global commercial infrastructure and manufacturing capability. We look forward to working with Stiefel to develop this exciting opportunity.\"","highlights":"GSK is the world's second-largest drugmaker .\nU.S.-based Stiefel is world's largest independent dermatology company .\nGSK will acquire total share capital of Stiefel for $2.9 billion .\nGlobal business will operate under Stiefel identity within GSK Group .","id":"59146767c73726ad8b4a4d3f0156ff5716a519d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Senior Bush administration officials authorized aggressive interrogation techniques -- including forced nudity and waterboarding -- on suspected terrorists, despite concerns from military psychologists and attorneys, according to a Senate report released Tuesday. The Senate report focuses on the authorization to use aggressive techniques to interrogate detainees. \"The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees,\" said the report, which reveals new details about prisoner treatment at U.S. military prisons in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. \"Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies and compromised our moral authority,\" the report said. The full report on the Senate Armed Services Committee investigation was declassified Tuesday by the Defense Department, less than a week after the Obama administration released several Bush-era memos detailing the use of such techniques. \"In my judgment, the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse ... to low-ranking soldiers,\" Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate committee, said Tuesday. \"Claims, such as that made by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a 'few bad apples,' were simply false.\" The Senate report said that in December 2001 the Defense Department's General Counsel's Office solicited information on the \"exploitation\" of detainees from the federal agency charged with training U.S. troops on how to withstand enemy interrogation techniques considered illegal by the Geneva Conventions. The inquiry to that agency, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, was submitted more than a month before then-President George Bush signed a memo stating that U.S. military personnel \"shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions.\" The Senate committee's investigation was largely focused on the influence of a Joint Personnel program called \"Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape.\" The program is used to train U.S. soldiers how to resist enemy interrogation, and employs harsh techniques such as forced nudity, use of fear, sleep deprivation and -- until last year -- waterboarding. The Senate report said Bush administration officials green lighted the use of Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape techniques on detainees -- despite warnings from military psychologists against doing so. The report includes an e-mail from an Army psychologist. \"[T]he use of physical pressures brings with it a large number of potential negative side effects ... If individuals are put under enough discomfort, i.e. pain, they will eventually do whatever it takes to stop the pain,\" said Lt. Col. Morgan Banks, the senior Army Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape psychologist, in an October 2, 2002, e-mail to personnel at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Levin said the program is supposed to prepare troops in the event they are captured and subjected to abusive interrogations, and that it was \"never intended to be used in the interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody.\" In a section titled, \"The Department of Justice Changes the Rules,\" the Senate report noted that less than a week after the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency sent the Defense Department information about the interrogation techniques, the Justice Department issued two legal opinions signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee. The first opinion \"presented a narrow interpretation of what constituted torture under U.S. law,\" the report said. The memo said that to constitute torture, physical pain would have to match the intensity of that accompanying \"serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions or even death.\" The opinion said the administration could defend itself against the federal anti-torture statute by arguing necessity or self-defense. The second opinion concerned the interrogation of a specific detainee, al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydeh, and concluded that 10 different techniques -- including sleep deprivation and waterboarding -- did not violate prohibitions against torture. Last week, the Obama administration released the second Bybee opinion -- which the Senate committee did not have access to during the investigation -- and three others written by then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury in May 2005. Bradbury's opinions concern hypothetical situations with the same interrogation techniques, as well as some others not mentioned in the 2002 memo. Those memos also conclude, for varying reasons, that the techniques did not violate prohibitions against torture. The Senate report reveals new information about Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape use on accused enemy combatants held at Guantanamo -- which President Obama plans to close within a year. \"By early October [2002] there was increasing pressure to get 'tougher' with detainee interrogations\" at Guantanamo, according to testimony cited in the Senate report from a military behavioral scientist, Maj. Paul Burney, who worked with interrogators at the facility in Cuba. So, Burney and a colleague drafted a memo proposing aggressive interrogation techniques at the facility. The scientist testified that Guantanamo's intelligence chief told him the memo needed to contain coercive techniques or it \"wasn't going to get very far,\" the report said. Levin said that despite \"serious legal concerns raised by the military service lawyers,\" Defense Department General Counsel Jim Haynes recommended that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approve 15 of the interrogation techniques -- including stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of dogs) and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli. After Rumsfeld's December 2, 2002, approval, senior Guantanamo staff issued a memo on the use of aggressive techniques, saying, \"The premise behind this is that the interrogation tactics used at U.S. military SERE schools are appropriate for use in real-world interrogations,\" according to the report. The report details how Rumsfeld's approval prompted interrogators in Afghanistan and Iraq to adopt the aggressive techniques. Military officials essentially copied and pasted interrogation policies from Guantanamo, and posted them as their own in Afghanistan and, ultimately, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In September 2003, U.S. Central Command lawyers raised concerns about the interrogation techniques authorized for Abu Ghraib, which included stress positions, sleep deprivation and exploiting fears of dogs, the report said. The report reveals a newly declassified September 16, 2003, e-mail from a CentCom lawyer, Maj. Carrie Ricci, who warned that \"Many of the techniques appear to violate [Geneva Conventions] III and IV and should not be used. ...\" Dozens of military personnel who served at Abu Ghraib confirmed that the interrogation techniques cleared by Rumsfeld had made their way to the prison, according to the Senate report. An Army dog handler at Abu Ghraib told military investigators in February 2004 that \"someone from [military intelligence] gave me a list of cells, for me to go see, and pretty much have my dog bark at them. ... Having the dogs bark at detainees was psychologically breaking them down for interrogation purposes.\" The Senate report said that an interrogator told military investigators in May 2004 that it was \"common to see detainees in cells without clothes or naked\" and said it was \"one of our approaches.\" Levin noted that, despite the revelation of widespread use of aggressive and abusive interrogation techniques, there is still the question of whether the senior officials who approved the policies should be held accountable. Obama on Tuesday left open the possibility of criminal prosecution, saying it would be up to Attorney General Eric Holder to decide whether to prosecute the former officials. \"With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more a decision for the attorney general within the parameter of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that,\" Obama told reporters. \"There's a host of very complicated issues involved there. As a general deal, I think we should be looking forward and not backwards. I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.\"","highlights":"Lawyer's e-mail says, \"Many of the techniques appear to violate\" Geneva Conventions .\nInvestigator says \"one of our approaches\" was to keep detainees naked .\nReport: Officials encouraged use of stress positions, phobias, deprivation of light .\nTechniques came from program used to train troops to resist enemy interrogation .","id":"689d8715885b9ea664b5619d12dd70114357c6ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man in northern Idaho says he has seen a massive hand of God in his life, and he is willing to share it with the highest bidder. Paul Grayhek says the \"Hand of God\" appeared in his backyard in March. Paul Grayhek, 52, listed the rock formation he dubbed the \"Hand of God Rock Wall\" on the online auction Web site eBay. The highest bid was $250 early Sunday, with three days left to go in the auction. The hand-like formation, approximately 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide, appeared in Grayhek's backyard after a rockfall during Lent on March 8, he said. The Coeur d'Alene resident said he faced tough times after losing his job, and believed the rock was a sign. \"I prayed between licking my wounds and looking for a job,\" he said. \"We rarely get rockfalls and this formation is 20 feet from my house. It's definitely a symbol of the hand of God in my life.\" However, the winning bidder on eBay should not start clearing out his backyard. Grayhek is not planning to part with the formation. The buyer will \"basically be buying the rights, complete and exclusive rights\" to the rock, including literary and movie rights, according to Grayhek. Grayhek said he plans to use the money from the sale to pursue an unpaid internship in counseling when he graduates with a master's degree in social work in two years. \"People think I'm some holier-than-thou person trying to get rich. I'm not,\" Grayhek said. \"The purpose is to spread the story of God and eBay is just a vehicle.\"","highlights":"Idaho man places \"Hand of God\" rock for sale on eBay .\nPaul Grayhek says hand-like formation appeared in his backyard during Lent .\nWinning bidder on eBay would get \"exclusive rights\" to rock .","id":"46a75edfe843167003eef6cb72072a1ffdfa568b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- TV talk show host Jay Leno fell ill and checked himself into a Los Angeles, California, hospital on Thursday, his representative said. NBC cancels tapings of \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" on Thursday and Friday after Leno became ill. Tracy St. Pierre would not disclose the nature of Leno's illness. Leno will be 59 on Tuesday. NBC canceled tapings of \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" scheduled for Thursday and Friday, she said. The network will rerun the March 26 show on Thursday, which features a musical performance by Prince and interviews with actors Paul Giamatti and Emma Roberts, according to the show's Web site. Actor Ryan Reynolds, animal trainer Jules Sylvester and swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy had been booked for Thursday's show. CNN's Anderson Cooper, anchor of \"Anderson Cooper 360,\" was scheduled to appear on Friday's show. The network did not announce which show would be broadcast on Friday. CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jay Leno's representative, Tracy St. Pierre, would not disclose illness .\nNetwork cancels tapings of Thursday and Friday night shows .\nLeno will be 59 years old on Tuesday .","id":"c95f660acee71a81db8ba94850883e2c51f34ee8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- French scientists have unveiled a working prototype of a fully artificial heart which is based on the technology of satellites and airplanes. The artificial heart based on satellite and airplane technology was presented in Paris. The device could save millions of lives and beats almost exactly like the real thing using electronic sensors to regulate heart rate and blood flow. Developers Carmat, funded by the European space and defense group EADS, presented the device at a press conference in Paris on Monday. Carmat's chief operating officer Patrick Coulombier told The Associated Press: \"it's the same principle in the airplane as in the body.\" Coulombier explained that the same tiny sensors that measure air pressure and altitude in an airplane or satellite are also in the artificial heart. This should allow the device to respond immediately if the patient needs more or less blood. The French design has so far only been tested in animals, and now needs approval from its authorities before pushing ahead with clinical trials. Previous artificial hearts have been unable to automatically vary their pumping speed and must be tweaked externally. The French heart is also the most lifelike, with two pumps to send the blood into the lungs and the rest of the body, just like a real heart. Past artificial hearts have only had one pump. The French model is made from natural materials including polymer and pig tissue, which have already been used in heart valves implanted into people. The artificial heart would initially be for patients who had suffered a massive heart attack or who had heart failure, but might eventually be used in patients who are not that sick. Heart disease is the world's top killer, claiming some 17 million lives a year. According to the American Heart Association, about 2,200 heart transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2006. Thousands more patients would benefit if more donor hearts were available. The artificial heart is expected to cost about 150,000 euros or $192,140.","highlights":"French scientists have unveiled a working prototype of a fully artificial heart .\nThe design is based on the technology of satellites and airplanes .\nIt could save millions of lives as heart disease kills 17 million a year .","id":"8cb2af8187399db6e4aaffb41c0697b017e2e514"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Malaria is one of the world's worst health problems and one of its biggest killers, with half a billion people affected every year, according to the Roll Back Malaria partnership. Around half a billion people are infected with malaria every year. Ninety percent of those cases are in Africa. Saturday marks World Malaria Day, when the world commemorates global efforts to eradicate the disease. Below CNN's Vital Signs has produced a complete A - Z guide to how malaria spreads, the symptoms to look out for and how to protect yourself. A is for Anti-malarial drugs The history of anti-malarial medicine has been marked by a constant struggle between evolving drug-resistant parasites and the search for new drugs. Currently, anti-malaria experts are focusing on therapies that combine several drugs for better effects. B is for Blood stream Once a mosquito has bitten and the malaria parasites reach the liver, the parasites divide and create thousands of mature parasites. These are released into the blood and infect red blood cells. At that point, typical malaria symptoms such as fever and anemia develop. C is for Chloroquine Until recently, Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, was the first option for many people because of its relatively low price and effectiveness. However, resistance to Chloroquine in many parts of the world has rendered the drug ineffective. D is for Diagnosis After noting your symptoms and travel history, your doctor will likely obtain a sample of your blood for observation. Two blood samples, taken at six- and 12-hour intervals, can usually confirm the presence of the malaria parasite and its type. It is possible to be infected by more than one parasite at the same time. E is for Epidemic According to the World Health Organization (WHO), large and devastating epidemics can occur when the mosquito-borne parasite is introduced into areas where people have had little prior contact with the infecting parasite. These epidemics can be triggered by wet weather conditions and further aggravated by floods or mass population movements driven by conflict. F is for Fever The most common symptom of all types of malarias is high fever, which is why doctors often misdiagnose malaria for flu. The fever is a reaction to toxins in the blood. It is therefore advised to tell your doctor you have been to a malaria affected zone, even if symptoms arise months after the trip. G is for Genome In 2002, -- hundred years after it was discovered that mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite -- the complete genetic codes of both the human malaria parasite and the mosquito that spreads it was cracked. This development brought scientists a step closer to developing drugs and vaccines to fight the disease, Nature magazine reported. H is for Hotspots Most cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, many of them occurring among children. However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Europe are also affected. In 2006, malaria was present in 109 countries and territories. I is for Immunity Travelers from malaria-free regions such as Europe and the United States, with little or no immunity, who go to areas with high disease rates, are particularly vulnerable. It is essential to take precautions by taking anti-malarial drugs prescribed by your doctor. J is for Julius Wagner-Jauregg Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a Viennese doctor, was the first to intentionally infect syphilis patients with malaria parasites. By controlling the subsequent malaria-related fever with an anti-malaria drug, the effects of both syphilis and malaria could be minimized. Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927. K is for Killer Malaria is a life-threatening disease but it is preventable and curable if the right steps are taken. Education in recognizing the symptoms has reduced the number of cases in some areas by 20 percent. Recognizing the disease in the early stages can stop the disease from becoming a killer. L is for Laser gun U.S. scientists say they are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes. The laser fires at mosquitoes once it detects the audio frequency created by the beating of wings, the lead scientist on the project told CNN. The project is being funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. M is for Mosquitoes Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquitoes. The mosquitoes bite between sunset and sunrise and parasites from the mosquito are then injected into the person's skin and transported to the liver. About 170 species of such parasites exist, but only four cause malaria in humans. N is for Nets The distribution of mosquito nets with insecticide is a very effective method of malaria prevention, and it is also one of the most cost-effective methods. These nets can often be obtained for around $3. Earlier this month, actor Ashton Kutcher won a Twitter race against CNN to reach 1 million followers. Kutcher had pledged 10,000 mosquito nets to charity if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same. O is for Obstacles In many endemic areas, access to health facilities, as well as drug costs, still present major obstacles. Humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres estimates that the cost of treating a malaria-infected person in an endemic country was between $0.25 and $2.40 per dose in 2002. P is for Pandemic For malaria to become a pandemic (plague) in an area, several factors have to be present: high human population density; high mosquito population density; high rates of transmission from humans to mosquitoes and from mosquitoes to humans. Q is for Quinine Quinine was the first effective treatment for malaria in the 17th century. Since the 1940's, many other anti-malarial drugs have appeared on the market and have taken precedent over quinine. But quinine is still being used to treat malaria in some cases. R is for Repellent The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says inspect repellents with DEET (most common active ingredient in strong insecticides) in them should be used on exposed skin and flying-insect spray can be used to kill mosquitoes in the sleeping area. DEET may be toxic, however and should be used with care. S is for Symptoms Fever is not the only symptom of malaria. Other symptoms can include shivers, headaches and nausea. Sweating and exhaustion is also common and in some cases, it can affect the brain or kidneys. T is for Tablets Malarone is a common anti-malaria drug among many travelers. It is said to have a 97 percent efficacy with relatively few side-effects. It can be given just one day before arrival in a malaria endemic country and only needs to be taken for another week after leaving. U is for Unborn child According to the WHO, pregnant women are at high risk of contracting malaria. The illness can result in high rates of miscarriages and cause more than 10 percent of maternal deaths annually. This figure can rise to 50 percent in cases of severe disease. V is for Vaccine Despite intensive research, no effective malaria vaccine has been developed to date. But according to a report in April's New Scientist journal, a unique vaccine taken from the saliva of infected mosquitoes has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be tested in people. W is for World Malaria Day April 25 has become World Malaria Day to provide a global effort to control malaria around the world. The international malaria community only has two years left to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon. X is for X-ray X-ray microscopes are used to find the presence of malaria in red blood cells and see how they interact with healthy cells. One of the advantages of this type of microscope is that it produces very-high-resolution images of the cell structure. Y is for Yellow fever Yellow fever is another disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Some countries, such as Peru, require a certificate showing yellow-fever vaccination before you can travel there. Z is for Zanzibar Zanzibar, part of the African republic of Tanzania, has had relative successes in combating malaria; Africa's biggest killer according to the New Scientist journal. The achievements are due to the widespread use of treated bed nets, along with the switch to new anti-malarial drugs instead of Chloroquine in 2004.","highlights":"World Malaria Day on April 25 highlights the danger of malaria and calls for action .\nAccording to the WHO there were 247 million cases of malaria in 2006 .\n880,000 people died of malaria in 2006, a preventable and curable disease .","id":"b53754c54be75724270ef37ef9643d79b53185b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She said she was a scapegoat. She said she was just following orders. She said she was demoted unfairly. Retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski was one of two officers punished over Abu Ghraib. Now, retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski can say: I told you so. Karpinski was one of two officers punished over the aggressive interrogations at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Pictures of detainees caused outrage around the world when they were leaked to the news media in May 2004. The photos showed naked prisoners stacked on top of each other or being threatened by dogs or hooded and wired up as if for electrocution. Throughout the ordeal, Karpinski maintained that she and her troops were following interrogation guidelines approved by top brass. Today, Karpinski has found validation in a few Bush-era memos released last week by the Obama administration. \"The outrage was over the photographs, because the photographs were living color of what those top-secret memorandums authorized,\" Karpinski said in an interview Wednesday. \"So, it is unfair ... the soldiers may have moved through [the military justice] system, but they never had a fair court-martial. Not any one of them, because they were condemned as one of the 'bad apples.' \" Karpinski, then a brigadier general and commander of Abu Ghraib, was demoted to colonel because of the scandal. A second officer, Col. Thomas Pappas, the commander of the military intelligence unit assigned to Abu Ghraib when the offenses occurred, was relieved of duty and fined in May 2005. Seven low-ranking guards and two military intelligence soldiers -- described by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz as \"bad apples\" -- were disciplined. The memo, by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven G. Bradbury, allowed the use of such tactics as keeping a detainee naked and in some cases in a diaper, and putting detainees on a liquid diet. One memo said aggressive techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture absent the intent to cause severe pain. \"I will tell you that when I read those memorandums, when they were first released a few days ago, I did -- I did feel this sense of being able to exhale after five years,\" Karpinski said. \"That is what we have been saying from the very beginning, that, wait a minute, why are you inside pointing the finger at me, why are you pointing the fingers at the soldiers here? There's a bigger story here.\" The Senate Armed Forces Committee released a report Tuesday, five days after the memos were released, stating that senior Bush administration officials authorized aggressive interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, despite concerns from military psychologists and attorneys. The report points to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's approval of such techniques -- including stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of dogs), and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli -- in December 2002 for detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His OK prompted interrogators in Afghanistan and Iraq to adopt the aggressive techniques. The guidance was delivered to Abu Ghraib by then-Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was summoned to Baghdad from Guantanamo to evaluate the prison system. \"We had a myriad of problems in our -- in the prison system, not with detainees who were undergoing interrogations, but with Iraqi criminal prisoners,\" Karpinski said. \"And instead of coming to give us support, he was sent specifically to work with the military intelligence interrogators to teach them the harsher techniques that were being used down in Guantanamo.\" Shortly before he left office in late 2006, Rumsfeld said the day the Abu Ghraib scandal broke was the worst in his tenure as defense secretary. \"Clearly the worst day was Abu Ghraib, and seeing what went on there and feeling so deeply sorry that that happened,\" he said at the time. \"I remember being stunned by the news of the abuse.\" But Karpinski said the condition of detainees at the prison should have come as no surprise for the Bush administration. \"I think it was torture, absolutely. You know, I was never inside an interrogation room where they were conducting interrogations, but I read the memorandums many times over,\" she said. \"Waterboarding is torture.\" Karpinski said that while she was the commander of Abu Ghraib, she didn't personally witness any of the interrogation techniques. \"The first time I saw the photographs was at the end of January [2004],\" she said. Karpinski said she was ordered by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the U.S. commander of operations in Iraq at the time, not to discuss the photographs or the investigation with anybody. Now, despite any relief felt by the release of the memos and the Senate report, Karpinski said she will have a hard time shaking off the humiliation and disgrace brought on by the Abu Ghraib scandal. \"I think that, you know, you cannot dismiss five years of having to live under these accusations,\" she said, \"and people associating my name and these soldiers' names with what they were so unfairly accused of.\" CNN's Rick Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Retired Army Col. Janis Karpinski was punished over Abu Ghraib interrogations .\nAbu Ghraib photos showed naked prisoners and prisoners with dogs .\nMemos from Bush administration reccommended such tactics .\nKarpinski says she and other disciplined soldiers were treated unfairly .","id":"7b304cc9dfe5c3c26c79281c2a5a7afdf0352e0e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration told a federal court late Friday it will maintain the Bush administration's position that battlefield detainees held without charges by the United States in Afghanistan are not entitled to constitutional rights to challenge their detention. Former detainees pray near Kaubul in 2005 following their release from U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base. \"Having considered the matter, the government adheres to its previously articulated position,\" said a Justice Department document filed in federal court in Washington. In a controversial 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court last year ruled that detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay had a right under the constitution to challenge their continued detention. However, the court did not say whether it applied to prisoners in other locations abroad, including Afghanistan. Five prisoners held at Bagram Air Base, backed by human rights groups, have gone to court to claim the same rights as the men detained in Guantanamo Bay. The new administration, which was given a month by a federal judge to declare whether the government wants to change its position, has now indicated it will continue to argue that it is against its security interests to release enemy combatants in a war zone. Barbara Olshansky, lead counsel for three of the detainee petitioners, said that the administration's decision was \"deeply disappointing.\" \"We are trying to remain hopeful that the message being conveyed is that the new administration is still working on its position regarding the applicability of the laws of war -- the Geneva Conventions -- and international human rights treaties that apply to everyone in detention there,\" she said. The air base at Bagram, located north of the city of Kabul, houses between 600 and 650 detainees. Most were picked up for suspected ties to terrorism.","highlights":"Justice Department: U.S. \"adheres to its previously articulated position\"\nLead counsel for detainees in Afghanistan calls decision \"deeply disappointing\"\nNew administration was given a month to review detainee rights in theater of war .","id":"f2378fe494e73ad78139d3e3a9b32cbd5054c2e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two senior Indian officials met with the Sri Lankan president Friday in Colombo to address the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn island nation. A Sri Lanka army photo of what it says are refugees fleeing a rebel area. Shiv Shankar Menon, the Indian foreign secretary and M.K. Narayanan, the national security adviser, met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, according to A.M.J. Sadiq, a foreign ministry official in Sri Lanka. He did not provide further details. \"The Indian message was just short of reading the riot act,\" a source told CNN. Significant numbers of people have been killed or wounded in a Sri Lankan offensive against the faltering Tamil Tiger rebel movement, and thousands are trapped by the fighting, the United Nations said Wednesday. \"Given that the area has shrunk even further, the potential for further significant casualties still remains,\" the U.N. said in a statement. The Sri Lankan army launched an operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in the country's northern area Monday, and a deadline for the rebels to surrender passed Tuesday. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but tens of thousands more remain wedged on the island's northeastern coast. The area remains controlled by the rebels, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union. Thousands of civilians remained threatened, Pranab Mukherjee, India's foreign affairs minister, said in a statement Thursday. He called for an end to hostilities in the area. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it is helping the government in the regions of Vavuniya and Jaffna, with emergency shelters and distribution of aid. There are about 38 internally displaced persons sites and authorities are working to come up with more land and buildings for more displaced people. \"UNHCR remains deeply concerned about the estimated 50,000 people who are still trapped inside the conflict zone where fighting is intensifying,\" the organization said. \"We urge the government to exercise extreme caution in its military actions and calls upon the LTTE to allow displaced people to leave the area immediately,\" the UNHCR said.","highlights":"Senior Indian officials meet with the Sri Lankan president .\nU.N. says \"significant number\" of dead and wounded in Sri Lanka offensive .\nHumanitarian agency says aid cut off to more than 80,000 .","id":"fb9b5549a2d32a1a47b8f5e173a70c010f66c696"} -{"article":"Could your cell phone be bad for your health? Maybe. But not because it's zapping your brain. More homes are using just the cell phones, which limits the CDC's ability to collect health data. According to a report released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as one-quarter of homes in certain areas, such as Oklahoma and Utah, lack a landline and are completely reliant on cell phones. While that's terrific news for reducing the cost of phone bills, it may not be so great in terms of health-- or at least health care in general. The CDC often relies solely on landline phones when conducting large, state-based health surveys, conducted every year to determine sexual habits, childhood immunizations rates, and dozens of others factors related to American health. \"It doesn't affect health per se, rather it has implications for how well the CDC and others can track the health of the nation,\" said Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The federal government and states often use the survey information to set national health policies aimed at reducing the number of people who lack health insurance, decreasing high-risk behavior and determining immunization rates for children and teens, Blumberg said. The CDC's report is the first to compare wireless phone-- only homes on a state-by-state basis. The new report is based on 2007 data, which found that Oklahoma had the highest percentage of cell phone--only homes (at 26 percent) and Vermont has the lowest (5 percent). There are probably more landline-free homes now, as the rate has increased by 3 percentage points each year, said Blumberg. Health.com: Cell phone study suggests people are losing their wanderlust . \"I'd expect today in 2009 the rate is probably 5 percentage points higher, perhaps even more,\" he said. Overall, about one in six American homes or about 18 percent, rely solely on wireless phones. The high rates of cell phone--only homes were not that surprising, said Blumberg. What was surprising, he noted, was the wide variation from state to state. The rates of cell phone--only homes are generally low in the Northeast; for example, Connecticut (5.6 percent), New Jersey (8.0 percent) and Delaware (5.7 percent) have low rates. In other areas, it's a different story- in Nebraska the rate is 23.2 percent, and in Arkansas it's 22.6 percent. Check your state's percentage of wireless phone--only homes. The wide variation is due to factors such as income and age. Young adults living on their own in rentals, for instance, are less likely to have landlines. \"Households in poverty or near poverty are also more likely to be wireless-only,\" said Blumberg. While missing a pesky phone call from a CDC researcher asking probing questions about your private health information may seem like a good thing, it's not, said Blumberg. \"As a result of missing all of these wireless-only households, those surveys can be biased,\" he explained. \"The potential for bias in Oklahoma is greater than the potential for bias in Vermont.\" Some major, national CDC surveys are done door-to-door, but many state surveys rely on landline phones. The CDC doesn't use cell phones for a number of reasons, said Blumberg. Most callers aren't happy about using cell phone minutes to chat about a survey, and participants might want compensation for taking part in the survey. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act forbids the use of automated or computer-generated dialing to cell phone numbers. Researchers can do it by hand, but it costs more money. Researchers are considering finding ways to call cell phones or going back to an older method, in which surveys are mailed to specific addresses. It seems unlikely that Americans will be adding landlines back into the mix any time soon or ever, particularly given the added expense in a weak economy. Health.com: 10 ways to go from tired to terrific . \"All of the major surveys are already experimenting with methods of contacting the wireless only population,\" said Blumberg. \"It has to be done, but it requires additional money and experimentation to determine the best way to do it.\" Health.com: How exercise can help fibromyalgia . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"CDC relies on landline phones for health surveys,conducted every year .\nSurvey used for national health policies for health insurance, immunization and etc.\n26 percent of Oklahoma were cell phone-only homes; Vermont had 5 percent .","id":"d06c7547a0b50d57d92cd72696db056978f9141d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bank that received $1.6 billion dollars of the government's bailout money sponsored what reports are calling a lavish series of events in Los Angeles, California, last weekend. Northern Trust sponsored a Professional Golf Association tournament and associated client events. Northern Trust, based in Chicago, Illinois, spent an undisclosed amount of money sponsoring a Professional Golf Association tournament and associated client events, including concerts, dinners and parties, according to celebrity Web site TMZ.com. The bank spent millions of dollars on the event, which included -- on top of the sponsorship costs of the Northern Trust Open tournament -- concerts by Sheryl Crow and Earth Wind & Fire, a private party at music venue House of Blues and gift bags from Tiffany & Co., the Web site said. Watch splashy concerts, parties \u00bb . According to TMZ.com's report, employees and clients attending the tournament dined on seared salmon and petite Angus filet and stayed at some of Los Angeles' most elegant and expensive hotels. Doug Holt, senior vice president of communication for Northern Trust, confirmed to CNN that his bank sponsored the tournament and its events but, he said, not at taxpayer expense. Holt told CNN that as a \"healthy\" bank, Northern Trust did not seek the $1.6 billion it received from the government as part of the U.S. Treasury's Capital Purchase Program, but that it \"agreed to the government's goal of gaining the participation of all major banks in the United States.\" \"This is the second year Northern Trust is sponsoring the Open as part of a five-year contract,\" Holt said. The contract was signed in 2007, before the government's Capital Purchase Program to aid banks came into existence. Holt also said that the sponsorship is an \"integral part of Northern Trust's global marketing activities,\" and as with all marketing, advertising, corporate sponsorship or charitable activities, no taxpayer money was used to fund the weekend events. But that assurance doesn't seem to be enough for some. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, is writing a letter to Northern Trust asking the bank to pay back the money it spent, according to Frank's spokesman. \"We are asking Northern Trust to repay the government the equivalent of the funds they spent on the tournament and related events,\" Steve Adamske of Frank's staff told CNN. Northern Trust announced it was laying off 450 employees in December of last year, with the bank saying the move was part of a number of actions \"to better position the company for improved profitability and continued global growth during these difficult economic conditions.\" Last year, Northern Trust earned an operating net income of $641 million. TMZ.com, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.","highlights":"Chicago-based Northern Trust received $1.6 billion from U.S. government .\nWeb site TMZ.com says bank held lavish events in Los Angeles last weekend .\nEmployees, clients dined on seared salmon and petite Angus filet, TMZ.com reports .\nU.S. Rep. Barney Frank says he wants bank to pay back money it spent on events .","id":"83652c69a348ae563eb1c254d3ef55d78f540030"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Peter Bregman is chief executive of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global management consulting firm, and the author of \"Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change\". He writes a weekly column, How We Work, for HarvardBusiness.org. Peter Bregman says recession is an opportunity to reorient the focus of your working life to what you love to do. NEW YORK (CNN) -- A friend of mine, a senior leader in a pharmaceutical company, spends all her spare time doing yoga, taking classes in comparative religions, reading about spirituality, speaking with others about their beliefs. Just talking about it energizes her. Which is not how she feels about her day job. \"Why don't you leave your job and do something with this full time?\" I asked her. \"I've thought about it. But I could never make the kind of money I make now.\" She might be right. But the question isn't whether she could make as much money. Even if she stays in her job she's unlikely to do that in this economy. The question is far broader and more interesting. What would her life look like -- in every dimension she values -- if she decided to pursue her passion full time? She needs to consider the contribution she'd make. The relationships she'd foster. The fun she'd have. The feelings she'd carry with her throughout the day. Her engagement in her work. In short, what her life would mean. And, of course, also the money. Which, as it turns out, might actually be greater if she were more engaged in her work. Gallup has collected data on 5.4 million employees in over 137 countries and concluded that engaged employees are more productive and customer-focused. And more profitable. Which could mean more money for her. But why are we even having this conversation during the worst downturn this country has seen in the last 70 years? Isn't she lucky simply to have a job? Yes. And, because of that, she's also stuck. For better and worse, she probably won't leave. But maybe you're not so lucky -- you've been laid off or might be soon; you're a student coming into the job market; or like several people I know, you've been thinking about a change. Well, this is your opportunity. You didn't want to risk a change when things were going well. There was too much to lose. But this downturn, this economic mess we're in, could be your chance. When everything was going well, we spent money we didn't have thinking we would make more tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came. It's easy to point a finger at Bernie Madoff (and he deserves the finger), but the truth is, it's not just him. We're all victims of our own little Ponzi Schemes. But now we know. The life we've been living, the debt we've been incurring, is unsustainable. Maybe the layoff is a favor. You were treated as expendable. But were you, working those long hours to keep a job you didn't love, treating your self as expendable too? Depressing? Sure. But now that we know, we can do something about it. I don't want to be cavalier; I know food on the table is a necessity. We still need work and money. Here are our new rules for finding it: . Rule #1: Don't spend too much time looking for your next job. As I discuss in my article for Harvard Business, \"Need to Find a Job? Stop Looking So Hard,\" searching for a job more than 1-2 hours a day will actually make it less likely you'll find one. Rule #2: Focus your time on what you're truly passionate about. Get more training. Expand your comfort zone with new activities, new people. Studies show that 80 percent of jobs are found through networking. Which is what you're doing when you pursue your passion with other people. So do it without guilt. Spend your newfound spare time doing what you enjoy with people whom you enjoy. Rule #3: Let those people know you want to make your money doing these things. Don't hammer it in. Just mention it. Once. Successful people are passionate, obsessed. And obsession isn't motivated by money. It's deeper than that. Find your obsession. Let it loose. Employers want to hire someone who is naturally driven. Self-motivated. You'll work at your obsession all the time because you want to. And that kind of persistence, that kind of focus, is worth a lot of money. But don't make the mistake of chasing the money. That's what got us into this mess in the first place. Let the money chase you. iReport.com: Brown-bagging lunch to save money? Send video . Most people are afraid to do that. Afraid of the risk. Afraid of the gap in their resume. They try to cover it up. Find ways to explain it away. But my advice to employers is hire for the gap. It's often the most interesting part of a person's life. What does a person do when they don't have anything they have to do? What do they do in their spare time? If you can hire someone for that, you'll find your star. This isn't the time to be afraid of risk. It's too late. You're already in the risk. You might not have chosen it, but why not take control and act as if you had? Remember my friend working at the pharmaceutical company -- the one with the job? By staying in work she doesn't love, she's taking a risk too. She's risking her life. Imagine how great she would be, how much she would offer, how much she would gain, if she devoted herself to her passion? Now how about you? Let's become a nation of people who love what we do. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bregman.","highlights":"Peter Bregman: The recession provides an opportunity as well as a challenge .\nHe says people who were working just for money now can rethink what they do .\nHe says, if you were laid off, focus your time on what you love doing .\nBregman: Spending time with people is best route to fulfilling new job .","id":"485552bef758f2bf502341d2117a1cb63e00c476"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bulgaria is a Turkish toilet, France is always on strike, Romania is a vampire theme-park and the UK... Well the UK doesn't exist. The piece \"Entropa\" shows Romania as a giant Dracula-inspired theme park. That's the view of the European Union according to a controversial art installation by Czech artist David Cerny, commissioned by his government to mark its six-month presidency of the pan-continental body. The work, \"Entropa,\" frames various representations of each member state as components of a giant multimedia model kit. But the piece, scheduled to have its official unveiling Thursday at the EU headquarters in Brussels, has sparked controversy. Look at images of European nations \u00bb . Bulgaria's foreign ministry has summoned the Czech ambassador in Sofia to lodge a protest about the piece, according to the Czech News Agency. What do you think about images? And Betina Joteva, spokesperson of the Bulgarian permanent representation to the EU, said in comments reported by EUObserver.com: \"It [the work] is preposterous, a disgrace. It is a humiliation for the Bulgarian nation and an offence to [our] national dignity.\" Bulgaria is not the only nation to suffer an unflattering depiction. Germany is criss-crossed by a series of autobahns in what some critics say is a close approximation of a swastika; Spain is a giant construction site in a dig at its building boom; and Luxembourg is a gold covered nugget sporting a \"For Sale\" sign. The Netherlands is depicted as a submerged land with only minarets peeking through the waves in an apparent reference to its religious tensions. Poland recreates the WWII flag-raising at Iwo Jima, only with the U.S. Marines and the Stars and Stripes replaced with Catholic clergy brandishing the multi-colored gay pride flag. The UK is absent from the work -- possibly because of its on-off relationship with the rest of the continent. The Czech government said in a statement on its presidency Web site Tuesday that the original brief was for the work to be created by 27 artists representing all EU Member States -- and that it was \"unpleasantly surprised\" to learn that this was not the case. \"David Cerny bears full responsibility for not fulfilling his assignment and promise,\" said Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister. \"In this situation we are now considering further steps. The government said it will issue a further statement Thursday. The comments were in contrast to a statement issued by Vondra Monday, when he said that \"sculpture, and art more generally, can speak where words fail. I am confident in Europe's open mind and capacity to appreciate such a project.\" Cerny is no stranger to controversy. In 1991 he was arrested after painting pink a Soviet tank that served as a Prague war memorial. His Web site shows other examples of his work, including previous kit-style installations entitled \"Jesus Christ\" and \"Dead Raped Woman\"; and a life-size bronze fountain that depicts two men standing opposite each other, urinating. Cerny, and his main collaborators Kristof Kintera and Tomas Pospiszyl apologized to Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and other government ministers Tuesday, according to a statement on the artist's Web site, for \" not having informed them about what is true and for having misled them. The statement adds that Cerny and his colleagues initially wanted to use 27 European artists for \"Entropa\", but fell short due to lack of time and money. Instead, they say, they decided to create fictional artists, some of whom have even been given their own Web sites. Cerny says he knew the truth would eventually come out but adds: \"We believe that the environment of Brussels is capable of ironic self-reflection, we believe in the sense of humor of European nations and their representatives.\" Try telling that to Bulgaria.","highlights":"Czech Republic assumed six-month presidency of European Union this month .\nCzech artists has apologized for artwork that has sparked diplomatic protests .\n\"Entropa\" is due to be officially unveiled at EU HQ in Brussels Thursday .\nBulgarian EU representative: A humiliation for the Bulgarian nation .","id":"51b236396d5ddfdfeadcd52eb435f64e4bef097a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Bookatz, 32, was walking home one night in January when he noticed a man walking toward him. Michael Bookatz as he looked when first responders arrived after he was attacked. \"Then he just suddenly ran up to me and punched me in the face,\" he said. \"He started stamping on me, kicking me. A friend of his came from the other side of the road and started stamping and kicking on me. And they said: 'This is because of what happened to the Palestinians in Gaza.'\" The attack on Bookatz -- a Jew who wears a skullcap and lives in a particularly Jewish neighborhood of London -- is one of more than 250 assaults on Jewish targets in the United Kingdom since the beginning of the year, according to the Community Security Trust, a non-governmental organization which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain. The group recorded more than 200 incidents in the month of January alone, the highest monthly total it has seen since it began keeping records in 1984. London's Metropolitan Police \"report that since December, there have been four times as many anti-Semitic attacks as attacks on Muslims, even though there are seven or eight times the number of British Muslims as there are Jews,\" said British lawmaker Denis MacShane, who chaired the country's first parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism. Against this backdrop, London hosted a two-day international conference on combating anti-Semitism Monday and Tuesday. Watch what Bookatz says of the attack on him \u00bb . MacShane called it the \"first conference of its type,\" bringing together lawmakers from at least 35 different countries. \"Parliaments now have to acknowledge that anti-Semitism is back. It's a potent ideological force, causing fears to Jews in many different countries, and it has to be combated by all people that care about democracy,\" MacShane said. It is not only a problem for Jews to tackle, the lawmaker said. \"I'm not Jewish. Most people at the conference are not Jewish,\" he said. The rise in attacks on Jewish targets comes amid heightened tension in the Middle East, the Community Security Trust noted. The incidents include arson and graffiti attacks on synagogues, verbal and physical abuse of Jews, and hate mail. Similar events were reported across Europe during Israel's three-week military assault on Hamas in Gaza in December and January, the CST said in a statement. But Bookatz is not convinced Gaza is the real reason for the assaults on Jews. \"Anti-Semitism is around,\" he said. \"It has always been around. Throughout my life, I have experienced anti-Semitic attacks. \"Gaza was probably a focal point, something that triggered it: 'OK, now that Gaza is happening, we can use it as an excuse to attack people,'\" Bookatz said. MacShane said lawmakers around the world needed to take a stand against anti-Semitism. \"We would like to get the police to take anti-Semitism seriously, to take Internet anti-Semitism seriously,\" he said. \"We need to say to countries that promote anti-Semitism: 'Drop that hate of Jews.'\" He warned anti-Semitism was an indicator of other problems. \"Whenever anti-Semitism sinks roots, the world is heading in a disastrously wrong direction,\" he said. \"That is a lesson from history. If we don't tackle anti-Semitism in the early stage, then it devours democracy.\" CNN's Atika Shubert and Eileen Hsieh contributed to this report .","highlights":"UK holding international conference to combat anti-Semitism .\nWatchdog says January saw highest ever number of anti-Semitic attacks in UK .\nPolice: More Jewish attack victims than Muslims despite bigger Muslim population .\nLawmaker: Anti-Semitism has to be combated by all (who) care about democracy .","id":"90865c7843f06a61d307e03b3cfa3bc1c9ae00f8"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities said they have arrested the leader of a drug cartel that set off two grenades during a public celebration in September, killing eight people and wounding more than 100. Cesar Duarte, president of the federal chamber of deputies, says he supports the government plan on narcotrafficking. Alberto Espinoza Barron, known as \"the Strawberry,\" heads the \"Michoacan Family,\" which operates in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico, authorities said. Officials say the cartel set off the two grenades September 15 in the public plaza in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. Espinoza Barron's arrest Monday, which officials did not confirm until Tuesday, came just days after Mexican officials arrested an army major assigned to a guard unit protecting Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The army major, Arturo Gonzalez Rodriguez, was paid as much as $100,000 a month for passing information to a drug cartel, officials said after the officer's arrest Friday. Espinoza Barron's arrest by the military as part of its permanent presence in Michoacan came at a time when some are questioning the military's role in the war against narcotics traffickers. \"I believe that we need to totally change our strategies since the results have been awful,\" said Juan Francisco Rivera of the Mexican Commission on National Security. \"It's not me who is saying that, because the president himself has recognized it. I don't believe the country is willing to keep committing errors.\" Others believe that the military, known by the acronym SEDENA, is the only institution capable of confronting organized crime. \"The participation by SEDENA is necessary because there is a threat and harm to national security,\" said Guillermo Velasco, member of an organization called Better Society, Better Government. \"It's known that many of the successes have come from the work done by military intelligence and investigation.\" Amid this debate, the secretary for national defense recently proposed a 60-year prison term for any military member linked to organized crime. \"We believe the national defense secretary's position is adequate,\" said Cesar Duarte, president of the federal chamber of deputies. \"We support him with respect to implementing major punishment for elements that are infiltrated or compromised with narcotrafficking.\" In many parts of the country, narcotraffickers constantly recruit low-level soldiers. The secretary of defense has said that in the past seven years about 100,000 soldiers have quit to join the drug cartels.","highlights":"Mexico arrests Alberto Espinoza Barron, known as \"the Strawberry\"\nHe heads the \"Michoacan Family,\" accused of setting grenades that killed 8 .\nSome question military's role in the war against narcotics traffickers .","id":"8d7838f8a667e5850ab673a39a7d9fedc2d70044"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Do not go backstage at Cirque Du Soleil. It will only hurt your self-esteem. Anthony Gatto says he's been in training since he was 3 years old and performing since he was 8. In the performers' tent for the touring show \"Kooza,\" there are the chiseled men catapulting their partners onto each other's shoulders from a giant see-saw and the woman doing contortions on children's-sized blocks. You can only take so much of this before your ego needs normal. Normal might be that man in the corner, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers throwing balls in the air. How hard can that be? Your self-worth will be quickly dashed again when the man picks up a soccer ball, bounces it on his head and jumps rope at the same time. Moments later, he's juggling six or seven orange rings (they move so fast, it looks like a blur) and then does a pirouette -- while all the rings are in the air -- and then catches them on his arm. Watch the juggler in action \u00bb . You could say Anthony Gatto went into the family business. But his stepfather wasn't a farmer or a doctor. He was a juggler. \"By the time I was 8, I was entered into a juggling competition, and incidentally, that was the same competition that Patrick Dempsey, the actor, was in,\" Gatto said. \"He used to be a juggler. We competed against each other. I took first, he took second. Now he's a big actor and here I am, juggling.\" Gatto is being modest. In fact, he didn't audition for \"Kooza.\" The show went looking for him. \"I have right now 11 juggling world records,\" he said. \"Some of them I've held since I was 16 years old and they have yet to be beaten.\" Imagine a wearable disco ball. That's not too different from the form-fitting outfit Gatto wears onstage. Backstage, it's a long-sleeve T-shirt, gym shorts and sneakers. But there's nothing casual about his daily routine. He typically works out and practices six to seven hours a day to prepare for his 10 minutes in the spotlight. In fact, he is practicing until moments before he runs on stage. \"Juggling is something that is so delicate, you have to have a really good feel, you can lose that in minutes,\" he said. \"There are so many variables that can affect you. If it's a humid day, it's a very difficult task to get through the number that I do. The wind, if there's any air current in there and you're expecting to catch a ring and it blows an inch, you miss it.\" But he rarely misses -- at least not in his act. This performer, who relies on coordination and concentration 350 shows a year, admits his most embarrassing moment has nothing to do with balls, clubs or rings. It's acting that trips him up. \"I have fallen as the delivery-man character in the show. In fact, I have done this a few times,\" he said. \"I like to think it's because I put my heart and soul into the characters I'm portraying.\" Surrounded by all this talent and precision, there is some comfort in knowing one of the best -- maybe the best juggler in the world -- is also a klutz.","highlights":"Cirque Du Soleil's \"Kooza\" went looking for juggler with 11 world records .\nAnthony Gatto beat actor Patrick Dempsey in juggling competition .\nGatto practices six to seven hours to prepare for 10 minutes on stage .\nSays humidity and wind can affect his routine .","id":"01e53f9b7c308f4ff0c153156e93a99c9c8cd45f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For three years, the thieves crept into some of the poshest homes in the most exclusive enclaves in the nation. The gated community of Bel Air was one of several enclaves targeted by the so-called \"Hillside Burglars.\" Police said they finally have a break in the case, and wealthy residents of Los Angeles, California, are breathing a sigh of relief. \"These guys were real good,\" said L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss, who oversees Bel Air where some of the burglaries were committed. \"They were professionals.\" The thieves hauled away more than $10 million worth of valuables and cash from 150 homes in upscale neighborhoods such as Bel Air, Pacific Palisades and Beverly Hills, police said. Homes of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and multimillionaires were hit. According to CNN affiliate KABC, country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and former Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing were among the victims. DNA evidence led the LAPD to suspected ringleader Troy Corsby Thomas, 45, of Los Angeles. He was arrested near L.A. International Airport last weekend. Police say Thomas led a gang dubbed the \"Hillside Burglars\" that targeted the neighborhoods overlooking Sunset Boulevard. \"It's a very euphoric, satisfying feeling that we got this person,\" said the police Lt. David McGill. \"It's a very frustrating feeling to tell the victims, 'I'm sorry I don't have any news for you.' Finally when we got some good detective work and breaks, things started lining up.\" Police are looking for more suspects linked to the three-year spree but are not naming them. Thomas is being held on $2 million bail, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office. He is likely to stay in custody because he must reveal the origin of any funds used to pay the bail, authorities said. At a court appearance Tuesday, Thomas pleaded not guilty to two charges of residential burglary, one in January 2006 and another in March 2008. The preliminary court date for Thomas will be set on January 29 and additional charges are expected to be filed, according to CNN affiliates KABC and KTLA. Police will not comment on Thomas' background. The Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas told police he had been working as an auto broker. The Hillside Burglars have not struck since Thomas' arrest, police said. \"Hallelujah!\" said L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. \"Even a crafty crook does make his mistake and that's what happened to this one.\" Some residents are cautiously optimistic. \"We're delighted,\" said Robert Ren\u00e9, president of Brentwood Homeowners Association, which represents about 800 homes. \"We are very fortunate to have the due diligence of the Westside LAPD.\" Harvey I. Saferstein, president of the Bel Air Association, agreed, \"We are all obviously thankful and relieved.\" The financially strapped LAPD created a Hillside Burglars task force. People donated cameras and other equipment and police stepped up patrols. The outlay amounted to \"millions of dollars,\" Rosendahl said. Neighborhood watch groups formed. One in Bel Air donated $8,000 for infrared cameras that can spot burglars in the dark. Robert Ringler, president of the Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, hosted a community meeting with the LAPD at the five-star Bel Air Hotel a year and a half ago. As swans swam in ponds in the background, about 150 Westside residents sipped Perrier and vented their fears. \"It had gotten to be such an epidemic,\" Ringler said. The impressive mansions -- usually gated and hidden by walls and hedges -- dot the lush hillsides and canyons between the coast and the mountains. The qualities that make them so desirable also make them vulnerable. The seclusion that appeals to upscale homeowners also appeals to thieves. Because many of the homes are tucked into the sides of mountains and canyons, behind gates, it's easy for a thief to escape unseen and hard for police to get there quickly. \"It's the perfect target,\" Ringler said. \"You can access the property and nobody would ever see you.\" Frequently, maids, pool workers and gardeners have access to the property, which allows burglars to pass as the help and slip in unchallenged. According to police and media reports, the methods were sophisticated. Burglars waited till homeowners went on vacation or out for the night. They used lawn furniture and ladders to creep into the second floor, which often lacked alarms. They quickly went in, looked for jewelry, safes and cash, and ducked out with the goods. They never attacked any of the homeowners, preferring stealth to confrontation. Residents say they learned to keep jewelry and other valuables in safety deposit boxes and out of sight. Many added alarm systems and insured their belongings. \"It's not just about money,\" said Robin Stevens, who lives with her husband and son in Brentwood. \"A lot of people lost things of sentimental value.\" Stevens, whose neighbors have been burglarized, said she feels safer knowing that police arrested Thomas, but will continue hiding her mother's antique jewelry and locking the windows. During a two-week trip to the South Pacific last fall, Stevens made sure to e-mail her neighbors, notifying them that she would be gone so they could look out for strangers. Other residents remain skeptical. Pacific Palisades Community Council Chairman Richard G. Cohen said he feels relief but is waiting for a conviction. \"The arrest doesn't mark the end of our concern,\" he said. With the economy in a tailspin, Steve Twining, who serves on the West Los Angeles Police advisory board, believes thefts will continue. \"In these dire economic times, I don't think it's going to dissuade others from trying to do the same thing,\" he said. \"The burglary situation will probably get worse before it gets better.\"","highlights":"Wealthy Bel Air, Beverly Hills residents feel cautious relief .\nPolice say Troy Thomas led gang that stole $10M from 150 upscale homes .\nThomas in custody, pleads not guilty to felony burglary .","id":"5f53317d1ad887dd4f20aad8bdd06e927d77294d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In the wake of a highly publicized chimpanzee attack, the U.S. House made its first official move to ban humans from owning primates as pets. Travis, seen here as a younger chimp, was fatally shot by police after attacking a woman, authorities say. The House overwhelmingly voted in favor of passing the Captive Primate Safety Act on Tuesday, which prohibits people from buying or transporting primates across state lines to keep as pets. This legislation amended the Lacey Act, which had only applied to wildlife and fish. The Humane Society of the United States applauded the bill, which passed by a vote of 323 to 95. \"There is no reason for any private citizen to keep a primate as a pet, and this trade is driven by unscrupulous dealers who sell primates across state lines for thousands of dollars,\" said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the HSUS. Last week, Charla Nash, 55, was left with severe trauma to her face, scalp and hands after her neighbor's pet chimpanzee, Travis, mauled her in Stamford, Connecticut. Police shot Travis to halt the attack, and he later died of gunshot wounds. Nash was brought to the famed Cleveland Clinic, where the nation's first face transplant was performed. Doctors there are contemplating whether to offer her a similar procedure. The bill was introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, and Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, who said it would protect animals and humans from similar attacks. \"As the tragic attack in Connecticut shows us, The Captive Primate Safety Act is necessary, common-sense legislation for the welfare of humans and animals,\" Blumenauer said. \"Make no mistake, this bill will protect communities and ensure the humane treatment of these animals.\" \"It is inhumane to cage primates in private homes. Besides the animal cruelty concerns, the interstate movement of pet primates creates serious public health and safety risks. The Captive Primate Safety Act takes important steps to address these concerns,\" Kirk said. As cute as they can be, primates can inflict serious injuries and spread life-threatening disease, according to the Humane Society. The average pet owner cannot provide for their basic social and physical needs in captivity, says the organization, which estimates 15,000 monkeys and other primates are living as either pets or in private zoos. \"As infants, they are fascinating,\" said Beth Preiss, who directs the organization's Exotic Pet Campaign. \"But they grow up and become dangerous to manage.\" The bill moves now to the Senate, where Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana will lead the effort to pass the legislation. CNN's Lauren Kornreich contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill prohibits purchase, transportation of primates across state lines .\nTrade driven by \"unscrupulous dealers\" who sell primates, Humane Society says .\nPrimates can inflict serious injuries, spread disease, group says .\nBill comes 8 days after woman left in serious condition after chimpanzee mauling .","id":"22f967edb677cc812ed63d2575a50b35ee1171df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Beckham was upstaged on the day his AC Milan future was finally resolved as teammate Filippo Inzaghi fired a hat-trick in the 3-0 success over Atalanta at the San Siro on Sunday. David Beckham congratulates hat-trick hero Filippo Inzaghi as the San Siro enjoys a double celebration. Milan confirmed in a brief statement a deal had been reached with Los Angeles Galaxy over England international Beckham. \"AC Milan announces that the player David Beckham will remain at the club until June 30, 2009,\" it read. The 33-year-old midfielder will then return to the United States to play for the Galaxy between July and October. \"I'm grateful to both clubs for allowing this dream to come true,\" Beckham said in a statement posted on www.gazzetta.it. What do think of Beckham's move to play in the U.S. and Italy? \"It will enable me to play for Milan and the Galaxy in the same season, with the possibility of been able to keep up my commitments with Major League Soccer and the development of soccer in the United States, something which I'm very passionate about.\" The deal follows weeks of negotiations between the two clubs during which Milan baulked at the size of the transfer fee Galaxy were demanding -- thought to be around \u00a312million. Galaxy's chief executive, Tim Lieweke, admits the deal is one which suits both clubs. \"I'm sorry that it had to go for so long, for him and for us and particularly for the fans,\" he told the Los Angeles Times. \"This is a good solution. It allows him to finish the season with Milan. We will see him in July.\" Coach Carlo Ancelotti admits Beckham has exceeded all expectations during his first two months as an AC Milan player. \"Beckham has done more than we could have possibly expected from him,\" Ancelotti told PA Sport. \"He has settled in very well with the squad and given a huge contribution up to now. \"He is very professional and we are all very, very happy that he is staying.\" He added: \"The aim was to keep him until June 30 and we have done that. He is very happy with the solution that has been found and we will make the most of having him now and then we will see.\" Sunday's victory gave Milan a five-point gap over fourth-placed Fiorentina, who lost 2-0 at home to Palermo. Ancelotti said Inzaghi had helped lift the club out of a crisis after their UEFA Cup exit. \"He gave us a real helping hand. It was a tough match and for most of the first half Atalanta caused us problems,\" he said. \"Then Pippo's ability to find the right place to be in allowed us to end the match well. We were in a crisis and now I hope that this result has put an end to the crisis.\" Only the top three in Serie A will go straight into next season's Champions League group stages with the fourth place finisher having to negotiate two qualifying rounds. With his contract uncertainty behind him, Beckham seemed to have a new lease of life and he was even given a free role behind forwards Inzaghi and Pato by Ancelotti. The former England captain dictated the play and helped open the way for Milan to take a seventh-minute lead when Marek Jankulovski firied across goal for the unmarked Inzaghi to score. Milan had to wait until the 71st minute for Inzaghi's second. He beat the offside trap to latch onto Pato's chip and take the ball around Consigli before slotting home. Moment's later Inzaghi was once again in the right place at the right time to tap in Gianluca Zambrotta's pass from close range. After that Ancelotti took both Inzaghi and Beckham off to give the fans the chance to show their appreciation for both players. There was no change to the top three in Serie A as Inter Milan and Juventus both won on Saturday, 2-0 at Genoa and 1-0 at Torino respectively. Serie A top scorer Marco Di Vaio also scored a hat-trick as Bologna thrashed Sampdoria 3-0.","highlights":"Filippo Inzaghi fires hat-trick in Milan's 3-0 win over Atalanta at the San Siro .\nDouble celebration for fans as David Beckham's Milan future is also resolved .\nBeckham will stay at San Siro for rest of season and the rejoin L.A. Galaxy .","id":"c72808b97538444bdf034aad980e357935706d45"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Gas will resume flowing \"in the next few days,\" Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters following summit talks in Moscow aimed at resolving the ongoing dispute between Ukraine and Russia which has left many parts of Europe without natural gas. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was in Moscow Saturday for talks with Russian leaders. Medvedev said the summit talks, which also involved Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, had raised a number of \"interesting ideas,\" including loans and extensions of credit aimed at resolving the crisis. But he reiterated that no agreement had been reached. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said the meeting highlighted Russian efforts to enlist major European gas companies as a part of an international consortium that would subsidize Ukrainian payments to ensure gas deliveries from Russia. \"Preliminary willingness (to join the consortium) has been stated by Eni, which was the first to do so, then by Ruhrgas, Wingas, Gaz de France, OMV, and Gasterra,\" Kupriyanov told Russian news agency Interfax. On Friday, Putin said Ukraine required about $730 million of \"technical gas\" to resume export deliveries from Russia. It has now been 11 days since much of Europe was cut off from crucial supplies of Russian natural gas because of the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which is in charge of pipelines carrying gas to the continent. The taps remain shut despite a deal signed in Brussels earlier this week. The European Union has tried to pressure Russia and Ukraine into sorting out the matter, calling into question their reliability as energy suppliers. Russia has said the dispute is not bilateral. Tymoshenko said ahead of the trip that her top priority was to resume Russian natural gas transit to Europe in order to protect Ukraine's reputation as a transit country and prevent the empty pipelines from suffering damage as a result of being idle. Watch how a simple price dispute led to the crisis \u00bb . \"The government takes full responsibility for resolving the crisis in relations with Russia, which was not initiated by us,\" Tymoshenko said in a statement on the government's Web site. The prime minister said she would press for direct relations between Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukraine's state-run gas company Naftogaz and \"mutually beneficial prices\" for gas and transit. It was prices and cost that caused the problems in the first place. Russia cut off Ukraine's domestic gas supply at the start of the year, claiming nonpayment of debt, and the two sides failed to agree on the terms for a new contract. Six days later, in a move each side blamed on the other, Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine were turned off as well. Watch how Slovakia has been affected by the gas row \u00bb . \"There is the need to compromise in order to preserve friendly relations between Ukraine and Russia, and to uphold the reputation of both countries in Europe,\" Tymoshenko said. \"I am sure that such compromise will be brokered.\" CNN's Matthew Chance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian President Medvedev says gas flow to Europe will resume in days .\nMedvedev hosted summit talks Saturday aimed at resolving dispute with Ukraine .\nUkrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko also attended talks .\nShutdown has left many European countries without natural gas .","id":"bc7b54dff200d4bd51117d39988a6029e31d97c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roll out the pink carpet, grab a feather boa and throw open those Malibu Dream House doors. It's Barbie's 50th, and the iconic doll, unveiled today in her latest swimsuit, has plenty to celebrate. The classic 1959 Barbie strikes a pose in front of an early Malibu Barbie Camper. Only this American institution could have inspired Barbara Karleskint, 48, to spend nearly $700 so she and one of her dolls could wear matching red chiffon gowns and capes at an annual collectors gathering. \"Look, we're not as bad as the Star Trek convention people,\" Karleskint, who lives outside of Orlando, Florida, said with a laugh. Collecting Barbies \"brings me joy; that's all I can say. And life's not worth living unless you have some joy.\" With 8 million active collectors dotting the globe, according to Mattel, Karleskint is hardly alone. Since Mattel introduced Barbie in 1959, she has become a household name -- owned by 90 percent of American girls ages 3 to 10 and sold in 150 countries, said Lauren Dougherty, a Mattel spokeswoman. Barbie attracts 50 million visitors to her Web site each month, she added. See Barbie dolls from all over the world \u00bb . Along the way, she spawned a cosmetics line, apparel stores throughout Asia and an entertainment franchise that has sold more than 65 million DVDs. Watch old toys get new life \u00bb . Last week, a six-story flagship store opened in Shanghai, China. And a real-life Malibu Dream House, a temporary home tricked out for Barbie's birthday -- including a chandelier made of her hair -- is currently on display in California. Not bad for a doll that, according to author Robin Gerber, was initially inspired by \"a sexually-themed gag toy for men.\" The now-legendary doll was conceived by Ruth Handler, a daughter of Polish immigrants, said Gerber, author of the newly published \"Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her.\" She and her husband, Elliott, owned Mattel until a scandal involving accusations of cooked books drove them out in 1975, Gerber said. Handler, who died in 2002, used to watch her own daughter, Barbara, play with paper dolls. Then, on a trip to Europe, Barbara became fascinated with a buxom doll that Gerber said was based on a female German cartoon character, named Lilli, who used sex to get what she wanted. \"My guess is she didn't know what it was when she bought it,\" because at that point, four years after the Lilli doll's release, it had landed in European toy stores, the author explained. Handler took the doll back to the states and insisted Mattel designers get to work. \"Who would have thought,\" Gerber said. Barbie was thought up by a woman and modeled on a cartoon character \"who was essentially a prostitute.\" Though the men at Mattel, a company that had never sold dolls before, were skeptical at best, Handler proved to be \"a corporate genius,\" Gerber said. In the three years after Barbie's release, Mattel's worth grew to $200 million, doubling the value earned in the first 20 years of business. Handler's daughter, now Barbara Segal, 67, is a bit dumbfounded by all the hype. \"It's been quite an interesting ride,\" she said from her Los Angeles, California, area home. \"I can't believe this doll's created all of this.\" Barbie's collector line (not what's seen on Wal-Mart shelves) is designed for the grown-ups who still relish Barbie. Many say Barbie is an antidote to adult woes, allowing them to recapture their youth and revisit simpler times. iReport.com: See, share Barbie collections . The woman behind Sandi Holder's Doll Attic in Union City, California, strolled through her 3,000-square-foot warehouse and one-of-a-kind Barbie museum, home to thousands of dolls, and spoke of the visitors who flock through her doors each year. Tour an iReporter's Barbie dream house \u00bb . She says the doll can evoke powerful emotions and has seen visitors weep for a lost sibling or childhood friend. But Holder, 51, who gave up a nursing career to pursue her Barbie dream more than 20 years ago, said that while trips to the museum can be emotional, they're also full of laughter and stories. \"No one leaves without sharing a fond portion of their childhood with me,\" said Holder, who once snagged a record for selling a doll at auction for $27,600. Barbie, however, doesn't conjure up smiles for everyone. Though the 11.5-inch doll can't be single-handedly blamed for the eating disorders and body-image issues that plague young women, Ellyn Kaschak, a psychology professor at San Jose Sate University in California, said Barbie, especially given her prevalence, is part of the problem. \"I don't think the concerns are overblown at all,\" said Kaschak, one of the founders in the 1970s of the feminist psychology field. \"Blow her up to normal [human] size, and she'd fall over,\" she said of Barbie's unattainable figure. Still standing, however, is Cindy Jackson, a 53-year-old woman inspired by Barbie to do much more than collect dolls and splurge on matching outfits. Over the course of more than two decades, Jackson has gone under the knife for 13 full-scale operations, including multiple procedures each time, and hundreds of less intrusive cosmetic tune-ups in order to achieve the \"all-American beauty\" look she said Barbie represents. She grew up in rural Ohio, \"plain and unpopular,\" she said. \"Every real woman around me was a farmer's wife, a factory worker, a mother or a school teacher. ... For me, it was soul-destroying. There was no glamour whatsoever.\" And then she met her first Barbie, a vintage doll sporting a bubble cut, \"a sidelong glance\" and dressed as Jackie Kennedy, she remembered. \"It was powerful,\" Jackson said from her London, England, home. \"I'd never seen a real woman who looked like that, and I thought, 'That's what I want to look like.' \" Concern about Barbie's looks and her values, including materialism -- she has worn about 1 billion outfits, Mattel's Dougherty said -- has at times gained ire from more than feminists and psychologists. The recent release of Tattoo Barbie, for instance, has gotten under the skin of some parents. Watch video about the controversy \u00bb . But such criticism misses the point of what Barbie is all about, according to diehard fans. iReport.com: Barbie's body is not the issue . \"It's not about wanting to look like her. It's about imagining what could be,\" said Nancy Parsons, of western Pennsylvania, who is chairwoman of the Barbie 50th Anniversary Gala, this year's collectors convention planned for July. \"People who say it's a bad influence -- they don't know the imagination that goes into playing with dolls. ... My sister always pretended she was a nurse, and [now] she's a nurse.\" All told, Barbie has held down 108 careers, Mattel says. She's been a police officer, a doctor, a veterinarian, an astronaut and a presidential candidate. Women, by the way, are not the only ones drawn to Barbie. Up to 20 percent of annual convention attendees, who fly in from all over the world, are men, this year's chairwoman, Parsons, said. In her own collector's club there are two of them: \"One's a hair dresser, and one's an auto mechanic,\" she said. Scott Warren, 45, of Orlando, Florida, will attend his seventh consecutive annual convention this summer. The \"novice fashion fan,\" as he described himself, has been collecting Barbies for about 14 years and counts among his favorites his Versace Barbie, Ralph Lauren Barbie and Diane von F\u00fcrstenberg Barbie. \"I know there's no way I can afford a designer's original, but I think it's cool that my Barbies can,\" he said. See photos of Barbie dolls in designer clothes \u00bb . Barbie has had a long partnership with top designers, 50 of whom jumped at the chance to participate in the Barbie Runway Show in New York last month, bringing life-sized Barbie fashions to the catwalk. \"A lot of them say she was their first client, the first model they dressed,\" said Mattel's Dougherty. \"We thought it was the perfect place to kick off her celebration.\"","highlights":"Barbie, originally based on a 'sexually-themed gag toy for men,' celebrates 50 years .\n90 percent of American girls, ages 3 to 10, own at least one, Mattel toy company says .\nDoll inspires with 108 careers and fosters 8 million collectors worldwide .\nOne woman in London, England, had cosmetic surgery to look like Barbie .","id":"757e065b2a3cc2d80e2d53654c1c3eb7b06faa09"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force is grounding more than 100 planes used to support ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because of fatigue cracks in the wings, Air Force officials said Friday. Aircraft like this A-10 Warthog provide close support to ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The officials said 127 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, including some used in the United States, will be grounded until they are each inspected for the cracks. \"The inspections are a necessary step in addressing the risk associated with A-10 wing cracking, specifically with thin-skin wings. This risk is of great concern to the Air Force and is representative of a systemic problem for our aging Air Force fleet,\" the Air Force said. The A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed the \"Warthog\" because of its unique un-aerodynamic look, is one of the Air Force's older aircraft, having first been delivered to the service in 1975. The average age of the A-10 fleet is now 28 years, but the entire Air Force fleet has an average age of 25 years, according to Air Force statistics. The Air Force has more than 400 A-10s in its fleet. The cracks in the older A-10 A-models and A-10 C-models were discovered at Hill Air Force Base in Utah during routine maintenance. No A-10 has had an accident because of the cracks just discovered, according to Air Force officials. The inspection of the 127 planes will give priority to the planes in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of battle, officials said. The plane was designed as a tank killer, with a front-mounted Gatling gun that fires 30-mm armor-piercing ammunition capable of destroying a tank. The planes are now primarily used in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect ground troops in close combat situations, flying low and slow and with the ability to target individuals hidden on mountainsides or rooftops. Last year, the Air Force grounded hundreds of F-15 fighter jets after one fell apart during a training mission. The culprit was a fatigued longeron, a part that holds the fuselage together. Numerous F-15s flying in Iraq and Afghanistan also were grounded until they were inspected, forcing the service to fly other aircraft in their place. The Navy was also asked to help cover the F-15 missions during the weeks they were grounded.","highlights":"127 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs will be grounded because of fatigue cracks in wings .\nA-10s first delivered to Air Force in 1975; average age is 28 years .\nNone of the cracks has been attributed to accidents .\nPlanes used in Iraq, Afghanistan to protect ground troops in close combat situations .","id":"df5b268e78423d6d25b58f714e0eaac52de30da4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Entertainer Ed McMahon has been hospitalized for more than three weeks with pneumonia and other medical problems, his spokesman said Friday. 85-year-old Ed McMahon is in serious condition, according to his spokesman. Doctors say McMahon is in serious condition, said the spokesman, Howard Bragman. \"Ed's a big, strong, hearty guy and his family and I are hopeful and optimistic about his prognosis,\" he said. McMahon is 85. He will turn 86 on March 6. Bragman and McMahon's family are \"praying and hoping for the best and are appreciative of everyone's thoughts and prayers,\" Bragman said. He declined to say where McMahon is hospitalized. McMahon gained fame as Johnny Carson's sidekick on \"The Tonight Show.\" CNN's Rachel Wells contributed to this story.","highlights":"Ed McMahon has been in the hospital for almost a month .\nHe is in serious condition, says spokesman .\nMcMahon best known as Johnny Carson's longtime \"Tonight\" show sidekick .","id":"796ce983213ad1000fb8c2a80463ce2d202118e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The entire population of Taloga, Oklahoma, was evacuated Thursday because of a raging fire that has burned tens of thousands of acres, officials said Friday. Wildfire threatens a house in Edmond, Oklahoma, on Friday. All of the residents, about 400, left the Dewey County town, but have been allowed back in, said Bill Challis with the fire department in Clinton, Oklahoma, south of Taloga. Clinton is among dozens of fire departments helping battle the blaze. Wildfires have been burning in northwest and central Oklahoma since Thursday, according to the state Department of Emergency Management. A large wildfire also came within inches of homes north of Edmond late Friday morning and was still burning during the noon hour, CNN affiliate KOCO reported. Oklahoma Department of Public Safey officials also report that one to two city blocks of Weleetka, in Okfuskee County, were on fire, according to KOCO. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved the state's request for federal assistance for fighting the wildfire in Dewey County, where Taloga is located. The original call about the Taloga fire came in Thursday at about 12:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. ET), Challis said. Officials don't know how the fire started. Brett Russell, also with the Clinton Fire Department, said about 60,000 acres have burned. There are no reports of anyone injured. As of about 11 a.m. Friday (12 p.m. ET), the Taloga fire was about 50 to 60 percent contained. About 80 fire departments helping battle the blaze, Russell told CNN. An Oklahoma Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter was helping with aerial fire suppression, according to the state.","highlights":"All residents of Taloga, Oklahoma, were evacuated because of fire .\nEntire population of about 400 people allowed back in .\nWildfires have been burning in northwest and central Oklahoma since Thursday .\nWildfire also burning near towns of Edmond, Waleeka .","id":"45a2df8a14d403fc26880693952992ba14264201"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The United Arab Emirates has refused to grant a visa to a female Israeli tennis player, preventing her from competing in the Sony Ericsson World Tennis Association Tour in Dubai, the WTA said in a statement Sunday. The UAE has refused to grant a visa allowing Shahar Peer to compete in Dubai. Shahar Peer would have been the first Israeli athlete to participate in a professional sporting event in the UAE, CNN Sports correspondent Pedro Pinto said. The UAE has no diplomatic ties with Israel. Peer told CNN on Sunday evening she was \"very, very disappointed\" to be denied access to the tournament. \"Any player that qualifies should attend, and I was prevented,\" she said from Israel. \"I'm glad the WTA support me. A red line was crossed for every athlete in the world -- politics should be kept separate from sports.\" The governing body of women's tennis said it was \"deeply disappointed\" that Peer was being denied entry to the country hosting the tournament, but it did not cancel the competition, which began Sunday. The move runs counter to WTA policy, which says no player should be barred from competing in a tournament for which she has qualified. Dubai could lose its membership in the WTA tour next year over the ban on Peer, according to WTA rules. That would mean professional players could compete only in exhibition matches in Dubai, the results of which would not count in pro rankings. Government officials in Dubai have not responded to CNN's request to comment over their refusal to allow Peer to compete in the event. \"Ms. Peer has earned the right to play in the tournament, and it is regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right,\" said Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the tour. Watch Scott express disappointment \u00bb . \"Following various consultations, the tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the tour's board of directors.\" The patron of the Dubai Tennis Championships is Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum. Two million dollars in prize money is on the line. Al-Makhtoum told CNN in 2004 that Dubai would accept Israeli students to a school dedicated to students from the Middle East who are talented at sports. In 2003, Dubai hosted World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, which Israeli government officials attended. The Israeli flag -- among other member states' flags -- is still part of a globe monument in Dubai. Peer, 21, is ranked 48th in the world among female tennis players. She was allowed to compete at the Doha tournament in Qatar last year, where she received a warm welcome, according to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. Qatar, another Gulf Arab state, froze diplomatic ties with Israel after Israel's military offensive in Gaza last month. Peer downplayed the political undertones of her participation in last year's Doha tournament, telling Haaretz that she didn't come to Qatar \"to help the politics of course.\" But she added that if her playing in the tournament \"can help for peace or anything, I'd be really happy.\" Scott said the tour will \"review appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer\" as well as \"appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament.\" Peer was advised Saturday by tournament and WTA officials of the denial of her visa while she was participating in a tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, according to a WTA statement. The Dubai Tennis Championships runs through February 28.","highlights":"NEW: Shahar Peer, female Israeli tennis player, says she's \"very, very disappointed\"\nUnited Arab Emirates refuses to grant a visa to Peer .\nPeer needed the visa to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships .\nWorld Tennis Association unhappy, says move runs counter to its policy .","id":"7f1811135f57fc0419fcdc65520732650f302adc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot of a tanker that crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, causing a major oil spill, was under the influence of multiple prescription medications that impaired his judgment, federal officials said in a report Wednesday. The November 2007 crash left a gash in the tanker's side and led to an oil spill that killed more than 2,000 birds. The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of the Hong Kong-registered Cosco Busan, was \"medically unfit\" on November 7, 2007. That, and a master pilot's poor oversight of his performance, were major factors in the crash that dumped 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay, the NTSB said. \"How a man who was taking a half-dozen impairing prescription medications got to stand on the bridge of a 68,000-ton ship and give directions to guide the vessel through a foggy bay and under a busy highway bridge is very troubling,\" said acting NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker. The pilot, John Cota, was charged with criminal negligence in federal court last year. He faces two misdemeanor charges that could result in up to 18 months in prison and $115,000 in fines. The 901-foot ship left Oakland, California, en route to South Korea when Cota gave orders that steered the ship directly toward a support tower on the bridge. While the ship avoided a direct hit, it hit a support system at the tower's base, cutting a 212-foot gash in the ship's side, the NTSB said. The board ruled that Cota and Chinese master pilot Mao Cai Sun never thoroughly discussed a plan before they took off on a foggy night when visibility was less than a quarter-mile. The oil spill killed about 2,500 birds of 50 different species, according to the report. The crash caused more than $70 million in environmental cleanup costs, $2 million in damage to the ship and $1.5 million in damage to the bridge. The report also blamed the ship's operator, Fleet Management Ltd., for not properly training crew members and the U.S. Coast Guard for not providing adequate medical oversight of the pilot. It said the Coast Guard should have revoked the pilot's license, the pilot should have given a meaningful pre-departure briefing about plans for the voyage and the master pilot should have taken a more active role in ensuring the ship's safety. \"There was a lack of competence in so many areas that this accident seemed almost inevitable,\" Rosenker said.","highlights":"Pilot of tanker that struck San Francisco Bay Bridge \"medically unfit,\" NTSB says .\nMan was taking \"a half-dozen impairing prescription medications,\" report says .\nCrash in 2007 caused oil spill that killed about 2,500 birds, NTSB says .\nSupervisor's poor oversight also cited as factor in NTSB report .","id":"f63eff25b90367e3740c0109e2eb4ab99a3fda7b"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A huge mural greets visitors to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston. It's a memorial to the building's namesake, who died unexpectedly in 1993. Hundreds of tiles are used to create the \"magic\" mural at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston. A young Reggie Lewis, wearing his No. 35 Boston Celtics jersey, dominates the middle of the 11-foot-by-14-foot artwork. At the bottom left is a picture of him and his wife. To his right, the face of legendary Celtic Larry Bird. But as young men in sweats and sneakers make their way into the gym, something strange happens. The mural comes alive. The photo of a beaming Lewis in formal attire transforms into Lewis the basketball player, streaking down the court. Larry Bird's picture morphs into that of another famous player, Robert Parrish. With each step, the mural transforms, representing the many scenes in one man's life. Artist Rufus B. Seder calls these \"movies for a wall\" Lifetiles. The Massachusetts artist invented the Lifetiles medium and is the only artist in the world using it. He has more than 30 Lifetiles installations around the globe. Watch a magic mural in action \u00bb . At the Taiwan Aquarium, dolphins swim on the wall alongside awestruck children. Bucking broncos line the halls of the the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. Dancers spin and twirl along with passengers on luxury cruise ships in the south of France. And Seder calls the the South San Francisco, California, BART station his \"own personal gallery,\" with more than 16 installations. Lifetiles don't use electricity, moving parts or tricky lighting -- just an elaborate and painstaking process done out of Seder's Eye Think Inc. studio near Boston. \"What I'm after is trying to create an experience which totally takes you by surprise,\" he said. Scanimation on the shelf . If the technology you see in Lifetiles looks familiar, you might have caught something similar at a local bookstore. The popular children's books \"Gallop!\" and \"Swing!\" were also written and illustrated by Seder. With a technique he calls scanimation, pictures in the books come alive as you flip the page. It's a kids' favorite that quite a few parents enjoy, too, based on sales numbers. \"Swing!\" and \"Gallop!\" are currently on The New York Times bestseller list. Seder originally used scanimation in greeting cards he sold at trade shows around the country. Then Workman Publishing came calling, asking Seder to develop a book based on the eye-catching technique. That's when Seder caught lightning in a bottle. After several decades as a somewhat unknown artist, he found himself flying to China to teach the scanimation technique to book makers. Just a few years later, there are over 2 million copies of \"Gallop!\" in print in more than 13 languages. Still awed by their popularity, Seder said, \"I would've been satisfied if a limited edition sold well. It totally blew my mind what happened.\" Although his books' success have gained Seder some newfound publicity, the Lifetiles are truly his life's work. The relatively unknown and seemingly modern form of art isn't new at all. Seder's been working on Lifetiles for more than 20 years, inspired by toys from the 1850s called zoetropes and an active imagination as a youngster. \"I started making movies when I was 12 years old,\" he said, \"so I was always into motion pictures and especially into optical tricks and techniques that trick the eye.\" How does it work? As a viewer, you don't have to learn how to see a Lifetile. It's intuitive, and one immediately understands the concept. As you walk past the mural, it begins to move along with you. But the question that immediately comes to mind -- and the one Seder gets the most -- is, \"How does it work?\" \"The short answer is, it's magic,\" Seder said. \"The longer answer is, it's like a flipbook. I've taken all the pages from a flipbook and scrambled them all together, and I've put them up on the wall and made them animate.\" The lengthy process also requires attention to detail. Much like an animator, he creates a series of drawings on his computer. He then strips down each image into what becomes an indistinguishable picture made up of a series of vertical lines. This squiggly-lined image becomes the equivalent of a photo negative. The negative gets sandblasted onto a hand-cast glass tile made in Seder's studio. The heavy, 8-inch-square glass tiles get painted, scraped, fired in a kiln and finally added piece by piece to a Lifetiles mural. Hundreds of these tiles work in harmony to create a huge moving image when displayed on a wall. Seder patented the painstaking technique but thinks most other artists wouldn't have his patience, even if they had his know-how. \"It's not that I've been playing my cards close to my vest,\" he said. \"It's just very difficult to do.\" A Lifetiles installation, from conception to completion, can take up to a year to complete. It's a labor of love he shares with others who walk by his \"magic\" walls. \"I love to watch people react to the work. They don't expect a wall to move,\" he said. \"They'll be walking down the hallway in a museum and walking outdoors through a zoo ... and suddenly they realize, 'Those dolphins are starting to move next to me! How is that possible?' \"","highlights":"Lifetiles are murals, created without electricity or moving parts, that appear to move .\nRufus Seder is the inventor of Lifetiles and the only artist in the world using them .\nHis eye-catching Lifetiles installations can take over a year to make .\nSeder also is the author of two bestselling books using similar technology .","id":"74109de4e0fcfa67e4b093a54b884564bec78b76"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The former Halliburton subsidiary KBR has been charged with bribing Nigerian government officials with \"tens of millions of dollars\" to obtain \"billions of dollars in contracts,\" according to court documents filed late Friday in Houston, Texas. KBR was spun off from its former parent corporation Halliburton in 2007. Justice Department lawyers filed an \"information,\" which is generally associated with an expected plea agreement. The Justice Department had no comment on the filing, but officials familiar with the case said they expected KBR representatives to appear Wednesday in federal court in Houston. The 22-page court document outlines a complex joint venture involving KBR and the Nigeria government-owned National Petroleum Corporation charged with developing the country's oil and gas industry. The contracts involved the design and construction of a natural gas plant. The government documents say the joint venture included payments to international consultants to bribe Nigerian officials. The alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act come after the conviction of Albert Stanley, KBR's former chief executive officer, who pleaded guilty to bribery last fall. \"We are not providing comment at this time,\" said company spokeswoman Heather Browne in an e-mail. She referred CNN to a filing in October that cited a consortium that included KBR called TSKJ. It said, \"information has been uncovered suggesting that, commencing at least 10 years ago, members of TSKJ planned payments to Nigerian officials. We have reason to believe, based on the ongoing investigations, that payments may have been made by agents of TSKJ to Nigerian officials. \"The government has recently confirmed that it has evidence of such payments. The government has also recently advised Halliburton and KBR that it has evidence of payments to Nigerian officials by another agent in connection with a separate KBR-managed offshore project in Nigeria and possibly evidence of payments in connection with other projects in Nigeria.\" The company said that in June 2004 it terminated its relationship with Stanley, and noted his guilty plea. \"By the plea, Mr. Stanley admitted that he participated in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials and that payments were made by agents of TSKJ to Nigerian officials in connection with the construction and expansion by TSKJ of the complex at Bonny Island,\" it said. KBR, which was spun off from its former parent corporation Halliburton in 2007, has been under fire for its business practices in providing logistical support to the U.S. war effort in Iraq. The Nigerian charges are separate from KBR's contracts in Iraq and Kuwait. CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this story.","highlights":"Feds: KBR bribed Nigerian government for \"billions of dollars in contracts\"\n22-page document outlines venture to pay international consultants .\nKBR's chief executive officer was convicted of bribery last fall .","id":"7d2635a33452c82e7865a0ae9d3e11d2cc6d892e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House has provided the use of a government airplane to a key Democratic senator in order to ensure the availability of what may prove to be the deciding 60th vote in favor of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, could represent the decisive 60th vote on the $787 billion economic stimulus package. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has returned to his home state to attend a wake for his 88-year-old mother, who died February 2 from complications from leukemia. At the end of the wake, Brown will be flown from Mansfield, Ohio, to Andrews Air Force Base. After he casts his vote, he will return to Ohio for his mother's funeral early Saturday. The plane is being provided by the White House, Brown's office said, because the vote is considered \"official business,\" and there are no commercial flights available that would allow him to cast the vote and return to Ohio for his mother's funeral Saturday morning. A White House official refused to provide a cost estimate for the military plane, but acknowledged \"it will be a higher cost than if he were flying commercial.\" The official said it is a \"small government plane.\" \"Taking immediate action to save or create 3.5 million jobs and get America's economy moving again is a top priority for Ohio and the nation,\" said the White House official. \"Given that no commercial flights were available that would allow Sen. Brown to make the vote and to attend services memorializing his mother, the administration provided government transportation to ensure that he could do so.\" While the final Senate vote on the stimulus plan began at 5:30 p.m. ET, senators are expected to be allowed to vote until after 10:30 p.m., giving Brown enough time to return to the Capitol. CNN's Ed Henry and Ted Barrett contributed to this report .","highlights":"White House provides plane to Democratic senator so he can vote on stimulus bill .\nSen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, may represent the decisive 60th vote on measure .\nBrown will vote between wake and funeral in Ohio for his mother, who died at age 88 .\nWhite House official says loaner is a \"small government plane\"","id":"f8cb17bda4328b15f0892fca60916787b4b6aac6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A motorcycle gang carried out a bold smash-and-grab raid on a jewelry store in the center of London -- right in front of a CNN camera. One of the raiders can be seen clutching stolen watches as the gang makes its getaway. CNN reporter Sasha Herriman and cameraman Peter Kavanagh were filming in Oxford Street, London's busiest retail area, when the raiders took a sledgehammer to the store's windows in broad daylight. Kavanagh kept the camera rolling as the thieves helped themselves to handfuls of luxury watches before roaring off on their motorcycles, leaving a crowd of stunned shoppers in their wake. \"They always tell you to expect the unexpected when working in news, and this certainly was unexpected,\" said Kavanagh, an Australian cameraman with 19 years' experience. Images from the daring heist \u00bb . \"As we were filming we heard a couple of motorbikes revving their engines loudly and saw a crowd forming. We couldn't tell what was happening at first. \"We saw the men yelling at the crowd and gesturing for them to stay back. Then they ran out of the store, climbed on their bikes and sped off.\" Kavanagh says the daring heist nearly came unstuck at the last minute when the riders were forced to swerve to avoid a truck pulling into the road -- a moment he caught on film, along with a tantalizing glimpse of their booty. Watch raiders zoom away on motorcycles \u00bb . \"As they went past, I zoomed in to get a clear shot. I noticed one of the passengers on the bikes was carrying a fistful of watches.\" London's Metropolitan Police would not reveal the value of the items taken from the store, but said they were trying to establish if it was linked to other smash and grabs. No one has been arrested in connection with the raid, they said, and witnesses were being sought. Says Kavanagh, after the four raiders had fled, punching the air with victory signs, so did many of the passers-by who saw it happen. \"Afterwards we went over to the store and saw the glass from smashed cabinets and the sledgehammer lying on the ground. Most witnesses cleared off, but a few who had taken photos came forward.\"","highlights":"Raiders take sledgehammer to store's windows as CNN camera rolls .\nMotorcycle gang helped themselves to watches before making getaway .\nPolice say no arrests have been made yet .","id":"72d092c10bcade881d42562ff7b248a3603bc932"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Boeing is asking pilots who fly its 737 jets to pay careful attention to flight instruments after Dutch investigators said a faulty altimeter contributed to the recent crash of a 737 in the Netherlands. Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 broke into three pieces near Schiphol Airport on February 25. The 737 is the most widely flown jet in commercial aviation. More than 6,000 have been sold, according to Boeing. \"Boeing reminds all operators to make sure flight crews pay close attention to all primary flight controls during critical stages of a flight,\" Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx told CNN on Thursday. On February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam dropped from the sky on approach to the landing strip at Schiphol Airport, breaking into three pieces in a muddy field. Nine people died and 80 people were hurt in the accident. In a memo to pilots, Boeing says there was a malfunction in one of the plane's two altimeters, which measure the altitude above the terrain where the plane is going to land. The left altimeter was giving \"erroneous\" information, indicating that the plane was below 7 or 8 feet from ground level when it was actually about 2,000 feet in the air, the memo said. That caused the automatic throttles to slow the plane down. \"Boeing recommends operators inform flight crews of the above investigation details and the (Dutch Safety Board) interim report when it is released. In addition, crews should be reminded to carefully monitor primary flight instruments,\" the memo said. The plane was on automatic pilot when it crashed, said Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Board. The weather was misty at the time of the crash, possibly keeping the pilots from noticing their altitude, Van Vollenhoven said. Automatic pilot should not be used for landings if altimeters are malfunctioning, he said. Dutch investigators said there had been faulty meter readings on two other flights of the same jet, but the pilots were able to land. In the Amsterdam crash, the pilots did not recognize the altimeter problem until it was too late, Van Vollenhoven said. The Boeing memo notes that \"the autothrottle, which uses the left radio altimeter data, transitioned to landing flare mode and retarded the throttles to the idle stop. The throttles remained at the idle stop for approximately 100 seconds during which time the airspeed decreased to approximately 40 knots below the selected approach speed.\" Proulx said he did not know what that speed was for that particular 737 model. The warning issued by Boeing was for many other models of 737 jets, not just the 737-800 involved in the Amsterdam crash.","highlights":"Boeing urges 737 pilots to pay careful attention to flight instruments .\nDutch investigators said a faulty altimeter contributed to Netherlands crash .\nErroneous altitude data caused automatic throttles to slow the plane down .\nThe Turkish Airlines jet broke into three pieces on impact, killing nine people .","id":"80edd85eb7868955a8cca126386ba14b57869449"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists in Colombia have unearthed the remains of a true prehistoric monster believed to be the biggest snake ever to have lived on Earth. An artist's impression of what Titanoboa cerrejonensis would have looked like. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the snake would have weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip -- dwarfing the largest modern pythons and anacondas which can grow to 6 meters (19.5 feet). Scientists believe it slithered around the planet between 58 and 60 million years ago. Geologist David Polly, who identified the position of the fossil vertebrae which made a size estimate possible, said in a statement Wednesday: \"At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips. The size is pretty amazing. \"But our team went a step further and asked, how warm would the Earth have to be to support a body of this size?\" Titanoboa's fossilized remains were discovered at a coal mine in the tropical Cerrejon region of northern Colombia by an international team of scientists. \"Truly enormous snakes really spark people's imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood,\" paleontologist Jonathan Bloch, who co-led the expedition, told reporters. \"The snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in the movie 'Anaconda' was not as big as the one we found.\" Based on the snake's size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said. \"Tropical ecosystems of South America were surprisingly different 60 million years ago,\" said Bloch. \"It was a rainforest, like today, but it was even hotter and the cold-blooded reptiles were all substantially larger. \"The result was, among other things, the largest snakes the world has ever seen...and hopefully ever will.\" According to Nature.com, snakes are poikilotherms (cold-blooded) that, unlike humans, need heat from their environment to power their metabolism. Therefore research suggests that at the time the region would have had to be no less than 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit for the snake to have survived. Most large snakes today live in the tropical regions of South America and south-east Asia, where the high temperatures allow them to grow to impressive sizes. Meanwhile, Carlos Jaramillo -- who was also part of the expedition -- said the tropical rainforest at Cerrejon appeared to have thrived at these temperatures. \"This data challenges the view that tropical vegetation lives near its climatic optimum, and it has profound implications in understanding the effect of current global warming on tropical plants,\" he said.","highlights":"Snake weighed 1,140 kgs (2,500 pounds), measured 13 meters (42.7 feet)\nScientists believe it lived between 58 and 60 million years ago .\nSize offers clues about world's temperature at this time .\nDiscovered by scientists in tropical northern region of Colombia .","id":"dbb7a3f7fa2f11f6d4c0c1d3e3b74a4387f36f8b"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities arrested Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a leader of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel, officials announced Thursday. Vicente Carrillo Leyva is escorted by police at a news conference in Mexico City on Thursday. Carrillo Leyva was arrested as he exercised in a park in a residential area of Mexico City, where he had been living under the alias Alejandro Peralta Alvarez, officials said. The federal attorney general's office told reporters he was tracked through his wife, who did not change her name. Carrillo Leyva \"is considered one of the heirs to the criminal organization known as the Juarez Cartel, after the death of his father, Amado Carrillo Fuentes,\" said Assistant Prosecutor Maricela Morales. His father died in July 1997 while undergoing plastic surgery to alter his appearance in an effort to avoid capture. Amado Carrillo was known as \"El Senor de los Cielos,\" the \"Lord of the Skies,\" because of the fleet of jetliners he used to transport cocaine from Colombia to Mexico. Carrillo Leyva, 32, was presented at the news conference, surrounded by black-clad, hooded law-enforcement officials. He wore dark-frame glasses and a white jogging suit with double black stripes on the sleeves. His dark hair was long and shaggy. Last month, federal officials offered a reward of up to $2.16 million (30 million pesos) for information leading to his arrest. The same reward has been offered for his uncle, cartel leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, also known as \"El Viceroy\" and \"El General,\" who remains at-large. Rewards of $2 million apiece have been offered for 22 other leading cartel suspects. Wednesday's arrest was the fourth detention of a top drug cartel leader in recent weeks. Last week, officials announced the arrest of Hector Huerta Rios, also known as \"La Burra\" or \"El Junior,\" a top lieutenant of the Beltran Leyva cartel. He was arrested in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon state, along Mexico's border with the United States. The previous week, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of Sigifredo Najera Talamantes, a drug-trafficking suspect accused of attacking a U.S. consulate and killing Mexican soldiers. Talamantes, also known as \"El Canicon,\" also is suspected in attacks on a television station in Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, the state-run Notimex agency said. That same week, the Mexican military also arrested the son of a top drug cartel lieutenant. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame drug cartels for a surge in violence in the region. Despite the violence, Mexican officials say the country is generally safe and that tourist areas such as Cancun and Acapulco are heavily patrolled. Watch Leyva get escorted by law enforcement officials \u00bb . Officials from Acapulco city hall, the Guerrero state government and the Mexico attorney general went so far as to sign a statement in early March assuring students wanting to go there on spring break that efforts had been taken to ensure their safety. In a speech in mid-March, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said 93 percent of the 6,500 deaths attributed to organized crime in 2008 occurred among the criminals. Most of the rest were law enforcement authorities, officials have said. Few civilians are killed, the president said. In that same speech, Calderon ridiculed those who say Mexico is unsafe. \"It is absolutely false, absurd, that anyone indicate that Mexico does not have control over one single part of its national territory,\" he said. \"I challenge anyone who says that to tell me what part of the country they want to go to and I will take that person there.\" Analysts point out that most of the violence is occurring along the U.S. border, particularly in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Tijuana. Drug cartel violence is also found on Mexico's western coast. \"The situation in Ciudad Juarez is of special concern,\" the U.S. State Department said in a February 20 travel alert. \"Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008. Additionally, this city of 1.6 million people experienced more than 17,000 car thefts and 1,650 carjackings in 2008.\" The State Department advisory tells U.S. citizens how best to remain safe. \"While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year (including thousands who cross the land border every day for study, tourism or business), violence in the country has increased recently. It is imperative that travelers understand the risks of travel to Mexico, how best to avoid dangerous situations, and whom to contact if one becomes a crime victim. Common-sense precautions such as visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas during daylight hours, and avoiding areas where prostitution and drug dealing might occur, can help ensure that travel to Mexico is safe and enjoyable.\" CNN's Mario Gonzalez contributed to this story.","highlights":"Vicente Carrillo Leyva, 32, arrested in Mexico City, officials say .\nHe was living under fake name; was found through his wife, who used her own name .\nThis is the fourth arrest of major drug cartel suspect in recent weeks .\nAuthorities in U.S. and Mexico blame drug cartels for surge in violence near border .","id":"a8b5a38f4561131a1c591fbe1b700a6f88e61a69"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The great paddlewheel turned the Ohio River water to a froth as the Delta Queen steamboat, a floating National Historic Landmark, departed Cincinnati, Ohio, on its final scheduled voyage this week. The Delta Queen is the last running steam-driven, paddlewheeled overnight passenger boat. The boat is a throwback to the 1800s and the era of Mark Twain, when thousands of steam-driven paddlewheelers plied the Mississippi River system. The Delta Queen is the last of those operating as overnight passenger boats on U.S. waterways, giving riders a 19th-century experience on cruises complete with the carnival-like sounds of the steam-whistle calliope. But it will dock permanently if Congress doesn't grant a safety exemption. It left Cincinnati on Tuesday on a 10-day cruise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Memphis, Tennessee, where it will unload what could be its final passengers. \"There are so few really authentic things left. Everything is a re-creation or a tied up old dusty museum,\" said Vicki Webster, leader of the grassroots Save the Delta Queen Campaign. \"The Delta Queen is a breathing part of history and we have to keep as many of those as we can.\" The frequent riders and steamboat aficionados are being punished, Webster insists. Sherrin Kraus, 66, admires the Delta Queen as it passes by her home in Hanover, Indiana, each year. \"I've been in love with this boat since I was 5 years old,\" Kraus told CNN affiliate WLWT-TV when the ship arrived in Cincinnati. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos and memories of the Delta Queen . Kraus and her husband Ken boarded the Delta Queen's possible final voyage to celebrate their 45th anniversary. They told WLWT they decided to celebrate the occasion early out of concern the ship would not get another exemption. \"This was our 45th anniversary trip because we don't know what the future's going to bring, but we're worried,\" Kraus said. \"If she doesn't survive this last onslaught, it's the end of an era.\" The Delta Queen will go out of service if Congress does not grant the ship another exemption from a 1960s federal law, the Safety at Seas Act, which bans boats made largely out of wood because of fire hazards. The current exemption, which expires at the end of October, has been given to the ship nine times over 40 years. See the Delta Queen's life in photos \u00bb . Supporters of the boat, which has roamed the nation's waterways since 1927 and helped the Navy ferry survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor to San Francisco hospitals in 1941, are hopeful the ship will not play its famed calliope for the last time. iReport.com: Watch the ship depart as a calliope concert plays . The grassroots campaign is gaining traction and the support of high ranking politicians. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement he would work with Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, to try to get an exemption granted if the House returns for a lame duck session to address economic issues following the election. Supporters, including several mayors, agree with Webster that granting an exemption to the Delta Queen would be a way to help stimulate the economy without it costing taxpayers a dime. Lee Powell, director of the Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus said the boat provides economic opportunities. By docking and unloading nearly 200 passengers up to a dozen times a year, the Delta Queen helps to pump money into small cities along the heartland's rivers that are not normally tourist destinations. Helena, Arkansas, which Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi \"occupies one of the prettiest situations on the river,\" could suffer if the boat ceases operation. \"There are places in Helena that are essentially at virtually the levels of a third world country,\" Powell said. \"They were impoverished before and now with the economic suffering, to choke off one of the good things they have is ridiculous.\" The fight ahead is not uncharted territory for the Delta Queen, which fought down to the wire in 1970 to be given the exemption. Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who heads up the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has refused to support the exemption, claiming the boat, with a steel hull but largely wooden superstructure, is a fire hazard. Webster, who says she is \"seething with anger\" about the complaint, said the ship is outfitted with state-of-the-art fire safety equipment and a full fire crew on board. \"The heat detectors are so sensitive in the rooms if you take a shower and forget to close your bathroom door, the heat detectors go off,\" Webster said. \"It's ridiculous. You literally could not have a fire on the boat because it would be put out in seconds.\" Webster says the fight with Oberstar amounts to a labor dispute and that Oberstar is bowing to the Seafarers International Union which represented the boat's employees before it was bought by Majestic America Line. Oberstar and the union have both denied those accusations, but Webster insists simple politics are getting in the way of saving a national treasure. \"They're holding her hostage,\" Webster said. \"That's like punishing a child because his parents are bickering or tearing down the Statute of Liberty because of a dispute between the owners of the land and the snack shop.\"","highlights":"Delta Queen paddlewheeler has been in service since 1927 .\nBoat is last steam-powered paddlewheeler providing overnight passenger cruises .\nVessel needs new exemption from 1960s federal law .\nSafety of Seas Act bars largely wooden ships from overnight cruises .","id":"55990ca73ae5b457d4bd6110a5ad74d5cf661787"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Liverpool want to avoid playing on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster and UEFA president Michel Platini says he will \"do his utmost\" to make it a reality. Liverpool fans had to be treated on the pitch as the tragedy unfolded at Hillsborough in 1989. The anniversary falls on April 15, one of two dates set aside for the second leg of this season's Champions League quarterfinal ties, the other being the previous day. European governing body UEFA issued a statement from Platini, rejecting reports that they had snubbed the appeal by Liverpool. \"We are aware of the huge significance of the April 15 date for both Liverpool FC and their fans, and that is why we will do our utmost to make sure that the club does not have to play its UEFA Champions League second leg quarterfinal match on that day,\" Platini said. \"This being the 20th anniversary of that tragic disaster in 1989 makes it even more relevant and we will take this into account.\" Ninety six people died when Liverpool supporters were crushed at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough on April 15, 1989, before the start of their team's FA Cup semifinal against Nottingham Forest. A cousin of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was among the dead, and the England midfielder has urged UEFA to be sympathetic to the club. Gerrard told Press Association at the weekend: \"We're still waiting to see whether UEFA will make us play on the day. That would be far from ideal given all the emotion that always surrounds the club on that day.\" Liverpool have never played a game on the anniversary of the tragedy. The Champions League quarterfinal draw takes place on Friday with four English clubs in the draw and no seedings in place. Liverpool reached the quarterfinals with a superb 4-0 home win over Real Madrid last week and followed it up with a 4-1 thumping of Manchester United to revive their Premier League title hopes.","highlights":"Liverpool anxious to avoid playing on 20th anniversary of Hillsborough tragedy .\nApril 15 is one of the two dates nominated for Champions League quarterfinals .\nUEFA president Michel Platini personally intervenes to ensure date stays free .","id":"e5658439447ce1e9f4c09d08585e7ee6a9c7cfee"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new sleeper virus that could allow hackers to steal financial and personal information has now spread to more than eight million computers in what industry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen. Experts say a single infected laptop could expose an entire network to the worm. The Downadup or Conficker worm exploits a bug in Microsoft Windows to infect mainly corporate networks, where -- although it has yet to cause any harm -- it potentially exposes infected PCs to hijack. Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure, says while the purpose of the worm is unclear, its unique \"phone home\" design, linking back to its point of origin, means it can receive further orders to wreak havoc. He said his company had reverse-engineered its program, which they suspected of originating in Ukraine, and is using the call-back mechanism to monitor an exponential infection rate, despite Microsoft's issuing of a patch to fix the bug. \"On Tuesday there were 2.5 million, on Wednesday 3.5 million and today [Friday], eight million,\" he told CNN. \"It's getting worse, not better.\" Hypponen explained to CNN the dangers that Downadup poses, who is most at risk and what can be done to stop its spread. How serious is it? It is the most serious large scale worm outbreak we have seen in recent years because of how widespread it is, but it is not very serious in terms of what it does. So far it doesn't try to steal personal information or credit card details. Who is affected? We have large infections in Europe, the United States and in Asia. It is a Windows worm and almost all the cases are corporate networks. There are very few reports of independent home computers affected. What does it do? It is a complicated worm most likely engineered by a group of people who have spent time making it very complicated to analyze and remove. The real reason why they have created it is hard to say right now, but we do know how it replicates. How does it spread? The worm does not spread over email or the Web. However if an infected laptop is connected to your corporate network, it will immediately scan the network looking for machines to infect. These will be machines that have not installed a patch from Microsoft known as MS08-067. The worm will also scan company networks trying to guess your password, trying hundreds and hundreds of common words. If it gets in, even if you are not at your machine, it will infect and begin spreading to other servers. A third method of spreading is via USB data sticks. How can I prevent it infecting my machine? The best way is to get the patch and install it company-wide. The second way is password security. Use long, difficult passwords -- particularly for administrators who cannot afford to be locked out of the machines they will have to fix. What can I do if it has already infected? Machines can be disinfected. The problem is for companies with thousands of infected machines, which can become re-infected from just one computer even as they are being cleared.","highlights":"A new sleeper virus has now spread to more than eight million computers .\nIndustry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen .\nThe worm exploits a bug in Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows software .\nVirus could allow its creators to hijack entire networks .","id":"b0e861f0b65bfc58ae2b92aaade701ca953196ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kaka underlined his commitment to AC Milan with two goals in a 4-1 Serie A win at Bologna on Sunday when on-loan David Beckham claimed his first goal in Italian football. Kaka scored twice for AC Milan days after rejecting a world record transfer to Manchester City. Brazilian star Kaka, playing his first match since the collapse of a proposed world record transfer to Premier League Manchester City, converted from the penalty spot after 17 minutes and added a spectacular second two minutes before half-time. Kaka's double took the limelight away from former England captain Beckham who made his mark on the hour as Milan kept up the pressure on top two, city rivals Inter and Turin-based Juventus. Beckham moved to Milan from Los Angeles Galaxy earlier this month and found the target as coach Carlo Ancelotti marked 400 games in charge of the club. The former Mancherster United star is clearly enjoying his stay in Italy and there have been suggestions he could extend his stay. \"I can't say what will happen,\" PA Sport quoted him as saying on Sunday. \"Even if my contract says that I'll be here until March. We'll have to see. \"At the moment I'm enjoying this experience. I'm at one of the biggest clubs in the world. And having won gives us confidence to continue.\" He added: \"It's great to score my first goal -- I will keep this jersey. It's special to play for Milan and also to score, but what's most important is that we won.\" Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti was delighted with Beckham's performance, but insists the club can do nothing to keep him at the San Siro. However, he claims the 33-year-old holds his future in his own hands. \"If he said 'we'll see' it means he's thinking about staying,\" Ancelotti told Sky Italia. \"However, our hands are tied as he has a clear contract.\" Bologna took the lead through a Marco Di Vaio penalty after nine minutes and Clarence Seedorf equalised after Kaka's effort had been spilled by goalkeeper Francesco Antonioli. AS Roma closed to within three points of fourth, the final Champions League qualifying position, with a stunning 3-0 win at Napoli. Centre-backs Philippe Mexes (18) and Juan (32) gave Roma a two-goal lead at the interval and Montenegro forward Mirko Vucinic added the third four minutes into the second half. Roma are now only three points behind Genoa who were surprisingly held to a 1-1 home draw by Catania who led through a 67th-minute goal from Jorge Martinez. Diego Milito replied six minutes later. Roma have won eight of their last 10 Serie A matches following an awful start to the season where they won only two and lost six of their first 10 games. Fabio Simplicio scored twice as Palermo defeated Udinese 3-2 while strugglers Lecce and Torino shared six goals.","highlights":"Brazil star Kaka scores twice as AC Milan romp to 4-1 Serie A win at Bologna .\nGoals come at end of week that saw him reject world record move to Man City .\nDavid Beckham hits first goal of loan spell as Milan step up their title chase .","id":"1aaf2c296ebc0fd6dc23ac2e1a8ac7b8dbc4ed14"} -{"article":"DENDERMONDE, Belgium (CNN) -- Authorities have charged a 20-year-old man with murder and attempted murder in a stabbing rampage at a Belgian nursery school that left two children and a staff member dead and a dozen others wounded. A family pays tribute Friday evening outside the nursery school in Dendermonde, Belgium. The regional prosecutor's office identified the man, who has been in custody since Friday, as Kim D., and would not release his last name. They said he lives alone in Sinaai, a city about 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside of Dendermonde. He has no police record and is unemployed, the office said. Authorities allege the man, whose face was painted white with black rings around his eyes, entered the Fabeltjesland (Fable Land) nursery school midmorning Friday and began stabbing those inside. He entered the building through a side door, typically only used by parents who are late in arriving to pick up their children from the school, authorities said. Once inside, he went through several rooms in the center. The dead included the head of the nursery, a woman in her 60s who was well known in the town, residents said. The other victims were young; the nursery cared for children up to the age of three. Watch report on attack \u00bb . Authorities caught up with him about an hour-and-a-half later after the attack ended, the ministry said. At the time of his arrest, he had on him a knife, an ax and a fake pistol. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest, authorities said. Two other knives were found at the nursery school, but it has not been confirmed whether they were used in the attack. Kim D. has said nothing to authorities regarding the attack, the prosecutor's office said. Authorities have searched his home, but they did not release any information from the search. Watch description of what happened \u00bb . The suspect, who is being held in jail, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. The judge has assigned three doctors to monitor him, authorities said. Earlier, authorities said he was not registered with any psychiatric institution. Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, is a tight-knit community of about 40,000 people, residents said. Fabeltjesland lies off a park and is not easy to find from the road. On Saturday, the nursery stood quiet and boarded up, with tributes of flowers, cuddly toys and cards left outside.","highlights":"Two children, one adult killed in attack at Belgian nursery school Friday .\nTributes including cards, cuddly toys, flowers left outside boarded-up nursery .\nNEW: Authorities: Suspect was also carrying an ax, bulletproof vest, fake pistol .\nAttack happened in town of Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels .","id":"57e9b9f685733b73aeae3de57e069eb38191b7ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 23 people died Saturday when a protest rally turned violent outside Madagascar's Presidential Palace, a fire official at the main hospital said. People duck to avoid gunfire Saturday in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The official said 83 people were injured during the demonstration in the capital city of Antananarivo, according to journalist Dregoire Pourtier, who passed the information to CNN. The International Committee of the Red Cross helped at least 18 injured people, press officer Mbola Ramamanana said. Brittany Martin, an American who is a Harvard Fellow and lives near the palace, said she could hear the crowd cheering amid intermittent gunshots and noises that may have been tear gas canisters. iReport.com: Are you there? \"From the window I can see military cars and ambulances driving by,\" Martin said. \"Nothing is up in smoke. We know there have been people killed from French and Malagasy news reports. \"We can see the back of the president's palace. This morning was totally peaceful. We knew that Andry [Rajoelina] was unveiling his new government at the May 13th Plaza, which was peaceful,\" she said, citing a friend who was there. Madagascar's government is in flux. President Marc Ravalomanana fired Rajoelina as mayor of Antananarivo and put someone else in the job, but Rajoelina is still technically mayor and claims to head a transitional national government. Martin said she heard gunshots starting about 2 p.m., after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks before, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. There is also anger in Madagascar -- where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year -- over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Last Saturday, Rajoelina took to the streets, declaring himself the nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Rajoelina urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government can be established in the island nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map \u00bb . \"What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time,\" said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try to disperse the crowd. \"I don't think anyone wanted violence.\" According to the U.S. State Department, Madagascar has about 20 million people with ethnic origins in Africa and Asia. It was administered by the British Empire during much of the 19th century until it came under the control of France, from which it gained independence in 1960.","highlights":"Gunfire heard near presidential palace, site of anti-government rally .\nPresident and fired mayor of capital city are locked in a power struggle .\nRally started peacefully, American in capital says .","id":"77a0c7b442c8953c936bd9469278edbe7c54497b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bulgaria is a Turkish toilet, France is always on strike, Romania is a vampire theme-park and the UK... Well the UK doesn't exist. The piece \"Entropa\" shows Romania as a giant Dracula-inspired theme park. That's the view of the European Union according to a controversial art installation by Czech artist David Cerny, commissioned by his government to mark its six-month presidency of the pan-continental body. The work, \"Entropa,\" frames various representations of each member state as components of a giant multimedia model kit. But the piece, scheduled to have its official unveiling Thursday at the EU headquarters in Brussels, has sparked controversy. Look at images of European nations \u00bb . Bulgaria's foreign ministry has summoned the Czech ambassador in Sofia to lodge a protest about the piece, according to the Czech News Agency. What do you think about images? And Betina Joteva, spokesperson of the Bulgarian permanent representation to the EU, said in comments reported by EUObserver.com: \"It [the work] is preposterous, a disgrace. It is a humiliation for the Bulgarian nation and an offence to [our] national dignity.\" Bulgaria is not the only nation to suffer an unflattering depiction. Germany is criss-crossed by a series of autobahns in what some critics say is a close approximation of a swastika; Spain is a giant construction site in a dig at its building boom; and Luxembourg is a gold covered nugget sporting a \"For Sale\" sign. The Netherlands is depicted as a submerged land with only minarets peeking through the waves in an apparent reference to its religious tensions. Poland recreates the WWII flag-raising at Iwo Jima, only with the U.S. Marines and the Stars and Stripes replaced with Catholic clergy brandishing the multi-colored gay pride flag. The UK is absent from the work -- possibly because of its on-off relationship with the rest of the continent. The Czech government said in a statement on its presidency Web site Tuesday that the original brief was for the work to be created by 27 artists representing all EU Member States -- and that it was \"unpleasantly surprised\" to learn that this was not the case. \"David Cerny bears full responsibility for not fulfilling his assignment and promise,\" said Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister. \"In this situation we are now considering further steps. The government said it will issue a further statement Thursday. The comments were in contrast to a statement issued by Vondra Monday, when he said that \"sculpture, and art more generally, can speak where words fail. I am confident in Europe's open mind and capacity to appreciate such a project.\" Cerny is no stranger to controversy. In 1991 he was arrested after painting pink a Soviet tank that served as a Prague war memorial. His Web site shows other examples of his work, including previous kit-style installations entitled \"Jesus Christ\" and \"Dead Raped Woman\"; and a life-size bronze fountain that depicts two men standing opposite each other, urinating. Cerny, and his main collaborators Kristof Kintera and Tomas Pospiszyl apologized to Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and other government ministers Tuesday, according to a statement on the artist's Web site, for \" not having informed them about what is true and for having misled them. The statement adds that Cerny and his colleagues initially wanted to use 27 European artists for \"Entropa\", but fell short due to lack of time and money. Instead, they say, they decided to create fictional artists, some of whom have even been given their own Web sites. Cerny says he knew the truth would eventually come out but adds: \"We believe that the environment of Brussels is capable of ironic self-reflection, we believe in the sense of humor of European nations and their representatives.\" Try telling that to Bulgaria.","highlights":"Czech Republic assumed six-month presidency of European Union this month .\nCzech artists has apologized for artwork that has sparked diplomatic protests .\n\"Entropa\" is due to be officially unveiled at EU HQ in Brussels Thursday .\nBulgarian EU representative: A humiliation for the Bulgarian nation .","id":"025821fa75f749d4f9fbee8734e2991829c27942"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China surpassed the United States in 2008 as the world's top user of the Internet, according to a government-backed research group. Nearly 91 percent of China's Internet users are surfing the Web with a broadband connection. The number of Web surfers in the country grew by nearly 42 percent to 298 million, according to the China Internet Network Information Center's January report. And there's plenty of room for growth, as only about 1 in every 4 Chinese has Internet access. The rapid growth in China's Internet use can be tied to its swift economic gains and the government's push for the construction of telephone and broadband lines in the country's vast rural areas, the report says. The Chinese government wants phone and broadband access in each village by 2010. Nearly 91 percent of China's Internet users are surfing the Web with a broadband connection -- an increase of 100 million from 2007. Mobile phone Internet users totaled 118 million by the end of 2008. While China's Internet usage has been growing in leaps in bounds, the government limits the Web sites its citizens can visit. Learn more about China's Internet censorship \u00bb . Earlier this month, China released a blacklist of 19 major online portals and Web sites, including Google and Baidu, that it claims provide and spread pornographic or obscene content. The move came as several Chinese government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security, launched a month-long campaign to clean up the Web, according to the state-run Xinhua news service. China has come under criticism for restricting Web access to ordinary citizens as well as on local and foreign media covering last year's summer Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. State Department noted in a 2008 report that China had increased its efforts to \"control and censor the Internet, and the government had tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and the domestic press\" and bloggers. In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria in September 2008, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said, \"the freedom of Internet in China is recognized by many, even from the West.\" \"Nonetheless, to uphold state security, China, like many countries in the world, has also imposed some proper restrictions. That is for the safety, that is for the overall safety of the country and for the freedom of the majority of the people.\" CNN's Yuli Yang contributed to this report.","highlights":"China was top user of the Internet in 2008, says government-backed research group .\nThe number of Web surfers in the country grew by nearly 42 percent to 298 million .\nGrowth tied to economic gains, new telephone, broadband lines in rural areas .\nChinese government wants phone and broadband access in each village by 2010 .","id":"3e514100a2fd4b9d6530163c8d380b7d51b75f30"} -{"article":"LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CNN) -- Carlotta Walls LaNier points out the only two African-Americans in her senior class as she flips through her high school yearbook. She pauses when she sees the picture on a page dedicated to \"Integration.\" Carlotta Walls LaNier and eight other members of the Little Rock Nine are invited to Obama's inauguration. It's been nearly five decades since LaNier graduated from Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. \"It shows how the 101st were on the grounds of the school,\" says LaNier. In 1957, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, an elite Army unit, escorted LaNier and eight other African-American students into the all-white public high school. The students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, were taunted and threatened by an angry mob. \"We knew we could not participate in extracurricular activities,\" recalls LaNier. \"There was one who could have been in the band, one who could have been on track. I was the one who played basketball ... I couldn't do that.\" Back then, LaNier thought once the doors of equality were open it wouldn't be long before an African-American became president. \"I had hoped to see something like that in the next 10 or 15 years when I was in high school but that didn't happen,\" says LaNier. What has happened is a new generation of students walks the halls at Central High. Even though the exterior looks the same as it did during integration -- the interior would be almost unrecognizable to LaNier and the other Little Rock Nine. Student: I can't believe it happened here, but I'm glad it did \u00bb . Today, the sea of mostly white faces has disappeared. The hallways are now filled with a more racially diverse student body. Students take a class to learn about the school's history and many say it's given them a greater appreciation for racial tolerance. \"Now it's definitely hard to imagine -- you walk into the halls and you see people of all different races are in the hallway. And in addition, the majority of our school is African-American now,\" points out Afshar Sanati, student body president. \"It is hard for me to walk inside the school every day and see how this place could have been such a hostile environment for nine African-American students.\" LaNier is still humble when she reflects on her experience. \"We all knew that we were giving up something for a bigger cause and [we were] happy that we did it,\" says LaNier. \"Because it has been 51 years, I think they were baby steps now. But they were big steps then.\" The steps taken by the Little Rock Nine were so big, in fact, they received personal invitations to attend President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. \"I think the Little Rock Nine set the foundation,\" says student Sarah Karney. \"I don't think [Obama's election] could have happened without them.\" Today, many students at Central High see themselves as the beneficiaries of an Obama presidency. \"Him being president means there actually is a chance for anyone to do what they want to do if they work hard enough,\" says Helena Liu, who says she doesn't see race when she looks at Obama. \"It doesn't depend on your race -- it depends on who you are, the quality of your character,\" says DeIvory Howard. \"[We've] got to get past just the color of our skins being newsworthy. It's really about all the things we knew we could do for this country and now we have the opportunity to show it and it's going to come through his leadership,\" says LaNier. \"And, we're looking forward to that.\" Senior Chris Bell couldn't agree more. \"This election proves that this America is just not the old America. It shows that America is ready for something different,\" says Bell. \"I just think ... that's amazing.\"","highlights":"Carlotta Walls LaNier, eight others integrated Little Rock Central High School .\nIn 1957 school was all-white; today it's predominantly African-American .\n\"Little Rock Nine set the foundation\" student says of Obama presidency .\nLaNier hopes Americans will focus on a person's ability; not their race .","id":"96dab7fdb8fc05374fcb6d4b15e95b1fcd2f827e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea has begun reprocessing fuel rods, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday, according to state-run media. A satellite view of the nuclear facility at Yongbyon. \"The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14,\" a ministry spokesman said. \"This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces.\" North Korea, angered by the United Nations Security Council's unanimous condemnation of a rocket launch, has threatened to walk away from the six-party talks aimed at disarming the country of nuclear weapons. It has said it will restore its disabled nuclear reactor. The six-party talks -- involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- have been aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear program. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Iraq, said the United States and its partners are working to resume the discussions. A U.N. panel Friday targeted three North Korean companies to have their assets frozen in response to Pyongyang's April 5 rocket launch. The companies that made the list were Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), Korea Ryonbong General Corporation and Tanchon Commercial Bank. U.N. member nations that have dealings with those companies must now freeze their assets. A presidential statement from the Security Council on April 13 authorized the sanctions panel to update a 2006 resolution barring North Korea from launching ballistic missiles after Pyongyang launched what it said was a communications satellite after weeks of warnings from the West not to do so. North Korea declared the launch successful, but U.S. officials said the missile's payload fell into the Pacific Ocean shortly after the launch. Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom had sought a new resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea, but China and Russia -- permanent members of the Security Council with veto privileges -- blocked the way.","highlights":"NEW: U.S., partners working to resume talks, Clinton says .\nNorth Korea begins reprocessing nuclear fuel rods, state media reports .\nProcess will bolster country's nuclear deterrence, foreign ministry says .\nPyongyang angered by U.N. condemnation of rocket launch .","id":"39bdc24854bf84218266428ff6e71421725cef1f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An American professor doing research in London stumbled across a series of previously unknown letters written by, to, and about Benjamin Franklin, a stunning find that sheds new light on early U.S. history. The letters cover Benjamin Franklin's success in dealing with a British general. The collection of 47 letters are hand-written copies made 250 years ago, when Franklin lived in London. That they were filed under the copyist's name, not Franklin's, may explain why they were overlooked by historians until now, said a curator at the British Library, where the letters are held. The find is reported in the April issue of the William & Mary Quarterly, a journal of early American history and culture. The letters are important in large part because they offer a \"wealth of new details\" that affect modern understanding of Franklin, writes Alan Houston, the political science professor who discovered the letters in the spring of 2007. They also raise the question of how many other documents remain waiting to be found on Franklin and his life. Houston, a professor at the University of California at San Diego, discovered the letters on the last day of his last research trip to London, just before the library's closing time. \"The first item was a letter from Benjamin Franklin to the secretary of the governor of Maryland, and I looked at it and I started to read, and I thought, 'This doesn't look familiar,'\" Houston told CNN. \"I've read everything Franklin ever wrote.\" Houston said he quickly began to realize he had uncovered something previously unknown to historians. \"I swear, I just about shot through the ceiling I was so excited,\" he said. \"It's like finding a treasure chest.\" Houston had been working at the time on a book on Franklin, \"Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement,\" published last year. The letters cover Franklin's success in dealing with British Gen. Edward Braddock, who had been sent to Pennsylvania in 1755 to defeat the French at Fort Duquesne, in modern-day Pittsburgh. The march to retake the fort was part of the French and British battle for control of the western lands in the colonies, part of a larger struggle for control of North America, Houston said. The problem was that Braddock was given no horses or wagons when he arrived in America -- no means of transport for him and his 2,000 redcoats. Braddock started to blame his hosts, so Franklin -- the Pennsylvania assembly's leading politician -- stepped in to help. Franklin went all over Pennsylvania trying to persuade farmers to lend their horses and wagons to Braddock and his men. It wasn't easy, because the farmers were tough negotiators who were also anxious and suspicious of the effort. Eventually, Franklin managed to get the farmers to agree, and within weeks, Braddock and his men were on the march. Braddock suffered a devastating defeat before he even reached the fort, however, when a much smaller contingent of French and Indian soldiers surprised the British. They killed Braddock and about 1,000 of his men. Despite the defeat, Franklin's success -- in what became known as \"the wagon affair\" -- highlighted his skill as a colonial leader, Houston said. When Franklin was sent to London in 1757 as a representative of the assembly, he brought with him a collection of letters detailing that success. It was proof of his political value to Great Britain and that the assembly's loyalties had been on the right side. This collection of letters, which Franklin referred to in his autobiography as his \"quire book,\" was never found, however -- until now. Houston said he believes the documents he read at the British Library are copies of that collection. They were made by Thomas Birch, an industrious and obsessive transcriber of historical documents who copied anything he could get his hands on. \"There was a vogue. It was very common for letters to be copied,\" said Matthew Shaw, curator of the U.S. collections at the British Library. \"Birch was very well known for being a copyist.\" Birch and Franklin were friends in London, both members of the Royal Society, and Houston said he believes the copies were made sometime between 1757 and 1758. \"Birch undoubtedly found Franklin's quire book captivating, and he appears to have copied anything that remotely interested him,\" Houston writes in the journal. Also, Braddock's campaign and defeat were widely discussed in London, and \"Birch may have wanted to capture a crucial moment in the life of the (Royal) society's most famous American member.\" Birch's transcripts were filed in the British Library as \"Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock.\" They form part of the massive Birch Collection containing the hundreds of volumes of his copies that Birch bequeathed to the library on his death, said Shaw. They weren't properly catalogued until the early 1970s, Shaw said, which is largely why they haven't been used by scholars. \"It's the first time they've really been shared with a wider audience,\" Shaw told CNN. \"We're very pleased.\"","highlights":"Collection of letters by, to, and about Benjamin Franklin found in London .\nLetters were copied by hand and had been filed under copyist's name .\nLetters concern war between British and French for control of North America .\nFranklin was sent to London in 1757 to represent Pennsylvania's assembly .","id":"e989bd23c38ef27f379e2f8fbe1a7e9e884687a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Human rights groups in Bangladesh and abroad are calling for an investigation after 16 borders guards accused of participating in a bloody revolt in February died in custody in recent days. A Bangladesh Rifles soldier is shown wearing a white cloth signifying surrender in late February. The Bangladesh military acknowledged the deaths of the Bangladesh Rifles paramilitary troops, or jawans -- but insisted they were the result of illness and suicide. \"Given the history of abuses by security forces in Bangladesh, there is no reason to take at face value the claim that these detainees have committed suicide,\" said Brad Adams, Asia director or the New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a statement. The 16 were among 1,100 jawans rounded up after a 35-hour mutiny that began on February 25 in the Rifles headquarters in the capital city, Dhaka. The jawans rebelled against their commanding officers, taking dozens of them hostage. When the standoff ended, more than 70 people were found dead -- the majority of them army officers. Initially, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised the jawans amnesty if they laid down their arms. But once the scope of the massacre came to light, Hasina withdrew her offer -- saying the government will not show mercy to those who killed, looted or committed arson. The jawans were issued an ultimatum to turn themselves in, while the government created a committee to probe into the mutiny. The result of the government inquiry is yet to be made public, after several delays. On Thursday, the Rifles leadership issued a statement that said 16 detainees have died in custody since March 9: four from suicide, six from heart attacks and six from other diseases. \"We believe that perhaps they have failed to cope with the mental pressure associated with the guilt of committing the brutal attacks,\"the statement said. It then added: \"Suicide is seen as a sin in religious terms and is also socially undesirable.\" In response, the legal aid group, Ain o Salish Kendro (Law and Adjudication Center), and the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association were among several organizations calling for an investigation. During a hearing Wednesday, one of the suspects told a Dhaka court he had been administered electric shocks during a seven-day detention. Family members of other detainees have made similar allegations. Some of the suspects who died in custody had wounds on their bodies consisted with torture, Human Rights Watch said. Bangladeshi authorities have said the wounds may have been inflicted when the suspects tried to escape from the Rifles headquarters after the rebellion. \"The explanations given by representatives of the security forces are simply not credible,\" Adams said. \"Torture is a regular 'investigative technique' in Bangladesh and killing of detains in government custody is an endemic problem.\" The country's elite anti-crime unit, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), have often been accused of 'extra-judicial' killings. The battalion is involved in the interrogation of many of the Rifles suspects. Since its inception in 2004, more than 550 alleged criminals died soon after they were captured by RAB forces. In each case, the battalion claimed the arrested men died from stray bullets as their units were engaged in gun battles with the suspects' comrades. The 65,000-strong Bangladesh Rifles is responsible primarily for guarding the country's borders, but it also takes part in operations such as monitoring polls. It is distinct from the army, but their commanders are career army officers. The troops staged their rebellion on the second day of BDR Week, when officers and troops from various BDR outposts along the border were in the capital for celebrations. Discontent had been bubbling for years in the ranks of the BDR, who complained their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and their requests to participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations -- which pay far more than what they make at home. Bangladesh and its South Asian neighbors are the largest troop contributors to U.N. peacekeeping operations. During the stand-off, dozens of officers were killed. Some bodies were dumped in mass graves. Others were tossed in sewers that emptied into a river, where they floated for miles before being retrieved.","highlights":"Rights groups in Bangladesh, abroad call for probe into string of soldiers' deaths .\n16 border guards accused of participating in revolt have died in recent days .\nMilitary statement suggests deaths came from guilt-induced stress .\nMore than 1,000 soldiers were rounded up from late-February revolt .","id":"a97e24f485fca1deb6c4518785fa95ffba4693c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Greg Cannom. Remember that name. The late Heath Ledger is expected to win best supporting actor for playing the Joker in \"The Dark Knight.\" It's not a household name, for sure. But this two-time Academy Award winner (for \"Bram Stoker's Dracula\" and \"Mrs. Doubtfire\") is the red-hot favorite to win the Oscar in the best makeup category, for his work taking Brad Pitt from decrepitude to infancy in \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.\" His colleagues in the visual effects department are likely to join him, along with the art direction team and possibly costume designer Jacqueline West, taking \"Button's\" tally to four awards. But my hunch is that this will prove the outer limit of the Academy's love for David Fincher's epic. Not a good return on 13 nominations. Watch which films, stars are up for top honors \u00bb . On the other hand, I predict that \"Slumdog Millionaire\" will reap the rewards, with as many as seven Oscars from 10 nominations, including best picture and best director for Danny Boyle. (A full sweep is impossible, as composer A.R. Rahman has been nominated against himself in the best song category. \"Slumdog\" will also probably miss out for sound editing and sound mixing, two categories that favor big-budget films.) Watch how \"Slumdog\" is getting mixed reviews in India \u00bb . If I'm right, it will be a fairy-tale ending for what is in many respects a fairy tale of a movie, albeit a fairy tale punctuated with sometimes distressingly grim episodes of violence and poverty. Still, upsets do happen. Four years ago, all the pundits (including this one) had \"Brokeback Mountain\" pegged for best picture. Instead, a left-field movie that had been kicking around for months surged from behind and \"Crash\"-ed the party. EW's Dave Karger makes his predictions . It could happen again, but this year \"Slumdog\" is -- or at least began as -- the left-field movie. The surprise came when American audiences embraced the energy and passion (the underdog spirit, if you will) of Boyle's film. After all, this was a film that Warner Bros. almost consigned straight to DVD until Fox Searchlight stepped up and obtained U.S. theatrical rights. North American box office receipts will probably reach the $100 million mark soon, making the $15 million film easily the most profitable of the best picture contenders. (\"Benjamin Button\" has grossed more, but with a budget estimated at $150 million, it cost 10 times as much to make.) Vote for your favorite nominees in major categories \u00bb . Best actor . The \"Slumdog\" wave won't affect the acting categories, not because the Academy struggles to recognize Indian excellence but because the lead roles in the film are split between three generations of young actors. Similar considerations will weigh against Brad Pitt's chances for best actor, despite his outstanding performance as \"Benjamin Button's\" lead. No one seems entirely clear where Pitt leaves off and the makeup, the CGI and the four other actors credited with playing the part take over. The pundits have decided that this category is a straight choice between Sean Penn (\"Milk\") and Mickey Rourke (\"The Wrestler\"), and although I wouldn't rule out Frank Langella for his strangely sympathetic portrait of the disgraced president in \"Frost\/Nixon,\" I have to agree that Penn and Rourke are both compelling choices, and either would be a worthy winner. Given the soft love the Academy has shown \"The Wrestler\" (two nominations) compared with \"Milk\" (eight, including best picture), Penn is the smart choice. But my heart goes with Rourke. Penn transforms himself to play Harvey Milk, but Rourke does something more difficult; he reveals himself. Watch how Rourke made a comeback to get Oscar nomination \u00bb . Best actress . This category, like best actor, seems to come down to a choice between two: Meryl Streep (who overpowers the ethical uncertainties of \"Doubt\") and Kate Winslet (who contrives to make a mass murderer sexy and sympathetic in \"The Reader\"). These are two ostentatious, technically demanding performances of the kind that Oscar voters appreciate; Melissa Leo's understated naturalism in the little-seen \"Frozen River\" would stand at the opposite end of the spectrum, well out of the limelight. It's astonishing that Streep -- by common consent our finest actress -- hasn't won an Academy Award since \"Sophie's Choice\" (1982), a losing streak that runs through 10 nominations (and counting). But at least she already has a couple of Oscars on her mantel, which is more than you can say for Kate Winslet, hoping it will be sixth-time lucky on Sunday. In this critic's opinion, she's been nominated for the wrong performance and the wrong film (\"Revolutionary Road\" would have been my choice), but I've had more arguments about \"The Reader\" than any of the other contenders this year, and I suspect that there is enough support out there for a Winslet win. iReport.com: iReporter sees Streep winning . Supporting actress . I think we'll see Penelope Cruz triumph for her fabulously funny bilingual artist in Woody Allen's \"Vicky Cristina Barcelona.\" She's already won a BAFTA and an honor from the National Board of Review. But the Academy likes surprises in this category, and a first-time such as Taraji P. Henson could take it. iReport.com: Who do you think will win? Supporting actor . The idea that Heath Ledger won't win for \"The Dark Knight\" is so unthinkable, I can only imagine mass walk-outs at the ceremony and riots breaking out across the country if it doesn't come to pass.","highlights":"CNN.com's Tom Charity predicts \"Slumdog Millionaire\" is going all the way .\nCharity believes Mickey Rourke will edge past Sean Penn for best actor .\nHeath Ledger not winning? \"Unthinkable,\" says Charity .","id":"ad0ad45b3551fb033f936b2c261fad497cbf1b0d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While all eyes seem to be on \"Slumdog Millionaire\" for the Oscars, one very courageous little girl will be focused on another India-based film at the ceremony. Pinki, like millions in developing countries, had to live with her deformity and suffer the social consequences. It's called \"Smile Pinki,\" and it's up for an Oscar, too -- nominated for best short documentary, which it won on Sunday. The little girl watching it from inside the Oscar ceremony has traveled all the way to Los Angeles, California, from her small Indian village with her dad -- and it has been an incredible journey for Pinki Sonkar. \"Smile Pinki\" tells the story of her transformation from a sad outcast to a vibrant 8-year-old with plenty of spunk. Pinki was born with a cleft lip, and her impoverished family did not have the money for corrective surgery. Like millions of other children born with the lip deformity in developing countries, Pinki simply had to live with it and suffer the social consequences. Her father Rajendra Sonkar says: \"She used to go to school and the kids would not befriend her. She would say, 'I don't want to go to school.'\" Watch how Pinki was transformed by the operation \u00bb . \"Pinki was a depressed, sad, lonely, shy, young little girl, growing up on the periphery of the society in a little village,\" said Satish Kalra, director of Smile Train's South Asian region, after meeting with Pinki. The little girl's own family was ashamed of her, Kalra says. But all of that has changed. Pinki is now a real pistol, full of energy and confidence, and she has a fantastic smile too -- thanks to the Smile Train charity. Smile Train teaches doctors in their own countries to operate on cleft lips, a deformity afflicting up to four million children across the world. iReport: Share your Oscar predictions . Pinki just happened to be one of the chosen candidates for surgery and was also chosen to be the subject of the documentary. The film chronicles her transformation, following her from her village to the hospital and home again. \"She has absolutely and totally changed,\" said Pinki's surgeon, Dr. Subodh Kumar. The film's director is Megan Mylan. She has won several awards but not an Oscar -- until now. For Pinki and her dad, being able to see the film's director win an Oscar would be a thrill. But they know they already have the greatest prize: Pinki's new smile. \"I am so happy that my daughter's lips have been repaired,\" her dad Rajendra said with a smile, expressing hope that the movie will inspire people to help children whose families can't afford the surgery.","highlights":"NEW: \"Smile Pinki\" wins best short documentary Oscar .\nPinki Sonkar was born with cleft lip; her family in India couldn't afford surgery .\nSmile Train charity provided operation; 4 million children worldwide have cleft lips .\nPinki, once an outcast because of the deformity, will attend the Oscar ceremony .","id":"2958c6d46cf4c929d28a1fa41e13fce7f8c00fc2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil Tiger rebels Sunday, warning instead that government troops intended to continue a new offensive until the group surrenders, a senior government official said. Tamil demonstrators call for a cease-fire in Sri Lanka during a rally Saturday in Paris, France. \"The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer,\" said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security. The proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in the country's northern area. Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan Army sources. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of \"fresh displacement\" has now exceeded 100,000 individuals. \"In the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the U.N., EU, the governments of the USA, India and others, the (LTTE) has announced an unilateral cease-fire. All of LTTE's offensive military operations will cease with immediate effect,\" the rebel leaders said in a written statement issued earlier Sunday. \"We welcome the attempts by the U.N. and its agencies to assist the civilian population and are ready to engage and cooperate with them to address the humanitarian needs of the population. ... We are in full agreement that the humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by declaration of an immediate cease-fire.\" The Tiger leadership asked the international community to \"pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate\" on the cease-fire offer. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.","highlights":"Government says it will continue offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels .\nRebels control a dwindling swath of north Sri Lanka .\nU.N. agency says 100,000 refugees have fled fighting .","id":"24294fa4bd0effa47cc0fa79e21cacf94f1cc3ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A potentially deadly new strain of the swine flu virus cropped up in more places in the United States and Mexico on Saturday, in what the World Health Organization called \"a public health emergency of international concern.\" Women wearing masks wait at a health clinic Saturday in Mexico City. The most recent reports Saturday afternoon were of two confirmed cases of the virus in Kansas -- bringing the number of confirmed U.S. cases to 11. Those joined nine confirmed cases in Texas and California and an apparent outbreak at a private school in New York City, where officials say eight children likely have the virus. By Saturday night, health officials in Mexico said 81 deaths there were \"likely linked\" to the swine flu. Dr. Jose A. Cordova Villalobos, Mexico's Secretary of Health, said viral testing has confirmed 20 cases of swine flu across the country. President Felipe Calderon on Saturday issued an executive decree detailing emergency powers of the Ministry of Health, according to the president's office. The order gives the ministry with the authority to isolate sick patients, inspect travelers' luggage and their vehicles and conduct house inspections, the statement said. The government also has the authority to prevent public gatherings, shut down public venues and regulate air, sea and overland travel. The WHO's Gregory Hartl said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains. \"Any time that there is a virus which changes ... it means perhaps the immunities the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might not be adjusted well enough to dealing with this new virus,\" Hartl told CNN. In Mexico, otherwise young and healthy people have been hit by the virus -- \"one of the pieces of the puzzle that is worrying us,\" he said. Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities because of the virus, and the country's National Health Council said all Saturday's soccer games would be played without public audiences. Watch an alarmed Mexico City react with face masks, cancellations \u00bb . WHO has sent experts to Mexico at the request of the country's government, Chan said. All of the U.S. patients have recovered or are expected to. Two of the border cases were in Texas, near San Antonio, and seven of the cases were in southern California, the CDC said. Watch for more on the U.S. cases \u00bb . More than 1,300 people with flu-like symptoms have been admitted to hospitals in Mexico, and officials are trying to determine how many of those patients have swine flu, the country's health minister, Cordova said. U.S. health officials said Friday that some cases of the virus matched samples of the deadly Mexican virus. On Saturday, New York's Bureau of Communicable Diseases said preliminary tests from a Queens school suggest that eight out of the nine children tested probably have the swine flu virus. Dr. Don Weiss said up to 200 students at the school reported feeling ill. He said the samples will be sent to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine the subtype of the strain. The results could be known as early as Sunday. \"What's concerning about this is, first, that it's likely swine flu; second is that at this time it is spreading from person to person,\" said New York City health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. Watch news conference with NYC health department spokesman \u00bb . When the flu spreads person to person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it a tougher strain that is harder to treat or fight off. Watch author John Barry discuss potential for a pandemic \u00bb . The infected people in Kansas are a man who had recently traveled to Mexico and his wife, officials said. Neither of them was hospitalized, said Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The United States had not issued any travel warnings or quarantines by Saturday evening. The Canadian Public Health Agency had issued a travel health notice, saying, \"The Public Health Agency of Canada is tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico.\" Watch CBC report on Canadian microbiologists' concerns \u00bb . Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said. Besser advised people with flu-like symptoms to stay home from work or school and to see a doctor. CNN's Mayra Cuevas, Ann Curley, Caleb Hellerman, Elaine Quijano and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 81 deaths in Mexico \"likely linked\" to swine flu .\nNEW: Mexican Health Ministry given emergency powers .\nTwo cases confirmed in Kansas; more suspected in New York .\nMutated form concerns World Health Organization .","id":"267c215ddad248c58ea6a1841f36e1da2258ea7d"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The photograph is a jarring image that shows Nazi Party members, shovels in hand, digging up graves of American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II. Members of the Nazi Party are forced to dig up mass graves of U.S. soldiers while American GIs look on. While the men dig up the site, U.S. soldiers investigating war crimes stand over them. Two crosses with helmets placed atop them -- the sign of a fallen soldier -- are visible. Two Germans are knee deep in mud. Another, with a handlebar mustache, has the look of a defeated man. The bodies of 22 American soldiers were found in at least seven graves, according to the photographer. On the back of the photo is written, \"Nazi Party members digging up American bodies at Berga.\" Berga an der Elster was a slave labor camp where 350 U.S. soldiers were beaten, starved, and forced to work in tunnels for the German government. The soldiers were singled out for \"looking like Jews\" or \"sounding like Jews,\" or dubbed as undesirables, according to survivors. More than 100 soldiers perished at the camp or on a forced death march. It was on this day six decades ago, April 23, 1945, when most of the slave labor camp soldiers were liberated by advancing U.S. troops. The emaciated soldiers, many weighing just 80 pounds, had been forced by Nazi commanders to march more than 150 miles before their rescue. Watch survivor break down in tears over liberation \u00bb . The new photograph was likely taken in May or June 1945 when U.S. war crimes investigators combed Berga. It was donated earlier this month to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by Jim Martin and his family, whose father, Elmore \"Bud\" Martin, is believed to have snapped the picture as part of the war crimes investigation team. The photo and dozens of others sat for years in Jim Martin's closet. Some of the photos, including graphic images of American corpses, were placed on record at the National Archives years ago. See shocking photos of the slave camp \u00bb . But the image of Nazi Party members digging up graves doesn't appear to be part of that collection. Martin said he was proud to hand over the photos. \"People have to see these. This is something that's history and it belongs with something that's historical to tell that story. It doesn't belong in my closet.\" \"To be honest, I'm kind of sorry I haven't done it sooner. We didn't realize what it was.\" Elmore Martin, who won a Silver Star for his valor in capturing images during the war, was 28 when he shot the photographs. Before the war, he worked as a photographer for the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. Martin's son said his dad, who died several years ago, struggled to keep a job when he returned home. \"I now see where it all started,\" he said. What Elmore Martin and the war crimes soldiers seen in the photo couldn't have known that day was how the case would evolve. The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging. But the U.S. government commuted their death sentences in 1948, and both men were eventually released in the 1950s. One other Berga commander, Lt. Willy Hack, was executed, but not by the United States. He died by hanging, justice carried out by the Soviets. Jim Martin said his father would have been upset at the freeing of the Berga commanders after the atrocities he documented. \"He knew it happened and to see that these people were released would be pretty devastating.\" Efraim Zuroff, who has spent nearly 30 years hunting Nazis responsible for the Holocaust, said the U.S. government commuted the sentences and freed hundreds of war criminals like those at Berga after the war, as the Cold War began to intensify. \"They were more concerned about keeping out Communists than admitting victims of the Nazis,\" he said. \"The realities out there were very conducive of letting these people off the hook.\" How should Americans feel six decades later that the government freed the Nazi commanders responsible for atrocities against U.S. soldiers? \"We're supposed to feel very pissed off about that, to be perfectly honest, and that feeling is very justified,\" Zuroff said. The German government has since made reparations to the soldiers held at Berga. Zuroff said now it's time for the U.S. government to do \"the right thing.\" \"To apologize,\" he said. The Army said it is trying to figure out the best way to honor the Berga soldiers. There are about 20 known survivors still living. \"The U.S. Army honors the service and sacrifice of all veterans who have fought our nation's wars. The Army is working to identify the most dignified and personal way to honor the soldiers held at the Nazi slave camp, known as Berga,\" Army spokesman Lt. Col. Willie Harris said in a written statement. The Army refused to answer further questions about the Berga case. Listen in as an elderly man learns about his brother's death at the camp \u00bb . Survivors have long wanted to know why the sentences of the commanders were commuted. In a letter dated June 11, 1948, to an attorney whose nephew died at Berga, the U.S. War Department said the sentences of Metz and Merz were commuted because they were \"underlings.\" The letter goes on to say that Metz \"though guilty of a generally cruel course of conduct toward prisoners was not directly responsible for the death of any prisoners, except one who was killed during the course of an attempt to escape.\" That soldier was Morton Goldstein. Survivors say Goldstein tried to escape but was captured. They say Metz stood him against a wall, walked up to him and shot him, execution-style, through the head. As his body lay on the ground, guards riddled him with bullets, according to survivors. The soldiers who survived were not called to testify at the war crimes trial against Metz and Merz, instead prosecutors relied on about a dozen soldiers' statements gathered through the course of the investigation. At the trial, Metz blamed any deaths at the camp on U.S. medics. \"They bore the sole responsibility for the medical care,\" Metz told the court, according to the book \"Given Up for Dead,\" by Flint Whitlock, citing trial transcripts. \"I ask you: Who must bear the responsibility? The answer is obvious: The U.S. medics.\" Those comments don't sit well with Berga survivors. \"He was terrible, absolutely terrible. He lied,\" said Tony Acevedo, a U.S. medic who catalogued the deaths in a diary at the camp. \"Everybody hated his guts.\" \"Even the German guards were scared of him.\" Flip through Acevedo's diary from the slave camp \u00bb . Berga survivors say they await any recognition from the Army that may come, especially after all these years. Morton Brooks, 83, said he constantly thinks about the day he was liberated. He was rail thin and had walked by political prisoners shot in the head during the forced death march. In the final hours before his rescue, his attitude was, \"Let them kill us,\" he said. \"I think all the time that I'm a survivor of this and I'm still around,\" said Brooks. \"To me, it just amazes me. I don't know how I got through.\" Jim Martin said he's still trying to process his father's role as a forgotten American war hero, armed not with a gun, but a camera. \"The worst part is I'm just finding it out,\" he said.","highlights":"New photo surfaces of Nazi slave labor camp where U.S. soldiers held during WWII .\nPhoto donated to U.S. Holocaust museum by family of U.S. war crimes photographer .\n\"People have to see these. This is something that's history,\" Jim Martin says .\nToday marks the anniversary of the liberation of the soldiers held at the camp .","id":"ed16afc5df5afa1207d0b536a01ea113f5dc83a3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A lawsuit alleging that civilian American interrogators subjected Iraqis to torture and severe mistreatment at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad can move forward, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Detainees leave Baghdad Central Prison -- also known as Abu Ghraib -- in 2006. U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee rejected claims by defense contractor CACI that the company was immune from accountability over claims of physical abuse, war crimes and civil conspiracy. Reports of torture and humiliation by soldiers and civilian contractors against Iraqi detainees created a political, diplomatic and public relations nightmare for the Bush administration in the months and years after the 2003 Iraq invasion. Four Iraqi detainees have sued in U.S. federal courts, alleging contract interrogators assigned to the Baghdad Central Prison -- known as Abu Ghraib -- subjected them to beatings and mental abuse, then destroyed documents and video evidence and later misled officials about what was happening inside the facility. Eleven U.S. soldiers who also worked at the prison were court-martialed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for prisoner abuse, and several implicated company workers in similar crimes. No contractors have yet faced criminal charges in the wake of the scandal, however. Arlington, Virginia-based CACI said it was merely providing contracting services the government required, and that sensitive political and policy questions could not be brought up in any civilian trial. The judge disagreed. \"While it is true that the events at Abu Ghraib pose an embarrassment to this country, it is the misconduct alleged and not the litigation surrounding that misconduct that creates the embarrassment,\" Lee wrote. \"This court finds that the only potential for embarrassment would be if the court declined to hear these claims on political questions grounds. Consequently, the court holds that plaintiffs' claims pose no political question and are therefore justiciable.\" The four Abu Ghraib detainees, led by Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari, were released between 2004 and 2008, and were never charged with a crime, said their attorneys. They were represented in their civil suit by the Center for Constitutional Rights and other individual lawyers. Other Iraqi civilian lawsuits are pending. \"Private military contractors like CACI cannot act with impunity,\" said the center's Katherine Gallagher. \"They must act within the bounds of law and must be held accountable for their participation in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and the other facilities in Iraq. We believe their actions and the acts of torture of their employees clearly violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual and the laws of the United States.\" The case is Al Shimari v. CACI Premier Technology Inc., 1:08cv827. There is no word on when the case might go to trial; it could also be settled out of court.","highlights":"Judge rejects immunity claims from defense contractor CACI .\nIn lawsuit, four Iraqi detainees accuse interrogators of physical, mental abuse .\nInterrogators also accused of destroying evidence, misleading officials .\nContractors not facing criminal charges stemming from scandal .","id":"b6a254e63b9ee13023c0e2aaf3e6c311e8ab19a9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged pirate apprehended by the U.S. Navy after the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama is en route to New York, according to defense officials. The USS Bainbridge tows the lifeboat in which Capt. Robert Phillips was held for days. He was handed over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, the officials said. The suspected pirate, known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant,\" was brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship that was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of the failed hijacking that turned into a hostage ordeal 350 miles off the Somalian coast. Three pirates who were holding the Maersk Alabama's captain in the ship's lifeboat were killed by Navy SEALs. The survivor had surrendered and was aboard the Bainbridge when the captain, Richard Phillips, was rescued, officials said. From the Bainbridge, he was transferred to the USS Boxer for medical treatment. He was wounded when crew members of the Maersk Alabama took him hostage in the early hours of the pirate attack on the cargo ship, according to the military. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . The crew members had hoped to exchange him for their captain, but the pirates did not release Phillips when the crew returned their captive. \"I'm mad because, you know, I could have been dead right now,\" Ken Quinn, the Maersk Alabama's navigation officer, told CNN Radio Monday. \"But at the same time he's just a little skinny guy, you know, from Somalia where they're all starving and stuff.\" Quinn said he wasn't angry at the single alleged pirate, noting piracy in the region is fueled by the desire to survive hardship and poverty. He said the suspect told him he wanted to go the United States, and asked whether Quinn could help him get there. \"I said, 'Yeah, you're probably going to go anyway -- I don't think you're going to need my help,' \" Quinn said. \"If he goes to jail here, it will be a whole lot better than living in Somalia.\" CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum in New York contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged pirate known in official documents as \"Pirate Defendant\"\nAlleged pirate brought to Djibouti aboard the USNS Walter S. Diehl, a refueling ship .\nHanded over to federal authorities by the U.S. military in Djibouti, officials said .\nDiehl was with the warship USS Bainbridge at the scene of a failed hijacking .","id":"3d600e528f78d58ccd9f2257c9ec54945ed85d8c"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI (CNN) -- India's Tata Motors Monday announced it would begin delivery of the Nano, billed as the world's \"cheapest car\", in July. Tata Motors expects to begin delivery of the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, in July. The four-door Nano is currently being built in \"limited numbers\" at a company plant in the north Indian hill state of Uttrakhand. Tata Motors, however, aims to make 350,000 Nanos a year from 2010 at another unit elsewhere in the country, a company statement said. \"It is to the credit of the team at Tata Motors that a car once thought impossible by the world is now a reality. I hope it will provide safe, affordable, four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car. We are delighted in presenting the Tata Nano to India and the world,\" company chief Ratan Tata told a news conference in Mumbai to announce the \"commercial launch\" of the $2,000 car. Watch more on the Nano \u00bb . Tata Motors said the Nano would initially be available through bookings or reservations filed on a request form priced around $6, or Rs 300. Tata will accept the bookings from April 9 to April 25. Within 60 days of the closure of bookings, Tata Motors will process and announce the allotment of 100,000 cars in the first phase of deliveries, through a computerized random selection procedure, it added. \"Deliveries will commence from July 2009,\" said the company statement.","highlights":"Tata Motors to begin delivery of the Nano in July .\nTata aims to make 350,000 Nanos a year from 2010 .\nCar is billed as the world's cheapest, costing $2,000 .","id":"e39345b8db778d726eae009d573113ffccdbf89d"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- After 17 hours, Kerri Gannon and her husband were still stranded in an airport in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, trying to find a way home to the United States after the facility was occupied by crowds of protesters and closed. Anti-government protesters gather in front of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport early Wednesday. The newly married husband and wife, in Thailand for their honeymoon, were struggling to find a way home to California after explosions at two Bangkok airports wounded four people and both airports were shut down. The day before, thousands of anti-government protesters stormed the airports to protest the return of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from an economic summit in Peru. \"The upper level outside is really crowded with protesters and for the most part they're kind of quiet and polite,\" Gannon said from the airport. \"They're roaming the airport, they're cheering and clapping and walking around, but it's clearly their domain.\" Watch protesters clash \u00bb . It was not clear which of the two occupied airports she was speaking from, but tourists were stranded in both. The People's Alliance for Democracy , which is leading the protests, said it will not end its occupation of the airports until the prime minister resigns. They accuse his government of being a front for ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Ongoing protests caused authorities to cancel all incoming and outgoing flights at the main hub, Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which handles 60,000 incoming passengers daily, an assistant to airport director Serirat Prasutanond told CNN. Pro- and anti-government protesters also exchanged gunfire Tuesday, a Thai police official said. Protesters with golf clubs and long wooden sticks clashed with airport taxi drivers, with each side throwing objects at the other. Watch what's causing the protests \u00bb . Protesters blockaded people trying to get to one of the airports. They directed travelers to exit onto the access roads. See more photos \u00bb . \"I'm trying to get out of this place, but I'm stuck,\" iReporter Arjan Sing, who was on a two-week vacation to India and stopped in Bangkok to visit a friend's family. \"When we took the exit there were lots of tourists standing around wondering what they were going to do.\" Gannon said the situation started off fairly relaxed, but tensions were escalating. \"As more and more tourists leave [the airport], the fact that we don't have any information and there's no one to give us information, now we feel stranded here and we don't know where to go,\" Gannon said. \"It seems a little bit more hostile than it was earlier.\" Gannon said she's heard nothing from airport personnel and her quest for answers is hurt even more by the fact that many people in the airport speak no English. \"I don't know what happened to my flight,\" one woman waiting in an airport told CNN. \"They won't talk to us and I'm angry and sad because I have two small children and they're sick so we want to go home.\" The airlines have also been mum on the situation, Gannon said, making it difficult for them to decide whether to wait it out at the airport or try to find a hotel. \"We've had absolutely no contact from our air carrier,\" Gannon said. \"But that seems to be universal across the board.\" One traveler said the wait was frustrating. \"They've started coming through and telling us that we possibly might be out of here in the morning,\" he told CNN. \"But either way, there's no problem. We just sit here and relax and enjoy the ride.\" Gannon said she and her new spouse just hope to get home sometime in the near future. \"We've been gone for 17 days and [the honeymoon] was good -- until now,\" she said. \"We are just trying to go home, get back to work and Thanksgiving.\"","highlights":"Airports closed after blasts, and thousands of protesters taking over .\nKerri Gannon, husband, on honeymoon in Thailand, stuck for 17 hours .\nProtesters swarmed the airports, said they won't leave until prime minister resigns .\nContinuing protests; travelers have no information about what's going on .","id":"04a6a7ca67478bcfe4f1d01a68dfd18fdd87097a"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- In the lodging world, green has gone mainstream. Once chided for being wasteful, the big hotel chains are now constantly trying to one-up each other with smart eco-design upgrades and stringent water and energy conservation policies. Hyatt has begun recycling its own aluminum, plastics and paper in countries where such programs don't exist. Consider this fact: In a recent survey, 68 percent of U.S. hotels said they had energy-efficient lights, and two thirds had implemented towel- and linen-reuse programs, up from just over half five years ago. The number of properties trying to become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, the most recognized standard for building sustainability, is also on the rise: Applications to the U.S. Green Building Council for the award spiked by 550 percent between 2006 and 2008. More than 500 hotels could soon earn the label; until four years ago, only one had the designation. Although all the major players are making strides toward better green policies, some are doing more than others. Here's what the leaders have achieved in four earth-changing categories: . ENERGY CONSERVATION . Replacing inefficient lighting, one energy-draining bulb at a time . Accor: More than 8,600 Motel 6 locations in at least a dozen states have been retrofitted with occupancy sensors that cause the thermostat to readjust when guests go out. InterContinental: A trial program has been rolled out at 650 hotels that aims to cut energy consumption by as much as 25 percent. If successful, it could be expanded to all of the chain's 4,000 properties, including Holiday Inns. Marriott: Over the past decade, 450,000 incandescent bulbs have been replaced with compact fluorescent ones, and more than 250 hotels (including some Residence Inns) have earned an Energy Star efficiency label from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Starwood: The new Element brand's goal is for every hotel to be LEED certified. Its first property, which opened last year in Lexington, Massachusetts, is fully loaded with Energy Star appliances, LED lighting, and top-notch ventilation systems. All together, that saves enough energy annually to power 236 homes. WATER CONSERVATION . Tightening up on all the drips and drops in hotel bathrooms . Hilton: The company's aim: to reduce water use at all of its brands, such as Hilton, DoubleTree, and Embassy Suites, by 10 percent by 2014. Its nearly 90 European properties have taken the lead, installing water-saving toilets, showerheads, and faucets over the past three years. Home-turf hotels are next. Hyatt: Nearly all North American properties have \"low-flow\" showerheads (which use a maximum of 2.5 gallons of water per minute) and toilets (1.6 gallons of water per flush). The improvements helped reduce the chain's overall water consumption by 3 percent in 2007. Marriott: Over the past 10 years, the company has added some 400,000 low-flow showerheads and toilets to all of its locations worldwide. Marriott also buys 1 million towels annually that don't require prewashing, conserving 6 million gallons of water each year. Starwood: All new Element hotels will have low-flow water fixtures in rooms and water-efficient landscaping; its Lexington star has led the way, saving up to 1 million gallons of water per year. GREEN DESIGN . Thinking about the environment from the foundation up . Accor: The Motel 6 brand broke ground last year on an ultra-green building near Dallas, with laminate flooring made from recycled wood chips and a solar-powered water-heating system. Best Western: Opening this year in Golden, Colorado, the chain's first LEED-certified hotel will run partially on solar power and have a porous asphalt parking lot to reduce storm-water runoff. Hilton: The company's green gem is in Vancouver, Washington: a LEED-approved hotel with low-emission paint on the walls and special drains that funnel rainwater into wells for future use. Hyatt: Seattle's Hyatt at Olive 8, which opened in January, has an 8,000-square-foot rooftop garden, water-efficient dual-flush toilets, outlets in the parking lot for electric cars, and lighting controlled by room key cards. Marriott: In 2005, the Marriott in College Park, Maryland, was the first chain hotel in the U.S. to become LEED certified. Among the earth-friendly frills: kitchen composting, in-room recycling bins, water pitchers instead of plastic bottles, and an organic restaurant. Starwood: All eight Element locations being built across the country this year have carpets and cushions made from recycled materials, art mounted on frames constructed from old tires, and priority parking for guests with hybrids. RECYCLING . Allowing not a single can, bottle, or plastic key card to go to waste . Hyatt: Starting this year, the company will only use key cards and shampoo and lotion containers made from recycled plastics. Hyatt has also begun recycling its own aluminum, plastics, and paper in countries such as Russia and Chile where such programs don't exist. Intercontinental: As part of a pilot program started two years ago, about 140 Candlewood Suites properties donated old furniture and linens to local families following renovations -- helping to cut back on landfill. It hopes to replicate the initiative nationwide. Marriott: Each year, the chain buys 47 million pens and 24 million key cards made from recycled plastics; it has also eliminated Styrofoam and plastic utensils at all of its locations. Coming soon: bed pillows made from the polyester fibers of recycled plastic bottles. Wyndham: Debuting later this year at Super 8 motels across the country: new staff uniforms fashioned entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you and enter to win a free trip - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"Survey: 68 percent of U.S. hotels said they had energy-efficient lights .\nInterContinental aims to cut energy consumption by as much as 25 percent .\nNearly all North American Hyatt properties have \"low-flow\" showerheads and toilets .","id":"ecdfc8996383f3509d42cb15ee8153db032a253e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British broadcaster Channel 4 has been criticized for creating a new television show which looks at how children as young as eight would cope without their parents for two weeks. Channel 4 said the program was made with the parents' full consent. Boys And Girls Alone -- which will be aired in the UK on Tuesday evening -- has been compared to adult reality show Big Brother. The show allows 10 boys and 10 girls between the age of eight and 11 to create their own mini-societies, organizing everything from what they eat to how they should entertain themselves. Ultimately the children are shown on camera squabbling over sleeping and cooking arrangements and, as they split into factions, some of them feel \"picked on,\" the show's publicity says. This has led to a stream of criticism from British lawmakers and children's charities, who have labeled Channel 4's \"experiment\" a disgrace that \"served no purpose other than to cynically boost ratings,\" according to Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper. Camila Batmanghelidjh, of the charity Kids Company, was quoted by The Daily Mirror as saying: \"Any situation that leaves a group of young people without the mediating presence of a responsible adult is cruel and abusive.\" Do you agree? Share your views . Labour MP Denis MacShane told the newspaper that \"children should be protected and not exploited for commercial gain.\" However, Channel 4 defended the show and said it features \"the kind of tussling you'd get in any playground -- but no physical violence.\" It added that one boy pointed a knife and fork during the series but emphasized that no one was in any danger, Britain's Press Association reported. \"This is not a project for commercial gain. It is done with the parents' full consent,\" a Channel 4 spokesperson was quoted by PA as saying. \"They were watching and there were mentors and a clinical psychologist who made sure there were no problems.\"","highlights":"Boys And Girls Alone has been compared to adult reality show Big Brother .\nChildren between 8 and 11 live without their parents for two weeks .\nProgram shows children squabbling and arguing with each other .\nBritish lawmaker says children must not be exploited for commercial gain .","id":"91eb6b7e6651707dcf2e6570bb9df64084a9a0d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It arrived in Rich Stevens' mailbox a few weeks ago: the notice that Citibank had \"rate-jacked\" the Visa cards belonging to him and his wife. Some credit card holders have seen their interest rates go up dramatically, a practice called \"rate-jacking.\" \"In my case, from 9.5 percent to 16.99,\" the 54-year-old nurse from the Long Island hamlet of Merrick, New York, told CNN. And his wife's rate zoomed from 7.95 percent to 16.99 percent, he said. Stevens said he did not know why the rates had soared; his credit rating is great. But, like thousands of other credit card customers around the nation, he has been notified his rate is skyrocketing. \"It almost borders on loan-sharking, from my perspective,\" he said. In the blogosphere, writers are livid at the instant rate hikes -- called \"rate-jacking.\" Citigroup seems to be the target of most bloggers' venom -- partly because Citigroup issues so many credit cards and partly because Citi began sending the notices at about the same time it was getting a $20 billion, taxpayer-financed government bailout. No one at Citigroup would talk on camera to CNN about the matter. Instead, the company issued a written statement, which said: \"To continue funding in this difficult credit and funding environment, Citi is repricing a group of customers.\" Citi told CNN that anyone unhappy with the new rates can opt out and continue paying the lower interest, but they must close their account when their card expires. It's all in the fine print. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, said she is sick of the fine print. She agreed that credit card companies get away with whatever they want, as long at they put their desires into the fine print. \"They have this provision that says they can raise the rate -- any time, any reason,\" she said. In September, Maloney got the House to pass by an overwhelming margin of 200 votes the \"credit card holders' bill of rights,\" which would have stopped rate-jacking and the imposition of other fees by banks. But the bill has languished in the Senate since September. \"There's a lot of pushback from the financial industry,\" she said. Watch how card companies are trying to woo customers \u00bb . Critics say that pushback is linked to donations from the banking industry to the politicians responsible for regulating credit cards. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is Christopher Dodd. His staff said the Connecticut Democrat has his own credit card bill containing tough language to stop things like rate-jacking and shortening of billing cycles -- two issues that anger consumers. But even Dodd's own bill has failed to gain traction -- it has sat since July. Dodd himself received more than $4 million from the financial sector during the last campaign, according to campaign records. His office did not respond to CNN's questions about that. It did say that he has tried repeatedly to protect consumers, but added, \"legislation has been met with stiff opposition by the credit card industry.\" On Thursday, the Federal Reserve is expected to vote on its own new rules regarding credit cards, rules in the works for four years that could clamp down on rate-jacking. Whatever is passed, Maloney said, probably would not take effect until 2010.","highlights":"One man's rate went from 9.5% to 16.99%: \"It almost borders on loan-sharking\"\nCitigroup, recipient of bailout funds, seems to be the target of most bloggers' ire .\nU.S. House passes \"bill of rights\" for customers, but legislation stalls in Senate .\nCiti says anyone unhappy with rate can opt out and close account when card expires .","id":"e424492828a9abab032a540fa7f6a4cbf81e1cf0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- John McCain tried to make Barack Obama's celebrity status a campaign issue last summer, but there's no debate about the president-elect's ability to draw famous and talented Americans to his inauguration. Bruce Springsteen campaigns for Barack Obama in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 2, 2008. Dozens of major celebrities will perform on several nationally televised shows, as well as 10 inaugural balls the evening after Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president. The celebration will open Sunday evening on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a free concert so star-studded it's hard to choose a headliner. Beyonce, Bono and Bruce Springsteen are on the list. Other musical performers include Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder. In addition, Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington will take the stage to deliver historical readings. More performers will likely be named. Executive Producer George Stevens Jr. said the intention is \"to root the event in history, celebrating the moments when our nation has united to face great challenges and prevail.\" See how inaugurations have changed over the years \u00bb . Don Mischer, who directed the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics and ` recent Super Bowl half-time shows, is directing this event. \"We will have the statue of Abraham Lincoln looking down on our stage and a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people lining the mall -- a tableau any director would relish,\" Mischer said. Admission will be free, but security will be tight. Check out an interactive map of Washington . Five gates leading into the area, including one around the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, open at 8 a.m. ET Sunday. Performances start at 2:30 p.m. HBO paid for exclusive rights to televise Sunday's show, but its feed will be free to all cable and satellite viewers from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. It cannot be seen through local broadcast television stations. The Disney Channel will carry Monday night's big event -- \"Kids' Inaugural: We Are The Future\" -- from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET. Those who don't have cable will be able to hear it live on Radio Disney or watch it online later at Disney.com. Musical performers will include the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Bow Wow. Singer-actress Keke Palmer -- star of Nickelodeon's \"True Jackson, VP\" -- is one of the hosts for the show, which will be staged in Washington's Verizon Center. Palmer, 15, hopes to meet Obama's daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, backstage Monday night. Palmer said she moved from Chicago to Los Angeles when she was about the same age as Malia is now, and Obama's election is \"very special for my family and me, being from Chicago and all.\" \"I also feel like I know what Sasha and Malia are experiencing in terms of leaving Chicago at an early age, having to attend a brand new school, a new house, just new everything,\" Palmer said. \"It's not easy, but as long as you have great parents, which we all three have, then it turns out OK.\" There should be plenty of celebrity sightings at the swearing-in ceremony at noon ET Tuesday or in the parade starting at 2:30 p.m. Viewers will have no trouble finding a television broadcast of those events. Palmer said she will likely view the inaugural parade from a viewing stand at the Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women. \"Hey, either way I'm so happy to be a part of it no matter how small,\" she said. \"This is historic!\" While inaugural ball tickets are tough to get, one of the 10 balls Tuesday evening will be shown live on ABC television from 8 to 10 p.m. ET. \"The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration Celebration\" is billed by planners as \"the premier event of the inauguration evening.\" Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Stevie Wonder and others yet to be announced will perform live at the ball. The Neighborhood Ball will take place in a hall at the Washington Convention Center, the venue for four other balls. Take a quiz about first ladies' inaugural gowns \u00bb . A Youth Ball -- aimed at partygoers ages 18 to 35 -- will take place at the Hilton Washington. Ball planners have not released the entertainment line-up for this ball, but said whoever is there won't stop playing until 2:30 a.m. For those who somehow miss all of this -- or want more -- the Presidential Inaugural Committee is selling a CD-DVD with 18 music tracks from many of the inauguration performers. Eight key Obama speeches from the past two years also are included.","highlights":"Celebrations open Sunday evening with a free star-studded concert televised by HBO .\nKids' inaugural show Monday will feature Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus .\nOne of the 10 inaugural balls Tuesday evening will be shown live on ABC .\nBeyonce, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder will perform at the ball .","id":"b22caf64a270348f113413fc86b8eacd70055af4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Watch out! Lock up your loved ones! Another bloated, over-produced, high-concept monstrosity has escaped from the labs at Dreamworks Animation, and it's out to devour your kids. Susan, aka \"Ginormica,\" has to save the world in \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" But don't be too alarmed. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is relatively harmless -- a toothless satire with a knee-jerk feminist theme and a sorry excuse for a plot. That sounds harsh, I know. Who doesn't want to see a 50-foot woman careening through San Francisco on skates that turn out to be automobiles -- the ultimate demolition roller derby? But think about that, just for a second. Roller skates work because they have fixed wheels. Try it with motorcars and you won't get very far. Is that too picky? Perhaps, but you wouldn't find Pixar playing so fast and loose with the laws of physics, and that kind of inattention to detail is typical of the lackadaisical storytelling here and in other Dreamworks animated features. (The talent pool for this one includes the directors of \"Shrek 2\" and \"Shark Tale\" and the writers of \"Kung Fu Panda\" and \"The Rocker,\" incidentally.) High concepts, top-notch voice talent and scattershot pop cultural references are no compensation for a coherent script. The XXXL lady in question -- dubbed \"Ginormica\" by her U.S. military guards -- starts out plain and petite Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), until a meteorite hits her just minutes before she's supposed to tie the knot with unctuous chauvinist Derek (Paul Rudd). Her rapid growth spurt saves her from that particular fate worse than death, even if at first glance her new roommates don't look like much of an improvement. There's Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist who semi-advertently mutated with a bug; B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) an amorphous blue jelly-like blob who gets on just fine without a brain; Missing Link (Will Arnett), a gung-ho amphibian who's all mouth; and a giant dust mite called Insectosaurus who isn't voiced by anyone because he doesn't have anything to say. Sci-fi fans will have fun counting off the references to myriad classics -- \"Close Encounters of the Third Kind,\" \"Invaders from Mars,\" \"The Fly,\" \"The Creature from the Black Lagoon,\" \"The Blob,\" \"Mothra\" and \"Attack of the 50-Foot Woman,\" for starters -- and noting a few clever bits and pieces (Kiefer Sutherland, as General W.R. Monger, riffs on George C. Scott in \"Dr. Strangelove\"). The trouble is, once the introductions are over, the filmmakers can only launch their desperately limp plot: The White House turns to these monstrous superheroes to save the planet from evil Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), a squidlike creature with four eyes and twice as many legs, and a one-eyed tin robot to do his dirty work for him. Ginormica gets a kick-butt finale, and is a much stronger character -- in any number of ways -- than the movie's president. (In a genuinely witty casting touch he's voiced by Stephen Colbert.) That may be good politics or at least a sound marketing decision from the studio's perspective -- it's been awhile since a family animated feature produced a genuinely strong female character (unless you count \"Coraline,\" which was way too scary for my family) -- but Susan's self-esteem is an awfully long time coming. iReport.com: What do you think of 'Monsters vs. Aliens'? (Bizarrely -- and maybe it's just my imagination -- Gallaxhar bears a passing resemblance to President Obama. I wonder ... would that make Susan\/Ginormica a surrogate for Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton?) Visually, too, \"Monsters vs Aliens\" is undistinguished, although its shortcomings may be disguised if you seek out the 3-D version. Funny how 3-D movies tend to produce two-dimensional characters, with \"Coraline\" again the exception to the rule. Jocular and unpretentiously trashy, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" should be a lot of fun -- and it is, in places. But the truth is it's as hung up on itself as Susan's preening fiance. Hand on heart, I had a better time at \"Space Chimps.\" \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" runs 94 minutes and is rated PG. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" about Earth-born \"monsters\" taking on megalomaniacal alien .\nFilm's main character is almost 50-foot woman voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\n\"Monsters\" has great talent but no script to speak of, says Tom Charity .","id":"9aa281696c8b36e80429ed8b99fa92fad248c3cd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 170 people around the globe, including at least 61 in the United States, have been arrested in a major operation targeting international child pornographers, officials said Friday. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and European Union representatives announced the sting's results Friday. Operation Joint Hammer has rescued 11 girls in the United States, ages 3 to 13, who were sexually abused by child pornography producers, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and representatives of the European Union said at the Justice Department. Dozens more were located in Europe, including several young female victims in Ukraine. Authorities found connections between producers, distributors and customers in nearly 30 countries as a single investigation grew to a global inquiry into the dark corners of brutality and child abuse. The investigation, code-named Operation Koala in Europe, was developed when investigators determined that a pornographic video found in Australia had been produced in Belgium. \"This joint EU-U.S. coordinated effort began with the discovery in Europe of a father who was sexually abusing his young daughters and producing images of that abuse,\" Mukasey said. Further investigation showed a number of online child porn rings. Some included dangerous offenders who not only traded child pornography but also sexually abused children, the officials said. Agents are still attempting to locate child victims whose images have appeared in photos and videos, and more arrests are expected as the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Postal Inspection Service continue the investigation. A Postal Service official said ringleaders primarily targeted prepubescent female victims to satisfy their customers but noted that other groups produce photos and videos of boys and girls of all ages -- or even infants. \"For this subset, that's what turns them on,\" the official said.","highlights":"U.S., European officials join for child pornographer sting .\n11 girls ages 3 to 13 rescued in the United States, dozens more found in Europe .\nArrests turn up people who traded child porn, sexually abused children, officials say .\nInquiry began with pornographic video found in Australia that came from Belgium .","id":"eb22a7f465a85f1d8eca9817d95311642c3946b0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- London's subway system was engulfed by thousands of revelers Saturday night, marking the introduction of an alcohol ban on the mass transit network. Revelers hit London's subway system Saturday night to mark the introduction of an alcohol ban. Eyewitnesses have described how some drunken partygoers, often dressed in fancy dress, fought, damaged subway trains and vomited. Authorities were forced to close six stations on the network, including major transportation hubs at Liverpool Street, Baker Street and Euston. A spokesman for British Transport Police, which patrols the network, said that police had been told of a large \"large amount\" of disorder and \"multiple instances of trains being damaged\", causing them to be pulled from service, the UK's Press Association reported, adding: \"This was an unfortunate end to what should have been a fun event.\" There were reports of at least 17 arrests. Much of the disorder concentrated on the Circle Line, which encircles the center of the city. Many reports say that the night had begun good-naturedly. Web programmer, David Mudkips, 25, from east London, told PA that the event was \"Like rush hour but fun. There were people's sweaty armpits in my face but I didn't care because I was drinking.\" Student Frankie Abbott, 21, also from east London, said earlier in the evening: \"It might be fun to do the whole night but I think it's going to get a bit messy. There are guys drinking from funnels already.\" Sailor Peter Moore, 35, from Brighton on the southern English coast, told the agency his night was \"Drunken, I just downed a can of beer in 10 seconds. It's sweaty on there but I'm going round and round until I vomit.\" As the evening progressed the situation deteriorated. Photographer Desmond Fitzgerald, 48, from south London, told PA that by 11pm at Gloucester Road subway station he was afraid someone might slip onto the tracks due to the amount of spilt alcohol on the platform. \"At first the atmosphere was happy but anarchic, defiant,\" he said, with people wearing hats and having a good time. As the journey progressed, more heavily drunk people joined the train, he added. \"Then a fight broke out between about five people, but because we were so tightly packed in it soon spread throughout the carriage and I had to struggle to escape to the next one,\" he told PA. \"The atmosphere had really changed by this point. People were ripping off adverts and maps and being sick all over the place. \"When it pulled in to Embankment people fell out and carried on fighting on the platform. Thankfully police were there, and they handled it very well.\" Many of those gathered had learnt of the party on social networking Web sites, through groups with names such as \"Circle Line Party - Last day of drinking on the tube\", which had 850-plus members listed by Saturday lunchtime, and \"Party\/Flashmob on the Underground\", with 1,300-plus names listed. The anti-drinking strategy was introduced by newly elected London mayor Boris Johnson. He said before the party occurred: \"I'm determined to improve the safety and security of public transport in London and create a better environment for the millions of Londoners who rely on it. The ban has the full support of the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police. \"I firmly believe that banning the drinking of alcohol on London's public transport will create a better traveling environment for all Londoners and that if we drive out antisocial behavior and so called minor crime then we will be able to get a firm grip on more serious crime.\" But Bob Crow, General Secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union of which many subway staff are members, countered that the ban put workers at greater risk of of attack, reported PA, saying it was \"half-baked.\"","highlights":"Revelers mark alcohol ban on London subway system, cause chaos .\nPolice say at least 17 arrests, subways stations shut as thousands gather .\nMany had learnt of the event through social networking Web sites .\nLondon mayor says he introduced alcohol ban for better traveling environment .","id":"c487fb83fd889e2cd3b3d2244ba152e030bcc0f9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama reached out to citizens of the world Tuesday, saying in an op-ed piece that ran in 31 newspapers around the globe that there is an urgent need for worldwide economic cooperation. President Obama will discuss the economic downturn with other world leaders next week at the Group of 20 meeting. Obama's move comes ahead of next week's Group of 20 meeting in London, England, in which leaders of the world's richest nations will discuss the global economic downturn. \"My message is clear,\" Obama wrote. \"The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose. Much good work has been done, but much more remains.\" The president is scheduled to hold his second prime-time news conference at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday. In the op-ed, Obama spoke about the upcoming G-20 meeting, saying that world leaders have to work together. Watch as the White House press secretary outlines Obama's economic strategy \u00bb . \"We are living through a time of global economic challenges that cannot be met by half measures or the isolated efforts of any nation,\" Obama said. \"Now, the leaders of the Group of 20 have a responsibility to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jump-starts recovery, but also launches a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.\" The president also pointed out that although the United States is separated by two oceans from most of the rest of the world, a global economy renders those geographic distinctions moot. \"Once and for all, we have learned that the success of the American economy is inextricably linked to the global economy,\" Obama said. \"There is no line between action that restores growth within our borders and action that supports it beyond.\" Next week's G-20 summit will be Obama's first meeting as president with many of the world's leaders. He will meet many of the Western Hemisphere's leaders at the Fifth Summit of the Americas next month in Trinidad and Tobago.","highlights":"President Obama urges nations to work together ahead of Group of 20 meeting .\nObama's op-ed piece runs in 31 newspapers worldwide .\nPresident set to hold prime-time news conference Tuesday night .\nObama: U.S. economy's success is \"inextricably linked to the global economy\"","id":"58b2c6a7108cac0a989b3e6bf7979d421bd2286e"} -{"article":"LANCASTER, California (CNN) -- The sound of pounding hooves thunders in the high desert air. A cloud of dust marks the trail of a herd of wild horses as they race across the arid plain. This is Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, a shelter for wild mustangs and unwanted horses near Lancaster, California. Jill Starr, president of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, vows to do right by the horses: \"I will take care of them.\" Lifesavers President Jill Starr says she and other shelter operators are witnessing an equine crisis. \"People have lost their homes, their jobs, their hope,\" she said. \"And they are giving up their animals.\" \"We've had horses come onto the property in a horse trailer, unannounced, and just offloaded and [owners] ask us, beg us, if we could take these skinny horses,\" she said. Starr says she has taken in so many unwanted horses in the past year that her resources are stretched to the breaking point. Watch rescue center that cares for horses \u00bb . \"All of a sudden it's like somebody flipped a switch and people started bringing back the horses they adopted from us,\" she said. \"There are no hard numbers on this,\" said Michael Markarian of the Humane Society of the United States. \"The states don't seem to be keeping numbers. The economy has been hard on everybody, and animals are no exception.\" Shannon Bonfanti is a case in point. A freelance fashion industry worker, Bonfanti says that jobs have dried up, and so has her income. \"When I was working I was able to take care of all the expenses,\" she said. But she has since decided to sell three of the six horses in her stable -- to save her family as much as $800 a month. \"How do you sell your kids?\" a tearful Bonfanti asked. So far, Bonfanti has found no buyers. Not even for Hunni, a horse that has won trophies and ribbons in national riding competitions. \"I'm willing to take almost any offer,\" Bonfanti said. \"I know my trainer would say I'm crazy. 'You can't give that horse away. She is valuable.' \" Bonfanti even considered the county animal shelter as a possible solution. \"I had contacted a few people,\" she said. \"And the factor that there is the possibility that a horse could be put down made me look further.\" Last year, the Los Angeles County shelter took in 188 abandoned or abused horses -- up 600 percent from the previous year. Veterinarian David Byerly says the numbers are even worse this year. \"It has not leveled off in any way,\" Byerly said. \"It just keeps going up.\" Byerly says that for the first time, the county has had to euthanize abandoned horses because its facilities are full. Horses considered likely adoption candidates are spared. Even so, the Los Angeles County animal shelter is killing abandoned horses at a rate of three or four a week. That is not a fate that James Gulledge wants for his horse, Rico. Gulledge says he first met Rico at the Lifesavers shelter. \"I was volunteering over there and just fell in love with him,\" he said. But now the economy is forcing some hard choices. \"I'm very conflicted about it,\" Gulledge said. \"It's just a decision about paying for him or having some money to help some important people make it through all this.\" Gulledge chose to return Rico to Lifesavers. For Starr, the horse is one more mouth to feed, and she intends to. \"I'm hoping that this is the worst of this, that we are going to climb out of this pretty soon,\" she said. In the meantime, she said, \"I will take care of them and won't let anything bad happen to them. ... They're basically family members.\"","highlights":"Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, a shelter for unwanted horses, stretched to the limit .\nHard times have forced owners to return horses they adopted, shelter president says .\nLos Angeles County animal shelter killing some abandoned horses as owners leave .","id":"e82ec03fc09c6a7ba8cd3da168f6a325446bc076"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama takes his first stab Wednesday night at the role of fundraiser in chief. President Obama raised lots of money as he campaigned, but how will he do now that the election is over? The president is the main attraction at two events in the nation's capital for the Democratic National Committee, making for the first fundraising test for Obama since he took over the presidency two months ago. As a candidate for the White House, Obama, who was then a senator from Illinois, had little trouble raising money: He broke all fundraising records, raking in nearly $750 million during his two-year campaign for the presidency. The money raised at Wednesday night's two events -- at the National Women in the Arts Museum and the Warner Theater, where singer Tony Bennett is scheduled to perform -- will come in handy as the Democratic National Committee struggles to keep pace with its Republican counterpart. Democrats won back the White House and increased their majorities in Congress in November's elections, but when it comes to campaign cash, the national party is not having the same kind of success. The DNC raised about $3.3 million last month, while the Republican National Committee raked in more than $5 million. Thanks to a larger transfer of campaign cash left over from Obama's presidential run, the DNC was able to report $5.4 million in total contributions last month, slightly edging out the RNC. But when it comes to cash on hand -- the amount of money the parties have in the bank -- the DNC's $8.5 million trails the RNC's $24 million. DNC Chairman Tim Kaine on Tuesday dismissed the committee's disappointing February cash haul, saying that his fundraising efforts were handicapped by a Virginia law that prohibits officials from raising money during the state's legislative session. \"Fundraising stories don't interest me that much,\" Kaine said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. \"I was unable to raise any money in February, by law.\" Kaine, who is DNC chairman while finishing out his term as Virginia's governor, wrapped up work with the state's General Assembly on February 28. \"That is the reason that the numbers aren't going to be what they're going to be in future months,\" said Kaine, who became DNC chairman in late January. Kaine said that observers should \"stay tuned\" now that he's free to solicit donations. \"Historically, the Republican Party has almost always out-raised the Democratic Party, regardless of who sat in the Oval Office. It wasn't until the 2004 cycle that the DNC was able to barely out-raise the RNC. So the fact that Democrats haven't brought in as much this year as the GOP isn't necessarily a huge surprise,\" said Robert Yoon, the CNN Political Unit's research director. The president's appearances at the fundraisers come on the same day he spent some political capital, for the first time since taking over the White House, in an effort to get another Democrat elected. Obama e-mailed New York Democrats endorsing Scott Murphy, the venture capitalist who is running in the special election to fill the seat in New York's 20th Congressional District that was vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand when she was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January. Murphy's Republican opponent in next Tuesday's election is is New York assemblyman Jim Tedisco. Though the Democratic and Republican campaign committees in the House of Representatives have pumped resources into the race, the president had so far kept his distance. In fact, the president has largely avoided overtly political events since his inauguration two months ago. Last week, that began to change: He sent a video to millions of his supporters through the e-mail distribution list of Organizing for America, the remnant of his presidential campaign that is now under the umbrella of the DNC. With Democrats hoping to defend two governorships this November, the party hopes that the president will be able to bring in the big bucks. \"Controlling the White House is still a big plus when it comes to fundraising. In the last midterms, President Bush raised at least $170 million on behalf of Republican candidates and party committees, even while his personal approval ratings were relatively low,\" Yoon said. \"So there's no doubt that President Obama can give the party a huge fundraising boost if he hits the campaign trail and stumps for other Democrats.\"","highlights":"Obama broke fundraising records during general election .\nHe is appearing at two fundraising events for the DNC on Wednesday night .\nDNC trails RNC when it comes to cash on hand .\nDNC Chairman Tim Kaine says \"stay tuned,\" now that he can raise funds .","id":"4294fbcaecce0e9395230469e72eb9ef21618dee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Environmental activist Erin Brockovich was in Kingston, Tennessee, on Thursday to speak with residents affected by a massive spill of coal sludge from a nearby coal-fired plant. Properties near ground zero of the December 22 Tennessee spill are covered in sludge. Brockovich said many people in the community told her they don't feel they've been told the truth about the December 22 spill that occurred after a retention wall was breached at the Kingston Fossil Plant. She quoted citizens as saying they don't get satisfactory answers or they get inconsistent answers when they call the the plant's owner, Tennessee Valley Authority. \"They don't have the answers and they're very, very concerned,\" Brockovich said. \"So we're here to address all of that and begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together.\" Brockovich, who said she was invited to the community by residents, planned to meet with them Thursday night. A public meeting is scheduled for Friday night. She hopes people will come to the meetings and air their concerns. She said she will tour the site on the ground and from the air. Brockovich gained fame after the 2000 release of the movie bearing her name. It told the story of how she, as a file clerk at a law firm, established that a toxic chemical from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's compressor station leaked into the groundwater of a nearby town, compromising the health of hundreds, according to a biography posted on Brockovich's Web site. In 1996, the company paid the largest toxic tort settlement in U.S. history -- $333 million -- to more than 600 Hinkley residents, the Web site said. About 1.1 billion gallons of sludge, or ash mixed with water, spilled onto 300 acres from the plant located 40 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee. That is enough sludge to fill 1,660 Olympic-size swimming pools. Fly ash is a byproduct of burning coal. Brockovich said residents have sent her photos showing fly ash up to 2 feet deep in places. She said citizens are worried about contact with the fly ash, including its impact on the water supply. Last week, authorities said drinking water in the area was potable, although samples of ash near the site showed \"elevated levels\" of arsenic. Leslie Sims, the Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator, said the Tennessee Valley Authority is addressing the issue. \"I don't think TVA can move fast enough to possibly satisfy these people,\" said Brockovich, noting that she hasn't spoken with anyone from the TVA. TVA, the nation's largest public utility, promised to do whatever it takes to clean the spill in central Tennessee. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen promised state government will keep a close watch on TVA's cleanup.","highlights":"Environmental activist says people affected by coal sludge spill feel misled .\nBrockovich plans to meet with residents Thursday and Friday to discuss concerns .\nResidents show her pictures of fly ash piled up two feet high .\n\"I don't think TVA can move fast enough to possibly satisfy these people,\" she said .","id":"1b122b2e623c6c7070f1ec7269ec11169f3be718"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- One of the original Kings of Comedy, Steve Harvey is the host of one of the most popular radio shows in the country, \"The Steve Harvey Morning Show.\" His first book, \"Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,\" is shooting to the top of the best-seller lists, and Oprah Winfrey says she loves everything it has to say! Harvey says this book has a special meaning for him. \"This is the first project that I didn't do for money,\" he says. \"Other than my foundation -- mentoring programs -- everything I do is for money. I tell jokes for a check; I'm on TV for a check. ... But this [book] right here I did purely to empower women.\" In his book, Harvey says the way a man introduces you gives good insight into the status of your relationship. If a man introduces you as a friend or says your name with no title at all, Harvey says you have nothing. \"We're very protective. We mark our territory. If a man loves you...he's willing to profess it. He'll give you a title after a while. You're going to be his lady, his woman, his fianc\u00e9e, his wife, his baby's mama, something,\" he says. \"If he's introducing you after six months, 'This is...Oprah,' you should be standing there going, 'This is going nowhere.'\" Oprah.com: Read an excerpt from this best-selling book! Man with a plan . Another thing women need to understand, according to Harvey, is that every man has a plan. \"Men don't come up to you to just talk. We come up to you with a plan,\" he says. \"We're looking across the room at you, and we don't care about your hopes and dreams. We don't care about what your future holds. We saw something we wanted.\" When a man approaches a woman, Harvey says, he already knows what we wants from her, but he doesn't know what it will cost. \"How much time do you want from me? What your standards? What are your requirements? Because we'll rise to the occasion no matter how high you set the bar if we want to,\" he says. \"The problem is, women have stopped setting the bar high.\" Oprah.com: What's your love type? The cookie . Though a woman might want many things from a man, Harvey says men only need three things: support, loyalty and sex. Or as Harvey calls it, \"the cookie.\" \"We've got to have your support. Whatever adventure we're out on, whatever pursuit in life, we need your support. Then we need your loyalty. That's your love. We've got to know that you belong to us,\" he says. \"And we've got to have a cookie. Everybody likes cookies. That's the thing about a cookie. I like oatmeal raisin...but if you've got vanilla cream, I'll eat that too.\" Kickin' it . In his book, Harvey tells the story of his father-in-law's first introduction to one of Harvey's daughter's boyfriends. \"[My 26-year-old daughter] was dating this guy who was about 30. He had been over to the house about four, five times. And my father-in-law was visiting from Memphis,\" Harvey says. \"He's in the kitchen and he's eating and [my daughter's] boyfriend is in there, and [my father-in-law] goes: 'So, son, sit down. Tell me, what's your plan for my granddaughter?'\" After plenty of hemming and hawing, Harvey says the boyfriend finally said that the two were just \"kickin' it.\" Harvey was pretty confident his daughter didn't have the same interpretation of the relationship, he says. \"I said: 'Cool. Let's bring my daughter in there. Let's inform her that she's just being kicked...let's see if that's what she wants to do,\" he says. \"They broke up the next day.\" Gone fishin' Harvey says men are like fishermen -- but women are actually the ones looking for a good catch. You won't be able to find one, though, until you up your standards. \"You've got sports fishermen, and you've got guys out there fishing to eat. You've got guys that are fishing to keep the fish, and you've got guys that are fishing to catch them, unhook them and throw them back,\" Harvey says. \"You've got to determine along the way which one of the fish you're going to be.\" Without ironclad standards, Harvey says you'll always end up back in the dating pool. \"You've got to quit lowering your standards,\" he says. \"Set your requirements up front so when a guy hooks you, he has to know this is business.\" And don't let the man set the pace of the relationship -- Harvey says it's always the woman who has total control. \"With all that power, why do you suddenly relinquish this power just because you want a guy to accept you? That's stupid,\" he says. \"Say: 'Look, if you want to be with me, this is what you got to do. This is what it takes to get to me.'\" When should you sleep with your new boyfriend? As an auto plant worker, Harvey says he had to wait 90 days to receive benefits -- and says the same probation period should apply to dating. \"In 90 days they checked me out. They determined if I was easy to work with, if I got along well with others, if I showed up when I said I was going to show up, if I was worthy.\" Women, Harvey says, hold the greatest benefit of all -- the cookie -- so there's no reason to give it away until you know your man deserves it. \"Slow down, ladies,\" Harvey says. \"Look, you cannot run us off.\" So what if you don't want to wait 90 days? Harvey says if you change the probation period, you do so at your own risk. \"You all keep changing the rules. And men are aware of the fact that you are changing the rules. We're aware of the fact that you act desperate. We're aware of the fact that you think there's a good shortage of good men out there,\" he says. \"We play on all of that. ... We created the term 'gold digger' so you won't ask us for nothing. We created the term 'nagging' so you can quit badgering us. These are terms that we created so you can require less of us.\" Mr. fix-it . Harvey says four little words can strike fear and dread into any man: We need to talk. \"You just drove a nail in his forehead,\" Harvey says. Men are fixers, not talkers, Harvey says, so it's better to get to the point. \"When you say, 'We need to talk,' we put up the barriers,\" he says. \"I tell ladies, just sit down and strike up a conversation.\" Oprah.com: How to talk to a brick wall . Turn off the text . Social networking Web sites and text messages can be a great way to keep in touch with friends, but Harvey says it's not the best way to date. \"You have nothing if you're texting a guy in a relationship,\" he says. \"We can text six women a minute. We can text it and push 'reply all.' I mean, since we're lying, we might as well lie to everybody.\" If you want the relationship to be more, take it face-to-face. \"Women talk about [how] chivalry's dead. Chivalry's not dead -- it's just not required anymore,\" he says. \"You've got to get a guy in your face. Look in his eyes. ... God has given you all this incredible thing called intuition. You've got to use that.\" Safety first . You know you've got a keeper when your man wants to make sure you're always safe, Harvey says. Every man wants to protect his woman, and Harvey says this instinct kicks in when his wife, Marjorie, scuba dives. \"I can't go home without her. We've got seven kids between us,\" Harvey says. \"They need their mother. I'm not a good mother at all.\" Although Marjorie is a certified diver, Harvey isn't a swimmer. \"I have a security guy who can swim,\" he says. \"So [he puts] on the snorkeling gear and when she goes down, I tell him, 'You swim over and just keep an eye on my wife.'\" Harvey also has instructions for everyone else on the boat. \"I told all the dive masters on the boat: 'If she does not come out of that water in 30 minutes, everybody in the water. Everybody. We're doing a dive search right here,'\" he says. \"I don't care if nobody [else] on the boat goes home. She goes home.\" Oprah.com: How to read his body language . From The Oprah Winfrey Show . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Comedian Steve Harvey says women set the bar too low when dating .\nHarvey: Workers wait 90 days for benefits; women should date 90 days before sex .\nTexting is not dating, says Harvey, just easier way for men to tell more lies .\nMen use terms like \"gold digger\" and \"nagging\" as weapons against women .","id":"aa9e0fb01f8e91c0034f26b978228ae8ee995554"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The crew of a commuter plane that crashed outside Buffalo, New York, in February may have responded improperly to signs the plane was stalling, according to details of the investigation released Wednesday. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. The crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407 pulled back on the plane's control column when it received a stall warning, pulling the plane upward, an update released by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed. That would have aggravated the situation rather than improving it, according to a veteran pilot contacted by CNN. But investigators are far from determining the exact cause of the crash, the NTSB said. And Colgan Air, the plane's operator, urged the public not to jump to conclusions. The Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 crashed into a house about six miles from Buffalo-Niagara International Airport the night of February 12. All 49 people on the plane and one man who was in the house were killed. The pilot and first officer discussed \"significant\" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, the cockpit voice recorder revealed. But in an update on the investigation, the NTSB said there is no indication that aircraft's systems failed, or that ice had a significant impact on the plane. The NTSB said a stall warning device known as a \"stick shaker\" appears to have behaved properly, activating when the plane's speed dropped to 130 knots (150 mph). At that point, however, \"there was a 25-pound pull force on the control column,\" pulling the plane upward, and data suggests there was a \"likely separation of the airflow over the wing\" -- meaning the plane had stalled. \"The circumstances of the crash have raised several issues that go well beyond the widely discussed matter of airframe icing,\" the NTSB's acting chairman, Mark Rosenker, said in a statement on the findings. In general, when a stick shaker activates, pilots are taught to apply full power and maintain the plane's altitude or lower the nose, a captain for a major airline told CNN. \"What you don't want to do is aggravate the situation,\" said the pilot, who would not be named because he had not sought approval from his airline. \"By pulling it up without adding power, you're aggravating the situation.\" The safety board said it intends to investigate \"stall recovery training\" among other issues at a three-day public hearing it will offer on the crash in mid-May. Doug Moss, a United Air Lines pilot and aerospace consultant, said that appears to be what the NTSB \"is really looking at.\" \"It's easy to build a lot of experience in airline flying without ever getting close to the edges of the envelope,\" he said. In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Colgan Air said the NTSB data does not pinpoint a cause, and its crews \"are prepared to handle emergency situations they might face.\" \"We stand by our FAA-certified crew training programs which meet or exceed the regulatory requirements for all major airlines and include training on emergency situations,\" the Virginia-based carrier said. Colgan Air said it is \"cooperating thoroughly\" with the investigation. \"The only absolute fact is that we do not know the cause of this accident,\" it said. Information released Wednesday appears to count out one possibility that was the subject of speculation after the crash: a stall induced by ice on the aircraft's tail. Pilots say those stalls are particularly insidious because pilots cannot see the tail wings and because the recovery procedure is the opposite of a main-wing stall -- tail-wing stalls generally are overcome by raising the plane's nose. The NTSB said that toxicology tests of the flight crew were negative for alcohol or illicit substances. The captain tested positive for diltiazem, a prescription blood pressure medication the Federal Aviation Administration had permitted him to use. At the board's hearing in May, the NTSB will look into a number of topics, including the effect of ice on the aircraft's performance, cold weather operations, the crew's experience and sleep issues. The board also will investigate \"sterile cockpit rules,\" or requirements that crews discuss only aircraft issues during critical phases of flight, such as take-offs and landings. CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Plane's operator: Cause still not known; public shouldn't jump to conclusions .\nNTSB: Crew pulled back on control column after stall warning .\nA pilot tells CNN that move would have aggravated the situation .\nAll 49 aboard, plus 1 in house, were killed in February crash near Buffalo, New York .","id":"8bdffd77e0ef59c2269ad1691a3db2a646e896ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yes, it's a limited sample. Yes, it's more likely for people who are disgruntled to comment than people who are pleased. Bruce Springsteen expressed strong reservations about a possible Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. But still: CNN.com users who responded to our iReport and blog queries about the possible Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger were really, really unhappy. \"Put 'going to a rock concert' on your list of 'Things you used to do, but can't anymore,' along with watching free television, seeing a double-feature with a cartoon, and riding a train cross country,\" wrote Carlos Sandoval. \"Ahh, the beginning of yet another monopoly. I hope the feds nix this one,\" added RJ. \"Ticketmaster is already nearly a monopoly in the ticket game. Live Nation is built on greed. Might be a marriage made in heaven for them, but it's a marriage made in hell for the concert-going public,\" wrote Allison. Many who commented were compelled to share their horror stories, of which there were many. \"I was recently at a concert where I sat at the top of the stadium -- read: the WORST seats,\" wrote Kim Levering. \"And I was surrounded by people who had bought their tickets through a Ticketmaster pre-sale. So lemme get this straight ... Ticketmaster rewards its customers and loyal fans by providing them with the worst seats in the house (even when selecting 'best available') during a pre-sale?\" \"I hoped Live Nation would provide competition for Ticketmaster and the outlandish surcharges and service fees,\" wrote avettbrosfan. \"Unfortunately, when I went to buy a '30 dollar' lawn ticket to see the Avett Brothers and Dave Matthews Band, the Live Nation surcharges bumped the ticket up to 52 dollars! So much for that hope.\" Read more comments on the Marquee blog . Other people wrote of being forced to pay $100 surcharges, of being sent to other ticket sites (including Ticketmaster's own premium site, TicketsNow) and of all the other costs to go to a concert, such as parking, refreshments and merchandise. iReport: Your reaction to the possible merger . \"Here in L.A., the [Bruce Springsteen] TicketsNow tickets were available immediately when the tickets when on sale. Those seats were never available to the public to begin with. 'Reputable brokers' means 'really just us using a different name,' \" wrote Mauricio Heilbron Jr., M.D. Still, Ticketmaster had its defenders. The company's Web site is clean and simple, and it beats the old days of camping out at stores, wrote Steve. \"I remember all too well those days of standing in line for hours at Dillards to get to their Ticketmaster outlet, and still getting lousy tickets,\" he said. \"I'll be glad for the day when all tickets are available from one single outlet online.\" Lost in all this is the impact on musicians, who seldom have a choice regarding ticket sellers at large venues. Pearl Jam had its protest in the '90s; Bruce Springsteen sounded off on the sales snafu for his 2009 tour. But in general, if you want to see -- or play -- a concert, there aren't many options. \"I could have gone on for hours about this. The fact is, I would love to change my purchasing plans, but how can I? If I want to see a show, what option do I have?\" said musician, and music fan, Brian Riback on iReport. iReport.com: Read more of Riback's comments . \"Sure, I can purchase off of Stubhub or Craigslist ... but I don't want to pay even more than I'm already being ripped off. The other end is even if I'm purchasing second hand...the original purchaser still supported [Ticketmaster\/Live Nation] ... so I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't,\" Riback said.","highlights":"Ticketmaster and Live Nation are reportedly in merger talks .\nCNN.com users have few nice things to say about either company .\n\"Marriage made in hell for concert-going public,\" said one user .","id":"1ffeb53de382a8f9b289e174b77e3e81e4f90f0c"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Suicide bombers killed 60 people near a holy Shiite shrine in Baghdad on Friday and a car bomber left seven people dead in Diyala, according to security and medical officials. A little girl whose parents are missing in the Baghdad bombings Friday rests in a hospital. Along with the 60 dead, many of whom were Iranian pilgrims, at least 125 others were wounded when two female suicide bombers struck on roads leading to the Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine, one of the holiest in Shiite Islam, the Interior Ministry said. The Iranians who were killed and wounded were on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Iraq, an Interior Ministry official said. The bombers hit the Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad, where the shrine is located, on the Muslim day of prayer. Iraqi State TV reported that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered an investigation. The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday he believes Iraqis won't be \"intimidated by the attack\" and \"they will not let this stand in their way of moving forward.\" Watch the scene at the hospital as victims of the shrine attacks arrive \u00bb . Later on Friday, a suicide car bomber detonated explosives in Diyala province, killing at least seven people and wounding 29 others. The bomber attacked a car dealership in Jawlawla, a town that has been the center of a territorial dispute between the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Fridays attacks follow the deadliest day in Iraq this year, in which 87 people were killed in attacks, after months of plummeting violence. Many of the dead on Thursday were also Shiite pilgrims from Iran. Friday's bombings were the third attack on Kadhimiya this month. Reaction was swift in predominantly Shiite Iran. The media reported that Reza Moussavi, spokesman of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, announced a ban on Iranians crossing into Iraq via the Khosrawi border for pilgrimage until further notice. Javad Jahangirzadh, a member of Iran's parliament, was quoted as saying the aim of the attackers \"was to show that the Iraq government was not successful and not performing well. \"There must be a plot behind all of this aimed at damaging the growing relationship between Iran and Iraq.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamedinejad earlier issued condolences for the Iranian pilgrims killed on Thursday. \"The report on martyrdom and injury of a group of dear compatriots, who were on their way to holy sites [in Iraq], has caused deep sorrow,\" he said. \"The incident once again showed that the results and gift of occupation and terrorism for regional nations are insecurity and innocent people's bloodshed,\" he said. Odierno said \"this spike in suicide attacks that we've seen over the last couple of days, frankly, is another tragic event caused by al Qaeda and their links. They are killing many innocent people. They are killing pilgrims going to pray. They're killing women and children. They're killing homeless.\" The violence erupted as the Obama administration plans to withdraw American troops from Iraq. The U.S.-Iraqi security agreement negotiated last year set a June 30 deadline for combat troops to be pulled out of urban areas. The Iraqi government could request that combat forces remain in some cities and the agreement could be amended. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. Odierno was asked what effect the violence will have on that deadline and whether the volatile city of Mosul -- where al Qaeda in Iraq has had a potent presence -- would be included in the combat withdrawals. \"The one area I'm still not sure about is Mosul,\" Odierno said.Most of the 87 people who died Thursday were killed in a bombing in Diyala province, in which 55 died, and an attack in Baghdad that killed 28. Many of the dead in the Diyala attack were also Shiite pilgrims from Iran. In the Baghdad attack, a female suicide bomber struck as national police were helping distribute Red Crescent aid to displaced families in the Karrada district. CNN's Yousif Bassil, Jomanah Karadsheh and Cal Perry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 60 dead in Baghdad shrine attack, car bomber kills seven in Diyala .\nMany dead, wounded in attack near Baghdad shrine were Iranians on pilgrimage .\nMany of the 87 killed on Thursday were also Shiite pilgrims from Iran .\nIran condemns attacks; Iranian pilgrims banned from crossing into Iraq .","id":"814c5f267c97f1152a55e0d56c46f9655c970a9b"} -{"article":"FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- More than 1,000 volunteers rushed to fill sandbags early Wednesday as many in North Dakota tried to protect themselves from a historic floods that are expected to swamp the area. A Fargo resident surveys the sandbags outside his home, located about 15 feet from the Red River, on Tuesday. Even at 3:30 a.m., hundreds of volunteers packed into individual sandbagging centers, an organizer said. \"There have been so many volunteers that we had to turn people away,\" said Ryan McEwan, a supervisor at one volunteer coordinating center. \"It is very busy. They are filling sandbags as fast as they can.\" Fargo city officials estimated that as many as 10,000 volunteers have come forward since Sunday to aid in a sandbagging effort that's taken over North Dakota State University's central arena, the Fargodome, and to help build levees along the now closely watched Red River. See map of affected area \u00bb . That river posed the greatest risk of about eight rivers in the state that were at flood levels, emergency officials said. The fear is that the Red River could overtake all previous records. As of Wednesday morning, the Red River ran at about 33 feet -- 15 feet above flood stage. A record level of 41.1 feet was set in 1897. The record level of the river set in the April 1897 flood could be surpassed Friday, Cecily Fong of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services said Tuesday. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from an area near the city of Bismarck on Tuesday night as the Missouri River flooded, Rick Robinson of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services said Wednesday. Recent rain and blizzard conditions have swollen the rivers. Gov. John Hoeven received word late Tuesday that North Dakota had received a presidential disaster declaration. \"We've had a severe winter and are experiencing significant flooding across the state, so we are grateful to receive this federal assistance as we continue the flood fight and recovery effort,\" Hoeven said. Under the declaration, the federal government will cover 75 percent of the costs. \"We're concerned about the rise of the river and how fast it's coming up, so our concern is that we're going to hit 41 feet,\" Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said Tuesday, adding that the way the levees are currently set up, they would protect against overflow only up to 38 feet. Officials are guessing the Red River, which runs through the eastern parts of North and South Dakota, and western Minnesota, could crest in Fargo -- North Dakota's largest city, with about 99,200 residents -- anytime Friday or Saturday and that the water may linger at its crest height. The city has canceled all trials scheduled in Fargo Municipal Court through April 2 because of the expected flooding, to allow all police officers to be available for possible emergencies, according to the city's Web site. As of late Tuesday, Fargo residents and out-of-town volunteers had filled more than 1 million sandbags out of the needed 2 million. Mahoney said he hoped that, with the 24-hour sandbagging effort at the Fargodome, that goal will be met by Thursday. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video . Another factor threatening efforts is the possibility of freezing temperatures, because sandbags freeze together and then aren't individually stackable. Despite the stress, volunteers have been working around the clock. \"You got old people, young people -- all helping out,\" Mahoney said. \"It's heartwarming to see how many people are here.\" CNN's Robyn Sidersky contributed to this story.","highlights":"City of Fargo prepares for what could be the worst flooding it's ever had .\nUp to 10,000 volunteers have come forward since Sunday to aid in sandbagging .\nSwollen Red River running 14 feet above flood stage Tuesday night .\nResidents have had much less time to prepare than major 1997 flood .","id":"9ff68d6d33d15e36119a9fbc3d6777b76c230b75"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- A University of Georgia professor apparently shot and killed his wife and two other people at a community theater group's reunion Saturday, then dropped the couple's two children off at a neighbor's and fled. An alert on the UGA Web site says professor George Zinkhan is a suspect in an off-campus shooting. Athens-Clarke County police said they have local, regional and national alerts out for George Zinkhan, 57, an endowed marketing professor at the school's Terry College of Business. \"It appeared he and his wife were having problems,\" police Capt. Clarence Holeman said. Holeman identified the dead as Marie Bruce, 47, Zinkhan's wife and a prominent Athens attorney; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63. Friends identified Bruce as the president of the board of the Town and Gown Players, the theater group holding a reunion picnic on the theater's deck when the shooting took place. Tanner and Teague were identified as set designers for the theater. Two other people were wounded by ricocheting bullets, Holeman said, but did not identify them. At least 20 people were in attendance at the event, he said. Zinkhan was not at the theater event initially, Holeman said, but when he arrived, he got into \"a disagreement\" with his wife. He left the scene -- police believe to his car, where his children were waiting -- and returned with two handguns. \"It only took a few minutes,\" Holeman said. Police found eight shell casings, he said. After the shootings, Zinkhan left the scene with his two children -- ages 8 and 10 -- still in the vehicle, police said. He drove to a neighbor's home in nearby Bogart, Georgia, where he lived, and left the children there. The neighbor, Bob Covington, told CNN that Zinkhan arrived at his home shortly after noon with the two children. \"He rang the doorbell -- asked me if I could keep his kids for about an hour,\" Covington said. \"I said sure, and he said there'd been some type of emergency, and he took off.\" Zinkhan seemed hurried and agitated but that seemed consistent with an emergency, Covington said. He didn't question Zinkhan about the emergency, Covington said, adding that it wasn't unusual for someone in his family to watch the children. An hour or so later, he said, police arrived and took the children. Covington described Zinkhan as \"a very quiet guy, but family-oriented.\" \"He was great around his kids,\" he said. \"Never saw a bit of a problem between he his wife or his kids.\" Covington said he was \"completely shocked, didn't believe it\" when he heard the news, and said he knew Marie Bruce much better than her husband. \"She was much more talkative, very vivacious,\" he said. Police Maj. Mike Shockley told CNN that officers were searching Zinkhan's home Saturday and that a wide search for the suspect was in progress. \"It's still a hunt,\" he said. \" ... Now it's just a matter of trying to locate him.\" Holeman said Zinkhan has relatives in Texas and owns a home in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He was last seen driving a red, 2005 Jeep Liberty, Holeman said. The news reverberated across Athens. \"The University community is shocked and saddened at this tragic event,\" University of Georgia President Michael F. Adams, said in a written statement. \"Our first thoughts are for safety of the university community and for prompt apprehension of the person responsible. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all those who have been affected.\" Another university professor, Steve Elliott-Gower, told CNN that Zinkhan had been at the school for at least 10 years and was \"a distinguished professor with a national reputation.\" \"He was quirky and aloof, but absolutely nothing that I saw would lead me to this conclusion,\" said the professor. Elliott-Gower said he didn't know Zinkhan well, but knew him through Zinkhan's wife who, like Elliott-Gower, was associated with the theater. \"There are generations of people in the Athens community that have been involved in the theater,\" he said. \"It's really difficult to imagine how an organization which is this close-knit recovers from something like this.\" Town and Gown Players' Web site said its present production, \"Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure,\" is canceled. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Marie Bruce, 47, wife of the suspect, was one of the victims, police say .\nNEW: Other victims identified as Tom Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63 .\nNEW: Suspect apparently dropped children off at a neighbor's house before fleeing .\nNEW: Local, state and national alerts are out for George Zinkhan, 57 .","id":"e16e2353107f2146a5860b66383020120ec0235a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI Director Robert Mueller pointed Monday to recent terror attacks in Mumbai, India, and Somalia to highlight the FBI's concern that small groups or individuals could carry out such attacks on U.S. soil. FBI Director Robert Mueller says he worries the Mumbai attack could be replicated in the United States. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Mueller worried that the dramatic terror attack on hotels and other facilities in Mumbai potentially could be replicated in the United States. \"This type of attack reminds us that terrorists with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons to maximize their impact. And it again raises the question of whether a similar attack could happen in Seattle or San Diego, Miami, or Manhattan,\" Mueller said. He said he is increasingly concerned with \"pockets of people around the world that identify with al Qaeda and its ideology\" but who have little or no actual contact with al Qaeda. Mueller cited the first-ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen last October. A Somali native who had settled in Minnesota traveled back to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. The idea that Shirwa Ahmed, 27, was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the FBI. \"One pattern in particular concerns us,\" Mueller said. \"The prospect of young men, indoctrinated and radicalized within their own communities and induced to travel to Somalia to take up arms -- and to kill themselves and perhaps many others -- is a perversion of the immigrant story. And it raises the question of whether these young men will one day come home and, if so, what they might undertake here.\" Authorities have said as many as 20 young Somali men reported missing in Minnesota may have returned to Somalia to take up arms.","highlights":"FBI director: Mumbai attack showed terrorists with little money can have large impact .\nFBI worries \"whether a similar attack could happen in\" the U.S., Mueller says .\nSuicide bombing involving naturalized U.S. citizen in Somalia also alarms Mueller .","id":"938ed3265266ba48d98d85dbabc92daa0b6c3829"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Skier Paul Wampach, a 49-year-old manager from Chicago, Illinois, hardly matches the stereotype of a hostel dweller: an under-30 backpacker from outside the United States who can't afford fancy lodging. Travelers looking to meet new people might consider staying at hostels, say experts. For the fifth time in two years, Wampach plans to head to the Fireside Inn in Breckenridge, Colorado, where he's booked a dorm-style room for less than $40 a night during his ski vacation. \"If I'm traveling by myself, there's no reason to splurge,\" said Wampach, who is single and described himself as neither rich nor poor. \"That $40 or $50 [I save on lodging] goes to food, beer and ski-lift tickets.\" And amenities such as Internet access and a hot tub at the hostel add creature comforts to the trip. Wampach's travel habits are consistent with a growing number of travelers called \"flashpackers.\" They are usually over 30, in mid-to-late career and can afford higher-end hotels but instead choose budget options -- albeit better-furnished and well-kept ones -- because it fits their lifestyle, said Mark Vidalin, Marketing Director for Hostelling International USA, a nonprofit network of hostels. Flashpackers also tend to stay connected by traveling with gadgets and seeking accommodations with free Wi-Fi, Vidalin said. The term \"flashpacker\" likely originated in Australia, and combines the term \"flash\" -- meaning \"stylish\" -- with \"backpacker,\" according to Vidalin. Flashpackers and regular backpackers are booking hostels at U.S. vacation destinations in full force this year. Attendance at hostels has been consistently rebounding from lows following the September 11, 2001. This year's turbulent economy appears to be fueling demand for hostel space. Heading into ski season, Loree Weisman, the owner of the Crested Butte International Lodge and Hostel in Crested Butte, Colorado, said her hostel bookings are trending ahead of the town's other lodging options -- and up about 25 percent from her bookings by the same time last year. Amid the unsteady economy, she said, people \"don't want to give up a vacation, but they might need to adapt a vacation.\" Instead of canceling pricey vacations due to economic fears, many travelers are rejecting accommodations with private bedrooms and bathrooms. They're going for hostels with their dorm-style bunk beds, community bathrooms, and, most importantly for many hostel dwellers, shared living spaces. \"There's a sense of community, and there's a social aspect to it that's pretty significant,\" said Jim Williams, editor of \"The Hostel Handbook\" and a former hostel owner. \"That is the heart of hostelling. You don't go to a hotel and lock the door.\" Wampach agreed, saying that hostels offer \"a tremendous way to meet people from different cultures and talk to people you wouldn't normally talk to.\" But the communal atmosphere of hostels leaves many travelers skeptical, particularly Americans, Williams said. \"Americans have privacy issues. If you suggested to most people they were going to share a room with five other people, most of them wouldn't want to do it,\" he said. What if a roommate snores or what if he smells or doesn't stop talking? -- these are legitimate questions for travelers considering the hostel option, said Williams. Frequent hostel dweller Mandy Creighton, 30, said she enjoys the overall hostel experience, but it's a \"huge challenge\" to \"walk through the room and to my room without having to talk to 20 people.\" Creighton and her partner, Ryan Mlynarczyk, 32, who are documentary filmmakers from Sebastopol, California, are bicycling around the United States for a year and stopping in ecologically sustainable communities along the way. Their choice to stay in hostels is rooted in a desire to maintain a green lifestyle by sharing resources as well as saving money. Mlynarczyk experienced the other side of the privacy issue when he stepped out of a shower in a San Francisco, California, hostel to discover he had a female audience. \"I ... didn't have my towel on -- and some girl walks in and was like, 'Woo!' I'm totally open to that sort of thing, but I think she was a little bit new to it, and she kind of was giggling. But obviously the immediate reaction was, 'Oh my God!' \" Mlynarczyk said. In contrast to Americans who treasure their personal space, the communal environment is more ingrained in European culture, experts said. It's possible to trace that cultural divide to post-World War II, said Williams, when Europe underwent its financial recovery in the 1950s and its culture was more communal. On the other hand, the U.S. economy was booming, and there was no need for Americans to share resources. \"At the same time [Europeans] were creating hostels, American teenagers were focused on getting their own cars,\" Williams said. Nevertheless, Hostelling International reported its hostels in many destination cities saw notable increases in October versus the same time last year: New York overnight guests increased by 9.8 percent, Washington by 9.7 percent and San Diego, California, by 22.1 percent, according to Hostelling International. Despite the rise in many hostel bookings, Williams said hostelling still isn't part of mainstream American culture. \"We do hostelling about as well as we do soccer. We do it, but it's a limited market, and we do it a certain way. Otherwise, most Americans aren't very comfortable [with] it,\" Williams said. Wampach said he believes this represents Americans' \"relatively conservative views and lifestyles.\" But people are respectful of each other's space, he said, and they rarely spend time together in the dorm room aside from sleeping anyway. \"You just do your best; everybody understands you are who are,\" Wampach said. \"Sometimes you get a guy who snores but ... that's part of the deal.\"","highlights":"\"Flashpackers\" are professionals older than 30 who prefer hostels to hotels .\nHostels in New York, Washington and San Diego, California, report increased guests .\nSense of community is the \"heart of hostelling,\" expert says .\nMany Americans uncomfortable with hostels' lack of privacy .","id":"454484029ba2935460f989e5d86cd348d6bf6dff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When 3-year-old Rowan Isaacson darted away from his father and dived into a herd of grazing horses, it easily could have been the end of the small autistic boy. He was babbling under the hooves of a boss mare. Rupert Isaacson says he noticed immediate improvement in his son's language skills when he started riding. \"I thought he was going to get trampled,\" recalled Rupert Isaacson, Rowan's father. But the horse, Betsy, dipped her head and chewed with her mouth in submission. Isaacson, who had trained horses for a living, had never seen it happen so spontaneously. Rowan had seemingly made a connection. The Austin, Texas, family had been struggling with Rowan. His wild tantrums were nearly driving Isaacson and his wife, Kristin Neff, to divorce. All the while, little Rowan was becoming unreachable. \"He would just stare off into space,\" Isaacson said. \"I was worried it was going to get progressively worse and that eventually, he might float away from us entirely. Luckily, right about that time is when he met Betsy.\" Isaacson began riding Betsy, a neighbor's horse, with Rowan. He says he noticed immediate improvement in his son's language skills. Watch Rowan and Betsy \u00bb . \"He would start to answer. He would start to talk. We would do song games up there on the saddle. I would take books up there in the saddle,\" Isaacson said. Autism specialists say that horse riding can be effective in gaining access to autistic children. Experts make a distinction between the kind of recreational therapeutic riding Isaacson was using with Rowan and hippotherapy, which is a medical treatment that uses horses and is supervised by a licensed speech-language pathologist. \"People perceive it's the interaction with the horse that's making the change. However, the movement of the horse is extremely powerful, and it's that movement that's having neurological impact on the autistic child,\" said Ruth Dismuke-Blakely, a speech-language pathologist and hippotherapy clinical specialist in Edgewood, New Mexico. According to preliminary analysis of an ongoing study by Dismuke-Blakely, hippotherapy has been shown to increase verbal communication skills in some autistic children in as little as 18 to 25 minutes of riding once a week for eight weeks. \"We see their arousal and affect change. They become more responsive to cues. If they are at a point where they are using verbal cues, you get more words,\" Dismuke-Blakely said. \"It's almost like it opens them up. It gives us access.\" She cautions that a horse's movements can be powerful. For some autistic children, riding too long can overstimulate their nervous system, leading to more erratic behavior. On Betsy, Rowan was at ease. After about three weeks, Isaacson says, Rowan's improved behavior was translating into the home and outside world as well. But not consistently. In late 2004, Isaacson, a human rights activist, brought a delegation of African bushmen from Botswana to the United Nations. Among the men were traditional healers, who offered to work with Rowan. Isaacson says he was skeptical, but he had experience with the bushmen and allowed the healers to lay their hands on his son. \"I was kind of flabbergasted at Rowan's response. For about four days while they were with him, he started to lose some of his symptoms. He started to point, which was a milestone he hadn't achieved,\" Isaacson said. When the tribal healers left, Rowan regressed. Isaacson says he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he were to give Rowan a longer exposure to the two things that he seemed to have responded well to: horses and shamans. \"I know it sounds completely crazy,\" he said. \"I just had a gut feeling.\" Isaacson took his wife and son to Mongolia. \"It's the oldest horse culture on the planet. Everyone still gets around on a horse there -- so a nomadic culture. The word 'shaman' comes from there,\" Isaacson said, explaining his decision. \"I just thought, 'Well, what if we went there and rode across the steppe and visited traditional healers? You know, what might happen for Rowan? Might there be some positive outcomes?' \" Trekking across the Mongolian prairie on horseback, Isaacson says, Rowan's behavior was changed dramatically. \"Rowan was not cured of autism out there,\" Isaacson stressed. \"The word 'cure' is not in my vocabulary for this. Rowan came back without three key dysfunctions that he had. He went out to Mongolia incontinent and still suffering from these neurological firestorms -- so tantruming all the time and cut off from his peers, unable to make friends -- and he came back with those three dysfunctions having gone.\" Isaacson credits Rowan's improvement to horses and time in nature -- and to shamanic healing, which he says he simply can't explain rationally. Isaacson has written a book, \"The Horse Boy,\" about Rowan's autism. Rowan, now 7, rides Betsy by himself. His parents never abandoned more orthodox treatments for his autism, and Rowan's applied behavioral analysis therapist has him studying math and English at the third-grade level -- a full year ahead of some of his peers. \"He's just becoming a very functional autistic person,\" Isaacson said. As far as the Isaacson family's journey took them, it is the same hard slog facing millions of families gripped by autism. \"A lot of the parents go to the ends of the Earth in their own living rooms every day,\" Isaacson said. \"I mean, we had more stressful car rides to the grocery store than any of the stresses and challenges of the trip to Mongolia.\" You don't have to get on a horse -- or plane to Siberia -- for relief. For autism families, Isaacson encourages parents to simply follow their instincts and listen to what their child shows them. \"In our case, it was horses in Mongolia and these shamans,\" Isaacson said. \"It could just as easily have been bicycles and, you know, steam trains. And if it had been, we'd have done a steam train journey. We'd have done whatever Rowan seemed to be showing us he wanted to do, because that was where he was intrinsically motivated.\"","highlights":"Family travels across Mongolia so autistic son can ride horses, meet shaman .\nExperts say riding horses can be effective in gaining access to autistic children .\nRowan Isaacson's language and temper improved with horse\/shaman therapy .\nHis parents never abandoned more orthodox treatments for Rowan's autism .","id":"660cf237c7047f7d56e1b24348449ffa03e1d9af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A female graduate student at Virginia Tech was killed Wednesday night when a man she knew attacked her with a knife and decapitated her, a school spokesman said. Virginia Tech police Chief Wendell Flinchum talks about the first slaying on campus since the 2007 shootings. Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said Thursday that Xin Yang's killing was the first on the campus since April 16, 2007, when a shooter killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself. Yang, 22, from Beijing, China, was killed at the Au Bon Pain restaurant in the Graduate Life Center at around 7 p.m., school spokesman Larry Hincker said in a written statement. Campus police took Haiyang Zhu, 25, into custody at the scene. The Ningbo, China, native has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail at a local jail, Hincker said. Zhu did not say anything to the arresting officers, said campus police Chief Wendell Flinchum. \"There was blood on him,\" Flinchum said. The young woman and the suspect \"were not seen arguing, or anything of that nature,\" he added, citing witness statements. Authorities said the two students knew each other. \"Based on emergency contact records maintained by the university, it is known that Zhu and Yang knew each other,\" Hincker said. No other details were provided. The young woman arrived at the university two weeks ago to begin studies in accounting, he said in the statement. Zhu is a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in agricultural and applied economics. He began studies at Virginia Tech in fall 2008, Hincker said. \"Our hearts go out to the victim and her family,\" President Charles W. Steger said in a letter to the campus community. \"An act of violence like this one brings back memories of the April 16 tragedy and I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught.\" Authorities say on April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and professors before killing himself.","highlights":"Killing was first on campus since gunman killed 32 on April 16, 2007 .\nVictim Xin Yang, a graduate student from Beijing, knew accused killer, police say .\nHaiyang Zhu, 25, taken into custody; he is charged with first-degree murder .\nAttack took place at restaurant in Graduate Life Center .","id":"0abd3cee9c71303c18d78dbc4c82f86aa2f5443e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of a woman who gave birth on Monday to octuplets said her daughter already has six children at home and was undergoing fertility treatment. Dr. Karen Maples is part of the large team of doctors and nurses that helped deliver the octuplets. The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that Angela Suleman said her daughter had the embryos implanted last year, resulting in the eight births. \"They all happened to take,\" Suleman told the Times. \"I looked at those babies. They are so tiny and so beautiful.\" The woman declined to have the number of embryos reduced when she discovered she was carrying multiples, the Times reported. The six older siblings range from ages 7 to 2, according to the newspaper. Suleman said she was concerned about her daughter's homecoming because her husband, a contract worker, is due to return to Iraq. In the meantime, the mother, who remains unidentified, appealed for privacy while she recovers from giving birth, medical officials said Thursday. In her written statement delivered by Dr. Karen Maples of the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in California, the woman who delivered eight babies in five minutes said she would soon make public the details of her \"miraculous experience.\" \"We understand that you are all curious about the arrival of the octuplets, and we appreciate your respect for our family's privacy,\" she said. \"The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals.\" \"Needless to say, the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well,\" she added. The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces -- are doing well following their Caesarean-section delivery at the Bellflower hospital, doctors said. They were born nine weeks premature. Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatalist, said all but one of the octuplets are now breathing on their own. That baby might be taken off breathing equipment Friday. Caring for eight premature babies is a challenge. Duties are being shared by a large team of hospital nurses and doctors for the time being. Two nurses have been assigned to each child, and all the babies are receiving fluids, proteins and vitamins intravenously, Gupta said. \"We feed them. ... We change diapers. ... When they cry, we console them,\" Gupta said. \"When the mom comes and touches the babies, you can definitely see their expression on their faces and body. They are very happy.\" The babies, who are being referred to by letters of the alphabet, will remain in the hospital for at least seven more weeks. Baby H made headlines for its surprise appearance during the delivery, which took months of preparation by a team of doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists. Watch a report on babies' progress \u00bb . The mother will not be able to hold her babies for another week, Gupta said. They are still fragile, developing intestines, he said. Doctors initially thought the mother was pregnant with seven fetuses. She was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest. During the seven weeks, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff members prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday, they were in for a surprise. \"After the seventh baby was born, we were taking a sigh of relief,\" Maples said. \"It was a surprise of our life when we in fact discovered there was an eighth baby,\" she said. \"We never had an assignment for baby H nurse or baby H doctor. We just had to go on the fly and figure out what to do.\" \"Baby G nurse stepped up. We handed off the baby to baby G nurse. She then delivered that last baby to the neonatologist of the baby F.\" \"It was all wonderful because of the teamwork and the training we did before,\" Maples said.","highlights":"Grandmother of the eight babies: 'They are so tiny and so beautiful'\nThe father, a contract worker, is due to return to Iraq, mother-in-law says .\nMother of babies appeals for privacy while she recovers from giving birth .\nLarge medical team monitoring babies; each infant has two devoted nurses .","id":"befaf47fbcf8565ac091b64494f4cddf8d94966a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tough economic times are taking a toll across the spectrum of business and individual activity -- and the country's institutions of higher learning are no exception. Andy Warhol is one of the artists in Brandeis University's acclaimed Rose Art Museum. Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts, will be taking an extraordinary step to preserve its educational mission -- the school's board of trustees voted Monday to close its acclaimed Rose Art Museum. The university will sell every one of the approximately 6,000 items in the museum, opened in 1961. \"These are extraordinary times, we cannot control or fix the nation's economic problems,\" university president Jehuda Reinharz said. \"We can only do what we have been entrusted to do -- act responsibly with the best interests of our students and their futures foremost in mind.\" University spokesman Dennis Nealon said that the move to sell off the museum's exhibits was \"a very hard and painful decision\" but a necessary one for the school's survival. He said the decision, which calls for the museum to close in the summer, will not affect the university's \"commitment to the arts and the teaching of the arts.\" The facility will become a fine arts teaching center with an exhibition gallery and studio space, he said. The museum's collection includes iconic paintings by such luminaries of American art as Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz and Roy Lichtenstein. Nealon said most of the museum's acquisitions are paintings and sculptures. The school has not undertaken a recent appraisal of the works, Nealon said, adding that the process may take as much as two years to complete. Brandeis, founded in 1948, is the only non-sectarian, Jewish-sponsored university in the country.","highlights":"Brandeis trustees vote to close Rose Art Museum, sell collection .\nUniversity spokesman says \"painful decision\" necessary for school's survival .\nCollection includes iconic paintings by Warhol, Johns and Lichtenstein .\nBrandeis is the only nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored university in nation .","id":"bba8306fb1b5eb74b9fbac0bcc4d1c4268b6b1dc"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Over the last decade, Steven Soderbergh has taken the \"one for them, one for me\" concept of film-director politics to an almost comically programmatic extreme. Benicio Del Toro plays Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's biopic. Basically, he makes big-budget crowd-pleasers like the \"Ocean's\" films, stuffed with movie stars and candied gimcrack fun, and between them he makes whatever oddball labor-of-love doodle (the enticing \"Bubble,\" the dreadful \"Solaris\") enters his head. What's disorienting about \"Che,\" his two-part, four-hour-and-17-minute, studiously eccentric drama about the revolutionary life and times of Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara, is that it's almost a knowing brainteaser on Soderbergh's part to force you to figure out which category the film belongs to. Che cost a reported $65 million to make, it's full of exacting panoramas of strategy and combat set in the mountainous jungles of Cuba and Bolivia, and its hero is a figure who -- 41 years after his violent death -- remains so loved, hated, and mythologized that he fits into an epic drama timed for awards season as perfectly as Gandhi or Ray Charles ever did. Following a one-week Oscar-qualifying run, \"Che\" is now rolling out to major American cities, where it is likely to draw generations of filmgoers who've either worn Che on their T-shirts or have the honest curiosity to wonder: Who was this man before he became a Warhol-worthy icon of radical chic? In \"Che,\" Soderbergh stokes that curiosity, feeds it, and frustrates it, all at the same time. He's made a film that embraces the romance of revolution only to shake it off, leaving very little in its place. The first half of \"Che\" is a genuine achievement. It picks up Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) in 1955, when he was a clean-cut Argentine physician who dreamed of uniting Latin America through armed struggle. At a dinner party in Mexico City, he meets Fidel Castro -- played, with perfect domineering gesticulations, by Demian Bichir -- and the movie follows these two into the Cuban countryside, where they assemble the nuts and bolts of a revolution. Soderbergh exhibits a tinkerer's fascination with how it all worked, embedding each scene with a docu-nugget of information. We see Che taming his asthmatic coughing fits or reading books between battles, and learn how a battalion of rebels could defeat a platoon three times its size (with surprise, daring, and Molotov cocktails). Che is by turns scholar, guidance counselor, drill sergeant, and comandante, and Del Toro makes him a warrior-saint who learns, against his will, to cultivate a gruff bruiser facade. He yearns to be a \"true revolutionary, the highest level of humanity,\" and it's no insult to the film to say that Soderbergh and Del Toro succeed in portraying Che as a kind of T-shirt in three dimensions, a Guerrilla for All Seasons. But that's when things get strange, if not monumentally perverse. At the end of Part I -- the victory of the Cuban rebels -- my appetite was whetted to learn even more about Che, in particular how his humane ideals were tested, and compromised, by the Castro regime as it edged toward dictatorship. Instead, Part II leaps forward to 1966-67, when Che led the revolutionary war in Bolivia, and here's the thing: It turns out to be the same damn movie. Only in this dispirited rerun, the revolution doesn't take. The rebels, all squabbling ego, can barely summon the will to sacrifice and die, and the peasants have little belief that this ragtag crew is bringing a better world. Even with the U.S. poking its nose into the region, the Soviet Union won't back an insurrection. Soderbergh has built \"Che\" conceptually, as two giant panels of war, and his message is about the doomed destiny of Marxism. Che, like Marx, believed that the rise of the proletariat was inevitable -- the unstoppable tide of history -- but as the movie reveals, he was wrong. Che didn't ride a wave of history; instead, it crashed down on him. By remaining the same, he becomes, in Part II, a distant and deluded figure whose dream evaporates around him. As political theater, \"Che\" moves from faith to impotence, which is certainly a valid reading of Communism in the 20th century. Yet as drama, that makes the second half of the film borderline deadly. Che doesn't grow richer, deeper, or reveal any contradictions; he just gets more abstract -- a symbol of idealism too pure for this world. Che is twice as long as it needs to be, but it is also only half the movie it should have been. EW Grades: Part I: B+, Part II: C . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Che\" has a brilliant first half, but second half is repetitious, says EW .\nSteven Soderbergh's four-hour film is trying to make a point, but loses steam .\nHowever, Benicio Del Toro is terrific as famed Marxist revolutionary .","id":"b406bca446d945b514b76196227bb485df997c4e"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- I've never really been a fan of the \"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus\" school of relationship thought, but I'll admit that sometimes I feel as though the men I've dated have spoken a different language. Like when a great date is followed by the deafening silence of the phone. Or when the big relationship talk results in a boyfriend-shaped hole in my wall. Those are the times I want nothing more than a dictionary that translates every deer-in-headlights look, ambiguous voicemail, and cryptic text message. That's where Jeff Mac's \"Manslations: Decoding the Secret Language of Men\" comes in. The good . Actions speak louder than words. Sure, not a novel idea, but this \"duh\" lesson is one that can take years to learn. If it looks, walks, and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck. Mac's Golden Rule? Whenever there is any conflict between what a man says and what he does, always, always ignore what he says. There is no such thing as a man dumping you because he is afraid of getting hurt, is frightened that his feelings are too strong, or because he finds you intimidating. Mac says to think of the simplest solution -- is it that this man sensed you were the perfect woman for him, who touched him so much in deep, important places that he couldn't handle? Or was he just not feeling it? It's OK to call him first -- and if you get blown off, it's not because you called first. This is my favorite piece of advice from Mac, who says the mistaken conclusion women come to when they call first post-date and get blown off is that the call made them look clingy and spooked the guy. \"This is not how it went,\" says Mac. \"If you called him and he blew you off, it went like this: . 1. You had a great date, and he did not. 2. He planned to blow you off. 3. You called him, and nothing changed.\" The bad . All men are obsessed with cars, the remote, sports, and video games. Yawn. For the record, my man keeps his video game playtime short, hands remote control power over to me, and doesn't care for sports or cars. Is my guy an exception to the rule, or is it possible that all men are different and do not necessarily share those interests as a gender? I'm guessing it's the latter. The ugly . Men are like dogs. Is this statement required filler for all dating books, right after the part about women being shopping-obsessed nags? According to Mac, men are like dogs because, among other things, they have short attention spans and pay a lot of attention to their own crotches and the crotches of others. I'm willing to bet short attention span isn't an inherently male trait, and I can personally testify that neither is an interest in crotches. So is Jeff Mac's \"Manslations\" the be-all and end-all of man manuals? Not exactly. But when your girlfriends refuse to help you decode, for the eighth time, what he meant when he said, \"I'll call you later,\" Jeff Mac's sometimes trite, always funny advice comes in handy. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Woman rates Jeff Mac's \"Manslations: Decoding the Secret Language of Men\"\nIf there's conflict between what man says or does, always ignore what he says .\nHer favorite:OK for women to call guy first, and if dumped, it's not because of call .","id":"6d6155f63db46dc9f99f3dd1b3903f17f340ddc9"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has arrested a suspected al Qaeda militant who intelligence officials say is tied to the London subway bombings in 2005, authorities there said Thursday. The double-decker bus damaged by a bomb in central London on July 7, 2005. Zabih al-Taifi was arrested in a village near Peshawar on Wednesday as part of ongoing security operations in the area, police and intelligence officials told CNN. Six others, both Afghans and Pakistanis, were also arrested. The Metropolitan Police Service in London, also known as Scotland Yard, issued a statement refusing to comment on the arrest. \"Speculation around this reported arrest with alleged links to an ongoing terrorist trial is unhelpful and may be prejudicial to current criminal proceedings,\" it said. The London blasts killed 52 people and wounded at least 900 others when bombs went off on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005. Security analysts say the village where al-Taifi was arrested in the North West Frontier Province has been the site of recent clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials say arrested al Qaeda militant has ties to 2005 London subway bombings .\n52 killed, 900 wounded from bombs on 3 subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005 .\nZabih al-Taifi arrested in village near Peshawar in ongoing security operations .","id":"fc12c6bd96d11b968e31c04d3f6691366a817d4b"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian-led bloc of post-Soviet nations has agreed to establish a rapid-reaction military force to combat terrorists and respond to regional emergencies, Russian media reported Wednesday. Russian navy soldiers stand guard during a military ceremony. The decision came a day after reports that Kyrgyzstan is planning to close a strategically important U.S. military base that Washington uses to transport troops and supplies into Afghanistan. On Wednesday, the Collective Security Treaty Organization -- made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- decided on the rapid-reaction force at a Kremlin summit, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported. The group's security council \"spent a long time discussing the central issue of forming collective reaction forces and, generally, of rapid reaction to possible threats,\" said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, according to Russian news agency Interfax. \"Everyone agreed that the formation of joint forces is necessary,\" he said. Officials told Russian media that all the members had signed the agreement, though Uzbekistan submitted a special provision. Uzbekistan doesn't mind contributing military units to the rapid-reaction force \"but does not consider it necessary for the moment\" to attach emergency responders, drug-control forces and other special services, organization spokesman Vitaly Strugovets told Interfax. Russian media reported that the force will be used to fight military aggressors, conduct anti-terror operations, battle regional drug trafficking and respond to natural disasters. The force will be based in Russia under a single command, with member nations contributing military units. On Tuesday, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced at a Moscow news conference that \"all due procedures\" were being initiated to close Manas Air Base, RIA-Novosti reported. The announcement was made after news reports of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia to Kyrgyzstan. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, was in Kyrgyzstan last month, partly to lobby the government to allow the United States to keep using the base. He said he and Kyrgyz leaders did not discuss \"at all\" the possible closure of the base and said local officials told him there was \"no foundation\" for news reports about the issue. The United States is planning to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to halt a resurgence of the Taliban. Petraeus described Manas as having \"an important role in the deployment of these forces\" and in refueling aircraft. The relationship between the United States and Kyrgyzstan was damaged when a Kyrgyz citizen was killed by a U.S. airman in December 2006. The airman was transferred out of Kyrgyzstan, and the dead man's family was offered compensation. Petraeus said in January that the investigation was being reopened. As he announced the base closure Tuesday, Bakiyev said he was not satisfied with the inquiry into the accident and his government's \"inability to provide security to its citizens\" was proving a serious concern. Medvedev also weighed in on the issue Wednesday, saying the base closure shouldn't hamper anti-terrorism operations, according to Interfax. \"It would be great if their numbers meant there were fewer terrorists, but such action depends on other things as well,\" he said.","highlights":"Seven nations agree to form rapid-reaction force .\nRussian media say force will fight terrorism, respond to disasters .\nIt will be based in Russia under a single command .\nReport comes after Kyrgyzstan says it will close U.S. base .","id":"044cc53859ccd95a933190953c34ced4b63719c0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fragile finances are likely to rule out buying a boat for many this summer but that shouldn't mean the end of all water-based pastimes. Underwater scooter: The Seabob Cayago will move you like a fish with its 7hp motor. MainSail presents you with some of the coolest toys for slightly more affordable fun on the water. Seabob Cayago scooter: Do you want to become a human fish this summer? This water and diving scooter is purported to be the fastest of its kind, with a 7hp electric motor. Hydradome BOB: If you want to take the motorized diving experience to a new level, the Breathing Observation Bubble (BOB), is the ideal machine. This submersible can cruise underwater at two knots while the rider sits in comfort. Hovpod: For high-speed fun on and off the water, the Hovpod hovercraft should be your gadget of choice. The Hovpod will take you across any flat surface at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour). Powerski Jetboard: This machine is a cross between a surfboard and a jet-ski. Capable of up to 35 knots, the Powerski Jetboard lets you surf without the surf. Walk-on-water ball: For cheaper and more simple fun on the water, the Nuclear Globe Walk-on-water ball is perfect. The heavy-duty PVC ball can keep you fit and you can even stay dry if you want to. Iceberg Wall: If you're entertaining plenty of people, the Iceberg Wall looks like a great time. Coming in either the 2.5 meter or a massive 4.9 meter size, the Iceberg offers safe climbing, sliding and jumping for everyone. See our photo gallery \u00bb of this summer's top six toys for fun in the water, thanks to SuperYachtWorld. For more sailing news and more about the super-yacht industry, visit CNN's MainSail homepage here. Subscribe to SuperYachtWorld . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2009 IPC MEDIA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"MainSail profiles six top water-toys for cheaper fun in the water this summer .\nThe Seabob scooter can propel a person through the water like a fish .\nThe Iceberg wall is the ultimate water toy for the whole family .","id":"30b40386d74ec61e07339530419a4d45323aa57f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Serious Fraud Office and London police are investigating an alleged $81 million (\u00a356 million) fraud on the corporate banking department of Allied Irish Banks (AIB). Allied Irish Banks has allegedly been the subject of a $81 million fraud. The SFO said it had searched a business and two residential addresses in London and believed AIB was not the only financial institution deceived by the suspects. It said that between 2003 and 2007 AIB, Ireland's largest bank by market value, loaned money for the purchase of UK investment properties to companies controlled by an individual who was now the main suspect. The SFO said the main suspect operated with the assistance of others. However, in 2008 AIB identified problems with one element of its security interests over the investment properties. \"Following an internal review it became apparent that the guarantees of certain lease payments on these properties by an investment grade counterparty (a blue chip property company) were fraudulent,\" the SFO said. AIB referred the matter to the authorities and also took control of and sold the relevant properties, which resulted in a write down of the outstanding loan balances by \u00a356m, the SFO said. The office said the alleged fraud involved the borrowing companies creating \"overriding\" leases. \"These leases were generally for longer periods and at higher rents than the existing occupational tenants' leases. \"The apparent existence of these additional leases increased the values of the properties, with lease payments being a direct obligation of the investment grade counterparty,\" the SFO said. AIB is considering legal action over the $81 million loss.","highlights":"British authorities probing alleged $81 million fraud involving Irish bank .\nThey say more firms are likely to have been deceived by scam .\nIt involved manipulation of leases on properties in the UK .","id":"c501a8fbf49689973cf7db311356ae5810fbc1ef"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Indian owners of car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have agreed to pump \"tens of millions\" of dollars into the luxury car brand to prevent a cash flow crisis, it was reported Monday. Jaguar Land Rover was bought by the Indian company Tata earlier this year for $2.3 billion. The moves comes as the British government ponders a public-funded bailout of the West Midlands-based automaker, the Financial Times newspaper said. Tata, which bought JLR earlier this year, warned its support for the UK subsidiary did not negate the argument that the British government should provide bridging loans and credit guarantees to help the company and the car sector as a whole through the current financial difficulties, the FT said. Last week, the ailing \"big three\" automakers in the U.S. were given a boost when the Bush administration agreed a $13.4 billion loan package. Now British Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has come under pressure to come up with a similar package for UK manufacturers. JLR employs 15,000 workers in Britain and is seen as a vital contributor to the West Midlands regional economy in particular. However, the business secretary at the weekend reiterated that the state had to be a \"lender of last resort,\" only after Tata has looked to its own resources, the FT reported. Any state support would be conditional on the due diligence on the Indian parent company being conducted by the government's City advisers, according to officials. A spokesman for Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform told the British Press Association: \"The Government doesn't have an open cheque-book to bail out ailing companies, but we are doing all we can to help businesses overcome the current challenges. \"Jaguar Land Rover have owners who are well resourced and have the first responsibility to sustain the companies they own.\" According to the FT, accountancy firm KPMG and investment bank NM Rothschild have been called in to advise the UK government on the Indian group's complex finances and to assess demands from the car sector.","highlights":"Tata bought the British-based luxury car maker earlier this year .\nUK government also pondering a public-funded bailout of the company .\nJLR employs around 15,000 workers in Britain .","id":"2856af955eb35fbb369fc88dc8d542296df73779"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Conflict raged Wednesday in volatile northwestern Pakistan, with nine militants killed in a gun battle, the Taliban's abduction and release of about 30 police officers, and strikes on stranded NATO trucks. Pakistani policemen at a check point in Khyber Agency near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, February 12, 2008. It's the latest fighting between Pakistani security forces and the Taliban militants in the northwestern region near Afghanistan. The country's central government has little control in the area, and U.S. intelligence officials say the area is a haven for militants. Nine militants were killed when police and local residents foiled an attempted kidnapping of the mayor in a village on the outskirts of Peshawar, police told CNN. Taliban fighters attempted to abduct Fahim Ur Rehman, but police and residents resisted and a gun battle ensued. Along with the slain militants, two police and two civilians were wounded and some of the militants fled. The village, Bazid Khel, is located between Peshawar and the Khyber Agency in the tribal areas. In the Swat Valley, militants abducted around 30 police Tuesday night but eventually released them on Wednesday. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan confirmed to CNN that the personnel had been released after returning to the path of Islam and promising not to return to their jobs. Police told CNN that the security personnel had been forced to agree to the Taliban's terms and confirmed the release. There are conflicting details about the incident, in which Taliban forces attacked the Shamozai check post in the Barikot area of Swat Valley on Tuesday night and captured the people after a nightlong firefight. Khan said the personnel surrendered after Taliban forces mined the area, preventing access. He said their ammunition was seized when supply vehicles coming to assist government forces were stopped by Taliban mines. Pakistan police said the security personnel didn't surrender; they were caught after they used up their ammunition. Police and military sources said the personnel were police, but Khan said paramilitary officers as well as police were among the group. Locals said government forces came under attack Tuesday evening and ran out of ammunition before surrendering. This comes as the Pakistani military beefed up its operations this week in the Swat Valley. In the latest in a series of recent attacks meant to choke off supplies into Afghanistan for the United States and its allies, a rocket strike destroyed at least nine vehicles near the town Landi Kotal in the Khyber Agency -- one of seven semiautonomous tribal agencies along the Afghan border, a Khyber official told CNN. The trucks were returning from Afghanistan but were stranded in the town because, a day earlier, suspected militants had destroyed a bridge connecting Landi Kotal to Jamrod, another part of the Khyber Agency. The bridge's destruction had forced authorities to halt traffic. Because Afghanistan is landlocked, many of the supplies for NATO-led troops fighting Islamic militants there have to be trucked from Pakistan. In recent months, militants aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda have carried out several attacks to disrupt supplies, Pakistani officials said.","highlights":"NEW: Nine militants die as police, residents foil attempted kidnapping of mayor .\nNEW: Swat Valley: Militants release about 30 police who were abducted Tuesday .\nAttack destroyed nine vehicles near the town Landi Kotal in the Khyber Agency .\nSeries of recent attacks have tried to choke supplies into Afghanistan for the U.S.","id":"88af3bfffe95e19647266865c5a101c4bb4a1f4f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northern Sri Lanka with 250,000 unprotected civilians trapped in the crossfire between government troops and rebel forces, the Red Cross says. A civilian, injured during fighting in rebel territory, lies on a bed at a hospital in Vavuniya on January 16, 2009. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has appealed to both sides to facilitate the movement of civilians out of the combat zone which has seen intensified fighting. \"People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded,\" Jacques de Maio, ICRC head of operations for South Asia in Geneva said in a statement on the ICRC Web site.\" The violence is preventing the ICRC from operating in the region. In the capital, Colombo, Indian foreign affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee huddled Wednesday with Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa on the potential humanitarian crisis. \"The Sri Lankan government has reassured that they would respect the safe zones and minimize the effects of conflict on Tamil civilians,\" Mukherjee said. His discussions with Rajapaksa also envisioned a post-civil war Sri Lanka. \"We will work together with the government of Sri Lanka to enable all Sri Lankans, and particularly the Tamil community who have borne the brunt of the effects of the conflict, to lead normal lives as soon as possible,\" Mukherjee said. But for now, the ICRC says hundreds of patients are in need of emergency treatment and evacuation to Vavuniya Hospital in the government-controlled area and has urged that humanitarian assistance be unhampered in the Vanni region. \"When the dust settles, we may see countless victims and a terrible humanitarian situation, unless civilians are protected and international humanitarian law is respected in all circumstances,\" Maio said. \"It's high time to take decisive action and stop further bloodshed because time is running out.\" Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also called for the safety of civilians as humanitarian groups try to provide aid to people trapped in the region. \"The secretary-general is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of civilians caught in intensified fighting in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka,\" a spokesman for Ban said in a statement Monday. Ban called on the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers to respect \"no-fire zones\" and civilians areas, including schools, hospitals and humanitarian posts. He also asked both sides to allow civilians trapped in the fighting to move to \"safe areas.\" Sri Lankan soldiers seized a key rebel stronghold in a surprise attack Sunday, even as humanitarian agencies feared for the safety of civilians. Watch a report on the recent fighting \u00bb . \"It's an incredibly serious situation,\" James Elder, a U.N. spokesman, said Monday. \"We have a very large number of people, including tens of thousands of children, trapped in a fast-shrinking conflict zone.\" Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency. \"Our troops fought their way through a 40 km (25 mile) thick jungle track,\" Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address Sunday. \"This is the long-awaited victory and I am happy to say that our heroic forces today captured the Mullaittivu town after 12 years,\" the Sri Lanka Army chief said. There has been no confirmation from the rebels that the strategic garrison has been overtaken. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels gained control over Mullaittivu in 1996 and established a military garrison there, according to the government. In recent days, the military has said it has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The recapture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea. \"The area that the LTTE has dominated has shrank phenomenally,\" Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, C.R Jayasinghe, told CNN. \"They lost ... about 90 percent of what they had.\"","highlights":"NEW: ICRC says hundreds of patients need emergency treatment and evacuation .\nNEW: Intensified conflict is preventing the ICRC from operating in the region .\nNEW: Indian foreign affairs minister meets with Sri Lankan President over the crisis .\nU.N. asks both sides to allow 250,000 trapped civilians to move to \"safe areas\"","id":"2ef8c446fbe2eb11c140918c4be7f1bee71fff7e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Slavery may seem like a quaint notion in a 21st century world, but that distinction is lost on up to 40,000 Brazilians who find themselves toiling for no real wages and can't leave the distant work camps where they live. A Brazilian government official takes notes as he talks with workers about to be freed. Brazilian government officials and human rights activists call it slave labor, a condition they are aggressively trying to eradicate. A special government task force established in 1995 says it freed 4,634 workers last year in 133 raids on large farms and businesses that rely on workers driven to take these jobs by hunger and the empty promises of labor recruiters. \"Slavery is the tail end of a lot of abuse of poor people and workers in Brazil,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy center. \"Bad treatment reaches over to abusive treatment to treatment that becomes virtual slavery.\" In Brazil, it often works this way: A recruiter known as a \"gato,\" or cat, plumbs the slums and other poor areas of the vast country and gets people to agree to jobs in distant places. Once separated from home and family, workers are vulnerable to all sorts of abuses, such as being told they owe money for transportation, food, housing and other services. \"This is known as debt bondage, which also fits official definitions of slavery,\" says Anti-slavery International, a lobbying group based in Great Britain. \"A person is in debt bondage when their labor is demanded as the means of repayment for a loan or an advance. Once in debt they lose all control over their conditions of work and what, if anything they are paid ... often making it impossible to repay and trapping them in a cycle of debt.\" The United Nations International Labour Organization estimated there were between 25,000 and 40,000 Brazilians working under such conditions in 2003, the latest year for which it offered figures. Leonardo Sakamoto, the director of the human rights group Reporter Brasil, says he's certain there are still more than 25,000 slave laborers in Brazil. According to Anti-slavery International, the greatest number of slave laborers is employed in ranching (43 percent). That's followed by deforestation (28 percent), agriculture (24 percent), logging (4 percent) and charcoal (1 percent). Though those figures are from 2003, Sakamoto says they still apply, with cattle ranches and sugar cane plantations among the top employers. Anti-slavery International estimates there are 12.3 million people working under such conditions worldwide. \"Forced labor exists in Sudan, Nepal, India, Mauritania as well as many wealthier countries (including the UK), where vulnerable people are trafficked into forced labor or sexual slavery,\" the group says. \"A similar situation to the use of forced labor on estates in Brazil can be found in the Chaco region of both Paraguay and Bolivia.\" But what may set Brazil apart are the government's attempts to wipe out the practice. One of Brazil's chief tools is a \"Special Mobile Inspection Group\" that consists of labor inspectors, federal police and attorneys from the federal labor prosecution branch. The group often raids workplaces, looking for abuses and laborers held against their will. In 2007, the task force freed 5,999 workers, a record number. In 2003, the agency freed 5,223 laborers. Since the group's inception in 1995, it has freed 33,000 people. Labor Minister Carlos Lupi vowed in a recent interview with the state-run Brazilian news agency that efforts will be stepped up this year. \"The Brazilian government is to be commended for rescuing more than 4,500 people from the nightmare of slavery during the past year,\" Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, said in a statement to CNN. \"Their commitment to step up their efforts in 2009 is even more heartening. The vocal and effective leadership we are seeing from Brazil is rare. Even India, like Brazil a democracy and a G20 member, seems content to remain the country with the most slaves in the world.\" Poverty fuels slave labor, experts say . But everyone agrees it's going to take more than police efforts to seriously dent the practice. \"Slave labor is not a disease,\" Sakamoto said. \"It's like a fever. Fever is a symptom that something is wrong.\" That something is widespread poverty. Although the poverty rate dropped recently to its lowest levels in 25 years, nearly one of every four Brazilians still lives in poverty, according to a 2006 survey by the Getulio Vargas Foundation's Center for Social Policy Studies. The Web-based Index Mundi, which says it obtains its figures from the CIA World Factbook, estimates the poverty rate could be as high as one of every three Brazilians. With a population approaching 200 million people, that means at least 49 million Brazilians live under squalid economic conditions. \"We have poverty. We have greed. And we have impunity,\" Sakamoto said. \"We have to fight these three pieces at the same time. We have been fighting against impunity and we have been fighting against greed, but we are just starting to fight against poverty.\" The situation is made worse because of Brazil's vastness -- about the size of the United States. \"Brazil is a big, huge country and there are lots of poor people,\" said Hakim of the Inter-American Dialogue. \"The farther you get away from the populated, industrialized areas, you'll find large populations of people who do whatever they can to make a living.\" And slave labor seems to be spreading. \"We are discovering new occurrences of slave labor in regions where we hadn't registered slave labor in Brazil,\" the Rev. Xavier Plassat of the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission told the independent Radioagencia NP. Opposition to laws . By most accounts, the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office in 2003, has done much to reduce poverty and fight slave labor. But Brazil's agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors are large and well-developed. And they are politically powerful. \"We have a very, very strong agribusiness sector,\" Sakamoto said. \"It is very, very difficult to get other measures to fight against slave labor.\" For example, he said, a proposed law for the government to confiscate land on which slave labor is used has languished in congress for years. \"There's a group of very strong congressmen fighting against it,\" said Sakamoto, who is also a member Brazil's National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor. There are those who object to use of the word \"slavery\" or the phrase \"slave labor,\" saying it mischaracterizes the situation. \"The word has very heavy connotations regarding 19th century slavery,\" said Latin America scholar Robert Pastor, a former National Security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and now a professor of international relations at American University in Washington. \"Modern-day practices are quite distinct from what we normally thought of as slavery.\" But Pastor agrees that no matter what you call it, what is happening in Brazil and elsewhere is \"a phenomenon that is based on a simple intent to exploit individuals.\" Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, also believes that calling the practice slavery overstates the case. \"To use the word 'slave labor' sometimes does not describe what it is,\" Sotero said from Washington. \"It's more unfair, abusive labor conditions.\" He points out that Brazil's sugar cane industry employs 900,000 people but only 4,000 Brazilians were freed last year for being held as slave laborers. Many businesses, he said, are being smeared by the bad actions of a few. \"One case of slave labor is one too many,\" Sotero said. \"But at the same time, some of their considerations are valid. Claims of abuse tend to be exaggerated and more general than they are.\"","highlights":"More than 12 million people worldwide estimated to be working under forced labor .\nBetween 25,000-40,000 Brazilians may be slave laborers, U.N. estimates .\nBrazil task force has worked to eradicate slave labor .\nPoverty seen by experts as primary factor leading to slave labor .","id":"6e320548b38178c51dfc21d0476f07d1292bbf65"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What on Earth would drive a man to swim in Arctic waters wearing nothing but Speedos, goggles and a cap? Lewis Pugh braves the icy water off the arctic archipelogo of Svalbard. For Lewis Pugh, it was a love of the environment and a passionate desire to save the Arctic from global warming. His 1 km swim (0.62 of a mile) in 2007 made him the first person to complete a long-distance swim at the North Pole -- the purpose, to highlight the fact that it was possible to swim for a kilometer in a place that should be solid ice. Pugh, now aged 39, is a former maritime lawyer who abandoned his practice six years ago to become a full-time environmentalist and adventurer. Since then he has become the first person to complete long-distance swims in all five of the world's oceans and has become the world's leading cold water swimmer. Born in England and brought up in South Africa, Pugh sees himself in the mould of pioneering British adventurers like Sir Edmund Hillary, fearlessly braving waters no one else would dare swim. But rather than just aiming for a place in the history books, his motivation is to publicize the environmental damage he has witnessed on his swims. In 2006, to raise awareness about global warming and that year's drought in England, Pugh swam the entire length of the River Thames -- all except the first 26 miles, which had already dried up. He took a break from the 200-mile journey to call in at No. 10 Downing Street, where he discussed climate change with Tony Blair. The next year, Pugh became the first person to swim the 87 mile-width of the Maldives. The 10-day swim was Pugh's way of raising awareness of how climate change is threatening to submerge low-lying islands. But he is best known for his North Pole adventure. His Arctic swim lasted 19 minutes in temperatures of around minus 2 degrees Celsius. Were any normal person to fall into waters that cold they would be in serious trouble. Pugh's long-time coach Professor Tim Noakes told CNN, \"People usually drown very quickly on exposure to cold water because they start to hyperventilate and when you hyperventilate you can't coordinate. They inhale water and they can't coordinate their swimming. Most people can't even go 20 meters if they are exposed to ice-cold water.\" But Pugh has developed a unique mechanism for overcoming freezing conditions. He is apparently able to increase his body temperature by will power alone. In a process that Noakes has dubbed \"anticipatory thermogenesis\", Pugh can raise his body temperature to a feverish 38.4 C, some 1.5 degrees above normal body temperature. Noakes first noted this extraordinary ability during a training session. Before entering the water, Pugh cast his mind back to a traumatic parachuting accident he witnessed when he was a soldier in the British army, reliving the event in detail. Noakes recorded an increase in Pugh's body temperature and over the next fortnight, as Pugh was exposed to more cold-water swims, he was able to increase his temperature even further, peaking at 38.4 C. These days, before Pugh braves sub-zero waters he listens to U.S.rapper Eminem, gets himself into an aggressive state of mind and drives up his internal temperature. Once he hits the water, it's all about mental strength. Noakes told CNN \"The moment you dive into cold water your temperature drops and the brain sends a message to get out of the water. The first thing Pugh has to do is control that response. What happens is that I become his brain, so he says 'fine, as long as Dr Noakes allows me to swim, it's safe and I must just ignore what my brain is telling me.'\" Achieving that level of willpower doesn't come easily. While Pugh does an hour of cold-water swimming a day, he devotes four hours a day to mind training. His technique is to visualize his swim from beginning to end. \"I can taste salt water in my mouth. I can hear the sounds of the engines, of Tim Noakes screaming at me. I can feel ice burning my skin, I can smell the sea air. I absolutely live that moment. I have swum the North Pole hundreds of times in my mind,\" he told CNN. If the Arctic swim was intended to highlight shrinking polar ice caps, Pugh acknowledges that there's still plenty of work to do on that front and he now speaks on environmental issues all over the world. In 2008 Pugh founded the Polar Defense Project with the aim of protecting the Arctic and of encouraging world leaders to take action to stop climate change. As well the risk of polar melting, Pugh sees an Arctic treaty as essential to prevent the exploitation of the North Pole for oil and gas. As Pugh put it after completing his Arctic swim, \"I'm relieved that it's over. Now the real work begins.\"","highlights":"Lewis Pugh was the first man to complete a long-distance swim in the Arctic .\n\"Most people can't go 20 meters in ice-cold water,\" says his coach .\nPugh is able to increase his body temperature using will power alone .\nHis extreme swims are intended to publicize the effects of global warming .","id":"73406b8cb98e97c001fb87576cc7fb86514b75fa"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed murder charges against two men suspected in the deaths of a charter boat crew, authorities said. The Joe Cool charter boat was found abandoned last month in the Florida Straits. Kirby Archer, 34, and Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, are scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon. The men are being held without bail on suspicion of killing the four-member crew of the Joe Cool fishing boat last month. \"Four individuals were killed in this case,\" Alex Acosta, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, told reporters Wednesday in announcing the charges. \"Four families have been torn apart.\" Watch what led to the charges \u00bb . Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 in cash for a one-way trip to the Bahamas on the pleasure boat. The U.S. Coast Guard found the abandoned vessel about 160 miles south of the island of Bimini on September 23. It was unmanned, and its contents were in disarray. Zarabozo and Archer were found a few hours later on a life raft 10 miles from the boat. Missing are the boat's captain, Jake Branam; his wife, Kelly; and crew members Scott Gamble and Samuel Kairy. Zarabozo reportedly told a Coast Guard agent that three armed Cuban men hijacked the boat as it headed toward Bimini. Zarabozo, a licensed security guard, said the hijackers shot the crew members and forced him to throw their bodies overboard. But, according to court documents filed in the case, Zarabozo and Archer gave inconsistent stories during interviews with authorities regarding what occurred. Statements given by the pair were not consistent with physical evidence, according to an affidavit supporting the murder charges. Zarabozo, for instance, told federal authorities he did not own a gun, but an investigation showed he had bought a lock box for a gun he kept at his home. That lock box contained various documents, including a receipt for a February 2007 purchase of a Glock 9 mm magazine and four boxes of bullets. \"Little of the defendants' story rings true,\" Acosta said. At a bond hearing last week, the Coast Guard agent said two bullet casings and suspected blood were discovered inside the Joe Cool's cabin. A third bullet casing was found outside the cabin, he said. All three casings were 9 mm. A fourth 9 mm casing was found on the boat later by family members, who turned it over to the FBI, a relative said. \"Now you have four casings and four people [presumed] dead,\" said Jeffrey Branam, the uncle of the boat's captain. Archer is charged with unlawful flight on an Arkansas warrant, accused of stealing more than $90,000 in cash from a Wal-Mart where he once worked. Last week, a judge said he believes circumstantial evidence shows four homicides took place. \"Your theory is [Archer and Zarabozo] killed the four?\" the judge asked the assistant U.S. attorney at the bond hearing. \"Yes, your honor,\" the prosecutor replied. The Coast Guard spent five days searching for the crew before giving up. Acosta said it is unlikely their bodies will ever be found. Jake Branam and his wife leave behind two small children, he said. \"It's difficult,\" Jeffrey Branam said last week. \"Some relatives still think the four are alive and are still searching for them.\" He said the name of the boat has been removed from the stern, and the name will be retired from the charter fishing business. The boat probably will be retired, too. Referring to Archer and Zarabozo, Branam said: \"I'd like to use them as shark bait.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Two defendants to make initial appearances in federal court Thursday .\nFour-person crew of the Joe Cool are missing and presumed dead .\nMen who hired boat reportedly say hijackers killed crew but let them go .","id":"b324c4b3d57339d467d119a2f0ba150b5cfd795b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From songs to poems to sayings on the side of coffee cups, everyone tries to define love in words. Liz Kelly donated her kidney to her fiance after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. But often, it's the extraordinary actions we take in the name of love that really define it. Liz Kelly's fiance, Matt House, needed a kidney after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. In order to get him to the top of the donor list, Kelly signed up to donate hers. At first, she never dreamed she would actually be a match, but it turned out she was. The Springfield, Massachusetts, couple (he's 31, she's 29) spoke with CNN's Nicole Lapin about whether Kelly thought fate played a hand in finding him a donor match. The following is an edited transcript of the interview: . Nicole Lapin: Liz, I didn't know about the donor process, until we started talking to you guys. The donor process works whereby a friend or a family member can donate a kidney to get Matt higher on the list, so you decided that you were going to do that. Why did you decide to do that? Watch Nicole Lapin's interview with Liz Kelly and Matt House \u00bb . Liz Kelly: It was pretty much a no-brainer, I think. His sister was actually going to donate at first. But she didn't work out for health reasons. It's obviously better to have, you know, a family member donate a kidney, too. But since that wasn't going to work out, his stepfather stepped in because they were the same blood type. And that ended up not working out either. He had some heart issues and some other health issues. So, I said, you know what, I'll just donate to the list. And that's what I was intending on doing. And then I found out that we were actually a match, and it was amazing. Lapin: It was amazing, I'm sure, to get that phone call, because you did it just so that you could get higher on the list. A lot of people on our Web site are fascinated by your story, guys. [A viewer] has a question for you right now, Liz: Have you ever had any surgeries before this one? If not, how did your prepare yourself for this? Kelly: No. This was my first surgery, so that definitely made me very nervous. That was the definitely scariest part for me, just not knowing what to expect. But, Matt has been through several surgeries before. So I know I had him in my corner. And I looked up a lot online. I found out a lot of great information online. So that's definitely how I prepared. Lapin: And [another viewer] has a question in for Matt, actually: Were you scared that perhaps your body might reject Liz's kidney or were you always confident that the surgery would be a success? Matt House: I think I was pretty confident with her being the same blood type or us matching is pretty phenomenal, so I didn't expect it to reject it anyway. Maybe after the surgery if I would have a little pain down there or something like that, I would get a little nervous and think that it was going to reject, that there's something wrong. But that would just pass. It was me just being a little overanxious, I guess, but not really, no. I was pretty confident everything would go well overall. We're both pretty healthy for the most part. And being the same blood type was just you know really great, so it worked out good. So, I wasn't really worried at all. Lapin: Fate, some may say? House: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Lapin: Yours is a lot bigger. You're a little girl, but you happen to have a kidney that is perfect for Matt. Do you think it was meant to be? Kelly: I do. I definitely do. People tell me that all the time. When they told us that we were a match, I was very surprised at first, but then I thought about it a little more. Of course we were a match. How could we not be a match?","highlights":"Liz Kelly offered to donate kidney to move her ill fiance higher on donor list .\nMatt House had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure .\nHouse's family members were unable to donate because of health reasons .\nAfter recuperation is over, the Massachusetts couple plans to marry by summer .","id":"9818cf51ec73059d5979bad6414c7dc8f5693474"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Passengers on the US Airways flight that crash-landed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon praised the actions and courage of the pilot, a safety consultant with 40 years of experience in the aviation industry. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot, has been with US Airways since 1980. Sources tell CNN that Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger was piloting US Airways flight 1549 from New York's LaGuardia airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, when at least one of the plane's engines failed. Passenger Jeff Kolodjay offered \"kudos\" to Sullenberger for a landing that minimized damage to the aircraft and its 155 passengers and crew. \"All of a sudden the captain came on and he told us to brace ourselves and probably brace ourselves pretty hard. But he did an amazing job -- kudos to him on that landing,\" said Kolodjay, who was sitting in seat 22A. Sullenberger's wife told CNN that she was stunned to hear the news from her husband after it was all over. \"I hadn't been watching the news. I've heard Sully say to people, 'It's rare for an airline pilot to have an incident in their career,' \" said Lori Sullenberger of Danville, California. \"When he called me he said, 'There's been an accident.' At first I thought it was something minor, but then he told me the circumstances and my body started shaking and I rushed to get our daughters out of school.\" US Airways said all 155 passengers and crew are alive and safely off the plane. The crash-landing has also earned the former fighter pilot and private safety consultant accolades from state and government officials. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg commended the pilot for not leaving the plane without checking to make sure every passenger had been evacuated. \"It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure that everybody got out,\" Bloomberg said at a press conference Thursday. \"I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off and tried to verify that there was nobody else on board -- and assures us there was not.\" Sullenberger apparently was forced to make an emergency landing after geese were sucked into one or both of the jet's engines. An eyewitness working on the west side of Manhattan said the belly of the plane touched the water first. An official who heard tape recordings of the radio traffic from Flight 1549 reported the pilot was extraordinarily calm during the event. \"There was no panic, no hysterics,\" the official said. \"It was professional, it was calm, it was methodical. It was everything you hoped it could be.\" The pilot and air traffic controller discussed options, including landing at Teterboro airport in New Jersey, the official said. Then there was a \"period of time where there was no communications back, and I'm assuming he was concentrating on more important things.\" Sullenberger's background in aviation appeared to have prepared him for such a situation. He has been a pilot with US Airways since 1980, following seven years in the U.S. Air Force. His resume -- posted on the Web site for his safety consulting firm, Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. -- lists piloting procedures, technical safety strategies, emergency management and operations improvement, as areas of industry expertise. He served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member, according to a biography on the site. He participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations, and worked with NASA scientists on a paper on error and aviation, his site says. For the passengers on flight 1549, Sullenberger's skill and expertise were apparent. iReport.com: Did you see the crash-landing? Send images . \"I've flown in a lot of planes and that was a phenomenal landing,\" said passenger Fred Berretta said. Berretta was sitting in seat 16A right over one of the engines when it failed and the pilot turned the plane to align it with the Hudson River. He described silence in the plane as the passengers waited to hear from the crew. A few moments later, the direction to brace for landing came. \"It was an amazing piece of airmanship,\" said Peter Goelz, a former NTSB managing director.","highlights":"NEW: Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger has been a pilot with US Airways since 1980 .\nNEW: Former Air Force fighter pilot has worked with NASA as safety consultant NYC mayor says pilot checked plane twice for passengers before leaving \"I've flown in a lot of planes and that was a phenomenal landing,\" passenger said .","id":"b629751290d4693636d16880b5b98b4dcfbc7f43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- By many eyewitness accounts, when US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River, it looked like a completely normal landing -- except it was in the water. iReporters captured the plane's crash-landing and rescue operations . \"It looked like a perfectly smooth landing, nothing out of the ordinary,\" said Lou Romansky, who was stuck in traffic and saw the plane go down. \"No unusual noises, no flames, no nothing. It was very graceful; [I] saw the nose go up.\" Josefina Echevarria happened to be standing near the window of her Manhattan office, and reports seeing a similar scene. \"I saw an airplane landing in the middle of the water, but very calm,\" she said. \"It wasn't a nose dive,\" added Joe Harrington, who also saw the crash out his window. \"It looked like it was a landing.\" The plane, which carried more than 150 passengers and was bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, went down Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport. Officials say everyone on board apparently got off the plane alive. Some passengers were being treated for hypothermia and other minor injuries. And according to many iReporters, who described the situation to CNN as it unfolded, the rescue operation looked as smooth as the landing -- but, of course, just as scary. They say ferries arrived first on the scene, followed quickly by emergency boats and helicopters. \"Immediately there were ferries on the scene,\" said Harrington. \"Almost instantaneous. I watch these ferries all day -- they don't normally go this fast.\" Police boats and helicopters arrived shortly after, he said. Julie Pukelis also saw the ferries arrive. \"It seemed very quick. ... Ferry boats out there within minutes,\" she said. \"I think it was a great team effort.\" iReport.com: \"We watched the plane drifting slowly down the water\" \"[The rescue] looked pretty well-organized from what I could see,\" said Jim Davidson, who lives two blocks from the Hudson River. \"It wasn't chaos -- a lot of times when things like this happen, people are running around or yelling.\" iReport.com: A panorama of the rescue . Daniel Leal described the scene as the rescue operation continued into the evening. \"I'm seeing flashing lights on the water from the many rescue vehicles -- tug boats, ferries, helicopters. ...There seems to be even more emergency crews in the water and hovering above than an hour ago,\" he said. iReport.com: Watching the rescue . iReporters said the plane began to sink shortly after landing until workers used ropes to secure it. \"A few minutes [after the crash] it started sinking in the water,\" said Echevarria. \"Five minutes later the airplane was completely sunk. You can only see the tail of the plane.\" Lisa Speransky, who also watched the situation from her office window, says workers appeared to tether the plane to boats to prevent it sinking. Watch how iReporters helped cover the story \u00bb . \"They must have gotten a rope around the plane at some point, because they were turning it around and dragging it towards New Jersey,\" she wrote in an email. After passengers were evacuated, workers eventually tethered the plane to a pier on the Hudson River. iReport.com: \"You could see people standing on the wing\" The crash brought up memories of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for several iReporters as they saw the crash and its aftermath. Officials emphasize the crash had absolutely no terrorist connection and say it was likely a bird strike. \"I really thought it was a terrorist attack,\" said Romansky. He lives in New Jersey but was in Manhattan when the plane went down, and said his first thought after seeing the plane go down was to get back home, thinking that the state's border might be closed in case of terrorism. iReport.com: \"I saw the plane coming down\" Matt Moore, who says he saw about 40 boats surrounding the plane in the water, had similar unnerving thoughts. \"What's peculiar is I look to my left and there's where the World Trade Center used to be and I look to my right and there's a plane in the water,\" he said. iReport.com: Saw the rescue out the window . Harrington was also shaken up by the situation. \"It was surreal to see that happen,\" he said. \"I fly pretty much every week for work.\"","highlights":"Eyewitnesses say the water landing looked like a regular plane landing .\nRescue operation \"looked pretty well-organized,\" says iReporter Jim Davidson .\niReporter Joe Harrington: Ferries and rescue boats arrived \"almost instantaneously\"\niReport.com: Did you see the crash landing, or were you on the plane?","id":"160db4544ffcd01961f2df6bcf010e1d53795566"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, the single mother of newborn octuplets, is using the Internet to help support her family of 14 children. She's started a Web site seeking donations. Nadya Suleman, a single mother of 14 children, has set up a Web site asking for donations. The Web site features pictures of a rainbow, child's blocks and all eight of Suleman's newborns. Also prominently displayed on the Web site is a prompt for visitors to make a donation, noting that the \"proud mother of 14\" accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and PayPal. Suleman, 33, had the octuplets through fertility treatments, despite already having six young children and no clear source of income. In recent television interviews, Suleman has rejected suggestions that she might not be able to care adequately for all 14 of her children. \"I'm providing myself to my children,\" Nadya Suleman told NBC in her first interview. \"I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally, everything I do. I'll stop my life for them and be present with them and hold them and be with them. And how many parents do that?\" Watch report on who is paying the bills for the octuplets \u00bb . Suleman said she plans to go back to college to pursue a degree in counseling, NBC reported. She also said all 14 children have the same biological father, a sperm donor whom she described as a friend. Joann Killeen, a spokeswoman for Suleman, has told CNN that she is being deluged with media offers, but disputed any suggestions that Suleman may have had a monetary incentive for having so many children. Killeen, told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that Suleman \"has no plans on being a welfare mom and really wants to look at every opportunity that she can to make sure she can provide financially for the 14 children she's responsible for now.\" Suleman's publicist did say that Suleman gets $490 every month in food stamps.","highlights":"Nadya Suleman has created Web site to solicit donations to help support 14 kids .\nSuleman, a mother of six, recently had octuplets .\nSuleman has rejected notions that she would not be able to care for children .","id":"9ad6a81fac3e86a3445e22cdd7078e26c11df525"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the stirring speeches, heavyweight debates and fevered campaigning of the U.S. elections are long forgotten, a handful of far less noble incidents are likely to be our enduring memories of the 2008 White House race. \"Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity too.\" While the candidates would like us to view their bids for the top job as an honorable battle of wits, policies, values and big issues, the sad truth is that it's more likely to boil down to a list of gaffes, embarrassments and sideshows. Both Democratic and Republican PR machines have been working hard to keep their campaigns on-script, but with a cast list of John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin and the Clintons, they had their work cut out. Alaskan \"hockey mom\" Palin's late arrival undoubtedly stirred things up, adding a dash of vigor as the race lumbered into its final straight, but even before she began stealing the show, there was no shortage of scrapbook moments. Sound off: Which do you think are the most memorable moments from the 2008 election? In no particular order, here is a selection of some of the best: . 1. Crying game: Back in January's New Hampshire primaries, Hillary Clinton welled up with emotion, almost crying into her coffee cup during a chat with voters. This unexpected exposure of her human side was credited with winning back some women supporters. Read more . 2. McCain bombs: John McCain displayed rather off-key singing and diplomacy skills when asked if there was a plan to attack Iran back in April 2007. Changing the words to the classic Beach Boys' song \"Barbara Ann,\" the Arizona senator responded: \"Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.\" Read more . 3. Pastor disaster: Proving once again that religion and politics don't mix, Barack Obama was forced to distance himself from his former pastor and mentor Jeremiah Wright, after a series of pulpit fulminations in which he made racially-charged criticisms of Hillary Clinton and said of the 9\/11 terror attacks: \"American's chickens are coming home to roost.\" Read more . 4. Ramblin' man: Garrulous \"gaffe machine\" Joe Biden got the last word in a primary debate about his tendency to speak his mind and not shut up. Asked if he could hold his tongue enough to \"reassure your voters in this country that you have the discipline you would need on the world stage,\" Biden replied succinctly: \"Yes.\" Read more . 5. The pig issue: Obama may have been hoping to generate oinks of outrage when he commented in September that McCain's policies were like \"lipstick on a pig,\" after the Arizona senator named Sarah Palin as running mate. The Democratic candidate refused to apologize for what Republicans said was a misogynistic response to Palin's own claim to be a pitbull in lipstick. You couldn't make it up. Read more . 6. Miss-firing: Hillary Clinton had her campaign guns blazing in March when she described the drama of a visit to Bosnia 12 years earlier. \"I remember landing under sniper fire,\" she said. Clinton was later forced to admit \"misspeaking\" after video footage of the event showed her strolling leisurely from the aircraft. Read more . 7. Ordinary Joe: First there was Joe Biden, then there was Palin's mythical beer swiller Joe Sixpack and finally there was Joe the Plumber -- just a regular guy worried about his business going down the drain. Despite not actually being a licensed plumber, and not even being called Joe, he has been seized on by McCain as an everyman hero. This endorsement sprung more leaks when Joe failed to appear on cue to a recent McCain event. Read more . 8. Bad business: Neither presidential candidate makes claim to being psychic, but McCain might have done better consulting his tea leaves rather than the advisors who led him to say \"the fundamentals of our economy are strong\" on the eve of America's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Read more . 9. Palintology: Her political skills aside, moose-shooting Sarah Palin has been an unfortunately prolific headline generator for the Republican campaign, whether eyeing Russia from her Alaskan home, shopping for suits, stumbling over questions from Katie Couric or introducing her pregnant teenage daughter. Read more . 10. Barack=Britney: Celebrity endorsements are one thing, but McCain's campaign ad comparing his rival to pop star Britney Spears and heiress Paris Hilton was seen by at least one person as taking things a little too far. A swimsuit-clad Hilton responded by launching her own campaign for the presidency: \"Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity too. Only I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot!\" Read more .","highlights":"Most memorable election moments likely to include gaffes and embarrassments .\nBiden, Obama, McCain and Clinton all hit headlines for wrong reasons .\nPalin generated many headlines for wrong reasons in last weeks of campaign .","id":"d46ee24614a36f244809d6c5f177fe1f99184dd4"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has asked Thailand to permit greater freedom for thousands of refugees stuck in camps after fleeing neighboring Myanmar, according to a U.N. statement released Friday. Angellina Jolie and Brad Pitt visited refugees in northern Thailand on Wednesday. Jolie and actor Brad Pitt traveled to a refugee camp in northern Thailand on Wednesday in effort to draw international attention to what the U.N. has called \"restricted\" movement of roughly 111,000 refugees housed in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, the statement said. Jolie has spent several years as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. She said her passion for helping refugees, whom she calls \"the most vulnerable people in the world,\" was sparked in 2001 during visits to Cambodia.\" The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have fled to northern Thailand's Mae Hong Son province between 2006 and 2007. A recent CNN investigation found evidence of the Thai army towing an apparent boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees -- a Muslim minority group from Myanmar -- out to sea, prompting Thai authorities to launch an investigation. CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Angelina Jolie calls on Thai leaders to grant more freedom to refugees .\nThousands of refugees are stuck in camps after fleeing Myanmar .\nJolie is currently goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees .","id":"4fcd45b296292558aeca874e41f49337b11b8077"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The surgeon who operated Wednesday on cyclist Lance Armstrong after he fractured his collarbone declared the procedure a success, but one that will require two to three months of healing. Lance Armstrong's doctor says he used a plate and 12 inch-long screws to stabilize the fractured bone. \"Surgery was tough, but went well,\" said Dr. Douglas Elenz, an orthopedic surgeon in Austin, Texas, who performed the three-hour procedure two days after Armstrong fractured his collarbone into four pieces during a race in Spain. The multiple breaks \"made treatment more challenging, but we're confident that the treatment performed today is going to be successful,\" he said. Elenz said he used a 4- to 5-inch plate that he attached with 12 inch-long screws to stabilize the fractured bone. Armstrong, 37, was to be released later in the day. On a scale of one to 10 rating the difficulty of the operation, Elenz said he would pin it down at eight. Elenz was noncommittal regarding when Armstrong can return to racing. Watch more about the crash \u00bb . \"We are just taking it day by day, week by week, month by month. Every fracture is unique. Each time I go to treat one, something is different.\" During the next week, Armstrong \"will need to take it easy\" to ensure the wound does not become infected, the doctor said. After his wound has healed, Armstrong will begin using an exercise bike to train his lower body, \"but we won't let him do a whole lot with his upper extremities,\" Elenz said. \"After several weeks, we can take his training to the street, but we will need to take that day by day and week by week.\" Over the longer term, Elenz will be looking for evidence that Armstrong is laying down new bone, that the plate is stable, that the athlete's arm is strong and that his motion is fluid, he said. \"His pain will give us insight on how well he is healing,\" the sports specialist said. \"It will take eight to 12 weeks to heal completely. But we are going to have to push the envelope a bit to have him train before he is completely healed.\" Armstrong was riding for Team Astana when he crashed about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the end of the first stage of the five-day Vuelta Ciclista a Castilla y Leon race. Watch how Armstrong 'tweets' about his crash \u00bb . He has never before broken a collarbone in his 17 years as a professional. The crash took down several riders, but only Armstrong was hurt. As they came within a few miles of the finish, Armstrong said, racers started picking up speed and jockeying for position. \"It happens quick when it happens,\" he said. \"It could have been worse.\" Armstrong announced last year that he was returning to competitive biking and would use the Spanish race as a warm-up for the Tour de France, which he won seven times before announcing his retirement in 2005. He also had planned to race May 9-31 in the Giro d'Italia, one of Europe's most prestigious and grueling stage races. This would have been the second comeback of his career. His first came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. CNN's Danielle Dellorto contributed to this story.","highlights":"Multiple breaks in collarbone \"made treatment more challenging,\" doctor says .\nAfter wound heals, Armstrong will use exercise bike to train lower body .\nDoctor noncommittal on when Armstrong can return to racing .\nArmstrong fractures collarbone in crash at race that was to mark second comeback .","id":"4275a3a8c3ba82c93592018e945ceeea916ae4e7"} -{"article":"BROOKLYN CENTER, Minnesota (CNN) -- Thousands of Liberians living in the United States face deportation March 31 when a federal immigration status created for humanitarian purposes expires. Corvah Akoiwala is worried about what will happen to his children, born in the U.S., when he is sent to Liberia. In the 1990s, a bloody civil war raged through the West African nation, killing 250,000 people and displacing more than a million, according to a U.N. report. The United States extended \"temporary protection status\" to all Liberians who could get to America, and 14,000 of them took advantage of that humanitarian offer. Temporary protection status is an immigration status somewhere between political asylum and refugee status. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is extended to nationals of countries facing civil unrest or natural disaster. For years, the temporary protection status for Liberians was extended as the situation there worsened under dictator Charles Taylor. But Taylor was ousted in 2003 and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected Liberia's first female president in 2006. In 2007, citing the progress in Liberia, President George W. Bush signed an order of \"delayed enforced departure\" for Liberians who had been under temporary protection status, giving them 18 months to return to Liberia. Watch more on the uncertainty of Liberians living in U.S. \u00bb . Corvah Akoiwala, a Liberian national who was fresh out of college when civil war broke out, remembers how it used to be there. \"They dragged us from our homes, they were shooting all around us. They said they were going to have us killed,\" he said . \"On Tupero Road they had a killing field. Like every day they took someone to this field and they would just shoot them in front of everybody. It was just terrible,\" he said. He came to the United States in 1992 and settled in Rhode Island. A civil engineer by education, Akoiwala married and had three children, all of whom are American citizens. For the past 17 years he's worked, paid his taxes and contributed to his community. He and his wife were granted temporary protection status but now both face deportation. On March 31 they will go from being legal residents to illegal aliens. \"My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?\" he said. \"Who am I going to leave them with? I want to stay here and see them grow up to be responsible citizens and then I can go back.\" The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services said approximately 3,600 Liberian nationals are facing delayed enforced departure, but Liberian community leaders think the number may be twice that because, they said, many Liberians went underground and did not reregister with immigration services, knowing the delayed enforced departure status meant leaving the country. Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, about an hour north of Minneapolis, has a thriving Liberian community. Many now worry about losing their jobs, homes and businesses. Seyondi Roberts, a hairdresser, said 65 percent of her customers are Liberians facing delayed enforced departure. \"We're praying that they don't send them back. But if they do, it will have a serious effect on the business. I do mainly African hair, so it's going to have a real big, big impact on the business,\" she said. Aba Hamilton Dolo also lives in the Brooklyn Center area and is slated for departure. She said she has nightmares and panic attacks at the prospect of being separated from her two young American-born children. \"Please consider what would happen to our families if we were sent home,\" she begs. Dolo: 'I have nightmares' \u00bb . \"Many of these Liberians have become important parts of the communities where they live in the United States,\" said Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island. There is a large Liberian community in his home state. \"They have children who are citizens of the U.S.,\" he noted. \"How do you leave children behind who are eligible to stay? They've worked very hard, they've played by the rules, and they've paid their taxes. They're here legally. I think that should be considered at least to let them stay.\" Reed has been one of the driving forces for extension of the temporary protection status in previous years and is pushing hard again this year for another extension. In addition, he wants a change in the rule that prohibits those on the temporary protection status classification from applying for citizenship. \"They should have the right to become American citizens,\" he said. \"They should be part of immigration reform. We shouldn't pick and choose different immigrant groups.\" Critics say Liberians should go back to Liberia when their status runs out. \"It is time for people to go back and rebuild their country,\" said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Stein underlines the temporary in \"temporary protected status.\" He said for Liberians to stay when their country is at peace would be an abuse of U.S. hospitality. \"It makes a mockery of the concept of short-term temporary humanitarian protection.\" Department of Homeland Security deputy spokesman Sean Smith said its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is \"consulting with the White House and the State Department to determine the most appropriate course of action\" in regard to the Liberians. CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"14,000 Liberians took advantage of U.S. temporary status during civil war .\nLiberians have to return home when status exemption expires March 31 .\nCorvah Akoiwala: \"My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?\"\nSen. Jack Reed pushing for extension to allow Liberians to stay .","id":"765b8056061de84ea71ae36fb5af5b852d501746"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- European Union peacekeepers in Bosnia on Tuesday raided homes belonging to family members of Ratko Mladic, the highest-ranking figure still at large from the Balkan conflict in the mid 1990s, Serbian media reported. Portuguese peacekeepers stand guard outside a home raided on Tuesday. The force raided houses belonging to Mladic's sister, Milica Avram, and sister-in-law, Radinka Mladic, in East Sarajevo, an area of the city inside the Bosnian Serb-controlled Republika Srpska, a seperate political entity to the Muslim-Croat-controlled Bosnia-Croat Federation. The raids were a part of a broader operation targeting locations and people who are believed to be helping Mladic evade trial, the reports said. Serbian authorities recently put up \"wanted\" posters for Mladic at police stations across Serbia, reminding people of the 1 million euro ($1.3 million) reward for any information leading to Mladic's capture. Mladic, who commanded the Bosnian Serb military during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been the Balkans' most wanted since former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade last July. The 66-year-old is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for allegedly overseeing the killings of almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. Mladic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws of war. He has been on the run for 13 years, ever since the ICTY issued the indictments against him. The ICTY has accused Serbia of knowing Mladic's whereabouts and letting him slip through their hands. Serbia's status as a candidate for European Union membership also remains conditional on Mladic being handed over to the ICTY. Serbian leaders have denied protecting Mladic.","highlights":"EU troops in Bosnia raid homes belonging to family members of Ratko Mladic .\nFormer Bosnian Serb general is highest ranking accused war criminal at large .\nMladic accused of orchestrating Srebrenica massacre in 1995 .\nRaids part of operation targeting those believed to be helping Mladic evade trial .","id":"cbf788987b75c11aa5c49518c5b3cb45e2c177df"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- From four leaf clovers to a severed rabbit's foot, when it comes to lucky mascots reason and taste often go out of the window. David Beckham's teammates give his bottom a squeeze after scoring his first goal for AC Milan in their 4-1 defeat of Bologna. No more so than at AC Milan where one charm is being held responsible for the team's recent upturn in fortunes on the pitch: David Beckham's bottom. Since Beckham's arrival at the San Siro, the England midfielder has started every game and scored his first goal in last weekend's demolition of Bologna. But as he walked away after celebrating the goal, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo both stroked his left bum cheek. This was apparently because they believe Beckham's posterior has as much to do with Milan's revival as his sweet right foot. \"Italy is a superstitious country, people touch things for luck,\" an AC Milan spokesperson told UK newspaper \"The Sun.\" \"Now the players are doing the same thing with Becks' bottom. He is seen as lucky.\" Have your say: what are the strangest footballing superstitions that you have seen? One English newspaper has even taken to calling him \"Goldenbuns\", a play on \"Goldenballs\", the pet name his wife Victoria uses and for which he is still good naturedly mocked when it emerged in the press. Football has a long history of superstitions. Below are some of the strangest rituals: . Kissing Fabien Barthez's head Barthez's big shiny pate became something of a totem for the French during the 1998 World Cup. The ritual was always the same. Veteran defender Laurent Blanc would approach his eccentric goalkeeper before planting a kiss on the top of his head. The team insisted that Blanc maintained the tradition as Les Bleus reached the finals. The French ended up beating Brazil 3-0. Goalmouth: Beckham \"dreams\" of Milan move. Beanie the Horse watches the action With his blond hair, steely grimace and piercing stare, Stuart Pearce was known on the pitch for his hard tackling, no-nonsense ways. Off it he's, well, a bit of a softy. Whilst in charge of Manchester City the former England defender started bringing a rather bizarre charm, placing it near the dug out so it could observe the action: Beanie, a cuddly woolen horse. It didn't do him much good. He was fired later that season. Blessing from a juju man \"Juju\" men used to be a regular fixture at African football matches. These self-appointed holy men would bless or curse teams for money. Even government ministers were seduced by them. When the Ivory Coast won the African Cup of Nations in 1992, the government claimed it was because the sports minister paid a \"juju\" man to bless the team. But he angered them by refusing to pay up. The result? A hex that saw the team endure a miserable ten year losing streak. Tired of defeat, the government begged the juju men for forgiveness, coughing up the $2000. Ivory Coast promptly qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Invoking the power of the Virgin Mary Take a look at Newcastle United's goalkeeper Shay Given before a match. If you look carefully you'll notice him dropping a bottle into the back of the goal. No, not a bottle full of Gatorade but rather a small vial of Holy Water from Lourdes, France. It was there that it is claimed the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858. It has since become a place of pilgrimage for the sick, drawn to the allegedly healing waters. \"I carry it in my kit bag and it goes everywhere with me,\" Given said back in 2002. At the time of writing, Given is still injury free. If all else fails, urinate... When Barry Fry, then Birmingham City's boss, watched his team lose another game, enough was enough. For years the club had suffered from dismal form at their St Andrews ground in Birmingham, England, and had not won anything of note for decades. The reason, fans and club officials feared, was a gypsy curse spat out at the club's owners when they evicted a band of travelers to make way for their new stadium. Managers had tried and failed to lift the curse -- one even placed crucifixes in the floodlights, but it was Barry Fry who had the most ingenious method. He urinated in each corner of the ground. Birmingham City haven't won anything of note since. Employing an Ecuadorian warlock Tzamarenda Naychapi played a pivotal role in Ecuador's 2006 World Cup campaign. The UK's Guardian newspaper described how Naychapi - a warlock who was described as a \"witch doctor-cum-shaman-cum-priest-type-fella\" - traveled to Germany before the World Cup to cast spells on all 12 stadiums, not to mention the pitch and the goals, in a bid to turn the gods in Ecuador's favor. The South American minnows went on to shock both Costa Rica and Poland, qualifying for the second round for the first time in their history before losing to England 1-0. But then again England had their own magical good luck charm to call upon. David Beckham scored the only goal.","highlights":"David Beckham's bottom becomes AC Milan's lucky charm .\nTeammates pinch the England player's posterior during match .\nAC Milan have yet to lose since Beckham signed on loan from LA Galaxy .\nCNN looks at other odd footballing superstitions .","id":"afadfd44e5cdd9fa747dbd020f194f0a7a022444"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Canada geese got into both engines of US Airways Flight 1549 and forced the plane to ditch into the Hudson River last month, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. Surveillance video shows passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 hurrying onto the plane's wings. The flight crew of the Airbus A320 put the plane down gently on the river, which separates New York from New Jersey, after the bird ingestion caused both engines to lose power on January 15. All 155 people aboard survived. Adult Canada geese weigh between 5.8 and 10.7 pounds, although birds from resident populations rather than migratory populations can be heavier. The plane's CFM56-5B\/P turbofan engines were certified in 1996 as being able to withstand bird ingestion of 4 pounds. The NTSB said last week that both engines contained the remains of birds, confirming the pilots' report that the engines shut down after colliding with birds less than two minutes after taking off from from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Material from both engines was sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for identification of the bird species. Investigators have not yet determined how many birds hit the jet's engines. The plane's flight data recorder \"revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines,\" the NTSB said last week.","highlights":"Investigators have yet to determine how many birds hit the plane's engines .\nCanada geese caused engines to lose power, NTSB says .\nBird ingestion forced US Airways Flight 1549 to land in Hudson River last month .\nAll 155 passengers and crew members on board survived the landing .","id":"e2f9cb20b091adcbc9973a1272408f2124c891ff"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan announced a 10-day cease-fire on Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley, a volatile region in North West Frontier Province that is largely controlled by the Taliban. The Taliban says it has agreed a 10-day cease-fire with Pakistani forces in the Swat Valley. The Taliban are holding talks with the North West Frontier Province's government in the town of Timagera in the province's Lower Dir district, he said. Taliban leader Sufi Mohammad is heading negotiations for the militants. There was no immediate confirmation of the cease-fire from the Pakistani government. Swat Valley was once Pakistan's biggest tourist destination until it was overrun by militants led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah. The valley boasted the country's only ski resort and was once a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts. It is believed to be the deepest advance by militants into Pakistan's settled areas -- meaning areas outside its tribal region along the border with Afghanistan. The negotiations are the latest attempt by Pakistan's civilian government -- which took power last year -- to achieve peace through diplomacy in areas where Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are believed to have free rein. Swat has been overrun by forces loyal to Maulana Fazlullah's banned hardline Islamic group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) which has allied itself with Taliban fighters. TNSM was once led by Sufi Mohammed, Fazlullah's father-in-law who is leading the latest negotiations. Sufi Mohammed was released from jail last year by Pakistani authorities after he agreed to cooperate with the government. He had been jailed in 2002 after recruiting thousands of fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Fazlullah took over TNSM during Sufi Mohammed's jail stint and vowed to continue his fight to impose fundamentalist Islamic law in the region. Last May, Pakistan's government announced it reached a peace deal with militants in Swat Valley. Analysts as well as critics within the establishment have described those talks as a failure that gave the Taliban time to regroup and gain more ground. The Taliban have recently targeted local politicians, including the head of the Awami National Party -- which represents the region -- who was forced to flee to Islamabad. Pakistan is under enormous pressure to control the militants within its borders, blamed for launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting militants. Pakistan's military operation in the region is unpopular among Pakistanis, but efforts to deal diplomatically with militants have not worked in the past. Pakistan's previous military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reached a cease-fire deal with militants in South Waziristan in 2006 which was widely blamed for giving al Qaeda and Taliban a stronger foothold in the region. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan announces a 10-day cease-fire in Swat Valley .\nTaliban are holding talks with the North West Frontier Province's government .\nNo immediate confirmation of the cease-fire from the Pakistani government .","id":"47bd5ab0cff4ba6aaa2e7b5be10f2c8de598c80b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Be bold! Think big! Barack Obama wants to do just that. An $800 billion economic stimulus plan. Three million jobs. Health care reform. A restructured automobile industry. Obama's popularity with voters will win him influence with political opponents. Obama won the biggest Democratic majority for president in 44 years. His party made big gains in Congress. Democrats now have a majority of nearly 60 percent in both the House and Senate. President Obama's got a mandate. And a majority. What's to stop him? Just this: the U.S. system of government. It is set up to make it difficult to get things done. The Constitution was written 222 years ago by men who didn't trust government. They had just waged a revolution against a king. To the founders of the American republic, strong government meant despotism. So they set up a system with an elaborate separation of powers. The idea was to ensure weak government. The dirty little secret of American government is that it was designed not to work very well. As president after president has discovered, there are innumerable ways opponents can stop measures from getting passed, even if the president's party holds a majority in Congress. The Senate has its own rule that's not in the Constitution requiring a super-majority of 60 Senate votes to control the agenda. A minority of 41 senators can \"filibuster'' a measure and prevent it from coming up for a vote. How many votes will Republicans have in the Senate? 41 or 42, depending on the outcome in Minnesota where ballots are still being counted. Presidents often have problems holding their own party together. That's because members of Congress are elected by local constituencies and they are expected to represent local interests. American politicians are independent political entrepreneurs. They are not foot-soldiers of a party. When Bill Clinton first became president, he had a solid Democratic majority in Congress. But he could not get his health care reform plan passed. After an intense advertising campaign by opponents, many Americans were worried that the Clintons were planning a government takeover of the health care system. The Clinton plan failed, and within two years, Democrats lost their majority in Congress. One-party control didn't work any better for George W. Bush. Bush had trouble getting what he wanted -- notably, immigration reform -- from a Republican Congress. Republicans lost their majority in Congress in 2006. But here's another dirty little secret of American government: it often does work. Very well in fact. Under the right conditions, barriers fall away and things get done, sometimes with amazing speed and efficiency. What are the right conditions? An overwhelming sense of public urgency. That sense of urgency certainly existed after 9\/11, when Congress quickly passed the Patriot Act. Getting anything big done in American government requires a sense of crisis. That's why politicians in the U.S. are always declaring crises -- a drug crisis, an education crisis, an environmental crisis. Or they're trying to rally the country to fight a war on something -- a war on poverty, a war on crime. If the public urgency is not authentic, however, opponents won't have much trouble stopping things from happening. Obama certainly takes office at a time of crisis, just as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt did. Like them, he has the opportunity to transform American government. Members of Congress who try to block President Obama's program may find themselves in political trouble. Because there is yet another dirty little secret of American government: the United States is the most populist democracy in the world. Here, the people rule. When the people want something, they will get it, whether it's the death penalty or gun rights or lower taxes. Why doesn't the United States have a metric system or dollar coins like other countries? Because the people won't use them. Obama's popularity is soaring right now. When a president is popular, he has clout. Everyone wants to be on his side, even members of the opposition party. They're in business for themselves, and supporting a popular president is good for business. Standing in his way could drive them out of business. American government is not an efficient, well-oiled machine. It was never designed to be. It has to be lubricated by public pressure. If the people are shouting \"Do something!'' -- as they are right now -- then something will happen. Even if it means a lot more spending and a lot more government. The people reserve one key right: they will let the government know, rather quickly, whether or not it's working.","highlights":"Three secrets behind the way U.S. government works .\nIt was designed to ensure weak government .\nIn times of crisis usual barriers fall away .\nIf voters want something done, it will get done somehow .","id":"00b5faa0f7261d78ef02a9f23262b5a1eb82a6d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scabby the Rat may not have a word to say, but the large rodent-shaped balloon helped a labor union earn a free-speech victory Thursday before New Jersey's highest court. Big Sky Balloons, based in Chicago, Illinois, rents out \"union rats\" like Scabby and other inflatables. The seven justices ruled unanimously that the local union had a right to display its 10-foot-tall, black, rat-shaped balloon at a rally held outside a fitness center. At issue was whether a township could enforce a ban on inflatable or portable signs and banners on public property. Lawrence Township police had levied a $100 fine against an official from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers because of Scabby. The court concluded that while townships have a right to maintain an \"aesthetic environment\" and ensure public safety, its restrictions on expressive displays \"do not justify a content-based restriction of non-commercial speech.\" \"There is no evidence to suggest that a rat balloon is significantly more harmful to aesthetics or safety than a similar item being displayed as an advertisement or commercial logo,\" wrote Justice John Wallace Jr. The balloon and others like it, nicknamed Scabby by the Chicago-based company that made them, have been used by labor unions as street theater since 1990 to protest anti-union activities. IBEW members were marching on the sidewalk outside Gold's Gym in Lawrence Township in April 2005 in response to a dispute with a contractor working at the business. A police officer had ordered the balloon deflated, but returned an hour later to find it blown back up. The labor official in charge admitted he ordered the rat reinflated, and he was given a summons. Lower state courts had ruled the township's ordinance was content-neutral and did not suppress the union's ability to spread its message, since members still could chant and distribute handbills to the public. About 200 Scabby balloons are used by labor unions nationwide, according to Big Sky Balloons. They come in three colors, each showing pink eyes, front claws extended, and two big front incisors.","highlights":"Court: Towns have right to enforce aesthetics, but not curb speech .\nScabby the Rat balloon displayed at union rallies in New Jersey .\nTownship banned display of inflatables, including 10-foot rat balloon .","id":"cbc8d05b4292650eb86b27e336314ab5b28858a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A dispatcher who took a 911 call regarding a domestic argument at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area home knew that there were weapons in the home but did not notify responding officers, three of whom were fatally shot, an official said Tuesday. Eric Kelly, from left, Paul Sciullo III and Stephen Mayhle were shot to death responding to a 911 call. The officers died Saturday in a gunbattle as they were responding to the call, authorities have said. \"It was pure human error and a terrible thing that occurred,\" Bob Full, chief of emergency services for Allegheny County, told CNN affiliate WTAE. \"In this particular case, our call-taker did not follow through with the appropriate training that she had received and [make] the appropriate notation that there were weapons in the house.\" The bodies of the Pittsburgh police officers -- Stephen Mayhle, Paul Sciullo III and Eric Kelly -- are scheduled to lie in repose at Pittsburgh's city-county building Wednesday before a public memorial is held Thursday. Richard Poplawski, 22, is in custody in connection with the shootings. He was hospitalized over the weekend after being shot in the leg during the gunbattle and standoff with police that lasted four hours. Police have not disclosed where he is being held. They said he would be charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and other charges. Poplawski's mother, Margaret, called 911 about 7 a.m. Saturday to report that her son was \"giving her a hard time,\" according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. She told police she awoke to discover that \"the dog had urinated on the floor\" and awakened her son \"to confront him about it,\" and the two argued. Margaret Poplawski told her son that she was calling police to remove him from the home, the complaint said. During that call, according to WTAE, the dispatcher asked Margaret Poplawski, \"does he have any weapons or anything?\" referring to her son. The woman replied, \"Yes.\" She paused and then said, \"they're all legal.\" \"OK, but he's not threatening you with anything?\" the dispatcher asked. WTAE reported that Margaret Poplawski did not answer directly but said, \"look, I'm just waking up from a sleep, and I want him gone.\" Full pointed out that the call was a \"casual conversation\" and that although \"there's no excuse for it whatsoever ... gathering from the casual nature of the call, the call-taker took an inference that [the caller] was not threatened and that guns or weapons were not involved. And it never was relayed to the police officers.\" Authorities said the responding officers, Mayhle and Sciullo, were shot as they arrived at the home. Kelly was shot later as he arrived to help them. Police believe that Poplawski, wearing a bulletproof vest, fired more than 100 rounds at officers with an AK-47, another rifle and a pistol, authorities said Saturday. The dispatcher has been placed on paid administrative leave, Full said. \"You can only imagine how fragile this individual is. This young lady came to work that day ... she had no intentions on ever letting this go.\" The woman is being assisted through the county's employee assistance program, he said. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said in a statement that, although he has commended the county 911 center many times, Saturday's events \"revealed a flaw in the 911 system.\" \"We now know that the 911 dispatcher was made aware that guns were present ... and that this information was not communicated to the officers,\" Ravenstahl said, according to WTAE. \"Before responding to the call, the officers should have had the benefit of knowing that the actor owned firearms. We will never know if Saturday's events would have gone differently had the officers known.\" Ravenstahl said he has asked the center's management to develop a plan of action \"to address flaws in the system and to ensure that this type of incident never happens again,\" WTAE reported.","highlights":"Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III were shot to death Saturday .\n911 dispatcher failed to tell officers about guns in Pittsburgh home .\nOfficial says dispatcher may have believed guns weren't involved in dispute .\nDispatcher is on paid administrative leave .","id":"f80c6414be5fd914f54dc8f1a2e4de13aec01778"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Most of the Supreme Court justices piled up a lot frequent flyer miles in 2007, jetting to such exotic locales as Austria, India and Hawaii, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court justices at a shoot for their 2006 \"class photo.\" And they generally have a good bit of spending money for their travels, based on reported investment income. The records, which were released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, confirm what has been known for some time: that most of the justices are relatively well-off financially. The eight associate justices make $208,100 in annual wages plus income from a variety of resources. Federal judges are not required to publicly release exact income figures, just a general range. The wealthiest justice may be David Souter, with a wise investment he made years ago in a Vermont bank paying off handsomely. His assets in Chittenden Corp. are valued from $5 million to $25 million. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's asset totals are boosted by the fact that her husband, Martin, is a respected private tax attorney in Washington. Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia are also millionaires. Justice Samuel Alito, the newest member of the high court, also reported income ranging from $700,000 to $2 million. In the area of reported gifts, Alito cited about $500 in \"Italian food and wine\" given to him by a friend, about whom the justice helpfully noted it \"is not likely that he will appear before this court.\" The latest financial records continue to show Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas reporting assets under $1 million, not including homes and judicial salaries. Thomas received a one-time boost to his income when his best-selling memoir was released in October. He received the remaining half of a reported million-dollar book advance and traveled extensively on a book promotion and signing tour. Scalia also received an advance for his book on how to be a better appellate lawyer. The amount was relatively paltry compared to his colleague's: $33,000. The annual records show that Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy and Scalia were the busiest travelers. Each made multiple visits overseas to teach, give speeches or attend judicial seminars. Airfare, lodging and meals were generally paid for by the organizations that invited the justices, but under federal law, they must report it. Europe was a favorite destination for several justices. Breyer reported 21 out-of-town trips for which he was reimbursed, including to Paris, France; Rome, Italy; New Delhi, India; and Palm Springs, California. Ginsburg went overseas to France, Belgium, Ireland and Canada and made at least nine other domestic trips. In the same week in July, Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts were in France and Austria, respectively. But the Most Traveled Award goes to Scalia, who made 33 expense-paid trips, including eight overseas, and visited at least 17 states. Only Souter and Stevens reported no trips for which they were reimbursed by sponsoring groups. Souter also reported no outside teaching gigs, trustee or board memberships, or any gifts received. The 68-year-old bachelor generally spends his extended time away from the high court at his isolated farm in rural New Hampshire. Chief Justice John Roberts may have the most diverse investment portfolio. He recorded 63 investments and trusts, including stock in Time Warner (parent company of CNN), Citicorp, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. The estimated value is from about $2.4 million to more than $6 million. Before becoming a federal judge, Roberts was a high-paid Washington lawyer. His judicial salary is $217,400. Roberts, 53, continued to sell off small amounts of common stock, including in Cisco and Citigroup. When he took over as chief justice in 2005, he was forced to sell stock in several companies. A bill passed two years ago in Congress allows federal judges to defer paying capital gains taxes on securities they sell to avoid conflicts of interest. High-level executive branch employees had enjoyed that privilege for years. The issue of judges holding such diverse investment portfolios has resulted in several conflicts of interest, prompting calls for reform. The high court last month refused to accept an appeal from a group of South Africans seeking to sue U.S. and foreign firms for allegedly helping keep the white-led apartheid government of their country in power for decades. Four members of the high court were forced to remove themselves from consideration of the cases. No reason was given for their recusal, but financial disclosure reports showed that Roberts, along with Breyer and Alito, owns stock in several of the companies being sued. Kennedy's son Gregory is a top manager in one, investment bank Credit Suisse. Under federal rules, at least six justices must hear a case that is accepted for review. With four of the nine recused, the high court had no choice but to uphold the lower court ruling, tossing out the lawsuit. Some reform advocates say that judges should be allowed to own only mutual funds instead of individual stocks. Mutual funds involve a range of investments whose identities are disclosed to the fund's shareholders several times each year. Federal law allows judges to own mutual funds without having to recuse themselves from a particular appeal.","highlights":"Reports show David Souter may be the wealthiest member of Supreme Court .\nSamuel Alito, the busiest traveler, made 33 expense-paid trips in 2007 .\nChief Justice John Roberts recorded 63 investments and trusts .","id":"25c6d54d89cf68db98e3a471f54a14a252562295"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It was the best of times in 2004, when attorney Dave Dineen graduated from Boston University School of Law and landed a job at a top Massachusetts corporate firm, Foley Hoag LLP. Attorney Dave Dineen at his new job at Greater Boston Legal Services. By 2007, the National Association for Law Placement was reporting the most promising year in two decades. Nearly 92 percent of graduating attorneys were employed, and the median starting salary at private practices had increased by $13,000 --to a total of $108,500 a year. But times have changed. In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the legal industry is taking an unprecedented beating from the sputtering economy and housing meltdown. Dineen, 37, lost his job as layoffs and salary freezes have spiked at law firms across the country during the past three months. See the law firm layoffs for the past year \u00bb . Rather than just hand out a severance package with the pink slip, Foley Hoag gave Dineen an option. He could work for Greater Boston Legal Services, a legal aid group serving people living in poverty. The firm agreed to pay Dineen about a quarter of his former salary for a year. Dineen, who needed to support his wife and a newborn daughter, accepted. \"This gave me a chance to do something different with my legal career, and help out people who generally don't have access to public service,\" said Dineen, who now works on foreclosure cases helping victims of predatory lending. Foley Hoag is among many megafirms across the country using the economic slump as an ideal time to lend a hand to cash-strapped public interest and legal aid firms. The massive corporate layoffs and program cuts could redirect thousands of young graduates and experienced attorneys from corporate firms into the public sector, legal experts say. Once insulated, law firms are shedding young and mid-career associates at extraordinary rates. This is especially true at large corporate firms that overestimated their growth and extended too many offers to associates last fall. White & Case LLP, a leading global firm with headquartes in New York, made a second round of cuts last week. In addition to about 70 associates laid off in November, the firm last week let go of another 400 people, including 200 attorneys. Other well-known firms such as Heller Ehrman LLP and Thelen Reid & Priest LLP on the West Coast have gone bankrupt in recent months. At least 2,149 attorneys have been laid off in 2009, bringing the total to 3,045 since January of last year, according to Lawshucks.com, an industry Web site tracking the slump. Hundreds more associates set to start jobs this fall are bracing themselves for rescinded offers and deferred start dates. Some students are finding their summers wide open as law firms like Luce Forward, based in California, have canceled internship programs. Amid all this dark news, there might be a silver lining. It could transform the legal profession. \"There is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity coming out of a difficult situation,\" said Esther Lardent, president of the Pro Bono Institute in Washington, who began discussions this month with at least 15 corporate firms nationwide about placing unemployed attorneys in public interest firms. The project will get under way in a few months, she said. Other firms have already encouraged attorneys to go into the public sector. Just last week, one of the largest firms in the country -- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- announced it will pay deferred associates graduating in 2009 a $5,000 monthly stipend for one year if they secure a job in the public interest field. International law giants Latham & Watkins LLP and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP offered incoming associates who defer employement until October 2010 a $75,000 compensation package. While working in public service isn't mandatory for Latham & Watkins associates, the firm said there was a \"sincere hope\" the deferred associates would \"use the intervening period to pursue a community service or other public advocacy projects of their choosing.\" Such deferral plans can save the companies about $100,000 per associate, and law experts expect the list of firms enacting deferral programs to grow geometrically as the economy worsens. \"Firms are doing this to be flexible and regulate their labor force because there just isn't as much work anymore,\" said James G. Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. Corporate giants are also scrambling to find work for mid-level attorneys in the public sector. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a major New York-based law firm, introduced a yearlong public service fellowship program this year that would pay current attorneys $60,000 a year to work in areas such as social service, community development or academia. The company hopes the program will alleviate \"significant budgetary constraints.\" \"You aren't just throwing somebody out there,\" said American Bar Association President Tommy Wells, who requested funding in President Obama's stimulus package to help pay attorneys to work in the public sector. (The proposal was rejected.) \"You're meeting a real need in these tough times where you have more of a legal need and fewer resources,\" Wells said. Encouraging laid-off and deferred attorneys to go into public service is filling a desperate need at public interest firms. Public interest and legal aid firms serving the underprivileged have long been under-funded and overwhelmed with cases even in a good economy. Tightened state budgets and a decline in donations have further stretched resources for the public interest firms, forcing them to make staff cuts at a time when demand for their services is greater than ever before. At Greater Boston Legal Services, the public interest firm where Dineen arrived in January, the effects of a sick economy are apparent. Robert Sable, the public interest firm's executive director, has already reduced staff. The agency, which handles 15,000 matters a year, expects to make more staff reductions in the coming months because of a $2 million funding shortfall. \"We're burning through our reserves right now, so it's nice to have extra help,\" said Sable, who is talking to another local corporate firm this week about taking in subsidized attorneys. Some attorneys and law students worry that paying corporate attorneys to work in public interest firms may displace those who actually wanted to work in the public sector in the first place. Jocelyn E. Getgen, who works with students at Cornell Law School, said strained legal aid organizations and nonprofits will want to take in the \"free\" labor. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the economic free-fall is changing the ways current attorneys -- and a new generation of young attorneys -- view the field. Traditionally, law students have equated best jobs with highest-paying jobs, career counselors say. Students saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt find themselves pressured to work at large firms that will pay enough to cover the bills, said Tricia McGrath, a director at Lateral Link Group LLC, a job placement agency for lawyers. Many times, going into the public sector isn't even an option, she said. \"Everyone has to rethink all the old models that we believed in, the model where you go to school and then a big firm,\" said McGrath, who graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 1998, a time when law jobs were abundant. iReport.com: Cutting back with brown-bag lunches? Show us on video . Even students at top law schools are finding that their offers have been rescinded. At Harvard Law School, Mark Weber, assistant dean for career services, said he has been working with a handful of students whose job offers have been deferred. \"It can be a tremendous opportunity for the student to take that year and try something entirely different,\" Weber said. \"Hopefully within a year, the economic picture will do better.\" After not receiving a corporate firm job offer in the downtrodden industry, Scott Greenwood, set to graduate this spring from the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, will instead work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. \"I can see what it's like to work for a regulatory agency, and that's a different expertise that attorneys don't always get to have,\" said Greenwood, who will begin working in Washington in August. \"I've been thinking about it as a blessing in disguise.\"","highlights":"At least 2,149 attorneys have been laid off in 2009, according to Lawshucks.com .\nPrivate firms are trying to place unemployed attorneys in public interest firms .\nOne firm will pay deferred associates $60,000 a year to work in the public sector .\nHarvard Law School assistant dean: Tough times can be \"tremendous opportunity\"","id":"eefcfa7320d31de203071a72428efd7e64324611"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 27-year-old woman from eastern China has died of bird flu, Chinese authorities said, making her the second person to die this year from the deadly virus. Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but in some cases, the virus has passed from poultry to humans. The woman fell ill on January 5 in Shandong province on the country's east coast and died on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. Two tests on the woman were positive for H5N1 avian influenza, said the ministry, which did not say how she might have contracted the virus. On Saturday, the World Health Organization said a 2-year-old girl in northern China had tested positive for bird flu -- now the country's third confirmed case of the virus this month. The girl fell ill on January 7 in central Hunan province and was taken to her home province of Shanxi in northern China, the state-run news agency Xinhua said. The report did not say how she became infected. On January 5, a 19-year-old Beijing woman died of bird flu after handling poultry, officials said. Xinhua said the woman bought nine ducks at a market in Beijing's neighboring Hebei province and cleaned their organs before falling ill. Since the end of 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected numerous species of birds in more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. It has not been found in birds in North or South America or the Caribbean, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but in some cases the virus has passed from poultry to humans. It has killed more than 200 people since 2003. China reported its first human-to-human infection case in 2005. So far, 30 cases have been confirmed. Twenty of them have been fatal, according to Xinhua. On Friday, China announced it was setting up a nationwide network to test for the virus.","highlights":"NEW: The woman became ill on January 5 and died on Saturday .\nNEW: Two tests on the woman are positive for H5N1 avian influenza, officials say .\nA 2-year-old girl in northern China is in critical condition with bird flu .\nChina reported its first human infection in 2005; 30 cases confirmed so far .","id":"3641dd36a6585d950d044d1d64591248be30f325"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital. A group of men push a giant snowball across Kensington Gardens, west London Monday. Heathrow, one of the busiest transport hubs in the world, closed both its runways for more than two hours Monday morning and operated with just one for the rest of the morning, according to BAA, the company which runs it. London City airport is also closed, while the British capital's other two airports, Stansted and Gatwick, were operating with severe delays, BAA said. British Airways canceled all flights out of Heathrow until 5 p.m. except for Edinburgh and Lisbon routes. Send your iReport videos, stories . One of the city's largest cab companies was in such high demand it stopped taking cash and credit card bookings, serving only customers with accounts, it said. Dial-a-Cab, which has a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles, served mainly blue-chip companies trying to get employees into work, said Keith Cain a Control Room manager for the company. Customers waited up to an hour and a half for a cab early in the morning, he said. See gallery of UK under snow \u00bb . Jochen Jaeger, 36, found himself stranded at Heathrow, unable to fly home to Zurich or to get back into the apartment he rented in London. \"I will stay here at the airport,\" he told CNN. \"There is no other option. I may have to spend the night here.\" American businessman Ken Plunkett, 60, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was trying to fly out from Heathrow Airport but found himself caught in the weather chaos. \"I know England does not have the infrastructure to remove snow like we do in Minnesota,\" he said. Watch passenger stranded by snow \u00bb . Jenny Leslie, a shop worker at Heathrow's Terminal 2, said it was so quiet at the airport \"you can hear a pin drop.\" Southampton Airport, southwest of London, was also closed for several hours Monday morning, but re-opened by 1200 GMT. But many people in the city were delighted by the unusual weather. \"Londoners of all ages are childishly happy to be making snowmen and having snowball fights. Bankers of all ages are throwing snowballs in the middle of the residential streets,\" Monica Majumdar told CNN in an iReport. She lived in New York before moving to London four years ago, and was surprised by how little snow it took to bring the British capital to a standstill. \"I have seen snow like this. But somehow, it's more beautiful here. It's partly due to the fact that even Londoners are amazed by the snow -- so there is a general air of surrealism,\" she said via e-mail. \" I do feel like I'm in a Christmas snowglobe, with all the iconic London monuments blanketed by the powdered snow.\" London's famous red buses were pulled off the roads on Sunday night as the snow got deeper. It was the first time \"in living memory\" that all city bus service had been suspended, including when London was being bombed during World War II, a spokesman for the city's transit agency, Transport for London, said. \"Bus services were suspended throughout London last night on the grounds of passenger safety due to the unsafe road conditions resulting in a large number of traffic incidents across London,\" the agency said in a statement Monday morning. Watch London grind to a halt \u00bb . About six million people ride London buses each day, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. London Mayor Boris Johnson suspended the \u00a38 ($11.30) daily congestion charge drivers normally pay to enter central London, the city transport authority said. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. The city's subway system was also experiencing severe delays, leaving normally bustling central London something of a ghost town. On a regular weekday, London's transit system handles more than three million passenger journeys. The Federation of Small Businesses estimated that at least one in five workers nationwide -- about 6.4 million employees -- failed to make it into work Monday morning. But the figure was estimated to be far higher -- around two in five -- in London and southeast England, which is home to around a fifth of all British businesses. Monday's disruptions are likely to cost businesses \u00a31.2 billion ($1.7 billion), FSB spokesman Stephen Alambritis told CNN. Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, issued severe weather warnings for all of England and much of Scotland and Wales for both Monday and Tuesday. It reported 20cm of snow in Balham, south London, and 15cm at Canary Wharf in east London. The last time such widespread snowfall affected Britain was in February 1991, the Met Office said. Watch iReport on snowy Stonehenge. The snow meant a break from school for the region's children as classes gave way to snowball fights. In the southern English seaside resort of Brighton there was a carnival atmosphere as dozens of people who were unable to get to work threw snowballs and built snowmen on the beach. Mother-of-three Fiona Robbins, 45, added: \"Everyone is very excited to be able to show their children proper snow for the first time.\" Tuesday's forecast is expected to bring some relief, with the snow expected to stop and temperatures to rise above freezing. Two climbers were found dead Monday morning on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, after being reported missing Sunday night, North Wales Police said. It was not clear if their deaths were related to the storm. CNN Business Assignment Editor Alysen Miller, Laura Perez Maestro, Simon Hooper and Olivia Feld in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK business spokesman: Disruptions would likely cost $1.7 billion .\nMeteorologists said snow is worst in southeastern England in 18 years .\nMajor international airports including Heathrow, Gatwick badly affected .\nUK weather service issues severe weather warnings for Monday, Tuesday .","id":"25a845fa89e9291aabf455a52d48648f4498e8c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two former presidents reflected on their greatest regrets in office Monday, each looking back to issues that continue to plague the nation years later. Former presidents and political rivals Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush now share philanthropic efforts. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton appeared together at a question-and-answer forum before the National Automobile Dealers Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. Asked his biggest regret after leaving office, Bush said he now wonders whether he should have tried to get Saddam Hussein to leave office at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. He told the gathering, \"I've thought a lot about it, but at the end of Desert Storm, the question was should we have kind of kept going on that road to death and all this slaughter until Saddam Hussein showed up and laid his sword on the table, surrendered. And the common wisdom was he wouldn't do that.\" But he said a conversation with an FBI agent who interrogated Saddam after he was captured has made him reconsider. Bush recalled their talk, \"I said, 'What if we just say he has to come to surrender, would he have done it?' And this guy said, 'I'm absolutely convinced he would have.' My experts tell me he wouldn't have.\" Bush said, \"We ended it the way we said we would\" as a military success, but noted a cleaner ending \"would have been perfect.\" He added, \"If we had tried to get Saddam Hussein to come and literally surrender and put his sword on the table, I think it might have been avoided some of the problems that we did have in the future from him.\" On a day that President Barack Obama dispatched George Mitchell to the Middle East as the latest U.S. envoy, Clinton discussed the failure to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. \"My No. 1 regret is that I was not able to persuade Yasser Arafat to accept the peace plan I offered at the end of my presidency that the Israelis accepted. \"If he had done that ... we had had seven years of progress toward peace. We had one year in 1998, the only year in the history of Israel where not a single soul was killed in a terrorist act. The Palestinians had more control over West Bank then than they do today,\" Clinton said. \"And if he had taken that deal, we would have a Palestinian state and we would have had, I think now, normal peaceful relations with Israel and all of its Arab neighbors.\" Clinton said a deal would have helped the U.S. handle other issues in the region, saying, \"We'd be much better positioned to deal with the problem of Iran, and we would have taken away about half the arguments of terrorists around the world by giving the Palestinians their state and creating a cooperative, positive interdependence in the Middle East, not a negative one. And so, I think that would have done more good to save more lives and help more people, and I wish I had been able to do that. \" Clinton also said he regretted not doing more to \"stop the Rwandan genocide,\" and succeeding on a new health care plan. He said \"presidents should share freely ... the mistakes they made\" with historians, because it teaches lessons. He said he shared problems during the lunch with Obama and the four living presidents, saying, \"You want each new president to make new mistakes, not the same ones.\" Clinton added, \"all of us know if you make enough decisions, you're going to make a few of them aren't right.\"","highlights":"Middle East leaves George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton with some regrets .\nBush wonders whether he should have pressed harder for Saddam's surrender .\nClinton looks back at Palestinian-Israeli peace process with some remorse .\nPresidents should share their mistakes as a learning tool, Clinton says .","id":"af3844d44dc1bb228fcacccd14d773ca3b21f8c0"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI (CNN) -- Suraj Suroj uses his motorcycle for all of his family's transportation needs. In his case, that means transporting himself, his wife and his two sons to and from work and school. Typically, all four of them squeeze onto the motorbike together on the crowded streets of Delhi, India. Suraj Suroj and his two sons weave through the streets of Delhi on his motorcycle. \"We need more space,\" Suroj says with one of his sons sitting in front of him and the other clinging to his back. \"We can only travel about 20 kilometers or 25 kilometers, after that we get tired traveling on the scooter.\" Never mind the fact that it's a very dangerous way to travel. The traffic is chaotic, constant, and congested and neither of Suroj's sons have helmets. Millions of people travel this way in India because helmet laws are not enforced and a two wheeler is the best they can afford. Not any more. Monday, Tata Motors finally released what has become known as the \"world's cheapest car.\" With the basic model going for about $2,000, the Tata Nano is being touted as an alternative to motorbikes and scooters. In dramatic fashion, three versions of the Nano were driven onto a dark stage with headlights flashing and invited guests clapping in Mumbai, India. Tata Motors says the Nano will be available for purchase on April 9 but won't be delivered to customers until July. Watch as Nano is unveiled \u00bb . The vehicle has received international attention since it was first revealed in January 2008 at an Auto Expo in Delhi. Tata promised it at an incredibly low price. As the economy began to falter last year and the cost of materials started to rise, analysts began to doubt whether Tata could pull it off. Chairman of Tata group, Ratan Tata, answered those critics at the launch. \"We made a promise and we've kept the promise. We hope this day we will usher in a new form of transport,\" Tata said. But the launch of the Nano is months behind schedule. The company ran into trouble when a land dispute sparked angry protests over the building of the Nano plant in the communist stronghold state of West Bengal. Farmers said the land belonged to them. In the end, Ratan Tata decided to stop operations and move to another state which caused a delay and cost Tata Motors millions. But the Nano has finally arrived. Industry experts say the base model is really basic but looks modern, is surprisingly spacious and handles well. \"I think it will live up to what has been promised but it will not live up to what some people may imagine,\" auto analyst Murad Baig said. \"If some people may imagine that this is going to be a golden chariot, no it won't. But it will be an economical, safe, practical, economical to buy, economical to run and a very cute little car, I must say.\" At only three meters long, the Nano fits four adults relatively comfortably. Critics point out that the cheapest version of the vehicle comes without air conditioning, airbags or power windows and it only has one side-view mirror. The Nano's speeds top out at 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour. Tata says the Nano, which meets Indian environmental standards, has the lowest emissions among cars in its class. But environmentalists are not cheering its arrival. They are worried the Nano will simply add to the number of vehicles already choking the roads. \"We are not saying no to Nano. We are saying no to all cars,\" said Amanita Roychowdry, a representative of India's Center for Science and Environment. \"What is happening right now is that already when car numbers are exploding in Indian cities what cheap motorization is going to do is going to give that extra push. And that is what worries us. Anything that increases the number of cars on our roads is a bad news.\" No one knows, however, if the Nano will increase numbers or simply replace other cars in its class. For now, the Nano sounds like a fantastic alternative for those families in India who are trying to navigate crowded streets while crammed together on a motorcycle. \"We will definitely be able travel farther with a Nano,\" motorcycle driver Suraj Suroj said. \"Why not? We will be able travel comfortably. There will also be more safety.\"","highlights":"Tata Motors to begin delivery of the Nano in July .\nIndustry experts say motor is surprisingly good, environmentalists disagree .\nCar is billed as the world's cheapest, costing $2,000 .","id":"b157f75850536034f9199a1daf27e69f37a6dee0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA vs. DNI -- the clash of the titans. Dennis Blair, left, was picked to be director of national intelligence and Leon Panetta to head the CIA. In the old world, the CIA director ruled. He not only ran the spy agency, but he wore a second hat as director of Central Intelligence. The DCI was ostensibly responsible for coordinating the activities of all 16 agencies and departments which make up the intelligence community. Then came along the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) in 2005 -- a product of intelligence reform following the 9\/11 terrorist attacks and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Those intelligence failures were proof that you needed one person to focus exclusively on guiding the community. Running the CIA in itself was a full-time job. The DNI would oversee the entire intelligence community while the CIA director concentrated on running the spy agency. But there's a problem with this setup. Although the DNI was given more input into budgets and personnel than the DCI had, the DNI's powers are limited and somewhat vague. The intelligence chief has a say in lots of things, but there's no real muscle behind his decisions. It's not like the defense secretary, who has absolute authority over all department components. Outgoing CIA Director Mike Hayden recently told reporters there is natural tension between the CIA and DNI, but it's \"not a bad structure.\" He did suggest, however, that the DNI's office was getting a bit bloated. \"Americans being Americans, they're going to fill up their day trying to doing something impactful,\" he said, \"which means between the two of us there's going to be a trench line ... out there.\" And how did departing DNI Mike McConnell respond to Hayden's quip? \"Anytime you have organizations that have similar interests, you're going to have disputes,\" he said. \"And particularly if the two leaders aren't working together and having a partnership and so on, the warfare at the trench level gets to be pretty much a raging battle.\" McConnell said he had a good professional relationship with Hayden, so they made it work. But he added, \"we don't have a department of intelligence. If this were the Department of Defense, there wouldn't be any question, but it isn't.\" CIA nominee Leon Panetta got into the middle of the dispute during his confirmation hearing. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, wanted to know Panetta's understanding of the relationship between the CIA and the DNI. Would he be under the supervision of the DNI? Initially, Panetta said he reported to the DNI and performed the tasks assigned to him by the DNI, but then he added: \"we are an operational arm, just like the [National Security Agency], just like the [National Reconnaissance Office], and I believe the role of the DNI is to coordinate all our activities...\" Well, the NSA and the NRO are part of the Defense Department and report directly to the Defense Secretary, not the DNI. The CIA is the only intelligence agency that is not part of another department. A bit baffled by Panetta's response, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, asked him point blank, \"Is the DNI your boss or not?\" Panetta's answer, \"The DNI is my boss.\" It makes you wonder how Panetta and the other new guy -- DNI Dennis Blair -- will play in the sand box.","highlights":"DNI oversees entire intelligence community; CIA director concentrates on spy agency .\nDirector of national intelligence role arose partly from reforms after 9\/11 .\nEx-DNI and ex-CIA director both cite tensions between the organizations .\nPanetta was pressed on who's in charge at his confirmation hearing .","id":"959b452d44b4fc3f763361c99bbc1a146ff6754e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former mayor of a city in southeast Wisconsin pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges of child pornography, solicitation of a minor and related counts, a prosecutor said. Gary Becker, former mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, is charged with soliciting someone he believed was a girl. Former Racine Mayor Gary Becker, who was arraigned Tuesday, could face a sentence of up to 164 years if convicted on all counts, District Attorney Michael Nieskes told CNN. He was still in office when he was arrested last month at a shopping mall in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He allegedly tried to meet with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl after chatting with that person online, said Bill Kosh, a spokesman for the Wisconsin attorney general's office. An officer posed online as the underage girl, according to authorities. Becker's attorney did not immediately return calls for comment. Authorities first launched an investigation after Becker brought his personal computer into the mayor's office for repair. The computer technician hired by his office discovered six pornographic images of girls \"possibly under the age of 18 years,\" according to Wisconsin criminal complaint. The technician reported his findings to local law enforcement officers, and they turned the case over to the state's child Internet crimes task force. Members of the task force swapped out the computer's hard drive so they could investigate without alerting Becker, Nieskes said. Their search uncovered further pornographic images of underage girls and more than 1,800 online chats containing \"sexually explicit comments,\" some of them directed at underage girls, the complaint says. Authorities then set up an online profile for the fictitious 14-year-old girl -- using the name \"Hopeyoulikeme14\" -- and engaged the mayor in a chat that lasted more than two hours, the complaint says. During the chat, the former mayor agreed to meet the girl at a shopping mall, the document says. Becker, who resigned from office after his arrest, faces six criminal counts: child enticement, possession of child pornography, exposing a child to harmful materials, attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office, according to a January statement from the Wisconsin Department of Justice.","highlights":"NEW: A former mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, arraigned Tuesday .\nNEW: District attorney: Gary Becker could face 164 years in prison if convicted .\nBecker is charged with sex crimes, including possession of child porn .\nProsecutors say he used online chat to solicit what he thought was underage girl .","id":"b73efe6c2f169fed70a1bc898231cf17cd0f89f9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- She survived a bloodbath at a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois, by playing dead. The only survivor, she gave police a detailed description of the gunman. The Illinois State police worked closely with the survivor to come up with a composite of the gunman. Police aren't identifying their witness to protect her safety. Five other women lost their lives at Lane Bryant on February 2, 2008. The gunman is still at large. The crime began to unfold shortly after 10 a.m. when a man posing as a delivery man walked into the store. He chatted briefly with two customers and two employees. Then, police said, he pulled out a gun and announced a holdup. He forced the four women into the back room, police said. He bound them with duct tape and placed them face down on the floor. Two more women who later entered the store also were taken to the back room, tied and placed next to the others. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . Store manager Rhoda McFarland managed to call 911 from her cell phone at 10:44 a.m., just before she was shot to death. She got to her phone while the gunman was distracted, even though she was bound by the duct tape. On the call, posted on the Tinley Park police Web site, a man can be heard saying, \"I'm losing it.\" The six women were shot execution style. Five of them were dead by the time police arrived, a few minutes after McFarland's call. A sixth woman survived. She, too, had been shot and left for dead, but tricked the killer by pretending to be dead. The killer was not wearing a mask or disguise, so she was able to describe him in detail. She told police he was a 6 foot African-American male, average weight, medium to dark skin tone, with braided hair and cornrows, husky build, and between 25 and 35 years old. His hair was pulled back, but one braid hung along his right cheek with light-green beads at the end of it, she told police. Police have released a composite sketch based on the witness' description. Besides store manager McFarland, the other women slain were Jennifer Bishop, Connie Woolfolk, Carrie Hudek Chiuso and Sarah Szafranski. The investigation remains open and active, and all theories are still being investigated, police say. The investigation has included a thorough vetting of the victims' backgrounds to determine whether any of them had any enemies. \"None of the victimology so far has led to any suspects yet,\" said Commander Pat McCain of the Tinley Park Police Department. Police aren't ruling out any theories, including robbery. The gunman took a few hundred dollars, police said. \"Certainly, the surviving witness didn't seem to recognize the killer, but maybe one of the dead victims knew him. We don't know,\" McCain said. The weapon used was a .40-caliber Glock. Bullet casings were left at the scene and the killer took the weapon with him. More than a year later, forensics from the crime scene are still being processed, police said. Investigators won't comment on whether the gunman left any fingerprints, hair or other trace evidence. Police say they have received more than 5,000 tips and feel this case will be solved. But at this point, they have not named a person of interest or a suspect. Investigators are asking for the public's help. There is a $100,000 reward for the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the Lane Bryant shootings. Have information? Please call the Tinley Park Police tip line at (708) 444-5394 or go to the tip line on the department's Web site.","highlights":"Police release detailed composite of Lane Bryant shooting suspect .\nStore manager called 911 before being shot to death .\nOn call, man can be heard saying, \"I'm losing it\"\n$100,000 reward offered. Information? Call tip line at (708) 444-5394 .","id":"878d3c954a06c1b66da4bbd6863172d7ee48c28f"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNET) -- The fact that you now can explore the ocean through Google Earth isn't going to make Google much money directly. But the move is nonetheless smart. The new Google Earth 5.0 software allows users to explore the ocean depths from their computers. Google generated early-stage goodwill from being the best answer to the online search problem. But the company is large and getting larger, especially as it shows a better ability to withstand the recession than rivals, and that goodwill won't last forever. Google Earth, though, gives the company a new way to bring its brand to the world, notably with students for whom the software will help supplant atlases and encyclopedias. And in the long run, as Google Earth and Maps -- either as standalone software or used through a browser -- will likely become a widely used virtual window on the real world. Google will control the technology and commercialization of that portal. Will the visibility of the ocean depths on Google Earth make money directly? Not likely. But it adds incrementally to the overall utility of the software, which in the long run keeps it relevant. \"The near-term opportunity is in local search,\" for example people looking for restaurants or hotels, said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps, in an interview. Google has begun experimenting with advertisements on Google Maps and Google Earth, added Peter Birch, product manager of Google Earth, at the launch event. Since people often need to discover information about a place before going there, Google Earth and Maps could prove a lucrative endeavor. It may take years to get there, and it'll cost Google dearly in server hardware and network bandwidth, but Google has shown patience in subsidizing long-term projects. Though Hanke wouldn't reveal the expense of Google's geographic services, some of the economics are in the company's favor. Just as Google's search engine takes advantage of innumerable information that others put on the Internet, Google Earth is a platform that houses information supplied by outsiders that Google doesn't have to pay. It's the Internet's user-generated content story, but this time it's data that can be overlaid on a map of the Earth. And in the case of the ocean work, there are prestigious users generating high-quality content. Many ocean researchers gathered at the Google Earth 5.0 launch, and several showed there's pent-up demand for a way to conveniently display their data somewhere. And it's not just to share sea surface temperature data with fellow Ph.D.s, but also to try to educate the public. Ken Peterson, communications director for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, was excited about his layer in Google Earth that shows the location of various types of fish -- along with ratings for people about whether they should eat those varieties or substitute others. Barbara Block of Stanford University and Patrick Halpin of Duke University were eager to show the tracks of shark travels recorded by radio transmission to satellites. Ross Swick of the University of Colorado-Boulder showed a Google Earth animation of the gradually shrinking Arctic ice cap over the last 29 years. And Philip Renaud of the Living Oceans Foundation has supplied underwater video of the Red Sea as part of the foundation's mission to chronicle the state of coral reefs. Hanke envisions much broader information, though, including consumer-oriented material such as the best dive spots and kite-surfing areas. Ultimately, he wants \"every single location\" on Earth, land or sea, to have information. \"We're trying to encourage our users to annotate all the places in the world. Part of what we're doing is seeding that ecosystem of spatial information,\" Hanke said. \"That creates an opportunity for Google to provide location services on phones, mobile devices, in cars in the future, to guide people to the best places. Being a valued guide, the go-to source of information about the best places to go -- that will be a powerful and valuable thing for Google.\" Think of it as a second Internet in a way, only instead of using abstract names to locate information, you can use actual locations to locate information. Some refer to the idea as the \"geographic Web.\" The clearest illustration of the indirect benefits Google Earth can bring is the fact that the company could persuade former Vice President Al Gore, whose climate change documentary won him an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize, to bear the Google Earth standard. In effect, he provided an eco-halo that can offset the more down-to-earth capitalistic realities of Google's operation. Google seems to share the altruistic, educational motivations of many researchers. But it's also got business in mind with Google Earth. \"We try to create products people love to use,\" Birch said. \"We create value, then think of appropriate ways of monetization.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Imaging the ocean depths via the new Google Earth 5.0 is a smart move for Google .\nIt adds to the overall utility of the software, which in the long run keeps it relevant .\nOcean researchers attended Google's launch and are eager to display their data .\nEventually, Google wants to provide data on \"every single location\" on Earth .","id":"c7c718d9b9d5258eff84b063a1a37b6079528f10"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI has hit a dead end in its search for a missing 3-year-old Arkansas boy and is asking the public for help. The FBI is hoping the public can help find 3-year-old Dominick Wesley Arceneaux. Dominick Wesley Arceneaux was last seen by an aunt Tuesday afternoon in the front yard of a mobile home in Chidester, in south-central Arkansas, authorities said. In a missing-person alert, the FBI described Dominick as 3 feet tall, weighing 38 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. Kimberly Brunell, a special agent with the FBI in Little Rock, said authorities have made \"an exhaustive search\" of White Oak Lake, close to where the boy was last seen. National Guardsmen have also done a grid search covering a one-mile radius around the home, she said, and are currently expanding it to a two-mile radius. Investigators also have looked at registered sex offenders in the area, Brunell said. They have also found Dominick's father, who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. \"We have not ruled anyone out at this point,\" she said. The investigation has included looking at patrons of a bar next to the mobile home where Dominick has lived with his mother since December, she said. \"There is not the normal traffic of just neighbors.\" Brunell said investigators have run down every lead and are looking for new ones, including \"suspicious vehicles, suspicious persons ... anyone who might have a nugget that might lead us on our way to finding out what happened to him.\" Anyone with more information is asked to call an FBI hot line, 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).","highlights":"Dominick Arceneaux last seen by an aunt Tuesday in Chidester, Arkansas .\nFBI says it has made an \"exhaustive search\" of nearby White Oak Lake .\nInvestigators looking at sex offenders in area and have found boy's father .\nSpecial agent: \"We have not ruled anyone out at this point\"","id":"f53a444855554c7086174f219bb010f90a66d748"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN -- Military officials in Sri Lanka said they shot down a Tamil Tiger aircraft near the Colombo International Airport on Friday, in an air engagement with rebels that killed two people and left about 50 wounded. An injured survivor of a suicide attack in northeast Sri Lanka on February 9 . Sri Lankan officials claimed both planes were shot down by the Sri Lankan Air Force, SLAF, refuting the Tiger's claim they were conducting suicide missions in the country's capital. A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan Military said the body of a Tamil Tiger guerrilla was found by the plane's wreckage after it was shot down near the Colombo International Airport. The other plane, which entered the capital of Colombo, dropped a bomb but crashed into the offices of the Department of Inland Revenue, two blocks away from Air Force Headquarters, a military spokesman said. According to the Sri Lanka's Lankapuvath news agency, the country's air defense was activated at 9:30 p.m.( 11 a.m. ET) Friday after receiving information that two of the rebels light aircrafts were circulating over Colombo. \"Both aircrafts were brought down by air force firing,\" Lankapuvath reported. \"The dead body of the LTTE pilot was also found strewn about.\" The news agency said 50 people were admitted to Colombo General Hospital due to injuries from the crash. Two died from their wounds. According to the pro-Tamil Tiger Web site Tamil.net.com, two Black Air Tiger Pilots -- the group's elite squadron --died after carrying out diving missions into Sri Lanka's air force headquarters in Colombo and an air force base in Katunayaka. CNN could not independently verify the claims made by the rebels or the government. In a report released on Thursday, Human Rights Watch criticized the Sri Lankan government for its \"indiscriminate\" killings of civilian as it attempts to fight the rebel movement. As the rebel stronghold continues to shrink, civilians are trapped in the cross-fire, HRW said. \"Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there,\" James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. HRW also condemned the Tamil Tigers for its treatment of civilians. The organization's 45-page study said 2,000 civilians have been killed and another 5,000 have been wounded. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.","highlights":"NEW: Officials claim air force shot down rebel planes .\nTwo dead, 50 wounded in capital, Colombo .\nBoth sides to blame for rise in civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch says .\nUp to 250,000 civilians trapped in Sri Lanka conflict zone, aid groups say .","id":"6daba0944b05df724622c1cf600e46ac092bd205"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The latest 3-D animated movie involves the possible extinction of the human race and features a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach, a prehistoric half-ape\/half-fish, a 50-foot-tall woman (OK, 49-foot-11), and a blue brainless blob named B.O.B. The Missing Link, Ginormica, the blue blob B.O.B. and Insectosaurus dominate \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" And they're the good guys. Reese Witherspoon leads the cast of \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" providing the voice of Susan, who is hit by a glowing meteorite on her wedding day. Before long she's grown into the biggest thing around. The short-statured Oscar winner relished the chance to play not only a giant, but also a role model. \"I was walking with my son and my daughter the other day, and I was like 'Who's your favorite superhero?' \" Witherspoon said. \"And my son was like ... 'Batman, Superman, Spiderman,' and he could name 20 guy superheroes. \"And so I said to my daughter, 'Who's your favorite superhero?' And she goes 'I don't know, the girl in the back of the Justice League? I can't remember her name.' \" So the idea of showcasing a female superhero, Witherspoon said, has the actress \"really excited.\" Kiefer Sutherland, who plays General W.R. Monger, sees the film as helping kids embrace their diversity. \"I love the idea that they were gonna make a film that was going to tell young people that it's all right to be different,\" Sutherland said. His military veteran character captures Susan, renames her \"Ginormica,\" and locks her up with the other \"monsters\" he's collected over half a century. \"And not only is it all right to be different, that one thing that may make you feel awkward about being different might be your greatest asset.\" Those assets become apparent when an alien invader (voiced by Rainn Wilson of \"The Office\") decides he wants Earth, and the monsters -- Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach (\"House\" star Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will Arnett), and the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) -- are called upon to save the planet. The film, which also features the voices of Stephen Colbert and Paul Rudd, opens Friday. Most of the cast had previous experience in animation voiceover -- last year, Rogen was featured in \"Kung Fu Panda,\" and he and Arnett were heard in \"Horton Hears A Who!\" -- but it was the first time for Wilson. \"They called me and they said 'They're interested in you for this, playing an evil alien warlord,' and I was like 'Where do I sign?' \" he said with a chuckle. It was a welcome change of pace for Sutherland, who recorded his voice tracks for \"Monsters\" while he was filming the uber-intense \"24.\" \"So, for five days a week I'm very serious in the '24' world, and then for five hours on the weekend I got to be 5 years old and just play a cartoon character\" -- a character he says he saw as a combination of R. Lee Ermey's intense gunnery sergeant in \"Full Metal Jacket\" and that 'toon terror, Yosemite Sam. \"We combined these voices and the producers laughed, which is generally a pretty good sign,\" Sutherland said. Sutherland may have been inspired by the classics, but the 3-D aspect of \"Monsters\" is as modern as movie technology gets. Under the command of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg (whom Witherspoon and Sutherland respectfully called \"Mr. Katzenberg\"), the film was conceived from the beginning as a 3-D project. One early scene uses the process to bounce a paddleball out at the audience, but for the most part, the effect is used immersively, to bring viewers into the \"Monsters\" world. \"You really feel like you're there, like you're a part of this thing,\" said Arnett, \"not in a way that's gratuitous and to just sort of show off, but really so that the viewer can be an active participant in the movie.\" While film technology continues to advance, some things never change. As Susan is still trying to get used to her new size and powers, she finds herself simultaneously battling an alien robot and trying to save dozens of people trapped in their cars on the Golden Gate Bridge while her male cohorts mostly just stand around. One tries to encourage her by calling \"You're doing it!\" to which Susan snaps back, \"I'm doing everything!\" \"The quintessential cry!\" Witherspoon said. \"The female war cry! That's one of my favorite lines.\" iReport.com: Does 3-D make you more likely to see a movie? Of course, it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that -- eventually -- Susan not only bonds with the rest of her motley crew, but also gains the self-confidence to see the positives in her accidental enormousness. As Wilson, the film's villain, noted, \"It's a coming-of-age tale -- for the monster inside of each one of us.\" And, perhaps, it will give some little girls a superhero to look up to.","highlights":"\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is about motley group of misfits who team up to defeat alien .\nMonsters are led by almost 50-foot woman, voiced by Reese Witherspoon .\nWitherspoon says she hopes character can be role model for girls .\nOther actors lending talents: Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett .","id":"1dc64135959c9075e9555709c147d90509cf2082"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Staffers at a federal prison in central Florida fired shots to break up a large-scale fight that sent eight inmates to hospital emergency rooms Sunday afternoon, officials said. Eight inmates were injured Sunday in a fight at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, officials said. Authorities did not say what led to the fight at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County. A statement from the prison said one inmate suffered a gunshot wound, but did not say whether the person was struck by a prison staff member's bullet. The other seven were \"stabbing\/shooting victims,\" said a spokesman for Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the inmates were taken. The hospital did not elaborate. No prison staffers were seriously hurt in the incident, which the FBI is investigating, said Charles Ratledge, spokesman for the prison. The fight broke out in the recreation yard of the United States Penitentiary No. 2, a high-security facility, about 2:20 p.m. The Coleman complex consists of four institutions. The other three facilities -- another U.S. penitentiary, a medium-security and a low-security facility -- were not affected, said Bureau of Prison spokeswoman Traci Billingsley. \"The inmates ignored staff orders to stop their assaultive behavior, and shots were fired by institution staff to prevent possible loss of life,\" Ratledge said. Five medical evacuation helicopters -- three from the hospital -- landed at the prison and transported the injured inmates on the 15- to 20-minute flight to Orlando Regional, hospital spokesman Joe Brown said. The prison complex is in near Coleman in Sumter County, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida. The community was never endangered by the fight, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said. CNN's Nick Valencia, Susan Candiotti and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Staffers had to fire shots to break up large-scale fight, officials say .\nEight inmates wounded, one by gunshot, at prison complex in Florida, officials say .\nOfficials: Fight happened at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex's recreation yard .\nNo staff members were hurt during the brawl, spokeswoman says .","id":"072b5668dc990948670a019d57d1762a4ff281a1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In his final public address from the White House, a reflective President Bush on Thursday recalled the ups and downs of his eight-year tenure and said he was willing to make the tough decisions. President Bush touts what he considers his foreign policy achievements Thursday at the State Department. \"I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right. You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.\" Bush, who as president has become known for adamantly sticking to positions even when they've come under criticism, acknowledged setbacks and said he would have done some things differently. \"Like all who have held this office before me, I have experienced setbacks,\" Bush said. \"There are things I would do differently if given the chance. Yet I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. Watch Bush's final address \u00bb . Bush also said he is \"filled with gratitude,\" and characterized Obama's inauguration as a \"moment of hope and pride for our whole nation.\" Bush predicted a bright future. \"We have faced danger and trial and there is more ahead,\" Bush said. \"But with the courage of our people and confidence in our ideals, this great nation will never tire, never falter and never fail.\" Recalling the defining moment of his presidency, Bush said the September 11, 2001, attacks forever altered the way he approached his job. \"As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9\/11,\" Bush said. \"But I never did.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Bush's farewell . \"Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe,\" he said. He cited the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and changes in the military and intelligence communities as part of the reason the United States has not seen another significant terrorist attack since 2001. \"There is legitimate debate about many of these decisions,\" he said, an allusion that could refer to constitutional challenges to the administration-backed U.S. Patriot Act, controversy over the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo, Cuba, and the decision to invade Iraq before Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda had been vanquished in Afghanistan. View iconic moments in Bush's presidency \u00bb . \"But there can be little debate about the results -- America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil.\" He warned that America's \"enemies are patient, and determined to strike again\" and urged against isolationism and protectionism in the face of economic and other challenges from abroad. Watch Bush's exit interview with King \u00bb . As he exits the world stage, Bush's approval rating, battered by a tanking economy and an unpopular, lingering war in Iraq, hovers just above all-time lows. A USA Today\/Gallup poll released Wednesday indicates that, even with a 5-point \"lame duck bounce\" from last month, only 34 percent of Americans approve of the job he's doing as president. View key moments in Bush's presidency \u00bb . The roughly 13-minute address was delivered in front of about 40 people \"with stories to tell\" invited by the White House. Bush mentioned several -- from the principal who opened a New Orleans, Louisiana, charter school in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to a Marine sergeant decorated for charging into an ambush to rescue three of his comrades. The presidential farewell address is a tradition dating to George Washington's departure from office in 1797. Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, Carter and Clinton -- among others -- all delivered farewell speeches.","highlights":"Bush says he has always acted with country's \"best interests\" in mind .\n\"There are things I would do differently if given the chance,\" Bush says .\nPresident Bush delivers speech before invited audience in White House East Room .\nTradition of farewell presidential address dates to George Washington .","id":"47660ede8d2c63f7133071a073ec3aead2c83a73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN's Larry King talked with former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday night at the William Jefferson Clinton Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bill Clinton talked politics and more with CNN's Larry King on Tuesday night. In a wide-ranging interview, King talked with Clinton about the stimulus bill, the auto bailout, President Barack Obama's BlackBerry, Chelsea Clinton's future, Sarah Palin and more. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: The stimulus bill passed today [Tuesday]. The president signed it in Denver. Is it going to work? Bill Clinton: I think it will do what it's designed to do. And I think it's important that the American people understand what it's designed to do. It's supposed to do three things. Number one, put money in people's pockets who are in trouble now -- extended unemployment benefits, the modest tax cuts, increase in food stamps. That will help grocery stores and other businesses and keep Americans who are good, honest, hardworking people afloat. Watch Larry King's interview with Bill Clinton \u00bb . The second thing it's supposed to do is give a chunk of money to state and local governments, primarily for education and health. That is designed to make sure that they don't have to either have big tax increases or lay a million people off. Either one, in this economy, would be bad. The third thing it will do is to create jobs through existing road and bridge contracts, through rail improvements, through modernization and especially through clean energy and energy efficiency. So I think that given how fast it had to be done and the compromises that had to be made, it's quite a good bill. And I think it will do what it's designed to do. King: John McCain and others on the other side of the ledger are saying that he didn't come forward enough to the Republicans, he didn't make them part of this Easter basket. Clinton: Well, I disagree with that. I think the only way he could have gotten a lot of them to vote for him would be to accept their economic theory. Their economic theory is why we're in this mess in the first place. King: Do you resent it when the Bush people say that this problem started with you, it started in your administration? Clinton: Well, they don't have much evidence for that. I always answer, does anyone seriously believe if the team I had in place had been in place for the last eight years that this would have happened? And the answer to that is no. We had a much more vigorous regulatory environment with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We were watching these derivatives. I do think we should have done more on derivatives. King: Before we move on to other things, should taxpayers be bailing out the automakers? Clinton: We don't owe it to them. We should only do it if it's in our interests. I believe it's in our interests ... King: We keep hearing about Obama's BlackBerry -- he's got a special BlackBerry now that doesn't have to be recorded into the White House. Do you have the number? Clinton: No. No. King: Would you like the number? Clinton: I know that in the world that exists today, if you're hyper-busy, you need them. Hillary lives on hers. King: Do you have one? Clinton: I don't. I like being able to concentrate on what I'm doing one thing at a time, you know. And I think if I had one, I'm so hyper and always trying to do three things at once, I'd be worse than he is or worse than she is. So I don't have one. King: What's Chelsea going to be? Is she interested in government? Clinton: Yes, she's interested in government. She cares about public health. She thinks that America has still got a ways to go to develop an affordable, high quality health care system. And I think she wants to be a part of it. King: Sarah Palin, net plus, net gain? Clinton: I think she was a net plus before the failure of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the stock market, because she gave (McCain) credibility on the Republican right. Through no fault of her own, she became a negative on September 15th, because nobody on their team had any economic experience, and the burden against the Republicans was overwhelming. King: What do you make of President Obama? I mean, for a while I know that you were down and dirty tough when Hillary was running. And that was a pretty rough campaign, a very close campaign. What do you make of him now? Clinton: Well, I always had a great respect for his abilities. Those have been confirmed by the way he's conducted himself in the transition and in these early weeks. I think he is very smart. And I think he wants right things for America. And I think he's made good people decisions and good policy decisions. King: Can he try to live like a normal person -- going home to Chicago, kids go to school, he helps take them to school, plays basketball, goes out to public restaurants? Can you keep that up? Clinton: I think so. I did quite a bit of it and I wish I had done even more. King: What would you recommend or say or advise George W. Bush about being a former president? There aren't many of you. Clinton: Well, first I would advise him to make his own decisions with Laura about how they want to spend both the next five years and then the rest of his life. You have to assume he'll live 20 to 25 more years, and he seems to be in very good health. And I think he should just look at this as a whole new phase of his life. King: You opened the second Clinton Global Initiative University conference this past weekend and also a thousand students attended. How do you see the younger generation responding the global challenges, especially in these economic times? Clinton: There is a very large number of them who are doing astonishing things. For example, one young woman decided that she's going to go around and collect all the kitchen grease from all the dining halls and then nearby eateries and then use it to make biodiesels, to run cars and lawn mowers and generators. King: For all the years we've known each other, it never gets dull. Clinton: Thank you.","highlights":"Bill Clinton talks in wide-ranging interview with CNN's Larry King .\nRepublican economic theories created current economic crisis, Clinton says .\nClinton on Obama: 'I always had a great respect for his abilities'\nNo, Clinton doesn't have access to Obama's BlackBerry .","id":"376b2696a59cbcda44023978b203626528121f26"} -{"article":"SAN MIGUEL DEL MONTE, Argentina (CNN) -- In a small farming town 105 kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, farmers are struggling to nourish their crops and feed their animals. The worst drought in half a century has turned Argentina's once-fertile soil to dust and pushed the country into a state of emergency. Argentine farmers profited in years past from selling beef to the world, but some now struggle to feed their cattle. Cow carcasses litter the prairie fields and sun-scorched soy plants wither under the South American summer sun. Farmers are concerned about their livelihoods. \"I'm losing money. I can't afford to lose money all the time,\" said Juan Cahen D'Anvers, whose family has been farming in Argentina since the late 1700s. He owns 700 hectares (1,730 acres) in San Miguel del Monte, where he grows sunflowers and barley. He says this year is one of the hardest he's ever had. Watch farmer explain how hard he's been hit \u00bb . \"Production is going to go down a minimum of 50 percent, maybe more. I don't know yet,\" he said. Argentina is one of the world's breadbaskets, providing commodities such as soy, wheat, corn and beef to countries around the globe. In recent years, record-high prices for these products reaped millions of dollars for Argentine farmers, but since the global economic crisis hit, demand and profits have dropped. Now the drought is making matters even worse. Cesar Gioia, another San Miguel del Monte farmer, said time is growing short. \"If it doesn't rain in the next 10 days, I will have to wipe out my entire corn crop, 90 hectares (220 acres),\" he said. \"The best I can do with it is feed it to my cows.\" Facing pressure from farmers, Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced emergency measures this week that will exempt the worst-hit farmers from paying most taxes for one year. \"This is a big boost of patriotism, and a sign of support from all Argentines,\" Kirchner said on January 26. \"All other sectors of the economy will continue to contribute, so we can help the farmers who have been affected by this drought.\" Kirchner has had a contentious relationship with farmers, who staged noisy protests and strikes last year over an increase in export taxes. Those taxes eventually were reduced, but farming leaders still contend that the government is out of touch with their needs. They say the measures announced this week fall short, and are demanding a cohesive, long-term plan for dealing with emergencies such as the current drought. If not, they say, they may strike again. Watch how farmers reacted to Kirchner's move \u00bb . \"Sure, this plan is approved now, and it helps, but we need money to feed cows, to go back to planting crops, because this drought is impacting life in every sector of society,\" said Eduardo Buzzi of the Argentine Agrarian Federation. As she yanks dead soy plant vines from a dusty field in San Miguel del Monte, Lorena del Rios of the Argentina Rural Society says she expects the drought to affect both Argentine and overseas consumers, especially when it comes to Argentina's world-famous beef. \"We will see less meat available, which means rising prices,\" she said. \"There is even the possibility that in a few years Argentina will have to import beef, which is almost unthinkable for people here.\"","highlights":"Worst drought in 50 years is hitting Argentina .\nFarmers say they are losing 50 percent or more of crops .\nCow carcasses litter the landscape while plants wither in the summer sun .","id":"f5ecbbb7d41f75f3a9409b36f3972ed65b8adec0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Identifying the world's finest airports is easy. Hong Kong International Airport, Singapore's Changi and Seoul's Incheon have topped the ranks of airport awards for the last decade. Sitting comfortably? Not at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, ranked by some as one of the worst. These 21st-century airports boast the best shopping, classiest restaurants, as well as features such as indoor pools, orchid gardens, and free wireless Internet. See world's best airports . The world's worst airports, however, are harder to pin down. It's a crowded field to choose from and the choice depends on what you class as bad. See our pick of the world's worst airports \u00bb . If it's for danger, then Baghdad International Airport, in the middle of a war zone, should rank pretty high. Lukla airstrip -- gateway to the Mount Everest region in Nepal -- is also a strong contender. Landing involves a hair-raising plummet onto an uphill airstrip cut into the side of a mountain. On takeoff, the airstrip comes to an abrupt end at the edge of a mountain cliff. What do you think is the world's worst airport? Sound off below . Watch CNN's Ayesha Durgahee examine what it takes to become Airport of the year in Hong Kong. \u00bb . In 2007, TripAdvisor asked travelers to rank airports according to how easy they are to navigate, the cleanliness of the lavatories and parking facilities. Based on these factors, the 2,500 respondents classed London Heathrow and Chicago O'Hare as the world's most hated. Yet neither of these major hubs appeared in Foreign Policy magazine's review of the five worst airports, published in 2007. The list here included the likes of Mineralnye Vody airport in Russia for its feral cats and daggers on sale in the departure lounge. Charles de Gaulle also gains little affection from those that pass through its interminable terminals. As Foreign Policy says, \"visitors to Paris should expect more than the grimy terminals, rude staff, confusing layout, and overpriced food.\" Where was your worst airport experience in 2008? Which airport do you think is the most dangerous, uncomfortable or aggravating? Sound Off below . We're also looking for photos and video of your worst airport experiences. Send them to the Business Traveller page on CNN iReport . Here's your chance to grumble.","highlights":"Travelers rank Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul airports as the world's best .\nWhich airports are the worst? Send your photos, videos to iReport .\nCrowded terminals? Terrifying airstrips? Rude staff? Sound off below .","id":"5dbca6e63db0f99779c782c044f178e6a5d61adc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The controversial pitch at the new Wembley stadium is to be dug up immediately. Wembley's pitch has come in for plenty of criticism since the stadium weas reopened in 2007. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger branded the surface 'a disaster' after the FA Cup semifinal defeat by Chelsea last Saturday, while Sir Alex Ferguson called it 'dead' in the aftermath of Manchester United's penalty shoot-out defeat to Everton 24 hours later. In the wake of such criticism, stadium officials decided to launch a thorough review of the pitch and have concluded the rye grass surface should be replaced with immediate effect. The new pitch will be a different composition to the current one, which it is hoped will be better suited to the stadium design. Although the FA had confirmed there would be a new 'sand-soil' pitch installed, it was not anticipated the work would be done until after next month's FA Cup final. There have been problems with the new stadium's pitch since it first opened just over two years ago. Due to the number of non-footballing events, including pop concerts, which are required at Wembley to make the rebuilding project viable, it was felt the rye-grass option was more likely to withstand the extra punishment. However, it has proved not to be the case, with Wenger claiming the surface is worse than at any of the 20 Premier League grounds. \"When you build a new stadium, the first priority is that the pitch is good,\" said Wenger on Tuesday. \"If that's not right the whole stadium is bad. \"Before everybody wanted to play at Wembley because the pitch was so special. Now, nobody wants to play at Wembley.\" Although the FA acknowledge they will still need to change the pitch at regular intervals, the organisation is optimistic the work should at least allow Wembley to restore its previous reputation for a surface of the highest standard. A statement read: \"Wembley Stadium is a multi-purpose venue and needs to be able to offer both a quality playing surface and a quality calendar of events. \"The pitch has always been and will continue to be at the heart of the stadium and of the business.\"","highlights":"The controversial pitch at the new Wembley stadium to be dug up immediately .\nPitch has received widespread criticism since the stadium reopened in 2007 .\nThe number of non-footballing events at the stadium has taken toll on surface .","id":"560b932fb2f93afcb45b16ba8507c61f71f75eea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man in northern Idaho says he has seen a massive hand of God in his life, and he is willing to share it with the highest bidder. Paul Grayhek says the \"Hand of God\" appeared in his backyard in March. Paul Grayhek, 52, listed the rock formation he dubbed the \"Hand of God Rock Wall\" on the online auction Web site eBay. The highest bid was $250 early Sunday, with three days left to go in the auction. The hand-like formation, approximately 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide, appeared in Grayhek's backyard after a rockfall during Lent on March 8, he said. The Coeur d'Alene resident said he faced tough times after losing his job, and believed the rock was a sign. \"I prayed between licking my wounds and looking for a job,\" he said. \"We rarely get rockfalls and this formation is 20 feet from my house. It's definitely a symbol of the hand of God in my life.\" However, the winning bidder on eBay should not start clearing out his backyard. Grayhek is not planning to part with the formation. The buyer will \"basically be buying the rights, complete and exclusive rights\" to the rock, including literary and movie rights, according to Grayhek. Grayhek said he plans to use the money from the sale to pursue an unpaid internship in counseling when he graduates with a master's degree in social work in two years. \"People think I'm some holier-than-thou person trying to get rich. I'm not,\" Grayhek said. \"The purpose is to spread the story of God and eBay is just a vehicle.\"","highlights":"Idaho man places \"Hand of God\" rock for sale on eBay .\nPaul Grayhek says hand-like formation appeared in his backyard during Lent .\nWinning bidder on eBay would get \"exclusive rights\" to rock .","id":"a86ca8a7a39b48196a83c1b3fafb7c8bdcd31e30"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Scores of boat people who fled Myanmar and are now in Thailand are to be sent back despite human rights groups' concerns they could be tortured or killed upon return. A photograph released by the Thai navy shows a group of men captured on December 12. \"They will have to be sent back, according to our law,\" Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told CNN. \"They are entering the country illegally. We do what they would do.\" The 12 boys and 66 men who arrived are among thousands of members of the Rohingya minority who have fled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, because of persecution and in search of a better life. Many of them make it across a dangerous sea crossing in crowded boats to Thailand where they are housed in camps. But the Thai navy has been accused of forcing the boats back out to sea. The 78 people targeted for deportation are being held in Ranong, in southern Thailand. Two remain in hospital and no date has been set for the forced repatriation, an immigration official said. But human rights groups are concerned about what will happen to the men and boys when they return. Watch how crowded boats were towed out to sea and abandoned \u00bb . \"We know as a point of fact that there are Rohingya who've been returned to Myanmar who have ended up in prison,\" Benjamin Zawacki, from Amnesty International, said. \"The Myanmar government has interviewed these 78. Our fear is that if these people are sent back, the government has a record of who they are, where their families are,\" Zawacki said. \"They may be tortured and or they could even be killed. That wouldn't be out of the question -- that is the real fear.\" Sunai Phasuk, Thailand-Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that the Rohingya had the \"unenviable distinction of being the most blighted\" people in Myanmar. \"Denied citizenship, subject to tight restrictions on movement, employment and religious freedoms, this Muslim minority have been the target of abuses by the Burmese military for decades,\" he said. \"Today they face serious risks of state violence and coercion, in part arising from preparations to build a pipeline through their region that will deliver offshore gas to China. Already reports are emerging of forced relocations and other abuses tied to gas exploitation.\" The Myanmar government has not responded to CNN's request for an interview, but the plight of the Rohingya will be discussed at this weekend's ASEAN summit of South-East Asian nations, which the Myanmar prime minister and foreign minister are expected to attend. However, the man that effectively runs the country, Senior General Than Shwe, will not attend. Thai Prime Minister Vejjajiva has stressed the need for regional cooperation to help solve the problem of the thousands of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar. His government views them as economic migrants rather than political refugees and said it cannot accommodate them in Thailand. A recent CNN investigation found evidence that the Thai army was towing boatloads of Rohingya out to sea and cutting them adrift. Hundreds are thought to have died as a result. Vejjajiva said the practice has stopped and insisted the Rohingya were given supplies of food and water. \"We regret some of the incidents that have happened in the past. They are now being corrected,\" he said.","highlights":"Thailand to deport nearly 80 men and boys .\nThey are among thousands of a minority to flee Myanmar amid reports of persecution .\nHuman rights groups fear the Rohingya will face murder, torture if sent back .","id":"d0f6c6f8b3e5ae75df3d28ec126c7d8a45bc0a1f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Judging by the hysterical reaction in some quarters, to President Obama's handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or his bow to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, you would think that America's national security rested solely on body language not sound policy. The presidential handshake between Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez spurred many comments. But just for the record, let's not forget that President George W. Bush kissed and held hands with the same Abdullah after 9\/11, while also looking deep into the soul of Vladimir Putin. And a generation earlier, egged on by British Prime Minister \"Iron Lady\" Margaret Thatcher, President \"Tear Down That Wall\" Ronald Reagan, decided that indeed Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was a man he could do business with: the business of ending the Cold War. While Obama has not managed in 100 days to defeat Islamic militants, usher in a Middle East peace treaty or disarm North Korea, on these and other issues he has laid down some important groundwork. Most importantly, the global polls following his first overseas trip show he has begun restoring America's name and reputation, key ingredients to successful policy making. Even before stepping onto foreign soil, Obama began by ordering the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention center closed, thus returning the United States to upholding the very same rule of law it preaches to other nations. He also has stated over and over again that \"America does not torture,\" thus returning the United States to leading on human rights, not cherry-picking them. To those such as former Vice President Dick Cheney who claims this will make America more vulnerable, even some former Bush administration officials now concede that rigorous but patient above-board interrogation has proven to yield better, more reliable intelligence than a rush to the waterboard. Obama has kept a campaign pledge and given a fixed date for ending the unpopular U.S. war in Iraq. \"Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,\" he announced. Yet the perils are clear. Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed in Baghdad and other cities in a surge of sectarian violence since January. The Obama administration and U.S. military leaders are playing it down, blaming the suicide bombings on a few militant cells. That brings back memories of Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blaming a \"handful of dead-enders\" as the original insurgency was getting into full swing. Much work still needs to be done to stabilize Iraq militarily and politically. Drawing down in Iraq means surging in Afghanistan, which along with Pakistan is still viewed as the central front on terror. \"If the Afghanistan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged,\" Obama said in March, \"that country will again be a base for terrorists.\" So he has ordered 21,000 new U.S. troops there by summer. But for all the talk of more boots on the ground, negotiating with moderate Taliban and beefing up Afghan security forces, danger will persist unless the Afghan people see more of a peace dividend. As Obama himself recognizes, \"There will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.\" Watch highlights from Obama's first 100 days \u00bb . Dire poverty still stalks the land and people desperate to feed their families will lay an IED for cash if they cannot farm or find a decent paying job. Although the Taliban had less than 8 percent support in Afghanistan at the end of 2007, according to an ABC poll, Afghan public opinion is turning against the U.S.-led coalition partly because of the rising number of civilian casualties as the U.S. military hunts down terrorists with airstrikes. The same is happening in Pakistan. When unmanned drones and other airstrikes target militants but cost many civilian lives, it turns people against the United States. One month ago, President Obama unveiled an Afghan-Pakistan strategy for stabilizing the region, and yet things have gotten so much worse in the weeks since that now he, British officials and other world leaders openly fear the Talibanization of nuclear-armed Pakistan. A furious Pakistan government accuses the United States of sowing panic among the people and insists it's in full control of its country and its nuclear arsenal. But it is hard to overdramatize the danger as this U.S. ally concedes land and appeases the Taliban, then watches as it reneges on a so-called \"peace deal\" and rolls ever closer to the capital, Islamabad. On May 6 and 7, Obama will be meeting in Washington with the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the fight to deny the militants a tipping point momentum, the military tells me 2009 will be crucial. As for Iran, which even two years ago candidate Obama said would be directly engaged by his administration, there is nothing formal yet between the two sides. After 30 years of enmity, President Obama offered Iran \"the promise of a new beginning\" in a Persian New Year video message, and since then has clearly signaled the United States was over regime-change. The Iranian government and leadership have responded in kind, saying they are ready to engage with America if the administration is really committed to changing its Iran policy. However, much of this good will has been over the airwaves and direct or back-channel talks have yet to start. Into this vacuum are stepping all the sundry pro- and anti-Iran interest groups, experts, analysts and nations, with their often-conflicting advice and sometimes confused understanding. Yet it is widely acknowledged that a strategic realignment with Iran would benefit U.S. and regional security and stability. The new Israeli government wants to see no such thing, and wants people to believe it will bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, a belief it fosters with background briefings to journalists in the United States and presumably elsewhere. In an ironic twist, Israel's Arab neighbors are bringing their dire warnings about Iran to the White House. Meantime, Obama has named a new Middle East Peace envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, signaling he wants to take negotiations out of the deep freeze and committing to the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. Trouble is new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not signed on to the two-state solution and is trying to fend off this pressure, even suggesting Israel won't engage with the Palestinians until the United States takes care of Iran. Last week, Obama told Jordan's King Hussein at the White House, \"My hope would be that over the next several months you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides.\" He added, \"We can't talk forever; at some point, steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground.\" The president has invited the leaders of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to the White House in coming weeks. iReport.com: Grade Obama's first 100 days . The second hundred days in foreign policy will be filled with mini-summits at the White House and major summits abroad -- Russia in July and China sometime later. With all this activity, Obama is clearly shifting the United States away from the \"isolate and punish\" policy of his predecessor. He is signaling that clearheaded meetings to discuss issues of mutual concern are better than hiding your head in the sand and hoping they'll go away. So amid the frothing and fulminating over Fidel, Hugo and Mahmoud, remember Nixon went to China.","highlights":"Obama has laid important groundwork in key areas, Amanpour says .\nPresident has acted on some campaign promises, but outcome still uncertain .\nNext 100 days will see key meetings at White House, summits abroad .\nBody language has caused chatter, but Nixon went to China, reminds Amanpour .","id":"1370ceb899bf99816b32a92aaeea2a5b336afd43"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is planning to issue three executive orders Thursday, including one demanding the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year, according to a senior administration official and a congressional aide. A guard keeps watch from a tower at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A second executive order will formally ban torture by requiring the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods. A third executive order, according to the officials, will order a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases. The officials said new White House Counsel Greg Craig was briefing congressional Republicans Wednesday afternoon about the three executive orders. \"We've always said the process would include consultation,\" the senior administration official said of the closed-door meeting informing Republicans of the moves. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay became a lightning rod for critics who charged that the Bush administration had used torture on terror detainees. President George W. Bush and other senior officials repeatedly denied that the U.S. government had used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects. Obama's move will set off a fierce legal struggle over where the prison's detainees will go next. Watch experts debate the Gitmo dilemma \u00bb . \"The key question is where do you put these terrorists,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement issued Wednesday. \"Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you release them back into the battlefield?\" The meeting with Craig did not address how the administration plans to handle Guantanamo detainees, said Rep. Bill Young of Florida, the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations Committee. The executive orders \"will leave some wiggle room for the administration,\" he said. Young said he has \"quite a bit of anxiety\" about transferring detainees to United States facilities. \"Number one, they're dangerous,\" he said. \"Secondly, once they become present in the United States, what is their legal status? What is their constitutional status? I worry about that, because I don't want them to have the same constitutional rights that you and I have. They're our enemy.\" Watch what may happen to Gitmo's inmates \u00bb . He said he asked Craig what the government plans to do with two recently built facilities at Guantanamo, which he said cost $500 million. He said Craig had no answer, but pledged to discuss the issue further. Young said he suggested reopening Alcatraz, the closed federal prison on an island outside San Francisco, California -- in Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district. \"Put them in Alcatraz, where supposedly they can't escape from,\" Young said, but added the suggestion \"didn't go over well.\" The revelation coincided with a judge's decision on Wednesday to halt the September 11 terrorism cases at the behest of President Obama. On Tuesday, he directed Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ask prosecutors to seek stays for 120 days so terrorism cases at the facility can be reviewed, according to a military official close to the proceedings. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Laurie Ure contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama to issue 3 orders Thursday that break from Bush administration .\nNEW: Order 2 will ban torture by requiring use of Army field manual for interrogations .\nNEW: 3rd order will mandate review of detention policies and procedures .\nMilitary judge grants Obama's request to stay cases for 120 days .","id":"428857bf9104084b53c519dc6af0d6b22b2a8827"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Multiple Oscar winning film \"Slumdog Millionaire\" has brought the plight of India's slum dwellers to the rest of the world. But up to a million slum dwellers in the economic capital Mumbai are set for upheaval as the city is poised for a radical makeover . Dharavi, where parts of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" were filmed, is one of the largest slums in the world. Five years after the regional government announced its intention to redevelop Dharavi, the vast Mumbai slum where parts of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" were filmed, developers are finally submitting their blueprints for the project. Nineteen consortiums from around the world are vying to redevelop the 500-plus acres of land occupied by Dharavi and the bulldozers could move in within six months. The scheme is the brainchild of Mukesh Mehta, an Indian architect who made his name in the U.S. His vision is to use private money to redevelop the slum and turn Mumbai into an international business destination. \"If effectively designed and well planned Dharavi could be not very different from London's Canary Wharf. If we plan creatively and bring in the best architects in the world we could create a new language of architecture and buildings for Mumbai,\" he told CNN. What's novel about Mehta's plan is that rather than seeing a need to entice developers into slum regeneration, he views the land as a resource that developers will pay handsomely to get their hands on. The plan is for developers to demolish the slum and build apartments on the site, which will be given free of charge to 57,000 families currently living in Dharavi. The incentive? For every 100 sq ft of apartment space the developers give away, they will get to build 133 sq ft of commercial space, which they can sell at market rates. Back in 1997, it was Mehta who realized that Dharavi's location made it an asset. In the heart of Mumbai, Dharavi is connected by all three of the city's railway lines. The two highways that link Mumbai to the rest of India both start nearby and just half a kilometer away is the Bandra Kurla complex, Mumbai's emerging financial hub, where land prices are astronomical. Mehta estimates that the government could end up making $2 to $3 billion, the developers stand to make huge profits and Dharavi's residents will get real homes with running water. So why has the scheme taken 12 years to get off the ground? Part of the problem is the word 'slum.' Dharavi is terribly overcrowded, with a chronic lack of clean water and a dearth of toilets. Sewage runs freely and the stench of feces is ever present. But there is a real sense of community, the streets are buzzing with activity and thriving cottage industries, such as pottery and recycling workshops, operate from the ground floor of people's homes. \"The Dharavi redevelopment should not be thought of as just a housing project. Almost every house is involved with some kind of economic activity,\" says Sundar Burra, an advisor to the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Entrees, which has been campaigning for years to ensure Dharavi's residents don't lose out in the redevelopment. Burra says it is essential that residents can continue to work from their homes in the new Dharavi, or they won't be able to afford the maintenance costs of their new apartments. \"If this is not considered, people will sell and the area will become gentrified. Even though new housing stock will be added to the city, the people for whom it is meant will not be able to benefit,\" he told CNN. In June 2007, some 15,000 Dharavi residents marched against the proposals, which they felt benefited developers at their expense. Mehta says planners have been listening to people's concerns. The new apartment buildings will incorporate communal spaces where residents can carry on their trades and thousands of businesses currently operating illegally in Dharavi will be legalized. Following objections from residents, the floor space allocated to each family has been increased from 225 sq ft to 300 sq ft. But not everyone in Dharavi stands to benefit. Many residents lease the upper floor of their homes and their tenants are not eligible for the free apartments. Neither is anyone who moved to Dharavi after 1999, nor the laborers who sleep in Dharavi's workshops. There is only one place for these people to go -- other slums. Burra concedes that no one knows how many people will be forced out, but it could be tens of thousands. Although some are still fighting the plan, Mehta considers it a fait accompli. He predicts that work will begin after the summer monsoon and will take five to seven years to complete. With over a billion people living in slums globally, Mehta sees this involvement of private money as essential for slum regeneration around the world. \"Every major university and design and planning institute in the world is studying this model,\" he says. \"Developing countries in Asia and Africa have invited me to have similar projects in their country. This is the future.\"","highlights":"Dharavi, in the heart of Mumbai, is one of the biggest slums in the world .\nThe massive redevelopment of Dharavi could begin within six months .\n57,000 families will be rehoused on site, but many others will have to move on .\nScheme is \"a model that can be used to rehabilitate slums around the world\"","id":"ae3605208e6efe0b1ee15a6f55ef27f907307418"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The three mothers hail from the same province in China, but they'd never met until a reckless driver in central Ohio killed their only children. From left, Sun \"Zoe\" Yan, Bian \"Jack\" Jin and Xue \"Jo\" Bing were students at Urbana University in Ohio. Two years later, the women wade through a cultural morass, struggling with American laws and language as they work to recoup the tens of thousands of dollars they borrowed to educate, and bury, their children. They've also lost their pride and possibly their future. In China, a family's future often rides on the education of its youngest member, and parents routinely mortgage the present for a brighter retirement. The three mothers have no good news for friends and relatives who stop by their homes in northeast China, sometimes for hours, asking for their money. The mothers face the cultural shame of not being able to repay them, and many of their creditors don't believe them when they explain they've received little compensation for their losses. \"Even after I die, I could not close my eyes,\" Cai Tie Juan said, describing her stress and exhaustion through a translator. On March 8, 2007, Cai's son, Bian Jin, 27, better known to his American counterparts as Jack, was returning from a spring break shopping trip with Sun Yan and Xue Bing, both 24. Learn more about students \u00bb . According to the Dayton Daily News, Bian was driving. Sun, aka Zoe, and Bian's girlfriend, Xue -- whose friends called her Jo -- were in the backseat of Bian's Ford Taurus. They were trying to get back in time for Sun's 6:30 p.m. shift at a local Chinese restaurant in Urbana, Ohio, where the three attended graduate school. Witnesses told the newspaper that several cars were waiting at a traffic light when Jason Skaggs, then 34, approached the intersection of Urbana and Moorefield roads. Skaggs crashed his blue Chevy Tahoe into a Buick Skylark at 98 mph (about 158 kph), went airborne and sandwiched Bian's Taurus between the Tahoe and a gold Chrysler, witnesses and police told the paper. The Taurus was reduced to a ball of crumpled metal with tires. Bian, Sun and Xue were killed instantly. Four others, including Skaggs, were injured. See photos of wreck, trial from Dayton Daily News . Skaggs said he had had a seizure before barreling into the intersection, but the jury didn't buy the defense and found him guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide. During the trial, the media uncovered a litany of driving violations committed by Skaggs, including a speeding ticket he received for driving 91 mph in a 65-mph zone just weeks before the wreck. Skaggs also had been jailed for aggravated vehicular homicide in the past, after he had passed a car in a blind curve in 1994, killing a 79-year-old mother and her son, the Daily News reported. A judge in August sentenced Skaggs to the maximum 34 years in prison. The students' parents wonder how Skaggs had a license to begin with. He'd already killed two people and had no insurance. And if epilepsy played a role in the wreck, it only bolsters their belief he shouldn't have been driving in the first place. \"Why could somebody let this happen?\" Xue's mother, Sun Chun Zhi, asked through a translator. \"Obviously, he had a history of driving recklessly and had violated many traffic laws.\" Chinese laws would've never let someone like Skaggs drive, and more frustratingly, they say, the Chinese government would've stepped in with financial help if this had happened in their homeland. Conversely, it is a Chinese law that has been most devastating. Because the world's most populous nation has for 30 years enforced a one-child-per-couple policy, Bian, Xue and Sun Yan had no siblings, so the families' prospects for the future were crushed in a Ford Taurus at the intersection of Urbana and Moorefield roads. \"When you raise a child in China, you are basically insuring your old age,\" Sun Yan's mother, Yu Ming, said, weeping as she spoke through a translator. Because Bian, Xue and Sun Yan had promising futures, their parents were confident asking friends, relatives, colleagues and even their kids' classmates for money to send them to graduate school at the 1,500-student Urbana University. In China, personal loans from banks aren't as common as they are in the U.S. More commonly, people borrow from friends and family, and you are honor bound to pay them back. There is no poor-mouthing or filing for bankruptcy. The university unveiled a memorial last year among three Lacebark Pines, a native Chinese tree. \"You return what you owe. It is the bible of heaven and the ground rule of Earth,\" Yu said, using a Chinese saying to explain the importance of honoring your debts. Each family borrowed in the neighborhood of 300,000 yuan, almost $44,000, to send their kids 6,500 miles to Urbana University. They each borrowed tens of thousands of dollars more for their children's funerals and several trips to the United States, some to attend Skaggs' trial. They've collectively received about $19,000 from a state victim's fund and $22,000 from a charitable fund established by Urbana University. Another fund set up by the university collected about $36,000, but much of the money went toward the families' funeral and travel bills. The mothers say they appreciate the donations because their pensions and pay are a pittance of what they owe. Xue's father is back home in Dalian City, a trading hub of about 6 million people on the Liaodong Peninsula near North Korea. The retired office manager earns a pension of about 1,600 yuan, or $234, a month. Bian's father and Sun Yan's father live in Shenyang, an industrial base of more than 7 million people, also near North Korea. Bian's father has been working all the overtime shifts he can muster and brings home about 3,500 yuan ($512) a month. Sun Yan's father is a farmer and receives no pension. Meanwhile, the mothers have been in Springfield, Ohio, living in a home donated by a sympathizer since November. They keep their living expenses as low as possible, subsisting off one meal a day to save money. Cai and Yu still collect their respective pensions of about 1,300 yuan ($190) and 700 yuan ($102) a month. Sun Chun Zhi has lost her job as an accountant because of all the trips she has made to the states in the last two years. The women say they are pleading with anyone they think can help -- university officials, the consulate, even a senator. Yu said she and her husband recently sold their cozy apartment in Shenyang and moved in with a niece in China to help pay off their debts, which included about 50,000 yuan ($7,312) that Yu and her four siblings scraped together to pay their father's medical bills from a recent surgery. \"It didn't amount to a lot of money,\" Yu said of the apartment sale. The mothers have considered suing Skaggs, who was represented at trial by a public defender, but lawyers have told them it's not worth it. Friends and family members regularly stop by their homes in China, asking, \"How could there possibly be no money? We really need money, too. Can you return it?\" Sun Chun Zhi said. \"They really don't understand why we didn't get any money. They didn't believe that ... they're not forcing you. They sit there and keep asking for money.\" Added Yu, \"They're not rich, either. They save all this money, and they don't spend like Americans, they save. And then they lend it to me, and now they've lost it, too.\" The mothers are coping with emotional problems as well. Sun said the death of her daughter has left the family feeling helpless and \"emotionally destroyed.\" Yu, who did not eat for two days after the wreck, said she's lost her \"source of energy.\" And Cai has taken up a regimen of sleeping pills to get some rest at night. \"It's not getting better. It also feels like my heart is almost failing me, and I feel my body is almost failing me,\" Cai said. Sun Chun Zhi said she, Cai and Yu sometimes struggle to grasp \"the meaning of why we need to survive\" after losing their only children. \"But we cannot fall apart now because we are trying to return the money to the people we borrowed it from,\" said Sun Chun Zhi. \"We're trying every possible way to return their money.\"","highlights":"Jason Skaggs had vehicular homicide conviction before he killed students .\nMothers plead for help paying off thousands they borrowed to send kids to U.S.\nMother: \"When you raise a child in China, you are basically insuring your old age\"\nFamilies earn between $102 and $702 a month in pay, pensions in China .","id":"4f2f9c586a46a570347b3b5898dc193670737cf3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pontiac lovers are feeling nostalgic and mournful Monday amid General Motors announcement that it will end production of the car. Pontiac models, such as the 1969 GTO, helped usher in the era of the muscle cars, enthusiasts say. Jean Lindsay of western New York fondly recalls the muscle cars in her family's driveway: Two 1967 GTOs. \"I had two brothers, and they each had one of these cars,\" she said. \"The GTO represented the suburban culture of its time, heavily laden with root beer and plain beer.\" \"Those were the days of Bob's Big Boy [hamburger restaurant], when girls wore skates. Back then we pleasantly wasted gas looking for fun. It was a social thing.\" Debuting in 1964, the Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as the original muscle car. It was a risky model in that it featured a big-block engine in an intermediate-size frame. The GTO's success not only buoyed GM but helped jumpstart the high-performance market for Detroit's Big Three automakers -- and ushered in the era of the vehicle as status symbol. Watch GM's CEO explain why the company is cutting Pontiac \u00bb . \"It was a chick magnet, for God's sake. Even from a girl's standpoint,\" Lindsay said. Pontiac's other emblematic performance car, the Firebird Trans Am, featured the outline of a firebird on the hood -- the whole hood. It enjoyed a rise in popularity and brisk sales after being featured in the \"Smokey and the Bandit\" movie franchise beginning in the late 1970s. But like even the most sturdy odometer, the numbers, years ago, had begun to work against Detroit. After years of watching their market share erode to foreign automakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler were beset by a perfect storm of declining sales, slow innovation and a dogged recession. While all three shed jobs, GM and Chrysler took bailouts to survive; Ford chose to rely on its cash reserves to ride out the storm. In February, GM announced the end of the Saturn and Hummer lines while casting a ray of hope for Pontiac enthusiasts by saying that the brand would survive but be scaled back to a niche product. GM could file bankruptcy as a June 1 deadline looms. In the midst of pressure from the Obama administration to present a restructuring plan that shows the company's long-term viability, the automaker recently released a statement to downplay fears that brands Americans have patronized for generations are on the chopping block. \"General Motors has not announced any changes to its long-term viability plan or to the future status of any of its brands,\" the automaker said Friday in a statement on its Web site. Pontiac fans said on Friday that contemplating the closure of Pontiac feels like a longtime friend pulling out of the driveway for the last time. \"I think it's crazy [to end the brand],\" Max Thompson of Huntsville, Alabama, said. \"I think they ought to streamline versions of Pontiac. Just take it to a few models. Make it special, but not get rid of it because it's too iconic.\" ireport.com: See Thompson describe his wheels . Thompson, 46, said his 1973 Firebird Formula had him sold when he saw the stylistic front end. \"The hood of it looked cool,\" Thompson said. \"Just the front of it, it was a sexy-looking vehicle. It had a very sleek look for the time.\" Thompson said he doesn't drive his Firebird anymore, preserving it as a memento with 65,000 miles on it. The Pontiac brand didn't just appeal to baby boomers. The younger generation seems to have bonded with the brand during their time behind the wheel, too. Brian Hemgesberg of Flint, Michigan, said one of the reasons why he purchased his 2008 Pontiac G6 last year was because of what's under the hood. \"I like the engine, I only got the V6. ... I want to get the G8,\" Hemgesberg said. When asked if he pushed the engine, Hemgesberg, 22, let out a telling laugh. \"Yeah,\" he said. Like other Pontiac owners, Hemgesberg doesn't want to see the brand die. \"I think it'd be a pretty big mistake. I won't stop buying GM, I'd just buy Chevy. I think [Pontiac] is just a very good brand of car.\"","highlights":"Pontiac owners say bye to glory days of muscular iconic car .\nThe GTO, which debuted in 1964, is widely considered the original muscle car .\nGM may face bankruptcy if restructuring plan is not approved by feds .","id":"477bfdec08a459276787abcae7092e50dcfe97cf"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was an odd collection of vehicles on display on Capitol Hill, ranging from a bucket truck used for repairing power lines to something resembling an enclosed golf cart to a pair of hot-looking, two-seater sports cars. Lawmakers eyeball one of several alternative-energy vehicles parked this week on Capitol Hill. What they had in common was alternative energy: The cars run on electricity and biofuels as well as gasoline. Tuesday's display attracted some U.S. senators who couldn't resist taking the vehicles for a spin. \"I'm about to have claustrophobia!\" laughed Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, as he folded himself into a yellow, low-slung vehicle known by the initials ENVI, developed by the Chrysler Corporation. \"Evan Bayh [Democratic senator from Indiana] and I were talking about taking a road trip in the van down there,\" said Carper, pointing to a nearby offering from General Motors. \"That's probably better for a road trip than this!\" Carper then spotted Democratic colleague Tom Harkin, and joked that the sports car might draw too much attention in the Iowa senator's corn country. Undeterred, Harkin climbed in next and asked to take a test drive. But instead of starting with a growling engine and a roar of exhaust, the little yellow coupe simply rolled quietly out of its parking space. It is an electric vehicle. The display, titled \"The Energy and Environmental Showcase,\" was intended to demonstrate for lawmakers actual production models of vehicles that may cut the nation's reliance on petroleum-based fuels. An unusual aspect of the show was that traditional Detroit nameplates such as General Motors sat next to competitors from other countries. The event was organized by Bright Automotive, a small carmaker from Anderson, Indiana, to showcase its IDEA, a new, 100-mpg plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that it hopes to market for government and commercial fleets. In a statement, the company said it has applied for funding through the federal Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program. Other manufacturers took advantage of the opportunity to bring their own vehicles to the public display, in a parking lot near the Russell Senate Office Building. During the Bush administration, Japanese automakers complained they weren't invited to a similar demonstration near the Treasury Department, despite having brought their alternative-energy cars more swiftly to the U.S. market than the Detroit automakers. But neither the competition nor the threat of bankruptcy held back the enthusiasm of a General Motors product spokesman at Tuesday's display. \"If anything, it's just a little bit of noise in the background,\" said Tony Posawatz, a GM vehicle line director. He told CNN the automaker places high on its recovery agenda the line of Volt electric cars expected to come to market by November 2010. A silver GM sedan on display nearby uses electric batteries and a self-contained recharging engine powered by a variety of fuels. \"I would like people to stop talking mpg,\" Posawatz said, leading a reporter toward a van powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The Chevy Equinox on display is one of 100 now in private hands. Instead of miles per gallon, the energy plant supplies electricity and a calculation of cruising range while driving. For now, however, drivers might still be impressed by the ZENN, a little car claiming 280 miles per gallon. The car's cruising range of about 40 miles translates to about 280 miles per gallon, according to the Canadian automaker. \"ZENN\" stands for Zero Emission No Noise, said a worker who was buffing away some tree pollen that had settled on the car during the breezy afternoon. The car's top speed is about that of a strong gust of wind -- 35 mph. \"It's supposed to be your third car in the driveway,\" explained ZENN spokesman Daniel Stiller. \"Most people drive less than 20 miles from home on streets with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less.\" He acknowledged that the car may qualify as street-legal only on local, low-speed roads. But Stiller said the ZENN is a dramatic improvement in both safety and driveability, compared with the golf carts often seen around retirement communities. Among the other alternative energy vehicles on display were cars from Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda and the Smart car company. Another brand shown to lawmakers is named after Nikola Tesla, an inventor who helped develop the practical use of electricity a century ago. Tesla's system of alternating current eventually displaced Thomas Edison's use of direct current in the nation's early power grid. The red, two-seater electric sports car on display might have been a good fit for Tesla, a lifelong bachelor. Carper, the Delaware senator, suggested the two sports cars were classic \"chick magnets.\" Tesla spokesman Joe Powers told CNN his company now has about 400 of the sleek, aerodynamic cars in private hands. \"We've created a viable car, and we came out with this model first to help draw attention to the Tesla brand,\" he said. The California-based company also is developing a a sedan that will use the same advanced battery technology as the sports car, which costs about $109,000. \"It will be the kind of car you can take on a trip, and carry four passengers and their luggage,\" Powers said. It uses 7,000 lithium-ion cells of the same chemistry now powering cell phones and laptop computers. \"We are working on a battery exchange program that will cut the cost of these vehicles by about $35,000,\" Powers said, describing a leasing program where owners can swap a used-up battery back for a new one. Most of the vehicles on display qualify for a new $7,500 federal rebate intended to encourage car buyers to consider alternative-energy vehicles. Perhaps the vehicle that caused the most double-takes Tuesday was a bucket truck from the local electric utility company serving the Washington, D.C., area. The Pepco vehicle, the kind seen repairing downed power lines, runs on biofuels that range from discarded cooking grease to soybean oil. The truck was apparently not for sale, and there were no representatives nearby to answer questions.","highlights":"An eclectic assortment of alternative-energy vehicles hit Capitol Hill this week .\nThe display attracted U.S. senators who couldn't resist taking the cars for a spin .\nThe event was organized by a carmaker from Indiana to showcase its plug-in hybrid .\nDisplay included cars from GM, ZENN, Bright Automotive and Smart, among others .","id":"afe1dd7661b60c3ead7d2d484f5a1b06c50f0e65"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir of the center-left Social Democratic Alliance has claimed victory in general elections triggered by the collapse of the Nordic nation's economy. Sigurdardottir celebrates victory on Saturday night. Sigurdardottir's party, which has headed an interim government since February 1, was on course to win around 30 percent of the vote or 20 parliamentary seats, according to state broadcaster RUV. The Left-Green Movement, the Social Democratic Alliance's coalition ally, was expected to win 14 seats, giving the coalition a controlling 34-seat block in the 63-member Icelandic parliament, the Althing. \"I believe this will be our big victory,\" Sigurdardottir told supporters, according to Reuters.com. \"I am touched, proud and humble at this moment when we are experiencing this great, historic victory of the social democratic movement.\" Sigurdardottir's electoral success marks a change of direction for Iceland, a nation 300,000 people, which has traditionally leaned to the right on political matters. Sigurdardottir, the world's first openly gay leader and Iceland's first female premier, has pledged to take the Atlantic island into the European Union and to join the euro common currency as a viable way to rescue Iceland's suffering economy. But that ambition could bring Sigurdardottir into conflict with the Left-Green Movement which favors a currency union with Norway as an alternative to EU membership. Iceland has been in political turmoil since October, when its currency, stock market and leading banks crashed amid the global financial crisis. The country's Nordic neighbors sent billions of dollars to prop up the economy, as did the International Monetary Fund in its first intervention to support a Western European democracy in decades. But weekly demonstrations -- some verging on riots -- finally forced Prime Minister Geir Haarde and his Independence Party-led center-right coalition to resign en masse on January 26. The Independence Party was projected to win 16 seats in Saturday's vote, according to RUV.","highlights":"Center-left secures re-election in Icelandic vote triggered by financial crisis .\nJohanna Sigurdardottir, world's first openly gay premier, set to continue as PM .\nIceland in turmoil since currency, stock market, leading banks crashed last year .","id":"aee72648dbaa6bd23edae260c05f0491fc9eeb6f"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Agatha Christie was a painfully shy girl, so her mom homeschooled her even though her two older siblings attended private school. President Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read until age 12. Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia, but her family moved to China when she was just three months old. She was homeschooled by a Confucian scholar and learned English as a second language from her mom. Alexander Graham Bell was homeschooled by his mother until he was about 10. It was at this point that she started to go deaf and didn't feel she could properly educate him any more. Her deafness inspired Bell to study acoustics and sound later in life. If Thomas Edison were around today, he would probably be diagnosed with ADD -- he left public school after only three months because his mind wouldn't stop wandering. His mom homeschooled him after that, and he credited her with the success of his education: \"My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint.\" Mental Floss: Jefferson vs. Adams and the birth of negative campaigning . Ansel Adams was homeschooled at the age of 12 after his \"wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers\" disrupted the classroom. His father took on his education from that point forward. Robert Frost hated school so much he would get physically ill at the thought of going. He was homeschooled until his high school years. Woodrow Wilson studied under his dad, one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). He didn't learn to read until he was about 12. He took a few classes at a school in Augusta, Georgia, to supplement his father's teachings, and ended up spending a year at Davidson College before transferring to Princeton. Mental Floss: 8 tuition-free colleges . Mozart was educated by his dad as the Mozart family toured Europe from 1763-1766. Laura Ingalls Wilder was homeschooled until her parents finally settled in De Smet in what was then Dakota Territory. She started teaching school herself when she was only 15 years old. Louisa May Alcott studied mostly with her dad, but had a few lessons from family friends Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Can you imagine? For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Inventor of the telephone was homeschooled until his mother went deaf .\nPoet Robert Frost got physically ill at the thought of going to school .\nPresident Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read until age 12 .\nPhotographer Ansel Adams exhibited \"undisguised contempt\" for teachers .","id":"40b32d0828bb45125aa6ca7de9cdbd2e5971c9b2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former University of Georgia professor, wanted in the fatal shootings of his wife and two other people over the weekend, purchased a plane ticket to the Netherlands for May 2, authorities said Monday. An alert on the UGA Web site says professor George Zinkhan is a suspect in an off-campus shooting. A nationwide manhunt for George Zinkhan, 57, extended into a third day with no sign of him, authorities said. Zinkhan was a marketing professor at the university's Terry College of Business, but was terminated on Sunday, the day after the shootings, university officials said. Zinkhan had previously purchased the plane ticket to the Netherlands, said Gregory Jones, special agent in charge for the FBI's Atlanta, Georgia, office. Authorities say Zinkhan owns a home in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The FBI is working with its agents overseas and police in the Netherlands, Jones said. A nationwide alert for Zinkhan has been issued by Athens-Clarke County police. The shootings took place at a community theater group's reunion Saturday in Athens, Georgia, just off campus. Police Capt. Clarence Holeman identified the victims as Marie Bruce, 47, Zinkhan's wife and a prominent Athens attorney; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63. The university terminated Zinkhan on Sunday, President Michael Adams told reporters on Monday. Police said Zinkhan has relatives in Texas and owns a home in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was last seen driving a red, 2005 Jeep Liberty after the shootings Saturday. Authorities do not believe Zinkhan is still on campus or in the city of Athens, University Police Chief Jimmy Williams said Monday. As a precaution, he added, security has been beefed up on campus, including officers on foot patrols carrying semiautomatic weapons. The victims were all associated with the Town and Gown Players, a theater group that was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings. \"The three people we lost (Saturday) were a part of the rich 50-year history of this theater and, more than that, were vital members of the Town and Gown family,\" the organization said Sunday on its Web site. The site described Bruce as \"the binding force that held the Town and Gown community together.\" \"Having worked with Town and Gown for over 20 years, at one time or another she served in every capacity at the theater, artistically and administratively, from leading lady to president of the board to chief cook and bottle washer.\" Holeman said Saturday, \"It appeared (Zinkhan) and his wife (Bruce) were having problems.\" Meanwhile, the university said that classes would be held Monday, as the school term enters its final week. In a letter \"to the members of the University of Georgia community\" posted on the school's Web site, Adams said operations would continue uninterrupted. But, \"I urge everyone to continue to exercise caution until the suspect is apprehended,\" Adams said. Adams' letter said counseling would be available to any member of the faculty or staff and to students. The university's annual end-of-year campus memorial service, in which those lost over the past year are remembered, is scheduled for Tuesday night, Adams said. Victims of Saturday's shooting will be honored at that service. Police said Zinkhan was not at the Town and Gown event originally but arrived and, according to Holeman of the Athens police, got into \"a disagreement\" with his wife. He left the scene, and police believe he went to his car, where the couple's children apparently were waiting, and returned with two handguns. The shootings \"only took a few minutes,\" Holeman said. Police found eight shell casings. After the shooting, Zinkhan left the scene with his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- still in the vehicle, police said. He drove to a neighbor's home in nearby Bogart, Georgia, where he lived and left the children there. The neighbor, Bob Covington, told CNN that Zinkhan arrived at his home shortly after noon with the two children. \"He rang the doorbell, asked me if I could keep his kids for about an hour,\" Covington said. \"I said sure, and he said there'd been some type of emergency, and he took off.\" Zinkhan seemed hurried and agitated but that seemed consistent with an emergency, Covington said. He didn't question Zinkhan about the emergency, Covington said, adding that it wasn't unusual for someone in his family to watch the children. An hour or so later, he said, police arrived and took the children. Police searched Zinkhan's home on Saturday, but there was no indication of what evidence they might have gathered there. University police were assisting Athens-Clarke County police in their investigation, officials said Monday. The university activated its alert system following the shooting with a description of the suspect, said spokesman Tom Jackson. Statistics show the university was able to reach 82 percent of the 64,000 people it attempted to contact, he said, adding that some of the calls went to university offices unstaffed on weekends. An alert was also posted on the school's Web site, and an all-campus e-mail was sent Saturday night. Adams said the university's provost and deans would determine how to handle the remainder of classes and exams for the classes -- one graduate and one undergraduate -- taught by Zinkhan.","highlights":"NEW: Plane ticket to Netherlands dated May 2, FBI says .\nNationwide alert issued for UGA marketing professor George Zinkhan .\nZinkhan suspected in shooting deaths of wife, two others, at theater reunion .\nSuspect apparently dropped children off at a neighbor's house before fleeing .","id":"9fb0e1f2f50b7ec6c513fb6f26099835df22405f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose current book is \"When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams.\" Bob Greene says John Madden has had a great perk: seeing America on his own bus. (CNN) -- You've undoubtedly heard that John Madden has left the football broadcast booth. What you may not have heard is that he's not leaving his bus. \"It's been such a great ride,\" Madden said as he announced his retirement. But the truly great ride -- the one he will not relinquish -- wasn't his long career as a National Football League broadcaster. The best ride was the literal one. Madden's aversion to flying in airplanes led him to perhaps the grandest business perk in all of American life: He was given his own bus, with his own professional drivers. He crisscrossed the country, on his way from one big game to another, on what came to be known as the Maddencruiser, the cost of which eventually was underwritten by corporate sponsorship. Now. . .you may think that being stuck in a bus for days and nights on end must be a lousy way to lead a life. Not when you're the only passenger -- you, or whatever buddies and colleagues you choose to invite along. Not when there's food and drink onboard, and television sets with DVD players at the ready, and plenty of room to stretch out and observe the country as it passes by. And those amenities leave out the most beautiful lure of all. Let President Obama explain it. He did, inadvertently, the other week. He wasn't talking about Madden -- he was talking about plans for a new high-speed rail system. These were the president's words: . \"No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes [at the metal detector]. . . . \" That's the gift Madden gave himself, by working out the bus deal -- the gift of avoiding the endless headaches of travel the rest of the world has to endure. Departure time? Whenever he wants. Flight cancellations? No such thing. Cramped seats? Nope. Security lines? There are none. It can make for a pretty peaceful life. A football game to see every week, the country winding gloriously out ahead of you between stadiums, your main decision boiling down to how to chop up the miles, where to eat and where to sleep and where to stop for a few hours just to talk to people. . . . There is a hotel on the west coast of Florida where I have stayed quite often, and during football season Madden would sometimes stay there too. If there had been a game in, say, Miami, and the next one was in Dallas, he might ask his bus driver to stop for the night at this place, which features outlying cottages on the Gulf of Mexico. Talk about a guy who seemed tranquil -- I know his on-air image was always sort of loud and animated, but I'd see Madden having a serenely silent and unhurried meal by himself in the restaurant, leisurely flipping through the sports pages; I'd see him in the little sandwich shop\/deli in the morning, a quiet and amiable fellow standing in line with everyone else, waiting to pay for his breakfast pastries; I'd see him, on departure day, strolling blissfully toward his bus, an overnight bag in his hand, having decided that this was the time that he'd like to roll out. . . . Who would ever have thought that a fantasy life could revolve around something as seemingly mundane as a bus? But in a chaotic and confused world, full of noise and anger and deadlines, the allure of cruising in splendid solitude through the country, seeing America mile by mile, the journey itself being the ultimate victory. . . . Madden is the grand champion of bus riders, the winner of the lifetime achievement award. And for those who thought that Madden must have felt trapped on that bus for all these years, the truth -- I can promise you this -- is that rolling through the country that way is the opposite of being trapped. The highway begins to feel like a best friend; as well as you may have thought you knew America before, you begin to understand it in ways you never even considered. Block by block, town by town, state by state, you appreciate anew: There are still so many things to see. So I wasn't surprised when Madden, after declaring that the football life he is leaving had been a great ride, said that, by the way, he's keeping the bus. When he travels, that's how he will do it, with or without a corporate sponsor, even now that there will be no game waiting on the other end. And of course, after all these years there is a certain remarkable aura that has formed around the man and that bus of his. At the place in Florida where he would sometimes stay, I was coming back from dinner one night and saw two local police squad cars on the property. This was highly unusual; the town was a quiet dot on the map. I asked the police officers if there had been a crime committed. They appeared a little sheepish. They exchanged glances, as if deciding whether to tell me their real reason for being there. Finally one of them laughed, and said: . \"We just wanted to look at John Madden.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: John Madden's retiring as a broadcaster but keeping his bus .\nHe says football expert had the ultimate perk for traveling the country .\nGreene: Highway becomes your best friend as you discover America block by block .","id":"e4090072866f899f1fb311ef6e50375cd747d5d2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British military investigators interviewed a woman who claimed to have met a man from another planet while she was walking her dog, newly released Ministry of Defence files have revealed. The woman said she had been approached by a man with a \"Scandinavian-type accent\" dressed in a flying suit-style outfit while out walking on a sports field near Norwich, eastern England, in 1989. She claimed to have been \"completely terrified\" during the 10-minute encounter. Running home, she said she had then seen a large glowing object rising vertically from behind some nearby trees. The woman called a local military base to report the encounter the following day. A cover note on the file of the incident describes it as \"one of our more unusual UFO reports.\" The incident is just one of around 1,200 sightings recorded by investigators between 1987 and 1993, according to the files released by the National Archives on Sunday. On another occasion, military officials took the unusual step of briefing ministers about an unidentified flying object photographed in the sky over Scotland alongside an RAF fighter jet. Witnesses claimed to have seen the large diamond-shaped object hanging in the air for about 10 minutes before it ascended vertically at high speed. Fearing intense media interest, investigators also commissioned detailed drawings of the object. The files also reveal that the Ministry of Defence abandoned plans to build a computer database of sightings out of fears of a public relations disaster should details of its existence ever be revealed. \"I personally doubt that the the MoD would lose much if we filed UFO reports in 'WPD' (the waste paper basket),\" one unnamed official wrote of the project.","highlights":"National Archives releases details of recorded UFO sightings from 1987 to 1993 .\nOne woman claimed to have met a man from another planet while walking dog .\nOfficials briefed ministers about 1990 UFO sighting over Scotland .\nMinistry of Defence abandoned plans for UFO database fearing PR disaster .","id":"ff4635c4e00338ad04c214666679e5128fd3b43b"} -{"article":"LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Doctors in Peru started a 48-hour strike Tuesday over pay and other benefits they say the government agreed to last year but has not delivered. The Medical Federation of Peru's Julio Vargas says, \"The stoppage ... will require the cooperation of all doctors.\" The doctors' union, the Medical Federation of Peru, called the strike after meeting Monday with Prime Minister Yehude Simon, news sources reported. \"The stoppage that we will implement ... will require the cooperation of all doctors and that they suspend their external consults, although we will reinforce intensive and emergency care,\" union President Julio Vargas was quoted as saying in El Comercio newspaper. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said the government has complied with all the agreements reached last year and the doctors have no reason to strike, RPP radio reported. Ugarte also warned doctors they will not be paid while on strike, the Andina news agency and El Comercio said. \"You can't stop working and later come and say, 'Pay me,' \" Ugarte said in El Comercio. \"That is immoral and does not conform with professional ethics.\" At issue are pay for special work and more equal pay among state doctors, the news reports said. Salaries for doctors in Peru have decreased to one-fourth of 1976 levels, The Lancet professional medical journal reported in May 2008. As a result, physicians often hold two or more jobs to make ends meet. An average doctor's salary in Lima, the capital, is the equivalent of $670 a year, The Lancet said. A 2007 survey of 202 interns in Lima showed that 38 percent were thinking about migrating to a developed country to practice medicine, the publication said. Salary was one of the main reasons given.","highlights":"Doctors' union calls for 48-hour strike after meeting with Peru's prime minister .\nDoctors say government has failed to deliver on agreements last year .\nHealth minister says doctors have no reason to go on strike .\nMedical journal: Salaries for doctors have decreased to one-fourth of 1976 levels .","id":"b03049e3748e46cbbf33e0a78cbb87dc5ed34e42"} -{"article":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Search operations resumed Monday for six U.S. citizens missing since their small plane crashed Sunday evening off the north coast of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Coast Guard found debris late Sunday night in the area where the single-engine Cessna 206 went down, half a nautical mile from the shoreline of the city of Quebradillas. But despite five searches Sunday and two others throughout the night, rescue crews were not able to find the pilot or the five passengers from the plane, the Coast Guard said Monday. Three searches are planned for Monday, said Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad. The private plane, chartered by Tropical Aviation Corp., took off from the Dominican Republic and was on its way to an airport in Puerto Rico when it went down Sunday evening, officials said. Three male and two female passengers were returning to Puerto Rico after spending the weekend in the Dominican Republic, said Noemi Corporan, service manager for Tropical Aviation Corp. The passengers were San Juan residents and had flown to the Dominican Republic on Friday, she said. Four HH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen and the Coast Guard Cutter Matinicus are taking part in the search, said spokesman Castrodad. The airplane took off from Casa de Campo International Airport in the Dominican Republic and was supposed to land at the Luis Mu\u00f1oz Marin International Airport in Carolina to clear U.S. Customs before going on to the Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, the Coast Guard said. A 911 emergency operator notified the Coast Guard at 6:51 p.m. Sunday that an aircraft had crashed into the waters off Quebradillas. The debris field was found around 10:30 p.m.","highlights":"NEW: Three searches are planned for Monday, according to Coast Guard .\nCoast Guard found debris that might come from downed Cessna .\nRescue crews have yet to find Americans despite seven searches .\nThe pilot and five passengers took off from the Dominican Republic .","id":"8b20272b39a9a4423846e2af74625a5c56c25525"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Capt. Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger's run-in with a flock of Canada geese may be the most famous man-versus-nature story in recent months. But a federal database opened to the public Friday reveals just how commonplace airplanes' encounters with wildlife are. A feather found inside one of the engines of the plane that ditched in the Hudson River. At New York's LaGuardia Airport, where Sullenberger's US Airways flight originated, planes hit birds nearly once a week on average, according to the records. But the number has grown from 16 hits in 1990 to 86 in 2008, according to the database. Nationwide, there were 98,328 reports of aircraft striking birds or other wildlife since January of 1990, although the actual numbers probably are far higher. The Federal Aviation Administration said only 20 percent of incidents are reported under the voluntary system of data collection. The database shows strikes resulted in \"substantial damage\" to aircraft on about 3,000 occasions. Eleven people died in incidents relating to bird strikes. The FAA initially fought to keep its database closed, saying publication of the details might discourage the industry from reporting information. After it was made public, an airline industry organization was quick to say the data could wrongly lead some people to believe flying is unsafe. \"While bird strikes have attracted a lot of attention, they are, of course, rare events. The vast majority of cases result in little or no aircraft damage,\" said the Air Transport Association of America. A top pilots union -- the Air Line Pilots Association -- also had argued to keep the database closed. But the National Transportation Safety Board recommended opening up the data to the public. It also says reporting wildlife strikes should be mandatory. \"If you strike a bird you really don't have to report this to the FAA, which means we're really not getting the full picture,\" said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the safety board. The database includes information on more than 2,000 airports and 500 airlines and aircraft companies. When possible, it identifies the types of wildlife involved, chronicling the misadventures of 460 species. While bird strikes account for the majority of the mishaps, the database contains numerous aircraft encounters with deer, moose, caribou and even fish. According to the records, a fish hit a US Airways aircraft landing in Warwick, Rhode Island, in May of 2000. The fish had been dropped by an osprey. The FAA opted to make the database public after being pelted with criticism from passengers, media organizations and the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates crashes. Interest in aviation bird strikes has been heightened by several recent incidents in addition to Sullenberger's flight -- the January 15 ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York's Hudson River. All on board survived. The transportation safety board says a bird strike may have preceded the crash of a Sikorsky helicopter near Morgan City, Louisiana, just 11 days earlier. The crash killed eight of the nine people aboard.","highlights":"Planes hit birds nearly once a week on average at LaGuardia Airport .\nNumber has grown from 16 hits in 1990 to 86 in 2008, the database shows .\nStrikes resulted in \"substantial damage\" to aircraft on about 3,000 occasions .\nOfficials say database likely only includes 20 percent of actual strikes .","id":"39199699ea043fadcc50b2aee7b7542ee2a5beac"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Colombo has been hit by a second bomb blast in only 24 hours following the fall of the Tamil Tigers' capital to government troops. Police and army officials at the site of a suicide bombing in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo Friday. Two people were wounded and a store damaged in the Petard commercial district Saturday. A day earlier a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up outside an air force headquarters in Colombo, killing two air force police officers and a member of the bomb-disposal unit. Another 30 people were injured. The attacks come after President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the Tigers to lay down their arms and end a quarter-century of civil war. He made his call after government troops retook the separatists' capital, Kilinochchi. In a televised statement Friday evening, Rajapaksa called the recapture of Kilinochchi \"a victory against separatism.\" \"The time is not far off when people of the north can breathe freedom again,\" Rajapaksa said. He invited the Tigers -- who have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983 -- to surrender as government troops closed in on their last remaining strongholds. Rajapaksa's announcement was met with fireworks in Colombo, and Friday's news prompted celebrations in other cities as well. The Tamil Tigers ran a parallel administration from Kilinochchi with their own police force, courts, prisons and taxes, and they had declared government plans to retake the city a \"daydream.\" But after Sri Lanka launched a new offensive against the rebels in the fall, the insurgents moved their nerve center and logistics bases to Mullaitivu, on the northeastern coast. Sri Lankan troops have been on the outskirts of Kilinochchi, about 580 km (360 miles) north of Colombo, for more than a month. They took a key highway junction and a town outside the city Thursday. The civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. The U.S. State Department has designated the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization.","highlights":"Suicide bomber strikes in Colombo, injuring two and damaging store .\nSecond blast in the capital in 24 hours following capture of rebel capital .\nPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa calls on rebels to lay down arms .","id":"a77a65c322053803f26adf6cb31d5cf0c5079dd0"} -{"article":"CNN -- Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries. Tobacco use is one of the largest causes of cancer in the world. In 2008 a report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer revealed that, until recently, cancer was considered a disease of westernized, industrialized countries. Today the situation has changed dramatically, with the majority of the global cancer cases now found in the developing world. However, myths and misconceptions about cancer still abound. Below CNN's Vital Signs has compiled facts from the World Health Organization about this killer disease. -- There are more than 100 types of cancers; any part of the body can be affected. -- Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide: In 2007, it accounted for 7.9 million deaths (around 13 per cent of all deaths) in 2007. -- The five most common types of cancer that kill men worldwide are (in order of frequency): lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and esophagus. -- While for women worldwide the five most common types of cancer are: breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. -- About 72 per cent of all cancer deaths in 2007 occurred in low- and middle-income countries. -- Deaths from cancer worldwide are projected to continue rising, with an estimated 12 million deaths in 2030. -- The WHO estimates that 30 per cent of cancers can be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet and being physically active. -- Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world. -- A third of cancers could be cured if detected early and treated adequately. -- A fifth of all cancers in the world are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer. Source: The World Health Organization .","highlights":"The majority of cancer cases are now found in developing countries .\n72 per cent of all cancer deaths in 2007 occurred in poorer countries .\nBy 2030, WHO estimates there will be 12 million cancer related deaths worldwide .\nA third of cancers can be cured if detected early and treated adequately .","id":"e0abb647b284ea5fe272d3615377edaccaee2a9a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Same-sex couples in California may be able to obtain marriage licenses on June 17, state officials said Wednesday. Marriage licenses for same-sex couples may be available in June, officials said. The California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional in a May 15 ruling, clearing the way for the state to become the second to legalize such marriages. The state Department of Public Health -- which serves as State Registrar and oversees vital records -- said in an announcement that June 16 is the last day the state Supreme Court can rule on any requests for re-hearing. It released new marriage license forms for counties to use beginning the following day. The new forms, which were also released, have lines for \"Party A\" and \"Party B.\" However, the \"general information\" page for California marriage licenses still stated as of Wednesday that \"only an unmarried male and an unmarried female may marry in California.\" The California Supreme Court issued the ruling in a consolidated case involving several gay and lesbian couples, along with the city of San Francisco and gay rights groups. A lower court had ruled San Francisco acted illegally in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. In its 4-3 ruling, the state Supreme Court called marriage a \"basic civil right.\" Opponents of same-sex marriage have said a constitutional marriage amendment should be placed on the November ballot, and that national efforts should be made to generate a federal marriage amendment. A constitutional amendment initiative that would specify marriage is only between a man and a woman is awaiting verification by the California Secretary of State's office after its sponsors said they had gathered enough signatures to place it on a statewide ballot. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in 2004, and gay couples need not be state residents there to wed. However, then-Gov. Mitt Romney resurrected a 1913 law barring non-resident marriages in the state if the marriage would be prohibited in the partners' home state. Subsequent court and agency decisions have determined that only residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Mexico may marry in Massachusetts, unless the parties say they plan to relocate there after the marriage. New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut permit civil unions, while California has a domestic-partner registration law. More than a dozen other states give same-sex couples some legal rights, as do some other countries.","highlights":"Court officials said licenses could be given out next month .\nCalifornia Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage .\nThat ruling earlier this month found the ban unconstitutional .\nJune 16 is the last day the state Supreme Court can rule on a re-hearing .","id":"b290702390e5f8ee10c3a3e4f6d211e59bbfcf9d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is keeping a close eye on Pakistan after this week's Taliban surge into the Buner district brought them just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. A Taliban fighter in the district of Buner, which is only 96 kilometers from Islamabad. A Pakistani government official said Friday that the insurgents had completely withdrawn from the district by the end of the week, but a human rights group said people in Buner were reporting that local Taliban remained in the district. And senior U.S. officials cautioned that any withdrawal by the Taliban was likely meaningless and that the fundamentalist group now holds large areas of the country with the government seemingly unable to stop them. \"We're certainly moving closer to the tipping point,\" Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on NBC's \"Today\" show Friday. In the interview from Afghanistan, Mullen said he was \"extremely concerned\" about indications the Taliban is moving closer to Pakistan's capital of Islamabad. Syed Mohammed Javed, commissioner of the Malakand Division that includes Buner, said the Taliban withdrew on Friday without any conditions. Earlier in the day, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told CNN that the militants would pull back from the district. Pakistani Express TV showed live footage of armed and masked Taliban militants in Buner, loading pickup trucks and driving away. Sufi Muhammed, an Islamist fundamentalist leader who has been negotiating on behalf of the Taliban, was on scene overseeing the withdrawal, police said. U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus credited about 300 Pakistan's Frontier Corps with driving Taliban militants out of Buner. The U.S. Central Command chief spoke to CNN on Friday after testifying before a Congressional panel about the need for the United States to boost its support for Pakistani counterinsurgency troops such as the Frontier Corps. But Amnesty International's regional chief said people in Buner are reporting a different situation. \"What we're hearing from people in Buner ... is that the Taliban that have moved out are the non-local ones,\" Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia Pacific director, told CNN. \"So the local branch of the Taliban are still in place in Buner.\" Amnesty International is concerned that those local Taliban will continue to enforce the Taliban's \"abusive and repressive\" control of Buner. Girls over the age of 7 are forced to wear a burka, a head-to-toe covering that the Taliban say is required of Muslims under its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia. \"I think we're going to see those harsh edicts stay,\" Zarifi said. The Taliban installed strict Islamic law when it took over Afghanistan after a two-year fight with warlords, many of whom surrendered without a fight. They fought with a coalition of some of those warlords known as the Northern Alliance from 1996 until U.S. forces, seeking the leadership of al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, added bombing raids to Northern Alliance ground operations and successfully drove the Taliban out of most of Afghanistan. iReport: Should the U.S. intercede in Pakistan? But the Taliban regrouped in 2004, launching a guerrilla war against the Afghan government while operating from the tribal areas of that country and Pakistan. Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials said that the \"retreat\" was likely meaningless. Control was the impetus behind the Taliban move into Buner, and the fundamentalist group now controls large areas of Pakistan, they said. The officials said, however, that they did not believe the Taliban's goal was to take over the government of Pakistan but rather to create instability by taking advantage of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's apparent inability to cope with the situation. Zardari, they said, does not understand the gravity of the situation, remains distracted by domestic politics and appears unable to make critical decisions to deploy the army to stabilize the country. State Department envoy Richard Holbrooke has been on the phone \"nonstop\" with officials in Islamabad and Washington, the officials said, providing frequent information to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama. Holbrooke's read on the situation, officials familiar with the conversation said, is that the Pakistani government does not know how to handle the situation and is looking to the United States for direction. A senior military official, however, presented a more dire case. Pakistan is \"rapidly deteriorating,\" he said. He said that he could not rule out the possibility of a military takeover in Islamabad, although he added that such a prospect was not in the immediate future. As for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, he said the weapons \"are safe for now\" but that the United States is monitoring the safety systems in place. Administration officials said that the Pakistani military had assured the United States it would not act without an express order from the civilian leadership. Earlier this week, Clinton warned that nuclear-armed Pakistan was in danger of falling into terrorist hands. Before the Taliban's apparent withdrawal Friday, a local Pakistani official expressed doubt about whether the militants would leave, as they pledged to local elders on Thursday. \"Nobody can trust them,\" Sardar Hussain Babik, the provincial education minister, said by phone from Buner. The Taliban have broken promises before and probably would do so again, he said. Militants who swarmed into Buner subsequently locked up courthouses, seized court documents and battled Pakistani troops who were sent to protect residents. The militants said they took control of the district to ensure that Islamic law was properly imposed. The Pakistani government called the land grab a breach of a recent peace agreement. CNN's Barbara Starr, Elise Labott, Ivan Watson, Tricia Escobedo and Samson Desta contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pakistan situation \"rapidly deteriorating,\" says senior U.S. military official .\nNEW: U.S. officials: Any Taliban withdrawal from Pakistani territory likely meaningless .\nNEW: Fundamentalists hold large areas of the country, military officials say .\nPakistan had reported Taliban withdrawal from captured district 60 miles from capital .","id":"99837ceb40660dac3b2f9249e38d5026a7a5e881"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan launched an offensive against the Taliban on Saturday, the biggest military push against militants in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region since a civilian government took power in March. A Pakistan army vehicle patrols a troubled district of South Waziristan, in the northwest of Pakistan. Army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said the operation occurred in the Khyber section of the tribal region, west of Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. And it comes as the new administration announced that it would get tough with radicals in the region. There had been reports that Peshawar was being threatened by militants. Although Abbas said the reports were exaggerated, the military determined that the conditions in the area necessitated action. Troops cleared three militant outposts and pushed the insurgents west, Abbas said. There were no immediate reports of militant resistance or any casualties. The area is not far from the Afghan-Pakistan border. The Taliban militant movement has a strong presence in the tribal region and in neighboring Afghanistan, and there also have been numerous attacks on that restive border in recent weeks. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said this week that he hopes a newly announced Pakistani effort to clamp down on Islamic militants in its northwestern tribal districts will improve the situation in Afghanistan. \"What has happened is that as various agreements have been negotiated or were in the process of negotiation with various groups by the Pakistani government ... the pressure was taken off of these people and these groups, and they've therefore been more free to be able to cross the border and create problems for us,\" he said at the Pentagon. Meanwhile, the the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan reported that 32 militants had been killed two days ago during Afghan and coalition operations in southern Afghanistan. The fighting occurred in Uruzgan province and the report comes amid Pentagon warnings of a \"resilient insurgency\" by the Taliban. Afghan and coalition forces were ambushed Thursday during a patrol. They returned fire and called in airstrikes that killed three militants. Soon after, the militants again attacked the patrol. The forces then killed 29 insurgents. \"During this engagement, insurgents attempted to disguise themselves in women's clothing in order to escape,\" the coalition said. A child and two police officers were wounded. This is the latest report of fighting across Afghanistan, where there has been an uptick in Taliban militant activities in the south, the east, and the Afghan-Pakistan border region. On Friday, a coalition service member was killed in Farah province. The death toll of U.S. and allied troops killed in Afghanistan in June has reached 40, the highest monthly toll of the war. Also, NATO's International Security Assistance Force were attacked in Paktika and Kunar provinces. Strikes in Kunar killed two civilians and wounded 11 others. Insurgents in both Pakistan and Afghanistan fired rockets at the Paktika base, but there were no casualties reported. A Pentagon report on security in Afghanistan underscored the tenacity of the Taliban. It said that although there has been some progress in battling the Taliban, setbacks are expected. Although NATO and Afghan force operations kept the insurgency down in 2007 by killing or capturing key leaders and clearing out Taliban safe havens, the report predicted that the Taliban would be back in 2008.","highlights":"Pakistani forces launch major offensive against Taliban fighters in Khyber region .\nMilitary action is first taken by new government amid concern over threat to Peshawar .\n32 militants killed in clashes with coalition forces in Afghanistan, coalition says .","id":"63bd05727b8e6e54ac8ecda2432b9faff51e915b"} -{"article":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Richard Barboza sits behind the steering wheel, patiently working a crossword puzzle. There's no rush. Time is one thing Barboza has plenty of. Richard Barboza, left, and John Nilsen are among those struggling in the current economic recession. It's just after sun-up. The streaks of light shimmer off the car windows. In the back of the Ford Explorer John Nilsen stirs. This is home. Clothes are kept in a suitcase. Food is wherever they can find it. \"It's definitely not something that you ever see yourself being, homeless,\" Nilsen says. But homeless they have been for the past six weeks, ever since the money ran out and they were evicted from the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, apartment they shared. Nilsen had lost his job, and Barboza is waiting for disability checks to start arriving. The line of homeless men and women has already started to form at the food bank when the two men walk up. The faces are always the same, with a few more added every day. Michael is a regular. He makes grasshoppers out of palm fronds, then sells them when he can for whatever he can get. James says he once played professional football for the Miami Dolphins. No one believes him. Nilsen and Barboza wait quietly for their turn to get in the front door. \"There's a lot of emotional and mental turmoil when you're in a situation like this,\" Nilsen says. Breakfast at the Cooperative Feeding Program is rushed. There are so many to feed. Seats at the tables are a premium. Nilsen and Barboza eat quickly their meal of sausage patties, an orange wedge, some cake and coffee. They want to get moving. It's back in the car and off to the County Library. They can charge their cell phone there and use the public computers for an hour. Nilsen checks Facebook to see how his friends are doing That's how he stays in touch. The two men then begin searching for places to rent on Florida's West Coast. \"Big old double-wide trailer,\" Nilsen snickers. A two-bedroom catches their eyes. \"I like the location,\" whispers Nilsen, \"It's just north of Tarpon Springs.\" If they can get enough money together, Barboza says they'd like to get out of Fort Lauderdale. \"After having spent 20 years here I'm due for a change anyway.\" Nilsen agrees. \"We've agreed that we're going to go together, that we're going to stick together. We've been through enough as it is. It's easier to have someone you trust with you when you're in a situation like this.\" In the afternoons, the two men try making a few bucks. Nilsen got $25 for participating in a food tasting. Barboza has an opportunity to be in a focus group that will pay him $75. Nilsen had been donating plasma twice a week, but now that he's homeless they can't use him anymore. Barboza made about $20 by panhandling on an Interstate 95 exit ramp for about an hour. He stopped after some other homeless men threatened to kill him for working their turf, he says. It's not easy finding work when your address is a license plate number. For Nilsen and Barboza, it's doubly difficult. Both men have disabilities. Barboza was injured in a car wreck. Nilsen had a blood clot in his right leg when he was 16. He walks with a limp and uses a cane. \"When we pull ourselves out of this,\" Nilsen says, \"it's gonna be something you can look back on and draw from and say, 'You know what, if I was able to get through that ...' \" The long days together living in a car don't allow for much space and not much alone time. \"We're at the point now when I know when not to say anything and he knows not to say anything. And he knows when I'm in a bad mood,\" Nilsen says with a laugh. \"He's got his strengths and weaknesses,\" adds Barboza, \"and I've got mine. We balance each other out.\" By the time five o'clock rolls around, the two are getting hungry. There was no lunch today. A nearby church is serving dinner. It's time to stand in another line. They know most of the people here from breakfast at the Cooperative. Many are longtime homeless. \"If they know better than I do how to survive, then let me ask and let me get the knowledge I need to survive for however long it's gonna be,\" Nilsen says. Outside the church a van pulls up The homeless are handed bags of toiletries. You take what you can get because you don't know how long it's gonna be before you get more, Nilsen says. A sliver of a moon shines now. \"The toughest part of the day for us,\" Barboza says, \"is once it gets dark until we go to the place where we sleep at night.\" For the next few hours the two men drive the neon sign-lit Fort Lauderdale streets. There are very few places, they say, where they can stop and park without police chasing them off. Once in a while they pull into a local park for a couple hours until the lights on the fields are turned off and the gates closed. At least here, they're not wasting gas. Every night is a challenge making it until 11 p.m., they say, when they can finally drive to their secret spot and bed down in the back of the old SUV.","highlights":"Two men evicted from their apartment when their money ran out .\nHome for the disabled pair is now an old Ford Explorer .\nMen wait in line with other homeless people for free meals .\nThey say police often chase them off when they park their vehicle .","id":"592b5bc77a4a34f94e920f781757eba0899e0b8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Luciano Pavarotti died Thursday at the age of 71 after suffering from pancreatic cancer. I-Report contributors shared their memories of the famed opera tenor. Here is a selection of those stories: . Annamaria Capicchioni shared this snapshot from the 1993 Pavarotti San Marino Grand Prix in Modena, Italy. Leslie Oakley of Davenport, Florida I grew up in a small town in Kentucky where opera didn't exactly fit in the scheme of things. My family wasn't at all musical either but seeing as though I took an interest in it, my parents indulged me with opera recordings. One of the first ones I received was The Three Tenors. Luciano Pavarotti was to me what Michael Jordan was to other children. He was my hero. I even did a report on him one year in high school. I can remember sitting in my room listening to his voice, closing my eyes and seeing the operas unfold in my mind. He inspired me to teach myself to sing, and I went on to win awards in high school and to sing for three professional groups out of college. Singing has enriched my life immeasurably, and I owe it all to that beautiful voice that so entranced me as a child. I have many fond memories of Pavarotti. His voice always moves me to tears. It is the feeling of being given a glimpse of the divine that I will most remember about him. My prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends. There will never be another Pavarotti. Edmund Chua of Singapore Maestro's voice was truly a blessing. That exciting, that fascinating quality, that, sigh ... too many adjectives. Of course, there was that unforgettable personality. Personally, (don't know if this is a right thing to say but) I saw Italy in him, so to speak, always loving life. Knew he was fighting cancer but always thought he'd recover. I was hoping I'd be able to watch him live but I guess it'll only be in the footage. He's indeed a legend lost, a legacy remembered. ... We'll miss him. Tina Minges of Woodland, California I never cared for opera ... then I heard Pavarotti ... and from that point I loved it. Sandra Miser of Dallas, Texas I consider him the greatest singer ever. His voice had a quality like no others. I cried going to work this morning when I heard he was gone. When I listen to his music I can disappear into the beauty of it and be a peace. He will be greatly missed. Thank goodness for CDs so that we will never be without his voice. George Wendy of Eatons Neck, New York We had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Pavarotti sing a few times. His recital with James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera House was remarkable. I could not imagine feeling more emotion from listening to someone sing. Ciao, Luciano! Shannon Broussard of Springfield, Missouri Heaven now has a tenor for its choir. Chris Nissen of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I heard Pavarotti perform twice in Philadelphia during the years he sponsored an operatic competition for young performers. I still have goose bumps thinking about the brilliance of those two evenings. Not only was his performance breathtaking, but his genuine joy in sharing the stage with the winners of the competition was obvious and written all over his face with a grand smile. Whenever I need to feel inspired with my own work I go and dig out my Pavarotti CDs. Bravo to the great one! Reynaldo O. Arcilla, Philippines Even Mt. Etna wept when Luciano Pavarotti, one of the greatest opera singers of all time, died. Marelize, South Africa In the mid-'90s, Luciano Pavarotti came to South Africa and performed in the town of Stellenboch. It was a very exclusive open-air concert. The tickets were very expensive and all the rich and famous in South Africa were there. Next to the stadium is a river that runs through the town. On the night, crowds of people gathered along the banks of the river. Like me, they could not afford the concert. From where we stood we could see the beautiful mountains, see the lights of the stadium and we could not see him, but we could hear his amazing voice. I looked at the people around me, they all had an expression of sheer wonder on their faces. He gave us all a wonderful gift that night. I will never forget it! He made us fall in love with opera! Edgardo J. Tria Tirona, Philippines This great tenor's death is like the dimming of a star at the break of dawn. But, as in the final strains of Nessun Dorma \"All'alba vincero!\" - at daybreak, he [again] conquers! The world's loss is now heaven's gain. Barry, New York City As a former employee of the New York Metropolitan Opera, it was my pleasure and \"thrill of a lifetime\" to watch and listen to \"the Maestro\" sing from the wings of the stage. I still get goose bumps thinking about that glorious voice, golden tenor. Ozonato, Kuala Lumpur Luciano Pavarotti's death was a shock, I attended his concerts in Hong Kong (SAR) 2005. Wife Nicoletta Mantovani [and his] daughters should have courage to bear the loss. I like the power of his strength of music. He was famous during his lifetime, may he rest in the Lord. Mario Rizzotti of Lincolnwood, Illinois ARRIVEDERCI GRANDE LUCIANO!!!!!! In your honor all the opera houses in USA should have the Half-Staff Flag. Sei stato grande. Your Italian Friends that fell in love with your singing and used your singing to make ladies fall in love, will always remember you. Now you rest in peace you can say:\" VINCEROOOOOOOOO.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died Thursday at his home in Modena, Italy .\nCNN.com readers recall the tenor's \"amazing voice\" and \"strength\" of music .\n\"The world's loss is now heaven's gain,\" one user writes .","id":"c5fe761de1833a0c69f299fa4f54c76a25b1e242"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For actress Kyra Sedgwick, it's the public's approval that makes it worth being away from her family for six months to tape her critically acclaimed series \"The Closer.\" Kyra Sedgwick and her husband, Kevin Bacon, at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards this month. But she may be getting more approval from her peers, too. Sedgwick will walk the red carpet again Sunday night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she is nominated for a fourth consecutive year for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series for her role as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson. She's also won a Golden Globe for her performance, in 2007. The TNT series resumes Monday night where it left off in September with what Sedgwick called \"a fantastic five episodes.\" (TNT is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN.) \"I said to the writers, 'I really want a lot of personal stuff for Brenda,' \" Sedgwick said. \"I feel like there's some of those personal quiet moments with her alone, is something that I've been missing as an actor, and I feel like the audience has been missing, too. \"She is such a complicated, fascinating character, and watching her growth and lack of growth is something that is really interesting,\" she said. When CNN asked whether the new episodes might include a wedding for her character, Sedgwick laughed. \"That might very well happen,\" she said. \"That's pretty insightful of you. I'm just going to just say that.\" A marriage for Brenda Johnson would be \"a complicated, difficult situation,\" she said, because \"she's basically married to her work.\" Sedgwick's job also complicates her real-life marriage to Bacon, since the show is produced in Los Angeles and the couple lives in Connecticut with their two children. That's where the approval -- whether on the street from fans or at award shows -- has \"been a wonderful phenomenon for me,\" she said. \"On a personal level, that's really good for me, because I really miss my family when I'm working on the show six months in L.A.,\" she said. \"As much as I try to get my kids to move to L.A. and my husband, they just wouldn't have it. \"It's challenging, and I'm glad that people are watching, because otherwise it would be kind of hard to go to work,\" Sedgwick said. Sedgwick has moved into an executive producer's role on the show, which she said she expects to continue for at least two more years. \"I love being with a group where there's not a power struggle,\" she said. \"I have a lot of say, and I always have. And that feels really good.\" CNN Radio's Jackie Howard contributed to this report .","highlights":"TNT resumes Sedgwick's series \"Closer\" where it left off in September .\nSedgwick is also up for two SAG awards Sunday .\nSedgwick expects to be in the executive producer's role for at least two more years .","id":"3d2df99bc872cb3d5c20d53e882ca64a971fa16d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Several hundred Sri Lankan Tamil protesters shouted slogans at the British Parliament for a second day Tuesday, urging it to act to end the \"genocide\" against their people in Sri Lanka. Police clash with Tamil protesters outside the Houses of Parliament. \"Stop the genocide!\" they shouted. \"Stop the war!\" They waved the red flag of Tamil Eelam, the Tamils' traditional homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The flag is emblazoned with a yellow roaring tiger. Most of the protesters slept overnight on the streets around Parliament Square after beginning their unauthorized protest Monday afternoon. At one point, the protesters blocked the street leading to Westminster Bridge over the River Thames, police said. That led to road closures around Parliament. By Tuesday morning, a solid ring of police had hemmed the protesters in Parliament Square across the street from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Roads were open again, but the protest and police presence caused traffic congestion in the area. Hariram Shan, 24, is a Sri Lankan Tamil who said he has lived in Britain for six years. He said the protesters hope the British government will intervene to stop Sri Lanka's crackdown on Tamil Tiger rebels, which he said harms civilians. \"They can force economic sanctions,\" Shan told CNN. Dushyanthy Sukumar, 47, said the Sri Lankan government is retaliating against innocent civilians. \"The Sri Lankan government has now cornered the rebels, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), and what they are doing is killing the people,\" she said. Sukumar, who said she has lived in Britain since leaving her homeland in 1987, said she is angry at the British government for supporting Sri Lanka. \"The Sri Lankan government is doing their dirty work through this government,\" she said. The Sri Lankan military said Sunday that it had captured the last rebel stronghold and killed five rebel leaders after three days of gunbattles. It said more rebels could still be hiding in a 20-square-kilometer \"safety zone,\" but that it would not enter the area because it is home to some 50,000 people. The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.","highlights":"Several hundred Tamil protesters demonstrate outside UK parliament .\nProtesters urge UK lawmakers to \"act to end the genocide in Sri Lanka\"\nTamil Tiger separatists have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland .\nSri Lankan military said Sunday it had captured last rebel stronghold .","id":"a488beb6df98672a55d8cd8e19001c8e80b0101a"} -{"article":"Iceland's new prime minister wants her country to join the European Union and adopt the euro as its official currency to help lift the Nordic nation from financial ruin, a spokesman said Tuesday. Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir took office earlier this week. The announcement by Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, came just two days after she was sworn in as prime minister and a week after the Cabinet resigned in the fallout from Iceland's financial collapse. She is Iceland's first female prime minister and the world's first openly gay leader. Iceland has been in political turmoil since October, when its currency, stock market and leading banks crashed amid the global financial crisis. The island nation's Nordic neighbors sent billions of dollars to prop up the economy, as did the International Monetary Fund in its first intervention to support a Western European democracy in decades. Sigurdardottir touted EU membership at a joint news conference Tuesday with Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, whose Left-Green Movement teamed up with the prime minister's Social Democratic Alliance to form the new two-party minority government. The Alliance party was until recently the only movement in Iceland's five-party parliament to push EU membership as a viable way to rescue Iceland's suffering economy. However, Sigfusson and his party aren't convinced that the country should join the EU's 27 other members. Instead, he said he is considering a monetary union with Norway, meaning Iceland would adopt the Norwegian krone as its currency. Iceland's newly instated minority government will only be in power for 80 days and elections are scheduled for April 25. Until then, no decisions about the country possibly joining the European Union will be made -- though the question could be important during the elections, Sigurdardottir's spokesman, Kristjan Kristjansson, said. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"No decision on joining EU will be made before April elections .\nPrime minister wants nation to adopt euro as official currency .\nIceland's stock market, banks crashed last autumn during financial crisis .","id":"6040f536fcc5af8fdac7b29ada560c0b8d0a126d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized Friday for a department assessment that suggested returning combat veterans could be recruited by right-wing extremist groups. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says she offered her \"sincere apologies for any offense.\" She met with American Legion National Commander David Rehbein at Homeland Security headquarters. \"The secretary started the meeting with an apology to me personally, to the American Legion and to the entire veterans community,\" Rehbein told reporters after the meeting. In a statement issued by the department, Napolitano said, \"We connected meaningfully about the important issues that have emerged over recent days, and I offered him my sincere apologies for any offense to our veterans caused by this report. ... I pledge that the department has fixed the internal process that allowed this document to be released before it was ready.\" The report was an unclassified assessment sent to law enforcement agencies. It was titled \"Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.\" The mention of combat veterans surfaced on a conservative radio program earlier this month, and it drew the scorn of commentators and conservative members of Congress. Rep. John Carter, R -Texas, called on Napolitano to resign. Rehbein said Friday it is time to move forward. \"In the mind of the American Legion, I think her apology was sufficient,\" he said. \"The way the Vietnam veterans were treated once they came home, that's what drives the sensitivity to this, because those things start small and then grow from there, and we need to make sure anytime something like that happens we need to step on that and make sure it goes away very quickly.\"","highlights":"Homeland Security report says veterans could be recruited by right-wing extremists .\nHomeland Security chief apologizes for \"any offense caused by this report'\nNapolitano says document was released before it was ready .\nAmerican Legion commander accepts apology, says it's time to move on .","id":"707c7ade7f791306ac9641ef29c78fc9e7cec246"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nursing school seemed like a good idea to Tracy Kidd, but not just because she was interested in medicine. Tracy Kidd, 37, just started nursing school. Nurses are high in demand, despite the souring economy. Kidd, 37, and her husband recently took a massive pay cut -- the painting business they own in Mesa, Arizona, once brought in about $70,000 a month. Now they're lucky to get $800 a month. They have moved in with Tracy's father because their house was foreclosed on. \"I knew that nurses are always needed, and I didn't want what just happened to us to ever happen again,\" said Kidd, who started a licensed practical nurse (LPN) program two weeks ago that will allow her to work while finishing her registered nurse (RN) degree. Kidd's logic squares with the numbers: While industries such as manufacturing have had decreasing job openings, there continues to be a deep need for health care positions such as nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and primary-care physicians. See how health job openings compare with other industries \u00bb . With the unemployment rate at 8.1 percent and thousands of Americans getting laid off every day, the employment landscape looks bleak. But some experts say there are many job opportunities in the health care sector. Nursing . The number of nurses usually goes up when the economy goes down, said Beverly Malone, CEO of the National League for Nursing. Irrespective of this recession, the number of nurses has been growing anyway because of high demand. Nearly 182,000 new students in 2006-2007 entered prelicensure RN programs, which prepare students to sit for the RN licensing exam, according to the National League for Nursing. This represents a 9 percent increase over the previous year. There are about 2.9 million nurses eligible to practice, with 2.6 million in the workforce, she said. As of May 2007, a registered nurse in the United States earned on average $62,480 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. View a map of jobs and unemployment in the U.S. At the associates level, a student usually takes at least two years to earn a degree, while a Bachelor of Science in Nursing takes at least four years. Nurse educators are in huge demand, in part because they earn less than practicing nurses, Malone said. A master's degree is required for these positions, and sometimes a doctorate. Physician assistants . Jobs for physician assistants have also stayed steady, as these medical practitioners help offset the national physician shortage, said Cindy Lord, president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. Like doctors, physician assistants see patients individually, diagnose conditions, and in some cases even write prescriptions. They must at least have telecommunication with a physician, because they are technically working in a team. Employment for physician assistants is projected to grow much faster than average because health care institutions increasingly use these practitioners to contain costs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rural and inner-city clinics are especially good for job opportunities, the bureau said. The average salary for a new graduate from a physician assistant program -- which takes an average of 27 months to complete -- is $75,000 to $80,000 per year, she said. Those who have been practicing longer or specialize in specific fields earn around $90,000, she said. To get into a program, many schools require at least two years of college and some health care experience, and college-level biology, chemistry and math courses are sometimes necessary before matriculation. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection to better living . Satisfaction with the profession is high -- one survey found that 88 percent of physician assistants would choose that career again, Lord said. \"I would do this over a hundred times,\" she said. \"The privilege and honor of practicing medicine is very rewarding.\" The hospital scene . Hospitals say they are still hiring, although there are fewer openings now than normally. Massachusetts General Hospital has fewer vacancies now than at any point in the last 10 years, as well as the lowest turnover, said Jeff Davis, senior vice president of human resources. That's because people who have jobs don't want to leave them, he said. Still, there are about 400 openings available at the hospital, which has about 20,000 workers including physicians. Nursing jobs are available, and the more skill a job requires, the more it's in demand at Mass General, he said. People looking to change careers can take accreditation courses to become X-ray technologists or professionals involved in patient care, but the more skills you can get, the better, Davis said. With the population of Massachusetts aging, more people are likely to utilize the health care system. Davis said he would encourage people to become registered nurses or physical therapists in response to that demand. The UCLA Health System in Los Angeles, California, has fewer openings than last year or the year before, but is still hiring, said Robin Ludewig, director of recruitment. Some of these positions do not require much formalized training. Positions in demand include clinical lab scientists, which requires a four-year degree and an internship. Sterile processing technicians, who prepare surgical equipment, are also needed, and can get training in community colleges. \"It doesn't really matter how the economy is. People still get ill,\" she said. For anyone interested in changing careers to health care, experts recommend exploring courses at local community colleges and vocational schools. Some schools offer short courses in medical terminology to get things started. With talk of reforming the health care system, it is uncertain how those changes would affect the health care job market. Still, there will always be a need for skilled individuals to practice medicine, experts said. A recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that 9 percent of Americans think health care is the most important issue facing the country. The telephone poll of 1,019 adults had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. As for nursing student Kidd, she says she's optimistic about her future, and recognizes that life has its ebbs and flows. \"We just happen to have caught ourselves in a bad situation,\" she said. \"My husband and I, we're not stupid people. We just really were victims of the economy.\"","highlights":"Despite recession, there continues to be a deep need for health care workers .\nThe number of nurses in the United States continues to grow .\nSome positions in demand do not require much course work .\nMassachusetts General Hospital has about 400 jobs open .","id":"2f9d48466a87a9f57a964c5ddcf0ebd05c032386"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A new boatload of Rohingya refugees washed up on the shores of Thailand early Tuesday, raising questions about the type of treatment they would receive. Male refugees show scars they say were caused by beatings at the hands of the Myanmar navy. The boat was carrying about 78 people, Thai police said, and many had severe burns from a fire that broke out on board. Most were members of neighboring Myanmar's Rohingya minority, which has been fleeing persecution by the country's hard-line government for years. Other members of the Rohingya have allegedly been abandoned at sea after being rounded up by Thai authorities. A recent CNN investigation found evidence that the Thai military towed hundreds of refugees into open waters only to abandon them. CNN obtained several photos of this activity including one photo that shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea. CNN also interviewed a refugee who said he was one of the few that survived after his group of six rickety boats were towed back to sea and abandoned by Thai authorities in January. Watch Dan Rivers' BackStory on the investigation \u00bb . The Thai army has denied this allegation, while the Thai government has launched an inquiry. But one source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. The source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. The Rohingya, a minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in make-shift boats for years in search of a better life, and maintain that they are fleeing persecution by the regime in Myanmar, formerly Burma. The Thai government maintains that \"there are no reasonable grounds to believe\" that the Rohingya are fleeing Myanmar out of fear of persecution. \"Their profile and their seasonal travel further support the picture that they are illegal migrants, and not those requiring international protection,\" it said in a statement released Tuesday by the foreign ministry. In that statement, the Thai government maintained that its policies in dealing with all illegal migrants are in accordance with its laws and international guidelines. It said \"basic humanitarian needs\" are given to the migrants before they are returned home. \"We have upheld our humanitarian tradition and ensured that new arrivals are adequately provided with food, water and medicines, with necessary repairs to their boats,\" the ministry's statement said. The government noted that Thailand has already been inundated with as many as 20,000 illegal migrants -- most of them Rohingyas -- and \"accepting those arriving in an irregular manner would simply encourage new arrivals.\" The government \"categorically denied\" media reports blaming Thai authorities for mistreating the illegal migrants, and intentionally damaging their boats. It said it would seriously investigate such cases if any \"concrete evidence\" is presented. -- CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"The latest boat was carrying about 78 people, Thai police say .\nThai army denies setting refugees adrift; government has launched an inquiry .\nThailand: No grounds to believe Rohingya fleeing Myanmar out of fear of persecution .\nStatement added that \"basic humanitarian needs\" are given to the migrants .","id":"5e90fb02a80ae8bab614e870ccc1ee1672cc715e"} -{"article":"CNN -- When Maria Rubeo closed her arm, she felt something \"very big -- like a lemon.\" Although Hispanic women have a lower incidence rate for breast cancer, they often get the diagnosis at later stages. Her doctor said the lump in her breast was nothing, so Rubeo, who didn't have health insurance, didn't seek a second opinion. With two jobs and two kids, she was busy and didn't go to the doctor's office for another year. During her next visit, with a different doctor, Rubeo learned she had breast cancer -- and the tumor had been there for a while. Her story may not be particularly rare. Research suggests that breast cancer may be harder to treat in Hispanic women because they wait longer to receive care. Women in the fastest-growing minority group in the United States face issues such as language and cultural barriers, lifestyle choices and lack of insurance that could affect their health and medical care, according to research released Wednesday at the Science of Cancer Health Disparities Conference. Like Rubeo, about half of women in a study of 230 Mexican-American breast cancer patients in Arizona and Texas noticed changes in their breasts, but waited more than a month to seek medical attention, according to research presented at the conference hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research. \"We asked what the reasons were,\" said Rachel Zenuk, a graduate student at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, who spoke about the study. \"A third cited they didn't have insurance or were unable to afford medical care. Or they thought it was not important to report the medical finding to a professional.\" Other factors included fear of the results and difficulty scheduling an appointment, she said. More than a decade after her mastectomy, Rubeo urges Hispanic women in the San Francisco, California, Bay area not to wait after seeing changes in their breasts. \"I explain: Take time for you to see the doctor,\" she said. \"[Some women] don't have insurance, don't speak English, it's very difficult.\" Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority group, constituting 14 percent of the nation's total population. While Hispanic women have a lower incidence rate for breast cancer than whites, blacks and Asians, they have a less favorable prognosis because of delayed treatment. \"They're not getting more breast cancer than other women, but they're less likely to survive as long,\" said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, a member of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's National Health Advisory Council and chairwoman of the Komen Foundation National Hispanic\/Latino Advisory Council. \"The reason is they're diagnosed at a later stage of the cancer.\" \"We're seeing them at later stages, so the cancer is more advanced. Their five-year survival rates are lower than non-Hispanic whites,\" Ramirez said. Data also showed that about two-thirds of breast cancer cases in the 230 Mexican-American women were found through self-detection, which suggests that the women were not receiving routine mammogram or exams. Rubeo said that when she first noticed the lump, she \"had no time for me to take care of myself. Only work, work, running, no time to eat. Sometimes you forget yourself, so there's time for everybody and not enough for yourself.\" At the Latina Breast Cancer Agency in San Francisco, she tells other women how she didn't take care of herself while working two jobs, 16 hours a day. \"I explain to the ladies my experience. Sometimes they cry and say it's true,\" Rubeo said. She now runs support groups for breast cancer patients, talking about health screenings, accompanying women to the hospital and helping them with paperwork. Aside from the pressures of being a busy, working mother, there are language and cultural barriers for Latina women. \"For women we work with, our focus is breast health,\" said Olivia F\u00e9, founder and executive director of the Latina Breast Cancer Agency. \"Within Latino culture, within family, the husband doesn't want the wife to see a male doctor. ... That is a big deal.\" The group partnered with public hospitals in San Francisco and San Mateo counties and made sure the medical staff who work with Hispanic breast cancer patients are female and speak Spanish. Hispanic women don't take advantage of the free breast health screenings, because there's a lack of awareness, F\u00e9 said. Many women speak only Spanish, so prevention messages in English don't get through. Research showed that the women with more education and exposure to English-language media, such as television and radio, were more likely to have had a mammogram. Ramirez said there are now public service announcements in Spanish that target Hispanic women of all ages, so the younger ones will know the importance of family history and the older ones will become informed about the importance of mammograms. The Komen Foundation funds local efforts to increase enrollment of Hispanic women in clinical trials, provide medical interpretive and transportation services, and have Spanish peer support for 24-hour breast cancer hotlines. Lifestyle choices have an important role in breast cancer development, said Esther John, a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center. One study that examined 2,533 Hispanic women found that the women born in foreign countries had 50 percent less risk of developing breast cancer than women born in the United States. This San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study compared the known breast cancer risks such as obesity, use of hormones, alcohol consumption, fat intake and lack of physical activity between the two groups and found women born in the United States had greater risk. \"The pattern suggests that when Hispanic women move to the U.S., there are important changes from the traditional lifestyle to the Americanized lifestyle,\" John said. \"There are lifestyle factors that increase risks of breast cancer.\"","highlights":"Hispanic women learn of breast cancer at later stages, research shows .\nLanguage, cultural barriers and lack of insurance may impede medical care .\nOther factors include fear of results and difficulty scheduling an appointment .","id":"550b11fa3b131901af2038ffcda13db354d52ab9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: The European champions and current highest-ranked soccer team in the world, Spain, are beaten 3-0...by a team of robots. On the way: Robots are developing steadily towards the goal of beating humans at football. It may sound ridiculous, but robot developers in Asia, the U.S. and Europe are dreaming of that very goal. Working under the umbrella organizations FIRA (Federation of Robot-Soccer Association) and the RoboCup Federation, researchers and developers are aiming to advance robot technology to the point that a team of humanoids can beat the best humans in the sport by 2050. Since robot soccer competitions began in the mid-1990s, researchers have already made significant developments towards their goal. Phil Culverhouse of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Plymouth told CNN that the first robots in competition were controlled by humans and many were on wheels or four-legged, but that is changing. \"Since 2007 the team have progressed to bipedal robots that have cameras on board,\" he said. \"Our robots are autonomous -- they have no control from outside sources. The cameras try to work out where the goal is, where the ball is and where the other players are.\" Further robotic developments appear to be close. Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid released a study in the March 2009 online edition of 'Expert Systems with Applications,' showing they had refined a technique known as machine-learning. Basically, the scientists were able to teach a virtual player simple reactions to visual stimuli -- based upon how real humans react in the same situation. Do you think robots will one day be able to beat humans at football? Sound Off box below. This year robots will go head-to-head at both the RoboCup event in Austria in June\/July and the FIRA RoboWorld Cup in Korea in August. The most advanced classes at present are the bipedal classes for 'humanoid' robots. Co-chair of RoboCup 2009, Gerald Steinbauer, told CNN this year's event was the 13th edition of the cup, and he was impressed by progress by advances since the competitions began. \"At the last RoboCup in China 2008 we had games of teams of three humanoid playing attractive soccer. They walk on two feet, fight for the ball and of course score... so we are approaching the goal,\" he said. Culverhouse said interest in both events had steadily grown, especially since the two-legged robots had been introduced. This year up to 3,000 competitors from 40 countries are expected at RoboCup. \"This has been extremely effective in gaining interest. These are much more exciting to watch. We have seen a steep level of change in interest from not just young people but everybody.\" Despite the increasing profile, Culverhouse said there are still plenty of major challenges before the humanoids can seriously compete with humans. \"This is still a long way from competing against humans. The next big challenge to be met is to get robots walking like humans and then running like humans. \"One of the most challenging things is getting a robot to walk on uneven terrain without falling over,\" he said, explaining that some fall over after kicking at goal. (Although, it's not hard to think of professional footballers who have suffered the same problem.) The University of Plymouth team is currently researching how robot's feet can be improved, and hope to release a concept later this year that could usher in a new era of in foot design. For Steinbauer, the critical issues are that of perception and cognitive abilities. \"Perception is one of our major problems. It is important that a robot is able to understand a scene like a human does. If you enter a complete unknown room you are able to recognize the important things like furniture and also relations and functions of objects very fast,\" he said. \"Despite huge progress in this area we are far behind the capabilities of animals or humans. \"And of course there's cognitive capabilities. To reason about new, uncertain or even inconsistent facts is easy for a human but very hard for a robot,\" Steinbauer said. Size and cost are other limiting issues. \"In order to make this affordable we are developing robots 50 to 60 centimeters high. At that size each robot costs about 10,000 pounds to make. At full human size each would cost about 50,000 pounds,\" Culverhouse said. Soccer is an ideal testing ground for robotics as it encompasses many different elements including movement, vision and strategy, Steinbauer said. But the applications developed in these robots could serve a greater purpose. Steinbauer said robot technologies could be used for entertainment or performing simple tasks around the home and office. They also could be used in rescue scenarios -- where robots could be sent into dangerous situations in place of humans, he said.","highlights":"FIRA and RoboCup organizations promoting development of robots .\nRobots have been competing in regular soccer contests since the mid-'90s .\nScientists hope to be able to beat world's top team of humans by 2050 .\nRobotics developments tested in robo-soccer have uses in other fields .","id":"f94ee3f6bab2c7daf163a0230a01b1a4ab8666de"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole has apologized to London police for a foul-mouthed tirade that led to him being arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in the early hours of Thursday morning. Ashley Cole, pictured signing an autograph at a charity event in London Wednesday. In a statement released by the left-back, Cole said he swore out of his frustration with the paparazzi and insisted he would never disrespect the police. However, Cole admits he did not heed their warnings to calm down and regrets not taking their advice. He also made it clear that he had not consumed a vast amount of alcohol. Cole declared: \"I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the police officers on duty last night for my language. \"I felt I was being harassed by paparazzi and while complaining to the police about this at the scene they did warn me to calm down, a warning that I regrettably did not heed. \"I fully appreciate that whatever frustrations I may have had with others that it was completely inappropriate to vent those in conversations with the police. \"However, I do want to make clear that I swore in frustration at the paparazzi's behavior. I would never disrespect police officers in anyway. \"I take very seriously my responsibilities as a professional footballer, this includes keeping my body in the best condition. Although I had consumed some alcohol earlier in the evening on a night out with friends it had not been excessive. \"But I accept that the language I used on this occasion was wrong. I regret my actions and how it reflects on myself and Chelsea Football Club.\" The 28-year-old was arrested in Brompton Road in the upmarket west London area of South Kensington, close to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground, at about 2.15am on Thursday morning after emerging from the Collection nightclub. Police sources said the officers were already on patrol in the street and were not called to any disorder. One source denied reports they were following up a complaint from a photographer over an alleged bust-up with Cole. Cole was taken to a central London police station and issued with an \u00a380 fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly before being released shortly after 5.30am. Cole is likely to be fined by Chelsea. Before his arrest, Cole had joined Chelsea's first-team squad and more than 300 charity workers, celebrities and supporters for the second annual Chelsea FC and Armani charity fundraiser. Cole, who previously played for Arsenal before joining Chelsea in 2006, is married to the Girls Aloud singer and reality TV judge Cheryl Cole, who is currently on a charity climb on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro.","highlights":"Chelsea defender Ashley Cole apologizes after his arrest on Thursday morning .\n28-year-old England left-back was charged with drunk and disorderly conduct .\nCole blames his frustration at paparazzi for swearing at London police officers .\nCole is married to the Girls Aloud singer and reality TV judge Cheryl Cole .","id":"5248c1d62c2ee4de22d91655d3889f1fff5f3e20"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Watching the news out of Mexico is causing a case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for Dr. Lo Wing-Luk. The sight of people wearing masks became common in Hong Kong after the SARS outbreak of 2003. \"Seeing the people in masks today reminds me of Hong Kong during SARS,\" said Lo, an epidemiology expert who was among those on the frontline during the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003, which within three months infected 8,000 and killed nearly 800 in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Toronto. Historically, Hong Kong has been center stage for recent infections that threatened to spiral across the world, such as SARS and Avian Influenza, which first struck and killed people here in 1997. Southern China -- with the close proximity of its rural agriculture to population centers and globally connected transportation -- has been an ideal conduit for past animal diseases that spread to humans and then to the rest of the world. But with the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the United States, Hong Kong suddenly finds the world looking to it for lessons on how to stop the spread of disease. \"Managing a (potential) pandemic can't be from the top down, it must be from the ground up,\" said Lo, a former Hong Kong legislator representing the medical community. In the early days of SARS, cooperation was lax between Hong Kong health officials and public officials across the border in mainland China, where the live animal wet markets in Guangdong province is suspected in the virus' jump to humans. \"One of the most important lesson of SARS was the importance of good communication,\" says Dr. KY Yuen, head of the microbiology department of Hong Kong University, which found the first human cases of Avian Influenza in 1997 and first identified SARS in 2003. \"There were outbreaks in the middle to late November in Guangdong Province, but the first cases were reported in Hong Kong three months later,\" he said. \"We could have reduced the impact (of SARS) if there had been better communication\" between Hong Kong and mainland China health authorities. The communication channels have improved between China and Hong Kong, health officials said, as well as better surveillance of the disease. Every visitor who comes through Hong Kong International Airport now is scanned by infrared monitors and immediately isolated if suffering from a fever or respiratory illness. \"Quarantine and isolation of people (suspected to be ill) is crucial now,\" Yuen said. As the disease spreads, there is a conflict between the need for a quick response and the time required for appropriate scientific study -- which can result in some bad decisions, Yuen said. For example, in the case of SARS health experts wore full-body protection suits because of initial hunches the disease was being spread by airborne causes. More people were exposed to the disease because of the harried medical staff's improper use of the cumbersome equipment. \"It turned out globes, masks and hand washing were far more effective\" than a breathing apparatus, Yuen said. \"Presumptions are dangerous,\" he added. If Hong Kong is any example, governments who fail to meet the challenges of an outbreak will face rising public heat. In July 2003, half a million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest the government, in part because of frustrations over the response to the SARS outbreak, says Cecilia Chan, director of the Center of Behavioral Health at Hong Kong University -- adding to the woes of the already beleaguered administration of former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Wah, who later stepped down in the middle of his second five-year appointment.","highlights":"Hong Kong at center of recent infections that threatened to spiral across world .\nFirst human cases of Avian Influenza reported in 1997, SARS identified in 2003 .\nDisease expert: Managing a (potential) pandemic can't be from the top down .\nLack of good communication during SARS outbreak was a key failing .","id":"d6bf426d99b6b959c0c7b4c135efb62d898f81af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lanka ordered an end to combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north, the president's office said Monday. But the rebels accused the military of continuing to bomb civilians. Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard next to a tank captured from the Tamil Tigers. \"Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties,\" according a statement from the Presidential Secretariat. A rebel Web site, Tamilnet.com, immediately accused the government of violating its own order and \"deceiving the international community.\" \"Two Sri Lanka air force fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks,\" Tamilnet said, citing S. Puleedevan, director of the Tamil Peace Secretariat. \"Obviously we need to see what that means in practice,\" John Holmes, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations, said about the government announcement to end combat operations. \"But, on the face of it, I think it's good news.\" The military will now concentrate on \"saving\" and \"rescuing civilians,\" who have been caught in the fighting between government forces and rebel fighters, the presidential statement said. The government's decision followed an unscheduled meeting of the National Security Council called by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The session included the commanders of the army, navy and air force. The developments came a day after Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil rebels, warning instead that government troops would continue a new offensive until the group surrendered, a senior government official told CNN. \"The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer,\" said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security. The Tiger leadership had asked the international community to \"pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate\" on the cease-fire offer. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and India have called for a cease-fire. The foreign ministers of three nations are due in Sri Lanka on Wednesday -- David Miliband of the United Kingdom, Bernard Kouchner of France and Carl Bildt of Sweden. The rebels' proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan army sources. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of \"fresh displacement\" now exceeds 100,000 people. Watch civilians describe what they are experiencing \u00bb . Fifty metric tons of relief supplies -- which landed in Colombo on Monday -- will be sent by UNICEF to the north to help displaced residents. UNICEF, which called the situation in the north a \"catastrophe for children,\" said the displaced lack food, water and basic medical supplies. The rebels estimate the number of civilians still located in the territory at more than 160,000. The Sri Lankan military said it \"freed 3,254 civilians from LTTE clutches\" in operations Sunday. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.","highlights":"Tamil rebels say Sri Lankan forces ignoring orders to end military operations Sri Lanka: Forces ordered to cease use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft Rebels say fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets after announcement .\nDevelopments come after Sri Lankan officials reject rebels' cease-fire offer .","id":"aa63b19228e2aa4fd0233ee64205d483febbc581"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amber Easton has gone from $80,000 a year in salary to scrambling for work. At a time in her life when she should be scaling the corporate ladder, she has instead spiraled into a deep depression. She recently lost her car and now faces eviction from her apartment. Job fairs have been on the rise amid the nation's hard economic times. Just last week, the 35-year-old longtime working professional attended two job fairs with friends in the Detroit area. They stood in line for over three hours with hundreds of professionals of all types. \"It was a real eye-opener to see the caliber of people we were in line with -- very educated with vast skill sets,\" Easton said in an e-mail. \"Afterwards, we went to the restaurant located in the same hotel and it was filled with unemployed professionals sharing their story, from engineers to graphic designers to marketing professionals.\" Easton's saga began in July 2007 when she traded in her job as a corporate compliance officer to attend law school, what she thought would help advance her career. But after a year of law school, she decided it wasn't for her. By then, her old job was gone and the job market had shrunk. \"It's hard not to be depressed during a time like this,\" she wrote iReport.com. \"I never imagined in a million years that I would be in such a situation at my age and at this point in my career. I am humiliated. I am praying for everyone else out there is who are facing the same problems.\" She has applied to 70 different companies but gotten few leads. She recently went through a rigorous interview process for one job in another state, but to no avail. Share your economic survivor story . Every day, she searches for new job possibilities and every day results in more desperation. She estimates she's making $20,000 -- \"if that\" -- as a contract employee working from her home. \"I just haven't made enough to keep up.\" Her Detroit neighborhood a couple years ago was booming, she said, but now \"it's like a ghost town around here.\" \"It's bad everywhere, but it's so, so bad here,\" she said. Across the nation, people like Easton are feeling the pinch. Good jobs have evaporated. Former full-time employees are now working part-time contract positions just to get by. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost during 2008, the highest yearly total since the end of World War II in 1945. This week alone, major corporations have announced more than 80,000 job cuts, bringing this year's total to well over 200,000. Dr. Rosalind Dorlen is a clinical psychologist in Summit, New Jersey, an area she calls a \"Wall Street ghetto\" where formerly high-flying executives are out of work. \"Here, the people earn millions of dollars with bonuses that are astronomical,\" said Dorlen, who is also the public education coordinator in New Jersey for the American Psychological Association. \"There is a demoralizing aspect to having a huge salary and a huge bonus and then having to look for a job that is going to pay much, much less.\" She added, \"What I'm hearing is a terrible sense of betrayal, anxiety and people experiencing lots of stress.\" That, in turn, can lead to an increase in unhealthy coping behaviors, such as an uptick in alcohol consumption, unhealthy eating and worse sleeping habits. Dorlen has several tips for people out of work: . \u2022 Don't panic; . \u2022 Find a support group, even if it's just an informal group of friends; . \u2022 Seek employment counseling when available; . \u2022 Be professional in your job hunt; . \u2022 Network with other professionals; . \u2022 Take time to exercise during hard times; . \u2022 Spend valuable time with your family. On a practical note, she said people should contact their creditors to let them know the situation. She also advises people to do volunteer work and to cultivate a \"spirit of optimism.\" \"Bad times pass, and it's sometimes hard to see that when you're in the throes of a terrible place,\" she said. \"I think we do need to hold onto a spirit of optimism and a sense of confidence.\" See Top companies: They're hiring! \"I think we're getting mired in the gloom and doom, and we need to hold on to the fact that lots of people are working.\" CNN's user-generated site, iReport.com, has been flooded with messages from people out of work. One woman held up her husband's r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and said, \"Please, please, please take him off my hands.\" Watch woman plead case for hubby . \"My husband can knock out a honey-do list like nobody's business, and he meets my great, high standards every day. Don't let my husband slip through your hands. He would be a great addition to your team,\" the woman said under the headline \"Wife Seeking Job for Husband.\" In Delaware, Manoj Philip, 24, said he had a full-time job in 2007 with Agilent Technologies making about $55,000 a year, including all the perks and benefits that came with it. But in July 2007, he quit that job to pursue a career in real estate. \"I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't think it would be this tough,\" he said. By September 2008, Philip needed a second income because of the withering housing market. He picked up a full-time contracting job and continues to do real estate about 20-30 hours per week. It was a shock, he said, to return to full-time work while putting his real estate dreams on hold. \"It took a lot for me to change that mental outlook. Because before I would've thought of it as something holding me back,\" Philip said. \"But I don't look at it like that anymore.\" He's since learned the value of living within his means, budgeting and making every dollar he spends count for something. \"These are really important lessons to learn. I'm glad I learned it at such a young age.\" In Detroit, Easton said she knows America will bounce back at some point, but \"in the meantime, people are losing everything.\" \"That's what scares me,\" she said.","highlights":"Detroit woman goes to job fair; stunned by the hundreds of professionals in line .\n\"I never imagined in a million years that I would be in such a situation\"\nClinical psychologist advises people not to panic, to try to remain optimistic .\n\"Bad times pass, and it's sometimes hard to see that,\" Dr. Rosalind Dorlen said .","id":"99dc6840d29963951f5b59c7ebf0f2d512e39646"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World number one Rafael Nadal continues to prove unbeatable on his favorite clay-court surface, as he won his fifth Barcelona Open title in a row with a straight sets victory over fellow-Spaniard David Ferrer on Sunday. Rafael Nadal lifts the massive Barcelona Open trophy for the fifth year in a row after his win over David Ferrer. The 22-year-old Nadal, who last week secured his fifth Monte Carlo title in succession, repeated that feat on home soil by winning 6-2 7-5 in a repeat of the 2008 final. The victory gave Nadal his 35th career title (24 of them coming on clay) and meant the Barcelona tournament was won by a home player for a seventh straight year. \"I could have never have imagined that I would win here for a fifth time,\" a beaming Nadal said after the match. \"Congratulations to David also. Even if it was impossible for him to win today, he had a great tournament. For me, this is much more than a dream,\" he added. Nadal will have no time to celebrate as he heads directly for the Rome Masters which begins on Monday. Last year, an obviously exhausted Nadal lost in his opening match to compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero.","highlights":"Rafael Nadal defeats David Ferrer in straight sets to lift Barcelona Open title .\nWorld number one wins 6-2 7-5 to take the trophy for a fifth year in succession .\nThe title was Nadal's 35th of his career with 24 of those coming on clay-courts .","id":"0cbc7adbb39a333f2af98db19cf6d5c83bef6cbc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday he appreciated U.S. President Barack Obama's friendly gestures at last weekend's Summit of the Americas, but said they don't change his view of the United States as an imperialist nation. Hugo Chavez had handshakes and smiles for President Obama at the Summit of the Americas last weekend. Chavez's fiery diatribes against the United States have included referring to former President George W. Bush as the devil. He was photographed with Obama at least twice at the summit -- once when Obama shook hands with him and other leaders, and again when he approached Obama to give him a book. \"The hand[shake], yes. And the smile, yes -- one time and a second time and a third time and a fourth time,\" Chavez said during a televised address. \"But nobody should be mistaken. The empire is there, alive and kicking.\" The book Chavez presented to Obama as cameras rolled is titled \"Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.\" The book chronicles Europe's and the United States' role in \"the effects and causes of capitalist underdevelopment in Latin America,\" according to one reviewer. As he has in the past, Chavez noted Obama's historic role as the first black U.S. president. \"I hope Obama, for the dignity of his race, may be the last president of an imperialist United States,\" he said.","highlights":"Venezuelan president in TV interview: [U.S.] \"empire is there, alive and kicking\"\nFriendly exchanges with Obama didn't change his view of U.S., Chavez says .\nChavez: \"I hope Obama ... may be the last president of an imperialist United States\"","id":"07e3a31e2b807f2dc4d76d80bd8b823f9470e10e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Carl Edwards, one of NASCAR's elite, makes a living traveling at speeds upwards of 200 mph and is on the road more than 200 days a year. So when he wants to slow down, he heads to his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. NASCAR driver Carl Edwards grew up in Columbia, Missouri. He grew up in Columbia and couldn't wait to get out of town, but after living in North Carolina for three years, he was ready to come back. \"I realized after being away, there just aren't many places cooler than this,\" Edwards said. \"So I moved back, and now I live here and I'm really proud to live here.\" He competes in both the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series for NASCAR. He won a Busch Series Cup in 2007, finished last year's Sprint Cup Series in second, and is fiercely fighting for Sprint Cup honors this year. Edwards has recovered from a frightening crash-ending to his last race in Talladega, Alabama, and is looking forward to racing in Richmond, Virginia, this week, hoping for his first trip of the season to victory lane. His fans are eagerly awaiting that trademark victory back flip. But through all of the excitement and acclaim, Edwards remains grounded and true to his Missouri roots. He took CNN home with him to Columbia -- which is between Kansas City and St. Louis -- to share some of his favorite spots. The day started at Rock Bridge State Park, 2,273 acres of natural beauty and serenity that is hard to believe is only 10 minutes from the bustling center of this college town. \"This park is one of Columbia's best secrets. It's a beautiful place to come mountain biking, hiking. There's a cave that runs under this ground that goes for over 50 miles.\" The park boasts 15 miles of trails and endless possibilities for adventure, from hiking and biking to canoeing and even cave exploration. When Edwards gets the need for speed at home, he opts for two wheels instead of four. He grabs his bicycle and heads to the Katy Trail, just up the road from Rock Bridge Park. \"This used to be an old railroad, and now it's a state park. It's 10 feet wide, it's over 200 miles long, and all of this is open to the public.\" Edwards also showed us one of his favorite trail features: a beautiful giant bur oak tree simply referred to by Missouri natives as \"the big bur oak.\" Edwards says it's one of the oldest in the state and thinks that it is one of the coolest spots along the trail. All that exercise and fresh air can certainly rev up an appetite, and Edwards has two favorite places to cure that. For what he calls the best burger in the world, he heads to Booches Billiard Hall, one of his high school hangouts. \"We used to come here in high school when we probably should have been in school. We'd shoot pool, eat booch burgers and just have a good time,\" he said. We were greeted by one of the owners, Charlie Kurry, who poked a little fun at Edwards' trademark backflip celebration. \"The only thing flipping in here is the burgers,\" Kurry said. Booches has been in operation in Columbia since 1884. Next up is Shakespeare's Pizza, which has been serving slices in Columbia for more than 35 years. \"They can make you anything you want. They've got whole wheat crust if you're into the health stuff like I am. And it's so good, they even catered my wedding.\" These are just some of the hidden gems of Carl Edwards' Columbia, but this town has much more to offer. There are museums, festivals and parades, and the University of Missouri has provided a lot of athletic excitement with its football and basketball teams over the past few years. It's a perfect weekend getaway from its larger surrounding cities. And if you live farther away than that, it's worth the trip!","highlights":"NASCAR driver Carl Edwards shares his favorite spots in Columbia, Missouri .\nHe's a fan of Rock Bridge State Park, only 10 minutes from the center of town .\nEdwards also frequents Booches Billiard Hall for the \"best burger in the world\"","id":"1776daee1da76231267235b19383dc3b115b9457"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Over-the-counter painkillers and fever reducers will now carry new labels warning consumers of the potential risks of liver damage and internal bleeding associated with the drugs, according to a final ruling Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The new warning labels will affect over-the-counter pain relievers including Tylenol, aspirin and ibuprofen. The new rule covers acetaminophen, the popular pain medicine also known as Tylenol, and a class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs. The most commonly used NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen (the main ingredient in Motrin and Advil), naproxen and ketoprofen. The modified labeling also applies to all products that contain these ingredients, such as cough and cold medicines. Under the new rule, package labels and bottles must prominently state in highlighted text the drug's ingredients. For acetaminophen, the label must include bold lettering warning patients about severe liver damage. The new labeling also instructs patients using the blood thinner warfarin to consult their doctor before using acetaminophen. Bold lettering on NSAIDs labels must warn of severe stomach bleeding. \"Acetaminophen and NSAIDs are commonly used drugs for both children and adults because they are effective in reducing fevers and relieving minor aches and pain, such as headaches and muscle aches,\" said Dr. Charles Ganley, director of nonprescription drugs in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. \"However, the risks associated with their use need to be clearly identified on the label so that consumers taking these drugs are fully aware of the potential harm they can cause. It is important that they know how to take these medications safely to reduce their risk.\" The new labeling for acetaminophen also warns against taking multiple drugs that contain acetaminophen at the same time and exceeding the recommended dosage of the drug. And, it warns that drinking alcohol -- three or more drinks a day -- while using the painkiller can increase the risk of liver damage. For NSAIDs, the new labels will also caution users that alcohol use and taking the drugs for longer than directed can increase the risk of stomach bleeding. The agency says the use of blood thinning drugs or steroids while taking NSAIDs can also increase the risk of internal bleeding. The American Pain Foundation is pleased with the new rule. \"This ruling will not only help protect consumers using OTC pain medication on a periodic basis,\" APF said, \"But will be especially meaningful for people suffering from chronic pain who may face co-morbid conditions and are taking OTC pain medication along with their prescribed pain medication.\" According to the FDA, some manufacturers have already voluntarily started listing some of these risks on their product labels. The new rule gives manufacturers one year from today's date to re-label their products.","highlights":"FDA requires OTC painkillers to carry new warnings on liver damage, bleeding risks .\nNew rule covers acetaminophen (Tylenol) and NSAIDs (aspirin and ibuprofen)\nIbuprofen is the main ingredient in Motrin and Advil, naproxen and ketoprofen .\nManufacturers have one year from today's date to re-label their products .","id":"8d3bd86f1c77c1ca7563d0d2a262750392094404"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- In radio broadcasts and sermons, Taliban militants have been promoting themselves as Islamic Robin Hoods, defending Pakistan's rural poor from a ruling elite that they describe as corrupt and oppressive. Mohammed Daoud, with his son Faisal, is among those who have embraced the Taliban's message. That message has been resonating throughout the Pakistani countryside, where the culture is deeply conservative and the people are desperately poor. In farmlands just 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the center of Islamabad, Mohammed Daoud and his 15-year-old son Faisal eke out a living by cutting grass for their four water buffalo. They feed their family of seven, earning the equivalent of around $50 a month by selling buffalo milk. Two months ago, Daoud said, the government bulldozed his family's house, probably because they were illegally squatting on property they did not own. \"Justice [in Pakistan] is only for people who have money,\" Daoud said, while slicing through handfuls of grass with a small scythe. \"We are illiterate,\" he added, \"but we are hoping that with Islamic sharia law, our lives will get better.\" Across this overwhelmingly Muslim country, there is widespread hope that adopting a strict code of law based on the Koran will transform a society where corruption is rampant and where at least a quarter of the population lives under the poverty line. Watch why the Taliban's message would resonate . Enforcement of sharia law is the platform the Taliban have been using to justify recent land-grabs, such as last week's armed occupation of the district of Buner, some 60 miles from the Pakistani capital. In an interview with CNN, Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in the militant stronghold of Swat Valley, denounced the Pakistani government, calling the prime minister and lawmakers \"un-Islamic.\" \"They're making money like in a supermarket,\" Khan said, adding that under sharia law both the rich and the poor would be treated equally. Militants have slowly taken over territory in northwestern Pakistan by first targeting unpopular landlords and bureaucrats, according to Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog. \"Its systematic. The Taliban move into an area, they use local existing resentments. They often go in with the guise of being Robin Hoods,\" said Amnesty International representative Sam Zarifi. \"They scare away some local thieves, they impose very, very quick justice, very harsh justice, and initially in some places they are even welcomed.\" The Taliban's promise of Islamic justice would be welcomed in farm fields on the outskirts of Islamabad. Rows of wheat -- along with the posh villas of Pakistan's ruling elite -- are within sight of Islamabad's iconic white Faisal Mosque. \"In the present judicial system, even the innocent people are punished,\" said Sajeet Hussein, as he and a group of farmers shared lunch under the shade of a tree. The group explained that they were losing a court battle to stop the government from seizing their land, because they claimed they couldn't afford to bribe policemen and judges. \"Every part of the country should have sharia law, like in Saudi Arabia,\" said Hussein's brother Babar, who sported a long bushy beard. \"Then poor and rich people will be equal.\" \"We love the Taliban,\" announced one Pashtun farmer who asked not to be named. He called the militants heroes. Sports star-turned-politician Imran Khan summed up his response to the Taliban in Pakistan by saying, \"The poorer section of society is joining them...this is now developing into a battle between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' \"What the Taliban are giving them is cheap -- in fact, free -- accessible justice at the village level,\" he added. \"This is what Pakistan should be doing for its own people.\" But if farmer Babar Hussein has his way, Taliban justice would mean taking away freedoms from Pakistani women, like the right to have a driver's license. \"Women should not even come out of their houses. That's against Islam\" he said, while complaining about the un-Islamic fashions he saw women wearing in Islamabad. When Taliban militants overran Buner last week, they told women to stay indoors, warned men to stop shaving their beards, and threatened shopkeepers who sold movies and music. In Pakistan's rural society, male strangers are not even supposed look at local women. And yet, some farmers enjoy blaring Bollywood music and even dancing on trailers full of hay, while driving their gaudily-decorated tractors. If the Taliban's rural revolt succeeds, it could bring silence to the Pakistani countryside.","highlights":"Amnesty International: Taliban first targets unpopular landlords, bureaucrats .\nTaliban spokesman in Swat Valley calls Pakistani government as \"un-Islamic\"\nIslamabad's Faisal Mosque surrounded by posh villas of Pakistan's ruling elite .\nImran Khan: Battle shaping up as one \"between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' \"","id":"ae7f5c9675d086027d651446f1a875494455a2ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to U.S. cycling legend Lance Armstrong was stolen from a team truck in California just hours after he rode it Saturday on the first day of a nine-day race. Lance Armstrong is racing in the California Amgen Tour as he attempts a comeback after retiring in 2005. Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong is racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week as he continues his latest comeback after retiring from the sport in 2005. Armstrong's first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. Armstrong announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. \"There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered,\" the Texan wrote before going out and finishing fifth in Sunday's testing first stage won by Spain's Francisco Mancebo. Swiss Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who started the day in the yellow jersey after winning Saturday's time-trial prologue, pulled out midway through the stage feeling unwell. Armstrong improved from 10th to fifth overall, one minute five seconds adrift, with Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, the two-time defending champion, in second place behind Mancebo. \"Holy hell. That was terrible,\" commented Armstrong who had a puncture. \"Maybe one of the toughest days I've had on a bike, purely based on the conditions. I'm still freezing.\" The bicycle that was stolen is not the one that Armstrong rides every day during the race. The stolen bike is used only for time trials, a race in which cyclists ride individually at staggered intervals over a set distance and try to get the best time. The thieves took four bikes from a truck Armstrong's Astana team had parked behind a hotel in Sacramento. The other three bicycles belonged to team members Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych, Astana said. Armstrong, 37, won the Tour de France, considered the premiere bicycle race in the world, a record seven times from 1999-2005. The 750-mile Amgen Tour of California ends Sunday. It is the second major race in which Armstrong has participated since announcing his comeback in September. He raced last month in the Tour Down Under in Australia, finishing 29th. Armstrong said he is aiming for another Tour de France victory this summer and was not expected to contend in the Australian race, which he used to gauge his fitness level after more than three years out of the saddle.","highlights":"Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind bicycle stolen from team truck in California .\nFour bicycles stolen from truck Armstrong's Astana team parked behind hotel .\nCancer survivor Armstrong is currently fifth overall in Amgen Tour of California .\nArmstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times from 1999-2005 .","id":"16f0177a7b90b1d1c986adc3f7e8ffad9c120560"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Meeting planner Gail Murphy heard about the travel warning to Mexico too late in the day on Monday to do anything about her plans to head to Cancun the following day. Alberto Morales wore a mask on his flight from Mexico City to Denver, Colorado, on Monday. \"I'm in good health,\" said Murphy, who is heading to the Eighth Annual Mexico Showcase and Travel Expo from her home in Shelburne, Vermont. \"I'm a risk taker, so I'll go anyway.\" In light of the swine flu, the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning against any non-essential travel to Mexico. The move could potentially devastate an already struggling tourism industry in the country. The World Health Organization urged countries not to restrict international travel or close borders, as such measures would not in themselves stem the outbreak. Efforts to contain the outbreak by restricting travel would be unlikely to work without \"draconian measures,\" said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency's assistant director-general. But he said people who are ill should put off trips abroad, and people who fall ill after a trip should see a doctor. Mexico is the epicenter for the swine influenza virus outbreak. More than 100 deaths in Mexico are being investigated as possibly tied to the outbreak. The WHO confirmed 73 cases of swine flu Monday, but health officials in Scotland, California and Texas confirmed nine more, bringing the worldwide total to 82. Reports of the illness in Mexico couldn't have come at a worse time for the country's tourism industry, which is already grappling with negative publicity about drug-cartel fueled violence. \"They were having a terrible time anyway with all of the problems on the border and now to be hit with this, too,\" said Barbara Nassau, owner of New York-based In House Travel Solutions. She added that the outbreak has the potential to hamper travel similar to the way it was affected when bird flu hit China. iReporter Dyana Pari Nafissi works in international business development in Mexico City and said tourism in the country had already been dealt a blow by fears of violence. iReport.com: Watch Dyana discuss what's happening in Mexico . \"We've been on a steady decline since the first U.S. travel warning about the drug cartels,\" she said. \"When you look at the kids that braved [that travel warning], and now they are back [in the U.S.] and they are sick. It's devastating to the economy here.\" Some of the confirmed cases in the United States were high school students who recently returned from a trip to Mexico. News of the outbreak didn't seem to overly concern travelers arriving Monday at Denver International Airport on a Mexicana flight from Mexico City. Two Mexicana crew members who didn't want to be named said about 60 percent of the passengers wore masks during the flight. Ernesto Vargas, a Mexican businessman, didn't wear a mask. \"I thought about carrying one with me, but the crew wasn't wearing a mask. So we asked them, and it seemed quite safe.\" Alberto Morales, another businessman, said he wore a mask in the Mexico City airport and on the plane. \"Yes. I have a mask, and we are using the mask.\" Is he concerned? \"Don't worry, I am OK,\" he said with a laugh. \"People are afraid about the flu, but we have many precautions and the government has a good sense for this trouble,\" Morales said. Ian Jeffries, a spokesman for Expedia.com, said the company had no data as of Monday on cancellations or changes caused by fear of swine flu, but added that it was prepared to aid any of its customers that had concerns. \"Expedia is currently offering to waive Expedia-imposed change and cancel fees for hotel and air reservations originally booked to Mexico,\" he said. \"We will continue to monitor the situation and modify our policy accordingly.\" Several major U.S. airlines also are waiving fees for those who want to change their travel plans to Mexico. Jeffery Brown arrived at the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday after spending five days in Cancun with his wife. They saw people in surgical masks but didn't notice any widespread concern. \"My wife and I were a little concerned, but you know we haven't seen anybody sick in our resort, and we haven't seen anybody sick at the airport,\" he said. \"Nobody said a word about it [at the resort].\" Mexico isn't the only country that potentially has a tourism headache on its hands. Cases of swine flu have also popped up in Canada and Spain as well as the United States and Scotland. Watch how businesses might be affected by swine flu \u00bb . Steve Weakland, border security coordinator for the United States Customs and Border Protection Atlanta field office, said all of his personnel have received illness recognition training. If a traveler exhibits symptoms of the disease, CBP employees have been trained to inform the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further investigate. \"Our guys are more the recognition aspect of it,\" Weakland said. \"We wouldn't make any diagnosis or anything along those lines.\" Teresa Roberts planned to take her mom to Akumal, Mexico, for Mother's Day and said she was more worried about traveling to New York for business than she is about contracting swine flu south of the border. \"Just because of the number of different travelers that go through the airports in New York from all around the world,\" said Roberts who flies about two or three weeks a month from her home in Atlanta, Georgia. \"I'm not nervous about going to Mexico at all.\" Many in the tourism industry appeared to be taking a wait-and-see approach. Disney Cruise Lines, which does not sail into Mexico, said it is closely monitoring the situation, as did officials for theme parks including Universal and Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Meg Barton travels several times a year to Mexico from her home in Round Rock, Texas, and also isn't overly worried. Because of her father's recent heart surgery, she is already an avid hand washer and is always cautious about germs when abroad. \"I don't drink a lot of water in Mexico ever, and I am really more concerned about the drug issues in Mexico than I am the swine flue,\" Barton said. \"We take antibiotics and Pepto with us when we travel.\" Eric Meyer of Lafayette, Colorado, flew in to Minneapolis-St. Paul with his wife and baby to visit family in Minnesota and lamented that \"It's out there, but what can you do?\" \"Wash your hands maybe and call it good,\" he added. \"Put a mask on? [I'm] not gonna go that far and be that guy yet.\" Rochelle Yates said a client of her New York City-based Yates Travel is planning to take plenty of antiseptic products on an upcoming trip to Cancun. Most seasoned travelers know to guard against infectious disease ordinarily, Yates said. \"My clients are people who travel all over the world, and they know that you have to take precautions regardless,\" Yates said. \"You have to wash your hands no matter where you are, if you are on a cruise ship, in a hotel or even in your own house.\" CNN's Chris Welch, Jim Spellman and Amy Zerba contributed to this story.","highlights":"U.S. issues an advisory against non-essential travel to Mexico .\nTourism industry waiting to see effects of swine flu .\nMexico tourism already dealing with reports of violence .\nTheme parks, cruise lines and others monitoring situation .","id":"5cf433e487131a0a399891b8718a9aab1ad32e96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On Monday night, CNN's Larry King had an exclusive interview with actor George Clooney, who returned from the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan and just finished meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. George Clooney, left, talks with Vice President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday. King spoke with the activist actor live from the White House on the humanitarian crisis Clooney says we must confront, along with getting a couple of tidbits about what's next for Clooney's acting career. The following is a partial transcript, edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: We begin with George Clooney, the Oscar-winning actor and activist. He's traveled to Darfur at the refugee camps near the Sudan\/Chad border last week and met with Vice President [Joe] Biden today. He's standing, as you see, in front of the White House, where it's 12 degrees. And we thank him for doing this, because he's freezing to death. George Clooney: I should have worn an overcoat tonight. King: You have no coat on? Clooney: No -- and no pants either ... King: Well, you've always been a little strange, George. Anyway, you met with the vice president today about Darfur. What did you tell him? Clooney: Basically, we were just talking about coming back from Chad, right on the border of Darfur. And we were talking about there's a moment coming up relatively soon, probably by the middle of next week, where the International Criminal Court is going to indict the president of Sudan for war crimes, which has never happened before -- a sitting president. And we talked about this being an opportunity, perhaps, not just for the United States, but all of us together to work with the international community in a real diplomatic effort to try and bring some sort of peace to this region. King: What scale of interest did Biden show? Clooney: Vice President Biden has been incredibly vocal on the issue. We had a long talk about the idea of, first and foremost, appointing a high level, full-time envoy that reports directly to the White House so that it's not just temporary. We need somebody working on this, you know, every day -- getting up every morning with their sole job to find peace in the area. King: What did you see last week? Clooney: It was rough. You know, it's always rough over there. You feel terrible for them. They're hanging on by a thread. We saw an awful lot of fear. There was [also] a tremendous amount of hope. You know, there was a lot of hope that these indictments and this new administration are going to be able to help move the international community toward toward a real peace. King: How do you handle just meeting with these people and seeing this tragedy? Personally, how do you handle it? Clooney: I could tell you a million stories about how it actually affects you personally. But I don't think people should be going there and coming back and saying how it affected them. I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. King: Was your safety in jeopardy? Clooney: Oh, you're talking about the U.N. story. King: Yes. What, they pulled your security, right? Clooney: I was never in jeopardy. I was with journalists who wanted to go into some areas that weren't particularly safe. And we decided that we would go. And that wasn't necessarily part of what the U.N. was looking to do. And so we just went on our own. It was fine. I wanted to say something, also, Larry, which I forgot to say about what I just did today. I delivered 250,000 postcards signed by people all across the country who wanted to help give some political capital to and remind this administration of how important this issue is. It was from the Save Darfur people. But it's from all across the country. And we're probably going to have another 700,000 by the end of the week. King: What specifically, George, do you want Secretary of State Clinton and the administration to do? Clooney: It doesn't appear that the United States is going to send troops in or that the U.N. Is going to send in an army to do this. What it really means is that we're going to need diplomacy. And diplomacy has to start and it has to be aggressive and it has to start soon. We have an opportunity here. King: One other quick thing. Are you going to be in the final presentation of \"E.R. ?\" Clooney: Actually, I'm doing a remake of \"Friends,\" which -- I didn't want to break the news. King: Oh, my gosh. Clooney: I'm going be playing the Jennifer Aniston role. King: I'm thrilled for you, George. Clooney: Thank you. It's a career move. It's a choice. King: Are you going to be in \"E.R.?\" Clooney: I am. I'm in the last episode with Susan Sarandon and Julianna Margulies. So it should be fun. King: Thanks, George. Get out of the cold. Clooney: Thank you. It's good to talk to you.","highlights":"CNN's Larry King talks with George Clooney about his trip to see Darfur refugees .\nClooney meets with Vice President Joe Biden, urges aggressive U.S. diplomacy .\nActor on Darfur refugees: \"They're hanging on by a thread\"\nClooney says he'll be back on \"E.R.\" for final episode of long-running series .","id":"5656ff085bd3e100392f342b76cc3c2f1f148b47"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Maybe you had one as a kid, or knew someone who did. It's the iconic little red wagon with the Radio Flyer logo. Radio Flyer is developing a prototype of a wagon with digital controls and an MP3 player dock. If so, you might not recognize the newest product dreamed up by the brain trust at Radio Flyer's Chicago, Illinois, headquarters. This wagon, called the Cloud 9, is equipped with enough high-tech bells and whistles to make the family minivan jealous. \"We approached this product much like an automotive company might with a concept car,\" said Mark Johnson, Radio Flyer's product development manager. Outfitted with 5-point safety harnesses, padded seats, cup holders, foot brakes and fold-out storage containers, the sleek, curved Cloud 9 has every family covered for a ride through the park. But that's just for starters. There's a digital handle that tracks temperature, time, distance and speed -- just in case energetic parents want to track their split times around the playground. And there's a slot for an MP3 player, complete with speakers, for some cruising tunes. That's right: The little red wagon has gone 2.0. \"Music is such an important part of kids' and families' lives, we thought it would be great to have a speaker system built in the wagon,\" said Tom Schlegel, vice president of product development. The Cloud 9 is still a prototype, but it wasn't developed on a whim. The company did extensive market research beforehand, then tested it out on the real experts at home. \"We sit down [and] observe how moms and kids are using our products,\" said Schlegel. \"That's where our new ideas come from.\" To develop those ideas, Radio Flyer's designers are using state-of-the art technology. They use Wacom Cintiq graphic tablets, allowing them to draw directly onto digital renderings of new products. And Radio Flyer also has its own in-house computer numerical control, or CNC, machines that create prototypes right on site. Radio Flyer's blend of cutting-edge design and old-fashioned products appears to be a successful recipe. In an economy where businesses and families alike are tightening their belts, the company is still going strong. \"Radio Flyer survived the Great Depression, and this year has been a difficult year for a lot of companies,\" Schlegel says, \"But Radio Flyer is actually growing this year. We're actually looking for engineers and designers in our product development group to keep up with the growth of the company.\" That's quite a testament for a company nearly 90 years old. Theirs is an American success story that started when Italian immigrant Antonio Pasin started building wooden toy wagons in 1917. He had limited success but was encouraged enough to start the Liberty Coaster Company in 1923. The company changed names seven years later, becoming Radio Steel & Manufacturing. The world was introduced that same year to the first steel wagon, called the Radio Flyer. Since then, Radio Flyer has become perhaps the world's most famous maker of wagons, tricycles and other toys. The company's best-known product even inspired a 1992 movie, \"Radio Flyer,\" about a boy who imagines converting his red wagon into a flying machine to help his little brother flee an abusive stepdad. Whether you grew up on Rock-'em Sock-'em Robots or Xbox, the little red wagon has remained a mainstay of child's play. It's certainly evolved over the years, though -- the rusty metal has been replaced with plastic. But the spirit of Radio Flyer, which conjures memories of a simpler time, remains intact. \"One of the most important things about Radio Flyer products is that they really help [keep kids active outdoors],\" Schlegel said. \"So when we're designing our products, we're really looking at how can we get kids outside and playing, away from the video games and TV screens and computer screens.\" CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Radio Flyer, maker of the classic red toy wagon, is creating a high-tech new product .\nThe Cloud 9 wagon has digital controls, speakers and a dock for an MP3 player .\nThe wagon is still a prototype, developed after extensive market research .\nRadio Flyer's founder began building wooden toy wagons in 1917 .","id":"186927c6c9547eceff7400fac99733b422ab327d"} -{"article":"(Parenting.com) -- Bed has always been a place I can't get enough of: the sex; the sleep; cozy afternoons reading; lazy Saturday mornings listening to hyper neighbors mow their lawns. \"I learned that Dad really can be interchangeable with Mom, if only I'll let him.\" After my husband and I had kids, bed also became the object of my dearest fantasies -- the oasis I dreamed about in my late-afternoon stupor, when I knew that many hours still lay between me and the sheets. My covetous view of bed changed, however, midway through my third pregnancy, when some suspicious bleeding led my obstetrician to prescribe bed rest for several days, possibly longer. \"But I have two small kids!\" I protested. For those of you more gestationally fortunate, \"bed rest\" means lying there for hour upon idle hour -- or in the worst cases, week upon idle week -- afraid that even taking a quick shower or reaching for the TV remote might make you lose your baby. Parenting.com: 71 new-mom truths . What would my 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter do without Mama to attend to them every second of their exhausting days? Who could I get to fill my maternal shoes? Our relatives live far away. Hiring a nanny was financially out of the question. The answer, of course, was that the children's father would have to be their mother (he runs his own company from home), although I must confess I had my doubts. George is a wonderful, involved dad; he changes diapers, does \"this little piggy,\" and pitches baseballs equally well -- and equally willingly. But George has always slept straight through 3 a.m. feedings and bad dreams. I'm the chief of childhood minutiae around here; the one who pours the juice, monitors the wee-wees, and knows what \"do the coyote\" means (a dry-eye technique for shampooing hair). On top of being both Mama and Daddy, George would have to play nurse to me too. But -- the biggest, overriding but -- the unborn baby's health was paramount. \"Get in bed, stay in bed, and don't worry about a thing,\" George ordered. Parenting.com: How men change, from lover to husband to father . The first few hours went quickly enough. There was the novelty of gliding between fresh sheets in the middle of the day and the welcome release from snack doling and bottom wiping. \"Mommy's sick,\" my husband explained to the kids, closing my door. I read straight through one of those books that ordinarily serve as dust catchers. I napped. With the door closed and the fan whirring, you couldn't even tell there were two tots downstairs. It was so quiet. Quiet usually means trouble's afoot. Did George realize this? \"Mommy! Mommy!\" I heard them cry. Or did I? My maternal engines idling nervously, I pictured the kids stoned on Cheetos and Popsicles; my daughter's unchanged Pull-Ups sagging to her knees; six straight hours of the Cartoon Network turning their little eyeballs into black-and-white checkerboards. Darn it, why was it so quiet downstairs? \"Mommy! Mommy!\" It was the kids, bursting through my bedroom doorway with excited squeals. George had taken them out to dinner and bought each child a toy doctor's kit. They were palpably relieved at being able to take an active part in my scary convalescence. Solemnly, they listened to my heartbeat, \"tested\" my blood pressure, and administered innumerable shots. \"You must stay in bed!\" admonished the 2-year-old, wagging a pudgy finger. I had to admit that, had the circumstances been reversed, with me filling in for a bedridden George, I'd never have thought of something so clever. Then the object of my admiration appeared. \"Okay, you can get up now,\" he said, handing me my robe. Already? I wondered. Was he throwing in the towel after just a few hours? Then two young muscle-bound guys materialized in the bedroom and began to remove the saggy, full-size, 10-year-old mattress on which I had just been lying. A few minutes later, they marched back up the stairs brandishing a brand-new, ultra-firm king-size model. George put down new sheets and sent me back to bed. Wow! That wasn't all. My dinner that evening arrived on a tray -- stuffed salmon, baked potato, and broccoli on good china, with a chocolate bar on the side. The kids sat with me quietly, impressed and awaiting the chocolate. Now, I don't know what the kitchen looked like or exactly how often my daughter's Pull-Ups were changed, but for the next several days George knocked himself out keeping everyone happy. He rented six movies for me (half based on Jane Austen novels, half starring Harrison Ford). He monitored the kids' frequent visits to give me more \"shots\" and let them deliver my mail (from which he'd removed all the bills, leaving only the juicy catalogs). They went to the park and the zoo. Blessedly, my bout with bed rest lasted less than a week. The bleeding stopped as mysteriously as it had begun, and four and a half months later my baby daughter was born beautiful and perfect. But the lessons of the episode linger on today. I learned that Dad really can be interchangeable with Mom, if only I'll let him. And that it takes more than one person to keep a family running -- it's a minuet among all its members. When one of us falls back, the others fill in. Parenting.com: How to slow down, relax, and enjoy motherhood . Sometimes now, on particularly long days, when all three kids are crying at once and I begin to unspool, shrieking back at them like the Anti-June Cleaver, my husband will say to me, in an oh-stop-being-a-martyr tone of voice, \"Why don't you just go to bed?\" And you know what? I do. Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"Pregnant mother of two is ordered to mandatory bed rest .\nShe worries kids are eating candy and Pull-Ups never changed .\nDad buys kids toy doctor kits to calm their fears over sick mom .\nHe delivers great meals, new bed and takes kids out to play .","id":"6bebae87f082afec39ed283ad7efc42ff35c9f8c"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Regrowing a fingertip cut off in an accident sounds like something from a futuristic movie. But with innovative technology developed by the U.S. Army, such regrowth is possible today. This remotely controlled robot, called BEAR, could help remove injured soldiers from battlefields. This research project and a hundred others were on display this month at the 26th Army Science Convention. Some the greatest minds in science from around the world gathered at the four-day conference to exchange ideas and showcase collaborative projects between the Army's research laboratories, universities and partner industries. The main goal is to develop technology to make soldiers safer and more effective, said Thomas H. Killion, the Army's chief scientist. The Army's regenerative medicine study combined properties from the intestinal lining and the urinary bladder to create a regenerative substance called Extracellular Matrix. The cream-colored crystallized powder, called \"magic dust,\" boosts the body's natural tendency to repair itself, said U.S. Army Biological Scientist Sgt. Glen Rossman. When the matrix is applied to a missing digit or limb, \"the body thinks it's back in the womb,\" Rossman said. One civilian participated in the regenerative-medicine study after cutting off the tip of his finger in a model plane's propeller. Researchers continually applied the matrix to the wound, and after four weeks, the body grew skin and tissue to replenish the damaged area. The U.S. military branches have begun a consortium with private institutions to develop treatments for severely injured troops. With the help of grants, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine is studying nerve and vein transplantation, treating burns without scarring and regeneration of tissue, skin and even bone. Through both animal studies and civilian clinical trials, the institute is developing therapies for the large number of soldiers injured by improvised explosive devices and other explosives in Afghanistan and Iraq. \"We are working on trying to regenerate limbs, to repair limbs and to keep them from being amputated,\" institute Project Director Col. Bob Vandre said. Army scientists also have developed an engineered skin substitute made in a laboratory from patients' own cells. A postage stamp-sized patch of skin could grow several times larger than the original sample. The engineered skin could then be placed over a wound or burn, protecting it from infection, and eventually cover large portions of the body that have been damaged. \"Our goal is to restore the function to our wounded warriors who have given so much in battle,\" Vandre said. Armed Forces Institute scientists also say they also have developed a process to rebuild missing or damaged bone. A web-like tube of calcium-phosphate ceramic, called hydroxyapatite, acts as a biodegradable scaffold that is set in place of the missing bone, giving the body a platform on which to rebuild. Scientists say the scaffold allows the body to regrow its own natural tissue, bone and veins so it can support itself. Because of the complexity of the process, researchers so far have regrown only 3 centimeters of bone in clinical trials on rats, but they hope to reach 5 centimeters in two years. With the regrown bone, scientists could avoid placing titanium or other medical devices in the body. Of course, to apply this technology, the Army needs a way to safely remove injured soldiers from combat zones. Enter the Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot, or BEAR, a human-shaped machine with eyes, ears and arms for lifting heavy objects. Built by Vecna Technologies in association with the Army, BEAR is still a prototype. But its potential is promising. BEAR is outfitted with lights, two cameras and infrared abilities, and it can travel up to 10 mph. The device also can lift 250 pounds while balancing on its toes. Vecna robotic engineer Andrew Allen says BEAR can be remotely operated, reducing the chance of injuries to soldiers' human rescuers. \"BEAR can easily be replaced; it costs money and not lives,\" Allen said. Robot technology has exploded in the past six years, said Army scientist John Parmentola. Robot prototypes of all kinds were on display at the conference, and about 10,000 military robots are expected to be deployed in the field in 2009. Robots can be outfitted to accomplish various tasks. One can detect 38 different chemical or biological explosives from a distance of 3 to 5 meters. The robot could be used to scan car doors or truck lids for explosives or chemical residue. Another, called Packbot, is deployed in Iraq for surveillance, reconnaissance and explosives removal. Packbot has been outfitted to react to voice commands, given remotely through an earpiece. Loud background noises do not distort the commands, because the system monitors the vibrations of the operator's jawbone. Finally, some robots come with a retractable apparatus called a Zipper Mast or Situational Awareness Mast, which can be equipped with a camera or antenna and raised to peer over walls or send radio communications. The smallest Zipper Mast is not much bigger than a coffee pot and can extend to a height of 8 feet. Designed by the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, the larger mast is affixed to tanks and can reach heights over 30 feet.","highlights":"Cutting-edge technology on display at U.S. Army Science Convention .\nSome of greatest minds in science gathered at four-day conference in Florida .\nRegenerative-medicine research could help injured soldiers regrow tissue and bone .\nRemotely controlled robots could help remove wounded from combat zones .","id":"6fec9d43e7ee01339cca4ea1d8ae7e1268704e32"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday federal regulators have the authority to clamp down on the broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanity, known as \"fleeting expletives.\" The Supreme Court ruled federal regulators can stop TV networks from airing profanity. The 5-4 vote was a victory for Bush-era officials who pushed fines and sanctions when racy images and language reached the airwaves. Controversial words have been aired in scripted and unscripted instances on all the major over-the-air networks in the past six years -- dating back to when the Federal Communications Commission began considering a stronger, no-tolerance policy. \"It suffices the new policy is permissible under the statute, there are good reasons for it, and the agency believes it to be better,\" said Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the conservative majority. The high court, however, refused to decide whether the commission's policy violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, only the agency's enforcement power. The justices ordered the free-speech aspect to be reviewed again by a federal appeals court. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox were parties in the case. A federal appeals court in New York had ruled in their favor, calling the commission's policy \"arbitrary and capricious.\" The commission then appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking restoration of its power to penalize the networks airing \"indecent\" speech, even if it is broadcast only one time, and even if it does not describe a specific sex act. The high court agreed to some extent. \"Even when used as an expletive, the F-word's power to insult and offend derives from its sexual meaning,\" wrote Scalia. Such language is heard with greater, albeit varying frequency on cable television, the Internet, and satellite radio, which do not use public airwaves. But the federal government is charged with responding to viewer complaints when \"indecent\" language reaches broadcast television and radio, which is subject to greater regulation. That is especially relevant during daytime and early evening hours, when larger numbers of families and younger viewers may be watching. The FCC's acting chairman, Michael Copps, called Tuesday's ruling a \"a big win for America's families.\" The commission formally reversed its policy in March 2004 to declare even a single use of an expletive could be illegal. The changes became known as the \"Golden Globes Rule,\" for singer Bono's 2003 acceptance speech at the awards show on NBC, where he uttered the phrase \"really, really, f---ing brilliant.\" The commission specifically cited celebrities Cher and Nicole Richie for potty-mouth language in the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards, which aired on Fox. Richie, in an apparent scripted moment said, \"Have you ever tried to get cow s--t out of a Prada purse? It's not so f---ing simple.\" The complaint against ABC involved \"NYPD Blue,\" a now-canceled scripted police drama, and the CBS' complaint involved \"The Early Show,\" a news and interview program. Enforcement of the law had been put on hold while the case was being argued. In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said \"customs of speech\" and context made the Federal Communications Commission's position unworkable. \"As any golfer who has watched his partner shank a short approach knows, it would be absurd to accept the suggestion that the resultant four-letter word uttered on the golf course describes sex or excrement and is therefore indecent,\" he wrote. \"But that is the absurdity the FCC has embraced in its new approach to indecency.\" And Stevens wondered why the agency was going after words that he said had a \"tenuous relationship\" to sex and bodily functions, while at the same time prime-time commercials \"frequently ask viewers whether they, too, are battling erectile dysfunction or are having trouble going to the bathroom.\" Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made clear how she viewed the broader free speech questions the high court may be forced to confront in coming years. \"There is no way to hide the long shadow the First Amendment casts over what the commission has done,\" she wrote. The Supreme Court first ventured into the broadcast speech debate in 1978, when it ruled as indecent a monologue by comedian George Carlin on society's taboo surrounding \"seven dirty words.\" The bit had received some radio airplay. Stevens, 89, was the author of that opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas sided with his fellow conservatives on the narrow question presented to the court, but noted the changing landscape of television since Stevens' 31-year-old ruling. He said that and other high court precedents \"were unconvincing when they were issued, and the passage of time has only increased doubt regarding their continued validity.\" He questioned the communication commission's underlying authority as a \"deep intrusion into the First Amendment rights of broadcasters.\" And he noted the four networks no longer have a virtual monopoly on television content. \"For most consumers, traditional broadcast media programming is now bundled with cable or satellite services,\" he said, but the Federal Communications Commission's authority extends only to over-the-air television and radio content. Conservative and family groups called Tuesday's ruling an \"incredible victory.\" \"We implore the broadcast networks to abide by today's court's ruling rather than to pursue a path of attempted obstruction with countless legal maneuverings,\" said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, which monitors content on the airwaves. \"And we encourage the FCC to use today's opinion to break the indecency complaint logjam, and rule on the merits of the tens of thousands of indecency complaints currently awaiting review at the commission.\" There was no immediate reaction from the broadcast networks, but groups representing the artistic and creative community expressed displeasure. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on indecency on television . \"Today's decision is extremely disappointing,\" said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, head of the Media Access Project. \"We remain hopeful that the FCC's restrictive policies will ultimately be declared unconstitutional, but there will be several more years of uncertainty, and impaired artistic expression, while the lower courts address the First Amendment issues which the court chose not to confront today.\" Time Warner -- the parent company of CNN -- filed a friend of the court brief supporting the networks fined by the communications commission. The company is part owner of the CW broadcast network, and operates several cable networks. The case is FCC v. Fox Television Stations (07-582).","highlights":"NEW: FCC's acting chairman calls ruling \"a big win for America's families\"\nNEW: Thomas sides with majority, but questions FCC's \"underlying authority\"\nNEW: Media Access Project head warns of \"impaired artistic expression\"\nSupreme Court ruled 5-4 federal regulators can clamp down on \"fleeting expletives\"","id":"b0efa5b50b1691537181ce2d2335995456d9cf66"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos began their \"supervised release\" Friday after President Bush commuted their sentences in January for convictions related to the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler. Ignacio Ramos has been out of prison since Febrary after serving time in the shooting of an illegal immigrant. Ramos and Compean were able to remove their electronic monitoring devices and leave their homes in El Paso, Texas, on Friday for the first time since they left prison in February. After spending two \"hard, long, lonely\" years in prison, the two said they were looking forward to spending time with their families and putting this chapter of their lives behind them. \"There are more important things than the people that have done this to us or what we have gone through and I am not going to sit here and dwell on that,\" Ramos said in an interview with CNN's \"Lou Dobbs Tonight.\" \"We are looking ahead. We're optimistic for a very good future and that's what's more important,\" Ramos said. Their release in February marked a significant turning point in a case that served as a flash point in the debate over immigration and border security. The two were sentenced in 2006 to 11- and 12-year sentences stemming from the February 2005 shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila near the U.S.-Mexico border south of El Paso, Texas. Critics of U.S. immigration policy rushed to the agents' defense, saying they were merely doing their jobs. Civil liberties advocates argued that Compean and Ramos used excessive force. Ramos credited the outside support with helping him win clemency and keeping his spirits up during his imprisonment. \"Members from Congress were speaking about us, people writing us constantly, it felt so good to know that people didn't give up on us and that people constantly believed in us,\" he said. \"How can you give up when people aren't giving up on you?\" Compean echoed his sentiments, saying he was shocked to this day over the support he received. \"I didn't expect it. I expected people to really forget all about us once we turned ourselves in,\" he said. Like Ramos, Compean said the most difficult part of going to prison was leaving behind his wife and children. \"I think that's been the hardest. When I turned myself in, my son was 4 months old,\" he said. \"There's really nothing special I want to do. The only thing I'm really looking forward to is getting out of the house and going out to dinner with my wife and going to the park with my sons,\" Compean said. Their legal cases are far from over. The convictions still stand and the two remain felons while appeals are pending, which means they cannot contact one another or reapply for their jobs, something Ramos said he would like to do. Ramos shot Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks after he ditched a vehicle carrying more than 700 pounds of marijuana and fled on foot toward Mexico. The agents said during trial that Aldrete-Davila had brandished a gun while resisting arrest, but Aldrete-Davila said he was unarmed and trying to surrender when Compean attempted to beat him with a shotgun. \"In exchange for immunity, Aldrete-Davila agreed to cooperate with the investigation of the shooting, and he returned to the United States so that the bullet could be removed from his body,\" according to court documents. Ramos and Compean were convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, lying about the incident and violating Aldrete-Davila's Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a vocal critic of the decision to grant Aldrete-Davila immunity, said several key pieces of evidence were withheld from the jury that convicted Ramos and Compean. The jury, for instance, never learned that Aldrete-Davila was running drugs at the time of the shooting. Nor did jurors learn that Aldrete-Davila breached his immunity agreement by continuing to smuggle drugs into the United States, Cornyn has said. \"Several jurors have since come forward to state that if they had been told about the excluded evidence, they would have changed their verdict,\" Cornyn wrote in a January plea to Bush, requesting clemency for the agents. Despite Ramos' and Compean's appeals for clemency, a senior Bush administration official said the men were \"convicted felons who violated their oaths to uphold the law.\" Leading Democrats and Republicans, however, supported Bush's commutation, the official said. \"The president has reviewed the circumstances of this case as a whole and the conditions of confinement and believes the sentences they received are too harsh and that they and their families have suffered enough for their crimes,\" the official said.","highlights":"Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean begin their supervised release Friday .\nMen say they look forward to being with family, putting incident behind them .\n\"There are more important things than the people that have done this,\" Ramos says .\nPresident Bush in January commuted their sentences for shooting drug smuggler .","id":"3a1f1506e31248a8573c42343fe2da44331930d0"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A gaggle of reporters pushed their microphones and cameras toward the North Korean official shortly after he arrived at a college campus here. North Korean diplomat Kim Myong-gil gathered with other officials to discuss North Korea's energy needs . But Kim Myong-gil's comments were off the record -- a sign of the sensitive nature of openly discussing concerns about North Korea's nuclear program. The U.S. State Department's director of Korean affairs, Kurt Tong, also agreed to participate in Thursday's conference as long as his statements were not published. Tong and Kim, a North Korea representative at the United Nations, gathered with others including former diplomats and academics at the Georgia Institute of Technology to discuss North Korea's energy needs and the status of the six-party talks on its nuclear program. Although the two top-level diplomats kept their remarks private, other participants in the conference at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs aired their opinions openly. Much of the Korea conference focused on the scientific details of North Korea's infrastructure and how it could be improved to handle sources of energy other than nuclear, such as an oil pipeline or utilizing its significant mineral resources. But all those ideas will never be realized without a change in relations between North Korea, its neighbors and the United States, and that is why diplomacy was also part of the discussion. Thursday's conference coincided with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement that her new envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, will travel to Russia, China, South Korea and Japan next week \"to consult on the next steps to move the six-party process forward.\" Senior administration officials said Bosworth is considering heading to Pyongyang on that visit, but only if the leaders of the other parties involved in the talks are comfortable with that overture. Speaking at a joint news conference with Clinton, Bosworth said there is no doubt the United States plans \"to engage with North Korea.\" \"The question as to whether we're going to engage with them on this particular trip remains to be decided,\" he said. \"That will depend upon our consultations in the region, and it will depend upon what we hear back from the North Koreans.\" Thursday's conference also coincided with reports that North Korea is apparently preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, under the guise of launching a satellite into space. Leon Sigal, a specialist on North Korea who used to work for the State Department, stressed that President Obama is at a \"starting point\" with North Korea. Mindful that the new U.S. leader is preoccupied with his country's economic recession, Sigal said Obama must act swiftly and decisively with regards to North Korea to avoid the mistakes of the previous administration. \"The only way to fix this problem is to negotiate,\" said Sigal, who is currently director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York. Part of Sigal's proposal includes helping North Korea construct conventional power plants as it moves toward denuclearization. He outlined two \"troubling questions\" facing the Obama administration: how to avoid having to constantly react under pressure to North Korea's provocations, and how the scenario could change, possibly for the worse, if there is a change in leadership, \"now that Kim Jong-Il's health is at issue.\" \"It seems to me the answer to both is for Washington to put a bigger deal on the negotiating table now,\" Sigal proposed. That drew a couple of comments and questions from the audience. One graduate student asked why the United States should \"put more oil in a leaky bucket,\" referring to the idea of sending more fuel oil shipments to North Korea when the previous shipments -- part of an agreement to get Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear facility -- have done little to deter the country from abandoning its nuclear program. North Korea maintains that it is due the oil shipments because it fulfilled its obligation to disable its Yongbyon nuclear complex. The United States has demanded Pyongyang verify that by allowing U.N. inspectors to inspect the facility, which it has refused. At Thursday's conference, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea James Laney cautioned against resorting to the same rhetoric about which side had violated previous agreements. \"I can understand how we want to score points ... but there are times when prudence or better wisdom or real strategy dictates that we have to (have) some sort of engagement,\" he said. Laney, who was instrumental in defusing the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1994, suggested that the United States propose a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice which effectively ended the Korean War. \"A peace treaty would mean there are two nations on the Korean peninsula,\" said Laney. \"There are two nations now, but a treaty would recognize (this).\" Victor Cha, who was the White House's director of Asian affairs under the Bush administration, cautioned against moving forward on securing a peace treaty before North Korea takes further steps toward denuclearization. \"Even if there are some (in North Korea) who would want to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for a peace treaty, there may be others that say, 'Once we have a peace treaty ... we can be recognized as a nuclear state,'\" according to Cha. Cha, who said he routinely has to apologize for being a member of the Bush administration, praised Obama's government, which he said has \"none of the hang-ups\" in dealing with North Korea's leadership that the previous administration had. Laney urged the new administration to \"move beyond sticks and carrots,\" which was the stated approach of the Bush administration. While there is no guarantee that a peace treaty or any other overture to North Korea would work, Laney and Sigal said the administration has to try a new approach. \"You see, I'm 81 and I want to see something (happen) before I die,\" said Laney, who worked in U.S. Army counterintelligence before serving in the Korean War. \"Fifty-five years is a long time.\" Sigal concurred, saying that \"diplomatic give-and-take is the only policy\" for North Korea. \"But sustaining diplomacy ... will be difficult,\" he added.. \"Kim Jong-Il wants to force America to be his friend,\" he said, referring to the North Korean leader. \"He seems unwilling to unclench his fist and shake Obama's hand. We may have to settle for a fist bump.\"","highlights":"Officials, academics gather to discuss North Korea's energy needs .\nDiplomacy was part of the discussion at Georgia Tech conference .\nConference coincided with reports North Korea is going to test-fire missle .","id":"75f38e9daa22310a57ade6ccb8e82cfb3a90cdc6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Japan's defense minister has ordered two destroyers to help fight piracy in the waters off Somalia, officials with the defense ministry told CNN. Pirates are caught on camera off the Somalian coast. The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers will be dispatched Saturday, the defense ministry said. The order, which the Cabinet approved earlier Friday, marks the first policing action for the MSDF, whose major missions overseas have focused on background support such as transport and refueling, Japan's Kyodo news agency said. A bill approved on the same day allows the MSDF to be deployed in piracy-infested waters as needed. The move comes after Somali pirates released a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in November, according to a non-governmental group that monitors piracy. The ship was released last month. The 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew members were reportedly unharmed. It was unclear whether the pirates were paid a ransom to release the ship. Japan Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the provision would be used on an interim basis, the news agency reported. Two destroyers with about 400 personnel and eight coast guard officers will be aboard the ships, whose escort mission will start in early April after about three weeks of sailing toward Somalia, according to the news agency.","highlights":"The order marks the first policing action for the MSDF .\nMission will start in early April after about three weeks of sailing .\nMove comes after Somali pirates hijacked Japan-owned vessel in November .","id":"813793d5d659178c8a2e0848d0557c530f8e79e6"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day after publishing a cartoon that drew fire from critics who said it evoked historically racist images, the New York Post apologized in a statement on its Web site -- even as it defended its action and blasted some detractors. A New York Post cartoon has sparked a debate over race and cartooning this week. Many of those critical of the cartoon said it appeared to compare President Obama to a chimpanzee in a commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package. \"Wednesday's Page Six cartoon -- caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut -- has created considerable controversy,\" the paper said about the drawing, which shows two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot. The drawing is a reference to the mauling of a woman by a pet chimpanzee, which was then killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, \"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.\" The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an \"ineptly written\" stimulus bill. \"But it has been taken as something else -- as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism,\" reads the statement. \"This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.\" Watch reaction to Post's apology \u00bb . But the statement immediately swerves to fire back at some of the image's critics. \"However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past -- and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback,\" the statement says. \"To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon -- even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.\" Several African-American leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, attacked the image, which was drawn by artist Sean Delonas. Sharpton said Thursday he and the leaders of \"various groups\" would respond at 5 p.m. Friday outside The Post's offices in midtown Manhattan. \"Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended,\" the statement appeared to blame those who raised the issue \"rather than take responsibility for what they did,\" Sharpton said. He accused the newspaper of having \"belatedly come with a conditional statement after people began mobilizing and preparing to challenge the waiver of News Corp in the city where they own several television stations and newspapers.\" Delonas has made Sharpton the butt of previous cartoons in The Post. In a brief phone interview with CNN, Delonas called the controversy \"absolutely friggin' ridiculous.\" \"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon,\" Delonas told CNN. \"It's about the economic stimulus bill,\" he added. Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, said Wednesday that the cartoon \"is a clear parody of a current news event.\" \"It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist,\" Allan said in a written statement. But Sharpton was not alone in his criticism. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said The Post showed a \"serious lapse in judgment\" by running the cartoon. \"To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence,\" Ciara said in a written statement. \"Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst.\" iReport.com: Share your reaction to the N.Y. Post cartoon . \"Comparing President Obama and his effort to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable,\" said National Urban League President Marc Morial in a statement issued Wednesday. The nearly $800 billion stimulus package was the top priority for Obama, the first black U.S. president, who signed it Tuesday. In an open letter to The Post, musician John Legend criticized the newspaper and called on New Yorkers not to buy it, or talk to its reporters or buy its advertising space. Addressing the newspaper's editors, Legend wrote, \"Did it occur to you that our president has been receiving death threats since early in his candidacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have historically been compared to various apes as a way of racist insult and mockery? Did you intend to invoke these painful themes when you printed the cartoon? \"If that's not what you intended, then it was stupid and willfully ignorant of you not to connect these easily connectable dots. If it is what you intended, then you obviously wanted to be grossly provocative, racist and offensive.\" Either way, Legend said, the fact that the cartoon was printed \"is truly reprehensible.\"","highlights":"Sharpton: \"Various groups\" would respond at 5 p.m. at Post headquarters .\nNew York Post apologizes on Web site; blasts some \"opportunist\" detractors .\nPaper said cartoon was meant to mock what an \"ineptly written\" stimulus bill .\nPaper also said \"no apology is due\" to those who want payback for the past .","id":"b4da212c5779748ba4612c9c406946f5deb6b37b"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- European officials expressed frustration at Russia and Ukraine's inability to enforce an agreement to resume delivery of natural gas, amid heat and cooking gas shortages and sub-zero temperatures endured by millions of people. A woman passes in front of a manometer set on a gas pipe in the Ukrainian city of Boyarka, near Kiev. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was expected to meet Friday with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Timoshenko in an emergency meeting in Berlin. Merkel said she was likely to reinforce the EU's position as a natural gas customer. \"There is a risk that the confidence in Russia may be lost due to the ongoing disruption,\" said Merkel. On Thursday European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged Ukraine and Russia to quickly implement a compromise that would return natural gas deliveries from Russia's Gazprom's pipelines through the Ukraine as soon as possible. \"If the agreement is not honored, it means that Russia and Ukraine are no longer to be considered reliable partners for the EU in matters of energy supply,\" said Barroso. Ukraine is a major entry point for Russian gas into Europe. Russia and Ukraine's dispute over pricing and contractual terms began nearly a year ago, escalating into the present crisis that has prompted Russia to turn off its taps. Both nations help deliver about 25 percent of Europe's natural gas. In the long term, the EU eyed plans to build a pipeline to purchase natural gas from Central Asia and eventually Iraq and Iran. It was also building up infrastructure to import liquefied gas from North Africa and the Middle East and exploring nuclear energy. During Wednesday's open session, European Parliament members and commissioners lashed out, with EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs saying, \"We are living through one of the most serious energy crises yet-comparable with the 1970s oil crisis.\" \"Despite promises and the protocol signed on Monday, gas is not yet flowing from Russia through Ukraine.\" Piebalgs said Russia had resumed gas deliveries on Tuesday, at one-third of normal flow, but Ukraine had stopped it claiming that Russia had chosen a difficult entry point. Eastern Europe was experiencing a historic low in temperatures and Siberian weather conditions. When Russia's natural gas delivery was halted, it relied on its stockpile, which is quickly running out. Croatia's government has declared pre-alert measures and announced gas shutdowns for everyone except for households, hospitals, schools and kindergartens. In the capital city of Zagreb, businesses are losing money due to the shortage, an estimated 10,000 Euros a day. Five hundred companies have been cut-off so far. Danijel Zadijeloviae, owner of Lipik Glass, said the shortages have lost his business millions of Euros. \"If we had lost gas for only a second, it would caused us damages of up to 3 and a half million euros,\" he said. CNN's Jim Boulden and Matthew Chance contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Merkel says Russia risks the loss of confidence due to disruption .\nEU is building up infrastructure to import liquefied gas from North Africa, Mideast .\nUkraine government says it has agreed to hold talks with Russia over gas row .\nDispute leaves countries across Europe with gas shortages .","id":"3418c9b0595fbb9f174b8a8eaf9a54303ed37545"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Kellogg's dumped its endorsement of Michael Phelps after a photograph surfaced of the Olympic gold medalist using a bong, the company was stuck with thousands of boxes of cereal featuring the swimmer's image. Kellogg's ended its Michael Phelps endorsement, so it sent two tons of cereal with his face on it to a food bank. No problem. The company, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, made short order of the already-printed and filled boxes, donating two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank late last month. With food banks across the country reporting shortages of food, the donation was a welcome one, said the food bank's director of development, Christopher Wiley. It took only two weeks for about 3,000 boxes to move through warehouse. \"Thousands of families benefited from the donation\" Wiley said. \"It was a surprise to us. We were lacking a lot of cereal. It is a great product many low-income families really need.\" \"The real story for us was not the box but what's inside the box. The food is so valuable for the community. It's making good from bad,\" Wiley said. The food bank has seen a 6 percent increase in its customer base since the beginning of the year, he said. Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He admitted \"regrettable behavior\" after a British newspaper published the controversial photograph in early February. The tabloid News of the World showed Phelps using the bong during what it said was a November party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. A bong is a device commonly used to smoke marijuana. The Phelps box attracted considerable attention to the food bank. Administrators received several calls from people wanting to get the box as a novelty item. But, said Wiley, all the cereal went to food bank customers. Kellogg's was the only one of Phelps sponsors to drop the athlete, although U.S.A. Swimming, the nation's governing body for competitive swimming, suspended him for three months, withdrew financial support and barred him from competition during the period of his \"reprimand.\" CNN's Jackie Castillo and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kellogg's donated two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank .\nCompany dumped the cereal boxes with Michael Phelps' face after bong incident .\nFood bank director: Helpful donation is \"making good from bad\"\nMore than 3,000 boxes of cereal went to help those who were hungry .","id":"1fab471a88a6d7d6080303977b151ab059720093"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Barely a year after the country celebrated its return to democracy, Pakistan is ensnared in a new political crisis. Riot police block a street on Thursday leading to a court building in Karachi, Pakistan. Thousands of lawyers planned a four-day march to the country's capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, demanding that the government immediately reinstate judges whom the previous president ousted. The protesters plan a sit-in at the parliament building on Monday, and say they will continue their demonstrations indefinitely until their demands are met. At the same time, the country's main opposition leader and his supporters have joined in the nationwide protests, but for reasons of their own. The government responded by banning political demonstrations in two of the country's biggest provinces -- Punjab and Sindh. It also detained several hundred activists Wednesday. The political chaos has forced the government's attention away from a deadly fundamentalist insurgency in its tribal areas and an economy that's on the verge of collapse. To understand the reasons behind Pakistan's latest political chaos, one needs to keep three central characters in mind: . What do the lawyers want? The lawyers want President Zardari to live up to a promise to reinstate judges sacked by former President Musharraf. Musharraf fired about 60 judges when he declared a state of emergency in November 2007. The fired judges include 14 of 18 judges who sat on the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Critics say Musharraf sacked the judges because they were preparing to rule against the legitimacy of his third term in office. He had been re-elected president by a parliament stacked with his supporters, they said. After sweeping into power in parliamentary elections last year, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went. Why have the judges not been reinstated? One reason behind the delay, some experts have surmised, may be that the Supreme Court was expected to look into the controversial amnesty granted to former PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and her husband and current party head, Zardari, for corruption charges. When Bhutto was prime minister, Zardari was accused many times of corruption, stealing from government coffers and accepting kickbacks. Pakistanis derisively labeled him \"Mr. 10 percent.\" Zardari said the cases were politically motivated. He spent several years in jail on the charges but was never convicted. Bhutto herself faced corruption charges in at least five cases, but was not convicted. In October 2007, with his popularity plummeting and under pressure from the West to hold elections, Musharraf allowed Bhutto to return from exile and participate by granting her and her husband amnesty. Bhutto was assassinated during a campaign rally. Her husband became head of the party and the new president of Pakistan. Why is the opposition protesting? The country's second-biggest party, the Pakistan Muslim League -- N (PML-N), is led by opposition leader and former Prime Minister Sharif. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Sharif cannot hold public office, citing a criminal record that dates to the late 1990s. The court also stripped Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, from his post as chief minister of Punjab -- the Sharif party's power center. The Sharifs condemned the court's decision as politically motivated. They accuse the court of acting at the behest of Zardari. Adding to their outrage, Zardari suspended Punjab's parliament and imposed executive rule there for two months. The Zardari administration said the executive rule was needed to maintain stability in the province. Supporters of PML-N have rallied in large numbers opposing the ruling. Why did the court bar Nawaz Sharif from elected office? The case against Sharif dates to the late 1990s, when he was prime minister. At the time, Musharraf was military chief. And Sharif feared Musharraf was plotting his ouster. When Musharraf was returning home from an overseas trip, Sharif refused the airliner to land. That order eventually led to Sharif's conviction for hijacking and treason when Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup. Separately, Sharif also was convicted of corruption. He went into exile instead of prison, but returned to Pakistan to challenge Musharraf's rule in late 2007. However, the election commission barred Sharif from the parliamentary race. His brother, Shahbaz, was shut out because of financial irregularities, the commission said. The Supreme Court upheld the commission's decisions. What does the turmoil mean for Pakistan? The renewed tensions threaten to take the focus away from the government's attempts to quash an escalating pro-Taliban insurgency in the country. At the same time, Pakistan's economy is in shambles. The worsening security situation is part of the reason. Rising food and oil prices have also contributed to the crisis. In November, the International Monetary Fund approved a $7.6 billion loan to Pakistan to help the South Asian country of 170 million people avoid an economic collapse. Many in Pakistan worry that the latest turmoil could once again force the army on to the streets if it worsens. In its 61-year history, Pakistan has been under army rule more than half the time. For now, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani has said he will not interfere in political matters.","highlights":"Pakistan's main opposition will join protests demanding reinstatement of judges .\nPolitical protests may divert attention from efforts against pro-Taliban insurgency .\nNation has been under military rule for more than half of its 61-year history .","id":"2fffd931ee79a8be0c96b3147feadaf46ccedb4f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer-actress Mandy Moore and rocker Ryan Adams were married this week in Savannah, Georgia, Moore's publicist told CNN on Wednesday. Mandy Moore first found recording success in 1999 with her single \"Candy\" and is now a well-known actress. The wedding took place Tuesday, said Jillian Fowkes, who gave no further details about the nuptials. Rumors first surfaced almost a year ago that Moore, 24, and Adams, 34, were dating, as paparazzi photos surfaced of the couple out together in Los Angeles, California. Moore's first success as a recording artist came in 1999 with her debut album, \"So Real,\" which went platinum with the help of her top-10 single \"Candy.\" Adams is known for producing rock music with a country influence. He is best known for his song \"New York, New York\", which appeared on his 2001 release \"Gold.\" Adams is also an author and has produced music for Jesse Malin and Willie Nelson. He recently announced that he was leaving his band, The Cardinals, because of inner ear troubles affecting his balance and hearing. Adams has fronted The Cardinals since 2004.","highlights":"Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams married quietly in Savannah, Georgia .\nCouple was first spotted together by paparazzi almost a year ago .\nHe recently announced he is leaving The Cardinals .","id":"aae575485e36f127be5db79a74ee70e844b40b2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A German supermarket employee got a surprise this week when she opened two boxes of bananas to find them filled with more than 60 pounds of cocaine worth $2 million, police said. Government-released photos show bananas and packages of what is identified as cocaine. \"This is obviously a matter of a logistical mistake,\" a spokesman for the Bavarian State Bureau of Investigation, based in Munich, told CNN Friday. A 26-year-old employee with the discount chain Lidl in the sleepy town of Illertissen was randomly checking the boxes on Wednesday morning, police said. The fresh bananas had just been taken off a food truck, an hour after the store was open, they said. The employee was suspicious of the boxes because they felt lighter than normal, police said. As she unpacked the bananas to take them into the store's produce section, police said, she found 26 small yellow parcels hidden underneath the fruit. She immediately called police. The investigators established that the substance is cocaine and confiscated the goods, police said. The cocaine totaled 28 kilos, or 61.7 pounds, police said. The German shipper who delivered the bananas also made stops at other stores in southern Germany, but police said no other box with cocaine had been found at those stores yet. The freight had come from Antwerp, Belgium, but originated from Colombia, police said. \"The drug courier obviously screwed up. He simply was not quick enough,\" the Bavarian State Bureau of Investigation spokesman said. He dubbed the finding a \"discovery by accident.\" Police said they did not know why the shipment of illegal drugs was delivered to the particular store in Illertissen, halfway between Munich and Stuttgart. The town is right next to a major highway, a North-South route between Scandinavia in the north and Italy in the south. The freight might have been delivered to the wrong address, the spokesman said. Police were not releasing any further details because of their ongoing inquiries. They said they did not know if a drug cartel or a drug courier was using Illertissen as a hub.","highlights":"Supermarket employee uncovers 28 kilograms worth of cocaine, police say .\nPackages were discovered in supermarket in southern Germany .\nFreight came from Belgium, originated in Colombia, authorities say .\nTown of market is along route between Scandinavia and Italy .","id":"48530590993c83a29a179e73e5df111d6b2d3e14"} -{"article":"(Coastal Living) -- Leave behind the mainland and sneak away to these heavenly hideaways. At Petit St. Vincent, 22 understatedly elegant stone cottages overlook the water. Petit St. Vincent, Grenadines . The fantasy: Your own sun-blessed, beach-fringed island in the Caribbean, with sailing, snorkeling and other pastimes available at your whim, and a staff to provide anything from meals to massages. The reality: At Petit St. Vincent, it's the same as the fantasy. Twenty-two understatedly elegant stone cottages, overlooking the water and open to the breezes, scatter across this 113-acre island. With rates starting at $675 a night, Petit St. Vincent qualifies as a splurge, but the price covers all activities and meals. Open November through August; 800\/654-9326 or psvresort.com. The Inn on Peaks Island, Maine . Rocky, rustic, small-town New England floats languidly in Casco Bay, two miles from downtown Portland. Summer brings visitors seeking art galleries, nature and relaxation. In winter, you can snuggle up at the inn and enjoy the muted clang of buoys in the bay and the sharp scent of a wood fire. Six pleasantly furnished suites feature fireplaces, private decks and spa tubs. The Pub restaurant serves seafood and locally brewed beers year-round. A 20-minute ferry ride connects Peaks with the shopping, dining and nightlife of Portland. Prices range from $175 to $300; 207\/766-5100 or innonpeaks.com. The Inn at Mama's Fish House, Maui, Hawaii . The handful of cottages that make up this hideaway rest under coconut palms on Maui's North Shore, just off the scenic Hana Highway. \"Old Polynesia\" decor and a low-key atmosphere mark it as a throwback to an era when Hawaii meant tropical exoticism, not real-estate opportunities. Coastal Living: More on Maui . A short drive west takes you to the town of Paia. A short drive east reveals the bright sails of windsurfers swooping just off Hookipa Beach. And simply staying put ensures the pleasures of lounging on the sand in front of your cottage or savoring the seafood at Mama's Fish House Restaurant next door. Rooms from $175; 800\/860-4852 or mamasfishhouse.com. The Collier Inn, Useppa Island, Florida . In the early 20th century, northern tycoons made Useppa their winter playground. Today, anyone can share its still-genteel lifestyle at the posh Collier Inn. Seven antiques-filled suites recall the pre-Depression boom years when ad exec and developer Barron Collier held sway over most of Southwest Florida, and gentlemen in white suits competed civilly at croquet. The 80-acre island, accessible only by water and explored mostly by golf cart, contains neither cars nor roads. The Pink Promenade, a pathway of shells and pink sand, winds past banyan trees and tropical flowers. Prices range from $125 to $395; 239\/283-1061 or useppa.com. Hotel del Coronado and Glorietta Bay Inn, Coronado Island, California . Technically Coronado is a peninsula, but it has been an island -- at least at high tide. And, true to island character, it feels like a place apart. The red-roof turrets and dormers of the 1888-vintage, beachfront Hotel del Coronado confirm it. Across the street, so does the Glorietta Bay Inn, which incorporates a 1908 Italian Renaissance mansion. Coastal Living: Southern California eateries . Rooms in The Del's rambling original building have more character, but the newer structures (especially the Beach Village cottages and villas) tend to offer nicer accommodations; 800\/468-3533 or hoteldel.com. Rooms in the main resort range from $255 to $1,650; Beach Village accommodations range from $450 to $5,400. At the Glorietta, choose the mansion. Rooms start at $185; 800\/283-9383 or gloriettabayinn.com. English Country Garden B&B, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia . Only the most spectacular scenery could draw tourists all the way to this remote Atlantic island on the eastern end of Nova Scotia. Cape Breton delivers; ask anyone who has ever driven the Cabot Trail along the coast of the ruggedly glorious Highlands. Accommodations tend to be comfortable but rustic -- except at English Country Garden Bed & Breakfast (at Indian Brook), which opts for comfortable and luxurious. The four rooms include a tiny, secluded log cottage with a porch overlooking a small lake. The breakfasts and the optional, reservation-only dinners are equally sumptuous. Rooms from $120 Canadian (about $98 US); 866\/929-2721 or capebretongarden.com. Casita de Maya, Cozumel, Mexico . Don't confuse it with Canc\u00fan, the party-hearty spring break destination a few miles north. The laid-back Caribbean island of Cozumel attracts scuba divers and snorkelers, beach bums and honeymooners who prefer quiet togetherness. Coastal Living: Mexico travel tips . Tucked away next to the airport, of all places (but away from the flight paths, so jet noise does not intrude), Casita de Maya provides the perfect headquarters for a getaway. The four rooms, beautifully appointed in earthy colors, open onto a pretty little courtyard with a pool. Owner Dan Komorowsky and his staff can answer any question about the island and arrange expeditions. They also know when to disappear and give guests time for themselves. Rates from $59; 281\/214-1122 or casitademaya.com. MacKaye Harbor Inn, Lopez Island, Washington . Like most out-of-the-way places, Lopez (north of Seattle in the San Juan Islands) attracts residents who want to do something different. As you meander the mostly flat roads, you'll encounter organic farmers and winemakers, cattle ranchers, artists and such establishments as the Love Dog Caf\u00e9 and Vortex Juice Bar & Good Food. MacKaye Harbor Inn, in a huge restored farmhouse near the south end of the island, lends guests mountain bikes to explore. Of course, you'll want to be back at the inn in time for evening chocolates and spectacular sunsets. Rooms from $135; 888\/314-6140 or mackayeharborinn.com. A Water's Edge Retreat, Kelleys Island, Ohio . A 19th-century limestone industry left this Lake Erie island (off Sandusky) with a 21st century legacy of grand Victorian houses. You can't miss this bed-and-breakfast, with its bright coral-and-aqua exterior. Despite the punchy paint job, the rooms are traditional and refined. Guest perks include onsite spa services and sailing trips on Lake Erie. Alas, the inn operates only April through October. But that does cover the summer tourist season, as well as the spring and fall, allowing a chance to catch sight of migrating raptors, waterfowl and songbirds. Rooms from $199; 800\/884-5143 or watersedgeretreat.com. Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island, Georgia . You probably don't vacation with an entourage that requires a 25-room mansion, but a century ago you might have -- if you were a Rockefeller. In the late 1800s, America's business elite began gathering at Jekyll Island each year for winter vacation. Some stayed in the extravagant clubhouse; others built grand holiday homes nearby. Coastal Living: What to pack for coastal Georgia . The Jekyll Island Club Hotel now occupies the clubhouse and several other historic buildings, including a couple of the cottages, keeping up the standards splendidly. You can wander the 240-acre Millionaire's Village and envision yourself in the Gilded Age. And you can play golf and tennis, cruise around the island by bicycle, inhale the fresh salt air on the beach, and ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Rooms from $149; 800\/535-9547 or jekyllclub.com. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright \u00a9 Coastal Living, 2009 .","highlights":"Suites at The Inn on Peaks Island in Maine feature fireplaces and spa tubs .\nA restored farmhouse houses MacKaye Harbor Inn on Washington's Lopez Island .\nJekyll Island Club Hotel in Georgia was a retreat for the business elite in the 1800s .","id":"d73289212df6e8501d000ddc9c0a7a00c7ac6158"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday in Iraq when a bomb exploded in a booby-trapped house while they were on patrol north of Baghdad, the military announced. U.S. soldiers conduct a house-to-house assessment mission in Baghdad on Wednesday. Four soldiers were also wounded in the attack and evacuated to a coalition forces hospital, Multi-National Corps-Iraq said. The troops were taking part in Operation Iron Harvest -- a new drive against Islamic militants in northern Iraq after a spate of attacks on local anti-insurgent groups. The operation is part of a nationwide push against jihadists loyal to al Qaeda in the provinces of Diyala, Salaheddin, Nineveh, and Tameem. \"It will be a difficult fight, but we will continue to execute simultaneous operations in each one of our four provinces,\" said Maj. Gen. Michael Hertling, commander of U.S. troops in northern Iraq. But resistance in the \"breadbasket\" region in eastern Diyala so far is \"less than anticipated,\" he said. The offensive -- which has been centered near Muqdadiya -- has left 20 to 30 suspected insurgents dead in the area around that city, Hertling said. About 24,000 U.S. troops, 50,000 Iraqi soldiers and 80,000 local police are based in the region. In addition, about 15,000 Iraqis are taking part in anti-insurgent groups known as Concerned Local Citizens or Awakening Councils. The groups will perform defensive security tasks during the operation, the U.S. military said. The new push comes just short of a year since President Bush ordered almost 30,000 additional troops to Iraq to secure Baghdad and its surrounding provinces. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been deeply rooted in Muqdadiya, about 62 miles north of Baghdad, since about 2004. Wednesday's deaths occurred in an agricultural area on the north side of the Diyala River from the city. The U.S. military has conducted operations there in the past and has frequently come under fire. One recent operation ended with several insurgents killed and a large amount of weapons and explosives seized, a military source told CNN. The bombing Wednesday was the first incident involving multiple deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since September 10, when seven Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers died and 11 were injured in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad. The last attack in which so many U.S. troops died from hostile action happened May 28, when six Task Force Lightning soldiers were killed by explosions near their vehicles during operations in Diyala province. Awakening Councils . Iraq's concerned-citizens groups began forming in the country's predominantly Sunni Arab regions in late 2006, and their cooperation with U.S. forces against the jihadists has been credited with much of the decline in violence in Iraq since summer. But that cooperation has made them an increasing target for al Qaeda in Iraq, which Hertling said has launched a campaign of intimidation against the locals. Monday, five severed heads were left on a road leading to Baquba \"with Arabic writing in blood on the forehead which said, 'Join the Concerned Citizens and you will end up like this,' \" Hertling said. And he played video from an aerial surveillance drone that showed three people in Diyala assassinating another person -- pulling the victim from a vehicle, shooting him and leaving him in a ditch. They were eventually captured, and information was found linking them to al Qaeda in Iraq, he said. Hertling said that even though there has been a reduction in attacks across the country, there has been an increase in \"high-profile, spectacular\" events in his region, citing a suicide vest attack and a bridge bombing that sparked media attention and made the region look as if it were \"reeling.\" But he said attacks like those will prove to be the jihadists' \"Achilles' heel,\" turning the population against them and driving them toward the concerned citizens' groups. \"It's sort of a reverse counterintuitive logic,\" Hertling said. \"They are trying to intimidate people that join them by killing them, and it's causing more people to go against them.\" And Hertling said Nineveh -- home of the country's third-largest city, Mosul -- is an important geographic region because it borders Syria. Sunni militants long have crossed the border from Syria into Iraq to stage attacks, and Mosul's diverse, cosmopolitan population has made it an easy place for jihadist operatives to hide, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Troops were taking part in new offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Harvest .\nSix soldiers die when bomb explodes in booby-trapped house .\nBlast also leaves 4 U.S. soldiers wounded .\nIt's the first incident involving multiple deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since September .","id":"5da4bc741b53e5cc4022ee30a854f3b3405da3cc"} -{"article":"TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Softball, drunken orgies and a prison system run like the mafia. That's what Florida's former prison secretary says he inherited when he took over one of the nation's largest prison systems two years ago. This house, on prison grounds in Florida, is described as a party house where prison officials held orgies. In fact, on his first day on the job, James McDonough says he walked into his office -- the same one his predecessor used -- and there was crime scene tape preventing anyone from entering. \"That was an indication we had a problem in the department,\" McDonough told CNN in an exclusive interview before he stepped down last Thursday. McDonough revealed a startling list of alleged abuses and crimes going on inside Florida's prisons: . \u2022 Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks; . \u2022 Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field; . \u2022 Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women; . \u2022 Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them. \"Corruption had gone to an extreme,\" McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. \"They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren't taking money and beating each other up.\" Watch a corrupted prison system \u00bb . He added, \"Women were treated like chattel in this department.\" McDonough described a bizarre prison culture among those that ran the system -- one that he says seemed obsessed with inter-department softball games and the orgies after games. \"I cannot explain how big an obsession softball had become,\" he said. \"People were promoted on the spot after a softball game at the drunken party to high positions in the department because they were able to hit a softball out of the park a couple times.\" \"The connection between the softball and the parties and the corruption and the beatings was greatly intertwined.\" The parties and orgies were often carried out at a waterfront ranch house built on prison grounds for a former warden with taxpayer dollars, McDonough said. The house was complete with a bar, pool table and hot tub. See photos of the \"party house\" \u00bb . McDonough is a former Army colonel who commanded troops in Vietnam and Africa. He served as Florida's drug czar before taking on the job as the head of Florida's prison system, which oversees 90,000 inmates. He left his post last Thursday as secretary of Florida's Department of Corrections because, he says, he feels he has cleaned up the corruption. It's time, he said, \"to turn this over to law and order people that have made this their life's goal.\" A Brooklyn, New York, native, McDonough says he witnessed the way the mafia worked in his youth and it provided him a keen insight into how his prison predecessor, James Crosby, operated. \"It reminded me of the petty mafia I saw on the streets of Brooklyn when I was growing up in the late 1950s, early 1960s -- petty, small-minded, thugish, violent, dangerous, outside the law, and completely intolerable for a society such as ours in the United States of America,\" he said. Crosby would later plead guilty to bribery charges in relation to kickbacks from a prison vendor. He's now locked up in a federal prison. He refused CNN's request for an interview for this report. \"He's serving time in a federal prison. I hope he reforms and gets out and prospers,\" McDonough said. He added, \"When you have a rotten guy at the top, or gal at the top, it can be very invasive, and it's a cancer that needs to be excised.\" And getting rid of this \"cancer\" is exactly what McDonough says he did. McDonough fired 90 top prison officials -- wardens, supervisors, colonels and majors -- claiming they were corrupt or, at the very least, not to be trusted. He demoted 280 others. Criminal charges were filed against more than 40 others, and most were convicted. In addition to the orgies and other misconduct outside the cell blocks, there were other allegations of prisoners being harmed, McDonough said. \"In some of the pockets of corruption that we found, they [prisoners] were being abused,\" he said. Among those arrested were seven officers accused of beating inmates, including five accused of forcing a prisoner to drink toilet water. All have pleaded not guilty. Tina Hayes, the director of the prison's department initiatives who has worked in the prison system for 28 years, said the atmosphere before McDonough arrived was \"a little tense\" with workers \"always on edge.\" She said employees who didn't attend softball games or play on the teams were \"isolated\" and \"pushed aside.\" \"I used to tell staff day in and day out: Keep your head high; do what's right; you know what morally is right; you've got some ethics; don't bow down to it,\" Hayes told CNN. McDonough, she said, brought \"standards back into the department.\" \"People can speak out now without being afraid to say what they need to say.\" McDonough says the majority of the prison system's 28,000 employees were honest, hard-working people who weren't corrupt at all. But he says many of the top prison officials weren't and he believes he has weeded out \"an organized vein of corruption.\" \"They were like frat boys out of control.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Former head of Florida's prisons says orgies were common before he arrived .\nJames McDonough also says the system was run like the mafia .\n\"They were like frat boys out of control,\" McDonough tells CNN .\nHis predecessor is currently in prison after pleading guilty to bribery charges .","id":"f00dda4e1f67c286635909edc39d4f8fbaa860af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A lawyer for Howard K. Stern says the longtime partner of late sex symbol Anna Nicole Smith will fight conspiracy charges announced Thursday. Krista Barth, an attorney for Howard K. Stern, says it's not appropriate to talk publicly about details of the case. Stern was Smith's \"chief enabler,\" obtaining a variety of prescription drugs to keep the former Playboy model sedated and compliant, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in announcing the charges against Stern and two doctors. Lisa Bloom of In Session and guest host Joy Behar questioned Stern's attorney Krista Barth Friday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" BEHAR: Did Howard see this all coming? BARTH: No, we did not see this coming. We knew that there was obviously the raid earlier on Dr. [Sandeep] Kapoor's office. But this was something that we honestly never expected. Watch part of the discussion \u00bb . BEHAR: Well, they are very serious charges. There are so many counts here, eight felonies. Will he plead not guilty? What's he going to do? BARTH: Well, he will plead not guilty because he is not guilty. BEHAR: Now, the attorney general, Jerry Brown, called Stern \"the principal enabler\" in what he says was a conspiracy among three individuals. Do you have a reaction to that? BARTH: I think it's reminiscent of what happened at Duke. I don't think that this was something that should have been stated in a public forum. I think it's contrary to the rules of professional conduct regarding trial publicity. And you have to wonder why such a statement was made. But to say that something like that would not bias my client is beyond me. I can't even be -- I can't even venture a guess. BLOOM: Krista, the difference, though, between the Duke case and this case is that we know that she had at least 11 different medications in her system, the very same medications that are in this criminal complaint. We know that she was taking these drugs for years. We saw her zoned out of her mind with the slurred speech on her reality show and every awards show. So it was pretty common knowledge that Anna Nicole was an addict. And I think your client has even admitted that. There's a substantial amount of evidence here. It doesn't mean your client is guilty. But I think it's enough to raise eyebrows so that ever since she's died, people have wondered: How did she get all of those medications? How was it possible that doctors were giving her all that stuff? BARTH: The most basic tenet of our judicial system is that Mr. Stern is presumed innocent. ... And the concern that I have is that the public nature of the statements by the attorney general in the state of California is a bit troubling. And when I make the analogy to the Duke case, I think you're missing the point, in that that was done during an election campaign. There are sometimes political motivations for things that are done. You have to ask why is this case important to so many when what Attorney General Brown is talking about is a pervasive, over-prescription of prescription drugs. BEHAR: How much responsibility do the tabloids have in this case? I mean, it really was all over the place. BLOOM: I think that's going to be part of the defense, that they got prescriptions under false names because the tabloids were after her and they wanted every detail and she wanted some privacy. And as a celebrity, she may be entitled to that. I think that may be a valid defense as to why they were under false names. But there's no defense that I can see why thousands of pills. BEHAR: Krista, where did she get thousands of pills? BARTH: Well, you know what? Discussing the details of this is not appropriate. I think that the most important thing to focus on here is the way that our judicial system is supposed to work. I mean how often does that happen, that we're talking about a situation, you are not supposed to say, and I'm quoting here, something that you know reasonably should, or reasonably should know will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in this matter?","highlights":"California attorney general's comments are prejudicial, lawyer says .\nBrown saying too much about Anna Nicole Smith case, Krista Barth says .\nBarth is attorney for Smith's ex-partner, Howard K. Stern .\nStern, two others charged with conspiring to supply Smith with drugs .","id":"e3fe7f0d7c16aeda6891f100ae94403a3ce409ac"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A sculpture of a giant white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of an unusual scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England. The 50-meter high horse will dominate the landscape around Ebbsfleet. The 50-meter equine artwork was Tuesday announced as the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, set to be a new stop on the Eurostar London-to-Paris rail link. Designed by artist Mark Wallinger -- whose previous work has included dressing in a bear suit and wandering around a gallery in Berlin -- the \u00a32 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK. Wallinger's horse -- which echoes ancient white horse symbols carved into hillsides around Britain -- beat a shortlist of designs that included a tower of stacked cubes and giant steel nest. Victoria Pomery, head of the panel that selected the design, described the 33-times normal size horse as \"outstanding.\" \"Mark is a superb artist of world renown and his sculpture will become a real landmark for Ebbsfleet Valley and the whole region,\" she said. It drew a less favorable response from readers of local Web site Kentnews.com, who described it as a \"waste of money,\" an \"abomination\" and \"depressing.\" One correspondent, Andy Smith, added: \"This horse looks extremely silly.\"","highlights":"Giant horse announced as winner of competition to design new landmark .\nEquine artwork is brainchild of conceptual artist Mark Wallinger .\nDesign's selectors describe sculpture as \"outstanding,\" critics say it's \"silly\"","id":"e70b5a1afdb0dbccd6ffe111aaf45e9f856afdda"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN writer Alan Duke has had two small voice-only roles in Tyler Perry's TV series, \"House of Payne,\" which airs on CNN's sister network TBS. He has had no relationship with Perry beyond observing him on set. Tyler Perry stars in \"Madea Goes to Jail,\" which is due out Friday. Perry is trying to expand his reach to Europe. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Tyler Perry wants to take his character Madea to Europe, but he's been told that audiences there won't relate to his stories about African-American lives. The films have made nearly $300 million at U.S. box offices. The challenge to conquer Europe has \"sat in my spirit,\" Perry wrote in a newsletter to his fans. Perry, who just a few years ago was homeless and broke, has made a fortune proving naysayers and critics wrong with a successful string of low-budget movies based on his Christian-themed stage plays. \"I was once told [by] someone that my movies only appeal to black people and no one else,\" Perry wrote. \"Now, I know that's not true.\" When his first movie -- \"Diary of a Mad Black Woman\" -- debuted in 2005, people who had seen his stage plays in person or on DVD flocked to theaters, making it the week's top movie with almost $22 million in ticket sales. Critics, who consistently pan Perry's productions, were confounded. \"They think I don't know what I am doing,\" he said in a CNN interview. \"They think that this is all haphazard, that I am some sort of idiot or something.\" Watch Perry sound off on \"Madea\" and other topics \u00bb . Perry said he does not write to please the critics, but for a broad audience of all ages. With six films already out and a seventh -- \"Madea Goes To Jail\" -- coming soon, Perry has never made a box office flop. His movies average nearly $22 million on opening weekends and almost $47 million in total domestic sales. \"Tyler Perry has a definite and growing fan base in this country and it's simply a matter of, can he create and grow a fan base in other countries,\" said independent producer Alex Franklin. Franklin -- a former development executive at Lionsgate, the film company that distributes Perry's films in the United States -- was the first person at that studio to read his script for \"Diary of a Mad Black Woman.\" He agrees that Perry's movies should sell in Europe, but he said there is a tendency by distributors there to avoid films about African-Americans and films without major American stars who are well-known in Europe. While Perry's casts have included Angela Bassett, Janet Jackson and Kathy Bates, many of his characters, including Madea, come from his stage plays, which are known only to a mostly black American audience. But David Mann -- who is \"Mr. Brown\" in Perry's productions -- said he has seen the audience broaden since the early years of the stage plays. \"I can recall when we first started, I would say 90 to 95 percent of the audience would be African-American,\" Mann said. \"But now, you look out there and it's like, 'Wow! It's just a rainbow.' \" Perry, in his message to fans, said he sees his stories as universal. \"I know that even though I write from an African-American experience and most of the time I have an all-African-American cast, that doesn't mean that other people from other walks of life can't relate,\" he said. \"I think that any human being who goes through what we all go through can relate to my films. \"I know and remember that when I'm writing,\" he continued. \"But when this person said that to me, they also said Europeans would never relate, and that sat in my spirit.\" Perry said he flew to Europe in January -- \"to find out for myself\" -- with visits to Rome, Madrid and London. It was there that he wrote his letter to his American fans. \"So far, all of us seem to be pretty much the same,\" he said. \"We love to laugh, we all have problems, we all want love, and we all have a church in every country. And since these are the things I usually write about, I don't see how that statement can be true. Do you?\" Perry could get his answer soon. Lionsgate has not said if \"Madea Goes To Jail,\" which debuts Friday, will be marketed to European audiences. But the company signed a joint venture deal last year with Eros International, an Indian film company, to distribute its films in India -- the second largest English-speaking market in the world. If that arrangement does not take Madea around the world, then perhaps Perry will try it on his own, Franklin said. \"He has the money to back up his intentions,\" he said. \"He proved his naysayers wrong in America, with his will and perseverance. There's no reason he can't do the same overseas.\" CNN's Kara Yates and KJ Matthews contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tyler Perry hoping to find market for his films in Europe .\nPerry has already overcome obstacles to get his films seen in America .\nLatest Perry film, \"Madea Goes to Jail,\" is out Friday .","id":"a6b79523bc7b57ddc907f9ec05e6f154177cc1bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two crew members were taken to a hospital after a FedEx cargo plane crashed on landing Tuesday morning at the Lubbock, Texas, airport, officials said. A damaged FedEx ATR-42 lies beside a runway early Tuesday at the Lubbock, Texas, airport. The injuries appeared to be minor, said James Loomis, director of Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. There was a small fire on the plane, the Federal Aviation Administration and FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said. Munoz said she was not sure about the extent of the damage. The plane is an ATR-42 twin-turboprop aircraft and landed short of the touchdown zone at 4:37 a.m. CT (5:47 ET), Loomis said. Munoz said the plane had been traveling from Fort Worth Alliance Airport and skidded off the runway amid light freezing rain. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . Neither official could immediately say what caused the accident, and Munoz didn't know why parts of the plane caught fire. The plane was operated by Empire Airways, which is under contract with FedEx Corp., based in Memphis, Tennessee.","highlights":"Fire reported as plane goes off runway in freezing rain at Lubbock, Texas, airport .\nTwo crew members hospitalized with apparently minor injuries, official says .\nATR-42 twin-turboprop operated by Empire Airways under lease to FedEx .","id":"f1e54348a8ab3a0df70fec2ea95afc8cde07219d"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- If you don't eat, sleep and breathe cars, or devour car magazines in minute detail, there's a good chance you don't know all the technological terms that pop up in the media, new car advertising and literature. With new models being released all the time, the acronyms can be overwhelming. With every new model year, it seems, there are new technology and acronyms. Here's a concise list of the terms you're most likely to see and read about in the 2008 literature. ABS: The most common passive safety system found on cars today is ABS or anti-lock brake system. ABS continuously counts wheel revolutions electronically and when one or more wheels stops moving during a skid, the system quickly applies and releases the brakes on the skidding wheels. This is done so that the tires continue to rotate and the car can be steered around an object or an impending accident situation. Tires that are skidding can't do much steering. ALS: This is a relatively new term that stands for active lighting system or automatic lighting system. On some luxury vehicles, you can opt for headlamps that turn left or right (up to about 15 degrees) as the front tires turn to light the road as you make your turns. AWD (also FWD, RWD, 2WD, 4WD): These terms refer to how many and which wheels on your car deliver power from the engine to the road surface. AWD means all-wheel drive and generally means there are no buttons, levers or lower gear ranges. These systems can be full-time, driving all four wheels all the time, or part-time, controlled by computers when conditions dictate the need for more traction. The 4WD label means four-wheel drive and these part-time systems usually have a selector switch or lever to select two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive or even four-wheel drive in a lower gear or locked position for very difficult driving situations. In 2WD, only the two front or rear tires have power. Traditional RWD or rear-wheel drive is almost always found on luxury cars, sports cars, or racing cars. FWD or front-wheel drive is more compact and is more often found on small cars, minivans and crossover vehicles. DOHC: Engineering shorthand for double-overhead camshaft. A DOHC engine has one camshaft that opens the intake valves and one camshaft that opens the exhaust valves, a design derived from racing engines. DOHC engines are more complex than single-overhead-cam engines (SOHC) and overhead-valve engines (OHV) but generally make more power and torque at higher rpm levels because they let the engine breathe better. EBD: An acronym given to the ABS subsystem called electronic brake force distribution. EBD is rapidly becoming standard equipment on cars that already have ABS brakes. In a panic braking situation, EBD distributes the most braking force to the tires that have the most traction. This helps to keep the car from spinning and reduces stopping distances on slippery surfaces. ESC\/ESP: Electronic stability control or electronic stability program are interchangeable terms for the same software and hardware. An extension of ABS, ESC uses sensors and computers to determine whether a vehicle is oversteering (rear wheels out) or understeering (front wheels not turning in the desired direction). ESC\/ESP reduces engine power and\/or applies one of the front or rear brakes to get the vehicle back into its intended path of travel. As a means of protecting against rollover accidents, ESC will be required on all new light vehicles sold in America by September 2011. GPS: All automotive navigation systems communicate with Global Positioning System or GPS satellites. GPS satellites were launched into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense but are now used by motorists, hikers and explorers all over the world. GPS systems are accurate anywhere in the world from 10 to 50 feet. Combined with a CD or DVD map in the vehicle's navigation system, the satellites can track latitude, longitude, altitude and direction of travel in all weather conditions. I6 (also V6, V8, V10, W12, H4): These terms refer to the number and physical arrangement of cylinders in the engine. The I stands for inline, and means that the cylinders are lined up in a single row, (I4, I5, and I6, usually). V engines have two rows or banks of cylinders in a V pattern, with three, four, five or even six cylinders per bank, hence V-6, V-8, V-10, and V-12. The W engine used by Audi and VW has three rows of cylinders, in this case four cylinders, making it a W-12. Other engine designs include H-4 and H-6 engines, horizontally opposed or flat engines with either two or three cylinders on each side, a design used by Porsche (engine in the rear) and Subaru (engine in the front). The oddball engine on the U.S. market is the Wankel, a rotary engine used only in the Mazda RX-8. It has no cylinders, no banks and no reciprocating parts. L (as in 1.8L or 3.5L): L is for liters a metric measurement of engine size, also called displacement or swept volume, which has replaced cubic inches in the U.S. industry. It's the total volume of all the engine's cylinders. Smaller engines generally generate less power and use less fuel, larger engines make more and use more, so don't buy more engine than you need. RSC: One of the newest government regulations proposed for vehicles in the near future is protection against rollover accidents. The system that the industry has created to combat those is generally called roll stability control. RSC uses computers and sensors to analyze vehicle speed, steering wheel angle and body angle. If it senses that the vehicle is about to roll over, it cuts engine power and applies the brakes on one side or the other to bring the vehicle back to a stable position. TCS: Like ABS brakes, traction control systems are becoming more widely available, even on low-priced cars, because they add so much safety. A traction control system takes data from the ABS about tire rotation and compares the information in the computer. If one or two of the tires are spinning faster than they should be, indicating a loss of traction, the TCS system can cut engine power or engine torque going to the tires and apply brakes individually until the tires are all rotating at the same speed again. TPMS: This is a relatively new acronym that stands for tire-pressure monitoring system. The federal government has mandated that all vehicles in the future should have these systems to protect vehicles and occupants from rollovers and other accidents caused by low or deflating tires. Some currently available systems work by sending radio messages from each tire to the warning on the instrument panel. Others infer from the ABS system that one or more tires has a different rolling diameter, because it is going flat, than the other three tires and sends a warning to the instrument panel. VVT: Engineering term that stands for variable valve timing. Until a few years ago, timing the opening and closing of the engine's valves was a purely mechanical function and could not be varied. VVT systems use a combination of computers, engine oil pressure and mechanical linkages to change valve timing so that the engine idles smoothly, produces lots of power and torque when needed and burns fuel cleanly and economically.","highlights":"Most common car safety system is ABS or anti-lock brake system .\nEBD: subsystem of anti-lock brakes called electronic brake force distribution .\nGPS is system that drives new navigation systems: Global positions system .\nRSC: roll stability control, new government regulation to prevent rollovers .","id":"fa3cd42150041d9e01f59e9c95aaf0f6253b87ed"} -{"article":"NHA TRANG, Vietnam -- Editor's note: Football fans Daniel and Clinton Rowling were in Vietnam late December when the country won a major tournament for the first time. The event sparked wild celebrations in the South East Asian nation but joy soon turned to carnage as five people died and dozens were injured in the celebrations. They share their story. Celebration time: Five people were killed on Vietnamese roads as football joy got out of control. After spending a month in Vietnam we can safely say that the Vietnamese are passionate about three things: Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as the locals call him; football; and the tourist dollar. Everywhere you look you see football. The locals proudly sport imitation merchandise of their favorite European team anywhere and everywhere they can. Other than on your person, the next best place to show your allegiance is on your motorbike through stickers. Some local football teams even play in the strips of their favorite club. While we were in Vietnam the ASEAN cup was contested. It is the premier football contest in South East Asia. Every second year the countries of the region do battle for the crown. Up until 2008, the only winners of the cup had been Singapore and Thailand with three titles each (Indonesia has been the bridesmaid three times). After pool play, the best of two finals series was played out between Thailand and Vietnam. Thanks to the close proximity, and some historical conflict, there is a strong rivalry between these two countries. The Thais played host to the Vietnamese in the first leg, where the visiting underdogs were winners, stunning the home crowd by winning the match 2-1. The reverse leg was played in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. After unexpectedly winning the first final, local interest was even higher than normal. We watched the game in the coastal city of Nha Trang. The locals flocked to their TV sets and the beer flowed freely. Each TV was like a magnet for thirsty football fans. Do you have a great football tale to tell? Send us your story and you could be featured on Football Fanzone! We quickly realized there was a pecking order and that the most hardcore fans had the best seats, whilst the \"fair weather supporters\" were relegated to the back benches. As foreigners we were at the very bottom of the pecking order. We were resigned to watching the match from the street kerb on small plastic seats half in the rain which refused to dampen the crowds' spirits. Predictably Thailand took the lead and were up 1-0 (making it 2-2 on aggregate) and time was ticking away. Vietnam's tactic of playing breakaway \"Kung fu\" style football was looking largely ineffective against the more structured, controlled and dominant Thai approach. Still, the Vietnamese were doing enough to create the odd opportunity to gives the locals hope. Still tied up on aggregate, and with the end of regular time looming, the Vietnamese were awarded a free kick. The unexpected happened. The kick came in and a Vietnamese player managed to find it with the crown of his head sending the ball to the back of the net and the locals through the roof. Everyone jumped to their feet, there were hugs, high fives and toasts. As outsiders we sat stunned and could only watch the spectacle unfolding. With the game effectively over, the victors were overcome with emotion whilst the fans were overcome with energy. The locals were eager to include us in celebrations, with the nominated English speaker communicating with us in his limited vocabulary. We replied with our full Vietnamese vocabulary of smiles, nods and numerous thumbs up. The older men who had been doing the majority of the drinking were content sitting and enjoying each other's company, while the younger and more boisterous sections of the crowd had their own form of celebration and they swiftly brought the streets alive with a massive motorcycle posse. Led by the rider with the biggest Vietnamese flag, they proceeded to lap the town honking their horns and generally getting excited. With the roads slick from a weeks worth of rain and the drivers impaired from a cocktail of excitement and alcohol, we wisely watched from the sidelines. After finding out that dozens of people were injured and there were even a few deaths -- it seems we made a good choice to keep out of it. But while we did watch on, we were left wondering: How do the passengers stay on the bikes when they jump up and down? How can anyone see where they are going with all the flags? And, where were the traffic police? We're offering a reward to anyone that can tell us what the Vietnamese supported before cable television brought top flight football to the masses. Whatever it was, we suspect it died a very quick death.","highlights":"Daniel and Clinton Rowling in Vietnam when the country wins ASEAN Cup .\nVietnam defeated Thailand in Hanoi to claim the trophy for the first time .\nIn the post-match celebrations five people were killed and dozens injured .","id":"f2458e7ff1fdf374f1d0db2c1932d4f6be1fb1c8"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A police officer was killed Monday in a suicide bombing at the gate of a police station in Islamabad, authorities said. The bombing took place at a police station in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The explosion occurred on Pakistan Day, a national holiday. The bomber apparently walked up to the police station and blew himself up at its gate. The station houses a special intelligence-gathering branch of Islamabad police. Two people -- the suicide bomber and a police officer -- were killed, police told CNN. Pakistan's GEO-TV reported three people were dead and 10 wounded in the blast. The blast blew the doors off the police branch and damaged a mosque adjacent to the building, according the network. \"Parts of the bodies, the human bodies, are spread around the area,\" GEO-TV's Hamid Mir told CNN. The explosion was heard at CNN's offices, 2 or 3 miles away. Members of the police branch housed in the building help protect government officials such as the prime minister, CNN's Reza Sayah said, and with the explosion, someone is \"trying to send another message to the federal government here in Islamabad.\" Watch more on the bombing \u00bb . \"(The blast) underscores the acute security situation this government is facing,\" he said. If the blast was a suicide bombing, it would be the second in the area within a week, Mir said. On March 16, a suicide attack targeted a bus station near Islamabad. The office targeted Monday is in a crowded area, said Mir, who added: \"This intelligence office is not secret. It's a very well-known intelligence office.\" However, the area was not in a high-security zone, he said. Asked about the Pakistanis' attitude toward these repeated attacks, Mir said public opinion in Pakistan was divided. \"Everybody's against the terrorism, but they think the Americans also need to change their policies. They are in trouble after 9\/11. America is secure, but the people in Pakistan are not secure.\" CNN's Ram Ramgopal contributed to this report.","highlights":"A loud explosion has been heard in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital .\nSuicide bomber apparently targeted special police branch .\nBlast came as Pakistanis celebrated their national day .","id":"f37fe3287568faf3be16583a63e948c43715ebbb"} -{"article":"CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was celebrating his 85th birthday with a lavish all-day party Saturday despite the fact that the country is gripped by an economic and health crisis. President Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace, attend a cake-cutting ceremony for his birthday Saturday. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said it raised at least $250,000 to hold the party in Mugabe's hometown of Chinhoyi, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) outside of the capital, Harare. Critics of the president say the country is desperate for that amount of money to be spent instead on its citizens, who are suffering from a cholera outbreak, food shortages, and spiraling hyperinflation. On Friday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited a hospital's closed intensive care unit that he said needed $30,000 to resume operating. During the celebrations, Mugabe announced that his controversial land reform would not be reversed. The program is designed to have white-owned farms given to blacks, and there have been violent seizures of such farms since the program began in 2000. Watch Mugabe's birthday bash \u00bb . He emphasized that the country's \"indigenization program\" -- which forces all major foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe to have at least 51 percent black ownership -- will be carried out. It began last year and hasn't been implemented yet. Mugabe's birthday falls on February 21 but his party loyalists postponed the celebrations as they were raising money for the event. \"I think it is going to be a great day for the legend and icon whose birthday we are celebrating today here,\" said Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwawo, one of the fund-raisers for the birthday. \"The country might be having problems, but we need to have a day to honor the sacrifices the president has made for this country.\" What do you think about the celebrations? Zhuwawo said about 100 beasts would be slaughtered for the birthday bash. iReport.com: What do you think about Mugabe's lavish party? Mugabe also invited schoolchildren from around the country to attend the party, being held at Chinhoyi University. The farming town of Chinhoyi is usually quiet, but Saturday's event has changed everything. Cars with Mugabe's supporters could be seen hooting and some ZANU-PF supporters sang Mugabe's praises. A banner in Chinhoyi read, \"Age ain't nothing but a number.\" Mugabe invited Tsvangirai, his new partner in a power-sharing government, but a Tsvangirai spokesman said the opposition party leader turned it down. He said it is political party function, with most of the attendees being ZANU-PF elite. As the prime minister, Tsvangirai is not obligated to attend, the spokesman said. The spokesman would not acknowledge whether Tsvangirai had initially agreed to attend, but it was widely reported in Zimbabwean media that he had agreed to do so. \"Mr. Tsvangirai has other commitments, as far as I know,\" said Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. Tsvangirai last year said Mugabe's birthday party was \"a gathering of the satisfied few.\" But at that point, he and the president were preparing to face off in a hotly contested presidential election. As Saturday's celebrations began in a carnival atmosphere, just less than a kilometer (0.62 miles) away stood a deserted Chinhoyi government hospital -- a reflection of the country's dire health situation. A few nurses are attending to patients. \"There are no medicines. These patients have no option but to come here, but there is nothing we can do,\" said one nurse at the hospital. On Friday Tsvangirai visited Harare Hospital, one of the country's biggest, and said its intensive care unit will need $30,000 in order to start operating again after a funding shortage. Once a darling of Zimbabwe, Mugabe is blamed for driving the country into a meltdown. A cholera epidemic that broke out in August has since hit every corner of the country, killing 3,731 people and infecting nearly 80,000, according to the World Health Organization, which quoted Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health. The preventable disease has spread through Zimbabwe's 10 provinces through lack of access to clean water, faulty sewage systems, and uncollected refuse, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which released a report this month on the outbreak. The problems, MSF said, are \"clear symptoms of the breakdown in infrastructure resulting from Zimbabwe's political and economic meltdown.\" On Sunday, Tsvangirai appealed to the international community to help Zimbabwe's crippled economy, saying it would take $5 billion to stabilize the country. The cholera outbreak has worsened Zimbabwe's economic crisis. Failed government policies and an acute food shortage because of years of poor agricultural production and widespread corruption have ravaged the currency of Zimbabwe, which has the world's highest inflation rate. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mugabe's ZANU-PF raised $250,000 in order to hold the party .\nNEW: At party Mugabe said controversial land reform would not be reversed .\nPrime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai turned down invitation to party, official said .\nZimbabwe is struggling to cope with a cholera epidemic due to funding shortages .","id":"4409a8f066166ba9aad02611f6979b44fc91afae"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Militants in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta region said they killed six government soldiers after the military attacked one of its camps on Thursday. Heavily armed Nigerian rebels pose a constant threat to oil pipelines in the country. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, in an e-mail, said three military gunboats attacked one of its camps around the Ke River in the country's Rivers state. The group said the gunboats were repelled, with six soldiers dying and three militant fighters wounded in the skirmish. There was no immediate reaction from the government. Nigeria is Africa's largest crude oil producer and the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States. MEND has demanded that more of the country's oil wealth be pumped into the region instead of enriching foreign investors, and the militants have been attacking oil pipelines in retaliation against government forces, limiting the amount of crude oil that can leave the country. MEND -- the largest rebel group -- has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006. It has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment. MEND hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Its attacks on oil facilities have taken a toll. \"Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,\" said Jim LeCamp, a senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management, which manages assets for wealthy clients worldwide. Exxon and Shell are two of several companies that have been extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day in Nigeria. Recent rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent -- meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days. That decrease in production comes at a time of increased demand from oil-hungry regions such as China, Russia and Latin America. \"Anytime there's a disruption there, it really affects the system,\" LeCamp said in a recent interview with CNN.","highlights":"Militants in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta region say they killed 6 soldiers .\nDeaths came after military attacked one of militants' camps .\nLargest rebel group has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006 .","id":"679d609de70b51b5b7f76bcffa2c89c6559f5f0a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An English football club is being forced to close a stand at its 25,000-seat stadium to cut costs, in what could be the first of many similar moves at other clubs, a sports business expert predicts. Darlington Arena, home of English club side Darlington F.C., where a stand will be closed to cut costs. The affected club, Darlington F.C., is currently in seventh place in League Two, however, it slumped into administration last week following problems attracting crowds to the home matches. The average home crowd at the stadium is currently below 3000 people. Ticket prices are \u00a316 ($22) per adult. The move to close the west stand at its ground, Darlington Arena, is an attempt to improve the atmosphere and cut costs at the club, the side's commercial director, Christine Balford, said on the club's Web site. Balford said the move was forced by administrators. \"This is an attempt to improve the atmosphere at home games, whilst saving costs. \"All season ticket holders will be temporarily relocated and will be able to use the facilities of the south stand,\" Balford said. Darlington F.C. has also increased the cover price of match day programs and has cut the number of complimentary tickets given away for home matches. Professor Simon Chadwick, director of the Center for the International Business of Sport (CIBS) at Coventry University, UK, told CNN that many football clubs may soon find themselves in the position of having to make a similar move. \"This is the economic reality of having to strip costs. \"Generally, League One and League Two and even some Premier League clubs may be affected. What you will start to see is other clubs having to follow suit.\" Chadwick said Darlington's case was a particularly bad one as they had a stadium which was far too big for the club's size. However, the issue of crowds not filling stadiums was a wider concern for many clubs. \"This is their life-blood. A lot of their revenue comes from selling tickets ...if they're not filling stadiums then it is a big issue for them,\" he said. Chadwick said closing stands could help cut match-day costs and was often a more palatable option for fans, rather than selling players.","highlights":"English club Darlington F.C. closes stand to cut costs and improve atmosphere .\nThe club has struggled to attract good-sized crowds to its home matches .\nSport business expert Professor Simon Chadwick says this could start trend .","id":"40c55228729932d5dc2f7bdc7b4f11b028c0202f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Over the next week CNN has special coverage of one of the world's biggest gatherings of the luxury industry from Basel, Switzerland, bringing you the views of the people behind some of the biggest brands. Companies suggest the top tier of luxury goods is less affected by the downturn. In this time of economic upheaval, these brands are being put to the test. People are spending their hard-earned money much more carefully. If they're going to shell out thousands of dollars for a timepiece or a trinket they want to know it's worth it. A luxury brand's name, history and quality are cornerstones of its marketing and advertising. But is that enough? That is the question we will ask the CEOs of brands like Chopard, Bulgari, Patek Phillippe and Tag Heuer, to name a few. There are conflicting reports over whether luxury brands are immune to the effects of a recession. Some suggest that people are not spending as much as they used to. Renowned British department store Harvey Nichols, which houses high-end luxury goods, posted a 40 percent drop in profits and a 5 percent drop in sales in the year ending March 31, 2009. Other reports however suggest that consumers are still spending, just more carefully. The CEOs of the high-end brands like Boucheron and Patek Phillippe tell us there are three tiers in the luxury industry: the lower level where the brand's name is licensed and goods are mass marketed, the mid range where products are expensive but still widely available, and then there's the top tier where the goods are only available to a select few. These products are very expensive and only a few pieces are produced. Companies suggest this top tier isn't really affected by the downturn as consumers at this level still can afford to spend. Can luxury brands survive? Send us your views . The CEOs also suggest this downturn means a return to the notion of true luxury that is defined by its aspirational, not affordable quality of a product or a lifestyle. Geography plays a big part in a brand and company's sales and profitability. Before the credit crunch, the United States was the top market for luxury goods. Today some reports indicate that China has surpassed the U.S. for its hunger for designer brands. According to chinadaily.com, China consumed $8.6 billion worth of luxury goods in the two years ending January 2009. The Middle East and emerging markets like India are also major hubs of luxury consumption as importers of luxury brands. Here companies have set up shop in cities from Dubai to Delhi. These markets have been seen almost as the life rafts in this turbulent economy because there, the thinking is, people will still spend, spend, spend on known brands. Last year at Baselworld, the then-CEO of the luxury watch brand Ebel, Thomas van der Kellen, told us that consumers in the emerging markets \"are growing opportunities for the luxury watch business...the money is there, it's very much a branded culture..so we see a lot of opportunity to make up for potential loss on the western hemisphere.\" The bottom line for all brands in the luxury industry is no one is exempt from feeling the constrictions of the market. Every aspect of the business is and will be affected in some way, whether it's at the production end (rising costs of raw materials and manufacturing) to the retail end (flow of traffic into their stores). What separates those who will survive and even flourish in this industry are the ones that define themselves as true and aspirational luxury where the product is seen as an investment and worth it.","highlights":"Next week CNN focuses on some of the biggest names in luxury goods .\nWe ask CEOs of top brands how they plan to battle economic downturn .\nConflicting reports over whether luxury brands are immune to effects of recession .","id":"e8fd7c18060772ce1be376c2acdf75b3fe38281d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An eruption may not be imminent after all for Alaska's Mount Redoubt, authorities said Thursday. Fears that Alaska's Mount Redoubt would erupt have diminished. \"For the past two weeks or so, the seismic activity at Redoubt volcano has significantly decreased,\" said Michelle Coombs, a geologist for the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey. The status is now at a \"yellow\" level, meaning the volcano is \"exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption, timeframe uncertain, or eruption is underway with no or minor volcanic-ash emissions.\" In late January, experts began paying close attention to the volcano and raised the alert to \"orange,\" indicating that it could erupt at any time. \"We believe based on what we're seeing now, that if it were to erupt, that we would see enough increase in seismic activity to give us sufficient warning to go back up to orange,\" Coombs said. Two other volcanoes in Alaska are also at the \"yellow\" status currently, and Mount Redoubt could remain at that level for months, Coombs said. \"There's a certain level of unpredictability,\" she said. The 10,197-foot peak is located in southern Alaska, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the state's most populous city. Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago, in December 1989. That eruption lasted until April 1990. CNN's Robyn Sidersky contributed to this story .","highlights":"Scientists say it is now less likely that Alaska's Mount Redoubt will erupt .\nAn eruption at the volcano previously was thought to be eminent .\nThe 10,197-foot peak is located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage .\nScientists say an eruption is still possible, but is not certain .","id":"7529d3439da549098325c41171aaed342e88c4da"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Basketball great Charles Barkley began serving a three-day sentence in Arizona's infamous Tent City on Saturday, jailed by the same sheriff whose autobiography he endorsed 12 years ago. Charles Barkley bristled at the implication he should be wearing stripes instead of a red-and-bue sweatsuit. \"You come here when you screw up,\" Barkley said at a news conference hours after he reported at the Maricopa County jail. \"I don't blame anybody for this situation but myself.\" Barkley, 45, pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor drunken-driving charges stemming from a New Year's Eve arrest after he left a Scottsdale, Arizona, nightclub. A judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail, but his sentence was reduced in exchange for Barkley's attending an alcohol-awareness course. At the news conference, Barkley sat next to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed \"Toughest Sheriff in America.\" Arpaio is known for giving inmates old-fashioned, black-and-white-striped uniforms, making some of them live in tents and reinstituting chain gangs, even for women. \"I'm an equal incarcerator,\" Arpaio said of Barkley, who will be sleeping in one of the tents. \"We don't discriminate.\" He said Barkley has been \"a gentleman, cordial.\" \"He's taking his medicine,\" Arpaio said. \"I hope that something comes out of this.\" In a free-wheeling news conference, Barkley spoke out against drunken driving, made some observations about President Obama (\"Rush Limbaugh and a lot of jackasses are giving him a hard time right now\") and commented on felony charges singer Chris Brown faces for allegedly beating his girlfriend, singer Rhianna. Watch Barkley speak at news conference \u00bb . \"I wish both of them the best, but it's never acceptable to hit a woman. Period,\" Barkley said. Barkley wore a red-and-blue sweatsuit, not the black-and-white stripes that other inmates -- who watched the news conference through a chain-link fence --were wearing. Barkley said it's because he's on the jail's work-release program, and bristled at questions about it. \"None of the work-release people do that,\" he said. \"But if y'all really, really want to put me as low as I can go, I can do that and make you feel better. \"I know when [someone is] famous, you like to see people humiliated.\" Arpaio, who joked with Barkley over the pink underwear he routinely issues inmates, held up a copy of his 1996 book, \"America's Toughest Sheriff.\" On its back cover, alongside endorsements by Limbaugh, Arizona Sen. John McCain and others, is one from Barkley. \"This man, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is a role model for all Americans,\" Barkley wrote in the blurb. Barkley is a basketball commentator for TNT, which like CNN is a Time Warner company. A star for the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns, Barkley was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 1993 and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2006.","highlights":"Charles Barkley begins serving 3-day jail sentence in Maricopa County, Arizona .\nThe jailer is the sheriff whose autobiography Barkley endorsed 12 years ago .\nBarkley speaks out against drunken driving during topically diverse news conference .\n\"He's taking his medicine,\" Sheriff Joe Arpaio says of his famous inmate .","id":"0db9584b9650af7405ca25d144c9385364d2848c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Air Force nurse has been charged with murdering three terminally ill patients by giving them fatal overdoses, the Air Force said Tuesday. Capt. Michael Fontana is continuing to work at Wildford Hall Medical Center. Capt. Michael Fontana, a nurse at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, also was charged Monday with conduct unbecoming an officer for changing a medical document. \"The charges are the result of an Air Force investigation that occurred after irregularities were discovered in Capt. Fontana's administration of medications which may have resulted in the death of an end-of-life patient,\" hospital spokesman David Smith told reporters. The nurse was charged with three counts of violating Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. \"It is considered murder,\" Smith said. After an Article 32 hearing, akin to a civilian grand jury proceeding, the commander will decide whether the case goes to court-martial. The three deaths occurred in July, Smith said. He cited the privacy act in refusing to divulge the suspect's age and hometown. He said he did not know the motive but was confident no other patients were victimized. \"We know that there are no other patients involved in this case,\" he said. Fontana, an intensive-care unit nurse who has been working at the hospital since 2006, the year he joined the Air Force, has been released on his own recognizance and is continuing to work at the hospital, though he is no longer involved in patient care, Smith said. \"As far as we can tell, he has been an exemplary nurse,\" Smith said. Fontana also served as a nurse at the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq, Smith said. His work there was investigated, \"and there was nothing found,\" he said. A call to a San Antonio phone number listed as belonging to Michael Fontana got a message that said, \"Thank you for calling. Due to the ongoing investigation, I have no comment for you right now, but I do appreciate your call and will talk to you soon.\" Relatives of the dead patients have requested privacy, the Air Force said. Wilford Hall Medical Center is the Air Force's largest medical facility.","highlights":"Man is accused of giving terminally ill patients fatal overdoses .\nHe worked at a hospital at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas .\nHe is also charged with conduct unbecoming an officer .","id":"4e2d7e988ef79faa594e3eff5cacd0afa2f58b4e"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Tara Wall is deputy editor for The Washington Times. Before joining the newspaper, she was a senior adviser for the Republican National Committee and was named a public affairs director in the Department of Health and Human Services by President Bush. Read her columns here. Tara Wall says President Bush will be remembered for keeping America safe. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In his final radio address as president-elect on the Sunday ahead of his inauguration, Barack Obama said President Bush \"extended the hand of cooperation\" to him throughout this period of transition. It was a final act of civility, on Mr. Bush's part. It is a trait that is not surprising to those who know Bush (or those paying some attention at least half of the time). At least one Democrat has given him credit for it. Unfortunately, that tone of civility has been lost on the Democratic leadership over the past eight years. Civility aside, how others -- more importantly, history -- will judge the 43rd president of the United States, is the question that has followed Bush out the door. Lucky for him, it won't just be up to Democrats to determine. \"I believe President Bush will be vindicated,\" said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an interview a couple of weeks ago. She may be an ardent defender of Bush, but I believe she's right. She, like I, have a different vantage point than what has been routinely portrayed. While sitting in the Oval Office with the 43rd president, for what was his last official week in office last Thursday, I got the sense that he feels he will be vindicated, too. He won't say as much, directly, but indirectly points to what matters most in his eyes -- protecting the homeland. \"History will eventually see ... that not only was it necessary to take the steps I took, but [they] led to a better world,\" the president told me. On a personal level (and for the sake of full disclosure), I must say that I have had the pleasure of working for and knowing Bush from his first campaign for president and throughout his presidency. I started as a volunteer in 1999, then worked as a spokeswoman during his second campaign and then as an appointee in his administration. Not only have I counted it an honor and a privilege to serve the 43rd president, but I have always had a deep respect for him as a person of faith, his strident conviction in doing what was right for the country and his commitment to closing the disparities that exist between black and white Americans -- no matter the mistakes made and lessons learned. Above all, it is his dignity and civility that stand out to me most. Yet, for many conservatives (not just liberals), Bush has failed on many fronts. From the miscalculation of the insurgency in Iraq, to failed intelligence gathering and the issues of maintaining fiscal conservatism and delivering real immigration reform -- I can't tell you how many Republicans and conservatives I've spoken to over this past year who have told me how \"disappointed\" they've been with Bush. A few among them voted for \"change\" as a result. The legacy Bush leaves behind won't be everything he wanted (particularly as it relates to popularity), but on many fronts, it will be better than that of his predecessor. Bill Clinton may have been popular, but his moral failings brought shame on the office of the presidency and tainted the people's house. That will forever be a stain on Clinton's legacy. Not to mention, there was no such \"civility\" or \"cooperation\" when Clinton turned the keys over to Bush. I prefer principle over popularity any day. On the moral front, President Bush delivered. On the social front, he delivered. On the fiscal front he failed considerably. Yet, on the national security front and on many domestic policies, he succeeded. Depending on your vantage point, success may mean something wholly different. The details will be debated for decades to come. Among the many uncertainties, one thing is certain -- you can't judge history in the midst of it. Declaring one \"the worst\" president while he's still in office is an effort in rhetorical futility. Historians know this all too well. The best prediction one can make was summed up by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on \"Meet the Press\" last year: \"If Iraq became the model democracy or even just a democracy, and in doing so changed the whole complexion of the Middle East, then obviously that would be the legacy that would justify what Bush did and what our troops did.\" And that's exactly what Mr. Bush is banking on. During my Oval Office interview with the president, I asked him to complete the sentence \"President Bush was... [fill in the blank].\" He responded (uncharacteristically in third person): \"President Bush was the president at a time when our nation was attacked, he clearly saw the dangers, he pursued the enemy, he put tools in place so the professionals could better protect the people, and the homeland was not attacked.\" That is the legacy he wants. Popular or not, he kept America safe. And if nothing else, for that, he will be vindicated. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tara Wall.","highlights":"Tara Wall: Barack Obama praised President Bush for cooperative nature of transition .\nWall: It was a final act of civility by Bush; she says he wasn't given same by Clinton .\nShe says Bush delivered on national security and many domestic issues .\nBush will be remembered for keeping America safe, Wall says .","id":"f1626396408484387a198cffaa78f8f5b79d8534"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama, President Bush and all of the surviving past presidents got together Wednesday for a historic meeting at the White House. Barack Obama meets with President Bush and past presidents in the Oval Office on Wednesday. \"One message that I have, and I think we all share, is that we want you to succeed. Whether we're Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country,\" Bush told Obama before lunch with the former presidents. Bush and Obama were joined by Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Obama thanked the president for hosting them and said he was grateful for the opportunity to get \"advice, good counsel and fellowship\" from the group. Watch what Obama says about the meeting \u00bb . Obama's press secretary said the presidents had a \"very constructive conversation\" and Obama appreciated \"the spirit of bipartisanship they showed\" in wishing him success. \"The president and the former presidents had helpful advice on managing the office, as well as thoughts on the critical issues facing the country right now. The president-elect is anxious to stay in touch with all of them in the coming years,\" Robert Gibbs said. Presidential historian Doug Brinkley said it's \"very smart politics for Obama to keep a channel open\" with the former presidents. \"If he has a policy initiative that he wants to lead the country behind ... if he could get the signatures, the green light from all of the ex-presidents to say, 'Not only am I for this, but I have all of the ex-presidents backing me' -- that's powerful,\" he said. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the last time all of the living presidents got together at the White House was in 1981, and she called Wednesday's meeting a \"historic moment.\" She said the president was \"delighted\" to host the luncheon. \"Each of them expressed their desire for President-elect Obama to have a very successful presidency. During the lunch, they had a wide-ranging discussion on many different issues facing the United States, and they all look forward to remaining in contact in the future,\" Perino said. The meeting marked the second time Bush has hosted Obama since the election. Obama suggested the meeting with all of the former presidents when he and Bush first met in November. Perino said earlier she didn't know what they would talk about, but she said she'd love to be able to hear it. \"I'm sure all of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation,\" Perino said during Tuesday's daily news briefing. Perino speculated that they would discuss what it's like to raise children in the White House and how to protect them. Brinkley predicted that first and foremost, the presidents would recall what it was like to be president. \"All of them will have little anecdotes. They'll see something in the White House that will bring back a memory. They'll try to bring some levity to this -- make it a very special and engaging and actually a fun afternoon for Barack Obama,\" he said. Secondly, Brinkley said, the conversation would probably turn to what's going on in the Middle East. Brinkley said that all of the men will be on their \"best behavior,\" but, given the personalities at the luncheon, there could be some tension. \"The friction, if there is any, is between Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who are known to not like each other at all,\" he said, pointing out that the Clinton team did not like Carter \"parachuting for peace into Bosnia, North Korea and Haiti\" during Clinton's administration. \"That's the relationship that is not warm, it's not good, and if you are a body language expert, you might home in on that,\" he said. President Bush may find himself the odd man out at the meeting, at least in terms of popularity. Bush registered only a 27 percent approval rating in a December CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey. In contrast, Obama had an 82 percent approval rating. A new poll out Wednesday indicates that 69 percent of adult Americans approved of how Clinton handled his job as president, while 64 percent of adult Americans gave a thumbs up to Carter and 60 percent approved of George H.W. Bush. CNN's Lauren Kornreich contributed to this report .","highlights":"Historian calls meeting \"smart politics,\" says it'll be light, but could be tense .\nObama and Bush meet with Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter .\nObama says he's grateful for chance to get \"advice, good counsel and fellowship\"\nLast time all the living presidents met at White House was in 1981, Perino says .","id":"29cde38cc6b3d4663bdd0da1b9e31398103a5561"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- France is sending four state police units to its overseas department of Guadeloupe after a month of sometimes violent demonstrations, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Thursday. French gendarmes face-off against Guadeloupe protesters. \"The pillaging ... the violence against people, are not tolerable and will not be tolerated,\" Alliot-Marie told the French radio station RTL. \"It's no longer simply a question of containing the protests. ... This mission of honor will continue to be undertaken, but we also have to fight against the violence.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to meet with elected officials from overseas departments, including Guadeloupe, Thursday afternoon, his office announced. A general strike over low wages and living conditions in the Caribbean island has included demonstrations and clashes with police. At least one civilian has been killed in the riots, officials said. Hospitals and emergency services continue to function and the main international airport is open, but petrol stations, schools, and most businesses -- including supermarkets and car rental offices -- are closed, the British Foreign Office said in a travel advisory. Hotels are open, but the strike is causing daily cuts to electricity and water supplies, the Foreign Office said. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Thursday he is ready to approve a compromise that would give nearly a \u20ac200 ($254) monthly supplement to workers in Guadeloupe with low-paying jobs. \"This crisis is serious, and profound, but it's not new,\" Fillon said, adding that it's linked to \"the lifelessness of the economy in the Antilles, aggravated by the global economic crisis.\" Sending supplementary police forces is justified, Fillon said, because \"we cannot accept what has happened\" in the department. He was referring to the attacks on businesses, the roadblocks in the streets and above all, the death of the civilian, who he said was a union leader. Agence France-Presse identified the victim as union representative Jacques Bino. He was shot dead Tuesday night when he drove past a roadblock manned by armed youths in the city of Pointe-a-Pitre. His car was hit three times by shotgun fire, prosecutors told AFP. Three police who accompanied emergency services trying to help the dying man were lightly wounded, officials said, according to AFP. Speaking with RTL on Wednesday, one demonstrator denied he was fanning the flames of unrest. \"We have always called for calm,\" Elie Domota, leader of the Coalition against Exploitation, said. \"We have told the young people to go to their homes and continue to protest peacefully, but the police yesterday beat protesters and called them racist names, so the situation escalated.\" CNN's Alanne Orjoux in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report .","highlights":"French police reinforcements being posted to Guadeloupe .\nIsland wracked by a month of sometimes violent protests over living conditions .\nProtest leader denies encouraging violence .\nGuadeloupe is French overseas territory .","id":"ecb0dec234291e1c4e25baf0a3a252e5332efa2d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British reality TV celebrity Jade Goody died early Sunday morning following a public battle with cervical cancer, her publicist has announced. Jade Goody married her fiance Jack Tweed weeks before her death. Goody, 27, died in her sleep at home in Essex, east of London, just before 4 a.m. (midnight Eastern Daylight Time), a spokeswoman for Max Clifford Associates said. Goody's husband, Jack Tweed, who she married last month in a lavish wedding ceremony, was at her bedside when she died, Clifford said. Her mother, Jackiey Budden, who was also at the house, said: \"My beautiful daughter is at peace.\" Goody leaves behind two sons, Bobby, 5, and Freddie, 4, by former boyfriend and TV host Jeff Brazier. \"She died knowing that she had touched a lot of hearts and minds across the world,\" Clifford told CNN by phone from Portugal. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was \"deeply saddened\" by Goody's death. \"Her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer which will benefit thousands of women across the U.K. Every death from cancer is a tragedy and my thoughts go out to her two sons, husband and family at this time,\" Brown said in a statement. The British media has reported a rise in the number of screenings for cervical cancer since Goody announced she had the disease, a phenomenon some have dubbed the \"Jade Goody effect.\" Goody's death marks the tragic end to a very modern tale. Images of her shrinking frame and bald head have dominated the pages of British media since she announced she had just weeks to live. However, she has openly courted the attention since bursting into the spotlight courtesy of the British version of \"Big Brother\" in 2002. At first the former dental nurse was a hate figure for Britain's vociferous tabloid newspapers, who attacked her for being ignorant and stupid. The public, however, warmed to her loud, honest streak. She did not win the series, but was able to parlay her popularity into a series of reality television and business deals. Her face was soon regularly boldly looking out from the cover of gossip magazines and you could buy the fragrance Shh... Jade Goody, fitness DVDs or pick up a copy of her autobiography. In 2007, with her fame starting to dip, she agreed to return for the celebrity edition of \"Big Brother,\" with her mother and then boyfriend, Jack Tweed, joining her in the house. It was to prove an ill-fated decision. Goody was soon accused of making racist comments and bullying her housemate -- the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. More than 50,000 complaints were received. When she was voted out of the house the show's producers took the unusual step of banning the public from attending her eviction. Goody was tearful and apologetic but British PR guru Clifford summed up the general opinion at the time by saying: \"It looks like she has ruined a very lucrative career.\" Ever resilient, Goody had a Christmas cookbook out at the end of 2007 and in 2008 signed up for India's version of \"Big Brother.\" Two days into the show her cancer diagnosis was revealed on air. She flew home immediately to begin treatment. Last month Goody revealed her cancer was terminal and that she only had weeks to live. With typical bravado she, with Clifford's help, organized her wedding to Tweed, who had only just been released from prison after serving a sentence for assault, selling the exclusive rights to OK! magazine for a reported $970,000. It was also filmed for her reality TV show. Read blog about how media covered wedding . The British government even stepped in to extend Tweed's 7 p.m. curfew, a condition of his release from jail, so the couple could spend their wedding night together. Watch Jade Goody's wedding preparations \u00bb . Despite her weakening state Goody continued to open her door to the media, saying she needed to keep selling her story to help secure the future of her sons. In the days leading up to her death there were newspaper stories on a hammer-wielding woman getting into her room, the baptism of her sons, her last view of \"sun-kissed\" fields and final farewells with family. There was also controversy when OK! published a memorial issue nearly a week before she died. The issue, with a coverline announcing \"Jady Goody, 1981-2009,\" went on sale Tuesday. Clifford said Goody had loved her time in the spotlight. \"I think they've (she and the media) exploited each other. Both have benefited. In Jade's own words, she's loved the last 7 years. They've been wonderful. All the people's she's met, all the things she's done.\" CNN's Glen Scanlon and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jade Goody dies aged 27 after losing her battle with cervical cancer .\nBritish PM Gordon Brown says he is \"deeply saddened\" by Goody's death .\nBritish \"Big Brother\" star fast-tracked plans to get married after cancer spread .\nGoody said she needed to keep selling her story to raise money for her boys .","id":"78b11f1a14b5086a9ceb8b0feb827ae3d9f2a148"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As \"The Dark Knight's\" crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent vigorously tries to combat Gotham City's crime spree, he quotes the old saying: \"The night is always darkest before the dawn.\" The late Heath Ledger plays the Joker in \"The Dark Knight,\" a performance already garnering raves. But the dawn may have been the brightest time for \"The Dark Knight,\" which was scheduled to have about 3,000 late-night showings, including almost 100 showings at 3 and 6 a.m. Friday, according to Fandango.com spokesman Harry Medved. Medved said he couldn't remember the last time there were more than two or three such showings in the middle of the night -- usually in New York or Los Angeles. \"Isn't that when people are just thinking about waking up and going to Starbucks?\" Medved asked. \"I predict coffee sales will increase tomorrow.\" With the film's running time of two and a half hours, Medved is declaring \"The Dark Knight's\" opening day Dark Friday, predicting that attendance at work could be dramatically down. During a survey given to people who buy tickets through Fandango.com, 38 percent of those who are working said they would be taking either some time or the day off to see the movie. According to MovieTickets.com, \"Dark Knight\" sold out more than 150 performances in Los Angeles and New York alone. The midnight show times were not just for major movie centers, either. Medved said cities such as Fresno, California; Orlando, Florida; and towns in Minnesota are hosting early-morning showings. Enthusiasts showed up in groups, some dressed head to toe in costume to celebrate the movie's release. The midnight showing at the 428-seat Henry Ford IMAX theater in Detroit sold out in less than a week, according to the Detroit Free Press. One group attending the showing, which was preceded by a costume party, showed up with a homemade version of the Batmobile and outfits representing nearly every major Batman character. The film also opened Thursday in Australia and Wednesday in Taiwan. It will be released in Japan on August 9. See when the film is opening around the world . \"The Dark Knight\" has risen to second place on Fandango.com's all-time list of advance tickets sales, second only to \"Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.\" \"The Dark Knight\" tickets represent 94 percent of Fandango's sales, Medved said. Interest is high at IMAX theaters, too, especially because six film sequences were shot with IMAX cameras. And it's not just the movie business that were looking to cash in on the blockbuster. Corporate America hopes to capitalize on the hype, too, with Dominos offering a Gotham City pizza and Comcast showing behind-the-scenes movie footage and interviews with the cast and filmmakers via its On Demand service. As fans left the midnight screenings, the hype surrounding the movie has only continued to build. The film is even earning Oscar buzz, thanks to the late Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. Moviegoers purchasing tickets on Fandango echoed those sentiments, with 53 percent saying his performance was their main motivation for seeing the film. Ledger's performance has been hailed as \"indelible\" (Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan), \"powerful\" (The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter, in an overall mixed review) and \"mesmerizing\" (CNN.com's Tom Charity); clips of his character have dominated the movie's marketing campaign. See how Ledger made the joker his own \u00bb . His absence was conspicuous Monday at the New York premiere, his co-stars noted. \"He should be here, shouldn't he? Because this is his big moment; because he is the most amazing thing in the picture,\" said Michael Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred. \"And it's not because he's dead or something and everyone's concentrating on him. He would have been the most amazing thing in the picture anyway.\" Caine also praised the late actor's commitment to immersing himself in a character, something he says is evident from Ledger's opening monologue. \"It's one of the finest close-ups I've ever seen,\" Caine said. Other members of the cast praised Ledger for redefining the character brought to life in the past by Mark Hamill (\"Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker\") and Jack Nicholson (\"Batman\"). See members of the cast praise Ledger \u00bb . Aaron Eckhart, who plays District Attorney Harvey Dent, said it was tragic that Ledger wasn't around to celebrate his achievement. \"It's hard to talk about; this is his. He created the Joker,\" Eckhart said. \"He did it in his own way, and it's sad, but on the other hand, I am proud to be able to honor him tonight.\" Director Christopher Nolan also praised the rest of the cast, including Christian Bale as Batman, Gary Oldman as police Lt. Jim Gordon, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes and Morgan Freeman as tech wizard Lucius Fox. Nolan, who directed \"Batman Begins\" three years ago, said he was glad he was able to take a step back and opt for a different approach. See the cast on the \"black carpet\" \u00bb . \"I think we've tried to expand the scope of the story, to tell a grander, more epic tale,\" he told CNN. \"We've tried to really take the character and take it to darker territory by introducing it to the Joker.\" Nolan seems to have made believers even out of those who were not die-hard fans of the Batman series, including Gyllenhaal, who said she was \"never a superhero movie kind of girl.\" \"I watched a Batman here, a Batman there, but this is different,\" she said. \"Chris [Nolan] wanted us to play everything for truth. It's about real people in the midst of this wild crazy Batman world. And I became a Batman fan shooting it. I mean, have Batman sweep you up and save you from certain death. It converts a girl, you know?\" The movie was expected to be shown on a record-breaking 9,200 screens in its opening, according to its studio, Warner Bros. (Like CNN, Warner Bros. is a division of Time Warner.) Hollywood columnist Nikki Finke said that insiders at the studio are being conservative, predicting a weekend opening of between $90 million and $100 million -- strong but not record-breaking. But box office experts, according to Finke, are saying the movie could make as much as $130 million, which would make it a narrow third for best opening weekend, behind \"Spider-Man 3\" ($151 million) and \"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest\" ($136 million). Regardless of how much money the movie grosses, by far the biggest anticipation may be whether the Academy Awards agree with those -- including Oldman -- who say Ledger should earn an Oscar. \"I just wish that he was here to talk about his performance,\" he said. \"I really feel that there is at least an Oscar nomination, if not a win for him. He really is that good.\" CNN entertainment producer Doug Ganley contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"The Dark Knight\" will open with about 3,000 late-night shows .\nFandango.com: Movie will have almost 100 shows at 3 and 6 a.m. Friday .\nCast praises Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker .","id":"ad18015cc0811b77e82511aa8e972416020a5f4f"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A grand jury has indicted four people in the shooting death of a woman during what police say was a Ku Klux Klan initiation rite in the Louisiana woods, St. Tammany Parish prosecutors said. Raymond \"Chuck\" Foster is reputed to be the leader of the Klan Group. He was among the four indicted. Raymond \"Chuck\" Foster, 44, was indicted on second-degree murder charges Wednesday in the November death of Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, said Rick Wood, spokesman for the St. Tammany Parish district attorney's office. \"That's what he was charged with,\" Wood told reporters on Wednesday. \"The grand jury agreed with that charge.\" Two other men, including Foster's son, Shane Foster, were indicted on a count of obstruction of justice, and a woman, Danielle Jones, was indicted on one count of being an accessory after the fact. Wood said Thursday Foster's case was assigned to one judge and the others' cases were assigned to another. Foster is scheduled to be arraigned March 3, he said, and the others are set for arraignment next week. Eight people initially were arrested in the case. The remaining four were not indicted. \"Haven't seen one like this,\" Wood said Wednesday. \"We've had a lot of high-profile cases, but not one like this. ... As (district attorney) Walter Reed said, it will be to the max. They will be prosecuted to the max.\" Authorities said Lynch was recruited over the Internet and took a bus to Slidell, Louisiana, where she was met by two Klan members. They then went to a campsite in the woods near Sun, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of New Orleans, where they met other members of the group, police said. During the initiation rite, members of the Klan group, which calls itself the Sons of Dixie, shaved Lynch's head, according to Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Jack Strain, who spoke to CNN in November. After 24 hours of drills, including chanting and running with torches, she asked to be taken to town. An argument began, authorities said, and the group's leader, Raymond Foster, pushed Lynch to the ground and shot her without warning. Lynch apparently wanted to leave because she was homesick, investigators found after talking to her family members. After the shooting, \"Foster, we believe, removed a knife from his pocket and rolled over the victim and began a process of trying to remove the bullet from her body ... because he was trying to destroy evidence where law enforcement would not be able to piece these things together,\" Strain said. Police believe other members of the Sons of Dixie helped cover up the slaying on Foster's behalf, Strain said at the time, including burning some of Lynch's personal items. \"We're up to the challenge,\" Wood told reporters after the indictments were handed up Wednesday. \"This office is ready to proceed and take care of business.\" Authorities received the initial tip about the slaying from a convenience store clerk, after two group members went into the store and asked him if he knew how to get bloodstains out of their clothes. The clerk told them he did not, then called police after they left. Officials tracked down those two members and arrested them, then arrested others at the campsite and Foster. All the members surrendered without incident, police said. Investigators found Confederate battle flags, Ku Klux Klan banners, five Klan robes and an Imperial Wizard robe at the campsite, authorities said. Lynch's body was found under loose brush along a road several miles from the campsite. Raymond Foster has a history of Ku Klux Klan activity dating back seven years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Alabama-based organization that tracks hate groups.","highlights":"Police say Cynthia Lynch of Tulsa shot as she tried to leave KKK rite .\nRaymond \"Chuck\" Foster is reputed leader of Klan group .\nFoster, his son, two others accused in indictment of second-degree murder .\n\"They will be prosecuted to the max,\" spokesman for prosecutor said .","id":"7cb3ff05a27dcb514a454b5f8282740b3d307893"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ricin, a poison thought to have been found in a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel room Thursday, can be made from the waste left after processing castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ricin is made from castor beans. The toxin comes in the form of a mist or pellet and can be dissolved in water or weak acid, according to the CDC. It works by getting inside the cells of the body and preventing them from making the proteins they need. As little as 500 micrograms -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. Here are some ricin cases: . \u2022 September 1978, London, England: Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is killed by a ricin-filled poison dart fired from an umbrella. Markov, a communist defector working for the BBC World Service, was waiting at a bus stop when he was killed. \u2022 2002, Iraq: A primitive testing facility run by members of Ansar al Islam, a Kurdish Sunni Islamist group, is discovered. Authorities say ricin had been tested on barnyard animals there. \u2022 January 2003, United Kingdom: Scotland Yard arrests seven terror suspects from Algeria after traces of ricin are discovered at their homes. A U.S. official later connects the men to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who led al Qaeda in Iraq until his death in 2006. Four of the men were charged with terrorism offenses under Britain's Terrorist Act 2000 and with \"being concerned in the development or production of chemical weapons\" under the Chemical Weapons Act of 1996. \u2022 March 2003, France: Small bottles containing traces of ricin are found in a Paris train station, according to French police. \u2022 October 2003, United States: Ricin is found in a sealed envelope in a postal handling facility in Greenville, South Carolina. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain the potency of ricin \u00bb . \u2022 November 2003, United States: The Secret Service intercepts a letter addressed to the White House that contains a vial of ricin. The letter, signed by \"Fallen Angel,\" complained about trucking regulations, and was nearly identical to one discovered October 15 in South Carolina. \u2022 February 2004, United States: Ricin is found in the mailroom of the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington D.C. The mailroom handled correspondence addressed to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and others. Frist said no one became sick. \u2022 January 2005, United States: An Ocala, Florida, man with no known ties to terrorists or extremists is arrested by the FBI after agents found ricin in the home he shares with his mother. Steven Michael Ekberg pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of a biological weapon. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ricin found in four U.S. cases since 2003 .\nBulgarian dissident killed by dart containing ricin in 1978 .\n500 micrograms of ricin, size of a pinhead, can kill an adult .","id":"ac4c8cf29bee602781e5b5e2406eed94b8d58ec7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The White House insists that it was entirely former Sen. Tom Daschle's decision to withdraw his nomination, but some observers say he didn't have a choice. Tom Daschle said Tuesday that he's stepping aside as the nominee for secretary of health and human services. Despite the controversy over his tax records and his work in a field that some consider lobbying, Daschle was expected to be confirmed. His withdrawal shocked Capitol Hill, and Democratic colleagues expressed regret over his decision. \"I think one of the major factors had to be that the political climate has changed radically just in the last couple of weeks,\" CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry said. President Obama ripped Wall Street executives last week for their \"shameful\" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008 while accepting federal bailout money. The next day, news broke that Daschle hadn't paid his taxes in full. Daschle said Monday that he was \"deeply embarrassed\" for a series of errors that included failing to report $15,000 in charitable donations, unreported car service and more than $80,000 in unreported income from consulting. Daschle recently filed amended tax returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest for 2005-07. \"That, in this political climate, really tripped up Tom Daschle because it looked awful politically for this White House,\" Henry said. In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, Obama said he made a mistake in handling the nomination of Daschle. \"I think I screwed up. And, I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again. \"Ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics,\" Obama said. \"And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards -- one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes.\" At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that the White House did not pressure Daschle to step down. Watch Gibbs answer questions about Daschle's move \u00bb . Pressed on whether Daschle was given any sort of signal to resign, Gibbs said, \"I don't know how much more clear I could be. The decision was Sen. Daschle's.\" A Daschle ally familiar with his thinking said Tuesday that he was not aware of any White House pressure on the former Senate majority leader to withdraw his nomination. Asked whether Daschle was pushed, the source said, \"things don't work that cleanly.\" The issue was not whether Daschle could \"survive\"; it was what that process \"would do to Obama\" and his health care reform and economic agenda. It's a question of the \"price of that confirmation,\" he said. The source said Daschle read the Tuesday New York Times editorial urging him to withdraw from consideration but would not say whether that might have played a part in his decision. \"Tom has been a politician for a very long time,\" the source said. \"He understands this town. He made a mistake; he apologized, but timing matters. There was a critical mass building.\" Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said he thought Daschle made the decision Tuesday morning. \"I have to believe that Sen. Daschle having spent as many years as he has up here had a clear picture that there was going to be a delay, and I think he didn't want to contribute to that. In announcing his withdrawal, Daschle said it was an honor to be chosen to lead the reform of America's health care system. \"But if 30 years of exposure to the challenges inherent in our system has taught me anything, it has taught me that this work will require a leader who can operate with the full faith of Congress and the American people, and without distraction,\" he said in a statement. \"Right now, I am not that leader and will not be a distraction.\" Mark Preston, CNN's political editor, pointed out that Daschle has a \"history of making 11th-hour decisions.\" Six years ago, Daschle made a last-minute decision not to run for president after he had been all set to go. \"I think that the Tom Daschle we saw yesterday was all set to go, and then the pressure started mounting ... and then he decided to pull out,\" Preston said. Although he was expected to be confirmed, it was also expected that he'd have to undergo a bruising confirmation hearing that could have led to negative headlines for Obama. As news broke of the withdrawal, some senators said they were sad to see Daschle step aside, but others said it was the right thing to do. \"I'm in shock. I didn't know that. I don't know what happened,\" said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California. \"I talked to him ... the night before last, and he showed no signs of withdrawing.\" Feinstein praised Daschle as rare person who could get something like health care through the Senate and said she wishes he had not withdrawn. \"I have great faith in him.\" Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Daschle \"did a service to President Obama\" by stepping aside. \"I think it really would have looked bad for the Senate to close ranks around a fellow member and sort of reinforce the idea that they were going to protect a member as part of the good ol' boys club,\" he said. Daschle has a lengthy history with members of Congress. He represented South Dakota in the House of Representatives for four terms, and he served in the Senate for three terms. He was the Senate majority leader from June 2001 to January 2003 and served as the minority leader before losing his re-election bid in 2005. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, said Daschle \"saved the president from being embarrassed\" by withdrawing. Watch Republicans weigh in on the move \u00bb . Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he was \"a little stunned\" by Daschle's decision. \"I thought he was going to get confirmed. I thought -- he's a good man, and I thought he'd be confirmed. I'm surprised,\" said Baucus, D-Montana. Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, insisted that Daschle had owned up to his mistakes. \"He's made his decision, I respect his decision, and we go on from there,\" Kerry said. Daschle's resignation came hours after Nancy Killefer's withdrawal as Obama's chief performance officer, a new post in the administration. Officials said privately the reason for Killefer's withdrawal was unspecified tax issues. The much-touted post was designed to scrub the federal budget. CNN's Lisa Desjardins, Candy Crowley and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Political climate tripped up Daschle, says CNN's Ed Henry .\nSource says Daschle was worried about what his confirmation would do to Obama .\nSenators say they did not see the withdrawal coming .\nDaschle's nomination questioned due to tax problems, work in recent years .","id":"c3b337cdb0f12b87b0a7a277a36658dd156af870"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three people were arrested Saturday after chaos broke out at an \"America's Next Top Model\" audition at a New York hotel, police said. A large crowd at the Park Central New York hotel got unruly Saturday during a \"Top Model\" audition. Six people were injured, and two of them sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said. Police said they didn't know what provoked the bedlam. Three people were charged with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot in connection with the incident at the Park Central New York hotel in Manhattan. The audition was shut down after the incident, authorities said. Calls to Park Central management were not immediately returned on Saturday. The \"Top Model\" competition, hosted and produced by supermodel Tyra Banks and aired by the CW network, is in its 12th cycle.","highlights":"Police: 3 people were arrested Saturday after chaos broke out at a TV show audition .\n\"America's Next Top Model\" audition was being held at a New York hotel, police said .\nTwo people sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said .\n\"Top Model\" competition is hosted by Tyra Banks and airs on CW network .","id":"ebb199874efb8b743e0548546686a2324022b5ae"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- The clicking of dozens of news cameras drowned out the sobs of the 13-year-old girl, but her face explained what was happening in the departure hall of Japan's Narita International Airport. Arlan and Sarah Calderon hug their daughter Noriko farewell. Noriko Calderon, wearing her school uniform, was being forced to make one of the most wrenching choices of her young life: To stay in the country of her birth rather than join her parents being deported to the Philippines. The scene was the emotional climax to a story a decade and a half in the making -- one that has tugged at heartstrings in Japan, but ultimately failed to sway to an unyielding bureaucracy that activists say violates human rights. Sound off: Do you think Japanese authorities are doing the right thing? Filipinos Arlan and Sarah Calderon illegally entered Japan in the early 1990s on fake passports. They married and had a daughter, Noriko. Arlan found a stable job working for a construction company. Noriko grew up Japanese, attending school and never learning her parents' native language. Noriko, like many Tokyo girls her age, loves hip-hop and hopes to be a dancer or a teacher at a dance school someday. But her future in the only country she's ever known went into limbo when Japanese immigration authorities arrested her mother in 2006. Her parents decided to fight Japan's notoriously rigid immigration laws and for three years under a harsh media spotlight, they argued their case all the way to the country's High Court, saying Arlan is gainfully employed and their daughter only speaks Japanese. The family lost their case in the High Court, and Japan ordered Arlan and Sarah Calderon be deported back to the Philippines. Watch CNN interview with family \u00bb . Activists claim Japan's notoriously rigid immigration laws violate human rights. An estimated 500 families are in the same situation according to lawyers, who accuse Japan of not respecting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Japan's Immigration Bureau in a statement to CNN said the couple's illegal presence in the country as an \"extremely malicious\" violation that \"shakes the foundation of Japan's immigration control.\" But when it came to 13 year old Noriko, the government gave the girl a choice: Her country or her parents. \"Japan is my homeland,\" says Noriko, when asked why she is choosing to stay behind. She will move in with an aunt, allowed to stay in Japan under a visa that the government will reassess yearly. Her life, say her parents, will be better in Japan. She'll have schooling and the dreams a big city like Tokyo can offer her, versus the impoverished farm community her parents will move back to in the Philippines. But as the Calderons packed up their small apartment in the days leading up to the deportation, the reality of what would soon happen to the family became more and more harsh. \"Until I'm an adult, I need my parents,\" Noriko said, her pink cheeks stained with tears. \"We won't be there when she needs us the most,\" said Arlan Calderon. \"She has to protect herself on her own. I'm so sorry about that.\" Shogo Watanabe, the Calderons' attorney, collected more than 20,000 signatures in Japan to try and keep the family together in the country. \"Children should be protected when their parents are punished. It's the child's right. But there's no consideration for that at all. I do not think the government is being flexible,\" said Watanabe. Under Japanese immigration laws, the Calderons won't be allowed back into Japan for five years. They've asked for a special waiver to visit their daughter after a year, but it hasn't been granted yet. So their last, public hug could be the last time they see their daughter until she's 18.","highlights":"Noriko Calderon born and raised in Japan by Filipino parents .\nParents deported after years of living in country .\nSchoolgirl says she will stay, meaning she may not see parents until she's 18 .","id":"f2fe4bbf96f8e180220b9953c0f61d23ef9416ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Los Angeles police have launched an internal investigation to determine who leaked a picture that appears to show a bruised and battered Rihanna. Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, before the Grammys on February 8. The close-up photo -- showing a woman with contusions on her forehead and below her eyes, and cuts on her lip -- was published on the entertainment Web site TMZ Thursday. TMZ said it was a photo of Rihanna. Twenty-one-year-old Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, on a Los Angeles street before the two were to perform at the Grammys on February 8. \"The unauthorized release of a domestic violence photograph immediately generated an internal investigation,\" an L.A. police spokesman said in a statement. \"The Los Angeles Police Department takes seriously its duty to maintain the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence. A violation of this type is considered serious misconduct, with penalties up to and including termination.\" A spokeswoman for Rihanna declined to comment. The chief investigator in the case had told CNN earlier that authorities had tried to guard against leaks. Detective Deshon Andrews said he had kept the case file closely guarded and that no copies had been made of the original photos and documents. Brown was arrested on February 8 in connection with the case and and booked on suspicion of making criminal threats. Authorities are trying to determine whether Brown should face domestic violence-related charges. Brown apologized for the incident this week. \"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,\" the 19-year-old said in a statement released by his spokesman. \"I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.\" CNN's Brittany Kaplan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Los Angeles police investigating leak of photo of a battered woman .\nTMZ Web site says photo is of R&B singer Rihanna .\nRihanna allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, on February 8 .\nThe two were scheduled to perform at the Grammys .","id":"544905cbad0a199faaa5cf7b11811aadbeb131a7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. Paul Begala says Republicans are failing to respond to the real economic pain felt throughout the U.S. (CNN) -- As the fight over President Obama's economic recovery package heats up, the two sides are beginning to define themselves with admirable clarity. The president says we have a crisis that is heading toward a catastrophe. In announcing his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board, President Obama declared, \"The situation could not be more serious. These [new unemployment] numbers demand action. It is inexcusable and irresponsible for any of us to get bogged down in distraction, delay, or politics as usual, while millions of Americans are being put out of work.\" The Republicans, on the other hand, have honed their economic message: Denial, Delay, Do Nothing. Denial . It begins with denial. Former Bush adviser Karl Rove and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly opined in December that it's the media's fault. The said the press is overhyping bad news; the economy, they suggested, is not really all that bad. \"So you are agreeing with me,\" O'Reilly said, \"that there is a conscious effort on the part of The New York Times and other liberal media to basically paint as drastic a picture as possible, so that when Barack Obama takes office, that anything is better than what we have now?\" \"Yes,\" said Mr. Rove. OK. I guess if you're wealthy like Mr. Rove and Mr. O'Reilly you can afford to pretend the recession is a vast media conspiracy. But for the 3.7 million Americans who have lost their jobs in the Bush-Republican recession, Messrs. Rove and O'Reilly seem dangerously out of touch. Delay . \"Let's slow down. Let's take our time,\" said Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Nebraska). \"Few things are going to be as important as this.\" Generally that's good advice. But with the economy losing 19,000 jobs a day, is delay really a wise strategy? Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) seems to think so. He told CNN's John King, \"We could shelf this bill and start again. That's what we really need to do.\" Do Nothing . South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is widely considered a rising star in the GOP. He was even mentioned as a potential running mate for 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain. His strategy, again articulated to John King on \"State of the Union,\" is to do nothing -- let companies, communities and families fail. \"We're going to go through a process of deleveraging,\" Sanford said. \"And it will be painful. The question is, do we apply a bunch of different Band-Aids that lengthen and prolong this pain or do we take the Band-Aid off? I believe very strongly: Let's get this thing over with, let's not drag it on.\" Set aside the callousness of Sanford's metaphor -- that joblessness at the highest level since the Great Depression is somehow like a scratch that doesn't even need a Band-Aid. Focus instead on Sanford's substantive message: You're on your own. Write if you get work. This befits a party which has high-ranking members who deny the effectiveness of the New Deal. What's next, denying that the federal government put a man on the moon? What Bipartisanship? Given the GOP's combination of flat-earth economics and scorched-earth politics, it should come as no surprise that it looks like 98.6 percent of Washington Republicans oppose President Obama's economic recovery package. They either do not understand the depth of the recession or they do not realize the results of the recent election. I don't know what more President Obama can do. He has named three prominent Republicans to his Cabinet (Robert Gates at Defense, Ray LaHood at Transportation and Judd Gregg at Commerce). He has helped persuade New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch to replace Sen. Gregg with a Republican. He has met behind closed doors with the entire House and Senate Republican conferences. He has hosted bipartisan cocktail parties, a Super Bowl party and -- what's left, a slumber party? He has agreed to ditch progressive provisions from the stimulus bill, like support for family planning (earning him a rebuke from Planned Parenthood) and accepted more tax cuts than many Democrats would like. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus package . Still, there's bipartisanship and there's bipartisanship. Real-world Republicans support President Obama's recovery plan. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is a supporter, and as the ubiquitous John King has reported, the very Republican mayor of the very Republican town of Carmel, Indiana, supports Obama's plan as well. \"Government should be investing in infrastructure,\" Mayor James Brainard told King. \"That is what government is meant to do. It creates long-term value. I think the stimulus plan is a good one.\" So take heart, Mr. President. In the real world of layoffs, foreclosures and plant closings, you have the support of both Republicans and Democrats. They agree with you that Denial, Delay and Doing Nothing is not an economic strategy. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Begala.","highlights":"Paul Begala: Republicans are adopting strategy of blocking action on economy .\nHe says they have denied the extent of the problem and delayed action .\nBegala: Some in GOP adopt a callous attitude that we should do nothing .\nStill, he says, some Republicans outside Washington see the need to act .","id":"9d9cac1bd096e5bec4d128f4d421650034628240"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The man accused in the brutal killing of Arkansas television anchor Anne Pressly will appear next Thursday in Pulaski County Circuit Court, where he will enter a plea in the high-profile case. Anne Pressly, 26, was a news anchor at KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas. Curtis Lavell Vance, 28, was formally charged Thursday with capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft, Prosecutor Larry Jegley said Friday. Neither he nor police would discuss details of the case because of a gag order imposed by the judge. Jegley hasn't said whether he will seek the death penalty. Jegley said Vance, who denies he was in Little Rock, Arkansas, when Pressly was killed, was being held at the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility. Vance was linked to the killing through DNA testing. Lt. Terry Hastings, spokesman for Little Rock police, told CNN in December that investigators are \"110 percent\" certain Vance killed Pressly, 26, who was the morning news anchor for KATV, a CNN affiliate. Pressly was found unconscious in her home October 20 and died five days later at a hospital. \"She fought for her life. She fought her attacker. Her left hand was broken from trying to fight this man off,\" Pressly's mother, Patti Cannady, told NBC. \"Six weeks ago this morning, I found my daughter beyond recognition with every bone in her face broken, her nose broken, her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it; I actually thought that her throat had possibly been cut. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke.\" Hastings told CNN that DNA evidence also ties Vance to a rape in April in Marianna, Arkansas, about 90 miles east of Little Rock. The affidavit related to the Pressly case, from Little Rock detective Tommy Hudson, said police made contact with Vance at his home in Marianna. Hastings said investigators have found no link between Pressly and Vance, and they do not believe Pressly's being on TV had anything to do with the killing. \"I think he saw her someplace, probably followed her home with intention of robbing her. And then went from there.\" The killer also took Pressly's purse, Hastings said.","highlights":"Curtis Lavell Vance, 28, has been charged with capital murder, rape, burglary, theft .\nAnne Pressly was found unconscious in her home in October and died five days later .\nVance was linked to the killing through DNA testing .\nDNA evidence also ties Vance to a rape in April in Marianna, Arkansas, police say .","id":"8434042de022ec173d432e4298f1b42cff2ac942"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A warning of more attacks on UK bankers was made on Wednesday after the home of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin was vandalized. A recovery vehicle removes a Mercedes from the Edinburgh home of Fred Goodwin. Windows were smashed in Goodwin's house in the Scottish capital Edinburgh and those of a Mercedes-Benz limousine parked outside. It is not known if anyone was at home at the time. Goodwin -- dubbed \"Fred the Shred\" by the media for his ruthless cost-cutting -- and his family have not been living in the house since it was revealed that the 50-year-old Goodwin was receiving an annual pension of $1 million (\u00a3700,000) for life. A statement issued to media organizations including the Press Association after the attack said: \"We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless. \"Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning.\" No group was named in the message and it did not explicitly claim responsibility for the attack. Goodwin took early retirement after RBS nearly collapsed amid the economic crisis and was later part-nationalized. Watch more on the attack \u00bb . On the same day as the size of his pension was revealed RBS announced a UK record loss of $34.6 billion (\u00a324.1 billion) for 2008. Politicians and commentators have expressed fury about the deal and excessive bonuses being given by bailed-out banks. Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, head of the Treasury, urged Goodwin to give up his pension. He refused, saying he had already given up a number of contractual rights which had cost him a lot of money. Watch consternation at Goodwin's \u00a316 million pension fund \u00bb . The statement warning of more attacks on bankers came days after AIG sent a memo to employees giving them security advice as fury grows in the U.S. over millions paid out in bonuses by the bailed-out U.S. insurance giant. Employees were warned not to wear the company logo, to travel in pairs and park in well-lit places, and to phone security if they notice anyone \"spending an inordinate amount of time near an AIG facility.\" AIG employees have received death threats since the company handed out $165 million (\u00a3115 million) in bonuses and security at AIG offices has been increased. And last month British police warned that officers were preparing for a \"summer of rage\" as protests mount across Europe against the economic crisis. David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police's public order branch, said growing unemployment, failing companies and the recession could spark a \"mass protest.\" Hartshorn said the G-20 economic summit starting next week could lead to unrest as leaders of the world's richest nations head to London.","highlights":"Scottish home of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin vandalized .\nStatement issued to media oorganizations warns of more attacks on bankers .\nEmbattled U.S. insurance giant AIG last week gave employees security advice .\nLast month British police said officers were preparing for \"summer of rage\"","id":"b13d876c1a07291ff62be8a4eb5d619a4e4ba87c"} -{"article":"BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- What happens when business and government turn their collective back on a town and just walk away? Braddock, Pennsylvania, is what happens. Braddock, Pennsylvania, has suffered since the steel mills went out of business in the 1970s and 1980s. When steel was king, the population of Braddock surged to more than 20,000 people. With its proximity to Pittsburgh and its location on the Monongahela River, it was an ideal location for a steel town. When steel mills began closing in the 1970s and 1980s, Braddock was not immune. In 1982, Braddock's main mill, the Carrie Furnace, closed its doors, putting thousands of people out of work. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, residents left the town seeking work in other parts of Pennsylvania. The 2000 census put the population of Braddock at 2,900, but it has dropped further, according to residents. Home prices have plummeted and real estate is as inexpensive as $6,000 for a single-family house. Historic pictures show a polished downtown and a bustling community. Now, most businesses have closed their doors, leaving only a handful to serve the community. A drive down Braddock Avenue, the main street, indicates the town has seen the bottom. The avenue is lined with crumbling offices and stores, boarded windows and empty lots where buildings once stood. But there is hope in the town. In 2005, Braddock elected John Fetterman by one vote as its mayor. He is originally from York, Pennsylvania, and has lived in the area of Braddock for eight years. He has an MBA from Harvard and started a program that helped dislocated youth from the area receive their high school equivalency degrees. At 6 feet 8 inches and 325 pounds, he is an imposing figure. He chooses to dress in Dr Martens boots, baggy jeans and Dickies short-sleeved shirts because he feels he is able to connect with the people better dressed that way. He shaves his head and has a goatee. Possibly the most intimidating aspects of Fetterman's appearance are his tattoos, clearly visible on his forearms, including the numbers 15104, the town's ZIP code. Watch as the mayor talks about his revitalization plan \u00bb . When asked if he thinks the town is at rock bottom, Fetterman replies, \"I don't believe that it's the bottom in the sense that this is a bad place. This is what can happen when you turn your back on a community.\" Since he was elected, Fetterman has made it his mission to give Braddock a prosperous future. He has given incentives to businesses to relocate to his town. The main incentive is large manufacturing space at a fraction of the cost in a normal market. A company that converts diesel engines into vegetable-oil burning engines, Fossil Free Fuel, relocated to Braddock from Allen, Pennsylvania. \"The initial building was about 14,000 square feet and supposedly the asking price was $25,000. And we were like how do you get so much space for so little money?\" said David Rosenstraus, one of the owners of Fossil Free Fuel. \"I think for a very small business like us, not having very much capital to work with building a shop, and investments going into tools and things inside the shop, [we] would be spread thin if we had to pay a lot for the actual building.\" On the site where the Carrie Furnace steel mill building still stands, the county plans to convert the contaminated land into commercial and residential space. Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato is driving this plan, \"We don't look at this like a liability. We see some potential here. We can take back 147 acres, take back the riverfront and make this a viable spot again. But you have to invest public money into the infrastructure to make that happen. It won't happen on its own. For example, this place closed 25 years ago, it's still here. The public sector has to come in and invest.\" Braddock still has many obstacles to overcome, but Fetterman believes that it's possible to grow, \"I'd like to see Braddock move towards -- continue to move towards -- a safer place that is moving towards better outcomes for everybody.\"","highlights":"Braddock, Pennsylvania, thrived as a steel town .\nThousands of people left after mills shut down .\nMayor trying to use incentives to bring business back to area .\nReal estate prices are incredibly low, enticing some to move to town .","id":"7d2546fec52386fb211f483b903a9e2083689062"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe said Monday that he does not believe foul play was involved in a car wreck that killed his wife. The vehicle the couple were traveling in was left overturned off the highway. \"When something like that happens there is speculation, but I want to assure you if it was foul play, it is one in a thousand,\" he said Monday. \"It was an accident that took her life.\" Tsvangirai's comments came amid widespread speculation that the wreck was caused by his political opponents aligned with President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai's political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has said the crash was an assassination attempt. It has called for an independent inquiry. Zimbabwe's new prime minister was hurt in the wreck and returned home Monday from neighboring Botswana. \"Life has to go on and I'm certain that if she was here she would liked life to go on,\" he said. \"It will be difficult to fill the gap left by her.\" Tsvangirai has long been a leading opposition figure in Zimbabwe, but he joined a coalition government with Mugabe last month. That seemed to resolve an impasse created by a disputed presidential election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai last year. Tsvangirai received the most votes in the March 2008 election, but he fell short of the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff. He withdrew as a candidate in the runoff, citing political violence and intimidation targeting his supporters. Negotiations between the two sides culminated in the power-sharing agreement that was implemented just weeks ago. Questions about the wreck surfaced shortly after it happened Friday on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai's hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare. On Saturday, members of Tsvangirai's political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, told CNN that Tsvangirai believed that the driver of the truck that struck his car deliberately drove toward him in an effort to take his life. The party's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, said police should have provided better security for Tsvangirai. The wreck might not have happened, he said, if a police escort been on hand. A former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tom McDonald, said the wreck raised suspicion. \"I'm skeptical about any motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe involving an opposition figure,\" said McDonald, who was ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2001. \"President Mugabe has a history of strange car accidents when someone, lo and behold, dies -- it's sort of his M.O. of how they get rid of people they don't like.\" McDonald, however, was quick to add that traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe. The highway on which Tsvangirai was traveling is a two-lane road on which tractor-trailers are common, he said. Vehicles in the country are often in bad shape and many drivers are inexperienced, he said. \"It's certainly plausible that this was just one of those tragic things,\" he said. -- CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tsvangirai: \"It was an accident that took her life\"\nPM returned home from Botswana and addressed mourners at his residence .\nMuch speculation the wreck was caused by his political opponents .\nFormer U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said the wreck raised suspicion .","id":"ae2944d62acff5a764d4e6d19bdbc45e9d030b8e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tim Masters squarely blames Fort Collins, Colorado, police and prosecutors for his inability to land gainful employment and for his not having a wife and kids at this stage in his life. Tim Masters, left, stands with attorney David Wymore, right, before Masters' release from prison last year. In 1987, Masters became the prime suspect in the slaying of Peggy Hettrick, a 37-year-old found in a field near his house. Among the reasons police said they focused on Masters was that he failed to report the body after he found it and his childhood drawings and stories suggested he was fixated on death. Masters was convicted of murder in 1999, but a judge last year threw out the conviction and released him from prison, citing new evidence that did not implicate Masters. Masters now has a lawsuit pending against several police officers, ex-prosecutors and the city. The city of Fort Collins has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. Now 37, Masters sat down for a phone interview with a CNN reporter who covered his case and subsequent release. He said he still holds a grudge against the police and prosecutors who put him behind bars. Watch Masters the day after his 2008 release \u00bb . He's living in Greeley, Colorado, and doesn't get back to Fort Collins much, but he does love traveling. Most notably, he's traveled to Amsterdam, Netherlands, to appear on a talk show with Richard and Selma Eikelenboom, the Dutch forensic scientists who discovered the DNA evidence that ultimately freed Masters. Things can be tough sometimes, but anything is better than prison, Masters said of his first year as a free man since being imprisoned. CNN: How have things been in the year since your release? Masters: It's a struggle to earn enough money to pay my bills and everything, make a living. Other than that, life is good. CNN: Do you have a job? Masters: I buy stuff at auction and I sell it on eBay. CNN: Do you have trouble finding a job because of your time in jail? Masters: Yeah, I think that has a lot to do with it. The first thing that comes up on a background check is \"charges dismissed -- first-degree murder.\" Watch Masters thank those last year who worked to free him \u00bb . CNN: How else have you been keeping yourself busy? Masters: Pretty much work. That's it. CNN: Describe a typical day. Masters: The big challenge is, first of all, you've got to find out where the auctions are. Once you get that down, then you go to the auctions. Another disadvantage I have is I'm a little outdated on the prices of things, so I'm thinking things are worth a lot less than what they're going for. So I have to learn what things are worth now. I go to the auction, and I bid on stuff. I try and buy it cheap enough that I can make a profit on it, load it into the truck, bring it back to the house. I have shelves all in my basement full of just odds and ends. I put it all on the shelves. I do research on the computer and find out which ones I can actually make a profit on, and I list those. You list the item on eBay and let it run its course through the auction for usually seven days. If it sells, you pack it and ship it off. If it doesn't sell, you can either re-list it as an auction item, re-list it as a store item or throw it in the trash. CNN: What kind of money do you make in a typical week? Masters: Not enough. CNN: What do you enjoy doing most that you weren't able to do in prison? Masters: Travel. I've been to see my sister about four times since I've been out. She's in California. I have an uncle in Arizona. This goes along with the eBay business. I go down there every once in a while. He has a warehouse full of used restaurant equipment, and I go down there every so often. I go through his warehouse, take pictures of all the new stuff he's got in and I list it on eBay for him. Sometimes it sells, sometimes it doesn't. In April, a TV station over in Amsterdam paid to fly me over there to be on a talk show with Richard and Selma [Eikelenboom] from the DNA lab. That was cool. Watch a prosecutor explain why Masters' conviction was reversed \u00bb . CNN: What did you have the hardest time getting used to after being in prison so long? Masters: Maybe cell phones? Cell phones are everywhere now. They didn't used to be so common. I had a cell phone before I was arrested, but the last year before I was arrested, I didn't even keep service on it. Now, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have a cell phone. It has my calendar, my address book, everything on it. CNN: You spent some prime years of your life -- late 20s, early 30s -- in jail for a crime you didn't commit. What do you think you missed most by not being a free man in those years? Masters: There's so much. Right off the top, I'd say having a family. I think they're very much responsible for me not having a family right now, a wife and kids. But it goes back further than just them arresting me. It goes all the way back to my high school days when they labeled me a murder suspect among all my peers and my teachers and everything. It goes back a long time. Watch police interrogate a 15-year-old Masters \u00bb . CNN: They did the same thing when you were in the military, too, right? Masters: Yeah, in '92. CNN: You said last year that you were staying away from alcohol because you were uncertain what emotions it might stir up. Are you still staying away from booze? Masters: Yeah, that went to hell when I went to Europe. I had a couple beers over in Europe. I didn't get drunk, but we'd have a few beers. CNN: Are you still cautious with your use of alcohol? Masters: Yeah, I think I am. CNN: Why? Masters: No. 1, I don't want a hangover [laughing]. I have a lot of repressed anger from all those years, but I don't think it's going to snap on anybody when I have a couple of beers though. CNN: Any hard feelings toward the Fort Collins Police Department or the prosecutors in the case? Masters: Oh, absolutely. They locked me up for a decade for something I didn't do. Read how DNA pointed to a new killer . CNN: If you could talk to the prosecutors or police who handled your case, what would you say to them? Masters: I don't want to talk to them at all. CNN: Talk about your lawsuit against the prosecutors and police. Who does it target? Masters: Mainly, [former prosecutors, now Judges] Jolene Blair and Terri Gilmore and [Fort Collins police Lt.] Jim Broderick, but there are a few other defendants involved and the city, but in my mind those are the big three. Key players in the case \u00bb . CNN: Tell me about the suit, what it alleges. Masters: You'd probably be better to talk to the lawyers about that. CNN: What would you say to the Hettrick family, which is now left to wonder what happened to their daughter? Masters: I don't know what I'd say to them. It's a damned shame that [the police] did this to them, too, telling them they got the guy when they didn't have the right person. I don't know what I'd say to them. That's a tough question. CNN: Do you get back to Fort Collins much? Masters: I try to stay away from Fort Collins. I still have family over there though, so I'm over there every once in a while. CNN: Does going there bring back bad memories? Masters: Yeah, and every time I go over there I feel like I'm on the defensive, every time I see a police car with someone pulled over or something -- well, let me give you an example. One day, my aunt and I were coming back from having lunch, and we were about to make a left and the road kept going straight. On the other side of the street, they had the yellow police tape up, and this is only two blocks from my aunt's house. I'm thinking, \"Oh great, I wonder when they're going to come interrogate me for something that happened over here.\" It turns out the yellow tape was up because there was a telephone pole that was leaning over, but it looked like crime scene tape. I didn't know. But I can't live like that, wondering when they are going to harass me for something that I didn't have anything to do with. They did it to me before. CNN: So you're keeping a low profile? Masters: Yeah, pretty much.","highlights":"Tim Masters relies on eBay for income because record still mentions murder charge .\nMasters says he's still getting used to cell phones, the current prices of things .\nCity of Fort Collins asking federal judge to dismiss Masters' lawsuit .\nWrongful conviction leaves Masters anxious when he sees police, he says .","id":"182816fef64c4c2e58ece915551af64b04adbf53"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A missing 5-year-old Florida girl was most likely abducted from her home in rural Florida, police said Wednesday. Haleigh Cummings, 5, went missing Monday night from her home near Orlando, police said. Haleigh Cummings has been missing since 3 a.m. Tuesday, when her father's girlfriend called 911 to say the child had vanished from her Putnam County home. \"There's no longer any reason to believe that the child simply wandered outside,\" said Putnam County Sheriff's Office Maj. Gary Bowling. The police must \"assume abduction,\" he said. \"All the answers to why you'd want to take a 5-year-old are ugly,\" Bowling said. Police have no official suspects, but are treating everyone they interview as one. \"All the world's a suspect\" now, Bowling said. Hear the frantic 911 call \u00bb . A nationwide Amber Alert says the girl was last seen wearing a pink shirt and underwear. Police plan to use infrared aviation technology after dark Wednesday in their search. \"She's a 5-year-old child, and she's afraid of the dark,\" Bowling said. On Monday night, Ronald Cummings' girlfriend, 17-year-old Misty Croslin, was watching Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother, police said. Croslin put Haleigh to bed at 8 p.m. and then went to bed herself at 10 p.m., they said. Croslin told police she woke up at 3 a.m. and discovered Haleigh missing. Croslin then called 911 and told a dispatcher that she found a brick on the floor of the family's double-wide trailer, according to CNN affiliate WJXT-TV. The station's Web site printed the text of the 911 call, which included this exchange: . Dispatch: OK. All right, you said your back door was wide open? Caller: Yes, with a brick. Like, there was a brick on the floor. Like, when I went to sleep the door was not like that. The brick was actually holding open the door to the trailer, Putnam County Sheriff's Office Lt. Johnny Greenwood told CNN. Croslin is staying with relatives as the investigation continues, said Bowling, describing the girlfriend as a \"child herself.\" Earlier Wednesday, Cummings pleaded for his daughter's safe return. \"All I want is my child ... please ... all I want is my child,\" he said, his voice breaking. On Wednesday, Haleigh's maternal grandmother, Marie Griffis, told reporters that she feared the worst. \"She's out there somewhere, I can feel her. I can feel her presence,\" Griffis told CNN affiliate WFTV-TV. \"She's screaming.\" Watch grandparents plead for girl's return \u00bb . Haleigh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, wept as she stood in front of reporters. \"I just want whoever's got her to bring her home,\" the girl's mother said. \"That's all I want, is my baby home.\" Watch mother's tearful plea \u00bb . Griffis said that her daughter and Ronald Cummings had a \"rocky relationship\" and that the two took turns spending weekends with their daughter. Sheffield lives near the Florida-Georgia line and has been interviewed by law enforcement, according to police. Investigators are looking into various angles of the case, including finding out the location of 44 registered sexual offenders who live within a five-mile radius of the Cummings home, Greenwood said. Though that number may sound high, it includes both Putnam and Palatka counties, which are separated by the St. Johns River, the law enforcement spokesman told CNN. Police are offering but not requiring all those interviewed in the case to take polygraph tests. Anyone with any information is encouraged to call the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at 386-329-0800 or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse at 888-FL-MISSING.","highlights":"NEW: \"All the world's a suspect\" now, police say .\nHaleigh Cummings was reported missing at 3 a.m. Tuesday, police say .\nFather's 17-year-old girlfriend was caring for Haleigh on Monday night, police say .\nThe girl's father says he believes someone snatched the child from her bed .","id":"447423d53c812b3bd85c998be5947f99bf67cf7f"} -{"article":"Harold Holzer, co-chairman of the U. S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, is the author of the new book, \"Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861\" and author, co-author or editor of 32 other books. Harold Holzer says Obama represents validation of Lincoln's hope of equal opportunity for all. NEW YORK (CNN) -- They are big shoes to fill by any standard, political or historical. Pointing to his oversize, specially made boots, Abraham Lincoln once confided that he may have been slow to put his foot down, but once he did, he never went back. That's a lesson worth learning for any president-elect. And few incoming chief executives have been as conscious of the 16th president as the 44th: Barack Obama. The new president-elect wrote about Lincoln in his acclaimed books. He not only chose to announce his candidacy for the presidency on Lincoln's birthday, in 2006, but did so outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln delivered his famous \"House Divided\" speech in 1858 and where he had his headquarters as president-elect. The myriad comparisons between the two skinny, big-eared Illinoisans -- Obama's own fond description -- are already entering the realm of modern legend. Both were believed too inexperienced to be president. See iReporters don stovepipe hats to pay tribute to Lincoln . Both were long-shot underdogs for their party's nomination. Yet each went on not only to win, but to nominate the defeated party favorite (who happened to be a senator from New York) as secretary of state. William H. Seward was Lincoln's choice, Hillary Clinton is Obama's. But of course there are substantial differences: Lincoln got his education \"by littles,\" he once embarrassingly admitted, spending less than a year all told in primitive one-room schoolhouses. Obama was superbly educated at Columbia University and Harvard Law. One man was a Republican, the other is a Democrat. And while Barack Obama scored an impressive victory, the nation divided bitterly over Lincoln's 39 percent plurality in a four-person race, to the degree that the Electoral College validation remained in question -- much more like Bush vs. Gore -- as late as February 1861, while seven Southern states seceded rather than accept a Lincoln presidency. Yet fascinating similarities predominate. Both men wrote best-selling books (yes, Lincoln, too: he brought out a hugely popular edition of his Lincoln-Douglas debates). Both won fame through their transcendent oratory. Both got into political trouble over their church affiliations -- Lincoln for leaving his church too soon, Obama for not leaving soon enough. Both refused to take pets along to the White House, but promised to shower their small children with pets once they arrived (the Lincolns left their mangy dog Fido behind and President-elect Obama has vowed to get a dog for his girls once settled in Washington). He might have to do better. Willie and Tad Lincoln eventually obtained kittens, turkeys and ponies. And here is another fascinating side story. Both men felt the need to make one final visit -- before their life-altering presidencies -- for reunions with the women, neither one a natural mother, who helped raise them. Obama, of course, went back to Honolulu to see his gravely ill grandmother right before Election Day; Lincoln, right before Inauguration Day, visited rural Charleston, Illinois, to say goodbye to his aged stepmother -- who wound up outliving him. But most extraordinary of all, surely, is the fact that Barack Obama's victory serves to help complete the \"unfinished work\" Abraham Lincoln spoke about in his Gettysburg Address: that America fulfill its dream of equal opportunity regardless of race. Lincoln, of course, advanced black freedom and black voting rights; Obama represents the validation of those elusive aspirations. It is not difficult to understand why so many Americans see Barack Obama as the second coming -- of Abraham Lincoln, if not more. Lincoln once declared, \"We cannot escape history,\" and after years of national indifference to, or defiance of, the lessons of the past, our next president seems to love, comprehend, and use the past to illuminate the future. iReport.com: Can you speak like Lincoln? Comparisons can invite problems, too. On his triumphant election night, Obama properly noted that Lincoln faced a crisis far graver than our own, then quoted Lincoln's hope that \"while passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.\" Those words came right out of Lincoln's first inaugural address. But in fact they were written not by Lincoln himself -- rare for America's greatest writer-president -- but by his incoming Secretary of State Seward. Lincoln later performed an editing miracle to transform the draft into near-poetry. Using this lesson, Obama should be asking Hillary Clinton for a draft. But that probably won't happen. Sometimes reality trumps even history. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Harold Holzer.","highlights":"Harold Holzer: Obama has much in common with Lincoln, the 16th president .\nHe says the two were underdog candidates, authors, famed orators .\nYet Holzer says there are many differences in their stories .\nHolzer: Obama represents validation of Lincoln's hope of equal opportunity .","id":"83df763732163b3c6e291ea7b95d13cb70a8d155"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A person's risk of stroke is associated with the number of fast-food restaurants near their residence, according to a study presented Thursday at a stroke conference in San Diego, California. Fast-food restaurants may be associated with stroke risk, a new study says. Some say there's not enough evidence. Researchers led by Dr. Lewis B. Morgenstern at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor counted 1,247 strokes caused by blood clots in 64 census tracts in Nueces County, Texas, which includes Corpus Christi, from January 2000 through June 2003. They also mapped the county's 262 fast-food restaurants and then adjusted for socioeconomic status and demographics and found a statistically significant association. \"The association suggested that the risk of stroke in a neighborhood increased by 1 percent for every fast-food restaurant,\" the authors wrote in a poster presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference. Residents of neighborhoods in the 75th percentile of fast-food restaurants had a 6 percent increased risk of stroke compared with residents of the 25th percentile of such eateries, according to the study, which was paid for by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Morgenstern, director of the University of Michigan's stroke program and professor of neurology and epidemiology, warned that the finding does not prove that proximity to fast-food restaurants caused the increase in strokes of people living nearby. Watch more on the link between fast food restaurants and stroke \u00bb . \"What we don't know is whether fast food actually increased the risk because of its contents or whether fast-food restaurants are a marker of unhealthy neighborhoods,\" he said. Still, he added, \"If this association is causal, the findings have large public health importance due to the high prevalence of fast-food restaurants.\" A spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association lambasted that concern as unsupported by the data. \"This article is seriously flawed and by its own admission shows no correlation whatsoever between dining at chain restaurants and incidence of stroke,\" Beth Johnson said. \"Further, it tells us nothing about the eating and exercise habits of the individuals involved. The restaurant industry continues to offer a growing number of healthier offerings, move away from the use of trans fats and provide more nutrition information. \"In fact, the National Restaurant Association strongly supports a national, uniform approach to providing detailed nutrition information in chain restaurants. Constructive and responsive measures like these, and not misleading studies, will help consumers make healthy choices for themselves and their families,\" she added.","highlights":"Study looked at 1,247 strokes in Nueces County, Texas .\nRisk of stroke in a neighborhood increased by 1 percent for every fast-food restaurant .\nSpokeswoman for National Restaurant Association says study is flawed .","id":"556a2d4c0af2ecf4c9be174cbd7bb22eb9265e39"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ed Rollins, who was political director for President Reagan, is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign. Ron Silver, seen in a 2006 photo, was an actor with a strong interest in justice and peace, Ed Rollins says. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The lights on Broadway were dimmed Wednesday night to honor Ron Silver, the Tony-award winning actor who was buried Wednesday after a courageous battle against cancer of the esophagus. Ron was a lifelong social liberal and a Democratic activist, but you couldn't narrowly define him. And to those of us privileged to be his friend, he was an extraordinary pal. In the 25 years we were friends, he and I faced off most of that time on opposite sides of the political spectrum. In this era when people want bipartisanship, Ron was the role model. Our earliest encounters began when I was managing Ronald Reagan's campaign and he was a Dukakis supporter. He was passionate and a true intellectual. I have spent much of my life around smart people (fortunately a lot smarter than I) and Ron was one of the smartest. Whatever the topic, he had an opinion on it and probably had just read a book or two on the subject. Ron was a Chinese and international relations scholar and had no casual thoughts, only deep convictions. He backed up his opinions with empirical evidence and could rattle off facts like a baseball statistician. \"Eddie, why do you think that way?\" (Only my mother and wife have called me Eddie.) \"Why would a smart man like you ever come to that conclusion?\" And then we would proceed to discuss the topic for hours. I don't think we ever changed each other's opinions, but after a bottle or two of wine or a bottle of Scotch had been emptied, we still respected each other. We never had a cross word and no discussion ever ended in anger. After a while I learned it wasn't personal and it wasn't because I was Republican. Ron argued with everyone -- even those on his side in an issue -- because he had great curiosity and always wanted to know more. The closest we ever came to harsh words was when I teased him on his Emmy nomination for a recurring role as a slick campaign strategist on the TV show \"The West Wing.\" \"You would have won if you asked me how to play the part,\" I declared. \"After all you're just an actor. I am the real thing. I worked in the real West Wing and I managed a real campaign that won 49 states,\" He quickly replied with a big grin: \"Why the hell would I want the input of a guy who lost Minnesota [the only state Reagan lost]? And remember, you only won because you had an actor named Ron making you look good!\" Our discussions often ended in laughter. Because for Ron, politics was serious but it was also fun. I don't think he enjoyed anything more than a great political debate. To Ron, debate was an educational experience. To those of us on the opposite side it was like a combat sport. Several years ago, I was approached by one of the planners for the 2004 Republican Convention in New York. He wanted to know if I could recommend any movie or entertainment stars who would be willing to participate in the convention. Since the passing of the Reagan era, Republicans haven't had a long list of entertainers to choose from. From our discussions, I knew that Ron supported President Bush's battle against Islamic terrorism and the war in Iraq and he had been profoundly affected by 9\/11. I asked him would he be willing to participate if asked. He said yes, but emphatically stated he was remaining a Democrat. But he also knew that when he publicly supported Bush on the war, it would affect his long relationships in Hollywood and could cost him future work. Ron's Monday night convention speech was short, less than five minutes and only 429 words in length. It wasn't covered by any of the major networks, but it was still one of the best of the night. When he stated: . \"I am grateful for the chance to speak tonight to express my support for our commander-in-chief, for our brave troops and for the vital cause which they have undertaken,\" his career as a major Hollywood player was over. Even though he had been a president of both the Actor's Equity Guild and the Creative Coalition that he co-founded, he challenged the entertainment industry with these spoken words: . \"Even though I am a well-recognized liberal on many issues confronting our society today, I find it ironic that many human rights advocates and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest repression, for which I applaud them, but they are usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalog repeatedly.\" Ron was disappointed when he did lose future work and even a few \"so-called Hollywood friends,\" but not surprised. But he said what he believed and never regretted doing it. Ron was always determined to give back something to his country and New York, the city where he, his parents, grandparents and great grandparents were born and loved. Whether he was fighting for the cause of Israel or social justice for the poor or for more funding for the National Endowment for the Arts or AIDS research, he was passionate about his causes. Even though he was close to death, he attended President Obama's inauguration because he thought it was a great day for the country and he didn't want to miss it. And just a few weeks ago while still undergoing chemotherapy, Ron attended the latest board of directors meeting in Washington of The United States Institute of Peace. The Peace Institute is an independent, nonpartisan institution established and funded by Congress whose 12 members are appointed by the president. The organizational goals are to help prevent and resolve violent international conflicts. Ron was appointed in 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate for a four-year term. He told me it was his most important role and a part he was never prouder to play. As the dimming of the lights on Broadway signaled Wednesday night, Ron's voice is now quiet -- and missed. His life's work not only lit up Broadway and filled the big screen, it also inspired others to action. The many roles he played on the stage, in movies and on television pale in comparisons to the real roles he lived in his life. Ron was a great friend, a great father and a great American. We will miss you, my friend. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Rollins.","highlights":"Ed Rollins: Ron Silver was a liberal Democrat, but impossible to narrowly define .\nHe says Silver was passionate and knowledgeable about current events .\nHe says Silver faced a backlash in Hollywood because he supported Bush on war .\nSilver's work lit up Broadway, television and films, Rollins says .","id":"d799a20e20d98c155b4e72feb972a987b0221356"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While all eyes seem to be on \"Slumdog Millionaire\" for the Oscars, one very courageous little girl will be focused on another India-based film at the ceremony. Pinki, like millions in developing countries, had to live with her deformity and suffer the social consequences. It's called \"Smile Pinki,\" and it's up for an Oscar, too -- nominated for best short documentary, which it won on Sunday. The little girl watching it from inside the Oscar ceremony has traveled all the way to Los Angeles, California, from her small Indian village with her dad -- and it has been an incredible journey for Pinki Sonkar. \"Smile Pinki\" tells the story of her transformation from a sad outcast to a vibrant 8-year-old with plenty of spunk. Pinki was born with a cleft lip, and her impoverished family did not have the money for corrective surgery. Like millions of other children born with the lip deformity in developing countries, Pinki simply had to live with it and suffer the social consequences. Her father Rajendra Sonkar says: \"She used to go to school and the kids would not befriend her. She would say, 'I don't want to go to school.'\" Watch how Pinki was transformed by the operation \u00bb . \"Pinki was a depressed, sad, lonely, shy, young little girl, growing up on the periphery of the society in a little village,\" said Satish Kalra, director of Smile Train's South Asian region, after meeting with Pinki. The little girl's own family was ashamed of her, Kalra says. But all of that has changed. Pinki is now a real pistol, full of energy and confidence, and she has a fantastic smile too -- thanks to the Smile Train charity. Smile Train teaches doctors in their own countries to operate on cleft lips, a deformity afflicting up to four million children across the world. iReport: Share your Oscar predictions . Pinki just happened to be one of the chosen candidates for surgery and was also chosen to be the subject of the documentary. The film chronicles her transformation, following her from her village to the hospital and home again. \"She has absolutely and totally changed,\" said Pinki's surgeon, Dr. Subodh Kumar. The film's director is Megan Mylan. She has won several awards but not an Oscar -- until now. For Pinki and her dad, being able to see the film's director win an Oscar would be a thrill. But they know they already have the greatest prize: Pinki's new smile. \"I am so happy that my daughter's lips have been repaired,\" her dad Rajendra said with a smile, expressing hope that the movie will inspire people to help children whose families can't afford the surgery.","highlights":"NEW: \"Smile Pinki\" wins best short documentary Oscar .\nPinki Sonkar was born with cleft lip; her family in India couldn't afford surgery .\nSmile Train charity provided operation; 4 million children worldwide have cleft lips .\nPinki, once an outcast because of the deformity, will attend the Oscar ceremony .","id":"07dbcea07afea616e4992b1a8e548aff36ff9be7"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A Swiss diplomat was released from jail Thursday after being arrested on a sex charge, the Iranian media reported. The first secretary of the U.S. Interests section of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran had been in an \"indecent sexual relation\" with an Iranian woman in his car, Iran's Press TV reported, citing Iranian police. Police spotted the car with diplomatic plates in a parking lot and caught the diplomat. The woman was \"improperly dressed and in an obscene situation,\" Press TV said. The \"sexual relation\" occurred after the diplomat, who was not named, promised he would marry the woman, Press TV reported. Both were released on bail. It was not clear what charges were filed against the woman. Press TV said it had contacted the deputy head of the U.S. Interest Section in Tehran, Elizabeth Bucher, but she would not comment on the report. The suspect is a Swiss diplomat who represents the United States in Iran in the absence of a U.S. presence. The United States and Iran have not had full diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution.","highlights":"Diplomat said to have been in \"indecent sexual relation\" with woman in car .\nSwiss embassy staffer was seen with woman \"in an obscene situation\"\nIncident occurred after diplomat promised to marry the woman, reports said .","id":"c8fa655fc9a5fc2e33f50878b3776003169375f8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal striker Eduardo has been ruled out for two weeks with a hamstring injury just days after returning from a broken leg. Eduardo sinks to his knees after opening the scoring on his Arsenal first team comeback on Monday. The Croatian international only made his comeback after a year out in Monday's FA Cup fourth-round victory against Cardiff. The 25-year-old marked his return with two goals in the 4-0 success at the Emirates Stadium, but his latest setback is not described as serious. Manager Arsene Wenger told Arsenal TV Online: \"Eduardo is out for two weeks. He picked up a hamstring injury two minutes before I took him off. What a nightmare. \"Nobody knows how it happened but I knew straight away after the game it would be a two-week job. It is nothing like he had before but I do know that little setbacks like this are part of being nine months out. \"After that long out nobody plays six months on the trot. It is impossible. But at the same time it is a blow because, of course, he can score goals. He had shown that on Monday night.\"","highlights":"Arsenal striker Eduardo is ruled out for two weeks due to a hamstring problem .\nThe Croatian was hurt on Monday in his first game back after a year's absence .\nEduardo scored twice against Cardiff on his return to action from a broken leg .","id":"0ac866f94a108e8638ec99fa408ae27b48d8bf46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Tennis Channel has canceled plans to broadcast a tournament in Dubai because an Israeli player was banned. Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer was denied a visa by the United Arab Emirates. Shahar Peer, the 45th-ranked women's player according to the World Tennis Association, qualified to compete in this week's Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships but was denied a visa by the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the UAE. The cable network had planned to air parts of the tournament this weekend. \"Tennis Channel recognizes that this exclusion has been made by state authorities and neither the tour nor tournament directors themselves,\" said a statement posted on the channel's Web site Wednesday. \"However we also honor the role and proud tradition that tennis has always played as a driving force for inclusion both on and off the courts. \"Preventing an otherwise qualified athlete from competing on the basis of anything other than merit has no place in tennis or any other sport, and has the unfortunate result of undermining the credibility of the very nature of competition itself.\" The announcement comes the same day The Wall Street Journal Europe announced it is dropping its sponsorship of the tournament. \"The Wall Street Journal's editorial philosophy is free markets and free people, and this action runs counter to the Journal's editorial direction,\" the Journal said in a written statement. The paper also said it plans to cancel a special tennis-themed advertising section scheduled for Monday and its backing of a men's tournament in Dubai scheduled for next week. After days of international criticism, including the WTA saying it would review whether the UAE should be allowed to host future tournaments, the event's organizers said Peer was barred from the tournament for her own protection, apparently alluding to Israel's recent military offensive in Gaza. \"We do not wish to politicize sports, but we have to be sensitive to recent events in the region and not alienate or put at risk the players and the many tennis fans of different nationalities that we have here,\" organizers said in a written statement. The statement cited anti-Israel protests before one of Peer's matches at a recent tournament in New Zealand. But this is not the first time the UAE has barred Israeli tennis players. Last year, an Israeli men's doubles team was denied entry. The emirate also cited security concerns then. In a statement posted on the Tennis Channel's site, Peer thanked the cable channel for its decision. \"I was very moved and excited to hear about your decision not to broadcast the Dubai tournament following their denial to allow me to participate in the event,\" she wrote. \"You at Tennis Channel were the first ones to add action to the words and this is leading the way to other organizations as well. \"All I want is to play tennis and do well. I believe you are helping me to do exactly this.\"","highlights":"United Arab Emirates denies visa to Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer .\nTennis Channel: Sport should be 'driving force for inclusion ... on and off the courts'\nWall Street Journal Europe drops sponsorship of Barclays Dubai Tennis tourney .\nPeer thanks channel: 'I was very moved and excited to hear about your decision'","id":"36937052e893c69d16697daf027377dfeef4a3f6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A jury Tuesday acquitted three men of charges that they helped the bombers who carried out the July 7, 2005, attacks on the London transportation system. Sadeer Saleem was accused of helping to plan the July 7, 2005 bombings in London . The four bombers died in the blasts, but Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil were accused of helping them by conducting reconnaissance and conspiring with them. Two of the men -- Ali and Shakil -- were convicted of a second charge of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training. They will be sentenced Wednesday, London's Metropolitan Police said. Tuesday's verdicts came at the end of the men's retrial at Kingston Crown Court in southwest London. A separate jury failed to reach a verdict in their first trial, which ended in August after three months. The bombings in 2005 killed 52 people in blasts on three subway trains and a bus. At least 900 people were wounded. Police arrested the three in March 2007 after piecing together what they called a \"complicated jigsaw with thousands of pieces.\" They were charged in April 2007. Police said they analyzed more than 4,700 phone numbers and 90,000 calls. They discovered the three men had made a trip to London in December 2004 -- seven months before the fatal bombings -- which prosecutors claimed was a reconnaissance trip to scout potential targets. Prosecutors said that on December 16, 2004, the men traveled from the northern English city of Leeds to London, along with Hasib Hussain, one of the July 7 bombers. When they got to the capital, they met with Lindsay. Over the next two days, prosecutors claimed, the men visited tourist sites including the London Eye ferris wheel, the London Aquarium and the Natural History Museum, as well as underground train locations. Some of the spots, prosecutors said, were near where the July 7 bombs were eventually detonated. Police called it \"the first feasibility study\" for the London bombings -- and whether they were looking at tourist or transportation sites, the men were seeking out potential bomb targets, police said. The three men, who always denied the charges, acknowledged making the trip but said it was just an innocent outing to visit Ali's sister in London. Saleem told the court that he had had \"no idea whatsoever\" about the plot. Traces of DNA linked all three alleged accomplices in some way to the bombers, police had claimed. Investigators found Ali's fingerprints on evidence found at the bomb-making sites. Khan, Lindsay, Hussain and a fourth bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, set off a series of bombs the morning of July 7, 2005. They exploded on underground trains near Liverpool Street, Russell Square and Edgware Road and on a double-decker bus at Tavistock Square. Police have previously said they believe others with knowledge of the attacks remain at large. The jury found that in July 2001, Ali went with Khan to Pakistan. In July 2003, Shakil went with Khan to a camp in Pakistan, where the two undertook firearms training with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and AK-47 assault rifles, London police said. The jury found Ali and Shakil guilty of conspiring to attend a place used for terrorist training, knowing or believing that instruction or training would be provided for purposes connected with the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism, London police said. \"Mohammed Siddique Khan and Mohammed Shakil told other attendees that their aim was to fight in Afghanistan,\" said John McDowall, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command. \"They were proficient in the use of and handling of terrorist weapons, and were certainly not enjoying a day out in a beautiful and mountainous area of Pakistan, as was suggested in court. \"Shakil himself accepted that the camp at Malakand was a serious business, whose purpose was to train willing volunteers to fight and kill in Afghanistan on behalf of the Taliban, a cause to which both he and Ali were, and remain, sympathetic,\" McDowall said.","highlights":"Jury acquits three accused of involvement in July 7, 2005, attacks on London .\nVerdicts came at the end of the men's retrial .\nThree men had always denied the charges .","id":"ee9800c56cf37ba95a163e9a26d7788c455b0e6d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- William Jackson was a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. It turns out he was also a spy for the Union Army, providing key secrets to the North about the Confederacy. William Jackson, a slave, listened closely to Jefferson Davis' conversations and leaked them to the North. Jackson was Davis' house servant and personal coachman. He learned high-level details about Confederate battle plans and movements because Davis saw him as a \"piece of furniture\" -- not a human, according to Ken Dagler, author of \"Black Dispatches,\" which explores espionage by America's slaves. \"Because of his role as a menial servant, he simply was ignored,\" Dagler said. \"So Jefferson Davis would hold conversations with military and Confederate civilian officials in his presence.\" Dagler has written extensively on the issue for the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence . Watch the stories of slaves as spies \u00bb . In late 1861, Jackson fled across enemy lines and was immediately debriefed by Union soldiers. Dagler said Jackson provided information about supply routes and military strategy. \"In Jackson's case, what he did was ... present some of the current issues that were affecting the Confederacy that you could not read about in the local press that was being passed back and forth across local lines. He actually had some feel for the issues of supply problems,\" Dagler said. Jackson and other slaves' heroic efforts have been a forgotten legacy of the war -- lost amid the nation's racially charged past and the heaps of information about the war's historic battles. But historians over the last few decades have been taking an interest in the sacrifice of African-Americans during those war years. Jackson's espionage is mentioned in a letter from a general to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell refers to \"Jeff Davis' coachman\" as the source of information about Confederate deployments. Watch grandson of slaves: \"They call me Little Man\" \u00bb . Dagler said slaves who served as spies were able to collect incredibly detailed information, in large part because of their tradition of oral history. Because Southern laws prevented blacks from learning how to read and write, he said, the slave spies listened intently to minute details and memorized them. \"What the Union officers found very quickly with those who crossed the line ... was that if you talked to them, they remembered a great more in the way of details and specifics than the average person ... because again they relied totally on their memory as opposed to any written records,\" he said. Jackson wasn't the only spy. There were hundreds of them. In some cases, the slaves made it to the North, only to return to the South to risk being hanged. One Union general wrote that he counted on black spies in Tennessee because \"no white man had the pluck to do it.\" No one was better than Robert Smalls, a slave who guided vital supply ships in and out of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. He eventually escaped and provided the Union with \"a turning of the forces in Charleston Harbor,\" according to an annual report of the Navy secretary to President Lincoln. \"A debriefing of him gave ... the Union force there the entire fortification scheme for the interior harbor,\" Dagler said. One of the most iconic spies was Harriet Tubman, who ran the Underground Railroad, bringing slaves to the North. In 1863, she was asked by the Union to help with espionage in South Carolina. She picked former slaves from the region for an espionage ring and led many of the spy expeditions herself. \"The height of her intelligence involvement occurred late in 1863 when she actually led a raid into South Carolina,\" Dagler said. \"In addition to the destruction of millions of dollars of property, she brought out over 800 slaves back into freedom in the North.\" As the nation marks Black History Month in February, Dagler said that history should include the sacrifices of the African-Americans who risked their lives for their nation. Many paid the ultimate sacrifice. \"They were all over the place, and no one [in the South] considered them to be of any value. Consequently, they heard and saw virtually everything done by their masters, who were the decision-makers,\" Dagler said. Whatever happened to William Jackson, the spy in Jefferson Davis's house? Unfortunately, that remains a great unknown. \"He simply disappeared from history, as so many of them have.\" CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"William Jackson, a slave, learned key details inside the home of Jefferson Davis .\nDavis was president of the Confederacy; Jackson leaked key secrets to the Union .\n\"Because of his role as a menial servant, he simply was ignored\" by Southerners .\nAuthor said history must never forget the sacrifice of African-Americans in Civil War .","id":"86e651f4b4d9a6a0b2d2770e2ef6a69b63e1ad74"} -{"article":"BABAHOYO, Ecuador (CNN) -- At least 10 people have died and thousands have been left homeless after torrential rains inundated large parts of Ecuador, officials said Thursday. Authorities said the rains, which began a week ago, were the worst in a quarter century. Civil defense officials said more than 10,000 families have been affected. Los R\u00edos -- north of Guayaquil -- was the hardest hit of nine provinces affected, civil defense officials said. In Los R\u00edos province, five people died when an ambulance drove into a hole at the side of a street at dawn Thursday. A newborn boy, his parents, a doctor and a driver were killed. Streets also were flooded in the capital of Quito. Watch the scenes of devastation in Ecuador \u00bb . On Wednesday, President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency and ordered 2,000 members of the army and the police to help rescue workers. Correa increased by $25 million the $10 million he already had allocated for the emergency efforts. He also directed another $88 million to municipalities. Once the crisis has eased, an emergency fund will give seed and fertilizer to help farmers whose fields were washed away, Ecuador's government said. There also have been reports of livestock drowning. Cristina Medina, a spokeswoman for the Ecuadorean Red Cross, said provinces most heavily affected were along the Pacific coast, where drinking water was often in short supply. In some towns, high waters forced entire neighborhoods to evacuate, Medina said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At least 10 people have died in torrential rains in Ecuador, officials say .\nAuthorities say the rains are the worst in a quarter century .\nCivil defense officials say more than 10,000 families have been affected .\nEcuador's president declares state of emergency, orders army, police to help .","id":"01a62b88f1f63f24e2754b49de40526f1406b74c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After a nearly decade-long effort, the National Congress of Black Women on Tuesday honored Sojourner Truth by making her the first African-American woman to have a memorial bust in the U.S. Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and first lady Michelle Obama applaud the unveiling of the Sojourner Truth bust. Truth, whose given name was Isabella Baumfree, was a slave who became one of the most respected abolitionists and women's rights activists. \"One could only imagine what Sojourner Truth, an outspoken, tell-it-like-it-is kind of woman ... what she would have to say about this incredible gathering,\" first lady Michelle Obama said at the Celebration of Truth ceremony. \"We are all here because, as my husband says time and time again, we stand on the shoulders of giants like Sojourner Truth.\" \"And just as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott would be pleased to know that we have a woman serving as the speaker of the House of Representatives, I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the first lady of the United States of America,\" she said. Dignitaries and congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, House Republican Leader John Boehner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, attended the ceremony marking the unveiling of the statue. Along with musical performances, actress Cicely Tyson recited \"Ain't I A Woman,\" Truth's famous 1851 speech to a women's rights convention. Clinton and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who worked together to draft legislation to commission the bust, were among speakers who paid tribute to the late C. Delores Tucker, former chairwoman of the NCBW, who spearheaded the effort for the Truth memorial. \"What a wonderful day it is to be here in Emancipation Hall for this great occasion when Sojourner Truth takes her rightful place alongside the heroes who have helped to shape our nation's history,\" Clinton said. \"Today, she takes her place in this Capitol, and we are the better for it,\" Clinton said. \"She is a sojourner of truth, by truth, and for truth. And her words, her example and her legacy will never perish from this earth, so long as men and women stand up and say loudly and clearly, 'We hear you echoing down through the years of history. We believe that your journey is not yet over, and we will make the rest of that journey with you.' \" The bronze statue, which was crafted by Los Angeles, California, sculptor Artis Lane, will stand in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center. \"All the visitors in the U.S. Capitol will hear the story of brave women who endured the greatest of humanity's indignities. They'll hear the story of Sojourner Truth, who didn't allow those indignities to destroy her spirit, who fought for her own freedom and then used her powers ... to help others,\" Michelle Obama said. \"The power of this bust will not just be in the metal that delineates Sojourner Truth's face; it will also be in the message that defines her legacy. Forevermore, in the halls of one of our country's greatest monuments of liberty and equality, justice and freedom, Sojourner Truth's story will be told again and again and again and again.\" In 1997, Congress passed a special act that called for relocating the Portrait Monument from the Capitol basement to the rotunda. The 7.5-ton statue depicts three leaders of the suffragette movement -- Anthony, Stanton and Mott. A group called the Sojourner Truth Crusade was upset about the statue's relocation because it didn't incorporate Truth. After Congress agreed to go ahead with a move, advocates proposed commissioning a new statue that would include Truth. In 2006, Congress passed a bill to honor the abolitionist with her own memorial.","highlights":"Sojourner Truth was an abolitionist and women's rights activist .\nHer bust will be on display at Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center .\nCeremony follows a nearly 10-year effort by National Congress of Black Women .\n\"Sojourner Truth's story will be told again and again,\" first lady Michelle Obama says .","id":"e8f28659b0f650b5efa40409c638f2de1463bebd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 50 officers and civilians were feared dead after Bangladeshi paramilitary troops staged a mutiny, taking dozens of high-ranking officers and military brass hostage, the country's law minister said Thursday. Bangladeshi soldiers take position armed with automatic weapons in Dhaka on Wednesday. As dawn broke, the rebelling troops with the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) allowed government officials entry into the headquarters in the capital city of Dhaka -- the scene of a day-long standoff Wednesday. The troops agreed to lay down their arms after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina agreed to offer them amnesty. Ministers went door to door within the compound's officers' quarters to assure frightened women and children it was safe to come out. \"Nearly 50 people have been killed in sporadic fighting in the headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR),\" Mohammad Quamrul Islam, state minister for law and parliamentary affairs told reporters. In addition to military officials and BDR brass, the dead and wounded included passersby, including a rickshaw puller, struck by stray bullets during the gun battle, the Dhaka Medical College Hospital said. CNN was not immediately able to confirm the exact casualty count, with medical officials saying a final number will come after they had a chance to comb through the premises looking for bodies. At around 4:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. GMT) Thursday, Bangladeshi TV channels broadcast video of Home Minister Sahara Kahtun telling rebelling paramilitary officers in the room that she could assure them the government would listen to their grievances. As she spoke, officers deposited weapons and ammunition onto a table in front of her and into piles on the floor. The video was initially broadcast on state run TV station BTV. Various private networks picked it up soon after. The Rifles is a paramilitary force responsible primarily for guarding the country's borders. The force, more than 65,000-strong, also takes part in operations such as monitoring polls. The troops staged their rebellion on the second day of BDR Week when officers and troop members from various BDR outposts along the border were in the capital for celebrations. At least 5,000 -- maybe more -- BDR personnel were inside the compound in the Pilkhana area of the capital when the mutiny occurred about 7:45 a.m. local time Wednesday, said Mohammed Sajjad Haider, spokesman for the information ministry. Their mobile phones were turned off, making it difficult for the government to get a handle on the situation, he said. The rebelling troops were low-ranking members of the BDR, akin to infantrymen, who were angry at the way they were treated by their superiors, Haider said. \"They have several demands,\" Haider said. \"They want pay parity with the army, they want job security, they want better food rations.\" The mutiny is the most serious crisis for Bangladesh's newly elected government, which came into power in December after two years of army-backed rule. Throughout the day and into the night, curious onlookers gathered outside the compound -- only to scramble for cover as sounds of gunfire periodically pierced the air. Plumes of black smoke coming from inside the compound could be seen for miles throughout the capital. Occasionally, the rebelling troops -- red bandannas covering their faces and guns slung over their shoulders -- walked past the closed gates of the compound, chanting, \"We have been deprived for a long time, we have deep grievances.\" \"I've been hearing gunfire all morning,\" said Zunaid Kazi, a San Diego, California, resident who is staying at a house a few blocks from the headquarters. Watch as Kazi describes what he saw and heard \u00bb . \"There will be a little lull and then the sustained gunfire will pick up again,\" he said. \"I can hear military helicopters in the sky. It's very rattling.\"","highlights":"NEW: Home minister shown assuring rebel officers their grievances would be heard .\nNEW: Ministers go door to door to assure frightened women and children of safety .\nNEW: Dead and wounded include military officials, BDR brass and passersby .\nNEW: Rebelling troops were low-ranking members of BDR, information ministry says .","id":"5993fe60fecdbc0060b94b4e804dfbd24478b6b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andriy Shevchenko's agent admits it is highly unlikely the AC Milan striker will stay at the San Siro beyond the end of the season. Shevchenko has made just two Serie A appearances in a disappointing season for Milan. Shevchenko returned to Milan on loan from Chelsea last summer but has disappointed since his move back to Italy. The Ukraine striker has found himself mainly on the substitutes' bench, making just two league appearances this season, and agent Fabio Parisi believes his client will not be in Italy next season. \"Shevchenko is a player on loan at Milan from Chelsea and I think he will return to London,\" he told www.Calciomercato.it. \"Frankly, I don't think it's possible that the Rossoneri will decide to keep him. I don't know what kind of rapport he has found with coach(Carlo) Ancelotti and his team-mates, the only problem is that he is a player on loan and, given how the season has gone, I think Andriy will return to Chelsea. \"It does depend on who will be the coach and what he wants to do -- but I don't think the doors of Italy will re-open for him next season. \"Anyway, Sheva will decide on his own, he's quite calm, he doesn't need anyone's help. However, another country seems to me the more likely option.\" Shevchenko admitted at the end of March that he would probably return to London but, after scoring for Ukraine against England and providing a crucial assist against Lecce, the 32-year-old claimed earlier this month that he hoped to still be at the San Siro next season.","highlights":"Andriy Shevchenko unlikely to stay at AC Milan next season claims his agent .\nUkrainian Shevchenko returned to San Siro on loan from Chelsea last summer .\nHowever he has played only two Serie A matches in a disappointing campaign .","id":"174f981c82c5b075e55fc59eb15326dca9521303"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- African Voices catch up with Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, Africa's man of letters. A contender for the title of Africa's most widely read novelist, his first work \"Things Fall Apart\" has been translated into 40 languages. \"I think story telling was my life. I was very curious about story telling. Even attempting to remember the first one is like trying to remember the day you were born, I'm not sure you can,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"Celebrated Nigerian author has been resident in New York for over 20 years .\nMost famous work, \"Things Fall Apart\" translated into over 40 languages .\n\"It's my ambition to distinguish between good and bad novels,\" he told CNN .","id":"f42660081197afdfbe7dd34f8fcb608fb26dd9c4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Edwin van der Sar claimed the all-time British record for minutes without conceding a goal during Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Ham on Sunday. Triumphant: Edwin van der Sar holds the British goalkeeping record for most time without conceding. The Dutch veteran also took the 30-year-old English record from Steve Death last week. Death's name, with all due respect to the former Reading custodian, is not up there with the game's greats. So who is in Van der Sar's league as football's finest shot-stoppers, the men who rarely get the credit but often cop the flak? Here, Football Fanzone presents a run down of the best goalkeepers in history. Read through our picks and tell us if you disagree or if we've missed anyone in the Sound Off box below. What do you think of van der Sar's inclusion? Lev Yashin (USSR) Yahsin is the only goalkeeper ever to be named European Footballer of the Year, in 1963. Dubbed the Black Spider for his all-black outfit and what seemed like eight limbs, the Russian even invented the concept of the keeper as sweeper. In the days when keepers were not protected by referees as they are today, Yashin's bravery and acrobatics were legendary and 207 clean sheets and 150 penalties saves he made in a 22-year career tell their own story. The best keeper at each World Cup is presented with the Yashin Award. Dino Zoff (Italy) Zoff is one of just two goalkeepers to lift the World Cup having captained Italy to their third crown in 1982. He was already 40 then, making him the oldest World Cup-winning captain too. But the unflappable Zoff's achievements don't end there: he holds the record for the longest playing time without conceding in international tournaments (1,142 minutes) set between 1972 and 1974. And with 112 caps, he ranks third in the Azzurri's all-time list. A true great. Gordon Banks (England) \"What a save,\" so the commentary runs to the finest piece of goalkeeping ever and one of football's most memorable moments. Pele was certain he'd scored after meeting Jairzinho's center, heading powerfully down into the left-hand corner of the net in Brazil's 1-0 1970 World Cup group win over England. But somehow Banks scrambled across, miraculously diving to push the ball up over the bar. Banks might have been immortalized by that stop, but his absence through illness from England's subsequent quarter-final against West Germany was perhaps more telling when his replacement Peter Bonetti was made a scapegoat for the defending champions' defeat. Peter Schmeichel (Denmark) Schmeichel will go down as Sir Alex Ferguson's best signing for Manchester United, certainly pound-for-pound. Bought for just $750,000 in 1991, the imposing Schmeichel would provide United everything a world-class goalkeeper requires -- including the ability to launch a swift counter-attack. He won Euro 92 with Denmark and the Treble with United in 1999, while 13 career goals are not to be sniffed at either. He played on a season too long, maybe, but on his day there were few better. Edwin van der Sar (Holland) At 38, the rangy Van der Sar is in the very twilight of his career -- but what a career it's been. The man from Voorhout holds the record number of caps for Holland, he's won the Champions League twice and is on course to win a third Premier League title in a row with Manchester United this season. All of which makes you wonder how come he spent so long at Fulham? United fans would love to have had Van der Sar way before 2005; he has proved to be the definitive Schmeichel replacement. Iker Casillas (Spain) It's easy to take Casillas' brilliance for granted, but stand back and look at his career and it's clear he's already one of the greats. Real Madrid have always been able to lure the best, yet they've had the agile Casillas as their number-one No.1 since 1999 -- when he was still a teenager. Still only 27, Casillas is contracted to the club until 2017. He's already won two Champions Leagues and four La Liga titles. At international level he came into his own during 2008 by captaining Spain to the European Championship, becoming the first goalkeeper to do so. Ricardo Zamora's legacy is safe hands. Pat Jennings (Northern Ireland) Jennings was a late starter in the position and famously had no official coaching. His international career spanned a record-breaking six World Cups (including qualifying campaigns) across 22 years. By the time he came out of retirement to play for Northern Ireland at Mexico 1986, Jennings was 41 and ended the tournament with 119 caps. He played more than 1,000 games, including crossing the bitter north London divide by playing for Tottenham and Arsenal. The unflappable Jennings' enormous hands were his trademark and the curse of many an attacker. Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) Buffon vies with Casillas and the Czech Republic's Petr Cech to be considered the best goalkeeper around at the moment, but in a country with a long tradition of high-quality No.1s Buffon is up there with the very best. Winning the 2006 Yashin Award was the perfect riposte to his critics after Juventus' dramatic fall from grace owing to match-fixing. Buffon, an imposing figure with no obvious weaknesses, stayed loyal to the Old Lady, who made him the world's most expensive goalkeeper in 2001 when they paid Parma $46.2m for him. He's been worth every cent. Jose Luis Chilavert (Paraguay) If there's one thing a goalkeeper is not expected to do -- other than to make a mistake -- it's score a goal. Given Chilavert netted no fewer than 62 times in his career, including eight for his country, it seems only fair he should be included on this list. Brazil's Rogerio Ceni may have outscored him and Rene Higuita of Colombia might have out-done him on the chutzpah front, but Chilavert's pioneering free-kicks and penalties have made him a legend. Mohamed Al-Deayea (Saudi Arabia) Goalkeepers are known for their longevity and ability to perform into their 40s. That makes Al-Deayea a relative youngster at just 36, but the Saudi Arabian holds the world record for the most number of international appearances. Over a 16-year career for the Middle Eastern country, Al-Deayea racked up a scarcely believable 181 caps.. Having started his career playing handball, Al-Deayea went on to play in three World Cups -- and was even on the receiving end of an 8-0 thumping by eventual finalists Germany at the 2002 tournament. Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico) This one is from the left-field and a little premature for a list containing the best goalkeepers of all time. But much is expected of Ochoa, Mexico's up-and-coming talent. He's already been linked with a move to Manchester United and he is on the radar of a number of Europe's top clubs. Reliant on his amazing reflexes, Ochoa is one of the best shot-stoppers out there and great at on-the-spot improvised saves. Ochoa's already established in the Mexico set-up and is already such a big star already that the American release of the FIFA 09 video game featured him on the front cover. Definitely one to watch.","highlights":"Edwin van der Sar claims British record for minutes without conceding a goal .\nCNN picks 11 of the top goalkeepers of all time .\nShare your thoughts on who should in and who should be out .","id":"8984b6950db71842687f36c0c13afec53aaaba92"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's often said that a real Southerner can \"claim kin\" with anyone. Tony Rand and his son Ripley learned last year that some of their relatives were African-American. Tony Rand realized the same could be true for him. Rand, whose family can trace its roots back to the 1700s, is a Democratic state senator in North Carolina. Until he watched the 2008 CNN documentary \"Black in America,\" he had no idea that some of his relatives were black. Although firmly anchored in the South, the Rands are spread across the country. What connects them is their link to a common ancestor -- the family patriarch William Harrison Rand. \"Hal\" Rand, as he was known to most, was a white farmer and slave owner. In 1842, Hal married Sarah Ann Mullens and they had seven children. Hal also fathered seven children with his mistress, Ann Albrooks Rand, a black woman. Every other year, hundreds of African-American descendants of Hal Rand get together at a different location for a massive family reunion. It's a time to catch up and share stories, eat barbecue and have a good time. The 2007 Rand family reunion, held in Atlanta, Georgia, was featured in \"Black in America.\" After the program aired, dozens of viewers across the country had the same revelation -- they, too, were related to the Rands. \"I was sitting there, that Saturday night, just up reading the week's papers and watching the program,\" says Rand with a hearty Southern accent. The Rand family's missing link \u00bb . \"Then I hear, 'We are the Rands. The mighty, mighty Rands,\" he recalls, referring to the words sung by family members as they embarked on their bi-annual pilgrimage. \"And then I said to myself, 'What?'\" Tony Rand listened as the family historian, Martha Rand Hix, described the family's patriarch. \"When they were talking about William Harrison Rand, I knew that was the William Harrison Rand in our family,\" he said. \"Then they started talking about North Carolina, and I said, 'Well, God oh mighty,' ... it was just amazing.\" The next day, he telephoned his 41-year old son, Ripley Rand, and asked him to contact their black relatives. Soon, Tony and Ripley Rand were invited to attend the next Rand family reunion in July in Sacramento, California. See photos of the Rand family members \u00bb But, what Tony Rand didn't know was that his son, a North Carolina Superior Court judge, had already been diligently working on the family genealogy. Ripley Rand had begun typing out a hand-bound version of a 100-page manuscript compiled by his great-uncle, Oscar Ripley Rand III, and started to create a digital version. Oscar Ripley Rand III was a Rhodes Scholar and retired Army colonel who spent years researching the family's history, according to Ripley Rand. Although Oscar Ripley Rand III had scoured the National Archives and spent years collecting information about the family, his memoirs contained no mention of William Harrison Rand's relationship and children with Ann Albrooks Rand. \"My whole life I have heard about the history of our family and we had no idea about [the African-American side of the family],\" Ripley Rand said. \"The most surprising thing about it,\" he added, was that his great-uncle \"probably never heard anything about it.\" Ripley Rand said he plans to attend the Rand family reunion this summer with his father and has updated his great uncle's research to include the story of the black side of the family. Both he and his father say they're looking forward to meeting their cousins. \"I think it will be fun to see what the connections are,\" Ripley Rand said. \"There's a whole group of family members who we did not know existed until last year.\" The revelation has inspired a few jokes among the senator's family and friends. \"I always knew you were one of us,\" an African-American friend told the senator with a nudge and wink. Tony Rand is also quick to crack a joke about anything from sports and politics to food. Namely chitterlings -- a traditionally Southern delicacy made from pig intestines -- and barbecue pork. A few of the things a \"Yankee\" might not know much about. \"There's an old joke in the South,\" he explained. \"If somebody was cooking chitlins and collards at the same time -- the smell was so strong that the fire would try to break out of the house.\" A proud member of the Wake County Chitlin Club, a group of politically active men who gather every year at the annual Chitlin Dinner, Tony Rand is proud of his Southern heritage. Calling North Carolina barbecue \"good\" won't do for the senator, who insists his state has the best \"pig pickin.\" \"North Carolina is a great place, we've got the mountains, we've got good college basketball and we've got good barbecue,\" he said. \"What more could a good person aspire to?\" Given that barbecue is also a tradition at the Rand family reunion, there's already some common ground for the lawmaker and his kin. Even though he's \"expecting to meet some interesting people\" at this year's reunion, he's not expecting much in the way of barbecue \"given that it's in California and all.\"","highlights":"North Carolina Sen. Tony Rand had no idea some of his relatives were black .\nFamily patriarch \"Hal\" Rand fathered children with his white wife, black mistress .\nTony Rand and his son, Ripley, plan to attend the 2009 Rand family reunion .","id":"be69c679d304fd237340f08ab3c458b889a9da38"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British union leaders will recommend Thursday ending an unofficial strike that has dragged on more than a week at the country's third-largest oil refinery, the arbitrator in the dispute announced Wednesday. Protesters at the Lindsay Oil Refinery are opposed to plans to employ non-British workers at the plant. Workers walked off the job January 28 to protest the hiring of hundreds of foreign workers for a construction project at the Lindsey oil refinery in eastern England. Their action has prompted similar \"wildcat\" strikes, unsanctioned by national unions, at other sites across the country. The compromise will involve opening 101 new jobs to British workers, the arbitration service ACAS said in a written statement. Local union leaders had earlier told demonstrators they were near their goal of being offered half the jobs involved in one of the latest subcontracts connected to the construction project -- 102 new jobs for a minimum of nine weeks. \"If you can't be happy with that, you can't be happy with anything,\" a local union official said at a demonstration televised by Britain's Sky News. The union leader did not identify himself. The French-based oil company Total, which owns the plant, confirmed a deal was in the cards. \"Union officials will present details of the agreement to the workforce at 7:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. ET Thursday) and recommend a return to work,\" Total said in a release. Stephen Hughes, a Labour legislator in the European Parliament, warned that the reported compromise could itself run afoul of European labor law, opening the way for foreign workers who lose out to British labor to claim they were being discriminated against on the basis of nationality. Union leaders have been meeting over three days with Total, Jacobs, the main site contractor, and IREM, the Italian firm hired to carry out the project, in talks moderated by ACAS. They had already rejected one proposal, a union official told CNN. Union leaders accuse Total of discriminating against British workers by subcontracting with IREM, which has hired workers from Italy and Portugal. Total rejects the allegation. Overall, the construction project has employed, directly or indirectly, 600 to 1,000 workers for about 18 months, Total said. \"It has never been, and never will be, the policy of Total to discriminate against British companies or British workers. We have been a major local employer for 40 years and the majority of our 500 permanent staff are local,\" the company said in a statement released Monday. It said IREM had won the sub-contract through a fair and legal bidding process. ACAS will investigate the bidding process and report within weeks, it said Wednesday. Hundreds of workers at British power plants and refineries have been walking off the job in unofficial \"wildcat\" strikes since the Lindsey workers put down their tools last Wednesday. Spontaneous strikes took place Tuesday in every corner of the country: at the Stanlow oil refinery in western England, Drax power station in the northeast, Petroplus Coryton Refinery in the southeast and Longannet power station in Scotland. A total of nearly 1,000 workers were off the job at the three English locations. Scottish Power did not specify how many workers were on strike. Representatives of all four plants said contractors, not full-time staff, had walked off the job, and all said operations were not affected. But resolving the Lindsey strike may not be the end of the matter. Union leaders say the strike there is only a reflection of problems with the way Britain implements European Union employment directives. Unite, one of the UK's largest unions, called last week for a national protest in London. The country's main labor groups have all issued statements in support of the striking workers. \"The government is failing to grasp the fundamental issues. The problem is not workers from other European countries working in the UK, nor is it about foreign contractors winning contracts in the UK. The problem is that employers are excluding UK workers from even applying for work on these contracts,\" Unite General Secretary Derek Simpson said Tuesday. \"No European worker should be barred from applying for a British job and absolutely no British worker should be barred from applying for a British job.\" The dispute has reverberated up to the highest levels of government, with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition trading barbs about it in Parliament on Wednesday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he hoped workers would accept the ACAS-moderated deal despite their \"reservations.\" Brown also rejected accusations by Conservative leader David Cameron that his use of the slogan \"British jobs for British workers\" in a 2007 speech had pandered to \"protectionist fears.\" \"Can anybody here say that they don't want British workers to get jobs in our country?\" Brown retorted in the House of Commons.","highlights":"Deal agreed to end strike over non-UK labor at British oil refinery .\nArbitration service says deal involves offering 101 new jobs to British workers .\nMember of European Parliament warns deal might break EU labor law .\nProtests sparked by Total awarding project to Italian firm employing Italians .","id":"1754b8a4012e501b6265e43b3fdae249a040878f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Americans planning to go to Mexico should \"postpone\" their trips because of the swine flu outbreak, a top health official said Tuesday. Two women wear face masks as they arrive at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport from Mexico City. \"Based on what I know as a public health official and as a physician, I would not recommend people go on nonessential travel,\" said Dr. Richard Besser, the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"If I had vacation plans in Mexico coming up right now, I'd look to postpone those,\" he said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" The CDC issued a travel health warning about Mexico on Monday, and the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert -- not the more serious warning -- based on the CDC advice. U.S. consular operations in Mexico will be affected by the swine flu outbreak, the State Department said in its alert Monday. European Union health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou warned Monday against nonessential travel to \"areas which are reported to be the center of the clusters\" of infection. Learn more about swine flu \u00bb . She did not issue a travel advisory, as some reports initially suggested. The EU does not have the power to issue such warnings. \"I would also suggest to travelers to seek immediate medical advice if they have any of the symptoms described,\" she said, in what the EU later clarified was a personal statement. Some European Union countries issued travel warnings of their own, including Britain. That prompted some tour operators to cancel trips to Mexico, including Thompson First Choice, Thomas Cook and Virgin Holidays, three of Britain's biggest travel agencies. Thompson is bringing vacationers home to Britain from Mexico and canceled flights there Tuesday. Thomas Cook put all trips to Cancun on hold for a week and offered free changes in destination to anyone booked to vacation in Mexico in May. Virgin is shelving trips to Mexico through May 5. There are probably 10,000 British people on vacation in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Frances Tuke of the Association of British Travel Agents said . \"That's a lot of flights that are needed\" to bring them home, she said. \"There are a lot of logistics issue there in terms of bringing people home.\" Carnival Cruise Lines canceled ports of call in Mexico for three of its ships Tuesday, the company said. It is continuing to finalize plans for upcoming cruises, it said, and planned to release details later Tuesday or early Wednesday. Canada's Air Transat is postponing its flights from Canada to Mexico through June 1 and from France to Mexico through May 31, it announced in a statement. Many countries are checking travelers as they arrive, including China, which is screening aggressively in the wake of the SARS outbreak that killed almost 350 people there in 2003. Indonesia is putting travelers through a thermal scanner that spots excessive heat; those who test positive go through a \"body-cleaning machine\" that sprays a disinfecting solution of 70 percent alcohol on their hands and body. The system does not detect viruses and was not put in place because of swine flu, Indonesian health officials say, but is intended as an early-warning system to prevent diseases from entering the country. Japan suspended visa waivers for Mexican visitors, a Foreign Ministry official said. CNN's Alysen Miller, Isa Soares, John Zarrella, John Vause and Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC head: \"I would not recommend people go [to Mexico] on nonessential travel\"\nThe CDC issued a travel health warning about Mexico on Monday .\nThe U.S. State Department issued a travel alert .\nCountries around the world are taking precautions to stem spread of swine flu .","id":"d0a418c3fad00479e73f9786b5e745ae6e844972"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A crew member on a U.S.-flagged cargo ship captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia is suing his employers, claiming they sent him into pirate-infested waters without adequate protection, his attorney said Monday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse has been charged with piracy in federal court in New York. Richard Hicks of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, a crew member on the Maersk Alabama, filed suit Monday against Waterman Steamship Corp. and Maersk Line Limited, according to the attorney, Terry Bryant. A spokeswoman for Mobile, Alabama-based Waterman Steamship Corp. said she did not know about the suit and did not immediately comment. A spokeswoman for Maersk Line Limited did not immediately return a call from CNN seeking comment. The Maersk Alabama was hijacked by pirates April 8. Hicks, working as chief steward and preparing food for other crew members, heard over the loudspeaker that pirates were on board, and he and other crew members gathered in the ship's engine room for nearly 12 hours, according to a news release from Bryant. \"The engine room was dark and hot, maybe 130 degrees,\" Hicks said in the news release. \"We were all cramping up with heat stroke symptoms when we were able to take a pirate hostage and tried to negotiate the return of our captain.\" The pirates promised to exchange Capt. Richard Phillips for the pirate hostage, but reneged on that agreement, the news release. Phillips offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the freedom of his crew. He was held on a lifeboat until U.S. Navy snipers on a nearby ship fatally shot three pirates, rescued Phillips and arrested a fourth pirate. The ship's owners -- the two companies -- knowingly exposed their employees to danger and took no steps to provide appropriate security and safety for the crew, Bryant alleges. \"Waterman Steamship Corp. and Maersk Line Limited chose to rely on the United States military and taxpayers to provide after-the-fact rescue operations,\" Bryant said in the news release. \"This choice caused substantially more cost and risk to human life than what would have been incurred by defendants had they provided appropriate levels of security in the first place.\" Hicks is seeking at least $75,000, and \"reserves the right to amend this pleading for a certain amount in the future, as it is too early to determine the maximum amount of plaintiff's damages,\" according to the suit. Hicks is still suffering from injuries as a result of the incident and is afraid to return to work, the news release said.","highlights":"Suit alleges crew sent into pirate-infested waters without protection .\nRepresentatives of ship's owners have yet to comment .\nMaersk Alabama was hijacked by pirates April 8 .\nPlaintiff Richard Hicks, of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, was the ship's steward .","id":"cb76089d0259728af6956c2ac7b9a4cbc7cbf3fb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House and Senate Democrats reached agreement late Monday on a budget resolution for 2010, which includes key spending priorities for the young Obama administration. The Senate and House could vote on the budget resolution Tuesday. President Obama's budget request is $3.67 trillion. \"This budget is a major accomplishment,\" Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said in a statement. \"We are meeting President Obama's goals of reducing our dependence on foreign energy, striving for excellence in education, reforming our health care system, and providing middle-class tax relief.\" The agreement came as lawmakers were reconciling the House and Senate versions of the budget package. The president's budget request is $3.67 trillion. The full Senate and House are each expected to vote on the fiscal 2010 budget resolution this week. The House vote could come as soon as Tuesday. Budget negotiators have fast-tracked part of the budget process. Major health reform is likely to pass this year, because the special process -- known as budget reconciliation -- won't allow Republicans to filibuster the legislation, as was widely expected. Democrats, who currently control 58 seats in the Senate, will be able to pass it with a simple majority vote, instead of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Separately, conservative Democrats in the House, who have been pushing for a strong statement from leadership on fiscal responsibility in the budget, may have some of their concerns addressed. A Democratic aide told CNN that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer are drafting a letter to Senate leaders \"throwing down the gauntlet\" to insist that a pay-as-you-go system be followed, which would require new federal spending to be offset with budget cuts or tax increases. President Barack Obama called for the so-called \"PAYGO\" legislation in his weekend radio address. The budget resolution would limit increases in non-defense discretionary spending to 2.9 percent through 2014, according to Conrad. \"While the budget resolution takes important steps in the near-term of cutting the deficit in half by 2012 and by two-thirds by 2014, it is clear that more will be needed to address the long-term fiscal imbalance confronting the nation beyond the five-year budget window,\" said Conrad. President Obama gathered his Cabinet members last week and challenged them to cut a total of $100 million in the next 90 days. In the context of the federal budget, $100 million in savings is a tiny amount, critics said. It is the equivalent, according to one example, of having a car dealer offer to shave $1 from the cost of a $36,700 vehicle. \"Any amount of savings is obviously welcome,\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said at the time. \"But ($100 million is) about the average amount we'll spend every single day just covering the interest on the stimulus package that we passed earlier this year.\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said ordinary Americans would nevertheless appreciate the savings effort. \"Only in Washington, D.C., is $100 million dollars not a lot of money. It is where I'm from. It is where I grew up. And I think it is for hundreds of millions of Americans.\" CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"House and Senate Dems say President Obama's goals addressed in resolution .\nDemocratic leaders urge pay-as-you-go system that Obama has emphasized .\nSenate and House are each expected to vote on the budget resolution this week .","id":"6051ea71cdea9cca02af966d98471232fb79b228"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Editor's note: Watch The Screening Room March show at the following times: Saturday 28 March: 0730, 1800, Sunday 29 March: 0530, 1830, Monday 30 March: 0400 (all times GMT) Buzz around the release of DreamWorks' latest animated feature, \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" will add new momentum to the drive towards a fully-3D movie industry. DreamWorks Animation's 3D movie, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a welcome boost in tough economic times. It is a welcome boost to the 3D schedule: The introduction of special screens and digital projectors into cinemas across the world has slowed in the last six months along with the economy. Instead of the 5,000 3D screens expected to roll out, the figure is closer to 2,000, as the cost of installing new technology during the downturn causes pause for thought. The release of \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" along with the recent announcement that Pixar 3D animation, \"Up\" will open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May, should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a lift. \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" which U.S. movie industry bible, Variety describes as \"'Monsters, Inc.' Meets 'War of the Worlds'\" features a fight between a collection of well-loved movie monsters ( think 1950s B-movie characters like a 50 ft woman, a friendly amorphous blob, and a genius cockroach scientist) and alien invaders who want to take over Earth. The brains behind the feature -- which has an all-star cast including Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland -- are Rob Letterman, the writer-director of Will Smith animated pic, \"Shark Tale\" and Conrad Vernon, the director of \"Shrek 2.\" The film is one of a number of 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi \"Avatar,\" already in production that are slated for 2009 and 2010 release. Of course, 3D is not new: Films like \"The Creature from the Black Lagoon\" and \"It Came from Outer Space\" first emerged during the affluent years of the 1950s, but because 3D was quite gimmicky the medium fell into decline and exhibitors turned their attention to other technologies. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is one of the new breed of 3D movies, projected digitally and very immersive for audiences, that Hollywood is hoping will lure paying audiences out of the comfort of their living rooms and back into cinemas. \"Hollywood is throwing themselves into 3D like never before,\" said Nick De Semlyen, critic for British movie magazine, Empire. \"All the big directors from Spielberg to Peter Jackson from 'Lord of the Rings,' they are making 3D films and it's looking like pretty much every big film is going to be in 3D in the next couple years ... It's a huge thing, it's a revolution.\" Do you think 3D will be a movie revolution or is it all hype. Tell us below in the SoundOff box. \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" is the first film that DreamWorks Animation, the Hollywood giant behind movies like the \"Shrek\" franchise, \"Madagascar\" and last year's \"Kung Fu Panda,\" has designed from scratch as a purely 3D movie. Dennis Laws is Chief Projectionist at the BFI IMAX, which is home to the UK's biggest cinema screen and also has 3D capability. He told CNN, \"It's the first film from DreamWorks that was designed from the very beginning to be in 3D and DreamWorks are very proud of the fact.\" DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is probably 3D's most devoted advocate. He has said that the medium's introduction may be as significant to the movies as sound, and that all DreamWorks animations will be made in 3D from now on. \"Mr Katzenberg was so articulate in explaining what he wanted to do, and it was very different than anything that I had ever heard of before, which was 3-D used as a gimmick in a film,\" Keifer Sutherland told CNN at the UK premiere of \"Monsters vs. Aliens.\" Watch Kiefer Sutherland talking about \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" \"He actually wanted to envelope the audience in the movie and make you feel like you were part of the scene. \"That not only knocks down the fourth wall between the movie and the audience but it also furthers telling the story.\" With commercial 3D still in its infancy, all eyes are on each new release to take in the advances in the technology, which is moving forward very quickly. \"The technology is growing really fast,\" De Semlyen told CNN, \"It's very exciting.\" Mairi Mackay contributed to this story.","highlights":"Buzz around \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" adds new momentum to drive for fully 3D industry .\nEconomic slowdown affected introduction of 3D screens and projectors in cinemas .\nOther 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi \"Avatar,\" slated for 2009 release .\nBritish film critic, Nick De Semlyen on 3D: \"It's a revolution\"","id":"ba02f6ba9a8ade353347548278b05b0f25a0587f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Good, but not enough, the Rev. Al Sharpton said in response to New York Post Chairman Rupert Murdoch's apology for a controversial editorial cartoon published in the newspaper. Online Wednesday, some Post readers reacted similarly. Rev. Al Sharpton, center, leads protests against the New York Post cartoon on February 19 in New York City. Sharpton has lead a chorus of criticism and allegations that the cartoon published Feb. 18 was racist. He said Murdoch's apology was a \"good gesture,\" but he still had questions. Public debate on the issue continued to rage on the New York Post Web site early Wednesday, with some saying they were offended enough to cancel their subscriptions. Others defended the cartoon, calling it harmless and calling critics of it oversensitive. Murdoch's \"apology leaves a lot more questions than it gives answers,\" Sharpton said Tuesday. \"The question is what will guarantee that these kinds of things will not happen again. Let us make no mistake about it: We have seen two apologies in one week -- really one and a half apologies -- which is unprecedented, but clearly not far enough.\" The cartoon by Sean Delonas referenced the mauling of a Connecticut woman by a chimpanzee who was later shot and killed by police. In its caption, one of the officers says, \"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.\" The cartoon was published the day after President Obama signed the stimulus bill. Watch CNN's Lou Dobbs talk with Sharpton \u00bb . The Post issued a statement the following day, apologizing but noting that the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an \"ineptly written\" stimulus bill. Many critics said the cartoon played on historically racist images by appearing to compare Obama, the nation's first black president, to the chimpanzee. Murdoch apologized Tuesday. \"Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted,\" according to the statement from Murdoch, who is also chairman and CEO of News Corporation, which owns the paper. \"I can assure you -- without a doubt -- that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. \"It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such. We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard, and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.\" Leaders of the NAACP on Saturday called for the firing of Delonas. Delonas called the controversy \"absolutely friggin' ridiculous.\" \"Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon,\" Delonas told CNN. iReport.com: Should Murdoch, N.Y. Post do more? \"It's about the economic stimulus bill,\" he added. \"If you're going to make that about anybody, it would be (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi, which it's not.\"","highlights":"Sharpton: Rupert Murdoch's apology is a \"good gesture,\" but he still has questions .\nMurdoch is chairman of N.Y. Post, which published chimp cartoon that created a fury .\nMany critics said the cartoon played on historically racist images .\nCartoonist calls the controversy \"absolutely friggin' ridiculous\"","id":"c2431f444beeae20d12b4476adaa01f3b10fd3d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The figure peers down silently from an upper floor of the ruins of a Scottish castle, wearing what looks like an outfit from the Middle Ages. Could this be a long-dead Scottish earl, or just a random, modern-day visitor? The mysterious image captured by Chris Aitchison at Tantallon Castle in eastern Scotland. The eerie image is captured in a photograph taken by tourist Christopher Aitchison in May 2008 at Tantallon Castle, which sits on a rocky outcrop along the Scottish coast, east of Edinburgh. The \"person\" appears to be wearing an old-style greenish ruff around the neck. Aitchison insists he did not tamper with the image and cannot explain it. \"I was not aware of anyone, or anything, being present in my picture, only noticing the anomaly when I got home,\" Aitchison said. \"Staff have verified that there were no sinister dummies in period costume or historical reenactments going on that day at the castle. I did not notice any nice old ladies wearing ruffs walking around the stairs!\" The picture was made public Friday by Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire who also studies the paranormal. Wiseman said he was looking for \"photographic evidence for ghosts\" ahead of a session on the subject at the Edinburgh International Science Festival next week. See gallery of haunted photographs \u00bb . Wiseman solicited such photos from around the world and collated them for the conference. He said the majority of images showed mysterious-looking orbs, mists, figures and faces. In one picture, a face appears in the side-view mirror of a parked Mercedes convertible. The photographer insists no one was around when he took the picture; skeptics say the mirror could be reflecting the headrest or be the result of digital manipulation. Another photo of a person walking through a creek in the woods appears to show a second person wearing a hooded sweatshirt, standing on a rock nearby. Skeptics say the \"figure\" is an illusion created by tree branches and the rock formation in the background. Two friends raising a drink to the camera in a third photograph are joined by a ghostly third figure in the background with a face that looks like a Halloween monster mask. \"Many of the photographs can be easily explained,\" said photographer Gordon Rutter, who also examined the pictures. \"Orbs can be caused by the camera flash reflecting off tiny dust particles, mists can result from condensed breath in front of the lens, long exposures can create ghostly figures, and apparent faces are often people seeing patterns in random shapes.\" But the \"ghost\" in the Scottish castle has generated the most attention. What do you think about the image? Tantallon Castle was built in the 1350s by a nobleman and soon became the stronghold of the Douglas dynasty. For 300 years, the Douglas earls of Angus held sway at the castle as one of the most powerful families in Scotland, according to Historic Scotland, which looks after historic sites for the Scottish government. The castle also was the scene of violence, enduring three great sieges: in 1491, 1528 and 1651. The last, by Oliver Cromwell's army, resulted in such destruction that the fortress was abandoned. It remains the \"last truly great castle\" built in Scotland, with enormously thick and high stone walls enclosing large courtyards, and high stone towers. That stonework could explain the mysterious figure in the photograph, having caused unusual shadows. It is also possible that a member of the public was standing there when the picture was taken, Wiseman said -- in which case, he hopes they will come forward. \"I think it's probably a person who's been caught in slightly odd dress,\" Wiseman told CNN. \"We know the day it was taken ... so somebody might come forward to say, 'That was me.'\" He added, \"If they can explain it, e-mail me. Or indeed, if they have photos they think are better, e-mail them to me.\" A similar mystery happened five years ago at another medieval site, Hampton Court Palace, built by King Henry VIII west of London. A security camera captured a figure in period dress opening a window, peering out, then closing it again. Palace officials insisted at the time that no one was in the room, and they were at a loss to explain the figure. It later emerged that a member of staff wearing a medieval costume was the person in the video.","highlights":"Photograph taken by Christopher Aitchison in May 2008 at Tantallon Castle .\nThe \"person\" appears to be wearing an old-style greenish ruff around the neck .\nAitchison insists he did not tamper with the image .\nPicture made public by a psychology professor who studies the paranormal .","id":"023fc2139b843df3d0c390c5d51912673b53aa2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chronic seizures can present a risk for adolescents, whose bodies and metabolism are changing. Jett Travolta was the elder of John Travolta and Kelly Preston's two children. A seizure disorder caused the death of Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, a source at a Bahamas funeral home told CNN. \"Literally dozens of different disorders can cause seizures: genetics, stroke, brain tumor, lack of oxygen, low blood sugar, drugs, even certain medications,\" said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. Another expert said the teen years bring risks for those with seizures. \"Adolescence is a time, even if you don't talk about children with any seizure disorder, where things change in a child,\" said Dr. Shlomo Shinnar of Montefiore Medical Center in New York. There are effective drugs to treat seizures. As children grow, their bodies and metabolism change, perhaps causing a need to adjust their dosage, said Shinnar, a professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Management Center at Montefiore. \"Seizures during adolescence can get better or worse or stay the same,\" he said. And the risk of seizures is higher for children with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy, Shinnar said. Jett Travolta had a developmental disability that his parents have linked to Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory disorder of the artery walls that most commonly occurs in young children. An autopsy of the actors' son was completed Monday, and the body was cremated that evening, the funeral home source said. Jett was found unconscious in the bathroom Friday while on vacation with his family. Michael Ossi, an attorney for Travolta, told CNN last week that Jett had a seizure that morning at the family's home in a resort area. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital and pronounced dead on arrival, according to local police. People.com reported that Travolta, Preston and their 8-year-old daughter Ella Blue arrived in Florida on Monday night with Jett's ashes. The reports that a seizure disorder caused Jett's death were preliminary, Gupta said. \"It tells us more about what did not happen than the ultimate cause of death. It rules out brain injury, bleeding on brain, skull fractures, rules out heart problems due to Kawasaki disease, which is the disease the Travoltas say their son suffered,\" he said. Kawasaki disease, believed to be caused by an infection, inflames the heart muscles. In 2001, Travolta told CNN's Larry King that his son had a near brush with death related to the condition. \"I was obsessive about cleaning -- his space being clean, so we constantly had the carpets cleaned. And I think, between him, the fumes and walking around, maybe picking up pieces or something, he got what is rarely a thing to deal with, but it's Kawasaki syndrome,\" Travolta said of his then-2-year-old son. Dr. Cam Patterson, general cardiologist at the University of North Carolina and a genetics expert who follows Kawasaki disease, told CNN, \"There is no real good link at all between Kawasaki disease and cleaning products. \"Kawasaki disease is due to an abnormal immunnologic response, probably to an infectious agent or infection we don't yet understand,\" Patterson said. \"There is nothing that links environmental toxins to this problem.\" Someone with Kawasaki could have seizures for one of two reasons, but they would be rare, he said. \"One, sometime in the past one of the arteries in the brain ruptured and caused stroke,\" he said. \"Two, if the artery had enlarged enough, it could be pressing on parts of brain and that could cause seizure. Both possibilities are unusual for Kawasaki disease.\" A very small study released in 1991 found an association between cases of Kawasaki disease in homes where carpet had been cleaned in the past 30 days. \"It's very easy to find correlations, but doesn't mean causative,\" Patterson said. The next step would have been to conduct more tests, by taking toxicological tests and brain examinations to see what could have caused the seizure. \"Even with physical evidence and a deeper look by neuropathologists, we still may never have an answer,\" Gupta said on CNN's American Morning. CNN's Stephanie Smith and Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seizures in teenagers can be caused by dozens of disorders, genetics .\nSeizure said to have caused the death of Jett Travolta, 16 .\nFamily has linked seizures to Kawasaki disease; experts say it's unlikely .","id":"0c4d05292024d4bb6efc48e2a40951c4336c8cad"} -{"article":"AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) -- Investigators are trying to determine what caused the crash of an airplane with a good safety record, flown by a well-respected airline, at one of the world's most modern airports. One of the casualties is taken from the crash site. At least nine people were killed and 55 injured when the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed Wednesday in a field near Amsterdam's main airport, splitting into three parts, officials said. It is too early to determine the cause of the crash but the flight data and voice recorders have been recovered, said Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer municipality, which is home to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. He said investigators still need to determine what, if anything, the pilots said in the moments before the crash. The injured included both crew and passengers, he said. The names of the dead and injured will not be released before Thursday, Bezuijen said. \"It will take more time. Probably tomorrow afternoon we can tell you about the identity of the victims, including the fatalities,\" he said. Another official said earlier that both pilots and an apprentice pilot are among the dead. \"There are still three crew members in the cabin,\" said Bob Steensma of the Dutch Justice Department. \"I'm sorry to say they are dead. We leave them there because we have to investigate the cockpit before we take the cockpit apart.\" Turkish Airlines said earlier the plane was carrying 134 people -- 127 passengers and seven crew members. Six people were critically injured, Ineke Van Der Zande of Amsterdam Emergency Services told reporters at a briefing. Watch aerials from the crash site \u00bb . Twenty-five passengers were severely injured, she said, and 24 were lightly injured. Some 60 ambulances transported 84 people to 11 hospitals throughout the region, she said. There was no word on injuries to the others who were transported. Witnesses said they saw the nose of the plane pitch up suddenly before the crash, according to RTL journalist Greg Crouch. The plane broken into three pieces. One break was in front of the wing, splitting the \"Turkish\" logo in two, and a larger break was farther back along the fuselage. Most of the injured were seated toward the back of the plane, which sustained the most damage, a passenger on the plane told Turkish station NTV. Many of the passengers simply walked off the plane through the cracks in the fuselage, witnesses said. A passenger on the plane who spoke to Turkish network DHA said he saw injured people trapped and squeezed between the seats when he walked out. iReport: Send your videos, stories . Flight 1951 was arriving at Schiphol from Istanbul, Turkey, when it went down around 10:40 a.m. (4:40 a.m. ET). It came to rest in a farmer's field about 500 yards short of the runway, near the major A9 highway. Crouch said the weather at the time was partly sunny with no wind or rain. No fire broke out after the crash, Bezuijen said. Watch how Twitter was first to report the crash \u00bb . A bank manager who was a passenger on the plane told NTV that there were no emergency announcements. The crew's last word to the cabin was an announcement to fasten their seat belts and prepare for landing, the bank manager said. He said he felt the pilot giving more power to the engines before feeling \"turbulence,\" then a sudden drop. He described the crash as similar to a sudden impact that was over in a matter of seconds. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to Amsterdam to assist in the crash investigation. The Boeing 737-800 is a reliable aircraft that has been successful and safe in service, said aviation expert Kieran Daly of Air Transport Intelligence. \"They really are pretty much state-of-the-art airlines with every imaginable technical benefit the industry has come up with over the years,\" Daly told CNN. \"You would be optimistic that they would be quite survivable in an accident.\" Daly said Turkish Airlines, a national carrier, has a \"very good record.\" Turkish Airlines said it has 52 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet. They can carry as many as 165 passengers each, it said. Before Wednesday, the airline's last accident was of a small commuter jet in 2003, Daly said. It was a fatal crash that happened at a remote airfield in southeastern Turkey, he said. \"Their mainline operation is safe,\" Daly said. \"Their pilots are well thought of.\" Worldwide, there have been two fatal commercial airline crashes this year. The last previous fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed as it tried to return to Schiphol shortly after takeoff. Three of the 24 passengers and crew members on board were killed. CNN's Ivan Watson in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Mayor says too early to determine cause of Wednesday's plane crash .\nInvestigators find data and voice recorders from Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 .\nAt least nine of the 134 people on board died; 55 wounded; six critical .\nAccident involved respected airline and modern airport in good weather .","id":"4f908cbebac852dd449898dedd3c10eb9a8a9503"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators are pursuing several new leads in the case of a missing 5-year-old girl in Florida, they said Tuesday. Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings, 5, who vanished a week ago, may have been abducted, police say. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office on Monday night searched the neighborhood of Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings, who vanished a week ago. Deputies also searched surrounding neighborhoods. Authorities said the girl may have been abducted. Officials wouldn't release any details on the leads. \"Those leads, like I said, are as a result of doing the neighborhood canvass last night, and we will be following up on those leads today,\" said Capt. Steve Rose of the Putnam Sheriff's Office. Since opening the case a week ago, authorities have received more than 1,200 tips about the missing girl, 500 of them since Monday, Putnam County Sheriff Rick Ryan said. Tuesday afternoon, the sheriff's office announced they have changed the Amber Alert they originally put out for the little girl, saying they changed the description of the clothing. \"What we need people to focus on is the face, because we do not know at this time what the clothing was at this point,\" said Dominick Pape with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Rose said investigators also conducted a checkpoint in the area last night. Ronald Cummings' girlfriend, 17-year-old Misty Croslin, told police she was watching Haleigh when she went missing sometime before dawn February 10. Watch why police now question the sitter's story \u00bb . Cummings shares his double-wide mobile home with Croslin, daughter Haleigh and a 4-year-old son in Satsuma, east of Gainesville. He has said that when he returned home at 3 a.m. ET, he was surprised to see Croslin awake and asked her why she was up. Croslin waited until Cummings came home to phone 911 about the girl's disappearance, though it's unclear how long that wait was, authorities said. Police said last week that Croslin had tucked the girl and her brother into bed at 8 p.m. before going to sleep at 10. The girl, boy and Croslin usually sleep in the same bed. Officials said they originally thought Haleigh may have wandered outside on her own but are now certain that she was abducted. Investigators are looking into various angles of the case, including finding out the location of 44 registered sexual offenders who live within a 5-mile radius of the Cummings home, said Lt. Johnny Greenwood of the Putnam Sheriff's Office. A nationwide Amber Alert said the girl was last seen wearing a pink shirt and underwear.","highlights":"NEW: Sheriff's office changes description of missing girl's clothing in Amber Alert .\nOfficers search Florida neighborhood of Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings, 5 .\nInvestigators won't give details of new leads they say they've found .\nGirl disappeared from home last week while in teenager's care .","id":"2026c0debebe0847aa327959378d1086f3edbb3d"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- They have come to glimpse the miracle. They have come to witness the revolution. They have come for \"Watchmen\" -- the allegedly unfilmable superhero movie, the long-awaited adaptation of the comic book that changed the face of comic books forever. Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan, a powerful superhero in \"Watchmen.\" On this warm July morning, over 5,000 fans attending the annual geek pop summit known as Comic-Con have assembled inside the San Diego Convention Center for a first look. Many spent the night on the sidewalk. Some have come in costumes. Behind the stage, indie-movie icon Kevin Smith parks himself in front of a closed-circuit TV, a happy grin on his bearded mug. \"You have to understand, I've been waiting for this moment for years,\" says Smith. \"This is it, man. This is the pinnacle.\" All this, for a violent, ironic superhero epic that doesn't like superheroes in the first place. Directed by \"300's\" Zack Snyder, \"Watchmen\" presents a set of familiar superhero archetypes -- and then subverts them completely. Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) is like the Spirit ... except he's a joyless, hard-line misanthrope. The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is like Captain America ... but loyal only to sadistic thrills and a corrupt worldview. Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) is part Batman, part Iron Man ... except he's also a schlubby, impotent coward. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) is the resident genius ... who's built an empire on superhero toys. (You see what we mean by irony.) Says Billy Crudup, whose blue, naked Dr. Manhattan is an almighty Superman dangerously detached from his own humanity: \" 'Watchmen' is a kind of thrilling thought experiment. What would people who dress up in costumes to fight crime actually be like? Well, they'd probably be fetishists who lived on the fringes of society. They'd all be a bunch of freaking lunatics.\" Yet for all its self-awareness and cynicism, \"Watchmen\" isn't some cheap-and-silly \"Scary Movie\" parody. Adapted faithfully, if not completely, from the celebrated 1986 comic-book series, Snyder's film is visually and intellectually ambitious, filled with heady ruminations about savior figures, pop culture, and the politics of fear. At a time when superhero stories are commonplace and our shaken country is pinning its recovery on an idealistic new president, \"Watchmen's\" director believes his movie can serve as a bracing blast of healthy skepticism. \"Someone asked me if I thought that because Barack Obama had been elected president, the movie was no longer relevant. I said, 'Wow, that's a very optimistic view of the future!' \" says Snyder. \"The movie, like the comic, says, 'These superhero stories you've been feasting on? What if we took them seriously?' ... That's the fun.\" But fun for whom? When \"Watchmen\" hits theaters on March 6, the comic-book cognoscenti will be there in droves -- although some are already sweating the heresy of dramatic changes. EW: What didn't make it? And, for mainstream moviegoers, such talk of \"subverting superhero archetypes\" is liable to elicit a great big \"Huh?\" EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . \"Watchmen's\" financial backers are clearly hoping the success of \"The Dark Knight\" has primed the market for sophisticated superhero films -- especially one that's two hours and 41 minutes long. But where \"The Dark Knight\" transcended genre conventions, \"Watchmen\" wallows in them. Violently. Created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, \"Watchmen\" is most often praised as the comic book that brought respect and maturity to a medium long dismissed as juvenile. It was the fanboys' \"Catcher in the Rye\" -- and maybe their first Playboy, too. \"I was 13 when I read 'Watchmen,' and it came to represent my coming of age,\" says \"Lost\" co-creator Damon Lindelof. \"I felt like 'Watchmen' was this very, very bad thing that I shouldn't be reading, and if my mom caught me with it I'd be f---ing doomed.\" Hollywood was similarly struck by \"Watchmen,\" but has been much less successful at avoiding the doom. In 1986, Twentieth Century Fox acquired the comic's rights for producer Larry Gordon, but could never get an adaptation rolling. Over the next decade, \"Watchmen\" bounced among many studios and between many before finding what appeared to be a happy ending at Paramount. But in 2005, with helmer Paul Greengrass deep into preproduction, a Paramount regime change killed the project. Certainly, it's a hard project to get your head around. \"Watchmen\" is set in the year 1985. The U.S. and the Soviet Union are on the brink of nuclear war, and the president is Richard Nixon, whose success at ending the Vietnam War (he asked Dr. Manhattan to blow up the Vietcong) has earned him five terms of office from a grateful nation. Conservative politics are popular, as are Indian fast food and pirate comics. But costumed heroes, once all the rage, are now outlawed. When the Comedian gets murdered, Rorschach tries to round up his old allies to investigate. They eventually uncover an insidious conspiracy hatched by an unlikely villain, one whose grand ambition isn't world domination but something else altogether. iReport.com: Will you watch 'Watchmen'? And that's only half the comic. Hence, \"Watchmen's\" rep as the Unfilmable Graphic Novel. But tides changed in late 2005 when Warner Bros. acquired the property from Paramount (or at least they thought they did) with the hope of rolling on \"Watchmen\" ASAP. (Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN and Entertainment Weekly.) The studio turned to Snyder. At that point, the director had only done stylish TV commercials and the 2003 zombie remake \"Dawn of the Dead.\" But he was also deep in the middle of shooting the studio's action epic \"300,\" another adaptation of a brilliantly brutal comic, and the execs liked what they were seeing. Snyder's approach was simple: He would remain religiously faithful to the comic. \"We treated that thing like a freakin' illuminated text,\" says the director, who embraced all the peculiar idiosyncrasies, from the Nixonian alternative America to the deep-dive digressions into character origin stories. (None of this faithfulness can please Moore, who feels that no adaptation can do his work justice and has taken his name off the film.) The director also believed that an \"adult\" superhero epic needed to be explicit about its \"adult\" content. He wanted to hear the characters' philosophical musings. He wanted to see the blood spurt. And instead of the chaste kisses of most superhero movie romances, he wanted to see some naked getting-it-on. \"I wanted to make sure everyone understood: This is not a kid movie,\" says Snyder. \"Violence has consequences. And doing that with a PG-13 just dilutes that message.\" And then there was the worry that all that effort was all for naught. Last February, Twentieth Century Fox sought to stop Warner Bros. from moving forward with \"Watchmen's\" release, claiming via lawsuit that Warner Bros. had not properly acquired the distribution rights. The dispute exploded in the media last August when a judge declared that Fox's lawsuit had merit. \"How do you not know whether or not you have the right to make a movie?\" says Crudup. \"Hilarious.\" But after months of intense press coverage that put \"Watchmen\" in the mainstream eye, the two studios reached a settlement. (Warner Bros. and Fox both declined to comment. As for producer Gordon: \"It was unfortunate,\" he says simply.) Now Team \"Watchmen\" waits to see if any of that notoriety can help make them some money. With a $100 million-plus budget and a running time of 161 minutes, \"Watchmen\" will need to launch with a big opening weekend and strong reviews. So, will geek love -- and geek dollars -- be enough? Snyder hopes so. He says he made the film for that crowd. \"I don't think there ever has been a movie more custom-made for them. Not at this scale,\" he says. \"And now they have an opportunity to really influence pop culture in a serious way, just as the comic influenced comics. They can say: 'These stories can be used to say something about the world. Give us more of them.' \" This is an edited version of Entertainment Weekly's cover story on \"Watchmen.\" For the complete story, click here. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" movie, after years in the works, finally coming out March 6 .\nFilm based on classic graphic novel that influenced many .\nFilm does not shy away from controversial themes, violence in novel .","id":"e1090165e8c2a4d62ddbf75270705947824b08fa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Everyone was blogging about Tuesday's inauguration -- even the people who were putting it on. President Obama, pictured, giving his inaugural speech. Fittingly for an election campaign that was won partly by galvanizing millions of young people to get out and vote via the Internet, Obama's inauguration ushered in a new digital age for the U.S. presidency. As the clock struck 12.01 in Washington Obama's administration took control of the White House Web site, with the simple words \"Change has come to America.\" The first blog post by director of new media for the White House, Macon Phillips, said: \"Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the Internet to play a role in shaping our country's future.\" It was an unprecedented move in the history of presidential inaugurations and it reflected the mood of the blogosphere, which came alive with comments as excitable bloggers mulled on topics ranging from what Michelle Obama would wear to their thoughts on Obama's speech. Watch President Obama's full speech \u00bb . The New Yorker's George Packer wrote in his blog that \"President Obama uttered no words today that will be quoted in a hundred years.\" \"He delivered something better than rhetorical excitement -- he spoke the truth, which makes its own history and carries its own poetry,\" Packer added. But it was not just traditional bloggers who were giving their two cents worth. Social network sites were also buzzing with the excitement of the occasion. CNN.com provided a live video streaming platform for Facebook users to interact with the inauguration ceremony by updating their status as they watched proceedings. Online viewers could choose between their friends or \"everyone watching,\" seeing live thoughts such as \"I've actually got shivers!\" to \"Barack H.? What a copout!\" Many were captivated by Aretha Franklin's eye-catching hat, with comments ranging from: \"Now that's a hat,\" to \"Aretha is wearing the hell outtta that hat.\" There was also no escaping the ubiquitous \"Tweeple\" (Twitter people) posting 'tweets' on everything from their opinion of the inaugural speech to their celebrity spots. One 'tweeter' even blogged about using the VIP toilets at the inauguration site in Washington, saying: \"Just used the VIP porta potty. Contrary to what they might tell you, fancy people's **** does indeed stink.\" More than 40,000 photos of the events on Capitol Hill tagged with the word \"inauguration\" were also posted to the photo-sharing site, Flickr. No aspect of the inauguration was left undissected, but Pastor Rick Warren's invocation prayer proved a hot topic amongst bloggers, who by turns criticized him for being too inclusive and not inclusive enough. Warren attracted some criticism for using words from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy texts as well as including the name of Jesus -- in several languages including Hebrew. However Dan Gilgoff, the \"God & Country\" blogger for U.S. News & World Report, acknowledged the difficult position Warren faced when he wrote: . \"For me, the two most salient features of the Rev. Rick Warren's inauguration invocation were its emphasis on the values of unity and mutual respect, which seemed partly a reaction to the controversy his selection as invocation speaker sparked, and its bold invocation of Jesus in the form of the Lord's Prayer. \"For some, those two themes would seem incongruous. It was trademark Warren, who -- like Barack Obama -- has been accused of trying to be all things to all people.\" For some, it was about looking ahead to how long the adulation for President Obama would last. Conservative blogger Dr. Melissa Clouthier, who was liveblogging the inauguration, debated that the \"Obasm\" would last 4 years. \"His voters voted for him not for his ideas,\" she wrote. \"He didn't really articulate specific plans. He just gave vague promises. Voters were so enamored with the idea of him and he'll be around for four years, so the love will continue. \"The Press and the voters, too, imbued Obama with so much wonderfulness that to turn on him is to turn on their own perfect judgment. Since the vote was essentially narcissistic and people don't hate themselves, Obama will be loved for a good long time.\" It remains to be seen whether her prediction will come true.","highlights":"Inauguration set blogosphere alive with comments .\nFrom Facebook to Twitter, everyone wanted to have their say online .\nObama's speech, Michelle's outfit and Rick Warren's prayer proved popular themes .","id":"7109dd17e08adedb77bca0d98a453477bd75b547"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli Military said Thursday that the \"vast majority\" of Palestinians killed in the recent Gaza conflict were \"terror operatives\" and the number of people killed was less than Palestinian sources reported. Israel says the majority of Palestinians killed during \"Operation Cast Lead\" were \"terror operatives.\" In an e-mailed statement the Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office claimed their figures contained the names of 1,166 Palestinians killed in the conflict, called \"Operation Cast Lead.\" The Israeli military said 709 of them were \"identified as Hamas terror operatives, among them several from various other terror organizations.\" The remaining, the statement claims, were comprised of 162 names who \"have not yet been attributed to any organization.\" \"Furthermore, it has come to our understanding that 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation, 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them were women.\" The Israeli military said it was releasing the findings to counter \"false information originating from various Palestinian sources, and in order to remove any doubt regarding the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead.\" The numbers presented by the Israeli military differ sharply from those reported by Palestinian sources. At the conclusion of the fighting, the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza had put the death toll at over 1,300, with the majority made up of non-combatants. More recently the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) published a study that put the total death toll at 1,417, including 926 civilians of which 313 were children under the age of 18 and 116 women. It reports that the remainder was made of 255 \"non-combatant\" police officers and 236 who were took \"an active part in hostilities.\" Jaber Wishah, a deputy director for PCHR told CNN his organization \"stands firmly on our published figures\" and that Israel's choice to classify police officers as combatants is \"illegal.\" \"Such classification constitutes a willful violation of the principle of 'distinction' which is a key component of customary international law. This raises serious doubts about the accuracy of the figures published by the Israelis,\" he said. Wishah said the civilian death toll included \"large numbers of deaths inside people's homes and other civilian facilities\" and that it indicated \"the extent to which civilians were intentionally targeted.\" Wishah said that until the Israeli government produced the names and details on which its figures were based that he could not comment further. The Israeli military has maintained that it went to great lengths to minimize civilian deaths and put the responsibility of civilian deaths on Hamas. \"The Hamas terror organization placed the primary fighting scene at the heart of civilian neighborhoods as it booby-trapped homes, fired from schools and used civilians as human shields,\" the IDF said. Asked about the discrepancy in numbers, an Israeli military official suggested that natural occurring deaths in Gaza had been included in the Palestinian death toll numbers and that the total ratio of non-combatant to combatants killed was low. A spokesman for the Israeli military said it could not immediately make the list of killed Palestinians available and could not offer more detail on methodology.","highlights":"Israel: \"Vast majority\" of Palestinians killed in Gaza were \"terror operatives\"\nMilitary says number of people killed less than Palestinian sources reported .\nIsrael says 1,166 died, with 709 \"identified as Hamas terror operatives\"","id":"a0356d0b9103b49358dfc73f43e1ac857f8500c2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Layoffs for sea lions? Furloughs for frogs? Is there no job security, anywhere? State budget cuts mean New York's 76 zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums will lose $9.1 million in funding. The recession may be coming to a zoo near you. State budget cuts mean many zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens will lose crucial state funding for their exhibits. New York's 76 zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens will lose $9.1 million in state funds next year. \"We're faced with this very difficult problem of firing the animals, as it were,\" said Steve Sanderson, the CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium. They will lose $3 million to budget cuts. The Bronx Zoo has made a short video posted on its Web site www.bronxzoo.com\/ to draw attention to the cuts. In the video, the zoo director fires a porcupine and a frog. \"I am sure you have heard that Gov. [David] Paterson's proposed budget will mean severe cuts here at the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium,\" the zoo director says. \"Next year, all 76 zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums in the state will lose all of their state funding. There is no easy way to say this: Even though you bring record numbers of people to New York and help the economy, we are going to have to let you go.\" Firing a porcupine and a frog may be a cute way to get publicity for their budget woes, but it's a serious matter and zoo officials say the recession will certainly affect the animals. Zoo officials say some collections with \"short life cycles\" will not be replaced when they die, and other animals could be sent to other zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. The state of New York funds just 2.7 percent of the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium's budget, but zoo officials say it will be difficult to make up. Between the state budget cuts, the loss in the value of their endowment and fewer people renewing memberships -- times are so tough for the zoo and aquarium -- they say they may lay off 120 to 130 people. \"Two-thirds of our budget is people, and so two-thirds of the cuts will come in cutting positions,\" Sanderson said. \"And we'll also cut back what we provide in the way of education and entertainment and nature experiences for people. So it affects everything.\" Zoo officials questioned the state's priorities. But just about everybody getting taxpayer funds has to cut back. Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the New York State Budget Office told CNN the cuts are regrettable but necessary considering the state's current financial crisis. Citing a \"dramatic reduction in revenue,\" Gordon said, \"Every entity that receives state funds must do what the state has done, which is to review its operations and identify ways to operate at lower costs.\" The Bronx Zoo isn't the only one affected; cutbacks are happening everywhere. The Los Angeles Zoo in California stopped work on its $42 million elephant exhibit last year, and there are big budget cuts for zoos in Maryland, Missouri and North Carolina. There's no relief for the zoos in the $819 billion economic stimulus package. Section 1109 of the stimulus bill which passed this week in the House forbids the use of federal taxpayer money to plug the budget gaps. Taxpayer watchdog groups lobbied to keep zoos, aquariums, swimming pools, golf courses and casinos out of the stimulus, arguing that there are higher priorities for Americans' money during a recession.","highlights":"State budget cuts threaten funding for zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens .\nNew York's 76 zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens will lose $9.1 million .\nBronx Zoo: Some animals won't be replaced; others may go to zoos, sanctuaries .\nZoos in Florida, Maryland, Missouri and North Carolina face budget cuts .","id":"349973fb53b476b6fb40914b3e7bbfd314391b73"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States signed an agreement Thursday on civil nuclear cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. Calling the agreement \"a powerful and timely model for the world and the region,\" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the deal, along with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed. \"We applaud the UAE's commission -- commitment to the highest standards of safety, security and nonproliferation in its pursuit of nuclear power,\" Rice said. Congress has to ratify the agreement before it can take effect, and congressional critics fear it could spark an arms race and proliferation in the region. The UAE's ties to Iran also have caused concern. Under the \"1-2-3 deal,\" similar to one the United States signed last year with India, Washington would share nuclear technology, expertise and fuel. In exchange, the UAE commits to abide by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. The small oil-rich Gulf nation promises not to enrich uranium or to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear bombs. The deal is part of a major UAE investment in nuclear energy. It has already signed deals to build several nuclear power plants. \"We are a country that is very rich in its oil and gas, but we do look forward that we have a program, a nuclear, peaceful program that could sustain our future needs,\" said bin Zayed. Rice said she hoped existing work by U.S. companies on the UAE nuclear program would be expanded under the agreement. \"We believe our technology is the best in the world, and we hope that the UAE will give that technology strong consideration,\" she said. The United States has stressed its role in global nonproliferation initiatives and has donated $10 million to establish an International Atomic Energy Agency international fuel bank. The U.S. has held up the UAE's development of nuclear energy in stark contrast to Iran, which is suspected of enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb. Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat from California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the safeguards in the agreement \"encouraging\" but voiced concerns that Iran could take advantage of the agreement. \"This could be a significant advance in nonproliferation policy, and a model for future nuclear cooperation agreements,\" Berman said in a statement. \"However, I and many other members of Congress place a very high priority on the international effort to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and will be analyzing this and any other nuclear cooperation agreement in the context of how it implicates the attainment of that goal.\" Iran is the among the UAE's largest trading partners. In the past, the port city of Dubai, one of the UAE's seven emirates, has been used as a transit point for sensitive technology bound for Iran. Dubai was also one of the major hubs for the nuclear trafficking network run by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. But U.S. officials said the UAE has taken major steps to improve export controls and prevent money laundering. Still, such ties contributed to stiff opposition in Congress to the failed deal for Dubai Ports World to manage U.S. ports. The U.S. already has similar agreements with Egypt and Morrocco, and U.S. officials said Washington is working on similar pacts with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan.","highlights":"U.S. Congress has to ratify the agreement before it can take effect .\nCongressional critics fear it could spark an arms race and proliferation in the region .\nUnder the deal, the U.S. would share nuclear technology, expertise and fuel .\nThe UAE will abide by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, other safeguards .","id":"ff6af554bf69b47f857da6275f24c0878c1ecd3a"} -{"article":"This is the second part of a two part series on the best used luxury cars. (AOL Autos) -- Recently, Consumer Reports magazine issued its list of best and worst used cars, and divvied them up by price range. The Porsche 911 has several versions, but all have been annointed with the \"supercar\" appellation. Using CR's recommendations as a guideline, here is a list of some of the best used luxury cars currently on the market in the $30,000+ price range: . 2007 Acura MDX . The newer MDX is classified as a crossover SUV, but it's a deluxe version. It was all-new in '07, and was built on a proper platform -- as opposed to being adapated from the Accord passenger-car platform. It also came in three flavors: Base, Technology and Sport Packages, and all three were powered by a 3.7-liter 300-hp V6. The voice-activated navigation system is a nifty feature, as it comes with rearview camera and AcuraLink satellite communications with real-time traffic data. AOL Autos: Used Acura . 2007 BMW 328i sedan . The 328i is another sleek, finely-tuned and beautifully-designed driving machine, offering sporty performance and Euro-style luxury. It is widely considered to be the definitive \"sports sedan.\" The '07 328i was propelled by a 3.0-liter 230-hp inline six-cylinder engine, which you can find mated to either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. Consumer Reports also recommended the 3-Series coupe and convertible that joined BMW's model line-up in '07. AOL Autos: Used BMW . 2004 BMW M3 . The M3 is the top-of-the-line, high-performance-tuned version of the 3-series coupe. Performance power, therefore, is much higher than the other 3-Series editions. It came as a coupe or convertible, and churned out 333 horses. The M3 is often favorably compared to the Porsche 911 when it comes to quick acceleration, crisp braking and taking tough corners at brisk speeds without breaking a sweat. 2007 Infiniti FX35 . Well, the marketplace surely is not lacking for luxury crossovers. Here is yet another one that appeals to luxury buyers with its balance of SUV-type spaciousness, pampering amenities, deft handling and burly engine muscle. For '07, the FX35 was a two-wheel-drive vehicle powered by a 280-hp 3.5-liter V6 and a five-speed automatic transmission. AOL Autos: Used Infiniti . 2006 & 2007 Infiniti M . Infiniti's M series is another winner, which seamlessly synergizes sleek styling, aggressive engine performance and a bevy of luxo-line amenities. It comes in both the M-35 and M-45. During the last used-model year, '07, the primary distinction between the two was that the M35 was powered by a V6 that kicked out 275 horses, while the M45 muscled up to a 325-hp V8. Luxury features included standard leather seats with heating and ventilation, and optional 10-way power adjustments for the driver's seat. Lexus . Just like in the $24,000-to-$30,000 category, Consumer Reports recommended a slew of world-beating used Lexus models in this segment: the '06-'07 6-cylinder GS RWD; the '07 GS450h Hybrid; '05-'07 GX; '07 IS; '04-'07 LS; '03-'06 LX and '06-'07 RX. AOL Autos: Used Lexus . Lexus has placed No 1 in the JD Power Dependability Survey every year for the last 12 years - until '07, when another carmaker, Buick, finally tied them for first. Porsche 911 (various years) Consumer Reports included the '98 911 in the $24,000 to $30,000 category. Here, the model years get more recent as the price range climbs. The 911 went through some changes over this time period, of course, but all have been anointed with the \"supercar\" appellation. AOL Autos: Used Porsche . And by the latest recommended used-model year, the '07, you could choose among various styles and engine sizes, including the Carrera, with its 3.6-L 325-hp flat-six plant; the Carrera S and S Cabriolet, with the 3.8-L 355 hp V6; the 911 Turbo, with twin-turbocharged 480 hp six-cylinder engine; and the GT3 track model, powered by a high-revving 415-hp six-cylinder engine.","highlights":"Newer Acura MDX is classified as a crossover SUV, but it's a deluxe version .\nBMW 328i is sleek, finely-tuned and beautifully-designed driving machine .\nInfiniti's M series is another winner with an aggressive engine performance .\nConsumer Reports recommended a slew of used Lexus models .","id":"014136b976abf7cab02d2441611ec915960ca466"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Kellogg Co. announced Wednesday it is recommending that consumers not eat its peanut butter crackers because they may be tainted with salmonella. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The products affected are Austin- and Keebler-branded: . -- Toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers. -- Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers. -- Peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. The Michigan-based maker of cereals and snacks posted the recommendation in a statement on its Web site. Peanut butter produced by Peanut Corporation of America, one of several peanut butter suppliers to the company, has been linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that has affected at least 434 people in 43 states, federal health officials said Wednesday. \"Kellogg Company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the company received any consumer illness complaints about these products,\" the Kellogg statement said. \"Nonetheless, Kellogg Company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of PCA and Kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue.\" All of the company's peanut-butter crackers are made at its bakery in Cary, North Carolina, said spokeswoman Kris Charles. Though consumers are urged \"to hold the product until we have more information,\" Charles recommended anyone seeking a refund call 888.314.2060 for details about how to get one.","highlights":"Some types of Austin- and Keebler-branded sandwich crackers affected .\nOne of its peanut butter suppliers has been linked to outbreak of salmonella .\nKellogg says warning is strictly precautionary; no incidents of illness reported .\nOutbreak of salmonella poisoning has affected at least 434 people in 43 states .","id":"2b43da4b9a3efefd030f468e1a8de777de14694a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Yet another scale Il Divo has mastered: scaling the heights of success. The quartet was formed in 2004 after a global search. The operatic quartet's new album, \"The Promise,\" debuted atop the UK charts, their third collection to hit the No. 1 spot. The album (which was released in the U.S. last Tuesday) features Leonard Cohen's \"Hallelujah,\" Frankie Goes to Hollywood's \"The Power of Love,\" and the traditional \"Amazing Grace.\" Il Divo also takes a chance on the ABBA hit \"The Winner Takes it All.\" The group is the brainchild of \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell, who saw a potential market for an international, \"popera\"-style act after the soaring success of the Andrea Bocelli-Sarah Brightman duet \"Time to Say Goodbye (Con te Partiro).\" Watch Il Divo in action \u00bb . Formed in 2004 after a global search, Il Divo (Italian for \"divine male performer\") consists of Spanish baritone Carlos Marin, American tenor David Miller, French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, and Swiss tenor Urs Buhler. According to Syco Music, Il Divo's UK-based label, the quartet has sold more than 22 million albums worldwide. It seems Cowell knew what he was doing. CNN caught up with Il Divo to find out how close they are to Cowell, and which American pop diva they dream of collaborating with. CNN: Who do you most get compared to, the Three Tenors or the Backstreet Boys? Carlos Marin: (laughs) It's a mix of everything. I mean at the end [of the day] we are just a pop act. We just sing pop songs, and we just converted mostly the big endings into operatic style. But we are just us, Il Divo. CNN: Are you surprised by how much of a hit you've become? Marin: In a way, yeah. I still remember the first time we went to number one (in the UK). We knocked out Robbie Williams and it was just like \"Wow!\" CNN: What is the big appeal of Il Divo? Urs Buhler: I think it has a lot to do with the big variety we have inside the group, the fact that we are all from four different countries, from different cultural music backgrounds. And we bundle all those different energies ... and bring it together for that one cause -- to make the most beautiful music that we possibly can together. It's not like we have a strategy or recipe for it, it's just that we're passionate about what we do. It works somehow. It's magic. CNN: How involved is [Simon Cowell] with the day-to-day Il Divo operation? Buhler: With the day-to-day operation, I would say his involvement is next to nothing. He's only involved in the actual A&R-ing and the executive producing, which means we meet him about twice a year for an hour. CNN: You took a lot of time off in 2007. In fact you took nearly the whole year off. When you regrouped did you find anything was different? David Miller: Absolutely. The first three years were just a roller coaster of experiences: having the number one in the UK and then that turning into the number one in all the different countries, and going all around the world and being on tour, being on tour with Barbra Streisand and then more albums. Everything kind of bled into everything else and we didn't really have any time to appreciate all the things that we had done. So after this break, [when] we came back together in the studio, it was really like a breath of fresh air. Like the magic of the first album was back. We could appreciate the music again. We could appreciate each other again. And it was a lot more relaxed and a lot more fun. CNN: When you're standing on stage and you look out at the audience what do you see ... is there a certain age range, a certain sex? Miller: It depends on the country we go to. For example, when we go to the UK, it's a slightly more mature audience. When we go to Spain it's a lot younger audience. When we go to South Africa, it's a family affair. So it really just depends, but everywhere we go the universal thing that ties them all in is that they're all music-lovers and they appreciate what we do. CNN: How many languages do you sing in? Buhler: We [sing] in French, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English ... that would be six. And we speak about seven or eight. CNN: Do you speak the language of love? Marin: Yes, we do! Buhler: That would be the ninth language. CNN: Who is the biggest diva in the group? Marin: We are really four divas. Four captains, one ship. Sebastien Izambard: We have very strong personalities, and we're the producers of our tour and we sit down -- the four of us -- and decide what we're going to do, what set, what choice of the music or lighting. We're four grown-up people and we make that very possible. [In the beginning] everyone had their own opinions. Now we just know what's best for Il Divo. It's easy. Everything's easy. CNN: How are you being received in America? Miller: I think in America it's more of a slow burn. I think it's more difficult to put us on the radio because we fall between the cracks in a way. We're a little bit too pop for the classical stations, we're a bit too classical for the pop stations. And right now hip-hop and rap sort of reign supreme on the airwaves. But there is a big following and it's growing all the time. CNN: If there was someone you could collaborate with who you haven't yet, who would it be? Izambard: Beyonce. Christina Aguilera. Marin: Tina Turner. CNN: These are all pop acts. So you really do want to stay within the pop realm? Buhler: Yeah, definitely. I mean that's a very conscious choice. I don't think we're all opera purists, but for me personally, a \"Nessun Dorma\" [Puccini aria] is as good as it is and I don't see the point of adding a breathy voice, or adding harmonies to it. While the pop repertoire ... it's just more out there for everyone to take it and do with it whatever without offending people. All you want to do with a pop song is somehow transmit emotion. So far there's [been] much more freedom in pop music and that's why we stay in there ... we pretty much can do whatever we want. And as Simon Cowell just said recently, \"Nobody owns music.\"","highlights":"The group is the brainchild of \"American Idol\" judge Simon Cowell .\nThe operatic quartet's new album, \"The Promise,\" debuted atop the UK charts .\nIl Divo (Italian for \"divine male performer\") is made up of singers from four countries .","id":"983001edc65376db14684c205f16a684c69bb610"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- James Dobson, the influential evangelical leader of the Christian ministry Focus on the Family, has stepped down as board chairman, he announced Friday. James Dobson is expected to stay in his public role as an advocate for socially conservative issues. During a meeting with employees, Dobson, 72, said the move means he will no longer be involved with the administrative side of the organization, according to spokesman Gary Schneeberger. But Dobson's public role isn't expected to change. He'll still appear on his daily radio broadcast and as an advocate for socially conservative issues, Schneeberger said. \"There won't be a whole lot of difference,\" the spokesman said. \"You'll still hear him on the radio. You'll still see him on the networks like CNN with Larry King. \"He said to the staff today, 'I've got more to say -- I'm not ready to stop fighting for the things I've fought for for the past 32 years.' \" Founded in 1977, Focus on the Family is a nonprofit organization devoted to what it considers Christian family values, with Dobson's daily program geared largely toward advice on parenting from a religious perspective. But in recent years the ministry, like Dobson himself, has become more active in promoting social and political views. Last year, Dobson caused a huge political stir when he announced he \"cannot and will not\" vote for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. He later changed his tune, after McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, calling her selection \"one of the most exciting days of my life,\" on the syndicated Dennis Prager Show. Dobson has gained widespread attention again with his criticisms of a 2006 speech by now-President Barack Obama on his religious views. He accused Obama of \"deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology.\" That led to a backlash. A group of ministers started an online petition, James Dobson Doesn't Speak for Me, that drew more than 12,000 signatures. Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of Houston, Texas' Windsor Village United Methodist Church, led that effort. \"Dr. Dobson has made a tremendous contribution to the spiritual and social fiber of this country. I've always said that and will continue to say it although, obviously, we have not always agreed,\" Caldwell said Friday. \"The fabric of the evangelical community here in America is very strong. One or two disagreements here and there are surely not going to cause the community to tear apart at the fringes.\" Dobson has spoken out loudly against abortion rights and gay marriage and even weighed in on the Harry Potter fantasy series, with a statement on the group's Web site denouncing the books' \"trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology.\" \"He built his media empire around, sort of, parenting and family issues and he has since used his audience and his media presence to push a political agenda,\" said Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow with the liberal People for the American Way, which advocates, among other things, for the separation of church and state. \"In the last several election cycles, he's constantly complained that the Republican Party isn't far enough to the right and sort of has a habit of saying he's going to take his followers and walk if they don't do more to push his agenda,\" Montgomery said. Focus on the Family says its broadcasts reach more than 220 million people in 155 countries. Its newsletter, in which Dobson will continue to write, goes to 1.6 million people. Dobson's announcement that he and his wife, National Day of Prayer Chairwoman Shirley Dobson, are stepping down from the board of directors comes six years after he resigned as the ministry's executive director. \"One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority ...,\" Dobson said in a written release. \"Though letting go is difficult after three decades of intensive labor, it is the wise thing to do.\" Montgomery, whose group has been critical of what it calls an \"assault on Americans' liberties\" by Focus on the Family, said it's unclear how influential the group will be when Dobson is no longer its public face. While Dobson is the personality that drives the ministry, Focus on the Family has a vast communication and fundraising infrastructure that could continue to make it a player in social and political issues for years to come, he said. In the meantime, Montgomery said, he doesn't expect Dobson's influence to wane because of the behind-the-scenes changes. \"He's still a rock star among conservative religious activists,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: \"He's still a rock star among conservative religious activists,\" scholar says .\nNEW: Dobson has spoken out against abortion rights, gay marriage, Harry Potter .\nDobson, 72, tells employees he won't be involved with ministry's administration .\nDobson still expected to remain in public role, be conservative advocate .","id":"b710cac178eef38d4038fb92194da06c5e2a0a9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five members of Liverpool's backroom staff have followed manager Rafael Benitez in committing their long-term futures to the Premier League title challengers. Rafael Benitez's backroom staff have followed his example in signing new contracts with Liverpool. Benitez signed a new contract with the club last week, following months of speculation, keeping him at Anfield until 2014. Now the Spaniard's lead has now been followed by assistant manager Sammy Lee, first-team coach Mauricio Pellegrino, goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero, fitness coach Paco de Miguel and chief scout Eduardo Macia -- all of whom have agreed contract extensions of at least two years. \"I said when I signed my own deal recently that it was a priority to sort out the future of the technical staff,\" Benitez told PA Sport. \"We work extremely well as a team, and continuity is essential if we are to build on the progress we have made this season and move the club further forward. I am delighted we have been able to sort out the contracts,\" he added. The news caps a remarkable month for the club, who have thrashed Manchester United and Aston Villa to re-enter the Premier League title race and also crushed Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League.","highlights":"Five members of Liverpool's backroom staff sign new contracts with the club .\nThe news follows the decision of manager Rafael Benitez to finally agree terms .\nThe signings are a further boost as Liverpool chase Europe and domestic glory .","id":"1bdad35e60f6f82b81a15fa6ac3d3b17605e69a0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Paying for sex with trafficked or exploited women would become a crime under new laws proposed by the UK government Wednesday. Under proposed laws, it would be illegal to buy sex from a trafficked or exploited woman in the UK. The act of purchasing sex is not currently a criminal offense in England and Wales -- although there are laws against paying for sex in a public place and persistently soliciting prostitutes. Now UK Home Secretary (interior minister) Jacqui Smith says she is proposing the new measures to protect vulnerable women and tackle the demand for prostitution. Britain's interior ministry, known as the Home Office, introduced the new measures Wednesday after a six-month review that looked at what else the government could do to protect women being exploited for sexual gain. \"I want to do everything we can to protect the thousands of vulnerable women coerced, exploited or trafficked into prostitution in our country, and to bring those who take advantage of them to justice,\" Smith said in a statement. Smith said the new measures will shift the focus onto sex buyers because they create demand for prostitution and demand for the trafficking of women for sex. \"There will be no more excuses for those who pay for sex,\" she added. As part of the review, the government looked at the experience of other countries including Sweden -- which has criminalized paying for sex -- and the Netherlands, where brothels are licensed. The government estimates around 80,000 people are involved in prostitution in Britain, with about 4,000 women having been trafficked for sexual exploitation. It says the prostitution market nationwide is worth up to \u00a31 billion ($1.52 billion). Trafficking is the movement of women from one place to another for the purposes of sex. British Authorities have said trafficking usually involves the trafficker promising to bring a woman to Britain for a better life and then forcing her into prostitution. The measures -- which must be approved by Parliament -- would mean that those committing the new offense would be given a criminal record and fined \u00a31,000 ($1,520) -- even if it was a person's first offense and the offender did not know the prostitute was being controlled by a pimp or had been trafficked. Police would also be given powers to close and seal premises suspected of being used for sexual exploitation, such as brothels, which the government said will prevent further exploitation and abuse from taking place. Current law prohibits curb crawling, which involves soliciting prostitutes from a motor vehicle persistently or in a manner that causes annoyance to the neighborhood. It also prohibits \"persistent soliciting,\" which is essentially curb crawling without a car. But representatives of sex workers attacked the plans Wednesday, saying they will force prostitution further underground and make women more vulnerable to violence. \"It's going to really make it more difficult for men to use the sex industry, and it's going to mean that women are going to have to take more risks in order to earn the same money,\" said Cari Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes. \"It's also going to drive it underground. It's going to increase the stigma.\" Mitchell said the government's figures are inflated, and that most immigrant women working as prostitutes have not been trafficked and are working independently. The new measures, she said, confuse prostitution with trafficking and take the focus off those women who may be vulnerable. \"Of women who may be trafficked and forced, what they need is to be able to come forward and report to the police without any fear of being deported,\" Mitchell told CNN. The new restrictions on curb crawling won't end the practice, Mitchell said, but simply give prostitutes less time to weigh up any potential dangers before getting in the client's car.","highlights":"UK government: Around 4,000 women trafficked in the UK for sexual exploitation .\nInterior ministry introduces new proposals to clamp down on sex trade .\nMinister: Measures will shift the focus onto sex buyers because they create demand .\nSex workers representative: Move is counterproductive, will force prostitution underground .","id":"da39dd0fa1f2064d42ae1034e4fcb2dd339d5b25"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday admitted he made a mistake in handling the nomination of Tom Daschle as his health and human services secretary, saying Daschle's tax problems sent a message that the politically powerful are treated differently from average people. President Barack Obama is interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. Daschle, the former Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, withdrew earlier Tuesday as news that he failed to pay some taxes in the past continued to stir opposition on Capitol Hill. \"I think I screwed up,\" Obama said in a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. \"And I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again.\" Daschle had apologized Monday for what he said were honest mistakes, calling them an embarrassment. The series of errors included improperly reporting $15,000 in charitable donations, failing to list $80,000 in lobbying income due to what Daschle said was a paperwork error, and not reporting as income a car and driver loaned to him by a friend and business associate. Watch Obama admit mistake \u00bb . Daschle recently filed amended tax returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest for 2005 to 2007. Those tax issues, as well as questions over whether work he did after his stint in the Senate amounted to lobbying, gave critics ammunition to question Obama's call for a change of culture in Washington. \"Ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics,\" Obama said. \"And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards -- one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes.\" Watch the full interview with Anderson Cooper \u00bb . Obama defended Daschle's original appointment, saying \"nobody was better-equipped to deal both with the substance and policy of health care.\" \"He understands it as well as anybody, but also the politics, which is going to be required to actually get it done,\" Obama said. Earlier, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted Daschle's decision to withdraw was made on his own, not as a result of any prodding from the administration. In a written statement, Daschle acknowledged the political problem he had created for the administration. Still, Obama insisted the mistake was his. Read how CNN analysts assess the situation \u00bb . Obama also said he's going to crack down on businesses using taxpayer money to excessively pay executives. He plans a Wednesday announcement of mechanisms to keep that from happening. \"I'm going to be talking about executive compensation and changes we're going to be making there,\" he said. \"We've now learned that people are still getting huge bonuses despite the fact that they're getting taxpayer money, which I think infuriates the public.\" Watch Obama discuss getting tough on executives \u00bb . The president also spoke about the struggling economy, the use of the label \"war on terror,\" and lighter topics, including the family dog and his efforts to stop smoking. Thinking about the nation's faltering economy keeps him up at night, Obama said. He also addressed criticism that there is too much spending in the current stimulus package bill written by House Democrats. iReport.com: Was Daschle properly vetted? \"Look, the only measure of my success as president when people look back five years from now or nine years from now is going to be, did I get this economy fixed. I have no interest in promoting a package that doesn't work,\" Obama said. Cooper also asked Obama about reports that he is not using former President Bush's phrase, \"war on terror,\" to refer to the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan. \"Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we're going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds,\" Obama said. \"I think it is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations, but that those organizations aren't representative of a broader Arab community, Muslim community.\" Watch Obama talk about the phrase \"war on terror\" \u00bb . Moving on to lighter topics, the president said the first family hasn't decided what type of dog to get, but will wait until spring. Obama, an intermittent smoker, also said he has not smoked on the White House grounds. \"Sometimes it's hard. But, you know, I'm sticking to it,\" Obama said. iReport.com: 'People should give him some slack' Asked about the greatest lesson he'd learned about the presidency from studying about Abraham Lincoln, Obama said: . \"You know, when I think about Abraham Lincoln, what I'm struck by is the fact that he constantly learned on the job. He got better. You know, he wasn't defensive. He wasn't arrogant about his tasks. He was very systematic in saying, 'I'm going to master the job, and I understand it's going to take some time.' \"","highlights":"Obama tells CNN's Anderson Cooper: 'I take responsibility for it'\nPresident says message was sent that the politically powerful are treated differently .\nDaschle apologizes for what he says were honest mistakes involving taxes .\nObama also discusses declining economy and fight against terrorist groups .","id":"9401d02b4c4f24488f72c29c5fd375fb3160360e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British adventurer has overcome sea sickness to complete his around the world trip relying only on the goodwill of people using social networking site Twitter. Paul Smith poses in New York in a picture posted on his Flickr page. Paul Smith aimed to travel to Campbell Island in New Zealand, the opposite side of the planet to his home in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 30 days. In the end he fell just short -- reaching Stewart Island at the foot of New Zealand's South Island. There was not another boat to the more southerly Campbell Island -- a UNESCO World Heritage site -- until November. During his trip Smith visited the Netherlands, France, Germany and the U.S. -- where he was given a free flight to New Zealand -- and had his photo taken with Hollywood actress Liv Tyler. He also raised more than $7,000 for a water charity. More on his journey . His self-imposed golden rule was that he could only accept offers of travel and accommodation from people who use Twitter, a micro-blogging service that allows people to \"tweet\" what they're up to (or what they're thinking about) in 140 characters or less. Smith was also banned from making any travel plans more than three days in advance and has to leave each location within 48 hours of arriving. In his latest updates, he reveals a battle with sea sickness on the crossing to Stewart Island. \"Oh god, I'm rocking back and forth. Still got motion sickness. Curse you, Stewart Island! \"Yesterday's ferry crossing was calm according to local, but it managed to turn me inside out.\" Smith, who was flying out of New Zealand Tuesday, has more than 11,00 people following his progress on his Twitter page on which he has posted 1,300 updates this month. Comment on Paul Smith's journey .","highlights":"British man travels around the world using only contacts made on Twitter .\nPaul Smith traveled to New Zealand from Newcastle-upon-Tyne .\nHe managed to get his photo taken with actress Liv Tyler on the way .","id":"81e324ce93baba066c53cb21b7ecd1b0103ae532"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Let's face it, if you're on holiday in Miami you'll want to be based near the beach, which, fortunately, is where the city's most glamorous hotels are located. South Beach is known for its Art Deco hotels, like The Delano, left. South Beach is known for its distinctive Art Deco hotels, mostly built in the 1920s and 30s and often painted in bright pastel colors. South Beach's Art Deco originals have been protected since the 1970s, and many have since been renovated to the highest specifications. Collins Avenue is home to more than its fair share of boutique hotels. The Delano (1685 Collins Avenue, doubles from $400) dates back to the 1940s and is crowned with streamlined fins that are pure Deco. It has been re-imagined by Ian Schrager, with a white, minimal Philippe Starck-designed interior that is sophisticated and hip. The Delano's Rose Bar is one of the best places in town for a poolside cocktail. The Shore Club (1901 Collins Avenue, doubles from $300) is another Schrager revival of a Deco hotel and, if anything, it's even cooler than The Delano. Rooms are high-tech, welcoming and often occupied by visiting celebrities. The attached sushi restaurant Nobu is top notch and the stylish Skybar, with its four bars and tropical gardens, is one of the city's hottest nightspots. Do you have a favorite hotel or place to stay in Miami? If you've just won the lottery, you'll want to stay at the Setai (2001 Collins Avenue, doubles from $785). Another conversion of an Art Deco hotel, albeit augmented by a 40-storey tower, the Setai adds tasteful Asian influences. Its cool, dark interior is a refreshingly tasteful oasis among the South Beach excess, and is both unashamedly luxurious and frighteningly expensive. Back in the real world, The Standard (40 Island Avenue, Miami Beach, doubles from $250) is a little stranded in its Biscayne Bay locale, but is great value. The real draw is the superb spa, with its infinity pool and open-air mud lounge. But this is no austere health retreat; it's relaxing and fun, and all the better for it. This is Miami after all... A cheaper, quirkier option is Pelican (826 Ocean Drive, doubles from $200). Owned by Italian fashion label Diesel, this is a colorful, kitschy place, with individually themed rooms, such as the ornate and floral 'Power Flower' room. The hotel's Pelican Caf\u00e9 has an outstanding wine list and is surprisingly good value. Away from the beach altogether, the Biltmore (1200 Anastasia Avenue, doubles from $310), over in Coral Gables, is an absolute gem. The rooms aren't exceptional but the building is a beauty, modeled on the Giralda bell tower in Seville, with ornate Moorish-inspired touches. Al Capone was a big fan back in the 1920s and these days there's a massive pool, an 18-hole golf course and rumors of resident ghosts... ...................... Miami City Guide: . Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . Do you agree with our Miami picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best .","highlights":"South Beach is known for its distinctive and stylish Art Deco hotels .\nExpensive and exclusive, The Setai has an Asian-influenced interior .\nThe Standard is known for its spa, infinity pool and open-air mud lounge .\nOver in Coral Gables, the stunning Biltmore resembles a Spanish palace .","id":"4c79418454f98198e183e8401a464fb9065aa266"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Kansas are looking for a boy who disappeared about a decade ago, but was not reported missing until a few weeks ago. Adam Herrman has not been seen since 1999, when he was 11 or 12. \"We don't know what happened to Adam Herrman past '99, when he was last seen,\" Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said at a news conference in El Dorado. \"Is he alive, is he dead? That one I can't answer because we don't know,\" he added. Adam was 11 or 12 when he was last seen, Murphy said. At the time, he was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a small town in southern Kansas, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman. The couple did not report him missing, Murphy said. A few weeks ago, a person notified Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Children's Unit of a \"concern\" regarding Adam, Murphy said. The agency did not immediately return CNN's phone call seeking additional information. Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple \"really rue the fact that they didn't\" report the boy missing. \"They feel very guilty\" about not doing that, he said in a telephone interview. The couple told him the boy had run away frequently, he said, and they believed him to be either with his biological parents or homeless. Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, \"they were very worried about him,\" he said. Authorities have searched the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park, where the family had lived, and discovered an \"answer\" to one of their questions, Murphy said, without explaining. \"We did find one of the answers we were looking for, but I am holding that one very tightly,\" he said. Eisenbise said authorities also executed a search warrant on December 15 at the Herrmans' home in Derby, a town just outside of Wichita. They took the couple's computer, he said. Murphy said the couple is cooperating and had not been charged with anything. Citing a relative, the Wichita Eagle reported the Herrmans had taken Adam into foster care and later adopted him. Michelle Ponce of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which oversees adoption and foster care, said she could not release any details regard Adam's case, and could confirm only that he had been in foster care at some point, but was no longer in foster care in 1999. Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said in a phone interview. He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born on June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed. His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in different foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported. \"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children and evidently it wasn't,\" Irvin Groeninger told KWCH. \"If he was still in my custody this would have never happened.\" Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she last saw her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party. A year or two later, he sent her a Christmas card, she said. \"And that was the end of my contact with him,\" she told KWCH. \"He had the cutest little round face, little bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek,\" she remembered. \"I'm just awestruck as how something like that could actually happen, and how he could be missing as long as he's been and nobody say anything,\" she said. Murphy said Adam's name appears on a legal document later than 1999. \"We know that he was listed in a legal action as if he was still living at home, and I'm not certain of the date, but it was beyond 1999,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"Sheriff says no trace of Adam Herrman found after 1999 .\nParents did not report him missing until recently .\nPolice say they don't know if he is dead or alive .\nAdam was 11 or 12 in 1999 .","id":"aea1047a61e356f762360f833bc962636bd57fce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An elderly American man has been released from a Mexican jail more than two months after the grandson he was traveling with was arrested on child pornography charges, a family member said. Edward Chrisman, left, crosses the Mexican border back into the United States after being freed Saturday. Edward Chrisman, 88, and his grandson had traveled to Algodones, Mexico, for discount dental care, as a part of a growing trend known as medical tourism. Algodones is just across the border from Yuma, Arizona. The grandson, 40-year-old Gary Chrisman Jr., remains in a Mexicali jail awaiting trial, according to his cousin, Tracy Short. Authorities accuse him of offering a woman money to take nude photos of her teenage daughters. Child pornography charges can carry a penalty of up to 12 years in prison, according to officials from the Consulate General Tijuana. In early January, the Chrismans stopped at a convenience store in Mexico and Gary Chrisman went inside to purchase soft drinks. Edward Chrisman waited in the car, Short said. The younger Chrisman had been taking pictures of the area that day and, while in the store, approached a woman about snapping some shots of her teenage daughters. He offered to pay them $25, they agreed, and he took a few pictures of the girls' faces. It was at that point, the family says, that the girls' mother demanded more money from Chrisman and called local authorities alleging that Chrisman had tried taking pornographic pictures of her daughters, after he refused to ante up. Both men were taken into custody at the time, but the police report does not say why the elder Chrisman was arrested. The Chrisman family says the men were set up as a ploy for money. Since early January, the family says, they have paid thousands of dollars to at least three attorneys for legal representation and have reached out to numerous officials and politicians in Mexico and the United States for help. Edward Chrisman, who lives in Arlington, Washington, but was wintering with his grandson in Yuma, Arizona, was released from jail on Saturday and crossed the border back into the United States the same day. The family says his health had been steadily deteriorating while he was behind bars. Traveling abroad for health care is a phenomenon known as medical tourism. Many do it to save money or to get medical care not approved in the United States. Internationally recognized hospitals in Thailand and Singapore can often perform orthopedic and heart procedures at a fraction of the cost. Mexico is a popular choice for dental care. The estimated number of Americans seeking treatment overseas annually varies widely, but starts at a half-million people. CNN's Sara Pratley contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. man, 88, was arrested in January along with his 40-year-old grandson .\nGrandson accused of seeking nude photos of teens; family alleges setup .\nNo word on why 88-year-old was jailed along with grandson .\nFamily members say grandfather's health had deteriorated in jail .","id":"b8a3b65713b9f62366601bf553078e4bc60030d2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Germany's much-loved model train manufacturer, Maerklin, has filed for bankruptcy, leaving fans around the world wondering whether it's the last stop for the company's toy business. This Maerklin train has a video in the front so users get a driver's view. Maerklin has been building toy trains for nearly 150 years and its railroads made their way into countries as far away as Australia and New Zealand. The company said it applied for insolvency proceedings Wednesday after talks to secure credit from banks broke down. Despite intensive negotiations, the commercial banks did not extend their lines of credit, Maerklin said. \"It is sad,\" shopper Frank Steen, 39, said at London's famous Hamleys toy store. \"With fewer older brands around, all we're left with is Japanese plastic.\" Although Maerklin generated a turnover of around $165 million in 2008, it struggled to obtain a credit extension beyond January 31, it said. Despite financial difficulties, the company still planned to set up its stall Thursday at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Railway devotees will have plenty to look forward to after Maerklin boss Dietmar Mundil promised to bring 400 new products to the show.","highlights":"Maerklin toy train firm files for bankruptcy .\nCompany says it failed to secure extension of credit lines from banks .\nMaerklin generated a turnover of around $165 million in 2008 .\nCompany still plans to attend this week's Nuremberg Toy Fair .","id":"a80f4e3f38cc8e0dc78706fde59b37d395890a56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 60 years after reneging on a promise to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who fought for the United States during World War II, the U.S. government will soon be sending out checks -- to the few who are still alive. Veteran Franco Arcebal says, \"we are loyal to the United States, except that the United States has forgotten us.\" \"For a poor man like me, $15,000 is a lot of money,\" said 91-year-old Celestino Almeda. Still, he said, \"After what we have suffered, what we have contributed for the sake of democracy, it's peanuts. It's a drop in the bucket.\" During the war, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. The U.S. military promised full veterans benefits to Filipinos who volunteered to fight. More than 250,000 joined. Then, in 1946, President Truman signed the Rescission Act, taking that promise away. Today, only about about 15,000 of those troops are still alive, according to the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. A provision tucked inside the stimulus bill that President Obama signed calls for releasing $198 million that was appropriated last year for those veterans. Those who have become U.S. citizens get $15,000 each; non-citizens get $9,000. \"I'm very thankful,\" said Patrick Ganio, 88, the coalition's president. \"We Filipinos are a grateful people.\" Ganio was among the tens of thousands of Filipinos at the infamous battle of Bataan, a peninsula on Manila Bay opposite the Philippine capital. He was captured and beaten by Japanese troops before ultimately being freed, suffering from malaria and then resuming his service to the U.S. military. \"The record of the Philippine soldiers for bravery and loyalty is second to none,\" Truman wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate in 1946. \"Their assignment was as bloody and difficult as any in which our American soldiers engaged. Under desperate circumstances they acquitted themselves nobly.\" Though Truman said the Rescission Act resulted in \"discrimination,\" he signed it. \"There can be no question but that the Philippine veteran is entitled to benefits bearing a reasonable relation to those received by the America veteran, with whom he fought side by side,\" he said. \"From a practical point of view, however, it must be acknowledged that certain benefits granted by the GI bill of rights cannot be applied in the case of the Philippine veteran.\" Some historians say financial concerns were paramount: The cost of funding full veterans benefits to all those Filipinos, particularly in the wake of the costly war, would have been a heavy burden. The National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity offers a different explanation. \"In 1946, discrimination against people of color was the rule of law,\" the group says in a document it submitted to the Obama-Biden transition team in November. \"The second-class treatment of Filipino World War II veterans is another example from this historical period.\" For decades, Filipino activists and their supporters have fought for the full benefits. They've petitioned and picketed. Almeda, a widower who now lives in Virginia with his daughter, once chained himself to the fence outside the White House. \"I was fined $50 for civil disobedience and was arrested,\" he says now, chuckling. He says he was just looking for answers. Despite encouraging words from U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the benefits were never restored. \"Only 70,000 Philippine veterans remain alive, and they hope to stay alive long enough to see those benefits reinstated,\" CNN reported in 1997. \"There's a bill, stuck in committee in Congress, that would do just that.\" That effort, just like so many before, fell apart. \"We were loyal to the United States. Even up to now, we are loyal to the United States, except that the United States has forgotten us in many ways,\" said Franco Arcebal, another leader of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. \"It's only now, because of the insistence of Sen. [Daniel] Inouye in the Senate, he was able to act on this.\" Inouye, D-Hawaii, inserted the language in the stimulus bill, calling it \"a matter of honor.\" The honor comes too late for the many Filipino veterans who passed away waiting for this moment. Families of deceased veterans are not eligible to receive the money. For those who are alive, the checks could make a real difference. \"Practically all of us are below the poverty line now at this age. We have no way of earning a living,\" Arcebal said. But, he emphasized, \"it does not correct the injustice and discrimination done to us 60 years ago. ... We were not granted school benefits. We were not granted hospital benefits. ... And in the 60 years, several billion dollars were saved by the U.S. government for not paying 250,000 of us. \"Now we are only 15,000. And the amount that they're giving us is a small amount. But we appreciate that. Because it will finally recognize our services ... as active service in the armed forces of the United States.\" CNN's Lisa Sylvester contributed to this report.","highlights":"Filipinos were promised full military benefits to enlist .\nPresident Truman later signed act reneging on promise .\nOnly about 15,000 of the troops are still alive .\nU.S. citizens will get $15,000; non-citizens will get $9,000 .","id":"8dda3f1e4c4fbffe12f130ca90df6e0963232575"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in January, brought two of her babies home from the hospital late Tuesday. Nadya Suleman walks outside her new house for a video crew in La Habra, California, on March 10. She brought the infants to her new house in La Habra, California. Members of the media and gawkers crowded the cul-de-sac, as news helicopters hovered overhead. Media swarmed the family's vehicle as it slowly made its way through the crowd, into the home's garage. The babies discharged from the hospital were Noah Angel, known as Baby A, and Isaiah Angel, known as Baby C, according to the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center. The medical team that delivered the babies identified them by letters of the alphabet. On discharge, Noah weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces, and Isaiah weighed 5 pounds, the hospital said in a news release. \"Both infants are able to bottle feed, are gaining weight and are able to maintain their body temperature,\" the release said. \"This is a happy moment for everyone -- the family, physicians, nurses and entire NICU (neonatal intensive care unit staff),\" the release quoted neonatologist Mandhir Gupta as saying. \"It is always rewarding whenever a premature infant goes home as a healthy baby.\" Watch as crowd welcomes babies home \u00bb . The remaining six babies continue to progress well at the hospital, Kaiser said. All continue gaining weight as they get formula or donated breast milk. Hospital representatives made several home visits before the babies were discharged, to determine whether Suleman could provide safe housing, enough child care support and the supplies needed to care for the first two children, Kaiser said. Until recently, Suleman had been sharing another home with her parents and her other six young children. But that house ended up at risk of foreclosure, and Suleman moved into her own home. Last week, she disputed news reports that her father had bought the new house. \"I earned it. ... No, my father did not purchase this house for me. I did it on my own,\" Suleman told Radar magazine's Web site during a recent video tour of the 2,583-square-foot house. \"It's 1,000-square-footage bigger than the old house,\" she said on the video. \"They [her older children] like it more than Grandma's house.\" Watch Suleman take other children to theme parks . Showing the new house to Radar, Suleman toured the living room, dining room and kitchen, and a den off the kitchen that she said she planned to turn into a nursery. All the cribs will be kept in that room and two babies will share each crib, she said at the time, \"unless one is sick, because they are so strong and healthy right now. ... Six are ready to come home.\" Suleman, 33, added that they would come home two at a time. \"Two are little and they need to gain weight, and that's it. There's no medical problem,\" she said. People.com reported that their new home, which was listed for $564,900, has four bedrooms and a large back yard. \"My ultimate goal is not to be a burden on ... taxpayers,\" she told Radar. \"So there have been a couple of offers. ... I selectively picked a couple of opportunities to earn some resources for the kids.\" Suleman gave birth to the octuplets through in-vitro fertilization, fueling controversy. News of her collecting public assistance for some of her children also outraged many taxpayers.","highlights":"NEW: Babies are Noah Angel, known as Baby A, and Isaiah Angel, known as Baby C .\nNEW: On discharge, Noah weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces; Isaiah weighed 5 pounds .\nShe plans to turn den in to nursery, with two babies per crib .\nSuleman says \"my ultimate goal is not to be a burden on ... taxpayers\"","id":"5c513e3f540f04ce9451f5b6d8d01c4fa1d14bee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They've sung his praises on social networking pages, calling him a \"hero,\" \"the greatest man of our time,\" \"a legend.\" They've said he deserves to be knighted and should be decorated with medals. They've cried out for his amnesty and have even proposed serving time for him. A Lebanese student in Beirut attends a December rally to support the shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist. The man many hundreds of thousands of Facebook users honor is no other than Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for hurling his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush. The double-whammy size 10 shoe toss, neither of which hit Bush, took place in December at a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq. In many traditional Middle East circles, throwing shoes at someone is considered a grave insult. To do this to an American president surrounded by Secret Service agents, no less, was as shocking to riveted viewers who watched the footage later as it was to the president himself. Watch video about the shoe thrower's sentencing \u00bb . \"First of all, it's got to be one of the most weird moments of my presidency,\" Bush said later. \"Here I am getting ready to answer questions from the free press in a democratic Iraq, and a guy stands up and throws his shoe. ... I'm not angry with the system. I believe that a free society is emerging, and a free society is necessary for our own security and peace.\" Expressing their own freedom on Facebook, a worldwide fan base rose up to laud al-Zaidi's actions. They formed hundreds of fan pages and groups, big and small, serious and light. One is even called the \"Shoe-Throwing Appreciation Society.\" Mike Trainor, 28, was watching a football game when a news break brought footage of the incident across his TV screen. \"I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen,\" said Trainor, a Queens, New York, stand-up comedian behind \"Guy Who Threw His Shoes at Bush,\" which has attracted nearly 270,000 fans. The comedian may have created the post for laughs, but he quickly learned how loaded the issue was. \"It grew into this crazy thing,\" in which Bush supporters began to weigh in on message boards calling al-Zaidi supporters \"a threat to America\" and insults in reaction flew, he said. \"It shows people have a lot of passionate feelings about it, that's for sure.\" One message board on his page, titled \"YOU GUYS HATE AMERICA,\" drew 384 posts in reaction. The creator started it with these words: \"seriously you guys are all a**holes. why would you be happy about some freaking foreigner throwing his shoes at the leader of the free world? I don't care if he's dumb he's my president of my wonderful country [sic].\" And interspersed amid the groups of fans were those that spoke out against the al-Zaidi worship. \"That shoe thrower is not a hero,\" attracted 94 members, many of them with Arabic names. One London poster said the shoe thrower \"did nothing but bring shame upon us iraqis [sic],\" and another from Halifax, Nova Scotia added, \"I dont care about bush but this guy was very disrespectful to the Iraqi Prime minister who was standing right next to him [sic].\" But the shoe-thrower fans, at least in the world of Facebook, seem to far outweigh those who decried his actions. \"This site is intended to express the appreciation of those who share the frustration and anger that you expressed when you blew Mr Bush those boot-kisses [sic],\" reads the description on \"Thank you Muntadhar al-Zaidi,\" a nearly 500-member page created by a teacher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Protests of the journalist's arrest and now sentence brought Arab and Muslim demonstrators to the streets. But what Facebook has shown is that al-Zaidi's angry expression resonated with those beyond his religion and region. From England and Uruguay to China and Bush's own red, white and blue, supporters have made noise, at least virtually. \"We're talking about a common man, like me and you,\" who was \"tired of years of lies from a self-called 'freedom saver,' \" said Matteo Ferigo of Padova, Italy, the 30-year-old creator behind \"Save Muntadhar al-Zaidi,\" which has 116 members. \"I understand that his act was not so civil, polite or 'politically correct,' but I also understand how Iraqi people can see George Bush and what he represents to them.\" Ari Vais, the creator of the page, \"Free the Iraqi shoe throwing journalist!,\" said his own history taught him the value of free expression. \"I was born in the Soviet Union, where dissent like this was cracked down on severely,\" said Vais, a 39-year-old Queens, New York, musician. \"We came to America when I was a boy because we knew that people should be free.\" What al-Zaidi did was a reflection of the democracy Vais thought Bush intended to spread. \"We were supposed to be liberators, and what America stands for is freedom of self-expression and human rights,\" he said. \"All he did was throw a couple shoes. And he missed! It was political theater and not jail-time stuff.\" But it was serious business. Anyone, no matter where they live, would be tackled by Secret Service and face charges for such an attempted assault on the president. And if al-Zaidi had done this to Saddam Hussein, one has to wonder what would have come of the man who's now celebrated. The shoe throwing, because it was so shocking, proved great fodder for late-night talk shows. Comedians, beyond Trainor, had a field day with this one. It inspired online games for people who wanted to play al-Zaidi. Matt Love of Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada called the Iraqi journalist's move \"an act of great courage\" and said that in showing his disdain for Bush, \"He spoke for many millions of people.\" The 52-year-old retired Washington state department of transportation worker believes everyone can learn from the shoe thrower. Commenting Thursday on several fan pages, including one calling for a Nobel Peace Prize for al-Zaidi, Love suggested that people turn out for Bush's March 17 speech at the TELUS Convention Centre in Calgary. \"Lets [sic] show some solidarity...and lob some loafers,\" he wrote. \"Will the Canadian government lock us up for 3 years? Let's find out.\" Reached later in the day, however, he assured CNN that this was written tongue-in-cheek. \"Let me be clear,\" Love said. \"I won't be throwing shoes at anyone.\"","highlights":"Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at President Bush, gains cult-like following .\nHundreds of thousands of Facebook users join groups to praise the Iraqi journalist .\nFans extend beyond the Muslim and Arab worlds, politically and comically .\nBut seriousness of his actions leads to three-year prison sentence .","id":"961bb6773f32ed1798218badd7e924dde0033dc9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The only thing Venus Williams treasures more than winning is a decent nap. Venus Williams knocks Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova out of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on February 17, 2009. Just before a match, when other top tennis players might be psyching themselves up for a three-set onslaught, the elder of the Williams sisters can be found somewhere private, snoozing. \"I'm always sleepy,\" she told CNN in an interview for this month's edition of \"Revealed.\" \"I'm literally taking a nap during the first set and the match before me, so I'm probably the only person that can go to sleep, come out 15 minutes later and start playing.\" Wary of sending the wrong signals to her rivals, the sixth seed confessed to CNN that she prefers to take her naps in private. \"I'm wondering if my competitor is going to see me here, so I try to act like I'm not asleep, but I am asleep, or I try to find a place where I can sleep in and no one will see me,\" she laughs. The lightning-fast speed of Venus' serve is at complete odds with her personality. She is strong, ambitious and determined, but also surprisingly laid-back for someone whose professional career is about playing harder, longer and faster. Watch Venus Williams on \"Revealed.\" \u00bb . \"I just always go with the flow,\" she told CNN. \"On the court, that's when I get most intense. In practice, I scream and yell and threaten to throw my racquet but in the match I'm not like that at all.\" Her younger sister, world number one Serena, sounds almost envious of Venus' ability to keep her emotions in check. \"Venus is really, really unusually composed and that's just her style,\" Serena told CNN. \"On the court she's always really focused. She always has this quiet tenacity and she never really shows her emotions which I think is good.\" The youngest of five sisters, Serena says she continues to draw inspiration from her closest sibling. Venus is just 15 months older than Serena. She set the marker for success in 2002 when she became the first of the sisters to become world number one. Serena first took the title in July of the same year and reclaimed it earlier this month. \"She's my bigger sister, she's my older sister, she's a role model for me,\" Serena said. \"I'm always trying to do what she does. If she's going on the right path then I'm going on the right path too. If she's working hard then I want to work hard also. I'm the little sister who wants to be just like the big sister,\" she added. If they once struggled to find the required ruthlessness to eliminate each other from a competition, it is clearly no longer a problem. Of 18 matches they have contested, each sister has won nine. At the time of writing, there is every chance they will meet again this week in the semi-final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. They last clashed at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha in November 2008 when Venus dispatched Serena in three hard-fought sets before going on to win her first end of season title. Watch Venus take the title . Asked after the match about accusations they don't play as hard against each other as they would normal rivals, Venus replied, \"You have to play hard against a Williams or you are going home quickly. We try our hardest and I think that everyone knows that by the effort level.\" Their mother, Oracene Price, told CNN she keeps her advice on the subject simple. \"I just tell them to remember they are sisters and how love and how to care for one another is more important than anything,\" she said. \"So, this is just a game and eventually it would be over and you will have to live with each other. So, just go out there and do your best and whoever wins, wins. And whoever loses, better luck next time.\" Having said that, Price admits she keeps her distance from whoever comes out second best, in any match. \"They don't want to be talked to, they don't want you telling them anything, they just want to be left alone and that's what I do,\" she told CNN. There was no need for tip-toeing after the second round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Venus made fast work of Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, beating the 17-year-old 6-0, 6-1 in less than one hour. Venus told CNN her ambition this year is to topple Serena to become the world number one. \"I think I am in a great position to do that,\" she said. Watch Venus Williams on Revealed this week at the times below: . ALL TIMES GMT Wednesday, February 18: 0930, 1830 Saturday, February 21: 0830, 1900 Sunday, February 22: 0530, 1830 Monday, February 23: 0400 .","highlights":"Venus Williams admits she's always sleepy, likes to nap before a match .\nThe sixth seed is playing in the Dubai Tennis Championships this week .\nVenus aims to topple sister Serena to become world number one in 2009 .\nWatch Venus Williams on Revealed this week at the times below .","id":"59ffbced7b2bc927140362ddff96be235d3d797d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Actor Rainn Wilson plays paper salesman Dwight Schrute in the television comedy \"The Office.\" Rainn Wilson says fellow members of his Baha'i faith are being persecuted in Iran. (CNN) -- Why is Rainn Wilson, \"Dwight\" on \"The Office,\" writing a news commentary for CNN? Good question. It's a bit strange for me, to say the least; a comic character actor best known for playing weirdos with bad haircuts getting all serious to talk about the persecution of the fellow members of his religious faith. Dear readers of CNN, I assure you that what I'm writing about is no joking matter or some hoax perpetrated by a paper-sellin', bear-fearin', Battlestar-Galactica obsessed beet farmer. I am a member of the Baha'i faith. What is that, you ask? Well, long story short, it's an independent world religion that began in the mid-1800s in Iran. Baha'is believe that there is only one God and therefore only one religion. All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine. This constantly updated faith of God, Baha'is believe, has been refreshed for this day and age by our founder, Baha'u'llah. There. Nutshell version. Now, as I mentioned, this all happened in Iran, and needless to say the Muslim authorities did not like the Baha'is very much, accusing them of heresy and apostasy. Tens of thousands were killed in the early years of the faith, and the persecutions have continued off and on for the past 150 years. Why write about all this now? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see there's a 'trial' going on very soon for seven Baha'i national leaders in Iran. They've been accused of all manner of things including being \"spies for Israel,\" \"insulting religious sanctities\" and \"propaganda against the Islamic Republic.\" They've been held for a year in Evin Prison in Tehran without any access to their lawyer (the Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi) and with zero evidence of any of these charges. When a similar thing happened in 1980, the national leadership of the Iranian Baha'i community disappeared. And this was repeated again in 1981. In fact, since 1979, more than 200 Baha'is have been killed, holy places and cemeteries desecrated, homes burned, civil rights taken away and secret lists compiled of Baha'is (and even Muslims who associate with them) by government agencies. It's bad right now for all the peace-loving Baha'is in Iran who want only to practice their religion and follow their beliefs. It's especially bad for these seven. Here's a link to their bios. They're teachers, and engineers, and optometrists and social workers just like us. This thought has become kind of a clich\u00e9', but we take our rights for granted here in America. Imagine if a group of people were rounded up and imprisoned and then disappeared not for anything they'd done, but because they wanted to worship differently than the majority. There is a resolution on the situation of the Baha'is in Iran being sent to Congress. Please ask your representatives to support it. And ask them to speak out about this terrible situation. Thanks for reading. Now back to bears, paper and beets! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rainn Wilson.","highlights":"Rainn Wilson: I'm a member of the Baha'i faith, founded in the 1800s in Iran .\nHe says the faith has been persecuted on and off for 150 years .\nSeven Baha'i leaders are going on trial in Iran on a variety of charges, he says .\nWilson: Ask your congressman to support a resolution on the Baha'is .","id":"db9d6bfd3216d05bba2c919ea78df4c7a44fc7a7"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from a flash flood in Indonesia's capital grew to 98 people on Sunday as rescuers widened their search for more than 130 other people in the aftermath. Members of a search and rescue team look for bodies near Jakarta. The nation's health ministry said 62 women, 31 men and three students had been killed. Of those, 12 bodies remained unidentified, ministry spokesman Rustam Pakaya said. Another 13 people were missing. The search for the missing will be called off Sunday night, he said. The flood started Friday morning after heavy rains caused waters to smash through a dam and rush into Jakarta. The breach unleashed a torrent of water that plowed into hundreds of homes in what some survivors described as a suburban \"tsunami.\" About 1,500 volunteers -- mostly students from two flooded universities in Jakarta -- are assisting in the search and rescue effort, said Mardjito, a social affairs ministry official who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. He said rescuers started using heavy machinery to lift debris. Still, the death toll is expected to rise. At least 50 people were injured and nearly 1,500 have been displaced. Mardjito said a camp for survivors so far has adequate supplies as members of political parties continue to send food, blankets, flashlights and other items amid a major election year. Sleeping residents were taken by surprise by the powerful flash flood as it crashed through the crowded Cirendeu district near Jakarta early Friday. Watch scenes of the flood devastation \u00bb . Drenched and shivering survivors were taking refuge on the rooftops of their homes as rescuers in rubber boats were struggling to reach them, said social affairs ministry official Mardjito. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently on the campaign trail ahead of the elections later this year, has said he had ordered senior ministers to visit the scene of the disaster. \"On behalf of the government, I express my condolences to the families of the dead victims and may their souls be accepted by God almighty,\" he said, according to the official Antara news agency. The rain obliterated a 255-meter-long section of the dam, releasing a wall of water from a 20-hectare lake that some survivors said reminded them of the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004. \"They said they had heard loud rumbling sounds like during a powerful earthquake. They later found out that the sounds came from the water rushing out from the dam's lake,\" according to Antara. Floods from heavy rains are an annual occurrence in and around Jakarta, a low-lying city on the northern coast of Java island, where poor infrastructure often results in polluted canals and rivers overflowing their banks and spilling into thousands of homes. In 2007, 38 people were killed and 430,000 forced from their homes when storm water 3 meters deep in some places swamped 75 percent of the capital, which is home to about 9 million people. With poor sanitation and a hot and humid climate, the risk of water-borne diseases is usually a major concern following floods in the city, where mosquito-transmitted malaria is also a threat. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 98 dead, many more missing, from flash floods in Jakarta .\nFlood began after heavy rains caused waters to smash through a dam .\nSurvivors say rumbling of waters sounded like an earthquake .\nRescuers are having difficulties reaching people because of mud .","id":"4416697581fcfb00260d8fb161822306f4e12f76"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The \"crime scene cookies\", \"baaji custard\" and \"sponge shafts\" depicted in Oliver Beale's letter of complaint to Virgin Atlantic struck a chord worldwide. Mean cuisine? Airline industry experts insist standards of in-flight food are improving. The missive he sent to Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson about a meal he received on board a Virgin flight from Mumbai to London in December spread across the web and email with a vengeance. Not only was this a complaint letter par excellence, but it hit upon one of the most emotive subjects of long-haul air travel: the in-flight meal. Read the letter here. \"Food gets everybody going, whether they are sitting at the back end or the front end of the plane,\" says Peter Miller, marketing director at Skytrax, a UK-based aviation research organization. \"Apart from the sheer fact you might be hungry, it is there to alleviate the boredom. Because of that people tend to focus on it more.\" But the criticism passengers target at airline food is not always warranted, Miller argues. Skytrax has been tracking airline service for a decade and every year it ranks airlines according to catering in economy, business and first class. Miller acknowledges that there have been cut backs on catering across short-haul flights and a decline in spending on food in long-haul economy. But Skytrax's research has also revealed a general improvement in standards over the last five years. \"We are actually strong supporters of the overall quality that is served up across most airlines in most parts of the world,\" says Miller. Standards have improved firstly as a result of greater competition between airline catering companies, says Miller. What do you think? Are in-flight meals getting better or worse? What was your worse meal? Sound off below. Austrian catering company DO & CO has transformed the food served onboard Austrian Airlines and Turkish Airlines flights. Skytrax reported a 35 percent increase in customer satisfaction for Turkish Airlines since DO & CO was hired in 2007. \"In the last 15-20 years, the industry has focused on lean production. But we believe [airline catering] is not the job of a car manufacturer,\" says Attila Dogudan, CEO of DO & CO. Good quality airline food not only depends on the quality of raw ingredients, he says, but also the intangible elements of good cuisine. \"If you have chefs doing 3,000 filets on the grill, after 300 they lose the passion,\" says Dogudan. To inspire enthusiasm in its kitchens, DO & CO says it employs an unusually high ratio of chefs to work on a greater variety of dishes. They say they also insist on training cabin staff in food service; they replace the dreaded disposable food trays with crockery; and give passengers menus explaining where their fresh, local ingredients come from. Airlines also use food as a marketing tool and improve standards to attract premium customers. Austrian Airlines has won the Skytrax award for Best Business Class Catering for the last two years. As Michael Braun, spokesman at Austrian Airlines says, \"the current situation in the airline industry is tough and costs have to be cut. But the competition is also very tough, so we need something that makes us unique compared to other airlines.\" And for Austrian Airlines, one unique selling point is its food. There is an on-board chef on every Austrian Airlines flight who puts the crucial finishing touches on premium-class meals. The airline also offers a \"Vienna coffee house in the air\" and one quarter of flight attendants are trained sommeliers to guide passengers through the extensive wine list. Airlines worldwide also hire celebrity chefs to add prestige to their culinary efforts. British chef, Gordon Ramsay is one of Singapore Airline's \"Culinary Panel\"; Juan Amador works with Lufthansa; and United Airlines enlisted the services of U.S. chef Charlie Trotter to inspire its in-flight menu. Chefs help airlines design meals that perform at high altitude. As Michelle Bernstein, Delta's celebrity chef has said, palates weaken in pressurized air cabins, which means dishes need to be made a more flavorful and seasoned than they would be on the ground. Miller at SkyTrax is skeptical about the true benefits a celebrity chef can bring to onboard catering. After all, Gordon Ramsay isn't actually in the cabin saut\u00e9ing the potatoes. But he does acknowledge that some chefs have influenced a new style of in-flight cuisine. Chef Neil Perry, hired by Qantas in 2003, initiated a move to healthy eating in first and business class. His work has since influenced standards across catering in all classes. Qantas won the Skytrax award for Best Economy Class Catering in 2008 partly as a result of simple enhancements such as the availability of fresh fruit between meals and from the self-serve bar in economy on its A380 aircraft. But as airlines grapple with a deepening recession, can passengers expect treats to vanish from food trays? Across short-haul flights, making cuts is an \"easier game,\" says Miller. Passengers notice it far less if an airline switches a sandwich for a packet of biscuits and a plastic cup of coffee, he says. But on long-haul flights, airlines are restrained in what they can cut. Miller: \"People measure the standard of their flight by the quality of the food or the size of the portion they get. If a meal is cut back too severely they are going to walk away.\" How important is food for you on flights? Is it good enough? Sound off below.","highlights":"In-flight food has been the butt of much criticism for the airline industry .\nIndustry experts say quality is improving despite some budget cutbacks .\nAirline food is back in focus after a six-page rant from a Virgin passenger .\nThe complaint letter referred to the passenger's \"culinary journey of hell\"","id":"1d7e2bd04108ee1bb724a44b7ea5503730fce4e5"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- John and Elizabeth Calvert enjoyed the good life on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, friends said, but they were growing more and more suspicious of the way their business books were being handled. Things weren't adding up. Money appeared to be missing. John and Elizabeth Calvert are featured on missing persons posters on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. So they scheduled a meeting with accountant Dennis Ray Gerwing to address their concerns, recalled one close friend, Nancy Cappelmann. The Calverts said they were meeting with Gerwing at his offices in the upscale resort community at 6 p.m. last March 3, she added. It would be the last time anyone would see or hear from the couple. The Calverts lived part-time on their yacht, docked at the island's Harbor Town Yacht Basin, the same marina where they managed boat slips. They spent the rest of the year in Savannah, Georgia, and also had a home in Atlanta. They were an active, affluent couple in their mid-40s, and their absence was quickly noticed. On the evening of March 3, 2008, the evening they were to meet with their accountant, both of the Calverts' phones were turned off. Family members said it was very unusual for either John or Elizabeth Calvert to shut off their cell phones. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . Family and friends called police and reported the Calverts missing on March 4, after they missed appointments and still couldn't be reached. \"I was supposed to meet John that night and he is never late, so when 20 minutes went by, I got worried and called his cell, but it went straight to voicemail, like it was turned off,\" Cappelmann said. She was a good friend of the couple's and worked at one of their harbor businesses. Police and search teams scoured the island. Divers and dogs searched the harbor and found nothing. The Calverts' small airplane was still at the island's airport and provided no clues. Their 2006 Mercedes Benz was found parked at a hotel in Palmetto Dunes, a gated community six miles from where the Calverts' yacht was docked. The Mercedes also contained no forensic clues. In reconstructing the Calverts' last days, investigators concluded that Gerwing was worth a deeper look. They now say they believe the 54-year-old accountant was the last person to see the Calverts alive. Gerwing ran the management company that kept the books on the Calverts' four businesses on Hilton Head Island. Authorities were already looking into possible financial improprieties involving the company, The Club Group. They named Gerwing as a person of interest in the case about a week after the couple disappeared. An internal audit later revealed that Gerwing had embezzled $2.1 million from the Calverts and others, police said. Gerwing committed suicide within hours of learning he was a person of interest, slashing his neck and legs with a steak knife, authorities said. He also left behind suicide notes with vague references to the Calvert case, said Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner. Tanner said the notes indicated some acknowledgement of responsibility for his actions, but didn't say specifically what those actions might have been. Police also gathered circumstantial evidence that seemed to point to Gerwing, including drop cloths large enough to use to wrap bodies and latex gloves purchased on the day the Calverts disappeared. In addition, police learned that Gerwing's cell phone had been turned off for 12 hours after he was scheduled to meet with the Calverts. If Gerwing were alive, Tanner said, police wouldn't have enough corroborating evidence to name him a suspect and arrest him. Police executed search warrants on Gerwing's office, home and vehicles and found soil in Gerwing's kitchen. Investigators hope analysis of the dirt might provide clues to the origin of the dirt and a new location to continue searching for John and Elizabeth Calvert. Friends and family are offering a $65,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the Calverts' disappearance. Police urge anyone with information about John and Elizabeth Calvert to call the tip line at (843) 524-2777. Police also are seeking help from anyone who saw the Calverts' 2006 Mercedes Benz E320, Georgia Tech license plate GT821B on or about March 3, 2008.","highlights":"John and Elizabeth Calvert were last seen on March 3, 2008 .\nThey couple lived on board their yacht at Hilton Head Island .\nThey were growing suspicious of their accountant; set up a meeting .\nHave information? Call (843) 524-2777. A $65,000 reward is offered .","id":"c87628dfcd1a9b6871d784eec341bf49ab7d1c48"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kellee Santiago wants to tap into the kinder, gentler side of gaming. The player takes flight in \"Cloud,\" a video game distributed by thatgamecompany. The president and co-founder of thatgamecompany is finding success in the video game industry with titles like \"Flower,\" \"Flow\" and \"Cloud.\" The mellow interactive experiences are definitely different from the more violent \"spray-and-slay\" video games on the market and are designed to encourage emotion, innovation and creativity. In \"Flower,\" the player journeys through an imaginary landscape where they can blow breezes, collect flower petals and enjoy the colorful landscape of what Santiago says is a \"video game version of a poem.\" Such creativity seems to be in perfect harmony with the 30-year-old video game developer, who has a background in the performing arts. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Santiago worked with incorporating digital and interactive media with live performance before she discovered another passion. It was while completing a master's in fine arts at the Interactive Media program at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts that Santiago realized she could marry her love of the arts with video game creation. \"That attraction I had to working on original theater works was very similar,\" she said. \"I had grown up with video games; I was definitely a gamer all my life, and I had just never thought about it as a creative medium. \"As soon as I did, it was just really exciting, because I saw this huge, untapped potential and a lot of things that hadn't been done before,\" she added. \"That excited me.\" While at USC, she worked on a student project called \"Cloud,\" a downloadable PC game, which only a few months after release online had been played by 350,000 people. \"In comparison to every single play I probably ever worked on in combination never saw that large an audience,\" said Santiago, whose company released \"Cloud\" as one of its games. \"That was really exciting.\" Santiago is returning to her alma mater Monday as a speaker for TEDx USC, an independently organized TED event, which has CNN.com as one of its supporters. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design and began 25 years ago as a conference to bring together some of the world's greatest minds. Krisztina \"Z\" Holly is vice provost and executive director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation as well as the curator of TEDx USC. She said USC is an ideal location for the event, which has a theme of \"Ideas Empowered,\" because of its diverse, entrepreneurial and innovative environment. \"It's a great opportunity to bring together leading minds both from on-campus and off-campus to share ideas, to hear new ideas and be inspired to come up with their own ideas to make a real impact,\" she said. Making an impact is exactly what Santiago had in mind when she and fellow USC graduate Jenova Chen launched thatgamecompany. The company, though small and independent, has received many positive reviews of its games and last year was honored as one of the \"20 Breakthrough Developers\" of the year by Gamasutra. Two of its games have been released on the Sony PlayStation 3 platform. Although the gaming industry is mostly dominated by men, Santiago said, she has always been treated as an equal among her peers. And although the main demographic for video games is young men, Santiago said, there is another audience. \"The average gamer now is 35 years old,\" she said. \"Because the audiences are maturing and simultaneously we have a generation of people who've grown up with games who are entering the industry, it's sort of now our turn to create.\" Scott Steinberg, publisher for Digitaltrends.com and author of \"Get Rich Playing Games,\" said Santiago is one of several women making a splash in the world of gaming. Steinberg said Santiago, who is also an invited speaker at the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, California, has achieved a level of visibility because of the quality of her work and the fact that she is a great game designer. \"These are games that push boundaries that appeal to folks of all ages, interests and genders,\" he said. Santiago's games stand out, he said, because they differ so greatly from what many think of when they think video games. \"That's part of what makes them so appealing is the fact that the offer something so different,\" he said. \"They are unique, something audiences haven't seen before. A lot of them actually border on being virtual art experiences more so than video games. \"The nice part about it is, they can be consumed at a very leisurely pace; they can be consumed in bite-sized sessions,\" Steinberg added. \"These are the types of titles that we need as an industry to help broaden our horizons.\" Santiago remembers her first experience playing video games on an arcade version of \"Super Mario Bros.\" that she and her brother tackled while her mother shopped at the supermarket. And although she says she doesn't think it's dangerous for children to play violent video games, Santiago does see danger in doing so without having recognition of the violence. From her games, she says, she wants players to take away the feeling that, like with any communicative medium, there is a relationship with a game. \"One of the questions we always get is, are we always going to make emotional games,\" Santiago said. \"We are saying all games are emotional.\"","highlights":"Kellee Santiago's company produces video games meant to inspire .\nSantiago approaches games as art .\nTitles like \"Flow\" and \"Cloud\" are alternatives to violent video games .\nSantiago is a featured speaker at TEDx USC conference .","id":"47e5cf2a19dc2d240011cbc0866aadab12f12078"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- When Anna Elisa Fattori arrives at work the first thing she does is to take off her clothes. All of them. For Fattori is a professional nude model working at Rome's art academy. Anna Elisa Fattori: \"You are trying to give inspiration to the students.\" \"It is a tough job!\" she tells me just before beginning to pose for a group of students, eager to paint her gracious figure. There is something striking about her bright green eyes and wavy red hair. \"It doesn't seem to be hard, but you know, try it! Put yourself in front of the mirror and then stay for a long time in a pose. You start: 'Oh my back, oh something is strange here...'\" she says, mimicking pain on her lower back. Fattori is one of about 300 people in Italy who do this job, but only about 50 of them have full-time contracts. She makes the equivalent of about $1,500 each month, but only works three months per year. And that is why she and others recently went on strike, demanding a full-time wage for work they say not everyone can do. \"It is not easy because you are naked, so you have to be very comfortable with your body and have a nice relationship with everybody,\" she says as the students look on, \"but not too open and not too close. You are trying to give inspiration to the students. If we lose these artistic roots that are very important to Italy then we lose a big part of our identity.\" Italian Renaissance art is filled with naked men and women: Think of Michelangelo's David or Botticelli's Venus. But back then artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models and muses, often with the complicity of priests who wanted the walls of their churches painted by famous names. \"Priests allowed prostitutes to use churches,\" explains Enrico Bruschini, one of Rome's best known art historians. \"Officially it was to convert them, but the practical reason was to have the artist at the church.\" Bruschini says that the Saint Augustine church, a stone's throw from Piazza Navona, was a famous gathering point in Rome for Renaissance artists looking for \"inspiration.\" Back then though professional modeling did not exist, and most would agree that the art didn't really suffer from its absence. So if Botticelli and Raphael could do without professional models, what is the big deal now? \"It all started with the rise of art schools in the 19th and 20th centuries\" says Fattori. \"During the Renaissance you just thought that a prostitute can be a model or even a lover. But now we are here, so we need to move ahead.\" Art students hoping to become the next Michelangelo agree. \"I think a person should have talent,\" argues Anastasia Kurakina, a first year student from Russia. \"Because you, for example, you couldn't [model]... I don't know you, but Anna Elisa has talent.\" Anastasia is right, I certainly couldn't do it -- but unbeknownst to me she used me as a model while I was interviewing Fattori. Thankfully I was fully dressed, so all she drew was my head. And she didn't to a bad job at that. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Italy's art models have gone on strike, demanding they get a full-time wage .\nAround 300 people do the job, but only about 50 of them are full-time .\nDuring the Italian Renaissance artists mostly used prostitutes and lovers as models .\nPriests let prostitutes use churches so it was possible to attract, employ name artists .","id":"92f324886dbcffaf55453c6b63c08cc6de5c7c84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As the first president-elect with a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, Barack Obama is poised to use the Internet to communicate directly with Americans in a way unknown to previous presidents. Since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has posted weekly video addresses on YouTube. Judging by Obama's savvy use of social-networking sites during his campaign and the interactive nature of his transition team's Web site, Americans can expect a president who bypasses the traditional media's filters while reaching out to citizens for input, observers say. \"The rebooting of our democracy has begun,\" said Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum and the techPresident blog. \"[Obama] has the potential to transform the relationship between the American public and their democracy.\" During the presidential race, Obama's campaign won praise for its innovative use of social-networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace and MyBarackObama.com, to announce events, rally volunteers and raise money. Facebook has more than 150 million active users, and the average user has 100 friends on the site, according to the company. iReport.com: Your chance to ask President-elect Obama a question . Obama has more than 1 million MySpace \"friends\" and more than 3.7 million \"supporters\" on his official Facebook page -- some 700,000 more than when he was elected in November. His campaign also has a database of almost 13 million supporters and their e-mail addresses. Transition officials hope to transform Obama's vast Web operation and electronic list of supporters into a 21st-century tool to help accomplish his goals as president. They even have a name for this ambitious effort: Obama 2.0. \"Obama has invented an alternative media model,\" said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. \"In the old model, the president talks to the people on television [and] the people talk back in polls. In the new model, communication is online, and two-way.\" Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter didn't exist when George W. Bush took office eight years ago. But since last November's election, Obama has wasted no time embracing these online communication portals. In recent weeks he has taped weekly video addresses and posted them to YouTube, where most have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Obama's staffers also have stopped posting information to social-networking sites since the election, preferring to reach out to constituents through YouTube and Change.gov, the official site of the president-elect's transition team. Visitors to Change.gov can read a frequently updated blog, post their ideas on issues facing the country, and rate others' ideas. Top-rated ideas will be gathered into a briefing book and given to Obama after he takes office. \"They want information going not just from them to the voters, but from the voters back to them,\" Democratic strategist Steve McMahon said Wednesday on CNN's \"The Situation Room.\" \"Thirteen million people pushing a button, sending an e-mail to their elected representatives, making a phone call, taking action, is a powerful, powerful lobbying tool.\" \"It's a very smart use of the Internet, to get people to offer ideas,\" said David All, a Republican Internet strategist. All hopes that Obama and his staff take a similar approach to WhiteHouse.gov, the president's official Web site. The current WhiteHouse.gov site, operated by the Bush administration, contains few interactive features. A statement on the president-elect's transition site says that Obama hopes to \"use cutting-edge technologies to create a new level of transparency, accountability, and participation for America's citizens.\" It's fitting, then, that Obama's inauguration next week could be one of the most watched video events in Internet history. Rasiej expects that hordes of users will be watching online when Obama takes the oath of office, visiting WhiteHouse.gov and refreshing their browsers to capture the moment the site switches to proclaim Obama, not George W. Bush, as president. As president, Obama will likely not just rely on WhiteHouse.gov but use multiple Internet sites and technological tools to build grass-roots support for his agenda, observers say. \"[Obama] is using the tools that are available to him today,\" All told CNN. \"The next president will be using some of the same tools, and also some tools that haven't been invented yet.\"","highlights":"As president, Barack Obama will use the Web to communicate directly with citizens .\nObama can bypass traditional media filters while reaching out to Americans .\nPolitical-tech expert: \"The rebooting of our democracy has begun\"\nTransition officials have a name for this online communications effort: Obama 2.0 .","id":"4c4b37d29f2eeefef8b626dd9d6c7cf73c8a0280"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From songs to poems to sayings on the side of coffee cups, everyone tries to define love in words. Liz Kelly donated her kidney to her fiance after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. But often, it's the extraordinary actions we take in the name of love that really define it. Liz Kelly's fiance, Matt House, needed a kidney after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. In order to get him to the top of the donor list, Kelly signed up to donate hers. At first, she never dreamed she would actually be a match, but it turned out she was. The Springfield, Massachusetts, couple (he's 31, she's 29) spoke with CNN's Nicole Lapin about whether Kelly thought fate played a hand in finding him a donor match. The following is an edited transcript of the interview: . Nicole Lapin: Liz, I didn't know about the donor process, until we started talking to you guys. The donor process works whereby a friend or a family member can donate a kidney to get Matt higher on the list, so you decided that you were going to do that. Why did you decide to do that? Watch Nicole Lapin's interview with Liz Kelly and Matt House \u00bb . Liz Kelly: It was pretty much a no-brainer, I think. His sister was actually going to donate at first. But she didn't work out for health reasons. It's obviously better to have, you know, a family member donate a kidney, too. But since that wasn't going to work out, his stepfather stepped in because they were the same blood type. And that ended up not working out either. He had some heart issues and some other health issues. So, I said, you know what, I'll just donate to the list. And that's what I was intending on doing. And then I found out that we were actually a match, and it was amazing. Lapin: It was amazing, I'm sure, to get that phone call, because you did it just so that you could get higher on the list. A lot of people on our Web site are fascinated by your story, guys. [A viewer] has a question for you right now, Liz: Have you ever had any surgeries before this one? If not, how did your prepare yourself for this? Kelly: No. This was my first surgery, so that definitely made me very nervous. That was the definitely scariest part for me, just not knowing what to expect. But, Matt has been through several surgeries before. So I know I had him in my corner. And I looked up a lot online. I found out a lot of great information online. So that's definitely how I prepared. Lapin: And [another viewer] has a question in for Matt, actually: Were you scared that perhaps your body might reject Liz's kidney or were you always confident that the surgery would be a success? Matt House: I think I was pretty confident with her being the same blood type or us matching is pretty phenomenal, so I didn't expect it to reject it anyway. Maybe after the surgery if I would have a little pain down there or something like that, I would get a little nervous and think that it was going to reject, that there's something wrong. But that would just pass. It was me just being a little overanxious, I guess, but not really, no. I was pretty confident everything would go well overall. We're both pretty healthy for the most part. And being the same blood type was just you know really great, so it worked out good. So, I wasn't really worried at all. Lapin: Fate, some may say? House: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Lapin: Yours is a lot bigger. You're a little girl, but you happen to have a kidney that is perfect for Matt. Do you think it was meant to be? Kelly: I do. I definitely do. People tell me that all the time. When they told us that we were a match, I was very surprised at first, but then I thought about it a little more. Of course we were a match. How could we not be a match?","highlights":"Liz Kelly offered to donate kidney to move her ill fiance higher on donor list .\nMatt House had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure .\nHouse's family members were unable to donate because of health reasons .\nAfter recuperation is over, the Massachusetts couple plans to marry by summer .","id":"848b0b2be909c6ef129629ba34c88d1a38cf6046"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Australian pilot landed a company plane in the ocean off Darwin on Friday, in a water landing that prompted comparisons to last month's landing of a US Airways jet in New York's Hudson River. The Australian pilot has been compared to U.S. hero Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger, pictured above. The Australian pilot also encountered problems shortly after takeoff. The twin-propeller plane was carrying the pilot and five passengers when it went down shortly after leaving Darwin International Airport, said Neville Blyth, a senior transport safety investigator with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. All those aboard were unhurt and managed to walk to shore, he said. Pictures showed the men from the plane soaked and carrying bags and equipment as they walked through the water. \"It's essentially a good story,\" Blyth said. The ATSB is deciding whether to investigate, he said, and the cause of the incident is still unknown. The Piper Chieftain plane was on its way to the town of Maningrida, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Darwin, according to its owner, Australian information technology company CSG. Watch the plane ditch in Darwin Harbor \u00bb . \"We would like to congratulate the pilot following all emergency landing and evacuation procedures and his very professional handling of the situation,\" a CSG statement said. Darwin is in Australia's Northern Territory, on the coast of the Timor Sea. The city's airport is near the water. The plane's trajectory took it over the water, giving the pilot limited opportunities to ditch the plane on land, Blyth said. He said the ocean was a safer option for landing than the beach, where the firmness of the sand was unknown. \"Personally, I think the decision was appropriate,\" Blyth said. Australian media dubbed the captain of the Darwin plane \"Sully Lite,\" comparing him to the captain of the US Airways Airbus jet that landed safely in the Hudson. Pilot Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger was hailed as a hero for landing the plane safely and ensuring that all 155 people on board survived. Asked about the comparisons, Blyth said the connection was tenuous. \"The correlation for a water landing is as close as it gets,\" he said.","highlights":"Australian pilot lands a company plane in the ocean off Darwin .\nHe and five passengers escape injury after emergency landing .\nAustralian media dubbed pilot \"Sully Lite,\" comparing him to U.S. hero .","id":"c71e4154b39fd7e66a78ecf0f53c8946193ab749"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Thanks to a vibrant design culture and growing tourism industry, Spain now has some of the best boutique hotels on the continent -- including a recent wave of hotel chains that's making chic accommodations affordable. The real estate boom has been a key factor. Spying the potential, many entrepreneurs snapped up 19th-century residential buildings and converted them. Gat, a trailblazer, operates two hotels in Barcelona's Raval, a multicultural neighborhood just off Las Ramblas. Both feature abstract art, acid green walls, and stylishly minimalist furniture. Book weeks in advance for the Xino (more appealing than sister hotel, the Raval). All its rooms have private baths, and you can admire the city skyline from the rooftop terrace (doubles from \u20ac70 ($110)). The Room Mate chain is multiplying rapidly, with branches in Granada, Madrid, Malaga, Oviedo, Salamanca, Valencia and counting. (It first caught our attention last year.) But don't think chain-like conformity. Each property, named after an imagined roommate, has its own personality, as interpreted by a crew of hot young interior designers. In Madrid, book Room Mate Alicia, a cultured, original, and slightly edgy creature, according to the owners. Near major museums, the hotel's light-filled, airy rooms are stylish without going overboard on showy design elements. Ask for one that looks out over Santa Ana, the city's hottest 'hood (doubles from \u20ac100 ($157)). Hot is regularly used to describe Madrid these days -- and not just in reference to the climate. Finally stealing some of the limelight from Barcelona, Spain's capital is going through a renaissance in food, design and counterculture. Visiting creative types head for fashionable Chueca and check in to Colors Host, decorated in a chromatic riot of shades. Book rooms 1, 2, 10 or 11 for an enclosed balcony overlooking Calle Fuencarral (doubles from \u20ac45 euros ($71)). At the other end of the spectrum, the Analina Rooms offers tastefully modernist brown-and-white interiors and breakfast next door at Maestro Churrero, a caf\u00e9 famous for the quintessential Spanish snack, chocolate con churros (doubles from \u20ac65 ($102)). Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved.","highlights":"Barcelona's Gat hotels feature abstract art and stylishly minimalist furniture .\nRoom Mate has branches in a handful of Spanish cities .\nIn Madrid, Analina Rooms offers tastefully modernist brown-and-white interiors .","id":"5d1874b7584eb1021d3ba5daa906f9378acdd005"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Normally, \"hot spot\" isn't the first phrase that comes to mind when talking about Saskatchewan, Canada. A relocation service company president said he is moving more people to Saskatchewan than ever before. But with most of Canada suffering from devastating job losses, this cold province is becoming exactly that. It's an asterisk to the entire country when it comes to the economic climate, and Premier Brad Wall is shouting it as loud as he can. \"It's a great time to come to Saskatchewan,\" said Wall, who even called the Toronto Star newspaper to tout his province's economic success and let Ontarians know there were jobs for the taking. \"For those who are losing their jobs, we need them to know we have thousands of jobs open right now in both the private and public sector,\" Wall said. \"We have a powerful story to tell, a story of success and that's something we want to share with those who are struggling.\" Wall's province is one of the exceptions to the unemployment increases battering provinces across Canada. Saskatchewan's unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in January from 4.2 percent in December, making it the only province recording a decline. In Ontario and the city of Toronto, unemployment rates rose to 7.2 percent and 8.5 percent respectively. To the west, British Columbia shed 68,000 full-time jobs in January. More Saskatchewan jobs should be on the way. To stave off any possible recession, Wall announced a $500 million infrastructure \"booster shot\" to help keep the economy strong. Learn more about different towns in Saskatchewan \u00bb . \"All across the country, industries are getting quite ill,\" Wall said. \"We aren't immune to it. We see some impacts in terms of layoffs and new vehicle purchases slowing off, and so we want to be proactive in staying ahead of the curve.\" On Tuesday, the Conference Board of Canada released a report that said Saskatchewan will likely continue to lead the nation in economic growth in 2009 because of the infrastructure investment and tax reductions. The province has also been reaping the benefits of an influx from nearby Alberta. When the government in Alberta decided to raise the oil royalty rates, oil exploration and expedition companies decided to move their operations to Saskatchewan in hopes of making more money. With the province's growing opportunities, David Montgomery, president of Calgary's Qwest Haven Relocation Services, said he is moving more people to Saskatchewan each day. \"Alberta has always been the gravy train of oil,\" said Montgomery, who is also a former resident of Regina, the capitol and second-largest city in Saskatchewan. \"But with the new royalties, oil companies are saying 'Why stay here and make less when the opportunities right next door are even better?' Many other companies may start to follow suit.\" Montgomery said people looking to move have said that cheaper land and insurance prices are among the other reasons they are headed to Saskatchewan. \"There, government insurance is cheaper than anywhere else in the country and it comes with your license plates,\" he said. \"With the amount of jobs, cheaper opportunities and great way of life, the government there has made it very attractive to move there.\" That means more business for Wall's province and more jobs coming to the area. Not that there's a shortage of jobs. On Tuesday night there were nearly 6,000 private- and public-sector jobs on the Web site Saskjobs.ca. A constant stream of revenue from oil production and exports also buoys the economy in the province. Saskatchewan falls just behind Alberta, as the largest oil exporter in Canada, and Wall's province sends more oil to the United States than Kuwait. Wall said the province is the leader in uranium production and produces a third of the world's potash. The province continues to keep ahead of the curve, Wall said, finding ways to diversify its resources and embark on ambitious green projects and new oil projects. The province is working with Montana on a $212 million climate change initiative that would create the first major greenhouse gas storage project in North America. The carbon dioxide from coal-fueled power plants would be stored in the ground in Montana and later be withdrawn for use in oil production. Wall also said what may be the largest discovery of sweet, light crude oil in the southeast part of the province means it could have even more oil to work with. The Bakken Formation could potentially have 413 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That would be another huge untapped revenue gold mine. Despite the growth of nearly all sectors across the board, Wall cautioned that it is possible his province may see economic stress, just later in the game than other places. \"We need to be circumspect and prudent about promoting our province,\" he said. \"We are not immune; we do see the impacts. It isn't some sort of panacea or answer to economic questions that don't exist elsewhere. We are a bit of an asterisk that says there is some stress, but it's relatively calm here.\" Wall encouraged people not to count out a move to the province based on stereotypes that it is \"only winter here,\" and \"all of the land is just rolling hills.\" \"'It's a beautiful, big place where life is great and right now there's also opportunity,\" he said. \"I'm very, very biased, but I can't imagine a place I'd rather be, especially with what's going on economically around the world.\"","highlights":"Saskatchewan projected to lead Canada in economic growth in 2009 .\nProvince helped by infrastructure investment, oil production .\nPremier: We are \"a story of success\" that wants to help those struggling .\nRelocation services business sees more people looking to move to province .","id":"edac9c5a07780b87de6f1bc9dd16078b63028409"} -{"article":"LINKENHOLT, England (CNN) -- Hidden away in the hills of Hampshire lies the village of Linkenholt. This idyllic community, home to just 50 people comes complete with grand Edwardian manor house, cricket pavilion and grounds, blacksmith's forge, rectory, shooting grounds, 22 houses and grade 2 listed cottages. The current owner has ensured that houses are not sold off in the near future. It's all one could ever want from a quintessential English village, and now it is on sale for $33 million. Once owned by English cricketer Herbert Blagrave, the estate was left to his own charitable trust which has now put the entire village -- church not included -- up for sale. \"That,\" joked local estate agent Tim Sherston, \"is owned by God.\" In times of financial downturn and falling house prices, the decision to sell up is curious. The trust says though it wants to free up the capital tied up in the estate so it can give more to charity on an annual basis. Sherston maintains that Linkenholt is not only a rare opportunity; it is a sound buy. \"Big time investors will look upon it as a safe haven to place their money because in five years you're going to see a great deal of appreciation here, so this is perfect.\" The new owner could also take away a significant income from the rent of the houses. Watch as village goes on sale \u00bb . Likely buyers are private individuals interested either in farming or the shoot, regarded as one of the finest in the south of England, according to Sherston. There has also been some foreign interest though he adds \"the village is run very much as it has been for the last 200 to 300 years and it is the trustees' hope that the new owner will continue to run it in the same manner.\" Provisions have been made by the trust to ensure the houses are not sold off in the near future. Only the manor house will be vacant for the new owner. But locals do worry about their new landlord. The village thatcher Paul Raynsford told CNN: \"I'd sooner not see a banker or someone who's going to asset strip it. I'd like to see a film star, pop star, footballer, someone who just wants to buy it so they can say 'I'm the lord of the manor.'\" Ray Smith, known locally as \"the Sheriff,\" has worked as the estate's manager for 50 years. He says: \"I'd like to see an Englishman live in the manor, run the farm and the shoot like it used to be.\" Indeed, Linkenholt is idyllic; within the beautiful surroundings classified as an area of outstanding beauty, this is a village full of characters and local tales. Ray's wife Elsie talks of how they met as teenagers cycling past each other everyday on the way to work along the same path. Stopping one day to help with her broken bike, they have been together ever since. He made the permanent move to Linkenholt when the keeper before him caused a local scandal when caught illegally shooting the ground's deer. Two doors down lives Elsie's sister, who is married to Ray's brother. The sisters were born here, christened and later married in the church here, worked in the cricket club, and though their own children have moved further afield, they would never leave. Their father even died on Linkenholt's cricket ground during a game in the 1930s. Having dedicated their lives to the village, the Smiths and childhood friend Alan Dewey, another original local, were given the houses in which they live by the trust. Ray adds: \"I'm on holiday all the time. With a place like this to sit in the sun and look at all the views, I don't think you'd want to go anywhere else.\" Though the media has shone a temporary light on Linkenholt, the hope after the arrival of the new owner is that the village will revert back to times of old, unspoilt and wonderfully English. Reiterating the ideal of having a new lord of the manor, blacksmith Colin Boast adds: \"We would like to see someone come in and take the village to their heart and to love it like the people here do.\"","highlights":"Village of Linkenholt, in southern England, up for sale for $33 million .\nEstate was left to a charitable trust that has put entire village on market .\nTrust, villagers hope new owner will continue to run it in same manner .","id":"967072731f7c859f3eb146fdfc3a3e8c822af909"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- At least 22 people were killed Friday in two bus bombings in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan security officials inspect the bus that was the target of the roadside bomb attack. Initially, police said 21 commuters were killed and more than 53 wounded when an explosion hit a crowded bus in a town south of the capital of Sri Lanka on Friday, police said. Police accused Tamil Tiger rebels of carrying out the attack in Moratuwa, a southern suburb of Colombo. Police said they also discovered and defused a Claymore mine in the same place, preventing another explosion. A few hours later a bomb explosion in a bus outside Sri Lanka's hill capital of Kandy killing one person, police said. The incident took place at Polgolla, some eight kilometres from the outskirts of Kandy where the bus was headed from the hill country town of Matale. Police also blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for that explosion. At Moratuwa, police and soldiers sealed off an area around the scene and searched for suspects. Authorities also intensified security in Colombo. Initial reports said an explosive device was placed on the ground and detonated with a remote control device, police said. In an adjoining town, another bomb was discovered and diffused immediately, they added. Watch medics treat bus blast survivors \u00bb . The explosion came as rebel bomb attacks on civilian targets in Colombo and its suburbs have showed a marked increase. Pro-rebel web sites have accused Sri Lankan security forces of attacks on civilians in Wanni, the northern region dominated by them. On Wednesday, a packed train heading to Colombo from the southern suburb of Panadura narrowly escaped severe damage when an explosion hit the track. The blast injured 23 commuters. On May 26, an explosion on the same southern railway line killed nine and injured 84.","highlights":"At least 22 commuters were killed and more than 53 wounded in blast .\nExplosion hit a crowded bus near a southern suburb in the city of Colombo .\nPolice defused claymore mine in the same place, preventing another explosion .","id":"9c583e91ead0783376e51ce6b6fce0578eee1f5a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- American al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn appeared in a video posted on the Internet on Saturday, focusing on Pakistan, with references to the U.S. economic meltdown and fighting in Kashmir. Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, is seen in a video posted on the Internet in August 2007. The rambling, wide-ranging video was released by www.LauraMansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism. The 32-minute video was produced by As Sahab, al Qaeda's video production arm. Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, with a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in 2006 on charges of offering material support for terrorism and treason, making him the first American charged with treason since World War II. He has renounced his American citizenship. \"It's time for you to put aside tribal, ethnic and territorial differences and petty worldly disputes not just for now but forever and unite to restore the glories of your forefathers and hasten, Allah willing, the defeat of the Zionist-crusader enemy and the establishment of the Islamic state, the Ummah, the so eagerly anticipated,\" Gadahn says in English. Gadahn also notes that \"victory in Kashmir\" has been delayed for years, adding that, \"It is the liberation of the jihad there from this interference which, Allah willing, will be the first step towards victory over the Hindu occupiers of that Islam land.\" He also cited the economic woes in the U.S. economy. \"The enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the extending crisis their economy is experiencing. The crisis, whose primary cause, in addition to the abortive and unsustainable crusades they are waging in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, is they are turning their backs on Allah's revealed laws, which forbid interest-bearing transactions, exploitation, greed and and injustice in all its forms and demand the worship of Allah alone to the exclusion of all false gods, including money and power,\" he said. Gadahn, who grew up in rural California, embraced Islam in the mid-1990s and moved to Pakistan. Since October 2004, he has appeared in at least eight al Qaeda videos speaking in English and praising the terrorist network. In a video released in January, Gadahn renounced his U.S. citizenship and destroyed his passport on camera, saying, \"I don't need it to travel anyway.\" His demands have ranged from pulling out all soldiers from \"every Muslim land\" to halting support of the \"enemies of Islam\" and freeing all Muslims in detention centers and prisons. Failure to take any one of the steps, he said, would be \"considered sufficient justification\" for continuing the fighting and killing. However, according to CNN Senior Arab Affairs Editor Octavia Nasr, no known terrorism activity has been linked to his messages.","highlights":"Al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn appears in video posted on Internet on Saturday .\nVideo refers to ethnic divisions in Pakistan, fighting in Kashmir, U.S. economic woes .\nThe native Californian was charged with treason in 2006 .","id":"207224ddaeb57ae77f91cd645f70a1a67485ff53"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jessica Keenan tried on wedding dresses in a fancy Beverly Hills boutique, about 100 miles from the Santa Barbara, California, clinic where she gets blasted with chemotherapy once a week. Jessica Keenan, 34, is getting married January 24, thanks to the Dream Foundation. Keenan is 34 years old and battling Stage 4 breast cancer with faith, hope and a charity called the Dream Foundation, which helps terminally ill adults. ''You get a diagnosis and you never know how short your time is,\" Keenan said. \"I chose to believe there is going to be a cure. You still carry those dreams of getting married, having a kid.\" But Keenan and her fianc\u00e9, Curtis Jimenez, couldn't afford a wedding -- their finances are sapped by her cancer battle. They rent from friends. Keenan wrote a letter to Dream Foundation, at the suggestion of her devoted nurses at the Santa Barbara cancer center. \"It all just started snowballing,\" she said. Her wish has been granted, thanks to Dream Foundation and flock of people she has never met. Think of the foundation as Make-A-Wish, but instead of trying to help desperately sick children, Dream Foundation assists terminally ill adults. Keenan's wedding is a different, more lavish wish than most of the requests the foundation has been receiving in this tough economy. \"People's needs are becoming basic,\" said the charity's founder, Thomas Rollerson. \"We are getting wishes just to pay an electric bill, pay the rent, or help keep a promise to go to Disneyland to give them that memory in a time of hopelessness, doctors visits and uncertainty.\" Other dreams are simply for dying family members to be united with loved ones, last visits before last rites. Rollerson explains that with money tight, donors can still help without writing big checks. For example, people can donate frequent flier miles or hotel points. When corporate donors and philanthropists jump in, a Dream Foundation wish can turn elaborate. The foundation's Web site is a bulletin board of heartache looking for relief. There's Bruce, 31, dying of Hodgkin's lymphoma. He wants to leave New York state for the first time and take his wife and his 6-year-old son to Disney World. Remedios is a California woman with incurable cancer. She wants to treat the daughter who stands over her bed to a Quinceniera, a traditional celebration for a girl who turns 15 years old. Bone cancer is expected to kill Edward Lucas of Springfield, Missouri, in less than six months. He wants to celebrate his 21st wedding anniversary with his wife, Nancy, before he leaves her a widow with an adult daughter and three grandchildren. Their dream is a warm-weather honeymoon trip never taken. Edward was hospitalized and too weak to talk to CNN. \"I wanted him to have a trip or something to look forward to,\" Nancy said. \"A lot of people don't realize there are dreams for adults too.\" The Lucas' dream trip is coming together with the help of Dream Foundation, which is hashing out some of the flight and hotel issues to Florida. Back in California, Keenan's wedding is speeding toward January 24, thanks to dozens of corporate sponsors and a wealthy Texas do-gooder, Beverly Adams, who made a big financial contribution. The upscale boutique Monique Lhullier donated the dress. \"We're a conduit,\" Dream Foundation's Rollerson said. \"People are willing to help. They just need to know how and where.\" Keenan, a hairdresser by trade, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. She thought she had it beat two years ago when she met her fianc\u00e9 on New Year's Eve. She found out in March of 2007 the cancer returned. Her fianc\u00e9 has remained at her side. \"When they met, they were just so into each other,\" said Lena Rueff, who first introduced the bride-to-be to her brother. \"He has been a rock for her. He packs snacks, games, books to the hospital where he stays with her.\" In the dress shop, she and the other bridesmaids cheer for Jessica. \"You look sexy!\" Her hair is cropped short after all the chemotherapy. \"I like the long veil.\" Jessica pauses, realizing she's not just playing dress-up with grade school friends. \"It's overwhelming. I'm anxious and excited,\" she said, standing in a room where some dresses cost more than new cars. \"I still don't believe it's going to happen.\" The bridesmaids stop cheering for a second and rub away tears of joy.","highlights":"Jessica Keenan, 34, has Stage 4 breast cancer .\nOne of her dreams is to get married to defy her terminally ill prognosis .\nThe Dream Foundation is helping her dream come true .\nThe foundation helps terminally ill adults with their last wishes .","id":"1f9afc69266a40e1f428f27f12d082c33d3e1869"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy has charged six guards accused of assaulting detainees in May at Camp Bucca in Iraq, naval officials said Thursday. U.S. guards patrol at Camp Bucca in Iraq in May. The Army Criminal Investigation Division investigated alleged incidents that left two detainees with minor bruises. The division also investigated an incident in which eight prisoners were confined overnight to a housing cell that had been sprayed with a riot control agent, the Navy said. The six guards will face courts-martial. Seven other cases have been resolved through nonjudicial punishment, according to a statement from the commander of U.S. Naval Forces-Central Command. The courts-martial are expected to start within 30 days at Camp Bucca, which is in southern Iraq near the Kuwaiti border. The guards accused in the case are assigned to Navy Provisional Detainee Battalion 4.","highlights":"Navy guards accused of assaulting detainees at Camp Bucca .\nEight prisoners were confined to cell sprayed with riot control agent, Navy says .\nNavy: Two detainees allegedly left with minor bruises .","id":"0d32aa0feee7f1ade275806a0d33191c2723d051"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A lawsuit filed January 30 by baseball great Roberto Alomar's ex-girlfriend alleges he engaged in unprotected sex with her while suffering from HIV\/AIDS. Roberto Alomar's ex-girlfriend says he had unprotected sex with her while infected with HIV. Ilya Dall is asking for $15 million for \"personal injuries\" suffered due to Alomar's negligence. She and her two children lived with the former New York Mets slugger for three years. She alleges that he started exhibiting signs of HIV as early as 2005, but twice refused recommendations for an HIV test by his doctor, saying that earlier tests for the disease had come back negative, according to court papers. Alomar's lawyer, Charles Bach, was not available for comment, but attorney Luke Pittoni, who also represents Alomar, said, \"We believe this is a totally frivolous lawsuit -- these allegations are baseless, he's healthy and he'd like to keep his health status private. We'll do our talking in court.\" Anthony Piancentini, who is representing Dall, said he has \"no comment\" at this time. Dall says in court papers that Alomar told her \"I don't have HIV.\" She alleges he \"lied and purposefully misrepresented his physical condition\" and \"that he was endangering the health and well being of [Dall] by continuing to have unprotected sexual relations with [her],\" according to the lawsuit. Court papers list several physical ailments that Dall says Alomar exhibited from early 2005 on, including white spots on his mouth and throat, extreme fatigue, back and vision problems, and shingles. In early 2006, Alomar submitted to an HIV test that, according to court papers, confirmed he was HIV positive in February 2006. Dall says she went for an HIV test shortly afterward and the results were negative. The couple visited a disease specialist shortly after Alomar's diagnosis, who found a mass in Alomar's chest and advised the couple that he was suffering from full-blown AIDS, according to the lawsuit. Dall alleges that a few days later, Alomar's skin was turning purple and he was foaming at the mouth; a spinal tap on February 21, 2006, confirmed he had full-blown AIDS, court papers said. Dall claims in the lawsuit that Alomar's negligence caused her severe \"emotional distress\" over the health of her children. Court papers say that because the couple lived with the children, they may have been exposed to Alomar's saliva or blood in the bathroom, through things like toothbrushes and other items. Dall claims to suffer from \"permanent emotional distress\" even after repeatedly testing negative for HIV. The lawsuit claims her fear of contracting the disease is known as \"AIDS phobia\" and that she suffers from permanent post-traumatic stress disorder. Alomar requested Tuesday that the suit be moved to Brooklyn, New York, federal court. It was originally filed in Supreme Court in Queens, New York. An initial conference on the case is expected on April 15 in Brooklyn federal court. Alomar is the son and brother of major leaguers -- father Sandy Alomar was a second baseman with several teams between 1964 and 1978 and brother Sandy Alomar Jr. is a former catcher who played from 1988 to 2007. Roberto Alomar retired in 2004 with a .300 lifetime batting average, 12 All-Star game selections and 10 Gold Gloves. He was the All Star Game MVP in 1998 and played on two Toronto Blue Jays World Series champion teams. Alomar, then playing for the Baltimore Orioles, is also known for an incident in 1996 during a game against the Blue Jays when he spat in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck following a heated argument over a third strike. After the incident, Alomar claimed the umpire uttered a slur to him during the argument.","highlights":"Ex-girlfriend says he denied having HIV\/AIDS, had unprotected sex with her .\nWoman says Alomar endangered her health by lying to her about disease .\nCourt papers say tests in 2006 showed Alomar had full-blown AIDS .\nAlomar's representative says claims are part of \"frivolous lawsuit\"","id":"887df74881bd7e6c31510611963abfe65e95a307"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jordan Lorence is senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization of Christian attorneys. He has litigated religious liberty and free speech cases since 1984, including the Southworth case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999, involving mandatory student fees at public universities, and a 2004 case that resulted in a California Supreme Court ruling that marriage licenses issued by San Francisco to same-sex couples were invalid. Jordan Lorence says Rick Warren's views on marriage shouldn't bar him from Barack Obama's inauguration. SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (CNN) -- Proponents of redefining marriage couldn't wait for the new president to be sworn in before demanding that he erase from the inauguration ceremony a prominent American who disagrees with them. The target of their rhetorical bombardment is Rick Warren, the popular Christian pastor from Southern California. President-elect Barack Obama has asked Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. Not so fast, cries Kathryn Kolbert, head of People for the American Way, an organization that claims to advance equality and freedom of speech and religion (but not for Rick Warren and those who agree with his marriage views) in a piece published on CNN.com. Warren's grave sin? Along with 52 percent of California voters, he supported California's Proposition 8, which affirmed the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. What a radical! Though Warren will only be praying for the country's future (not giving a speech about marriage), Kolbert and others are pressuring Obama to set a precedent for his administration of publicly shunning someone who supports the traditional definition of marriage. They want people like Warren silenced and ostracized for their \"hate speech,\" defined today as disagreeing with their agenda to impose a redefinition of marriage on an unwilling America. Obama, to his credit, has resisted their strident demands. The attacks on Warren are the latest in a series of coercive, intimidating attacks on supporters of traditional marriage. Now, activists have ramped up their strong-arm tactics by pushing the president-elect to ban Warren from appearing at the inauguration. This is amazingly audacious, in light of the fact that on marriage, the overwhelming majority of Americans and, indeed, humanity, agrees with Warren. Americans have voted to preserve marriage in all 30 states where it has been on the ballot by an average vote of more than 65 percent. The collective experience and wisdom of every major civilization from the dawn of time agrees that societies function best and children are best protected when marriage is defined as between one man and one woman. Warren and those who agree with him want all nations to experience these benefits of marriage when it is rightly defined and consistently practiced. Ironically, Obama has repeatedly stated that he agrees \"that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.\" Does Kolbert question his fitness to serve as president in light of his allegedly \"bigoted\" views on marriage? Kolbert brazenly denies that she and other activists desire to silence pastors like Warren because of their marriage views. She is indignant that Warren and others spread the \"big lie\" that redefining marriage would threaten the freedom of speech and religious liberties of those who hold the view shared by the vast majority of Americans. Her argument is disarming in its pure duplicity. Part of Kolbert's case against Warren, who she thinks should not be speaking at such an important public ceremony, is that he believes that folks like her are working to ban people like him from speaking at public ceremonies. Thus, the \"big lie\" becomes an obvious truth. This is really all about ideological purity -- and purging. Are the activists proposing that no one should be permitted to speak at the inauguration if they hold beliefs on marriage contrary to hers and her ideological bedfellows? How can publicly snubbing the influential and respected Warren advance what Kolbert calls \"the values of unity and respect ... on which President-elect Obama campaigned?\" It won't. But it will surely send a message to those who believe in marriage, that they will be viciously attacked for expressing, or merely believing, that marriage is defined as between one man and one woman. Ms. Kolbert provides just the latest example of how the forces of \"tolerance\" and \"diversity\" quickly abandon their principles of \"live and let live\" when somebody disagrees with them. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jordan Lorence.","highlights":"Jordan Lorence: Barack Obama has asked Rick Warren to give the invocation .\nHe says activists are seeking to ban Warren from speaking because of his views .\nLorence says Warren's view on marriage is the majority position in the U.S.\nHe says Obama also believes marriage is between a man and a woman .","id":"e2807ed34092df9e3e53b320dbf6cd49129e8c49"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Karma caught up with former Culture Club singer Boy George on Friday when a court sentenced the star to 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort, a court spokeswoman said. George O'Dowd, also known as Boy George, arrives at Snaresbrook Crown Court, in east London. Full details of the sentence weren't immediately clear. A jury unanimously found the pop star and DJ, whose real name is George O'Dowd, guilty of the charge last month after a seven-day trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in northeast London. The jury determined O'Dowd, 47, had chained male escort Audun Carlsen to a wall at his apartment in London's hip Shoreditch neighborhood. Carlsen had also said the singer beat him with a metal chain. Watch as Boy George arrives at court \u00bb . O'Dowd, who maintained his innocence, came to court Friday sporting a multicolored tattoo on his bald head, none of his trademark makeup, and a black winter coat. The star quit Culture Club in 1987 after a string of hits with the group, including \"Karma Chameleon,\" \"Do you really want to hurt me?\" and \"Church of the Poison Mind.\" He has since become a DJ and revived his singing career, releasing a single last year called \"Yes we can,\" inspired by Barack Obama and featuring clips of the U.S. president-elect. O'Dowd is no stranger to the law. In August 2006, he spent five days cleaning the streets of Manhattan as part of a community service sentence for falsely reporting a break-in at his New York City home. He has also publicly battled drug addiction.","highlights":"Former Culture Club singer jailed for falsely imprisoning a male escort .\nThe victim, Audun Carlsen, claimed he was also beaten with a chain .\nBoy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, has battled drug addiction .\nHe spent 5 days cleaning the streets of Manhattan in 2006 on community order .","id":"5ea62e37a3ce8a6f7339cd14de624a6edeead251"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Carly Fiorina is chief executive of Carly Fiorina Enterprises and former chief executive of HP. She was an adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year. Carly Fiorina says outrage at Wall St. pay is justified but salaries shouldn't be set by government. (CNN) -- Americans are outraged over excessive CEO pay and perks. That outrage is justified, particularly when American taxpayers are footing the bill. Our capitalist system works best when there is transparency and accountability. There has been too little of both on Wall Street. Inevitably, the president and Congress are now attempting to respond to taxpayer anger and restore some \"common sense,\" as President Obama recently declared, to CEO compensation. The proposed solution caps top executive pay at $500,000 for institutions that have received bailout money. I don't think this is the answer, although it is an understandable reaction. It's arbitrary: Why not $400,000 or $600,000? It's incomplete. It only applies to institutions that will receive more government assistance going forward. And it doesn't strengthen our economy when government decides how much each job is worth. In America we leave that job to markets. So what's the answer? To strengthen transparency, all aspects of CEO pay and perks should be fully disclosed on a regular basis. This should include airplanes, cars, golf-club memberships, bonuses, stock options, retirement plans and salaries -- in short everything that a common-sense person would consider part of a CEO reward package. See Fiorina discuss exec pay, including her own \u00bb . To strengthen accountability, all aspects of CEO compensation should be voted on by shareholders on an annual basis. Ultimately, it is the owners of a company who must determine whether a CEO's rewards are justified by a CEO's performance. And because the American taxpayer is now a partial owner in many companies, the government can get a vote as well -- in some cases a very sizeable vote. In addition, \"clawback provisions,\" which require a CEO to return compensation to shareholders if promised results aren't delivered, should be standard fare. Finally, when a company comes to Washington for American taxpayer money, it is an admission that mistakes have been made and major bets have failed. These CEOs should be prepared to tender their resignations and those of their boards. To earn a bailout, a CEO and board should be held accountable. We should not weaken our economy while trying to fix it. These are difficult times. President Obama has described our current situation as a \"crisis\" and an impending \"catastrophe.\" In such times, action is required. The key is to take actions that help in the short-term, while also being sensible for the medium and long-term. Too often our politicians react to crisis and public anger by over-reaching, and they create new, unforeseen problems that only become clear with the passage of time. In this country, the opportunity to be rewarded for taking prudent risk is fundamental to our economic vitality and strength. Let's not lose that fundamental principle in our outrage over Wall Street greed and excess. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Carly Fiorina.","highlights":"Carly Fiorina: It's understandable that people are outraged at Wall St. pay .\nFiorina says government shouldn't set limits on executive compensation .\nShe says all aspects of pay and perks should be disclosed .\nFiorina: Shareholders, including government, should vote on pay packages .","id":"dec7868d0ac94fc993d0b112a082c867b20767f4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Indigo Girls navigate the challenges of today's recording environment with their new two-disc album, \"Poseidon and the Bitter Bug.\" The Indigo Girls, Amy Ray, left, and Emily Saliers released their latest folk-rock album on Tuesday. Rather than abandon ship amid the country's economic recession and after being dumped by their former label, the folk-rockers decided to release the album independently -- and they recorded it in a mere three weeks. The veteran Atlanta, Georgia, duo remains optimistic about America's recording industry and the ability of artists to market themselves online. But nothing will replace a heartfelt live performance, said Amy Ray. \"We need to keep art as a visceral experience, too, and not just an Internet experience,\" said Ray, who plays in the group with Emily Saliers. It is \"going to be up to bands to keep touring and people to keep going to hear 'em.\" Watch their live performance and interview with CNN \u00bb . CNN talked with the Indigo Girls about the Internet, food, their Southern roots and their newest album's strange name. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: What's been the primary influence for you all? Has it been a place, like Atlanta? Or has it been something else? Emily Saliers: Atlanta and the South, just in general. ... Some of it comes through the content and some of it just comes through a vibe. We're sort of a hootenanny bar band. We cut our teeth in Little Five Points Pub, and what we always like to do is bring people up on the stage and jam with us. ... We tie it back to the days when people just sat on the porch and played together. It's a very Southern thing, an Appalachian thing. CNN: Tell me about the title for this album. Saliers: Mitchell Froom, the producer, came up with the title, and it was originally a joke. He said it and he laughed -- and we all laughed. Naming a record is probably one of the hardest things in the whole process, and that name just stuck with us. And it's also cool because \"Poseidon\" is a reference to a lyric in one of my songs, and \"Bitter Bug\" is a reference to a lyric in one of Amy's songs. So to be able to fit two of those pieces together in a way that works is cool. CNN: And you all are working as free agents on this [album]. Tell me about that. Amy Ray: We got dropped from the last label we were on, Hollywood, right before we were going to go into the studio, so we just kind of kept all of our plans in place and everyone that was going to be involved with us came to the table and gave us deals and made it work. ... Creatively we've always done what we want, but on the business level it's demoralizing when you feel like there's not a team anymore because the label you're on isn't really behind you or doesn't know what to do, or is kind of paralyzed by the industry, generally. CNN: What are you all listening to lately? Saliers: You know, I just bought yesterday -- I downloaded it -- Sean Lennon's last record. I saw him on some obscure Japanese channel when we were in some other part of the world and I really like the sound of that. And then this artist named Sia. She sang with Zero 7 and she's a really good artist, I like her stuff a lot. I like the Weepies. CNN: You [Emily Saliers] are a part owner in a restaurant here in Atlanta. ... Is there any kind of relationship between music and a good restaurant experience? Saliers: There definitely is! The name of the restaurant is Watershed, it's in Decatur [Georgia]. We're very fortunate to have Scott Peacock as our executive chef. ... He's a very decorated chef but he also makes Southern food -- good Southern food. It's kind of like what your grandmother would make if you grew up in the South: lots of lard and butter and comfort food ... I think the experience of sharing food is a lot like the experience of sharing music. It's just something that people's work goes into it and a lot of love goes into it, and then you share it together. CNN: I wonder what you make of Twitter and artists playing on Second Life and sort of all of these virtual personas that people have these days. Ray: I don't really have a judgment about it one way or the other. I have a lot of friends that delve into all that stuff and it doesn't stop them from being creative in other ways. I think it increases creativity and exercises a different part of your mind. ... My nieces and nephews, they're very involved in [the video game] \"Rock Band\" and stuff like that, which I think is really great because it's introducing them to music, but I just want them to go outside sometime, too. (laughs) That's all. Play in the woods a little bit. CNN: How has your collaboration changed over time? Saliers: The way that we collaborate hasn't changed that much. Amy writes her songs; I write my songs. We write totally separately but then since the very beginning we've come together to arrange songs. ... Over the years we've picked up a few more instruments, so texturally we're more expansive than we were when we were just two guitars at the very beginning. Now there's harmonica and mandolin and banjo -- a little bit of keyboard. We mix that up, but the process is pretty much the same. We just trust it more now.","highlights":"The Indigo Girls released their latest album, \"Poseidon and the Bitter Bug,\" Tuesday .\nThe folk rockers talk with CNN about working on the independent effort .\nThe Atlanta duo recorded the album in just three weeks .\nBand member: Writing process is the same, but \"we just trust it more now\"","id":"dee9b138e2b6acae35d0befa7ba5f4452ab2e487"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For three years, family, friends and her college sorority sisters have been looking for Jennifer Kesse, wondering what happened to her. Jennifer Kesse would be 26 now. She has been missing since January 24, 2006. Last week, on the third anniversary of Kesse's disappearance, an inmate in a Florida prison said he might have the answer. David Russ, a convicted killer being held at the Seminole County Jail, spoke last week with the missing woman's father, Drew Kesse, claiming he had information that could lead to a break in the case. Details are being withheld from the public. In a jailhouse phone call with CNN, Russ hinted he'd eavesdropped on other inmates. He also was outspoken about his skepticism toward investigators. \"The investigators have messed this case up from the beginning and cannot be trusted,\" he said. That's why he asked to speak directly with the missing woman's father, he said. Orlando police are just as skeptical of Russ. They said he provided information they already had. \"His information is not some big break in the case,\" said Sgt. Barbara Jones of the Orlando Police Department. \"We are still hoping for new tips that could lead us to finding Jennifer Kesse.\" The 24-year-old financial adviser was just back from a Caribbean vacation with her boyfriend and was getting back into her routine. She went to work at her new job, came home to her new condominium and called her parents. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . At 10 p.m., she called her boyfriend, who lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Then, her family believes, she went to bed. The next morning, she got up and showered for work. Her clothes were neatly laid out on her bed, her family says, suggesting she may have tried on a few outfits before deciding what to wear to the office. Then, she disappeared, her family said. She did not show up for work that Tuesday morning and her employer reported her missing. Police found Kesse's Chevy Malibu two days later. It was parked in a gated lot about one mile down the road from the condominium complex where she lived. Inside the vehicle, police found some of Kesse's personal items, but her purse, wallet, two cell phones and briefcase were missing. The car doors were locked and the car keys were not found. Police later released a video surveillance tape of the car being parked in the lot by someone other than Kesse. The grainy video partially shows a person walking away from the car, past a parking lot gate. Police are uncertain if this person of interest is a man or a woman, because the image is partially obscured by the gate. The person is described as 5 feet 4 inches, with a short haircut, wearing light-colored clothes and dark shoes. The video is time and date-stamped at noon on the day Kesse disappeared. Forensic tests on the vehicle came back inconclusive, Sgt. Jones said. No blood or other trace evidence was found to show that Kesse had been injured in the vehicle. Drew Kesse said that every Tuesday, landscapers worked at the condo complex near his daughter's parking space. The landscapers said they didn't see Kesse leaving her apartment and getting into her car, which she did every weekday morning between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. \"The only theory we could come up with is that she walked out her front door and was kidnapped somewhere between her front door and the parking lot where her car was. We think since the landscapers didn't see her, she must not have even made it out of the hallways or stairwells of the condo complex,\" Drew Kesse said. He added that there weren't any surveillance cameras in the hallways or stairwells at the time his daughter was living there. Sgt. Jones said investigators have developed forensic evidence from Kesse's car that could someday match with a person of interest and identify a suspect. Police have also released a photo of a green clover tattoo on Kesse's left hip. Anyone with information leading to Jennifer Kesse or the person responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the tip line at 1-800-423-TIPS. The reward is $10,000. Kesse would be 26 years old and has blonde hair, green eyes, is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds.","highlights":"Inmate calls missing woman's father, says he heard other inmates talking .\nPolice say inmate's information is nothing new .\nJennifer Kesse was 24, disappeared three years ago near Orlando, Florida .\nInformation? Call 1-800-423-TIPS. A $10,000 reward is offered .","id":"b1cfc6129ce717bfc42a88732b77b809f4d3b12e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kansas leaders Wednesday ended a standoff that had delayed tax refunds and state paychecks by agreeing to borrow $225 million from various state accounts, a spokeswoman for the governor's office said. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius approved $300 million in budget cuts Wednesday. Republican lawmakers approved moving money into the state's main account to pay the bills after budget cuts agreed to by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, spokeswoman Brittany Stiffler said. The state resumed processing income tax refunds on Wednesday -- they had been suspended last week because of low funds -- and state employees' paychecks will be paid on time Friday, Department of Administration spokesman Gavin Young said. Republicans earlier this week denied the Democratic governor's request to move the money, saying they could not approve the certificate of indebtedness, also known as internal borrowing, until they knew the state could repay the money by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. However, Republicans said they would be likely to approve the internal borrowing if Sebelius agreed to the Legislature's proposed budget cuts for the 2009 fiscal year. On Wednesday, she approved about $300 million in budget cuts. \"She blinked, and that's helpful,\" Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, a Republican, said Wednesday. \"I'm just sorry we had to have high drama and worry a lot of Kansans about our ability to pay our obligations,\" Sebelius said Wednesday. Kansas was one of several states to meet this week to address budget concerns in a time when 43 states are starting the year short on funds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. \"This is an equal-opportunity recession. States in virtually every part of the country are suffering... even the energy states are starting to report problems,\" Corina Eckl of the National Conference of State Legislatures said. iReport.com: What you'd fix first . \"For most, it has only gone downhill. They have tried to make up the difference with expanded gambling, with delays of construction projects, with hiring freezes, with fee and tax increases. But almost all of this has failed to regain lost ground, merely serving as a firebreak against worse troubles,\" she said. California faces a $42 billion deficit that prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a fiscal emergency in December. California lawmakers worked into early Wednesday but couldn't pass a budget. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued 10,000 layoff notices Tuesday, affecting a wide spectrum of state agencies and employees, in an effort to deal with the budget crisis, a spokesman said. Another 10,000 layoff notices might be sent Wednesday, the spokesman said. All the layoffs would take effect July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. The Republican governor has butted heads for months with the Democratic majority over easing the $11.2 billion revenue shortfall this fiscal year alone. Cuts would save California $750 million for the year. The $42 billion deficit is for the current and next fiscal years. Interactive: See projected state budget gaps \u00bb . Last month, the state began delaying $3.5 billion in payments to taxpayers, contractors, counties and social service agencies so the state could continue funding schools and making debt payments. Watch more on California's budget woes \u00bb . Also today, New Jersey's governor announced that all state employees will be forced to take two unpaid furlough days, a move that will save $35 million, part of the nearly $4 billion in budget cuts that state is making. In Maryland, tax collections in nearly every category are falling short of expectations, with dismal revenue projects putting more pressure on state legislators to balance the budget without relying on the federal stimulus package, CNN affiliate WBAL reported. State workers in Colorado may face unpaid time off in an effort to spare the state's colleges and universities millions of dollars in budget cuts, KUSA-TV in Denver reported Tuesday. Interactive: Estimated job growth across the country . Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, announced plans recently to furlough some state workers to balance the budget. Roughly $600 million in budget cuts need to be made by the end of this fiscal year, according to KUSA. State lawmakers will debate a bill in the House this week that would require furloughs for state workers depending on how much money they make. \"It's drastic, but we're in a drastic situation,\" Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, told KUSA. In Washington state, proposed budget cuts have led to protests in the capital, Olympia, KOMO-TV in Seattle reported. State officials are looking at some $300 million in cuts as part of a package the governor is expected to sign this week. Lawmakers also are aiming to cut nearly $6 billion over the next two years. But about 100 union members, state employees, school supporters and health care providers rallied on the lawn of the Capitol, telling lawmakers to stop the health care and education cuts and prevent tuition hikes. State employees said they want fair pay, better benefits and pensions and no layoffs. Hawaii faces a nearly $2 billion budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year. That figure has led legislators to seek alternative ways of balancing the budget, including possible reductions in health and retirement benefits for government workers, KHNL-TV in Honolulu reported Tuesday. One bill being debated in the Legislature aims to cut off insurance benefits for all employees retiring after July 1 regardless of how many years they had worked. Back East, states such as New York and Florida, which have high unemployment rates and huge budget shortfalls, also are looking to cut programs. In New York, the expected budget shortfall is around $1.7 billion, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. President Obama took his economic stimulus message to Florida last week to hard-hit Fort Myers. The jobless rate in the area is 10 percent, up from 2.3 percent this time in 2006, and the area's foreclosure rate of 12 percent is the highest in the nation. Interactive: See where the stimulus money is going \u00bb . And Michigan's Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, whose state has been hit especially hard by the recession and the auto industry's near collapse, said job creation is paramount to turning the economy around. \"We see the impact of this every day, and I'm speaking not just for Michigan, but for governors across the country. We need help. We need it now. And it's not about budgets; it's about creating jobs in our states,\" she said recently on CNN's \"State of the Union With John King.\" CNN's Taylor Gandossy, Ed Hornick and Stan Wilson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius approves $300 million in cuts for 2009 budget .\nNEW: State leaders agree to borrow $225 million to pay tax refunds, state employees .\nNew Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine announces 2 furlough days for state employees .\n43 states starting year short, National Conference of State Legislatures says .","id":"845ab7e3b47dc22a04260384af4d5f2cdcb7cba7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose current book is \"When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams.\" Peggy Sue Gerron, left, and Jerry Allison, right, at Buddy Holly's wedding to Maria Elena Holly. (CNN) -- After days on end of grim and dreary news, the first weekend of spring is with us, and with its arrival comes, to many people, the yearly promise of new romance and a chance for lasting love. But if figuring out the secrets of how to revive a battered economy is something that is complicated and elusive, that quandary is simple in comparison to matters of the heart. The legendary experts on romance, star-crossed and otherwise, are generally not available for comment. Romeo and Juliet have left the building. However, there is one person I know who has a better feel for the vagaries of love than most, and I sought her out the other day. \"Spring is the time when you allow yourself to hope that love will come around again,\" said Peggy Sue Gerron. You may not recognize her full name, but you sure do recognize the first part of it. Yep -- she's that Peggy Sue. The Peggy Sue of Buddy Holly's unforgettable 1957 hit, a song of longing and heartbreak that is instantly familiar today even to people who weren't born until decades after it came out. \"If you knew Peggy Sue, then you'd know why I feel blue ...\" Juliet, that other symbol of the glory of love, may have been a fictional creation of William Shakespeare's imagination, but Peggy Sue was, and is, real. She lives in West Texas, just as she did when Buddy Holly recorded the song. She was actually not even his girlfriend, although she sensed a certain yearning on his part. She was the girlfriend of Jerry Allison, the drummer for the Crickets, Holly's band. \"I think the reason people think about finding love in the spring is that the season represents new beginnings,\" she said. \"The flowers are blooming. The air smells good. You feel that you have a chance.\" In the song, Peggy Sue, implicitly, was the one who did the dumping, not the one who got dumped. But time has made her understand: . \"I think, I really believe, that on a rare occasion, two people in life run across each other in a path like two comets. And when it happens, I think that feeling lasts forever.\" Which is to say: With a love so rare and true. And that, she said, is what makes people keep looking for love regardless of how many times they may have tried and failed. She has a theory of what being in love does to a person: . \"Your eyes are a little bit shinier and your skin is a little bit clearer when you're in love. When you meet that person, you think: Whatever you're doing, I want to be right beside you when you're doing it. I want to be near you just because I like to see your smile.\" Not that being Peggy Sue means she has all the answers. \"I don't,\" she said. She is 68 now; she has been married twice, divorced twice. When she introduces herself to new people, they often say, \"Oh -- like the Peggy Sue in the song!\" Sometimes she tells them she is in fact that Peggy Sue; sometimes she lets it go. It's an uphill battle to convince them she's not kidding. And as the woman who eternally will be a symbol of true love's ways, she thinks she understands why people never give up on hoping to find the right person. \"You have a tendency to put the walls up after you've been hurt,\" she said. \"You think it's not worth trying again. But then you do it anyway. It's like it's not even up to you. It's stronger than your intellect.\" For those who, as spring arrives, have just lost a great love, her advice for dealing with the sadness is to remember that some people never find love in their whole lives. \"Even if you're the one to get left, you've been lucky to have the feeling. And the feeling, unlike the person, will never leave you.\" Somewhere this spring -- many somewheres, undoubtedly -- the words, sung for the first time more than 50 years ago, will come blasting once again out of a car dashboard's speakers: . \"Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue.\" And people in 2009, hearing it, will remember anew just how much happiness the right person can bring. \"When I first heard the song,\" Peggy Sue said, \"I just thought the drums and the lyrics and the melody were so great, it made me want to get up and dance. As I grew older, it began to seem like more of a love song to me. It began to seem more like a song about not giving up.\" Living in Lubbock, Texas, a ham radio enthusiast in an age of Twitter and text messages, she said she is currently not dating anyone. And with the arrival of spring, and its universal promise of life's best possibilities, she acknowledges that there is hope in her own heart, too. \"Always,\" said Peggy Sue. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Peggy Sue, of famous Buddy Holly song, lives in west Texas .\nHe says she has a theory about what love does to a person .\nGreene: As spring arrives, Peggy Sue admits she has hope in her heart .","id":"84cfdb6d111351586ec9fddb0e492177214279dc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two leading Jewish watchdog groups are denouncing a prominent cartoonist's illustration about Israel's offensive in Gaza, saying it uses anti-Semitic imagery. The cartoon was published Wednesday in newspapers and on the Internet. The Anti-Defamation League, which has been fighting anti-Semitism since it was founded in 1913, called the syndicated cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning Pat Oliphant \"hideously anti-Semitic.\" The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which, among other things, fights anti-Semitism and educates people about the Holocaust, said \"the cartoon mimics the venomous anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi and Soviet eras.\" Published Wednesday in newspapers and on the Internet, the cartoon shows the small figure of a woman, labeled Gaza, carrying a child. She is being pursued by a headless, jackbooted figure wielding a sword, marching in an apparent goose-step and pushing a fanged Jewish star on a wheel. The Anti-Defamation League said the cartoon used \"Nazi-like imagery\" and a \"hateful evocation of the Star of David.\" Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director, said the cartoon's \"outlandish and offensive use of the Star of David in combination with Nazi-like imagery is hideously anti-Semitic.\" \"It employs Nazi imagery by portraying Israel as a jack-booted, goose-stepping headless apparition,\" Foxman said. \"The implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart. Israel's defensive military operation to protect the lives of its men, women and children who are being continuously bombarded by Hamas rocket attacks has been turned on its head to show the victims as heartless, headless aggressors.\" The Wiesenthal Center, which also issued its statement Wednesday, said it urged The New York Times Web site and other Web sites to remove the cartoon. \"There is nothing about Oliphant's cartoon not meant to denigrate and demonize the Jewish state, from the headless goose-stepping soldier to the horrific depiction of the Star of David about to devour a cowering innocent Gazan woman holding a baby,\" Rabbi Marvin Hier, the group's dean, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the group's associate dean, said in a joint statement. \"The imagery in this cartoon mimics the venomous anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi and Soviet eras. It is cartoons like this that inspired millions of people to hate in the 1930's and help set the stage for the Nazi genocide,\" the statement said. A spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Oliphant's work, issued a statement defending him, saying he, \"like all editorial cartoonists, uses his art to comment on important issues of the day widely reported in the worldwide media -- in this case, the conflict over Gaza. That his cartoons sometimes spark intense debate is a testament to his talent.\" Universal said no media outlet had informed the syndicate that it removed the cartoon, but \"Oliphant's clients are not contractually bound to inform us.\" A New York Times spokeswoman said, \"We did not run the cartoon in the newspaper, nor do we plan to do so.\" She said NYTimes.com has, by contract with uclick.com, an \"Oliphant\" button on the cartoons page. \"Yesterday, those who clicked on it saw the cartoon you mentioned, which is now relegated to the Oliphant archive,\" she said. Imagery and rhetoric comparing Israel to Nazis have been deployed by Israel's persistent critics, who decry the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians as oppressive and brutal. Israel and its supporters defend the state as humane and say it has properly defended itself against attacks. There has been sharp criticism of Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza who launched rockets into southern Israeli towns. Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the Israeli military's firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during the offensive \"was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes,\" a claim denied by Israel. Israel has said that Hamas militants situated themselves among civilians during the offensive. Oliphant, who won the Pulitzer in 1967, has been a dominant figure in the editorial cartoon world. His work has been distributed since 1980 by Universal Press Syndicate, which calls the Australian native one of the \"sharpest, most daring practitioners\" among editorial cartoonists. He has received many honors, and his cartoons have been exhibited across the world. \"In 1998, the Library of Congress commemorated the acquisition of 60 of his works with a special exhibition at the Library's Great Hall,\" according to an Oliphant biography on the Universal Web site. This isn't the first time Oliphant's cartoons have drawn criticism. The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in 2005 \"wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle and Universal Press Syndicate to communicate concern over racist depictions of Arabs,\" according to the group's Web site, and the Asian American Journalists Association criticized offensive stereotypes in cartoons in 1999, 2001 and 2007. Debates over offensive editorial cartoons are not uncommon. Keith Woods, dean of faculty at the Poynter Institute, a journalism school in St. Petersburg, Florida, was asked to comment on the reaction to the cartoon, whether the cartoon was improper, and at what point in the editorial process an editor can say a product has gone too far. He said he understands the positions the Jewish groups and Israeli policy critics bring to the table. He said he believes Oliphant is saying that \"Israel is behaving toward the Palestinians the way the Nazis behaved toward the Jews\" and that he is stating an opinion shared by many in the Middle East and the world. \"I believe that like the caricatures they are, editorial cartoons by their nature exaggerate their messages, so I don't think Oliphant is suggesting a one-to-one comparison. So I get the message, instead, that Israel is acting brutally toward the Palestinians.\" He also believes the ADL and the Wiesenthal Center \"are saying that the cartoon is at least doing unintentional harm (if not more calculated harm).\" \"I see their point. There are symbols -- and the Nazi extermination of the Jews is surely one of them -- that can only truly be analogized to their equals. Unadulterated evil compared with unadulterated evil. Israel's ongoing battles with its Arab neighbors may be many things, but it is not The Final Solution.\" As for the question of how news organizations should handle and discuss such a cartoon, Woods said that \"Oliphant clearly has the right to provoke or offend. The question for him is: Do you truly wish to conflate a complex, historic conflict with one of the most evil acts in history? And for the newspapers that carry the cartoon -- and their behavior here is equally open to critique -- do you wish to perpetuate such a comparison?\"","highlights":"NEW: Cartoon's distributor defends cartoonist, cites his talent to stir debate .\nWork by Pulitzer-winning cartoonist shows jack-booted figure, Jewish star with fangs .\nAnti-Defamation League, Simon Wiesenthal Center say it uses anti-Semitic imagery .\nCritics compare Israeli actions to Nazi aggression; Israel says it must defended itself .","id":"20356f73269db23ab93baccc12470236b8eeff24"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The world's richest countries committed to \"any further action that may prove necessary\" to restore confidence in the global financial system, their finance ministers said as they wrapped up a two-day meeting in Rome. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is calling on governments to help restart the flow of credit. The Group of Seven finance ministers also urged countries not to close their markets to goods and services from abroad. \"An open system of global trade and investment is indispensable for global prosperity,\" they said in a statement at the end of their meeting Saturday. \"Protectionist measures ... would only exacerbate the downturn\" in the worldwide economy. The ministers said the global banking crisis had revealed \"fundamental weaknesses in the international financial system\" and called for urgent reform. Watch workers put pressure on the ministers \u00bb . New U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, making his international debut at the meetings, called on governments to focus on stabilizing and strengthening financial systems and help restart the flow of credit. \"Although the precise mix of measures must be tailored to each country's situation -- our financial systems are different, [the] structures of our systems are very different -- there is a common recognition of more capital and government financing to help restart credit markets,\" he said. Italy hosted the meeting in its role as G-7 president for 2009. G-7 members includes the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain and Canada. The agenda drawn up by Rome calls for adopting global measures and economic policy reforms capable of stabilizing the world economy and ensuring transparency to allow markets to function correctly. Watch CNN correspondents on the impact of job losses around the world \u00bb . Geithner spoke just after the U.S. Senate gave final approval late Friday to a $787 billion recovery package to boost the U.S. economy. He told attendees that the package \"provides a very powerful mix of investments and tax cuts to create jobs and to strengthen our long-term growth potential.\" \"As we act together to build a strong foundation for economic growth and recovery, we need to begin the process of comprehensive reform of our financial system, so that we never again face a crisis of this severity,\" Geithner said. Another attendee, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said he supports such stimulus packages for advanced countries. \"The question is no more to convince the governments to move today, but for them to implement the policies they need to manage,\" Strauss-Kahn said. He also warned of the dangers of protectionism, which he said may still come \"through the back door, especially in the financial sector.\"","highlights":"Group of Seven ministers urge countries not to close markets to goods from abroad .\nFocus must be on stabilizing economies, U.S. treasury secretary says .\nOfficials call for urgent reform of global financial system .","id":"70201b9de2a90fff4345722b404b0403db59e166"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's pledge to conquer cancer \"in our time\" is a great goal, but one of America's top cancer experts isn't sure he'd use the word \"cure.\" Despite chemotherapy, some breast cancers recur, like a \"smoldering fire that flares up,\" Dr. Otis Brawley said. \"The idea of [calling for] a cure does scare me a little bit because, I don't think that's realistic in some cancers,\" says Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. \"But I like the general overall idea, and I'm thrilled about the focus on health.\" Obama's first proposed budget includes $6 billion for cancer research by the National Institutes of Health. That's on top of the additional $10 billion provided by the stimulus package for 2009 and 2010. But some cancer specialists say that rather than finding a cure, a more realistic scenario is that certain cancers that are fatal today will move into the realm of chronic illnesses. By chronic disease, doctors mean \"the way we think of diabetes or heart disease as chronic diseases, where people could live in peaceful coexistence with cancer, as opposed to the cancer continuing to advance,\" said Brawley, who also is CNNhealth.com's conditions expert. Dr. Tony Reid, an oncologist and director of clinical trials at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, shares this view. He sees the long-term management of certain cancers as chronic illness as a \"primary intermediate step\" as researchers work towards cures. Prevention efforts, including discouraging smoking, obesity, and environmental hazards, are also important components of the cure, Dr. Andreas Ullrich, medical officer in cancer control at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. How long it will actually take to cure cancer is anyone's guess, but Obama's initiative is encouraging, he said. \"We need this hope,\" Ullrich said. \"We need to invest in our efforts in research, in basic research, and also in social science to understand why people behave in a risky way, and how to prevent people from exposing themselves to cancer risk,\" he said. Given that \"cancer\" encompasses more than 200 diseases, it makes sense that different varieties would require different approaches for saving the lives of their victims. From Brawley's perspective, a cure happens when the disease has gone away and it's not likely to come back, and the person is likely to grow old and die from something totally unrelated. Reid put it in terms of years of survival -- with pancreatic cancer, which normally takes lives within six months of diagnosis, you're probably cured if you're still alive five years after surgery, he said. But breast cancer can come back even after 10 years, he said. About 11 million people living in the United States had a history of some form of cancer as of 2005, according to the latest statistics from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database. There has been progress, however. For American men, the risk of death for cancer is 20 percent lower than it was 20 years ago, Brawley said. Rates of new cancer diagnoses and deaths for U.S. men and women simultaneously fell for the first time since reporting began in 1998, according to a report published in November in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. See a map of lung cancer in the U.S. from this report \u00bb . Already there are cancers that respond well to drugs for several years. Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors tend to tolerate the drugs well, for example, Reid said. \"I have many patients who will come back and say, 'Except for the fact that you tell me I have cancer, I don't know it,' \" he said. But after a while, these patients' cancer cells mutate and evolve to become resistant to the drugs, finding ways around almost any drug, Reid said. Some breast cancer patients take medications for 10 years to prevent recurrence, said Dr. Stephanie Hines, physician at the breast center at the Mayo Clinic's Breast Cancer Center in Jacksonville, Florida. But great strides have been made in such drugs, she said. \"There is real promise at eventually eradicating breast cancer,\" she said. \"I would say maybe not in the next five or 10 years. But it may happen -- I don't know if in our lifetime.\" Still, only a few kinds of cancer are currently cured, and that's often dependent on early detection -- testicular and early stage breast cancer are two of the few examples, Reid said. About 80 percent of lymphomas are cured, Brawley said. Metastatic lung cancer and metastatic breast cancer, on the other hand, are more likely to one day become \"chronic diseases,\" which would be treated throughout a person's life rather than eliminated, Brawley said. \"Once it's metastasized or spread, you can't really do surgery unless you want to do almost cherry-picking throughout the body, which doesn't really work,\" he said. Currently, some breast cancers regress even with chemotherapy. Cancer specialists compare these breast cancers to \"a smoldering fire which flares up every once in a while\" and requires more water, Brawley said. Extending the amount of time that a person could live like that is a \"reasonable goal,\" he said. Cancer doctors emphasize that Obama's initiative is a tremendous asset to cancer research. \"I think that all the tools are there -- it's just, we have to do the hard work of testing them, evaluating them, and making them available to patients, Reid said.","highlights":"President Obama's proposed budget includes $6 billion for cancer research .\nExperts: Some cancers that are fatal today will become like chronic diseases .\nAlready there are cancers that respond well to drugs for several years .","id":"14de1aa4d1e15692cc0cde3a6f6938f4f9ff9063"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Friday he will not pay interest on the nation's foreign debt and that he was prepared to accept any consequences. Correa made the comments to reporters in Guayaquil, Ecuador, about the interest payments, one of which was due Friday, his office said in a statement. He said he was studying how to challenge the debt, which he called \"immoral and a betrayal of the country,\" a reference to the way the terms of the debt were originally set. He said that though $7 billion has already been spent to pay an original debt accrued during the 1980s of $4 billion, the principal remains about the same. \"If we have to confront international lawsuits, we will confront them and, I repeat, I assume all responsibility,\" he said. \"I could not permit the continued payment of a debt that, in any light, is immoral and illegitimate.\" Correa said he was preparing a restructuring plan to be presented to creditors within a few days, and he chafed at criticism of how the money has been spent. \"We have tried to pay this overdue social debt with a program of housing without parallel in Ecuadorian history, which certain corrupt members of the press -- in function of their political interests -- now want to discredit, pointing out the inevitable houses that -- out of 80,000 -- are going to have defects,\" he said. But he said such complaints were outweighed by the \"tens of thousands of happy families with their own worthy little houses ... and all the people who can testify to the success of the program.\" The popular leftist economist said he would try to prove in international courts that the debt is illegal.","highlights":"President Rafael Correa calls foreign debt \"immoral and a betrayal of the country\"\nCorrea: $7 billion has been spent on debt interest, but principal remains same .\nPresident \"assumes responsibility\" if nation faces international lawsuits .","id":"161d562a089c99742733582827f0f839d77b0a39"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Microsoft founder Bill Gates told CNN on Wednesday that he hopes President-elect Barack Obama and Congress immediately craft a wide-ranging stimulus package, to help jump-start the nation's sputtering economy, and double the United States' commitment to foreign aid. Microsoft founder Bill Gates spoke exclusively Wednesday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. \"Clearly we need a stimulus that doesn't undermine the incentive for businesses to be careful about their spending and making those correct investments,\" Gates told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview airing on The Situation Room on Wednesday and Thursday. Gates, one of the world's richest men and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is also calling on Obama to increase investments in the nation's education system and spur technological advances to improve agriculture, prevent disease, and promote economic growth in the world's poorest nations. \"The key point I'd make is that in addition to that stimulus, you've got to fund the kind of scientific work and educational investments that could really have us be a much better country as we emerge from the recession,\" he said. Watch Gates discuss economy \u00bb . On his Web site, Obama has pledged to double the United States' annual investment in foreign aid to $50 billion by the end of his first term, with the goal of fully funding debt cancellation for poor nations and fighting AIDS and global poverty. In the interview with CNN, Gates said he thinks Obama will live up to that commitment. \"Obviously it's the Congress that gets to actually vote the final decision for how the money is spent, but I do think he will get to that commitment,\" Gates said. \"I am thrilled to be able to see that people are responding to the success stories. Aid from the United States did go up in the last eight years.\" The interview came shortly before the Microsoft founder delivered a wide-ranging speech at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., during which he reiterated his call for a major new stimulus package to spur job growth. \"Spending is the only way we'll ever come out of this downturn, and with businesses, state governments and consumers pulling back, the federal government must step forward,\" Gates told the crowd. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has distributed more than $17 billion in grant commitments in all 50 states and 100 countries. In his interview with CNN, Gates said he had personally given more than $30 billion to the foundation.","highlights":"Microsoft founder Bill Gates talks to CNN's Wolf Blitzer .\nGates says Obama should craft a wide-ranging stimulus package .\nHe also wants Obama to increase investments in education, technology .\n\"Spending is the only way we'll ever come out of this downturn,\" he says .","id":"399a152fa4b30ae74d79a27b7f58d38642d82eee"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A volcano in southwest Colombia erupted again Friday morning, raining ash on nearby residents and agricultural fields. The Galeras volcano, erupting here in January 2008, is considered the most active volcano in Colombia. None of the 8,000 residents who live near the Galeras volcano was reported injured, officials said. It is the second time in less than a week that the volcano has erupted. The government's Geological and Mining Institute raised the alert level from yellow to red, and officials opened eight shelters for displaced residents. Authorities ordered the 8,000 people who live near the volcano to evacuate. The city of Pasto, which has about 35,000 residents and is more than 12 miles (about 20 kilometers) from the volcano's crater, received a heavy downpour of ashes Friday. The volcano, near Colombia's border with Ecuador, previously erupted Saturday. It has erupted several times since it became active again in 1989. The only fatalities were in 1993, when nine people -- all scientists or tourists in or near the volcano's crater -- were killed. The volcano's crater is 14,029 feet (4,276 meters) above sea level in the Andes Mountains. It is considered the most active volcano in Colombia. Journalist Fernando Ramos contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities order evacuation of 8,000 people who live near Galeras volcano .\nNo injuries reported; volcano erupts for second time in less than a week .\nNearby city of Pasto receives downpour of ashes .","id":"06804343c6ee5ca7eded40d4157757fe947eecb4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This story is part of an ongoing series of profiles CNN is doing about economic survival in this time of financial crisis. Nicole Thompson-Arce poses on her wedding day with her husband, Mathew Arce, and her ex-mother-in-law. (CNN) -- Struggling to make ends meet, trying to dig themselves out of debt, Nicole Thompson-Arce and her husband have moved in with her ex-husband. Together, the unlikely threesome of Omaha, Nebraska, is raising two young daughters from the first marriage. It's the kind of situation that has left cable guys howling. \"They'd never heard anything like this,\" Thompson-Arce, 28, remembered with a laugh. \"And they're in people's homes everyday.\" When she and Craig Thompson, 42, were going through a divorce in 2005, this was not a deal either of them could have imagined striking. It was a messy divorce, the kind involving a custody dispute. But once they ironed out that battle, agreeing to joint custody, Thompson-Arce said they were able to move on and forward. iReport: Read Thompson-Arce's post . By the time she married Mathew Arce last July, she said she and her ex were friends. In fact, they were so close that his mother -- meaning Thompson-Arce's ex-mother-in-law -- was in (not just at) the second wedding ceremony. Soon after the Florida wedding, the new lovebirds flew into a financial mess. She had left a job, and as soon as she found another (a temp position), her 22-year-old husband was fired from his higher-paying gig. iReport.com: Job hunt stories . They fell behind in rent. The bills stacked up. The credit card debt grew. iReport.com: What are you cutting from budget? A couple months later, Arce, landed a temporary Wal-Mart cashier position, which has since turned into a full-time job. But finances remained shaky and digging themselves out of debt seemed insurmountable. Tell us how you're surviving in this economy . In walked the ex with an offer, just in time for Christmas. Thompson, an 18-year bakery employee at Wal-Mart, lives in a three-bedroom, one-bath home. \"I knew they were having money problems, so I just asked them to move in,\" he said. \"I figured I'd get to see my girls, my daughters, more often. And Nicole said yes right away.\" Besides the economic savings, the benefits are many. No longer do they have to shuttle Victoria, 7, and Caitlyn, 6, between two households. As a team, they can parent and be on the same page. Finding a baby sitter is never a problem. They take turns making meals, which they all share. Thompson and Arce, who are 20 years apart -- \"I had to get the whole spectrum going there,\" Thompson-Arce joked -- have become the best of friends, and share a similar sense of humor. They have tackled home improvement projects, run around together on days they both have off and often hang out at the kitchen table building plastic models. \"We just clicked,\" Thompson said. \"When I tell people, 'I'm living with my ex-wife and her husband,' I get some really strange looks. ...It's different. It's unusual, but it works.\" The transition has been smooth and great for the kids, Thompson-Arce said. And for their benefit, irrespective of finances, she thinks it's a living situation they'll stick with for at least five to 10 years. It has, however, taken a little time for the little ones to get the story straight. Seven-year-old Victoria went back to school after winter break -- and after the whole team had blended under one roof -- and started telling people this: \" 'My mommy has two husbands,'\" Thompson-Arce remembered. \"I was like, 'No, honey, don't tell them that!'\" What she and both men hope the girls are learning is that divorced parents can work together and be friends. \"There are so many families that go through divorce and can never let it go,\" she said. \"I'm thankful, and hopefully our situation can help people rethink things because if they have kids, it's in their best interest to get along.\" One might wonder whether the couple, who've been married for less than a year, get enough time alone together, given where they're living. Thompson-Arce points out that her ex works a shift that sends him to bed at 7 p.m., so the evenings -- after the kids are asleep -- are for her and her husband to share. Watch restaurant holds date night event \u00bb . \"When they do have a romantic evening, I don't hear them, so we're not going there,\" Thompson quipped. \"There's a bathroom between our two bedrooms.\" The ex-husband hasn't dated since the divorce. He said it's because he's been focused on work and taking care of the kids. Thompson-Arce, however, said that she and her husband are forever trying to get Thompson on the dating scene and want him to meet someone special. Special, and understanding, she would most definitely need to be. \"He'd have to find a very open-minded woman because we don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon,\" Thompson-Arce said.","highlights":"Financially strapped couple moves in with wife's ex-husband to save .\nThe Omaha, Nebraska, threesome find an arrangement that works .\nTogether they raise two kids and teach that divorced parents can get along .\nEx-husband: \"When I tell people... I get some really strange looks\"","id":"33a97636059fd57f27d8d10cb9a0899507ab4b76"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a journalist who was hacked to death in southeastern Nepal was cremated Tuesday as businesses and public transportation in the town of Janakpur remained shut for a second day to protest the killing. Uma Singh, who was murdered in Nepal Sunday, had talked about the difficulties of practicing journalism. Authorities said they arrested four people in connection with the death of Uma Singh, but they did not release the suspects' names or possible motive, said Damakant Jayashi, associate editor of the online news Web site, myrepublica.com. \"Journalists and human rights groups have descended on the town, and shops are shuttered in what almost seems like a spontaneous protest,\" Jayashi said. \"Journalists are all wearing black bands on their arms. And the FM stations in the city, all day yesterday, they played mourning tunes instead of their regular programs.\" The killing of Singh, 26, is the latest in a \"troubling trend\" of attacks on reporters, the United Nations' human rights office in the country said. It asked the government to investigate the case and prosecute death threats against other journalists. \"Doing so will send a strong message that there will be no impunity for attacks against the media, nor for any serious crimes,\" the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal said. Singh wrote for a daily newspaper and reported for a radio station in Janakpur, about 240 km (150 miles) southeast of the capital city, Kathmandu. When she got home from work Sunday night, a group of about 15 men barged into the room she rented at a house and hacked her with \"khukhuris\" -- curved knives traditional to Nepal -- in full view of other boarders, authorities said. \"I am very very shocked,\" said Dharmendra Jha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, which is leading the protests. \"If the government is not ready to provide any kind of security to journalists, it will be very difficult to do journalism in a free mode.\" The group said it will announce a new phase of protests Wednesday. Authorities do not have a motive for the killing. In some of her articles, Singh spoke out against the dowry system, where a bride's family is forced to give cash and property to the groom's family before the wedding. Also Sunday, a group of men ransacked the house of another journalist in the same region, leaving a cross on her door and telling her it was her turn next, media groups said. Police do not know if the two incidents are related. In recent months, the number of attacks on journalists in Nepal have shot up. The federation released a year-end report, recording 284 incidents -- including three deaths and a kidnapping. Some of the assailants have ties to the Communist Party of Nepal, the largest party in Nepal's coalition government, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The party is led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or Prachanda -- a man who led a decade-long bloody insurgency before being sown in as prime minister. During the decade-long civil war, Maoist forces under him carried out numerous attacks on journalists they believed were opposed to their cause, Human Rights Watch said. And after he became prime minister, Prachanda issued a public warning to journalists while addressing a massive crowd in Kathmandu: \"Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people.\" Three years ago, Singh's father and elder brother disappeared. Her family has all along accused local Maoist leaders of being behind the disappearances, Jayashi said. Singh, herself, talked about the difficulties of practicing journalism in an interview with the United Nations last year. \"Various armed groups that are mushrooming have been a major challenge for us. We have been compelled to dance to their tunes. ...This makes us helpless,\" she said in the interview. \"What do we do? If we don't air the news of their choice, they threaten to kill us. Things have become very, very difficult for us.\"","highlights":"Nepalese journalist who reported on women's rights hacked to death Sunday .\nUma Singh said before her death: \"Things have become very, very difficult for us\"\nU.N. asks govt. to investigate, prosecute death threats against other journalists .\nJournalists group: 284 incidents against journalists in 2008, including 3 deaths .","id":"6af34589c2513e8258681453c9229e8f1be8992c"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's opposition leader called the cholera outbreak in his country a \"man-made crisis,\" as new figures released Thursday showed the death toll had soared to more than 2,700. Morgan Tsvangirai tours a cholera ward at Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare Thursday. Some 2,755 have died and 48,623 people are suspected to have been infected with cholera since last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking to reporters, pointed a finger at the Mugabe government. \"Cholera in Zimbabwe is a man-made crisis. The problem we have here is coupled with (the) fact of negligence on the part of government to provide the necessary facilities. It shows the collapse of the health delivery system,\" said Tsvangirai. The Movement for Democratic Change leader's comments came after he toured some of the worst affected areas in the country's capital, Harare. Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic, which started in August, has been aggravated by erratic water supplies, shortages of water purification chemicals, broken water and sewer pipes and uncollected garbage. Cholera is an intestinal disease cause by bacteria in contaminated water. The epidemic was followed a month later by a strike by doctors and nurses demanding a review of their salaries. They are demanding that archaic hospital equipment be replaced and that medicines be available in hospitals. The health emergency comes at a time when Zimbabwe is mired in the worst economic crisis it has faced since it gained independence from Great Britain in 1980. Last week, the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) gave $5 million to Zimbabwe's ailing health sector to help end the industrial action by health personnel. As Tsvangirai was visiting the cholera affected areas, some residents could be seen getting water from the wells and rivers. Most suburbs in Harare have had no water for close to two weeks, forcing residents to depend on shallow pits and rivers for drinking water. The Zimbabwe National Water Authority was quoted by the state-owned media Saturday attributing the dryness to a water pump which had broken-down. The areas particularly affected include the townships of Glen Norah, Glen View and Budiriro. \"I am here with my kids for the last two days,\" said Ennie Musararei, a mother of three at Budiriro clinic. \"It (cholera) just started after we drank water from a well. We thought it was safe to drink since it was covered by a metal sheet.\" President Robert Mugabe's government have now declared cholera a national emergency, so that international organizations such as UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders and Red Cross can gain access. But death toll has continued to increase daily. \"This week alone has witnessed a sudden increase of patients,\" said a nurse at Budiriro clinic. \"I think it is mainly because of the rains and dryness of the suburbs over the past week or so.\" Earlier this month, Zimbabwe's health minister, David Parirenyatwa, said the death toll was likely to increase as the country is in its rainy season. The meteorological office in Zimbabwe has predicted floods in some parts of the country.","highlights":"World Health Organization: 2,755 cholera deaths in Zimbabwe since last year .\nTsvangirai: Govt. negligence resulted in failure to provide necessary facilities .\nEpidemic aggravated by erratic water supplies, broken water and sewer pipes .\nMugabe's government have now declared cholera a national emergency .","id":"e10c7f72bc3de187cb7adfa31a1f098d0f47bbf9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Paul Harvey, the legendary radio host whose career sharing \"the rest of the story\" with listeners spanned more than 70 years, has died, according to ABC Radio Networks. Paul Harvey received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2005. He was 90. Harvey died at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, where he kept a winter home, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for the networks. He was surrounded by family members when he died, Adams said. Known for his deliberate delivery and pregnant pauses, Harvey's broadcasts were heard on more than 1,200 radio stations and 400 Armed Forces networks and his commentaries appeared in 300 newspapers, according to his Web site. iReport.com: Share your memories of Paul Harvey . He had been hosting his radio shows part-time for much of the past year, after recovering from physical ailments including pneumonia and the death of his wife, Lynne \"Angel\" Harvey, in May 2008. \"My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news,\" said Harvey's son, Paul Harvey Jr., in a written statement. \"So, in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend.\" Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harvey began his radio career in 1933 at KVOO-AM there while he was still in high school, his Web site says. He helped clean the station and was eventually was allowed to fill in on air, reading news and commercials. Watch how Paul Harvey Aurandt got into broadcasting \u00bb . \"Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation's history,\" ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson said in a written statement. \"As he delivered the news each day with his own unique style and commentary, his voice became a trusted friend in American households.\" Some critics faulted Harvey for the way he seamlessly intertwined news stories with advertisements, which he often read in his own voice in the middle of a story. But his accolades were plentiful -- from his 1990 induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President George W. Bush in 2005. \"Paul was a friendly and familiar voice in the lives of millions of Americans,\" Bush said Saturday in a written statement. \"His commentary entertained, enlightened, and informed. Laura and I are pleased to have known this fine man, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family.\" The cause of Harvey's death was not immediately known. He was forced off the air temporarily in 2001 because of a virus that weakened a vocal cord. CNN's Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"The 90-year-old coined the phrase \"And now, the rest of the story.\"\nHarvey was known for his deliberate delivery and pregnant pauses .\nRecovering from ailments, he had been hosting his radio shows part-time .\nHarvey's broadcasts were heard on more than 1,200 radio stations .","id":"4dafff11c294bf240edcaca5a008d21bb2878213"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somali pirates have turned high-seas kidnappings into a lucrative business, one that netted between $50 million and $150 million last year, a former Navy SEAL told CNN. Attackers hijacked the Maersk Alabama, shown here, formerly known as the Alva Maersk. Kaj Larsen spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper Wednesday night about the changing tactics of pirates in Somalia. Below is a transcript of that interview, portions of which have been edited. Cooper: You have spent a fair amount of time there. You have actually met with the pirates, right? Larsen: I did. I met with some of the pirates that were operating out of Port of Mogadishu in 2006. And that was right before this current uptick in piracy that we're seeing so much of right now. Cooper: And why the uptick? Just because now they realize it's so profitable? Larsen: Sure, absolutely. There's an extraordinary incentive to conduct acts of piracy. Last year, they estimate the pirates took in somewhere between $50 million and $150 million in ransom money. It's extraordinary. It's very lucrative. And, obviously, the cheap flow of weapons available in Somalia all contribute to this problem of maritime piracy. See how pirate attacks are skyrocketing \u00bb . Cooper: And this is a different situation, because now the USS Bainbridge is on scene. This is the first time an American has been held hostage. But, normally, a whole crew gets taken hostage, and it's basically a negotiation between the company that owns the vessel or the cargo and the pirates. Larsen: Right Obviously, this is a very unique situation and it's developing right now as we speak. So, this is setting new standards and new precedents. My concern during this situation is that the pirates, seeing their first batch of resistance, in the future might be using more aggressive tactics now that they see that some ships are willing to fight back. Cooper: You were a Navy SEAL. What is the procedure in something like this? Larsen: Well, obviously, each situation is very unique, and so they have to balance the use of force with the potential threat of injury to the hostage. Again, this is a unique situation. This is the first time Americans have been taken hostage, so we could see a new precedent being set. Watch how pirates operate off Somalia \u00bb . In the past, the U.S. Navy and the other coalition forces and the combined task force in the region has been reluctant to engage with the pirates militarily, for fear that one of the hostages will be hurt. We will see if that continues to be the case here. Cooper: And, basically, I mean, if [pirates are] operating 350 miles offshore, and they're running around, and then they're going around in these little skiffs, do they have a larger boat nearby somewhere in the area? ... They can't go 350 miles offshore in a little skiff, can they? Larsen: No, absolutely not, I mean, although you are seeing improved weather conditions in the Gulf of Aden, which is responsible for the increased in attacks over the past week, 350 miles is a long ways out at sea. So, again, the pirates are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, are actually [using] mother ships in many cases, from which they send out the small speedboats out to both track and then sometimes assault these tanker and these container ships in the gulf. Cooper: How do you think this thing is going to end? Do you have any idea? Larsen: I don't really have any idea. In the past, what we have seen is a classic kidnap-for-ransom hostage negotiation system, where the insurance companies end up paying sometimes millions of dollars for these pirates. In this case, I think the very close presence of a U.S. Navy vessel might ... provide some discomfort to the pirates in the area.","highlights":"Ex-Navy SEAL says kidnapping of American is change for Somali pirates .\nKaj Larsen says pirates made between $50 million to $150 million last year .\n\"The pirates are becoming increasingly more sophisticated,\" he says .","id":"21f21984c5798a91bd0f726b965e1e7f9a3cd3f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A crew member on a U.S.-flagged cargo ship captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia is suing his employers, claiming they sent him into pirate-infested waters without adequate protection, his attorney said Monday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse has been charged with piracy in federal court in New York. Richard Hicks of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, a crew member on the Maersk Alabama, filed suit Monday against Waterman Steamship Corp. and Maersk Line Limited, according to the attorney, Terry Bryant. A spokeswoman for Mobile, Alabama-based Waterman Steamship Corp. said she did not know about the suit and did not immediately comment. A spokeswoman for Maersk Line Limited did not immediately return a call from CNN seeking comment. The Maersk Alabama was hijacked by pirates April 8. Hicks, working as chief steward and preparing food for other crew members, heard over the loudspeaker that pirates were on board, and he and other crew members gathered in the ship's engine room for nearly 12 hours, according to a news release from Bryant. \"The engine room was dark and hot, maybe 130 degrees,\" Hicks said in the news release. \"We were all cramping up with heat stroke symptoms when we were able to take a pirate hostage and tried to negotiate the return of our captain.\" The pirates promised to exchange Capt. Richard Phillips for the pirate hostage, but reneged on that agreement, the news release. Phillips offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the freedom of his crew. He was held on a lifeboat until U.S. Navy snipers on a nearby ship fatally shot three pirates, rescued Phillips and arrested a fourth pirate. The ship's owners -- the two companies -- knowingly exposed their employees to danger and took no steps to provide appropriate security and safety for the crew, Bryant alleges. \"Waterman Steamship Corp. and Maersk Line Limited chose to rely on the United States military and taxpayers to provide after-the-fact rescue operations,\" Bryant said in the news release. \"This choice caused substantially more cost and risk to human life than what would have been incurred by defendants had they provided appropriate levels of security in the first place.\" Hicks is seeking at least $75,000, and \"reserves the right to amend this pleading for a certain amount in the future, as it is too early to determine the maximum amount of plaintiff's damages,\" according to the suit. Hicks is still suffering from injuries as a result of the incident and is afraid to return to work, the news release said.","highlights":"Suit alleges crew sent into pirate-infested waters without protection .\nRepresentatives of ship's owners have yet to comment .\nMaersk Alabama was hijacked by pirates April 8 .\nPlaintiff Richard Hicks, of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, was the ship's steward .","id":"eb2585a219969286b96ff1d9e6449303c5234292"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old Rochester, New York, high school student who vanished over the weekend on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, says she did not give her daughter permission to go on the trip. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mom says she thought she was at the beach in New York, not South Carolina. In an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace, Dawn Drexel said her daughter, Brittanee Marie Drexel, has never run away. Drexel said the high school junior stayed in touch with her by phone, and she last spoke with Brittanee on Saturday afternoon. \"I asked her what she was doing and she says 'Oh, mom, I'm at the beach.' And it was an 80-degree day in Rochester so, of course, I thought maybe she was at the beach in Rochester with one of her girlfriends that she had said she was staying overnight,\" Drexel said. Watch mom describe daughter's last call \u00bb . Drexel said she asked Brittanee to call her later and the girl agreed. \"I said, 'I love you, Brittanee' and she says, 'I love you, mom.' And then we hung up the phone.\" Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening, though an unconfirmed sighting may have placed her at a restaurant on Sunday. She was staying with friends at the Bar Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard, according to police reports.","highlights":"Brittanee Drexel disappears on trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina .\nMom says she spoke to daughter but didn't know she was out of state .\nBrittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening .","id":"e7c867e63b1064e46b369ca25aad2172562e4a5f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Carlos del Rio, MD, is the Hubert Professor and chair in the global health department at the Rollins School of Public Health and professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Emory University's School of Medicine. Del Rio is a native of Mexico and was executive director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico from 1992 through 1996. Dr. Carlos del Rio says U.S. and Mexican authorities deserve credit for their responses to the swine flu outbreak. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The swine flu outbreak that started less than a month ago has caused more than 150 deaths in Mexico and more than 60 confirmed cases across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with suspected cases in France, Spain, Israel and New Zealand. It is clear that a new virus has emerged that is different enough that the population's previous exposure to influenza viruses and vaccines do not provide immunity. So far, public health authorities are meeting this challenge with strength and preparedness. The Mexican and American federal governments deserve credit for their thorough responses. The major control strategy that has been implemented in Mexico is social-distancing, a range of nonquarantine measures that attempt to reduce contact between persons, such as closing schools, canceling cultural and sports events, and closing museums and parks. In addition, countries are strengthening surveillance, releasing antiviral stockpiles and issuing travel advisories. In the United States, federal officials are working closely with and providing guidance to state and local public health authorities, who have to make decisions about whether to close schools or prevent other large-scale gatherings. The cross-border nature of this outbreak is a strong argument for why the United States should cooperate with and support competent institutions of government in other countries, even during a period of economic uncertainty. The first case of swine flu in the United States during the current outbreak was identified in San Diego County by part of a surveillance program connected with the Naval Health Research Center there, which only began monitoring influenza in 2005. In this program, physicians collect nasal swabs from patients at community clinics on both sides of the border. Only when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists sent a suspect sample to the mass spectrometer did they discover the new variety of swine flu, according to an article describing the techniques in Science magazine. Two critical questions remain. Why have mortality rates been higher in Mexico? And how should preparations for the regular flu season later this year be modified? Reports from Mexico that the virus has primarily struck otherwise healthy young adults are alarming because seasonal influenza typically affects the very young and very old. Still, preliminary genetic analysis shows that the virus strains isolated from patients in California are identical to those seen in severely ill Mexican patients. It is possible that some of the patients in Mexico, many of whom are dying of pneumonia, are succumbing to secondary infections. Medical historians believe that a large proportion of those who died of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 were not killed by the flu virus, but by secondary bacterial pneumonia, which was difficult to treat before the introduction of antibiotics. Thus, enhancing vaccination against pneumonia may prove to be a critical strategy in decreasing influenza mortality during future outbreaks. Additional investigation of those who have died is however, urgently needed to determine the best response strategy. An issue that keeps coming up is the idea of closing the U.S.-Mexico border. Already at various border crossing points, customs authorities are having people who appear sick taken to a secondary inspection area for further evaluation. More systematic monitoring at border crossing and airports such as mouth swabs has been proposed. Is that a good strategy? I would argue that it is not. The U.S.-Mexico border is one of the busiest in the world with millions of people and goods crossing each day. Many items that we routinely use in the United States are produced in Mexico and closing the border would have a crippling effect to the United States. For example, in the event of a serious flu outbreak in this country there would be a need for mechanical ventilator deployments to hospitals. The national stockpile has sufficient ventilators, but the necessary circuits that are needed to operate them are not produced in the United States but in Mexico, so having them come across to this country is critical for taking care of critically ill patients in the United States. The second issue is how to prepare for the coming flu season. During the flu pandemic of 1918, cases began in the spring and then faded away during the summer, only to come back with a vengeance in the fall and winter. Thus, we need to be prepared for an even worse outbreak of swine flu this winter and should not declare victory too soon. Considerable evidence has accumulated that the practice of producing seasonal vaccines in chicken eggs is cumbersome and sometimes ineffective. There is an urgent need for the development of more modern techniques of vaccine production. The National Institutes of Health has been putting its research resources into the fight. In 2007, the NIH created six Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, located at Emory University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, UCLA, University of Minnesota and University of Rochester. Sunday's emergency declaration signaled for these centers to devote their resources to monitoring and responding to the swine flu outbreak. Researchers at these centers have developed alternatives to chicken eggs and new delivery methods. Now is the time to put these alternatives to the test, so that countries around the world are fully prepared for the coming flu season and future outbreaks. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Carlos del Rio.","highlights":"Dr. Carlos del Rio: U.S. and Mexico have responded well to swine flu outbreak .\nHe says cross-border cooperation is crucial to successful battle against flu .\nKey question is why Mexico's illnesses have been more deadly, he says .\nDel Rio: One factor may be presence of pneumonia in those who died .","id":"c6d026c691a82cca419fffea424a1fee3e1534d1"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Predicting the path of a swine flu outbreak is next to impossible, public health officials say. But Dr. Ira Longini has spent more than three decades trying to do just that. Dr. Ira Longini studies simulations of hypothetical influenzas and how they would spread. And Longini says the apparent new strain of swine flu appears to be here to stay. \"We are probably going to have to live with this virus for some time,\" he told CNN. Longini specializes in the mathematical and statistical theory of epidemics. He works at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at the Hutchinson Research Center in Seattle, Washington. The researcher studies simulations of hypothetical influenzas and how they would spread across the United States. For the moment, he said, there is not enough information about the swine flu that has sickened hundreds in Mexico and about 50 people in the United States to accurately forecast how the disease will travel. But Longini's simulations of a fictional killer flu that were ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the importance of steps health officials can take to prevent further spread of the virus. These measures include \"social distancing,\" or encouraging those sickened with the flu to stay home or seek medical treatment; closing places where groups of people gather; and making anti-flu medications available to large portions of the population. In the simulations, Longini said, these forms of containment reduce the sickness by nearly two-thirds. \"The name of the game is to slow transmission until a well-matched vaccine can be made and distributed. I am fairly optimistic we can do that,\" he said. Watch how computer models simulate an outbreak's spread \u00bb . So far, Longini said, it appears that everyone sickened by swine flu in the United States contracted the disease while traveling in Mexico, the apparent epicenter of the outbreak. But he cautioned: \"That could change very fast. Obviously people in these communities could also get on airplanes and go other places or get on buses or cars or trucks and move around. The picture may change very rapidly. Basically, influenza is going to go where people go.\" Health officials agree that the worst may still be yet to come. \"It is too soon for us to say what the spectrum is,\" Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director of the CDC, said Monday on Larry King Live. \"We are going to see cases in this country that are more severe, individuals who are hospitalized, and I would not be surprised if we see deaths in this country.\" Longini said health officials are doing everything they can to mitigate how widely the swine flu spreads in the United States. Even if authorities examined everyone entering the country, Longini said, it would not solve the problem. \"Through simulations and mathematical work we've shown that travel restrictions -- although potentially useful in slowing spread [of swine flu] -- they are not going to stop it,\" Longini said. \"We can screen airline passengers, but there all those asymptomatic or incubating people we would miss. So you really have to deal with these outbreaks locally, everywhere they are occurring.\" Watch how countries are scanning travelers \u00bb . Longini said he hopes that as more data come in about the outbreak, it will help to answer questions researchers have about why the swine flu appears more deadly in the Mexico cases than the ones in the United States. Researchers also hope to find out why such a large percentage of fatalities in Mexico are young people whose healthy immune systems usually protect them from the flu. But there is good news, Longini said, at least temporarily, for populations in certain areas. In North America and Europe, summer will soon begin, ending the traditional flu season. Even outbreaks such as swine flu tend to follow standard flu season patterns, he said. Other parts of the world may not be so lucky. \"Timing is terrible for people in the Southern Hemisphere -- places like New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, parts of South America, \"Longini said. \"They are just coming into their flu season.\"","highlights":"Researcher studies how a potential flu outbreak could spread .\nAuthorities taking vital steps to keep outbreak from spreading, he explains .\nStill, worst of swine flu outbreak may be yet to come, health officials warn .\nResearcher hopes data will show why outbreak so much deadlier in Mexico .","id":"1019066942464c49aaf820c1f6f496b30a96d409"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military continued its assault Thursday on militants in Taliban-held areas, its chief spokesman told reporters. Pakistani army trucks move military equipment into the troubled Buner district Thursday. So far, 14 militants have been killed in the past 24 hours, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. The operation is still ongoing in the districts of Dir and Buner, which was recently seized by the Taliban in violation of an agreement with Pakistan's government. Pakistani forces have completely secured Daggar, the main town in Buner and the scene of heavy fighting on Wednesday, Abbas said. The Daggar operation resulted in the deaths of 50 militants, but freed 18 Frontier Corps personnel who had been abducted by militants, he said. Fifty-two of their colleagues are still believed to be held by their suspected Taliban kidnappers. This week's military operation has resulted in more than 180 militant casualties since Sunday, while the military has suffered one death and one injury, according to Abbas. He said he hopes the operation will be completed by the end of the week. Pakistan has asked the United States to supply its forces with helicopters, communication equipment and night vision technology, Abbas said Thursday. Most of this week's casualties happened on Tuesday, when Pakistani fighter jets launched airstrikes, killing at least 70 militants in the Dir district, according to the Pakistani military. The operation is part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, which have rankled relations between the two countries. The military campaign has apparently not stopped Washington from carrying out unmanned drone attacks on Pakistan's soil. A suspected unmanned aerial vehicle killed six people Wednesday night in the village of Kaniguran in the tribal district of South Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence sources said. Pakistan has complained repeatedly about what it says are American airstrikes on its territory. The U.S. military in Afghanistan has not commented on the strikes, which typically target Taliban fighters in the border region. But the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from remote-controlled drones. U.S. President Barack Obama is \"gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan,\" he told reporters Wednesday night. Speaking at a news conference capping his 100th day in office, Obama said the United States has \"huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable\" and doesn't end up a \"nuclear-armed militant state.\" But he stressed he was more concerned about the ability of Pakistan's civilian government to \"deliver basic services,\" and not \"that they're immediately going to be overrun\" by the Taliban. Pakistan's recent military crackdown has led to an exodus of civilians from the region. At least 33,000 residents have left their homes in the midst of the recent fighting, according to Amnesty International. Civilians fleeing from Lower Dir in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province join more than 500,000 people already displaced by the fighting, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The Pakistani military completed its operation to eliminate and expel militants in Dir Tuesday, and is now focusing on the Buner district, Abbas said. About 300 militants entered Buner a few days ago, in violation of the Taliban's recent agreement to leave the district, he said. Buner is about 60 miles from Islamabad, but Abbas said the militants pose no threat of entering the capital. The fighter jets pounded targets in Buner and the Swat Valley in an effort to block the militants' entry and exit points, according to Abbas. CNN's Samson Desta, Ivan Watson, and Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistani military intensifies drive against Taliban in restive tribal regions .\nRecent military operation has resulted in more than 180 militant casualties .\nHas not stopped U.S. unmanned drone attacks on Pakistan's soil .\nBarack Obama \"gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan\"","id":"a32c5cc42504499e8ca38eb3d5acf366bad3911d"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- I can't find it anywhere in the Constitution, so maybe there is a first lady dress code buried in an obscure addendum to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, since every mistress of the White House for the last four decades has chosen a wardrobe that follows a particular one with near pathological devotion. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive in Prague, Czech Republic, in early April. No sooner does her inaugural ballgown get spirited away to the Smithsonian, then out it comes: The First Lady Suit -- that tailored, multibuttoned blazer over a skirt straighter than an Ionic column in a primary, patriotic or tastefully unobjectionable color. So did someone not give Michelle Obama the memo? Because during these first 100 days, our newest first lady has banished every version of this silhouette as if they were all designed by the House of Dick Cheney. Instead, Mrs. Obama has defined with remarkable acuity what flatters a tall, broad-shouldered and curvaceous working woman who knows exactly who she is and where she is going. With an enviable eye for color and layering, she has fashioned a riveting parade of on- and off-the-shoulder dresses, cardigans, cinched trenches, leggings, wide-legged trousers and full skirts, working them in intense florals or unexpected hues such as chartreuse and emerald. InStyle.com: Michelle Obama's first 100 Days of style . In addition, like every woman who gets a kick out of dressing up, she knows the power of accessories -- a cool flat boot, a wide belt, a statement necklace. The thrilling result? Women across this country (and the world) are exclaiming almost daily, \"Look at that print! I love that color! Where can I get that sweater?\" Watch how the first lady has become a style icon \u00bb . What's more, not only does our first lady proudly stride with the confidence and warmth of a modern American woman, but the wardrobe she steps out in boasts relevance, comfort, and -- dare we say it? -- sex appeal. InStyle.com: Try on Obama's hairstyle . The fashion industry may have occasionally sniped, but come on, does anyone really give a damn if it's appropriate to wear a cardigan to meet the queen? What does count is that each time we've caught that man of hers watching her walk into a room during their first 100 days, we have witnessed both a dynamic new first couple -- and a wife whose husband unashamedly only has eyes for her. The clothes are cool, but even better is the fact that Michelle Obama has brought romance back to the White House. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"InStyle's Hal Rubenstein says Michelle Obama has dropped first lady uniform .\nShe has parade of dresses, cinched trenches, wide-legged trousers, full skirts .\nOutfits come in intense florals or unexpected hues like chartreuse and emerald .\nObama knows power of accessories: cool flat boot, wide belt, a statement necklace .","id":"36fe1217b07b6b506abd51572320676a487fe4ea"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A man who Los Angeles police believe raped and murdered dozens of women decades ago was arrested by cold case investigators this month after a computer matched his DNA to evidence from two killings in the 1970s. John Floyd Thomas Jr. may have begun his killings as far back as 1955. John Floyd Thomas Jr., 72, may have begun his killings as far back as 1955 and he could be one of the worst serial killers in United States history, according to Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton. \"We have yet to reach the depths of what he has done,\" Bratton said Thursday. Until his April 2 arrest, Thomas was a Los Angeles insurance adjuster. Police now call him the \"Southland Strangler\" -- named for the geographical section of Los Angeles County where they suspect he killed at least 30 women and raped many more. Thomas, who sits in a Los Angeles jail, has been charged with two killings -- in 1972 and 1976 -- but prosecutors will likely add more cases when he faces arraignment on May 20, Bratton said. While Thomas was arrested \"a number of times between 1955 and 1978\" for sex crimes and burglaries, detectives did not have the technology to identify him as a suspect when the region was terrorized by a series of killings then blamed on the \"Westside Rapist,\" Bratton said. Watch why the suspect may be L.A.'s most prolific serial killer \u00bb . Officials, using new computer databases and software, are now \"looking to see what the patterns were,\" said Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Charlie Beck. \"A lot of work has yet to be done,\" Beck said. Bob Kistner had just begun his law enforcement career in 1976 when his great aunt, 80-year-old Maybelle Hudson, was beaten, raped and strangled in the garage of her Inglewood, California, home. He had just retired as a sergeant with the Long Beach, California, Police Department when he got the call recently that investigators linked Thomas to her murder. \"I waited my entire career for that phone call,\" Kistner said. It was a routine call to Thomas from an LAPD officer last fall that led to the break in the case. Thomas, a registered sex offender, is required by California law to provide a DNA sample for inclusion in the state's database. Because of a backlog of cases, Thomas was not asked until October to report to a patrol station to have the inside of his cheek swabbed. \"He was very cooperative,\" the patrolman who took the sample said. The California Department of Justice called LAPD cold case detectives on March 27 to tell them the DNA came up as a match to rape kit evidence collected from Ethel Sokoloff, who was 68 in 1972 when she was found beaten and strangled in her Los Angeles home. Those detectives had sent the biological evidence from the Sokoloff case to a state lab in 2002 as part of their review of about 6,000 unsolved murders in Los Angeles that happened between 1960 and 1996. DNA analysis in 2004 concluded that Sokoloff's killer also beat, raped and killed Elizabeth McKeown, 67, in 1976, Beck said. The murders of three other older women -- including Maybelle Hudson -- were also linked by DNA to a common killer, he said. \"Because of Thomas's criminal background, the close proximity of his homes to murder locations, similar victim descriptions [white elderly females] and other evidence that suggests the type of modus operandi used by the suspect, detectives strongly believe Thomas is very likely the suspect in 'The Westside Rapist' cases,\" a police statement said. Thomas is single, although he has been married five times, police said. While he served about 12 years in prison between 1955 and the late 1970s for his previous convictions, he has no record since his last arrest in 1978, police said. Deputy Chief Beck said the growing use of DNA databases and computers to match them to crime evidence will likely lead to more cold case killers being identified.","highlights":"Police say John Thomas Jr. may have begun killing as far back as 1955 .\nThomas arrested April 2 and is charged with killing two women .\n72-year-old could be linked to dozens of other killings and assaults .","id":"ac8d3ea71711fbc47cf11a84cade552d104f14c3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- On May 4, 2007, Kara Kopetsky, a 17-year-old high school junior in Belton, Missouri, was not having a good day. Kara Kopetsky, 17, left school early in Belton, Missouri, on May 4, 2007, and hasn't been seen since. She forgot one of her textbooks and called home and asked her mom to drop it off at the school office. She also asked her mother to wash her uniform so she could work the 4 p.m. shift at Popeye's Chicken. Later that morning, Kara had an argument with one of her teachers in class, according to police and her family. Frustrated, she left campus about 10:30 a.m., ditching school for the rest of the day. A school surveillance video shows her walking out. But no one can say which way she went, or whether she got into a car. It was the last time anyone saw or heard from her. Police say there has been no activity on Kara's cell phone since shortly after she walked out of school. They followed some pings from the phone, conducted some searches, but found nothing significant. Beyond that, they aren't commenting. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . Kara's stepfather says the cell phone's long silence makes him suspicious. \"This doesn't make any sense,\" said Jim Beckford. \"Kara was on her cell phone sending texts constantly. Her cell phone bill was typically 80-100 pages long.\" When Kara didn't come home from school as usual, her family -- mother Rhonda, stepfather Jim and stepbrother Thomas -- grew worried. They filed a missing persons report later that afternoon. Police told them they believed Kara was a runaway, and that she'd come back on her own in a few days. Two years later, her family hasn't heard a word from Kara. She left behind most of her belongings -- money, clothes, iPod and a new carton of cigarettes. Her bank debit card was left in her school locker and her bank account, with $150 from her recent paycheck, remains untouched. According to police in Belton, the case is being actively investigated. But with no certain evidence of foul play, police continue to characterize Kara's disappearance as an endangered and missing adult case. The state of Missouri considers Kara Kopetsky to be an adult because she was 17 when she disappeared. Belton Police Capt. Don Spears said police are looking at several persons of interest, but haven't narrowed their investigation to focus on a single suspect. Her family says she has no history of running away. They say they fear that she was abducted when she left school that day. \"She is a very beautiful girl and so we often warned her to be careful, but like any teen, she had an attitude that she was invincible,\" her stepfather said. About a month after she disappeared, Kara's case was eclipsed by another sensational case -- the abduction and slaying of Kelsey Smith. Smith was taken from a store parking lot in Overland Park, Kansas, and her body was found in the Missouri woods, six miles from Kara's home in Belton. A suspect was charged, pleaded guilty, and is serving a life sentence. Police in Belton and Overland Park compared notes but could find no connection. According to family and police and Kara's MySpace profile, she had an on-again, off-again boyfriend. He lived in her neighborhood, was 18, and attended the same high school but dropped out earlier the spring Kara disappeared. Kara was trying to end the relationship, friends told police. It is unclear whether the two saw each other the day Kara vanished. A $30,000 reward is offered for tips leading to the whereabouts of Kara Kopetsky or the arrest of anyone responsible for her disappearance. Police and family urge people to call the Belton Police Department's tip-line at 816-474-TIPS. Kara is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 125 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes.","highlights":"Missouri teen left school early after an argument with a teacher .\nSchool surveillance video shows Kara Kopetsky walking out .\nHer cell phone shows no activity after 10:30 a.m. on May 4, 2007 .\nA $35,000 reward is offered for information. Call 816-474-TIPS .","id":"b967f4e94e301c9151f4c7ae810f09f22b0bad4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan army overran two Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country's north on Tuesday, the military reported on its Web site. Recently captured rebel weapons stacked up in the former Tamil stronghold of Kilinochchi. The rebels \"suffered double blows, losing two heavily fortified defense positions as ... troops made predawn incursions at identified terror strong points located south of Valayanmadam today,\" the Ministry of Defense said. The claims of military victories came a day after Sri Lanka ordered an end to combat operations against the rebels by curtailing \"the use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian causalities,\" a statement from the Presidential Secretariat said. A rebel Web site, Tamilnet.com, reported an \"intense barrage of heavy weapons\" through Monday evening. The rebel site accused the military of staging a ground offensive, \"firing artillery shells fitted with cluster munitions, multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) fire and heavy mortar fire from many directions on the northern side of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal.\" The Tiger leadership has asked the international community to \"pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate\" on a cease-fire offer proposed last week. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and India have called for a cease-fire. Last week, India's foreign secretary and national security adviser met with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to express their concerns about the situation in the north, including casualties among civilians. India has a large Tamil population that sympathizes with the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The foreign ministers of two nations are due in Sri Lanka on Wednesday -- David Miliband of the United Kingdom and Bernard Kouchner of France. Carl Bildt of Sweden was originally scheduled to make the trip with his counterparts, but was not granted a visa, so he was forced to cancel, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. In what amounts to a diplomatic protest, Sweden will recall its ambassador to Sri Lanka for consultations. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed a week ago. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued some 40,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of \"fresh displacement\" now exceeds 100,000 people. The Sri Lankan military says up to 20,000 civilians continue to be held hostage by Tamil \"terrorists,\" adding that its forces will continue humanitarian operations to rescue them. Fifty metric tons of relief supplies -- which landed in Colombo on Monday -- will be sent by UNICEF to the north to help displaced residents. UNICEF, which called the situation in the north a \"catastrophe for children,\" said the displaced lack food, water and basic medical supplies. The rebels estimate the number of civilians still in the territory at more than 160,000. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union. -- CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this story.","highlights":"Sri Lankan army Web site: Two heavily fortified defense positions overrun .\nClaims came a day after Sri Lanka ordered end to combat operations .\nSri Lanka: Forces ordered to cease use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft .\nRebels say fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets after announcement .","id":"b78a59ffd83d28ff5872d15eecf4d5731ff70f19"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A court in Saudi Arabia has granted an 8-year-old girl a divorce from her 47-year-old husband, after twice denying the divorce request previously, local media reported Thursday. The marriage sparked condemnations around the world from human rights groups and U.S. and other government officials when it first came to light in December. Local media, which is highly regulated by the Saudi government, reported that the court in the city of Onaiza approved the divorce decree Thursday, and the divorce is final. A source at the court told the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan that the divorce \"came after a series of pleas made by a number of officials in the region to the husband.\" CNN efforts to reach court officials, the husband and the girl's father have been unsuccessful. According to the attorney for the young girl's mother, the father of the girl had arranged the marriage between his daughter and a close friend of his to settle his debts with the man. When the mother went to court to try to get the marriage annulled, Saudi judge Habib al-Habib rejected the request on a legal technicality. The judge ruled that the mother -- who is separated from the girl's father -- was not the child's legal guardian and therefore could not represent her in court, according to the mother's lawyer, Abdullah al-Jutaili. However, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, al-Jutaili said. The lawyer said in the original marriage agreement, the father of the girl stipulated that the marriage would not be consummated until she was 18. The judge also ruled that the girl could file a petition for a divorce when she reached puberty, al-Jutaili said. The young girl lives with her mother, the attorney said, and was never told that she was married. When the initial petition to annul the marriage was rejected, the mother appealed the verdict to an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The appeals court declined to certify the original ruling, in essence rejecting al-Habib's verdict, and sent the case back to him for reconsideration. Under the complicated Saudi legal process, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still in effect but that a challenge to the marriage was ongoing. Earlier this month, the original judge refused for a second time to annul the marriage. Soon after that decision, Saudi Arabia's justice minister told Al-Watan that he planned to enact a law that will protect young girls from such marriages. The law will place restrictions on the practice to preserve the rights of children and prevent abuses, Justice Minister Mohammed Al-Issa was quoted as saying. Additionally, al-Issa said there would be a study of a system that will include regulations for the marriage of minors and everything related to such unions, the newspaper reported. No details on the restrictions or regulations were mentioned. The minister did not say whether child marriage would be abolished. Responding to the justice minister's comments and the possibility of a new child marriage law, al-Jutaili told CNN at the time, \"this is what we requested from day one, and we know that Saudi officials are working so hard on resolving this issue.\" Al-Jutaili believes that such a law would help not only his defendant but many other Saudi minors facing a similar problem. In Washington Monday, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns called the marriage a human rights abuse. \"Child marriage is, unfortunately, still common in much of Saudi Arabia and we have voiced our concern about this practice at the highest levels,\" he told a conference on U.S.-Saudi relations. \"We were encouraged by reports that the Justice Ministry had begun to review the legal age of marriage.\" After the divorce was denied for a second time, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund issued a statement expressing concern about the case. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said, \"the right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision.\" The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative Saudi kingdom recently. While rights groups have petitioned the government for laws to protect children from such marriages, the kingdom's top cleric has said that it's OK for girls as young as 10 to wed. \"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger,\" Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in January, according to the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. \"A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong, and they are being unfair to her.\" Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry. \"We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls,\" he said, according to the newspaper. \"We should know that sharia law has not brought injustice to women.\" Sharia law is Islamic law, and Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism.","highlights":"Child bride wins divorce hearing at third attempt, local media reports .\nHer case attracted attention of the U.N. and governments around the world .\nHer father reportedly arranged the marriage to settle his debts .\nSaudi justice minister says he plans law to protect young girls from such marriages .","id":"23cbf4c4d083206039f24569d51abc8e89a0b19d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Prince Charles visited the Vatican on Monday for his first meeting with a pope since his 1996 divorce from Princess Diana. Pope Benedict XVI is flanked by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla during their meeting at the Vatican. The heir to the UK throne was accompanied by his second wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who wore the mandatory modest black dress and veil which the Vatican requires for wives of dignitaries who meet the pope. The 20-minute meeting was \"cordial,\" the Vatican said in a statement afterwards. Prince Charles's accession to the throne was likely to be an unspoken subtext of the meeting, an expert on the prince told CNN. \"The biggest thing on Prince Charles's agenda is the preparation for his coronation,\" said Christopher Wilson, author of \"The Windsor Knot: Charles, Camilla and the Legacy of Diana.\" Charles would like the pope to attend personally, unlikely as that may be, given the religious divide between London and Rome, Wilson said. \"He will expect a high-profile Roman Catholic presence in Westminster Abbey,\" where he will be crowned, Wilson argued. \"The combined heads of state come from everywhere. Every democratically elected head of state will be invited. It bigs up your coronation if you can get the highest Roman Catholic to come.\" The meeting between prince and pope came days after the 500th anniversary of the crowning of Henry VIII, the English king who broke with the Roman Catholic Church and established the Church of England because he wanted to divorce. It was Prince Charles's first visit to the Vatican since he went to the funeral of Pope John Paul II four years ago, and his first meeting with a head of the Roman Catholic Church since 1985. There are multiple factors complicating his relationship with the Vatican, Wilson pointed out. Not only is he divorced, which the Roman Catholic Church disapproves of, but so is Camilla -- and her children are being raised as Catholics because their father is one. A centuries-old British law forbids Catholics or their spouses from holding the throne. The Prince of Wales \"is trying to break down the breach between the Vatican and the House of Windsor,\" Wilson said. \"It's a path-smoothing exercise.\" Additionally, he said: \"Prince Charles likes very much to be photographed with heads of state. He's not the head of state himself. It adds luster to his royal presence.\" Charles and the pope were expected to discuss issues such as interfaith dialogue and climate change -- subjects to which Prince Charles has devoted himself. The pair exchanged gifts. Benedict gave Charles a gold pontifical medal and an antique engraved copper plate of St. Peter's Basilica dating from the 16th century. Charles gave Benedict a set of 12 porcelain plates with floral design of the plants and flowers that grow at his country estate in Gloucestershire. Afterwards, Prince Charles met Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarciso Bertone and Vatican foreign affairs minister Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, while Camilla received a private tour of the Sistine Chapel. Charles and Camilla are on a tour of Italy and Germany at the request of Britain's Foreign Office, Clarence House said. The European Union director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Matthew Rycroft, cited \"the prince's personal passion and personal engagement over the years on the issue of climate change\" as a major reason for the trip, a Clarence House statement said.","highlights":"UK's Prince Charles meets pope for first time since divorce from Princess Diana .\nHeir to UK throne was accompanied by 2nd wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall .\nCharles's first visit to Vatican since he attended funeral of Pope John Paul II .","id":"da40615b3cfe6ef51b1547eb5dbe34571254d411"} -{"article":"VERO BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- The Rev. Michael Massaro says he has a few aches and pains, but a good night's sleep has done him some good as he recovers from being attacked Saturday with a knife in a confessional at his church. The Rev. Michael Massaro is recovering from two stab wounds that required 14 staples to close. It was one of the most harrowing weekends in the 28 years he's been a Roman Catholic priest, Massaro said. But it won't stop him from hearing confessions. \"We're at the mercy of the people we serve,\" Massaro told CNN. \"We can't live in fear. God has asked us to live in trust. If it's going to happen again, it's going to happen again, but that's not going to prevent me from doing God's work.\" Massaro had just finished hearing confessions in his Florida church when he was stabbed twice in the back by a woman who later told police Massaro is the Antichrist. \"It was paralyzing, like a nightmare, and I just feel like I woke up from it. It was so quick and sudden,\" Massaro said in a telephone interview. Vero Beach police arrested Josephine Gatchell in connection with the attack. The 57-year-old suspect is being held in the Indian River County Jail. She is being held without bail. Gatchell is scheduled to be arraigned on June 12. She has not yet been appointed a lawyer, prosecutors and the public defender said. \"She believed [Massaro] was the Antichrist and it was her duty to go there and injure him,\" police spokesman John Morrison said. Massaro said he thought he had one last confession to hear at about 12:15 p.m. on Saturday. A woman was waiting for him, apparently wanting to be be the last one in. \"I was in the confessional, putting my coat on, and felt a piercing sensation in my back left side,\" the priest recalled. \"I looked up and she was standing there, and I felt it again in my back. Then I realized I was stabbed and my hand was covered with blood.\" Massaro said his alleged attacker stared at him but never said a word. \"I ran and got to the car and hoped I could make it to the hospital before I passed out. I was worried about becoming unconscious. Thanks be to God that I didn't hurt anyone driving,\" he said. An emergency room doctor told police that the knife \"went through muscle, a few veins and chipped a rib,\" according to an arrest affidavit. The blade missed vital organs by two to three centimeters, the affidavit said. Massaro underwent surgery to repair the damage. Doctors used 14 staples to close the \"T\"-shaped wounds. The priest feels compassion for the woman who attacked him, and he is turning the other cheek. \"We have to continue to pray to do the church's work. To love, and most of all to forgive,\" he said. \"To be sure she doesn't do this again, she needs proper medical care. No one in their right mind would do this.\" It was the second run-in with Gatchell at Holy Cross Catholic Church, according to police and church workers. She was arrested in January, records show, accused of breaking off a piece of a religious statue inside the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. She also allegedly resisted arrest and reached for the officer's weapon. She was confronted by Deborah True, the parish manager. \"I took it away from her and asked her why she did that,\" True told CNN. \"She said she did it because it was from her husband's funeral, forty years ago, and Father Massaro stole it, and he was the Antichrist,\" she said. Massaro said he recognized Gatchell as he ran from the attack. \"As I was running away from her, I realized who she was,\" he said. \"She didn't make any efforts to come after me. I was still in a state of shock.\" At the hospital, Massaro was able to pick Gatchell out of a photo lineup, police said. She was not at home when police went to question her, according to the arrest affidavit. Later, police received an anonymous tip that she was staying elsewhere. When police arrived, Gatchell answered the door and allegedly stated, \"You know who I am, and I know why you're here.\" Gatchell told detectives that \"she remembers going over to Holy Cross (church)....and stabbing Mr. Massaro,\" according to the affidavit. When asked what she stabbed him with, the suspect replied, \"It was a big knife,\" the affidavit said. Police say she told them that the knife was in three different places, but it was never located. Vero Beach Police say that Gatchell appears to be a troubled woman. \"When you go back a second time, that raises more concerns. Her violence escalated the second time,\" said police spokesman Morrison. And just for the record, \"I am not the Antichrist, that I know of,\" Massaro said with a laugh.","highlights":"The Rev. Michael Massaro was stabbed after hearing confessions .\nPolice say his alleged attacker called Massaro the Antichrist .\nMassaro says he forgives the woman, who appears to be troubled .\nKnife's blade missed vital organs by centimeters .","id":"5f2168350e0f990f07fe1f7b9ddc5f578cec8ad0"} -{"article":"Editor's note: How would you rate President Obama's first 100 days? You'll get a chance to make your opinion known at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on the CNN National Report Card. Supporters say President Obama is tackling an aggressive agenda, while critics say he's leaving Republicans behind. (CNN) -- More than two years ago, a junior senator with presidential aspirations stood on the steps of Illinois' Old State Capitol in Springfield and warned of politicians who fail to live up to expectations. \"Too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own,\" then-Sen. Barack Obama said as he announced his intentions to pursue the Democratic nomination. Now, after 100 days in office, observers are asking the same of him: Has President Obama lived up to the expectations that candidate Obama created? \"What Obama has successfully done is keep his persona intact, which is a man of deep family values and a core moral center. And I think that people are learning to trust Obama that when he talks, he's not just articulate, but he's shooting straight,\" said presidential historian Doug Brinkley. Obama won the White House campaigning on a message of hope and a promise of change. As he emerged a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, he pushed an ambitious agenda, vowing to overhaul health care, education and energy policy. But as the severity of the economic meltdown took hold and Obama moved into the White House, his inspirational rhetoric was injected with a sobering dose of reality. Obama encouraged patience and cautioned that, \"change doesn't happen overnight.\" In his first 100 days, Obama laid the groundwork for many of his campaign promises and faced criticism that he's trying to do too much. \"Nobody will ever be able to accuse him of being an idle man during his first 100 days,\" Brinkley said. \"He's clearly showing himself to be a progressive in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, with the moral core of Jimmy Carter.\" So far Obama is showing himself to be \"the same guy that we had on the campaign trail,\" Brinkley said. Given the items on his agenda, Obama is living up to expectations, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said. \"The public is patient and is not expecting to see a quick turnaround in the economy,\" he said. \"I count 10 major items -- jobs, health care, education, energy, housing, banks, automakers, deficit reduction, taxes and the war in Afghanistan. Plus, a pledge to take up immigration reform and climate change in the near future. Any one of those things would be a significant agenda,\" he said. But some Republicans say the president has failed when it comes to his pledge to reach across the aisle. After Democrats moved ahead with a $787 billion stimulus bill that garnered no Republican support in the House and just three Republican votes in the Senate, \"That's when it became clear to me that all of this post-partisan talk and working down the middle and working together was a ruse,\" said John Boehner, House minority leader. Obama's approval ratings remain high -- hovering around 65 percent. Those numbers are on par with where President Reagan and President Carter stood at this point in their presidencies. But one year later, their approval ratings dropped to about 40 percent. Obama has maintained his popularity, Republican strategist and CNN contributor Mary Matalin said, but he's lost support from Republicans and some independents \"because what he is not is what he was perceived to be in the campaign -- a centrist.\" Schneider said Obama's agenda -- which includes massive government spending -- represents a challenge to the Republicans' core principle of smaller government. Republicans haven't responded to Obama's outreach, and \"it's causing serious political damage to their party, he said. Watch: Is bipartisanship dead? \u00bb . Obama is not personally polarizing in part because he is cautious about divisive social issues, \"but his economic policies are very divisive,\" Schneider said. \"Obama is the mirror image of Bill Clinton ... Voters either loved him or hated him,\" he said, noting that after his first two years, Clinton's policies became more moderate and consensus driven. The National Republican Senatorial Committee last month released an ad accusing Obama of backpedaling on numerous campaign promises, calling him out for signing a spending bill with thousands of earmarks, mishandling the AIG bonus scandal and failing to rein in government spending. PolitiFact, a Web site that has been keeping track of Obama's campaign promises, reports that Obama has kept 27 promises, compromised on seven, broken six, stalled on three, has 67 in the works and has yet to take action on another 408. But one Republican who broke ranks to endorse Obama and also spoke at the Democratic convention says he's had no regrets. \"As president, in surprisingly short order, he has moved rather decisively to implement new directions,\" said former Iowa Rep. Jim Leach, who served as a Republican member of the House for 30 years. And on areas where Obama hasn't been 100 percent in line with his campaign promises -- such as softening his stance on NAFTA and slightly extending his timeline for troop withdrawal -- Leach said Obama is making adjustments \"in a very appropriately adaptive way.\" \"It is inconceivable that a thinking individual can agree with the president or anyone in public office 100 percent of the time,\" he said, adding that he thinks Obama has some prospect of \"potentially going down as one of the great presidents in American history.\" Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tennessee, who declined to endorse Obama before his party's convention, said Obama has met expectations thus far. \"I think every person who runs for office -- whether it's a local office, statewide office, runs for president -- we all have ideas, we all have visions, we all have a hope,\" Davis said. \"But then acting on those is sometimes more difficult than others. But I do believe the president, during the campaign, made his visions known ... and I think he has certainly lived up to those.\" Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins said if he were a Democrat, he might give Obama an \"A\" on his performance. \"I think the guy has had a great start. He's pushing an agenda that obviously he ran on. He's lived up to most of his promises. You know, he's a big personality, and I don't diminish that,\" he said. \"I think the country wants a president they feel comfortable with. A long, hard path ahead, and hopefully, some of the stuff he's thrown out there will work because we're spending a ton of taxpayers' money,\" he said, noting that as a Republican he gives Obama a \"B.\" Brinkley said it's somewhat unfair to hold the president to a 100-day litmus test because \"it takes a while to get settled in.\" \"He's doing a lot of bold things for as short a period of 100 days,\" he said, pointing specifically to Obama's economic bailouts. But, he said, there's the large caveat that only time will tell how these bold moves will play out.","highlights":"As a candidate, Obama campaigned on a message of hope and change .\n\"Nobody will ever be able to accuse him of being an idle man,\" historian says .\nGOP strategist says Obama not acting like the centrist he was during the campaign .\nObama's agenda represents a challenge to GOP principles, analyst says .","id":"d0746aadbfffc4ab9a04a2ee951866f79cfa649c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- How does the American public feel about the war in Afghanistan? In a word, wary. U.S. forces have been engaged in fierce fighting to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan. President Obama on Friday announced his strategy to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a plan that includes more troops, new legislation, improved troop training and added civilian expertise. \"The United States of American did not choose to fight a war in Afghanistan. Nearly 3,000 of our people were killed on September 11, 2001,\" Obama said Friday. \"We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan,\" he said. Stressing that \"the safety of people around the world is at stake,\" Obama said the \"situation is increasingly perilous\" in the region in and around Afghanistan, where the United States has been fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban for more than 7\u00bd years after attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. Nevertheless, the American public has been wary about the war in Afghanistan, according to a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted in February. Watch CNN's Bill Schneider break down the numbers \u00bb . Last month, Americans were almost evenly divided between those who support the war and those who oppose it, the poll showed, with 47 percent in favor and 51 percent opposed. Opposition to the war in Afghanistan is more muted than opposition to the war in Iraq, but it's not so muted among Democrats. Two-thirds of Americans overall oppose the war in Iraq, but 64 percent of Democrats oppose the war in Afghanistan. The anti-war movements in Vietnam and Iraq helped define what the Democratic Party stands for. Watch: Is Afghanistan Obama's Vietnam? \u00bb . \"If we don't learn from our Iraq experience, we are doomed to repeat it,\" Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California, said on the House floor Thursday. Why are Americans wary about Afghanistan? The recession. Iraq War fatigue. And frustration. Only 31 percent of Americans believe the United States is winning the war in Afghanistan. Fifty percent believe the United States is winning in Iraq -- the highest number in at least five years. But Americans still want to get out of Iraq. Last month, when President Obama said he would send 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the public was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Democrats were willing to go along with the president, but they were less enthusiastic than Republicans . A solid majority of Americans believe the United States can win a military victory in Afghanistan, but Afghanistan has become a political war. Winning depends, not just on what the United States can do, but also what Afghanistan and Pakistan can do. Americans have far less confidence in them. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll surveyed 1,046 adult Americans by telephone on February 18-19, 2009. The sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.","highlights":"Americans almost evenly divided on opinion of Afghanistan war, poll shows .\nPresident Obama says goal is to \"disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda\"\n50 percent believe the United States is winning in Iraq, poll shows .\nAmericans wary about Afghanistan because of recession and Iraq, Schneider says .","id":"e7ba6cab82705e1f22f064c6769f32d2cfb13a69"} -{"article":"Editor's note: With fears of a swine flu pandemic rising daily, CNN Pentagon producer Larry Shaughnessy remembered a batch of letters from his grandfather, a World War I soldier who battled the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919. Martin \"Al\" Culhane, left, is pictured with his older brother, Frank, around 1918 or 1919. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- \"I'm coming, I'm coming For my head is bending low I hear those gentle voices calling Old Black Joe\" As World War I rages in Europe, fresh U.S. Army soldiers pass the time on a train ride to to Camp Forrest, Georgia. \"The boys are just starting to sing,\" Martin Aloysius Culhane wrote on September 6, 1918, to his friend back home. \"They've gotten back to 'Old Black Joe' so far.\" Stephen Foster's classic song from the Civil War is about the death of slaves who had become his friends. But Culhane, known as \"Al,\" and the soldiers who sang along could not know how much death would hunt the recruits on that train, most of whom never made it to Europe to fight in the Great War. They would find themselves in the deadliest influenza pandemic in history. Culhane's letters to his older brother Frank and his long-time \"chum\" Clif Pinter are a young soldier's firsthand account of life as a draftee private and how he coped with a disease that would haunt Army camps around the United States and eventually infect people around the world. Some estimates say as many as 50 million people were killed by what's called the Spanish influenza in 1918 and 1919, far more than the number killed in combat during the war. Three weeks after the train trip to Georgia, Culhane, a 21-year-old clothing salesman from Chicago, Illinois, writes again. Already the flu occupies his thoughts. Learn more about the current swine flu \u00bb . \"Received a nice letter from Phil Byrne he reports he is getting along fine, is feeling better than he has ever before.\" Byrne, a friend from Chicago, was one of the early survivors of the Spanish flu. Other members of the Byrne family took ill a few months later, according to the letters. In the same letter he mentions how the Army was trying to protect the troops at Camp Forrest: . \"Since noon today our camp has been under quarantine to prevent an epidemic of Spanish influenza. We have had no cases thus far but it is the intention of the medical officers to prevent any case of the disease from making an appearance. All the men who have even slight colds have been put into separate barrack which, of course, were immediately christened 'the TB ward' by the rest of the company.\" That same day, September 28, 1918, he wrote his brother Frank, a Navy sailor at home awaiting orders, \"Well the Spanish Influenza has made an appearance here and we are under strict orders no visits to Chattanooga, we are certainly the hard luck guys when it comes to this quarantine proposition.\" At first the threat of Spanish flu is just an inconvenience for Culhane: \"I am just about fed up with staying in a district about a block square for three weeks. There is no canteen in the quarantine district and we have a hell of a time getting small supplies.\" Just six days after complaining about the inconvenience, a brief but frightening note: \"Receive the enclosed letter for your information then see that Frank gets it unknown to the rest of the family.\" What Culhane didn't want his mother, sister and younger brother to know was that he was in the infirmary with the Spanish flu. He asks his friend Clif to write often and encourage letters from \"my friends, without of course, telling them that I am a little under the weather.\" His euphemism hid the fact that in some places more than 30 percent of people who contracted Spanish flu died. In the United States the mortality rate was lower, but still a devastating 3 percent. It was a crisis for the Army. Military bases, with thousands of men from all over the country in tightly packed barracks, were fertile breeding grounds for the flu, especially one as easily spread as this one. And unlike most flu strains that mostly strike the elderly, the very young or the sick, Spanish flu hit healthy, young adults like Army draftees. Just three days after telling his friend about being sick, Culhane wrote that he was feeling better. \"I am still in quarantine but will be released today. I am feeling great and the two day's rest has done me a world of good. I have done nothing at all but sit in the shade, read and write letters.\" His recovery from the Spanish flu was swift, but the very next day, October 7, 1918, he wrote to give \"all the details of the death of a very good friend, my Bunkie, Thomas Birdie. His body will go north today, I think,\" Culhane wrote, asking Pinter to attend the wake. \"At his side, say a few prayers for the repose of his soul.\" When not writing about the flu, Culhane dropped none-too-subtle hints about wanting care packages full of cookies from home. And he regularly questioned why other friends didn't write. He also worried that he was \"neglecting the ladies.\" He pelts his friend Clif with questions about Ursula (\"Her Majesty,\" he jokingly refers to her), Ella (the young woman to whom he promised a prized golf club) Ida (\"I had a long letter from Ida Flynn. Boy! I will have a job on my hands when I get home\") and the Marys (Mary Rose, Mary English, Mary Anne). While Culhane writes about and to a lot of young ladies, there is no sign in the letters which one, if any, held a special place in his heart. Still he worried about one young man named \"Hank\" who remained in Chicago. \"Keep the ladies amused by all means, but I look to you to protect my interests. Hank is too darn nice a chap to be safe around the ladies. However, if he seems to get extra strong I will write a note and have him made Admiral of the Arctic Circle.\" After recovering from the flu, Culhane bemoans the fact that war was about to end. \"It is almost over now and thirty days will see at least a cessation of hostilities. Xmas will see peace. I will never see France and as long as that is impossible I might as well be out of the Army as soon as it is over.\" Nine days later, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the war ended. And just four days after the fighting in Europe ended, the letters from Camp Forrest stopped. Al Culhane was sick again. This time he was taken to U.S. General Hospital #14 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. And he couldn't keep the latest illness a secret from his family back home in Chicago. A Catholic chaplain wrote the family that he was sick and not able to write himself. When he was well enough, he wrote Pinter, \"I don't know just what I have but it felt like old fashioned grip or perhaps 'The Flu.'\". It took about two weeks before he was out of the Fort Oglethorpe hospital and back at Camp Forrest. He had twice survived the deadliest flu in history and lived to write home about it. After his second recovery his concerns turned to getting back to Chicago by Christmas. \"Clif I have seen my discharge all written out and from that moment on my usefulness as a soldier ceased.\" But again illness got in the way. This time it was a completely different one: \"Measles has broken out in our company and we are quarantined. Did you ever hear of harder luck in all your life?\" Culhane didn't make it back to Chicago for Christmas. But he eventually did return home alive and well. He never did make it to France, but traveled the United States extensively with his wife, Evelyn, a woman never mentioned in his letters home, but someone he'd known since they went through First Holy Communion together. As for Clif Pinter, who saved the letters, he and Al Culhane remained \"old chums\" for life. After Pinter's death, his son passed the letters on to Al's daughter, Dorothy Clarke, who passed them onto Al's grandchildren, including Lawrence Aloysius Shaughnessy, who works for CNN's Pentagon unit and occasionally writes stories about soldiers for CNN.com.","highlights":"U.S. soldier survived Spanish flu pandemic not once, but twice .\n1918 Spanish flu ravaged military camps where soldiers trained for WWI .\nLetter says camp put \"under quarantine to prevent an epidemic of Spanish influenza\"\nMartin \"Al\" Culhane in letter told his brother to keep infection secret from rest of family .","id":"d4a37345c719608f99602ac3cb9e1d9747bc3377"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- College football's perennial armchair-quarterback argument over the need for a clear-cut national champion came to Capitol Hill Friday. College football teams play in the BCS for the national championship trophy. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing to dissect the Bowl Championship Series, asking whether the model needs to be tweaked, overhauled or done away with altogether. Four witnesses testified at the morning hearing, including championship series coordinator John Swofford and Alamo Bowl President Derrick Fox; both of whom defended the current system, though Fox conceded that \"no system is perfect and the Bowl Championship Series is not perfect.\" Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson and Boise State Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier testified that they would like to see the system revamped. Many critics say they want college football to have a playoff system to ensure that a champion is clearly defined. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, called the Bowl Championship Series format unfair and perhaps took it one step further. \"You should either change your name to BES for Bowl Exhibition System or just drop the C and call it the BS system, because it is not about determining the championship on the field.\" Both sides were cordial but opinionated. Fox said he would prefer Washington not get involved. \"Those who don't like the current system will say that's the way of the world, but we don't believe that government should have any role in promoting a demise of the bowl games.\" Currently, 11 college conferences and three independents compete in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision -- formerly Division I-A. Six of those 11 conferences are guaranteed spots in the four Bowl Championship Series games. Schools from conferences that critics say are unfairly deemed as low profile are then left to fight their way into those prestige games. They share in significantly less of the series money and have less of an opportunity to challenge for the national title. President Obama is one of the proponents of a college football playoff. In an interview with ESPN in November, Obama said he's had just about enough of the Bowl Championship Series. \"I'm fed up with these computer rankings and this, that and the other. Get eight teams -- the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion,\" Obama said. Before heading out early to catch a flight, Barton made it clear that he expects to see college football change its ways or risk having lawmakers introduce legislation to impose change for them. \"I think there is better than a 50 percent chance that if we don't see some action in the next two months on a voluntary switch to a playoff system that you will see this bill move,\" he said.","highlights":"Bowl Championship Series decides college football's national champ .\nPerennial argument is that a playoff system would be a better way to decide .\nHouse committee hears testimony from officials, coaches on both sides .","id":"2d00ce0e1db4f8a67b689e23e177437663e040e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in Tuesday night as secretary of Health and Human Services. Kathleen Sebelius dives into discussing the swine flu at the White House after being sworn in. She was sworn after she was confirmed by the Senate in a 65-31 vote. The timely vote puts Sebelius in office as the Obama administration is up against its first public health outbreak. She steps into the role as swine flu numbers climb worldwide. As of Tuesday morning, at least 90 cases had been confirmed, including 50 in the United States. Until her confirmation, the White House, which declared a public health emergency Sunday, was dealing with its first crisis without a secretary. But the administration said it was equipped to handle the situation. There are still no appointees in place for any of the department's 18 key positions. Related: White House health team not complete . In most cases where a position is awaiting Senate confirmation, that job is filled by a career civil servant in an interim capacity. The Obama administration has named five nominees for the open positions. Sebelius met several obstacles during her confirmation hearings. The Kansas governor came under fire for her ties to Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion provider. Tiller and his staff attended a 2007 reception Sebelius held at the governor's mansion in Topeka. Sebelius originally failed to account for donations she received from the doctor. Sebelius also revealed in March that she recently paid nearly $8,000 in back taxes and interest. She said she had errors in her 2005, 2006 and 2007 tax returns. Sebelius, 60, is the daughter of former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, who led that state from 1971 to 1975. A two-term Democratic governor in a Republican-leaning state, she previously served as a state insurance commissioner and oversaw Kansas' Medicaid program. She has been credited with boosting health care assistance for the poor during her tenure. A number of leading social conservatives have criticized Sebelius for her record on abortion, citing, among other things, her veto as governor of legislation that would have tightened abortion regulations in Kansas. In vetoing the measure last April, Sebelius wrote that the bill was problematic because it included no exceptions for pregnancies that endanger a woman's life and it allowed individuals to seek court orders preventing a woman from obtaining an abortion, even if the procedure was necessary to save her life. Some Republicans, however, have strongly defended Sebelius. Former Senate GOP leader Bob Dole, also from Kansas, testified on Sebelius' behalf in March, arguing that her record had proven her ability to work in a bipartisan manner. \"Sebelius' strength is that she understands health care [and is] willing and able ... to bring parties together in very critical areas,\" he said. Kansas GOP Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, as well as Republican Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Jon Huntsman of Utah commended her selection. Former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Obama's first choice for secretary of health and human services, withdrew on February 3 after controversy erupted over his tax records and over his work in a field that some consider lobbying.","highlights":"Kathleen Sebelius sworn in after being confirmed by 65-31 vote .\nWhite House says health team is equipped to handle swine flu situation .\nSebelius has come under fire for ties to late-term abortion doctor .\nSebelius was two-term Democratic governor in Kansas, a Republican-leaning state .","id":"1a0cca23343f2631ace307bda53103e3ee664ef3"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The 15th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda brought American U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to tears as she reflected on her personal memories surrounding the slaughter. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice recalls her time in Rwanda working for the Clinton administration. Rice visited Rwanda as a staff member in former President Bill Clinton's National Security Council six months after the ethnic cleansing. She explained how even months after the violence she encountered decomposing bodies at one of the massacre sites. \"For me, the memory of stepping around and over those corpses will remain the most searing reminder imaginable of what our work here must aim to prevent,\" she said Tuesday at a special commemorative event at United Nations headquarters in New York. She emotionally concluded her remarks, expressing how \"We bow our heads to mark the memory of those who were slain. And we bow our heads to mark the sorrow of all who stood by.\" The mass killings began on April 6, 1994, when tribal Hutu militia members attacked their tribal Tutsi countrymen after the plane of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. Within 100 days, some 800,000 people were murdered. In addition to Rice, various dignitaries, ambassadors, artists, U.N. officials and genocide survivors gathered Tuesday to mark the tragic circumstances that began 15 years ago. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reminded the audience how the Rwandan genocide continues to haunt \"our collective conscience\" and that \"the prevention of genocide is a collective responsibility.\" Ban encouraged the world community to remember its shared duty to prevent future catastrophes in the name of humanity and in honor of the memory of those who died. The United Nations created a Special Representative for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities in 2004. President Obama also released a statement coinciding with Tuesday's anniversary. Obama praised survivors for their remarkable strength, but emphasized the tragedy should always be remembered because each victim \"had their own story, their own family, and their own dreams.\"","highlights":"U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice recalls stepping over corpses in Rwanda .\nUnited Nations ceremony recalls 1994 mass killings in Rwanda .\nObama says tragedy must always be remembered .","id":"1422b50834f7fcd013ff3982aa24821d1d323b27"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five people were killed Thursday after a man tried to attack the Dutch royal family during a Queen's Day celebration by crashing his car near the royal family's bus, Dutch police said. A car is pictured after crashing into the crowd waiting for the visit of the royal family in Apeldoorn. Authorities are not releasing the name of the man, but said they have charged him with with trying to attack the royal family. Twelve people were injured in the incident in the Dutch town of Apeldoorn, about 45 miles east of Amsterdam, police spokeswoman Esther Naber told CNN. Crowds had lined the streets to see Queen Beatrix and her family ride by in an open-top bus during the Netherlands' annual holiday. As the bus moved along, a black hatchback zoomed past it. The crowds were behind barriers off the road, but security officials and journalists, including many cameramen, were in the road as the car went by. The car crashed into the low metal railing around a column on the side of the road. The vehicle appeared heavily damaged even before the crash, but the reason for that was unclear. There was no one other than the driver in the car at the time, Naber said. Members of the royal family saw the crash and gasped, then quickly sat down as the bus continued driving. The driver is in the hospital, badly injured, Naber said. He is among the five seriously hurt -- three men and two women. Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. The tradition started in 1885 and celebrates the birthday of the queen. Although Queen Beatrix's birthday is January 31, she officially celebrates her birthday April 30, according to the Dutch government. Queen's Day is known for its free market all over the country, where anybody is allowed to sell things in the streets. Other activities include children's games and musical performances. Were you there? Send us your video, images . The day is marked with the color orange all over the country as a reference to the colors of the royal family, who come from the House of Orange-Nassau.","highlights":"NEW: Five people killed and five badly injured in incident in Dutch town of Apeldoorn .\nCar hit crowd near open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix of Netherlands .\nDriver, among the badly hurt, is charged with trying to attack Dutch royal family .","id":"742faa52466555ecdb353657b196e52243b58ceb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An al Qaeda suspect alleged to have been involved in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania that killed 11 people faces war crimes charges, the Pentagon announced Monday. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is shown in a photo posted by the FBI in 2004. The bombing in Dar es Salaam, which also wounded hundreds, was one of two carried out nearly simultaneously on August 7, 1998. One in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 213 people. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, from Tanzania, faces nine charges, six of them offenses that could carry the death penalty if he is convicted by a military tribunal. He was captured by Pakistan in 2004 and is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a written announcement, the Pentagon said Ghailani is \"charged with the following substantive offenses: murder in violation of the Law of War, murder of protected persons, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the Law of War and terrorism. In addition, he is charged with conspiracy to commit all of the above offenses. \"Ghailani is further charged with providing material support to terrorism. This charge alleges that after the bombing, Ghailani continued in his service to al Qaeda as a document forger, physical trainer at an al Qaeda training camp, and as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.\" The charges say he purchased bomb components, scouted the embassy with the suicide bomb driver, met with co-conspirators, and fled to Karachi, Pakistan, one day before the bombing. The convening authority for military commissions, Susan J. Crawford, will determine whether probable cause exists for a trial by military commission, said Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartman of the Office of Military Commissions. For Ghailani to ultimately be sentenced to death, the 12-member jury would have to unanimously find him guilty, determine that aggravating factors apply, and concur on the death sentence, Hartman told reporters at the Pentagon. \"Everything has to be unanimous.\" \"And then there are four levels of post-trial review, which is an extraordinary set of rights available,\" he said. In December, 1998 -- a few months after the embassy bombings -- Ghailani and three other fugitives were indicted in U.S. District Court in New York. It is not known whether he may ultimately face a federal trial. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"1998 bombing in Dar es Salaam killed 11, injured hundreds .\nAhmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian, faces nine charges .\nAl Qaeda-linked suspect could get death sentence from military tribunal .\nU.S. Embassy in Kenya bombed almost same time on August 7, 1998 .","id":"86b8d10094b19ab1059b5dd7983f26fc2bb133ca"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA contestant from California who declared her opposition to same-sex marriage on the pageant stage, will star in a new $1.5 million ad campaign funded by the National Organization for Marriage. Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has gotten support from many same-sex marriage opponents. Prejean appeared Thursday at a news conference in Washington to unveil the ad, called \"No Offense.\" Prejean was roasted by same-sex marriage advocates after she stood up for what she called \"opposite marriage\" (marriage between a man and a woman) when responding to a question from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton during the pageant. But she's also become a fresh-faced standard-bearer for same-sex marriage opponents, who have rallied to her defense. \"Marriage is good,\" Prejean said at the news conference. \"There is something special about unions of husband and wife. Unless we bring men and women together, children will not have mothers and fathers.\" \"She is attacked viciously for having the courage to speak up for her truth and her values,\" the National Organization for Marriage said in a press release. \"But Carrie's courage inspired a whole nation and a whole generation of young people because she chose to risk the Miss USA crown rather than be silent about her deepest moral values.\" \"This vision of marriage is not hateful,\" Prejean said. \"It's not discriminatory. It's good.\" Although she claimed that her view represents that of the majority of Americans, Prejean said she has no plan \"on getting into politics anytime soon, that's for sure.\" According to the group, the ad will call \"gay marriage advocates to account for their unwillingness to debate the real issue: gay marriage has consequences.\" The Miss California USA TV ad is the group's second. Its first, called \"A Gathering Storm,\" ran in several states and featured actors issuing ominous warnings about the threats posed by same-sex marriage. Executive directors and producers of the Miss California USA pageant released a statement Wednesday lamenting that Prejean had taken on such a \"polarizing\" issue. \"We are deeply saddened Carrie Prejean has forgotten her platform of the Special Olympics, her commitment to all Californians and solidified her legacy as one that goes beyond the rights to voice her beliefs and instead reveals her opportunistic agenda,\" the group said. CNN's Peter Hamby and Alan Duke contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pageant contestant to appear in ad for National Organization for Marriage .\nCarrie Prejean publicly opposed same-sex marriage during Miss USA pageant .\nNational Organization for Marriage: Prejean \"attacked viciously\" for speaking out .","id":"e53bd5baf036a3f4741334ca13da8a7f9cf1ef79"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police are examining grainy hotel surveillance video and following up on new leads, including a reported sighting, in the case of a 17-year-old girl who traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for spring break last week and then disappeared. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mother says she thought her daughter was at a beach in New York, not South Carolina. The possible sighting of Brittanee Drexel was on a bus Wednesday morning in the Myrtle Beach area, according to police, who later showed photos of her to passengers. As investigators try to build a timeline of the events leading to Brittanee's disappearance Saturday night, they are also scrutinizing hotel security video for signs of a young woman in distress, or other clues. Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel, told HLN's Nancy Grace that she had forbidden the Rochester, New York, high school junior from going to Myrtle Beach, a popular destination for high school and college students on spring break. Although they stayed in touch by phone and spoke on Saturday, Drexel said she believed the girl was in Rochester when she actually was in Myrtle Beach. \"I didn't have any idea that she was going to do this,\" Drexel said. \"I do trust my daughter, and she needed to cool down a little bit because she was upset that I wasn't going to let her go.\" Drexel said her daughter rode there in a car with several friends. She thinks Brittanee used money she had earned and borrowed to finance her trip.","highlights":"Police show girl's photo to bus passengers after reported sighting .\nBrittanee Drexel, 17, went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., without mother's permission .\nRochester, N.Y., high school junior last seen on Saturday night .","id":"bb7fe6d45190c23166ce57caeb72b64e4c881623"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Dina Habib Powell, global head of corporate engagement at Goldman Sachs, served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs from 2005 to 2007. Dina Habib Powell says there are encouraging signs the world is ready to invest in empowering women. NEW YORK (CNN) -- As we mark International Women's Month in March, it is encouraging to see that the movement to recognize the vital role that women play in families, nations and economies has been building for more than a decade and that developments in the past few years have shown that real progress has begun to take hold. On the heels of International Women's Day, President Obama said Monday, \"we will not sow the seeds for a brighter future or reap the benefits of the change we need without the full and active participation of women around the world.\" He also recently announced the creation of a new position, ambassador-at-large for global women's Issues, at the State Department. To fill this critical role, the president nominated Melanne Verveer, a widely respected women's advocate and former top aide to then first lady Hillary Clinton. Verveer was a founder of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an organization committed to empowering women and recently co-chaired by Secretary Clinton and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. There has also been very recent progress on Capitol Hill. Last month, the U.S. Senate created a Foreign Relations subcommittee that will focus on the global status of women, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California. The efforts have been a bipartisan priority for our leaders. In 2008, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice successfully led the effort in the U.N. Security Council to officially recognize rape as a weapon of war. And in 2001, Laura Bush used the first presidential radio address ever given by a first lady to focus international attention on the plight of women in Afghanistan and used her influence to protect and empower women around the world. Critical strides are also being made globally. In Rwanda, a country devastated by genocide, women have become a key part of the nation's rebirth. Under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, more than half of the parliament is made up of women. In Liberia, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf made history when she became the first female president on the African continent. In the Middle East, Kuwait has emerged as a leader in women's suffrage and political participation. And in the United Arab Emirates, women such as Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, minister of foreign trade, have been trailblazers for progress throughout the region. This social change is being promoted at the United Nations, where Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently noted that the protection, education and empowerment of women and girls are among the most important ingredients to achieving all other Millennium Development Goals. Such consensus should not be surprising as study after study has found that investing in the education of women improves lives. Every extra year of girls' education can reduce infant mortality by 5 to 10 percent. In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40 percent more likely to live beyond age 5. And multicountry data show educated mothers are about 50 percent more likely to immunize their children than uneducated mothers are. But one of the most important developments of recent years has been the increasing amount of research that shows investments in women can offer not only social benefits, but also real economic growth. A growing body of evidence highlights the economic advantage of educating and empowering women. The private sector has seized on this data. There is now broad consensus that investing in women is not only just good social policy, it is \"smart economics,\" as Bob Zoellick, president of the World Bank, says. Toward that end, the World Bank has convened a Private Sector Leaders Forum with companies committed to these issues, such as Standard Chartered, Cisco, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Carlson and Nike. My own firm, Goldman Sachs, published two critical pieces of research, \"Womenomics\" and \"Women Hold Up Half the Sky,\" which found that investments in women -- through increased education and labor force participation -- can lead to real economic growth in developed and developing countries. Specifically, this research found that a 1 percentage point increase in female education raises the average level of gross domestic product by .37 and raises annual GDP growth rates by .2 on average. Such findings led to the development of 10,000 Women, an initiative that is working with a global network of leading academic and nonprofit partners to provide women at home and abroad with quality management and entrepreneurial education. This education is helping to create a greater number of female-owned small and medium enterprises, and a new generation of leaders poised to have exponential impact. One recent graduate of the program, Tuokpe Esisi, a fashion designer from Nigeria, has already increased her revenues, and immediately invested a portion of her profits to provide tutors for the illiterate male tailors she employs. This not only positions her enterprise for greater growth, but is also a perfect demonstration of the multiplier effect of investing in women. Organizations such as Women for Women International, Camfed and the International Center for Research on Women have long touted this multiplier effect and are supported by private-public partnerships dedicated to the promotion of women leaders. For example, the State Department, with the help of Vital Voices, instituted a mentoring program for the past four years with Fortune's Most Powerful Women. The program pairs leading U.S. executives -- such as Ann Moore (Time Inc), Pat Woertz (ADM), Helene Gayle (Care) and Anne Mulcahy (Xerox) -- with rising female entrepreneurs in developing countries. At the dawn of the 20th century, Egyptian poet Hafez Ibrahim said: \"When you educate a woman, you create a nation.\" Nearly a century later, the cause of women's empowerment has never been more important. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently put it, gender inequality is \"the dominant moral challenge we face in the 21st century.\" This challenge also presents an opportunity we cannot afford to squander. We should seize this moment and this momentum. There is tremendous work to be done, but history has shown us that women will not let us down. They will take up the challenge and build up their families, their villages and ultimately all our nations. The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Dina Habib Powell.","highlights":"Dina Powell: As we mark Women's Month, there are encouraging signs .\nBoth parties in the U.S. are taking steps to invest in the role of women, she says .\nShe says studies show that more education decreases infant mortality .\nInvesting in women's education leads to increases in economic growth, she says .","id":"9e69546d69a274897795f1d3f35bf29397c0a21a"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military continued its assault Thursday on militants in Taliban-held areas, its chief spokesman told reporters. Pakistani army trucks move military equipment into the troubled Buner district Thursday. So far, 14 militants have been killed in the past 24 hours, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. The operation is still ongoing in the districts of Dir and Buner, which was recently seized by the Taliban in violation of an agreement with Pakistan's government. Pakistani forces have completely secured Daggar, the main town in Buner and the scene of heavy fighting on Wednesday, Abbas said. The Daggar operation resulted in the deaths of 50 militants, but freed 18 Frontier Corps personnel who had been abducted by militants, he said. Fifty-two of their colleagues are still believed to be held by their suspected Taliban kidnappers. This week's military operation has resulted in more than 180 militant casualties since Sunday, while the military has suffered one death and one injury, according to Abbas. He said he hopes the operation will be completed by the end of the week. Pakistan has asked the United States to supply its forces with helicopters, communication equipment and night vision technology, Abbas said Thursday. Most of this week's casualties happened on Tuesday, when Pakistani fighter jets launched airstrikes, killing at least 70 militants in the Dir district, according to the Pakistani military. The operation is part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, which have rankled relations between the two countries. The military campaign has apparently not stopped Washington from carrying out unmanned drone attacks on Pakistan's soil. A suspected unmanned aerial vehicle killed six people Wednesday night in the village of Kaniguran in the tribal district of South Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence sources said. Pakistan has complained repeatedly about what it says are American airstrikes on its territory. The U.S. military in Afghanistan has not commented on the strikes, which typically target Taliban fighters in the border region. But the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from remote-controlled drones. U.S. President Barack Obama is \"gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan,\" he told reporters Wednesday night. Speaking at a news conference capping his 100th day in office, Obama said the United States has \"huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable\" and doesn't end up a \"nuclear-armed militant state.\" But he stressed he was more concerned about the ability of Pakistan's civilian government to \"deliver basic services,\" and not \"that they're immediately going to be overrun\" by the Taliban. Pakistan's recent military crackdown has led to an exodus of civilians from the region. At least 33,000 residents have left their homes in the midst of the recent fighting, according to Amnesty International. Civilians fleeing from Lower Dir in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province join more than 500,000 people already displaced by the fighting, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The Pakistani military completed its operation to eliminate and expel militants in Dir Tuesday, and is now focusing on the Buner district, Abbas said. About 300 militants entered Buner a few days ago, in violation of the Taliban's recent agreement to leave the district, he said. Buner is about 60 miles from Islamabad, but Abbas said the militants pose no threat of entering the capital. The fighter jets pounded targets in Buner and the Swat Valley in an effort to block the militants' entry and exit points, according to Abbas. CNN's Samson Desta, Ivan Watson, and Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistani military intensifies drive against Taliban in restive tribal regions .\nRecent military operation has resulted in more than 180 militant casualties .\nHas not stopped U.S. unmanned drone attacks on Pakistan's soil .\nBarack Obama \"gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan\"","id":"c829fffc7a44a32261ed40693f98f021ce895c64"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lectures, slide shows and notes are often boring, but people are using technology to find entertainment in these unlikely places. Spoof notes of \"Star Wars\" are scribbled into a fun online \"pencast.\" Some use high-tech pens to track presentations. Others share PowerPoints in slide show form online. These technologically spiced-up presentations seem to be getting more attention these days. They're also creating buzz about what the future of presentations might hold. Consider \"pencasts,\" which are made using the Pulse SmartPen and specially gridded paper, both sold by the California startup Livescribe. The pen writes like an ordinary pen but also has a voice recorder, and it \"notes\" (so to speak) which notes were taken at which point in the recording. Some quirky SmartPen presentations come off as comedy sketches. One popular presentation muses about how George Lucas might have come up with the idea for Star Wars. Some university students love the technology because they can record and play back what their professor was saying at an exact point in their notes -- which is especially useful when you can't read your own writing. And many professors are all for it, too. \"I feel like this is one of those 'Rear View Mirror' moments in which a new technology comes into our lives with enormous potential and we just don't know what to do with it yet,\" blogs Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropology and digital ethnography professor at Kansas State University. \"We think of it in terms of what we know (pen and paper) and fail to recognize the potential.\" That potential -- for entertainment and serious uses alike -- can be gleaned from pencasts posted on the Livescribe Web site's community section, which is about a year old. The pencasts posted there have collectively received more than 1.5 million views. Soon, it will be easier to embed pencasts on other sites, like personal blogs, the company says. Slide shows are further along in popularity. A startup called SlideShare launched in late 2006 with the idea of allowing people to easily share their PowerPoint presentations. Its site had more than 15 million visitors last month, and its 2008 contest for the best presentations showed off the form's potential. The best are far removed from the dull bullet-point presentations you might have fallen asleep to. Many use dramatic images, striking design and memorable phrases. Former Vice President Al Gore developed his presentation on the planet's environmental challenges into the Academy Award-winning documentary and best-selling book \"An Inconvenient Truth.\" Last year's top SlideShare presentation, called \"Thirst,\" highlights the looming water crisis and has nearly 200,000 views. Others are more light-hearted. The No. 2 spot (with more than 60,000 views) went to a presentation called \"Foot Notes.\" It shows pictures of the narrator's feet in various places she's been (like on cobblestone corridors in Prague and a dance floor in Chicago), interspersed with inspiring quotes related to feet and walking. Finally, for many people, the most dreaded, boring form of communication of all is the lecture. But then, how to explain the popularity of the TED videos? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The conference started in the mid-'80s and has become a networking event of sorts for the world's best and brightest. Dozens of speakers give presentations of about 20 minutes each -- the perfect duration for a juicy \"media snack.\" TED.com started introducing TEDTalks to the public for free in July 2006, and by the following year, there were more than a hundred talks dating back to 2002. Broken down into dozens of themes, today they're popular fodder for video iPods. In one, the amputee athlete and model Aimee Mullins talks about how her many pairs of artificial legs often beat having a single pair of regular ones -- some make her taller, others are works of art. In another, Jill Tarter, an astronomer and director of the Center for SETI Research, discusses how insanely large the universe is and what a \"waste of space\" it would be if life on Earth were indeed all there is. It's hard to watch a handful of TED videos and not feel your perspective broadening. That helps explain how, despite the lecture format, TEDTalks has become hugely popular. A few months ago, the videos surpassed the 100 million views mark -- not bad for a bunch of lectures.","highlights":"Technology injects new life into a dull medium: presentations .\nSmartPens bring audio and written notes together .\nGrowth in online applications makes slide shows and lectures more interesting .\nSuccess of TED lectures means educational content can be popular .","id":"3fde7da394187268e2ee58ed892bc659c0db33a9"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi soldier fatally shot two American soldiers and wounded three others on Saturday, the U.S. military said. A man lies in a hospital after a roadside bombing near Kirkurk on Saturday. Three Iraqis were killed. The shooter was killed when U.S. soldiers returned fire, Maj. Derrick Cheng told CNN. The incident took place at a combat outpost just south of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where there has been a strong presence of anti-U.S. militants, and it underscored the dangers for U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in that city. A second gunman also fired on other U.S. soldiers at the outpost and fled, said Cheng, a spokesman for the U.S.-led Multi National Division-North. Iraq's Interior Ministry said the gunman was a soldier in training who was standing close to U.S. soldiers when he aimed his firearm at them and began shooting. There have been similar incidents of men in Iraqi security force uniforms in the Mosul area opening fire on U.S. troops. In February, insurgents dressed as Iraqi police officers killed a U.S. soldier and an interpreter in the city. Asked whether there seems to be a rise in such attacks, Cheng replied, \"We still view these as isolated incidents either by individuals posing as Iraqi Security Forces or members acting out on their own.\" \"These events do not represent the overall relationship or partnership U.S. forces have with our Iraqi counterparts.\" Overall, violence and attacks are down in Iraq, but despite improvements in the big picture, the U.S. military is concerned with hot spots such as Mosul. Maj. Gen. David Perkins, MNF-Iraq spokesman, told reporters on Friday that the city remains a danger. He said the U.S. military is studying whether American combat troops scheduled to withdraw from urban centers in Iraq by June 30 should actually remain in the diverse metropolis -- populated by Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians and others. Perkins said al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) militants \"are transitioning and becoming more and more concentrated ... mainly in Mosul and in Baghdad.\" \"What we have always said with regards to al Qaeda is that strategically for AQI to win they have to win Baghdad and for them to survive they have to hold on to Mosul and you can see that by how they are conducting their attacks.\" In the last couple of weeks, he said, militants have focused their activity on Baghdad, and attacks in Mosul have dropped somewhat. \"But there is still a lot activity. This is probably the main area we are looking at that could possibly result in U.S. forces being there,\" he said of Mosul. \"Probably more so than any other place.\" \"Of all the places in Iraq, it is the area that you would most likely possibly see a very similar U.S. presence to what you see now. But only if Iraqis want that.\" U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq last month reached 18, the highest of the year. However, the number of monthly Iraqi troop deaths have plummeted since earlier in the war. Also on Saturday, Iranian forces targeting Kurdish rebels shelled a village in Iraq, an official from Iraq's Kurdish region said. Forces used helicopters to attack the village and shelled it with artillery. The village is just over the Iranian border in Iraq's Sulaimaniya province -- a Kurdish region. No casualties were reported. Iran and Turkey long have targeted Kurdish separatist rebels operating in northern Iraq. Meanwhile in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, three civilians were killed and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle on Saturday, police said. It is not known who the bomb might have been targeting, but the incident reflects the hostilities in the oil-rich and ethnically diverse city.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. military: Gunman who killed 2 U.S. troops, wounded 3 was Iraqi soldier .\nIraqi officials say shooter was soldier-in-training who opened fire at a training facility .\nShootings underscore the dangers for U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in Mosul .\nIranian forces attacked Kurdish village in Iraq; 3 civilians killed in Kirkuk .","id":"0724815bbc8203d12faa9b761508b57642332a4d"} -{"article":"On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. This week, King traveled to New Hampshire, where diner patrons shared their thoughts on President Obama and the economy. The Tilt'n Diner hosted all the major presidential candidates during the primaries in 2008. TILTON, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Kate O'Leary voted for Barack Obama and began the year full of energy. But her hope is giving way these days to a sense that some things never change. \"I trust his motives,\" she said of President Obama. \"I feel like he is an honorable guy, I am not sure if he can do it. That's the problem.\" Too much too soon is one of her worries. Too much politics as usual is another. Add in too much bailout money and Kate O'Leary is more sober now than she was when Obama took the oath of office. Across from O'Leary sat Debbie Lurvey, who took a job at the Tilt'n Diner after losing her job in the mortgage business. \"It was a forced unemployment because of the economy,\" Lurvey said. \"So, you know, I decided that it was best to move on to something a little more stable.\" O'Leary and Lurvey are among those who think the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. But our third guest for our weekly diner conversation, Jim Wells, isn't so sure. \"I think most of it is psychological,\" said Wells, a Republican who believes consumers need to be more confident. \"The secret out of a recession like this is to spend money. And you have got to spend your own, you can't expect somebody else to spend it for you.\" He makes the distinction between consumer spending and what he sees as too much government spending. \"We are going to have to pay the bill in another two or three years and it is going to be scary when it happens,\" Wells said. All three agreed one thing missing from Washington is a spirit of cooperation and compromise. Lurvey said the pain of losing her job and dealing with foreclosure have taught her there are some things the government can't do. \"It is a good time to get back to what this country was made on -- it's the family,\" she said. \"And you know I think for awhile we were all going crazy and overspending and living beyond our means and this has kind of been a reality check for most people.\"","highlights":"Diner patron Kate O'Leary likes Obama, but doubts how much change he can bring .\nRepublican Jim Wells believes consumers need to be more confident .\nThree diners says Washington is missing a spirit of cooperation, compromise .\nLiving beyond means has been a \"reality check\" for the country, Debbie Lurvey says .","id":"b5a94bd11729073aad2ebe28dc36b261a417eee0"} -{"article":"The swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, is all over the news. A string of cases have been reported across the United States, as well as across the globe, with Mexico the hardest hit country, so far. Older kids, who may be scared but hide it, should be reassured that parents and health officials are on top of it. It's easy to freak out amid these disturbing reports, but the truth is you're probably doing everything you need to do to protect your family. \"Parents should be aware of what public health officials are saying, and then just be extra vigilant about the precautions they'd normally take to prevent the spread of germs,\" says Joseph Bocchini, M.D., chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases and pediatrics chair of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. No. 1 on the list: washing hands more frequently. So take a deep breath, put down the surgical mask, and read on for all information you need to know. Parenting.com: Cold and flu old wives' tales . Signs and symptoms . Indicators of swine flu are not unlike those for regular old run-of-the-mill flu. What makes this virus different from typical flu is that more serious complications, such as pneumonia, might occur more often. Also, says Bocchini, this is a new strain of flu, and no one in the population would be expected to be immune. One of the biggest concerns for officials is simply that a lot of people could get sick at the same time. Take heart in knowing that our government health officials are doing everything they can to make sure the country's prepared. In the mean time, your job is to know how to spot the signs. If you or your child are experiencing any of the following, call your doctor. He or she may want you to come in and be tested. Parenting.com: Interactive symptom checker . \u2022 fever (above 100.4 for babies 3 months and younger, and 101.1 for everyone else), plus . \u2022 cough . \u2022 sore throat . \u2022 intense body aches . \u2022 headache . \u2022 chills . \u2022 fatigue . Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting, too. Pregnant women are at extra risk for complications even with regular flu, according to Bocchini, and small children have a higher rate of hospitalization. Both expectant women and moms of kids under 2 should be extra careful about taking action quickly. Parenting.com: How to keep nosy, germy strangers away from your baby . When to head to the ER . If your child demonstrates any of the following symptoms, it's time to seek emergency care: . \u2022 Fast or troubled breathing . \u2022 Bluish skin color . \u2022 Refusal to drink fluids . \u2022 Difficulty waking up and\/or interacting . \u2022 Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held . * Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough . \u2022 Fever with a rash, especially one that does not blanch . In adults, the following symptoms deserve an ER trip as well: . \u2022 Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath . \u2022 Pain or pressure in the chest . \u2022 Abdominal pain . \u2022 Sudden dizziness . \u2022 Confusion . \u2022 Severe or persistent vomiting . How to talk to your kids about It . As always, you'll want to explain to kids that germs can make us sick, and that's why it's important to wash your hands. You can say, \"Soap and water rinse away the little buggers so they can't make us feel bad.\" If they've caught wind of swine flu in particular, it's important to project an image of calm (even if you're internally flipping out) and make them feel safe. Small kids should be soothed with a simple explanation that there are different kinds of flu, and we should just keep up with washing up. Older kids, who may be scared but hide it, can be given a few more details but should still be reassured that their parents and our health officials are on top of it. Easing symptoms and treatment . If you come down with the flu, swine or otherwise, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself comfortable. \u2022 If you or your child feel at all flu-ish, skip work and school. Stay home until you feel completely well. \u2022 Try to stay in a separate area of the house to limit the risk of passing the virus. \u2022 Rest up -- consider it your free pass to catch up on your DVR list. \u2022 Push clear fluids, such as water and soup. \u2022 Ease body aches with acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen. If your child is under 2, check with your doctor before giving them medication. \u2022 Using a humidifier can ease a stuffy nose. Saline drops followed by suctioning with a nasal syringe can bring additional relief to small children. \u2022 There is treatment for swine flu. Antiviral medications like Tamiflu and Relenza can lessen your symptoms make you feel better faster and prevent swine flu-related complications if taken early on. Consult your doctor about a prescription. Is there a cure? There's not a cure, but a vaccine is being developed, according to the FDA. If you already got a flu shot, it probably won't protect you from this strain, but it's a good idea to still get one annually. Prevention 101 . You probably already know all about how to prevent the spread of germs, but in an outbreak like this, it can't hurt to be a little more vigilant. Here's a rundown of easy things you can do, starting today. Parenting.com: Ask Dr. Sears: Immune system boosters . At home: . \u2022 This one's a no-brainer but bears repeating: wash your hands frequently, and make sure your kids do the same. It's a good idea to get into the habit of doing it as soon as you walk in the door, before meals and food prep, post-potty and after touching pets. \u2022 Take a moment to clean germ hot spots, like tables, doorknobs, desks and kitchen counters, with a disinfectant. Look for products that contain bleach or alcohol. \u2022 Keep your family's immune system strong with regular sleep, and lots of fruits and veggies. If you know anyone who's been sick, stay away for now. Out and about: . \u2022 Try to keep up the frequent hand-washing, especially after trips to the playground. \u2022 If you don't have a sink handy, use an alcohol-based sanitizer gel or wipe. Look for ones that contain at least 60% alcohol. \u2022 Try to avoid crowded areas. \u2022 Wash your hands or use sanitizer after handling money. \u2022 Use your own pen when signing credit card slips. Everywhere: . \u2022 Cover your mouth with your elbow when you cough or sneeze, and remind your kiddos to do the same. \u2022 Throw your used tissue in the trash instead of stuffing it in your pocket. \u2022 Try to avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, which give germs a fast track to infection. \u2022 Remind kids not to share cups, utensils and plates with friends. Getting kids to wash their hands . Yes, you know they should wash those dirty mitts often, but what you really need to know is how to get them to do it sans whining. We've got some tips and tricks for making washing up fun: . \u2022 To get them to soap up for the required 20 seconds (or more), belt out \"Happy Birthday\" twice. Everyone sounds better in the bathroom anyway, right? \u2022 Fill the sink with water, and let them go to town with foam soaps and bath toys. (Ignore the water on the floor.) Parenting.com: Germ-fighting tips for parents . \u2022 Lather up, Mom! Be a good example for your kids, and encourage them to \"teach\" their dolls to wash up, too. \u2022 Make sure they can reach the sink easily. If you don't have one already, get a colorful stool to give them a boost. \u2022 Keep their fingernails clipped -- less real estate for germs! Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"What parents should tell children about swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus .\nExplain to kids that germs can make us sick, so it's important to wash hands .\nProject an image of calm to make them feel safe. Tailor explanation to age .\nTake common flu-season precautions .","id":"fe5f43259dac09da0bfda91af327df46b5fc429a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For Anthony Williams, being black in America means being a suspect. Anthony Williams says he feels like he's always a suspect to police. The 39-year-old former Marine said he's never had any trouble with the law, other than a few traffic violations, and leads a middle-class life in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. But the AT&T customer care representative said he still gets nervous when he hears that police are looking for a 6-foot-tall black man, \"because I know I fit that description.\" \"I worry I will get pulled over and some police officer decides to shoot first and ask questions later,\" Williams wrote. Police recently questioned him in his own driveway after getting complaints that a man was walking in neighbors' yards, Williams said. iReport.com: Tell us what you thought of \"Black in America.\" \"You never know what to expect when you get pulled over by police, and that's how it is when you're black,\" he said. Vince Priester of Lithonia, Georgia, said the documentary was \"intriguing and moving\" and showed that \"with all the change we've made as a society, things really haven't changed\" for black people. \"You have to tone yourself down when you're around white people,\" he said. \"There's nervousness from white women when I share an elevator with them; they put their hand on their pocketbook.\" \"You have to almost change yourself, dilute yourself, to live in a white society,\" he said. iReport.com: Vince Priester describes being black in America . We asked iReport.com writers and readers to share their reaction to part one of the four-hour documentary \"Black in America.\" Dozens of people have responded in the hours since the show ended. Ayana Gooden, a 34-year-old artist, musician and Web designer in New York, said that she enjoyed the show but that it missed one question: Why? \"To look at how things are in the present, you really have to look at the past,\" she said. Slavery and segregation have left deep scars that take generations to heal. She said her own parents couldn't vote without harassment for a third of their lives. Sonya Freeman of Brooklyn, New York, said the black community is still struggling under white oppression. \"The whole single mom thing and people not being married ... back in the day, especially during slavery time, black people weren't allowed to be married,\" she said. She said her grandfather wasn't allowed to go to school past the sixth grade. \"It's not just bad decision-making. It was a whole set of values that were not learned, so they can't be passed down,\" she said. Nicole Adams of the Bronx, New York, said that she enjoyed the show but that there were too many issues to cover in just four hours. \"How do you speak about black women and not talk about depression, which is a battle that many women, including myself, face every day?\" she asked. Adams also questioned the emphasis on two-parent families, saying that \"the character of the people in the household and not the number was the real determining factor.\" The 37-year-old grew up with a mom and a dad but said their relationship was dysfunctional. \"I didn't have a model of a healthy relationship, so I didn't know how to participate productively in a relationship,\" she said. \"I fought so hard not to be like my mom .. that I sabotaged my own relationship.\"","highlights":"\"Black in America\" provokes strong reaction from iReporters .\nAnthony Williams says he knows he \"fits the description\"\nAyana Gooden says she wished special focused more on past .\nShare your thoughts on Part 2 on iReport.com .","id":"362ab2dc07cc5e2124c286a1275c1a8d2e1bfdf2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dan Godshall and 21 other students at Slippery Rock University will not be allowed to graduate at their school's main ceremony because they recently visited Mexico. Dan Godshall was worried at first about telling his mother he wasn't able to be at the main graduation. The students, who returned this week after student teaching in Mexico, came back to the United States early because they were worried the border would be closed and they'd miss out on walking at their graduation. But now, they'll be walking in their own graduation, without any of their classmates, because the college feared they made have been exposed to the H1N1 flu outbreak in Mexico. \"At first I was like, no way, no way,\" Godshall told CNN. \"I had the irrational, 15-minute oh my God, oh my God, I can't go to my graduation.\" The students got the news from the school and received an e-mail from the university's vice president explaining the change. \"The university has received hundreds of calls from students and parents who were worried about being exposed at the commencement ceremonies,\" the e-mail said. \"We have an obligation to protect others from what they perceive is possible exposure to this virus.\" When he heard the news, Godshall was worried about how he would tell his mother that she wouldn't get to see him walk across the stage with the pomp and circumstance that everyone else will have. \"I thought my mom was going to freak,\" he said. iReport.com: How should we handle swine flu . Senior Ryan Brisini said at first when he found out that he couldn't walk, he was \"a little irked.\" \"But we are a liability, and if you are going to try and do the best thing for the school and the entire graduation ceremony, we probably shouldn't be there,\" he said. So Brisini and Godshall took the news in stride. The 22 students will get a ceremony unlike anyone else in the school -- and the main graduation will see a video of their ceremony. \"It makes us a little distinguished from the group,\" Godshall said. \"We were already the Mexican group, the swine flu zombies, now it gives us something positive and everyone has to watch our ceremony.\" And with a small ceremony, only attended by the 22 students, their family and friends and university officials, senior Ryan Brisini thinks it will be more memorable. He won't have to sit next to a bunch of people he won't know, and he won't have to endure the lingering theatrics of a regular ceremony. \"I think its kind of cool because when you are with people for an entire month you bond with them, and I can say I'm genuinely excited for everyone graduating, whereas at the main graduation I'd be with a bunch of kids I don't know,\" he said. \"With this I can clap and cheer for everyone and genuinely be happy for them.\" Still, some students are upset they will miss out on the grandiose day. John Powell, who also went on the trip, told CNN affiliate WTAE-TV that the whole reason the group left early was so they could attend. \"It hits me a little bit. It's a necessary evil, separating us. I don't agree with it totally, but I'm not in too big of a position to overturn it,\" Powell said. Watch Slippery Rock students tell their story \u00bb . WTAE reported the university, in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, says it has received hundreds of calls from concerned people. \"There are concerns from the public perspective that they will be exposed,\" university spokeswoman Rita Abent told WTAE. \"They may boo them. They may get up and walk out. And graduation should be a very respectful and a very celebratory time.\" Slippery Rock University isn't the only school making changes to graduation ceremonies because of swine flu fears. Cisco Junior College in West Central Texas is canceling Friday graduation ceremonies. Students will get their diplomas by mail, the college said. \"We understand that many will be disappointed by our decision,\" college President Colleen Smith said in a statement. \"However, we believe that it is more important to protect our students, employees and families than to proceed with graduation ceremonies at this time.\" Graduates at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, will get diplomas at commencement ceremonies Saturday but will have to live without part of the day's tradition. \"Since direct contact is one of the ways flu viruses spread, we have decided to forgo the traditional congratulatory handshake as you come forward to receive your diploma and have your photo taken with your dean,\" the school told students in a letter posted on its Web site. Across the country thousands of elementary, middle and high school students are feeling the impact too. At least four high schools have canceled their proms this weekend, including Park City High School in Park City, Utah, according to CNN affiliate KSL-TV. Senior Kelly McGuire, who was getting ready for the prom on Saturday, is making last-minute changes because of the rescheduling. \"That's a bummer, because it means we have to try to cancel our limo,\" McGuire told KSL-TV. \"All cancellations have to be a week in advance. I have to cancel my tux, my corsage. It's going to be hectic.\" The Department of Education said that as of noon on Friday 433 schools, with a total of 245,449 students, in 17 states have been closed. Fort Worth schools will be closed at least until May 12, authorities said, announcing that one student was confirmed to have swine flu. The closure affects about 80,000 students. Texas school officials have postponed all interscholastic sports until at least May 11. Alabama has taken a similar step, stopping competitions until at least Tuesday. In Montgomery County, Maryland, 1,250-student Rockville High School joined the closed list Friday when state health authorities closed it until further notice because of a suspected swine flu case. There, too, athletics were taking a big hit, Assistant Principal Dyan Gomez said. Rockville's teams were even banned from traveling to other schools to compete this weekend, she said. CNN's Brad Lendon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Slippery Rock University students who visited Mexico will have own graduation .\nStudent: \"We are a liability ... we probably shouldn't be there\"\nSome students thrilled to get unique ceremony where they will know all graduates .\nSchools postponing proms, canceling graduations over swine flu fears .","id":"3e0ae66aff9b85f9f3ddf3c6531da7b0d27dbaeb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's crown prince was convalescing Saturday in Morocco where he arrived this week after surgery for an undisclosed illness in New York City, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said. Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, right, seen in a 2007 file photo . Crown Prince Sultan, who is also the nation's deputy prime minister, completed \"all medical tests and treatments in the aftermath of the medical surgery he has previously undergone,\" the news agency said, quoting a statement from the Royal Court. Sultan arrived in the Moroccan city of Agadir on Wednesday, the press agency said. Speculation about his health has been mounting since he arrived in New York in February. While Saudi officials maintain publicly that Sultan's health has improved, the appointment in late March of a second deputy prime minister has raised more questions about the extent of his illness. Last month, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah issued a royal decree naming the interior minister, Prince Nayef -- the powerful brother of the crown prince and half-brother to the king -- to the post of second deputy prime minster. The appointment appears to mean Nayef is now the country's crown prince in waiting and second in line to be king. In recent weeks, local media have quoted Nayef as downplaying rumors that the crown prince may be seriously ill. \"I would like to assure you that the crown prince's health is very good,\" he told reporters in March, according to the English-language daily newspaper Arab News. \"God willing, after the medical vacation he will return to the kingdom in full health.\"","highlights":"Saudi Arabia's crown prince convalesces in Morocco after surgery in New York .\nIllness of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was not revealed .\nAppointment of second deputy prime minister raises questions about illness .","id":"0d2f959366968650e7c195dcef5f7834b8fd0618"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The wedding of a Boston, Massachusetts, medical student accused of killing a woman he met through Craigslist has been called off, his fiancee's lawyer said. The wedding of accused \"Craigslist killer\" Phillip Markoff and his fiancee, Megan McAllister, has been called off. Megan McAllister, who was accompanied by her mother, met Phillip Markoff for about 25 minutes in a Boston jail earlier this week, her lawyer Robert Honecker told CNN affiliate WCVB. \"It was an emotional conversation on both sides,\" Honecker said, adding that McAllister is planning to move back to her home state of New Jersey. \"There is still a love and commitment to that person, and I think that obviously realizing what has now happened, that she has to take steps to do what she has to do on her life,\" Honecker told WCVB. She plans to move on, he said. \"There are things that she has to do, and I think the process begins today,\" Honecker told WCVB. Honecker told ABC on Thursday that the wedding \"will not occur.\" Watch lawyer tell reporters that Megan McAllister is ready to move on \u00bb . McAllister maintained her fiance's innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News in early April. In the e-mail, McAllister said police have the wrong man and Markoff \"was set up.\" McAllister's visit was her first since Markoff was arraigned last week on murder charges in the killing of a woman whom authorities say he met through Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. Markoff, 23, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, is charged with killing Julissa Brisman on April 14 at a Boston hotel. Police said Brisman, a model from New York, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist. Prosecutors say Brisman was shot three times at close range and suffered blunt head trauma. Markoff is also charged in connection with an April 10 robbery of Trisha Leffler, 29, at another hotel in Boston. Leffler also met Brisman on Craigslist. Leffler was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards, according to police reports. Markoff has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.","highlights":"Phillip Markoff, fiancee call off wedding, according to fiancee's lawyer .\nLawyer: Fiancee Megan McAllister planning to move to New Jersey .\nMarkoff accused of killing Julissa Brisman after police say she met her on Craigslist .\nMarkoff also charged in connection with an April 10 robbery .","id":"732c66c5af5eaa751c58b254eb1e5d47f713a5e6"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A killer bug is spreading like wildfire. Armed guards stand outside the Mexico City Respiratory Hospital to control the flow of people. Streets of one of the world's biggest cities are eerily empty. Bars and restaurants have been shuttered for days. The president goes on TV to tell workers to stay at home for their own safety. Those who venture outside are clad in surgical masks. Once healthy people are suddenly falling sick and dying from a new disease, H1N1 swine flu. The government swears the situation is under control. But down at the hospital, medics scurry around behind the glass door of an isolation ward. They're clad from head to toe in biohazard suits, goggles and two pairs of gloves. At the airport, officials set up a barrage of thermal imaging machines. If the picture flashes up red or orange, would-be passengers are whisked off to medical facilities. See where the virus has been confirmed \u00bb . It may sound like a sci-fi movie. It's not. Welcome to Mexico City. It's a nightmare scenario and despite twice-a-day news conferences featuring Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova, people on the streets fear the virus may be out of control and that the real death toll may be greater than anyone is letting on. Watch how the city has been shut down \u00bb . \"The measures we're taking are working and are helping us to slow the spread of the virus. But the situation continues to be serious,\" Cordova said at a news conference this week. Government orders to its citizens are clear: wash frequently, don't shake hands or kiss, and stay away from crowded places. That's easier said than done. The doors on the subway car snap open at Hidalgo station. Dozens more passengers clad in surgical masks stream on. It's rush hour deep below the streets of downtown Mexico City. The subway system is the veins of the capital, ferrying millions of people from all social classes to and from work. It's hot and humid down there and there's little fresh air. It's just the kind of crowded place that Mexican authorities say could be a prime breeding ground for swine flu. \"I'm pretty nervous of this whole virus thing,\" welder Frontino Valdez mumbled through one of the masks. Watch passengers packed onto trains trying to protect themselves \u00bb . Sitting one carriage down, Berta Hernandez, a product demonstrator, tries not to show her panic and applies eyeliner like any other morning. But today she has a problem, she has no intention of lifting her mask to paint on lip gloss. \"I'm nervous of those people who aren't wearing masks. Maybe they will suddenly sneeze or cough,\" she said. In these days of swine flu paranoia, just coughing, or worse sneezing, in the subway, or \"metro\" as they call it here, brings black looks from fellow passengers. This has been a strange epidemic since the outset. So far, the Mexican government has been unable to pinpoint where or when this outbreak started. Authorities admit there was an outbreak of influenza in a village in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz in early April. But only one patient -- 5-year-old Edgar Hernandez -- was diagnosed as having swine flu. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta ask the boy about his symptoms \u00bb . The international media have taken to calling him \"Patient Zero.\" He made a full recovery. So far there's no evidence a pig farm near his home reported any problems with its livestock. The family hasn't explained how little Edgar could have infected a capital city let alone the world. The authorities haven't drawn up a genetic map of Edgar's illness nor compared it to the lethal strain that swept through Mexico City and other parts of the country. Lethal it is. But getting to the truth of who has really died from the virus is tough. Since midweek, the government abandoned its initial reporting and began to speak only of confirmed swine flu cases and confirmed deaths due to the H1N1 virus. Previously it had also tallied suspected cases and others under observation. In practice, it is taking days for the government to get test results from autopsies and tests. By the time a case is confirmed the patient may be long buried. One afternoon this week, at a cinder block home perched on a hillside in a poor northern neighborhood of Mexico City, a coffin was mounted on the living room table. A steady stream of neighbors filed in to pay their final tribute to a dead 24-year-old. Biting back tears, a young man said his brother had died of \"respiratory problems.\" When asked what kind of a person his brother was, he said simply: \"He was an honest man. He never got in any trouble.\" The man seemed to be feeling an underlying sense of shame. Suddenly there was a huge stigma attached to swine flu -- like in the early days of AIDS-related deaths -- and Mexican families were keen to dispel notions their loved ones had died of the mutant virus. They didn't want the prying eyes of the media near their home. We wanted to tell their story, observe the wake and follow the funeral. But death is a rite of passage. They had a right to mourn in private. The following day came a tip-off that a 5-year-old girl, Maria Fernanda Garcia, had died. The modest side street outside her home in eastern Mexico City was swarming with police, health workers and civil protection officials. Watch how armed guards were part of Maria Fernanda's funeral \u00bb . Little Maria Fernanda's father appeared briefly and told us we weren't welcome. He was curt when he told us his daughter had died from pneumonia. A medic confirmed the specific cause of death was indeed pneumonia. But he added the hospital was still waiting for test results to confirm whether the underlying cause was swine flu. He conceded that process could take days. But judging by the heavy security, local authorities certainly feared this was another case of the virus. \"These are the prevention measures we must take. This case is still not confirmed but we must take these steps to protect citizens,\" said Victor Luna, a member of the public security detail for this district of Mexico City. A few minutes later, the hearse with Maria Fernanda's body pulled out of the housing complex where she lived. Her dad was clutching a Winnie Pooh cuddly toy as he rode up front. Police and health officials shadowed the funeral cortege to the graveyard. Police guards only permitted immediate family and close friends through the iron gates. Through the bars silent, tearful mourners could be seen weaving through a labyrinth of headstones. Later that afternoon, the family had left Maria Fernanda's grave -- a tiny patch of newly dug dry earth, not much more than 3 feet long. It was covered with sweet-scented white flowers. The plaque on the grave was a simple hand-painted affair: . \"Maria Fernanda. 2004 to 2009. We love you.\"","highlights":"Every aspect of life has been hit by the spread of H1N1 in Mexico City .\nCitizens told not to shake hands or kiss .\nEven a tragic death of a child brings suspicion, paranoia .","id":"a2efd9be505d4a0467145ae3129609cbc81413c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus has jumped nearly 30 percent with 331 people being infected so far, the World Health Organization said Friday. A young couple in Mexico City wear surgical masks in an attempt to avoid contamination from the virus. The WHO added that the virus had spread to 11 countries, but the hardest hit areas were in the western hemisphere. \"We have not seen sustained human to human transmission anywhere outside the Americas region,\" said WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham. Two more countries, Denmark and China, reported cases of the 2009 H1N1 \"swine flu\" virus on Friday, but they were still to be confirmed by the WHO. The largest outbreak was in Mexico which had 156 confirmed cases, while there were 141 cases confirmed and one death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The WHO said Mexico had 9 deaths attributed to the virus. But Mexican officials said the death toll had risen to 12. However, more than 150 deaths in Mexico are suspected to have been caused by the virus and are being investigated, officials there said. The higher totals do not necessarily mean that incidence of the disease is increasing, but rather that health investigators are going through their backlog of specimens, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO. In addition to Mexico and the United States, the following countries have so far confirmed non-lethal cases: . Austria: 1 Canada: 34 China: 1 Denmark: 1 Germany: 3 Israel: 2 Netherlands: 1 New Zealand: 3 Spain: 13 Switzerland: 1 United Kingdom: 9 . An additional 642 cases are being investigated in the United Kingdom, and Spain has 84 suspected cases. Australia, which has had no confirmed cases, was investigating 114.","highlights":"Largest outbreak was in Mexico which had 156 confirmed cases .\nThe virus had spread to 11 countries, with western hemisphere hardest hit .\nMexico suspects 150 deaths have been caused by H1N1 virus .\nU.S. and Mexico the only countries showing human-to-human spread so far .","id":"4465125b213f7e8a34e5bd2d999991a705bf3bea"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Sportsmen and women being caught taking drugs is not a new phenomenon -- but it's still a shock when the news breaks. Romania's Adrian Mutu was sacked by Chelsea and banned from the game for testing positive for cocaine. Only recently Michael Phelps, who shattered Olympic records by claiming eight golds in the pool in Beijing last year, was caught on camera with a marijuana pipe to his mouth. The American is far from alone. The history of sport is peppered with drug use, usually of the performance-enhancing kind: athletics has been blighted by it, cycling has lost much of its credibility because of it and baseball has proven to be far from immune. But football, the world's most popular game in terms of fan following and participation, does not seem to have had its share of drugs scandals, not least in the world's most high profile division, the English Premier League. No top-flight player in English football has ever tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs in a league match. The closest anyone has come is Middlesbrough FC defender Abel Xavier, who was banned from football by UEFA for 18 months in 2005 when he tested positive for the steroid dianabol after a UEFA Cup match. The English Football Association (FA) takes its lead on doping from UK Sport, the body which regulates drug testing in the UK based on the code set out by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Let us know your views of drugs and drug testing in football. UK Sport's Russell Langley does not believe more tests would necessarily return more positive results. \"It's a difficult question to answer,\" he said. \"The stats show what they show. But it's fair to say if doping was going on at that level we would have unearthed it. \"Our focus at UK Sport is not on more and more testing -- we don't think that's going to answer the question about whether there's more doping out there. \"What we want to do is make every test we do as effective as possible. If there are people out there doping we've got to have the right level of intelligence and information to target them. \"Testing at no notice and out of competition is where we think we've got the best chance of being able to catch any sportsmen taking drugs,\" he added. English footballers can be tested after matches (in competition) and at training sessions (out of competition). Until a few years ago, a tester was forbidden from turning up at a footballer's house unannounced (no notice). But the FA has altered its stance as part of its claim that it \"maintains the largest and most comprehensive out-of-competition testing program in international football.\" They conduct 1,600 random, no-notice drug tests per season, which the World Anti-Doping Code and the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping on Sport state is the most effective method of combating the use of drugs in sport. But those 1,600 tests are conducted on professional players, non-league football, women's football and youth team football. It means the chances are small of catching any Premier League star who may be using drugs. Down the years, Italy's Serie A has seen the most cases of players getting caught with either performance-enhancing or recreational drugs in their system. One reason for this is the Italian authorities' no-nonsense stance: two players from each squad are drawn at random to be tested after every match. And it has worked. Household names such as Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids, Pep Guardiola, Fernando Couto, Francesco Flachi, Mohamed Kallon and Diego Maradona have all been caught in the last two decades. By way of comparison, Billy Turley, a goalkeeper in one of England's lower leagues, was let off with warning after being found to have taken the steroid nandrolone in the 2002-03 season. It took a further positive test for cocaine for him to get a six-month ban. But on the issue of combating social drugs -- something not demanded by WADA's code -- Langley believes the FA's stance is to be applauded. He said: \"They invest heavily in their testing program. They recognize that a particular problem for their sport is social drugs so this separate testing goes on. They don't have to do it. \"This carries a different set of sanctions which are controlled by the FA and the aim of that program is about rehabilitation rather than punishment.\" Langley said the sanctions send out a strong message that the FA is prepared to do something about it. \"They recognize their responsibility -- football is a huge role model for youngsters,\" he added. Chris Armstrong, then of Crystal Palace, became the first Premier League player to fail a drug test when he tested positive for cannabis in 1995. He was back playing within a month following a brief spell in rehab. Chelsea's Mark Bosnich and Adrian Mutu have both been caught with cocaine in their systems and both were banned and sacked by the club in the 2000s. The FA also wants to make sure that players understand that not taking a test is not an option either, making an example of Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand. The center-back missed a scheduled drugs test in 2003 and was belatedly suspended for eight months and fined \u00a350,000. Ferdinand could have got a bigger punishment. The FA's guidelines state that for a first offence a minimum suspension of three months up to a maximum of two years will apply, but a lack of consistency has always dogged punishments for drug offences. No other footballer has been reported as missing a test since. The FA is far from blind to the issue of drugs in English football and since the Ferdinand incident their policies and punishments have been tightened. But as long as a player's chances of getting caught remain comparatively small, drugs in football appears to be an issue the FA is keeping a lid on rather than eradicating.","highlights":"Football has seen a number of high-profile players fail drugs tests .\nEnglish FA tests for both performance-enhancing and social drugs .\nDifferent punishments are given depending on the offence .","id":"f6fff1fdb5fc2de43be38397de007bb0e1b9e505"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Watching the news out of Mexico is causing a case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for Dr. Lo Wing-Luk. The sight of people wearing masks became common in Hong Kong after the SARS outbreak of 2003. \"Seeing the people in masks today reminds me of Hong Kong during SARS,\" said Lo, an epidemiology expert who was among those on the frontline during the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003, which within three months infected 8,000 and killed nearly 800 in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Toronto. Historically, Hong Kong has been center stage for recent infections that threatened to spiral across the world, such as SARS and Avian Influenza, which first struck and killed people here in 1997. Southern China -- with the close proximity of its rural agriculture to population centers and globally connected transportation -- has been an ideal conduit for past animal diseases that spread to humans and then to the rest of the world. But with the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the United States, Hong Kong suddenly finds the world looking to it for lessons on how to stop the spread of disease. \"Managing a (potential) pandemic can't be from the top down, it must be from the ground up,\" said Lo, a former Hong Kong legislator representing the medical community. In the early days of SARS, cooperation was lax between Hong Kong health officials and public officials across the border in mainland China, where the live animal wet markets in Guangdong province is suspected in the virus' jump to humans. \"One of the most important lesson of SARS was the importance of good communication,\" says Dr. KY Yuen, head of the microbiology department of Hong Kong University, which found the first human cases of Avian Influenza in 1997 and first identified SARS in 2003. \"There were outbreaks in the middle to late November in Guangdong Province, but the first cases were reported in Hong Kong three months later,\" he said. \"We could have reduced the impact (of SARS) if there had been better communication\" between Hong Kong and mainland China health authorities. The communication channels have improved between China and Hong Kong, health officials said, as well as better surveillance of the disease. Every visitor who comes through Hong Kong International Airport now is scanned by infrared monitors and immediately isolated if suffering from a fever or respiratory illness. \"Quarantine and isolation of people (suspected to be ill) is crucial now,\" Yuen said. As the disease spreads, there is a conflict between the need for a quick response and the time required for appropriate scientific study -- which can result in some bad decisions, Yuen said. For example, in the case of SARS health experts wore full-body protection suits because of initial hunches the disease was being spread by airborne causes. More people were exposed to the disease because of the harried medical staff's improper use of the cumbersome equipment. \"It turned out globes, masks and hand washing were far more effective\" than a breathing apparatus, Yuen said. \"Presumptions are dangerous,\" he added. If Hong Kong is any example, governments who fail to meet the challenges of an outbreak will face rising public heat. In July 2003, half a million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest the government, in part because of frustrations over the response to the SARS outbreak, says Cecilia Chan, director of the Center of Behavioral Health at Hong Kong University -- adding to the woes of the already beleaguered administration of former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Wah, who later stepped down in the middle of his second five-year appointment.","highlights":"Hong Kong at center of recent infections that threatened to spiral across world .\nFirst human cases of Avian Influenza reported in 1997, SARS identified in 2003 .\nDisease expert: Managing a (potential) pandemic can't be from the top down .\nLack of good communication during SARS outbreak was a key failing .","id":"5015b2ba8ea9567da4dd1a83e634dc3bf0abfcd2"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A Pakistani man using \"colonel\" as a title is one of about three dozen people wanted over November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, but his connections with the Pakistani army have not been established, Indian prosecutors say. Police patrol in New Delhi last year following warnings of possible attacks using hijacked aircraft, officials said. \"This is all a matter of investigation,\" special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told CNN Thursday when asked if India thought he had links to the Pakistani army. Neither is it clear whether the \"colonel\" belonged to the Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which is blamed for the Mumbai siege, Nikam said. But India, the public prosecutor added, had \"ample evidence\" of his involvement in the November attacks. Authorities say Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving suspect accused of taking part in the Mumbai siege, faces a multitude of charges, including murder and attempted murder. Speaking outside Qila Court in Mumbai, Nikam said Kasab didn't attend the hearing for security reasons. The next hearing is set for March 9. A 21-year-old Pakistani, Kasab was one of 10 men accused of participating in the coordinated sieges on buildings such as the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, Mumbai's historic Victoria Terminus train station and the Jewish cultural center, Chabad House. Indian forces killed nine suspects. More than 160 people, including many foreigners, died during the three days of attacks that began November 26. Authorities said Kasab was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which was banned in Pakistan in 2002 after a terrorist attack on India's parliament. The group denied responsibility. Nikam said on Wednesday that the 50-page document describing the charges against Kasab also contains the names of 35 other suspects being sought in the crimes, many of whom are thought to be members of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. The prosecutor said his office hopes to finish the trial for Kasab in three to six months. He has been in police custody since November 28. Also charged Wednesday were two men accused of helping to plan the violence, Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, according to the prosecutor.","highlights":"Pakistani man using \"colonel\" as a title is wanted over Mumbai attacks .\nIndian prosecutors say man's connections with Pakistani army not established .\nAuthorities say only surviving suspect faces charges, including murder .\nIndian forces killed 9 suspects; over 160 people died in November attacks .","id":"dba5ee6b3bb4b9e8f456752f04973df3094d15dc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terror attacks have spiked dramatically in Afghanistan and Pakistan as extremists in both countries strengthen their power and expand operations, according to a State Department report released Thursday. The number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, like this bombing in April, has more than quadrupled from 2006 to 2008. But the State Department annual terrorism report notes an overall decline in attacks worldwide and fewer attacks in Iraq. The attacks worldwide have decreased by 20 percent, with 30 percent fewer fatalities, said Russell Travers of the National Counterterrorism Center. The report says al Qaeda and its extremist supporters have moved across the Afghan border \"to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier, where they have used this terrain as a safe haven to hide, train terrorists, communicate with the followers, plot attacks and send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan.\" In Pakistan alone, the report says, attacks more than quadrupled between 2006 and 2008, with a sharp increase in their \"coordination, sophistication and frequency.\" Last year there were 1,839 terrorist \"incidents,\" compared with 890 in 2007, Travers said. The rise in violence has complicated the Obama administration's effort to implement its strategy of boosting military and civilian programs in both countries. The report says the largest number of attacks occurred in Pakistani provinces near the Afghan border, including Balochistan, the North West Frontier and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where extremists have sought to challenge the government and extend Islamic law. It also notes the government's inability to get a handle on the extremists. Despite having 80,000 to 100,000 troops in those provinces, it says, \"the government of Pakistan's authority in the area continued to be challenged.\" Ronald Schlicher, the State Department's acting coordinator of counterterrorism, told reporters the Obama administration has \"real concerns\" that al Qaeda's senior leadership may be operating from those areas and could be plotting attacks against the United States. \"We have a real sense that it's happening, but we have imperfect knowledge of what they're doing,\" he said. Pakistan's military in the past week launched an assault on militants in Taliban-held areas after they seized territory in violation of an agreement signed this year by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The deal, criticized by the United States, allowed the Taliban to implement Islamic law, or sharia, in the region in exchange for an end to fighting. The recent operations are part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan. The strikes have rankled relations between the two countries. Pakistan has asked the United States to supply its forces with helicopters, communication equipment and night-vision technology as part of a U.S. plan to beef up the country's counterterrorism efforts. President Obama told reporters Wednesday night that he is \"gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan.\" Speaking at a news conference capping his 100th day in office, Obama said the United States has \"huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable\" and doesn't end up a \"nuclear-armed militant state.\" After making two visits to Pakistan in less than three weeks, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is \"very alarmed by the growing extremist threat in Pakistan and remains frustrated particularly by the political leaderships' inability to confront that threat,\" according to his chief spokesman. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have called Taliban gains in Pakistan an \"existential threat\" to the country. The State Department report notes the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in November, attributing them to the Pakistan-based Kashmir terrorist group Laskhar-e-Tayyiba and to its fundraising subsidiary, amaat ud-Dawa. Although Pakistan has cracked down on some of the groups' camps and made several arrests, the report warned of continuing tension between India and Pakistan. The report says Afghanistan is plagued by \"an insurgency that more and more relied on vicious and increasingly sophisticated terrorist attacks,\" despite the efforts of NATO forces and the Afghan government. \"The anti-government insurgency remained a capable, determined and resilient threat to stability and to the expansion of government authority,\" the report warns. Although the Taliban continued to suffer heavy combat loses, the report says its ability to leverage support from al Qaeda and recruit soldiers \"remained undiminished.\" \"Taliban information operations were increasingly aggressive and sophisticated,\" it says. \"Streams of Taliban financing from across the border in Pakistan, along with funds gained from narcotics trafficking, have allowed the insurgency to strengthen its military and technical capabilities.\" Iran is also a source of training to the Taliban \"on small-unit tactics, small arms, explosives and indirect-fire weapons,\" the report says. \"Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107 mm rockets and plastic explosives to select Taliban members,\" it says. While terrorists in Iraq still launched attacks last year, \"there was a notable reduction in the number of security incidents throughout much of the country, including a decrease in civilian casualties, enemy attacks, and improvised explosive device attacks in the last quarter of the year,\" the report says. There were 3,258 terrorist incidents in 2008, down almost half from the 6,210 attacks in 2007, Travers said. He added there was a decrease during the first quarter of 2009, although there has a been a spike in terrorist attacks in April. Although the threat from al Qaeda in Iraq \"continued to diminish\" due to significant defections and a loss of both territory and funding, al Qaeda continued to benefit from safe haven in Somalia and has strengthened its North African operations, the report says. It notes a sharp increase in attacks by al Qaeda affiliates in North Africa. In Algeria, many of the attacks were blamed on al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, whose tactics \"appeared to be influenced by [al Qaeda's] experience in Iraq.\" The report also warns \"the security situation in Yemen continued to deteriorate during 2008 and was marked by a series of attacks against both Western and Yemeni interests,\" culminating in the September 17 suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa that killed 18. \"Recruitment for al Qaeda in Yemen (AQY) remained strong, and the use of vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) and suicide vests indicated a high level of training, coordination, and sophistication by Yemen's terrorist leadership,\" the report says. The report calls the government's response to the terrorist threat \"intermittent and its ability to pursue and prosecute suspected terrorists remained weak due to a number of shortcomings, including stalled draft counterterrorism legislation.\" Although a raid in August on an al Qaeda in Yemen cell in the country uncovered large number of weapons, the report warns the action \"did little to deter or disrupt other AQY cells.\" It was a month later that at least seven assailants dressed in Yemeni security-service uniforms attacked the U.S. Embassy with explosives and suicide vests, launching what the report calls a \"sophisticated and well-coordinated\" attack. The report says Iran \"remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism,\" including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, all of which opposed the Middle East peace process, as well as Iraq-based militants and the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. It cites the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as the regime's \"primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad.\" \"Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy,\" the report says. Schlicher also said that the United States is \"troubled by indications that the Iranians may be seeking to extend their influence into other parts of the world and expand its military ties into Latin America.\" The Obama administration has adopted a policy of engagement with Iran in an effort to curb its nuclear ambitions.","highlights":"Attacks in Pakistan have more than quadrupled between 2006 and 2008, report says .\nReport: Al Qaeda, extremist supporters moving across Afghan border into Pakistan .\nReport notes an overall decline in attacks worldwide and fewer attacks in Iraq .\nIran \"remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism,\" report says .","id":"2216d40484e8f45fa21bb91dd47399c3854ed5b3"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- In a bustling room full of computers, giant wall-mounted monitors and constantly ringing telephones, a newly gathered army is fighting a war. The swine flu outbreak has kept workers busy at the Emergency Operations Center at the CDC.. The control room is staffed 24\/7, and the leader recently had to tell his fighters to make sure to take a day off per week. This is the Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has ramped up its resources to tackle swine flu, a new disease that experts say may evolve into a global pandemic. \"The last time when we were really at this level was Hurricane Katrina,\" said Toby Crafton, operations manager. The CDC has 400 people tasked to work on the virus, also called the 2009 H1N1 flu, Crafton said. The agency had deployed 50 people to various U.S. states and Mexico by Friday. The Mexican government asked the CDC to help facilitate laboratory testing of the virus during a conference call with Canada and the United States, he said. Watch as Dr. Sanjay Gupta tours the Emergency Operations Center \u00bb . \"We don't go anywhere unilaterally. We don't go into any state unless asked,\" Crafton said. \"So if the state health department or the state health director or the government feels like their capacity is exceeded or they need us for our scientific expertise, they will ask us to come.\" Explainer: What you should know about 2009 H1N1 flu \u00bb . The U.S. has also committed to giving Mexico 400,000 doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, a shipment believed to have arrived Friday morning, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health at the CDC. In front of each computer in the Emergency Operations Center is a placard: Ethics, Immunization, Mental Health, Security, and dozens more. The people -- some in jeans, some in skirts, some in uniforms with military stripes -- are fielding phones calls to their respective departments. Elsewhere in laboratories, samples of the virus arrive in FedEx and World Courier packages for analysis, triple packaged to avoid leaking. Scientists are working on the genetic sequencing of the virus, as well as growing a strain that functions as a vaccine. Although the CDC is not in the business of mass-producing vaccines, researchers there are working on developing one. A vaccine strain is being grown and characterized, Schuchat said. Once a suitable candidate virus is developed -- it takes about three weeks -- the CDC theoretically would send it to a manufacturer, which would need another eight to 10 weeks to determine production possibilities as well as the dosage, said Dr. Nancy Cox, director of the CDC's Influenza Division, at a press conference Friday. But it would not interfere with the seasonal influenza vaccine. \"If a vaccine for this new virus is prepared, it would be prepared either in parallel with or after the seasonal vaccine is already produced,\" Cox said. Still, there has not been a recommendation to mass produce a vaccine for swine flu. The U.S. part of that decision would come from the Department of Health and Human Services. Map: Where the flu is \u00bb . Researchers are still struggling to understand the origin of the virus. \"What isn't making sense right now is why there weren't reports of illness in pigs,\" said Michael Shaw, leader of the laboratory team force for the 2009 H1N1 virus. \"Usually, if you find a human who has been infected by a swine influenza virus, you look around, you start seeing sick pigs, and we haven't seen that.\" Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta talk with Michael Shaw about what CDC is doing to combat virus \u00bb . It is possible that the virus did not originate in pigs. Swine viruses have been found in turkeys, for example, Shaw said. The 2009 H1N1 virus has a \"level 2\" containment distinction at the CDC, although extra precautions from \"level 3\" are being applied, Shaw said. That means swine flu is one containment level below avian flu, which was at 3. One key handling difference is that lab workers had to shower after being exposed to the avian virus, he said. Back in the Emergency Operations Center, computer screens glow with e-mails, maps, databases, slides and articles related to the new flu strain. \"We're going to continue to be vigilant and continue to work as hard as we can until it's over,\" Crafton said.","highlights":"CDC has 400 people tasked to track and fight the 2009 H1N1 flu virus .\nEmergency Operations Center in Atlanta, Georgia, operates 24\/7 .\nResearchers still struggling to understand the origin of the virus .","id":"cc4ca129b13dbbaea7140877b8dc6db1298d1d47"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Hampshire's Senate has approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry, but critics and supporters of the legislation say their work isn't over. New Hampshire could become the fifth state to allow same-sex marriage if a bill becomes law. \"We were obviously disappointed,\" Kevin Smith, executive director of the conservative Cornerstone Policy Research Action group, said Thursday. \"We don't think the voters are going to forget about it.\" On the other side, members of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition, a group that has worked since 2001 for same-sex marriage, were \"absolutely thrilled,\" said Mo Baxley, its executive director. But noting that the bill is returning to the House of Representatives for consideration of changes made by the Senate, Baxley added, \"I think the work continues.\" Her organization will encourage supporters to contact their representatives ahead of the House vote, she said. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 13-11 in favor of the bill, which differs from the House-approved version in that it distinguishes between civil and religious marriage. It allows each religion to decide whether to acknowledge same-sex marriage but extends the option of civil marriage to any two individuals, said state Senate spokeswoman Anne Saunders. The House, which passed the earlier version last month by a margin of seven votes, 186-179, must approve the changed version before it can be sent to Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat who has questioned the need for the bill. After the Senate vote, Lynch released a statement saying he believes that \"the fundamental issue is about providing the same rights and protections to same-sex couples as are available to heterosexual couples. This was accomplished through the passage of the civil unions law two years ago.\" Lynch signed the state's civil unions law in May 2007. \"To achieve further real progress,\" he added, \"the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions.\" Earlier this month, the governor said he believes the word \"marriage\" should be used only to describe a marriage between a man and a woman, the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester reported. \"I think the word 'marriage' is reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman, and I think the real issues really are rights and protections for gay and lesbian couples,\" he told reporters on April 15, according to the newspaper. Smith said his organization, which was established in 2000, would \"lobby hard\" to get the governor to veto the bill. He said he expected it to pass the House. \"Look, this is a matter of holding the governor accountable,\" he said. \"He's been very public with his views on same-sex marriage in the state. ... We'll see if he was misleading the voters of New Hampshire or if he'll stand by his word and actually veto it.\" Were the bill to become law, New Hampshire would become the fifth state allowing same-sex marriage, joining Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts and Iowa. Only Vermont has established the practice legislatively. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Same-sex marriage bill returns to New Hampshire House after Senate approval .\nCritic of the bill: \"We don't think the voters are going to forget about it\"\nIf bill passes the House, it will be sent to the governor for approval or veto .\nGov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has questioned the need for the bill .","id":"d967ed3ed218debd777e564c18d8f1094b90802f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Deep underground on the border between France and Switzerland, the world's largest particle accelerator complex will explore the world on smaller scales than any human invention has explored before. The collider's ALICE experiment will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions. The Large Hadron Collider will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions. Some have expressed fears that the project could lead to the Earth's demise -- something scientists say will not happen. Still, skeptics have filed suit to try to stop the project. It even has a rap dedicated to it on YouTube. Scientists say the collider is finally ready for an attempt to circulate a beam of protons the whole way around the 17-mile tunnel. The test, which takes place Wednesday, is a major step toward seeing if the the immense experiment will provide new information about the way the universe works. \"It's really a generation that we've been looking forward to this moment, and the moments that will come after it in particular,\" said Bob Cousins, deputy to the scientific leader of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, one of six experiments inside the collider complex. \"September 10 is a demarcation between finishing the construction and starting to turn it on, but the excitement will only continue to grow.\" The collider consists of a particle accelerator buried more than 300 feet near Geneva, Switzerland. About $10 billion have gone into the accelerator's construction, the particle detectors and the computers, said Katie Yurkewicz, spokewoman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is host to the collider. In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions. It will operate at higher energies and intensities in the next year, and the experiments could generate enough data to make a discovery by 2009, experts say. Check out the collider complex's six detectors \u00bb . Testing the unknown . Experts say the collider has the potential to confirm theories about questions that physicists have been working on for decades including the possible existence of extra dimensions. They also hope to find a theoretical particle called the Higgs boson, which has never been detected, but would help explain why matter has mass. The collider will recreate the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, when there was a hot \"soup\" of tiny particles called quarks and gluons, to look at how the universe evolved, said John Harris, U.S. coordinator for ALICE, a detector specialized to analyze that question. Since this is exploratory science, the collider may uncover surprises that contradict prevailing theories, but which are just as interesting, said Joseph Lykken, theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. \"When Columbus sails west, he thought he was going to find something. He didn't find what he thought he was going to find, but he did find something interesting,\" said Lykken, who works on the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of six experiments inside the collider complex. Why should the layperson care about this particular exploration? Years ago, when electrons were first identified, no one knew what they were good for, but they have since transformed our entire economy, said Howard Gordon, deputy research program manager for the collider's ATLAS experiment. \"The transformative effect of this research will be to understand the world we live in much better,\" said Gordon, at Brookhaven National Laboratory. \"It's important for just who we are, what we are.\" Black hole fears are \"baloney\" Fears have emerged that the collider could produce black holes that could suck up anything around them -- including the whole Earth. Such fears prompted legal actions in the U.S. and Europe to halt the operation of the Large Hadron Collider, alleging safety concerns regarding black holes and other phenomena that could theoretically emerge. Although physicists acknowledge that the collider could, in theory, create small black holes, they say they do not pose any risk. A study released Friday by CERN scientists explains that any black hole created would be tiny, and would not have enough energy to stick around very long before dissolving. Five collider collaborators who did not pen the report independently told CNN there would be no danger from potential black holes. John Huth, who works on the collider's ATLAS experiment, called such fears \"baloney\" in a recent interview, and noted that in normal physics, even if the black hole were stable, it could just pass through the Earth without being detected or without interacting at all. \"The gravitational force is so weak that you'd have to wait many, many, many, many, many lifetimes of the universe before one of these things could [get] big enough to even get close to being a problem,\" said Huth, professor of physics at Harvard University. At the scene . When visiting the general-purpose detectors CMS and ATLAS at the Large Hadron Collider, Lykken said he was awed that 30,000 tons of electronics would have to work without anyone fiddling with them all the time. \"It just blows you away to look at these things and realize they're not only incredibly complex and huge, but they have to actually work,\" he said. \"They have to work without people banging on them all day because they're sitting underground all by themselves.\" With twice as much iron as the Eiffel Tower, CMS will run at full power for the first time in conjunction with the first beam test Wednesday, Lykken said. The magnet serves to bend particles, whizzing by at almost the speed of light, to figure out what kind of particles they are. Although the detector's parts weigh thousands of tons, in previous trials of CMS at lower power, the magnet actually yanked certain parts around because of its power, Lykken said. \"You're talking about such incredible power inside both the accelerator and detectors that you never really know until you turn it all on what's going to happen,\" he said. Scientists around the world are pumped for the first beam. Fermilab, the high energy physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, and major collaborator on the Large Hadron Collider, will be host of a \"pajama party\" at 1:30 a.m. CT that includes a live connection to CERN to follow the action. Cousins believes that because the collider pushes the frontiers of science and technology, it would be \"amazingly impressive if it works the first try,\" he said in a phone interview from CERN. Any little disturbance of the magnetic field anywhere in the tunnel could stop the beam from making it all the way around. Still, after a 25-year wait, he's not complaining. \"I personally will be fine if there's some problem that has to be overcome in the next few days,\" he said.","highlights":"Large Hadron Collider will have first attempt at circulating a beam September 10 .\nIt's the largest particle accelerator in the world and costs about $10 billion .\nLawsuits allege it could generate black holes that could eat the Earth .\nScientists say these allegations have no merit .","id":"6d4013626f674b5518c0fa21a46e89f68d11cdde"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hamburg have put one foot in the UEFA Cup final after a header from Germany winger Piotr Trochowski proved enough to give them a 1-0 win at Bundesliga rivals Werder Bremen in the first leg of their semifinal. Piotr Trochowski celebrates the only goal as Hamburg took a major step towards the UEFA Cup final. Martin Jol's side scored the only goal of a pulsating match in the 38th minute when Trochowski, the smallest player on the pitch, rose superbly at the back post to head Guy Demel's right-wing cross past goalkeeper Tim Wiese. Both side had countless half-chances to score but Hamburg wasted the best of them on the hour mark when Bayern Munich-bound striker Ivica Olic broke through in acres of space, but fired his shot straight at Wiese. Hamburg's victory puts them on line for their first European final since 1983, when they beat Juventus 1-0 to win the European Cup. This was the second of four matches in quick succession between the north Germany neighbors -- who met each other in the German Cup last week and will play the return leg of the semifinal next Thursday before a Bundesliga clash on Sunday May 10. And the result was sweet revenge for Hamburg, who saw Wiese save three penalties in last week's shoot-out as Werder knocked their rivals out of the German Cup, also at the semifinal stage. The eventual winners will play either Shakhtar Donetsk or Dynamo Kiev in May's Istanbul final.","highlights":"Hamburg in line for first European final since 1983 after defeating Werder 1-0 .\nWinger Piotr Trochowski heads in the only goal of their UEFA Cup semifinal .\nEventual winners will face Shakhtar Donetsk or Dynamo Kiev in Istanbul final .","id":"a9e012142f0a019e8eaded01c3801f9cc7fad097"} -{"article":"SPRUCE PINE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Like most parents, Vickie and Keith Murdock worry about providing for their family. With three teenage daughters, that can be a big challenge, but these days it's more difficult than ever. Keith and Vickie Murdock retrained for new jobs after suffering layoffs. But they remain unemployed. Vickie and Keith are both out of work. They live in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, a tiny mountain town about an hour's drive northeast of Asheville that has lost more than 2,000 jobs since 2003. That's a devastating number, given that Mitchell County's 2000 Census population was only 15,687. Keith was laid off in 2001, when a textile mill closed. He had worked there for 13 years. He did what all the experts say to do: He went back to school, got his GED and retrained to be an auto body mechanic. After graduation, he found a job at nearby Altec Industries. But again, he was laid off in January. Today, he spends his time looking for work. Keith said \"everybody you talk to\" tells him, \" 'well, we're not hiring. We ain't got nothing open right now.' \" Vickie has suffered her own layoff. She lost her job in 2006 when furniture maker Ethan Allen closed its plant in the area. She decided to retrain and will graduate from the local community college in May as a certified medical assistant. Vickie hopes to get a job at a local clinic, but jobs are hard to come by in this area. Major industries, including textile manufacturing, furniture making and mining, have downsized or left the area completely. The Rev. Bill Sweetser works with Shepherd's Staff, a local food pantry. He says workers there are seeing three times as many clients as they did just last year. Watch how the Murdocks have struggled against the bad economy \u00bb . The food bank is in an old textile mill that just a few years ago was one of the largest employers in Mitchell County. Now, former workers come there for assistance. \"Right now, I would say we're barely keeping up,\" Sweetser said. \"Our policy is that everybody who comes in will get something. Sometimes we're out of certain staples. ... It may not be the food you want to give them, it may not be the food they necessarily prefer, but we give them something.\" Community leaders are hoping a focus on promoting mountain crafts and tourism and a growing second home market will spur an economic revitalization. Keith Holtsclaw runs Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, one of the area's largest employers, and heads the county's economic development commission. \"I just don't see manufacturing coming back into the community,\" he said. \"We have to work with what we've got. We have lots of artists here. We are great, we're on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we're on the Appalachian Trail ... so we need to play to our strengths.\" Until that economic revitalization happens, Vickie and Keith Murdock are living off unemployment benefits and hoping to find work soon. Vickie tries to calm her anxiety about the everyday costs of life. \"We think that when we get to worrying how we are gonna pay for this,\" she said, \"it's like the Lord makes a way.\" For the Murdock family and this community, a new way to stimulate the local economy is desperately needed.","highlights":"Spruce Pine, N.C., has lost 2,000 jobs in a county of about 15,600 residents .\nSome laid-off workers have retrained, only to lose their jobs again .\nClosed factory that employed thousands has become a food bank .\nCommunity leaders hope to revitalize economy by attracting tourists .","id":"6035df00b1d1071a848c3144dc0078bb967b3b48"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York's iconic Plaza Hotel will lose a figure nearly as synonymous with it as Eloise when its longest-serving doorman retires Thursday after 46 years on the job. Ed Trinka, whose retirement coincides with his 65th birthday, joined the hotel 1963. Ed Trinka, whose retirement coincides with his 65th birthday, joined the hotel's staff in 1963 as a teenager. He spent 40 years at the fabled lodging's Fifth Avenue entrance, relocating to its doorway facing Central Park South during the property's renovation and partial conversion to condominiums several years ago. Now as much a Central Park South fixture as the horse-drawn carriages that line the park's southern perimeter, the gregarious Trinka is known as the \"mayor of 59th Street.\" On a recent afternoon, he seemed to know every other passerby, exchanging a constant stream of hellos with chauffeurs and doormen from adjacent tony apartment buildings and, of course, the Plaza's residents. Over his more than four decades manning the Plaza's entrance, Trinka has met countless celebrities -- or \"all of them,\" as he puts it. After his first celebrity encounter at the hotel with the Beatles, he's catered to a long procession of big names, including Joe DiMaggio, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Liza Minnelli. Marla Maples, ex-wife of one-time Plaza owner Donald Trump, would regularly peck Trinka on the cheek when she saw him. Trinka says he has an autographed photo of Richard Nixon -- a token of gratitude from the former president -- hanging on proud display at his home. Trinka says he has thoroughly enjoyed his lengthy stay at the portal to history and glamour. \"I never had a bad day in all the years.\" Nonetheless, with all those years at the hotel under his belt, Trinka felt it was time to \"bow out gracefully.\" As he transitions to retirement, Trinka says he'll miss the front-row view of Central Park and the hotel's clientele -- the \"greatest people in the world.\" He also concedes he'll miss \"the women.\" The building's inhabitants are not eager for his departure. \"He's a gentleman, refined -- you don't find these people anymore,\" lamented resident Joan Spain. Trinka's replacement, Jimmy O'Connell, is keenly aware of the large shoes he'll have to fill, saying he'd be satisfied if he \"could be half the doorman\" Trinka is. The hotel will bid farewell to Trinka in characteristically grand fashion on Thursday afternoon. After a champagne send-off in the hotel's landmarked Oak Room, its management will present him with an opportunity to view the Plaza from the vantage point of the countless guests he's greeted over the years: He'll be given a free stay at the hotel. In addition to a trove of anecdotes about celebrities, Trinka acquired something else during his tenure at the Plaza: a new name. Years ago, the hotel gave him a nametag that mistakenly read Edward, even though his full name is Edwin. He came to embrace the errant nametag, neglecting to correct people when they called him Edward and even naming his own son Edward.","highlights":"Ed Trinka, who joined the hotel in 1963, turns 65 and retires after 46 years on the job .\nThe gregarious Trinka is known as the \"mayor of 59th Street\"\nDoorman gets a free stay at the hotel as part of his retirement gift .","id":"7a78e28fc6044d0fa1b845b1ecbbe964eb6a3de1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has identified her daughter on grainy hotel surveillance video. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mother on Friday confirmed it was her daughter seen in a hotel surveillance video. \"When I saw her profile it was confirmed,\" Dawn Drexel said Friday on \"Nancy Grace.\" Drexel's daughter, Brittanee, was last seen on Saturday, several days after she traveled to Myrtle Beach against her mother's wishes. In the video, a girl wearing shorts and flip-flops walks in and later out of the doors of a hotel on Saturday evening. Brittanee Drexel supposedly was on her way to meet friends at another hotel nearby. Watch her mom talk about spotting her \u00bb . Meanwhile, Myrtle Beach Police reportedly have shifted some search efforts about 40 miles to Georgetown County, based on tips. But there is still no sign of the high school junior from Rochester, New York. Dawn Drexel said she had forbidden her daughter to go to Myrtle Beach, a popular destination for high school and college spring break. But Brittanee and her friends apparently drove the 850 miles to the coastal city anyway. Drexel said her daughter had about $100 with her. Although they stayed in touch by phone and spoke on Saturday, Drexel said she believed the girl was calling from Rochester when she was actually in Myrtle Beach. Drexel has now gone to the city where her daughter was last seen, helping in the search for Brittanee. \"We're going to all of the businesses and restaurants on Ocean Boulevard,\" Drexel said, but she admitted that she is concerned something may have happened to her daughter. \"I just have a gut feeling that because the stories don't match, things aren't making sense to me,\" Drexel said, referring to reported contradictions in the information Brittanee's friends have given police. Authorities have not named any suspects or persons of interest in the case.","highlights":"Mom confirms that her daughter is the girl seen in a hotel surveillance video .\nBrittanee Drexel, 17, was last seen Saturday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina .\nDawn Drexel tells CNN she forbade daughter to go to resort city during spring break .\nMom has arrived in Myrtle Beach to assist police in search for her daughter.","id":"cc8186b694ababa2e1f6edc7e112a0385a700a40"} -{"article":"Swine flu may be inspiring fear worldwide, but for Stephan Zielinski of San Francisco, California, it inspired a song. The genes underlying swine flu inspired one amateur musician to compose music based on it. The virus has the classification H1N1 because it includes two key viral proteins, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Zielinski took the genetic sequence of a variant of hemagglutinin and created a computer algorithm to turn it into music. Zielinski, 41, is not a biochemist or a professional musician -- he's a writer, photographer, computer programmer, and blogger who creates music in his spare time. But he's fascinated that, even though biologists can map the genome of the virus and predict what the hemagglutinin protein looks like, the human body still cannot distinguish it as the \"bad guy\" -- at least, not until there's a vaccine. Listen to the song . \"Although the map is there and you can even make a song out of it, we can't explain it to these itty bitty little cells in body,\" he said. Using computer programs he created himself, as well as a commercial product, Zielinski composed his song by assigning instruments and musical notes to various properties of the protein. Zielinski took the various categories of amino acids, the building blocks of the protein, and assigned each a different instrument -- piano, organ, low synthesizer, percussion. The melody was created by assigning notes to specific amino acids. Each beat of the song also corresponds to one of numerous amino acids. The work was done entirely with a computer and took about six hours Tuesday, he said. Learn more about swine flu \u00bb . He first learned of the sequence through an immunologist friend at the Mayo Clinic, he said. Zielinski saw it as a form of highly organized information that a human did not design. \"The only way I could look at that and make sense of it, since I'm not a biochemist, was, well, I could try translating it into another very organized form of information that people do, and then see if I could hear anything. And the answer, of course, turned out to be no.\" But even if the mystery of the virus did not reveal itself in musical form, the result is a curiously melodic, innovative, somewhat soothing work. Dr. Jay Steinberg, infectious disease specialist at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia, called it \"nice ambient music\" that's reminiscent of Brian Eno. Less methodical swine flu songs are also emerging on YouTube. User \"CelicaAaron\" parodies the Jonas Brothers' song \"Lovebug,\" crooning, \"I can't get your snout out of my mouth \/ I'm sick to my stomach all the time.\" A short spoken-word effort by user \"Micfri\" warns, \"You know who has swine flu? Pigs!\"","highlights":"Stephan Zielinski composed a song based on a swine flu gene .\nHe created an algorithm that assigns instruments and notes to amino acids .\nYouTube users are also posting swine flu songs .","id":"45f3b8e2b62e27c5dd7eee957832f054406e4b38"} -{"article":"AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) -- Investigators are trying to determine what caused the crash of an airplane with a good safety record, flown by a well-respected airline, at one of the world's most modern airports. One of the casualties is taken from the crash site. At least nine people were killed and 55 injured when the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed Wednesday in a field near Amsterdam's main airport, splitting into three parts, officials said. It is too early to determine the cause of the crash but the flight data and voice recorders have been recovered, said Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer municipality, which is home to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. He said investigators still need to determine what, if anything, the pilots said in the moments before the crash. The injured included both crew and passengers, he said. The names of the dead and injured will not be released before Thursday, Bezuijen said. \"It will take more time. Probably tomorrow afternoon we can tell you about the identity of the victims, including the fatalities,\" he said. Another official said earlier that both pilots and an apprentice pilot are among the dead. \"There are still three crew members in the cabin,\" said Bob Steensma of the Dutch Justice Department. \"I'm sorry to say they are dead. We leave them there because we have to investigate the cockpit before we take the cockpit apart.\" Turkish Airlines said earlier the plane was carrying 134 people -- 127 passengers and seven crew members. Six people were critically injured, Ineke Van Der Zande of Amsterdam Emergency Services told reporters at a briefing. Watch aerials from the crash site \u00bb . Twenty-five passengers were severely injured, she said, and 24 were lightly injured. Some 60 ambulances transported 84 people to 11 hospitals throughout the region, she said. There was no word on injuries to the others who were transported. Witnesses said they saw the nose of the plane pitch up suddenly before the crash, according to RTL journalist Greg Crouch. The plane broken into three pieces. One break was in front of the wing, splitting the \"Turkish\" logo in two, and a larger break was farther back along the fuselage. Most of the injured were seated toward the back of the plane, which sustained the most damage, a passenger on the plane told Turkish station NTV. Many of the passengers simply walked off the plane through the cracks in the fuselage, witnesses said. A passenger on the plane who spoke to Turkish network DHA said he saw injured people trapped and squeezed between the seats when he walked out. iReport: Send your videos, stories . Flight 1951 was arriving at Schiphol from Istanbul, Turkey, when it went down around 10:40 a.m. (4:40 a.m. ET). It came to rest in a farmer's field about 500 yards short of the runway, near the major A9 highway. Crouch said the weather at the time was partly sunny with no wind or rain. No fire broke out after the crash, Bezuijen said. Watch how Twitter was first to report the crash \u00bb . A bank manager who was a passenger on the plane told NTV that there were no emergency announcements. The crew's last word to the cabin was an announcement to fasten their seat belts and prepare for landing, the bank manager said. He said he felt the pilot giving more power to the engines before feeling \"turbulence,\" then a sudden drop. He described the crash as similar to a sudden impact that was over in a matter of seconds. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to Amsterdam to assist in the crash investigation. The Boeing 737-800 is a reliable aircraft that has been successful and safe in service, said aviation expert Kieran Daly of Air Transport Intelligence. \"They really are pretty much state-of-the-art airlines with every imaginable technical benefit the industry has come up with over the years,\" Daly told CNN. \"You would be optimistic that they would be quite survivable in an accident.\" Daly said Turkish Airlines, a national carrier, has a \"very good record.\" Turkish Airlines said it has 52 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet. They can carry as many as 165 passengers each, it said. Before Wednesday, the airline's last accident was of a small commuter jet in 2003, Daly said. It was a fatal crash that happened at a remote airfield in southeastern Turkey, he said. \"Their mainline operation is safe,\" Daly said. \"Their pilots are well thought of.\" Worldwide, there have been two fatal commercial airline crashes this year. The last previous fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed as it tried to return to Schiphol shortly after takeoff. Three of the 24 passengers and crew members on board were killed. CNN's Ivan Watson in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Mayor says too early to determine cause of Wednesday's plane crash .\nInvestigators find data and voice recorders from Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 .\nAt least nine of the 134 people on board died; 55 wounded; six critical .\nAccident involved respected airline and modern airport in good weather .","id":"43a488c2d73b4f34122fc92c8df0467078699156"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sheila Wash greets her son and daughter, 13-year-old Cecil and 9-year-old Sheliah, every day when their school buses arrive \"home.\" Sheila Wash says being homeless has been an \"eye-opening experience\" for her. They talk about the school day, their homework and even joke that Sheliah can't remember what she ate for lunch. The fourth-grader wonders aloud, \"What did we have? We had something good.\" But it's hardly a homecoming for any of them. The Wash family has been homeless since 2007, after Sheila lost her government job. She says unemployment benefits quickly ran out and, as she searched for a job, the family was forced to move six times in the last two years. They're now living in the Family Forward Shelter in Washington. \"I just thank God we have a roof over our head right now. You have to accept the things that come to you. You don't like them but, you know, until you can get your foot forward, you do what you have to do. We just keep going,\" Wash said. Wash's situation was only made worse as the economic recession set in. Jobs became harder and harder to find with more competition for each position. She says she's still searching. The Washes are part of the changing face of homelessness in America today. For years, homelessness has been depicted as that of an individual man or woman living on the street and begging for money. But with the perfect storm of the foreclosure crisis and the faltering economy, more and more families are becoming homeless. According to a recent count by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the number of homeless families in the Washington region alone has jumped 15 percent since last year. There are several national estimates of homelessness, but many are dated or based on dated information. TheU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development points to a study done in 2007 -- before the brunt of the foreclosure crisis hit --which stated that about 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year. That study was conducted by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty . \"People lose their jobs. Their monthly household expenses spiral out of control because maybe their car broke down that month, and when you have such a tight budget with high rental costs, there is no room for error. And so that is what really leads families to the shelter door,\" said Mary Cunningham, author of \"Preventing and Ending Homelessness - Next Steps.\" Reflecting on their struggles over the last few years, Sheila calls it \"eye-opening.\" \"It's like they say you never know [someone] until you walk in their shoes, so truly I know now and if I ever get out [of] this situation, I will always give back to people less fortunate than I am because I know their struggles,\" Wash said. School officials in Prince George's County, Maryland, where the two Wash children go to school, say a day doesn't go by without the need to enroll another child as homeless. Denise Ross, supervisor for the school district's Homeless Education Office, said they've been inundated with requests. \"Some of them are embarrassed, some of them are scared, some of them are sad. They're just not sure what's going to happen next,\" Ross said. \"Students who are displaced or homeless students feel that school is a safe haven. They really want to come to school. They really want to attend school.\" For homeless students, Prince George's County Schools offers free transportation to and from school, free breakfast and lunch, help with school supplies and also clothing. \"Either in the shuffle of being evicted or moving from shelter to shelter or place to place, their clothes may not have followed them. Or may have been set out and somebody may have taken them. So they may only have [the] clothes that are on their back. Our intent is always to provide them with at least three complete sets,\" Ross said. Sheila Wash says school is not only important because of her children's education, but it has also been an important source of stability in their lives. \"[A] very big help,\" she says. And help they still need with the obstacles ahead. Watch Kate Bolduan's report on the Washes' plight \u00bb . The Family Forward Shelter is a hypothermia shelter, only open through the winter, which means the Wash family needs to find another temporary home, and they haven't had much luck. But with a smile that seems to never fade, 9-year-old Sheliah describes the one wish that keeps her family going. \"I wish we had a house with a car,\" she says. \"I pray that my mom, that we wake up in the morning and that [we] get a house and everything we wanted.\"","highlights":"Sheila Wash and her two kids have been homeless since 2007, after she lost her job .\nSchool officials in the Washes' district say more of their students are homeless .\nAuthor: Having \"no room for error\" on finances often sends families to shelter door .\nBy one count, homelessness in the D.C. area has jumped by 15% over last year .","id":"59a1e6d1aa25d82cf004a8df4c4ad82e8abc7a72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least four people died when a tour bus crashed Tuesday on the Pacific Coast Highway, California Highway Patrol spokesman Brian Wiest said. The crashed bus is on its side across the southbound lanes. \"There were people ejected,\" Wiest said. Highway 101 near Soledad, California, was closed in both directions for about 2\u00bd hours after the crash, which injured 38 people, authorities said. The highway patrol later opened the northbound lanes, using one for northbound traffic and the other for southbound traffic. The crashed bus was on its side across the southbound lanes. The bus belongs to Orion Pacific, a charter service that provides trips \"across the USA and around the world,\" according to its Web site. No one answered CNN's call to Orion Pacific. At least some of the passengers on the bus were French, said Jacques de Noray, spokesman for the French consulate in San Francisco. The Soledad Fire Department said 12 ambulances and seven helicopters were dispatched to the scene. The California Highway Patrol said the crash took place at about 3:23 p.m. while the bus was en route from San Francisco to Santa Maria, about 230 miles down the coast. Soledad is about halfway between the two cities. The cause of the crash had not been determined.","highlights":"Highway 101 near Soledad, California, closed in both directions .\n12 ambulances, 7 helicopters dispatched to the scene .\nThe cause of the crash has not been determined .","id":"c2cdabcaa57d300b616a9fa923e8ef19b4c48fe7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp died Saturday at age 73 after a battle with cancer, his family announced. Jack Kemp, a former congressman from New York, was the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 1996. A onetime professional football player, Kemp served nine terms in Congress as a representative from New York and was former Sen. Bob Dole's running mate in 1996. He was a leading advocate of \"supply-side\" tax cuts, advancing the argument that cutting taxes would boost economic growth and yield more revenue for the federal government. \"The only way to oppose a bad idea is to replace it with a good idea, and I like to think that I have spent my life trying to promote good ideas,\" he told CNN in a 1996 interview. Kemp \"passed peacefully into the presence of the Lord\" Sunday evening, a family statement said. He disclosed his illness in January. Watch . \"During the treatment of his cancer, Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends, a gratitude which the Kemp family shares,\" the family said. Watch how Jack Kemp made transition from football to politics \u00bb . Kemp quarterbacked the Buffalo Bills to back-to-back American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965, before the merger that created the modern NFL. When he retired in 1970 after 13 seasons, the California native ran for Congress and represented the Buffalo area for 18 years in the House of Representatives. View photos of Jack Kemp's life \u00bb . \"He championed free-market principles that improved the lives of millions of Americans and helped unleash an entrepreneurial spirit that all of us still benefit from today,\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement issued late Saturday. The 1981 tax cuts signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which cut marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 50 percent, bore Kemp's name as a co-sponsor. Critics mocked the policy as \"trickle-down\" economics and pointed to the decade's growing budget deficits as evidence that supply-side theories didn't work, but it has been GOP orthodoxy ever since. Kemp mounted an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988, losing the Republican primaries to George H.W. Bush. But once in office, Bush made Kemp his secretary of housing and urban development -- a post Kemp used to promote what he called an \"empowerment\" agenda of tax breaks for urban businesses and expanded home ownership. iReport.com: Share your memories of Kemp . Unlike many of the other conservatives of his era, Kemp actively courted African-American support. In 1992, he told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that the GOP \"could be a Lincoln party in terms of attracting black and brown and men and women of color and low-income status and immigrant status who want a shot at the American dream for their children.\" CNN Political Director Sam Feist contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jack Kemp, former congressman and vice presidential candidate, dies at 73 .\nKemp announced in January he was battling cancer .\nBefore politics, Kemp was a professional football quarterback .\nKemp also served as secretary of housing and urban development (1989-1993)","id":"fd6f9641b2aee9bce8eb5d11f3b1a8f5ab0003db"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Mark Gendreau, MD, is senior staff physician and vice chairman of emergency medicine at Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts, and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. His interests include health issues associated with commercial air travel, including transmission of infectious diseases. Dr. Mark Gendreau says swine flu is focusing attention on how to avoid getting a disease while traveling by air. (CNN) -- The novel swine flu is showing the world just how interconnected we are and how commercial aircraft can serve as vehicles of rapid disease spread. I am frequently asked: What is the risk of catching an illness while flying? In a nutshell, the risk of getting an infection while you're in an enclosed space such as an airplane depends upon three factors: The infectiousness of the contagious person spreading the illness; the degree of your exposure (how close you are to the contagious person and for how long); and the ventilation of the space or passenger cabin. We really have no control over the infectiousness of our fellow passengers, and usually, you really don't have much of a choice about your seating partners. So the exposure is pure chance. But this doesn't mean that you are doomed. Most respiratory viral infectious diseases -- like influenza and the common cold -- transmit via droplets contaminated with the offending microorganism when the infectious person coughs or sneezes. These droplets are propelled no farther than 3 feet and can land on an inanimate object -- such as a seat, overhead bin or seat tray -- or on your body. This is why hand hygiene is so critical and is the single most significant thing you can do to protect yourself and your family when you are traveling or out in public. Study after study shows marked reductions in transmission in public spaces when hand hygiene is practiced, and a recent study found nearly undetectable influenza particle levels after hands contaminated with influenza were washed with either soap and water or an over-the-counter gel containing at least 50 percent alcohol. Sanitize your hands before eating, drinking and after retrieving something from the overhead bin or returning from the restroom, and you have just cut your chances of getting infected by at least 40 percent. One of my disappointments with the airline industry is its lack of providing alcohol-based hand sanitizers to passengers. Such a service would go a long way in eliminating infection spread within aircraft. iReport.com: Have swine flu fears altered your travel plans? Ventilation is the final crucial element to consider in minimizing infection spread. Ventilation dilutes the concentration of infectious particles within any confined space, thereby reducing the probability of infection. Experience shows us that transmission becomes widespread within the passenger cabin involving all sections when the ventilation system is not working -- as evidenced by an influenza outbreak in 1979 involving passengers being kept aboard grounded aircraft with an inoperative ventilation system. Air circulation patterns aboard standard commercial aircraft are side-to-side (laminar), with air entering the cabin from overhead, circulating across the aircraft and exiting the cabin near the floor. Little to no front-to -back (longitudinal) airflow takes place. This air circulation pattern \"compartmentalizes\" the air flow into sections, thereby limiting the spread of airborne particles throughout the passenger cabin. Ventilation can involve either 100 percent fresh air in which outside air enters and leaves the cabin in a single pass or a system in which various fractions of air are recirculated from the aircraft cabin and mixed with fresh air. Most commercial aircraft in service recirculate 50 percent of the air delivered to the passenger cabin for improved control of cabin circulation, humidity and fuel efficiency. The recirculated air usually passes through high-efficiency particulate (HEPA) filters before delivery into the cabin. HEPA filtering of recirculated cabin air to minimize exposure to infectious particles is established within scientific literature, practiced daily in health care facilities and is strongly endorsed by the medical community and cabin health experts. However, oddly enough, the Federal Aviation Administration, its British counterpart, the Civil Aviation Authority, and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities do not require the use of these filters on commercial airlines. Efforts to improve international regulations regarding the certification, inspection and maintenance of aircraft environmental control systems are needed. To minimize the risk of disease spread by aircraft, regulations requiring HEPA filters for any aircraft that uses recirculated air should be seriously considered. In the meantime, you can improve the ventilation at your seat by turning on the overhead air vent to low and positioning the airflow to be slightly in front of your face. This may create enough air turbulence to push a viral particle from landing on your face and mucous membranes. Finally, face masks are effective. In 2003, during the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, 76 percent of Hong Kong residents wore simple masks, and in this case, mask use was associated with a lower incidence of SARS, as well as upper respiratory tract infections and influenza. A recent analysis of public health interventions used during the SARS epidemic suggests that the use of masks by the public was 68 percent effective in decreasing rates of infection, with simple face masks, and 91 percent effective for more sophisticated N95 face masks. The take-home message is this: Use a surgical mask when you are traveling to areas that have reported cases of swine flu and bring an additional one to give to anyone near you who forgot one or appears to be sick and is coughing or sneezing. Prevention of a disease outbreak is the most important means of control and requires a proactive approach. The aviation industry and medical community should better educate the general public about health issues related to air travel and infection control. The only way to eliminate any risk of cross-infection in the aircraft cabin -- or the rapid worldwide spread of an infectious agent -- is to prevent would-be passengers who are either substantially exposed to or carrying transmissible infections from flying. This needs to come from education and promoting individual responsibility, since the systematic screening of passengers for contagious diseases is impractical. Although thermal scanners used in airports may detect travelers with symptoms, they are not effective since people exposed to an infectious disease could travel without any signs or symptoms and yet still be infectious. The late Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg once said \"The microbe that felled one child in a distant continent yesterday can reach yours today, and seed a global pandemic tomorrow.\" True words. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mark Gendreau.","highlights":"Mark Gendreau: Swine flu is focusing attention on illness and air travel .\nHe says three things affect the likelihood of your getting sick from a plane trip .\nGendreau: Sick passengers, your exposure and ventilation are key factors .\nHe says using hand sanitizers on planes would help prevent spread .","id":"cd072164e40fd3f013ba12d441f3c59af557f36d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Humane Society has accused a federally funded primate center of mistreating chimpanzees and other primates, saying that some animals showed signs of psychosis and self-mutilation. New Iberia Research Center cages about 325 chimps on its 100 acres. It also has about 6,000 monkeys. The allegations against the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana, which houses more than 6,500 primates, came after a nine-month undercover investigation. The center denies the allegations. \"We found animals living in isolation, exhibiting self-mutilating behavior, psychosis, all sorts of emotional and physical problems at this laboratory,\" Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle told CNN on Wednesday. The Humane Society's undercover investigator, who worked as a laboratory technician with a hidden camera, revealed 338 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, which sets standards for the treatment of animals in labs, Pacelle said. The Humane Society posted some of its secret footage on its Web site. The footage includes an animal with what the group said was a self-inflicted wound, another animal jumping in circles in its cage, and chimpanzees screaming as lab technicians approached with a dart gun. The violations were filed in a 108-page complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is required by law to enforce the Animal Welfare Act, the organization said. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he will order a thorough investigation of animal welfare practices at the facility. \"If the allegations prove to be true, the American public can expect the perpetrators to be held fully accountable. I take the protection of animals very seriously, and will do my utmost to fully enforce the Animal Welfare Act,\" he said in a written statement. The New Iberia Research Center, part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, issued a statement saying that the videos \"distort acceptable standard procedures and incorrectly imply mistreatment of nonhuman primates at the New Iberia Research Center.\" It added: \"We take very seriously our responsibility to care for the animals housed at the center and to carry out biomedical research according to federal rules and regulations.\" The center further said it properly housed and cared for the animals. It also said it complies with regulations of the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Humane Society accused workers at New Iberia of hitting primates on the mouth, using \"painful\" dart guns and removing infant monkeys from their mothers. The Humane Society also said it had documented evidence of \"rampant\" breeding of government-owned chimpanzees. In 2007, the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources, following a 12-year moratorium, said it would no longer breed chimpanzees for research, citing financial reasons. The New Iberia Research Center has received more than $37 million in grants from the NIH, according to the center's Web site. The NIH said it has opened an investigation regarding the allegations and said it is working closely with the USDA. However, it said it could not comment on the allegations while its investigation is under way. \"The results will be available when the investigation is complete,\" the NIH said in a written statement. \"We are committed to the safety and welfare of all animals in research. All animals used in federally funded research are protected by laws, regulations, and policies to ensure they are used in the smallest numbers possible and with the greatest commitment to their comfort.\" Pacelle said the most serious issue was the self-mutilation and \"nonstop pacing and circling, psychosis and other abnormal behaviors.\" \"These are highly intelligent animals. They have a sense of self, they have a sense of past and future, they have the wide range of emotions that we have,\" he said. \"They should not be subjected to this long-term, decade-long isolation, and all these painful and physical procedures and the psychological torment in these laboratories.\" The New Iberia Research Center says it offers a \"broad range of diagnostic, laboratory, and human resources for the development and characterization of nonhuman primate models for applied and basic research aimed at promoting human quality of life.\" In its statement e-mailed to CNN, the center said it has made numerous contributions to public health improvements for the prevention and treatment of three forms of hepatitis, mumps, measles, chicken pox and mad cow disease. CNN's Bill Caiaccio and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Society says undercover investigation found animal psychosis, self-mutilation .\nCenter denies allegations, says it properly housed and cared for the animals .\nAgriculture secretary says he'll order investigation of facility's animal welfare practices .\nNew Iberia Research Center in Louisiana houses more than 6,500 primates .","id":"78dcc58c36f6dc10d887fafde8dcfaab56be84d7"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- In radio broadcasts and sermons, Taliban militants have been promoting themselves as Islamic Robin Hoods, defending Pakistan's rural poor from a ruling elite that they describe as corrupt and oppressive. Mohammed Daoud, with his son Faisal, is among those who have embraced the Taliban's message. That message has been resonating throughout the Pakistani countryside, where the culture is deeply conservative and the people are desperately poor. In farmlands just 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the center of Islamabad, Mohammed Daoud and his 15-year-old son Faisal eke out a living by cutting grass for their four water buffalo. They feed their family of seven, earning the equivalent of around $50 a month by selling buffalo milk. Two months ago, Daoud said, the government bulldozed his family's house, probably because they were illegally squatting on property they did not own. \"Justice [in Pakistan] is only for people who have money,\" Daoud said, while slicing through handfuls of grass with a small scythe. \"We are illiterate,\" he added, \"but we are hoping that with Islamic sharia law, our lives will get better.\" Across this overwhelmingly Muslim country, there is widespread hope that adopting a strict code of law based on the Koran will transform a society where corruption is rampant and where at least a quarter of the population lives under the poverty line. Watch why the Taliban's message would resonate . Enforcement of sharia law is the platform the Taliban have been using to justify recent land-grabs, such as last week's armed occupation of the district of Buner, some 60 miles from the Pakistani capital. In an interview with CNN, Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in the militant stronghold of Swat Valley, denounced the Pakistani government, calling the prime minister and lawmakers \"un-Islamic.\" \"They're making money like in a supermarket,\" Khan said, adding that under sharia law both the rich and the poor would be treated equally. Militants have slowly taken over territory in northwestern Pakistan by first targeting unpopular landlords and bureaucrats, according to Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog. \"Its systematic. The Taliban move into an area, they use local existing resentments. They often go in with the guise of being Robin Hoods,\" said Amnesty International representative Sam Zarifi. \"They scare away some local thieves, they impose very, very quick justice, very harsh justice, and initially in some places they are even welcomed.\" The Taliban's promise of Islamic justice would be welcomed in farm fields on the outskirts of Islamabad. Rows of wheat -- along with the posh villas of Pakistan's ruling elite -- are within sight of Islamabad's iconic white Faisal Mosque. \"In the present judicial system, even the innocent people are punished,\" said Sajeet Hussein, as he and a group of farmers shared lunch under the shade of a tree. The group explained that they were losing a court battle to stop the government from seizing their land, because they claimed they couldn't afford to bribe policemen and judges. \"Every part of the country should have sharia law, like in Saudi Arabia,\" said Hussein's brother Babar, who sported a long bushy beard. \"Then poor and rich people will be equal.\" \"We love the Taliban,\" announced one Pashtun farmer who asked not to be named. He called the militants heroes. Sports star-turned-politician Imran Khan summed up his response to the Taliban in Pakistan by saying, \"The poorer section of society is joining them...this is now developing into a battle between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' \"What the Taliban are giving them is cheap -- in fact, free -- accessible justice at the village level,\" he added. \"This is what Pakistan should be doing for its own people.\" But if farmer Babar Hussein has his way, Taliban justice would mean taking away freedoms from Pakistani women, like the right to have a driver's license. \"Women should not even come out of their houses. That's against Islam\" he said, while complaining about the un-Islamic fashions he saw women wearing in Islamabad. When Taliban militants overran Buner last week, they told women to stay indoors, warned men to stop shaving their beards, and threatened shopkeepers who sold movies and music. In Pakistan's rural society, male strangers are not even supposed look at local women. And yet, some farmers enjoy blaring Bollywood music and even dancing on trailers full of hay, while driving their gaudily-decorated tractors. If the Taliban's rural revolt succeeds, it could bring silence to the Pakistani countryside.","highlights":"Amnesty International: Taliban first targets unpopular landlords, bureaucrats .\nTaliban spokesman in Swat Valley calls Pakistani government as \"un-Islamic\"\nIslamabad's Faisal Mosque surrounded by posh villas of Pakistan's ruling elite .\nImran Khan: Battle shaping up as one \"between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' \"","id":"bb218588c695e15c1e8ca99f16ef3aaa1dbf9d63"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China has refused nine U.S. Navy ships and one Air Force jet entry to Hong Kong in the past month, U.S. military officials said Friday. China has refused the USS Reuben James, seen in a 1989 photo, a Christmas port call in Hong Kong. Senior Navy officials said that Beijing denied permission for the USS Reuben James, a Navy frigate, to make a holiday port call for sailors at the end of December. The rejection occurred last week, at the same time China refused to allow the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group into Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday port call. A U.S. Air Force C-17 flight that had been scheduled for a routine resupply of the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong also was denied permission to enter, Navy officials said. The Kitty Hawk battle group was eventually granted permission to enter, but by then the ships were well on their way to port in Japan. Days earlier, China refused to give two U.S. Navy minesweepers safe harbor in Hong Kong during a storm on the high seas. The United States has filed a formal protest with China over the decisions. U.S. officials are baffled about the reason or reasons for the port call refusals. China recently has expressed concerns about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and President Bush's October presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Watch China put the blame on the U.S. \u00bb . There is speculation that the Chinese may have been conducting military exercises that they didn't want the U.S. Navy to see. Others think the refusals may have been the result of a misunderstanding. Officials could not explain why the rejection of the Reuben James had not been disclosed before, even though reporters had repeatedly asked if there were any other pending port calls. One senior Navy official expressed dismay that the information had not been made public by the Pentagon. White House deputy spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters the White House is \"aware\" of the latest refusals and referred reporters to the Pentagon. Stanzel said a \"clarification\" on the matter was being sought from Beijing. White House and other Bush administration officials have sought to defuse tensions with China, saying the United States wants to move ahead on broader issues of military cooperation. Navy officials, meanwhile, say Japan is tightening approvals for Chinese navy visits into its ports. Crew members from a Chinese ship making a port call in Japan may not be allowed to tour a Japanese Aegis warship. The U.S.-designed Aegis weapons system enables coordinated operations against threats from aircraft and missiles, surface ships and submarines. It is not clear if the Japanese decision was made at the request of the United States. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: China wouldn't let U.S. Air Force jet land to resupply Hong Kong consulate .\nFrigate USS Reuben James not allowed to enter Hong Kong for port call .\nChina last week refused port call for USS Kitty Hawk battle group .\nTwo U.S. minesweepers denied safe harbor during storm .","id":"58e52064bc546160d36158126ab7abc9be413a80"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first person ever convicted in Idaho of knowingly spreading the HIV virus is facing new charges for the same offense, authorities said Thursday. An Ada County, Idaho, grand jury on Tuesday returned an indictment charging Kerry Thomas, 45, with seven counts of knowingly transferring the HIV virus, Jean Fisher, Ada County deputy prosecutor, told CNN. In 1990, Thomas was charged with four counts of HIV transmission and two counts of statutory rape, Fisher said. As part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty only to the rape charges. According to Fisher, Thomas received a 12-year sentence and had to serve three years before being eligible for parole. He was later granted early release. In 1996, however, Thomas was again charged with one count of HIV transmission, and a jury convicted him, Fisher said. He received a 15-year sentence with a seven-year minimum. Now out on parole, Thomas faces possible life in prison on the new charges because prosecutors are seeking his designation as a \"persistent violator.\" It was not immediately known whether Thomas was in custody Thursday. He was not listed online among the inmates in the Ada County Jail. Asked why Thomas would continue to spread the virus, which causes AIDS, Fisher said, \"That's the $64,000 question, for a person who has been to prison twice.\"","highlights":"Kerry Thomas was indicted for second time for knowingly transferring HIV virus .\nIn 1990, Thomas was charged with four counts of HIV transmission .\nIf convicted, Thomas could face life in prison .","id":"06e5aedc2c9c030175cf69b2e10d574ff31e9a3c"} -{"article":"BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNN) -- Hundreds of Christians packed the Church of the Nativity on Thursday for a midnight Mass in what is thought to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ. A worshipper touches a star at the point where tradition says Jesus Christ was born in the Church of Nativity. The standing-room-only service included singing and organ music. There were also large crowds outside the church, one of the most sacred places in Christianity. So many people had flocked to the area this Christmas season that there were no rooms left at the inns and hotels in Bethlehem. Some took this as a sign that tourism in Bethlehem was on the upswing. Christmas is the one time of year when the West Bank's small, shrinking Christian communities show everyone else that they are still there. Before the midnight Mass, Palestinian scout groups representing Christians throughout the West Bank did as they always do on this day -- they marched, banging their drums loudly and, in a way, trying to make a point. Watch Bethlehem's Christmas celebrations \u00bb . The drumbeat has been heard by more and more people, locals say, as tourism has skyrocketed this year. \"This year, tourism is much better than last year -- we reached 1,250,000,\" said Victor Batarseh, the mayor of Bethlehem. \"All our hotels are full around Christmastime. We have 30,000 tourists coming in.\" Tourists in record numbers were on hand this year, braving an unusually cold, gray and windy day to watch the parade of drums and holiday songs. \"It's kind of neat to see it in the Middle East, and they're playing Christmas carols and the songs we know,\" said one American tourist. \"I'm loving it, it's just been an incredible atmosphere and just a wonderful learning experience,\" said another. The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem also came to the birthplace of Jesus, as he does every Christmas Eve, allowed through normally tightly shut gates by Israeli troops. The heavy security is a testament to ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. \"My Christmas wish is that we will have real peace, based on justice and freedom,\" said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian parliament member. \"My Christmas wish is that the justice that Jesus Christ gave his life for will happen sometime in his birthplace in Palestine.\" CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hundreds of Christians pack Church of the Nativity Thursday for midnight Mass .\nThe church is thought to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ .\nLarge crowds gathered outside the church -- one of Christianity's most sacred places .","id":"5880bf760d795eed8cbcc314022b7550dd13d937"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swiss super-combined world skiing champion Daniel Albrecht was airlifted to hospital after a sickening crash on Kitzbuehel's Streif course on Thursday. Albrecht nose-dives down Kitzbuehel's Streif course after crashing during training for a World Cup downhill. Albrecht, who was said to have suffered concussion and bruising to a lung, was in training for the weekend's World Cup downhill at the Austrian venue when he lost control approaching the bottom of the run. The 25-year-old received lengthy treatment on the slopes before being flown to hospital at St. Johann, where he regained consciouness before being put in an induced coma. An induced coma puts the brain in hibernation so it can recuperate and allows swelling in the brain to ease. Helmuth Obermoser, the official race doctor, said in a brief statement that Albrecht had bleeding on the brain and a lung contusion. Albrecht took the season's opening giant slalom at Solden in October and scored a second victory and fourth of his career two months later in Alta Badia, Italy, where he became the first Swiss winner in 10 years. Thursday's fall came on a similar section at Kitzbuehel that saw American Scott Macartney suffer head injuries in a crash last season -- an episode that led officials to make changes to the course.","highlights":"Daniel Albrecht is airlifted to hospital after a sickening accident at Kitzbuehel .\nSuper-combined world skiing champion was training for a World Cup downhill .\nSwiss Albrecht was airlifted to hospital after lengthy treatment on the slopes .","id":"c2d90734f9228cf3163187ad72405c90bb09d13b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- From ancient Phoenician galleys to 21st century super yachts, a lot has changed about the way people travel the high seas over the centuries. The Mirabella V, built in 2003, is the world's biggest single-masted sailing yacht, with a mast that is nearly 300 ft tall. Whether it's one intrepid \"micro-yachtsman\" navigating the Atlantic in a boat the size of a bathtub, or an elite racing team shattering world records in a state-of-the-art catamaran, these voyages all have one thing in common: they have altered the way mankind looks at the world. MainSail takes a look at the ships, and the revolutionaries they carried on their way. Voyage of the Beagle . When: 1831 Who: Naturalist Charles Darwin Where: Galapagos Islands The boat: The HMS Beagle was a 90 ft, 10-gun former British Navy warship built in 1820. The ship was repurposed and commissioned for civilian exploration voyages in 1825. How long: Five years Legacy: Aboard the HMS Beagle, Darwin collected specimens and began to develop his theories of evolution, which would later crystallize in \"The Origin of Species.\" Columbus discovers the New World . When: 1492 Who: Italian explorer Christopher Columbus Where: From Spain to the Caribbean The boats: The Santa Maria was a 70 ft, three-masted ship built from pine and oak, that could carry 40 men. The Nina and the Pinta were both smaller, nimbler boats with triangle-shaped masts better for navigating tricky waterways. The square-sail Santa Maria ran aground in modern-day Haiti on Christmas Day 1492. Legacy: Searching for a new way into the East Indies spice route, it was aboard these three ships that Columbus unintentionally discovered the Caribbean. 'Micro-yachtsman' crosses the Atlantic in miniature boat . When: 1993 Who: American Hugo Vihlen Where: Across the North Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Cornwall, England The boat: The Father's Day, the world's tiniest sailboat at a length of 5 ft 4 in, was so small that Vihlen had to roll up into a ball to sleep, and couldn't stand up without opening the hatch and risk taking on water. Likened to a space shuttle, the boat is made from fiberglass-enclosed Airex foam and was fitted with GPS, a water maker, VHF radio and SSB\/Ham radio. Legacy: Aboard the Father's Day, Vihlen became the world's first \"micro-yachtsman,\" but it wasn't all smooth sailing -- the boat was surrounded by whales, nearly capsized, and caught the tail end of a hurricane during its 105-day voyage. What world-changing voyages would you add to our list? Sound Off below . Magellan navigates Cape Horn . When: 1519 Who: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan Where: Around the world bypassing Cape Horn, South America via a narrow strait The boat: Given to Magellan by King Charles I of Spain, The Victoria was the only one of five ships to complete the trip successfully. Only 18 of its original 237 crew members survived and the ship was so badly damaged it was only kept afloat by the crew continuously pumping water out of the hull. How long: Three years Legacy: During the first ever circumnavigation of the world Magellan discovered a shortcut through a waterway in the southern tip of Chile, which helped sailors to avoid the almost continuous ocean storms off Cape Horn. The voyage also established the need for an international date line -- as the explorers found upon return that their calendars were one day off. Pilgrims sail to Plymouth Rock . When: 1620 Who: The Pilgrims Where: From England to Plymouth Rock The boat: Primarily used as a cargo ship, in this instance the Mayflower, which was estimated to be between 90 and 110 ft, was used to transport 102 English separatists. How long: Two months Legacy: Half the Pilgrims died during the first winter on the Mayflower, but, in America, the ship continues to be a symbol of the bold English separatists who would encounter great hardships while they explored, and established colonies the modern-day U.S. east coast. Cook charts the Pacific . When: 1772-1775, 1778-1780 Who: English cartographer and explorer Captain James Cook Where: Pacific Ocean, Antarctic Circle The boat: Called \"the fittest ship for service I have ever seen\" by Cook, the HMS Resolution was fitted with the most advanced technology of the day, including an \"Azimuth compass,\" an ice anchor, a fresh water distiller, and 24 guns and small cannons. How long: Five years Legacy: Cook charted maps of the Pacific so accurate that many were still used up until 50 years ago, and proved the nonexistence of the mythical \"Terra Australis\" continent believed to exist in the south Pacific. In the process, the HMS Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle. First solo circumnavigation of the globe . When: 1895 Who: Canadian sailor Joshua Slocum Where: From Boston to Rhode Island The boat: Given as a gift to Slocum in 1892, the rotting 36 ft vessel, The Spray, the sailor restored it for \"$553.62, and 13 months of my own labor.\" How long: Three years Legacy: Slocum became the first person in history to successfully circumnavigate the world solo upon his return to Rhode Island in June 1898, inspiring generations of sailors to come. Yacht with tallest mast ever sets sail . When: Built in 2003 Who: Owned by American Joe Vittoria, former CEO of Avis Where: From Portsmouth, England to the Mediterranean Sea The boat: With an overall length of 247 ft, the Mirabella V is the largest single-masted boat in the world. The super-yacht's unprecedented mast extends up nearly 300 ft into the sky, and its main sail is over 16,000 sq ft -- the biggest in the world. Legacy: No expense was spared in the construction of Vittoria's luxurious yacht, which cost over $50 million to build. The Mirabella V spends her winters in the Carribean, her summers in the Mediterranean, and can be rented for around $400,000 per week -- but one tip: there isn't a single bridge in the world that the yacht can sail underneath. Phoenicians build empire on the seas When: 1200-600 B.C. Who: Expert sailors of Phoenicia's maritime empire Where: Mediterranean Sea The boats: The Phoenicians improved upon the galley -- the ancient ship powered by rows of human oarsmen -- by inventing the \"bireme,\" a galley propelled by a second row of oars. Legacy: Through their skillful use ships to trade valuable Tyrian purple dyes, the seafaring Phoenicians -- who could be considered the world's first \"global capitalists\" -- built a maritime empire from Spain to the Middle East that dominated commercial trade in the Mediterranean for the better part of a millennium. Fastest circumnavigation of the globe . When: 2005 Who: French yachtsman Bruno Peyron Where: Around the world The boat: The Orange II, a 121 ft \"maxicat,\" a catamaran designed for ocean racing, with super heavy-duty sails that can withstand prolonged exposure to heavy winds. How long: 50 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes and four seconds Legacy: The Orange II shattered the previous world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by nearly eight days -- and Peyron and his 12-man crew currently hold the Jules Verne Trophy, the prize given to the world's fastest circumnavigators.","highlights":"The Pilgrims' voyage on the Mayflower to Plymouth Rock in 1620 .\nCharles Darwin's evolutionary discoveries on the HMS Beagle in 1831 .\nHugo Vihlen's \"micro-yacht\" crossing of the Atlantic in 1993 .","id":"0fcb92ac0da30be531e37eabfe9f82af93ce2391"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An overcompetitive parent gets into an argument with a stubborn coach because he thinks his child isn't getting enough playing time -- it's a familiar scene on youth sports fields across America. One critic of the Rhode Island plan said giving parents a outlet for petty complaints \"opens up a can of worms.\" Now, a Rhode Island senator wants the state to step in and create a formal outlet for the \"concerns and objections\" some parents have. Democratic Sen. John Tassoni Jr. introduced a bill that would create a youth sports oversight council on the state level. The council would act as mediator in disputes between parents of youth athletes and sports officials. In answer to critics, Tassoni said Friday that the notion the bill would mean \"big brother\" could begin to oversee youth sports is a misconception. The bill cites the need for a third party to step in at times, stating that \"parents lack a proper outlet to share concerns and objections about youth sports.\" But the parents are the biggest problem, said Matt Rodrigues, general manager and owner of Teamworks youth sports program in Warwick, Rhode Island. \"They are crazy, especially in Rhode Island. The kids on the court are scared because the parents are yelling and screaming,\" Rodrigues said. But the answer, he said, is not to create a council that \"makes decisions we can deal with ourselves.\" A similar council exists in Waterford, Connecticut -- run by the town, not the state. \"It kind of surprises me that [Rhode Island would] do it on such a large level like that,\" said Bruce Miller, president of the Waterford Youth Sports Council. Waterford's council is made up of representatives from the town's 11 sports leagues. Tassoni's bill states that at least four of the members of the state council would be regional youth sports representatives. He said the council is needed because right now there is no place to go to resolve disputes. \"There's no place right now to bring a case forward and have a third party take a look at it,\" he said. Under the bill, Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri would appoint seven volunteers -- approved by the state Senate and House -- to sit on a panel called the Rhode Island Youth Sports Oversight Council. Tassoni said the seven-member council wouldn't be made up of politicians, but ex-coaches, ex-officials and ex-athletic directors. Some adults involved in youth sports aren't happy about it. One blogger posted concerns on the Web site of a Rhode Island newspaper, the Providence Journal. \"Hey Tassoni: What do you do, [lie] in bed and think to yourself -- 'what haven't me and my cronies either screwed up, bankrupted or embarrassed yet? Hmmmm ... haven't touched Little League yet.' Do me a favor -- and I ask this as a coach and a parent -- stay the hell away from my field!!!!\" wrote the blogger. Others think the government should \"concentrate on the state.\" Rodrigues of the Teamworks program said giving parents a place to do petty complaining only \"opens up a can of worms.\" He said the council just \"sounds like another way to take power away from our programs -- they have enough [power].\" The governor has not taken a position on the legislation and will not until he reviews the bill, press secretary Amy Kempe said Friday. She added, however, that \"there appears to be some vague language and constitutional issues.\" The bill states that the volunteers on the council would be expected to \"provide oversight and mediation\" to youth sports programs in the state, as well as develop and adopt a process to review and address complaints. In addition, the council would have the authority to establish and collect fines. But the bill does not go into detail about how to implement the reviewing and fining processes. The bill, with some revisions, is scheduled to be heard by the state Senate on Wednesday. Tassoni hopes to have the council in place by June or July.","highlights":"Conflicts between parents, coaches and officials all too common in youth sports .\nRhode Island state senator wants state to create formal outlet for parents' concerns .\nSimilar council exists in Waterford, Connecticut -- run by the town, not the state .\nCritic says giving parents a place for complaints opens \"can of worms\"","id":"7e374fa85614176707b2f40bc0b47ada25895d42"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Eight cadets and staff members were killed in Pakistan during an an eight-hour standoff Monday with gunmen who stormed a police training center in Lahore, said Gen. Athar Abbas, a military spokesman. Police fire into the air after retaking the police training center in Lahore attacked by militants. The militants had been holed up on the top floor of a three-story building, said Rehman Malik, the head of the country's Interior Ministry. Security forces gained control of the first two floors and eventually made their way to the top, finally taking control of it and arresting the gunmen Monday afternoon. Television pictures showed security forces firing into the air from the roof of the building after the firefight. \"The operation is over. Four terrorists were killed and three arrested,\" Interior Ministry Secretary Kamal Shah told Reuters. Malik and Abbas confirmed the figures. Abbas added some of the dead militants blew themselves up. The gang of seven gunmen stormed the academy in the Manawan area of the eastern Pakistani city, said Malik. Abbas had previously said 30 people were killed. He cited the error on wrong information by his sources at the scene. Watch more about the attack \u00bb . At a news conference Monday night, Malik named the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, and his followers as the prime suspect in organizing the attack. Mehsud is also accused of plotting the assassination of former PM Benazir Bhutto. At least 78 people were wounded in the attack, authorities said. Lahore is the same city where gunmen opened fire March 10 on a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan national cricket team on their way to a stadium for a match. The well-coordinated attack wounded at least eight members of the team and killed a driver and six Pakistani police officers. In Monday's incident, the attackers hurled grenades, then stormed the compound and opened fire while officers were taking part in their morning drill. About 800 officers train at the facility, but authorities could not say exactly how many were inside at the time. The attackers, some in police uniforms, took dozens of officers hostage, said Asim Rizwan, spokesman for governor of Punjab -- the province where Lahore is located. Paramilitary forces and the army descended on the scene. Every few minutes, the gunmen detonated explosives or fired on reporters and police personnel outside, sending them scurrying for cover. Angry onlookers pumped their fists in the air and cheered as police led away a suspect they had captured. He had on him a grenade and a knife, officials told CNN. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eight cadets are killed during attack in Lahore, top military official says .\nLeader of Pakistan's Taliban named as prime suspect .\nFour militants dead, three captured, authorities say .\nLahore was site of attack on Sri Lankan cricket team earlier in March .","id":"21ee1af3d7d1e968092120e030f8f1a28b8610f3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From land, water and air, tens of thousands of police officers, federal agents and National Guardsmen are being deployed in an unprecedented effort to make sure the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama is safe. A law enforcement agent looks toward Capitol Hill ahead of the inauguration on Tuesday. \"Right now, we have no credible threat that there is any direction of interest on the inauguration,\" Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told CNN. FBI agents and intelligence officials have been checking with sources around the United States and the world to make sure no leads are overlooked, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said intelligence will be scrubbed and rescrubbed right through the inauguration. \"We are literally going to be watching this every minute between now and the conclusion of events on the 20th,\" Chertoff said. Federal officials acknowledge the inauguration of the first African-American U.S. president could be an attractive target. Since Obama's election, the number of threats against him has increased, according to a recent federal intelligence assessment. FBI officials say the number of tips coming in has increased, as is common before an inauguration. Investigations, however, have not uncovered a real threat. The FBI has been especially aggressive in examining white supremacy groups, which have ramped up their anti-Obama comments. \"We have not seen any activity by the groups,\" said FBI Assistant Director Joseph Persichini. \"We have seen a lot of chatter, we have seen a lot of discussions, we have seen some information via the Internet. Again, but those are discussions. We look at the vulnerabilities and whether or not the groups are capable of taking on action.\" Persichini said he believes the bureau has \"a good operational plan\" for dealing with the groups, but says that right now, there is no evidence they are trying to launch anything. Watch more on inauguration security \u00bb . The Secret Service is coordinating security for the inauguration, which will involve 58 federal, state and local agencies. All of them are represented at the Secret Service command center, where they can communicate and work together to respond to any report of a possible problem. Airspace restrictions around the Capitol are being tightened. The U.S. Coast Guard is closing portions of the Potomac River. Miles of roads will be closed, along with most of the bridges into the District of Columbia. Checkpoints are going up, and undercover teams are being deployed to look for suspicious people or vehicles. Explosives-sniffing dogs will be on hand to nose out bombs, and horses trained in crowd control are on duty. Thousands of security cameras are being used to monitor activities, sharpshooters are being stationed, and sensors will be used to detect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. In addition to Secret Service agents, the security effort will involve 8,000 police officers from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions, 10,000 National Guardsmen, about 1,000 FBI personnel, and hundreds of others from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service and U.S. Capitol Police. Another 20,000 members of the National Guard are ready to respond if there is an emergency, according to Chertoff. Security planners have drawn up procedures to deal with improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers and the use of a weapon of mass destruction. A recent intelligence assessment, however, said a lone wolf would pose the greatest potential threat. Chertoff said an individual or small group planning to do harm is difficult to detect. \"Whether the motivation is racism or some psychological disorder ... in an open society, it is impossible to keep a single individual from doing some damage,\" he said. A major unknown is how large the crowd will be for Tuesday's activities. Estimates have ranged from 1 million to 2 million. The FBI's Persichini said only that \"we know it is going to draw a lot of people here to the nation's capital.\" Those attending the swearing-in ceremony or entering the parade route will undergo tight screening, including passing through magnetometers. Spectators who are unable to get into those events will be routed to the National Mall, which, for the first time, will be open from end to end for an inauguration. Security there will be less stringent. There has been extensive planning to ensure the crowds can be moved in an orderly and safe way, and to prevent a stampede if there is any kind of security incident. Local and federal agencies have even consulted with a crowd expert. Authorities say the massive security operation is not intended to deter people from coming to Washington. \"Our efforts are to make sure people are safe,\" Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said. \"We'd like for as many people to come as want to come. And again, during our planning, we have made sure we could accommodate however many people decide to come.\" That inaugural events are spread over a four-day period has made security even more challenging. Organizers say they started their security planning the day after the last inauguration and ramped up their efforts in July. Officials involved say this is the biggest event they have been involved in, but believe they are prepared. \"There are a lot of things we all think about, and I'll admit that at 3 in the morning, I might wake up thinking about something, but I have to tell you, I am so confident in this plan,\" the Secret Service's Sullivan said. \"I just don't see any benefit to worry, and I think we just have to go along the way we're going right now and do everything that we can do to make sure that this event is going to be a safe event, that this historical event will be an enjoyable event for everybody and that, quite frankly, that the day isn't about security, but the day is about our president and the day is about our country.\"","highlights":"Officials say Obama's historic inauguration poses high security risk .\nFBI has been especially aggressive in examining white supremacy groups .\nA major unknown is how large the crowd will be for Tuesday's activities .\nSecurity planners have drawn up procedures to deal with bombs, weapons .","id":"329a595eb5b52218c45d1e17d35ebf2a43662a8d"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels to \"release\" civilians, who it said numbered about 70,000 in Sri Lanka's war zone. A Sri Lankan soldier poses in front of a Tamil Tigers emblem in the rebel group's former military headquarters. India is ready to help evacuate them, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Indian parliament. \"Estimates on the number of civilians trapped vary, but 70,000 or so are estimated to be there now. The LTTE were reportedly using them as human shields,\" he said, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers. \"As the conflict enters what may be the final phase of military operations, the LTTE would best serve the interest of the Tamils by immediately releasing all civilians and laying down arms,\" Mukherjee added. He noted that some civilians had either been caught in cross-fire or \"stopped and even killed\" by Tamil rebels as they tried to escape. Government troops and the Tamil Tigers are locked in a battle over the rebels' remaining territory in northern Sri Lanka's Vanni region. The rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. Tens of thousands of people have fled the region as government forces have advanced and rebels have been pushed into a smaller and smaller patch of land. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"India urges Tamil Tiger rebels to allow civilians to leave Sri Lankan war zone .\nSri Lankan troops, Tamil fighters locked in battle for control of rebels' territory .\nIndia estimates up to 70,000 are trapped in the region by the conflict .\nTamil Tigers have been fighting for independent homeland since 1983 .","id":"33db37b001434239e63ce595a3162d3b7f5963e5"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi soldier fatally shot two American soldiers and wounded three others on Saturday, the U.S. military said. A man lies in a hospital after a roadside bombing near Kirkurk on Saturday. Three Iraqis were killed. The shooter was killed when U.S. soldiers returned fire, Maj. Derrick Cheng told CNN. The incident took place at a combat outpost just south of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where there has been a strong presence of anti-U.S. militants, and it underscored the dangers for U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in that city. A second gunman also fired on other U.S. soldiers at the outpost and fled, said Cheng, a spokesman for the U.S.-led Multi National Division-North. Iraq's Interior Ministry said the gunman was a soldier in training who was standing close to U.S. soldiers when he aimed his firearm at them and began shooting. There have been similar incidents of men in Iraqi security force uniforms in the Mosul area opening fire on U.S. troops. In February, insurgents dressed as Iraqi police officers killed a U.S. soldier and an interpreter in the city. Asked whether there seems to be a rise in such attacks, Cheng replied, \"We still view these as isolated incidents either by individuals posing as Iraqi Security Forces or members acting out on their own.\" \"These events do not represent the overall relationship or partnership U.S. forces have with our Iraqi counterparts.\" Overall, violence and attacks are down in Iraq, but despite improvements in the big picture, the U.S. military is concerned with hot spots such as Mosul. Maj. Gen. David Perkins, MNF-Iraq spokesman, told reporters on Friday that the city remains a danger. He said the U.S. military is studying whether American combat troops scheduled to withdraw from urban centers in Iraq by June 30 should actually remain in the diverse metropolis -- populated by Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians and others. Perkins said al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) militants \"are transitioning and becoming more and more concentrated ... mainly in Mosul and in Baghdad.\" \"What we have always said with regards to al Qaeda is that strategically for AQI to win they have to win Baghdad and for them to survive they have to hold on to Mosul and you can see that by how they are conducting their attacks.\" In the last couple of weeks, he said, militants have focused their activity on Baghdad, and attacks in Mosul have dropped somewhat. \"But there is still a lot activity. This is probably the main area we are looking at that could possibly result in U.S. forces being there,\" he said of Mosul. \"Probably more so than any other place.\" \"Of all the places in Iraq, it is the area that you would most likely possibly see a very similar U.S. presence to what you see now. But only if Iraqis want that.\" U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq last month reached 18, the highest of the year. However, the number of monthly Iraqi troop deaths have plummeted since earlier in the war. Also on Saturday, Iranian forces targeting Kurdish rebels shelled a village in Iraq, an official from Iraq's Kurdish region said. Forces used helicopters to attack the village and shelled it with artillery. The village is just over the Iranian border in Iraq's Sulaimaniya province -- a Kurdish region. No casualties were reported. Iran and Turkey long have targeted Kurdish separatist rebels operating in northern Iraq. Meanwhile in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, three civilians were killed and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle on Saturday, police said. It is not known who the bomb might have been targeting, but the incident reflects the hostilities in the oil-rich and ethnically diverse city.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. military: Gunman who killed 2 U.S. troops, wounded 3 was Iraqi soldier .\nIraqi officials say shooter was soldier-in-training who opened fire at a training facility .\nShootings underscore the dangers for U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in Mosul .\nIranian forces attacked Kurdish village in Iraq; 3 civilians killed in Kirkuk .","id":"c7331ce7b4ab666af1a3f9779e6a5222e5632416"} -{"article":"CNN -- The number of cholera deaths in Zimbabwe is now approaching 3,000, the World Health Organization says. Two men rest in a cholera rehydration tent on the South Africa-Zimbabwe border in December. Latest, WHO statistics show 2,971 deaths since the outbreak began in August, with 56,123 cases reported. The epidemic has swept through a country wracked with political and economic crises. Cholera is an intestinal disease caused by bacteria in contaminated water. The epidemic has been aggravated by erratic water supplies, shortages of water purification chemicals, broken water and sewer pipes and uncollected garbage. On top of that, the waste-disposing system has collapsed. Children can be seen playing on heaps of uncollected garbage in the suburbs of most urban areas in Zimbabwe. Last month, the government led by President Robert Mugabe declared the cholera epidemic a national emergency. The country already was wracked by an enormous economic crisis, with a hyperinflationary economy and shortages of all essentials including food, fuel, cash, foreign currency and electricity. Zimbabwe's rainy season peaks in January or February and ends in late March, and Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa warned the epidemic could get worse during the rainy season.","highlights":"WHO figures show 56,123 reported cholera cases in Zimbabwe .\nZimbabwe's waste-disposing system has collapsed .\nHealth Minster David Parirenyatwa warns epidemic could get worse in rainy season .","id":"da4552e8c808a8041345ee945165214ed1b4830d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chris Rock is best known for two things: being funny and being crass. \"If you're the president you only have two jobs: peace and money,\" Chris Rock said. \"This is what people come to see. I'm just doing my show,\" the comedian said with a laugh. He's also known for his political commentary, but there's one person he's having a lot of trouble making fun of -- president-elect Barack Obama. This is apparent in his new DVD \"Kill the Messenger,\" which combines three shows from his international tour: New York; London, England; and Johannesburg, South Africa. \"It was a tour nobody wanted to do... because the general perception is that comedy doesn't translate,\" Rock said. But thanks to the Internet, the world is a lot smaller than it was even 10 years ago. And people are digging the same jokes, he said, including ones about John McCain and Sarah Palin. As the DVD readies for release on January 20, CNN talked with Rock about his lack of Obama jokes, Inauguration Day and why racism will never die. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: I watched the special last night, and I noticed that you did a lot of jokes about John McCain -- his age, his war hero story -- but not so many about Barack Obama. Is it harder to make fun of Obama? Chris Rock: He's just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There's no Will Smith jokes. There's no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? \"Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Anniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You're such a loser.\" What do you say? \"Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million.\" There's nothing to say about Brad Pitt. CNN: Why is Obama like that? Rock: It's like \"Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president.\" You know, what do you say? CNN: As time goes on do you think it will get easier? Rock: Of course, as time goes on. At some point he's going to -- there's always slip-ups. No one can survive that level of scrutiny without occasionally making it easy for a comedian. CNN: Let's talk about the inauguration. Are you going? Rock: No, I have to go to Sundance [Film Festival]. I've got a movie premiering at Sundance. So I have to go to the whitest place in America -- Utah. CNN: What's it going to be like for you on Inauguration Day? Rock: It'll be a cool day. It's weird. I've never watched an inauguration. I've never watched anyone get sworn in. You know, it's like Election Day and then you look up and somebody else is the president two months later. It was never like, \"I can't wait till tomorrow. Oh my god! They're going to swear in Jimmy Carter!\" CNN: Are you going to watch this one, though? Rock: I'll put it this way -- like any business is going to be getting done while this guy is getting sworn in. Like I'm going to be in a meeting. Everything is going to stop for however long it takes. Hope they get to it -- hope it's not like I gotta listen to three different versions of \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" or something. I hope it's not like Rosa Parks' funeral, where everybody f***ing speaks. CNN: What are you hoping Barack Obama does for this country? What do you think is his most important task? Rock: You know, if you're the president you only have two jobs: peace and money. That's it. I mean, it's like, what did Clinton do? We were at peace and we had a budget surplus. That's it. That's the gig. The closer you get us to those two goals, you know, that's pretty much the gig. Is that too much to ask for? CNN: At one point in your act, you said, \"Racism will never die. It will only multiply.\" Why do you believe that? Rock: Well, it's never going to die. Maybe it won't multiply. Is racism going to end? No. It's not even race. People are always going to, you know, find something wrong with people who are not the exact same as them. That's just what it is. Black, white, short, tall, religions, whatever. People are bad, man. CNN: How was it different playing for an audience in Africa? Rock: You know it's weird -- it really wasn't that different. I mean, that's why I love this special. People are the same wherever you go. And if they weren't, they wouldn't laugh at the same s**t. If they were so different they wouldn't know what I was talking about. CNN: Stand-up comics I've talked to in the past say they like their shows to appear spontaneous. But your new DVD stitches together three shows, illustrating to the audience how scripted comedy can be. Why did you decide on that format? Rock: You know, I don't believe in that \"come up with stuff on the spot.\" I mean, honestly, that's why I think comedy, stand-up comedy, always plays such a back seat to music. Like, would you go see a singer if you thought he just came up with the songs? They wouldn't give out Grammys for songs that they just came up with. You're going to go see someone at Radio City or Madison Square Garden, I think you'd like to know that they have an act before you spend $75. So yeah, when you say \"came up with it right there,\" that's really cute when you paid $8 to get in and two-drink minimum. When the ticket's $75, that's a whole other mindset.","highlights":"Comedian Chris Rock to release \"Kill the Messenger\" DVD January 20 .\nThere are no Barack Obama jokes, Rock says, just like there are no Brad Pitt jokes .\nRock: Playing for international crowds not that different than playing in U.S.\n\"Stand-up comedy always plays such a back seat to music,\" Rock says .","id":"2b707f0af1303423b2f4bc4b1c60f3bbf10a6586"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- One of two doctors charged with conspiring to furnish drugs to Anna Nicole Smith before her fatal overdose in 2007 surrendered to authorities and was jailed Monday, authorities said. Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend Howard K. Stern was among those charged last week. Dr. Khristine Eroshevich surrendered at the Van Nuys, California, jail, said police and jail officials. Bail was set at $20,000, but Eroshevich had not posted bail as of Monday afternoon. Eroshevich was charged last week along with Howard K. Stern, Smith's longtime partner and attorney; and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor. Stern and Kapoor were arrested and released from a Los Angeles County jail Thursday night after each posted a $20,000 bond. All three are charged with eight felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007, only weeks before Smith's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich were also charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" And each was charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, prosecutors said. \"Anna was the center of a cruel tabloid feeding frenzy,\" Eroshevich's attorney, Adam Braun, told CNN in a statement Monday. \"In the face of this, Dr. Eroshevich did her best to help the patient while protecting what little privacy Anna had left. Any actions were done with the patient's well-being in mind and were certainly not criminal.\" California Attorney General Jerry Brown said the doctors and Stern devised a plan to use fake names so Smith could be prescribed \"thousands of pills.\" The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star was drugged \"almost to the point of stupefaction,\" Brown said. \"The quantity of the drugs, the variety of the drugs, the combination at any given point, and her continuing to use that -- that, to a professional, is clear evidence of addiction,\" Brown said Friday. \"These cocktails of methadone and antidepressants and sleeping pills and Xanax, you put all that into a cocktail, it explodes and can cause death, injury and permanent morbidity and disability.\" Brown said Stern was the \"principal enabler\" in a conspiracy with two doctors for giving the \"known addict\" thousands of prescription pills. Stern's attorney Krista Barth said on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Friday night that she thought Brown's comments were prejudicial. \"I don't think that this was something that should have been stated in a public forum,\" Barth said. \"I think it's contrary to the rules of professional conduct regarding trial publicity. And you have to wonder why such a statement was made.\" Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8, 2007, after being found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Hollywood, Florida. A coroner said she died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Officials said that both prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three antidepressant or anti-anxiety drugs. Human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, were also found in toxicology tests, officials said. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Lawyer: Doctor had \"patient's well-being in mind,\" actions \"not criminal\"\nKhristine Eroshevich surrendered Monday and was jailed .\nHoward K. Stern, Sandeep Kapoor, Eroshevich charged with felonies .\nThree are accused of conspiring to furnish drugs before Smith's death .","id":"8066899f5d5b89bd4486b680a1ff3f2d02a6e2f7"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- It's the story that has brought dating violence into the national spotlight. Police responded to a 911 call alleging domestic violence between singers Chris Brown and Rihanna last month. Tyra Banks tells Oprah Winfrey about how abuse affected her. Later that day, both pulled out of planned appearances at the Grammy Awards, and Brown turned himself into police. He was arrested on the suspicion of making criminal threats and was released on bail. Weeks later, rumors of their reconciliation were reported. On March 5, 2009, Brown appeared in court, charged with two counts of felony assault. His arraignment has been postponed until April 2009 while he remains free on bail. Statistics say about one in three high school students have been -- or will be -- involved in an abusive relationship. \"The message this story sends to teen girls and boys everywhere is disturbing, and it is also dangerous,\" Oprah Winfrey says. \"We need to try to evolve from this moment ... use this as a moment to allow our society to begin to grow.\" Oprah believes this story can be a teaching moment for every teen and parent. \"Love doesn't hurt,\" she says. \"And if a man hits you once, he will hit you again.\" Oprah.com: 10 questions to ask your teens . Over the past few years, talk show host Tyra Banks has interviewed both Brown and Rihanna. \"Rihanna told me her parents used to argue so intensely, she used to get these headaches, these migraines that were almost not even treatable with medicine,\" Banks says. \"The moment her parents separated, her migraines went away.\" In his appearance on The Tyra Banks Show, Brown said he watched his mother suffer abuse from the time he was 7 years old until he was 13. The abuser was not his biological father. \"I treat [women] differently because I know I never want to go through the same thing or put a woman through the same thing that the person put my mom through,\" Brown told Banks. When Banks first heard about the alleged incident, she says she didn't believe it -- until the police report was released. \"I went back to that interview and I said, 'Oh my God, he's repeating [the cycle of abuse].'\" Tyra cautions against judging Rihanna for going back to Brown. \"Sometimes we hold these celebrities up to a higher standard, but we have to look at her as a human being and understand that she is no better or no different than any other girl,\" Banks says. \"She is just as easily pulled into the cycle of abuse of going back.\" \"I think we need to send love to both of them,\" Oprah says. \"For him to be healed, and for her to be healed also.\" Oprah.com: 4 ways to heal after a tragedy . Banks says she knows the cycle of abuse all too well. While in her 20s, Banks says she was emotionally abused. \"He never hit me, but I would say there were blows to my spirit, blows to my emotional well-being every day,\" she says. On the outside, Banks says no one could see the signs. But behind closed doors, she says he was jealous and blamed her for his bad moods. \"He was a master at being able to be happy and nice to everybody else but whispering these negative things to me,\" she says. \"I'd start complaining to my friends, and they're like: 'Well, he's fine, girl. He's fine with us. Everything's fine.'\" Although she was one of the top 10 models in the world at the time, she says her self-esteem sunk lower and lower. \"I stayed because I felt like if I left and he didn't change and didn't treat me how I felt I deserved to be treated, I was a failure,\" she says. One day, Banks says she finally confronted herself. \"I walked to the mirror in his bathroom. He wasn't there,\" she says. \"Out loud I looked in that mirror and I said: 'Tyra, who are you? What the hell are you doing? Get out of here.'\" Although Banks says she tried to leave her boyfriend many times, she managed to get sucked back into the relationship. At one point, she says she turned to her mother for help. \"I said: 'Mama, please, just take me. Pull me out of this relationship. Tell me to leave him. Hole me up in your house. Unplug the phones. Protect me from him.'\" Her mother refused. \"[She said:] 'You have to do this on your own. I will be here as somebody to support you in this. But I will not tell you to leave, and I will not cut you off from him, because you'll just run out in the middle of the night and go straight back.'\" Oprah.com: How to make an exit plan . Dating violence doesn't just happen in Hollywood. It can take place in any neighborhood -- including yours. Friends say high school senior and cheerleader Charney Watt was one-of-a-kind. \"She was very intelligent. She made good grades. She had a spunky attitude and was very energetic,\" says Charli, a friend. \"She was also a leader in her community, and being a cheerleader, you have to influence other people. She influenced people at school and also in her neighborhood. You know, if she [had] seen you looking sad, she would come ask you what's wrong and make sure you're okay.\" On March 1, 2009, police say the 18-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, was gunned down by her ex-boyfriend. Charney's ex-boyfriend Gary Daniel has been charged with her murder and has not yet entered a plea. Her friends say they saw no signs that she was in an abusive relationship. \"When she came to [cheerleading] practice, her personality overcame all of that,\" Charli says. \"She was just herself.\" Keisha, Watt''s friend since the eighth grade, says Watt's boyfriend used to come to all of her games. \"He used to come and see her cheer and come with her mom,\" she says. \"We always thought he was a supporter, and he was a sweet person to her.\" Now that they've had to bury their close friend, Keisha and her friends hope others will learn from Charney's experience. \"We're hoping that Charney, what happened to her, people will look at it and realize that this type of situation isn't for you,\" Keisha says.Oprah.com: Meet more women who are struggling with dating violence . From The Oprah Winfrey Show . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Oprah Winfrey: Rihanna abuse allegations can be used to help other teens .\nTyra Banks: Chris Brown says he watched his mother suffer years of abuse .\nBanks: Don't judge Rihanna harshly for going back to Brown .\nBanks says she was emotionally abused, begged mother to make her break up .","id":"cca03d5cf44916e5f198ef2a45c6e0ce3b7593c1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- He is the international superstar responsible for breathing life into the iconic comic book hero Wolverine. Her movies have earned more than $2 billion worldwide, including the entire \"X-Men\" franchise. Hugh Jackman emerges as Wolverine in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine,\" which opened Friday. Actor Hugh Jackman and film producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently sat down for a candid conversation about their new film, \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" Specifically, the pair talked about the scene in which Jackman's character is transformed from a simple mutant with bony claws that periodically protrude from the back of his hands to an invincible mutant filled with an indestructible metal called adamantium. This scene represents the ultimate birth of a comic legend as the character is transformed from Logan to Wolverine. Watch the scene in which Wolverine is unleashed \u00bb . Hugh Jackman: I knew this was the birth of the character; this is where we see him in full flight. It's called in the comic book \"berserker rage.\" It's not really in the English language, but it may be now! But, this idea that this complete animal [has been] unleashed, which is obviously the entire story -- this battle between the animal and human is something we all relate to. Lauren Shuler Donner: There were many things he had to do in the tank, you know. One of them was he had to be lowered, and then the needles had to come towards him. Now, most of those were CGI, so he had to look in certain places where the needles were. But, he couldn't hear [director] Gavin [Hood]. So they ... tried all kinds of sounds, speakers, everything. ... They finally devised this toe method where, if Gavin pulled on Hugh's big toe, it meant the things are coming, the second toe is this, the last toe is rise up, very sophisticated. (laughter) Jackman: I had in my head that I've got to be in much better shape -- not better shape, different shape, kind of ridiculous shape because I wanted it to be uncomfortable. I wanted it to feel like I felt when I saw Robert De Niro in \"Cape Fear,\" that -- whoa, this guy is dangerous, he's powerful, he's dangerous, and he can snap at any point. Donner: There's an iconic drawing of Wolverine coming out of the tank in the comics with the things popping out of him and his hair all over him in a rage, and we wanted to be that image. That's the image we wanted for the fans. Jackman: I was a little frightened when I watched it, like, \"Is that me?\" [My wife] Deb was like, \"Hugh, this is ridiculous. I don't even know who that is.\"","highlights":"Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\"\nTo create the character, Jackman wanted to be in \"ridiculous shape\"\nHow to contact Jackman underwater? Director used a \"toe method\"","id":"bc56bde7cece41e2767a9d128ecc0fb1036c246e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Opposition leader and supermarket mogul Ricardo Martinelli has won Panama's presidential election, the head of the country's electoral tribunal said Sunday. Ricardo Martinelli delivers a victory speech after Panama's presidential election Sunday. Martinelli, of the conservative Democratic Change party, edged out former Housing Minister Balbina Herrera of Panama's governing Democratic Revolutionary Party, said Erasmo Pinilla of the electoral tribunal. A final vote count wasn't immediately available Sunday evening. \"This is a victory for all the people of Panama,\" Martinelli said. \"And I make a call to all our opposition -- to all the parties that opposed us -- that you all are all Panamanians. ... Tomorrow we have to start a new day.\" Martinelli also ran for president in 2004, when he came in fourth with about 5 percent of the vote. President Martin Torrijos won that election with about 47 percent of the vote.","highlights":"Supermarket mogul Ricardo Martinelli is winner, election official says .\nMartinelli is leader of the conservative Democratic Change party .\n\"This is a victory for all the people of Panama,\" Martinelli says .\nHe came in fourth place during 2004 presidential election .","id":"b7850413f83a04fc32d7a52ef0fc2e7997470213"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The fiberglass head weighed 600 pounds and resembled Clarabell the Clown from the 1950s \"Howdy Doody Show.\" Bill Ziegler, owner of the Wild Bill's nostalgia store, stumbled across it on an artist's Web site and wondered if it would work for a project he had in mind. Salem Sue stands watch in New Salem, North Dakota. She measures 38 feet tall and 50 feet long. Ziegler recruited the artist to help him attach the giant head to his 33-foot farm silo. By October 2008, the pair had built the world's largest jack-in-the-box. The jack-in-the-box extends 50 feet in the air, moving up and down approximately once a minute. \"They love it,\" Ziegler said of the tourists who come to his store. He's had visitors from as far away as England -- one couple who saw the story of the jack-in-the-box in a British newspaper decided to stop by. All across the country, roadside attractions like this one bring surprise and delight to travelers who just have to get a closer look. \"In many parts of the country, you can plan an entire road trip where you visit nothing but 'world's largest' attractions,\" said Doug Kirby, the publisher of RoadsideAmerica.com. Kirby's Web site pays homage to odd attractions -- from Ziegler's jack-in-the-box in Middletown, Connecticut, to the world's largest ketchup bottle in Collinsville, Illinois, to the world's largest sundial in Carefree, Arizona. \"Travelers enjoy the noncorporate, somewhat ragged nature of these eclectic attractions,\" Kirby said. \"They're often free, and you can take a great 'wish you were here' photo.\" See photos of some \"world's largest\" attractions \u00bb . Kirby picked five world's largest attractions from his Web site. In addition to Ziegler's jack-in-the-box, here are his top recommendations for adventurous road trippers: . Ball of twine . Visitors do more than snap a picture at the world's largest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas. Linda Clover, self-described keeper of the ball, gives tourists twine to add it to the attraction. \"People like to be a part of it,\" Clover said. \"It shows that with lots of patience and a lot of people helping out, you can end up with something very big.\" Clover ended up in charge of the ball in a roundabout way. Farmer Frank Stoeber started the ball of twine in 1953. When he died, his cousin took over. And when his cousin died, Clover stepped up. \"I know that people like to come and see it. And someone had to take care of it,\" she said. \"My husband used to say that people asked me to do something and I couldn't say no.\" Clover keeps twine with her in case an interested tourist gives her a call. The ball measures more than 40 feet across. It contains 7.9 million feet of twine and weighs approximately 19,000 pounds. And every year in August, Cawker City hosts a twine-a-thon event to hold on to the world's largest ball of twine record. Salem Sue . Salem Sue, dubbed the world's largest cow, is in New Salem, North Dakota. She measures 38 feet tall, 50 feet long and is made up of 12,000 pounds of fiberglass. Scott Schauer, producer of The Real North Dakota project, features Salem Sue on his Web site, which is dedicated to showing tourists the best of North Dakota. As a kid, Schauer used to drive by the cow with his family. He thinks many people pass similar road trip traditions on to their kids, hence their appeal. \"I remember being mesmerized by their monstrous size. No matter how many times I saw them, I always looked forward to seeing them again and again,\" Schauer said. \"As an adult, I still look forward to seeing them. I guess some things don't change with time.\" Horseshoe crab . The world's largest horseshoe crab resides in a parking lot at the Freedom Worship Baptist Church in Blanchester, Ohio. Last year, the church's pastor, Jim Rankin, hired Evel Knievel's former bodyguard to jump over the crab on his motorcycle. The publicity stunt attracted nearly 8,000 visitors to the church. The crab is 68 feet long from its head to its long, spiky tail. \"It can have up to 65 people inside,\" Rankin said. Peanut . In the 1970s, Ashburn, Georgia, built a monument to the state's No. 1 cash crop. Standing atop a brick tower along Interstate 75, the world's largest peanut can be seen for miles. The peanut is 33 feet tall with a 10-foot circumference. The peanut was featured on a Go-Gurt portable yogurt packet as a trivia question, said Shelley Zorn, Ashburn's chamber of commerce president. It also showed up on a Food Network show. \"Hilarious, isn't it?\" Zorn said of the public's love affair with the peanut. \"I can meet people on a cruise ... and I ask them if they've seen it. Nine out of 10 people have seen that peanut, no matter where they're from.\" A legacy . Recognition is the main reason people build the world's largest attractions, Kirby said. His site rates places higher if they surprise his staff or make them laugh. iReport.com: See the \"world's largest rocking chair\" \"Towns build giant statues to promote themselves and take pride in local heroes, historic figures or industries,\" Kirby said. \"Businesses commission creation of giants so they stand out from their competition. For individuals, a 'world's largest' something may be a hobby gone out of control. ... Creators fret about their legacy. This 'world's largest' may be how the world remembers them.\" That is, until someone builds a bigger one.","highlights":"World's largest roadside attractions offer surprise and delight to travelers .\nLargest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas, began in 1953 .\nFreedom Worship Baptist Church is home to world's largest horseshoe crab .\nExpert: Recognition is main reason people build world's largest attractions .","id":"0ea1c2a1cdd1734f66eaa113e3d1c39673440fbc"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's Maoist government took the president to task Monday for ordering the country's army chief of staff to stay in office after they had fired him, calling the decision \"unconstitutional.\" General Rookmangud Katawal gestures after inspecting a guard of honor in New Delhi on December 12, 2007. \"Neither the constitution nor the Military Act gives the President the right to do anything besides supporting the government's decision,\" said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the minister for information and communication. Late Sunday night, President Ram Baran Yadav ordered Gen. Rookmangud Katawal, who was sacked by the government Sunday morning, to continue in office. Nepal's interim constitution gives the president powers as supreme commander of the army and guardian of the constitution. \"The president took the step after 18 parties in parliament requested the President to intervene,\" presidential spokesman Rajendra Dahal told CNN Sunday night. The decision to fire Katawal touched off protests. Supporters of both sides in the dispute took to the streets for demonstrations Sunday. Despite sporadic clashes between the two factions, there were no serious injuries reported. The coalition government led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) -- better known as Maoist -- leads a minority government for which its largest coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), has withdrawn support. It is unclear if the government will fall, since Madhesi Janadhikar (People's Rights) Forum, another coalition partner and the fourth largest party in parliament, is undecided about staying in the government. Nepal's Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required. The Maoists laid down their arms and won power in 2008 elections after an agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency. Under the deal, more than 19,000 former insurgents were to be integrated into the country's security forces.","highlights":"Government calls president's order to keep army chief in office \"unconstitutional\"\nMaoist government ordered army chief of staff to be fired after recruitment issue .\nMilitary refused to stop recruiting soldiers while it hasn't accepted ex-Maoist rebels .\nDismissal touches off street protests and a split in Maoist-dominated ruling coalition .","id":"238e604f4d913cb2a020e56793f4674d0c917595"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Have you ever heard of someone having their car \"totaled\"? While the word might conjure images of a massive car accident, replete with broken glass and the Jaws of Life, the reality is sometimes far removed. Ford's repair and safety engineers first began collaborating on the 2009 F-150 pick-up truck. In fact, there are many accidents that produce structural damage such that the vehicle's frame is bent, even though the exterior of the car might even look drivable. Typically these cars are \"totaled,\" which might give buyers the peace of mind knowing they will get a replacement vehicle. But, overall this produces much higher insurance rates for all drivers. Car companies and insurers are working hard to try and reduce the cost of auto repairs and insurance premiums for consumers and some of the development is breathtaking in its innovation . This effort has already led to many new developments in the design of various auto parts and components -- which have indeed led to a reduction in repair costs for various auto parts, components and structures. And more advances are on the way: some carmakers have recently ramped up their operations in this area, which should result in greater cost savings in coming years. One recent development in this area is the Ford Motor Company's new $650,000 Paint and Body Technology Center in Inkster, Michigan, about 20 minutes from the company's Dearborn world headquarters. The new center was created by merging operations with the company's Safety Crash Test Analysis department. Other car companies have their own versions of this kind of operation, including Ford's crosstown rivals, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. The new Ford center represents an advancement over its previous paint and body tech operation in that it's larger, closer to the company's HQ, and now works more closely with design engineers and auto insurers -- and gets insurers involved earlier in the design process. AOL Autos: Cut your insurance in half . The goal is to identify potential repair issues and then use that info to refine designs -- which in turn helps cut the cost of repairs at dealerships and independent repair shops. Plus, this effort allows repair techs to more effectively restore the vehicles to their pre-accident condition. To that end, engineers gather data earlier in the vehicle development process so it can be then analyzed during crash and durability testing. AOL Autos: How to choose a repair shop . For Ford, the closer integration of these functions began when the carmaker's repair and safety engineers first began collaborating on the 2009 F-150 pick-up truck. During the vehicle's early development period, these engineers realized that new materials -- including ultra-high-strength steel and boron -- helped make the new truck safer, but also could make it more expensive to repair after a collision. AOL Autos: Minor damages, major repair costs . \"The extensive use of advanced technologies and materials in the 2009 F-150 required us to develop new, specific procedures and repair recommendations,\" said Gerry Bonanni, Ford's collision repair senior engineer. So, Ford engineers designed and developed new front and rear-frame-section kits -- which means one single section of the frame can now be repaired \/ replaced after a crash, instead of having to replace the entire frame. \"Partial-frame repairs cost at least $2,000 less than full-frame replacements,\" says Bonanni -- and will prevent some vehicles from being \"totaled,\" which would have previously been the case under repair laws in some states. The success of the collaboration on the F-150 prompted the decision to open the new paint and body tech center. A more recent example was the work done on the 2010 Mustang. \"Previously, we had no real procedure for sectioning off the rear-frame rails,\" says Bonanni. \"But, by collaborating with repair technicians and the insurance companies, we developed a procedure, which we then documented for the repair techs in our dealers. \"That allows them to repair just a short section of the rear-frame rails, instead of replacing the entire frame-rail system -- which also translates into lower repair costs, and lower insurance rates, for the owner.\" General Motors' Collision Repair Test Center has had also had recent success on this front, says Jim Doherty, GM's manager of the service-engineering team for aftersales body structures. \"We coordinate with the product engineers, so as soon as a new vehicle starts development, about four years before it's introduced, we engage with their team,\" says Doherty. \"Some of our people work on the structure, and some on the exterior, and we collaborate with the design engineers to work out whatever improvements might need to be made over the previous version of a component or assembly.\" AOL Autos: Best & worst auto designs . As with Ford, \"the goal is to make sure that the vehicle has the most cost-effective repair strategy,\" adds Dave Bakos, GM's director of global after-sales mechanical engineering. \"Our liaisons with people in the insurance industries are definitely useful -- they call us if they have concerns, and when we develop a new technology, we contact them to make sure they understand it.\" The development of lighter-weight steel for auto frames also presents challenges to GM's center. \"They're very high-strength, but their repairability is more difficult when compared with the old cold-rolled steels -- so, that has forced us to come up with new welding, sectioning and attachment strategies as the vehicle is being designed and developed,\" says Doherty. AOL Autos: Take the guesswork out of buying a used car . Doherty and Bakos cite a couple of examples of how the Collision Repair Test Center -- and the collaboration between design and repair engineers and insurance companies -- have been parlayed into cost savings for car owners. Prior to the current model year, the cost of repairing the frame-rail assembly on a Pontiac Solstice included $936 for the part itself, plus 13 \u00bd hours worth of labor costs to install, says Doherty. But by working with design engineers and insurers, the Collision Repair Test Center was able to develop and create a \"service-only\" partial assembly. That means that, on the '09 Solstice, a collision technician can replace the damaged section of the front rail only, rather than the entire front rail section. The parts for the partial assembly cost far less and require just three and a half hours of labor to install,\" says Doherty. \"Because of these changes, the total cost savings for this repair could be as high as $1,500.\" The current Saturn Aura presented a challenge \/ opportunity along the same lines. For the '09 Aura, GM engineers at the Collision Repair Test Center created \"zone-specific\" replacement parts. \"Rather than replacing the entire body-side assembly as a single piece, engineers developed sectioning procedures for the front, center and rear quarter sections of the vehicle,\" explains Doherty. \"This allows the technician multiple repair options when repairing the side of a damaged vehicle. Even though the cost of parts remained similar, labor cost savings created were substantial, ranging from about $600 to as high as $1,200.\" One current focus for these operations at Ford, GM and other carmakers relates to side-impact crashes. \"We don't want every vehicle to have to end up in the salvage yard just because a side pillar is damaged,\" says Bakos. \"So we're working on some combination of welding or welding and adhesives, or maybe mechanical fasteners, in order make those sections more repairable, so that the vehicle isn't totaled.\" New challenges continue to present themselves, says Ford's Bonanni. \"New technologies are developing pretty rapidly,\" he says. \"And each time a new one comes along, it's our job to develop new ways of repairing the various structures, components and parts that incorporate those new technologies -- and do it in a way that maintains the vehicle's after-crash structural integrity, and keeps costs down for the vehicle owner.\"","highlights":"Companies and insurers sections cars to be crash (and repair) friendly .\nMany new developments exist in the design of auto parts and components .\nNew materials -- including ultra-high-strength steel -- help make vehicles safer .\nNew challenges continue to present themselves, says Ford expert .","id":"1fc7a25f81b5cdfa03fbca417f7829772de8d382"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Two kisses on the cheek or three? The age-old dilemma may become moot as worries of infectious disease hang in the air. A couple kisses at a swine flu virus prevention and detection medical mobile unit in Mexico City. Common forms of greeting, such as handshakes and kisses on the cheek, are coming under scrutiny as the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, steadily spreads around the world. In Mexico, which has had the largest outbreak of the virus, the Ministry of Health is advising people to avoid shaking hands and kissing people as a greeting. Some couples are donning surgical masks when they kiss to avoid contagion. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent who has been covering the epidemic from Mexico, is advocating the \"el-bump,\" or bumping of elbows, as a greeting. \"It's not as cool as the fist bump, but safer,\" he wrote on micro-blog site Twitter. Follow Dr. Gupta's 'tweets' Dr. Richard Dawood, medical director of the Fleet Street Travel Clinic in London, refers to the shift in etiquette as \"social distancing.\" \"People don't want to get too close. There is going to be a move towards less handshaking, less greeting people with a kiss. There may well end up being fewer meetings,\" he told CNN. The World Health Organization is advising people to practice preventive measures like avoiding close contact with people who appear unwell and those who are coughing and have a fever. The global health agency is also directing people who live in areas where flu cases have surfaced to follow additional precautions set out by their national and local health authorities. Even countries where the virus hasn't been confirmed are taking precautionary measures. At a news conference earlier this week, Lebanon's health minister recommended that people stop using the conventional greeting of three kisses to the cheek. See where cases have been confirmed \u00bb . \"We're heading toward a world where everyone is going to be suddenly much more conscious of those who are coughing and sneezing,\" Dawood said. People will have to be much more conscious of hygiene and stay out of close proximity with others when they aren't feeling well, he said. Are you changing your etiquette because of the swine flu epidemic? Tell us in the SoundOff below . The H1N1 virus is a hybrid of swine, avian and human flu strains. It is a respiratory disease that is contagious, and believed to be spread through coughing, sneezing and close contact. Learn more about the virus \u00bb . Since the outbreak surfaced in Mexico, it has spread to at least 11 countries. The number of confirmed cases has reached 331, with the hardest hit areas in the western hemisphere, the WHO said Friday. People tend to be scared of what they don't understand, especially when it comes to disease, Dawood said. Watch Dr. Gupta report on a new scientific discovery about the virus \u00bb . He worries about how people will react as tensions rise. People historically have resorted to socially ostracizing those who have suffered from diseases like typhoid and leprosy, he noted. The flu outbreak will pose another test. \"Hopefully we don't see that again. We will have to control our urges in our relations to other people,\" Dawood said.","highlights":"Move towards 'social distancing' as people worry about swine flu epidemic .\nMexico's Health Ministry directing people to avoid handshakes and kissing .\nWHO advises avoiding close contact with people who appear unwell .\nFollow CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Twitter .","id":"6b58f93d3b8e8e2334b747ecadce9ee7402b60f7"} -{"article":"On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. This week, King traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, to look at recovery from Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward compared to the rest of the city. The Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic was clinic director Patricia Berryhill's home before Hurricane Katrina. NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Patricia Berryhill sits behind a desk in what not too long ago was her living room, cheerfully greeting those who walk in and reaching for the phone as it rings yet again. \"Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic, Patricia Berryhill, may I help you?\" Sometimes the questions are routine -- this time more anxious. \"As for the HIV testing, if you come in on Tuesdays from 11 to 1, there is no charge,\" Berryhill tells the caller. \"As for the Herpes virus, you are going to have to see a physician and make an appointment for that.\" The patient files in the cabinets behind her now number more than 1,300, and 95 percent of those who walk through the door have no health insurance. The clinic asks for a $25 \"co-payment\" but no one is turned away if they cannot afford it. A half dozen patients are waiting as executive director Alice Craft-Kerney takes a visitor on a tour. In the reception area, there are health awareness brochures, hurricane preparedness brochures, and a bookshelf about half-filled with children's books. Craft-Kerney tries every day to give some away. Watch John King preview this Sunday's show \u00bb . \"Because we have such a low literacy rate here in Louisiana,\" she says. \"So they come by, browse, and take whatever books they want free of charge.\" The staff is cheery; the clinic neat and clean. A sign in the window making clear there are no narcotic drugs inside is a sign of the clinic's rough surroundings. And within a few steps of the door is a reminder that 43 months after Katrina changed everything, the Lower Ninth Ward is still a mess. During a helicopter pass over the neighborhood, we saw concrete slabs and weedy spaces where houses once stood. Yes, there is a fair amount of new home construction, and renovations under way at some homes gutted by Katrina. But while the debris is mostly gone, much of the neighborhood remains an abandoned wasteland. Overall, Tulane University geographer Richard Campanella says, the population of New Orleans stands at about 330,000 -- roughly 75 percent of its pre-Katrina level. Before the storm, it was about 70 percent African-American; now it's about 60 percent. And it is a more affluent city. Campanella says median household income is up to $40,000 from $27,000 before Katrina, \"and it is not because the city is doing better economically.\" Significantly, Campanella says the \"curves\" suggesting major changes during the post-Katrina period are \"flattening.\" \"My sense is the post-Katrina city we all wondered about 3\u00bd years ago what would it look like -- that we are there now,\" Campanella said in an interview on the Tulane campus. \"The patterns are stabilizing and we are in a 'new normal' period.\" A new normal in which the Lower Ninth Ward trails significantly behind. Only about 19 percent of its pre-Katrina population has returned; roughly 3,600 people live there today, compared to some 19,000 when Katrina hit. There are new twists on the resentments and suspicions that dominated community discussions in the horrible days just after Katrina and Rita. In the place of resident complaints that their neighborhood was slow to get help in the hours and days after the storm are accusations their rebuilding hopes are being deliberately ignored or set on the back burner. Craft-Kerney says a commitment to add a second school in the Lower Ninth, or enticements to bring in a supermarket or a major pharmacy, would help bring more people back, or attract new residents. \"Much of it has been the lack of political will on the part of our government entities,\" she said. City officials say there are myriad reasons the rebuilding is slow. One part of this divisive debate is the threshold question of whether it makes sense at all to have people living so close to where the levee breach was most destructive. But Craft-Kerney and many other community activists see this debate in black and white, or rich and poor. \"As my teacher used to say, 'Them that got, gets,' \" she said. The Bush administration's response to Katrina was one of the turning points in American public opinion toward that administration. But Craft-Kerney says the clinic would not be in operation had it not been for the help of Mike Leavitt, the Bush secretary of health and human services. It sits in what was Berryhill's home. After Katrina, she decided to move elsewhere in the city, but agreed to donate her former home as a clinic. It was gutted, rebuilt, and Berryhill now serves as its clinical director. It survives mostly because of a Bush administration grant that runs through 2010. Whether the clinic gets additional federal funding will be one of the tests of the area's priority for the federal government. Craft-Kerney will soon face the new administration. While she speaks highly of President Obama, she says she worries New Orleans and the Lower Ninth will be forgotten in the long list of major challenges facing his administration. \"I don't know exactly what his game plan is,\" Craft-Kerney told us during the clinic interview. \"But I do believe in my heart that he is going to eventually do some things to help New Orleans. I don't expect it overnight -- but he did say he would make good on President Bush's promise to make New Orleans whole again.\"","highlights":"95 percent of Lower Ninth Ward clinic's patients have no health insurance .\nWhile most of the debris from Katrina is gone, area still abandoned wasteland .\nCity's demographics changing as it enters its 'new normal' after storm .\nClinic director hopes Lower Ninth won't be forgotten in ambitious Obama agenda .","id":"1a17efe2d7dbe854a26446045f50e5392e8d8277"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hundreds of people converged on New York's Union Square Friday for the May Day Immigration Rally, calling for workers' rights and a path to citizenship for the country's nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants. New Yorker's support the rights of undocumented workers on Friday at a May Day rally. The annual event, which began in 2006, was organized by the May 1st Coalition for Workers and Immigrants Rights. Similar rallies were scheduled across the nation in Boston, Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco in California, and San Antonio, Texas, according to the group's Web site. Following rally cries from speakers in both English and Spanish, demonstrators braved a rainstorm and marched approximately two miles to New York's Federal Plaza. Among the participants was Saul Linares, who emigrated from El Salvador six years ago and works at a Long Island factory making equipment for the U.S. Army. Linares is particularly concerned about children who are American citizens, yet whose illegal immigrant parents have been deported. \"The children are living alone, sometimes with relatives, at churches or with neighbors,\" he said. Teresa Gutierrez, a co-coordinator of the event, blames current government policy for the United States' immigration woes. She said she believes the Clinton administration's landmark 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA -- which was meant to promote cross-border growth between the United States and Mexico -- actually had exploitive effects on the Mexican population. \"Immigrants came because of NAFTA. They don't risk their lives crossing the border because they want to, but because they have to,\" she said. A smaller anti-illegal immigration rally assembled across the street, organized by the New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement. Charles Maron, a New York firefighter and husband of a first generation Pakistani, believes illegal immigrants who commit crimes should be deported. \"Someone who comes, teaches their kids the American way, I support that.\" Participants in the May Day rally included people from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. According to Gregory Jesus Luc, who is producing a documentary about the plight of Haitian immigrants, \"It's about awareness, letting media and America know that we are immigrants and we are the backbone of this country.\"","highlights":"May Day rally seeks path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants .\nSimilar rallies take place in cities across United States .\nAnti-illegal immigration rally in New York draws a smaller crowd .","id":"daca47b7d98f341d14a885bc635d72e972bde6c9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A 16 year-old Australian schoolgirl is hoping to achieve a sailing feat that is so tough it has brought many experienced men and women to the brink of death. Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson of Australia plans to sail solo around the world . Jessica Watson, of Mooloolaba, Queensland, plans to set out on a solo round-the-world sailing mission in November -- and hopes to become the youngest person to ever sail non-stop around the world alone. But with the impending weeks of solitary confinement, freeze-dried foods, changing conditions and threat of injury, illness or death -- why would she want to do it? Watson told CNN her inspiration had come from fellow Australian Kay Cottee, who became the first woman to sail the globe alone, without stopping; and German-born Australian Jesse Martin, who still holds the record as the youngest person to do it. Martin achieved his feat in 1999 aged 18 (at the finish), and subsequently wrote a book titled \"Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit.\" \"I read Jesse's book and that was inspiring. If you had to put it down to one thing that encouraged me to do this that would be a good one,\" Watson said. Since deciding she wanted to take on what she describes as the \"Everest of the ocean\" about four years ago, Watson has been doing all she can to gain the best preparation for the adventure. She has already sailed \"mock solo\" across the Tasman Sea, which flows between Australia and New Zealand, at 15 and has been sailing since she was 8 years-old. \"I've been talking to people [who have done it] about it all, and I'll get in some good solo miles before I go,\" she said. Despite the experience she has gained, Watson admits there are some aspects of the journey that remain unknown. \"There are definitely things I'm nervous about -- like the big waves and gear failure. But, it's amazing the detail of preparation we can get and what you can do with technology. \"Though, there's no telling how you'll handle yourself when you're out there for eight months until you're actually out there.\" Watson's journey around the globe is part of what seems to be an increasingly popular trend among young sailors. Seventeen year-old Briton, Mike Perham is currently part-way through his attempt to sail the world solo for charity. Perham is at present stuck in Tasmania, Australia, with gear problems and faces the daunting task of sailing around Cape Horn during the winter season. Still, he has come a long way when many people had raised concerns about the voyage before he departed. On his daily blog, Perham writes about the challenges of being at sea alone, \"The first few days at sea are always the worst -- the lack of sleep leaves me feeling drained all the time but I know I just need to keep pushing on, knowing that I'll soon acclimatize and that things are going to get better and better.\" Another teenager -- 16 year-old Zac Sunderland, who is from California -- is also on a mission to become the youngest sailor to achieve the feat. Sunderland has also progressed from his departure point in California, through the Panama Canal, and into the Atlantic Ocean. For Perham, Sunderland and Watson it was the high level of communications technology at the teenagers disposal as they sail that has convinced their parents to allow them to attempt their journeys. Would you allow your teenage daughter or son to sail solo around the world? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . On Sunderland's Web site his father, Laurence, said, \"Although Zac is alone as he sails, he really has so much help. There will always be people who will disagree with our decision to let Zac go on this trip. It was his idea and it is his desire to continue.\" Watson said her parents had also been supportive from the outset. For the young sailor, the next big challenge is preparing the boat for departure and securing a final sponsor to help fund the journey. She said her life is primarily geared towards the challenge this year. \"It might take a little bit longer to finish school ... this puts everything else on hold.\"","highlights":"Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson plans to sail solo around the world .\nWatson is inspired by Jesse Martin who is the youngest person to have done it .\nBriton Mike Perham, and Zac Sunderland of the U.S. are currently at sea .","id":"7965dc499b294395ee357f23456e5d1f41bf37a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Global declines in press freedom\" persisted last year, with setbacks highlighted in Israel, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world, an annual survey said Friday. Media freedom campaigners don gags during a news conference in Hong Kong in April 2008. Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization that supports democracy and freedom of the media, said in its annual press freedom survey that \"negative trends\" outweighed \"positive movements in every region, particularly in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa.\" \"This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration. Improvements in a small number of countries -- including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa -- were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments.\" Israel -- once the only country to be consistently rated free by the group in the Middle East and North Africa -- was ranked as \"partly free\" because of the Gaza conflict. The report cited \"increased travel restrictions on both Israeli and foreign reporters; official attempts to influence media coverage of the conflict within Israel; and greater self-censorship and biased reporting, particularly during the outbreak of open war in late December.\" Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are concerns about harassment of journalists and bloggers in Libya, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. The drop in violence in war-torn Iraq helped journalists move around the country, and a new law in the Kurdish region gave journalists \"unprecedented freedoms.\" Hong Kong, which is part of China, also dropped in rankings from free to partly free, a reflection of \"the growing influence of Beijing over media and free expression in the territory.\" \"Of particular concern were the appointment of 10 owners of Hong Kong media outlets to a mainland Chinese political advisory body, increased restrictions on film releases in the period surrounding the Olympics, and reports that critics of Beijing encountered growing difficulty in gaining access to Hong Kong media platforms.\" The report cited deterioration of of freedoms in Taiwan, which has been characterized as East Asia's freest media environment. That's because of \"legal pressures and attempts to control broadcast media outlets.\" Italy dropped from free to partly free because of the \"increased use of courts and libel laws to limit free speech, heightened physical and extralegal intimidation by both organized crime and far-right groups, and concerns over media ownership and influence,\" the report said. It cited fears about media magnate Silvio Berlusconi becoming prime minister again. There are concerns about \"the concentration of state-owned and private outlets under a single leader.\" In the former Soviet Union, \"legal pressure and attempts to control broadcast media outlets\" were cited in Russia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The report noted other problems in Russia, saying \"reporters suffer from a high level of personal insecurity, and impunity for past murders or physical attacks against journalists is the norm.\" Across Africa, there were \"some improvements,\" citing developments in Comoros, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Liberia. But there were continued problems in places like Zimbabwe and Eritrea. \"Senegal took a significant step backward due to a dramatic increase in both legal and extralegal action against journalists and media houses, accompanied by overtly hostile rhetoric from the president and other officials,\" the report said. The report cited strides in South Asian nations, ranking the once \"not free\" Maldives to \"partly free.\" It mentioned a \"new constitution protecting freedom of expression, the opening of additional private radio and television stations, the release of a prominent journalist from life imprisonment, and a general loosening of restrictions after the country's first democratic presidential election in October.\" It said Bangladesh and Pakistan reversed declines in freedom of the media. But there were setbacks in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, two countries racked by warfare. In some countries in the Americas, such as Mexico, Bolivia and Ecuador, \"attacks and official rhetoric against the media escalated.\" Venezuela and Cuba were ranked as not free, and there were \"high levels of intimidation and self-censorship\" in Colombia and Guatemala. Positive developments were noted in Guyana, Haiti and Uruguay. The worst-rated countries in the world are Myanmar, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea and Turkmenistan. \"Given the current economic climate, which is certain to place a further strain on media sustainability and diversity in rich and poor countries alike, pressures on media freedom are now looming from all angles and are increasingly threatening the considerable gains of the past quarter-century,\" the report said.","highlights":"Annual survey says \"negative trends\" outweighed \"positive movements\" in 2008 .\nReport singles out former Soviet Union, Middle East, North Africa .\nBright spots seen in parts of South Asia, Africa .\nWorst-rated countries: Myanmar, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Turkmenistan .","id":"7cdfc91b9aba23587809bd16ff19f25c7db70689"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police are examining grainy hotel surveillance video and following up on new leads, including a reported sighting, in the case of a 17-year-old girl who traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for spring break last week and then disappeared. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mother says she thought her daughter was at a beach in New York, not South Carolina. The possible sighting of Brittanee Drexel was on a bus Wednesday morning in the Myrtle Beach area, according to police, who later showed photos of her to passengers. As investigators try to build a timeline of the events leading to Brittanee's disappearance Saturday night, they are also scrutinizing hotel security video for signs of a young woman in distress, or other clues. Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel, told HLN's Nancy Grace that she had forbidden the Rochester, New York, high school junior from going to Myrtle Beach, a popular destination for high school and college students on spring break. Although they stayed in touch by phone and spoke on Saturday, Drexel said she believed the girl was in Rochester when she actually was in Myrtle Beach. \"I didn't have any idea that she was going to do this,\" Drexel said. \"I do trust my daughter, and she needed to cool down a little bit because she was upset that I wasn't going to let her go.\" Drexel said her daughter rode there in a car with several friends. She thinks Brittanee used money she had earned and borrowed to finance her trip.","highlights":"Police show girl's photo to bus passengers after reported sighting .\nBrittanee Drexel, 17, went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., without mother's permission .\nRochester, N.Y., high school junior last seen on Saturday night .","id":"43b28078de06e85520a8d14fac5d1e2c743c0d59"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The swine flu virus that has sparked fear and precautions worldwide appears to be no more dangerous than the regular flu virus that makes its rounds each year, U.S. officials said Monday. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said swine flu is no more danerous than the regular flu virus. \"What the epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain of U.N. is that the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu -- how sick you get -- is not stronger than regular seasonal flu,\" Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday as the worldwide number of confirmed cases of swine flu -- technically known as 2009 H1N1 virus -- topped 1,080. The flu has been blamed for 26 deaths: 25 in Mexico and one in the United States, according to the World Health Organization. Still, Napolitano noted, the seasonal flu results in \"hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations\" and roughly 35,000 fatalities each year in the United States. There are still concerns that the virus could return in the fall, in the typical flu season, as a stronger strain. \"We are cautiously optimistic that this particular strain will not be more severe than a normal seasonal flu outbreak,\" Napolitano said. Watch Napolitano assess the swine flu risk \u00bb . Napolitano acknowledged claims by health officials in Mexico, the epicenter of the H1N1 outbreak, who believe their cases have peaked and said, \"I have no reason to think that is inaccurate.\" The WHO said there were no immediate plans to raise its alert to the highest level, Phase 6. That designation would mean \"that we are seeing continued spread of the virus to countries outside of one region,\" Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda said. \"If you are seeing community outbreaks occur in multiple regions of the world, it really tells us if the virus has established itself and that we can expect to see disease in most countries in the world.\" In the United States, the CDC on Monday reported confirmed 279 cases across 36 states -- 60 more than were confirmed the day before. Several states, including New York and Massachusetts, confirmed dozens more cases Monday that were not immediately added to the CDC tally. See where the H1N1 virus has spread across the world \u00bb . Earlier, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the CDC \"erroneously\" doubled the cases in his state. Jindal confirmed his state's total is seven, and the CDC dropped its nationwide count from 286 to 279. Many of the cases are among children; the median age is 16, said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC. The youngest confirmed case is a 3-month-old, he said. There are also more than 700 probable cases across 44 states, Besser said. \"This likely represents an underestimation of the total number of cases across the country,\" he said, because not everyone with flu-like symptoms goes to the doctor and gets tested. The numbers are expected to increase. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for public health, said Sunday, \"We believe we're just on the upswing here.\" But in Mexico, where the first cases were reported, illnesses may have peaked for now. Mexico City will reopen government offices and restaurants Wednesday, and museums, libraries and churches Thursday as officials cited improvements in the battle against swine flu. Officials said university and secondary students can return to class Thursday while younger students will wait until May 11. In another sign of improving conditions with the H1N1 virus, federal officials lowered the nation's health alert level Monday from red, or \"high,\" to orange, or \"elevated.\" \"The measures we have taken, and above all the public's reaction, have led to an improvement,\" Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said at a news conference. \"But I insist that the virus is still present, that we need to remain on alert, and the resumption of activities will be little by little, not all at once.\" The Mexican and Chinese government sent chartered flights to each other's countries Tuesday to pick up their respective nationals stranded or quarantined because of the global swine flu outbreak. An Aeromexico flight was making several stops throughout China to collect nearly 70 citizens who were being held in quarantine across the communist nation as part of its strict swine flu-control measures. The flight will make stops in Beijing, Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou. Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy official said four Americans are or were quarantined in China: two in Beijing; two in the southern Guangdong province. The official could not say whether the two in Guangdong had been released, nor did she provide additional details. In the U.S., residents gripped by concerns about the swine flu, also had a hopeful sign Monday. The St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, New York -- which had the first confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu -- reopened Monday. More than 100 St. Francis students had come down with flu symptoms two weeks ago. Some were tested and found to have the H1N1 virus. Learn more about the H1N1 influenza virus \u00bb . New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand to welcome them back to a school that had undergone an intense scrub-down. \"The school has been completely sanitized,\" St. Francis Principal Leonard Conway said in a letter to students and their parents. The U.S. Department of Education said that 533 schools were shut Monday, about 100 more than Friday and about half of 1 percent of all schools in the United States. The closures affect about 330,000 students in 24 states. New cases of swine flu were leaving soldiers isolated in California. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Marine Base at Twentynine Palms, north of Palm Springs, California, said two new cases of the flu were confirmed by the CDC. The two Marines show no symptoms but are being kept in isolation, spokeswoman Jennie Haskamp said. Previously, one other case was confirmed at the base. The U.S. Defense Department also reported that a crew member stationed aboard the USS Dubuque in San Diego, California, was confirmed to have swine flu and is currently ashore. The department said there were 13 other \"probable\" cases among Dubuque personnel. And California officials were looking into a suspected case at Centinela State Prison in Imperial County. Authorities suspended visitation and other \"non-essential activities\" at the prison pending confirmation. Even as health officials worldwide worked to battle the outbreak, intense efforts were under way to develop a vaccine -- with lessons from history in mind. \"In 1918, the Spanish flu showed a surge in the spring and then disappeared in the summer months, only to return in the autumn of 1918 with a vengeance,\" WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said Sunday. \"And we know that that eventually killed 40 million to 50 million people.\" Health officials are not making such dire predictions in this case. And they can't know for certain whether the swine flu will make a big return later in the year. Still, they're taking no chances. In that effort, health officials have a tool unlike anything they've had before. \"This is the best surveillance we've ever had,\" Fukuda said Monday. \"You know, we're really monitoring and able to see a situation unfold in a way we have never been able to do in history before.\" In Hong Kong, about 200 hotel guests and 100 staff members at the Metropark Hotel remain under quarantine until Friday after health officials determined that a guest there had contracted the H1N1 virus. Watch how a British citizen has been quarantined in Hong Kong \u00bb . \"We go down to the lobby for food and then back to the room to eat your food,\" said Leslie Carr, a British man who is one of the 300 stuck at the hotel. \"Not many people are downstairs hanging around to talk or discuss anything.\" Hong Kong, in particular, is extra careful after a SARS outbreak in 2003 killed almost 300 people. \"In view of the lack of data ... we have to be very cautious,\" said Yuen Kwok-Yung of Hong Kong University. \"I believe that as time goes by, we can change our strategy.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul in Mexico City, John Vause in Beijing, Diana Magnay in Geneva and Pauline Choo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.","highlights":"Janet Napolitano: Epidemiologists note severity of swine flu same as regular flu .\nMexico City will reopen government offices and restaurants Wednesday .\nWHO has no plans to raise alert level to 6 .\nCenters for Disease Control: 286 confirmed cases across 36 states in U.S.","id":"a0dbd0e34f9bdec7924f96e66e32f1d6970e3876"} -{"article":"DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Army convoys are combing areas around the Bangladeshi border guard headquarters, vowing to punish participants in this week's bloody mutiny, which killed nearly 100 army officers and civilians, according to The New Nation newspaper. Bangladeshi firefighters continued to uncover bodies Friday of Bangladesh Rifles officers from a mass grave. More than 160 army officers were inside the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) when the mutiny broke out on Wednesday morning, local reports said. So far, 88 bodies have been recovered from mass graves in the outskirts of Dhaka, the newspaper reported. At least 22 bodies have also been recovered from the Buriganga River after the rebelling troops dumped them down a sewer during the standoff, authorities said. The 88 found dead were among those 169 officers, the newspaper reported. Another 27 emerged from their captivity in the headquarters of the BDR, a 65,000-strong paramilitary outfit primarily responsible for guarding the country's borders. About 200 BDR soldiers have been arrested. The mutiny began Wednesday when BDR members took dozens of their superiors hostage. It was the second day of BDR Week, when army officers and troop members from various BDR outposts along the border were in the capital for celebrations. The New Nation reported that the mutinous border guards surrendered their weapons on Thursday after the government declared an amnesty. The rebellion was spurred by years of discontent among the ranks of the BDR troops. Recruits complained their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and opportunities to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Bangladesh and its South Asian neighbors contribute the most troops to U.N. operations and the pay is far greater than the meager salary the jawans -- as the BDR troops are called -- make.","highlights":"Bangladeshi army vows to punish participants in this week's bloody mutiny .\nSo far, 88 bodies reportedly recovered from mass graves in outskirts of Dhaka .\nAt least 22 bodies found in river after rebelling troops dumped them down sewer .\nMore than 160 were inside Bangladesh Rifles headquarters when mutiny erupted .","id":"175aa7025ce6aadd052e6bf1d2b9ae9724d9ac31"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. government panel listed 13 countries Friday as \"egregious\" violators of religious freedom. Homeless Pakistani Christians protest last month in Islamabad for protection of Christian minorities. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's annual report named Myanmar, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. It recommended that the Obama administration designate them as \"countries of particular concern\" or CPC. The group has issued a watch list that includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Venezuela, countries that don't rise to the level of a CPC but need to be monitored. \"Unfolding events in Pakistan make clear the relevance of this theme to the 2009 Annual Report. At the time of writing, emboldened Taliban-associated extremists had advanced to within 60 miles of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad,\" the report said. \"In the areas they already control, these groups are imposing draconian restrictions on human rights and religious freedom and engaging in brutal acts against individuals, particularly women and local police, who refused to accede to their repressive policies.\" The federal commission is bipartisan, and its commissioners are appointed by the president and members of Congress. A CPC designation gives Secretary of State Hillary Clinton \"a range of specific policy options to address serious violations of religious freedom.\" It requires the secretary \"to enter into direct consultations with a government to find ways to bring about improvements in the respect for religious freedom.\" The report covers the period May 2008 through April. The commission was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. \"While sanctions are a possible policy option, the secretary may decide to develop a binding agreement with the CPC government on specific actions that it will take to end the violations that gave rise to the designation or take a commensurate action,\" the commission said. \"The secretary may determine that pre-existing sanctions are adequate or waive the requirement of taking action in furtherance of the Act.\"","highlights":"U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom names 13 nations .\nPanel recommends administration designate 13 as \"countries of particular concern\"\nDesignation gives secretary of state policy options to address serious violations .","id":"cb043f6206fa9b7a706ed73f2e709cfcdbbdb5bc"} -{"article":"CLARENCE CENTER, New York (CNN) -- Recovering all the bodies from Thursday's deadly passenger plane crash may take four days as investigators work through freezing temperatures and piles of wreckage, a federal transportation official said Saturday. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. \"The medical examiner believes that three to four days are going to be required to recover the victims of this crash, and they're in the process of doing that,\" Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said. \"They've already pulled some of the folks out of there, but they've got a long way to go.\" All 49 passengers aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407 died when the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprop crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York, on Thursday night. A 61-year-old man in the house died also, but his wife and daughter survived. Fifteen bodies have been recovered, and efforts to identify the victims and conduct autopsies are under way, Erie County Health Commission Anthony Billittier said Saturday evening. A federal disaster mortuary team was called to assist local forensic officials. Despite reports from local authorities who said the plane hurtled toward the house from a sharp nosedive, Chealander said the current orientation of the plane indicates that it fell flat on its belly. The Continental flight from Newark, New Jersey, operated by Colgan Air, crashed about 10:17 p.m. Thursday northeast of Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Follow the plane's path \u00bb . Chealander said the recovery effort and the investigation have been hampered by freezing temperatures as authorities try to sift through the wreckage of the flight and the home it struck. Some parts of the plane have fallen as deep as the basement, he said. \"Keep in mind, there's an airplane that fell on top of a house,\" he told reporters. \"The house and the airplane are together.\" Authorities said it would probably take weeks to identify remains of the victims, with DNA testing required in many cases because of the intensity of the crash and subsequent fire. A 2-square-mile area around the crash site, about 6 miles from the Buffalo airport where the plane was headed, remained sealed off Saturday as investigators sought to determine the cause of the crash. But the extent of the restricted area belied the concentrated force of the impact into the one house. Watch what investigators are saying \u00bb . Karen Wielinski was watching television inside the house when she heard a plane making an unusually loud noise. \"I thought to myself, 'If that's a plane, it's going to hit something,' \" she told Buffalo radio station WBEN. \"And next thing I knew, the ceiling was on me,\" she said. Wielinski and her daughter Jill, 22, were in the front of the home, and they escaped the house with minor injuries. Wielinski's husband, Doug, who was in the dining room, was killed. On Friday, federal investigators released information from the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders, indicating that icing may have been a major factor in the crash. The plane's pilot and co-pilot discussed \"significant ice buildup\" on the plane's windshield and wings as it descended toward the Buffalo airport. The plane underwent \"severe\" pitching and rolling motions after the landing gear was lowered and wing flaps were set for the approach, Chealander said. There was a mix of sleet and snow in the area, but other planes landed safely at the airport about the time the flight went down. Chealander said the flight crew reported that visibility was about 3 miles and there was snow and mist as they descended. The voice and data recorders indicated that the plane's internal de-icing was on during the landing approach, he said. \"A significant ice buildup is an aerodynamic impediment,\" he added. Find out why \u00bb . Keith Burtis was driving about a mile from the crash site when he heard the impact. \"It was a high-pitched sound,\" Burtis said. \"It felt like a mini-earthquake.\" A ball of fire filled the night sky as the jet fuel erupted, Burtis said, and he saw a steady stream of fire trucks rush past as smoke billowed. At least nine volunteer fire departments responded. Watch iReporters' close-up accounts \u00bb . Among the passengers killed was Beverly Eckert, widow of a September 11 attack victim. Also aboard was Alison Des Forges, senior Africa adviser for Human Rights Watch, one of her colleagues said. Des Forges spent four years in Rwanda documenting the 1994 genocide and had testified about the atrocity and the situation in central Africa to Congress and the United Nations, according to the organization. Read more about the victims . Also on the flight was Susan Wehle, a cantor at Temple Beth Am in Williamsville, outside Buffalo, a synagogue official said. Colgan Air identified the crew as Capt. Marvin Renslow, the pilot; First Officer Rebecca Shaw, who was co-pilot; and flight attendants Matilda Quintero and Donna Prisco. In addition, an off-duty crew member, Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, was onboard. \"This is easily the saddest day in the history of our airline,\" said Philip Trenary, the company's CEO.","highlights":"NEW: 15 bodies recovered; identification could take weeks .\nNEW: Cold weather, extent of wreckage could prolong recovery as much as four days .\nNEW: Orientation of plane indicates that it fell flat on its belly, NTSB says .\nDe-icing equipment was turned on at time of crash, investigator says .","id":"9ca90d1ebb7364937702c7123757df55fcbc83f9"} -{"article":"JIANGYOU, China (CNN) -- A Chinese police officer is being hailed as a hero after taking it upon herself to breast-feed several infants who were separated from their mothers or orphaned by China's devastating earthquake. Police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, was feeding nine babies at one point. Officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, the mother of a 6-month-old boy, responded to the call of duty and the instincts of motherhood when the magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12. \"I am breast-feeding, so I can feed babies. I didn't think of it much,\" she said. \"It is a mother's reaction and a basic duty as a police officer to help.\" The death toll in the earthquake jumped Thursday to more than 51,000, and more than 29,000 are missing, according to government figures. Thousands of children have been orphaned; many others have mothers who simply can't feed them. At one point, Jiang was feeding nine babies. \"Some of the moms were injured; their fathers were dead ... five of them were orphans. They've gone away to an orphanage now,\" she said. Watch the officer care for babies \u00bb . She still feeds two babies, including Zhao Lyuyang, son of a woman who survived the quake but whose breast milk stopped flowing because of the traumatic conditions. \"We walked out of the mountains for a long time. I hadn't eaten in days when I got here, and my milk was not enough,\" said that mother, Zhao Zong Jun. \"She saved my baby. I thank her so much. I can't express how I feel.\" Liu Rong, another mother whose breast milk stopped in the trauma, was awed by Jiang's kindness. \"I am so touched because she has her own baby, but she fed the disaster babies first,\" Liu said. \"If she hadn't fed my son, he wouldn't have had enough to eat.\" Jiang has became a celebrity, followed by local media and proclaimed on a newspaper front page as \"China's Mother No. 1.\" She's embarrassed by the fuss. \"I think what I did was normal,\" she said. \"In a quake zone, many people do things for others. This was a small thing, not worth mentioning.\" See the quake zone \u00bb . There has been a huge outpouring of support from families who want to adopt babies orphaned by the quake. But that process takes time, and there are mouths to feed. Jiang misses her own son, who's being cared for through the emergency by in-laws in another town, but she is aware of the new connections she's made. \"I feel about these kids I fed just like my own. I have a special feeling for them. They are babies in a disaster.\"","highlights":"New mother feeds babies separated from parents by disaster .\nShe's proclaimed as hero, but says it's \"not worth mentioning\"\nNewspaper headline hails her as \"China's Mother No. 1\"","id":"9b864132a70faf72a8899eee03e8a4ef4e4fa4d0"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A pregnant British woman facing possible execution in Laos will go on trial this week, the country's foreign affairs ministry said Monday. Samantha Orobator became pregnant in prison, according to a spokeswoman for rights group Reprieve. Samantha Orobator \"is facing death by firing squad for drug trafficking,\" said Clare Algar, executive director of Reprieve, a London-based human rights group. Orobator, 20, was arrested on August 5, said Khenthong Nuanthasing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman. She was alleged to have been carrying just over half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of heroin, Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris told CNN by phone from Vientiane, the Laotian capital. \"For that amount of heroin the sentence is normally the death penalty,\" she said. Orobator's mother Jane found out in January her daughter was pregnant -- more than four months after she was arrested, her mother said. Jane Orobator heard the news from the British Foreign Office, which has been monitoring the case, the mother told CNN by phone from Dublin, where she lives. She cannot believe her daughter was involved in drug trafficking, and was surprised to learn she was in Laos, she said. \"I don't know\" what she was doing there, she said. \"The last time she spoke with me, she said she was on holiday in London and she would come to see us in Dublin before returning to the U.K. in July. \"She is not the type of person who would be involved in drugs,\" she added. Reprieve is worried about her health, especially given her pregnancy, Anna Morris said. \"She became pregnant in prison. We are concerned that it may not have been consensual and we are concerned that someone who finds herself in prison at 20 is subject to exploitation,\" she said. She is due to give birth in September, the lawyer added. Reprieve sent Morris from London to Laos to try to help Orobator, Algar said. The lawyer arrived there on Sunday and is hoping to visit Orobator on Tuesday, her boss at Reprieve said. A British consul has also arrived in the country. \"Reprieve heard about her case two weeks ago. We had thought yesterday the trial was going to start today,\" Algar said Monday. \"We have now heard from Anna that it is not going to.\" \"I am the first British lawyer who has asked for access to her,\" Morris said. \"She needs to have a local lawyer appointed to her. We are pressing very hard for the local authorities to appoint one.\" She said it was normal in the Laotian justice system for a defendant to get a lawyer only days before a trial. The last execution in Laos was in 1990, the foreign affairs spokesman said. British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell issued a statement about Orobator on Saturday. \"The British Government is opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances. We have made the Laos authorities aware of this at the highest levels in Samantha's case,\" he said. \"We are paying close attention to her welfare and are in regular contact with the Laotian authorities about her case. British Embassy officials, including the Ambassador, have visited her six times since her arrest,\" he said. \"In addition, Britain's consular representatives in Laos, the Australian Embassy, including the Australian Embassy doctor, have visited Samantha 10 times on our behalf,\" he said. There is no British Embassy in Laos. A British vice-consul arrived in the country this weekend, the Foreign Office said Monday. Rammell plans to raise the Orobator case with the Laotian deputy prime minister this week, he said. Samantha Orobator was born in Nigeria and moved to London with her family when she was 8, her mother said. CNN's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Samantha Orobator facing death by firing squad for drug trafficking .\nOfficial: Orabator was arrested on August 5 .\nShe became pregnant while in prison, rights group spokeswoman says .\nThe last execution in Laos was in 1990 .","id":"b307d01e422309942533d633b2289ab59e740ac7"} -{"article":"STUART, Florida (CNN) -- The most expensive item on Florida's list of economic stimulus projects is drawing fire from some residents and at least one public official, all questioning whether it's needed at all. Some residents say it's wasteful to spend money on a new bridge when there's one less than three miles away. The proposed $128 million Indian Street Bridge across the St. Lucie River has been debated in Martin County, Florida, for more than 20 years. But now that it has been cleared to receive money from the federal government's nearly $800 billion economic stimulus effort, the debate may be over. Critics say the span, which will connect the communities of Palm City and Stuart, is wasteful because there is already a bridge that connects the two communities less than three miles away. \"The president should know that this is a boondoggle, and he is getting swindled,\" said Odias Smith, who has been fighting the bridge for decades and is suing the state Department of Transportation to try to stop it. Mike Mortell, chairman of the Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization, said the existing Palm City bridge \"is in fine shape,\" but a bigger bridge is needed. \"It just simply doesn't have the capacity to move more cars over it,\" Mortell told CNN. \"It is at capacity. Every day, as many cars that can go over it during the rush hour times go over it.\" Supporters say the new bridge will ease traffic congestion, aid hurricane evacuations and create about 3,500 jobs. \"Those of us in favor of the bridge can't believe that we became so fortuitous that in a time of a recession when jobs are down that we actually found the money and have the opportunity to build this bridge that we've been planning now for literally over 20 years and now it's a reality,\" Mortell said. Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard, one of the few county officials who oppose the bridge, said traffic does back up at the existing bridge. But she said the congestion can be resolved without spending money on a new bridge. \"There are some impediments at either end of the bridge,\" Heard said. \"There are stoplights there that are timed so that travelers get stuck at the lights. They don't get stuck on the bridge.\" And Smith said he uses the Palm City Bridge regularly and never has a problem with traffic. \"My house faces that bridge. You can see the cars go over it. I go over at 50, 55, all the time,\" he said. Another source of contention between Martin County residents is whether the proposed project is \"shovel-ready\" -- a major test for stimulus projects, which are aimed at getting people back to work quickly. But Heard said the state has yet to buy all the property it needs for the right-of-way leading to the bridge, and that challenges from the current owners of those parcels could delay construction. \"I'm flabbergasted, to tell you the truth, because my understanding of the stimulus money was it was supposed to be for shovel-ready projects that could be completed in three years. This is not shovel-ready,\" she said. \"We haven't acquired the land necessary for right of way. We don't have plans for it.\" The Florida DOT says it has purchased 33 of the 63 pieces of property it will need to complete the bridge, and it expects to have all of them acquired by February 2011. But Smith said some people might refuse to sell. \"There's people there who want to stay. It's either their dream house and they're going to retire there or they're of modest means and they know they can afford it, but if they go someplace else, they can't afford it,\" he said. One homeowner whose land will be affected by the project, who did not want to be identified, said she had hoped her home \"would be a final investment for me.\" \"I think about starting over when I hadn't planned on it,\" she said. If homeowners refuse to sell, the parcels may go into eminent domain disputes that can take years to resolve. But Mortell said the state can acquire the remaining properties quickly using a fast-track settlement, purchasing the properties at their appraised value and negotiating with the homeowner about a buyout price at a later date. Heard \"probably misinterpreted what shovel-ready means,\" Mortell said. He said the bridge has already been designed and all federally required studies have been completed, so work on some parts of the project can begin right away. \"Shovel-ready means that the project can move forward within 120 days, and that was a primary criteria in the stimulus plan,\" he said. Florida lawmakers approved the project for stimulus funding in April. Once the check arrives, construction will begin. But Heard said local communities should have had more of a say in the decision. \"I don't think that's fair,\" Heard said. \"I think we could actually have gotten federal stimulus dollars for projects that we all support and are necessary here.\"","highlights":"Proposed $128 million Indian Street Bridge has been debated for 20 years .\nCritics say it's wasteful because another bridge connects same two communities .\nSuing resident: \"The president should know ... he is getting swindled\"\nOthers say spending shouldn't be used because project isn't shovel-ready .","id":"6b6c210b7c15dfbe4addfeb95552b44d8a876021"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Maryland woman involved with a group described as a religious cult pleaded guilty in the starvation death of her son, but insisted that the charges be dropped when he is resurrected. Under terms of her plea agreement, Ria Ramkissoon's charges will be dropped if her son rises from the dead. The condition was made a part of Ria Ramkissoon's plea agreement, officials said. She entered the plea Monday in Baltimore, Maryland, to a first-degree felony count of child abuse resulting in death, her attorney, Steven Silverman, said Tuesday. Ramkissoon, a member of a group called One Mind Ministries, believes Javon Thompson, her year-old son, will rise again, and as part of her plea agreement, authorities agreed to the clause. \"She certainly recognizes that her omissions caused the death of her son,\" Silverman said. \"To this day, she believes it was God's will and he will be resurrected and this will all take care of itself. She realizes if she's wrong, then everyone has to take responsibility ... and if she's wrong, then she's a failure as a mother and the worst thing imaginable has happened. I don't think that, mentally, she's ready to accept that.\" Under the plea agreement, Ramkissoon, 22, must testify against four other One Mind Ministries members who are also facing charges, including first-degree murder, in Javon's death. At her sentencing, set for August, she will receive a 20-year sentence, which will be suspended except for the time she has already served behind bars, Silverman said. She must also undergo deprogramming and psychiatric counseling. In court Monday, it was clarified that the \"resurrection clause\" would apply only in the case of Javon's actual resurrection -- not a perceived reincarnation, Silverman said. \"This has never come up in the history of American law, as far as I've seen,\" Silverman said, adding that the clause was \"very important to her.\" \"On one level, she certainly is competent to stand trial, because she does recognize that as far as her legal entanglements are concerned, this is a grand-slam resolution for her,\" Silverman said. \"On the other hand, she's still brainwashed, she's still delusional as far as the teachings and influence of this cult, and she certainly is going to benefit with professional help and deprogramming.\" Ramkissoon and the others are accused of denying Javon food after the group's leader, a 40-year-old woman who goes by the name Queen Antoinette, decreed the boy was a demon since he refused to say \"amen\" after meals, Silverman said. \"Ria would cling to him every day and try to get him to say 'amen,' \" Silverman said. Eventually, Queen Antoinette ordered that Ramkissoon be separated from the child, he said. Javon is believed to have died in December 2006, court documents allege. Following his death, the group members put the boy's body in a back room, and \"everyone was directed to come in and pray,\" according to the documents. \"The Queen told everyone that 'God was going to raise Javon from the dead.' Javon remained in the room for an extended period of time (in excess of one week). The resurrection never took place.\" Authorities believe the boy's body was then placed into a wheeled suitcase along with mothballs and fabric-softener sheets, documents said. Prosecutors allege Antoinette opened the suitcase periodically and sprayed its interior with Lysol to mask the decomposition odor. The group then moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and befriended a man who agreed to take care of their luggage before they left, documents said. The body was found in April 2008, still inside the suitcase, in the man's storage shed. All five One Mind Ministries members were set to stand trial Monday. The case against the others has been postponed, Silverman said, as Antoinette and another woman lack attorneys and must either obtain one or waive their right to counsel. Silverman added that Antoinette has suggested, though not said outright, that God is representing her. Court documents say Ramkissoon joined One Mind Ministries after Javon's birth in 2005. Silverman described her as a petite, soft-spoken woman who rejected her family's Hindu religion, became a devout Christian and wanted to raise her son in that religion. \"She didn't want to have to work or go to school. She just wanted to take care of her son, and they offered her all this,\" he said. The group insisted she wear a uniform the colors of royalty: white, tan and blue; give up her cell phone; stop referring to her family members by name; and not leave her home on her own, among other things, he said. \"They really isolated her, brainwashed her, and you see what happened.\" Ramkissoon's mother, Seeta Khadan Newton, notified various agencies that her grandson was missing after she traveled to New York City in February 2008 to find her daughter, court documents said. Newton told authorities that when she spoke to Ramkissoon and asked about Javon, her daughter replied, \"He's gone. He's lost,\" but gave no further information. Silverman said he realized right away after consulting with Ramkissoon that he needed to communicate her story to the public and to prosecutors. \"Once you get to understanding the story, understanding what Ria went through, and her intentions ... it becomes quite clear that Ria, although many may not think her hands are clean, a reasonable, rational person would have some sympathy.\"","highlights":"Javon Thompson is believed to have died in December 2006 .\nOne Mind Ministries members prayed for his resurrection .\nWhen he didn't rise, his body was put in a suitcase with mothballs .\nUnder terms of plea deal, charges will be dropped if he rises from dead .","id":"2839ae9e495c49f6d28dce2755b9d37185ab9834"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Violence flared in southern Afghanistan, with a NATO-led service member killed Saturday and 20 suspected insurgents slain in Helmand province Friday, authorities said. U.S. Marines fire a 120mm mortar on a suspected Taliban position Friday in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The violence comes as NATO members meet in Europe to discuss the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said the service member died after being wounded by a roadside bomb. It did not specify the province where it happened or the victim's nationality. \"On behalf of ISAF, I offer our condolences to the loved ones of this brave service member,\" said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, ISAF spokesman. \"We cannot lessen their pain, but we can, and do commit ourselves to honoring this sacrifice as we strive to bring security to the Afghan people.\" The U.S. military said the 20 suspected insurgents were killed in clashes with Afghan soldiers and coalition forces on Friday in the Kajaki district of Helmand province. \"The combined forces were conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol in a known Taliban stronghold in order to deny insurgents' freedom of movement when they were ambushed by numerous armed insurgents with mortar and small-arms fire,\" the military said. The fighting in Helmand's Kajaki district happened during operations targeting suspected Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, suspected of bomb-making, weapons smuggling, drug activity and attacks on Afghan and coalition soldiers, the U.S. military said in a statement.","highlights":"Twenty insurgents died Friday in clashes with Afghan soldiers, coalition forces .\nNATO-led service member killed Saturday in Helmand province, south Afghanistan .\nAfghan, coalition soldiers in region targeting bombmakers, weapons smugglers .\nClashes come as NATO members discuss operations against Taliban, al Qaeda .","id":"f50cd86aae2348af0601b5bc89934212cab9766e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Automaker Peugeot has fired its chief executive, replacing Christian Streiff with Philippe Varin, currently the CEO at Corus, an Anglo-Dutch steelmaker. Peugeot is Europe's second biggest carmaker . \"Given the extraordinary difficulties currently faced by the automotive industry, the Supervisory Board decided unanimously that a change in the senior leadership position was necessary,\" said Thierry Peugeot, chairman of the PSA Peugeot Citroen supervisory board Sunday. \"I am confident that under the leadership of Philippe Varin, the Group will be able, with all the teams, to unlock its potential.\" Varin will officially take over Peugeot's top post on June 1, but will begin \"familiarizing himself\" with operations starting next month. Roland Vardanega, a member of the managing board, will act as interim chairman until Varin assumes his new job. Peugeot, Europe's second biggest automaker, posted a loss of \u20ac343 million, or $456 million, in 2008 and also expects to lose money in 2009.","highlights":"Christian Streiff replaced with Philippe Varin, currently CEO at Corus .\nPeugeot posted a loss of \u20ac343 million, or $456 million, in 2008 .\nPeugeot board: \"Change in the senior leadership position was necessary\"","id":"d6dbd2e15dd08398bd3cd915f6e8f7f1b0ba32c7"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- He is the international superstar responsible for breathing life into the iconic comic book hero Wolverine. Her movies have earned more than $2 billion worldwide, including the entire \"X-Men\" franchise. Hugh Jackman emerges as Wolverine in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine,\" which opened Friday. Actor Hugh Jackman and film producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently sat down for a candid conversation about their new film, \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" Specifically, the pair talked about the scene in which Jackman's character is transformed from a simple mutant with bony claws that periodically protrude from the back of his hands to an invincible mutant filled with an indestructible metal called adamantium. This scene represents the ultimate birth of a comic legend as the character is transformed from Logan to Wolverine. Watch the scene in which Wolverine is unleashed \u00bb . Hugh Jackman: I knew this was the birth of the character; this is where we see him in full flight. It's called in the comic book \"berserker rage.\" It's not really in the English language, but it may be now! But, this idea that this complete animal [has been] unleashed, which is obviously the entire story -- this battle between the animal and human is something we all relate to. Lauren Shuler Donner: There were many things he had to do in the tank, you know. One of them was he had to be lowered, and then the needles had to come towards him. Now, most of those were CGI, so he had to look in certain places where the needles were. But, he couldn't hear [director] Gavin [Hood]. So they ... tried all kinds of sounds, speakers, everything. ... They finally devised this toe method where, if Gavin pulled on Hugh's big toe, it meant the things are coming, the second toe is this, the last toe is rise up, very sophisticated. (laughter) Jackman: I had in my head that I've got to be in much better shape -- not better shape, different shape, kind of ridiculous shape because I wanted it to be uncomfortable. I wanted it to feel like I felt when I saw Robert De Niro in \"Cape Fear,\" that -- whoa, this guy is dangerous, he's powerful, he's dangerous, and he can snap at any point. Donner: There's an iconic drawing of Wolverine coming out of the tank in the comics with the things popping out of him and his hair all over him in a rage, and we wanted to be that image. That's the image we wanted for the fans. Jackman: I was a little frightened when I watched it, like, \"Is that me?\" [My wife] Deb was like, \"Hugh, this is ridiculous. I don't even know who that is.\"","highlights":"Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\"\nTo create the character, Jackman wanted to be in \"ridiculous shape\"\nHow to contact Jackman underwater? Director used a \"toe method\"","id":"75474ebca7f3413b4e814794d6ffc13663120bae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manny Pacquiao has told CNN even he was surprised at how quickly his fight against Great Britain's Ricky Hatton came to an end. Manny Pacquiao throws a left hand on his way to a devastating victory over Ricky Hatton. Pacquiao, often considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, cemented his reputation Saturday night when he knocked out Hatton in the second round. \"That was two of the most exciting rounds I have seen in my career,\" said Chris Mannix, a writer for Sports Illustrated. \"You saw, from the opening bell, Pacquiao was really dominant.\" In an interview with CNN's Kristie LuStout after the fight, Pacquiao acknowledged the fight ended sooner than he expected. Watch Pacquiao talk about his post-fight plans \u00bb . With the win at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pacquiao added the light-welterweight crown to his past world titles: lightweight, super-featherweight, light-featherweight, featherweight and flyweight. The Filipino's career record now stands at 49-3-2 with 37 knockouts. The fight, for which Pacquiao reportedly earned $12 million, was brief. Pacquiao knocked Hatton down in the first round from a series of lightning-fast right hooks. The British boxer managed to get to his feet and finish the round, but the outcome was evident once the second round began. Hatton, the International Boxing Organization's light-welterweight champion, tried the classic brawling style that has fueled his career. But Pacquiao's technique and speed quickly outclassed Hatton. The Filipino's right hooks set up a devastating left hook that flattened Hatton with a second remaining in the second round. The referee quickly ended the match. \"It turned out he (Hatton) just wasn't very good at boxing,\" Mannix said. \"You saw the difference between a great fighter and very good fighter.\" The 30-year-old Pacquiao is a national hero in the Philippines, where his bouts bring the country to a standstill. He came into the fight on Saturday as a narrow favorite after sending one of the biggest names in the sport, Oscar de la Hoya, into retirement with a stoppage victory in December. Nicknamed \"Pacman,\" he grew up poor in General Santos City in the southern Philippines. He found boxing as a way to lift himself to fame and riches, yet he remains self-deprecating outside of the ring. It is this combination of a fierce fighter in the ring and a smiling deferential one outside that has helped turn him into an idol. Outside a bar in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong, China, a woman who would only identify herself as Amy and her friends erupted in joy. The second-biggest ethnic group behind Chinese are Filipinos . Amy and her friends -- all from the Philippines and working here in this world financial center -- were part of the crowd that had just witnessed the match live. \"This is great, this is wonderful,\" Amy screamed. CNN's Kevin Drew contributed to this report .","highlights":"Manny Pacquiao knocks out Ricky Hatton in second round at the MGM Grand .\nVictory cements Pacquiao's reputation as best pound-for-pound boxer in world .\nThe Filipino adds the light-welterweight title to his collection of championships .","id":"7773bdc6bcdca92ecfab25e4128dbf88c3fae557"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Have you ever heard of someone having their car \"totaled\"? While the word might conjure images of a massive car accident, replete with broken glass and the Jaws of Life, the reality is sometimes far removed. Ford's repair and safety engineers first began collaborating on the 2009 F-150 pick-up truck. In fact, there are many accidents that produce structural damage such that the vehicle's frame is bent, even though the exterior of the car might even look drivable. Typically these cars are \"totaled,\" which might give buyers the peace of mind knowing they will get a replacement vehicle. But, overall this produces much higher insurance rates for all drivers. Car companies and insurers are working hard to try and reduce the cost of auto repairs and insurance premiums for consumers and some of the development is breathtaking in its innovation . This effort has already led to many new developments in the design of various auto parts and components -- which have indeed led to a reduction in repair costs for various auto parts, components and structures. And more advances are on the way: some carmakers have recently ramped up their operations in this area, which should result in greater cost savings in coming years. One recent development in this area is the Ford Motor Company's new $650,000 Paint and Body Technology Center in Inkster, Michigan, about 20 minutes from the company's Dearborn world headquarters. The new center was created by merging operations with the company's Safety Crash Test Analysis department. Other car companies have their own versions of this kind of operation, including Ford's crosstown rivals, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. The new Ford center represents an advancement over its previous paint and body tech operation in that it's larger, closer to the company's HQ, and now works more closely with design engineers and auto insurers -- and gets insurers involved earlier in the design process. AOL Autos: Cut your insurance in half . The goal is to identify potential repair issues and then use that info to refine designs -- which in turn helps cut the cost of repairs at dealerships and independent repair shops. Plus, this effort allows repair techs to more effectively restore the vehicles to their pre-accident condition. To that end, engineers gather data earlier in the vehicle development process so it can be then analyzed during crash and durability testing. AOL Autos: How to choose a repair shop . For Ford, the closer integration of these functions began when the carmaker's repair and safety engineers first began collaborating on the 2009 F-150 pick-up truck. During the vehicle's early development period, these engineers realized that new materials -- including ultra-high-strength steel and boron -- helped make the new truck safer, but also could make it more expensive to repair after a collision. AOL Autos: Minor damages, major repair costs . \"The extensive use of advanced technologies and materials in the 2009 F-150 required us to develop new, specific procedures and repair recommendations,\" said Gerry Bonanni, Ford's collision repair senior engineer. So, Ford engineers designed and developed new front and rear-frame-section kits -- which means one single section of the frame can now be repaired \/ replaced after a crash, instead of having to replace the entire frame. \"Partial-frame repairs cost at least $2,000 less than full-frame replacements,\" says Bonanni -- and will prevent some vehicles from being \"totaled,\" which would have previously been the case under repair laws in some states. The success of the collaboration on the F-150 prompted the decision to open the new paint and body tech center. A more recent example was the work done on the 2010 Mustang. \"Previously, we had no real procedure for sectioning off the rear-frame rails,\" says Bonanni. \"But, by collaborating with repair technicians and the insurance companies, we developed a procedure, which we then documented for the repair techs in our dealers. \"That allows them to repair just a short section of the rear-frame rails, instead of replacing the entire frame-rail system -- which also translates into lower repair costs, and lower insurance rates, for the owner.\" General Motors' Collision Repair Test Center has had also had recent success on this front, says Jim Doherty, GM's manager of the service-engineering team for aftersales body structures. \"We coordinate with the product engineers, so as soon as a new vehicle starts development, about four years before it's introduced, we engage with their team,\" says Doherty. \"Some of our people work on the structure, and some on the exterior, and we collaborate with the design engineers to work out whatever improvements might need to be made over the previous version of a component or assembly.\" AOL Autos: Best & worst auto designs . As with Ford, \"the goal is to make sure that the vehicle has the most cost-effective repair strategy,\" adds Dave Bakos, GM's director of global after-sales mechanical engineering. \"Our liaisons with people in the insurance industries are definitely useful -- they call us if they have concerns, and when we develop a new technology, we contact them to make sure they understand it.\" The development of lighter-weight steel for auto frames also presents challenges to GM's center. \"They're very high-strength, but their repairability is more difficult when compared with the old cold-rolled steels -- so, that has forced us to come up with new welding, sectioning and attachment strategies as the vehicle is being designed and developed,\" says Doherty. AOL Autos: Take the guesswork out of buying a used car . Doherty and Bakos cite a couple of examples of how the Collision Repair Test Center -- and the collaboration between design and repair engineers and insurance companies -- have been parlayed into cost savings for car owners. Prior to the current model year, the cost of repairing the frame-rail assembly on a Pontiac Solstice included $936 for the part itself, plus 13 \u00bd hours worth of labor costs to install, says Doherty. But by working with design engineers and insurers, the Collision Repair Test Center was able to develop and create a \"service-only\" partial assembly. That means that, on the '09 Solstice, a collision technician can replace the damaged section of the front rail only, rather than the entire front rail section. The parts for the partial assembly cost far less and require just three and a half hours of labor to install,\" says Doherty. \"Because of these changes, the total cost savings for this repair could be as high as $1,500.\" The current Saturn Aura presented a challenge \/ opportunity along the same lines. For the '09 Aura, GM engineers at the Collision Repair Test Center created \"zone-specific\" replacement parts. \"Rather than replacing the entire body-side assembly as a single piece, engineers developed sectioning procedures for the front, center and rear quarter sections of the vehicle,\" explains Doherty. \"This allows the technician multiple repair options when repairing the side of a damaged vehicle. Even though the cost of parts remained similar, labor cost savings created were substantial, ranging from about $600 to as high as $1,200.\" One current focus for these operations at Ford, GM and other carmakers relates to side-impact crashes. \"We don't want every vehicle to have to end up in the salvage yard just because a side pillar is damaged,\" says Bakos. \"So we're working on some combination of welding or welding and adhesives, or maybe mechanical fasteners, in order make those sections more repairable, so that the vehicle isn't totaled.\" New challenges continue to present themselves, says Ford's Bonanni. \"New technologies are developing pretty rapidly,\" he says. \"And each time a new one comes along, it's our job to develop new ways of repairing the various structures, components and parts that incorporate those new technologies -- and do it in a way that maintains the vehicle's after-crash structural integrity, and keeps costs down for the vehicle owner.\"","highlights":"Companies and insurers sections cars to be crash (and repair) friendly .\nMany new developments exist in the design of auto parts and components .\nNew materials -- including ultra-high-strength steel -- help make vehicles safer .\nNew challenges continue to present themselves, says Ford expert .","id":"1cd8e2f10e9257f81af250fe9d226896957cc625"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Carolina State University women's basketball coach Kay Yow, who won more than 700 games in nearly four decades of coaching, died Saturday after a long struggle with breast cancer, the university said. North Carolina State University's Kay Yow, in 1996, was one of only six coaches to amass 700 wins. She was 66. Yow, who was in her 38th season as a coach, had amassed numerous awards, including inductions into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In her 34 years on the sidelines for the Wolfpack, her teams won four Atlantic Coast Conference titles, averaged 20 wins a season, appeared in 20 of 27 NCAA tournaments and reached the Final Four in 1998. She was one of only six coaches in the women's game to win at least 700 games, the university said. She also coached the 1988 women's Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in Seoul, South Korea. Yow was beloved by her players, colleagues and fans, and in 2007, N.C. State christened the court in Raleigh's Reynolds Coliseum in her name. Since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, Yow had been active in efforts to raise awareness and money to battle the disease, which forced her to miss two games during the 2004-05 season and another 16 in the 2006-07 season, the university said. She helped establish the Kay Yow\/WBCA Cancer Fund, which raised money for the cause. About three weeks ago, Yow announced that she was stepping away from coaching duties for the remainder of the 2008-09 season, after missing four straight games because of an extremely low energy level. \"Stepping away from coaching is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make,\" Yow said January 6, according to N.C. State. \"Even though I don't feel well enough to coach, I'm hopeful to feel well enough to attend some ACC games and show my support for the team as well as N.C. State University,\" she added. Yow was born in 1942 in Gibsonville, North Carolina, about 16 miles outside Greensboro. She began coaching at local high schools in 1964 before Elon University hired her. N.C. State hired her in 1975. \"It has been an honor and a privilege to work with Coach Yow for the last 15 seasons. I suddenly find myself grasping to retain everything she has ever said and ever taught me,\" interim head coach Stephanie Glance said, according to the university. The team's game against Wake Forest University, which was scheduled for Monday, has been postponed until February 10 in Winston-Salem, the university said.","highlights":"Women's basketball coach dies at 66 after struggle with breast cancer .\nYow's North Carolina State teams won 4 ACC titles, reached Final Four .\nYow coached the 1988 women's Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in Seoul .\nYow helped establish the Kay Yow\/WBCA Cancer Fund .","id":"c32df40cd5c879d65224dbfe93871243881bbc1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Yorkers feasted on the stories when the news broke in 2006: Brooke Astor, a socialite and megaphilanthropist with Alzheimer's, had allegedly been swindled of millions and mistreated by her own son. Brooke Astor and grandson Philip Marshall outside her New York country estate, Holly Hill, in 2001 or 2002. Anthony \"Tony\" Marshall, her only child, was indicted on criminal charges including grand larceny, possession of stolen property, forgery and conspiracy. Jury selection for the criminal trial was scheduled to begin Monday. But co-defendant Francis Morrissey's attorney filed an 11th-hour motion to sever his client's trial from Marshall's. The motion was denied late Friday, and a new trial date has been set for March 2. Morrissey, Marshall's former lawyer, faces charges including forgery and scheming to defraud. A lawyer representing Marshall, Fred Hafetz, would say only that there would be \"no plea\" and that he hopes his client will \"be vindicated.\" Watch author Meryl Gordon discuss the case \u00bb . The trial is likely to resuscitate the tabloid feeding frenzy, which has fostered headlines such as \"Bad heir day,\" \"Mrs. Astor's disaster\" and \"DA's kick in the Astor.\" It's not the way those closest to Astor want to remember her. And the disclosures expected to spill forth from the witness stand aren't the type that Astor, who died in August 2007 at 105, would want shared in public. \"She would have been mortified,\" said Vartan Gregorian, a longtime friend and president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. \"She was very private.\" Through her late husband's Vincent Astor Foundation, Astor was credited with giving New York, where the Astors made their fortune, about $200 million. And although she felt it was expected of her to be proper and elegant, Gregorian said, her wealth didn't define her. Talk of money, real estate and other people's misfortunes were off-limits at her dinner parties, he said. \"She was not ostentatious. ... She was very funny, very witty and very caring.\" When a would-be robber accosted her, she foiled the holdup attempt with this response: \" 'Excuse me. My name is Mrs. Astor. I don't think we've been properly introduced,' \" Gregorian remembered with a laugh. For 23 years, Linda Gillies directed the Astor Foundation and witnessed her hands-on approach to doing good -- not just for her \"crown jewels,\" which included the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library, but also for lower-profile programs. Astor was often quoted as saying, \"Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around.\" But for her, again, it wasn't just about the money. Betty Cooper Wallerstein, a community organizer who benefited from Astor's help in saving 2,500 low-income apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side, described Astor as being equally comfortable mingling with tenants as she was in high society. She remembered attending Astor's 90th birthday party and being struck by the diversity of the crowd waiting to get inside. Around her were elected officials, the social elite, big names such as Henry Kissinger as well as Astor's staff members and activists such as herself. \"She was as lovely to me as she was to the dignitaries who were there,\" Wallerstein said. \"It was such a beautiful and democratic line.\" Many close friends and staff members would not speak to CNN, as they will be testifying in the trial or will be involved in a later suit to contest Astor's will, which her son is said to have changed. But those who did speak were quick to share memories they'll always hold dear. The tears came quickly when Carmine Fasciani, 73, remembered Astor. The one-time police detective sergeant, whom Astor always called Sergeant, said he handled security and later served as the full-time head of staff at Holly Hill, Astor's New York country estate. He was employed by her for three decades, up until he had a stroke eight years ago. But his status as employee hardly described their relationship. \"She was my friend. She was a good lady,\" he said, his voice cracking and his words slightly slurred because of the stroke. \"She said, 'I love you' ... and I loved her.\" He built the gazebo where Astor watched sunsets and brought her the pink roses she loved. She took him to see a house that she knew he'd fall for and helped secure a good price. When Astor lost part of a finger breaking up a dog fight, she called on Fasciani to fly in to be by her side. And two years after his stroke, he sought Astor's approval, which she gave with a wink and a nod, before marrying his wife, Marilyn, who helped speak for Fasciani by phone from Florida. But working for Astor had its distractions, said Alicia Johnson, who was head of staff at her Maine estate, Cove End, for about 12 years. \"We had the Irish maid fighting with the French maid, the English butler fighting with the cook from Jamaica,\" Johnson said, laughing at the memories. \"Mrs. Astor was a peach. The problem was everyone else.\" In Johnson's Maine closet, there are still items Astor insisted she take, including a dress Astor \"hauled out\" for her to wear when she announced that she was getting married in 2000. \"It was a size two, and I was a size 12,\" she said. Employees stayed with Astor for years, until her son reportedly fired most all of them. But the loyalty of Steve Hamor and his two sons stands out. Hamor, 65, was her groundskeeper in Maine for 42 years. Hamor's son Scott, who with his brother also would grow up to work on the grounds, spent his childhood running around the estate as if it was his own playground. As a teen, he remembered \"Mrs. A\" beckoning him from mowing a lawn to say hello and introduce him to Barbara Walters. Astor wanted to send him and his brother to university. They refused. But when Scott found himself in his mid-20s, going through a divorce and with custody of two boys, he accepted her assistance -- and insistence -- in helping him settle into a new apartment. \"She was always wanting to know how you were doing and what she could do for you,\" said Scott, 42, who now works on Maine property owned by David Rockefeller. Concern that not enough was being done for her is what drove Philip Marshall, defendant Tony Marshall's son, to file a petition for guardianship for his grandmother in 2006, alleging, in the words of his lawyer, \"elder abuse\" by his father. The intention was nothing more than to ensure that she was cared for, removing control by his father and transferring care to Astor's dear friend Annette de la Renta. Though he wouldn't discuss the details that prompted his actions -- \"I won't survive this conversation if I do,\" he said -- the successful petition mentioned her sleeping in torn nightgowns on a urine-stained couch and eating bland leftovers. \"To the rest of the world, she was Brooke Astor. To us, she was our grandmother,\" said Marshall, 55, who grew up in Vermont with his twin brother, Alec, and was not \"of the New York world.\" The practicing Tibetan Buddhist, who is a professor of historic preservation at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, never anticipated the findings that led to his father's indictment and said he merely wanted to \"provide my grandmother with the care, comfort and dignity she deserved.\"","highlights":"Criminal trial of late socialite Brooke Astor's son begins soon .\nTony Marshall is accused of swindling millions while mom had Alzheimer's .\nFormer staff members, friends and grandson remember who she was to them .\nAstor, New York legend whose foundation gave $200 million to city, died at 105 .","id":"9186d65b482faadda065d0e401516702ff800c43"} -{"article":"LONDON (CNN) -- Iran offered to stop attacking coalition troops in Iraq nearly four years ago in an attempt to get the West to accept Tehran's nuclear program, a British diplomat told the BBC in an interview aired Saturday. John Sawers, British ambassador to the U.N., told BBC of Iran approaching Western nations with offer. \"The Iranians wanted to be able to strike a deal whereby they stopped killing our forces in Iraq in return for them being allowed to carry on with their nuclear program -- 'We stop killing you in Iraq, stop undermining the political process there, you allow us to carry on with our nuclear program without let or hindrance,\" said John Sawers, now the British ambassador to the United Nations, in the documentary, \"Iran and the West: Nuclear Confrontation.\" The United States and other Western nations believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but Iran says it is developing nuclear capability to produce energy. Iran also has been accused of sponsoring terrorists and supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents. The latter prompted a warning from the United States that such behavior by Tehran \"would be regarded by us as enemy action,\" Philip Zelikow, a State Department counselor, told the BBC. Then, Iran began shopping its offer around Europe, Sawers said. Sawers, Britain's political director at the time, reveals the behind-the-scene talks from 2005 -- when roadside bombing against British and American soldiers in Iraq peaked -- were held with British, French and German diplomats at hotels in London, Paris and Berlin. \"And then we'd compare notes among the three of us,\" Sawers told the BBC. The British government dismissed the offer and Iran's nuclear enrichment program restarted once again, the BBC reports . Iran has denied offering any such deal and reiterated its position Saturday. \"Iran's high officials have repeatedly stated that Iran has not had any part in attacks against American and British forces, and there is no evidence to support these baseless accusations,\" Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency. Interviews with top brass from former President Bush's administration and British envoys indicate that Iran and the West had neared agreements several times in the past few years, but never reached success. Nick Burns, who was in charge of the Bush administration's State Department policy with Iran, said taking a tough approach with Iran didn't seem effective. \"We had advocated regime change,\" Burns told the BBC. \"We had a very threatening posture towards Iran for a number of years. It didn't produce any movement whatsoever.\" The documentary aired a day after the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released a report stating that Iranian scientists have reached \"nuclear weapons breakout capability.\" The report analyzed the finding of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, an IAEA official who asked not to be named cautioned against drawing such dramatic conclusions from the data, saying Iran's stock of low-enriched uranium would have to be turned into highly enriched uranium (HEU) in order to be weapons-grade material. That hasn't been done, the official said. Meanwhile, Iran's relationship with the West continues to be strained, though both sides have indicated interest in holding direct talks. President Obama, in his first prime-time news conference held earlier this month, said the United States is looking for opportunities for \"face-to-face\" talks with Iran after an absence of diplomatic ties for nearly three decades. \"There's been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it's not going to happen overnight,\" he said. And Iran's powerful parliament speaker and former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has called the Obama administration \"an exceptional opportunity for Americans.\"","highlights":"Iran approached diplomats with offer nearly four years ago, BBC told .\nDiplomat: Iran offered to stand down in Iraq if West would accept its nuke program .\nIran denies involvement in fighting in Iraq, says allegations are \"baseless\"\nDespite strained relations, Obama administration has hinted at direct talks .","id":"45f0a79c5f6213d8b8fb7ba700478834f51b811d"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani security forces say they have killed at least 16 militants overnight in the country's volatile tribal region. Pakistani security personnel patrol the Buner district. This appears to be separate from the hostilities in the military's week-long crackdown in northwestern Pakistan against a Taliban militant advance in the country's North West Frontier Province. However, this reflects the tensions in the region and could signal a spread of fighting resulting from the crackdown. The Pakistani offensive started in the province on Sunday and it came after Taliban militants moved into Buner district last week, a move that alarmed U.S. and Pakistani officials. In this latest incident, about 100 militants attacked a Frontier Corps checkpost in the Mohmand Agency, an area where militants hold great sway. Troops returned fire and killed the 16 militants, the military said. Mohmand is in the country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas that borders a volatile region in war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. The military on Saturday released details about other incidents in the province that occurred over the last 24 hours. Troops conducted a successful operation against militants in the district, in the Ambela-Daggar area in the Buner district. They secured a key road and cleared roadside bombs, the military said. In the province's Upper Dir district, militants abducted and then released 10 troops and seized their weaponry and ammunition. And two civilians were wounded when militants lobbed hand grenades. In the province's Swat district, militants attacked a security forces checkpost on Khawazakhela Bridge and Sambat Ridge. In Langer, security forces and militants exchanged fire and forces found military uniforms that militants were using for terrorist activity. Three Afghan nationals were among five militants arrested while planting a roadside bomb. Earlier this year, Pakistan entered into an agreement with militants, allowing them to enforce Islamic, or sharia, in parts of Swat Valley in exchange for ceasing violence. The Swat Valley is a broader area that includes several provincial districts, including Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Malakand, Upper Dir, and Lower Dir. But Pakistani officials say the armed militants' advance into Buner district violated the agreement and briefly halted peace talks between both sides in North West Frontier Province. Representatives from Pakistan's government and the Taliban restarted their negotiations on Friday and were planning to have another session soon, a provincial spokesman said. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, which have rankled relations between the two countries.","highlights":"Pakistani security forces kill at least 16 militants in country's tribal region .\nPakistani army has been waging a week-long crackdown on Taliban .\n100 militants attacked a checkpost and Pakistani troops returned fire .","id":"f6971288675e2d600d741b8290f09d0dcdb96ead"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barcelona produced a dazzling display of attacking football to rout arch-rivals Real Madrid 6-2 in the Bernabeu and all but secure the Primera Liga title. Messi celebrates his second and Barcelona's fifth in the 6-2 rout at the Bernabeu. Two goals apiece from Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, with defenders Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique also on target, signaled a humiliating defeat for Real who went into 'El Clasico' with renewed hope of retaining the Spanish title. But a mixture of inspired play and comical defending undermined Juande Ramos' men who had taken the lead as Gonzalo Higuain headed home after 14 minutes. Henry quickly equalized with a clinical finish after Messi's through ball beat the offside trap before an unmarked Puyol headed Barcelona ahead in the 20th minute from a Xavi free-kick. Messi then waltzed through the Real defense after Xavi had cleverly won the ball to put his side 3-1 ahead before the half-time. Sergio Ramos gave Madrid hope in the 56th minute as he headed home an Arjen Robben free-kick, but any hopes of a comeback were quickly dashed. Henry raced onto a through ball from the brilliant Xavi for the fourth before Messi made it five with an impudent finish to fox Iker Casillas in the Real goal for his 23rd goal in the league this season. The final humiliation saw Samuel Eto'o charge down the right to cross for Pique who twisted cleverly to beat Casillas for the sixth and his first-ever La Liga goal. It was Barcelona's 100th league goal of the season which has brought them 27 wins from 34 matches. Real fans headed rapidly for the exits as they tried to come to terms with the most goals ever scored by Barcelona in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Their side trail by seven points with only four games remaining with a super-confident Barcelona now heading to the second leg of their Champions League semifinal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The first leg was goalless. Meanwhile, Sevilla took a giant stride towards the Champions League with a 2-0 win at rivals Villarreal in Saturday's late match. Luis Fabiano and Freddy Kanoute were on target as third-placed Sevilla moved four points clear of Valencia and five of Villarreal. In other matches, Numancia gave themselves a chance of staying up with a 2-0 win over Malaga to move off bottom spot, three points from safety.","highlights":"Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry score two goals each in 6-2 Bernabeu victory .\nSuccess leaves Barcelona seven points clear at the top of the Spanish league .\nSevilla consolidate third position after a 2-0 win at rivals Villarreal on Saturday .","id":"5fef64784cbb059b15a5ea1110a7fa13452e4610"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A head-banging parrot who became a YouTube sensation has demonstrated that an ability to appreciate music and keep a rhythm is not unique to humans, scientists say. Alex, an African grey parrot, was one of 14 birds which displayed an ability to keep time with a tune. Snowball the cockatoo, who appears to bop his head, tap his claws and squawk enthusiastically to the Back Street Boys' \"Everybody\" is one of several birds apparently capable of dancing to a beat, according to two studies published in the latest edition of the journal Current Biology. In a study lead by Adena Schachner of Harvard University, researchers examined more than 1,000 YouTube videos of dancing animals and found 14 types of parrot species and one elephant genuinely capable of keeping time. The video of Snowball has been viewed more than two million times since it was posted in 2007. Another video of Snowball shows him dancing to Queen's \"Another One Bites the Dust.\" Watch Snowball the dancing parrot \u00bb . Schachner analyzed the videos frame-by-frame, comparing the animals' movements with the speed of the music and the alignment of individual beats. The group also studied another bird, Alex, an African grey parrot, which had exhibited similar abilities to Snowball, nodding its head appreciatively to a series of drum tracks. \"Our analyses showed that these birds' movements were more lined up with the musical beat than we'd expect by chance,\" says Schachner. \"We found strong evidence that they were synchronizing with the beat, something that has not been seen before in other species.\" Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, who led another study of Snowball's performance, said that the bird had demonstrated an ability to adjust the tempo of his dancing to stay synchronized to the beat. Scientists had previously thought that \"moving to a musical beat might be a uniquely human ability because animals are not commonly seen moving rhythmically in the wild,\" Patel said. Schachner said there was no evidence to suggest that animals such as apes, dogs or cats could recognize music, despite their extensive experience of humans. That leads researchers to believe that an ability to process musical sounds may be linked to an ability to mimic sounds -- something that each of the parrots studied by researchers was able to do excellently, she said. Other \"vocal-learning species\" include dolphins, elephants, seals and walruses. \"A natural question about these results is whether they generalize to other parrots, or more broadly, to other vocal-learning species,\" Schachner said. Researchers believe a possible link between vocal mimicry and an ability to hear music may explain the development of music in human societies. \"The question of why music is found in every known human culture is a longstanding puzzle. Many argue that it is an adaptive behaviour that helped our species to evolve. But equally plausible is the possibility that it emerged as a by-product of other abilities -- such as vocal learning,\" music psychologist Lauren Stewart of Goldsmiths, University of London told CNN. \"Parrots and humans both have the ability to imitate sounds that they hear, unlike our closer simian relatives. Once a species has the neural machinery in place for coupling the perception and production of vocal sounds, it may be only a small step to use the same circuits for synchronizing movements to a beat.\"","highlights":"Scientists: Dancing parrots prove ability to recognize music not unique to humans .\nYouTube hit Snowball the cockatoo dances to Back Street Boys, Queen .\nAbility to keep time apparently linked to vocal mimicry, scientists believe .\nOther animals capable of mimicry include dolphins, elephants, seals, walruses .","id":"63316028b7dc9c7995a9aafa2ff440f170576f32"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani armed forces have killed 80 militants since launching an assault on a region recently held by the Taliban, the military announced Sunday. Displaced people from Buner district flee the fighting. Three soldiers have been killed and eight wounded in the crackdown in the Buner district in the northwest of the country, the military statement said. The Pakistani offensive started in the province last Sunday, after Taliban militants moved into Buner, a move that alarmed U.S. and Pakistani officials. Pakistani security forces also killed at least 16 militants late Friday and early Saturday in the Mohmand district, in the country's volatile tribal region, the country's military said on Saturday. The incident appears to be separate from the hostilities in Buner. However, it reflects the tensions in the region and could signal a spread of fighting resulting from the crackdown. In the incident, about 100 militants attacked a Frontier Corps post in the Mohmand Agency, or district, an area where militants hold great sway. Troops returned fire and killed the 16 militants, the military said. Mohmand is in the country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas that border a volatile region in war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. Earlier this year, Pakistan had entered into an agreement with militants, allowing them to enforce Islamic law, or sharia, in parts of Swat Valley in exchange for ceasing violence. The Swat Valley is a broader area that includes several provincial districts, including Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Malakand, Upper Dir, and Lower Dir. But Pakistani officials say the armed militants' advance into Buner district violated the agreement and briefly halted peace talks between the two sides in North West Frontier Province. Representatives from Pakistan's government and the Taliban restarted their negotiations on Friday and were planning to have another session soon, a provincial spokesman said. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, which have rankled relations between the two countries.","highlights":"Pakistani security forces kill at least 80 militants in country's tribal region .\nPakistani army has been waging a week-long crackdown on Taliban .\nThree soldiers killed, eight wounded in crackdown in northwest of country .","id":"600e2b091cf467ab57e7bdba2aeff89dbcf815c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the highly anticipated movie \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\" opened Friday in theaters, many fans had already seen it. The pirating and distribution of \"Wolverine,\" starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI. The online leak of a pirated, unfinished version of the 20th Century Fox film a month ago sent federal authorities springing into action and stoked a heated conversation within the entertainment industry about digital piracy. Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of \"Wolverine\" is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line. It's rare for high-quality copies of a big-budget blockbuster to appear on the Internet more than a month before the film's release, experts say. Within a week of \"Wolverine's\" March 31 leak, more than a million people had downloaded the movie, according to TorrentFreak, a blog devoted to the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. Watch intrepid reporter look for answers \u00bb . \"Unfortunately, the recent leak of the Fox film 'Wolverine' provided a stark backdrop to the impact that digital piracy has on the large investments that producers make in creating state-of-the-art films,\" said Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who oversaw a congressional hearing on piracy after the leak. \"During our hearing in Los Angeles, director Steven Soderbergh said that in 2007, the entertainment industry generated a trade surplus of $13.6 billion,\" Berman added. \"Imagine what those numbers would be if we could rein in piracy.\" Bootleg, or illegally copied, movies have long been a thorn to the film industry. In 2003, a version of Universal's \"The Hulk\" appeared on the Internet two weeks before the film opened. A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to the theft. And in 2005, a pirated print of \"Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith\" was uploaded to the Web within hours of the movie's release. But where Hollywood's biggest headache used to be murky, muffled copies of films taken by someone who snuck a camcorder into a theater, today's pirates are getting more sophisticated and gaining access to better-quality goods. Greg Sandoval, who covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News, said that in the digital age, thieves can gain access to near-perfect advance copies of films on DVD that have greater potential to undermine a movie's box-office prospects. And even studios' attempts at safeguarding their products against piracy, such as by encoding DVDs with digital watermarks that allow authorities to trace individual copies, aren't enough, Sandoval said. He said tech-savvy thieves have figured out how to strip such watermarks from DVDs. \"When you're talking about digital content ... it's impossible to lock it down completely\" from theft, Sandoval said. \"These hackers are very creative. Sometimes, they're one step ahead of the security experts.\" 20th Century Fox issued a statement vowing to prosecute the \"Wolverine\" thief \"to the fullest extent of the law.\" The FBI is investigating, but as of Thursday, no arrests had been made. Darcy Antonellis, president of technical operations for Warner Bros. (which is owned by the parent company of CNN), said the growth of technology has aided the pirates. \"Digital piracy has continued to increase with greater access to [files] and improved broadband services,\" said Antonellis, who helps oversee Warner Bros.' anti-piracy efforts. \"As broadband services increase their capacity to support legitimate services, they also enable increased illegal file-sharing. Technologies have evolved to encumber such distribution but must compete with the strength of viral or super distribution of content.\" The bad guys aren't the only ones keeping up with the technology. Keith Bolcar, special agent in charge of the FBI's cyber division in Los Angeles, said agents and their partners as \"doing everything we can to keep up with the learning curve of technology, hopefully just as fast as our criminal subjects.\" The FBI meets routinely with studio representatives to share intelligence, to discuss strategy and to detect and fix vulnerabilities in security measures, he said. \"While I can't discuss investigative techniques, we employ a myriad of sophisticated methods to solve these crimes,\" said Bolcar, whose office is investigating the \"Wolverine\" leak. \"Our investigators receive extensive training and are technologically savvy.\" Hollywood also faces the challenge of protecting digital files that pass through so many hands while in production and post-production. Antonellis said Warner Bros. works diligently to safeguard its properties. \"Each project, for us, is unique, with its own unique set of challenges,\" she said. \"Whether there are 50 or 500 people involved in the process, we try to focus on ownership\/responsibility of our assets throughout the entire production through to distribution process.\" John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America, said digital piracy can take many forms, including peer-to-peer file sharing and streaming. Malcolm said the association is conducting a lot of outreach to universities and Internet service providers to help them address piracy that occurs over their systems. The issue is global, Malcolm said, as evidenced by pending litigation in France that would shut down Internet accounts of illegal downloaders. The association is in litigation against an Australian service provider, iiNet, to try to establish the legal parameters of its responsibility in policing its system, Malcolm said. \"In some cases, we are making great progress with ISP, and in some cases, it's a little bit tougher going,\" Malcolm said. \"After all, it's their broadband that's being eaten up, and it slows down their systems.\" Berman, D-California, said advances in technologies that enable filtering and other anti-theft tools will help curb piracy. So will creating more sites where viewers can legitimately access movies, shows and music, such as Hulu and the recently announced Vevo, a partnership between Universal Music and YouTube. \"Given how pirated materials often damage computers with viruses, spyware and other problems, consumers will continue to embrace the innovative, legitimate sites that are becoming more and more available,\" Berman said. Malcolm agrees. He said there are more than 350 sites that legitimately distribute digital content. If a person is a true movie lover, they will want to respect the art, the artists and the countless people behind the scenes who make the magic happen, Malcolm said. \"I hear periodically, 'Well, Tom Cruise has enough money' or 'Tom Hanks has enough money,' \" Malcolm said. \"I would say to movie lovers, stick around and watch all of the credits. When you see hundreds of names scrolling across the screen, those are the people whose talents contributed to making that movie, and they need to make a living.\" CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pirated version of \"Wolverine\" distributed online weeks before movie's debut .\nIndustry employs technology like digital watermarks to hinder thieves .\nPending French legislation would shut down Internet accounts of downloaders .\nMPAA exec says fans should consider the livelihood of those who make films .","id":"5afb10035dbf99fcada8a372adc4093219e16b52"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A snowstorm that could last up to 18 hours was on its way to southern New England, and Boston, Massachusetts, could be snowed under with up to 15 inches, the National Weather Service said Sunday afternoon. A snowstorm is threatening parts of the Northeast with as much as 15 inches of snowfall. Monday's commuters in the region could face a nightmare with blowing and drifting snow, freezing temperatures, gusty winds and periods of sleet. Flight delays and cancellations were likely, the weather service said. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a snow emergency starting 10 p.m. Sunday in anticipation of the storm, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. Boston public schools will be canceled on Monday. At 2:15 a.m. Monday, light snow was starting to fall, WCVB reported. Winter storm warnings straddled Interstate 95 from Maine to the Carolinas, and they also were issued in parts of Georgia and Alabama. Delta Air Lines canceled 300 flights, most of them to or from Atlanta, because of snowy weather, spokesman Brian Kruse said Sunday. It was snowing in Atlanta, where Delta is based, and 2 to 4 inches was expected. David Spear, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, expected traffic chaos. \"People tend to get a little animated out here at the sight of snow,\" he told CNN. \"Our concern is going to be -- as we move into the evening hours and the temperature drops -- that that slush becomes ice and then we have a real situation for our morning commute tomorrow.\" He said about 200 DOT trucks were deployed to help make roads safe for motorists. In northern Connecticut, southern New Hampshire and most of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a winter storm warning was to be in effect from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Monday, the weather service said. Such a warning is issued when winter weather conditions are expected to make travel dangerous. As the storm continued its northward trek late Sunday, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina was closed at 9 p.m. for snow removal from runways, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Farther north, Richmond International Airport in Virginia was closed at 10:45 p.m. for the same reason, the FAA said. Both airports were expected to reopen before midnight. The heaviest snow, up to 15 inches, was forecast for the heavily populated I-95 corridor between Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, northeast Connecticut and north into the Merrimack Valley in northeast Massachusetts, the weather service said. As much as 3 inches per hour could fall between 10 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Monday. In Washington, Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency Sunday afternoon, meaning any street designated as \"snow emergency route\" by signs would be cleared of any parked vehicles, towed if necessary, so snow plows could work unimpeded. Watch report on the storm system \u00bb . \"It is important that our crews have access to the roads from curb-to-curb in order to plow the snow,\" said Fenty, whose city was expected to get up to 8 inches of accumulation Sunday night and early Monday with accumulations up to 10 inches by Monday night. \"This is one of the first plow events we have had this season, and we want to ensure we are able to maintain clear and safe roadways as we move into Monday morning,\" Fenty said. Forecasters said as many as 14 inches of snow could pile up in Philadelphia and New York City, starting Sunday night. Lesser amounts of snow were reported as far south as Alabama, although Charlotte, North Carolina, could see up to 8 inches. Watch snowfall in Georgia \u00bb . In Memphis, Tennessee, CNN iReporter George Brown said Sunday that forecasters had predicted \"Teflon snow,\" which wouldn't stick to the ground. But the snow that fell was much heavier, he said. iReport.com: Share photos of icy, snowy weather in your town . \"We were getting an inch or more an hour,\" he said. \"Some roads are impassable because the folks here aren't use to dealing with slick streets. Many cars are off the interstate, and hotels are packed,\" Brown said. Watch winter storm cause accidents \u00bb . Snow in Germantown, Tennessee, was more than 5 inches deep by Sunday afternoon, forecasters said. \"I talked with our maintenance director, Bill Hazlerig, who tells me he hasn't seen snow like this in West Tennessee in many years,\" Julie Oaks from the Tennessee Department of Transportation told CNN. Watch the situation in Tennessee \u00bb . Tennessee called in 260 employees in the western portion of the state alone to salt and plow roadways through the night, she said. By Sunday afternoon, about 45 cars and semi-trailers had pulled over on the shoulder of Interstate 40, Oaks said. Watch the snow come down in Memphis \u00bb . Rebecca Horsley, an iReporter from Pelham, Alabama, near Birmingham, said snow began falling there Sunday at 6 a.m., interfering with her planned birthday celebration. \"It looks like we may have to reschedule,\" she said. CNN's Sean Morris, Lee Garen and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Winter storm warnings issued from New England south to Georgia, Alabama .\nWashington declares snow emergency, could get 10 inches by Monday night .\nHeavy snow could make for nightmarish Monday commute in parts of New England .\nSnow falls in South; Georgia-based Delta Airlines cancels 300 flights .","id":"59f74a51c480a01910b43700eaa6a7e2f8e3f75e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than a week after the swine flu outbreak rattled the world, with cases of infected people popping up from Mexico to South Korea, the new virus strain has shown up in a herd of swine. Masked workers push food to a sealed-off hotel in Beijing where Mexican nationals are being quarantined. The catch, Canadian officials say, is that the animals may have caught the flu from a human. Canadian officials are quarantining pigs that tested positive for the virus -- scientifically known as 2009 H1N1 -- at an Alberta farm in what could be the first identified case of pigs infected during the recent outbreak. They said the pigs may have been infected by a Canadian farmer who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak that has sickened more than 680 people. The farmer \"may have exposed swine on the farm to an influenza virus,\" said Dr. Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. \"We have determined that the virus H1N1, found in these pigs, is the virus which is being tracked in the human population,\" he added. Learn about the virus \u00bb . Evans and other officials said it is not uncommon for flu viruses to jump from humans to animals and that it does not pose a risk for consuming pork. The number of pigs infected was not disclosed. The infected farmer had flu-like symptoms and is recovering, Evans said. Meanwhile, as the number of confirmed swine flu cases reached 787 worldwide, the World Health Organization said Sunday it had started distributing 2.4 million doses of a common anti-viral drug to 72 nations. So far, 17 countries have confirmed cases of swine flu, the WHO said. Watch latest developments as swine flu sweeps world \u00bb . Dr. Michael J. Ryan, the WHO director of its global alert and response team, said the doses of the drug Tamiflu came from a stockpile that was donated by Swiss health-care giant Roche in 2005 and 2006. Roche said it was working with the WHO to prepare for the virus. The drug should be taken within 48 hours of experiencing symptoms, according to the drug's Web site. Mexico has the most confirmed swine flu cases, with 506 infected people and 16 deaths, the WHO said. Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos reported that the country has confirmed 421 cases and 19 deaths. Several other countries, including Canada and Italy, had confirmed additional cases that had not yet been added to the WHO's total. The United States has the second-highest number of confirmed cases, with 160 sickened and one death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO. President Barack Obama spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday afternoon to discuss both countries' \"efforts to limit the spread of the 2009 H1N1 flu strain and the importance of close U.S.-Mexican cooperation,\" the White House said in a statement. Other than Mexico and the United States, the WHO confirmed cases in 14 other countries: Canada, with 70; the United Kingdom with 15; Spain with 13; Germany with six; New Zealand with four; Israel with three; France, with two; and Austria, China, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Costa Rica, each have one. See where cases have been confirmed \u00bb . Ryan said the WHO was still preparing for a pandemic. \"At this point we have to expect that phase six will be reached,\" he said, referring to the organization's highest pandemic threat level. \"We have to hope that it is not reached.\" And he noted that a pandemic describes \"the geographic spread of the disease, not its severity.\" The latest developments come as parts of Asia discovered they were not immune to the spread of the virus. Hundreds of guests and staff were under quarantine in China after health officials determined that a hotel guest had contracted the H1N1 virus. Nearly 200 hotel guests and 100 staff members were ordered to stay in Metro Park Hotel in Hong Kong for seven days to stop the spread of the H1N1 virus, a government spokesman said. The quarantine was ordered after a 25-year-old Mexican man stayed in the hotel and became sick, according to the spokesman. It is the first confirmed case of the virus in Hong Kong, local medical officials said. South Korean officials on Saturday confirmed their first case -- a 51-year-old nun who recently traveled to Mexico for volunteer work.","highlights":"Pigs in Canada may be first in recent outbreak to test positive for virus .\nOne-third of 160 sick Americans visited Mexico or had contact with visitor .\nWHO reports 787 confirmed cases of H1N1 virus in 17 countries .","id":"80030918e348618c2be5900c252b9a1b031fa558"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's government ordered the country's army chief of staff fired Sunday, touching off street protests and a split in Nepal's Maoist-dominated ruling coalition. General Rookmangud Katawal gestures after inspecting the guard of honour in New Delhi on December 12, 2007. But Gen. Rookmangud Katawal has refused to accept his dismissal, and Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav -- the constitutional commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces -- has told Katawal to remain in office, a presidential spokesman said. Nepal's Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required. The move prompted the Maoists' largest coalition partner to quit the government, the party's leader said. \"Without consensus, the ongoing peace process will not reach its logical conclusion and the drafting of the new constitution will not be possible,\" said Ishwor Pokharel, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). \"The consensus that existed so far has come to standstill.\" Supporters of both sides in the dispute took to the streets for demonstrations Sunday. Despite sporadic clashes between the two factions, there were no serious injuries reported. The Maoists laid down their arms and won power in 2008 elections after an agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency. Under the deal, more than 19,000 former insurgents were to be integrated into the country's security forces. But two weeks ago, the government asked Katawal to explain why he went to the Supreme Court to challenge the government's refusal to extend the tenure of eight brigadier generals in March. Government spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said Sunday that the government was not satisfied with Katawal's explanation and fired him -- three months before his scheduled retirement -- in a meeting that the Maoists' coalition partners boycotted. Pokharel said his party urged the Maoists not to fire Katawal without a consensus in the country's parliament. He said the Maoists, led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, ignored that advice. \"We do not like the way the Maoists' way of functioning,\" Pokharel said. The Maoists hold 238 of the 601 seats in parliament, while Pokharel's party has 109. The Maoists could continue to hold power with the support of smaller parties, but Pokharel said his party is working to form a new ruling coalition. The Cabinet named an interim army chief, but presidential spokesman Rajendra Dahal told CNN that 18 parties in Nepal's parliament asked Yadav to keep Katawal on the job. There was no immediate reaction from the government on the president's decision.","highlights":"Nepal's government orders army chief of staff fired after recruitment issue .\nMilitary refused to stop recruiting soldiers while it hasn't accepted ex-Maoist rebels .\nDismissal touches off street protests and a split in Maoist-dominated ruling coalition .\nGen. Rookmangud Katawal has refused to accept his dismissal .","id":"5ac5fb3ab6f87c9974952342919a51ac33a319ad"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- In Hong Kong, where the alert level has been raised to \"emergency\" after reporting its first case of swine flu, authorities are trying to keep the H1N1 virus from spreading through the metropolis of 7 million people through quarantine, stepped-up border measures and surveillance. Quarantined guests and hotel employees wave through the glass of the main entrance of Hong Kong's Metro Park Hotel. The quarantine has extended beyond the single confirmed case, a 25-year-old Mexican man, to include more than 340 people. They include: two taxi drivers, two fellow taxi passengers, a local friend, 36 passengers within a three-row vicinity of the patient aboard a China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and 300 guests and staff at the Metropark Hotel he checked into. All have been put on the antiviral drug, Tamiflu. Among the two cab drivers, one was suspected of taking the patient from the airport to the hotel, and another was believed to have taken him from the hotel to the hospital. Authorities are seeing another 40 to 50 guests whose names are on the hotel's guest list. Some of them left their luggage behind. \"They are gambling with their health, jeopardizing public health safety,\" said Dr. York Chow, secretary for Food and Health, appealing to the guests to come forward. In addition to the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai district, the Lady Maclehose Holiday Village is being used as an isolation center during the one-week quarantines. The government has assured that people under quarantine will have their visas automatically extended, their hotel lodging fees waived and their onward journeys prepared. The Wanchai hotel is providing guests $200 worth of free overseas telephone calls daily. The isolation order, which went into effect Friday night, is to expire Friday at 8:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET) -- the length of an incubation period for swine flu. The isolation order did not extend to the air crew or remaining passengers aboard the China Eastern flight. An airplane's air exchange rate is high compared to that in an office or hotel, explained Yuen Kwok-yung, chair of infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong. \"Risk is very low on a plane,\" he said. So far, there have been no further confirmed cases of swine flu, and no Hong Kong pigs have tested positive for the virus, Yuen said.","highlights":"More than 340 people quarantined in Hong Kong following single case of H1N1 .\nThose isolated due to remain in quarantine until Friday .\nConfined persons include 36 travelers in three-row vicinity of sick man aboard flight .","id":"6d92cde6834513d42f90fe446848a6a34b34cafe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In 2004, a bullet ripped away Connie Culp's nose, cheeks and upper jaw. Metal fragments sprayed into her skull and stripped her face away, leaving nothing except for her eyes, her chin and forehead. Culp, an Ohio mother of two, lost the mid-portion of her face after a gunshot wound in September 2004. Without her nose, she could not smell. She breathed through a tracheostomy -- a surgical opening in her neck. Without lips, she could barely speak. But Tuesday, when Culp, 46, the first recipient of a face transplant in the United States, stepped in front of the cameras at a news conference, she was whole. In a soft voice, the Ohio mother of two repeatedly thanked the medical staff and the deceased donor whose nose, upper lip, cheekbones are now hers. \"I want to focus on the donor family that allowed me to have this Christmas present,\" she told reporters gathered at the Cleveland Clinic, where her surgery took place. Watch Culp talk about the surgery \u00bb . In December, Culp underwent a 22-hour transplant surgery. Although the hospital announced the facial transplant at that time, the patient had remained anonymous until the news conference. During the surgery, tissue from a deceased donor's face was shaped and fitted into position. Multiple layers of tissue, bone, muscle and blood vessels, nerve grafts and each artery and vein were connected. Culp received a nose, lower eyelids and upper lips, as doctors filled in the missing components of her face. Culp could not yet move her facial muscles to form a smile, but she laughed. \"Well, I got me my nose.\" she quipped. Two months after the surgery, Culp was discharged from the hospital and returned home. Before the surgery, Culp could not eat solid foods. She could not taste. \"Connie can now enjoy her food,\" said Dr. Maria Siemionow, who led the transplant operation. \"She eats hamburgers and enjoys her pizzas, she's drinking coffee from the cup.\" Her new face allows her to \"blend with society.\" \"As you can see we have now a healthy person and happy person,\" Siemionow said. \"She has reduced dramatically her pain and also she's able to walk on the street without being called names.\" Since the operation, doctors say Culp's new face has developed more movement. The new facial nerves are growing slowly, about an inch a month. See before and after photos of Connie Culp \u00bb . \"While Connie can do several things now that she was unable to do in the past, as time goes on more and more of the facial nerves will grow,\" said Dr. Frank Papay, chairman of the Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. \"She will become more animated.\" For years, Culp lived \"in tremendous pain, chronic pain, over the entire time,\" said Siemionow, director of plastic face transplant surgery research and head of microsurgery training at the hospital. Culp told a local television station in a 2008 interview that she had been shot in the face from just eight feet away in an attempted murder-suicide by her husband. In 2005, Culp came to the Cleveland Clinic for treatment. After 30 surgical procedures, none had restored her basic functions. \"The last resort and the last option was to consider face transplantation,\" said Siemionow. Transplant recipients have to take immunosuppressing, anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their life. After the hospital's surgeons, ethical committee members, psychiatry and psychology specialists met with Culp, they decided \"that Connie is the right patient,\" Siemionow said. Doctors involved in Culp's treatment said the surgery was not about aesthetics, but to restore Culp's basic abilities. \"We are actually overwhelmed by how great she's doing functionally,\" Siemionow said. \"And I'm re-emphasizing that this is all about functional outcome. Someone who couldn't breathe through the nose, who couldn't eat solid foods, didn't have a palate or not able to drink from a cup. ... So if she can do all these functions that are taken for granted on a daily basis, this is amazing.\" Although there is a risk Culp's body could still reject the transplant, the doctors said they have not seen such signs. Some critics say face transplants are unnecessary, because they are risky procedures involving a lifetime of immunosuppressants, that do not save a person's life, but improve an individual's appearance. Previous face transplants performed in Europe and Asia generated controversy. A Chinese man whose face was disfigured in a bear attack died of unknown causes two years after receiving the face transplant. The fact that Culp regained some of her basic functions highlights that \"this is not cosmetic surgery in any sense of the word,\" said Dr. Eric Kodish, the professor and chairman of the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Bioethics. \"We remain convinced about the ethical justification for the face transplant in this and potentially in other cases in the future.\" Ultimately, the face transplant affords an individual's \"right to decide what kind of life they want to live.\" Many with facial disfigurements are called names, can't go out in public or wear masks to hide their face, said Siemionow. In Culp's case, it was a matter of restoring basic physical abilities. \"If you can breathe through your nose in the spring in Cleveland, isn't that amazing?\" said Siemionow. Culp will require a few more cosmetic procedures, for example to remove excess skin from her face. Culp read a statement and did not take questions. She told reporters in the news conference that she had been shot and said, \"I don't want to go into it.\" Then she asked the public to have empathy for people with facial disfigurements. \"When somebody don't look as pretty as you do, don't judge them,\" she said. \"You don't know what might happen to you. Don't judge the people who don't look the same way as you do. You never know when it may be taken away from you.\"","highlights":"An Ohio woman who suffered gunshot wound is first U.S. face transplant recipient .\nConnie Culp regained breathing and speaking ability after transplant .\nDoctors say she has shown major medical improvements .","id":"b571e16f4abb7dd460642d277f0912fe5fec76a1"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- It couldn't top its predecessors, but \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\" still brought in quite a haul, grossing an estimated $87 million for the opening weekend of the summer movie season. Hugh Jackman stars as the title character in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" The Hugh Jackman pic brought in a strong $21,225 per-theater average in 4,099 movie houses, despite generating mixed reviews. The film fell $15 million short of 2006's \"X-Men: The Last Stand\" but it is still an enormous success for Jackman and director Gavin Hood. Matthew McConaughey's \"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past\" generated an estimated $15.3 million for a second place bow. It's not a shabby opening but it is far less than McConaughey's previous romantic outings including last year's \"Fool's Gold\" ($21.6 million) or 2006's \"Failure to Launch\" ($24.2 million). (Perhaps women were too busy checking out all those hunky mutants this weekend?) The two new openers did help the industry maintain its year-over-year increase of 16 percent. Also aiding that statistic was Beyonce Knowles' \"Obsessed.\" Dropping a not-surprising 57 percent for its second weekend in theaters, the thriller earned another $12.2 million to put its ten-day gross at a shockingly strong $47 million. And Zac Efron's \"17 Again\" showed surprising stamina, too, grossing an additional $6.3 million its third weekend for a total take of $48.4 million. The other new wide release for the weekend was the anemic 3-D animated sci-fi film \"Battle for Terra.\" Opening on 1162 theaters, the Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood-voiced feature proved to be little competition for the other 3-D movie in the marketplace. Dreamworks Animation's juggernaut \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" grossed another $5.8 million its sixth weekend for the fifth slot in the rankings, while newcomer \"Terra\" couldn't muster more than $1 million for a twelfth place in the box office derby. Summer has officially begun -- at least in Hollywood -- so expect a giant event film every weekend. Wolverine may have bowed mightily but with \"Star Trek\" hot on its heels next weekend, the Marvel superhero is going to need more than adamantium to maintain its box office lead. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Wolverine\" takes the top slot at the box office, earning an estimated $87 million .\n\"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past\" took in an estimated $15.3 million for second place .\nDreamworks Animation's \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" grossed another $5.8 million .\nCheck out the rest of the top 10 movies at the box office this weekend .","id":"e3f95cc1d5aa9d7c8c6dfa191c5e78cea273325c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fiat Group, fresh from an agreement to buy a piece of troubled automaker Chrysler, has plans to purchase GM Europe and spin off the recombined carmakers into a new company. Fiat's update of the Cinquecento. The company says its small car expertise can help GM Europe get back on track. If successful, the new company would become one of the largest car manufacturers in the world behind Toyota. The combined company would generate about $100 billion annually with sales of between 6 and 7 million cars a year. \"Clearly they're trying to take advantage of the opportunity when a lot of stakeholders may be willing to accommodate them,\" said John Bonnell, an auto industry analyst with JD Power and Associates. \"It may be their only opportunity to get to the kind of scale necessary to succeed in this market.\" In an interview with the Financial Times, Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of Fiat, detailed a plan to separate Fiat Auto core car divisions and join with Opel\/Vauxhall, Saab and GM's other European operations. Last week, Fiat agreed to take an initial 20 percent of Chrysler as the U.S. manufacturer filed for bankruptcy protection. \"It's an incredibly simple solution to a very thorny problem,\" Marchionne told the Financial Times. Marchionne hopes to have the deal finished by the end of this month, and list shares for the new company -- which may be called Fiat\/Opel -- by the end of August. Fiat has only recently gotten itself back on track. In his five years at the helm of Fiat, Marchionne has helped turn around the troubled Italian automaker. Analysts say its small-car technology can help Chrysler, known for its minivans. In the past five years, Fiat has been able to regain market share in Europe with its economy fuel-saving cars as well as its luxury line, Alfa Romeo. Marchionne is scheduled to meet with German government officials Monday to discuss the plan. Opel is GM Europe's German unit. To secure the deal, Fiat is hoping to secure loans from the German government, raising concerns in Germany about helping to fund the Chrysler deal. The company plans to keep its plants operating in Germany, but will reduce workforce, which is likely to raise political concerns.","highlights":"Fiat hopes to purchase GM Europe .\nThe move comes a week after Fiat agreed to buy a stake in Chrysler .\nFiat plans would create one of the world's largest car companies .\nThe new company, Fiat\/Opel, would generate $100 billion a year .","id":"be2d996f2edd19327ce07e4991b9d9af4e8d35da"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Dr. John Boyce, chief of the Infectious Diseases Section at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Connecticut, was lead author of the Centers for Disease Control's national hand hygiene guidelines for health-care workers and heads the Hand Hygiene Resource Center. Dr. John Boyce says hands contaminated with virus are often a pathway for people to develop flu. (CNN) -- The rapid spread of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus (also known as swine flu) from Mexico to at least 19 other countries in less than 10 days is a cause of major concern. It emphasizes the need for the public to become familiar with how influenza is spread and which preventive measures they can use to reduce their chances of becoming infected. Although little information is available at this time, it appears that this influenza virus spreads from one person to another in the same way as other influenza viruses -- by \"droplet spread.\" Respiratory droplets are generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes and expels droplets of fluid. Those droplets travel short distances (usually less than three feet) through the air and can be deposited on the mouth or in the nose of people or on surfaces. Those who develop influenza often shed large amounts of virus in their respiratory secretions for several days after they become ill. Experience with other viruses suggests that individuals with influenza can contaminate their hands when coughing, sneezing or blowing their noses. The virus can survive on the hands for at least one hour. If a person whose hands are heavily contaminated touches a surface such as a doorknob, table or computer keyboard, they can deposit the virus onto that surface, where it can survive for minutes to several hours. One study conducted with a regular seasonal strain of influenza virus found that the virus could survive on facial tissues for several minutes and for two to eight hours on stainless steel or plastic surfaces. If another person touches a contaminated surface with his hands when the virus is still alive and then touches his own mouth or nose, he may become infected. Infection might also occur when a person with influenza shakes hands with another person who subsequently touches their own mouth or nose with their fingers. Several studies have found that many people touch their noses or mouths several times an hour during the course of daily activities. So there are plenty of opportunities for people to inadvertently introduce a flu virus into their bodies if their hands become contaminated. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that individuals perform hand hygiene -- also known as hand washing or decontamination -- frequently during influenza outbreaks. In addition to reducing the risk of developing influenza, hand hygiene can help protect people from becoming ill with several other respiratory viruses by eliminating these organisms from the hands. A recent study found that hand washing with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer were both highly effective in reducing a seasonal strain of influenza virus on the hands. This should also be true for the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. Either plain soap or antimicrobial soap will reduce the amount of virus on the hands. To ensure decontamination, be sure to wash your hands vigorously and keep both soap and water on your hands for at least 15 seconds. When sinks are not readily available, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are a convenient and effective way of eliminate the virus from hands. Use an amount of sanitizer at least the size of quarter or enough to keep your hands wet for at least 15 to 20 seconds while you're rubbing them together. The CDC also recommends that people should avoid touching their mouths, noses and eyes, since surfaces they touch may be contaminated when flu virus is present. People who develop influenza or other respiratory viral infections should also clean their hands after blowing their nose or after covering a cough with their hands. Since droplet spread is the most common way influenza is transmitted from person to person, the CDC also recommends avoiding close contact with individuals who are sick. If you do become ill with influenza, the CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others. Hand hygiene is an important tool in preventing infection from influenza viruses such as this recent strain and is an easy and effective way to prevent contracting infectious diseases in general. Take the time to educate yourself about proper hand hygiene to protect both yourself and your family. Note: Further information about the 2009 H1N1 influenza (swine flu) outbreak can be obtained by going to CDC's Web site. For general information about hand hygiene in health-care settings, go to this CDC site or this Hand Hygiene Resource Center site. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Boyce.","highlights":"John Boyce: Hands contaminated with virus often spread the flu .\nHe says viruses can survive for hours on various surfaces .\nBoyce: People need to wash hands with soap and water for at least 15 seconds .\nHe says alcohol-based sanitizers can work in the absence of a sink .","id":"6a02a9f234fa350ba154a7f80f7d8bfede7f950e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Look at a Bratz doll. What do you see? Ask that of random shoppers and you might hear it's an empowering role model, a degrading caricature or a harmless piece of plastic. Many parents see Bratz dolls, left, as too racy for their children, and Barbie dolls as representing false ideals. Nine-year-old Ashley Gibbs of Cumming, Georgia, is a fan of the edgy dolls, so it came as an unpleasant surprise that they would soon leave store shelves. \"Ever, ever, ever?\" she asked her mother, Kathryn Adams, after Adams said stores weren't going to sell Bratz after the end of this year. But after a moment of reflection, Ashley seemed relieved. \"Good [thing] I have lots.\" Ashley didn't know it, but Bratz are the target of allegations that their creator came up with the concept when he was working for Mattel, the maker of Bratz rival Barbie. Mattel sued Bratz manufacturer MGA Entertainment Inc., and last week a federal judge ordered MGA to cease making the dolls immediately and to stop selling them after the holiday shopping season ends. MGA said it intends to appeal the judge's order and Mattel said it remains open to \"all viable options\" as the matter moves through the courts. The judge's ruling came as a relief to some parents who see the popular dolls' clothes and makeup as too racy for their young daughters. It also eliminates heavy competition against Barbie -- a doll often seen as less provocative, but whose slender body also raises parents' eyebrows. \"I'm happy to not see [Bratz],\" said Kristi Cassell of Sandy Springs, Georgia. Her 5-year-old daughter, Emily, has amassed a collection of Barbies. Watch mothers and daughters weigh in on the Barbie-Bratz debate \u00bb . \"Barbies come across more wholesome,\" Cassell said. Barbie has some \"questionable\" clothes, \"but it seemed like all the Bratz dolls were on a darker side of Barbie,\" she said. Six-year-old Sierra Curry-Corcoran of Newport News, Virginia, also has a Barbie collection and no Bratz dolls. But not by choice. \"I like Bratz better. They have more fancy clothes, and they look more cool,\" Sierra said. Her mother, Tasha Curry-Corcoran, strongly disagrees. \"Bratz are trashy: They wear too much makeup. Their clothing is too short; their boots are too high. They look like prostitutes. That's why we don't have them in our house.\" Parents aren't the only ones who have taken aim at Bratz. A 2007 report by the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls called Bratz dolls' miniskirts, fishnet stockings and feather boas \"sexualized\" and argued that the dolls' \"objectified sexuality ... is limiting for adolescent girls, and even more so for the very young girls who represent the market for these dolls.\" Researchers have criticized Barbie, too. The Mattel dolls represent a \"distortedly thin body ideal,\" and girls experienced \"heightened body dissatisfaction after exposure to Barbie doll images but not after exposure to ... neutral control images,\" according to a 2006 study out of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. Cassell acknowledged that Barbie bodies \"are a little unrealistic.\" \"But they've been around for generations. I grew up playing with Barbies, and I don't have any physical issues because I had Barbies. I think the adults make a bigger deal out of it than the kids,\" she said. Theresa Hawkesworth of South Africa believes Bratz dolls rather than Barbies are a more positive influence for her 12-year-old daughter, Emma. \"Because their faces and their makeup are so extreme it's almost impossible that a young girl could look like that,\" Hawkesworth said. \"Whereas [with] Barbie dolls, the young girls think that they need that beautiful hair and that beautiful body, and when they don't look like a Barbie they have that poor self-image.\" Over the years Emma has accumulated a dozen Bratz dolls, in addition to Bratz shirts, pajamas, posters, computer games and a rolling backpack. \"It's too bad for other girls\" that they're leaving the marketplace, Emma said. As a preteen, Emma feels too old for Barbies, although she still appreciates the style of Bratz. But she doesn't want to emulate that style. \"It looks nice on the dolls, but I would prefer to just wear my own makeup,\" she said. Emma's mother said her daughter's interest in Bratz actually helps the girl maintain her innocence. The branded clothing is \"more innocent, feminine and girly than a see-through or immodest top,\" Hawkesworth said. Ashley's mother had been hesitant to let Ashley or her other daughter, 6-year-old Kate Gibbs, play with Bratz, but she relented when they received them as gifts. Adams had been \"definitely a little bit more of a Barbie fan,\" but, \"I don't want them to buy into the mentality that they've got to look like a Bratz doll or a Barbie doll,\" she said. Ashley seems to be resisting the influence of the Bratz style. \"They have lots of makeup and I don't want that much makeup,\" she said. \"I like casual things, not the big pretty things.\" To which Adams later beamed, \"Yes! Proud mom!\" CNN's Sean O'Key contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bratz dolls will leave the market at the end of the year, to tweens' dismay .\nMattel sued Bratz, claiming Bratz dolls' creator came up with concept while at Mattel .\nSome parents prefer Barbies to Bratz because of Barbies' more wholesome image .\nOthers feel Barbies present an unhealthy, unrealistic image .","id":"34ee9b3de63d51b77c531f45c0662281cb3ba06f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Tampa judge denied bail Wednesday for a Florida man charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 3-month-old child, who authorities say was thrown out of a moving car. Police say infant Emanuel Murray died after his mother's ex-boyfriend threw him from a car on a Florida interstate. Richard Anthony McTear Jr., 21, was arrested Tuesday, hours after a confrontation at his former girlfriend's apartment in which he snatched the infant, Emanuel Wesley Murray, the Hillsborough County sheriff's office said. The child's body was found about 4 .am. Tuesday on the side of Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida, by a local television photographer on his way to work. The photographer, WTVT's Jason Bird, said he stopped when he spotted something by the roadside . \"It had to be a baby doll but it was too big to be a doll,\" Bird told CNN affiliate WFTS in Tampa. \"I almost passed out, I started shaking,\" said Bird. A preliminary autopsy determined the child died of blunt trauma to the head, the county medical examiner's office said. Police were called to the apartment of McTear's former girlfriend about 3:15 a.m. Tuesday. The mother, Jasmine Bedwell, 17, told investigators that McTear had hit her several times and threatened \"to kill the both of y'all,\" the sheriff's department said in a statement announcing the charges. McTear threw a car seat containing the child across the room during the fight, causing the boy to fall onto the apartment's concrete floor, investigators said. He then picked up the boy and drove off in his blue Chevrolet Impala, throwing the child out while on the interstate, the sheriff's department said. Video on CNN affiliate WFLA TV showed McTear being led out of a Tampa police squad car after his arrest. He ducked his head as TV cameras surrounded him on his walk into a police building. When asked by reporters if he had thrown the child out of the car window, McTear answered, \"It's a dirty game. A dirty game.\" McTear is not related to the child, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter. McTear is facing additional charges of burglary with battery, felony battery, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping, the sheriff's department said.","highlights":"Richard Anthony McTear Jr. threatened \"to kill the both of y'all,\" baby's mother says .\nMcTear, 21, threw child across room, then out of car, authorities say .\nA motorist found the baby boy on Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida, around 4:30 a.m.\nMcTear, who was not related to boy, faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping .","id":"ca5b472fa3c00cae4cedeff9e5a296f3e420e725"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Didier Deschamps has been named to succeed Eric Gerets as coach at current French league leaders Marseille at the end of the season, the club announced on Tuesday. World Cup winning captain Didier Deschamps is returning to Marseille as coach at the end of the season. Gerets said last week that he would not be renewing his contract and Marseille decided that France's 1998 World Cup winning captain, Deschamps, was the outstanding candidate to replace him. Former Marseille captain Deschamps, who has signed a two-year contract, has been commentating on French television since leaving Italian giants Juventus where he was coach until the summer of 2007. The 40-year-old previously had a spell in charge at Monaco having ended his playing career in 2001. \"Didier Deschamps will be OM coach next season,\" confirmed a statement on the Marseille Web site. Officials added: \"Last Friday's meeting between the club president (Pape Diouf) and its principal shareholder (Robert Louis-Dreyfus) was able to confirm definitively this choice. \"After Eric Gerets, the club could only fix their choice on a coach of the highest standard to continue the great work already accomplished and the club's development on the playing front. \"Based on our criteria, the choice of Didier Deschamps, whose career as a player and a coach works largely in his favor, naturally won over.\" Deschamps led Marseille to a Champions League triumph in 1993 and had two spells at the club as a player, between 1989-1990 and 1991-1994. He also played for Nantes, Bordeaux, Juventus, Chelsea and Valencia in a top career and was also France captain when they won Euro 2000.","highlights":"Didier Deschamps becomes new manager of Marseille at end of the season .\nFrench 1998 World Cup winning captain succeeds Eric Gerets on 2-year deal .\nGerets said last week he would not be renewing contract with league leaders .","id":"a4e97dfa53163d840d0ac6bffba522a068554526"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson may soon return to the stage, at least for a \"special announcement.\" Pop star Michael Jackson has been the subject of recent rumors about his health and about a comeback. The pop star has scheduled a news conference Thursday at London's O2 arena, the same venue where Prince sold out 21 nights in 2007, according to London's Outside Organisation. Although the short statement announcing Jackson's news conference did not reveal any details, Britain's Sky News reported Wednesday that the 50-year-old King of Pop has agreed to a series of summer concerts at the O2. Rumors have circulated for years about a possible Jackson concert comeback, just as speculation has abounded about his physical and financial health. Jackson's reclusive lifestyle -- and a photo last year of him being pushed in a wheelchair -- created fertile ground for health rumors. When a London tabloid reported in December that Jackson was battling a potentially fatal disease that required a life-saving lung transplant, his publicist responded that he was \"in fine health\" and that the story was \"a total fabrication.\" Jackson's financial troubles in the past year have included the near-foreclosure of his Neverland Ranch in California, which he later sold. Jackson has not lived at Neverland since June 2005, after a Santa Barbara County jury found him not guilty of child molestation charges.","highlights":"Musician schedules news conference for Thursday at O2 arena .\nOne news outlet says he will hold series of summer concerts .\nJackson's physical and financial health have been subject of rumors .","id":"8d11a8cd0116af7bf9039275e2158a676128b44b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Tampa judge denied bail Wednesday for a Florida man charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 3-month-old child, who authorities say was thrown out of a moving car. Police say infant Emanuel Murray died after his mother's ex-boyfriend threw him from a car on a Florida interstate. Richard Anthony McTear Jr., 21, was arrested Tuesday, hours after a confrontation at his former girlfriend's apartment in which he snatched the infant, Emanuel Wesley Murray, the Hillsborough County sheriff's office said. The child's body was found about 4 .am. Tuesday on the side of Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida, by a local television photographer on his way to work. The photographer, WTVT's Jason Bird, said he stopped when he spotted something by the roadside . \"It had to be a baby doll but it was too big to be a doll,\" Bird told CNN affiliate WFTS in Tampa. \"I almost passed out, I started shaking,\" said Bird. A preliminary autopsy determined the child died of blunt trauma to the head, the county medical examiner's office said. Police were called to the apartment of McTear's former girlfriend about 3:15 a.m. Tuesday. The mother, Jasmine Bedwell, 17, told investigators that McTear had hit her several times and threatened \"to kill the both of y'all,\" the sheriff's department said in a statement announcing the charges. McTear threw a car seat containing the child across the room during the fight, causing the boy to fall onto the apartment's concrete floor, investigators said. He then picked up the boy and drove off in his blue Chevrolet Impala, throwing the child out while on the interstate, the sheriff's department said. Video on CNN affiliate WFLA TV showed McTear being led out of a Tampa police squad car after his arrest. He ducked his head as TV cameras surrounded him on his walk into a police building. When asked by reporters if he had thrown the child out of the car window, McTear answered, \"It's a dirty game. A dirty game.\" McTear is not related to the child, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter. McTear is facing additional charges of burglary with battery, felony battery, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping, the sheriff's department said.","highlights":"Richard Anthony McTear Jr. threatened \"to kill the both of y'all,\" baby's mother says .\nMcTear, 21, threw child across room, then out of car, authorities say .\nA motorist found the baby boy on Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida, around 4:30 a.m.\nMcTear, who was not related to boy, faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping .","id":"f6382a7bdd53ebfd54e771b7d014b1656f015395"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama said Tuesday that the country already is \"seeing shovels hit the ground\" on the first infrastructure repair project funded through the Transportation Department's share of the $787 billion stimulus bill. Workers mark where repairs are needed on Maryland Route 650. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, \"The work begins today in Montgomery County, Maryland, where a work crew is starting on a project to resurface Maryland State Highway 650 -- a very busy road that has not been fully repaired in 17 years.\" The resurfacing contract is going to a Pennsylvania-based family-owned company, American Infrastructure, LaHood said. He said the project will support 60 jobs. \"And that's how we're going to get the country back on its feet,\" LaHood added. Mark Compton, director of government affairs for American Infrastructure, said his company received $2.1 million in federal funds, by way of the Maryland State Highway Administration. The money will be used to repave and add safety features to a stretch of the highway. Compton said the cash infusion is the \"catalyst\" to create 60 jobs, including bringing back some laid-off employees. He said he hopes the workers can be retained beyond this six-month project. \"We'll continue to bid, so the goal is to get more projects to keep those guys working, so they can roll off that project onto another,\" Compton said. CNNMoney: Stimulus funds hit the street . Obama and LaHood on Tuesday announced the release of $27 billion in funds from the stimulus package \"to help states create a 21st-century infrastructure.\" The president said it is part of the \"largest new investment in America's infrastructure since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.\" Obama said another 200 construction projects would be launched over the next few weeks, \"fueling growth in an industry that's been hard hit by our economic crisis.\" Two weeks ago, Obama signed into law his stimulus plan, known as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The president has said the plan will create or save up to 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Four-hundred thousand of those will be infrastructure jobs that include rebuilding roads, bridges and schools. LaHood has asked the nation's governors to certify projects and provide assurances that funds from the act will be spent for appropriate infrastructure projects. Obama said transportation projects would be stamped with a special emblem so people can see where their tax dollars are going. Obama said the investments in highways would create or save 150,000 jobs by the end of 2010. The number of jobs being created or saved in one year is more than the number of jobs the Big Three automakers have lost in manufacturing over the past three years, Obama said. By investing in roads \"that should have been rebuilt long ago,\" Obama said, \"we can save some 14,000 men and women who lose their lives each year due to bad roads and driving conditions.\" \"Poor roads are a public hazard, and we have a responsibility to fix them,\" he said. Watch Obama explain how the roads will save lives \u00bb . Obama also announced Tuesday that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve were launching the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative. When fully implemented, Obama said, the initiative \"will generate up to a trillion dollars in new lending for the American people, and this will help unlock our frozen credit markets, which is absolutely essential for economic recovery.\" CNNMoney's Aaron Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"New highway resurfacing project in Maryland is expected to support 60 jobs .\nPresident Obama: Highway spending will create or save 150,000 jobs by end of 2010 .\nAnother 200 construction projects to be launched in next few weeks .\nInvesting in roads will save lives, Obama says .","id":"fd9d50f2aa7cc1d57b8f21cf5f3d414106704777"} -{"article":"LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- It's hot and sweaty in a rat-infested room in Lahore's historic red light district, a neighborhood of narrow alleyways lined with brothels. A dancer does the \"mujra,\" a traditional dance banned by a judge for being \"vulgar,\" in Lahore, Pakistan. A barefoot, long-haired woman is gyrating and twirling on the carpet, to the beat of a four-man band whose drummer sweats profusely as he pounds out a furious rhythm. The dancer, who only gives her first name, Beenish, is performing a kind of Pakistani belly-dance called the mujra. Her harmonium player, a skinny bald man who squints through coke-bottle glasses, has been performing like this for the past 50 years. But he says the art form is dying out. \"That spark, the way it was in the past, is no more,\" said Ghulam Sarwar. Last fall, a judge in Lahore's high court declared the mujra dance \"vulgar\" and banned it from being performed on stage. Some here say the government is cracking down on easy, \"immoral\" targets in an attempt to appease religious hard-liners like the Taliban. Islamist militants are believed to be responsible for a recent wave of bomb attacks in Lahore, targeting cinemas, theaters and cafes where young men and women fraternize together. \"It is a gesture of good will to pacify the mullahs and the Taliban,\" said Samia Amjad, a lawmaker in the provincial assembly. Though she is a member of an opposition political party, she said she supported the crackdown on vulgarity. \"I see it as an essential part of Islam.\" Dancers aren't the only targets of the court censors. In late March, the Lahore high court banned two female singers from recording new albums after ruling that they sang sexually explicit lyrics. \"If the current circumstances persist in Pakistan,\" said Noora Lal, one of the banned singers, \"then singing will die out in this country.\" Pakistan is a deeply conservative Muslim nation, where the punishment for blasphemy is the death sentence. But there is one person in Lahore who openly mocks the conservative establishment: painter and restaurant owner Iqbal Hussain. Though he said he has received multiple death threats from Islamist fundamentalists, Hussain continues to be Pakistan's most vocal defender of prostitutes. All of the models portrayed in his paintings are sex workers. \"I portray them on canvas, portray them as human beings,\" Hussain said, \"They feel pain. They want their children to be educated.\" Hussain knows the industry intimately. He was born to a family of sex workers. His mother, a former prostitute, passed away last month at the age of 98. The small, soft-spoken painter has turned the house he grew up in, an old four-story building with ornate wooden balconies, into a popular restaurant for tourists and wealthy Pakistanis. On one side of the house there is a brothel, on the other side, the 17th century Badshahi Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world. In his subversive paintings, which Hussain said sell for more than $10,000 each, he highlights the overlap between Lahore's sex industry and its religious community. In one canvas, hundreds of worshippers are depicted prostrating themselves around the mosque, while in the foreground, two women apply lipstick and makeup on a balcony. Hussain explained that the prostitutes in the painting were preparing to receive new customers as soon as the prayers in the mosque were over. Watch the dance being called \"immoral\" in Pakistan \u00bb . The painter claimed that on religious festivals, the brothels and dance halls in his neighborhood overflow with customers. \"They come from the northern areas with their turbans,\" Iqbal said, laughing. \"All coming to this area. They're not going to the mosque ... but to the brothels!\" Nevertheless, the rising tide of the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan has some residents of Lahore's red light district worried. \"May Allah keep us safe from them,\" said Beenish, the mujra dancer. \"We are poor, humble people. They should not target this place.\" Photography by CNN's Farhad Shadravan.","highlights":"In Lahore's red light district, Iqbal Hussain mocks Pakistan's religious establishment .\n\"I portray [sex workers] on canvas, portray them as human beings,\" Hussain said.\nPainter has turned home into popular restaurant for tourists and wealthy Pakistanis .\nRising tide of Taliban and threat of violence has some residents worried .","id":"e704da94ac9af6df8ef9e275c568d26bf1f65e2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A federal agency is examining what caused the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility to collapse on Saturday, paralyzing a scout and injuring 11 others. An aerial view of the scene shows the Dallas Cowboys logo amid the ruins of the indoor practice facility. \"We're trying to determine if there were any violations, or determine the cause,\" said Elizabeth Todd, spokeswoman for Region 6 of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA investigators will be interviewing witnesses and looking for identifiable hazards, she said. The procedure is routine and implies no wrongdoing, Todd said. OSHA has six months to finish its investigation. Meanwhile, the CEO of a company that makes similar buildings says he believes fewer people would have been injured if the Cowboys' facility had been supported by air rather than a metal frame. About 70 people -- including players, coaches, staff and media -- were inside the metal-framed structure for a rookie mini-camp practice when a line of heavy thunderstorms hit the dome. Video from the incident shows the lights swinging violently from the dome's ceiling seconds before the ceiling crashes to the ground. Players and coaches rushed to help those trapped. \"It was as if someone took a stick pin and hit a balloon,\" said photographer Arnold Payne, who was shooting the practice for CNN affiliate WFAA-TV. Watch Payne describe being inside when structure collapsed \u00bb . Scouting assistant Rich Behm, 33, suffered a severed spinal cord and is paralyzed from the waist down, the team said. He underwent surgery Saturday. \"Rich is a courageous member of our family and someone for whom we care deeply. We ask for all friends and fans of the Dallas Cowboys to join us in embracing him and his family with their thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time,\" team owner Jerry Jones said. Watch the roof collapse on players, coaches \u00bb . Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis fractured a cervical vertebra, and assistant trainer Greg Gaither had two broken bones in his leg, the team said. Gaither had successful surgery Saturday, and DeCamillis was scheduled to undergo surgery Monday, the team said. According to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, \"a microburst impacted the Valley Ranch area,\" where the Cowboys practice. A microburst is a \"small, intense downdraft which results in a localized area of strong thunderstorm winds,\" the weather service said. Though winds near the ground were estimated near 70 mph, winds are generally more fierce farther from the ground, and microbursts can have winds in excess of 100 mph, the weather service said. \"Therefore, it is quite possible that winds greater than 70 mph affected the upper portions of the damaged structures,\" the service said. The Cowboys' attorney, Levi McCathern II, was in meetings at Valley Ranch on Monday morning and could not be immediately reached. Elizabeth Criswell, a paralegal with his firm, said OSHA's involvement was standard procedure and that the Cowboys would issue a press release at a later time. Summit Structures of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Cover-All Building Systems of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which built the dome, referred all questions to a Boston, Massachusetts, public relations firm. The firm released a statement from Nathan Stobbe, Summit's president, who said he was in Texas working with officials to \"assess this severe weather event.\" The statement quoted the National Weather Service description of a microburst. It further said the facility was constructed in 2003. A new roof was installed on the building during a 2008 upgrade, the statement said. \"We understand there is a great deal of concern and curiosity about what happened on Saturday, but rather than speculate, we are focused on being part of the effort to find answers and assist the team,\" Stobbe's statement concluded. Mariellen Burns of Regan Communications in Boston did not immediately respond to a follow-up e-mail inquiring what wind speeds the building was engineered to sustain. At least three of Summit's competitors say their buildings can withstand winds of 140 mph or higher. Donato Fraioli, the CEO of Air Structures American Technologies Inc., said the air-supported structure his company built for the Miami Dolphins can withstand winds up to 140 mph. However, Fraioli said, several media outlets, including CNN, have been erroneously reporting that the Cowboys' structure was supported by air. The Cowboys' facility was supported by a metal frame, which is why so many people were hurt, he said. Fraioli, who has 47 years of experience in air- and metal-supported structures, said his company has built air-supported structures in some of the most troublesome climates in the nation, including facilities for the New York Giants, New York Jets, Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles. His company also has constructed metal-frame buildings -- generally for industrial applications and to accommodate aircraft -- and he has found that many football teams, both college and pro, are opting for air-supported structures because they are cheaper and safer. \"The worst that could happen if it had a failure of any sort ... the fabric would fall over the interior players,\" he said, adding that repairing an air-supported structure generally entails patching and re-inflating it, as opposed to reconstructing a metal frame. Not only are the air-supported buildings safer in the event of a collapse, he said, but they're safer during practice as well. \"There are no steel beams to run into or any aluminum frames to run into,\" he said. Metal frames also leave more room for construction and engineering error. \"I just think you have that many more nuts and bolts and components that could easily be erected with error,\" he said. \"Why have it, just for the reason of what happened in Dallas? Why take the risk?\" CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Cowboys' attorney's office says OSHA involvement standard procedure .\nFacility's manufacturers point to weather reports of a \"microburst\" in statement .\nCompetitor says there might have been fewer injuries in an air-supported dome .\nSpecial teams coach scheduled to undergo surgery for fractured spine Monday .","id":"29dea367aadc966bfa9d3e59dbc24b1f35d386f6"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- In a major shake-up the likes of which Cubans have not seen for decades, President Raul Castro on Monday reorganized his Cabinet, replacing longtime aides to his brother Fidel, who resigned from office a year ago, citing poor health. Cuban President Raul Castro is moving his own people into power, analysts say. Some analysts said the changes appear to be an attempt by Raul Castro to put his own supporters into positions of power. Among the changes: . Felipe Perez Roque, the 43-year-old foreign minister, was replaced by his deputy, Bruno Rodriguez Aprilla. Carlos Lage Davila, an economist, lost his job as Cabinet secretary, but no mention was made of removing him from his other post as vice president of the Council of State. Lage, who helped guide the nation through its \"special period\" of dire economic times in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the loss of billions in subsidies, was replaced by Brig. Gen. Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra; Raul Castro is also commander in chief of the armed forces. \"It looks like Raul putting some of his own people in,\" said Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy in Washington, who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter administration. Smith noted that Cuba's government underwent \"quite a few shake-ups after the revolution first came in\" in 1959, but said Monday's move \"is the biggest shake-up that I've seen in a very long time ... for the last 30 or 40 years.\" \"This is obviously a major move,\" concurred Vicki Huddleston, who led the Interests Section during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and is a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. \"[There is] nothing like this that I can recall since the late 1960s.\" She noted that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with both Castro brothers during a visit late in February to Havana, on what Granma described as a \"work visit,\" and speculated that Raul Castro may have asked him then to buy in on the changes. \"They really need Chavez to be on board, because without the subsidized oil from Venezuela, they're dead,\" Huddleston said. With the Cuban economy hamstrung by the world economy, Raul Castro may have decided it is time for him to make reforms of his own without worrying about second-guessing by his brother or his brother's allies, she said. Huddleston speculated that the changes could portend the government once again allowing private enterprise to flourish in Cuba. Communist leader Fidel Castro experimented with that during the 1990s, but pulled back. \"It represents a significant step by Raul Castro to gain autonomy and, essentially, distance himself from Fidel's old gang,\" said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. \"In other words, he feels confident enough that he has an independent base of power.\" He said Raul Castro's moves to date have proven popular not only with his party members, but also with the general population. Still, Raul Castro should not take that support for granted, Birns said. \"It may be that, if he makes too many moves, the party will feel that their privileges are being taken away, and that will make them unhappy.\" Otto Reich, who served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said he was withholding judgment. \"It's a little early to tell what this really means,\" he said. \"Some people are saying the Fidelistas are being replaced by the Raulistas. But the other side is: Are we talking about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?\" The state-run newspaper Granma published an official notice from the State Council that said the changes were intended to form a structure that is \"more compact and functional, with fewer organisms of the central administration of the state and a better distribution of the functions that they carry out.\" CNN's Morgan Neill and Shasta Darlington in Havana, Tom Watkins and Arthur Brice contributed to this story.","highlights":"Several longtime aides to Fidel Castro are replaced .\nForeign minister and Cabinet secretary move aside .\nAnalyst says it's the biggest shake-up in 30 or 40 years .","id":"f1e8ec9c8b4791d2a58ad0fbf0524118c102a8ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The intrusive voices popped into William \"Bill\" Garrett's head. \"They're coming for you,\" the voices told the 18-year-old. \"Find somewhere to hide; they're going to get you.\" In the left shows William \"Bill\" Garrett in high school, and the right is a 2007 photo of the Maryland teenager. They told the Johns Hopkins University freshman that his father had poisoned the family dog, his sister had injected crystal methamphetamine into his pet lizard and his grandmother had put human body parts into his food. As schizophrenia took hold, the Maryland teenager became lost within his own mind and had to leave college after winning a full, four-year scholarship. Garrett's experience echoes the teenage years of Nathaniel Ayers, a promising string bass player whose musical training at the Juilliard School was cut short by schizophrenia, a brain disorder that blurs a person's ability to distinguish between reality and delusions. Ayers became homeless and played Beethoven pieces on a broken violin in the streets of Los Angeles, California. His struggles with schizophrenia and his friendship with a Los Angeles Times columnist inspired the movie \"The Soloist,\" which releases Friday. His sister, Jennifer Ayers-Moore, hopes the movie will raise awareness about schizophrenia and has established the Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Foundation for the artistically gifted mentally ill. \"I know there are thousands of Nathaniels, and they deserve a chance, too,\" said Ayers-Moore, an Atlanta-based social worker. Teen interrupted . Schizophrenia is the result of disrupted brain development. Males typically get symptoms during their teens or early 20s, as Ayers and Garrett did. \"It's a critical time for the brain,\" said Dr. Jon McClellan, the medical director of the Child Study and Treatment Center at Seattle Children's Hospital. \"It's the CEO part of the brain that pays attention, makes decisions and filters. The prefrontal cortex, that's the last area of the brain to develop. As that area comes online, that's when the illness presents.\" In high school, Garrett won elected offices in student government and headed the lacrosse and cross country teams. A gifted student, he wanted to study political science and biology at Hopkins. At home, he cooked family dinners, helped his little sister with homework, and surprised his mother with pancakes on her birthday. \"People likened him to the perfect child before he got sick,\" said his mother, Kristan Kanyuch. In 2007, the unusual behaviors started. He slept a lot. He emptied an entire can of bug spray in his bedroom. When he came home for a weekend from college, he pointed to a blister on his hand that had formed from playing lacrosse. \"Look, I have gangrene,\" he said. \"My hand is going to rot.\" Then he tried to cut off his hand with a paring knife. His family stopped him and took him to an emergency room for a psych evaluation, but Garrett refused to wait and left. A week later, Kanyuch got a call from the university. Her son was failing every class. When confronted, Garrett looked at the F's and calmly replied, \"I'm not failing anything.\" In the 1970s, Ayers-Moore saw the symptoms when her family picked her brother up from Juilliard to head home to Cleveland, Ohio, for summer. \"The look in his eye was so different,\" she said. \"It was like you could see into his soul, he could look into yours. It sort of startled me a little bit. I didn't know what to say to him. On the way from New York, I pretended I was asleep. I didn't know what to say.\" Paranoid schizophrenia . About three decades later, Nickole Kanyuch, 15, watched a similar scenario unfold as her brother, Garrett, struggled with paranoid schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder. \"I watched the big brother who I had looked up to all my life fall apart and become someone entirely new,\" she said. \"The boy who was destined for greatness, who worked long and hard for 12 years to lead a successful life, was destroyed in a mere six months.\" Garrett, who had once organized his 600 books by the Dewey Decimal system, could hardly read two sentences. The voices in his head drowned out the words on the page, he told his mother. Garrett, who color coordinated the clothes inside his closet, could no longer groom himself or shower. The voices told him the shampoo and soap were poisoned. Kristan Kanyuch quit her financial planning job to take care of him. Despite taking medicine, Garrett's health fluctuated. One day he was fine; the next, he threatened to kill the neighbors. Frustrated and facing mounting debt, Kanyuch sought help. She joined a mental health support group. At one session, she was told to follow simple instructions from a counselor. Meanwhile, 10 people who stood around her talked at once. While the chorus of voices drowned out the instructions, she realized this was how her son lived every day. That night, Kanyuch hugged her son. \"You have to be the most courageous person. You wake up every day,\" she told him. \"That's when he explained to me the reason he sleeps,\" Kanyuch said. \"He doesn't hear the voices. He doesn't hear them telling him he's fat, stupid, there's a conspiracy. It's a break for him to sleep.\" Although no one knows where these voices originated, they could be triggered by wiring problems in the brain, said McClellan, who researches adolescent psychiatry. One theory is schizophrenia causes difficulty distinguishing thoughts from their outside experiences, \"so they experience internal thoughts and perceptions as voices,\" he said. Recovery . Garrett has been a subject in two research programs searching for better schizophrenia treatments. His condition fluctuated, and, for months, he was on suicide watch. Schizophrenia is a difficult disorder to treat, because one medication that soothes one patient can make another psychotic. \"Medication or dosages can't be matched absolutely with the individual, so there is some of that trial and error,\" said Dr. Thomas Bornemann, director of the Carter Center's Mental Health Program. Garrett tried many drugs. Some made him drowsy, others volatile and one drug made him gain 75 pounds. Severe side effects often cause patients to stop taking medication. For now, doctors seem to have found one that helps Garrett. Since March, Garrett has been at a Maryland research center that looks into the relationship between metabolism, tobacco and schizophrenia. After a violent visit in August, Garrett, 21, had not been home until Easter. During the recent visit, he played basketball, Yahtzee and Wii bowling with his family. \"He was able to carry on a conversation and play card games,\" Kanyuch said. \"He was interacting.\" At home, surrounded by reminders all his past achievements, Garrett said: \"Mom, I was on the top of the world. Now I'm in the gutter.\" His mother disagreed: \"Look at it as an opportunity.\" \"What?\" he said. \"It's not an opportunity everyone would jump at,\" she told Garrett. \"But as you rehabilitate, as you grow an insight into your illness, there may be things you deal with forever. But you've had significant experiences that you may be able to use to help other people. There's no place where insight and advocacy [for mental health] is needed more than in politics, which is what you wanted to do.\" A life with schizophrenia won't be easy, but some with the disorder have graduated from college, earned doctorates and lead enriched lives, she told Garrett. \"He doesn't understand the courage he has.\"","highlights":"Schizophrenia disrupts Maryland teenager's life, forces him to leave college .\nTeen's story echoes experience of Nathaniel Ayers, subject of film, \"The Soloist\"\nFamily struggles to learn how to best help teenager deal with mental illness .","id":"62878f99854de7dd63d23266d4aa80e485ab227f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Tim Russert's personal physician says medics tried to save the NBC anchor shortly after he collapsed at work. Dr. Michael Newman said medics tried to revive Tim Russert several times before he died. Dr. Michael Newman told CNN's Larry King that a defibrillator, a heart-shocking device, was used to try to save Russert. \"A resuscitation was begun almost immediately,\" he said. Russert, a mainstay of television journalism's political talk as the host of \"Meet the Press,\" died of a heart attack after collapsing at NBC's Washington bureau Friday. He was 58. Newman appeared on \"Larry King Live\" on Monday, along with Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiac thoracic surgeon, and Dr. P.K. Shah, King's heart doctor. Watch Russert's son greet guests at wake \u00bb . Newman described Russert as a model patient: \"He complied with almost everything that was asked of him.\" The following is an edited version of the show's transcript: . Newman: Tim had a cardiac arrest. It was related to an acute -- presumably acute dissection, rupturing plaque that's causing a blockage of a coronary artery. He had a heart attack -- a fatal arrhythmia. Watch panel discuss if Russert's death was preventable \u00bb . King: Did we know he had heart disease? Newman: Tim was known to have coronary artery disease, and it was being treated with respect to management of his risk factors. King: Was he on medication? Did he exercise? Did he watch what he ate? Newman: Tim was on medication. I'd like to say, I'm glad you mentioned exercise and watching what we eat. The foundation of management of heart disease and every medical condition, really, starts with lifestyle modification. You know, a healthy lifestyle, and you'll have good health, and you'll certainly have a healthy heart. ... Tim appreciated that. Yes, he exercised. He was on his Aerodyne bicycle. See a timeline of Russert's career \u00bb . King: Dr. Oz, from what Dr. Newman said, could it have been prevented? Oz: You can never tell for sure. And the reality is a big wake-up call. And it's the question that Tim Russert would be asking right now: What are the odds that I could have done something different myself? Let's examine it for a second. Of the 450,000 people a year who die of heart attacks in this country, probably half of them never knew they were at risk of a heart attack. It's because the heart doesn't really have pain fibers. In fact, the only reason you ever feel any pain when you're having a heart attack is because the nerves in the heart cross other nerves -- from your chin, your arm or from the chest and the spinal column. And they short-circuit each other out. And that creates this referred pain that in cardiology and cardiosurgery we recognize to be angina. The other reality -- and this is a big wake-up call for a lot of Americans, as well -- is that a lot of the plaques that we have are not flow limiting. And by that I mean they don't cause a limitation on the amount of blood that courses through the veins that go to our heart. ... King: Dr. Shah has brought along a defibrillator. Right? Dr. Newman, it was not used, is that correct? Newman: That's not correct. King: OK, it was used. Newman: NBC had a defibrillator. A resuscitation was begun almost immediately. NBC had an EAD [external automated defibrillator] on site, and they were preparing to use it. At the same moment, the DC EMS, emergency medical squad, arrived, and they immediately defibrillated Tim. He had no heart rhythm. They defibrillated him. His heart was beating then in a ventricular -- fine ventricular fib, and then it deteriorated. They shocked him again. Actually, he was defibrillated three times before his arrival at Sibley Memorial Hospital. Remembering Tim Russert \u00bb . King: Why do you think it didn't work in the Russert case? Shah: There are several possibilities. The longer the delay between the time collapse occurs and you begin defibrillation, the less the success of defibrillation. That's number one. Number two, if you're a very big-sized individual and have a large heart, the larger the heart, the harder it is to get a successful defibrillation. The bigger the heart, the more likely you are to go back into fibrillation. King: Dr. Newman, was Tim Russert a good patient? Newman: Tim was a great patient. Tim Russert as a patient was the Tim Russert that we all know. He complied with almost everything that was asked of him. He was well-informed, asked good questions. Tim was a good patient. Are there things all of us as patients could be better at? Sure. But Tim was a good patient. King: Do you ever think, Dr. Newman, in retrospect, I could have done more? Should have done more? Newman: You know, as physicians, we always hope that we can change people's lives, that we can make them feel better, live longer, that we can intervene, and that's what our role is. Unfortunately, in many instances, our hopes are not fulfilled. Absolutely, I wish Tim was alive and with us today. ... And ... patients die of heart disease or cancer; we all struggle with the fact there are limits to what we can do.","highlights":"Tim Russert's doctor says he was a model patient .\nDoctor: Russert was on heart medication and exercised .\nDoctor says medics used a defibrillator three times before Russert got to hospital .","id":"436c70bff8bbbafe76b09fd773a853c465653171"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pig farmers threw rocks at police officers in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday as health workers gathered the farmers' herds for slaughter in what the government says is a precaution against the spread of swine flu, an interior ministry official told CNN. The Egyptian government required all pigs in the country be killed, citing a need to prevent the spread of swine flu. Brig. Gen. Hani Abdel-Latif said 50 to 60 protesters gathered in Cairo's Manshiyet Naser slum because they were upset with the health ministry's decision to slaughter all pigs in the country. But local media reported the number of farmers clashing with police on Sunday was in the hundreds. Experts have criticized the Egyptian government's move, announced last week, to slaughter all pigs regardless of whether they are infected. There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Egypt. And according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, humans cannot get the swine flu virus, known to scientists as the H1N1 virus, by eating pork. The CDC says human infection from pigs most likely occurs when people are in close proximity to sick animals, such as in pig barns. But Egyptian officials cite how avian flu still exists in the country because, they say, the government did not take sufficient protective measures when that disease was first discovered there in 2006. Most Egyptian pig farmers are Coptic Christians, a group that makes up about 10 percent of the 80 million people in the mostly Muslim nation. Coptic Christians do not observe the Muslim ban on eating pork, and historically they have coexisted peacefully with the Muslim majority in Egypt. The farmers also work in the garbage industry and use their daily collections to feed their herds, which number about 300,000 animals in the country. With the government-mandated slaughter under way, Egypt's Health Ministry declared Saturday that \"Egypt is free of the swine flu.\" Dr. Hamid Samaha, head of the country's Public Institute for Veterinary Services, said that starting Sunday the government will compensate pig farmers by paying as much as $45 for a disease-free pig and about $5 for diseased ones. The health ministry told CNN its workers are freezing all the disease-free meat and plan to give it back to its owners once the ban on pigs is lifted. But according to Egypt's state-run al-Akhbar newspaper, ministry sources said the country does not have enough facilities to store the frozen meat. Ministry spokesman Dr. Abdel-Rahman Shaheen said the government will open two new slaughterhouses in two provinces near Cairo, al-Alioubiya and al-Giza. Shaheen also announced Saturday that the ministry has enlisted 100 additional doctors and nurses to help in health quarantines at Cairo Airport, where travelers are being questioned if they have been to Mexico recently. And more are expected to be hired to help at Alexandra's main seaport, where the government declared a state of emergency last week. CNN's Housam Ahmed in Cairo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Farmers in Cairo clash with police as health officials take pigs to slaughter .\nEgypt mandated slaughter of pigs in country over news of swine flu .\nThere have been no confirmed cases of swine flu in Egypt .","id":"281369bc9df044394a50665f2fb441a5d977b87c"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's prime minister said Monday he will resign to save what he called the country's \"infant democracy.\" Pushpa Kamal Dahal cited a serious political crisis caused by the president's \"unconstitutional\" order. It is the latest fallout over the status of Nepal's army chief, Gen. Rookmangud Katawal. The Maoist government sacked Katawal on Sunday. Hours later, President Ram Baran Yadav reinstated him. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known as Prachanda, resigned on Monday, citing a serious political crisis caused by the president's \"unconstitutional\" order. \"The dual powers that have been unconstitutionally established in the country must end under any circumstance,\" Prachanda said in a televised address announcing he would resign from the country's Cabinet. Prachanda is the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which had been the largest party in Nepal's coalition government until it recently withdrew. The former guerilla leader headed a decade-long bloody Maoist insurgency to abolish the country's monarchy before being sworn in as prime minister in August. In his address on Monday, Prachanda blamed certain political parties and \"power centers\" for \"striking at our democracy, constitution and the peace process by putting the president in the forefront of the controversy over the chief of army staff.\" \"This has raised concerns over our infant democracy and the peace process,\" he said. \"I appeal to the people, civil society and political powers to be committed to the struggle for establishing a democratic Nepal.\" Nepal's interim constitution gives the president powers as supreme commander of the army and guardian of the constitution. Yadav's spokesman said the president had the support of 18 parties in parliament when he reinstated the army chief. The decision to fire Katawal touched off protests. Supporters of both sides in the dispute took to the streets on Sunday. Despite sporadic clashes between the two factions, there were no serious injuries reported. The Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required. The Maoists laid down their arms and won power in 2008 elections after an agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency. Under the deal, more than 19,000 former insurgents were to be integrated into the country's security forces. Journalist Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government calls president's order to keep army chief in office \"unconstitutional\"\nPrime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigns over order .\nMaoist government ordered army chief of staff to be fired after recruitment issue .\nMilitary refused to stop recruiting soldiers while it hasn't accepted ex-Maoist rebels .","id":"618ded2d44da31c66fe8279542a526c0b916bbda"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, withdrew his name from consideration as surgeon general of the United States on Thursday. He spoke to CNN's Larry King about the decision and President Obama's health care plans. Here is an edited transcript: . Dr. Sanjay Gupta says he just returned from India, where he looked into medical tourism. Larry King: But, first, breaking news about CNN's own Dr. Sanjay Gupta, long rumored to be the main candidate for U.S. surgeon general. He's taken himself out of the running. Joins us now here in Los Angeles to talk about it. Why? Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Well, first of all, it was a really tough decision, and a long decision and a long process for sure. And I was incredibly flattered, humbled by the consideration even for the position. I think for me it really came down to a sense of timing more than anything else. You know, I have two daughters. Our third daughter is now imminent. In fact, I have my phone on right here, I might get called off the set. King: As we talk. Gupta: As we talk, my wife is imminent with our third child. You know, this job that we have collectively takes us away from our children for so many years at once, and I sort of came to grips with the fact that I'd probably be away at least the first several years, four or five years -- there's my existing two daughters, one more on the way -- but several years of their lives. And I just didn't feel like I should do that now. And the other thing, let me just add, you know, you know me and a lot of people know me, obviously, as a journalist for CNN, but you know, I continue to practice neurosurgery, Larry. You and I have talked about that, and I... King: You do brain surgery all the time. Gupta: Yes. And it's an important part of my life. And I work at a county hospital. That's the hospital I've chosen to work at in Atlanta [Georgia]. And I really enjoy that. I came to grips with, ironically, that being surgeon general, I probably would not be able to continue to practice surgery. King: How about the cut in pay? Gupta: Well, you know, that's a sacrifice we were willing to make. I think, you know, either you're a public servant or you're not a public servant. I've always been drawn to public service. So that really wasn't a consideration for me. King: Was it an offer or a \"would you consider if\"? Gupta: It's a little bit of a funny thing -- and I've never been through this process before. I guess the formal part of it is when you are nominated. I was not nominated, but I had conversations with the senior-most people that would make an offer, and they told me they wanted me to do this job. So... King: Was it the thought of [Democratic former] Sen. Tom Daschle, who was going to be secretary of health, that you be his surgeon general? Gupta: Well, I did have conversations with him, but you know, the fact that he withdrew did not play as big a role in my mind in terms of not considering the job. Again, I think either you do public service or you don't. You want your job to be as precisely defined as possible, for sure, but that wasn't a major factor. King: The way it was presented, then, you feel that you would have been offered it even if Daschle had not left or had left, no matter what? Gupta: I think so. You know, I mean, you know, I've had a lot of conversations with the White House folks. I think there was a big interest on their part, and obviously they know of my dedication to public service. I think there was a real melding there. King: Do you have anyone you would recommend for that job? Gupta: You know, no one off the top of my head. I mean, I think whoever takes that job really does have to make it a higher-profile job. I mean, this is an important job. I have a great deal of respect for the office and for the commissioned corps. You've seen the work they do. They do life-saving... King: A lot of clout. Gupta: Yes, a lot of clout, life-saving, life-preventing work -- or life-preserving work -- all over the country every single day. And I think that it has to have a little bit of a higher profile. Whoever takes this job has to be out there really advocating the issues of public health. At no time is it probably more important than right now, as we're dealing with health care reform. These issues really go hand in hand. King: Well, their loss is a continuing our gain. Gupta: I appreciate that. King: If I may speak to it. Gupta: I would miss this witty banter for sure, back and forth. King: May I speak for CNN. But you had to be flattered. Gupta: I was flattered. And you know, I have a great deal of respect for that office. And I in no way want people to think that I don't. This is really more about my family and my surgical career. King: Couple other notes. I know you're just back from India. I want to ask about that. Gupta: Yes. King: President Obama held a health care summit [Thursday] at the White House. More than 100 experts, policy makers took part, including some who opposed the Clinton administration's health care reform back in the '90s. Do you support his aims? Gupta: He is drawing an inextricable relationship between the economy and health care. As people talk -- the economy is issue No. 1, as we talk about all the time. But he's making the point, I think, and he has been for some time, even while he was campaigning, that you cannot talk about the economy without talking about health care. The businesses have to provide health care insurance for their employees. It is often very difficult for them to do that, in addition to trying to reach some sort of profit from their product. So I -- that message, I think, has been pretty loud and clear, and I think it is resonating. He's also talking about the fact that you can't fix the health care system without bringing down costs of health care overall. And since you brought it up, I was just in India, and one of the stories that I was doing was about medical tourism. Here is a good example -- 750,000 Americans leave the United States every year to go abroad for life-saving operations. Why? Mainly because of cost. It can be up to a tenth of the cost in some of these countries such as India, such as Singapore. King: Open-heart surgery in India might be one-tenth of what it costs here? Gupta: One-tenth. Hip surgery, neurosurgery. All -- a lot of these various operations. And the real question, and I think it's a question worth exploring, is why? How can they do it so much cheaper? How can they offer good-quality care? I saw it. It is good-quality care. I saw that with my own eyes. What do we have to learn? And how can we use this to help reform our health care system? King: Is there an assumption that we have the best doctors, that we do it better than anybody else, that's an American assumption? Gupta: Yes. And I think, you know, we do provide very good health care for people who have access to it. King: Ah. Gupta: And I think that's part of the problem. King: That's the rub, though, right? Gupta: That is the rub. And I think there are really two schools of thought, which we are going to hopefully distill down, as we talk about this issue more and more. One is, do you revamp the entire health care system? Do you say, look, this health care system is broken, toss it all out, let's start all over again? Or do you say, look, it works pretty well for a fraction of the population. Let's see who it doesn't work for and fix those things only. So don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's target what's broken and focus on that. King: What role in all of this will the new surgeon general play? Gupta: I really don't know. I'm not sure. At one point... King: He would have to be a proponent for it, you would think. Gupta: You know, the surgeon general has an interesting position, and this is something that I learned. It is truly one of the more apolitical positions at that senior level. So they are really the nation's doctor. I think that they really have to focus on making sure that best health practices are constantly known. It's amazing how high the health illiteracy rate remains in this country. To remind people how to best take care of themselves. King: One other thing. Do you think it's going to -- do you think we're going to get a new health care program? Gupta: I think so. It's going to take a long time. I think that it may not even happen within this first term, if there is a second term for him. So I think it's not going to be something that happens certainly overnight. The fact that they had a health care summit this early on I think is probably a good sign of at least his commitment to this issue.","highlights":"Gupta: \"It really came down to a sense of timing\"\nGupta says job would have taken him away too long from family .\nGupta talks about challenges Obama faces in reforming health care .","id":"6a0f9c8a5d0c6e8949b37924163c92923fe5770d"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck southwestern China last year left 5,335 students dead or missing and disabled an additional 546 children, state media reported. A girl fastens wish cards at a middle school at Qushan township earlier this year in memory of students. The first official tally of students killed in the Sichuan province quake was released Thursday by Tu Wentao, the head of the province's education department, the Xinhua news agency said. As of September, official figures put the death toll at 69,227, with more than 17,923 people missing. The tremor struck May 12 about 2:30 p.m., when many children were in school. The official tally of student deaths and injuries was released a few days after an Amnesty International report accused the government of China of intimidating and unlawfully detaining relatives of children who had died in the earthquake. The 52-page report, published Sunday, documented instances in which relatives said they had been detained for up to 21 days for trying to get answers from officials. \"By unlawfully locking up parents of children who died, the government is creating more misery for people who have said in some cases they lost everything in the Sichuan earthquake,\" said Roseann Rife, deputy program director of Amnesty International Asia-Pacific. The report also accused authorities of preventing relatives from complaining to higher officials about the quality of construction in the buildings that had collapsed. The human-rights organization called on Chinese authorities \"to take immediate action to address the grievances of survivors and relatives of those who were killed or injured.\" CNN was not immediately able to get a response to the report from China's Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Justice.","highlights":"In September, officials put death toll at 69,227, with more than 17,923 missing .\nThe tremor struck May 12 at about 2:30 p.m., when many children were in school .\nAmnesty accused China intimidating relatives of children who died in quake .","id":"c50e5e42961a00c77ad5ced06828d461d339448b"} -{"article":"HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- On the tape, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan appears to burn with rage. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, pictured here, allegedly tortured a business associate on videotape. Believing he was cheated in a business deal, the member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family was trying to extract a confession from an Afghan grain dealer. With a private security officer assisting, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan is seen stuffing sand in the Afghan's mouth. As the grain dealer pleads and whimpers, he is beaten with a nailed board, burned in the genitals with a cigarette lighter, shocked with a cattle prod, and led to believe he would be shot. Salt is poured on his wounds. In the end, the victim can muster up only weak moans as an SUV is repeatedly driven over him. The 45 minutes of torture appears on a nearly three-hour-long videotape shot in late 2004 in the desert outside Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf region. It was made at the direction of the sheikh himself. The tape has been viewed by CNN. Now the tape has surfaced as a piece of evidence in a federal civil suit filed in Houston, Texas, against the sheikh by his former business partner, Bassam Nabulsi. As media, U.S. governmental and human rights questions and concerns emerged, Abu Dhabi's government on Tuesday issued a statement saying it deplored the contents of the video and plans an immediate and comprehensive review of it. Nabulsi, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen living in Houston, says he met Sheikh Issa when the royal came to Houston for medical care in 1994. Watch portions of the tape and Nabulsi tell his story \u00bb . According to Nabulsi, the men became friends and business partners, and Sheikh Issa eventually recruited Nabulsi to move to Abu Dhabi to work for him. \"We were buddies,\" said Nabulsi, who met with CNN journalists in Houston. \"He gave me his personal vow. He swore to look after my family in case something happened to me.\" The sheikh, who holds no official government position, is the half-brother of the country's ruler. In the lawsuit, Nabulsi says was disturbed by the sheikh's \"increasingly bizarre behavior\" after the November 2004 death of his father, UAE ruler Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan. Nabulsi's lawsuit says that Sheikh Issa's father \"kept tight control over Sheikh Issa\" but after the father's death, he \"apparently no longer felt constrained.\" Nabulsi claims he confronted his business partner about the Afghan's treatment, telling him that to do such a thing he \"must not be a God-fearing person.\" Nabulsi says his boldness prompted the sheikh to turn on him. Later, Nabulsi was arrested on drug charges. Security officers working for the sheikh ransacked his home and demanded the torture video, Nabulsi claimed. By this point, the tape -- shot by Nabulsi's brother at the order of the sheikh -- had been smuggled out of the country. According to an affidavit, Nabulsi's brother worked for Sheikh Issa as a personal assistant. In 2005, Nabulsi was arrested, jailed and ultimately convicted on drug charges. And, he said, he was tortured and humiliated by UAE police, who demanded he return the tape. \"It was a lot of humiliation,\" Nabulsi told CNN. \"And I really don't like to talk about it.\" Nabulsi was fined and deported. Darryl Bristow, the sheikh's Houston attorney, argued in court papers that American courts have no jurisdiction over his client. In a statement to CNN, Bristow said Nabulsi is using the videotape of a third party, Nabulsi's brother, to influence the court over a business dispute. \"The public should know that the man behind the camera was Bassam Nabulsi's brother and that Bassam Nabulsi kept the video from the media while his lawyer was asking for money. What do you call that where you come from?\" Bristow asked. Nabulsi's attorney denied wrongdoing. The Houston case languished in the U.S. court system after it was filed in 2006 but it eventually moved forward when the sheikh's personal assistant was served with court papers last year. Nabulsi's attorney, Anthony Buzbee, said he has deposed the sheikh, but the deposition is under seal. The case was filed in Houston because the Sheikh Issa-Nabulsi business partnership was formed and focused in Texas and \"claims at issue in this case arose out of contacts within Texas.\" Nabulsi claims breaches of contract and fiduciary duty. He wants $80 million he says is owed to him from their business relationship. He also wants to be awarded punitive damages for torture, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and malicious prosecution. Initially, the UAE Interior Ministry said Sheikh Issa \"does not hold any official position\" in the government and that Nabulsi's lawsuit is \"a private dispute.\" Asked about the torture allegations, the UAE said it investigated and found \"...all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the police department. The review also concluded that the incidents depicted in the videotapes were not part of a pattern of behavior.\" The shocking case has made waves recently as news organizations asked about the tape. U.S. senior officials familiar with the case say the administration is holding off sending a nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates to Congress for ratification because they fear a fallout from the torture story. Congress has to ratify the civil nuclear agreement signed in January between the Bush administration and the UAE. Those senior U.S. officials said the agreement was supposed to be sent to the Senate, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held off doing so because of the story's sensitivity. One American lawmaker, Rep. James McGovern, D-Massachusetts, asked Clinton to investigate and that all \"expenditures of funds, training, sales or transfers of equipment or technology, including nuclear\" to the UAE be put on hold until the matter is reviewed. He also wants the United States to deny any visas for travel by Sheikh Issa or his immediate family. \"I think we have an obligation to say we want to step back a bit and look at this a little more closely,\" said McGovern, co-chairman of the congressional human rights commission. He promised hearings on the issue, probing the case and how the U.S. Embassy in the UAE handled it. \"I am not going to let it go away,\" McGovern said. Human Rights Watch, the humanitarian watchdog group, is calling for the United Arab Emirates to \"investigate and prosecute\" the grain dealer's torture. With media questions about the tape mounting, Abu Dhabi said on Wednesday it decided to renew its inquiries -- more than four years after the incident. As for the grain dealer, UAE officials say he survived the ordeal, and said the sheikh and the grain dealer settled the matter privately by agreeing not to bring formal charges against the other. How much money was the grain dealer accused of stealing from the sheikh? \"It's nothing,\" Nabulsi said. \"No more than about $5,000.\" CNN's Scott Bronstein, Drew Griffin, Stan Grant, Elise Labott, Octavia Nasr, and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former business partner of Sheikh Issa of Abu Dhabi suing royal .\nBassam Nabulsi's tape shows sheikh severely torturing grain merchant .\nNabulsi, of Houston, says he himself was tortured in jail, sheikh owes him $80M .\nU.S. senior officials say case is holding up a U.S. nuclear deal with the UAE .","id":"ade5e1bbb4c4f22a27be5cbee812488ae34673f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The \"best job in the world\" contest has generated huge interest around the globe, but the jury is out on whether that will translate into more tourism dollars for Queensland, Australia. Ben Southall will move into a three-bedroom beach home overlooking the Great Barrier Reef. \"That's the million dollar question,\" said Anthony Hayes, CEO of Tourism Quensland, which sponsored the contest. \"Quite frankly you can have $150 million worth of publicity, but if it doesn't generate sales you've really wasted your time on a pretty story.\" A British man beat 34,000 other applicants Wednesday to win the right to stroll the white sands of a tropical island in Queensland, Australia, file weekly reports online to a global audience and earn a cool $100,000. Watch as lucky winner is revealed \u00bb . For the winner, Ben Southall, the six-month assignment is a far cry from his old job as a fundraiser. \"I love discovering new places,\" Southall said in his hyperkinetic minute-long application video for the position. \"Last year, I drove all around Africa, I crossed deserts, climbed mountains, run marathons, bungee jump, mountain-bike, scuba-dive and snorkel everywhere because I'm practically a fish myself.\" Oh, and he rode an ostrich. He will move into a three-bedroom beach home overlooking the tropical island's Great Barrier Reef. For six months, he will feed the fish, clean the pool and send weekly blog and video reports on what is happening on the island. Other benefits include free return airfares from their nearest capital city, transport on the island, computer and camera gear and travel to other islands. The applicants used various attempts to woo their prospective employer, from wandering round a chilly city center in a bikini, to making their application in the form of a street musical, complete with chorus singers. Sixteen finalists were flown in to Hamilton Island on Monday for interviews with a four-person panel. The job starts July 1. The \"world's best job\" campaign was 18 months in the making as a way to lure more tourism to the 600 islands near the Great Barrier Reef. \"The starting point was how do we get the message out there ... that they're open for business and we want people to come and visit,\" Hayes said. \"The idea of this is to protect jobs throughout our regional parts of Queensland.\"","highlights":"Winner of \"best job\" competition is British citizen Ben Southall .\nTourism Queensland advertised dream island caretaking job for $100,000 .\nSix-month stint involves reporting on the Great Barrier Reef island off Australia .","id":"ba5dbea76469c366465dece06f0826aed059a554"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The days of being cut off from the Internet while you're on a plane are quickly disappearing. An American Airlines passenger uses Wi-Fi to access the Internet during a flight. A number of domestic airlines have recently begun offering Wi-Fi Internet access aboard planes, and other airlines say they are working toward making it happen. \"This is the year\" for Wi-Fi on planes, said Jack Blumenstein, president and CEO of Aircell, whose Gogo\u00ae Inflight Internet service provides access on Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Virgin America flights, and will begin testing on United flights later this year. Gogo is installed on more than 190 commercial planes, and Blumenstein said he expected 1,200 aircraft to have Gogo capability by the end of 2009. For now, Wi-Fi on domestic carriers' planes is limited to flights within North America. Gogo, which operates by transmitting signals from ground-level towers, functions across the United States and up to about 300 miles offshore. The company's access will cover the entire continent within a year or two, Blumenstein said. Row 44, which uses satellite technology to provide connectivity to Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, already covers much of North America and will roll out trans-Atlantic and European service in the third quarter of this year, said the company's CEO, John Guidon. Neither company would release the exact cost of turning airplanes into Wi-Fi hot spots. But Blumenstein said Aircell managed to equip a plane for \"substantially\" less than $100,000. Row 44, which bills itself as the \"industrial-strength solution\" to airplane connectivity, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per plane, Guidon said. Another company, LiveTV, is a subsidiary of JetBlue that provides free e-mail and messaging aboard flights but doesn't offer open Web surfing. LiveTV, which uses air-to-ground technology, provides the service on select JetBlue flights and also is working with Frontier Airlines on offering Internet access aboard its planes. The Wi-Fi venture has the potential to be \"very profitable,\" said Harlan Platt, an airline industry expert and professor of finance at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. \"Normally, air carriers rush to purchase capital equipment that raises their cost but doesn't raise their revenue. ... This is actually a revenue-producing tactic. And it's a good one because it's providing value to the passenger and it's creating incremental revenues for the airline,\" Platt said. Aircell, which shares its revenue from Gogo with the airlines, charges $9.95 for flights under three hours, $12.95 for flights longer than three hours and $7.95 to use a Wi-Fi capable handheld device for any flight length. Passengers can begin using the service once the plane reaches 10,000 feet. If the plane remains in flight for longer than three hours as part of a delay, passengers do not pay the higher fee, Blumenstein said. Platt believes that business model will evolve to entice more passengers to use it. The size of those fees could result in \"a whole segment of the market that they're not going to capture,\" said Platt. The airlines will maximize their profits by convincing more passengers to use the system with a lower price, he said. Platt predicted Aircell and the airlines would create a second tier of service, which would be less expensive but with fewer capabilities. He compared the strategy to airlines' price-reducing tactics to avoid empty seats on planes. As Aircell and Row 44's services expand, LiveTV is monitoring passengers' usage to gauge how to move ahead with its own business model, said Mike Moeller, vice president of sales and marketing for the company. \"Yes, broadband is coming. We're sitting there asking, 'Who pays? Is it the airlines or the customers? And what will they pay? What is the right technology? ... When does all of this happen?' We're in weird economic times,\" Moeller said. As for the possibility of passengers offending their seat-mates by surfing for inappropriate content, Blumenstein said nine months of Wi-Fi availability on American yielded no such incidents. Still, airlines including American, Delta and United have requested screening for potentially offensive content, he said. On the other hand, Alaska Airlines, which uses Row 44, does not plan on using the company's content-blocking capabilities. Instead, flight attendants will follow standard protocol for objectionable material -- they'll ask passengers to stow it away, said Bobbie Egan, an airline spokeswoman. Here is what major U.S. airlines offer, and what is coming up: .","highlights":"Many domestic airlines have begun offering Wi-Fi Internet access aboard planes .\nProvider Aircell expects to have 1,200 planes equipped by the end of this year .\nAnother company, Row 44, says it will have trans-Atlantic Wi-Fi in the third quarter .","id":"4e86c3f75b81de01b2f540e8b880a270fa8a000a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dom DeLuise, who spiced up such movies as \"Blazing Saddles,\" \"Silent Movie\" and \"The Cannonball Run\" with his manic delivery and roly-poly persona, has died, his son's publicist said. Dom DeLuise was best known for his roles in Mel Brooks films as well as films with his friend Burt Reynolds. Publicist Jay Schwartz did not disclose the cause of death, but DeLuise, 75, had been battling cancer for more than a year. DeLuise was surrounded by family when he died in a Santa Monica, California, hospital Monday night, son Michael DeLuise told CNN affiliate KTLA. DeLuise was most famous for his supporting roles in a number of Mel Brooks films, including 1974's \"Saddles\" -- in which he played a flamboyant musical director who led dancers in a number called \"The French Mistake\" -- and 1976's \"Silent Movie,\" in which he played the assistant to Brooks' director Mel Funn. He was also in the Brooks-directed \"The Twelve Chairs\" (1970), \"Spaceballs\" (1987) and \"Robin Hood: Men in Tights\" (1993). But he could also assay more serious roles, most notably in the 1980 dark comedy \"Fatso,\" in which he played an overweight man trying to wean himself from comfort food. The film was directed by Brooks' wife, Anne Bancroft. Watch an impromptu performance by Dom DeLuise \u00bb . DeLuise, who struggled with his own weight, was also an author of cookbooks. In 1991, he told CNN's Larry King that after meeting Luciano Pavarotti while working on an opera, he realized he needed to try to shed some of his weight. \"I finally became powerless over food,\" he told King. \"You know, anybody who's an alcoholic or cocaine or something, that's what food was to me.\" Besides authoring cookbooks, DeLuise penned seven children's books. DeLuise was also part of the supporting cast in the Burt Reynolds crash-'em-up vehicles \"Smokey and the Bandit II\" (1980), \"Cannonball Run\" (1981) and \"Cannonball Run II\" (1984). Other DeLuise films include \"The End\" (1978), \"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas\" (1982) and \"Johnny Dangerously\" (1984). His voice was featured in such films as \"An American Tail\" (1986) and its sequels, \"All Dogs Go to Heaven\" (1989) and its 1996 sequel, and \"Oliver & Company\" (1988). Dominic DeLuise was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 1, 1933. In the 1960s he had bit parts in a handful of movies, including \"Fail Safe\" (1964), but became well known as a regular on \"The Entertainers\" and a Dean Martin variety show. He had his own summer replacement show in 1968 and was a regular on Glen Campbell's \"Goodtime Hour\" in 1971-72. Watch DeLuise talk about working on \"The Mike Douglas Show\" \u00bb . DeLuise had three sons -- Peter, Michael and David -- who all became actors. He told Larry King that it was the \"joy of my life\" to work with his oldest son, Peter, when he directed the film \"Second Nature.\" His wife of 40 years, actress Carol Arthur, appeared in several movies with him, including \"Blazing Saddles\" and \"Silent Movie,\" according to DeLuise's Web site. DeLuise worked closely on several films with pal Gene Wilder, who in 2002 told Larry King that of all of his co-stars, DeLuise \"makes me laugh the most.\" A frequent collaborator with DeLuise, Burt Reynolds released a statement to \"Entertainment Tonight\" on his friend's death. \"I was thinking the other day about this. As you get older you think about this more and more, I was dreading this moment. Dom always made everyone feel better when he was around. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much,\" Reynolds says.","highlights":"Dom DeLuise appeared in several Mel Brooks films and Burt Reynolds movies .\nAmong DeLuise's best-known films: \"Silent Movie,\" \"Cannonball Run\"\nReynolds: \"Dom always made everyone feel better when he was around\"","id":"23e3ba210a9bf374f436360d585308445d4838b7"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's prime minister said Monday he will resign to save what he called the country's \"infant democracy.\" Pushpa Kamal Dahal cited a serious political crisis caused by the president's \"unconstitutional\" order. It is the latest fallout over the status of Nepal's army chief, Gen. Rookmangud Katawal. The Maoist government sacked Katawal on Sunday. Hours later, President Ram Baran Yadav reinstated him. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known as Prachanda, resigned on Monday, citing a serious political crisis caused by the president's \"unconstitutional\" order. \"The dual powers that have been unconstitutionally established in the country must end under any circumstance,\" Prachanda said in a televised address announcing he would resign from the country's Cabinet. Prachanda is the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which had been the largest party in Nepal's coalition government until it recently withdrew. The former guerilla leader headed a decade-long bloody Maoist insurgency to abolish the country's monarchy before being sworn in as prime minister in August. In his address on Monday, Prachanda blamed certain political parties and \"power centers\" for \"striking at our democracy, constitution and the peace process by putting the president in the forefront of the controversy over the chief of army staff.\" \"This has raised concerns over our infant democracy and the peace process,\" he said. \"I appeal to the people, civil society and political powers to be committed to the struggle for establishing a democratic Nepal.\" Nepal's interim constitution gives the president powers as supreme commander of the army and guardian of the constitution. Yadav's spokesman said the president had the support of 18 parties in parliament when he reinstated the army chief. The decision to fire Katawal touched off protests. Supporters of both sides in the dispute took to the streets on Sunday. Despite sporadic clashes between the two factions, there were no serious injuries reported. The Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required. The Maoists laid down their arms and won power in 2008 elections after an agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency. Under the deal, more than 19,000 former insurgents were to be integrated into the country's security forces. Journalist Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government calls president's order to keep army chief in office \"unconstitutional\"\nPrime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigns over order .\nMaoist government ordered army chief of staff to be fired after recruitment issue .\nMilitary refused to stop recruiting soldiers while it hasn't accepted ex-Maoist rebels .","id":"28d0df11ee3ddcf98b990c1c610e89c746c1dea1"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Look out for cancellation penalties. Beware of energy surcharges. And watch for facilities fees. Hertz lost $73 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. No, not on your airline ticket. Not on your hotel folio. You may find these new extras on your next car rental bill. Beleaguered auto rental firms are quietly adding new surcharges designed to lift revenues in a recessionary economy. To get an idea of how absurd it's becoming meet Jim Swofford. He found a mysterious $5 fee on his Hertz bill recently, which a representative described as a cancellation fee. Car rental companies typically don't charge their customers for cancellations, so Swofford, who frequently rents from Hertz, said he didn't want another car he'd reserved for later. \"That'll be $25,\" the agent told him. \"So I jokingly said I would not cancel but just be a no-show,\" he remembers. \"She said that would result in a $50 fee.\" Or talk to Eric Hegwer, a photographer from Austin, Texas, who spotted a $1 \"energy surcharge\" on his Hertz car rental bill recently. \"My previous rentals didn't have one,\" he says. I asked Hertz about the two new surcharges. Company spokeswoman Paula Rivera told me the cancellation fee, which was added in December, applied only to prepaid reservations and is meant to \"reimburse Hertz for the paperwork and billing involved with a prepaid reservation.\" The fee also covers part of the company's cost of holding vehicles for prepaid reservations. The energy surcharge, which was added in October, bills all rentals in most states an additional $1 a day \"to offset the increasing costs of utilities, bus fuel, oil and grease,\" she said. It's easy to see why car rental companies are taking these steps. The industry is hemorrhaging money faster than oil leaking from a cracked gasket. Hertz lost $73 million in the fourth quarter, and competitor Avis lost $121 million in the same period. They fared much better than Advantage Rent A Car, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December and whose assets were sold to Hertz for a reported $33 million. Every penny counts for the car rental companies. Then again, in this dreadful economy, who isn't counting every cent? Shocking anecdotes aside, there's a pattern here, and you don't have to be an investigative reporter or a conspiracy theory-obsessed columnist to see it. Just read the annual reports issued by one of the publicly traded car rental companies. (Look for the form 10-K and then scroll down to \"Legal Proceedings\" for an enlightening read.) They're littered with lawsuits over fees, surcharges and add-ons that motorists say broadsided them when they rented a car. A representative of the American Car Rental Association, a trade group for the car rental business, says these fees are essential to the industry's survival. But that doesn't give companies a license to surprise their customers. \"The car rental company has an obligation to clearly and concisely explain all fees and charges at the time of rental, \" says Robert Barton, the association's president and chief operating officer for U-Save Car & Truck Rental. How to stay ahead of these extras? Knowing is half the battle. Here are five of the newer charges that could sideswipe you on your next trip. A fee for something you've already paid for . This is one of the more creative new ways of separating you from your money: charging you twice for the same thing. \"Three times now, with three different companies, they have tried to charge me for gas when I've returned the car with a full tank and claimed it was an honest mistake,\" says Sid Savara, a software engineer in Oahu, Hawaii. \"It leads me to suspect they are just tacking the fee on and most people aren't noticing or complaining about it.\" Boston-based author John DiPietro brought his own E-ZPass toll transponder when he rented a car in Massachusetts recently, but Budget billed him for the toll roads anyway. \"We're still trying to resolve it,\" he told me. Now more than ever, it's important to be on the lookout for duplicate charges on your rental bill. A fee for something that should come with the car . Such as tires. Enterprise recently charged one of Edgar Dworsky's readers a $2 \"tire fee.\" He edits a Web site called Consumer World, and like me, he hears a lot of horror stories from travelers. What's a tire fee? Enterprise told Dworsky it was required by the state of Florida. \"I guess the consumer advice is to order a car without tires next time,\" he joked. But other fees can't be blamed on the state, including surcharges that cover the cost of oil and grease. It might be interesting to show up at a car rental counter with four tires and a can of Pennzoil, and ask to have those fees waived. You think they would do it? Yeah, neither do I. Surcharge on surcharges . Scott Lerman found a \"privilege fee\" on his last car rental in Florida, which applied to rentals picked up within 48 hours of flight arrival. \"Never seen anything like it,\" says the Livingston, New Jersey-based freelance publicist. (The fee covers the costs of operating an off-airport location.) Other renters have reported seeing a similar surcharge combined with what's often called a concession recovery fee, which amounts to a surcharge on top of a surcharge. At best, car rental companies are coming up with new and confusing names for their fees. At worst, they're charging us a fee on top of another fee. Next thing you know, there'll be a surcharge on a surcharge on top of a surcharge. Don't laugh -- I'm sure they've already thought of it. The stadium tax . Fees for new stadiums and concert halls are technically not new, and technically they're not even controlled by car rental companies. Except that municipalities keep coming up with new ones and car rental companies don't lobby hard enough to have the fees removed. So rental firms are not completely blameless. Seth Mendelsohn, the president of a food store in Boulder, Colorado, found a $4 \"downtown arena\" fee on his bill when he visited Kansas City recently. \"Apparently the city is trying to pay for part of the Sprint Center through car rental fees,\" he told me. There are dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of these so-called stadium taxes across the country. And new ones keep popping up. One of the latest is a car rental tax in Gwinnett County, Georgia, to build a stadium for the Atlanta Braves. And just last week, legislators proposed a $2 tax to fund commuter rail service in South Florida. Extra driver fees . These aren't brand new, but the way in which they're being enforced has changed recently. When Carol Stevenson and her sister rented a car from Payless in Phoenix, they were asked to pay $9 a day more if Stevenson's sister wanted to drive. \"And that didn't include their insurance waiver,\" she remembers. Why charge for an extra driver? The simple answer: because they can. In the past, car rental agents looked the other way when two drivers showed up to rent the same car. But now, with money tight, they're applying more pressure to authorize a second driver. If you don't fork over the money and happen to get into an accident, they warn, you won't be covered by their insurance. Of course, that assumes you buy their overpriced collision-damage waiver in the first place. Odds are, your credit card or car insurance offers comparable coverage. Most of these fees can be avoided by pre-paying for your car through one of the \"opaque\" travel sites such as Hotwire.com or Priceline.com, or by buying through an online travel agency that guarantees its rates. But car rental companies are trying to find a way to stick it to customers with prepaid vouchers, too. I'll have more on that in a future column. Where will it end? Something tells me we're not there yet. Not even close. (Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. This column originally appeared on MSNBC.com. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org). \u00a9 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Beleaguered car rental firms are quietly adding \"absurd\" new surcharges .\nCharges include: \"Cancellation fee,\" \"energy surcharge,\" \"tire fee,\" \"privilege fee\"\nEconomy resulted in Hertz losing $73 million in Q4; Avis lost $121 million .","id":"ca012876b5b6faf014d03f46e0e0537cc4fddfd0"} -{"article":"HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNN) -- To feel the vibrancy of Ho Chi Minh City, all you have to do is step out onto a bustling city street. Step to it: Walking through the city's streets is the best way to see it. Negotiating the roads, chock full of motorbikes and an increasing number of cars, can be daunting. But copy the fearless locals -- they don't break stride and never retreat -- and put your fate in the hands, or throttle, of the city's drivers who seems masterful at avoiding each other. A good place to kick off a visit is on one of the main drags, Le Loi, a street that runs through the heart of the city. Near one end is the picturesque Opera House, as well as the majestic City Hall or \"People's Committee Building\" (this is still a communist country of course). You shouldn't have to do too much motorbike dodging down Lei Loi and after just a 15 minute stroll from City Hall is the famed Cho Ben Thanh Market. However give yourself more time to stop into galleries or buy a classic piece of communist propaganda along the way. The hundreds of stalls at Cho Ben Thanh offer a mix of traditional culture and tourist kitsch. You can sit with the locals and sip a solid jolt of Vietnamese coffee then move on to shopping for touristy T-shirts and \"authentic chopsticks\". Many of the stalls feature signs saying the prices are fixed. But if you're prepared to drive a hard bargain, or buy in bulk, that idea can be amended. It's also worth a return trip later on in the evening when the market closes and street side restaurants spring up, offering great meals at cheap prices. If you're looking to get away from the strip of Western hotels in the city center, hail a cab and head over to Cholon, or Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown. In the late 18th century, this enclave was actually a separate city from old Saigon but the two were united in the early 1930's. Today Cholon is home to the Binh Tay Market, which the locals call \"Cho Lon.\" Just don't confuse it with Ben Thanh, or you'll be right back where you started. The area is filled with plenty of local color and is a photographer's dream. Despite mass consumption of bottled water and the finest sunscreen, you'll need to find a way to beat the heat in Ho Chi Minh City. One of the best ways is to make regular stops at any restaurant or caf\u00e9 for a refreshing lime soda. A bowl of the traditional Pho (pronounced \"fuh\") is also a must. It's said that this simple dish -- consisting of noodles, beef and broth -- was created at food stalls in Hanoi nearly a century ago. But even in Ho Chi Minh you need to walk only a few feet before coming across a food joint claiming to serve the city's best Pho. In a place with stifling heat and the motorbike madness, an afternoon rest is a wise move, especially if you want to partake in the nightlife. Another dose of Vietnamese coffee will surely have you revived in no time. Or, if you're in need of some pampering, try a foot massage at any of the countless establishments -- to play it safe and avoid \"additional services\" get a suggestion from any hotel concierge. Is Ho Chi Minh City the most exciting city in Asia for a short break? Have you say in the \"Sound Off\" box below. If you're keen to try to play foreign correspondent -- or at least see where they gathered during the days of the Vietnam War - look no further than the Rex Hotel on Nguyen Hue Boulevard. The drinks are wildly overpriced and the crowd seems to be on the \"5 Asian Cities in 7 Days\" tour, but its large rooftop does offer a great bird's eye view of the lively streets below. The nearby Temple Club on Ton That Thiep Street offers a quieter setting for a cocktail. Diners also give great reviews for the food. Afterwards, stroll over to Vasco's on Hai Ba Trung Street. The French colonial style building features bands playing away upstairs with large lounges on the veranda, while downstairs you can settle in for a more mellow night. If your 24 hours in Ho Chi Minh City happens to turn into 36 or 48, arrange a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 70 kilometers Northwest of the city. The Viet Cong built this maze of passageways, which served as supply lines, during the Vietnam War. The narrow tunnels snake underground for a staggering 200 kilometers. Not only can you take a stroll, or crawl, through a few parts of it, you'll also be served a unique dose of communist propaganda. Most trips to Cu Chi also include a stop at the very colorful and unique Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh. If these options don't hit the mark, you can always accept an offer from one of the countless \"moto drivers.\" They'll have you on the back of their bike and whizzing through the streets in no time. Just hold on tight. And maybe close your eyes.","highlights":"The city is buzzing with motorbikes, so be quick to get up to speed .\nAll the sights, smells and color of the city can be found around Cho Ben Thanh .\nTake a break from the heat and traffic with regular pit stops for delicious local food .","id":"5e715e8e1065fbe0e3dd5f86ad7ec017b235b270"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama's ambitious strategy for Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, dubbed \"Afpak\" by administration officials, will face its first test Wednesday when he meets with the leaders of both countries -- neither of which is seen as able to maintain stability and fight strengthening Islamic insurgencies. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will meet with Afghanistan's president and President Obama. The president will meet separately with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari before holding a joint session with the two leaders. The leaders also will hold talks at the State Department, FBI, CIA and on Capitol Hill. Obama will try to build an enduring regional alliance with both countries, enlisting them as full partners rather than treating them as battlefields for U.S. soldiers to fight extremists. But both leaders are seen as weak and are deeply unpopular back home. The Taliban has re-emerged to retake large swaths of Afghanistan, and in recent weeks, Taliban fighters have made alarming advances in Pakistan. Just last week, the State Department warned that al Qaeda continues to enjoy safe haven along the rugged border between the countries, where al Qaeda plots attacks against the U.S. and its allies. U.S. concern has focused on Pakistan, which Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, on Monday aptly warned has its \"pants on fire.\" In Pakistan's Swat Valley, the government's recent peace deal with militants pushing for the establishment of strict Islamic law went awry, allowing the Taliban to advance within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad. The government's initial inaction prompted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to accuse Islamabad of abdicating to terrorists. Obama also expressed concern about the fragility of Zardari's government. Richard Holbrooke, Obama's formidable point man for Afpak, insists Pakistan isn't a failed state. Yet there is plenty of concern in Washington that Zardari's government could fall, leaving Pakistan's considerable nuclear arsenal at risk. Holbrooke also played down reports the U.S. is courting Zardari's main political rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Rather, officials say the U.S. wants the two men to work together, which would divert Zardari's attention away from domestic political squabbles and enable him to unite the country in the fight against extremists. This is the U.S. main challenge -- persuading Pakistan to focus on what it considers a \"mortal threat,\" and not on what Obama himself has called the Pakistani military's misguided \"obsession\" with neighboring India. The Taliban advances seem to have delivered a wake-up call to the government, which has launched an offensive against the militants. To help, Obama has asked Congress to quickly approve hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to help the Pakistanis combat the insurgency and is supporting a $7.5 billion civilian aid package over the next five years. Concerned about reports that the Pakistani military is working at cross-purposes and, in some cases, aiding the Taliban, Congress is trying to condition the money on progress made by Pakistani forces in rooting out extremists. A key component of the U.S. strategy is a surge in civilian assistance to boost domestic support for both governments. In an effort to promote more economic development and cooperation between the U.S. and the two countries, the ministers of agriculture and finance from both countries have been invited to Washington to join the talks. While the U.S. focus clearly has been on Pakistan, violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest levels since Taliban forces were driven from power after the U.S. invaded in the fall of 2001 in response to the 9\/11 terror attacks. The U.S. wants to ensure stability in the lead-up to August elections, which is why Obama has committed 21,000 additional troops, in addition to the much needed economic assistance. Since talking office in January, Obama and other U.S. officials have been tough on Karzai, criticizing his government as ineffective and weak on corruption. Karzai further angered U.S. officials this week when he named Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a powerful warlord accused of violating human rights, as his vice presidential running mate, despite warnings from Secretary of State Clinton that Fahim would be a polarizing choice. But despite the belief by many in Washington it is time for Karzai to go, the Afghan president arrived this week in Washington virtually assured re-election, having persuaded his main opposition not to run against him. In a speech Tuesday, Karzai wisely said \"money can't buy you love\" and \"force won't buy you obedience\" Those sentiments illustrate one of the deficits in Obama's strategy. While the U.S. hopes the additional assistance will turn both leaders into reliable allies, the administration has yet to unveil a plan for communicating directly to the Afghan and Pakistani populations, both of which are skeptical of the U.S. intentions toward their countries. Additionally, the U.S. has focused its diplomacy so far on officials at the federal level, and efforts to establish strong and regular lines of communication with provincial government officials are in their infancy. That has contributed to the lack of U.S. influence in Pakistan during the Taliban's recent advances in the Northwest Frontier. Creating and implementing an effective strategy toward Afghanistan, and more importantly, Pakistan, is proving to be one of the most challenging, yet important, foreign policy issues facing the Obama administration. Wednesday's talks will be the first indicator as to whether the U.S. has two partners in what has been dubbed \"Obama's war.\" CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama to meet with leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan on Wednesday .\nPresident's ambitious agenda for nations faces its first critical test .\nRecent Taliban gains in nuclear-armed Pakistan especially worrisome .\nAnalysis: Lack of influence with the populace could weaken Obama's hand .","id":"b473dc73786cc0a3fd8ff44117939d1a3ce132ec"} -{"article":"LONDON (CNN) -- The latest video from Somalia's al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab wing is as slickly produced as a reality TV show but with a startling message -- complete with a hip-hop jihad vibe. Experts think Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed \"The American\" by al Qaeda, speaks in the Somali video. \"Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell,\" the unidentified voice raps on the video, which runs at least 18 minutes. The video also shows a man reported to be Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed \"The American\" by al Qaeda. He apparently is now in Somalia training and counseling Somalis from North America and Europe. He speaks in American English. \"Away from your family, away from our friends, away from ice, candy bars, all those things is because we're waiting to meet the enemy,\" says the man believed to be al-Amriki. Watch part of the video \u00bb . Intelligence experts say the video was probably made in recent weeks and comes on the heels of an audio message in March purportedly from Osama bin Laden. In that recording, the al Qaeda leader calls on his \"Muslim brothers in Mujahid Somalia\" to overthrow President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed for cooperating with the West. Al-Shabaab is the militant Islamic wing in Somalia. It means \"Youth\" in Arabic. \"We're seeing perhaps their most sophisticated attempt so far to really reach an audience of potential recruits in America, and that's one of the things that made that video very significant,\" said Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a Washington-based research group that tracks al Qaeda's development and messages. \"They're casting it in a way that's going to speak to the youth of today,\" Venzke said. \"Most of the time, what we're seeing in their videos directly parallels what the groups are doing operationally, what they are targeting, where they're recruiting.\" Sheik Ahmed Matan knows that firsthand. A respected member of Britain's Somali community, Matan said he knows of hundreds of young Somali men who have returned to Somalia for terrorist training. \"A lot of young people from here, from America, from Canada, from everywhere from Europe -- they went there,\" he said. He added that these men are capable of being sent back home to conduct terrorist operations, even suicide bombings. \"It can be, they can train anytime and send them here, anytime,\" Matan said. Somalis from North America and Europe are beginning to come to terms with the problem of recruitment, he said. The United States and British governments say Somalia is an emerging terror hot spot, which could pose a threat beyond its borders. Matan said he often challenges \"recruiters\" at mosques and elsewhere in Britain, demanding that they stop brainwashing younger Somalis about Islam. He said the government should play a greater role in monitoring what is said and done at these mosques -- but, he concedes, doing so has proved highly controversial in Britain and throughout Europe. There is some evidence that al Qaeda is successfully preying on some of those with Western backgrounds. One of them was a business student from London who suddenly left for Somalia. He surfaced about 18 months ago on a martyrdom video, just before blowing himself up in southern Somalia, killing at least 20 people, officials say. U.S. Defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said months ago that one of their worst nightmares would be al Qaeda operating freely in Somalia. Now that nightmare continues, with Somalis in North America and Europe admitting that al Qaeda's reach is spreading. Venzke said Al-Shabaab has put out more videos than ever before in the past year. \"If that's what they're doing publicly, we can only assume how their operations have developed,\" he said.","highlights":"Al Qaeda's Somali arm has hip-hop jihad rap and message from \"American\"\nIntel expert says group is trying \"to reach audience of potential recruits in America\"\nVideo comes on the heels of purported bin Laden message on Somalia .","id":"cbd3f8c135470ff1667883296c8000d47b0611d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Trains and text messages made a deadly combination when two locomotives collided head-on last year near Los Angeles, California, witnesses told an investigative panel this week. Firefighters and investigators inspect the wreckage a day after a train collision in California killed 25 people. Metrolink commuter train engineer Robert Sanchez missed a stop signal while trading text messages with a friend on September 12, leading to a collision with a Union Pacific freight train that killed Sanchez and 24 other people in Chatsworth, California. The accident injured 101 people and caused $10.6 million in damages, according to a report by federal investigators. One National Transportation Safety Board member worries other disasters loom on the nation's rail system. \"One train, one day, one crew. It raises questions for me as to what the heck else is going on out there,\" said Kitty Higgins, chairwoman of a two-day NTSB hearing in Washington on the accident. Sanchez violated his employer's safety rules by even having a cell phone in the cab of the locomotive, a supervisor testified. Watch what investigators found \u00bb . Phone records show Sanchez was not only texting a friend just 22 seconds before the collision, but he also had made plans to allow the same friend to actually operate the train. This was a text conversation four days before the crash: . [Sanchez to friend]: \"I'm REALLY looking forward to getting you in the cab and showing you how to run a locomotive.\" [Friend to Sanchez]: \"OMG dude me too. Running a locomotive. Having all of that in the palms of my hands.\" [Sanchez to friend]: \"I'm gonna do all the radio talkin'...ur gonna run the locomotive & I'm gonna tell u how to do it. \" At the hearing, officials said Sanchez had been caught with a cell phone twice before. Once another employee turned him in, another time a manager called his phone to see if it was with him in the train cab. \"The engineer's cell phone rang. It was in his briefcase on the other side of the train. I told the engineer that he was in violation of our policy,\" Rick Dahl, who was a safety manager with Metrolink at the time of the accident, told the NTSB investigative panel. Federal regulations do not cover cell phone use by train crews. Records also indicate Sanchez previously had allowed unauthorized people to ride in the cab, and one person even sat at the controls while the train was operating, investigators said. Phone company records indicate the Union Pacific freight train conductor, who was not named and who survived, also sent a text message about two minutes before the collision, but no other crew member sent or received any messages while on duty, investigators said. That train crew followed all signals and other procedures properly, according to an NTSB timeline. The Metrolink train stopped at a station for 57 seconds to allow passengers to exit and board the train, according to an animation of the timeline presented at the hearing. \"The engineer is required to call all signals and indications via radio,\" Dahl testified. Sanchez did not call any of the last three signals before the crash, investigators determined. The freight train was supposed to move onto a siding to allow the Metrolink train to pass, but it never got there because the commuter train ignored a stop signal and intercepted it at a curve. The freight train was just emerging from a tunnel in the rugged Topanga Canyon, and the trains were visible to each other in the curve for only about five seconds, according to the report. At the time of impact, the Metrolink train was traveling about 42 mph and the Union Pacific train 41 mph. The freight train braked for two seconds before impact; the commuter train didn't brake at all, according to onboard data recorders. Investigators found no problems with the signals, the trains' brakes and radios or the tracks. The Union Pacific conductor's blood and urine tested positive for marijuana, but no other crew member's from either train did. A final report on the Southern California crash is months away. A month after the crash, former President Bush signed into law a bill requiring the railroad industry to implement by 2016 a rail-traffic control system akin to the familiar air-traffic control system in the nation's airports. Such a system had been on the NTSB's \"wish list\" since 1990, an agency press release said. \"Many lives will be saved as a result of this legislation,\" NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said at the time. CNN's Ted Rowlands and Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NTSB: Train engineer missed stop signal just before crash .\nSeptember crash in California killed 25, injured 101 .\nRailroad rules prohibit cell phone use; federal regulations don't .\nEngineer planned to let friend operate train, records indicate .","id":"2563703f10fc562819f1c5224a8a53339cafad8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Terrell Owens, a former San Francisco 49er and a former Philadelphia Eagle, is now a former Dallas Cowboy. The Cowboys released Owens late Wednesday, according to published reports. The Dallas Cowboys have decided to part ways with wide receiver Terrell Owens, according to published reports. Questions surrounding the future of the controversial wide receiver have swirled since the Cowboys' season ended with a 44-6 loss at Philadelphia that kept Dallas out of the playoffs. Owner Jerry Jones had said in recent weeks that he had not decided whether to keep or release Owens. In early February, Jones struck down an ESPN report that Jones' son, Stephen, who is the team's vice president, was lobbying his father to cut the wide receiver. Owens signed a three-year, $25 million contract with Dallas in March 2006. He signed a new four-year, $34 million deal that included a $12 million signing bonus, in June 2008. Owens finished the 2008 season 69 receptions for 1,052 yards and 10 touchdowns. In Owens' three seasons with the team, the Cowboys went 31-17, but 0-2 in the playoffs. While Owens has produced solid numbers on the field, his career has been plagued with controversy. After Owens left the San Francisco 49ers in 2003, he insinuated in an interview with Playboy magazine that his then-quarterback, Jeff Garcia, was homosexual. As a Philadelphia Eagle, Owens made headlines for coming back to play in Super Bowl XXX after suffering a severely sprained ankle and a fractured fibula weeks earlier. The following season, he voiced his displeasure with QB Donovan McNabb and Eagles management, which led to a four-game suspension without pay and his eventual deactivitation from the team. In September 2006, police responded to Owens' home after his publicist found the wide receiver unresponsive with an empty bottle of painkillers. Owens refuted reports that it was a suicide attempt and claimed a combination of painkillers and supplements made him groggy. This past season, Owens was reportedly jealous of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo's relationship with tight end Jason Witten. According to published reports, Owens believed Romo and Witten held private meetings and created plays without including him. Published reports also said Owens had issues with Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett's play-calling. -- CNN.com's Kamal Wallace contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sources: Dallas Cowboys release wide receiver Terrell Owens .\nOwens signed new four-year, $34 million deal in June 2008 .\nOwens' career has been plagued by controversy .","id":"d95ef25a7c606976ce8eeb7007dd4915b8d0810e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Around 200 new species of frogs have been found in Madagascar, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. A study has found nearly 200 new species of frogs in Madagascar. A study identified between 129 and 221 new species of frogs on the island. The Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), who carried out the study, believe the find could practically double the number of amphibians known in the world if the results are extrapolated at a global scale. The study, published in the journal \"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA,\" suggests that the number of amphibian species in Madagascar has been significantly underestimated. \"The diversity of species in Madagascar is far from being known and there is still a lot of scientific research to be done. Our data suggest that the number of new species of amphibians not only has been underestimated but it is spatially widespread, even in well studied areas,\" said Professor David R. Vieites, CSIC researcher to the press at the Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum in Madrid. \"For example, two of the most visited and studied national parks, Ranomafana and Mantad\u00eda\/Analamazaotra, harbor 31 and 10 new species respectively.\" Dr. Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Zoologische Staatssammlung from Munich was part of the research team: \"During the past 15 years, we discovered and described over 100 new frog species from Madagascar, which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete. But as our new surveys show, there are many more species than we suspected,\" he said in a press statement. The paper suggests that the total biodiversity on the island could be much higher in other species as well, so the actual destruction of natural habitats may be affecting more animals than previously thought. This has important consequences for conservation planning, as the rate of destruction of rainforests in Madagascar has been one of the highest in the planet, with more than 80 percent of the historic surface of rainforest already lost, according to the study's authors. Almost a quarter of the new species discovered have not been found yet in protected areas, but the unstable political situation in Madagascar has also been cited as hampering conservation efforts. \"Although a lot of reserves and national parks have been created in Madagascar during the last decade, the actual situation of politic instability is allowing the cut of the forest within national parks, generating a lot of uncertainty about the future of the planned network of protected areas\", said Vieites. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and one of the most biodiverse areas globally, with a high degree of endemic species. \"To get an idea of its biodiversity --while in the Iberian Peninsula [there] are about 30 species of amphibians and in Germany about 20, in a single locality in Madagascar we can find around 100 species of frogs,\" said Vieites. Dr. Miguel Vences, professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, who was also part of the study team, and believes that a century of new species discovery is just beginning: \"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet. But the majority of life forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition.\"","highlights":"Nearly 200 new species of amphibians found on biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar .\nStudy found many outside of the island's conservation areas .\nPolitical instability in the country makes conservation efforts extra difficult .","id":"18677a3f6da0e49ffef4fc53520806af9faa7bde"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Turkish Airlines plane that crashed this week in Amsterdam fell almost vertically to the ground, making only a short track in the muddy farmer's field where it went down, Dutch investigators said Friday. Dutch investigators continue to probe the crash site for more clues. That sudden drop indicates the aircraft did not have enough forward speed when it crashed, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board said, but the reasons for that are still unclear. It is too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, spokesman Fred Sanders told CNN. Reports that it was caused by engine failure are premature, he said. \"There must have been ... reasons why the plane did not get enough speed,\" Sanders said. \"We don't know yet why this came about, and that's the main thing that will have to be investigated.\" Wednesday's crash of Flight 1951 from Istanbul, Turkey, to Amsterdam killed nine and injured more than 60 of the 135 people on board. The crash, less than 500 yards short of the runway, split the plane into three parts. Watch crash survivors return home \u00bb . Weather conditions at the time were favorable. Passengers described feeling the plane suddenly drop before impact, and at least one passenger said he heard the pilot trying to give more power to the engines before the plane went down. Safety Board specialists are analyzing the flight data and voice recorders and expect to finish their work at the crash site this weekend, Sanders said. Pieces relevant to the probe will be brought to a hangar at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for further analysis. Watch how survivors described crash \u00bb . The Safety Board may release preliminary findings next week, Sanders said. The nine dead included five Turks and four Americans, said Theo Weterings, the mayor of Haarlemmermeer municipality, where the airport is located. See where 737-800 has been involved in previous incidents \u00bb . There were four Boeing employees on the flight, and three were killed, the company said Friday in a posting on its Web site, citing the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam as its source. The fourth employee is hospitalized. The flight's pilot, Captain Hasan Tahsin Arisan, with more than 12,000 hours in the cockpit of Boeing 737s, also died. Before becoming the pilot of passenger planes, Arisan was a Turkish Air Force squadron commander and F-4 Phantom Fighter pilot, famed for engaging in mock dog-fights with rival Greek pilots over the Aegean Sea. An airline workers union mired in an ugly labor dispute with Turkish Airlines called Friday for the resignation of the company's top management, as well as the sacking of top government ministers. Atilay Aycin, the chairman of Hava-Is which claims to represent 12,000 workers, denounced Turkish Airlines executives at a news conference Friday, accusing them of \"failing to manage a crisis\" and calling Wednesday's plane crash \"work-related murder.\" A week before the accident, Hava-Is published a statement that accused Turkish Airlines management of \"inviting a disaster\" by \"ignoring the most basic function of flight safety, which is plane maintenance services.\" After the crash, Turkish newspapers reported the Boeing 737 had had a series of malfunctions in the days and weeks before the fatal flight. Turkish Airlines defended its maintenance record. \"Turkish Airlines, which strictly follows its work on flight safety, followed all the maintenance procedures of the plane manufacturer [and] national and international authorities' directives for this plane,\" an airline statement said. In its news release, Turkish Airlines noted a signal light and a wing-flap had recently been replaced on the aircraft. Turkey's flagship airline is well-rated internationally for its overall safety record. Some aviation industry experts in Turkey have played down the critical comments coming from Hava-Is, calling them overheated rhetoric. \"These are just political slogans,\" said Savas Sen, a Turkish Airlines pilot and the head of Turkey Airline Pilots' Association. \"It's just like an argument between a child and his father.\"","highlights":"NEW: Dead pilot used to engage in mock dog fights when in Turkish air force .\nInvestigators: Turkish Airlines plane fell almost vertically to ground .\nSudden drop indicates aircraft did not have enough forward speed, official says .\nThree Boeing employees killed, one remains hospitalized, company says .","id":"a2f0b1c374aa6a85160628e45c17fd0188fd46cf"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Tim Roth is in an abandoned building near downtown Los Angeles, and he's about to mix things up. British actor Tim Roth plays a human lie detector on the hit series \"Lie to Me.\" \"This is a scene where the FBI is interrogating a suspect,\" Roth said. \"I'm breaking into the interrogation to get information out of him using the sort of techniques that my character espouses as opposed to pressuring him.\" Roth, who plays Dr. Cal Lightman on the hit Fox series \"Lie to Me,\" is shooting scenes for the season finale, which will air May 13. His character is an expert on body language and the detection of deception. \"Our series is based on the idea that we can read what's going on across your face and if it's contradicting what you're actually saying,\" Roth said. Lightman and his colleague, Dr. Gillian Foster -- played by Kelli Williams -- run \"The Lightman Group.\" They observe body language and interpret what it means in order to help law enforcement agencies see through the bull. His character is based on Dr. Paul Ekman, a specialist who reads clues embedded in the human face, body and voice to expose the truth in criminal investigations. Ekman, who in 2001 was named as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century by the American Psychological Association, is a scientific consultant for the show. Roth says Ekman can be intimidating. \"He makes me very, very nervous, Paul, you know,\" he said. \"I mean, he's the sweetest man, as sweet as can be, but when he's around, you feel like your acting is really being judged.\" Roth is perhaps best known for his outings with famed director Quentin Tarantino. The British actor pulled off a convincing American accent in the cult classics \"Reservoir Dogs\" and \"Pulp Fiction.\" He uses his true-Brit accent in \"Lie to Me,\" which debuted in January and is one of the season's few successful new dramas. In a review for Entertainment Weekly, critic-at-large Ken Tucker wrote that \"Like 'Monk' and 'Psych' and 'The Mentalist,' 'Lie' offers us an eccentric who's brought in by law enforcement to solve crimes.\" Though he gave the show a B-minus, Tucker praised Roth for \"resist[ing] the cuddly\/cranky.\" The show has quickly found its fan base, though ratings have declined slightly since the show was put in its 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot, ahead of \"American Idol.\" (The first five episodes aired after \"Idol.\") \"I got stopped because one of my lights was out and I was coming back from work and the guy, the cop that stopped me said 'Oh, we watch your show' and they seemed to enjoy it,\" said Roth. \"ER\" alum Mekhi Phifer is set to join the cast as an FBI agent for two episodes this season, starting Thursday. \"I'm here to kick ass and take names, you know. So it's kind of different,\" Phifer said. \"It's fun, you know. Obviously, I carry a gun and I'm in law enforcement rather than being a doctor.\" Phifer particularly likes acting in intense scenes with Roth. \"I have my own way of doing it,\" he said. \"It's a little different than the way Tim does it. It's a lot of fun, and we're having a great time.\" And will time spent on the show help Phifer better detect when people are lying to him in real life? \"It's going to take a few more episodes, but I'm pretty perceptive,\" he said. Roth, however, makes no claims of special powers -- at least when he's away from the set. \"I try not to know too much, because it actually is quite extraordinary,\" he says. \"When you watch politicians on TV, you can use the stuff that Paul does to see if they're lying or not. I try not to take it home.\"","highlights":"British actor Tim Roth stars in the hit Fox series \"Lie to Me\"\nActor best known for his appearances in Quentin Tarantino films .\nRoth plays a body language expert who can detect liars .\n\"ER\" alum Mekhi Phifer is set to join the cast .","id":"010178277d04a94875853b0db1e58cc7846f7f70"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Consumers in Beijing's malls and shops are shunning the milk and poultry sections -- for good reasons. Poultry products, including eggs, may be contaminated with melamine through animal food. They are shocked and scared by the news headlines: some food produced in China is tainted with melamine. \"Of course I'm worried,\" says a woman shopping in Nanxiaojie Market. Stop eating eggs? \"That's not possible,\" she tells CNN. \"If there's a problem with eggs, it should be solved fundamentally.\" Chinese premier Wen Jiabao says China will take steps to win back consumers. \"We will use our actions and high quality of our food products to win the trust and confidence of Chinese people and people around the world,\" he told reporters at the end of a two-day summit of Asian and European leaders in Beijing last weekend. Watch more about the tainted food scandal \u00bb . \"Three minister-level officials have resigned and a government investigation is going on. Whoever is responsible must be brought to justice. We need to protect the Made in China brand,\" said Chinese analyst Victor Gao. But the problem could be more pervasive. The state-run Nanfang Daily published an investigative story saying that adding melamine into animal feed has become an \"open secret.\" The report said adding melamine into feed started in the aquatic farming industry five years ago, as a way of faking higher protein levels. Learn more about chemical melamine \u00bb . It then spread into other agro-industries such as poultry. Even more shocking is the allegation that the melamine added is from industrial waste material. CNN contacted the Ministry of Agriculture about the story, but got no immediate response. Two years ago, reports revealed pet food exported from China to the United States was spiked with melamine and had sickened and killed dogs. Several weeks ago, the food scandal spread to milk, biscuits and candies. Now, it is tainted eggs. So far, no illnesses or deaths have been linked to eggs. Tests in Hong Kong last week showed eggs exported by a Chinese company are contaminated with excessive levels of melamine. In recent days three other brands of eggs have also been found to contain the chemical. Small wonder egg sales at the Xinfadi, a wholesale market in Beijing, dropped by 10 percent this week, according to the state-run China Daily. Chinese officials say the source of the problem is melamine, an industrial chemical used to produce plastics and fertilizer. Melamine is high in nitrogen. Unscrupulous milk suppliers would water down milk and spike it with melamine -- but in amounts that allowed it to still pass quality tests. Agriculture experts speculate that eggs tainted with melamine may be the result of tainted feed given to hens. That begs the question: if melamine was in the animal feed, will it make into the meat, and into consumers' bodies? Ingesting melamine in large doses over an extended period of time could cause kidney stones and other illnesses, agriculture and health experts say. But taking in a small amount of melamine poses no such danger. \"If it's taken over a long period of time, maybe, but if it's ingested only for short period of time it does not pose harm on animals,\" says He Jiguo, a professor of food science and nutrition at the China Agriculture University. He says the animals that end up being slaughtered do not live that long and do not actually ingest enough melamine for it to build up in their systems. The dogs and cats that were sickened in the United States were probably eating treats and meals tainted with melamine over a long period of time, he explains. Until the situation is resolved, worried grocery shoppers in Beijing say they'll just have to eat fewer eggs and more bean-products, like soybeans.","highlights":"Chinese premier Wen Jiabao says China will try to win back consumers .\nMelamine is said to have been added to animal food products .\nReport: Adding melamine to feed started in aquatic farming 5 years ago .\nSome grocery shoppers say to eat fewer eggs and more bean-products .","id":"6b7aabcb186dbb15c128d754ccd80282a2d6566e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- If you want to peer inside your DNA, there's no shortage of companies offering avenues for doing so these days. A cheek swab or saliva sample is all firms need to scan your genes. But how much health-relevant information can they provide? The opportunity to have your complete genome mapped was recently auctioned on eBay -- with the winning bidder shelling out a cool $68,000 in the auction, which ended Monday. However, more cost-conscious consumers are more likely to send in a saliva sample to a company like Google-backed 23andMe, which will scan and analyze genetic information for about $400. The costs and services these firms offer vary widely, but they're basically chasing the same market: the customer who is curious about what their genes can tell them about themselves. Welcome to the world of personal genomics. A spate of firms -- from 23andMe and fellow Silicon Valley start-up Navigenics to Cambridge, Mass.-based Knome and Iceland's DeCode Genetics -- are vying to tap the growing interest in DNA analysis among individuals. They're upbeat about the promise of this business, saying that consumers' ability to gauge how their genes influence risk for diseases like diabetes and cancer could revolutionize health care. \"The ability to treat disease is driven by the ability to assess risk. As knowledge builds up, it will increasingly become an unacceptable position not to have your genetic profile,\" says Kari Stefansson, chief executive of DeCode, one of the first firms to offer scans that allow individuals to examine their genomes. But analysts and researchers are a bit more cautious. While there's plenty of potential for retail genomics, they say the budding market is still in its early stages. Have you bought a retail DNA test? Share your story on iReport . Companies that offer personal DNA analysis have attracted the interest of individuals who are highly concerned with their health, as well as so-called early adopters who are enamored with new technologies. But the outlook for business opportunities is still hazy, mostly because there isn't a full understanding of the benefit of these tests in terms of identifying how and why diseases occur in people, according to Jonathan Witonsky, a health care analyst at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.. Just how much health-relevant information consumers can glean remains hotly debated in the research community. Studies suggest that common maladies like heart disease and diabetes may result from the variations of several genes, rather than the single variants that many retail gene tests scan for. David Goldstein, head of the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University, believes that given the current knowledge of how genes influence disease, there is only a \"recreational\" use for retail tests. Like many other researchers, he believes the odds identified by these tests can be so marginal that they have a weak effect on health when compared to lifestyle or environmental factors. If someone wants to lower their risk for diabetes, for instance, they're better off exercising more and changing their diet than getting a retail gene test, Goldstein told CNN. Consumer genomics firms agree there is still much to be discovered, but they say providing consumers with the knowledge that is available to them is better than none at all. \"It is an evolving science. To ignore the genetic markers that we currently understand would be complacency,\" says Vance Vanier, chief medical officer at Navigenics, which is backed by venture capital heavyweights Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital. Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe, says arming people with information may help them turn their attention to prevention. \"We think making this data available to people will help people focus their behavior and lifestyle.\" Companies are adjusting their services as new research becomes available, says Daniel MacArthur, a UK-based genetics researcher who follows the consumer genomics market on his blog, Genetic Future. \"Right now, the genome scans offered by companies like 23andMe focus on common genetic variants, and don't pick up most rare variants like Huntington's disease mutations,\" he said. However, several companies are now beginning to add these rare, severe disease mutations into their tests, MacArthur said. The market may also get a boost as costs for complete genome sequencing continue to drop. Privately funded Knome currently charges $99,500 to map a complete genome. But many scientists foresee complete sequencing eventually falling to just $1,000. As it becomes more cost effective to conduct larger research studies, they anticipate discovering more medically relevant information. Being able to identify ahead of time whether you're at risk of disease is something that can be beneficial going forward,\" says Bill Buhr, an analyst at investment research firm Morningstar. He expects sales of services for testing genetic make-up to hit $1 billion in three years. \"As the technology gets better, this potentially could be something more people get into,\" he said. Although Buhr, who covers DeCode, one of the few firms in the space that's publicly listed, said the outlook for the Icelandic firm was bleak. DeCode has been hit by the credit crisis, fueling chatter it's headed for bankruptcy. However Stefansson dismissed that speculation and told CNN the company expects to complete its restructuring by the end of May. It's too early to say whether consumer genomics is going mainstream, 23andMe's Avey says. But there's no denying there's tremendous interest among consumers. \"It goes [back] to human nature. We're very curious about ourselves.\"","highlights":"Handful of firms from 23andMe to DeCode offer DNA tests to individuals .\nBut how much health-relevant information can be gleaned is hotly debated .\nConsumer genomics market in early stages, but has potential, analysts say .","id":"5485bd5d45070717b729f84ef22da3667a49e3cd"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A 22-year-old medical student suspected of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad was arraigned Tuesday and will be held without bail. Medical student Philip Markoff, 22, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. Philip Markoff, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, listened intently but did not speak during the hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Dressed in a blue-striped shirt and slacks, Markoff was handcuffed and wearing leg irons. His attorney, John Salsberg, told reporters after the hearing that Markoff is \"not guilty of the charges. He has his family's support. I have not received any document or report or piece of evidence other than what I heard in the courtroom. All I have at the moment are words -- no proof of anything.\" A woman identifying herself as Markoff's fiancee also maintained his innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News. Megan McAllister said Markoff \"is the wrong man\" and \"was set up.\" \"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public,\" McAllister wrote. \"All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!\" She accused Boston police of \"trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new??\" Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters, \"This was a brutal, vicious crime -- savage. And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them.\" A procedural not-guilty plea was entered on Markoff's behalf, Conley said. A Boston University spokeswoman said the school suspended Markoff, who has no criminal record, when it learned of the charges on Monday. Markoff is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Evidence from the scene suggests that Brisman \"put up a fight,\" prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said during the hearing Tuesday. Police said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. She sustained blunt head trauma, Hickman said, and was shot three times at close range. One of those bullets passed through her heart, killing her, she said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the robbery four days earlier of a woman at a Westin Hotel. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound, Hickman said. She was robbed of $800 and personal items, and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth, Hickman said in court Tuesday. Police said earlier the Westin victim was 29. She was not identified. Authorities believe the motive in Brisman's death was robbery, Conley told reporters, and she was killed during a struggle. In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Watch police say assailant has perused Craigslist ads \u00bb . Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, according to Boston police, who sought public assistance identifying the man. Police traced the Internet communications with Brisman to an e-mail account opened the day before her death, Conley said. Using Internet provider information, they found the computer was at Markoff's residence in Quincy, Massachusetts, he said. Authorities put the home under surveillance, Conley said, and \"the case just begins to build from there.\" \"This poor woman, Julissa Brisman, no matter what choices she made or decisions she made in life, she is a human being who's entitled to dignity and respect,\" Conley said. There may be more victims that authorities are unaware of, he said, adding that the prosecutor's goal is to hold Markoff accountable, not to pursue women who may be advertising on Craigslist. \"If you have been a victim like these victims have, please come forward,\" he said. Markoff is \"bearing up,\" according to attorney Salsberg. \"It's obviously a difficult time for anybody in these circumstances with the charges that have been brought against him. ... He's pleaded not guilty. He is not guilty,\" said Salsberg. McAllister, in her e-mail to ABC, wrote, \"Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life, so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share a wonderful, meaningful life together.\" The couple's wedding Web site had been taken down or was unavailable as of Tuesday afternoon. Authorities in Boston are working with police in Warwick, Rhode Island, on what could be a related case. On April 16 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney said. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, McCartney said. He said no conclusions could be made yet, but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told CNN the company is \"horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence.\" He promised that Craigslist will evaluate the incident to see if additional measures could be introduced to protect users. CNN's Mary Snow and Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"Not-guilty plea entered in Philip Markoff's behalf in woman's slaying in Boston .\nProsecutors say semiautomatic firearm found in search of student's home .\nCEO says Craigslist looking for ways to make site safer in wake of killing .\nE-mail from suspect's fiancee says police have \"wrong man\"","id":"d3789d7ae2413138995354a0518f1093f7516048"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Safety advocates are fighting efforts to allow tractor-trailers to carry heavier loads on highways, saying the trucks are already too dangerous. But at least one group says adding an axle would improve safety margins so such loads can be carried. Mark and Tracy Quinichett, whose daughter was killed in a wreck, speak Monday against raising trucks' load limits. \"It is a public health crisis,\" policy activist Joan Claybrook said Monday, announcing a petition drive to fight larger loads that could be authorized as part of a transportation bill moving through Congress. At a Monday news conference, Claybrook -- who chaired the National Highway Transportation Administration during the Carter administration -- and her Truck Safety Coalition presented several families who have lost a loved one to a highway accident involving commercial trucks. A new Web site from the coalition, StopBiggerTrucks.org, provides statistics the group believes will persuade people to pressure lawmakers to leave truck limits as they stand. But an industry group, the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, hopes lawmakers will approve a proposal to add an axle to today's big rigs -- an action it says will allow higher load limits and lead to safer roads. Adding an axle would give big rigs 22 wheels, up from the current 18. Without the change, \"more trucks will have to take to the road\" to handle rising cargo demand, said John Runyan, co-chairman of the truck cargo industry group. Runyan was at the back of the room during the other group's news conference, where families gave tearful accounts of losing loved ones in truck wrecks. One of those couples, Mark and Tracy Quinichett, lost their 21-year-old daughter a few months ago when a truck's wheel flew off and crashed through the windshield of her car on the Capital Beltway outside Washington. \"The larger the trucks -- it's just so much more dangerous. And if they are allowed to make these trucks larger, it's going to be a real, real problem, even more than it is right now,\" Mark Quinichett said. Runyan told CNN that going from 18 wheels to 22 wheels would allow for the safe transportation of heavier loads because the weight would be more evenly distributed.","highlights":"A petition drive is fighting effort to let trucks carry larger loads .\n\"It is a public health crisis,\" policy activist Joan Claybrook says .\nTruck industry group argues adding wheels would make heavier loads safe .\nIndustry group: If load limit isn't increased, we'll need more trucks on the road .","id":"ba9cf67ef4b69bf3e4ef9946b775fd80e7e0ea24"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Although you probably use it every day, here's some interesting trivia you may not know about deodorant. Actor Matthew McConaughey reportedly doesn't wear deodorant. 1. Be thankful for your foul body odor. According to anthropologist Louis Leakey, it might be responsible for early man's survival. Leakey's theory claims that most predators avoided feasting on humans because our body odor was \"too repugnant.\" 2. Not only did the ancient Egyptians give us pyramids and flush toilets, they also pioneered the field of deodorants. Egyptians were the first to popularize the idea of applying scents to armpits, usually using cinnamon and other spices that wouldn't turn rancid in the heat. 3. The Roman poet Ovid preferred a more proactive solution. In Book III of the Art of Love, he cautions women against carrying goats under their arms. 4. Antiperspirants are classified as drugs by the FDA. Technically, they affect and\/or alter your body's natural functions. 5. The first modern brand of antiperspirant, EverDry, hit drugstores in 1903. The original formula was so acidic that it regularly ate through clothing. 6. Of course, modern antiperspirants can also ruin your clothing. Aluminum chloride, the ingredient that blocks glandular openings and prevents sweating, is notorious for turning T-shirts yellow. So, blame your antiperspirant for your pit stains, not your body. 7. Offensive body odor is actually illegal in libraries in San Luis Obispo County, California. Mental Floss: Weird wedding laws still on the books . 8. One thing modern antiperspirants don't do is cause degenerative diseases. Medical science has found no conclusive evidence that absorbing aluminum chloride through the skin can lead to memory loss or slurred speech. 9. Aoki, a Japanese company known for its menswear, has developed a deodorant suit that supposedly absorbs sweat and neutralizes odors all over the body. 10. But that's nothing! The greatest Japanese innovation in the fight against B.O. is Fuwarinka scented gum. The so-called \"functional candy\" contains aromatic compounds that cause your skin to release \"Fresh Citrus\" or \"Fruity Rose\" aromas for up to 6 hours after chewing. 11. When Kurt Cobain wrote the lyrics for Nirvana's breakout song \"Smells Like Teen Spirit,\" he didn't know Teen Spirit was a popular deodorant brand. The Mennen Company, which produced the deodorant, wouldn't say whether the song caused sales to spike, but six months after the single debuted, Colgate bought the company for $670 million. Mental Floss: 7 food promotions gone horribly wrong . 12. In May 2008, actor Matthew McConaughey revealed that he never uses deodorant or antiperspirant. The next day, he received a year's supply of deodorant body spray from the Axe Company, along with a note on why he might want to start. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Anthropologist: Predators avoided early humans because body odor too rank .\nEgyptians were first to popularize applying scents to armpits .\nOffensive body odor is actually illegal in one U.S. city's libraries .\nActor Matthew McConaughey reportedly doesn't wear deodorant .","id":"814ebf3b8bc583b672d0488c150bcfe87ca8c422"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Two Americans banned from entering the United Kingdom because the government feels they have been \"stirring up hatred\" responded by slamming the country's home secretary, and one of them threatened to sue her. Jacqui Smith said she did not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views. Radio talk show host Michael Savage and the anti-gay Rev. Fred Phelps were listed Tuesday among white supremacists and radical Islamic clerics who will not be allowed into the country. Savage, whose conservative daily show can be heard on radio stations across America, lashed out in an audio clip on his Web site and devoted seven stories on his main page to the ban. He is listed under his real name, Michael Alan Wiener. Britain's Home Office said it decided to exclude the 22 people on the list after measures by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last year targeting people \"who have engaged in spreading hate.\" \"She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people,\" Savage said. \"How could they put Michael Savage in the same league as mass murderers when I have never avowed violence?\" Watch more about Savage's reaction \u00bb . According to the British Home Office, Savage is on the list for \"seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.\" Smith said she is determined to keep those who \"spread extremism, hatred and violent messages\" out of the country. \"Coming to the UK is a privilege, and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life,\" Smith said. \"Therefore, I do not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views, as I want them to know that they are not welcome here. The Home Office named only 16 people on the list, saying it was not in the public interest to disclose the names of the other six. Savage called Smith a \"witch\" in the audio clip and asked why six names on the list weren't released. He also questioned why North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez didn't make the list. Savage said he has seven attorneys working on a defamation lawsuit against Smith and encouraged his listeners to call off any travel plans to England and boycott all British products. Savage's show is not syndicated in England. The outspoken Kansas Rev. Fred Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, also made the list for \"engaging in unacceptable behavior and fostering hatred.\" Phelps did not issue a response on his Web site. However, the site linked to a British news story on the ban and the link called Smith a \"neo-Nazi dyke\" and \"filthy God-hater.\" Phelps and his followers at Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church oppose homosexuality. They picket the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, saying their deaths are God's way of punishing the United States for supporting homosexuals. They have expressed similar views about the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Katrina. The church's slogan is \"God Hates Fags.\" Also on the list: . \u2022 Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black, who established the white supremacist Web site Stormfront, which the Home Office called one of the oldest and largest hate group sites. \u2022 Eric Gliebe, chairman of the National Alliance, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States. The Home Office accused Gliebe of \"justifying terrorist violence, provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred.\" \u2022 Samir al Quntar, a Lebanese man who spent three decades in prison for killing four Israeli soldiers and a 4-year-old girl in 1979. Al Quntar is listed for \"engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence\" in order to provoke terrorist acts, the Home Office said. \u2022 Nasr Javed, a leader of the Kashmiri militant group, Lashkar e Taiba. \u2022 Islamic clerics Abdul Ali Musa, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Amir Siddique, Yunis Al Astal and Safwat Hijazi. \u2022 Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, whom the Home Office describes as a prolific writer and speaker. The Home Office said he has sought \"to foment, justify or glory terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke others to commit terrorist acts.\" \u2022 Mike Guzofsky, the leader of a militant Jewish group who also has ties to Kahane Chai, a group that the U.S. State Department lists as a foreign terrorist organization. \u2022 Russian skinheads Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, whom the Home Office said are \"leaders of a violent gang that beat migrants and posted films of their attacks on the Internet.\"","highlights":"Talk show host asks why Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong Il not on list .\nUK Home Office: 22 people banned from Britain for \"stirring up hatred\"\nHome Office named only 16 of those on the list .\nEx-Ku Klux Klansman, Russian skinheads, radical Islamic clerics also on list .","id":"4080315430b11c32edb5c60f7a3f99dd2e89cc17"} -{"article":"CRANWELL, England (CNN) -- Britain's oldest man and the oldest living veteran of World War I was celebrating his 112th birthday Friday with a party and a fly-past at an air force base. Henry Allingham at a 90th anniversary celebration of the Royal Air Force this year. Henry Allingham is the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service, which he joined in 1915. He saw action at the Battle of Jutland off Denmark the following year, according to the Ministry of Defense. Allingham is also the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force, which was created in 1918, nine months before the end of the war. He left the service a year later, the defense ministry said. Friday's events were happening at the Royal Air Force base in Cranwell, England, about 120 miles north of London. Friends of his at the base said Allingham, who arrived in a wheelchair, was looking \"fresh.\" After a birthday lunch, aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, an aerial display team, planned to fly overhead, the base said. Members of the Falcons Parachute Display Team then planned to drop in and present Allingham with a birthday card from the chief of Britain's air staff. Allingham is Britain's oldest man and the oldest surviving member of the armed forces, according to Guinness World Records. The former aircraft engineer still travels and makes public appearances at military events and commemorations. In July, Allingham had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth and attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace. In November, he laid a wreath in St. Omer, France -- where he was stationed during the war -- to celebrate Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Allingham said last year that he remains active to emphasize the importance of remembering the conflict. \"I don't do these things because I enjoy doing them but to keep the memory alive of all my comrades who fought and died in the First World War,\" he told the Ministry of Defense.","highlights":"Britain's oldest man, oldest veteran from World War I, celebrates his 112th birthday .\nHenry Allingham last founding member of the Royal Air Force, formed in 1918 .\nEx-aircraft engineer still travels, makes public appearances at military events .","id":"5e105dbe323aecdc99ead835bc418e38627e8312"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fourth man was charged Tuesday with murder in the shooting death of University of Memphis football player Taylor Bradford, Memphis police said. Devin Jefferson, 21, planned the armed robbery of Bradford because he thought the football player was carrying a large amount of cash, police said. \"He was the brain trust on this one, he was the one that got the information that Taylor had cash,\" Sgt. Vince Higgins said. \"Taylor and Jefferson knew each other. They had a girlfriend in common so there was some history there.\" Police investigating a car crash on September 30 found Bradford, 21, fatally wounded near the campus residence hall area. He had apparently gotten into his car after he was shot and drove a short distance before crashing into a tree. The 5-foot-11, 300-pound defensive lineman from Nashville was taken to Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. DaeShawn Tate, 21, Victor Trezevant, 21, and Courtney Washington, 22, have been charged with murder in perpetration of attempted aggravated robbery, Memphis Police Department Director Larry Godwin said Monday. Homicide investigators developed their case with the help of a citizen's tip and from Crimestoppers, Godwin said. \"It was an attempted robbery, aggravated robbery,\" he said. \"He [Bradford] was targeted because of some information that was out there and the fact that they believed he had some cash, or he had something that they wanted.\" Officials at the 21,000-student school said Bradford, a marketing major who lived on campus, was popular with the football team and on the campus. He had transferred from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and was 36 credit hours short of graduation. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Devin Jefferson, 21, charged with murder in shooting death of football player .\nUniversity of Memphis athlete Taylor Bradford, 21, found dead September 30 .\nThree others in custody; police say Jefferson was the \"brain trust\" behind crime .\nAfter player was shot, he got in his car, drove off and then crashed into a tree .","id":"eabd8d65f23575cfd527d4b1dd405808c58dc8d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comic and best-selling author Joy Behar appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Wednesday. Joy Behar and her co-hosts on \"The View\" were recently named on the Time 100 most influential list. \"The View\" co-host discussed a variety of topics, including the Miss California USA pageant, her feud with Donald Trump and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's political future. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: It looks like Donald Trump has made up with Barbara (Walters). How are you and Donald now? Joy Behar: You would not believe how friendly he was to me today at \"The View.\" The man was all over me. First of all, in the green room after the show, he actually kissed me. I don't think that he kisses anybody. He came up to me and he actually kissed me and hugged me. It was weird. King: Because he criticized you, as you know, in the past. Behar: Well, he said that you hit me hard and so I went back at you. I don't remember even what I said. I made a joke about his hair, I think. But, you know, I'm done with that anyway. It's an old story. I'm not interested in his hair anymore, and we're fine. Watch Behar dish \u00bb . King: What did you make of (the controversy with Miss California USA), Joy? Behar: This Miss California girl, I think she's doing great. I mean who even thinks of Miss USA? Nobody even knows Miss USA exists. She's got a great career ahead of her now, where everybody sees how gorgeous she is. She's winning the race, believe me, and with new boobs. Who can ask for anything more? King: What do you think of the fact that your program made the (Time magazine) most influential list? View the list . Behar: That is my favorite, that we are on the most influential list. I never thought I would see this day. I just feel like good, now I can have some influence on Ahmadinejad, (Benjamin) Netanyahu. Maybe I can have some influence on the world. King: Elizabeth Edwards, as we all know, is battling breast cancer, coping with the fallout of her husband's infidelity, selling a new book, too. What do you make of that whole situation, Joy? Behar: You know, what is it with these political wives who love to stand by their men? I happen to like Elizabeth Edwards very much. She's been on the show and I've met her a couple of times. She's a really nice person, and he's a dog, you know? Let's tell it like it is. He's a dog and people do not like him. I think his political career is over, and it's disappointing because he was a decent Democrat. He had his heart in the right place. He was a good liberal, and now he's out of the picture. Although it didn't stop Newt Gingrich, who also told his wife he wanted a divorce when she was in the hospital. So, you know, bad taste, I guess, doesn't hurt all of their careers. So we never know what's going to happen to him. I just feel bad for her. King: Let's move to another politician, Sarah Palin. What's your read on the governor? Behar: Well, you know, they're talking about her as the new Republican Party. If that's what they want for their new Republican Party, that's fine -- somebody who doesn't believe in a woman's choice, someone who doesn't believe in evolution, someone who is, you know, loves to hunt and kill animals or whatever. I don't know what her reasoning is. Then fine. ... And doesn't really believe in global warming. She and Rush Limbaugh constantly are talking about how there's no problem. I mean this guy, Rush Limbaugh, I used to work with him years ago, and I've sort of been friendly with him in a certain weird kind of way. He constantly is talking about how there is no global warming. Every climatologist in the world says there's global warming. Every scientist has said there is a problem. We're all on this Earth together and this guy goes out and says that there's no global warming. Who is he? What is he talking about and who are these ditto heads that agree with him, I'd like to know? Aren't they breathing the same air that we are? King: Do you think Palin will be a presidential (candidate)? Do you think she's going to get up pretty close to getting that nomination? Behar: Oh, I hope so. I would love to see that, because whoever is running against her, that's going to be, you know, a slam dunk, in my opinion. Because every time the woman is in an interview, she shows herself to be very, very shallow -- you know, as they say, stunningly superficial on another network. So, let her run. I hope she runs.","highlights":"\"The View,\" co-hosted by Joy Behar, named to Time 100 most influential list .\nBehar: Miss California USA has \"great career\" ahead of her .\nBehar calls John Edwards \"a dog\" for his infidelity .\nBehar says whoever runs against Sarah Palin would be \"slam dunk\"","id":"d7eb9a1602218304c11f2dc3f4da5e0d2248f968"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hydroxycut products, popular dietary supplements used for weight loss, have been linked to liver damage and are being recalled, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The FDA has received 23 reports of serious liver injuries, including a death, linked to Hydroxycut products. The FDA said it has received 23 reports of serious liver injuries linked to Hydroxycut products, which are also used as energy enhancers and as fat burners. The reports include the 2007 death of a 19-year-old man living in the Southwest, which was reported to the FDA in March. Other serious liver problems reported included liver damage that resulted in a transplant in 2002, liver failure, jaundice, seizures and cardiovascular problems. The FDA is warning consumers to immediately stop using 14 Hydroxycut products manufactured by Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of Oakville, Ontario, and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, New York. The company is voluntarily recalling the following products: Hydroxycut Regular Rapid Release Caplets, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Rapid Release Caplets, Hydroxycut Hardcore Liquid Caplets, Hydroxycut Max Liquid Caplets, Hydroxycut Regular Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Hardcore Drink Packets (Ignition Stix), Hydroxycut Max Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Liquid Shots, Hydroxycut Hardcore RTDs (Ready-to-Drink), Hydroxycut Max Aqua Shed, Hydroxycut 24, Hydroxycut Carb Control and Hydroxycut Natural. Watch more on the FDA's concern \u00bb . According to the FDA, last year, Iovate sold more than 9 million units of Hydroxycut products, which were distributed widely to grocery stores, health food stores and pharmacies. \"The FDA urges consumers to discontinue use of Hydroxycut products in order to avoid any undue risks. Adverse events are rare, but exist. Consumers should consult a physician or other health care professional if they experience symptoms possibly associated with these products,\" said Dr. Linda Katz, interim chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Liver damage is rare, but patients who experienced problems were taking doses recommended on the product label, the FDA said. Symptoms include brown urine, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, stomach pain, itching and light-colored stools. The FDA has not determined what specific ingredients are responsible for the problems, because the products contain a variety of overlapping ingredients and herbal extracts. Dietary supplements sold before October 1994 are not required to undergo any FDA review before going to market. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 required manufacturers to ensure a supplement to be safe before marketing. But manufacturers still don't need to register a product with the FDA or get approval before selling a supplement. The agency can take action against an unsafe supplement once it's on the market. Since December 2007, any serious adverse event reported to the manufacturer must now be reported to the FDA within 15 days. The Council for Responsible Nutrition, the leading trade association representing the dietary supplement industry, said that both the FDA and Iovate \"took appropriate action today.\" \"We commend FDA for warning consumers of a potential safety problem associated with these products, and were encouraged to see that the company -- Iovate Health Sciences -- agreed to recall the products from the market until further determinations can be made,\" said Steve Mister, the council's president and CEO.","highlights":"FDA recalls Hydroxycut products after 23 liver injuries and one death .\nHydroxycut products used as popular dietary supplement for weight loss .\nDamage from product: liver failure, jaundice, seizures, cardiovascular problems .","id":"4420fa95640c6a5d31ac6d47aab40532c2fe94d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man suspected of killing five members of his family and wounding another on Thursday committed suicide after police surrounded him in a house, police in Cleveland, Ohio, said Friday. Police say Davon Crawford, 33, killed his new wife, her sister and three children. Acting on a tip, police surrounded the house and then entered it after seeing a man who matched the description of suspect Davon Crawford briefly step outside, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said. \"They confronted the male hiding in a bathroom,\" Stacho said. \"When he spotted the agents, then he took his own life.\" Cleveland police launched a manhunt Thursday for Crawford, 33, suspected of killing his new wife, Lechea Crawford, 30; her sister, Rose Stevens, 25; and three of Stevens' children, Destiny Woods, 5, and 2-year-old twins Dion and Davion Primm. A 7-year-old boy was shot and hospitalized, Julie Short, a spokeswoman for MetroHealth Medical Center, said Friday. The boy's grandfather told CNN affiliate WEWS that the boy was in stable condition and talking after having been shot in the shoulder. A fourth child, a 12-year-old boy, managed to escape, WKYC reported. The Cleveland Plain Dealer also reported that a 2-month-old girl, the daughter of Davon and Lechea Crawford, escaped the shooting unharmed and is being cared for. Police began searching for Crawford, 33, Thursday night after receiving a call around 8 p.m. to the upper floor of a duplex. \"It looks like it was some type of domestic argument that sparked this tragedy,\" Police Chief Michael McGrath said Friday. The CNN Radio Network contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Davon Crawford shoots self after police find him in bathroom .\nCrawford was accused of shooting wife, her sister and her three children .\n12-year-old escaped; 7-year-old in hospital after being shot .\n\"Domestic argument\" may have sparked shooting, police chief says .","id":"a6067be77650dacff1679be33f83df7053e6342c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of \"The View\" and author of the new book, \"The G-Free Diet,\" spoke Wednesday with Larry King. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, of \"The View,\" says Bristol Palin is an ideal choice to speak about teen abstinence. Hasselbeck offers her thoughts on being the sole conservative on her show, Elizabeth Edwards dealing with her husband's infidelity, Bristol Palin being abstinence spokeswoman and her battle with celiac disease. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: Were you surprised that \"The View\" made the most influential list of Time magazine? Elisabeth Hasselbeck: I sure was. I think it's truly a tribute to what Barbara (Walters) has done and the show that she created along with Bill Geddie, our executive producer. It's a great place for women to come to and listen -- men, as well. But, also, for us to get there every day and discuss everything from politics to motherhood and parenting. But it was a shock. I think any time you receive an honor such as that, it's shocking. Watch Hasselbeck defend Bristol Palin \u00bb . King: As the definitive conservative in the group, do you feel like the outcast? Do you feel put upon? Hasselbeck: I never feel like an outcast there. If anything, I feel more included than ever. I mean, truly that is a table where respect is number one, in terms of we sort of have a vow to one another. And we couldn't come there every single day and talk about the things that -- that we discuss and have the debates that we do and get as fiery as we do and get back there the next day if there wasn't that respect at the table and true value for the others' opinion. I mean the more we tend to disagree, I think the more we sort of dig deeper into that relationship. King: So the anger doesn't carry over? Hasselbeck: No. I wouldn't even classify it as anger. I think it's passion, and I think it's passion with purpose. You know, we do believe different things at times. Occasionally, we agree. It may not be that interesting when we do, but there is passion. It is coming from different places, but we love that conversation. I love being able to hear someone else's opinion on a subject and maybe sort of, you know, push a button here and there and see what they think about what I have to say. King also talked with Hasselbeck about Bristol Palin, the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, being a spokeswoman for abstinence. King: What do you make of that choice? Hasselbeck: I think she's the perfect choice. She has a tangible, living example of what this new responsibility is in her life. I believe that there is a sort of sadistic giddiness on the part of some true radical leftists, who are laughing behind-the-scenes about Bristol Palin's situation. Why are they so obsessed with her being a spokesperson for this? She's promoting a great thing -- abstinence. Find me something else that works 100 percent of the time. King: Elizabeth Edwards has gone public about her pain about her husband's infidelity. Yesterday on this show, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Behar, your compatriot, called John Edwards a dog. Do you agree? Hasselbeck: You never understand the intimacies of someone's relationship with their spouse -- I mean or boyfriend, partner, etc. Those are places that only the two people truly understand. I think we're also looking at a woman of incredible strength, having looked at cancer and battled through. I believe that nothing, truly, can compare to that. And, you know, it's unfortunate. I think this alleged affair and, you know, disturbance, even in terms of allegedly funding his mistress' foundation, is even more complicating the matter. The idea of another child in the mix (is) disturbing as well. King: Elisabeth, Miss California USA Carrie Prejean -- first, the controversy over gay marriage statements and now scandal over semi-nude modeling photos of her. What do you think of the way she's being treated in the media? Hasselbeck: Well, I think there's a very specific witch hunt going on here because she expressed her opinion. So now we're going to dig and throw fear into the heart of any person who may want to freely express their opinion in the United States of America. That seems like a big bullying scheme to me. If she had answered the other way, would anyone have been searching for those photos? Would they want to vilify her or remove what she's been working for? I don't understand the pageant well, and I don't know what her responsibilities were. Was she to represent the state of California in her opinions and was she to represent the opinions of a young woman who believed in her heart one thing? That's her personal opinion. I'm not sure what her duties were or were to be. I do know this, though. I'm not sure this investigation into any sort of photos or background or family members that they're pulling out of left and right would have even occurred if she had given an answer on the other side. So it seems to me a bit of a bullying scheme, as I said before, and that disturbing. We should be able to have our opinions in this country and stand by them and at least be respected, at the very least. Later in the interview King talked with Hasselbeck about her new book, \"The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide.\" King: Now, (when) we think of gluten, we think of wheat, right? Hasselbeck: Well, it's actually more than that. Gluten is a protein found in barley, oats, wheat and rye. It's more broad than most people actually think, so that is definitely a misconception out there. This has been a decade-long process for me. I have celiac disease, and I say out of diabetes came that low glycemic index diet and out of my celiac disease, I found this all-star diet. I call it my \"diet in the rough\" because it is something that, even if I didn't have celiac disease, like many others, I would follow this diet. You know, over 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with IBS, thyroid issues. I was having infertility problems. People suffer miscarriage after miscarriage, stillbirth. It eventually leads to intestinal cancer. This is something that needs to be treated. But the diet is actually, yes, for people with celiac disease, for millions with food intolerance that is up like 25 percent in the past five years (and) for people who just want a healthy lifestyle. I mean I'm on this diet before I'm pregnant, during pregnancy and when I'm trying to get back in my bikini to, you know, strut around in the summer.","highlights":"Elisabeth Hasselbeck says \"radical leftists\" laughing at Bristol Palin's situation .\nHasselbeck calls Miss California USA controversy \"a big bullying scheme\"\nHasselbeck, who has celiac disease, wrote book on gluten-free lifestyle .","id":"85390d5083494ab234d5e922147c8c189d12e94d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Get yourself together.\" Mary Williams repeated those three words often to her 28-year-old daughter, who served three years in a Kansas prison for a 1988 armed robbery. Donnie Belcher, 7, visits her mother, Wanda Taylor, at Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas in 1991. Williams never judged her daughter, Wanda Taylor, for the crime or the crack cocaine addiction that fueled it. There was no need to pick at the past. Instead, Williams looked to the future. The future was her granddaughter, Donnie Belcher, a shy 4-year-old girl with curly hair who cried inconsolably from behind the glass the first time she visited her mother in jail. The little girl's mother was locked up for three years, leaving her in the care of her grandmother. \"It was hard on me,\" said Belcher, now 25. \"I never wanted to leave my mother.\" Belcher defied the odds, growing up straight as an arrow despite having a mother in prison. Her childhood was part of a national trend. The incarceration rates for U.S. mothers began to surge in the 1980s, fueled by the crack cocaine epidemic and tougher mandatory sentencing laws, experts said. A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found the number of incarcerated mothers rose 131 percent from 1991 to 2007, while the number of fathers in prison increased 77 percent during the same period. According to the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit, about 1.7 million children have a parent in prison. \"We should be alarmed,\" said Georgia Lerner, executive director at the Women's Prison Association, a national nonprofit working with incarcerated women. \"Even when children have seen their mothers get arrested, they still want to be with their parents,\" Lerner said. \"They still love their mothers and want to be together.\" While some critics argue that criminals make poor parents, experts said there is no doubt that separation from a parent, particularly a mother, affects a child's psychological development. When a father is imprisoned, the mother typically cares for the children, said Danielle Dallaire, a psychology professor at the College of William and Mary. But her research shows that when a mother is incarcerated, the father often plays no role in raising the children left behind. Federal statistics show children are five times more likely to end up in foster care when a mother is sent to prison than when a father is imprisoned. Read the Federal Report . Belcher's grandmother, Williams, stepped in because she didn't want the child in foster care. The girl's father was not in the picture. For three years, Williams, a single mother herself, drove her granddaughter twice a month to see her mother. They never missed a visit, despite having to travel to several prisons across Kansas. After passing through the metal detectors and being frisked by security officers, the girl showed off the A's she received from school or told her mother about which boy had cooties. Each visit lasted two hours. Belcher often asked, \"When will you come home?\" \"Soon,\" her mother said. \"Soon.\" Find out what Taylor and her family learned from her time in prison \u00bb . A growing number of prisons are recognizing the need to preserve mother-child relationships. They have staffed nurseries and day care centers to keep families connected. Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security women's prison in New York, is host to an annual summer camp run by volunteers. At camp, children can play basketball and participate in other activities with their incarcerated mothers. In May, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is reuniting moms and dads with their children. The \"Get on the Bus\" program provides 700 children with free rides to the prisons. The three years without Taylor were financially difficult for Williams, who was approaching retirement age. In her 50s at the time, she worked as a dental assistant to support her granddaughter. She poured all her time and effort into the quiet little girl. She packed her schedule with Girl Scouts and free summer camps, determined to make sure her granddaughter stayed out of trouble. \"Kids would tease me and say to me, 'Why is your mom so old?' \" Belcher recalled. Belcher was elated on May 29, 1991, when her mother returned to their home in Kansas City, Missouri, after serving three years of an eight-year sentence. Taylor got sober and attained her GED behind bars. She returned to find her 7-year-old daughter blossoming into her polar opposite. The girl put her head into books and graced the honor roll regularly. She didn't rebel. \"I wanted to be everything my mother wasn't,\" Belcher said. \"I loved my mom, but I couldn't do what she did.\" \"I did it all,\" said Taylor, now 48. By 13, she skipped school frequently to attend \"hooky parties\" where she used drugs and alcohol. By 16, she dropped out of high school. \"When you're out there, you're out there.\" The years after Taylor's release from prison also were tough on the mother-daughter relationship. As an adolescent, Belcher battled feelings of bitterness toward her mother and feared her mother would relapse. \"I felt angry,\" Belcher said, and the anger only grew during her high school years. \"It wasn't fair to me. Why did I have to have a mother like that?\" Belcher threw herself into academics and excelled. She knew that many children without parents often end up in trouble and behind bars themselves. She didn't want that for herself. \"She had a life where she could have just gave up, but she didn't do that,\" said Williams, now 71. \"She went straight ahead.\" By 13, she was writing poetry. By 16, she was a track star at her high school and at the top of her class. She entered DePaul University in 2002 with nearly 50 scholarships. Belcher is a high school English teacher at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, a college preparatory school that boasts alums like Michelle Obama. She has a cozy apartment in Chicago, Illinois -- her first home that is all her own. This summer, she will apply for grants to start her own nonprofit to help children of incarcerated parents stay out of trouble. Belcher said she admires her mother's resilience. She watched her search tirelessly for a job, despite her felony record. She is proud of her mother, who worked her way up to become a successful child care operator for the state of Minnesota after years of working in factories and fast food restaurants. Today, her mother resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and her grandmother still lives in Kansas City, Missouri. \"You can't always control life's circumstances, but you can control how you react to them,\" Belcher said. Her mother and grandmother will visit Belcher this weekend to celebrate completion of her master's degree -- and Mother's Day.","highlights":"Donnie Belcher's mother was incarcerated when she was 4 .\nNumber of incarcerated mothers exploded 131 percent from 1991 to 2007 .\n\"I wanted to be everything my mother wasn't,\" Belcher says .\nMore prisons are creating programs that preserve mother-child relationships .","id":"9fb410d2b02e70f6d838faed6d3df91fa1181918"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A second lingerie-modeling photo of Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has appeared after she assured pageant officials this week that the earlier shot was the only one she had appeared in. Miss California USA Carrie Prejean may lose her crown because of some semi-nude photos she appeared in. The Web site that published the first picture published a second one Wednesday. It had already promised to \"slowly roll out\" more photos. After the appearance of the first photo, the possibility that racier images could emerge prompted \"closed-door meetings\" Tuesday to consider stripping Prejean of her beauty queen title, pageant spokesman Ron Neal said. Although Neal said Prejean \"breached her contract\" by keeping the semi-nude photo or photos a secret, the only pictures published so far appear about as revealing as the bikini Prejean wore in the pageant's swimsuit competition. \"We have been told by Carrie Prejean there are no other photos other than the one circulating in existence. She should know better than anyone,\" Miss California USA Director Keith Lewis said Wednesday before the latest photo was released. Watch reaction to racy photos \u00bb . Pageant officials were not immediately available for comment on the new picture. The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of controversy since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the national pageant stage last month. She finished as runner-up to Miss USA. In a statement given to CNN on Tuesday, Prejean said the photos -- and she did use the plural -- were being used in a \"vicious and mean-spirited\" effort to silence her for \"defending traditional marriage.\" While she vowed to \"continue to support and defend marriage as the honorable institution it is,\" Prejean may be doing so without the Miss California USA title. State pageant officials met Tuesday with lawyers and representatives of Donald Trump, who owns the international competition, to consider whether they had grounds to take the crown away from Prejean, according to Neal. \"When you compete for Miss California, you're supposed to disclose whether you posed for nude or semi-nude photos, because it's grounds for disqualification,\" he said. CNN obtained a copy of the pageant contract Prejean signed last year, in which she agreed that the discovery of semi-nude photos could mean disqualification. The first photo made public shows Prejean -- who said she was 17 at the time -- wearing pink panties and no top. She is turned away from the camera, with her arm hiding most of her breast. The second photo is essentially the same, but Prejean is looking over her opposite shoulder. It was unclear whether pageant officials would consider that a semi-nude photo, in light of their standard requirement that contestants parade across stage wearing a bikini that arguably shows more skin. Ahead of the second photo being published, Nik Richie -- of TheDirty.com -- said he was upgrading his Web site's servers to handle the flood of traffic he expects will come after he posts the additional photos. \"I will slowly roll these out,\" Richie said. The Web site appeared to be overwhelmed by traffic early Thursday. CNN tried to access it, but could not. \"We'll see what happens with those and we want to know who's releasing them,\" Neal said. Shanna Moakler, the co-executive director of the Miss California USA organization, will meet with Tami Farrell, the runner-up for the title, \"to discuss the possible next steps,\" Neal said. Prejean defended the photos, which she said were taken when she was a teenager aspiring to be a Victoria's Secret model. \"I am a Christian, and I am a model,\" she said. \"Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos.\" She said the photos \"have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.\" \"I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be,\" she said. \"But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others' opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks.\" Her publicist, Melany Ethridge, confirmed a comment she gave to celebrity Web site TMZ in which she said Prejean was 17 when she posed for the photos, hoping they would land her a modeling job. \"In her naivete, an agent convinced her to pose for this photo to submit to a lingerie company, claiming they could make her the next Victoria's Secret model,\" Ethridge told TMZ. \"She has since learned what a lie that was, and what a mistake it was to have the photo taken.\" Prejean announced last week that she would star in a new $1.5 million ad campaign supporting \"opposite marriage\" (marriage between a man and a woman) funded by the National Organization for Marriage. \"Marriage is good,\" Prejean said at a news conference announcing the ad campaign. \"There is something special about unions of husband and wife. Unless we bring men and women together, children will not have mothers and fathers.\" CNN's Aileen Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says she posed for one semi-nude photo .\nA Web site says it has more photos of Prejean, and plans to slowly roll them out .\nPrejean is in the news for her response to question about same-sex marriage .","id":"4420fffbaeb0ae3d6d9e729a5fdb0d2a64464758"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. You may think you have the worst boss in the Western Hemisphere, but if you've never had to dodge a cell phone, been fired over a breakfast pastry or had your work referred to as \"a complete and utter mess,\" you probably have it better than you realize. Consider the following celebrities, whose poor underlings withstood verbal and sometimes physical abuse and lived to tell about it: . Scott Rudin . The high-profile film producer, whose film credits include \"The Queen,\" \"The Royal Tenenbaums\" and \"The Firm,\" is infamous for his hot temper and verbal rants. The Wall Street Journal once claimed he has fired 250 personal assistants, sometimes for offenses as minor as bringing him the wrong breakfast muffin. (Rudin claimed the actual number is closer to 120; however, he wasn't counting those who didn't survive his grueling two-week trial period.) Despite Rudin's reputation, however, being his personal assistant remains one of the most coveted jobs among wannabe movie moguls. Naomi Campbell . Campbell is to her employees what fireworks are to the average person: If not handled carefully, she may cause bodily harm. In early 2007, the British supermodel pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for hitting her housekeeper with a cell phone over a pair of missing jeans. Campbell insisted the incident was an accident, but a history of similar events -- including a 2000 guilty plea for assaulting a personal assistant on a movie set in 1998 -- indicates otherwise. Simon Cowell . It's no secret that the mastermind behind \"American Idol\" has notoriously high standards, nor does he apologize for them. In fact, Cowell, who is known for finding new and creative ways to insult everyone from contestants to \"Idol\" host Ryan Seacrest, seems to relish his reputation as the judge everyone loves to hate. And why not? After all, it is his famously prickly personality that has helped make him a household name. Al Capone . Alphonse \"Al\" Capone's name is synonymous with organized crime. He was as well-known for his involvement in illegal gambling, bootlegging and prostitution as for his brutality. His own men were behind 1929's infamous \"St. Valentine's Day Massacre.\" In 1931, Capone finally went to prison for income tax evasion and was released -- ironically, for good behavior -- after serving eight years in federal prisons. Afterward, Capone retired to his estate in Florida, where he died in 1947 of heart failure. Leona Helmsley . The recently-deceased Manhattan hotelier will go down in history as the \"Queen of Mean,\" a nickname she earned as a result of her erratic behavior and hasty firing of employees. After serving time for tax evasion in 1989 (\"Only the little people pay taxes,\" was her infamous defense), Helmsley again brushed with the law in 2004 when a court ordered her to pay a former landscaper for breach of contract (Helmsley had abruptly fired the man after finding out he was gay). Gordon Ramsay . The hot-tempered (pun intended) host of \"Hell's Kitchen\" could give Simon Cowell a run for his money as the cruelest judge on TV. Neither holds back when it comes to doling out criticism, but Ramsay steps it up a notch with slightly more colorful language. In fact, his fondness for four-letter words is matched only by Cowell's fondness for tight black T-shirts. E-mail to a friend . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"One high-profile film producer has fired hundreds of personal assistants .\nNaomi Campbell's treatment of her employees has landed her in court .\nAnd would you really want to answer to Simon Cowell or Al Capone?","id":"37b1ccb673cc72e94adc6a32eb32f62f3bc8873b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A habitually violent young man was convicted Wednesday of the murder of teenage actor Rob Knox, who had starred in the latest \"Harry Potter\" film. The father, brother and mother of Rob Knox pose together after the death of the young actor. Karl Bishop, 22, attacked Knox and four friends with two kitchen knives outside a bar in Sidcup, south east London, last May. He stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the Old Bailey court in central London heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. Bystanders said Bishop's face was \"screwed up in rage\" as he lashed out with the two knives, the Press Association reported. Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court that the young actor's promising life was ended by a \"habitual knife carrier\" who believed stabbing people was an \"occupational hazard\" and had previous convictions for knife crime. Bishop is due to be sentenced on Thursday. Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"","highlights":"Man convicted of murder of teenage actor who starred in new \"Harry Potter\" film .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings .","id":"62282935cb0e5ec210e1e854fc39084603f68086"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's president has defended his government's recent ceasefire in the country's volatile Swat Valley in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, saying that many in the West have mischaracterized the deal. President Zardari also said that the cease-fire would not close girls' schools in the troubled region. The permanent ceasefire, which was brokered in late February between members of the Taliban and leaders of Swat Valley, has been criticized and called a major concession by the Pakistani government in an attempt to hold off Taliban attacks. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants from areas of the North West Frontier Province . As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly attacks, beheadings and destruction of girls' schools. They also continued to gain ground, setting up checkpoints throughout the area. President Asif Ali Zardari addressed the international criticism in his Wall Street Journal article, published Wednesday. \"We have not and will not negotiate with extremist Taliban and terrorists,\" Zardari wrote. \"The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban. Indeed, in our dialogue we'd made it clear that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban and other insurgents.\" The deal was brokered by Sufi Mohammed, a pro-Taliban cleric who in the past was arrested for leading thousands of fighters against the United States in Afghanistan. Mohammed made the deal with his son-in-law and Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah. In the article, Zardari also said that the cease-fire would not close girls' schools in the region. \"We have not and will not condone the closing of girls' schools, as we saw last year when militants closed schools in pockets of Swat Valley. Indeed, the government insists that the education of young women is mandatory. This is not an example of the government condoning or capitulating to extremism -- quite the opposite,\" Zardari wrote. The cease-fire deal imposes Islamic law, or sharia, in the region. As part of the agreement, the Taliban is allowing boys' schools to reopen and the government to set up temporary quarters for the more than 200,000 Swat residents who fled. Women in the area interviewed by CNN said that they would not be able to go to the schools and that, under Taliban-imposed sharia law, they cannot even be seen in public without their husbands or fathers. Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. It is near the Afghanistan border and is 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the capital, Islamabad. -- CNN's Stan Grant contributed to this report.","highlights":"Deal brokered in February between Taliban and leaders of Swat Valley .\nCentral government has long exerted little control in the area .\nZardari: \"The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban\"\n\"It is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban,\" he said .","id":"3a7def2f1ecf1515163394336c215507233a5130"} -{"article":"MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut (CNN) -- The suspect in the shooting of a Wesleyan University student is in police custody, police in Meriden, Connecticut, said Thursday. Police have arrested Stephen Morgan in the shooting death of Johanna Justin-Jinich. A spokesman in Meriden said Stephen Morgan had been in custody there, but was transferred to police in Middletown, seven miles away. No other details were available. An arrest warrant was issued earlier for Morgan, charging him with murder in the death of Johanna Justin-Jinich at a Middletown bookstore on Wednesday. Justin-Jinich was shot Wednesday afternoon at the Red & Black Cafe in Broad Street Books, the campus bookstore, the university said. She worked at the cafe, the cafe said on its Web site. It said that her killing has left employees \"devastated.\" Earlier Thursday, a law enforcement source told CNN that police spoke briefly to the suspect after her shooting death. Morgan was one of several people who gathered Wednesday afternoon outside Broad Street Books after the Wesleyan junior was shot, the source said. He gave his name to investigators who spoke with him, the source said. At that early stage of the investigation, the source said, police had no reason to suspect Morgan. Earlier Thursday, Morgan's sister had urged him to turn himself in to \"avoid any further bloodshed.\" Diana Morgan told reporters in Marblehead, Massachusetts, that her family was \"shocked and sickened by the tragedy in Middletown.\" She said her family did not know her brother's whereabouts, but issued a brief statement to him through the media: \"Steve, turn yourself in right now to any law enforcement agency, wherever you are, to avoid any further bloodshed. We love you, we will support you in every way and we don't want anyone else to get hurt.\" She did not take questions. Before his arrest, police had been worried that Morgan may be targeting Wesleyan University and the town's Jewish residents. A statement from the university alleges that Morgan had written threats against \"Wesleyan and\/or its Jewish students\" in his personal journals. Congregation Adath Israel, Middletown's lone synagogue, canceled all activities for the next day, said its president, Eliot Meadow. He said police told him that they do not think Morgan is part of a larger anti-Semitic organization. About 200 families attend the synagogue, Meadow said, and he added that Wesleyan, a private university with about 3,000 students, has a substantial Jewish population. While Justin-Jinich was a student at Wesleyan and was Jewish, according to the Middletown mayor, there was another connection between her and her alleged killer, authorities said. Watch how suspect and victim knew each other \u00bb . In July 2007, the young woman filed a harassment complaint against Morgan while the two were taking the same six-week summer course at New York University, school spokesman John Beckman told CNN. The complaint, in which Justin-Jinich said she was receiving harassing e-mails and phone calls from Morgan, was filed with the university's public safety department toward the end of the course, Beckman said. The public safety department brought in the New York Police Department and after conversations with Morgan and Justin-Jinich, the young woman declined to follow up or press charges, Beckman said. Beckman said the two were not living in the same student residence house during the course. Additional details were not immediately available. Another law enforcement source also told CNN that in an excerpt from one of the e-mails sent to Justin-Jinich, Morgan wrote, \"You're going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can't take any (expletive) criticism, Johanna.\" Watch the crime described as 'every parent's nightmare' \u00bb . Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said the connection between Morgan and Justin-Jinich may \"go back to Colorado.\" No further details were available. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Stephen Morgan, 29, arrested in university student's shooting death .\nSuspect's sister earlier urged him to turn himself in 'to avoid further bloodshed'\nSuspect walked into bookstore near Wesleyan University campus, opened fire .","id":"24acff30bcd0561749c4f5cf195716d76f623958"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Paula Abdul is ready for another fresh start, now that she's kicked her addiction to painkillers, the \"American Idol\" judge told a magazine. Paula Abdul told Ladies' Home Journal that she struggled with a drug problem. The former pop star released a new song this week and will take the \"American Idol\" stage Wednesday night to perform it. Abdul, in an interview for the Ladies' Home Journal's June issue, acknowledged what she has denied for years -- that she had a drug problem. But last November, days after an obsessed fan apparently killed herself outside Abdul's home, she went to a health spa where weaned herself off prescription pain medications she had used for a dozen years. \"Withdrawal -- it's the worst thing,\" she told the magazine. \"I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain, it was excruciating. But at my very core, I did not like existing the way I had been.\" Watch more on Abdul's challenges \u00bb . Abdul acknowledged several years ago that she used medications to kill the pain for a series of injuries, but this is apparently her first admission she was hooked on them. When People magazine asked her about it in 2005, she chose her words carefully: . \"Drugs? I'm not addicted to pills of any kind,\" Abdul then said. Her painkillers were, in fact, not pills. Abdul wore a patch that delivered a pain medication about 80 times more potent than morphine, she told Ladies' Home Journal. Abdul's slurring of words and apparent confusion on \"American Idol\" and during interviews stirred rumors of a drug problem in recent years. She told the magazine, though, she was never under the influence during a show. Her pains began with a cheerleading accident at age 17, but were compounded by later mishaps -- including a stage accident in 1991, a car wreck in 1992 and a plane crash in 1993, she said. The persistent hurting is almost gone after a 15th surgery, she said. After two short marriages, Abdul said she is still looking for a soul mate. \"I'm working on finding that guy,\" she said. She premiered her new song -- \"I'm Just Here for the Music\" -- on \"Idol\" host Ryan Seacrest's radio show Tuesday. She told Seacrest she only decided last week to accept the invitation to perform it live on the TV show. \"I was invited by the producers and I wasn't sure it I was going to do it because timing was of the essence,\" she said. She said she put her performance together over the weekend. Abdul's \"American Idol\" contract ends with this season, and she told Seacrest she did not know if she would be back to judge next season.","highlights":"Paula Abdul told Ladies' Home Journal she had painkiller addiction .\nShe went to spa to wean self: \"I did not like existing the way I had been\"\nAbdul told magazine she was never under the influence on \"American Idol\"\nSeries of painful accidents starting at age 17 were root cause of addiction, she says .","id":"25a892ac9ba22a2f0fc6cd9a6577f84dcdc0bb2b"} -{"article":"FOLKSTON, Georgia (CNN) -- Rain or shine, 80-year-old Cookie Williams plops himself on the wooden viewing platform perched over double train tracks. Cookie Williams, 80, watches a CSX freight train chug by on a typical Tuesday afternoon. On this warm May afternoon, a patient Williams sits slouched, legs crossed and arms relaxed, donning his vintage CSX railroad company cap littered with miniature train pendants. He is waiting for a train. A scanner, listening for oncoming train signals, crackles in the background as it picks up some conductor chatter. He waits some more. \"A lot of people in this town thought I was on the kooky side,\" said Williams, who is retired from the paper and pulp industry. \"But I love it. I've loved these trains ever since I was a kid.\" Folkston, Georgia, where Williams lives, is one of many train hot spots nationwide. Here, the blasting train noises are jokingly called \"Folkston music.\" With up to 60 trains crawling loudly through the quaint town each day, it's become an attraction for fans eager to collect train images and sounds. In 2001, Williams, who grew up by a train track, pushed town officials to construct a viewing platform with picnic tables, wireless Internet and a scanner to detect oncoming trains. The Southeast Georgia town reports that at least 12,500 visitors from all over the world visit the platform to watch trains each year. Watch Williams and his friend talk about the joy of train watching \u00bb . As the prominence of the iconic American railroad has faded over the past half-century, there remains a devout group of train enthusiasts like Williams and his friends, dubbed railfans, who obsessively chase and watch powerful trains glide along railroad tracks. Trains Magazine, an industry publication, estimates that there are 175,000 U.S. railfans, mostly male baby boomers. \"The word 'enthusiast' doesn't begin to cover their devotion,\" said Rhonda Del Boccio, head of the Okefenokee Chamber of Commerce, which oversees railfan tourism in Folkston. \"Picture [the popular game] 'World of Warcraft' for train people.\" On any given day in America, loyal railfans camp out for hours or even days on a platform, a grassy field, a road or a backyard to snap a few photographs or shoot video of the moving trains. Some travel to different cities and countries to capture the right shot. Last weekend, nearly 20 railfans convened at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex, Montana, a railroad worker dormitory built in 1939 that was converted into a hotel. The group took pictures of trains set against the backdrop of Glacier National Park during the day and had history lessons about trains at night. A train festival this summer in Oswego, Michigan, is expected to draw in 30,000 attendees, many of them railfans. Just like bird watcher keeps an eye out for specific birds, railfans watch for cargo and passenger trains and \"critters\"-- railfan lingo for small freight trains. On a lucky day, they may spot a historic steam locomotive. Hardcore railfans spend so much time visually dissecting the trains, they can recite the number of axles in a passing train or recount which years railroad giant Union Pacific Railway Co. changed its logos. \"It's a marvel to see something that weighs hundreds of tons, hauling thousands of tons, moving through rural country,\" said Bill Taylor, a 62-year-old railfan and former teacher. His Missoula, Montana, home is adorned with antique rail items, such as train silverware and conductor lanterns. \"It's an orchestra of motion.\" In an age of social media, railfanning has taken a new turn, going viral. On YouTube, there are more than 24,000 railfan videos, ranging from trains chugging through Gary, Indiana, to the subway in New York. Flickr.com touts thousands of pictures uploaded my railfans delighted to share their most prized train spotting moments. The obsession over railfanning often stems from historical and technological intrigue. Trains not only represent a romanticized era, they have been central to American economic growth and commerce across the country, historians say. Like any other pastime, railfanning has rules. Most railfan veterans execute the hobby with caution, steering at least 100 feet from private property and dangerous areas, railfans say. Sometimes, amateur train lovers wander too close to the tracks, raising safety concerns and irritating rail conductors and employees. Rail workers nickname pestering railfans \"foamers\" because fans stand near the tracks in such awe that they are practically drooling when a train plows through. See train photos from our iReporters \u00bb . \"For [conductors and rail workers], it's a dog chasing a car,\" said Rick Enselman, 41, of Edmond, Oklahoma, who became enamored with railfanning 15 years ago. He started taking his two children to the tracks with him. \"They don't understand the rhythm and rhyme of why we're doing it.\" Enselman, a salesman, says railfanning takes his mind \"away from the real world.\" His love of trains was inspired by his great-uncle, who bequeathed him a vintage Lionel O Scale train set decades ago. But it hasn't been a smooth ride for railfans. After September 11, railfanning sparked some controversy. Security officers at railroad companies began to ward off railfans, fearing that they might be a terrorism threat. Officers soon realized railfans were no harm and could bolster surveillance. In 2006, BNSF Railway Co., one of the largest railroad operators in the United States, created the Citizen for Rail Safety Group, where railfans help the company watch for unusual activity. There are more than 8,700 people, mostly railfans, registered today. Today, trains are also making a steady comeback despite the challenges of a sluggish economy. Amtrak passenger ridership saw an increase of 10 million over the past decade. President Obama has talked about resurrecting plans for a national high-speed rail network. \"Even though there are fewer railroad companies, they are hauling more stuff than ever before,\" said Kevin Keefe, publisher of Trains Magazine. \"I don't think railroads have lost the ability to capture people's attention.\" Back on the viewing platform in Folkston, a 10-year-old boy with eager blue eyes hidden behind a thin pair of glasses, with a videocamera in his hand, is sitting two seats away from Cookie Williams. Surveying the naked tracks carefully, the boy, a railfan from North Carolina, fidgets in his seat . \"It's coming up, son,\" Williams reassures the boy and the four other railfans on the platform. \"A few more minutes.\" So they wait together, faces brushed by the soft breeze. And they wait a few minutes more, before the bells jingle a warning. The horn screams twice. And the howling cacophony of a diesel locomotive crashes toward them as they watch the train come into focus from the distance.","highlights":"Trains Magazine estimates there are 175,000 railfans in the U.S.\nFolkston, Georgia, has about 12,500 visitors to watch trains each year .\n\"It's an orchestra of motion,\" says 63-year-old railfan Bill Taylor of Montana .\nTrains are making a steady comeback despite the sluggish economy .","id":"840893dd3d58a2f3f36d397282c256883ee825bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Toyota reported a first-ever annual net loss of $4.4 billion on Friday, the latest automobile maker to be battered by the credit crisis. The top executives for Toyota at a press conference in January. Net revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31 was down nearly 22 percent, with total sales of 7.6 million vehicles -- 1.3 million fewer than the previous year. The company dividend will be reduced to 100 yen per share, down from 140 yen per share last year . The appreciation of the yen against major currencies, rise in raw material costs and the collapse of the auto market in Europe and North America led to the company's annual loss, said Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota president, at a press conference. The firm expects sales to decline even further to 6.5 million units this year. The company, however, will be further expanding it environmentally friendly line of automobiles. Watch more about the results \u00bb . \"It appears to take some more time before the financial markets in the U.S. and Europe normalize and the global economy recovers,\" Watanabe said. \"However, in the 2010 fiscal year, we plan to accelerate our profit improvement activities including the expansion of our hybrid vehicle line-up such as the next generation Prius in May and the Lexus' HS250h in July.\" Toyota plans to launch four hybrid models in Japan and three models overseas in the next year. The new Prius model will be more compact and reduce production costs by 30 percent, Watanabe said.","highlights":"Toyota reports its first annual net loss of $4.4 billion .\nCompany will reduce dividend to 100 yen per share from 140 .\nThe appreciation of yen, increased costs and decrease in car buyers blamed .","id":"acd50b8aa363353a03f797d26c28917366af72a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A year ago, employees at Boiron, a medical manufacturing company, wined and dined at the Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort overlooking the picturesque bay in Rose Hall, Jamaica, for their annual retreat. The InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa is subtly scaling back amid a sagging economy. This year, employees are saying goodbye to luxury as company President Ludovic Rassat moved the event to a more sensible location: the Sheraton Suites Philadelphia Airport. Many of his employees who live near the hotel are expected to sleep at home. \"It's important to see we are making decisions for the good of the company,\" Rassat said. \"At the end of the day, it's going to be good for them. Their jobs are still going to be there.\" With a mentality like Rassat's pervading the business and leisure traveler psyche, luxury hotels are bleeding occupancy and revenue at a rate far worse than the travel slump experienced after September 11, travel experts say. To overcome their financial woes, luxury hotels are dropping rates, giving customers incentives and finding ways to cut operating costs without compromising the integrity of their posh images. Starwood Hotel & Resorts, which owns the chic W and St Regis hotels, is offering existing and new members of its preferred guest program the opportunity to earn a free weekend night with two stays at any of Starwood's hotels from May through July. Guests can use their free night through the end of September across Starwood's brands, including many of the company's luxury properties. This summer, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which operates five-star properties around the world, will offer customers who book particular packages free breakfast and a $100 resort credit. Washington's Willard Intercontinental Hotel is offering a \"buy two nights, get a third night free\" promotion for weekend stays through December. From December to February, occupancy in luxury hotels, a category that includes names such as the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. sunk more than 15 percent -- a steeper drop than at mid-level hotels, according to leading hotel industry watcher Smith Travel Research Inc. The revenue generated from the available luxury rooms fell 23 percent in that same three-month period, according to the Smith Travel Research report. Meanwhile, there are 551,610 rooms opening this year amid sluggish consumer demand, according to a STR construction pipeline report in March. And when the economy rebounds, the luxury lodging segment will take longer to recover. \"Luxury hotels will lag behind the rest of the hotel industry,\" said Bobby Bowers, senior vice president of operations at STR. \"They have ups and downs that are steeper than the industry as a whole.\" PKF Consulting forecasts that the luxury hotel segment will stay in red ink until 2011. Things have gotten so bad that some upscale-hotel owners across the country are delaying hotel construction to save money. Other developers are facing foreclosure or have scrapped future hotel plans altogether, industry experts say. Much of the luxury hotel business' slowdown has been driven by guilt, some executives say. Business leaders fear that they might look too excessive by staying at an upscale hotel as pink slips and pay freezes become ubiquitous. One high-end resort in Amelia Island, Florida, had one of its business customers suggest that the hotel drop the word \"island\" from its address to downplay the resort's exclusive image. Many companies such as Starwood and Rosewood are trying to lure customers by giving free nights and dining and spa credits without significantly lowering room rates, which could tarnish their exclusive appeal. Hotel operators hope that offering guests free nights will encourage them to spend more money overall. Other hotels prefer bundling their rates in packages so it is difficult to tell how much the prices have dropped. \"They need to protect the image of their property,\" explained Erik Herskind, a principle at Greenlight, a Dallas, Texas-based company that works with luxury hotels. \"They need to feel like even in this tough time, they are a prestigious place, so they are finding quiet ways to attract business and the right kind of business.\" But other luxury hotels are dropping rates anyway, partnering frequently with online travel companies like Expedia Inc.'s Hotels.com in special sales featuring five-star hotels. Shaun Stewart, director of market management for Hotels.com, says the discounts make it the \"best time to upgrade\" for travelers who have never lodged in luxury. Hit particularly hard by the recession is Las Vegas, Nevada, where luxury hotel rates have plummeted more than 30 percent, according to Hotels.com. For example, the Trump Hotel Collection, which is advertising with online travel companies for the first time, is touting prices of $89 a night at the opulent Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. The year-old luxury hotel sold rooms for about $200 before the economy crumbled. The company is also using Facebook and Twitter to appeal to a younger demographic, who can now afford to stay at their property. \"You have a couple of bad apples in the bag,\" Melissa Brown, vice president of sales and marketing at Trump, said of luxury hotels that began to dramatically drop prices last year. \"Then we all have to fall with it.\" Many luxury hotels, known for their extravagant pampering, amenities and services, are also making subtle cuts to save money. But they are careful not to scale back too much. InterContinental, owned by InterContinental Hotel Group, says a growing number of branches are replacing costly imported floral displays with arrangements from local vendors. Some gift baskets now have fresh fruit and bottled water rather than smoked salmon, cheeses and chocolates. Share prices at the company fell by 26 percent in 2008 while the company opened a record 430 hotels that year. At the InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa in Paradise Valley, Arizona, the hotel has made valet parking optional to reduce the number of employees working in the front. Instead, guests can park their cars. But cutting prices and services is a risky balancing act for luxury brands in the long run, warns Bob Caroll, a senior lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. \"If you really are that much of a better property, consumers will start to wonder why your price is the same as a normal hotel,\" Carroll said. \"But once consumers start to believe the lower price, luxury hotels may experience difficulty in raising prices when the economy recovers. It's a double whammy.\"","highlights":"Occupancy in luxury hotels dropped 15 percent from December to February .\nExecutives are avoiding meetings at fancy resorts to cut costs and appear frugal .\nLuxury hotels are offering free nights and spa credits to attract new customers .\nRates at luxury hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada, have dropped 30 percent .","id":"5187470febb0ff18d4b8cf6474ff38cdd947fa08"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Drew Peterson, who was arrested this week in the death of his third wife, joked with the media about his jail jumpsuit and chewed gum throughout his first court appearance Friday. A judge delayed Drew Peterson's arraignment until May 18 because his lawyers couldn't attend Friday's hearing. The 55-year-old former police officer flashed a broad smile and engaged in banter during the 10-yard walk to the courthouse. Wearing an inmate uniform -- a bright-red short-sleeved shirt and pants, white socks and sandals -- Peterson had his hands and feet shackled as he arrived at the courtroom. Asked how he was, he responded, \"three squares a day and a spiffy outfit.\" He then held up the chains and said, \"and I got the bling. Can't complain.\" Peterson, who authorities call the prime suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, was indicted on murder charges related to the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, the Illinois state attorney's office said. Watch a shackled Peterson go to jail \u00bb . Peterson appeared in court Friday, but a judge delayed his arraignment until May 18. Judge Richard Schoenstedt ordered the delay after Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow told him that Peterson's primary lawyer, Joel Brodsky, had asked for it because neither he nor Peterson's other attorney could attend Friday's hearing. Peterson, chewing gum throughout the proceedings and speaking in a clear voice, told Schoenstedt that he knew both of his lawyers were out of town and that he had no objection to the delay. Glasgow, who has said he will prosecute the case personally, said Brodsky told him that he expects to ask the judge for a reduction in Peterson's $20 million bail during the May 18 arraignment. Illinois State Police said Peterson was taken into custody about 5:30 p.m. Thursday after a traffic stop near his home. Police had staked out his home all day, police Capt. Carl Dobrich said, but waited for Peterson to leave before arresting him out of concern for his three young children, who were in the house. Peterson, through his attorney, denied any wrongdoing in either case. Glasgow said he believes that the case is strong. \"This is an extremely grave and serious matter, and it is reflected in the bond,\" Glasgow said. Brodsky told CNN's Larry King that he thought the bail was excessive and would seek a more \"reasonable\" amount, noting that it was the most expensive bail he'd seen in 10 years. Watch Peterson's attorney address his client's arrest \u00bb . Charles B. Pelkie, a spokesman for Glasgow, said a grand jury indicted Peterson in the murder of Savio, whose death had once been ruled an accidental drowning. But Brodsky said in a statement that prosecutors won't be able to prove their case, because \"he didn't do it.\" \"There is no evidence that links Drew Peterson to the death of Kathleen Savio or anyone else for that matter,\" Brodsky said. \"Drew did not harm Kathleen; he has said so from Day One. We're obviously disappointed a grand jury indicted him. But an indictment does not mean guilt.\" Pelkie said the grand jury continues to meet and is studying the possibility of charges in Stacy Peterson's disappearance. Watch family members react to the arrest \u00bb . After Stacy Peterson went missing in October 2007, media and police scrutiny of Peterson revealed that Savio had died mysteriously during a nasty divorce a few years earlier. Savio died just before the division of marital assets was finalized, making Drew Peterson the sole beneficiary. Savio was found in the dry bathtub of her home. At the time, the death was ruled an accidental drowning. But her family continued to insist that Savio died as a result of foul play. The investigation into Stacy Peterson's disappearance brought renewed interest in Savio's death. Authorities exhumed Savio's body, further tests were conducted, and her death was been ruled a \"homicide staged to look like an accident.\" Brodsky told King that he thinks the case has always been about circumstantial evidence and that he will bring a pathologist to trial who will say Savio died in an accidental drowning. \"I think the jury's going to see that, in fact, this always has been an accidental death and still is an accidental death,\" Brodsky told King. Kathleen Savio's brother, Nick, told CNN affiliate WLS that he received a call saying Peterson had been arrested. Watch police arrest Peterson \u00bb . \"The state police had been telling us the day was coming,\" he told WLS. \"We kept hearing it for about eight months. I'm almost in tears here. It's been so hard for our family. \"Hopefully, we'll get the justice we've always been waiting for.\" Martin Glink, attorney for the Savio family, said they had been hopeful the grand jury felt that there was enough evidence to charge Peterson. \"We're very happy that the wheels of justice have continued to move and they are pointing in his direction,\" Glink told WLS. The news was bittersweet for Stacy Peterson's family, who continue to wait for news about her disappearance. \"We have anticipated this coming. We have dreamed about it. We have been patient over it,\" family spokeswoman Pam Bosco told WLS. \"Now that it's here, it's almost a little bit calm. We're waiting for the storm to calm now. The calm before the storm.\" Bosco said she was hopeful there would be charges in Stacy Peterson's case. \"We always said from the very beginning that Kathleen and Stacy had one thing in common, and that was Drew Peterson,\" she said. \"So, hopefully, we'll have news soon about Stacy, too.\" Ernie Raines is also relieved about the arrest. His daughter, Christina Raines, is dating Peterson and was living with him before his arrest. Raines told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he was with his daughter and Peterson as recently as last week, when they talked about going to Las Vegas, Nevada, and getting married. Thursday night, he spoke with his daughter after the arrest. \"My daughter was terrified, very emotional, upset,\" Raines said. \"And I tried to tell her from the beginning that this was going to happen, be prepared.\" Raines said that when he heard about the arrest, he was more relieved than anything. \"I'm glad justice finally came before he hurt my daughter,\" he said. Police put Peterson's three young children in the custody of the state's children and family service department. His adult son was contacted, at Peterson's request, to take them, according to Dobrich. Dobrich said Peterson cooperated with police during his arrest. CNN's Susan Roesgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Peterson to media on handcuffs, chains: \"I got the bling. Can't complain\"\nDrew Peterson arrested in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio .\nRenewed interest in Savio's death came after Peterson's fourth wife disappeared .\nPeterson, through his attorney, denies any wrongdoing in either case .","id":"2206e49ec85431fe8d21dfb5feffcf6a8b62f97e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi who was captured on videotape torturing an Afghan grain dealer has reportedly been detained, a senior U.S. State Department official told CNN Saturday. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, pictured here, allegedly tortured a business associate on videotape. The official said the government of the United Arab Emirates, which includes Abu Dhabi as one of its seven emirates, told the State Department that Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan is under house arrest pending an investigation, but that the United States has not independently confirmed the development. The videotape emerged last month in a federal civil lawsuit filed in Houston, Texas, by Bassam Nabulsi, a U.S. citizen, against the sheikh. Former business partners, the men had a falling out, in part over the tape. In a statement to CNN, the sheikh's U.S. attorney said Nabulsi is using the videotape to influence the court over a business dispute. The tape of the heinous torture session is delaying the ratification of a civil nuclear deal between the United Arab Emirates and the United States, senior U.S. officials familiar with the case have said. The senior U.S. officials said the administration has held off on the ratification process because it believes sensitivities over the story can hurt its passage. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch called the sheikh's reported detention \"a significant development\" but said the UAE government needs to do more to restore confidence in its judicial system. \"The videotape of this episode shocked the world,\" said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. \"The report of the arrest was reassuring, but now the government needs to make the details public. Secretive prosecutions will not deter further abuses and torture.\" On the tape, Sheikh Issa appears to burn with rage. Apparently believing he was cheated in a business deal, the sheikh was trying to extract a confession from the Afghan grain dealer. With a private security officer assisting, Sheikh Issa is seen stuffing sand in the Afghan's mouth. As the grain dealer pleads and whimpers, he is beaten with a nailed board, burned in the genitals with a cigarette lighter, shocked with a cattle prod and led to believe he would be shot. Salt is literally poured on his wounds. The 45 minutes of torture appears on a nearly three-hour-long videotape shot in late 2004 in the desert outside Abu Dhabi. It was made at the direction of the sheikh himself. The tape has been viewed by CNN. Watch portions of the tape and Nabulsi tell his story \u00bb . After international concerns over the tape mounted in late April, Abu Dhabi's government issued a statement saying it deplored the contents of the video and planned an immediate and comprehensive review of it. The sheikh, who holds no official government position, is the half-brother of the UAE's ruler, President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Human Rights Watch sent a April 28 letter to the president imploring him to form \"an independent body\" to probe both the torture and and the \"failure\" of the UAE's Interior Ministry \"to bring those involved to justice.\" The group reiterated that call Saturday. As for the grain dealer, UAE officials say he survived the ordeal, and said the sheikh and the grain dealer settled the matter privately by agreeing not to bring formal charges against each other. However, Nabulsi's attorney, Anthony Buzbee, said the grain dealer can't be located and it is not known whether he is alive.","highlights":"State Department official says member of Abu Dhabi royal family reportedly detained .\nInvestigation continuing after videotape shows sheikh torturing grain merchant .\nVideotape emerged last month in federal civil lawsuit filed in the United States .\nU.S. senior officials say case is holding up a U.S. nuclear deal with the UAE .","id":"aa3a5a5fc5534c9929c96451690ff842eafca279"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As a spending bill loaded with pork makes its way through Congress, President Obama is getting pushback from members of his own party who are questioning his vow to end wasteful spending. The Senate could vote on the spending bill as early as Thursday. The president on Wednesday pledged turn tide on an \"era of fiscal irresponsibility,\" reiterating his campaign promise that the days of \"pork ... as a strategy\" are over. And in a prime-time address before a joint session of Congress, Obama last week praised the $787 billion stimulus package signed into law, telling the nation, \"I'm proud that we passed a recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities.\" But some in the audience found that hard to swallow. \"There was just a roar of laughter -- because there were earmarks,\" said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri. Earmarks, sometimes called \"pork,\" are unrelated pet projects that members of Congress insert in spending bills. Watch more on the earmarks in the bill \u00bb . The scoffing continues as the president hammers away at reducing wasteful spending and saving taxpayers money while lawmakers on Capitol Hill load up a spending bill with more than 8,000 earmarks totaling nearly $8 billion. The legislation in question is a $410 billion omnibus bill that would keep the federal government running through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September 2009. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that monitors government spending, the bill includes: . About 60 percent of the earmarks are from Democrats, and about 40 percent are from Republicans, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Ryan Alexander, the president of the Taxpayers for Common Sense, pointed out that not all earmarks are bad. \"They're not always good or bad. What's bad is the process. We don't know why certain projects get earmark funds and why other projects don't. Some of them may be good. But that could be just as well by accident as it is by design, because we have no idea why these projects are funded and why other projects aren't,\" he said. Earlier this week, 14 Democratic senators met to talk about their concerns with the spending. On Wednesday, Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold called on Obama to veto the bill. Watch Feingold talk about a 'teary-eyed' defense of earmarks \u00bb . \"But the bloated omnibus requires sacrifice from no one, least of all the government. It only exacerbates the problem and hastens the day of reckoning,\" Bayh wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial published Wednesday. Democrats blocked amendments by Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, that would have narrowed the spending on earmarks. \"So much for the promise of change. This may be -- in all the years I have been coming to this floor to complain about the earmark pork barrel corruption that this system has bred, this may be probably the worst, probably the worst,\" McCain said Tuesday. The spending bill made it through the House last week. A vote in the Senate could come as early as Thursday, but it's unclear if there are the 60 votes necessary to sent it to the floor since some Democrats aren't supporting it. Obama is expected to sign the bill when it reaches his desk. But Democrats speaking out against the pork could just be flexing their muscles, said CNN contributor Roland Martin. \"I would love to see these same Democrats have the courage to actually stand up, look their fellow senators in the eye, Democrats and Republicans, and say, OK, let's get rid of your particular project,\" he said. \"What often happens in Congress is, they complain in terms of the general ... What I am saying is, call them out. Put it on the table,\" he said. Those defending the earmarks say they make up just a small portion -- less than 1 percent -- of the overall bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, on Thursday defended congressional earmarks, despite calls from the White House earlier this week to reform the process. \"The legislatively initiated proposals in the appropriations bill, I think, are an appropriate function of Congress of the United States,\" Pelosi said. But Pelosi said she does believe Congress should cut back on the number of earmarks. Pelosi said after Congress finishes the $410 billion spending bill for this year, she planned to work with the Obama administration to find ways to reduce the number of earmarks in future spending bills. The White House says this bill is just last year's unfinished business -- and next time, it will be different. \"We'll change the rules going forward,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday when asked about the legislation. Obama presented his budget summary to Congress last week, but the full details of his 2010 budget won't be available until April. CNN's Jason Carroll, Joe Johns, Kristi Keck and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"$410 billion spending bill for FY 2009 includes 8,000 earmarks .\nDemocratic Sens. Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold want Obama to veto bill .\nSenate could vote on bill as early as Thursday .\nDefenders of bill say earmarks make up less than 1 percent of it .","id":"23e04d05fde830cb5e135e7fca520cbb187c1f1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four British soldiers have been killed in one day in separate attacks in Afghanistan, the British Ministry of Defense announced Friday. A British marine with an opium haul in Helmand province, where the four soldiers were killed. The deaths happened in three incidents in the southern Helmand province, the ministry said. Two soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing that happened Thursday afternoon during a patrol in Gereshk, the ministry said. One was a member of the Royal Gurkha Rifles and the other served with the Royal Military Police. \"With heavy heart we report another extremely sad situation, where lives of our courageous soldiers have been sacrificed for the greater good of the Afghan people,\" said Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand. \"Our deepest and heartfelt sympathies go to their families and loved ones and we offer our thoughts and prayers to them all at this most painful and distressing time.\" Thursday evening, another soldier was killed by an explosion as he traveled in a Jackal 4x4 patrol vehicle, the ministry said. He served in the 2nd Battalion The Rifles. Watch Afghanistan's president talk on U.S. troops withdrawals \u00bb . Earlier in the day, a soldier from The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland was killed by a gunshot wound, the ministry said. He had been on patrol with the Afghan National Army in the vicinity of Woqab, close to Musa Qala.","highlights":"4 British soldiers die in one day in separate attacks in Afghanistan .\nDeaths happened in three incidents in the southern Helmand province .\nTwo soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing during a patrol in Gereshk .","id":"7aa1476ab29f4a45ed1090f84d1bd4e1b9dbbc8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctors chose a woman who survived a shotgun wound to her face as the first recipient of a face transplant after treating her for nearly four years. This image projects what Connie Culp, 46, may look like two years after the face transplant. Connie Culp knew of the Cleveland Clinic's interest in face transplants and approached the medical staff, doctors said at a news conference Tuesday. Dr. Maria Siemionow, the Cleveland, Ohio, hospital's director of plastic surgery research and head of microsurgery training, had more than 20 years of experience in complex transplants. By 2004, Siemionow was looking for the right candidate for a face transplant who wasn't doing it for vanity. \"They are not looking to go out on the street and be beautiful,\" Siemionow told CNN in a 2006 interview. \"Some of these patients, when they were interviewed just said 'I want to walk on the street and just make sure I am not sticking out.' They just want to have a normal face.\" The doctors examined the patient's history, motivation and ability to understand the risks of the transplant. And they found Culp to be an ideal candidate. Five years after a gun blast shattered her nose, cheeks and upper lip, she had a band of scar tissue extending across her face. \"The most devastating of all was the fact that society had rejected her and children were afraid of her,\" said Siemionow, who led the December 10 transplant operation. See before and after photos of Culp \u00bb . Culp, a mother of two and a grandmother, told her doctors she could understand that some adults would shun her. \"But what really bothered her the most were children -- the children that shied away from her,\" said Dr. Frank Papay, the chairman of Institute of Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. \"That sense of innocence, and her not being able to see that innocence really, really affected her.\" The shooting . In September 2004, Culp's estranged husband shot her in the face in an attempted murder-suicide outside a restaurant in Hopedale, Ohio, according to CNN affiliate WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio. Culp was 8 feet away from her husband, Thomas Culp, when he pulled the shotgun's trigger. He then turned the weapon on himself, according to local news reports. They both survived. Thomas Culp was sent to prison. Despite her wounds, she told WTOV in 2008, \"I'll always love him. He was my first love.\" At the same time, Culp said, she felt angry. \"I wouldn't be human if I didn't. I forgive him, but I have to go on, you know?\" After the shooting, Culp recuperated in a hospital and in a personal care home for two years. Culp told WTOV she had vision problems and was learning Braille. Her approach to life was to \"keep motivated. Don't sleep your life away -- that could have happened. I could be depressed. I'm not.\" As she spoke, her breaths emitted a small whistle from her tracheotomy tube, which protruded from a surgical opening in her neck. \"I cannot smell. I will never be able to smell,\" she said in the interview. Culp was wrong. How doctors transplanted a face . The doctors at the Cleveland Clinic analyzed Culp's injuries using CAT scans and developed plastic models of her skull. They practiced face transplant operation on cadavers several times. Culp met with the hospital's surgeons, ethical committee members and psychiatry and psychology specialists who determined that she was an ideal candidate for the surgery. Then, the wait for the right donor began in 2008. \"We thought we were going to wait a long time because we had to find a Caucasian female in her mid 40s to match Connie, so we expected a year before we were able to find a donor,\" said Papay, who is also head of craniofacial surgery. \"Well, three to four months later, I got a call at around midnight from Dr. Siemionow saying 'I think we have a donor.'\" The family of a brain dead woman granted permission to use her face. He likened the preparation for the December transplant to a rocket launch, saying, \"Everything was prepared beforehand very, very, very carefully.\" Surgeons sheared out the donor's mid-facial area including the lower eyelids, cheekbones, the nose, some of the sinus and the whole upper jaw, with the blood vessels. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta discuss the face transplant \u00bb . When it came time to move the donor's parts to Culp, they had to see that the donor and recipient parts aligned. \"One of the ways you can tell that is how your upper teeth fit to the lower teeth,\" Papay said. \"We knew it was like a hand in a glove, exactly where we needed to be.\" They secured the bones into Culp's face using titanium plates and screws. Then the microvascular surgeons attached the vessels. They tucked the scars around Culp's ears or underneath her eyelid, where they would not be visible. How the doctors operated \u00bb . Doctors added more skin than needed in case of tissue rejection. After monitoring Culp's progress, doctors say they will remove the excess tissue and tighten her jawline in future surgeries. Contrary to science fiction and movies, the surgery did not make Culp look like the donor. \"If you just took the skin and transplanted it to the other patient, the bony structure is different,\" Papay said. \"If you took the bony structure and transplanted it on the other side, it ends up being a composite. So, it doesn't look like the donor. It doesn't look like the recipient. It ends up looking like someone new.\" Recovery . At this point, all the transplanted parts of Culp's face are functioning except for her facial nerves, which are growing about an inch a month. Doctors anticipate Culp will be able to have full facial function -- and more expression -- by this winter. In physical therapy, she learns to train her nerves, make facial expressions, smile and purse her lips, doctors said. \"If you cry or you laugh or you smile, it's not like you think about it. You just emotionally do it. So that's a wait and see for us,\" Papay said. \"As far as the emotional one, that's really the key issue. A far as when she laughs, cries and grimaces and gets angry at you...what's her face going to look like? That's the exciting part about it.\" Five months after the first face transplant in the United States, Culp lives at home. She has checkups with the medical staff once or twice a month and will do so for the next year, her doctors said. Initially, Culp used immunosuppressants that transplanted kidney, liver or heart patients would normally take. Transplant patients must take immune-suppressing drugs throughout their lifetime to prevent tissue rejection. But she showed improvements that enabled the doctors to reduce her regimen to one medication, doctors said. \"She's taking her medications,\" Siemionow said. \"We know she is compliant. She cares about how she looks. She has her hair done in a new color...She is full of life. She does her push-ups. She's on the treadmill. What else can I say?\"","highlights":"Face transplant recipient was shot in 2004 by her husband .\nIn a 2008 interview she told CNN affiliate that she forgave her husband .\nDoctors say Connie Culp fit criteria for ideal face transplant recipient .","id":"68f3087b6d588d77d02726e206fa030545bfb115"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A terrorism suspect -- whose 2008 escape from Singapore launched a global manhunt -- has been arrested in Malaysia, according to authorities there. An public alert posted at a supermarket for Mas Selamat Kastari on March 1, 2008, in Singapore. Mas Selamat Kastari, suspected leader of the Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah's Singapore arm, was arrested April 1 in Johor state in Malaysia, near the border of Singapore, Malaysian police said. Authorities have interrogated him and are sharing the information with police in the region, Malaysian law-enforcement officials said. \"It's very good he's been caught, but it's important to remember there are many other fugitives still at large, not (the) least, Noordin Moh Top,\" said Sidney Jones, South East Asia director for the International Crisis Group. Noordin is a Malaysian thought to be behind the region's most recent major attacks. He belongs to a small splinter group of Jemaah Islamiyah that espouses the use of large-scale terror attacks to push for the establishment of Islamic states in the region. Noordin is a one-time officer, recruiter and bomb-maker for Jemaah Islamiyah, who police say has narrowly escaped their dragnets for years. In the case of Mas Selamat, thousands of security forces fanned out across Singapore after he escaped in February 2008. Interpol, the organization that helps facilitate cooperation among police agencies around the world, later issued a worldwide security alert for him. Mas Selamat had been arrested in Indonesia and turned over to Singapore, on suspicion of plotting to crash a plane into the country's airport. Jemaah Islamiyah is thought to have links to al-Qaeda and is suspected of being behind the 2002 nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed more than 200 mostly Western tourists. Singapore is a strong U.S. ally and one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links. Mas Selamet fled the southeast Asian country in 2001 after authorities cracked down on Jemaah Islamiyah and arrested dozens of its members. To retaliate, Mas Selamet plotted to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's main airport, Changi, the Home Affairs Ministry said. The plot was not carried out. He also is suspected of being behind plans to attack the U.S. Embassy and a government building. Indonesian authorities arrested Mas Selamet on immigration violation charges in 2003. Three years later, he was deported to Singapore, the Home Affairs ministry said. He was being held under Singapore's Internal Security Act, which allows authorities to indefinitely detain someone without trial. Mas Selamet slipped away from a detention center in Singapore after asking to use the toilet before a visit with his family, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told lawmakers in parliament 2008. Journalist Baradan Kuppusamy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mas Selamat Kastari was arrested April 1 in Johor state in Malaysia .\nHe is suspected head of Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah's Singapore arm .\nHis 2008 escape from Singapore launched a global manhunt .\nHe had been arrested on suspicion of plot to crash plane into Singapore's airport .","id":"94f1a5f2cf453637bab1ae061a578c9762d4b99f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hulk Hogan said his comments to Rolling Stone magazine that he can \"totally understand\" O.J. Simpson -- the former football great found liable for the deaths of his wife and another man -- are being misunderstood. Linda and Hulk Hogan enjoy happier times at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. The pro wrestling legend said Wednesday that he \"took the high road\" and \"didn't do the O.J. Simpson thing\" despite the pain of his bitter divorce fight with wife Linda. Hogan's lawyer said the quotes leaked to a gossip column have been taken out of context and the full article proves Hogan \"never condones the O.J. situation.\" Watch Hogan claim he was misquoted \u00bb . A spokesman for Linda Hogan said the statement amounts to a death threat and that her attorney is \"weighing all options necessary to protect his client.\" \"His violent and scary mood swings have been my nightmare for too many years,\" Linda Hogan said Thursday in a written statement. \"I hope for the sake of our kids that he gets the psychological help for himself and the safety of others.\" Her spokesman, Gary Smith, said, \"For those who buy his claim the comment was taken out of context, read the rest of Rolling Stone and determine for yourself if his suicidal tendencies coupled with the use of drugs and alcohol make him a danger.\" The controversial quote is part of a eight-page feature article about Hogan to be published in the magazine's Friday edition. \"I could have turned everything into a crime scene like O.J., cutting everybody's throat,\" Hogan told Rolling Stone. \"You live half a mile from the 20,000-square-foot home you can't go to anymore, you're driving through downtown Clearwater [Florida] and see a 19-year-old boy driving your Escalade, and you know that a 19-year-old boy is sleeping in your bed, with your wife... . \"I totally understand O.J. I get it.\" The controversy began with a leak of the quote to the New York Post's Page 6 gossip column. Hogan lawyer David Houston said that quote was \"part of a larger conversation to exemplify degrees of emotional turmoil.\" \"Earlier reports to the contrary exemplify the danger of cherry-picking quotes and reacting to them,\" Houston said. Hogan spoke later Wednesday to a photographer with the gossip Web site TMZ: . \"I spent three days with a writer for Rolling Stone talking about being positive and happy and walking in the spirit of Christ. And he asked me, 'Well, why didn't you flip out?' Well, I didn't jump off the Empire State building, I didn't buy a white Bronco. I didn't do the O.J. Simpson thing. I took the high road. \"I'm not focused on Linda anymore,\" Hogan said. It has been widely reported that Linda Hogan, 49, is dating a younger man. She filed for divorce in 2007 after nearly 25 years of marriage. Simpson was found not guilty of murder in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, but was found liable for their deaths by a civil court jury. Simpson later was found guilty in a Las Vegas, Nevada, armed robbery case and sentenced in December to up to 33 years in prison. Linda Hogan's spokesman linked the comments to the 55-year-old Hogan's three-decade career, during which he held multiple championship titles and, during his heyday in the 1980s, was easily the most popular wrestler in the world. \"We have always maintained that the fear that Linda has had to live with comes from the rage and instability much too often associated with pro wrestlers,\" Smith said in the statement. Hulk Hogan's real name is Terry Bollea. His wife alternately goes by Linda Hogan and Linda Bollea. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hulk Hogan, in a bitter divorce with his wife, Linda, talks to Rolling Stone magazine .\n\"I could have turned everything into a crime scene like O.J.,\" Hogan said .\nHogan, 55, says his comments are being taken out of context .\nSpokesman for Linda Hogan says the statement amounts to a death threat .","id":"fff567e27b2f96f9112aef4b454712b5f568ef9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mood at Hong Kong's Metropark Hotel was subdued Thursday -- but only because most of the guests were in their rooms nursing hangovers from a night of partying the evening before. Quarantined guests and hotel employees wave through the glass at Hong Kong's Metro Park Hotel. And with good reason. For seven days, the 200 guests and 100 staff members at this modest business hotel in the Wanchai bar district have been in involuntary confinement after health officials determined that a guest there had contracted swine flu. But in another 24 hours -- at 8:30 p.m. Friday to be precise, as guests kept reminding themselves -- they would be free to leave. \"Last evening, people perked up a bit,\" said Kevin Ireland, an Indian national. \"We're cheerful. We're happy we're getting out tomorrow.\" For most of the guests here, it was a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They picked the same hotel as a 25-year-old guest from Mexico who tested positive for the H1N1 virus. And Hong Kong health officials -- unwilling to see a repeat of the SARS epidemic in 2004 that killed nearly 300 people -- placed the hotel on lockdown. That was last Friday night, when Ireland was headed out to grab some Italian food with friends but hotel staff stopped them at the door. Since then, the guests have kept themselves busy trying to ward off boredom as they waited out their seven-day confinement. Images from a British hotel guest \u00bb . Most stayed cocooned in their tiny rooms, flipping through channels on the television or staying connected with their work colleagues via Internet chats. With no pool to lounge by and just one restaurant to pick from, guests milled about in the lobby to pick up food or get their temperatures taken once a day. \"We go down to the lobby for food and then back to the room to eat your food,\" said Leslie Carr, a British man. \"Not many people are downstairs hanging around to talk or discuss anything.\" Outside, bars and clubs lay only a short walk away. But police in face masks stood guard at the door, barring exit. Packs of reporters and camera crews peered through the hotel's glass windows. The British contingent organized a quiz night once. When a French national had a birthday, the country's consulate sent wine and champagne. The Hong Kong government, itself, tried its best to make living arrangements as comfortable as possible. They delivered a box of chocolates to guests, comped their rooms and offered them free long-distance phone calls. But food was a constant complaint. Guests, tired of hotel fare, were allowed to order take-out -- a boom in business for area eateries. \"A tribal instinct sort of manifested itself,\" Ireland said. \"You get into linguistic groups. You hang with people of the same country and region.\" Mark Moore, a British national, spent many hours kicking himself for changing his plans at the last minute -- the day before the quarantine. He was scheduled to fly home at the end of a business trip, but decided to spend the weekend visiting friends and family in Hong Kong. \"I wish I'd left the day before,\" Moore said. \"I definitely wish I'd gone home a day early.\" Tempers sometimes flared. Guests questioned the point of a quarantine when they were allowed to flout health safety recommendations. Many walked around without the blue surgical masks they were expected to cover their mouth and noses with. Each also had to take a 10-day dose of anti-viral medication. None have tested positive for the virus. \"We were all using the same elevator when we knew the virus can spread through touching objects,\" Ireland said. \"The health workers worked in shifts. I don't know if they go home or to some other place where there's some sort of quarantine. And we're handing money to pay the people outside bringing our food. I'm not wearing gloves, the guy on the outside's not wearing gloves.\" Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang publicly apologized to the guests but said the precautions were needed. \"In view of the lack of data ... we have to be very cautious,\" added Yuen Kwok-Yung, a professor of microbiology of Hong Kong University. \"I believe that as time goes by, we can change our strategy.\" By Thursday, many guests said they have paid their bills and packed their bags. All there was left to do is stare at the clock ticking away toward their release.","highlights":"More than 340 people quarantined in Hong Kong following single case of H1N1 .\nHong Kong health officials have been unwilling to see a repeat of the SARS .\nThose isolated due to remain in quarantine until Friday .\nConfined persons include 36 travelers in three-row vicinity of sick man aboard flight .","id":"202eeee7a20eee3dbf64e0029207785d1cb99020"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old Rochester, New York, high school student who vanished over the weekend on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, says she did not give her daughter permission to go on the trip. Brittanee Marie Drexel's mom says she thought she was at the beach in New York, not South Carolina. In an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace, Dawn Drexel said her daughter, Brittanee Marie Drexel, has never run away. Drexel said the high school junior stayed in touch with her by phone, and she last spoke with Brittanee on Saturday afternoon. \"I asked her what she was doing and she says 'Oh, mom, I'm at the beach.' And it was an 80-degree day in Rochester so, of course, I thought maybe she was at the beach in Rochester with one of her girlfriends that she had said she was staying overnight,\" Drexel said. Watch mom describe daughter's last call \u00bb . Drexel said she asked Brittanee to call her later and the girl agreed. \"I said, 'I love you, Brittanee' and she says, 'I love you, mom.' And then we hung up the phone.\" Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening, though an unconfirmed sighting may have placed her at a restaurant on Sunday. She was staying with friends at the Bar Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard, according to police reports.","highlights":"Brittanee Drexel disappears on trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina .\nMom says she spoke to daughter but didn't know she was out of state .\nBrittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening .","id":"047c3f0f3c3faf48a8b0ac10ad3523d7c758ec93"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered the immediate release into the United States of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held for several years in the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A guard tower is visible behind razor wire at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina on Tuesday ordered the 17 detainees to appear in his Washington courtroom at 10 a.m. Friday and said he would hold a hearing next week to determine under what conditions they will be settled in the United States. The government late Tuesday afternoon announced it would file papers shortly with an appeals court seeking an emergency stay to stop the judge's order in its tracks. The detainees are ethnic Uighurs, from a mostly Muslim autonomous region in western China. They have been in government custody for seven years and have been cleared for release for the past four years to any country willing to take them. No countries have volunteered. The judge, visibly impatient, told government lawyers he wants no delays. \"There is a pressing need for them to be released,\" Urbina declared. When a government lawyer requested one week for authorities to determine how immigration authorities would handle a court-ordered arrival of individuals with no status, Urbina summarily rejected the request. He angrily demanded Immigration and Customs officials not even consider arresting the Uighurs upon arrival. \"I have issued an order. I do not want these people interfered with in any way,\" the judge said. Justice Department lawyers told the judge they will immediately appeal the ruling and seek a stay of the order with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Justice Department released a statement late Tuesday afternoon protesting Urbina's order. \"Today's ruling presents serious national security and separation of powers concerns and raises unprecedented legal issues,\" said Justice Department chief spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. At the White House, Press Secretary Dana Perino warned the ruling represents a dangerous precedent. \"The district court's ruling, if allowed to stand, could be used as precedent for other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, including sworn enemies of the United States suspected of planning the attacks of 9\/11 who may also seek release into our country,\" she said. Dozens of colorfully dressed members of the Uighur community from the Washington area beamed as they left the courtroom and began embracing. \"We welcome this. It has been a very long time,\" said Amy Reger of the Uyghur Human Rights Project. The United States determined in 2004 the 17 Uighurs are not enemy combatants, but has kept them at Guantanamo while trying to persuade other countries to resettle them. Officials said they were not returned to China because of credible fears they could be mistreated if returned. The Uighurs fled Afghanistan shortly after the U.S.-led bombing campaign began in 2001. They were turned over to U.S. military officials by Pakistani authorities. U.S. intelligence officials alleged the Uighur detainees are associated with the East Turkmenistan Islamist Movement, which the administration designated a terrorist organization in 2002. Lawyers for the Uighurs dispute any terrorist connections. Attorneys for the 17 detainees promised the court that if the judge's ruling stands, a Lutheran church group in Maryland and other service groups are prepared to provide both short-term and long-term care and support for the freed prisoners. Seventeen Uighur homes have been identified to initially house the detainees. Urbina scheduled an October 16 hearing for immigration officials and other government agencies to discuss conditions for the 17 men.","highlights":"Group of 17 Chinese Muslims must be released into United States, judge rules .\nFederal government says it will appeal ruling, seek emergency stay of the order .\nDetainees are ethnic Uighurs, from mostly Muslim region in China .\nPrisoners have been cleared for release, but no country will take them .","id":"5d0cfc327c753bf1f6285ceb5fc64c7a95f81241"} -{"article":"Editor's note: John Feehery worked as a staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients including News Corp., Ford Motor Company and the United States Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. John Feehery says Republicans are poised to bounce back for several reasons. (CNN) -- \"It is important for us to have a strong Republican Party,\" Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tauntingly told a press conference on April 23. \"And I hope that the next generation will take back the Republican Party for the Grand Old Party that it used to be.\" Thanks Mrs. Pelosi, for your best wishes. But be careful what you wish for. I wouldn't write the obituary for the Republican Party quite yet. Sure, things are looking grim at the moment. Yes, our Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele stumbled out of the starting gate, making several verbal gaffes, and raising questions about his competence. Yes, the latest poll numbers are in the toilet, showing only 21 percent of the American people call themselves Republicans. Yes, Arlen Specter decided the GOP was a drag on his personal political future. And yes, we lost a special election in upstate New York that maybe we should have won. But things change. Remember a year-and-a-half ago, when everybody thought the election would be a referendum on the Iraq war. Remember 10 months ago, when everyone thought that expensive gas was going to drive people to the polls. It turned out that, by the time of the election, the most important thing that people cared about was their declining 401ks or their lost job. Here are five reasons why the Republican Party will be back and perhaps sooner than anyone thinks: . 1) Overreach: Several of my Democratic friends over the last several months have tried to comfort me when discussing the fall of the Republican Party with one consoling thought: Don't worry, we will screw it up. And on that one thing I agree with them. The liberal Democrats that currently run the Congress are destined to overreach on the legislative front. Pelosi and her California allies, like Reps. Henry Waxman, George Miller and Pete Stark, tend to think the rest of America wants the same things they do, from higher taxes on energy to a national health care plan that could be a blueprint for socialized medicine, from abortion on demand to gay marriage. But most Americans actually look at California as an economic basket case and social mess. It is a beautiful state, but it is also completely screwed-up, thanks largely to liberal governance. The Democrats are certain to overdo it on the liberalism, and that will make the Republicans much more attractive in two to four years. 2) Checks and balances: Unlike the parliamentary governments of Europe, where one party runs everything until they mess up, the American system actually gives a preference to both parties having skin in the game. While most voters don't actually think \"divided government\" when they go to the polls, they do think that one-party government tends to lead to excess and corruption. That is why the people have a chance a mere two years after the president gets elected to give him a midterm report card in the form of Congressional elections. Most polls now show voters prefer a candidate who will serve as a check on President Obama's power. And for most voters, who see Pelosi and Nevada Sen. Harry Reid as even more liberal than the president, Republicans will serve as that check. 3) Crisis breeds renewal: When things are going well, a political party tends to discourage independent thought and enforce philosophical orthodoxy. But when a political party faces crisis, all of that goes out the window. It is a wide-open world right now for Republicans as they debate amongst themselves what the party truly stands for. The debate will be painful, as neoconservatives, paleo-conservatives, progressive conservatives, moderates and libertarians battle it out to chart the course for a new and more vibrant party. Republicans can afford to have these debates now when they are in the minority, because frankly, they have nothing else to do. The Democrats went through this process in the mid-90s, and they built a new party that attracted centrists like Mark Warner, without alienating old-line liberals like Pelosi or Waxman. 4) Talent senses opportunity: Investors know that the time to buy is not when the market is at its peak, but when the market is at the bottom. But it is not always easy to know when the bottom hits. In politics, it is pretty easy to know when a party has hit the bottom. And for the Republicans, it is now. Talented political entrepreneurs look to the GOP and see nothing but opportunity. The old bulls have been wiped out. The new guard is ready to start leading. In the House, young guns like Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan are charting the future for the next Republican takeover. Adam Putnam of Florida and Mark Kirk of Illinois are getting ready for state-wide runs. But it is not just the young guns. It also more experienced politicians, John Kasich and Rob Portman of Ohio, Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, Jeb Bush of Florida, who see an opportunity to lead the party back to power. 5) The Republican Party is the de facto Libertarian Party: Most people I talk to think of themselves not as Republicans or Democrats, but as libertarians. Not libertarians in the political party sense, but libertarians in a deeper philosophical sense. They tend to want government to stay out of their lives as much as possible. They tend to distrust all politicians, and when they hear someone say, \"I am from the government, and I am here to help,\" they tend to laugh uproariously. It was Will Rogers who said, \"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.\" The Republican Party does best when it seeks to reform government, to lessen the power of the bureaucrat, and to fight to give more freedom to the people. When the GOP returns to that philosophical creed -- which it will do in the face of the Obama administration's vast expansion of government power -- its fortunes will brighten again. If the Republican Party were a stock, the smart investor would start buying it now. Yes, things look grim at the present time, but things change. The GOP is not dead yet, and Speaker Pelosi may see her wish of a resurgent Republican Party come true quicker than she anticipated. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Feehery.","highlights":"John Feehery: The Republican Party is struggling, but isn't dead .\nHe says there are five good reasons to think the GOP will bounce back .\nU.S. system is designed to provide checks on the majority party, he says .\nRepublicans are in position for creative thinking about ideas, Feehery says .","id":"50ddd702f13360c101417acd98b97313a79c27f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While most parts of the country grapple with massive job loss and a deficit in new jobs, the South is faring a bit better. Hundreds stand in line at the Miami Dade College Mega Job Fair 2009 in Florida. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in December the South recorded one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 7 percent. According to Careerbuilder.com, the nation's largest online job site, the South continues to see growth in the oil and gas industries which means more job opportunities in related fields like engineering. As an attractive destination for senior citizens, the South is also a hot spot for those seeking employment in the health care field or industries that cater to older populations. Education also continues to be an area that many consider \"recession-proof.\" CNN affiliates in the South report there is hope for those seeking jobs at job fairs which are drawing big crowds. Charlotte, North Carolina In a competitive market, job seekers have to be creative and some are turning to Twitter to give them an edge. The Web site TweetMyJobs.com is an online service that couples the social networking capacity of Twitter with more traditional online job-search services. \"Pick a location and job type you are interested in -- you subscribe to that. Any time a new job comes out on TweetMyJobs.com, it will automatically be sent to your cell phone,\" Web site developer Gary Zukowski told News 14 Carolina. Read what developer told News 14 Carolina about the site . Antwon Keith, Mecklenburg County employment security commission manager, said that such an instantaneous job alert may be just what job seekers need to stay ahead of other applicants. His concern, he told the station, was that older applicants, who are currently flooding his office, may have a difficult time utilizing the online site. Hope for those in the financial sector There is an expectation that some financial services companies in Charlotte will be hiring soon, a possible bright spot for those laid off from companies like Bank of America and Wachovia. Robert Half International conducts a hiring survey every three months and told WCNC that while some companies are planning reductions due to the economy, others will add staff. \"As companies have contracted and realized that their staff may be smaller than they like, they've been looking at the idea of possibly bringing in more talent,\" Michael Steinitz of Robert Half International said. \"And it's actually a really good time to improve your talent pool and make sure you have the best people on your staff.\" Read about the hopeful survey . Winston-Salem, North Carolina Many area residents aren't just looking forward to the summer for the warm weather. They are also looking forward to the baseball season which is slated to bring new jobs. The Winston-Salem Dash baseball team has openings for batboys, ushers, attendants and other hourly positions. Read about resident's excitement over the ballpark jobs . Competition for the 150 positions has been fierce, especially since seasonal workers from last year have also been applying to regain their former jobs. Job seeker Akila Covington told the news channel that she has not worked in a long time and she hoped to land one of the positions to help provide for her family. \"I need this job badly,\" she said. \"I was working at US Airways last year and lost my job, so I've been out almost a year and most definitely, yeah, need the job.\" Even those lucky enough to score a position won't begin immediately. Workers won't start until the new ballpark is completed and that date is still tentative, officials told WXII 12 News. Miami, Florida More than 1,000 Floridians stood in line to meet recruiters for the second day of a job fair held at Miami-Dade College's North Campus. Held March 3-4, the number of recruiters present was fewer than years past, but those on hand told local station WPLG there were jobs for qualified applicants. Many of the job-far companies were members of \"recession-proof fields\" like nursing, education and public safety. Read about the employers that attended the job fair . Even Walt Disney World, which shed 5 percent of its workforce and offered buyouts to hundreds of its employees, was represented. \"There are still jobs there and it's a very fun program,\" Dayo Graham, a Disney recruiter, told WPLG. The thought of available jobs was very comforting to attendees like applicant Alex Barrino who told the WPLG it's been difficult being unemployed. \"It's been six-and-a-half months,\" Barrio said. \"I've been looking for a job and it's getting ridiculous.\"","highlights":"The South is not as hard hit with unemployment .\nCareerbuilder.com: Oil, gas and health care industries continue to grow .\nCNN affiliates report jobs are available and seekers are flocking .","id":"6cc925e2e9204d3ebccbdbaef2ccbb7f2af62e07"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Both people who died of swine flu in the United States had pre-existing health problems, federal health authorities said Thursday in a report. A student uses disinfectant as she arrives Thursday at the National Technical Institute in Mexico City. The 22-month-old child who died April 27 of the flu, also called H1N1, had neonatal myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease, said the report, which was written by a virus investigation team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. The child -- who was from Mexico and who fell ill while visiting relatives in Texas -- also had a heart defect, problems swallowing and chronic hypoxia, the report said. The 33-year-old Texas woman who died last week was pregnant when she became ill, the article said. She had been diagnosed with asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. The details came in a summary of the 642 confirmed cases of H1N1 infection that were diagnosed between April 15 and May 5 in 41 states among patients ranging in age from 3 months to 81 years. Sixty percent were 18 years or younger and 18 percent had recently traveled to Mexico, the report said. It said that 36 of the 399 patients with confirmed H1N1 infection whose hospitalization status was known had been hospitalized. Of the 22 hospitalized patients for whom data were available, four were younger than 5. Nine had chronic medical conditions, some of which included Down Syndrome and congenital heart disease. Seven patients said they had traveled to Mexico during the week before onset of illness. Eleven of those 22 hospitalized patients had pneumonia and eight patients were treated in an intensive care unit. Four were placed on ventilators. As of Tuesday, 18 of the 22 patients who had been hospitalized had recovered, it said. In a conference call with reporters, CDC's Dr. Carolyn Bridges said epidemiologists would be scrutinizing the disease's spread in South America, where the cool season is set to begin. Flu virus \"prefers lower humidity and lower temperatures for transmission,\" she said. \"We'll be looking closely to the Southern Hemisphere during their winter to see what happens. That may give us some clues as to what to expect.\" Brazil's health minister told reporters Thursday that four cases of H1N1 infection have been confirmed in Brazil. Three have been hospitalized and one is at home, said Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao. One case is in Rio de Janeiro, two are in Sao Paolo and the fourth was in Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. Two of the patients had recently been in Mexico City; the other two had recently been in Florida, he said. Another 21 cases are suspected in Brazil, he said. In Buenos Aires, Health Minister Graciela Ocana confirmed Argentina's first H1N1 case -- a man who arrived April 25 from Mexico. The man was hospitalized in the capital and released after he recovered, Ocana said. The ultimate course of the disease remains unclear, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who is involved in the effort to create a vaccine. \"We may be seeing the tip of the iceberg,\" he told CNN. \"We can't make any definitive projections about where this is going. It appears to be acting like a typical seasonal flu, only it's out of season. We shouldn't be seeing this much influenza and it's with a new virus and that's the cause fo the concern.\" Asked when a vaccine might be available, he said, \"We hope to get doses by mid- to late fall.\" Journalist Fabiana Frayssinet in Rio de Janeiro and Brian Byrnes in Buenos Aires contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pre-existing conditions contributed to deaths of U.S. victims, officials say .\nCDC report summarizes 642 confirmed cases of H1N1 infection .\nMost hospitalized patients have recovered, report says .\nBrazil reports four cases of H1N1 .","id":"124389f1b5210d1a47c992adddb75968977b8b1c"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- When I asked an old friend why she hadn't just broken up with her live-in boyfriend instead of beginning a messy affair with a married neighbor, she snapped, \"Don't be stupid -- nobody leaves a relationship without having another one in place.\" Overlappers refuse to end one relationship until they have another one in progress. Oh, please, I corrected her. Of course they do. People fall out of love or get angry and leave without a safety net all the time. But as I thought back, I realized that for as long as I knew her, she never had. Even when she pretty much hated the one she was with, she stuck it out until she'd lined up his replacement. I could never understand why. My friend is beautiful, successful and very smart; surely being single for a little while wouldn't end her world. Women aren't the only ones guilty of this. I know -- and have unfortunately dated -- plenty of men who careen from one girlfriend directly into another, often with a big fat overlap; connecting the two relationships like a murky Venn diagram. I understand that being single can be annoying and lonely sometimes, but there are plenty of good reasons not to be -- or date! -- an Overlapper. 1. Karma! While overlapping is definitely cheating, the difference is these types go into it with the sole purpose of transitioning into another relationship. But however you word it, Overlappers deceive one or both parties in order to get what they want. When you begin a relationship dishonestly, it usually comes back to bite you in the butt. At the very least, you will never be fully able to trust an Overlapper. Because -- as yet another cliche based in truth goes -- if he does it with you, he'll do it to you. 2. Drama! Breakups are never fun, however splits caused by infidelity are hands down the most explosive. If you're like my friend and her man (who, against all odds, actually left his wife), this means that instead of talking about hearts, flowers, and butterflies -- like other new couples -- you spend your nights plotting how to hide assets and whether or not your overpaid lawyer is enough of a shark. How romantic! 3. The Pressure! Though they may appear independent, people who can't be alone are that way because they need to see themselves reflected in someone else's adoring eyes. But when their mirror (aka, partner) develops a flaw (weight gain, job loss, etc.), their image of themselves reflects that. Being a narcissist, nothing less than perfection is acceptable, so they start looking for the next mirror. Got that, fatty? You'd better stay at the top of your game if you want to hang onto an Overlapper. 4. Not cute! \"I met my boyfriend when his puppy peed on my foot\" is the perfect example of a meet-cute story. It has all the key elements -- chance, humor, and, best of all, a cuddly puppy! \"I met my boyfriend because I was his kids' nanny and then his wife found out, which is how I got this black eye,\" is definitely not a tale you're going to want to share at parties. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Some people afraid to be alone are guilty of dating overlapping .\nThey cheat on both partners while transitioning between relationships .\nOverlappers can't be trusted -- they might do it to you .\nBecause they're narcissistic, they'll trade you in for better model .","id":"68707273090b953ec98884b3f4bfa03f75c437f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This spring break, thousands of college students will ditch the bars and the beaches to do something more meaningful with their vacation time. Brad Vonck (bottom, left) and other student volunteers worked with the Cherokee Nation in Stilwell, Oklahoma. Brad Vonck is one of them. A sophomore at the University of Illinois, Vonck will travel to San Juan, Texas, in a group of 13 students to volunteer with La Union del Pueblo Entero, an organization that helps strengthen the communities and lives of farm workers and their families. \"Learning about different cultures is very important to me,\" Vonck said. \"I like to engage in different areas of life that I don't really understand.\" Every year, more and more college students, like Vonck, are choosing to spend their valuable time off from school participating in \"alternative spring break\" programs -- community service-based opportunities dealing with the most pressing issues of the day, including hunger and homelessness, disaster relief and global warming. \"If you can name a social issue, then students are doing trips around it,\" said Jill Piacitelli, executive director of Break Away, an organization that trains and helps colleges across the United States promote alternative break programs. For the past six years, these programs have been growing in popularity among college students. Break Away estimated that this year, nearly 65,000 students will participate in its alternative break programs, an 11 percent increase from 2008. \"It's a student-led social movement. ... This is a group that very much wants to be involved in the world around them,\" Piacitelli said of the volunteers. \"They're solution-oriented. They want to innovate and lead and involve their peers.\" The average domestic trip costs around $250 or $300, Piacitelli said, which includes \"housing, travel, social activities, food and often a donation to the community.\" Many university programs offer financial aid and the option to raise money to help pay for trips. \"It is rare that anyone who wants to go on a trip cannot go,\" Piacitelli said. The affordability is part of the reason why so many students return for second or third trips. Nikunj Shah, a graduate of Arcadia University, has taken several alternative spring break trips volunteering in the United States and Mexico. This year, he will be traveling as an alumnus to Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, a city that has been largely ignored by disaster relief efforts in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita. \"I've always had an interest in helping people. I've always been really involved in community service,\" Shah said. \"So I saw this as an opportunity to go places I haven't been before, to get a feel for different cultures and to help people there that truly need help.\" In an effort to expand their alternative spring break options, universities across the United States partner with humanitarian organizations like the United Way of America. Randy Punley, director of corporate and media partnerships at the United Way, oversees the organization's Alternative Spring Break programs. After Hurricane Katrina, the United Way partnered with MTV to engage young people in the response effort. \"We knew there was an interest and a passion in young people for the work we were trying to achieve,\" Punley said. Since then, the United Way has evolved and expanded, establishing chapters on college campuses. The organization has also developed an Alternative Spring Break Social Media Challenge, encouraging young people to be active in their communities and use social media Web sites, like Facebook or Twitter, to involve other people. \"Whether it started with the first Gulf War, punctuated by the September 11 attacks and Katrina and the economic meltdown, young people have a very different perspective about what's going on in the world,\" Punley said. At the end of the weeklong trip, most students say it was the best week of their lives, Punley said. The increasing interest in these programs, Punley believes, speaks volumes about the attitudes of Generation Y, a group of people who are eager to make an impact on the world around them. \"It's such a difference from going home and not really feeling accomplished to going on these trips and meeting new people,\" Vonck said. \"You get experiences that you wouldn't get sitting on the couch watching TV for a week.\" Piacitelli said these programs encourage young people to continue serving their communities and those in need. \"The students are the main benefactors of what goes on,\" Piacitelli said. \"It changes their consciousness. They get really interested in social issues ... They see themselves as active citizens, and helping the community becomes a priority.\" Like Vonck and Shah, University of Illinois senior Adriana Collazo has a passion for community service. During her spring break last year, Collazo traveled to the Bronx in New York to volunteer at a homeless shelter. She stayed at a hostel with other volunteers and helped serve food and organize clothing drives. \"I never really had all that money to go off and do the whole Cancun, Mexico, spring break, and I didn't really want to, because I think that's throwing away money,\" Collazo said. \"When you can give back, it's selfish.\" The trip to the Bronx was a personal one for Collazo who, at the age of 6, experienced poverty firsthand when her family became homeless. \"My family's better now, and I want to give back,\" Collazo said. \"I think a lot of students have realized that they can do better things with their time. ... It humbles you.\"","highlights":"\"Alternative\" spring breaks are becoming more popular among college students .\nThe programs center on community service .\nTrips may address hunger and homelessness, disaster relief and global warming .\nThe average domestic trip costs around $250 or $300 .","id":"b29ac937b1c0c7cbc502dbf678563ad06794fca9"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani forces have killed as many as 200 Taliban militants in the past day in the Swat and Shangla areas, the military said Sunday. Pakistan has launched a massive military operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. CNN could not verify the account, because journalists are barred from the region. The military blamed the Taliban for injuring civilians as the offensive entered its third week. \"Indiscriminate mortar firing and planting of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] in the streets and roads by the miscreants in the populated areas of village Thana, Malakand and Mingora, resulted into civilian casualties,\" the military said in a statement. Watch more on crisis \u00bb . The military eased a curfew on the region, allowing civilians to flee the fighting between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. (7 p.m. Saturday and 4 a.m. Sunday EDT). The United Nations refugee agency warned Friday of a \"massive displacement\" of civilians as the military wages its campaign with helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery. Watch as CNN's Ivan Watson tours a refugee camp \u00bb . In the last few days, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Pakistanis have fled the military operation, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond, citing provincial government data. Another 300,000 Pakistanis were on the move or expected to flee the fighting. At least two soldiers were killed Sunday, and another died of wounds he suffered on Friday, the military statement said. Watch why civilians have backed the Taliban to survive \u00bb . The military has been releasing regular reports saying it has killed Taliban militants in the region, but it has produced little evidence of the successes it claims. Journalists have not been permitted to observe the offensive and the army has not shown the bodies of the dead militants. It is also not clear what effect the offensive is having on the overall fight against the Taliban in the region, as fears grow that they could threaten the stability of Pakistan, a nuclear-armed power and key U.S. ally.","highlights":"Pakistani military says 200 Taliban fighters have been killed in 24 hours .\nAn unknown number of civilians have also been killed and injured .\nTens of thousands of civilians have fled as the military campaign intensifies .","id":"ba65b0ced62c91ca40823ca0b8dd39e07eb6cf9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday insisted that his country's nuclear arsenal is \"definitely safe,\" despite growing concerns about recent gains by the Taliban along the country's border with Afghanistan. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari insists his country's nuclear arsenal is \"definitely safe\" from militants. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Zardari responded to the fact that the United States doesn't know the locations of all of Pakistan's nuclear sites. He also addressed the Obama administrations concern over whether the weapons are vulnerable to Taliban fighters who are gaining control of some border regions. \"They can't take over,\" Zardari said, referring to militants. \"We have a 700,000 (person) army -- how could they take over?\" For the last two weeks, Pakistani troops have been battling Taliban fighters in Buner and Lower Dir, two districts bordering the Swat Valley -- a broad Taliban stronghold in Pakistan. Army generals claim to have killed scores of militants. Pakistan's government recently signed a deal that would allow Islamic law, or sharia, in the Swat Valley, in exchange for an end to fighting. Still, Pakistan's military is continuing an assault on militants in Taliban-held areas after they seized territory in violation of the agreement signed by Zardari. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama said Pakistan's government appears to be \"very fragile\" and argued that the United States has \"huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable\" and doesn't end up a \"nuclear-armed militant state.\" And, after making two visits to Pakistan in the last three weeks, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated Monday that he is \"gravely concerned\" about recent Taliban and al Qaeda gains across much of southern Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Pakistan's nuclear weapons are \"definitely safe,\" Zardari said Tuesday. \"First of all, they are in safe hands. There is a command and control system under the president of Pakistan. And Buner ... there has been fighting there before. There will be fighting there again and there will always be an issue of people in those mountains that we've been taking on.\" Zardari's comments came as the Obama administration prepared for meetings set for Wednesday with Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to discuss security in the region. A senior administration official told reporters that the U.S. objective of the meetings is \"an alliance with these countries against a shared threat.\" Watch Pakistan's U.S. ambassador discuss the Taliban insurgency \u00bb . Zardari and Karzai will also be visiting key congressional leaders and policymakers in advance of meetings with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A bill called the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009, introduced by Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Dick Lugar, R-Indiana, would authorize $7.5 billion in non-military aid to Pakistan over the next five years to foster economic growth and development, and another $7.5 billion for the following five years. Zardari, for his part, said he is grateful for the financial aid Pakistan has received from the United States, but said he needs \"more support.\" \"I need drones to be part of my arsenal. I need that facility. I need that equipment. I need that to be my police arrangement,\" he said. The U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, after Zardari's government was criticized for not cracking down on militants along the Afghan border. The unmanned drone attacks have rankled relations between Pakistan and Washington. Asked whether the U.S. strategy bothered him, Zardari said, \"Let's agree to disagree. ... We're still in dialogue.\" Zardari also denied speculation by some Congressional lawmakers that his country has used most of the $10 billion given by the United States to strengthen its arsenal against a threat from nuclear rival India -- as opposed to going after the ongoing militant threat. \"They've given $10 billion in 10 years, a billion nearly a year for the war effort in -- against the Taliban, and the war that is going on,\" he said. Zardari also addressed his government's apparent resistance to significant U.S. involvement on Pakistani soil. Recently, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates observed, \"There has been a reluctance on their part up to now. They don't like the idea of a significant American military footprint inside Pakistan. I understand that. And -- but we are willing to do pretty much whatever we can to help the Pakistanis in this situation.\" Zardari called Pakistan's relationship \"pretty strong\" and said, \"We are asking. We've been asking for a lot of help, and it has been in the pipeline for a long time.\"","highlights":"Pakistani President insists his state's nuclear arsenal is safe, despite Taliban gains .\nRecent gains by the Taliban along Pakistan's Afghan border have raised concerns .\nFor 2 weeks, Pakistani troops have fought Taliban in districts bordering Swat Valley .\nU.S. President Barack Obama said Pakistan's government appears \"very fragile\"","id":"0af1bad942a8cab168699c03d2675a8d7523ab6d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama drew big laughs at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday, taking jabs at his administration, his Republican rivals and even himself. President Obama delivers some one-liners at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday. \"I would like to talk about what my administration plans to achieve in the next 100 days,\" Obama said. \"During the second 100 days, we will design, build and open a library dedicated to my first 100 days.\" He added later, \"I believe that my next 100 days will be so successful, I will be able to complete them in 72 days -- and on the 73rd day I will rest.\" The Democratic president poked fun at the Republican Party, saying it \"does not qualify for a bailout\" and conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh \"doesn't count as a troubled asset.\" Watch Obama deliver laughs at dinner \u00bb . Obama touched on a few gaffes during his short time in office, from Vice President Joe Biden's verbose tendencies to an unfortunate Air Force One photo op that frightened New Yorkers -- playfully pointing his finger at his young daughters. \"Sasha and Malia aren't here tonight because they're grounded,\" he said. \"You can't just take Air Force One on a joyride to Manhattan -- I don't care whose kids you are.\" Watch celebrities mingle before dinner \u00bb . As the world shakes off swine flu fears that started in Mexico, Obama noted his old rivalry with former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who now serves as secretary of state. \"We had been rivals during the campaign, but these days we could not be closer,\" the president said. \"In fact, the second she got back from Mexico, she pulled me into a hug and gave me a big kiss -- told me to get down there myself.\" Gallery of celebrity guests \u00bb . Obama even took on former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wasn't in attendance: \"He is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled, \"How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People.\" Obama took a somber tone, though, when specifically addressing the reporters in the room -- noting the financial struggles that have afflicted the newspaper industry. Watch reporters arrive for dinner \u00bb . \"Across the country, there are extraordinary, hardworking journalists who have lost their jobs in recent days, recent weeks, recent months,\" he said. \"I know each newspaper and media outlet is wrestling with how to respond with these changes. ... Not every ending will be a happy one. \"It is also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy -- it's what makes this thing work,\" Obama said.","highlights":"Obama delivers zingers at White House correspondents' annual dinner .\nPresident jokes Republican Party \"does not qualify for a bailout\"\nObama also pokes fun at Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton .\nObama says journalism industry's success is essential to democracy .","id":"eb5c581b29ec32b778eddcbe73d76a04b60535b1"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Simon Johnson, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist, is a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Peter Boone is chairman of Effective Intervention, a UK-based charity, and a research associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics. They run http:\/\/baselinescenario.com\/, a global economy Web site. Simon Johnson, above, and Peter Boone say the U.S. could be in for a long period of virtually no growth. (CNN) -- Euphoria returns! Who could have guessed that Bank of America stock would rally 70 percent the week it learns the Feds are demanding new capital equal to nearly half the bank's market capitalization? The ongoing grim news -- on rising unemployment, continued (albeit slower) economic decline, and ordinary working Americans being hammered on all sides -- is being ignored by stock and commodity markets. Is America now back on track for growth? The answer to that is almost surely no. Rising stock markets don't necessarily mean a sharp recovery is under way. Consider the case of Japan in its first lost decade of the 1990s. After falling 63 percent from its peak in late 1989, the Nikkei staged a 32 percent rally in one month. It then remained volatile but around the same level for nearly 10 years -- because the return on assets and capital investors could earn proved so low throughout that economy. During the 1990s, Japan's banking system was burdened with bad loans that kept eating into profits and its nonfinancial companies had excess capacity that had to be wound down; these problems were made worse by a decline in the working population. The initial excess of capital, supplemented by high ongoing savings from households and corporations, kept interest rates low. Throughout this period the price\/earnings ratio on stocks ranged from 30 to 50 (it's 51 today), compared with 15 to 20 in Europe and the United States. The logic was simple: With so little return available on all assets, local investors were willing to pay up for stocks even if the dividends were a paltry 1-2 percent. Does this sound familiar? We think so. The current rally in stocks marks one clear success -- the fear of a systemic collapse due to loss of confidence in our financial system has subsided. This is good news, and an important achievement of President Obama's team. However, our \"turning Japanese\" phase may just have begun. The \"stress tests\" that were just completed do not mark the renewed health of our banking system. We still have 22 percent of Americans with houses worth less than their mortgages, and there are parallel problems for commercial property and other sectors. Many bankruptcies are yet to come. Most publicly traded large homebuilders are deep in debt, yet they are burning cash and waiting to see if -- magically -- the two-year stock of unsold housing can somehow disappear. We've barely begun to downsize our auto industry, and the parts suppliers and dealers that go along with it, to reflect the lower level of consumer spending and scarcer availability of credit for the future. All of this is also true across much of Europe. In essence, Europe and the United States both are saddled with zombie banks (which don't really lend), zombie corporations (which don't grow), and a decline in the relative size of the working population (as more people try to retire). This \"Japanese\" scenario can persist for many years. The biggest risk now is that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury try to re-leverage our way out of a Japanese-style prolonged recession by flooding the economy with cheap credit -- like they did in 2002, but to an even greater degree. Cheap government finance for powerful banks is a great cocktail for re-election; running stress tests that weren't really stressful is a good indication this is where policy is heading. This time the money won't come from consumers (or from China, as it did after 2002); it will be American and European central banks providing funds and our governments running massive budget deficits. If this is the strategy, the next crisis will be even more traumatic. Budget deficits over 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product and trillions of dollars of new loans to the banks from the Federal Reserve are recipes for hyperinflation and, if the Fed and Treasury don't pull away the punch bowl soon, sharply increasing inflation is very much in the cards. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Simon Johnson and Peter Boone.","highlights":"Johnson, Boone: Stocks are rallying as if economy is out of the woods .\nThey say that's premature, and we could be in for a long period of stagnation .\nJapan's economy suffered for years from similar problems, they say .\nJohnson, Boone: We have zombie banks and zombie companies .","id":"c5b430f03308fd3aa6eb64d0bbc83d18c3341c20"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A second lingerie-modeling photo of Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has appeared after she assured pageant officials this week that the earlier shot was the only one she had appeared in. Miss California USA Carrie Prejean may lose her crown because of some semi-nude photos she appeared in. The Web site that published the first picture published a second one Wednesday. It had already promised to \"slowly roll out\" more photos. After the appearance of the first photo, the possibility that racier images could emerge prompted \"closed-door meetings\" Tuesday to consider stripping Prejean of her beauty queen title, pageant spokesman Ron Neal said. Although Neal said Prejean \"breached her contract\" by keeping the semi-nude photo or photos a secret, the only pictures published so far appear about as revealing as the bikini Prejean wore in the pageant's swimsuit competition. \"We have been told by Carrie Prejean there are no other photos other than the one circulating in existence. She should know better than anyone,\" Miss California USA Director Keith Lewis said Wednesday before the latest photo was released. Watch reaction to racy photos \u00bb . Pageant officials were not immediately available for comment on the new picture. The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of controversy since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the national pageant stage last month. She finished as runner-up to Miss USA. In a statement given to CNN on Tuesday, Prejean said the photos -- and she did use the plural -- were being used in a \"vicious and mean-spirited\" effort to silence her for \"defending traditional marriage.\" While she vowed to \"continue to support and defend marriage as the honorable institution it is,\" Prejean may be doing so without the Miss California USA title. State pageant officials met Tuesday with lawyers and representatives of Donald Trump, who owns the international competition, to consider whether they had grounds to take the crown away from Prejean, according to Neal. \"When you compete for Miss California, you're supposed to disclose whether you posed for nude or semi-nude photos, because it's grounds for disqualification,\" he said. CNN obtained a copy of the pageant contract Prejean signed last year, in which she agreed that the discovery of semi-nude photos could mean disqualification. The first photo made public shows Prejean -- who said she was 17 at the time -- wearing pink panties and no top. She is turned away from the camera, with her arm hiding most of her breast. The second photo is essentially the same, but Prejean is looking over her opposite shoulder. It was unclear whether pageant officials would consider that a semi-nude photo, in light of their standard requirement that contestants parade across stage wearing a bikini that arguably shows more skin. Ahead of the second photo being published, Nik Richie -- of TheDirty.com -- said he was upgrading his Web site's servers to handle the flood of traffic he expects will come after he posts the additional photos. \"I will slowly roll these out,\" Richie said. The Web site appeared to be overwhelmed by traffic early Thursday. CNN tried to access it, but could not. \"We'll see what happens with those and we want to know who's releasing them,\" Neal said. Shanna Moakler, the co-executive director of the Miss California USA organization, will meet with Tami Farrell, the runner-up for the title, \"to discuss the possible next steps,\" Neal said. Prejean defended the photos, which she said were taken when she was a teenager aspiring to be a Victoria's Secret model. \"I am a Christian, and I am a model,\" she said. \"Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos.\" She said the photos \"have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.\" \"I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be,\" she said. \"But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others' opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks.\" Her publicist, Melany Ethridge, confirmed a comment she gave to celebrity Web site TMZ in which she said Prejean was 17 when she posed for the photos, hoping they would land her a modeling job. \"In her naivete, an agent convinced her to pose for this photo to submit to a lingerie company, claiming they could make her the next Victoria's Secret model,\" Ethridge told TMZ. \"She has since learned what a lie that was, and what a mistake it was to have the photo taken.\" Prejean announced last week that she would star in a new $1.5 million ad campaign supporting \"opposite marriage\" (marriage between a man and a woman) funded by the National Organization for Marriage. \"Marriage is good,\" Prejean said at a news conference announcing the ad campaign. \"There is something special about unions of husband and wife. Unless we bring men and women together, children will not have mothers and fathers.\" CNN's Aileen Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says she posed for one semi-nude photo .\nA Web site says it has more photos of Prejean, and plans to slowly roll them out .\nPrejean is in the news for her response to question about same-sex marriage .","id":"9f3860c446b7008351705a42c7f060ae54a5b42a"} -{"article":"DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) -- Jane Orobator lives in a small house in Dublin, Ireland. She's a full time psychology student at Trinity college and she is single-handedly raising 3 girls aged 9 to 14. Their smiling faces are framed in photos on the walls at home -- the only ornaments in an otherwise sparsely decorated house. An emotional Jane Orabator said her daughter's arrest made her world crumble like a pack of cards. But there is one family member missing from these photos: the oldest sister, Samantha, now 21, in prison in Laos charged with smuggling heroin. \"My life, my world is crumbling like a pack of cards right before me,\" Jane Orobator told CNN in an emotional interview. \"Samantha has never given me any cause to worry.\" Over the course of a 90-minute interview with CNN, Orobator frequently broke down in tears. At one point, she collapsed to her knees and begged for her daughter's release. But Jane Orobator is clearly baffled and mystified as to how her daughter ended up in Laos in the first place. Samantha Orobator was born in Nigeria. Her family sent her to London, England, to live with her aunt when she was 8 years old to escape the political strife back home. By many accounts, Samantha was a happy and popular child. She achieved good grades and excelled in biology, hoping to become a surgeon. \"A really nice child, who loved school, good friends, respected the staff, behaved herself and achieved good academic results,\" recalls school headmaster Serge Cefai. \"We're extremely surprised,\" he says, \"We've had some of her ex-friends get in touch with the school saying 'What do you know?' Well, we only know what the media has told us and what's now coming out. And everybody is in the same boat. Samantha couldn't be involved in drugs, could she?\" Jane Orobator describes her daughter as quiet, petite and \"fragile.\" Her daughter never mentioned any boyfriends and didn't smoke or drink, she says. In fact, Samantha's life was so trouble-free that when her mother and three sisters eventually moved to Dublin, Ireland, the family decided that she should stay with her friends and school in London. Friends say she was popular and outgoing, but that she also had an adventurous streak. Her former classmate Ronke Oseni describes a fun-loving girl with a passion for travel. \"The thing about Samantha is that she likes to travel and do new things,\" she explains. \"She's very funny, like extremely funny, the weirdest sense of humor, very articulate, very hard working.\" But the last time Oseni talked to her friend was in June last year. She did not mention any plans to go overseas. In fact, Samantha was planning a holiday, says her mother. Jane Orobator last talked to her daughter in July when she was traveling with friends in Holland. But Samantha did not mention any details about who she was traveling with or where she was going next. In August Samantha was arrested at the Wattan Airport in Vientiane, Laos, allegedly in possession of 1.5 pounds of heroin -- an offense punishable by death. How did Samantha end up here? Jane Orobator doesn't know. British consular officials contacted her sister, the aunt who raised Samantha, in September, informing the family that she was in jail. When Jane Orobator discussed it with her sister, both women dismissed it as impossible. \"I just didn't believe it. It was totally out of character.\" She told us, \"I thought it was her passport that someone else was using. And I was furious that Samantha had lost her passport or given it to someone else.\" It wasn't until January that British consular officials contacted Jane Orobator directly and confirmed that the woman inside the Phothong prison in Laos was indeed her daughter. And the nightmare got worse: She was told Samantha was five months pregnant. \"I've not been able to comprehend it. Being there. Samantha? Arrested? Five months later she is pregnant?\" she says. \"Because it's like a puzzle. I'm still trying to figure out how she got there. I have not been able to figure that out. Suddenly, she's pregnant.\" Oseni and other friends have rallied to her side and support groups have sprouted across the Internet -- hoping public pressure will lead to her release. There is a glimmer of hope: The Laos government said Samantha Orobator will no longer face the death penalty, because Laotian law does not allow the execution of a pregnant woman. Also, a new prisoner transfer agreement signed Thursday between Laos and Britain may allow Samantha to serve her prison term here in Britain. \"It is good news that she might be able to come here and if she's found guilty and has to serve her sentence here, at least I can visit her because where she is no one can visit her,\" said Oseni. \"She's a strong person. She has a strong character. She can defy any odds.\" But for Jane Orobator, the ordeal is not over yet. She still fears that conditions in the Phothong prison may be too harsh for her daughter. \"Technically, they haven't killed her by firing squad. They have killed her the other way around. Because they can never give her the care she needs. Because the circumstances of the pregnancy, the psychological torment she's going through.\" Jane Orobator says she is waiting for her Irish passport. She then hopes to travel to Laos and see her daughter before her trial starts, possibly as early as next week.","highlights":"Mom: \"Samantha has never given me any cause to worry\"\nSamantha Orobator, now 21, in prison in Laos charged with smuggling heroin .\nDaughter was facing death penalty, but now won't because she's pregnant .\nMom happy about deal that would allow daughter to serve time in England .","id":"c45c8c7b537ae09b5117b01911dcb9749003f23b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Toney Dixon's fascination with dead bodies goes back to her childhood, when she would sneak around her uncle's funeral home and watch him prepare bodies. The bodies on display are plastinated, a process that replaces bodily fluids and fat with plastic. \"I found my heart racing,\" said Dixon, 67. \"But instead of being taken aback and terrified, I wanted to know more.\" Years later, Dixon's curiosity drew her and her twin sister, Erlyene Toney-Alvarez, to Body Worlds, an exhibit that shows preserved human specimens bisected and stripped of skin. \"It's like standing in the mirror and seeing yourself in a totally new way,\" said Dixon, the younger twin. The twins were so impressed that they signed up on the spot to donate their earthly remains to the exhibit, which is currently showing in the United States, Canada, England and Germany. With their signatures, the women joined a group of people who believe that having their bodies dissected, preserved and displayed will serve a greater purpose than burial or cremation. Body Worlds' donor program boasts about 800 people in North America and 8,600 worldwide. \"I thought, since I like to think outside the box, this would be a really good way to preserve our bodies instead of the typical funeral,\" Toney-Alvarez said. \"It's also something I can go to my death feeling good about, like I made a contribution to humankind.\" Individual Americans have had the right to bequeath their bodies to science since 1965, when the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act established the human body as property. With that law, a donor's wishes superseded those of the next of kin. But academics in the field of gross anatomy attribute recent increases in body donations to relaxed social mores, according to an article published by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Traditionally, medical schools have been the most common recipients of willed specimens in America. Then, in 1993, controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens emerged with an alternative. Von Hagens, a self-styled iconoclast who earned the moniker Dr. Frankenstein in Europe for performing a public dissection, invented plastination in the 1970s. See photos of the Body Worlds exhibit \u00bb . He spent the next few years popularizing and refining the process, which replaces bodily fluids and fat with plastic, earning equal shares of admiration and infamy. In 1993, von Hagens founded the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany, a research center that performs plastination and manages the Body Worlds exhibits. The Institute produces specimens for Body Worlds exhibits and academic institutions that pay anywhere from $200 to $60,000 for them. Von Hagens says he relies on donors not only as a source of specimens, but also as representations of Body Worlds' philosophy. \"I feel it is in line with democratic principles that you can decide in your lifetime whether to go to the cemetery or put yourself on display in an exhibition to teach the next generation,\" von Hagens said in a recent telephone interview. Von Hagens says the Body Worlds donor program distinguishes it from similar exhibitions that have used bodies of questionable origin. In a settlement with the New York State Attorney General's Office, Premier Exhibitions admitted that the specimens used in \"Bodies ... The Exhibit\" might be victims of torture or execution from Chinese prisons. The settlement requires that Premier Exhibitions obtain proof of donor consent for specimens used in its shows. The company has also set up a fund to compensate visitors to its New York show. Legislation is pending in several states that would require shows like Body Worlds to prove donor consent before they open. Von Hagens has weathered similar allegations over the years. He insists that the specimens in Body Worlds exhibits come from donors. He has done some plastination work on bodies from China at the request of medical schools and universities, but these bodies were not put on display. \"It is very, very important for the donors to know the purpose of the exhibit, that it is not entertainment, it is education and enlightenment,\" von Hagens said. \"I have to be in peace with those on display.\" The donors meet periodically at conferences, where they catch up with each other and with von Hagens. Recently, the sisters attended a donor conference in Los Angeles, California, with their mother, Irma Henry, who signed on in 1997. Marc Rohner donated his leg to Body Worlds because he wanted others to learn from it. \"What you see in a picture or on \"CSI\" does not do justice to what the real human body looks like or how it functions,\" said Rohner, whose leg was amputated in 2006 to remove a malignant giant cell tumor. \"By having a three-dimensional leg or black lung in front of you, you have areas of focus and details you can't see in a photo.\" With his donation, Rohner, a pathologist's assistant in Columbus, Ohio, became the first living person to give a body part to the Institute. Rohner acknowledges that the exhibits are not for everyone. Church groups in Europe have repeatedly denounced the shows as disrespectful, and skeptics around the world continue to question whether the Body Worlds specimens really are from legitimate sources. But Toney-Alvarez says she will visit Body Worlds, even if her mother and sister are on display. \"Once you have passed on, it's just a shell. The memories are in the heart and in the mind,\" she said.","highlights":"Body Worlds was created by Gunther von Hagens, who invented plastination .\nBody donor Toney Dixon says the exhibit is a didactic alternative to burial, cremation .\nAbout 800 people in North America are on donor list for Body Worlds .\nPurpose of the exhibit is education and enlightenment, von Hagens says .","id":"e290cf60b1988b5a96e21d7a403a55175216d40e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has submitted his letter of resignation, the prime minister's office told CNN on Saturday. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's resignation may smooth the way for a unity government. Considered a political independent, Fayyad was appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007 to be prime minister. Fayyad's decision may help smooth the way for a Palestinian unity government that would be acceptable to both Hamas and Fatah, the region's two main political parties, as well as the international community. Officials have argued a neutral government would be crucial to getting aid into Gaza to help with reconstruction and humanitarian relief. Palestinians unsuccessfully tried their hand at a unity government in the spring of 2007, with the mediation of Saudi Arabia. The experiment ended in June of that year with Hamas taking over Gaza, leaving Fatah in charge in the West Bank. Fayyad, a well-regarded international economist, was finance minister during the short-lived unity government in 2007. CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad steps down .\nFayyad's resignation is expected to pave way for unity government .\nFayyad was appointed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 .","id":"acda10ae304b71f5ab952d780ca65ad1a41e6fc1"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- In a major shake-up the likes of which Cubans have not seen for decades, President Raul Castro on Monday reorganized his Cabinet, replacing longtime aides to his brother Fidel, who resigned from office a year ago, citing poor health. Cuban President Raul Castro is moving his own people into power, analysts say. Some analysts said the changes appear to be an attempt by Raul Castro to put his own supporters into positions of power. Among the changes: . Felipe Perez Roque, the 43-year-old foreign minister, was replaced by his deputy, Bruno Rodriguez Aprilla. Carlos Lage Davila, an economist, lost his job as Cabinet secretary, but no mention was made of removing him from his other post as vice president of the Council of State. Lage, who helped guide the nation through its \"special period\" of dire economic times in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the loss of billions in subsidies, was replaced by Brig. Gen. Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra; Raul Castro is also commander in chief of the armed forces. \"It looks like Raul putting some of his own people in,\" said Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy in Washington, who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter administration. Smith noted that Cuba's government underwent \"quite a few shake-ups after the revolution first came in\" in 1959, but said Monday's move \"is the biggest shake-up that I've seen in a very long time ... for the last 30 or 40 years.\" \"This is obviously a major move,\" concurred Vicki Huddleston, who led the Interests Section during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and is a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. \"[There is] nothing like this that I can recall since the late 1960s.\" She noted that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with both Castro brothers during a visit late in February to Havana, on what Granma described as a \"work visit,\" and speculated that Raul Castro may have asked him then to buy in on the changes. \"They really need Chavez to be on board, because without the subsidized oil from Venezuela, they're dead,\" Huddleston said. With the Cuban economy hamstrung by the world economy, Raul Castro may have decided it is time for him to make reforms of his own without worrying about second-guessing by his brother or his brother's allies, she said. Huddleston speculated that the changes could portend the government once again allowing private enterprise to flourish in Cuba. Communist leader Fidel Castro experimented with that during the 1990s, but pulled back. \"It represents a significant step by Raul Castro to gain autonomy and, essentially, distance himself from Fidel's old gang,\" said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. \"In other words, he feels confident enough that he has an independent base of power.\" He said Raul Castro's moves to date have proven popular not only with his party members, but also with the general population. Still, Raul Castro should not take that support for granted, Birns said. \"It may be that, if he makes too many moves, the party will feel that their privileges are being taken away, and that will make them unhappy.\" Otto Reich, who served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said he was withholding judgment. \"It's a little early to tell what this really means,\" he said. \"Some people are saying the Fidelistas are being replaced by the Raulistas. But the other side is: Are we talking about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?\" The state-run newspaper Granma published an official notice from the State Council that said the changes were intended to form a structure that is \"more compact and functional, with fewer organisms of the central administration of the state and a better distribution of the functions that they carry out.\" CNN's Morgan Neill and Shasta Darlington in Havana, Tom Watkins and Arthur Brice contributed to this story.","highlights":"Several longtime aides to Fidel Castro are replaced .\nForeign minister and Cabinet secretary move aside .\nAnalyst says it's the biggest shake-up in 30 or 40 years .","id":"2cff486b110a650bbbabd6ce6135246474d89d37"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Is the movie cop thriller heading for retirement? Colin Farrell, left, and Edward Norton star in \"Pride and Glory\" as New York cops. It seems incredible to suggest that such a popular form of storytelling might be on the way out, but it's happened before: Musicals and westerns were once staple entertainment for the moviegoing masses, and somewhere in the 1970s they just went thataway. Now the musicals and westerns that emerge are considered unusual. So consider: Last week the top box-office draw in the country was \"Max Payne\" with Mark Wahlberg as an obsessed cop tracking down the killer who murdered his wife and child. Based on a video game, \"Max Payne\" takes a rudimentary plot and boils it down still further, to the point where it's worse than predictable. The film's attraction (such as it is) isn't found in story, but in decoration: the blue-filtered chiaroscuro and etch-y comic book compositions, how the snow glints under the streetlights. \"Pride and Glory,\" on the other hand, is resolutely old school. Not only is it not based on a video game, it's hard to imagine that any of the characters has played one -- or seen a movie either. Watch behind the scenes at \"Pride and Glory\" \u00bb . The time period isn't specified, but it seems to be today, going on 1974. Written by \"Tumbleweeds\" director Gavin O'Connor and Joe Carnahan (\"Narc\"), based on a story O'Connor put together with his twin brother Greg and ex-New York cop Robert Hopes, this is one of those movies that wants to emulate the serious side of '70s cinema, to dig into thorny ethical quandaries and alert us to institutional corruption. Unfortunately, it does a poor job. This time Edward Norton is the alienated cop, Ray Tierney. Like Max Payne, he's stepped away from the street to nurse his own grievances -- he bears an ugly scar down his cheek from an incident referred to only obliquely. The details remain hazy, but it casts a \"Chinatown\"-size cloud over Ray and probably accounts for the state of his marriage -- which is over -- and the fact that he's sleeping on his dad's leaky sailboat. There's considerably more plot in \"Pride and Glory\" than in \"Max Payne,\" but it's only marginally less predictable. A shooting puts four cops down -- all of them from the command of Ray's brother Francis (Noah Emmerich). Francis is devastated, and the boys' father, Francis Sr. (Jon Voight), insists Ray must step up and take charge of the investigation. The Tierney clan has another cop in the family: Jimmy (Colin Farrell) is married to their sister (Lake Bell). We soon realize Jimmy's hands are dirty. But what will Ray do about it? If you've seen your Sidney Lumet movies -- \"Serpico,\" \"Prince of the City,\" \"Q&A\" -- then you'll be well ahead of the game. Even if you haven't, you'll have seen the cop shows that drew from them. Which is why almost every scene, every line of dialogue in \"Pride and Glory\" has the dull thud of cliche. \"We can't keep doing this,\" moans Ray's soon-to-be ex-wife. Any regular moviegoer will know exactly what she means: How many more times will we have to suffer this d\u00e9ja-vu? Granted, originality isn't everything. Last year, James Grey's \"We Own the Night\" invested a very similar story with subtle character shadings and a subversive edge. What's most disappointing about O'Connor's capably acted but gloomy and portentous movie is how it shies away from any real complexity. The Tierneys may have their faults, but the outsider, Jimmy, is the bad egg (we gather that much when he threatens a baby with a hot iron). When push comes to shove, the brothers do the right thing in a climax so stock you could use it to make gravy. The old school was better than this. And, back then, it wasn't old either. \"Pride and Glory\" is rated R and runs 129 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Pride and Glory\" wants to be cop thriller throwback; instead it's just predictable .\nFilm is about a family of cops, one of whom is bad .\nEdward Norton and Colin Farrell star in well-acted but clich\u00e9d movie .","id":"b648d49d4e487f0dc4b8fb0377ca61ff6b43b6da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The weather can affect your travel, your mood and apparently the size of your family. Edie is a proud blizzard baby, and her parents have already bought her a snowsuit for this year. Denver hospitals are reporting a baby boom, which is arriving about nine months after two blizzards walloped Colorado's capital city. With roads shut down for days, couples were stuck at home and apparently cuddled up to stay warm. Marjorie Silva told the Rocky Mountain News that she has a new baby because she didn't want her husband to play in the snow during the blizzard. \"It was cold, and we took a bath together,\" she told the newspaper, referring to husband Hansell. \"And one thing led to another. He wanted to go outside and play with the snow, and I didn't want to. ... We just ate and stayed in bed.\" Hospital staffers are working extra hours and using an overflow unit to take care of all the new babies and moms at Avista Adventist Hospital in suburban Louisville, according to Lynne Snyder, the director of women's services. One baby couldn't wait to get to the second-floor delivery room. The doctors had to go to Mom at the bottom of the stairs, and everyone went into the emergency room to help the infant into into the world. The infants are going home with T-shirts pronouncing them proud to be a blizzard baby. Dad: We waited nine months for our Christmas present \u00bb . Edie Coddington is wearing one of those shirts, even though her parents, Odele and Ian, were out of town when the storms hit. They were visiting family in Calgary and had to wait until the two blizzards cleared before they could get back to Colorado. Edie was a very happy surprise, Odele Coddington said. Their joy is shared by co-workers who are having an \"enormous rash\" of blizzard babies, Ian Coddington said, adding that company picnics will be very entertaining in about five years, when the babies are older and running around. For now, more babies may be on the way. Sky Ridge Medical Center, just south of Denver, expects a 20 percent increase in deliveries in October. One doctor at the hospital told CNN affiliate KMGH that he expects the baby boom to last for couple of more months. \"The snow stayed on the ground throughout December, January, and into February. My theory is that the cabin fever didn't set in until a little bit later,\" Dr. Steve Grover said. Although the new parents and hospitals are having fun with the term blizzard babies, officials say it will be months before it can be determined whether there is any connection between the blizzards and the new arrivals. And previous purported baby booms have been discounted after experts studied the numbers, according to The Associated Press. University of North Carolina and Duke University researchers found there were no booms after the New York City blackouts in 1965 and 1977. But already, Denver-area businesses say they are benefiting from a boom in sales. \"We've also been selling a lot of diaper bags and blankets. I'm completely wiped out of blankets. I can't keep up with the blankets,\" Linde Schlumbohm, the owner of Studio Bini, told the TV station. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Denver hospitals reporting increase in baby deliveries .\nStaff at one hospital working overtime to handle deliveries .\nOne couple escaped snow but got caught in baby blizzard .","id":"06aee0ddbbe46d986cf5468f4ee1b097da0f0bcc"} -{"article":"(ESSENCE.com) -- While the country celebrates the first black president, African-Americans are facing critical challenges from high unemployment, home foreclosures and a record number of black men in prison. Marc Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League. Despite these disparities and the fact that African-Americans have been hit hardest by the current economic meltdown, a recent New York Times\/CBS News poll found that 59 percent of African-Americans believe the country has made real progress in race relations, a 30 percent jump from last year. The National Urban League, in its report \"The State of Black America 2009,\" acknowledges the feeling of hope the Obama administration brings, but demands the president examine the sobering issues facing African-Americans. ESSENCE.com asked president and CEO of the Urban League Marc H. Morial whether or not the sentiments reflected in the poll mirror the national Black perspective. ESSENCE: With all of these factors that are challenging the African-American community today, do you really believe most of us feel like race relations between blacks and whites have improved? See how a few Americans feel about race relations \u00bb . Marc H. Morial: I know that a poll is a snapshot of time, and while it's important to keep the proper context, this is a positive thing. Yes, people are beginning to have a healthier view of race relations. But we must keep in mind the underlying conditions that people are currently living in. There are still very significant disparities between blacks and whites in America. The unemployment rate in the current recession is but one example. ESSENCE: Do you believe the election of the first African-American president had anything to do with the change in black attitude toward the future of the U.S.? Morial: This is clearly a visible example of the effect of President Obama's election. It has created hope, optimism and a better way of thinking about the issue of race. I just hope that it's sustainable. If it's sustainable, it means we can work towards addressing and alleviating some of those underlying conditions. We should hope that it maintains and translates into positive action to try to close some of the difficult challenges like the economic gap and the housing problem. ESSENCE: Does it surprise you that white people had an equally positive outlook on race relations? Morial: Not in light of Obama. He got more white votes than Kerry or Gore. He also got a higher black turnout than at any other time in American history. So he has demonstrated this unique important ability at the national level to appeal to a broad cross-section of people. People place a considerable amount of trust and optimism in his leadership. Watch an Essence editor talk about her interview with Michelle Obama \u00bb . ESSENCE: How have organizations like the National Urban League reinforced this new attitude about race? Morial: I really believe a great deal has to do with President Obama. To have that kind of effect and impact means that people are willing to move forward and they believe and hope that things are getting better. Our mission at the National Urban League is to help children and adults, young and old, achieve economic parity, through programs and public policy. Those that have worked in the trenches for many years to improve relations and conditions deserve some credit, but the issue for us is about sustainability and transferability. Have race relations improved? Watch to find out \u00bb . We want to see this epidemic of high school dropouts improve. We want to see this disparity that exists in economics reduced. These issues are so critical and important. My hope is that this new change in attitude will ultimately lead to that.","highlights":"African-Americans still face critical challenges such as high unemployment .\nMajority of blacks believe U.S. has made progress in race relations .\nNational Urban League CEO talks about \"The State of Black America 2009\"\nCEO: Obama \"has created hope, optimism and a better way of thinking\"","id":"2336a46e888da0d2300d7cd90da937124c2f9bd8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- In his autobiography, Eric Clapton admits that he enjoys nothing more than sitting in a deck chair on a white sandy beach watching his children playing in the sea. Private getaway: Eric Clapton enjoys spending time relaxing on his superyacht Va Bene. It's the perfect antidote to a punishing tour schedule, and with gigs in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Scandinavia and Europe so far this year, getting away from it all is an experience he values. He found that he was particularly at ease aboard the 157 ft (47.8m) motor yacht Va Bene, which he chartered in 2005 and cruised with friends around the Mediterranean. The sheltered port of Bonifacio at the southern end of Corsica became one of his favorite haunts. In fact, Clapton enjoyed Va Bene so much that he bought her. It was the first time he'd ever had to borrow money to buy something, but he had fallen for the yacht, despite her 13 years and slightly dated looks. Besides there was always the possibility of updating her to give her a new lease of life. Va Bene came with an interesting pedigree. She had originally been commissioned by a Greek ship owner in 1992 to a design by Richard Hein (of Oceanco fame) and built by Kees Cornelissen in Holland. She was then purchased by F1 motor racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone before being sold to an American. A steel-hulled displacement yacht with a cruising speed of about 14 knots, Va Bene can accommodate 12 guests in six separate sleeping cabins and has a crew complement of 13. Having lived with Va Bene for a couple of years, Eric Clapton finally felt the time was right for a refit. Clapton was particularly keen for the work to be carried out in the UK, partly because he wanted to buy British but also because he could keep a close eye on proceedings. Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth, Cornwall, was an obvious choice. Roger Taylor, the drummer with Queen has his yacht Tiger Lilly refitted regularly in Falmouth and Pete Townsend of the Who is another famous client. Pendennis Shipyard representative Alastair Heane was first introduced to the yacht during the charter show in Antigua in December 2006. Eric Clapton has a house on the island and Va Bene is based here during the winter season. Heane quickly established a detailed proposal of work. The plan was to get Va Bene to Falmouth after Clapton had finished his 2007 summer holiday so that the work could be carried out during the winter. The initial time frame was three months but like most complex refits this quickly extended to six as the work list grew. The target was to have Va Bene ready and waiting in Porto Cervo Sardinia on July 1 this year in time for Eric Clapton's month-long family holiday -- a date that was set in stone to fit around his tour schedule. We caught up with Va Bene during a photo shoot at the end of June 2008 on the very day she was setting sail from Palma, Mallorca, to meet up with the boss in Sardinia. With the final last-minute touches still being applied and the crew busily unpacking everything from the owner's precious guitar to his children's cuddly toys, it was a close run thing but Pendennis had met the deadline in style. The first thing that strikes you on boarding Va Bene is the calm, informal atmosphere of what is clearly a much-loved family yacht rather than a glitzy monument to success. Eric Clapton may be one of the world's greatest living rock stars but he is also an unpretentious family man who wants a yacht that he can relax on. The saloon encapsulates this perfectly. Rather than a single formal space with designer furniture that look so immaculate you hardly dare sit down, Va Bene's saloon is divided into four separate areas with clusters of contrasting chairs, sofas, tables and cabinets. One group of guests can be relaxing round the card table and matching leather chairs, while others stretch out on the big taupe corduroy sofa to watch a movie. That still leaves room for him to sneak off into another corner and perch on one of the special armless low-level chairs to play his guitar. The adjacent dining room is a little more formal but even here the overriding feeling is of a wonderfully light room centered around what looks like a huge limed-oak table inlaid with Italian marble. In fact, it is all the handiwork of a talented local artisan who painted the surface of the original table to match the materials found elsewhere on the yacht right down to the fake wooden joints and natural marble flaws. This solution appealed both to Clapton's desire to refresh rather than replace where possible and his appreciation of skilled craftsmanship. He is a keen collector of modern art himself and every spare wall and surface reflects this passion. From intricate postcard-sized oil paintings of Venice to large, sprawling canvases and some beautiful marble sculptures and ceramic vases, it is a collection that reflects the singer's own ability to transcend the confines of any one genre. Perhaps that also explains the relatively neutral tones of the d\u00e9cor. There is an Art Deco theme running through the main guest areas, which the refit has refreshed and modernized rather dispensed with. The limed-oak paneling is original but all the garish gold door handles, light fittings and switches have either been replaced or replated in chrome to give it a much more contemporary feel. The high gloss white painted ceiling panels and moldings have all been meticulously flatted back to leave a softer matt finish while all the ceiling lights, some 400 of them in total, have been replaced with modern recessed spots. As you'd expect aboard a musician's yacht, the AV system was another major beneficiary of the refit. Every cabin and guest space now has a discreet Arcam iPod dock so that he can plug in his iPhone wherever he is and enjoy instant access to his personal music library. All bar one of the existing Bang & Olufsen CRT televisions have also been swapped for high-definition Panasonic Viera flat screens. The highlight of the refit is the new owner's suite on the main deck -- a space that Clapton and his wife rarely used before the refit, because it is at the opposite end of the yacht to his children's cabins. (They preferred the smaller but more family-friendly location of the VIP guest suite next to the main run of cabins on the lower deck.) But it's a much more enticing space these days. Reconfigured by interior designers H2 in Putney, London, it now enjoys a much bigger family bathroom complete with walk-in rain shower, dramatic stone basins, a large tub and a natural teak floor. The key to the success of the refit, which cost in excess of US$4 million, lay in the planning. Pendennis's Tyrone Harvey and a small team started with a technical visit to the yacht in Palma, Mallorca, in the early summer of last year. Within days of arriving in Falmouth Va Bene had undergone sea trials with Duncan Propellers to try and improve an ongoing issue with her performance and economy. It eventually transpired that one of the gearboxes had been incorrectly fitted. She was then moored alongside at Pendennis while her crew started the long job of removing her entire inventory. She also had her teak deck stripped off before she was floated into the 150m long dry dock. Despite all the changes, Va Bene left Falmouth on time, arriving in Sardinia on July 1. Indeed, it was during this holiday that Eric Clapton took time out to talk to SuperYacht World about his born-again Va Bene (see p74). Now that he has had a chance to enjoy the fruits of his and Pendennis's labor, Va Bene is available for charter through Burgess Yachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. It's not often you get to walk in the shadow of a genuine rock legend but on Va Bene you can also swim, sunbathe and sleep in Eric Clapton's personal holiday home. Chartering just doesn't get any better than that. Subscribe to SuperYachtWorld . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2009 IPC MEDIA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"Eric Clapton owns the 48 meter superyacht Va Bene .\nBernie Ecclestone had owned the vessel before Clapton bought it .\nClapton enjoys spending time on the boat to get away from his work .","id":"214f1bd9a1d5b0ff740f044720e4fae20b3007ce"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- While violence decreases across Iraq, women in the war-ravaged country face worsening hardships as warfare has thrust them into the role of family breadwinners, an aid group's survey said. An Iraqi woman who sells incense and candles to support her children says, \"to work is to preserve your honor.\" In a release dated Sunday coinciding with International Women's Day, Oxfam International issued, \"In Her Own Words: Iraqi Women Talk About Their Greatest Concerns and Challenges.\" Many women have been widowed and have had to run their families because their husbands \"had been killed, disappeared, abducted or suffered from mental or physical abuse,\" the survey says. As a result, many have been unable to earn a decent living. While there are no precise numbers, there are now an estimated 740,000 widows in Iraq, Oxfam says. \"Women are the forgotten victims of Iraq,\" said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs, in quotes included in the survey. See pictures of women working in Iraq \u00bb . The survey found that largely because of the conflict in Iraq, 35.5 percent of participants were acting as head of the household and that \"nearly 25 percent had not been married.\" \"If this reflects Iraq as a whole, it is the highest rate in the larger region, a result of the loss of men of marrying age as a result of the conflict,\" the survey said. Oxfam and its Iraqi partner group Al-Amal Association, conducted the survey in five provinces -- Baghdad, Basra, Tameem, Najaf and Nineveh. Questioners interviewed 1,700 respondents starting last summer. While the survey doesn't represent the situation facing all Iraqis, it provides \"a disturbing snapshot of many women's lives and those of their children and other family members.\" \"A quarter of the women interviewed still do not have daily access to water, a third cannot send their children to school and, since the war started, over half have been the victim of violence,\" Hobbs said. \"And to add further insult more than three-quarters of widows, many of whom lost their husbands to the conflict, get no government pension which they are entitled to.\" The report urges Iraq to invest in social welfare essential services. \"A whole generation of Iraqis are at risk. Mothers are being forced to make tough choices, such as whether to pay for their children to go to school and receive health care, or to pay for private power and water services. These are choices no mother should have to make. And they are not only threatening individual families, they are also threatening the future of Iraq itself,\" Hobbs said. Here are some of the survey results. \u2022 Security and safety are the top concerns of nearly 60 percent of women. \u2022 More than 40 percent of respondents said their security situation worsened last year. \u2022 55 percent had been victims of violence since 2003. \u2022 Some 45 percent of women said their income was worse in 2008 than in 2007 and 2006. \u2022 69 percent said access to water was worse or the same as in in 2006 and 2007. \u2022 80 percent said access to electricity was more difficult than or the same as in 2007. \u2022 Nearly half of the women said access to quality health care was more difficult in 2008 compared with 2006 and 2007. \u2022 40 percent of women with children reported that their sons and daughters were not attending school.","highlights":"An estimated 740,000 widows struggle in new roles as heads of house, survey says .\nMany women don't have daily access to water and cannot send children to school .\nMore than 40 percent of respondents said security situation worsened last year .\nReport urges Iraq to invest in essential social welfare services .","id":"5769da5208c5067fee3be273ac5cc0a646152e37"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Millions of people are expected to go to Washington to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20, but with a troubled economy and pocketbook issues on the mind, the president-elect must be careful to set the right tone. Construction of the inaugural stand continues in front of the White House last week. President Bush raised a record $42.8 million dollars for his second inauguration, and according to Public Citizen, more than 90 percent of the donations to that ceremony were from executives or corporations. But this year, some say throwing a multimillion-dollar party would be unseemly in a time when crash, bailout, and foreclosure fill the economic headlines. \"A lot of it is about tone and making sure that the celebrations that do take place are not over the top, that they don't appear to be insensitive to the pain people have right now,\" said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. The inaugural committee for Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make sure the ceremony underscores the incoming administration's \"commitment to change business as usual in Washington.\" The Presidential Inaugural Committee has limited individual contributions to $50,000. There is no law restricting the size of donations, but in the past, inaugural committees have set contribution limits as high as $250,000. The PIC said it will not take contributions from corporations, political action committees, current federally registered lobbyists, non-U.S. citizens or registered foreign agents. Obama has promised to \"take power away from the corporate lobbyists\" -- a pledge that would be questioned should the president-elect rely on them to foot his inauguration bill. \"If he can pay for these parties with small donations, I think there'd be a lot more acceptance of that,\" Alexander said. Watchdog groups say there are some things Obama can do to take control of the tone. For example, he could make donations to charity, and Michelle Obama could opt for something more reasonably priced than a designer dress. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, he also faced a financial crisis. He gave voters a now famous pep talk about the failing economy, then skipped the fancy inaugural balls because they sent the wrong message. But analysts say Obama's not expected to go that far because so many people want to celebrate his historic win. \"Washington, D.C., was pro-Obama and had Obama-mania long before November 4. But the moment November 4 occurred, all -- all craziness sort of broke loose,\" said Anne Schroeder Mullini, a gossip columnist for Politico. As inauguration organizers work to keep the tone in check, they are speaking out against those trying to make money by scalping tickets to the event. Tickets for the inauguration are distributed through members of Congress, and just 240,000 seats are available for the actual swearing-in ceremony. The tickets are supposed to be free, but with demand outpacing supply, a traditional giveaway has turned into a thriving online marketplace. Legitimate ticket brokers -- the same companies that peddle tickets to rock concerts and NASCAR races -- are selling tickets to the inauguration for thousands of dollars, even for standing-room areas on the National Mall. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein wants to make that practice a crime, punishable by up to a year in prison. Organizers of the inauguration say it violates the spirit of the event and could spell disappointment for people who buy tickets for the ceremony. \"We think it's absolutely insane to be selling those tickets. We understand some people want to make a buck, but for those people thinking of buying tickets, it's buyer beware,\" warned Howard Gantman, staff director of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. CNN's Carol Costello, Brianna Keilar and Erica Hill contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Bush raised a record $42.8 million dollars for his second inauguration .\nBarack Obama has limited individual donations to $50,000 .\nSome say an extravagant celebration would be out of place, considering economy .\nInauguration organizers say ticket scalping violates the spirit of the event .","id":"02604253bc8b83628381c7e6ba803f4bed2dd2ac"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On the same day that it announced record suicides among its soldiers, the U.S. Army said Thursday that it will soon conduct service-wide training to help identify soldiers at risk of suicide. The program will teach soldiers how to recognize behaviors that may lead to suicide, and how to intervene. The program, which will run February 15 through March 15, will include training to recognize behaviors that may lead to suicide and instruction on how to intervene. The Army will follow the training with another teaching program, from March 15 to June 15, focused on suicide prevention at all unit levels. Earlier Thursday, the Army reported the highest one-year level of suicides among its soldiers since it began tracking the rate 28 years ago. The Army said that 128 soldiers were confirmed to have committed suicide in 2008, and an additional 15 were suspected to have committed suicide that year in cases under investigation among active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves. The Army's confirmed rate of suicides in 2008 was 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers. The nation's suicide rate was 19.5 per 100,000 people in 2005, a figure considered the most recent, Army officials said last month. In 2007, the Army reported 115 confirmed suicides, which was then the highest level since 1980, when it began tracking suicides. Suicides for Marines were also up in 2008. There were 41 in 2008, up from 33 in 2007 and 25 in 2006, according to a Marines report. In addition to the training the Army announced Thursday, the service has a program called Battlemind, intended to prepare soldiers and their families to cope with the stresses of war before, during and after deployment. It also is intended to help detect mental-health issues before and after deployments. The Army and the National Institute of Mental Health signed an agreement in October to conduct research to identify factors affecting the mental and behavioral health of soldiers and to share strategies to lower the suicide rate. The five-year study will examine active-duty, National Guard and reserve soldiers and their families.","highlights":"Service-wide training to help soldiers identify those at risk of suicide .\n2008 was record year for U.S. Army suicides, service reports .\nArmy: 128 soldiers confirmed to have committed suicide in 2008 .","id":"5768cc590a884058e921fc14773b239f9a6c0e4b"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- At the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and MINI showed the world what electric vehicles of the future will look like. And the future of driving looks fun. The Dodge Circuit EV can blast from 0-to-60 mph in around 4 seconds. Those in the know realize that sometime in the future, the vast majority of light cars and trucks in the US will feature electric final drive systems. The motors used in these systems will be powered by batteries, fuel cells, on-board generators, and perhaps even the sun. But this open issue doesn't change the inevitability of this reality. Given our current economic times, reality demands practical, tangible, and achievable ideas of what electric vehicles (or \"EVs\" for short) might actually look like. This is it ... Chrysler . Three of the four electric vehicles Chrysler showed in Detroit, Michigan, were shown at other events and even to Washington bureaucrats. Each of these vehicles is a running prototype, not some pie-in-the-sky-we'll-never-build that idea. ENVI is the special group of engineers at Chrysler that develops the company's EVs. To date, the ENVI group has developed four electrically powered models, each quite different from the other: a Dodge Circuit EV sports car (rear-wheel drive), a Chrysler Town & Country minivan (front-wheel-drive), a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (all-wheel-drive), and now a Jeep Patriot (front-wheel-drive). Chrysler promises to offer at least one of these models in 2010, and three more by 2013. AOL Autos: Dodge Circuit EV photos . Chrysler approaches electric vehicles with simple plug-and-play engineering. Every one of their vehicles uses similar electric drive motors (only varying in power output), advanced lithium-ion batteries, and a power management controller. Each plugs in to 110- or 220-volt household outlets for recharging. The Chrysler and both Jeeps use an on-board range-extending battery charger (a generator). This generator automatically turns on after the vehicle's initial batter charge has been spent (usually within a range of 40 miles), supplying extra voltage that give these three vehicles an estimated range of approximately 400 miles. The generator is powered by a small gasoline-powered engine that runs with exceptional efficiency. This technology is similar in concept to what General Motors has shown in their Chevrolet Volt, a vehicle that should be ready for production in 2010. AOL Autos: Cadillac Converj photos . The Dodge Circuit carries a larger battery pack and no generator, so its range on the charge it carries is approximately 150-200 miles. Its large battery pack combined with compact dimensions and the exceptional torque provided by its electric motor blast the car from zero-to-sixty mph in around four seconds, exceptionally fast for any sports car regardless of engine type. Mercedes-Benz . Mercedes-Benz used the 2009 Detroit Auto Show to showcase their Concept BlueZERO vehicles. The Mercedes approach was to develop one efficient body style, and then equip it with three different electric drive packages. AOL Autos: Mercedes Stirling Moss photos . Much of the hardware for the all-electric front-wheel-drive propulsion units is built into what Mercedes calls \"sandwich-floor\" architecture that the company uses on several production cars. The design helps keep heavy components mounted low on the chassis for better handling, enhanced safety, and maximized interior room. All three Concept BlueZERO vehicles include electric drive and batteries. The E-Cell uses a large battery pack that is said to deliver a range of 120 miles. The F-Cell utilizes a smaller battery pack, but supplements the vehicle's range with a hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel cell produces electricity to recharge the battery pack that extends cruising range to 240 miles. The E-Cell Plus, with a range of approximately 360 miles, is the distance champion. The key is the on-board generator powered by tiny 1-liter turbo-charged three-cylinder gasoline engine. The engine and generator are located in the rear of the BlueZERO. For the record, when you see photos of these cars together, the E-Cell is lime green, the F-Cell is mint green, and the E-Cell Plus is orange. Toyota . Adding to its line of popular hybrid vehicles in the U.S., Toyota just confirmed plans to add as many as 10 new gas\/electric hybrid vehicles in the next few years. On their way toward that goal, Toyota showed their all-new, third-generation Prius plus the new Lexus HS250H. AOL Autos: 2010 Toyota Prius photos . Important to this story, Toyota also committed to selling a battery powered electric car in 2012 for the U.S. market. Toyota debuted what their all-electric vehicle might be at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, and it's an urban commuter called the FT-EV. The little four-seater is based on Toyota's popular iQ, a car that's already a hit in Japan. The good news is that the iQ is a real car, so the FT-EV will not be a glorified golf cart or a neighborhood vehicle with severely limited capabilities. The claimed range for the FT-EV is 50 miles. As we went to press, details were still sketchy about the FT-EV's running gear. As Toyota releases more details, we'll bring them to you. Mini . While standard MINI models like the Cooper are comparatively easy on gas compared to larger cars, under the ownership of parent company BMW, MINI is testing the limits of how green a MINI can be. AOL Autos: 2010 BMW Z4 photos . Perhaps following the performance of the stunt cars used in The Italian Job (2003), BMW decided to investigate a battery-powered MINI. They introduced the MINI E coupe last November at the Los Angeles Auto Show and the car was on display again in Detroit. The \"charged\" MINI E can run up to 150 miles on a full battery pack. Charging is accomplished through standard 110- or 220-volt outlets. The electrified MINI weighs 600 pounds more than a standard MINI Cooper and because of the bulk of the required battery pack, the interior seats only two. Performance from the 204-horsepower motor equals the gas-powered MINI, with a 0-60 mph run in 8.5 seconds. BMW will produce only 500 MINI Es for the United States (if it were easy to make electric MINIs, they'd make more). The limited-production run will be split between New York and L.A. on one-year closed-end leases. After the leases expire, BMW will ship the MINIs back to Germany for evaluation. This scenario mimics what General Motors did with their EV1 electric vehicle about a decade ago.","highlights":"Latest technologies debut at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show .\nChrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and MINI show what electric cars of future will be .\nToyota confirms plans to add as many as 10 new gas\/electric hybrid vehicles .\nThe \"charged\" MINI E can run up to 150 miles on a full battery pack .","id":"01fb4659b531060a311ed2c8478f3dbc1db3c065"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Even the most sophisticated traveler could be forgiven for thinking that there's little more to Panama than its iconic canal, seaside capital, and snorkeler-packed Bocas del Toro islands. The Los Santos region of Panama has spectacular rolling farmlands and blissfully empty beaches. But there's a more secret and equally spectacular side to the country about a five-hour drive west from Panama City: the Pacific coast region of Los Santos. Here, rolling farmlands and stands of mahogany and cocobolo trees hug an azure coastline, luring surfers, nature buffs, and, increasingly, travelers and second-home owners from all over. Although roadside real-estate billboards suggest a far more developed future, Los Santos has managed to stay blessedly free of resorts. In their place are a handful of low-key -- and far more affordable -- boutique hotels. The most stylish is the seven-room Villa Camilla, just outside the fishing village of Pedas\u00ed. The red-tiled hideaway, located on an 800-acre parcel of the Azuero Peninsula, started out as a private escape for French interior designer Gilles St.-Gilles and his wife, Camilla. \"The area reminded us of Tuscany,\" says St.-Gilles, who landscaped the estate with fragrant jasmine, plumeria, and hibiscus. In 2005, the couple opened their place as a hotel, and last fall they added 20 new seaside duplex lofts. As stylish as they are family-friendly, the setups come with full-size kitchens, extra guest beds, and mosaic-tile flooring. An in-house stable is ready for shoreline horseback rides, and you can sign up for snorkeling trips to nearby Isla Ca\u00f1as, a palm-fringed refuge where thousands of leatherback turtles converge to build nests. Farther inland, the center of Pedas\u00ed has a cow-town vibe: Picture low-slung cottages painted bright green and yellow, and ranchers wearing handmade Panama hats. Yellow is also the color of choice at the new Casita Margarita. This five-room B&B comes with locally crafted cocobolo furniture and a wraparound veranda overlooking Pedas\u00ed's main street. Perhaps best of all, it's within walking distance of local hangout Mano Surf Community, a pro shop that does double duty as a caf\u00e9 and juice bar, and El Gringo Dusek, a no-frills, alfresco cantina run by retired U.S. Navy officer Joseph Dusek, which serves the best barbecue ribs in Los Santos. Of course, beyond the culinary surf and turf, the region's big draw is its blissfully empty beaches: Some of Panama's most scenic -- Los Destiladeros, Modro\u00f1o, and the black-sand Playa Venao with its eight-foot breaks -- are short drives from Pedas\u00ed. Closer to home, Pedas\u00ed's El Arenal is a good launchpad for day trips to Iguana Island. (Fishermen stationed by the pier rent their motorboats, captain included, for about $50 round trip.) The hotel-free and nearly visitor-free isle is named for its resident black and green iguanas. Sign up for an Iguana Island Foundation snorkeling and hiking tour; you might just get a good look at some hatchlings. While it may be hard to top that sight, 77-year-old Dalila Vera de Quintero knows how to command equal wows. Her lemon-yellow bakery in a bungalow, Dulceria Yely, is famous across Panama for its home-style sweets, like almond queques (pound cakes) and creamy chicheme, a shake blended from sweetened milk, fresh corn, and crushed vanilla beans. She also stashes a cake or two in the kitchen for favorite customers, such as former Panamanian president and Pedas\u00ed native Mireya Moscoso. Swoon loudly enough and Quintero may just reward you with a thick presidential slice. If you go ... LODGING . Villa Camilla Los Destiladeros, 011-507\/232-0171, , from $250 . Casita Margarita, Calle Central, 011-507\/995-2898, from $99 . FOOD . Mano Surf Community, Calle Estudiante and Calle Bolivar . El Gringo Dusek, Av. Central, 011-507\/995-2869, entr\u00e9es from $5 . Dulceria Yely, Calle Ofelia Reluz, 011-507\/995-2205, from 3\u00a2 . ACTIVITIES . Iguana Island Foundation, 011-507\/236-8117, full-day tour $90 . Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"The Pacific coast region of Los Santos is about five hours from Panama City .\nThe region's big draw is its blissfully empty beaches .\nThe town of Pedas\u00ed's is a good launchpad for day trips to Iguana Island .","id":"1ba0a6408ac496c919a7170999254b5301ed6cf3"} -{"article":"ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- If a state held a yard sale of government entities to bring in some much-needed cash, this might be what it would look like. Two Minnesota lawmakers have proposed selling the capital's airport to alleviate the state's budget deficit. Two Minnesota lawmakers are asking the state's legislature to consider a proposal that would sell to private firms the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, along with other state property and programs, in an effort to bring in roughly $6 billion or more. Coincidence or not, that's about the same size as the state's estimated budget deficit. State Sen. Geoff Michel and state Rep. Laura Brod -- two Republicans from Minneapolis suburbs -- say they don't want to go about solving the budget crisis in a traditional way. \"The discussion is often 'do you tax more, [or] do you spend less?'\" Brod says. \"But it seems to me that there is a third option out there, and that's reforming how government operates.\" They also say their proposal is a way to spark debate over whether government should be in control of certain entities in the first place. \"Government doesn't always have to do it,\" Michel says. Running the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (MSP) is a prime example of something the government could do without, they say. \"The airport is a significant asset,\" Brod adds. \"Why is the state running the airport, which provides restaurants and shops and the functions and the operations that a private business probably would do very well? \"So what we're looking at is just ... raising the real question of 'what should government be doing?'\" Watch the lawmakers discuss their proposal \u00bb . Michel and Brod also cite a recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates that put the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport at the bottom of a list of 19 \"large airports\" in terms of customer satisfaction. But they say their intention is not to \"indict\" anyone -- merely to \"shine a little light on what is a new idea for Minnesota,\" according to Brod. While privately owned and operated airports are much more common overseas, Michel and Brod could offer only one example of a similar notion in the United States: Chicago's plan to privatize Midway airport. That plan, however, has yet to be finalized by the Federal Aviation Administration. Michel says their proposal might mimic the Midway deal in that it could be a leasing of the entire airport and its operations for a term of 99 years. Midway sold for $2.5 billion, and Michel estimates that, given how much more use MSP sees, Minnesota might be able to bring in $5 billion with its airport. Even though a final draft of a proposed bill is still days away from even being introduced, one lawmaker from across the aisle is already promising to make it an uphill battle. State Sen. Steve Murphy, a Democrat and chair of the transportation committee, says the plan is a \"horrible idea\" and a \"gimmick.\" \"You have to do what you have to do to get by [in] these economic times, and it's not having a fire sale on government,\" Murphy says. \"It's sitting down with a sharp pencil and cutting out programs that have run their useful life. It's cutting back on maybe Sen. Michel's per diem, things like that.\" The bill would have to get through Murphy's committee before it could make it to the floor of the legislature, and Murphy says his panel \"would not go for this.\" Despite the J.D. Power survey touted by Brod and Michel, Murphy calls the airport \"one of the best-run operations in the world.\" \"This is ... government that works,\" Murphy adds. \"So now we want to sell it? For what reason?\" In response, Brod calls Murphy's comments mere \"scare tactics.\" And Michel adds: \"There's nothing more predictable than a politician defending the status quo. And the days of status quo in Minnesota -- and, I think, the world -- are over.\" Adeel Lari, a research fellow at the Center for Transportation Studies in the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, specializes in innovative financing in state and local policy-making. He says privatization can work, but given the economy, now may not be the best time to consider selling anything, let alone an airport that could be worth billions of dollars. \"Everything is in turmoil,\" Lari says. \"Even if it was the right thing to do, there's no market for it.\" Lari says the ideal philosophy -- \"buy low and sell high\" -- would be next to impossible to realize in today's situation. He says the state's holdings would almost certainly go for a less-than-desirable price. Lari also worries the state may not see enough profit in the long run. \"Selling infrastructure is one-time money you're getting,\" Lari says. \"If you're selling the infrastructure [as opposed to just the internal operations] then basically you're losing out on everything.\" The issue of whether the average customer -- the air traveler, in this instance -- would be protected has also come up. Jerry Zhao, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota who focuses on state and local public finance, says privatizing has mixed results and may not be the best option, especially when it's only considered \"as the last resort of the desperate.\" \"Some recent cases of [public-private partnerships] of transportation facilities have led to widely spread concerns on whether the public interest is protected in these concessions,\" Zhao says. \"Some services tend to be reserved for the public sector because of their 'public good' nature that won't be factored into consideration by profit-oriented businesses. \"Without careful research, a desperate rush into selling or leasing public facilities may lose value on public assets, lose long-term interests of the public in the exchange of short-term budget benefits, and lose democratic control.\" Michel and Brod say the airport is only the tip of the iceberg. Their bill will also include the sale of the Minnesota State Lottery. Brod says that in this case, it's more of a fundamental question of ethics. \"Is gambling something that the state ought to be doing anyway?\" Brod asks rhetorically. The lottery would bring in between $500 million and $1 billion, they guess. It would be a different scenario, however, in that, since lottery proceeds come back to the state, Michel says they would include a provision to have the state keep that money. If not, he admits, they wouldn't be able to garner lawmaker support. It doesn't end there. The lawmakers say they're looking at everything the state owns as possible items to be auctioned off, including roads, parks, prisons, rest stops -- even the naming rights to public transit systems. Once drafted, the bill would have to pass through any relevant committees depending on what state entities end up in the final version. Only once it moves through could it be brought to the floor of the legislature. \"Our job now is to educate our fellow colleagues,\" Michel says.","highlights":"Minnesota lawmakers propose selling airport and other government holdings .\nState, like many others, is struggling with budget woes .\nOpposing lawmaker calls idea of selling government entities a \"gimmick\"\nFinancial experts say now might not be a good time to get a good return on sales .","id":"c1eb3b7440d9a8c6dcaded51e51df7ed065b67ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jenna and Barbara Bush know a lot about growing up in the White House. The Bush twins told Sasha and Malia Obama to \"remember who your dad really is.\" The twin daughters of former President Bush were 7 when their grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, was inaugurated, and 20 when their father became president. Like their dad, who left a note for President Barack Obama, Jenna and Barbara Bush wrote Tuesday to Obama's daughters about what to expect in the weeks and months ahead. \"We also first saw the White House through the innocent, optimistic eyes of children,\" the twins wrote in an open letter published in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. Growing up in the White House \u00bb . The twins reminisce in the letter about important events and historic moments they were able to be part of in a presidential family. But the Bushes also tried to prepare Sasha and Malia for some sobering truths. \"Although it's an honor and full of so many extraordinary opportunities, it isn't always easy being a member of the club you are about to join,\" they said. \"Our dad, like yours, is a man of great integrity and love; a man who always put us first. We still see him now as we did when we were 7: as our loving daddy.\" But as their father was increasingly criticized in the media and mocked by late night comedians, the twins said they learned a lesson. \"He is our father, not the sketch in a paper or part of a skit on TV,\" they wrote. \"Many people will think they know him, but they have no idea how he felt the day you were born, the pride he felt on your first day of school, or how much you both love being his daughters. So here is our most important piece of advice: Remember who your dad really is.\" It helps, wrote the Bushes, to surround yourself with loyal friends. The rest of the letter was more lighthearted, with the twins sharing some of their favorite memories of living in the White House, including playing house and hide-and-seek in what many children would consider to be the ultimate playground. \"When we played house, we sat behind the East Sitting Room's massive curtains as the light poured in illuminating her yellow walls,\" the girls said. \"Our 7-year-old imaginations soared as we played in the enormous, beautiful rooms; our dreams, our games, as romantic as her surroundings. At night, the house sang us quiet songs through the chimneys as we fell asleep.\" They also told the Obama girls to embrace any opportunity they had: \"When your dad throws out the first pitch for the Yankees, go to the game.\" \"In fact, go to anything and everything you possibly can: the Kennedy Center for theater, state dinners, Christmas parties (the White House staff party is our favorite!), museum openings, arrival ceremonies, and walks around the monuments.\" \"Just go,\" they wrote. The twins also reminded Sasha and Malia to be themselves -- kids -- saying even if they travel over holidays like Halloween, the girls should dress up and trick-or-treat down a plane aisle. \"Slide down the banister of the solarium, go to T-ball games, have swimming parties, and play Sardines on the White House lawn,\" the Bush girls said. \"Have fun and enjoy your childhood in such a magical place to live and play.\" Jenna and Barbara Bush told the girls to cherish the pet that their father so publicly promised them. \"Sometimes you'll need the quiet comfort that only animals can provide,\" they said. \"Four years goes by so fast,\" they wrote. \"So absorb it all, enjoy it all!\"","highlights":"Bush twins tell new first kids not to let sketches, skits of dad get to them .\nJenna, Barbara Bush tell them to embrace every opportunity .\nTwins talk of playing house, hide-and-seek in historic White House .\nGirls say to slide down solarium banister, trick-or-treat on plane if away from home .","id":"5f83b5592ea2c43ac9857f6a21ed2d1d8be25f8c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chris Rock is best known for two things: being funny and being crass. \"If you're the president you only have two jobs: peace and money,\" Chris Rock said. \"This is what people come to see. I'm just doing my show,\" the comedian said with a laugh. He's also known for his political commentary, but there's one person he's having a lot of trouble making fun of -- president-elect Barack Obama. This is apparent in his new DVD \"Kill the Messenger,\" which combines three shows from his international tour: New York; London, England; and Johannesburg, South Africa. \"It was a tour nobody wanted to do... because the general perception is that comedy doesn't translate,\" Rock said. But thanks to the Internet, the world is a lot smaller than it was even 10 years ago. And people are digging the same jokes, he said, including ones about John McCain and Sarah Palin. As the DVD readies for release on January 20, CNN talked with Rock about his lack of Obama jokes, Inauguration Day and why racism will never die. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: I watched the special last night, and I noticed that you did a lot of jokes about John McCain -- his age, his war hero story -- but not so many about Barack Obama. Is it harder to make fun of Obama? Chris Rock: He's just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There's no Will Smith jokes. There's no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? \"Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Anniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You're such a loser.\" What do you say? \"Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million.\" There's nothing to say about Brad Pitt. CNN: Why is Obama like that? Rock: It's like \"Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president.\" You know, what do you say? CNN: As time goes on do you think it will get easier? Rock: Of course, as time goes on. At some point he's going to -- there's always slip-ups. No one can survive that level of scrutiny without occasionally making it easy for a comedian. CNN: Let's talk about the inauguration. Are you going? Rock: No, I have to go to Sundance [Film Festival]. I've got a movie premiering at Sundance. So I have to go to the whitest place in America -- Utah. CNN: What's it going to be like for you on Inauguration Day? Rock: It'll be a cool day. It's weird. I've never watched an inauguration. I've never watched anyone get sworn in. You know, it's like Election Day and then you look up and somebody else is the president two months later. It was never like, \"I can't wait till tomorrow. Oh my god! They're going to swear in Jimmy Carter!\" CNN: Are you going to watch this one, though? Rock: I'll put it this way -- like any business is going to be getting done while this guy is getting sworn in. Like I'm going to be in a meeting. Everything is going to stop for however long it takes. Hope they get to it -- hope it's not like I gotta listen to three different versions of \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" or something. I hope it's not like Rosa Parks' funeral, where everybody f***ing speaks. CNN: What are you hoping Barack Obama does for this country? What do you think is his most important task? Rock: You know, if you're the president you only have two jobs: peace and money. That's it. I mean, it's like, what did Clinton do? We were at peace and we had a budget surplus. That's it. That's the gig. The closer you get us to those two goals, you know, that's pretty much the gig. Is that too much to ask for? CNN: At one point in your act, you said, \"Racism will never die. It will only multiply.\" Why do you believe that? Rock: Well, it's never going to die. Maybe it won't multiply. Is racism going to end? No. It's not even race. People are always going to, you know, find something wrong with people who are not the exact same as them. That's just what it is. Black, white, short, tall, religions, whatever. People are bad, man. CNN: How was it different playing for an audience in Africa? Rock: You know it's weird -- it really wasn't that different. I mean, that's why I love this special. People are the same wherever you go. And if they weren't, they wouldn't laugh at the same s**t. If they were so different they wouldn't know what I was talking about. CNN: Stand-up comics I've talked to in the past say they like their shows to appear spontaneous. But your new DVD stitches together three shows, illustrating to the audience how scripted comedy can be. Why did you decide on that format? Rock: You know, I don't believe in that \"come up with stuff on the spot.\" I mean, honestly, that's why I think comedy, stand-up comedy, always plays such a back seat to music. Like, would you go see a singer if you thought he just came up with the songs? They wouldn't give out Grammys for songs that they just came up with. You're going to go see someone at Radio City or Madison Square Garden, I think you'd like to know that they have an act before you spend $75. So yeah, when you say \"came up with it right there,\" that's really cute when you paid $8 to get in and two-drink minimum. When the ticket's $75, that's a whole other mindset.","highlights":"Comedian Chris Rock to release \"Kill the Messenger\" DVD January 20 .\nThere are no Barack Obama jokes, Rock says, just like there are no Brad Pitt jokes .\nRock: Playing for international crowds not that different than playing in U.S.\n\"Stand-up comedy always plays such a back seat to music,\" Rock says .","id":"6796fd980df9880d76a6a5c73a2438124da56a45"} -{"article":"LONGBOAT KEY, Florida (CNN) -- Like any sun-drenched beach paradise, Longboat Key offers water sports, biking and tennis, but the best way to enjoy the island may be by doing nothing at all. Low season on Longboat Key, Florida, generally starts in May and runs until late fall. This thin sliver of land off Sarasota on Florida's west coast is home to 8,000 people year-round, but come winter, the population swells dramatically. Thousands of visitors from colder climates flock to LBK -- its shorthand moniker -- from January to April to enjoy its balmy temperatures and the sparkling turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Off season, however, the only crowds are the sea gulls grooming their feathers on the warm white sand, and Longboat Key feels like the closest thing to having a private beach. On a recent late-September visit, the temperatures hovered in the mid-80s, palm trees swayed gently in the wind, hibiscus flowers bloomed and the sun's rays were on par with their intensity in July. The only signs of fall were the pumpkins on display at the local grocery store, along with regular fare, like mango Key lime pie. See photos of Longboat Key's beaches, birds and sunsets \u00bb . Tell people you are heading to Longboat Key, and many will think it's part of the Florida Keys off the southern tip of the state, but LBK is about 200 miles to the north-northwest of -- and in some ways worlds away from -- Key West and its neighbors. Nightlife on the island is likely to mean a moonlit walk on the beach rather than a drink at the bar, and the odds are good the locals will sport gray hair. Elegant setting . Buffered by Sarasota Bay on one side and facing the Gulf of Mexico on the other, the Key is sheltered from the tourist hustle and bustle of mainland Florida. At less than 11 miles in length and no more than a mile across in its widest places, LBK also feels like a secluded community with an elegant flavor of its own. The surroundings are lush, upscale and serene. A trip down Gulf of Mexico Drive, the island's main artery, reveals golf courses, condominiums and homes ranging from newly constructed mansions to older, one-story houses. The traffic is light, life moves at a slower pace and the mood is relaxed. \"You won't find mini-malls, towering billboards, or glaring neon signs,\" the local Chamber of Commerce promises. Nonhuman island visitors also contribute to the mellow atmosphere. Dolphins regularly swim just offshore. Great egrets and great blue herons fish along the beach, while pelicans dive into the water in search of a meal. Birds of all sizes regularly patrol the palm-lined parking lot of the local supermarket looking for scraps of food from the lunch crowd. Wingless creatures also pop up in unexpected places. Visitors walking into one establishment are greeted by a stern voice exclaiming, \"Bear, no!\" Bear, it turns out, is a curious 5-month old Chesapeake Bay retriever who insists on checking out all the customers entering the store despite his owner's orders to stay put. Lodging and shopping . There are few hotels on Longboat Key, but rental homes and condos abound, so it's best to make lodging arrangements in advance, especially for visitors who plan to stay a while. Low season generally starts in May and runs until November. Tourists yearning to make the island a permanent home should bring along a big wallet. The average sale price for a condominium was more than $1 million last year, and it topped $1.5 million for a single-family home, according to the local Chamber of Commerce. Spenders on a smaller scale can get their fix in neighboring St. Armands Key and its unique shopping circle lined with boutiques and restaurants. (The official motto urges visitors to \"get out of the box, get into the circle.\") Shoppers can find anything from jewelry to knock-out shoes to sea shells of all shapes and sizes. Depending on your budget and appetite, a lunch break can range from a latte to a smoked salmon and brie grilled cheese. St. Armands Circle is a great place to people watch, but it's good to know the tranquil beach back on Longboat Key is just a short drive away. Shopping can be exhausting when sunny, lazy days in a blissful place are filled with doing nothing at all.","highlights":"Thousands of visitors from colder climates flock to Longboat Key in winter .\nOff season, the island feels like the closest thing to having a private beach .\nLongboat Key is less than 11 miles in length and no more than a mile wide .\nNeighboring St. Armands Key offers a shopping circle of boutiques and restaurants .","id":"d0ffc5bcf67274293286bffa34b7a3e04e791a01"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican authorities arrested Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a leader of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel, officials announced Thursday. Vicente Carrillo Leyva is escorted by police at a news conference in Mexico City on Thursday. Carrillo Leyva was arrested as he exercised in a park in a residential area of Mexico City, where he had been living under the alias Alejandro Peralta Alvarez, officials said. The federal attorney general's office told reporters he was tracked through his wife, who did not change her name. Carrillo Leyva \"is considered one of the heirs to the criminal organization known as the Juarez Cartel, after the death of his father, Amado Carrillo Fuentes,\" said Assistant Prosecutor Maricela Morales. His father died in July 1997 while undergoing plastic surgery to alter his appearance in an effort to avoid capture. Amado Carrillo was known as \"El Senor de los Cielos,\" the \"Lord of the Skies,\" because of the fleet of jetliners he used to transport cocaine from Colombia to Mexico. Carrillo Leyva, 32, was presented at the news conference, surrounded by black-clad, hooded law-enforcement officials. He wore dark-frame glasses and a white jogging suit with double black stripes on the sleeves. His dark hair was long and shaggy. Last month, federal officials offered a reward of up to $2.16 million (30 million pesos) for information leading to his arrest. The same reward has been offered for his uncle, cartel leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, also known as \"El Viceroy\" and \"El General,\" who remains at-large. Rewards of $2 million apiece have been offered for 22 other leading cartel suspects. Wednesday's arrest was the fourth detention of a top drug cartel leader in recent weeks. Last week, officials announced the arrest of Hector Huerta Rios, also known as \"La Burra\" or \"El Junior,\" a top lieutenant of the Beltran Leyva cartel. He was arrested in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon state, along Mexico's border with the United States. The previous week, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of Sigifredo Najera Talamantes, a drug-trafficking suspect accused of attacking a U.S. consulate and killing Mexican soldiers. Talamantes, also known as \"El Canicon,\" also is suspected in attacks on a television station in Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, the state-run Notimex agency said. That same week, the Mexican military also arrested the son of a top drug cartel lieutenant. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame drug cartels for a surge in violence in the region. Despite the violence, Mexican officials say the country is generally safe and that tourist areas such as Cancun and Acapulco are heavily patrolled. Watch Leyva get escorted by law enforcement officials \u00bb . Officials from Acapulco city hall, the Guerrero state government and the Mexico attorney general went so far as to sign a statement in early March assuring students wanting to go there on spring break that efforts had been taken to ensure their safety. In a speech in mid-March, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said 93 percent of the 6,500 deaths attributed to organized crime in 2008 occurred among the criminals. Most of the rest were law enforcement authorities, officials have said. Few civilians are killed, the president said. In that same speech, Calderon ridiculed those who say Mexico is unsafe. \"It is absolutely false, absurd, that anyone indicate that Mexico does not have control over one single part of its national territory,\" he said. \"I challenge anyone who says that to tell me what part of the country they want to go to and I will take that person there.\" Analysts point out that most of the violence is occurring along the U.S. border, particularly in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Tijuana. Drug cartel violence is also found on Mexico's western coast. \"The situation in Ciudad Juarez is of special concern,\" the U.S. State Department said in a February 20 travel alert. \"Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008. Additionally, this city of 1.6 million people experienced more than 17,000 car thefts and 1,650 carjackings in 2008.\" The State Department advisory tells U.S. citizens how best to remain safe. \"While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year (including thousands who cross the land border every day for study, tourism or business), violence in the country has increased recently. It is imperative that travelers understand the risks of travel to Mexico, how best to avoid dangerous situations, and whom to contact if one becomes a crime victim. Common-sense precautions such as visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas during daylight hours, and avoiding areas where prostitution and drug dealing might occur, can help ensure that travel to Mexico is safe and enjoyable.\" CNN's Mario Gonzalez contributed to this story.","highlights":"Vicente Carrillo Leyva, 32, arrested in Mexico City, officials say .\nHe was living under fake name; was found through his wife, who used her own name .\nThis is the fourth arrest of major drug cartel suspect in recent weeks .\nAuthorities in U.S. and Mexico blame drug cartels for surge in violence near border .","id":"abd2359f967a76bef0a7d8ae97f9da7d898265d5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Prince Harry, the red-headed younger son of Britain's Prince Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is back in the headlines after a British tabloid posted a home video of him using an offensive term to describe an Army colleague. Prince Harry's behavior landed him on the front pages of British newspapers. Some of those who have watched him closely through the years see a pattern which they blame on royal destiny rather than racism or ignorance. The video, much of it apparently shot by the prince himself in 2006, led to predictable howls of condemnation, not least from the sensation-seeking newspaper that published it. News of the World posted the video on its Web site under the headline \"Prince Harry video nasty that will spark outrage.\" Harry, who is third in line to the throne, immediately issued an apology through a spokesman for referring to a soldier from Pakistan as \"our little Paki friend.\" Watch video which has sparked controversy \u00bb . The word \"Paki\" is considered deeply offensive by many in Britain -- comparable to the \"n-word\" in the United States, said Harry biographer Mark Saunders. \"That word is just unacceptable,\" Saunders said. It was not the first time Harry had been forced to apologize for offending people. In 2005, the News of the World's sister paper The Sun obtained and published a photograph of him wearing a Nazi uniform at a party, prompting an apology and a promise that he had learned his lesson. Penny Junor, who has written several books on Britain's royal family, says she suspects Harry may get himself into embarrassing situations more often than his older brother William at least partly because Harry does not expect to become king. \"Fundamentally it probably has a great deal to do with being number two,\" said Junor, the author of \"The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor.\" \"He's a spare, not an heir.\" She said: \"The older ones are very much groomed for the task at hand. Those in charge sometimes miss a trick with the younger members\" of the family, she said. Harry's father, Prince Charles, may want to avoid trying to rein his son in too much, Junor theorized. \"I'm sure that Charles thinks it's putting an impossible burden on him to really nail Harry down to the floor when his future is uncertain,\" she said. \"Their lives are very restricted in many ways. It's a burden being the Prince of Wales, number two in line, number three in line. There is a tendency to try and relieve the burden from the children by not jumping down their throats every time they do something stupid.\" In this generation, Harry has been much more likely than William to be the one doing \"something stupid,\" she admitted. William was criticized last year for landing an Army helicopter in a field belonging to his girlfriend's parents, but the incident did not cause the same uproar as Harry's two gaffes. Harry may have engaged in more outrageous behavior than his older brother simply because of his personality, Junor added. \"He's much more frivolous than William, more an impetuous party animal,\" she said, also describing him as \"not the brightest brain in Britain.\" \"The older child, because he knows there is a seriousness to the position he was born to, knows from day one what is expected of him,\" she said. \"The younger one has all of the frustrations of that without knowing (if) he will inherit the throne.\" Saunders, the author of \"Prince Harry: The Biography,\" has observed the same pattern. \"Even when (Harry) was a young boy he was a maverick,\" said Saunders. \"Harry used to play with the photographers, whereas you would never get that with William.\" \"William formed a bond with his father,\" based in part on the throne the two men expect to inherit -- which Harry likely never will, Saunders said. \"There's a job that only William, his father and the queen can share.\" Not expecting to become king may have freed Harry, Saunders speculated. \"This started a long time ago. (Harry) said 'I am me, and I am going to be me.' With Harry there have been several moments, gross errors. He has made missteps,\" Saunders said. \"You could argue that there are simply the mistakes of a young man growing up -- but William could never afford to make those kind of mistakes.\" It is a pattern that has been repeating, to an extent, in the royal family for generations. Prince Andrew, one of Prince Charles' younger brothers, has something of a reputation as a playboy, while the queen's late younger sister, Princess Margaret, bucked convention in her own day, seeking to marry a divorced man. The British newspaper, The Guardian summed up the piquancy of being a younger sibling of the sovereign in Margaret's obituary in 2002, noting she had been second in line to the throne throughout her teens, but was 11th by the time she died. \"They have all the pressures of being a member of the family,\" Junor said, \"without the reward of being the top person.\"","highlights":"Royal watchers see a pattern in Prince Harry's errant behavior .\nLatest furor over offensive remark made about Pakistani military colleague .\nAuthors say second son syndrome may be to blame .\nPrince has had to apologize for offensive behavior before .","id":"459219d6e2c52f80cf43d82b967fe307871397d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Around 200 new species of frogs have been found in Madagascar, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. A study has found nearly 200 new species of frogs in Madagascar. A study identified between 129 and 221 new species of frogs on the island. The Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), who carried out the study, believe the find could practically double the number of amphibians known in the world if the results are extrapolated at a global scale. The study, published in the journal \"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA,\" suggests that the number of amphibian species in Madagascar has been significantly underestimated. \"The diversity of species in Madagascar is far from being known and there is still a lot of scientific research to be done. Our data suggest that the number of new species of amphibians not only has been underestimated but it is spatially widespread, even in well studied areas,\" said Professor David R. Vieites, CSIC researcher to the press at the Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum in Madrid. \"For example, two of the most visited and studied national parks, Ranomafana and Mantad\u00eda\/Analamazaotra, harbor 31 and 10 new species respectively.\" Dr. Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Zoologische Staatssammlung from Munich was part of the research team: \"During the past 15 years, we discovered and described over 100 new frog species from Madagascar, which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete. But as our new surveys show, there are many more species than we suspected,\" he said in a press statement. The paper suggests that the total biodiversity on the island could be much higher in other species as well, so the actual destruction of natural habitats may be affecting more animals than previously thought. This has important consequences for conservation planning, as the rate of destruction of rainforests in Madagascar has been one of the highest in the planet, with more than 80 percent of the historic surface of rainforest already lost, according to the study's authors. Almost a quarter of the new species discovered have not been found yet in protected areas, but the unstable political situation in Madagascar has also been cited as hampering conservation efforts. \"Although a lot of reserves and national parks have been created in Madagascar during the last decade, the actual situation of politic instability is allowing the cut of the forest within national parks, generating a lot of uncertainty about the future of the planned network of protected areas\", said Vieites. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and one of the most biodiverse areas globally, with a high degree of endemic species. \"To get an idea of its biodiversity --while in the Iberian Peninsula [there] are about 30 species of amphibians and in Germany about 20, in a single locality in Madagascar we can find around 100 species of frogs,\" said Vieites. Dr. Miguel Vences, professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, who was also part of the study team, and believes that a century of new species discovery is just beginning: \"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet. But the majority of life forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition.\"","highlights":"Nearly 200 new species of amphibians found on biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar .\nStudy found many outside of the island's conservation areas .\nPolitical instability in the country makes conservation efforts extra difficult .","id":"5603d83a1b958e47608d8bfc2b73b31d10c753b2"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- \"Always you have to run for your life,\" says Boo Htoo, who grew up in a refugee camp in Thailand just across the border from Myanmar. Boo Htoo and his family lived at the Maela Refugee Camp before being resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. Ethnic minorities still flee the repressive military regime in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Some 111,000 Myanmar refugees live in nine camps in Thailand, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Htoo, now 29, recalls making the long trek with his parents to cross the border when he was about 5. \"[It's] a very long way,\" he says. \"We don't have a car, a plane. We don't have a bicycle to ride. My parents just take what they can carry, and then we started walking across the jungle, sleeping in the jungle.\" Htoo and his family are now resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks to Carolyn Manning and her Welcome to America Project, they got a warm welcome to the big city, complete with furnishings and household items for their first apartment and toys for his two young children. \"That day that I have a lot of American friends in my apartment,\" recalls Htoo, \"this is the day that I feel very happy.\" For Htoo, it was a remarkable transition from \"a really hard life in the refugee camp.\" \"They have a wire fence around the camp; they put soldiers around the fence,\" Htoo says. \"You are not allowed to go outside to work. You don't have a chance to go to university even if you are willing to go. I cannot express the feeling of how difficult it is.\" Watch Htoo tell his story \u00bb . According to the International Rescue Committee, about 2.7 million refugees have been resettled in the United States since 1975, and 52,000 of those have been relocated to Arizona. Through her Welcome to America Project, Manning helps legal refugees being resettled to Phoenix by the United Nations. Since 2001, she and volunteers have provided furniture, clothing and support to more than 550 refugee families. Nominate your Hero at CNN.com\/Heroes . The first family Manning welcomed came to her attention in a local newspaper. Manning's brother-in-law Terence had died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York. The family in the newspaper was from Afghanistan and had lost a relative to the Taliban. Manning immediately saw a parallel. \"Knowing that Terence was killed innocently and then seeing the Afghan family who had someone killed in their family, I started to make a connection between myself and that family,\" Manning recalls. \"We lost a family member, too. The difference was we had a safe place that we lived -- and they had to flee their country.\" At a time when many Americans were putting up walls and shunning foreigners, Manning reached out to them. She and her family took up a collection of furniture for them -- and The Welcome to America Project was born. \"They've been invited here,\" says Manning. \"Everybody has a right to find a place where they belong. I want the refugees to feel that this is their home.\" The families assisted by The Welcome to America Project typically have languished in refugee camps for 10-12 years, says Manning, and come from countries including Iraq, Myanmar, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Bhutan -- places where they were often persecuted because of their race, religion or political views. \"There are a number of different things they have to learn how to do when they first arrive,\" Manning says. \"They've never seen buildings built like ours. They've lived in huts literally made out of bamboo, with leaves on top. There's a lot of transition for them.\" Watch Manning describe the refugees' strikingly different backgrounds \u00bb . Over the last seven years, Manning says, she's learned a lot from the refugees and finds herself looking at American customs from a new perspective. \"We brought a toaster into a family from Africa and they didn't know what it was,\" recalls Manning. \"The woman was very dutiful in watching [when] we tried to show them how to toast bread. But then through a translator her response was, 'Why would you want to ruin bread?'\" Manning says the refugees are resourceful and eager to start a new life, developing strong ties to their new communities, making active contributions, working hard and paying taxes. \"It's not an 'us and them,'\" she says. \"We're all part of one humanity. And we're trying to do what's right, and what is fair.\" Watch The Welcome to America Project in action \u00bb . As word continues to spread -- the project is currently bigger than ever, says Manning -- The Welcome to America Project is nearing its 600th family donation. Manning says she isn't surprised the project has taken off. \"That's how Terrance's life was,\" she says. \"Every time he had an idea it was big and bold. He was a very, very generous person. I guess that's the legacy we're passing on with the project.\" Want to get involved? Check out The Welcome to America Project and see how to help.","highlights":"Welcome to America Project helps refugees being resettled in Phoenix, Arizona .\nCarolyn Manning founded the group after relative died in September 11 attacks .\nMyanmar refugee Boo Htoo among 550-plus families the project has helped .\nNominate your Hero at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"4920643fc170e0551710414d1ca00f85609f3570"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The operator of a trolley that rear-ended another trolley should have been able to see the other vehicle was stopped 480 feet ahead, a federal investigator said Monday. Passengers walk past firefighters at a Green Line station in Boston after the trolley collision Friday evening. The trolley driver has told investigators he was text messaging during Friday night's collision, which injured 20 people. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which previously had banned operators from using cell phones and other portable devices, now has told employees to leave the devices at home while on duty, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said Monday. Hersman also noted investigators have determined that the operator may have missed some crucial indications of a stopped trolley ahead on the tracks. Watch new transit rule on cell phones \u00bb . \"There were several signals -- two green signals, a yellow signal and a red signal -- coming out of the station, and the point of collision occurred 80 feet past that red signal,\" Hersman said. \"We did a site-distance test, and we know that the operator had the ability to see the trolley stopped in front of him 480 feet in advance of the collision.\" Boston officials said over the weekend that the trolley operator was using his cell phone. Numerous media outlets, including CNN's Boston affiliates, have identified the driver as 24-year-old Aiden Quinn. \"The operator of the striking train was interviewed at the hospital by two detectives,\" said MBTA general manager Daniel Grabauskas. \"He admitted that he was texting at the time of the accident.\" The operator told detectives that, when he looked up, \"it was too late as he applied the brake and the train struck the other trolley,\" Grabauskas said. He described himself as \"outraged.\" \"We have reinforced for a number of years that the use of cell phones or any other kinds of electronic devices while operating a train or a bus is absolutely prohibited,\" Grabauskas said. Though the investigation is ongoing, he said, the two-year employee will be fired if his version of events is confirmed. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening, the MBTA said. The collision happened at 7:18 p.m. ET Friday as the Green Line trains were traveling between the Park Street and Government Center stations in downtown Boston. Both trains were traveling westbound when one train rear-ended the second, an MBTA official said. A train operator also was text messaging last year in a California train crash that killed 25 people. CNN's Rob Frehse and Gary Bender contributed to this report.","highlights":"Federal investigator says Boston trolley crashed 80 feet past a red light .\nTrolley driver told investigators he was texting during wreck that injured 20 people .\nDrivers already banned from using phones; authority now says keep them at home .","id":"0268cd2a2b8eef64cdc1c6d0bea4e7d18fcfee8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced the resignations Tuesday of three high-level government officials, most notably Communications and Transport Secretary Luis Tellez Kuenzler. The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, seen here in January, is facing elections in July. Abraham Gonzalez, a key official for the powerful ministry that oversees Mexico's government, also resigned. So did Sergio Vela Martinez, president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts. No official reasons were given for any of the resignations, which analysts said did not appear to be related. But at least two of the resignations did not come as a surprise. Tellez, who stepped down from a Cabinet-level post, had been involved for weeks in a controversy over taped comments revealed last month by CNN journalist Carmen Aristegui. In the taped conversation, Tellez said former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had stolen government money. Salinas has not been formally accused of any crime. Tellez received an anonymous threat in late February from an apparent political enemy telling him to resign or more damaging audiotapes would be released to the media. He refused and turned the matter over to authorities. Ana Maria Salazar Slack, a political analyst who is host of a daily radio show in Mexico City, called it \"an almost soap opera-ish scandal\" that left Calderon little choice but to force Tellez to resign. \"Although Calderon wanted to keep him in office, it made it very difficult to keep him there,\" she said. Calderon moved Tellez to a post as a presidential aide dealing with economic matters. Other observers also were not surprised by the move. \"That was waiting to happen,\" said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center. \"But evidently the president values his counsel and has kept him in a high-profile position in the presidency from which he'll continue to have influence.\" Robert Pastor, the Latin America national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, praised Tellez but said political considerations prevailed. \"He's a very competent fellow,\" Pastor said. \"One of the most competent people I've known in Mexico. But this tape in particular was very embarrassing.\" In a televised news conference after Calderon announced the changes, Tellez expressed his \"gratitude for this opportunity that few Mexicans obtain.\" Replacing Tellez will be Juan Molinar Horcasitas, the head of the Mexican Institute for Social Security. Molinar belongs to the same party as Calderon, the National Action Party [PAN], while Tellez belongs to the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI]. That played a role, Slack said. \"The president is sending a signal to his party that he's going to support people from his own party,\" Slack said. \"Beyond the political scandals of the tapes, there's a decision for the president to appoint people very close to the party.\" Gonzalez's departure was not a surprise either, since he is running for a congressional seat in July and Mexican law requires him to resign. Analysts spoke highly of Gonzalez's replacement, Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez. He had been the top person in the foreign ministry for Latin and North America. \"Gutierrez moving in is outstanding,\" the Mexico Institute's Selee said, calling him \"one of the smartest people ... I've met\" and \"an impressive guy.\" Consuelo Saizar Guerrero takes over as head of the National Council for Culture and the Arts, replacing Vela, whose reasons for resigning were not disclosed. Saizar previously served as head of the Economic Culture Fund, the government's book-publishing enterprise. The arts and culture post will play a significant role in 2010, when Mexico celebrates 100 years of its social revolution and 200 years of its declaration of independence, radio analyst Slack said. As for the timing of resignations from three key posts, Slack linked it to Mexico's election calendar. \"In order to understand these changes,\" she said, \"you have to understand there are midterm elections in July. So if there are going to be any changes, they have to take place right now.\" Meanwhile, Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said the changes do not portend a political shift. \"This doesn't sound like any major direction in change for Calderon,\" Hakim said.","highlights":"Analyst says timing of resignations linked to Mexican midterm elections in July .\nCommunications and transport secretary resigns amid controversy over comments .\nKey official for ministry that oversees Mexico's government leaves .","id":"09ba9a07ba5aa59103fd9856799d5894ad381bd8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Thousands of mourners and well-wishers gathered Saturday at a church east of London for the funeral of controversial reality TV star Jade Goody. Jade Goody's coffin is carried into church for the funeral service in Essex Saturday. The 27-year-old lost a public battle with cervical cancer last month, prompting sympathy and headlines around the world. As Goody's white coffin was carried into the church at Buckhurst Hill, Essex, east of London, a gospel choir began singing \"Amazing Grace.\" Pallbearers included her husband Jack Tweed, whom she married in February. Send your tributes to Jade Goody. Inside the church the congregation heard Tweed read a poem as well as watching a multimedia tribute to Goody's life. View image gallery of Jade Goody's funeral \u00bb . Outside thousands of well-wishers gathered in the spring sunshine to watch the funeral service on large TV screens, breaking into spontaneous applause throughout the service. TV pictures showed one young girl with \"R.I.P. Jade\" drawn on her cheek. Read blog from her funeral . Addressing the congregation Max Clifford, Goody's publicist, said: \"She achieved in seven months what doctors, politicians and medical experts can only dream of achieving. Her legacy is a wonderful one. Because of Jade Goody, lots of women have had their lives saved.\" Watch family and fans pay their last respects \u00bb . After the service congregation member Peter Holmes, 28, from St. Albans, north of London, told CNN: \"The service was lovely. The funeral was just what Jade was all about. She was a fun-loving person who always lit up a room with a funny comment.\" Flowers thrown by well-wishers covered the front of the vintage hearse carrying Goody's coffin as it arrived at the church. Crowds earlier applauded as the cortege slowly made its way through Bermondsey, south London, where Goody grew up amid deprivation and drug abuse. At one point the procession stopped to release a white dove. Wreaths included one in the shape of a pink heart, another that resembled a blue handbag and another shaped like a camera -- reflecting Goody's love of the limelight. After the funeral friends and family left for a private burial. Goody had burst into the spotlight in the British version of \"Big Brother\" in 2002 but attracted global notoriety five years later when she made racist comments -- for which she later apologized -- to Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Well-wisher Vicky Scott, a security consultant from Bedfordshire, central England, waiting outside the church before the service, told CNN: \"She had very much to live for and she had achieved so much. She had a tough life and she gave us so much. \"I think she was an inspiration to many women, the way she brought cervical cancer to many women's minds.\" Clifford said in comments reported by the Press Association that Goody's mother Jackiey Budden was \"distraught\" and Tweed was \"heartbroken.\" Goody's two sons, Bobby, 5, and Freddie, 4, did not attend the service and are believed to have gone to Australia with their father, TV host Jeff Brazier, according to media reports. Medical officials have reported a big rise in the number of screenings for cervical cancer after Goody's diagnosis was announced live on India's version of \"Big Brother\" last August, a phenomenon some have dubbed the \"Jade Goody effect.\" Images of her shrinking frame and bald head dominated the pages of British media after she announced she had just weeks to live. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown had previously praised Goody's work in raising awareness of cervical cancer. \"In many years to come, there will be an awful lot of women who've got an awful lot to thank Jade Goody for,\" he said. Despite her weakening state Goody continued to open her door to the media, saying she needed to keep selling her story to help secure the future of her sons. With Clifford's help, she organized her wedding to boyfriend Tweed, who had only just been released from prison after serving a sentence for assault, selling the exclusive rights to OK! magazine for a reported $970,000. It was also filmed for her reality TV show. CNN's Peter Wilkinson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Funeral service of reality TV star Jade Goody takes place east of London .\nEarlier well-wishers threw flowers, applaud funeral procession as it passes .\nProcession, including Goody's white coffin, traveled from southeast London .\nGoody died last month aged 27 after losing her battle with cervical cancer .","id":"2fee7bb5935e274c1d83cf411e1c215b0fa4a540"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cheryl Bradshaw shivered under a big brown coat as she made her way through a line of people waiting along an icy road in Wilmington, Ohio. She was among about 5,000 residents who accepted food from the nonprofit Feed the Children. The nonprofit Feed the Children delivers boxes of food and other items to families Thursday in Wilmington, Ohio. \"A lot of this people in this town ... it's day to day, dollar to dollar,\" Bradshaw said of the town of about 12,000 between Cincinnati and Columbus. Wilmington is still reeling from news that delivery giant DHL would close its hub there. About 3,000 of the 8,000 people who faced layoffs lived in or around Wilmington. One in three families in Wilmington had someone employed at DHL, according to an economic task force created by Mayor David Raizk. A crowd gathered Thursday as 12 loaded semitrailers cautiously parked on slippery roads. Each family got two boxes. One had 25 pounds of canned food and vegetables. Another contained 10 pounds of personal care items. Watch as townspeople describe tough times \u00bb . Bradshaw said she appreciated the help. She got laid off in December from ABX Air, a Wilmington-based air cargo services company that worked with DHL. \"We are raising two grandkids, and we only have one income, so it's a big, big blessing,\" she said. Tony Sellars, the nonprofit's director of communications, said, \"This is the largest distribution we have had in such a small town.\" Sellars said the organization is monitoring layoff conditions in various cities and identifying critical locations where it can be of assistance. \"We have been around since 1979, and this is unprecedented in terms of need,\" Sellars said. \"In Wilmington, the residents are proud and confused; they are resilient and trying to solve their problems on their own, but they don't know where to turn.\" Feed the Children distributed the food and other items in conjunction with partners that include Avon Products and the local Sugartree Ministry Center. Larry Jones, founder and president of Feed the Children, urged communities to reach out to one another. \"If we are going to solve the problem, it's not going to be the government; it's going to be churches and charities and colleges, literally everyone working together,\" Jones said. \"We are not the total answer, but we are part of the answer, and hopefully when people see us doing what we are doing, they will join in to help.\" Ohio is facing one of the highest jobless rates in the country -- 7.8 percent in December. The nation's unemployment rate is 7.6 percent. DHL's decision to close its hub in Wilmington has had a ripple effect. Sharon Testa, 48, who owns the Mediterranean Restaurant in downtown, has lived in Wilmington for 20 years. \"Our business opened two years ago because we had a lot of international people coming in to work for DHL or companies affiliated with them,\" Testa said. \"Everyone is concerned. We don't want our city to shrivel up; people who still have jobs are trying to come in to keep the business running.\" Helen Keech, 50, who works at the Arby's near where DHL was located, said that the restaurant used to open early for the DHL employees. She said there were many businesses in that building, including ABX and DHL, and now that there are less employees, things will change. \"It's gonna be a ghost town I can tell you that,\" Keech said. CNN's Amy Sahba contributed to this report.","highlights":"Closing of delivery giant DHL leaves Ohio town of Wilmington reeling .\nAbout 5,000 in town of 12,000 accept food from nonprofit Feed the Children .\nOfficial: \"This is the largest distribution we have had in such a small town\"\nResident says she fears loss of jobs will turn Wilmington into a \"ghost town\"","id":"a30d4e35f0f9dabf2697a353c91b66bf953b07b6"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Buying a used car may seem like a simple topic. Used car sales company CARMAX had an influx of trucks and SUVs after gas prices skyrocketed. But when you begin slicing and dicing the various possibilities among approximately 3.3 million vehicles that are for sale at any given time, interesting insights into consumer preferences begin to emerge. For Krista Glotzbach, director of marketing at Vast.com, the San Francisco, California-based aggregator of data (which provides used vehicle search data for AOL Autos), the various permutations are nearly endless. But users shouldn't worry because, with the help of search filters, vehicle fashion statements (what color do you want) and budgetary considerations (what price range do you want) easily come to the surface for faster used car searching. Because Vast.com has a variety of sources for its data, including Web \"crawls\" (an automated Internet search for used vehicle information), the data is, by definition, revealing in its own right. AOL Autos: Safest cars . But industry player CARFAX, which makes its vehicle history reports available to the public, provides a different kind of insight. AOL Autos: Used luxury cars . As Larry Gamache, director of communications, pointed out, used car sales dominate the automotive industry. With that volume comes its share of fraud, notably in the marketing of vehicles damaged by flood. And even if a vehicle doesn't look bad, what you can't see can hurt. \"The problem with flood-damaged cars is that they're rotting from the inside out,\" Gamache said. It's also a potentially big safety issue. \"Air bags that have been submerged do not function properly,\" Gamache noted. \"They either don't deploy or could deploy at speed.\" But not all used cars have skeletons in their closets. Actually, most of the vehicles sold in the U.S. are used. AOL Autos: Most popular crossovers . Here are a few water cooler tidbits that might make you say \"hmm\": . 1. Three out of four automotive transactions in the U.S. involve previously owned vehicles. 2. The average vehicle will likely have three owners in its lifetime. 3. Industry experts believe one of every 25 air bags that have been deployed have not been properly replaced. They're also the most stolen item from a vehicle (having surpassed radios). AOL Autos: Best resale value cars . 4. About half the cars that are flood damaged end up back on the road. As far as Hurricane Katrina is concerned, estimates are that about 200,000 vehicles were dried out and resold. 5. The most frequently searched price range for a used vehicle is under $5,000. 6. Consumers lose as much as $4 billion a year due to odometer fraud, with the average rollback being 15,000 miles. AOL Autos: Best hybrid cars . 7. There are more used Silverado pickup trucks for sale than any other model (nearly 120,000 throughout the U.S.) 8. Texas has more used vehicles than any other state (more than 220,000); Houston alone has more than 32,000 on the market at any given time. 9. Chevrolet tops the list of most-available brands in the U.S. (with about 450,000 available), followed by Ford (425,000). There are \"only\" about 280,000 Toyotas on the market at any given time. 10. Silver is the most available color in the used vehicle market -- more than 447,000 vehicles, followed by black (429,000), white (409,000), and red (321,000). Blue (309,000) and gray (277,000) are also aplenty. The color you're least likely to find? Pink, with just 249 used vehicles listed. 11. Age does appear to matter, at least when it comes to a used vehicle. Nearly half those listed at any one time (about 1.5 million) are model years 2007-2008. 12. Automatic transmissions outnumber manual 10 to 1 in the market for used vehicles. 13. Six cylinder vehicles are the most popular on the used car market, accounting for nearly a third of the total available (and roughly the combined total of both four cylinder and eight cylinder powered vehicles). The least likely number of engine cylinders? The 23 vehicles that were listed as being equipped with a 16-cylinder motor, among them a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur (just $122,000) and a 1938 Cadillac ($195,000). 14. Nearly half the used vehicles on the market come with air conditioning. Clearly, the marketing and sale of used vehicles is a big business. Like any other transaction, it's \"buyer beware\" and \"buyer aware.\" Thankfully, well-known and respected sites (such as AOL Autos Used Cars) and sources such as CARFAX for checking a vehicle's history can help lower the risk to consumers. Sources: VAST.com (vehicles available as of July 21, 2008), CARFAX, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.","highlights":"Three out of four transactions in the U.S. involve used vehicles .\nAverage vehicle will likely have three owners in its lifetime .\nPink is the least available color on the market, with just 249 used vehicles listed .\nTexas has more used vehicles than any other state .","id":"f52998cd93040be5d778aff76c29f56f54440595"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder was decidedly noncommittal Thursday as he was buffeted on Capitol Hill by alternating demands to release -- or not -- more secret documents related to alleged torture, and to prosecute -- or not -- Bush administration officials who wrote and approved those documents. Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before a U.S. House subcommittee on Thursday. Holder was scheduled to appear before a House committee to discuss the Justice Department budget, but lawmakers threw away the script and overwhelmed him with pointed questions about the memos and accountability for the interrogation policies. The toughest exchanges were with the top Republican in the session, Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia. Wolf insisted Holder provide still-secret documents which former Vice President Dick Cheney says detail valuable intelligence gained from the use of the harsh techniques against captured suspected terrorists. \"You have an obligation to release the rest of the memos,\" Wolf demanded. But Holder said he had no knowledge of documents that might contain the information to which Cheney referred. \"I'm not familiar with those memos. I frankly have not seen them. I don't know that they exist,\" Holder said. When Holder said he doesn't control all of the documents, Wolf complained Holder was trying to duck responsibility \"just because the documents might be in a different building.\" \"It is certainly the intention of this administration not to play hide and seek, or not to release certain things,\" Holder replied. \"It is not our intention to try to advance a political agenda or to try to hide things from the American people,\" he said. As Republican lawmakers complained about the administration's release of four documents last week that had authorized waterboarding and other controversial methods, Democrats praised the release. Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wisconsin, said torture is illegal and those responsible for its use have to be held personally accountable. Representatives of liberal organizations including MoveOn.org, Democrats.com and the American Civil Liberties Union were in the hearing room seeking to cajole Holder and other administration officials to appoint a special prosecutor to press charges against Bush administration officials. \"The Justice Department is obligated to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate these crimes,\" said Mandy Simon of the ACLU. She said representatives of the groups had provided to Assistant Attorney General Lee Loftus a disk containing the signatures of about 260,000 individuals demanding the outside prosecutor be appointed. Holder was not asked whether he would seek an outside counsel, but indicated he was waiting for more information from pending reports. He said a key report on the actions of Bush Justice Department officials involved in drafting the controversial legal guidance would be completed \"soon\" and he hopes to make it public.","highlights":"On Capitol Hill, Republicans criticize initial release of four interrogation memos .\nThey say memos referenced by Dick Cheney should be released for complete picture .\nLiberal groups demand special prosecutor to press charges against Bush officials .\nAttorney general remains noncommittal on additional releases or any prosecutions .","id":"45f56eed15c697caa00e83088a036e9801f7fdb2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An actor who played a wannabe mobster in \"The Sopranos\" was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for a botched burglary that left an off-duty New York police officer dead. Lillo Brancato Jr. appeared on \"The Sopranos\" and played alongside Robert De Niro in \"A Bronx Tale.\" The Bronx County District Attorneys Office had sought the maximum of 15 years for Lillo Brancato Jr., who was convicted last month of attempted burglary stemming from a fatal encounter with police officer Daniel Enchautegui. Before the sentencing, Enchautegui's sister addressed the court to deliver a victim impact statement. Enchautegui, 28, was shot in the chest when he interrupted an alleged break-in at a neighbor's home in the Bronx but managed to shoot both suspects multiple times before dying. Brancato was cleared in Enchautegui's death, but his accomplice, Steven Armento, 51, was convicted in the shooting and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the trial, lawyers for Brancato argued that there was not a break-in. Brancato testified that he knew the owner of the home, a Vietnam veteran who had given him permission to enter the house and take painkillers or other pills whenever he wanted. Brancato testified that he and Armento, 51, were drinking at a strip club when they decided to go hunt for valium. He admitted breaking a window at the home but said it was strictly because he was going through intense heroin withdrawal that night and was trying to wake up his friend to get drugs. Brancato appeared on six episodes of the hit HBO series \"The Sopranos\" in 2000. As a teen, he starred alongside actor Robert De Niro in \"A Bronx Tale.\"","highlights":"Prosecutors sought 15 years for Lillo Brancato Jr. for attempted burglary .\nLast month, Brancato was cleared in officer's death during alleged home invasion .\nActor said homeowner allowed him to enter home to get drugs when needed .\nBrancato played a wannabe mobster on \"The Sopranos\"","id":"fee639afb02083519905f9f3c115e446f0edaf13"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, is professor of psychiatry at Judge Baker Children's Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and co-author with Bill Cosby of \"Come On People: On the Path From Victims to Victors,\" 2007. Dr. Alvin Poussaint says while we salute King and Obama, there's more work to be done. BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Today, one day before the inauguration of the first African-American president, the Martin Luther King Jr. observance hailing civil rights gains will be combined with jubilation over Barack Obama's historic achievement. The festivities this year portend a new direction for the King holiday. On Monday, we salute King-and-Obama. And on Tuesday, we salute Obama-and-King, as the Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King, gives the benediction after Obama's swearing-in. The events juxtapose two African-American icons in the march toward racial equality. Traditional tributes to King are likely to be overshadowed by Obama's game-changing win; his success, despite racial barriers, mistakenly leads many Americans to believe that King's rallying cries may be outdated. For example, at most celebrations, the \"I Have a Dream\" speech is highlighted. With the election of Obama, many are saying that we have fulfilled King's dream. So will the \"dream\" speech be appreciated only as a powerful historical moment rather than a vision for the future? I hope not. But other perspectives may change as well. In stirring oratory, King said he had a dream that one day his four children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. But now, since Obama's accomplishment, scores of people -- including African Americans -- feel we have reached that goal, despite obvious remnants of racial discrimination. In fact, some conservatives are using Obama's success to argue against the need for affirmative action. Similarly, King's oft-quoted words: \"I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you ...\" will resonate in a different way because of Obama's startling election. I have heard many reports from black people themselves that the president-elect has taken us symbolically to that elusive Promised Land. While Obama's win may have taken the edge off some of King's inspirational rhetoric, it should not lead to complacency in the fight for social justice. There is still much work to be done. Obama's election does not solve the many problems facing the African-American community. We will continue to face disparities in health care, including an infant mortality rate twice as high as whites, and 20 percent of blacks still lack basic health insurance, according to government statistics.. High rates of crime and violence, with homicide as the leading cause of death for young black men, demoralizes black neighborhoods. In many communities, the high school dropout rate exceeds 50 percent. That dropout rate for many is a ticket to prison, where blacks make up nearly 40 percent of inmates, according to the Justice Department. Racial profiling has not ended, and there continue to be horrific incidents of police brutality against blacks. This compounds family stress at a time when federal government data shows 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers and African-American unemployment is twice the rate of whites. These challenges were there before the dramatic economic downturn of recent months; they will get worse if there are no interventions. Obama is doing his share by reinvigorating King's primary theme of helping others by urging Americans' commitment to the King Day of Service, established by Congress in 1994. His emphasis on volunteering is an appropriate extension of King's ultimate mission. People cannot simply have high expectations about what Obama can do for them but must also work as individuals and communities to support his programs to help pull the United States out of its economic and social crises. This January, the link established between the civil rights achievements of King's dream and Obama's triumph will be etched in our minds. That is not a bad thing. It gives us an opportunity to broaden the celebrations on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The King holiday would be enhanced by recognizing other modern civil rights icons as well. Luminaries such as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, John Lewis, Andrew Young, Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Dorothy Height, Bob Moses and a host of others should not be allowed to fade into the background. Without diminishing the extraordinary legacy of MLK, other leaders who have contributed to the emancipation of black Americans should be remembered. Obama's watershed moment brings a new spirit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance. Eventually, I hope due credit will be given to all those fighters whose shoulders Obama stood on to secure the ultimate prize: the presidency of the United States. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dr. Alvin Poussaint.","highlights":"Alvin Poussaint says this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Day is special .\nHe says it's a prelude to inauguration of first African-American president .\nPoussaint: It's a mistake to think Obama's election means King's dream is done .\nHe says we still have a long way to go to ensure all races have equal opportunity .","id":"e3d0e44ee49d0ed650a923dc4452b49ac0acb18d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is set to deliver the Republican response to President Obama's upcoming joint address to Congress, a high-profile slot the party often gives to one of its rising stars. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 37, will give GOP response to President Obama's address to Congress this month. \"Gov. Jindal embodies what I have long said: The Republican Party must not be simply the party of 'opposition,' but the party of better solutions,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a Wednesday statement. Jindal, a former congressman in his first term as Louisiana's governor, was widely believed to be on Republican presidential nominee John McCain's short list for vice president, and he often served as a campaign surrogate on the Arizona senator's behalf. The 37-year-old son of Indian immigrants also was given a prime-time speaking slot at the GOP convention last September, though he ultimately decided not to attend the four-day event as Hurricane Gustav headed for landfall in his state. An Ivy League grad and Rhodes Scholar, and his state's first nonwhite governor, Jindal has long been on the GOP's radar screen as a potential future leader and likely presidential candidate. And as the GOP is launching full-scale efforts to appeal to nonwhite voters, Jindal has become one of the party's most high-profile minorities. \"His stewardship of the state of Louisiana, dedication to reforming government and commitment to bringing forth new and innovative ideas make him a leader not just within the Republican Party, but in our nation as a whole,\" Boehner also said of Jindal on Wednesday. Jindal, who became governor two years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana, has drawn praise for spearheading the ongoing recovery efforts. \"When you look at major statewide offices Republicans have won over the past three years, there is one, Louisiana,\" said Alex Castellanos, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist. \"In a state where we lost confidence in government, perhaps more than any other state, he restored it and cut taxes.\" Though he is often mentioned as a likely contender for the 2012 Republican presidential race, Jindal has said his current focus is on winning reelection in 2011. Jindal also said late last year that even if he were considering running for president, now is the time to support the sitting president. \"It doesn't matter whether you're Republican, Democrat or independent, it doesn't matter whether you voted for him or not, President-elect Barack Obama is our president,\" he said. The White House announced on Tuesday that Obama will deliver the annual State of the Union address to both houses of Congress on February 24. In 2008, Democrats tapped Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius -- then considered to be a possible vice presidential candidate -- to give the rebuttal speech to former President Bush's final State of the Union address. Other Democrats who delivered responses to Bush's State of the Unions include Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, and former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, the nation's first Chinese-American governor. The last Republican to deliver a response to a State of the Union address was Maine Sen. Susan Collins in 2000.","highlights":"Jindal embodies image as \"party of better solutions,\" House Minority leader says .\nThe Ivy League grad and Rhodes Scholar is viewed as a likely presidential candidate .\nThe first-term governor has drawn praise for spearheading Katrina recovery efforts .\nPresident Obama will deliver The State of the Union address on February 24 .","id":"3c69b0aafc722302836cdc98803cb23345fde16e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It was a night for neon pink bow ties and words like \"disaster\" and \"monstrosity.\" It was not the night, however, to be Paris Hilton, Mike Myers or Uwe Boll. Paula Einstein, Rebecca Marcotte and Kelie McIver do a parody of \"Dancing Queen\" to open the show. The 29th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards honored the worst film achievements of the year in a small theater in Hollywood on February 21. The night opened with a parody of the \"Mamma Mia\" song, \"Dancing Queen,\" and ended with \"Love Guru\" being named worst picture. \"It wasn't just the economy that tanked, so did the qualities of the movies being offered,\" Razzie founder John Wilson told CNN several weeks before the show. \"I would suggest putting away all sharp [instruments] before putting the DVDs in your machine.\" Paris Hilton and Mike Myers came out on top -- or bottom -- for the awards. Hilton earned both the worst actress and worst supporting actress awards for her roles in \"Hottie & the Nottie\" and \"Repo: The Genetic Opera.\" She was also awarded worst screen couple for her on-screen time with her co-stars Christine Lakin and Joel David Moore. Razzie host Gretchen Enders said that \"Hottie & the Nottie\" was \"a vanity production in the worst sense... Hilton, who served as executive producer, has no one to blame but herself.\" Hilton's film had a budget of $2 million but only earned about $27,000 at the box office. \"Under Obama's new plan, they wouldn't even have to pay taxes,\" Wilson deadpanned. Myers added worst actor to the \"Love Guru\" worst picture and worst screenplay Razzies. To save anyone else from having to watch it, Wilson shredded a DVD copy of the film on stage. Parody films \"Disaster Movie\" and \"Meet the Spartans,\" each nominated in five categories, came away empty-handed. However, that doesn't mean the Razzie foundation thinks they were worthwhile. \"When you invest the kind of money that a mainstream, big-budget star film requires, you want some insurance that your investment is going to come back to you. So... you're going to do what worked before,\" Wilson said. \"Financially that may make sense, but in terms of the audience's enjoyment, surprise or appreciation of what you're doing, it doesn't work.\" Enter \"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,\" this year's winner of the worst prequel, remake, rip-off or sequel award. \"A fourth installment of a beloved franchise, but this one found itself loved by almost no one,\" hosts Katsy Chappell and Josh Thoemke said. The approximately 740 voting members of the Raspberry Foundation also found Pierce Brosnan's singing voice sorely lacking. His role in \"Mama Mia\" earned him the worst supporting actor award. \"An actor who could not sing, should not sing and arguably did not sing, in a role he should not have accepted,\" Razzie hosts Chip Dornell and Kelie McIver said about the former James Bond. But perhaps the biggest \"winner\" of the night was Uwe Boll. Recipient of the worst director award, the foundation also recognized his lifetime work with the worst career achievement award. Boll is the \"worst living director on Earth,\" Wilson told CNN. Boll had a sense of humor about his Razzie success. He sent in a video rejection speech from a fake set of Darfur, Sudan, saying the Razzies had ruined his life and he would never be back. The Razzie team is already predicting next year's nominees. A few to watch out for: \"Hannah Montana,\" \"Friday the 13th\" and \"Bride Wars,\" -- the last of which has already grossed more than $50 million. \"It's kind of like watching a train wreck, isn't it?\" Wilson said.","highlights":"Razzies honor worst film achievements of the past year .\nMike Myers, Paris Hilton each won three Razzies .\n\"Indiana Jones\" won worst prequel, remake, rip-off or sequel award .","id":"7650417c7eb49c274436c0b1736b27e33df183d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Software giant Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of hackers behind a powerful computer virus that could lead to millions of PCs being hijacked. Experts say a single infected laptop could expose an entire network to the worm. Experts have so far been baffled by the true purpose of the Conficker or Downadup virus, but have described its spread as one of the most serious infections ever seen. The worm exploits a bug in Microsoft Windows to infect mainly corporate networks, then -- although it has yet to cause any harm -- it opens a link back to its point of origin, meaning it can receive further orders to wreak havoc. Microsoft has issued a patch to fix the bug, however if a single machine is infected in a large network, it will spread unchecked -- often reinfecting machines that have been disinfected. The threat from the virus prompted Microsoft in collaboration with other technology industry names to this week announce a $250,000 reward for information to track down those behind Conficker. \"As part of Microsoft's ongoing security efforts, we constantly look for ways to use a diverse set of tools and develop methodologies to protect our customers,\" said George Stathakopoulos, of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group. Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure says the true scope of the virus is not known, but in the past 24 hours his company monitored Conficker signals from two million Internet protocol addresses. \"That's a lot,\" he told CNN. \"And one IP address here does not mean one infected computer, it means at least one infected computer. \"Many of those IP addresses are obviously company proxies or firewalls, hiding hundreds of more infections behind it. Unfortunately this also makes it impossible to estimate the total count of infected systems. \"So it's still big. Very big.\" Microsoft has previously paid out similar rewards to informants who helped identify the creator of Sasser, another notorious worm let loose in 2004. The perpetrator was tracked to Germany, where he was sentenced a year later.","highlights":"Software giant Microsoft offers $250,000 bounty to catch Conficker author .\nIndustry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen .\nThe worm exploits a bug in Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows software .\nVirus could allow its creators to hijack entire networks .","id":"5c5a8bc667c46f3cb85feb0535d7eeac5d5ad747"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Heavy rains smashed through a dam near Indonesia's capital Friday, unleashing a torrent of water that plowed into hundreds of homes and killed at least 52 people in what some survivors described as a suburban \"tsunami.\" Members of a search and rescue team look for bodies around upended trees and vehicles near Jakarta Friday. Sleeping residents were taken by surprise by the powerful flash flood as it crashed through Jakarta's crowded Cirendeu suburb, in the early hours of the morning. Rescue crews suspended their search for survivors overnight Friday evening, the National Disaster Coordination Agency said. The agency put the death toll at 52 with 17 missing. It said 33 people were injured and 1,490 left homeless. The Indonesian Health Ministry put the death toll higher at 58 people. After the deluge, drenched, injured and shivering survivors took refuge on the rooftops of their homes as rescuers in rubber boats struggled to reach them. Social affairs spokesman official Mardjito, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said relief efforts were being hampered by debris from the dam. \"We're still trying to get into the houses, but the problem is, mud is getting in our way,\" he said. Pictures from the scene showed the pulverized ruins of wooden buildings emerging as brown muddied waters subside. Watch scenes of the flood devastation \u00bb . Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently on the campaign trail ahead of elections later this year, said he had ordered senior ministers to visit the scene of the disaster. \"On behalf of the government, I express my condolences to the families of the dead victims and may their souls be accepted by God almighty,\" he said, according to the official Antara news agency. The rain obliterated a 255-meter-long section of the dam at around 4 am local time, releasing a wall of water from the 20-hectare lake that some survivors said reminded them of the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004. \"They said they had heard loud rumbling sounds like during a powerful earthquake. They later found out that the sounds came from the water rushing out from the dam's lake,\" Antara said. Survivors told stories of dead relatives and harrowing brushes with death as they struggled to escape rising waters. Dewi Masitoh, a 40-year-old housewife, told the AFP news agency that she escaped with her husband and two daughters after they saw rising water reach the door of their stilt house. \"We were on the second floor but my daughter went back downstairs when the window broke and water gushed in. My husband jumped in and pulled her out of the water by her neck. \"I punched a hole through the roof and we all climbed up through,\" she said, showing cuts and scratches on her arms.\" Floods from heavy rains are an annual occurrence around Jakarta, a low lying city on the northern coast of Java island, where poor infrastructure often results in polluted canals and rivers spilling their banks and spilling into thousands of homes. In 2007, 38 people were killed and 430,000 forced from their homes when storm waters three meters deep in some places swamped 75 percent of the capital, which is home to about 9 million people. With poor sanitation and a hot and humid climate, the risk of water-borne diseases is usually a major concern following floods in the city, where mosquito-transmitted malaria is also a threat. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Death at now at least 52 from dam burst in Jakarta .\nSurvivors say rumbling of waters rushing from dam sounded like earthquake .\nRescuers are having difficulties reaching people because of mud .","id":"23b3c7498a3481f94ddd817eb2c82a56adf28ce7"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has arrested a suspected al Qaeda militant who intelligence officials say is tied to the London subway bombings in 2005, authorities there said Thursday. The double-decker bus damaged by a bomb in central London on July 7, 2005. Zabih al-Taifi was arrested in a village near Peshawar on Wednesday as part of ongoing security operations in the area, police and intelligence officials told CNN. Six others, both Afghans and Pakistanis, were also arrested. The Metropolitan Police Service in London, also known as Scotland Yard, issued a statement refusing to comment on the arrest. \"Speculation around this reported arrest with alleged links to an ongoing terrorist trial is unhelpful and may be prejudicial to current criminal proceedings,\" it said. The London blasts killed 52 people and wounded at least 900 others when bombs went off on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005. Security analysts say the village where al-Taifi was arrested in the North West Frontier Province has been the site of recent clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials say arrested al Qaeda militant has ties to 2005 London subway bombings .\n52 killed, 900 wounded from bombs on 3 subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005 .\nZabih al-Taifi arrested in village near Peshawar in ongoing security operations .","id":"f8df86a7f191c17a3e9758e6e41d868a6583f099"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedian and TV host Stephen Colbert has warned NASA to name a new wing of the international space station after him or he would \"seize power as space's evil tyrant overlord.\" Stephen Colbert threatened NASA that he might become \"space's evil tyrant overlord.\" A NASA spokesman said the U.S. space agency is aware of Colbert's threat, issued Monday night on Comedy Central's \"Colbert Report,\" but no decision will be made on the node's name until next week. Colbert topped NASA's online poll soliciting names for the wing, with 230,539 of the more than 1.1 million votes cast, according to NASA spokesman John Yembrick. The runner-up was Serenity, which Colbert said is not an appropriate name. \"That's not a space station,\" Colbert said. \"That's an adult diaper.\" Serenity was the name of a spaceship in the television series \"Firefly,\" which spawned a 2005 movie. The contest rules spelled out that NASA reserves the right to \"ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency. ... Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names.\" NASA's hedging prompted a Pennsylvania congressman to urge the agency to name the node after the comedian. \"The people have spoken, and Stephen Colbert won it fair and square, even if his campaign was a bit over the top,\" Rep. Chaka Fattah said. Fattah sits on the congressional committee that oversees NASA's funding. \"NASA, I urge you to heed Congressman Fattah's call for democracy in orbit,\" Colbert said. \"Either name that node after me, or I, too, will reject democracy and seize power as space's evil tyrant overlord.\" NASA's Yembrick said he watched Colbert's show Monday, but he would not directly respond to his \"evil tyrant overlord\" threat. \"We think it's great that he and his audience are taking an interest,\" Yembrick said. Several media outlets have reported that NASA is working on a compromise in which it would slap the droll Colbert's name on a piece of \"mission essential\" equipment in the new wing: the toilet. Colbert's loyal fans, lovingly called the Colbert Nation, have in the past bombarded polls to have things named after their idol. Thanks to them, the comedian out-polled every other name in a bridge-naming contest in Hungary. The country's government later said it cannot name the bridge after him because he does not speak Hungarian and is not deceased. Colbert also tried to get himself on Democratic and Republican primary ballots in his home state of South Carolina in 2007. The Democratic Party's executive council voted against his inclusion, and he did not qualify for the Republican primary because he missed the deadline. But ice-cream maker Ben and Jerry named a flavor in honor of him, Colbert's AmeriCone Dream. And Virgin America named one of its planes Air Colbert.","highlights":"TV host's name topped poll seeking new name for space station wing .\nNASA says no decision will be made until next week .\nPennsylvania lawmaker has thrown backing behind Colbert .\nSome media outlets say NASA may put Colbert's name on toilet .","id":"45a2b0a6a71faaf46b20ec52512c16ae8915364f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's address to Congress was full of lofty promises to make unprecedented investments in government programs, even as he aims to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. President Obama on Tuesday outlined an ambitious agenda to help revive the economy. But it takes more than a proposal to bring about real change. Will Obama be able to meet his goals? CNN political analyst David Gergen says the answer will be \"one of the greatest political dramas of our time.\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the budget Obama sends to Capitol Hill Thursday will help show how the president plans to tackle his ambitious agenda. Here's a look at some of Obama's goals, and what experts are saying about them. Economy . Promise: \"To ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system.\" Promise: \"I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.\" Promise: \"My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time, but we have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.\" Analysis: Democratic strategist Lisa Caputo said so far, Obama is taking the right steps to revive the economy, but the country needs to see his plans put into action. He's already passed a massive stimulus bill, and he has a housing bill and a banking regulatory reform bill in the works. \"He's doing all the right things. Hopefully he'll come forth with a balanced budget. ... He's saying all of the right things. He's got to do them,\" she said. Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins pointed out that what Obama did was put forth proposals, not an action plan. \"This was a speech about aspirations. There was not a strategy or the details. They may come later, but it's an overly ambitious program, and if he can accomplish just the financial part of it, he'll move the country forward,\" he said. The success of Obama's budget goals will fall heavily on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Rollins said. \"Can she control her members? The last two years the Congress has controlled the spending, it's been a Democrat Congress. It's still a Democrat Congress and will be for the foreseeable future. There's a lot of pet projects these people want, there's a lot of entitlements that people aren't willing to cut,\" he said. Larry Winget, a personal finance expert, said he agrees with everything that Obama said needs to be done, but said he doesn't agree that the country can borrow or spend its way out of debt. \"If you came to me and said, 'I'm in a financial crisis, I've screwed up everything based on all of my bad decisions, what should I do?' the last thing in the world I would tell you is to go borrow more money or go try to spend something that -- money you don't have on something you don't need,\" he said. Winget said instead, the country should work its way out of debt. \"The practical thing would be to put more money in the hands of people, which would always go back to, we need to give bigger ... tax cuts,\" he said. Education . Promise: \"By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. That is a goal we can meet.\" Promise: \"It will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. That is a promise we have to make to the children of America.\" Analysis: Rollins pointed out that this is the first time the federal government is taking a such a major role in education. \"We have $59 billion in this year's education budget. We added another $100 billion to build schools and do those things. That's never been the role of the federal government. So it's a whole new way to go, and obviously if it works, it may benefit the country,\" he said. CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley said Obama's proposals are just the start of a new direction. \"It is the beginning of shaping the country differently when it comes to a lot of these programs. And the different shape, again, is a more liberal shape of the country, than really the conservative country it has been since Ronald Reagan,\" she said. Energy . Promise: \"We will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.\" Promise: \"Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years.\" Watch Obama say, 'It begins with energy' \u00bb . Analysis: Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, said Obama laid out a \"tall order\" of what needs to be done, and tried to show how everything is connected. \"So he showed, here's the short term, which is stimulus, banking, housing. Here's the longer term: If we want to own the century, we have to deal with energy, education, health, for example, and connecting those things,\" he said. \"And one of the critical things is that it's not clear -- you know, the stimulus is great, we passed it, but it doesn't work unless the banks lend. The banks won't lend unless the housing sector stabilizes. So, it's -- this is much tougher than chewing gum and walking at the same time,\" he said. Health care . Promise: \"[The recovery plan] makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that's one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.\" Promise: \"To preserve our long-term fiscal health, we must also address the growing cost in Medicare and Social Security. Comprehensive health care reform is the best way to strengthen Medicare for years to come, and we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans.\" Watch Obama explain his plans for health care reform \u00bb . Analysis: Larry Elder, a libertarian commentator, thought that Obama gave a \"great political speech\" but Elder questioned the president's economics. \"I just wish he was a limited-government, personal-responsibility, hard-core-fiscal-responsibility Republican, which, of course, he isn't. Look, he's got a faith in government that I don't share,\" he said. \"Whenever I hear somebody talk about investing in health care, investing in education, investing in energy, I put my hand on my wallet and I say, 'These guys are not good stewards of your money the way you are of your own money.' \" Pamela Gentry, a senior political analyst with BET, said Obama's big promises will keep people watching because they play to the drama of this presidency. Health care, she said, will be the issue to watch. \"Health care has got to be one of the toughest ones. I mean, Medicare is the second largest budget after defense. So, if he can pull this off, it would be remarkable,\" she said. Gibbs said Wednesday that the president is well aware of the difficulty of reforming health care. \"But he understands the only way to do that is bring together the stakeholders on both sides of the aisle, business and labor, doctors, providers. That process will begin next week here to discuss health care reform,\" he said. But, Gibbs said, the president doesn't plan on setting any \"artificial deadlines\" to pass health care reform. Military . Promise: \"To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.\" Analysis: Patricia Murphy, editor of Citizen Jane Politics, said she thought Obama's speech was strong, but she didn't follow Obama's math. Watch: How to cut defense spending \u00bb . \"The problem in this speech, I think, is his promise to cut the deficit in half and layering on program after program after program, saying we'll pull the troops out of Iraq, but we'll increase the size of the military. Those numbers don't add up,\" she said. CNN contributor Roland Martin on Tuesday compared Obama to rapper Kanye West. Martin: Obama's ambitious agenda is a good thing . All of the president's promises -- fixing health care, fixing the economy, halving the deficit, boosting funds to troops, curing cancer, achieving energy independence and solving Pakistan's problems, to name a few -- are just the markers in terms of his presidency, Martin said. \"Sort of when like Kanye West had his new album, and he said, 'I want to make it as bad as Stevie Wonder's [Songs in the Key of Life].' ... He said, 'If it doesn't get to that, it's still a great album.' \"[Obama] is a guy who is saying, a president who's saying, 'Look, I want to raise the stakes.' And, so, isn't it amazing that we're sitting here, saying, 'Wow, an ambitious president'? Well, shouldn't we have an ambitious president? Shouldn't we have a president saying, 'We can do more'?\"","highlights":"President Obama promises to halve deficit by 2013 .\nExperts support Obama's proposals, but want details on the action plan .\nObama sets high goals for economy, energy, education, health care .\nCNN contributor Roland Martin likens Obama to Kanye West .","id":"94d6a496404c16cafed244b60fdda2c14b552244"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Forty-four people were killed during an attack on a wedding party in Turkey's southeastern Mardin province Monday. A child lies wounded on a stretcher following the attack by gunmen on the wedding party. The casualties, which included the bride and groom, were slain while many of them were praying, authorities said. Three others were injured and eight people were detained in the attack sparked by a feud between families, said Besir Atalay, Interior Minister of Turkey. There were 17 women and six children among the dead, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. \"It is inhuman beyond words to open fire on people including a one-year old child who were having a wedding, living a happy moment, praying,\" Erdogan said. \"The fact that the eight suspects and the victims who died have the same surname increases cruelty of this murder.\" The assailants attacked the party in the small village of Bilge with bombs and automatic weapons, according to the Cihan news agency. With only 32 households in the village there were too many victims to fit into the local morgue, authorities said. Some of the victims had the same last name, Celebi, as the suspects who were detained, Atalay added. The bride, Sevgi Celebi, and groom, Habip Ari, both died in the attack, Anatolian Agency, Turkey's semi-official news agency, reported. The chief and the former chief of the village were among those killed in the attack, the agency added. Police have blocked access to the village while they conduct their investigation. Mardin Mayor Besir Ayanoglu told Turkish television network NTV that the incident was not terror related. CNN's Ivan Watson and Yesmin Comert contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkish PM: 17 women and six children among the dead .\nBombs, automatic weapons used in attack, Cihan news agency reports .\nThree people critically wounded, says office of province's governor .\nAttack happens at wedding party in Turkey's southeastern Mardin province .","id":"0b6feb67a624e8bd81b9fdf37650531a842d3499"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Opponents of controversial plans to use hybrid human-animal embryos for research spoke out Tuesday, calling the practice unnecessary, unnatural, and reprehensible a day after British lawmakers voted to allow it. Advocates of hybrid cells say animal eggs from which a nucleus has been removed are simply \"empty shells.\" The British parliament debated the issue Monday as part of its discussion of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, which will update legislation on reproduction and embryos. \"Crossing the species barrier in this way is deeply, deeply reprehensible, undesirable,\" said Josephine Quintavalle, a bioethicist who founded Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE). The research involves emptying an animal egg and filling it with human cells. The resulting embryo is allowed to develop for 14 days -- during which time scientists harvest the stem cells -- before being destroyed. Scientists hope working with those stem cells will lead to treatments for serious conditions like motor neuron disease, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, and they say using hybrids overcomes the shortage of human embryos. \"The use of animal eggs will provide a valuable resource to embryo research scientists,\" argued Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo. Lawmakers were allowed to vote according to conscience and the legislation passed comfortably, though not without opposition. \"If an embryo could talk, perhaps it would echo what Mary Shelley did say in 'Frankenstein': 'I, the miserable and the abandoned, an abortion to be spurned out and kicked and trampled on,'\" Conservative Party lawmaker Edward Leigh told parliament. Supporters of the research dispute the numerous \"Frankenstein\" references and say it does not create monsters. Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell biology lab at King's College in London, said the practice begins with the removal of an animal egg's nucleus, which contains all of the chromosomes, thereby stripping the egg of its \"species identity.\" \"It's an empty shell,\" Minger said. \"By putting a human cell -- not just a nucleus, but in our case an intact human cell -- into the egg, you confer a human genetic identity onto that.\" The approved bill creates a legal framework for the scientific research on hybrid embryos. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown feels so strongly about the benefits of the research that he wrote a column Sunday in The Observer newspaper calling it an \"inherently moral endeavor,\" but ethics groups and others disagree. \"I think we all know that we don't reproduce with animals,\" Quintavalle said. \"Humans do not reproduce with animals. Whether it's done in the laboratory or not doesn't make it right.\" Quintavalle urged the government and the scientific community to wait until a new method of research emerges which does not mix animal and human genetic material. Human Genetics Alert, a secular independent watchdog, said it found defects among existing hybrid embryos which raise doubts about whether mixed embryos can produce useful stem cells. \"I'm very, very unimpressed with the scientific case for doing that,\" said David King, a former molecular biologist who now heads the HGA. \"The science is so weak and the ethical concerns are so significant, I think you have to weigh that.\" The scientific arguments in favor of the research have been \"overhyped,\" King said, and offer no hope of a cure for those suffering with genetic disorders. \"Very little, I think, will come out of it and I think hopes are being raised that will be cruelly disappointed,\" King said. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill was drawn up in 1990, when science and government were unaware that current hybrid-embryo developments were possible, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health told CNN. The original bill did allow the mixing of human and animal eggs, but only for the purpose of testing the fertility of human sperm, said the spokeswoman, who declined to be named in line with policy. The practice was known as the \"hamster test\" because hamster eggs were used. The revised bill now allows hybrid embryos for further research but specifies they may not be placed in a woman or an animal, the spokeswoman said. Also, those using the embryos must prove that the use is for research, and that use of an embryo is necessary, she said. Creating hybrid embryos is not the only way to develop useful stem cells, said Minger. A new method called pluripotency, developed in December, allows scientists to turn adult cells into something resembling an embryonic stem cell, he said. Pluripotency, however, requires extensive genetic manipulation of the cells and yields few that are of use to research, Minger said. \"We will pursue that (research) but it's just too early to know which is the best approach,\" Minger said. \"Most rational scientists would say we need to proceed down as many tracks as possible because we just have no idea what's going to lead to the best benefit.\" CNN's Phil Black contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK lawmakers approve bill allowing use of hybrid embryos in stem cell research .\nOpponents describe controversial technique as \"deeply, deeply reprehensible\"\nAdvocates say use of animal embryos helps overcome shortage of human embryos .\nScientists say stem cells have potential to cure conditions such as Parkinson's .","id":"23e0d4f2bccf9796eed36fcfc5934093dcc80a99"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A yellow taxi sits idle at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, leaving its Somali immigrant driver visibly frustrated. Abdullah Hagi, a cabdriver in Atlanta, Georgia, has had to cut back on expenses as the economy has declined. \"I've been here two hours, and you're my first customer,\" Abdullahi Hagi, formerly of Mogadishu, said as he tightened his grip on the leather-bound steering wheel. \"When the economy is bad, people don't ride cabs.\" Often considered a bellwether for consumer spending, cabdrivers and the tough times they now face could mean worse times for relatives living in places like Somalia, where war and famine have made remittances from emigres like Hagi more important. Amid a financial crunch that has many of Hagi's customers feeling the pinch, fewer fares and mounting bills have not stopped him from sending a big chunk of his paycheck home to his family. Despite a bit more empty space in his hand-stitched wallet, Hagi said he has worked out a solution to keep his family fed back home. He is pooling his paycheck with fellow cabdrivers. Watch how cabbie gets by with less \u00bb . An informal lending system has emerged in major U.S. cities, akin to an old-world style of community banking that is fending off starvation in places like Somalia. In Atlanta, cabdrivers lend to each other based on need, depending whose family is in more dire straits. \"I could never borrow from any bank,\" Hagi admits. \"You take loans, not from institutions but from friends.\" However, Hagi is still struggling to make ends meet. \"Should I pay the student loan or should I pay for my starving relatives?\" he asked. \"That's the kind of choice you've got to make every day.\" \"Lately, it's been getting harder and harder to accumulate enough to survive and also send back home,\" he added, shifting his weight in the cab's cracked leather seats. \"You try to cut corners in your lifestyle to be able to send money to your people because they're always in much worse condition -- always on the brink of collapse or starvation.\" Hagi and his family are not alone. Figures from the United Nations put nearly half of Somalia's population in need of humanitarian assistance, according to a report released in September. One in six Somali children under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished, the report found, and food is getting more costly. The price of sorghum, used for grain and found on the dinner plates of most Somali households, soared 600 percent since last year, according to a separate U.N. report. Civil war and drought have made food both scarce and a source of political power. Pitched battles between an Islamic insurgency and Ethiopian-backed transitional government forces have left thousands dead and rendered what many have called a \"failed state\" now teetering on the brink of its worst humanitarian crisis in over a decade, according to a World Food Program report. The United Nations says \"all information indicates that the key factors driving this humanitarian crisis will continue to worsen over the coming months.\" That crisis, coinciding with a financial one that clobbered Wall Street and sent U.S. automakers begging for bailouts, may leave cabdrivers like Hagi facing the perfect storm. \"You cut your groceries. You cut even the clothes you buy the kids. You cut everything,\" he said. \"Whatever you can think of.\" There may not be much more to cut. For now, cabdrivers like Hagi are turning to each other to keep food on the family table back home.","highlights":"U.S. economic woes take toll on Somali cabdrivers .\nMany Somali families depend on remittances to make ends meet .\nMore cabdrivers start to lend to each other based on need .\nNearly half of Somalia's population in need of humanitarian aid, according to U.N.","id":"236a0247b8a215ab208b7690c20d4ddab626816c"} -{"article":"NEWARK, New Jersey (CNN) -- The most \"far-flung and exotic fugitive investigation ever conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service\" ended early Sunday with convicted child molester Alan Horowitz in custody on U.S. soil. Alan Horowitz was convicted in 1991 on 34 counts of child molestation. Officers from the U.S. Marshals service arrested the 60-year-old at Newark Liberty International Airport after a 15-hour flight from New Delhi, India. The ordained Orthodox rabbi and former child psychologist was arrested on May 22 at a seaside resort in Mahabalipuram, India, according to parole officer Robert Georgia. An agent from the Diplomatic Security Service escorted him aboard the Continental Airlines flight, authorities said. He is being held at a correctional facility in New Jersey and will appear before an extradition judge on July 16th before being taken to New York to face a parole violation charge there. He also faces a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Watch Horowitz in custody at Newark airport \u00bb . A number of Internet tipsters in India were responsible for alerting the Marshal's service to Horowitz's whereabouts, said U.S. Marshal Gary Mattison, who was assigned to track down Horowitz last year. Horowitz served 13 years of a 10-20 year sentence for child molestation and was released on parole in 2004, authorities said. In June 2006, he fled the country shortly after meeting with his parole officer, setting off the manhunt that involved the Indian police, agents from the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Marshals, U.S. Marshals told CNN. Horowitz's 1991 conviction was on 34 counts of child molestation in Schenectady, New York. A dual citizen of the United States and Israel, Horowitz has also been convicted of \"perverted sexual practices\" in Maryland, where he was found guilty of abusing one of his patients, federal marshals said. During the 1980s, while he was living in Israel, he was the subject of a police investigation into charges he was sexually abusing his second wife's children, according to the U.S. Marshal service. He also faced another sexual misconduct investigation while living in North Carolina, authorities say. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Katia Porzecanski contributed to this report.","highlights":"Horowitz is an ordained Orthodox rabbi and a former child psychologist .\nHe was escorted aboard the U.S.-bound flight by a U.S. agent, authorities say .\nHorowitz was subject of investigations in U.S., Israel; had multiple convictions .","id":"abf4a21ac0879c2ad240f18d5fde8ea56da280a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anna Nicole Smith's longtime partner and attorney Howard K. Stern and two doctors were charged Thursday with conspiring to furnish drugs before her death in 2007, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend Howard K. Stern was among those charged Thursday. Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8 after being found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood, Florida. The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. At the time of her death several prescription medications -- both in Smith's name and that of her partner and lawyer, Stern -- were found in the room. Officials said prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three antidepressants or antianxiety drugs. Also found in toxicology testing was human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, officials said. Stern, 40, and doctors Sandeep Kapoor, 40, and Khristine Eroshevich, 61, were each charged with eight felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions between June 2004 and January 2007 -- only weeks before the playmate's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich were each also charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" Each were also charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, according to the DA's office. All three were charged with one count of \"prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.\" Smith was buried in the Bahamas March 2 next to the grave of her son, Daniel, who died in September, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn.","highlights":"Howard K. Stern, Sandeep Kapoor, Khristine Eroshevich charged with eight felonies .\nThe three are accused of conspiring to furnish drugs before her death .\nFormer Playboy playmate died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs .\nAll three charged with giving \"a controlled substance to an addict\"","id":"ead1f627f3c564a8c3127f215d9667332acfb122"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A severe rabies epidemic has claimed the lives of at least 83 children within three months in Angola's capital, Luanda, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Luanda, which has a large population of stray dogs, also has some of the world's worst slums. Describing the situation as \"very worrying,\" WHO rabies expert Francois Meslin told CNN: \"This is a huge number and could be the tip of the iceberg.\" A doctor working at the country's biggest referral hospital Hospital Pediatrico David Bernardino said staff were unable to save any of the children as rabies vaccines had run out. Some of the children were also brought into the hospital too late to be saved, Luis Bernardino, head of the hospital told UN humanitarian organization IRIN. He warned that the number of deaths could be much higher. \"The children were brought to our hospital and are the only ones we know of, so the number could be higher,\" Bernardino told IRIN. \"It is a sad moment for us,\" he added. \"I think it was probably that no one was prepared for such a high case load.\" The number of cases has now started declining, however, said Bernardino. According to Meslin, this could be because the current infected pack of dogs has died. Meslin told CNN that the Angolan government needed to embark on a dog rabies control program urgently to prevent further outbreaks. Angola's capital, where most of the population live in slums, has a large number of stray dogs who are said to have caused the epidemic. \"We have had some sporadic cases in other provincial capitals in the country; we think the virus was brought into Luanda and then spread through the dogs -- Angolans love dogs,\" Bernardino said. \"When the first 10 deaths were reported in December 2008 we alerted the authorities, but we do not have veterinary services in the city, no kennels [to keep and observe the animals] and vaccinate them,\" he added. Another problem contributing to the crisis is that vaccines are too expensive for the average family. \"One dose of vaccine costs about $10 and five of those have to be administered, which makes the total cost of treatment $50 which is more than a month's salary for families in most developing countries,\" Meslin added. In 2008 the WHO wrote that rabies, a disease transmitted from animals with infected saliva to humans, is present on nearly every continent of the world but more that 95 per cent of human deaths occur in Asia and Africa. It can be prevented by vaccination, either prior to exposure or as part of post-exposure treatment. But once symptoms of the disease develop, rabies is fatal. According to the WHO, rabies can affect the lungs, stomach and central nervous systems. In the critical stage, a victim slips into a coma and death, usually due to breathing failure. More than 55,000 people die of rabies each year, the WHO wrote, with 30 to 60 per cent of the victims of dog bites being children under the age of 15.","highlights":"A severe rabies epidemic has killed at least 83 children in 3 months in Angola .\nFrancois Meslin, rabies expert at the WHO says this is cause for serious concern .\nOnce symptoms develop, rabies is always fatal, according to the WHO .","id":"b36b2bb865455792341fbde170a2cf0e16ede379"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci: Progress has been made in the fight against HIV\/AIDS, but \"our work is just beginning.\" (CNN) -- When we commemorated the first World AIDS Day on December 1, 1988, we had little to celebrate. The number of reported AIDS cases in the United States was nearing 80,000 and rising rapidly. Untold thousands more in this country were living with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Globally, AIDS cases already had been reported from more than 135 countries. An AIDS tsunami clearly was looming, but we had few defenses at our disposal. For those of us caring for people with AIDS, it was a dark time. We had just one anti-HIV medicine in our pharmacies, AZT, a drug that the virus rapidly defeated by mutating and developing resistance. Lacking other medicines to slow the relentless replication of HIV and its destruction of a person's immune system, we did our best to help our patients by managing to the extent possible their AIDS-related infections and complications. But the life span of most of the patients was measured in months. Two decades later, much has changed. An unprecedented research effort has led to more than two dozen anti-HIV drugs, more than for all other viral diseases combined. Taken in proper combinations, these medications have dramatically improved the prognosis for people living with HIV by increasing their life span by at least a decade and providing the possibility of a normal life span with continued therapy. Scientifically proven prevention approaches -- education and outreach to at-risk populations, voluntary HIV testing and counseling, condom distribution, prevention of HIV transmission from mother to baby, harm reduction approaches for drug abusers, mass-media campaigns and the screening of donated blood -- have been deployed with great success in the United States and many other countries. Innovative programs such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund for HIV\/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as the efforts of nongovernment organizations, have reached millions of people in low- and mid-income countries worldwide with HIV-related services, at a scale unimaginable a few years ago. And gradually -- but too slowly -- we have begun addressing AIDS-related stigma in this country and abroad. Much has been accomplished in the fight against HIV\/AIDS from scientific, medical and public health standpoints. However, now is no time to rest on our accomplishments or our laurels. The statistics of the HIV\/AIDS pandemic tell us that much more needs to be done. Around the world, a staggering 2.7 million people were infected in 2007 alone. Globally, 33 million people are living with HIV infection, most of them in the developing world. In the United States, more than 1 million people are living with HIV. And 56,000 more people are infected each year in the U.S., driving HIV prevalence rates in some of our communities to levels that rival those seen in sub-Saharan Africa. Gay and bisexual men, and African-Americans in general, are disproportionately affected. The true ground zero of the HIV epidemic in the United States is in those communities. What is the way forward? First, even in the face of a world economic crisis, the global community must scale up the delivery of proven HIV therapies and prevention services. In low- and middle-income countries, less than one-third of people in need of anti-HIV therapy are receiving it, and only one in five people at risk of HIV infection have access to prevention services. All around the world, access to HIV services -- and medical care in general -- remains a challenge in many poor communities. The global community must sustain our commitment to investing resources for medicines, clinics, as well as training and salaries for doctors, nurses and community health care workers to provide care for HIV\/AIDS and other diseases in the settings where they occur. Here in the United States, more than one-fifth of people living with HIV are unaware of their infection and not receiving appropriate care for their own health or the prevention services that would help them avoid transmitting the virus to others. A frequent scenario is that people learn of their infection status only when they have advanced symptoms of HIV disease, when their health may by irreparably damaged. Now is the time for the medical community and policymakers to embrace U.S. guidelines for all Americans aged 13-64 to be voluntarily tested in routine medical care. Barriers to implementation of HIV testing guidelines, such as state, local or agency regulations that conflict with the recommendations, variability in payment coverage for the test, and concerns about the stigma and discrimination that may accompany an HIV diagnosis, must be addressed. Meanwhile, we also must continue to invest in the next generation of treatment and prevention modalities. Encouragingly, new means of preventing HIV infection are emerging from well-designed and well-implemented clinical research trials. One exciting concept is pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, giving preventive doses of anti-HIV drugs to individuals who are at an increased risk of HIV infection. This still-experimental strategy is based on the concept that if HIV replication can be inhibited immediately following exposure to the virus, permanent infection might be thwarted. Multiple clinical studies of PrEP are under way in the United States and in populations around the world. Ongoing research to develop microbicidal gels or creams to be applied before sex offer the hope of people being able to protect themselves from HIV infection in situations where saying no to sex or insisting on condom use is not an option. Finally, a preventive HIV vaccine remains the greatest hope for halting the relentless spread of HIV\/AIDS. We must solve the mystery of how to prompt the human body to produce a protective immune response against HIV, which natural infection with the virus seems unable to do. Historically, it has taken decades to find effective vaccines to combat most infectious diseases. Researchers usually experienced numerous setbacks and disappointments before reaching success, yet they persevered. Finding a safe and effective HIV vaccine demands an equally intense resolve. On this World AIDS Day, we should be proud of the many scientific advances that have been made in the fight against HIV\/AIDS. But it is hardly a time for self-congratulation. Rather, we must understand that our work is just beginning. Developing HIV interventions and delivering them to the people who need them will require scientific and public health vision, and dedication from all sectors of society, in good times and bad. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.","highlights":"Dr. Anthony S. Fauci: Access to HIV services, medical care a challenge in poor areas .\nFauci: Preventive HIV vaccine is best hope for halting spread of HIV\/AIDS .\nMedications improved prognosis for people living with HIV by increasing life spans .\nPrevention approaches, education, testing, counseling, condoms deployed .","id":"0226e9462111993cd81ef588d239403585240200"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The polite hush that descends on the crowd seconds before service is nowhere to be heard when it comes to the issue of equal prize money in women's tennis. Australian Open champion Serena Williams pocketed $1.3 million for the tournament, the same as male winner Rafael Nadal. It may be two years since Wimbledon and the French Open joined the other major tournaments in offering women the same cash prize as men, but for some tennis fans the issue is far from resolved. \"Admit it sisters,\" screamed one recent headline on Australian Web site AdelaideNow, \"this is not equal.\" The author went on: \"Political correctness, sexual equality and feminism all prevent many commentators from stating the bleeding obvious ... no sports watcher in their right minds could honestly say female tennis players, or golfers for that matter, deserve as much money as their male counterparts.\" The writer -- a woman -- went on to lambaste the world's best female tennis players, describing world number one Serena Williams' defeat of Dinara Safina in the Australian Open final as \"embarrassing, pitiful and pathetic.\" \"Her humiliation of Dinara Safina was a terrible advertisement for a sport that has apparently disappeared up its own backside.\" Rather than provoking a tirade of abuse, many readers agreed with the author, outspoken Australian journalist and sports commentator, Rebecca Wilson. \"Right on the money. Women's tennis is boring. Typical game. \"Ugh. Grunt. Ugh. Grunt. Ugh. Grunt. Out. Love-Fifteen,\" one said. Another added: \"It's about time someone said what everyone was thinking.\" More chimed in: \"Everyone agrees, few will say it\" and \"totally agree. Women's tennis is pathetic.\" A couple of dissenters in the crowd urged Wilson to turn her attentions elsewhere: \"The usual tripe that Wilson dishes up week after week,\" and \"please go away and let someone with something important to say use your space.\" What do you think? Do women deserve equal prize money in tennis? Sound Off below. Billie Jean King has heard it all before. The former world number one has spent a good part of the last forty years campaigning for equal prize money, and equal status, for women. The decision by the All England Tennis and Croquet Club in February 2007, and then the French Open one day later, to award equal prize money to women marked the end of a fight that started in 1968, the first year of Open tennis. \"When Rod Laver won Wimbledon, he got \u00a32,000. And when I won Wimbledon in the same year, 1968, I got \u00a3750,\" she told CNN in an interview filmed for this month's edition of \"Revealed.\" \"I knew then that was going to be one of our next battles that we would have to fight over the years,\" she added. King hoped to put the matter to rest in 1973 when she took on self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in now famous match known as \"The Battle of the Sexes.\" Riggs, a former men's number one, claimed the women's game was so poor that even he, as a 55-year-old retiree from the sport, could beat the top female players. King accepted the challenge and thrashed Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in front of a television audience of millions. Those who argue for lower pay for women's tennis say they play fewer sets and attract a smaller television audience so they should receive less money. Campaigners for equal pay say that it's not an issue of time on the court, but an matter of fair and equal treatment . As current world number six Venus Williams once argued in an open letter published in The Times, \"we enjoy huge and equal celebrity and are paid for the value we deliver to broadcasters and spectators, not the amount of time we spend on the stage.\" What do you think? Should the top female tennis players be taking home the same prize money as men? Sound Off below. Revealed: Venus Williams airs on CNNI at on the dates and times below: . ALL TIMES GMT Wednesday, February 18: 0930, 1830 Saturday, February 21: 0830, 1900 Sunday, February 22: 0530, 1830 Monday, February 23: 0400 .","highlights":"Issue of equal prize money for women's tennis continues to ignite debate .\nJournalist describes Serena Williams' defeat of Safina as \"pitiful and pathetic\"\nWimbledon and the French Open introduced equal prize pots in 2007 .\nWhat do you think? Should female tennis players earn as much as men?","id":"674c5d1ace962e739b3d81b7b722d55c3dd2e761"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The family of a retired FBI agent who was reported missing in Iran two years ago said Monday that they remain hopeful for his return. Photos from Robert Levinson's family show him in 2006, left, and as he might look today. Monday marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Robert Levinson, a father of seven children and grandfather of two. \"After two years of constantly praying for his return, we continue to anxiously await word of his whereabouts,\" said Christine Levinson, the missing man's wife, in a statement. \"Two years [have passed] since our seven children and I last heard his voice, saw his warm, loving smile, and since we last hugged him hello or kissed him goodbye,\" she said. Tuesday will be Levinson's 61st birthday. Levinson disappeared during a business trip to Iran's Kish Island in 2007. Iranian authorities have said repeatedly that they do not know what might have happened to him, but the claim is widely doubted in the United States. \"Since that day our family has been living a nightmare,\" Christine Levinson said. \"This has brought so much darkness to our lives.\" Christine Levinson released a computer-enhanced photograph showing what the family thinks Bob Levinson may look like today. The State Department has consistently denied Levinson was working for the U.S. government and has unsuccessfully pressed Tehran for information about his whereabouts. \"We reiterate our commitment to determining Mr. Levinson's welfare and whereabouts, and reuniting him with his family,\" acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement on Sunday. Congressional reaction in Levinson's home state of Florida has been more pointed. \"On several diplomatic occasions when Bob Levinson's name has been brought up to Iranian officials, the standard answer is, 'We don't know anything about that.' But the next thing out of the Iranian officials' mouths are to discuss the matter of the Iranians held by the Americans in Irbil, Iraq,\" Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, told reporters last month. \"You can draw your own conclusions,\" he said. U.S. troops arrested five Iranians accused of being members of an elite Iranian military unit during a January 2007 raid in the Iraqi city of Irbil. The Iranians were accused of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq, but Iran said they were diplomats and accused the United States of violating international law by raiding a consulate. Nelson and Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Florida, have said they plan to introduce legislation in their respective chambers calling on Iran to cooperate with the United States and come up with information about Levinson. Levinson had been working as a private investigator in Dubai. He was last heard from on March 8, 2007, when he checked into a Kish Island hotel and then checked out to return to the United States the following day. Wexler has said Levinson never arrived at the airport for his flight home. In December 2007, Levinson's wife and other relatives traveled to Iran and met with officials. Christine Levinson has said the Iranian government was polite and guaranteed her family's security on their trip, but provided no details regarding her husband's whereabouts. \"In the past two years, our family's grief has grown to despair,\" Christine Levinson said. The State Department is asking anyone with information about the case to contact the department or the Levinson family via their Web site, www.helpboblevinson.com. CNN'S Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Robert Levinson's family \"constantly praying for his return,\" wife says .\nLevinson disappeared two years ago during trip to Iranian island .\nIranians say they have no knowledge of missing man's whereabouts .\nIranian claim is widely doubted in the United States .","id":"778258d1fc8480c83d5bb33ab649c368a074c537"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The chairman of India's UB Group, which includes Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, made the winning $1.8 million bid on a number of Mahatma Gandhi's personal items on auction. Mahatma Gandhi was known for his peaceful opposition to tyranny, which led to India's independence. Vijay Mallya was expected to return the items to the Indian government, according to CNN-IBN, CNN's sister station in India. Controversy surrounded the sale Thursday of Gandhi's items -- among them his metal-rimmed glasses, pocket watch, sandals, bowl and plate -- prompting the seller, James Otis, to ask that the items be withdrawn from the auction. India voiced strong objections to the auction. Its Ministry of External Affairs said the bidding would \"commercialize and thereby demean the memory of the Father of the Nation and everything that he stood for in his life, beliefs and actions.\" On Tuesday, a New Delhi court issued an injunction to stop the sale. Watch the auction stoke high interest \u00bb . But the Antiquorum auction house in Manhattan went ahead with the auction as scheduled. The Indian government had rejected an offer from Otis, who had asked the Indian government to expand its spending on the poor in exchange for the items. India's government already spends a large amount of money on the country's disadvantaged sectors, India's culture minister Ambika Soni told reporters Thursday. Still, the government had hoped Otis would not allow the public to bid on the items. Soni, the culture minister, said that India's government exercised several options to stop the auction at the Antiquorum in New York. Gandhi, who waged a long struggle against British rule in India, was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic on January 30, 1948. He is still widely revered for his insistence on non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress. Many Indians believe selling Gandhi's items for profit is outrageous. \"I feel very sad about it because Gandhi himself never believed in private possessions,\" said Varsha Das, director of India's National Gandhi Museum, using a term of endearment for Gandhi. \"He gave away everything. He did not even have a home to live in.\" CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mallya expected to return items to Indian government, CNN-IBN reports .\nIndia's Ministry of External Affairs: Bidding would \"commercialize\" Gandhi's memory .\nControversy prompted seller James Otis to ask that items be withdrawn from auction .","id":"07b54340588007b42e4c07f8ce06da204708bfc6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities who seized $8,500 and assorted jewelry from a Tennessee man after a traffic stop in east Texas have agreed to return the property after his case drew attention from CNN. Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists. Roderick Daniels said police in Tenaha, Texas, took the money in October 2007 after they stopped him for doing 37 mph in a 35-mph zone. He said police threatened him with money-laundering charges and promised not to prosecute if he signed over the cash, which Daniels said was to buy a new car. Daniels and other motorists who have been stopped by Tenaha police are part of a lawsuit seeking to end what plaintiff's lawyer David Guillory calls a systematic fleecing of drivers passing through the town of about 1,000. On Friday, after Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell refused repeated requests to discuss cases like Daniels' with CNN, her office filed papers dropping its claim on his property. \"I just feel blessed,\" Daniels said. \"I am happy everything is going good right now. ... I just want to celebrate.\" Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they think is used in the commission of a crime. If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted, the property has to be returned. Russell issued a statement through her attorneys denying impropriety, and George Bowers, Tenaha's longtime mayor, says his police follow the law. But Guillory, who brought the lawsuit challenging the seizures, called cases like Daniels' \"a shakedown\" and \"a piracy operation.\" Guillory said authorities in Tenaha, about 180 miles east of Dallas, seized $3 million from 2006 to 2008. In about 150 cases, virtually all involving African-American or Latino motorists, the seizures were improper, he said. All defendants in the lawsuit deny wrongdoing. In a written statement, Russell's attorneys said the prosecutor \"has used and continues to use prosecutorial discretion ... and is in compliance with Texas law, the Texas constitution and the United States Constitution.\" But the attention paid to Tenaha has led to an effort by Texas lawmakers to tighten the state's forfeiture laws.","highlights":"Tenaha, Texas, police confiscated money in 2007 after traffic stop .\nRoderick Daniels was stopped for driving 37 mph in a 35-mph zone .\nHe and others who had property taken have filed lawsuit .\nTown's officials say they have done nothing wrong .","id":"0dfb6f41e18d9b845d730594662c2ba0e3c39986"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans groups are warning President Barack Obama against going ahead with a possible administration move to charge veterans' private health care for service-related injuries. Veterans groups say it's \"wholly unacceptable\" to charge their private insurance for service injuries. In a letter sent by 11 of the most prominent veterans organizations, the groups warned that the idea \"is wholly unacceptable and a total abrogation of our government's moral and legal responsibility to the men and women who have sacrificed so much.\" CNN obtained a copy of the letter sent to the White House last Friday by groups including The American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Read the letter (PDF) A White House spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the option is being considered. \"The details of specific proposals will be transmitted with the full submission in April. The president has made it clear that meeting the needs of veterans is one of his priorities, and as a result has requested an 11 percent increase in discretionary funding for 2010, and the administration is actively working with the veterans community to ensure we get the details of this budget right,\" said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro. In the letter, the groups said they have been told by sources on Capitol Hill and at the VA that the idea under consideration would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to bill health insurance for a treatment of a disability or injury that was a result of military service. The argument for the proposal is that it frees up money for the VA by charging the private insurers, allowing the VA to spend on more services, said Joe Violante, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, who opposes the idea. While there could be savings, Violante warned it also could lead to an increase in premiums for veterans with private coverage. \"\"We cannot and would not agree to any proposal that would expand this concept any further,\" the heads of the 11 groups wrote in the letter. \"While we understand the fiscal difficulties this country faces right now, placing the burden of those fiscal problems on the men and women who have already sacrificed a great deal for this country is unconscionable.\" Currently, veterans' private insurance is only charged when they receive health care from the VA for medical issues that are not related to service injuries, like getting the flu. Charging for service-related injuries would violate \"a sacred trust,\" said Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis. Davis said the move would risk private health care for veterans and their families by potentially maxing out benefits paying for costly war injury treatments. It could also make it harder for veterans to get private insurance if the companies decide to reject them for pre-existing conditions, rather than be billed for service-connected injuries, Davis said. \"This seems like bad politics and bad policy,\" said IAVA Policy Director Vanessa Williamson, noting that every veterans group opposes it and warns it will adversely affect veterans. \"I don't see this as a tenable option.\"","highlights":"Possible change in billing angers veterans groups .\nWhite House would neither confirm nor deny the option is being considered .\nArgument for the proposal would be to free up more money for VA .\nSpokesman: Charging for service-related injuries would violate \"a sacred trust\"","id":"cd394a7c0b65810df171da4547a2c9ccfc0841db"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The future of Manchester United's on-loan Argentina striker Carlos Tevez is causing quite a stir at the champion English club. Should they sign him? The future of Carlos Tevez at Manchester United is uncertain. Facing the question of whether to sign Tevez on a permanent basis, Manchester United fans appear to be saying \"yes,\" while the player has talked of leaving. The Argentina international, fondly nick-named \"El Apache\" by his supporters, is in his second season at Old Trafford, where he has scored 34 goals in 97 appearances. Do you think United should sign Tevez permanently? Tell us what you think and why in the Sound Off box below. The 25-year-old scored another vital goal for United to help them beat Wigan and all but seal their successful defense of the English Premier League. And though Ferguson remains defiant that Tevez is still his player at present who is to say what will happen in the future. Manchester United fans have certainly let their manager know what they think. Following the Argentine's goal chants of \"sign him up\" were heard from the travelling faithful. Discussion groups have also been set up on the Manchester United page of social networking site Facebook, with the United faithful declaring their support for the striker. Among the comments were: \"We need Tevez. He always influences the game while he is on the pitch.\" While another wrote: \"It would truly be a mistake if Fergie lets Tevez go\". Would it be a mistake if Tevez went? Tell us what you think below.","highlights":"Carlos Tevez' loan deal at Manchester United ends at the close of the season .\nTevez says he has not been offered contract and does not feel 'wanted'\nTevez is a favorite of many United fans who hope to see him signed .","id":"df230110e5e96859716a44d819bc874c72693b73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk was deported to Germany on Monday evening after he was removed from his Cleveland, Ohio-area home in the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier in the day. German officials claim John Demjanjuk was an accessory to 29,000 murders in a Nazi death camp. An ambulance transported him to an airstrip at the Cleveland airport. The plane carrying Demjanjuk departed at 7:13 p.m. Demjanjuk, 89, is wanted by German authorities for his alleged involvement during World War II in killings at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland. His deportation closed a chapter in one of the longest-running pursuits of an alleged Holocaust perpetrator in history. It also sets the stage for what likely will prove to be an extraordinary German war crimes trial. The Supreme Court last Thursday denied a stay of deportation for Demjanjuk. Justice John Paul Stevens without comment refused to intervene in the planned transfer from the United States. Federal courts have all rejected his appeals, and the order from Stevens cleared the way for the Justice Department to move ahead with the deportation. Demjanjuk's lawyers had asked the high court to consider their claims that he is too ill and frail to be sent overseas. They also raised human rights and other legal issues in their last-minute appeal. A German court last Wednesday had also ruled against a request for a stay. Officials in Berlin have issued an arrest warrant charging Demjanjuk with being an accessory to the murder of about 29,000 civilians at Sobibor in 1943. The native Ukrainian has long claimed he was a prisoner of war, not a death camp guard. Immigration officers previously entered Demjanjuk's Cleveland-area home April 14, and carried him out in his wheelchair to a waiting van. He was held for a few hours and then returned to his residence after a federal appeals court ruled temporarily in his favor. Demjanjuk had appealed unsuccessfully to the Supreme Court last year. He was once accused by the United States and Israel of being a notoriously brutal S.S. guard at the Treblinka camp known as \"Ivan the Terrible.\" After appeals, that allegation was eventually dropped by both countries, but later other allegations were made against him. CNN's Terry Frieden and Bill Mears contributed to this report .","highlights":"Ambulance takes war crimes suspect from his home to Cleveland, Ohio, airport .\nJohn Demjanjuk, 89, wanted for alleged involvement in war crimes .\nU.S. Supreme Court denied stay of deportation .\nLawyers argued he is too ill and frail to be sent overseas .","id":"7b16f654fe8fd13b5edab7ad2a86bab99561429d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. President Obama signs the executive order on stem cell policy Monday at the White House. Obama's move overturns an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time. Obama also signed a presidential memorandum establishing greater independence for federal science policies and programs. \"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values,\" Obama said at the White House. \"In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.\" Watch as Obama announces he's lifting the funding ban \u00bb . The president pledged to develop \"strict guidelines\" to ensure that such research \"never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction.\" Such a possibility, he maintained, is \"dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society or any society.\" Obama's order directs the NIH to develop revised guidelines on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research within 120 days, according to Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council. \"The president is, in effect, allowing federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research to the extent that it's permitted by law -- that is, work with stem cells themselves, not the derivation of stem cells,\" Varmus said in a conference call with reporters Sunday. While conceding that \"the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown\" and \"should not be overstated,\" Obama nevertheless expressed hope that the order will help spur faster progress in the search for cures to afflictions such as Parkinson's disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries. See a map of nations that have taken a lead in using human embryos in stem cell research \u00bb . Researchers highly value embryonic stem cells because of their potential to turn into any organ or tissue cell in the body. Stem cells have this ability for a short time. A few days before the embryo would implant in the uterus, it starts to develop into specific cells that will turn into skin or eyes or other parts of a developing fetus. Watch a doctor explain why embryotic stem cells are so important \u00bb . When the embryo is 4 or 5 days old, scientists extract the stem cells and put them in a petri dish. With the removal of these stem cells -- of which there may be about 30 -- the embryo is destroyed. Twenty-one of the 60 stem cell lines authorized for research under the Bush policy have proven useful to researchers. Bush twice vetoed legislation -- in July 2006 and June 2007 -- that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research. At the time, Bush maintained that scientific advances allowed researchers to conduct groundbreaking research without destroying human embryos. Conservative leaders echoed Bush's rationale in their criticism of Obama's decision. \"Advancements in science and research have moved faster than the debates among politicians in Washington, D.C., and breakthroughs announced in recent years confirm the full potential of stem cell research can be realized without the destruction of living human embryos,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Sunday. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the Bush policy imposed proper ethical limits on science. \"My basic tenet here is I don't think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth,\" Shelby said Sunday. \"I know that people argue there are other ways. I think we should continue our biomedical research everywhere we can, but we should have some ethics about it.\" The issue of whether to lift the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has, however, exposed a clear rift between the more moderate and conservative factions of the GOP. In February, a group of six moderate GOP congressmen sent a letter to Obama urging him to lift the funding ban. Former first lady Nancy Reagan also issued a statement Monday thanking Obama for lifting the ban. \"These new rules will now make it possible for scientists to move forward,\" Reagan said. \"Countless people, suffering from many different diseases, stand to benefit from the answers stem cell research can provide. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to do everything in our power to find cures for these diseases.\" President Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease after leaving office -- an affliction that many scientists say eventually may be cured with the help of embryonic stem cell research. Obama's presidential memorandum, however, may turn out to have a broader impact than his executive order. The memorandum is expected to create a clear change of tone from the Bush administration on a broad range of scientific issues. Bush's critics argued the former president allowed political factors improperly to influence funding decisions for science initiatives as well as to skew official government findings on issues such as global warming. Watch a GOP congressman say Obama is 'behind the times' \u00bb . Obama's memorandum directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy \"to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making.\" In a thinly veiled criticism of his predecessor, Obama reiterated a promise to base \"public policies on the soundest science\" as well as to \"appoint scientific advisers based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology.\"","highlights":"NEW: Former first lady Nancy Reagan thanks President Obama for lifting funding ban .\nObama: \"We have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research\"\nBush-era policy on embryonic stem cell research reversed .\nAdvocates: Move could boost medical progress; critics object to embryo destruction .","id":"84c8b01fc9cedf48f5a1138c6d6f1567fed37dba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda ended days of speculation Sunday by confirming that one of its chemical weapons experts was killed last week along with three other \"heroes,\" according to a statement posted on a radical Islamist Web site. Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar was among four \"heroes\" killed last week, an al Qaeda statement says. The statement, dated July 30, provided no details on how or when the al Qaeda operatives were killed. It was signed by al Qaeda's top leader in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid. A senior Pakistani official said last week it was a \"near certainty\" that weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar died in a U.S. airstrike Monday in Pakistan's tribal region. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that if reports of the strike were true, the U.S. violated Pakistani sovereignty. Umar, who is also known as Sheikh Abu Khabab al-Masri, was on the U.S. State Department's list of 37 wanted terrorists, and the U.S. had offered $5 million for information leading to his death or arrest. \"Although Abu Khabab is gone, he left behind him a generation who will seek revenge and punishment with God's help,\" the al Qaeda statement said. \"And while the 'expert' is gone, he left behind experts who were taught and trained under his hands throughout the years.\" Umar was killed along with Abu Mohammed Ibrahim Bin Abi al-Faraj al-Masri, Abd al-Wahab al-Masri, and Abu Islam al-Masri, the statement said. Umar, a 55-year-old Egyptian, ran a chemical-and-explosives training camp for terrorists in Derunta, Afghanistan, before the fall of the Taliban, U.S. officials said. \"Since 1999, he has distributed training manuals that contain instructions for making chemical and biological weapons,\" according to the U.S. Rewards for Justice program. \"Some of these training manuals were recovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.\" Rewards for Justice said Umar was believed to be in Pakistan, continuing to train al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists. He was reportedly near the site of a U.S. airstrike more than two years ago in the Pakistani mountain village of Damadola. The strike targeted a dinner gathering believed to include terrorists. Initial reports that Umar died in the January 2006 strike later proved erroneous.","highlights":"Statement provides few details, is signed by al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan .\nStatement: Weapons expert \"left behind him a generation who will seek revenge\"\nPakistani PM said if U.S. conducted airstrike, it violated Pakistani sovereignty .\nReports that al Qaeda weapons expert was killed in 2006 proved erroneous .","id":"d20d3b6d04635a0effe9b07bc527d4d21ba6b738"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (UK) -- Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologized on behalf of parliamentarians of all parties for a series of revelations about their expenses claims, revelations which have seriously damaged the authority of government and parliament. UK PM Gordon Brown, pictured here in north-east England Monday, apologized Monday on behalf of all lawmakers. Brown's words have been echoed by David Cameron, the leader of the opposition Conservatives and currently the favorite to win the next general election by a large margin. Cameron acknowledges all MPs must say sorry and that the whole system must be changed. The scandal has come to light because The Daily Telegraph newspaper obtained copies of all the receipts for MPs expenses, which were due to be published in two months time under Freedom of Information legislation. The newspaper has been devoting several pages every day to the details of how the system has been milked, with MPs claiming that expenditure on bath plugs and lawn mowers, silk cushions and television sets, potted plants and dog food, was \"wholly and necessarily incurred for the purpose of performing their parliamentary duties.\" Do you think politicians in your country are paid enough? In Britain, as in many other countries, parliamentarians are compensated for the expense of living both in the parts of the country they represent and in the capital where parliament meets. There is help too with travel costs and staffing their offices. But the so-called \"additional costs allowance,\" designed to help them with the additional costs of a second home has, by common consent, been particularly abused. This is not an \"expenses scandal\" about a couple of notepads and pens taken home from the office stationery cupboard for the kids' school project; or the annual phone call to an aged aunt in Australia, made on an office line rather than from home -- although doubtless politicians will have been doing that too. Watch more on the expenses row \u00bb . We are talking about the deliberate exploitation of a poorly-policed system by a large number of parliamentarians, who appear to many of their constituents to have come close to enriching themselves corruptly at public expense. There is particular horror at the practice which has emerged of so-called \"flipping.\" MPs have, in a number of cases, designated one residence as their second home for the purpose of the allowance. Having drawn heavily on public funds for redecorating, refurbishing and refurnishing it, they have then switched and named a different house or flat -- only to do the same with that. In some cases they have sold these properties on for a significant profit. I spent more than 30 years at Westminster as a political correspondent. Much of my time off duty was spent explaining to skeptical neighbors, barbers and taxi drivers that MPs did a much better job than outsiders thought. I knew and respected MPs whom I saw imperil their health or their marriages or their bank balances by working extremely hard on behalf of their constituents. I argued constantly that we underpaid our politicians. Now, when I hear them call each other \"honorable members\" I am constantly reminded of Ralph Waldo Emerson's dictum: \"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted the spoons.\" The truth is that the good ones are still underpaid. They could earn far more outside the House of Commons. But the poor ones are overpaid -- and sadly there is no way of differentiating between the two categories. It was never the right time, certainly in the eyes of the media, for MPs to have a decent pay rise; and they never had the guts to stand up and argue their case. So parliamentarians instead built themselves, while nobody was watching, a generous and poorly policed expenses system which allowed them to make up the difference between what they got and what they thought they should be paid. What they seem unable to grasp, even now, is that in picking taxpayers' pockets by subterfuge they have all but destroyed parliament's moral authority. Cynically, they have led us all into a \"help yourself to what you can get\" mockery of public service which may take a generation or more to repair, if indeed it can be repaired. And remember that they did their damnedest along the way to make sure that we, the public, should not find out what they were doing. Led by the Speaker of the House, the man who presides over debates and should be the beacon of Commons probity (and who along with his wife has claimed \u00a34,000 - about $6,000 - on taxis for shopping trips), the Commons Commission spent \u00a3150,000 (approx. $225,000) of public funds going to the High Court to try to prevent public disclosure of how MPs have been spending taxpayers' money. A horrified public, combing through the details of the Telegraph's revelations, is asking how MPs could ever have justified their \"flipping.\" At a time of economic stringency for others, they are asking why MPs, who benefit any way from subsidized canteens, should be allowed to charge \u00a3400 (approx. $600) a month for their food on top of their salary. How can it be part of the necessary expenses in carrying out MPs' duties, they ask, to charge for children's buggies and the eradication of moles from their country lawns? Just how many have been paying inflated \"rents\" to close relatives; or claiming the \"additional costs allowance\" for second homes they do not actually inhabit on more than token occasions? Why should it be legal for ministers who live in \"grace and favor\" apartments (where they are allowed to live for free) to claim additional costs allowances for properties they are meanwhile renting out? The MPs are meeting all these complaints by saying that nothing they have done was outside the rules. But these were rules that they themselves set up as the nation's legislators. And only now are they beginning to realize the wider damage that they have done . By creating the expenses system they did, which is only now becoming transparent, they insulated themselves from the problems faced by ordinary people. British MPs expenses, unlike those of the rest of the population, are not taxable. They have also, as the cannier ones now admit, destroyed any moral authority they might have had in criticizing and curbing the greed of bankers and others who have brought us to near ruin and wrecked the pensions of half the nation. (The pensions of MPs are provided at the taxpayers' expense -- with inflation proofing, of course.) With the expenses binge having infected all the mainstream parties, there is another potential ramification too, which is likely to show up in next month's elections for the European Parliament. Traditionally British electors, without the election of their national government at issue, tend to treat these as an opportunity for a protest vote, to punish politicians who have incurred their wrath. As a result we may see significant advance for the parties of the far right, the United Kingdom Independence Party and the British National Party. The expenses excesses of many of the 646 Westminster parliamentary MPs could give those groups a new legitimacy -- and their biggest advance yet.","highlights":"UK lawmakers have been accused of over-milking the system for claiming expenses .\nNewspaper revelations have sparked anger at a time of economic uncertainty .\nMPs say that nothing they have done was outside the rules, which they set up .\nUK PM Gordon Brown has apologized on behalf of parliamentarians of all parties .","id":"e34e6073fb4f92f905dc60983153d2f1f936f824"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 33 people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide car bombing targeting a national reconciliation conference in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. Abu Ghraib attack victim in Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad, Amjad Hameed . The attack -- which occurred outside the municipal building of Abu Ghraib in western Baghdad -- also wounded 46 others, the official said. The attacker was targeting the latest effort by the government to foster national reconciliation between religious and ethnic groups. Sunni Arab and Shiite tribal leaders were attending the meeting, backed by the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. Another Interior Ministry official told CNN the attack occurred when people gathered outside as the conference in the building ended. Al-Baghdadiya TV said two of its journalists were killed in the explosion. An Iraqi journalists' group confirmed those deaths and said a number of journalists were also wounded. Along with meeting attendees and journalists, Iraqi soldiers were among the casualties. No one has claimed responsibility for the strike, but in the past, such gatherings have been targeted by al Qaeda in Iraq, the anti-American Sunni Arab militant group. Staffan de Mistura, special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Iraq, deplored the attack and passed along condolences to grieving families. He said the bombing targeted the tribal leaders after their meeting, and called the strike a \"horrible crime that is designed to sabotage reconciliatory efforts by the Iraqi people, who, I am confident, will continue on the road of dialogue.\" The blast follows another huge attack on Sunday, when a man wearing an explosives-laden vest drove a motorcycle rigged with bombs into a group of police recruits in eastern Baghdad. That attack killed 30 people and wounded 61 others. Most of the victims of Sunday's strike were police officers and recruits who had gathered outside a police academy on Palestine Street. The same academy was targeted on December 1 in a double bombing that killed 16 and wounded 46. The violence came after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday rallied sheikhs of the nation's tribes to participate in Iraq's government. It was the latest official effort to further reconciliation among Sunnis, Shiites and tribes of different sects and bring some former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party into the political fold. After the invasion, the U.S.-led coalition decided to purge Iraqi institutions of Baathists, most of whom were Sunni Arabs. Al-Maliki, who is Shiite, has been criticized in the past by minority groups for not fairly representing Iraqi's ethnic groups. CNN's Yousif Bassil and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"33 killed in suicide bombing at reconciliation conference in Baghdad .\nTuesday's attack came as tribal leaders were attending conference .\nBombing came 3 days after Iraqi PM urged nation's sheikhs to join government .","id":"f04cd2bf8aeb3c88e4b5bd32124c3a8327b33307"} -{"article":"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- With space shuttle Atlantis on its way to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, that leaves one shuttle, Endeavour, at the ready on the other launch pad here. Space shuttle Endeavour, in background, sits poised to launch in case Atlantis, in foreground, meets trouble. And that's where everybody at NASA wants it to stay. \"We have high confidence that we're just having that thing over on pad B to make it look nice,\" said mission flight director Tony Ceccaci. Endeavour is far more than a postcard picture -- it's on standby in case something goes seriously wrong with the Atlantis mission. For example, NASA has estimated there's a 1-in-221 chance the shuttle could be struck and crippled by orbiting space debris. If such an incident were to thrust the seven Atlantis astronauts into danger, Endeavour would blast off within days in a last-ditch attempt to save them. Endeavour Cmdr. Christopher Ferguson believes his crew is up to the task. \"I feel as confident about our ability to pull this off, if need be, as I would any other mission,\" he said. The idea of a standby rescue spacecraft grew out of the 2003 Columbia disaster, in which that shuttle disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. But until now, there's been no need. All the previous missions since Columbia have gone to the International Space Station. The crew of a damaged shuttle could take refuge there for months if need be until another shuttle was readied to retrieve them. But Atlantis is going to Hubble, whose orbit isn't anywhere near the space station. If their spacecraft malfunctioned, the seven-member Atlantis crew would have to survive aboard -- probably for days -- until they could be rescued. \"In this case it's a much shorter fuse,\" Ferguson said. \"Consumables like food and oxygen would run out quickly. So the reason we've gotten this crew trained and spooled up and ready to go on literally a moment's notice is because they [Atlantis's crew] have no place comfortable to go stay for a long period of time.\" But the rescue would be no cakewalk. Endeavour would need to pull up underneath Atlantis and hook on to the other shuttle using its robotic arm. Over the course of two days, the seven Atlantis astronauts would spacewalk over to Endeavour by holding on to a tether line strung between the two spaceships. Atlantis mission specialist John Grunsfeld would go first -- and, actually, twice. Grunsfeld would spacewalk to Endeavour, grab an extra EMU (extravehicular mobility unit) spacesuit and take it back to Atlantis. He would then return to Endeavour with one of the Atlantis astronauts not trained in spacewalking. With the Atlantis crew safely aboard, Endeavour would pull away and begin preparing to head home. Atlantis Cmdr. Scott Altman said that knowing Ferguson and the other three members of the Endeavour crew are ready in case of an emergency gives him peace of mind. \"Even in the worst-possible imaginable case, we can stay up there and last until somebody comes up and gets us,\" Altman said. \"So it feels like we have all our bases covered.\" So what would happen to Atlantis? Ferguson said mission leaders would prepare the crippled shuttle for what they call a \"disposal burn\" -- a safe, remotely controlled landing of Atlantis. \"If it comes to it, we certainly don't want a space shuttle coming in over a populated area,\" he said. \"So we want to control the burn so it does end up in the ocean.\" In all, eleven astronauts would be stuffed into Endeavour. A space shuttle has never carried that many. The four Endeavour crew members would hang out in the flight deck, while the seven Atlantis astronauts would squeeze into the mid-deck area. The journey back to Earth would be uncomfortable. But Ceccaci, the flight director, says that wouldn't matter as long as everyone was safe. \"Wrap me in bubble wrap and get me home safely, I wouldn't care,\" he said. \"I wouldn't care how cramped it is.\"","highlights":"The shuttle Endeavour and its crew are standing by in case of a emergency in space .\nEndeavour would blast off to rescue the crew of shuttle Atlantis .\nAtlantis blasted off Monday to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope .\nA rescue mission would involve two tricky days of spacewalks between shuttles .","id":"59d924277af83a36ff7eeeb04a67fe667dbd0eb8"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose book \"When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams\" will be published in a new paperback edition this week. Bob Greene says he and his family didn't expect to be able to enjoy this Mother's Day. (CNN) -- This is the Mother's Day we thought was going to be empty. Last summer, my brother, my sister and I got the news like a sucker-punch to the stomach: Our mother's health, which had not been good for some time, had taken a sudden turn for the worse. A very compassionate hospice evaluator came to her home and said that, although one could never be absolutely certain, the end was quite near. \"It may be two days. It may be two weeks.\" Those were the words. We tried to process them. She would be gone from us by the fall. Except ... \"Debby just picked me up a book from the library, and I'm a few chapters into it,\" my mother said to me on the phone the other day. She got better. \"Better\" does not mean great; she walks with some difficulty now, she is fragile in ways she once was strong, but on this Mother's Day that we all expected to be such a desolate one for us, she's here. On that morning the woman from hospice first came to visit, our mother was in her bed in the same room where our father, 10 years ago, had slowly died. Toward the end, he had not been able to get out of his bed, and we foresaw the same awful drama unfolding in the same way in the same bedroom. It was going to be even more wrenching to witness this time around. But somehow, from somewhere inside herself, she decided: \"Not yet.\" I don't say that glibly; I know that most men and women, in the months of their dying, do not have a choice about whether they will regain a semblance of their health. There comes a point when there is little to do but give in as gracefully as possible. Our mother didn't. And while my brother and sister and I cherish the extra time we have been given with her, the most moving thing is to quietly behold how fiercely she is cherishing the extra time she has been given with the world -- the extra time she has been given with life itself. That book from the library my sister brought her, it is one of many she has read since last summer. It's as if she realized that, if the prediction had been right -- if she had left us within two days or two weeks -- she never would have known the pleasure of reading another book. She has loved reading all her life; now she is reading new books with a sense of gratitude that we can literally feel. She got to watch one more presidential campaign. She has always taken her responsibility as a citizen with utter seriousness. She thought, last summer, that she would never know who the next president would be. But as, little by little, she got better during the fall, I can guarantee you that not even Wolf Blitzer or John King followed the day-to-day fluctuations of the campaign with more devotion than she did. She used to joke with our father that their trips together to the polling place were ultimately a waste of time: He was on one end of the political spectrum, she was on the other, and, as she put it, \"Our votes always canceled each other's out.\" She was born during the Woodrow Wilson administration -- and in November, against all odds, she got to cast a ballot for president one more time. Whenever my brother flies to central Ohio to visit her, he goes not straight from the airport to her house; he makes a stop. He picks up some pizzas at Rubino's on East Main Street in Bexley, and he has them in his hands as he walks through her front door. She hasn't tasted her last Rubino's pizza, not yet -- she thought she had, and each slice is a reminder of the good things that life still holds for her. She enjoys the television series \"Brothers and Sisters\"; each Sunday evening, as she tells us that she is preparing to watch it, we know that it is seemingly small things like that, things that once felt mundane to her -- an hour with a favorite program -- that she relishes anew. Over the holidays, I bought her the complete DVD series of \"The Sopranos.\" She is an admirer of great acting, and she was enthralled by the talent of James Gandolfini during the original run of the show; she has watched the entire arc of \"The Sopranos\" again, from the first episode to the last, and she did it in a hurry. You never know how much time you are given. It might not be the worst way for any of us to live, even those of us who are much younger than she is; it might not be a bad idea for us to live as if someone has told us, \"It may be two days. It may be two weeks.\" Imagining those words is a pretty good reminder that we should savor every hour we are given. My brother, my sister and I don't fool ourselves; just as warm days in March are sometimes followed by snow and ice, we realize that our mother's return to vibrancy may turn out to be a false spring. Yet even if it is a brief illusion, it is a springtime that brings tears of thanks to our eyes. In October, she will turn 90, if she, and we, are lucky. But that's the wrong way to put it. If we are lucky? We are. This is the Mother's Day we didn't think we'd have. And I think she knows exactly what is in our hearts. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: This Mother's Day is one my family didn't expect to enjoy .\nHe says his mother has survived and made good use of precious time .\nGreene: We should all live as if we have only a few weeks more of life .","id":"9722c56ee14d895c07b9a63e9ed09ca0503f9183"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier fired on his fellow troops at a counseling center at a base outside Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, U.S. officials said, killing five people in the worst such attack of the six-year-old Iraq war. U.S. Army troops get a safety briefing before departing Camp Liberty, Iraq, in December 2008. The shooting occurred at 2 p.m. at a stress clinic at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad International Airport, two senior defense officials said. Though initial reports indicated the attacker was killed in the incident, the U.S. command in Baghdad said late Monday a suspect in the killings was in custody. Neither the suspect nor any of the victims had been identified, but a defense official with access to the latest reports on the incident told CNN that the suspect had been a patient at the treatment center. \"Any time we lose one of our own, it affects us all,\" Col. John Robinson, a U.S. military spokesman, said in a written statement. President Obama said that he was \"shocked and deeply saddened\" by the \"horrible tragedy.\" \"My heart goes out to the families and friends of all the service members involved,\" he said in a written statement. \"I will press to ensure that we fully understand what led to this tragedy, and that we are doing everything we can to ensure that our men and women in uniform are protected.\" The president said he discussed the issue in a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday afternoon. And Gates expressed his own \"horror and deep regret\" at a press briefing. Watch the defense secretary talk about the incident \u00bb . \"If the preliminary reports are confirmed, such a tragic loss of life at the hands of our own forces is a cause for great and urgent concern,\" Gates said. \"And I can assure you that it will get this department's highest priority attention.\" Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added the incident shows a need to \"redouble\" efforts regarding troop stress levels. Camp Liberty is tightly guarded, and U.S. troops are required to clear their weapons of ammunition while on the base. The only service members who have loaded weapons are those guarding high-ranking officers and military police. Monday's attack marks the sixth incident in which a service member was killed by a fellow service member since the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Camp Liberty is part of the Camp Victory Complex, one of the largest U.S. military bases in Iraq. It lies just northeast of Baghdad International Airport and is also near the massive al-Faw palace of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein. Once known as Camp Victory North, the base was renamed Camp Liberty in September 2004, or Camp Al-Tahreer in Arabic, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site that provides background on military and security issues. Like other American facilities in Iraq, Camp Liberty provides a host of amenities for the thousands of U.S. troops who call it home during their combat tours. The base resembles a giant trailer park, dotted with air-conditioned two- or three-person units that house thousands of service members. It boasts several dining facilities catered by a private company, fully equipped gymnasiums, recreation centers and a post exchange that rivals Wal-Mart. In recent years, a number of fast food restaurants such as Burger King and Pizza Hut have opened, as well as private stores and a bazaar that sells local wares. The military set up several chapels, and each unit operates stress-relief clinics -- such as the one at which the shootings occurred Monday -- where troops can request counseling. CNN's Cal Perry, Chris Lawrence and Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"Defense official: Suspect had been a patient at the treatment center .\nPresident Obama to discuss incident with defense secretary .\nAttack is the deadliest on soldiers by a fellow soldier during Operation Iraqi Freedom .\nFive killed and three others wounded in incident .","id":"d1db420bbdc0114c52f50183c7ec07910a097f75"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Iran has condemned the kidnapping of one of its diplomats in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, calling it an \"act of terrorism,\" an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said. Pakistani policemen inspect a bullet-riddled car of a kidnapped Iranian diplomat on Thursday. \"Pakistan should do its best to protect foreign diplomats and their residential places,\" the spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. At least four gunmen abducted Heshmatollah Attarzadeh near his home in Peshawar as he headed to work at the Iranian consulate, according to Pakistani police and Iranian diplomatic officials. His bodyguard, a Pakistani police officer, was shot and killed when the two men tried to resist, a Peshawar police official said. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also \"strongly condemned\" the attack, and informed Iran that the government \"will take all necessary measures for his safe and early recovery.\" Attarzadeh is a commercial attache for the Iranian consulate in Peshawar. It is the second attack targeting a foreign worker in Peshawar in two days. An American aid worker was shot and killed outside the Iranian consulate in Peshawar on Wednesday. Stephen Vance worked for a non-profit foundation funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development that helped find jobs for people in Pakistan's tribal regions, according to a statement from his employer, the Cooperative Housing Foundation International. \"Stephen had fully immersed himself in the community in which he worked,\" the statement said. \"He dressed traditionally and even sent his children to local schools.\" Vance, 52, a native of California, is survived by his wife and five children -- all of whom lived with him in Peshawar -- CHF International official Bill Holbrook told CNN. The attacks come less than three months after gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the senior U.S. diplomat in Peshawar, Lynne Tracy. She escaped unharmed. Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, an area rife with Islamic extremists and the site of recent clashes between security forces and militants. In late June, Pakistan's military launched an offensive in the province -- the biggest push against extremists in the tribal region since the civilian government took power in March. Islamic militants vowed to retaliate. Since then, militants have launched several deadly attacks. Pakistan's new government has tried to negotiate a deal with militants as part of its efforts to bypass military might and achieve peace through talks.","highlights":"Diplomat was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan .\nAuthorities believe he was kidnapped while traveling from his home to consulate .\nOn Wednesday, gunmen shot and killed an American aid worker in Peshawar .","id":"857507f277d6bc792f37977779b12fe35e5c2020"} -{"article":"GARUT, Indonesia (CNN) -- The people of Indonesia's Java Island still follow wedding traditions passed down centuries ago by their ancestors. Cucu and his bride, Yati Supriyatna, plant two saplings during their wedding ceremony. Family members gather for an all-day ceremony that begins with the groom bringing a gift to the bride's house. On a hot and sticky morning in a village near Garut, 26-year-old Cucu carries a sapling to give to his bride. The young tree is not exactly a unique gift; it's part of a government initiative to bring back the Garut province's devastated forests. Newly married couples must plant 10 trees under the program. If they divorce, they must plant 50 others. Cucu and his bride, Yati Supriyatna -- both dressed in all white -- headed to a mosque in the foothills of West Java's mountains, where they carefully planted two saplings, a symbolic gesture. The young couple met in school three years ago and began dating last year. Watch as Indonesia tackles deforestation \u00bb . \"We're just meant to be,\" said 18-year-old Yati, giggling in her white flower-adorned veil. They will plant the other saplings -- eucalyptus, avocado and mahogany -- at the sleepy village about an hour outside Garut where they plan to settle, for now. Indonesia's landscape has been devastated by massive deforestation. Though not a heavily industrialized nation, Indonesia is behind China and the United States as the world's third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. That is largely the result of the removal of its trees, which cut down the absorption of carbon dioxide. While Garut province is not the country's worst offender, a Garut forestry official said he can no longer ignore the damage. \"Most people here work in agriculture which is of course highly dependent on the fertility of the soil,\" said Eddy Muharam of Garut's forestry department. \"The fertility is decreasing now because of deforestation and intensive use of soil.\" Forestry officials have identified \"critical land\" in Garut, which has been overfarmed and needs to be reforested. The overfarming leads to erosion, which can cause major flooding. Environmental officials estimate that 50 million trees are needed in Garut alone to reverse the harm done by overfarming. Indonesia's government does not have the funds to pay for such an initiative. So they hope the trend of planting saplings will catch on among other newlyweds in Indonesia. \"It's sacred and a once in a lifetime moment, so we thought that it would be a good time to encourage people's participation,\" Muharam said. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Newlyweds in Indonesia plant trees under program to replenish forests .\nCouples plant 10 trees; if they divorce, they must plant 50 others .\nIndonesia's landscape has been devastated by massive deforestation .","id":"431165d008a90774ac07e20122373834754f9fa5"} -{"article":"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- So, what's harder, steering a space shuttle or out-machoing Tom Cruise on the set of \"Top Gun\"? Scott Altman is commander of the current space shuttle mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Scott Altman laughs when he answers the question. \"Flying a space shuttle is a little more challenging than what we did in the movie, although the flying was a lot of fun,\" said Altman, who knows more than a little about both. The retired Navy F-14 fighter pilot is the commander of the current space shuttle Atlantis mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. He also doubled for the actors, including Cruise, during the Southern California shoot of the 1986 hit movie. Then a young pilot, Altman had just gotten back from a 7\u00bd-month tour onboard an aircraft carrier when he got the \"Top Gun\" call from his commanding officer. \"The skipper of our squadron picked four guys he thought he could trust to have this kind of carte blanche to break the rules a little bit,\" Altman said. That included a scene in which a brazen Navy pilot buzzes the base's control tower. That would never happen in real life, Altman said. The movie features Cruise as a young naval aviator, Pete \"Maverick\" Mitchell, selected to attend fighter-pilot training school at the then-Miramar Naval Station north of San Diego. To prepare for the film, Cruise flew in the backseat of an F-14 several times, including once with Altman. \"The actors were all pretty easy to get along with. Tom Cruise, for example, was very motivated,\" recalled Altman, who is making his fourth trip into space this week. \"He enjoyed flying. He listened to what we told him and became a pilot himself after that.\" Altman is not one to brag about his flying in \"Top Gun.\" The U.S. space agency, NASA, doesn't mention his film heroics, either. But Altman is in one of the movie's most memorable scenes. While flying upside down, inverted, Altman gives an obscene gesture to the pilot of an enemy plane. \"They said go ahead and gesture at the other airplane,\" said Altman, 49, with a smile. \"So when you're looking at the scene where he's communicating with the Russian, or the bad-guy pilots in the movie, that would be my finger.\" But the flying scenes with the actors didn't all work out as director Tony Scott had hoped. \"The director had to pay $7,600 an hour to rent an airplane,\" Altman recalled. \"But after a week of spending that much money on the airplanes, he decided he couldn't use the footage. The actors all looked a little green, he said.\" Altman and the other pilots earned $23 a day for their trouble. But his biggest disappointment was not getting to see the film as soon as it was released. He and the other pilots were invited to a preview screening, but a commanding officer would not let them go. And by the time the movie hit theaters, Altman was busy. He was overseas, on another seven-month tour of duty.","highlights":"Ex-fighter pilot Scott Altman is commander of space shuttle Atlantis mission .\nAs a young pilot, Altman was a stunt double in the 1986 hit movie \"Top Gun\"\nAltman worked with several actors on the film, including star Tom Cruise .\nAltman on Cruise: \"He enjoyed flying. He listened to what we told him\"","id":"a645b67528a6c4f560837a8878dfcb26047940d7"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- May 11, 2009 . Quick Guide . Russia Victory Day - Discover how an anniversary is connected to a show of Russia's military might. Charging for Content? - Debate whether there's a future in charging readers to view news content online. Final Visit - Depart the Earth's surface for a maintenance mission needed in outer space. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: It's Monday, I'm Carl Azuz, and this is CNN Student News! Thank you for joining us. We're gonna start things off with a quick check of some headlines. First Up: Headlines . AZUZ: Fierce battles are still raging in northwestern Pakistan, where the country's military is waging an assault against Taliban forces. Officials say as many as 200 members of the militant group were killed in a single day over the weekend. CNN can't confirm that information, because journalists aren't allowed in the region. The United Nations is concerned about this impact on civilians. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis are leaving the area to try and get away from the violence. And in California, firefighters are getting some help from the weather as they battle that blaze in Santa Barbara. Authorities say low winds and increased humidity are helping to keep the flames under control. The fire, which had destroyed or damaged about 80 homes, was at least 55 percent contained by Sunday. Russia Victory Day . AZUZ: And Russia is celebrating the end of World War II with its 64th annual Victory Day. The occasion, which took place on Saturday, marks the date in 1945 when Nazi Germany officially surrendered to the former USSR, which Russia was part of at the time. As Matthew Chance shows us, the weekend ceremony gave Russia an opportunity to show off its military might. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the biggest show of force in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Columns of tanks and missile launchers thundered over the cobblestones of Red Square in the center of Moscow for these Victory Day celebrations, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany but also reflecting the Kremlin's efforts to revive Russia's armed forces and global power. Well, opening the parade, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev told spectators that Russia's military is ready to respond to any aggression, and he referred obliquely to the country's brief war with the neighboring former Soviet republic of Georgia last year. DMITRY MEDVEDEV, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (TRANSLATED): Now more than ever, it is clear a safe world is possible only where international law is strictly abided by. And that is why our country has initiated a new treaty on European security. Security based on safe arms control and reasonable sufficiency of military construction for the broadest cooperation of states and the exclusively peaceful settlement of conflicts. And we will firmly pursue the execution of these principles. CHANCE: About 9,000 troops took part in a display of military equipment which, for the first time, included state-of-the-art S400 air defense missiles, which the United States and others is concerned may be sold to Iran. Russia also rolled out its new Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles, a stock reminder that this fast country remains a formidable nuclear power. Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow. (END VIDEO CLIP) ID Me . ERIK NIVISON, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I first appeared in the United States in the late 1600s. I'm a printed item that's usually published daily or weekly. I've been a major source of news for millions of people around the world. I'm the newspaper, the answer to that old joke, \"What's black and white and read all over?\" Charging for Content? AZUZ: Except newspapers aren't being read as much these days. In fact, at least 120 of them have closed in the U.S. since January of 2008. One reason: Readers are getting their news for free online at sites like CNN.com. But a major media tycoon who just happens to own some newspapers, says the days of free, online content could be coming to an end. Jim Boulden covers the unfolding issue. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rupert Murdoch has floated the idea that some of his general newspapers, like the New York Post, the London Times or The Sun, could follow the model of his Wall St. Journal and charge readers for online content. But with content free for so long, will people pay? WOMAN ON THE STREET #1: No, probably not. You can find almost all the same information somewhere. WOMAN ON THE STREET #2: No. I would look somewhere else. BOULDEN: Though Mr. Murdoch will be happy to hear this man would pay for his London Times online. MAN ON THE STREET #1: Just because it's quicker and easier to get it online when you are at home. BOULDEN: Still, some don't even bother to view the free stuff. WOMAN ON THE STREET #3: Newspaper. MAN ON THE STREET #2: Actual physical newspapers. BOULDEN: Many news sites, like the New York Times, ask users to register for free. That information can tell potential advertisers who uses the site and for how long. The New York Times.com does charge those who don't get the physical paper for a little bit of premium content. Others, like Reuters, hold back a lot. TOM GLOCER, CEO, THOMSON REUTERS: The high grade, the high octane stuff we really reserve for our professional customers. So, they've always paid on a subscription basis and we never make that content free, because it's vital for people to their jobs. BOULDEN: The Financial Times also charges for anyone wanting to go beyond the basics. It currently has 110,000 paid subscribers. Managing director Rob Grimshaw wants to enhance its charging model. ROB GRIMSHAW, FT.COM: I am very, very interested in exploring some of the possibilities around micro payments, either for individual articles or for access to the site for a shorter period of time. And I think we ought to have a pricing model which actually suits how each individual user wants to access the site. BOULDEN: The FT points out that it can count on subscriptions and focus on increasing those with advertising eroding, something sites that don't charge can't fall back on. That is why Murdoch's News Corp. empire is keen to see if people will pay to play. (END VIDEO CLIP) Shoutout . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! When did the Hubble Space Telescope send its first pictures back to Earth? Was it in: A) 1980, B) 1985, C) 1990 or D) 1995? You've got three seconds -- GO! Hubble has been taking pictures since 1990, although initial problems caused its first images to be fuzzy. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Final Visit . AZUZ: Despite some early setbacks, the Hubble Telescope has revolutionized the field of astronomy. Earth's atmosphere, look up and you'll see it, makes it difficult for astronomers on the ground to get a complete view of things in outer space. But from its orbit outside the atmosphere, Hubble has a perfect spot. NASA is getting ready to upgrade the telescope. John Zarrella explains how they plan to do it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For nearly twenty years, the Hubble Space Telescope has been sending back breathtaking images of galaxies and stars and planets. It has transformed how astronomers and cosmologists view the universe and our place in it. JOHN GRUNSFELD, SHUTTLE ATLANTIS MISSION SPECIALIST: Where do planetary systems, where do stars come from? Hubble has been a tool to answer these fundamental questions that get right at the heart of who we are. ZARRELLA: Now, a team of astronauts will make the fifth and final visit to repair and upgrade Hubble. The objective: extend the telescope's life at least another five years. It won't be easy. The pressure on the shuttle Atlantis crew, immense. SCOTT ALTMAN, SHUTTLE ATLANTIS COMMANDER: We know there's nobody coming after us to do anything we don't get done. This is it. We either get it done or it doesn't happen. ZARRELLA: 350 miles up, Atlantis will chase down and grab hold of the telescope. For five consecutive days during five seven-hour spacewalks, astronauts will perform the ultimate high-wire act. They'll change out gyroscopes and batteries, repair and replace cameras. They'll change circuit boards, remove dozens of screws and delicately cut through aluminum. GRUNSFELD: It's almost as if I'm not doing it. It's kind of a Zen thing, and once we finish the task and I climb back out of the telescope, I'll look around and go, \"Wow, we're in space.\" ZARRELLA: Hubble has been such an incredible watershed of knowledge, the dark days right after its launch in 1990 have largely been forgotten. JEFFREY HOFFMAN, RETIRED SHUTTLE ASTRONAUT: There was a time when Hubble was a laughing stock. You know, the \"techno turkey.\" You know, pictures in editorial cartoons, denounced on the floors of Congress, ridiculed in late night television programs. ZARRELLA: The telescope's primary mirror was flawed, not quite the right shape, off a measly 1\/50, the thickness of a sheet of paper, but just enough to blur the images from space. The first servicing mission fixed the problem, saving the Hubble program. Now, 19 years later, the last visit. HOFFMAN: That's been the wonderful thing about the ability to service Hubble, is that we don't just repair it. We leave it a new telescope every time we come back. GRUNSFELD: It's impossible not to give it some human characteristics and feel sadness when we see it floating away. ZARRELLA: If all goes well, scientists expect the new and improved Hubble will soon wow them and us with discoveries perhaps beyond our dreams. John Zarrella, CNN, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. (END VIDEO CLIP) Before We Go . AZUZ: We're gonna end this show with a bang! Instant replay! One more time! After all that excitement, let's cool off with some soda. That's why you don't shake it up first. Now it might be hard to swallow, but this is actually part of the world's largest physics lesson, with more than 7,000 students taking part in the scientific spectacle. Goodbye . AZUZ: Makes sense, using exploding soda bottles to study fizz-ics. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.","highlights":"Discover how an anniversary is connected to a show of Russia's military might .\nDebate whether there's a future in charging readers to view news content online .\nDepart the Earth's surface for a maintenance mission needed in outer space .","id":"815eec4729339dc3d8813e1a0a805d8a3c934532"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For the first 45 of her 50 years of living, Bonnie Neighbour used to wake up feeling sorry to be alive. Bonnie Neighbour has struggled with mental health issues for almost all of her 50 years. \"Even when I wasn't actually depressed, I would open my eyes in the morning and wonder if there wasn't something else; I would have preferred an alternative to being alive,\" she says. She recalls being depressed as a young child. In her late teens, she started having mood problems that eventually escalated into clinical depression. \"At some point, I was suicidal. I would suffer cycles of depression and mania,\" Neighbour said. \"I wouldn't sleep for days, and the less sleep I would get, the more revved up I'd become, and then I would make irrational decisions and act out. Then I'd alternate with serious depressive episodes. \"At one time, for nine months, I wasn't even able to leave the house [because of depression].\" At age 30, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Neighbour's story isn't uncommon. \"Action Steps for Improving Women's Mental Health,\" a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health (OWH), explores the role gender plays in the diagnosis, course and treatment of mental illness. It calls for specific actions to counteract the inadequacies in this field. According to the report, women are nearly twice as likely as men to suffer from major depression. They are three times as likely to attempt suicide, and they experience anxiety disorders two to three times more often than men. Chart: Gender and mental health \u00bb . While these statistics are not new, their importance is generally underplayed, says Wanda Jones, Dr.P.H., health scientist and director of the OWH. She notes that whereas past reports have focused on bringing mental health to the forefront of concern -- such as the 1999 publication \"Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General\" -- few have focused primarily on the specific mental illness issues specific to women, hence the need for such a publication. Among the actions recommended by the new report are the needs to underscore the essential importance of women's mental health to overall well-being, improve how primary care doctors and mental health professionals interface with each other, develop a greater understanding in the role of gender in mental illness, recognize the role of trauma and violence against women and its subsequent impact on mental illness and address cultural biases that serve as barriers to treatment for many women. Reasons for the gender disparities in mental health are still unclear, according to Jones. Part of the difference is based on biology. Female hormones, thyroid disease and brain biochemistry have all been cited as possible reasons. Genetics also play a part, as family history has proven that mental illness repeats itself across multiple generations. Socio-cultural reasons also contribute to the difference. Jones stresses that the \"one-size-fits-all\" approach to diagnosing and treating mental illness is not an effective approach and that acknowledging the gender differential is key to adequately and appropriately treating women. The new report also underscores the relative young age at which mental illness often sets in for both males and females. Half of all mental illnesses occur before age 14, and three-fourths occur by the age of 24, according to the publication. Among the more common mental illnesses seen among young women: eating disorders, which can start in advance of puberty and yet last a lifetime. Jones emphasizes the dire need for early detection and treatment of mental illnesses in young women. \"When these young people grow into adults, they're more likely to end up in the criminal justice system, homeless on the streets, poor performers in school and ultimately bounced into a system that's incapable of helping them with their needs,\" she explains. Another point Jones stresses is about the negative stigma around women's mental health issues. \"We have to accept that mental illness is not a sign of weakness; it's not a choice. But it is treatable, and our own innate resilience protects us and plays a critical role in combating mental illness, especially depression and anxiety,\" she says. Despite the relief Neighbour initially felt after finally being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she recalls that instead of getting better, she started to get worse. The mood-stabilizing medications she was prescribed were so sedating that she slept 16 hours a day, which led her deeper into her depression. \"The doctor said, 'This is how things are, and it will only get worse,' and that's what I started to believe. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy,\" she says. There is a common thread to Neighbour's experience and that of other women suffering from mental illness: societal beliefs often pressure women into accepting their mental illness as \"just how things are,\" citing hormones and traditional views of women as the emotional, weaker sex as reasons to simply accept their current situation. According to Jones, it's a barrier that keeps women from seeking treatment for an otherwise largely treatable disease. Despite numerous barriers to access and adequate mental health treatment for women, recent developments in female-specific care provide a new area of hope. Over the last decade, researchers have begun to develop trauma-informed care services, which focus on the high prevalence of trauma -- such as childhood sexual abuse, relationship violence and coerced sex -- that women are more likely to have experienced compared to men. The HHS reports that 40 percent of women report a history of sexual violence, compared to only 10 percent of men. In some mental health treatment programs, recognizing these underlying factors and treating women accordingly has led to dramatically improved outcomes. In 2005, Neighbour discovered the concept of mental health recovery, which is focused on identifying triggers and symptoms that would cause her behavior to get worse, and responding with actions that she recognized helped her calm herself. She learned that there were other tools beyond medications that could help treat her mania and depression. \"I went from focusing everything on 'being' my illness, to focusing on finding fulfillment.\" After holding 30 jobs in 15 years, Neighbour now holds a steady full-time job and serves as a volunteer to help others in their own recovery from mental illness. She describes her healing as an ongoing process and critical to it is a network of peers who have had similar life experiences. \"Now I wake up, and I ask how can I go out and change things? I just get excited when I wake up every morning,\" she says.","highlights":"HHS's Office on Women's Health releases new report on women's mental health .\nWomen suffer from major depression, anxiety disorders at higher rate than men .\nHalf of all mental illnesses occur before age 14 in both men and women .\nNeed for early detection and destigmatization of mental illnesses, researcher says .","id":"36917d73735a371e9715bd54133123ea0c632060"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a University of Georgia professor accused of killing three people was found Saturday buried in woods near Athens, Georgia, authorities said. George Zinkhan, a professor at the University of Georgia, disappeared after the slayings of his wife and two others. George Zinkhan, 57, is suspected of fatally shooting his wife and two other people last month outside a community theater in Athens, which is home to the University of Georgia. Cadaver dogs discovered the body with two guns in a wooded area of northwest Clarke County, about a mile from where Zinkhan's red Jeep Liberty was found last week, Athens-Clarke Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin said. Athens-Clarke County police confirmed the identity of the body, citing results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The guns are like those authorities believe were used in the shootings, Lumpkin said. The body was found \"beneath the earth,\" Lumpkin said, without any clothes. \"A person who's not accustomed to the woods would never have found the body,\" he said. Significant \"efforts\" were undertaken to conceal the body's location, Jim Fullington of the GBI said. Authorities say Zinkhan fatally shot Marie Bruce, 47, Zinkhan's wife and a prominent Athens attorney, Tom Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63, on April 25. The victims all were associated with the Town and Gown Players, a theater group that was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings. Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way and got into a disagreement with his wife, police said. Police believe he went to his car -- where the couple's children apparently were waiting -- and returned with two handguns. In addition to the three deaths, two other people were wounded, police said. After the shooting, Zinkhan left with his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- in the car, police said. He drove to a neighbor's home in nearby Bogart, Georgia, where he lived, and left the children with the neighbor. Authorities put out bulletins across the nation for Zinkhan after the shootings and revealed that he had purchased a May 2 ticket in March to the Netherlands, where he owns a house. The day of the flight passed without any sign of Zinkhan. He had been an endowed marketing professor at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. The university fired Zinkhan the day after the shootings. CNN's Marylynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Efforts made to conceal body found unclothed with guns, police say .\nCadaver dogs searching for George Zinkhan found body buried in woods, police say .\nBody was a little more than a mile from professor's Jeep .\nUniversity of Georgia professor was suspected of killing his wife, 2 other people .","id":"0bd9b7d1634538bb6e5157e0b3bdbfed7941fa36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has confirmed that Richard Gasquet has been provisionally suspended after the French star admitted testing positive for cocaine at the Miami Masters tournament in March. Gasquet is left to contemplate a possible two-year ban from tennis. A spokesman for the ITF Anti-Doping Programme told CNN Gasquet's ban from competition has been put in place in accordance with rules revised by the 2009 WADA Code. \"Players may now be served with a provisional suspension if their A sample tests positive for a non-specified substance (eg a hormone or steroid). Richard Gasquet has consequently received a provisional suspension according to the rules of the programme.\" The spokesman added: \"In accordance with the programme's confidentiality provisions, the ITF will not release any further details until an independent anti-doping tribunal has issued its decision, which will be in due course.\" The former world number seven issued a statement to news agencies on Sunday after the French sports paper L'Equipe had revealed in a report on its Web site the failed doping tests. Gasquet, who has slipped to 23rd in the rankings, faces a two-year ban from tennis, but is hoping for leniency. \"The test of the B sample submitted at the end of March 2009, confirmed the positive result of the A sample taken on the same day,\" he said. \"I want to prove my innocence and will explain myself at an appropriate time,\" he added. If Gasquet exercises his right to a hearing, an independent anti-doping tribunal will be held, ordinarily within 60 days of the player's request. The tribunal will determine whether an offense has been committed, and if so, what penalty will be issued. Earlier Sunday, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) admitted they would be \"very surprised\" if the reports proved to be true. The FFT added in a statement released to Press Association that it \"would be very sad for Richard Gasquet himself, for tennis in general, for French tennis in particular, whose image would be dented\" if the positive test was officially confirmed. Gasquet, a teenage prodigy, has failed to match his early promise but did reach the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2007. Only this week the 22-year-old was confirmed as one of the star attractions at the pre-Wimbledon tournament at Eastbourne, but now faces a battle to clear his name. In ATP tennis action on Sunday, Novak Djokovic continued his fine form on clay with victory in his home tournament in Belgrade. The Serbian top seed beat Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-3 7-6 in the Serbia Open final. It was Djokovic's fourth successive appearance in an tour final. The BMW Open title in Munich went to Czech Tomas Berdych who edged out Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4 4-6 7-6.","highlights":"Richard Gasquet tests positive for cocaine at ATP Miami Masters in March .\nFrench star Gasquet says he will battle to clear his name but faces two-year ban .\nNovak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych clinch Tour wins in pre-French Open events .","id":"31e106bfc7740fc63221511dea9b3cfa57a44985"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- J.J. Abrams' franchise reboot boldly went where no Star Trek movie has gone before, grossing a stellar $72.5 million from Friday through Sunday, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. In the film, Spock (Zachary Quinto, left) and Kirk get off on the wrong foot. That's the second-best opening of 2009 (after X-Men Origins: Wolverine's $85.1 million last weekend), and it includes a whopping $8.2 million earned in IMAX showings, a new one-weekend record for the large format (beating The Dark Knight's $6.3 million). What's more, if you add in the $4 million that the movie starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto earned in late-Thursday showings, Star Trek has banked an impressive $76.5 million so far -- well ahead of most expectations. This result is highly logical. Considering all the hype and buzz and strong reviews that Star Trek has garnered, it's no surprise that this film's opening sum is by far the biggest of any Star Trek movie: Of the 10 previous flicks in the franchise, 1996's Star Trek: First Contact bowed best, with (only) $30.7 million over three days. Moreover, a look at the movie's CinemaScore report card reveals some potentially good news. While it drew an expected crowd mostly comprised of older males, Star Trek's solid-A grade shows that word of mouth could be strong enough to bring in fans outside of the franchise's usual demographic (i.e. people who weren't alive in the 1980s...and women) as the weeks go on. Unless said folks are too distracted by Angels & Demons, Night at the Museum 2, and all the other big flicks on tap, of course. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (No. 2) was next with $27 million on a 68 percent decline. Fanboy-driven films always fall hard, but this drop is particularly hefty. Nevertheless, Hugh Jackman's franchise flick has already banked $129.6 million in 10 days. Fellow holdovers Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (No. 3 with $10.5 million), Obsessed (No. 4 with $6.6 million), and 17 Again (No. 5 with $4.4 million) rounded out the top five. And the comedy Next Day Air failed to take off, grossing just $4 million at No. 6. And in limited release, neither Rudo y Cursi nor Little Ashes made much of a mark, as each averaged well under $7,000 per theater. Overall, the box office was up nearly 22 percent from the same frame a year ago (when the infamous Speed Racer hit a bump in the road). And, really, what could be a better Mother's Day gift than that? Love ya, Mom! Have a great day! CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"J.J. Abrams' \"Star Trek\" grosses $72.5 million from Friday through Sunday .\n\"Wolverine\" fell hard with only $27 million, showing a 68 percent decline .\nThe box office was up nearly 22 percent from the same frame a year ago .\nCheck out which movies made this week's top 10 list .","id":"470c4f4f7fb94213f1515b71e3ee861bee101c0a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Werder Bremen continued their continued their domination of SV Hamburg with a 2-0 win which dents their northern neighbors' hopes of Champions League football next season. A dejected Paolo Guerrero and Ivica Olic walk off after Hamburg's defeat. The defeat leaves Martin Jol's men sixth in the Bundesliga, five points behind leaders Wolfsburg with only three games remaining and four adrift of third-placed Hertha Berlin. It was the second meeting of the two teams in four days, with Werder winning a thrilling second leg 3-2 to go through to the UEFA Cup final on Thursday on away goals. Werder also put Hamburg out of the German Cup and their win came after a pair of goals by Hugo Almeira. In Sunday's other match, Borussia Moenchengladbach boosted their Bundesliga survival hopes with a 1-0 win at home to Schalke 04. Substitute Roberto Colautti scored in the last minute to spare the blushes of teammate Marko Marin, who had seen a penalty saved by Manuel Neuer in the first half. The win lifted Borussia out of the relegation zone into 15th place, but it is still tight with Arminia Bielefeld and Energie Cottbus only below them on goal difference. Schalke, who will have current Wolfsburg boss Felix Magath in charge next season, were suffering a second straight defeat to stay seventh. Wolfsburg were beaten 4-1 by Stuttgart on Saturday to throw open the title race with champions Bayern Munich joining them on 60 points with Hertha one point back and Stuttgart on 58.","highlights":"Werder Bremen beat SV Hamburg 2-0 with Hugo Almeira scoring twice .\nHamburg stay in sixth as defeat wrecks Bundesliga title chances .\nBorussia Moenchengladbach beat Schalke 1-0 to boost survival hopes .","id":"928170fbe5dbd54aa971231554c1d65010565d07"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- A wanted University of Georgia professor killed himself with a single gunshot to the head after he dug his own grave and covered it with brush, police said Tuesday. George Zinkhan, a professor at the University of Georgia, disappeared after the slayings of his wife and two others. The manhunt for George Zinkhan ended Saturday when cadaver dogs discovered his body in Georgia's Clarke County, about a mile from where his red Jeep Liberty was found more than a week earlier, police said. \"Zinkhan's body was found in a small dugout area in the ground, covered with leaves and debris, and it was apparent that he took significant steps to try to conceal his body from being located,\" a statement from Athens police said. Law enforcement officials determined that Zinkhan, 57, committed suicide after killing his wife, Marie Bruce, 47, Thomas Tanner, 40, and Ben Teague, 63, outside a theater in Athens on April 25. Another University of Georgia professor, Barbara Carroll, believes that she was also targeted by Zinkhan but escaped because she was at a movie theater the day of the slayings. In an e-mail obtained by CNN, Carroll had warned her colleagues at the university's Terry College of Business that Zinkhan, a marketing professor, was \"dangerous.\" The e-mail was sent after the shootings but before Zinkhan's body was found. Carroll could not be reached Tuesday, but in her e-mail she said that law enforcement officials surrounded her house early on the morning of May 1 after authorities found MapQuest directions to her house, printed on April 24, in Zinkhan's Jeep. She said she was advised to go into hiding. \"I do not believe Zinkhan had a map to my house for any reason other than he planned to kill me as well on April 25,\" Carroll wrote. \"This also suggests premeditation for the three murders he did commit. By the grace of God, I was at the movies all Saturday afternoon after being at school in my office (like a sitting duck) all that morning.\" All three of Zinkhan's victims were associated with the Town and Gown Players theater group, which was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings. Police did not give any motive for the slayings but said in a statement that Zinkhan and his wife were having marital problems. Zinkhan targeted Tanner and shot him first, the statement added. Authorities said Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way and got into a disagreement with Bruce. Police believe that he left, went to his car -- where the couple's children apparently were waiting -- and returned with two handguns. In addition to the three deaths, two people were wounded, police said. After the shootings, Zinkhan, a marketing professor at the Terry College of Business, drove to his hometown of Bogart, Georgia, and left his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- with a neighbor. Authorities put out bulletins across the nation for Zinkhan after the shootings and revealed that he had purchased an airline ticket in March for a May 2 flight to the Netherlands, where he owned a house. But Zinkhan never showed up at the airport.","highlights":"NEW: Co-worker says she was also targeted .\nAuthorities say University of Georgia professor dug his own grave .\nCadaver dogs searching for George Zinkhan found body in woods, police say .\nZinkhan suspected of killing his wife, two other people .","id":"1fe576eaf7006a4b814835560fd93434b6e962b0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The son of actor Michael Landon was found dead in his West Hollywood, California, home Monday afternoon, according to investigators. There was \"no indication of foul play\" in the death of Mark Landon, 60, according to the report from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Mark Landon was the son of Dodie Frasier, who married Michael Landon in 1956. The actor adopted the child and his younger brother. Mark Landon had a few acting credits, playing small roles in three movies, according to the Internet Movie Database. He played a cab driver in \"Us,\" a film his father directed and starred in just before his death from cancer in 1991. Michael Landon was once one of Hollywood's biggest TV stars. He is best known for his 14 years as \"Little Joe\" Cartwright in TV's long-running \"Bonanza,\" and later as Charles Ingalls in nine seasons of \"Little House on the Prairie.\" CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Bonanza\" star's son Mark Landon found dead in West Hollywood home .\nOfficials say no indication of foul play in 60-year-old's death .\nMark Landon had a few acting credits, playing small roles in three movies .","id":"d4b85257a055e8c6c35bcb37eaf9af837dbc8375"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four minor boys are facing felony assault charges after a 13-year-old boy accused them of sexually assaulting him in the locker room of a Tampa, Florida, middle school, authorities said Friday. The alleged victim told school officials he was assaulted with a broomstick and hockey stick at Walker Middle School, in southern Tampa, on April 30, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. Linda Cobbe with Hillsborough County Schools said police were contacted Wednesday afternoon after the boy reported the incident. The four teenagers, 14 and 15 years old, were arrested at school Wednesday and charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment, the sheriff's office said. The victim said two boys held him down on the ground while the other two sexually assaulted him, the sheriff's office said. The alleged victim had been \"continually picked on and harassed by the suspects\" before the incident, the sheriff's office said in a news release. All four suspects have been suspended from school, Cobbe said. On Thursday, the school's principal, Kathleen Hoffman, contacted students' parents through a recorded message, telling them the four would not be allowed to return to school \"unless their legal issues are resolved.\" Cobbe said the 13-year-old is back in classes at the school. CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Boy, 13, says he was sexually assaulted at middle school .\n4 teens, age 14 and 15, face felony charges in Tampa, Florida .\nAll four suspects have been suspended from school .","id":"a4c631ac1f68cdcff108e10fccfc82015f6efb88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Treasure hunter Christian Hanisch told CNN Thursday that the hunt for Nazi Gold and possibly the legendary Amber Room will end Friday after the two men leading the expedition had a disagreement. Treasure hunters began drilling again Tuesday to try to locate the lost Nazi gold. Heinz-Peter Haustein, the other treasure hunter, told Germany's Bild newspaper that geophysicists will now re-evaluate the situation and that digging may resume in two weeks. CNN has so far not been able to reach Haustein for confirmation. \"Haustein told me to get out of here immediately,\" an angry Hanisch told CNN in a telephone interview. He said Haustein, who is also the mayor of the village Deutschneudorf, where the digging is taking place, told him he wanted to make the expedition more credible by calling in the scientists. See photos from hunt for lost Nazi gold \u00bb . \"It can't get any more credible than now,\" said Hanisch, whose measurements had allegedly pinpointed the treasure. He said the drilling taking place at the site never focused on the exact coordinates he had provided. \"They just always dug around there, but never at the exact location where I wanted them to dig,\" he said. The two treasure hunters had said geological surveying had revealed an underground cave holding large amounts of precious metal. They said it could be a holding area dug by the Nazis who used it to stash valuables in World War II. Haustein said he also believes the legendary Amber Room, an interior made of gold and amber that the Nazis had looted from a palace in St. Petersburg, after Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, was also hidden somewhere in the mountains around Deutschneudorf -- and that finding a stash of gold could give clues as to the whereabouts of the Amber Room. Now Hanisch says he never believed in the Amber Room theory. \"I never talked about finding the Amber Room anywhere here, that was all Haustein's idea,\" he said. Hanisch said that his father was one of the soldiers who helped transport gold and other valuables to the area around Deutschneudorf near the end of the Second World War and that when he died he left behind coordinates allegedly leading to a cave holding gold and other valuables. Haustein has been paying for the excavation. Watch hunt for Nazi gold at German mountain \u00bb . Earlier this week, Haustein said digging at the site was stopped more than a week ago amid safety concerns, as German authorities and the treasure hunters feared that the shaft dug so far might collapse, and that the alleged cave may be rigged with explosives or poisonous booby traps. Deutschneudorf is in Germany's Ore Mountains, and the mountain where the treasure hunters were looking was a copper mine until the 19th century. Though the mine was shut down in 1882, geologists have found evidence that soldiers from Hitler's Wehrmacht -- the German armed forces -- had been there: machine guns, parts of uniforms and explosives that are on display at the town's museum. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Digging in search of lost Nazi gold to be called off, one treasure hunter says .\nSecond hunter tells Bild it may resume in two weeks .\nThe dig is in the mountains around Deutschneudorf, Germany .\nTreasure hunters hope to find valuables looted from Russia during World War II .","id":"33afb8dc74a6a3c9661a6e190693706c5daa6de8"} -{"article":"Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts \"Fareed Zakaria GPS\" on CNN at 1 and 5 p.m. ET Sundays. Zakaria says granting autonomy to groups generally produces peace and stability. (CNN) -- The Dalai Lama says the key to stopping violence around the world is to stop \"destructive emotion.\" In an interview to air Sunday on CNN's \"GPS,\" he tells Fareed Zakaria that he doesn't think even Osama bin Laden wished for violence when he was a child but that it grew of out hatred and frustration. The Dalai Lama also addressed relations between Tibet and China in the interview, which Zakaria discussed with CNN. CNN: Why is Tibet such a hot-button issue for China? Fareed Zakaria: China sees the issue as a separatist movement, as President Lincoln did when the South wanted to secede from the Union. They feel their territorial integrity is being threatened. And Tibetans see their culture, language and religion as being slowly but surely extinguished by the Chinese. CNN: So who's right? Zakaria: Well, that depends on who you ask. You need to look at the history to get a complete picture. It all goes back to Genghis Khan, who captured Tibet in 1207. He united Tibet \u00bb with China under the Mongol empire. The Chinese have claimed an unbroken line of sovereignty over Tibet ever since. The Tibetans, however, reject that claim, saying they have been an independent kingdom for many periods during that time, some centuries long. That was the situation until 1912, when Tibet declared itself an independent republic. China never recognized it, nor did the U.N. or any major Western power. CNN: Well, that seems to indicate that China has a point. Does it? Zakaria: It's not so simple, because although China never recognized an independent Tibet, neither did it exercise any control of Tibet. That is, until 1950, when Chairman Mao sent the Red Army in to liberate -- as the Chinese saw it -- the Tibetan people from the feudal serfdom they were living under. However, the Tibetans saw the act as an invasion, and in 1959, the political and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, fled to India, where he set up a government in exile. CNN: So we've been with the current situation since 1959. Why hasn't there been any resolution? Zakaria: Well, the Chinese are hoping to wait it out. By letting the issue drag on, they are hoping more and more ethnic Han Chinese move into the region and slowly let the Tibetan freedom movement die out. CNN: Will it work? Zakaria:That could happen -- and has worked with other regions. But, it could also work the other way. The Chinese sometimes use force, as they did last year against the Tibetan monks, which causes a huge backlash in Tibet and outside. This has resulted in some Tibetans becoming more strident in their calls for independence and aggressive in their demands. However, the Dalai Lama has repeatedly said that he does not seek independence, only cultural autonomy, and urged his followers to engage in no violent protests whatsoever. If there were ever a leader of a separatist group whom one could negotiate with, he's it. And once the 72-year-old Dalai Lama passes from the scene, Beijing might have to deal with a far more unpredictable and radical Tibetan movement. CNN: Do you think granting what the Dalai Lama is asking for makes sense? Zakaria: If you look at other cases, such as in Turkey and India, granting autonomy to groups that press for it has in the end produced a more stable and peaceful national climate. But that is a lesson the Chinese government will have to learn for itself; it is unlikely to take instruction from outsiders. CNN: What ultimately causes this age-old mistrust between the Chinese and the Dalai Lama? What's the stumbling block that keeps them from finding resolution? Zakaria: The Chinese government has always believed that when the Dalai Lama speaks of \"autonomy,\" what he really means is independence, a sovereign nation for Tibet. I asked the Dalai Lama about this, and he denied it vehemently. He insists that Tibetans would truly be content to live within the Chinese system, as citizens of its government, as long as they are allowed to preserve their culture and practice their religion. It is difficult to see how this gap -- the difference in perception between the two sides -- can be bridged. E-mail me gps@cnn.com to let me know your thoughts.","highlights":"Zakaria: Tibetans see culture, language, religion as being extinguished by China .\n\"You need to look at the history to get a complete picture,\" he says .\nIn 1912, Tibet declared itself independent, but China never recognized it as such .\nDalai Lama does not seek Tibetan independence, just cultural autonomy .","id":"acc62aa53a0706be151f0fbd039f1294e85f3853"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the Land of the Rising Sun, the fiscal year is setting in a sea of red. Mount Fuji glows red in the sunset, much like the year-end results of Japanese manufacturers. Electronics makers Hitachi and NEC Corp., and carmaker Nissan all ended the year with a loss. Japan's largest electronics maker, Hitachi lost $8 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, with consolidated revenues down 11 percent from last year. It was the largest loss ever recorded by a Japanese manufacturer, according to Shinko Research Institute. NEC Corporation lost $3 billion in the past fiscal year, down nearly 11.5 percent from last year. Meanwhile, Nissan lost $2.3 billion for the year . Declines in the automobile, semiconductor and industrial equipment industries especially hurt Hitachi, as well as write-downs of securities due to the sharp declines in global stock exchanges. Watch more about Japanese stock values \u00bb . Hitachi said it will cut unprofitable business lines, reduce staff and eliminate factories in Japan and overseas, but gave no specifics. Japanese firms have been hit hard by the credit crisis, which has driven up the value of the yen -- driving up the export cost of products to markets like the US, where consumers are spending less on durable goods such as automobiles and electronic products.","highlights":"Hitachi's annual loss of $8 billion biggest ever for Japanese manufacturer .\nNEC Corp. loses $3 billion; Nissan $2.3 billion .\nJapanese manufacturers hurt by strong yen, soft overseas sales .","id":"7f3d7c478d0aabfcdf619a8385fc21aa70ab94fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Kellogg's dumped its endorsement of Michael Phelps after a photograph surfaced of the Olympic gold medalist using a bong, the company was stuck with thousands of boxes of cereal featuring the swimmer's image. Kellogg's ended its Michael Phelps endorsement, so it sent two tons of cereal with his face on it to a food bank. No problem. The company, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, made short order of the already-printed and filled boxes, donating two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank late last month. With food banks across the country reporting shortages of food, the donation was a welcome one, said the food bank's director of development, Christopher Wiley. It took only two weeks for about 3,000 boxes to move through warehouse. \"Thousands of families benefited from the donation\" Wiley said. \"It was a surprise to us. We were lacking a lot of cereal. It is a great product many low-income families really need.\" \"The real story for us was not the box but what's inside the box. The food is so valuable for the community. It's making good from bad,\" Wiley said. The food bank has seen a 6 percent increase in its customer base since the beginning of the year, he said. Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He admitted \"regrettable behavior\" after a British newspaper published the controversial photograph in early February. The tabloid News of the World showed Phelps using the bong during what it said was a November party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. A bong is a device commonly used to smoke marijuana. The Phelps box attracted considerable attention to the food bank. Administrators received several calls from people wanting to get the box as a novelty item. But, said Wiley, all the cereal went to food bank customers. Kellogg's was the only one of Phelps sponsors to drop the athlete, although U.S.A. Swimming, the nation's governing body for competitive swimming, suspended him for three months, withdrew financial support and barred him from competition during the period of his \"reprimand.\" CNN's Jackie Castillo and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kellogg's donated two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank .\nCompany dumped the cereal boxes with Michael Phelps' face after bong incident .\nFood bank director: Helpful donation is \"making good from bad\"\nMore than 3,000 boxes of cereal went to help those who were hungry .","id":"3ce25164248c71db6e804806c8596a99f3a22b61"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Freed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi thanked friends and family Tuesday for their support during her ordeal in an Iranian prison, and said she plans to spend the next few days relaxing. Roxana Saberi smiles ouside her home in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday. \"I am, of course, very happy to be free and to be with my parents again,\" a smiling Saberi, 32, told reporters. Saberi, who was dressed in a black tunic and a blue headscarf, said she was only now learning of a global support campaign on her behalf. \"I want to thank all the people all over the world, who, whether they knew me or not, helped me and my family during this period,\" she said. \"I don't have any specific plans for the moment. I just want to be with my parents and my friends and to relax.\" Reza Saberi, her father, said they plan to leave Iran soon. Saberi was convicted last month on espionage charges in a one-day trial that was closed to the public. She was sentenced to eight years in prison after being accused of spying for the United States. A judge changed Saberi's sentence during an appeal hearing Monday. The court agreed with her lawyers that, because Iran is not at war with the United States, Saberi cannot be punished for cooperating with agents of a hostile nation, according to Saberi's spokesman, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi. Her sentence was changed to a two-year jail term, suspended for five years, Iran's state-run news agency IRNA reported. Saberi was detained in January after initially being accused of buying a bottle of wine and working as a journalist without proper accreditation, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an advocacy group. She was soon charged with espionage. Saberi went on a hunger strike while imprisoned, but her father said she has since put on some weight.","highlights":"Father of Roxana Saberi says they plan to leave Iran soon .\nSaberi, 33, was convicted last month on espionage charges .\nHer sentence was changed to a two-year jail term, suspended for five years .\nShe has lived in Iran since 2003, reporting for international news organizations .","id":"edffbeec92ef3fb2994768405c0b78b23766e5e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in San Bernardino, California, released pictures of two suspects in the abduction of a 3-year-old boy who was taken at gunpoint from his home last weekend. Authorities say these men purchased tape from a store and used it 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez's abduction. Briant Rodriguez has been missing since May 3, when two Hispanic males armed with handguns burst into the home, tied him up, along with his mother and four siblings. They ransacked the home before leaving with Briant, a small amount of cash and some personal property, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Public Information Officer Cindy Beavers said. A motive for the abduction is still unclear, and the authorities have not received a demand for ransom, Beavers said. Investigators traced samples of the tape used to tie up the family to a home improvement store where they believe the suspects purchased the tape the Friday before the abduction. The unidentified store's surveillance camera captured two men who matched the description of the kidnappers given by Briant's mother, purchasing tape believed to have been used in the abduction, Beavers said. The home improvement store's exterior surveillance cameras also caught a green Ford Bronco believed to have been used in the abduction, Beavers said. The same car was later seen driving past a convenience store near Briant's home about three minutes after his mother called police on Sunday to report the abduction, Beavers said. Authorities distributed screen grabs of the footage on Friday showing the suspects and the vehicle in an effort to draw more tips, which have been coming in steadily since an Amber Alert was issued earlier this week. \"You've got two men that resemble the description given by Briant's mother, they're buying tape that matches the tape used to tie them up, then they leave the store in this green Bronco and then on Sunday, just a few minutes before the emergency call for help, the same vehicle is seen leaving the victims' neighborhood,\" she said. \"Detectives put these two incidents together, and they're confident that these are the suspects and that was the vehicle used,\" she said. Both suspected kidnappers are Hispanic males -- one 5-feet, 5 inches tall, between the ages of 18 and 20 with a thin build, unknown hair and eye color, last seen wearing a black baseball hat, blue jeans and green T-shirt. The other is 5-foot-10, around age 24 with a thin build, black boots, a black shirt and a bandanna. Neighboring law enforcement agencies are on alert, and the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol are assisting in the investigation. The FBI and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department have both put up $25,000 rewards for Briant's return. The FBI has also established a Facebook page with the latest information in the case. \"We became involved in the beginning and that's customary in kidnapping cases because of the potential for cases to go out of state or out of the country,\" FBI Spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. Despite early speculation that the abduction was related to Mexican cartel violence, both spokeswomen said they were unaware of specific evidence suggesting the family had ties to the drug trade. \"We've seen an escalation nationwide in south-of-the-border-related kidnappings, whether it be drug cartels exacting revenge or carrying out violence in exchange for drug debts, or in another type of scenario, Americans who do business in Mexico being targeted for ransom,\" Eimiller said. \"Of course that's being looked at as a scenario here, but we have no conclusive evidence suggesting that's the case just yet.\" Briant is described in the Amber Alert as a Hispanic male who was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with blue sleeves and blue-striped shorts with two different colors of blue. The boy's hair is longer than shoulder length.","highlights":"Tape used in abduction leads police to store where suspects seen purchasing item .\nPolice: Surveillance footage also captures green Ford Bronco used in kidnapping .\nBriant Rodriguez, 3, was abducted at gunpoint in armed robbery last weekend .\nFor tips in case call the FBI: 1-866-346-7632 .","id":"94292eb0cf176d6d5ffef6223e91d73ef4bf8882"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon talk tough about cracking down on the deadly drug war, the United States is changing tactics in the battle against illegal narcotics at home. Legalizing marijuana is off the table, the White House says. The man Obama picked to be the new \"drug czar,\" Gil Kerlikowske, has made it clear that the United States is going to do a better job of treating addicts to try to reduce the demand for narcotics. Kerlikowske, 59, is a military veteran with 36 years of law enforcement experience. The drug czar oversees an agency that sets the country's drug-control strategy. The White House and Congress want to see more drug courts, and increased funding for the program 250 percent in the spending bill signed in March. It's a campaign pledge that the Obama administration thinks will give nonviolent offenders \"a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior,\" according to the White House Web site. Judge Paul Gluchowski, who works with the Prince William County Juvenile Drug Court in Virginia, dismissed the notion that a drug treatment program is the easy way out. Watch what it's like inside the drug court \u00bb . If anyone thinks that, he said he'd tell them they should \"come and talk to some of the participants. A lot of them probably wish they never agreed to undergo drug court. And a lot of them have given up because it's too hard.\" Those who slip up in drug court can be forced to wear ankle-monitoring bracelets or put into juvenile detention. \"If they don't give up, then when it comes time for graduation and you see the shine on their face, when you know that they have accomplished something, and they know that. That's what it's all about,\" Gluchowski said. Vice President Joe Biden stressed the importance of drug courts and prisoner re-entry programs when he announced Kerlikowske's position in March, saying they \"can serve as the light at the end of the tunnel, of a very long, long dark tunnel, for those who are stuck in the cycle of drug addiction and incarceration.\" Kerlikowske said he was committed to tackling the nation's drug problem, but noted that it would take a \"coordinated and multifaceted effort.\" \"The success of our efforts to reduce the flow of drugs is largely dependent on our ability to reduce demand for them,\" Kerlikowske said, calling the nation's drug problem one of \"human suffering.\" \"It requires prosecutors and law enforcement, courts, treatment providers and prevention programs to exchange information and to work together. And our priority should be a seamless, comprehensive approach,\" he said. In meeting with Calderon on Thursday, Obama tried to show Mexico's president that he is committed to ending a crisis that hits so close to home. Obama vowed to beef up security along the border and to work to slow the flow of guns and drugs. He said the United States shares responsibility for the drug problem, saying \"a demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping to keep these cartels in business.\" But he also tried to limit expectations that there could be any sort of quick fix. \"Now, are we going to eliminate all drug flows? Are we going to eliminate all guns coming over the border? That's not a realistic objective,\" he said. \"What is a realistic objective is to reduce it so significantly, so drastically that it becomes once again a localized criminal problem, as opposed to a major structural problem that threatens stability in communities along those borders.\" The White House has listened to those who say legalizing marijuana will pull the rug from under the violent cartels in Mexico and boost the U.S. economy, but that option is not on the table. Asked Thursday if that is something realistic, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano quickly responded, \"No, it is not.\" Sixty percent of drug criminals sent to prison re-offend, compared to 17 percent of graduates of drug court, according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. Drug policy experts like those numbers, but say the nation needs more treatment options. \"For individuals who don't have the resources, don't have public health insurance, can't afford it themselves, the single best way that they can access treatment is to get arrested,\" said Ryan King, a policy analyst with the Sentencing Project. \"And that's wrong. What we need to do is make sure for every American that is abusing drugs and wants to stop, that they have the resources made available to them, regardless of whether they can afford them.\" CNN's Jim Acosta and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"Drug court supporters say program is more effective than jail time .\nBiden stresses the importance of drug courts in announcing new drug czar .\nObama vows crackdown on drug war but says stopping all drug flow is unrealistic .\nLegalizing marijuana is not an option, White House says .","id":"e66c67d6624f440fb74def0824b2e12d7b8b08bb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 10 people were killed, and an unknown number remained missing Wednesday, after a boat authorities believe was used for human smuggling capsized off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from a capsized boat off the coast of Florida. Almost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas, according to the U.S. Coast Guard -- which said a dangerous number of people was packed onto a small pleasure cruiser. The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from the boat, and searchers didn't know how many more people had been on the boat. \"You don't put 26 people on a small boat. It was way overloaded, completely unsafe,\" said Capt. Jim Fitton, the Coast Guard's sector commander in Miami, Florida. \"With smugglers, you have the potential for this because smugglers aren't interested in people's welfare. They're interested in making money.\" The boat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida, some time around 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. The agency was notified more than nine hours later by someone who saw the boat. There were women and children on the boat, Fitton said. A pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, while most of the victims remained onboard a Coast Guard cutter that was being used in the continuing rescue efforts, he said. Only eight of the people rescued by Wednesday afternoon were wearing life jackets. The Rev. Luke Harrigan, a Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, pastor to members of the Haitian community who is working with the Coast Guard, said he is contacting family members of the victims who were killed. \"Most of them now didn't even know they were coming to the United States,\" he said. \"Sometimes the person organizing the trip doesn't even tell them where they are going.\" He said it's not uncommon for smugglers to charge people from the impoverished island nation as much as $4,000 for passage into the United States. Coast Guard rescuers were continuing to search the area of the crash Wednesday evening.","highlights":"Coast Guard rescues 26; searchers unsure how many others missing .\nAlmost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas .\nBoat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida .","id":"cec04587fd67f6f0f8db61e68f79b86dbb528868"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Hundreds of Indian army troops were using helicopters and boats Wednesday to deliver supplies and rescue villagers stranded by the worst flooding in decades, after the Kosi River breached an embankment in Nepal to the north. The death toll in the hard-to-reach Bihar state in northeastern India has been difficult to determine. Bihar emergency management official K.K. Agarwal confirmed 10 deaths to CNN on Wednesday, but the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported 55. Phone lines and electricity are out in the flooded areas. In the Supaul district city of Birpur, Mohd Rauffudin's hopes were fading. He told IBN -- a CNN partner station in India -- that while he was trying to stay afloat, he lost contact with his wife and children, as well as his nine brothers and his parents. \"I wish the help had reached (us) on time. That way at least my children could have been safe,\" he said. A woman who called herself Ruby told IBN her baby has been sick for four days, she can't reach medical help and she has lost track of her family. \"My child is so ill. I cannot do a thing about it. I wonder what I did wrong that my child must suffer,\" the mother said. The flooding began when the river burst through an embankment in Nepal more than a week ago, swallowing villages and destroying about 225,000 homes, officials and UNICEF India said. Water flowed so forcefully from the breach that the river changed course, making a new channel about 75 miles (120km) east of its river bed, flooding areas unaccustomed to water that high. Watch survivors find safety on roofs \u00bb . Agarwal said the disaster affected about 2 million people and 725 villages in Bihar, India's poorest state. Ninety-five relief shelters had been set up, 44 health-care camps and 22 shelters for animals, he said. Army spokesman Lt. Col. A. K. Mathur said 400 troops were involved in rescue operations, and the military had dispatched at least 20 rescue boats. Three army helicopters were dropping thousands of food packets, he said. PTI reported earlier in the day that bad weather had prevented Indian air force choppers from conducting relief drops in the worst-hit districts of Bihar: Supaul, Saharsa, Araria and Madhepura. Officials told CNN it was the worst flooding in Bihar in 80 years. Watch more on people stranded \u00bb . The Kosi is known to Indians as the \"River of Sorrow\" because of its flooding during the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September. The river flows into the Hindu-revered Ganges River. Video has shown residents huddled atop low-rise buildings, standing in waist-high water in the streets and trying to escape in boats. The flooding has submerged roads and railway tracks, and cut off electricity.","highlights":"Indian army troops use helicopters, boats to deliver supplies, rescue villagers .\nNEW: Survivor says he lost wife, children, parents, nine brothers .\nIndia says more than 2 million affected, 225,000 homes destroyed by flooding .\nNinety-five relief shelters and 44 health-care camps set up .","id":"8fd9a21949f34975c66b4ce3433e251476514260"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court convicted four men Tuesday but acquitted 10 others of charges that they helped four suspects from the Madrid train bombings to flee. The rush-hour train bombings killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others. The National Court convicted Kamal Ahbar, 31, of Algeria, and Samir Tahtah, 32, of Morocco, of belonging to an Islamic terrorist group, and sentenced them to nine years in prison, according to a 136-page court ruling. The court also convicted Mohamed El Idrissi, 32, of Morocco, of collaborating with a terrorist group and sentenced him to five years. Tarek Hamed Hamu, 30, a Spaniard from Spain's enclave of Ceuta on Morocco's north coast, was convicted of document forgery and sentenced to two years. But 10 other men, from Morocco, Algeria or Spain's Ceuta, were acquitted. Most were arrested in June 2005, a year after the Madrid commuter train bombings in March 2004 that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. In June 2005, police closed in on a rundown locale, the court said, in a Barcelona suburb, on suspicion it was a hive for Islamic terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and logistical support to move men to Iraq to fight against western forces there, including as suicide bombers. Prosecutors said the group helped four train bombing suspects flee. But one was later caught and convicted in Morocco; another was thought to have died in Iraq, while a third was among seven key train bomb suspects who blew themselves up in Madrid suburb as police closed in on their hideout a month after the train bombings.","highlights":"Four men convicted of helping Madrid bombing suspects flee .\nTen others acquitted by Spain's National Court .\nMarch 11, 2004, attacks killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 .","id":"43c4844d1ddb9471e328452073e02b5d4d1fd5de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The days of being cut off from the Internet while you're on a plane are quickly disappearing. An American Airlines passenger uses Wi-Fi to access the Internet during a flight. A number of domestic airlines have recently begun offering Wi-Fi Internet access aboard planes, and other airlines say they are working toward making it happen. \"This is the year\" for Wi-Fi on planes, said Jack Blumenstein, president and CEO of Aircell, whose Gogo\u00ae Inflight Internet service provides access on Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, AirTran and Virgin America flights, and will begin testing on United flights later this year. Gogo is installed on more than 200 commercial planes, and Blumenstein said he expected 1,200 aircraft to have Gogo capability by the end of 2009. For now, Wi-Fi on domestic carriers' planes is limited to flights within North America. Gogo, which operates by transmitting signals from ground-level towers, functions across the United States and up to about 300 miles offshore. The company's access will cover the entire continent within a year or two, Blumenstein said. Row 44, which uses satellite technology to provide connectivity to Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, already covers much of North America and will roll out trans-Atlantic and European service in the third quarter of this year, said the company's CEO, John Guidon. Neither company would release the exact cost of turning airplanes into Wi-Fi hot spots. But Blumenstein said Aircell managed to equip a plane for \"substantially\" less than $100,000. Row 44, which bills itself as the \"industrial-strength solution\" to airplane connectivity, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per plane, Guidon said. Another company, LiveTV, is a subsidiary of JetBlue that provides free e-mail and messaging aboard flights but doesn't offer open Web surfing. LiveTV, which uses air-to-ground technology, provides the service on select JetBlue flights and also is working with Frontier Airlines on offering Internet access aboard its planes. The Wi-Fi venture has the potential to be \"very profitable,\" said Harlan Platt, an airline industry expert and professor of finance at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. \"Normally, air carriers rush to purchase capital equipment that raises their cost but doesn't raise their revenue. ... This is actually a revenue-producing tactic. And it's a good one because it's providing value to the passenger and it's creating incremental revenues for the airline,\" Platt said. Aircell, which shares its revenue from Gogo with the airlines, charges $9.95 for flights under three hours, $12.95 for flights longer than three hours and $7.95 to use a Wi-Fi capable handheld device for any flight length. Passengers can begin using the service once the plane reaches 10,000 feet. If the plane remains in flight for longer than three hours as part of a delay, passengers do not pay the higher fee, Blumenstein said. Platt believes that business model will evolve to entice more passengers to use it. The size of those fees could result in \"a whole segment of the market that they're not going to capture,\" said Platt. The airlines will maximize their profits by convincing more passengers to use the system with a lower price, he said. Platt predicted Aircell and the airlines would create a second tier of service, which would be less expensive but with fewer capabilities. He compared the strategy to airlines' price-reducing tactics to avoid empty seats on planes. As Aircell and Row 44's services expand, LiveTV is monitoring passengers' usage to gauge how to move ahead with its own business model, said Mike Moeller, vice president of sales and marketing for the company. \"Yes, broadband is coming. We're sitting there asking, 'Who pays? Is it the airlines or the customers? And what will they pay? What is the right technology? ... When does all of this happen?' We're in weird economic times,\" Moeller said. As for the possibility of passengers offending their seat-mates by surfing for inappropriate content, Blumenstein said nine months of Wi-Fi availability on American yielded no such incidents. Still, airlines including American, Delta and United have requested screening for potentially offensive content, he said. On the other hand, Alaska Airlines, which uses Row 44, does not plan on using the company's content-blocking capabilities. Instead, flight attendants will follow standard protocol for objectionable material -- they'll ask passengers to stow it away, said Bobbie Egan, an airline spokeswoman. Here is what major U.S. airlines offer, and what is coming up: .","highlights":"Many domestic airlines have begun offering Wi-Fi Internet access aboard planes .\nProvider Aircell expects to have 1,200 planes equipped by the end of this year .\nAnother company, Row 44, says it will have trans-Atlantic Wi-Fi in the third quarter .","id":"7cde8987ef4a912ae78b5c0d85e2e7a317f3c017"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed his sometimes-turbulent relationship with the United States on Friday as more details emerged about U.S. airstrikes in his country that killed dozens of people this week. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government does not tolerate corruption. Karzai reflected on the past seven years of his leadership of Afghanistan and characterized his relationship with the United States as having \"serious bumps along the way, especially in the conduct of the war on terror.\" The theme he emphasized Friday was the problem of Afghan civilian casualties caused by American airstrikes. Karzai said he has raised the issue repeatedly since 2007. \"We have complained bitterly about civilian casualties,\" he said. \"We needed to get Washington's attention.\" The issue of civilian deaths has been at the foreground of Karzai's trip to Washington, where he's meeting with President Obama and other top officials. Afghan officials say that more than 100 civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday in Farah province, on the western border with Iran. If that death toll is confirmed, it will be the single deadliest incident involving Afghan civilians since the American-led invasion of the country in 2001 to oust the Taliban from power. A senior U.S. military official said Friday that 30 to 50 people were killed in the strikes, most of them insurgents. But the rest were civilians, including women and children. The U.S. military thinks some civilians were killed when they were caught up in the ground fighting and others in the airstrikes. The Taliban held some civilians against their will in the buildings that were attacked, according to the official. Karzai said senior Obama administration officials immediately and personally apologized to him about the incident when he met with them this week. Watch Karzai discuss U.S. airstrikes that allegedly killed civilians \u00bb . At the White House on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that she \"deeply regretted\" the death of Afghan civilians and pledged that the United States \"will work very hard with your governments and with your leaders to avoid the loss of innocent civilian lives.\" In response to recent suggestions by U.S. military officials that the civilian deaths in Farah province might have been staged by the Taliban, Karzai said that an Afghan government team was investigating the incident and that \"there was no doubt that the casualties were caused by bombings... and the use of air power.\" As the president grapples with the latest incident, he's also dealing with criticism of his administration by American officials for its perceived tolerance of corruption. An independent assessment by the non-governmental organization Transparency International rated Afghanistan as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Karzai said his government does not tolerate corruption. \"That is not right! That is not right!\" he said firmly. The president pointed out that Afghan courts had recently convicted 600 people on corruption charges or on counts of major drug dealing. Karzai used the issue of corruption to segue into a critique of the way in which aid has been disbursed to Afghanistan. He asserted that of the $32 billion the international community had given his country since 2001, only $6 billion -- or 20 percent -- has been funneled through the Afghan government. The other $26 billion has been spent by the donor countries themselves, and Karzai implied that the Afghan government should not be held accountable for how those funds have been spent. Support for Karzai's critique came last year in a study by the leading British charity Oxfam that concluded that a large portion of the money the international community has given to Afghanistan does not end up in the country itself. The report estimated that 40 percent of the money spent is returned to donor countries, such as the United States, in the form of consultants' salaries and corporate profits. Turning to the election, to be held August 20, the Afghan president said that if he wins another five-year term, he will put a special emphasis on building dams and bringing electricity to the Afghan people. The U.S. government assesses that less than 10 percent of Afghans have access to electric power. Karzai is likely to win the vote in a landslide, given his advantages of incumbency, relative popularity and the few plausible opposition candidates. Karzai emphasized also the importance in the coming years of what he described as the \"peace process\" with the Taliban. He characterized it as being at \"the heart\" of what his government hopes to achieve and said he is \"glad that the Obama administration is backing this.\" The Afghan president said Saudi Arabia, one of the few governments to recognize the Taliban when they were in power, is \"very important\" in this process because of its leadership of the Islamic world. CNN's Nic Robertson reported that in September, representatives of the Afghan government and former Taliban officials met in Mecca for preliminary discussions about peace in a meeting hosted by Saudi King Abdullah. But peace with the Taliban may be a long time coming. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has in the past several months announced at every opportunity that he has no interest in a deal with the Afghan government. And one of Mullah Omar's deputies announced last month on a Taliban Web site that the militants would launch \"strong and robust\" operations in Afghanistan to counter the additional 21,000 American soldiers who are deploying to the country this year.","highlights":"Afghan president says airstrikes have strained dealings with Washington .\nLatest incident is said to have killed 100 civilians Wednesday .\nKarzai critical of how aid money is distributed to his nation .\nHe emphasizes importance of \"peace process\" with Taliban .","id":"35f2ba98a4b50ddefc4fa21c8b6a52235396ea35"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia expressed interest in using Cuban airfields during patrol missions of its strategic bombers, Russia's Interfax news agency reported . \"There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,\" Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev told Interfax. Zhikharev, who is the chief of staff of the Russian Air Force's long-range aviation, said, \"If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.\" Zhikharev also told Interfax that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered a military airfield on La Orchila island as a temporary base for Russian strategic bombers. \"If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible,\" he said, according to Interfax. Zhikharev said he visited La Orchila in 2008 and can confirm that with minor reconstruction, the airfield owned by a local naval base can accept fully-loaded Russian strategic bombers.","highlights":"\"We are ready to fly there,\" Russian Air Force official says .\nCuba has four or five fields that suit Russia, military official says .\nVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez also has offered a military airfield .","id":"ba78b59a0274a00a6af639f9a892d667891d1a8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday. It is OK to slap Saudi women who spend too much, a judge has told an audience. Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that \"if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment.\" Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine's statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported. Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in Saudi Arabia. He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that \"nobody puts even a fraction of blame\" on women, the newspaper said. Al-Razine \"also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country,\" it added. Domestic violence, which used to be a taboo subject in the conservative kingdom, has become a hot topic in recent years. Groups like the National Family Safety Program have campaigned to educate the public about the problem and help prevent domestic abuse. Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider told CNN that Saudi women routinely face such attitudes. \"This is how men in Saudi Arabia see women,\" she said in a telephone interview from the Saudi city of Dahran. \"It's not something they read in a book or learned from a friend. They've been raised to see women this way, that they're less than a person.\" Al-Huwaider added that \"I'm not surprised to see a judge or a religious man saying that - they've been raised in the same culture - a culture that tells them it's ok to raise your hand to a woman that this works.\" Another Saudi judge, in the city of Onaiza, was the source of a separate recent controversy: he twice denied a request from the mother of an 8-year-old girl that the girl be granted a divorce from her 47-year-old husband. Last month, after human-groups condemned the union, the girl was granted the divorce.","highlights":"Husbands allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, Saudi judge says .\nWomen in the audience immediately and loudly protested his speech .\nNewspaper reports judge was trying to explain increase in domestic violence .","id":"7da71404e5c6ebc4cccea8b3765b12fff33dfd7c"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The fifth and final phase of India's marathon general election to choose a federal government ended Wednesday. Indians voters hold up their voter ID cards at a polling station in northern India. Home to about 714 million voters, India is now due to hold a single-day vote count Saturday for 543 seats in the lower house of its parliament. India's election commission spokesman Rajesh Malhotra told CNN that a 62 percent voter turnout was recorded in the last phase of polling Wednesday. Voting in the month-long exercise was spread across 28 states and seven federal territories. Stock markets closed 138.4 points down -- as voting drew to a close Wednesday -- apparently over fears of political uncertainty ahead. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party, which came to power in 2004 as head of a communist-backed coalition, is seeking re-election. The party mainly faces opposition from an alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Watch more about one village refusing to vote \u00bb . Over the years, regional parties have emerged as key players in government formation in India, creating a situation in which federal power is now shared by a coalition of groups. Last year, Singh's Congress party lost the support of the communists, who opposed India's civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. The party was able to survive primarily with the backing of a powerful regional party.","highlights":"Voting in the month-long exercise was spread across 28 states .\nIndia is scheduled to hold the vote count on Saturday .\nPrime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party seeking re-election .","id":"9d4b1ad1d3b2f7dade5bcbd97468f07cd64d432b"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Taliban spokesman issued a series of threats and ultimatums against Pakistani officials Wednesday as the country's military continued its offensive against the militant group in the Swat Valley. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan has courted local and international media in jovial telephone conversations. Speaking on the telephone with CNN, Muslim Khan announced that all national and provincial parliament members from the Malakand Division, the northwestern region where the Swat Valley is located, must resign within three days. \"Otherwise, we will arrest all their families,\" Khan threatened, \"and we will destroy all their buildings.\" The Taliban spokesman issued a separate directive aimed at prompting a public show of support for the militants from Pakistan's Islamist political parties. \"All these parties must help the Taliban,\" Khan said. \"They must give a press conference to show the people that we need sharia [Islamic law] in the Malakand Division.\" Members of the Islamist party Jamaat-i-Islami have spoken out against the military's offensive in the Swat Valley, but they have stopped short of announcing support for the Taliban. Watch more about the victims of the war \u00bb . Throughout the fighting over the past three weeks, the gray-bearded Khan has been the public face of the Taliban, enthusiastically courting local and international media in jovial telephone conversations. In an earlier phone interview with CNN, he described how he had spent four years living in the United States, working as a painter in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. On Wednesday, Khan denied reports from many refugees emerging from the Swat Valley that Taliban militants had carried out a campaign of violence and intimidation in the region for the past two years. Several terrified Swat residents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from the Taliban, described how insurgents kidnapped and killed their critics, beheaded government informers and blew up girls' schools. Khan denied the accusations. \"We are killing the people which are only no good for society, like thieves and people who are making problem for the poor people, like people who are working for army,\" he said. \"We are only killing these people.\" On Tuesday, the Pakistani army announced that it had dropped special forces soldiers by helicopter into the Peochar area of Swat, which is thought to be the headquarters for the region's Taliban's leader, Maulana Fazliullah. Local media report that the Taliban have training camps in Peochar. Khan confirmed that Pakistani troops had attacked Peochar, which he described as a \"place for mujaheddin,\" or holy warriors. The Taliban spokesman said militants and soldiers have been fighting in the mountains around Peochar since Tuesday, and that the clashes continue. He said two Taliban fighters had been killed so far in the battle, along with five Pakistani troops. Meanwhile Wednesday, Taliban militants attacked NATO supply terminals, torching at least 10 supply trucks in northern Pakistan, local officials said. About 70 Taliban fighters attacked the facility in Peshawar, police said. A gunfight ensued between the insurgents and police. No casualties were reported. Peshawar is the capital of the North West Frontier Province, which intelligence officials say is rife with Islamic extremists and has been the site of recent clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants. Because Afghanistan is landlocked, many supplies for NATO-led troops fighting Islamic militants there must be trucked in from Pakistan. Convoys carrying food and military supplies have regularly come under attack in the area. Journalist Janullah Hashimzada contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taliban spokesman threaten Pakistan's ruling political class .\nMuslim Khan says leaders from Swat Valley must resign within three days .\nMeanwhile artillery and helicopters pound Taliban targets in Swat Valley .\nTaliban attack NATO supply terminals, torch at least 10 supply trucks .","id":"299adc21477ccb708a000cb7efd561f85288457d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- His was one of the first photos of a missing child to appear on a milk carton. Almost 30 years later, Etan Patz is still missing. Etan Patz, 6, disappeared while walking to a school bus stop. It was the first time he'd gone alone. Etan was 6 when he disappeared on May 25, 1979, the Friday before Memorial Day. He was on his way to school in what is now the upscale Soho neighborhood of New York. It was the first time he'd walked to the bus stop by himself. It was just a few blocks away. Etan, like any 6-year-old, argued that all of his friends walked to the bus stop alone, and his parents relented. His mother, Julie Patz, learned that Etan hadn't been in classes when he failed to return home. She called the school at 3:30 p.m., then called the homes of all his friends. When no one had seen Etan, she called police and filed a missing person's report. By evening more than 100 police officers and searchers had gathered with bloodhounds. The search continued for weeks, but no clues to Etan's whereabouts were found. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . The boy's disappearance was one of the key events that inspired the missing children's movement, which raised awareness of child abductions and led to new ways to search for missing children. Etan's case was the first of the milk carton campaigns of the mid-1980s. \"In our minds there were only two possibilities,\" said Stan Patz, the boy's father. \"Either Etan was taken by a stranger and killed or he was taken by a very sad woman desperate for a child of her own, and we hoped that such a woman would at least take care of him and keep him safe.\" Patz lived with this hope until 1982, when he learned of Jose Antonio Ramos' arrest and the surprising connection between him and a former babysitter of Etan's. Ramos was a drifter who in 1979 lived in Alphabet City, a neighborhood not far from Soho. In 1982 he was arrested after boys in a neighborhood in the Bronx complained that he had stolen their book bags while trying to coax them into a drainpipe under a bridge, where he lived, said the Patzes and federal prosecutor Stuart GraBois, who spent years investigating the case. When police found Ramos in his drainpipe home, they found he had many photographs of small blond boys. They noticed that they looked a lot like Etan Patz, according to author Lisa R Cohen's book about the case, \"After Etan: The Missing Child Case that Held America Captive.\" Bronx police questioned Ramos, and he denied having anything to do with Etan's disappearance. But he did tell police that his girlfriend used to baby-sit for the boy, GraBois said. Prosecutors in the Bronx and Manhattan pursued this lead, but concluded they did not have enough evidence to connect Ramos to Etan's disappearance, GraBois and a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said. Ramos was released when the parents of the Bronx boys chose not to press charges against him, according to published reports. He left town and disappeared for six years -- until GraBois reviewed Etan's case. GraBois said he focused on Ramos as the prime suspect. GraBois said he learned in 1988 that Ramos had been arrested and convicted of child molestation and was serving time in a Pennsylvania prison. GraBois said he brought Ramos to New York for questioning and surprised him with the question: \"How many times did you have sex with Etan Patz?\" Ramos told GraBois that he'd taken a little boy to an apartment he had on the lower East Side on the same day that Etan went missing. \"He was 90 percent sure it was the same he'd seen in the news that was missing,\" GraBois said. According to GraBois, Ramos claimed he released the boy and brought him to a subway station so the boy could go visit his aunt in Washington Heights. \"Etan did not have an aunt in Washington Heights,\" GraBois said. When questioned further, Ramos refused to say anything more and asked for a lawyer, according to GraBois. Ramos is serving a 10- to 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania. He is scheduled to be released in November 2012, GraBois said. GraBois said he had Ramos transferred to a federal prison, and planted informants as his cell mates. He wouldn't go into detail about what Ramos might have told them, but said he's convinced he's eyeing the right suspect. GraBois turned over his evidence to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, but prosecutors have not brought charges. They say that without a body, they don't have enough evidence. Etan's case is still considered by the NYPD to be a cold case. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Etan Patz or that leads to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for his disappearance is asked to call the FBI\/NYPD Etan Patz hotline: 212-384-2200.","highlights":"Boy, 6, begged his parents to let him walk to school bus stop for first time .\nHe never showed up at school in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood .\nEtan Patz disappeared on May 25, 1979 .\nKnow something? Call the FBI\/NYPD Etan Patz hotline: 212-384-2200 .","id":"f4642819d72a8864455a217aa8bc80a79d0f5473"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Margie Brandquist wears a framed photo of her sister, who died in a plane crash three months ago. Flowers are left at a makeshift memorial near the site of a plane crash in Clarence Center, New York, in February. Her sister, Mary Pettys, 51, was engaged to be married when her Continental Connection Flight 3407 went down in icy conditions near Buffalo, New York. The flight, operated by regional carrier Colgan Air, plunged into a house in Clarence Center, killing all 49 people on board and one man in the house. Brandquist is one of several of the victims' family members attending this week's National Transportation Safety Board hearing on Capitol Hill. Brandquist wants to know why the pilot, who failed several flight tests before joining the airline, never received hands-on training with the emergency equipment that was activated before the crash. \"We put our lives in the hands of people that we assume that the [Federal Aviation Administration] and the airlines are properly training,\" she told CNN's Randi Kaye. The safety board resumed its three-day hearing Wednesday. Watch hearing consider whether crash could have been avoided \u00bb . At Tuesday's hearing, Colgan Air acknowledged that Capt. Marvin Renslow never trained on the \"stick pusher\" emergency system in a flight simulator. But in a written statement, the carrier said that both Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw had received other specific training about how to handle situations like those that preceded the crash. It said that the company provides FAA-approved ground training and that \"Captain Renslow and First Officer Shaw had thorough initial and recurrent training\" on how to handle a stall. \"Captain Renslow and First Officer Shaw did know what to do, had repeatedly demonstrated they knew what to do, but did not do it,\" the statement said. \"We cannot speculate on why they did not use their training in dealing with the situation they faced.\" Anne Marie Russo, whose daughter Madeline died in the crash, watched Tuesday's televised hearing at a hotel in Newark, New Jersey, with other families who lost loved ones on the flight. \"This should not have happened,\" she said. \"These 50 people should be enjoying their life right now.\" She said she believes that cost-cutting measures by airlines may have been a factor in the crash. \"Maybe the training has to be more safer, more satisfactory for the public,\" she said. \"This is tragedy that happened to these 49, 50 people, it could happen to any one of us.\" Dan Marzolf, who also lost a loved one in the crash, said the hearing was very technical, but he hopes \"to get to some conclusions.\" \"I really do hope good will come from these meetings,\" he told CNN's affiliate in Buffalo, WGRZ. On Tuesday, the safety board investigators released a transcript of the cockpit voice recording from moments before the crash. The last sounds heard were Shaw saying, \"We're\" and then screaming at 10:16 p.m. Seconds earlier, Renslow said, \"Jesus Christ\" as a sound \"similar to stick shaker,\" an emergency warning system, was heard, the transcript said. Renslow said, \"We're down,\" and a thump was heard. About five minutes before the crash, Shaw had shared with Renslow her fear of flying in icy conditions. \"I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know, I'd've freaked out. I'd've had like seen this much ice and thought, 'oh, my gosh, we were going to crash,' \" Shaw told Renslow. The safety board's preliminary investigation determined that there was some ice accumulation on the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 aircraft but that \"icing had a minimal impact on the stall speed of the airplane.\" At Tuesday's hearing, Colgan Air said Renslow, though not training physically on the \"stick pusher,\" received more training on it than the law requires. \"In the ground school portion, it is covered,\" said Paul Pryor, head of Colgan Air's pilot training program. Such training is not required by the Federal Aviation Administration. \"That's a significant problem,\" veteran pilot Douglas Moss said. Moss, an expert in stall recovery, believes that flight simulator practice with a stick pusher should be mandatory for aspiring pilots. \"It's similar to picking up and throwing a ground ball in baseball. You can study it academically all you want to, but you really need to develop the proficiency, the skill, the muscle memory required to do that,\" Moss said. Since the accident, Colgan has added demonstrations of the technique on its flight simulator . \"This is one of a number of additions that Colgan has made to its training and safety programs in the wake of the accident,\" the statement said. Renslow had failed five pilot tests, known as check rides, three of which occurred before he joined the airline, Colgan Air said. Renslow had revealed only one of those failures to the airline, according to Colgan. Wally Warner, a Bombardier test pilot who testified Tuesday, said he believes that the pilot could have overcome the stall that caused the crash. \"Obviously, the initial reaction to the stall warning was incorrect, and that set the course of action for what followed,\" Warner said. CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Airline says officers \"did know what to do ... but did not do it\"\nFamilies of victims of February crash near Buffalo, New York, watch hearing .\nSafety board hears that pilot got no simulator training on one safety device .\nFAA doesn't require such training; airline says pilot had classroom training .","id":"b3548137d12fa4047c02c5e829c7ee7848806d00"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The last survivor of the Titanic, 97-year-old Millvina Dean, is auctioning off her remaining mementos of the doomed ship to pay nursing home bills. Millvina Dean, 97, is trying to raise money so she can stay in the nursing home she prefers. The auction, which is expected to raise up to $50,000 for her, is set to take place Saturday near her home in England. It is the second auction in less than a year for Dean, who was a 9-week-old when the ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Among the items going under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son is a canvas bag that might have been used to lift the infant Dean from a lifeboat to a rescue ship, said Alan Aldridge of the auction house. \"Historical documents say she was lifted from the lifeboat onto Carpathia, the rescue ship, in a mail sack,\" Aldridge said. After her rescue, Dean, her mother and her brother returned to England with a canvas sack, among other possessions. \"There is speculation that this would have been the bag. It's a leather and canvas bag. You would easily get a child or infant in it,\" Aldridge said, though he added that research by the Smithsonian, the British Postal Museum and the Liverpool Maritime Museum showed no proof that Dean had been taken off the lifeboat in that particular bag. Given that the auctioneer cannot prove Dean was rescued in the bag, \"we expect it to fetch \u00a33,000 ($4,480). If it was the bag she was rescued in, it would be \u00a330,000 to \u00a340,000, ($44,800 to $60,000), but we can't prove it. It depends on what people are prepared to believe.\" Aldridge said he was eager to raise as much for Dean as possible. \"She's in a residential nursing home. She's 97 years of age. She's paying \u00a33,000 a month in nursing home fees,\" he said -- the amount he hopes her canvas bag will sell for. \"As she said, \u00a33,000 a month is \u00a336,000 a year, which is a lot of money,\" he said. \"When she runs out of money, the state will pay fees for her, but while she can pay her fees, she decides where she gets her care. When the state pays, they decide.\" Dean's previous sale, in October, raised just over \u00a330,000, Aldridge said. \"It's made a lot of people aware of her plight; a lot of people have sent her funds,\" he said. Dean never married and had no children. \"There are cousins, but there is no one directly to support her,\" Aldridge said. \"The property she lived in [before she moved to the nursing home] was not hers. She's just an ordinary little old lady. \"If she's lucky, she'll get another four or five years; she's quite a fit lady,\" he said. Dean was not available to speak to CNN herself because of a throat infection, Aldridge said. The auction will include 17 items from her collection, most of them memorabilia related to the Titanic and signed by her but not from the ship itself. The auction, in Devizes, southwest England, will also include a collection of letters from the estate of Titanic survivor Barbara Dainton-West, estimated to fetch \u00a340,000 to \u00a360,000 ($60,000 to $90,000). The letters include descriptions of her family's trip to board the Titanic and the immediate aftermath of the sinking. Dainton-West, who was 10 months old when the ship went down, died in October 2007, the auctioneer said.","highlights":"97-year-old was 9 weeks old when Titanic sank in 1912 .\nSaturday's auction is expected to raise up to $50,000 for her .\nLetters from estate of another survivor will also be on the block .","id":"0eda7f6fbe2ef1b7802b304631c67c4e1501e4bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three years ago, the film based on Dan Brown's novel \"The Da Vinci Code\" was the focus of protest and controversy, with a Vatican archbishop calling for a boycott and Catholics at many levels refuting plot points. From left, actors Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer and Ewan McGregor join director Ron Howard at the film's premier. But when it comes to the new film based on a Brown novel, \"Angels & Demons,\" star Tom Hanks says talk of controversy is much ado about nothing. \"Everybody is looking for some scandal whether a scandal exists or not,\" Hanks said of the film. \"I think a kind of natural reaction is now that somehow because it's the second Robert Langdon mystery that there is some degree of controversy over it. And there is really not.\" The movie ventures into similar waters as its predecessor, \"The Da Vinci Code,\" with Hanks reprising the role of Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbology expert, and conspiracy theories galore. It also reunites the Academy Award-winning actor with director Ron Howard, who helmed \"Da Vinci,\" and teams Hanks with actor Ewan McGregor and Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer. While \"The Da Vinci Code\" centered on the complex investigation of a murder in the Louvre and the theory that a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene produced descendants, the new film features a murder at the Vatican and a secret and powerful society known as the \"Illuminati.\" McGregor, known for his role as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the \"Star Wars\" films, said that while \"The Da Vinci Code\" and \"Angels & Demons\" are inextricably linked, the latter can stand on its own. \"If I thought [Angels & Demons] was pinned to 'The Da Vinci Code' in some way then it would've been a lesser script to read and it wasn't,\" McGregor said. \"It's a standalone movie ... it's not relevant whether you've seen 'Da Vinci Code' or not.\" Both films, like the Brown novels they're based on, have been met with criticism for their melding of history and storytelling. \"I have a strong objection to the genre of mixing fact with fiction,\" said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. \"You've got [Dan] Brown, [Ron] Howard and [Tom] Hanks in the movie all alleging that the Illuminati was this secret society which was brutalized by the Catholic Church in the 1600s.\" \"It's all a lie,\" Donohue said. \"[The Illuminati] never even existed until May 1, 1776, but they have to pitch it back into the 1600s so they can trot out their favorite victim, Galileo. What happens is you get the audience thinking 'Well, maybe it's not all true, but probably some of it is true.' \" Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide and the Christian Film & Television Commission, first issued an advisory alert about the film in April and reiterated it days before the movie's May 15 release. \"Now that we've previewed 'Angels & Demons,' Movieguide has decided to keep in effect our caution alert,\" Baehr said. \"Faith is often denied throughout the movie.\" Director Howard wrote in the The Huffington Post that he believes Donohue is on a mission \"to paint me and the movie I directed, 'Angels & Demons,' as anti-Catholic,\" a claim Howard emphatically denies. The director told CNN that he attempted to reach out to the Catholic Church regarding the film, but had no success. He also downplayed reports that Rome and the Vatican tried to hinder filming. Hanks said shooting the movie in the ancient city was complicated given the vibrancy of Rome. At one point, Hanks said, make-believe collided with one woman's fairy tale. \"We had a lady showing up who was getting married at the Pantheon and she had to get married and we had to get our shot,\" Hanks said. \"She showed up right between shots, when we were moving cameras.\" Fortunately, both the wedding and the day's filming were able to be completed, Hanks said. McGregor said Howard was to be credited for how well the production came together. Howard's background as an actor undoubtedly helped enhance the actors' performances, McGregor said. \"A lot of directors are able to tell you what they're after, but Ron's able to tell you what he's after and help you for how you might play that ... which is kind of total directing,\" McGregor said. Zurer said she had a blast being the only female lead in the film. Viewers should see the film for what it is, she said, and not focus on the controversy. \"It's fun fiction,\" she said. \"It's a fun movie to watch, it's thrilling and that's what I saw in it.\" CNN's Lisa Respers France contributed to this story.","highlights":"Tom Hanks stars in \"Angels & Demons,\" a sequel to \"The Da Vinci Code\"\nFellow cast mate Ewan McGregor says latest film is a standalone .\nLike earlier film, \"Angels & Demons\" has been attacked for mix of fact and fiction .\nCatholic League president: \"It's all a lie\"","id":"b328f7c506b2e08cac193dee6b0ee9b27cb5fa65"} -{"article":"WASECA, Minnesota (CNN) -- When you think of protection from the H1N1 flu virus, you may not think the hog population is what needs protecting. But that's precisely the concern among pork producers and those who use swine in research studies. Professor Samuel Baidoo wears specially issued gear as he checks on the hogs at the research facility. Forget any worries you may have had about catching the often-called \"swine flu\" from a pig. University of Minnesota Professor Samuel Baidoo, a swine nutrition and management expert at one of the school's swine research facilities, says it's actually the other way around. \"If we are sick and we come in here, we can easily transfer [diseases], especially flu, to these pigs,\" Baidoo says. Baidoo took CNN on a tour of the university's research facility to demonstrate the precautions in place year-round to make sure its pig population remains safe. For starters, anyone who wants to visit the facility has to shower and put on specially issued overalls and boots and that rule applies to reporters and even the hog farmers themselves. \"They will shower to go and see their own pigs,\" Baidoo says. This university's swine research barn is typical of most large-production hog facilities, Baidoo says, stressing that it's so secure \"flies cannot even come in here.\" \"Flu can be transferred by flies, by birds. There's no way a bird can get into this building. So these pigs are very, very safe,\" he explains. \"We are more a risk to them than they to us.\" So let's say a pig does happen to come down with a disease, specifically with H1N1. Then what happens? Baidoo says the first sign that something is wrong is usually lack of appetite. \"They go off feed, so we know there's something not right.\" If it does turn out to be a flu virus, Baidoo says, the treatment is very similar to what humans undergo. \"We put them on medication and within three days it's over. Just like when we get [the] flu -- we go to the doctor and then they prescribe medication and we get well.\" Baidoo points out that since H1N1 is a respiratory illness, the actual carcass of the pig -- the pork we eat -- is still harmless. Still, Baidoo says he understands the initial knee-jerk reaction. After all, \"swine flu\" was what everyone called it at first -- before health organizations began referring to it as H1N1. \"I also see the concern of consumers. When there is this situation everybody tends to connect the two. But there is no connection at all between the flu and pork,\" he says. \"There's no fear in eating pork based on the scare of the flu pandemic.\" The disease most people in the United States and worldwide have been calling swine flu is actually a combination of human and animal strains. It has not been shown to be transmissible through eating pork. In an already suffering market, the negative news is something the U.S. pork industry says could have been prevented. \"This flu is being called something that it isn't, and it's hurting our entire industry,\" Dave Warner, communications director for the National Pork Producers Council, said last week. \"It is not a 'swine' flu, and people need to stop calling it that ... they're ruining people's lives.\"","highlights":"Researchers say hog population needs protection from human diseases .\nFear over so-called \"swine flu\" has hit pork industry hard -- and unfairly, many say .\nMinnesota facility says humans must wear special suits to keep hogs disease-free .\n\"No connection at all between the flu and pork,\" researcher says .","id":"a68083e96a467aecb2a680d2e8e088a678235218"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An internationally known Catholic priest who was shown in photographs last week embracing a bathing-suit-clad woman on a Florida beach has admitted they had a two-year affair. The Rev. Alberto Cutie was removed from his duties after pictures showed him bare-chested with a woman. The Rev. Alberto Cutie -- sometimes called \"Father Oprah\" because of the advice he gave on Spanish-language media -- said Monday on CBS' \"Early Show\" that he is in love with the woman and is considering his options: Whether to break up with her or leave the priesthood and marry her. The woman, who has not been publicly identified, wants to get married, Cutie said. The priest was removed from his duties last week at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Florida, and on the Radio Paz and Radio Peace networks. \"I take full responsibility for what I did, and I know it's wrong,\" he said Monday. The photos of the Cuban-American priest, also known as \"Padre Alberto,\" appeared on the cover of last week's TV Notas magazine and on eight inside pages. The cover says in Spanish: \"Good God! Padre Alberto. First photos of a priest 'in flagrante' with his lover.\" Other media outlets throughout Latin America, including the official Notimex news agency in Mexico, picked up the story, and it became an Internet sensation. Cutie has millions of followers in the Spanish-speaking world. In a message posted on the Miami, Florida, archdiocese Web page last week, Archbishop John C. Favalora apologized to parishioners and radio listeners for what he called a \"scandal.\" \"Father Cutie made a promise of celibacy and all priests are expected to fulfill that promise with the help of God,\" Favalora said. \"Father Cutie's actions cannot be condoned despite the good works he has done as a priest.\" Cutie expressed his regret in an online statement last week and again Monday on the CBS program. \"I deeply apologize to the Catholic community and especially to my bishop and to my brother priests who are faithful and who are committed to celibacy,\" Cutie said. The priest said he believes in celibacy but thinks it should be optional. He said he had never had a sexual relationship with anyone other than the woman since leaving the seminary 15 years ago. Watch Father Cutie question the celibacy requirement \u00bb . \"I don't support the breaking of the celibacy promise,\" Cutie said. \"I understand fully that this is wrong. \"I don't want to be the anti-celibacy priest. I think that's unfortunate,\" he said. \"I think it's a debate that's going on in our society, and now I've become kind of a poster boy for it. But I don't want to be that. I believe that celibacy is good, and that it's a good commitment to God. This is something I've struggled with. And something that I never expected to become a public debate.\" He also talked about the woman, saying they have been friends for a long time and the attraction was there from early on, but it was not acted on until a couple of years ago. They have \"both struggled\" with the relationship, he said. \"She's also a woman of faith,\" Cutie said. \"She's also somebody who cares about the priesthood, who cares about these things. So it hasn't been easy. And those who have helped me through this process know it hasn't been easy. Obviously, you know, through the photos, it looked like a frivolous thing on the beach, you know, and that's not what it is. It's something deeper than that.\" Cutie was the first Catholic priest to host a daily talk show on a major secular television network, his information on the LinkedIn online professional network says. In addition to his TV and radio appearances, he has written newspaper advice columns and a self-help book, \"Real Life, Real Love.\" Before being removed, he was president and general director of Pax Catholic Communications, home of Radio Paz and Radio Peace in Miami.","highlights":"Catholic priest was removed from duties in Miami archdiocese .\nThe Rev. Alberto Cutie says he is in love with the woman, considering his options .\nHe and the woman \"both struggled\" with the relationship, he said.","id":"fbad5a203cf676e9fdb9e136deac1b4076bf5251"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chester French is giving its music away. Chester French, Max Drummey, left, and D.A. Wallach are earning buzz as a band to watch. Go to the duo's Web site and you can scoop up an entirely free \"athletic-themed\" album. The idea is that you'll be so impressed by the free stuff, you'll feel inspired to buy the band's official debut album, \"Love The Future\" (Star Trak\/Interscope), which came out last month. \"We're doing something that's never been done by a band before,\" says lead singer D.A. Wallach. \"It's great because when you put out free music, people can spread it around as much as they want. And right now as we're just trying to expose ourselves to more people. Every new supporter helps.\" The band has even come up with a fancy name for its fans: \"VIP Concierge Service.\" So who are these two clever, skinny dudes who jokingly claim to \"put in a lot of burn at the gym\"? Wallach and Max Drummey met at Harvard, but found music to be more interesting than their studies. Fortunately for them, sought-after producer Pharrell Williams liked what he heard and signed the group to his label. So far things seems to be working out for Chester French (named for sculptor Daniel Chester French, though the group is sick of explaining). They won a place on Rolling Stone's \"Artists to Watch\" list in 2008. HBO's \"Entourage\" showed some love for their catchy single \"She Loves Everybody.\" Watch Chester French get punched by a pretty girl \u00bb . And then there's the transportation situation. \"Right now we're on the first tour bus we've ever had,\" says Wallach. \"We were driving around in a van for the past year and a half and it's a real luxury now to be able to sleep while we're driving.\" The band spoke to CNN about the challenges of navigating a rapidly changing industry, getting punched by a pretty girl in a music video and why the Beach Boys have nothing on them. CNN: How does it feel to be called the next big thing? D.A. Wallach: You know what, we actually haven't been called that in those words too often. But if we did, that would be very flattering. CNN: Things get a bit violent in the music video for your song \"She Loves Everybody.\" Who's idea was it to have you both get beaten up by an angry girl? Wallach: It was the director's. We worked with Paul Hunter on the video and it was our first music video. ... He had the concept that love hurts. So this girl was going to take it out on us and we were going to be all about it and still smiling and enjoying it. CNN: So it was a lot of fun? Wallach: Yeah it was great. It was painless. Actually we both got hit accidentally by her. I mean most of the hits were kind of staged punches. But we both got hit once each, and it was fun. CNN: You're both Harvard graduates. Does that make you the smartest dudes in pop music? Wallach: Probably not. We were kind of nerds in high school. And the hardest part about Harvard is getting in, people say. After that you take it at your own pace. And at different times we were more or less engaged there, but we met some other really intelligent, thoughtful people. Max Drummey: And there's definitely a lot of stupid people at Harvard. CNN: Tell me how you both met. Wallach: We met in the dining hall our freshman year and we started the band with three of our classmates. It was just a funny hobby at first and it wasn't until sophomore year that we really got serious about it and said, \"OK, let's actually try and make this a possibility as a career.\" CNN: And didn't you record most of your new album on campus? Wallach: Yeah, there was a recording studio in the basement of one of the dorms at Harvard and we were both recording engineers there. So we recorded lots for other people as well. And in our free time we were working on the record we just released, \"Love the Future.\" CNN: Is it true that there was a bit of a bidding war between Jermaine Dupri and Pharrell Williams (over the record deal)? Wallach: No. ... There were several people all at once who were interested in working with us and it was a little awkward because they're all friends with each other. And since we've been working with Pharrell we've stayed cool with everyone. ... We couldn't have gone wrong. CNN: Why do you think there's been all this interest from hip-hop producers? Drummey: We're the hottest rappers out. Wallach: I'm from Milwaukee, he's from Boston. They're both very diverse cities and we grew up with friends and all different kinds of music around us. So the records we make are inspired by a lot of different places. And certainly having grown up in the '90s, hip-hop is a part of the soundtrack for us and so it's very natural for us to have learned things from Dr. Dre or Pharrell and people like that. CNN: A lot of people compare your sound to the Beach Boys. How do you feel about that comparison? Drummey: I mean we're definitely better. And we came first too. So it's sort of a ridiculous comparison. CNN: Don't you play the theremin? Drummey: Yeah. Not well. Wallach: There are only a couple of people who play it at a virtuoso level. You'd have to really have something off to put the time in as a theremin artist. CNN: What has been the most surprising aspect of the music business so far? Wallach: I think the biggest surprise has been that people don't really know a hundred percent what they're doing. Everyone is trying to figure out how the music business is going to look in 10 years. And as a new artist there's not a blueprint. I figured you'd get signed and you're instantly on billboards. And the reality of it is that we find ourselves in a situation where all we can focus on is building our audience one person at a time. And it's just a brick-and-mortar, nose-to-the-grindstone process. CNN: What musicians do you admire as being fellow brainiacs? Wallach: Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails I think is really brilliant, not just on a musical level. Pharrell's been incredibly helpful and his advice is always really apt. Jay-Z. Really, when you're in the thick of it, anybody who's built a real career has something figured out. Or they got really lucky.","highlights":"Chester French a duo of two Harvard grads .\nBand praised for Beach Boys-like sound, highlighted on \"Entourage\"\nDespite pedigree, \"probably not\" smartest folks in pop music, says one member .","id":"40db89a00e8d5d75e31bf86522c3a13bca1ecc57"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A 22-year-old medical student suspected of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad was arraigned Tuesday and will be held without bail. Medical student Philip Markoff, 22, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. Philip Markoff, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, listened intently but did not speak during the hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Dressed in a blue-striped shirt and slacks, Markoff was handcuffed and wearing leg irons. His attorney, John Salsberg, told reporters after the hearing that Markoff is \"not guilty of the charges. He has his family's support. I have not received any document or report or piece of evidence other than what I heard in the courtroom. All I have at the moment are words -- no proof of anything.\" A woman identifying herself as Markoff's fiancee also maintained his innocence in an e-mail sent to ABC News. Megan McAllister said Markoff \"is the wrong man\" and \"was set up.\" \"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public,\" McAllister wrote. \"All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!\" She accused Boston police of \"trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations. What else is new??\" Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters, \"This was a brutal, vicious crime -- savage. And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them.\" A procedural not-guilty plea was entered on Markoff's behalf, Conley said. A Boston University spokeswoman said the school suspended Markoff, who has no criminal record, when it learned of the charges on Monday. Markoff is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Evidence from the scene suggests that Brisman \"put up a fight,\" prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said during the hearing Tuesday. Police said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. She sustained blunt head trauma, Hickman said, and was shot three times at close range. One of those bullets passed through her heart, killing her, she said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the robbery four days earlier of a woman at a Westin Hotel. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound, Hickman said. She was robbed of $800 and personal items, and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth, Hickman said in court Tuesday. Police said earlier the Westin victim was 29. She was not identified. Authorities believe the motive in Brisman's death was robbery, Conley told reporters, and she was killed during a struggle. In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Watch police say assailant has perused Craigslist ads \u00bb . Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was murdered showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, according to Boston police, who sought public assistance identifying the man. Police traced the Internet communications with Brisman to an e-mail account opened the day before her death, Conley said. Using Internet provider information, they found the computer was at Markoff's residence in Quincy, Massachusetts, he said. Authorities put the home under surveillance, Conley said, and \"the case just begins to build from there.\" \"This poor woman, Julissa Brisman, no matter what choices she made or decisions she made in life, she is a human being who's entitled to dignity and respect,\" Conley said. There may be more victims that authorities are unaware of, he said, adding that the prosecutor's goal is to hold Markoff accountable, not to pursue women who may be advertising on Craigslist. \"If you have been a victim like these victims have, please come forward,\" he said. Markoff is \"bearing up,\" according to attorney Salsberg. \"It's obviously a difficult time for anybody in these circumstances with the charges that have been brought against him. ... He's pleaded not guilty. He is not guilty,\" said Salsberg. McAllister, in her e-mail to ABC, wrote, \"Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life, so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share a wonderful, meaningful life together.\" The couple's wedding Web site had been taken down or was unavailable as of Tuesday afternoon. Authorities in Boston are working with police in Warwick, Rhode Island, on what could be a related case. On April 16 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, a man tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement, Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney said. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room. After pointing his gun at the husband, the suspect fled, McCartney said. He said no conclusions could be made yet, but allowed that the incident \"may be related to similar crimes occurring in the Boston area.\" Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told CNN the company is \"horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence.\" He promised that Craigslist will evaluate the incident to see if additional measures could be introduced to protect users. CNN's Mary Snow and Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"Not-guilty plea entered in Philip Markoff's behalf in woman's slaying in Boston .\nProsecutors say semiautomatic firearm found in search of student's home .\nCEO says Craigslist looking for ways to make site safer in wake of killing .\nE-mail from suspect's fiancee says police have \"wrong man\"","id":"e5f0a12771425dc49305e29fbc820e1923903745"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Tino Schaedler is an architect-turned-digital design artist whose groundbreaking work has been seen in \"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.\" Tino Schaedler, Jean-Lucien Gay and Michael J. Brown talk about design, virtuality and the future . Schaedler's next film project is \"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,\" a fantasy epic starring Jake Gyllenhaal and due in 2010. In 2007 he joined with Michael J. Brown and Jean-Lucien Gay to found NAU, a cross-disciplinary design collective positioned between architecture and film. CNN talked to Schaedler and his NAU colleagues, as well as collaborator Ken Leung, a graphic designer. CNN: You have said that graphic design is very powerful. Can you explain why? TS: I think graphic design, for us, is very important as it helps to break down very complex information into digestible, easy-to-understand buttons or whatever. In the world we're living in, we're flooded with information and need someone to almost kind of channel it and create signs that we can read. That's why I think graphic design becomes more important, the more complex our world becomes. CNN: Can you explain the work that NAU does? TS: NAU is a company that I founded with Michael and Jean-Lucien, friends from the architect firm I worked at. I guess we all wanted to collaborate, and me being interested in drifting back from the world of architecture to the world of film, I guess Michael and Jean-Lucien had something to offer. They usually take over the architectural side of things and I can be more free and visionary. I push them further with the kind of ideas I come up with and at the same time they make my ideas real. JLG: The idea was really to create a label, a structure that could cope with all the different locations that we're working from. It's also about the idea of remote collaboration. CNN: How important is it for you to collaborate with people? TS: For me, working with Ken has been like adding a whole new layer to the 3D worlds that I'm designing. I always liked the combination of high-end 3D graphics and subtle 2D graphics. I think for me, collaboration is also about creating situations that we'll both profit from. Also there are new tools we use that are a combination of Skype, video conferencing and Photoshop which allow you to do a video conference, which allow me to use a sketchpad that the other person can see. We can sketch correspondingly with each other and create something although we are not sitting in the same office. KL: Working with Tino, I've seen my work transformed into 3D. My background is print and magazines, so in this sense, things come alive, they move, it makes it real. CNN: How does architecture tie in with digital or 3D design? TS: You need two images and through the images you can interpolate the architectural spatial design which creates a 3D model... that technique also comes into film because it is photogrammetry, (a way of measuring 2D or 3D objects from photo-grammes or photographs as well as electronic imagery.) CNN: Didn't the makers of \"The Matrix\" use similar technology? TS: They basically just have the actress [Carrie-Ann Moss] up in the air and they take a photograph each at the same time so that's why she's in that movement... the camera moves around her but she doesn't move because its all different shots so you stretch the whole experience in two or three seconds. We're doing something similar on [the film] \"Prince of Persia\" that I've just finished. We record some action with five cameras... from these five images they recreate the actors as 3D objects and then project according to which angle. It's fascinating what kind of technology is out there. CNN: Can you define the relationship between working as architects and still working on a project like the Cocoon? MB: For us, it's less about the physical infrastructure that you are creating and more about the spaces and the experiences that you have there. In that sense I see a development of designers who are working across many media. CNN: Let's talk more about the Cocoon. What is it? TS: I actually had the idea for the Cocoon when I was walking down Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon. We know how manic it can be when everyone is shopping. I thought it would be brilliant to have something like a telephone booth that could help me disappear from the madness and allow me to relax or walk through the Amazon or let me sleep under a starry sky or whatever. You also have to see it like a retreat, it's to chill out. MB: I think the important elements for us were to be able to ask, \"Can I communicate with this piece through physical actions that are not so much tied to moving my fingers across the keyboard, but are much more about how I walk down the street, how I wave to people.\" How can I break down the barrier which is typically this sort of 2D screen between me and this digital world? CNN: Will we end up wired to computers and never see each other? KL: It's very different from gaming in the 80s. Then, you'd go to a computer game parlor and sit in a car for example. This is kind of taking it one step further, you're a bit more enclosed and the graphics are a lot better. I wouldn't be so daunted going into it. TS: For me, the true potential evolves more once the virtual information is completely freed from any medium that displays it. That's actually not far from the Cocoon because the next big step is the interface - if I can interact with something that's in front of me, I'm also using my body and that's also what the Cocoon is establishing. I see virtuality, once it's fully unfolded, as contributing to the slowing process that puts us back in tune with ourselves. CNN: What appeals to you most about the Cocoon project? KL: It's almost like being in your own virtual world. You see people with their iPods. They want to be in their own worlds, this is taking it one step further. But the good thing is you're using your whole body and almost becoming part of it. TS: I think [the Cocoon] frees virtuality from the computer. I've been dealing with this concept for probably ten years, because it was a big theme in architecture in the 90s. Everyone was afraid that architecture would disappear and be completely replaced by virtuality. I think it's got such amazing potential to make the world so much more exciting. When we think about our childhoods or watching \"Star Trek\" - seeing people being beamed - there's so much cool stuff and ideas... the future is now. CNN: Is the world ready for it? TS: I think it always takes some time to invent something, then for people to adapt it. I think with technology accelerating we also accelerate in the way that we adapt it so I think it's always no problem to get used to that and to enjoy it as well. CNN: What role do you see the Cocoon playing in the real world? TS: While working on the project, I read an article which talked about how in the future we would be much more limited in the way that we can physically travel. It will be a luxury to have a car or travel across countries and continents. It also mentioned that virtuality and Internet communication will be much more enhanced and will be even more importance. I think with the Cocoon and the technology that we propose in there, to travel to places, to work remotely, to have enhanced communication for remote shopping, will be even more important. Michael: For us the Cocoon is, I hope, the first step in trying to bring people a little bit more freedom from how they work and how they communicate. CNN: Do you think we're getting better at it? KL: I do. Personally, I loved the modernism of the 60s and 70s; everything was boiled down and focused on central points. Now we've got so many tricks with computers that we tend to go overboard, but I think the ideas are lacking and that people need to focus on the ideas first. I think we kind of share the same visual sensibility as well. Tino will send back a brief and I will send three options and we'll narrow it down from there. We work together quite well. CNN: Is it weird being together? TS: You know something like this always evolves. You start a project with certain expectations and I've had other collaborations that don't work that well and some where there's kind of a chemistry where things kind of create a synergy and something evolves that you would not be able to do yourself. CNN: Ken, where do you see the future of entertainment from your perspective, from print and magazines as entertainment, what's the future? KL: Well I think there is a future in magazines, I think people still want to have time and space from all the rush of the world. To me, when I'm on a plane, I'm happy because I'm not going to be interrupted by anyone and that's kind of the same with the Cocoon. I think its kind of getting away from reality; it's just the need to get your thoughts together.","highlights":"Tino Schaedler, colleagues talk about NAU, a remote collaboration project .\nThey discuss the concept of virtual reality, 3D design and the Internet .\nCocoon project is about being entertained in our own virtual world .","id":"9eed9be6ba6a5fe509c4ab53883916a6b4b085a0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A source close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now confirms that Pelosi was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was actually used on CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah. Source says Nancy Pelosi didn't object about waterboard usage because she wasn't personally briefed about it. This appears to contradict Pelosi's account that she was never told waterboarding actually happened, only that the administration was considering using it. Sheehy attended a briefing in which waterboarding was discussed in February 2003, with Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, who took over Pelosi's spot as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. This source says Pelosi didn't object when she learned that waterboarding was being used because she had not been personally briefed about it -- only her aide had been told. The source said Pelosi supported a letter that Harman sent to the administration at the time raising concerns. The source asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of matters discussed in classified intelligence briefings. Pelosi admits attending one briefing in September 2002, but at a news conference last month, she was adamant that she did not know waterboarding was used. \"At that or any other briefing, and that was the only briefing that I was briefed on in that regard, we were not -- I repeat, we were not -- told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used, \" Pelosi said on April 23. Some Republicans have called for Pelosi to testify at congressional hearings. The number two House Democrat -- Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland -- said Tuesday, \"I think the facts need to get out\" regarding what members of Congress had been told about harsh interrogations. But when asked whether Pelosi testifying would be appropriate, Hoyer did not directly answer the question, saying, \"The issue is what was done. If you don't have the facts pounded on the table, they (Republicans) are pounding on the table, or they are pounding on Speaker Pelosi. Take your pick. But they are doing so as a distraction, as a distraction from what was done in this case.\"","highlights":"Source says Nancy Pelosi was told by intelligence officer of waterboarding .\nThe source also said because she wasn't personally briefed, Pelosi didn't object .\nShe did support letter voicing concern about waterboarding, source says .\nPelosi has been previously adamant she didn't know waterboarding was used .","id":"a1271796e45f5f9c83771ac045031ccbbd1b0972"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jay Leno plans \"something really unusual and different\" when he hands over \"The Tonight Show\" to Conan O'Brien on May 29, 17 years after Johnny Carson left the hosting duties to him. Jay Leno begins \"The Jay Leno Show\" in September. His last \"Tonight Show\" is May 29. But don't expect an emotional final show, since Leno and most of his staff are just moving across the NBC lot to produce a nightly prime time show debuting in September. The traditional desk, chair and guest sofa probably won't follow Leno to his 10 p.m. show, but many of his favorite comedy elements will, Leno said. Making people laugh before they go to bed is still the mission. \"To me, 10 o'clock is like the new 11:30,\" Leno said. \"I hear more and more people, even young people, say 'I can't stay up past 11. I car pool, I gotta get up at 6.' \" \"The Jay Leno Show\" will be competing against scripted dramas, not other comedians telling jokes, which Leno said should give him the edge over the long haul. \"When I was a kid, there was comedy all over TV, and it was fun to watch, whether it was Carol Burnett or any of the sitcoms,\" he said. \"You'd have a whole night of comedy, and now everything is very serious and it's all murder.\" The new show will have famous guests, but they will not drive the ratings, Leno said. \"It's all about the joke material,\" he said. He will \"try to keep it moving\" with a longer monologue with dozens of jokes, he said. The last half-hour will be filled with comedy, he said. \"You look right in the camera, you directly talk to people as low-tech as possible, a little humor before people go to bed,\" he said. NBC's decision to put a talk-variety show on at 10 o'clock raised some complaints from affiliate station owners, worried the ratings wouldn't be strong enough to build an audience for their 11 o'clock local newscasts. The network's Boston affiliate briefly threatened to move its news to 10, pre-empting Leno. Leno, who grew up in Boston, said he understood the economics behind the concern. \"Although my job previous to this was to give a good lead-in to Conan, the job giving a good lead-in to the 11 o'clock news is really, really important,\" he said. \"That's really where our local affiliates make their money, is on the 11 o'clock news.\" He doesn't expect to beat the dramas the first week out, but he noted those shows produce only about 22 new episodes a year. \"During those repeat weeks and whatever, we'll be live, fresh, original shows,\" Leno said. The last week of \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" will include a lot of looking back and \"best of\" segments, \"because that's easier than writing new stuff,\" Leno said. His guests Monday through Thursday include Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wanda Sykes, Billy Crystal and Prince. Conan O'Brien will be on the final show, along with singer James Taylor. Taylor's songs were the last thing Leno heard on the radio when he left Boston in the late 1970s to start his career, so he wanted to have him as his last musical guest, he said. Leno hinted the last show would have some surprises. \"I have something really unusual and different planned,\" he said, \"Something really out of left field that we're going to end on.\" Pressed for more hints, Leno said it was \"something really personal, something that has to do with show and staff.\" \"I think it will make people smile,\" he said. Leno can smile as he moves on, having left the legendary show -- which has had only four hosts in 54 years -- as the top show for the past 16 years. \" 'The Tonight Show' is sort of the America's Cup of television, and you don't want to be the guy to screw it up,\" he said. If he fails in the new show, he will be all right, he said. \"If it didn't work out, then oh well, at least I have this.\"","highlights":"Jay Leno begins the prime-time \"Jay Leno Show\" in September .\nComedian's last \"Tonight Show\" is May 29; expect surprises, he says .\nHe believes audiences will welcome a 10 p.m. comedy-variety show .","id":"3715a72a877bc524e2b648f7e1342825c3822259"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Donald Trump will let Miss California USA Carrie Prejean keep her title despite controversy over seminude photos and charges by state pageant officials that she had abandoned her duties to devote time to opposition to same-sex marriage. Miss California USA Carrie Prejean caused controversy with remarks she made at the Miss USA pageant. Trump, no apprentice at turning a negative into positive publicity, brought several weeks of controversy to a conclusion at his New York headquarters Tuesday with winners all around. Trump said his Miss USA pageant stays \"so relevant,\" unlike the rival Miss America pageant seen only on a small cable channel. Prejean gained a national following that could help her post-pageant career. Watch Prejean defend herself \u00bb . The Miss California USA organization has a beauty queen better known than the woman who won the Miss USA title -- Kristen Dalton of North Carolina. Celebrity bloggers, such as Perez Hilton, whose question to Prejean ignited the firestorm, gained a higher profile and more readers for their Web sites. And groups both for and against same-sex marriage gained energy for their fundraising and publicity campaigns. Prejean stepped into the limelight unexpectedly just over three weeks ago when she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in response to a question asked during the national pageant by Hilton, a pageant judge. Watch Hilton get dismissive \u00bb . Prejean finished as first runner-up, but it was not clear if her answer cost her the crown. \"He [Hilton] gave her very low marks,\" Trump said. \"It certainly didn't help.\" Hilton, who is openly gay and a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, later posted a video rant online in which he called Prejean \"a dumb bitch.\" This caught the national mainstream media's attention, and Hilton was invited to appear on TV shows to talk about it. Prejean -- with pageant approval -- also talked publicly about her same-sex marriage opposition. But when she appeared at a news conference for the National Organization for Marriage, a same-sex marriage opposition group, the controversy intensified. Lawyers for the Miss USA group demanded that NOM stop using video clips of the pageant in its TV ads. The controversy boiled to a new level last week when a photo of Prejean, wearing only pink panties but showing mainly a bare back, was published by gossip Web sites. Miss California USA officials -- some of them outspoken advocates of same-sex marriage -- suggested that the seminude photo breached the contract Prejean signed with the pageant. Her title might be taken away, they said. Watch Miss California USA offficials scold Prejean \u00bb . These officials also complained they couldn't reach Prejean and she had missed important pageant events. They charged that their beauty queen had been hijacked by anti-same-sex marriage forces. But it was up to Trump, who bought the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants a decade ago, to decide what to do about Carrie Prejean. Trump united her with California pageant co-executive directors Shanna Moakler -- a former Playboy centerfold -- and Keith Lewis in his New York office Tuesday morning for a peacemaking session. It ended with hugs and smiles at Trump's news conference. Watch Trump's announcement \u00bb . Those photos of a topless Prejean do not violate the contract she signed when entering the pageant competition, Trump said. \"Some were very beautiful,\" he said. \"Some were risque, but again, we're in the 21st century.\" Trump praised Prejean for giving a \"very, very honest answer\" to a tough question during the pageant. \"It's the same answer that the president of the United States gave,\" he said. And he said he would not hesitate to invite Hilton back as a pageant judge, despite the firestorm he set off. \"He's doing his thing,\" Trump said. \"What's the big deal?\" \"We want tough questions,\" he said. \"We don't want to be in a position that Miss America is in that they're now on a small cable channel.\" He noted that NBC recently extended the Miss USA and Miss Universe TV contracts for three years. Prejean said she has forgiven Hilton and the other critical bloggers. \"I willingly forgive them before all of you today,\" she told reporters. She said she was the victim of \"hateful attacks, despicable rumors and false allegations\" for exercising her freedom of speech, but the situation has given her a new message to carry as a role model to young people. \"Think about how much better our society would be if we could just agree to disagree and show respect,\" she said. As she resumes public appearances as Miss California USA, Prejean said she will not be an activist against same-sex marriage. \"I'm going to resume my duties as Miss California, but also stay true to who I am and have my own personal opinions,\" she said. \"We will see how we will balance the two.\"","highlights":"Carrie Prejean to keep title despite disputes over photos, duties .\nDonald Trump, who owns the pageant, made final decision .\nSeminude photos don't violate contract Prejean signed, Trump says .\nPrejean initially in news for her response to question about same-sex marriage .","id":"7de9e34b2c18a896be6fc191379862b4ece49622"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan's decision to close a key U.S. military base is \"regrettable,\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, but it won't affect the U.S. military effort in nearby Afghanistan. Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan serves as a U.S. supply route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. On Friday, Russia announced it would assist the U.S. in transporting nonmilitary cargo to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The United States uses Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan as a route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced Tuesday that \"all due procedures\" were being initiated to close the base. \"It's regrettable that this is under consideration by the government of Kyrgyzstan, and we hope to have further discussions with them,\" Clinton told reporters Thursday after a meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. \"But we will proceed in a very effective manner no matter what the outcome of the Kyrgyzstan government's deliberations might be.\" Bakiyev made his announcement at a news conference in Moscow, Russia, following news reports of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia to Kyrgyzstan. Lavrov said on Russian television that his country intends to help get vital cargo -- but no weapons or troops -- to NATO troops in Afghanistan. The United States asked to transport the cargo through Russian territory to Afghanistan, Lavrov said. The U.S. military is planning to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to halt a resurgence of the Taliban. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, described Manas as having \"an important role in the deployment of these forces\" and in refueling aircraft. Senior State Department officials said the State and Defense departments are working with Kyrgyzstan to keep the lease to the base. The officials said the Kyrgyzstan government has not yet responded to an offer to renew the lease. Discussions are being conducted through the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan and relevant State Department and Pentagon bureaus, the officials said. One official said the United States has almost 18 months to renegotiate the lease before it expires and hopes Kyrgyzstan will reconsider their position. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell called Manas \"a hugely important air base.\" \"It provides us with launching point to provide supplies in Afghanistan. We very much appreciate [Kyrgyz] support in using that base, and we hope to continue,\" he said at a daily news briefing earlier this week. Clinton said the Defense Department \"is conducting an examination as to how else we would proceed that will not affect whatever decisions we make.\" Petraeus was in Kyrgyzstan last month, partly to lobby the government to allow the United States to keep using the base. He said he and Kyrgyz leaders did not discuss at all the possible closure of the base and said local officials told him there was \"no foundation\" for news reports about the issue. The mountainous former Soviet republic is Central Asia's second poorest country. The United States pays about $63 million a year for use of the base and employs more than 320 Kyrgyz citizens there, Petraeus said. The base has been in operation since December 2001 under U.N. mandate. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Tuesday that Russia would offer Kyrgyzstan a $300 million, 40-year loan at an annual interest rate of 0.75 percent, and write off $180 million in Kyrgyz debt. Kyrgyzstan also is home to a Russian military base, at Kant, that officially opened in 2003. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov told Russian news agency Interfax it was coincidence that talk of the base closure comes at the same time as the loan. \"The Russian decision to grant a major loan has nothing to do with the pullout of the U.S. air base from the Kyrgyz territory,\" Chudinov said. The relationship between the United States and Kyrgyzstan was damaged when a U.S. airman killed a Kyrgyz citizen in December 2006. The airman was transferred out of Kyrgyzstan, and the dead man's family was offered compensation. Petraeus said in January an investigation into the death was being reopened. In announcing the base closure, Bakiyev said he was not satisfied with the inquiry and that his government's \"inability to provide security to its citizens\" was proving a serious concern. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Russia says it will help transport U.S. nonmilitary cargo to Afghanistan .\nUnited States uses Kyrgyz base as a route for troops and supplies in Afghanistan .\nKyrgyz president says procedures had been initiated to close base .\nMove follows news of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia .","id":"e3cbc7ee14ce87b33e1eff83a62171587e269b91"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Fans of porn star Stormy Daniels are drafting her to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana now held by Republican Sen. David Vitter. And it's no racy gimmick, they say. Porn star Stormy Daniels, who has no party affiliation, says she's \"always up for a good fight.\" The Draft Stormy Web site says that \"2010 presents the Pelican State with the opportunity to start with a clean slate -- to elect a representative that we can be proud of, who will work tirelessly, and who will challenge the status quo. We at the Draft Stormy campaign feel that Baton Rouge native Stormy Daniels is best suited to fulfill these duties.\" Vitter is famous -- or infamous -- for his link to the \"D.C. Madam,\" the woman who ran a prostitution ring. Elected to the Senate in 2004, he admitted to \"a very serious sin in my past\" in July 2007 after his phone number turned up in records of an escort service run by the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the D.C. Madam. Running for re-election, Vitter said his wife has forgiven him and is banking on the same sentiment from his constituents. Will the Draft Stormy move mean stormy weather for Vitter? The senator's office didn't return calls by CNN. But a spokesman for the state GOP said voters \"are concerned with real issues that affect their everyday lives and not with political or publicity stunts.\" The Draft Stormy campaign was started by New Orleans resident and Daniels fan Zack Hudson, who insists it's for real. Daniels, 29, isn't affiliated with a party but is embracing the idea of a possible candidacy. Watch the adult entertainment star talk about a possible run \u00bb . She said she's planning a \"listening tour\" around Louisiana to talk about a range of matters, including the economy -- which along with women in business and protection of children are the three issues listed on her Web site. When told Vitter can be a tough opponent, she said she's \"always up for a good fight.\" \"I think anyone that knows me ... is more than aware of that,\" Daniels said. \"Politics can't be any dirtier of a job than the one I am already in.\" According to a capsule bio on the Draft Stormy Web site, Daniels has been \"breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings her entire life,\" serving as editor of her high school newspaper and president of her school's 4-H Club and eventually transferring \"her determination and talents to the professional level, becoming a featured performer in the adult entertainment industry.\" Another stride was \"signing an exclusive contract with the video production company Wicked Pictures, a company committed to a health and safety first policy, as pertaining to its video performances. Stormy's decision to sign with Wicked highlighted her commitment to sending a positive message to young people of the importance of practicing safe sex,\" the bio said. Daniels has directed films for the company, won awards for writing, directing and acting, and has appeared in mainstream films such as \"The 40-Year-Old Virgin.\" \"Originally, the focus wasn't even about making me as a candidate,\" Daniels said. \"I think it was about bringing attention to the Senate race in general. Then the response was overwhelmingly positive. And I think everyone is just running with it.\" While her political aspirations may be a light diversion for Louisiana voters, reality will set in if Daniels tangles with Vitter. Clancy DuBos, political director of the New Orleans alternative newspaper Gambit, said Vitter is a brilliant politician with a campaign war chest worth $2 million. If the Daniels campaign is meant to remind voters of Vitter's D.C. Madam link, the move could backfire, DuBos said. \"You are going to need someone better than a porn star, or a lap dancer, or a sex worker to nail David Vitter on this,\" he said. \"You need a serious opponent who is himself, or herself, not guilty of something like that to say, 'Let's talk about family values, shall we?' \" The Draft Stormy movement said Daniels' \"real world experience and special understanding of the economic hardships facing Louisianans and Americans make her uniquely qualified to take on the tough challenges we face. \"Our grass-roots movement spans the political spectrum and champions Stormy's philosophy of personal responsibility and the promotion of individual enterprise. We eschew partisanship and labels, instead judging our leaders on their integrity, character and effectiveness.\" CNN's Sean Callebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Stormy Daniels fan insists movement to draft porn star for Senate campaign for real .\nRepublican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana now holds U.S. Senate seat at issue .\nVitter, up for re-election in 2010, is known for his link to the \"D.C. Madam\"\nDaniels says she's embracing possible candidacy, planning \"listening tour\" of state .","id":"31aa213f5c09542a9aa1334029cf180640200b67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French parachutist Michel Fournier vowed Tuesday to try again to launch a record-breaking skydive in August, hours after a \"freak\" accident over Canada aborted his second attempt to do so. Michel Fournier tests his equipment a few days before his attempt to break four world records. \"I'm not about to give up,\" the 64-year-old adventurer said of his shot at setting a world record for the highest jump and fastest, longest free fall by a man riding a balloon. Tuesday's attempt was thwarted when an electrical charge broke the cable connecting the balloon to the gondola, causing it to slip away from his ground crew and rise into the Saskatchewan skies over North Battleford. \"The question is, why was it electrically activated?\" said Michel Chevalet, a balloon expert working on Fournier's technical team. He suggested that static electricity may have been to blame but that it had been an unforeseen possibility. \"Unexpected freak accidents do happen,\" he said. Watch report on Michel Fournier's failed free-fall quest \u00bb . Fournier said the failure came as a blow. \"It was like having a hammer over the head,\" he said. Watch Fournier talk about trying again \u00bb . The former paratrooper had hoped his \"Big Jump\" would start 40 kilometers (25 miles) above the Earth's surface. But his hopes dissipated over the Canadian prairie shortly after 5 a.m. (7 a.m. ET), when the balloon took off before his capsule could be attached. Still clad in his bright yellow pressure suit, a visibly frustrated Fournier waved away cameras after his balloon's abrupt departure. It drifted back to the ground about 40 km away. Fournier says he spent nearly 12.7 million euros ($20 million) on his quest, a risky endeavor that French authorities refused to allow him to attempt over France. Canadian authorities approved the mission over the town of North Battleford, in sparsely populated Saskatchewan. The town's mayor, Julian Sadlowski, said Monday's failure was \"a disappointment.\" \"I thought this was going to be the day that we saw history made in the Battlefords,\" he said. Balloon trouble also doomed Fournier's effort to break the record in 2003. Fournier holds the French record for the highest parachute jump at 12,000 meters (40,000 feet). He says his next chance is in August because that is when the jet stream will next be favorable. The \"Big Jump\" will collect data that will help astronauts and others survive at high altitudes, he says. Fournier estimated that Tuesday's failed effort cost him and his sponsors about 600,000 euros ($946,000).","highlights":"NEW: Parachutist Michel Fournier promises to try record jump again .\nBalloon escapes as French skydiver attempts free fall record .\nTuesday's attempt thwarted when an electrical charge broke important cable .","id":"f901491671653a9dfb9e05d2db487c8aff4d247d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nearly a year after being beaten into a coma, Bryan Steinhauer said Wednesday he does not hate the Serbian basketball player witnesses said brutally assaulted him. Bryan Steinhauer, who was beaten into a coma, is making significant progress in his rehabilitation. \"I am not full of hate; hatred kills progress,\" he said. Appearing alongside his parents and doctors at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, Steinhauer struggled to speak but his message was clear. \"Please don't feel sorry for me,\" he said. \"Tragedy leads to wisdom, and this experience has taught me so much about life.\" Watch Steinhauer talk about his recovery \u00bb . The 22-year-old from Brooklyn was about to graduate and had a job lined up at accounting giant KPMG when he got into an argument last May that nearly cost him his life. According to police, witnesses said Steinhauer and college basketball player Miladin Kovacevic had exchanged harsh words at an upstate New York bar near Binghamton University after Steinhauer danced with the girlfriend of one of Kovacevic's friends. The witnesses said the fight went outside the bar, where several men attacked Steinhauer, with Kovacevic beating him about the head, according to police. Kovacevic is 6-foot-9 and 260 pounds while Steinhauer was 130 pounds. Kovacevic was arrested but jumped bail and fled to Serbia with the help of Serbian consular officials in New York. The case strained relations between the United States and Serbia.Hillary Clinton intervened, first as U.S. senator from New York and later as secretary of state, as did Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, to make sure Kovacevic was prosecuted. Serbia has no extradition treaty with the United States, but Serbian officials arrested Kovacevic last October and are working on prosecuting him with the assistance of the district attorney of Broome County, where the beating took place. In addition, the Serbian government recently paid the Steinhauer family $900,000 in recognition of the misconduct of Serbian government officials and the financial burdens placed upon the Steinhauer family as a result of the beating. Steinhauer awoke from his coma last August, three months after the beating that left him with skull fractures, a severe brain injury and no memory of the attack. He weighed less than 100 pounds, could not speak or walk, and was fed through a tube, doctors said Wednesday. \"He had hemorrhages and contusions affecting almost every lobe of his brain,\" said Dr. Brian Greenwald. Working with specialists and boosted by the support of his family, Steinhauer surprised even his doctors in his quick recovery, they said. He now has outpatient rehabilitation four times a week, goes to a gym, and receives acupuncture treatments. While he can eat on his own now and is making significant progress, Steinhauer continues to undergo intensive therapy. Steinhauer says he doesn't think about Kovacevic because he's not concerned about other people. \"I've had a second birth and raising at Mount Sinai,\" he said. \"Live long and prosper.\"","highlights":"Witnesses: Bryan Steinhauer was beaten into a coma by college basketball player .\nA year after attack, victim says he does not hate the man who beat him .\nSteinhauer says experience has taught him life lessons .\nSuspect jumped bail, fled to Serbia where he is now being prosecuted .","id":"1c665cf01459d1149869850bc63aa966ccb2f3fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A cancer treatment that comes in a pill is as effective as the standard chemotherapy for lung patients who had previously been treated for their cancer, according to a study released Thursday. The intravenous chemotherapy treatment had more severe side effects than the pill in this study. Results of a large clinical trial were published in the British medical journal The Lancet. The trial was designed to compare Iressa, a daily pill, to Taxotere, an IV-chemotherapy drug that's administered every three weeks. This international study included more than 1,400 patients for whom standard chemotherapy had been ineffective. \"Iressa and Taxotere have same survival outcomes,\" according to Dr. Edward Kim, lead author of the study and assistant professor in M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Department of Thoracic\/Head and Neck Medical Oncology in Houston, Texas. The study was paid for by the maker of Iressa, AstraZeneca. Kim says the Food and Drug Administration mandated that the pharmaceutical company conduct this clinical trial. In the study, patients taking Iressa had an average survival of 7.6 months, and 32 percent survived one year, compared with patients getting the chemotherapy drug Taxotere. Their survival was an average of eight months; 34 percent of patients survived one year. Kim says this is the largest study in lung cancer comparing an oral therapy with chemotherapy. Dr. Bruce Johnson, a lung cancer specialist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, who was not involved in this research, says, \"this study did what it intended to do in showing equivalency. I can't imagine any clearer evidence.\" One significant difference between the two drugs is in side effects. Patients taking Iressa mainly experienced skin rashes and\/or mild diarrhea. Patients on Taxotere had many more severe side effects, including hair loss, numbness in hands and feet, severe diarrhea, a drop in blood cells and nausea. Given the difference, \"the single pill trumps chemotherapy,\" said Dr. Paul Bunn, who heads the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Research and also was not involved in the clinical trial. Johnson says that 5 to 10 percent of patients taking Taxotere will drop out every three weeks because of side effects. Kim points out that if the two treatments have the same survival benefit but one has fewer side effects and is easier to take, doctors want their patients to have the option for this treatment. Currently, no new lung cancer patients can get Iressa, because doctors are no longer allowed to prescribe it. In 2003, Iressa got fast-track FDA approval as a treatment for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, specifically for patients in whom standard chemotherapy had failed. The approval was based on two small phase II clinical trials that showed Iressa was able to shrink tumors by about 10 percent, which led the FDA to believe that the drug would lead to a \"positive effect on survival or benefits.\" More on Iressa from the FDA . When the FDA gives a drug accelerated approval, it requires that the manufacturer continue testing it to determine whether there's a clinical benefit to the patient. If further studies can't show this type of benefit, the FDA has the power to withdraw that drug from the market. But a year later, results were revealed from a larger, phase III clinical trial that compared Iressa with placebo in patients for whom chemotherapy was ineffective. \"Iressa was better but not statistically significant,\" said Bunn, who also directs the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Given this information and because another lung cancer pill -- Tarceva -- had shown a survival benefit, the FDA decided that \" it is not reasonable to start new patients on Iressa.\" Since 2005, the FDA allows only those already getting Iressa prescribed or those enrolled in clinical trials that were under way at the time to continue taking Iressa. All three lung cancer experts CNN spoke with regularly see patients and have treated them with Iressa or the other available lung cancer drugs. All said they couldn't predict whether the FDA would allow new patients to be treated with Iressa based on this and other recent studies. Kim believes that based on this data, Iressa \"is a valid treatment option for patients with pretreated non-small lung cancer.\" Both Bunn and Johnson say that more choices in treatment will always benefit the patients.","highlights":"Study compared pill Iressa and IV-chemotherapy drug Taxotere .\nPatients taking Iressa mainly experienced skin rashes and\/or mild diarrhea .\nPatients on Taxotere had many more severe side effects, including hair loss .\nExperts: Unknown whether FDA will allow new patients to be treated with Iressa .","id":"bc5879799553452800067b12b50bb4598580c4a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When pitcher Josh Faiola walks out of the dugout on opening day with the Lake Erie Crushers, he'll already have a large group of fans in the stands -- his new roommates at the Belvedere of Westlake assisted living facility. Pitcher Josh Failoa stands as residents and friends of The Belvedere of Westlake welcome him Tuesday. The 25-year-old, who was drafted in 2006 by the Baltimore Orioles and is trying to work his way to the majors, admits he was caught a little off guard when he was told about his new housing situation. \"At first I was like, 'OK, that's a little different,' \" he said. \"I was taken aback at first.\" And he was also the butt of a couple jokes from his teammates. \"They were saying things like 'So what's the deal? Do you have to go to bed early?' \" Faiola said. But then he told them about his room -- a large suite, with his own kitchenette, washer and dryer, furniture and a TV. \"Then they changed their tune,\" he said. \"They were like 'That's awesome. Are they any other vacancies?' \" Like many of the players in the independent Frontier League who don't rake in the big bucks, Faiola is living with a host family. But his host family is a little different. Most of the players live with families with younger children. But in his case, Faiola is the young one -- about 55 years younger than the rest of his \"roommates.\" Eighty-four-year-old Meda Dennis, who has been living in the center for four years, said Faiola's arrival is the most exciting thing to happen since a good Elvis impersonator showed up. \"It's been quite exciting because he's young and new and interesting and we're old,\" she joked. Faiola made his way to the assisted living center in Westlake, Ohio, near Cleveland, with the help of Cindy Griffiths-Novak. She heard the new local baseball team was looking for host families for the players. But because she has a 3- and 4-year-old at home, she turned to her family's assisted living center as an option for Faiola. Griffiths-Novak went to the residents with the idea and they unanimously voted for Faiola to live there. But his new housing situation is about more than just a place to crash after the game. \"It certainly is great for the residents because now we get a lot of energy and youth and excitement,\" Griffiths-Novak said. It has turned into an exciting time for the residents, who jumped at the chance to decorate the entire facility before the pitcher's arrival. \"You should see the decorations,\" Griffiths-Novak said. \"The residents all signed motivational good luck pennants for him, there's a 40-foot banner, we have a whole thing dedicated to Josh. I'm sure he is so embarrassed with all of the baseball cards with their face on it.\" They've made signs telling him he's in a league of his own, but they've also set their expectations high for him. \"Some of the pendants say things like 'Don't get cut, move your butt,' \" Griffiths-Novak said. \"He's certainly going to be under the microscope! We'll be watching and keeping track of all of his stats.\" Faiola was awestruck when he walked in and saw all of the decorations. The activity director has been doing craft activities with the residents -- making visors with baseball logos and Crushers necklaces in anticipation of the game. Dennis is looking forward to watching their new ace pitcher hit the mound even though she hasn't seen a baseball game live in a while. \"Anything's better than the Indians right now,\" Dennis joked. \"We'll definitely be cheering for him, though, and if he happens to have a bad game, he'll have a lot of shoulders to cry on. But I don't think he'll need them.\" Norma J. Lane, 85, said even though she's more of a football fan, she's looking forward to following Faiola and baseball more closely. \"We are just wishing him well because it's such a great experience for all of us,\" Lane said. \"We're looking forward to having him around.\" Faiola said he is excited to help bring some fun to the residents, some of whom are already considering him to be like a grandson. \"I always loved spending time with my grandparents and one of my great-grandparents was in an assisted living home and I remember how excited she was to see us when we went to visit her,\" he said. \"And they are being so nice to open up this place to me, so hopefully I can bring a little bit of joy.\" Faiola, who had surgery two years ago and was dropped from the Orioles during spring training, is hoping his stint with the Crushers can help get him picked up by a Major League team. Regardless of what happens, he knows he has the support of his new roommates. \"They've all really come out and supported me, they even bring me food and give me snacks,\" he said. \"I couldn't ask for anything better. And with all of them watching so closely, I'll have to keep my game up. They've definitely set a high bar for me.\"","highlights":"Because of little pay in independent league, players stay with host families .\nPitcher Josh Faiola staying at Belvedere of Westlake facility near Cleveland, Ohio .\nFaiola says teammates joked first, but he's thrilled to bring energy to residents .\nResidents decorated facility, will be watching pitcher's every throw .","id":"2572f7b1217e67c94e4c3d161f068d39bd4436ab"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN affiliates report on where job seekers are finding work across the country and how those looking for employment are coping with the situation. Workers at the Jayco plant in Elkhart County in Indiana put together a travel trailer in February. (CNN) -- Elkhart, Indiana, has suffered through a litany of economic bad news and layoffs. The United States Department of Labor said that in March, the Elkhart metropolitan area had the fifth highest unemployment in the country. Just last year the Monaco Coach Corp. closed down its motor home assembly plants in Elkhart, Nappanee and Wakarusa. But Electric Motors Corp., which builds engines, cars and trucks, is moving into Elkhart County and bringing hundreds of jobs. \"Their production working skills will be a little bit different than RV workers, but not that much different. We'll easily be able to train the workers,\" County Commissioner Mike Yoder told WSJV. Neither the company nor government officials would comment on how many jobs could potentially be created. \"It's good to get a small number just to build up and hopefully it'll keep coming,\" said college student Erika Miller, who is looking for summer work. Read the full report on WSJV . South: Famed New Orleans hotel closed after Katrina hiring hundreds . The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, is almost ready to reopen after being shuttered after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. After undergoing a $145 million renovation, the hotel will be staffed by 400 employees. This past week, more than 5,000 job seekers came to a job fair at the downtown landmark. Some of the people hired will begin in a few weeks, while others will start later. \"We are looking to make some additional hires in September and in October when business picks up,\" Roosevelt employee Melissa Kariker told WDSU. One applicant at the fair had worked previously at the hotel. \"I started my career with the Fairmont-Roosevelt,\" Gregory Smith said. \"I worked in the Blue Room for several years.\" Read the report on WDSU . Midwest: Newspaper giving away space for 'Hire me' ads . The New Herald newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, will publish \"Hire me\" ads in its Sunday editions and on its Web site. There is no cost for job seekers, but the offer applies only to this Sunday's paper. \"It's actually something our publisher suggested that they did back in the '70s at the height of unemployment that he had worked at that time,\" executive editor Tricia Ambrose told WEWS. The Web site will also post video resumes. Read the report on WEWS . West: Solar panel plant to hire 300 . Schott Solar, which makes photovoltaic solar panels, opened a plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this week, bringing 350 jobs. Officials with the company told KRQE the number of employees could grow to more than 1,500. A plant manager said the company provides its own funding and has not been hurt much during the recession, KRQE reported. Officials from the California-based company said they chose New Mexico in part because of the amount of sunshine it receives. Watch the full report on KRQE . Around the nation . General Mills will hire 112 people when it builds a distribution center in Social Circle, Georgia, WGCL in Atlanta reports. ... In Richland, Washington, federal stimulus money is being used to pay for environmental cleanup, KREM reports. ... Target and Lowe's stores are scheduled to open in Greenland, New Hampshire, this summer, bringing 400 jobs to the town, WMUR reports.","highlights":"Eco-friendly vehicle company moving into RV plant in Indiana .\nRoosevelt Hotel opening in New Orleans after four years in the dark .\nNewspaper providing free classified ads for job hunters for one Sunday .\nPlant that makes solar panels opens this week in New Mexico .","id":"3af95cc7fe2a3fdc51079f10f09430d18d7cb796"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The mother of the co-pilot who died in a plane crash near Buffalo, New York, in February, said Thursday that her daughter and the pilot were \"being used as a scapegoat.\" Lynn Morris says she was shocked at how her daughter, the plane's co-pilot, was portrayed in the NTSB hearings. Lynn Morris' daughter, First Officer Rebecca Shaw, was among the 50 people killed in the crash of the plane, operated by Colgan Air. Morris made the comments on the final day of investigative hearings held by the National Transportation Safety Board. \"I think I walked out of the hearings in shock, because I truly felt that both she and the captain were being used as a scapegoat,\" Morris said. Testimony from the hearings, which began Tuesday, revealed that fatigue may have contributed to the failure of Shaw and Colgan Air Capt. Marvin Renslow to save the plane as it approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Testimony on Wednesday indicated that crews on a number of airlines could be suffering from lack of sleep. Many crews live far from their base of operations, causing them to come to work already tired from travel, NTSB investigators said. Renslow had nearly a full day off before assuming command of Continental Connection Flight 3407. Yet the NTSB investigation found he slept in the Newark Airport crew lounge -- against Colgan Air regulations. The airline, though, appears not to have been enforcing that rule. \"Nobody argues that the human body needs to have its rest, and sometimes it doesn't gel with the schedules of an airline,\" testified Capt. Rory Kay, executive air safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association. Watch hearing address issues of crew fatigue \u00bb . NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said the Colgan policy \"is that they're not to sleep in the crew room, but it turns out they are sleeping in the crew room.\" Daniel Morgan, Colgan's vice president for flight safety, said, \"People can come in between their flights to take a nap.\" Asked if napping was considered sleeping, he replied, \"That's a definition I'm probably not prepared to answer.\" A nap of about 10 to 20 minutes can be restorative for most people, Dr. Michael Silber, a co-director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, told the clinic's monthly \"Women's HealthSource\" publication last year. However, a longer nap can make people feel groggy, Silber said for the publication's October issue. Shaw had three days off before the flight. She commuted through the night from Seattle, Washington, catching rides on connecting Fed Ex flights to get to Newark, New Jersey, where the Colgan flight originated. \"It is shocking. It's hard to believe that it is allowed to go on,\" said Kathy Johnson, whose husband, Kevin, died in the crash. She said Wednesday she was furious that the crew may have been functioning on little sleep. Watch family members question pilot training standards \u00bb . The NTSB, which has not issued its report on the February 12 crash, said it scheduled the hearings to gather information. The plane plunged into a house in Clarence Center, New York, killing everyone on board and a man on the ground. The NTSB's preliminary investigation determined there was some ice accumulation on the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 aircraft, but the \"icing had a minimal impact on the stall speed of the airplane.\" On Thursday, safety board member Deborah Hersman questioned why Renslow and Shaw apparently didn't notice, as they approached the Buffalo airport, that the plane's speed had abruptly dropped from 207 mph to 150 mph (from 180 to 130 knots). She asked R. Key Dismukes, chief scientist for the NASA division that focuses on human-centered design and operations, whether this was a period in every flight that is a time of high workload for the crew, meaning their attention may have been diverted. Dismukes noted that there was a lot going on, including conversations between Renslow and Shaw and communication with a control tower. \"That certainly didn't help the workload situation,\" Dismukes said. \"There were a number of concurrent tasks, and this is a vulnerable period. No questions about it.\" Hersman said she had seen the same failure to note a drastic, quick change in speed in other crashes. She suggested that the crew receive an alert in those cases. \"I think an alert that your air speed is deteriorating is kind of like a fire alarm,\" Hersman said. On Wednesday, it was revealed that Renslow, in his Colgan Air job application, failed to reveal two pilot exam failures. The crew also violated a rule that requires cockpit conversation to be focused on the flight. At Tuesday's hearing, Colgan Air acknowledged that Renslow had never trained on the \"stick pusher\" emergency system in a flight simulator. The system warns pilots when the plane's speed is too slow. But in a written statement, the carrier said both Renslow and Shaw had received other specific training on how to handle situations like those that preceded the crash. CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: \"I think I walked out of the hearings in shock,\" co-pilot's mother says .\nPanel is investigating February crash near Buffalo, New York, that killed 50 .\nPilot slept in lounge before flight, co-pilot commuted all night, safety board hears .\nRelative of passenger says she's furious crew may have had little sleep .","id":"4f8503dd940dc1bcbcb0806951d58e9f5f0a8dad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Belgian city has decided to go \"veggie\" for a day in an effort to highlight the environmental and health costs of eating meat. Stock breeding is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. The city authorities in Ghent, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Brussels, have declared Thursdays \"Veggie Day,\" (Veggiedag) and are asking residents to get involved and opt for vegetarian meals at least one day a week. It says Ghent is the first city in Europe to try such a scheme. According to the city's campaign publicity, eating less meat can help to minimize the ecological footprint of your food because stock breeding has a detrimental impact on the environment. It points to data from the United Nations which says livestock is responsible for generating around 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. It is also hoped that Veggie Day will have a positive health impact in the fight against diet-related illnesses such as obesity, cancer and diabetes. On Wednesday organizers provided residents with meat-free recipes and a list of vegetarian restaurants at a \"launch party\" in the center of the city. Ghent claims to have more vegetarian eateries per inhabitant than Paris, London and Berlin. Demonstrations were also on offer to people looking for green cooking tips.","highlights":"Thursdays will be declared \"Veggie Days\" in Ghent .\nResidents asked to opt for vegetarian meals at least once a week .\nCity says eating less meat is healthy and can minimize ecological footprint .","id":"713f7719990d358c9a7f684e07573a902fd49da4"} -{"article":"MARDAN, Pakistan (CNN) -- Inside a hospital ward in northwest Pakistan, I found myself surrounded by sobs and screams. One scream was so high-pitched that I didn't think it was human. These were the sounds of agony, and they belonged to innocent civilians who were injured in the cross fire of Pakistani troops and the Taliban in the Swat Valley. CNN's Reza Sayah with Shaista, who lost most of her family in an explosion as they fled fighting. Behind each cry at this ward was a story of loss. Doctors told me no one here had lost more than Shaista, an 11-year-old girl who watched as an explosion instantly killed most of her family. Shaista and her family were among hundreds of thousands of people who fled Pakistan's Swat Valley on the day the Pakistani Army launched an all-out offensive against the Taliban. She says she was walking along a road with her family when a mortar shell suddenly fell from the sky. \"We were coming,\" Shaista told me, \"then my mother died, my brother died, and my two sisters also died.\" Watch Reza Sayah's interview with Shaista \u00bb . Doctors said the explosion shattered Shaista's foot. Moments later she passed out. The next time she woke up she was in the female orthopedic ward of the GHQ Hospital in Mardan. Doctors said Shaista will recover from her shattered foot, but the trauma of losing a family will last a lifetime. \"She kept saying it all happened in front of me,\" said Salma Shaheen, a nurse. \"She said something fell on top of my mother and she got cut in half.\" It was clear that Shaista had won over the hearts of the doctors and nurses who said that they, in three days, had treated more than 800 civilians injured in the battle zone. Like many hospitals in northwest Pakistan, this one was under equipped. To hold an elderly woman's broken leg together, doctors had made a make shift traction using a brick, a plastic shopping bag and rope. Watch Reza Sayah's report from inside the hospital \u00bb . Shaista said her father is missing. Her only guardian is her uncle, Muhammad Sher, who found Shaista after searching area hospitals. \"I'm just going to tell her, 'you're my daughter,'\" said Muhammad. \"I'm going to educate her, teach her the Koran and do what I can for her.\" Sixty miles away from the hospital, the battle between Pakistani troops and the Taliban raged on. On Wednesday General Athar Abbas, the army's top spokesman, told CNN the troops were making significant progress but the most intense stage of the fighting in the battle zones' most populated areas was still to come -- a near guarantee of more sobs and screams at area hospitals.","highlights":"CNN's Reza Sayah meets Shaista in a crowded hospital in northwest Pakistan .\nShaista's family among hundreds of thousands of people fleeing fighting .\nShaista says they were walking on a road when a mortar fell from the sky .\nThe girl's uncle finds her in the hospital; doctors say her shattered foot will recover .","id":"9e349373d78fe3936da1b92f5934c5116b420210"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- By most accounts, the showdown was pretty brutal. Many declared Jon Stewart, right, the victor in his face-to-face with Jim Cramer on \"The Daily Show.\" Many watching Thursday night's \"Daily Show\" on Comedy Central felt that comedian-turned-media-critic Jon Stewart held bombastic financial guru and CNBC \"Mad Money\" host Jim Cramer's feet to the fire. And Cramer flinched. Stewart, known for his zany, satirical take on the news, was serious as he took Cramer's network to task for what Stewart viewed as their \"cheerleading\" of corporations at the heart of the nation's current economic crisis. And despite the title of his financial show, Cramer came off as less mad and more apologetic. Watch Stewart vs. Cramer \u00bb . \"If it was a prize fight, they would have stopped it,\" said Howard Kurtz, the \"Washington Post\" media critic and host of CNN's \"Reliable Sources.\" \"I was stunned that Jim Cramer kind of did a rope-a-dope strategy and didn't really defend himself against Jon Stewart's assault.\" Kurtz is very familiar with the style of both men. He has appeared on \"The Daily Show\" and is the author of \"The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation,\" in which Cramer is featured. Kurtz said Stewart \"made clear at the outset that he wasn't going for laughs\" and displayed very much the same passion for holding the media accountable as he did when he appeared on, and denounced, CNN's \"Crossfire.\" Watch the debate on \"Reliable Sources\" \"When I went on [Stewart's] show last year, he was so wound up in ripping the media that he went on for another 10 minutes, knowing full well that we were out of time,\" Kurtz said. \"Stewart, as funny as he can be, is a very trenchant media critic who cares passionately about this stuff, and we saw that Thursday night.\" iReporter David Seaman of New York said he was surprised at the vigor with which Stewart \"attacked Cramer's credibility.\" Check out David's iReport . The public wants answers as to how the country got into such financial distress, and viewers really want someone to answer for the mess, Seaman said. \"People want to see a lot of the financial gurus on a shish kabob, being skewered,\" Seaman said. \"It's really important to hold people accountable, and as we saw last night, Jon Stewart is a bit of a wild card, so if you aren't living up to expectations, he may call you out.\" David Brancaccio, host and senior editor of \"Now on PBS,\" commended Cramer for his bravery in going on the show, though he said he was surprised that the brilliant founder of TheStreet.com seemed ill-prepared for Stewart's very thoughtful questioning. Brancaccio, the former host of American Public Media's \"Marketplace\" radio program, echoed the comments of many in that he found the exchange visibly uncomfortable for the usually showman-like Cramer. \"You have the comedian as journalist, and you have the financial journalist as clown, in that on his show, Cramer's goofing around and plays the clown,\" Brancaccio said. \"What a role reversal.\" Brancaccio said Stewart's show has emerged as an important vehicle for media criticism. Thursday night's show marked an important moment in journalism, especially financial reporting, Brancaccio said. \"It's really important that tough questions are asked, because when tough questions aren't asked, we end up with Enron,\" he said. \"It's interesting that the tough questions came from Jon Stewart, brilliant comedian that he is.\" Brancaccio thinks the episode may serve as a cautionary tale for those in the media who don't do their due diligence. White House approves of smackdown . \"I don't think any financial journalist wants to be in Cramer's position,\" Brancaccio said. \"I think [journalists] may redouble their efforts to be dispassionate reporters asking the tough questions.\" Steve Krakauer is associate editor of TVNewser.com, one of the leading blogs about the television news industry, and said comments at his site have been mixed about the show. Although some thought it was one of the best interviews they had ever seen, others found Stewart arrogant and said his outrage might have been a bit staged. Krakauer said the question now is where Cramer -- who has said he plans to make some changes to his show -- goes from here. Krakauer said he doubts that there will be a complete overhaul of \"Mad Money.\" \"I can't see things drastically changing,\" Krakauer said. \" 'Mad Money' is one of the most successful shows on CNBC. Despite what has been written about Jim Cramer, the things he's gotten incorrect and the calls he has made, he's still popular and one of the most entertaining for people who are interested in that type of financial news.\" If anything, Cramer's appearance on \"The Daily Show\" may have just stoked the flames. Comedy Central's Web site played it up with clips from the show that it called \"an historic moment in basic cable.\" The topic is such a hot one that Kurtz will lead \"Reliable Sources\" with it Sunday, with journalist Tucker Carlson, radio show host Stephanie Miller and \"Baltimore Sun\" television critic David Zurawik as guests. \"Beyond the entertainment value, and we are not above that, this is a really important moment for holding financial journalists accountable,\" Kurtz said. \"It may have taken Jon Stewart to blow the whistle on some of the hype and shortsightedness at America's top business news channel, but those failings were repeated throughout the business press, which stumbled badly in reporting on what turned into a huge financial meltdown.\"","highlights":"Critics and viewers see Stewart as victor after interview with \"Mad Money\" host .\nPair squared off in an uncomfortable debate on \"The Daily Show\"\niReporter: Surprised at how Stewart \"attacked Cramer's credibility\"\nHoward Kurtz: \"Important moment for holding financial journalists accountable\"","id":"b51a3bc810b7d018371183f5cc770d202b7f9006"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three years ago, the film based on Dan Brown's novel \"The Da Vinci Code\" was the focus of protest and controversy, with a Vatican archbishop calling for a boycott and Catholics at many levels refuting plot points. From left, actors Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer and Ewan McGregor join director Ron Howard at the film's premier. But when it comes to the new film based on a Brown novel, \"Angels & Demons,\" star Tom Hanks says talk of controversy is much ado about nothing. \"Everybody is looking for some scandal whether a scandal exists or not,\" Hanks said of the film. \"I think a kind of natural reaction is now that somehow because it's the second Robert Langdon mystery that there is some degree of controversy over it. And there is really not.\" The movie ventures into similar waters as its predecessor, \"The Da Vinci Code,\" with Hanks reprising the role of Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbology expert, and conspiracy theories galore. Watch Hanks talk aboout the controversy \u00bb . It also reunites the Academy Award-winning actor with director Ron Howard, who helmed \"Da Vinci,\" and teams Hanks with actor Ewan McGregor and Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer. While \"The Da Vinci Code\" centered on the complex investigation of a murder in the Louvre and the theory that a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene produced descendants, the new film features a murder at the Vatican and a secret and powerful society known as the \"Illuminati.\" McGregor, known for his role as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the \"Star Wars\" films, said that while \"The Da Vinci Code\" and \"Angels & Demons\" are inextricably linked, the latter can stand on its own. \"If I thought [Angels & Demons] was pinned to 'The Da Vinci Code' in some way then it would've been a lesser script to read and it wasn't,\" McGregor said. \"It's a standalone movie ... it's not relevant whether you've seen 'Da Vinci Code' or not.\" Both films, like the Brown novels they're based on, have been met with criticism for their melding of history and storytelling. \"I have a strong objection to the genre of mixing fact with fiction,\" said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. \"You've got [Dan] Brown, [Ron] Howard and [Tom] Hanks in the movie all alleging that the Illuminati was this secret society which was brutalized by the Catholic Church in the 1600s.\" \"It's all a lie,\" Donohue said. \"[The Illuminati] never even existed until May 1, 1776, but they have to pitch it back into the 1600s so they can trot out their favorite victim, Galileo. What happens is you get the audience thinking 'Well, maybe it's not all true, but probably some of it is true.' \" Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide and the Christian Film & Television Commission, first issued an advisory alert about the film in April and reiterated it days before the movie's May 15 release. \"Now that we've previewed 'Angels & Demons,' Movieguide has decided to keep in effect our caution alert,\" Baehr said. \"Faith is often denied throughout the movie.\" Director Howard wrote in the The Huffington Post that he believes Donohue is on a mission \"to paint me and the movie I directed, 'Angels & Demons,' as anti-Catholic,\" a claim Howard emphatically denies. The director told CNN that he attempted to reach out to the Catholic Church regarding the film, but had no success. He also downplayed reports that Rome and the Vatican tried to hinder filming. Hanks said shooting the movie in the ancient city was complicated given the vibrancy of Rome. At one point, Hanks said, make-believe collided with one woman's fairy tale. \"We had a lady showing up who was getting married at the Pantheon and she had to get married and we had to get our shot,\" Hanks said. \"She showed up right between shots, when we were moving cameras.\" Fortunately, both the wedding and the day's filming were able to be completed, Hanks said. McGregor said Howard was to be credited for how well the production came together. Howard's background as an actor undoubtedly helped enhance the actors' performances, McGregor said. \"A lot of directors are able to tell you what they're after, but Ron's able to tell you what he's after and help you for how you might play that ... which is kind of total directing,\" McGregor said. Zurer said she had a blast being the only female lead in the film. Viewers should see the film for what it is, she said, and not focus on the controversy. \"It's fun fiction,\" she said. \"It's a fun movie to watch, it's thrilling and that's what I saw in it.\" CNN's Lisa Respers France contributed to this story.","highlights":"Tom Hanks stars in \"Angels & Demons,\" a sequel to \"The Da Vinci Code\"\nFellow cast mate Ewan McGregor says latest film is a standalone .\nLike earlier film, \"Angels & Demons\" has been attacked for mix of fact and fiction .\nCatholic League president: \"It's all a lie\"","id":"5e58a3d012de89c1c9abdcda89b5d0d6fac8748e"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Taliban suicide bomb squad disguised as regular Afghan army troops stormed a strategic city close to the border with Pakistan Tuesday, prompting a fierce six-hour battle with U.S. troops, local officials and the U.S. military said. A U.S. soldier on patrol in Khost province in February 2009. The insurgents attacked a municipal building in the center of the city of Khost, a U.S. military spokesman said. At least 10 suicide bombers were killed in the attacks, which also left five troops and four civilians dead, Afghan police said. Local police chief Abdul Qayum Baqee Zoi told CNN the attacks, which ended at 4:30 p.m. involved 10 Taliban suicide bombers in Afghan National Army uniforms and explosive vests. Seven detonated and three were shot dead. A U.S. military spokesman said the city -- a hotbed of Taliban activity --remained volatile as reports of running battles, kidnappings and fatalities surfaced. The developments came shortly after the United States announced it was changing its military leadership in Afghanistan, replacing Gen. David McKiernan with Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former special operations chief. Tuesday's fighting began when U.S. forces responded to a suicide bomber at a government compound in the city and came under heavy attack, the U.S. military spokesman said. Officials in Khost told CNN that insurgents attacked the municipal building, and the police chief there said attackers killed two police officers, two security guards and two civilians in that incident. A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan earlier told CNN 30 Taliban fighters were involved in the attack, and confirmed they were suicide bombers wearing explosive vests. The U.S. military spokesman said U.S. troops killed several militants but had to fall back. A U.S. quick reaction force from a nearby base was called in, entering the city with U.S. ground forces, he said. The spokesman said additional Taliban suicide bombers then entered government buildings, killing additional Afghans. CNN's Barbara Starr and Tomas Etzler contributed to this report .","highlights":"Taliban militants attacked a municipal building in the city of Khost .\nInsurgents said to be fighting battles with U.S. forces and taking hostages .\nKhost is notorious hotbed of Taliban activity near Pakistan border .","id":"2f27990efc6ccfa6e5caf3cc839c0be0d3679d2f"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Liu Yan, regarded as China's top classical dancer, was to give the performance of a lifetime: She was to dance a solo at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Liu, in red, performs on the 2008 Beijing Television Chinese New Year Festival Show. She was to perform a dance entitled \"Silk Road,\" a piece intended to convey the rich cultural history of China. But it never happened. Twelve days before she was to take the stage at the Olympics, in an event that China hoped would catapult the nation to international glory, she fell while rehearsing the dance -- leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. \"When the music stopped, I made my exit as usual. I was dancing on a thin layer of electrical mat, I was standing on that, and there was a platform powered by a vehicle moving underneath,\" Liu said from the Beijing 306 Military Hospital. \"Right when I stepped on the platform, it moved away quickly ... then, like that, I fell.\" Watch more on Liu \u00bb . \"It was extremely painful.\" Liu, who was knocked unconscious, was later told she would never walk again. Doctors operated on her for six hours, and the hospital where she was being treated was near the Bird's Nest -- the landmark national stadium built for the Games. The stadium can be seen from Liu's hospital room window. \"I could not see it, because I was unable to sit up. But then, I could see the fireworks from the rehearsal,\" Liu said through tears. She did not watch the opening ceremony. \"I was afraid to watch it,\" she said. \"I was listening to Lisa Ono (a bossa nova singer) with the volume up to the highest on the stereo that used to be here in the corner. But, I watched it later.\" Liu began attending the Beijing Dance Academy in 1993. She spent 10 years studying professional dancing, and classical Chinese dance was her major. She repeatedly received the annual Best Student award and went on to win gold awards in the national dancing competition in 2004, the Lotus Dancing competition and the first Asian Youth Art Festival. She also won many top cultural awards in China for dance plays. \"When I was young, I was the kind of child who studied dancing very hard. I never gave up. I love dancing very much. When practicing some dancing movements, which other students considered boring, I saw the practice as very interesting,\" she said. \"People thought that I took dancing very seriously because of my love for it, but I think it's very interesting.\" Apart from the physical pain, Liu said: \"The damage on my dancing career is the most painful part for me.\" \"I think this is very sad. But I am injured and it is a fact that cannot be changed. But I believe I will keep dancing or at least doing work related to that, because that is what I love.\" Liu said she spends most of her time recovering in the hospital, exercising her legs to help develop her muscles. She said she feels much better now but it is still tough. \"I often cry. After I got injured, I feel fragile every time I reflect on the past. But I think of it as a process,\" she said. \"I will learn to face the reality rationally. Human hearts are made of flesh; it is not one flat surface. The important thing is how you adjust yourself.\" She has since started to return to her normal life. \"For example, going back home and staying overnight, going out with friends for dinner, even going to see a show, a movie, drink coffee, drink Champagne, going back to classes.\" Liu does not blame anyone for the accident, saying that in big events, \"accidents happen.\" \"I think you should not blame one person, or one particular moment,\" she said. \"I think I will use the word 'unfortunate.' I was very unfortunate to have that accident.\" She also said she did not know about reports her family and witnesses to the accident were told not to talk about what happened afterward. \"That probably happened. I didn't know about it back then and I didn't really care. I was in the middle of an operation that lasted six hours.\" As for the future, Liu said she might go back to school, to learn more about dance, and get a master's or a doctorate degree. \"Healthy dancers practice every day, I will do the same. This is how I am different from other patients -- I believe that I will recover when I do my exercise. I will live with hope.\"","highlights":"Liu Yan is paralyzed while rehearsing her solo dance for the Olympics' opening .\nDoctors say she will not walk again .\nLiu wins many dance awards; she is considered China's top classical dancer .\nShe believes she will recover and exercises every day .","id":"0fcc2314737f9699df48f1d39e75c52aa7af78fa"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The Rev. Robert Barron is Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary and author of several books, including \"Eucharist,\" \"Word on Fire: Proclaiming the Power of Christ\" and \"The Priority of Christ: Toward a Post-Liberal Catholicism.\" Barron is the director of WordOnFire.org, a global media ministry based in Chicago, Illinois. For another view on this topic, read here. The Rev. Robert Barron says celibacy sets the priest apart as a symbol of the world to come. (CNN) -- The scandal surrounding the Rev. Alberto Cutie has raised questions in the minds of many concerning the Catholic Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. Why does the church continue to defend a practice that seems so unnatural and so unnecessary? There is a very bad argument for celibacy, which has appeared throughout the tradition and which is, even today, defended by some. It goes something like this: Married life is spiritually suspect; priests, as religious leaders, should be spiritual athletes above reproach; therefore, priests shouldn't be married . This approach to the question is, in my judgment, not just stupid but dangerous, for it rests on presumptions that are repugnant to solid Christian doctrine. The biblical teaching on creation implies the essential integrity of the world and everything in it. Genesis tells us that God found each thing he had made good and that he found the ensemble of creatures very good. Catholic theology, at its best, has always been resolutely, anti-dualist -- and this means that matter, the body, marriage and sexual activity are never, in themselves, to be despised. But there is more to the doctrine of creation than an affirmation of the goodness of the world. To say that the finite realm in its entirety is created is to imply that nothing in the universe is God. All aspects of created reality reflect God and bear traces of the divine goodness -- just as every detail of a building gives evidence of the mind of the architect -- but no creature and no collectivity of creatures is divine, just as no part of a structure is the architect. This distinction between God and the world is the ground for the anti-idolatry principle that is reiterated from the beginning to the end of the Bible: Do not turn something less than God into God. Isaiah the prophet put it thus: \"As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways, says the Lord.\" And it is at the heart of the First Commandment: \"I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods besides me.\" The Bible thus holds off all the attempts of human beings to divinize or render ultimate some worldly reality. The doctrine of creation, in a word, involves both a great \"yes\" and a great \"no\" to the universe. Now there is a behavioral concomitant to the anti-idolatry principle, and it is called detachment. Detachment is the refusal to make anything less than God the organizing principle or center of one's life. Anthony de Mello looked at it from the other side and said \"an attachment is anything in this world -- including your own life -- that you are convinced you cannot live without.\" Even as we reverence everything that God has made, we must let go of everything that God has made, precisely for the sake of God. This is why, as G.K. Chesterton noted, there is a tension to Christian life. In accord with its affirmation of the world, the Church loves color, pageantry, music and rich decoration (as in the liturgy and papal ceremonials), even as, in accord with its detachment from the world, it loves the poverty of St. Francis and the simplicity of Mother Teresa. The same tension governs its attitude toward sex and family. Again, in Chesterton's language, the Church is \"fiercely for having children\" (through marriage) even as it remains \"fiercely against having them\" (in religious celibacy). Everything in this world -- including sex and intimate friendship -- is good, but impermanently so; all finite reality is beautiful, but its beauty, if I can put it in explicitly Catholic terms, is sacramental, not ultimate. In the biblical narratives, when God wanted to make a certain truth vividly known to his people, he would, from time to time, choose a prophet and command him to act out that truth, to embody it concretely. For example, he told Hosea to marry the unfaithful Gomer in order to sacramentalize God's fidelity to wavering Israel. Thus, the truth of the non-ultimacy of sex, family and worldly relationship can and should be proclaimed through words, but it will be believed only when people can see it. This is why, the Church is convinced, God chooses certain people to be celibate. Their mission is to witness to a transcendent form of love, the way that we will love in heaven. In God's realm, we will experience a communion (bodily as well as spiritual) compared to which even the most intense forms of communion here below pale into insignificance, and celibates make this truth viscerally real for us now. Though one can present practical reasons for it, I believe that celibacy only finally makes sense in this eschatological context. For years, the Rev. Andrew Greeley argued -- quite rightly in my view -- that the priest is fascinating and that a large part of the fascination comes from celibacy. The compelling quality of the priest is not a matter of superficial celebrity or charm. It is something much stranger, deeper, more mystical. It is the fascination for another world. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the Rev. Robert Barron.","highlights":"The Rev. Robert Barron: Why does Church back practice that seems unnecessary?\nHe says he rejects the \"marriage is spiritually suspect\" defense of celibacy .\nBut celibacy sets the priest apart as a symbol of another world, he says .","id":"3aca555aa7df3f4d6a814b531ab1b17d7aa0537c"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Violence echoed across a volatile Pakistani province and an adjacent tribal region on Saturday, with dozens reported killed in the latest military push, a drone strike, and a car bombing targeting a school bus. A Pakistani girl displaced by the military's offensive against the Taliban rests at a camp Saturday north of the capital. Pakistan's artillery and airstrikes against Taliban militants in North West Frontier Province left 47 suspected militants dead in operations over the last 24 hours, the military said. \"Security forces are closing in from different directions and have been able to inflict more casualties,\" the military said in the daily roundup of its offensive in the Swat district and adjoining regions. The troops have been fighting to oust militants from districts across Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. Forty-five people were killed in various areas of Dir, where four militants were arrested. The military conducted search-and-destroy operations in Shangla district, where they targeted terrorist hideouts and reported the arrest of one militant leader and the death of another. In Swat, the military said it killed a militant commander and were getting closer to the city of Mingora, where they isolated and blocked \"the movement of fleeing terrorists,\" amid the sound of intense exchanges of fire. Watch Pakistani troops pound Taliban positions \u00bb . In the adjacent tribal region, a missile believed fired by a drone overnight struck a madrassa, a religious school, a Pakistani intelligence official said. More than 20 people were killed, according to local and Taliban sources. The strike was near the village of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, one of seven districts in Pakistan's tribal regions. The official asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. According to a count by CNN, this is the 16th suspected missile strike in Pakistan this year. Pakistan has complained repeatedly about what it says are American airstrikes on its territory. The U.S. military in Afghanistan has not commented on the strikes, which typically target Taliban fighters in the border region. But the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from remote-controlled drones. In Peshawar, at least nine people were killed and 33 hurt Saturday when a car bomb exploded while a school bus passed on a road, local authorities said. The school bus was carrying handicapped children. It is not clear if any of them were killed, but as many as seven were injured. Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province. More than a million people have been displaced in northwestern Pakistan as a result of the two-week-old military offensive with the Taliban, the U.N. refugee agency said Saturday. Antonio Guterres, high commissioner for refugees, said 1,171,682 people have been registered as internally displaced people. These are in addition to the 553,916 displaced people who've fled eruptions of fighting in the tribal areas and North West Frontier Province since August. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistan military says it killed 47 militants in 24 hours in North West Frontier Province .\nLocal sources say 20 killed in suspected U.S. missile strike on religious school .\nPakistani troops fighting to oust Taliban militants from volatile province .\nIn Peshawar, nine killed when a car bomb exploded as school bus passed .","id":"3e2589ccaf5cbc10b2d47020a607208755412b99"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared set for a second term as his Congress party and its allies scored a decisive lead over their opponents on Saturday in a vote count after the country's monthlong general elections. Congress supporters in Banglaore Saturday celebrate the party's lead in election results. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance surged ahead in more than 255 of the 543 federal parliamentary boroughs, outpacing the main opposition composed of a grouping led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). BJP leader Arun Jaitley conceded defeat, stating that the ruling party will win the election. \"We respect this mandate and accept it,\" Jaitley said. India's communists, who last year parted ways with the federal government for its civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States, also suffered a massive blow in their stronghold state of West Bengal as they trailed their rivals in more than half of its boroughs. Singh drove down to the home of Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of the Congress party, after trends gave out a clear mandate in favor of the ruling coalition. Standing beside Gandhi, who once again endorsed the choice of Singh for her party's top job, he thanked voters for their support. He vowed to maintain a stable government that he said would remain committed to secular values. Singh also remarked that he would like Rahul Gandhi, son of his party chief, to become a member of his new Cabinet. Deepak Sandhu, the prime minister's spokeswoman, told CNN that Singh is expected to hold a meeting of his current Cabinet on Monday. The prime minister, whose coalition may need some extra backing to be able to reclaim power with a majority of 272 lawmakers on its side, threw up an invitation to all secular parties to come and support his government. The fifth and final phase of India's marathon general election to choose a federal government ended Wednesday. Most of the results of the will be out by the end of the day, election officials said. India is home to about 714 million voters. About 100 million voters registered for Wednesday's polling.","highlights":"NEW: Victory looks certain for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's second term .\nNEW: Singh stands with Sonia Gandhi, head of Congress party, to thank voters .\nNEW: Singh vows to maintain stability, invites support of secular parties .\nHindu nationalist coalition Bharatiya Janata Party concedes .","id":"d74e5571eb1546ea6a0668baa10240bf060e75b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Deitsch struggled through several days of denial before facing the fact that he was thousands of miles from home and he had no idea where his passport was. It's most important to make copies of your passport, say experts. Web sites offer easy-access digital storage. The Sports Illustrated reporter was covering the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, where he should have been having the time of his life. But his emotions were all over the place -- and none of them were good. His passport, he assumed, had fallen out of his backpack. \"When I realized it was missing, I went through a number of stages -- panic, fear, anger, and finally, acceptance,\" he wrote while enjoying a recent vacation in Russia. \"I looked for three days in every possible spot before I finally admitted to myself it was gone.\" Deitsch's bureaucratic nightmare reached a low point when he found himself inside a police station telling his story to five police officials who spoke no English. \"I was a wreck,\" he wrote later in a Sports Illustrated piece. He had brought his own translator, an SI China reporter whom Deitsch credited with negotiating through the red tape and eventually saving his entire assignment. Fortunately for Deitsch, he had prepared well for such an emergency. The best thing Deitsch did, said travel experts, was to make several copies of his passport and work visa before departing for China. As a result, he had a replacement passport in his hands within a few days after he reported it missing. Experts seem to come from two schools of thought on how to protect a passport. Some prefer to lock the document away once they arrive in a destination, while others say keeping the passport with you is the best way to safeguard it. Whatever option you choose, the bottom line is, if you lose your passport you must be able to prove your identity and citizenship to the U.S. government. The best way to do it is to have a copy of your passport handy. Deitsch's experience has prompted him to become \"hyper-vigilant\" about his passport, he wrote. He usually chooses to lock the document in a safe during his travels, rarely carrying his passport on him. \"And when I do, I find myself grabbing the front of my pants-pocket every couple of minutes to make sure that it remains where it should,\" he wrote. Once it's clear your passport is lost, bring your passport copy and any other traveling or ID-related paperwork to the nearest embassy or consulate during business hours. Be prepared to spend at least four hours waiting in line, filling out forms and answering questions from officials. If you didn't bring extra ID photos with you on your trip, have some taken before heading to the embassy or consulate. Make sure the photos are cropped to the correct size for your country's passport. If you have no paperwork, take someone in your traveling party with you. They will have to vouch for you. U.S. citizens who are traveling alone and have no other way to prove their identification will be allowed to call \"family, friends or associates\" in the United States to confirm their identity, according to the U.S. State Department Web site. Laura Kidder, editorial director of Fodor's travel guides, suggested making color copies of the passport's data page and sticking them inside your luggage; you can scan them into a computer and e-mail them to yourself; or you can use an online document storage company. \"There's one [online company] that is particularly geared for passport and travel documents,\" Kidder said. She recommends the Australian Web site www.passportsupport.com, which costs about $15 Australian per year. \"This is the safest way to do it, which is more secure than you e-mailing it to yourself,\" said Kidder. Storing your passport data on a server offers higher security, she said, because the data is encrypted. In addition to passport documents, such services also will safely store data for tickets, drivers licenses, medical papers and lists of critical contacts. Passportsupport.com users are asked to scan their documents in jpg files. Users can then upload these files to the passportsupport.com server with the Web site's interface. Kidder said she keeps copies of her documents in her luggage when traveling, and her passport secure in the hotel -- either in a self-service safe in the hotel room or a safe operated by the front desk. Rather than safes, Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, said he prefers to hold his passport himself. Siciliano said he always carries his passport (and other valuables) on him, even when he heads down to a beach to relax with his laptop. He says if you plan to go in the water, know that someone is waiting to steal your stuff. Invest in portable alarms and don't lose sight of your possessions. Siciliano said locking passports in a room safe leaves you open to the possibility of a forgotten combination. In those cases, a hotel will send someone to the room who can unlock the safe. Devices that unlock room safes can easily be bought online, Siciliano said. It's a good example of how many people can access your room and safe if they want to go through your stuff. \"There are people out there that are focusing on you not paying attention, on you being trusting, you being naive,\" he says. \"You're putting your faith and trust in someone who might have problems. People are flawed.\" The best way to protect yourself is to buy a passport holder for $10-$20 and always keep it on you, Siciliano said. Wear it under a shirt and pull it out only if needed. Never put it in a backpack or a purse. Experts said preparation is most important; you need to do your research and have multiple copies of everything. \"I always have backup for my backup,\" Siciliano said.","highlights":"American who lost passport in China: 'I was a wreck\"\nMost important: Always bring backup proof of identity; keep it safe .\nConsider uploading copies of documents to secure Web site .","id":"bd16b77c5fc8d034e468ff555184bcf8c5d51d00"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly two out of three Americans approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, according to an average of the most recent national polls. President Obama is still being evaluated on how he does his job, CNN's polling director says. In a CNN Poll of Polls compiled Thursday, 64 percent of those questioned in various surveys say they approve of how Obama is handling his duties as president. Twenty-eight percent disapprove. The president's approval rating also stood at 64 percent in a CNN Poll of Polls compiled in January, just after his inauguration. \"Most polls have shown Obama getting fairly high marks on most of the issues he has handled so far,\" CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. \"One exception has been the way he has handled government assistance to failing banks and automakers. His numbers on the federal deficit are also low in comparison to his approval ratings on the economy and foreign policy.\" So how does Obama compare to his predecessors in the White House around the 100-day mark? George W. Bush stood at 62 percent in a CNN\/USA Today Gallup poll in April 2001, Bill Clinton was at 55 percent in a CNN\/USA Today Gallup poll in April 1993, George H.W. Bush stood at 58 percent in a Gallup poll from April 1989, and Ronald Reagan was at 67 percent in a Gallup poll taken in April 1981. Learn more about previous presidents' approval ratings \u00bb . \"The hundred-day mark tends to fall during a period when Americans are still evaluating a new president. The danger period for most presidents comes later in their first year in office,\" Holland explained. \"Bill Clinton, for example, still had good marks after his first 100 days, but his approval rating had tanked by June of 1993. Ronald Reagan's approval rating stayed over 50 percent until November of his first year in office, but once it slipped below that mark, it stayed under 50 percent for two years. So Obama's current rating certainly does not indicate that he is out of the woods yet.\" The CNN Poll of Polls is an average of three national surveys taken over the past week: Gallup Tracking, Pew and AP\/GfK.","highlights":"64 percent of Americans in various polls approve of Obama's work so far .\nRating is similar to recent predecessors' around 100-day mark .\nApproval tends to slip later in the year, CNN polling director says .","id":"86d512cbbef146fc5631a9ba08f33947665e29a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Internet giant Google has been stopped from gathering images in Greek cities for its Street View service until it provides further guarantees about privacy. One of Google's Street View camera cars capturing images in central London. Launched in the U.S. two years ago, Street View provides users with access to 3-D \"pedestrian's-eye\" views of urban areas by zooming into the lowest level on its Google Maps and Google Earth applications. It has since been rolled out in more than 100 cities in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, Britain and the Netherlands. The images are obtained from cars specially-fitted with cameras that drive around towns and cities taking panoramic 360 degree shots of everything from pedestrians in the street, to customers sitting in street cafes. Despite pledging to recognize local privacy laws, Google has come under fire from privacy campaigners who fear the application could be abused by criminals or even snooping government agencies. Do you agree? Share your thoughts below . In April, a group of villagers in a picturesque English village chased away one of the search engine's camera cars as it attempted to photograph their homes. Fearing the appearance of their well appointed properties on the Web site would attract criminals scouting for burglary targets, villagers in Broughton, north of London, summoned the police after blocking the car. A month earlier, the BBC reported that Google was forced to pull a number of images from Street View after receiving complaints about pictures that included a man entering a London sex shop, and a drunken reveler being sick at a bus stop. The search giant has now run into trouble in Greece after being blocked by the country's privacy watchdog from expanding its service there. The Hellenic Data Protection Authority wants further clarification from Google about how long it will store images for and the measures in place to make people aware of privacy rights. In a statement, a Google spokesperson told CNN: \"Street View has not been banned in Greece. We have received a request for further information from the Greek DPA and we are happy to continue discussing these issues with them and provide information they request. \"Google takes privacy very seriously, and that's why we have put in place a number of features, including the blurring of faces and license plates, to ensure that Street View will respect local norms when it launches in Greece. \"We believe that launching Street View in Greece will offer enormous benefits to both Greek users and the people elsewhere who are interested in taking a virtual tour of some of its many tourist attractions.\"","highlights":"Greek watchdog wants more information from Google about privacy measures .\nPrivacy campaigners say Street View could be abused .\nResidents of one UK village say it will help burglars scout targets .\nGoogle says it isn't breaking any laws and takes privacy very seriously .","id":"f02d63e04a90223da68489de143eb0628f382331"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australian authorities have declared several coastal areas near Brisbane disaster zones after a massive oil spill earlier this week, according to the Queensland government. Large stretches of Queensland's coastline are being affected by the oil. \"This is a very serious situation,\" Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said, according to a news release on Friday. \"It appears the volume of oil involved is much greater than originally reported by the Pacific Adventurer. And the effect of the oil spill is more widespread.\" The Pacific Adventurer sustained damage early Wednesday when Cyclone Hamish struck the waters of eastern Australia with more than 125 kph (77 mph) winds. The cargo ship lost 30 of its 50 containers of ammonium nitrate about 13 kilometers (8 miles) off the coast of Cape Moreton. Those containers are still missing. The damaged ship also spilled a large amount of oil that is covering at least 60 kilometers (37 miles) of beach in and around Brisbane, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Watch sludge washing up on shorelines \u00bb . The ship's owner, Swire Shipping, initially said no more than 42,000 liters (11,100 U.S. gallons) of oil escaped from the ship, but now says that \"substantially more oil was spilled,\" ABC reported Friday. The ship is currently in the custody of Australia's Maritime Safety Authority in Brisbane, as the investigation into the spill continues. A massive clean-up effort is also under way. So far, 13 oil-covered birds have been recovered, according to the Queensland government.","highlights":"Pacific Adventurer sustained damage when Cyclone Hamish struck .\nDamaged ship spilled large quantity of oil and chemical cannisters .\nShip now in the custody of Australia's Maritime Safety Authority .","id":"818fcac70cccea5a042a0f44eef23cd6c3e415b3"} -{"article":"CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN) -- Doug Ward drives through a subdivision made up of rows of trailers. You can hear the sadness in his voice as he says, \"This just doesn't feel like home.\" He longs for the life he lived before devastating floods destroyed his Cedar Rapids neighborhood. The A&W Drive-In in Cedar Rapids was Doug Ward's life for 30 years. \"I want to come back. I miss (my friends) very much,\" Ward said as he escorted CNN on a tour of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, nearly a year after the floods. Ward, 64, is an institution in the historic Time Check neighborhood just across the Cedar River from downtown. He owns the A&W Drive-In on Ellis Boulevard, a fixture on this street since 1948. Historian Mark Stoffer Hunter calls the drive-in Cedar Rapids' \"Eiffel Tower.\" \"It's been there for us over the decades,\" Hunter said. \"It's one of those landmarks that tells you you're in Cedar Rapids.\" When floodwaters ravaged Cedar Rapids last June, Ward's drive-in drowned in almost 10 feet of water. Now, the drive-in sits in ruins. A&W root beer mugs covered in dried mud sit on the restaurant floor. The stench of floodwater lingers in the air. Putting together the pieces of Ward's life hit a snag in the fall of 2008 when an economic storm swept across the country. In a matter of months, the financial support Ward needed to rebuild dried up. \"Life's got to go on. If you sit and worry about it too much, you'd probably be at my funeral today,\" Ward said. Watch as Ward talks about the devastation in Cedar Rapids \u00bb . Ward estimates that it will cost close to $1 million to rebuild the A&W Drive-In at its current location. He's been able to line up $350,000 in loans, but that's far short of what he needs. \"The idea that he might not be able to rebuild the business here, it hurts,\" said Stoffer, the Cedar Rapids historian. \"It's happening not just in this neighborhood, but in all the neighborhoods that were affected by the floods.\" So now Ward spends a lot of time driving around Cedar Rapids scouting new locations. He wants to stay on Ellis Boulevard, but the surrounding neighborhood sits mostly empty. If people don't move back, then there are no customers to feed. \"If the neighborhood were normal again, we'd be up and running. But it's not,\" Ward said. Ward not only lost his business, but the house he and his wife lived in for 28 years was destroyed, too. The house today sits gutted. The flood weakened the foundation. Three estimates show it will cost $85,000 to make the needed repairs. FEMA gave the Wards $28,000 toward the costs of rebuilding their home or buying a new one. But without home insurance, it's another cost in Ward's mounting pile of financial troubles. Ward said if he can't get his business up and running soon, he'll have to find another job. He's tapped into retirement savings extensively, and he's received some financial support (he won't specify how much) from other sources. Ward is soft spoken, yet tough. He's faced difficult struggles all his life. His father died when he was 5. He dropped out of school after eighth grade to earn money for his family. At 13, he worked in a dry milk factory and spent 10 years working as a Coca-Cola delivery man. Owning the A&W Drive-In was a dream that produced a comfortable living. Now he misses the days serving his friends icy-cold root beers. But you won't hear him complain about the battle he's facing. \"I've been knocked around, but we'll get up and get going,\" he said.","highlights":"The A&W in Cedar Rapids was Doug Ward's life for 30 years until last year's flood .\nAlmost a year later, the drive-in sits in ruins, the root beer mugs still muddied .\nThe drive-in has been a landmark in the Time Check neighborhood since 1948 .\nIt will cost upward of $1 million to rebuild or change locations .","id":"81c1f48a4f55ce636b6248427468ebfef23eec8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police say they believe they know who killed a 31-year-old Southern Illinois woman and her two young sons, but are waiting for prosecutors to build a strong forensic case against the suspect before disclosing his identity. Chris and Sheri Coleman are shown with their two boys, Garret and Gavin. \"We don't have a warrant for his arrest at this time, so we don't feel it would be prudent to give his name out until the state's attorney determines whether or not there's enough to charge him,\" said Maj. Jeff Connor of the Major Case Squad. Connor heads the squad that is part of the St. Louis, Missouri, homicide task force. He made the comments during an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace. Police found the bodies of Sheri Coleman and the children, Garret, 11, and Gavin, 9, in the bedrooms of their two-floor home in the St. Louis suburb of Columbia, Illinois, on the morning of May 7. Indications were they had been strangled. The killings shocked the suburb of about 10,000 residents. The Monroe County, Illinois, state's attorney's office is awaiting forensic test results, more interviews, documents and reports, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Watch Nancy Grace on the case \u00bb . Connor said threatening messages were found on the walls inside the home, but he would not disclose the exact wording. According to Connor, Christopher Coleman -- the boys' father and Sheri Coleman's husband -- left the house at 5:43 a.m., and drove to a gym to work out. \"Shortly thereafter he started calling his house, realized that nobody was answering and on his way back at around 6:50 is when he made the phone call to the Columbia Police Department,\" Connor said. Connor said Coleman told police he started calling his house shortly after leaving it because he \"was making sure the kids were getting up for school.\"","highlights":"Bodies of woman and her two children found in Southern Illinois home last week .\nPolice: State's attorney to decide whether to file charges against certain person .\nThreatening messages found on the walls inside the home, police say .\nWoman's husband says he left home for gym before slayings, police say .","id":"643cef8562ef81bf2ea03dab41f88d4556d747c6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The Rev. Donald Cozzens is writer in residence and adjunct professor of theology at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. A priest of the Diocese of Cleveland with a doctoral degree, he is the author of several books on the Catholic Church, including \"Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church\" and \"Freeing Celibacy,\" both published by Liturgical Press. For another view on this topic, read here. The Rev. Donald Cozzens says the debate over celibacy for priests will be around for decades. (CNN) -- It's an issue that simply won't go away. In spite of signals from the Vatican discouraging even discussions of obligatory celibacy for Catholic priests, the almost 1,000-year-old rule is under the microscope. And it will be for decades to come. Here's why. In the Catholic tradition, even though sex is cast as sinful unless expressed in the conjugal embrace of husband and wife, it is held as fundamentally good, a part of God's creation. The church even holds that marriage (including spousal lovemaking) is a sacrament -- something sacred that contributes to the sanctity of husbands and wives. In light of this official teaching, it is dawning on many Catholics that mandatory celibacy for priests, a canonically imposed discipline of the church, is precisely that -- a discipline. They are asking, \"How is it that a discipline of the church has been allowed to trump a sacrament of the church?\" In effect, the church is saying that should God call a man to the priesthood, God will not, at the same time, call that individual to the sacrament of marriage. It's right to ask, how does the church know this? Public opinion surveys indicate that most Catholics, priests included, believe the discipline of celibacy needs a serious review. Recently the retired archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan, observed that obligatory celibacy is open for discussion. It is not, Egan noted, a matter of dogma. For decades now, bishops from Asia, Europe and the Americas have asked Vatican officials to consider optional celibacy for priests. The church's official response is consistent and succinct: As a precious gift from God, the discipline of celibacy for priests will remain in place. This, in spite of the inherent paradox lying just below the claim that the gift of celibacy is a precious gift of God to the priesthood and the church: How can a gift be legislated? The church answers that if a man is called to the priesthood, God will grant him the gift of celibacy. Many priests today wonder how church leaders know this. Reading the mind of God in this matter -- in any matter of church discipline -- is risky business. More and more Catholics today are coming to understand that celibacy as a universal law for priests had its origins in the 12th century and that during the church's first millennium, priests and bishops -- and at least thirty-nine popes -- were married. Still, most well-read cradle Catholics are surprised to learn that St. Anastasius, pope from 399 to 401, was succeeded by his son, Pope St. Innocent I, and that a century later Pope St. Hormisdas' son, St. Silverius, also was elected to the papacy. Even in our secular world, it's common to speak of church-based ministry as a calling, a vocation. Isn't it possible that God would call an individual to the priesthood and to the sacrament of marriage? God apparently did so for more than half the church's history. How do we know that God isn't doing so today? For some years now I've been teaching in the religious studies department at John Carroll University in Cleveland. I've asked dozens of serious, healthy young students if they have given any thought to being a priest. They seem flattered by the question. With only one exception, each has answered, \"Yes, I've thought about being a priest, but I want a family.\" There are, of course, other factors, urgent and pressing, that will keep the celibacy issue alive. The Catholic priesthood is aging. The average age of active priests hovers at 60, and if retired priests are factored in, it is considerably higher. Moreover, Catholic seminaries are lucky to be half full. Parish staffing challenges alone will press for a review of the celibacy rule. Catholic bishops simply do not have enough priests to meet the pastoral and sacramental needs of the Catholic faithful. Closing and merging parishes may offer some temporary relief for overworked priests, but the shortfall of priests will continue to challenge the vitality of Catholic parishes and the health of Catholic clergy for decades to come. But the most human, existential factor that should keep the celibacy issue on the table is the spiritual and emotional health of priests. Celibacy really isn't the issue -- mandatory or obligatory celibacy is. There are many priests who do possess the gift of celibacy -- it is their \"truth\" so to speak -- and their humanity, warmth and pastoral effectiveness give abundant evidence of their authentic celibate lives. But there remain other priests who believe deep down they are called to the priesthood but not to celibacy. And for these men, the burden of mandated celibacy threatens their spiritual and emotional well-being. The priesthood may be their \"truth,\" but mandated celibacy wraps them in a cloak of loneliness and struggle. I don't know Father Alberto Cutie. He appears to have touched the lives of many and preached the gospel with power and conviction. I suspect he feels called by God to be a priest, but not a celibate priest. Surely he knows that Easter Rite Catholic priests are allowed to marry and that the church welcomes into the priesthood married convert ministers from other Christian denominations. Surely he knows that in many parts of the Catholic world, clerical celibacy is openly flouted, and church authorities choose not to notice. I wonder if church officials understand the burden they place on the shoulders of a man who believes he is called to priestly ministry but not to celibacy. Certainly, a married priesthood will have burdens of its own and, sadly, scandals of its own -- infidelity and abuse among others. But it should be left to the individual priest and seminarian to determine whether or not he is blessed with the gift of celibacy. A mandated \"gift,\" after all, is really no gift at all. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the Rev. Donald Cozzens.","highlights":"The Rev. Donald Cozzens: Celibacy is 1,000 years old but not intrinsic to the church .\nMany popes were married in the first millennium of the church, Cozzens says .\nCozzens says church views marriage as sacred; why should priests be denied it?\nCozzens: Celibacy is a gift that should be optional, not mandated by the church .","id":"7315a94a8a2e991f206336db4316bad9cf4bc64e"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI completed his eight-day tour of the Holy Land on Friday with an exhortation to both Israelis and Palestinians to work through their decades-old conflict. Pope Benedict XVI prays in Jerusalem on Friday at what's believed to be the burial site of Jesus. \"No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war! Instead let us break the vicious circle of violence. Let there be lasting peace based on justice, let there be genuine reconciliation and healing,\" the pontiff said. Benedict made the comments at a farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv before Israeli President Shimon Peres and other religious and secular leaders. In his concluding remarks, Benedict called his visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and his conversations with survivors a \"deeply moving encounter.\" He seemed to address some criticism he received within the country for not speaking in stronger terms about anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Referring to the Holocaust, Benedict spoke of the victims who \"were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred.\" After Benedict's Monday speech at Yad Vashem, the memorial's chairman, Holocaust survivor Rabbi Yisrael Lau, criticized the pope, saying the pontiff did not \"participate in the pain of the Jewish people\" and \"used the term 'killed' when talking about Holocaust victims and not the word 'murdered' as his predecessor did.\" Benedict drew the ire of Jews and German Catholics earlier this year by rehabilitating an excommunicated bishop who had disputed the number of Jews killed in concentration camps during World War II. The bishop's excommunication was unrelated to his Holocaust denial. Friday, Benedict repeated his call for Palestinians to enjoy a \"sovereign independent homeland\" and \"to live in dignity and to travel freely.\" He remarked that \"one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands was the wall\" -- a reference to the 20-foot concrete barrier he saw in Bethlehem during his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp. Israel says the structure, which it calls a security fence, was built to prevent terrorist attacks; Palestinians consider it an illegal land grab. Benedict began the day with a busy morning in Jerusalem's Old City, including meeting the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches. Between sessions with the patriarchs, Benedict toured and prayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be located on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. On his Middle East visit, the pope has navigated the region's treacherous political landscape, which often pits Jew against Muslim and Muslim against Christian. Benedict has repeatedly called for reconciliation between the peoples of the region during his visit, urging Israelis and Palestinian to put aside their grievances and divisions. \"Just and peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the Middle East can only be achieved through a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect, in which the rights and dignity of all are acknowledged and upheld,\" the pope said. Celebrating Mass on Thursday, Benedict covered similar territory in his message to over 30,000 parishioners gathered at the Mount of the Transfiguration, outside Nazareth. Watch the reaction of one visitor who attended Mass \u00bb . \"Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence, while preparing them to be builders of a better world,\" he said. Benedict's trip marks the first papal visit to some of Christianity's most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000.","highlights":"NEW: Benedict XVI winds up Mideast trip with call for \"peace based on justice\"\nPope revisits Old City after similar outing on Tuesday .\nPope calls for spirit of cooperation and mutual respect in the Middle East .\nTrip marks first papal visit to Holy Land since Pope John Paul II in 2000 .","id":"cc4f1f4d64012710bbf4c75db134646ce84212a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australia's National Rugby League apologized on Tuesday for the behavior of its players after ABC's \"Four Corners\" current-affairs program revealed allegations of group sex in 2002 between players and a New Zealand woman. Two other women told the program they were sexually abused by NRL players. Former Cronulla player Matthew Johns said he was unable to say \"sorry enough\" regarding the incident . \"Violence against women is abhorrent, and sexual assault and the degradation of women is just that,\" said David Gallop, the NRL's chief executive. \"So much of what we saw [during Monday night's program] was fundamentally indefensible. And if anyone in the game today is ignoring the importance of that message, then frankly they will need to find another career.\" The allegations of group sex involved NRL personality Matthew Johns, who played for Cronulla at the time of the alleged incident in Christchurch, New Zealand. Watch more on the scandal \u00bb . Johns was suspended indefinitely by the Nine Network on Wednesday. \"The fact is, whatever the arguments about the details of the New Zealand incident involving Cronulla players in 2002, the conduct and its aftermath was simply unacceptable, full stop,\" David Gyngell, Nine's chief executive officer, said in a statement on the network's Web site. \"I fully endorse David Gallop's comments concerning the indefensible conduct of some players and the lack of respect for women -- and the critical focus on all stakeholders to help eradicate it from our game.\" \"I join with him in extending my apologies and sympathy to the young woman involved in the incident, who clearly is still distressed as a consequence,\" Gyngell said. In the ABC report, the then-19-year-old woman said she met Johns and his Cronulla teammate Brett Firman when she was working as a waitress. She said she went back to their hotel room, where she alleges six Cronulla players and staff had sex with her, while a half-dozen others watched. \"They were massive, like big rugby players. I felt that I just had no idea what to do. There was always hands on me,\" she said. \"I thought I was worthless, and I thought I was nothing. I think I was in shock. I didn't scream. They used a lot of mental power over me and belittled me.\" Less than a week after the incident, the woman made a complaint to police and about 40 Cronulla players and staff were questioned, ABC reported. Those involved said the sex was consensual and no charges were filed. The woman told ABC she's speaking out now because she wants the wives and girlfriends of the players to know what they did. \"If I had a gun, I'd shoot them right now,\" she said. \"I hate them. They're disgusting.\" Before the ABC report, Johns addressed the allegations last week on the Nine Network. \"It was an incident that was investigated by police. It caused all parties enormous pain and embarrassment,\" Johns said. \"For me personally, it's put my family through enormous anguish and embarrassment, and has once again. And for that, I just, I can't say sorry enough.\" In his statement, Gallop pointed to NRL initiatives put in place since 2002 to promote positive attitudes toward women, including programs developed with the help of a rape crisis center. \"Rugby League means an enormous amount to millions of people and, in many ways, the football we see today and the strength of the competition is better than it has ever been,\" he said. \"No amount of on-field success, though, can take away from the need to face up to these issues.\"","highlights":"Allegations of group sex involved NRL personality Matthew Johns .\nHe played for Cronulla at the time of alleged incident in Christchurch, New Zealand .\nNine Network suspends Johns; CEO apologizes, extends sympathy to woman .\nWoman tells ABC she's speaking out to let players' wives, girlfriends know .","id":"e0824b2eb44fd2562070010422784505ac587e0a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 10 people were killed, and an unknown number remained missing Wednesday, after a boat authorities believe was used for human smuggling capsized off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from a capsized boat off the coast of Florida. Almost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas, according to the U.S. Coast Guard -- which said a dangerous number of people was packed onto a small pleasure cruiser. The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from the boat, and searchers didn't know how many more people had been on the boat. \"You don't put 26 people on a small boat. It was way overloaded, completely unsafe,\" said Capt. Jim Fitton, the Coast Guard's sector commander in Miami, Florida. \"With smugglers, you have the potential for this because smugglers aren't interested in people's welfare. They're interested in making money.\" The boat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida, some time around 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. The agency was notified more than nine hours later by someone who saw the boat. There were women and children on the boat, Fitton said. A pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, while most of the victims remained onboard a Coast Guard cutter that was being used in the continuing rescue efforts, he said. Only eight of the people rescued by Wednesday afternoon were wearing life jackets. The Rev. Luke Harrigan, a Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, pastor to members of the Haitian community who is working with the Coast Guard, said he is contacting family members of the victims who were killed. \"Most of them now didn't even know they were coming to the United States,\" he said. \"Sometimes the person organizing the trip doesn't even tell them where they are going.\" He said it's not uncommon for smugglers to charge people from the impoverished island nation as much as $4,000 for passage into the United States. Coast Guard rescuers were continuing to search the area of the crash Wednesday evening.","highlights":"Coast Guard rescues 26; searchers unsure how many others missing .\nAlmost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas .\nBoat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida .","id":"ce6b2dce0fc1254d3e591979948fd1ec1a604beb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The European Commission handed down its ruling in a landmark anti-trust case against Intel Wednesday, fining the computer chip giant a record $1.45 billion for abusing its dominant position in the computer processing unit (CPU) market. On Wednesday the European Commission fined Intel a record $1.45 billion for violating anti-trust laws. The ruling, which Intel plans to appeal, may have future implications for American companies accused of \"jurisdiction shopping\" to avoid anti-trust verdicts against them, says CNN's Jim Boulden, who explains the basics of the Intel case. The commission has hit Intel with the biggest fine ever -- what were its reasons? The European Commission says Intel has been abusing its dominant market position in semiconductors for years. The EC says Intel has systematically given PC makers and stores rebates to keep computers with AMD chips off the shelves. AMD (another American company and Intel's only competitor) first raised the red flag in 2000. Why does the commission have the power to impose such fines? EU law does not regard market dominance as illegal, but it is allowed to fine a company that abuses its position as the biggest in any given market. It has a guideline of fining a company based on a percentage of profits. EU law is set up to \"protect consumers,\" and the anti-trust office says consumers were hurt. Yet as Intel likes to point out, consumers did not launch this case -- AMD, a competitor, launched this in Europe (and in Japan and South Korea) as the U.S. antitrust officials under George W. Bush were unlikely to pursue a case on these merits. The EU could fine Intel (or any company) based on 10% of global annual revenues, but chose to fine it on a smaller percentage made in the EU. Can Intel afford to pay this fine? What state is the company in at the moment? Intel reported first quarter revenue of $7 billion. It can easily afford this. Interestingly, it lost 4 percent of its market share to AMD so far this year. The company says it will appeal -- when is that likely to be heard? Another appeal will take months. Intel already appealed a preliminary part of this ruling last year and lost. Meanwhile, the EC can argue that Intel is still abusing its position and increase the fine during the appeals process, as it did to Microsoft. Intel is not the first tech company to be hit by the European Commission. What about Microsoft? The anti-trust unit has launched another round of investigations against Microsoft. It has already paid its fine and the EU continues to watch the company's behavior on the previous matters. What kind of precedent does the Intel case set? The EU has fined all kinds of cartels and market abusers, but rarely does it fine big American companies based on complaints from American competitors -- so the case catches the eye, especially with critics who accuse American companies of \"jurisdiction shopping\" to get a favorable outcome.","highlights":"European Commission fines Intel a record $1.45 billion for anti-trust violation .\nEC says Intel has been abusing its dominant market position .\nCompetitor AMD brought the case to the attention of European officials .\nEC anti-trust has commenced another round of investigations into Microsoft .","id":"593624bff50da166c3c69493dfd48b63eba2bb1a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, the actress known worldwide for her beauty and her role on \"Charlie's Angels,\" is reportedly seriously ill and may be close to death after a long battle with cancer. Farrah Fawcett, seen here in 2004, is featured in a documentary about her fight with cancer. A documentary, which airs Friday night on NBC, will feature an intimate look at her life since being diagnosed with the disease. On Thursday, Larry King talked with Candy Spelling, a close friend of Fawcett. Her husband, the late Aaron Spelling, produced \"Charlie's Angels.\" Spelling talks about her relationship with Fawcett and why she believes she did the documentary. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: Did you first meet Farrah in connection with getting that part? Candy Spelling: Yes. Actually, she did a lot of small, little parts in the movies for Aaron starting around 1973. So it's been, my God, 36, 37 years since I, you know, first met her. Watch Candy Spelling talk about her friendship with Farrah Fawcett \u00bb . King: So you knew her well during all that time? Spelling: Yes. King: Did you know about her getting picked to be on \"Charlie's Angels?\" Spelling: I remember. She did some small roles. I think the one that Aaron really decided he was really going to use her was this American beauty pageant and, also, it was like \"Murder on Flight 502.\" He did the 90-minute versions. King: Movie of the week? Spelling: Right. Movie of the weeks. King: When did you know she had cancer? Spelling: I found out about a year -- when I first heard, I don't know if it was a year or two years ago when we first heard, and I contacted her. I hadn't talked to her in a while. She said, \"I'm going to be all right, Candy. Everything is going to be all right.\" King: Why do you think, Candy, she did the documentary? Spelling: I think that she wanted to give other people courage that, you know, are fighting this kind of thing. I know how, you know, devastating the press, you know, was with Aaron when he had cancer. And it's just so difficult. And I mean, you know, it's hard to have a private life at that point. King: Why do the tabloids get so tough on someone in such pain? Spelling: It's news. It's kind of a sad thing. I'm always so sorry to see it. But, you know, people believe what they see, and a lot of times, we don't know how true it really is.","highlights":"Candy Spelling talks about the \"Angel\" her late husband made famous .\nAaron Spelling produced \"Charlie's Angels\" featuring Farrah Fawcett .\nFawcett, the subject of an upcoming documentary, is fighting cancer .","id":"5bbaacd2c64c064d70e53f6ac96a7e6b16a284bc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The contentious debate over so-called enhanced interrogation techniques took center stage Wednesday on Capitol Hill as a former FBI agent involved in the questioning of terror suspects testified that such tactics -- including waterboarding -- are ineffective. From left: Sens. Lindsey Graham, Sheldon Whitehouse, . Patrick Leahy and Dianne Feinstein listen Wednesday. Ali Soufan, an FBI special agent from 1997 to 2005, told members of a key Senate Judiciary subcommittee that such \"techniques, from an operational perspective, are ineffective, slow and unreliable and harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda.\" Soufan's remarks followed heated exchanges between committee members with sharply differing views on both the value of the techniques and the purpose of the hearing. Soufan, who was involved in the interrogation of CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah, took issue with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has said that enhanced interrogation techniques helped the government acquire intelligence necessary to prevent further attacks after September 11, 2001. The techniques, which the Bush administration approved, are considered torture by many critics. Watch analysts discuss harsh interrogations and torture \u00bb . \"From my experience -- and I speak as someone who has personally interrogated many terrorists and elicited important actionable intelligence -- I strongly believe that it is a mistake to use what has become known as the 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' \" Soufan noted in his written statement. Such a position is \"shared by many professional operatives, including the CIA officers who were present at the initial phases of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation.\" Soufan told the committee that within the first hour of his interrogation of Zubaydah, the suspected terrorist provided actionable intelligence. But once the CIA contractors took over and used harsh methods, Zubaydah stopped talking, Soufan said. When Soufan was asked to resume questioning, Zubaydah cooperated. After another round of more coercive techniques used by the contractors, however, Soufan said it was difficult for him to re-engage Zubaydah. One of four recently released Bush administration memos showed that CIA interrogators used waterboarding at least 266 times on Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected planner of the September 11 attacks. \"People were given misinformation, half-truths and false claims of successes; and reluctant intelligence officers were given instructions and assurances from higher authorities,\" Soufan testified. \"I wish to do my part to ensure that we never again use these ... techniques instead of the tried, tested and successful ones -- the ones that are also in sync with our values and moral character. Only by doing this will we defeat the terrorists as effectively and quickly as possible.\" Watch as Soufan makes his case before the panel \u00bb . Soufan was hidden behind a protective screen during his testimony before the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. Staffers for the committee cited \"documented threats\" against him, noting his previous interaction with al Qaeda terrorists as well as his undercover work against Islamic extremists. Philip Zelikow, who was a top aide to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, repeated an accusation during the hearing that Bush officials ordered his memo arguing against waterboarding to be destroyed. The order, \"passed along informally, did not seem proper, and I ignored it,\" Zelikow said. He said that his memo has been in State Department files and is being reviewed for possible declassification. Zelikow slammed the \"collective failure\" behind the government's adoption of \"an unprecedented program of coolly calculated dehumanizing abuse and physical torment to extract information. This was a mistake, perhaps a disastrous one.\" He added that some \"may believe that recent history, even since 2005, shows that America needs an elaborate program of indefinite secret detention and physical coercion in order to protect the nation. ... If they are right, our laws must change and our country must change. I think they are wrong.\" Watch Zelikow tell CNN's Kiran Chetry how U.S. leaders came to the wrong conclusions on interrogation policy \u00bb . Committee Republicans warned that the hearing ultimately could contribute to diminished national security. \"As we harshly judge those who had to make decisions we don't have to make, please remember this: that what we do in looking back may determine how we move forward,\" said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina. \"And let's not unnecessarily impede the ability of this country to defend itself against an enemy who, as I speak, is thinking and plotting their way back into America.\" A top intelligence source familiar with the Bush administration's interrogation program was dismissive of Soufan's credibility as a witness. \"It's puzzling that someone who questioned a single high-value detainee for just a few months claims to be able to talk about the value of a program that lasted nearly seven years after he was part of it,\" the source said. \"Suffice it to say, there are varying accounts of the facts and circumstances surrounding the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah.\" Soufan wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in April arguing that there \"was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn't, or couldn't have been, gained from regular tactics.\" He said that \"using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions. ... The short-sightedness behind the use of these techniques ignored the unreliability of the methods, the nature of the threat, the mentality and modus operandi of the terrorists, and due process.\" While at the FBI, Soufan was involved with investigations of sensitive international terrorism cases, including the East Africa bombings, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole and the September 11 attacks. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, opened the hearing by accusing Bush administration officials of lying about the use of techniques that had damaged the country's standing in the world. Watch Whitehouse and Graham at the hearing \u00bb . \"The truth of our country's descent into torture is not precious. It is noxious. It is sordid,\" Whitehouse said. \"It has also been attended by a bodyguard of lies. ... President Bush told us America does not torture while authorizing conduct that America has prosecuted. ... Vice President Cheney agreed in an interview that waterboarding was like a dunk in the water, when it was used as a torture technique by tyrannical regimes from the Spanish Inquisition to Cambodia's killing fields.\" CNN's Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Committee Republicans say hearing could help diminish national security .\nAli Soufan: \"People were given ... half-truths and false claims of successes\"\nEx-FBI agent takes issue with Dick Cheney, who says such tactics helped U.S.\nThe techniques, OK'd by Bush administration, are considered torture by some .","id":"d2e6eb42043bef636843a65c9b6ffc8ec599b087"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The fifth and final phase of India's marathon general election to choose a federal government ended Wednesday. Indians voters hold up their voter ID cards at a polling station in northern India. Home to about 714 million voters, India is now due to hold a single-day vote count Saturday for 543 seats in the lower house of its parliament. India's election commission spokesman Rajesh Malhotra told CNN that a 62 percent voter turnout was recorded in the last phase of polling Wednesday. Voting in the month-long exercise was spread across 28 states and seven federal territories. Stock markets closed 138.4 points down -- as voting drew to a close Wednesday -- apparently over fears of political uncertainty ahead. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party, which came to power in 2004 as head of a communist-backed coalition, is seeking re-election. The party mainly faces opposition from an alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Watch more about one village refusing to vote \u00bb . Over the years, regional parties have emerged as key players in government formation in India, creating a situation in which federal power is now shared by a coalition of groups. Last year, Singh's Congress party lost the support of the communists, who opposed India's civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. The party was able to survive primarily with the backing of a powerful regional party.","highlights":"Voting in the month-long exercise was spread across 28 states .\nIndia is scheduled to hold the vote count on Saturday .\nPrime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party seeking re-election .","id":"ed425d136545b476dea0ff594930b2cc787abb72"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- So much for Southern hospitality. The attack took place on April 27 at Southern Tracks Recording in Atlanta, Georgia. When Pearl Jam -- the Seattle, Washington-based grunge rock band -- was in the Atlanta area late last month, bass guitar player Jeff Ament and a band employee were mugged outside a recording studio, a police report shows. According to the DeKalb County Police Department, Ament and Mark Anthony Smith were attacked shortly before noon on April 27 when they arrived at Southern Tracks Recording. Southern Tracks is the home base of producer Brendan O'Brien, with whom the band has worked before. According to Rolling Stone, the band is recording a new album with the producer. Three men reportedly emerged from a nearby wooded area wearing masks and brandishing knives. They smashed windows of the rented Jeep Commander, snatched a BlackBerry phone and other belongings, and demanded money, the police report shows. The suspects allegedly got away with more than $7,300 in goods and cash. Ament jumped from the passenger side of the vehicle and started to run, but he was chased by a suspect and knocked to the ground, said Mekka Parish, a public information officer with the police department. Watch surveillance video of the attack \u00bb . She said he \"suffered some lacerations\" on the back of his head and was treated at the scene. His backpack was also snatched, she said, and included inside was Ament's passport. \"At this time detectives believe the victims were not specifically targeted,\" Parish said. \"But they believe the suspects were familiar with the studio because of its isolated location.\" Though surveillance cameras captured the incident, the masks worn by the attackers have made identifying suspects difficult. Witnesses reported seeing the suspects flee through the woods and hop into a waiting black Maxima, Parish added. Anyone with leads on this case is encouraged to call 770-724-7850.","highlights":"Pearl Jam's bassist was mugged in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 27, police say .\nJeff Ament and one of the band's employees were outside recording studio .\nPolice say masked men with knives snatched more than $7,300 in cash and goods .\nAment suffered head lacerations, which were treated at the scene .","id":"21812d2b26b18f78497e5eb4f0c4c4cfae1e8589"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- As Ryan O'Neal walked the red carpet at the premiere of \"Farrah's Story,\" he stopped every few feet to answer reporters' questions about Farrah Fawcett's battle with cancer. Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. 'Farrah's Story,' a documentary on her battle, will air Friday. CNN's Douglas Hyde was at the end of the line and the last to interview the actor, who was almost in tears after a string of intense explanations about his longtime companion's condition. \"She was OK in the first interview, but now I'm worried,\" O'Neal said, visibly drained after focusing on Fawcett's battle. The documentary, which airs Friday night on NBC, is not a celebration of Fawcett's career, but an intimate look at her life since being diagnosed with anal cancer three years ago. \"Basically, it's a gonzo trip,\" O'Neal said. It was shot by Fawcett's close friend, Alana Stewart. \"It shows you every detail, how she found out and how she dealt with it,\" O'Neal said. Early in 2007, Fawcett said she was told her cancer had gone into remission. Her official Web site has posts from February 2007 celebrating the news. But the cancer returned later that year. Anal cancer affects more women than men, and the illness is usually found in people who are in their early 60s. The American Cancer Society estimates that 5,000 new cases of anal cancer are diagnosed each year and about 680 people die from it annually. While cancer keeps Farrah in her bed, a legal fight has begun over the documentary. Producer Craig Nevius filed a lawsuit this week against O'Neal and Stewart, claiming they stole creative control of the film from him. Nevius told CNN he was kicked off the project more than two months ago. \"I have been banned from talking to or seeing Farrah for about ten weeks, which is highly unusual, considering that healthy or sick, I spoke to this woman at least twice a day from the time of her diagnosis on,\" Nevius said. Nevius said his goal was to do the film \"based on Farrah's artistic visions that are a reflection of her and while at the same time maintaining and protecting her privacy to the extent that she wants it maintained and protected.\" \"I take no joy in this,\" Nevius said. \"I tried to avoid this, but I am doing it for Farrah.\" A spokesman for O'Neal called it \"horrific\" that Nevius would file the lawsuit. \"We hope and we pray that Farrah Fawcett does not find out about this lawsuit, because we know it would impact her health even more so,\" said O'Neal spokesman Paul Bloch. CNN's Douglas Hyde and Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Documentary \"Farrah's Story\" is a \"gonzo trip,\" Ryan O'Neal says .\nProducer claims he was robbed of creative control .\nCraig Nevius: \"I have been banned from talking to or seeing Farrah\"\nO'Neal spokesman: \"We hope and we pray\" Fawcett does not learn about lawsuit .","id":"cb1dac61fd8e3916536890b113ba64ebce2a142c"} -{"article":"LONDON, (England) CNN -- Natalia Vodianova is best known as the supermodel who has graced the cover of Vogue, walked the catwalk for the likes of Chanel and Versace. Supermodel Natalia Vodianova's charity plans to build hundreds of play parks for children in her native Russia. But Vodianova has a dream that couldn't be further from the glitzy world of fashion -- to build 500 play parks in her native Russia. Vodianova, born and raised in Russia, was in the country during the 2004 Beslan school siege, in which at least 339 hostages, around half of them children, were killed. Deeply affected by the tragedy she returned to New York, where she was living at the time, determined to do something to help the surviving children. Vodianova organized a fundraising event that generated $350,000 to build the children a playground and she founded her charity, the \"Naked Heart Foundation.\" With an ethos that play is not only therapeutic for children, but a necessity, the foundation aims to provide playgrounds for Russia's urban youth. So far the charity has built 23 playgrounds around the country, starting in her home town of Nizhnii Novgorod, and there are 15 more in the pipeline. \"For me, since I started my charity, it has been a very different way of life,\" Vodianova told CNN. Watch Vodianova take CNN around Moscow \u00bb . \"Giving back just feels so great. I always try to open each play park with myself present for the children, because it makes it more special for them. I go to very remote parts of Russia are far from Moscow and it gives these children an extra message of love.\" For Vodianova, this is just the start. She told CNN that her dream is to build 500 play parks in Russia. The charity's play parks can cost anywhere between $27,000 and $400,000, depending on their size and range of play equipment. Vodianova admits, \"It's a big dream -- an expensive one!\" When it comes to fundraising, Vodianova's secret weapon is her connections in the fashion world. Last year she organized a \"Love Ball\" in Moscow -- a Valentine's Day fundraiser that counted among the guests the likes of designer Valentino, actress Lucy Liu, singer Natalie Imbruglia, and supermodel Eva Herzigova. See photos of \"The Love Ball.\" \u00bb . The event was held in a former royal residence, Moscow's 16th century Tsaritsino Estate. It featured an ice palace made from 220 tons of ice and music provided by British band Razorlight, among others. The highlight was a Valentine's-themed auction, with lots including a private performance from rock star Bryan Adams, bought for $120,000, and a painting by British artist Damien Hirst called \"Love is All Around,\" which sold for $1.6 million. The auction alone raised $6.7 million for the charity. Vodianova admits that the global economic crisis is making it harder to get sponsorship for this year's event and says it will be more low-key than last year. \"We are not going to make it a very extravagant event; it's very disrespectful of what's going on in the world right now, with the recession and a lot of people losing their jobs. \"We're not gong to spend a lot of money on it, but it's important to keep going,\" she told CNN. With a husband and three young children, Vodianova says it can be hard to divide her time between family, career and her charity. She describes her charity work as a 24-hour job. \"I feel a huge sense of responsibility for my foundation because it's really very important to me. Somehow it became my most difficult baby to raise,\" she says. But she has no doubt about the value of her work, both for Russia's children and herself. \"The biggest thing I can do for my soul is to hear that laughter and to see all these children that come and play on the play parks that my foundation built.\" CNN Producer Deborah Rivers contributed to this report .","highlights":"Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova runs the \"Naked Heart Foundation\"\nHer dream is for the foundation to build 500 play parks across Russia .\nThe \"Love Ball\" was a celebrity-filled fundraising event held in Moscow .","id":"d089c9e8a36c6cea20f663eee02589571bf44fd3"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- The body of accused triple killer and University of Georgia professor George Zinkhan was claimed by a relative Friday, nearly a week after Zinkhan was found dead, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. A studio proof shows professor George Zinkhan and his wife, Marie Bruce. A mortuary shipping service in Atlanta picked up Zinkhan's body at the request of a son from a previous marriage, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said. Details on plans for the body weren't immediately available. Earlier Friday, Bankhead had said Zinkhan's body -- found Saturday in a self-dug shallow grave -- could be headed to a pauper's grave if the family didn't claim the body from the Athens-Clarke County coroner's office by Saturday morning. Such a grave is typically reserved for unidentified bodies, unclaimed bodies or people without family members. Bankhead said the situation was rare and that it was unclear why the family had taken that long to claim the body of the professor, described by colleagues and acquaintances as aloof and eccentric. Neighbor Bob Covington remembers a lot of \"forced moments\" with Zinkhan. The last such interaction came the afternoon of April 24, the day before witnesses said Zinkhan, 57, killed his wife and two others outside a community theater in Athens. Covington was walking down the driveway of his Bogart home to check the mail. Zinkhan had just done the same and was walking back to his house. Covington said hello and told Zinkhan that his son, a UGA student who used to mow the Zinkhans' lawn, had recently seen Zinkhan on campus. \"He said, 'Yeah, that's where I hang out,' and turned and walked into the house,\" said Covington, who lived next door to Zinkhan for eight years.\"That's mostly what it was with George, forced moments.\" It was odd for Zinkhan to say more than five or 10 words before disengaging, while his wife, Marie Bruce, was the \"polar opposite,\" Covington said, describing the 47-year-old thespian as engaging and vivacious. Despite the contrasts in personalities, Covington never saw evidence that there were problems between the two, he said. \"He never raised his voice at his kids. I never heard that. I never heard him raise his voice at Marie,\" he said. Neighbors, students and fellow faculty members all concur that Zinkhan was standoffish, but their accounts also paint a contradictory image of the marketing professor who would occasionally walk the halls of UGA's business college barefoot. Some faculty members were quick to defend Zinkhan, but reluctant to do so on record. One said he felt it was a university matter. Another was reluctant to be on record defending an accused mass killer. \"He's being painted as an ogre, which doesn't fit,\" said the former. Two faculty members said Zinkhan was introverted but friendly. He was close to some colleagues. He remembered their birthdays and was generous with gifts at Christmas. His quirky behavior was generally overlooked because of his brilliance, a colleague said. One fellow professor went so far as to call him a genius, and not just with marketing, either. Zinkhan apparently was well-versed in a wide range of topics -- art, opera, architecture -- and he loved sports. Faculty members recalled that the strapping 6-foot-2 Zinkhan played on the intramural softball team with some of his graduate students, and he liked to boast of his home runs. He also loved his son, 8, and daughter, 10, and regularly brought them to work. Neighbors said they saw him outside playing soccer with the kids on a miniature goal that still sat in the yard this week. A basketball goal with a rim a foot or two below regulation stood over the Zinkhans' driveway, and a miniature yellow house sat dormant in his wooded backyard. A neighbor who asked not to be named said the cedar front door on the house Tuesday was new. A SWAT team had burst through the old front door shortly after Zinkhan allegedly shot Bruce; attorney Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63. Bruce was the president of the board of the Town and Gown Players, a theater group holding a reunion picnic on the theater's deck when the shooting took place. Tanner and Teague were identified as set designers for the theater. Covington saw Zinkhan shortly after the April 25 slayings. He was grilling bratwursts for lunch when Zinkhan rang the doorbell. \"He asked if I'd mind watching the kids because there'd been an emergency,\" Covington said. Covington agreed. He thought it was strange when Zinkhan immediately sprinted out of the garage, but didn't pay it much attention because Zinkhan said he had an emergency. The children, Covington said, seemed oblivious that their mother had just been slain. It was less than an hour later, when Covington's wife noticed two police officers with shotguns behind the hedges in a nearby yard, that Covington learned his neighbor was accused of a triple killing. The police told Covington they were looking for Zinkhan in connection with the shootings. \"I was incredulous,\" he said. Covington's daughter, who had baby-sat for the Zinkhans, drew a floor plan of the Zinkhan home for police and told them where the spare key was hidden. Covington allowed police to use his home in their stakeout and summoned Zinkhan's daughter to see whether she knew anything about what had happened. It was clear the girl hadn't seen the slayings, but one of her remarks was chilling, Covington said. Asked what her father's emergency involved, she replied, \"Something about a firecracker.\" Though many expressed astonishment that Zinkhan was linked to the slayings, some UGA faculty members said they suspected Zinkhan was having problems at home before police confirmed it this week. He lost an estimated 50 pounds in the two months before the shootings, they said. To others, the signs of problems were more obvious. Professor Barbara Carroll, who had once worked under Zinkhan, wrote an e-mail to her colleagues at the business school saying she went into protective custody after police found a map to her house in Zinkhan's vehicle. In the e-mail, she said she had told previous department heads, deans and provosts \"that George Zinkhan was dangerous.\" \"Many people in this college and this department have known about Zinkhan's 'troubled past' and did nothing about it. Those people also bear responsibility here,\" she wrote. Carroll did not return phone messages or open her door for reporters Tuesday. However, one of Zinkhan's former students said he and his classmates also thought Zinkhan was more than just odd. David Sackin, 43, was a graduate student and took classes with Zinkhan in 1996 and 1997. Zinkhan's lectures were delivered in monotone, his teaching style was dry and he didn't seem to care what was happening in the classroom, Sackin said. When students convened outside the classroom, they surmised that something darker than a lack of enthusiasm drove Zinkhan's behavior, he said. \"If anyone asked any of my classmates if there was one professor who'd go on a rampage, who would it be? They'd unanimously say Zinkhan,\" Sackin said.\"He was strange, definitely.\" In her e-mail, Carroll told colleagues they may never know the whole story. Indeed, police have said only that one of the victims, Tanner, \"appeared to be a specific target in the shootings and was shot first.\" The prospect of learning specifics about what could have propelled a painfully private introvert to homicide probably died in a shallow grave behind a Bogart elementary school. CNN's Jason Hanna contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Son from previous marriage claims University of Georgia professor's body .\nAcquaintances, colleagues remember George Zinkhan as eccentric, aloof .\nNeighbor: Children unaware of mother's slaying; daughter mentioned \"firecracker\"\nStudent, colleague both thought Zinkhan may be dangerous before triple killing .","id":"d231e6ae12ad612782eed5ac35da634f9c38fbd4"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida state investigation has determined that 31 crosses on the grounds of a former reform school mark graves of teens and employees who died in a fire and an influenza outbreak. Crosses mark graves of reform school students killed in a fire and flu outbreak in the early 1900s, investigators say. One grave even contains the body of a student who was slain by another student, the investigation found. The five-month investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement rules out claims by a group of reform school survivors that students who were beaten by guards are buried there. The former students, now in their 60s, call themselves the \"white house boys,\" after a concrete-block building where boys were taken for punishment. They said that they witnessed murders, and that students suddenly disappeared after they suffered severe beatings at the school, in Marianna, Florida, in the 1950s and '60s. The men believed the graves, marked only by white steel crosses that are rusting with time, were those of the teens who were beaten and killed by reform school workers and administrators. But authorities found documents that pointed to the fire and the flu outbreak. They said they plan no exhumations. \"This is our conclusion, based on what we know today,\" said Mark Perez, the chief of investigations for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. \"Enough information has been corroborated on who is buried there. We went and identified all of the individuals who perished while in custody,\" he said. The FDLE released its results in an 18-page investigative report. It says that no information confirms that any of the administrators or workers at the facility contributed to the deaths of any of the students. Their investigation into the charges of physical abuse, made by the former reform school students, continues. However, the investigators concluded that claims by the former students of slayings and disappearances of boys could not be corroborated. \"None of the former students were able to provide any first-hand information which would have identified any of these alleged victims, or the persons responsible for their purported demise,\" the report states . Roger Kiser is one of the former students who pushed for the investigation. He's written a book on the alleged abuse at the school and says that the FDLE has yet to contact him, despite, he says, witnessing two deaths at the school. \"My personal feeling is that the State of Florida does not want to know the truth. It is just too horrible a tragedy for the general public to learn about,\" he wrote in an e-mail to CNN. Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, had ordered an investigation to determine who is buried in the 31 unnamed graves. The graves are in a secluded area on the property of what was the Florida School for Boys in Marianna, a town near the Georgia border. The FDLE says that records have determined that the cemetery was known to everyone back in the early 1900s, and the details got lost in time. \"There was enough information available to establish their identities and the cause of death,\" said Mark Perez of the FDLE. However, the FDLE has not been able to determine why the graves are not marked with headstones or any other identifiers. \"That's the million-dollar question. We can't find any records why they weren't marked,\" he said. But records have determined that the remains are those of boys who died in a fire at the reform school in 1914. Many of these victims were orphans and indigents whose families could not afford to have the bodies shipped home. And so, the FDLE said, they were buried at the school. Others died in a flu epidemic, in about 1918. According to the FDLE, among the remains are those of one reform school boy who was slain by another student. Other graves are those of pets. The deaths were reported extensively in local news coverage, and even in a newsletter that was published, at the reform school, called \"The Yellow Jacket.\"","highlights":"NEW: Investigation continues into whether staff abused boys in 1960s .\nFlorida School for Boys hit by 1914 fire, 1918 flu outbreak .\nAuthorities say they found no evidence boys were killed by school officials .\nGovernor ordered investigation of what lies beneath 31 white crosses .","id":"4cc0579aa000f668546bc411734b1c4c17eea9cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of their 2-year-old granddaughter, Caylee Anthony, was found in Florida in December. And their daughter, Casey Anthony, is charged in her death. She could be executed if convicted. It's a case that has gripped America. George and Cindy Anthony, parents of murder suspect Casey Anthony, on \"Larry King Live\" Wednesday. George and Cindy Anthony answered their critics in an exclusive interview on \"Larry King Live\" Wednesday night. Appearing with their lawyer, Brad Conway, they talked about whether they still support their daughter completely and what their lives have been like under the media glare. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: We are amazed because we've received -- get this -- thousands of blog responses to your appearance here tonight. And, honestly, most of them are critical. Why do you think people are angry at you? Cindy Anthony: Because they don't understand. They've never been in our shoes. So a lot of people, especially bloggers, ... like to pick things apart. And, you know, we're a target. King: But what are they picking apart? Cindy Anthony: They're picking apart the fact that we're standing behind our daughter. They're picking apart the fact that we are trying to make something out of Caylee's tragedy. King: Do you talk to Casey a lot? Cindy Anthony: I haven't spoken to Casey in person since October the 14th. We write. King: Why not? Cindy Anthony: Because every time we go to the jail to see her, it's videotaped and then it's all over \"Nancy Grace\" and, you know, the six o'clock news. King: How do you explain the body being found so close to home? Cindy Anthony: I can't explain it. I don't know if anybody can right now. Watch how Anthonys cope with granddaughter's death, daughter's incarceration \u00bb . King: But you have thoughts, don't you, George? George Anthony: Well, I mean there's so many things I really would like to know, but there's a lot of things I just don't know. King: But you've got to ask. George Anthony: I wish I had an opportunity to talk to my daughter. But, again, we don't have that chance. King: But logically, if she's not involved, what could be said that could harm her? Cindy Anthony: You know, people pick everything apart. If Casey cries, she's not crying enough. If she smiles at us like she did in court the first time she saw us, then she's smiling for the wrong reasons. King: [Caylee's] body is stuffed in a laundry bag. The skull is wrapped in duct tape. Could you imagine your daughter would do that? Cindy Anthony: No. Attorney Brad Conway: The duct tape probably was not wrapped around the skull. We know that there was no flesh and no hair attached to the duct tape, yet that's what goes out in the media and that's what people assume to be true. And that's the unfair part: This young lady has not had her opportunity in court, yet people have drawn conclusions from discovery that's out there. King: Cindy, the meter reader who found the body alerted the authorities as far back as August about a suspicious bag. This tip wasn't acted on. Do you think there would be any difference if the body were found earlier? Cindy Anthony: I'm sure there would be, if she was really there back in August. I'm not convinced of that yet. King: Are you trying to find a murderer? I mean do you have a private detective? Cindy Anthony: We have a private investigator who's still investigating Caylee's disappearance. The defense has private investigators. And we're leaving them to their job. King: Brad, is this a rock and a hard place [for George and Cindy Anthony]? Conway: It is. What the Anthonys are trying to do is deal with the grief of the loss of their granddaughter while trying to help other people out. And, unfortunately, there are going to be a lot of people that go through what they go through. The only way to take a negative thing and make a positive is share their grief publicly and let people know that it's OK to do this. King: The Anthonys have written a Web exclusive [for CNN] responding to their critics. You won't see it anywhere else. See the Anthonys' blog and comments from readers . King: Did you ever try to harm yourself? Cindy Anthony: I wrote suicide notes, but I never acted on it. King: Because? Cindy Anthony: You know, when you are away from someone and something is ripped out of your life so suddenly ... Imagine a child -- not having that child around. And, weeks into it, not knowing where she was and what had happened to her was devastating. It was hard to get up in the morning and, you know, go on with your day. King: What stopped you? Cindy Anthony: My faith. You know, I knew that's not the right thing to do. King: Do you completely believe she didn't do it? Cindy Anthony: Yes, I do. King: Completely? Cindy Anthony: Yes. I see the love in Casey's eyes. Every single picture that you see of Caylee and Casey together, you can see the love in their eyes. King: Cindy, you were the first to call authorities last July to say you hadn't seen Caylee for a month and that your daughter's car smelled like it had a dead body in it. Didn't you worry that that would be kind of presumptive from the state to make a case out this? Cindy Anthony: You know, Larry, on July 15th, all I wanted was the police department out to my house out to help me look for Caylee. King: Did you smell the smell? Cindy Anthony: I smelled a smell in the car. I smelled it in my refrigerator with sour food. King: Do you have any idea why [Casey] didn't call police all the time her daughter was missing? Cindy Anthony: I can't answer that. Casey was probably grieving as best as she could. It doesn't make her guilty. King: No, but weird. Cindy Anthony: It doesn't make her guilty. Yes, but a lot of people do weird things under stress, under tragedy. So it doesn't make you guilty. King: Would you favor that whoever did this crime should face the death penalty? Cindy Anthony: You know, I'm not a fan of the death penalty for anybody. King: George? George Anthony: I'm opposed to it. King: Let's take a call. Caller: I have a question for the Anthonys. What will they do if their daughter is found guilty? Will they still support her or will they cut all ties? Cindy Anthony: I can't cut tie from my own flesh and blood, so no. King: Do you expect to testify, George? George Anthony: I'm sure we'll be in court when everything comes, probably sometime next year. King: Do you think they'll be called, Brad, both? Conway: Yes, sir, they will. Another caller: Where do you find the strength to support your daughter when everyone seems to be against her? Cindy Anthony: You know, my faith has gotten stronger and stronger every day through these last nine months.","highlights":"George and Cindy Anthony say media attention prevents them from visiting Casey .\nThey say public doesn't understand their situation, people pick their actions apart .\nCindy Anthony said she wrote suicide notes but never acted on them .\nTheir attorney expects they'll be called as witnesses in daughter Casey's trial .","id":"d402c1fc4488d4456b1a3781ea04013b75a88910"} -{"article":"Editors' Note: Below is an excerpt from Larry King's new autobiography \"My Remarkable Journey\" published by Weinstein Books. Larry King anchors \"Larry King Live at 9 p.m. ET on CNN. In 1959, Bobby Darin, left, was Larry's first major guest on his WKAT radio program. Larry Zeiger left Brooklyn, New York, for Miami Beach, Florida, at the age of 23 to try to find a job in radio. This is how he got his new name: . I went to stay with my Uncle Jack in Miami Beach. I was so excited that I started knocking on doors the next day. I stopped at a small station on First Street, WAHR. The guy in charge liked my voice. \"We get a lot of people coming and going,\" he told me. \"If you hang around, you'll get the first opening.\" I sat and watched in fascination for a few weeks. It was a tiny operation, but the sight of the UPI and AP machines furiously clicking out news made me feel like I was on the brink of something big. Miami Beach was like a dream. The palm trees. The ocean. I remember walking past Joe's Stone Crab. Joe's is more than a restaurant, it's a landmark. It was full when I arrived in 1957, and I guarantee you, people will be waiting in line tomorrow night. I stopped outside the front window with only a few dollars in my pocket, unable to afford a meal, looking at the happy faces, wondering what it would take to get into a place like that. Then came my big break. There was a morning deejay named Tom Baer. He was making sixty dollars a week and his alimony was sixty-five. He claimed to be living off the coconuts falling from trees. He quit on a Friday, and the general manager told me I could start on Monday. I must have rehearsed the entire weekend. I don't even think I slept. On Monday morning I showed up at WAHR with the record that would play my theme song, \"Swingin' Down the Lane.\" The general manager called me into his office to wish me good luck. \"By the way,\" he said, \"what name are you going to use?\" \"What do you mean?\" \"You can't use Larry Zeiger,\" he said. \"It's too ethnic. People won't be able to spell it or remember it. You need a better name.\" There was no time to think about whether this was good or bad or what my mother would say. I was going on the air in five minutes. The Miami Herald was spread out on his desk. Face-up was a full-page ad for King's Wholesale Liquors. The general manager looked down and said, \"King! How about Larry King?\" \"OK,\" I said. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. I wasn't going to blow it. \"Fine. You'll host The Larry King Show.\" Nine o'clock was approaching. That's when the news came on. A few minutes later, The Larry King Show would make its debut. I went through the control-room door, sat down, and set up my record. The news ended. I started my theme song, then faded down the music so I could introduce myself. I opened my mouth. It was as dry as cotton. For the first time in my life, I couldn't speak. So I brought \"Swingin' Down the Lane\" up again and faded it once more. Again, not a single word came out of my mouth. I could only wonder if listeners were hearing the pounding of my heart. I'd waited for this moment my whole life. How could I be blowing it? Once more, I cranked up \"Swingin' Down the Lane\" -- but not a word came out of me. The next thing I knew, the general manager was kicking open the door to the control room. \"This is a communications business!\" he roared in a way that only a general manager can. Then he turned, walked out, and slammed the door behind him. Shaken, I leaned in to the microphone and said, \"Good morning. This is my first day ever on the radio. I've always wanted to be on the air. I've been practicing all weekend. A few minutes ago, they gave me my new name. I've had a theme song ready to play, but my mouth is dry. I'm nervous. And the general manager just kicked open the door and said, 'This is a communications business!'\" That's how my career started on May 1, 1957. Years later, Arthur Godfrey would tell me, \"The only secret in this business is...there is no secret.\" He was right. I learned a great lesson on my first day. There's no trick to being yourself. I don't think I've ever been nervous on the air since then.","highlights":"Larry Zeiger moved from Brooklyn to Miami in 1957 in pursuit of a radio hosting gig .\nZeiger became Larry King when his first boss called his name \"too ethnic\"\nLarry recalls being unable to speak his first time on-air .\nHe quickly overcame his first-day jitters and has felt at home on the air ever since .","id":"63ebe8b88517b7aaad7dbead39519ce2687f8e91"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- European intelligence agencies are on alert for new al Qaeda terrorist plots following the arrest of two men at an Italian port and investigations into the activities of an alleged al Qaeda network based in Brussels. Bassam Ayachi officiated at the wedding of Malika el Aroud (pictured), who became an al Qaeda \"icon.\" The two are closely tied to a Brussels-based al Qaeda recruiting network, Belgian counter-terrorism officials have told CNN. They are Bassam Ayachi, 62, and Raphael Gendron, 33 -- and they were detained in the port of Bari on November 11 last year after allegedly trying to smuggle three Palestinians and two Syrians into Italy in the false bottom of a camper van they were driving. Now they face much more serious allegations following a counter-terrorism investigation by Italian, French and Belgian police. Italian authorities have officially charged them with being leaders of a logistical support team for al Qaeda. A bug planted by Italian police in the suspects' detention facility picked up snatches of conversation about an alleged scheme to attack Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. A partial transcript of one of their alleged conversations has now been released. \"I'll hit de Gaulle,\" Gendron tells Ayachi. \"We'll hit it there,\" Ayachi replies. \"At night when there will be a lot of people.\" Later in the conversation they appear to discuss buying grenades off contacts in the Middle East. French authorities have said that they were never aware of a concrete plot to attack the airport. Italy suspects well known to Belgian Security Services . Ayachi and Gendron were detained after Italian authorities allegedly found Jihadist propaganda in their possession when they arrived on a ferry from Greece. Belgian police say they alerted Italian authorities that the pair were known extremists. Ayachi is a naturalized French cleric of Syrian descent, and in the early 1990s had founded the Centre Islamique Belge (CIB), an organization Belgian authorities say espoused hard-line Salafist and pro al Qaeda views. Gendron, described by Italian police as a computer expert, was the main administrator of the CIB's Web site in Belgium. In 2006 Gendron and Ayachi's son Abdel Rahman Ayachi were convicted in Belgium for posting threatening anti-Semitic messages on the site. Their prison sentences were later reduced to a fine by an Appeals court. A Belgian counter-terrorism source tells CNN that the CIB has clandestinely continued its operations in Belgium. When CNN reporters visited its headquarters on the Rue Memling in Brussels in February, Islamists appeared to still occupy the premises. In previous interviews with Belgian journalists, Avachi said his organization concentrated on pastoral care for Muslims in Brussels and did not promote pro-al Qaeda views. In April 1999 Ayachi officiated at the wedding of two prot\u00e9g\u00e9s at CIB, Abdessattar Dahmane and Malika el Aroud. The couple would later become \"icons\" of the al Qaeda movement, according to Belgian counter-terrorism officials. Two days before 9\/11, Dahmane assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, in a suicide bombing operation in Afghanistan. After his death Malika el Aroud, a Belgian citizen of Moroccan descent who had accompanied him to Afghanistan, returned to Europe and founded Minbar.SOS -- a Web site promoting Bin Laden's Jihad. She also remarried. In a CNN interview in 2006 el Aroud demonstrated how she and her new husband Moez Garsallaoui ran the site, which contained postings of attacks on coalition troops in Iraq and translations of the speeches of al Qaeda leaders. Alleged recruitment for training in Pakistan . According to Belgian police el Aroud and Garsallaoui moved to Brussels in 2007 and worked in tandem to recruit operatives to train in the tribal areas of Pakistan. El Aroud, it is alleged, inspired young men to volunteer for Jihad through her incendiary Web postings. Garsallaoui, the police say, went out to the streets to recruit people. El Aroud was arrested last December in Brussels and charged along with five others with participation in a terrorist group. She denies the charge. El Aroud and Garsallaoui allegedly recruited six individuals in all, four from Belgium and two from France, according to legal documents obtained by CNN. Those documents include the interrogation report of one of the French recruits who traveled to Pakistan and was arrested when he returned to Europe. The recruit, who can only be named by his initials W.O., told French authorities that several members of their traveling group including Garsallaoui, were given explosives training by al Qaeda trainers in Pakistan's Federally Administered tribal areas early in 2008. During the two-week course, according to the legal documents, W.O. alleged that Egyptian and Syrian instructors taught them how to assemble weapons, fire rocket launchers, and how to handle explosives. One trainer even set off a small charge of TNT in demonstration, telling them that the explosive was used to attack U.S. convoys in Afghanistan and in suicide vests. Belgian security services went on high alert after members of the group started to return from the tribal areas in late 2008, concerned they might have been tasked to launch attacks in Europe. According to [Belgian] counter-terrorism sources, the trigger for the Brussels arrests was an intercepted e-mail sent by one of the alleged recruits, Hicham Beyayo, in early December shortly after he returned to Belgium. The e-mail allegedly suggested that Beyayo had been given the green light to launch an attack in Belgium. However no explosives were recovered by Belgian police, and some terrorism analysts are skeptical that an attack was imminent. Beyayo's lawyer Christophe Marchand told CNN the email was merely \"tough talk\" to impress an ex-girlfriend. Belgian authorities continue to insist that the alleged cell was a potential national security threat. The alleged role of Ayachi and Gendron . A senior Belgian intelligence source told CNN that Ayachi and Gendron -- the two men detained in Italy -- were known to provide ideological support for members of the alleged Brussels terrorism network, but at this time were not suspected of having played a direct role in recruiting young European Muslims for training in Pakistan. Questions on their role, however, have been raised by a new revelation by Italian investigators, who allege that when they were arrested, Ayachi and Gendron were carrying the last will and testament of Beyayo, whose e-mail had caused such alarm. In the alleged will Beyayo made clear he was ready for martyrdom. \"When you hear of my death...don't wear black and most importantly don't display my photo,\" Beyayo purportedly wrote. \"I will emigrate to the field of Jihad to triumph for the religion of God, to defend the Muslim countries and to protect the sacred lands of the Muslims. And I will be a great help to the Mujahedeen brothers.\" Marchand told CNN that such a document in no way indicated that his client was preparing an attack in Europe. [He said Beyayo had traveled to the tribal areas of Pakistan to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, not to become an al Qaeda operative]. \"Writing a will was hardly unusual behavior for somebody whose aim was to go and fight jihad in Afghanistan,\" Marchand said. According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, Ayachi's CIB and Malika el Aroud's Web site served as focal points for many of those linked to the alleged Brussels network. The officials say that, Ayachi, Gendron, el Aroud, Garsallaoui and Beyayo belonged to a tight-knit 20-30 strong community of militants in Brussels. CNN, through its own investigation and through Belgian legal and police sources, has identified the user names under which several of these individuals, including Gendron, Garsallaoui and Beyayo posted messages on El Aroud's site Minbar SOS. Continued security concerns . According to Belgian counter-terrorism officials, three of the seven individuals who traveled to the Afghan-Pakistan border region in 2008 for training are still at large in the area. Some European counter-terrorism officials believe this is a significant security concern, given the Brussels network's track record In smuggling people into Europe. In an interview with CNN, Alain Winants, the director of Belgian Intelligence said: \"Every secret service will tell you that individuals who are already radicalized and who are in addition are being specialized in some fighting techniques or techniques of propaganda are representing a big risk when they come back.\" Those still at large, Belgian counter-terrorism sources say, include Moez Garsallaoui, (Malika el Aroud's husband) who they believe has developed close ties with the top leadership of al Qaeda in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Belgian counter-terrorism officials told CNN that Garsallaoui was in regular email contact from the region with his wife before her arrest last December. According to a lawyer briefed on the legal dossier in the Belgian case, in June 2008 Garsallaoui allegedly sent el Aroud an e-mail claiming to have killed five Americans in Afghanistan. His wife congratulated him, according to the legal source. Garsallaoui also purportedly posted messages on el Aroud's radical Web site from the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, including a message posted last September urging militants in Europe to launch attacks. \"The solution my brothers and sisters is not fatwas but boooooooms,\" the posting stated. The posting was discovered by CNN under Garsallaoui's purported user name on the Minbar SOS Web site. Earlier this week Garsallaoui purportedly posted a new statement on Minbar.SOS. In the message which was entitled \"We Need You\" he said he had joined up with Taliban forces who were making raids against American troops in Afghanistan from the tribal areas of Pakistan. \"The Jihad is going well and the Taliban are stronger than ever, they are gaining territory every day and more important than that they are winning the trust of the local population,\" he claimed. But Garsallaoui purportedly also had this sobering message for Belgian authorities: . \"If you thought that you could pressure me to slow down through the arrest of my wife you were wrong. It won't stop me fulfilling my objectives...those who laugh last, laugh more.\"","highlights":"Italy arrests of two men spurs European terror alert .\nPair closely tied to a Brussels-based al Qaeda recruiting network, officials say .\nItaly charged them with being leaders of a logistical support team for al Qaeda .","id":"a70e317f8f6ccd819213943de8c029775c8fc26b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He's the man who helped make \"Slumdog Millionaire\" an international hit, scoring the soundtrack of the Oscar winning film. Despite his performance at the Oscars ceremony and being caught up in all the glitz and adulation, Rahman is a reluctant star. Feeling like a millionaire: AR Rahman picked up two Oscar's for best original song and best score. He's worked on films since he was a teenager, taking over the role of family breadwinner after his father died and followed in his footsteps as a composer. While he had stints writing advertising jingles in India, composing for films has been his life's work so far, yet from his studio in Chennai he admitted to CNN he didn't want to score films. \"I kept saying next year I'll quit, next year I'll quit. And finally because I was sucked into it more and more, now I have the Oscars\" he said. His Oscar performance and acceptance speech was one of the most memorable at this year's awards. \"I thought if I get it I'll be quiet, if I don't get it I'll be quiet, so I was training my mind not to get over-emotional. So when I first got it I didn't feel it at all, it was like a rehearsal for me. When I finished my performance then I felt at ease and then I became very philosophical as you know, and I chose love over hate and all this stuff,\" he told CNN. Feted by many in media, his hit \"Jai ho\" was covered by the Pussy Cat Dolls, but the softly spoken Rahman doesn't find it hard to remain grounded. Rahman runs a music school in Chennai, the KM Music Conservatory that keeps him motivated and reminds him that music has a potency that can transform lives. \"Music can do so many things. I have my foundation, I have my music school. I have people teaching, kids are learning, so I take this as an advantage, the popularity and taking that and putting it into good things, which motivated me to work harder,\" he said. As well as working on more Hindi films, Hollywood beckons, if only for a new experience. There have also been rumors he may score the next James Bond film. \"I have a couple of offers from Hollywood. Pure American movies which I thought for the heck of it let's do it and a couple of other surprises that you'll know very soon if it works out. Big surprises I think,\" he said.","highlights":"Oscar-winning composer scored the soundtrack for 'Slumdog Millionaire'\nBegan work as a 13-year-old to support family after his father died .\nWill continue to score films in India and Hollywood; runs music school in Chennai .","id":"36bc68b8e9c44bb6b3d3db2c5cfeecbe5a6f7276"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Friday resumed -- with expanded legal protections -- the Bush administration's controversial system of military trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees. President Obama says the commissions are OK, \"provided that they are properly structured and administered.\" On the heels of Obama's shift this week to block the release of photos showing prisoners allegedly being abused by U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military commissions announcement further infuriated the president's most ardent supporters while winning cautionary praise from some of his political foes. Obama said he supports the idea of the military commissions but opposes the version of the law that had been governing such trials in recent years: the Military Commissions Act put in place under the Bush administration in 2006, but subsequently struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The president said military commissions \"are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered.\" But, he said, the 2006 act \"failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capability to ensure swift and certain justice against those detainees.\" He said he plans to enhance due process rights for detainees held at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in order to improve the widely criticized approach created by his predecessor. Statements that have been obtained from detainees through interrogation and cruel treatment, such as waterboarding, will no longer be admitted as evidence before the commissions, Obama said, and hearsay evidence will be limited. The revised system also will give detainees greater latitude in selecting legal representation and afford basic protections to those who refuse to testify. Military commission judges also will be able to establish the jurisdiction of their own courts. \"These reforms will begin to restore the commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution, while bringing them in line with the rule of law,\" Obama said. He said he plans to ask Congress to enact other reforms to the 2006 law. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, applauded his former opponent. \"Today's announcement is a step -- but only a step -- toward a comprehensive detainee policy that will deal with the detainees held at Guantanamo and elsewhere in a fashion that both accords with our values and protects our national security,\" McCain said in a written statement. But Obama's announcement infuriated some of his core supporters -- with the revisions hardly calming the concerns of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU chided the military commission decision as \"a striking blow to due process and the rule of law.\" \"These military commissions are inherently illegitimate, unconstitutional and incapable of delivering outcomes we can trust,\" said Anthony D. Romero, the group's executive director. \"Tweaking the rules of these failed tribunals so that they provide 'more due process' is absurd; there is no such thing as 'due process light.' \" he said. \"If the administration's proposed rules really bring these proceedings in line with constitutional requirements, there is no reason not to use our tried and true justice system. If they don't, these tribunals have no place in our democracy.\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs countered that military commissions have a long history in the United States. \"First and foremost, the president of the United States is going to do what he believes is in the best security interest of the people of the United States,\" Gibbs told reporters. Obama suspended the military commissions by signing an executive order on his third day in office, the same day he signed an order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo within a year and announced a 120-day review of the whole process. The review deadline is next week. Gibbs said he does not know where and how trials for alleged terrorists will unfold on American soil. Nor did he disclose how many suspects would face legal proceedings under the revised commissions. Three Guantanamo detainees' cases have gone through the commission so far. The Bush administration established the military trial system after the U.S. military began capturing detainees in Afghanistan in late 2001. The next year, it opened the Guantanamo facility, saying suspects were treated properly and received due process through the system. But legal organizations and human rights agencies have repeatedly challenged the system on grounds that detainees were mistreated. One lawyer representing a client at Guantanamo said closing the detention facility, which Obama is advocating, is a \"meaningless gesture\" if the military commissions continue. \"The military commissions are fundamentally flawed and can't be fixed,\" said Army Maj. Jon S. Jackson, a lawyer for Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of five 9\/11 defendants charged in the military commission process. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9\/11 attacks, is the most high-profile of those defendants.","highlights":"Obama revives Bush system that was suspended in January .\nNew system to include expanded due-process rights for the suspects, Obama says .\nACLU calls move \"a striking blow to due process and the rule of law\"","id":"584673cd49e70a4a40722fab4540792058fb64bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom should leave office during the investigation into whether he was connected to three recent slayings, his 2007 presidential opponent said Thursday. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has said he has no intention of giving up power over the slayings inquiry. Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, who lost to Colom in a runoff, said Guatemala is suffering its worst crisis since the democratic process began in 1985 after years of civil war. Demonstrations will continue and anger will mount unless Colom temporarily steps out of the way to allow an unblemished probe, he said. \"We want an impartial investigation, a transparent investigation,\" Perez told CNN. \"The president must leave his post.\" The crisis started Monday with the surfacing of a video in which Guatemalan attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg said Colom, the president's wife and a top aide would be responsible if something happened to the lawyer. Rosenberg was gunned down Sunday while riding his bike in Guatemala City. He had recorded the video last week. Rosenberg was being threatened with death, he said, because he had blamed Colom and his associates for the April slayings of a prominent businessman and his daughter. Rosenberg had represented the businessman. They were killed, Rosenberg said, because they had refused to participate in acts of corruption as the president wanted. \"It's the time-honored tradition in Guatemala that if someone gets in your way, there's likely to be a violent outcome,\" said Donald J. Planty, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala from 1996 to 1999. Colom took to the airwaves Monday night to vehemently deny that he, his wife or the aide had any connection to the slayings. He promised a full investigation and said he would accept international help, asking the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to become involved. A Guatemalan newspaper reported Thursday that an FBI agent had arrived in the country in connection with the investigation. But Rosenberg supporters say they don't believe the Guatemalan government can carry out an impartial and thorough investigation and want Colom out. Perez said Vice President Jose Rafael Espada could take over until the investigation is complete. \"We are only asking that the state be strengthened,\" Perez said. \"If he doesn't do this, we believe the situation will get worse.\" Colom said in an interview Tuesday night with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that he has no intention of resigning or otherwise giving up power. He blamed the deaths on unnamed people who want to bring down his government. \"It is evident that [Rosenberg's video statement] was written by someone who has been in on this plan to destabilize the government and for reasons that I don't know, because I don't know why Mr. Rosenberg mentions us in that video,\" Colom said. For Perez and other critics, that's not good enough. \"The president has not wanted to confront this and has given evasive answers,\" Perez said. \"Until the president confronts this, indignation will increase.\" Some analysts say Colom needs to get the nation under control immediately. \"It's a very worrisome situation,\" said Planty, the former U.S. ambassador. \"The country is in very serious trouble.\" There were rumors two to three weeks ago that the military might stage a coup, Planty said. \"The security situation is out of control,\" he added. Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm, calls it \"a major political scandal.\" Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy institute, agrees with that assessment. \"It's very damning for the president. Very damning,\" he said. Fernando Carrera Castro, a fiscal analyst and executive director of the Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales, said the upheaval could further tear apart a poverty-ridden nation trying to heal from a deadly civil war. The three recently slain Guatemalans -- Rosenberg, businessman Khalil Musa and his daughter -- came from the upper economic class. As a result, Carrera said, many wealthy Guatemalans are being \"radicalized\" against the government. Likewise, he said, many poor and disenfranchised Guatemalans also are becoming radicalized and are rallying behind Colom and the government. \"I fear that this crisis will lead to violence and destabilization of the government,\" Carrera said from Guatemala City. \"We all want justice. That is clear.\" Juan Tornoe, a Guatemalan who has lived in the United States for seven years, rejects what he says are efforts to forge a class divide. \"The powers that be are trying to make it a social issue -- the wealthy against the poor,\" he said. \"This is not a social issue. This is Guatemalans are fed up.\" Tornoe has personal connections with some of the key actors in the crisis. Rosenberg was his wife's law professor at La Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Tornoe said. And he said he went to high school with Gustavo Alejos, the presidential aide Rosenberg mentioned in the video. In his conversations with friends in Guatemala, Tornoe said, he sensed \"a sense of desperation, of hopelessness.\" He believes people are fed up. \"They're saying, 'OK. Let's do something. Let's not let this happen again and again and again,' \" he said. Carrera, the fiscal analyst, holds out hope. The investigation, he said, will be handled by an independent attorney general who does not report to the president. And the probe will be conducted under the watchful eye of a U.N.-Guatemalan commission set up to investigate corruption and political violence. \"That gives me more confidence,\" he said. But Perez and others note that the attorney general, Jose Amilcar Velasquez Zarate, met privately with Colom on Tuesday morning, the day after the scandal broke. The meeting was not disclosed until reporters uncovered it and questioned Velasquez on his way out. Colom's critics accuse the president of already meddling in the investigation. Colom and Velasquez said the meeting had been planned days ahead of time. \"There is no interference in the investigation,\" Velasquez told reporters afterward. Guatemala has \"a culture of corruption,\" said Planty, the former U.S. envoy. A just investigation is necessary, he said. \"Until they fix it, they will limp along -- and that's the good scenario,\" he said. \"They are in serious danger of becoming a failed state, if they're not already. There is complete impunity. Nobody is punished for anything.\" Rosenberg said the same thing in the video, bemoaning the \"narcos, assassins and thieves\" who have taken over the country. \"Those thieves are sinking all of Guatemala,\" he said. \"They kill people like dogs.\" The lawyer's niece, Mariela Rosenberg, said her uncle learned to accept his fate. \"He had many threats,\" she told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol, \"and when he saw it was inevitable, he taped a video.\" Radio journalist Mario David Garcia told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that Rosenberg was supposed to detail his allegations Monday afternoon on Garcia's program, \"Hablando Claro\" (Speaking Clearly). Instead, his funeral was held that day.","highlights":"Lawyer who blamed Guatemala's president for two slayings was killed Sunday .\nIn video released after his death, lawyer says to blame president if he is slain .\nPresident should step aside during inquiry, says man who lost '07 presidential race .\nPresident blames deaths on people he says want to bring down his government .","id":"15fa2ce55cc9e864666325840d8799e033b30745"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two attacks on Christian families in the city of Kirkuk on Sunday evening left three people dead and two others wounded, police said. Due to persecution, Christians in Iraq have had to rely on Iraqi security forces, as shown here on Easter Sunday. The first occurred in a neighborhood in southern Kirkuk when a Christian woman and her daughter-in-law were murdered in their home late night Sunday. Police told CNN the attackers slit the women's throats. In a neighborhood close by, gunmen attacked a Christian family in their home, shooting a father and his three sons, police said. One of the sons died instantly and the other son and the father were wounded. Many of Iraq's estimated 1 million Christians have fled the country after targeted attacks by extremists. In October, more than a thousand Iraqi families fled the northern city of Mosul after they were reportedly frightened by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists, who apparently ordered them to convert to Islam or face possible death. At least 14 Christians were killed in Mosul in the first two weeks of October. Kirkuk is 150 miles (240 km) north of Baghdad.","highlights":"Christian woman and her daughter-in-law's throats slit in their home late Sunday .\nIn nearby neighborhood in Kirkuk, gunmen shoot father and three sons; one dies .\nTargeted by extremists, many of Iraq's 1 million Christians have fled country .","id":"8d07a0ef87fe87a423ec8d486834f2d698d2efa0"} -{"article":"MANAMA, Bahrain (CNN) -- Suryavathi Rao entered her 40th year in what can be called no man's land. A protestor locked in a suitcase reading \"Stop Human Trafficking\" in Germany last year. A domestic worker from India, she arrived at a shelter in the Gulf state of Bahrain one morning with only a nightgown, slippers, and a prayer for a better life. \"I had to leave because it was getting too difficult for me,\" she said. \"I have not brought any clothes, I have not brought personal belongings, all I brought with me is a Bible.\" Rao says her employer -- a family with eight children who sponsored her journey here -- did not pay her the monthly salary of just over $100 for six months. Having fled her employer's home, she is now considered an illegal resident on the island. Marietta Dias, who runs the Migrant Workers Society, says the mind-set regarding immigrant workers here has got to change. Some employers treat their help as \"not a person but a machine (that) starts in the morning: Put on a switch (and) work consistently right through the day. Take care of the children, washing, cleaning, cooking, right down to cleaning (the) car.\" The exploitation of workers is a huge business worldwide. People forced to work without pay collectively lose more than $20 billion a year in earnings, according to a report from the United Nations International Labour Organization released Tuesday. Global profits from human trafficking and forced labor have reached $36 billion, according to the United Nations, and that sum is climbing. \"Forced labor is the antithesis of decent work,\" ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in a statement as the report became public. \"It causes untold human suffering and steals from its victims.\" \"It is the vulnerable who suffer the most\" in times of economic crisis like the present, the report says. It took years for governments to acknowledge the problem. Now the biggest challenges, officials say, are the implementation and enforcement of laws. \"Eighty percent of forced labor is in the private economy, but this is very, very rarely been prosecuted, if at all in most countries,\" said Roger Plant, one of the authors of the ILO report. Part of the problem is that the law is often hazy. \"There's a whole lot of gray areas where intermediate agents, sub-brokers, are taking advantage of loopholes in the law in order to extract large amounts of money from vulnerable people, uninformed (people) who are going off to work in a country where they don't speak the language,\" Plant said. But for him, the bottom line is clear. \"There is some absolutely flagrant forced labor where the offenders must be put behind bars. Forced labor is a serious criminal offense and must be treated as such,\" he said. Labor markets need a regulatory overhaul like the one financial markets are now facing, he argued. \"Because labor markets are too deregulated there are too many options for people to act in an unethical way,\" he said. \"After the havoc in the financial markets, people are realizing they need some monitoring, licensing, regulation. You've got to do the same on the labor markets,\" he said. The ILO tried to set standards for private agencies that place workers, he said. \"But we're finding is that there is a number of totally unknown, unlicensed and unregulated labor workers at the bottom end of the market, and there is broker after broker, intermediate after intermediate getting cash -- getting some money from the worker,\" he said. \"Usually it is in the very much down the bottom in the informal sector, in the developing countries, but we are finding that sometimes this is pervading even larger recruitment agencies.\" Bahrain, where Suryavathi Rao fled her employer, is considered a reformer on labor issues. The Gulf state has introduced the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to register and track workers of all types. \"People were not familiar with the definition of human trafficking and most of the time they weren't accepting that is phenomena is actually here in our region,\" Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa of the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. A top priority is to reduce the role of middlemen who take sizable fees -- sometimes a year's salary plus interest, he said. But worldwide, prosecutions are comparatively rare, said Antonio Maria Costa, under secretary-general of the United Nations. \"Only a few thousand people were criminalized in the underworld in the past 2-3 years -- a fraction of the criminals who actually prey upon victims.\" The average, according to labor officials, is one prosecution for every 800 cases -- a rate that keeps workers like Suryavathi Rao, and millions more, vulnerable to exploitation.","highlights":"Global profits from human trafficking, forced labor reach $36 billion, U.N. says .\nEighty percent of forced labor is in private economy, says ILO report author .\nBahrain has introduced the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to register workers .\nBahrain Foreign Ministry: Top priority is to reduce role of middlemen .","id":"4a17a40559d334b97a48091a460a03f11e25485a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Five new cases of the H1N1 virus in New York City schools will force three schools to close for a week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference Thursday evening. The city is temporarily closing the schools to \"slow transmission\" of the virus, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The two intermediate schools and one primary school are in Queens, and all three will be closed for at least five days, the mayor said. \"We are closing the schools to slow transmission\" of sickness, he said. Bloomberg, flanked by New York Gov. David Paterson and New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein, said four students at one of the intermediate schools have the virus and an administrator was critically ill Thursday with H1N1. Bloomberg indicated the school administrator had a pre-existing medical condition. Fifty students at that school have been sent home with flu-like symptoms since May 6. At the two other schools, the primary school had an overflowing nurse's office Thursday, reporting 29 students suffering from flu-like symptoms. The other intermediate school had 241 students absent with illness Thursday. The New York City Department of Health and the Department of Education have been in nearly constant contact, said Jason Post, a spokesman from Bloomberg's office. When there's a spike in students absent from classes, the Department of Health is alerted. \"There's always good communication, flu or no flu,\" Post said. \"But our senses have been sharp for a while now.\" The Health Department has seen a general increase in flu activity in Queens, officials said in a news release. While the symptoms of H1N1 flu seem to resemble those of seasonal flu, the H1N1 virus appears to spread more extensively, at least in schools, warranting closures to slow transmission in the community, the release said. Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, the deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Hygiene and Mental Health, said although concern is legitimate, there's no solid evidence that suggests the H1N1 flu -- also known as swine flu -- is more dangerous than the flu in general. \"The bottom line is if you're sick, stay home,\" Weisfuse said. \"And don't go back to school until you're better for one whole day.\" In late April, St. Francis Prep, a high school in Queens, was closed because of a flu outbreak. Since then, the school reopened and the stricken students have recovered, according to the mayor's office. \"As we have said from the outset of the appearance of H1N1 in our city last month, we will share with New Yorkers what we know and not speculate on what we don't know,\" said Bloomberg in a statement. According to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Thursday night 7,412 cases of H1N1 flu have been confirmed worldwide. The organizations said 63 deaths attributed to the virus have been confirmed worldwide. The CDC said 4,298 cases of the virus and three fatalities have been confirmed in the United States as of Thursday night. New York had 224 confirmed cases of H1N1, the CDC said. It was not clear whether the five cases cited by Bloomberg and the other New York officials were included in the latest CDC total.","highlights":"Officials cite five new cases of H1N1 virus in New York City schools .\nOne school administrator critically ill with the virus, officials say .\nAdministrator had a pre-existing medical condition, mayor indicates .\nDozens of students have reported flu-like symptoms at the 3 closed schools .","id":"c3a48d5c58092ef0af710789339154a79c4eea10"} -{"article":"The father of missing child Haleigh Cummings' married his 17-year-old-girlfriend, who was the last one known to have seen the child alive, the girl's grandmother told Nancy Grace producers. Ronald Cummings proposes to Misty Croslin Sunday at a local Chili's restaurant. On Sunday Ronald Cummings asked his teenage girlfriend, Misty Croslin, for her hand in marriage at a local Chili's restaurant. While he was with several family members, Cummings got down on one knee, asked Croslin to marry him and gave her Haleigh's grandmother's diamond ring. Because Croslin is only 17 years old, her mother filled out the paperwork so the two could be married. On Thursday, the pair tied the knot, after the three-day waiting period required by Florida law. Croslin, who was beaming earlier in the week after the engagement, told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV that while she knows there will be critics of the marriage and the timing, \"everything is still about Haleigh.\" Croslin said she wanted to be together as a family, just as Haleigh would have wanted. \"Everybody is probably going to take this marriage thing the wrong way,\" Croslin told WJXT. \"This is what Haleigh wanted. She has always talked about it, and even if she's not with us, she is still with us.\" Croslin told police she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. February 9 in their Satsuma, Florida, home. She said she went to sleep herself about 10 p.m. but woke at 3 a.m. to find Haleigh missing and a back door propped open by bricks. Police are still actively searching for the girl, with a new search happening this week, and investigators Wednesday took the back door that was found propped open. In the middle of the search for the girl, the newlyweds will fly to New York Thursday night for their honeymoon and an exclusive appearance on the Today show. Haleigh's grandmother, Teresa Neves, also acknowledged the timing might seem \"unusual.\" \"Well, it is unusual for some onlookers, but those people didn't live with my two grandchildren,\" she told Nancy Grace. \"My grandchildren, both Haleigh and Junior, have very often said that they would love for their daddy to marry Misty and that they wanted Misty to be their mommy. And so I feel like they are just trying to fulfill a wish for Haleigh so that when she comes home she will have that extra happiness to come home to.\" Before the wedding, Neves told CNN affiliate WKMG-TV the wedding would be difficult without Haleigh. \"It's an event that Haleigh really should be at, but when she comes home, we'll have a great big wedding so she can be the flower girl and see it all again,\" Neves said.","highlights":"Ronald Cummings, Misty Croslin, 17, wed after getting engaged at Chili's Sunday .\nCroslin acknowledges critics, but says \"this is what Haleigh wanted\"\nGrandma Theresa Neves says Haleigh, brother, both wanted the pair to get married .\nNeves: \"When she comes home she will have that extra happiness to come home to\"","id":"3ce96a22e3af717dcf277d2653f6b6f164702784"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Your husband, an avid gamer and techie, dies of a heart attack, leaving his vast online life \u00ad-- one you don't know much about \u00ad-- in limbo. Eternal Space lets loved ones create customized online gravesites and memorial pages. His accounts, to which you don't know the passwords, go idle. His e-mails go unanswered, his online multiplayer games go on without him and bidders on his eBay items don't know why they can't get an answer from the seller. Web site domains that he has purchased, some of which are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,\u00ad will expire, and you may never know. It's a scenario that's becoming more likely as we spend more of our lives online. And it's raising more questions about what happens to our online lives after we log off for the final time. The answer, until recently, was nothing. But now, as online usage increases and social-media sites soar in popularity, more companies are popping up to try and fill that void created in your digital life after death. Jeremy Toeman, founder of the site Legacy Locker, recognized that when he was on a plane and wondered what would happen to his online life if it crashed. While his will leaves everything to his wife, including all of his digital assets, Toeman realized how difficult it would be for her to access his accounts. \"My GoDaddy account would belong to her, but it doesn't solve the practical reality of how she would get access to it,\" he said. He experienced a similar scenario after his grandmother died, and he tried to get the password for her e-mail account -- only to give up because of the hassle. So Toeman built his company to change all that. Legacy Locker allows users to set up a kind of online will, with beneficiaries that would receive the customer's account information and passwords after they die. \"We know it's a hard thing to think about -- to get people to face mortality. We know it's kind of morbid, but for those who live their entire lives online, it's also very real.\" A Legacy Locker account costs $29.99 a year. Users can set up their accounts at www.legacylocker.com to specify who gets access to their posthumous online information, along with \"legacy letters,\" or messages, that can be sent to loved ones. If someone contacts Legacy Locker to report a client's death, the service will send the customer four e-mails in 48 hours. If there's no response, Legacy Locker will then contact the people the client listed as verifiers in the event of his or her death. Even then, the service would not release digital assets without examining a copy of the customer's death certificate, Toeman said. Eddie Lopez is the kind of tech-savvy guy for which a service such as Legacy Locker was made. The St. Paul, Minnesota, man has three online banking accounts, a PayPal account, domain names, Web-hosting accounts, multiple e-mail addresses and many social-networking accounts. \"I do think this is something people should be really considering these days,\" Lopez told CNN when asked about services such as Legacy Locker. He wants to hire a service to handle his digital assets but is concerned about privacy. \"Although I'm glad there's people breaking ground in this area, I don't think I would jump at the first opportunity to sign up,\" Lopez said. \"My concerns are turning over such an exhaustive list of user names and passwords to a single business. That's one-stop shopping for any hacker to get access to just about every detail of my life.\" Lopez would prefer to entrust half of his digital-security information to a service such as Legacy Locker and the other half to family members, so that each side's information would be useless without the other's. \"I hope Legacy Locker and similar services can address these privacy-security concerns with some real-world solutions,\" he said. \"I just don't feel comfortable turning over my digital life -- built over 15 years -- to a kind promise.\" Legacy Locker isn't the only new company helping techies plan for death in the digital age. AssetLock (formerly YouDeparted.com) offers a \"secure safe deposit box\" for digital copies of documents, wishes, letters and e-mails. Deathswitch and Slightly Morbid also offer similar services in a variety of prices and packages, depending on how many accounts are involved. Not all of these services deal with online assets. There's also a growing trend towards giving all aspects of death --\u00ad the grieving process, the funeral, the memorial and even the grave site --\u00ad a digital makeover. FindaGrave.com claims to have cemetery records for 32 million people in its searchable database, while EternalSpace.com offers a new spin on the traditional grave site by offering virtual memorial pages \u00adfull of videos, pictures and tributes. On Eternal Space, loved ones can choose from different headstones and bucolic landscape backgrounds -- the mountain lake is a popular option -- to create a customized online grave site. Loved ones can add \"tribute gifts\" such as roses, candles, stuffed animals and other items, while mourners can access photos and videos in a \"Memory Book\" and leave remembrances of their own. Jay Goss, president of Eternal Space president, is trying to bring the funeral experience to anyone who can access the Web. In that way, he hopes to provide a gathering place, and a voice, for mourners who may not be able to attend the real-life memorial service. \"It'd be the equivalent of a funeral where everyone can attend and everyone can spend 30 minutes behind the podium,\" Goss said. \"It gives everyone a chance to put a 360-degree wrapper on the life the person lived and celebrate that life from how every person knew them.\" Eternal Space's virtual memorial sites are currently only being offered through select funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums. Goss' hope is that the site will help allow the deceased's memory to be \"eternally\" passed on. \"All of these stories and videos are being left, in essence, to this Eternal Space Web site so that everyone can share, not just that day, not the days after, but the weeks after and years after,\" he said. Some funeral-industry professionals believe these online memorials and virtual grave sites provide a valuable service. \"Assuming the site is handled with respect, virtual memorials respond to a basic human need to remember our deceased family, friends and colleagues,\" said Robert M. Fells, general counsel for the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. \"Based on our members' feedback, I'd have to say that virtual memorial sites are gaining popularity with the public as a very practical alternative to being present at the grave site,\" he added. \"There's nothing 'weird' about them as far as we have seen.\" \"There are funeral homes out there that will help families create virtual memorials, but ... we've also seen Facebook and MySpace profiles of deceased persons being turned into memorials,\" agreed Jessica Koth, spokesperson for the National Funeral Directors Association. \"Consumers have become increasingly comfortable with expressing their grief online.\" \"While not a replacement for a funeral, online memorialization can help people work through their grief after the funeral,\" she added. \"We've all become accustomed to communicating and expressing ourselves electronically -- via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter. Expressing one's grief online is an outgrowth of what's happening in other areas of our lives.\" CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.","highlights":"New services are helping people organize their digital assets after their death .\nCustomers can designate loved ones to access their posthumous online accounts .\nLegacy Locker allows users to set up a kind of online will, with beneficiaries .\nEternal Space lets loved ones create customized online grave sites .","id":"24bbd20aa1ef4d351edfc2b06b1c4f7e70c37668"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Marine accused of killing Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who was more than eight months pregnant, was not the father of her unborn child, a law enforcement source close to the murder investigation said Saturday. Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, who is being held on a murder charge, is scheduled for arraignment in June. The source, who has seen a report completed earlier this month by the Defense Department's Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, said Cpl. Cesar Laurean's DNA does not match that of the unborn child, who also died. Laurean and Lauterbach were stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. An autopsy showed that Lauterbach, 20, died of blunt force trauma to the head. Police unearthed her charred body from beneath a barbecue pit in Laurean's backyard in January 2008. She disappeared the month before. Laurean was 22 when he was arrested in Mexico in April 2008. At the time, a Mexican reporter asked Laurean whether he had killed Lauterbach. The Marine replied, \"I loved her.\" Laurean has been indicted on charges that include first-degree murder, financial card transaction fraud and obtaining property by false pretenses. North Carolina prosecutors allege he killed Lauterbach on December 14 and used her ATM card 10 days later before fleeing to Mexico. He holds dual citizenship in the United States and Mexico. The law enforcement source familiar with the case said a DNA swab was taken by court order from Laurean after he was extradited from Mexico in March to face charges in North Carolina. Mexican authorities agreed to the extradition, in part because prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. Mexico does not have a death penalty. Before her death, Lauterbach told the Marines that Laurean raped her. The month before she disappeared, Lauterbach's mother says Maria told a military investigator that she no longer believed Laurean was the father of her unborn child. However, Lauterbach's mother, Mary, says her daughter remained adamant that Laurean raped her. Laurean denied it. A few weeks before a scheduled rape hearing at Camp Lejeune, Lauterbach disappeared. Dewey Hudson, district attorney for Onslow County, said Laurean is scheduled for arraignment in early June, and is expected to enter a plea. \"I cannot comment on any of the tests,\" Hudson said. He would not say how the DNA results might affect his case against Laurean. Through her attorney, Mary Lauterbach said the DNA test results don't answer bigger questions she has about whether the Marines did enough to protect her daughter or moved quickly enough to investigate her claims. \"We do not believe that the result will have any effect on the continuing investigation or the trial,\" said Lauterbach's attorney Merle Wilberding.","highlights":"DNA taken from suspect Cpl. Cesar Laurean doesn't match child's, source says .\nSwab obtained after suspect was extradited from Mexico to United States .\nLance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach's body was found in Laurean's backyard in 2008 .","id":"c54eb3e4da18997a5edc84c112fce48d5e9c5e62"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six life insurance companies have qualified to receive billions of dollars in bailout money under the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Allstate is one of six life insurance companies who are qualified to receive TARP money. Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams said Allstate, Ameriprise Financial, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Lincoln National Corp., Principal Financial and Prudential Financial Inc. have qualified for TARP money. \"These life insurers met the requirements for the Capital Purchase Program because of their bank holding company status and each applied for CPP capital investments by the deadline of November 14, 2008,\" Williams said. Williams also said other financial institutions in the Capital Purchase Program \"will be reviewed and funded as appropriate on a rolling basis.\" In April, about $135 billion remained from the original $700 billion allocated for the bailout last October. No current figures were immediately available. No funding amounts were announced by the Treasury Department, but Hartford said it had been preliminarily approved for $3.4 billion. \"We are pleased that we received preliminary approval to participate in (the) Treasury's Capital Purchase Program,\" said Ramani Ayer, chairman and chief executive officer of Hartford. \"These funds would further fortify our capital resources and provide us with additional financial flexibility during one of the most volatile market climates in our nation's history.\" Investors have been increasingly worried about the health of life insurers, which have been hit hard by worries about capital requirements and growing losses. A number of insurers that are also bank holding companies or thrifts have been eligible for funds from TARP since last fall. Last year, the Office of Thrift Supervision approved applications from Hartford and Lincoln to become bank holding companies, because of their planned bank purchases. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Lincoln is buying Newton County Loan & Savings FSB in Goodland, Indiana. Hartford, based in Hartford, Connecticut, is buying Federal Trust Bank in Sanford, Florida.","highlights":"Six life insurance companies to receive TARP money, U.S. Treasury says .\nAs of April, about $135 billion remained from original $700 billion allocated for bailout .\nIndustry has suffered amid concerns with capital requirements, growing losses .","id":"37cc29ddb03dd2ac72b9ac920d3c49561f121f98"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI completed his eight-day tour of the Holy Land on Friday with an exhortation to both Israelis and Palestinians to work through their decades-old conflict. Pope Benedict XVI prays in Jerusalem on Friday at what's believed to be the burial site of Jesus. \"No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war! Instead let us break the vicious circle of violence. Let there be lasting peace based on justice, let there be genuine reconciliation and healing,\" the pontiff said. Benedict made the comments at a farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv before Israeli President Shimon Peres and other religious and secular leaders. In his concluding remarks, Benedict called his visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and his conversations with survivors a \"deeply moving encounter.\" He seemed to address some criticism he received within the country for not speaking in stronger terms about anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Referring to the Holocaust, Benedict spoke of the victims who \"were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred.\" After Benedict's Monday speech at Yad Vashem, the memorial's chairman, Holocaust survivor Rabbi Yisrael Lau, criticized the pope, saying the pontiff did not \"participate in the pain of the Jewish people\" and \"used the term 'killed' when talking about Holocaust victims and not the word 'murdered' as his predecessor did.\" Benedict drew the ire of Jews and German Catholics earlier this year by rehabilitating an excommunicated bishop who had disputed the number of Jews killed in concentration camps during World War II. The bishop's excommunication was unrelated to his Holocaust denial. Friday, Benedict repeated his call for Palestinians to enjoy a \"sovereign independent homeland\" and \"to live in dignity and to travel freely.\" He remarked that \"one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands was the wall\" -- a reference to the 20-foot concrete barrier he saw in Bethlehem during his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp. Israel says the structure, which it calls a security fence, was built to prevent terrorist attacks; Palestinians consider it an illegal land grab. Benedict began the day with a busy morning in Jerusalem's Old City, including meeting the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches. Between sessions with the patriarchs, Benedict toured and prayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be located on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. On his Middle East visit, the pope has navigated the region's treacherous political landscape, which often pits Jew against Muslim and Muslim against Christian. Benedict has repeatedly called for reconciliation between the peoples of the region during his visit, urging Israelis and Palestinian to put aside their grievances and divisions. \"Just and peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the Middle East can only be achieved through a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect, in which the rights and dignity of all are acknowledged and upheld,\" the pope said. Celebrating Mass on Thursday, Benedict covered similar territory in his message to over 30,000 parishioners gathered at the Mount of the Transfiguration, outside Nazareth. Watch the reaction of one visitor who attended Mass \u00bb . \"Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence, while preparing them to be builders of a better world,\" he said. Benedict's trip marks the first papal visit to some of Christianity's most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000.","highlights":"NEW: Benedict XVI winds up Mideast trip with call for \"peace based on justice\"\nPope revisits Old City after similar outing on Tuesday .\nPope calls for spirit of cooperation and mutual respect in the Middle East .\nTrip marks first papal visit to Holy Land since Pope John Paul II in 2000 .","id":"91ad4a0bbcaa55a53c41d823ee755af218599638"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Humanitarian aid agencies scrambled Monday to offer help to the tens of thousands of people in need after Tamil separatists declared an end to their quarter-century struggle in Sri Lanka. A Tamil refugee holds her child at a tented site in Vavuniya. The United Nations said Monday that over the past few days some 65,000 people had fled what had been the fighting zone in northeast Sri Lanka, bringing to 265,000 the number of internally displaced people, which it refers to as IDPs. \"This latest massive influx of people, who have endured extreme conditions, will put an even greater strain on the transit and IDP sites that are already buckling under the pressure of the existing IDP population,\" the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a written statement. The agency pledged to erect an additional 10,000 shelters to accommodate people streaming from the combat zone. It reiterated its request for the Sri Lankan government to set aside land for the construction of emergency shelters, water and sanitation facilities and public buildings in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Kilinochchi. And it called on the government to improve conditions at 42 sites already hosting the displaced people, and to ensure adequate care and maintenance for them. But the United Nations said its access to the sites in Vavuniya had been curtailed in recent days \"and this affects our ability to monitor and distribute aid to the displaced. We hope this ends quickly.\" Suresh Bartlett, aid agency World Vision's national director, said, \"The conventional war may be over but the real challenge now is to foster an environment where fractured and displaced Tamil communities can heal and have a real chance at creating a future for themselves and their children.\" Among the pressing issues, he said, is getting people back to their land and homes as quickly as possible, which in some cases will require that land be demined and buildings be repaired. About 80,000 of the displaced -- a third of the people in camps -- are children, who need emotional, psychosocial and educational support in addition to physical aid. \"It is important to get people home as quickly as possible so they can feel a sense of ownership over their own lives, recover their dignity and livelihoods and create an environment where their children feel safe,\" he said. In a telephone interview from Colombo, Sri Lanka's most populous city, Bartlett said that the displacement camps are overcrowded, with two and three families staying in shelters intended for a single family. \"A lot more needs to be done,\" he said. \"More land needs to be cleared, more shelters set up\" and safe drinking-water supplies assured. \"It's not easy and it's not straightforward.\" He said many of the people still streaming into the camps are malnourished. Though the end of the conflict marks a great opportunity, \"we can do with all the international support that we can get at this time,\" he said. Estimates put the number of civilians killed in the conflict at 70,000 to 80,000, but Bartlett acknowledged that the true number may never be known. Medecins Sans Frontieres, the aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, was trying to scale up on Monday, a spokeswoman said. The group's head of mission, Hugues Robert, said the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization is staffing three hospitals in the region, where it was screening people seeking help to determine their needs, stabilize them, then treat them. With fighting apparently ended, Robert predicted that the organization's team of 343 national staff and approximately 50 international staff will focus many of their efforts on providing post-operative care. \"We have a lot of wounded people,\" he said. One area of need that remains largely unaddressed, he said, is mental health. Amnesty International called for steps to be taken to ensure civilians and captured fighters are protected. \"The Sri Lankan government must ensure that its forces fully respect international law, including all provisions relating to protecting civilians from the effect of hostilities,\" said Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi. Amnesty International called on the Sri Lankan government to give humanitarian agencies full access; to allow independent observers to monitor the situation to guard against human-rights violations; and to register displaced people as a safeguard against enforced disappearances. Zarifi called on the international community to deploy monitors. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly called the end of fighting \"an opportunity for Sri Lanka to turn the page on its past and build a Sri Lanka rooted in democracy, tolerance, and respect for human rights.\" He said it is \"vital for the government to provide for the needs of the civilians now living in relief camps. Providing food, water, shelter, basic health care, and sanitation as well as expediting their return to their homes should be a top priority for the government.\"","highlights":"U.N.: 65,000 people flee fighting zone in northeast Sri Lanka in past days .\nBrings total number of internally displaced people to 265,000 .\nAbout 80,000 -- a third of the people in displacement camps -- are children .\nU.N. pledges to erect an additional 10,000 shelters to accommodate people .","id":"b7a526e4ff9ef11612363f45f7612f43e31c9702"} -{"article":"CANNES, France (CNN) -- As award-winning Iranian film-maker Bahman Ghobadi walked down the Cannes red carpet for the premiere of his new feature Thursday, the real star of the show was conspicuously absent. Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, director of \"No One Knows About Persian Cats,\" which was co-written by Roxana Saberi. American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, credited as co-writer and executive producer of the faux-documentary \"No One Knows about Persian Cats,\" was still in Iran, having been released from jail only days earlier. The woman Ghobadi describes as his fianc\u00e9e was freed from prison last Monday after being jailed on espionage charges following a one-day trial that was closed to the public. She had served three and a half months, not all time served, of her eight year sentence and at one point was on hunger strike. \"For four months, she was in prison. For me, four months is like four years,\" Ghobadi told CNN. \"In there, what did they do with her? How did she live in there?\" \"I couldn't understand why the government sent her to prison,\" he continued. \"She is like an angel. She is really so clean. I believe her. For example, if you ask me about my mum and her, I believe her first.\" After much to-ing and fro-ing by the Iranian authorities, Ghobadi says he couldn't believe it when he found out Saberi had finally been freed, before the end of her sentence. \"When [I found out] she was free ... I couldn't understand,\" the 40 year-old director told CNN. He said it felt as if the the authorities were playing games with himself and other supporters of Saberi as they gave different timescales for her release -- \"two weeks, four years, eight years.\" But just after the pair were reunited Ghobadi -- who won Cannes' first-time film-maker award the Camera d'Or in 2000 with \"A Time For Drunken Horses\" -- had to leave for the French film festival. \"Persian Cats,\" which chronicles the hardships facing young rock musicians as they seek to evade censorship from the authorities, had been selected to play in the Un Certain Regard slot. Although Saberi was unable to be with Ghobadi on the red carpet, Ghobadi says she have kept in close telephone contact since her release, checking on how the film has been received. Ghobadi himself has already suffered at the hands of the Iranian authorities. His 2008 film \"Half Moon\" was banned and says he was left feeling depressed and suicidal after spending three years unsuccessfully trying to get permission from the Iranian authorities for another previous film. He thought about leaving Iran because he felt unable to work and cites Saberi as the inspiration behind \"Persian Cats,\" which was filmed in Tehran. Shot illegally in just 17 days using a small, cheap digital camera -- the state owns all 35mm equipment in Iran, according to film industry trade magazine, Screen International -- the faux-documentary chronicles the hardships facing two young musicians who are trying to put together a band. The story which combines comedy and tragedy to great dramatic effect showcases music and performances from real musicians who are part of the Tehran underground music scene. It is estimated that there are 2,000 illegal bands in Tehran, all practising and performing in a hidden world of hand-built recording studios in basements and rooftops around the city. Ghobadi says that he feels some responsibility for Saberi's time in prison because she stayed in Iran to help him with \"Persian Cats:\" \"She wanted to go back to the U.S. [She] just stay for me and for my film and help for this film and give me the idea for the music.\" Ghobadi wrote an open letter in April this year calling for Saberi's release when she was jailed after initially being arrested buying a bottle of wine, describing her as being caught in a \"game of politics.\" \"My Iranian girl with Japanese eyes and an American ID, is in jail. Shame on me! Shame on us!\" he wrote of Saberi, who has a Japanese mother, in the letter. Saberi was jailed on January 31 this year, tried on April 13 and sentenced on April 18 to eight years. Her appeal was on May 10 and she was freed the next day. Now, Ghobadi says, he is planning to go to New York this week to be with Saberi, who is currently staying in Vienna with her family. They both plan to write books and then, maybe, do another film together. Ghobadi says he wants to start a family and get married to Saberi as soon as they can. But first they will take a few weeks to process everything that has happened: \"We need the time,\" he says.","highlights":"Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi talks about his film's co-writer Roxana Saberi .\nAmerican journalist Saberi was recently released from jail in Iran after three months .\nGhobadi says he feels responsible for her time in jail and that they will marry soon .\n\"No One Knows about Persian Cats\" chronicles underground musicians in Tehran .","id":"14b269d06a0aa629b61d617e723be01c6f3b76fc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When \"La Bamba\" hit movie screens in 1987, audiences flocked to see the true story of singer Ritchie Valens, who died as a teen in an airplane crash almost three decades earlier. \"La Bamba\" starred Lou Diamond Phillips as singer Ritchie Valens. It's one of 40 films featured in the festival. But it was memorable for another reason. The film was the first box office hit directed by a Latino filmmaker and starring mostly Latino actors, said Chon Noriega, a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. \"La Bamba\" is part of the Latino Images in Film festival, which begins Tuesday and runs through May on Turner Classic Movies. The event features 40 films that show how Latinos have been depicted on the big screen and is part of the network's \"Race and Hollywood\" series. (Turner Classic Movies, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.) Noriega, who chose the films and also co-hosts the festival, talked with CNN.com about what he hopes viewers will take away from the movie line-up. Watch clips from some of the classic films \u00bb . The following is a edited version of that interview. CNN: What was your selection process? Chon Noriega: I decided I was going to focus specifically on Hollywood films that look substantively at either Latino characters or the Latino community. I came up with a master list of films, and it's only about 70. There really haven't been that many that have dealt explicitly with the Latino population. And then, from there, we looked at what was available. CNN: When you talk about Latino images, who do you include in that description? Noriega: It's a kind of pan-ethnic, multiracial category. But basically in terms of the series, what it reflects is Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cuban-Americans. There really haven't been, as far as I can tell, many Hollywood films that go beyond those three major groups. CNN: What do you hope to accomplish with this movie lineup? Noriega: By and large, these are films that really haven't been seen since their original release. We really don't have an idea of what the history has been in terms of how Hollywood has dealt with or represented what is now a pretty sizeable part of our population. We have an idea of what the stereotypes have been in terms of the kind of expendable characters that emerge within Westerns or action films, background characters like maids. CNN: What do you mean by expendable characters? Noriega: If I'm watching a science-fiction film and there happens to be a Latino character, I know that that character is going to be the first one to die. (laughs) It is almost inevitable. Or in a Western. They're really not there as characters; they're there as foils for the largely white characters that are defining the film and the story. To my mind, it's valuable just to go back and just see that these are the films that at different points represent how not just Hollywood but our society was trying to figure out where Latinos fit within the national culture. CNN: As people watch these movies, from very early Hollywood to the 1990s, what is the progression of Latino characters? Noriega: I don't know that we see a single trajectory of going from either one thing to another or from bad to better. You see certain recurring figures or types. You see different versions of the gangster kind of morphing into the gang member. But it's more or less an urban outlaw type, and that persists. I think you see little shifts in terms of when they're being made and who is making them. You have some of the same characters in \"My Family\/Mi Familia,\" but it's being made by a Chicano filmmaker as part of an attempt to show a very diverse view of what a family can be. CNN: What's your take on white actors playing Latino characters? Noriega: Actually, [co-host] Robert Osborne and I kind of went back and forth on that throughout the series because I think there are two views. One is: Actors are actors, and they play make-believe, and they pretend to be different types of characters, and in an ideal world, actors should be able to play anything they are able to do effectively. But when you look at it sociologically, you see it's only working one way, and that's where I think there's a problem. In the history of Hollywood, we're maybe able to identify 70 films that really focus on Latino characters, family or community, and a third of those have white actors playing the Latinos. And Latino actors are not really getting the same opportunity to play other types. CNN: How did the industry try to \"transform\" actors into Latino characters? Noriega: The Latino population -- and it's part of the irony of this -- it's not a racial group. It's a multiracial, multi-ethnic group. We talk about that in terms of \"West Side Story,\" where everybody's identified how Natalie Wood was in brownface playing a Puerto Rican. But in 1980, there was a revival of it on Broadway, and they actually cast a Puerto Rican actress. In the makeup room, they started putting brownface on her, [because] she wasn't dark enough to meet the expectations of what a Latina character would look like on stage. I've done focus groups with Latino actors in the Screen Actors Guild, and they continually talk about that there are these expectations of what a Latino character is going to look like and more often than not, Latino actors don't look like that. (laughs) CNN: What do you think about how Latinos are portrayed in film today? Noriega: We have a somewhat broader cohort of actors who are known, who are included in films, not always starring, but they get secondary roles in films and so there's in some sense more of a presence. When you look at the statistics in terms of the overall presence of Latinos in film and television, the numbers really haven't changed that much. So it's a kind of a subtle shift.","highlights":"Turner Classic Movies begins month-long Latino Images in Film festival .\nEvent features 40 films that show how Latinos have been depicted on the big screen .\nDiscussion tackles controversial practice of white actors playing Latino characters .\nScholar: Films show how Hollywood tried to figure out where Latinos fit in culture .","id":"13e0c7a486863c55d5a0b93c06c2667200766949"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- The body of accused triple killer and University of Georgia professor George Zinkhan was claimed by a relative Friday, nearly a week after Zinkhan was found dead, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. A studio proof shows professor George Zinkhan and his wife, Marie Bruce. A mortuary shipping service in Atlanta picked up Zinkhan's body at the request of a son from a previous marriage, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said. Details on plans for the body weren't immediately available. Earlier Friday, Bankhead had said Zinkhan's body -- found Saturday in a self-dug shallow grave -- could be headed to a pauper's grave if the family didn't claim the body from the Athens-Clarke County coroner's office by Saturday morning. Such a grave is typically reserved for unidentified bodies, unclaimed bodies or people without family members. Bankhead said the situation was rare and that it was unclear why the family had taken that long to claim the body of the professor, described by colleagues and acquaintances as aloof and eccentric. Neighbor Bob Covington remembers a lot of \"forced moments\" with Zinkhan. The last such interaction came the afternoon of April 24, the day before witnesses said Zinkhan, 57, killed his wife and two others outside a community theater in Athens. Covington was walking down the driveway of his Bogart home to check the mail. Zinkhan had just done the same and was walking back to his house. Covington said hello and told Zinkhan that his son, a UGA student who used to mow the Zinkhans' lawn, had recently seen Zinkhan on campus. \"He said, 'Yeah, that's where I hang out,' and turned and walked into the house,\" said Covington, who lived next door to Zinkhan for eight years.\"That's mostly what it was with George, forced moments.\" It was odd for Zinkhan to say more than five or 10 words before disengaging, while his wife, Marie Bruce, was the \"polar opposite,\" Covington said, describing the 47-year-old thespian as engaging and vivacious. Despite the contrasts in personalities, Covington never saw evidence that there were problems between the two, he said. \"He never raised his voice at his kids. I never heard that. I never heard him raise his voice at Marie,\" he said. Neighbors, students and fellow faculty members all concur that Zinkhan was standoffish, but their accounts also paint a contradictory image of the marketing professor who would occasionally walk the halls of UGA's business college barefoot. Some faculty members were quick to defend Zinkhan, but reluctant to do so on record. One said he felt it was a university matter. Another was reluctant to be on record defending an accused mass killer. \"He's being painted as an ogre, which doesn't fit,\" said the former. Two faculty members said Zinkhan was introverted but friendly. He was close to some colleagues. He remembered their birthdays and was generous with gifts at Christmas. His quirky behavior was generally overlooked because of his brilliance, a colleague said. One fellow professor went so far as to call him a genius, and not just with marketing, either. Zinkhan apparently was well-versed in a wide range of topics -- art, opera, architecture -- and he loved sports. Faculty members recalled that the strapping 6-foot-2 Zinkhan played on the intramural softball team with some of his graduate students, and he liked to boast of his home runs. He also loved his son, 8, and daughter, 10, and regularly brought them to work. Neighbors said they saw him outside playing soccer with the kids on a miniature goal that still sat in the yard this week. A basketball goal with a rim a foot or two below regulation stood over the Zinkhans' driveway, and a miniature yellow house sat dormant in his wooded backyard. A neighbor who asked not to be named said the cedar front door on the house Tuesday was new. A SWAT team had burst through the old front door shortly after Zinkhan allegedly shot Bruce; attorney Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63. Bruce was the president of the board of the Town and Gown Players, a theater group holding a reunion picnic on the theater's deck when the shooting took place. Tanner and Teague were identified as set designers for the theater. Covington saw Zinkhan shortly after the April 25 slayings. He was grilling bratwursts for lunch when Zinkhan rang the doorbell. \"He asked if I'd mind watching the kids because there'd been an emergency,\" Covington said. Covington agreed. He thought it was strange when Zinkhan immediately sprinted out of the garage, but didn't pay it much attention because Zinkhan said he had an emergency. The children, Covington said, seemed oblivious that their mother had just been slain. It was less than an hour later, when Covington's wife noticed two police officers with shotguns behind the hedges in a nearby yard, that Covington learned his neighbor was accused of a triple killing. The police told Covington they were looking for Zinkhan in connection with the shootings. \"I was incredulous,\" he said. Covington's daughter, who had baby-sat for the Zinkhans, drew a floor plan of the Zinkhan home for police and told them where the spare key was hidden. Covington allowed police to use his home in their stakeout and summoned Zinkhan's daughter to see whether she knew anything about what had happened. It was clear the girl hadn't seen the slayings, but one of her remarks was chilling, Covington said. Asked what her father's emergency involved, she replied, \"Something about a firecracker.\" Though many expressed astonishment that Zinkhan was linked to the slayings, some UGA faculty members said they suspected Zinkhan was having problems at home before police confirmed it this week. He lost an estimated 50 pounds in the two months before the shootings, they said. To others, the signs of problems were more obvious. Professor Barbara Carroll, who had once worked under Zinkhan, wrote an e-mail to her colleagues at the business school saying she went into protective custody after police found a map to her house in Zinkhan's vehicle. In the e-mail, she said she had told previous department heads, deans and provosts \"that George Zinkhan was dangerous.\" \"Many people in this college and this department have known about Zinkhan's 'troubled past' and did nothing about it. Those people also bear responsibility here,\" she wrote. Carroll did not return phone messages or open her door for reporters Tuesday. However, one of Zinkhan's former students said he and his classmates also thought Zinkhan was more than just odd. David Sackin, 43, was a graduate student and took classes with Zinkhan in 1996 and 1997. Zinkhan's lectures were delivered in monotone, his teaching style was dry and he didn't seem to care what was happening in the classroom, Sackin said. When students convened outside the classroom, they surmised that something darker than a lack of enthusiasm drove Zinkhan's behavior, he said. \"If anyone asked any of my classmates if there was one professor who'd go on a rampage, who would it be? They'd unanimously say Zinkhan,\" Sackin said.\"He was strange, definitely.\" In her e-mail, Carroll told colleagues they may never know the whole story. Indeed, police have said only that one of the victims, Tanner, \"appeared to be a specific target in the shootings and was shot first.\" The prospect of learning specifics about what could have propelled a painfully private introvert to homicide probably died in a shallow grave behind a Bogart elementary school. CNN's Jason Hanna contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Son from previous marriage claims University of Georgia professor's body .\nAcquaintances, colleagues remember George Zinkhan as eccentric, aloof .\nNeighbor: Children unaware of mother's slaying; daughter mentioned \"firecracker\"\nStudent, colleague both thought Zinkhan may be dangerous before triple killing .","id":"31fab45943e94dd4002c45a06aab8b91ed5ab624"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom should leave office during the investigation into whether he was connected to three recent slayings, his 2007 presidential opponent said Thursday. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has said he has no intention of giving up power over the slayings inquiry. Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, who lost to Colom in a runoff, said Guatemala is suffering its worst crisis since the democratic process began in 1985 after years of civil war. Demonstrations will continue and anger will mount unless Colom temporarily steps out of the way to allow an unblemished probe, he said. \"We want an impartial investigation, a transparent investigation,\" Perez told CNN. \"The president must leave his post.\" The crisis started Monday with the surfacing of a video in which Guatemalan attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg said Colom, the president's wife and a top aide would be responsible if something happened to the lawyer. Rosenberg was gunned down Sunday while riding his bike in Guatemala City. He had recorded the video last week. Rosenberg was being threatened with death, he said, because he had blamed Colom and his associates for the April slayings of a prominent businessman and his daughter. Rosenberg had represented the businessman. They were killed, Rosenberg said, because they had refused to participate in acts of corruption as the president wanted. \"It's the time-honored tradition in Guatemala that if someone gets in your way, there's likely to be a violent outcome,\" said Donald J. Planty, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala from 1996 to 1999. Colom took to the airwaves Monday night to vehemently deny that he, his wife or the aide had any connection to the slayings. He promised a full investigation and said he would accept international help, asking the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to become involved. A Guatemalan newspaper reported Thursday that an FBI agent had arrived in the country in connection with the investigation. But Rosenberg supporters say they don't believe the Guatemalan government can carry out an impartial and thorough investigation and want Colom out. Perez said Vice President Jose Rafael Espada could take over until the investigation is complete. \"We are only asking that the state be strengthened,\" Perez said. \"If he doesn't do this, we believe the situation will get worse.\" Colom said in an interview Tuesday night with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that he has no intention of resigning or otherwise giving up power. He blamed the deaths on unnamed people who want to bring down his government. \"It is evident that [Rosenberg's video statement] was written by someone who has been in on this plan to destabilize the government and for reasons that I don't know, because I don't know why Mr. Rosenberg mentions us in that video,\" Colom said. For Perez and other critics, that's not good enough. \"The president has not wanted to confront this and has given evasive answers,\" Perez said. \"Until the president confronts this, indignation will increase.\" Some analysts say Colom needs to get the nation under control immediately. \"It's a very worrisome situation,\" said Planty, the former U.S. ambassador. \"The country is in very serious trouble.\" There were rumors two to three weeks ago that the military might stage a coup, Planty said. \"The security situation is out of control,\" he added. Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm, calls it \"a major political scandal.\" Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy institute, agrees with that assessment. \"It's very damning for the president. Very damning,\" he said. Fernando Carrera Castro, a fiscal analyst and executive director of the Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales, said the upheaval could further tear apart a poverty-ridden nation trying to heal from a deadly civil war. The three recently slain Guatemalans -- Rosenberg, businessman Khalil Musa and his daughter -- came from the upper economic class. As a result, Carrera said, many wealthy Guatemalans are being \"radicalized\" against the government. Likewise, he said, many poor and disenfranchised Guatemalans also are becoming radicalized and are rallying behind Colom and the government. \"I fear that this crisis will lead to violence and destabilization of the government,\" Carrera said from Guatemala City. \"We all want justice. That is clear.\" Juan Tornoe, a Guatemalan who has lived in the United States for seven years, rejects what he says are efforts to forge a class divide. \"The powers that be are trying to make it a social issue -- the wealthy against the poor,\" he said. \"This is not a social issue. This is Guatemalans are fed up.\" Tornoe has personal connections with some of the key actors in the crisis. Rosenberg was his wife's law professor at La Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Tornoe said. And he said he went to high school with Gustavo Alejos, the presidential aide Rosenberg mentioned in the video. In his conversations with friends in Guatemala, Tornoe said, he sensed \"a sense of desperation, of hopelessness.\" He believes people are fed up. \"They're saying, 'OK. Let's do something. Let's not let this happen again and again and again,' \" he said. Carrera, the fiscal analyst, holds out hope. The investigation, he said, will be handled by an independent attorney general who does not report to the president. And the probe will be conducted under the watchful eye of a U.N.-Guatemalan commission set up to investigate corruption and political violence. \"That gives me more confidence,\" he said. But Perez and others note that the attorney general, Jose Amilcar Velasquez Zarate, met privately with Colom on Tuesday morning, the day after the scandal broke. The meeting was not disclosed until reporters uncovered it and questioned Velasquez on his way out. Colom's critics accuse the president of already meddling in the investigation. Colom and Velasquez said the meeting had been planned days ahead of time. \"There is no interference in the investigation,\" Velasquez told reporters afterward. Guatemala has \"a culture of corruption,\" said Planty, the former U.S. envoy. A just investigation is necessary, he said. \"Until they fix it, they will limp along -- and that's the good scenario,\" he said. \"They are in serious danger of becoming a failed state, if they're not already. There is complete impunity. Nobody is punished for anything.\" Rosenberg said the same thing in the video, bemoaning the \"narcos, assassins and thieves\" who have taken over the country. \"Those thieves are sinking all of Guatemala,\" he said. \"They kill people like dogs.\" The lawyer's niece, Mariela Rosenberg, said her uncle learned to accept his fate. \"He had many threats,\" she told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol, \"and when he saw it was inevitable, he taped a video.\" Radio journalist Mario David Garcia told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that Rosenberg was supposed to detail his allegations Monday afternoon on Garcia's program, \"Hablando Claro\" (Speaking Clearly). Instead, his funeral was held that day.","highlights":"Lawyer who blamed Guatemala's president for two slayings was killed Sunday .\nIn video released after his death, lawyer says to blame president if he is slain .\nPresident should step aside during inquiry, says man who lost '07 presidential race .\nPresident blames deaths on people he says want to bring down his government .","id":"cde81096a1ae28d8944f30b3e78d5b5bd623c03c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Army Maj. Steven Hutchison fought battles in the jungles of Vietnam. Then he fought an epic battle on the home front. And at age 60, he still wasn't done fighting for his country. Maj. Steven Hutchison served 22 years in his first Army stint, then returned at age 57. He died Sunday. The battle ended for Hutchison on Sunday. He died in Basra, Iraq, of wounds from a roadside bomb in Al Farr. He is the oldest U.S. service member to die in Iraq or Afghanistan. Hutchison joined the Army in 1966 and served two one-year tours in Vietnam, according to a news release from Fort Riley, Kansas, home of Hutchison's 1st Infantry Division, the famous \"Big Red One.\" Over the next 22 years, he was a platoon leader in Germany and commander of a basic training company at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Along the way, he earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Delaware and became an assistant professor of military science at Claremont College in California. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal, among others. Hutchison retired from the military in 1988 and took up the quiet life of a college professor. He taught at several small colleges in California and became a researcher for a health care company in Scottsdale, Arizona, said his brother, Richard Hutchison. But Hutchison felt compelled to return to military service after the terrorist attacks of September 11. His wife, Kandy, vetoed that idea, however. That decision proved fateful, as Hutchison was able to stand by his wife's side through her battle with breast cancer. She died of the disease in January 2006. The always-athletic Hutchison channeled his grief by whipping himself into shape and returning to active duty at age 57 the following year, his brother said. Military rules say retirees may be recalled up to age 64 for general officers, 62 for warrant officers and 60 for all others. Hutchison served a tour in Afghanistan and then was sent to Iraq, where he was part of a team training Iraqi forces to secure their own country. \"He's been a soldier his whole life,\" Richard Hutchison, of Mesa, Arizona, told CNN affiliate KNXV-TV. Watch a report on Hutchison's life \u00bb . \"He was a great guy,\" he said. \"We hung around together; we went to the movies together, went out to dinner together. He loved to shoot pool; we used to shoot pool all the time, either at my house or at his house. He was just a great friend and a great brother.\" The soldier-psychology professor, who is also survived by two daughters and two half-siblings, had a mischievous side, too. \"He liked to tease me about him being younger than me, even though he was five years older than me,\" Richard Hutchison said with a soft chuckle. \"He would tell everyone he was the youngest one. And they would believe him. Made me feel real good.\" Richard Hutchison plans to fly to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware over the weekend to claim his brother's body and return it to Scottsdale for burial. The last communication the brothers had was a routine e-mail Steven Hutchison sent from Iraq about two weeks ago. He rarely wrote about his experiences in Iraq, Richard Hutchison said. However, there was one matter on the ground that the soldier involved his brother in. \"When he was in Iraq, they found a dog and were taking care of it. He sent me an e-mail asking me to send some dog food and dog supplies,\" Hutchison said. The Army made Hutchison's team give up the dog, but they left it in good hands, his brother said. \"He had a big heart.\" CNN's Adam Levine, Larry Shaughnessy, Barbara Starr and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Army Maj. Steven Hutchison, 60, becomes oldest American killed in Iraq .\nHutchison retired after 22-year Army career, volunteered to return years later .\nPsychology professor served tours in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq .\nDuring interim, he stood by wife during her fight against cancer .","id":"96a5133f4927c991cff227e0905436085f634c0f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Friday resumed -- with expanded legal protections -- the Bush administration's controversial system of military trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees. President Obama says the commissions are OK, \"provided that they are properly structured and administered.\" On the heels of Obama's shift this week to block the release of photos showing prisoners allegedly being abused by U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military commissions announcement further infuriated the president's most ardent supporters while winning cautionary praise from some of his political foes. Obama said he supports the idea of the military commissions but opposes the version of the law that had been governing such trials in recent years: the Military Commissions Act put in place under the Bush administration in 2006, but subsequently struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The president said military commissions \"are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered.\" But, he said, the 2006 act \"failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capability to ensure swift and certain justice against those detainees.\" He said he plans to enhance due process rights for detainees held at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in order to improve the widely criticized approach created by his predecessor. Statements that have been obtained from detainees through interrogation and cruel treatment, such as waterboarding, will no longer be admitted as evidence before the commissions, Obama said, and hearsay evidence will be limited. The revised system also will give detainees greater latitude in selecting legal representation and afford basic protections to those who refuse to testify. Military commission judges also will be able to establish the jurisdiction of their own courts. \"These reforms will begin to restore the commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution, while bringing them in line with the rule of law,\" Obama said. He said he plans to ask Congress to enact other reforms to the 2006 law. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, applauded his former opponent. \"Today's announcement is a step -- but only a step -- toward a comprehensive detainee policy that will deal with the detainees held at Guantanamo and elsewhere in a fashion that both accords with our values and protects our national security,\" McCain said in a written statement. But Obama's announcement infuriated some of his core supporters -- with the revisions hardly calming the concerns of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU chided the military commission decision as \"a striking blow to due process and the rule of law.\" \"These military commissions are inherently illegitimate, unconstitutional and incapable of delivering outcomes we can trust,\" said Anthony D. Romero, the group's executive director. \"Tweaking the rules of these failed tribunals so that they provide 'more due process' is absurd; there is no such thing as 'due process light.' \" he said. \"If the administration's proposed rules really bring these proceedings in line with constitutional requirements, there is no reason not to use our tried and true justice system. If they don't, these tribunals have no place in our democracy.\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs countered that military commissions have a long history in the United States. \"First and foremost, the president of the United States is going to do what he believes is in the best security interest of the people of the United States,\" Gibbs told reporters. Obama suspended the military commissions by signing an executive order on his third day in office, the same day he signed an order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo within a year and announced a 120-day review of the whole process. The review deadline is next week. Gibbs said he does not know where and how trials for alleged terrorists will unfold on American soil. Nor did he disclose how many suspects would face legal proceedings under the revised commissions. Three Guantanamo detainees' cases have gone through the commission so far. The Bush administration established the military trial system after the U.S. military began capturing detainees in Afghanistan in late 2001. The next year, it opened the Guantanamo facility, saying suspects were treated properly and received due process through the system. But legal organizations and human rights agencies have repeatedly challenged the system on grounds that detainees were mistreated. One lawyer representing a client at Guantanamo said closing the detention facility, which Obama is advocating, is a \"meaningless gesture\" if the military commissions continue. \"The military commissions are fundamentally flawed and can't be fixed,\" said Army Maj. Jon S. Jackson, a lawyer for Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of five 9\/11 defendants charged in the military commission process. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9\/11 attacks, is the most high-profile of those defendants.","highlights":"Obama revives Bush system that was suspended in January .\nNew system to include expanded due-process rights for the suspects, Obama says .\nACLU calls move \"a striking blow to due process and the rule of law\"","id":"1b6aed605e905ed114a552280742e536804a69ae"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Many Americans are finding ways to trim their holiday budgets this year, but reports are showing that buying video games is one place consumers are not cutting back. Through November, video game sales are up 22 percent over 2007. According to market researcher NPD Group, U.S. retail sales of video games totaled $2.91 billion in November, a 10 percent jump from a year ago. Overall sales this year through November are more than $16 billion, up 22 percent from 2007. Anita Frazier, an analyst from NPD, cites the industry's wide content variety on newer generation consoles such as Nintendo's Wii, Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's XBOX 360 as a reason for the strong performance. Frazier also says that video games are a relatively cheap form of entertainment, considering the hours of value they provide. Matt Helgeson, senior editor at Game Informer magazine, agrees. \"Video games can take between 10 and 40 hours, sometimes 50 hours, to complete\" depending on the title, Helgeson said. \"Gamers can often get two to three months out of one game.\" Furthermore, during these recessionary times, Helgeson explains that video games \"provide the ultimate escapism.\" According to NPD, some of the top-selling game titles in November include \"Gears of War 2,\" which sold 1.6 million copies, and \"Call Of Duty: World At War,\" which sold 1.4 million. Nintendo's \"Wii Play\" and \"Wii Fit\" put up impressive numbers, as well. With those kinds of sales, video games have potential to be one of the most popular stocking stuffers for kids this holiday season. Helgeson says that these days, games are a core part of being a kid, and it's no longer a question of \"do you play video games?\" Instead the question is \"what games are you playing?\" \"Ages, races, social groups -- video games cut across all platforms,\" Helgeson said. Whether you're shopping for a hardcore gamer or something for the family, \"there is something for everybody.\"","highlights":"Video game sales were $2.91 billion in November, a 10 percent jump from last year .\nGame Informer editor: Video games provide good value .\n\"Gears of War 2,\" \"Call of Duty: World at War\" two popular games this season .","id":"6990346aff209b23af18128f8aea81daa5d4d11a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A grand jury has indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on a second sexual assault charge in connection with a probe of his Texas compound, prosecutors said Wednesday. The charge against Warren Jeffs stems from a probe into his sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas. The Schleicher County, Texas, grand jury charged Jeffs, who already could be sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of a different charge in Utah, with a first-degree felony count of aggravated sexual assault. The indictment is Jeffs' second in Schleicher County. In July, he was charged with sexually assaulting a child under 17. Grand jurors have also indicted three more members of Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, prosecutors said Wednesday. One member faces a count of conducting the unlawful marriage of a minor, another faces three counts of bigamy and a third faces three counts of bigamy and one count of tampering with evidence. The Texas charges stem from a state and federal investigation into the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, about 190 miles northwest of San Antonio. In April, child welfare workers removed more than 400 children from the compound, citing allegations of physical and sexual abuse. After a court battle, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned in June, saying the state had no right to remove them and there was no evidence to show the children faced imminent danger of abuse on the ranch. To date, 12 people associated with the compound have been indicted as part of the investigation, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said. Jeffs, 52, is the leader and \"prophet\" of the estimated 10,000-member FLDS, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at the YFZ Ranch, as well as in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. In Utah, Jeffs was convicted on accomplice to rape charges for his role in the marriage of a sect member to a 14-year-old. He is awaiting trial in Arizona, where he faces similar charges. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison for the Utah conviction, and he also could face another life term if convicted of the Texas charges. His attorney in Arizona, Michael Piccarreta, has questioned the motives of Texas authorities, telling CNN in a July interview that the state's investigation into Jeffs and his followers is an effort \"to cover themselves up on the botched attack on the ranch in Texas.\"","highlights":"Warren Jeffs indicted on second Texas sexual assault charge in four months .\nGrand jury also indicts three other members of polygamous sect .\nCharges stem from probe of sect's ranch outside Eldorado, Texas .\nJeffs convicted in Utah of accomplice to rape for role in member's marriage to teen .","id":"de8a91f93192073fd9dfdbce054190fb8354808f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Another Hollywood marriage is ending -- but this one was no flash in the pan. Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn had been married 11 years. Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn are divorcing, according to their representative, Mara Buxbaum. People magazine first reported the split Thursday night. The actors began dating after they met making the 1990 movie \"State of Grace.\" They married in 1996, and have two children, Dylan Frances, 16, and Hopper Jack, 14. Previously, Penn was married to Madonna for four years, while Wright was married to actor Dane Witherspoon for two years. In addition to \"State of Grace,\" Penn and Wright appeared together in 1997's \"She's So Lovely\" and 1998's \"Hurlyburly,\" and both are set to appear in Barry Levinson's next film, \"What Just Happened?,\" due out in 2008. Penn, 47, won a best actor Oscar for 2003's \"Mystic River,\" and was nominated for best actor for \"Dead Man Walking,\" \"Sweet and Lowdown,\" and \"I Am Sam.\" His latest directorial effort, \"Into The Wild,\" has received four SAG Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. Wright, 41, is best known for her title role in \"The Princess Bride\" and for starring opposite Tom Hanks in \"Forrest Gump.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn had been married 11 years .\nPair met while making 1990's \"State of Grace\"\nCouple has two children; has made three films together, with fourth due out .","id":"089635219581c462d50d9503e60c4c6eb82066ec"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Remains found last week in a wooded area have been identified as belonging to missing Florida toddler Caylee Anthony, authorities said Friday. Caylee Anthony, 2, had been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. The cause of the child's death will be listed as homicide by undetermined means, said Jan Garavaglia, medical examiner for Orange County, Florida. She said she does not expect enough additional evidence to surface for that finding to be revised. The remains were identified through DNA testing, comparing a sample from the remains to a sample known to be from Caylee. Some of the remains had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for testing. The skull was found December 11 a half-mile from the home of Caylee's grandparents, where the girl and her mother, Casey Anthony, 22, lived before the girl disappeared. She was last seen in June. Casey Anthony faces charges including first-degree murder in the case. Watch a Nancy Grace video tribute to Caylee Anthony \u00bb . Orange County Sheriff's Capt. Angelo Nieves said Thursday that searchers at the site had found \"significant skeletal remains\" since the discovery of the skull. A \"large percentage\" of Caylee's skeleton has been recovered, Garavaglia said Friday. The bones showed no sign of trauma before death. A child's skeleton has many more bones than an adult's, she said, and not all are fully developed. Some of the bones recovered are no larger than a pebble, she said. Watch the medical examiner discuss her findings \u00bb . Garavaglia said the manner of Caylee's death -- an opinion based on factors including an examination of the body and circumstantial evidence -- was determined to be homicide. Caylee's grandmother Cindy Anthony was notified of the test results by the medical examiner's office, Garavaglia said. Officials at the Orange County Corrections Department said Casey Anthony was notified of the results by a chaplain about 1:45 p.m., per jail policy. One of Casey Anthony's defense attorneys, Jose Garcia, entered the jail earlier, corrections officials said in a written statement. \"Due to happenstance, not policy, attorney Garcia was not in the presence of the inmate when the notification was made,\" the statement said. \"We will not be commenting on the demeanor of inmate Anthony or her reaction to the news.\" The Anthony family's pastor, Thomas Shane Stutzman of Eastside Baptist Church, arrived at the jail about 2 p.m. but left 19 minutes later because Casey Anthony had refused his visit, as she was meeting with Garcia at the time, jail officials said. Casey Anthony could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said this month that they will not seek the death penalty against her. Garavaglia would not disclose specific information regarding the remains other than to say they were completely \"skeletonized.\" Toxicology tests on the remains are pending, she said. \"Our number one priority from day one was to locate little Caylee Anthony,\" Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said. \"We have stayed the course, and we will continue to do so until we have thoroughly completed our investigation into this tragedy.\" The sheriff grew emotional while responding to a reporter's question about the effect of the case on him personally. \"Having a kid ... I've raised two girls, goodness gracious,\" Beary said, his voice breaking. \"The bottom line is, no child should have to go through this.\" The case has left an \"open wound\" in the community, he said, but he thinks closure will not come until after trial. George and Cindy Anthony, Casey Anthony's parents, did not give up hope that Caylee was still alive until they were notified of the test results, their attorney, Brad Conway, said Friday. He took no questions but read from a statement. \"They now know that their precious granddaughter is safe and hope that she will serve as the angel that protects thousands of missing children and their families,\" he said, adding that the Anthonys want \"the same answers as everyone who has been assigned to investigate and prosecute this case\" and will be available to authorities. \"As you can imagine, the Anthonys are grieving deeply over this loss,\" he said. \"Please respect their privacy and understand they will stand together as a family in order to get through this. ... This is a tragic moment in the lives of good and honorable people. Please treat them respectfully so they can grieve with dignity over the loss of this precious child, Caylee Marie Anthony.\" On Thursday, the sheriff's office said that the utility worker who found the skull December 11 had called police three times -- August 11, 12 and 13 -- regarding the site where the remains were found. That utility worker, Roy Kronk, came forward Friday. Reading from a statement, he said that \"back in August of this year, I previously reported to Crimeline and to the sheriff's communications center that I had spotted something suspicious, a bag in the same area.\" \"I have been and will continue to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation by the sheriff's office and the FBI,\" Kronk said. He refused to provide details of what he saw at the site where the remains were found. Watch Kronk talk about his calls to police \u00bb . His attorney, David Evans, said Kronk \"has no connection whatsoever to this case, has no connection whatsoever to the Anthony family or any of the proceedings that have gone on before. He is here as a concerned citizen and no more. Those who have specified to the contrary could not be more wrong.\" Evans said Kronk was asking for privacy for his co-workers, who have been the subject of \"intrusive news-gathering activities.\" Some of those colleagues, he said, \"protected his privacy and sacrificed their own in doing so.\" Kronk will not be granting interviews at this time, Evans said. Police said Thursday that in his first call August 11, the worker reported seeing a gray bag on the side of the road. A deputy responded, Nieves said, but the worker was no longer at the scene, and the deputy did not see the bag. On August 12, the worker called a police crime line. The call was sent to a detective, who told the meter reader that the area had been searched and cleared by cadaver dogs, police said. On August 13, the worker reported finding a bag in a swampy area, and a deputy was dispatched. The deputy looked at the area but found nothing, thinking the \"bag\" may have just been trash, Nieves said. The meter reader revisited the site last week, apparently while working in the area, authorities said, and found the skull. The site was searched earlier, Beary said, but was flooded at the time. Nieves said Thursday that police were conducting a thorough review of the tips and their response but emphasized that the meter reader has been cooperative and is not a suspect. Beary acknowledged Friday that there were questions surrounding those tips but said the only way to find the answers was to conduct an investigation. CNN's John Couwels and Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Casey Anthony's parents express grief, ask for compassion .\nMeter reader Roy Kronk comes forward, says he saw bag in wooded area .\nCasey Anthony notified that remains are her daughter's, authorities say .\nMedical examiner declares Caylee's death a homicide .","id":"7446f321785fc1bedabe7351ba303c723f94ca5c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The jury that convicted O.J. Simpson of robbery and other charges relied mostly on audio and video evidence -- and very little on testimony from prosecution witnesses -- jury members said Sunday. O.J. Simpson, convicted of robbery and kidnapping last week, could be sentenced to life in prison on December 5. \"We honestly felt we could not rely on that witness testimony,\" said Michelle R. Lyons, one of seven jurors who spoke to reporters in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday. \"There was not one decision we made that was based only on witness testimony.\" Jury foreman Paul Connelly said some of the prosecution's witnesses didn't seem trustworthy. At least three former Simpson co-defendants who cut deals to testify in the case had criminal records. Asked whether the jury trusted the witnesses, Connelly answered: \"Not entirely, no.\" Watch jurors explain their verdict \u00bb . Prosecutors produced an audiotape of the confrontation in which authorities said Simpson and five men burst into a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel on September 13, 2007. The men allegedly made off with pillowcases containing Simpson sports memorabilia. Several jurors said audiotapes of the incident and conversations between Simpson and others that were recorded surreptitiously before, during and after the heist made the prosecution's case. \"It would have been a weak case\" without the tapes, juror Dora Pettit said. The jury of nine women and three men found Simpson and co-defendant Clarence \"C.J.\" Stewart guilty Friday of 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon. Simpson, 61, could get life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for December 5 in Las Vegas. Prosecutors alleged that Simpson, a former football star, led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take the memorabilia and other items from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley. Four men who had been charged with Simpson cut deals with the prosecution and testified against him. One testified that Simpson instructed him to bring a gun to the hotel encounter. \"Everything was based on the recordings,\" juror Dora Pettit said of the panel's decisions. Simpson, who did not testify during the trial, told police he didn't know the people with him were armed. He also claimed the items had been stolen from him, and the hotel encounter was just about him retrieving his items. Simpson's lawyer has indicated he plans to appeal the conviction, partly because some of the jurors had indicated during jury selection that they disagreed with a 1995 verdict in which he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Watch Fred Goldman hail the verdict \u00bb . Teresa Owens, one of the jurors in the Simpson robbery case, said any suggestion that the jury found Simpson guilty because of the verdict 13 years ago is \"terrible.\" \"There's reports right now that we've had some kind of vendetta against Mr. Simpson for ... 13 years ago,\" she said. \"That in no way had anything to do with this case whatsoever.\" Connelly said the murder trial \"never came up.\" \"I don't think it was on anybody's minds. For that, I can say I'm proud of the jury,\" he said. Before the robbery and kidnapping trial, the jurors promised they could disregard Simpson's past and solely consider the evidence against him and Stewart, 54. Owens also said it would be \"preposterous\" for anyone suggest that the makeup of the jury -- 11 jurors were white, and one said she was Hispanic, while Simpson is black -- hurt the defense's chances. \"They chose us. Five hundred people ... filled out these questionnaires,\" Owens said. \"They had the [opportunity] to pass us.\" Pettit said the jury has been painted by some \"as an all-white jury that hates O.J.\" \"That's just not true,\" she said. \"It couldn't be further from the truth.\" Asked whether they felt the crime was bad enough to warrant life sentences, Connelly said that was up for the court to decide. Pettit said that \"if he walked out tomorrow, I'd be fine with that.\" However, she said Simpson had to be found guilty and that his argument about just wanting to recover his own things didn't work. \"Under Nevada law ... even if you're recovering your own stuff, you can't do it in the manner that they all went in and did it,\" Pettit said.","highlights":"Some witnesses didn't seem trustworthy, jury foreman says .\nAt least three witnesses who cut deals to testify had criminal records .\n\"Not one decision\" was made based solely on testimony, juror says .\nJurors: Simpson's 1995 acquittal on murder charges never came up .","id":"5cf8443a13c37fe532b919082c70ec1f3dfdafff"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A third baby has died and at least 6,200 children have fallen ill after drinking formula tainted with the same chemical involved in a massive pet food recall last year, Chinese officials said Wednesday. China's largest producer of milk, Mengniu Dairy Group, announced the recall of three batches of formula made in January after tests showed they were contaminated with melamine, said Li Changjiang, China's director of quarantine and inspection. Though it should not be added to food ingredients, suppliers in China sometimes put it in food to make a product appear to be protein rich. Melamine has nitrogen, and standard tests for protein in bulk food ingredients measure levels of nitrogen. More than 1,300 infants are hospitalized with illnesses including malnutrition, kidney stones and acute renal failure. On Monday two brothers were arrested who Chinese officials say supplied three tons of milk each day to the Sanlu Group, which makes baby formula. Watch crowds of moms get their babies tested \u00bb . They could face death if convicted, according to state-run newspaper China Daily. The siblings' raw milk had been watered down and a chemical added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Watch who has been arrested \u00bb . Sanlu Group, one of China's leading dairy producers, has recalled more than 8,200 tons of the tainted formula following reports of sickened babies, news agency Xinhua reported. The manufactured also sealed off more than 2,100 tons of contaminated product, and another 700 tons still need to be recalled, according to Xinhua. Watch angry parents demand answers at Sanlu \u00bb . Investigators said the brothers confessed to watering down the raw milk and mixing in tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine. The paper reported the siblings did it to recover losses suffered when the factory rejected earlier milk shipments, and that 19 other people have been detained for questioning. Recalls of the products by the Yashili and Suokang companies have been made, and of China's 175 baby milk powder production companies, 66 have already stopped production, Li said. Investigators are testing samples at the remaining factories. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . China's Xinhua news agency reported that worried parents started lining up at 5 a.m. Wednesday to see doctors at Renmin Hospital in Shijiazhuang, the capital of the northern Hebei Province. Wang Lifang said she went to the hospital after medics at her local hospital 28 miles (45 kilometers) away in Xingtang County found problems with her two-month-old daughter. \"The county hospital found my daughter has kidney stones that are smaller than 4mm [less than a fifth of an inch],\" the farmer in her 30s told Xinhua. \"My daughter is so young that the doctors worry the stones might not be washed out themselves so they told me to go to the provincial hospital.\" The report said the girl had drunk a little water. \"Doctors said I better not feed her powdered milk,\" Xinhua quoted a \"tearful\" Wang as saying. \"In the past few days, I fed her fresh milk bought from a neighbor who raises a cow but once I left home I did not know what to do.\" Other parents told Xinhua they wanted their children scanned for kidney stones as a precaution. Peng Jing, a mother in her 20s, said her 2-month-old son had drunk about two small bags of Sanlu powdered milk. \"He seems OK, but we want to be 100 percent sure he is healthy so we came to have the tests,\" she told Xinhua at Renmin Hospital. The food safety scandal prompted China agricultural officials to start a nationwide inspection of its dairy industry. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. The chemical is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Chinese investigators have found melamine in nearly 70 milk products from more than 20 companies, Li said Wednesday. Products made by Sanlu had the highest concentration of the chemical. It is not the first time Sanlu has been connected to a scandal involving tainted milk powder, according to China Daily. In 2004, at least 13 infants in the eastern Anhui province died of malnutrition after drinking milk powder that had little to no nutrition. The illegally manufactured milk was falsely labeled with the Sanlu brand, according to the paper. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said no Chinese baby formula has been allowed on the market in the United States. In a statement on its Web site, the FDA said it had reached out to all five companies making formula in the United States and none has used formula or source materials from China. This episode marks the latest in a string of tainted products produced in China: . CNN's John Vause and Yuli Yang contributed to this story.","highlights":"More than 6,200 babies now known to be ill, official says .\nChina's largest milk, Mengniu Dairy Group, recalls three batches of formula .\nConcerned parents line up to get their infants scanned, Xinhua reports .\nMelamine in milk is same chemical that killed U.S. pets from tainted pet food .","id":"8f3e2b4cfb1304610d6b92a1eddc502eef229f2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN correspondent Sean Callebs has just finished a long assignment: living on food stamps during all of February. He tracked his experiences on the American Morning blog. CNN's Sean Callebs with a meal he prepared living on a food-stamp budget. This meant no eating out, no food on the run while covering stories and no enjoying king cake and other New Orleans specialties during Mardi Gras. The food stamp program, newly named the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is run by the Department of Agriculture and provides food to those in need. The latest numbers show 31 million Americans are relying on supplemental food assistance to get by every month. Callebs is based in New Orleans, so he worked through the Louisiana Department of Social Services. The agency gave him a gift card worth $176, the maximum amount of assistance for which he was eligible, instead of an actual EBT card or food stamps. This week, he reflected on what he learned in an interview with House Call. House Call: Did living on a limited food budget have an impact on your health? Callebs: I wouldn't say it had a big impact on my health. I think that towards the end, I wondered if having fewer calories than I normally eat and also not having as much meat and fish -- I wondered if that affected my energy levels. I was running maybe 4 to 5 miles and toward the end of this diet when I got to three miles I just got kind of winded. I don't know why that happened. Watch Sean Callebs talk about his experience \u00bb . HC: Were there also some benefits? Callebs: I think I lost weight. I wouldn't say noticeable. It's not like I came out of this 30 days later and people were like \"Wow, what happened to you?\" but all my clothes are looser. I don't have a scale, but I can tell you my pants are much looser. HC: You write in your blog about your love of diet soda and how you had to drop it. Callebs: (Laughing) It's funny, because for the first 10 days it was really on my mind a lot. It was probably more than anything else I missed -- probably a sad commentary on my lifestyle. Then toward the end, I didn't even think about it and my photographer, as a joke the last day, he brought over two 20 ounce bottles of diet soda and said, \"At midnight tonight you can have these,\" and I didn't drink them. I don't miss it as much and, I can't guarantee this is what caused it, but I've always had a problem with acid reflux and once I got started eating on the food stamp diet, it seemed to go away. I can't conclusively say that that was the cause, but I sleep better and I feel better. HC: How does your $176 compare with the average food stamp allotment? Callebs: I think it's difficult to say that there's an average food stamp allotment because it really breaks down to how many people you have in the family and to what degree you live at or below the poverty level. I went to the state, and I said, \"I want to pretend I have no income so how much can I get?\" and they said this is the maximum you can get: $176. I did get a lot of e-mails, A LOT of e-mails, from people who have lived with government assistance and they said, \"Look, $176 is a ton of money to live on. So you think it's hard? You should put yourself in our shoes.\" That was sobering because I thought $6.28 a day -- that's basically a super-sized fast-food meal. (According to SNAP, the average monthly stipend was about $96 per person and about $215 per household in 2007.) HC: So, what did you learn? Callebs: I think that I learned that you can stretch $176. It sounds intimidating if you've always had enough, but if you haven't had enough then you learn pretty quickly how to make ends meet. That's what I learned pretty quickly. Snacks went out the window, name brands went out the window but, all in all, I ate pretty healthy. HC: Are you going to continue with this new way of living? Callebs: I am. I just got back from the grocery store and I spent $27 and I got plenty of food to last me for a few days. I've already wrapped it up and put it in the freezer. I'm still buying the stuff I bought before. It's a diet I'm sure I'll stick to. I feel good.","highlights":"CNN's Sean Callebs talks about his month living on a food-stamp budget .\nHe lost some weight but learned how to better cook, budget and bargain-hunt .\nCallebs cut out diet soda \"treat\" and experienced less acid reflux .\nRange of responses from readers, from \"can't be done\" to \"welcome to my world\"","id":"dc291d4561b7f527f016fa8766044d78ea7dc84f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Slumdog Millionaire\" took home eight Oscars on Sunday night, a surprising achievement for a film once thought to be straight-to-DVD fodder. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" with Dev Patel and Freida Pinto has a \"rags-to-riches\" storyline with wide appeal. The colorful story, which mixes the gritty life of Mumbai's poor with the shiny aspirations of the new India, features no stars recognizable to Western audiences, but it may have made one of its native country. So, is it time for Bollywood -- as India's huge Mumbai-based film industry is called -- to come to America? \"International cinema comes in cycles in the United States,\" said Frank Lovece, a film critic with Film Journal International. \"Now, it's Bollywood's time.\" But \"Slumdog\" is a far cry from the lavish movie musicals made by Bollywood, which releases nearly 1,000 films annually. And it's not authentically Indian -- it was directed by Briton Danny Boyle, and the leading actor, Dev Patel, was born and raised in England. Watch the \"Slumdog\" principals talk about their victories \u00bb . However, the film is a celebration of India -- from the slums to the Taj Mahal. It pays homage to Bollywood by incorporating many of the industry's norms -- vibrant colors, fast-paced editing, a fairy-tale love story and a feel-good musical dance ending. \" 'Slumdog' is the reason why people go to the movies. It's the whole package,\" said Gene Newman, editorial director at Premiere.com. \"It's an incredible story ... and it makes you feel good.\" Memorable moments from the Oscars \u00bb . Priya Joshi, associate professor of English at Temple University and author of the forthcoming book, \"Crime and Punishment: Nationalism and Public Fantasy in Bollywood Cinema,\" said the film's \"rags-to-riches\" storyline has a lot to do with its wide mainstream appeal. \"Hindi film and Bollywood, in particular, is a profoundly political cinema about the crisis of the day,\" she said. \"Today, the typical American feels like the poor in the world. ... This sense of vulnerability is what the film is able to capture.\" Watch the \"Slumdog\" stars talk about bonds between the cultures \u00bb . Hollywood often has used international styles and filmmakers to its advantage. In its early days, the U.S. film capital embraced European directors such as Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir. The 1960s saw the influence of French New Wave cinema. Japanese films inspired \"The Magnificent Seven\" and \"Star Wars\"; Hong Kong works inspired Hollywood blockbusters such as \"The Departed\" and \"The Matrix.\" \"Slumdog\" isn't even the first film centering on India to attract Hollywood's attention. \"Indian cinema has been around in the United States since Satyajit Ray in the early 1940s,\" Lovece said. Ray, who won the Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1992, made films in Bengali, a language spoken in eastern India. Despite that fact, his movies, notably \"The Apu Trilogy,\" have had universal appeal. Since Ray, many Indian actors have emerged on the Hollywood scene. Aishwarya Rai, one of Bollywood's leading ladies, starred in 2004's \"Bride and Prejudice\" and appeared, more recently, in \"The Pink Panther 2.\" \"India's movie stars are essentially the country's ambassadors,\" said Gitesh Pandya, box-office analyst and founder of BoxOfficeGuru.com. \"A lot of people going to see [\"Pink Panther 2\"] are learning about Bollywood through [Aishwarya Rai].\" From Ray to Rai, Indian influence in American cinema is vast. Many Hollywood films also have been influenced by Bollywood. Baz Luhrman's 2001 musical \"Moulin Rouge,\" a tragic romance told with song and dance, borrows heavily from Bollywood. \"These big, epic numbers are very reminiscent of Bollywood,\" Newman said, also referring to \"Chicago,\" \"Mama Mia!\" and \"West Side Story.\" \"Musicals have always been part of the tradition of American cinema, and Bollywood really just took it to the next level.\" Hollywood films such as 2008's \"The Love Guru\" and 2005's \"The 40-Year-Old Virgin\" -- which ends with a musical dance number -- also borrow from Bollywood, Newman said, but are comedies that parody the enchantment in Bollywood films. \"There's innocence and playfulness in a lot of the cinema in India,\" he said, which is why Bollywood, in its authentic form, would not appeal to American audiences. \"We're a little more cynical,\" said Newman. \" 'West Side Story' is kind of laughable by today's standards. ... But, for some reason, in India, that innocence is still acceptable.\" Joshi said the cultural differences between Bollywood and Hollywood could make it difficult for Bollywood films to cross over to America. \"India is still clinging on to its social values, which explains Bollywood's success everywhere but in America,\" she said. \"Bollywood films don't have any kissing in them or tend not to. Warner Bros. used to make movies like this in the past. ... If it's ready to ready to return to its roots, then it's ready for Bollywood.\" American audiences may want to explore Bollywood films after seeing \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" Pandya said, but it is unlikely that they will find another film like it. \"The film is obviously very successful, but it is its own entity so it doesn't necessarily mean that people in this country will wake up to Bollywood overnight,\" he said. \"Bollywood is not for everybody. ... People who love to see Adam Sandler movies are not going to line up to see Bollywood films.\" Newman agreed, saying that, for now, America will see Bollywood only in small traces. \"I think a lot of filmmakers have been enamored with Bollywood,\" he said. \"They're investing over there, like [Steven] Spielberg.\" But in American cinema, \"for the most part, there will be little tinges of Bollywood.\"","highlights":"\"Slumdog Millionaire\" is not authentically Bollywood or Indian .\nHollywood has often used international styles and filmmakers to its advantage .\nFilm critic: It's Bollywood's time to influence American cinema .\nBox-office analyst: Bollywood will have a hard time crossing over to America .","id":"1e6089db3f0ccd365e93b11708a8edf9a40fb945"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A watchdog group critical of pork barrel spending released its latest findings Wednesday targeting the top Congressional \"porkers.\" Some of the pork projects, according to the group, include a Lobster Institute; the Rocky Flats, Colorado, Cold War Museum; and the First Tee, a program to build young people's character through golf. Members of Congress requested funds for all these pet projects and thousands of others last year, according to the latest copy of the annual \"Pig Book\" released by Citizens Against Government Waste. \"Congress stuffed 11,610 projects\" worth $17.2 billion into a dozen spending bills, the group said in the report released Wednesday. The \"Pig Book\" names dozens of what the citizens group considers the most egregious porkers, the lawmakers who funnel money to projects on their home turf. Interactive: Pork barrel spending \u00bb . Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, requested the most money, $892.2 million, according to the group. In a statement to CNN, Cochran said he doesn't \"accept the premise\" of the group's claim that \"any and all federal spending not specifically requested by the Executive Branch is wasteful and irresponsible.\" \"The Congress is vested with the power to appropriate funds to be spent by the federal government by the U. S. Constitution. We will continue to carry out that responsibility with care and a commitment to serve the public interest,\" he said. \"There were several candidates for the Narcissist Award,\" Tom Schatz, the president of the group said. Read the group's 2008 report . \"But this one went to House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel for the Charles Rangel Public Service Center at the City College of New York -- $1,950,000 [for a project] that he named after himself.\" Rangel, a Democrat from New York, said last summer he was \"honored that City College chose to have my name attached to what is an important project, not just for the residents of my congressional district, but for New York City and this nation.\" Some lawmakers defended their earmarks, such as Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, who channeled $742,764 to olive fruit fly research. \"The olive fruit fly has infested thousands of California olive groves and is the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries,\" he said. Schatz responded that his organization is criticizing the way lawmakers direct money to specific projects, not the projects themselves. \"There are existing programs for virtually everything in the 'Pig Book.' If members [of Congress] believe they should be given additional funding, give them to the agencies rather than to specific projects,\" he said. The problem with earmarks, he said, is that \"we don't know if [the projects] are valuable or not.\" Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, the third ranking Democrat in the House, defended his earmark for a program that funds a youth golf program for children on U.S. military bases. \"It's a character building program, that seems to be working well for low income kids and that's why we do it throughout the United States of America. I just feel that children living on military installations ought to have this program as well,\" Clyburn told CNN. Clyburn also defended the practice of earmarking federal funds. \"I can name earmark after earmark, there's absolutely nothing wrong with congresspeople responding to their constituents and funding programs that they feel are necessary to improve the quality of life of the people who live in their districts.\" Clyburn also raised questions about the group releasing the \"Pig Book\" saying, \"they're not telling the truth about this earmark no more than them telling the truth about where they get their money from. The committee against government waste isn't against government waste.\" He cited press reports from the St. Petersburg Times that the Committee Against Government Waste received money from the tobacco industry and other private groups to lobby Congress. Both parties came in for criticism, with the Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, topping the Republicans in spending. The Democrats were behind 5,199 projects worth $5.5 billion, while the Republicans earmarked 3,408 projects worth $4.4 billion, the citizen's group said. And in a sign bipartisanship is not dead, the two parties jointly backed 2,518 projects worth $3.8 billion. Interactive: Map of pork per capita by state \u00bb . The three senators running for president were not among the top targets of criticism, and one got an entirely clean bill from the watchdog group. \"Sen. [Barack] Obama had 53 earmarks worth $97 million dollars, and Sen. [Hillary] Clinton had 281 earmarks worth $296 million. Sen. Obama recently said he would not request any project for this upcoming fiscal year,\" said Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste. \"And of course Sen. [John] McCain has never requested them and he won't be doing so in 2009. So now the question is if Sen. Clinton will join the other major candidates in saying that she will not request any earmarks for 2009.\" To qualify for the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of these standards: it was requested by only one chamber of Congress; was not specifically authorized; was not competitively awarded; was not requested by the president; greatly exceeded the president's budget request or the previous year's funding; was not the subject of congressional hearings; or served only a local or special interests. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Hornick and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: GOP Sen. Thad Cochran, Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn respond to report .\nCitizens Against Government Waste releases annual pork spending report .\nSome of the biggest pork projects, according to the group, include a Lobster Institute .\nDemocrats were behind 5,199 projects, while Republicans were behind 3,408 .","id":"78399c846b77e9ed8fbbc694182d01bb4bc3a3e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. government has dropped charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the suspect in the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole, according to a Pentagon spokesman. Parents and friends at the funeral in 2000 for a sailor killed during the bombing of the USS Cole. The charges were dropped \"without prejudice\" by Susan Crawford, convening authority at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon. The proceeding did not address specifics of the government's case against al-Nashiri, who remains a \"high value\" detainee held at Guantanamo. In removing the charges without prejudice, prosecutors can resubmit charges at a later date while at the same time complying with President Barack Obama's order to the military to hold off on cases for four months. On his first day in office, Obama ordered the halt, requiring prosecutors to seek delays in the 14 active cases before military commissions there. But the judge, Col. James Pohl, ordered arraignment for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri to go ahead as scheduled on Monday. With this move, all cases at Guantanamo are now in line with the president's order to halt court proceedings at the detention center, according to Gordon. Al-Nashiri is accused of planning the October 2000 bombing of the Cole while it was in the Yemeni port of Aden. The attack killed 17 American sailors and crippled the vessel, which returned to service in 2002. The Office of Military Commissions, which manages the prosecutions of suspected terrorists, said last week that it might have to temporarily drop charges against al-Nashiri to comply with the presidential order. When prosecutors asked for a continuance in the trial, Pohl denied the request, saying the government's \"argument for continuances were unpersuasive,\" according to a copy of his opinion. Pohl noted there had been no previous requests for a delay, and that the public's interest in a speedy trial would be harmed by further delay. Al-Nashiri was captured in 2002. He was held in secret locations until being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Meanwhile, the White House has invited families of sailors who died in the Cole bombing to meet with Obama on Friday. A number of the families were called Thursday afternoon, according to Andrew Hall, the lawyer who represented families. The invitation was for the families to attend \"without their lawyers,\" according to Hall. They were not told why they were going to meet with Obama, he added. According to the White House schedule for Friday, Obama will meet privately with families of the Cole attack and also with families of victims of the 9\/11 attacks. \"The president wants to talk with these families about resolving the issues involved with closing Guantanamo Bay -- while keeping the safety and security of the American people as his top priority,\" the schedule said.","highlights":"NEW: Obama meeting privately with families of bombing Friday .\nCharges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri dropped \"without prejudice\"\nMove done to comply with President Obama's ruling to shut Guantanamo Bay .\nNashiri was scheduled to go on trial Monday, will remain \"high value\" detainee .","id":"6229857ca8f8a550defc05780ec0022dfefbca8b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain feared that it would have been overwhelmed in the event of a Soviet attack because of the depleted state of its armed forces, according to secret files made public on Tuesday. U.S. President Jimmy Carter watches UK PM James Callaghan speak at a 1979 meeting in Guadeloupe. Papers released by the National Archives, under the 30-year rule, reveal that Royal Air Force fighter jets only had sufficient ammunition for two days of combat and the Royal Navy would fail to defend the country from Russian submarines. The army would have been too over-stretched to cope with a widescale campaign of sabotage and subversion by Soviet special forces, the papers show. Prime Minister James Callaghan called the situation a \"scandal\" when he discovered the scale of the problem and demanded resignations among the military. \"Heaven help us if there is a war!\" he scrawled on one note. But ministers could do little until the Tornado fighter plane became available in the mid-1980s along with other military hardware. The problem became clear when senior intelligence officers warned in late 1977 that, in the event of a conventional war, the Russians could unleash up to 200 bombers and 18 submarines against the UK. The assessment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was that British forces would be unable to cope. \"UK forces cannot match the threat postulated by the JIC assessment,\" the chiefs noted in January 1978 in a document marked Top Secret UK Eyes Alpha. \"Air defenses would be outweighed because aircraft would be outnumbered and stocks of air defense munitions would sustain operations for only two or three days. \"Maritime forces need better anti-submarine weapons, and face a massive threat from submarine and air-launched missiles and also from mines; the most serious deficiency is in numbers. \"The army in the UK would, until mobilization is complete, have insufficient forces to meet its commitments; after mobilization of the reserves, a process taking between 15-20 days, the Army would be able to counter the currently assessed Soviet land threat during the initial stages of the war but, lacking supporting arms and logistic support, it would be inadequate to deal with any more significant threat, including sabotage or subversion on a wide scale.\"","highlights":"Britain feared it would have been overwhelmed in Soviet attack, papers reveal .\nPapers were released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule .\nPrime Minister James Callaghan called the situation a \"scandal\"","id":"bbec85de1eb37c858a1821add3f428544dfaba45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World record holder and Olympic champion Usain Bolt added yet another title to his tally after racing to victory in the Bupa Great CityGames 150 meter sprint in a new best time in Manchester on Sunday. Usain Bolt smashed the world 150m record in his first race of the season in Manchester on Sunday. The Jamaican, who broke both the 100m and 200m records before anchoring his country to the 4x100m relay title in Beijing, clocked 14.36 seconds -- smashing the previous world's best by 0.39 seconds. Bolt, in his first competitive outing of the season, finished well ahead of Britain's Marlon Devonish, who ran 15.07. The 22-year-old, who was only passed fit on Monday after a car crash which required minor surgery on his foot just over a fortnight ago, was given a bye into the final. But he did not disappoint and the breakdown of times in his sprint were staggering. He covered the first 100m in 9.90, which although well short of his record-breaking 9.69 in Beijing, was still impressive on a very damp temporary track constructed in the city center. Even better was his speed over what is termed \"the flying 100\" -- from 50-150m -- which he covered in just 8.72 seconds. It all added up to a run which eclipsed the previous best of 14.75 by American Tyson Gay, whose time was recorded during a 200m race and not a straight 150m sprint. \"It is one more to the tally,\" Bolt told reporters when told of his world-best time. \"I thought I would just go out there and run a good time. I am not in the best shape and I still have a lot of work to do but I am getting there,\" he added. Debbie McKenzie Ferguson of the Bahamas won the women's race in 16.54 seconds ahead of Olympic and world 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, who finished in 17.10.","highlights":"Usain Bolt shatters world record by winning 150m in Manchester on Sunday .\nThe Jamaican sprint king defeats Marlon Devonish in a time of 14.36 seconds .\nThe 22-year-old old was only passed fit on Monday after a recent car accident .","id":"631549843c3b522433c75baa2a66283dd4f9e96c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man accused of shooting into a crowd outside an under-21 nightclub -- killing two teenage girls and wounding seven other people -- before shooting himself was in critical condition Monday, police in Portland, Oregon, said. A shooting outside a Portland nightclub Staurday killed two people and injured seven others, police said. Investigators identified the gunman in Saturday night's shooting in Portland as Erik Salvadore Ayala, 24, and are trying to determine why the rampage happened, police said. \"This is unprecedented in the city of Portland. We don't have this type of thing,\" Portland police Detective Mary Wheat said, adding that even seasoned police veterans were shocked by what she called \"a random act of violence.\" \"Nobody knows the motive at this time,\" Wheat said, noting that Ayala didn't have a police record. \"We're trying to figure what drove him to this.\" Investigators believe Ayala sprayed bullets into a crowd of students outside a non-alcohol nightclub called The Zone on Saturday night and then shot himself, authorities said. The students were participants in a Rotary Club foreign exchange program. Slain were Ashley Wilks, 16, and a Peruvian exchange student, Marta \"Tika\" Paz De Noboa, 17, according to Wheat. Wilks, a Portland high school sophomore, was getting ready to spend her junior year in either France or Spain, her principal said. Two juveniles, four 18-year-olds and a man in his 40s were wounded, Wheat said, adding that exchange students were among those hurt. Scott Bieber, youth protection officer for the exchange program in northern Oregon and southwestern Washington, said the shooting was \"nothing like anything we've ever seen in Rotary before, to have as many of our kids involved in something as tragic at one time.\" \"Our main focus right now is to build a support structure for the students who were involved and their host families and their real families, and also for the families of the 28 other inbound students we have in our Rotary district,\" Bieber said. Eleven exchange students went to the club to celebrate a birthday and were waiting in line when the assault began, Bieber said. Wheat said a 9 mm handgun was used in the shooting. \"It doesn't appear at this time that he reloaded,\" she said. Paz De Noboa was attending Columbia High School in White Salmon, Washington. School officials were helping students deal with their grief over the incident, and counselors were available, said Superintendent Dale Palmer and Vice Superintendent Jerry Lewis of the White Salmon Valley School District. \"She was very shy and reserved,\" Palmer said. \"I think she was a good student and helpful to other struggling students.\" Matt Utterback -- principal of Ashley Wilks' school, Clackamas High School -- issued a statement on the school's Web site confirming Wilks' death and the wounding of Susy De Sousa, an 18-year-old foreign exchange student from Italy. Wilks' was a \"bright and curious student\" who took honors classes and was a member of the swimming team, Utterback said. He passed along praise from her teachers and her swim coach. \"An awesome student with a beautiful smile. She was the kind of person that lights up a room. A truly wonderful, delightful kid,\" Utterback said. About De Sousa, Utterback said: \"Susy challenges herself to take rigorous classes despite the fact that English is her second language. She has a good sense of humor and is known for her persistence.\" De Sousa was in critical condition but improving, Wheat said. Classes were not in session Monday because it was a teacher workday. Utterback said counseling was available for students, and deplored the shooting. \"Such a horrific act is impossible to accept or understand,\" he said.","highlights":"Two teens killed, seven other people wounded in Portland, Oregon, shooting .\nInvestigators \"trying to figure out what drove [gunman] to this,\" detective says .\nPolice identify shooter as 24-year-old man, say he shot himself .\nStudents had gone to under-21 club to celebrate a birthday .","id":"e63e63e6d8738dd7f2062d52e5b346ec3ff8378d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The forthcoming trial in Germany of John Demjanjuk could be the last occasion on which a Nazi war crimes suspect faces prosecution. German officials claim John Demjanjuk was an accessory to 29,000 murders in a Nazi death camp. But the legacy of decades-old efforts to bring the perpetrators of World War II atrocities to justice means that those who commit similar offences in the 21st century will not be able to hide from their past so easily, according to a leading war crimes prosecutor. Many leading Nazis such as Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess and Albert Speer were prosecuted by the main allies -- the U.S., the Soviet Union and the UK -- shortly after the end of the war at the Nuremberg Trials. South African judge Richard Goldstone, formerly the chief U.N. prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, told CNN that Nuremberg had been the \"first attempt of any importance to hold war criminals accountable\" and had laid the foundations for the development of modern humanitarian law. Yet many lower-ranking servants of the Nazi regime and its allies were able to escape punishment for their crimes, assuming new identities, fleeing Europe or even finding employment with Soviet or western security agencies as determination to bring them to justice waned with the advent of the Cold War, according to Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. \"These murderers walked into small cities and killed men, women and children and walked away without a trace,\" Hier told CNN. \"The sad thing is that had the world wanted to prosecute Nazi war criminals after Nuremberg, and had (countries) put up the budget and the resources then every one of these elusive criminals would have been brought to justice.\" But Goldstone said that the creation in 2002 of the International Criminal Court marked a \"very important step forward\" to ensure that future atrocities would not be so quickly forgotten. While previous tribunals investigating crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia were ad hoc creations set up by the U.N. Security Council, the ICC is a permanent institution with a specific remit to investigate and prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Goldstone said that developments in humanitarian law and the evolution of international justice meant that modern institutions were more sophisticated and fairer than Nuremberg had been, recognizing the rights of victims to representation but also ensuring a fair trial for defendants. \"Modern international law requires trials that are a lot fairer than the trials that were put on at Nuremberg,\" he said. The jurisdiction of the ICC is currently recognized by 108 countries -- though not by the U.S., Russia or China. But Goldstone said the court was \"moving quickly\" towards universal ratification and said U.S. President Barack Obama's new administration was likely to be more cooperative and friendlier to the ICC than predecessor George W. Bush had been in office. \"I'd love to see the day when there is universal ratification because when that happens there will be nowhere for war criminals to run to,\" he said. Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old native Ukrainian deported from the U.S. this week, is alleged to have been a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland and is accused of being an accessory to the murder of more than 29,000 people. Hier said Demjanjuk's extradition marked the culmination of greater efforts in the U.S. since the late 1970s to send suspected war criminals to face trial. An Office of Special Investigations was established in 1979 to hunt for war criminals on U.S. soil, while legislation allowed even suspects who had acquired U.S. citizenship to be extradited for lying on their naturalization papers about their Nazi pasts. But he said Demjanjuk's trial could be the last of its kind -- and not just because of the age of suspected war criminals still at large. \"You can't just have a trial with documents. You have to have living witnesses,\" Hier said. \"Most of those witnesses are very old, most of them are well into their 80s and beyond and they have to be in sufficient good health that they can be questioned and travel to take part in the trial.\" But Hier said it was very important that former Nazis were pursued to the grave, living out their final years with the fear that their past crimes could still catch up with them. \"(Nazi hunter) Simon Wiesenthal talked about two kinds of justice. There is the justice of handcuffs and putting someone on trial. But there is also a psychological fear of a knock on the door,\" he said. \"Every Nazi war criminal should live every night of his life with the possibility that in his case there will yet be a knock on the door.\"","highlights":"Expert: Trial of Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk could be last of its kind .\nLeading Nazis prosecuted at Nuremberg but many lesser Nazis escaped justice .\nStruggle to prosecute Nazis influenced creation of International Criminal Court .\nICC has remit to probe war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity .","id":"d6c7e87b9c4b96d951f42fdbf21e0c1ea12ed1b5"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Syrian arms dealer was sentenced to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison for conspiring to sell weapons as part of a plot to kill Americans in Colombia, according to prosecutors. Syrian-born arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar, seen in a file photo, tried to sell weapons to undercover U.S. agents. Monzer al-Kassar was also ordered Tuesday to forfeit all of his assets, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Al-Kassar's co-defendant Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy received a 25-year prison sentence for his role in the conspiracy. Both men were convicted in November of five charges, including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, conspiracy to provide support for FARC guerrillas in Colombia, and money laundering. The federal indictment paints al-Kassar as an international arms dealer with a hand in conflicts in nearly every part of the world, with a web of bank accounts and front companies across Europe and the Middle East. Al-Kassar was arrested in Spain in 2007 on a U.S. warrant and his associate Moreno Godoy was arrested in Romania. Both were extradited to the United States. The arrests stemmed from an undercover sting operation involving U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as members of FARC. During the 16-month operation, the agents arranged to buy more than 12,000 weapons from the two men, according to the indictment. Al-Kassar agreed to provide surface-to-air missiles for the FARC to shoot down American helicopters, and also offered to send 1,000 men to fight with the FARC, plus explosives and men who could train the FARC in how to use them, the indictment charged. Al-Kassar demanded 3,500,000 euros ($4.4 million) as \"partial payment\" for the weapons, it said. Justice Department officials say al-Kassar has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed combatants since the 1970s. Kassar had told journalists before he was arrested that he had retired from arms dealing, but the United States says he had been involved since the 1970s, providing weapons and military equipment to armed factions in Nicaragua, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere. CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Syrian sentenced in conspiracy to sell weapons in a plot to kill Americans .\nCo-defendant gets 25 years; plan was to kill Americans in Colombia .\nU.S. calls Monzer al-Kassar an international dealer arming many wars .\nU.S. Drug Enforcement Agency arrested arms dealers in sting operation .","id":"a7b87b26ea59dacf4556a09d62092501fc5fdac6"} -{"article":"CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuela temporarily seized a pasta-making plant Friday belonging to U.S.-based food giant Cargill, citing a production quota dispute. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government takes over a Cargill plant for the second time in recent months. Rafael Coronado, Venezuela's deputy minister for food, announced the takeover live on the state-run Venezolana de Television channel. He said the plant did not meet production levels for pasta sold at lower, government-mandated prices. An inspection of the plant Thursday found that 41 percent of its pasta met the government-established level, Coronado said at a news conference in front of the food plant. Fifty-nine percent was \"out of regulation,\" he said. The Venezuelan government will take over the plant for 90 days, he said, and then will determine what steps to take next. It was the second time in recent months that the government of left-wing President Hugo Chavez has taken over a Cargill plant. Chavez announced in March that he had ordered the takeover of a Cargill rice plant. Cargill spokesman Mark Klein said Friday afternoon the Minnesota-based company did not have an immediate comment. But Klein said in March, when the rice plant was taken over, that Cargill \"is committed to the production of food in Venezuela that complies with all laws and regulations.\" Cargill has been doing business in Venezuela since 1986, according to the company's Web site. Its operations include oilseed processing, grain and oilseed trading, animal feed, salt, and financial and risk management. The company has 2,000 employees in 22 locations in Venezuela, the Web site says.","highlights":"Venezuela cites production quota dispute in takeover of pasta-making plant .\nGovernment will take over plant belonging to Cargill for 90 days .\nMinnesota-based food giant has no immediate comment on seizure .\nCargill rice plant seized by President Hugo Chavez's government in March .","id":"592f92e276968254742d511c535519c9571f749e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi, and his wife were arrested Wednesday on charges they defrauded the federal government and an insurance company of more than $220,000 in claims related to Hurricane Katrina, authorities said. Gulfport Mayor Gregory Brent Warr, shown in 2005, says the charges \"will not change my commitment\" to the city. Gregory Brent Warr and Laura Jean Warr were named in a 16-count federal indictment handed up last week by a grand jury, the Department of Justice said in a news release. They are accused of conspiracy, Federal Emergency Management Agency fraud, Department of Housing and Urban Development home grant fraud and insurance fraud, all arising from claims after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. If convicted on each count, the couple would face up to 210 years in prison and up to $4 million in fines, prosecutors said. \"Understand that what has been alleged toward my wife and me has no connection to me as mayor,\" Brent Warr said in a statement issued Wednesday. \"This has not and will not change my commitment to the progress and recovery of our city.\" He said he pleaded not guilty, but said he will not speak further about the case. \"I am the mayor of Gulfport, and I will continue working to rebuild our city,\" Warr said. \"We have hundreds of dedicated employees, department heads and directors, and everything we have achieved thus far is a result of their hard work and love for this city. \"For Laura and me, personally, this is a difficult time, but I will continue the work as mayor.\" According to the indictment, the Warrs in 2005 applied for FEMA assistance regarding a Gulfport home, telling officials that home was their primary residence when it was not. In 2006, the indictment says, the couple applied to the Mississippi Development Authority for a Homeowner's Assistance Grant funded by HUD, again claiming they lived at the address. The indictment also alleges the Warrs made misrepresentations to Lexington Insurance Company regarding personal property in the insured home, payment of rent for alternative living after Katrina and the extent of damage to the home. The Warrs received a total of $222,798 \"as a result of the said offenses, for which the defendants are liable,\" the indictment says. The couple was released on bond and ordered to appear for trial April 6, the Justice Department said. In his statement, Warr said the inquiry \"has been going on for more than a year now, and we hope and pray for a much faster resolution.\" City spokesman Ryan LaFontaine issued a statement saying that while he was not in a position \"to speculate what is happening in the mayor's personal life ... I can tell you that as for the city, we are continuing to carry out the people's business. \"The mayor has indicated that he has every intention of coming to work tomorrow, and every day after that, as the mayor of Gulfport,\" LaFontaine said. \"In the nearly four years that he has been here, Mayor Warr has created a framework and an agenda for the recovery of Gulfport. And he has assembled a very talented team of directors and employees that understand the enormity of the recovery challenges that lie ahead. \"Under his continued leadership, I'm very confident that this city will continue to move along the path that he has set,\" LaFontaine said. \"The people of Gulfport don't care about the mayor's personal issues. They only care about what he's doing to fix their issues.\"","highlights":"Gulfport, Mississippi, mayor \"will continue working to rebuild our city\"\nMayor Gregory Brent Warr, says he pleaded not guilty .\nIndictment: Couple received $222,798 \"for which the defendants are liable\"\nCouple, released on bond and ordered to court April 6, face up to 210 years .","id":"3e75c5829e53f9d98cc9a51a3a856232e8b68804"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A wheel from the main landing gear of a Colgan Airlines passenger plane fell off and rolled away as the aircraft was landing in Buffalo, New York, earlier this week. A wheel fell off the landing gear of Q400 Bombardier upon landing on Colgan Flight 3268 earlier this week. On Thursday night, The Toronto Sun posted a video of the incident shot by a passenger on the Q400 Bombardier -- the same type of plane involved in a fatal Colgan Airlines crash three months ago, also on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. The video shows the wheel touch down on the ground and then roll away, followed by metal parts that are meant to keep the wheels in place. The plane was towed to the gate, where everyone on board \"deplaned normally,\" said Joe Williams, a spokesman for Pinnacle Airlines, Colgan's parent company. \"At no time was any passenger or crew member at risk, nor were any injuries reported,\" Williams said of the Tuesday incident. \"The aircraft was properly maintained in accordance with the manufacturer and Federal Aviation Administration procedures.\" Williams said the incident \"appears to have been caused by the failure of the outer wheel bearing ... the bearing was relatively new, having been on the aircraft for five weeks.\" Colgan Flight 3268 originated in Newark, New Jersey. \"I was scared, and the other passengers looked worried, too,\" one passenger told the Toronto newspaper. \"For a moment, I thought the worst in that we may not make it.\" Three months ago, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in nearby Clarence Center, New York, killing all 49 passengers and crew members aboard. One person was killed on the ground. Hearings about the cause of that accident have been held in Washington this week. Investigators have focused on pilot fatigue as a possible cause of the crash.","highlights":"Wheel from main landing gear fell off as aircraft was landing earlier this week .\nColgan Airlines spokesman says no one on Flight 3268 was injured .\nOne person on flight: \"I was scared, and the other passengers looked worried, too\"\nThree months ago, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed, killing all 49 people aboard .","id":"2ad9cdbbfa0bdf0ef05e5e63933e82d34c12b2ac"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The original judge has been dead for 15 years, and no one has been able to find the criminal case file since 2004. Yet a 1977 sex scandal involving famed director Roman Polanski and a 13-year-old girl continues to stalk the courts of Los Angeles. Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski hasn't left France in 30 years because of a U.S. fugitive warrant. Attorneys for the 75-year-old Academy Award-winning director asked a judge Tuesday to put the matter to rest once and for all. But a judge denied the request, saying the director must show up in court to obtain a ruling. That poses problems for Polanksi because prosecutors have vowed to seek his arrest on a bench warrant the minute he sets foot in the United States. The bench warrant was issued when Polanski failed to appear for sentencing more than 30 years ago. Lawyers Douglas Dalton and Chad Hummel last month filed a 239-page dismissal \"request,\" citing allegations brought to light in the documentary, \"Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.\" The documentary was first broadcast in June on HBO, which shares a corporate parent with CNN. The court filing alleges that a meddling prosecutor who believed Polanski should be behind bars improperly influenced a judge to ignore the terms of a plea bargain, as well as the wishes of the district attorney's office, the probation officer and the victim. None of them wanted Polanski to serve jail time. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza left the door open to reconsider his ruling if Polanski, who has lived in exile in France since 1977, shows up in court. \"It's hard to contest some of the behavior in the documentary was misconduct,\" Espinoza said in court. But he declined to dismiss the case entirely, a decision that didn't surprise legal experts who said such rulings are extremely rare. \"You have to give [Polanski attorney] Chad Hummel the creative lawyering of the year award,\" said legal analyst Laurie Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Espinoza in effect said he was tossing out the request without considering whether it has merit because Polanski hasn't shown up for court. But he suspended his ruling, writing that \"if the defendant submits to the jurisdiction of this Court within 30 days, the Court shall consider the merits of the motion.\" Polanski's victim is among those calling for the case to be tossed out. Larry Silver, the victim's lawyer, said he was disappointed in the ruling and that Espinoza \"did not get to the merits and consider the clear proof of both judicial and prosecutorial corruption.\" He argued in court that had \"Mr. Polanski been treated fairly\" his client would not still be suffering because of publicity almost 32 years after the incident. Levinson said the victim's support may offer a sliver of hope for Polanski. \"The best thing he has going is the victim,\" she said. \"In this age of victims' rights, if I were the lawyer I would be playing that card too.\" But prosecutors have consistently argued that dismissing the Polanski case would be a miscarriage of justice, allowing a man who \"drugged and raped a 13-year-old child\" to go free. Polanski's attorneys back up the allegation with a DVD of the documentary, a script, a copy of Polanski's 1977 pre-sentencing report and various court transcripts, interviews and declarations. They paint a picture of backroom conversations between a prosecutor itching for a piece of the case and a judge so image conscious that he kept a scrapbook of media clippings, asked lawyers to \"stage\" Polanski's sentencing hearing and feared criticism if he didn't send the director to prison. Allegations of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct are commonly raised on appeal, but only a small percentage of these appeals succeed. Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. The director, his lawyer and the prosecutor handling the case believed they'd hammered out a deal that would spare the young victim a public trial and Polanski jail time, according to the filing. The first surprise came when Judge Laurence J. Rittenband sent Polanski to prison for \"diagnostic testing\" to determine whether he was what then was called a \"mentally disturbed sex offender.\" (The results came in after Polanski spent 42 days at a maximum security prison. He wasn't.) The second surprise came on the eve of sentencing, when Rittenband informed the attorneys that he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days. Polanksi fled the United States and has been living in exile in France ever since. Previous attempts to resolve the case failed, including a recently disclosed secret negotiation in 1997. The sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to come to court because he would face almost certain arrest the moment he set foot in the United States. As a director, Polanski is best known for the films \"Rosemary's Baby,\" \"Chinatown\" and \"The Pianist,\" a 2002 drama about the Holocaust that won him the Oscar for best director. But he is also known for a personal life tinged with tragedy. He was born in France and moved to Poland with his parents as a small child. Later, he escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto and hid from the Nazis with the help of strangers. His mother died at Auschwitz. He endured the anti-Semitism of post-war Europe, attended film school and directed \"Knife in the Water,\" which won a 1963 Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film. He then came to Southern California to make \"Rosemary's Baby.\" As he was making his mark in Hollywood, Polanski was also making headlines in connection with two lurid Los Angeles crimes in the 1960s and '70s. Polanski was filming in Europe when members of Charles Manson's \"family\" butchered the director's pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four others in August 1969. Eight years later, he stood accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and a sliver of a quaalude tablet and performing various sex acts, including intercourse, with her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. Nicholson was not at home, but his girlfriend at the time, actress Anjelica Huston, was. According to a probation report contained in the filing, Huston described the victim as \"sullen.\" She added, \"She appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between -- could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old scared little thing.\" Huston said Polanski did not strike her as the type of man who would force himself on a young girl. \"I don't think he's a bad man,\" she said in the report. \"I think he's an unhappy man.\" As she has from the beginning, the victim says Polanksi shouldn't go to prison. Samantha Geimer, now 45, married and a mother of three children, sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement. She long ago came forward and made her identity public -- mainly, she said, because she was disturbed by how the criminal case had been handled. Earlier this month she filed a court declaration accusing prosecutors of victimizing her yet again by publicizing graphic details of the sexual encounter. The makers of the documentary also talked with people who played roles behind the scenes. From those interviews, the tale of alleged backroom dealings emerged. Former prosecutor David Wells was regularly assigned to Rittenband's Santa Monica courtroom. He handled routine matters and told the filmmakers he had the judge's ear. \"I was in the court every day,\" he said in an interview with the filmmakers. \"So Rittenband [would] ask me questions about the thing because he counted on me, or whoever was his favorite DA at the time, to advise him on what the -- what the law was, criminal law. He was very good at civil law, but criminally, he left that to his DAs to do.\" Although he was involved in the early stages of the investigation, Wells was taken off the Polanski case. He said he was \"miffed\" at the way it was handled because he believed Polanski should go to jail. Wells recommended the 90 days of diagnostic testing to the judge because Polanski would be in a prison setting but couldn't appeal, he said. Wells told the filmmakers he showed the judge a photo of the director at an Oktoberfest celebration while the sentence was pending. \"I took the picture into Judge Rittenband. I said, 'Judge,' I said, 'Look here. He's flipping you off ...' And I said, 'Haven't you had enough of this?' And then he exploded and what happened happened.\" Polanski's attorneys said the conversations were improper \"ex parte\" communications -- and nothing short of prosecutorial misconduct. Legal ethics and rules of criminal procedure usually bar one party in a case from discussing it with the judge unless the other side is present. Wells could not be reached for comment. His voice mail was full, and was not accepting new messages. But he recently told the Los Angeles Times that he did nothing wrong and that he still strongly feels Polanski should go to prison. It will be Judge Peter Espinoza's call on how to handle a celebrity case that appears to have been snakebitten from the start. CNN's Jack Hannah contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Judge denies motion to throw out charges, at least until director appears .\nRoman Polanski fled U.S. before his sentencing in '70s .\nDirector acknowledged having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor .\nPrevious attempts to resolve the 1977 sex case have failed .","id":"968f42754f880eae1626b8f327a9ae0b29468fb6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police say they believe they know who killed a 31-year-old Southern Illinois woman and her two young sons, but are waiting for prosecutors to build a strong forensic case against the suspect before disclosing his identity. Chris and Sheri Coleman are shown with their two boys, Garret and Gavin. \"We don't have a warrant for his arrest at this time, so we don't feel it would be prudent to give his name out until the state's attorney determines whether or not there's enough to charge him,\" said Maj. Jeff Connor of the Major Case Squad. Connor heads the squad that is part of the St. Louis, Missouri, homicide task force. He made the comments during an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace. Police found the bodies of Sheri Coleman and the children, Garret, 11, and Gavin, 9, in the bedrooms of their two-floor home in the St. Louis suburb of Columbia, Illinois, on the morning of May 7. Indications were they had been strangled. The killings shocked the suburb of about 10,000 residents. The Monroe County, Illinois, state's attorney's office is awaiting forensic test results, more interviews, documents and reports, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Watch Nancy Grace on the case \u00bb . Connor said threatening messages were found on the walls inside the home, but he would not disclose the exact wording. According to Connor, Christopher Coleman -- the boys' father and Sheri Coleman's husband -- left the house at 5:43 a.m., and drove to a gym to work out. \"Shortly thereafter he started calling his house, realized that nobody was answering and on his way back at around 6:50 is when he made the phone call to the Columbia Police Department,\" Connor said. Connor said Coleman told police he started calling his house shortly after leaving it because he \"was making sure the kids were getting up for school.\"","highlights":"Bodies of woman and her two children found in Southern Illinois home last week .\nPolice: State's attorney to decide whether to file charges against certain person .\nThreatening messages found on the walls inside the home, police say .\nWoman's husband says he left home for gym before slayings, police say .","id":"8d916ce1ff130be42f05e7ae5dcba2f160d9546a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No one expected to find Donna Molnar alive. Donna Molnar's body temperature was 30 degrees Celsius when rescuers found her Monday. Searchers had combed the brutal backcountry of rural Ontario for the housewife from the city of Hamilton, who had left her home three days earlier in the middle of a blizzard to grocery shop. Alongside his search-and-rescue dog Ace, Ray Lau on Monday tramped through the thick, ice-covered brush of a farmer's field, not far from where Molnar's van had been found a day earlier. He kept thinking: Negative-20 winds? This is a search for a body. \"Then, oh, all of a sudden, Ace bolted off,\" said Lau. \"He stooped and looked down at the snow and just barked, barked, barked.\" Lau rushed to his Dutch shepherd's side. \"There she was, there was Donna, her face was almost totally covered except for one eye staring back at me!\" he said. \"That was, 'Wow!' There was a thousand thoughts going through my head. It was over the top.\" With one ungloved hand near her neck, Molnar, 55, mumbled and tried to scream as Lau yelled to other rescuers. Dressed in a leather coat, sweater, slacks and winter boots, Molnar was carefully extracted from a 3-foot-deep mound of snow that had apparently helped to insulate her. Watch how the rescuers found Molnar \u00bb . Then, rescuers got their second shock. \"She was lucid, and said, 'Wow. I've been here a long time!' and then she apologized and said, 'I just wanted to take a walk, I'm sorry to have caused you any trouble,' \" said Staff Sgt. Mark Cox of the Hamilton Police Department, one of the leaders in the hunt. \"And we're all thinking this is incredible, this is really something.\" \"I've been doing search and rescue for seven years, and this is the wildest case I've had in finding someone alive,\" he said. She was rushed to a hospital and immediately sedated to begin the agonizing steps of hypothermia treatment. \"I think the snow must have worked to trap her body heat, and that's what really saved her,\" Cox said. \"This really speaks to what's possible.\" David Molnar is calling his wife's survival his \"Christmas miracle.\" He wasn't able to speak with her immediately after she was taken to the hospital. But while she was under sedation, he leaned over her and whispered in her ear, \"Welcome back, I love you.\" \"My wife, you know, doesn't pump iron. She is strong physically and spiritually,\" he said. \"When people say to me how do I explain how she survived, I said I believe God reached down and cradled her until the rescuers could find her, because there's no rational explanation.\" In addition to hypothermia, Donna Molnar is being treated for severe frostbite, and her recovery will take months. But his wife's condition was upgraded Wednesday from critical to serious. \"That may not sound like a great thing to everyone, but to us, that is the best news we could possibly get on Christmas Eve,\" David Molnar said. As for Ace, he's still awaiting his reward: a T-bone steak. It's the least that can be done for a dog who, in his own way, paid it forward. \"A while ago, Ace was rescued from a home where he didn't belong, and now he got to rescue someone. I can't describe the magnitude of that, what that means to me,\" Lau said. \"He's definitely getting his steak. I'm grocery shopping right now.\"","highlights":"Donna Molnar went missing after she left her home to go grocery shopping .\nHousewife had been buried in snow for 72 hours when a rescue dog found her .\nShe's in serious condition, being treated for hypothermia, severe frostbite .\nDog, who had been rescued himself, will be rewarded with a T-bone steak .","id":"a0d39308ccc5c065b04f58ed3e0a453e1de27c88"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Martin, the speaker of Britain's House of Commons, said Tuesday he would resign in the face of widespread public anger over expense claims by lawmakers. Michael Martin, the House of Commons Speaker, has tendered his resignation. Martin, whose statement lasted barely a minute, said he would step down June 21. He is the first speaker to be forced out of office since 1695. Martin said he was stepping down in order to promote \"unity\" in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Gordon Brown later Tuesday announced recommendations for comprehensive reforms to the expenses system to put an end to the \"abuses and misjudgments of the past.\" Watch how the rules have led to abuse \u00bb . He proposed a review of expense claims of the past few years by an independent panel, and the introduction of an outside agency to regulate expense reimbursements, which Parliament currently does itself. Parliament at \"Westminster cannot operate like some gentlemen's club,\" he said. \"There has got to be transparency. There has got to be a proper audit.\" Watch more of Brown's speech \u00bb . The reforms are currently only proposals. It is not clear if they will be implemented. Brown also paid tribute to Martin and added that he had chaired a meeting of party leaders Tuesday afternoon to discuss an overhaul of the expenses system. The speaker traditionally chairs debates and ensures protocol is followed. But part of the reason MPs are now focusing their anger on Martin is that his office also handles expense claims. Watch more on Martin's resignation \u00bb . Critics say he allowed claims to run amok and failed to recognize the depth of public disgust at the amounts being claimed -- into the tens of thousands of dollars for some lawmakers. Martin was savaged by MPs on Monday after he addressed parliament, with one lawmaker after another demanding to know when he would resign. Politicians across the political spectrum have been under fire after weeks of front-page headlines revealing their expense claims. What do you think about the expense scandal? They included requests for reimbursements for mortgages that had been paid off, members of the same family claiming the same expenses and reimbursement for lavish home furnishings. The justice minister, Shahid Malik, resigned from the Cabinet over his claims, which he insisted were within the allowable limits. The governing Labour Party also cut ties with MP Elliot Morley, a former Cabinet minister, over his expense claims. Watch London cabbies speak out against lawmakers \u00bb . The expenses scandal came to light in a series of recent front-page reports in The Daily Telegraph newspaper. The expense claims were to be made public in the summer, but the Telegraph obtained them early. Many lawmakers put in the spotlight by the newspaper insist they broke no rules. London's Metropolitan Police announced shortly before Martin's resignation that they would not investigate the leaking of the expense reports to the press. \"The leak of documents is not something that the (Metropolitan Police) would condone,\" they said in a statement, but felt it was unlikely they would obtain the evidence they need to launch a successful prosecution. The police had not yet decided whether to investigate whether politicians broke the law in their expense claims, the statement added.","highlights":"NEW: British PM announces recommendations for reforming system .\nMartin is the first Speaker forced out of office since 1695 .\nMPs had demanded he fall on his sword as part of changes to system .","id":"07b7289f67e2d69a576cccdee3e1f4b7bc2cd93b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's hard-line Islamic group Al-Shabab seized control of Jowhar, the president's hometown, after a battle with pro-government forces Sunday. An Islamist fighter mans a position in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday. Jowhar is a major town 55 miles (88 kilometers) southeast of Mogadishu, the capital. \"All businesses are closed and residents are already fleeing while Al-Shabab are roaming the streets,\" a local journalist said. The town had been under the control of forces backing the transitional government, which is scrambling to cope with deadly advances from Al-Shabab in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab was once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which took over most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006. The United States says the group is affiliated with the al Qaeda terrorist network, and the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion that drove the ICU from power in 2006. After seizing control of Jowhar on Sunday, the rebels started conducting \"search operations in the police station and the provincial headquarters of the town,\" the journalist added. The clashes extended into the suburbs of the town, where sporadic fighting was going on between the rebels and government forces, said the journalist, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. The town's seizure comes amid escalating tension between Somalia's transitional government and the Al-Shabab militia, which has waged days-long attacks in the capital. In the latest round of violence, one person was killed and 15 others wounded when mortars slammed into a police academy in Mogadishu on Sunday. Clashes between the rebels and the government in Mogadishu have left at least 103 people dead and 420 wounded, Somali officials said Friday. The east African nation has not had an effective government since 1991. Last week, a spokesman for the rebel group said that it had successfully recruited more fighters. \"It is not only Somali jihadists that are fighting in Mogadishu against the government,\" said Sheikh Hassan Ya'qub, a spokesman for Al-Shabab. \"There are also foreign Muslim jihadist brothers who are fighting side by side with us.\" The new round of fighting stems from an interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, the spokesman said. Somalia's new president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, recently approved implementing sharia, but the rebel group wants the country to institute a stricter form. Meanwhile, a powerful Islamist warlord defected to the government Saturday after he disagreed with rebel Islamist groups on the war against the transitional government. The warlord, Sheikh Yusuf Mohamud Siad Indha Ade, was the military commander of Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is suspected by the United States of being a terrorist.","highlights":"Group Al-Shabab is affiliated with al Qaeda, according to the U.S.\nClashes between rebels and government killed 103, wounded 420, officials say .\nAl-Shabab recently said it has been successful at recruiting more members .","id":"fbb109ad70acecb06343d9fad7c94370d082e50a"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A military offensive to rid Pakistan's northwest of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters has killed more than 1,000 militants since it began in full force earlier this month, the country's interior ministry said Sunday. A Pakistani girl displaced by the offensive against the Taliban rests at a camp Saturday north of Islamabad. Officials also said that only 2 percent of the North West Frontier Province remains under Taliban control as a result of the operation. Both claims were difficult to verify independently. The government did not say whether the operation resulted in civilian casualties, or how many people it displaced. The United Nations said Saturday that more than a million people have been displaced as a result of the two-week-old offensive. The U.S-led coalition and NATO -- based in Afghanistan -- have long said Pakistan is not being proactive enough in battling militants who are launching attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. Pakistan has denied the claim. But the country's military launched an intense operation to rout out militants from the area after Taliban fighters took control of a district just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. The control of the Buner district brought the Taliban closer to the capital of the nuclear-armed country than it had been since it mounted its insurgency. Watch car bomb, drone attack in Pakistan \u00bb .","highlights":"Pakistani troops fighting to oust Taliban militants from volatile province .\nU.S-led coalition and NATO, based in Afghanistan, have long criticized Pakistan .\nIslamabad, coalition says, not effective in halting border attacks from inside Pakistan .\nPakistan has denied the claims, has launched operations to rout out militants .","id":"739e8866bccfcc2d147830f9976304983ed76716"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Clashes between Somalia's transitional government and the Al-Shabab militia left 103 people dead and 420 others wounded, Somali officials said Friday. The fighting in Mogadishu between the rebel group and the government has raged for nine days. The fighting in Mogadishu between the rebel group and the government has raged for nine days, said Farhan Ali Mohamud, information minister of the Somali government. Human rights groups deplored the high number of casualties, urging both sides to comply with international law in respect to the civilian population. Thousands of families have fled the capital, Mogadishu, seeking a safer environment in camps south of the city. \"The people of Somalia have once again been subjected to unbearable violence,\" said Pascal Mauchle, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Somalia. \"The daily struggle for survival is exhausting their capacity to cope.\" Humanitarian groups expressed concern, too, that Somalis will not have access to medical care. The international medical agency Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to close an outpatient clinic in Mogadishu to ensure safety for its staff. \"With so few medical facilities available in Somalia, it is crucial that people are able to access those that are still functioning,\" said Alfonso Laguna, head of the agency in the region. The new round of fighting stems from an interpretation of sharia law, or Islamic law, the spokesman said. Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has recently approved implementing sharia law, but the rebel group wants the country to institute a stricter form. A spokesman for the rebel group said it has recruited many fighters for the battle against the government. \"It is not only Somali jihadists that are fighting in Mogadishu against the government. There are also foreign Muslim jihadist brothers who are fighting side by side with us,\" said Sheikh Hassan Ya'qub, a spokesman for al-Shabaab. Abdiraman Abdi Shakur Warsame, minister of international cooperation for Somalia's transitional government, issued a stern warning to the rebels in an address to a young audience celebrating Somali youth day at the capital. \"The government is determined to defend itself from these religious gangs who are covering in the name of Islam and I assure you that in the course of coming days, we will eliminate these elements and some of them will be forced out of the country,\" Warsame said. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya released a statement about the fighting. \"The extremists who are instigating these attacks have no regard for the well-being of Somalis and are undermining the peaceful efforts of the legitimate government to further national reconciliation,\" the statement said. \"The United States is particularly disturbed at reports that foreign fighters and those who rejected dialogue in 2006 are participating in this effort to forcibly remove a legitimate Somali government from power.\" Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government forces are fighting a rebel group in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu .\nSomali officials say 103 people have been killed, hundreds more wounded .\nRebel fighters want a stricter form of sharia law introduced in Somalia .\nFighting started in early May, rebels say they're recruiting more supporters .","id":"268463410e1934e02cc39dbd97b19d96b5e0bf57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She had many plans for the future: to go to college, start a career, meet the man of her dreams, raise a family -- when the time was right. Expert: \"There's a big disconnect between pregnancy rates and what Latina families want and value.\" It was all cut off by an unexpected pregnancy. The baby became her life, consuming her energy and forcing her dreams to the back burner of her life. She is 19 or younger and Latina, and has had her first baby. It's not what she wanted. Nor did her parents, who are the greatest influence on her decisions about sex, according to a wide-ranging survey released Tuesday by experts on the Hispanic community in the United States. The survey also found that 84 percent of Latino teens and 91 percent of Latino parents believe that graduating from college or university or having a promising career is the most important goal for a teen's future. Somewhere along the way, the aspirations fail to match up to reality. The survey attempts to examine some of the reasons for the disparity and why Latinas now have the highest teen birth rate among all ethnic and racial groups in the United States. \"There's a big disconnect between pregnancy rates and what Latina families want and value,\" said Ruthie Flores, senior manager of the National Campaign's Latino Initiative. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 53 percent of Latinas get pregnant in their teens, about twice the national average. After a period of decline, the birth rate for U.S. teenagers 15 to 19 years rose in 2007 by about 1 percent, to 42.5 births per 1,000, according to preliminary data in a March 2009 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. In 2007, the birth rate among non-Hispanic whites ages 15 to 19 was 27.2 per 1,000, and 64.3 per 1,000 for non-Hispanic black teens in the same age range. The teen birth rate among Hispanic teens ages 15 to 19 was 81.7 per 1,000. Of the 759 Latino teens surveyed, 49 percent said their parents most influenced their decisions about sex, compared with 14 percent who cited friends. Three percent cited religious leaders, 2 percent teachers and 2 percent the media. Watch more on the survey results \u00bb . Three-quarters of Latino teens said their parents have talked to them about sex and relationships, but only half said their parents discussed contraception. The survey also found that: . \u2022 74 percent of Latino teens believe that parents send one message about sex to their sons and a different message altogether to their daughters, possibly related to the Latino value of machismo. \u2022 Latino teens believe that the most common reason teens do not use contraception is that they are afraid their parents might find out. \u2022 72 percent of sexually experienced teens say they wish they had waited. \u2022 34 percent of Latino teens believe that being a teen parent would prevent them from reaching their goals, but 47 percent say being a teen parent would simply delay them from reaching their goals. \u2022 76 percent said it is important to be married before starting a family. Flores said it is crucial to understand the beliefs and attitudes that influence teen behavior in order to reduce the high rates of Hispanic teen pregnancy. The survey, co-sponsored by the Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza, was an attempt to to do just that. She said that despite a rich culture and the growing influence of Hispanics in America, the Latino community disproportionately suffers from troubling social indicators. Consider that fewer than six in 10 Latino adults in the United States have a high school diploma. Latino teens are more likely to drop out than their non-Hispanic counterparts, and of all the children living in poverty, 30 percent are Latino. \"Teen pregnancy is not an isolated issue,\" Flores said. \"It's related to poverty, to dropout rates. That's going to have an impact on our national as a whole.\" Flores said 69 percent of Latino teen moms drop out of high school, and the children of teen mothers are less likely to do well in school themselves and often repeat grades. \"That has a big economic impact,\" Flores said. It's an impact that is sure to be noticed. The nation's 45 million Latinos constitute the largest minority group in the United States with a growth rate twice that of the general population. That means by 2025, one-quarter of all American teens will be Latinos.","highlights":"53 percent of Latinas are pregnant by their 20th birthday, survey finds .\nSurvey: Most feel that college, career are key to their future .\nMost teens in study believe that parents give conflicting messages .","id":"d6787c4998500e595d7bc149550350a53bcc08ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's hard-line Islamic group Al-Shabab seized control of Jowhar, the president's hometown, after a battle with pro-government forces Sunday. An Islamist fighter mans a position in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday. Jowhar is a major town 55 miles (88 kilometers) southeast of Mogadishu, the capital. \"All businesses are closed and residents are already fleeing while Al-Shabab are roaming the streets,\" a local journalist said. The town had been under the control of forces backing the transitional government, which is scrambling to cope with deadly advances from Al-Shabab in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab was once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which took over most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006. The United States says the group is affiliated with the al Qaeda terrorist network, and the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion that drove the ICU from power in 2006. After seizing control of Jowhar on Sunday, the rebels started conducting \"search operations in the police station and the provincial headquarters of the town,\" the journalist added. The clashes extended into the suburbs of the town, where sporadic fighting was going on between the rebels and government forces, said the journalist, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. The town's seizure comes amid escalating tension between Somalia's transitional government and the Al-Shabab militia, which has waged days-long attacks in the capital. In the latest round of violence, one person was killed and 15 others wounded when mortars slammed into a police academy in Mogadishu on Sunday. Clashes between the rebels and the government in Mogadishu have left at least 103 people dead and 420 wounded, Somali officials said Friday. The east African nation has not had an effective government since 1991. Last week, a spokesman for the rebel group said that it had successfully recruited more fighters. \"It is not only Somali jihadists that are fighting in Mogadishu against the government,\" said Sheikh Hassan Ya'qub, a spokesman for Al-Shabab. \"There are also foreign Muslim jihadist brothers who are fighting side by side with us.\" The new round of fighting stems from an interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, the spokesman said. Somalia's new president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, recently approved implementing sharia, but the rebel group wants the country to institute a stricter form. Meanwhile, a powerful Islamist warlord defected to the government Saturday after he disagreed with rebel Islamist groups on the war against the transitional government. The warlord, Sheikh Yusuf Mohamud Siad Indha Ade, was the military commander of Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is suspected by the United States of being a terrorist.","highlights":"Group Al-Shabab is affiliated with al Qaeda, according to the U.S.\nClashes between rebels and government killed 103, wounded 420, officials say .\nAl-Shabab recently said it has been successful at recruiting more members .","id":"7781cc633994bea761e42fc4d2d04074941ddee6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Eve Ensler is the playwright of \"The Vagina Monologues\" and the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day has funded over 10,000 community-based anti-violence programs and launched safe houses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. This commentary was adapted from remarks Ensler made Wednesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs and the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues. Playwright Eve Ensler says conflict in Congo is taking a terrible toll on women and girls. (CNN) -- I write today on behalf of countless V-Day activists worldwide, and in solidarity with my many Congolese sisters and brothers who demand justice and an end to rape and war. It is my hope that these words and those of others will break the silence and break open a sea of action to move Congolese women toward peace, safety and freedom. My play, \"The Vagina Monologues,\" opened my eyes to the world inside this world. Everywhere I traveled with it scores of women lined up to tell me of their rapes, incest, beatings, mutilations. It was because of this that over 11 years ago we launched V-Day, a worldwide movement to end violence against women and girls. The movement has spread like wildfire to 130 countries, raising $70 million. I have visited and revisited the rape mines of the world, from defined war zones like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Haiti to the domestic battlegrounds in colleges and communities throughout North America, Europe and the world. My in-box -- and heart -- have been jammed with stories every hour of every day for over a decade. Nothing I have heard or seen compares with what is going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where corporate greed, fueled by capitalist consumption, and the rape of women have merged into a single nightmare. Femicide, the systematic and planned destruction of the female population, is being used as a tactic of war to clear villages, pillage mines and destroy the fabric of Congolese society. In 12 years, there have been 6 million dead men and women in Congo and 1.4 million people displaced. Hundreds and thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured. Babies as young as 6 months, women as old as 80, their insides torn apart. What I witnessed in Congo has shattered and changed me forever. I will never be the same. None of us should ever be the same. I think of Beatrice, shot in her vagina, who now has tubes instead of organs. Honorata, raped by gangs as she was tied upside down to a wheel. Noella, who is my heart -- an 8-year-old girl who was held for 2 weeks as groups of grown men raped her over and over. Now she has a fistula, causing her to urinate and defecate on herself. Now she lives in humiliation. I was in Bosnia during the war in 1994 when it was discovered there were rape camps where white women were being raped. Within two years there was adequate intervention. Yet, in Congo, femicide has continued for 12 years. Why? Is it that coltan, the mineral that keeps our cell phones and computers in play, is more important than Congolese girls? Is it flat-out racism, the world's utter indifference and disregard for black people and black women in particular? Is it simply that the UN and most governments are run by men who have never known what it feels like to be raped? What is happening in Congo is the most brutal and rampant violence toward women in the world. If it continues to go unchecked, if there continues to be complete impunity, it sets a precedent, it expands the boundaries of what is permissible to do to women's bodies in the name of exploitation and greed everywhere. It's cheap warfare. The women in Congo are some of the most resilient women in the world. They need our protection and support. Western governments, like the United States, should fund a training program for female Congolese police officers. They should address our role in plundering minerals and demand that companies trace the routes of these minerals. Make sure they are making and selling rape-free-products. Supply funds for women's medical and psychological care and seed their economic empowerment. Put pressure on Rwanda, Congo, Uganda and other countries in the Great Lakes region to sit down with all the militias involved in this conflict to find a political solution. Military solutions are no longer an option and will only bring about more rape. Most of all, we must support the women. Because women are at the center of this horror, they must be at the center of the solutions and peace negotiations. Women are the future of Congo. They are its greatest resource. Sadly, we are not the first to testify about these atrocities in Congo. I stand in a line of many who have described this horror. Still, in Eastern Congo, 1,100 women a month are raped, according to the United Nations' most recent report. What will the United States government, what will all of you reading this, do to stop it? Let Congo be the place where we ended femicide, the trend that is madly eviscerating this planet -- from the floggings in Pakistan, the new rape laws in Afghanistan, the ongoing rapes in Haiti, Darfur, Zimbabwe, the daily battering, incest, harassing, trafficking, enslaving, genital cutting and honor killing. Let Congo be the place where women were finally cherished and life affirmed, where the humiliation and subjugation ended, where women took their rightful agency over their bodies and land. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eve Ensler.","highlights":"Eve Ensler: War in Congo is targeting girls and women .\nShe says rape is being used as a weapon, with 1,100 raped each month .\nWestern governments, including the U.S., need to protect Congo's women, she says .","id":"cb34d9f3455a89a4a738e177593c5776f1a33d49"} -{"article":"PARKLAND, Florida (CNN) -- Sherri and Ira Rojhani stopped paying the mortgage on their 2-year-old South Florida home in April, victims not of a troubled economy, but, they say, of drywall from China that they believe is making them sick. An air conditioning unit in a Florida, is blackened and corroded from Chinese drywall, homeowners say. They join a growing list of homeowners in 13 states who face foreclosure or the prospect of paying both their mortgage and rent on alternate housing as they seek relief from what they describe as corrosive gasses emitted from the Chinese drywall. The drywall is now the subject of several scientific studies. \"Families are being forced to make health decisions based on financial consideration, and that is fundamentally flawed,\" said Sherri Rojhani, a homeowner in Parkland, Florida. \"We shouldn't be in a position to stay in a home, based on our health,\" she said. Homeowners allege the gas is causing home appliances and copper wiring to fail and causes chronic, long-term upper respiratory infections. Federal authorities including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are studying the possible health effects of the drywall. Most of their results are still some time off. On Tuesday the EPA announced that it found sulfur, a corrosive material, in the Chinese drywall samples it tested and that sulfur was not found in the U.S. manufactured drywall samples it also tested. The EPA also found strontium in the Chinese drywall at levels about 10 times higher than in the U.S. drywall. Strontium is a metal often used in manufacturing the glass for television screens. The EPA also detected two elements typically found in acrylic paints in the Chinese drywall but not in the U.S. drywall. The EPA said these results are not intended to establish a definitive link between the drywall and the conditions being found by homeowners in their homes. The CPSC says representatives from the Chinese government are in the U.S. working on the issue. Pointing to the blackened copper on their home's corroded air conditioning unit as all the evidence they need, the Rojhanis say they aren't going to wait for the government studies. They say the air in the home they share with their son, Seth, 18, who is paraplegic with a history of cancer, is giving them headaches and causing sinus infections. Sherri says she's been coughing since February. \"What we are doing is discontinuing our mortgage, and saving our money for moving expenses, and for a rental property,\" Sherri Rojhani told CNN. They stopped paying their mortgage in April. Their attorney contacted their mortgage company, Countrywide, recently bought by Bank of America, almost a month ago with details of their plight. A letter to the Rojhanis from Bank of America's counseling center said the bank intends to move forward with the foreclosure process. That doesn't make sense to Sherri Rojhani. \"It's worth zero. They cannot sell it. They face the same issue we do for a potential buyer,\" she said. Countrywide \/ Bank of America did not respond to CNN's request for comment. Indeed, banks and mortgage companies across the country may soon find themselves in the same position if homeowners walk away and allow their homes to be foreclosed. \"They're having to make choices about their credit and whether they are going to lose their home, but they're always going to pick their health first,\" said Michael Ryan, the Rojhanis' attorney. According to the Gypsum Association, a trade group that represents drywall manufactures, enough drywall was imported from China during the housing boom from 2005 to 2007 to build 30,000 complete homes. But it's possible that some of the Chinese drywall was used in smaller remodeling projects across the country. So, the number of homes affected is difficult to calculate. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has made clear that not all Chinese drywall is bad. Rather than foreclosing, the Rojhanis suggest the banks team with homeowners against those who supplied the drywall. \"It's in their best interests to join us in going after ... the distributors and the manufactures to get remediation,\" she said. The Rojhanis are now suing their home builder. Joseph Espinal lives in the same Parkland, Florida, area as the Rojhanis, but his lender, HSBC, has given him and his family a three-month grace period in paying their mortgage. In an e-mailed statement, an HSBC spokeswoman, Kate Durham, told CNN: \"HSBC does not comment on individual customer matters but we can tell you that our home preservation team members regularly work with customers facing various hardships, to offer assistance.\" But what happens after that three-month payment hiatus ends is anybody's guess. \"It's a great start,\" Joseph Espinal told CNN. \"But I don't see anybody coming up to the plate and saying, Mr. Espinal, I know we screwed you by building a house with toxic chemicals, here's a temporary home, while we repair what went wrong.\" He's moving his wife and two young daughters into a rental this month, after what he describes as almost two years of sickness and visits to doctors. \"We have sinus headaches which lead to antibiotics, and then three weeks, four weeks later, I'm back asking for more,\" he said. Espinal made a 40 percent down payment on his home. He's concerned and angry about what's happened to his investment. \"I don't want to lose my money,\" he said. CPSC says Florida leads the nation in complaints about Chinese drywall. Other complaints from homeowners are coming from Louisiana, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, California, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, Tennessee and Washington D.C. Many homeowner's have turned to their home insurance companies for help, only to find that any problems would not be covered by homeowner's policies. \"If it's defective, where they have to be recompensated, that would have to come from the manufacturer,\" said Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute, an insurance industry trade group. Last week, Florida Reps. Robert Wexler, a Democrat, and Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican, were successful in passing legislation that required the secretary of housing to examine the effect of Chinese drywall on mortgage foreclosures and to study the availability of property insurance coverage for these homes. \"It is critical that we address this problem swiftly to avoid devastating results in our communities and long-term effects on the health and well being of our families,\" Diaz-Balart said in a written statement. Meanwhile, Florida's attorney general has warned consumers to be aware of fraudulent companies selling bogus test kits and quick fixes, costing thousands of dollars. There are no quick fixes according to state and federal experts. Sherri Rojhani says she won't be taking any chances. \"If the fumes are strong enough to corrode metal, and copper pipe is turning black, I don't need a degree from the EPA to determine if my lung tissue is at risk.\"","highlights":"Chinese-made drywall emits corrosive gasses, homeowners say .\nMortgage relief sought as value of homes reduced to zero, homeowners say .\nResidents say they choose between health, foreclosure .\nDrywall-related problems not covered by insurance, insurer says .","id":"42294918a9b5d91601934795fc8ae6b9f4a71f65"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Dozens of gay and lesbian rights activists planning a parade in southwestern Moscow Saturday have been detained, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. Gay and lesbian rights activists are detained in Moscow Saturday ahead of a planned march. The arrests included Nikolai Alexeyev, a prominent gay activist in Russia, and his associate Nikolai Bayev, Interfax said, adding that more people trickling into the location were being arrested without explanation. Officials of Moscow's gay community had announced earlier plans to rally at Novopushkinsky Park in central Moscow, Interfax said. The arrests came ahead of Saturday night's Eurovision Song Contest, which is being held in Moscow. The contest has a strong following among the gay and lesbian community. Watch police break up the march \u00bb . Journalists from various countries gathered at the scene, as police barricaded the park with metal bars. Trucks with soldiers onboard were parked on nearby streets, Interfax said. UK gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, in a statement on his Web site ahead of the march, said it was being held to coincide with the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. \"This parade is in defense of human rights. We are defending the often violated human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Russians. They want legal protection against discrimination and hate crimes. I support their cause. \"Not all Russians are homophobic, but many are. Gay Russians suffer queer-bashing attacks, blackmail, verbal abuse and discrimination in education, housing and employment. This shames the great Russian nation.\" The Eurovision Song Contest, which began in 1956, sees singers and groups from a short list of European nations perform a specially written song before telephone votes from each nation decide the winner. In western Europe, the contest is regard as a light entertainment spectacular, with a strong following among the gay and lesbian community. Many fans dress up, hold parties and gather round the TV to watch the three-hour-plus televised marathon. In recent years, however, eastern European nations, which take the contest much more seriously, have come to dominate. The contest is also known for its political edge, as nations either give zero points to traditional enemies -- or, if they are enjoying good relations, the maximum number of points, as a sign of friendship. The most famous winners of the contest were ABBA, who came to attention as the Swedish entry with \"Waterloo\" in 1974. In 1988, Celine Dion won the contest while singing on behalf of Switzerland. The dance show Riverdance first came to attention as an interval act when the contest was held in Dublin, Ireland, in 1994. The organizers of the contest estimate it is watched by 100 million people worldwide.","highlights":"News agency: Police barricade park where demonstrators due to meet .\nArrests come ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest, being held in Moscow Saturday .\nMost famous winners of the contest were ABBA, who came to attention in 1974 .\nContest is traditionally taken more seriously in eastern Europe .","id":"663ed18b7a9de6d22120d9098ca6eb94b7f434f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The bodies of young elephants covered in the brown dirt of dried-up wells tell a heartrending story. A baby elephant in the Gourma region of central Mali had been trapped in a well for three days. Reaching desperately for drops of water, they had lowered their trunks, toppled in, remained trapped and died in Mali's scorching heat. The \"last desert elephants in West Africa\" have \"adapted to survive in the harsh conditions\" they face, Save the Elephants said Monday. But now, the group says, conditions have gone from bad to worse, and they are living \"on the margin of what is ecologically viable.\" Save the Elephants distributed new pictures Monday that depict the devastating drought and the struggle for survival in Mali, one of the poorest nations in the world. \"Six elephants have already been found dead,\" the group wrote in a news release accompanying the photos. \"Four others, including three calves, were recently extracted from a shallow well into which they had fallen when searching for water. Only the largest survived.\" The youngest are in the most danger, since their smaller trunks can't reach deep into the few remaining wells, the group said. The worst drought in 26 years is threatening the existence of the \"last desert elephants in West Africa,\" the northernmost herds in the continent, Save the Elephants said. The animals, now numbering only about 350 to 450, have been called \"the last elephants of Timbuktu,\" said Jake Wall, a scientist with Save the Elephants. But they're south of Timbuktu, Wall told CNN in a phone interview from Bamako, Mali. \"We tend to refer to them as 'the last Sahelian elephants.' \" See a map of Mali \u00bb . Each year, the elephants trek farther on the fringes of the Sahara to find water. They have the longest migration route of any in the continent, traveling \"in a counterclockwise circle\" of about 700 kilometers (435 miles), Save the Elephants said. The images are signs of the crisis gripping the northwest African nation. The U.N. Development Programme ranks Mali near the bottom of its Human Development Index. It cites a 56 percent poverty rate in the country, with nearly a third of the population unlikely to live past age 40, and an illiteracy rate of 77 percent. The World Food Programme says the majority of infant deaths in Mali are due to malnutrition. The drought, combined with soaring temperatures, has also led to deaths of cattle, Save the Elephants said. \"The stench of rotting corpses fills the air, and what little water remains is putrid and undrinkable by all standards.\" In areas where the elephants live and search for water, \"the normal peaceful coexistence between the elephants and herdsmen is starting to break down and giving way to conflict over access to water,\" Wall said. There is some hope for the weeks and months ahead. \"We're hoping the rains start in June, and that will allow the elephants to start drinking out of shallow ponds until the really heavy rains begin\" in July or August, Wall said. But \"urgent action\" is needed in the interim \"to secure water for the elephants,\" Wall's group said in its news release. Save the Elephants, which focuses on helping elephant populations worldwide, said it has partnered with a foundation and the Mali government in its fundraising appeal.","highlights":"Elephants dying in Mali are among 350 to 450 left in the area .\nSave the Elephants releases photos of elephants struggling during drought .\nSoaring heat is killing cattle, which is leading to water pollution, group says .\nThere is hope that rain in June may provide relief to elephants .","id":"b060e70ad1f0d09bd20b0143c72c4631580017c1"} -{"article":"BIHAR, India (CNN) -- Extreme flooding has displaced millions of people on either side of the India-Nepal border after a river burst its banks, authorities said Thursday. People walk along a flooded railway track in Madhepura, India. In India's northeastern state of Bihar, almost 3 million people have been affected by the worst flooding in decades, and more than 100,000 people have been displaced in southeastern Nepal after the breach last week. The Saptakoshi River in Nepal is the same one that flooded neighboring India's poorest state, although the Indians call it the Kosi River. In some stretches, it is three miles (5 km) wide. Nepalese Home Secretary Umesh Mainali said that of those displaced in Nepal, \"more than 40,000 are living in government run camps.\" Many victims are taking shelter in schools and colleges. Residents were forced from their homes after an aged and damaged embankment on the river burst August 18 in Nepal. Water flowed so forcefully through the breach that it actually changed the course of the river, which now flows 75 miles (120 km) east of its original bed. Bad weather and washed-out roads -- including the region's main highway -- have hampered relief efforts, officials said. The heavy rains have also made repairing the breach difficult. Nepalese and Indian teams have been working separately to try to stem the flow of water, Mainali said. State-run Nepal Television reported Thursday that many Indian citizens are coming through the open border because of the availability of food and shelter. The Indian government said that about 50 people have been killed, revising the figure down from 87 deaths reported Wednesday. The Disaster Management Department in Bihar released a death toll of 12, an increase of two since Wednesday. There was no immediate explanation for the variance in numbers. \"Flood is understatement,\" Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said. \"It's a disaster.\" Watch how India is struggling to cope \u00bb . Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, flew over the four most flooded districts of Supaul, Saharsa, Araria and Madhepura, the news agency Press Trust of India reported. Singh announced immediate aid of about $238 million and promised the delivery of 125,000 metric tons of grain to the region. CNN's Sara Sidner traveled by boat Thursday with some of the soldiers and called the mayhem \"enormous.\" \"We have seen panic, we've seen sorrow, we've seen despair. ... Hundreds of people screamed to us from rooftops as we floated by.\" The soldiers were trying to pull people to safety, Sidner said, \"but there are simply too many people to rescue and too few boats to do so. People were literally screaming, waving, running with suitcases in water trying to get to us.\" The Home Ministry said that nearly 153,000 people have been evacuated, and 31,000 are staying in 155 relief camps. About 228,000 homes have been damaged. There was no number provided Thursday on the number of homes destroyed. Madhepura district, where 1 million people live in 378 villages, is the worst hit, officials said. There are 900,000 residents in Supaul and 250,000 in Araria. More than 2.7 million people in 1,600 villages have been affected, thousands of them marooned on thin strips of dry land peeking out from cloudy brown waters of the swollen Kosi River. With heavy rainfall forecast for the next two days, officials worry that the situation will get much worse. Indians call it the River of Sorrow. Every summer, from June to September, the relentless monsoon rains cause the Kosi to overflow, bringing untold misery. This year, though, it swallowed entire villages in areas unaccustomed to water that deep -- with the worst flooding in 80 years in the landlocked rural state. Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and good Samaritans have begun doing what they can: using motorboats to rescue stranded residents, for example, or dropping thousands of food packets from the sky. Watch as boats deliver supplies, provide rescue \u00bb . The scale of the disaster is overwhelming. About half the state is under water, a submerged area the size of the entire U.S. state of Delaware. One man told CNN's partner network IBN that he scrounged together 2,000 rupees ($45) to pay a boatman to ferry his family to safety. \"We agreed on 2,000 (rupees), and he upped it to 2,700 ($61) just like that,\" he said. \"What can I do? I paid him.\" But many others stayed put. Nine hundred million Indians survive on less than 85 rupees ($2) a day, a British government study found this year. Many of them live in Bihar, the poorest and considered to be the most lawless state in India. They have nowhere to go. \"It's raining here. People are on rooftops begging to be rescued,\" CNN's Bharati Naik said while touring some of the affected area Thursday. There are \"not enough boats. Villagers are crying and extremely frustrated.\" Officials worry that in coming days, stranded residents may start drinking the contaminated river water, raising fears of an epidemic. \"There is no water to drink,\" one man told CNN-IBN. \"We are hungry. We're thirsty. We have to drink something.\" Roshan Kumar, a teacher from one of the flooded villages, arrived at an army base to seek help for his neighbors. About 30,000 people are stranded, he said. The army said it's doing all it can. Meanwhile, the water level in many areas continues to rise even as hope, among many, is beginning to falter.","highlights":"India and Nepal battle worst flooding for decades .\nIndia says 3 million affected in northeast; Nepal says 100,000 displaced .\nRiver burst bank and now flows 75 miles east of its original course .\nIndian prime minister tours area and announces $238 million aid package .","id":"3b86bec4d5085e865fa1ee1888841ba459775bd1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Serbian police are conducting another search for war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic and another fugitive, the office of the war crimes prosecutor in Belgrade said Friday. Ratko Mladic, pictured in 1993, is the highest-ranking war crimes suspect still at large. The search, launched at the request of Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic, is being conducted around the town of Arandjelovac, 45 miles (75 kilometers) south of Belgrade, the prosecutor's office said. Serbia is offering a reward of 1 million euros for information leading to the capture of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general wanted by the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in the Hague. A reward of \u20ac250,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest of Serbia's other fugitive, Goran Hadzic. Mladic is the highest-ranking figure from the conflict to remain at large following the July arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Mladic commanded the Bosnian Serb military during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The U.N. tribunal indicted Mladic in 1995, along with 51 others, on charges involving war crimes and atrocities committed during four years of civil war. In July 1996, an international arrest warrant was issued for Mladic after investigators collected evidence at the site of the Srebrenica massacre. Mladic stepped down as military commander in November 1996 and returned to Belgrade. But he disappeared after former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001. The 66-year-old faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity over the killing of some 7,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. He's also wanted for his role in the 1992 shelling of Sarajevo. In 1992, as hostilities broke out in Sarajevo, Mladic led the \"shelling and sniping to target civilian areas of the city and its civilian population and institutions, killing and wounding civilians, and thereby also inflicting terror upon the civilian population,\" the war crimes tribunal contends. The status of Mladic is one of the major stumbling block's to Serbia's admission to the European Union. In April Serbia's government signed a preliminary agreement setting the country on the path to full EU membership. But ratification of the agreement was made conditional on Serbia sending Mladic to the Hague. CNN's Ben Blake in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Serbian police search for former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic .\nMladic is the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect still at large .\nSearch conducted in town of Arandjelovac, 75kms (45 miles) south of Belgrade .\nSerbian EU membership agreement conditional on sending Mladic to the Hague .","id":"b4177124f36f0b1855b0dc2df8159a825f3f85f7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The then-senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee urged the CIA in 2003 not to destroy videotapes it had made of the interrogations of terrorist detainees, according to the newly declassified letter. Lawyers for several Guantanamo detainees say the government has defied orders to preserve evidence. Rep. Jane Harman wrote in a letter dated February 10, 2003, that destruction of the tapes would \"reflect badly on the agency.\" The Democrat from California released the letter Thursday. Last month, the CIA acknowledged videotapes were made in 2002 of two terrorist detainees but were destroyed in 2005. Some of the tapes showed the harsh interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. In the case of Zubaydah, the tactics captured on videotape included waterboarding, which simulates drowning, a controversial technique that critics consider a form of torture. Shortly after becoming the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee in 2003, Harman was briefed on the CIA's interrogation and detention program, and the existence of the videotapes. She was told of the intention to destroy the tapes once an internal inquiry into the program was complete. Harman wrote her letter to the CIA's chief lawyer urging the agency to reconsider its plan. \"Even if the videotape does not constitute an official record that must be preserved under the law, the videotape would be the best proof that the written record is accurate, if such record is called into question in the future,\" she wrote. The release of the letter comes a day after the Justice Department announced there is enough evidence to warrant a criminal investigation into the destruction of the CIA tapes. The inquiry will look into whether the CIA or other government officials committed crimes in the handling of the tapes. Congressional oversight committees are independently investigating the tape destruction. The House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA covert service who sources say ordered the destruction of the tapes, to testify before the panel January 16. CIA General Counsel John Rizzo, who opposed the tape destruction, has agreed to voluntarily appear before the committee. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Letter: Rep. Jane Harman said destroying tapes would \"reflect badly on\" CIA .\nLast month, the CIA acknowledged videotapes were made in 2002 .\nTapes showed the harsh interrogations of two terrorist suspects .\nIn one instance, a tape shows detainee undergoing waterboarding .","id":"a20255e420525d9b61e044b5c817b472359bc270"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- The United Nation's International Maritime Organization (IMO) has gathered this week in the shipping hub of Hong Kong to draw up new rules on ship recycling. Ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh are responsible for pollution and health problems. As the delegates meet in the city's Convention and Exhibition center overlooking the harbor, many of the vast container ships that glide past them will end up 1,500 miles away on the beaches of south east Bangladesh. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh take 80 percent of end-of-life ships, according to the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, but critics of the U.N. convention being discussed fear the problems of pollution and poor working conditions these countries experience through badly regulated shipbreaking will not be properly addressed. Lee Adamson, the IMO's spokesperson, is confident the convention will be \"a tremendous step forward in terms of health and safety for workers in the industry and for protection of the environment from end-of-life ships. It will set standards where none previously existed.\" But those standards don't go far enough for lawyer and head of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Rizwana Hasan. She has been trying to clean up the dirty and dangerous industry through the law courts since 2003. Her passion and persistence led to a Bangladesh High Court ruling in March this year finally forcing the government to tighten its regulations of the trade. It has also brought her the Goldman Environmental Prize in April and increasing international attention. \"Now I have an international connection, my opponents are taking me more seriously as a threat,\" she told CNN. The main objection of Hasan and the nongovernmental organization Platform on Shipbreaking against the IMO convention is that it fails to deal with the issue of pre-cleaning -- the removal of toxic materials from ships before they are beached and dismantled, which is often done by hand by laborers without any safety equipment. \"Technical details about recycling are being discussed, but nothing about pre-cleaning of ships. It's the core issue. Pre-cleaning is when the majority of in-built toxic material of a ship is removed before being beached in a foreign country. Plus, nothing is being said against beaching -- Bangladesh's beaches have become a natural disadvantage,\" Hasan told CNN. Secretary-General of the IMO Efthimios E. Mitropoulos stated in his opening address of conference its aim \"is to adopt a new convention on the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, while balancing the commercial and economic considerations of the industry.\" With perhaps too much emphasis on the economic considerations of the industry, Hasan believes the IMO is in effect legalizing shipbreaking in the name of ship recycling. \"They're talking about the responsibility of the ship owners in building new ships, but not about the existing ships and what to do them,\" said Hasan. More ships to scrap . The ship breaking industry is booming. Single-hull oil tankers have to be taken off the high seas by 2010, but the financial downturn has also become a major factor. With less trade in goods, container ships are being taken out of service and scrapped, as shipping lines can no longer afford to keep them afloat. In turn shipbreaking industries fuels local businesses in iron milling and create local markets for parts from ships, including anything salvaged, from doors and tables to nuts and bolts. Shipping companies often sell their decommission ships to intermediary companies that then sell the ships to breakers yards. Less scrupulous companies will not ensure the ships are as free of toxic materials as they should be before they are dismantled and even change their flag of convenience so they are not bound by the UN Basel convention on the exporting of toxic material. In 2006 legal actions instigated by Hasan were successful in turning away two toxic-laden ships from being beached in Bangladesh. The dangerous job of breaking up ships has migrated from dry docks in industrial countries to other ports across the world, where labor and environmental laws are not strictly upheld. While still happening on a smaller scale in India, it was because of tighter laws there that more ships started being beached across the Bay of Bengal. The bulk of Bangladesh's shipbreaking is done on the beaches around Chittagong in southeastern Bangladesh. Casual laborers often include children and don't have the most basic of protection gear, such as gloves, hard hats or face masks while breaking up the ship by hand and have to handle a cocktail of toxic waste including asbestos, PCBs, lead and other heavy metals. See more photos of the shipbreaking yards \u00bb . Accidents and death are common, although Hasan says it's almost impossible to say how many accidents occur; the shipbreaking companies are cagey on the numbers. \"I call it exploitation, I don't call it employment. The majority of the laborers are seasonal migrants from the north, the poorest of the poor. They will get three meals and day and rarely some payment, but they will definitely get diseases,\" said Hasan. Environmental devastation . As well as the human impact, the environmental damage has been equally devastating, with heavy metals contaminating the surrounding land, oil leaking into the oceans, and asbestos released into the air. Mangroves, natural protection zones against floods, have been cut down to make way for the shipbreaking yards and high value beachland leased out to the companies that run them. Fishing, the traditional livelihood of many in the region, has been ruined because of polluted water and few fish left in coastal waters. \"Bangladesh is allowing its beach to turn into a dumping ground. It's a classic example of environmental injustice,\" said Hasan. Yet Hasan is not denouncing the industry completely but the way in which it is conducted. \"It's a matter of disgrace for Bangladesh to have this industry in its current form. I'm not saying I want the industry to shut down, because the main stakeholders, the workers have a say in this. They should have a say whether we need the industry or not,\" said Hasan. There have been improvements in the treatment of workers since the High Court of Bangladesh ruled in March in favor of tighter regulations surrounding the industry. \"Until very recently the owners [of the shipbreaking companies] didn't take responsibility for deaths or injuries. After we started filing the cases they have started paying compensation.\" The cases Hasan won were founded on the U.N.'s Basel Convention on the export and disposal of toxic waste. Although it has provided the means for Hasan and her team to score victories in the courts, the Basel ruling is a set of guidelines where the principal was to regulate toxic waste and not a legally binding rule for shipping. Adamson maintains that the Basle convention and other UN measures to protect ship workers and the environment were \"heavily involved\" in the draft convention. He also questions the usefulness of a convention that does not get universal agreement. \"There is nothing that can force a sovereign state to become party to an international convention should it consider it not in its interests to do so. What would be the value of a convention to which those states were not party? That, I think, is very much at the heart of the matter,\" he told CNN. Regardless of the final wording of the convention, Hasan's attentions will focus on improving the situation in Bangladesh for shipbreaking workers and the environment. \"There's something called natural justice. Enough is enough. Since the workers have been informed that there has been a ruling things have changed; they're getting their compensation. But that's not my goal -- to kill people and then give them compensation. My ultimate goal is to see this industry doesn't pollute and does not kill,\" said Hasan.","highlights":"U.N. meeting in Hong Kong to draw up new convention on ship recycling .\nEco lawyer Rizwana Hasan claims it won't stop dangerous shipbreaking practices .\nBangladesh beaches sites of polluting and dangerous shipbreaking .\nHasan succeeded in making Bangladeshi government clean up shipbreaking yards .","id":"305a2b192ea251cd3f76db816c638e6e1c604c6b"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- President George W. Bush called India's prime minister Thursday to push a proposed nuclear partnership that sparked an unsuccessful no-confidence vote against the Indian leader this week, a White House spokesman said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a confidence vote despite opposition to the nuclear deal. \"Both leaders expressed their desire to see the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible,\" Gordon Johndroe said. The phone call took place two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh narrowly survived the no-confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament. The vote was sparked by concerns from the opposition that India was kowtowing to the U.S. The tentative deal was announced in 2006 and signed by Bush and Singh a year ago. Under the agreement, which will need to be approved by the U.S. Congress, India would have access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology for its civilian nuclear power plants. That would happen even though New Delhi, which tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998, has declined to join international non-proliferation agreements. In return, India has promised that it would not transfer the fuel and equipment to its weapons program, and it would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect at least 14 of its 22 nuclear plants. The plan would also expand U.S.-Indian cooperation in energy and satellite technology. The plan was approved by India's Cabinet last year, and does not have to be ratified by the parliament. The leaders of India's two communist parties -- which hold about 60 seats in Parliament -- have accused Singh of surrendering India's sovereignty to the United States with the deal. A no-confidence vote would have forced Singh to resign, and required the government to hold early elections unless a new coalition could have been formed. The Congress Party-led coalition has governed India since 2004. Tuesday's 275-256 vote was so crucial to the survival of Singh's government that five members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to cast votes -- under the watchful eyes of their jailers. Shortly after Singh survived the vote, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino praised the deal as \"a good one for everybody.\" \"It's good for India because it would help provide them a source for energy that they need, one that is nonpolluting and one that doesn't emit greenhouse gas emissions,\" she said. \"And we think that we can move forward with this. If their legislature lets it move forward, then we can do the same here and then we'll be able to get this wrapped up.\"","highlights":"President Bush calls India's PM to push a proposed nuclear partnership .\nIndian government won confidence vote in face of anger over U.S. nuclear deal .\nFive members of parliament serving prison sentences were freed to vote .","id":"f89f1061dde6f2774ffd754afbe55a46dc6b1863"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A struggling German soccer team is offering a refund to its fans who traveled to another city to watch it suffer a 4-0 loss. Cottbus are second from the bottom of the German Bundesliga. More than 600 Energie Cottbus supporters saw their team suffer its sixth loss in seven games when it received a 4-0 drubbing Friday at the hands of another team, Schalke. Cottbus are second from the bottom in the German Bundesliga's ranking and is in danger of being relegated to a lower league at the end of the season. The team posted a Web statement Saturday headlined, \"Sorry, Energie Fans!\" In it, the team said its players \"did not manage at any time to stand up to a high-class opponent with our particular qualities of passion, dedication and one-on-one duels.\" \"Certainly one can lose at Schalke,\" the team manager Steffen Heidrich said in the statement. \"Nevertheless we did not put up enough defense against the class of the individuals of this opponent.\" The team said it will announce details in the coming weeks of how fans can receive a refund on their admission ticket. \"I welcome the apologetic gesture of the team to its fans,\" Heidrich said. \"Real compensation must actually be given in the coming matches.\" CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 600 supporters watch their team suffer its sixth loss in seven games .\nEnergie Cottbus are second from the bottom in its league's ranking .\nThe team will announce details of how fans can receive a refund on their ticket .","id":"4bbfed0f8148c68019884d491849a49b6d6ba400"} -{"article":"YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and an American man who swam to her lakeside home went on trial in the military dictatorship Monday behind closed doors inside a prison compound. Soldiers guard the entrance to Insein Prison on Monday in Yangon, Myanmar. The trial is expected to last about three months, said Nyan Win, spokesman for her National League for Democracy party. Suu Kyi's lawyer asked the court to open up the hearings but was turned down because of security concerns, Win said. Police put up roadblocks on the streets leading to the Insean Prison near Yangon, with a half-dozen officers at each station. Shops around the prison were closed, according to opposition exile groups. A group of diplomats from Germany, Italy, Australia and Britain tried to pass through the barricades to attend the trial. They were stopped and turned away. \"It was a way of signaling our concern at what's happening and the need for the proceedings in the court to take place in an open and transparent fashion,\" Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, Mark Canning, told CNN. About 100 supporters of Suu Kyi waited outside. The American visitor, John Yettaw, is charged with immigration violations and trespassing into a restrictive area, charges that carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Watch more on Suu Kyi's trial \u00bb . He is accused of staying overnight in Suu Kyi's lakeside home earlier this month, violating the conditions of her house arrest, according to the country's ruling military junta, which rarely grants her visitors. The central Missouri man was appointed a lawyer selected by the U.S. embassy, Win said. Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and two of her maids have been detained under Section 22 of the country's legal code -- a law against subversion -- according to Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi, 63, had been scheduled to be released from house arrest later this month after being incarcerated 13 of the past 19 years. She is now being held in a specially built area of Insein Prison, where Yettaw also is detained, a U.S. Embassy official told CNN on Friday. The timing of Suu Kyi's detention raised suspicion among her supporters, who said the government's action was an excuse to extend her house arrest. Watch former U.S. president Jimmy Carter discuss Aung San Suu Kyi \u00bb . \"This is the cunning plan of the regime to put Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in continuous detention beyond the six years allowed by the law they used to justify the detention of her,\" said the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pro-democracy group fighting for her release. \"Daw\" is an honorific. The southeast Asian country was known as Burma before the military government changed it to Myanmar. Those who oppose the junta still use the old name. Suu Kyi's lawyer, U Kyi Win, blamed her prison detention on Yettaw. Local media said Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, swam almost two miles across Inya Lake on May 3 and sneaked into Suu Kyi's home. Police maintain a round-the-clock presence outside the house. And swimming in the lake is forbidden. U Kyi Win told CNN that Yettaw arrived at his client's house that day and that she asked him to leave immediately. U Kyi Win said Yettaw refused to leave, first saying he didn't want to swim in daylight for fear of being captured, and later blaming leg cramps. Yettaw finally left May 5. Suu Kyi didn't tell authorities about the visit because she didn't want Yettaw or anyone else to get in trouble, Win said, nothing that several of her party members and supporters are already in jail. He added that Yettaw would likely be in the courtroom during the trial. Little else is known about Yettaw's role in the Myanmar incident or his intentions, apart from local media reports that said Yettaw, a diabetic, told Suu Kyi's two housekeepers he was tired and hungry after the swim and they offered him food. Some previous media reports referred to him as John William Yeattaw. He appeared healthy and in good spirits at a hearing on Friday at Insein Prison, the U.S. Embassy official said. The defense will argue that Yettaw entered Suu Kyi's home due to poor government security, said Jared Genser, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who is one of the attorneys on her defense team. \"Frankly, she does not believe she did any offense,\" Genser said. He noted that Insein Prison houses many political prisoners, and the conditions are poor for even a young, healthy person. Tuberculosis is rampant, mosquitoes and other insects are numerous, and nighttime temperatures at the prison frequently reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit (29-32 Celsius) with no fresh air traveling through the facility, Genser said. \"There is deep reason to be concerned with her detention,\" he said. \"Insein is a notorious prison. It is filthy. ... When you combine that with her health concerns, it is very worrying.\" Suu Kyi has been the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement and the focus of a global campaign to free her. Her National League for Democracy party won over 80 percent of the legislative seats in 1990, but she was disqualified from serving because of her house arrest, and the military junta ignored the results. It was during her house arrest that she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. CNN's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial with U.S. man .\nJohn Yettaw is charged with trespassing into restrictive area .\nSuu Kyi's supporters call charges an excuse to extend her house arrest .\nThe Nobel Peace Prize laureate was scheduled to end 13 years of house arrest .","id":"84cd4b4197022a9e65b7a697baef4a24c5580996"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Move over Wonder Woman and Lois Lane - Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are breaking into the world of comic books. No capes, no tights: Female Force stars Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Caroline Kennedy. Washington-based publisher Bluewater Productions released a series of comic books featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on March 11. The company says it has already sold 7,500 copies of each to distributors. \"We really want to show strong, independent, female role models in comics,\" said Darren Davis, president of Bluewater Productions. Another company released comics about President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain during the presidential election. Then they decided that Hillary Clinton's story needed to be told. \"She was the first [major] female presidential candidate, so we just started with [her], and there was so much interest in it,\" said Jason Schultz, executive vice president of Bluewater Productions. The first two issues in Female Force, already released, feature Clinton and Palin. The next two will feature Caroline Kennedy and First Lady Michelle Obama. The Michelle Obama comic is expected to be released in April, and has pre-sold 28,000 copies. The next set will feature other \"strong, independent women\" such as Princess Diana, Schultz said. Comic fans approve of the idea. \"I think it just says, like, that women are important,\" one comic book fan told CNN. Another added, \"It shows that comics aren't just about guys in tights beating each other up -- it's about information, it's about understanding people a little better,\" said another reader. Richard Laermer, CEO of a public relations firm and author of several books on marketing, said he's not surprised. \"We're in a very politically minded time right now,\" he said. The creators expect to expand the comic book world to a larger demographic with the books. \"It's bringing a whole new demographic to comic books,\" Schultz said. \"It just shows little girls, young women, that they can be anything they want,\" he added. Mary Ellen Balchunis, an assistant professor of political science at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania said \"getting girls [interested in politics] at a younger age is brilliant.\" \"I think it's great that they're doing these comic books,\" Balchunis said. \"In the past, women have shown a low level of political efficacy.\" She said the choices are \"fabulous,\" because \"these are the women who are at the top of the totem pole right now.\" Each comic will be biographical, Schultz said. \"With Hillary, it starts with her life and ends up with her as Secretary of State.\" \"It would be fun to see how the superhero Hillary sort of pushes her way forth and shows people what she did in her life. To me that's just awesome,\" said Laermer. Another professor of political science said the way the women are portrayed will be important. \"Comic books, by definition, are caricatures, but there are different ways of doing those caricatures,\" said Landon Storrs, an associate professor of history at the University of Houston. \"So it's a question of what the artists go for. If they just tap into familiar stereotypes, then they could reinforce negative ideas about powerful women, even as they are trying to do the opposite,\" she added. The fact that real, living women are now in comic books is another barrier that Davis and Schultz have broken through, historian and author Trina Robbins said. \"It's about time. They've never done a major living woman,\" she said. \"I think what's good is they're doing women in politics and not Paris Hilton.\" LaNeice Collins reported from New York. Robyn Sidersky reported from Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"A comic book series featuring real women of power has hit the stands .\nBluewater Productions series features \"strong, independent women\"\nSarah Palin, Hillary Clinton are featured in the first Female Force .\nHeroes of upcoming issue are Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy .","id":"80f77a7a06986d8ba5af4081257b4a37d6ab6f22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman Loera, a 54-year-old drug cartel leader whose nickname means \"Shorty,\" is the most wanted man in Mexico. He's also one of the most wanted men in the United States. Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman Loera leads the Sinaloa cartel, which is battling for turf along the border. For five years, the State Department has kept a $5 million bounty on his head, calling Guzman a threat to U.S. security. Guzman, who leads the Sinaloa cartel, is a key player in the bloody turf battles being fought along the border. He recently upped the stakes, ordering his associates to use lethal force to protect their loads in contested drug trafficking corridors, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cartel's tentacles and those of its chief rival, the Gulf cartel, already reach across the border and into metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charlotte, North Carolina, Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Arabit told a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in March. \"No other country in the world has a greater impact on the drug situation in the United States than Mexico does,\" said Arabit, who heads the DEA's office in this year's border hot spot, El Paso, Texas. See where Mexican cartels are in the U.S. A December 2008 report by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center revealed that Mexican drug traffickers can be found in more than 230 U.S. cities. So far, the U.S. has largely been spared the violence seen in Mexico, where the cartels' running gunbattles with police, the military and each other claimed about 6,500 lives last year. It was a sharp spike from the 2,600 deaths attributed to cartel violence in 2007. Once again, drug war casualties are mounting on the Mexican side at a record pace in 2009 -- more than 1,000 during the first three months of the year, Arabit said. See who the key players are \u00bb . The violence that has spilled over into the U.S. has been restricted to the players in the drug trade -- trafficker-on-trafficker, DEA agents say. But law enforcement officials and analysts who spoke with CNN agree that it is only a matter of time before innocent people on the U.S. side get caught in the cartel crossfire. \"It's coming. I guarantee, it's coming,\" said Michael Sanders, a DEA spokesman in Washington. Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman's shoot-to-kill instructions aren't limited to Mexican authorities and cartel rivals; they also include U.S. law enforcement officials, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources and intelligence memos. The move is seen as dangerously brazen, the newspaper reported. In the past, the cartels have tried to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. law enforcement. U.S. officials are trying to stop the violence from crossing the border. The Obama administration committed to spending an additional $700 million to help Mexico fight the cartels and agreed to double the number of U.S. agents working the border. But $700 million pales in comparison with the wealth amassed by just one target. Guzman, who started in collections and rose to lead his own cartel, is said to be worth $1 billion after more than two decades in the drug trade. He made this year's Forbes list of the richest of the rich, landing between a Swiss tycoon and an heir to the Campbell's Soup fortune. Popular Mexican songs, called narcocorridos, embellish the myth of the poorly educated but charismatic cartel leader. \"Shorty is the Pablo Escobar of Mexico,\" said security consultant Scott Stewart, invoking the memory of the colorful Medellin cartel leader who also landed on the Forbes list and thumbed his nose at Colombian authorities until he died in a shower of police bullets in December 1993. Stewart, a former agent for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, gathers intelligence on the cartels for Stratfor, a Texas-based security consulting firm that helped document Guzman's worth. Just a decade ago, Mexican smugglers worked as mules for Colombians, moving their cocaine by land across the U.S. border when the heat was on in the Caribbean. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's campaign of arrests and extraditions made ghosts of the Medellin and Cali cartels. The mules stepped into the power vacuum and never looked back. Now they buy cocaine from the Colombians and take their own profits. Mexican cartels now bring in about 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, according to the DEA. Mexico also is the top foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine. Marijuana became the cartels' biggest revenue source for the first time in 2007, bringing in $8.5 billion. Cocaine came in second, at $3.9 billion, and methamphetamine earned $1 billion, a top U.S. drug policymaker told a group of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials last year. Watch how marijuana became the cartels' top cash crop \u00bb . The Mexican government recognizes seven cartels, but the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are the major players along the U.S. border, according to the DEA agents, local police officials and security analysts who spoke with CNN. The cartels' enforcers -- Los Negros for Sinaloa, Los Zetas for Gulf -- are believed to be responsible for most of the violence. The status and alliances of the players continue to shift. Although the DEA and some analysts disagree, others say the Zetas, a paramilitary group of turncoat soldiers and anti-narcotics police, are now running the Gulf cartel. \"From what we've seen, the Zetas have taken over the Gulf cartel,\" analyst Stewart said. \"In violent times, soldiers tend to rise to the top.\" These soldiers are incredibly well-armed, police learned after a November raid that resulted in the arrest of top Zeta lieutenant Jaime \"Hummer\" Gonzalez Duran. It was the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history -- 540 rifles, including AK-47s; 287 grenades; two rocket launchers; and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. At the very least, the Zeta enforcers now have a seat at the table. The DEA's Arabit testified that the Gulf cartel is now run by a triumvirate. Included is Los Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, a former military man who is also known as \"El Lazco,\" or \"The Executioner.\" The past year witnessed unprecedented bloodshed as the two cartels battled for control of the border's lucrative drug-trafficking corridors. The cartels are fighting over control of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas; Sonora Nogales, across from Nogales, Arizona; and Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California. Two years ago, the turf battle was over Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. It's all about the highways that help move the drugs. Nuevo Laredo is close to the Interstate 35 corridor, and Juarez has easy access to I-10, a major east-west interstate, and I-25, which runs north to Denver, Colorado. Tijuana is also conveniently near I-10 and I-5, which heads north all the way to the Canadian border. Some of the battles are internal, Arabit said. Some are with other cartels. And some, he said, can be attributed to the cartels' \"desperate\" attempt to resist Mexican President Felipe Calderon's unprecedented attack on drug traffickers. As soon as he took office in January 2007, Calderon called out the cartels. He has deployed about 30,000 troops to back up and, in some cases, do the job of local police. Mexico also has extradited about 190 cartel suspects to the United States since Calderon took office. The violence involves beheadings, running gunbattles and discoveries of mass graves and huge arms caches. Police and public officials have been gunned down in broad daylight. The cartels' enforcers boldly display recruitment banners in the streets. \"The beheadings started at the same time the beheading videos started coming out of Iraq,\" analyst Stewart said. \"It was simple machismo. The Sinaloa guys started putting up videos on YouTube of them torturing Zetas.\" When Mexicans first stepped into the role of Colombians in the mid-1990s, the Juarez and Tijuana cartels were dominant, beneficiaries of their location. Today, they are shadows of their former selves, weakened by the deaths and arrests of their leaders. Juarez cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes died of complications from plastic surgery in 1997. Known as \"The King of the Skies\" for his fleet of cocaine-carrying planes, he was said to be undergoing liposuction and other appearance-altering procedures to avoid arrest. Three of his doctors were charged with killing the cartel leader with an overdose of anesthetic during his surgery. Two of them later were killed. His death, along with the 2003 arrest of Gulf cartel founder Osiel Cardenas Guillen, set the stage for the ongoing turf battle. When Cardenas was extradited in 2007, Guzman set his sights on controlling Juarez as well as Nogales. Cardenas is awaiting trial in October in federal court in Houston, Texas, where he is accused of drug trafficking and attempting to kill two federal agents and an informant on the streets of Matamoros, Mexico. Arrests and extraditions crippled the Arellano-Felix Organization in Tijuana, and last year, Guzman made a move on that plaza as well. \"Right now, they are fighting to survive much like Pablo Escobar,\" said the DEA's Elizabeth Kempshall, who heads the agency's office in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix has become the nation's kidnapping capital, largely because of the cartels' increasing presence. Kempshall said that cartel leaders fear nothing more than extradition: \"That is the worst thing for any cartel leader, to face justice in the United States.\" CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this story .","highlights":"Sinaloa, Gulf cartels battle for control of drug routes across U.S. border .\nThe turf war has spurred record death tolls with gunbattles, beheadings .\nU.S. is doubling number of agents at border, spending $700 million .\nAgents, analysts compare situation to '90s battle against Colombian cartels .","id":"8919c342aede899547a5bf740bd801fefd4068d6"} -{"article":"YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and an American man who swam to her lakeside home went on trial in the military dictatorship Monday behind closed doors inside a prison compound. Soldiers guard the entrance to Insein Prison on Monday in Yangon, Myanmar. The trial is expected to last about three months, said Nyan Win, spokesman for her National League for Democracy party. Suu Kyi's lawyer asked the court to open up the hearings but was turned down because of security concerns, Win said. Police put up roadblocks on the streets leading to the Insean Prison near Yangon, with a half-dozen officers at each station. Shops around the prison were closed, according to opposition exile groups. A group of diplomats from Germany, Italy, Australia and Britain tried to pass through the barricades to attend the trial. They were stopped and turned away. \"It was a way of signaling our concern at what's happening and the need for the proceedings in the court to take place in an open and transparent fashion,\" Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, Mark Canning, told CNN. About 100 supporters of Suu Kyi waited outside. The American visitor, John Yettaw, is charged with immigration violations and trespassing into a restrictive area, charges that carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Watch more on Suu Kyi's trial \u00bb . He is accused of staying overnight in Suu Kyi's lakeside home earlier this month, violating the conditions of her house arrest, according to the country's ruling military junta, which rarely grants her visitors. The central Missouri man was appointed a lawyer selected by the U.S. embassy, Win said. Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and two of her maids have been detained under Section 22 of the country's legal code -- a law against subversion -- according to Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi, 63, had been scheduled to be released from house arrest later this month after being incarcerated 13 of the past 19 years. She is now being held in a specially built area of Insein Prison, where Yettaw also is detained, a U.S. Embassy official told CNN on Friday. The timing of Suu Kyi's detention raised suspicion among her supporters, who said the government's action was an excuse to extend her house arrest. Watch former U.S. president Jimmy Carter discuss Aung San Suu Kyi \u00bb . \"This is the cunning plan of the regime to put Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in continuous detention beyond the six years allowed by the law they used to justify the detention of her,\" said the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pro-democracy group fighting for her release. \"Daw\" is an honorific. The southeast Asian country was known as Burma before the military government changed it to Myanmar. Those who oppose the junta still use the old name. Suu Kyi's lawyer, U Kyi Win, blamed her prison detention on Yettaw. Local media said Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, swam almost two miles across Inya Lake on May 3 and sneaked into Suu Kyi's home. Police maintain a round-the-clock presence outside the house. And swimming in the lake is forbidden. U Kyi Win told CNN that Yettaw arrived at his client's house that day and that she asked him to leave immediately. U Kyi Win said Yettaw refused to leave, first saying he didn't want to swim in daylight for fear of being captured, and later blaming leg cramps. Yettaw finally left May 5. Suu Kyi didn't tell authorities about the visit because she didn't want Yettaw or anyone else to get in trouble, Win said, nothing that several of her party members and supporters are already in jail. He added that Yettaw would likely be in the courtroom during the trial. Little else is known about Yettaw's role in the Myanmar incident or his intentions, apart from local media reports that said Yettaw, a diabetic, told Suu Kyi's two housekeepers he was tired and hungry after the swim and they offered him food. Some previous media reports referred to him as John William Yeattaw. He appeared healthy and in good spirits at a hearing on Friday at Insein Prison, the U.S. Embassy official said. The defense will argue that Yettaw entered Suu Kyi's home due to poor government security, said Jared Genser, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who is one of the attorneys on her defense team. \"Frankly, she does not believe she did any offense,\" Genser said. He noted that Insein Prison houses many political prisoners, and the conditions are poor for even a young, healthy person. Tuberculosis is rampant, mosquitoes and other insects are numerous, and nighttime temperatures at the prison frequently reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit (29-32 Celsius) with no fresh air traveling through the facility, Genser said. \"There is deep reason to be concerned with her detention,\" he said. \"Insein is a notorious prison. It is filthy. ... When you combine that with her health concerns, it is very worrying.\" Suu Kyi has been the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement and the focus of a global campaign to free her. Her National League for Democracy party won over 80 percent of the legislative seats in 1990, but she was disqualified from serving because of her house arrest, and the military junta ignored the results. It was during her house arrest that she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. CNN's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial with U.S. man .\nJohn Yettaw is charged with trespassing into restrictive area .\nSuu Kyi's supporters call charges an excuse to extend her house arrest .\nThe Nobel Peace Prize laureate was scheduled to end 13 years of house arrest .","id":"8cae5f1ec02c2756fcfd813804f7a3ef5b6934a5"} -{"article":"EL PASO, Texas (CNN) -- Marina Diaz knows each day could be her last when she leaves for school each morning. Marina Diaz and Alejandro Caballero cross a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint on the way to school each day. But that doesn't stop her from making the trip from her home on the dusty outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a key battleground in Mexico's drug wars, to El Paso, Texas, where she attends high school. From the moment she catches a bus to downtown Juarez, she is mindful of her surroundings. This is a city that saw 1,600 homicides last year. She warily watches the federal soldiers patrolling the streets. Diaz, 18, finally relaxes after she clears customs at a border checkpoint and passes the \"Welcome to Texas!\" sign greeting pedestrians at the intersection of El Paso Street and 6th Avenue in downtown El Paso. From there, it's another five minutes to the Lydia Patterson Institute. She is not the only student making the trip across the border each day. In fact, most of the students in the school do it: About 70 percent of the institute's 459 students live in Juarez. Some are American citizens with Mexican parents; others are Mexican citizens who carry a student visa to any one of three U.S.-Mexico border checkpoints in El Paso that serve tens of thousands of students, white-collar workers and day laborers each day. Students describe their lives and daily challenges \u00bb . When she gets to the school each morning, Diaz changes out of her jogging pants and into her uniform skirt. \"Because of the people over there, I don't feel comfortable with the men and stuff, so I wear pants,\" she explains. \"You definitely see a difference here. The streets, they are more clean here than they are in Juarez, and I think the people respect you a little more. You don't have to worry about people giving you trouble.\" El Paso, population 734,000, has long enjoyed the benefits of strong community ties with its industrial sister city of approximately 1.5 million. But the violence and insecurity created by the war between the Mexican government and the drug cartels has strained that relationship. For students at Lydia Patterson, who live in Juarez and cross the bridge each weekday, the small, United Methodist preparatory school has become a safe haven in the months since drug-related violence in Juarez has intensified. \"My school is a home for me because I have teachers and they treat me like parents,\" says Hazel Barrera, 18. \"Here, they take care of us and they make us feel comfortable and safe.\" Lydia Patterson's faculty and administrators -- many of whom are graduates of the school, and also reside in Juarez -- say the school's mission is very much the same as it was when it was founded nearly 100 years ago as a sanctuary for Mexican families fleeing the violence of the Mexican Revolution. \"Our students are exceptional, and I always tell them I respect them and I admire their courage because they're living through this horrible time,\" says the school's president, Socorro Brito de Anda. Watch de Anda talk about how cartel violence affects her school \u00bb . \"There are some students who've had some very horrifying experiences, and we have to be there for them,\" she says. \"Make them feel safe is mainly what we want to do here, make them feel that there's a place where they can go to school and concentrate on school without having to worry about their safety.\" Despite the Spartan aesthetic of the school grounds, which occupies a city block in downtown El Paso, most students might agree that Lydia Patterson lives up to de Anda's standards. Hazel Barrera and other Lydia Patterson students help clean the school to pay for their scholarships. By 7:30 a.m., the cafeteria is buzzing with chatter in English and Spanish of students who come in early for free breakfast. In the open-air courtyard that divides a pair of red-brick, two-story buildings of classrooms, students sit alone and in groups, reading books and exchanging gossip. In between classes, they gather in the office of their beloved student activities coordinator, an alumnus who helps them study history and plan activities. After classes, students linger as long as they can before it gets dark, chatting in empty classrooms with bars and gates over the windows and doors. Many stay for team sports or clubs, others contribute to the school's upkeep -- a stipulation of the scholarships that more than two-thirds receive. If a soccer game or yearbook meeting ends late, the school ensures that a teacher, coach or parent escorts the students over the bridge, oftentimes, all the way home. \"There are teachers who can take us home because they are close to us and they want to be sure that we come home safe,\" Hazel says. \"I don't feel like it's two countries, I feel like it's two homes.\" Watch Hazel talk about her two homes \u00bb . Since Mexican border towns became battlefields in the drug war, American towns like El Paso have become refuges for middle- and upper-class Mexicans. Many have moved their businesses stateside; the El Paso real estate market is seeing an influx of Mexican nationals and green card-carriers from Juarez purchasing homes and relocating their families. Families that cannot give up their lives in Juarez send their children to schools like Lydia Patterson, which has accepted 25 new students from Mexico since January. The instability in Juarez has sent ripple effects through the school. \"We've had more inquiries from parents wanting to bring students to our school because of security, but on the other hand, they're struggling financially because many have had to close their business in Juarez due to the violence, so they're looking for a safe place for their children,\" de Anda says. \"I've had parents in my office crying and pleading for us to take their children. They say the part of the day that their children are in school is the only time they don't fear for their safety,\" she says. Ask any student walking through Lydia Patterson's fluorescent-lit hallways how \"narcotrafico\" related violence has affected him or her, and most relay some vignette about a relative or neighbor who was robbed at gunpoint, extorted with death threats or caught in the middle of gunfire. Diaz remembers the time she and some friends were walking to the mall when they spotted a crowd swarming around a body. \"They told us that it had happened just a few minutes before, and it was like, wow, if we were there only a few minutes earlier, maybe it could've been us,\" she says, smiling nervously at the thought. Many of the teens at Lydia Patterson appear trapped between two worlds: one in which society tells them they're not safe, and another in which they feel such fears are exaggerated. The violence in Juarez has curtailed the social lives of Diaz and her friends, as their parents forbid them from going out after school or after dark on the weekends. \"It's not that they don't trust my friends or the things I do, but they're seriously worried that I may be in the wrong place at the wrong time and that something might happen to me,\" says Irvinn Ceja, 16. Watch Irvinn describe how drug violence has changed his life \u00bb . Ceja says he is concerned more for his parents' safety than his own. \"I think that especially my dad, he's the one who works, he's a salesman, he works in the streets, he has to visit his clients, has to offer his products, so most of his time is on the streets driving and that's a big cause of stress because anything might happen,\" Ceja says. Parents view Lydia Patterson as a means of elevating their family above the instability of Juarez. \"What would have become of my children if they stayed in Ciudad Juarez? Our lives changed the moment we were able to leave the danger, the fear of going out in the streets,\" says Maria Isabel Munoz Bustamante, whose daughter graduated from Lydia Patterson five years ago, and has a son, Alejandro, enrolled in his senior year. \"We were nearly at the point of being another statistic in Ciudad Juarez, just a number.\" The situation is Juarez also affects students who live in El Paso. Mari Brito says her father's import business has taken a hit, and the family doesn't visit relatives in Juarez as much anymore. Also gone are the days when Brito would cross freely between El Paso and Juarez to hang out with friends. Their contact is now limited to the school day and the Internet. \"We used to have all kinds of fun [in Juarez] and now we can't anymore because we don't know if it's safe,\" says Brito, whose parents sent her to Lydia so she could get in touch with her Mexican roots. Like many El Pasoans, Brito sympathizes with the plight of her classmates and considers it a problem that extends to her community. \"I've learned to be grateful that I have the opportunity to live in El Paso and to probably care a little more about my neighbor city,\" she says. \"We're all exposed to it because we know of it and we know the danger of it ... , so we've all been through it.\"","highlights":"70 percent of Lydia Patterson Institute's students commute from Mexico .\nStudents, parents say school provides sense of security in contrast to Juarez, Mexico .\nLydia Patterson Institute has admitted 25 new students from Mexico this year .\nSchool founded as sanctuary for families fleeing Mexican Revolution .","id":"4579c95c002d50879235bfa10af344b56aa38964"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- India's military on Wednesday accused Pakistani forces of another cease-fire breach in Kashmir. Indian troops in Kashmir go through their drills. This week has seen tensions mount in the region. \"Pakistani troops fired six 82-mm mortar rounds in a span of one hour... at our positions,\" Indian defense spokesman Lt. Col. A. K. Mathur said Wednesday. But the report was denied by Pakistan's army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who said there had been no \"exchange of fire from our side ... of the LoC [Line of Control],\" that divides the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan . Mathur said no Indian forces were wounded in the incident, and they \"maintained restraint and didn't retaliate.\" \"We contacted the Pakistan army on the hotline and told them to stop the firing so that the situation doesn't escalate,\" the Indian spokesman said. But Abbas said he had no reports from local commanders of any incident . \"This has been their [India's] allegation but as far as the local commanders are concerned ... there is no incident from our side of any kind,\" Abbas said. The reported incident came after Monday's border clash in Kashmir, the first major skirmish between South Asia's nuclear rivals since a 2003 cease-fire. India maintains that Pakistani crossed the LoC and fired on Indian soldiers, prompting a firefight. Pakistan blamed India for sparking the incident by crossing into its territory in Kashmir. Senior Pakistani and Indian military officials met briefly Tuesday to discuss the incident, in which one Indian soldier was killed. Pakistan denied reports that its forces sustained casualties. Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged periodic gunfire since May, but Monday's clashes appear to be a serious setback to the ongoing peace process between the two nations. Indian Defense Minister A. K. Antony blames Pakistan for 19 cease-fire violations since January, which Pakistan denies. Kashmir has been at the root of two wars between India and Pakistan, both of which tested nuclear weapons in 1998. An 18-year separatist campaign in the Indian-controlled portion of the largely Muslim territory has claimed more than 43,000 lives, according to government officials, although human rights groups and non-governmental organizations put the toll at twice that number. India has long accused Pakistan of supporting the separatists in Kashmir, a charge Pakistan denies. India blamed militants from Pakistan for a suicide car bombing outside its embassy in Afghanistan that killed 58 people on July 7. CNN's Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar contributed to this report.","highlights":"India's military accuse Pakistan of another cease-fire breach in Kashmir .\nPakistani troops fired six 82-mm mortar rounds in hour, India says .\nPakistani Army denies claim, saying no weapons were fired .","id":"6a479ee6aaabb4f9d29c67a2cd8dcc376be5e6e1"} -{"article":"Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. He is host of \"No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET on CNN while Campbell Brown is on maternity leave. Roland Martin says Michael Vick has served his sentence and should be allowed back on the field. (CNN) -- When Michael Vick completes home confinement in July, he will have served the 23-month prison sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges. After his release from a Kansas prison Wednesday, he headed to his home in Virginia to serve the final two months under home confinement, because all the beds at halfway houses in the area are taken. But that hasn't deterred the Vick haters who are still in an uproar over the heinous details of his dogfighting kennel. Yes, reading the details of the treatment of the dogs, including the killing of some of them, could make anyone sick. Yet what's the point of sentencing someone to jail, then having them serve their time and be released if we still want to imprison them for the rest of their lives? Frankly, I'm sick of Americans who talk all day about \"do the crime, then do the time,\" then still want to treat a man like a criminal when he gets out of prison. This doesn't just apply to Michael Vick. Look at all the individuals who are sent to prison, get out and then can't find a job. Why? Because they have the Scarlet Letter on their record, which is a big fat \"F\" for felon. Don't think I'm looking for any sympathy for someone who goes to jail. I firmly believe that you deserve all that you get for breaking the law. But listening to some of these zealots go on and on and on about Vick needing to continue to be punished is ridiculous! The judge in Vick's case has imposed a number of restrictions. One of them is that he can't ever own a dog again. OK, gotcha. But to say the man shouldn't be allowed to play in the NFL is D-U-M-B. The crimes of which he was convicted had nothing to do with playing sports. Remember Wall Street star Michael Milken? When he was sent to jail for securities fraud, he was banned from working on Wall Street again. I get that. He was an insider and allowing him back into the financial game would have been atrocious. I get it when someone is convicted of molesting children that they can't live within a certain distance of a school or be left alone around children when released. But there is nothing related to Vick's crime that says he should not be allowed to play professional football. What is particularly galling is that, right now, you have any number of football players who have beaten people -- including their wives and girlfriends -- served time for drunk driving or committed other crimes, yet they have resumed their careers. The same goes for teachers, radio and television broadcasters, politicians and others. So is this any different because it involved dogs? Are we to say that the horrible treatment of dogs is vastly different than mistreatment of human beings? The critics will likely say, \"These men are role models. Kids look up to them. They should have no business on the field.\" Yet some of these same kids are living with fathers and mothers who are felons. So are we supposed to remove them from the home as well? Enough with the public bullying. Vick was sentenced and served his time. And now he's gotten out. If you want to be angry with him, fine. But please, cut the sanctimonious crap. He deserves to make amends and get on with his life. If you were in his shoes, you would want to do the same. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland Martin.","highlights":"Roland Martin: By July, Michael Vick will have finished his 23-month sentence .\nHe says some argue Vick shouldn't be allowed to play due to severity of his crime .\nHe says the crime isn't connected to his career as a football player .\nMartin: We have to allow people who have served time to work productively .","id":"73e846cc4a4605644c11d078a73ac0898cd3d289"} -{"article":"GAINESVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- When 19-year-old Reid Overton wants to smoke a cigarette on his college campus, he has to walk to a distant parking lot and get into his car, but he doesn't seem to mind. \"Even as a smoker, I don't like to walk past a cloud of smoke,\" he says. Reid Overton, a freshman at Gainesville State College in Georgia, heads to his car when he wants a smoke. Overton is one of 5,300 students at Gainesville State College, an hour north of Atlanta, Georgia. A 4-year-old ban prohibits anyone from using tobacco products on campus, including students, faculty and visitors. A smoke-free campus was the brainchild of longtime college president Martha Nesbitt, herself a former smoker. \"It's just a healthier place to be,\" says Nesbitt, \"because as you go in a building, you're not going to have to go through smoke. When you walk out, you don't see cigarette butts littered around. It's just a cleaner, healthier campus.\" Nesbitt reports there haven't been any problems enforcing the ban. Signs are posted around campus, and the policy is prominently displayed on everything from the school Web site to admissions applications. The American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation reports nearly 60 college campuses around the United States have smoke-free policies that affect the entire campus. Other schools have limited restrictions, banning smoking indoors in residential housing and student facilities. Nesbitt believes her college is one of the first to fully prohibit the use of tobacco products. Watch more on efforts to curb smoking on campus \u00bb . The American Cancer Society says the movement is catching on. \"The trend toward a smoke-free country is going on everywhere,\" says Daniel Smith, president of the American Cancer Society Action Network. \"I think college campuses are simply reflecting the same trend we're seeing in society.\" With the 30th anniversary this week of the nationwide Great American Smokeout, the cancer society is pushing a smoke-free college campus initiative. It encourages campus coordinators to hold competitions and distribute survival kits that include gum and support information. The group is trying to convince students that if they can quit for a day, they can quit for good. According to the cancer society, the prevalence of smoking in the United States is highest among college-age students, ages 18 to 24. While other age groups are decreasing their tobacco use, the cancer society says college students are smoking at a greater rate. Those statistics worry Smith. \"We know that 30 percent of all cancers are caused by smoking,\" he says. He blames the addiction rates among young adults on heavy marketing efforts on college campuses by tobacco companies. \"Many people might initially think it's cool. But when they're educated about the health effects, by that time, they are addicted, and it's very hard to quit.\" Overton isn't all that worried about cutting back on his pack-a-day smoking habit, but he says that long walk to his car has provided some added benefits. \"It doesn't encourage me to quit, but it does encourage me to cut back some.\" That's welcome news for some of his nonsmoking classmates. \"I'm not forced to be around all of the smokers,\" says freshman Matthew Bradford, 19. \"I'm not breathing it in all of the time, and it's nice to get some fresh air when you get out of class.\" E-mail to a friend . Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News.","highlights":"American Cancer Society: Trend of smoke-free colleges is growing .\nNearly 60 U.S. colleges have smoke-free policies that affect entire campus .\nCancer society: U.S. smoking prevalence highest among people ages 18-24 .","id":"ebbc4c6399f26e39364ab218bcbc11c6873705ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Residents of a western Pennsylvania neighborhood can return home Sunday after a chemical leak forced them to evacuate the night before. Hundreds of residents were forced to flee Saturday after a chemical leak in Petrolia, Pennsylvania. Authorities surveyed the neighborhood in Petrolia and determined that no traces of the toxic chemical remained, said Freda Tarbell, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. A leak at the Indspec Chemical Corp. plant in Petrolia on Saturday formed a cloud affecting at least 2,000 residents -- some of whom fled their homes. Others huddled indoors with their windows shut, authorities said. Three people were taken to hospitals, but officials could not immediately say why. Watch why residents were asked to evacuate \u00bb . It was not immediately clear how many people were injured, though plant manager Dave Dorko said all employees and inspectors at the plant were safe and accounted for. Tarbell described the chemical as fuming sulfuric acid, which is also known as oleum. The plant uses the chemical during its production process, she said. The plant produces a chemical called Resorcinol -- essentially a strong glue used in the tire industry. The leak affected between 2,000 and 2,500 residents, Tarbell said. Some stayed the night with friends and relatives and some sought refuge in shelters. Others opted to stay indoors and \"shut their windows and doors to make sure the acid cloud was not entering their home,\" she said. Ed Schrecengost, a former Indspec employee, said firefighters showed up at his son's wedding reception, urging the guests to leave. \"It's about as dangerous as you can get,\" Schrecengost told CNN affiliate WPXI. \"It's a very fuming acid. A quart bottle of this material could fill a household in two seconds.\" Dorko said the leak was caused by an overflow from a tank. The material, he said, evaporates easily, creating a toxic cloud. CNN's Saeed Ahmed and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Environmental official says area surveyed, no traces of chemical remain .\nToxic cloud forms Saturday after chemical leak at Pennsylvania plant .\nThree residents taken to hospital; extent of injuries not known .","id":"8e77eeb8c736a7f0bb6e09392eb6972e0c335310"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Georgia man suspected of shooting to death a 21-year-old up-and-coming rapper at a ritzy Los Angeles shopping center Monday afternoon is being held on $1 million bail, Los Angeles Police said. Rap artist Dolla arrives at the Soul Train Music Awards in Pasadena, California, on March 10, 2007. Dolla, whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, was shot in the head about 3:10 p.m. at the Beverly Center, his publicist said. Police later arrested Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, at Los Angeles International Airport, a Los Angeles Police statement said. No other details were given about Berry, who was arrested on suspicion of murder. Dolla, who was based in Atlanta, Georgia, was in Los Angeles recording his debut album. He caught the attention of multiplatinium R&B singer Akon when the then-12-year-old Dolla was performing with friends at showcases around Atlanta. The two collaborated on Dolla's first single, \"Who the F--- is That?\" which also featured another high-profile singer, T-Pain. Another Dolla song, \"Feelin' Myself,\" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie \"Step Up.\" According to his MySpace page, Dolla was born in Chicago, Illinois. His twin sister died at birth due to complications from an enlarged heart. The family moved to Atlanta after Dolla's father committed suicide -- while Dolla, then 5, and another sister watched from their parents' bed, the Web page said. Dolla began composing rhymes in elementary school and decided to pursue a career in music. A source close to the record company said Dolla had just arrived in Los Angeles to work on his debut album. Funeral services, which will be held in Atlanta, will be announced later, publicist Sue Vannasing said.","highlights":"NEW: Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, of Georgia, being held on $1 million bail in shooting .\nThe rapper Dolla, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is shot in the head and killed .\nDolla was at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, his publicist said .\nDolla, whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, was 21 .","id":"28c1ad215fa5363300ac33466edf7ccecb07b657"} -{"article":"PADUCAH, Kentucky (CNN) -- The aunt of former U.S. soldier Steven Green told jurors tearfully Monday that \"We did not send a rapist and murderer to Iraq\" as defense lawyers worked to save her nephew from a death sentence. Former U.S. soldier Steven Green has been convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. Patty Ruth, a Texas elementary school principal, told a civilian jury about Green's childhood as a reader who loved to be hugged by relatives. \"I do not know how we got to this spot,\" Ruth said in emotional testimony. \"I do not know how this happened.\" Green was convicted last week in U.S. District Court in Kentucky of murder, rape, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in connection with a 2006 rape-and-murder south of Baghdad. A jury found him guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl, then killing her and setting her body on fire to destroy evidence. Green also was found guilty of killing the girl's parents and 6-year-old sister. He could become the first former U.S. soldier to face the death penalty for war crimes before a civilian court, where he was tried because he had been discharged from the military before his crimes came to light. Four other former soldiers are in prison for their roles in the crimes and the cover-up that followed. Green faces either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. His fate will be in the hands of the jury by week's end. The defense has presented relatives and medical professionals who have pieced together a picture of Green's childhood as troubled and stressful. It included the breakup of his parents' marriage, routine beatings to the point of injury by an older brother and being moved about through Texas by his mother. Ruth, the final witness scheduled by the defense, said that when the idea of the military came up for her nephew, she was unsure the Army would accept him. Even after he received a high school diploma through a correspondence course, she said, \"I could not picture or imagine how he could make it through basic training.\" Ruth said when she saw a picture of her nephew before his September 2005 deployment, she knew he wasn't \"Stevie\" anymore, standing as tall as his father in the photo at Fort Benning, Georgia. When he returned from Iraq 11 months later, he was \"remarkably thin,\" Ruth said, and she noticed circles under his eyes. Green and his father spent a night at the Ruth home, his aunt said, and she remembered him pacing the yard while smoking. He fell asleep wearing his fatigues, she said. When asked by the defense about the rape-murder plot that left an Iraqi family dead near Yusufiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Ruth responded, \"He's my Steve. You can't stop loving someone.\" There were other family members in the court on Monday. Green's father, John, an oil field worker from Midland, Texas, looked on quietly. He did not testify. Ruth, who is John Green's sister, noted for the jury that Green's mother is not at the trial this week. The mother is moving and had to attend a going-away party, Ruth said. Final arguments are expected Wednesday.","highlights":"Steven Green in sentencing phase after being convicted of rape, murder .\nGreen found guilty last week of incident in Iraq while he was soldier .\nAunt: \"He's my Steve. You can't stop loving someone\"","id":"d604ca7e5a4842d45d204ec57bcbd87ac77e9a98"} -{"article":"LONDON, (England) CNN -- Natalia Vodianova is best known as the supermodel who has graced the cover of Vogue, walked the catwalk for the likes of Chanel and Versace. Supermodel Natalia Vodianova's charity plans to build hundreds of play parks for children in her native Russia. But Vodianova has a dream that couldn't be further from the glitzy world of fashion -- to build 500 play parks in her native Russia. Vodianova, born and raised in Russia, was in the country during the 2004 Beslan school siege, in which at least 339 hostages, around half of them children, were killed. Deeply affected by the tragedy she returned to New York, where she was living at the time, determined to do something to help the surviving children. Vodianova organized a fundraising event that generated $350,000 to build the children a playground and she founded her charity, the \"Naked Heart Foundation.\" With an ethos that play is not only therapeutic for children, but a necessity, the foundation aims to provide playgrounds for Russia's urban youth. So far the charity has built 23 playgrounds around the country, starting in her home town of Nizhnii Novgorod, and there are 15 more in the pipeline. \"For me, since I started my charity, it has been a very different way of life,\" Vodianova told CNN. Watch Vodianova take CNN around Moscow \u00bb . \"Giving back just feels so great. I always try to open each play park with myself present for the children, because it makes it more special for them. I go to very remote parts of Russia are far from Moscow and it gives these children an extra message of love.\" For Vodianova, this is just the start. She told CNN that her dream is to build 500 play parks in Russia. The charity's play parks can cost anywhere between $27,000 and $400,000, depending on their size and range of play equipment. Vodianova admits, \"It's a big dream -- an expensive one!\" When it comes to fundraising, Vodianova's secret weapon is her connections in the fashion world. Last year she organized a \"Love Ball\" in Moscow -- a Valentine's Day fundraiser that counted among the guests the likes of designer Valentino, actress Lucy Liu, singer Natalie Imbruglia, and supermodel Eva Herzigova. See photos of \"The Love Ball.\" \u00bb . The event was held in a former royal residence, Moscow's 16th century Tsaritsino Estate. It featured an ice palace made from 220 tons of ice and music provided by British band Razorlight, among others. The highlight was a Valentine's-themed auction, with lots including a private performance from rock star Bryan Adams, bought for $120,000, and a painting by British artist Damien Hirst called \"Love is All Around,\" which sold for $1.6 million. The auction alone raised $6.7 million for the charity. Vodianova admits that the global economic crisis is making it harder to get sponsorship for this year's event and says it will be more low-key than last year. \"We are not going to make it a very extravagant event; it's very disrespectful of what's going on in the world right now, with the recession and a lot of people losing their jobs. \"We're not gong to spend a lot of money on it, but it's important to keep going,\" she told CNN. With a husband and three young children, Vodianova says it can be hard to divide her time between family, career and her charity. She describes her charity work as a 24-hour job. \"I feel a huge sense of responsibility for my foundation because it's really very important to me. Somehow it became my most difficult baby to raise,\" she says. But she has no doubt about the value of her work, both for Russia's children and herself. \"The biggest thing I can do for my soul is to hear that laughter and to see all these children that come and play on the play parks that my foundation built.\" CNN Producer Deborah Rivers contributed to this report .","highlights":"Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova runs the \"Naked Heart Foundation\"\nHer dream is for the foundation to build 500 play parks across Russia .\nThe \"Love Ball\" was a celebrity-filled fundraising event held in Moscow .","id":"7c6a90cd70c2ae235fe998a9650c7cf9d57c5ab3"} -{"article":"VATICAN CITY, Vatican (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI called for peace in the Middle East and an end to the exploitation of children in the homily he delivered early Thursday during the annual Christmas Eve Midnight Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Benedict XVI calls for a \"conversion of hearts\" to help children. He later delivered the traditional Christmas address in St. Peter's Square, sending Christmas greetings in languages including English, Spanish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Slovak and many others. The address is known as \"Urbi et Orbi\" -- Latin for \"To the City and the World.\" Benedict, 81, called for the faithful to pray for peace to come to \"the land in which Jesus lived, and which he loved so deeply.\" \"Let us pray for mutual understanding, that hearts will be opened, so that borders can be opened,\" he said. The pontiff also called for special consideration for suffering children who are homeless, forced to serve as soldiers or exploited in pornography \"and every other appalling form of abuse.\" \"The Child of Bethlehem summons us once again to do everything in our power to put an end to the suffering of these children; to do everything possible to make the light of Bethlehem touch the heart of every man and woman,\" he said. Watch Pope Benedict deliver his message during midnight Mass \u00bb . \"Only through the conversion of hearts, only through a change in the depths of our hearts can the cause of all this evil be overcome.\" Thousands heard the pope, in white and gold robes, speak inside the basilica at St. Peter's -- although Vatican cameras captured some sleeping children who had been unable to stay awake for the late ceremony. Those who could not get inside watched on giant television screens outside in the square. As Benedict was leaving down the main aisle, someone wearing red jumped the barrier. The person was swiftly tackled by security. The pope appeared to slow his step momentarily and take a slight step back as the action took place, but he quickly resumed the processional, waving to the audience. Watch as security steps in \u00bb . Vatican spokesperson Father Federico Lombardi told CNN she did not appear to pose any risk.","highlights":"Pope Benedict XVI also calls for an end to exploitation of children .\nPope seeks end to violence in to \"the land in which Jesus lived\"\nPerson jumps barrier as Pope leaves; security quickly tackles person .","id":"80001bf06039dd6368ed679b104bbb14a2000e1c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Clark Howard, the Atlanta-based host of a nationally syndicated radio show, will be host of a new television show designed to help viewers save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off during these tough economic times. \"Clark Howard\" debuts on HLN January 3. The show will air Saturdays and Sundays at 6 a.m., noon and 4 p.m. Clark Howard says there are good bargains in store for those who wait until January to shop. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Retailers have received the biggest lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings in memory. Americans have been on a buyers' strike all fall and have not been interested in 50 percent off sales, doorbusters or any other promotions to get them to pry open their wallets. In a normal year when Christmas season sales are strong, retailers offer whatever they have left after the holiday, just the unloved stuff that didn't sell, at incredible markdowns. This year is different. You may get some bargains after Christmas, but if you want really rock-bottom prices, wait until January 5. Retailers are going to be stuck with massive amounts of goods and those will be reduced to fire sale prices. If you have money that you can afford to part with, get out there the first full week of the New Year. Everything from electronics to clothing to appliances to furniture will be a deal. Be careful if you shop from December 26 through January 4. The bargains are mostly fake ones during those 10 days because patterns are completely disrupted by gift cards. Most people are off from work between Christmas and New Years, have the time to shop and have the gift cards burning a hole in their wallets. Stores are able to \"pretend\" to offer bargains in the immediate after-Christmas period and people feel like they \"have\" to spend right away with store credit from returns and that gift card dough. As a result, the discounts are relatively small. However, follow my way and your wallet will really smile on you. Wait to do returns until after the 5th and those long return lines are gone. Retailers usually give 14 or so days after Christmas to do returns so you are still OK on the deadline and you don't have to wait in lines, which I avoid like the plague. Then think about it: You get the pick of all the merchandise that people returned that has been marked down and you get access to all the stuff that didn't sell that is on final clearance. But that's not all: I love January shopping because you have the stores virtually to yourself. My favorite time to go is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night when you will find more employees than customers in the stores. I do have a special warning about all those gift cards. A lot of retailers that have been selling gift cards this season are not going to make it. Expect a wave of retailer bankruptcies in January, February and March. Over and over again bankruptcy court judges have wiped out the value of gift cards. Don't let your's lie around in a drawer gathering dust after Christmas. Use them over the next month before they go bad. Speaking of stores going bust, don't get fooled by \"Going Out of Business\" sales, known in the lingo of the trade as GOB's. They are as phony as a $3 bill. When any chain store goes broke, they hire a specialist company known as a liquidator. The liquidator is the one who puts those big going out of business sale banners on the stores and pays those guys to stand on street corners holding signs that say 40 percent, 50 percent, even 60 percent off. But the deals are usually fake. Many liquidators will sell the store's merchandise at a discount, but usually not as good as prices on a regular sale. The real money is made by the liquidator in many cases by bringing in what I call \"fake\" goods. They are not literally fake, just things that were never sold in the store in the first place. Those items are priced with high prices that are then \"discounted\" 50 percent or more to fool you into thinking you are getting a real deal. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Clark Howard.","highlights":"Clark Howard: American consumers have been reluctant to buy this year .\nHe says you may get bargains after Christmas, but big sales could come in January .\nHoward: January shoppers also won't have to face holiday crowds .\nHe says consumers should beware of \"going out of business\" sales .","id":"4681d0f113a8a5fb7b0428d90264eccccb4e0c04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Milwaukee are working to track down a serial killer linked to at least seven unsolved homicides dating back more than two decades, authorities said. Five victims (clockwise from top left): Debora Harris, Joyce Mims, Tonya Miller, Quithreaun Stokes, Sheila Farrior. Law enforcement officials in the Wisconsin city have matched the unknown man's DNA with seven women -- six prostitutes and a runaway involved in the drug trade. The deaths occurred between 1986 and 2007. \"Six of the victims were women who were working as prostitutes -- high-risk behavior that makes them vulnerable to crime,\" authorities said. Police believe the killer had sex with the runaway, but she was killed by someone else. The developments have prompted officials to form a local, state and federal task force to investigate the homicides. A state lab is working to determine whether the DNA of at least 23 other slain prostitutes matches that of the killer. \"In the past, we might have linked some of these homicides through their method of operation, but theory has given way to technology,\" said Edward Flynn, the Milwaukee police chief. \"Within the last couple of weeks, we have been able to confirm a link.\" Flynn, who described the killer as an \"unknown suspect who conducts his business in secret,\" said the investigation would require tips from the community. \"This suspect has been able to avoid and evade law enforcement for these last 23 years. He has never been arrested for a felony as he does not appear in any DNA database,\" Flynn said. Police said 42 prostitutes were killed between 1986 and 2007, and that 31 percent of the cases have been solved. There has been a higher clearance rate -- 78 percent -- in other homicides. Of the seven killed, two were in 1986, three in 1995, one in 1997 and one in 2007. The runaway was one of the three killed in 1995. Flynn said there have been \"patterned homicides\" discovered across the country as a result of advanced DNA technology, citing investigations in Los Angeles, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada. However, he said there is no link with the Milwaukee cases. In discussing advances in DNA technology, Flynn said there were no matches in 1990s, two around 2000 and the seven have been linked in recent weeks. \"We already have determined that five suspects in murders of other prostitutes -- completely unrelated to this investigation -- have been identified because their DNA match open homicide cases. Three of them already are in prison for cleared homicides of prostitutes,\" police said in a statement Tuesday. CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police in Milwaukee match unknown man's DNA with seven slain women .\nSix of the victims were prostitutes and the seventh a runaway .\nSuspect has avoided arrest for 23 years and is not on any DNA database .\nInvestigation will require tips from the community, Milwaukee police chief says .","id":"2f065bc8b2f7da1f649c5b3485b163a35e5391db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Congressional auditors have uncovered widespread abuse of techniques used to restrain or discipline special-education students in U.S. schools, with some deaths linked to the practices, a top congressman says. Investigators in Utah say a teacher left Garrett Peck in an isolation cubicle for at least two and a half hours. The findings are among those expected from a Government Accountability Office report scheduled to be released Tuesday. The report documented serious problems with the way children with disabilities are being treated in public schools, including cases of children being held face-down on the ground. The GAO report was prepared for the House Education and Labor Committee, which is considering new laws governing what actions teachers can take to rein in disruptive special-needs students. \"I think what we're going to hear from the GAO is that very often, special-need children are subjected to the policies of seclusion and policies of restraint that have turned out to be lethal in a number of circumstances,\" said Rep. George Miller, D-California, the committee's chairman. In other cases, children as young as 6 have been locked away \"for hours at a time,\" Miller said. \"What the GAO is telling us is that that policy is fairly widespread,\" he said. \"The state regulations about how to handle these incidents don't exist in about half the states, and in other states you have kind of a patchwork of regulations.\" The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that state laws governing the treatment of the more than 6 million children classified as having \"special needs\" -- conditions including autism and Down syndrome -- are patchy at best. Teachers and school staff frequently lack training in correct restraint methods, and in some cases, where improper restraints led to injuries, teachers often kept their jobs. Only five states keep track of incidents where special-needs students are separated or restrained. Parents contacted by CNN commonly said they were not told their child was being disciplined until he or she began to behave badly at home -- a sign of trouble at school. When confronted with complaints, school systems sometimes sought to minimize or deny the allegations, even after public investigations found the charges to be true. And parents told CNN that when they got into a dispute with the teacher, their child was made to suffer as retribution. Some of the most disturbing reports concerned the use of seclusion rooms. Experts have long recommended that children should only be isolated when they pose an immediate threat to themselves or others. But CNN found that isolation was often used as a punishment by teachers to compel the students to follow instructions. State investigators in Utah found a teacher left 7-year-old Garrett Peck in an isolation cubicle for at least two and a half hours after the teacher said he told her to \"shut up.\" While the boy was in the cubicle, the teacher taunted him by playing his favorite video and telling him what he was missing. His parents, Joshua and Becca Peck, said the child has an attention span of about 10 minutes, and they believe that after the first few minutes, he had no idea why he was in the cubicle. \"It was so sad. We felt it was a form of torture for him but he, being autistic, he had no way to express it,\" Joshua Peck said. \"He couldn't tell.\" And Becca Peck said her son had been left in the cubicle with nothing but a magic marker -- which he used to scrawl all over himself. When she came to school to pick him up, \"He was covered in marker -- on his eyelids, on his hair, face, clothes, arms, eyelids -- everywhere.\" \"I started thinking, 'What was he thinking?' Was he thinking, 'Why is my mom letting this person do this to me? Why am I here? I trust no one now.' \" In Garrett's case, like others cited by the GAO, the teacher remains on the job. And what frustrates experts is that efforts to force unruly children to comply don't actually work. At one school in Pennsylvania, however, teachers appear to have better results using sharply different methods. The Centennial School at Lehigh University serves severely emotionally disturbed children that have been passed from school to school, and even from juvenile justice centers. When school director Michael George came to Centennial in 1999, the school had documented more than 1,000 cases of restraint and seclusion that year. After the school revamped its approach, no such incidents were reported. When they get to Centennial, students can be violent and aggressive. But instead of trying to force a change in behavior, the school teaches the children new skills to get what they need. Children who might be violent because they are desperate to escape an uncomfortable task or environment learn to communicate their discomfort in nonviolent ways. Children who need to move frequently -- a common trait with conditions such as autism -- are permitted to do so, then re-directed to the task at hand. Staff are forbidden from saying anything negative about the children, parents or other teachers, even among themselves. And when a child acts violently, the staff is trained to step aside, rather than immediately attempt a potentially dangerous restraint. On a recent visit to the school, all students appeared to be calm and receptive to teachers. The school's philosophy can be summed up in a question George likes to ask teachers interviewing for jobs there: Which teacher you remember most from your own childhood? \"No one ever mentions the person who yelled at them, who screamed at them, who told them to write a phrase a hundred times, who slammed them into closets, who was abrupt, who made them feel stupid. No one ever mentions those people,\" said George. \"Our job is to teach. Sometimes the children we are teaching here present extraordinary challenges; it can be very, very difficult. But that's the job we chose to do.\"","highlights":"GAO report uncovers abuse of techniques used to restrain or discipline children .\nSome deaths of special-needs kids have been linked to the practices, report says .\nInvestigators: Utah boy with autism left in cubicle for at least two and a half hours .\nOnly five states keep track of incidents; many states have no regulations .","id":"66b3135c79a0c921de038bead1cb2c80cac8d9a7"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Former U.S. President Clinton has been tapped as a United Nations special envoy to Haiti, a senior U.N. official said Monday. Former President Clinton has been chosen to serve as a United Nations special envoy to Haiti. An official announcement will be made Tuesday, the official said. The two-term president has traveled to Haiti on several occasions, most recently in March with his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. At the time, the Clintons voiced optimism at Haiti's potential because of political stability and economic growth after decades of chaos. The Caribbean country is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.","highlights":"Official announcement is coming Tuesday .\nClinton visited nation in March with his wife and U.N. chief .\nIt is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere .","id":"7a11b9b00fc4173e622029c4f5563d07299dab35"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Woody Allen's lawsuit against American Apparel for unauthorized use of his image on billboards ended Monday with a $5 million settlement to be paid to the actor-director by the clothing company. Woody Allen received $5 million to settle a suit with American Apparel. Allen said the case should discourage advertisers from using celebrities' images without permission, but American Apparel's head said he still thinks his company had a good defense. The settlement, announced just moments before jury selection was to begin in New York, interrupted a trial that lawyers had hinted could include a parade of witnesses testifying about Allen's sex scandals. \"Threats and press leaks by American Apparel designed to smear me did not work, and a scheme to call a long list of witnesses who had nothing to do with the case was disallowed by the court,\" Allen said. \"I hope this very large settlement will discourage American Apparel and others from doing this type of thing to myself or others in the future.\" Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel, issued a statement published by London's Guardian newspaper saying lawyers for his insurance company -- which will pay the money to Allen -- made the decision to settle the case. \"For the record, I personally think we had a good case,\" Charney said. Allen filed his suit, asking for $10 million, against American Apparel in March 2008 after the company placed several billboards and online ads using an image of Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew in his 1977 movie \"Annie Hall.\" \"I sued American Apparel because they calculatingly took my name, my likeness and image and used them publicly to promote their business,\" Allen said Monday. \"Testimony revealed that American Apparel believed that fear of publicity would keep me from ever taking action, and so they put my face on billboards, on the Internet, and my image on their building,\" he said. Charney, who said he finally could talk about the case, said the ad was a \"an attempt to at least make a joke about\" sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him and his company in recent years. \"Today, two years later, all the claims in the lawsuits have been completely disproven and yet at the time, some writers characterized me as a rapist and abuser of women, others asserted that I was a bad Jew, and some even stated that I was not fit to run my company.\" Charney said it was \"ironic that I have to explain this to Woody Allen when he has expressed similar frustrations in the past.\" American Apparel lawyers wanted to call as witnesses Allen's former companion Mia Farrow and Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow's adopted daughter and Allen's wife. Allen's relationship with -- and eventual marriage to -- Previn was scandal material for tabloids beginning in 1992, when she was 21. Allen said the company's lawyers may have been persuaded to settle because the judge made it \"clear that the court considered their phony First Amendment ranting and claims of parody, sheer nonsense.\"","highlights":"Woody Allen's image was used by American Apparel without his authorization .\nAllen sued; insurance company made decision to settle, CEO says .\nAmerican Apparel had used image of Allen from \"Annie Hall\" to promote products .","id":"ee5af154d9c393621fd2093dd133770527afc185"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates captured a Belgian ship and said they were taking it to the coast of Somalia after the vessel was reported missing early Saturday, NATO and pirate sources told CNN. The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien tracked seven pirates Saturday back to their mother ship. The Pompei, a Belgian-registered ship believed to have a mostly Belgian and Croatian crew, was one of two vessels that came under attack near the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles on Saturday, the sources said. The second ship escaped the attack after a brief exchange of gunfire with pirate vessels, the pirate source added. Meanwhile, Dutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen after tracking the pirates to their \"mother ship\" in the western Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a NATO maritime spokesman said. The Belgian government tried to communicate with the Pompei \"without success\" before the ship was confirmed to have been hijacked, according to an official. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . \"This morning we received two different channels, a silent alert, that there was a problem on the boat, which is a Belgian boat on its way to Seychelles,\" Belgium Government Crisis Center spokesman Peter Martens told reporters. \"We tried to have a contact with the ship but without success until now.\" The archipelago where the attack occurred is roughly 800 miles off the Somali coastline. \"Somali pirates are getting wilder and out of control,\" pirate spokesman Ali Sugulle said on April 11. \"They go too far away from the Somali [coast] and go to the Kenyan coast even.\" The European Union, NATO and the United States have been patrolling the waters off Somalia since an upsurge in piracy in the region last year. No NATO vessels were in the region at the time of the attack, said Cmdr. Chris Davies from NATO's Maritime Component Command Headquarters in Northwood, England. Meanwhile, the Dutch rescue operation happened after pirates launched an unsuccessful attack on petroleum tanker MT Handytankers Magic, NATO Cmdr. Chris Davies told CNN. The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien was with the NATO fleet patrolling the region. After the Dutch disarmed the pirates, they released them, Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman from the maritime headquarters, told CNN. Because the crew was on a NATO mission, they lacked the jurisdiction to hold them, according to reports. The MT Handytankers Magic is part of a fleet belonging to Handytankers, a company that distributes petroleum products in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the United States, according to the company's Web site. Last week pirates attacked a U.S.-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama, off the Somali coast. The crew regained control of the ship but the captain was taken hostage and held for five days on a lifeboat. The crisis ended when U.S. Navy sharpshooters shot and killed three of the pirates who were holding the captain. Journalist Mohammed Amiin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The Pompei, a Belgian-registered ship, was one of two vessels attacked .\nNEW: Islands where attack occurred are roughly 800 miles off Somali coast .\nDutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen .\nPirates were disarmed and freed because crew lacked jurisdiction to hold them .","id":"e89ab1af2837018e1e25679b22ed2514ad00952c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The photograph was shocking: a hooded detainee, in U.S. custody, standing on a box with electrical wires hooked up to his fingers. Images of abuse at Abu Ghraib changed the discourse on the war, says Abdul Rahman al-Rashed of Al-Arabiya TV. That photo, as well as the others depicting detainee abuse inside Abu Ghraib at the hands of U.S. troops, came to symbolize \"America in the eyes of the world at that time,\" said CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. \"Those pictures unfortunately became symbolic, emblematic of all the troubles that the U.S. faced in the last four years of the Bush administration, particularly given its war in Iraq,\" Amanpour said. \"Beyond that, it caused a great deal of outrage around the world.\" It was against this backdrop that President Obama reversed course last week, telling government lawyers to object to a court-ordered release of additional images showing alleged abuse of detainees. Military commanders urged him to fight the release of the photos, fearing it would endanger the lives of U.S. soldiers. The photographs first appeared in a report on \"60 Minutes 2\" in late April 2004, followed by an extensive story on the abuse by award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. \"It was a big shock,\" said Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, the head of the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station. \"It hurt mostly the ones who were for the fall of the Saddam [Hussein] regime. ... It was a heated debate in the Middle East at the time -- whether [the invasion] was the right decision and whether the Americans had bad intentions or not.\" iReport.com: Did Obama make the right call on photos last week? The fallout was immediate, both overseas and at home. A year into the Iraq war, the American public had grown increasingly uneasy about the direction of the war, and the Abu Ghraib photographs gave anti-war protesters the ammunition they needed to rally around their cause and question Bush administration policies. See Bush administration interrogation tactics \u00bb . A CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup poll immediately after the photos were released showed that nearly three-quarters of Americans said the mistreatment of the detainees was unjustified under any circumstances. Bush's overall performance rating sank to what was then the lowest of his presidency, 46 percent. The poll also showed support for the war at its lowest since before it began, with only 44 percent saying they believed it was worthwhile. See some of the disturbing photos (discretion advised) \u00bb . It was a blow from which the administration, especially then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, never fully recovered. Amanpour said Obama's presidential victory and big wins by Democrats in the House and Senate were proof of that. \"The American people said that they wanted their good name, the name of their country, the influence and credibility of their country's standing, to be restored in the rest of the world,\" she said. The photos did what a print report could not do. They showed front-and-center what human rights groups had been saying for months: that the Bush administration was abusing prisoners within U.S. custody. Some photos showed naked prisoners piled on top of each other like a pyramid. Another showed a smiling female U.S. soldier giving a thumbs-up next to a naked, hooded prisoner. As a result of the furor unleashed by the pictures, 11 American soldiers were tried and convicted of Abu Ghraib offenses, and some officers were reprimanded. Al-Rashed said he had expected violations in war, but nothing like \"humiliating individuals in those kinds of scenes.\" The Middle East has a \"bloody, long, bad record about torture of prisoners,\" he said, but what happened at Abu Ghraib was even more reprehensible because it undercut America's democratic values. \"You talk about democracy, you talk about the respect of individuality, the freedom. ... The prison pictures just really made us speechless.\" \"It was something completely new -- something that we had not seen before in all the dictionary of prisoners and torture and mistreatment. It just weakened the argument completely about the wisdom of getting rid of a regime like Saddam. It made the argument for the other side stronger.\" The photographs had a direct impact within the Iraq insurgency. Just days after the photos became public, American contractor Nicholas Berg was beheaded -- with his executioners saying they were retaliating for Abu Ghraib abuses. The insurgents posted video of the killing on the Internet for all to see. \"The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals,\" Obama said. \"In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them would be to further inflame anti-American opinion, and to put our troops in greater danger.\" Watch Obama explain reversing course \u00bb . The court had ordered the release in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said the Pentagon had agreed to release a \"substantial\" number of photographs by May 28. Officials at the Pentagon said the photographs are from more than 60 criminal investigations between 2001 and 2006 and show military personnel allegedly abusing detainees. Obama's decision has sparked a heated debate on what is best for democracy. Marc Thiessen served in the Bush administration from 2001 to 2009, including time as Bush's chief speechwriter. He has said that the \"enhanced interrogations\" of detainees worked and has opposed the release of the latest round of prisoner abuse photos. Watch more on the photo debate \u00bb . \"If these photos had been released, within two seconds flat, they would have been up on jihadi Web sites, and al Qaeda would be using them to incite violence,\" he said. ACLU attorney Amrit Singh disagrees, saying terrorists already have plenty of information \"at their disposal to conduct violence.\" \"They can conduct all the violence they want without the release of these photographs,\" she said. \"So to pick on these photographs as the cause of violence, I think, is a grave mistake. There were people who suffered immensely, the victims of torture depicted in these photographs. It's for their sake and for the sake of future victims of torture that these photographs must be aired.\" She added, \"It is essential that these photographs be released so that the public can know the full scale and scope of prisoner abuse that took place in its name.\" Republican strategist Kevin Madden said Obama sided with national security instead of \"the fury of propaganda that would be unleashed against U.S. forces overseas.\" He said the liberal left is trying to use the photos \"as a vendetta against the Bush administration.\" \"And in that process, what they're doing is essentially smearing the country as a country that condones detainee abuse and condones the torture, when in fact we don't,\" he said. To that, Singh shot back, \"But what is the limit of that argument? If gross human rights violations have been committed, do you sweep them under the rug because they will cause outrage?\" Al-Rashed of Al-Arabiya said Obama's decision didn't get much play in the Arab world last week, mostly because the alleged abuse isn't as \"shocking anymore.\" \"It's not as big news as it used to be,\" he said. CNN senior political analyst David Gergen, a former adviser to several Republican presidents and one Democrat, said Obama made a wise political decision, even if he upset the left. \"I think in these situations, you can't think about who is going to be pleased and who's not. I think you have to think about what's the right decision for the president and assume good policies ultimately make good politics.\"","highlights":"Head of Al-Arabiya says 2004 Abu Ghraib photos \"just really made us speechless\"\nChristiane Amanpour: Photos \"symbolic ... of all the troubles that the U.S. faced\"\nObama's decision to fight the release of new round of photos sparks debate .\nACLU says if more abuses occurred, \"Do you sweep them under the rug?\"","id":"0784188f60d61fa6357e580101a5bb83c08d4cc3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his concern over the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran during meetings with top congressional leaders Tuesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks Tuesday with Reps. John Boehner, left, and Nancy Pelosi. He met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee first, followed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner. An Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons \"is a great danger to all of us, to Israel specifically and to the moderate Arab regimes, [and] to America,\" Netanyahu said after his meeting with Pelosi and Boehner. \"Especially if this regime were to arm itself or arm terrorists with nuclear weapons, the consequences could be unimaginable.\" Netanyahu also reiterated his call for normalizing relations between Israel and the \"broader Arab world\" while moving forward on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Watch where Mideast flash points could be \u00bb . \"We have to do this in tandem,\" he said. \"That's going to be our policy. ... If we do it together, we'll get a lot further, a lot faster.\" Pelosi said she endorsed a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians, but emphasized that it \"must be a solution that provides for a democratic Jewish state of Israel living side by side with her Palestinian neighbors.\" \"The question of Iran is one that is of concern to us in Congress,\" she said. \"... It is an issue for the world. It is important for all of us to work together to be sure that Iran does not develop a weapon of mass destruction.\" Netanyahu is on his first visit to Washington since becoming prime minister earlier this year -- his second time as head of Israel's government. He met Monday with President Obama at the White House and dined with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama offered the hawkish Israeli leader a small diplomatic victory, warning that he would not allow Iran to drag out talks as a way of buying time while it develops nuclear weapons. Speaking at an Oval Office news conference, Obama again refused to commit to an \"artificial deadline\" for Iranian negotiations. But he also warned that he would not allow such talks, which he expects to accelerate after the Iranian presidential election in June, to be used as an excuse for delay. Watch Obama start the clock on Iran \u00bb . \"We're not going to have talks forever. We're not going to create a situation in which the talks become an excuse for inaction while Iran proceeds with developing ... and deploying a nuclear weapon,\" he said. He said the United States is not \"foreclosing a range of steps, including much stronger international sanctions, in assuring that Iran understands that we are serious.\" The issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions has become increasingly urgent in recent months. Netanyahu wanted a time limit for negotiations relating to such ambitions, with the threat of military action if no resolution is reached. Both Israel and the United States believe Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program; Tehran denies the accusation. Israeli leaders have pointed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for the end of Israel as a Jewish state, and argue that quick action is needed. Clinton and Netanyahu also talked about Iran, among other issues, during a 90-minute working dinner Monday night, according to a senior State Department official. \"Clinton's messages were entirely consistent with President Obama's,\" the official said. \"She reiterated our support for a two-state solution, and explained our strategy for direct engagement as a means to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.\" In his appearance at the White House, Netanyahu emphasized that while \"the common goal is peace ... the common threat we face are terrorist threats and organizations that seek to undermine [that] peace and threaten both our peoples.\" The prime minister called Iran the biggest threat to peace in the region. \"If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, it could give a nuclear umbrella to terrorists, or worse, could actually give [them] nuclear weapons. And that would put us all in great peril,\" he said. Obama is considered to have a more conciliatory approach to the Arab and Muslim world than Netanyahu. Obama supports the idea of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Netanyahu has not endorsed the idea, arguing that Israel first needs security guarantees and a clear Palestinian partner for peace talks. The Palestinians issued a statement after the meeting criticizing Netanyahu for failing to more explicitly endorse a two-state solution. Netanyahu \"missed yet another opportunity to show himself to be a genuine partner for peace,\" said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. \"Calling for negotiations without a clearly defined end goal offers only the promise of more process, not progress.\" Watch how hard-liners have driven breakthroughs for peace \u00bb . Despite their differences, Obama and Netanyahu agree on numerous key issues, such as U.S. military and financial support for Israel. Obama also supports funding for Palestinian entities not controlled by Hamas, which controls Gaza and which the United States labels a terrorist organization. Before making his trip to Washington, Netanyahu met with leaders of Jordan and Egypt, viewed as potential partners in the effort to bring peace to the region. Obama will host Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on May 26 and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on May 28. CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.","highlights":"Israeli PM meets with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader John Boehner .\nIranian regime with nuclear weapons \"is a great danger to all of us,\" Netanyahu says .\nHe calls for normalized relations with Arab world, peace process with Palestinians .\nU.S. leaders also express concern over Iran's nuclear intentions .","id":"b05c352876bd47dd0c05a7de9123940d722f37d5"} -{"article":"CLAXTON, Georgia (CNN) -- Chrysler LLC's decision last week to close nearly 800 dealerships may just be business, but for the people who work and trade in those showrooms and service bays, it's personal. Claxton Chrysler Dodge Jeep is at the literal and figurative heart of Claxton, Georgia. \"They're not terminating a building or a franchise, they're terminating people that need jobs. And it's not right. It's just not right,\" said Daniel Womack, owner of Claxton Chrysler Dodge Jeep in tiny Claxton, Georgia. Womack received a hand-delivered letter from Chrysler on Thursday. \"When I got to 'We regret ...' I stopped,\" Womack said. The bankrupt automaker was terminating its agreement with Claxton, the only Chrysler dealer within 25 miles, and a profitable one at that. \"It was like standing out in the road and having a bus run over the top of us,\" he said. The agreement ends June 9, but the effect is already being felt. All of the dealer's major lending banks called and said they would no longer work with Claxton, general manager Doug Shontz said. Watch the owner's heart break for his employees \u00bb . \"Since the thing happened, we haven't had a soul in here for service,\" he said. \"We haven't turned one wrench. We have nothing for next week. When they brought that list out, that was the kiss of death.\" The dealership, its employees and their customers are intertwined like dashboard wires. \"There's only 11 of us here, but we're family,\" said Shontz, who just started there in December. \"We all know each other, we see each other every day. I spend more time with this group here than I do with my own family.\" Townsfolk tend to wander in off the street, just to shoot the breeze over a cup of coffee. Take Gary Sapp, for example. The military veteran, wounded in Vietnam, stopped in Saturday, as he does just about every day, to say hello and maybe talk about cars a little bit. He said he might come back Monday and make a deal, just as he's done there three times in the past 10 years. But it's not really about the cars and pickup trucks. \"These are good folks here,\" Sapp said. Claxton, a town of about 2,300 hard by the Canoochee River about 50 miles west of Savannah in southern Georgia, is famous for its namesake fruitcakes, which are sold with pride at Mrs. Rogers' Restaurant and seemingly half the other businesses in town. On East Main Street, a whitewashed brick building still bears an S&H Green Stamps sign and Stella's Phase III serves up $6.95 mountains of soul food, which you can top off with a slice of fluffy sweet potato pie for $1.25. A couple of blocks away, across from the Krispy Chic, a jolly white-haired man sells baseball-sized tomatoes and boiled peanuts out of the back of a pickup under a rainbow-colored umbrella. At opposite ends of Duval Street are a prison surrounded by high fences topped with coils of razor wire and the new elementary school with its gleaming blue metal roof. At the center of it all, literally and figuratively, is Claxton Chrysler Dodge, sporting colorful helium-filled balloons and blue paint bleached pale by the scorching Southern sun. \"We've been on this corner for 40 years,\" Shontz said inside his small office, looking out toward Duval Street. \"We could stand out there and have 50 or 60 people wave at us before the day is out that know us -- 'Hey man! How y'all doin'? Hang in there!' \" In a small town, everybody knows you and knows what you're up to, Shontz said. \"Everybody goes by here. I don't care who you are, everybody goes by here at least once a day,\" he said. And people in Claxton know whom they can count on for help with their causes and events and fundraisers. Over the years, Claxton Chrysler has sponsored Little League baseball and Pee Wee football, supported beauty pageants and donated to local charities, Shontz said. \"We've bought more chicken dinners, and junk, and stuff ... rodeos ... parades ... there's always something,\" Womack said with a chuckle. \"Everything's a big deal here.\" \"I've never seen so many 'Misses,' \" Shontz added as they both laughed the kind of laugh you hear toward the end of the third day at the funeral home. Chrysler LLC doesn't understand its market, said loyal customer Jerry Akins, 64, who has bought three vehicles from Claxton Chrysler. \"How the hell they gon' sell to those people in small towns?\" he said. \"They're a different breed. They're not gonna go no damn hundred miles to buy a car.\" Akins' loyalty extends to his sons, both of whom have bought cars from Claxton Chrysler. But that's not unusual around here. Salesman Paul Michel said he's sold 11 vehicles to one family since December 2005. \"That's that generational thing I was talking about,\" Shontz said. Watch what happened to Michigan's oldest Dodge dealer \u00bb . Womack intends to stay in business as a used car dealer after the agreement with Chrysler ends June 9, but it will be a very different operation. With no warranty work, the service and parts departments will be closed, Shontz said. \"I just hired a new parts guy three weeks ago,\" he said. \"He left a great job to come here. And now I told him I'm probably going to have to let him go. Great guy, real smart, knows Chrysler like the back of his hand. And I feel bad that I've put him in that kind of predicament.\" Almost as an afterthought, Shontz mentioned that he'll probably lose his own job, as will 800 of his counterparts across the corporation. \"There's going to be a lot of me's out there looking for work. General managers will be a dime a dozen.\" The change will have a ripple effect on other businesses, Shontz said. The dealer's subcontractors who handle body work, upholstery, dings, glass, used tires, scrap metal and signs all are losing a significant customer, he said. \"It's just a cryin' damn shame, is what it is,\" he said.","highlights":"Axed Chrysler dealership holds central place in tiny Georgia crossroads .\nGenerations of families have purchased vehicles from Claxton Chrysler Dodge .\nFolks walk in off the street just to shoot the breeze over a cup of coffee .\nDealer has supported youth sports, festivals, parades, charities, other businesses .","id":"6a70101c4633c4e62823c52ca84e8f2bf1128c56"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Opposition lawmakers Tuesday ridiculed President Nicolas Sarkozy for taking France back into NATO's military command after more than 40 years, but were unable to stop the move when it came to a vote. French troops on patrol with the Afghan army as part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The National Assembly voted in favor of Sarkozy's plan, 329-238. Socialist Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister, told Prime Minister Francois Fillon: \"You tell us this would mean more independence and more influence. It would probably mean less independence and less influence.\" The move did not technically require parliamentary approval, but the president's party scheduled the debate to give opponents a chance to voice their opinions -- and to show a majority backed it. Asking the National Assembly to vote on the issue also showed how sensitive the matter is in France. France was a founding member of the NATO alliance in 1949 but it left the military structure in 1966 amid friction with the United States. \"To cooperate is to lose your independence,\" French President Charles de Gaulle said at the time. For the next 43 years, even though France selectively participated in NATO military operations, de Gaulle's principle remained the governing cornerstone of French foreign policy. If Paris took orders from NATO military commanders, it was reasoned, the nation would no longer have complete control of its destiny. Sarkozy, however, believes the opposite -- that cooperation in NATO is a guarantee of French independence. Rejoining NATO's military command, he argued, will give France a seat at the table for decision-making. From its earliest years, the organization's trans-Atlantic ties were strained because U.S. analysts warned that if the European allies failed to increase their contributions to the alliance, they risked losing the support of the United States, according to NATO. Meanwhile, the European nations felt the United States was trying to dominate the organization, according to NATO. De Gaulle's 1966 decision meant no French forces could be under permanent allied command and that France would have no participation in defense planning. In 1995, France rejoined NATO's military committee, which advises NATO's political authorities on military policy and strategy and provides guidance on military matters to NATO's strategic commanders. While France was still not a part of the military command, it contributed troops and funding to NATO activities, including actions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Half of all French troops outside the country are assigned to NATO military operations. Opponents of Sarkozy's move -- who include some members of his party -- believe de Gaulle, not Sarkozy, had it right. They started a last-minute petition drive to stop his march back into NATO. \"With this decision, France will return as a subordinate country and will lose its ability to represent another image in the world,\" said Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a member of the French National Assembly. The president's allies calculate Sarkozy's move will strengthen Europe's hand on defense issues. \"There will be more European weight in the way decisions will be made,\" said Louis Giscard d'Estaing, a member of the National Assembly's U.S. Friendship Committee. \"Therefore, the balance of power between the USA and Europe will be re-established within this French move.\" CNN's Sunaina Karkarey and Jim Bittermann contributed to this report .","highlights":"French National Assembly backs president's plan to rejoin NATO .\nPresident Nicolas Sarkozy's plan is politically sensitive .\nFrance was a founding member of NATO but left in 1966 .\nPresident Charles de Gaulle said in 1966 membership meant losing independence .","id":"3881dafdfa349893763fd2cfb6c440faaaa1482a"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The driver of a truck that collided with a bus in northeast Mexico, killing 12 people including 11 passengers from the United States and Canada, was intoxicated, a Mexican official said Tuesday. Emergency workers wheel a crash victim on a gurney after Monday's bus crash in Mexico. The tractor-trailer's 21-year-old driver was among those hospitalized after Monday's crash near Monterrey, Mexico, said Segismundo Doguin Martinez, a police official in the Mexican state of Coahuila. The driver of the bus was among those killed, and 15 bus passengers were injured. The Senda Express bus, operated by Grupo Senda, had been traveling from McAllen, Texas, carrying tourists to Zacatecas in central Mexico. Eight of those who died were from the United States, three were from Canada and one, the bus driver, was from Mexico, Doguin said. Watch rescuers work at scene of deadly crash \u00bb . The survivors, most of them in grave condition, were taken to the Christus Muguerza Hospital and the Clinica La Concepcion, the Mexican official said. \"They are in a delicate state but out of danger,\" Doguin said. El Milenio newspaper reported on its Web site that eight of the injured are from the United States, four are from Canada and three from Mexico. Seven of the injured Americans are from Texas and one is from Iowa, the newspaper said. El Norte newspaper's Web site and El Porvenir said the dead and injured included tourists. Among those killed in the crash was 73-year-old Ronald Christy, said his daughter, Pam Fordyce. Christy's wife, Margaret Christy, was in critical condition in a Mexican hospital, Fordyce said. \"He was doing exactly what he loved -- traveling,\" Fordyce, of Altoona, Iowa, told CNN by telephone Tuesday. \"He was right where he would want to be, on a bus.\" She said the couple wintered in Texas and lived in West Liberty, Iowa, in the summer. The U.S. consulate called her at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to tell her that her father had been killed, Fordyce said, and then followed up with an e-mail with photographs of the crash. \"I didn't even know he was on a bus,\" she said. \"I guess I could believe [the consulate] when I talked to my brother\" who knew the couple was traveling, she said. \"Until then you don't want to believe anything.\" Doguin, the Mexican official, said the accident occurred when a truck driver went off the road and then overcorrected and swerved into oncoming traffic, hitting the bus. Video of the scene from CNN affiliate TV Azteca 13 showed the left side of the bus sheared off and the semi's cab completely flattened. Rescue efforts took five hours, TV Azteca 13 reported. The U.S. consulate in Monterrey will not release the names of the dead or injured until all family members have been notified, said consulate spokesman Todd Huizinga. \"On Monday evening, staff from the consulate in Monterrey went to the Christus Muguerza Hospital to offer assistance to some of the injured who were brought there after the crash,\" Huizinga said. \"The consulate expects to have more detail in the coming hours.\" The truck driver was injured and is being held by authorities at a hospital, Doguin said. The Web site for Grupo Senda says the company started in Linares, Mexico, more than 75 years ago. It provides bus service to 15 Mexican states and the Texas Valley, the site says. Elizabeth Suarez, director of the McAllen Central Bus Station, where the bus trip originated, issued a statement saying, \"We are very saddened by the news this morning. We offer our condolences to the families. The city of McAllen is the landlord of the bus terminal facility in McAllen. Grupo Senda is our tenant.\" CNN's Melanie Whitley, Taylor Gandossy, Tess Eastment and Monica Trevino contributed to this report from Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"NEW: Tractor-trailer driver, 21, was intoxicated, official says .\n18-wheeler swerved into oncoming traffic, official says; side of bus sheared off .\nDeath toll at 12: Eight from U.S., three from Canada, and bus driver, from Mexico .\nVictim's daughter in Iowa says consulate called at 1:30 a.m. with word of crash .","id":"fed43b79a1c1f88d61bcffdf0d91ebb38417b0be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two photographs of Madonna set to appear in a Christie's auction next month will probably sell for at least $10,000 each, according to estimates posted on the company's Web site. Christie's will auction a nude photo of Madonna (partially shown above) taken by Lee Friedlander. One, a full-frontal nude black-and-white photograph of the singer, was taken in 1979 by celebrated American photographer Lee Friedlander for a series of nudes he was working on, said Milena Sales, a spokeswoman for the auction house. Madonna was about 20 when the photograph, one of several, was taken. A handful from the shoot appeared in Playboy magazine in 1985, Sales said. Christie's put price estimates for the photograph at $10,000 to $15,000. The second photograph of Madonna was taken in the 1980s by Helmut Newton. In the Newton photograph, which is in color, Madonna is wearing a short dress and black stockings with garters. The circumstances behind the photo shoot were not immediately clear. The auction will take place in New York on February 12.","highlights":"Christie's to auction Madonna photos .\nOne is full-frontal nude shot taken by Lee Friedlander .\nNude photo expected to sell for $10,000 to $15,000 .","id":"d943a808a26f7881c4fda8233e9fa00ff0ed2095"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Contrary to a report in a British newspaper, Michael Jackson does not have skin cancer, says Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, the promoter of the King of Pop's upcoming concerts at London's 02 Arena. Michael Jackson gestures to the crowd at the March announcement for his series of London concerts. \"He's as healthy as he can be -- no health problems whatsoever,\" the executive told CNN. Phillips said he asked Jackson point-blank about the skin cancer rumor yesterday, and the entertainer just brushed it off and laughed. \"He's used to rumors like this. He's been famous ever since he was 5. He doesn't read the newspapers or watch news reports,\" Phillips explained. He also had an answer for an item in the British tabloid The Sun that said Jackson had been \"making regular trips to a dermatologist in Beverly Hills wearing a mask and surgical cap.\" \"Michael is very close friends with his dermatologist. It's as simple as that,\" said Phillips. According to Phillips, the 50-year-old pop star had passed a stringent physical exam before he and AEG inked their deal for Jackson to headline a 50-show residency at 02 beginning July 8. \"And he'll have to take another before the shows start,\" he offered. Phillips also told CNN a tour with sister Janet Jackson and other performing members of the Jackson family was \"never in the works, at least from Michael Jackson's side.\" He added, \"Never say never, but right now, he's focusing on his own show. It's not about his family.\" \"He's working out every day with his choreographers and his dancers. He's in better shape at 50 than I was at 30,\" Phillips laughed. Phillips took the opportunity to knock down a couple of other rumors. \"For now, he has no plans for his kids to be in the show. And there are no elephants. No elephants in the show, and he's not dying of cancer.\" Phillips said the London shows were the first step in a multi-phase package with Jackson that he called \"more than a 360-degree deal.\" He said there are also plans for recorded music and movies, including a 3-D live concert film and a 3-D movie based on Jackson's 1983 \"Thriller\" music video. Phillips didn't rule out a tour or a concert residency in another city, stating it would most likely start in Europe, then roll out to Asia, North America and South America.","highlights":"U.K. tabloid reported that Michael Jackson has skin cancer .\nJackson has \"no health problems whatsoever,\" says concert promoter .\nJackson is scheduled to perform 50 shows at London arena starting July 8 .","id":"49520e2dc1b6e7a7a5697b82ac701c14c6f24ee8"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It was the hottest ticket in town. Colin Farrell was there. So were Michelle Branch, Josh Groban and Chris Isaak -- the latter accompanied by his manager's dog, Rodney. Yusuf, formerly known as Cat Stevens, believes he can help bridge gaps between cultures. No, we're not talking about a Britney Spears or U2 concert. We're talking about a star-studded, invitation-only club show by Yusuf -- the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. It was the legendary folk singer's first L.A. show in 33 years, and the audience gave him a heartfelt \"welcome back.\" He played for just over an hour: half a dozen songs from his new album, \"Roadsinger,\" plus a few gems from the '60s and '70s. It was \"Peace Train\" that elicited a singalong, with the entire room participating in the song's signature hand claps. Branch, who sings backup on Yusuf's new album, admitted to getting teary-eyed. \"You don't understand,\" she said. \"I learned how to play guitar with the Cat Stevens songbook!\" Watch Yusuf talk about his songbook -- and his life \u00bb . The whole evening seemed awash in good vibes. Concertgoers didn't even mind having a security guard electronically wand them on the way in. It was perhaps an extra security measure given some of the lingering controversy surrounding the headliner's conversion to Islam at the height of his popularity in 1977, during which time he changed his name from Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam. In 2004, he was famously denied entry into the United States after his name appeared on a no-fly list. He maintained that it was a case of mistaken identity with another man named Yousuf Islam. However, there was no mistaking the artist on stage at the El Rey Theater last week. At 60, he may look more like a hip college professor than the dark-haired, sensitive sex symbol he was in the '70s, but the message and the music remained the same. The following is an edited version of his interview with CNN. CNN: For a lot of people, it's not only the music but what the music represents. Hearing the old Cat Stevens songs makes people feel warm and fuzzy, a throwback to a simpler time. Yusuf: That's true, and that's why we gave a sprinkling of those songs. When I want to see Paul McCartney, I'd expect to hear \"Eleanor Rigby\" -- something from the past -- because there's something about that that we connect with, and a person becomes part of our life. And I am a part of a lot of people's lives, and my words have resounded in a lot of people's philosophies and the way they look at things, and that's great. Somehow, that's one of the reasons I took life and songwriting very seriously. CNN: But you gave it up for a while. Yusuf: At a certain point I said, \"I've got more living to do,\" and I stopped making music, and I started living. CNN: Many people don't think they start living until they HAVE the fame and fortune. But you didn't start living until you gave it up. Yusuf: It's true. I was very normal -- in some sense, a very shy person. I had to become a persona. I had to kind of put it on a little bit, and therefore I retreated a little bit at a certain point in my career because I thought, \"I can't do this.\" So I just became withdrawn, and then people say, \"Well, the guy's a bit of a recluse, you know.\" The fact was, I was just a little bit scared of being out there! And I wanted to be sincere, as well. It wasn't easy to be sincere in the music business. CNN: I think a lot of people were surprised when you converted to Islam in the '70s. People didn't understand it. Even today, I think there are those who still don't understand it. Yusuf: It's true. I used to be prejudiced -- as prejudiced as anyone about Islam. ... And then I was given the opportunity of reading the actual source, the Quran itself, without anybody forcing me or looking over my shoulder and saying, \"What do you think?\" It was just me in my space. And the more I read the Quran, the more I realized that it was like an incredible matrix of connection with Christianity and Judaism. I mean Jesus, Moses, the religion of Abraham in this book! And I said, \"Wow, how come I didn't know this before?\" It was kind of like a secret. So that was kind of my discovery, and a lot of people, I don't think, have gone through that process because they've seen Islam as a headline -- and you never learn anything about a headline. Because headlines, you know -- people make things up, to be honest. CNN: In 2004, you were put on a no-fly list and denied entry into the United States. How did you view that? Yusuf: I felt chosen! I felt suddenly, I was given a halo. \"This guy stands for peace, and they won't let him in.\" And so I turned it from a no-fly list to a no-song list, and I wrote a song about it (\"Boots and Sand\"), and I decided to take it lightly. It was really kind of a joke, in a way, because the person I am and the kind of things they were kind of insinuating by putting me on this list with other people who were very dangerous -- . CNN: You mean you're not dangerous? Yusuf: No! Touch me! (laughs) It was upsetting for a lot more people than myself. And you know, I'm here now (in the United States), so things are kind of working themselves out. But there's a new administration, a new president, and it's a great new day. CNN: Obama seems to be reaching out to people of all faiths around the world. Yusuf: I think a person like Obama has some kind of faith in his special role that he has to perform. And that role -- if not prophetic -- it's a divine role. It's helping humanity and people get together and live together and prosper. That's a big demand on one person, so it cannot happen with him alone. There's going to have to be a lot of changes around the world. But it is happening. CNN: There are people who have said you've been associated with groups funneling money to Hamas. Yusuf: Yup. Yeah. So the biggest thing in my life is ... why do I have to defend being charitable? Oh, because somehow, somewhere, somebody got a bit of that money, and he's on a list, and somebody else is on a list -- God almighty! That has nothing to do with me. I'm just trying to be charitable! I think if everybody followed every penny that they ever gave, they would find some very interesting stories behind what has happened to their money. Possibly a lot of it would have gone to waste in administration, as well as other places. It's unfortunate that people have to associate someone because he's got a different faith -- or because he's a Muslim -- with something bad. CNN: Do you believe that will get better? Yusuf: Oh, yeah. I'm very much an optimist. And I believe in the hereafter, as well. And that's a big thing! CNN: Do you believe that you have a role and that your role is to reach out and touch people through song? Yusuf: Very much. I think I've been given a position and place in this world which is quite unique. The fact that I'm a Westerner by birth and I'm a Muslim at the same time -- and living in this time where there seems to be such a gravitational split in polarities -- there need to be bridges, and I think music is one of the best ways to bridge all those gaps.","highlights":"Yusuf, formerly Cat Stevens, has new album: \"Roadsinger\"\nAfter big success in '70s, he converted to Islam, shut down career for a time .\n\"I'm very much an optimist,\" Yusuf says .","id":"76894b1e3bff1217bb5a11ee880a378426942a49"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With outrage mounting over AIG's $165 million in bonuses to executives, the president's chief economic adviser offered a new line of defense for the White House in an exclusive interview with CNN. Larry Summers said an AIG meltdown was too risky for the economy to push too hard on executive bonuses. Larry Summers suggested that if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had pushed the insurance giant too hard on the bonuses, AIG could have collapsed just like Lehman Brothers and sparked an even bigger crisis. \"Secretary Geithner has used all the legal authorities that are open to him to contain and limit the payment of bonuses,\" said Summers, chairman of the National Economic Council. \"What he did not do, and what would have been irresponsible to do, as outrageous as these payments are, would have been to put at risk the stability of the financial system. \"To have courted the kind of disaster that followed the decision to let Lehman Brothers simply collapse might have felt good briefly, but it would have touched the lives of a huge number of Americans who would have unnecessarily become unemployed or seen destruction of their lifetime savings.\" The collapse of the 158-year-old investment bank in September turned the U.S. crisis, based on the subprime loan debacle, into a global one, leading to credit freezes and plummeting markets nearly everywhere. Summers said Geithner was notified about the AIG bonuses last week. The secretary tried to stop them, Summers said, but ran up against a legal contract. \"Secretary Geithner courageously has gone after these bonuses and will continue to go after these bonuses in a very aggressive way, but we can't suspend the rule of law and we can't put the whole economy at risk,\" said Summers. Asked whether AIG could get more bailout funds down the road, Summers suggested the door is open to more taxpayer money, despite the bonus controversy. Watch senators' plan to retrieve money \u00bb . \"It is wrong to govern out of anger,\" said Summers. \"We have to recognize what we are angry about, do something about it. That's why we are focused on a new resolution regime as part of a sweeping overhaul of the financial system. \" ... But we can't let anger stop us from taking the steps that are necessary to maintain the stability of the financial system, keep credit flowing.\" Watch tempers rise over bonuses \u00bb . Summers said President Obama's entire economic team is working hard to mitigate the problems caused by bank failures, bailouts and credit freezes and boost the country's economy. \"There's one lesson of the history of financial crisis that no one can argue with, and that is that they all end, and this one will, too,\" he said. \"And if we are able to maintain the right policies, we'll bring forward the day when it ends, and -- probably even more important -- we'll have a sounder stronger economic expansion at the end of it.\" The former treasury secretary is not quite as bullish about a turnaround, however, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who predicted the recession may be over by the end of 2009. Asked about Bernanke's prediction, Summers said he was upbeat about some aspects of the economy -- such as a 22 percent spike in housing starts and recent upticks in the stock market -- but said he was cautious about making any grand pronouncements. Summers told CNN that while he's confident of a turnaround, \"just what day the turn will come isn't something that I would dare to forecast.\" \"Something that the president has made clear to us is his approach and the approach he wants us to take is a recognition that we don't panic when there's a bad number, bad day on the markets, and we don't become euphoric when there's a good day in the markets, or a good number,\" Summers said. Asked specifically about Bernanke's prediction on CBS' \"60 Minutes\" about the recession ending this year and 2010 potentially being a year of recovery, Summers demurred. \"We always are at pains to recognize when we talk to the president that economic forecasting is the most imperfect of sciences,\" said Summers. \"Many people would say it wasn't a science at all. We stress the uncertainties in this situation.\"","highlights":"Larry Summers is President Obama's chief economic adviser .\nHe says contracts legally tied hands of Treasury secretary to deal with AIG bonuses .\nSummers: Pushing AIG too hard could have led to Lehman Brothers-style collapse .\n\"We can't put the whole economy at risk\" because we're angry, he cautions .","id":"3fdfdd5790ce5019242acd1df0c1c70e352c7708"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rudolpho Marquez, Richard Reyes and Cesar Cruz make for a most unlikely car pool. They are all former gang rivals who have spent hard time in prison. But they've put the past behind them for common goals: jobs and their families. Rudolpho Marquez, Richard Reyes and Cesar Cruz are ex-gang members working together now. \"It's a lesson in that you don't have to kill your neighbors,\" said Reyes, who spent the last decade in and out of prison for an array of drug offenses. \"It don't matter where you come from, what background you come from. We are all humans, and we should learn to live together.\" Marquez chimed in, \"We treat each other like normal human beings now. We get along great. We socialize.\" The three men are part of a solar-installation program paid for by Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that works with former gang members and others who have spent time in prison to put them to work. Watch Homeboy help ex-gang members \u00bb . The latest project is aimed at green jobs, offering former gang members and parolees a chance to break ground in alternative energy programs while the issue is being pushed by President Obama and the nation's lawmakers. Homeboy is the brainchild of the Rev. Gregory Boyle, known simply as Father Greg by everyone here. Boyle first started a small program in 1988 to offer alternatives to gang violence in one of Los Angeles' toughest neighborhoods. \"I started burying young kids who were killed in our community,\" he told CNN. \"I buried my first in 1988 and just buried my 165th two months ago. So we as a community started to say, 'We have to do something.' \" Over the last two decades, Homeboy has reached out to the 1,100 gangs in metro LA, helping provide a second chance to those who want it. The organization provides much-needed job training, hires ex-gang members for transitional jobs and helps give other free programs to people who otherwise struggle in the outside world. Boyle said it's a simple philosophy: Offer gang members hope through gainful employment, and they'll want to \"leave behind all of their gang past.\" \"This population really can't afford to just go to school. They are not living at home with their parents. They have no one there, really,\" he said. Reyes calls the Catholic priest a saint. \"If there were more people like him, there'd be less people like me,\" he said. In Reyes' case, he missed the births of his daughters -- Valerie, 9, and Vanessa, 7 -- because he was behind bars. \"I feel I wasted my life,\" he said. \"I thought being a father was making babies, but being a father is taking an interest in your kids.\" Since his release from prison in May 2008, he has graduated at the top his class in the Homeboy-sponsored solar program. He is now working on a $2.5 million project for Lite Solar to install 1,500 solar panels on an apartment building. As he watched his daughters play on a recent afternoon, he said, \"It feels good knowing you can provide for them.\" On Tuesday, Reyes got another reward: He welcomed his first son into the world. His wife, Susana Reyes, said the Homeboy program completely changed her husband. \"Before, it was all about his gang,\" she said. \"Now, I know he loves his daughters.\" Albert Ortega, now 34, spent seven years in prison, beginning when he was just 19. He was hired by Homeboy and is now the coordinator of the solar program. \"This program totally changed my life,\" he said. A father of three children, Ortega said he kept making poor choices to make quick money. After his most recent release from prison, he said he approached Boyle to help him clean up his life. \"I was willing to try anything,\" Ortega said. \"I just didn't want to go back to prison, and I didn't want to disappoint my daughters.\" That's a sentiment echoed by the car pool trio. \"Seeing everybody I grew up with going to jail. I didn't want to live that life,\" said Cruz. Added Reyes, \"If you want to change your life around, anything is possible.\" CNN's Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Homeboy Industries started in 1988 to help ease tensions among gangs .\nA new program funded by Homeboy trains ex-gang members on green jobs .\n\"It's a lesson in that you don't have to kill your neighbors,\" says Richard Reyes .\nEx-gang member says friends all went to jail: \"I didn't want to live that life\"","id":"4f0ea386700030279fa8f32dd9556da622669505"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 23-year-old woman suffocated her son and then buried his body beneath the sand of a playground, police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said Thursday. Tiffany Toribio, 23, was arrested and charged with killing her son. Police arrested Tiffany Toribio about 4 a.m., just hours after they said they wanted to speak to her about her missing 3-year-old son, Ty. Family members had contacted authorities, saying her son matched the description of a boy found Friday at an Albuquerque playground. Police Chief Ray Schultz said she confessed to killing the boy soon after being apprehended. \"She placed her hand over her son's mouth and nose and suffocated him. She had second thoughts about what she did. She performed CPR on her son, brought him back to life and then decided to go forward with that original act she had started to commit,\" Schultz said. Watch Schultz describe the alleged killing \u00bb . \"What makes this story especially sad is, when asked the reason why she took Ty's life, Tiffany said that she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him, the same way that she had grown up where nobody had cared about her.\" An emotional Schultz added that Toribio has tried to kill herself since her arrest. She was being held in isolation at a detention facility and kept under observation, he said. He added, \"As you can see, this case has been very emotional for everybody in the department.\" Toribio was charged with first-degree murder and an array of other charges, including abuse of a child under 12 that caused death. The discovery of the body at Alvarado Park on Friday shocked the community, which dubbed the boy \"Baby Justice\" and \"Baby Angel\" as they rallied around his case. Police released a composite image of the boy Tuesday, hoping to garner more leads in the case. They weren't able to release a photo of the boy because his body was so disfigured by the sand's heat. Schultz said that after killing her son, Toribio dug a hole under gym equipment at the playground, moved the body and buried him in the shallow grave. \"Since that time, she's been walking the streets of the city of Albuquerque,\" he said. The boy was wearing Arizona brand clothing, size 3T: nylon black running pants with red stripes, a red shirt with a monster truck on it and black, gray and lime green Skechers sneakers. Toribio did not comment Thursday morning after her arrest as she was put in a police car. Schultz said there had been no reports of child abuse filed against Toribio. But he said family members indicated that she did not express the typical love of a mother for her child. \"She did not show the normal relationship that you would see with a mother, son,\" he said. This week, police had gone to residences where she had lived previously, but she wasn't there, Schultz said. Police had gone there after family members expressed concern because \"they did not like the way Ty was being treated,\" the police chief said. CNN's Mallory Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: New Mexico mom, 23, faces charges including murder .\nNEW: Police say she suffocated son, revived him and then killed him .\nNEW: Mom told cops \"she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him\"\nThe boy was found at playground Friday; case dubbed \"Baby Justice\"","id":"c1ad453f32aaeb957bf03e55c31db892ce1bded4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On Monday's night edition of \"Larry King Live,\" guest host Ali Velshi talked with TV cooking host Rachael Ray. Rachael Ray visits \"Larry King Live\" on Monday night to give tips on stretching a family's food dollar to the max. CNN's chief business correspondent asked Ray how you can make your meal-time dollars stretch in these tough economic times without sacrificing nutrition or taste. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Ali Velshi: How do we keep from packing on the recession pounds? Tonight, help is on the way. Joining me in New York is Rachael Ray, host of \"The Rachael Ray Show.\" ... We're all kind of stressed right now. We're trying to sort of do more with less and certainly eating in a hurry. You've got some great advice on that. Ray: We need to go back to the way our grandparents prepared food. Instead of buying pieces of chicken, buy a whole chicken. You make that on Sunday, take the leftovers, roll that into fajitas, soups, stews, make your own stock. You've got to start thinking in bigger increments. ... Stock up on lean meats and proteins, on veggies that you know your family likes and turn yourself into your own frozen food factory. Every time that chicken breast goes on sale, stock up. Go home, put it in individual storage bags, pound it out nice and thin. It's a quick defrost. Watch Rachael Ray's appearance on \"Larry King Live\" \u00bb . Velshi: All right. So you freeze; I like that. You make yourself into your own frozen food factory. Ray: Even with vegetables. ... You know, if broccoli is on a great price this week, buy a ton of it, go home, blanch it a little bit of salted water, cold shock it, put it in a plastic food storage bag, done. Velshi: What's the better deal: Buying your vegetables canned, buying them fresh? Ray: Buying them at a local food market. You know, whether you're in a big city or a small town, farmers markets are your best bargain. You can buy direct from the small producer. And, you know, it's a great way to not only get organic, but get a great price on it. Velshi: Let's talk about takeout food. Parents are trying to save time and money. In many cases, that leads us to fast food, because it's cheap and fast. ... Ray: The food that we can get most readily and at the best bargain isn't good for us. It's processed. I mean all things in moderation. Everybody can have a burger once in a while. Velshi: What do you recommend to our viewers [for fast food]? Ray: Hey, I love a veggie sub at Subway. You know, I think that there is affordable fast food. If you're on the go, fine. Everybody needs to pick up a salad or a burger once in a while. There are healthy choices there. .... If the kids really love fries, tell them they can have a few as long as they eat the veggies, too. And, there are a lot of great strategies you can take with kids in getting them to eat healthier -- little things like switching to whole wheat macaroni, whole wheat pastas. Velshi: It sounds like it's a lot like dealing with the rest of your financial life -- if there's a little bit of planning ahead of time, you can actually save a lot of money. Ray: Absolutely. I think you've got to go into the store armed with a good attitude ... and with coupons. And another really simple thing: When you go grocery shopping, do not look at the price on the product. Look at the unit price. Right there on the shelf, it will tell you the price per ounce or unit of measurement. And that's how you find your truest bargains. Velshi: Let's talk about planning for shopping. When people are trying to trim their bills, what are the biggest mistakes they make? Ray: They go shopping hungry. They make a lot of impulse buys. They shop too many times during the week. ... Try and make that one master list, really think it out and try and plan one day of the week where you can do a big cook. Velshi: Are you a big leftover fan? Ray: Absolutely. But I don't think they should taste like the first time. You know, I'm all for cooking a big chicken and then making chicken chili, chicken pasta. Velshi: Not having roast chicken for four days? Ray: Exactly. Velshi: How do you make that switch if your kids are addicted to processed and fast food? Ray: Children love good food, and they love being involved. They love feeling like they're helping. If you give children ownership of the meal, if you involve them in the process, they feel like they're problem-solving and it becomes a great self-esteem builder. And for the transition, it can be as simple as taking things that they like, such as macaroni and cheese, and using a whole wheat pasta instead of a plain pasta. Velshi: Do you tell them that you're doing it? Ray: No. I don't think so. Just let them enjoy it. Velshi: What I haven't graduated to is coupons. I get them in the newspaper every week. Is this something we should be looking at now? Ray: This is the perfect time to be using coupons. Whether you're somebody that has [money] or somebody who lives on a very limited budget, it's always fun to get more for your money. Velshi: One of the things in your magazine that I really enjoy is the Supermarket 101 column, just sort of factoids about supermarkets. Ray: Yes. And it gives people neat tips on how to save money when they go shopping. Velshi: Yes. And one of them was about buying in bulk, particularly with nuts. Is that the case for everything? Ray: Everything. When you buy in bulk or you buy a generic name, you have to read the label and make sure that the quality is the same. But, yes, I think it's truly a bargain.","highlights":"Rachael Ray says we need to go back to way our grandparents prepared food .\nPlan ahead, make large meals and freeze leftovers for later incarnations, Ray says .\nAnother Ray tip: clip coupons before you head to grocery and buy in bulk .\nRay says eat fast food in moderation, pick healthy items such as veggies, salads .","id":"9d2081309d460f5c7651faf19cb007b25f7453bc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama will address the future of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Thursday morning in a speech at the National Archives. The Guantanamo facility houses terror suspects, and lawmakers don't want them in the U.S. In a speech that is being billed as a major address, Obama is also slated to discuss issues of state secrets, transparency and protecting national security, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the most outspoken critics of Obama's policies, is scheduled to give an opposing argument Thursday morning. Cheney has charged that Obama's national security decisions have left the United States more vulnerable to attack. Obama's address is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET at the National Archives. Cheney will speak before the conservative American Enterprise Institute at 10:45 a.m. Obama is hoping to rally support behind his national security measures after angering some with his decision to resume the Bush administration practice of military tribunals and by reversing course on his decision to release photos of alleged inmate abuse at Guantanamo. On Wednesday, Obama was dealt another blow when the U.S. Senate passed a measure that would prevent detainees at Guantanamo Bay from being transferred to the United States for now. The measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in a 90-6 vote. A similar amendment has already passed the House. It was attached to a supplemental war funding bill. Following in the steps of House Democrats, Senate Democrats rejected on Tuesday the administration's request for $80 million to close the Guantanamo facility. They instead asked that President Obama first submit a plan spelling out what the administration will do with the prisoners when it closes the prison. Obama, in one of his first official duties as president, announced that he would close the prison by January 22, 2010. Congressional Democrats, however, are now attempting to avoid an onslaught of criticism from Republicans, who argue it would be reckless to shutter the prison before deciding where to transfer the detainees. FBI Director Robert Mueller told members of Congress earlier Wednesday that he is concerned about the potential dangers that may result from the release of detainees in the United States. In response to a question from Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller said he is concerned about the potential for fundraising to support terrorist groups and the radicalization of others, as well as the potential for attacks within the country. Mueller also said that while he is not concerned about dangerous terrorists escaping from maximum security federal prisons, he is concerned about the potential of activities being directed from within prison walls, and he cited such actions by dangerous gang members. Attorney General Eric Holder, the president's point man overseeing the Guantanamo plan, sought to downplay the FBI director's concerns and the Senate vote to bar funds. \"The concerns that have been expressed by the director and concerns expressed by other people will all be taken into account in formulating the plan that we will ultimately use,\" Holder told reporters late Wednesday. \"We're not going to do anything that's going to put the American people at risk,\" he said. The attorney general continued to express confidence that the Guantanamo Bay prison camp will be permanently closed by Obama's deadline. iReport.com: Sound off on Obama, Cheney speeches . \"We will have conversations with Congress, and I'm confident that as a result of those conversations, the necessary funds will come our way,\" Holder said. At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs echoed Holder's promise. \"The president understands that his most important job is to keep the American people safe and that he is not going to make any decision or any judgment that imperils the safety of the American people.\" CNN's Terry Frieden and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House says Obama is not going to make any decision that imperils safety .\nSenate votes 90-6 on a measure to prevent Gitmo detainees from going to the U.S.\nA similar amendment has already passed the House .\nObama announced that he would close the prison by January 22, 2010 .","id":"44fc10b1c44860362dfb705f6668493765e36558"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick left a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, early Wednesday, according to his publicist and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Michael Vick, left, arrives at federal court with attorney Billy Martin in Richmond, Viriginia, in 2007. He will serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement in Virginia, his publicist Judy Smith said. He is a native of Newport News, Virginia. Vick, 28, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He will return to professional football as soon as September if reinstated by the NFL, according to the sports agent who negotiated Vick's 10-year, $140 million contract with the Falcons. Meanwhile, Vick's attorneys have said he will work at a Newport News construction firm following his release, and he has also agreed to participate in a documentary for $600,000. Last month, a federal bankruptcy judge denied a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan presented by Vick, urging him to offer the court another plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The plan called for Vick to come up with $750,000 to $1 million in cash to be paid to creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro said, but added he saw no evidence Vick could come up with that much. Santoro suggested Vick's next plan not call for him to keep two houses and three cars, as did the rejected proposal. In testimony, Vick acknowledged committing a \"heinous\" act and said he should have acted more maturely. He said he has been earning 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor in prison. His Falcons salary, he said, was between $10 million and $12 million. He acknowledged failing to handle his money well. Watch a panel discuss his release \u00bb . Vick plans to work with the Humane Society of the United States on anti-dogfighting campaigns, Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle told CNN on Tuesday. Vick will work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting, and also on programs to assist young people who have already been involved in the blood sport. Pacelle said the Humane Society was approached by Vick's representatives. He said he has traveled to Kansas twice to meet with the former quarterback, and during the second visit, the two discussed how Vick could use his sway over youths to discourage them from involvement in dogfighting, as well as help those who were apprehended in connection with it. Watch more about Vick's dogs \u00bb . Details have not yet been hammered out, Pacelle said, but will be in the next couple of days. iReport.com: Does Vick deserve a second chance? More attention has been paid to dogfighting as a result of Vick's case, Pacelle said. The Humane Society, which offers rewards for tips involving dogfighting, has recently paid out $40,000 in five different cases, he said.","highlights":"Prisons official says ex-Atlanta Falcons quarterback left facility early Wednesday .\nHe'll serve last two months of sentence in home confinement, most likely in Virginia .\nVick's attorneys have said he'll work at construction firm; Vick has OK'd documentary .\nVick, 28, pleaded guilty in 2007 to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia .","id":"d1c66a2ae89000075e3adeadf7e795fdbc1a42ca"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. Although this is a challenging market for new grads, remember: Attitude can be the key to your success. Nate Torvik has mixed feelings about his upcoming graduation from Purdue University. While there's relief that classes are over, exams have been taken and term papers turned in, what lies ahead is an extremely challenging and competitive job market. \"I feel like the wind has been taken out of my sails,\" says Torvik, who received a bachelor's degree in mass communication. \"There is so much pride and happiness that comes with graduation, but as soon as I step off that stage at graduation, I become another statistic of the current miserable economy.\" Torvik is one of thousands of soon-to-be college graduates thinking about relocating for work this spring. While choosing the best place to settle down can be a daunting decision, the current economic climate has raised the stakes. \"I have been looking just about everywhere throughout the Midwest for a job because I do not want to be too far away from my family, but things are looking more bleak everywhere I turn,\" Torvik says. For now, he's working in retail and hopes it might open other doors to a job as an account executive at a marketing or advertising firm. Allison Lackey is one of the lucky ones ... for now. She is graduating with a communications degree from Millikin University and starts a ten-month stint as a traveling field consultant for Delta Delta Delta women's fraternity. After that, she hopes to find a position as a marketing or PR specialist for a nonprofit organization. \"In a way, I am grateful to be searching for a job in this tough economy,\" Lackey says. \"It has forced me to become comfortable with being able to articulate why I am the best candidate for the job and it has also forced me to learn how to network well with people in my field.\" Top cities for new grads . While many new grads tend to look for jobs near their college or hometowns, scores of them are considering locations they might not have when they entered school four or five years ago. \"Given the current economy, new grads looking to relocate are becoming increasingly concerned with the cost of living as they are faced with more competition for jobs than seen in previous years,\" said Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager at Apartments.com. \"With these very real concerns weighing on the minds of many, two leading online resources for apartments and jobs have come together to paint a realistic landscape of both the job market and cost of living in the most popular cities for young adults after college.\" For new grads who plan to expand their job searches beyond their college or hometowns, Apartments.com and CBcampus.com just released the \"Top 10 Best Cities for Recent College Graduates.\" The list is based on the ranking of the top U.S. cities with the highest concentration of young adults (age 20 -- 24) from the U.S. Census Bureau (2006), inventory of jobs requiring less than one year of experience from CBcampus.com (2009) and the average cost of rent for a one bedroom apartment from Apartments.com (2009). According to Apartments.com and CBcampus.com, the top 10 cities for new grads are: . 1. Indianapolis Average rent:* $625 Popular entry-level categories:** sales, customer service, health care . 2. Philadelphia Average rent: $1,034 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, management . 3. Baltimore Average rent: $1,130 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, health care . 4. Cincinnati Average rent: $691 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, health care . 5. Cleveland Average rent: $686 Popular entry-level categories: sales, marketing, customer service . 6. New York Average rent: $1,548 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, admin-clerical . 7. Phoenix Average rent: $747 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, marketing . 8. Denver Average rent: $877 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, health care . 9. Chicago Average rent: $1,133 Popular entry-level categories: sales, marketing, customer service . 10. San Antonio Average rent: $696 Popular entry-level categories: sales, customer service, management . Looking beyond your hometown . If you are considering expanding your job search to other cities, here are some tips: . \u2022 Contact an alumnus from your college who lives in that city and join your alumni chapter if there is one. \u2022 Get an insider's perspective by familiarizing yourself with the local media and other resources. Read up on the city's business and community news. \u2022 Develop a list of companies within the area and learn about their businesses and company cultures. \u2022 Register with a national recruitment agency; interview with a recruiter in your local office and have that person put the word out to other offices in your target cities. \u2022 Consider spending a few days in your desired city to learn more, network and set up informational interviews. In your applications and cover letters, tell hiring managers the dates you'll be in the city and available to interview. Although this is a challenging market for new grads, remember: Attitude can be the key to your success. The reality is that the job search will take longer for these new grads thrust into the \"real world\" but the right mind-set can make you resilient. Consider the words from Elaine Goodwin, who plans to graduate this fall from Northern Illinois University: \"There is always something. I love the Japanese proverb that says 'Fall down seven, get up eight.' I understand that it is going to be a tough economy to graduate in, but I will take the challenge and show companies how I can be an asset to them. You can't get discouraged because the world is not going to give you a break.\" *Average rent of one bedroom apartment **Using search term \"entry level\" in that city . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Current economic climate has raised the stakes in choosing a place to settle down .\nApartments.com, CBcampus.com release list of best cities for recent college grads .\nIndianapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland top the list .\nTip: Consider spending a few days in your desired city to learn more and network .","id":"33ebdaa2a533208d3db7447da716e613bb51184a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Janelle Monae is a girl from another planet, and she's invading your world. Janelle Monae creates \"cool, futuristic soul with a real '80s quality,\" says a DJ. Sightings of the singer-songwriter will include this week's \"American Idol\" finale, the Hollywood Bowl and concert stages across America this summer and TV's Sci Fi Channel this fall. Monae insists that her real identity is Cindi Mayweather, an android traveling through space and time to escape destruction ordered because she fell in love with a human, a fatal infraction of robots' rules. Along the way, she's making music that moves into the future while drawing from decades past. \"It is cool, futuristic soul with a real '80s quality,\" said Garth Trinidad, a disc jockey at Los Angeles, California, radio station KCRW. Trinidad spotted Monae three years ago, and he's been watching her like an astronomer tracking the approach of a distant comet destined to light Earth's sky. \"I believe she's going to be a household name in the next year or two,\" said Trinidad, a self-described \"champion of the underdog\" who is credited with giving Jill Scott and Gnarls Barkley early radio airplay. Monae -- the human -- is a striking combination of voice, style, imagination and fearlessness that defies conventional description, making it easier to buy into the fantasy of Mayweather the android. When her song \"Many Moons\" was nominated for a Grammy in December, it was in the urban\/alternative category. If Monae is an android from the future, her musical programming included the past. Trinidad compared her \"very fluid, very pleasing\" voice to Donna Summer, circa 1976. At a Los Angeles show this month, she mixed 20th-century classics with her own futuristic songs. Monae delivered a sweet version of Nat King Cole's \"Smile\" while standing atop a barstool. Senior citizens danced the \"Twist\" when her band broke out into the Beatles' 1964 hit \"I Saw Her Standing There.\" She loves timeless music, Monae said after her show. \"We look to a lot of people whose bodies are dead and gone, but their spirit is still with us,\" Monae said. Her choreography borrows from James Brown, Michael Jackson and Devo, with dance moves from the future. Monae -- or Mayweather -- thinks she can fly. She jumped head-first into the audience, \"crowd surfing\" the unlikely mosh pit in UCLA's Royce Hall. Search Monae's name on YouTube and you'll see her jumping into swimming pools to end her shows. She climbed a tree in New York -- after her swim. Unlike some performers, her talent matches Monae's onstage antics, Trinidad said. \"It's one thing for her to perform a certain way, but she backs with it up with talent,\" he said. Monae's android-on-the-run theme, reminiscent of the 1982 movie \"Blade Runner,\" reminds Trinidad \"of all the great albums from the past that had a story and concept attached.\" \"She was just kind of like bored with everything else going on, and she wanted to transcend it and tell a story,\" he said. Monae said she is not following a formula, that she is \"being led by my maker.\" \"I'm very similar to a terminal,\" she said. Monae will inevitably capture the world's attention because she is \"outshining a lot of what's happening in the mainstream,\" Trinidad said. That time may be near. Sean \"Diddy\" Combs signed her to his Bad Boy Records, giving her music distribution. Coca-Cola hired Monae to sing on its \"Open Happiness\" ad campaign. It airs on this week's \"American Idol\" finale. Her tour stops next month include at least six shows in the northeastern United States, opening for Gwen Stefani's reunited rock group No Doubt. Monae then plays the Hollywood Bowl with the legendary jazz singer Etta James. She plays herself in two episodes of the Sci Fi Channel's \"Stargate Universe\" this fall.","highlights":"Janelle Monae popping up on commercial, on tour, on TV .\nSinger has alter ego: Cindi Mayweather, futuristic android on the run .\nObservers praise talent: \"I believe she's going to be a household name,\" says DJ .","id":"04b2d82e95fc5af26c5421aa81b45631e8aefcb8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Thursday sent a civil nuclear agreement with the United Arab Emirates to the Senate for ratification, but its passage remains uncertain, thanks to a recently disclosed video. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan allegedly tortured a business associate on videotape. Senior U.S. officials said lawmakers critical of the deal could use the video, which shows a member of the UAE government's royal family torturing a man, to argue the United States should not have such nuclear cooperation with a country where the rule of law is not respected and human rights violations are tolerated. The senior officials said the Obama administration deliberately held off sending the deal to Congress for ratification because of fears some lawmakers would try to use the video to undermine the agreement. But the administration felt comfortable sending the agreement to Congress at this time, officials said, given that there has been little reaction to the release of the video except for a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month from U.S. Rep. James McGovern -- the Massachusetts Democrat who co-chairs the congressional Human Rights Commission. Watch how the video came to light \u00bb . McGovern expressed \"outrage and concern\" and asked Clinton to \"place a temporary hold on further U.S. expenditures of funds, training, sales or transfers of equipment or technology, including nuclear, until a full review of this matter and its policy implications can be completed.\" He issued a statement Wednesday after Obama signed the agreement, saying he would not support the deal until the UAE addresses his \"very grave concerns\" about its human rights record. In the video, an Afghan grain dealer is seen being tortured by Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi, one of the UAE's seven emirates, whose leaders also run the federal government. The government has since arrested the sheikh, pending a full investigation. The video emerged in a federal civil lawsuit filed in Houston, Texas, by Bassam Nabulsi, a U.S. citizen, against the sheikh. The men, former business partners, had a falling out, in part over the video. In a statement to CNN, the sheikh's U.S. attorney said Nabulsi is using the videotape to influence the court over a business dispute. The U.S.-UAE pact is similar to one the United States signed last year with India. Under it, Washington would share nuclear technology, expertise and fuel. In exchange, the UAE would commit to abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency inspection safeguards. The small oil-rich Gulf nation promises not to enrich uranium or to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear bombs. A statement issued Thursday by the State Department said the deal will \"serve as a model for responsible nuclear energy development\" in the Middle East. \"The UAE agreement contains the strongest nonproliferation conditions of any negotiated by the United States,\" the statement said. Of special note, it said, is the UAE's commitment to obtain nuclear fuel from reliable and responsible suppliers rather than pursue indigenous uranium enrichment and reprocessing, fuel cycle activities that pose the most serious proliferation risks. This commitment \"is reflected within the agreement as a legally binding obligation on the part of the UAE,\" the State Department said. The civil nuclear agreement was signed in January by the Bush administration, but had to be recertified because it was not approved before Obama took office. The deal is part of a major UAE investment in nuclear energy, and the government has already signed deals to build several nuclear power plants. UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba said his country will \"seriously consider\" U.S. companies to implement the program. The United States already has similar nuclear cooperation agreements with Egypt and Morocco, and U.S. officials said Washington is working on similar pacts with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan. The United States has praised the UAE's development of nuclear energy, a stark contrast to criticism of Iran, which is suspected of attempting to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. But UAE's ties to Iran have caused concern. Iran is among the UAE's largest trading partners. In the past, the port city of Dubai has been used as a transit point for sensitive technology bound for Iran. Dubai also was one of the major hubs for the nuclear trafficking network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted spreading nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya up until the year 2000. He was eventually pardoned by the Pakistani government. Such ties contributed to stiff opposition in Congress to the failed deal for Dubai Ports World to manage U.S. ports. Some in Congress have expressed concern that the new deal could fuel an arms race and proliferation in the region. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said she was \"deeply disappointed\" the United States signed a \"flawed agreement.\" \"Transferring nuclear technology and know-how to this unproven partner is inconsistent with the administration's expressed commitment to the pursuit of stronger nonproliferation controls,\" Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement after Obama signed the agreement. \"The UAE's long history as a conduit for Iran's nuclear weapons program, its failure to fully implement effective export controls, and the danger of expanding nuclear facilities and expertise in the Middle East make this agreement a dangerous precedent.\" She introduced legislation earlier this year that would prevent the agreement from going into effect until the president certifies that the UAE has met a number of conditions regarding export controls and terrorist financing.","highlights":"Obama sends nuclear agreement with the United Arab Emirates to the Senate .\nRecently released video shows member of UAE royal family torturing a man .\nCo-chair of congressional Human Rights Commission opposes deal .","id":"98df01b8643dcacda64341e27f58f6c33cb62580"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A top Mexican drug cartel suspect has been arrested along with 12 accomplices, including five women, federal authorities said. Police guard suspected members of the Beltran Leyva cartel after they were arrested in a 2008 raid. Rodolfo Lopez Ibarra, known as El Nito and believed to be a top lieutenant in the Beltran Leyva cartel, was arrested Monday at an airport in Nuevo Leon state, said the Mexican National Defense secretary. Along with the suspects, officials said they also confiscated a Cessna 550 airplane, two cars, a large quantity of drugs and cash, firearms and a hand grenade. Soldiers acting on an anonymous tip arrested the eight men and five women, including one minor, National Defense said in a release Tuesday. Authorities said they confiscated 40,680 pesos (U.S. $3,150), $29,385 (379,507 pesos), 13 packages of marijuana weighing 13 kilograms (29 pounds), three computers and 28 cell phones. The Beltran Leyva cartel is one of the top drug organizations in Mexico, allied with the Gulf cartel in its battle against the Sinaloa organized crime syndicate. The Beltran Leyva group was formerly allied with the Sinaloa cartel, considered the largest drug-trafficking organization in the nation. The two other major drug organizations in Mexico are the Juarez and Tijuana cartels. According to media reports, someone alerted authorities when a tipster noticed heavily armed men waiting at the airport in northern Mexico. Ibarra was on a flight back from a baptism in Acapulco at which drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva had anointed him with the top post in Nuevo Leon, the news reports said. A published photo of Ibarra after his arrest shows him wearing a long-sleeved printed shirt and blue jeans, a forlorn look on his face as he gazes off to the side. Ibarra, 33, was the second top suspect from the Beltran Leyva cartel arrested in recent weeks. In March, authorities announced the arrest of Hector Huerta Rios, also known as \"La Burra\" or \"El Junior.\" Like Ibarra, he was arrested in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon state, along Mexico's border with the United States. Mexican officials also have recently announced the arrests of several other high-ranking cartel suspects as President Felipe Calderon wages a battle against a drug trade he says killed 6,500 people last year. About 2,000 more Mexicans are believed to have been killed this year. In April, authorities announced the arrest of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a suspected leader of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel. A couple of weeks earlier, officials said they had arrested Sigifredo Najera Talamantes, a drug-trafficking suspect accused of attacking a U.S. consulate and killing Mexican soldiers. Talamantes, also known as \"El Canicon,\" also is suspected in attacks on a television station in Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, the state-run Notimex agency said. That same week, the Mexican military also arrested the son of a top drug cartel lieutenant.","highlights":"Suspected top Beltran Leyva cartel lieutenant arrested at airport in Nuevo Leon .\n12 more suspects arrested; airplane, cars, drugs, cash, guns confiscated .\nRodolfo Lopez Ibarra, aka El Nito, arrested on his way back from a baptism .","id":"d331b87b0636e3ce9462fe740f2458aac4527d09"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Singer Natalie Cole underwent kidney transplant surgery at a Los Angeles, California, hospital Tuesday, according to a statement from her publicist. Natalie Cole holds one of the Grammys she received in February for \"Still Unforgettable.\" Cole, daughter of legendary singer-actor Nat King Cole, has been receiving kidney dialysis three times a week since September, the statement said. Cole was \"resting comfortably\" at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, it said. \"Ms. Cole's physicians have advised her to postpone her summer tour dates as she recuperates for the next three to four months,\" it said. Rescheduled concert dates will be announced soon for Cole's tour, which is in support of her current double-Grammy-winning CD, \"Still Unforgettable.\"","highlights":"Natalie Cole underwent kidney transplant surgery Tuesday .\nSinger has been receiving kidney dialysis since September .\nGrammy-winning Cole scheduled a tour for CD \"Still Unforgettable\"","id":"d9f4cb785c148ca691e1ecbff50518b40d0196de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She had many plans for the future: to go to college, start a career, meet the man of her dreams, raise a family -- when the time was right. Expert: \"There's a big disconnect between pregnancy rates and what Latina families want and value.\" It was all cut off by an unexpected pregnancy. The baby became her life, consuming her energy and forcing her dreams to the back burner of her life. She is 19 or younger and Latina, and has had her first baby. It's not what she wanted. Nor did her parents, who are the greatest influence on her decisions about sex, according to a wide-ranging survey released Tuesday by experts on the Hispanic community in the United States. The survey also found that 84 percent of Latino teens and 91 percent of Latino parents believe that graduating from college or university or having a promising career is the most important goal for a teen's future. Somewhere along the way, the aspirations fail to match up to reality. The survey attempts to examine some of the reasons for the disparity and why Latinas now have the highest teen birth rate among all ethnic and racial groups in the United States. \"There's a big disconnect between pregnancy rates and what Latina families want and value,\" said Ruthie Flores, senior manager of the National Campaign's Latino Initiative. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 53 percent of Latinas get pregnant in their teens, about twice the national average. After a period of decline, the birth rate for U.S. teenagers 15 to 19 years rose in 2007 by about 1 percent, to 42.5 births per 1,000, according to preliminary data in a March 2009 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. In 2007, the birth rate among non-Hispanic whites ages 15 to 19 was 27.2 per 1,000, and 64.3 per 1,000 for non-Hispanic black teens in the same age range. The teen birth rate among Hispanic teens ages 15 to 19 was 81.7 per 1,000. Of the 759 Latino teens surveyed, 49 percent said their parents most influenced their decisions about sex, compared with 14 percent who cited friends. Three percent cited religious leaders, 2 percent teachers and 2 percent the media. Watch more on the survey results \u00bb . Three-quarters of Latino teens said their parents have talked to them about sex and relationships, but only half said their parents discussed contraception. The survey also found that: . \u2022 74 percent of Latino teens believe that parents send one message about sex to their sons and a different message altogether to their daughters, possibly related to the Latino value of machismo. \u2022 Latino teens believe that the most common reason teens do not use contraception is that they are afraid their parents might find out. \u2022 72 percent of sexually experienced teens say they wish they had waited. \u2022 34 percent of Latino teens believe that being a teen parent would prevent them from reaching their goals, but 47 percent say being a teen parent would simply delay them from reaching their goals. \u2022 76 percent said it is important to be married before starting a family. Flores said it is crucial to understand the beliefs and attitudes that influence teen behavior in order to reduce the high rates of Hispanic teen pregnancy. The survey, co-sponsored by the Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza, was an attempt to to do just that. She said that despite a rich culture and the growing influence of Hispanics in America, the Latino community disproportionately suffers from troubling social indicators. Consider that fewer than six in 10 Latino adults in the United States have a high school diploma. Latino teens are more likely to drop out than their non-Hispanic counterparts, and of all the children living in poverty, 30 percent are Latino. \"Teen pregnancy is not an isolated issue,\" Flores said. \"It's related to poverty, to dropout rates. That's going to have an impact on our national as a whole.\" Flores said 69 percent of Latino teen moms drop out of high school, and the children of teen mothers are less likely to do well in school themselves and often repeat grades. \"That has a big economic impact,\" Flores said. It's an impact that is sure to be noticed. The nation's 45 million Latinos constitute the largest minority group in the United States with a growth rate twice that of the general population. That means by 2025, one-quarter of all American teens will be Latinos.","highlights":"53 percent of Latinas are pregnant by their 20th birthday, survey finds .\nSurvey: Most feel that college, career are key to their future .\nMost teens in study believe that parents give conflicting messages .","id":"bfd6e231e375e89cdfca8091bd2ba45585da31ff"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Republican congressman Wednesday asked the head of the FBI to investigate allegations that the CIA lied to Congress about the Bush administration's use of \"alternative\" interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists. Rep. Darrell Issa asked the FBI to investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA lied to Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, asked FBI director Robert Mueller whether the bureau was investigating that allegation and whether he could request a probe as a member of Congress. He said the claim, leveled last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left him doubting whether \"I can believe in the briefings I am receiving\" from intelligence agencies. \"If CIA is lying to any of us -- and I have been briefed many times by them on the Intelligence Committee -- it puts me in a position of not being able to do my job properly,\" said Issa, R-California. Pelosi made the charge in response to questions about what she was told about the use of the techniques, which critics say amounted to the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody. Her claim provoked a firestorm on Capitol Hill, with Republicans -- who generally defend the techniques -- blasting Pelosi and demanding she back up the allegation. Mueller said he would check into whether Issa's request would be enough to launch an investigation. Watch more on the Pelosi-CIA controversy \u00bb . Justice Department documents released in April show Bush administration lawyers authorized the use of techniques such as sleep deprivation, slapping, stress positions and waterboarding, which produces the sensation of drowning. Waterboarding in particular has been considered a form of torture since the Spanish Inquisition, and U.S. authorities prosecuted Japanese officers who used the techniques against American prisoners during World War II. But Bush administration lawyers argued that the tactics did not violate U.S. laws against torture as long as interrogators had no intent to cause \"severe pain.\" Many Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, argue the tactics produced useful intelligence that saved American lives. Pelosi, D-California, has called for an investigation into whether the Bush administration authorized the torture of suspected al Qaeda figures, prompting Republicans to question what she knew about the tactics at the time they were approved. Watch Colin Powell's former aide speak out on CIA's history \u00bb . She told reporters last week that she was briefed by the CIA on such techniques once -- in September 2002, when she was the ranking Democrat on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee -- and that she was told at the time that techniques such as waterboarding were not being used. She said she learned that waterboarding had been used after other lawmakers were briefed in 2003. CIA spokesman George Little said last week that the agency's records indicate Pelosi was briefed on the interrogation methods being used. But Little said it was up to lawmakers \"to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened.\" Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Monday that Pelosi may be forced to resign if her claims are proven untrue. \"Either the CIA needs to be held accountable for their performance during this time, or the speaker needs to be held accountable and be responsible for the actions and the statements that she made last week,\" Hoekstra said. But Rep. Baron Hill, D-Indiana, said Republicans are trying to divert attention from the question of torture by attacking Pelosi. \"I think a lot of people have lost focus on the people who put those torture policies in place in the first place,\" Hill said. \"Nancy didn't do anything wrong, in terms of the legalities, that I'm aware of. I don't know what she was told.\"","highlights":"Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, is a member of the House Judiciary Committee .\nIssa calls on FBI director for a probe on CIA-Pelosi spat .\n\"If CIA is lying...it puts me in a position of not being able to do my job,\" he says .\nPelosi, D-California, has said the CIA didn't inform her about interrogation techniques .","id":"78a47302b0ad6868610dae5e50b0b2cd535c9128"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Maria Sharapova returned to competitive singles after a near 10-month absence on Monday as she bids to prove her fitness for the forthcoming French Open in Paris. Maria Sharapova is hoping to prove her fitness ahead of the French Open in Paris starting on Sunday. The Russian defeated Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-1 6-7 6-3 to book her place in the second round of the Warsaw Open claycourt tournament . Sharapova's world ranking has slumped from No.1 to No.126 during her absence from the court because of a shoulder problem that saw her miss three Grand Slam tournaments. The 22-year-old had to sit out last year's Wimbledon and U.S. Open and also failed to recover in time for the 2009 Australian Open. She has had to shelve comeback attempts but did appear in one losing game in the doubles tournament at Indian Wells in March. Sharapova, who has three majors to her name, broke her Italian opponent four times in a row in the opener, dropping her own serve once en route to the set. Garbin offered stiffer resistance in the second set although Sharapova wasted four match points at 5-3 and 40-0 up in the ninth game -- a seventh double-fault in the subsequent tie-break giving her rival a set point that she converted. Sharapova, playing with a bandage on her right shoulder, hit back from 3-1 down in the decider to seal victory in two hours and 35 minutes. The French Open begins in Paris on May 24.","highlights":"Russian Maria Sharapova returns with win after near 10-month injury absence .\nShe defeated Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-1 6-7 6-3 in Warsaw Open first round .\nSharapova hopes to prove fitness for French Open which starts this Sunday .","id":"c832ab5eb0130c169fb1cae26cbdbfa725c10c65"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Perhaps Ryan Seacrest said it best at the top of the \"American Idol\" Tuesday night when describing Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, the show's final two contestants. In this corner: Kris Allen, the guy next door. \"It is the battle of the acoustic rocker versus the glam rocker. Conway (Arkansas) versus California. The guy next door versus the guy-liner.\" After three performances apiece and plenty of judge feedback, it seems that the Southern California glam-rocker Adam Lambert has the edge -- but it didn't look that way early in Tuesday's show. In the first round, where the contestants chose a song from a favorite past performance this season, Simon Cowell declared Kris Allen the winner after his rendition of \"Ain't No Sunshine\" on piano. Watch Allen and Lambert talk after the show \u00bb . Lambert chose to sing \"Mad World\" while wearing a long black coat and walking around a stage filled with white smoke, all of which Cowell found \"over-theatrical.\" \"I think 'Mad World' is kind of symbolic,\" Lambert told reporters after the show. \"It talks about people who don't feel like they fit in.\" Round two featured a tune hand-picked by \"American Idol\" creator Simon Fuller, where Lambert ditched the black overcoat and belted out Sam Cooke's \"A Change Is Gonna Come\" while sporting a shiny silver suit. Paula Abdul told Lambert \"it was the best I've ever heard you sing, ever!\" Allen's feedback after singing Marvin Gaye's classic \"What's Goin' On\" in the second round was much less flattering. See the best and worst performances from season eight \u00bb . \"I thought it was too laid back for a night like this,\" said Cowell. He then gave round two to Lambert. Round three featured a bit of a twist -- both contestants had to sing a song co-written by judge Kara DioGuardi called \"No Boundaries.\" Lambert went first and had little difficulty with the ballad. Cowell told the 27-year-old afterward that \"you have been one of the best, most original contestants we've ever had on the show.\" Allen, however, struggled to stay in tune during the entire performance ... but the judges were less harsh this time. \"You have thoroughly, thoroughly deserved to be standing on that stage tonight, congratulations,\" said Cowell. Watch anchors debate \"Idol\" finalists \u00bb . After the show, Lambert told reporters that they did not have a lot of time to work on \"No Boundaries\" and it was kind of a \"rush job.\" \"There was a lot of lyric, and it was a big song,\" said Lambert. \"But it's a beautiful song.\" It almost seems appropriate that these two are facing off in the finale. According to Allen, he and Lambert were once roommates during the competition. They even critique each other's rehearsals. \"He's always giving me stuff to change about mine ... to make it better,\" Allen told reporters. iReport.com: Who should win: Kris or Adam? A little over an hour before the show began, a magnitude 4.0 quake aftershock hit 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Tuesday night's telecast was held at the Nokia Theater, which is in downtown Los Angeles. A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the area shortly before 8:40 p.m. Sunday. But, to Allen's disappointment, neither of the contestants felt the jolt Tuesday. \"I was totally upset, too, because I've never been to California (except for 'American Idol'), and I was like, 'I want to feel an earthquake.' \" Allen and Lambert will return to the stage Wednesday night and find out, along with the rest of the world, who will be crowned the next \"American Idol\" at the two-hour finale.","highlights":"Final two \"American Idol\" contestants battle it out in song for the title Tuesday .\nCalifornian Adam Lambert has developed a glam-rock persona .\nArkansas resident Kris Allen has a guy-next-door appeal .\nWho will America choose? Results show starts at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday .","id":"69fd99a4c7b958d0a2dc99ba9bb7277375304949"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An estimated 1 million people turned out to hear Pope Benedict XVI preach a Mass in Angola on Sunday, the last major event of his first trip to Africa. Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Mass in Angola, where he told Angolans on Sunday to \"trust in God's promises.\" He spoke of the need for reconciliation in a country that endured a brutal civil war lasting nearly three decades. \"Look to the future with hope, trust in God's promises and live in his truth. In this way you will build something that will stand and endure ... a lasting heritage of reconciliation, justice and peace,\" Benedict said in English to polite applause. The service's Bible reading's \"vivid description of the destruction wrought by war echoes the personal experiences of so many people in this country amid the terrible ravages of the civil war,\" Benedict said in the Mass, which was broadcast by TPA, a CNN affiliate in Angola. \"How true it is that war can destroy everything of value: families, whole communities, the fruit of men's labor.\" Benedict also expressed \"deep sorrow\" at the death of two women killed in a stampede at one of his events in Angola on Saturday, papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. Cardinal Tarciso Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, earlier led a Vatican delegation to the hospitals where the bodies of two dead women are being kept, Lombardi said. They prayed over the dead bodies and met with the family of the one victim who has been identified, a catechism teacher in a parish in Luanda whose last class was Saturday morning. Midway through the Mass, a long line of worshippers brought offerings to the pontiff, as an electric organ and guitar played a joyous tune over the sound of percussion instruments and a choir, members of which were wearing matching white baseball caps. Women carried local produce on their heads in wide baskets or tall jugs, many dancing to the music as they waited to meet the pope. The 81-year-old pontiff mopped his face with a white handkerchief several times during the outdoor service, while many worshippers sought shelter from the sun under umbrellas. The pope spoke in English and Portuguese, the language of Angola's former colonial rulers, during the hour-long service, while local clergy read short passages in tribal languages. Benedict has been in Africa since Tuesday. He returns to Rome on Monday. Africa is the last continent that Benedict had left to visit, and one he could not avoid, said David Gibson, a biographer of the pope. \"He knows he has to do this. He knows Africa is the future of the [Roman Catholic] Church, as it is for all of Christianity,\" said Gibson. Christianity, like Islam, is on the rise in Africa and Latin America, even as the northern hemisphere tends to become more secular. One in five of the world's Christians lives in Africa -- up from fewer than one in 50 in 1900, said Brian Grim, an editor of the World Religion Database. So Benedict is making the visit, although travel \"is not his cup of tea,\" Gibson said, in contrast to his predecessor. \"John Paul II loved the travel and loved the different cultures. Benedict is a European through and through.\" But Benedict understands that travel has become an essential part of a pope's duties, said Gibson, the author of \"The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World.\" The trip opened with controversy, with the pope reiterating the Vatican's opposition to artificial birth control Tuesday while flying to Cameroon, the first stop on his journey. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it. Gibson said this week's visit may be Benedict's only trip to Africa. \"Knowing that the pope is older, he cannot travel as much -- he does not like to travel -- makes these trips more poignant. He may never come back to Africa again.\" CNN's Hada Messia in Rome contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pope expresses \"deep sorrow\" at deaths in stampede at his Saturday event .\nAbout 1 million gather in civil war-torn Angola to hear Pope Benedict XVI .\nMass was in English and Portuguese, the language of former colonial rulers .\nBenedict, who has been in Africa since Tuesday, returns to Rome on Monday .","id":"349891ae61ca056fb415044c7fb927c44e4ec686"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Although many people think of a heart attack as a painful, sometimes fatal event, there are some heart attacks that go entirely unnoticed. Some people may have had heart attacks without knowing it, studies show. Undiagnosed, or \"silent,\" heart attacks affect nearly 200,000 people in the United States annually. As many as 40 to 60 percent of all heart attacks are unrecognized, studies show. By definition, a heart attack usually happens when a clot gets in the way of blood flow from a coronary artery to the heart. This may cause symptoms such as severe chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting and nausea. Anyone who believes that he or she is having a heart attack should seek emergency medical attention. But sometimes a heart attack is not painful, or the person experiencing it does not recognize the symptoms as heart-related, so he or she does not go to a hospital for treatment. Cardiologists have only recently become attuned to the prevalence of these silent heart attacks, and research on treatment is limited. The risk factors for silent heart attacks are the same as for regular heart attacks, experts say, and include smoking, diabetes, stress and family history. Watch CNN Health Files: Heart attacks \u00bb . A new study from Duke University Medical Center shows that these silent heart attacks may occur more frequently than physicians thought. Even if a heart attack occurred in the distant past, it may still leave a signature called a Q-wave on an electrocardiogram. But there are silent heart attacks that do not have associated Q-waves. Researchers used a relatively new technique called delayed-enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance and then followed up with patients after about two years. The study was done on 185 patients who had never had a diagnosed heart attack but were suspected of having coronary artery disease. The researchers found that 35 percent of patients had evidence of a heart attack and that silent heart attacks without Q-waves were three times more common than those that had Q-waves. Patients with non-Q-wave silent heart attacks also had 11 times higher risk of death from any cause and a 17-fold risk of death from heart problems compared with patients without any heart damage. But experts do not recommend that people generally be screened for silent heart attacks unless they have other heart-related problems. \"Currently, there has not been a study that has demonstrated that early identification and therapy changes how patients with unrecognized heart attacks do in the future,\" said Dr. Han Kim, a cardiologist at Duke University and lead author of the study. \"If you don't know when an actual event occurred, it becomes difficult to prescribe therapy.\" Although the study was done on a relatively small sample of people at risk of coronary artery disease, meaning the results may not apply to the general population, other cardiologists say the study has merit in adding to the knowledge of silent heart attacks. \"Ultimately, we're going to need trials to really establish what treatment works and what doesn't,\" said Dr. Eric Schelbert, a cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. Treatment for someone who has had a silent heart attack is usually the same for someone who came to the hospital immediately after a heart attack, Kim said. This may include beta blockers, statin drugs, aspirin or other medications, Schelbert said. Schelbert said he has seen plenty of patients who have had silent heart attacks; in fact, he has treated some of his own colleagues who have experienced them. \"It's an incredibly important thing that the physician scientist community needs to explore further,\" he said. Researchers noted that patients with non-Q-wave silent heart attacks were also generally older and were more likely to have diabetes. There needs to be more of a focus on prevention among these risk groups, said Dr. David Wiener, a cardiologist at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study.","highlights":"Silent heart attacks affect nearly 200,000 people in the United States annually .\nResearchers studied 185 people at risk of coronary artery disease .\nTreatment for \"silent\" heart attacks is similar to that for regular attacks .\nMore research is necessary to determine whether screening is useful .","id":"4c93c2cdc71aad8a16a121b96498f6893ab59ef1"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Oprah Winfrey often says that moms have the hardest job in the world, but plenty of fathers carry the burden of raising a child all by themselves. In fact, 2.5 million single fathers in the United State are doing it all-- juggling schedules, putting food on the table and going to school plays or soccer games -- single-handedly. Larry Shine and his expanded family visited Oprah Winfrey on her show. Larry Shine and his wife, Kate, had their first son, Henry, 19 years ago. When Kate died of cancer only two-and-a-half years later, Larry says he was overwhelmed with grief. \"The year after she died, I was just so immersed in the tragedy of her death,\" he says. \"Then I thought: 'I can't live like this anymore. I can't have this be our life.'\" He decided it was time for Henry to have a sibling. At the time, it was almost impossible for a single male to adopt in the United States, so Larry applied for both international adoption and surrogacy. Surprisingly, both applications went through, and soon Larry became a father of three. Still, he says he was ready for more. Today, Larry is raising nine children on his own! \"I never thought I'd be a father of nine. Actually, I never imagined I'd be a father,\" he says. \"Maybe this all happened for a purpose. Because if Kate hadn't died, I never would have done what I did and these kids wouldn't have had a home.\" Oprah.com: 8 things never to say to an adopted child . When it comes to raising nine kids (Henry, 19; Ari, 16; Halle, 15; Eli, 13; Lili, 12; Sofia, 10; Genevieve, 8; Simone, 5; and Lucia, 3), Larry says there is never a dull moment. His schedule is jam-packed, and it starts at 3 a.m. As if being a single dad isn't enough work, Larry also works full time as a corporate attorney. \"When the second bus picks up the younger kids at quarter of nine, I leave and drop Lucia off at daycare. Then I go to work all day and come back and pick her up when daycare closes at 6 o'clock and then head home,\" he says. \"[I work at] a very warm and family-oriented firm, so they're very supportive.\" Though Larry's big family is thriving, he says there were a few small bumps along the way. Eli's arm broke when he was an infant and hadn't healed properly before he joined the Shine family, but Larry says extensive orthopedic surgery fixed the problem. Lili had failure to thrive syndrome, which caused her to have trouble connecting with others -- though Larry says she opened up after three months in his busy house and is doing great. And, Simone's speech was delayed, he says. \"She had therapy for about six months, and now sometimes I wish I hadn't given her speech therapy,\" he jokes. Is there room for any more kids in the Shine family? Depends on whom you ask! \"I thought five was it, and I thought six was it,\" Larry says. \"My sense is that nine is probably it ... because international adoption's a lot more difficult, and I'm older. ... [But] I've been given a lot of opportunities, and if it happened again, I'd have a hard time saying no.\" Henry, who is a sophomore at Notre Dame, says the family is at capacity. \"We're at a pretty full limit right now,\" he says. \"Now that I'm in school, I'd like to be around if there's going to be another sibling.\" Though he's rooting for Lucia to be his youngest sibling, Henry says he's incredibly proud of his dad. \"Just how selfless he is,\" he says. \"I don't know of anybody else who puts people before themselves like he does.\" Though Larry didn't plan on being the single dad of such a huge family, he says it came naturally to him. \"I'm more comfortable doing something for somebody else than myself,\" he says. \"Particularly with adopting the kids overseas, when I went to Paraguay for the first time to adopt Ari and saw all the kids who didn't have a home and or a place to go at night, I just thought, 'This isn't right.'\" It may have been an unexpected path for Larry, but he says its one he's grateful for. \"I love parenting,\" he says. \"I just felt, 'This is what I want to do.'\" Oprah.com: Talks every parent should have . Matt's blog . On March 25, 2008, Matt Logelin woke up to what should have been a perfect day. He and his wife, Liz, were proud new parents -- their daughter Madeline had been born the day before. But that afternoon, Liz died of a blood clot that no one knew she had. With a newborn in his care, Matt had no time for mourning. \"Right after Liz died, I had to go straight in and I had to feed her (Madeline). I mean, she had to eat. I had to change her diapers. Life didn't stop when Liz died,\" he says. \"I didn't know what I was going to do. I literally didn't know if I was going to live through this.\" Matt and Maddy survived the tragedy, and Matt used the blog he'd created to document Liz's pregnancy as an outlet for his grief. \"If I write it, I can get it off my chest,\" he says. After Liz's death, tens of thousand of people started reading Matt's blog. The outpouring of support -- including notes, money and toys -- from the online community shocked him. \"To have total strangers giving us stuff and wanting to make sure we're okay all the time was just incredible,\" he says. Matt says he's determined to give back as much as he's been given. \"We've donated all of the clothes that no longer fit and the toys that we couldn't use,\" he says. \"We've been given a lot of money as well, and we've tried to give that away as much as we can.\" Matt has also established the Liz Logelin Foundation, which helps widows and widowers with children. A year after Maddy was born, Matt's still adjusting to life as a single parent. He's even joined the neighborhood new moms group. \"They sort of adopted me,\" he says. \"They took me in and made sure I wasn't screwing things up too terribly.\" Matt says one of the scariest things about Liz's death is that she took all her parenting knowledge with her. \"Liz had read all the books. She had done everything that we needed to do to make sure that this baby was taken care of properly,\" he says. \"It's not something I ever anticipated doing on my own.\" Matt says he'd planned to be the free-spirited parent, while Liz would be the rigid one. Given the circumstance, Matt has struck a balance. \"I've had to be a little more strict in the way that I do things, but I still let her eat sticks and leaves from time to time.\" Oprah.com: Meet more unforgettable fathers! From The Oprah Winfrey Show \u00a9 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"One man added eight kids to family after his wife died of cancer .\nLarry Shine started adopting so his son could have a sibling .\nHe kept adopting because he couldn't say no to kids in need .\nAnother dad sets up blog, foundation to help widows, widowers raising kids .","id":"58b8dbf0db6b490220c973db989a9e28514882a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, whose public battle with anal cancer has brought new attention to a rarely discussed disease, has not been given a timetable from her doctor about how much time she has left, according to her friend Alana Stewart. Farrah Fawcett, seen here in 2006, has waged a very public battle with anal cancer. \"No one has said to her you have two months to live,\" Stewart said Monday. \"So I'm looking at that as a really good sign.\" Stewart talked with Lara Spencer, host of \"The Insider,\" who discussed her interview with Fawcett's close friend on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Monday night. Spencer said Fawcett, her family and friends are clinging to hope for a recovery. \"She [Alana Stewart] doesn't want to throw out a number. And neither does Farrah. ... They're still hoping for that miracle,\" Spencer said. \"Farrah's Story,\" a documentary-style program that has followed the course of her illness and showed her grueling treatment in graphic detail, aired on NBC Friday and was viewed by almost 9 million people. Fawcett and partner Ryan O'Neal watched the show together, Spencer confirmed. \"Alana said it was the ultimate in bittersweet,\" Spencer said. \"You know, they're reliving two years of hell that they've endured together.\" King asked Spencer whether Fawcett, who made her name a household word on the hit '70s TV series \"Charlie's Angels,\" and O'Neal might marry. \"He said you never know. He was cagey about it,\" Spencer said. \"And, you know, I think he would in a second. He's so madly in love with her.\" King also had a panel of medical experts on his show to discuss Fawcett's cancer. Dr. Thomas Vogl, who at one time treated the actress in Germany, called her medical condition \"very, very serious.\" Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist in New York, said only about 5,000 cases of anal cancer are diagnosed in the United States yearly. Unlike Fawcett's case, it usually doesn't spread, and only about 10 to 15 percent of cases are advanced, Ocean said. Fawcett's cancer, however, is in Stage 4 and has spread to her liver. Ocean said there are various causes of anal cancer. \"One of the causes is a virus called the human papilloma virus, which is a sexually transmitted virus. It seems to be more common in women, in general, outside of any viral infections. Smoking is actually a risk factor,\" she said. King asked Dr. Paul Song, a radiation oncologist, if he had seen Stage 4 cancer cured. \"Not with anal cancer. I have seen it with other GI malignancies such as rectal cancer,\" Song said. \"But anal cancer is a little bit more difficult to treat.\" Despite the bleak outlook, Song had praise for Fawcett and her documentary. \"I think one of the most powerful things that Miss Fawcett did in this documentary was give patients a sense of hope and to just show how she's handled this with such courage and dignity,\" Song said. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta told King that doctors have to strike a delicate balance when they are caring for patients such as Fawcett. \"You have to be absolutely honest with patients, but, you know, you don't want to strip away their hope and optimism, either. There are people, Larry, as you know, who beat the odds,\" Gupta said. Vogl told King he developed a close relationship with Fawcett during the time he treated her in Germany and expressed admiration for his one-time patient. \"From a lot of treatments and contact and communication, I think she is extremely special, an extremely brave person,\" he said.","highlights":"\"Insider\" host Lara Spencer says friends, family holding out for a miracle .\nFarrah Fawcett has been fighting Stage 4 anal cancer, which has spread .\nDoctor who once treated her calls condition \"very, very serious\"\nAnother doctor said actress has handled illness with \"courage and dignity\"","id":"4b427f75951665436424d92e8b7c58228408fd9a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pete Sampras and Roger Federer are two of the modern era's greatest tennis players. Between them, they have won a staggering 27 Grand Slam singles titles -- and yet, neither player has ever won the French Open. Tennis great Pete Sampras won 14 Grand Slam tournaments but never managed a French Open victory. That legendary players like Sampras and Federer have somehow failed to win at Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros is just one of the reasons why this Grand Slam tournament holds such a special place on the tennis calendar. The French Open is notably the only Grand Slam event contested on clay -- a factor that separates it from the other three majors, and more than anything else defines the tournament. The layers of crushed brick that constitute the orange-red clay courts of Roland Garros are what brought Sampras -- and still bring Federer -- so much grief. Fellow greats John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg also failed to win the coveted title. The reason clay may have affected the natural games of these players is because the surface slows the ball and produces a slightly higher, loopier bounce than grass or hard courts. This means the high-power serve of someone like Sampras is negated, opening the way for players with a different style of game. To this extent, the French Open helped create the legend of one of the finest players of all time -- Swedish star Bjorn Borg. Borg won a record six times at Roland Garros. He also won five Wimbledon titles -- but never managed an Australian or U.S. Open crown, both tournaments fought out on hard courts. Describing what makes the French Open so special in an rare one-on-one interview with Indian Web site Rediff.com in 2001, Borg said: \"It is toughest to win on clay. It is easily the most draining, the toughest Slam.\" Offering advice to Sampras, who was at the time still playing for a French Open title, Borg added, \"I would advise him to concentrate on mental strength, to build it up, to hold that strength over the course of the fortnight. \"Along with that, you also need a great deal of physical strength. And most importantly, you have to believe that you can win on clay.\" It is not surprising therefore, that Spanish players -- who are generally well-accustomed to playing on clay -- have come to dominate the tournament in recent years. Nine of the last 12 French Open finals have featured at least one Spaniard. The tournament is still held in high regard by France's population. A record crowd of more than 450,000 people came to watch the action at Roland Garros in 2008, and according to the tournament organizers, it is the most-watched French event in the world. First played in 1891 as a national tournament, it became an international event in 1925, and in 1928 moved to the Roland Garros facility at Porte d'Auteuil in Paris, where it remains today. Its chosen title, Roland Garros, was the name of a legendary World War One French aviator, who had frequented the tennis venue when he studied in Paris. The 2009 edition of what Borg called \"the toughest Slam\" promises to be just as entertaining and draining as those that have gone before. World number one Rafael Nadal is searching for his fifth consecutive title to usurp Borg's record of four in a row, which he currently equals. Meanwhile, world number two Roger Federer is looking to avenge three consecutive final defeats at the hands of Nadal. In the women's draw, the tournament appears wide open. Last year's champion Ana Ivanovic has slipped to eighth in the world rankings, while the top four ranked players have only one French Open title between them.","highlights":"Legendary players like Sampras and Federer have failed to win French Open title .\nRoland Garros is the only Grand Slam tennis event held on clay courts .\nFour-time winner Bjorn Borg on the French Open: \"It is toughest to win on clay\"","id":"c0462f6624a3992d8d506bc6d00c64fab3126451"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Perhaps Ryan Seacrest said it best at the top of the \"American Idol\" Tuesday night when describing Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, the show's final two contestants. In this corner: Kris Allen, the guy next door. \"It is the battle of the acoustic rocker versus the glam rocker. Conway (Arkansas) versus California. The guy next door versus the guy-liner.\" After three performances apiece and plenty of judge feedback, it seems that the Southern California glam-rocker Adam Lambert has the edge -- but it didn't look that way early in Tuesday's show. In the first round, where the contestants chose a song from a favorite past performance this season, Simon Cowell declared Kris Allen the winner after his rendition of \"Ain't No Sunshine\" on piano. Watch Allen and Lambert talk after the show \u00bb . Lambert chose to sing \"Mad World\" while wearing a long black coat and walking around a stage filled with white smoke, all of which Cowell found \"over-theatrical.\" \"I think 'Mad World' is kind of symbolic,\" Lambert told reporters after the show. \"It talks about people who don't feel like they fit in.\" Round two featured a tune hand-picked by \"American Idol\" creator Simon Fuller, where Lambert ditched the black overcoat and belted out Sam Cooke's \"A Change Is Gonna Come\" while sporting a shiny silver suit. Paula Abdul told Lambert \"it was the best I've ever heard you sing, ever!\" Allen's feedback after singing Marvin Gaye's classic \"What's Goin' On\" in the second round was much less flattering. See the best and worst performances from season eight \u00bb . \"I thought it was too laid back for a night like this,\" said Cowell. He then gave round two to Lambert. Round three featured a bit of a twist -- both contestants had to sing a song co-written by judge Kara DioGuardi called \"No Boundaries.\" Lambert went first and had little difficulty with the ballad. Cowell told the 27-year-old afterward that \"you have been one of the best, most original contestants we've ever had on the show.\" Allen, however, struggled to stay in tune during the entire performance ... but the judges were less harsh this time. \"You have thoroughly, thoroughly deserved to be standing on that stage tonight, congratulations,\" said Cowell. Watch anchors debate \"Idol\" finalists \u00bb . After the show, Lambert told reporters that they did not have a lot of time to work on \"No Boundaries\" and it was kind of a \"rush job.\" \"There was a lot of lyric, and it was a big song,\" said Lambert. \"But it's a beautiful song.\" It almost seems appropriate that these two are facing off in the finale. According to Allen, he and Lambert were once roommates during the competition. They even critique each other's rehearsals. \"He's always giving me stuff to change about mine ... to make it better,\" Allen told reporters. iReport.com: Who should win: Kris or Adam? A little over an hour before the show began, a magnitude 4.0 quake aftershock hit 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Tuesday night's telecast was held at the Nokia Theater, which is in downtown Los Angeles. A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the area shortly before 8:40 p.m. Sunday. But, to Allen's disappointment, neither of the contestants felt the jolt Tuesday. \"I was totally upset, too, because I've never been to California (except for 'American Idol'), and I was like, 'I want to feel an earthquake.' \" Allen and Lambert will return to the stage Wednesday night and find out, along with the rest of the world, who will be crowned the next \"American Idol\" at the two-hour finale.","highlights":"Final two \"American Idol\" contestants battle it out in song for the title Tuesday .\nCalifornian Adam Lambert has developed a glam-rock persona .\nArkansas resident Kris Allen has a guy-next-door appeal .\nWho will America choose? Results show starts at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday .","id":"0b3625c26507224cb80d51608f52bef8a09ab7d8"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- The co-star of \"27 Dresses\" discusses his personal style. \"I just feel dirty,\" says James Marsden. Not to be alarmed: There's nothing indecent going on here. James Marsden talks about his favorite kind of clothes and how his style has changed over the years. The 34-year-old is explaining what it feels like to be sporting facial hair for a film he's working on with Cameron Diaz. Yet even the newly grown whiskers can't hide the finely chiseled features of an actor who seems to have cornered the Hollywood market on hottie-who-loses-the-girl roles (\"Enchanted,\" \"Superman Returns\" and, of course, \"The Notebook.\") But the Oklahoma-bred star doesn't mind his wholesome image. \"That's really me,\" he says. \"I'm a little dorky -- awkward.\" However, his onscreen luck could be changing with his latest film, \"27 Dresses,\" a romantic comedy co-starring Katherine Heigl. Scruffy or not, we'll be watching. You've played a prince in \"Enchanted\" and the superhero Cyclops in the \"X-Men\" movies. Is that a big deal to your kids and their friends? My daughter, Mary, is only 2, and my son, Jack, is 7. He has a Cyclops action figure, but he's really into Spider-Man and Pixar movies -- Buzz Lightyear is his guy. No \"Superman,\" no \"X-Men.\" I think he just assumes that everyone at his school has a dad who's a big superhero. You also played Corny Collins, the TV dance-show host in \"Hairspray.\" What were you like in high school? That's when I came out of my shell and became more social -- people thought I was funny. I got into a whole preppy thing -- Duck Head shorts and Dockers. How would you describe your style now? Functional comfort. For a guy, it shouldn't ever look like you thought about it too much, like the clothes are wearing you. Whose clothes do you like? Paul Smith off the rack -- it's a slim cut, and I don't need to have it tailored. I always feel like an 8-year-old when I dress up in a suit, like, when can I take this thing off? But I wore a black Dolce & Gabbana suit to the premi\u00e8re of \"Hairspray\" that was like, OK, now I know what a great suit is. Classic, clean lines -- sharp, sharp, sharp. Do you change your style from coast to coast? In L.A. it's too easy to throw on a pair of American Apparel sweats, a T-shirt and running shoes and just wear those for days. In New York, I actually like looking nice. Maybe I'm just getting older, but young guys need to pull their pants up. Do you ever shop for your wife? I love shopping for dresses, and I actually do a pretty good job. When I was in New York, I went into J. Crew in Soho and got her a cool fifties type dress with tiny polka dots. Style-wise I'm good, but figuring out sizing is a different story. What do you find sexy on a woman? I like spaghetti straps for my wife -- she has great shoulders and a great neck. I love when she puts her hair up, because I can see the back of her neck, so delicate and vulnerable. It's the vampire in me. Or my obsession with cheerleaders -- their hair up in a ponytail. When I was young, I could never have that. Never got the cheerleader? Eventually -- my wife was a cheerleader. What does your wife find sexy on you? A button-front shirt with [baby] spit-up on the shoulder. That means a guy is taking care of the kids and is a good father -- that's sexy to a woman. The adult version of rose petals and champagne is if I let my wife sleep in and I get up to change the baby's diaper, feed the kids, and do the dishes. Who inspires you? Paul Newman. My middle name is Paul, and my grandfather once said I was going to look like Paul Newman. That stuck with me. Beyond being a good-looking guy, Newman is a great actor with a long career, and he's got a life. He's married with kids and lives in Connecticut, sells popcorn and marinara sauce, and gives the money to charity. Anyone else? George Clooney dresses like Gary Cooper might have. Cary Grant. \"A Streetcar Named Desire\"-era Marlon Brando. They all made it look effortless. Their clothes framed their personalities really well -- comfortable, classic, but sharp. These guys could pull off a great suit, or jeans and a T-shirt. Don't you agree that guys have it easy -- they are considered \"distinguished\" as they grow older? I don't think it's guy-specific. As women get older, they become more comfortable with themselves. Susan Sarandon is the poster woman for that. A lot of guys fantasize about being with women who are in their forties or fifties. So your advice is ...? Act your age. Dress your age. Look your age. That doesn't mean you can't have fun. And isn't it time you got the girl in one of your movies? There are a couple of things I need to do [onscreen]: One, get the girl; two, pack a gun. Don't you love my career philosophy? E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"In high school Marsden showed off his preppy side .\nWhile it's easy for him to throw on sweats, Marsden likes to dress up .\nActor says he is inspired by Paul Newman .\nMarsden: I can shop style for women, but size is a different issue .","id":"b0917fed0170e3fb6470b44ffbe55bcb34151450"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jack Cafferty is the author of a new book, \"Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream.\" He provides commentary on CNN's \"The Situation Room\" daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET. You can also visit Jack's Cafferty File blog. CNN's Jack Cafferty says \"the pain won't go away\" until Bush administration's misdeeds are addressed. (CNN) -- It doesn't go away by itself. Watergate \"went away\" when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace and left town never to be heard from in an official capacity again. The Bush presidency is thankfully over...but the damage he and Dick Cheney did continues to press on the nerve of the American people like an impacted wisdom tooth. And until the questions surrounding arguably the most arrogant and perhaps most corrupt administration in our history are addressed, the pain won't go away. From Nancy (\"Impeachment is off the table\") Pelosi to President Barack (\"I want to look forward, not backward\") Obama, the country is being poorly served by their Democratic government. And on this subject President Obama is dead wrong. George W. Bush and his accomplices damaged this country like it's never been damaged before. And it's not just the phony war in Iraq or the torture memos that justified waterboarding. It's millions of missing emails and the constant use of executive privilege and signing statements. It's the secretive meetings with Enron and other energy executives and the wholesale firing of federal prosecutors. It's trying to get the president's personal attorney seated on the Supreme Court and that despicable Alberto Gonzales sitting in front of congressional investigators whining, \"I don't remember, I don't know, I...etc.\" It's the domestic eavesdropping in violation of the FISA Court, the rendition prisons, and the lying. It's looking the other way while the City of New Orleans drowned and its people were left to fend for themselves. It's the violations of the Geneva Conventions, the soiling of our international reputation and the shredding of the U.S. Constitution. It's the handing over of $700 billion to the Wall Street fat cats last fall, no questions asked. Where is that money? What was it used for? It's the no-bid contracts to firms like Halliburton and Blackwater and the shoddy construction and lack of oversight of reconstruction in Iraq that cost American taxpayers untold billions. If the Republicans were serious about restoring their reputation, they would join the call for a special prosecutor to be appointed so that at long last justice can be done. It's too late for George W. Bush to resign the presidency. But it's not too late to put the people responsible for this national disgrace in prison. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack Cafferty.","highlights":"Jack Cafferty: Bush administration left behind a trail of misdeeds .\nCafferty: Obama is wrong to say he only wants to look forward, not back .\nCafferty: Damage will last until Bush-Cheney deeds are addressed .\nCafferty: A special prosecutor should be named to investigate .","id":"90dd180c15bdad1d6eeceb71fbcda00871f5f948"} -{"article":"SAN BERNARDINO, California (CNN) -- Three-year-old Briant Rodriguez remained in a hospital bed fatigued and malnourished Monday, 15 days after being kidnapped at gunpoint and then dumped on the streets of Mexico. Liberato Vega, 30, left, and Israel Moreno, 28, are suspects in the kidnapping of 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez. Police don't know much about what happened to the boy, who was taken after gunmen tied his family and ransacked his California home on May 3. They don't know why the gunmen broke into the home, why they kidnapped the bubbly 3-year-old or how he ended up wandering the streets of Mexicali with a shaved head, rather than the long hair he had sported before the kidnapping. But police believe they do know who is responsible. In a news conference on Monday, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department and FBI identified the two suspect gunmen as Liberato Vega, 30, and Israel Moreno, 28. The two men, who authorities said were illegal immigrants with criminal records, are believed to have burst into the San Bernardino home, ransacked the house, tied up 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez's family and snatched the child two weeks ago. The boy was returned to his family Saturday in the border town of Calexico. \"It was a very emotional and unforgettable experience,\" said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Sgt. Doug Hubbard, who was with the boy's mother when he was returned. \"Enough said there -- before I get emotional.\" Officials said the boy was still in the hospital Monday and was being treated for malnourishment and fatigue. \"We're very happy that he's alive,\" San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops said this weekend. \"A 3-year-old goes missing in this country for two weeks -- sometimes it has an unhappy ending. \"This one did not.\" Now, police are trying to piece together exactly what may have happened during the 13 days the boy was missing. Detectives from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations agents were able to identify the alleged kidnappers based on unspecified physical evidence at the San Bernardino home and interviews with the boy's family and neighbors. Hubbard said the family has adamantly denied knowing who may be responsible for the kidnapping or having any association with those responsible. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Don Roberts said it was, however, \"likely that this family was the target\" of the kidnappers. \"But why, we don't know,\" Roberts said, adding that the kidnappers had clearly planned the crime. Officials said they believe Vega and Moreno are the two men they captured on video at a home-improvement store near the Rodriguez home before the crime buying tape like the kind that was used to bind the family. Hubbard said there are no-bail warrants issued for both men for home invasion robbery and kidnapping and Roberts said the FBI also obtained federal warrants for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for both men. \"We will leave no stone unturned until these two are returned to San Bernardino to face justice,\" Roberts said. \"We will not take a break until that day happens.\" Authorities are hunting for both men, who have criminal records, in Mexico where they were both born. Roberts said both men have previously been deported from the United States, where they were living illegally. Their previous residences are empty, police said. Vega, who police said they considered to be the primary suspect, has had seven encounters with authorities in San Bernardino, according to court records, including four convictions in 2005 for a variety of charges, including driving under the influence. He also has a dismissed burglary case and two open cases against him for driving under the influence, providing false information to police and driving without a license. Police described Vega as a Hispanic male, 5 feet 9 inches weighing 130 pounds. Moreno was convicted in 2008 for driving under the influence and has another similar case open against him. Police described Moreno as a Hispanic male, 5 feet 6 inches weighing 150 pounds. Police have said they are also looking for 21-year-old Claudia Acosta, Vega's girlfriend, who may be traveling with him. They aren't sure how she's related to the kidnapping.","highlights":"NEW: Liberato Vega, 30, and Israel Moreno, 28, suspects in kidnapping .\nNEW: Officials believe both men, illegal immigrants, have fled to Mexico .\nBriant Rodriguez found wandering streets in Mexicali, police say .\nBoy had been missing since May 3, when armed men burst into his family's home .","id":"ce84dbaf39af78173bd37e7b92f43f209e5b81f0"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- An accident involving de-icing solution being sprayed on an Alaska Airlines plane in snow-covered Seattle sent seven people to a hospital Wednesday, airport and hospital officials said. Emergency vehicles gather around Alaska Airlines planes in Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday. The seven, who were crew members, were transported to Highline Medical Center for minor issues, such as eye irritation, dizziness and nausea, said Sea-Tac Airport spokesman Perry Cooper. Eighteen passengers were treated at the scene. There had been an initial report that two people were badly hurt, but Cooper said all of the injuries were minor. He said six of the crew members transported to the hospital were working and one was off duty. Caroline Boren, Alaska Airlines spokeswoman, confirmed the injury numbers and said the most extensive treatment given to the passengers was an eye wash. None of them requested further treatment or were transported to the hospital. Matt Crockett, assistant administrator at Highline Medical Center, confirmed the hospital was assessing seven people in its emergency room. He said six of them were in satisfactory condition and another was still being evaluated. The incident began when fumes from the de-icing application got into the cabin of Alaska Airlines Flight 528. Watch an ex-transportation official explain how the fumes seeped into the plane \u00bb . Alaska Airlines said the flight was getting ready for takeoff to Burbank, California, when passengers began to complain of eye irritation and strong fumes from the chemicals. Video footage showed several emergency vehicles around the plane on the snow-covered tarmac. The airline said the plane, a Boeing 737-800, was carrying 143 passengers and several crew members. Boren called the situation \"very unusual\" and said maintenance crew had been working on the plane. Cooper said the airline was bringing in another aircraft to transport the passengers to their destination. Seattle has been blanketed with nearly 9 inches of snow this week, and forecasters predicted snow mixed with rain Wednesday, with an accumulation of about a half inch of new snow through Thursday. One passenger, Joe Dial of Seattle, told CNN affiliate KIRO-TV that passengers were exposed to the de-icer fumes for 45 minutes before they were able to leave the plane. The jetliner had pulled away from the gate Wednesday morning, but then had to return for the de-icing process, Dial told KIRO. Meanwhile in Moline, Illinois, an AirTran Airways jet skidded off the runway at Quad City International Airport, CNN affiliate WQAD-TV reported. Witnesses said passengers were being evacuated to buses, and there appeared to be no injuries, according to WQAD. The airport was closed to all traffic after the accident, the station said. At airports elsewhere across the U.S., weather was forcing significant delays as travelers tried to reach their destinations by Christmas. Flights bound for Newark-Liberty International Airport in New Jersey faced delays averaging three hours. Flights into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in Illinois, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and San Francisco International Airport in California were all subject to delays averaging an hour or more, according to the FAA. Travelers at O'Hare were hoping Wednesday went better than the day before as thousands were stranded in the nation's second-busiest airport overnight when hundreds of flights were canceled. \"It is ruining my holiday,\" one stranded passenger, Keith Bouchard, told CNN affiliate WLS-TV. \"I am not going to have a holiday mood till I get home,\" stranded passenger Ken Estes told WLS. O'Hare's trouble extended to South Florida, where Laura Weichhand and Rachel Lewis got stuck at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when their flight to Chicago was canceled. \"If we want to be home for Christmas ... our only option is we're going to drive 26 hours to be home for Christmas,\" Lewis told CNN affiliate WPLG-TV. The Chicago area was expected to get 1 inch to 3 inches of new snow Wednesday. At Colorado's Denver International Airport, lost luggage was a huge problem. Thousands of pieces of unclaimed baggage were in the airport's arrivals area, CNN affiliate KMGH-TV reported. Deanna Nokes, who was stranded in Denver on her way to Portland, Oregon, told KGMH her bags were nowhere in sight. \"They don't even know where my bag is,\" she told the station. \"It still could be in Vegas, or Phoenix, or Portland.\" Airports in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, were hit hardest by weather delays earlier in the week, with hundreds of flight cancellations Sunday through Tuesday. The two Northwest airports were reporting just a few delays Wednesday, but a new storm was rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, bringing snow and rain, the National Weather Service said. \"It will not be as strong as this past weekend's storm,\" said weather service meteorologist Kirby Cook in Seattle. But that may be of little consolation to thousands of travelers stranded at Northwest airports because of cancellations earlier in the week. Alaska Airlines, the area's major carrier, said fully booked holiday flights left it with few options to accommodate the weather weary, CNN affiliate KHQ-TV in Spokane, Washington, reported. Some in Spokane turned to Craigslist.com to try to get home for Christmas. The Web site had more than 30 posts from people looking to get to or out of Spokane, CNN affiliate KXLY-TV reported. \"I know Craigslist has a rideshare community so I thought I'd try, and so far not so good,\" Priscilla Davis of Federal Way, Washington, told KXLY.","highlights":"NEW: 18 passengers treated at scene after exposure to de-icing fluid .\nFumes send seven Alaska Airlines crew members to the hospital .\nAirTran jetliner skids off runway in Moline, Illinois, TV station reports .\nWeather delays Christmas Eve flights across country .","id":"8c838abc5efa4f7cf0dfdf6b6a550031f56def81"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Austrian officials are seeking to secure the release of two Austrian nationals who were kidnapped by an al Qaeda group while vacationing in North Africa ahead of a midnight Sunday deadline. Reinhard and Christine Lenz, right, the parents of kidnapped Austrian Andrea Kloiber. \"There are efforts in all areas, unrelenting efforts to secure the earliest possible release of our citizens,\" Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal told CNN. The team of high-ranking government officials met Sunday morning and planned to work throughout the day, he said. Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44, were last heard from on February 18 while on a vacation in southern Tunisia, foreign ministry spokesman Martin Gaertner said. Earlier this month, the Austrian government received an audio message via the Internet from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claiming to have kidnapped the pair. The kidnappers' primary demand is the release of five prisoners in Algeria and Tunisia, Launsky-Tieffenthal said. While the kidnappers have set a midnight deadline, there are preliminary indications that it may be extended, he said. The government is in contact with authorities in Tunisia, Algeria, and Mali in an effort to find the missing duo, who are from the Austrian town of Hallein. A few weeks ago, the kidnappers released a set of written demands and six photographs that include images of the Austrians. Among the images was one that appeared to show the pair flanked by men holding assault rifles and a rocket launcher. Another appeared to show more than 15 group members -- several of them armed. Kloiber's face is obscured in all of the photographs in which she appears. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Officials battling a midnight deadline to secure release of kidnapped Austrians .\nWolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44, captured on holiday in Tunisia .\nAl Qaeda contacted Austrian government to seek release of five prisoners .","id":"433bafbc93960414541025a6fff7120697e33ba0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A pea-sized seahorse, the world's longest insect, a \"ghost slug\" and the world's smallest snake were among the top 10 species discovered in 2008, a committee of scientists said Friday. A tiny seahorse and the world's longest insect were among the top 10 new species discovered in 2008. These unusual critters were among thousands of species found last year, many in remote or tropical regions of the planet, that hint at the breadth of the Earth's undiscovered biodiversity. \"Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's species is,\" said Quentin Wheeler, director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, which announced the top 10 new species list. \"We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted,\" Wheeler added. The ASU institute and an international committee of taxonomists -- scientists devoted to species exploration and classification -- compile the top 10 list of new species each year. Also on the 2008 list are a caffeine-free coffee plant, a snail whose shell twists around four axes, a palm that flowers itself to death and microscopic bacteria that live in hairspray. See photos of the new species \u00bb . Here's the complete list: . 1. Pygmy seahorse: Classified by its Latin name, Hippocampus satomiae, this species measures about half an inch long and was found near Derawan Island off Kalimantan, Indonesia. 2. A plant that kills itself: Found in a small area of northwestern Madagascar, a rare genus of palm -- Tahina spectablilis -- produces huge, spectacular flowers and then dies and collapses. Fewer than 100 have been found. 3. Decaf, please: Known as Coffea charrieriana, this plant found in Cameroon is the first record of a caffeine-free coffee species from Central Africa. 4. Spray-on species: An extremophile bacteria, Microbacterium hatanonis, was discovered in hairspray by Japanese scientists. 5. A stick that moves: The world's longest insect, with a body length of 14 inches (22.3 inches including legs), Phobaeticus chani resembles a stick and was found in Borneo, Malaysia. 6. The Barbados Threadsnake: Leptotyphlops carlae measures only 4.1 inches long and is believed to be the world's smallest snake. 7. A pale \"ghost slug\": Selenochlamys ysbryda was a surprising find in the densely populated area of Cardiff, Wales. 8. A very limber snail: This unique species, Opisthostoma vermiculum, is found on a limestone hill in Malaysia and has a shell that twists around four axes. 9. Damsel in the deep blue sea: Chromis abyssus is a beautiful species of damselfish found in deep-reef habitat off the coast of Ngemelis Island, Palau. 10. Fossil mama: A fossilized fish, Materpiscis attenboroughi, is an extremely rare find from Western Australia and shows a mother giving birth 380 million years ago. Scientists are still classifying species found around the globe in 2008, so final data for that year are not available. But on Friday, the taxonomists issued a State of Observed Species report card that states 18,516 species new to science -- about half of them insects -- were discovered and described in 2007. The vast majority of the 18,516 species named in 2007 were invertebrate animals (75.6 percent), vascular plants (11.1 percent) and vertebrates (6.7 percent). The report was compiled by ASU's International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with other scientists. \"Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are essential parts of understanding the history of life,\" Wheeler said. \"It is in our own self-interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing planet.\" According to Wheeler, a new generation of tools is coming online that will vastly accelerate the rate at which humans can discover and describe species. The annual release of the top 10 new species list and State of Observed Species report commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. An estimated 1.8 million species have been described since Linnaeus initiated the modern systems for naming plants and animals in the 18th century. Scientists estimate that there are between 2 million and 100 million species on Earth, though most set the number closer to 10 million, according to ASU. \"It is estimated that the approximately 1.8 million species named since 1758 represent no more than a fraction of the world's species,\" the report states. \"Rapid environmental changes around the world highlight the urgent need to accelerate our exploration of Earth's species,\" the report says. \"Millions of species -- the majority not yet known to science -- face an uncertain future. Among these species are keys to understanding the history of the origin and diversification of life on our planet.\"","highlights":"A committee of scientists named the top 10 species discovered in 2008 .\nAmong them are an Indonesian seahorse that measures about half an inch long .\nThe world's longest insect has a body length of 14 inches and resembles a stick .\nA coffee plant from Cameroon is a rare caffeine-free coffee species .","id":"7d406ec2a7fda31af36402fb4221d4a4cd359af4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hurricane Paloma continued to intensify Friday night as the Category 3 storm pounded Grand Cayman island with strong winds and heavy rain. As of 10 p.m. ET Friday, Paloma was moving northeast through the Cayman Islands. The National Hurricane Center said additional strengthening of the storm could occur through Saturday night as Paloma turned northeast and headed toward Cuba. A hurricane warning was in effect Friday throughout the Cayman islands, with residents being told that \"preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,\" the center said. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. Cuban officials also issued a hurricane warning for the provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey and Las Tunas, the Miami, Florida-based hurricane center said in an advisory. As of 10 p.m. ET, Paloma's winds were near 115 mph (185 kph) with higher gusts. Paloma is forecast to approach Cuba as a Category 2 storm after weakening late Saturday, according to the hurricane center. Watch rainstorms beat the Cayman Islands \u00bb . Friday evening, the center of Paloma was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Grand Cayman Island and about 275 miles (443 kilometers) southwest of Camaguey, Cuba. It was moving northeast at about 7 mph and was expected to pass near Grand Cayman Friday night and approach the coast of central Cuba late Saturday, the hurricane center said. The storm's projected path would steer it away from the U.S. mainland and into the Atlantic. See where the hurricane could be headed \u00bb . J.B. Webb, a manager at a radio station on Grand Cayman, said Friday evening that some residents had gone to shelters and others were shutting themselves in downtown businesses rebuilt to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. He said the local government had advised people to be off the roads by 11 a.m. The storm is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 5 to 10 inches over the Caymans and central and eastern Cuba, with isolated maximum totals of 15 inches possible. Flash floods and mudslides are possible, forecasters said. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 120 miles, the hurricane center said. iReport.com: Are you in Paloma's path? Forecasters predicted storm-surge flooding of 5 to 7 feet above normal tide levels, accompanied by dangerous battering waves, near the center of Paloma in the Cayman Islands. Near where Paloma is expected to make landfall, along Cuba's southern coast, storm surge flooding of 8 to 12 feet is forecast, the hurricane center said. Cuban television was broadcasting advisories to viewers, telling them not to cross swollen rivers, to avoid fallen cables and to evacuate if told to do so by Civil Defense officials. In Las Tunas, students in boarding schools were sent home, because the schools will be used as shelters. Evacuations were under way in some coastal areas prone to flooding. Rice and cereal was being shipped to other parts of the country to keep it from spoiling, and no tourists were being allowed to enter many areas. CNN's Morgan Neill and Rory Suchet contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Cayman Island residents flee homes for shelters, fortified buildings .\nPaloma has 115-mph winds; storm-surge flooding expected in Caymans .\nEvacuations under way in parts of Cuba; safety advisories issued .\nProjected path would steer hurricane away from U.S. mainland .","id":"e16f0e93099b1b467bfbf8ec58426ca8b7e5a0f2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lots of kids are into dinosaurs. Tyler Lyson says he just never grew out of it. He grew up in rural North Dakota and says fossils were more widespread there than in other places in the U.S. Tyler Lyson's interest in fossil discovery led him to help create a research foundation. \"I was very fortunate to grow up in a very rural area ... that just happens to be one of the best places to find dinosaur fossils,\" Lyson said. But in 1999, he didn't find just any fossil; he discovered something jaw-dropping: a 25-foot-long dinosaur, complete with skin. Lyson's find was an Edmontosaurus he named Dakota. The 65 million-year-old mummified dinosaur was unearthed with Lyson standing by in 2004. Lyson explained that the dinosaur is one of approximately six \"dinosaur mummies\" in the world. \"This dinosaur mummy has portions that none of the other dinosaur mummies have preserved,\" he said. \"So we're able to get a good look at the feet and the legs and the hands and basically the entire body -- what it actually looked like.\" Watch the CNN.com Live interview \u00bb . Lyson is the co-founder of the Marmarth Research Foundation in his hometown. The foundation is creating a museum and outreach programs to give volunteers hands-on field and lab work with fossils. While getting his doctorate at Yale, Lyson wants to make sure that other kids don't grow out of their fascination with the extinct. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Tyler Lyson discovered a 25-foot-long dinosaur fossil with skin in 1999 .\nCheck out the YPWR blog to meet this week's featured young person .\niReport.com: Do you know someone who rocks? Let us know .","id":"310ccb821e3fc71086eb710958d41d4bf08f8be8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Former Culture Club singer Boy George has been convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort. The judge told Boy George he faced jail. Norwegian Audun Carlsen, 29, said the frontman with the 1980s band beat him with a metal chain as he tried to flee his London flat after a naked photo shoot. A jury at a London court found on Friday that the case was proven against the 46-year-old musician -- tried under his real name of George O'Dowd. The singer declined to give evidence during the trial but the jury heard he told police he handcuffed Carlsen to his bed while he investigated alleged tampering with his computer. Carlsen told the court O'Dowd invented the story about computer tampering so he could punish him for not having sex at a previous meeting. He said: \"I think he couldn't handle the refusal -- me not having sex with him.\" O'Dowd looked grim as the verdict was delivered, according to the Press Association. The singer was bailed until sentencing on January 16. Judge David Radford warned him that he was likely to face jail. \"The fact that your bail is being continued does not imply that this will be dealt with by a non-custodial sentence. I don't want any false expectations created,\" he said.","highlights":"Boy George convicted by jury in London of falsely imprisoning male escort .\nNorwegian Audun Carlsen said star beat him with metal chain after photo shoot .\nSinger told police he handcuffed Carlsen while he investigated tampered computer .","id":"1ed172a86d46fa08acfde1c59b20affefd4d6909"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This season on \"American Idol,\" there's a huge question looming around Adam Lambert. Kris Allen, left, and Adam Lambert are battling it out to become the next \"American Idol.\" No, not that one. The one about whether this season would have been as exciting had he not been a part of the show. Love him or hate him, Lambert has added an element to the competition that has been woefully lacking in seasons past: a contestant so unique that you can't wait to see what he will pull next out of his bag of tricks. Regardless on how the season concludes, with Lambert being named \"American Idol\" or losing the title to competitor Kris Allen, it's obvious that a star has been born, and we all got to watch. \"I don't think there would be nearly the interest that there is if it weren't for Adam,\" said Brian Mansfield, who blogs about the show for USA Today. \"Really, all season long it's been Adam and the rest of the field, and is there anybody in the rest of the field that can beat Adam.\" Read and watch the best \"Idol\" performances \u00bb . Indeed, the talent level for \"Idol's\" 2009 edition has been fairly high. Once upon a time, the show plucked apparent unknowns from auditions and thrust them before millions of viewers for a ready-made career. Now, \"unknown\" has become a relative term as more contestants like Lambert, who toured with a production of \"Wicked,\" have shown the polish of veteran professionals. But not everything has worked at a high level. The show's ratings have declined a bit from unbelievable to simply juggernaut. And then there's the tried-and-true format, which producers attempted to mix up a bit this season. Among the changes: more semifinalists -- and fewer semifinal performance shows. That meant viewers didn't have the opportunity to see the contestants perform more than once. At least a few felt cheated. \"It's a situation where they get who they want to get, and they pimp those people, which takes away from some of the really good singers,\" said \"Idol\" fan Ricky Hoggard Hollman, who gained fame during season six for correctly guessing the top 24 semifinalists. This season's robust group of 36 contained some fine potential finalists, Hoggard said, but he believed it wasn't a level playing field partly because producers chose to focus more on back stories than talent. There was also the addition of a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi, to the longtime triumvirate of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, which in the end added nothing but time. Producers also added a \"judges' save,\" which became a throwaway. Much of the criticism has fallen on DioGuardi, a Grammy-nominated songwriter who was supposed to bring a fresh and informed perspective. Instead, she brought uninspiring critiques, some crazy costumes based on the week's theme and the magical ability to force Abdul into a few weeks of coherent comments. Even Cowell wasn't acting like the Simon we have come to alternately adore and want to shake a finger at. He engaged in juvenile antics with Abdul (at one point drawing on her face) and at times stared into space with such complete boredom that you wondered whether Susan Boyle's \"Britain's Got Talent\" performance had forever altered his state of consciousness. \"Simon has shown a level of disinterest and a level disdain for the show that I think is kind of alarming,\" said Michael Slezak, who writes about the show for Entertainment Weekly. \"We sort of expect Simon to speak for us as viewers. We expect him to be up-front and honest and the voice of reason, and he's just been completely disinterested. \"I think it's disrespectful to the contestants, and I think even more so it's disrespectful to us as viewers,\" Slezak added. \"For better or for worse, and crazy or not, we take this show and what's happening up on that stage seriously. It's our escape from reality for the week.\" And boy, do viewers take it seriously. iReport.com: Who do you want to win? As CNN.com's regular \"Idol\" blogger, I have never been more lambasted -- pardon the pun -- than on the weeks I have dared to give Adam Lambert anything less than a flawless critique on the \"American Idol\" blog. My sanity has been questioned. So has my nationality. (Hey, critics: My last name is \"France.\" It's not the location of my blog posts.) Question Lambert's ability, and the Lambs -- his devoted fans -- come out in force. I haven't been completely sold on Lambert. He can be over the top with the dramatics, and the way his tongue hangs out during certain notes is, frankly, bizarre to me. Yet, for all of his antics, Lambert is unbelievably interesting to watch. It took me a while to warm up to him, but with Lambert, I wanted to watch if for no other reason than I didn't want to be left out of the watercooler conversation the next day. He was the pathway that allowed me to also fall in love with Allen's musicality, Allison Iraheta's mature-for-her-years voice and Anoop Desai's determination to be the first Indian R&B star. I was able to cheer Scott McIntyre's persistence, jeer the lack of the use of the judges save for Alexis Grace and puzzle over Megan Joy's quirky performances. Regardless of who takes the title Wednesday night, Kris Allen or Adam Lambert, I can at least say I was entertained. And isn't that what good television is all about?","highlights":"Adam Lambert has added spice to season eight of American Idol .\nKris Allen and Lambert are vying to win \"American Idol\"\nShow's producers tried new tactics this season to draw viewers .\nAddition of new judge and antics at the judges' table have drawn fan ire .","id":"8c452a23a3d053225f2be19e007037e428583c0e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Indian owners of car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have agreed to pump \"tens of millions\" of dollars into the luxury car brand to prevent a cash flow crisis, it was reported Monday. Jaguar Land Rover was bought by the Indian company Tata earlier this year for $2.3 billion. The moves comes as the British government ponders a public-funded bailout of the West Midlands-based automaker, the Financial Times newspaper said. Tata, which bought JLR earlier this year, warned its support for the UK subsidiary did not negate the argument that the British government should provide bridging loans and credit guarantees to help the company and the car sector as a whole through the current financial difficulties, the FT said. Last week, the ailing \"big three\" automakers in the U.S. were given a boost when the Bush administration agreed a $13.4 billion loan package. Now British Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has come under pressure to come up with a similar package for UK manufacturers. JLR employs 15,000 workers in Britain and is seen as a vital contributor to the West Midlands regional economy in particular. However, the business secretary at the weekend reiterated that the state had to be a \"lender of last resort,\" only after Tata has looked to its own resources, the FT reported. Any state support would be conditional on the due diligence on the Indian parent company being conducted by the government's City advisers, according to officials. A spokesman for Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform told the British Press Association: \"The Government doesn't have an open cheque-book to bail out ailing companies, but we are doing all we can to help businesses overcome the current challenges. \"Jaguar Land Rover have owners who are well resourced and have the first responsibility to sustain the companies they own.\" According to the FT, accountancy firm KPMG and investment bank NM Rothschild have been called in to advise the UK government on the Indian group's complex finances and to assess demands from the car sector.","highlights":"Tata bought the British-based luxury car maker earlier this year .\nUK government also pondering a public-funded bailout of the company .\nJLR employs around 15,000 workers in Britain .","id":"4f6a756a974f58b07780fd9bebc269d5374bd0c3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When makers of one of the most anticipated video games of the year invited users to help design part of the game, the gamers jumped at the chance to create animated characters. Users will have the option to incorporate other people's \"Spore\" designs or choose to block them all. But some took it upon themselves to create something entirely different: a new kind of Internet porn. It started when the makers of \"Spore\" released a Creature Creator program that allowed users to develop their own characters to drum up hype before the game's scheduled release in September. The game, a joint venture from \"Sims\" creator Will Wright and Electronic Arts, allows users to create a unique creature and then control its evolution from a single cell into a complex cultural civilization. Within 24 hours of the Creature Creator's release, gamers had gone creature-crazy, designing millions of critters that were all thrown into a database and shown on a YouTube channel for the public to see. But scrolling through the database -- past the three-legged sea horse, past the seven-eyed wildebeest and the half-motorcycle-half-pig -- revealed something many users didn't expect. Buried among the more wholesome attempts were two-legged dancing testicles, a \"giant breast monster\" and a four-legged \"phallic fornication machine,\" for starters. Watch Bradshaw demonstrate the \"Creature Creator\" and \"Spore\" \u00bb . These naughty -- some would say obscene -- creations have spawned an Internet meme nicknamed \"Sporn,\" short for \"Spore\" porn. For EA, the developer of \"Spore,\" it's the downside to tapping into the booming user-generated content arena, which has made sites like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook and Second Life so popular. These games and sites often allow people to create and host their own content in addition to creating cartoon personas, called avatars, for themselves. Many of the popular user-generated content sites have faced similar challenges in trying to control obscene material. In Second Life, users can read Slustler, a cyberporn magazine, or buy programs that allow them to have animated sex with other characters. \"Whether it's modeling clay, dolls or crayons, a small number of people can be counted on to use it for something vulgar,\" said Lucy Bradshaw, \"Spore's\" executive producer. Despite its \"Sporn\" issues, \"Spore\" is poised to become one of the most popular games because of its ability to let people tell their own story, rather than one mapped out for them, Bradshaw said. \"Rather than putting players in the shoes of Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins, we're giving them the opportunity to be George Lucas or Peter Jackson, as they create their own universe from scratch,\" she said. But for every George Lucas and Peter Jackson, there's always a spoiler. Enter the Spornmaster, a 37-year-old Web developer who refused to give his name for this interview. He, like many others, has spent hours creating characters and turning them into sexual beings. \"It came up simply as something silly and juvenile to do,\" he said. The creatures are not just static. Users can create animated scenarios for the characters to engage in, some of which include sexually graphic acts. When EA got word of the Sporn creations, it began working with YouTube to pull them down. Players who repeatedly upload \"offensive content\" are warned, suspended and eventually banned, Bradshaw said. But the policing isn't restricted to EA and YouTube. Users also are able to flag and report content that they find offensive. That angered some content creators, who feel that they should be able to create whatever they want. \"It was a totally ridiculous overreaction,\" the 37-year-old Web developer said. \"I admit it is silly and juvenile, but I don't think there's anything perverted, vile or awful about it. If people find it offensive, they can simply not search for it online. No one is forcing anyone to see this content.\" In response, he created a site to preserve as many of his naughty creations as possible. He said many other creators of Sporn have told him that they too were only joking around. But the Web developer and other Sporn creators have had their share of critics. On blogs and message boards, some have called these creators perverts. \"I consider this very similar to child pornography, at least to the extent of distributing the material to children,\" said 18-year-old Michael James from Calgary, Alberta. James said he has flagged about 10 of the \"disgusting\" creations. EA plans to make sure nobody sees the content if they don't want to, Bradshaw said. When playing \"Spore,\" users will be given three choices regarding people's creations: to receive no outside content, to receive content from buddies only or to receive all external content. Bradshaw hopes the sexual characters don't spoil \"Spore\" for everyone or get in the way of what she says is a revolutionary game. \"User-created content gives players total control over their game experience and empowers them to express their creativity in ways that they never thought possible,\" Bradshaw said. \"It also gives them a powerful emotional connection to the game, since they've created the world from scratch.\" Miles Moffit, a gamer attending the University of Georgia who has created tons of \"clean\" characters on his own, is glad to know EA will be regulating what makes it into the game. Moffit is eagerly awaiting the game's September 7 release. And if by chance a Sporn character shows up in his virtual \"Spore\" world, he has a plan. \"My initial reaction to discovering it in my final game would be to ban it so it wouldn't show up again and then blow it to pieces for the sheer satisfaction of it,\" Moffit said. \"Go ahead, create a walking phallus. See how long it lasts in the databases and galaxies of 'Spore.' \"","highlights":"Creature Creator allows gamers to design characters for new \"Spore\" game .\nSome users have created sexual creatures, now known as \"Sporn\"\n\"Spore\" maker EA is banning those who continue to upload offensive creations .\nOne Sporn creator: \"I don't think there's anything perverted, vile or awful about it\"","id":"183e8948ce8aa5a202810129b750c96d1acc6889"} -{"article":"ALTADENA, California (CNN) -- When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank. Patricia Guerrero was laid off in February. Desperate to make ends meet, she recently went to a food bank. It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill. \"It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' \" she told CNN. \"I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard.\" Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children. She's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet, and is drawing unemployment checks. She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. In fact, her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills. Guerrero even applied for food stamps, but was denied. Watch Guerrero describe going to food bank \u00bb . \"I never used the system. I've been working since I was 15-and-a-half. I needed it now and it turned me down,\" she said. Stories like Guerrero's are becoming more common as middle-class Americans feel the pinch of an economic downturn, rising gas prices and a housing crunch, especially in a state like California that has been rocked by foreclosures. On Wednesday, a key government report on the battered housing market found new home sales fell to their lowest level in 13 years in February, suggesting the nation's housing market is still struggling. Americans also have been attending in large numbers foreclosure fairs where mortgage lenders, financial planners and counselors offer tips to hard-hit homeowners. \"Our economy is struggling, and families in the 'Inland Empire' and across the nation are hurting,\" California Rep. Joe Baca said, referring to an area of Southern California in his district. \"Our housing market is in a state of crisis due to rampant abuses of sub-prime lending, and unemployment is rising. At the same time, the cost of necessities such as gas, healthcare, and education continue to rise.\" Map: Foreclosures state-by-state \u00bb . Daryl Brock, the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank in California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said his organization supplies food to more than 400 charities in metro Los Angeles, from homeless shelters to soup kitchens to an array of food banks. While the majority of people they help are working poor families, he said they have seen some major changes. In the last 12 to 18 months, Brock said, the agencies he supplies have begun seeing more middle-class families coming to their doors. \"Our agencies have said there is an increasing number of people coming to them for help,\" Brock told CNN by phone. \"Their impression was that these were not people they normally would have seen before. They seemed to be better dressed. They seemed to have better cars and yet they seemed to be in crisis mode.\" He added, \"The only thing they can do is give us anecdotal evidence that they think it's because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the housing crisis.\" See recent trends of foreclosure filings \u00bb . A former loan processor, Guerrero knows all about that, although so far she has been able keep her house. She used her tax refund to help pay many of her bills for the first two months, but now that money's gone. She says she's now in a middle-class \"no-man's-land.\" \"It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months,\" she said. She's eager to get back to work and to hold onto her home until the market turns. But for this single mom, every day it becomes harder to hang on. \"It's just depressing,\" she said. \"For me, I just don't want to get out of bed, but I have to. That's my hardest thing. I have to.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Patricia Guerrero went from making $70,000 to drawing unemployment checks .\nDesperate to feed her kids, she recently went to a food bank for the first time .\nExpert says charities are reporting a rise in middle-class families at food banks .\nGuererro: \"It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months\"","id":"b5b8b7a909d2371fafe09956628289ce33be70e2"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Murphy bounds up the stairs, down the stairs, over the hurdles, through the tunnel and stops. He cautiously sidesteps the large white ring in front of him and sits down. Betty Yadlosky tries to tease her Himalayan Persian named Tangerine with a feather. \"Through the ring! Come on, Murphy, through the ring!\" his owner encourages, as she enthusiastically jingles a feathered toy on the other side of the obstacle. Murphy glances over, clearly saying, \"There is no way I am jumping through that hoop.\" And anyone watching -- anyone who has ever owned a cat -- knows he is right. \"It can be frustrating,\" Donna Hinton says from the sidelines of the agility course. \"But it's a challenge, a new dimension to showing.\" Hinton is the owner of Kevi, one of the nation's top agility cats. Dressed to impress, Hinton looks more like a business executive than a cat fanatic -- but the breeder of Maine Coon cats has more than 20 years experience in pedigree showing. \"Some people like to go to the golf course on the weekend. I like to go to a cat show,\" she says with a smile. This time around, it was last weekend's Cat Fanciers' Association's International Cat Show, in Atlanta, Georgia -- touted as the Western Hemisphere's largest cat show, with 729 cats from 41 breeds and 14 countries. Elaborately decorated cages fill both sides and the back of the convention center floor. Vendors sell everything from cat hammocks to gutter guards (even the show manager isn't sure why gutter guards are there), and a man in a wig shows off his tightrope-walking cats. But arguably the most important activity takes place just past the garbage cans marked \"Dump litter here, please.\" Judging . Bob Druzisky carries Zoe -- short for Mittsnpaws Zoe of Wyldephyre -- two-handed under her belly, stretching her out to her full length as they walk to one of the 12 judging rings. \"[We do this] to show her off to the crowd and to avoid handprints on her fur,\" he says. Zoe's judge wipes down his table with disinfectant and then picks up Zoe, staring into her eyes as her feet dangle four feet above the ground. He puts her down and proceeds to feel her coat and check her response time. At one point, she tries to escape from the table, but is nabbed by the quick-handed judge. The whole thing is over less than a minute later. Each cat is judged by six judges throughout the weekend, show manager Emily Turner says. The cats are split into three groups: kittens (less than 8 months), champions (adult cats), and premiers (adult neutered\/spayed cats). These categories are broken down again by breed, color and sex. On Sunday morning, judges tally up the points and select the top two cats from each category. A panel then picks the best in show. \"That's it in a nutshell,\" Turner says. Of course, it's slightly more complicated. Each judge must train for six years. They must know the standards for each breed -- written descriptions of the \"ideal\" cat -- and be able to tell which Siamese has the perfect ear width or which red cat has the best color. Time and money . The ideal breed standard is impossible to reach, Turner says, but owners spend hundreds of hours, and dollars, trying. That's most evident when an announcement comes over the loudspeaker for a DNA \"blue-eyed\" breeding seminar, starting in one hour. Druzisky and his wife, Jennifer, attend approximately 30 cat shows each year. The couple arrived in Atlanta with Zoe and Angel on Thursday night after a 12-hour drive from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Between gas, hotel rooms, entrance fees and cat supplies, Druzisky estimates the shows cost him between a couple hundred and $1,000 per month. Of course, showing cats is a lot cheaper than showing horses -- as Betty Yadlosky is quick to point out. She and her husband Bill showed horses for many years before switching to Himalayan Persians. The couple has 11 Persians, all of which need regular baths if they're showing. Each bath takes Betty Yadlosky an hour and a half to two hours, including a blow dry. So how much time does the average owner spend grooming their cats? \"Just depends on how many you have and how well you take care of them,\" she says. \"You've got to keep them healthy and happy.\" For the love of it . Back in the ring, Kevi is running Hinton ragged. He zooms through the other obstacles, only to stop short at the blue weave bars. Once, twice, three times he stops, before Hinton sighs, wiping her forehead with her arm. \"I think we're tired,\" she says. \"Bored, not tired,\" agility instructor Carol Osbourne calls out to Hinton. \"[Kevi] could do this all night. Keep your body ahead [of the cat] and make a wide sweep with your arm.\" Hinton goes to scoop up Kevi, only to miss the rascal by inches. This starts a game of chase that ends with Kevi in a red carrier and Hinton laughing. Putting on a show this large takes more than a year, and it's scenes like this one that convince Turner her hard work is worth it. She says most of the people who come to shows are there simply because they love animals. \"There's the best of all things,\" she says, speaking loudly over the call for Tokinese cats in ring three. \"At night, when you go home you have this warm, fuzzy, cuddly animal that adores you and you adore him or her. I mean, how could you ask for anything better?\"","highlights":"Cat Fanciers' Association holds International Cat Show in Atlanta, Georgia .\nMore than 700 cats of 41 breeds participate in show .\nKuorii Santos of Cuzzoe wins \"Best in Show\"\nCats give owners trouble on the agility course during training time .","id":"42548e74e942c9af34f24999d9863b5342f71c29"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A federal judge has stayed what would be the nation's first military execution since 1961, saying the U.S. soldier -- who was convicted of rape and murder two decades ago -- should have more time to pursue a federal appeal. Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. A court-martial panel sitting at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unanimously convicted him of committing two murders and other crimes in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area and sentenced him to death. Last month, the Army said Gray was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection December 10 at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. But in an order issued November 26, U.S. District Judge Richard Rogers of Kansas said that a stay is necessary so Gray can pursue his federal appeal. Rogers ruled on a motion filed by Gray's attorneys, who asked for time to challenge the legality of his convictions and sentence. Government attorneys have asked Rogers to reconsider his decision, saying that Gray seeks a stay \"apparently based on the premise that at some point he will identify a new legal issue or discover new evidence\" upon which to appeal and that Gray \"continues to delay unnecessarily.\" Gray has had ample time to appeal, the Justice Department attorneys said. In a response filed Tuesday, Gray's defense attorneys point out that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal in March 2001, and \"since then, it has taken the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the Office of the President over seven years to approve as final Private Gray's sentence of death. The significant constitutional issues presented on the face of Private Gray's case ... have obviously troubled the decision-makers, as evidenced by the years they had his case under advisement.\" President Bush approved Gray's death sentence in July, making it final, defense attorneys write in the filing. Inmates sentenced to death in state and federal courts are given a year to file federal appeals after their death sentence becomes final, they claim, and members of the military under death sentences should receive the same consideration. \"Private Gray is seeking federal habeas court review for the first time and he has not delayed commencing this action,\" defense attorney Thomas Bath wrote. \"In fact, until the president approved his death sentence, there was no action available.\" Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg. He also was convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at the post. Military and civilian courts both found Gray responsible for the crimes, which were committed between April 1986 and January 1987. Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes in a civilian court and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms. The general court-martial at Fort Bragg then tried him and in April 1988 convicted him of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. Bush's July action, the Army said in a statement at the time, followed \"completion of a full appellate process, which upheld the conviction and sentence to death.\" Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed with presidential approval since 1951 under the Uniform Code of Military justice, the military's modern-day legal system. The Army has also sought Bush's authorization to execute another condemned soldier, Pvt. Dwight Loving, who was convicted of killing and robbing two cab drivers in 1988. The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was sentenced in 1955. The U.S. military hasn't actively pursued an execution for a military prisoner since President Kennedy commuted a death sentence in 1962. Nine men are currently on military death row. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. soldier should have more time to seek federal appeal, judge says .\nPvt. Ronald Gray has been on death row for 20 years .\nHe was convicted of two murders and other crimes in North Carolina .\nGray had been scheduled for execution December 10 .","id":"5f929fb5ab51a22ce7f5395777cb625f4fceaee1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's transitional president has resigned amid a power struggle with the African nation's prime minister and parliament, sources told CNN on Monday. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed tried to fire his PM this month but later lost a confidence vote. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed announced his resignation Monday before parliament in Baidoa. Ahmed's resignation is the latest turn in the political crisis in Somalia, which is already struggling with an Islamist revolt, a refugee crisis and rampant lawlessness that has fueled a wave of piracy off the Horn of Africa. Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The U.N.-backed transitional government has the support of Ethiopian troops that ousted an Islamist government at the end of 2006, but it controls little of the country outside the southwestern city of Baidoa. Ahmed attempted to fire his prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, earlier this month for being ineffective. But Hussein said the president did not have the power to fire him, and the vast majority of members of parliament backed Hussein in a vote of confidence. Kenya -- a major player in international efforts to stabilize Somalia -- warned that the government crisis endangered peace efforts and singled out Ahmed over his attempt to sack Hassan.","highlights":"Somalia's transitional president resigns amid power struggle with PM, parliament .\nCountry struggling with Islamist revolt, refugee crisis and rampant lawlessness .\nKenya has warned that Somali government crisis is endangering peace efforts .","id":"d775659568a8346a31f476c226265e82306a2a77"} -{"article":"Kathryn Kolbert is president of People for the American Way, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports equality and freedom of speech and religion. An attorney who has been recognized as one of the most influential lawyers in America, she appeared frequently before the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986-1997, arguing in favor of retaining a legal right to abortion. Before joining People for the American Way, she was executive producer of Justice Talking, a radio show about law and American life and senior research administrator with the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Kathryn Kolbert says Rick Warren's selection upset activists who supported Barack Obama . (CNN) -- The announcement that Pastor Rick Warren has been chosen to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony landed with a thud in my inbox. Many people who know Warren as the affable megachurch pastor and best-selling author may be confused about the anger and disappointment that his selection has generated among progressive activists who worked so hard to help elect Obama. Here's my explanation; you can find plenty of other voices online. Warren enjoys a reputation as a bridge-building moderate based on his informal style and his church's engagement on issues like AIDS in Africa. He took grief from some of his Religious Right colleagues when he invited then-Senator Obama to his church for a conference on AIDS a couple of years ago. And, in August he hosted presidential candidates Obama and McCain at his church. Warren has worked hard to cultivate a moderate public personality but his views are very similar to those of traditional Religious Right leaders.In an email sent before the 2004 election he wrote a Falwell-esque message proclaiming that, for Christian voters, the issues of abortion, marriage for same-sex couples, stem cell research, cloning and euthanasia were \"non-negotiable.\" In fact, he said, they are \"not even debatable because God's word is clear on these issues.\" And while some Religious Right leaders were nervous that Warren would give Obama a platform to talk about poverty and the environment at the August event, Warren thrilled them by eschewing those issues entirely in order to emphasize issues like abortion and marriage that worked to McCain's advantage with the evangelical audience. iReport.com: Your thoughts on Rick Warren . Warren also campaigned for Proposition 8, the initiative that stripped same-sex couples in California of their right under the state constitution to get legally married. But it's not just his support for Prop. 8 that is so galling to equality activists. It's that Warren, in an interview with Beliefnet.com, has since equated allowing loving same-sex couples to get married with redefining marriage to permit incest and pedophilia. And he has repeated one of the Religious Right's big lies: that somehow allowing marriage equality to stand would have threatened the freedom of preachers like him to say what they thought about homosexuality. That's not remotely true, but it's a standard tool of Religious Right leaders trying to resist the public's increasing support for equality. In other words, Warren has been divisive and dishonest on the issues of marriage equality and religious freedom -- and on other issues important to many Obama supporters, as well. He adamantly opposes a woman's legal right to abortion and dismisses common-ground efforts to reduce the need for abortion by comparing them to accommodating the Holocaust. He is disrespectful of progressive people of faith, suggesting that they are tools of the Democratic Party or more Marxist than Christian. So much for the values of unity and respect, not to mention the constitutional principle of equality, on which President-elect Obama campaigned. Why exactly is he being given the high honor of delivering the invocation at one of the most historic ceremonies in American history? There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good. Rev. Joseph Lowery, who has been selected to give the benediction, is a lifelong advocate for justice. There are others like him, and in our increasingly diverse nation, they aren't all Christian. Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances and has every right to promote his religious views. But he doesn't need or deserve a position of honor at the inauguration of a president who has given hope to so many Americans by rejecting the politics of division and emphasizing his commitment to constitutional values. I am still excited about the tremendous changes in policy that I expect under an Obama administration. But it's the job of progressive advocates to hold public officials accountable, and to speak up even when our friends drop the ball. This decision, which will leave a bad taste in the mouths of many passionate supporters of Barack Obama, is one of those times. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Kathryn Kolbert.","highlights":"Kathryn Kolbert: Rick Warren has image of a moderate religious leader .\nShe says his views are closer to those of the Religious Right .\nKolbert: Warren backed Prop. 8 and opposed abortion and stem cell research .\nShe says he doesn't deserve position of honor at Barack Obama's inauguration .","id":"75456ca78692fd016c860c7f3595a0604d180c56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A new national poll suggests Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be on the top of Santa's naughty list. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tops new CNN poll of which politician has been the naughtiest of 2008. Fifty-six percent of those questioned in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday said Blagojevich, who has been arrested on corruption charges, was the naughtiest politician in 2008. Blagojevich, accused of attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat, has said he has done nothing wrong and plans to fight the allegations. The poll also found 23 percent believed former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer should get the nod, followed by 19 percent for former presidential candidate John Edwards. Spitzer resigned in March after it was revealed he was Client No. 9 in a high-end prostitution ring. In November, prosecutors announced they would not be bringing criminal charges against Spitzer. Edwards, who had been considered a major contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, admitted in August to having an extramarital affair with former campaign staffer Rielle Hunter. The former North Carolina senator also denied he was the father of Hunter's then-newborn baby. CNN polling director Keating Holland said while Blagojevich's top spot in the survey may be due to his arrest occurring more recently than the transgressions of the others, there may be another reason. iReport.com: Do you trust your political leaders? \"Americans typically take a much dimmer view of corruption than of sex scandals, since the former is a violation of the public trust and the latter is usually considered more of a private matter,\" he said.","highlights":"CNN poll: Rod Blagojevich was the naughtiest politician in 2008 .\nIllinois governor accused of trying to sell President-elect Obama's Senate seat .\nFormer Gov. Eliot Spitzer was second in poll, followed by former Sen. John Edwards .","id":"d326e081a3c568e3e6d74dd1a0644c274e220132"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No budget for a new computer in this recession? It's a common malady these days. A self-admitted tech geek, Chris Pirillo is president of Lockergnome.com, a blogging network. But this doesn't mean you have to suffer along with substandard performance from your system just because it's got more dust on its cover and less hard drive space than that shiny floor model you've been drooling over at the local Fry's. Will an '09 Ford Escort outpace a '67 Mustang in a drag race? If the Mustang's been neglected and allowed to rust away in the back yard for the past decade, then...probably. If it's been babied and protected from the elements, then it's not even a fair contest. Like any machine, a well-maintained car or computer will surprise you, no matter its age. In our modern consumer culture, it's not surprising that many people are under the impression that newer always means better. Yesterday's top-shelf computer is as disposable as a Taco Bell spork, and what cost $3,000 four years ago is now surpassed by technology that didn't even exist -- for any price then -- for a comparable pittance. We're conditioned to kowtow to the expectations of obsolescence. Why settle for less, manufacturers will ask coyly, when we could have so much more -- interest-free for six months if we just sign up today? I'm here to tell you that even if you don't have the riches to get your dream setup today, you don't have to settle for less than what yesterday's perfect computer can offer. Here's a list of things that could help keep you and your machine playing nicely together for a while until you can save up enough pennies for tomorrow's offerings. It may be your software that's slow -- not your computer. Check for driver and version updates either at your computer manufacturer's Web site or through the list of software you use frequently; see if new drivers or versions are available. If you've been using the same programs for a year or two, it's likely that such updates are available, and those updates could result in noticeable performance improvement. The future of the desktop is on the Web, where there's little (if anything) for you to install to (and slow down) your system. For this reason, I recommend moving as many of your activities to the Web as possible. Many of today's Web sites are built with rich JavaScript frameworks, which enable amazing in-browser experiences for everybody. If you can, begin accessing and managing your email from the Web rather than the desktop. If you use more than one computer on a regular basis, this is likely what you're doing anyway. A lot of people I know swear by Google's Gmail (especially for its pretty good spam-filtering capabilities), but you have many options -- and most of them are free. At the risk of seeming Google-centric, I have to point out that it's even possible to manage basic documents and spreadsheets online -- once proprietary to bloated Microsoft Office products -- for free with Google Docs. And sharing the data from these applications for collaboration with friends and coworkers has never been easier. If you're still using Internet Explorer, stop! Please, stop. It's not fast -- not by today's standards. You're better off with a newer build of Firefox or possibly Google Chrome or Safari (my personal favorite). External hard drives are a good way of keeping transient data off your computer's core hard drive, which should give your operating system some extra room to do its job more efficiently. Another option takes us back to the Web -- you can often get an online backup plan that will remove your valuable data not only from that main hard drive, but also from your computer's immediate vicinity. If a calamity (whether human-created or, as insurance companies like to say, an \"act of God\") befalls your household, your data will be safe in a sanctuary far, far away and not melted on that physical, external hard drive next to that poor old computer we've been trying to save! Instead of downloading music and storing it indefinitely, consider paying for a music\/content subscription service instead. There'll be less data bogging down your computer, less stuff for you to manage, and you'll have access to so much more content. Comparably minor hardware upgrades like more RAM or better video cards will likely make a major difference in your old system's performance. A second monitor is one way I've found of, if not making my computer more productive, at least making my interaction with the computer more productive. Doubling your screen real estate is a great way of getting the most out of the information that your computer's giving you without having to switch back and forth between pages on a smaller, single-screen setup. Make sure your video card supports this option; if not, there are USB converters that might help overcome this obstacle. See? Your old computer, treated with care and respect, can still make that pan-global road trip on the Information Superhighway. It just needs a careful hand on the wheel and a steady toe on the pedal to maximize its potential: That New Computer Smell on an Old Wallet Budget.","highlights":"Here's how to squeeze the most performance out of your older computer .\nIt may be your software that's slow, not your computer; check for updates .\nMove as many of your activities, such as e-mail, to the Web as possible .\nIf you're still using Internet Explorer, stop! You're better off with a newer build of Firefox .","id":"0e01e8363b811df68c2f2604708b8019f2bbe763"} -{"article":"Editor's note: You can follow the Bilsons' progress on CNN American Morning 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. through February 4. Mary Bilson tries to contain her autistic daughter Marissa's tantrum, as Marissa's brother Brendan looks on. Seal Beach, CALIFORNIA (CNN) -- The Bilson family is like many other families: three kids, a cat, and a small, lovely home with lots of family photos and carved wooden wall signs with sayings like \"Live, Laugh, Love.\" But step inside their house after 4 p.m. most weekdays and you'll want to cover your ears because of the noise -- the screaming, to be exact. These are not the shouts of sibling rivalry or parental annoyance. This is the high-pitched, ear-shattering sound of a 13-year-old girl. More accurately, it is the sound of a frustrated, irritated, very loud teenager with autism. Marissa, the middle Bilson child, was diagnosed with autism when she was a toddler. Her mother, Mary, a nurse, knew something wasn't right early on, when young Marissa's tantrums were off the charts and seemingly unwarranted. But during the first few years, doctors told Mary Bilson that her daughter was fine and this behavior would eventually pass. They were wrong on both counts. Marissa's behavior has not passed; it has, in fact, become worse. According to Bilson, Marissa and her tantrums rule the household. \"I don't want to hear her screaming and tantruming, so we pretty much let her do what she wants,\" Bilson says. \"We\" means Mary, her husband, John, and their two other children, Brittany, 15, and 6-year-old Brendan. Keeping the peace means that, when it comes to Marissa, the rules are different. She is allowed unlimited time on the one family computer. She is allowed access to her siblings' rooms and possessions. She is allowed to eat dinner at the computer instead of the family table. Watch part one of the Bilsons' journey \u00bb . But before you sit in judgment of the Bilsons, and suggest they just need a firm hand to keep their middle child in line, consider one thing: They are trying to cope with a child with severely impaired social sensibilities. \"Do you think people who don't have children with autism know how tough it is to deal with them?\" CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, asked Marissa's mom in a recent interview. \"No,\" Mary Bilson replied. \"And I don't see how they could.\" She's right -- we can't, because many of us have never seen autism in action, day in and day out. Learn more about autism \u00bb . Autism is described on the National Institutes of Health Web site as a \"developmental disorder that appears in the first three years of life, and affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.\" According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism and related disorders affect about one out of every 150 babies born each year. Autism manifests itself in many different ways. Although there are some common threads, like language issues, repetitive movements and difficulties connecting to others, specific behavioral patterns are largely unique to the individual. \"Children with autism are all different; they are like snowflakes,\" explains Dr. Ronald Leaf, co-director of the group Autism Partnership. The one thing that Leaf believes they all have in common is that \"they are not expected to do enough.\" Leaf insists we have set the bar too low for what we think children and adults with autism can do. \"They are highly teachable,\" he says. \"You just have to have a good teacher.\" A good teacher is exactly what Bilson was looking for to help her with Marissa. The family had already tried various programs, starting when Marissa was a toddler -- but nothing completely worked for her. And as Marissa entered her teen years, her behavior grew worse. Mary knew that her daughter needed to be reined in, and it needed to be done now. \"She is getting older. She's 13 and her tantrums are louder and longer than they used to be. It's just so inappropriate. It was OK when she was much younger, but now that she's going to be an adult soon, she can't be behaving this way,\" Bilson says with tired resignation. But what could the Bilsons do? This family doesn't have a lot of extra money, and most programs either aren't covered by insurance or have long waiting lists. The costs are staggering, according to the Web site FightingAutism.org. Families with autistic children can expect to spend $30,000 annually to provide proper medical, educational and other assistance necessary for dealing with an autistic child. Watch part two of the Bilsons' journey \u00bb . Enter Autism Partnership, or AP. This group, founded in 1994, offers extensive therapeutic services to children and adults with the disorder. One of its most unique programs is an intensive one-on-one, at-home intervention service that is similar in scope to what happens on the television show \"Nanny 911.\" It's not cheap -- about $2,500 per day, typically for a five-day period (with additional days on an \"as needed\" basis). Most of AP's work is grounded in a behavior modification technique known as Applied Behavioral Analysis or ABA. Essentially, the method breaks down behavior patterns, rewarding proper behavior while being careful not to encourage improper responses. And that is exactly how AP therapist Rick Schroeder hopes to reshape Marissa Bilson's worst behavior. The group, which met Marissa while working in her school, offered the Bilson family a free week-long intervention with the proviso that CNN be allowed to record the process. The week started off with a day of observation -- a day with lots and lots of screaming and tantrums, that left Schroeder stunned. He had observed Marissa at school where, he says, she was much less demonstrative. But Schroeder is still eager and ready to tackle the challenge. \"I think the family is starting to realize something needs to change, and that's very good,\" he says after his day of observation. \"As far as Marissa's behavior goes -- and the level that she is capable of going to -- she's pretty much out of control, for sure.\"","highlights":"CDC: Autism and related disorders affect one out of every 150 children .\nEach autistic child is unique in his or her behavior, but there are common threads .\nSocial skills, communication are common problem areas .\nMarissa screams, throws tantrums -- behavior her family hopes to change .","id":"75a898dfd0d1999e6b51c2f30d86ab0745bef182"} -{"article":"SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- Three Americans rescued last week from captivity in the Colombian jungle will return to their homes Saturday, the U.S. Army South said. Left to right, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes talk about spending more than 5 years as hostages. Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell have been undergoing a reintegration process at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, since their return 10 days ago to the United States. The men were among 15 hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who were rescued July 2 in a Colombian military operation. The men carried with them a metal lock, a bullet and a chess board made of cardboard -- small items that are reminders of the years they spent away from their families, cut off from the world outside the jungle, seeing only fellow hostages and their captors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The group had held the three U.S. government contractors hostage since February 2003, after their plane crashed in a remote region of the South American country. \"They don't recognize humanity, they don't recognize human rights. They're animals. They're terrorists,\" Stansell said of the FARC. \"We don't want to exaggerate what happened. We just want to tell the truth.\" The men painted a gruesome picture of their captivity, describing months in which they were ordered not to speak to each other and an initial campsite where they lived with a rat's nest above them. They slept on the floors of drug labs and were forced to march for hours while chained. Chains were very much a part of their captivity. \"That was put around my neck every night,\" Stansell told Headline News' Robin Meade on Thursday, holding a heavy industrial lock. \"This lock, with 5 meters of chain -- thick, 1-inch links -- went to his neck,\" Stansell said, pointing at Gonsalves. \"We slept like that,\" he said. Watch how the rescue surprised the hostages \u00bb . Gonsalves also held small wooden chess pawns he had carved using a broken piece of a machete. It took three months to make them, he said. Watch Gonsalves talk about how chess made him feel free \u00bb . \"We're in chains, sitting Indian-style on a piece of plastic, just playing chess,\" Stansell said. \"And when you're doing that, you're free.\" Howes, the most reticent of the three, carried with him a bullet from a commander who had once threatened to kill him. But despite the chains, the intolerable living conditions and the isolation, being away from their families was possibly the most difficult hardship to endure, the men said. \"I remember my darkest day was in the first month of our captivity,\" Gonsalves said. \"We were, at that point, locked in boxes at night. ... That night, I dreamt about my daughter, who was my little girl and still is. And I had this dream about her that was so real; she was sitting on my lap, and ... she had little braids in her hair,\" he said. Watch Gonsalves talk about his darkest hour \u00bb . \"It was a wonderful dream, with all of my family. But the problem was, I woke up.\" Colombian government agents infiltrated the FARC leadership over several months, eventually tricking the rebels into moving the hostages by saying a humanitarian group wanted to check on them. A helicopter carrying fake rebels picked up the hostages at a rendezvous point on July 2, ostensibly to take them to another rebel camp. But it was actually a Colombian military helicopter and the hostages were flown away, free, without a shot being fired. Read about the daring rescue mission . The FARC, which has been fighting with the Colombian government and other paramilitary groups for decades, defends the taking of captives as a legitimate act of war. The group is thought to be holding about 750 prisoners in the nation's remote jungles. Along with the former contractors, French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was also freed from FARC. She was abducted by the rebels in 2002 during her campaign for Colombia's presidency. She told CNN's Larry King on Wednesday that her time as a hostage was \"hell.\" Stansell, who was captured while his girlfriend was pregnant with twins, said he believed for a while that one had died. A guard told Stansell he saw a photograph of the girlfriend with only one son, he said, although the guard did not produce the photograph. Then, one day on the radio, he heard \"two little guys ... sending me messages.\" On Sundays, Caracol Radio airs a program called \"Voices of Captivity,\" a lifeline for FARC hostages as the program often plays messages from the family members of the hostages. \"This is just a deep breath of happiness,\" Stansell said of his sons. Watch the full interview - Part 1; \u00bb Watch the full interview - Part 2 \u00bb . The radio was also how Stansell's girlfriend accepted his marriage proposal, which he had smuggled out with a hostage who had been released, he said. She also accepted in person after his rescue, he said. \"And I looked at [her] and I said, 'This is a go, right?' She said, 'That's it. This is our family,' \" he recalled. He said when he saw his sons for the first time, it was as though he had known them since birth. \"I opened the door. ... I hear, 'Papa, Papa, Papa,\" he said. \"And they just hit me; it was like I had never even been gone.\" Captivity also separated Howes from his wife and two sons. \"Before this [I] was a guy that was kind of a typical American guy that was working, busy working, running through a life full-speed,\" he said. \"I had a little boy when we crashed that was 5 years old, another one 15. Had a wife who was back in the States; we just got a house. I had 12 nights in the house of my dreams in the States,\" he said. \"And suddenly, we drop off the face of the Earth.\" He said, \"When you're in our situation, we realize what's important. We know. The three of us know better than any of you guys out there, it's the family. And I'd like everyone to listen very closely to that.\"","highlights":"Former FARC captives talk to CNN a week after they were freed .\nOne keeps a lock that held the chain that was placed around his neck at night .\nAnother has a cardboard chess set that he carved as a hostage .\nFARC captured the U.S. government contractors hostage in February 2003 .","id":"c4224212763df8d21c873897ae8787e254ab6e13"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met Sunday in Damascus, Syria, with Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas' political wing, a Hamas official said. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, left, walks with Jimmy Carter north of Damascus on Sunday, December 14. The five-hour meeting ended late Sunday and covered several issues, including Cpl. Gilad Shalit -- an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas since June 2006, the official said. Carter previously met with Meshaal in April. In that meeting, the Hamas leader promised Carter that the group would allow Shalit to send a message to his parents, Noam and Aviva. Carter also asked Hamas to release Shalit, Meshaal said after the former president's visit, but the request was rejected. Watch report on Carter's meeting \u00bb . Hamas said Sunday it will soon release a statement about the latest meeting between Carter and Meshaal. Carter's series of meetings with top Hamas officials in April garnered condemnation from the U.S. and Israeli governments. They criticized him for engaging in diplomacy with a group that both governments consider a terrorist organization. How the incoming Obama administration will receive Carter's meetings with Hamas remains to be seen. During his visit in Syria, Carter also visited the Saint Taqla convent in the city of Maalula, north of Damascus, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. CNN's Cal Perry contributed to this report in Beirut, Lebanon.","highlights":"Hamas says five-hour meeting ends late Sunday in Damascus, Syria's capital .\nCarter's appeal for release of Israeli solider captured in 2006 is rejected .\nU.S., Israeli governments criticized previous meetings between Carter, Hamas .","id":"dbb273ba38da35b7e2771eeb9aa9d78e6a75705a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- What recession? Christie's, the famed auction house, this week sold a nearly 36-carat diamond for $24.3 million, which it said was the highest price for a diamond sold at auction. The 35.56-carat diamond dates back to the 17th century. The previous record was a mere $16.5 million for a 100-carat diamond in 1995, Christie's said. \"In the midst of these challenging times, we were thrilled to achieve an historic price for an historic diamond,\" said Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie's Europe and auctioneer for Wednesday's sale. The 35.56-carat Wittelsbach blue diamond, dating to the 17th century, was purchased by international jeweler Laurence Graff, the auction house said in a release. Graff was bidding against Aleks Paul of Essex Global Trading, a professional of Russian origin based in New York, Christie's said. \"Known as 'Der Blaue Wittelsbacher' since 1722, it is one of very few diamonds which can claim 17th century heritage, incredible rarity and exceptional beauty.\" The diamond, mined in India nearly 400 years ago, has been privately owned since 1964. Until 1723, Christie's said, all diamonds worn by European royalty came from India. The diamond has a royal lineage. Christie's traces it thus: King Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) selected the diamond in 1664 as part of a dowry for his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa (1651-1673). She had become engaged to Leopold I of Austria (1640-1705), who later became Holy Roman Emperor. When she died in 1673, her husband retained the diamond, which was passed on to his heirs. In 1722, the diamond entered the Wittelsbach family when the Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1701-1756) married the Bavarian Crown Prince, Charles Albert (1697-1745). It was worn by successive rulers until the abdication of King Ludwig III (1845-1921) in 1918. The world's largest deep blue diamond is the \"Hope Diamond,\" a 45.52-carat stone housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Diamonds apparently are recession-proof. Christie's reported jewelry sales of $226 million for the first half of 2008, calling it \"the best jewelry season ever seen at auction.\" Sales for the first six months of this year marked a 32 percent increase over the same period in 2007, Christie's said. According to Christie's, key diamonds the company sold in the first half of 2008 included a 13.39-carat fancy intense blue diamond that fetched $8.9 million in Geneva on May 14 and the pear-shaped potentially flawless 38-carat Onassis diamond, which sold for $7.1 million on June 11 in London.","highlights":"Christie's sells nearly 36-carat diamond for $24.3 million .\nAmount said to be highest price for a diamond sold at auction .\nJewel was mined in India nearly 400 years ago .","id":"e4cd9f66267aa764d3e0fac47a208e8a6b6dc0b9"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Two of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children are suing their brother, accusing him of wrongfully taking money from their parents' estates. Dexter King, left, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III attend a 2006 tribute for their late mother. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III allege that Dexter King took \"substantial funds\" out of Coretta Scott King's estate and \"wrongfully appropriated\" money from their father's estate. The suit, filed Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court, serves as a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings. In a written statement Friday, Dexter King called the suit \"inappropriate and false.\" \"I'm disappointed that our personal family disagreement, as it relates to the family business, has evolved into being handled in a public legal forum,\" he said. \"It is my hope that this inappropriate and false claim by my siblings will be swiftly resolved and we can go about the business of focusing on our parents' tremendous legacy.\" The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead garbage workers on a protest march. King's wife, Coretta Scott King, also devoted her life to the civil rights movement, died in 2006. Attorneys for Bernice King and Martin Luther King III would not say Friday how much money they are accusing Dexter King of taking from their mother's estate. Bernice King is the administrator of that estate. Dexter King, the suit says, controls their father's estate, which is registered as a Georgia corporation. All three children are shareholders in that corporation. The lawsuit names Dexter King and the corporation as defendants. It alleges that last month, the defendants \"converted substantial funds from the estate's financial account at Bank of America for their own use.\" Harmon Caldwell, an Atlanta attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Dexter King is a signatory on the account, but \"was not authorized to transfer the funds,\" and gave his sister \"no notice that those funds were being transferred.\" The suit says that as a result of the transfer, \"plaintiffs have and will suffer financial loss.\" The lawsuit lists Bernice King as a plaintiff both individually and as administrator of their mother's estate. Separately, the suit says Dexter King \"has wrongfully appropriated assets belonging to the [estate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.] or its shareholders for his own benefit.\" Caldwell said Dexter King has refused to say what has happened with some of the corporation's money. \"I can't tell you that he's gone out and used corporate assets for his own living expenses,\" the attorney said. \"What I can tell you for certainty is that by not providing Martin and Bernice with information about how the corporation is using its assets, he is essentially using those assets, appropriating those assets for his own benefit.\" The plaintiffs' attorneys would not estimate the size of either estate. But one, Jock Smith, noted that a collection of King's manuscripts and other items was sold in 2006 for a reported $32 million. \"I don't think it was a substantial corporation of any sort before that,\" Smith said. Over the years, the family of the civil rights leader has zealously protected its financial interests, at times taking legal steps even against the media for showing some of King's most famous speeches. In 2005, some news agencies reported on the King Center, a nonprofit, having put millions of dollars into a for-profit business run by Dexter King. The family rejected allegations of wrongdoing, and has generally pushed to keep financial matters private. Smith said his clients made repeated efforts to reach out to their brother in recent weeks before deciding to take legal action. Smith agreed with the suggestion that it was emotionally tough for the King children to file the suit. \"That would be the understatement of the year, Smith said.","highlights":"Bernice King, Martin Luther King III name Dexter King, father's estate as defendants .\nSuit also says defendants wrongfully took money from Coretta Scott King estate .\nSuit alleges defendants \"converted substantial funds\" for their own use .\nThe suit was filed in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Georgia .","id":"1ecf996512ddbcd32f599e66c771df05244fd2ad"} -{"article":"ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A federal court Thursday struck down ordinances passed by Hazleton, Pennsylvania, that were intended to limit where illegal immigrants could live and work. Last year, Hazleton passed the Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance, which would have fined landlords who rented to undocumented immigrants and would have penalized companies that employed them. Under another law, tenants would have had to prove they were citizens or lawful residents, register with the city and pay for a rental permit in order to receive an occupancy permit. The ordinances were copied by other cities. The court ruled that Hazleton cannot enact any ordinances dealing with illegal immigration because they conflict with the supremacy clause of the U.S. constitution. \"Hazleton, in its zeal to control the presence of a group deemed undesirable, violated the rights of such people, as well as others within the community. Since the United States Constitution protects even the disfavored, the ordinances cannot be enforced,\" U.S. District Judge James M. Munley wrote in the 206-page opinion. Mayor Lou Barletta, who spearheaded the opposition, said he will appeal the ruling. \"This fight is far from over,\" he told reporters outside the courtroom. \"Hazleton is not going to back down. ... We will take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.\" Watch mayor decry \"injustice\" \u00bb . Barletta drafted the act last year after \"a high-profile murder, the discharge of a gun at a crowded city playground, and drug busts\" allegedly involving illegal immigrants, he wrote on his Web site, www.smalltowndefenders.com. \"Illegal aliens in our city create an economic burden that threatens our quality of life,\" he wrote. \"With a growing problem and a limited budget, I could not sit back any longer and allow this to happen. I needed to act!\" Hazleton's population was 23,000 in 2000. Since then, it has risen to an estimated 30,000 to 33,000, with many of the newcomers being Mexican immigrants, according to Munley. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania was among several groups that filed the suit on behalf of Hazleton residents, landlords and business owners. The groups contended that only the federal government has the right to regulate immigration or to deprive residents of the rights to equal protection. In addition, they said, the ordinances violated state and federal housing laws. The ordinances, Munley said, \"penalize landlords, tenants, employers and employees without providing them the procedural protections required by federal law, including notice and an opportunity to be heard.\" \"Our analysis applies to illegal aliens as well as to legal residents and citizens. The United States Constitution provides due process protections to all persons,\" he wrote, emphasizing \"all.\" The city exceeded its police powers by enacting unconstitutional ordinances, wrote Munley, whom President Clinton appointed to the federal bench in 1998. Barletta said he would \"continue to fight for the people of this community and other cities around the country.\" \"It's almost amusing to me that the judge would say we can't do what the federal government should be doing, when in fact the federal government is not doing their job,\" he told CNN's Lou Dobbs. A spokesman for the ACLU of Pennsylvania expressed satisfaction with the ruling. \"Hazleton-type laws are designed to make life miserable for millions of immigrants,\" said Vic Walczak, legal director for the group and a lead attorney in the case. \"They promote distrust of all foreigners, including those here legally, and fuel xenophobia and discrimination, especially against Latinos.\" Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, added, \"Political leaders, like Mayor Barletta, must stop scape-goating undocumented immigrants for all the problems we confront in our local communities.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Federal court throws out laws limiting where illegal immigrants can live, work .\nJudge says ordinances conflict with supremacy clause of U.S. constitution .\nLaw would have fined landlords renting to illegal aliens .\nMayor Lou Barletta: \"This fight is far from over\"","id":"4f1166fa4f5f7763d257150f7dda474b5e30bd97"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One of the best gifts you can give a child this holiday season may not be the latest gadget, toy, or tasty treat, but instead the gift of a healthy lifestyle. Participants get a workout at the FitWit fitness boot camp. An Atlanta-based non-profit organization is doing its part to combat childhood obesity by teaching kids proper nutrition and exercise in a six-week fitness boot camp similar to NBC's \"The Biggest Loser.\" The FitWit Foundation hopes its program will catch on nationwide. \"We wanted to work with teens in a meaningful way, and we saw firsthand how fitness and physical activity in general is being neglected in this population. With a lot of help from volunteers and donors, we've started a program this past spring that encourages hard work and is a fun way to get in shape,\" said FitWit instructor Ben Thoele. FitWit's program is a six-week after-school boot camp competition which rewards participants with prizes for meeting fitness goals. An iPod Nano was the grand prize for Atlanta Public Schools students completing a recent fitness session. Watch for more on FitWit \u00bb . Students who are motivated to get in shape but not involved in an organized sports team are selected as contestants. Participants' fitness levels are assessed at the beginning and end of the program. Each week, volunteers lead three 60-minute sessions that include fitness instruction and physical health education. In addition, the participants are assigned two home workouts to be performed between sessions. \"After six weeks, all participants have an increased total fitness ability. We averaged over 40 percent improvement in total fitness in our first program last spring. It's common to have a participant double their fitness ability,\" Thoele said. \"A lot of these kids don't know how to work out, or that they even have the capacity to work out. They gain an appreciation for pushing their limits, and when that happens, we see a tremendous boost in their self-confidence,\" he said. The need for increased fitness across the country is striking. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17.6 percent of U.S. teenagers were obese in 2006 -- more than triple the rate in 1980. Obesity puts the teens at increased risk for heart disease, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems, the CDC says. \"Success for us is when a kid is thinking about fitness outside of the program, because they enjoy how they feel when they're in better shape,\" Thoele said. \"Our first winner, Raquel, told us that she continued to come because she just felt better. She had incredible numbers as well. She was not able to perform even one sit-up at the start of the program and did 21 in our final assessments. She also shed more than 90 seconds off her mile time.\" \"Since I've been here, I've been eating healthy,\" one FitWit participant said. \"I have been watching what I eat and drink. I drink three cups of water every day. And I exercise more often. I don't spend too much time inside my home anymore.\"","highlights":"FitWit's program is a six-week after-school boot camp competition .\nCDC data shows childhood obesity is a huge problem in the U.S.\nProgram rewards participants with prizes for meeting fitness goals .","id":"582cdda9410ea4f6a3508d98bc06df3cf3a74e0f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Austrian man who participated in a Nazi massacre of Jews during World War II and later gained U.S. citizenship has been deported to Austria, U.S. officials said. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp just north of Berlin where the U.S. says Krumpf worked as an SS guard. Josias Krumpf, 83, lived for years after the war in Racine, Wisconsin. The United States revoked his citizenship in 2005 after the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice sought to denaturalize him. Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita Glavin announced Krumpf's deportation Thursday. It was not clear when he arrived in Austria, and representatives of the Austrian Justice Ministry were not immediately available for comment. \"His court-ordered removal from the United States to Austria is another milestone in the government's long-running effort to ensure that individuals who participated in crimes against humanity do not find sanctuary in this country,\" Glavin said. The United States removed Krumpf because of his participation in that and other Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution during the war, Glavin said. Krumpf admits standing watch on November 3, 1943, as SS guards at the Trawniki Labor Camp in Poland shot and killed 8,000 Jews, including women and 400 children, in pits. Glavin said Krumpf said he had orders to shoot any prisoners who survived. Krumpf also served as an SS guard at the Nazi-run Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany and at slave labor sites in Nazi-occupied France, where prisoners under his watch built launching platforms for German missile attacks on England, Glavin said. The November 1943 shooting was part of a larger Nazi operation called \"Aktion Erntefest,\" or \"Operation Harvest Festival,\" that led to the deaths of 42,000 Jews at three camps in eastern Poland in two days, the Justice Department said. At Trawniki, Krumpf said, he was assigned to watch for victims who were still \"halfway alive\" or \"convulsing\" and prevent their escape by shooting them to death, the Justice Department said. Krumpf, who was born in Serbia, immigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a U.S. citizen in 1964. His removal to Austria is part of an effort by several U.S. government departments and law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute participants in Nazi crimes of persecution who live in the United States, the Justice Department said. The Criminal Division's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) started the operation in 1979 and has since won cases against 107 alleged Nazi criminals, the Justice Department said. The OSI also has a watch list for World War II war criminals that has prevented the entry of more than 180 people into the United States, the Justice Department said.","highlights":"Josias Krumpf lived for years in Wisconsin before being deported to Austria .\nThe 83 year old admits he shot survivors during a masscare in Poland in 1943 .\nThe U.S. revoked his citizenship in 2005, deported him to Austria this week .\nHis removal is part of a U.S. effort to identify and prosecute Nazi war criminals .","id":"0abe5e19e4383b165f2569c7975d76a562c1d1e6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- We're in Hollywood on this month's CNN Business Traveller where we look at style on the road. As travelers of the world, we want to express our own individuality, we want to fit in and look the part but at the same time stand out. Hollywood is the perfect place to look get to grips with style because in this city - image is everything. Watch the show. \u00bb . Why style matters . If we live in a particular way, we want the same when we travel; and the airline and hotel industry are more in tune with what we want than ever before. We look at why style matters on the road and in the air. Attire to suit every occasion . We get some golden rules from Hollywood stylist Negar Ali who shows Richard Quest how to co-ordinate and downsize his wardrobe, and a secret weapon - equivalent to the 'little black dress'. Bags of style . Your suitcase travels as much as you do and is often the next thing people look at after your clothes. For some, making a statement with their luggage is important, for others functionality is the key. Two business travelers road test some stylish pieces whilst on their business trip to Maastricht. Smart Traveller . This month's Smart Traveller focuses on tagging services that reunites lost property with the owner. Richard Quest found out that it really does work when he left his Treo PDA in the back of a New York taxi and only realized he'd lost it when he got an email from Zreturn once in LA. Sunrise to Sunset . Award-winning documentary maker Morgan Neville shows us round his hometown -- giving us ideas on how to enjoy our spare time in LA from Sunrise to Sunset. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN goes to Hollywood to get to grips with traveling in style .\nTop Hollywood stylist shares tips on how to co-ordinate a wardrobe on the road .\nTwo business travelers road test some stylish luggage on a trip to Malta .","id":"b8a786f75da66089e93689a7771429dd23d1db35"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- More than 11,500 public servants have been suspended or fined for corruption during the past two years, the Mexican government said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, at right, spoke at the National Public Security Session last month. \"We have made an important effort to oversee the good use of public funds,\" said President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday. \"We have broken up networks of corruption in Pemex [the state-owned oil company], ... in customs or in areas linked to construction of public works.\" Some 40 agents of the attorney general and of the secretary of security also are under investigation for presumed ties to drug cartels. Some are accused of receiving money from the narcotraffickers in exchange for information. Among them is the nation's former anti-drug czar, Noe Ramirez, who is accused of receiving $500,000 per month for passing information to the Pacific Cartel. Although organized crime has penetrated state institutions charged with fighting crime, Calderon said he had a program intended to work on that. Watch what Mexico is grappling with \u00bb . \"With Operation Cleanup, we will continue acting against police, agents, public ministers or any servant implicated in corruption who may have crossed over the line to crime.\" The problem extends beyond bureaucracy. A poll by the organization International Transparency shows that Mexico is one of the emerging countries where businesses are more open to paying bribes. In all, 38 percent of Mexican businesses surveyed said they tended to use relationships with friends or relatives to obtain public contracts, and 32 percent said they had bribed politicians and government workers. \"Clearly, this lends itself to corruption,\" said Jose Claudio Trevino, a senior manager with Ernst & Young in Mexico. Corruption is rampant in the private sector, particularly in deals that involve buying or selling, he said. According to official studies, more than 100 million acts of corruption are committed in the country each year, and the typical family spends the equivalent of 25 percent of its income on bribes.","highlights":"International Transparency poll: Businesses in Mexico more open to paying bribes .\nOrganized crime has penetrated state institutions charged with fighting crime .\nSome 40 government agents under investigation for presumed ties to drug cartels .","id":"2118d3c37b4742e24dbf7c0da3745f95c7317bfa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The former Utah state trooper suspected in a series of roadway shootings earlier this week died Wednesday, the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office said. CNN affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City, Utah, provided this file photo of the Dallas suspect, Brian Smith. Police said Tuesday that Brian Smith attempted suicide after Monday's shootings. Smith was brought to a local hospital in serious condition, officials said . At 7 p.m. Wednesday Smith died at Parkland Hospital, the medical examiner's office said. An autopsy is slated for Thursday. Two people were killed in the shootings along a three-mile stretch on and near the LBJ Freeway, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Dallas. Police used ballistic tests to link Smith, a 12-year veteran of the Utah state police, to three of the four shootings, Dallas Police Lt. Craig Miller said Tuesday. Miller said Smith was a suspect in both nonfatal shootings and one of the fatal shootings. He said it was unclear if Smith was a suspect in the fatal shooting that occurred first. The first attack occurred in the city of Garland at about 5:41 p.m. Victim Jorge Lopez, 20, was sitting in his Nissan at a traffic light in Garland when a man in a pickup pulled alongside him and fired shots into his car, killing him, Officer Joe Harn of the Garland police said. A few minutes later and two miles away on the LBJ Freeway, a gunman fired at two tractor-trailers. While one driver escaped injuries, William Scott Miller, 42, of Frankfort, Kentucky, was shot to death behind the wheel of a United Van Lines truck, police said. \"He was going to be traveling home,\" Lt. Miller said. \"He was about to park his rig. He was going to get on a plane to fly to be with his wife and children for the Christmas season and then come back to this location.\" Miller called the truck driver a hero because he was able to control his rig before he died -- preventing other motorists from being hurt. The fourth attack came a mile west on LBJ Freeway, where gunfire shattered the windshield of another tractor-trailer. The bullets missed the driver, but flying glass caused minor cuts, police said. Smith, 37, left his trooper job in Utah after he was caught abusing alcohol and drugs, CNN affiliate WFAA reported, citing an official report. The sergeant began using drugs and alcohol after his patrol car was rear-ended while he was writing a ticket, according to the report by Utah Peace Officers Standards and Training. He moved to Texas shortly afterward, the station said. Harn told WFAA that Smith's wife had phoned police Monday to say her husband was suicidal and driving around with a gun. Police were able to locate him using cell phone transmission towers. A three-hour stand-off followed, ending when Smith shot himself in the head, Harn said.","highlights":"Police say ex-Utah officer was tied to at least three of four Dallas shootings .\nPolice: Brian Smith was hospitalized in serious condition after a suicide attempt .\nTwo drivers were shot and killed, another wounded in Dallas rush hour Monday .","id":"4d887bb48ab40fa16b8990c51a25d3071a4a6c6b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When David Green, 22, graduated from Western Washington University in December, he applied for dozens of jobs, from fast food to secretarial positions -- sending out more than 50 resumes and scoring only two interviews in the process. The organization Reach to Teach has seen a 100 percent increase in applications to teach English in Asia. \"It was horrible. I couldn't find anything,\" said Green, a history and social studies major. With few employment options in his hometown of Bellingham, Washington, Green applied to teach English in a South Korean middle school through Reach to Teach, an organization that assists college graduates with finding teaching positions in Asia. Green, who counts trips to Canada as his only experience abroad, will be leaving for Seoul on March 20 for one year. \"I am scared. I've only had one major breakdown so far, ... but I'm really excited about being on my own ... somewhere completely new where I know absolutely no one,\" he said. Like Green, many recent college graduates are searching for alternatives to jumping into the job market in the face of the recession. An increasing number of young Americans are searching out paid positions teaching English in countries like South Korea, Japan, China and Spain as a means to expand their horizons and weather the economic doldrums. Mitch Gordon, director of school relations for Reach to Teach, said his organization has seen more than a 100 percent increase in applications in the last six months, with 3,784 applicants compared to 1,488 during the same six-month period last year. The application system doesn't track U.S. applicants separately, but Gordon estimates more than 70 percent are from the United States. The program also has seen a significant increase in current teachers extending their teaching contracts abroad for an extra year. Gordon said he believes the recession is the primary reason for the steady increase in applicants, and the increase has made the program more competitive. \"We have more people for the same number of positions,\" he said. \"We're able to raise our standards a little bit more.\" Japan's JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program also has recorded a jump in applicants. For 2009 positions, the Japanese government-sponsored program has received 15 percent more U.S. applications than last year, according to program coordinator Joelle Williams. The program attributes the jump in part to the economic situation and the tough job market in the United States. JET officials also noticed that more applications arrived farther in advance of the deadline this year. 'Taking control of my own life' Ayana Hosten, a spring 2008 graduate of Claremont McKenna College, has been working as an English teaching assistant in Madrid, Spain, since February through a program organized by the Ministry of Education of Spain. Her contract is ending in June and she is already looking to extend her stay for another year. Spain's Ministry of Education has announced more than 1,200 openings for U.S. and Canadian \"cultural ambassadors\" for the 2009-2010 school year. Grants provide the teaching assistants with about $900 a month for the eight-month stay. Teachers are responsible for their own lodging and transportation costs, and applicants should have a functional knowledge of Spanish. For Hosten, 22, going to Spain was a way to escape a rough job market that left her without a full-time job between graduating and applying for the teaching program. \"After being unemployed for three months, it really started to affect me emotionally, which was something I was not prepared for,\" Hosten said in an e-mail. \"Going to Spain was me taking control of my own life and pretty much just wiping my hands of the financial crisis.\" Travis Lee, a University of Tennessee alumnus who is in a teaching program sponsored by a university in Wuhan, China, began teaching English in September 2008, originally intending to stay for one year. \"Now I'm thinking of extending my stay for another semester or full year, and if I really like it and can't find a job in America, who knows?\" Lee said in an e-mail. He said the economy and the tight job market have been a big influence in his consideration to stay in China. Trying another path . For many recent graduates, working abroad is becoming a more secure option than searching for a job in the United States. Most teaching programs in other countries will provide teachers with a salary and health insurance, and some programs in Asia will even provide free housing, said Jake Hanin, a teach abroad program coordinator for the Council on International Education Exchange, who also has noticed an increase in applications. For programs in Asia, fluency in English is usually the most important qualification for teaching jobs, and many do not require applicants to have previous teaching experience, Hanin said. Lee's salary in China is approximately $555 per month, which he says is more than enough to live comfortably in Wuhan. The university also provides him with a rent-free apartment and pays his electric bill. \"We make twice what a Chinese teacher with a bachelor's makes and we do half the work,\" Lee said in an e-mail. But for Lee and many other recent graduates, working abroad is primarily about having once-in-a-lifetime experiences in a completely different culture. \"You have plenty of time to get a career, start a family, and follow that path,\" Lee said. \"Why not try another path first? What have you got to lose?\" CNN's Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.","highlights":"Economy is prompting some recent grads to delay entering U.S. workforce .\nReach to Teach applications are up 100 percent from last year .\nJapan's JET program receives 15 percent more U.S. applications .","id":"584eb6771a6a6d8069a8e22b55a121e7ece276af"} -{"article":"SHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- In between selling tickets and greeting customers, Min Min turned his curvy 6-feet-tall frame to survey the spacious dance hall and revealed he is no ordinary doorman at this extraordinary place. Min Min hosts a drag show in Shanghai while not manning a ballroom dance hall for older gay men. \"When I first started this, it was only a dozen or so of us,\" reminisced the former factory worker-turned-drag queen. \"Now 300 people or more come each night.\" Welcome to Lai Lai Dance Hall, arguably the only entertainment venue for older gay men in Shanghai, if not the whole of China. Tucked away in a rundown neighborhood in the city's northeast, Lai Lai sits atop a public bathhouse, and features cracked wooden floors and a primitive sound system. Its location and facilities, however, belie its prominence in a community that thrives almost entirely underground. Every weekend, men flock here to unleash their ballroom dancing skill as well as their true identities for three treasured hours. Lai Lai's \"gay nights\" are only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Casually dressed in jeans and sneakers, men of various ages -- but mostly in their 40's and upwards -- and shapes filled the dimly lit dance floor one recent evening. They waltzed, jitterbugged and rumbaed in pairs to the nostalgic Mandarin tunes churned out by a live band on the small stage. \"You won't see this anywhere else,\" said Min, organizer of this regular gathering, himself a middle-aged gay man whose dual passions lie in ballroom dancing and performing in drag. On this Sunday night, however, he was out of drag, donning a sweater and cargo pants. \"I don't really do this for the money -- it's just great fun.\" Patrons pay a mere 5 yuan (70 U.S. cents) to enter and enjoy cheap drinks -- a bottle of beer costs just 3 yuan. Observing from the sidelines, one of Min's fellow drag queens -- known as Teacher Zhang -- noted most older gay men don't feel comfortable going to the more expensive bars or clubs frequented by the younger generation. \"It's a totally different culture and environment in those places, while everyone fits right in here,\" said the 58-year-old former soldier and retired school administrator. \"It's a rare outlet for people to relax, to find friends or sex.\" Zhang's personal story mirrors those of many patrons at Lai Lai. Realizing he was gay at an early age, Zhang -- like many gay men in China -- married a woman because of family and social pressure. He is expecting to become a grandfather this autumn. \"My wife and my son have suspicions about me, but it's always going to be a question mark in their minds,\" Zhang said. \"They have seen me perform folk dance in drag, but I will never let them see me in an intimate situation with another man.\" Unlike many among Lai Lai's largely blue-collar clientele, Zhang said success in running his own catering business has injected freedom and flexibility into his closeted life. \"I bought a big duplex for my wife, and I told her I would stay in the old apartment to concentrate on work,\" Zhang said. \"Chinese women at her age are very pragmatic -- they are satisfied as long as you take good care of the family.\" Taking precautions . Family issues aside, activists have pointed to inconsistencies in government policy to explain older gay men's reluctance to come out. Although homosexuality is not illegal in China and has been removed from the country's list of officially recognized mental disorders since 2001, it remains a taboo topic in the state-run media. Gay venues have popped up in major cities across China in recent years, but the authorities sometimes shut them down during politically sensitive times. The upcoming Olympics appears to be one such occasion, amid reports of a series of recent police raids on gay clubs, saunas and cruising spots in Beijing and Shanghai. Activists have voiced their worries about a new crackdown aimed at \"cleaning up\" the country ahead of the Summer Games in August. Both Zhang and Min said they will keep a low profile and be even more cautious about staging drag shows in the next few months. As an extra precaution, they requested their real names not published and Min also insisted no pictures be taken at Lai Lai. For now the dance routines continue and have attracted new fans like Ray Mahoney, an American volunteer with a local AIDS-prevention organization. Mahoney, 50, has been visiting Lai Lai with fellow volunteers to hand out free condoms and safe-sex literature. While he loves the uniquely romantic dance scene, Mahoney emphasized that he has an urgent message for Chinese gay men of his age group. He said many people in this generation, because of their educational and social background, have never used a condom before -- either with their wives or with their male sex partners. \"I had three friends in the U.S. die in the 1980's of AIDS,\" Mahoney said. \"The people at Lai Lai don't realize AIDS is really close to them and it's spreading quickly in the gay community here.\" Acknowledging the rising HIV-infection rate among gay men, Chinese health officials have quietly started their own outreach program, which calls for sending trained staff to gay venues nationwide to promote AIDS awareness and encourage voluntary testing. Although he has welcomed the volunteers and admires Mahoney's dedication, Min still focuses his attention on dancing. He is even prepared to set his sights on an alternative \"Olympic\" event that includes ballroom dancing as a competitive sport. \"In the future we might,\" Min responded when asked if he and other Lai Lai regulars would join the Gay Games -- the gay answer to the Olympics -- next to be held in 2010 in Cologne, Germany. \"We probably won't win,\" he said with a laugh. \"But I bet we could finish in 6th place!\" Steven Jiang is a Beijing-based freelance writer and former CNN producer.","highlights":"Old dance hall one of few underground gay clubs in Shanghai for older generation .\nCaters for a different generation who enjoy ballroom dancing and drag acts .\nHomosexuality is not illegal in China, but culturally difficult for older men to come out .\nMany fear a crackdown on gay clubs in the lead up to the Olympics .","id":"d4f4822560645bf316d7e3e4c375b0543e907bfc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man sought in the slayings of a woman and her four young children in Oklahoma was arrested Tuesday night after a car chase in Texas, authorities said. Joshua Steven Durcho was arrested Tuesday after a car chase with police. Joshua Steven Durcho was arrested in Waco, Texas, after a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper tried to stop the car Durcho was driving because the trooper suspected a drunk driver, according to Erin Mangrum of the Canadian County, Oklahoma, sheriff's office. The trooper checked the vehicle tag on the car and it matched the tag being sought by Oklahoma police, Mangrum said. Mangrum said Durcho's car sped off, but he later wrecked the vehicle, and Durcho was taken into custody. Durcho suffered minor injuries in the accident, Mangrum said. Officers found the bodies of Summer Rust, 25, and her children Monday in their apartment in El Reno, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. Rust's daughter Evynn was 3, son Teagin was 4, and daughters Autumn and Kirsten were both 7. Durcho is believed to have taken the slain woman's car, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. CNN affilate KOCO reported that Durcho had been spotted Monday night in Clinton, Oklahoma. His image was captured by surveillance cameras, the affiliate said, quoting police. Authorities would not reveal how Rust and her children were killed, pending the outcome of autopsies. Rust's mother, Susan Rust of Carson City, Nevada, said her daughter had been shot, but she did not know how her grandchildren had been killed. Watch authorities name Durcho as the suspect \u00bb . Susan Rust said her daughter was loving and outgoing but tended to get involved with the wrong men. Durcho was unemployed and had been living with Summer Rust and her children, the mother said. Police were asked to check up on the family because Rust and Durcho had had a fight, she said. Summer Rust attended Redlands Community College in El Reno, where she majored in legal assistant training, according to school officials. Rust's mother said she was retraining after losing her job in casino security several months ago. \"Summer was very bright, very outgoing, had a positive attitude and was very determined to complete her education,\" Julie Lamb of the college told CNN Radio. Lamb heads a student support program on campus. The school brought in grief counselors Tuesday to help students affected by the killings. Domestic violence groups also reached out to the students. A friend posting online described Summer Rust as \"fun-loving\" and \"a little crazy kind of person\" who was also very smart. \"Her children were beautiful, funny and always cheerful and sometimes a little wild. They were a great bunch of kids and they loved each other very much. They were proud of their mom for going back to school,\" the friend said. \"She was going to make a better life for her family. I can't believe something like this could happen to her and the kids. ... I will miss her silliness and her smile. I will miss them all.\"","highlights":"NEW: Joshua Steven Durcho arrested after police chase in Texas .\nDurcho suspected in deaths of woman, four kids in El Reno, Oklahoma .\nFriends and relatives describe victim Summer Rust as bright, outgoing .","id":"7ad8d83e1eacc35918f610161e403f5167aee8b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. Masters -- April 9-12, 2009 . 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson puts the green jacket on 2008 winner Trevor Immelman. While The Open Championship at St Andrews, Scotland may rival it for history, few would argue that the U.S. Masters tournament is unrivalled in terms of beauty and exclusivity. Played at the prestigious Augusta National Golf club in the city of Augusta, Georgia, the first \"major\" of the golfing year is a strictly invitational event controlled by the club itself. The top 50 golfers in the official world rankings are all guaranteed an invite. The dramatic azalea-draped course -- the brainchild of golfing great Bobby Jones -- provides a tough test for the world's elite golfers, particularly since it has been lengthened or \"Tiger-proofed\" in recent years. However the relatively short 12th hole, named Golden Bell, is arguably the most challenging. Jack Nicklaus once called it \"the hardest tournament hole in golf,\" due to the fact that its perilously narrow green is protected in front by Rae's Creek, with two sand traps behind it. Misjudge the wind or get your club selection wrong and the ball will most likely end up in the water. Since Horton Smith won the inaugural Masters title in 1934, the tournament has become as famous for its traditions as it has for the quality of golf on show. Winners are presented with a green jacket by the defending champion -- which they are obliged to return to the clubhouse the following year. Nicklaus, nicknamed the \"Golden Bear,\" became the first golfer to successfully defend his green jacket. He also holds the record for the most titles won at Augusta with six -- his last coming in 1986 at the age of 46. American players currently dominate the competition, following a period in the 1980s and 1990s which saw European players, including Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo, win 10 titles in 17 years. Current world number one Tiger Woods has won four times at Augusta since 1997, while compatriot and rival for top spot, Phil Mickelson, won in 2004 and 2006. South Africa's Trevor Immelman is the current owner of the coveted green jacket. 2008 season in pictures \u00bb . U.S. Open - June 15-21, 2009 . Tiger Woods and his caddie walk up to the 18th green on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in 2002. The second of the four major tournaments, the U.S. Open is hosted by the United States Golf Association (USGA). Since its inaugural event in 1895 at the Newport Golf and Country Club, the event has been staged at a number of different courses. What's your favorite tournament? It wasn't until 1913 that the U.S. Open championship really caught the imagination when a young American amateur, Francis Ouimet, stunned the golf world by defeating famous English professionals, Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, in a playoff. The format of the tournament has changed several times. The USGA extended the championship to 72 holes in 1898, with 36 holes played on each of two days. In 1926, the format was changed to 18 holes played each of two days, then 36 holes on the third day. In 1965, the present format of four 18-hole daily rounds was implemented for the first time. Over the years, much has been made of the way U.S. Open courses have been set up, with incredibly tough pin positions and rough thick enough to require a compass to navigate through. \"Sometimes the players feel [the USGA] has gotten a little close to the edge on some holes,\" defending champion Retief Goosen told the BBC at Pinehurst, North Carolina in 2005. Two years later, when Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania hosted the tournament, World Golf.com quoted Tiger Woods as saying \"a 10-handicapper didn't stand a chance at breaking 100\" on a course that boasts over 200 deep bunkers. Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Willie Anderson and Hale Irwin have all triumphed at the U.S. Open on four occasions, while Woods, who won last year's event at Torrey Pines following a dramatic playoff victory over Rocco Mediate, counts three so far among his haul of 14 major titles. The U.S. Open is the only major that requires participants to play-off over 18 holes. This year's event at Bethpage State Park's Black Course in Farmingdale, New York should be familiar to Woods, as he won here in 2002. At 7,214-yards, the municipally-owned Bethpage was the longest U.S. Open course in history. The aptly-named Black Course even carries a warning sign about its difficulty on the first tee. In 2002, American Hale Irwin missed the cut for only the sixth time in 33 Open starts after two torrid rounds of 82 and 81. \"They can go out and write a new book and title it, 'Massacre at ... wherever the heck we are,\" U.S. Open.com quoted him as saying. It remains to be seen whether the recently-injured Tiger can tame the course once again. Watch more about Woods' comeback \u00bb . The Open Championship -- July 16-19, 2009 . Padraig Harrington (right) and Greg Norman line up putts during the 2008 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Organized by the R&A, which takes its name from Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, The (British) Open Championship is the oldest of the four major tournaments. It is also the only one held outside of the United States. First held in October, 1860, The Open was mostly played in Scotland during its early years. Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire was the birthplace of the event, which saw just eight players compete in its inaugural year. A year later the tournament was declared open to the whole world and the event has been known simply as \"The Open\" ever since. Since the early days, the R&A has established a rota of British seaside \"links\" courses to host the event. The major difference between a links course and a parkland course -- such as Augusta -- is that it is far less manufactured. Links courses are constructed out of the sandy, windswept coastal terrain, with few \"man-made\" additions. Players are faced with thick rough, narrow undulating fairways that snake around dunes, and lightening quick greens. There are far fewer trees and water hazards. When the wind gusts these courses demand the highest level of skill and imagination. This year's tournament will be held on the famous Ailsa course at Turnberry on the west coast of Scotland. With its dramatic views and elevated cliff-top holes, the 7,200 yard course previously hosted The Open in 1977, 1986, 1994. The winning aggregate scores in 1977 and 1994 rank among the lowest recorded in Open history, largely because the wind wasn't blowing as it can. Current Open champion Padraig Harrington will arrive at Turnberry looking to win the tournament for the third time in as many years. At Carnoustie in 2007, Harrington became the first Irishman to win The Open since Fred Daly in 1947. He defended his title the following year at Royal Birkdale, finishing four strokes ahead of England's Ian Poulter. Harrington has a long way to go before matching the great Harry Vardon's record of six Open victories between 1896 and 1914. Surprisingly, U.S. golfers -- more used to parkland courses -- have enjoyed great success in the competition in recent years, with 10 wins in 12 years. Tiger Woods, who missed out through injury last year, lifted the Claret Jug in 2000, 2005 and 2006. U.S. PGA Championship -- August 10-16, 2009 . Harrington pumps his fist as he sinks a putt to win the 2008 U.S. PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. The final major of the year, The PGA Championship is organized by the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA of America) and is also held at a different course each year. The brainchild of New York salesman Rodman Wannamaker, the first PGA Championship was held at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York in 1916 -- the same year the PGA of America was founded. The winners' trophy is named after him. The competition, which was only switched from a matchplay to a strokeplay format in 1958, does not allow amateurs to compete. It always attracts a world class field, in addition to a number of ordinary club professionals in the United States who can qualify through a national tournament. This year's tournament will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, the scene of Rich Beem's defeat of a charging Tiger Woods in 2002. Beem, an unknown club professional who also sold car stereos, held off Woods by recording birdies in his final four holes for a 68 that gave him victory by just one shot. The 7,149-yard course is ranked among the top courses in the United States, according to the PGA. Its signature 16th hole features a wide open fairway that narrows into a long peninsula featuring an elevated green protected by Lake Hazeltine. This year Padraig Harrington will attempt to defend the trophy, a year after he pulled off a dramatic victory over Spain's Sergio Garcia at Oakland Hills. If he succeeds he will become only the second man -- after Tiger Woods -- to be back-to-back PGA Champion. However, both men lag behind Jack Nicklaus, who won a record-equaling fifth U.S.PGA title in 1980 at Oak Hill, Rochester -- the hometown of Walter Hagen, the player whose record Nicklaus tied.","highlights":"U.S. Masters is always held at prestigious Augusta National, Georgia, U.S.\n2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park's Black Course in Farmingdale, NY .\nOpen Championship is the only major held outside the United States .\nU.S. PGA Championship is only major not open to amateur golfers .","id":"c44cff38576542d432bdfa9b7ca9d2a27fd29b64"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Ever wonder what goes into the making of that round, black, rubber thing that holds air, we refer to as a tire? To the casual observer all tires look the same, but there's a lot more to it than meets the eye ... There are many different tire designs and they may contain up to 200 raw materials. Modern tire construction has allowed for a degree of handling, ride comfort, traction, extended treadwear and fuel economy that far exceeds the tires of just a few years ago. Today there are tire designs that contain up to 200 raw materials, as well as complex architecture of steel belts, textile piles and computer designed tread patterns, which deliver maximum traction under all conditions. Each component of a tire is designed to perform its own function and to work together with the rest of the components. For instance, the belt system's job is to provide stability to the tread area, keep the tread grooves open, and work as a unit with the sidewalls to provide stability in cornering and handling. Kind of reminds me of the old song, \"The toe bone's connected to the foot bone\" well ... you get the picture, right? The major component in tires is rubber. How did this substance find its way into the American automobile tire? As with most inventions, this is a fascinating story. Rubber by itself is a gooey substance that is extremely sensitive to temperature. Back in the early 1830's \"rubber fever\" was the craze, and it ended as quickly as it started. At first, everybody wanted things made of this new waterproof gum from Brazil, and factories sprung up to meet the demand. Then abruptly, the public became fed up with the messy stuff that froze bone-hard in winter and turned glue-like in summer. Not one of the young rubber companies survived as long as five years. Investors lost millions and everyone agreed that rubber had seen its hay-day in America. AOL Autos: Best car deals of the month . Then Charles Goodyear stepped up to the plate. Through extensive experimentation and persistence, Goodyear found that rubber could be stabilized and formed into a useful compound by adding sulfur and applying heat. He found that steam under pressure, applied to the compound for 4 to 6 hours at about 270 degrees Fahrenheit, gave him the most uniform results. This was the beginning of rubber compounds! AOL Autos: Most popular sedans . Rubber compounding is like mixing a cake. Different ingredients are mixed together at different degrees to produce rubber with specific characteristics. Some rubber compounds are stickier for better traction when racing. Some compounds are much harder for heavy-duty work in construction or with heavy equipment. All-season rubber for all-season tires is rubber that doesn't freeze below thirty-two degrees, allowing for movement of the tread in the cold weather so it will grip and give maximum traction in all weather. AOL Autos: Best-selling hybrid cars . Ever wonder how a steel belted radial tire is constructed? Check this out. 1. First comes the construction of the casing. This is the body (or carcass) of the tire ... the \"foundation\" upon which everything is built. The casing is made up of a series of cords (most typically polyester) which are combined to form layers or piles. These layers are connected to two circular strands of steel called beads. Then the inner liner is added, serving as the air seal. Once the casing is formed, everything else is added to make up the tire. AOL Autos: Consumer reports picks best used luxury cars . 2. Next comes the steel belt. This is a belt made up of woven steel strands that cover the casing of the tire and is located directly under the tread. The steel belt adds strength and durability, aids in keeping the tread grooves open for maximum traction, and protects the casing against impacts and punctures. On high performance tires an extra belt is usually added for strength; this is a nylon overlay that is wrapped around the whole steel belt package. As the tire rolls faster it heats up. The nylon in turn heats up and tends to shrink, counteracting the natural tendency of centrifugal force to throw the whole thing apart at high speeds. AOL Autos: Cars with best Blue Book resale value . 3. Finally, the tread is added. Remember that this rubber compound is a special mix for a specific application and varies depending on the function of the tire. In this day and age, computers play a big role in the tread designs. Tread designs are tested for traction in \"virtual reality\" before they are molded into the rubber. While tread designs vary greatly, there are consistent elements present in all tread patterns. The tread block grips at its leading and trailing edge. Within each block, sipes are often molded or cut to provide additional traction. These sipes segment the block and allow for movement of each individual block so that when it comes in contact with the pavement, it opens and closes causing a squeegee (or pumping) action, cleaning the road surface as it rolls along. The grooves built into the tread pattern are designed to channel away weather elements such as water, snow, slush, and mud. To illustrate how a tread design channels away water, just pour water over the tread of the tire and watch the water directed right out of the sides of the tire. On the outside edges of the tires \"shoulder lugs\" are molded into the tread. These heavy segments provide protection as well as additional traction during hard cornering. A final note and credit to Charles Goodyear. He didn't just happen upon this discovery of rubber compounding and the use of heat. Goodyear spent five miserable years in poverty trying to perfect his idea. Then one day, it happened... the great discovery came in the winter of 1839. As stated earlier, Goodyear was using sulfur in his experiments. Although Goodyear himself has left the details in doubt, the most persistent story goes as follows. One February day, Goodyear wandered into Woburn's general store to show off his latest gum-and-sulfur formula. Snickers rose from the cracker-barrel forum, and the usually mild-mannered little inventor got excited and waved his sticky fistful of gum in the air. It flew from his fingers and landed on the sizzling-hot potbellied stove. When he bent to scrape it off, he found that instead of melting like molasses, it had charred like leather. And around the charred area was a dry, springy brown rim -- \"gum elastic\" still, but so remarkably altered that it was virtually a new substance. He had made weatherproof rubber! This discovery is often cited as one of history's most celebrated \"accidents.\" Goodyear stoutly denied that. Like Newton's falling apple, he maintained, the hot stove incident held meaning only for the man \"whose mind was prepared to draw an inference.\" That meant, he added simply, the one who had \"applied himself most perseveringly to the subject.\" Thanks for your perseverance Charlie. Tom Torbjornsen is a veteran of 37 years in the auto service industry, an automotive journalist registered with IMPA.","highlights":"Writer credits Charles Goodyear for developing rubber compounds .\nTires may be constructed from 200 raw materials .\nTire casings are made up of a series of cords, which form layers .\nTread designs are first tested for traction in \"virtual reality\"","id":"f632ee10f68aa72a580e0de5eebd65d074d08bd4"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Early indications show no problems with the landing gear, tires or brakes on the Continental Airlines jet that veered off a runway at Denver International Airport in Colorado, despite earlier reports. The wreckage of the Continental Airlines plane sits in a ravine December 22 in Denver, Colorado. \"There's no indication from the physical examination on the scene of brake problems at this time,\" said Robert Sumwalt, a National Transportation Safety Board member leading the investigation team. Saturday's accident injured more than three dozen people, including the captain who piloted the plane. Sumwalt said preliminary evidence indicated no problems with the Boeing 737's landing gear, tires or engines before the jet ran off the runway into a 40-foot-deep ravine during its take-off roll. Earlier Monday, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that early indications suggested that a problem with the landing gear, tire or brakes may have caused the accident. The source said the problem could have caused a wheel to lock up or some other situation that would have made the plane veer off as it headed down the runway. Watch what NTSB official has to say about flight recorders \u00bb . \"The brakes showed no leaks, no locked brakes,\" Sumwalt told reporters late Monday, adding that the brake pads \"looked good.\" He said tire marks indicate that all four main landing gear were inflated. The weather was clear, and no obstacles were on the runway, he said. The accident injured 38 people, most from bruises and broken bones as frightened passengers tried to flee a fire that broke out on board Flight 1404. No fatalities were reported. Sumwalt said the captain, an 11-year veteran of Continental, was injured in the accident and \"not physically able\" to be interviewed yet. But an investigator interviewed the first officer, who told them that the initial take-off roll and taxi was normal. The the co-pilot \"noticed a deviation from the center line of the runway and a sudden left turn,\" Sumwalt said. An off-duty crew that flew the aircraft into Denver before the Saturday flight to Houston was also on board. The first officer from that crew said there was \"absolutely no problem with the aircraft\" during the previous flight. Sumwalt said the cockpit voice recorder \"shows nothing out of the ordinary\" during the preflight operations. He said the recording revealed that 41 seconds after the brakes were released, there were sounds of bumping and rattling. Four seconds later, a crew member called for a rejected takeoff. Flight 1404 was taking off about 6:18 p.m. Sumwalt said the plane reached a maximum speed of 119 knots (137 mph) before going into the ravine. Passengers on Sunday described the chaos inside the plane after the plane came to rest. Watch survivor describe crash on blog \u00bb . \"Some people were trying to get luggage from the top, the engine was on fire so I was worried, you know, about getting out of there,\" said Gabriel Trejos. \"And then we had another guy yelling, 'Oh the plane's gonna blow up! The plane's gonna explode!' \" Another passenger, Jeb Tilly, described the experience as \"incredibly violent.\" Watch first responders on the scene \u00bb . Trejos, who was traveling with his wife and baby, told CNN he sensed something was wrong with the plane before it took off. \"I heard something over the intercom before, you know, that they were having engine problems and shortly after that they said that everything's fine ... there's going to be an on-time flight.\" Continental spokeswoman Julie King, however, told CNN that she was unaware of any announcement of engine problems on board the flight. Sumwalt agreed, saying, \"I don't have any information, no one has come to us that they knew of a problem\" before the accident.","highlights":"NTSB says early evidence does not point to tires, brakes or landing gear .\nEarlier report from CNN source suggested a potential problem .\nCaptain was injured in accident and hasn't been interviewed yet .\nJet veered off runway into a 40-foot-deep ravine during its takeoff in Denver Saturday .","id":"add8cb82b40ae3b8d5dc62d586ed10a348954dcf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police digging for clues in the deaths of six people found in the New Mexico desert hope the identification of one set of bones will generate leads. An Albuquerque, New Mexico, police forensics team member digs last week at the burial site. The remains of Victoria Chavez and five other people were found in a 92-acre area housing development under construction just west of Albuquerque. Chavez was a prostitute and drug user who was last seen in 2003 and reported missing in 2004, Albuquerque police said. The six bodies were found after a woman walking her dog found a human bone two weeks ago and notified police, said John Walsh, Albuquerque police spokesman. Authorities have not yet identified the other five sets of bones but say they might find others. Attempting to piece together identities could take a long time because, they said, \"it's very difficult\" to determine cause of death from skeletal remains. \"We're going off of one remain so far,\" Walsh said. \"And that's all we've got at the moment. We've only got skeletal remains. \"This is a slow go,\" Walsh said. \"Things won't pop up in hours, likely in weeks.\" Chavez's remains were identified through dental records that her family provided when she was reported missing in 2004. It will be tougher to identify the others. For example, one had no dental work and another had no skull. The cause of Chavez's death was not known, but Walsh speculated that her death could be related to violent sex trade. He said police are looking at reports of missing prostitutes over the years and are trying to determine possible suspects. He said he hopes family members of those missing could help authorities. Police are trying to figure out how the bodies got there. They are investigating the possibility that one person put the bones there. \"At this stage, the best way I can describe it, we have a handful of theories,\" Walsh said. The names of two dead men have surfaced during the investigation of Chavez's death, Walsh said, confirming a news report. One was a pimp who died of natural causes. The other was killed by a pimp after he killed a prostitute, the report said. The last set of remains exhumed at the site was nine or 10 feet deep. Authorities were using heavy and light equipment and cadaver dogs to find bodies and clues. Investigators think there could be even more remains buried on the New Mexico site.","highlights":"NEW .\nOnly one body identified; she was a prostitute last seen in 2003 .\nThe bones of six bodies found in desert west of Albuquerque .\nAuthorities fear remains of even more bodies might be buried there .","id":"a6608069b26f03b21bfff528e66e26389de0d48c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A rat believed to be extinct for 11 million years, a spider with a foot-long legspan, and a hot pink cyanide-producing \"dragon millipede\" are among the thousand newly discovered species in the largely unexplored Mekong Delta region. The \"dragon millipede\" is among the 1,068 new species discovered in the Mekong Delta region. The region, including parts of Vietnam and five other countries, is home to 1,068 species found between 1997 and 2007, according to a World Wildlife Fund report released this week. Some of the creatures were not lurking in fertile floodplains or tropical foliage. A scientist visiting an outdoor restaurant was startled to see a Laotian rock rat among the nearby wildlife. The hairy, nocturnal, thick-tailed rat, which resembles a squirrel, had been thought for centuries to be extinct. \"There is a certain amount of shock because our scientists will sometimes see something that doesn't fit anything they know,\" said Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Fund's Mekong Program. \"They run through a catalogue of wildlife in their brain, asking themselves, 'Have I seen this?'\" Perhaps a more startling discovery than the rat was a bright green pit viper scientists spotted slithering through the rafters of a restaurant in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. The Fund dubbed the Mekong a \"biological treasure trove.\" The organization's report \"First Contact in the Greater Mekong\" says 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, four birds, four turtles, two salamanders and a toad were found. Scientists are still trying to determine if they have uncovered thousands of new invertebrate species. Scientists are discovering new species at a rate of two per week, said Chungyalpa, who said the reason for publishing the report now was twofold. \"We realized that we should highlight these discoveries in part because of the legacy of war and conflict in the region,\" she said. \"There's an urgency with the threat of development in the Mekong countries.\" A horned bovine found in 1991 living in the evergreen forests of the Annamite Mountains of Laos and Vietnam has not been found in recent years, she said. Timber development and mining industries are encroaching. There are 150 large hydropower dams that have been constructed along the Mekong river, and another 150 are slated to be built, according to the Fund. Dams that can trap and kill fish are at different stages of planning in the Greater Mekong. High variation in geography and climate zones that enabled species to flourish are now jeopardized by climate change, said Chungyalpa. War is always a threat in countries touched by the Mekong River, particularly Burma. Also known as Myanmar, the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia has been ravaged over the years by conflict, political instability and natural disaster. This summer, for example, the United Nations reported that as many as 100,000 people were killed by a cyclone that hit Myanmar. The country's ruling military junta blocked the outside world for weeks before allowing aid to flow into the region. There are cultural obstacles to protecting rare species, too. Many restaurants serve them as food. Restaurants often have rickety bamboo floors that one can look through to see cages filled with exotic animals, Chungyalpa says. The more exotic the animal, the more status it often bestows on the person who consumes it. \"Reports [like the WWF's] are important because these regions can be educated,\" said Maureen Aung-Thwin, the director of The Burma Project, which is funded by the George Soros Foundation and supports local Indonesian organizations working toward an open society. \"People are taking climate change more seriously and even the ruling junta have a forestry NGO. There are glimpses of hope,\" said Aung-Thwin. \"But it's also a situation where someone could step forward and say 'We don't need this' and cut it all down.\" WWF said it is working with governments and industry to plan the conservation of more than 231,000 square miles of forest and freshwater habitats that cross borders with all countries in the Greater Mekong.","highlights":"World Wildlife Fund documents new species of mammals, plants, lizards, fish .\n1,068 species were found between 1997 and 2007, according to WWF report .\nWWF calls the Mekong Delta region a \"treasure trove\" of rare creatures .","id":"d974467a5ac7dbca538ef994cdd49d511a24a2fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venice has suffered its worst flooding in 22 years, leaving some parts of the historic Italian city neck-deep in water, reports said Monday. A woman wades through high waters in Venice's Piazza San Marco. Water burst the banks of the coastal city's famed canals, leaving the landmark Piazza San Marco -- St Mark's Square -- under almost a meter of water at one point, news agency ANSA reported. Strong winds pushed waters to a high of 1.56 meters (5 feet 2 inches) at 10:45 a.m. local time, prompting the city government to issue warnings to the public, the agency said. The flood level began to drop soon afterwards, prompted by a change in the direction of the wind. Previous highs include 1.58 meters in 1986 and 1.66 meters in 1979, the news agency said. Watch more about the flooding \u00bb . Photographs showed people wading through inundated piazzas and waves lapping over waterside cafe tables. Venice, built around a network of canals and small islands, has for years been trying to tackle the problem of floods that have regularly blighted the city. In 2007, the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO warned Venice -- a designated World Heritage Site -- is under threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. See pictures of Venetians wading through flood waters. \u00bb . It said that unless the problem is tackled, Venice could be flooded daily and water levels would permanently rise by 54 centimeters in the city by the year 2100.","highlights":"Venice reportedly suffering one of its worst floods in 22 years .\nLandmark Piazza San Marco under almost a meter of water at one point .\nUNESCO has warned Venice at risk of high waters caused by climate change .","id":"cd95311ee776edc73f381acfc8ec7f3947710077"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Three British guards jumped overboard and were rescued from the water after battling in vain to prevent pirates hijacking a chemical tanker off the coast of Somalia. Three British security guards board a helicopter to be transferred to a Royal Navy vessel. The Liberian-flagged Biscaglia came under \"sustained and heavy attack\" early Friday morning, Nick Davis, Director of Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions (APMSS), said in a statement. The three APMSS-employed security guards -- all former British servicemen -- mounted \"sustained non-lethal resistance\" but were unable to stop the attackers seizing control of the ship, Davis said. The trio were airlifted to safety by a German naval helicopter and flown to a French frigate after the vessel summoned assistance from coalition warships. They were later transferred to a British Royal Navy ship. All three were unhurt, Davis said. \"I have spoken with my team leader on the phone and he informs me that the level of violence was significant and forced them reluctantly to leave the vessel after every effort was made to ensure the safety of the ships crew,\" Davis said. Pirates continued to shoot at the three in the water, Davis said. \"The hijacked vessel with pirates in control then attempted to run them down.\" The Biscaglia is managed by Singapore-based Ishima and owned by Winged Foot Shipping in the Marshall Islands and was crewed by 25 Indians and two Bangladeshis who are believed to be still onboard. The vessel is believed to be on its way to an anchorage in Puntland, northeastern Somalia, Davis said. iReport.com: Share your view from 'Inside Africa' Also Friday, pirates released the Greek ship MV Centauri, which was hijacked in September off the coast of Somalia, according to Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenya Seafarers Association. There was no immediate information about the 25 crew members on board the ship when it was taken. A multinational naval force including vessels from the U.S., NATO member states, Russia and India has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters seas near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, following a sharp increase in pirate attacks in the region. Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year. So far this year, pirates have attacked almost 100 vessels off the coast of Somalia coast and successfully hijacked nearly 40, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center. The most high-profile hijacking so far came earlier this month, when pirates seized a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of oil and a crew of 25, although that attack occurred outside the pirates' normal operational range, 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. Pirates are still holding the ship. Another vessel held since September is the Ukrainian MV Farina, which was carrying a cargo of weapons and tanks and a crew of 22. In an interview provided to CNN this week, a pirate leader claimed attacks on shipping would continue as long as life in Somalia remained desperate. \"The pirates are living between life and death,\" said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. \"Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything.\" The interview was conducted in August by journalists working for the Somali news organization, Garowe.","highlights":"3 security guards battle pirates, jump overboard as tanker hijacked off Somalia .\nBritish trio were rescued from water by German naval helicopter .\nLiberian-flagged Biscaglia also carrying 25 Indians, 2 Bangladeshis .\nPirates release Greek ship MV Centauri, held since September .","id":"02539361c1e59708933aba0f3a22e9c5f6bc9b3f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year, according to U.S. military officials. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with its high mountain terrain. The troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected build-up of U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout next year. Earlier this year, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, requested at least 20,000 additional troops be sent there to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The officials could not say what units are being tapped to go because those units are now being told of their deployment and the announcement has not yet been made public. The aviation brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region. Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies around the country. There are more than 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a Dutch soldier was killed Friday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO command confirmed. The soldier died in an improvised explosive device strike, according to a news release from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. \"Our sincere condolences and sympathies are with the family and friends of this brave soldier, especially during this holiday season,\" said ISAF spokesman Capt. Mark Windsor Royal Navy. \"This soldier's death is an irreplaceable loss to all of us who fight for the peace and stability of Afghanistan. ISAF will continue to fight for the cause for which this brave soldier gave his life.\" Eighteen Dutch troops have died in the Afghan conflict, according to a CNN count of casualty figures.","highlights":"Troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade; transport helicopters to be sent .\nThey are latest to be approved for expected build-up of U.S. troops next year .\nDutch soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO confirms .\nSoldier died in an improved explosive device strike .","id":"e8d726d7f9b9387b6070848ff1134fa3068f685c"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, Florida (CNN) -- For nearly three decades, John Walsh's black leather jackets and swagger have made him a crime-fighting cultural icon. But when he returned this week to the Hollywood police station, he was once again the father of a murdered child. John and Reve Walsh turned their grief into activism on behalf of missing children and crime victims. His face was ashen. His eyes were red and brimming with tears. He clutched the hand of his wife, Reve, as police closed the books Tuesday on their 27-year investigation into his boy's abduction, murder and decapitation. Ottis Toole, a convicted pedophile and murderer who was a partner of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, was officially named the killer. Toole died in prison for an unrelated crime in 1996. After his son's death, Walsh became an advocate for missing children and crime victims, and host of the TV show \"America's Most Wanted.\" He always thought Toole was the boy's killer. Now he knows for sure. \"For 27 years, we've been asking, 'Who can take a 6-year-old boy and murder and decapitate him? Who?' We needed to know,\" Walsh said. \"The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over.\" \"We will always be the parents of that little boy,\" Reve Walsh said. Watch Reve Walsh thank her children \u00bb . In 1981, the world seemed to be a much safer place. It was not unusual for parents to let children play outside unattended or to drop them off at parks, malls and schoolyards. After Adam's murder, his parents went through tough times, separating and later reconciling. They raised three other children, who are now 26, 24 and 14. Adam would be 33. Walsh said the birth of their oldest daughter, Megan, \"probably saved our lives, because she was born a year after Adam [died], when we were spiraling into hell.\" Perhaps to save themselves, they made it their mission to preserve Adam's legacy by helping other crime victims. The abduction and murder of Adam Walsh also fundamentally changed the way law enforcement agencies look for missing children. Chad Wagner, the police chief in Hollywood, where Adam was abducted, said law enforcement back then was \"like a whole 'nuther world.\" Watch the chief close the case \u00bb . Hollywood police were accused of some major blunders in their investigation, and Wagner apologized to the Walshes for those mistakes. The case, he said, \"made us a better agency.... If this same type of situation were to occur today, I would tell you it would be a much quicker, much better, much cleaner outcome.\" \"In 1981, when Adam disappeared, you couldn't enter missing children information into the FBI computer system,\" said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Walshes are co-founders of the center. \"You could enter information on stolen cars, stolen guns and stolen jewelry, but you couldn't enter information on missing children,\" he said. Walsh, who before Adam's murder was a hotel developer, went to Capitol Hill and began a second career as an activist for crime victims. He fought for passage of the 1982 Missing Children's Act, which created the FBI's national database. Today, there are at least 80,000 missing children listed in the database. In 1981, when Adam was taken and killed, there was no coordinated national response to child abductions. The 18,000 police departments across the United States did not effectively communicate. \"Most police departments would tell you he probably just ran away, if he doesn't come back, call us in 48 or 72 hours,\" Allen said. \"But, what we've found in 75 percent of cases, the child is dead within the first three hours. Waiting until the day after tomorrow is just too late.\" Walsh lobbied for more federal legislation and by 1984, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was up and running. With it came an explosion of activism that resulted in the faces of missing kids being printed on milk cartons and on fliers that have gone into 85 million homes a week for 23 years. There also have been advances in age enhancement photography. \"Code Adam\" is now an internal alarm at 70,000 department stores and shops that alerts employees to potential threats to children. The employees are trained to lock the doors when the alarm goes off. \"It's a powerful example of the legacy of one little boy and his courageous parents,\" Allen said. Beyond the technical advances, there are social and cultural changes as well. People have become much more aware of crime, predators and fugitives. The Web site for John Walsh's show, \"America's Most Wanted\" says it has helped catch 1,049 fugitives. \"Society has built on a lot of the things they have done,\" said CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks. There are surveillance cameras at businesses, and Amber Alerts are issued when a child is missing. Walsh \"has helped law enforcement immensely,\" Brooks said. \"The more eyes and ears you can get out there looking for a missing person, the better.\" The Walshes raised their three other children in an envelope of pain and grief for a sibling they never knew. On Tuesday, the Walsh children, now grown, accompanied their parents to the police station in Hollywood, Florida. They stood silently as their parents clutched hands and fought tears, once again victims, once again the parents of a murdered child.","highlights":"Murder of Adam Walsh, parents' response, changed law enforcement .\nAdam, 6, was abducted and murdered in July 1981 .\nPolice closed case Tuesday, named deceased drifter Ottis Toole .\nBoy's father, John Walsh, became activist for crime victims .","id":"c046d65bfbc7392d7349ef85974f266b1f5d6865"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Caroline Kennedy, the 51-year-old daughter of President John F. Kennedy, has indicated her interest in filling the New York Senate seat being vacated by secretary of state designee Hillary Clinton. Caroline Kennedy has her eyes on the New York Senate seat. \"I've talked to Caroline Kennedy and she's clearly interested,\" New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said at a news conference Monday afternoon. He indicated that 12 people were interested in the position. \"She's interested in the position,\" New York Gov. David Paterson confirmed. But at the same time \"she realizes it's not a campaign.\" Paterson, who will name Clinton's successor, noted that Kennedy had indicated a desire to \"sit down and tell me what her qualifications are.\" The Rev. Al Sharpton also released a statement Monday indicating that he had received a call from Kennedy \"who expressed to me her interest in [Clinton's] Senate seat.\" Kennedy's interest in the seat could mean the continuation of a family legacy in the Senate that began 56 years ago with the election of her father as the then-junior senator from Massachusetts. Background: The Kennendys in Politics \u00bb . Her uncle Ted Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the Senate since 1963, and her uncle Robert Kennedy served as New York's junior senator from 1965 until he was assassinated in 1968. \"Remember, [Clinton's] seat in the Senate was once held by Robert Kennedy,\" said Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst. \"[Caroline Kennedy's] other uncle, Ted Kennedy, is ill right now. If Paterson appoints Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, it means there could be a Kennedy staying in the Senate for quite a long time.\" Watch Sen. Schumer on the possible candidates \u00bb . CNN reported earlier this month that Caroline Kennedy had called Paterson to discuss the possibility of taking the seat. Paterson has the power to appoint a replacement, who will then face a special election in 2010 to fill out Clinton's term. Paterson confirmed to CNN last week that Kennedy had called and \"asked a few questions\" about the expected vacancy. One Democratic source close to the Kennedy family told CNN earlier this month Kennedy was \"interested to say the least\" in the Senate seat and had asked a tight circle of other family friends and political advisers for advice. Before this year, Kennedy generally limited her forays into the public sphere to nonpartisan activity, penning books on civil liberties and serving as the de facto guardian of her father's legacy. But in January, she backed a political candidate for the first time, announcing her endorsement of Obama during the Democratic primary season with an op-ed in The New York Times that drew days of the kind of media attention she has spent her life avoiding. \"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,\" she wrote. \"But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.\" \"Apparently, she has acquired a taste for politics,\" Schneider noted. \"She wants to be part of this new regime in America, clearly playing a key role in the Senate if she gets that appointment.\" Watch Bill Schneider's report \u00bb . There are a slew of high-profile candidates for Clinton's Senate seat, including New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose last name carries some star power of its own New York, where his father was once governor. Kennedy's roots in New York also run deep. Her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, relocated to New York after her husband's assassination in 1963, with children Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. Caroline Kennedy has also spent most of her life in the city, working there after graduating from Harvard, meeting her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, on the job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and attending Columbia Law School there. Her most prominent public roles involved overseeing her father's presidential library and presenting the annual Profiles in Courage Award. She's also edited several books, from a volume of children's poetry and an updated edition of her father's book \"Profiles in Courage\" to a collection of patriotic verse (\"A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love\"). Most of her leadership positions have been based in the arts: serving as host of the annual nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors in Washington and serving as the honorary chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre, as her mother did. In late spring and early summer she was mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate and more recently as a contender for secretary of education in an Obama Cabinet. But elected office would mark a major shift for Kennedy. In a 2002 Time magazine interview promoting the updated \"Profiles in Courage,\" Kennedy would not rule out the possibility of a run for public office. \"I don't have any plans to do that right now,\" she said. \"I don't plan ahead. My kids are young, and I'm really happy to be able to be around. But I do care about issues, and I'm interested in them. So I don't see that now, but you know, I have a long life ahead of me.\" CNN's John King, Kate Bolduan, Mark Preston and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sen. Schumer says Kennedy is \"clearly interested,\" one of 12 candidates .\nKennedy's interest in the seat could mean the continuation of a family legacy .\nGov. David Paterson can appoint replacement who will face special election in 2010 .\nKennedy is the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy .","id":"bb904bd6a497c7ce34f88c76ca51c02765d6930b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One person has died and another was trapped in a pair of avalanches in the Utah mountains Sunday afternoon, authorities said. One of the Utah avalanches, at Snowbird Ski Resort, buried one woman under 2 feet of snow. She later died. Heather Gross, 27, died Sunday evening at a hospital in Salt Lake City from her injuries, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Levi Hughes said. Gross, a county resident, had been buried under 2 feet of snow by an early-afternoon snowslide at Snowbird Ski Resort, Hughes said. Rescue teams found her about an hour after the avalanche, and she was flown to University of Utah hospital, where she died. A man who was with her at the time was not injured and reported the slide, Hughes said. A second avalanche occurred nearby in the backcountry area known as Lake Desolation, said Randy Doyle, a spokesman for the Big Cottonwood Canyon resorts nearby. He said the avalanche, which left at least one person trapped, was not within the resort.","highlights":"NEW: Woman taken University of Utah hospital dies of her injuries .\nWoman was buried under 2 feet of snow in avalanche at ski resort .\nWitness contacted authorities; woman rescued an hour later .\nOne person trapped after second avalanche near resort, officials say .","id":"f458c45544399a96673581dbc4d53699e905fdf7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- One million free text messages will be sent every day for 12 months from Monday in South Africa in a bid to raise HIV awareness and encourage testing for the disease. Former South African president Nelson Mandela launched a similar cell phone initiative in 2003. The ambitious Project Masiluleke is being rolled out across the country after a pilot period that saw calls to a AIDS national helpline shoot up by 200 percent, organizers say. The United Nations estimates that there are currently six million people living with HIV in South Africa and just one in 10 get the treatment they need. \"South Africa is the epicenter of the global HIV epidemic,\" said HIV activist Zinny Thabethe in Octorber at an annual conference for the social innovation network Pop!Tech, an organization instrumental in developing the concept. 'Project Masiluleke,' or 'Project M' was set up to try to encourage people to seek testing and treatment in a country where cell phones are abundant. Africa is cited as the fastest growing mobile-phone network in the world. In South Africa, more than 80 percent of the population has one -- the country has a population of 49 million, and it is estimated that 43 million have cell phones. Almost 95 percent of the phones are prepaid. The initiative plans to broadcast millions of health messages every month to phones across South Africa. \"This is the largest ever use of cell phones for health information,\" said Gustav Praekelt, one of the project's originators. \"There is near universal coverage,\" said Praekelt during the launch of the project. \"And in the absence of other services, the mobile phone has become the central component for people to get access to information.\" Organizers say 'Project M' will offer South Africans the privacy to get tested and pursue treatment options and counseling by staff who are HIV positive themselves. The system sends the messages using a so-called \"Please Call Me\" (PCM) service. This free form of text messaging, common across Africa, allows someone without any phone credit to send a text to a friend asking them to call. Each sent PCM message has the words \"Please Call Me,\" the phone number of the caller, and space for an additional 120 characters. The extra space is normally filled with advertising, which helps offset the cost of running the service. The message reads: \"Frequently sick, tired, losing weight and scared that you might be HIV positive? Please call AIDS Helpline 0800012322.\" Encouraging people to get tested is a huge challenge in a country where people with the AIDS virus still face stigma and shame. However, 'Project M' appears to be having an impact, since it was initiated in October. \"We have observed a dramatic increase in the call rate to the AIDS Helpline -- from approximately 1,300 calls per day to a new average of 3,600,\" said Milo Zama, Projects Development Manager for LifeLine, one of the partners. Trained operators provide callers with accurate healthcare information, and referrals to local testing clinics . Many of the messages are broadcast in English and in local languages such as Zulu. As well as Pop!Tech, the project has been developed and funded by HIV charities and technology and design firms, including Nokia Siemens, MTN, the Praekelt Foundation, iTeach and National Geographic. Pop!Tech's Director of Communications Jason Rzepka told CNN there are plans to expand the project to other affected countries after its official launch in February 2009. He said: \"One of the objectives of the February launch event will be to secure additional funding, so we can continue to expand Project Masiluleke into its planned 2nd and 3rd phases beyond South Africa.\"","highlights":"One million free texts will be sent every day for 12 months from Monday .\nProject Masiluleke has seen rise in use of AIDS helpline during pilot project .\nThe initiative plans to send millions of health messages every month .","id":"8ad53f104abf9d2cd723430b87195ed9d6f966b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Drew Peterson has met with a prominent divorce attorney more than a year after his wife, Stacy, disappeared, his lawyer confirmed to CNN on Tuesday. Drew Peterson's behavior after his wife disappeared deepened suspicion, but he says she ran off. Peterson, a former Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant, has not filed divorce papers, said his attorney, Joel Brodsky. But Peterson told an author he would look into a divorce after Stacy had been missing for a year. He said he was considering divorce for the sake of their children. \"I can confirm that Drew Peterson did have a consultation with Jeffrey Leving,\" Brodsky said, adding that no divorce papers have been filed. Leving, who bills himself as a father's rights lawyer, represented Cuban immigrant Elian Gonzalez's uncle and ultimately helped reunite the boy with his father. Police have said that 54-year old Peterson is a suspect in his wife's disappearance, which investigators have labeled a \"potential homicide.\" Peterson maintains that his wife, who was 23 at the time of her disappearance, left him for someone else. In an interview in May with Derek Armstrong, author of \"Drew Peterson Exposed,\" Peterson hinted that he planned to divorce her after she had been missing for a year. In Illinois, willful desertion or abandonment is grounds for a divorce after a year. The interview begins with Peterson expressing frustration with the media attention and negative reactions from his neighbors. \"We were talking about the neighbors and how it's hard to live in the neighborhood with the media trucks around and the neighbors being so difficult,\" Armstrong told CNN. \"I asked if he was going to move, and he said, 'Yeah, when I get a chance, but Stacy's on the title.' \" After the one-year anniversary of Stacy Peterson's disappearance passed, Armstrong said he began to make some phone calls to see whether Drew Peterson was acting on his earlier plans. Armstrong said he called two other prominent divorce lawyers until he reached Leving's office, which confirmed the meeting. In a phone conversation, Peterson confirmed to Armstrong that he was \"getting information\" and \"exploring options.\" Armstrong pressed Peterson, who responded, \"A desertion. She deserted me.\" Peterson elaborated, \"I've always said that I'm mad about that. But I'm looking into this for the kids. This neighborhood is not healthy for my kids because of Sharon Bychowski.\" Bychowski has been battling Peterson since his wife -- her friend and neighbor -- disappeared in October 2007. Peterson has accused Bychowski and other neighbors of harassing and threatening him. Armstrong asked Peterson whether he thought news of the divorce might encourage Stacy to contact him. \"I have nothing more to say,\" the former cop shot back. Brodsky told CNN he had not been aware that news of the meeting with the divorce lawyer had become public knowledge. \"We definitely didn't advertise it,\" he said. \"That's real thorough detective work. [Armstrong] could show police a thing or two about finding someone.\" Drew Peterson said he awoke at his suburban Chicago home to find his wife gone October 28, 2007. He said she called him at 9 p.m. and announced that she was leaving him, Peterson said. Police confirm that there was some activity on Stacy Peterson's cell phone about 9 p.m. October 28, but her family and close friends say she would never leave her two children behind or go away without mentioning it to her family. In the days leading up to her disappearance, Stacy Peterson confided in friends and her sister. She said she was afraid of her husband and wanted to leave him, according to her sister, Cassandra Cales. \"If anything happens to me, he killed me. It wasn't an accident,\" Cales quoted her as saying. At 10 a.m. that Sunday, Stacy Peterson failed to show up for an appointment with a friend. Worried, Cales called police Monday, October 29, and reported her sister missing. The media frenzy and police scrutiny soon revealed that Drew Peterson's third wife had died mysteriously a few years earlier during a nasty divorce. Kathleen Savio died just before the division of the marital assets was finalized, making Drew Peterson the sole beneficiary. Savio was found in the dry bathtub of her home. At the time, the death was ruled an accidental drowning. But her family continued to insist that Savio died as a result of foul play. The investigation into Stacy Peterson's disappearance brought renewed interest in Savio's death. Authorities exhumed Savio's body, further tests were conducted, and her death has now been ruled a \"homicide staged to look like an accident.\" Some witness statements portray Drew Peterson as jealous, possessive and controlling. He was said to keep such close track of his wife that he frequently called her cell phone and appeared unannounced at social outings to take her home. This caused tension in the marriage, the witnesses told police. Police named Drew Peterson as the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance in November 2007. He has not been charged in the case, but he has been charged with illegal gun possession, which could put him behind bars for up to five years if he is convicted.","highlights":"Peterson says he's looking into options since wife deserted him a year ago .\nPeterson: Neighbors are making it unsafe for family to live in home .\nStacy Peterson left him October 28, 2007, husband says .\nPolice have said Drew Peterson, an ex-cop, is prime suspect .","id":"4d50ece149ee03573ca4296bb277a8badfbd1259"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada is expected to plead guilty Wednesday in federal court to a count of lying to Congress about his knowledge of Major League Baseball players using performance-enhancing drugs, according to officials familiar with the case. Miguel Tejada, a shortstop for the Houston Astros, has been charged with lying to Congress. In a document filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Tejada is charged in a criminal \"information,\" a document that routinely signals a plea bargain agreement. The document does not directly accuse Tejada of using steroids or other substances. However, the court document says that in 2003 Tejada gave another player more than $5,000 in checks \"for substances which he believed to be HGH [human growth hormone].\" The document says Tejada lied to congressional investigators when he told them on August 26, 2005, that he had never heard discussions about steroids by other players, and that he never knew of any other player using steroids. After the December 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, which appeared to contradict Tejada, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada \"made knowingly false statements to the committee.\" The investigators concluded he had lied. \"Defendant Tejada unlawfully withheld pertinent information from the committee because defendant Tejada before and during his interview with the committee staff, then and there well knew that Player #1 [unidentified], one of his teammates on the Oakland Athletics, had used steroids and HGH,\" the document says. Tejada played for the Athletics from 1997 to 2003. He is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. Wednesday before a magistrate judge, indicating the charge against him will be a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of a year in jail. However, a government official familiar with the case said that under sentencing guidelines, Tejada could get from zero to 6 months, which means he may receive probation without jail time. Tejada, who started his MLB career in 1997, hit at least 30 home runs from 2000 through 2004 with the exception of 2003, when he hit 27. He won the American League's most valuable player award in 2002, when he hit a career-best 34 home runs. He matched that total in 2004, his first year with the Baltimore Orioles. He began playing with Houston in 2008. The information came one day after MLB star Alex Rodriguez -- the New York Yankees' third baseman since 2004 -- admitted that he had used a \"banned substance\" during the 2001-2003 seasons. Sports Illustrated had reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, when he was playing for the Texas Rangers.","highlights":"Court document: Tejada knew teammate used performance-enhancing drugs .\nDocument: Tejada lied in 2005 when he denied knowing of players using steroids .\nHouston Astros shortstop charged with lying to congressional investigators .","id":"66b418299bcaa025b079ca440230515afae20657"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two-year-old Tangena Hussain vanished three months ago in the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, Michigan, and police say the trail has gone cold. Tangena Hussain, 2, has been missing since October 2 and police in Michigan are asking for the public's help. Tangena's mother called police on the evening of October 2, 2008, to report her daughter missing after frantically searching the area where she was last seen. The child's mother, Nilufa Begum, told police she had left the girl in the care of her boyfriend, Jamrul Hussain. Although Tangena and Hussain have the same last name, he is not her father. Begum told investigators her daughter was with Hussain all day while she worked at the Northland Mall. Hussain said he stopped at a gas station with Tangena while on the way to the mall to pick up Begum. They stopped at about 9 p.m. to buy gum and juice, he said. Hussain told police he left Tangena in the car for only a few moments and when he returned, the little girl was gone. He did not call police and did not conduct a search, but instead drove to the mall and picked up Begum, investigators said. When she saw Tangena was not with Hussain, Begum asked him where she was. His response was cryptic, she told police. He said he would take her to the place where her daughter was. Begum became alarmed as Hussain drove to a gas station where, he said, Tangena disappeared. They searched for Tangena together, while Begum called the police to report her daughter missing. A surveillance camera shows the boyfriend, Hussain, going into the gas station's store, police said. On the video, he makes some purchases and leaves within a few minutes. But there is no video of the area where Hussain parked his car, nor any video that could show whether the little girl had been there or how she might have disappeared. Police have not named a person of interest in the toddler's disappearance. When the media picked up the story, a teenager came forward, saying she recognized Hussain as the man who allegedly attacked her. During the investigation, police discovered that the young accuser, then 15, had been Hussain's prior girlfriend. Hussain, 24, was arrested and charged with two counts of having sex with a minor. He is free on bail while awaiting trial. \"My client is innocent of the charges. He did not have sex with a minor child,\" said Hussain's lawyer, Shawn Patrick Smith. Tangena's parents said they just want answers. Her father, Mohammad Ahmed, lives in New York and added $5,000 to an existing Crimestopper's reward of $1,000. \"We are praying that someone knows something that can help us find my daughter,\" Ahmed said. \"How can a child disappear without someone seeing something? Something doesn't fit about [Hussain's] story.\" When questioned, Begun told police only she and Hussain saw Tangena in the week leading up to her October 2 disappearance. A Michigan Amber Alert was issued for Tangena at 5 a.m. the morning after she disappeared. But in the months since, police have hit a dead end. Police and family members are turning to the public for help. If anyone has seen Tangena Hussain or has any information regarding her whereabouts, please call the Detroit Police Department at 313-596-1240. Tangena is 3' 2\" tall, weighs 34 lbs, has black short hair, brown eyes, and is of East Indian descent. She was last seen wearing white cargo pants, brown long-sleeved T-shirt with a cartoon picture on the front and gold sandals. The reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Tangena Hussain is $6,000.","highlights":"Tangena Hussain last seen on October 2 .\nMother left child, age 2, in care of boyfriend .\nMom's boyfriend says child disappeared from car at gas station .\nA $6,000 reward is offered. Call Detroit police at 313-596-1240 .","id":"54354d28f997e4c7aac641eb124936f5cce9f29a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama's daughters are moving into a house with a swimming pool, a bowling alley and its own movie theater. Sasha Obama, left, and Malia Obama will make the White House home come January 20. When their father is inaugurated on January 20, Malia Obama, 10, and Sasha Obama, 7, will also be moving into a place where they'll not only be under the watchful eye of the Secret Service but also under the eye of the media. \"One of the negatives of the White House is that its very much a fishbowl,\" presidential historian Doug Wead said. \"There's something that Sasha or Malia will say or do and they'll be remembered for it for the rest of their lives,\" said Wead, who wrote \"All the Presidents' Children,\" a book on the lives of kids at the White House. Watch what life's like for White House kids \u00bb . Theodore Roosevelt's children used to like to drop water balloons on foreign dignitaries, Wead said. They also let their pet snake slither around the White House dining room. John F. Kennedy Jr. was known for hiding under his father's Oval Office desk. His older sister, Caroline, had a pony who romped untethered around the White House grounds. President Abraham Lincoln's youngest son, Thomas, used to startle everyone in the building by making all the White House bells ring at one time. But with the mischief and pranks comes a lifetime of pressure, said Noah McCollough, who wrote the book \"First Kids.\" \"John Quincy Adams' kids went through alcoholism and addiction because they couldn't live up to their parents expectation\" in their later years, McCollough said. Read up on the blessed and star-crossed lives of some other White House kids \u00bb . Much of Malia and Sasha's White House experience will be monitored by their mother, Michelle Obama, who seems determined to be active in their lives. Even as her husband campaigned for the presidency, Michelle Obama was a soccer mom, cheering from the sidelines of her daughters' games. \"I'm a mother first. And I'm going to be at parent-teacher conferences, and ... I'm going to be at the things that they want me to attend. I'm not going to miss a ballet recital,\" Michelle Obama said. Together with the president-elect, she'll have to decide where the girls will attend school. \"If they send their child to a private school they'll be called elitist for betraying the public school system,\" Wead said. Jacqueline Kennedy, not wanting Caroline being hounded by the media as she went to school, set up a first-grade classroom on the third floor of the White House. Ten of Caroline's friends also attended, each bringing their own lunch pail. President Jimmy Carter sent daughter Amy, age 9 when she moved to Washington, to the public Hardy Middle School. President Bill Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, attended the private Sidwell Friends School. No matter the choice, even their grades will come under public scrutiny. \"If you flunk that huge math test, it's on the front page of the newspaper the next day,\" McCollough said. But assuming no one gets grounded for bad grades, imagine the possibilities for sleepovers or parties. President Gerald Ford's daughter Susan, for example, held her senior prom at the White House. Whatever the educational choice, the Obamas have made clear their kids won't be an afterthought now that Barack Obama is about to become the world's most powerful person. On Friday morning, before the president-elect met with his advisers on the troubled economy and before his first news conference since the election scheduled for the afternoon, Barack and Michelle Obama went to a parent-teacher conference at the University of Chicago Lab School. And the girls will have company at the house on Pennsylvania Avenue. \"You have earned that puppy that is coming with us to the White House,\" their father told them in his acceptance speech.","highlights":"Malia Obama, 10, Sasha Obama, 7, will be in the public eye .\nHistorian: Kids will do something that they'll be forever remembered for .\nFlunk a test and make headlines, historian said .\nPranks and mischief: Teddy Roosevelt's kids dropped water balloons on people .","id":"a446d728089b3de26d8ccfb9ab5f4a1db99c3235"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British people love pubs -- so much, in fact, that a recent survey found that they cherish only fish and chips and the Queen more. A combination of factors including the smoking ban, higher taxes and cheap supermarket alochol are hurting pubs. Yet this enduring icon of British culture is under threat after having flourished for hundreds of years. Recent surveys found that more British pubs are closing than ever before -- victims of an indoor smoking ban, higher taxes and food prices, and changing times. Tuesday marks one year since England followed Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland to ban indoor smoking at pubs, restaurants and bars. Some feared that would mark the death of the traditional British pub in all its smoky glory -- and they were quick to blame the ban when surveys found the pub numbers in sharp decline. Those findings, released in March by the British Beer and Pub Association and CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, showed that more than 1,400 pubs closed in 2007. That's a sharp increase from 2006, when 216 pubs closed; and 2005, when just more than 100 closed down. The advocacy groups, however, say the ban may be just one of many factors shutting pub doors. Watch more on the decline of British pubs \u00bb . Pub owners -- landlords, as they're called in Britain -- are turning in their leases for a variety of reasons. Some say it's hard to compete with cheap alcohol sold at supermarkets, a trend increasing amid the credit crunch. Others feel they could make more money operating as a wine bar or cafe. Patrons say two things in particular have had an impact on the decline of pubs -- one being the smoking ban. Those who used to enjoy a smoke along with their pint now must smoke outside, and many pubs -- particularly in urban areas -- have little space or shelter on the sidewalk. CAMRA says, however, that the effects of the smoking ban, introduced just halfway into 2007, are \"not yet fully evident.\" Pubgoers were also turned off by a boost to alcohol taxes. \"Rents and rates are shooting up,\" said Ian Lowe, a spokesman for CAMRA. \"There's also things like excise duty. The chancellor kindly put another 4 pence [8 cents] on the price of a pint, and while supermarkets can probably absorb that, the pubs have to pass it on [to the customer].\" Pubs are also passing higher food prices on to the customer, denting a plan by many proprietors to fall back on the menus to boost business. About 57,000 pubs remain in Britain, and while they may be under threat, they're not going away any time soon. A drink at \"the local\" -- where social and financial status cease to matter -- remains one of the average Briton's favorite pastimes. \"If you took a guy from the 10th Century and brought him forward in time, the only things he would recognize in the world today are churches and pubs,\" said Peter Brown, the author of \"Man Walks Into a Pub,\" a history of pubs and beer. The smoking ban may also be attracting a new kind of customer, Brown said. \"[Smokers] stopped going to the pub immediately as soon as the ban came in, whereas a lot of other people who didn't used to go to pubs have now started to come back to the pub because they now prefer a smoke-free environment,\" he said. Advocates say pubs provide a safe place to drink and are a valuable part of British culture. They are lobbying the British government to help stop their rapid decline by cutting beer taxes and changing planning laws to prevent pub demolitions. CNN's Robin Oakley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Traditional British pubs are facing tough times, with 1,400 closing in 2007 .\nIndoor smoking ban, higher taxes and cheap supermarket alcohol hurt pubs .\nAbout 57,000 pubs still remain in Britain despite decline in numbers .","id":"727d6c7b38f0b2356bedbe37d5090a8a191c97a7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As familiar and reassuring as the map of the world is, there is only so much that physical geography can tell us about the state of the planet. Forest loss: This cartogram shows areas where the worst deforestation occured from 1990 to 2000. A new book, The Atlas of the Real World, has redrawn the map giving vivid new insights and bringing economic, social and environmental data to life. Not since the German meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, sketched out the first detailed theories of continental drift has the world appeared so misshapen, so otherworldly. The 366 cartograms (statistical maps) which make up the book twist, shrink and distend countries and continents into all sorts of shapes and sizes. The book and the accompanying Web site were devised by Daniel Dorling, professor of human geography at the UK's University of Sheffield, Anna Barford, a research associate at Sheffield and Mark Newman, a professor of physics at the University of Michigan. Work on the project began in earnest in 2006 when Dorling teamed up with Newman, who had co-created a new software technique for creating equal area cartograms the year before. With the software in place, the painstaking task of assembling the data began. The information was drawn from a variety of organizations including the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Bank. For ease of visual comparison, territories are split into 12 geographical regions -- e.g. blue for North America, brown for Northern Africa -- and shading marks out specific countries. The range of subjects is impressive, from greenhouse gas emissions, wealth and disease to more obscure data about numbers of dentists and working tractors. John Pritchard, research assistant at University of Sheffield and part of the team working on the project, told CNN: \"I think the maps of disease are particularly shocking and bring home the scale of the problem in Africa better than a table of statistics does.\" Indeed, the map of malaria deaths is striking: 94 percent of deaths from malaria occur in Africa, making the continent appear like a vast bloated blob. The rest of the world is reduced to a disparate series of veiny streaks. There are other sobering statistics to consider. In June 2008, Principal Voices spoke to Head of Research at Oxfam GB Duncan Green about strategies to eradicate poverty. Green talked about the education being crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty, particularly for girls. The new atlas's Girls not at Primary School cartogram graphically illustrates the lack of female education in many parts of the developing world. Team members are currently working on a map of languages and soon hope to be producing animated maps. \"We have a series of maps that show deaths at various stages, which would be particularly suited to an animation, and we now have a PhD student looking at extending the Web site, including ways of mapping flow.\" Pritchard said.","highlights":"The Atlas of the Real World brings economic, social and environmental data to life .\n366 cartograms include vivid data on disease, wealth, poverty and the environment .\nTeam are extending the collection with maps of language and developing animations .","id":"3be2072bb1b364fecc4788cabd658a74a15ba9db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The dramatic developments in Gaza over the past three days have driven Arab citizens to the streets, where they have displayed anger directed first and foremost at their own governments. A Yemeni protester rips through an Israeli flag in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday, December 28. In Yemen, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital, Sanaa, shouting slogans in support of Gaza and its residents and burning Israeli and U.S. flags. They cried out against the League of Arab States, which delayed discussion on the crisis. One demonstrator told the Al-Jazeera network, \"The Arab League is worthless. ... They're all worthless leaders, and they should all go home.\" Al-Jazeera is based in Doha, Qatar. Israel has been conducting airstrikes in Gaza for three days, in what they say is retaliation for repeated rocket attacks into southern Israel by Hamas. Hundreds of people have died, mostly Hamas militants, according to Palestinian security forces. In Sudan, the scene was similar. A woman wearing a Hamas banner around her forehead told Al-Manar TV, \"Where are the Arab leaders? Where are their actions? Enough condemnation and finger-pointing. Show Gaza your support.\" Students at the University of Qatar boycotted their classes and demonstrated their support for Gaza. Watch a report from CNN's Octavia Nasr \u00bb . One student spoke about what he saw as his moral responsibility: \"Our ancestors claimed that the news about the Palestinian disaster reached them late in 1948. We have a responsibility to our children and the future generations. We can't tell them we heard about the Gaza disaster of 2008 but didn't do anything.\" Jordan's parliament held a special session in solidarity with Gaza. But one parliamentarian defied the speaker's orders and burned the Israeli flag before stepping on it in the middle of applause from some of his colleagues. The images played repeatedly on Arab media. Egypt has been the recipient of much criticism in this crisis. Hamas supporters say Egypt has sold the Palestinians out by being too close and friendly with Israel and the United States. From Egypt, political analysts retaliated, blaming Hamas for ending the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, thus inviting the Israeli airstrikes. One expert speaking to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya blamed Hamas for \"presenting Gazans on a silver plate to the Israeli monster.\" He then blamed Syria and Iran for not taking military action to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.","highlights":"In Yemen, thousands of people demonstrate in capital city of Sanaa .\nCitizens of Sudan also protest Israeli airstrikes in Gaza .\nStudents at University of Qatar boycott their classes in support of Gaza .\nSome Arabs blame Egypt, saying it's too cozy with Israel and the United States .","id":"c13e9ba113a6ad8f53e6a655faa949789c795800"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four Americans -- two soldiers and two civilians from the Defense and State departments -- were killed Tuesday in a blast that rocked a municipal building in Baghdad's Sadr City, the U.S. Embassy said. The attack also killed six Iraqis and wounded 10 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. A second employee from the U.S. Defense Department also died, but that person wasn't an American. The employee was a dual Italian-Iraqi national, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. The U.S. military said the blast struck a meeting of a district advisory council, a neighborhood group that looks at local needs and passes on its assessments to the provincial government. The deputy head of the council was seriously injured, the Interior Ministry official said. The U.S. military blamed Iranian-backed militants it calls Special Groups for the blast and detained three people in connection with the attack, including a suspect \"fleeing the scene [who] tested positive for explosive residue.\" \"We believe the target of the attack was a high-ranking [district advisory council] member as well as the U.S. soldiers,\" said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a U.S. military spokesman. \"We believe the Special Groups criminals were upset that the DAC member was working with coalition forces to improve the quality of life for the southern Sadr City residents.\" A statement from Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, identified the slain State Department employee as Steve Farley. \"Mr. Farley was a member of our embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team for the Sadr City and Adhamiya districts of Baghdad City,\" the statement said. \"We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends, and our profound appreciation for the ultimate sacrifice that they made in service to their country and for the people of Iraq. This is a tragic loss and one we all mourn.\" The U.S. Embassy statement didn't identify the other victims. The blast dramatizes the perils the war still poses for Americans despite a Pentagon report Monday that touted a sharp decrease in violence in Iraq in recent months. The explosion also marked the third strike in two days involving local politicians and political institutions in Baghdad. A city councilman on Monday fired on U.S. forces at a municipal building southeast of the capital in the Salman Pak area and killed two soldiers. Separately, the head of Abu Dsheer City Council in Baghdad's southern Dora area was gunned down at his home later Monday. Last week, a bomb ripped through Baghdad's Hurriya district near a neighborhood advisory council meeting where U.S. troops were stationed, killing 63 people and wounding 71 others. The U.S. military also blamed that attack on a Special Groups cell, but Stover couldn't say whether it was connected to Tuesday's blast. \"Last week's event was an attempt to incite sectarian violence and hatred against the Iraqi Sunni population in an effort to keep them from returning to Hurriya,\" Stover said. Sadr City, the scene of Tuesday's deadly blast, is a stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and where some of the capital's most intense fighting in recent months has occurred between Shiite militia members and Iraqi security forces. A truce deal was reached last month between the Iraqi government and al-Sadr's followers, ending weeks of fighting and allowing the Iraqi army to enter Sadr City, but violence persists. Al-Sadr recently announced his intention to develop a new fighting force that would battle U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Many followers in al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia have heeded a long-standing cease-fire, but some rogue forces are thought to be involved in violence. \"This was the fourth meeting of this district council, led by hard-working Iraqis determined to make a difference and set Sadr City off on the right path. Special Groups are afraid of progress and afraid of empowering the people,\" Lt. Col. John Digiambatista of the 4th Infantry Division said in a news release, referring to Tuesday's attack. Twenty-five U.S. troops have died in Iraq to date this month. There have been 4,109 deaths of U.S. service members since the war began. Other developments . \u2022 Three U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed Tuesday evening by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq's Nineveh Province, the U.S. military said. No other details were immediately released. \u2022 A suicide car bomb went off near a police station in central Mosul Tuesday evening, killing a child, a police officer and wounding dozens more. Police and civilians, including women and children, were among the wounded, though injury reports varied from 90 to 70 to 57, according to the U.S. Military, Mosul police and the Iraq Interior Ministry, respectively. All three sources agreed on the death toll, however. Several houses were affected by the blast, which destroyed a coffee shop in a residential area. \u2022 Earlier Tuesday, coalition troops in Mosul killed a senior-level al Qaeda in Iraq leader, the U.S. military said. The operation led to the killing of the group's \"emir\" of Mosul, the military said. A dozen people were detained in raids targeting the group in northern Iraq and Baghdad, the military said. \u2022 U.S. troops raided a Shiite militant hideout Tuesday in southeastern Baghdad's Karrada district, capturing four suspects the military said were connected to recent attacks on coalition bases. A vehicle bomb being built in the hideout was destroyed, according to a coalition statement. \u2022 Anbar province will soon be run by the Iraqi military. The U.S. military said it is transferring security responsibility this week to the Iraqis. Anbar is the 10th of the 18 provinces where Iraqi forces have taken charge of security control since 2003 and the first largely Sunni Arab province to do so. CNN's Yousif Bassil and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Another victim identified as Italian-Iraqi working for U.S. Defense Department .\nNEW: Child and policeman killed, dozens wounded in Mosul suicide car bomb .\nFour Americans and six Iraqis among 11 dead in blast in Baghdad's Sadr City .\nU.S. military will transfer security responsibilities in Anbar province to Iraqi military .","id":"5adc81d624afdc4ec90c9a4309da61e34c8e386e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. Navy submarine and a Navy amphibious ship that collided Friday in the Strait of Hormuz south of Iran have arrived in Bahrain to be assessed for damage, the Navy said. The submarine USS Hartford and amphibious ship USS New Orleans are shown in Navy photos. The submarine USS Hartford and amphibious ship USS New Orleans arrived Saturday in Mina Salman pier to \"to further assess and evaluate the damage that resulted from their collision at sea,\" the service said in a written statement. Fifteen sailors were slightly hurt aboard the Hartford in the collision, which occurred early Friday morning. On Friday, Navy officials in Washington told CNN that there was significant damage to the sail, or tower-like structure on the topside of the submarine. On Saturday, the Navy said there was no damage to the submarine's propulsion unit. No injuries were reported aboard the New Orleans. The ship's fuel tank ruptured, spilling 25,000 gallons of marine diesel fuel in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy said in the Saturday statement. \"Aerial searches of the area where the fuel spill occurred were conducted yesterday, and revealed no indication of any remaining fuel on the ocean's surface,\" the Navy said. \"The quick dissipation of the fuel is likely due to the type of fuel, and various environmental factors to include air and water temperatures, winds and seas.\" When the collision occurred, both vessels were headed to ports in the Persian Gulf to stock up on provisions and allow for some recreation, Navy spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said Friday. Christensen said there were about 200 sailors in the sub and 1,000 sailors and Marines aboard the ship. The Strait of Hormuz is located between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, linking the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. It is heavily used by oil tankers. Both vessels are on regularly scheduled deployments to the U.S. Navy Central Command area of responsibility, and conduct Maritime Security Operations.","highlights":"Vessels in Bahrain \"to further assess and evaluate the damage,\" says Navy .\nUSS Hartford, USS New Orleans collided near Arabian Peninsula .\n15 sailors on Hartford slightly injured .\nFuel tank on New Orleans ruptured, spilling 25,000 gallons of fuel .","id":"04ab6aa4f2953f3acc9368478263ab3078c413aa"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Corporate lobbyists may have to jockey for attention alongside smaller, grassroots organizations under new ethics rules issued by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, one analyst says. President-elect Obama's rules will mean nonprofits will have an easier time being heard, an analyst says. Chai Feldblum, a Georgetown University professor who teaches lobbyists-in-training, said nonprofit groups are likely to have a stronger voice under the restrictions that Obama's transition staff issued this week. \"Lobbyists for business will absolutely get meetings with staff for people on the Hill, just like they got meetings before, so their access will not be denied,\" Feldblum said. \"Their positions will be heard, but now they won't be the only ones being heard.\" The rules, which transition co-chairman John Podesta announced Tuesday, bar federal lobbyists from contributing to or raising money for the transition effort. Those who leave the transition team will be barred for a year from lobbying the incoming administration on matters related to their transition jobs, and current lobbyists who join the team are barred for 12 months from working in policy fields related to their lobbying work. Podesta called the new policy \"the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.\" They follow a pledge Obama made during his campaign, when he instituted similar rules for aides and vowed that lobbyists \"will not drown out the voice of the American people.\" Feldblum said lobbying is protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, and that the trade's ranks in Washington are unlikely to shrink. But she said corporate lobbyists \"will have to share the stage with other people representing other points of view.\" \"I think that lobbyists for a broader range of the American public -- lobbyists for Catholic Charities USA, lobbyists for the Epilepsy Foundation, lobbyists for domestic violence groups -- people trying to bring those positions forward will have an easier time being heard,\" Feldblum said. One practicing lobbyist told CNN he hopes the new rules will improve the public image of a trade that has become a \"dirty word.\" Michael Lewan, who has pleaded the case for some of the biggest U.S. corporations for 16 years, said a stricter regime Congress imposed on itself after the influence-peddling scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff \"wasn't such a bad thing at all.\" \"We were all very upset when we found out we could no longer take Capitol Hill staffers to lunch,\" he said. \"But you know what? At the end of the day, we all saved money and lost weight.\" But seriously, Lewan said, both Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, blasted lobbyists on a near-daily basis during the presidential campaign, \"and it's my hope that we can bring down that level of vilification by cooperating with the new administration.\"","highlights":"Analyst: Corporate lobbyists will not be only ones heard by Obama's transition staff .\nTransition team's ethics rules will give nonprofits stronger voice, analyst says .\nOne of the rules: Federal lobbyists can't contribute to transition effort .\nTransition co-chairman: Ethics rules strictest \"of any transition team in history\"","id":"adac148e9705804ca4df37debf651523b70cf0ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Imagine the entire population of Kentucky forced out of their homes in the past 25 years, with many of the residents moving to a neighboring country. Displaced children at a camp in El Barrancon, Colombia, earlier this year. That's what has happened in Colombia, a country of 45 million where up to 4 million people -- roughly the population of Kentucky -- have been forced to flee fighting between government forces and an entrenched Marxist rebel group. So many Colombians have taken flight to escape violence that the nation has the second largest number of internally displaced people in the world -- surpassed only by Sudan in Africa. Oftentimes, the violence is not incidental. \"Violence against civilians is a strategy of war for all the parties involved in the warfare,\" said Ellen Beattie, who worked for relief agencies in Colombia for 15 years. \"That's the problem. They do it on purpose. They use it as a strategy. Vicious.\" Exact figures are hard to come by. Reliefweb, a United Nations Web site that provides information to humanitarian relief organizations, says nearly 400,000 Colombians were displaced last year. The Colombian government puts the number of displaced at 255,000 for 2008. Likewise, the Colombian government says nearly 3 million citizens have been displaced inside the country in the past few decades. But the non-governmental Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacements, known in Colombia as CODHES, estimates more than 4 million people have had to leave their homes since the 1980s. Mauricio de Vengoechea, a political analyst with the Newlink Group consulting firm, says about 200,000 Colombians have ended up in Ecuador, which has granted 5,500 residency permits in the past eight weeks. At the heart of the violence lies a guerrilla war with the Colombian government and paramilitary groups on one side and the FARC, which is the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, on the other. The FARC has been waging war against the government since the 1960s and has major strongholds in the jungles of southwest Colombia, near the 366-mile (590-kilometer) border with Ecuador. Narcotraffickers also have strongholds in the area and are often allied with the FARC, who provide security and intelligence. Many times the rebels and the narcotraffickers are one and the same. The guerrillas use drug money to buy weapons. \"There are large parts of Colombia where the state has no presence, no police, no army, nothing,\" said Myles Frechette, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia from 1994 to 1997. \"That's where the narcotraffickers hang out.\" That makes it valuable territory for the guerrillas and narcos, said Beattie, executive director of the International Rescue Committee office in Atlanta, Georgia. \"They're more willing to fight over land that is strategic,\" she said. \"You've poured gasoline on the fire with that.\" As the army, paramilitaries and the guerrillas fight for territory -- often retaking land one side or the other had held before -- the civilian population gets caught in the middle. When one side comes in, Beattie said, everyone living in the area is suspected of having collaborated with the enemy. That sometimes leads to massacres, or at least kidnappings and death threats. \"The majority of displacements in Colombia are not because of combat, but because people are directly threatened,\" said Gustavo Valdivieso, spokesman in Colombia for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. \"They are told, 'Leave or be killed.'\" Many times, indigenous populations in far-flung places suffer the most. That's what happened earlier this year to the Awa tribe in southwest Colombia. The FARC admitted in an Internet statement that guerrillas \"executed\" eight people February 6 in the town of Rio Bravo because the rebels believed the Indians were gathering information to give to the Colombian military. The Human Rights Watch organization said the guerrillas tortured some of the Awa before killing them with knives. Luis Evelis Andrade of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia said the FARC had targeted the Awa because the Indians don't want to get involved in the armed struggle and refuse to reveal information on government troop actions. He said the FARC had abducted 120 Awa in February and killed 44. \"We are very worried about the Awa community,\" said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. \"It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups.\" The Colombian government has issued a \"risk report\" warning that civilians in the region are in danger, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees proclaimed an alert this week about threats against human rights workers. A U.N. report notes that displacement disproportionately affects Colombia's poorest citizens, and their lives get worse after they are forced to flee. One of every two displaced Colombians is unemployed and a similar number live in makeshift homes made of cloth, cardboard or wood, says the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. More than three-fourths of children who leave school after being displaced never return. Then there's the issue of forced conscription. According to Reliefweb, between 12,000 and 14,000 minors have been forced to join armed groups. Valdivieso, the U.N. spokesman in Colombia, notes that displaced residents have lost about 15 million acres (6 million hectares). That's an area about the size of West Virginia. \"You have displaced people living in hunger in the cities of Colombia while they still have property,\" Valdivieso said. Displacement occurs when people move within a country. When they leave the country, they become refugees. The problem occurs among all segments of Colombian society. The political class is often hit hard. Ramiro Echeverri was among 12 regional lawmakers the FARC kidnapped on April 11, 2002, in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city. The rebels killed him and 10 others on June 18, 2007, when a Colombian army patrol came upon the camp in which the hostages were being held. When the bodies were recovered three months later, autopsies showed most had been shot several times in the back. Echeverri's son, also named Ramiro, was a doctor in Cali at the time. \"We buried him and the next day we left the country,\" he said. He, his wife and younger sister first went to Ecuador, where they lived for two months before securing passage to Atlanta, where he works as a neurological researcher for the Emory University School of Medicine. His mother stayed behind but visits often, especially after the birth of her granddaughter, Rafaela, four months ago. Echeverri, 28, has been in the United States for 16 months but still harbors hopes to return. \"Of course,\" he said. \"It is a very good country. I believe there will be a solution. Once there is, I will go back.\" Atlanta resident Ibonne Pinilla Martinez, 25, tells a similar story. Her father was a politician in Palmira, in southwest Colombia about 17 miles east of Cali. He started receiving threats and some colleagues were kidnapped. They first moved around inside Colombia, living in three cities over a two-year period. She, her parents and a younger sister then lived in Costa Rica for five years before moving to Atlanta two years ago, the soft-spoken Pinilla said. \"There is always fear when someone makes threats,\" she said. She, too, holds expectations of returning some day. \"We will wait for the right time and for all that to end,\" Pinilla said. Many refugees end up in Ecuador because it's the nearest country to the killing fields of southwestern Colombia. Some are forced there by the fighting. \"Over the course of the past five years, the FARC has been pushed back into Colombia's less densely populated jungle regions and across the Ecuadorian border,\" said Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm. \"More and more citizens in southern Colombia have been forced out and had nowhere else to go but Ecuador.\" Beattie, the aid agency official, has noticed the same phenomena. \"The Colombians go across where the violence pushes them that way,\" she said. \"Often, that's the only direction they can go.\" Ecuador has started incorporating the displaced Colombians, giving residency status to 5,500 in the past few weeks. That may seem surprising, given the poor standing between the countries. Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Colombia in March 2008 and amassed troops along the border after a Colombian military attack against a FARC camp inside Ecuador. The attack killed 25 people, including rebel leader Raul Reyes, four Mexicans and an Ecuadorian. No country in the area is afraid of Ecuador, says Frechette, the former U.S. ambassador. Neither is the FARC. \"Ecuador is a very weak state. It's lost 60 percent of its territory since its independence (in 1822),\" he said. \"Ecuador is a little guy who gets pushed around by everybody.\" Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa used the tension to forge national unity when he successfully ran for re-election in April 2009, said Vengoechea. \"It was more convenient for President Correa to be an enemy of Colombia than a friend of Colombia,\" Vengoechea said. \"Now both sides have been trying to find common points to restore diplomatic relationships,\" Esteruelas said. The issue of residency visas, he said, \"is one such point.\" Ecuador also may have felt the need to do something about the FARC. \"Ecuadorians are also under a lot of pressure since allegations that the FARC was coming across the border and Ecuador has been looking the other way,\" said Esteruelas. \"Ecuador is under pressure to register all Colombian immigrants coming in to prevent Colombian rebels from coming into Ecuador unregistered and unnoticed.\"","highlights":"Colombian civilians caught in cross fire between rebels, government forces .\n\"Violence against civilians is a strategy of war,\" relief worker says .\nMany civilians flee homes as a result of direct threats .\nEcuador is country closest to Colombia's killing fields, many flee there .","id":"23f6534b080425f53a09bb1973c7941c44a31dbf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the water of Lake Delton ripped through the highway and drained into the Wisconsin River this week, so did the lifeline for much of the surrounding community. Boats sit mired in mud Tuesday after Lake Delton drained into the Wisconsin River the day before. Lake Delton Village and Wisconsin Dells, the self-professed \"waterpark capital of the world,\" are home to about 5,000 residents. But the area's motels, resorts and vacation homes can accommodate more than 10 times that, according to the visitors bureau. Innkeepers, restaurateurs and other business owners were getting ready for the typically bustling tourist season this week when torrential rains sent the 267-acre lake rushing through an embankment propping up Highway A. The manmade lake sucked a 200-foot swath of highway and a half-dozen homes into the Wisconsin with it. \"I was on the water when I realized the plug had been pulled,\" said Steve Zowin, who was towing a capsized pontoon boat when he noticed the water level quickly diminishing. \"It drained like a bathtub.\" Watch a report from the lake \u00bb . Zowin and his wife, Kathy, have owned Lake Delton Watersports for almost three decades. In addition to running a marina, the couple offers parasail rides and rents boats. Personal watercraft and ski boats are their most popular wares, he said. \"My gross income will be reduced by about 75 percent, and that's huge,\" he said Wednesday. \"It's a big step backwards for someone who's been in business for 29 years.\" Zowin, 56, says that most of the tourists hail from metropolises like Chicago, Illinois; St. Paul\/Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- all \"within a gas tank of the Dells.\" They start trickling in on Father's Day, and tourism booms between Independence Day and mid-August, he said. Like many business owners around Lake Delton, Zowin is seeing canceled reservations from disenchanted visitors who will be spending their summers elsewhere. Asked whether visitors were canceling reservations at her lakeside resort, one owner who didn't want to give her name replied, \"Every day, many.\" Thomas Brown, who owns Port Vista, a popular burger and steak joint on the lake, said that one of his resort-owner friends has refunded $10,000 in deposits for canceled reservations. The friend has closed his resort until at least July, Brown said. iReport.com: Are you near the floods? Send photos, video . Brown, 49, who has owned the bar and restaurant for 15 years, said business hasn't been hit hard yet. \"The first couple of days has been absolutely packed because of all the people coming by to look at the lake and stopping by for a burger or steak,\" he said, adding that he doesn't expect business to boom for long. \"I think when people see what they have to see, it's going to be not so good.\" Some business owners who aren't on the lakefront are still trying to gauge what effect the drained lake will have on them. Watch the rushing lake carry a home away \u00bb . Del-Bar is a popular seafood and steak restaurant near the lake on Wisconsin Dells Parkway. It's so popular, in fact, that actor Johnny Depp and director Michael Mann recently stopped in during filming of their upcoming movie \"Public Enemies,\" owner Jeff Wimmer said. Wimmer said his restaurant, which he has owned for 30 years, may be more resilient than lakefront businesses because he relies more on Wisconsin Dells locals. The 66-year-old knows that the summer brings hungry tourists; it's just too early to tell how many of them have been deterred by the dry lake bed. \"We're anticipating that it's going to affect us, but it's too early to tell right now,\" Wimmer said. How long the lake will remain dry is also a question. Business owners say, some skeptically, that there are efforts afoot to refill the lake by mid-July. Delton Oaks Resort ran a warning on its Web site to potential guests, explaining that there was no timetable for refilling the lake and repairing the highway. But the resort's owners showed they still have a sense of humor. \"We at Delton Oaks Resort are 'make lemonade' kind of people, so we will be adding terrific beach volleyball and horseshoe courts in the near future. And, of course, building sand castles on the beach will be big this year,\" the site quipped. \"For all you dog lovers, as soon as the last of the lake bed has dried up, we will have the biggest dog park you've ever seen.\" Even if the lake is refilled quickly, business owners like Zowin and Brown fear that the lake's splendid fishing might not make a rapid rebound. The lake was home to white and largemouth bass, walleye, crappie, bluegill and perch, but those fish are now in the Wisconsin River after their habitat burst through the Highway A embankment. \"Fishing might be gone for the next four or five years,\" Brown predicted. Business owners around Lake Delton say they hope to bounce back sooner, perhaps by next summer, but this summer may be a wash. \"Once in a while, the more serious ramifications -- mostly financial -- they hit me, and I'm flooded with a few emotions,\" Zowin said. \"It's going to hurt, but I'll survive.\"","highlights":"Lake Delton went away as businesses were getting ready for busy tourist season .\n\"My gross income will be reduced by about 75 percent,\" one business owner says .\nMany businesses at the lake are already seeing canceled reservations .\nSome owners not on lakefront try to gauge how drained lake will affect them .","id":"fc48ce4f01306c58129e0a44f026566c530a8794"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- One of the perks of using search engine Google's home page is checking out the frequently changing seasonal, current-event, and holiday-inspired \"doodles\" used for the logo. Christin Engelberth's \"doodle\" beat out more than 28,000 entries in Google's annual contest. Soon the work of 12-year-old Christin Engelberth will occupy the Google spotlight to be viewed by millions of online searchers worldwide. On Wednesday, Google announced that Christin, a sixth-grader at Bernard Harris Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, is this year's winner of \"Doodle 4 Google,\" a yearly competition that asks K-12 students to dream up their own variation of the logo. Her work will be featured on Google's main site for 24 hours on Thursday. The theme of this year's contest was \"What I Wish for the World.\" \"Both our country and the world are undergoing significant change,\" Google said on the contest's Web pages. At Google we believe in thinking big, and dreaming big, and we can't think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same.\" \"A New Beginning,\" the title of Christin's doodle, depicts the Google logo as a land and sea naturescape intertwined with trees, a frog and leaping dolphin, a curious lizard, a turtle and fish, and a butterfly set against an orange and yellow background with a rising sun represented by the second \"O\" in \"Google.\" In an interview with CNN, Christin said she portrayed a dawn as a symbol of a new day. Her wish was that \"out of the current crisis, discoveries will be found to help the Earth prosper once more.\" She added that wanted to portray a brighter tomorrow and \"discoveries being made lead to a better Earth for everyone.\" Christin said her initial idea for a doodle was for animal conservation, but then she decided \"it shouldn't just include animals; it should include the rest of the world.\" Christin did check out her competition, and said she thought the other doodles were \"much better than mine.\" But a panel of independent judges and Google employees, along with close to 6 million online voters, disagreed, and chose her sketch as the overall winner from a field of over 28,000 other submissions. Google's Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, and Dennis Hwang, webmaster manager, said on the Google Blog that Christin's design was part of \"a very creative pool of doodles.\" As the national winner, Christin will receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop, and a $25,000 technology grant for her school, in addition to having her artwork featured on the Google site. She was presented with her award at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, where Google also unveiled an exhibit of the top doodles. They will be on display until July 5. National finalists also were selected in three grade groups. Each will receive a laptop computer. All winners were treated to a day in New York that Google said \"included activities which promote peace, sustainability and wellness -- all inspired by this year's theme.\" The winners also will participate in a doodling class led by Dennis Hwang and the Google doodle team. Grand prize winner Christin -- who told CNN she was excited to visit New York City -- said she's been \"drawing for as long as she can remember.\" When she grows up, she said, she hopes to do \"anything to do with art.\"","highlights":"San Antonio, Texas, 12-year-old wins \"Doodle for Google\" national contest .\nChristin Engelberth's work will grace Google's main site for 24 hours Thursday .\nOther prizes: $25,000 college scholarship, laptop, tech grant for her school .\nWhen she grows up, she said, she hopes to do \"anything to do with art\"","id":"4e84dab02843f3baee9bf5a91a570dca00136297"} -{"article":"ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (CNN) -- Standing slightly more than 4 feet tall, 9-year-old Tuguldur proudly stated the greatest challenge he faced in a horse race across the Mongolian plains in the country's annual Naadam Festival was serenading his horse. Young wrestlers cheer on teammates during the opening round at the Naadam Festival. \"The hardest part of the race was singing to my horse while riding,\" said Tuguldur, wiping perspiration from the July sun off his face. The long-distance horse race is exclusively for children, ranging in ages from 6 to 12. Riding up to 30 kilometers (19 miles), these children maneuver their galloping steeds on a thin saddle pad that often does not have stirrups. \"Mongolians believe they can communicate with their horses through singing, and their horse will go faster,\" said Tamir, a senior at Mongolian University. \"This is why the kids must keep singing during the race.\" Singing to racing horses is just one part of Mongolia's Naadam Festival, an annual event believed to have existed for centuries, and rivaling the Olympics as the premier sporting event in the central Asian nation. \"For us Mongolians, the Naadam Festival is what we look forward to all year,\" said Dashtsogtsol Erdenetuya, who has competed in the Naadam Festival for the past 22 years. \"It is our tradition and a reminder of an ancient way of life. Getting gold in this festival brings as much honor as any Olympic medal.\" Held every July, the Naadam Festival was possibly founded as long ago as 800 years ago by Genghis Khan. The festival is believed to have started as a way for Mongols to train for military and hunting expeditions. Today, it formally commemorates the 1921 revolution when Mongolia declared itself a free country. Many of Naadam's customs, which include wearing traditional clothes and singing hymns once sung in battle, are still followed, a sign of the importance of the festival. \"In the Naadam Festival, everyone knows who you are; many companies will sponsor you, and if you win, you can become the face of the country,\" said Nasanbat Oyunbat, director of the Mongolian Olympic National Team. \"The Olympics are only now becoming popular in Mongolia and were televised for the first time in the 2004 Games in Athens.\" \"The horses in the Naadam Festival have higher endurance than the horses that will compete in the Olympic Equestrian events in August,\" bragged Edward Rochette, an American lawyer who married a Mongolian woman and is living in Ulaanbaatar. \"Most thoroughbreds would die if you ran them for 30 km. The Mongolian horses have been running across these plains for hundreds of years and have developed the correct body type for this kind of sport.\" Rochette's wife's family lives in a yurt (round animal skin tent), owns more than 1,500 and entered 20 horses in the three-day race competition this year, which was visited by thousands of tourists. \"I was overwhelmed watching the clouds of dust rise across the prairie as the horses galloped to the finish line,\" explained Miep Thulijls, a tourist from Holland. \"I could not believe these tiny kids could ride for so long and was terrified when I saw one of the children fall off his horse like a rag doll.\" The age limit was raised from 4 to 6 after a child was killed in a race a few years ago. Only small children are allowed to compete in this event because they are particularly light. The kids are generally rewarded with warm mare's milk and candy while the horse owners get money and sometimes even cars. Wrestling without weight limits . Mongolian wrestling has no weight divisions; a time limit was only introduced after a match went on for more than four hours. Wrestlers compete in single elimination events and are weeded down from 512 participants during nine rounds of competition. \"It is more difficult to wrestle the little guys because they are so quick,\" complained Gantogtokh, who at 130 kilos (286 pounds) is an eighth-generation wrestler. His father placed second in Judo in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. Dressed in tight blue shorts and a half shirt, which is usually red or blue, the wrestlers dance around the judges in slow graceful sways and then pay homage to the nine flags dating back to Genghis Khan before and after each match. It is rumored that the dress code, which requires wrestlers to compete without shirts was imposed after a female participated in the event disguised as a man. Many of the male athletes who compete in the free style wrestling and judo events in the Olympic Games were once Naadam Festival winners. But, the Olympic gold medal hopeful this year is a female Judo wrestler. \"Each generation of wrestlers gets stronger as they have more opportunities to work out,\" Gantogtokh said. \"I hope this year we will bring home a gold in Judo and wrestling. But, the competition is going to be tough.\" Arrows to anklebones . Other athletes participated in archery and anklebone shooting. \"This has always been my dream,\" beamed Dashtsogtsol Erdenetuya, 36, who has competed in the Naadam Festival for the past 22 years. \"I placed second the past three years and finally came in first this time. My mother was a champion in 1969 and 1975 and taught me everything I know about archery.\" Archery is usually the only event in which women compete. Men shoot from 75 meters and women from 65 meters. Mongolians sing to the archers and stand on either side of the targets. The singers, dressed in elaborate decor, sing three different types of songs, including an invitational song and songs that recognize a good or bad shot. Famous for his ability to shoot backward on horseback, Genghis Khan created the sport of anklebone shooting to strengthen the middle finger of his soldiers, so they would be better skilled in archery. Anklebone shooting is the newest event in the Naadam Festival, only becoming an official sport in 2000. \"The game is becoming more modern now,\" explained Khatanbator, 56, an anklebone participant.\" Competitors now use pieces of deer antler instead of anklebones. It is easier on the wrist to flick than anklebones. But, everyone still refers to the sport as anklebone shooting because it has been this way for hundreds of years.\" The competitors are divided into teams of eight who compete against each other. The first to knock all the deer chips down wins. \"People cheer for the other competitor like fans would in a soccer game,\" explained Berkfat Tumenjin, a Mongolian tour guide. \"While the singing in other events is used to encourage competitors, the singing in this event is used to distract them.\"","highlights":"Naadam Festival is held every July in Mongolia .\nCompetition's events have origins in military, hunting training .\nNaadam in the most widely watched festival in Mongolia .","id":"75b96dc2874cfa89e36972024ac8904033d0cded"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Flowers arrived at Capt. Marissa Alexander's office at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on June 3, 2005. Arlington's Section 60 is the final resting place for many casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her husband, Staff Sgt. Leroy Alexander, was half a world away fighting with the Special Forces in Afghanistan, but he had found a way to send a floral arrangement to his wife, who was five months pregnant with twins. \"He called me and asked me what building I worked in. He said he had to update some records,\" Alexander said. The flowers lifted her spirits. But a few hours later, her emotions would be thrown into a tailspin. Alexander saw two Army officers in dress uniforms knock on her front door. One of the officers started to talk: \"We regret to inform you...\" If he said any more, Alexander doesn't remember. \"The next memory I have is in my kitchen, banging on the floor. I just couldn't believe it,\" she said. The good feelings from flowers delivered a few hours before were gone, replaced by shock, pain and mourning. A roadside bomb had made her a widow. Staff Sgt. Alexander now lies in Arlington National Cemetery's Section 60, where 500 soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. For years Section 60 has been the one of busiest parts of the cemetery. Every day new burials bring precision marches, the somber tones of taps and the nerve-rattling three-gun salutes. Watch how widows connect at Section 60 \u00bb . Then there are family and friends who come to the graves to make an emotional connection to their lost loved ones. Memorial Day weekend brings even more activity and more visitors. Adults, even some uniformed generals, walk slowly between the rows and rows of headstones, looking for a familiar name. But small children often seem to find the cemetery a place to explore, even play. Their smiles and curiosity remind grown-ups that even in a place synonymous with death, life goes on. A sense of community has emerged in Section 60. \"I've come here at times and I've met people who were paying remembrances to their loved ones. You become friendly,\" Capt. Alexander said. \"You see each other sometimes and you make a friendship because you know that your loved ones died for the same cause.\" Angie Capra's husband is buried a few yards from Leroy Alexander. Air Force Tech Sgt. Anthony Capra was an explosive ordnance disposal expert, killed trying disarm a bomb in Iraq. \"Other widows will come by and put something on there for me if they don't see me. They'll put down flowers. It's kind of a community,\" Capra said. More than flowers adorn the graves in Section 60. Visitors of all faiths have picked up the ancient Jewish tradition of leaving a small stone on the headstones to show that a visitor had been to the grave. In most cases these are pebbles found near the grave. But some people have taken to leaving colored glass beads or elaborately painted stones with shamrocks or words like \"hero.\" View images from Section 60 \u00bb . Capra recently found a small Yoda figure on her husband's grave. She doesn't know who left it, but it must have been a friend, because her husband loved \"Star Wars.\" \"We never know who puts stuff\" on the headstone, she said. Some mementos leave one to wonder about the story behind them. Like the headstone topped by a tiny bottle of Tabasco hot sauce. Or a set of dog tags with a name that didn't match the name on the headstone. Watch how friends say goodbye to a fallen soldier \u00bb . There is another topped by a small Lego toy, perhaps left by a child whose father died in a far-off land before they even knew each other. Or the grave adorned with an empty bottle of Bud Light, a rubber duck and a candle. Nearby an empty Wild Turkey bottle is the lone addition to the grave of a soldier who died in a country where drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden. Capra has found a variety of items on Tony's headstone. \"Coins, lots of rocks, candy. My husband was a candy freak,\" Capra said. \"There was a cross. A little necklace, Mardi Gras beads during Mardi Gras season. Anything they have they'll put on top to show that they are thinking about them at the time.\" Alexander seems to draw strength from the items she finds. \"Someone came and did a picture of Lee, and it was a hand-drawn picture. I thought that was very interesting,\" she said. \"People who haven't been seen in years will leave a note of some sort. It's nice to know that you've been remembered after all of this time. To know that we have friends who still love and support us, that is just wonderful.\" Section 60 has been called the \"saddest acre in America,\" and without a doubt sadness abounds. But so do comfort, support and even an occasional smile.","highlights":"National cemetery's Section 60 holds dead from Iraq, Afghanistan wars .\nVisitors take up Jewish tradition of leaving stones on grave markers .\nSome mourners leave tokens such as toys, empty liquor bottles .\nFamilies of fallen service members meet at cemetery, form bonds .","id":"2c535326932e6467dbab7a48b84e695c0de429ec"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In Russia, a country often associated with consumption of mass amounts of vodka, men have an average life expectancy of just 60 years -- one of the lowest in Europe. Men in Russia have an average life expectancy of just 60 years. Life expectancy for Russian men is well below that of western European countries like Germany, where men have an average life span of 77 years, according to World Health Organization figures. \"The biggest health problem facing Russia is the very high level of mortality among working aged men,\" says Martin McKee, an expert in Russian public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. A new dynamism appears to be taking hold of Russia as it aims to raise its prominence on the world stage. Despite having benefited from a boom in commodities prices before the global economy hit the skids, health indicators like life expectancy have shown marginal improvement. Life expectancy for men has stagnated for quite some time, and a major culprit has been high levels of alcohol consumption. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, alcohol and tobacco use have risen, as Russians have struggled to adapt to economic change, health experts say. The transition from a system of state ownership to a market-oriented economy has not been easy for many Russians, according to Mireia Jofre-Bonet, a health economist at City University London. When the Soviet Union fell and the state disappeared, unemployment soared, and a significant portion of the population was pushed into poverty, she told CNN. Research suggests that those most vulnerable to alcoholism tend to be men with the lowest levels of education and the unemployed. A typical 18-year-old in the West has a 90 percent probability of reaching retirement age, but for young men in Russia the odds are reduced to 50 percent, says McKee. Alcoholism tends to be less of a problem among Russian women -- who have a higher average life expectancy of 73 -- but they face an equally worrisome health threat. There has been a big increase in smoking among women, who are being targeted by tobacco companies, says McKee. Traditionally, rates of smoking among Russian women have been very low, but now, he says, almost 30 percent among those under 30 smoke. \"Ten years of adjusting to a new regime created lots of stress,\" says Jofre-Bonet. The resulting rise in alcohol and tobacco abuse have led to ailments like heart disease and cancer. Besides chronic conditions, epidemics of infectious disease, including tuberculosis and HIV\/AIDS, have added to the country's health woes. In the 1990s, Russia experienced a resurgence of tuberculosis, considered a disease of poverty. Since then the growth of new cases has slowed, but strains of the disease that can't be treated with the usual drugs continue to pose a serious public health threat. Meanwhile, the number of people living with HIV in Russia has more than doubled since 2001. While largely confined to injecting drug users, HIV remains a challenge. Lack of needle exchange programs has curbed efforts to combat the spread of the disease, says Annabel Kanabus, director of international AIDS charity AVERT. \"The crisis is still going on. Efforts at prevention are not really working.\" The Russian government is attempting to tackle its health challenges. The alcohol problem improved briefly in 2006 after federal restrictions were applied to the sale of non-beverage alcohols, such as aftershave, which are commonly drunk, McKee says. But he added, there is a major challenge in ensuring that law is enforced everywhere. And while the Kremlin has invested in upgrading technical equipment in recent years, facilities are still not well equipped to deal with high levels of chronic conditions such as high blood pressure. The economic downturn isn't helping. Anxiety levels are rising as a result of soaring unemployment, and the government doesn't have enough funds to meet the needs of the health system. \"There is no money. It's a big mess,\" says Jofre-Bonet. \"The health care system cannot pay for what it needs and there is a lot of corruption in the way of under the table payments for medicines or doctors that legally people should get for free.\"","highlights":"Russian men face startlingly low average life expectancy of just 60 years .\nAlcohol and tobacco use contributing to rise of heart disease and cancer .\nHealth facilities not equipped to deal with high levels of chronic conditions .\nTell CNN what you think about Russia and its resurgence .","id":"2c96916adfb37681cafa1cde36f91e7f60de2592"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Four British Coastguard helicopters of the same model as the one that crashed off Canada last week have been grounded in Scotland to replace a gearbox mounting part, and all those models worldwide are expected to be grounded as well. Sikorsky's Web site says the S-92 \"is the most advanced aircraft\" in its civil product line. This move comes after the Transportation Safety Board of Canada indicated on Friday that the components must be replaced on Sikorsky-92 A helicopters across the globe. The Canadian agency said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will issue an emergency airworthiness directive, effectively grounding all Sikorsky S-92 A helicopters worldwide until the parts are replaced. On March 12, 17 people died when a Sikorsky S-92 A operated by Cougar Helicopters crashed or ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. One person survived. Canada's transportation board on Friday said investigators found a broken main gearbox component that had been addressed in a January alert from Sikorsky. Sikorsky's alert, on January 28, said the \"main gearbox filter bowl assembly mounting titanium studs should be replaced with steel mounting studs.\" This \"one-time modification\" was to be done within 1,250 flight hours or within a year of the alert's issue date. According to Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Sikorsky on Friday notified helicopter contractor CHC that aircraft operating out of Stornoway and Shetland in Scotland need the \"urgent modification.\" The British agency said that when it is clear how long the helicopters will be grounded or need to undergo engineering work, the agency \"will take a decision on implementing a contingency plan for longer term air coverage. The aircraft on the south coast are unaffected.\"","highlights":"Canadian authorities warn Sikorsky-92 A helicopters need gearbox part replaced .\nFAA to issue emergency directive ordering repair, Canadian safety board says .\nFour British Coastguard helicopters grounded in Scotland to replace a part .\nSikorsky-92 A crashed last week off Newfoundland; 17 people died .","id":"c2cf6971515d3b26dabea1ffd42784c07cd5fd5e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Staff Sgt. Cody Reeves has survived harrowing conditions and stared down enemies on the battlefield during two tours in the military hotspots of Iraq. Staff. Sgt. Cody Reeves works out with his fellow Old Guard soldiers. Now he is stationed near Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, trained to carry the remains of fellow soldiers who perished in that same conflict. Before,\"it was all about catching the bad guy,\" Reeves said. \"When you come here, it's all about honoring your brothers who are fallen for catching the bad guys, for their service.\" Reeves serves in the Army's Old Guard, a tight-knit group of soldiers of similar height and size who physically bear the weight of the Army's fallen veterans. The Old Guard conducts a 15-minute ceremony called a dignified transfer. A recent decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates gives families the choice to allow media to film the solemn event. It's the first time in 20 years the ceremony has been open to the press. Watch members of the Old Guard in action \u00bb . Every detail of the transfer is precise. When an American soldier dies overseas, the Old Guard is called into action. They travel from their base to Dover, where they meet the aircraft carrying the soldier's body. The six men receive the flag-draped casket, which can weigh 500 pounds, and carry the soldier's body to a waiting vehicle. Women serve as officers in charge on the Army transfer teams, but do not carry the caskets. For Air Force transfers, which use eight people, women help carry the coffin. Despite the cold or the heat, the late hour when the planes often arrive and the physical and emotional strain of their job, the soldiers keep their faces blank. \"There's definitely times where your mind goes off, even in the ceremony,\" said Spc. Wilbert Steinborn, another member of the Old Guard. \"You say, 'This guy might have a wife or kids or mother or father who's never going to see him again.' \"You can't let it show. Inside you might feel it, and definitely a human's going to feel that -- they're going to feel that emotion. But you can't show that on the outside,\" Steinborn said. The men stifle sneezes, learn to yawn through their noses and betray no sign of the burden they carry. And -- what they say makes keeping their composure even more important -- the team performs its duties in front of the soldiers' families. \"We're soldiers too. We're infantrymen. We could easily be in their place,\" Steinborn said. \"It's hard because you honestly think you see your wife or your girlfriend sitting where the next-of-kin is. You can imagine yourself being there.... So I think that's why we try to be as precise and exact, and look as good, and make them look as good as possible.\" Some of the Old Guard choose to learn about the lives of the soldiers they've carried. Reeves asks for information about the fallen after having participated in the ceremonies, but never before he greets the soldier's body. \"It's 'take care of business' and then afterwards I like to know a little bit about the soldier,\" he said. \"That way you can keep emotions at bay and you're just focused on doing the soldier part.\" Strikingly, the men, who head to their barracks' gym for intense weight training twice a day and take five-mile runs as a team, seem to be able to communicate without speaking. After drilling for countless hours on the base's grounds, they can feel if another man is even minutely out of step in the ceremony. Sometimes they'll whisper corrections so discreetly no onlooker would ever notice. The nature of their job means the men also share a tighter, unspoken bond. \"When I was walking through the aircraft and saw the transfer case with the American flag draped over it, it was -- it was very emotional,\" Steinborn said. \"I don't know if it sadness or pride or what, but -- it was honestly the most difficult and touching thing that I have ever done.\"","highlights":"\"It's all about honoring your brothers who are fallen,\" Reeves says .\nArmy's Old Guard transfers remains of soldiers who died in conflict .\nThe team performs duties in front of the soldiers' families .\nThe nature of their job means the men share a tight, unspoken bond .","id":"15d9a3c6917fd7e2477f549200e9a26105f3fb1b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama delivered the commencement address Friday to the U.S. Naval Academy's graduating class, speaking to an audience of 30,000 that included a former presidential candidate and proud parent of one of the graduates in attendance. Jack McCain shakes hands with President Obama at Friday's commencement ceremony. John Sidney McCain IV, more commonly known as Jack, on Friday became the fourth McCain to graduate from the Annapolis, Maryland, service academy and the fourth with the same name. \"America, look at these young men and women. Look at these sailors and Marines. Here are the values that we cherish. Here are the ideals that endure,\" Obama told the crowd. About midday at the academy's commissioning and graduation ceremony, McCain received a Bachelor of Science degree, taking the oath of office and being commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy 103 years after his great-grandfather did the same. Watch Obama hug John McCain's son \u00bb . With parents John and Cindy McCain watching, he shook hands with the president and then walked back into the crowd to applause and more hugs. Joe McCain told CNN that his brother plans to join his father and great-grandfather as naval aviators. \"His grandfather, JSM Jr., was in submarines, commanding three different boats in World War II,\" he said. That grandfather later became Adm. McCain and was commander of the Pacific Theater during the Vietnam War, when Jack's father, now Arizona Sen. John McCain, was being held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. In an interview last year with GoMids.com, Jack McCain reflected on the advice his father gave him on the day he arrived at the Naval Academy. \"My dad told me there is one thing McCains are good at, and that is not giving in to pressure, and honor -- keeping our honor regardless of what happens,\" Jack McCain said. \"He then said, 'Don't lie, cheat or steal -- anything else is fair game.' \" John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, frequently poked fun at his record at the Naval Academy while on the campaign trail, pointing out that he \"stood fifth from the bottom\" of his class and racked up dozens of demerits. At a campaign event last October, McCain joked that Jack needed a \"DNA check\" because he had yet to receive a single demerit. (Jack McCain told GoMids.com that he did accumulate some demerits -- for wearing flip-flops outside and forgetting to shave). McCain told Fox News on Thursday that his son is graduating \"in better class standing than I had, which wasn't hard to do.\" \"I'm very proud of him,\" he said. Meghan McCain, Jack's older sister, sent a message on Twitter Friday saying her younger brother, Jimmy, could not attend because he is serving overseas. McCain told Fox News he is returning home this weekend. In his remarks to the students, Obama made a vow that he would not send them to war unless it is \"absolutely necessary.\" \"It's a promise that as long as I am your commander in chief, I will only send you into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary, and with the strategy, the well-defined goals, the equipment and the support that you need to get the job done,\" he said. \"This includes the job of bringing the Iraq war to a responsible end and pursuing a new comprehensive strategy to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.\" Obama also promised additional assistance to military families, vowing that \"we will be with you every step of the way, increasing your pay, increasing child care and helping families deal with the stress and separation of war.\" And he said new laws will help ensure that veterans are well taken care of. Obama's commencement address was his third and final of the year. He was also commencement speaker at Arizona State University and the University of Notre Dame.","highlights":"Son of Sen. John McCain, the former GOP presidential candidate, graduates .\nJack McCain shakes hands with Obama, who delivers commencement address .\nHe is the fourth McCain to graduate from Naval Academy .\nObama vows to not send them to war unless it is \"absolutely necessary\"","id":"ad101f60f9a4ddc538c848b03c0d722515db9dc0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sailors aboard a U.S. ocean surveillance ship reacted with a mix of bemusement and profanity to what they said was harassment by Chinese ships earlier this month, according to video released Friday by the Pentagon. The Navy says this shows a trawler crew member using a hook to try to snag the Impeccable's towed acoustic array. \"Chinese aggression, from aboard the USNS Impeccable,\" one member of the American ship's crew is heard narrating. \"Details at 11.\" The Pentagon has raised concerns about a March 8 incident in which \"increasingly aggressive\" Chinese ships harassed the Impeccable, an unarmed survey ship with a mostly civilian crew. China's government accused the ship of violating Chinese and international laws during its patrols, which took place more than 100 miles off the Chinese coast. \"The U.S. claims are gravely in contravention of the facts and confuse black and white and they are totally unacceptable to China,\" Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said after news of the incident emerged. Five Chinese vessels shadowed the Impeccable, with two of them closing to within 25 feet while their crews waved Chinese flags and stripped down to their underwear in a sign of disrespect. The Impeccable also turned fire hoses on one of the ships \"in order to protect itself,\" the Pentagon said. The Pentagon said the Chinese also attempted to snag the sonar equipment that the ship was towing behind it, leaving crew members discussing possible orders to destroy the equipment at one point. \"Lou and Wilson man the hoses while the Chinese irritate us to tears,\" the video's narrator reports. \"Here he comes for another swipe at the array cable.\" Watch Pentagon video of Impeccable incident \u00bb . The 281.5-foot Impeccable is one of six surveillance ships that perform military survey operations, according to the Navy. It is an oceanographic ship that gathers underwater acoustic data, using sonar. It has a maximum speed of 13 knots -- or about 15 mph -- but it travels 3 knots, or 3.5 mph, when towing its array of monitoring equipment. It carries a crew of 20 mariners, five technicians and as many as 20 Navy personnel. The Chinese ships involved included a navy intelligence collection ship, a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries patrol vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers, the statement said.","highlights":"Irritation shows in video taken during harassment of U.S. ship by Chinese vessels .\nChina says Navy surveillance vessel was violating Chinese and international law .\nUSS Impeccable turned fire hoses on vessel that came close in March 8 incident .\nCrew discussed possibly destroying sonar equipment Impeccable was towing .","id":"7c6a23daaebf8321078ea5d6ba576134bd55d80e"} -{"article":"CANNES, France (CNN) -- Editor's note: Watch The Screening Room Cannes special on CNN at the following dates and times: Wednesday 27 May: 0730, 1730, Saturday 30 May: 0730, 1800, Sunday 31 May: 0430, 1730, Monday 31 May: 0300 (All times GMT) In the most high-profile amalgamation of Indian and western talent yet, Academy Award-winning actor Ben Kingsley stars with Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in a drama about a pair of maths geniuses. Ben Kingsely who stars in \"Teen Patti\" is the first Academy Award-winner ever to take a role in a Bollywood movie. Bollywood-produced \"Teen Patti\" (\"Card Game\") also marks Kingsley's first return to Indian filmmaking since playing the title role in \"Gandhi,\" the critically-acclaimed biopic of the Indian leader that propelled him to fame in 1982. He is the first Oscar-winning Hollywood actor ever to star in a Bollywood movie, and Kingsley believes that the future of filmmaking could lie in combining the twin talents of the world's biggest film industries. \"I think the two talents put together could be extraordinary,\" Kingsley told CNN in Cannes where he was promoting \"Teen Patti.\" The 65 year-old English actor maintains that western cinema is suffering from a lack of originality and \"heart,\" with many films just ending up as a \"copy of a copy of a copy.\" He thinks that the Indian approach to filmmaking can give western productions the infusion of originality they need -- and that filmmakers in India can benefit from \"the technology, and the casting opportunities, the directorial opportunities of the west.\" \"Teen Patti\" is set in India and the UK, where Kingsley shot all of his scenes, and uses English and Hindi dialogue. The drama, which cost a mere $7 million to make, will have its world premiere in Mumbai in August. Watch CNN The Screening Room producer Neil Curry search for Ben Kingsely in Cannes \u00bb . It tells the story of a university professor, played by Bachchan, who schools five of his most able students in the finer points of high-stakes gambling. The film's plot is reported to be similar to \"21,\" the 2008 Kevin Spacey drama, based on the story of the MIT Blackjack Team. Indian production company Serendipity Films, which was launched in 2003 by Ambika Hinduja, a member of one of India's richest families, is behind the picture. One of the company's central projects is cultural-fusion projects, like this one. The company is aiming to enter the big league by investing $50 million over the next three years in projects which bring together Indian and western talent. Do you think that Bollywood can make movies for a western audience? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . Kingsley says he has wanted to be associated with mainstream Indian film ever since he made \"Gandhi\" -- an Indo-British production and so not \"entirely an Indian film\"-- with director Richard Attenborough in India. The actor who is acclaimed for performances in \"Sexy Beast\" (2000) and \"Schindler's List\" (1993) says he wanted to know what it would be like to work with an Indian director -- Leena Yadav, \"who was amazing\" -- and a huge Indian star like Bachchan. \"I was very curious about him and he was very curious about me,\" says Kingsley of working with 66 year-old Bachchan, or \"Big B\" as India's most prominent Bollywood star is affectionately known to audiences. Bachchan's deep voice and brooding persona changed the face of Hindi cinema in the 1970s. Up until then Bollywood screens had been populated by wisecracking loverboys -- the trademark Indian hero in the 1960s. Today, he is best-known for hosting the Indian version of \"Who Wants To Be a Millionaire\" (\"Kaun Banega Crorepati\"). Kingsley says that while on set, he and Bachchan \"circled each other like hunters.\" Despite his respect for the Godfather of Bollywood, Kingsley refused to socialize with the star: \"Because my character in this film is discovering Bachchan's character and if it's all frittered away in social 'bla-bla' there's nothing left to discover.\" Kingsley's Indian connection goes back even further than \"Gandhi.\" The British actor was born Krishna Bhanji to an English mother an Indian father and adopted his British name while at drama school. Apart from his Bollywood work Kingsley has just finished filming a Martin Scorsese directed period drama, \"Shutter Island,\" which is expected to hit cinemas later this year. He is also busy producing his own films as part of SBK Pictures, the production company he founded in 2007, as he says, \"putting into practice all the things that one has learnt along the way.\" The company currently has five films in development, one of which is a drama about native Indians called \"Whispers Like Thunder.\" For Kingsley, producing is a chance to have some control over the filmmaking process that isn't possible as an actor. \"It's tragic when [a film] just misses,\" he told CNN. \"If you'd made a slight adjustment in your casting, or your writing, or your director of photography or the rhythm of editing, it could have been absolutely perfect.\" Other Hollywood stars mixing with Bollywood include Sylvester Stallone, who will appear in Sabir Khan's romantic comedy, \"Kambakkht Ishq\" and Mickey Rourke is set to star in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Hollywood debut, \"Broken Horses.\"","highlights":"Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley stars with Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan .\n\"Teen Patti\" is Kingsley's first return to Indian filmmaking after \"Gandhi in 1982 .\nIt is the first time an Oscar-winner has starred in Bollywood film .\nMost high-profile amalgamation of western and Indian movie-making talent yet .","id":"79962b8597bd1180ce5d793b14bc635dc19ec583"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Senior Pakistani and Indian military officials met Tuesday to discuss a border clash in Kashmir, the first major skirmish between South Asia's nuclear rivals since a 2003 cease-fire. Indian army soldiers on the outskirts of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN that Pakistan \"made our point clear\" regarding the firefight, which he said began after Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control that separates Kashmir between India and Pakistan. But an Indian military spokeswoman, Capt. Neha Goyal, told CNN Pakistani troops crossed the Line of Control and \"started firing on our patrol,\" killing an Indian soldier. \"Our troops also retaliated and the Pakistan army troopers ran back,\" she said. Abbas said \"further action should be taken\" following Tuesday's \"flag meeting,\" but did not elaborate. The meeting took place along the Line of Control. Reports in India's media said four Pakistani soldiers were killed, but Pakistan's military \"strongly denied the report of any (casualties) on the Pakistani side.\" Pakistan's military also denied its forces crossed the Line of Control, saying the skirmish started when Indian soldiers tried to establish a forward post on Pakistan's side of the line. \"On Pakistan's' objection, Indian troops opened indiscriminate and unprovoked fire,\" a Pakistan military news release, posted on Monday, stated. \"The Indian fire was immediately responded to. The firing continued -- intermittently during the whole night.\" Pakistan said the Indian soldiers \"were forced to flee from the area leaving behind their weapons\" after the firefight. Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged periodic gunfire since May, but Monday's clashes appear to be a serious setback to the ongoing peace process between the two nations. India and Pakistan had announced a bilateral cease-fire all along their borders in November 2003 and the cease-fire had been holding on the borders until recently. Kashmir has been at the root of two wars between India and Pakistan, both of which tested nuclear weapons in 1998. An 18-year separatist campaign in the Indian-controlled portion of the largely Muslim territory has claimed more than 43,000 lives, according to government officials, although human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations put the toll at twice that number. India has long accused Pakistan of supporting the separatists in Kashmir, a charge Pakistan denies. India blamed militants from Pakistan for a suicide car bombing outside its embassy in Afghanistan that killed 58 people on July 7. A December 2001 attack on India's parliament that India blamed on the militants brought the two nations to the brink of another war, but they have expanded economic and cultural ties since the November 2003 cease-fire agreement. -- CNN's Aliza Kassim in Atlanta and Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pakistan: Fighting began after Indian soldiers crossed the Line of Control .\nIndia accused Pakistan of attacking one of its patrols, killing a soldier .\nFirefight took place across the Line of Control border in disputed Kashmir region .","id":"9a94d255ca568d24955dceb17d035f78998a4495"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. and NATO forces are engaged in a futile war against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Canada's prime minister said. Canadian leader Stephen Harper says he backs President Obama's \"renewed commitment to Afghanistan.\" \"We are not going to ever defeat the insurgency,\" Stephen Harper told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired Sunday. \"Afghanistan has probably had -- my reading of Afghanistan history -- it's probably had an insurgency forever, of some kind.\" Harper's blunt assessment comes as nearly 2,800 Canadian forces are fighting in Afghanistan. The country's parliament has voted to pull them out by 2011. Harper spoke with Zakaria last week after a visit by President Obama, who made Canada his first foreign trip since taking office in January. Obama has said Afghanistan is the central front to the U.S.-led war on terror. The Pentagon is in the process of sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total there to 55,000. Harper told CNN that he supports Obama's \"renewed commitment to Afghanistan\" but said he would not recommit any more Canadian troops until there is a clear plan for leaving Afghanistan. \"What has to happen in Afghanistan is, we have to have an Afghan government that is capable of managing that insurgency and improving its own governance,\" Harper said. \"If President Obama wants anybody to do more, I would ask very hard questions about what is the strategy for success and for an eventual departure.\"","highlights":"Prime Minister Stephen Harper: \"We are not going to ever defeat the insurgency\"\nCanada's parliament has voted to pull its troops from Afghanistan by 2011 .\nHarper says he supports President Obama's \"renewed commitment to Afghanistan\"\nBut Harper says he won't recommit more troops until there's a clear plan for leaving .","id":"3d54107ab9e89af5288f7bd0a37b7033b3fbd562"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- Heads of South American nations lent support Monday night to President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who says opposition leaders are trying to overthrow his government. Indigenous people from El Alto, Bolivia, take part in an anti-U.S. demonstration in La Paz on Monday. Confronting their first crisis, members of the four-month-old Union of South American Countries voted to create a commission to support Morales' democratically elected government, said President Michelle Bachelet of Chile. She read a nine-point statement on Chilean TV that calls for the support of human rights and democracy and the preservation of Bolivia's territorial integrity. The statement condemns any attempts to overthrow the government. It also said the new commission would investigate a reported massacre in the Bolivian state of Pando, where violent clashes killed 30 people last week. Those clashes pitted supporters of eastern governors who want autonomy against the central government. The South American leaders also urged dialogue to address disputes in Bolivia. Morales attended the emergency meeting of the union, which is modeled on the European Union and aims to politically and economically integrate South American countries. The president is poised to approve the start of negotiations between his leftist government and opposition leaders of five provinces who demand greater autonomy and the cancellation of a constitutional referendum that would give the president more power. The opposition also is angry over tax money that Morales is diverting from the provinces to fund elderly programs. Morales said the opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. \"This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces,\" Morales said. Opposition leaders say they merely want their demands met. Police kept order Monday during a march by about 2,000 pro-government groups opposed to the violence in the provinces. The demonstrators marched past the U.S. Embassy in La Paz. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia last week, blaming the American government for inciting the violence. The United States called the accusations \"false and baseless\" and said Bolivia was making a \"grave mistake.\" Most of South America's leaders attended Monday's emergency summit, with the exception of President Alan Garcia of Peru. Protest leaders asked to attend the summit in Santiago, Chile, but it was limited to heads of state. The protests started 21 days ago in Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz, Tarija and Chuquisaca provinces. The opposition groups have blockaded major roads and threaten to disrupt the nation's natural gas shipments, particularly to Brazil and Argentina. Anti-government protesters also have clashed with police and taken over offices and buildings in the five provinces. Watch some of the violent demonstrations across Bolivia \u00bb . Much of the violence has taken place in Pando -- Morales declared martial law there Friday. On Monday, supporters of Morales, or his so-called militias, were gathering in Santa Cruz, and threatening to encircle the city, stoking fears that blood could be shed there. In Pando, it was reported that arbitrary arrests were taking place as the military took to the streets. Houses had been broken into and shot up, and civic leaders were fleeing to Brazil. It was uncertain, meanwhile, whether the Bolivian military remained solely behind Morales. Some signs of divisions had been seen within the military. Opposition leaders say they will not negotiate if there are any more deaths. Vice President Alvaro Garcia said the government will not negotiate about the dead citizens but will rigorously pursue those responsible for the killings. There are conflicting reports over who killed the 30 peasants. Opposition leaders say the peasants were ambushed by local forces. The government says the peasants were armed and initiated the firefight. The opposition has offered to lift the blockades as a goodwill gesture, but the government demanded that the protesters also relinquish the buildings and other property they have seized. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, was elected in December 2005. CNN's Ione Molinares and Journalist Martin Arostegui contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Bolivian president to return home to approve negotiations with provinces .\nSouth American nation have met to discuss violence in Bolivia .\nAt least 30 people killed during past week of protests .\nViolence is centered in the eastern province of Pando .","id":"dd1429ee41686ab786b009dbc5fb78b8fc824172"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a Nairobi slum, more than one in four children under 5 will die, but in a wealthier part of the Kenyan capital, the mortality rate is one in almost 67, according to a World Health Organization report released Tuesday. A woman lies next to her sick child at a medical center in Sheshemene, Ethiopia, in July. The World Health Report 2008 aims to spotlight disparities in health care across the globe, and as the Nairobi example illustrates, the differences exist not only between the First and Third Worlds -- they can occur just across town. WHO roundly criticizes the organization, finance and delivery of health care and calls advances in the field \"deeply and unacceptably unequal, with many disadvantaged populations increasingly lagging behind or even losing ground.\" The report says that a citizen of a wealthy nation can live up to 40 years longer than someone in a poor country, and of the 136 million women who will give birth this year, about 58 million (43 percent) will receive no medical assistance during childbirth or the postpartum period. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said the sharp inequities in the cost and access to health care often speak to larger societal ills. \"High maternal, infant and under-five mortality often indicates lack of access to basic services such as clean water and sanitation, immunizations and proper nutrition,\" she said in a statement. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan insists the dilemma is not just a matter of haves versus have-nots. \"A world that is greatly out of balance in matters of health is neither stable nor secure,\" she said in a statement from Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the report was released. The difference in annual government expenditures on health care is more canyon than gap, according to the report. While the wealthiest nations dole out as much as $6,000 per person each year, some countries are unable or unwilling to spend more than $20 per person. However, while calling for wide-ranging reforms in the delivery of primary health care, the report notes that it isn't always a matter of government expenditures. Tajikistan and Sierra Leone both spend less than $100 per person on health care. But while the health-adjusted life expectancy in Sierra Leone is under 30 years of age, Tajikistan's is almost 70 -- a figure comparable to the United States, which spends more than $2,500 a person on health care. \"When countries at the same level of economic development are compared, those where health care is organized around the tenets of primary health care produce a higher level of health for the same investment,\" the report says. WHO defines primary health care as being \"universally accessible to individuals and families in the community by means acceptable to them, through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford.\" The organization's report -- titled \"Primary Health Care -- Now More Than Ever\" -- calls for a move toward universal coverage to reverse a trend over the last 30 years in which disparities in the levels of health care have actually widened. Universal coverage, the report says, would lower the risks of disease outbreaks for everyone, not just the impoverished. Currently, the most common means of paying for health care is out of pocket, which WHO says is the \"most inequitable method for financing health care services.\" The report says more than 100 million people fall into poverty in a given year because of health care bills. Another problem, the report says, is that doctors tend not to focus on prevention. \"Rather than improving their response capacity and anticipating new challenges, health systems seem to be drifting from one short-term priority to another, increasingly fragmented and without a clear sense of direction,\" according to the report. But the report also handed out accolades, most notably to Iran and Cuba. WHO applauded the Islamic Republic's 17,000 \"health houses,\" which serve about 1,500 people each. The report credited the centers with boosting Iranians' life expectancy from 63 to 71 years between 1990 and 2006. And in Cuba, the nation's \"polyclinics\" have yielded one of the longest life expectancies (78 years) of any developing country, the report says. The report called for all sectors of society to help determine how health care is allocated, and it singled out the United States for spending just 0.1 percent of its health budget on health systems research -- the kind of research that policymakers use to decide how money is spent. The report also points to the pharmaceutical industry's impact on health care in the United States, where the average expenditure on prescription drugs in 2005 was $1,141 per person -- twice the average in Canada, Germany and Britain, and 10 times the average in Mexico. To combat the problems facing global health care, WHO says in its report that nations must improve coverage and delivery, as well as policy and leadership. It acknowledges that primary health care isn't cheap, but asserts that the \"investment provides better value for money than its alternatives.\" \"The legitimacy of health authorities increasingly depends on how well they assume responsibility to develop and reform the health sector according to what people value -- in terms of health and of what is expected of health systems in society,\" the report says.","highlights":"Health care disparities make world \"neither stable nor secure,\" WHO director says .\nReport: 43 percent of women giving birth this year will do so without medical help .\nTajikistan, Sierra Leone have 40-year gap in life expectancy despite expenditures .\nReport applauds Iran, Cuba for finding ways to improve health care .","id":"fa2f777a53cd613f418babe3b6e0181294d8e939"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Recent headlines focusing on the rash of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia should instead focus on the humanitarian crisis driving Somalis to commit crimes on the high seas, an international aid group said Thursday. Somalia's population have suffered from a lack of the most basic services. An estimated one-third of Somalia's population desperately needs emergency aid, the international agency Oxfam said, as donors to Somalia met in Brussels, Belgium. \"Without economic opportunities offering alternatives to criminality, and without law and order to curb these activities, then the massive economic returns of hijacking ships will continue to drive piracy,\" Robert Maletta, policy adviser for Oxfam, said in a news release. \"The international community must urgently focus their attention on finding ways to assist the millions of people in desperate need,\" Maletta said. Somalia, which is racked by poverty and conflict, has not had a fully functioning government since 1991, when its president was overthrown in Mogadishu, the capital. Drought and rising food prices have added to the nation's problems, according to Maletta. \"Families are finding it difficult to meet their most basic needs, as prices for basic food items are at record high levels,\" he said. Not only do civilians need emergency aid, they also need protection from military abuses, aid groups said. \"Since Somalia's security forces have committed so many violent abuses against civilians, efforts to strengthen them also need to make them more accountable,\" said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. The combination of security and humanitarian assistance is necessary to curb piracy in the region, which borders the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, aid groups said. The April 8 hijacking of the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama made headlines worldwide when its American captain, Richard Phillips, was held hostage by four Somali men. Phillips was rescued four days later, after U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates. The fourth suspect, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, was brought to New York to face federal piracy charges. Ships with aid supplies destined for countries in the region, including Somalia, also have been hijacked in the Indian Ocean. Pirates held a ship carrying U.N. food aid for 100 days in June 2005. Two years ago, a cargo ship and crew delivering U.N. aid to Somalia were held and released after 40 days. The Maersk was going to the coastal town of Mombasa, Kenya, to deliver relief supplies intended for various countries in the region, including Somalia.","highlights":"Oxfam: One-third of Somalia's population desperately needs emergency aid .\nSomalia has not had a fully functioning government since 1991 .\nGroups: Security, humanitarian assistance necessary to curb piracy .\nBrussels meeting aimed at supporting Somalia's security through more funding .","id":"d489d5dd4a1e486dd9cf3ef34e6e7f2948daccaf"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Members of an Iranian group say Iraqi forces have beaten and abused them as Iraqis move to expel the Iranians from a camp on Iraqi land. About 3,500 people live at Camp Ashraf, where members of the People's Mujahedin have lived for 24 years. The Iranian group -- designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Iran -- has asked the United States to intervene on their behalf. About 3,500 people live at Camp Ashraf, most of them members of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran who have lived at the camp for 24 years after fleeing Iran. Iran, Iraq, Canada and the United States consider the People's Mujahedin, which opposes the government in Tehran, a terrorist organization, although the European Union removed the group from its terrorist list in January. The United Kingdom did so last year. The People's Mujahedin accused the Iraqi military of entering the camp north of Baghdad on Friday and forcibly evacuating a building that served mostly as a women's dormitory. Ashraf residents rallied Monday against the military, chanting for Imam Hussein -- the Prophet Mohammed's grandson and a holy figure for Shiite Muslims -- to save them from the abuse of the Iraqi soldiers. Statements from the National Council of Resistance to Iran, an umbrella group of Iranian opposition organizations -- the largest of which is the People's Mujahedin -- accuse Iraq's Shiite-dominated government of doing the bidding of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also a Shiite. \"The Iranian Resistance calls for urgent intervention of the U.S. government and competent international bodies to neutralize plots by the clerical regime and prevent a human catastrophe in Camp Ashraf,\" said a statement dated Sunday. Iraq's government denied that it was acting on Khamenei's behalf. \"The Iraqi government's position is clear and there is no retreat from its decision to close Camp Ashraf,\" said a statement from the office of National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie. \"The national security adviser is only implementing the decision and the policy of the Iraqi government.\" The National Council also accused the Iraqis of barring delivery of all supplies to the camp except for food, banning Iraqi workers from entering the camp and blocking families from visiting relatives inside the camp. The Iraqi government statement denied keeping supplies from Camp Ashraf. \"The Iraqi government continues to facilitate all humanitarian materials entering Camp Ashraf,\" the Iraqi statement said. \" ... We welcome any visit by any international organization.\" A People's Mujahedin spokesman in Camp Ashraf called the statement false and asked international groups \"to visit Ashraf and observe the facts and realities of the present situation by themselves.\" Camp Ashraf, which has housed Iranians since the mid-1980s, was under U.S. protection until January 1, when it was handed over to the Iraqis. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council and the long-time leader of People's Mujahedin, sent a letter to President Obama asking for help against \"a conspiracy hatched by the religious dictatorship ruling Iran against the lives of 3,500 residents of Camp Ashraf.\" Rajavi cited comments by Khamenei during a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talibani last month calling for the expulsion of the People's Mujahedin from Iraq and later comments by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during a trip to Baghdad calling for Camp Ashraf's closure. After those remarks, the National Council said, al-Rubaie declared that the Iranians at Camp Ashraf had no right to refugee status or to political asylum and would be expelled either back to Iran or to a third country. Rajavi, in her letter to Obama, asked the president to \"issue an order so that the arrangements for the protection of Ashraf are reinstated to that which was in place before January 2009, i.e., the U.S. forces be tasked with the protection of Ashraf.\" The U.S. military in Iraq had no comment on the matter, referring queries to the State Department, which did not have an immediate comment. Also known as Mujahedin-e-Khalq, People's Mujahedin was initially formed to oppose the shah of Iran, but fell out of favor with the Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after 1979. People's Mujahedin, which promotes a secular, Marxist government for Iran, waged a violent campaign against the fundamentalist Islamic Tehran government -- including bombings that killed politicians, judges and Cabinet members -- for years. The group allied with Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the mid-1980s and fought with the Iraqis against Iran in the latter years of the Iran-Iraq war. People's Mujahedin renounced violence in 2001, but a group of 12 former members told Human Rights Watch in 2005 that they were subject to physical and psychological abuse when they made it known they wanted to leave the organization. The group is also said to have provided Western governments with information about Iran's nuclear program. The National Council accused al-Rubaie in particular of \"clearly implementing the dictates of Khamenei\" and said he should \"be prosecuted by international forces.\"","highlights":"People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran have lived at camp for 24 years .\nGroup is considered terrorist organization by United States, others .\nIraqi government has decided to close the camp .\nGroup says Iraq is doing bidding of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who group opposes .","id":"28cf5e7481abed22328d82f551de48eb9adf267d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday to a revised indictment charging him in a corruption and tax evasion case, according to a spokesman for the New York District Attorney. A revised indictment brings to 15 the number of counts against former police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. The revised indictment includes two new counts of aiding the filing of false returns and a charge involving making false statements while applying for a housing loan, spokesman Herbert Hadad of the district attorney's office told CNN. Kerik is accused of failing to report more than $500,000 in income between 1999 and 2004, said Patricia Haynes, the IRS agent in charge of the case. Prosecutors allege Kerik received and concealed benefits of about $255,000 in renovations to his Riverdale, New York, apartment from a company seeking to do business with the city of New York. Revisions to the original indictment, which included charges of corruption, conspiracy and tax evasion, bring to 15 the number of counts against Kerik. Barry Berke, Kerik's attorney, declined to comment. The indictment also charges that Kerik made several false statements to the White House and other federal officials when he applied for the position as adviser to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and in connection with his nomination to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson did not rule Monday on whether the two counts that include charges of lying to White House officials will be tried in Washington or White Plains, New York. Kerik is due back in court February 3 for a hearing on pretrial motions, Hadad said. A trial date has not been set. Kerik, 53, is a longtime friend and former protege of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. President Bush nominated him to be secretary of homeland security after winning re-election in 2004, but Kerik withdrew his name amid allegations that he employed a nanny who had a questionable immigration status. Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson began investigating allegations that Kerik had traded payment on repairs to his Bronx apartment for favors, including city contracts. The former chief pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts while he worked as city corrections commissioner. He was fined $221,000 and avoided jail time under his plea agreement. Before tapping Kerik for a Cabinet post, Bush dispatched him to Baghdad to train Iraqi police after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. He left three months into an expected six-month stint, with Iraqi officials telling reporters that he had completed his assignment. In 2004, he campaigned for Bush's re-election and spoke at the Republican National Convention in New York. CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bernard Kerik is accused of failing to report more than $500,000 in income .\nKerik is the former New York City police commissioner .\nIndictment also charges that Kerik made false statements to the White House .\nA trial date has not been set .","id":"b401be43092ba251abd1aeca4472921ea2d901fe"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A visit to the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Pyramids is on the itinerary of most jet-setting travelers. Visiting the Eiffel Tower was voted the most overrated experience by tourists. But some of the most famous and iconic tourist attractions in the world are the most disappointing to actually visit, according to a survey of British tourists. And those questioned didn't think too highly of their own country's best-known landmarks either, with Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain also turning people cold. Travel expert Felice Hardy explained why many tourists, often after spending inflated amounts on reaching and then viewing the most famous places, are left with a feeling of anti-climax. \"It's easy to be swayed by brochures that opt for the mainstream and focus on clich\u00e9d tourist sights around the world,\" she said. \"But many of them are overcrowded and disappointing. \"Pick carefully and don't always go for the obvious. Natural phenomena are usually more exciting than the man-made, and can be wonderfully free of tourists.\" The Eiffel Tower -- described by Hardy as \"frustratingly overcrowded and overpriced\" -- was dubbed the most disappointing international sight. Britain's biggest letdown was Stonehenge, a sacred Druid sight in the rural south of England, which was dismissed as \"an isolated pile of rocks in a usually muddy field\" by Hardy. The Diana fountain resembled \"a colorless wet skateboard park\" while as far as Big Ben was concerned: \"Once you've seen it, you'll know what time it is -- time to go somewhere else.\" Three of America's most famous sights -- New York's Times Square and Statue of Liberty plus The White House in Washington also made the list of shame. But the 1,267 adults questioned by Virgin Travel Insurance also nominated the best places to visit in the world, with the Treasury in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan topping the list. Other unmissables included the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya and Australia's Sydney Harbor Bridge. Alnwick Castle in Northumberland was voted Britain's top tourist sight. TOP TEN MOST DISAPPOINTING GLOBAL SIGHTS . 1. The Eiffel Tower, Paris; 2. The Louvre, Paris; 3. Times Square, New York; 4. Las Ramblas, Barcelona; 5. Statue of Liberty, New York; 6. Spanish Steps, Rome; 7. The White House, Washington DC; 8. The Pyramids, Egypt; 9. The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin; 10.The Leaning Tower of Pisa. TOP TEN MOST DISAPPOINTING UK SIGHTS . 1. Stonehenge; 2. Angel of the North. Gateshead; 3. Blackpool Tower; 4. Land's End, Cornwall; 5. Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, London; 6. The London Eye; 7. Brighton Pier; 8. Buckingham Palace; 9. White Cliffs of Dover; 10. Big Ben. TOP TEN BEST GLOBAL SIGHTS . 1. The Treasury at Petra, Jordan; 2. The Grand Canal, Venice; 3. The Masai Mara, Kenya; 4. Sydney Harbour Bridge; 5. Taroko Gorge, Taiwan; 6. Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia; 7. Cappadoccia caves, Turkey; 8. Lake Titicaca, Peru and Bolivia; 9. Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia; 10. Jungfraujoch railway, Switzerland. TOP TEN BEST UK SIGHTS . 1. Alnwick Castle, Northumberland; 2. Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, County Antrim; 3. The Royal Crescent, Bath; 4. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Southwark, south London; 5. The Backs, Cambridge; 6. Holkham Bay, Norfolk; 7. Lyme Regis and the Jurassic Coast, Devon and Dorset; 8. Tate St Ives gallery, Cornwall; 9. Isle of Skye, Scotland; 10. The Eden Project, Cornwall E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Some of most iconic global tourist attractions are most disappointing to visit .\nThe Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Pyramids on the list .\nThe Treasury in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan voted the best place to visit .","id":"49fa56da7c0e00a30fca7262ae9aa62a9b78e5ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who faked his drowning death nearly 20 years ago off a Florida beach was found out by North Carolina police who stopped him for a traffic violation, authorities said Thursday. Bennie Wint told police he faked his drowning death in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1989. Bennie Wint left behind a grieving fiancee and a daughter from a previous marriage. Over the past two decades, he acquired a common-law wife and another child in Marshall, North Carolina. Wint told police he faked his death in Daytona Beach, Florida, because he was \"paranoid\" about his narcotics-related activity at the time, Weaverville, North Carolina, police Sgt. Stacy Wyatt told CNN. When pulled over in Weaverville on Saturday because of malfunctioning lights on his license plate, the man said his name was James Sweet, Wyatt said. But when Wyatt ran the name through official databases, he was unable to find any information. \"I found it suspicious and believed it to be a false name,\" Wyatt said. He arrested the man on suspicion of driving without a license and giving false information, both misdemeanor offenses, and booked him under the name \"John Doe.\" But \"John Doe\" finally opened up to Wyatt, admitting he was really Bennie Wint and had been on the run since 1989. Watch how reports of his death were premature \u00bb . Wint returned a call Thursday from CNN and asked what an interview with him would be \"worth to you.\" Told that CNN does not pay for interviews, he responded, \"Unless you want to pay for it, don't come up here. You are wasting your time. There are 'no trespassing' signs on my property.\" He then hung up. According to police reports, Wint was on a trip to Daytona Beach with his then-fiancee, Patricia Hollingsworth. She told police they were engaged and had discussed getting married while on the trip. But it was not to be. On September 25, 1989, Hollingsworth told beach patrol officials that Wint disappeared while swimming. \"We spent a bunch of time looking for him,\" said Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn, who was on the beach patrol at the time, although he did not respond to the call. \"We used helicopters, boats and boatloads of lifeguards.\" Hollingsworth, then 37, told officials Wint entered the ocean about 4 p.m. and swam past the breakers before she lost sight of him, according to the incident report. The report notes Hollingsworth was \"very upset\" and that after contacting officials, she \"began to run north and south in the area,\" looking for Wint. Members of the beach patrol, however, thought the supposed drowning was suspicious. \"It is very rare to drown offshore and not wash back in onto the shore,\" Petersohn said. In addition, he said, the lifeguard on the beach told officials he did not see anyone swimming in the area. Wyatt submitted Wint's fingerprints to the FBI for identification and, while waiting for the results, searched the Internet for information on a Bennie Wint. \"I found a daughter that was looking for him,\" Wyatt said. The woman posted information about her father in 2007, saying he went missing under suspicious circumstances. Wyatt contacted the now-23-year-old woman, who said she was 4 when her father disappeared. Wint has been released from jail and has not been charged in relation to the 1989 incident. It was not known whether he contacted his daughter. Wyatt said Wint now has a common-law wife, a child and a business selling NASCAR items. The night he was arrested, Wyatt said, his wife was \"distraught\" upon learning his true identity. Wyatt said Wint told him he was involved in narcotics in the 1970s and '80s, and \"he ran out of paranoia, thinking people were out to get him.\" He said he went from Daytona Beach to Ozark, Alabama. CNN's attempts to contact Hollingsworth were unsuccessful, and it was unclear whether she knows Wint is alive. Petersohn said he is attempting to find the lifeguard on duty at Daytona Beach the day Wint disappeared to tell him the truth about the supposed drowning. \"For 20 years, that man that works for us thinks he might have missed something in the ocean,\" Petersohn said. \"I'm glad the guy's alive. I really am. ... It's unfortunate the way it went down at the time, people looking for a body that wasn't out there.\"","highlights":"North Carolina officer didn't believe man's story during traffic stop .\nHe couldn't find name man that gave in police database .\nEventually, \"James Sweet\" confessed he was Bennie Wint .\nWint was reported missing off Daytona Beach, Florida, in September 1989 .","id":"f924b8ce95c305203cfada04cf85551f6ad113d1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Security contractors in Iraq use some over-the-top tactics and overreact at times, a top U.S. general in Iraq said Friday. Members of a private security company prepare the way for a U.S. convoy in Baghdad, Iraq. Many in Iraq have witnessed security contractors operating in a questionable fashion, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff for the Multi-National Corps in Iraq. \"I can certainly say I've seen them do some tactics that I thought were over the top. But that's something we've got to keep working out,\" Anderson said in a briefing to Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Iraq. His comments soon after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he wants closer oversight of Pentagon contractors in Iraq. Gates has dispatched a team there to review accountability and oversight. Anderson did not offer specific examples of incidents he had seen. He agreed security contractors in Iraq have taken a lot of criticism, but he said they are in a tough position. \"They obviously have a tough job to do in a tough environment. I don't know if they're overly aggressive. I think the question becomes what rules do they follow with respect to what the rules of engagement are,\" he said. The actions of private security contractors have come under scrutiny since a Baghdad shooting incident earlier this month. Iraqi authorities say Blackwater guards fired indiscriminately, killing as many as 20 civilians; Blackwater says its employees responded properly to an insurgent attack on a convoy. Under an order laid down by the U.S.-led occupation government in 2004, security contractors are not subject to Iraqi law for actions taken within their contracts, a condition that irritates Iraqi officials. About 137,000 civilians are working for the U.S. military in Iraq, Gates said Wednesday. That number includes at least 7,300 of the estimated 25,000 private security contractors working in Iraq, he said. After the Blackwater shootings, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England issued a memo to commanders in Iraq outlining their responsibility for holding contractors accountable, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Anderson said the assessment team sent by Gates is getting a feel for how the military employs contractors, to what scale, what functions they're providing and what differentiates between Department of Defense and Department of State contractors in the security role. The State Department also is investigating the role of private security contractors. Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, a management and policy expert, will lead the effort, along with a high-level panel of outside experts, including retired Gen. George Joulwan, former commander of NATO forces in Europe; Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to China; and Eric Boswell, a former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wants an interim report by next Friday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"U.S. general says he's seen private security contractors overreact .\nDefense secretary says he wants closer oversight of Pentagon contractors in Iraq .\nIraqi officials upset after civilians killed by Blackwater USA guards .\nBlackwater says its contractors were attacked .","id":"bc07b12397a646ffcac477c1708ac2a39ff455ac"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Magazines are full of beauty and health secrets with tips on how to improve your inner health and polish and paint your external persona. All of this designed to keep you feeling young. With its low price, boxy-yet-stylish shape and must-have technology, the Scion xB is very youthful. We think that the beauty magazines are missing out on the best way to feel young: drive the right vehicle! New cars for a fresh start . No offense to the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Chevy Malibu, but it's almost impossible to feel young behind the wheel of an ordinary sedan, especially when every other car on the road is just like yours. We've picked vehicles that are unique, different and even a little quirky. You are what you drive, and when you drive a spunky, youthful vehicle, that's exactly what you are! So, here are our choices for the top 10 vehicles to keep you feeling young: . 2008 smart fortwo pure coupe . Not since the original Volkswagen Beetle has a more perfectly youthful car been built than the smart fortwo pure coupe. This smart car has everything: it's cheap, it's fuel efficient, it's safe (check out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ratings), and best of all -- it is the cutest thing on four wheels. 'Nuff said. Starting at $11,590 . 2009 Nissan Versa . An excellent choice for a safe, efficient car, the Nissan Versa is no stripped-down econobox and it has a European style that makes others take a second look. It's a genuinely comfortable, fun-to-drive cute car that will stand up to the rough treatment a young-at-heart driver can sometimes dish out. Starting at $12,990 . 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid . Driving a Toyota Prius is a statement to your friends and neighbors that you're green; driving a Honda Civic Hybrid is living green, pure and simple. There's almost nothing less attractive than conspicuity. Give your inner beauty the opportunity to be green undercover in a subtle, stealthy Civic Hybrid. Starting at $23,550 . 2008 Subaru WRX STi . Nothing gets the heart beating like 305 hp. Add all-wheel drive and hatchback functionality and you have the Subaru WRX STi. Skip those troublesome, time-consuming trips to the gym and just give yourself a workout flogging the STi around the back roads, or throw some golf clubs in the back hatch and make your tee time in youthful style. Starting at $34,995 . 2010 Chevrolet Camaro . This one will take you back to your youth, the last heyday of the American Muscle Car. The 2010 Camaro is one of the most anticipated new cars due in the production pipeline, and anyone who drives one will be the center of attention. And that will make you feel young and beautiful. Prices to be announced . 2008 Mazda5 . When a minivan just isn't mini enough, maybe the mini-minivan is the answer to your needs. With seating for 6, Mazda5 brings the capacity for carpooling without the style penalties of its larger minivan competitors, and fuel economy up to 28 mpg doesn't hurt either. Feel young without looking like a soccer mom. Starting at $18,665 . 2008 Scion xB . With its low, low price, boxy-yet-stylish shape and must-have technology, the Scion xB makes a youthful statement just by showing up. Personalize your xB with accessories from Scion's catalog, or from the extensive aftermarket that has grown up around the car. The bonus is that the xB is a very capable vehicle, and a lot of fun to drive. Starting at $16,420 . 2008 Toyota 4Runner . If you want to project an image of youthful vigor, muscularity, agility and strength -- without going over the top -- few vehicles do it as well as the Toyota 4Runner. That image isn't just on the surface; the Toyota 4Runner is as comfortable on the trail as it is on the pavement. You get timeless good looks and reliability in one package. Starting at $28,415 . 2008 Jeep Wrangler . Is there a car more youthful and exuberant than the Jeep Wrangler? The iconic off-roader has been a symbol of freedom, agility and capability for decades. Drop the soft-top, hang on to the integrated roll bar and head out for points west. Just don't forget the sun block -- you want to look young as well as feel young. Starting at $20,205 . 2008 Vespa S . It was cool in the late 1960's, and it's cool again today. The Vespa S is a modern interpretation of the 1969 Vespa Special and the 1967 Vespa Primavera. An eco-friendly 150cc engine powers the S efficiently and smoothly, with enough oomph to keep up with city traffic. Easy to ride, easy to park, easy to love, the Vespa S might be the coolest ride on the block. Starting at $4,199 .","highlights":"Some people say you are what you drive -- so drive something spunky!\nDriving a Honda Civic Hybrid is living green, pure and simple .\nToyota 4Runner projects youthful vigor, muscularity, agility and strength .\nJeep Wrangler has been symbol of freedom, agility and capability for decades .","id":"5a28315bd7441085516a39f9b3da6363f6383b81"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The video is deeply disturbing. Experts attribute long emergency rorom waits mostly to situations no one can control. In it, former CNN Headline News anchor Glenn Beck describes going to the emergency room in intense pain -- so overwhelming, he wept. He says that for two hours, no one gave him pain medication. In fact, he says, no one lifted a finger to help him at all for 40 minutes. Beck says his wife literally held him up in the emergency room, while nurses looked on and chatted about their holidays. He does not identify the hospital. \"I'm in massive, massive pain,\" Beck writes on his Web site. \"This guy, this triage nurse, is 250, 300 pounds, big guy. Not only does he not go to help my wife help me up, he actually had the audacity to stand there and drum his fingers against the door and look at us like, come on, come on, come on.\" Watch the video of Glenn Beck on his sickbed \u00bb . The video, which has had more than 800,000 hits on YouTube, brings to mind the case of Edith Rodriguez. Last year, she was on the floor of a Los Angeles hospital emergency room vomiting blood, and witnesses say no one did anything to help her. Her boyfriend actually called 911, which refused to help since she was already in a hospital. Rodriguez died in the emergency room. These cases, while unusual, certainly happen, say emergency room doctors. \"There are truly situations where it's so busy there are sick patients who are waiting. I will admit that,\" says Dr. Assaad Sayah, who runs three emergency rooms for Cambridge Health Alliance in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. \"Ridiculously long wait times are a huge issue,\" says Dr. David Beiser, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center. \"Recently we've had over 40 patients in our waiting room. When I was in training [five years ago], it was rare to see more than 20 patients in our waiting room.\" Donna Mason, an emergency room nurse for 33 years, says sometimes, she'd have 75 patients waiting for 54 beds -- and she knew very sick patients were in the waiting room needing care. \"The greatest fear of every doctor or nurse is that [a situation like Beck's] is going to happen in our emergency department,\" says Mason, the immediate past president of the Emergency Nurses Association. Released this week, a Harvard University analysis of more than 90,000 U.S. emergency room visits found that one in four heart-attack patients waited 50 minutes or more to be seen by a physician in an emergency room. These experts attributed long waits mostly to situations no one could control -- too many patients and too few beds. But they also acknowledged that ERs could be better organized. Sayah said reorganizing his ERs has led to dramatic decreases in waiting time. \"Beck would've been in a bed in less than two minutes in my hospitals,\" he says. Waiting times are longer for patients who aren't very sick, but even for them, it's better than it used to be. \"The average time from door to physician used to be about an hour. Now it's 21 minutes,\" Sayah said. His staff -- especially those who greet patients -- receive customer service training. \"It's just like the training they give in restaurants or entertainment places -- it's how to be pleasant to people,\" he says. But what if you find yourself in an emergency room that has long waits and nasty employees? Mason and the emergency room doctors have this advice about what not to do while navigating the ER: . 1. Don't forget to call your doctor on the way to the ER . When ER doctors hear from a fellow physician, they listen, says Beiser at the University of Chicago. \"They'll talk to me professionally and put a bug in my ear,\" he says. \"This guy will now be on my radar screen.\" 2. Don't use an ambulance unless you really need it . \"There's a myth out there that if you arrive in an ambulance, you'll go straight back to the doctor,\" Mason says. \"But it's not true. If we can see that you can walk, you may get asked to get off that gurney and go to the waiting room.\" 3. Don't be quiet . If the triage nurse -- that's who makes the decisions about who needs care first -- isn't helping you, don't stop there, says Sayah. \"Speak up. Say, 'I need to see the person in charge,'\" he says. 4. Don't get angry, and don't lie . While it's important to make yourself heard, it's also important to use basic etiquette. \"We're all human, and usually when people are nice to us, we're nicer back to them,\" Sayah says. Lying about your symptoms -- making them seem worse than they really are in hopes of getting attention faster -- can backfire, says Dr. William Bozeman, an emergency room doctor at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. \"We have people saying they have crushing sub-sternal chest pain, that they're having a heart attack, when in reality they're trying to get Vicodin for chronic back pain,\" he says. When the staff figures it out, \"They may not be very pleased at all and may not treat you nicely.\" 5. Don't forget the phone . If things get really bad, and no one is helping you, look for a house phone, dial zero, and ask for the hospital administrator on call, Sayah says. \"Even the smallest hospitals have a hospital administrator or a patient advocate on call 24\/7,\" he says. \"Hospital administrators don't want to hear patients are unhappy. Their job is to break the hurdles and move forward.\" Elizabeth Cohen is a correspondent for CNN Medical News. Senior producer Jennifer Pifer contributed to this report.","highlights":"Experts: Call your doctor on the way to the emergency room .\nDon't call an ambulance unless you absolutely need it .\nTry to be polite to the ER personnel, and don't lie or misrepresent anything .\nAs a last resort, call the hospital administrator on call .","id":"d53cc805221115ab83e196f5b463f6586ea2cefe"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- There's a bit of a trend brewing this summer concert season -- put together a couple of big-name acts for a nationwide tour, then record a song together to promote the event. Members of Styx, REO Speedwagon and Journey in 2003. Styx and REO have teamed up for a song and tour. It started with classic rockers REO Speedwagon and Styx, with their \"Can't Stop Rockin' \" tour and single of the same name. Now Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire are getting on the bandwagon. The two horn-heavy bands have recorded three songs especially for their joint 30-city summer tour. It's part of a charity campaign to benefit food banks across the country -- \"Three Songs for Three Cans or Three Dollars.\" Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire team up on the new song \"You.\" The bands also take a stab at each other's material, with Chicago recording Earth, Wind & Fire's \"I Can't Let You Go\" and Earth, Wind & Fire covering Chicago's \"Wishing You Were Here.\" \"The fact that the artists and bands, in this case, are touring together builds excitement with the possibility of the live performance that is exclusive to the tour,\" said Bruce Burch of the University of Georgia's Music Business School. It's \"sort of a 'once in a lifetime' type of attraction that helps to sell concert tickets, merchandise and, hopefully, CDs and downloads.\" Concertgoers who contribute three cans of food or donate at least $3 will get a download card to access the tunes. People who don't make the shows will be able to donate online and download the songs at www.ewfandchicago.com. The Web site is expected to launch in early June. \"This is a dream come true,\" said Earth, Wind & Fire's Philip Bailey, who came up with the three-songs promotion. \"We want to invite everyone to help us do our small part to help feed America,\" added Chicago's trumpeter Lee Loughnane. Artists jamming together on stage is nothing new, and occasionally the songs are released as singles -- U2 and B.B. King's \"When Love Comes to Town,\" from the 1988 album and film \"Rattle and Hum,\" for example. Of course, duets promoting two hot artists or bands are hardly new either. Remember Josh Groban and Charlotte Church on \"The Prayer\" or \"Almost Paradise\" by Ann Wilson of Heart and Mike Reno of Loverboy from the \"Footloose\" soundtrack? \"Hip-hop artists have been using duets for some time to reach audiences of both artists,\" Burch said. In some cases, more than two artists collaborate. \"Even before that, country artists used this means to reach a larger audience for both artists,\" he said, noting the collaborations between George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. The new songs for the 2009 tours flip conventional wisdom. For decades, groups have recorded albums, then gone on tour to promote them. Specifically recording songs to promote a tour featuring a pairing of acts is a new idea -- and possibly one whose time has come, given the re-emergence of singles in the digital download age. Of course, it all depends on the success of the song. In the case of REO Speedwagon and Styx, they've scored a hit with their new tune. It's been riding near the top of the classic rock charts -- the biggest original hit by either band in years. \"The jam ... is just plain, old-school, rock 'n' roll fun,\" REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin said on the band's Web site. Should other bands follow suit and score hits, it might prompt other classic pop artists to join forces not only on tour, but in the studio as well.","highlights":"REO Speedwagon and Styx have combined for hit and tour .\nChicago and Earth, Wind & Fire recorded three songs for joint tour .\nCombining forces not new, but way it's being used may be .","id":"ce924f7f9e6e02c7f3052c9198f45ece66a3ef0f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police hunting for a New Zealand couple who fled the country after a bank mistakenly paid them $NZ10 million (US$6 million) believe they traveled to Hong Kong. Westpac bank paid the couple 1,000 times the amount they asked for. New Zealand authorities have sought help from Interpol in locating the couple who disappeared May 7, two days after an employee error at Westpac bank paid them 100 times the amount they asked for. TVNZ, a CNN television affiliate, named the couple as Leo Gao and his girlfriend Cara Young. Gao owned a petrol station in Rotorua, a lakeside tourist town famous for its hot water springs and bubbling mud pools. Police said Friday that the couple were believed to have traveled to Hong Kong. \"Enquiries to locate those individuals are continuing through Interpol in Hong Kong and official channels in Beijing,\" said Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey. Watch as 'millionaires' go on the run \u00bb . Police were not confirming the identities of those involved but they were working with the family of one of the individuals named in the media, Harvey said. The family were shocked at their name being associated with the case, he added. TVNZ said the couple applied for an overdraft from Westpac worth up to NZ$100,000 (US$61,000). However, on or about May 5, the bank erroneously put NZ$10 million (US$6.1 million) into their bank account. What would you do in this situation? The next day, the service station closed its doors. And the day after, the couple went missing. TVNZ said Westpac had confirmed that a customer had attempted to unlawfully transfer amounts totaling around $6.7 million (US$4.1 million). Nearly NZ$3 million (US\u00a3$1.85 million) had been recovered and the bank was continuing to vigorously pursue the outstanding amount, Westpac Media relations manager Craig Dowling told the station.","highlights":"Manhunt for couple who fled after bank mistakenly paid them NZ$10 million .\nNew Zealand authorities seeking Interpol's help to locate the couple .\nPolice believe the couple flew to Hong Kong .","id":"af44e9a5c53ae585384f0b4c7b5b1b5b0d289f54"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Americans were asked to stop whatever they were doing at 3 p.m. local time Monday to share a minute on Memorial Day and honor those who have died in the cause of freedom. Americans were asked to take one minute at 3 p.m. Monday to pause and reflect on those who died in battle. \"The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday,\" according to the White House Commission on Remembrance. Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance. \"The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom,\" the Commission on Remembrance said on its Web site. \"It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans.\" Observances included an interruption of Major League Baseball games, the pausing of the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington and the National Grocers Association and Food Marketing Institute asking shoppers to pause in stores nationwide to remember the fallen. \"We want our citizens to contemplate the ties that bind us and take a moment to put 'Memorial' back into Memorial Day,\" said Carmella LaSpada, executive director of the Commission on Remembrance. Children touring Washington inspired the idea when LaSpada asked them what Memorial Day meant and they said that's when the swimming pool opens, according to the commission's Web site.","highlights":"Commission on Remembrance asks Americans to pause, reflect at 3 p.m. Monday .\nGroup hopes act will reclaim Memorial Day as \"sacred and noble holiday\"\nObservances include interruption of Major League Baseball games .\nShoppers in grocery stores asked to take a minute to remember our fallen .","id":"164429b29027af03210d64ac150a5757b0b8602e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Throughout her career, singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper has promoted gay and lesbian rights. She has a personal connection to this cause -- her sister is a lesbian -- but she also believes it's a matter of fairness. Cyndi Lauper worked with Cathy Nelson of the Human Rights Campaign to raise awareness of LGBT issues. \"It's always wrong to discriminate,\" the Grammy Award winner said. \"I grew up in the civil rights movement. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now.\" With her 2007 and 2008 \"True Colors\" tours, Lauper has helped raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights around the country. She said fellow LGBT activist Cathy Nelson especially motivates her. Nelson worked at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a national LGBT civil rights organization, and her dedication to those issues runs deep. Fighting for fairness and equality, she said, drives her. \"I'm a lesbian, and I see the issues very personally,\" Nelson said. \"When it deep-down resonates that you don't have the same rights and responsibilities, or people don't view you the same, it can be demoralizing and empowering at the same time.\" Nelson's passion for the cause has enabled her to inspire thousands of people across the country to get involved. When she was growing up in rural Illinois, Nelson said, she hadn't imagined following this path. She trained to be a teacher, but on a whim, became a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines to fulfill her \"intense desire to travel.\" In the 1980s, she became involved with labor issues through her flight attendant union. That led to working on women's issues with the National Organization of Women in Washington. In 1989, she started working for the HRC. Since then, she has helped bring LGBT rights out of the closet and onto the national stage. Hired to increase the group's membership, Nelson built a strong volunteer network in communities across the nation. HRC had just 12,000 members when Nelson started. Today it has more than 725,000, making it the largest gay and lesbian rights organization in the country. \"Part of my job is getting people to be vocal,\" Nelson said. \"It's important that everyone has an understanding that discrimination is happening every single day against a certain segment of society. And that's just wrong.\" In 2007, when Lauper worked with HRC for the \"True Colors\" tour, she and Nelson teamed up to bring gay and straight audiences together on fairness and equality issues. Nelson realized it was also an opportunity to shine the spotlight on an issue she'd worked on for almost a decade -- the passage of a hate crimes bill that would make attacks based on sexual orientation, disability, or gender a federal crime. For Nelson, crimes against LGBT people -- such as the murder of Matthew Shepard -- represent the darkest side of ignorance on these issues. In 2006, more than one in six hate crimes were committed against LGBT individuals, an 18 percent rise over the previous year, according to the FBI. \"I learned from Cathy that hate crimes send fear through a community,\" Lauper said. \"You could die just because of who you are.\" Watch Lauper and Nelson talk about the \"True Colors\" tour to raise awareness \u00bb . At every concert, Lauper spoke passionately about the need to pass the bill, and her song, \"True Colors,\" was used in a public service announcement about the legislation. HRC volunteers distributed information at each venue and had postcards on hand for people to send to their legislators. In the end, more than 15,000 people signed postcards, and both houses of Congress passed the bill by wide margins. Although President Bush never signed the bill, Nelson and Lauper have high hopes for it to soon become law. For Nelson, getting so many people engaged was a key achievement. \"The biggest reward for me is when I've played some part in empowering someone to get involved,\" she said. Lauper knows first-hand how convincing Nelson can be. \"The fact that you can actually succeed and help people -- you really get that from her,\" she said. \"People like Cathy get all of us motivated.\"","highlights":"Lauper and Cathy Nelson campaigned together for gay and lesbian rights .\nNelson helped the Human Rights Campaign go from 12,000 members to 725,000 .\nLauper and Nelson lobbied to expand federal hate crimes laws .","id":"9ceb48023251e01ca8811be976c60f5740b3c3dc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick arrived at his home in Hampton, Virginia, on Thursday morning. Michael Vick, left, arrives at federal court with attorney Billy Martin in Richmond, Viriginia, in 2007. \"He is happy to be reunited with his family,\" said Chris Garrett, a spokesman for Vick. Vick was released from a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, on Wednesday. He will serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement in Virginia, his publicist Judy Smith said. Vick is a native of Newport News, Virginia. Watch a panel discuss his release \u00bb . Vick, 28, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He could return to professional football as soon as September if reinstated by the NFL, according to the sports agent who negotiated Vick's 10-year, $140 million contract with the Falcons. Meanwhile, Vick's attorneys have said he will work at a Newport News construction firm after his release and he has also agreed to participate in a documentary for $600,000. Last month, a federal bankruptcy judge denied a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan presented by Vick and urged him to offer another plan. The original plan called for Vick to come up with $750,000 to $1 million in cash to be paid to creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro said, but he said he saw no evidence Vick could come up with that much. Santoro suggested Vick's next plan not call for him to keep two houses and three cars, as did the rejected proposal. In testimony, Vick acknowledged committing a \"heinous\" act and said he should have acted more maturely. He said he has been earning 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor in prison. His Falcons salary, he said, was between $10 million and $12 million. He acknowledged failing to handle his money well. After his release, Vick will work with the Humane Society of the United States on anti-dogfighting campaigns, Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle told CNN Tuesday. Vick will work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting, and on programs to assist young people who have already been involved in the blood sport. Watch more about Vick's dogs \u00bb . Pacelle said the Humane Society was approached by Vick's representatives. He said he has traveled to Kansas twice to meet with the former quarterback, and during the second visit, the two discussed how Vick could use his sway over youths to discourage them from involvement in dogfighting, as well as help those who were apprehended in connection with it. Details have not yet been hammered out, Pacelle said, but will be in the next couple of days. iReport.com: Does Vick deserve a second chance? More attention has been paid to dogfighting as a result of Vick's case, Pacelle said. The Humane Society, which offers rewards for tips involving dogfighting, has recently paid out $40,000 in five cases, he said. CNN's Marylynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick released from prison on Wednesday .\nVick will serve last two months of sentence in home confinement .\nAttorneys have said Vick will work at construction firm; Vick has OK'd documentary .\nVick, 28, pleaded guilty in 2007 to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia .","id":"04efd7f5e9517e1412d79082c4f5574222f5e33a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Going into the eighth season finale of \"American Idol,\" Adam Lambert looks like the favorite against competitor Kris Allen. But should Lambert even be on the show, since he has performed professionally in the national Broadway tour of \"Wicked\"? Former 'American Idol' runner-up Diana DeGarmo says it's getting harder for the average person to get on the show. Diana DeGarmo, runner-up in the third season of \"American Idol,\" spoke with HLN's Mike Galanos on Prime News about whether or not an amateur stands a chance on the show. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Mike Galanos: What were the stipulations as to your past history before you joined \"American Idol\"? How much could you do before they'd say, \"You aren't an amateur anymore. You're more of a professional\"? Diana DeGarmo: Each contract for each show has gotten a little stronger and a little stronger. Prior to me doing \"American Idol,\" I had done things like theater, but at that point nowhere near on a professional level. The cool thing is they keep it fair by having little things in the contract about how you can't release a record nationally with a record label -- things like that. But people who have been signed prior can, of course, be on the show. Galanos: Do you think the \"rags-to-riches\" story is lost and we are going to get more and more people who have more and more experience? DeGarmo: I think people now realize that \"American Idol\" is such a launching spot for anyone's career. People that maybe would have not done it a few years ago, saying, \"Oh, I'm too professional,\" maybe take a little bit of a second glance at the show because they realize it's such a launching pad. But I do think it's a little harder for the everyday Joe to get in it. Galanos: Do you think Adam has an unfair advantage since he was an understudy for the Broadway tour of \"Wicked\"? DeGarmo: Not really, because it's all about performing. So it's just about what you are doing at that exact moment up there on the \"American Idol\" stage. I think Kris and Adam are just two totally different performers, but I think they are pretty even when it comes down to the end of the day.","highlights":"DeGarmo: It's harder for the \"everyday Joe\" to get on \"American Idol\"\nIt's more about what you're doing on the 'Idol' stage, she says .\nKris Allen and Adam Lambert compete in the season finale .","id":"4587efea4480d932e92e459ffd6cad22df80a8b8"} -{"article":"ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Barack Obama marked his first Memorial Day as president on Monday, calling on Americans to remember U.S. troops who died in the service of their country and navigating a Civil War memorial controversy. President Obama pays tribute to veterans at a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. The president participated at the 141st annual Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns. The men and women buried at Arlington \"waged war so that we may know peace,\" Obama said. \"They were willing to give up everything for the defense of our freedom [and] were willing to sacrifice all for their country. ... They are the best of America.\" Also Monday, Obama decided to continue a controversial presidential tradition of honoring Southern Civil War soldiers by sending a wreath to Arlington's Confederate Memorial, according to the White House. But the president decided to start what may become a new tradition by sending a wreath to the African-American Civil War Memorial at Vermont Avenue and U Street Northwest in Washington. See how fallen service members are being remembered \u00bb . Critics had called for an end to the longtime presidential practice of laying a wreath at the Confederate site. Last week, roughly five dozen professors sent a letter to Obama calling the tradition offensive to African-Americans. Some observers recently suggested adding the recognition of the African-American memorial as a possible compromise. Wreaths also were sent to be placed on the mast of the USS Maine and the Spanish-American War Memorial, both in Arlington National Cemetery. Obama also hosted a White House breakfast for several military Gold Star families, the relatives of service men and women killed in action. A separate Memorial Day observance was held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at 1 p.m. ET, and the National Memorial Day Parade started an hour later. All Americans were asked to pause for a moment of remembrance at 3 p.m. local time Monday \"because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday,\" according to the White House Commission on Remembrance. \"The moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom,\" the commission said on its Web site. \"It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans.\" The 3 p.m. observances included, among other things, an interruption of Major League Baseball games and the pausing of the Washington Memorial Day Parade. The National Grocers Association and Food Marketing Institute has asked shoppers to pause in stores across the nation. Memorial Day was first marked May 30, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. Congress declared it a national holiday in 1971. CNN's Emily Schultze contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama continues controversial sending of wreath to Confederate Memorial .\nPresident also sends wreath to African-American Civil War Memorial .\nObama takes part in Memorial Day wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery .\nMen and women buried there \"waged war so that we may know peace,\" he said .","id":"5cd876decc3c9d7bf1fe7a711d4f725b06f25673"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting Monday after world leaders reacted with outrage to North Korea's latest nuclear test. This screen grab from North Korean television on April 9 shows leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. North Korea earlier said it had tested the weapon in an underground explosion, provoking an angry response from the world's governments. It had threatened to conduct the test if the U.N. Security Council did not apologize for imposing sanctions on North Korea after it tested a rocket April 5. The secretive communist state also apparently test-fired a short-range missile Monday, the White House said. The Security Council called on its members to discuss the reported test Monday at 4 p.m. ET. Watch how the test may have taken world by surprise \u00bb . The United States and many other countries denounced the test. Even China, North Korea's strongest ally, said it opposed the test. The White House -- which less than three weeks ago announced a new diplomatic effort to restart stalled talks with North Korea about its nuclear program -- said the test was in \"blatant defiance\" of the Security Council. \"North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community,\" the White House said. \"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants action by the international community.\" While the test was not a surprise, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it showed Pyongyang was becoming \"increasingly belligerent.\" North Korea announced its underground nuclear test a little more than an hour after the U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.7 seismic disturbance at the site of North Korea's first nuclear test. There was no immediate information on the yield of the weapon used in Monday's test. The Russian Defense Ministry said the explosion was between 10 to 20 kilotons. The U.S. State Department said it was analyzing the data. Mullen said it would take a couple of days to verify the reported test, but he added, \"there's no indication that it wasn't as they say.\" The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency would say only that the latest test was safely conducted \"on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control.\" Watch more analysis on test \u00bb . U.S. intelligence estimated the first North Korean test, in October 2006, produced an explosion equal to less than 1,000 tons of TNT. The low yield was a fraction of the size of the bombs the United States dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. Intelligence analysts had predicted North Korea would conduct a second rocket or nuclear test. The North threatened to do so after the Security Council voted unanimously to condemn its April launch as a violation of a 2006 resolution that bans North Korea's ballistic missile activity. Watch how Pyongyang has used nuclear tests to gain concessions \u00bb . North Korea insisted the rocket was a communications satellite. It retaliated by threatening to walk away from the six-party talks aimed at disarming the country of nuclear weapons. The talks -- involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- are intended to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear program. The North also expelled international inspectors from its nuclear sites, announced plans to restart the reactor that produces plutonium for its nuclear weapons, and threatened to launch more rockets and another nuclear device. Monday's test was conducted \"as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defense in every way,\" the North Korean news agency said. \"They think this will enhance and embolden their diplomatic capability to deal with the other countries,\" said Han Sung Joo, former South Korean ambassador to the United States. \"Of course, it may be working the other way. But from their point of view, this is their lifeline, which they want to maintain.\" China's government \"expresses firm opposition\" to the test, in which North Korea \"disregarded the opposition of the international community,\" according to a statement from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. North Korea's latest move could clear the way for the United States and the other members of the six-party talks, minus North Korea, to impose new punitive measures against a country desperate for food and energy assistance. For now, however, the North's nuclear arms program is not a major security threat, analysts say. The country has yet to build an effective bomb or develop an effective delivery system to a target country. Watch South Korea's reaction to the nuclear test \u00bb . Last year, North Korea acknowledged producing roughly 88 pounds (40 kilograms) of enriched plutonium -- enough for about seven nuclear bombs. But analysts say North Korea is years from having a weapon it can put atop a long-range missile like those in the U.S., Chinese or Russian arsenals. \"I know a lot of people may think, 'Oh no, a nuclear test. Does that mean war, conflict in the Korean Peninsula?'\" said Jim Walsh, an international security analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \"The answer is 'no.'\" CNN's Sohn Jie-ae, Jaime Florcruz, Matthew Chance and Morgan Neill contributed to this report.","highlights":"North Korea conducts second nuclear test, angering world governments .\nEmergency meeting of U.N. Security Council called .\nNorth also tested a short-range missile, White House says .\nU.S. says nuclear test was in \"blatant defiance\" of the Security Council .","id":"f55b186acc0b35416f0a30b1d0a5fb16640a1eb9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Melissa Huckaby, the former Sunday school teacher accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, will face additional charges that she tried to poison two people, including another 7-year-old girl. Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing Sandra Cantu and attempted poisoning of second child. A revised complaint against Huckaby, 28, of Tracy, California, was made public just hours before she was due back in court on Friday. The new charges caused another delay in the murder case, CNN afiliate KRON reported. The complaint charged that Huckaby \"did willfully and unlawfully mingle a harmful substance with food or drink\" with the intent to harm the child, identified only as \"Jane M. Doe.\" Another alleged poisoning victim was identified as Daniel Plowman, but no age or other information was immediately provided. The latest charges also include one count of child abuse endangerment relating to the unidentified child, who was allegedly in Huckaby's \"care and custody.\" Read the complaint (PDF) Huckaby did not enter a plea in the Cantu slaying in her first two court appearances last month. At an earlier hearing, Judge Linda L. Loftis agreed to keep the autopsy and toxicology reports under seal, citing a \"great danger of public outrage.\" If convicted on the murder, rape and kidnapping charges, Huckaby, could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, authorities said. CNN's Alan Duke and Jim Roope contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Melissa Huckaby charged with attempting to poison \"Jane Doe,\" 7 .\nHuckaby due in court to face charges in slaying of another 8-year-old .\nShe faces special circumstances including kidnap, rape by instrument .\nDecision on whether to seek the death penalty will come later .","id":"e3632ffd08849a110c92d35d1cef89f1ffef92b5"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A 66-year-old woman with stage 4 pancreatic cancer became the first person to use Washington's assisted suicide law, a nonprofit organization announced Friday. Compassion & Choices, an organization that says it advocates choice for the terminally ill, said Linda Fleming of Sequim, took her prescribed medication and died Thursday evening at home with her family, her dog and her physician. She had been diagnosed a month ago with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and was told she was \"actively dying,\" Compassion & Choices said in a written statement. \"The pain became unbearable, and it was only going to get worse,\" Fleming said, according to the organization. It said Fleming had worked with the organization's volunteers to consider her choices. \"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death,\" she said, according to Compassion & Choices. \"The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them.\" Washington's law was approved by about 60 percent of voters in November. A similar law in Oregon passed in 1994. Oregon says 401 people have died under the terms of its law.","highlights":"66-year-old woman with stage 4 pancreatic cancer chooses to die .\nWoman wanted to be \"clear-minded and alert at the time of my death\"\nWashington's law was approved by about 60 percent of voters in November .","id":"f5af27d643c70643c8b4d28c0668e5c7f45db480"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Police trying to identify the badly decomposed body of a woman discovered in an industrial area in Chicago, Illinois, denied Saturday that a blue barrel was located near the remains. An ambulance and police cars stand by near the location where a woman's body was found in Chicago Friday. The original mention of a blue container in a statement from Lyons, Illinois, police sparked interest because of the possible tie to Stacy Peterson, 23, who disappeared October 28. Illinois State Police have named her husband, Drew Peterson, a suspect. They have investigated whether the former Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant removed a blue plastic container from his home the night before his wife was reported missing. Drew Peterson, 53, has consistently said he believes she ran away with another man. Chicago Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said on Saturday that no blue barrel was found near the body. An environmental surveyor from Lyons, Illinois, who was conducting tests at an industrial site in southwest Chicago found the remains Friday afternoon. Police said he called his supervisors to report he'd seen what appeared to be a human foot and leg. The body was transported to the Chicago medical examiner's office for autopsy. A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said the body appears to be that of a female with reddish-blond hair. A posting on findstacypeterson.com describes the missing woman's hair as brown. The body was found about 20 miles from the Petersons' home, where Drew Peterson said he last saw her, CNN's Susan Roesgen reported. Speaking to Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News, Drew Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, said local authorities have already asked a state task force working on Stacy Peterson's disappearance not to get involved. \"I can tell you, it is not Stacy,\" Brodsky said. \"I can guarantee you that.\" Brodsky offered no proof of his assertion. Drew and Stacy Peterson have been married four years and have two children. Drew has other children from a previous marriage. Authorities are re-examining the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a bathtub in 2004. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Police say there was no trash container near woman's corpse .\nNEW: Body has reddish-blond hair; Stacy Peterson described as having brown hair .\nSuspect Drew Peterson's attorney: \"I can tell you, it is not Stacy\"","id":"abe953a8d687d49d653424990842769c10779f13"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British mother of a child who died after being brutally abused has been jailed indefinitely. A police computer image of some of the facial injuries suffered by baby Peter. The child's -- originally known as Baby P --horrifying death caused a furor in Britain, with the media, public and politicians united in demanding to know how his terrible injuries were missed by social workers, police and medical staff. Judge Stephen Kramer also Friday jailed the 27-year-old mum's boyfriend for life with a minimum of 12 years and their lodger, Jason Owen, 37, indefinitely but with a minimum of three years, the British Press Association reported. The boyfriend, 32, was also convicted of raping a two-year-old girl. Baby P's mum has to serve a minimum of five years. She and her boyfriend cannot be named. Baby P -- he could not be known by his first name, Peter, until the recent lifting of a court order -- was only 17 months old when he was found dead in his blood-spattered cot in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including a broken back and fractured ribs, despite being on London's Haringey council's at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over eight months. The resulting public outrage saw the government's child secretary, Ed Balls, step in to demand the removal of the council's head of children's services, Sharon Shoesmith, with two other leading officials also stepping down. Shoesmith had to be placed under police guard after death threats were made. Judge Kramer told Peter's mother that she was \"a manipulative and self-centered person, with a calculating side as well as a temper.\" Watch more on the case \u00bb . \"Your conduct over the months prevented Peter from being seen by social services. You actively deceived the authorities... you acted selfishly because your priority was your relationship,\" he told the court, PA reported. Judge Kramer's comments echoed the country's response to the case. \"Any decent person who heard the catalogue of medical conditions and non-accidental injuries suffered by Peter cannot fail to have been appalled.\" A second serious review of the case commissioned by Balls and released Friday, also reiterated that Peter's death \"could and should have been prevented.\" Graham Badman, the chairman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, which conducted the review said: \"I believe the most important lesson arising from this case is that professionals charged with ensuring child safety must be deeply skeptical of any explanations, justifications or excuses they may hear in connection with the apparent maltreatment of children. \"If they have any doubt about the cause of physical injuries or what appears to be maltreatment, they should act swiftly and decisively. Badman said the review found that if \"doctors, lawyers, police officers and social workers had adopted a more urgent, thorough and challenging approach, the case would have been stopped in its tracks at the first serious incident.\" \"Baby Peter deserved better from the services that were supposed to protect him,\" Badman said.","highlights":"British mother of child who died after brutal abuse has been jailed indefinitely .\nHer boyfriend and lodger are also sent to jail over Baby P's horrific injuries .\nCase caused an outrage in Britain after raft of people missed chance to stop abuse .","id":"79a6ea45eeefc5f979ecc969517a6ec1ad3b122f"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- A moderately strong earthquake rocked Mexico City on Friday afternoon, shaking the earth in the sprawling capital. People in Mexico City stream into the street as a magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.7, and placed the epicenter near the city of Puebla, about 85 miles southeast of Mexico City. It hit at 2:24 p.m. local time. The Mexican seismological service measured the quake at 5.9. People in the city reported the earth and buildings shaking. Thousands of panicked people streamed into the streets as stopped cars snarled traffic. Parts of the city were without electricity Friday afternoon but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Earthquakes are a frightening experience for the 20 million residents of Mexico City, where thousands of people perished in a massive quake in 1985. The city, built on volcanic ash and clay, is particularly vulnerable to temblors. Aldo Pontecorvo of the humanitarian agency World Vision said the shaking lasted about 20 seconds. It came out of nowhere and \"without any warning,\" said Pontecorvo, who said he was in his office when the quake struck. Earlier this month, a moderate earthquake was measured off the coast of Mexico's western Baja California peninsula.","highlights":"U.S. Geological Survey measures quake at magnitude 5.7 .\nThousands of panicked people stream into the streets .\nNo immediate reports of injuries or damage .\n1985 earthquake killed thousands in Mexico City .","id":"789c4bec886eaa4f0f913fc6e51147ff9f53752f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia needs international help to fight Islamist extremists battling for power in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, the country's moderate Islamist president said Monday. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was recently appointed Somalia's transitional president. \"I am calling on the international community to help Somalia defend against foreign militants who have invaded the country,\" President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said. Speaking at a news conference in Somalia's capital city, Mogadishu, Ahmed called several times for international help in fighting foreign militants whom he claims are the same fighters who have fought the \"international community\" in Iraq and Afghanistan. \"Wherever they come, they fuel violence,\" the president said. \"The Somali people cannot and should not accept that their countries should be a launching pad for these militants to attack.\" Ahmed told local journalists that he feared these foreign fighters would turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces are fighting Islamic extremist groups. He also praised local militias in the two regions of Hiiran and Middle Shabelle for struggling against the foreign militias. Last week, al-Shabab militants advanced to the presidential palace in Mogadishu, sparking sporadic fighting and shelling in the Somali capital. The recent fighting has killed more than 40 civilians and wounded about 150 others, according to sources at the scene. Al-Shabab -- once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union -- has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, which says it is affiliated with the al Qaeda terrorist network. Ahmed participated in seizing control of Mogadishu in 2006 along with the Islamic Courts Union before it was ousted by Ethiopian forces later that year. He has since split from Somali jihad movements and was recently appointed Somalia's transitional president through a process shepherded by the United Nations. Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed speaking at a conference in Mogadishu .\nAhmed fears foreign fighters will turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan .\nFighting in past two days kills more than 40 civilians .\nU.S. says Al-Shabab militants are affiliated with al Qaeda network .","id":"37e7e07f44147b18a00f6f2f0327c40f9a58142b"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- The deafening roar of drums and horns rose as thousands of people took to the streets in Sri Lanka Friday for a victory parade marking the end of the decades-long civil war. Sri Lankan youth celebrate on the street in Colombo on May 20, 2009. Enthusiastic revelers danced in the street, carried yellow and red flags and some even carried hand-crafted puppets depicting the dead body of the leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers. Watch the victory parade \u00bb . Sri Lanka's government declared victory Tuesday in the country's 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels. The announcement brought celebrations to some parts of the country. President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed and local media released footage of the fallen leader's body. But while thousands partied Friday, humanitarian organizations worried about the estimated 250,000 refugees the war created in northeast Sri Lanka. Many have had their homes destroyed are struggling for food, clean water, emergency health kits, cooking pots and school supplies, relief agencies say. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . A U.N. spokesman has said the country's government has not adequately helped refugees and has started to restrict U.N. relief agencies from providing aid. Watch Sri Lanka dispell allegations \u00bb . \"The process of national reconciliation we feel must be all inclusive so that in can fully address the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil as well as other minorities. It is important that the victory becomes a victory for all Sri Lankans,\" said Vijay Nambiar, a U.N. special envoy. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit the area this week. CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this story.","highlights":"Revelers dance in the street, wave flags to celebrate end of Sri Lanka civil war .\nSri Lanka government declared victory over Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday .\nAid groups express fears for 250,000 displaced people in country's northeast .\nU.N. has accused the government of not providing enough help for refugees .","id":"bc7574e7a4a3c1e839b3e230541a1331f39fccd6"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- More than one million people in Darfur are at risk of losing food, water and shelter in coming months, following the expulsion of international aid groups by Sudan's government, the United Nations' chief humanitarian coordinator said Tuesday. A Doctors without Borders medic helps a sick child in a Darfur refugee camp. The statement by coordinator John Holmes comes after a joint U.N.-Sudanese assessment of the situation. The information was gathered from March 11-18 in hopes of stemming further troubles in Darfur after Sudan's government expelled 13 international relief organizations from the wartorn region. The announcement came on the same day that President Omar al-Bashir, now an indicted war criminal, ignored the threat of arrest by traveling abroad to Eritrea. Also Tuesday, a Sudanese staffer working for a Canadian relief group was shot dead in Darfur. A full report of the assessment will be released soon, according to the U.N., but an executive summary and recommendations were made available on Tuesday. \"While a significant effort is being made by the government, by the U.N., by the NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] which are left, to plug some of the immediate gaps in these areas, these are at the same time, 'Band-Aid' solutions, not long term solutions,\" Holmes said. The U.N. estimates that 1.5 million people in Darfur are dependent on healthcare support, 1.1 million need regular food aid, and another 1 million are in need of clean drinking water. The summary released Tuesday said the World Food Programme, which is still allowed to operate in Sudan, is carrying out a one-time-only distribution program in March and April, but that new partners will be needed to continue delivering food after April. After the International Criminal Court charged Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity on March 4, Khartoum expelled 13 international aid agencies and revoked the permits of three organizations in the country. Bashir -- the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes by the court -- has continued to say that humanitarian efforts in the country should be \"Sudanized.\" \"Within a year, we don't want to see any foreign aid group dealing with a Sudanese citizen,\" he said at a rally a week after his arrest warrant was issued. Holmes said that 13,000 to 14,000 aid workers in the region already were Sudanese nationals. Holmes said the cooperation and technical help from the Sudanese government on the assessment was a good step forward. But he called it \"only the first of many steps if the people in Darfur are not going to suffer major consequences from these expulsions.\" Sudan's U.N. Ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, has repeatedly said he has information implicating the ousted organizations in activities contrary to their humanitarian missions. He has yet to make any of that information public. One claim is that some organizations acted as spies for the International Criminal Court. Holmes denied those allegations, saying they remain unfounded. \"Despite claims that there are dossiers of evidence, we have not been given any of that evidence,\" he said. \"In the absence of that, no meaningful investigation can be done.\" The British aid organization, Oxfam, one of the agencies expelled from Sudan, released a statement in response to Tuesday's findings. \"Current stop-gap measures will only be effective for a short time,\" the statement said. \"As the rainy season arrives within the next two months, people living in weak temporary shelters, in flood-prone locations where latrines can fill and overflow, will become at extreme risk of disease and death. \"With the humanitarian capacity reduced by nearly 50 percent, responding to such emergency scenarios will be an enormous challenge for others to tackle,\" Oxfam said.","highlights":"Assessment of humanitarian needs in Darfur conducted by UN and Sudan .\nInfo collected in bid to stem further troubles after Sudan expelled 13 aid groups .\nAid groups kicked out after President Omar al-Bashir indicted on war crimes by ICC .\nThe U.N. estimates 1.1 million need regular food aid; 1 million need drinking water .","id":"94ae34f04d33092f81e84af1d1408e033c5bd4c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After Denise Honeycutt sashayed down the catwalk modeling a sleek sleeveless black dress with a blue lace jacket, she felt so good she bought the outfit. A model walks the runway at the Arlington United Methodist Church fashion show in an outfit from Goodwill. \"I got those two pieces and a skirt for $20,\" she said. \"How's that for a deal?\" Such bargains may not be haute couture, but during a recession they are a thrifty shopper's dream. As budgets tighten during the economic crunch, buying used clothing is no longer just for fans of vintage wear. Many are discovering the hidden treasures in consignment shops, as well as thrift stores and other places once thought to be only for the destitute. That's a message that Brendan Hurley, senior vice president of Marketing and Communications for Goodwill of Greater Washington, has been working hard to get out. Goodwill of Greater Washington provided the fashions Honeycutt modeled for the show at the Arlington United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia, and has been actively campaigning to spread the word that Goodwill fashion is contemporary and hot. \"Most people have a misunderstanding of Goodwill's mission and they believe that our mission is to sell inexpensive merchandise to the poor,\" Hurley said. \"In fact, Goodwill's mission is to provide job training and employment services to people with disadvantages and disabilities. We just happen to fund that mission through the resale of donated items at our retail stores.\" To change the negative perception, Hurley said that four years ago they started a campaign to make the stores more appealing as a source of inexpensive fashions by holding virtual and live fashion shows. See one of Goodwill's fashion shows \u00bb . Hurley said things really took off after they launched a viral marketing campaign and the very successful DCGoodWillFashions blog. Em Hall is the retail marketing manager who blogs as the DC Goodwill Fashionista in a gig that has become so high-profile that she was invited to blog this year from Fashion Week in New York. About once a month on average, Hall and her team put together \"travel and trunk shows\" where they pull merchandise from their nine stores, put them on rolling racks and take them to events for attendees to shop. People respond to the great prices and selection as well as the opportunity to recycle by buying someone's gently used clothing, Hall said. iReport.com: Tell us about your thrift fashions . \"The response has been tremendous,\" Hall said. \"We know that finding that treasure at Goodwill, finding that vintage piece, really resonates with people.\" Across the country, Goodwill stores have launched several creative ideas to attract divas (or divos) who may have more style than funds. Goodwill Industries of Michiana Inc. of South Bend, Indiana, has \"Boutique Days,\" where they work with local fashion reporter and consultant Kathy Friend to raise awareness that Goodwill can be an excellent resource for brand name and designer clothing. Those who donate at least 20 clothing items receive an opportunity for a private consultation with Friend at a reduced rate. \"On a trip to Goodwill I've found Chanel handbags still in the tissue paper and in Saks Fifth Avenue bags,\" said Friend, who as part of her consultation teaches clients everything from how to spot signs of wear to how they can get pieces altered. \"I was like, are you kidding me?\" See examples of fashionable outfits from Goodwill \u00bb . The Goodwill\/Easter Seals program in Minnesota held a \"Second Runway\" fashion show in February where 30 volunteer fashion designers took existing clothes from surrounding Goodwill stores and turned them into hip new outfits. The event attracted more than 500 attendees. \"We were given $50 and we could create up to three looks out of things we found at the Goodwill,\" said designer Kristina Bell, who whipped up a cute little dress out of recycled T-shirts. \"I've always been a thrifter, but now it's a really good way to save money.\" Someone else's hard times can be a fashionista's gain. Denise McShane owns McShane's Exchange, whose two locations in the Chicago, Illinois, neighborhood of Lincoln Park have seen an uptick in those unloading their Prada and St. John. \"Business has really boomed,\" McShane said. \"The bad news is that we are in a recession, but I absolutely have had a surge in consigners.\" McShane said she offers those who still have a cash stash a bit of retail therapy during hard times. They can get great buys at a reduced rate. Such shops, known in the industry as resale stores, have long attracted quality merchandise, said Barbara Nell, owner of The Daisy Shop on Oak in Chicago. Nell said women are bringing in only the best for resale. \"Women seem to be cleaning their closets of their most luxurious items,\" said Nell. \"It's not just the bread and butter or staples of their wardrobe anymore.\" iReporter Elizabeth McElherne scored a $25 mink coat in August at a shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Check out Elizabeth's iReport on her find . \"If you can't buy something new, you might as well recycle and buy someone else's stuff,\" McElherne said. \"I saw that coat and I said 'If it's less than $100 I have to get it.' \" Nicole Mladic is the \"babe\" behind the \"Budgeting Babe\" blog for \"young, working women who want to spend like Carrie in a Jimmy Choo store but have a budget closer to Roseanne.\" Mladic said she encourages her readers to not only shop thrift, but also to be generous in their giving. \"I make sure to thin out my wardrobe every so often,\" she said. \"Any pieces that I am not wearing, I donate.\" That type of generosity is much appreciated, especially in the current economy. Melissa Temme, a national spokeswoman for the Salvation Army, said that while the need for low-cost clothing is increasing, donations for such clothing have remained consistent and that could spell trouble. \"It means that down the road we may not be able to stock our shelves,\" Temme said. \"In the long term, that's a concern.\" Katherine Ransom, communications manager for Goodwill of Orange County, California, said that as more people turn to thrift fashions to help stretch their dollars, they are discovering the clothing is a lot more current than they might have imagined. Ransom said even Hollywood types are getting in on the act, as wardrobe consultants for television shows and movies are also perusing the racks for good buys. A recently launched coupon campaign is bringing in even more shoppers, she said. \"People are saying 'I've never done this before, but now is a good time to start,' \" said Ransom, whose organization launched shopgoodwill.com 10 years ago. It now includes merchandise from 77 Goodwill organizations around the country. \"They are taking advantage of the quality merchandise with really deep discounts.\"","highlights":"Buying used clothing gains popularity during a recession .\nConsignment and thrift stores seeing increased business .\nGoodwill and Salvation Army increasing visibility as fashion hot spots .\nShop owner: \"Women cleaning their closets of their most luxurious items\"","id":"5e04bd10b11dd762d471145d8384c301e49261e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama is a married man but there's another woman with a hold on him that his wife can never match: she runs the House. Nancy Pelosi has been an easy target for Republican ire. She is Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, the most powerful woman in Washington and lately, a target for Republicans. Pelosi is easy to spot in any crowd of U.S. politicians; she's the small brown-haired woman in the smartly tailored suit. Conservatives like to stereotype some Democrats as rich, isolated and out-of-touch. As the wife of an affluent investment banker, the always expertly coiffed Pelosi looks like exactly the kind of \"Limousine Liberal\" they're talking about. Ironically, it's money that makes her powerful. Under the U.S. constitution, the president can't spend a penny without the permission of Congress. Within the Congress, the Senate has its own powers but the House is the place where taxes and spending start. So almost every one of Obama's plans needs a push from Pelosi. Maybe that's part of the reason she's in trouble right now. The issue isn't really part of her daily duties: \"waterboarding\" and other extreme interrogation tactics used against prisoners in the Bush era. Obama ordered an end to the harsh methods, but Republicans are asking why Democrats who knew about them years ago didn't try to stop them then. Pelosi was one of a handful of lawmakers who was briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, but she now accuses the agency of lying to her and hiding what it was doing. Republicans have been attacking Pelosi for making unsubstantiated and damaging accusations against a crucial national security agency. The man who once had her job, former Republican speaker Newt Gingrich, says Pelosi is lying in a way that is \"despicable, dishonest and vicious.\" Whether or not he's right, it's smart politics. Obama is still remarkably popular. Most of the country hopes that he'll succeed in rebuilding the economy and ending the war in Iraq. If the president is immune to most easy attacks from the opposition, it needs to find someone who isn't. Pelosi is a crucial part of his plans. As potential targets go, with her nearly perfect hair and nearly perfect clothes, Pelosi is nearly perfect.","highlights":"Nancy Pelosi, speaker in House, is most powerful woman in Washington .\nU.S. President Obama needs Pelosi to ensure his plans get House approval .\nPelosi under attack over Democrats' failure to challenge CIA over waterboarding .\nTactic is smart move by Republicans as Pelosi an easier target than Obama .","id":"812b30675bdecf60529f277455f7c4e68acc20c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's a Tuesday morning and Dr. Eric DeJonge is headed to work. But unlike most physicians, DeJonge's office is his car and his patients are waiting for him in their homes, not in a large waiting room. As part of the Medical House Call Program, Dr. Eric DeJonge visits one of his group's 600 patients. DeJonge, a geriatric specialist at Washington Hospital Center, runs the hospital's \"Medical House Call Program.\" Sharing duties with program co-founder Dr. George Taler and two other doctors, DeJonge criss-crosses the nation's capital, checking on patients in their homes. Armed with a black bag and blackberry, DeJonge visits mostly the elderly who either can't get to a hospital or are so ill that moving them would prove life-threatening. He usually sees them once a month to check on their status, to make sure their medications are working, and to let them know he's there for them. DeJonge says the one-on-one care is invaluable. \"We know the patients, their families,\" he says. \"We know when they change medically, what has to happen to prevent them from making an ER visit.\" Terry Carter's father, Aubrey, has been homebound since he suffered a stroke over 20 years ago. For most of those years, Carter ran back and forth to doctors' offices and the ER, making sure his father got the best medical help. It got to be expensive and time consuming and, as the years progressed, it became increasingly difficult to care for his dad. Carter says it was tough because \"I really don't have very much help to take him out.\" Now, with DeJonge making regular visits, Carter's father doesn't have to be moved from his home and his health has improved. \"He's only been in the hospital twice in the last three years,\" says Carter. \"Before that he was in the hospital every other month.\" Dr. Gupta: Watch more on the return of the house call \u00bb . House calls, once popular in the 1930s, began to drop off as medical technology improved. According to a recent article in the Clinics of Geriatric Medicine, home visits by doctors dropped from 40 percent of physician encounters in 1930 to 10 percent by 1950; by 1980 home visits represented less than 1 percent of physician encounters. Many patients, the article stated, felt they could get better care at hospitals and clinics, and shied away from having a doctor come to their home. And over the years, billing and paperwork for medical professionals became so overwhelming that many spent hours at their desks with calculators instead of spending time with their patients in their homes. And then, there was the financial disincentive: most insurance companies didn't pay for house calls. It was easier and more lucrative for doctors to see more patients in their office than fewer patients in their homes. Reimbursement was spotty and in order to survive doctors had to put house calls on the back burner. But that has begun to change. Ten years ago, Medicare made it a bit easier for physicians to receive payments for house calls by modifying the way doctors bill for their procedures. And this month, a new \"Independence at Home\" bill -- designed to coordinate benefits for Medicare's most expensive beneficiaries, like Aubrey Carter -- will be reintroduced, making it easier and less expensive to carry out house calls. \"Our current health care system does a poor job caring for seriously ill Americans, who often are 'lost in transition,'\" says Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey, author of the bill. \"This bipartisan, bicameral bill holds great promise for improving quality of care, reducing hospitalizations, lowering costs and lifting the spirits of those who, after a lifetime of contributions to our society, deserve the dignity and peace of mind that comes with living independently.\" From the doctors' perspective, DeJonge says it will make all the difference in how he and his partners practice, and everyone would benefit. \"Those savings would be shared with the health systems that are willing to create them and serve their communities . For now, DeJonge, along with his fellow physicians and staff (three nurse practitioners, three social workers, one office nurse and four support staffers), will continue to provide care for 600 patients in the neighborhoods of Washington. With the help of machines such a portable EKGs, compact ultrasounds and X-ray programs for laptops, they can provide even more extensive care to patients in their own homes than their 1930s counterparts. DeJonge says it's stressful but rewarding. \"They feel like the medical community is part of their family,\" he says. \"There is a trust level that they develop when you know them over that long period of time. That's very important.\"","highlights":"In 1930s, 40 percent of physician encounters were house calls; 1 percent by 1980 .\nFinancial disincentives and patient preference for clinics contributed to decline .\n10 years ago, Medicare made it easier for physicians to get paid for house calls .\nBill before Congress would make house calls less expensive, easier to arrange .","id":"f089ee9bb4f796a43c97a946bd1babdaf2af8d99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eighteen-year-old Juan Gonzalez was dying alone in a hospital, thousand of miles from his Guatemalan home. He was separated from the family he had traveled to the United States to help support. Juan Gonzalez was earning $250 a week as a dishwasher when his heart trouble began. Diagnosed with a chronically weak heart, without much money and lacking resources, Gonzalez seemed bound to die without ever seeing his parents again. That changed after CNN aired a story about his plight. Thanks to the help of a compassionate hospital staff, a U.S. congressman and a concerned community, Gonzalez has been reunited with his parents for what may be the last time. Watch Gonzalez make his tearful plea \u00bb . Like many undocumented workers, Gonzalez came to the United States last fall to provide some financial help for his family, who had fallen on hard times back in Guatemala. He took a job as a dishwasher in Rome, Georgia, making about $250 a week. Then, in November, his heart gave out. Gonzalez has been in and out of the hospital for seven months. Doctors diagnosed Gonzalez with dilated cardiomyopathy, which means his heart muscle is very weak. Dr. Frank Stegall, Gonzalez's cardiologist, said the Guatemalan teen's heart pumps only 20 percent of the blood a healthy heart should. But as Gonzalez's heart failed him, he opened up the hearts of others. Stegall and the staff at Rome's Redmond Regional Medical Center were inspired by Gonzalez's attitude and courage and set out to reunite the dying teen with his parents. They contacted U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Georgia. Gingrey got the State Department involved in expediting visas for Pascual and Maria Gonzalez, Juan's parents. Delta Air Lines donated tickets to Atlanta, and the Gonzalezes boarded a plane for the first time, bound for Georgia to see their dying son. Watch the family reunion \u00bb . Gonzalez has vowed to fight to the end, but doctors say his prognosis isn't good. With no money, Stegall says, it will be tough for the teen to get a heart transplant. Now, after traveling thousands of miles for more than two weeks to make a better life for his family and himself, Gonzalez faces his final fight, but it's one he will face with his family, thanks to the kindness of others.","highlights":"Undocumented immigrant went to Georgia to make money for family .\nHe has an extremely weak heart muscle; doctors give poor prognosis .\nLawmaker got visas for parents; Delta donated plane tickets .","id":"d00d268ec5ff2899eea9b0934c6ffa89056ca5d6"} -{"article":"Fareed Zakaria is a foreign affairs analyst who hosts \"Fareed Zakaria GPS\" on CNN at 1 and 5 p.m. ET Sundays. Zakaria says India's elections could mark its debut as a great power. (CNN) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took the oath of office Friday for a second consecutive term after winning a mandate for his Congress party. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil administered the oath to Singh, seen as the architect of India's economic reforms in the 1990s. Nineteen other lawmakers also were sworn in as members of the new federal Cabinet. The Indian National Congress, headed by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, won 206 of 543 boroughs in the April and May general elections. That is the party's best performance in almost two decades that saw mostly coalition governments running the country. CNN spoke to author and foreign affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria about the results. CNN: What do you think of the outcome of the Indian elections? Fareed Zakaria: These elections I think may be looked upon as India's debut as a great power -- the way the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics heralded China's debut. They are also the perfect symbol, in this case, of India's unique strengths -- which are defined not by government power but people power with all the messiness and chaos that implies. With 420 million people voting, India's recent polling was the biggest exercise of democracy ever. CNN: But the exercise of democracy in India isn't new. What makes this one special? Zakaria: You are right. It was the result of these elections. Over the last two decades, India has been consumed with its internal divisions -- of caste, ethnicity and religion. This has made if difficult for a government in New Delhi to mobilize national power to any purposeful and responsible end internationally. A decentralized, divided, and diffuse polity has punched well below its weight internationally or adopted policies abroad for purely domestic reasons. That's bad for India and bad for the world. This could all change, starting with this election result. For the first time in three decades, a single party -- the Indian National Congress -- was given a clear and large mandate. CNN: Why were there so many problems in the past? Zakaria: It was mainly two issues. First, populism trumps economic reform. Promising the voters goodies works better than imposing budgetary discipline. Two, in the age of terrorism, fear was an easy way to mobilize political support. (These problems have affected democracies in rich countries like America just as much as poor ones.) The Indian results contradict both notions. The Congress Party has been reasonably reform-mined economically and highly responsible on issues of terrorism. It chose not to react violently to the recent Mumbai terror attacks and was vilified as weak by the opposition. The voters didn't buy it. CNN: Can you think of why things have changed for the voters? Zakaria: I can't be certain but I will put some of the credit for providing a new option to voters on the shoulder of Rahul Gandhi. He is the 39-year-old son of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, and the current head of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi. He spent the last few years reviving the grassroots base of the Congress party. He also made a series of big strategic bets during the campaign such as to field young candidates, not to ally with caste-based parties which proved to be right. He, along with his mother and the current Prime Minister Singh, are reviving the Congress party, and have done all this while maintaining a commitment to secularism, economic reform and clean government . CNN: So the voters in India got it right? Zakaria: I think so. But I also do want to take a minute to impress on readers the scope of elections in India. It really is amazing to see the largest democracy at work. First of all, look at the scope. 420 million people voted. That's more than all the people (men, women and children) who live in the United States, Britain and Canada combined. Then the process -- there are five election days over the course of a month; votes are cast in almost 1 million polling places. It is by far the biggest exercise in democracy in the history of the world. But all of that is only part of what makes it really remarkable. The Indian electorate is one of the poorest, least educated in the world but they actively participate in the political process. And they voted in a very intelligent way. Something they should be very proud of.","highlights":"Zakaria: Election shows India's unique strength, people power .\n420 million voters make this biggest democracy exercise ever, he says .\nZakaria: For the first time in three decades, one party has a clear mandate .","id":"a93187b493828316a9c315382128b0be2f806996"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five people were killed when their boat struck a barge in southern Louisiana, the Terrebonne Parish sheriff said Thursday. The accident occurred Wednesday night in the Falgout Canal in Dularge, Louisiana, Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois said. The bodies were not discovered until Thursday morning, when people began arriving on the barge for work and saw the boat and one body, Bourgeois said. The barge is being used to repair damage to the canal from past hurricanes. The victims' damaged boat was partially submerged under the barge, he said. The barge was slightly damaged, he said. The victims were last seen about 10 p.m. Wednesday leaving the Dulac, Louisiana-area en route to Bayou Dularge, the sheriff's office said. The victims were identified as: Michael J. Carrere, 43, of the Bayou Blue area, Louisiana; Carey Meche, 52, of Metairie, Louisiana; Lawrence Flak, 54, of Conroe, Texas; Rene Gauthier, 59, of Houston, Texas; and William Voss, 49, of Katy, Texas. They were entered in a fishing tournament that begins Friday, the sheriff said. Additional details were not immediately available. The accident occurred about 75 miles southwest of New Orleans.","highlights":"5 killed after boat hits barge Wednesday night in Falgout Canal in Louisiana .\nBodies discovered Thursday morning by people arriving on barge for work .\nVictims' boat was partially submerged under the barge; barge was slightly damaged .\nVictims last seen Wednesday night leaving Dulac, Louisiana-area for Bayou Dularge .","id":"9b5b4e72545f1159d6b6691262ce3b76b5230b66"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Shell-shocked and scarred both inside and out, they huddle in tents, water and medicine in short supply -- hundreds of thousands of people, civilian victims of Sri Lanka's recently-ended civil war. Displaced Sri Lankan people look out from inside a camp in Cheddikulam. \"We suffered a lot because shelling was coming from everywhere,\" said a 38-year-old man identifying himself as Vishwamala. \"Firing, shelling -- many, many people have died ... there was nobody there to carry the dead. A lot of dead were left on the road.\" Another survivor, Krisha Duray, recalls \"running and running\" to escape shelling by both the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tiger rebels, who waged a bloody 25-year war. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday visited refugee camps housing such victims. \"I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen,\" he said. Ban requested that the United Nations be provided full access to the displacement camps in order to provide aid. In a joint statement issued Saturday, Ban and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the United Nations will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced persons, and that the government will continue to provide access to humanitarian agencies. That access, however, is limited. The United Nations and other organizations have never had full access, as government officials fear some remaining Tamil Tiger rebels may be hiding in the camps and are screening those inside. Watch the U.N. chief discuss the humanitarian crisis \u00bb . Sri Lanka's Sunday Times newspaper reported that attempts to smuggle youths out of the camps has prompted the government to impose restrictions on visits. Rajiva Wijesinha, the nation's human rights ministry secretary, was quoted as telling the newspaper that people \"with the connivance of Non-Governmental Organization workers\" were involved in the plot. Because of the plot, \"a thorough screening of IDPs was under way,\" the newspaper said. \"I have United Nations humanitarian agencies, and there are ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and many other international humanitarian agency workers,\" Ban said in a Saturday news conference, according to a transcript. \"They should be given unimpeded access and freedom of movement within the camp. That is what I have asked the foreign minister and the president (for), and I was assured that the leaders of the Sri Lankan government will make sure (of this).\" Sri Lanka's government as of Sunday had not responded to Ban's appeal. But the joint statement Saturday said, \"The government will expedite the necessary basic and civil infrastructure as well as (the) means of livelihood necessary for the IDPs to resume their normal lives at the earliest. \"The Secretary-General welcomed the announcement by the government expressing its intention to dismantle the welfare villages at the earliest as outlined in the plan to resettle the bulk of IDPs and call for its early implementation.\" Ban toured Manik Farm, a sprawling camp for internally displaced people in the country's north, days after Sri Lanka declared victory in a 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tigers rebels. About 250,000 to 300,000 people are refugees in the country, according to humanitarian groups and U.N. figures. Some in the camp have experienced fierce fighting in recent months, saying that at moments they did not believe they were going to survive. Asked whether he agrees with the military's assertions that not many civilians died in the violence, Ban told CNN he believes there were many civilian casualties. While the war's end elicited celebrations in parts of the country, humanitarian groups and the United Nations worry about those uprooted by the fighting. Ban arrived in the South Asian island nation Friday, saying he came to offer help and partnership. \"I hope my visit today can help begin a process of national recovery, renewal and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans,\" Ban said in a written statement issued Friday. \"That is why I am here.\" He said he would urge the government to expedite the screening and processing of refugees and ensure that displaced camps have adequate supplies of food, medicine and water. With the war's end, \"the government of Sri Lanka faces many immediate and long-term challenges relating to issues of relief, rehabilitation, resettlement and reconciliation,\" the joint statement said. Ban also flew to the site of the civil war's final battle, near Mullaitivu. CNN's Iqbal Athas in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ban Ki-moon says camp contains \"the most appalling scenes I have seen\"\nBan asks president to grant unrestricted access to humanitarian agencies .\nAbout 250,000 to 300,000 people are refugees in the country, aid agencies say .\nSri Lankan government has declared victory in the country's 25-year civil war .","id":"71e1d74717f939434e08644f503c6258b82696ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Jurymen seldom convict a person they like, or acquit one that they dislike.\" -- Clarence Darrow . A moussed, tousled brown hairstyle is murder trial defendant Phil Spector's latest look. Since April, the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector has been playing out in Los Angeles, California, oddly contrasting gruesome CSI details with the defendant's daily fashion emergency. Jurors finally will go behind closed doors for deliberations at the end of the week. Their impressions of Spector's over-the-top fashion statements and nebbish-like demeanor could weigh as heavily, legal analysts say, as any of the conflicting expert testimony about ballistics, blood spatter and other forensic evidence. Spector, a diminutive aging hipster who invented the \"Wall of Sound\" and worked with the Beatles and Ike and Tina Turner, is accused of second-degree murder. He allegedly shot Lana Clarkson, a B-movie actress-turned-House of Blues hostess whose film credits include \"Barbarian Queen\" and \"Amazon Women on the Moon.\" As the sun began to rise on February 3, 2003, police found her body slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector's 8,500-square-foot Pyrenees-style castle, a Colt Cobra Special .38-caliber revolver at her feet. The question the jury must answer is straightforward: Did Spector, 67, shoot Clarkson, 40, in the face after she spurned his romantic advances and tried to leave his home? Or did she shoot herself, either by accident or in suicidal despair over her flagging Hollywood career? The jurors didn't hear directly from Spector. The most damaging testimony came from his Brazilian-born driver, who said the boss wandered out of the castle that morning and announced, \"I think I killed somebody.\" His dress and mannerisms at the defense table were impossible to ignore. \"Sometimes the most important thing about a defendant's court appearance is the defendant's appearance,\" Court TV anchor Lisa Bloom said. \"Looks count when it comes to a criminal trial,\" agreed Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. \"They can work for a defendant, and they can work against a defendant.\" Levenson, who observes and analyzes high-profile trials, has written a scholarly article on the subject. She cites studies that show jurors are influenced by how attractive -- or unattractive -- a defendant is. Such impressions are not formally recognized as evidence in most courts, and jurors are rarely instructed on how to weigh them, she found. Levenson concludes that jurors inevitably take cues from a defendant's courtroom demeanor, whether judges want them to or not. Demeanor makes the biggest impact when a defendant doesn't take the stand. \"We need to be realistic as to how we deal with the theater of the courtroom,\" Levenson concludes. \"Demeanor evidence of non-testifying parties is the new frontier.\" She suggests adding a jury instruction to weigh a defendant's demeanor like any other character evidence. It could prove to be a controversial idea. Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's senior legal analyst, is comfortable with the current standard. \"If it ain't broke, don't fix it,\" he said. \"Jurors can't help but look at a defendant. But turning it into a formal part of trial would be a mistake.\" Levenson agreed to share an advance copy of her richly footnoted paper, which will be published in January's Minnesota Law Journal. She cites several well-known cases in which jurors later said their impressions of the defendant influenced their verdicts: . Attorneys long ago learned how to manipulate nonverbal cues to communicate with juries. \"Smart lawyers use it to their advantage,\" said Mark Geragos, a frequent guest on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" The prominent Los Angeles criminal defense attorney has given makeovers to several of his clients, including Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, who favored white pantsuits in court and won acquittals at two trials. Spector's courtroom appearance seems to be a misfire, said Geragos, who doesn't believe the defense team is making the fashion calls. Geragos says a defendant can \"make or break himself\" \u00bb . At Spector's trial, jurors have heard about his history of threatening women with guns, although one witness left an impression more comic than fearsome when she offered this description of the gun-toting defendant: . \"He looked like Elmer Fudd. The gun was bigger than he was,\" said Kathy Sullivan, recalling an incident she alleges took place in 1997 or 1998. By contrast, the jurors' view of Clarkson has only two dimensions. In the agency photos she used to look for acting jobs, she is a striking, tanned California blonde with windswept hair and a broad smile of white, perfectly even teeth. In heels, she stood about 6 feet tall, according to testimony, while Spector is 5 feet, 4 inches tall. Jurors also have been barraged by gruesome crime scene photos of Clarkson. Her mouth is a pulpy crimson chasm. The revolver lies at her feet, which turn outward in platform Mary Janes. Jurors heard during the prosecutor's case how the bullet severed her spinal cord and shattered her teeth, spraying bloody saliva in a two- to six-foot arc, about how her dying gasps may have sprayed onto Spector's white jacket. Levenson has been advising the judge on legal issues during the Spector trial, so she declined to comment on the specifics of his case. But the consensus among the experienced trial analysts who spoke with CNN is that Spector has not done himself any favors. Spector has sported three hairstyles in three different shades, a color wheel of pastel ties and pocket handkerchiefs topped at times by foppish, flowing morning coats. He has worn an orange tie with a pink shirt, and a black shirt unbuttoned in a fashion better suited for an airport lounge. He wears platform shoes. Trial bloggers and observers gossip about whether he is wearing a wig or lipstick. \"He's definitely a nutty guy,\" observed Toobin. \"He's certainly not a very likable looking guy.\" \"Somewhere between Charles Manson and Marilyn Manson,\" quipped Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami who regularly comments on legal matters for CNN. \"As a prosecutor you're saying, 'Bring it on. We like blond. We like goofy clothes. We like a guy who looks like he's as phony as a $3 bill.' \" Coffey says Spector looks \"completely untrustworthy\" \u00bb . \"Fairly unhinged\" was the impression offered by Geragos, who described Spector's courtroom look as \"perplexing.\" The usually ebullient lawyer was uncharacteristically subdued in his comments: \"It is not an engaging look. It is not repulsive. I don't think this would be your ideal situation from a defense standpoint.\" Court TV's Lisa Bloom believes Spector is trying to communicate to jurors that he's \"an eccentric rock star\" who doesn't place much stock in what's happening in the courtroom. \"I think the pimp suits are his way for showing disrespect for the process.\" Bloom said Spector is sending a message: \"It's all about me, me, me. I'm the celebrity. It's all about me.\" She doubts it will be effective. \"His clothes are so out there,\" Bloom said. \"His looks are so out there. Will it backfire? I don't know. You have to take into account this is L.A.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jury deliberations to begin soon in Phil Spector's murder trial .\nLegal analysts say demeanor, odd looks could be a factor .\nSpector is accused of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson .\nSpector's defense says Clarkson shot herself .","id":"6708cb87967f2365c34b4cd596910267b6745251"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Like many Nepalese guides, Apa Sherpa started trekking to the top of Mount Everest in the shadow of more famous climbers -- including the son of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb to the top of the world's tallest peak. Apa Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest more times than any other person. But the 49-year-old Nepali -- who now lives in the United States -- on Thursday morning became the only person in the world to summit Everest 19 times. Apa says his goals in climbing the 29,029-foot (8,848-meter) mountain have nothing to do with setting the world record for Everest summits, a title he has held since 1998. \"Up to the 17th time in 2007 I climbed as a professional, as part of my occupation,\" Apa said, according to the Web site tracking the progress of his most recent expedition. \"But last year I climbed to raise funds for a school in Thame, my village on the foot of Everest.\" In addition to raising money for Nepali schoolkids, Apa also plans to remove more than two tons of garbage from Everest. Over the past 55 years, some 2,000 mountaineers have climbed the peak, leaving behind a trail of trash that includes oxygen bottles, food cans, gas cylinders, paper, plastic and even tents. Everest -- known by Nepalis as Sagarmatha -- is considered sacred by the Nepalese people, and is worshipped as a goddess of wealth and power by the Sherpas, the inhabitants of the Everest region. Apa comes from the famed Sherpa community of mountain guides, who work as porters and climbing guides for mountaineers from all over the world. While Everest is not considered the most technically challenging climb by experienced mountaineers, the world's highest peak attracts an array of climbers who spend tens of thousands of dollars for the chance to make it to the top. However, the mountain is deadly for many climbers: More than 200 people have died trying to scale Everest. Apa began working as an expedition porter for Everest climbers to earn money after his father died when he was 12 years old, according to his biography on his team's Web site, SuperSherpas.com. Many of the mountaineers noticed the young Sherpa who, despite his small size, was able to carry large loads \"with strength, quickness and a wide smile,\" according to his biography. But it wasn't until he was about 30 years old that Apa began climbing Everest as a guide. He made it to the top in 1990 with a team that included Peter Hillary, whose father first summited the peak along Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953. That team also included Rob Hall, a New Zealander who lost his life on the mountain in 1996, the deadliest season for climbers in Everest's history. Eight climbers, including Hall, died trying to summit the peak on May 11, 1996, known as the \"Everest disaster.\" The incident highlighted the pressure that mountaineering companies face when their clients -- who have paid as much as $60,000 -- want to make it to the top despite foreboding weather and their lack of experience. Hall had asked Apa several times during the 1996 season to work for him, but Apa refused in order to be with his family, according to Everestnews.com. Apa reached Everest's peak for the 19th time at 8 a.m. local time on Thursday, announcing over a crackling radio, \"I am at the top and looking at all the prayer flags,\" according to the Web site tracking his progress. \"I have just satisfied the deities and placed the Bhumpa on the summit.\" He was referring to an 8-inch-tall copper vase which is considered sacred and contains 400 elements, including precious metals, Buddhist relics, shreds of robes worn by venerated monks, holy water, and soil. Last month, Apa said that putting the vase on the mountain would be a prayer for world peace and prosperity. After spending 30 minutes at the top, he headed down. \"It is so cold here ... I am heading down.\" Crowds of climbers forced Apa to delay his ascent to the summit by an hour. May is considered the ideal time to try to reach the top of Everest, and Nepali tourism authorities said 98 people had climbed the mountain on Tuesday and Wednesday from the south side. Apa currently lives near Salt Lake City, Utah, where he works as a climbing instructor and gives lectures. He has three children -- two sons, ages 23 and 18, and a 14-year-old daughter. He has said he does not want his children to follow in his footsteps as a climber. His SuperSherpas team has raised $30,000 to educate the children of Nepal, and Apa hopes that his climbing successes will continue to raise more money for the impoverished Himalayan country. \"I never had a plan to make a record,\" Apa told The Salt Lake Tribune last month before leaving for Nepal. \"I never had that as a dream. It just keeps happening.\" CNN's Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Apa Sherpa, 49, of Nepal, successfully climbs Mount Everest for the 19th time .\nApa says he climbs to raise money for his village, at the foot of the mountain .\nMore than 200 people have died trying to scale Everest .\nAt 29,029 feet, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world .","id":"aed72c8ffc6772d3c873634b51f59bd87b5c5d20"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family history of poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath took another tragic turn Monday when it was revealed that their son had committed suicide after battling depression. Poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath had separated before their son's first birthday. Nicholas Hughes, whose mother asphyxiated herself in 1963 by putting her head in a gas oven at her London home while her two children slept in the next room, hanged himself at his home in Alaska, his sister Frieda told The Times newspaper. Hughes, 47, was unmarried with no children of his own and had until recently been a marine biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Times said that shortly before his death he had left his academic job to set up a pottery workshop at home. Frieda Hughes, a poet, author and artist, said in a statement to the newspaper: \"It is with profound sorrow that I must announce the death of my brother, Nicholas Hughes, who died by his own hand on Monday March 16, 2009 at his home in Alaska. \"He had been battling depression for some time.\" She added: \"His lifelong fascination with fish and fishing was a strong and shared bond with our father (many of whose poems were about the natural world). \"He was a loving brother, a loyal friend to those who knew him and, despite the vagaries that life threw at him, he maintained an almost childlike innocence and enthusiasm for the next project or plan.\" Hughes was only a baby when his mother killed herself, and his father tried to shield his children from the intense public interest in the family. Some feminist groups blamed the death on Ted Hughes, who had left Plath for Assia Wevill, the wife of another poet. Six years later, Wevill gassed herself and their daughter Shura in an apparent copycat suicide. Ted Hughes died in 1998, the year he published Birthday Letters, a series of poems about his life with Plath and her death. Hughes appears in both of his parents' poetry. In \"Nick and the Candlestick,\" published in Plath's posthumous collection \"Ariel,\" she wrote: \"You are the one. Solid the spaces lean on, envious. You are the baby in the barn.\" Later his father wrote of how, after Plath's death, their son's eyes \"became wet jewels, the hardest substance of the purest pain. As I fed him in his high white chair.\" Frieda Hughes has written about her parents and her own battles with depression but a family friend dismissed the idea that Nicolas's death fitted into a family trend. \"Nick wasn't just the baby son of Plath and Hughes and it would be wrong to think of him as some kind of inevitably tragic figure,\" said the unnamed friend. \"He was a man who reached his mid-forties, an adventurous marine biologist with a distinguished academic career behind him and a host of friends and achievements in his own right. That is the man who is mourned by those who knew him.\"","highlights":"Son of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath commits suicide, his sister says .\nNicholas Hughes, whose mother gassed herself, hanged himself in Alaska .\nHughes, 47, was unmarried with no children of his own and was marine biologist .","id":"ae617a290d01cb3607f2a8a6a76f8ab7977f3da8"} -{"article":"GREENVILLE, Ohio (CNN) -- The parishioners heard the sirens during Sunday morning services in Greenville, Ohio. A few blocks from St. Paul's Lutheran Church, a home was burning and five people were dead. Police tape wards off the curious from the duplex where a woman and four children died in a fire September 16. Shock followed sadness with news that a 10-year-old boy was being charged with arson and murder, more heartbreak for a town in tough times -- but heartbreak that shook people into action. The St. Paul's parishioners reacted quickly that morning, said Shirley DiRocco, a volunteer at the church. Just passing the collection plate once around the church, she said, \"We came up with $300.\" The money went to buy clothes for the fire's survivors and food for the emergency crew who responded, she said. Helping out is nothing new for the church -- but a boy being accused of killing his mother, half-sister and three other children in a fire has been unheard of till now. There's a lot of introspection going on in Greenville, a small town of 13,000 where the good-paying jobs are getting scarce and the problems of big-city poverty are creeping in. Residents are divided on whether the boy is responsible, but they say his plight compels them to look at themselves and face their deepening problems. \"He's a young kid. There's something got to be wrong for him to come up with that,\" said Angie Hughes, manager of a downtown Greenville hair salon. \"It has brought to the surface the fact that in this area ... we do have a lot of folks who are the have-nots in the world ... the vast numbers of people in our community who are really deep in poverty,\" said Peter B. Menke, pastor of St. Paul's. Watch Menke talk about how the tragedy has galvanized Greenville \u00bb . St. Paul's sees firsthand the poverty that led to the boy having to sleep on the sofa, because he had no bed in the half of the duplex he shared with nine other people. Christy Winans managed to escape the fire with her boyfriend, but her three children -- Kayla Winans, 6; Je'Shawn Davis, 5; and Jasmine Davis, 3 -- died along with their playmate Kaysha Palmer, 8, who was the boy's half-sister. The boy's mother, Chanan Palmer, was also killed. On Monday, as the 10-year-old appeared in court on murder charges, St. Paul's expanded its lunchtime soup kitchen service to run two days a week. Twenty-two people turned up for the meal that first day. The church had fed 70 people, including parents and children, one day this summer. Menke said the tragedy of September 16 \"has galvanized ... particularly the religious community to action. We not just saying 'Yes, we have a problem,' but we are looking at ways to genuinely address those issues and do something about it.\" Federal statistics show unemployment is hurting Greenville and surrounding Darke County. Employment in private businesses fell by 7 percent from 2000 to 2005. Manufacturing companies left town and big employers downsized, like Fram oil filter maker, or closed down completely, like Corning's fiber-optics plant. Alicia Sommer, who's lived in Greenville for 37 years and taught in the local schools, says job losses have changed the town. \"On the surface it looks like the ideal hometown,\" she said. \"Everyone wants to raise their kids here, but they can't afford it. They have to go where the jobs are,\" she says, leaning on the counter of the downtown coffee shop where she works part time. Walking through the five blocks of downtown Greenville, you see why it looks ideal. Mom-and-pop coffee shops stand in for Starbucks, locals chat on a bench outside a music store, a small cinema offers \"Mr. Bean's Holiday\" and an Asian monster flick about battling dragons. But St. Paul's offers the soup kitchen only a block off the Broadway main drag, and the tumbledown housing on Montgomery Street, including the burned duplex, is just a two-minute walk away. Fixing Greenville may be a slow process, and it's unclear if the continuing case against the 10-year-old will slow it further or provide impetus to the effort. The boy is staying with his maternal grandmother, Tammy Reed, whose daughter died in the fire. The child lost his stepfather to AIDS in July. \"He's doing really good,\" Reed said of the boy Tuesday morning. No matter how the case turns out, the boy will bear scars forever, his attorney, David Rohrer, said last week. The boy will always know he was charged with killing his mother. \"He'll never be able to escape that,\" Rohrer said. In downtown Greenville, salons offered $5 haircuts Tuesday to raise money for the fire victims. The community wanted to help in any way it could, salon manager Hughes said. Whether that community can also bring Greenville out of its slump may depend on people like Sondra Jackson. Jackson, a letter carrier, walked her new route Monday down Montgomery Street. It was only her second day of work, she said, and she had no idea of the tragedy that unfolded in the burned duplex two weeks before. Jackson said she had just moved to Greenville from Palm Springs, California, where she was born and raised. \"The school system is better in this area, and it's just a better place to raise kids,\" she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Fire killed five people, a 10-year-old boy faces murder and arson charges .\nGreenville, Ohio, facing realities of poverty as jobs leave .\nResidents divided whether boy did it; but united in desire to help town .","id":"96e8d6e96b367d59be745bb2489f1563e3cbd34d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa's embattled police commissioner resigned Sunday as president of Interpol, a day after he took an extended leave of absence from his police duties, the international crime-fighting agency said in a statement. South Africa police commissioner Jackie Selebi, facing charges of corruption, has stepped down as boss of Interpol. Interpol's Secretary-General Ronald Noble received a resignation letter on Sunday from Jackie Selebi, who is facing charges of corruption related to his role as police commissioner, the agency said. The charges are not related to his leadership role in Interpol. In the letter, Selebi said he was resigning because he did not wish the allegations against him \"to bring the good work of this august body into disrepute.\" \"Based on my experience of working with Mr. Selebi in his capacity as delegate, vice president and ultimately president of the organization, he has always conducted himself and acted in a way to enhance global security and police co-operation worldwide,\" Noble said in a statement. As to the charges Selebi faces, Noble said: \"Any such allegations should be prosecuted thoroughly, and the proper manner is for charges to be brought promptly before a court of law and not through media leaks and speculation.\" On Saturday, South African President Thabo Mbeki told a news conference in Pretoria, South Africa, that Selebi had been given an \"extended leave of absence\" from his police duties, but that he was not being sacked. Mbeki said Selebi supported the decision -- taken midnight Friday and effective immediately -- to temporarily step down and that an acting commissioner had already been appointed to take his place. The National Prosecuting Authority said it will charge the police chief with \"corruption and defeating the administration of justice,\" Tladi Tladi, a spokesman for the agency told CNN. According to widespread media reports, the upcoming charges hinge on Selebi's dealings with Glen Agliotti, a convicted drug smuggler. The suspended police chief is alleged to have accepted at least 1.2 million Rand ($177,000) from Agliotti over a 5-year period, the South African daily Cape Argus reported. In return Selebi allegedly handed over confidential intelligence reports from the British authorities relating to Agliotti's suspected drug-trafficking activities, according to the newspaper. Tladi said the corruption charges were linked to Agliotti \"to a certain extent.\" Agliotti recently received a 10-year suspended prison sentence in a drug case after entering into a plea bargain. He is also accused of involvement in the 2005 killing of mining magnate Brett Kebble, according to South African media reports. A court on Friday rejected an application to halt the prosecution by Selebi, who has been under investigation for around two years. Mbeki denied that he had been too slow in dealing with the fallout from the charges. \"I have said many times that if there was anyone who came to me with information indicating that the national commissioner had behaved improperly then I would act on such information. No one has come to me with such information,\" Mbeki said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jackie Selebi, South African police chief, takes leave as faces corruption charges .\nAlso steps down as head of Interpol, although charges are not related to that position .\nCharged with taking money from a convicted drug smuggler over a 5-year period .\nSouth African President Thabo Mbeki denies he has been slow in dealing with affair .","id":"8cf0602ec67a2b04ed93318ac19830535061d002"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. naval forces hunting pirates off Somalia detained six people this week who appeared to be pursuing a commercial shipping vessel, but soon released them because of a lack of evidence. A Yemeni Coast Guard boat patrols the Gulf of Aden for pirates who threaten shipping. The Navy said on Saturday the six matched the description of suspected pirates aboard a skiff in the area. The naval crew saw the men throwing objects overboard before they picked up the suspects. Investigators didn't say what was thrown overboard but said the evidence was not sufficient \"to hold the suspects for prosecution.\" The detentions reflect the aggressive U.S.-led fight against piracy. The United States is spearheading an international naval task force in the waters off Somalia that launched in February after a rash of attacks. Participating ships are patrolling more than a million square miles of water, an area about four times the size of Texas, Navy officials have said. The Navy said it arrested the six on Friday after responding to a distress call from the Philippines-flagged MV Bison Express in the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia. The ship, a livestock carrier, reported a small skiff containing six heavily armed pirates was pursuing it. The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg arrived and found a skiff matching the description. A Seahawk helicopter flew from the Gettysburg over the skiff and reported seeing objects being thrown overboard, the Navy said. A team from the Gettysburg boarded the skiff, along with members of the U.S. Coast Guard Legal Detachment and detained the six suspected pirates. The U.S. officials transferred the suspects onto the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, the flagship for the international anti-piracy task force, the Navy said, before releasing them. The attack on the Bison Express was the second one Friday on commercial shipping vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the Navy said. In the first incident, pirates attacked the MV Sea Green, which managed to fend them off by firing flares as the men approached, the Navy said.","highlights":"U.S. military ship captures skiff off Somalia coast .\nSkiff matched description of commercial ship's pursuer .\nNavy lets men go for lack of evidence; saw suspects throwing stuff overboard .\nU.S.-led international naval effort patrols a million square miles in Gulf of Aden .","id":"b319dbe851188a1484923172e76b8a202585cb1f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Colin Powell stirred up the Republican Party's very public internal debate about the direction of the party and asserted it's losing because it doesn't appeal to moderates like him. The Republican Party is losing \"men, woman, white, blacks and Hispanics,\" says Colin Powell. Two Republican leaders questioned Powell's GOP credentials. Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Powell should leave the party. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he thought he already had. Powell says he's still very much a Republican and said the party would be better off to include more moderates like him. \"The Republican Party is losing north, south, east, west; men, woman, white, blacks and Hispanics,\" Powell said in an interview with CBS' \"Face the Nation.\" \"I think the Republican Party has to take a hard look at itself and decide: What kind of party are we?\" As it has squabbled within the family, the party has wandered. Most analysts say it will get back on the right track when its next leaders emerge. Is Powell emerging as a voice of the moderates in the party? \"A spokesman is good,\" said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst. \"A candidate would be better.\" Watch what CNN's Bill Schneider has to say about the debate \u00bb . The Republicans' family argument started shortly after the Democrats won the White House and added to their control of Congress. Conservatives blame moderates for the losses, saying the party didn't present a contrast with Democrats and the only way for it to be successful is to lean harder to the right. Limbaugh and Cheney emerged from the leadership vacuum -- Limbaugh from his legions of listeners and Cheney in his emergent role as the sole defender of the Bush White House. Powell provoked Limbaugh when he suggested the GOP's future was in peril if it went in the Limbaugh's direction. Limbaugh responded that Powell is part of the \"stale, the old, the worn-out GOP that never won anything.\" Powell says the right has alienated undecided and independent voters and the only way for the GOP to return to power is to expand its narrow base. The former Pentagon commander of the 1991 Persian Gulf war has for the most part stayed out of politics since resigning as President's Bush's secretary of state in Bush's first term. Among Republicans, Powell, Cheney and Limbaugh are equally revered with favorability ratings in the 60s, according to a new CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll. But among all voters questioned, Powell has a favorability rate of 70 percent compared to 30 percent for Limbaugh. A poll a week ago found that Cheney had a favorability rate of 37 percent. \"Colin Powell is not the guy you want to pick a fight with,\" Schneider said. \"He's more popular than Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh combined. Between the two polls, Limbaugh's unfavorable rating among all respondents was 53 percent and Cheney's 55 percent. Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, another moderate, sided with Powell in an interview with with CNN's John King on \"State of the Union\" on Sunday. The former Pennsylvania governor said the different wings of the party need to listen to each other and differences of opinions need to be less divisive. \"Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 million people. A lot of people listen daily to him and live by every word. But words mean things and how you use words is very important,\" Ridge said. \"It does get the base all fired up and he's got a strong following,\" Ridge continued. \"But personally, if he would listen to me and I doubt if he would, the notion is express yourself but let's respect others opinions and let's not be divisive.\" Ridge, who ruled out a Senate bid earlier this month, also called for an end to personal attacks. \"Let's lead our party based on some principles that have been very much a part of who we are for decades. And let's be less shrill ... and particularly, let's not attack other individuals. Let's attack their ideas,\" said Ridge. Republican strategist and CNN contributor Mary Matalin challenged what she called the \"liberal-lite\" wing of the party and said Republicans win when they run on their conservative convictions. When [Powell] supports Barack Obama, one presumes he's supporting those principles and policies,\" Matalin said. \"Those are liberal principles and they spawn liberal policies. The road forward for Republicans is not to be 'liberal-lite,' \" said Matalin. \"This debate is a long one and it always is taking place vigorously when we change through any new paradigm. What is the scope and the role of a government in a free state? Those are big principles, big ideas, and that's how we should go forward. And anybody who agrees with those ideas should be in the party. If you don't agree with those ideas, you can be in the other party,\" she said. On another talk show, former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, who served with Powell and Cheney in the White House, took Limbaugh's side, saying he would choose the radio host over the former secretary of state if he \"had to pick between the two,\" in an interview on \"Fox News Sunday.\"","highlights":"Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Powell should leave GOP .\nFormer Vice President Dick Cheney said he thought he already had .\nGOP \"losing north, south, east, west,\" says Powell .\nKarl Rove says he would choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell .","id":"be92a26c051ad73e93c932a8bbacc8ae4e8b4575"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother and brother of a 31-year-old woman found strangled with her two young sons in the bedrooms of their home filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against the alleged killer -- the husband and father of the victims. Christopher Coleman has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. Christopher Coleman has pleaded not guilty in the triple homicide police say took place early in the morning on May 5 in the family home in the small southwestern Illinois city of Columbia. \"To strip the culpable party of all financial holdings -- all that he has now and all that he may ever have,\" is the aim of the suit, said a statement accompanying the suit filed in Monroe County circuit court by Angela DeCicco and Mario Weiss, the mother and brother of Sheri Coleman. \"To allow one penny of ill-gotten gain to be derived at the expense of Sheri, Garett and Gavin is not acceptable to those who dearly love them.\" The money would go to a memorial fund set up for Coleman and her sons, Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9 and \"these funds will be used to erect a lasting tribute in the city of Columbia,\" according to the complaint. \"Our goal is to extract something positive from such a horrific and senseless tragedy and to honor the lives of my sister and her two young sons,\" Weiss said. The wrongful death suit also names Coleman's father, Ronald, and the Joyce Meyer Ministries, where Coleman worked until shortly after his family was killed, as \"respondents in discovery,\" which means they may be forced to hand over financial documents and information such as Coleman's personnel file, his work schedule and travel itineraries and the Ministries' employment policies. In addition, the suit tries to establish a timeline of events before and after the killings, saying the Colemans took the deed to their home in 2005, but six months ago, ownership was transferred to Christoper Coleman alone. \"Sheri did not voluntarily sign the deed transferring title to the residence to Christopher,\" the document says. Lawyers in the civil suit also allege that in the period between the killings and his arrest, Coleman removed personal property from the home. The suit asks that Coleman and anyone \"acting at his direction\" be forbidden from entering the home again and that he provide a list of items already removed. Coleman remains in jail after a judge denied bond.","highlights":"Sheri Coleman, 2 sons killed in Columbia, Illinois, home .\nChristopher Coleman, husband and father, is accused in the deaths .\nFamily says it hopes to prevent \"ill-gotten gain\" from the three deaths .","id":"b89841d9ac1e3bc59278fe0eb8c8042b8336f8a1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Global warming could destabilize \"struggling and poor\" countries around the world, prompting mass migrations and creating breeding grounds for terrorists, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council told Congress on Wednesday. Climate change could increase flooding in coastal areas, like the flooding that hit the Philippines. Climate change \"will aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions,\" Thomas Fingar said. \"All of this threatens the domestic stability of a number of African, Asian, Central American and Central Asian countries.\" People are likely to flee destabilized countries, and some may turn to terrorism, he said. \"The conditions exacerbated by the effects of climate change could increase the pool of potential recruits into terrorist activity,\" he said. \"Economic refugees will perceive additional reasons to flee their homes because of harsher climates,\" Fingar predicted. That will put pressure on countries receiving refugees, many of which \"will have neither the resources nor interest to host these climate migrants,\" he said in testimony to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Reactions to the report broke down along partisan lines, with Democrats generally praising it and Republicans expressing doubts. Committee members had concerns about the report's secrecy, reliability and use of intelligence resources. Global warming may have a slight positive effect on the United States, since it is likely to produce larger farming yields, Fingar said . But it is also likely to result in storm surges that could affect nuclear facilities and oil refineries near coasts, water shortages in the Southwest and longer summers with more wildfires, the study found. International migration may also help spread disease, Fingar added, and climate change could put stress on international trade in essential commodities. \"The United States depends on a smooth-functioning international system ensuring the flow of trade and market access to critical raw materials, such as oil and gas, and security for its allies and partners. Climate change and climate change policies could affect all of these,\" he warned, \"with significant geopolitical consequences.\" The report was the conclusion of the most comprehensive government analysis the U.S. intelligence community has ever conducted on climate change. Fingar emphasized that it could make no hard and fast predictions, saying that the operative word in his assessment was \"may.\" Wealthy countries will be able to handle the situation better than poorer ones, he said. \"We assess that no country will be immune to the effects of climate change, but some will be able to cope more effectively than others,\" he said. \"Most of the struggling and poor states that will suffer adverse impacts to their potential and economic security are in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Southeast Asia. \"However, the spillover -- from potentially increased migration and water-related disputes -- could have a harmful global impact,\" he added. Fingar painted a mixed picture of the effects of climate change on the United States itself. \"Most studies suggest the United States as a whole will enjoy modest economic benefits over the next few decades, largely due to the increased crop yields,\" he said. \"Costs begin to mount thereafter, however, and some parts of the United States -- particularly built-up coastal areas -- will be at greater risk of extreme weather events and potentially high costs related to losses in complex infrastructure.\" The impact of fighting and preparing for climate change may be greater than the effect of global warming itself, Fingar said. \"Government, business and public efforts to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies to deal with climate change -- from policies to reduce greenhouse gases to plans to reduce exposure to climate change or capitalize on potential impacts -- may affect U.S. national security interests even more than the physical impacts of climate change itself,\" he said. The report, the \"National Intelligence Assessment on the National Security Implications of Global Climate Change to 2030,\" relied on U.S. government, military, academic and United Nations studies of climate change. The report itself is classified, which some members of the House committee objected to. \"I am disappointed it is classified,\" said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California. Secrecy \"prevents this report from being released and discussed in public domain.\" Committee Chairman Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he would ask the administration to declassify it. Markey opened the hearing by saying \"human beings all over the planet face death or damage or injury if we do not act.\" He blasted the White House stance on climate change, saying, \"The Bush administration continues to limit what their experts know. The president doesn't want America to know the real risk of global warming.\" Republicans on the committee criticized the report as wasteful, with Rep. Darrell Issa of California calling it a \"dangerous diversion of intelligence resources.\" Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, said that the report was unreliable and that its authors admitted as much. \"We have a lot of information where we are incapable of assessing it,\" Fingar conceded. Hoekstra also questioned the committee's priorities. \"There are a lot more pressing issues out there for the intelligence community to be focused on right now that would help keep America safe,\" he said. The assessment \"was a waste of time, a waste of resources for the intelligence community to be focused on this issue versus other folks in the government that could have done this job and have a responsibility for doing it.\" Fingar said the intelligence community had relied on the science of others because it did not itself monitor climate change. He said the assessment was based on midrange predictions of global warming.","highlights":"Climate change could destabilize \"weak\" states, intelligence chair says .\nGlobal warming could spark mass migrations, classified report finds .\nU.S. food production could increase with climate change, report suggests .\nBut it says U.S. coasts could be threatened by larger storm surges .","id":"f67bbe2522d33c78eded05c55fd56933efbd8248"} -{"article":"EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, California (CNN) -- Space shuttle Atlantis landed Sunday at Edwards Air Force Base after rainy weather in Florida precluded a landing at Kennedy Space Center. The space shuttle Atlantis touches down at Edwards AFB on Sunday. The shuttle touched down at 8:39 a.m. PT at Edwards, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, California. Within seven to 10 days, the shuttle will be transported from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet, NASA said in a statement. Atlantis' next flight is scheduled for November. Rainy weather postponed the shuttle landing both Friday and Saturday. NASA had said that Atlantis conceivably could have remained in space until Monday, but wanted to land the shuttle Sunday. Watch Atlantis land at Edwards Air Force Base \u00bb . Weather conditions in Florida were better Sunday than Saturday, NASA officials said, but atmospheric conditions were still too unstable for a landing at Kennedy. It was the 53rd time the shuttle has landed at Edwards, NASA officials said. In the early days of the space shuttle program, Edwards was its primary landing site. Shuttles have landed 70 times at Kennedy Space Center, NASA said, and once at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Atlantis launched May 11 for NASA's final repair visit to the Hubble Space Telescope. Shuttle astronauts conducted five spacewalks during the mission to perform routine repairs and replace key instruments, in what has been called one of the most ambitious space repair efforts ever attempted. Hubble was released back into orbit Tuesday morning. The telescope was rejuvenated with instruments designed to improve its capabilities by as much as 70 times, while extending its lifetime through at least 2014, according to the NASA statement. \"This is not the end of the story but the beginning of another chapter of discovery by Hubble,\" Ed Weiler, associate administrator for science at NASA headquarters, said in the statement. \"Hubble will be more powerful than ever, continue to surprise, enlighten and inspire us all, and pave the way for the next generation of observatories.\" Hubble, which has been in space for nearly two decades, can capture clear images that telescopes on Earth cannot, partly because it does not have to gaze through murky atmospheres. CNN's John Couwels and Alan Duke contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Repair mission means \"another chapter of discovery by Hubble,\" official says .\nShuttle lands smoothly at 8:39 a.m. PT at Edwards AFB in California .\nBad weather scuttled scheduled landing attempts in Florida on Friday and Saturday .\nAtlantis launched May 11 for NASA's final repair visit to the Hubble Space Telescope .","id":"77626834743c765c4c7ab0ed98b96d85f6f03381"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Two people were killed and about a dozen others were injured when a bomb exploded in a Catholic church in Kathmandu on Saturday morning, police said. The damage inside the church in Kathmandu following Saturday's bomb blast. The explosion in the Nepalese capital killed a 15-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman. \"The bomb exploded inside the church when the explosion happened,\" senior police officer Kedar Man Singh Bhandari told CNN over the phone. About 100 people were in the church when the bomb exploded, police said. Manish Amatya, who was injured, said the blast interrupted their prayers. \"There was a loud explosion while we were praying and all of us ran out screaming,\" he said. Investigations are under way to determine who planted the bomb, which damaged the church. CNN's Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Explosion in Nepalese capital killed 15-year-old girl, 30-year-old woman .\n100 people were in the church when the bomb exploded .\nInvestigations are under way to determine who planted the bomb .","id":"306e4e5f484ad63435ec5fd69bfef54157882feb"} -{"article":"PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi (CNN) -- James Young still remembers the Ku Klux Klan tormenting his neighborhood. He can still see his father holding a gun on the living room couch ready to shoot anyone who threatened his family. James Young poses with one of his young supporters after winning this week's election. Nothing about Young's childhood ever made him think he could be the mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town best known for the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964. That's the way it was for black kids growing up in this crucible of racial hostility -- big dreams were often squelched. Sitting on a sprawling Southern front porch this week, Young broke down in tears about what it means to be elected the town's first black mayor. \"When you've been treated the way we've been treated,\" he told CNN, choking up and then pausing to wipe the tears from his face. Watch tearful Young describe victory \u00bb . For a moment, he couldn't speak. He then regrouped, \"That's why it's so overwhelming to be a part of this history.\" This week, the 53-year-old Young was elected the mayor of Philadelphia, a town of about 8,000 in the east-central part of the state. Despite a 55 percent white majority, Young defeated Rayburn Waddell, a white, three-term incumbent, by the slim margin of 46 votes. See where the town is located \u00bb . Young described the victory as \"an atomic bomb of change.\" Another resident rejoiced, saying Young's win symbolized the scab finally falling off this town's wound. \"I couldn't even have wrote that in a fairy tale,\" Young said. \"Who would have thought a little country boy like me would be mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi?\" Philadelphia was the site of one of the most notorious killings of the civil rights era. On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers -- James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, both activists from New York -- were shot to death at the edge of town. The killings inspired the 1988 movie \"Mississippi Burning.\" \"Philadelphia will always be connected to what happened here in 1964,\" said Jim Prince, the publisher of the Neshoba Democrat newspaper. \"But the fact that Philadelphia, Mississippi, with its notorious past, could elect a black man as mayor, it might be time to quit picking on Philadelphia, Mississippi.\" Young knows his slim margin of victory means he still has to earn the trust of many more voters here. He knows there are still some in town who won't vote for him because he's black, but he says that number gets smaller and smaller as time passes. \"We have some -- a very small pocket -- that will never change. That's what we've got to deal with,\" said Young. The mayor-elect says his election symbolizes a dramatic shift away from his hometown's racist past. And for many black residents, it means they can finally call this place home. \"The places where we were locked out, I'm gonna have the key,\" he said. \"The places we couldn't go, I've got the key. No better way to say it than that.\" He takes special pride that his victory comes the same year the nation swore in its first African-American president in Barack Obama. \"It inspired people,\" Young said. \"There are times and seasons, I think, for everything. The season arrived and the people let me know it was my time.\" The mayor-elect says he won by shaking hands and knocking on doors all over town. But the groundwork for Young's climb to the top of Philadelphia's political world started decades ago. Young was one of the first black students to integrate Philadelphia's white schools. After graduating from high school, he worked in a motor factory and then as a hospital housekeeper. A white boss noticed Young's charming people skills and recommended that he become a paramedic. He eventually worked his way up to become the director of the EMT unit, and that catapulted him to his first elected job as a county supervisor in 1991. He is also a Pentecostal minister preaching on Sunday and organizing weekly Bible studies. \"I've been prepping for this. I felt like I knew enough people. I felt like they knew me and that if I could convince them to just give me the opportunity, things could happen,\" said Young. Driving around Philadelphia in a 1981 Ford pickup truck, Young basked in the glow of victory. He calls it the \"honeymoon\" period. As we drove down the road, black and white residents cheered. \"We're so happy,\" screamed one lady. Young shouted back, \"We did it!\" Until he's sworn in as mayor, Young will work out of a makeshift transition office provided by a prominent attorney. His victory might seem unlikely but there's little time left to celebrate. \"It's an awesome feeling to have that kind of respect that people support you in this way,\" Young said near the end of our interview. \"I'll never let the people down which called for that.\"","highlights":"Philadelphia, Mississippi, elects first black mayor .\nTown of 8,000 is best known for its notorious past, the killings of 3 civil rights workers .\nJames Young won election by 46 votes; the town has a 55 percent white population .\n\"When you've been treated the way we've been treated ... it's so overwhelming\"","id":"6ca0032df7f523206189d28f11c14ef0f6ac4d46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates attacked a Japanese cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Sunday, a Japanese Transportation Ministry official said. A french navy helicopter watches over a cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden earlier this year. A pair of small pirate vessels fired on a ship operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines about 4 p.m. Somali time (9 a.m. ET), damaging the front of the ship, but not seriously, according to Masami Suekado. There were no injuries. The exact number and makeup of the crew were not immediately known, although none of the crew members is Japanese, Suekado said. Pirating off Somalia has increase over the past four or five years as fishermen from Somalia realize that pirating is more lucrative. The crime, which is hard to prevent, has raised concerns internationally. In 2008, pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. In response, a number of countries have deployed ships from their navies to the region, including the United States, China and Japan. Two Japanese destroyers set sail earlier this month on an anti-piracy mission off Somalia, the Japanese defense ministry said.","highlights":"Pirates attack Japanese cargo ship off the coast of Somalia .\nA pair of small pirate vessels fire on ship operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines .\nFront of ship damaged but not seriously; There are no injuries .\nIn 2008, pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 off Somalia .","id":"92b8bb91db437632db3a986a865f29a3b65c03d2"} -{"article":"CANNES, France (CNN) -- After eleven days, hundreds of screenings and thousands of snaps from the paparazzi, there could only be one Palme d'Or winner. Austrian director Michael Haneke hugs the president of the Cannes jury, French actress Isabelle Huppert. \"The White Ribbon,\" by Austrian director Michael Haneke, was awarded the prize for its depiction of the cruel punishments meted out at a rural German school before the First World War. \"The Palme d'Or is the best prize a filmmaker can win,\" said Haneke at a press conference following his award. \"I am not proud, but I am very happy. In my opinion, it's silly to be proud.\" It was a case of fifth time lucky for Haneke, who has previously been nominated for the award for \"Funny Games\" (1997), \"Code Unknown\" (2000), \"The Piano Teacher\" (2001) and \"Hidden\" (2005). \"There are always rumors at the festival, and one must not take them seriously,\" the director said. \"When I presented \"Hidden\" [in 2005], everyone was telling me I was going to win the Palme. And I didn't get it.\" Jury president Isabelle Huppert, the French actress who won the best actress prize at the 2001 festival for \"The Piano Teacher,\" said she was delighted to have the chance to honor her former director. \"I think I always loved him as a director, and that's why I've worked with him before,\" she said at the post-awards press conference. \"To me, the movie is very philosophical. And his style, and his direction are totally ethical in my mind. That's what I wanted to reward.\" The American actress Robin Wright Penn, who also sat on the festival jury, laughed off rumors that the decision was hotly disputed. \"There have been rumors circulating that we were fighting in the room,\" she told the press conference. \"The beauty about loving each other ... [is that] we could disagree, and we still love each other. I felt like we built a consensus among us,\" she said. \"It was like being on \"Big Brother,\" except you could go to the movies,\" added British screenwriter and fellow juror Hanif Kureishi. \"Some of the films are very long,\" he joked. Elsewhere, Charlotte Gainsbourg won the best actress prize for her shocking turn in Lars von Trier's \"Antichrist,\" featuring scenes of genital mutilation that left audiences stunned. Christolph Waltz won best actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds,\" while Brillante Mendoza secured the best director gong for \"Kinatay.\" The jury prize was shared by Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook's vampire film \"Thirst,\" and Andrea Arnold's \"Fish Tank,\" while the grand prix went to \"The Prophet,\" by director Jacques Audiard.","highlights":"\"The White Ribbon,\" by Austrian director Michael Haneke, wins Cannes .\nHaneke: Palme d'Or is the best prize a filmmaker can win .\nJury member, Robin Wright Penn, dismisses claims they were split over winner .","id":"0ea701fb9e052dc38c1b7c057a7f79498b8f41b6"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Natalia Vodianova is the Russian supermodel and philanthropist described by designer Tom Ford as \"the most beautiful woman in the world.\" Natalia Vodianova: \"I think protecting your family and giving to them is the most important achievement.\" Natalia, 27, is a mother of three and has set up her own children's charity. The woman nicknamed \"Supernova\" tells My City_My Life about her tough childhood, her love of Moscow and why Russian vodka is the best. CNN: How would you describe Moscow? Natalia Vodianova: It's a city of contrasts. You have this great culture and traditions that are very normal, calm and established. And then you have explosions of emotion, craziness, art, and young people who are so proud to be Muscovites and really trying to be individuals. Moscow is a huge inspiration for me. I love what I find here, I love being here. CNN: What would you change about Moscow given the chance? NV: Definitely the way it's treated at the moment, the way the government wants to renovate the old buildings. To me it's a little bit sad because in the West people have a very different mentality about renovating buildings, keeping them as intact as possible. Watch Natalia Vodianova take CNN on a tour of Moscow. \u00bb . CNN: What's the fashion in Moscow? NV: You see women in jeans wearing very high heels and a short puffy jacket. It's really funny! CNN: Tell me about your childhood . NV: I was born in Nizhny Novgorod to a very poor family and unfortunately my father and mother separated when I was very little. She was a single mum and had two more girls. It was a struggle but we all worked really hard and stood up for each other. My mum was amazing; she never drank, she never smoked -- she lived for us. I appreciate what she has done for me and the way she raised me. CNN: Is family very important to you? NV: I think protecting your family and giving to them is so important. It's the most important achievement. CNN: How did your modeling career take off? NV: I went to Paris when I was 17. I was lucky because my career kind of gradually built up over two years -- I always had good work but I wasn't a star straight away. In fact, my agency thought that I might never do shows because I was a bit shorter and not skinny enough, but when I gave birth to my first son I was 19 and I lost a lot of weight. I guess the stress on the body was extreme and I suddenly just turned into this stick -- just the way designers love models. My career took off after Lucas was born because I opened a lot of shows on the runway and that's where a lot of stars are made in my industry. See Natalia Vodianova's Moscow in photos. \u00bb . CNN: If you weren't a model, what would your life be like? NV: It's very hard to say what my life would be like if I hadn't gone to Paris. People say I didn't change very much but I don't think that's true. I'm a happy person and even if I thought that I was happy then, I had so much baggage to carry with me: my background, people's expectations, the fact that I wasn't a perfect student and I wasn't going to school all the time -- I didn't live a normal life at all. That's not with me anymore, because of my success. It really doesn't matter because I know I have learned so much more than a lot of other girls who have had perfect childhoods. CNN: Tell us about the charity and what you are trying to achieve with it? NV: I started my foundation in 2005, after the Beslan tragedy [the 2004 school siege in which at least 339 hostages were killed]. I was in Moscow at the time and it just struck me so much. I went back to New York, where I was living at the time, organized a fundraising event and raised $350,000 to build a playground for the children that had survived in the area. I believe that play is very therapeutic. It's really the only way for these children to forget about what happened and just be children, even if it's only for five minutes. But then I realized that it would be good for all the other children in Russia and I just started raising money and building playgrounds. Now we have 23 places all over Russia and we are building 15 more this year and planning to build more. I want to fulfill my dream of building 500 play parks in Russia. Each one will cost about $300,000 so it's a big dream -- an expensive one! CNN: Let's talk about vodka... NV: Our vodka is definitely the best. It's a very pure, good drink and it goes with Russian food. Generally I don't drink vodka outside Russia, but when you come to Russia there is no reason to order a glass of wine. CNN: What do you think of your nickname -- Supernova? NV: I don't mind being called Supernova. If one nickname is going to stick, that's not a bad one! CNN: Which five words best describe Moscow? NV: It's mysterious, cultural, exciting, crazy and spiritual.","highlights":"Natalia Vodianova is a Russian supermodel and has started a children's charity .\n\"Moscow is a huge inspiration for me. I love what I find here,\" she says .\nShe says she had a tough childhood but learned from the experience .\n\"I want to fulfill my dream of building 500 play parks in Russia,\" says Natalia .","id":"6829a256036da500340850a3f3228b122d5a6505"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sidney Frank made millions marketing Jagermeister and other alcohol brands. Three years after his death, he's a big hit with students at the Ivy League college he briefly attended. Sidney Frank, shown accepting an honorary degree in 2005, gave $100 million to Brown University. He's a big hit not because of what he sold but because he's given dozens of them what he couldn't afford as a young man: an education at Rhode Island's Brown University. On Sunday, 49 students from low-income families became the first four-year Sidney E. Frank Scholars to graduate from Brown, owing virtually nothing except gratitude to the late liquor magnate. \"The world of difference that he made for each and every one of us is unbelievable, incredible,\" one of the Frank Scholars, 22-year-old Shane Reil, said Sunday. Frank -- who left Brown after one year in the late 1930s because he couldn't afford to stay -- gave the school a $100 million endowment in 2004. He stipulated that the fund's income go exclusively to covering all tuition and expenses for the neediest of Brown's admitted applicants. Hear graduates say how their dreams came true \u00bb . For this year's graduates, tuition and expenses came to a four-year total of about $180,000 each. The median annual income of the recipients' families was $18,984. The gift was the largest single one ever given to Brown and one of the largest ever given for undergraduate scholarships in the United States, according to the school. Reil, a history major who is preparing to co-chair a student conference on U.S.-South Korean relations and aspires to work in politics or foreign service, says the scholarship was the stuff of dreams. He was working up to 40 hours a week during high school so he could pay for clothes and even help with grocery bills. He and his mother were getting by, but the Massachusetts native thought community college or a big state school would be all he could afford. When his academic achievements put Brown in his sights, he thought he'd have to go into too much debt to go there. But he applied anyway, and Brown invited him to campus to tell him about how much the school would award him. \"I sat in this guy's office ... and he said, '$37,000 for tuition,' \" Reil recalled. \"I said, \"$37,000, that's going to be split over four years, so essentially I'm getting a $10,000 scholarship per year.' \"He said, 'No, no, that's $37,000 for this year, and it will be covered [the rest of the years] too.' \" Reil said he cried in the office and ran to his car, where his mother was waiting. \"She was crying so much, we had to sit in the car for so long because she couldn't drive. It was a great moment,\" Reil said. \"Having the opportunity to go to a really good school ... I think it took my world from a very small area and physical space and just expanded it in multitudes,\" he said. Though other universities give full rides, Frank's gift was a coup for Brown. Like many other schools, Brown used to factor a family's ability to pay when deciding whether to accept students. Brown no longer does that, and Frank's gift was \"integral\" in bringing the change, said Jim Miller, Brown's dean of admissions. The school intends to give 30 to 35 Frank scholarships per year. Most recipients are the first in their families to go to college, Miller said. That was the case for Eliana Reyes Castro, who was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States when she was 6. She said she attended a Massachusetts high school that had regained its accreditation only months before she graduated. Like Reil, she was one of the Frank Scholars who graduated Sunday. She received a degree in education with a concentration in human development and will pursue a master's in secondary social studies and history at Brown. She might have attended Brown even if she had to take out loans. But that might have taken her away from what she wanted to do -- teach -- in favor of something that she had less interest in but paid more, she said. \"Just teaching right after college ... might not have been as appealing if I had loans to worry about,\" Reyes Castro said. Frank, though he went to Brown only one year, landed an engineering job at Pratt & Whitney in part because someone there had gone to the school, said his daughter, Cathy Halstead. The company sent him overseas and he worked on Allied airplane engines during World War II, she said. Eventually he got into the liquor business, started the Sidney Frank Importing Co. and marketed Jagermeister and Grey Goose vodka in the United States. He took up Jagermeister in the 1970s, sending attractive young women to bars to persuade patrons to try the drink and coming up with the Jagermeister tap machine. He created Grey Goose, had it distilled in France and brought it into the United States through importers. In 2004, he sold Grey Goose for $2.2 billion, said Halstead, 61, of Seattle, Washington. When Brown gave him an honorary degree in 2005, not long after his gift and months before his January 2006 death, people gave him a hero's welcome, she said. \"People on both sides [of a procession] were yelling his name and yelling, 'Jager!' and yelling, 'Goose!' \" she said. He gave millions of dollars to other institutions and projects. As for the Brown scholarship fund, he started it because he saw that Brown had changed the course of his life, Halstead said. \"He really wanted kids who were coming from very economically challenged backgrounds to have the chance to make it all the way through,\" said Halstead, who attended Sunday's graduation ceremony. Reil and Reyes Castro said they couldn't thank Frank enough if he were alive. \"What he did is a catalyst for a lot of great things, and I'm indebted to him to do the best with the education that I've gotten here to help people in any way that I can,\" Reyes Castro said.","highlights":"Sidney Frank left $100 million to Brown University months before he died .\nFrank attended Brown for one year in 1930s, left because he couldn't afford it .\nThe gift covers tuition, other expenses for neediest accepted applicants .\nFirst students to receive Frank's scholarship for four years graduated Sunday .","id":"080c4286a1d1c5096b27d497c880118841c567dc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Toulouse striker Andre-Pierre Gignac has been handed his first call-up to the France squad for their two World Cup qualifiers against Lithuania. Gignac has been rewarded for his superb form this season with a first call-up to the France squad. The 23-year-old forward is the top scorer in French Ligue 1 with 17 goals this season -- and has been selected by coach Raymond Domenech ahead of Paris St-Germain striker Guillaume Hoarau. Defenders Patrice Evra and Ladil Rami return, but fellow-defenders Eric Abidal (Barcelona), Jean-Alain Boumsong (Lyon) and Julien Escude (Sevilla) are all ruled out through injury. There is also no place in the squad for captain Patrick Vieira, who has struggled to find his best form for Inter Milan this season. France are currently third in European Group Seven with just one win to show from their first three matches. They trail Serbia and Lithuania by five points but have a game in hand on both nations. France initially face Lituania in Kaunas on March 28, with the return match at the Stade de France in Paris on April 1. France squad: . Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Cedric Carrasso (Toulouse). Defenders: Gael Clichy (Arsenal), Rod Fanni (Rennes), William Gallas (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (Roma), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), Sebastien Squillaci (Sevilla), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Adil Rami (Lille). Midfielders: Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid), Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Samir Nasri (Arsenal), Jeremy Toulalan (Lyon), Abou Diaby (Arsenal), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich). Forwards: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Rennes), Thierry Henry (Barcelona), Andre-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse).","highlights":"Toulouse striker Andre-Pierre Gignac handed his first call-up to France squad .\nGignac named in 23-man squad after scoring 15 goals in Ligue 1 this season .\nBut there is no place for captain Patrick Vieira in Raymond Domenech's squad .","id":"96ffb40c9385e7b09379bdcdf2d7069ee33dcd73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pele has denied saying that Manchester City striker Robinho had taken drugs. Pele's alleged quotes about striker Robinho (above) have caused a sensation in Brazil. The Brazilian legend was quoted as saying that Robinho and former world footballer of the year Ronaldo used recreational drugs at a private party in Sao Paolo. The comments have caused a sensation in Brazil, where Ronaldo is still revered and Pele's word is taken as gospel, and led to Robinho's representatives demanding an official retraction. However, Pele insists he said no such thing. \"Robinho is our son and left Santos with our supervision,\" he told TV Globo. \"What happened was a misunderstanding because I never said anything like that, they gave him wrong information. \"I know what the people who need to sell newspapers are like. When there's a story like this you need to ask for the recording to hear what was really said.\" Pele's advisor went into further detail about the exact nature of the misunderstanding. \"There's nothing to this, Pele never said that Robinho had problems with drugs,\" he told Terra.com. \"His answer was distorted. Pele was asked about problems in football, and said that the problems are few compared to other sports. \"He said that in football only Maradona, Ronaldo and Robinho had really had problems, but he never talked about drugs at any moment.\"","highlights":"Pele has denied saying that Manchester City striker Robinho had taken drugs .\nBrazilian legend was quoted as saying Robinho used drugs at a private party .\nHowever Pele claims that his recent quotes were distorted and misrepresented .","id":"601d1062dbde028eaea2ce7b8a0b62155490d996"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- California's highest court upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages Tuesday but allowed about 18,000 unions performed before the ban to remain valid. Protesters gather outside the California Supreme Court in San Francisco on Tuesday. Supporters of November ballot initiative Proposition 8 hailed the ruling, but about 1,000 advocates of same-sex marriages who gathered outside the court building in San Francisco met the 6-1 decision with chants of \"Shame on you.\" Following the ruling, supporters of same-sex marriage took to the streets to protest. CNN affiliate KGO reported that after the opinion was made public lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender officers were brought in specifically to help manage the crowd. During those protests 159 adults and three juveniles were arrested and cited for jaywalking, San Francisco Police Department Sgt. Lyn Tomioka told CNN. Similar rallies were held Tuesday evening in Los Angeles, where 3,500 to 5,000 protesters took part, according to police estimates. There were no arrests, said Julianne Sohn of the Los Angeles Police Department. There were also reports of demonstrations in San Diego and some other California cities, as well as in major cities nationwide. iReport.com: Rally in San Diego . Lisa Angelot and Karen Brandenberger were married when it was legal, but they said their own marriage is not enough, and told KGO they were prepared to be arrested to make the point. \"It will be my first time to be arrested,\" Angelot told KGO. Many supporters said it was most upsetting to have the right to marry yanked away from them after last year's court ruling. \"It is impossible to square the elation that we felt just a year ago with the grief that we feel today,\" said Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. \"And it is impossible to reconcile the court's ruling from a year ago with its upholding of Proposition 8 today.\" The same court, dominated by Republican appointees, ruled in May 2008 that the state constitution guaranteed gay and lesbian couples the \"basic civil right\" to marry. Voters responded in November by approving the marriage ban by a margin of 52 to 48 percent. iReport.com: React to court decision and share photos, video . Opponents of the ban argued that it improperly altered California's constitution to restrict a fundamental right guaranteed in the state charter. Its supporters argued that Californians long have had the right to change their state constitution through ballot initiatives. Tuesday's ruling found that the proposition restricted the designation of marriage \"while not otherwise affecting the fundamental constitutional rights of same-sex couples,\" as Chief Justice Ronald George wrote. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Carlos Moreno -- the court's only Democratic appointee -- wrote that the decision \"is not just a defeat for same-sex couples, but for any minority group that seeks the protection of the equal protection clause of the California Constitution.\" Watch what was at stake \u00bb . The decision sparked protests in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. \"It's nice that my marriage is still intact, but that's not the point,\" said Kathleen White, who was among those awaiting the ruling in San Francisco. \"The point is that everybody should have the same civil rights across the board.\" But Miles McPherson, pastor of the Rock Church in San Diego, said the court \"did the right thing.\" Voters in 28 other states have approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriages, and none has been rejected, he said. \"God didn't create the family that way,\" McPherson said. \"You can't have a family with a mother and a mother, because [children] need a mother and a father to nurture their personality and their character.\" Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, said the ruling \"should encourage pro-family activists not only in California but across the country.\" But he said that by preserving marriages performed before the ban, the justices could have opened a door to a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was unclear whether advocates had an avenue to appeal Tuesday's ruling, however. And Dennis Herrera, San Francisco's city attorney, said the fight for same-sex marriage rights would most likely go on \"in the electoral arena.\" \"Today we're faced with a disappointing decision,\" Herrera said. \"But I think we also know it could have been worse.\" View reactions to the ruling \u00bb . A new effort, dubbed Yes on Equality, has begun working to place an initiative on the 2010 ballot that would repeal Proposition 8. State justices left unaddressed whether same-sex marriages performed in other states before the ban was adopted would be recognized in California, and advocates would have to argue that the measure violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. California took its first steps toward recognizing same-sex marriages in 2004, when San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. iReport.com: React to court decision and share photos, video . Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who opposed the initiative, praised the court for leaving the previous marriages intact and urged opponents of the decision to respond \"peacefully and lawfully.\" \"While I believe that one day either the people or courts will recognize gay marriage, as governor of California, I will uphold the decision of the California Supreme Court,\" Schwarzenegger said in a written statement. Four states -- Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Iowa -- currently allow same-sex marriages. A Vermont law making such marriages legal will take effect in September. And the District of Columbia voted May 5 to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, though it does not itself give marriage licenses to same-sex couples.","highlights":"NEW: Police: 162 same-sex marriage supporters arrested during protests .\nDissenting opinion says decision \"fundamentally alters\" state constitution .\nCourt's 6-1 ruling met with chants of \"shame on you\" from crowd of about 1,000 .\nVoters approved ban on same-sex marriage in November .","id":"3781c5b2c2ea21a1d0177c3db17c2f6b88bf15c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former federal prosecutor was arrested Wednesday on charges related to the murder of a witness in a drug case, among many other counts, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, New Jersey, said. Former federal prosecutor Paul Bergrin is charged with leading a racketeering conspiracy that included a murder. Paul Bergrin and three others were taken into custody after a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted them on 14 counts, including murder, racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering charges, a statement from Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr. said. The indictment charges Bergrin with leading a racketeering conspiracy that included the murder of a witness in a drug case and an attempt to hire a hit man in another drug case, the statement said. Bergrin also is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, Marra said. Gerald Shargel, Bergrin's attorney, said his client would plead not guilty to all charges. \"This is largely dredging up old issues, and we intend to vigorously fight the charges,\" Shargel said. The U.S. Attorney's Office statement said Bergrin was involved in the murder of a confidential witness in one federal drug case and tried to hire a Chicago, Illinois, hit man to kill a witness in another drug case. The second killing never occurred, the statement said, because the proposed hit man was a cooperating witness in the case. Marra called Bergrin's alleged conduct \"simply shocking.\" \"A licensed lawyer, a former prosecutor essentially became one of the criminals he represents, supporting, encouraging, indeed directing, a criminal enterprise that engaged in murder and murder conspiracies, drug trafficking and financial fraud,\" Marra said in the statement. \"Bergrin can now expect to feel the full weight of the very legal system he turned on its head with his conduct.\" Bergrin was an assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey before going into private practice. According to the New York Law Journal, Bergrin, 53, pleaded guilty this month to two misdemeanor counts for his involvement with a prostitution ring. He later represented U.S. Army Sgt. Javal Davis, one of seven people charged in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq. In that case, Davis entered a plea agreement on reduced charges before his court martial began. A recorded message at Bergrin's Newark, New Jersey, office said it was closed today, and messages left with Bergrin's cell phone and the cell phones of two associates went unanswered.","highlights":"Paul Bergrin arrested after federal grand jury indicts him and 3 others on 14 counts .\nBergrin was assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey before going into private practice .\nIndictment charges him with leading conspiracy that included murder of a witness .\nBergrin's attorney: Case is \"dredging up old issues,\" will plead not guilty .","id":"8d009aa8506cc6f284cbe7d31bba819c04d96fb1"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- They line up early every Saturday morning at the decrepit gymnasium that houses the La Matanza Barter Club. Nelly Vasquez and her 6-month-old daughter, Antonella trades wool for food. Club members shuffle in carrying sacks stuffed with everything from homemade clothing to homegrown vegetables, set up their stands and begin a day of bartering. The La Matanza Barter Club in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Isidro Casanova is one of more than 100 that now function throughout Argentina. They provide a vital service for people who are short on cash by helping them make ends meet. Each item brought to the club is given a value by its owner, who then trades it with other members for whatever goods they are offering. \"What we do here is a fair and honest trading. I look at this like a job, and I work hard at it, and it helps me live better,\" says Deolindo Farias, 66, who brings fresh bananas and mandarins every week and trades them for household items like flour and sugar. Barters Clubs boomed in Argentina following the country's 2001 economic meltdown when jobs, security and cash were scarce. Club officials say during 2002 more than 2 million people participated in the clubs on a regular basis. In recent years, as Argentina's economy bounced back, fewer people showed up, but ever since the global financial crisis hit last year, they say the barter clubs are more popular than ever. Watch how the clubs are helping poor Argentines \u00bb . \"It's a reality now. In these past few months there has been a big increase. For example, we now have 400 people every Saturday. It used to only be 300. People are traveling here from other neighborhoods so they can barter too,\" says Juan Maccarone, president of the La Matanza Barter Club. Nelly Vasquez, 29, goes to the club because she has no other options. She lost her job at a clothing factory last year, and has been going to the barter club every week since January -- often with her six-month-old daughter, Antonella, in tow. \"I come here because I don't have a job, and this is the only way for me to survive and get the things that I need,\" says Vasquez, who trades wool and women's shoes for pasta and rice. For others, the barter clubs offer something that every consumer on a budget seeks: a bargain. \"If you go to the supermarket, they charge 10 or 15 pesos for a bottle of cooking oil. Here, I can get it with 50 or 80 club credits. That's only 4 or 5 pesos -- that's a big difference,\" says Maria Rosa Araya, 37. By all accounts, Argentina was the first Latin American country to have the barter clubs. The idea has now spread to other countries, like Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela. There's even a burgeoning barter club circuit across the Atlantic Ocean in Spain. Organizers say barter clubs are evidence that in tough times, economies can thrive -- or survive -- on their own, when it's the people calling the shots. \"The golden rule at barter clubs is to offer an honest product for an honest price,\" says Ruben Ravera, co-founder of Argentina's Red Global de Trueque (Global Barter Network). \"It's a concept that could help solve the world's economic problems. Think about it,\" he says.","highlights":"Barter clubs opening around Argentina show extent of country's economic crisis .\nMembers -- often poor and unemployed -- trade food, clothes .\nThe clubs first opened during Argentina's 2001 economic meltdown .","id":"af7ce50e8ae6e6c35089307a389cb7bc46090faa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas woman tearfully recounted the death of her foster child at the hands of a schoolteacher during a congressional hearing Tuesday looking into the use of seclusion and restraints in U.S. schools. The House Committee on Education and Labor heard testimony Tuesday on a report looking at school abuse. The hearing came on the heels of a report issued by the investigating arm of Congress that documents widespread abuse of techniques use to restrain or discipline special-education students. The Government Accountability Office report was prepared for the House Committee on Education and Labor, which heard testimony from parents, investigators and experts who described traumatizing punishment of special-needs children. The violent acts -- from hours of isolation in locked rooms or closets to the use of handcuffs and pinning children on the floor -- often led to serious injuries and even death, witnesses said. Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller, D-California, called the testimony \"startling.\" \"This is just unacceptable,\" he said. \"This punishment is way out of bounds of what I believe are the social norms of this society.\" Toni Price of Killeen, Texas, told committee members that her 14-year-old foster child, Cedric, died in March 2002 when his eighth-grade teacher's disciplinary actions went too far. His death was one of the cases investigated by the GAO -- and the teacher, who is now working in a Virginia high school, has been placed on leave as a result of the congressional investigation. Price said Cedric was experiencing behavioral problems in school and on that particular day he stopped working at 11 a.m. His teacher withheld his lunch. Around 2:30, still without having eaten, Cedric tried to leave the classroom. Her voice shaking and tears welling in her eyes, Price said the teacher, whom she described as over 6 feet tall and weighing 230 pounds, forced the boy in a chair and restrained him. Price said Cedric, a small boy, struggled, so the teacher put him face down and sat on him. \"I can't breathe,\" he said. \"If you can speak, you can breathe,\" the teacher said, according to Price's testimony. Shortly after that, Cedric stopped struggling, and then stopped moving altogether. The teacher continued to restrain him as an aide wiped drool off his face, Price said. They then sat him up in the chair but Cedric slumped over and slid off, Price said. He was dead before Price could get to the school. \"If I treated Cedric that way at home, I'd be in jail,\" Price told lawmakers. Cedric's death was ruled a homicide, Price said, but the teacher never faced trial. She was placed on a Texas registry of individuals found to have abused children but, despite the listing, she now teaches at a public high school in Virginia, Price told the committee. Tuesday morning, the American Association of School Administrators told the committee that the teacher involved in Price's death had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. The school system acted after the GAO referred its findings to the state school board, the organization reported. Price questioned why the crimes of pedophiles are public but teachers who torture children are free to continue working without disclosure of their past actions. Government auditors examined hundreds of allegations of abuse, the GAO report said. In 20 of those cases, it said, children died after being put in restraints. In four of those, the restraints were found to have resulted in the children suffocating. GAO investigator Greg Kutz told the House committee Tuesday that he lacked data to quantify the problem, but in the 2008 school year, investigators discovered 33,000 instances of seclusion, restraints or other punishments in Texas and California alone. Despite the problem, Kutz said, no federal regulations exist on the treatment of the more than 6 million children classified as having \"special needs,\" conditions including autism and Down syndrome. At the state level, the laws are widely divergent -- 19 states have no laws at all. Auditors found that eight states prohibit prone restraints or other techniques that hinder breathing, and 17 require teachers or staff to be trained in proper techniques before using them. Only six keep records of how frequently those techniques are used, and reports are required by law in only two of those states -- California and Connecticut. The GAO investigation found that teachers and school staff frequently lack training in correct restraint methods, and in some cases, where improper restraints led to injuries, teachers often kept their jobs. In 13 states, parents have to agree before teachers can restrain children in non-emergency situations, while 19 require teachers to notify parents after the fact. Parents contacted by CNN commonly said they were not told their children were being disciplined until after they began to behave badly at home, which to them indicated trouble at school. When confronted with complaints, school systems sometimes sought to minimize or deny the allegations, even after public investigations found the charges to be true, according to parents and the GAO report. Miller's committee is considering new laws governing what actions teachers can take to rein in disruptive special-needs students. Abbie Boudreau and Steve Turnham of the CNN Special Investigations Unit contributed to this report .","highlights":"New GAO report shows abuse of techniques used to restrain special-ed kids .\nHouse Education and Labor Committee hears testimony from parents, investigators .\nChairman Miller, D-California, called the testimony \"startling\"\nGovernment auditors examined hundreds of allegations of abuse .","id":"40287282b4e0969b6b60e1f6fb6ea7783a5285fd"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged urban leaders and policymakers they need to take the lead now in fighting climate change. Bill Clinton to urban leaders in Seoul: What will you do about climate change? \"What are you going to do and how much are you going to spend?\" Clinton asked leaders from the world's biggest cities at a climate summit being held in South Korea's capital, Seoul. Officials from the world's 40 biggest cities plus 17 affiliate municipalities are attending the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, which ends on Thursday. Waiting for nations to take the lead with a new climate protocol in Copenhagen in December is not an option, said David Miller, mayor of Toronto and chairman of the C40 Cities Leadership Group. \"If governments talk about reducing CO2 (carbon dioxide), cities are the ones that show how it's done,\" Miller said. \"The point is that cities act, and working together we have a scale and a size that we dramatically increase people's ability to fight climate change. \"The challenge for national governments is that while they can sometimes reach agreement they don't know how to act collectively,\" Miller continued. \"For cities, that's easier. We all have climate strategies, but can make our actions work better and make the partnerships to do that.\" The Seoul summit is the third conference by cities held to discuss responses to climate change. The C40 group was established in London in 2005. A second summit was held in New York in 2007. Watch efforts to make New York's Empire State Building more eco-friendly \u00bb . Much of the talk at this week's conference was how major urban centers could work toward adhering to the Kyoto Protocol, the existing environmental treaty that sets targets for nations to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations. Adopted in December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force in February 2005. In countries that did not sign up to the Kyoto agreement, cities took it upon themselves to reduce their carbon footprint. While the United States did not sign Kyoto, 825 U.S. cities and towns signed up to a climate protection agreement that embraced that protocol's goals. Some nations that signed Kyoto have set more ambitious environmental targets. Copenhagen, for example, aims to be the world's first carbon neutral capital by 2025. Toronto, like other cities, will be sending a city delegation to Copenhagen for the U.N. summit in December. There to lobby governments and for a parallel cities summit, Miller hopes that the actions that cities are taking now, and the partnership that he expects to be made while in Seoul this week, will serve as examples that the carbon reduction goals can be reached. \"Copenhagen is very important for all countries to agree, because we are losing the battle. Cities will be there and we're going to be very active. We'll have credibility because we are actually doing things. We'll be able to say to governments that they need to engage, empower and resource cities so we can accomplish the goals.\" How to actually reduce CO2 emissions is the purpose of the Seoul summit, Clinton reminded delegates. Representing around 600 million people worldwide, mayors and policymakers in Seoul have the ability to make a difference with climate change policies, the former U.S. president added. If the methods of reducing a city's carbon footprint are known there is still the question of the means, which vary wildly between the first world urban areas such as Seoul, London and Toronto, and other attendees from cities in the developing world, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Lagos, Nigeria. Miller believes that providing good examples of effective climate change policies and grasping the opportunity for cities to take the lead in planning for a low-carbon future should not be missed. He highlighted Toronto's own \"tower renewal\" project, retrofitting buildings in a run-down area of town that he hopes will be an example of a carbon-neutral urban renewal project that can be applicable elsewhere. New building projects in two areas of London and the creation of a new city in central Florida -- Destiny -- were among 16 projects announced at the summit as climate-positive initiatives and supported by the Clinton Climate Initiative. Once built, these projects will absorb more CO2 than they use, supporters claimed. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon introduced the South Korean capital's ambitious environmental plans, including building a vast path of park land bisecting the capital. Delegates cited practical challenges they are facing. The spread of the H1N1 virus had crippled Mexico City's economy by scaring off tourists, officials from that city said at the summit. Without money, they said, even the most promising environmental plans can struggle. Luis Castaneda Lossio, the mayor of Lima, Peru, highlighted the initiatives his city is trying to pursue. Compared to Seoul's thousands of acres of parkland, he admitted they had struggled to plant 150 trees in the traffic-clogged city. \"Solidarity is essential!\" Lossio said with verve as a final remark during his address on making Lima a low-carbon city. It was a sentiment echoed by Miller, who highlighted the opportunities for cities such as Toronto to take a lead during the global economic recession. \"I've always believed in activist governments. The private sector is in retreat. The green agenda is a way to restart the economy by doing the right thing. If there are ways for the governments to create incentives, like grants for solar power, then you can kick-start the economy on the right path, but cities and government importantly have to do that now. We have a great opportunity.\"","highlights":"Summit of world's largest cities meeting in Seoul to discuss climate change .\nEx-U.S. President Clinton says cities must take lead with green policies .\nInitiative by cities began in 2005 in London .\nU.N. to hold climate conference at end of year in Denmark .","id":"3b996f3a0bf15d03bf342a3204a90ba03ba32aa8"} -{"article":"TRION, Georgia (CNN) -- The Dodge Neon sped down Interstate 40 in eastern Oklahoma, its occupants heading to Phoenix, Arizona, to buy a load of dope. It was May 2005. The couple brought along methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana to help pass the time on the long journey. Paul Faulkner, 83, and his son, Michael Smith, were convicted in a drug smuggling ring in north Georgia. At that moment, Detective Rob Rumble had no clue that the traffic stop he was about to make would launch a years-long drug investigation stretching more than 2,000 miles, from the remote mountains of northwest Georgia all the way down to Mexico. The investigation showed how an 83-year-old grandfather adapted to the times, morphing from old school bootlegging to dealing Mexican dope. His son acted as the ringleader of the operation. His grandson was tied in too, authorities say. \"I've seen it all. Nothing surprises me,\" said Rumble, a drug investigator for the district attorney's office in east-central Oklahoma. After making that traffic stop, Rumble persuaded the nervous, lanky driver from Georgia to work with authorities and tell everything he knew. Investigators were led to a sleepy pocket of Georgia with scenic mountain views where people wave to strangers from their cars and where some homes still fly the Confederate flag. Watch moonshine, marijuana and a family feud \u00bb . It's the last place one might expect drugs from Mexico. But the demand for drugs is reaching even the most remote corners of America. Their story has all the intrigue of a classic Southern novel -- three generations of a family business on the wrong side of the law, complete with an old fashioned family feud. \"When they're in that type of business, there's a reckoning day -- and apparently this is it,\" said Benny Perry, the 78-year-old mayor of Trion, Georgia, one of the towns where the family was operating. Perry is a barrel-chested man and speaks in a welcoming Southern accent. \"I'll say this, I was completely surprised,\" he said. \"I felt like we had a problem here, but I wouldn't have thought it was originating in Mexico and coming here.\" The drugs, mostly marijuana, were trucked from Mexico through California and Arizona and then distributed across five counties in Georgia and one in Tennessee, authorities say. They were hidden in just about anything -- furniture, roofs of big-rigs and tire wells. Once the shipments arrived, the dope was put in 50-caliber ammunition cans and buried in the woods, where buyers would pick up the stash and leave behind thousands in cash, authorities say. See where the family operated \u00bb . At the heart of the operation was 46-year-old Michael Leon Smith, who authorities say became one of the richest men in Chattooga County, population 25,000, as he laundered his drug money by buying up dozens of pieces of property. One tract of land sits on Old Justice Road, an ironic name considering the law finally caught up with him. Smith's 83-year-old father, Paul Leon Faulkner, was also busted. Eight others, including Faulkner's grandson (Smith's nephew), pleaded guilty to an array of charges related to the drug ring. The drugs mostly involved marijuana, but methamphetamine and cocaine were also part of the smuggling operation, authorities say. \"We love it when somebody says they can't be caught,\" said Del Thomasson, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who worked the case. Faulkner, who is suffering from cancer, was handed a 20-year sentence last month and is to head to prison in August. \"Twenty years, that is a death sentence,\" said Giles Jones, Faulkner's attorney, adding that he has appealed the sentence. He said Faulkner was a \"full-time mountain shiner\" who could talk moonshine until he was \"blue in the face,\" but knew little about the Mexican marijuana operation. Jones said the old man's son \"threw his ass under the bus\" to save himself. \"It's a situation where I guess you're just looking out for yourself. It's every day as every day, man,\" said Jones. Not so fast, said Cathy Alterman, the defense attorney for Smith, Faulkner's son. \"Michael didn't throw his father under the bus. His father threw Michael down the drain when he was 16 years old,\" Alterman said. \"If the father got a longer sentence, it's because he's a lousy father. ... He was never there for his son, except to be a bad example.\" Smith is serving a nine-year sentence in federal prison in Montgomery, Alabama. Faulkner's grandson is also serving a nine-year sentence. There is no parole in the federal system. Alterman said the sentences are excessive for people involved in dealing marijuana, a substance she says should be legalized. iReport.com: Time to legalize pot? \"Michael's a wonderful family man, a Christian -- which means a lot to him, a very religious man. And I point out that in the Bible, God gave us every seed-bearing plant, and I think Michael looked at it that way. And, unfortunately, our government since 1937 has not seen it as a God-given right.\" Alterman is a defense attorney in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. She says about 90 percent of her clients are accused drug dealers, \"most of them out of Mexico.\" Asked if Smith was dealing with people tied to Mexico's ruthless cartels, Alterman said, \"Yes.\" Learn more about Mexican cartels \u00bb . \"When you're selling in quantity -- all right, and Michael was selling in quantity -- you need someone who is able to give you a regular supply at a reasonable price, and so eventually Michael did end up buying from people who were from Mexico.\" The cartels are so organized, the money so great, that when an operation like this family's is taken down, it doesn't take long for others to move in. \"Within 24 hours, if someone's arrested, someone else here already in the United States in the trade will take their place,\" Alterman said. \"America does not know that the fingers of the cartels are basically around the throat of America,\" she added, \"and it has spread out to rural America just as much as the inner city of Detroit.\" Authorities agree. Nearly every rural community is facing a similar battle, with drug dealers taking up shop in small towns where law enforcement has less of a presence and where the nation's highways make for easy transport. \"I think people should care about what happens in a rural area, because let's face it, there are more rural areas than there are cities. Our community is not the only one affected,\" said GBI agent Thomasson. A Justice Department study released last year showed Mexican cartels had a presence in 230 U.S. cities, stretching from the U.S.-Mexican border to the Southeast and as far north as Alaska. The nation's rural communities are increasingly affected. See the cartels' urban hubs . \"Historically, rural America uses more alcohol and less drugs. That is changing,\" said Dr. H. Westley Clark, the director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. There have been few comprehensive studies over the last decade looking at the problem of drugs in rural America. According to a 2006 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the use of illicit drugs in America is nearly the same in cities and rural areas, 8.7 percent compared to 7.8 percent respectively. Another report, in 2000 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, found that eighth-graders living in rural America were 34 percent more likely to smoke marijuana than in urban centers and 83 percent more likely to use crack cocaine. In Trion, a town of about 2,000 people, a sign sits at the edge of the community in support of the local K-12 school. It reads, \"Trion Bulldogs deserve a drug free community to live and grow!!\" The words \"drug free\" are underlined. Many here are shocked to hear drugs from Mexico are coming through. Most don't like to talk on the record about the case because the family was well-known, even well-liked. \"You got a guy who's a drug dealer, but you have good people in a community. I mean, they don't have a clue what's going on,\" Thomasson said. The town's mayor, Perry, said it's difficult to reconcile a \"cordial\" local family with the serious drug convictions. \"You could talk to [them] ... and they would speak back,\" he said of Faulkner and Smith. \"That's a big thing up here in a small town. If you speak to somebody and they don't speak back, you think, 'Well, something's wrong here.' \" Perry said local authorities are trying \"to stamp out the local demand,\" adding, \"As long as we've got a market for it, they're gonna bring it up here.\" Alterman, the defense attorney, agrees. \"Americans are screaming for drugs\" and there's millions to be made, she said. \"There's too much money involved.\"","highlights":"10 people, including grandpa, son and grandson, convicted on serious drug charges .\n83-year-old former moonshiner gets 20 years; son who led operation gets 9 years .\nAttorney: \"If the father got a longer sentence, it's because he's a lousy father\"\nAuthorities say case is a microcosm of what's happening across rural America .","id":"1e3f368df54a6551da3a51a628dacdbb307b33b6"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Two people were killed and about a dozen others were injured when a bomb exploded in a Catholic church in Kathmandu on Saturday morning, police said. The damage inside the church in Kathmandu following Saturday's bomb blast. The explosion in the Nepalese capital killed a 15-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman. \"The bomb exploded inside the church when the explosion happened,\" senior police officer Kedar Man Singh Bhandari told CNN over the phone. About 100 people were in the church when the bomb exploded, police said. Manish Amatya, who was injured, said the blast interrupted their prayers. \"There was a loud explosion while we were praying and all of us ran out screaming,\" he said. Investigations are under way to determine who planted the bomb, which damaged the church. CNN's Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Explosion in Nepalese capital killed 15-year-old girl, 30-year-old woman .\n100 people were in the church when the bomb exploded .\nInvestigations are under way to determine who planted the bomb .","id":"d0912f63112be8069398b3f6c926c727469f1191"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The election of 736 members from 27 member countries to the European Parliament in June will be the biggest transnational electoral contest there has ever been. Between them they will represent more than 500,000,000 people. About 375 million EU citizens aged 18 or over are entitled to vote. But few understand how the low-profile Parliament affects the lives of EU citizens. Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about the contest. Who will be voting, when and where? About 375 million EU citizens aged 18 or over are entitled to vote in the election of the parliament members for a five-year term. The elections will be held on Thursday, June 4 in the UK and the Netherlands. There will be voting on Friday, June 5 in Ireland and the Czech Republic. And it will begin on Saturday, June 6 in Cyprus, France, Italy, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia. The other countries will conduct their voting on Sunday, June 7. Elections will take place in all 27 member countries of the EU, with the citizens of Bulgaria and Romania included for the first time. How many MEPs are there and how many does each country elect? There will be 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the new assembly. The number each country has varies according to its population. Germany, with a population of 82 million, the biggest among EU states, will have 99 members. Malta, with a total population of just 410,000, will have only 5. Will that number stay the same if the Lisbon Treaty comes into effect? No. The Lisbon Treaty, designed to give the EU a new streamlined constitution for the EU (and to increase the powers of the European Parliament,) has been put on ice following its rejection in a referendum in Ireland, the only country to give electors a direct voice. But the Irish are due to vote again in the autumn. If they then vote Yes and all remaining EU states ratify the treaty, then the Parliament will be increased from 736 to 751 members on a different distribution formula. That means that 15 'ghost MEPs', will be elected on June 7, entitled to attend the Parliament but not to vote in it until the Lisbon Treaty goes through. What election system is used? That varies according to the individual states represented, but all will be using some variant of proportional representation. In some countries candidates will all be on a single national list, making the entire country a constituency. Others elect MEPs from regional constituencies. Many countries set a threshold, insisting that parties have to gain an overall proportion of the vote -- 5 per cent in France and Germany, 4 per cent in Sweden or Austria -- to qualify for any allocation of seats. Whom do the MEPs represent? Most would-be MEPs contest the elections with the endorsement of national political parties. National parties such as the Christian Democrats in Germany or the Labour Party in Britain put up approved lists of candidates. But when they are in the European Parliament the MEPs mostly operate in wider groups of left or right such as the Socialist Group (PES), the Liberal Group (ELDR) or the European Greens. The main conservative grouping is the European Peoples Party (EPP). However, David Cameron, the national leader of Britain's Conservatives, has withdrawn his members from the EPP, regarding it as too federalist in its approach. The groups work as a bloc when they can and have \"whips\" designed to make them as cohesive as possible. What powers do the MEPs have? Much legislation in member states actually originates at a European level. National legislatures pass laws which have begun life as directives from the European Commission, the EU executive arm, which the MEPs have helped to shape. They are the only elected part of the European apparatus which is otherwise dominated by European Councils (meetings of the prime ministers or finance or trade or interior ministers from the 27 nations) or the European Commission. Do MEPs really make much difference to ordinary people's lives? It may not feel like it, day to day, but MEPs often have more influence over the shaping of European legislation which filters down to national parliaments than the members of those national parliaments do when the laws get to them. Recent EU laws which have affected citizens directly include the \"roaming directive\" which restricted the charges mobile phone companies can impose on customers for calls in countries other than their own. EU directives have helped initiate the era of cut-price air travel. It was the EU which determined that telephone and data companies had to keep records for at least two years to help counter terrorism . And the so-called \"REACH\" directive has forced businesses to disclose what chemicals they use in their products and to ensure that they are safe. Because driving legislation through the European Parliament requires the building of cross-party coalitions more than 50 percent of amendments proposed in the European Parliament end up as law. That is why company lobbyists spent much time in Brussels trying to make their case to MEPs. But does the Parliament have any muscle? It has the rather drastic power to sack the European Commission. It also holds public hearings on newly-appointed Commissioners. The Parliament also has significant powers over how much of the European Union budget is spent. Although most legislation originates with the Commission, if more than 50 percent of MEPs back a resolution calling for new laws in a particular area the the Commission has to get down to work to propose some. The EU is one of the largest aid donors in the world, dispensing some $15 billion a year across five continents and MEPs have a significant say in that. Where is the European Parliament situated? Most of its meetings are held in Brussels close to the officials whose draft legislation is examined by the Parliament's subject committees. But, at a considerable cost, some plenary meetings are also held in Strasbourg, an arrangement which the French government has fought long and hard to maintain.","highlights":"Election will be the biggest transnational electoral contest ever .\nAbout 375 million EU citizens aged 18 or over are entitled to vote .\nElections will take place in all 27 member countries of the EU .\nMuch legislation in member states actually originates at a European level .","id":"e46051ed9bcdf62814445944b3948e4045f7f9c3"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The death toll from a powerful cyclone that hit India and Bangladesh this week has climbed to at least 180, officials said Wednesday. Cyclone Aila struck eastern India, causing an estimated $8 million damage in one district alone. In Bangladesh, some 111 people have died and more than 6,600 others have been injured in the storm, said Sultanul Islam Chowdhury from the country's food and disaster management ministry. Cyclone Aila, which made landfall on Monday, has swept away nearly 180,000 homes and affected the lives of more than 3.3 million people, he said. In India, the number of storm-related deaths climbed to 69 Wednesday, according to an emergency official. About a quarter of the total, 20 people, died in landslides triggered by Aila on Tuesday in a hilly region of West Bengal, said Debabrata Pal, a joint-secretary with the state's disaster management department. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this story.","highlights":"Powerful cyclone in India, Bangladesh kills nearly 200 people, officials say .\nCyclone Aila has left thousands of people homeless in both countries .\nAila packed winds up to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers)","id":"411b2fd9d8a501f12e128705e9b51eeef9587f1b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Stories about Sly Stone usually start with the word \"reclusive.\" Sly Stone sometimes takes the stage at Los Angeles clubs with daughter Novena and her group, BabyStone. Don't call him that anymore, because the superstar who blended funk, rock, soul and psychedelic sounds in the 1960s and '70s before disappearing from the scene in the '80s is not in hiding, his youngest daughter said. Stone's media shyness in recent decades earned him a comparison to the late billionaire recluse Howard Hughes, but he's just been living his life and making his music out of the glare of great expectations that superstars suffer. \"It's not like he wasn't making music,\" said Novena Carmel, his 27-year-old daughter. \"He was enjoying his life and riding motorcycles, one of his passions.\" Now 66, Sly Stone is talking to interviewers again and sometimes taking the stage at Los Angeles clubs with Novena and her group, BabyStone. \"She is the force that keeps him straight,\" said Anthony Valadez, a disc jockey with Los Angeles public radio station KCRW. \"I think it's her energy and their bond that is so sacred that keeps him in line. That's what brings Sly out.\" The Sly and the Family Stone founder gave a rare interview to KCRW's \"Morning Becomes Eclectic.\" Though it airs Monday, the interview was taped days ahead -- given Stone's 40-year reputation for not showing up for concerts and interviews. Sly Stone -- who was Sylvester Stewart before changing his name as a radio DJ -- didn't reminisce in the interview about past troubles. Guest host Chris Douridas kept the conversation about the music. He said he was a child, performing in his family's gospel group, The Stewart Four, when he first realized the power music has over people. It happened as he sang \"On the Battlefield\" during a Sam Cooke show at the Oakland Auditorium when he was 4. \"Towards the end of the song, people starting running down the aisle and I didn't know what was going on,\" he said. \"I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know they were just happy. So, I turned around and ran, and I've been running ever since.\" Stone now says he didn't know then where he was heading. \"Where I was is where I was,\" he said. Stone wrote his first hit song for someone else. Bobby Freeman made \"Come On and Swim\" a Top 10 pop hit in summer 1964. When he formed Sly and the Family Stone in 1966, the mix of race and gender was unusual for its time. \"It was on purpose -- that's what I intended to do,\" Stone said. He recruited two white musicians -- drummer Greg Errico and saxophonist Jerry Martini. Though African-American women were mostly used as backup singers back then, Cynthia Robinson played the trumpet. Larry Graham's revolutionary style of \"slapping\" his electric bass guitar strings added to the Family Stone's groundbreaking sound. The songs appealed to white and blacks equally and regularly topped both the pop and R&B charts. Stone's lyrics often carried dual meanings. \"Hot Fun in the Summertime\" -- released in summer 1969 -- might be a tribute to the fun of summer days to one listener, while another might see satire about the summertime race riots of the late '60s. Stone set the stage for other superstars to follow, but the band dissolved after one hot decade and success became as elusive as Stone. Novena may understand her dad better than anyone these days. She's lured him back to the stage for several performances, which she avoids calling concerts. With those, \"people expect certain things,\" such as wanting performers to be what they were 30 years ago, she said. Instead, it's the \"Sly Stone Variety Show,\" which allows her father \"to do whatever he wants to do in the moment.\" \"It's very wild, in the sense that they have the Sly Stone trivia game onstage with diehard fans,\" said Anthony Valadez, who has been to several. The show format is designed \"for him to connect with people and people to connect with him,\" his daughter said. Novena also knows to not plan too far ahead with her dad, so he doesn't have time to back out. \"If it's done quickly, then it works,\" she said. \"But if he has a tour, then there's a lot of expectations that you have to meet for everybody to be happy.\" \"My dad would be like, 'I wanna do a show as soon as possible,'\" she said. That gives her just about a week to get the show together and promote it. P-funk architect George Clinton and actor-comedian Eddie Murphy showed up for the last one, which was a sold-out celebration of Stone's 66th birthday. One indication that Stone has changed his no-show habit, which marred his reputation in younger days, is he actually arrives for shows early, Valadez said. \"Coming early to these gigs, you watch Sly and his affection for his daughter and it's evidence he would do anything for her,\" he said. Stone's complete interview can be heard at KCRW.com.","highlights":"Stone is talking to interviewers again years after gaining a reputation as a recluse .\nStone takes the stage with his daughter, Novena, and her group, BabyStone .\nOnce known for being a no-show, Stone now shows up for performances early .","id":"78a8c13605a8eda09a0ac0f04910b414eed6b765"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- London's newest hotelier Mark Fuller is showing commendable bravado for someone about to open a luxury hotel during a global recession. Entrepreneur Mark Fuller in the Sanctum Soho hotel, a rock'n'roll \"haven of hedonism\" in London. \"F*** the recession, let's get on with it,\" he says, while sitting on the roof terrace of the Sanctum Soho, a 30-room establishment dubbed the rock'n'roll hotel, as much for its \"anything goes\" service philosophy as the pedigree of its owners, which include the co-managers of heavy metal band Iron Maiden. \"We do not recognize there is a credit crunch because we believe you should battle through it,\" Fuller says, adding, \"If you get panicky and scary about things like this, you're no man at all.\" Besides, he admits, three years ago when he started working on the concept of an 'alluring haven of hedonism' (as the hotel is described on its Web site), the credit crunch didn't exist. And by the time it hit, it was too late to pull out. \"We wouldn't do anyway,\" Fuller insists, adding \"fortune favors the brave, as they say.\" See images of the rock star hotel \u00bb . The former band manager turned entrepreneur, is looking quite the rock star tonight, decked head-to-toe in black while a shiny silver skull stares ominously from his belt buckle. Downstairs, staff are frantically preparing for a launch party that promises to be heavy on champagne, cocktails and celebrities. It's almost like the crunch doesn't exist. This is Fuller's world and he's hoping plenty of people will want to join it. \"In every downturn in the economic climate I think people look for some affordable glamour and escape,\" he says. Fuller also owns and runs the Embassy Hotel, an exclusive nightclub in the upmarket London suburb of Mayfair which he plans to franchise in Dubai, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi. The partners in his new hotel venture ooze rock credential: Iron Maiden co-managers Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor. While Taylor has experience running a restaurant and hotel, \"The Inn on the Green,\" Smallwood's experience in the hotel industry is based on 30 years on the road with Iron Maiden. Last year he stayed in 80 hotels in 40 countries and one of his biggest gripes is returning to his hotel after a gig and finding the bar is closed. \"You want good service, and you want the bars open, and you want good food available,\" he says from the roof terrace equipped with a bar and Jacuzzi he's taken to calling \"my lounge.\" Smallwood expects to stay in the hotel once a week and says it will become a London bolt-hole for the band. While non-music types and the tone-deaf are welcome to stay in the hotel, over-enthusiastic groupies are not. \"If you're on the road for three months, you can never escape,\" Smallwood says. \"The fans, some of them, think they have a God-given right, just because they're staying in the same hotel, to put a camera in your face over your cornflakes.\" \"The rule here is no autographs and no photographs,\" he says firmly. \"Say Paul Weller is sitting in the corner having a beer, and you go and ask for an autograph or photograph, you will not stay here again.\" Along with privacy and a beer at all hours, guests have access to an on-call guitar doctor, a necessity, apparently, if you break a string while strumming in your room. Guests who have inadvertently left their guitar at home can hire one from reception. The rock star concept extends to the room decor. The silver wallpaper and mirrored columns may appear garish in daylight, but at 3 a.m. one suspects they add a touch of glamour. Free standing baths are a bold leap from the bed and the mini bar is well-stocked with champagne. Rod Smallwood is confident the concept will work. \"Recession or no recession, we're talking about 30 rooms in a huge major city. If we can't sell 30 rooms in the depths of recession it means we're useless, and we know we're not.\" Mark Fuller says he's selling more than a hotel room. In times of economic crisis the Sanctum Soho offers the chance to forget the mortgage and live like a rock star, if only for a day. \"You can sit in the restaurant and have a hamburger for seven pounds ($10),\" he says. \"The drinks are cheaper than most hotels, and probably cheaper than most nightclubs. The room accommodation runs everywhere from \u00a3125 ($255) straight up to \u00a3450 ($650). Take your pick. Cut your coat.\" I mishear him. \"Cut your coke?\" I ask. \"No, you can't do that!\" he exclaims. \"Musicians are not like that anymore,\" Fuller says. \"The music industry is such now that people release CDs to support tours, not the other way around, so this is a professional state. \"I just don't want to be the hotel at the end of the tour, then I'm in danger,\" he laughs.","highlights":"Entrepreneur braves recession to open rock'n'roll hotel in London's Soho .\nSanctum Soho offers roof terrace with 24 hour bar, Jacuzzi, guitar doctors .\nRooms sparkle with silver wallpaper, free standing baths and champagne .\nBackers include Iron Maiden co-managers Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor .","id":"8fcdd46685822c4710ccaa2f3c79aca7488409dd"} -{"article":"While I am looking forward to being back on the air in June, there is something I want to share with people that cannot wait. I want to tell you about Kai Anderson. Kai is a 5-year-old boy who lives in my neighborhood in New York City. Kai has a rare form of leukemia. Kai Anderson has a rare form of leukemia. This little boy's best hope lies in a bone marrow transplant. His only hope is a bone marrow transplant and he desperately needs to find a match. As if Kai's family weren't going through enough, his father was diagnosed with a very rare form of lymphoma -- that's two cancers in this one family. Our community in downtown Manhattan has mobilized to try to find a bone marrow match for Kai. We are asking people to consider taking a very quick and test. I have done it. It just involves a q-tip swab in the cheek. If you are a match, donating bone marrow can be a simple outpatient procedure. I encourage you to visit www.hopeforkai.com to learn more. This is a heartbreaking story and a family that truly needs our help. -- Campbell Brown .","highlights":"5-year-old Kai Anderson has a rare form of leukemia .\nTo cure it, he needs a bone marrow transplant .\nClick here for information on bone marrow drives in Kai's honor .","id":"c4e110237104546d0ebb26f56706c0b950e882b9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Charging chesty women more for their bras doesn't win a lot of support, British retailer Marks & Spencer acknowledged Friday as it announced an end to the surcharge on its larger lingerie. Marks & Spencer have apologised for charging chesty women more for bras. \"We boobed,\" screamed a full-page Marks & Spencer ad, which appeared in British newspapers Friday. Marks & Spencer gave in to campaigners who argued that the higher prices of the bigger bras was unfair. The retailer charged as much as \u00a32 ($3) more for all sizes DD and up. \"It's true that our fantastic quality larger bras cost more money to make, and we felt it was right to reflect this in the prices we charged,\" the ad said. \"Well, we were wrong.\" It follows a nearly year-long campaign by members of the Facebook group Busts 4 Justice. The women behind the site argued other chain retailers didn't charge extra for bigger sizes, so Marks & Spencer shouldn't, either. And it pointed out that the store doesn't charge extra for larger sizes of clothing, so it shouldn't charge more for larger undergarments. What's your view? \"We would like to thank everyone who has supported us on this issue; especially the thousands of brilliant, busty women that have joined forces with us. We couldn't have done this without you,\" the two administrators of the group, Becky Mount and Beckie Williams, posted Friday on Facebook. \"Busts 4 Justice remain committed to making things better for busty women on the high street, but for now we're happy just to be able to encourage all ladies to reward themselves and their boobs with some properly fitted, fairly priced lingerie.\" Marks & Spencer is a stalwart British chain, known for classic wardrobe staples and low prices. Its underwear department is the first stop for many British shoppers and is especially famous for reliable basics. And to give customers an added lift, Marks & Spencer also announced it is cutting the prices of all of its bras by 25 percent for the rest of May. \"I think even though we all obviously held a bit of a grudge against buying our bras from M&S we should really be grateful they got rid of the surcharge and have given us the super generous 25 percent off,\" Mount wrote on the group's site Friday. \"They may get cleared out by the time the weekend is over!\"","highlights":"Marks & Spencer is ending its surcharge on larger lingerie .\nRetailer takes out adverts admitting \"we boobed\"\nCampaigners argued that the higher prices of the bigger bras was unfair .","id":"7066271538881c97b9d65cce41729f7538bf1da7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick arrived at his home in Hampton, Virginia, on Thursday morning. Michael Vick, left, arrives at federal court with attorney Billy Martin in Richmond, Viriginia, in 2007. \"He is happy to be reunited with his family,\" said Chris Garrett, a spokesman for Vick. Vick was released from a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, on Wednesday. He will serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement in Virginia, his publicist Judy Smith said. Vick is a native of Newport News, Virginia. Watch a panel discuss his release \u00bb . Vick, 28, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He could return to professional football as soon as September if reinstated by the NFL, according to the sports agent who negotiated Vick's 10-year, $140 million contract with the Falcons. Meanwhile, Vick's attorneys have said he will work at a Newport News construction firm after his release and he has also agreed to participate in a documentary for $600,000. Last month, a federal bankruptcy judge denied a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan presented by Vick and urged him to offer another plan. The original plan called for Vick to come up with $750,000 to $1 million in cash to be paid to creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro said, but he said he saw no evidence Vick could come up with that much. Santoro suggested Vick's next plan not call for him to keep two houses and three cars, as did the rejected proposal. In testimony, Vick acknowledged committing a \"heinous\" act and said he should have acted more maturely. He said he has been earning 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor in prison. His Falcons salary, he said, was between $10 million and $12 million. He acknowledged failing to handle his money well. After his release, Vick will work with the Humane Society of the United States on anti-dogfighting campaigns, Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle told CNN Tuesday. Vick will work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting, and on programs to assist young people who have already been involved in the blood sport. Watch more about Vick's dogs \u00bb . Pacelle said the Humane Society was approached by Vick's representatives. He said he has traveled to Kansas twice to meet with the former quarterback, and during the second visit, the two discussed how Vick could use his sway over youths to discourage them from involvement in dogfighting, as well as help those who were apprehended in connection with it. Details have not yet been hammered out, Pacelle said, but will be in the next couple of days. iReport.com: Does Vick deserve a second chance? More attention has been paid to dogfighting as a result of Vick's case, Pacelle said. The Humane Society, which offers rewards for tips involving dogfighting, has recently paid out $40,000 in five cases, he said. CNN's Marylynn Ryan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick released from prison on Wednesday .\nVick will serve last two months of sentence in home confinement .\nAttorneys have said Vick will work at construction firm; Vick has OK'd documentary .\nVick, 28, pleaded guilty in 2007 to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia .","id":"03423adfad42dbd180353de717814fc20af99b7a"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Craigslist's managers have complied with the wishes of most of the state attorneys general who demanded they rid the site of prostitution ads. Craigslist says it has removed prostitution ads, but some issues remain. The Web's dominate classifieds publication replaced its controversial \"erotic\" section with a new \"adult\" category. And where Craigslist once relied on readers to flag dodgy advertisements, the company's employees now review every ad submitted to the adult area before they appear online. Yet, the site has been unable to block every solicitation for sex. Catherine, a self-described sex worker from San Francisco, confirmed for CNET that she successfully posted an ad for her services to the adult section late last week. She wished to remain anonymous, so neither the ad's photo nor text can be included in this story. Regardless, it isn't hard to find questionable ads in Craigslist's new adult section. The most noticeable difference between Craigslist's erotic and adult categories is the photos. In the adult section, the photos are less provocative. Less skin is showing. When it comes to the text, however, the two sections are very similar. Both are packed with ads for massage services. Ads in both areas include descriptions of the masseuse's breast size (\"I'm a natural C cup\") and they are often photographed dressed in their underwear. Even if most of these services are legitimate, and only a few are veiled offers of sex in the new adult area, plenty of others make little if any pretense about what they offer. These ads typically include words such as \"busty,\" or \"fantasy girl\" in their descriptions. Often, they feature photos of a woman or man dressed provocatively in their underwear or bathing suit. Some include hourly rates. Clearly, Craigslist faces a significant challenge as it tries to purge prostitution from its Web pages. While it can ban nude photos and overt offers of sex, how can anyone expect the site to outlaw ads featuring photos of bikini-clad women offering phone numbers? One can find racier images in department store ads. The Internet has made it easier for merchants of all kinds to conduct commerce and reach wider audiences. Should anyone be surprised that the sex trade has benefited from this as well. If Craigslist were to disappear tomorrow, does anyone really expect that would curb prostitution? A review of some competing online classifieds shows that while Craigslist has been a popular destination for sex workers, it is by no means the only one. For example, Backpages.com is an online classified publication and Craigslist competitor. The content it produces can also be found on the Web sites of some entertainment and alternative publications in major metropolitan areas, such as New York's Village Voice or San Francisco's SFWeekly. Craigslist is G-rated compared with the photos found in Backpages' adult section. Ads included nude photos while others showed people engaged in sexual intercourse. A common ad would show a bare chested woman asking men to call her at a phone number. In the area of Backpages that services Charleston, S.C., one ad found on Tuesday by CNET featured a photo of a bare-chested woman apparently engaged in masturbation. It must be noted that there was nothing as graphic on Craigslist. This is relevant because Henry McMaster, South Carolina's attorney general, last week threatened Craigslist with a criminal investigation. McMaster hasn't made any similar threats--at least none that has been publicized--against Backpages. Managers at Backpages did not respond to an interview request. In November, Craigslist and 40 state attorneys general, including McMaster, signed an agreement that called for the site to add more safeguards. The classifieds publication followed through and one of the new changes was a new requirement that anyone posting to the erotic section must provide a credit card. All the parties hoped that criminals would be unwilling to provide identification and this would be deterrent. \"Many of the classified and communication services on the Craigslist site provide the public with a valuable service,\" McMaster wrote to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster on May 5. \"However, it appears that the management...has knowingly allowed the site to be used for illegal and unlawful activity after warnings from law enforcement officials and after an agreement with forty state attorneys general.\" Since then, Craigslist did away with the erotic section and agreed to review every ad before it appeared, but McMaster was dissatisfied. He posted a note on his site that said the \"Craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.\" This is at best an empty threat, says Matt Zimmerman, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Communication Decency Act protects Web sites like Craigslist from being held criminally liable for the actions of its users, Zimmerman said, who added that Craigslist has no legal obligation to even review ads before they go online. Had Zimmerman had his way, Craigslist would have never agreed to do the monitoring. Craig Newmark, Craigslist's founder, had earlier gone on national TV and said that Craigslist would not do away with the erotic section. The company's reversal may have led McMaster to believe he could shame Craigslist managers into doing more than what the law required. \"It made life more difficult for Craigslist I think,\" Zimmerman said. \"But I was much more disappointed with (McMaster) than Craigslist,\" Zimmerman said. \"His threats were bogus to begin with and he was wrong to threaten (Craigslist's managers) with jail when the law is very clearly on their side.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Craigslist has banned sex ads, but some still remain, author says .\nA San Francisco sex worker says she still sells sex through the site .\nOn Tuesday, an ad on the site shows bare-chested woman .\nSource: law protects Craigslist from being held liable for users' actions .","id":"9f9c02466b536e69bc008979d96a5a699de80a36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor knew she wanted to go into law from an early age. Sonia Sotomayor says the nomination is the \"most humbling honor \" of her life. As a child, she aspired to be like Nancy Drew, the detective in the popular children's mystery series. But at the age of 8, she was diagnosed with diabetes and told she would not be able to pursue that line of work. Sotomayor said it was another fictional character that inspired her next choice. \"I noticed that [defense attorney] Perry Mason was involved in a lot of the same kinds of investigative work that I had been fascinated with reading Nancy Drew, so I decided to become a lawyer,\" Sotomayor told the American Bar Association publication in 2000. \"Once I focused on becoming a lawyer, I never deviated from that goal.\" See Sotomayor's life in photos \u00bb . Sotomayor's parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during World War II. Her father worked in a factory and didn't speak English. She was born in the Bronx and grew up in a public housing project, not too far from the stadium of her favorite team -- the New York Yankees. Her father died when she was 9, leaving her mother to raise her and her younger brother on her own. Related: Sotomayor well known in sports . Her mother, whom Sotomayor describes as her biggest inspiration, worked six days a week to care for her and her younger brother, and instilled in them the value of an education. Background on Sotomayor \u00bb . Sotomayor later graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and went on to attend Yale law school, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. In her three-decade career, she has worked at nearly every level of the judicial system, and on Tuesday she became President Obama's pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Watch Sotomayor accept the nomination \u00bb . Sotomayor thanked Obama for \"the most humbling honor of my life.\" \"I hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me, they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences,\" she said. The 54-year-old judge, if confirmed, would become the first Hispanic to serve on the high court. She would also be the third female named to the Supreme Court, and the second on the current court. See who's already on the Supreme Court \u00bb . Sotomayor is touted by supporters as a justice with bipartisan favor and historic appeal. She currently serves as a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The liberal-leaning justice was named a district judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and was elevated to her current seat by President Clinton. Supporters say her appointment history, along with what they describe as her moderate-liberal views, will give her some bipartisan backing in the Senate. Sotomayor presided over about 450 cases while on the district court. Prior to her judicial appointments, Sotomayor was a partner at a private law firm and spent time as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes. Robin Kar, who clerked for Sotomayor from 1998 to 1999, described her as a \"warm, extraordinarily kind and caring person.\" Watch Kar recall his work with Sotomayor \u00bb . \"She has an amazing story, but she's also just an amazing person,\" he said, adding that she has a knack for getting to know those around her. \"She was the judge who, in the courthouse for example, knew all of the doormen, knew the cafeteria workers, who knew the janitors -- she didn't just know all of the other judges and the politicians. She really went out of her way to get to know everyone and was well loved by everyone.\" Conservatives argue Sotomayor has a \"hard-left record\" and believes that judges should consider experiences of women and minorities in their decision-making. They also described her as a \"bully\" who \"abuses lawyers.\" Asked about allegations that she tends to be prickly with her colleagues, Kar said, \"I would say no to that. What I would say is that she has a reputation for being prickly on the bench, which is a bit different.\" Kar said if attorneys have with a weak argument, \"she's very quick ... and intellectually demanding.\" \"They'll have a hard time if they show up in her court without really doing their homework,\" he said. Margarita Rosa, a Princeton classmate of Sotomayor, said she's always known the high court nominee to be \"measured and methodical\" in her decision-making. \"She really looks at the facts and she is, I think, very evenhanded and fair -- but does bring to the table a very valuable understanding of the challenges and experiences, I think, of average people,\" she said. Obama has said he hopes confirmation hearings will be held in July, with the confirmation completed before Congress leaves for the summer. Sotomayor was confirmed to her current seat by the Senate in 1998, a process that took more than a year. The final vote was 67-29. Though a majority of Senate Republicans opposed her nomination, she did win several key Republican votes that year, which could prove critical in this year's confirmation fight. In 1998, the New York judge won the support of 25 Republicans, including eight senators who still serve. If Sotomayor is able to maintain the support of just a few of those GOP senators this year, Senate Republicans would face an almost impossible task in defeating her nomination, even by filibuster, which requires 40 votes. Currently, Republicans hold 39 senate seats. All 29 votes against her 1998 nomination were from Republicans, 11 of whom still serve. CNN's Kristi Keck and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sotomayor: \"I am an ordinary person ... blessed with extraordinary opportunities\"\nSonia Sotomayor, 54, was born in Bronx to parents from Puerto Rico .\nSupreme Court nominee grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx .\nNamed district judge by George H.W. Bush; elevated to current seat by Bill Clinton .","id":"b26453c151704dd1c8da3b5f1eb386712487eca5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A southwest Illinois man accused of strangling his wife and two young sons appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to murder charges, officials said. Christopher Coleman sits in the back of a police car after his arrest Tuesday in the slayings of his wife and two sons. Christopher Coleman, 32, will remain jailed without bond pending a June 10 preliminary hearing, according to the Monroe County, Illinois, district court clerk's office. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sheri Coleman, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. Their bodies were found May 5 in the bedrooms of the Coleman's two-story home in Columbia, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The three died of strangulation by ligature -- a string, cord or wire -- police said. Coleman was arrested Tuesday at his parents' home in Chester, Illinois. As a police patrol car carrying Coleman arrived at the Monroe County courthouse for Wednesday's hearing, a waiting crowd shouted \"murderer\" and \"baby killer,\" according to video posted on the Web site of CNN affiliate KSDK. Coleman told police he left the house at 5:43 a.m. the day of the deaths and drove to a gym to work out. Watch report of Coleman's actions after deaths \u00bb . \"Shortly thereafter, he started calling his house, realized that nobody was answering and on his way back at around 6:50 a.m. is when he made the phone call to the Columbia Police Department, said Maj. Jeff Connor, commander of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis. Coleman said he was calling the house to make sure the boys were waking up for school, Connor said. Threatening messages were found on the walls inside the home, Connor said, but would not disclose the exact wording. In an article posted on the Major Case Squad's Web site, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper reported the message said something to the effect of, \"I told you this would happen.\" A glove with red spray paint on it was found along Interstate 255, which would have been on Coleman's route to the gym, the newspaper reported. The message in the Coleman home was written in paint of a similar color, the article said. Coleman previously worked in the security department for Joyce Meyer Ministries, an evangelical Christian organization based in suburban St. Louis, said spokesman Roby Walker. Walker told CNN Coleman resigned last week after the two met regarding \"a violation of moral conduct.\" He would not elaborate. The Post-Dispatch cited police sources as saying Coleman had more than one romantic rendezvous with a Florida woman, a friend of his wife, during out-of-town ministry trips. Neither Coleman nor his attorneys have commented on that report, the Post-Dispatch said. Police said Tuesday they did not have a motive for the killings. Joyce Meyer Ministries said in a statement Wednesday that it had learned of the charges against Coleman. \"This horrible tragedy has deeply saddened us all and although nothing can compensate for the loss of this beautiful family, our ministry remains fully behind the diligent efforts of the law enforcement community,\" the statement said.","highlights":"NEW: Illinois man held without bond on three counts of first-degree murder .\nChris Coleman pleads not guilty to slayings of wife, two children .\nBodies were found in Southern Illinois home on May 5 .\nColeman claimed he left home for gym before slayings, police say .","id":"04b723f93cd3b06cafcb4b2f6e0355d28c8006ba"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As Supreme Court hopeful Sonia Sotomayor breaks ground for Hispanics, she is poised to add an exclamation point to another historic demographic shift: the move to a Catholic court. If confirmed, Sonia Sotomayor would be the sixth Catholic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor was raised Catholic and if she is confirmed, six out of nine, or two-thirds of the justices on the court will be from the faith. Catholics make up about one-quarter of the U.S. population. \"It's most unusual,\" said Barbara Perry, a government professor at Sweetbriar College who was already writing a book about Catholics on the Supreme Court when Sotomayor was named as the next nominee. \"Presidents used to reserve a Catholic seat and a Jewish seat on the Supreme Court,\" Perry told CNN Radio. \"Now we've moved from a Catholic seat on the court to a Catholic court.\" Of the 110 people who have served on the Supreme Court, 11 have been Catholic. Five of those justices -- Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts -- are currently on the court. \"It is more than a random selection process that yielded the current five Catholics on the bench,\" Perry said. The five current Catholic justices were appointed by Republican presidents, which Perry notes may be a key reason why so many Catholics have joined the high court in recent years. \"It's their tie to conservative Catholicism which made them agreeable to (Republican) presidents' ideology,\" she said. Perry sees Catholics as swing voters with a base of socially conservative principles, and therefore naturally attractive for Republican presidents. Catholic League President Bill Donohue goes further, hypothesizing that Catholics have conservative credentials on issues such as abortion, without the political baggage of terms such as the \"religious right\" or \"evangelicals.\" \"Is it safer to nominate a Catholic as opposed to an evangelical to get votes? I think the answer is decidedly yes,\" Donohue said. Donohue also suggests the vigorous education in Catholic schools during the 20th century produced sharp legal minds. \"I think there might be a certain kind of Catholic edge, so to speak, as a residual property of a Catholic education,\" he said. Roberts, Scalia and Thomas attended Catholic school as children, as did Sotomayor. Watch more about Sotomayor's personal history \u00bb . Underlying causes aside, Perry sees the fast shift as a sign that centuries of American concern about Catholics are over. In 1985, a lone Catholic justice, William J. Brennan, Jr., sat on the court. A generation later, that number is poised to become six. \"What that tells is that in our politics, religion doesn't matter anymore,\" Perry said. Then she added: \"I don't think our politics are ready for an Islamic justice at this point.\" The current court is composed of two Jewish members -- Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If Sotomayor joins the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens would be the solitary Protestant on a court once dominated by white Protestant men. Learn about the other Supreme Court justices \u00bb . Court observers wonder what, if anything, six Catholic justices would mean for Supreme Court decisions. The five Catholics currently on the bench concurred in a 2007 decision, Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld a state ban on late-term abortions. Sotomayor has faced few abortion cases, and no tests on issues such gay rights or the death penalty. However, Donohue expects a Justice Sotomayor to lean more left than her fellow Catholics on the court. Read about Sotomayor's record \u00bb . \"I think she's more reliably liberal,\" Donohue said. Donohue said he still would like to see Sotomayor join the bench. \"Even though I'm a conservative and she is not, there's still a certain way that you do root for the home team,\" he said.","highlights":"If confirmed, Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be Supreme Court's sixth Catholic .\nFive current Catholic justices were appointed by Republican presidents .\nCatholic League president says Sotomayor would lean more left than other justices .","id":"9b90d84ee9ba66e7c23517007c07f71ceedf0503"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- An unopposed former Communist leader was elected Nepal's new prime minister Saturday, ending nearly three weeks of political uncertainty. Madhav Kumar Nepal waves at his supporters at the country's parliament in Kathmandu. Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) was the only person to serve as a candidate for the post after he received backing from more than 20 of the 25 parties in parliament. Nepal, 56, is a former general secretary of the Communist Party, but had resigned after the party made a poor showing last year against another Communist movement. In that vote, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party, with 38 percent of the seats in the 601-member constituent assembly which also functions as parliament. Nepal had been general secretary since 1993 and served as the country's deputy prime minister for nine months in 1995. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chairman, resigned as prime minister May 4 after the president overturned the Cabinet's decision to sack the army chief. Nepal became a republic last year. The new government has two important tasks before it: the writing of a new constitution within a year, and integration of 19,600 Maoist combatants into the security forces. Without the support of the former Maoist rebels, these tasks cannot be achieved. The Maoists fought a 10-year insurgency aimed at abolishing the monarchy.","highlights":"Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal was only candidate .\nNepal, 56, is a former general secretary of the Communist Party .\nPushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chairman, resigned as prime minister May 4 .\nFollowed president's decision to overturn Cabinet's sacking of army chief .","id":"cd69c6b1ae6ec892b25c041acf273df73a7cedd5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's not every day the average Joe gets to take a peek at the personal possessions of a royal. Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, pictured on board his 52-foot racing yacht . But, this month CNN's MainSail program has been lucky enough to go on board Juan Carlos I -- the King of Spain's racing yacht. We get a unique insight into just what a royal's boat looks like and the kinds of technological toys and state-of-the-art equipment a King likes to equip it with. Speaking with the one of the boat's crew members, Ignacio Triay, CNN MainSail presenter Shirley Robertson finds that the King's boat is, indeed, at the cutting edge of modern sailing. The 52ft vessel is raced by a crew of 15 people and has competed in some of the world's most popular yacht racing series, racing alongside the very cream of the world's sailing talent. Video: See on board the King of Spain's yacht \u00bb . Triay, who has been sailing for the King of Spain for over 20 years, said the boat contains all of the best modern electronic and sailing equipment. For more sailing features -- including the 10 weirdest sailing terms you'll ever hear -- visit the MainSail homepage.","highlights":"CNN MainSail gets on board the King of Spain's racing yacht .\nThe boat is a 52-foot racing yacht that requires a crew of 15 .\nA crew member from the boat says it is full of state-of-the-art equipment .","id":"6fc897f08c891f6fee7ccdfa0db662b6e895576b"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- On the eve of what was to become the biggest sale ever of a Chinese contemporary painting, Trevor Simon wanted to get the word out about \"Execution,\" a painting he had hidden from everybody. The painting had been stored in a London warehouse for more than a decade after arriving from Hong Kong. \"Not a single person in the world had seen it other than me for more than a decade,\" said the 36-year-old investment banking strategist by phone from London on Thursday. That includes his mother and the woman he loves. Beijing artist Yue Minjun's painting, inspired by the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989, sold for 2.9 million pounds ($5.9 million) Friday night in London. The sale exceeded the 2.15 million pounds ($4.37 million) paid in June for the previous record, Yue's \"The Pope.\" Simon remembers seeing the oil painting at Manfred Schoeni's gallery in Hong Kong during the late 1990s and how it fascinated him at first sight. \"As soon as I saw it, my whole self changed,\" he said. \"I realized that this stood for everything that was going on at the time, so I was stunned into silence literally. I saw what was happening in China. I was rising in banking, and I saw an execution of people who were smiling. \"I saw that was what was going on in banking.\" Schoeni and Simon were already on friendly terms, and Schoeni had wanted to show him \"Execution,\" which had been covered up. But when Simon insisted he wanted the painting, he recalled Schoeni telling him it wasn't going anywhere and was not for sale. But Simon said he would not leave and remembered saying: \" 'Fine, have a drink with me.' And maybe I loosened his head a bit. After a couple hours, I struck a deal.\" A junior investment banker in his 20s at the time, Simon would spend $250,000 Hong Kong dollars ($32,200), or two-thirds of his annual salary, on \"Execution.\" The painting reflected what he felt was going on in the world in which he worked: a soulless place. \"While you can apply a good mind, the job eats your life. You spend 14 hours in the markets. A week in Paris, a week in London running around. No life. My girlfriend didn't want to be with me: 'I can't have you.'\" She'd leave him and has since become engaged to someone else, he said. \"It was not only an image of an execution of characters in front of the walls of Tiananmen, but an execution of me,\" he said, describing himself as \"committed to this painting.\" Under the terms of the deal he struck with Schoeni, the painting was to be \"out of sight for five years\" and shipped to London, Simon explained. He described the painting -- at 3 meters (10 feet) wide and 1.5 meters (5 feet) high -- as \"monumental,\" \"physical,\" and \"like a wall.\" He put \"Execution\" in a box, shipped it out of Hong Kong to London. \"And it hasn't moved since that day. It's in a crusty warehouse behind a main road.\" He finds a key distinction between \"Execution\" and Francisco de Goya's \"The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid\" and Edouard Manet's \"The Execution of the Emperor Maximilien of Mexico.\" In those, he said, \"that's murder, true assassination of a political figure. But here [with \"Execution\"], it's far more potent. Because they're killed by culture.\" The laughing was a \"response to unimaginable persecution,\" he said. \"You don't know what the hell else to do. You're nervous. You're not laughing, 'Ha ha hee hee.'\" As for the underwear, Simon said, \"You're stripped down, you're defenseless. Even worse, you're being shot with cultural forces, not bullets.\" And while the man on the far right of Manet's painting cocks the gun and delivers the coup de grace, the figure in \"Execution\" has a similar role, said Simon. \"He's wearing a generic T-shirt -- the guy who's delivering the last shot to be delivered into the heartland of Chinese heritage.\" Yue's painting was in keeping with \"cynical realism,\" the term coined by art critic Li Xianting to describe post-Tiananmen artists disillusioned by and critical of Chinese society, Simon said. When asked if he, as a young 20-something, ever harbored doubts or questioned his sanity about dishing out a large portion of his salary for this work, Simon replied: \"No, no, no, no. I knew. I stood there. You just know. You just absolutely know beyond all doubt that the theme is something special. \"This art was a representation of all the ambition and all the anxiety that had been held back behind the Chinese wall and was now allowed to live, allowed to go free. \"I knew without a millionth of a doubt that that was the story of China on canvas.\" Simon said he would probably cry if he and Yue met. \"He's an immensely brave man, anyone who paints like this. None of his paintings are as politically dangerous as this.\" Simon left the painting in a box in the warehouse and never brought it out or hung it up, despite having other work elsewhere in his house. For one thing, Schoeni was murdered in 2004 in the Philippines. Simon felt that it was because Schoeni was involved in championing the works of people from \"repressive\" countries. The painting became a mental crutch for him. He determined that he would walk out on the most important job he could think of in investment banking, one that earned him more than a million dollars a year. \"The painting helped me leave the job because I could see a country being executed and surviving, and so maybe I could too,\" he said in a follow-up email. Simon had left Hong Kong for \"the lion's den,\" as he put it, in London, where he felt further \"executed by the politics and chaos one step below the top rung of the bank.\" The very top was where the more rational and humanity prevailed, he said. \"All the rest is scratching and positioning and seldom is the best thing done.\" He'd leave his job. That was five years ago, and while he is still involved in finance, he works on his own now, he said. Selling the painting brings Simon full circle to being \"un-Executed,\" he said. Yue's got a new museum and is being recognized by the Chinese government. \"He's no longer repressed by China. And I'm no longer repressed by commercial ambition. It's about doing it the right way,\" Simon said. \"The value of this piece is not the dollar value. It's lovely to have that extra money. But the real value, should I die tomorrow morning, has already been placed in my heart,\" he said. \"I'm not laughing at being shot at. What I'm most proud of is the courage to live. \"God gave me talents. I'm going to use them for good, not for money. Not for trading.\" But first, he plans to get the girl back.","highlights":"Beijing artist Yue Minjun's \"Execution\" sold for record 2.9 million pounds ($5.9M)\nIn the painting, Simon saw metaphor for himself and his life in the bank world .\nSimon spent two-thirds of his annual salary on the painting in the 1990s .\nUnder deal, Simon kept painting out of sight, shipped it out of HK to London .","id":"399b80d2874a52556c9c3ebb9e7408e8bc777be4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Michael A. Olivas is the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center and director of the university's Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance. He is the editor of \"Colored Men And Hombres Aqu\u00ed: Hernandez V. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican American Lawyering,\" and is a member of the board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Michael Olivas says Sonia Sotomayor's nomination affirms that Latinos matter in America. (CNN) -- I recently saw an old episode of \"West Wing,\" where Edward James Olmos, playing a fictional Puerto Rican federal judge, was nominated to become the first Latino on the U.S. Supreme Court. I cried, thinking how remote this possibility seemed, yet how close. Now that Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated by President Barack Obama to the Court, that episode finally rings true. When I heard the news, I wept, for the long-overdue acknowledgement that Latinos matter. Judge Sotomayor's life and legal career are arcs possible only in this country: a hardscrabble life in a south Bronx housing project, educational opportunities made possible by her own intelligence and hard work, and a legal career devoted to public service. When she assumes her position on the bench in October, no other justice will have had the depth of legal experience she holds, and none will have served as a trial judge. The sum of her life is exactly what we should look for on this court: excellent academic credentials, an accomplished legal career in private and government practice, and appointments to federal benches by Republican and Democrat presidents. Her decisions have been well-reasoned and well-written, and she will ably take her place on the Supreme Court bench. The search for a justice with \"empathy\" is no less coded than is the traditional search for \"judicial temperament\" and a person who will \"judge, not legislate.\" All nominees have the requisite merit badges, as does Judge Sotomayor. And to make their way to such a short list, all have the combination of personal and professional lives that warrant their consideration. What Sonia Sotomayor will have, as few other candidates, is the additional weight of historical expectations and the hopes of Latinos. In today's culture, Latinos are marginalized and demonized and feared. In Judge Sotomayor's New York, roving gangs of thugs go \"beaner hunting,\" looking to harm undocumented Mexicans. Such racial hatred knows no nuance, as one such mob killed a permanent resident Ecuadorian, thinking him to be Mexican. Vigilantes along the Mexican border have taken the law of enforcement into their own hands. In cultural programming, this community is described as either lazy and shiftless, or stealing jobs from real Americans. They are typecast as drogeros or maids, long characterized as banditos or greasers. The racial rhetoric against Latinos has been tolerated for too long on cable television news and in political and polite discourse. I will be carefully watching the confirmation hearings for the coded political messages, knowing that Justice-elect Sotomayor's many merits will ultimately win her confirmation. But also watching will be little girls in a south Bronx housing project, in the valley of South Texas, and in rural New Mexico. Her service on our country's highest court will be the evidence that they, too, have reason to hope and to achieve. All of this country's citizens should realize that it is not just Latinos' dreams being realized, but our collective accomplishment. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Olivas.","highlights":"Michael Olivas: Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination is a historic moment .\nHe says she has the personal and professional qualificiations to be confirmed .\nOlivas: In American culture, Latinos are marginalized and feared .\nHe says Sotomayor's nomination sends an important message of hope .","id":"598473858e79914c7115ae83b148a58075c8fc87"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Angered by what he perceived as the systemic discrimination of the minority Tamils by successive Sri Lankan governments, 18-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran, armed with just a revolver, set out in 1972 to right the perceived wrongs by forming a militant group. Sri Lanka's defense ministry says this handout photo shows troops with a captured Tamil Tiger craft. That group eventually morphed into the Tamil Tigers, who have engaged in a brutal 25-year insurgency for an independent Tamil state that has left more than 70,000 dead. Along the way, the group has been declared a terrorist organization in 32 countries, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the suicide belt. It was also behind the assassination of two world leaders -- the only terrorist organization to do so. Over the weekend, the militants offered to \"silence\" their guns after an intense military offensive decimated their ranks, usurping them from their stronghold in the north and east of the country, and cornered the remaining rebels on a small stretch of land. Watch more on the possible end to the conflict \u00bb . On Monday afternoon, the Sri Lankan government said it had killed Prabhakaran. If the rebels now follow through on their announcement, the action will potentially mark the end of the longest-running civil war in Asia. Who are the Tamils? The Tamils are an ethnic group that makes up about 12 percent of Sri Lanka's population of about 20 million. They mostly dominate the northern and eastern part of the country. Tamils are mostly Hindu and speak Tamil. That sets them apart from Sri Lanka's majority group, the Sinhalese, who make up 74 percent of the population. They are Buddhists and speak Sinhala. The tension between the two ethnic groups date to the British colonization of the country -- an island in the Indian Ocean, south of India. At the time, the country was known as Ceylon. Many Sri Lankans regarded the Tamils as British collaborators and resented the preferential treatment they received. The tables turned when the country achieved independence in 1948 and the Sinhalese majority dominated government. It was the Tamils then who claimed they were being discriminated against in politics, employment and education. By the 1970s Tamil politicians were demanding a separate Tamil state. It would be called Tamil Eelam. In this climate Prabhakaran emerged with his militant group, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Who is Prabhakaran? Prabhakaran operated from a secret jungle base in the northeastern part of the country, granting few media interviews and remaining an elusive figure to even many Tigers. He was reputed to wear a cyanide capsule around his neck -- to swallow rather than risk capture. And he reportedly expected the same dedication from his troops. As a result, few Tigers have been captured alive. To Prabhakaran's supporters he was a hero fighting for the rights of his people. The Sri Lankan government deemed him a war criminal with disregard for civilian casualties. He was wanted by Interpol on charges including terrorism and organized crime. In 1975, three years after forming his group, Prabhakaran was accused of fatally shooting the mayor of Jaffna, his birthplace. Prabhakaran was also accused of masterminding the killing of then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later, a Tigers' suicide bomber, allegedly acting under Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . Who are the Tamil Tigers? The Tigers reportedly number about 10,000, recruited from villagers in Tamil-dominated areas and unemployed Tamil youths who think they were passed over for jobs because of their ethnicity. Their armed struggle began in July 1983 when the Tigers killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. It led to, what was until then, the largest outburst of violence in the island's history. Hundreds of Tamils were killed, thousands left homeless and more than 100,000 fled to south India. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Tigers have -- until now -- shown no signs of being overpowered by the Sri Lankan military. The Tigers are infamous for suicide bombings, with men and women strapping on suicide vests for more than 200 attacks against Sri Lankan citizens and dozens of high-profile political leaders. In addition to perpetrating the attacks that killed Gandhi and Premadasa, the rebels have carried out the assassinations of two lawmakers and four ministers. A suicide bomber targeted Sri Lankan then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999 while she was campaigning for re-election. She was wounded but survived. The Tigers, however, have refrained from targeting Western tourists out of fear that foreign governments would crack down on Tamil expatriates who raise money for them abroad, the U.S. State Department said. Have there been peace talks? Periodically fighting has briefly halted because of a handful of peace agreements. By February 2002 the Tigers had dropped their demands for a separate homeland in exchange for a power-sharing deal with the government. Norway and some other countries agreed to monitor the ceasefire. A year later the rebels dropped out of the negotiations, saying they were being marginalized. They launched a suicide bombing campaign soon after. What led to renewed fighting? In January 2008 the Sri Lankan government announced it was annulling the nearly six-year-old truce with the rebels, declaring that it would crush the rebels. The fighting intensified with security forces driving the rebels from their strongholds in the east and north of the country. The government asked the rebels to lay down arms; the rebels vowed to continue. Caught in the crossfire were civilians, thousands of whom were displaced and hundreds killed. International aid groups expressed concern that both the government and the rebels disregarded civilian safety even in no-fire zones and hospitals. Both sides blamed the other for civilian casualties and exaggerated accounts of their victories. With journalists not allowed into the battle zones, their claims could not be independently confirmed. On Sunday, the Tigers posted an \"urgent statement\" on a pro-rebel Web site, saying the battle had reached \"its bitter end.\" \"We have decided to silence our guns,\" the statement said. Euphoria gripped the war-wracked nation. And Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa readied to announce to Tuesday that military operations had ended. But one last order of business awaited: The capture, dead or alive, of Prabhakaran. In the past, the Tigers have emerged from near-defeat. But if Prabhakaran's death is confirmed, the government is optimistic that it can write off the Tigers. CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report, which includes information from various sources. They include the U.S. State Department, the FBI, Interpol, Human Rights Watch, the Council on Foreign Relations, the CIA Factbook, and previous CNN reports.","highlights":"25-year long insurgency has killed more than 70,000 people .\nTamil leader reportedly wore a cyanide capsule around his neck .\nFBI says group pioneered use of suicide belts for bomb attacks .","id":"7aeb42b947a04b1b0e9bfa1976bb15ca79b7efe5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of Americans learn a painful lesson in banking every day: Waiting for a check to clear and then getting access to the money from a bank doesn't mean the check has really cleared. When Harry Smith, of New York, responded to an ad on Craigslist for an office assistant, a woman e-mailed him and said her British company was starting to sell its product in the United States, but was having trouble with dealing with checks from customers. Smith said the woman needed someone to collect the checks and then send the money to her company. It was a commission job -- deposit the checks, wait for the funds to become available at his bank, then send cash to her, minus 10 percent for Smith. After Smith checked out what seemed like a legitimate company on the Internet, he started receiving checks totaling several thousand dollars and deposited them in his account. When his bank released the funds, he sent cash to an address outside the country. But after a few weeks, Smith's bank notified him the checks he had deposited had actually been returned, and that he owed the bank all the money he had withdrawn. Smith has not heard from his business partner since and doesn't even know who she really is. He still owes his bank money, is unemployed and doesn't know what action the bank might take against him. What happened to Smith is one example of a wide range of fake check scams carried out in the United States every year. A Consumer Federation of America survey estimates that 1.3 million Americans have been the victim of a fake check scam, with an average loss of $3,000 to $4,000 per consumer. The most common scams are fake sweepstakes or lotteries, phony government sponsored grants and fraudulent work-at-home opportunities, the survey says. The scams follow the pattern of the so-called Nigerian Internet scams, which often involve accepting transfers of money that become obviously phony when it's too late. On Wednesday, the Consumer Federation launched a campaign to combat check scams. Many consumers don't know they are responsible if they deposit a bad check, said Susan Grant, the federation's director of consumer protection. Grant said its survey shows an alarming level of misinformation among consumers, and the problem includes money orders and cashier's checks. Fifty-nine percent of respondents in the survey incorrectly thought that, when you deposit a check or money order, your bank confirms it is good before allowing you to withdraw the money. That number goes up to 70 percent among adults age 18 to 24. More than 40 percent of those surveyed also incorrectly think that the person who gave you the bad check must pay back the bank. American consumers are mostly unfamiliar with the time needed to process checks and money orders, say consumer watchdogs. Government banking rules mandate that money from deposits become available within one to five days. However, it can take weeks, especially with foreign checks or money orders, for the originating institutions to get the checks or money orders back and determine that they are counterfeit. When that happens, scam victims are in for a rude surprise. Publishers Clearing House, which runs legitimate sweepstakes, warns consumers that scammers might claim that you are being given an advance on a prize, but that some fee, tax or other payment needs to be sent before you get the jackpot. That's the heart of the scam, and it's something that a real sweepstakes will never ask for, say legitimate companies. Consumer protection groups, state attorney generals, the Federal Trade Commission and government bank regulators warn consumers that the number of fake checks, money orders and even cashier's checks being used to scam victims is increasing. The bottom line: \"There's no legitimate reason why anyone who wants to give you a check or money order for something would ever ask you to send money anywhere in return. It's as simple as that,\" said Grant of the Consumer Federation of America. Smith said he suspected that his part-time job was not on the up-and-up, but didn't know about fake check scams. He's not sure how he will pay back his bank, but hopes his story will help keep other people from becoming victims. The Consumer Federation of America's tips against fake check scams: . -- Never agree to pay to claim a prize. -- Never agree to pay for grants from the government or foundations. -- Never agree to cash checks and send the money somewhere as part of a job working from home. -- Never agree to wire money to anyone you have not met in person and known for a long time. -- If it seems suspicious, consult your state or local consumer protection agency, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service or another trusted source. -- Remember that there is no legitimate reason why anyone who wants to give you a check or money order would ask you to send money anywhere in return.","highlights":"More than 1 million Americans have been victim of fake check scams, study finds .\nExperts warn not to accept checks from someone seeking money in return .\nSurvey: Most American consumers unfamiliar with time needed to process checks .","id":"c4392387b43a23d37d7180da6771bf3dc1077bed"} -{"article":"YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand for the first time Tuesday and told a Myanmar court that she did not violate her house arrest when she offered temporary shelter to an American man who swam to her lakeside home. People of Myanmar living in Japan protest for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi on May 24, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. \"She was very confident, very firm, very clear,\" said Mark Canning, the British ambassador to Myanmar, who was among diplomats and journalists allowed to watch the proceedings. \"In a strange way, she commanded the courtroom,\" he said. Suu Kyi, who is being tried on subversion charges, said she did not learn immediately that John William Yettaw swam nearly two miles and snuck into her crumbling, colonial-era bungalow on May 3. She was told about the visitor the next day by one of two housekeepers who are her sole companions in the heavily guarded residence, where she was under house arrest. Suu Kyi's two helpers are also on trial, as is Yettaw. \"I didn't know,\" she said. \"I was upstairs.\" Under questioning by a judge for half an hour, Suu Kyi said she provided Yettaw food but allowed him only to \"stay temporarily.\" Yettaw left late May 5, she said. \"He walked to the lakeside. But I don't know which way he went, because it was very dark,\" Suu Kyi said. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate also acknowledged that Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, had visited her once before last November. \"Did you report to the authority about his arrival?\" the judge asked. \"No,\" she replied. Suu Kyi had earlier told supporters that she did not tell authorities about the latest intrusion because she didn't want Yettaw or anyone else to get in trouble. But it is this silence that the Myanmar's military junta is trying her for. The government said Yettaw's presence violated the conditions of Suu Kyi's house arrest. The country's regime rarely allows Suu Kyi any visitors, and foreigners are not allowed overnight stays in local households without government permission. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years -- a confinement the military junta has regularly extended. Watch the U.N. secretary general explain what he is doing for Suu Kyi \u00bb . Her latest round of home detention -- after five years of confinement -- expires Wednesday, according to her supporters at home and abroad. Last week, the military began prosecuting Suu Kyi on allegations of subversion at a prison compound near Yangon. Her supporters say the move is meant to keep her confined even longer -- beyond the general elections that the junta has scheduled for next year. If convicted, Suu Kyi, 63, could be sentenced to three to five years in prison. Before the proceedings got under way at the Insean Prison compound Tuesday, the junta said Suu Kyi's house arrest did not expire for six more months. And though the government said it considered releasing her at the end of the term, it said it had no choice but to try her after she met with Yettaw. \"As Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Gen. Aung San, the leader of our country, we were deeply thinking whether to extend her detention or not,\" Police Brigadier General Myint Thein told reporters Tuesday. \"Unfortunately, a U.S. citizen entered her house for two days. She allowed and made conversation with him, gave him food. \"These kind of actions broke the law,\" he added. \"This is why we have no way but to open a case. And we are very sad about this case.\" Gen. Aung San played an instrumental role in bringing about the country's independence from British colonial rule. He was assassinated in 1947 and is still revered in Myanmar. Suu Kyi's lawyers rejected the junta's explanation, saying the United Nations had already deemed the opposition leader's continuing detention unlawful under Myanmar's state protection laws. \"The U.N. has said her house arrest expired a year ago,\" said Jared Genser, her U.S.-based lawyer. \"They are out of time, and they cannot detain her any longer under their own law.\" Thein told reporters that the pro-democracy advocate had actually been under house arrest for four-and-a-half years. The official said Suu Kyi's house arrest officially went into effect on November 28, 2004. That gives the government six more months to restrict her movement, he said. Genser countered the government's account, citing the conclusion of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The law is unclear whether detention begins from the time a person is arrested or when a detention order is issued, the council said. \"This would suggest an interpretation that you start counting from the day you begin to detain her,\" Genser said. In Suu Kyi's case, she was put under house arrest in May 2003. \"You can't issue an order months later and use that as your starting point. That creates an unfair period of detention,\" he said. After Suu Kyi's testimony Tuesday, the court asked the diplomats and journalists to leave. It denied a defense request to consult with Suu Kyi privately. The court then questioned Yettaw. He is charged with violating immigration laws and trespassing. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A lawyer selected by the U.S. Embassy is representing him. According to Yettaw's testimony in court Friday, he made the unauthorized trip because he had a vision that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he wanted to warn her. He muttered to himself during the proceedings, including utterances that Suu Kyi is innocent, said Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi's prosecution has prompted international criticism, with nine Nobel laureates -- including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa -- calling it a \"mockery.\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the charges against Suu Kyi \"baseless\" and accused the junta of \"continuing resistance to a free and open electoral process.\" The Nobel laureate has been the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement and the focus of a global campaign to free her. Her party won over 80 percent of the legislative seats in 1990. But she was disqualified from serving because of her house arrest, and the military junta ignored the results. The government has said next year's scheduled elections will reintroduce democracy in Myanmar. But its plan includes a clause that forbids citizens who bore children with foreigners from running for office. That makes Suu Kyi ineligible. She married a British man and has two sons with him. CNN's Kocha Olarn in Bangkok, Thailand, and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Junta says Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest does not expire for six more months .\nOpposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial with American John Yettaw .\nSuu Kyi told Myanmar court that she is not guilty, has not broken any law .\nYettaw is charged with violating the conditions of Suu Kyi's house arrest .","id":"c860317bc1f9a34cfabbaf652a3ab8ab98781812"} -{"article":"KEY WEST, Florida (CNN) -- The USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a retired U.S. Navy warship, embarked on a sedentary new career Wednesday on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. The USNS Vandenberg was intentionally sunk Wednesday to create an artificial reef for marine life. The decommissioned warship was scuttled in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary between 10:20 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. ET to become the world's second-largest artificial coral reef. The 17,250-ton ship sank in less than two minutes, said Andy Newman, spokesman for the Florida Keys Tourism Council. It is resting about 140 feet below the surface, but much of its bulk is only 40 to 70 feet below the surface. \"It went down like a rock,\" he told CNN. \"Everything looked very, very smooth.\" About 300 boats positioned themselves as close as possible to the site, and cheers went up when the Vandenberg slipped beneath the water seven miles south of Key West, the spokesman said. Watch the Vandenberg sink \u00bb . Newman, who was circling in a helicopter above the 522-foot-long ship, said the Vandenberg appeared to rest in a level position on the Gulf floor. Divers were to assess its position Wednesday. Authorities said once final assessments of the ship are made, divers can begin exploring. The goal of the $8.6 million project is to divert fishing and diving pressure away from natural reefs, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission \"estimates that the vessel's life span of at least 100 years will contribute stable, long-term habitat for scores of marine fish species, and provide exceptional diving and fishing opportunities for Florida residents and visitors,\" its Web site says. To sink the Vandenberg, holes were made above the waterline in the side of the ship and throughout various decks, Newman said. Explosive charges were embedded in the bilge area below the water. The explosives detonated inside the hull, blowing outward. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that the Vandenberg artificial reef will result in an annual increase of about $7.5 million in expenditures in the economy of Monroe County, which includes Key West. Sinkthevandenberg.com -- a joint effort by Artificial Reefs of the Keys and Valeo Films -- had offered a live, online stream of the event, but the system apparently was overloaded, making the site inaccessible. The Vandenberg was built at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond, California, in 1943. It was commissioned as a World War II troop transport ship. After Japan surrendered, the Vandenberg was the first Navy ship to return to New York Harbor. During the 1950s the ship was used to transport refugees from Europe and Australia to America. In the 1960s the Air Force used the Vandenberg to track missiles. It also was used to track rockets and early space shuttle launches. The ship was decommissioned in 1986 and was anchored with more than 25 other mothballed ships in Norfolk, Virginia. The Vandenberg was towed to Key West last month. The Vandenberg was chosen from among 400 decommissioned military vessels mainly based on appearance: \"her topside structure, her smooth, interesting hull lines, big girth and her starring role in a motion picture,\" Newman said. The ship was featured in the 1999 movie \"Virus,\" starring Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis. Four men who had served on the Vandenberg traveled to Key West to see the ship go to its final resting place. Patrick Utecht worked for more than 20 years as a civilian contractor on the Vandenberg when it was used for missile and radar tracking and data collection. When he heard about its future as part of an artificial reef, Utecht said, \"My feeling was one of elation.\" \"I can say that many of us [crew members] were thrilled that where she was going, she would keep her name and place in history.\" \"I think it's a far better use of her than being cut up,\" he added. The largest ship ever scuttled to create an artificial reef was the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, which sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast in 2006, according to the U.S. Navy. The former warship slipped under the water about 24 miles south of Pensacola, Florida, the Navy says on its Web site. The Oriskany was 888 feet long, and weighed 32,000 tons. It sank in water about 212 feet deep.","highlights":"A decommissioned U.S. Navy warship was intentionally sunk off the Florida Keys .\nThe USNS Vandenberg will become the world's second-largest artificial reef .\nThe sunken ship will create a long-term habitat for scores of marine fish species .\nThe ship was built in 1943 and commissioned as a WWII troop transport ship .","id":"174a8a5ff217985d3ab4ed5bcfa270720eed2f39"} -{"article":"FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (CNN) -- The 101st Airborne's senior commander in effect ordered his soldiers Wednesday not to commit suicide, a plea that came after 11 suicides since January 1, two of them in the past week. An Army honor guard stands ready to fire a salute at Fort Campbell. \"If you don't remember anything else I say in the next five or 10 minutes, remember this -- suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad,\" Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend told his forces. \"It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it's got to stop now. Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now.\" Fort Campbell's suicide rate, the highest in the Army, \"is not a good statistic,\" he said in remarks to one of four divisions he addressed during the day. After nearly one soldier per week committed suicide at the post between January and mid-March, the Army instituted a suicide prevention program that \"seemed to be having good effects\" until last week, when two more suicides occurred, he said. \"Suicide is a permanent solution to what is only a temporary problem,\" Townsend said. \"Screaming Eagles don't quit. No matter how bad your problem seems today, trust me, it's not the end of the world. It will be better tomorrow. Don't take away your tomorrow.\" He urged anyone feeling hopeless or suicidal to \"tell somebody.\" \"You wouldn't hesitate to seek medical attention for a physical injury or wound; don't hesitate to seek medical attention for a psychological injury.\" Townsend exhorted any soldier who suspects that a fellow soldier may be feeling suicidal to act -- first by asking how the soldier feels, then by escorting him or her to help. \"Do not wait,\" he said. Soldiers can turn to their leaders, chaplains, medics, social workers, teammates, family and friends, he said. \"Don't let yourself, your buddies or your families down,\" he said, ending his comments by repeating, \"This has got to stop, soldiers. It's got to stop now. Have a great week.\" But Townsend's message -- called a Second Suicide Stand-Down event -- is likely to be ineffective, said Dr. Mark Kaplan, a professor of community health at Portland State University in Oregon, who has researched veterans' suicide and served last year on a Veterans Administration blue-ribbon panel on suicide risk. \"It sounds like an order,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I'm not sure that a command like this is going to alter the course of somebody who is on a trajectory of self-harm.\" He suggested the Army might want to adopt the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs model. \"They're dealing with a comparable problem with a similar population,\" Kaplan said. \"They have infused more sensitivity to their approach to suicide prevention as opposed to this. This is like any other order.\" The military culture attaches a stigma to mental illness that needs to be reduced, he said. Soldiers who acknowledge they are considering suicide can suffer severe repercussions, such as losing opportunities for promotion and access to firearms, he said. If the Army is serious about addressing the problem, it needs to address the stressors common to soldiers, including financial problems, marital problems, frequency of deployments, length of deployments, deployments to hostile environments, exposure to extreme stress and service-related injuries, he said. The role of alcohol too must be addressed if the rate of suicide is to be lowered, he said. \"More often than not, these are individuals who'll get liquored up, so to speak, and have access to a gun and die from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,\" Kaplan said. Bill Lichtenstein, who serves on the board of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, the advisory council of the Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health at Columbia University, and on the advisory board of Families for Depression Awareness, was equally unimpressed with Townsend's tack. \"It's the equivalent of 'Just Say No' to prevent drug abuse,' \" he told CNN in a telephone interview. Screening techniques that involve a series of questions are available to identify people at risk for suicide, he said. \"Prominent among them, if not the most important question is: Have you made a plan for suicide? Using a simple battery of questions, you can suss out people who might be at risk, which is far more important than telling somebody, 'Don't take your life,' \" Lichtenstein said. The problem is not limited to Fort Campbell. The Army has reported 64 potential active-duty suicides this year; 35 have been confirmed as suicides, and 29 are pending determination of manner of death. CNN's Tom Watkins contributed to this story.","highlights":"Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend spoke to troops about suicide problem .\nDon't hesitate to seek medical attention for a psychological injury, he says .\nSuicide bad for soldiers, families, units, army, country, says general .\nFort Campbell's suicide rate, highest in Army, \"is not a good statistic,\" says general .","id":"e1df5388068a22e9a525a7b2943fa127e1d836cb"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- As General Motors heads toward insolvency, the company that was once the biggest on the planet is still riding high in the world's most populous country. China is one bright spot in GM's dismal fortunes, but U.S. consumer activists have raised concerns. As the storied American company prepares to financially dismantle its operations between good and poor performing assets, GM China is becoming the crown jewel in the company's operations. \"If there's a good GM and a bad GM, China is definitely going to be in the good GM side,\" said Michael Dunne, an auto analyst and managing director of J.D. Power and Associates China. But the company's build-up in China is raising concern for U.S. consumer advocates and members of the U.S. Congress. Of particular concern are plans to build cars for the U.S. market in China after thousands of GM workers were laid off at U.S. plants. \"Do we really want the United States of America to export its auto industry paid for by the taxpayer, and un-employ workers to a dictatorship to a country like China?\" said consumer advocate Ralph Nader. \"Where's our self-respect as a nation?\" Adds U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio: \"That cannot be a part of their restructuring of this company. Their business plan cannot include more outsourcing of jobs while taking taxpayer money.\" Industry analysts say the decision is a simple matter of dollars and cents: GM is now the third-biggest car manufacturer in China, which has recently overtaken the U.S. as the world's largest car market. \"Our business is run as separate joint-ventures here in China in partnership with SAIC ... so we're profitable, we fund our own investment and we would be largely independent of any action that took place in the US,\" said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of GM China. \"It seems as though they have enough going on out here that they will remain insulated from the bankruptcy back home,\" adds Dunne. \"I see GM weathering the storm in Asia and holding on to what they've accomplished here and being able to ride it out here.\" CNN's Andrew Stevens and Jim Acosta contributed to this report .","highlights":"GM China is the third largest manufacturer in China .\nChina became the world's largest car market in recent months .\nConsumer activists and U.S. politicians deride plans to import GM cars .\nNader: Don't export U.S. auto industry to a \"dictatorship\"","id":"46710e8880da93c755b06de557f0d7486b7c7905"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A history of childhood abuse and use of a provocative online identity increase the risk that girls will be victimized by someone they meet on the Internet, according to a study appearing in the June issue of Pediatrics. A study in Pediatrics sought to identify which risk factors are linked to Internet-initiated victimization of girls. While highlighting the dangers that exist for adolescent girls, the study's authors also offer a word to parents: You can lessen the risks to your children by monitoring their Internet use. The authors sought to identify risk factors connected to increased rates of Internet-initiated victimization of girls. They also wanted to find out whether abuse victims showed increased vulnerability to online victimization. They found that girls are more likely to experience online sexual advances or have offline encounters if they have previously been abused or have a provocative avatar, which is a digital image meant to represent the user online. Those two factors pose a greater risk to adolescents than perhaps more traditionally considered risks, such as Internet naivete and sexual innocence, the study says. The authors say many Internet-initiated sex crimes originate on social networking sites, which require users to create online identities. Some sites, such as Second Life, require users to create a character to represent them in the virtual world. The program presents users with hundreds of possibilities spanning all shapes and sizes; users can choose anything from a fully dressed persona to a scantily clad one. They also can select features such as hair color and figure. Other sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, allow self-descriptions and photographs. But even there, users can choose what to post, and those identities can shape behavior and interaction online, the study says. \"The extent to which provocative self-presentations ... translate into increased online advances or offline encounters is unknown, but it is plausible that these types of presentations constitute an initial invitation for exploitation and a familiar avenue by which sexual advances are initiated,\" the study says. The study's lead author was Jennie G. Noll of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. The report appears in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Noll and her co-authors cite the Proteus effect, or the idea that the presentation of oneself can affect the behavior of the presenter and the receiver. \"Self-presentations can change the way Internet users interact in a manner that increases the risk for online sexual advances,\" they say. The study looked at 104 abused and 69 non-abused girls ages 14 to 17. Abused adolescents -- who had suffered neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse -- were recruited from child protective agencies, the authors said. Of the girls studied, 54 percent were white and 46 percent were minorities, of which 82 percent were black and 18 percent were mixed-race, the authors say. The authors held a laboratory session in which they asked the girls to create avatars on a program designed to mimic a popular social networking site, which the authors did not name in the study. Girls could choose bust and hip size, clothing type, visible navel piercings and skin, eye and hair colors. Girls were given a range of choices that allowed for a more provocative or conservative avatar. Participants were also asked to rate how many times they had had online sexual advances, which were described as \"explicit sexual chatting in virtual worlds,\" and how many times they had met someone in person after meeting first online. The authors say 40 percent of the girls reported experiencing sexual advances online, and 26 percent reported meeting someone offline after getting to know the person on the Internet. Abused girls were much more likely to have experienced both, the authors found. \"Results indicated that abuse status was significantly related to online sexual advances, which were, in turn, related to offline, in-person encounters,\" the study says. The authors say there was no direct link between abuse and offline encounters, but that a history of abuse puts girls at greater risk. Looking at the girls' avatar choices, the authors found that girls who present themselves provocatively in body and clothing choices are more likely to have had online sexual advances. That risk is tied not just to an avatar, but to the overall image a girl projects online, they say. On sites that don't use avatars, such as MySpace or Facebook, simply compiling suggestive photographs or narrative descriptions can increase girls' vulnerability, they say. \"Those adolescents who may be unaware of how their appearance might be perceived may not, from a developmental perspective, possess the social sophistication necessary to field and ward off sexual advances in ways that protect them from sexually explicit suggestions,\" the study says. \"This may be a particularly important lesson to convey to female adolescents who are especially vulnerable to exploitation and victimization, such as those who have been victims of childhood abuse,\" it says. One significant factor that helped decrease the risk to girls was the presence and influence of caregivers, the authors found. They urge parents to be aware of how their adolescent girls present themselves on the Internet and be aware that provocative self-presentation might have implications for sexual solicitation. \"Caregiver presence was associated with significantly fewer reports by adolescents of online solicitations,\" the study says. \"As such, the importance of parental monitoring of adolescent Internet use cannot be understated.\"","highlights":"Study in June issue of Pediatrics identifies risk factors from Internet predators .\nStudy finds childhood abuse, use of sexy images puts girls at increased risk .\nThese factors more crucial than Internet naivete or sexual innocence, study indicates .\nAuthors urge caregivers to carefully monitor how girls present themselves online .","id":"f1e2997a9f9859173748a4ec3459d1c37f204c0e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A nude photograph of pop singer Madonna was sold for $37,500 Thursday afternoon at a Christie's Art House auction. Christie's auctioned this nude photo of Madonna (partially shown) taken by Lee Friedlander for $37,500. The photo, originally expected to go for between $10,000 and $15,000, was purchased for more than double its original estimated selling price, a Christie's spokesperson confirmed. The 13-inch by 8 5\/8-inch framed photograph was purchased by an anonymous bidder over the phone. The full frontal photograph was one of several taken by American photographer Lee Friedlander in 1979. Madonna, then a cash-strapped student, received $25 for the entire photo shoot. Most of the pictures from the shoot were ultimately featured in Playboy magazine in 1985.","highlights":"Nude photograph of Madonna taken when she was student in 1979 .\nLee Friedlander pic sold by Christie's for $37,500 .\nAnonymous bidder made purchase over the phone .","id":"af9c5da60afa299b146c6369bac332fb4e67e660"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Usually, when characters in a movie are one-dimensional, that's not a good thing. But in \"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,\" the waxworks figures who come to life after sundown aren't crassly sketchy or dramatically lacking. They're one-dimensional, all right, but knowingly, delightfully so. Ben Stiller and Amy Adams size up a bobble-head Albert Einstein in the \"Night at the Museum\" sequel. Even at their most pop-up brash, they're true to the way that kids see history. They're like characters out of a cool yet innocent mischief-at-midnight children's book -- a \"Where the Wild Things Are\" of global story-time kitsch. And they give you a lift. The movie, make no mistake, is clownishly silly, a lark as light as balsa wood. If anything, though, it's a faster, wittier spin on the formula of its predecessor. Released in 2006, \"Night at the Museum\" was a family popcorn extravaganza that touched a chord even its producers may not have anticipated. In the sequel, Ben Stiller, as the former night guard Larry Daley (he's now a successful entrepreneur ... of flashlights!), spends one long night infiltrating the galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, where he attempts to rescue the exhibits he first got to know at the American Museum of Natural History. (He's trying to get his hands on the magical Egyptian tablet that brings them to life.) The T.rex, the capuchin monkeys, Attila the Hun -- all have been shipped to the archives of the Smithsonian. And all are as feisty as ever. But \"Battle of the Smithsonian\" tilts away from the zoological. The film is a history-of-the-world burlesque in which such drolly self-centered icons as General Custer (Bill Hader), Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), and Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) -- a made-up pharoah who lisps with the enthusiasm of Boris Karloff on his own reality show -- collide happily with a living army of Albert Einstein bobblehead dolls, plus stone-carved angels who sing \"More Than a Woman\" and \"The Thinker\" come to life as a Brooklyn deadbeat. This is what you call a wholesome kiddie movie on drugs. It all works because Stiller, with his eager-to-please anxiety and his incredulous double takes, is the perfect addled straight man for a hellzapoppin history show. And it works because Amy Adams, as Amelia Earhart, has the breathless, daffy-sexy vivacity of a '30s screwball heroine, her eyes lit with fire, her delivery as sharp as cut glass as she rat-a-tats out lines like \"You haven't been able to take your cheaters off my chassis since we met!\" \"Battle of the Smithsonian\" has plenty of life. But it's Adams who gives it zing. EW Grade: B+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"EW: \"Night at the Museum\" sequel lighthearted, enjoyable .\nMovie moves action to Smithsonian, where Ben Stiller character follows exhibits .\nStandout of film is Amy Adams as screwball Amelia Earhart .","id":"5f475078beecdbe6011c4023e17f7ee316b18548"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ted Epperly, M.D., a family physician in Boise, Idaho, is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. He spent 21 years in the U.S. Army, including service as a family physician, chief of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital emergency room during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, and deputy commander of an Army medical center. Ted Epperly says recruiting more primary care doctors would improve access to quality health care. (CNN) -- Clayton Christensen, Jason Hwang and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan are right about one thing in their CNN commentary titled \"We don't need more doctors.\" America's health care system is broken. It requires significant reform if patients are to have access to convenient, affordable and -- most importantly -- high-quality care that results in good outcomes. But they have missed a central point. We need more primary care physicians now and we will need even more in the future as the baby boom generation ages. If Americans are to see meaningful health care reform, they must have a primary care doctor to whom they can turn for everyday problems: annual physicals and preventive care, diagnosis and treatment for common illness, and diagnosis and treatment of complex, chronic conditions, referral to subspecialists, and coordination of care provided by a team of professionals. Our current system has a serious and growing shortage of these primary care physicians. Today, only 30 percent of physicians provide primary care and 70 percent subspecialize in a single organ system or disease. We need a system in which patients get the right kind of care at the right time in the right place by the right type of provider. They need health services that provide not just convenient hours for minor health problems, but also medical expertise that ensures consistent, ongoing care; accurate diagnoses of symptoms; coordination with pharmacists, other specialists and allied health professionals such as physical therapists; consistent follow-up; and convenience. All at an affordable cost. Several health reform proposals set forth by President Obama and Congress would move federal policy in that direction. How? They incorporate convenience, efficiency, continuity of care and access to a system that relies on the patient-centered medical home -- a concept in which physicians coordinate care with a team of health professionals, offer evening and weekend office hours, and use electronic communication with patients and members of the health care team. But this concept won't be fulfilled unless we have health reform that increases the number of primary care physicians. Right now, America has a current and worsening shortage of primary medical care. Christensen, Hwang and Vijayaraghavan contend that increasing the number of physicians also leads to \"greater intensity of care, but not better health outcomes.\" But their argument leaves out a major caveat. Although a greater number of subspecialists does increase the intensity, number and cost of services, research by Barbara Starfield at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health consistently demonstrates the opposite occurs in communities with more primary care physicians, particularly family physicians. Starfield concludes that an increase of one primary care physician per 10,000 population resulted in a reduction of 34.6 deaths per 100,000 population at the state level. Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics at Harvard School of Public Health, and Amitabh Chandra at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government confirm these findings. Their research shows that increasing the number of primary care physicians results in a significant increase in the quality of health care and a reduction of cost to patients. However, increasing the number of subspecialists was associated with higher costs and poorer quality. At issue, then, is not the total number of physicians, but the number of family physicians and their primary care colleagues. Demographics, an aging population and resulting increased demand for services will require a significant increase in the number of these physicians. Given the long-term process required to train primary care physicians, we will continue to struggle with a shortage of primary care physicians, and that shortage will affect patients' access to care. Family physicians now are working to fill some of those gaps, according to a 2008 survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The survey found 42 percent of respondents offer extended office hours and 29 percent provide open access or same-day scheduling. Moreover, 36 percent offer Web-based health information, 32 percent (up from 10 percent two years ago) prescribe medications by e-mail, and 21 percent (up from 18 percent two years ago) offer e-mail interactions. In short, despite the financial disincentives and other barriers in the current system, family physicians are working to meet patients' needs for convenience and access. They are improving this convenience and access with the help of nurses and nurse practitioners, who are excellent sources of care when patients have a known set of conditions and diagnoses that are amenable to treatment protocols. Likewise, walk-in clinics can fill the access gap when patients have an acute problem that requires a treatment that can be spelled out by an accepted protocol. However, even these clinics rely on an adequate number of primary care physicians. Most walk-in clinic staff realize that convenience should not trump quality or continuity, and most will refer patients to a primary care physician for follow-up and ongoing care. Again, without an adequate number of primary care physicians, these patients will have only partial access to the care they need. Family physicians and other primary care providers are part of the solution, not part of the problem. It is important at this critical time of restructuring the health care system to understand clearly what we are trying to accomplish. What we are building is a high-quality, accessible health care system that increases patient satisfaction and health care outcomes while we decrease cost and ethnic disparities. This is what a primary-care based health system will deliver. This is why President Obama and Congress aim to rebuild the U.S. health care system around primary care. This is why we need more primary care physicians. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dr. Ted Epperly.","highlights":"Dr. Ted Epperly: America needs more primary care doctors to expand access .\nHe says studies show primary care doctors improve health-care outcomes .\nEpperly: Doctors are seeking to make services more easily available .","id":"38f45ac1e25f1db1f20778391eb50c94bdd64983"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British model and television personality Katie Price, also known as Jordan, and her singer husband, Peter Andre, are to separate, according to a statement released Monday. Peter Andre and Katie Price, who ran the London Marathon last month, are separating. The couple found romance on the reality show \"I'm A Celebrity... Get me Out of Here!,\" which was filmed in the Australian jungle. The statement said: \"Peter Andre and Katie Price are separating after four-and-a-half years of marriage,\" the British Press Association reported. \"They have both requested that the media respect their families' privacy at this difficult time.\" Only last month the couple, whose reality TV show of their life features on British television, said they were trying for another child. They have two children together, son Junior, 3, and 1-year-old daughter Princess Ti\u00e1amii. Price has a 6-year-old son Harvey, by footballer Dwight Yorke, who is disabled. Price first made her name as a tabloid newspaper topless model, but has since gone on to become a television star, author and clothes designer. She also competes in show jumping events and has her own stable of horses. Andre, who was born in London but raised in Australia, came to prominence in 1996 with his international hit \"Mysterious Girl.\"","highlights":"Katie Price and husband, Peter Andre, are to separate .\nBritish glamour model and singer married in 2005 after meeting on TV show .\nThey have two children together -- Junior, 3, and 1-year-old Princess Ti\u00e1amii .","id":"f55e02b4284858b509b34da40570158a41724b2e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian giants Juventus have completed the signing of Brazil playmaker Diego from German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen in a $34 million deal. Brazil playmaker Diego, right, has completed his $34 million move to Juventus from Werder Bremen. The 24-year-old, who missed the recent UEFA Cup final defeat against Shakhtar Donetsk because of suspension, has penned a five-year contract with the Serie A giants. \"I am enthusiastic and delighted to be a part of such a prestigious club,\" said Diego, whose contract at Werder Bremen was due to run until June 2011. \"I have dreamed of this moment since I was a child. Diego joined three seasons ago from Porto and his Werder farewell will be in the German Cup final against Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend. \"After an experience in Portugal and in the Bundesliga, I will be able to prove my worth at a high level but difficult competition,\" he added. \"It is the right time for me to take this important step and I am convinced that at Juventus I will be able to achieve great results.\" Last week, Juventus announced that Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro is rejoining them after three years at Real Madrid. News of Cannavaro's return came less than 24 hours after the club sacked coach Claudio Ranieri and replaced him with former player and youth coach Ciro Ferrara. Ferrara's appointment had an immediate impact and Juventus are now level on points with AC Milan in second position after a 3-0 weekend victory at Siena. It was their first win in eight matches and guaranteed them Champions League action next season. The 35-year-old Cannavaro was voted world player of the year after leading Italy to World Cup glory in 2006 and has helped Real to achieve two title triumphs during his stay in Spain.","highlights":"Italian giants Juventus have completed the signing of Brazil playmaker Diego .\nThe 24-year-old is leaving German club Werder Bremen in a $34million switch .\nJuve said last week Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro will rejoin from Real Madrid .","id":"c674fdceb339915df2a9de1a0bd3007c546dc092"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Switzerland's Massimo Busacca has been selected to referee Wednesday's Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United in Rome on Wednesday -- UEFA have confirmed on their official Web site UEFA.com . Massimo Busacca refereed the 2007 UEFA Cup and one of the semifinals from Euro 2008. Busacca, 40, will be assisted by his compatriots Matthias Arnet and Francesco Buragina, while the fourth official will be Claudio Circhetta. Busacca has been an international referee since 1999 and has taken charge of 32 Champions League matches, including six this season. Among the top club matches he has overseen are this year's Champions League quarterfinal second leg between Porto and Manchester United and the 2007 UEFA Cup final between Sevilla and Espanyol in Glasgow. On the international stage, Busacca was also in charge of the Euro 2008 semifinal between Germany and Turkey and the 2006 World Cup last 16 match between Argentina and Mexico. Meanwhile, authorities in Rome have enforced a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol as they attempt to stave off the threat of trouble between 67,000 Barcelona and Manchester United fans. In a bid to avoid incidents, local authorities have banned the sale of alcohol throughout the city and in airports and stations from 11pm on Tuesday until 6am on Thursday morning. \"It will not be a militarised city,\" Rome authority spokesman Giovanni Pecorari told Press Association Sport. \"All the necessary measures have been taken in order to give the best possible image of this city.\"","highlights":"Massimo Busacca selected to referee Champions League final on Wednesday .\n40-year-old Swiss will be accompanied by team of three compatriots in Rome .\nBusacca refereed the 2007 UEFA Cup final and one of Euro 2008 semifinals .\nRome authorities enforce a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol before the final .","id":"5d6f037c88a47e3e17b318e05099da8a01e34d67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jose Mourinho has extended his contract at Serie A champions Inter Milan by 12 months until June 2012, killing off speculation that he could be on his way to Real Madrid. Coach Mourinho has signed an extended deal ending fears he could wave goodbye to Inter Milan. Former Chelsea supremo Mourinho took charge at Italian giants Inter a year ago following the departure of Roberto Mancini and has just guided the club to their fourth straight scudetto. They also won the Italian Super Cup, but were eliminated by defending champions Manchester United in the first knockout round of the Champions League. A statement on the Inter Web site read: \"In response to the wish of the coach to continue the project started together a year ago, a wish welcomed with pleasure by the club as a sign of attachment and winning spirit, FC Internazionale announces the extension of Jose Mourinho's contract until 30 June 2012.\" Mourinho had promised the fans more titles would be on the after lifting his first Italian title, but the eal issue refused to go away until Monday's statement. When asked about the chance he could leave Inter, Mourinho had earlier told the club Web site: \"There is still a 0.01% (chance). But for me this is not an important number, it just means that I am closer to Inter than to Real. \"I am satisfied with the relationship with the fans and with my players. I repeat, I am closer to staying at Inter than going elsewhere.\" Those comments failed to impress Inter president Massimo Moratti, but the extended contract has settled any differences. Mourinho made his mark at Porto in 2004 when he led the Portuguese team to the Champions League title, beating Monaco 3-0 in the final, before moving to Chelsea. At Stamford Bridge he claimed the Premier League title in each of his first two seasons and the FA Cup the following campaign, but left the club in September 2007. Not all Inter fans have warmed to the Portuguese since his arrival in Milan last summer. He has been involved in several disagreements with the Italian media and his style of play has has not endeared him to parts of the Nerazzurri faithful.","highlights":"Jose Mourinho has extended his contract with Serie A champions Inter Milan .\nThe decision kills off speculation that he could be on his way to Real Madrid .\nFormer Chelsea supremo now contracted with Italian club until 30 June 2012 .","id":"1c7b415f6d78ac63c237d68ddb437a147a89450c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Indian telecom services provider Bharti Airtel Limited and South Africa's MTN Group Limited have renewed merger talks with the aim of creating an emerging market telecom giant, both companies announced Monday. Bharti Enterprises chairman and group chief executive officer Sunil Bharti Mittal in New Delhi in November . Such a merger would create an operator with combined revenues of over $20 billion and a combined customer base of over 200 million, according to both companies. In addition to savings, \"this opportunity also represents a first of its kind in developing an Indian-African initiative that would serve as a shining example of South-South cooperation,\" said Bharti chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal. MTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko called the case for such a deal \"highly compelling,\" saying, a merged company would have \"leading positions in three of the fastest growing wireless markets globally -- India, Africa and the Middle East, with no overlapping footprint.\" Under the potential deal, Bharti would acquire a 49 percent stake in MTN, and MTN and its shareholders would take an approximate 36 percent interest in Bharti. Bharti would also be able to fully consolidate the accounts of MTN under the deal, MTN's statement said. Bharti would serve as the primary vehicle for expansion in Asia and India in particular, while MTN would be the primary vehicle for the conjoined company to expand in Africa and the Middle East, Bharti's statement said. The two sides have agreed to hold exclusive talks until July 31. Singapore Telecommunications, a major existing shareholder in Bharti, will remain if the deal is implemented, according to Bharti.","highlights":"Merger would create an operator with combined revenues of over $20 billion .\nBharti would acquire a 49 percent stake in MTN .\nMTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko: Case for such a deal \"highly compelling\"","id":"d70db46bb3086fc87c314213b45a42e26a14cdeb"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When a woman dates a much older man, bystanders often speculate that she has only the most superficial of motives. French actress Ludivine Sagnier stars in veteran New Wave filmmaker Claude Chabrol's \"The Girl Cut in Two.\" In \"The Girl Cut in Two,\" veteran French filmmaker Claude Chabrol tells the story of one young woman for whom just the opposite is true. It stars French starlet Ludivine Sagnier as a young woman who rejects the amorous advances of a flashy, wealthy man her age, in favor of a sleazy affair with a fickle, 60 year-old father figure. Sagnier's desire to take on the role was also motivated by the allure of a much older man: Chabrol. \"The idea of working with Claude Chabrol was the main attraction at the beginning,\" she told CNN. \"He is a great French director, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave.\" \"The guy has so much experience. I felt like I was a journalist, always asking things,\" continues Sagnier. \"He's very old ... he's been through many, many things. This was his 66th movie, or something like that.\" Sagnier describes her character, Gabrielle de Neige, a charming, 20-something television weather girl, as \"very naive.\" \"She falls in a trap like a poor little lamb and she gets eaten by wolves. \"The thing is, she doesn't have a dad, so she lacks affection, and sometimes that lack of affection can drive you to make mistakes. \"I'd say I'm stronger than that,\" says 29 year-old Sagnier, who is perhaps best-known for her provocative portrayal of a highly-sexualized teenager opposite Charlotte Rampling in Francois Ozon's 2003 drama, \"Swimming Pool.\" Sagnier who is often compared with screen sirens like Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve, drew international acclaim for a series of films in 2002 and 2003, but has recently has been taking smaller roles. Many of the qualities that attracted Sagnier to Chabrol are similar to those that draw her on-screen alter-ego Gabrielle to writer Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berleand) -- Charles' knowledge of life, literature and his ability to treat her like a little girl, not as an equal. Sagnier says of working with Chabrol: \"It was like opening a cinema book, because when you work with him he talks to you about Hitchcock, he talks to you about Kubrick. \"He met everyone, so he's full of anecdotes, so you want to know more.\" Chabrol began his career in 1956, earning his stripes alongside fellow New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. He became famous in the late 1960s for suspense thrillers such as \"La Femme Infidele\" (1969) and \"Le Boucher\" (1971). He has continued working prolifically in film and television ever since. Chabrol co-wrote the screenplay for the heartbreak drama, in which Sagnier character is consistently disappointed in love and let down by the men around her, with his step-daughter, Cecile Maistre, who also served as assistant director on the film. At the end of \"The Girl Cut In Two,\" Sagnier appears on stage as a magician's assistant, smiling in the spotlight as she hears applause rise from the audience, the attention perhaps curing her depression over lovers lost. She lies in a box, appearing to be cut in half, the trick functioning as an almost literal embodiment of the film's title -- but clearly there's more to it than meets the eye. \"She cuts into two men first of all, and she's also cut in two different sides of her personality,\" said Sagnier. \"She has a part of shade and a part of lightness.\" Sagnier's fate since her collaboration with Chabrol has, thankfully, been a decidedly rosier affair: Since finishing \"The Girl Cut in Two,\" she has starred in Jean-Francois Richet's, \"Public Enemy No. 1,\" which received more nominations than any other film at the 2009 Cesar Awards, France's equivalent of the Oscars. The indefatigable Chabrol has recently wrapped up yet another film: \"Bellamy\" starring Gerard Depardieu. \"The Girl Cut In Two\" is released in the UK on 22 May 2009 .","highlights":"French starlet Ludivine Sagnier stars in \"The Girl Cut In Two\"\nIt tells the story of a young woman who embarks on an affair with an older man .\nIt was directed by prolific French New Wave veteran Claude Chabrol .\nSagnier on Chabrol: \"He is a great French director, one of the pioneers\"","id":"3d69696014ac57a9dede130814218360ed722d92"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- I've never been a fan of the cold. As a kid, my favorite part of skiing was the hot chocolate, and I relished blizzards for the snow days, not the snowball fights. So when I booked a trip to the Icehotel in northern Sweden, my family and friends were amused -- and a bit concerned, especially when I got sick days before my flight. \"You can't go to the Arctic with a cold!\" my mother admonished. The hotel in northern Sweden opens every year in early December and closes at the end of April. But I had good reason for wanting to sleep in a glorified freezer: As an environmental reporter, I was curious to see a place where people have turned snow and ice into a moneymaker, one that's spawned copycats in frigid spots from Canada to Romania. Conceived by Yngve Bergqvist, a river-rafting guide who wanted to lure visitors to the Arctic north during the winter, the Icehotel started out in 1990 as nothing more than a crude igloo. Now, it's a fanciful ice castle that's rebuilt every November with an unparalleled level of artistry -- which explains why each winter 16,000 guests pay hundreds of dollars a night to sleep on a slab of ice and thousands more make the trek just to tour the rooms for the day. The 30 most elaborate suites are the handiwork of a team of artists -- sculptors, painters, architects, even comic book illustrators -- many of whom have never worked with ice before. Wielding chain saws and chisels, they spend weeks crafting frozen furniture while electricians install lights to provide an ethereal glow. Surreal? Exceedingly. This winter, German furniture maker Jens Paulus and American industrial designer Joshua Space created a space-station room straight out of \"Star Trek,\" with giant carvings of the sun and moon on opposing walls and twinkling lights in the ceiling. British decorator Ben Rousseau and graffiti artist Insa devised the Getting Cold Feet suite, with oversize high-heeled ice shoes beside the bed. Twenty-nine unadorned snow caves offer a somewhat less pricey and more purist experience. Since no hotel would be complete without a bar, the artists also sculpt a chic space where guests can warm their innards with an Icebar Jukkasj\u00e4rvi, a mix of vodka, blueberry liqueur, blue cura\u00e7ao syrup and elderflower juice, sipped from a cube-shaped ice glass. Then there's the chapel, where designs etched into the ice walls resemble stained glass. About 150 couples tie the knot here each year, some brides bundled in snowsuits, others dressed in white wedding gowns, their teeth chattering as they recite their vows. When I arrive in Sweden, I'm surprised to find that the guests actually spend a lot of time in a pair of heated chalets that look like life-size gingerbread houses. The shower and bathroom are located in the one nearest the hotel -- because, really, who wants to sit on a frozen throne? And the other contains the restaurant, where chef Richard N\u00e4slin dreams up such intriguing dishes as arctic char ice cream, which has a slightly salty, smoky flavor and is much more delicious than it sounds. Budget Travel Dream Trip: Scale a volcano in Ecuador . After my dinner, wrapped in several layers of fleece and down, I waddle out to a tepee for a folk concert by native Laplander Yana Mangi. At the end of each song, the crowd responds with a uniquely Arctic ovation: muffled mitten clapping. My suite has a nautical theme, with walls curved into a frozen wave and an oval bed of bluish ice set beneath a clam-shaped headboard. Topped with a mattress and a reindeer skin, the setup looks snug. Almost. The temperature is a brisk 23 degrees Fahrenheit, and I'm still petrified I'll lose a finger to hypothermia, even in my head-to-toe winter wardrobe. I climb under the furry blanket, making sure not an inch of skin is exposed. Then I gaze through the slits in my microfleece face mask and marvel at the stillness. My breath comes in shallow white puffs. Soon, I'm fast asleep. The next thing I know, a hotel attendant is standing beside me with a cup of steaming lingonberry juice -- my wake-up call. Amazingly, I slept through the night, giving new meaning to the expression \"out cold.\" I wiggle my fingers and toes -- they're tingly, but all there. Then I do what any sane person would: sprint to the chalet to thaw out in the shower and sauna. Most guests stay only one night, but I opt for a second. It's not to prove my mettle; I feel as if I've done that. Rather, I find my frosty alcove incredibly restful and therapeutic. Maybe the hotel should add an ice yoga studio next? IF YOU GO ... GETTING THERE A round-trip flight between New York and Stockholm on SAS costs about $700 in midwinter (flysas.com). From Stockholm, take a 16-hour train ride to Kiruna (from $44 round trip). The Icehotel is a $13 bus ride away. WHEN TO GO The hotel opens every year in early December and closes at the end of April. You have a chance of spotting the northern lights in December and January, but those are the coldest months -- temperatures can dip to 45 below. WHAT TO PACK Think wool and fleece layers; avoid cotton, which can trap moisture and make you colder. The hotel supplies boots and hats. For details, see icehotel.com\/winter\/adventure\/dress. WHERE TO SPLURGE Don't miss the guided hotel tour ($37 per person). And how about an ice-sculpting lesson ($75 per person)? Or a six-hour snowmobile safari to see moose at their winter feeding grounds ($400 per person)? WHERE TO SAVE Tour the Icehotel by day, and then spend the night at Hotel Kebne in Kiruna (011-46\/980-68-180, hotellkebne.com, from $100). Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"The Icehotel started out in 1990 as nothing more than a crude igloo .\nNow guests can stay in elaborate suites handcrafted in ice by artists .\nBathrooms are located in a heated chalet .","id":"fd23c328b9a4c23896444dc58951122572845b9a"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- A moderately strong earthquake rocked Mexico City on Friday afternoon, shaking the earth in the sprawling capital. People in Mexico City stream into the street as a magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.7, and placed the epicenter near the city of Puebla, about 85 miles southeast of Mexico City. It hit at 2:24 p.m. local time. The Mexican seismological service measured the quake at 5.9. People in the city reported the earth and buildings shaking. Thousands of panicked people streamed into the streets as stopped cars snarled traffic. Parts of the city were without electricity Friday afternoon but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Earthquakes are a frightening experience for the 20 million residents of Mexico City, where thousands of people perished in a massive quake in 1985. The city, built on volcanic ash and clay, is particularly vulnerable to temblors. Aldo Pontecorvo of the humanitarian agency World Vision said the shaking lasted about 20 seconds. It came out of nowhere and \"without any warning,\" said Pontecorvo, who said he was in his office when the quake struck. Earlier this month, a moderate earthquake was measured off the coast of Mexico's western Baja California peninsula.","highlights":"U.S. Geological Survey measures quake at magnitude 5.7 .\nThousands of panicked people stream into the streets .\nNo immediate reports of injuries or damage .\n1985 earthquake killed thousands in Mexico City .","id":"6b5ab0eedc2a70969e9c75db5d5e200bb46a5a85"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has been nearly 20 years since Poland's Solidarity movement defeated the Communist Party in an historic election that prompted the fall of communism across central and eastern Europe. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa takes the oath in front of Poland's National Assembly on December 22, 1990. CNN International marks this significant anniversary with \"The New Poland,\" a week of programming examining the transformation of Poland from 1989 to where it sits today on the world stage. The combination of daily live programming and special reports from CNN correspondents in cities across Poland culminates June 4 with \"Autumn of Change, an in-depth documentary that takes a retrospective look at the events leading up to the election exactly 20 years ago. Reflecting the tumultuous year of 1989, which changed Europe forever, \"Autumn of Change\" will mix live programming and documentary programming, unforgettable historical images with interviews past and present, and a huge online audience initiative through Poland, Hungary, Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, in a comprehensive narrative of events that have helped to shape the Europe of today. \"CNN's combination of historic footage, comprehensive reporting and access to Poland's key figures puts us in an unparalleled position to set the scene for how Poland was the catalyst for the Europe of today,\" said Mike McCarthy, vice president of coverage and feature programming for CNN International. \"In step with the anniversaries of the events themselves, CNN will invite viewers to take part in our ambitious account of how Europe has changed over the last 20 years and what the future may hold.\" About the programming: . Just eight months after reporting from Poland for the week-long \"Eye on Poland\" special, Fionnuala Sweeney returns to the country to anchor the network's live coverage for \"The New Poland.\" She will report on the various commemoration and celebration ceremonies throughout the week from cities across Poland including Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk. In addition to Sweeney's live reports, CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen will take viewers inside the Poland of today looking at the political, cultural, social and economic changes that have taken place in the past 20 years. The programs include: . -- Gdansk Today: CNN explores the city of Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement. We visit the main shipyard and spend the day with a foreman who has been working there for more than 30 years. He talks about the transformation since Solidarity was born and the challenges the shipyards face three decades on. Finally, CNN heads out to sea with a polish yacht maker and finds out how they are dealing with the economic crisis. -- Catholicism in Poland: CNN looks at the Catholic Church in Poland and the challenges it faces. We visit Religia TV, a new project that aims to attract Catholics as well as viewers from other religions. -- Business in Poland: Solidarity transformed Poland from a communist state into a capitalist economy eventually capable of becoming a democratic member of the EU. During the last 20 years, its economy developed at a thriving pace, but even today there are remnants of the old system. CNN speaks to a family-run business on the local economy. We also visit Poland's biggest copper mining and refining company. We find out how the global market place is impacting the global economy and Polish business. -- Polish Cuisine: CNN speaks to Krakow's top celebrity chef and historian Robert Maklowicz about Polish cuisine and the recent trend to return to its roots. -- Poland's Film School: CNN visits Poland's largest film production Centrex, the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz, and finds out what makes this school so unique. About the documentary: By combining narratives from key players within the Solidarity movement, the Communist leadership, CNN reporters who covered the events and Polish civilians who lived through it all, Autumn of Change charts the individuals, relationships and astonishing chain of events that shook eastern Europe to its foundations. About the online coverage: CNN's television coverage will be complemented by a full interactive companion site. This special site will feature a number of pieces that reflect the cultural influence of this movement as well as narratives from some of the major figures involved in the process. Via iReport.com, CNN will also encourage viewers and users from Poland and elsewhere to submit content -- photos, videos and comments -- to illustrate personal experiences. Whether a part of this revolutionary period or not, CNN wants to know how these pivotal events affected them.","highlights":"20 years since Poland's Solidarity movement defeated the Communist Party .\nThe New Poland is a week of programming examining the transformation of Poland .\nCulminates in Autumn of Change, a look at the events that led to the election .\nFionnuala Sweeney will anchor CNN's live coverage from Poland .","id":"eda4ef706b3beb085d4aa287c85bc908780eafa5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fifteen years after his death, and after his family fought a very long bureaucratic battle with the government, Enrique Valdez's name was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Rick Valdez looks at his father's name on the Wall on Monday. Valdez was a Marine gunnery sergeant wounded by shrapnel in August 1969, combat that left him a quadriplegic. Since his death in 1994, his family has been waiting for the Defense Department to answer their requests that Valdez be included on \"The Wall.\" On Memorial Day, his family finally got their wish, as they watched his name officially added to \"The Wall.\" His name was added to the registry after the Department of Defense declared he was eligible because he died from his war injuries. Rick Valdez was 7 when his father was deployed to Vietnam. \"The night he had to go to the bus station for his second tour of duty, that was the last time I saw him walking,\" the son recalled. \"The next time we saw him was at the Veterans Administration hospital in Long Beach [California], after they shipped him home,\" he said. The Marine was 32. \"There are people that are worse off than I was,\" Tina Valdez recalled his father always saying. \"I enlisted, and I served. I knew what I was getting into. And if this is the worst that could happen to me, well then, so be it.\" When notification came weeks ago from the Defense Department that Valdez's name would be added to the Wall, there was no explanation with it. Valdez's family previously thought since he hadn't been killed during war, Enrique Valdez couldn't be on the wall. Comrades and others told the family that he could be added to \"The Wall \"as long as we could show that his death was a result of his [war] injuries,\" said daughter Tina Valdez. \"And when my father passed away, they put it on the death certificate, long before we even knew that this was a possibility.\" Now, they couldn't be more thrilled that it's not a possibility anymore -- it's a reality -- though they don't have an explanation for why the Defense Department finally notified them. \"What changed?\" his daughter Tina Valdez asked. \"I've been sending [the Defense Department] the same information for 14 years. Why all of a sudden is it different now?\" But when she saw the fresh lettering earlier this month on Panel 17, she felt that an explanation didn't matter as much anymore. \"It's OK, because his name is here,\" she said. Watch Gunnery Sgt. Valdez's family at the Memorial \u00bb . Enrique Valdez joins 58,260 other names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and his is the only name added this year under 1969, for combat deaths that year or later deaths resulting from injuries sustained in combat that year.","highlights":"Marine Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Valdez's name added to Vietnam Veterans Memorial .\nValdez died from wounds suffered in August 1969 .\nHis family worked for years to have his name added to the memorial .","id":"647df0cd93f9cfbc521a6ca6b04ecc71c08b335b"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A militant group operating in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria said Monday that it had destroyed several major oil pipelines in response to a military offensive. File image shows Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta fighters. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had \"put out of operation\" a Chevron storage facility by destroying several pipelines that fed into it. \"This will henceforth become our standard mode of operation,\" the group said in a statement. The U.S.-based Chevron Corporation could not be immediately reached for an assessment of the damage. Nigeria's military has been clearing the western Niger Delta region in a major operation against MEND. The armed militant group demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be reinvested in the region instead of enriching those whom they consider corrupt politicians. The group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent. The recent violence -- which has included attacks on pipelines and hostage-taking -- has limited shipment of crude oil supplies out of Nigeria, Africa's largest producer. \"We will continue our cat-and-mouse tactics with them (the military) until oil export ceases completely,\" the MEND statement said.","highlights":"Militant group operating in oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria destroys oil pipelines .\nMovement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has declared \"all-out war\"\nNigeria's military has been trying to clear the western Niger Delta .","id":"33aa3a64616dee9e4eb639b8ebdd7566acd0e893"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- This classic chant of \"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!\" -- barked out by battalions of newsboys hawking newspapers -- died decades ago, a casualty of home delivery, mass distribution and the advent of coin-operated newspaper machines. Some coin-operated newspaper machines have lasted for 30 years, but lack of sales may force their retirement. But now as newspapers across the country wage a battle to survive in a market where readers are increasingly gravitating to the Internet for information, the fate of another industry fixture seems inevitable. Could those steel machines on street corners, distributing newspapers since the '50s, be headed for the scrap pile? To begin to answer the question, all it takes is an early morning visit with a man who feeds those machines. It's 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday, and a white delivery truck for the New Jersey Record has just pulled into the parking lot outside the Plaza Diner in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The driver -- Mike, who asked that his last name not be used -- is at one of his 130 stops on an eight-hour shift that began at midnight. Mike's job, which takes less than a couple of minutes per stop, entails filling the coin-operated machine with the day's papers, collecting unsold copies and emptying the machine of its coins. Even though Mike has a full schedule and lots of stops, it doesn't equate to pushing as many papers as he once did. Mike loads 15 copies of the Record into one machine -- and that's a good load, he says. Other locations receive only five to seven copies. He's also tasked with filling machines for USA Today. Though he's been on this job for only two years, Mike has been on the route long enough to know business is down. He says newspapers sell better at train stations than from the street machines he services. The demise of newspapers across the country is getting a lot of front-page headlines. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer in Washington was just one of the most recent victims, ceasing print publication in March as declining circulation and plummeting advertising sales forced it to retrench and become just an online provider of journalism. Even the legendary New York Times will force readers to dig deeper for more coins as it raises prices June 1, with the price of a paper going from $1.50 to $2. The publication that touts \"All The News That's Fit to Print\" has been relying less on newspaper racks. In 1999, the Times had 13,300 vending machines, but today that number has shrunk to 5,678, according to Diane McNulty, spokeswoman for the Times. \"One of the factors is home delivery,\" McNulty said, adding, \"This was due to our national expansion -- where once many readers could only get copies from the newsstand or vending machine, they can now enjoy home delivery service.\" But all the gloom-and-doom predictions that newspapers will one day disappear isn't scaring workers at the Kaspar Sho-Rack Company, based in Shiner, Texas. The company lays claim to being the world's largest manufacturer of coin-operated and no-charge newspaper vending machines. Don Kaspar is president and a fourth-generation member of a family business that began in 1898 manufacturing wire products. \"There'll be printed newspapers for years and years\" said Kaspar, president of a company that is actually part of the larger Kaspar Wireworks. Still, he concedes, \"Business is down about 25 to 30 percent from about five years ago.\" It wasn't until the late 1950s that the privately owned company was approached by the now defunct San Antonio Light newspaper to develop an early version of coin-operated newspaper machines. The early versions of newspaper machines were simple and made mostly of wire, but by the mid-1960s they were all made of metal. The machines typically consist of a thick metal housing, shelves, doors and hinges. But the heart of any machine is the coin mechanism, which can have 150 moving parts, according to the manufacturer. Some advanced models introduced in 1999 feature lithium batteries to run the coin-collecting mechanism. Often weighing around 100 pounds, these hand-assembled machines cost on average $450 each, with refurbished models selling for around $300, the company says. The zenith of the company's business may have been the 1980s, when the introduction of USA Today landed it a contract to build and deliver 100,000 coin-operated machines. Today only 65,000 machines populate the nation's sidewalks, according to a USA Today spokesperson. In 1985, Sho-Rack sold its 1 millionth newspaper machine and it has sold several hundred thousand since. Its biggest clients have been the giants of newspaper publishing, including Gannett, Tribune, Newhouse and the McClatchy newspaper groups. But the fate of those publishers directly affects the bottom line at Sho-Rack. \"Business now? It's certainly slowed down,\" said Kaspar. \"Free publication racks ... we've stayed fairly busy with those. Coin- operated machines? Newspapers are cutting costs and pulling a lot of the racks from outlying areas. As a result this causes a surplus number of racks and then ultimately less of a need for new racks from us.\" Though the coin-operated machine business makes up 25 percent of the parent company's overall business, Sho-Rack has learned to diversify and adapt. \"We're not dependent on any one industry,\" Kaspar said. The company, which employs nearly 500 workers and occupies more than 500,000 square feet in a small rural town, also manufactures thousands of wire, tubing and sheet metal products. The average life span of a coin-operated newspaper machine depends on several factors. Some machines, even with modest refurbishments every couple of years, have lasted for 30 years. For others it can be five minutes after an encounter with a snowplow. For the Kaspar Sho-Rack Company, as long as newspapers are printed and sold, its machines will gladly continue to accept coins.","highlights":"Fewer customers buy from coin-operated newspaper machines .\nDelivery man says newspapers sell better from train stations than street machines .\nTexas company that makes the machines says business is down .\n\"There'll be printed newspapers for years and years,\" firm's president says .","id":"0f880987515634be60792688d76ff3fd41ee3e1a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama is expected to announce Friday the creation of the position of cyber czar, a person who will coordinate the nation's efforts to protect government and private computer systems from hackers, criminal gangs, terrorists and spies, people familiar with the plan said Thursday. President Obama is expected to announce Friday the creation of the position of \"cyber czar.\" The czar will report to both the national security adviser and the head of the National Economic Council, the sources said. Obama will not name anyone Friday to the post because the selection process is ongoing, they said. In addition, the White House will release a 40-page report that sets broad goals for combating cyber intrusions, but does not spell out in detail how to do so, said the sources, who would not agree to be identified because the report has not been released. Shortly after taking office, Obama ordered a 60-day review intended to ensure the federal government's cyber initiatives were \"appropriately integrated, resourced and coordinated with Congress and the private sector.\" Melissa Hathaway, a senior member of the National Security Council who led the review process, told a security conference late last year that a public-private partnership and international alliances would be key to solving cyber security problems. Another senior official said any solution would be a \"team sport\" requiring a \"holistic, comprehensive\" approach. Administration officials said that representatives of the private sector, government departments and agencies, academics, state and local officials and civil liberties and privacy experts were among those consulted during the review. The Department of Homeland Security reports the number of cyber attacks on government and private networks increased from 4,095 in 2005 to 72,065 in 2008. This month, a Transportation Department audit -- carried out after hackers got into a support system containing personnel records -- indicated the nation's air-traffic control system could be at risk. Hathaway expressed concern that critical infrastructures such as the nation's power grid and financial networks could be vulnerable. \"God forbid if somebody were to take down and or manipulate our financial system, and what would we do, and would it make the current financial crisis look like a walk in the park?\" she asked. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair recently told reporters the biggest cyber threat facing the United States is from nation states, particularly Russia and China. \"I think China is winning the sweepstakes for the origin of most attacks on U.S. persons and organizations,\" he said. The Bush administration's own review of the matter culminated in the mostly classified National Cybersecurity Initiative, which was enacted in January 2008. National Security Agency executive Sandra Stenar-Johnson said that plan consisted of 12 initiatives with three goals: reduce the current vulnerabilities in the system, defend against the full spectrum of threats, and develop next-generation technologies to maintain an edge over adversaries. The Bush initiative tapped the Department of Homeland Security as the lead agency in the cyber battle. Senior officials in the Obama administration say the White House will anchor the latest effort, providing guidance and direction to ensure all agencies and departments are working well together.","highlights":"Obama will announce post Friday, sources say .\nCyber czar to lead effort to protect government and private computer systems .\nWhite House will also release report with goals for combating cyber intrusions .","id":"8d0d714d02b85e9f28e2c5a8b60360e5cfe819c7"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Here's a snapshot of Portugal's defining experiences: beaches, cities, and food and wine. Get a sense of which ones fit your travel style and your budget. Sandy beaches dot Portugal's rugged coastline. Find a secluded beach . The Algarve, southern Portugal's balmy riviera, sees nothing but blue sky 300 days of the year. Admire the ocean views from the roof terrace at Dianamar, in the whitewashed old center of Albufeira, just a block from the beach. Rooms are simple, but all have private terraces, and the price includes a generous breakfast buffet and afternoon cake (doubles from $65). The most dramatic coastline is along the drive to the medieval fortress town of Lagos. (Cars can be rented for around $30 a day in Albufeira; book online with companies like Europcar.) Between Praia de Dona Ana and Porto do M\u00f3s, the cliffs have been broken by the wind and sea into jagged rock formations pierced by blowholes and grottoes. Secret half-moon bays of golden sand lie hidden from view from all but the ocean. An hour beyond Lagos is Europe's southwesternmost point: Cabo S\u00e3o Vicente, a cape whose plunging cliffs are dotted with crumbling medieval churches and castles. More than 500 years ago, Portuguese sailing ships left to explore the world from these shores. There's great hiking in the fragrant pine woods and peach orchards less than 20 miles inland, around the spa town of Monchique -- a cluster of tiny houses and 18th-century mansions tumbling down a steep, wooded valley. The trail up to the Picota peak has magnificent views out over the coast all the way to the cape. Families from Lisbon take weekends on the beaches of Cascais, less than 20 miles from the capital. There they jostle for space on three broad, short beaches and wander, ice cream in hand, along the ocean esplanade or the clusters of narrow streets crowded around the town's imposing fort. For wilder, lonelier sand, head to Guincho, four miles west. This sweeping, gently curved shoreline is pounded by some of the best surf in the eastern Atlantic. An almost constant wind makes for superb windsurfing; a world championship is hosted here most Augusts. But watch out for those rips and prepare for cold water. While the Algarve is good for swimming from spring to autumn, you'll need a wet suit around Cascais for all but the summer months. The town is easily reached from Lisbon; trains leave from Bel\u00e9m station every 15 minutes and take just over half an hour ($4.50 round trip). But if you choose to stay, take a room at the Solar Dom Carlos, a 16th-century manor in a quiet Cascais backstreet (doubles from $30). There's a pocket-size former Royal Chapel on the hotel grounds. Marvel at opulent chapels and palaces . Lisbon spreads in terra-cotta and cobblestone over seven hills, staring out over the Tagus River to the shimmering Atlantic. A rugged Moorish castle tops the skyline, and the streets are lined with baroque churches and Gaud\u00edesque art nouveau buildings. Budget Travel Trip Coach: Friends explore Lisbon and beyond . Allow at least three days for a first visit, and make time for the Mosteiro dos Jer\u00f3nimos. Extravagantly decorated doorways lead through long cloisters to a church supported by pillars adorned with stone ropes and coils of faux seaweed. These rise to a fan-vaulted ceiling whose thousands of tons of stone somehow look light and airy. Many Portuguese notables are buried at this monastery, including Lu\u00eds de Cam\u00f5es, author of Portugal's national epic, Os Lus\u00edadas, and the explorer Vasco da Gama. The Gulbenkian is one of the world's great small museums. Oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian acquired a huge collection of Egyptian, European and Oriental artifacts and Renaissance art, which was brought to Lisbon after his death. Highlights include intricate Roman jewelry, opulent Moorish carpets and tapestries, paintings by Rembrandt and Van Dyck, and an extensive collection of Ren\u00e9 Lalique's art nouveau glassware. Finish your day with a late afternoon's wander around the narrow, cobbled streets of the Bairro Alto neighborhood on a cliff overlooking the 18th-century city center. There's a pretty medieval square or a magnificent church at every turn. The most beautiful is the Igreja de S\u00e3o Roque, whose simple exterior hides what was said at the time to be the most expensive chapel ever built -- a feast of rich gold work and beguilingly complex mosaics of lapus lazuli, ivory, agate, and precious metals. Built in Rome in 1742, it was blessed by the Pope before being transported in its entirety to Lisbon. It's an easy day trip from Lisbon to Sintra, a former royal retreat in cool forested hills near the coast. It looks like a Disney fantasy: pastel tiered castles crown the hilltops; faux-Moorish domed palaces lie hidden in wooded gardens; and extravagant, neo-Gothic mansions loom at the top of steep driveways. The grandest of all is the Pal\u00e1cio Nacional da Pena, rebuilt by Portugal's half-mad Austrian king-consort in the late 18th century (park and palace admission $14). It's a fascinating mishmash of Italian colonnades, Ottoman\/Oriental turrets and windows painted in garish pinks and yellows. The interior of the building is preserved as it was when royalty fled during the 1910 revolt -- down to the tables set for dinner and the lamp-stand statues of turbaned Turks holding light bulbs. Sample robust wines and fresh fish . Every small Portuguese town has its own wine, traditional cakes and cheeses. In the Alentejo, cheeses are curdled with thistle flowers and washed down with rich, earthy red wines. Base yourself in \u00c9vora, a city founded by the Romans, expanded by the Moors and enriched by the Portuguese kings. Each group left its monuments; the cork forests and vineyards around the city are strewn with Iberian dolmens, for example. About 150 miles north, in the mountainous Beira region, is the village of Pinhel, famous for its red wines and vanilla-flavored cavaca candies -- invented by nuns from the local convents in the Middle Ages. Pinhel is a delightful maze of winding streets and makes a great base for hiking in the nearby park land, Serra da Estrela, or for visiting the C\u00f4a Valley, where rock faces are inscribed with Paleolithic art. The Douro River flows out of Spain into a deep valley stepped with some of Europe's oldest vine terraces. Port wine comes from here, together with some of Portugal's heartiest reds. The Douro Valley is easily seen on a boat cruise from Porto, a destination in its own right. Here stands one of the largest collections of Renaissance buildings in the Iberian Peninsula. Every other corner leads to a little baroque church whose modest fa\u00e7ade hides an interior encrusted with tons of gold. Winding streets in the city's medieval center lead down the hillside to the river. Wander along the quays in Gaia across from Porto city and drop in on the various port wine warehouses for free samples. It's a great way to decide what kind to bring home as a gift. Cap off your day with dinner on the banks of the Douro at D. Tonho. The house specialties are bacalhau (salted cod served steamed or in little deep fried crispy balls), followed by pork fillets with clams or hake au gratin with seafood sauce. 7 insider tips . 1. English is widely spoken, and it's always more welcome than Spanish, which might even produce a scowl. Portugal and Spain have an age-old rivalry. Visitors trying to speak a few words of Portuguese will make many friends. 2. In the Algarve, everyone sees the ocean from the beaches. But it's just as much fun seeing the beaches from the ocean. Book an afternoon boat trip out of Albufeira Marina with one of the numerous agents on the Rua 5 de Outubro and be sure to take a camera to capture the golden afternoon light on the crumbling cliffs. 3. Portugal can be a difficult country for vegetarians. Even vegetable soup is cooked with meat stock. Be sure to state clearly that you don't eat any meat or fish -- even as seasoning. 4. For the coolest night out in Lisbon, head to co-owner John Malkovich's waterfront warehouse club, Lux Fragil, which is always packed with the most fashionable crowd on a Friday or Saturday night. 5. Lisbon has some of the liveliest African music in Europe; terrific Cape Verdean, Angolan and Mozambican singers make the city home. The hottest acts play at the Club B.Leza nights at Cabaret Maxime (from $20). For schedules of Luso-African concerts all over Lisbon, e-mail bleza21@gmail.com. 6. Portugal is a great country for driving. Small distances and an excellent and well-signposted road network mean that it's never a long journey to the next place of interest. And the whole country can be driven from north to south in a little over a day. But beware of Portuguese drivers. Hugging the fender and flashing headlamps furiously on the highway is common practice -- as is reckless passing. 7. Portugal is great for kids. Lisbon has a huge aquarium, and the dolphin and seal shows at the Zoomarine on the Algarve are some of the best in Europe. There are swimming pools and restaurants here, so you can stay for the whole day (adults $14). Timing . Portugal is sweltering in the summer (June through August) and very busy with European tourists. The spring (April through May) and autumn (September through October) are cooler, just as sunny and far less busy. The winter (November through March) is wet and cold. Price index . Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"Portugal's most dramatic coastline is along the drive to the medieval town of Lagos .\nA Moorish castle tops the Lisbon skyline and baroque churches line the streets .\nThe Douro River valley is stepped with some of Europe's oldest vine terraces .","id":"3087ea5447f9306d8c0e631101d9a9d2765435e1"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Three suspects were arrested after an explosives-packed van reduced a police building to rubble Wednesday in eastern Pakistan, killing 27. The scene of an apparent suicide car bomb attack on a police building in Lahore on May 27. The morning attack in Lahore -- Pakistan's second-largest city -- also wounded more than 250 people, most of them police officers and staffers, authorities said. Fourteen of the dead included police officers. Three others were identified as bodies of \"terrorists,\" said City Commissioner Khusro Pervez. Immediately after the blast, police arrested two of the suspects, said City Commissioner Khusro Pervez. Local television showed the men being led away by officers. Sir Ganga Ram hospital, which was damaged by the explosion, was treating 128 victims. Authorities expected the death toll to rise as rescue workers picked through twisted metal and other debris from the building, looking for more bodies. Watch more on the attack \u00bb . The attack comes amid a Pakistani military offensive to rout militants from their haven in the northwestern part of the country. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban, had threatened to target major Pakistani cities if the operations did not cease. \"The enemies of Pakistan are trying their very best to use every venue to destabilize the country,\" Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters Wednesday. The blast occurred on Mall Road near the city police headquarters and the high court. It is one of Lahore's busiest areas. A passenger van, laden with explosives, broke through a security barrier and was headed toward the police building when guards opened fire to stop it, said Lahore's district coordination officer, Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta. Watch rescue workers respond to the scene \u00bb . The two sides exchanged gunfire, with the attackers hurling grenades, said Faisal Gulzar, deputy police superintendent. The van exploded before it could reach the building. It was carrying an estimated 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives, Bhutta said. The impact was immense. The targeted building -- Building 15 -- collapsed. It housed the city's rapid response team, which is dispatched during emergencies. At least 50 people were thought to have been inside the two-story building at the time, said police spokesman Ray Nazar Hayat. The police headquarters that sits adjacent to the building was also damaged. Motorcycles from a nearby dealership were strewed about, charred from the heat. The roof of four operating rooms caved at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, with 40 medical staff members suffering minor wounds. Police waved away onlookers in vain. Many of them jumped over the collapsed walls of Building 15 to look for survivors. Semi-conscious officers in blood-stained uniforms were pulled from under wooden planks. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, with suspicion falling on the beleaguered Islamic militants in the northwest who had vowed revenge. \"We're doing our best,\" Malik, the interior minister, said of the offensive in the northwest. \"Please do not forget we're in a state of insurgency. It's a fight for our survival. We had two choices: We surrender our country or we save it for our next generation.\" Lahore is Pakistan's cultural capital, far removed from the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that is embraced in the north of the country, which borders Afghanistan. Still, it has sporadically been swept into widening Islamist violence that grips the country. In March gunmen hurled grenades and opened fire on officers at a police training center, killing at least seven cadets. The same month gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan national cricket team on their way to a stadium for a match. The attack wounded at least eight members of the team and killed a driver and six Pakistani police officers. \"Everywhere in the city is insecurity,\" Haris Nadeem, a student in Lahore, said Wednesday. \"You never know when a blast is going to occur or where. A shopping center? A government office?\" Still, said Saleem Khan, residents forge ahead . \"We will avoid places when they are crowded, but we can't change everything,\" he said. \"We can't stop going out of our houses. Life has to go on.\" CNN's Ingrid Formanek and Saeed Ahmed and journalists Zeeshan Ali Taher and Naser Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Three attackers among the dead, city official says .\nAt least 27 killed, more than 250 wounded, according to officials .\nAttack reduces police building in Lahore to rubble .\nVehicle packed with explosives detonated by building with at least 50 people inside .","id":"eb90fb449560156800052641d38b6e346321040a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The family of a woman who died ignored on an emergency room floor has reached a settlement with Health and Hospital Corp., the family's lawyer and the company's top executive said Thursday. Surveillance video shows Esmin Green on the hospital floor for more than an hour before anyone helps her. The attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, said the settlement, reached Wednesday, is for $2 million. Alan Aviles, the president and CEO of Health and Hospital Corp., said in a written statement that the company -- which operates Kings County Hospital, where Esmin Green, 49, died last year -- takes full responsibility for her death and offers a \"full apology.\" He said the settlement \"is not meant to put a value on a life and the loss of a loved one. That remains priceless.\" Last July, Green's relatives said they planned to file a $25 million lawsuit against the city and the hospital and called for criminal charges against hospital workers. A hospital security video showed that the mother of six waited in an emergency room chair for nearly 24 hours before she slid to the floor, where she convulsed for more than a half hour and then became still. An hour after she fell to the floor, the video showed, a hospital employee nudged Green with her foot and summoned help, but the 49-year-old woman was dead . The New York Civil Liberties Union alleges that hospital records were falsified to say that Green was \"sitting quietly in the waiting room\" at a time when, the video shows, she had been on the floor for 48 minutes and had not moved for more than 10 minutes. An autopsy revealed that Green died from pulmonary thromboembolism -- blood clots that formed in her legs and eventually made their way into her lungs, according to Ellen Borakove, the medical examiner's spokeswoman. The clots came from deep vein thrombosis, which complicated Green's chronic paranoid schizophrenia, she said.","highlights":"Health and Hospital Corp., operates hospital where Esmin Green died last year .\nCEO Alan Aviles, takes full responsibility for her death and offers a \"full apology\"\nGreen died from pulmonary thromboembolism, says medical examiner .\nThe video appears to show hospital workers ignoring her lying on the floor .","id":"225a20c56bb7b0798878dfc000e2ab05eea29642"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Norwegian violinist, Alexander Rybak, 23, won the Eurovision Song Contest with an upbeat ballad that got the most votes in the history of one of the world's most watched television shows. Alexander Rybak of Norway performs during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday in Moscow, Russia. On Saturday night Rybak beat out contestants from 42 countries, with singers from Iceland and Azerbaijan taking distant second and third places. The boyish Rybak -- who performed a self-composed tune, \"Fairytale,\" with some deft dance steps and a smile plastered on his face -- won with 387 points, the most in the contest's 53-year history, organizers said. It was the third time Norway has won the competition. Although the classically-trained Rybak grew up outside the Norwegian capital, Oslo, he was born in Belarus. A television audience estimated at more than 100 million people watch the show. In years past, winners have parlayed their victory in varying degrees of success -- most notably the Swedish quartet ABBA, which won with \"Waterloo\" in 1974 and became one of the most successful pop groups of the 1970s. In the Eurovision Song Contest, which began in 1956, each participating European nation submits one singer or group who then perform a specially-written song. Telephone votes as well as judges from each country decided the winner this year. This year the contest was televised from a packed stadium in Moscow, Russia. Earlier police arrested dozens of gay and lesbian rights activists who were planning a rally to coincide with the contest. The protesters wanted to draw attention to what they call widespread discrimination of gays in Russia. Watch what's different about this year's gay rights protests \u00bb .","highlights":"Rybak wins with 387 points, the most in the contest's 53-year history, organizers say .\nMore than 100 million people are estimated to watch the show .\nSwedish quartet ABBA won with \"Waterloo\" in 1974 .\nPolice arrest dozens of gay and lesbian rights activists planning rally during contest .","id":"1f8e6ecf0f9595fb93fe28af823371c237a243d4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. soldier convicted of murdering an Iraqi family spoke out for the first time Thursday, issuing a public apology for his crimes. Former U.S. soldier Steven Green got life in prison after being convicted of murdering four Iraqis. Steven Green, who escaped the death penalty this month, told relatives of the victims that he is \"truly sorry for what I did in Iraq.\" \"I helped to destroy a family and end the lives of four of my fellow human beings, and I wish that I could take it back, but I cannot,\" Green said, reading a statement at a victim impact hearing. \"And, as inadequate as this apology is, it is all I can give you.\" The family refused to accept the apology. Green was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Kentucky of raping a 14-year-old girl and murdering her, her parents and her 6-year-old sister in the town of Yusufiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, in 2006. A jury could not reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty, which means the judge is required under law to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Green will be sentenced September 4, but the victim impact hearing was held Thursday so surviving members of the al-Janabi family could testify before they return to Iraq. They decried Green's sentence and testified about how the heinous crime had shattered their lives and how it will haunt them always. Green said that he knows \"you wish I was dead, and I do not hold that against you. If I was in your place, I am convinced beyond any doubt that I would feel the same way.\" He added, \"I know that I have done evil, and I fear that the wrath of the Lord will come upon me on that day. But, I hope that you and your family at least can find some comfort in God's justice.\" The wailing family matriarch, Hajia al-Janabi, lunged at Green as she left the witness stand, denouncing him as a coward, a criminal and a stigma on the United States, according to Louisville's Courier-Journal newspaper. Security officers restrained the distressed woman, the newspaper said. Another family member, Mahdi al-Janabi, said Green had lost the ability to distinguish between terrorists and Iraqi civilians. Green was tried in a civilian court in Paducah, Kentucky, because he had been discharged from the Army by the time his crimes surfaced. He was the last of five soldiers who served in the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to be convicted for the crimes and their subsequent cover-up. The others -- Spec. James Barker, Sgt. Paul Cortez, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and Pfc. Bryan Howard -- received sentences ranging from 27 months to 110 years, with the possibility of parole in 10 years in the most severe cases. Green said he now sees the Iraq war as \"intrinsically evil, because killing is intrinsically evil.\" He was sorry, he said, that he ever had anything to do with either.","highlights":"\"I wish that I could take it back,\" says man convicted in 2006 attack .\nSteven Green must serve life in prison without parole .\nSurviving family members testify against Green at hearing .\nMatriarch lunges at Green while leaving witness stand .","id":"1f8dfffe11546abfe2035573e36e56dc499d93ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With their nation under high security alert, South Koreans mourned a former leader at a funeral ceremony Friday morning. The hearse carrying Roh Moo-Hyun's coffin heads for Seoul at Roh's hometown village of Bonghwa in Gimhae. Officials and dignitaries gathered in Seoul's Kyungbok Palace to honor former President Roh Moo-Hyun, who committed suicide last week. South Koreans poured into the streets to catch a glimpse of the black Cadillac making a five-and-a-half hour journey from Roh's home in the village of Bongha to the capital. Some bowed their heads or wept openly. Others, still stunned from the loss, stood quietly in black as the hearse drove by. Scores of Roh's supporters handed out yellow balloons, the color associated with Roh's political campaign. Other supporters had posters of Roh's image that read, \"President in my heart\" and \"You are my president.\" A person who walked by Roh's memorial site said, \"Roh understood the difficulties of normal people. We feel he acted like a shield for people with no power. He was the people's president.\" One woman on her way to work in Seoul said: \"He was the first president South Koreans picked with their own hands.\" She was referring to the fact that Roh didn't have a big political machine behind him. He won the election in 2002 by razor thin margin and his appeal was that he related to the common person. This week has been marred by grief and tension for South Koreans as they grappled with Roh's sudden death and renewed threats from North Korea. Following the official ceremony, Roh's body will be taken to the plaza in front of Seoul's city hall, where large crowds are expected to say goodbye to a beloved leader. He will be cremated later Friday and the remains carried back by hearse to Bongha. Roh, who served between 2003 and 2008, jumped from a hill behind his house last Saturday, government officials said. His death came amid an investigation into a bribery scandal that had tarnished his reputation. However, tens of thousands of people have visited memorial shrines for Roh, laying white chrysanthemums in a traditional show of grief and leaving cigarettes on the altars to remember a man who was reported to have taken up smoking during the investigation. In a suicide note given to the media by his lawyer, Roh wrote: \"I am in debt to too many people. Too many people have suffered because of me. And I cannot imagine the suffering they will go through in the future.\" Prosecutors were investigating the former president for allegedly receiving $6 million in bribes from a South Korean businessman while in office. Roh's wife was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors Saturday, and Roh was planning to answer a second round of questions next week. Why some South Koreans are angry about Roh's death \u00bb . The investigation has now been suspended. The debate over Roh's suicide has occupied as much column space in South Korea's press as the recent aggressive behavior shown by the North. On Tuesday, the conservative Chosun Ilbo urged South Koreans to remember the words of the former president's suicide note. \"Roh's abrupt death brings home how vain the rise and fall of power is and how futile it is to nurse hatred and conflict in pursuit of them. Roh himself said in his will, 'Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't blame anybody.' He would not have wished his own death to cause more political confusion and social conflict,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. It also criticized prosecutors who \"seem to have worried about public consensus rather than focusing on principles.\" The left-leaning Hankoryeh called Roh's death \"political murder,\" echoing the widespread feeling that the former president paid too high a price for his alleged crime. \"The case of late President Roh was the most unfortunate in South Korean history, brought about by the Lee Myung-bak administration, which despised the person more than the crime,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. The mood on South Korea's influential blogs and message boards was somber and split between messages of comfort, dismay at Roh's decision to end his life and angry accusations against prosecutors and the government. \"President Roh's perseverance to provide Korea with a true democracy has come to a sudden end. We saw the grief of his demise in the eyes of millions of Koreans,\" read a message posted on the popular Daum Agora Web portal. \"Prosecutors and the police! Are you the people of the Republic of Korea?,\" asked another. Just before he left the presidency, Roh became the first South Korean leader to cross the demilitarized zone and meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. He believed in the \"sunshine policy\" of his predecessor, Kim Dae-Jung, that sought to engage the north, and Roh also promised aid. CNN's Pauline Chiou and freelance journalist Nicolai Hartvig contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Motorcade accompanying Roh's body on way to the capital, Seoul .\nNEW: Grief-stricken S. Koreans pour out onto the streets to pay final respects .\nRoh Moo-Hyun took his own life amid an ongoing corruption investigation .\nRoh was in office between 2003 and 2008 .","id":"ebf4dd48edcfdce559526ced36272ded62225a59"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The longest-serving Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee told CNN Radio on Thursday that, barring any surprises, Sonia Sotomayor is headed for a Supreme Court confirmation. Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court. \"If there are no otherwise disqualifying matters here, it appears to me she will probably be confirmed,\" Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said. Hatch was acknowledging the current Senate political landscape. Sotomayor was nominated by a Democrat president, and Democrats could have 60 votes in the 100-member chamber if Minnesota's Al Franken is seated. They now hold 12 of the 19 seats on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will first consider Sotomayor's nomination. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said Thursday he does not plan to vote to confirm Sotomayor, becoming the first Republican to explicitly state his opposition. \"She has made statements on the role of the appeals court I think is improper and incorrect,\" Roberts said. \"I think that we should be judging people not on race and gender, or background or ethnicity or a very compelling story.\" Hatch -- who unlike Roberts voted in favor of Sotomayor's 1998 nomination to the federal appeals court -- also revealed one of the first Republican battle lines on the nomination: the schedule. See Sotomayor's key rulings \u00bb . President Obama and other Sotomayor supporters say they want her confirmed before the Senate goes on its August recess, so that she can be well-situated for the start of the next Supreme Court session in October. Hatch and fellow Judiciary Committee Republicans Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas are pushing for a longer timeframe. They say it is almost impossible to review Sotomayor's extensive record, debate her nomination and hold a Senate vote by August. \"If the Democrats don't overplay their hand and don't try to rush this too much, the process will go well, they'll be better off, she'll get confirmed,\" Hatch said, again adding that his prediction is based on no new concerns coming to light. The opposition party usually fights for extensive time to try to find hidden issues in a Supreme Court nominee's record. Hatch said senators need three months to consider Sotomayor and that a vote should come in September, after the Senate's August break. A September vote would crunch Sotomayor's preparation time for setting up her office before the high court's next term begins. It also would complicate Democratic fights on health care and energy that could reach a critical point at that time. See whom Sotomayor would sit alongside if she's confirmed \u00bb . Hatch insisted a September Senate vote would get Sotomayor on the bench in time for the new Supreme Court session. \"If they do it the right way,\" he said of Senate Democrats, \"and there is no otherwise disqualifying feature to this, it is highly likely she is going to be confirmed as the ninth justice on the Supreme Court in time to sit on the court on the first Monday of October.\" Meetings on the timetable have begun. On Thursday, White House staffers met with aides to Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to go over this and their strategies for Sotomayor's confirmation, according to a Senate Democratic aide involved in the confirmation process. Sotomayor will go to Capitol Hill as early as Tuesday to meet with senators who will vote on her confirmation. The Judiciary Committee has not announced when the confirmation hearings will begin. Democrats were relieved Wednesday when Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, and the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said he did not think Republicans would block the nomination with a filibuster. But prominent conservatives still are trying to stir public opinion against Sotomayor. Radio host Rush Limbaugh and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich have called her racist, pointing to an October 2001 speech at the University of California, Berkeley. During that speech, she said: \"I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.\" The Senate Democratic aide involved in the confirmation process said Democrats are pleased with the initial response from Republican senators to Sotomayor's nomination, saying it was a \"good sign\" that GOP senators have not adopted some of the language coming from Limbaugh and Gingrich. \"If the fire-breathing rhetoric is contained to the far right element, it doesn't jeopardize the nomination,\" the aide said. CNN's Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Orrin Hatch: Sotomayor confirmation likely if \"disqualifying matters\" don't appear .\nSotomayor could meet with some senators Tuesday .\nHatch, other Republicans want to wait until September for vote .\nSen. Pat Roberts is first Republican to say publicly he won't vote for nominee .","id":"ac87ecda4a1ff182363373a3e51582249224851d"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexicans in the United States sent home 12.2 percent less money this past August than the same month last year, the Banco de Mexico said Wednesday. Mexicans in the U.S. are sending fewer dollars home and are suffering from a tough economy. That translates into remittances of $1.9 billion, versus $2.2 billion last year, said the bank, which blamed tough economic times in the United States for the decline. \"The prolonged deceleration of economic activity in the United States has adversely affected the opportunities for employment in that country and, consequently, those of the Mexican migrants,\" the bank said in a statement posted on its Web site. August's tally quickens a trend -- during the first eight months of the year, remittances fell 4 percent to $15.6 billion, the statement said. The numbers translate easily into stories of hardship. Marilyn Pena lives outside Mexico City and depends on remittances to get by. Her father migrated to Chicago 12 years ago to find work and, in good months, sends his daughter about $200 per week. But last week he sent nothing. \"He told me he has no more work because of the situation there,\" Pena said. \"Temporary workers are always the first to lose their jobs in crises like this one,\" said Luis Pena, an economist. \"Since many Mexicans in the United States are there illegally, they are most vulnerable to unemployment.\" Some economists predict the drop will increase by year's end to 20 percent. After oil exports, remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign currency. In Atlanta, Georgia, which has one of the greatest concentrations of Mexican residents in the southeastern United States, Yasmin Gutierrez runs a company that Mexican immigrants use to send dollars abroad. \"Before, they used to come every week and they used to send big amounts and lately, well, nothing, or almost nothing. Some clients are no longer coming, and those that are coming are sending small amounts.\" Rosina Gonzalez, who ran a Western Union office in Atlanta several years ago and recently returned to the job, said she has noticed a big change. Back then, \"everyone was sending money to Mexico, Mexico, Mexico -- a lot of money,\" she said. \"Now, I'm returning to work after four or five years and the norm now is that the people who used to send money to Mexico are asking the people in Mexico to send money here.\" Some are abandoning their hope for a slice of the American dream by opting to return to their country. The woman running the foreign-currency exchange service Afex, also in Atlanta, said business is so bad she is afraid of losing her job. CNN's Harris Whitbeck in Mexico City and Viviana Fernandez in Atlanta contributed to this story.","highlights":"Bank: Mexicans in U.S. sent 12.2 percent less money back to Mexico than last August .\nSome economists predict the drop will increase by year's end to 20 percent .\nAfter oil exports, remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign currency .\nSome migrant workers are opting to return to Mexico .","id":"9ab1cbd71b453cd335f55fd196263b40c537ac82"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- OutKast's Big Boi is a junkie, has been for years. Big Boi: \"You can really tell a lot about a person through the shoes, so I always like to keep me a fresh pair.\" The multiplatinum rap star got his first shoe fix back when he was better known as Antwan Patton, a busboy at Steak and Ale. He saved up his paychecks and rushed to a dealer to cop the only thing that could cure his jones -- a pair of British Knights tennis shoes. \"I've actually been into sneakers since I was a little kid,\" Big Boi, 34, said backstage before his concert this month at the Sneaker Pimps exhibition in Atlanta. \"You can really tell a lot about a person through the shoes, so I always like to keep me a fresh pair.\" Sneaker culture has thrived for decades, but shoe companies have increasingly capitalized on the demand for one-of-a-kind kicks. Collectors, known as sneakerheads, have lined up to pay hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to ensure few people are wearing the same shoes. See some of the rarest shoes \u00bb . \"Coming up, my mom got five kids so there wasn't a whole lot of stylish tennis shoes around the house, so I used to want a lot of sneakers,\" Big Boi said, explaining that he started making up for lost time -- and shoes -- long before OutKast's 1994 debut, \"Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.\" Juan Castaneda, 27, also grew up in a family of modest means and longed to don the fresh kicks he saw his peers wearing. \"When I got money to buy them, I started catching up,\" said Castaneda, who works at a nursing home in Hendersonville, North Carolina. He estimates he owns about 200 pairs of sneakers, including a pair of Nike Air Jordan XIs with patent-leather trim called \"Space Jams.\" They cost him $500. It's supply and demand at its simplest, said Elliott Curtis, a former Carnegie Mellon University basketball player who for two semesters taught Sneakerology 101, billed as the first accredited class on sneaker culture. Shoe companies create a limited number (say, a few hundred pairs) of shoes -- even if it's just an old model with new colors or materials -- and demand automatically spikes. \"It's like a status symbol. If Nike is selling a shoe for $2,000, they're not expecting to sell that many,\" the recent graduate said, adding that sneakerheads are drawn to scarcity. \"If they've got money, they can buy coolness,\" Curtis said. Curtis goes to garage sales and mom-and-pop stores seeking rare and retro sneakers for his 75-pair collection, but he concedes he's waited in line for limited editions and paid as much as $250 for a pair. Sporting an ultra-rare set of blue-and-red \"Bugs Bunny\" Nike Air Jordan VIIIs, Big Boi said he today boasts at least 400 pairs of sneakers, but he rarely pays for them because shoe companies send him pairs. His most expensive, a pair of crocodile-skin Nike Air Force 1s, sell on various auction sites for up to $1,800. Big Boi has never worn them, but he plans on taking them out of their Nike lockbox this summer so he can wear them in a video for his upcoming solo album. To Peter Fahey, the mastermind behind Sneaker Pimps shoe shows, Big Boi's enthusiasm is typical. Sneaker culture got its start in New York in the 1970s, mostly among playground streetballers and practitioners of an emerging genre of music called hip-hop. Over the next three decades, rappers and basketball players -- most notably, Run DMC and Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan -- would play integral roles in boosting the popularity of rare kicks. \"Run DMC were probably at the height of the whole movement. It was the first time music and sneakers crossed like this,\" Fahey said of the group's 1986 hit, \"My Adidas.\" Today, Adidas, Nike and Puma compete with luxury brands such as Chanel, Prada and Gucci. The major sports shoe companies also allow customers to design their own shoes. Upstarts such as San Francisco's JB Classics and Japan's Madfoot and KKOK have snatched up market share as well. Shoe companies realize hip-hop's influence and work hard to get \"a fresh pair of steps\" on a rapper's feet. Earlier this year, Converse released a line of its iconic All-Stars in tandem with Chicago rhymesmith Lupe Fiasco. Nike has issued two versions of the Air Yeezy, inspired by rapper-producer Kanye West. Louis Vuitton also has teamed up with West. Some lines, such as the Yeezys, quickly become collectors' items. Die-hard sneakerheads keep them in their original boxes like \"Star Wars\" action figures and ferret them away in closets, their soles never to be scuffed by a sidewalk. Bryan Lyle, 22, of Stockbridge, Georgia, said he recently camped out three nights at an Atlanta boutique to get one of the shop's eight pairs of Air Yeezys. Lyle paid $300, a small fortune for shoes, but Castaneda said the price more than doubled within days. He got a pair of Yeezys from an eBay merchant in Hong Kong. The damage? $700. Melissa Bailey of Hendersonville, North Carolina, takes photos at the Sneaker Pimps show. Castaneda's girlfriend, Melissa Bailey, 26, said Castaneda actually bought three pairs. He found two online and paid someone to camp out for the others. Castaneda's modus operandi is to buy three pairs of his favorite shoes -- one to wear, one to store for later and one to sell or trade, she said. \"He will not walk through grass. He will not walk through dirt,\" Bailey said. For the last six years, Fahey has had a front-row seat for the evolution of sneaker culture. He held the first Sneaker Pimps show in Sydney, Australia, in 2003, but only 200 people showed up, belying the trend's rising popularity. Soon, however, tens of thousands would attend shows in more than 60 cities. A 2006 show in Jakarta, Indonesia, drew about 13,000 sneakerheads. The shows now feature between 1,000 and 1,500 shoes. Some are rare. Others are signed by celebrities. Hip-hop acts are a staple, as is artwork -- on both kicks and canvas. At this month's show, hundreds of sneaker enthusiasts filed through Atlanta's Tabernacle with the decorum of museum patrons, stopping to admire the shoes displayed on swaths of chain-link fence. There were novice sneakerheads, such as Chris Shepherd, 20, and Charnelle Cook, 20, an Atlanta couple who marveled over the DC Comics and Transformers sneakers. Asked about her multicolored hightops, Cook said, \"I couldn't tell you what these are called. All I know is they're Reeboks, and they're fly.\" There were seasoned collectors, such as Kyle Self, 35, of Decatur, Georgia, who said he had about 25 pairs, some of them still in their boxes. Included in the group are three pairs of $400 low-top Pradas, which he called his \"everyday sneakers.\" There were even female collectors, such as artist Estasha Goodwin, 23, who modeled a pair of shimmering gold, winged -- yes, winged -- hightops made by Adidas and designer Jeremy Scott. She complained that shoe companies too often focus on the male market and ignored female aficionados. \"When they do cater to us, it's always bubblegum pink. They don't even make them in our sizes,\" she said. \"I know women who know more about sneakers than any dude out here today.\" Incidentally, her favorite of the 15 pairs she owns were made for men -- the Nike \"Ace of Spades\" Dunks, inspired by the Detroit Tigers' high-kicking pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, who is prominently featured on the black-and-aqua shoe's hightop. Asked why she shelled out $250 for them, she gave a familiar response: \"It's a feeling you get when you know you're the only one that has something. Even if you're not, it's the way you walk it.\"","highlights":"Big Boi says he has 400 pairs, including crocodile-skin Nikes he's never worn .\nShoe companies capitalizing on niche demand for rare, limited-edition sneakers .\nSneakerology teacher: \"If they've got money, they can buy coolness\"\nWoman says boyfriend \"will not walk through grass. He will not walk through dirt\"","id":"44c0a4109d944f279742cd5a89773af3eebc7c65"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's GDP fell 4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace on record, the government said on Wednesday. A homeless man pulls his cart filled with possessions and goods for recycling on March 18 in Osaka, Japan. The January-March quarter for Japan was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year, according to figures released by the Cabinet Office. Exports fell 26 percent on quarter, while imports were down 15 percent. The GDP slide in the world's second-largest economy is the greatest drop among the world's leading economies. By comparison, GDP in the United States fell 6.1 percent on an annual basis. This was the fourth straight quarter the Japanese economy contracted. Analysts say the drop reflects cuts in domestic spending with job cuts, factory closings and less capital spending as a result of spiraling sales abroad. The news punctuates a month of poor economic news out of Japan in recent weeks. Panasonic, one of the world's largest makers of electronic devices, announced it lost nearly $4 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31. Hitachi lost $8 billion in the fiscal year, with consolidated revenues down 11 percent from last year, the largest loss ever recorded by a Japanese manufacturer. NEC Corporation lost $3 billion in the past fiscal year, down nearly 11.5 percent from last year. Meanwhile, Nissan lost $2.3 billion for the year.Sony Corp. announced net losses of $1 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, finishing a year in the red for the first time in 14 years.","highlights":"Japan's GDP fell 4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace on record.\nFirst quarter GDP was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year .\nThis was the fourth straight quarter the Japanese economy contracted .","id":"6ae442896c0b6d8b1273bc23ecdc82a2dee3e05f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Utah man with chronic health problems died Wednesday from complications associated with swine flu, a local health official said. If confirmed, it would be the ninth U.S. fatality associated with the flu outbreak. Memorials appeared at the door of I.S. 238 in Queens, New York, this week after the death of an administrator. The man, who was from around Salt Lake City, was between 18 and 25 years old and \"had chronic medical conditions that may have contributed to severe complications from influenza,\" said Gary Edwards, executive director of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department. Also on Wednesday, health and education officials in New York announced that 21 of the city's public schools had been closed after an increase of reports of students with flu-like symptoms. A school administrator in Queens died after being hospitalized with the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu. Nineteen of the schools closed at the recommendation of the Health Department are public and two are private, the city's Education Department announced in a news release. In addition, two private schools in Manhattan -- St. Davis Academy and Horace Mann -- have decided on their own to close after a number of students exhibited flu-like symptoms, according the schools' Web sites. In the city's news release, city Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden repeated what has become a familiar refrain: \"We continue to see a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City. As the virus spreads, we will look to slow transmission within individual school communities by closing individual schools.\" Late last week the city closed 11 schools in Queens and one in Brooklyn after confirming cases of the virus at Intermediate School 238 in Queens and unusually high levels of flu-like symptoms in the others. Mitchell Wiener, an assistant principal at I.S. 238 who died Sunday after being hospitalized with the disease, had an underlying condition, according to Frieden. The death in Utah was the first associated with the swine flu, or H1N1, virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked eight U.S. deaths to the flu outbreak, but had not confirmed a link to H1N1 in the Utah death as of Wednesday evening. The outbreak has sickened at least 10,176 people and caused at least 80 deaths -- mostly in Mexico, according to the World Health Organization. The actual number of people affected may be higher, as it takes time for national governments to confirm cases and report them to the global body. In the United States, at least 5,710 cases of swine flu have been reported, according to recent figures from the CDC. Utah officials echoed national agencies in saying that the swine flu has largely behaved like typical seasonal influenza, which usually is fatal only among the very old, the very young or people with other health problems. In New York, 19 of the schools closed at the recommendation of the Health Department are public and two are private, it and the city's Education Department announced in a news release. In addition, two private schools in Manhattan -- St. Davis Academy and Horace Mann -- have decided on their own to close after a number of students exhibited flu-like symptoms, according the schools' Web sites. In the city's news release, city Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden repeated what has become a familiar refrain: \"We continue to see a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City. As the virus spreads, we will look to slow transmission within individual school communities by closing individual schools.\" Late last week the city closed 11 schools in Queens and one in Brooklyn after confirming cases of the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu, at Intermediate School 238 in Queens and unusually high levels of flu-like symptoms in the others. An assistant principal of Intermediate School 238 died Sunday after being hospitalized with H1N1. Frieden has said the administrator, Mitchell Wiener, had an underlying condition. CNN's Deb Brunswick contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: New York City has closed 21 schools since virus confirmed, health officials say .\nUtah reports first death associated with swine flu, or H1N1, virus .\nIf confirmed by the CDC, it would be the ninth U.S. death linked to the outbreak .\nWHO: At least 10,176 people have been sickened and 80 have died worldwide .","id":"6becd1695589c9149c89603f8dd54f67f50505aa"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean and U.S. forces have been placed on a higher surveillance alert level, after North Korea threatened military action following its nuclear test earlier this week, the joint forces announced on Thursday. South Korean soldiers use binoculars to look at North Korea on Wednesday in Paju, South Korea. The \"Watchcon\" alert was raised to its second-highest level on Thursday, a government spokeswoman told CNN. The last time the joint forces raised the surveillance alert was after North Korea's last nuclear test in 2006, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. The separate five-stage combat alert level, known as \"Defcon,\" has not changed and remains at stage 4, South Korean defense spokesman Won Tae-jae said at Thursday's briefing, according to Yonhap. \"Additional intelligence assets, including personnel, will be deployed while reconnaissance operations over North Korea will increase,\" Won said, according to Yonhap. He declined to give specific details, the news agency said. Watch Hillary Clinton's warning about 'consequences' \u00bb . North Korea conducted a nuclear test Monday and fired five short-range missiles Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, the country threatened military action after South Korea joined a U.S.-led effort to limit the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. There has also been recent activity at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility, according to U.S. officials, who cited information from U.S. spy satellites. The officials would not speculate about the type of activity. North Korea agreed in 2008 to scrap its nuclear weapons program -- which it said had produced enough plutonium for about seven atomic bombs -- in exchange for economic aid. But the deal foundered over verification and disclosure issues, and the North expelled international inspectors and announced plans to restart its main nuclear reactor at the Yongbyon complex. CNN's Barbara Starr in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joint forces in S. Korea elevate surveillance alert in response to N. Korean threat .\nCombat alert level unchanged, S. Korean military spokesman says .\nNorth Korea tested nuclear device, missiles, threatened military action .","id":"bf73f7558437bec87bc94876de6241f9db91fde3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Maria Sharapova stepped up her comeback after injury to claim the scalp of 11th seed Nadia Pedrova to reach the third round of the French Open in Paris on Wednesday. Sealed with a kiss. Sharapova celebrates her victory over Petrova. The former world number one had come into the second grand slam of the season with only two matches in a minor tournament in Poland under her belt, but surprised her fellow Russian with a 6-2 1-6 8-6 victory. Still playing with tape on her troublesome right shoulder, Sharapova showed no ill effects as she won five straight games to take the first set. Petrova hit back in style to force a decider and took the lead with an early break. But Sharapova hit back in the eighth game to level and held her own service under pressure in the next two games. Petrova finally wilted as she served at 6-7, giving Sharapova match point with a double fault and then hitting wide on a forehand after two hours 12 minutes. Sharapova will now face qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan for a place in the last 16. She had shoulder surgery in August last year and missed both the U.S. Open and Australian Open as fears for her future in the game grew. She made a brief comeback by playing doubles in Miami in March before a return to singles action at the Warsaw Open where she reached the quarterfinals before losing to Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine. Meanwhile, defending champion Ana Ivanovic showed a welcome return to form by sweeping into the last 32 with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn. The 21-year-old Serbian has slipped down the world rankings since lifting the title at the Stade Roland Garros, but is making a strong defense on her favored clay. World number one Dinara Safina also impressed with a 6-1 6-1 win over fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko. She has dropped just two games in reaching the third round as she bids to back up her ranking with a first grand slam title.","highlights":"Maria Sharapova beats 11th seed Nadia Petrova at French Open in Paris .\nFormer world number one Sharapova is returning after a shoulder injury .\nAna Ivanovic and Dinara Safina also go through in straight sets .","id":"8b8112437825fe4043dd635faeebe8076c02f3be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia needs international help to fight Islamist extremists battling for power in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, the country's moderate Islamist president said Monday. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was recently appointed Somalia's transitional president. \"I am calling on the international community to help Somalia defend against foreign militants who have invaded the country,\" President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said. Speaking at a news conference in Somalia's capital city, Mogadishu, Ahmed called several times for international help in fighting foreign militants whom he claims are the same fighters who have fought the \"international community\" in Iraq and Afghanistan. \"Wherever they come, they fuel violence,\" the president said. \"The Somali people cannot and should not accept that their countries should be a launching pad for these militants to attack.\" Ahmed told local journalists that he feared these foreign fighters would turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces are fighting Islamic extremist groups. He also praised local militias in the two regions of Hiiran and Middle Shabelle for struggling against the foreign militias. Last week, al-Shabab militants advanced to the presidential palace in Mogadishu, sparking sporadic fighting and shelling in the Somali capital. The recent fighting has killed more than 40 civilians and wounded about 150 others, according to sources at the scene. Al-Shabab -- once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union -- has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, which says it is affiliated with the al Qaeda terrorist network. Ahmed participated in seizing control of Mogadishu in 2006 along with the Islamic Courts Union before it was ousted by Ethiopian forces later that year. He has since split from Somali jihad movements and was recently appointed Somalia's transitional president through a process shepherded by the United Nations. Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed speaking at a conference in Mogadishu .\nAhmed fears foreign fighters will turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan .\nFighting in past two days kills more than 40 civilians .\nU.S. says Al-Shabab militants are affiliated with al Qaeda network .","id":"83915433daf2c92bfd25109179f547959d6c54b1"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. If you've rolled up your sleeves and gotten experience, tell potential employers when applying for a job. Talk to a dozen students on any college campus and you're likely to hear a dozen different perspectives on what they hope to get out of college. Some want high GPAs; some want to get into the work force and earn a lot of money. Ask their parents and you'll get just as many different answers. Some parents hope that their children earn their degree and have an easy time finding a job. Others want them to be at the top of the class so they can get into the best graduate school possible. And some just want their children to stop partying long enough to attend class once in a while. Ask employers what they want from graduates and the answers are equally diverse. Depending on the job, you might need a degree and an internship, a degree and work experience, or the right connections to even land an interview. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 39 million Americans over the age of 18 have a bachelor's degree. Considering that 281 million people live in the country, college graduates are still a small percentage of the population. Still, with a number in the millions, you are competing with a lot of job seekers who also have the same educational background as you. Relying only on your bachelor's to land a job is not the safest route to employment. As with most things, it's all in the presentation. Degree or not, presentation matters . Sue Chehrenegar studied biology as an undergraduate and biomedical research as a graduate student. During her job search, she found herself losing out on job opportunities because she lacked the proper experience, despite her education. Or so she thought. \"At the end of the 1980s, I spent more than one year looking for a job,\" she remembers. \"I kept getting this question: 'Have you done anything in the area of molecular biology?'\" She would tell employers that she didn't have the proper experience because she wasn't specifically trained for that. \"I did not mention the fact that I once assisted a graduate student who was putting DNA and RNA into cultured cells.\" What does that mean in layman's terms? Because her specialization and the bulk of her experience was not in this particular field, she didn't consider the limited work with the graduate student worth mentioning. She later realized employers weren't looking for someone to be the ultimate authority on the subject; they wanted someone who had a broad range of knowledge. \"I realized my mistake more than two years after I got a job,\" Chehrenegar remembers. \"My first year I worked in an infectious disease lab. Later, they put me in a molecular biology lab. When I helped with one of the projects in that lab, I realized that my old, unmentioned experience related to what I was doing at that time.\" A degree isn't useless . Sure, if you're applying for a job with bio- as a prefix, you know a degree is a requirement. But for less research-intensive jobs, you might think a degree can always be supplanted by enough experience. Depending on your occupation, that could be true but isn't a hard and fast rule for all positions. For example, you might be able to find work at a museum, but you the odds of you transitioning into a curator can be extremely difficult without extensive education in art history and related courses. You could find that you hit a ceiling in an organization. Although this bodes well for graduates who come armed with one or more degrees, it also means that workers in this industry have the opportunity to earn an education while they ascend the corporate ladder. In some cases, the combination of their experience and a recently awarded degree could be more impressive if you've relied on your degree and haven't diversified your experience. How to present yourself . Here are some tips to keep in mind when presenting yourself to employers: . \u2022 Even though you know education isn't the single factor in getting hired, it is often a prerequisite to land an interview. Don't hide your degree just because you have a lot of experience -- you don't want to lose out on an interview because your education was overlooked. \u2022 Use all of your education to your advantage. Connect the job requirements to any courses you took, whether as an elective or part of your minor. You might not have loved that statistics course, but if it's relevant to the job, mention it. \u2022 Treat work experience and internships as proof that you're a professional, not just a student. If you speak as if you see yourself as a student who doesn't consider himself or herself as part of the working world, the employer might not either. Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Presentation of your experience can be just as important as your degree .\nSome 39 million Americans have a bachelor's degree .\nPresent any of your internships or work experience that employer may appreciate .","id":"0d029b3147a3875e0b7ddae8e65eb22377a7268f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Tiffany Wilson noticed a small growth on her left hip, she didn't think much of it. Tiffany Wilson, 41, found a bump on her hip that she thought was a pimple. It turned out to be skin cancer. \"It was bizarre,\" recalled the 41-year-old salon owner from Minneapolis, Minnesota. \"I just thought it was a pimple.\" Wilson, who is African-American, can't say exactly what prompted her to point out the bump to her physician, but she said she remembered thinking the diagnosis wouldn't be anything serious. \"It never occurred to me that it was skin cancer,\" she said. But it was. She had basal cell carcinoma, the most common skin cancer. Wilson spent long hours as a child in the summer sun at Lake Nokomis in Minnesota and went to the tanning bed before visiting relatives in the Caribbean, she said. She also said she never wore sunscreen. \"Back then, I just don't think people were aware of the effects [of the sun],\" she said. Those may seem like obvious red flags to people who are sun-conscious, but they were foreign concepts to Wilson, which is why her diagnosis came as a shock. \"I just assumed, 'I'm a person of color, I'll be OK,' \" she said. Dermatologists say they are concerned because skin cancer rates are increasing among minority groups in the United States. Like Wilson, many people of color often mistakenly believe skin cancer is not something they should be worried about. Pigmentation is no 'free pass' The reasoning is not completely far-fetched: Darker-skinned people do benefit from the protective effects of skin pigmentation. In fact, some studies suggest that for the darkest skin tones, pigmentation cells provide a natural sun protection factor, or SPF, of about 13. The problem is many dark-skinned people believe that means they are born with a natural immunity to skin cancer. \"Pigmentation doesn't give you a free pass,\" said Dr. Charles E. Crutchfield III, a dermatologist specializing in ethnic skin and the doctor who treated Tiffany Wilson. \"It doesn't matter what color your skin is, everyone can get skin cancer.\" Bob Marley, for example, died of malignant melanoma, the most lethal type of skin cancer, that spread to his lungs and brain. All types of skin cancer are increasing among blacks and Hispanics, and their melanomas are more often fatal because they are usually caught later, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Crutchfield pointed out that pigmentation may have sun-protective qualities but even for the darkest skin it falls short of the AAD's recommendation of a daily SPF of at least 15 for everyone. Crutchfield feels many ethnic groups are missing that key part of the message, if they are getting the message at all. Blog: How to pick the right sunscreen . Researchers acknowledge that many of the messages regarding skin cancer prevention have traditionally targeted fair-skinned people, a group 10 times more likely to develop melanoma. Now, dermatologists say, more needs to be done to encourage all groups to take precautions against sun damage. A Consumer Reports survey found only 27 percent of people with self-described darker skin applied sunscreen when they were in the sun for four hours or more, compared with 64 percent of people with self-described light skin. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009 there will be more than 1 million unreported cases of basal cell and squamous cell skin cancer -- most of them curable -- and that more than 68,000 cases of melanoma will be diagnosed. For melanoma, the key to a cure is early detection. That's why dermatologists caution everyone to be vigilant and learn the risks for their skin type. \"Race is very important because not all skin is the same,\" said Dr. Susan Taylor of The Skin of Color Center, a dermatology group focusing on the needs of patients of color. According to Taylor, people with darker skin often get diagnosed at later stages because the cancers often appear in atypical locations. Melanomas in African-Americans and darker-skinned Hispanics and Asians develop more commonly on the palms, soles of the feet, toenails, fingernails and in mucus membranes like around the mouth and genitals, she said. In Caucasian and lighter-skinned Hispanics, melanomas more frequently appear on the back in men and on the legs in women. Also, the signs of melanoma may vary depending on skin tone. \"Skin hue can affect the way lesions look,\" Crutchfield said. \"Things that appear red in white skin often look completely different in skin of color.\" Historically, research and teaching was done on fairer-skinned people, making it more challenging for physicians to recognize suspicious moles on darker skin. While these differences present challenges, they are certainly not barriers. Experts say, the best thing to do is keep it simple. \"If you have any lesion or mole change at all, or if you have a spot that bleeds and doesn't heal in three weeks, see a physician or a dermatologist,\" Dr. Crutchfield recommended. \"That's something everyone can do.\" Visit the American Academy of Dermatology Web site to find free screening locations in your state . Another piece of simple advice: \"All racial groups need to use sunscreens,\" Taylor stresses. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using a broad-spectrum sunscreen that protects against both deep-penetrating UVA rays and burn-causing UVB rays. Not all sunscreens protect against both. Visit the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep cosmetic safety database . Tiffany Wilson is heeding that advice. She said she's learned that when it comes to prevention, the worst thing you can possibly do is nothing. \"I use extreme caution in the sun and make certain that I use a sunscreen, even on a cloudy day,\" she said. \"You shouldn't underestimate the rays of the sun. \"","highlights":"Dermatologists report increased incidence of skin cancer among people of color .\nMinorities often believe pigmentation makes them immune to skin cancer .\nMore than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are estimated in 2009 .\nEvery 62 minutes, one American dies of melanoma .","id":"33d824b129041717f637d0d37672b3b2f0fd191f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida man arrested with his wife on anabolic steroid possession charges claimed to have sold steroids to professional hockey and baseball players in the District of Columbia, but the National Hockey League and Washington Capitals said Wednesday they doubted the allegation. Richard Thomas and his wife, Sandra, were arrested Tuesday night at their home in Lakeland, Florida. Richard Thomas, 35, told officers he sold the steroids to unidentified players on the NHL's Capitals and the Washington Nationals of baseball's National League, said Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida. \"Richard Thomas told us that he sold steroids to ballplayers on those teams,\" Judd said after the arrests late Tuesday night. \"Now, is that one ballplayer to two ballplayers? We don't know.\" NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the league would investigate the claim, but added that the Washington Capitals \"have no knowledge of any aspect of this allegation.\" \"Capitals players were subjected to no-notice testing five separate times over the past two seasons pursuant to the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and there was no indication of any improper conduct or wrongdoing,\" Daly said in a statement issued Wednesday. A separate statement by Capitals president Dick Patrick said the team had \"no reason to believe there is any merit to this story,\" but would fully cooperate with the NHL's investigation. MLB.com, the Web site of Major League Baseball, reported Wednesday that the league would look into the allegation involving the Washington Nationals. The report posted on the Web site of the Washington Nationals quoted Nationals president Stan Kasten as saying the team knew nothing about the steroids claim, and that the league was handling it. Thomas and his wife, Sandra, 49, were arrested Tuesday night at their home in Lakeland, Florida, on 21 counts of possession of anabolic steroids, importation of anabolic steroids and maintaining a residence for drug sales, Judd said. He said the couple has been charged with 10 counts of steroid possession with intent to distribute, 10 counts of importing the drugs and one count of maintaining a residence for drug sales. According to Judd, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia received information that the Florida couple would be receiving a shipment of steroids. Judd's office then obtained a search warrant for the Lakeland home, where officers found steroids from points outside the United States, including Iran, he said. The arrest report says Richard Thomas told officers he was \"the biggest steroids dealer in central Florida.\" Bond for Richard and Sandra Thomas was set at $215,000 each, said Carrie Eleazer, spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff's Office, and Sandra Thomas was released on bail Wednesday afternoon. The two are scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday. CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Couple arrested in central Florida on anabolic steroid possession charges .\nClaim they sold steroids to professional athletes in District of Columbia, sheriff says .\nRichard Thomas says he sold steroids to pro baseball, hockey players, sheriff says .","id":"8a740fc6ecedbad3a8f055ce2499817241ebf508"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A North Korean rocket slated for launch sometime early next month can be clearly seen in a satellite photograph taken Sunday. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors are located at the Ministry of Defense on March 29 in Tokyo, Japan. The satellite imagery, obtained by the Institute for Science and International Security from DigitalGlobe, shows the rocket at the Musudan-ri launch site in northeastern North Korea, casting a shadow on the ground below. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday there is little doubt that the planned launch is designed to bolster that country's military capability. He also indicated that the U.S. military could be prepared to shoot down a North Korean missile if the rogue regime develops the capability to reach Hawaii or the western continental United States in a future launch. The North Korean government says it will launch a commercial satellite atop a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. \"I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile,\" Gates said during an appearance on \"Fox News Sunday.\" Gates noted that while the United States believes it is North Korea's \"long-term intent\" to add a nuclear warhead to any such missile, he \"personally would be skeptical that they have the ability right now to do that.\" Watch how the U.S. is responding to a planned launch \u00bb . Japan recently mobilized its missile defense system -- an unprecedented step -- in response to the planned North Korean launch, Japanese officials said. The move, noteworthy for a country with a pacifist constitution, is aimed at shooting down any debris from the launch that might fall into Japanese territory. See a satellite image of the launch site \u00bb . In a concurrent response, U.S. Navy ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles are being moved to the Sea of Japan, a Navy spokesman said Thursday. Gates said that the U.S. military could shoot down \"an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii ... or something like that, we might consider it, but I don't think we have any plans to (do) anything like that at this point.\" He does not believe North Korea currently has the technology to reach Alaska or Pacific coast. Gates said that an impending missile launch is a clear demonstration of the failure of the recent six-party talks to disarm the North Korean regime. \"It's very troubling. The reality is that the six-party talks really have not made any headway any time recently,\" he said. \"If (the missile launch) is Kim Jong-Il's welcoming present to a new president ... it says a lot about the imperviousness of this regime in North Korea to any kind of diplomatic overtures.\" Gates said that he believes economic sanctions are the best tool to getting countries like North Korea and Iran to the negotiating table. Both countries are believed by the United States and other Western nations to be trying to acquire nuclear capability.","highlights":"North Korea says it will launch a commercial satellite atop a rocket between April 4-8 .\nSatellite imagery shows rocket at launch site in northeastern North Korea .\nU.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says rocket aims to boost military capability .","id":"ec043d51d65662479c82cec8cd7f2d9f8fd908bc"} -{"article":"SOMERSET COUNTY, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A chain link fence now stands between Tim Lambert's land and the impact site of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed here on September 11, 2001. The property has been in Lambert's family for almost 80 years. A temporary memorial has been set up to honor the victims of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash. \"My grandfather purchased about 200 acres in the 1930s, and he would cut timber and sell the timber off, and he would build cabins as well,\" Lambert says. \"That's how he got the family through the Depression.\" Lambert says he had no plans for the land, he just knew he wanted to hold on to it. \"There's a lot of natural resources in this area -- natural gas, coal,\" he says. That all changed the day 40 passengers and crew died trying to take control of a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked by four terrorists as it took off from Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco, California. It is believed the hijackers had intended crash the plane into the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Plans for a permanent memorial have been in the works for years. Congress passed a law in 2002 instructing the National Park Service to establish a national memorial where the crash occurred. Part of it would be on Lambert's land. In the seven years since, some of the most important land needed for the massive project has remained in limbo, producing an emotional debate among landowners, family members and the National Park Service. See plans for the proposed Flight 93 Memorial . At the center of the dispute is the government's plan to take the remaining land needed by using its power of eminent domain. The government can seize privately owned property to convert it to public use after paying the owner fair market value. Lambert's land is key to the project. He owns 6 acres that are just feet from the crash site. He has yet to reach an agreement with the government to buy his land. \"Eminent domain was sort of dropped on us at the last second here,\" he says, \"and it feels like we never even had a chance to talk about some of the issues that we needed to address during the negotiations.\" Lambert still finds debris from the plane on his land. \"Red and blue wire all over the place,\" he says as he bends over to pick up a piece. \"Here it is almost eight years later.\" The National Park Service says time is running out if the memorial is to be ready by September 11, 2011, the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. It says it has to use eminent domain for 166 essential acres that it has been unable to purchase. \"We've held off using it until we've got here, really at the very last stage of this where we have no other choice,\" says National Park Service associate director Steve Whitesell. The amount of land needed for the memorial is just over 2,200 acres, about 1,400 of which is near the crash site, where there will be a visitor center. The other 800 acres would create a buffer around the site to protect the rural setting. That is where Randy and Linda Musser live -- on more than 100 acres of land, 62 of them within the memorial park boundaries. The Mussers enjoy hunting, fishing and horseback riding on their land, which is about three-quarters-of-a-mile from the crash site. \"This eminent domain cloud hangs over this whole piece of property now,\" Randy Musser says, standing by a pond where he likes to fish. He was a member of a committee formed with Flight 93 family members to establish the boundaries of the park. \"If I knew the National Park Service was going to be able to use eminent domain to acquire property within the park boundary, I would had fought that at the time the park boundary was established to keep as much property out of the park as possible,\" Musser says. The Mussers now fear that their land isn't safe from the government and say it's not needed for the memorial. \"We have to play fair, we have to follow the rules and they just change the law to suit their own needs,\" says Linda Musser. For Patrick White, vice president of Families of Flight 93, this project is a labor of love. White's cousin, Louis Nacke, was killed on United Flight 93. White is leading the effort to acquire all the land needed for the memorial. \"We're creating a place where the 40 heroes of Flight 93 can be revered and remembered,\" White said from his law office in Naples, Florida. White says the negotiations with landowners has been challenging and supports the governments use of eminent domain. \"No one has ever questioned that there is a public purpose to these lands'\" White says. \"Their purpose became public the minute that those private citizens' lives and remains became part of those lands.\" Lambert says he feels the same way as he walks just a few feet from where the plane crashed. \"A lot of people lost their lives here and this is their final resting place. ... That's one thing I always keep in mind when I come here and I am walking through these woods.\" This isn't just about money, Randy Musser says. It's about doing what's right, allowing landowners to continue to live on their land and use it the way they intended before that day. \"That loss of freedom is probably the thing that bothers people more than anything else,\" he says. Neither the government nor landowners will comment on how much money has been offered for the land yet to be acquired. Patrick White said he remains confident the memorial will be completed in time. \"Getting this done is a commitment that must be achieved. ... These are folks who as citizen soldiers stood up and we all need to recognize that at a place that's appropriate.\" To make that happen, the National Park Service says it needs to start construction this November for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 11, 2011. The courts may have the final say. Government lawyers are expected to file a lawsuit in Pittsburgh next week to condemn the property for public use.","highlights":"Hijacked United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania during the 9\/11 attacks .\nNational Park Service says it needs to start construction soon .\nEmotional debate on eminent domain has thrown a wrench in the plans .","id":"49da5c62a702063be1635e29a5c4e2e6206c5225"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A Canadian auto parts supplier has come to the rescue of German carmaker Opel, negotiating a deal with the German government that will save the company from insolvency. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck talks to reporters early Saturday morning following talks on Opel. Officials from all sides announced the agreement after talks lasting into the early hours of Saturday. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called it a \"responsible solution\" that would preserve the highest number of jobs. Under the terms of the deal, supplier Magna will have a 20 percent stake in GM Europe, an arm of General Motors, which owns the Opel brand. Russia's Sberbank will own a 35 percent share, Opel employees will have 10 percent, and General Motors will retain a 35-percent stake, according to GM spokesman Joerg Schrott. The German government will provide a bridge loan to keep GM Europe operating in the short term. The deal ensures that General Motors' European assets -- which also include the Vauxhall car brand in Britain -- will be unaffected by GM's expected bankruptcy filing. Magna warned during negotiations that it would have to cut about 10,000 jobs. General Motors has around 55,000 employees in Europe. About 2,000 of the job cuts would be in Germany, Magna has said, but a top company official tried to reassure the Germans that it would try to protect the company as much as possible. \"We will, and I want to stress that again, preserve all the German Opel locations,\" said Magna co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf. \"We're keen to have talks with all the states where Opel has factories in the next few weeks and are confident to be able to find solutions to preserve jobs, because every job that is lost is one too many. We will work with Opel management to try to avoid those job losses.\" Steinmeier told reporters that such risks can't be avoided. \"But,\" he said. \"I think we have found a responsible solution with private investors and interim funding from the state. It is a solution which preserves Opel's location in Germany and also preserves the highest possible number of jobs.\" German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said early Saturday that the country has guaranteed transitional credit for Opel of 1.5 billion euros ($2.1 billion). In addition, a trust will be created where Opel's stock will be parked prior to the division of shares. Along with Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank, Russian automaker GAZ Group will provide some financing, said Andrzej Kasperek, director of corporate business development with GAZ. \"I think the whole arrangement with Magna and the Russian partners made this a very attractive deal for GM,\" Kasperek said. \"Opel is very well regarded as a brand. But we think we can increase sales in the next five years.\" Financially strapped General Motors is expected to announce as soon as Monday that it is filing for bankruptcy. \"Opel has received a perspective for the future,\" said German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the agreement was reached. \"That is a chance for the employees, who have earned it, as I find, because they are not to blame for the situation but instead big mismanagement in the United States of America at GM.\" Merkel said the German government did \"what it had to do\" in rescuing Opel. \"I had an open exchange in a phone call with the American president, and we agreed that we do everything to bring this complex task to a good conclusion. And this clearly set the tone for the negotiations,\" Merkel said.","highlights":"Germany picks Magna to buy majority stake in Opel, news reports say .\nGerman government agrees to fund bridging loan to keep Opel in business .\nMagna also seeking to bring Russian partners into Opel deal .\nOpel's parent company General Motors set to declare bankruptcy as soon as Monday .","id":"a6b2b01bb32f70820e4a742a00f24940f63466ed"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican navy said Wednesday that it rescued five Ecuadorians who had been adrift without supplies in a fishing boat for more than two weeks off the coast of the southern state of Chiapas. Mexican medical personel examine two of five Ecuadorians rescued at sea. Mexican authorities initiated the rescue, which occurred Tuesday, after the U.S. Coast Guard alerted them that sailors aboard a fishing boat located 45 nautical miles (83 km) southeast of Port Chiapas had signaled to a passing plane that they needed help. The Mexican navy dispatched a helicopter, which located the 15-meter-long (49-foot-long) vessel and carried out the rescue by air, the navy said in a news release. The five aboard identified themselves as Jaime Arturo Alaba Chavez, the 35-year-old captain; V\u00edctor Hugo Alaba Chavez, the 32-year-old cook; Edison Prado Alaba, a 27-year-old sailor; Carlos Cheme Vazquez, a 37-year-old sailor; and Raul Contreras Vera, a 64-year-old machinist. The sailors were taken to the Naval Sanatorium of Puerto Chiapas, where doctors determined they were dehydrated. They said they had departed Costa Rica's on May 6 but, five days later, their motor stopped working and, unable to repair it, they had been adrift and without food since. A naval patrol boat towed the boat to Puerto Chiapas, arriving there Wednesday morning. It will be inspected to rule out the possibility that it may have been used for illicit activities, the navy said.","highlights":"The Mexican navy said Wednesday that it rescued five Ecuadorians adrift at sea .\nMen apparently without supplies in a fishing boat for more than two weeks .\nMen found off the coast of the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico .","id":"391d4022784892f14d00555c4e32bdd12bfdf625"} -{"article":"They're bigger, brawnier, and faster than the typical male, but are National Football League players healthier than other men their age? Justin Bannan, who plays for the Baltimore Ravens, participated in the study on NFL players. Yes and no, according to a new NFL-funded study that looks at the cardiovascular health of young athletes. The good news is that NFL players have cholesterol levels similar to other men in their 20s and 30s, and their blood sugar tends to be even healthier. However, they are much more likely to have high blood pressure or borderline hypertension when compared with men who aren't professional athletes. \"It's a step in the right direction to have this study,\" says Justin Bannan, 30, who plays defensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens and took part in the research. \"I think the more information we can find out and the more studies we can do, the better.\" The study, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is important, particularly as more and more players are weighing in at 300-plus pounds. The extra weight could potentially strain an athlete's heart in youth or even after retirement, and many question whether it has played a role in a handful of high-profile deaths. Health.com: Eat right advice: Fiber, starch, fats, serving sizes . In particular, the death of Thomas Herrion at age 23 has raised concerns about the heart health of larger players. Herrion, who was 6'3\" and 330 pounds, had just finished an exhibition game with the San Francisco 49ers when he collapsed and died in 2005. \"He's sort of the prototype of the bigger, stronger linemen that populates the NFL now, as compared with 20 or 30 years ago,\" says lead study author Dr. Andrew M. Tucker, the team physician for the Baltimore Ravens. \"We have so many big, strong guys over 300 pounds. I think that case in particular was important in stimulating the whole study and the investigation.\" Other heavy players-- such as defensive end Reggie White-- have also died at an early age. White was 43 when he died from cardiac arrhythmia in 2004. In the study, Tucker, who is the cochair of the NFL subcommittee on cardiovascular health, and his colleagues looked at 504 active players from 12 teams in 2007. The researchers measured the players' height, weight, percentage of body fat, and other factors, and then compared them to 1,959 men ages 23 to 35 who participated in a study called CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults). Health.com: 20 little ways to lose drop the pounds and keep them off . They found that players were less likely to smoke or have blood-sugar problems than other men (only 6.7 percent of players had impaired fasting glucose compared to 15.5 percent of other men) and their cholesterol levels were essentially the same. However, 13.8 percent of players had high blood pressure and 64.5 percent had prehypertension, or borderline high blood pressure, compared to 5.5 percent and 24.2 percent of other men, respectively. Tucker notes that the football players outweighed the men in the CARDIA study by an average of 70 pounds and that it's natural to assume that larger people may have higher blood pressure. \"But what was fascinating to us was the category of prehypertension,\" says Tucker, who is also the medical director of sports medicine at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Health.com: How to eat out without getting fat . The study found that NFL athletes are more likely to have prehypertension than other men-- regardless of the size of the player or his position. \"So our lean players who play defensive back and wide receiver, they have prevalence of prehypertension just as common as the really big guys playing offensive and defensive line,\" says Tucker. \"So there's something that we're trying to investigate now that accounts for elevated blood pressures in our active players that is not accounted for by size alone-- there's got to be something else.\" Health.com: Cut up to 900 calories with simple substitutions . That \"something else\" could be strength or resistance training, the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, sleep apnea (which is characterized by heavy snoring and a hike in blood pressure), or diet, including excessive sodium intake. Dr. Tucker doesn't think anabolic steroids are to blame. Even though he and his colleagues didn't ask players if they used steroids, he says that the NFL's year-round testing program should have ruled out any use. \"[However] I'm concerned about the widespread use of performance-enhancing agents, which contain stimulants that can not only increase blood pressure but of course have stimulating effects on the heart,\" says Dr. Tucker. He adds that, in the last several years, such stimulants have been linked to sporadic deaths in college and even professional athletes. Although today's players are much more likely to weigh in excess of 300 pounds than those in the past, it doesn't necessarily mean they are fat, Dr. Tucker explains. Athletes are larger nowadays due to rule changes in the 1970s and 1980s that were aimed at protecting their lower bodies; those guidelines also gave larger players a competitive advantage. If one goes by body mass index alone-- a measure of height and weight that doesn't take into account muscle mass-- more than half of players are obese, according to a 2005 study. However, Tucker and his team found that the average percentage of body fat was 14 percent, ranging from 8 percent to 10 percent in the leaner positions-- such as wide receivers and linebackers-- to 20 percent in defensive linemen and 25 percent in offensive linemen. \"Even our offensive linemen are really on the upper limits of what's considered healthy,\" says Tucker. \"There are plenty of my regular patients who would take that.\" Health.com: Olympic swimmer discusses life with exercise-induced asthma . Overall, Tucker says he is most worried about older, retired athletes. \"I'm concerned about whether there is a constellation of things going on that puts them at risk when they're 45 or 55,\" he says. More attention is being paid to detraining athletes so that they can adopt healthier lifestyles and better nutrition after they retire, says William Kraemer, Ph.D., a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. \"It really is tough because you're trying to stay big in your playing days,\" says Kraemer. \"The big fear is, [after retirement] you stop exercising and you keep eating the way you used to when you were expending a lot of calories. A lot of times when kids get out of college or they get out of the pros, there is no system in place that helps them make the transition.\" The Ravens' Bannan says the older generation is teaching younger players the importance of changing their lifestyle after retirement. \"If you're a heavier player, a lineman that's over 300 pounds, really what it comes down to is a lifestyle change and eating healthier, losing weight when you are done, and staying active and staying healthy,\" says Bannan, who is 6'3\" and 310 pounds. \"Make a few changes in your life; I think that's going to make things a lot better for you down the road.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Death of Thomas Herrion has raised worries over the heart health of big players .\nResearchers looked at 504 active NFL players from 12 teams in 2007 .\nPlayers were less likely to smoke or have blood-sugar problems than other men .\nNFL athletes are more likely to have prehypertension than other men .","id":"ba74f7e195f6ecc56fabc280ad58dee51ce74110"} -{"article":"SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- What does it really take to dress someone as fashion-forward and in the spotlight as Michelle Obama? Designer Yigal Azrou\u00ebl talks with students at the Savannah College of Art and Design. \"Bravery,\" says Isabel Toledo, designer of the first lady's attention-grabbing lemongrass yellow wool and lace ensemble that she wore for the inauguration of her husband President Obama. But along with bravery about their fashion sense, new graduates at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) will need courage in the face of the current recession. \"Fashion is being hit particularly hard in the new job market. Fashion as a whole is feeling a greater level of lost revenues and in turn has lost opportunities for sustaining volume and even more so for growth,\" said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst and expert fashion analyst for the NPD market research group. \"The ironic thing is that new ideas and creations are just what the industry needs but is too cautious to react to it,\" he added. Full of new ideas, student designers say they are aware of the challenges as they head out into the work force, but they're optimistic they can make it in these tough times. \"After I graduate, I'm going to New York, I have an internship lined up with a trend forecasting company, Promostyl,\" said Shelby Simon whose designs made it into SCAD's annual fashion show. See the runway fashions \u00bb . \"Everyone needs an assistant so hopefully I'll be able to find something pretty easily,\" said Caitlin Clarke. She would like to land an internship in New York and has interviewed with New York & Co. and applied for positions at Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein and Zac Posen. Toledo, a world-renown designer, knows it can be tough to make it in fashion. She and her fashion illustrator husband Ruben Toledo didn't have much money when they arrived from Cuba in the late 60s as political refugees. She says she found inspiration in the little things. Experts' advice on getting to top of fashion business \u00bb . \"Go out there and look at things, look at things well. Study them; the smallest things can inspire you. That will make you able to do what you want on any level. Many times kids think you have to have all this backing coming into a big industry. I didn't do that, I started from the bottom and as a matter of fact you can only go up,\" said Isabel Toledo. Toledo was at the school last weekend to accept the 2009 Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. But for six months, two other top designers, Yigal Azrou\u00ebl and Lars Nilsson, have been mentoring and critiquing 23 students to help them develop their designs for the runway. Azrou\u00ebl, a self-taught designer, says it's a tough industry and students have to pay their dues. \"It's not what people think it is or what it looks like from the outside. If you want to be a fashion designer you have to carry fabric on your back, you need to learn how to cut and sew. The fame is going to come later.\" More known for his expert draping techniques, Yigal Azrou\u00ebl taught students more than how to incorporate intricate folds and pleats in their designs. \"If you love something, go ahead and do it, but, be very consistent with it,\" advised Azrou\u00ebl. SCAD senior Caitlin Clarke says working with Nilsson really helped her create new silhouettes and structured angles with interesting seams. \"Lars was so helpful. I remember this one time when he came in and said 'Ah, there's something not right with this dress' and then he helped me cut it up and fix it,\" said Clarke. Nilsson enjoyed the process. \"I really tried to spend a lot of time seeing what they [the students] had to say, giving them advice and push them forward to express themselves,\" said Nilsson. \"It's been a great collaboration, and I must say that I've learned a lot myself, too.\" The visiting designers give the students an edge in their job search, says SCAD president Paula Wallace. \"It's very important to bring in the top professionals because they inspire the students and they provide contacts and networking for the students after they graduate.\" Students are also using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to reach out to their peers and other industry professionals. In order to succeed you have to have innovative approaches to market, sell and sustain your product lines, said retail analyst Hitha Prabhakar. Right now retailers are in \"survival of the fittest\" mode and a handful of designers including Mui Mui, Allessandro Del Acqua, Allegra Hicks and Krizia have had to shut their store doors on Madison Avenue, she said. SCAD senior Shelby Simon feels some students went into fashion because they like to shop, but she warns there is so much more to learn about the craft.. \"The truth is hard work, nose to the grind stone and learning. All the people I know who became great designers didn't do it over night,\" said Vogue magazine's editor-at-large Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley, who has been involved with SCAD students over the years. \"Jason Wu, a wonderful designer, a young designer, was making doll clothes for years. He was saving his money then opened his own company and look where he is today, dressing Michelle Obama.\"","highlights":"Fashion industry job market is being hit very hard, analyst says .\nStudents at Savannah College of Art and Design get advice from designers .\nVogue's Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley says Jason Wu made doll clothing for years .\nDesigner Isabel Toledo says when you start at bottom, you can only go up .","id":"4ba7d2cd2eed959000ff8d1b1891cb72a8d2fe8a"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Gunmen on motorcycles fired Friday on a campaign office for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wounding two adults and a child, according to a report by Iran's state-run news agency. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not present at the time of the attack. The shooting happened about 5 p.m. in front of the entrance to the campaign office, campaign representative Mohammed Reza Zahed Shaikhi told IRNA. Ahmadinejad, who is running for a second term in office, was not present. Iran's presidential election will take place on June 12. The attack happened in Sistan-Balochistan province in southeastern Iran, the same province where a Shia mosque was bombed Thursday. Several suspects have been arrested in connection with Thursday's attack in the town of Zahedan, which killed between 15 and 20 people, according to Iranian media reports. No group publicly accepted responsibility for the mosque attack, but the provincial governor, Ali-Mohammad Azad, blamed a terrorist group that he said would be unveiled to the public once the suspects have been interrogated, IRNA reported. Zahedan is about 1,100 km (700 miles) southeast of Tehran, near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Balochistan province -- which shares a border with Pakistan -- is the site of frequent clashes involving Iranian police, drug dealers and armed groups. The province is located on a major narcotics-smuggling route between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Azad said information on the arrested terrorist group would be unveiled to the public once interrogations were complete. \"The terrorists and notorious gang planned to stir order and security in the province on the eve of (the June 12 presidential) elections, using ongoing insecurity in our eastern neighbors,\" he said Thursday. Several days of mourning were reported to be under way for victims of the explosion. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line cleric who led Friday prayers in Tehran, said there were signs that the United States and Israel were involved in the mosque bombing, IRNA reported. The cleric, who put the death toll at 25, condemned the bombing before a congregation on the Tehran University campus. CNN's Shirzad Bozorghmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gunmen fire on campaign office for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, .\nTwo adults and child wounded in attack; Ahmadinejad not present .\nAttack happened near where Shia mosque bombed Thursday, killing up to 20 .\nNo group has accepted responsibility, but local governor blamed terrorist group .","id":"0ec8467e456e63d08e795c6992d2e3eb8e061fdd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- This classic chant of \"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!\" -- barked out by battalions of newsboys hawking newspapers -- died decades ago, a casualty of home delivery, mass distribution and the advent of coin-operated newspaper machines. Some coin-operated newspaper machines have lasted for 30 years, but lack of sales may force their retirement. But now as newspapers across the country wage a battle to survive in a market where readers are increasingly gravitating to the Internet for information, the fate of another industry fixture seems inevitable. Could those steel machines on street corners, distributing newspapers since the '50s, be headed for the scrap pile? To begin to answer the question, all it takes is an early morning visit with a man who feeds those machines. It's 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday, and a white delivery truck for the New Jersey Record has just pulled into the parking lot outside the Plaza Diner in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The driver -- Mike, who asked that his last name not be used -- is at one of his 130 stops on an eight-hour shift that began at midnight. Mike's job, which takes less than a couple of minutes per stop, entails filling the coin-operated machine with the day's papers, collecting unsold copies and emptying the machine of its coins. Even though Mike has a full schedule and lots of stops, it doesn't equate to pushing as many papers as he once did. Mike loads 15 copies of the Record into one machine -- and that's a good load, he says. Other locations receive only five to seven copies. He's also tasked with filling machines for USA Today. Though he's been on this job for only two years, Mike has been on the route long enough to know business is down. He says newspapers sell better at train stations than from the street machines he services. The demise of newspapers across the country is getting a lot of front-page headlines. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer in Washington was just one of the most recent victims, ceasing print publication in March as declining circulation and plummeting advertising sales forced it to retrench and become just an online provider of journalism. Even the legendary New York Times will force readers to dig deeper for more coins as it raises prices June 1, with the price of a paper going from $1.50 to $2. The publication that touts \"All The News That's Fit to Print\" has been relying less on newspaper racks. In 1999, the Times had 13,300 vending machines, but today that number has shrunk to 5,678, according to Diane McNulty, spokeswoman for the Times. \"One of the factors is home delivery,\" McNulty said, adding, \"This was due to our national expansion -- where once many readers could only get copies from the newsstand or vending machine, they can now enjoy home delivery service.\" But all the gloom-and-doom predictions that newspapers will one day disappear isn't scaring workers at the Kaspar Sho-Rack Company, based in Shiner, Texas. The company lays claim to being the world's largest manufacturer of coin-operated and no-charge newspaper vending machines. Don Kaspar is president and a fourth-generation member of a family business that began in 1898 manufacturing wire products. \"There'll be printed newspapers for years and years\" said Kaspar, president of a company that is actually part of the larger Kaspar Wireworks. Still, he concedes, \"Business is down about 25 to 30 percent from about five years ago.\" It wasn't until the late 1950s that the privately owned company was approached by the now defunct San Antonio Light newspaper to develop an early version of coin-operated newspaper machines. The early versions of newspaper machines were simple and made mostly of wire, but by the mid-1960s they were all made of metal. The machines typically consist of a thick metal housing, shelves, doors and hinges. But the heart of any machine is the coin mechanism, which can have 150 moving parts, according to the manufacturer. Some advanced models introduced in 1999 feature lithium batteries to run the coin-collecting mechanism. Often weighing around 100 pounds, these hand-assembled machines cost on average $450 each, with refurbished models selling for around $300, the company says. The zenith of the company's business may have been the 1980s, when the introduction of USA Today landed it a contract to build and deliver 100,000 coin-operated machines. Today only 65,000 machines populate the nation's sidewalks, according to a USA Today spokesperson. In 1985, Sho-Rack sold its 1 millionth newspaper machine and it has sold several hundred thousand since. Its biggest clients have been the giants of newspaper publishing, including Gannett, Tribune, Newhouse and the McClatchy newspaper groups. But the fate of those publishers directly affects the bottom line at Sho-Rack. \"Business now? It's certainly slowed down,\" said Kaspar. \"Free publication racks ... we've stayed fairly busy with those. Coin- operated machines? Newspapers are cutting costs and pulling a lot of the racks from outlying areas. As a result this causes a surplus number of racks and then ultimately less of a need for new racks from us.\" Though the coin-operated machine business makes up 25 percent of the parent company's overall business, Sho-Rack has learned to diversify and adapt. \"We're not dependent on any one industry,\" Kaspar said. The company, which employs nearly 500 workers and occupies more than 500,000 square feet in a small rural town, also manufactures thousands of wire, tubing and sheet metal products. The average life span of a coin-operated newspaper machine depends on several factors. Some machines, even with modest refurbishments every couple of years, have lasted for 30 years. For others it can be five minutes after an encounter with a snowplow. For the Kaspar Sho-Rack Company, as long as newspapers are printed and sold, its machines will gladly continue to accept coins.","highlights":"Fewer customers buy from coin-operated newspaper machines .\nDelivery man says newspapers sell better from train stations than street machines .\nTexas company that makes the machines says business is down .\n\"There'll be printed newspapers for years and years,\" firm's president says .","id":"bf95b138ddf2f961f5765ddff0ef709fcc50b499"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- IBM's reported plans to lay off thousands of U.S. workers and outsource many of those jobs to India, even as the company angles for billions in stimulus money, doesn't sit well with employee rights advocates. Business Week reports that IBM's workforce increased from 386,558 in 2007 to 398,000 at the end of 2008. IBM employees are being dealt a double blow, said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM, a pro-union group that has been fighting IBM's outsourcing for years. \"We're outraged that jobs cuts are happening in the U.S. and the work is being shifted offshore,\" Conrad said. \"This comes at the same time IBM has its hand out for stimulus money. This to us is totally unacceptable.\" IBM wants a share of the money in President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for projects updating power grids, creating electronic health care records and furthering the use of broadband. \"In the research we've done working with the transition team, we know that $30 billion could create 1 million jobs in the next 12 months,\" IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said in January. Watch how IBM hopes to benefit from the stimulus \u00bb . The problem is where those jobs would be, said Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. \"This is really a question of policy,\" Hira said. \"IBM is doing what's in its best interest, and in this case it's not in the best interest of America. And that's why you need policymakers to step in to ensure that this money gets spent to create American jobs.\" Watch the outcry generated by IBM \u00bb . IBM has not responded to multiple requests for comment from CNN after the Wall Street Journal's report that the IT giant would be shipping 5,000 U.S. jobs overseas. \"We have no problem with job creation in other countries,\" Conrad said. \"We have no problem with global expansion. We realize IBM is a global company and has been for many years. But this is different. This is cutting jobs in the U.S. and shifting the work offshore. This isn't job creation. It's job shifting.\" According to Business Week, IBM has indeed been shifting jobs. The magazine reported that the company's workforce went up from 386,558 at the end of 2007 to 398,000 at the end of 2008. But U.S. employment fell from 121,000 to 115,000 during the same time. Hira, author of the book \"Outsourcing America,\" said it's not just IBM moving jobs out of the United States. \"The problem here, though, is that these companies have an inordinate influence over the political process,\" he said. \"They have a huge, disproportionate amount of power, political power, and can influence the process.\" For that reason, he said, \"you really do need the American public to sort of stand up and say, 'Wait a second. This is just not right.' ... I certainly hope that there's a backlash, because there should be. This is bad for America.\" CNN's Mary Snow, Jennifer Rizzo and Vivienne Foley contributed to this report.","highlights":"IBM criticized for plans to shift U.S. jobs to India while seeking stimulus money .\nIBM CEO has said $30 billion could create 1 million jobs in next 12 months .\nPlan shows conflicting interests between IBM and U.S., analyst says .\nAmerican public needs to stand up and say, 'This is just not right,' analyst says .","id":"2310fdcf21ef2c71082aeae98a5da06bbb46140a"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Police armed with rubber bullets were patrolling neighborhoods in Johannesburg on Tuesday in an effort to quell a recent spree of violence aimed at foreigners that police say has killed 22 people and displaced an estimated 13,000. A crowd armed with clubs, machetes and axes rioted on the outskirts of Johannesburg on Tuesday. Many of the victims are Zimbabweans who have fled repression and dire economic circumstances in their homeland. Evidence of the violence was seen in smoke rising from burned homes in one Johannesburg neighborhood. Locals angry about the rising number of foreigners arriving in South Africa had set homes ablaze. Firefighters said they had fought more than 100 such blazes since Thursday. Standing outside a row of charred homes, Diamond Minnaar said there is a solution for foreigners. \"Most of them just have to go back to their country and leave us in peace,\" Minnaar said. \"That is the only solution. Or they are just going to get killed. Look at how many shacks have burnt down.\" The attacks and looting have drawn condemnation from South African officials and other African leaders. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . The violence began a week ago in Johannesburg's Alexandra Township, police say, and has been concentrated in the city's poorest areas. \"People are angry because they are unemployed, poverty-affected people struggling for basic needs every day,\" said Dean Christopher Barends, a local Lutheran minister. \"This will explode into something.\" One person victimized was Pascoal Sendela Gulane, a Mozambican man, who said gangs broke into his home and stole his belongings. He fled to a church with his family and is now living with his children in his car on the church's property. For him and many others, churches and police stations have become safe havens. Watch footage of the attacks \u00bb . On Monday, South African President Thabo Mbeki called for an end to the violence. \"We dehumanize ourselves the moment we start thinking of another person as less human than we are simply because they come from another country\" he said in a statement. \"As South Africans, we must recognize and fully appreciate that we are bound together with other Africans by history, culture, economics and, above all, by destiny. I call upon those behind these shameful and criminal acts to stop! Nothing can justify it.\" He has called for an investigation into the violence. Also Monday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation issued a statement condemning the \"senseless violence.\" South African police have arrested more than 200 people in connection with the violence for offenses including rape, murder, robbery and theft. Police director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said that at least one foreigner was burned alive over the weekend, while others saw their houses torched, their shops looted and their possessions stolen. Tuesday there was a large police presence in the neighborhoods were the violence had occurred, according to a CNN producer on the scene. Despite the police presence, sporadic looting still took place in several townships east of Johannesburg. Mbuso Mthembu, provincial manager at the Red Cross office in Johannesburg, said that the number of people fleeing is continuing to grow and that violent attacks seem to be spreading into other areas. His organization has made an emergency appeal for people to donate 1 million rand (about $135,000) to help support the estimated 13,000 who have fled their homes. Many had to flee quickly, leaving all their belongings behind, Mthembu said. \"We have delivered blankets, kids clothing, baby formula,\" he said. \"But we need more.\"","highlights":"An estimated 13,000 people fled homes after violence targeting foreigners .\nAttacks have been concentrated in Johannesburg's poorest areas .\nPolice arrest more than 200 people after at least 22 are killed .\nZimbabweans who have fled their own country are driven from squatter camps .","id":"598f6e6432c166d7ebf5062ac4fe2ad0deb5f60d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"American Idol\" viewers had a clear choice when it came down to the final decision: the low-key but sincere Kris Allen or the flamboyant and powerful Adam Lambert. \"American Idol\" winner Kris Allen, left, and runner-up Adam Lambert say they're good friends. The vote went for Allen, and Lambert told Ryan Seacrest on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that the outcome didn't surprise him. There are no hard feelings, though. Allen, Lambert, Danny Gokey and the other seven finalists spoke of their friendship and camaraderie on \"Larry King Live.\" Here is an edited transcript of the interview. Ryan Seacrest: I think the first thing you said [after being announced as the winner] was \"Adam's great.\" Actually on the air, you were complimenting him at the moment you should be complimenting yourself. Kris Allen: I think that's kind of how I am. Seriously, we're really good friends and he's amazing. He's been probably the most consistent performer this year, and just overall probably one of the best performers that's ever been on the \"Idol\" stage. Watch Kris Allen heap praise on Adam Lambert \u00bb . Seacrest: So aside from getting more votes, why do you think you won? Allen: I don't know. I think it was a combination of a lot of stuff. It was maybe, probably, a little bit of personality, a little bit of -- hopefully it was about the music, as well. I know that's not always the case on \"American Idol.\" That's what I care about the most: the music and how I portray it. Seacrest: It's no secret that you're a man of faith, that you referred to the \"Christian thing,\" as it were. You didn't rely on the Christian vote. Do you think that played a part in your win, though? Allen: I hope it didn't. Because I guess me and Adam were doing an interview before the show: \"Kris, do you think you're going to get the Christian vote now that Danny's gone?\" And that was rough, that was kind of upsetting, because the show's not about religion. We're not running for president. We are there to do music and there to sing, and hopefully people vote on that. Seacrest: I've seen the show 300-plus episodes, and I know that you have to develop some sort of strategy. So what was yours? Allen: I think my strategy throughout the whole thing was, 'don't steer away from what you know how to do.' And that's just go out there and be yourself. I went out there and I played my type of music. And I really wanted to change stuff up a little bit and be kind of bold in my music choices, and just do what I believed in. Seacrest: You guys have been through it. The question everyone wants an answer to, finally I get to ask you. What kind of guy-liner do you wear? Adam Lambert: I don't know, whatever the make-up artist puts on me, you know. Seacrest: In that beat before I [announced the winner], what were you thinking? Lambert: I kind of figured, OK, it's anyone's game at this point. I knew it was going to be a close race. And actually in my head, believe it or not, I went, that's so Kris, it's so going to be Kris. I felt it. Seacrest: You're human, so you had to be let down a little bit. Lambert: You know what? I honestly mentally prepared myself for any possibility. And we kind of kept telling each other, you know, it's such an honor to be here. We had so much fun last night. And tonight we got to sing with Queen. The point is not a title. The point is the opportunity. And I feel like we got that opportunity. Watch the shock over the \"Idol\" finale \u00bb . Seacrest: So what do you think happened with the voting? The judges called you the darling throughout the course of the season. And then you didn't get the first-place votes. What happened? Lambert: Well, I'm sure that when Danny was out of the competition, I think his fans probably would be more apt to go for Kris' style. Allen: I think a lot of people thought that too. Lambert: I wasn't worried. I just assumed that would be the case. Seacrest: Why? Lambert: Kris' appeal is more like Danny's appeal than mine. I just kind of figured. Seacrest: Does the fact that the judges pick you out early in the season hurt in the long run? Lambert: I kind of think it helped me because I think that because I'm something a little bit different, it allowed people at home to feel it was OK to root for me. Seacrest: Kris, how did you size up the rest of the competition? Allen: Well, I think Adam and Danny were, I mean, very -- I think they were the front-runners for a long time. And they're amazing. So kudos to them. I think they deserved it completely. But I never went out there to beat anyone. We talk about that a lot. Seacrest: I can't believe that totally. You never went out there to beat anyone ever? Allen: No. How do you compare me or Adam or me or Danny or me or Matt or me or Allison? Seacrest: I've done the show for eight seasons and we've never seen anyone quite like Adam. That's great. That's the beauty I think in the show. It can continue to reinvent itself with the contestants. Lambert: That's why I felt it wasn't a competition thing. I knew it was apples and oranges. The people are like, I like that guy, I like that guy, or I like that girl. To me, it was like, go out there and do your best. That was the goal for me every week. Do something new, do something new to get people talking. Watch the \"Idol\" finalists and Paula Abdul dish \u00bb . Seacrest: Kris, how did you feel about the love Adam was getting from the judges during the season? Allen: I thought he deserved it. I think he's amazing. I think he was probably one of the most original and one of the most -- seriously, one of the best singers that's been on \"American Idol\". Lambert: This is why we're friends. It's real. Seacrest: Let me ask you this: The speculation about your sexuality, do you think that had anything to do with coming in second place? Lambert: No, I think if anything, I think it -- I think my lifestyle is just I'm different. I'm a little bit -- I'm not your typical guy next door. The guy next door versus the guyliner. Sexuality aside, I think it more had to do with maybe my appearance and what songs I gravitated toward and my performance style. I think that had more to do with it. Seacrest: Kris, when I asked the question, you were nodding your head, why? Allen: Because I agree with him. It's not about who he is or who I am. It's about -- what we want, we want it to be about the music, you know?","highlights":"Winner Kris Allen calls runner-up one of the best performers ever on show .\nFinalist Adam Lambert says he had a feeling Allen was going to win .\nAllen says he hopes fan support was because of his music, not his faith .\nLambert says questions about his sexuality may have helped him stand out .","id":"95e7055a36a2716a085386bab5e6844da266f78e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cyclist Lance Armstrong said Thursday the surgery to repair his broken collarbone proved to be more complex than doctors originally anticipated and that he will take his recovery \"day by day.\" Cyclist Lance Armstrong needed 12 screws to repair his broken collarbone. \"I thought everything went very smooth,\" he said in a video to his supporters about Wednesday's three-hour operation. Doctors in Spain, where Armstrong injured himself Monday when he fell during a race, initially thought he had suffered a simple fracture. However, additional X-rays and CT scans in Austin, Texas, where he lives, proved otherwise. \"They realized that the collarbone is actually in quite a few pieces,\" said the 37-year-old cyclist, who pointed to an X-ray of a 4- to 5-inch steel plate held in place by a dozen 1-inch screws, intended to stabilize it. \"That should keep things together,\" he said. \"Ultimately, that will have to come out, but for now, it's necessary.\" Watch how Armstrong \"tweets\" from hospital \u00bb . Armstrong said he felt \"very lucky, very blessed\" that, in almost 20 years of professional cycling, he has rarely crashed. \"We don't know how my recovery will go, we'll just take it day by day and ultimately get back on the bike and try to sort things out.\" Armstrong's remarks came a day after his surgeon, Dr. Douglas Elenz, told reporters that the cyclist will require two to three months of healing. The four breaks \"made treatment more challenging, but we're confident that the treatment performed today is going to be successful,\" Elenz said. During the next week, Armstrong \"will need to take it easy\" to ensure the wound does not become infected, the doctor said. After his wound has healed, Armstrong will begin using an exercise bike to train his lower body, \"but we won't let him do a whole lot with his upper extremities,\" Elenz said. \"After several weeks, we can take his training to the street, but we will need to take that day by day and week by week.\" He said that, over the longer term, he will be looking for evidence that Armstrong is laying down new bone, that the plate is stable, that the athlete's arm is strong and that his motion is fluid. Armstrong, riding for Team Astana, crashed about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the end of the first stage of the five-day Vuelta Ciclista a Castilla y Leon race. Watch Armstrong's crash \u00bb . Armstrong announced last year that he was returning to competitive biking and would use the Spanish race as a warm-up for the Tour de France, which he won seven times before retiring in 2005. He also had planned to race May 9-31 in the Giro d'Italia, one of Europe's most prestigious and grueling stage races. This would have been the second comeback of his career. His first came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival.","highlights":"Lance Armstrong's broken collarbone was worse than doctors expected .\nArmstrong was injured Monday in crash at Spain bike race .\nArmstrong announced last year he was returning to competitive racing .","id":"b03a1f110c0de8bbe0b77296bcfc957700ff822a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A police officer chasing a theft suspect was fatally shot Thursday night by another officer after he failed to drop his weapon when ordered to, authorities said. Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was not wearing a bulletproof vest and did not fire a shot, authorities say. Authorities said Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was shot three times. The incident is under investigation. Edwards was in plainclothes and carrying a handgun as he chased the suspect past a police car. Authorities said the officer who shot him said he didn't realize Edwards was a police officer. Edwards had just left the Housing Bureau Station House on East 124th Street, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly at a news conference Friday. As Edwards approached his vehicle, he saw a man rummaging through it. Edwards took out his gun -- a Smith and Wesson 9 mm -- and chased the alleged thief, 43-year-old Miguel Santiago, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne. Meanwhile, a police cruiser with a sergeant and two officers, including Officer Andrew Dunton, had just turned onto 125th Street from 1st Avenue. Santiago ran in front of the unmarked vehicle as it approached halfway up the block and the vehicle stopped. The officer in the front passenger seat got out of the vehicle and shouted for Edwards to stop running and drop his weapon. According to Kelly, the officers reported that, after the command was given, Edwards turned toward Dunton with his gun in his hand. Watch Commissioner Kelly describe the shooting \u00bb . Dunton fired his Glock 9 mm six times, hitting Edwards three of those times -- once in the left arm, once in the left side and once in the back, according to police. Emergency crews responding to the scene found Edwards wearing a police academy T-shirt under his clothes and found his police shield and ID in his front left pants pocket, according to Browne. Edwards, who lived in Brooklyn, was recently married and had two small children, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV in New York. On Friday, his relatives remembered him as a good person who achieved what he set out to do. \"He was a wonderful, wonderful child from when he was small,\" his father, Ricardo Edwards, told WABC. \"His desire was always to be a policeman and to play football,\" his uncle, Jerome Harding told the New York TV station. \"And he did accomplish both, because he plays for the Police Department.\" Edwards was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital at 11:21 p.m. Thursday, according to Kelly. \"Tragic accidents like this are another reminder of the dangers our police officers often face as they keep our city the safest big city in the nation,\" Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. \"Rest assured we will find out exactly what happened here, see what we can learn from it so it may never happen again. All the city's prayers are with Omar Edwards and his family.\" Five eyewitnesses, along with 20 people who reported hearing gunshots, were interviewed by police. The officer who fired the shots has 4\u00bd years' experience, authorities said. The officers involved have been placed on administrative duties while the shooting is investigated. Police later arrested the alleged thief on suspicion of breaking into Edwards' car.","highlights":"Authorities: Omar Edwards, chasing a suspect, was fatally shot by another officer .\nEdwards, in plainclothes, witnessed suspect trying to break into his car .\nAnother saw his pursuit, jumped out of unmarked vehicle and fired six shots .\nOfficers placed on administrative duties while shooting is investigated .","id":"746fa4f27c1a29c718ad09646866e1b34c5e5e9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Internet sensation Susan Boyle came up short, coming in second during \"Britain's Got Talent\" finale on Saturday. Fans cheering on Susan Boyle react after she comes in second during \"Britain's Got Talent.\" Boyle was upset by winner Diversity, a 10-person dance group from Essex and East London, England, ranging in age from 12 to 25 years old. The group won 100,000 British pounds ($161,000) and will perform for Queen Elizabeth II in the Royal Variety Show. \"The best people won,\" Boyle said. The dancers appeared shocked Saturday when it was announced that they had won. The group was formed in 2007, and in the same year won the United Kingdom Dance Championships. The group's choreographer \"tries to create a dance style that is eye-catching and entertaining\" and uses films such as 2007's \"Transformers\" for inspiration, the show's site said. Boyle wowed the crowd Saturday night with an encore performance of the song that first made her so famous around the world -- \"I Dreamed a Dream,\" from the musical \"Les Miserables.\" After her performance Saturday, the crowd and judges gave Boyle, who wore a floor-length gown, a standing ovation. Boyle finishes second \u00bb . \"You had the nerve to come back here tonight, face your critics and beat them,\" judge Simon Cowell told her. \"You did it.\" Boyle had vowed to leave the television show before the finale, after a hectic week, but recanted and performed at the finale Saturday. The 48-year-old Scottish singer wowed audiences and judges during her audition in April when she belted out \"I Dreamed a Dream.\" Her performance earned her a string of global television appearances. During the semifinals Sunday, she started off by missing the first note of her performance of \"Memory\" from the musical, \"Cats.\" Watch Boyle's semifinal performance \u00bb . She redeemed herself to earn a standing ovation and a spot in Saturday's finale. The global fame and the \"odd bit of negative press\" in the past week have been too overwhelming for her, judge Piers Morgan told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Friday. \"She's just had a pretty rough week because I think the full enormity of what has happened to her is beginning to hit home,\" Morgan said. \"Earlier this week, she had a lot of tears. ... At one stage, she was going to leave the show. So, fortunately, we've calmed everything down.\" Watch how Boyle may be feeling the pressure \u00bb . Boyle said that that she has put the tumultuous week behind her and is getting ready for the finale. \"It's all I've been thinking about,\" she said on the show's Web site. \"I'm not going to throw away my big chance now.\" \"Britain's Got Talent\" defended Boyle on its Web site, saying that media reports of an emotional outburst \"have been taken out of context.\" The unemployed charity worker has inspired millions in the face of pop music's penchant for pre-processed princesses. Before she sang during her audition, the unassuming single woman with a loose mop of curly hair drew snickers from the audience, including notoriously hard-to-please judge Simon Cowell. The scowls and eye-rolling were replaced by wild cheers as soon as she sang the first line. Cowell later apologized for poking fun at her during the auditions stage. \"You are one special lady,\" he said last week. \"You really are.\" Reporters made their way to her quiet home in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, much to Boyle's great surprise. \"I keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, because you have to,\" Boyle told CNN last month. Asked what has been the most surprising change since her audition, she responded simply -- \"The way everyone seems to have embraced me. The way they seem to have apparently fallen in love with me.\"","highlights":"NEW: 10-person dance group Diversity seemed shocked to win \"Britain's Got Talent\"\n48-year-old Internet sensation Susan Boyle came in second .\nShow judge Piers Morgan says Boyle thought about leaving show after rough week .\nSinger catapulted into media spotlight after her audition wowed audiences worldwide .","id":"5d9cf111c517af09aac8fa33914d39169286fc02"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- It was a typical November day in 1971 when an eighth-grader left her house in a sleepy New Hampshire town with her pet dog, Tasha, in tow. Kathy Gloddy was found murdered a mile from where she was last seen. The German shepherd returned home that day without its 13-year-old master, Kathy Gloddy. To her family's horror, the little girl's body was found the next day, three miles from her home. She had been beaten, raped, strangled and run over by a car repeatedly until she was dead. Her body was found clothed only in her kneesocks. At the time, police had several possible suspects, but not enough evidence for an arrest, said Sgt. Scott Gilbert of the New Hampshire State Police. In 2006, Gilbert said, Kathy's body was exhumed in search of further clues, but authorities were unable to obtain forensics from the remains. Kathy's family asked private investigator Tom Shamshak to aid in the investigation and he agreed to volunteer his services. So far, investigators have only been able to piece together a timeline of the day Kathy went missing. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . It is believed that she left her family's home at 5 p.m. to go to a convenience store, where she bought ice cream and potato sticks. Soon after leaving the store, she was spotted at Franklin High School, where one of her older sisters was attending a banquet. It is unclear where Kathy went next, but what is known is that later that evening her dog returned home acting frantic and anxious, family members said. \"When Tasha came home without Kathy, we were worried,\" said Kathy's sister, Janet Young. \"And then the dog was running around in circles, acting crazy and pawing at the door as if looking for Kathy. We always came home when we said we would and never stayed out late worrying our parents.\" Private investigator Shamshak said he believes the killer may not have been a stranger. \"This kind of brutality and rage-driven crime can only come from someone that knew her or her family,\" he said. Jim Conrad, a former New Hampshire State Police trooper who worked on the case, said Kathy was found in the woods not far from a small gravel road near a popular swimming hole in Franklin, New Hampshire. Investigators believe the area -- which is only one mile from where she was last seen at the high school -- was merely a dumping site for the body and not the actual crime scene. \"One of the things my team is working on is trying to get the post-mortem DNA evidence collected by the forensic pathologist who examined her,\" Shamshak said. While there is not a lot of evidence left, it is the one piece of evidence the family hopes could link potential suspects to Kathy's murder. \"We have waited so long for justice and closure,\" said Karen Beaudin, another of Kathy's sisters. Gilbert said there are at least two persons of interest authorities have focused on and both were acquainted with Kathy Gloddy and her family. Gilbert said police thought they'd caught a break in 2004 when convicted sex offender Edward Dukette, who served time in a Florida prison for raping and nearly killing a young girl, unexpectedly came forward to police claiming he had key information about Kathy Gloddy's murder. Dukette was a former neighbor of the Gloddys and had been evicted from the multiple-family dwelling eight months before Kathy's murder. Gilbert was one of several investigators who traveled to Florida to question Dukette, but the potential suspect recanted his earlier statements and refused to speak further with officials. The Gloddy family and Tom Shamshak have said they believe there is more than one person responsible for Kathy Gloddy's murder. The family is organizing a reward fund in conjunction with the Carole Sund Foundation. Anyone who has information that could lead to the arrest of the individuals responsible for Kathy Lynn Gloddy's murder is asked to call the New Hampshire State Police Crime Unit tip line at 603-271-3636.","highlights":"Teen girl found wearing only socks after being raped, murdered .\nKathy Gloddy left home with her pet dog, who returned without her hours later .\nPolice have few clues and at least two persons of interest .\nA former neighbor came forward claiming information, but later recanted .","id":"4f3f396f870dd1a5d4f60ae5962462130e586d68"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN affiliates report on where job seekers are finding work across the country and how those looking for employment are coping with the situation. Tennessee's Williamson County Public Library in Franklin is trying to improve computer skills of older job seekers. (CNN) -- An Ohio company transforming its business model will build its headquarters in the town of Greenville. LAH Development will become a wind turbine manufacturer and installer after years of constructing commercial buildings. The company's new building is expected to cost $1 million, CNN affiliate WHIO-TV in Dayton reported. The state of Ohio has granted the company a tax credit of almost $400,000 to help create jobs. The company expects to hire 100 new employees. iReport.com: Share your job hunt story . Under an agreement with the state, the company is required to operate at the new site for 12 years. Read the full report on WHIO . Northeast: Grant money used to train veterans . Pennsylvania is providing $311,000 to train 80 unemployed veterans in the field of welding. The state's Department of Labor and Industry grant will be used to train the former military members for 96 hours in beginner welding over an eight-week period. \"As more troops return home after tours of duty, it's important that we provide tools and resources to help them reintegrate into civilian life,\" Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato told WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh. Read the full report on WPXI . South: Library to teach computer skills to job seekers . In Franklin, Tennessee, the county library is trying to help older job seekers by expanding its computer course offerings. Teachers will instruct students on how to use social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to search for jobs as well as make sure they have basic skills. \"If you don't know those skills and you can't use them readily, it makes everything else so much harder,\" said Janice Keck, director of the Williamson County Public Library, told WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tennessee. Read the full report on WSMV . Midwest: Indiana business to add 125 positions . An Indianapolis, Indiana, life science firm is more than doubling the size of its staff. Biostorage provides biomaterials storage and distribution for companies around the world, according to WTHR-TV in Indianapolis. \"Ninety percent of our clients are actually outside Indiana,\" John Mills of Biostorage Technologies told the station. \"So we are earning Indiana dollars from companies outside Indiana.\" The current staff has 70 people; Biostorage plans to add 125 more employees. Read the full report on WTHR . Around the nation . Quintiles Transnational Corp. is moving its world headquarters to the Research Triangle Park near Raleigh, North Carolina, News 14 Carolina reports. A new Wal-Mart in Owasso, Oklahoma, is expected to hire 100 people, Tulsa's KOTV-TV reports.","highlights":"Ohio company gets $400,000 tax credit to hire workers .\nPennsylvania program will train veterans in welding skills .\nIndiana bioscience company looks to hire 125 people .","id":"e079256f8f4158efeec6ebdc426032c5f1ad537d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thomas the Tank Engine, whose television adventures on the fictional island of Sodor have delighted children around the world for years, is now on a real-life mission to help kids with autism. Thomas the Tank Engine is part of a new online game to help autistic children recognize different emotions. The steam locomotive and his friends are the stars of a new game in Australia, designed to help autistic children recognize emotions. Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), a nonprofit that provides services to people diagnosed with the developmental disorder, unveiled the game on its Web site Tuesday. The game asks players to recognize which engine has a sad face, or which is happy or angry. Children with autism often have a difficult time distinguishing different facial expressions. Each time a child plays the game, he\/she is presented with a different sequence of emotions. In doing so, the game takes advantage of the single-mindedness of autistic children to assist in their development. \"It's a great way to help develop social and communication skills,\" said Anthony Warren of Aspect. A study conducted in the United Kingdom found that autistic children were far more fascinated by the television series, \"Thomas and Friends,\" than they were with other fictional characters. The study, by the National Autistic Society, summarized that the show held such appeal because of the clear facial expressions of the characters, the pacing of the program and the easy-to-follow story lines. \"We got those results down here, and we thought, how could we leverage that strength and give a little back to the community?\" said Tom Punch with Haven Licensing, the company that handles licensing for the characters in Australia. Warren said one of the reasons Thomas is particularly stimulating and motivating for children with autism is that it's very predictable. \"Children can understand the clear visual messages -- the big smile on the front of the engine,\" he said. \"The messages it communicates are very concrete, not abstract. And the emotions are primary emotions. It's uncomplicated.\" Autism is a developmental disorder that affects physical, social and language skills. It usually appears before age 3, though the earliest signs are subtle. More doctors and researchers are referring to \"autism\" as \"autisms,\" because each child's case is different, as are the causes, helpful therapies and potential treatments. The Australian nonprofit unveiled the game this month to coincide with Autism Awareness Month in that country. After all, as the show's theme song attests: \"Red and green and brown and blue; They're the really useful crew.\"","highlights":"Online game uses Thomas the Tank Engine to help autistic children .\nChildren try to recognize which engine has happy, sad, angry face .\nAutistic children often have trouble distinguishing different facial expressions .\nUK study: More autistic kids fascinated with \"Thomas\" than other fictional characters .","id":"893865456d4551f1070f4d4b73a2db57abe8271f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Smoking in youth-rated movies has not declined despite a pledge two years ago by Hollywood studios to encourage producers to show less \"gratuitous smoking,\" according to an anti-smoking group. The American Medical Association Alliance has been trying to get movie studios to make smoking-free films. The American Medical Association Alliance, pointing to research that big-screen smoking leads teens to pick up the tobacco habit, called for an R rating for any movie with smoking scenes. The head of the group that gives U.S. movies their ratings, however, said the smoke has been clearing from youth-rated movies, a result of the film industry's sensitivity to the issue. The alliance, the medical association's advocacy arm, launched a summer campaign this week aimed at publicly shaming studios into making smoke-free films. \"Research has shown that one-third to one-half of all young smokers in the United States can be attributed to smoking these youth see in movies,\" said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, head of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department. Fielding cited another study that he said \"found that adolescents whose favorite movie stars smoked on screen are significantly more likely to be smokers themselves and to have a more accepting attitude toward smoking.\" The Motion Picture Association of America, the industry group that issues ratings and parental guidance for U.S. films, added smoking scenes as a factor in ratings two years ago, but Fielding said it has not made a difference. \"In all, 56 percent of the top box office movies with smoking released between May 2007 and May 2009 were youth-rated films -- G, PG or PG-13,\" he said. Joan Graves, who chairs the Motion Picture Association's movie rating committee, offered her own statistics, based on all of the 900 films rated each year, not just the top movies included in Fielding's numbers. The association has given no G ratings in the past two years to a movie with smoking, Graves said. Overall, 55 percent of the movies rated in the past two years showed some smoking, but 75 percent of those with smoking scenes were given R ratings, Graves said. Twenty-one percent were rated PG-13 and the remaining 5 percent were PG, she said. A G movie is deemed suitable for all audiences, while a PG rating is a signal to parents that a film may include some material they might consider inappropriate for children. PG-13 indicates a stronger warning that some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. No one under 17 can be admitted to see an R movie without a parent or guardian. American Medical Association Alliance President Sandi Frost used as her chief example of a movie with \"gratuitous smoking\" this month's blockbuster \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine,\" which was rated PG-13 \"for intense sequences of action and violence, and some partial nudity.\" \"Millions of children have been exposed to the main star of the film, Hugh Jackman, with a cigar in his mouth in various scenes,\" Frost said. \"I'm willing to bet that not one child would have enjoyed that movie or Mr. Jackman's performance any less if he hadn't been smoking.\" A spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox, the studio responsible for the Wolverine movie series, said Jackman's cigar was never lit and it was limited to just two scenes. In one scene, the cigar is shot out of his mouth, prompting Jackman's Wolverine character to suggest its loss would lead to clean living -- an anti-smoking statement -- the studio spokesman said. He said that while the Wolverine character has a cigar in his mouth in almost every panel of the comic book series, producers made \"a conscious decision\" to limit the cigar in the movie. The American Medical Association Alliance, hoping to draw studio executives' attention, hired a mobile billboard to drive around the major studios this week. \"The billboard shows a teenage girl asking the question, 'Which movie studios will cause me to smoke this summer?' \" Frost said. The alliance will keep an online scorecard throughout the summer to count \"how many tobacco impressions each studio delivers to G, PG and PG-13 audiences,\" she said. \"At the end of the summer, whichever studio has delivered the most tobacco impressions to youth audiences will be named in a billboard that will run outside of their headquarters,\" she said. Motion Picture Association of America spokeswoman Angela Martinez said the group \"is very sensitive to the concerns of parents about the purpose of the rating systems.\" \"It's reflective of society,\" Martinez said. \"It's really a tool for parents to help determine what their kids see.\" They began factoring smoking scenes into the ratings two years ago as \"a reflection of changes in society and health concerns,\" she said. \"Smoking is rated like all the other factors, including violence and sex,\" she said. Fielding said it should be absolute -- and not just a factor. \"Any movie with smoking should be rated R,\" he said. \"And if they worry about an R rating hurting their profits, then they should work with studios to remove smoking from films that hurt youth.\" Graves, whose committee makes the decisions, indicated such a zero-tolerance policy would not be accepted.","highlights":"American Medical Association Alliance wants films with smoking to be rated R .\nAMAA says that kids who watch smoking often turn to habit .\nHollywood rating organization says smoking in movies has declined .","id":"0c0531e58be44274dbfea947776465554c60f08e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Music producer Phil Spector was sentenced Friday to the maximum sentence of 19 years to life for the murder six years ago of actress Lana Clarkson. Phil Spector's first murder trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial as jurors said they couldn't reach a verdict. That means Spector, 69, would be 88 before he would be eligible for parole. Slumped, stone-faced and wearing a dark suit and bright red tie, he sat silently throughout his sentencing by Judge Larry Paul Fidler. Spector's lawyer gave a $17,000 check to Donna Clarkson, the victim's mother, to pay for her funeral expenses -- part of the court-ordered sentence. \"All of our plans together are destroyed,\" the mother said, reading a statement on behalf of her family. \"Now, I can only visit her at the cemetery.\" Fidler denied a motion for a new trial by defense attorney Doron Weinberg, who said he would file an appeal. \"The evidence did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty for the simple reason [that] he did not kill Lana Clarkson,\" Weinberg said. Watch Spector receive his sentence \u00bb . \"Obviously, he's not very happy,\" Spector's wife, Rachelle, told reporters about her husband. \"I'm going to stand by him and get him out of that awful place so he can come home where he belongs.\" Clarkson, 40, was found dead -- slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector's Alhambra, California, mansion with a gunshot wound through the roof of her mouth -- in February 2003. View a timeline of the case \u00bb . Spector's trial, which began in October, ended last month when jurors deliberated for 30 hours and then announced a guilty verdict on the second-degree murder charge. Fidler had ruled jurors also could consider the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. Spector's first murder trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial as jurors said they couldn't reach a verdict after 15 days of deliberations. Jurors then were deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction. Fidler declined to allow Spector to remain free on bail pending sentencing, citing Spector's years-long \"pattern of violence\" involving firearms. \"This was not an isolated incident,\" Fidler said, noting Spector's two firearms-related convictions from the 1970s. \"The taking of an innocent human life, it doesn't get any more serious than that.\" In closing arguments at the retrial, prosecutor Truc Do called Spector \"a very dangerous man\" who \"has a history of playing Russian roulette with women -- six women. Lana just happened to be the sixth.\" Weinberg argued that the prosecution's case hinged on circumstantial evidence. He said the possibility that Clarkson committed suicide could not be ruled out. Do pointed out to jurors, however, that Clarkson had bought new shoes on the day of her death -- something he said a suicidal woman would not have done. A female juror who declined to be identified told reporters the jurors considered all the evidence and testimony to reach their verdict. \"This entire jury took this so seriously,\" she said with tears in her eyes, before adding that \"it's tough to be in a jury,\" because another person's life is in the jury's hands. Clarkson starred in the 1985 B-movie \"Barbarian Queen\" and appeared in many other films, including \"Deathstalker,\" \"Blind Date,\" \"Scarface,\" \"Fast Times at Ridgemont High\" and the spoof \"Amazon Women on the Moon.\" She was working as a VIP hostess at Hollywood's House of Blues at the time of her death. In the 2007 trial, Spector's attorneys argued that Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup and grabbed a .38-caliber pistol to kill herself while at Spector's home. But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace. Five women took the stand and testified that he had threatened them with firearms. His driver testified that he heard a loud noise and saw the producer leave the home, pistol in hand, saying, \"I think I killed somebody.\" Spector's professional trademark was the \"Wall of Sound,\" the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label -- named for Spector and his business partner, Lester Sill -- in the early 1960s. The roaring arrangements were the heart of what he called \"little symphonies for the kids\" -- among them No. 1 hits like the Ronettes' \"Be My Baby\" and the Righteous Brothers' \"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.\" Spector co-produced the Beatles' final album, \"Let It Be,\" and worked with ex-Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon on solo projects after the group broke up. His recording of Harrison's 1971 benefit concert for war relief in Bangladesh won the 1972 Grammy award for album of the year. That was one of two Grammy Awards won by Spector, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. He stayed out of the public eye for two decades before his 2003 arrest in Clarkson's death.","highlights":"NEW: Music producer sentenced for 2003 slaying of Lana Clarkson .\nActress was found shot dead in foyer of Spector's California mansion .\nDefense argued it was a suicide; first trial ended in a mistrial .\nGrammy-winning Spector, 69, was inducted in 1989 to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .","id":"09ee814f716ca22ef5ba154c0fd24c17c88fae6e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It probably would have been just another ho-hum city council budget meeting. Except that the leader of Atlanta's police union, and second-highest ranking member of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, said he wanted to beat Atlanta's mayor with a bat. \"I want to beat her [Mayor Shirley Franklin] in the head with a baseball bat sometimes when I think about it,\" Sgt. Scott Kreher said into a microphone earlier this month in an apparent off-hand remark during a presentation he was giving to the council. Within days, the 17-year department veteran was suspended. Kreher said the \"it\" that made him want to club the mayor was that, despite repeated complaints, the police union contends the city is not honoring workers' compensation claims for cops whose careers ended when they were seriously injured on the job. Franklin, one of the nation's high-profile mayors, told CNN on Tuesday that the officers' complaints are a \"separate issue\" from Kreher's comments. \"Some people think I'll just shake it off,\" she said of the sergeant's threat. \"I can't shake off an officer at City Hall -- not in his shower or in his front yard, but in official capacity -- threatening to hit me in the head with a bat. That is a severe act of violence. When you hit someone with a bat, you intend to kill them.\" The police officers union called a news conference Thursday, in part, to defend Kreher, who's their second-highest ranking member. Three officers in wheelchairs were there, at times crying, their voices raised, as they told their stories of being shot on duty and paralyzed for life. They say they've made repeated calls for months to city officials to get help with their medical claims and have been ignored. They are part of a group of officers alleging that NovaPro, a San Diego-based private insurance company, has refused or made it difficult for them to get the medication they need to alleviate pain and repair or replace medical equipment. \"I've been calling the mayor's office for more than a year, and no one has called me back or I've been told to talk to another department. Kreher called me back the same day,\" said Ryan Phinney, a 43-year-old paraplegic whose squad car was T-boned in 1989. He said he suffered with kidney stones, made more painful due to his paralysis, because NovaPro either ignored or rejected his claims for months. \"Kreher was defending us against people who refused to listen, and that is so offensive. It's no wonder he got upset,\" Phinney said. The city used to provide its own services, but \"there were concerns about internal management,\" Franklin's office explained to CNN, so it began contracting in 2004 with NovaPro. The police union complained for months about the company. Atlanta officials this month renewed the city's agreement with NovaPro for $3.7 million over three years, saying no other company they're aware of was in position to do a better job. Russ Whitmarsh, chief operating officer of NovaPro, referred all questions about the officers' allegations to city officials. Mayor Franklin's spokesperson issued this statement to CNN: . \"We are aware of the complaints of the five injured former Atlanta police officers. We greatly respect the service of these officers on behalf of Atlanta and the sacrifice they have made. The City of Atlanta has worked and will continue working with the employees' attorneys to address their current complaints. We take that responsibility and obligation seriously and intend to address every complaint within the framework of the Workers' Compensation Act.\" A few days after the bat comment, Kreher apologized to Franklin in a letter, which was published on the union Web site. He called his remark \"inexcusable,\" explaining that it sprung from \"frustration and anger.\"","highlights":"Atlanta police union head says he got frustrated at city meeting .\nOther cops quick to defend him, saying mayor is ignoring larger issue .\nPolice: Company refusing to help cops injured in the line of duty .\nMayor Franklin's spokesperson says mayor will work to address complaints .","id":"65706cca39aaaa9a91e72ce60b3bf08ff15af679"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- A man \"angered\" by Manchester United's defeat to Barcelona in the final of the Champions League killed four people when he drove a minibus into a crowd celebrating the Spanish side's victory, police in Nigeria have told CNN. Barcelona fans celebrate in the city's Las Ramblas thoroughfare early Thursday morning. Ten people were also injured in the incident in the town of Ogbo, where the driver was subsequently arrested, a Port Harcourt Police spokesperson said. \"He was displaying his anger at his team losing the match. The driver had passed the crowd then made a U-turn and ran into them,\" spokesperson Rita Inomey-Abbey said. Both Manchester United and Barcelona have a large fan base across the African continent, with millions tuning in to watch European football on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, more than 100 people were arrested in Barcelona city center in the early hours of Thursday morning following the Catalan team's 2-0 victory in Rome in the final of Europe's top club competition. Police arrested 119 young people after violence flared at a special celebration party in Place de Catalunya near the Las Ramblas thoroughfare, while 238 people suffered minor injuries. City officials estimated the damage at up to 100,000 euros ($140,000) as the youths attacked police with bottles and damaged shops, parks and public utilities such as lamp-posts. The trouble took some of the gloss off the achievement of Barcelona, who became the first team to win the Champions League, Spanish League and Spanish Cup titles in one season. Manager Josep Guardiola led the club to glory in his first season in charge, ending a period of three years without a trophy.","highlights":"Man drives minibus into a crowd celebrating Barcelona's Champions League win .\nThe Manchester United supporter was angry after his team's defeat in final .\nNigerian police confirm that 10 people were also injured in the attack .\nMan was arrested after incident that took place in the town of Ogbo .","id":"cfa0349fb668b9e053361f57db8ad9ba4be60a97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It is a boarding pass unlike any other. It's a memory of a day that nearly was his last on earth. US Airways passenger Barry Leonard now has the other half of his boarding pass from the fateful flight. When a FedEx package arrived at Barry Leonard's home recently, he had no idea it contained items from his flight that ended up in the Hudson River. Leonard was seated at the front of US Airways Flight 1549, and when pilot Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger amazingly landed the plane in the river, Leonard left everything he had behind and dove into the frigid water. He thought all he had left from that January day were the clothes he had on, including a pair of jeans he still wears. But recently the package with most of his left-behind belongings showed up at his Charlotte, North Carolina, home. \"Everything from the Wall Street Journal of that day to my W-2 form that I didn't even realize was in this package,\" he says. \"You know my briefcase that I'd had for decades, it was all of those things.\" Watch as Leonard brings out the items recovered from the water \u00bb . As he showed CNN the contents he discovered another item -- a memorable slip of paper. \"This is actually the other part of my boarding pass from January 15. As you can see here January 15, flight 1549 and my seat number 1C,\" he says. To help return personal items to its passengers, US Airways hired Global-BMS, a Texas-based company that recovers and restores items from large disasters. Global-BMS sorted through nearly 30,000 items from the flight, cleaning them in a slow, tedious process that often involved freeze-drying items to preserve them while they waited to be processed. \"Passengers' emotional ties to their possessions because of a traumatic incident like this, it's highly emotional. So we just want to make it available,\" Mark Rocco, a senior vice president of Global-BMS, tells CNN. Some of the items that were returned to the 150 travelers were unusable after being submerged, especially electronic items like headphones and music players. But for a lot of folks, personal effects show a little damage but are still good. Vicki Barnhardt tried on her running shoes, and though they were a little tight at first, she wears them now when she goes jogging in Huntersville, North Carolina. She tells CNN that she evacuated the plane only with her cellphone, leaving behind her purse, her wallet, driver's license, some flash drives and other items. She got most of her possessions from the plane back -- a coat, a pair of gloves and her cash are still missing -- and the items in the boxes seem in pretty good shape. The flash drives still work, though you can see some \"corrosion\" on them. She also got back a three-ring binder, and all her notes are still readable. Maryann Bruce found her diamonds in the parcel that was returned to her in Cornelius, North Carolina. It brought back memories of the landing in the river and made her thankful to be alive. \"I just focused on wow, you know, I got all this stuff back,\" she says. \"I can't believe I got all this stuff back, and I'm here to get the stuff back, versus the alternative where they would've been giving it to my loved ones. I didn't relive the anguish; I relived the 'Wow, I'm here to get it.' \"","highlights":"US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River on January 15 .\nPassengers scrambled to save their lives, leaving behind personal belongings .\nTexas company has recovered, restored and returned most of the 30,000 items .\nSome items, like one woman's four flash drives, are still in good shape .","id":"0517d2781edd8dd488fbf75ea511a2aedae953e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Millions of people around the world have taken part in ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement. Scouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society. Dawn celebrations involving 28 million young people took place across the globe, from Ecuador to Bhutan. In southern England, 40,000 young people from around the globe gathered to take part in the largest ever 12-day world Scout Jamboree. The island where the movement was born, Brownsea Island off the coast of England, has been the focus of celebrations, with 300 scouts from more than 160 countries attending a commemorative camp. It was on that site that Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp for 20 boys, following his experiences in the Army during the Boer War. The movement requests its members, boys and girls from the age of six, to uphold values such as trustworthiness, loyalty and to \"do their best\". Scouts from countries including the UK, Lebanon, Nepal, Rwanda, Serbia, Libya and Argentina, displayed their flags on the island, before taking part in a sunrise ceremony. In Romania, scouts formed a human chain around the Parliament building in the capital Bucharest to express how young people will play a role in the country's future. In Namibia, Africa, around 1,000 scouts cooked breakfast over a camp fire, and groups from Malawi camped at the top of Mulanje mountain. The Taj Mahal in India, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Sydney Opera House in Australia also witnessed sunrise ceremonies. The small gathering at Brownsea Island led the rest of the globe in renewing their Scouting promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society. A speech written by Baden-Powell during the first scout camp was also read out to the group. It includes a call for peace, comradeship and cooperation over rivalry between \"classes, creeds and countries which have done so much in the past to produce wars and unrest\". Alistair, 16, from Manchester, at the Brownsea Island ceremony, said: \"It has made me think how one man has changed the world. \"It is one world, one promise. We are all here as peace ambassadors. We are the next generation. We are the ones bringing peace forward into the world,\" he told the Press Association. Ana Mejia, 14, from Honduras, added: \"It doesn't matter what our nationality, our religion, our color, we are a family and we have to support each other. Baden-Powell's book \"Scouting for Boys\" is the fourth biggest selling book in the world after the Bible, the Koran and Mao's Little Red Book. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At least 28 million scouts across the world took part in sunrise ceremonies .\nScouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society .\nStarted by Robert Baden-Powell it upholds values such as trust and loyalty .","id":"462532c3236d03d4cf50301965f0118d179c71b9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK -- Talking excitedly and pacing the front of her classroom, Molly Greer engages her students. \"What are different paces you can go when you're reading aloud? Christina?\" Molly Greer, in her New York classroom, says she now wants to make teaching her career. \"Low.\" \"Okay, low or soft, yes.\" On the first day of school, most of the kids in Greer's eighth-grade class could not read at a sixth-grade level. With summer almost here, it's a totally different story for these kids, who according to their school are expected to read at or near grade level. \"It is an incredible thing for these students.\" Greer graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin. She arrived at PS 212, the multicultural magnet school in the Bronx, New York, two years ago with a degree in political science and a desire to change the world. \"When I found out about Teach For America,\" she said, \"I realized that teaching would be such an incredible way to make an impact.\" Teach For America is like a local Peace Corps serving some of the country's poorest public schools in inner cities and in rural areas. It has grown every year since its inception in 1990, sending 20,000 college graduates into the nation's neediest classrooms for a two-year commitment. This year, amid a tight job market, it is more popular than ever. According to the organization's Web site, their teachers get paid the same salary and benefits as beginning teachers in their area and are paid by the local school district. About 35,000 college seniors applied for the 2009 school year, a 42 percent jump from last year. \"We had less competition from Wall Street firms, banks and places like that. It just led a lot of students to really think about what they wanted to do and how they could make an impact,\" said Kevin Huffman, executive director of Teach For America. \"Eleven percent of the entire Ivy League senior class applied to join, 20 percent of African-American seniors at Ivy League schools, 8 percent of the University of Michigan and University of North Carolina,\" Huffman said, \"just an incredible outpouring of interest by people competing to teach in low-income communities.\" David Stanley went through the program and now recruits for Teach For America. He sees education as this generation's civil rights issue and says there is a direct correlation between the program's popularity and President Obama's call to service. \"With Obama talking about the need for people with talent to go into public education, and the fact that people are still really frustrated that we live in a country where 90 percent of kids in low-income communities don't go to college, and that the best way we can predict the number of prisons we're going to have to build in 25 years is by looking at third-grade reading skills, and so at this particular moment in time, I think it's really about getting our very best and asking them to go to the root of the problem, and the root of the problem is education.\" This year, Teach For America will place its largest corps ever. About 4,100 high achievers from the nation's top colleges will head to classrooms in 34 regions across the country, teaching in places like Boston, Massachusetts; Dallas, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee; and in more rural areas such as South Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta. But schools in Appalachia and elsewhere desperately need help. Huffman said, \"Districts across the country are facing the same economic pinch that many businesses are facing. And there are just fewer positions across the country available for teachers.\" Which is why a teachers union says those positions should go to career teachers, not inexperienced recruits who may stay only the required two years. \"It's very hard to justify laying off teachers who have given service to a school system and then turn around and bring in new teachers,\" argued John Wilson of the National Education Association, the nation's largest professional employee organization for the advancement of public education. Besides the matter of taking away potential jobs from career teachers, unions question whether these young recruits have the right credentials and experience to handle tough classrooms. \"When you're assigning these teachers to the highest poverty schools, the most challenging schools, these children need the most experienced, the most prepared teachers, and they're not getting them,\" Wilson said, \"and that's quite a disadvantage.\" Teach For America maintains that its members go through a rigorous five-week training camp and that while on the job, many pursue a teaching certificate or master's degree in education. New York will be taking 330 corps members into its schools this year. Vicki Bernstein, who is in charge of teacher recruitment and quality for the city's Department of Education, says teachers coming in through alternative programs, like Teach For America, perform as well as teachers from traditional routes. \"They serve some of our highest-need children, both in terms of neighborhoods that we have difficulty attracting traditionally prepared teachers and in subject areas where we have difficulty, that teacher colleges are not preparing teachers in those areas.\" The organization says two-thirds of its recruits stay in academics, like Greer, who now plans on teaching as a career. She says her experience in the classroom has been incredibly rewarding. \"When the kid makes the two years of reading growth and they have the biggest smile on their face because they achieved their goal through their own hard work,\" she said, \"that feeling that I contributed to that student is the best compliment I can get, because I know that kid is in a better place to succeed in their future.\"","highlights":"Teach For America places college grads as teachers in low-income schools .\nSome question whether graduates are qualified to teach in tough classrooms .\nGroup will place more than 4,000 teachers across United States this year .","id":"6cac107d8efa578a3e8e4d076dc113f5821471e9"} -{"article":"Leslie Sanchez is a Republican political strategist and co-chair of the Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity Institute (www.hapinstitute.net), a pro-business advocacy organization. She was director of the Bush administration's White House Initiative on Hispanic Education from 2001 to 2003 and is CEO of the Impacto Group, which specializes in market research about women and Hispanics. Leslie Sanchez says it remains to be seen if Sotomayor agrees with the broader Hispanic community's values. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration has no intention of pushing comprehensive immigration reform any time soon, but with his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the president may have found a suitable consolation prize for the Hispanic community. A prize is due. Hispanics gave 67 percent of their votes to President Obama, delivering key states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico to his electoral column, and sending him two new Democratic senators and three new House Democrats from those states alone. But the problem with identity politics is that not just any Hispanic will do. Obama made clear he wanted to pick a justice who would have empathy for those whose cases come before the court. As impressive as Sotomayor's life story is, it remains to be seen whether she truly has the much-talked-about \"empathy\" for Hispanic values and dreams. If Sotomayor is truly representative of our values, she will understand that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the Hispanic community and is our best hope for moving Hispanic households solidly into the ranks of the American middle class. In a study earlier this year, HispanTelligence, the research arm of Hispanic Business magazine, confirmed that there are at least 2.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S., generating about $388 billion in combined revenue. Empathy with the lives of millions of Hispanics today means that she must appreciate the impact of federal, state and municipal tax and regulatory schemes on individuals and small businesses alike. Her writings should reflect the view that access to the marketplace is a constitutional guarantee no less important than freedoms of speech, religion or assembly. If she understands the hopes and aspirations of the Hispanic community, she should have a record of interpreting the Commerce Clause of the Constitution in ways that encourage individual risk-taking, free enterprise and job creation, not in ways that discourage it. Likewise, Sotomayor should show evidence of being suspicious of government's power. Many Hispanics are fresh from regimes where the rule of law has been crushed or never existed; we know that with centralized power comes arrogance, and that bureaucracies inevitably become cold, callous, unyielding and corrupt. She should be imbued with a core appreciation that our Constitution establishes a government of limited, enumerated powers, and should have a record of writings and decisions that support the conclusion that she will err on the side of limiting, not expanding, the powers and influence of government. Like all other immigrants, Hispanics came here with the hope of acquiring property for themselves and their children. We treasure as sacred our own homes, farms and land, and we know there is often little practical difference between broad government restrictions on the use and enjoyment of that property and its being taken outright. As a Supreme Court justice, Sotomayor should believe, as we Hispanics do, that the Constitution affords us due process and just compensation in either case -- and that no property should be taken unless there is a legitimate public use. As everyone knows, at the core of the Hispanic experience are our families and the opportunity to freely exercise our religion. The next justice, if she is empathetic to our lives and values, will protect the sanctity of the family and of life itself. Obama's nomination of the first Latina to the Supreme Court is a historic moment that has moved each of us, but our pride will be fleeting if she doesn't really share Hispanic values. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Leslie Sanchez.","highlights":"Leslie Sanchez: Obama sought a high-court nominee who would show empathy .\nBut, Sanchez asks, as a justice, who would Sotomayor empathize with?\nHispanic community places high value on entrepreneurship and family, she says .\nSanchez: Will Sotomayor share those values if confirmed to the court?","id":"a94126b9c0cbb0cb8f57653ccc6b9c1b05944ac2"} -{"article":"BENTON HARBOR, Michigan (CNN) -- Former President Bush said that if Laura Bush hadn't been his wife, he isn't sure he could have counted on her vote. Laura Bush's \"patience and her enthusiasm ... made our marriage a really good marriage,\" President Bush said. \"I can promise you that her life dream when she was growing up was not to be first lady of the United States,\" he told a Michigan audience in one of his first major domestic speeches since leaving the White House. \"Frankly, I am not so sure that if we hadn't married, she'd have voted for me,\" he joked of his wife, who was raised in a Democratic family. The high-tension atmosphere of the presidency strengthened his marriage, Bush said. \"There's a lot of pressure in the White House, as I'm sure you can imagine. Pressure sometimes can make a marriage stronger or weaker. In my case because of her patience and her enthusiasm, it made our marriage a really good marriage,\" Bush said. The pressure of the presidency, he said, weighs most on family members. \"It's much harder to be the son of the president than to be the president. And it's much harder to be the father of the president than to be the president,\" he said in a reference to his dad, former President George H.W. Bush. \"And I used to have to admonish him not pay attention to what they were writing on the editorial pages about his son. I had gone through the same agony myself. And so I am confident that the end of the presidency is a great relief because of our strong love.\" Something else Bush called a great relief: having a vice president, Dick Cheney, who had no plans to run for the top spot. \"I was pleased to have someone serve as my vice president who was not running for president, because someone who is running for president, at times, will try to distance themselves,\" Bush said. \"If things got tough, [he] could be one of the first persons off the ship, and that would be really unpleasant in the White House.\" Bush said he wasn't surprised to lose public support for some of the main elements of his national security agenda. \"I was frustrated because the stakes were so high in some of the decisions that I had to make. I wasn't surprised that people would forget the feeling of how they felt after September 11. I was grateful that people were moving beyond September 11. As a president, you don't want your nation to be so worried about an attack that people don't go about their lives. ... The psychology of the nation concerned me. Which then made it harder to get people to listen to you, to some of the decisions I made.\" The fact that Americans tuned out media coverage of the risk of terrorism wasn't surprising to him either, he said; he ignored most news coverage himself. \"The truth of the matter is, I never watched the nightly news, because it was predictable, I thought. Nor did I ever pay attention to the editorial pages, good editorials or bad,\" he said. \"I knew what was in the news. When you're president, you can get so obsessed with this stuff that I felt it would cloud your vision. \"The truth of the matter is, there is so much attention paid to you, I thought it was important even in the toughest moments to be upbeat and not to be so worried about myself that I couldn't convey a sense of confidence.\" He mused on the transition to a far calmer existence after the presidency. \"People ask, what is it like? Well, I have never stopped at a traffic light for eight years,\" he said. \"The neighborhood we live in is nice. You know, Laura bought this house sight unseen. At least she saw. I didn't. It was like a faith-based initiative.\" Bush will take the stage Friday night with former President Clinton in Toronto, Ontario, for what's being termed a \"conversation.\"","highlights":"Ex-President Bush gives one of first major domestic speeches after White House .\nBush discusses his marriage and life after presidency .\n\"I am not so sure that if we hadn't married, she'd have voted for me,\" Bush says .\nBush also says he wasn't surprised to lose public support on security issues .","id":"ba0e70014824bb9eb5881f3d07d2bdcca9a4844b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Described as the largest single gathering of displaced residents in the world today, tens of thousands of civilians are seeking shelter along the Afgooye corridor outside Mogadishu, according to the United Nations. Members of the U.S. Navy take a young Somali boy to safety after rescuing him and 51 others adrift in a skiff. Fighting between government forces and Islamist militias has triggered the flight of more than 67,000 Somalis in and around Mogadishu since May 8, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. Most of them are heading to the Afgooye corridor, a 30-kilometer (19-mile) stretch of ramshackle housing described by the United Nations' World Food Program as \"a nightmare.\" The corridor between Mogadishu and the town of Afgooye is already home to 400,000 displaced Somalis, some of them living in huts made of twigs and branches. The clinics are already overwhelmed with malnourished and sick children. This week, Somalia's transitional president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, asked the international community \"to help Somalia defend against foreign militants who have invaded the country.\" Ahmed told local journalists Monday that he feared these foreign fighters would turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces are fighting Islamic extremist groups. The fighting has cut supplies of \"desperately needed humanitarian aid\" to the displaced Somalis near the capital city, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. \"We are starting today the distribution of aid for some 50,000 people in Afgooye corridor through our local partners in Somalia,\" the refugee office said Tuesday. \"Today's distribution will include cooking sets, plastic sheeting, blankets and mats.\" The number of Somali refugees fleeing to nearby countries also continues to rise, with some 500,000 already in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea and Tanzania. Many Somalis have also made the dangerous journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. On Saturday, a U.S. guided missile destroyer rescued a group of 52 Somali men women and children -- including a woman who was eight months pregnant -- who had been stranded aboard a small skiff for nearly a week off Somalia's coast, the U.S. Navy said. See photos of the rescue \u00bb . A helicopter based on the USS Lake Champlain happened to spot the stranded mariners, according to the vessel's commanding officer. \"It's fortunate that our helicopter was flying over the right place at the right time,\" Capt. Kevin P. Campbell said in a U.S. Navy news release. \"I'm glad we were able to be of assistance and rescue these men, women and children. Our chief hospital corpsman stated that had we not found them at the time we did, the pregnant woman may not have survived.\" USS Lake Champlain has been deployed as part of the U.S. 5th Fleet's mission to patrol the Gulf of Aden region, which has been plagued by pirate attacks off Somalia's coast. \"We were very fortunate to have come across these people in the state they were in,\" said the ship's chaplain, Lt. j.g. Jarrod Johnson. \"Seeing their condition really makes your heart go out to them. You can see the relief and hope in their eyes, and hear it in their conversation.\"","highlights":"Fighting has triggered flight of more than 67,000 Somalis since May 8 .\nMost heading to Afgooye corridor, a 30-kilometer stretch of ramshackle housing .\nPresident Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed speaking at a conference in Mogadishu .\nAhmed fears foreign fighters will turn Somalia into another Iraq or Afghanistan .","id":"0320d19bfb6d6b2a7a459d336121f7765cd11df6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As the first splinters of sunlight spread their warmth on the south bank of the River Thames on Thursday, it became clear that after more than a century, the vision of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St. George had finally been realized. The Telectroscope lets Londoners and New Yorkers see each other in real time. In all its optical brilliance and brass and wood, there stood the Telectroscope: an 11.2-meter-(37 feet) long by 3.3-meter-(11 feet) tall dream of a device allowing people on one side of the Atlantic to look into its person-size lens and, in real time, see those on the other side via a recently completed tunnel running under the ocean. (Think 19th-century Webcam. Or maybe Victorian-age video phone.) And all the credit goes to British artist Paul St. George. If he had not been rummaging through great-grandpa Alexander's personal effects a few years ago, the Telectroscope might still exist only on paper, hidden away deep inside some old box. But fortunately, St. George could not bear that thought and thus decided he should be the one to finish what his great-grandfather had started. It was quite simply the right thing to do. Plus, it would make a pretty cool public art exhibit. Send us your videos, images or stories . During the twilight hours Tuesday, massive dirt-covered metal drill bits miraculously emerged -- one by the Thames near the Tower Bridge and the other on Fulton Ferry Landing by the Brooklyn Bridge in New York -- completing the final sections of great-grandfather Alexander's transatlantic tunnel. The drills were removed Wednesday night and replaced with identical Telectroscopes at both ends, allowing Londoners and New Yorkers to wake up Thursday, look over to the far and distant shore and stare at each other for a while (the telescope-like contraption permits visual but not vocal communication). Of course, only part of this story is true. St. George is an artist in Britain who does have a grandfather -- minus the great prefix -- named Alexander. And the trans-Atlantic tunnel is really a trans-Atlantic broadband network rounded off on each end with HD cameras, according to Tiscali, an Italian Internet provider handling the technical side of the project. As for the Telectroscope, well, it was a fanciful idea that, according to St. George, came about from a typo made by a 19th-century reporter who misspelled Electroscope, a device used to measure electrostatic charges - as Telectroscope. \"The journalist also misunderstood what it was about and wrote in the article that it was a device for the suppression of absence,\" St. George said. \"The accidental hope captured their imagination, and lots of people at the end of the 19th century thought it was a great idea.\" The Telectroscope captured St. George's imagination five years ago, when he began pondering how to do a project on the childhood fantasy of digging a hole to the opposite side of the Earth. And because the artist also happens to have an expertise in Victorian chronophotography -- a precursor to cinematography -- he had a slight idea of where to look for the proper equipment. \"We all have that idea in our head if we could make a tunnel to the other side of the Earth,\" St. George said.\"But we are not all crazy enough to actually try and do it.\" St. George was crazy enough to actually try and do it, but he realized he could not do the digging alone. So about two years ago, he pitched the idea to Artichoke, the British arts group responsible for taking the Sultan's Elephant -- a 42-ton mechanical creature -- for a stroll through central London in 2006. The company was immediately taken by St. George's idea. \"The whole thing is about seeing what is real and what isn't real and how the world is,\" said Nicki Webb, a co-founder of Artichoke. \"Is it nighttime when we are in daytime, and does it look familiar to us or not?\" When the sun illuminated the lens of the Telectroscope next to the Thames, it was, of course, still nighttime in New York. So the screen inside the scope broadcast back only an empty sidewalk silently framed by the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. But then something miraculous occurred. A police officer and a street cleaner walked into the frame. Stopped. And waved. The Telectroscope will be on display and open to the public 24 hours a day in London and New York until June 15. Artichoke is arranging requests to synchronize special reunions between friends and family or, the company hopes, maybe even a marriage proposal.","highlights":"Telectroscope allows Londoners, New Yorkers to see each other in real time .\nGiant scope was Victorian age idea, came about when reporter made typo .\nArtist St. George inspired by childhood notion of digging to other side of Earth .","id":"e317046dd2c341f25cf4ea000fd5cd32459240e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One was the archetypal military strongman, intent on maintaining the social order and saving his country from \"catastrophe.\" The other was a charismatic shipyard electrician and trade union leader who was just as determined to lead his countrymen to freedom. Wojciech Jaruzelski and Lech Walesa attend the first multi-party session of the Polish parliament in 1989. Yet nowadays Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last leader of communist Poland, and Lech Walesa both claim, in their different ways, to have played their part in setting Poland on the path to democracy. The rise of Solidarity, the union and social movement which Walesa founded among the dockers of Gdansk in 1980, was crucial to the ultimate collapse of communism in Poland and across the Soviet bloc. Feted in the West, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 after spending nearly a year locked up as Jaruzelski clamped down on dissent, becoming a symbol of a rising tide of resentment behind the Iron Curtain. By 1989, Solidarity had become an unstoppable social movement, sweeping to victory as the communist authorities relinquished their grip on power by allowing free elections. Walesa describes the union as a screw turning in the opposite direction to the communist regime, ultimately \"destroying the engine.\" \"The system was 10 times less efficient than the western system,\" Walesa told CNN, recalling his decade-long struggle. \"It paid less, life was worse. Each country enslaved by the Soviets was different and in Poland we had TV and people could travel so we knew life could be better... and we'd never given up.\" But Jaruzelski still believes that without his decision to impose martial law in 1981, Poland's revolt against Soviet domination would have been as ruthlessly and violently quashed by Moscow as had those in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. \"For me personally it was a great tragedy, the consequences of which I've felt to this day,\" Jaruzelski told CNN. \"Martial law was evil. But it was less evil than the real and inevitable threat we were facing. There was a threat of an explosion -- and an explosion in Poland would have meant an explosion throughout Europe.\" As a key link in the Soviet Union's chain of Eastern European satellite states, Jaruzelski believes Moscow would never have allowed Poland to break away peacefully: \"I feared a terrible catastrophe. If martial law had not happened, Poland might have been flooded by a sea of blood.\" Walesa admits the threat of Soviet intervention in the early 1980s was real, but says Solidarity had already won the argument against communism by the time Jaruzelski imposed martial law. \"I knew we were not going to fight,\" he said. \"Because in Poland there were over 200,000 Soviet troops, they had nuclear arms, and they shot better than us. We could conquer them only this way: You can arrest us, but when we come out we do the same, and we will never work for communism again.\" Even his arrest and imprisonment only deepened Walesa's belief that Jaruzelski's government could be toppled: \"My friends advised me to run away but I made a different decision. When they came to arrest me, I said, 'You have lost, I have won. You have just put the last nails into the coffin of communism.'\" These days Jaruzelski is no defender of the system which he served, describing communism as \"beautiful and noble, but utopian.\" Yet he believes Solidarity's demands in the early 1980s amounted to an \"economic time bomb\" and that Poland was not ready for democracy at the time. \"The system was bad, I admit it today,\" he said. \"But at the time, I wasn't aware of that. Everything has to ripen -- corn, fruit, man and societies. Western countries took centuries to arrive at democracy. Except for six or seven years after World War I Poland had never been democratic so it was a difficult process.\" The Polish authorities also realized the urgency of economic and political reform, Jaruzelski adds, and had already begun the process before the Round Table talks with Solidarity in 1989 that led to elections. \"It was a difficult and painful process for both sides,\" he said. \"I can talk primarily of the government side, and what huge resistance I had to overcome among the people who were in power -- in the party, in the state, the army and the security apparatus.\" Both men pay tribute to outside forces which made the leap to democracy possible. For Jaruzelski, Mikhail Gorbachev's emergence in the Kremlin marked a \"breakthrough moment\" in which the threat of Soviet military intervention in Poland was lifted, and a possible end to the Cold War loomed into sight. Walesa and Jaruzelski also acknowledge the unique role of the Polish-born Pope John Paul II and the Catholic church in brokering peaceful talks between the two sides. For Jaruzelski, though, the fall of communism was not the product of Solidarity alone or a single summer of upheaval but \"a great river made up of numerous streams.\" \"Nobody should monopolize that victory,\" he said. \"Because in this stream there was Gorbachev; there was Reagan and then Bush, who caused the weakening of the Soviet Union by the arms race; there was Solidarity; there was the pope, and there were also -- which I will say without humbleness -- the reformists within the authorities at the time.\" Both Jaruzelski and Walesa paint themselves as reluctant leaders. Jaruzelski describes his decision to become Polish prime minister as \"one of the greatest mistakes of my life,\" while Walesa, who was elected Polish president in 1990, says it was never his wish to lead his country -- \"but who else could have done it?\" Jaruzelski remains a divisive figure in modern Poland, derided by many as a living symbol of an oppressive past and occasionally summoned to court rooms to answer charges relating to his career as a leading servant of the communist regime. \"My generation, which remembers those times and can evaluate them in a balanced way, is passing away,\" he said. \"And the new, younger generation, through school, books and TV, are being indoctrinated to be critical of martial law. Still, a large part of the society -- the majority, I think -- considers martial law to have been inevitable and justified.\" Yet even Jaruzelski says Poles can be \"proud\" of their role in the downfall of communist regimes across Europe: \"The Polish elections preceded the revolutions in Hungary and in Czechoslovakia and the fall of the Berlin Wall. That impulse, that example that came from us, was of great significance and I think it is our great historical tribute.\" Walesa, unsurprisingly, offers a more direct assessment: \"Poland knocked out the teeth of the Soviet bear. Once we had done that, knocking down the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution, all was made possible -- but only once the bear had no teeth.\" CNN's Claudia Rebaza interviewed Wojciech Jaruzelski. CNN's Fredrik Pleitgen interviewed Lech Walesa.","highlights":"Former Polish leaders Jaruzelski, Walesa speak to CNN .\nJaruzelski was military leader who declared martial law in 1981 .\nWalesa was leader of Solidarity, first president of post-communist Poland .\nBoth men claim to have played key roles in Poland's transition to democracy .","id":"579f16eaf55685de58e1c6d1d4c0d4e41f7df719"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The winner of the 82nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee said Friday she is \"pretty excited\" but a little tired. Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, reacts to winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. \"This has been my dream for so long; I've always wanted to win the bee,\" Kavya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kansas, told CNN. \"I was just really excited when I was able to go up and spell the last word.\" The eighth-grader won $40,000 in cash and prizes for nailing the final word, \"Laodicean,\" which means lukewarm or indifferent, particularly in matters of politics or religion. This year's bee -- an event that has skyrocketed in popularity thanks to exposure on television and in movies -- started Tuesday in Washington with a record 293 spellers. Kavya endured 15 rounds. In an event that has seen contestants crack under the strain of the national spotlight, Kavya -- competing in her fourth national finals -- appeared composed throughout. Watch the poised winner describe the thrill \u00bb . As she spelled words such as \"phoresy,\" \"hydrargyrum\" and \"huisache,\" she calmly went through the routine of asking each word's pronunciation, origin and roots before ticking their spellings off for the judges. \"I focus so much on my word; I don't really pay attention to all the cameras and photographers and all the media in front of me,\" she said Friday. Kavya's father, who is her spelling coach, would tap his foot in time as she spelled the words, and at one point he appeared so confident that he waved to someone while his daughter was in the middle of spelling a word. Second-place finisher Tim Ruiter of Reston, Virginia, bowed out after misspelling \"Maecenas,\" meaning a generous patron of the arts. Kavya said she would miss competing in the spelling bee, as the rules do not permit her to enter next year. \"It was such a big part of my life, and I love doing it,\" she said. However, she may someday have a new role in the competition. \"If my [little] sister gets to D.C. sometime soon, I'd really love to help and coach her,\" she said. Kavya attends California Trail Junior High School in the Kansas City suburb. Her hobbies include swimming, cycling and traditional Indian dance, according to the contest's Web site. She plans on becoming a neurosurgeon. The first National Spelling Bee took place in 1925, with five contestants. CNN's Devon Sayers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, wins in fourth trip to national finals .\nThe 13-year-old eighth-grader will receive $40,000 in cash and prizes .\nFocus on task keeps cameras and media from distracting her, Kavya says .\nGirl may return to scene if younger sister does well in future competitions .","id":"bfa1f117dc28b1e0142f46ab101c4a1a2087e927"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher on Saturday denied that he is the man shown pointing at the Google Street View camera as it drove past his local pub in London last summer. Liam Gallagher says the figure captured on Google Earth outside a pub in London is not him. \"Just saw google earth apparently that's meant to be me, who ... wears legwarmers with reeboks?? Not this kid!! LG,\" he wrote on Twitter. Though available for a while in the United States, Google Street View only launched in Britain last week. As in America, the launch in Britain prompted people all over the country to try to find themselves or spot funny images and famous faces on the service. Gallagher was apparently spotted outside The Queens pub in Camden, in north London, a place he's known to frequent. The picture shows a man dressed in a dark T-shirt and long shorts sitting at an outdoor table. He points at the camera, obviously having seen the Google car and its Street View camera drive by. The service blurs people's faces so it is hard to confirm whether it is Gallagher. Though the man isn't wearing legwarmers, Gallagher is apparently talking about the man's ankle-high shoes and thick black socks.","highlights":"Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher denies Google Earth appearance .\nFans said man captured on camera drinking outside London pub was singer .\nGallagher said the man was too embarrassingly dressed to be him .","id":"df3343dffeaca447a8894d62a4833e7c98965bb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An American human rights group documenting widespread sexual violence against Darfuri women in Sudan and Chad has called for \"vigorous prosecution of rape as a war crime.\" Sudanese women in a refugee camp in southern Chad in March. Physicians for Human Rights, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, issued a report Sunday \"documenting the scope and long-term impact of rape and other sexual violence\" experienced by women who fled the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur and now live as refugees in neighboring Chad. The report -- titled \"Nowhere To Turn: Failure To Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women\" -- is based on interviews with 88 female refugees living in Chad's Farchana refugee camp. The study was done with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. \"Many Darfuri women refugees live in a nightmare of memories of past trauma compounded by the constant threat of sexual violence around the camps now,\" said Susannah Sirkin, the physician group's deputy director. \"Women who report being raped are stigmatized, and remain trapped in places of perpetual insecurity. There's no one to stop the rapes, no one to turn to for justice for past or ongoing crimes, and little psycho-social support to address their prolonged and unimaginable traumas.\" Dr. Sondra Crosby, a Physicians for Human Rights consultant and expert in refugee trauma, said \"the atmosphere of intimidation was palpable as we listened to women describing their profound suffering and fear, and their yearning to return safely and with dignity to their former lives.\" Of those refugees interviewed, \"32 reported instances of confirmed or highly probable rape\" -- 17 in Darfur and 15 in Chad, the group said. \"Among the instances of rape reported in Chad, the vast majority (10 of 11 confirmed reports) occurred when women left the camps to gather firewood.\" And just over half of the 88 women interviewed -- 46 of them -- live in fear of sexual assaults around the refugee camp. The group supports the issuing of International Criminal Court warrants against the Sudanese perpetrators. The group also called for \"legal reforms in Chad to end impunity for sexual violence,\" and for \"effective psychosocial support to survivors.\" And it said increased protections are needed by police and peacekeepers, including \"effective firewood patrols.\" The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 after rebels in the western region of Sudan began attacking government positions. Sudan's government responded with a fierce military campaign that has led to some 200,000 deaths and forced 2 million people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.","highlights":"88 Darfuri women interviewed in Chad described \"profound\" suffering and fear .\nExpert in refugee trauma says \"the atmosphere of intimidation was palpable\"\n200,000 people have died, 2 million have fled the region since fighting began in 2003 .","id":"6c3daec1c9b9139ae84614ad1d7aa832f91d7dc5"} -{"article":"Fourth seed Elena Dementieva avoided an embarrassing early exit when comeback queen Jelena Dokic's French Open hopes were ended by a back injury on Thursday. Jelena Dokic was left in tears after being forced to retire hurt against Elena Dementieva at the French Open. Dokic, taking part in her first French Open since 2004 following well-documented family problems, won the first set 6-2 and -- after her first break for treatment -- broke the 2004 finalist to lead 3-2 in their second round clash. But the Russian won the next two games as the tearful former world No.4 was reduced to walking pace before calling it quits. \"I went for a return and I just went down and couldn't get back up,\" she said. \"It's very painful and very disappointing because I felt as if I had the match in my hands.\" Dokic, now ranked 80th after reviving her career with a run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January, had won her opening match on Tuesday when she came back from a set down to beat Slovenia's Karolina Sprem 3-6 6-1 6-2. The 26-year-old's career had nosedived following her highly-publicized split from controversial mentor and father Damir. Dementieva will next play Australian 30th seed Samantha Stosur, who won her second-round match in straight sets against Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer. Earlier on Thursday, the Williams sisters also progressed through to the third round with contrasting victories. Second seed Serena crushed Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2 6-0 to set up a clash with another unseeded Spaniard, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. Third seed Venus survived a scare against unseeded Czech Lucie Safarova before completing a match that was halted on Wednesday night due to bad light. The American saved a match point at 5-4 down in the third set before managing to hold, break her opponent and then serve out to love for a 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-5 success. Venus, who lost the 2002 final to Serena, will next play Hungarian 29th seed Agnes Szavay. Fifth seed Jelena Jankovic had no such troubles in beating Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1 6-2, setting up a third-round clash with unseeded Austrian Jarmila Groth. Seventh-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced along with Danish 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki, but 13th seed Marion Bartoli of France made a surprise exit. The 2007 Wimbledon finalist lost 6-3 7-5 to Tathiana Garbin of Italy, who will next take on unseeded Virginie Razzano of France.","highlights":"Jelena Dokic's emotional French Open comeback ended by a back injury .\nFormer world No.4 was in tears before walking off the court at Roland Garros .\nShe had led Elena Dementieva 6-2 3-2 in her first Paris outing since 2004 .\nBut she called it quits after Russian fourth seed won the next two games .","id":"189946270fe1f64ee02f2877679c075b5645c0bb"} -{"article":"(ESSENCE) -- Two weeks ago, 3-year-old Jaquan Reed was fatally shot on Chicago, Illinois', West Side. Men participate in the Million Father March to support children going to school. While the case shook the city, such shootings involving children are no longer rare in the Windy City. Within the current academic year, 36 Chicago-area students were killed. Essence.com spoke to Phillip Jackson, a well-known political activist in the city and also founder of Black Star Project, a Chicago-based community outreach group, about what is being done to end the senseless shootings involving children. The following is an edited version of that interview: . ESSENCE: There have been so many shootings and deaths. Please tell us what's happening in Chicago? ESSENCE: Xerox names Ursula Burns CEO . Phillip Jackson: This is a national catastrophe that is happening while we as a country do nothing. We're asking for national attention. This is a pandemic. We will not be able to solve this problem in Chicago unless they can solve this same problem in Houston [Texas] and other cities. Watch our panelists talk about the growing violence in Chicago \u00bb . ESSENCE: The nation's first black president is from Chicago. And you still do not feel like there is enough attention placed on this problem? Jackson: Newspapers from all over the world have come to our offices this past week to say, \"What is happening in President Barack Obama's backyard?\" And 75 percent of the children murdered here in Chicago happened within eight miles of President Obama's former house. So if he doesn't respond as president, and we are hoping he does, he needs to respond as a resident. ESSENCE: What has been the police response? Jackson: They've put together a 400-unit gang SWAT team. They're trying to match guns with the gangs. But with all of that they can't stop one murder because they're approaching it from the wrong way. ESSENCE: Obama's time in office . ESSENCE: What is the right way to approach it? Jackson: Instill strong families and strong communities. Build strong parenting groups. Do you know what has been the best mentoring organization in the United States of America? Street gangs. ESSENCE: In other cities, where there is a lot of gang violence, like Baltimore [Maryland], there are regular people in the community coming together and trying to fix it. What are regular people doing about this in Chicago? Jackson: First of all, they're raising their voices. Number two, they're rallying, they're marching, and they're organizing. That's what this effort is going to take. Number three, they're engaging in recreational programs. ESSENCE: Toledo cops say teen provoked them . So there is more happening at the grassroots level than at the federal level. But those people cannot succeed without support. And that's why we're asking President Obama to bring his resources. ESSENCE: What is the mind-set of Chicago youth with all of these horrendous acts of violence occurring? Jackson: Hopelessness, desperation, anger. They live in America. They see how America takes care of the whole world but won't take care of them in the communities in which they live.","highlights":"Essence speaks to political activist in Chicago about children's deaths .\n36 Chicago-area students killed in current academic school year .\n75 percent of children killed within 8 miles of President Obama's former house .\nChildren see how America takes care of the world but not them, activist says .","id":"365d79c0b7fbb97745febc3111b261f391c5230c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in January, will star in a reality television series about her family, a TV executive said. Nadya Suleman will star in a \"quasi-reality TV series,\" says a TV executive. The Eyeworks executive, who asked not to be named, confirmed a Us magazine report that quoted Suleman's lawyer, Jeff Czech, saying a deal has been reached after months of negotiations. The \"quasi-reality TV series\" would be \"an arrangement whereby several events in the children's lives would be filmed in a documentary series,\" Czech told Us. Eyeworks' British division will produce the show, the Eyeworks executive said. \"There is a story to be told\" about the family, he said. \"They might be several shows aired during a year. There are all kinds of possibilities. It really depends on what the networks want,\" Czech was quoted as saying. Though he said the show has not been named, Suleman has sought to trademark her media nickname -- Octomom -- for a TV show and a line of diapers. Suleman has six other children. All 14 were conceived through in-vitro fertilization.","highlights":"Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets in January and had 6 children already .\nSuleman will star in a TV show, produced by Eyeworks' British division .\nThe \"quasi-reality TV series\" would film the lives of her children in documentary style .","id":"f565fab609995c88d068079991af5b07faf811c3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A crude bomb made from a water bottle was used in an explosion that damaged a Starbucks coffee shop on New York's posh Upper East Side, New York police said. Monday's explosion shattered glass at the Manhattan Starbucks coffee shop. No one was injured. The Memorial Day explosion damaged the shop, but no one was injured and no motive has been identified for the bombing. \"We believe it to be ... a six- to 10-ounce water bottle that was wrapped in black tape,\" New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN on Wednesday. He said the bomb's powder may have come from fireworks components, including a fuse. The powder was placed inside the bottle in a way that made it \"more powerful,\" Kelly said. He said a forensics unit is working on finding fingerprints. The homemade bomb, which went off around 3:30 a.m., shattered glass, but no one was injured. The store was not open. Police have said the device was planted under a wooden bench outside the coffee shop. \"We have a witness who believes he saw two young people he describes as teenagers, both white males,\" the commissioner said. One is described as blond, wearing a red shirt, and the other had brown hair and wore a gray shirt. Kelly said the witness saw the two approach the Starbucks, then looked away. After the witness heard the blast, he said he saw the two young people run away from the building. Kelly said that for now, it's impossible to say whether the bombing was politically motivated. \"We don't know if they were a corporate target or somebody had a problem [with] what was going on on that corner, in general ... we're not ruling anything out.\" In 1999, a Starbucks in Seattle, Washington, was vandalized during a world trade conference. In February 2008, a Vancouver Starbucks and another restaurant were damaged by an overnight explosion. New York police say they're aware of both incidents, but Kelly says it is too early to draw any conclusions. \"In the past, they [Starbucks] sort have been identified with the globalization movement. ... We're not saying that this is the case in this matter.\"","highlights":"New York police say the bomb outside a Starbucks was made from a water bottle .\nThe Memorial Day explosion damaged store but injured no one .\nThe blast happened about 3:30 a.m. on the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan .\nSuspects and motive -- including possibility of political motivation -- still being sought .","id":"696da15c2d7caa67e8a90bdca6c069bf2639aa96"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg plans to undergo a \"precautionary\" course of chemotherapy following her surgery last month for pancreatic cancer, the Supreme Court announced Tuesday. President Obama greets Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on her arrival for his February 24 address to Congress. The treatments will begin later this month at the National Institutes of Health outside Washington, the court said. In a statement, the justice said the treatment is \"not expected to affect my schedule at the court. Thereafter, it is anticipated that I will require only routine examinations to assure my continuing health.\" Ginsburg, who turned 76 on Sunday, has consistently signaled her health outlook is positive. She termed the February 5 removal of her cancer \"successful,\" and was back on the bench 18 days later when the high court resumed oral arguments. Ginsburg's post-op recovery has gone well, and doctors and the family are cautiously optimistic, court sources said. The disease was caught early and had not spread beyond her pancreas, doctors have said. \"Cancer patients with no evidence of disease after surgery but who have a statistical chance that there is microscopic spread often get chemotherapy to kill off that disease,\" explained Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. Getting back into her regular routine was important to the justice, and it would help her cope with future medical treatment, sources close to her said. She successfully fought colorectal cancer a decade ago. Almost 35,000 Americans are estimated to have died from pancreatic cancer in 2008, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer death overall, according to the American Cancer Society. For all ages combined, the one-year survival rate is 24 percent; the five-year survival rate is 5 percent. The low survival rate is a result of the disease commonly going undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. Ginsburg -- the only woman on the Supreme Court -- entered a New York hospital after a CT scan in January \"revealed a small tumor, approximately one centimeter across, in the center of the pancreas,\" a previous news release said. She has kept a busy schedule, on and off the bench. Since her diagnosis, she has released three opinions, attended President Obama's February 24 address to Congress, gone to an opera production in the company of Justice David Souter, and traveled for several speeches. She told an audience last week in Boston, Massachusetts, that she had no plans to retire, but on the subject of court retirements she hinted cryptically, \"We haven't had any of those for some time, but surely we will soon.\" Ginsburg, Souter and Justice John Paul Stevens frequently have been mentioned as likely to step down in the next few years. Ginsburg also said her former colleague, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- herself a cancer survivor -- had offered her some good advice. \"She said when you're up to chemotherapy, you do it on Friday, Friday afternoon. You'll get over it over the weekend, and you'll be able to come to the court on Monday,\" said Ginsburg, who noted O'Connor returned to work nine days after her breast cancer diagnosis. \"So I've been following her advice meticulously.\" Ginsburg has been on the Supreme Court since 1993.","highlights":"Supreme Court justice, 76, will receive chemotherapy treatments .\nDoctors removed small tumor from her pancreas in February .\nRuth Bader Ginsburg consistently signals her health outlook is good .\nRetired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave Ginsburg advice on chemotherapy .","id":"dd5199027b1211ba11d3d9db70d555e9ffda71c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arizona reported its fourth death from the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, health officials said Wednesday. The H1N1 strain is relatively mild, but it's being closely watched for mutations that might become severe. The victim was the second child in the Pima County area to die of flu complications, health officials said. The age of child who died Wednesday was not released, but the patient's health was \"medically compromised.\" Earlier, officials in Cook County, Illinois, recorded their second death from H1N1. The latest victim, from suburban Chicago, died within the past couple of days and had \"significant underlying medical conditions,\" said spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek. The first fatality occurred in a Chicago resident over the weekend. That victim also had underlying medical conditions, Jakubek said. Citing family privacy, she would not reveal the victims' ages or genders. By late Wednesday, the most-recent deaths in Arizona and Illinois had not been included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official tally of 11 U.S. deaths from the disease. They are in Arizona (three), Missouri (one), New York (two), Texas (three), Utah (one) and Washington (one). Nor did the CDC's count include two more deaths reported by the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene. The World Health Organization has counted 14,557 cases of H1N1 -- 96 of them fatal -- in 48 countries. Seasonal flu typically kills 36,000 Americans in any given year, though such cases usually have tapered off by this time of year, according to the CDC. Though the H1N1 strain is considered relatively mild, public health officials have been scrutinizing its spread since it was first identified in April in Mexico because they are concerned it could mutate and become more severe.","highlights":"Arizona reports its fourth death linked to H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu .\nOfficials in Cook County, Illinois, report their second flu death .\nLatest two deaths not in CDC's official tally of 11 swine-flu deaths in U.S.\nWorld Health Organization has counted 14,557 cases of H1N1 -- 96 of them fatal .","id":"a7dfae9b7878bf9cd4c3ba490d77c956c6d7ef88"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- If you want to consider a difficult computational problem, try thinking of the algorithms required to animate more than 10,000 helium balloons, each with its own string, but each also interdependent on the rest, which are collectively hoisting aloft a small house. The production team at Pixar faced many new technological challenges on \"Up,\" its tenth feature film. That was the challenge the production team at Pixar faced when it set out to begin work on \"Up,\" its tenth feature film, five years in the works, which hits theaters on Friday. There was absolutely no way the team was going to hand-animate the balloons. Not with their numbers in five-figures, and especially not when you consider that within the cluster, every interaction between two balloons has a ripple effect: If one bumped another, the second would move, likely bumping a third, and so on. And every bit of this would need to be seen on screen. In \"Up,\" the story revolves around the main character, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who, frustrated with his mundane life, ties the thousands of balloons to his house and sets off for adventures in South America. A small boy ends up marooned on board, and hilarity ensues. The cluster of balloons is so central to the film's branding--it's called \"Up,\" after all--that to promote the film, Pixar teamed up with two of the world's cluster ballooning experts for a nationwide tour involving a real-life flying armchair and dozens of huge, colorful balloons. \"You have a movie that's about a house that flies, which is a pretty far-fetched idea,\" said Steve May, the supervising technical director on \"Up.\" \"We all know, from kids' parties, how a bunch of balloons behave, so if we could animate balloons in a realistic way, the believability that the house could fly would sell.\" For May, \"Up\" producer Jonas Rivera, director Pete Docter, and the many others involved in making the film, believability was key, even within the context of a story about a flying house. And while a major part of instilling that believability must come from a well-conceived and executed story and script, the animation is no less responsible for winning over potentially skeptical audiences. Balloons, the mother of animation invention May said that the animation department at Pixar never even considered hand-animating the balloons. But even standard computer animation wouldn't be up to the task, because of the N-squared complexity involved in the thousands of interdependent balloons. Instead, the studio's computer whizzes figured out a way to turn the problem over to a programmed physical simulator, which, employing Newtonian physics, was able to address the animation problem. \"These are relatively simple physical equations, so you program them into the computer and therefore kind of let the computer animate things for you, using those physics,\" said May. \"So in every frame of the animation, (the computer can) literally compute the forces acting on those balloons, (so) that they're buoyant, that their strings are attached, that wind is blowing through them. And based on those forces, we can compute how the balloon should move.\" This process is known as procedural animation, and is described by an algorithm or set of equations, and is in stark contrast to what is known as key frame animation, in which the animators explicitly define the movement of an object or objects in every frame. Procedural animation has been around for some time, but May suggested that even the most difficult uses of it in the past don't come close to what Pixar had to achieve in \"Up.\" Pixar fans may remember the scenes in \"Cars\" of a stadium full of 300,000 car \"fans\" cheering on a high-speed race below, each of which was independently animated. That, too, was done with procedural animation, May said, since creating so many cars individually would have been a non-starter. But even that complex computation problem didn't approach the balloon cluster issue in \"Up\": the \"Cars\" scene involved no interdependent physics. Getting the simulator humming properly is no easy task, as one might imagine. May said it involves setting rules for how individual objects should behave, giving the computer these initial conditions, and then \"let it run.\" Oddly, because the simulator does indeed run with those conditions and rules and the peculiarities of physics, the animators found themselves without precise control of what would happen with the balloons--or other objects in the film animated using these techniques. \"If the (balloon cluster) is moving too slow, we increase the amount of wind, and then run the simulator again,\" May said. \"Then maybe we turn the wind down. It's a little fun science experiment where sometimes, hopefully by the end, we're getting what we want.\" Losing control of balloons Sometimes, given the vagaries of physics and chaos theory, unexpected things happen. The computer team inputs the rules and because some of the initial conditions are random, \"you get semi-random results.\" One of May's favorite examples is that early in the film, when the house first is hoisted aloft by the balloons, a small group of the balloons actually broke off of the main cluster. May said that this breakaway group of balloons is actually visible--albeit very briefly--in \"Up.\" Eagle-eyed moviegoers can see the escaped balloons in the upper right-hand side of the screen, he said. \"We didn't mean for that to happen,\" he said, \"but (we said) 'It's cool, let's keep it.'\" Even being able to make such choices wasn't possible at the beginning of the film's production, however. May said Pixar's physical simulator, an open-source program called ODE, couldn't initially handle the complexity of modeling the behavior of more than 10,000 balloons. \"We could handle about 500 (balloons), and we knew we needed tens of thousands,\" he said. \"We knew we needed to develop a new simulator software pipeline...to handle an order of magnitude more complex simulation.\" Of course, at Pixar, adjusting to evolving computer needs on the fly is nothing new. In fact, May said the studio has done so in one form or another on many of its films. For example, he said that when the studio made \"Monsters, Inc.,\" it had to figure out how to animate the movie's monsters' fur. Similarly, when Pixar made \"Finding Nemo,\" the animators had to figure out how to simulate underwater scenes. \"We had to learn about (how light refracts under water), and murk and how particulates float under water,\" May said. And in \"Up,\" too, there were additional animation challenges. Among them were figuring out how to animate and render the feathers on Kevin, a bird that is a major character in the film, and how to make the cloth on (main character) Carl's clothes seem believable. Carl's threads were \"the hardest clothing we've ever had to animate here,\" said May, \"in part because Carl's a (small) man in an oversized suit. That was another case of (using) the physical simulation, and of setting up rules for how cloth should behave. And the looser the clothing, the more it can behave badly.\" Even Carl himself presented some animation difficulties, May said, because the character's head is shaped like a cube. Like many other elements in \"Up,\" the cube-shape of Carl's face wasn't a random whim of the director. Rather, it is a story element: May explained that Carl's character is based on someone who, as a young man, was vivacious and adventurous. But as he grew older, his small house became more and more surrounded by buildings, and \"it's like his world has compressed him into a square.\" Thus, a cube-like face. But May said animating his facial expressions, which must fit into this cube shape, was complicated. Smiles, for example, had to come up and wrap around his cheek. Still, for the award-winning filmmakers at Pixar, the goal is to make even the hardest animation problems look simple on the silver screen. As producer Jonas Rivera put it, \"The audience looks at (the balloon cluster) and says, 'Oh, that's pretty.' But they have no idea how much work went into it. We worked on that for over a year. (Then) the kid takes off his hat and runs his fingers through his hair. My mother will never know that took 15 people six weeks.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Pixar faced many new technological challenges on its film \"Up,\" opening Friday .\nThe movie is about an old man who flies away on a house lifted by balloons .\nPixar used a programmed physical simulator to animate thousands of balloons .\nStudio's goal is to make even the hardest animation problems look simple on screen .","id":"5cd8537d0d3fac20715f2fe4fa1c1fea05965839"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- River waters spread over highways and farms, towns and parks in Washington on Thursday, shutting down traffic on a 20-mile stretch of heavily traveled Interstate 5 between Seattle and Oregon and threatening the federal roadway north of Seattle. Rescue boats are sent out Wednesday in Pierce County, south of Seattle, Washington. \"If you're trying to do commerce between Portland (Oregon) and Seattle, there is no way right now,\" said Bob Calkins, a spokesman for the Washington State Emergency Operations Center in Camp Murray, near Tacoma. \"That's the major way into Washington state from Oregon.\" Flooding south of Seattle near Chehalis covered parts of I-5 with 30 inches of water, prompting its closure until at least Monday, state transportation officials said. And state and local roads were also victims of the water. \"The problem is, the one real good detour is just as flooded,\" Calkins said. North of Seattle, a levee failure in Arlington brought the Stillaguamish River up to the edges of I-5, which remained open although some access ramps were closed, transportation officials said. The rain also caused Amtrak to suspend service between Seattle and Portland until Saturday, \"with no alternative transportation,\" the rail line said Thursday on its Web site. iReport.com: Are you there? Share pics, video . Across the state, a number of rivers had crested, but flooded roads remained hazardous. The risk of landslides was high, leading to the closure of all passes across the Cascades, officials said. A meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Seattle said 15 inches of rain that began Monday had ended. The rainfall swept across virtually all of the state, but its biggest effects occurred along the western half of Puget Sound, Calkins said. The swollen Puyallup River threatened the city by the same name, but Loretta Cutter, sprang into action. Watch how Washington copes with wicked weather \u00bb . The administrator of a group home and a longtime resident there helped evacuate 47 residents from the Valley Community Inn, a home for the mentally challenged and developmentally disabled, to a shelter at a nearby church. And she made sure her husband and a grandson left their one-story rambler house and got safely situated. \"It's a situation you don't realize you are going to be in; it's always someone else,\" she said from the shelter at the Sunrise Baptist Church in Puyallup, a few miles east of Tacoma. \"It was pretty traumatizing to all of us.\" Cutter is one of 40,000 western Washington state residents in at least 19 communities whom authorities asked to leave their homes Thursday amid heavy flooding along the region's rivers and streams. Only 260 of them sought shelter Wednesday night at the 39 shelters for people, Calkins said. In addition, seven livestock shelters and two pet shelters were set up, he said. Meanwhile, the torrential downpours of the past few days transformed Thursday into drizzle, common in western Washington, which typically gets less rainfall in any given year than does Miami. \"It just drizzles every day, or so it seems, whereas in Miami, when it rains, it's a bellywasher,\" Calkins said. This week's flooding was worsened by a warm spell that melted up to 7 feet of snow that had fallen around Puget Sound, he said. Health authorities have issued occasional boil-water orders, but that's not what worries Calkins. \"The larger issue is, as people go to their homes, they may be walking through floodwater that is contaminated by sewage,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5 between Seattle area and Oregon closed .\nAmtrak suspends service between Seattle and Portland until Saturday .\nMore than 40 evacuated from care home in Puyallup, Washington .\nUp to 15 inches of rain reported in some areas of Washington state .","id":"113bc1c570498f5723bf595f8980c30e95711c47"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- She may have finished second, but Susan Boyle continued to make newspaper headlines in the UK Sunday following her shock defeat in the final of \"Britain's Got Talent.\" Susan Boyle fans watch her perform for the final time on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" \"Boyle Backlash\" said the headline in the tabloid News of the World, suggesting that the Scottish 48-year-old's alleged \"four-letter tantrum\" earlier this week had influenced millions of viewers to switch their votes to dance act Diversity. The buildup to Saturday night's live final had been dominated by reports that Boyle lost her temper in a London hotel and had even considered pulling out of the talent show finale. The Mail on Sunday said she had been been \"comforted by psychiatrists\" ahead of Saturday's final. \"They have a whole army of doctors, psychiatrists and experts all available to any contestant at any time. They have all been taking great care of Susan,\" the paper quoted \"Britain's Got Talent\" judge Piers Morgan as saying. Watch how Boyle's rise to fame has been an emotional ride \u00bb . In Scotland, where crowds had gathered in Boyle's hometown of Blackburn in anticipation of victory, celebration parties were stopped in their tracks as the unexpected result was announced. \"Boyle foiled in final: Susan's dream is over,\" said the headline in the Sunday Mail. Earlier, the paper said, Blackburn's community center had been \"a sea of hands\" as Boyle performed her signature tune, \"I Dreamed a Dream\" from the musical \"Les Miserables.\" \"They stood with tears in their eyes as Susan hit every note. Stamping and chanting her name, her fellow villagers could not have been more proud.\" Watch the dramatic end to Susan Boyle's dream \u00bb . But \"the cheers were caught in the collective gullet ... as dance troupe Diversity gatecrashed this most expectant of parties,\" the Sunday Herald reported. \"Jaws were left agape. Tears were shed. And then the supportive chanting of 'SuBo' began again.\" Boyle could still be the real winner from the series, which became a global hit after clips of her audition of \"I Dreamed a Dream\" racked up millions of hits on YouTube. Did Susan deserve to win? Sound Off below . \"\u00a36M superstar\" said the Sunday Mirror, claiming that \"Britain's Got Talent\" impresario Simon Cowell plans to take Boyle across the Atlantic to \"conquer the U.S.\" The News of the World upped Boyle's likely earnings on the back of \"Britain's Got Talent\" to \u00a38 million ($13 million). On top of a multi-million dollar record deal and share of album sales, Boyle is also set to earn from a Hollywood movie of her rags-to-riches life, a book deal, and millions more from image rights, endorsements and television appearances, the paper said. In an interview with the News of the World, Cowell said Boyle could be the biggest star he had ever discovered. \"They don't care in America whether she wins a British TV show -- they care about the woman they saw singing on YouTube,\" a Cowell insider also told the paper. \"If anything, \u00a38 million in her first year might be an underestimate.\" Meanwhile, competition winners Diversity are also set to cash in on their success with a film deal and a possible slot supporting Michael Jackson when the superstar plays a series of shows in London next month, the Sunday Mirror said. The group collected \u00a3100,000 ($162,000) for winning the final and will perform in front of Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show later this year. \"We feel electric. Words can't describe it. I'm genuinely shocked. We thought Susan was unstoppable -- she's an unbelievable talent,\" the paper quoted the group's choreographer, Ashley Banjo, as saying.","highlights":"Susan Boyle suffers from backlash in talent show final, UK papers suggest .\n48-year-old Scottish singing sensation beaten by dance act Diversity .\nBoyle expected to earn millions of dollars after becoming global celebrity .\nSimon Cowell plans to take Boyle across Atlantic to \"conquer the U.S.\"","id":"22d0f0e4f669d33e2f87378f459d33517073e848"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, California (CNN) -- Reality television featuring law enforcement officers on the beat is nothing new. A show featuring a lawman who makes jailed inmates wear pink underwear and uses actors to trick suspects, however, is a new twist. Maricopa Co. Sheriff Joe Arpaio now has his own TV show, \"Smile: You're Under Arrest.\" Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- whose showy brand of justice has raised charges of discrimination and civil-rights abuses while making him a hero among fans of his tough-on-crime attitudes -- will star in \"Smile: You're Under Arrest.\" The show, which premiers this weekend on Fox Reality Channel, features Arpaio and other officers using elaborate ploys crafted by comedy writers and carried out by professional actors to arrest suspects with outstanding warrants. In one, a suspect is invited to a fake fashion shoot and told he's going to become a supermodel, according to Fox Reality's Web site. In another, a suspect is tricked into what he thinks is a job as a movie extra and, after a staged argument between the film's \"director\" and another actor, gets promoted to the starring role. \"It's kind of fun to show how stupid they are and, as I say, the looks on their face,\" Arpaio, 76, said of the suspects wanted for DUIs, drug charges, missed court dates and other offenses. Watch Arpaio explain his methods \u00bb . But Arpaio's critics aren't amused. They say they fear the show will give the controversial sheriff positive publicity, ignoring what they call a darker side to his 16-year tenure as top lawman in the county that includes Phoenix. \"It's going to celebrate a sheriff that's frankly scaring this community, a sheriff that has seen violent crime increase significantly in his county, a sheriff that is racially profiling the Latino community, and I doubt that the show is going to reflect that,\" said Paco Fabian, spokesman for the immigrant-rights group America's Voice. In a statement on the group's Web site, Fabian calls Arpaio a \"modern day Bull Connor,\" comparing him to the public safety commissioner in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama, whose use of attack dogs and firehoses on civil rights demonstrators made him a symbol of racial intolerance. Dubbed \"America's Toughest Sheriff,\" Arpaio makes many of his county's 10,000 or so inmates live in tents. He reinstituted chain gangs -- including crews for women and juveniles -- banned smoking, coffee and movies in his jails and, most recently, moved to require all inmates with money in their jail accounts to pay for their own meals. And then, of course, there's the pink underwear. \"They were stealing the white underwear, smuggling the underwear out of the jail,\" Arpaio told CNN. \"So you know what? Give them pink. The other reason is they hate pink. Why would you give the 10,000 inmates the color they like?\" Earlier this year, the mayor of Phoenix wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general's office, asking the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate Arpaio's aggressive illegal immigration crackdowns. Mayor Phil Brown wrote that Arpaio's sweeps show \"a pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests.\" The letter came after Arpaio, who had already been the target of hundreds of lawsuits, launched a series of what he calls crime-suppression patrols in largely Latino neighborhoods. Critics say the patrols use racial profiling to unfairly target Hispanic drivers and pedestrians, while Arpaio says they have resulted in the deportation of hundreds of illegal immigrants, including some with criminal records. \"We are the only ones cracking down on the state's human smuggling law,\" Arpaio said. Fabian said America's Voice is considering putting pressure on companies that advertise during Arpaio's show. Either way, the series offers another moment in the spotlight for a lawman who has never shied away from it. \"I'm not going to brag,\" Arpaio said, \"but there isn't anybody in the world who doesn't know who this sheriff is.\" CNN's Brooke Anderson and Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Maricopa Co., Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio now has own TV show .\nArpaio proud of sometimes unorthodox methods, has been criticized for them .\nShow, \"Smile: You're Under Arrest,\" gets people with outstanding warrants .","id":"3a77835fe5895d5643a7ac25d28416ceb90c0695"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- There exists a school of thought that dictates if you think something catastrophic, then it won't happen. What would happen if my family died in a car accident? What would happen if my house caught on fire? \"What makes men connect with the girl of their dreams after sparking with me?\" the author asks. Two summers ago, I asked myself: Wouldn't it suck if my first love met someone unexpectedly and got over me before I could begin to move on? Thankfully, my family and my house are safe, but my feelings, my love life, and my ego still need mending. \"I met someone.\" The text message appeared on the screen of my phone and I stopped walking. A group of my friends and I were leaving the movie theater, and it was as if all feelings he had for me were obliterated in one night. We broke up because he was studying in Europe. Poetically, we had expressed our feelings for each other just two nights before. Then he became someone else's boyfriend, and remained so, for much longer than he and I lasted. I should've known it would happen, since it happens quite often. My first kiss, who refused to be my boyfriend, met the girl of his dreams while I still ached for him. They're still together today. Since then, I've been the second choice for several more men. The most recent ones occurred this summer, when I tried and failed to win the heart of my friend Ken -- he started dating the person that he truly liked instead of settling for me. I lost Brian to his ex-girlfriend (although, in that case, I think they belonged together anyway). Each time, I laughed one of those sad, desperate guffaws -- here we go again! What makes men connect with the girl of their dreams after sparking with me? Another concept may be more applicable to my situation: the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps I'm so aware of my \"magic touch\" that I'm making it happen. While the first love arrived in Europe, I even warned him what may happen. At the time, though, he waved the thought away. \"I'm so picky, I rarely really like a girl like I like you,\" he typed. A month later, he must've been pleasantly shocked to discover my unfortunate power reached across the Atlantic Ocean. When Ken told me he was dating Mary, I was angry I'd let this happen to me again. I raged at him. He argued that it's irrational to use my past experience to predict the outcome of my future relationships (or my attempts at them). I'm sure that there'll be a guy someday who doesn't find me easy to move on from, but in the meantime I can't ignore the pattern and pretend that each time was a coincidence, as Ken had wanted me to do. I don't know if there is a way to avoid the seemingly inevitable. Each time I let my hopes conquer my superstition, there's a crash, a burn, a deflation, and the temporary loss of the ability to giggle, but I choose the chance of being the girl before the girlfriend over giving up the chance for breaking my streak. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Author's ex-boyfriend meets someone else before she can get over him .\nShe lost Brian to his ex-girlfriend and her friend Ken to another girl .\nAuthor: Maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy .\n\"I choose the chance of being the girl before the girlfriend,\" she says .","id":"7e2de5a136e8f674c45ca98cccc0f1113114fd0b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Frank Buckles considered it his duty to represent his fellow soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day. Frank Buckles, 107 and the last living U.S. WWI veteran, said it was his duty to represent his fallen soldiers. \"I have to,\" he told CNN, \"because I'm the last living member of Americans\" who fought in what was called The Great War. Buckles, 107, who is the sole living U.S. World War I veteran, attended ceremonies Tuesday at the grave of Gen. John Pershing, the top U.S. commander in that war. He was present for the first Veterans Day in 1918 -- though it was originally called Armistice Day -- that marked the end of WWI. Buckles was warmly greeted with standing applause by those in uniform and others who had gathered for the commemoration, but he said he did not think the fuss was about him. \"I can see what they're honoring, the veterans of World War I.\" \"Time has passed very quickly to me,\" he said after a wreath-laying. \"I've had a lot of activity in the last 90 years.\" Watch interview with Frank Buckles \u00bb . According to an autobiography released this year by the Pentagon, Buckles was eager to join the war. Although only 16 in the summer of 1917, he lied about his age to get into the armed services. He said his recruiter told him \"the Ambulance Service was the quickest way to get to France,\" so he took training in trench casualty retrieval. Buckles was an officer's escort in France before joining a detail transporting German prisoners of war. A few decades later, Buckles was in the Philippines as a civilian, on the day in December 1941 that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He was taken as a prisoner of war in Manila and held for 39 months. Today Buckles is the symbolic leader of a drive to improve a run-down city-owned memorial on the National Mall for those lost in the World War I. The gazebo-styled structure was built in the 1930s. There is no national memorial in the nation's capital for the troops known as \"doughboys\" who served in the war that ended 90 years ago. Legislation in Congress would provide federal funding to restore and enhance the city's memorial. A $182 million World War II memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in 2004.","highlights":"Frank Buckles, 107, is the last living U.S. veteran of WWI .\nBuckles was present for first Veterans Day in 1918 when it was Armistice Day .\nBuckles said it was his duty to represent soldiers since he is last WWI vet .\nThere is no national memorial in Washington for WWI veterans .","id":"afb9617cc571fd20670bfaed3c971ebfec1451fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seoul is a bit of curio. On the surface it's as modern as any city could hope to be, addicted as it is to technology and modern design. Let me entertain you, Korean-style. Bars and karaoke rooms abound in entertainment areas. Yet among the blocky skyscrapers and highways running through the sprawling city like monuments to the country's rapid industrialization, are vestiges of the 600-year-old capital. Mountains, parks and 16th century palaces are in stark contrast to the neon and noise of the city's shopping and entertainment areas. Duck off one of the main boulevards like Saemunangil in the center of the city and you can discover one of pulsating areas where Seoulites relax -- often in city's thousands of restaurants, bars and noraebang (karaoke bars) that should feature in even a flying visit. Home to over 10 million people, the best policy is to make the most of just a few of the city's districts. Start near City Hall in Myeongdong, a downtown area close to some of the city's best sites and shopping (located on and around Myeong-donggil) and all within a walkable distance. Steps away from City Hall subway station is one of the city's Joseon dynasty palaces, Deoksugung, where you can sample a quieter side of Seoul. It's the site of one of Korea's King Seonjo's residences; he turned the old aristocratic house into a palace in 1593. If you're in the city on Sunday, a reenactment of the changing of the guards takes place outside the main gate; false beards are moustaches are attached as the brightly colored guards go through the motions. A few minutes from the palace is the decent National Museum on Contemporary Art, where international and Korean artists get a regular showing. The tranquility of the palace grounds are a great contrast to much of the rest of the city -- not far away original parts of old Seoul's city walls can still be seen in mountains to the north. For a closer inspection of Seoul of old, history buffs can get their fill at the Seoul Museum of History, twenty minutes walk from Deoksugung Palace. Better is to push on another 20 minutes from the museum and you'll hit Gyeongbokgung, the largest and grandest of the city's palace grounds. To save pounding the concrete there hop in a taxi -- standard cabs are white, but for the sake of a bit more legroom, shinier leather seats, and twice the cost, black deluxe taxis are also cruising the streets. In true Seoul tech style, many are equipped with a free digital translation service, useful as many drivers don't speak much English. The preserved village of Bukchon lies between Gyeongbok Palace to the west and Changdeok Palace to the east, where you can wander around restored timber houses and courtyards, and also grab a bite to eat in one of the area's cafes or restaurants. The city and Korea in general has a fascination with technology and design and is constantly positioning itself on the cutting edge of both. The most recent addition to the city's modern landscape is Dutch architect Rem Koohaas' \"Transformer\". His shape-changing building can flip onto one of its three sides depending on its use and is currently home to a Prada Exhibition. It sits in a cozy juxtaposition next to the 16th century Gyeonghui Palace pavilion. For a less ambiguous view of the city, hop in a taxi to Namsan cable car station. It will propel you up to a peak in Namsan park -- central Seoul's biggest -- next to the Seoul Tower, from where you can survey the sprawling metropolis. Throw yourself back into the thick of it by hitting Namdaemun market, also known as the goblin market. It's a hive of goods from cheese to camcorders, often sold at cheaper prices than elsewhere. Don't expect just stalls, it's more a mix of buildings, underground malls and shops. Shinsegae department store is a city favorite in Myeongdong, but those after a bit of South Korean kitsch or quirk should be happy browsing around the boutiques off Myeongdong-gil and Myeongdong Jungang. More Meccas to mammon can be found at Dongdaemun to the east. It's been the site of a market since 1905, but inevitably is now a block of towers stuffed with shopping malls. Be careful, it could take a whole day to explore each one. Crossing downtown Seoul is the Cheonggye stream -- a river that was covered by a road until it was unearthed in 2005 and transformed into one of the city center's most popular urban oases and worth a stroll in the evening. Just north of Cheonggye is the slightly twee area of Insadong, an area as close as Seoul comes to its past in its present work-a-day guise. The area has as few tacky tourist shops, but gets enough local life to make it a good area to grab a bite to eat. The narrow winding streets off Insadonggil are crammed with traditional style buildings housing restaurants where Korean barbeques, bibimbap, kimchi and other delights of Korean cuisine can be sampled and often quite reasonably priced. For a bit of local flavor on the go, street vendors serve up kimchi pancakes, octopus and other Korean snacks, while mobile restaurants appear on some of the street corners around Myeong-dong and Insadong when night falls. Duck under the temporary tarpaulin hoisted over these carts, take a seat next to a local and enjoy cultural feast as well as simple, fresh cooked local dishes. Soju, the local firewater, or some Korean beer is a typical accompaniment. It could get you in the mood for a bout of karaoke in a private room, or noraebang. In which case it could be worth asking your hotel concierge for a recommendation for an English language-friendly one, or just dive in and indulge in the randomness of it all. North east of downtown is Hongdae; a decent area for bars and music, and its more salubrious that Itaewon, twenty minutes south in a taxi from downtown Seoul. Here you're more likely to see U.S. military police in a club or bar than a local, which is another reminder that the other world that is North Korea is only 30 miles away. If you have an extra few days, take a trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) -- organized tours are the only way to see it.","highlights":"Among the urban sprawl are pockets of tranquility, neon-lit fun and greenery .\nThe Joseon dynasty palaces are a must, offering a contrast to the city's concrete .\nInsadong provides some old world charm and great places to eat Korean cuisine .","id":"5cb8e3eb872edfc38ecadc34cba5f1a19ae5190e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska has erupted again, shooting ash as high as 45,000 feet in the air on Saturday, experts said. A series of eruptions has been rattling Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano since Sunday. The eruption occurred at about 1:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. ET), the U.S. Geological Survey told CNN. Some of the ash fell around Anchorage, resulting in the airport to close, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The volcano erupted three times Friday, at times shooting ash as high as 51,000 feet. The eruptions are the latest in a series that began March 22. The Alaska Volcano Observatory has set the alert level at its highest possible designation -- red -- indicating that an eruption is under way or imminent and that the eruption will produce a \"significant emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.\" Friday's volcano activity prompted Alaska Airlines to limit flights to and from Anchorage, according to the airline's Web site. It canceled all its Thursday flights to and from Anchorage after an eruption earlier in the day sent an ash cloud 65,000 feet high. The eruptions are the latest in a series that began Sunday.","highlights":"NEW: Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska erupted again on Saturday .\nNEW: Eruption sent ash as high as 45,000 feet in the air, experts said .\nNEW: FAA says ash falling around Anchorage resulted in closure of the airport .\nMount Redoubt has been erupting since March 22 .","id":"3ae90745918e22a3c619bbdbc00f9ca90408d938"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five leaders of what was once the nation's largest Muslim charity were given long prison sentences Wednesday by a federal judge, months after they were found guilty of aiding a militant Palestinian organization. Ghassan Elashi, seen here at 2001 news conference, was sentenced to 65 years in prison. \"These sentences should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly provides financial support to terrorists under the guise of humanitarian relief,\" said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security. Five leaders of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development were convicted in November by a federal jury for providing money and resources to the Palestinian group Hamas, designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. The trial resulted from a 15-year Justice Department investigation. Two of the men -- Shukri Abu Baker, 50, of Garland, Texas, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, of Richardson, Texas -- were also convicted on tax fraud charges. At a federal court in Dallas, Texas, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis sentenced Abu Baker and Elashi to 65 years in prison. The other three received lesser sentences: Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, of San Diego, California, and Abdulrahman Odeh, 49, of Patterson, New Jersey each received 15 years in prison. Mufid Abdulqader, 49, of Richardson, Texas, received 20 years. Federal authorities said the Holy Land Foundation was incorporated by Abu Baker, El-Mezain and Elashi. The other two worked as fundraisers. The Bush administration shut down the Holy Land Organization in 2001 and froze its assets, charging that it was raising millions of dollars for Hamas. Before it was shut down, the group, based in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, was hailed as the largest Muslim charity in America. The Justice Department accused it of funneling $12.4 million to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian donations. A first trial in 2007 ended in mistrial, prompting the Justice Department to refile charges. The jury in the second trial, which lasted two months, deliberated for eight days. Wednesday's sentencing, said Kris, culminated \"many years of painstaking investigative and prosecutorial work at the federal, state and local levels.\"","highlights":"Holy Land Foundation has been called the biggest Muslim charity in U.S.\n5 charity leaders got prison sentences ranging from 65 years to 15 years .\nCharity accused of sending $12.4 million to Hamas under humanitarian cloak .\nAssistant AG: \"These sentences should serve as a strong warning\"","id":"a1cc0fcc25d83ff8f91c8105379c0c5daf905884"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A ship carrying U.N. relief supplies, including food and water, arrived Friday in the hurricane-ravaged Haitian city of Gonaives, an official with the United Nations' World Food Programme said. The ship sailed from the capital, Port-au-Prince, carrying 19 tons of high-energy biscuits, 50,000 bottles of water, water purification tablets and other supplies, Myrta Kaulard said. An ambulance, two trucks, a four-wheel drive vehicle and a small speedboat to be used in rescues were also aboard the ship, she said. \"Distributions are ongoing at present,\" she said, speaking by phone from the capital. \"We are also airlifting biscuits now to Gonaives.\" Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has endured three storms -- Hanna, Gustav and Fay -- over the past month. The last storm, Hanna, killed at least 137 people when it passed Tuesday over Gonaives and lingered nearby for days. It left water more than 4 meters deep in some places in the city, according to Abel Nazaire, Haiti's assistant coordinator of Risk and Disaster Management. Watch as flooding overwhelms Haitians \u00bb . Much of the water remained Friday in Gonaives, and the city was unreachable by car or truck, as roads were flooded and bridges had collapsed, Kaulard said. \"We need to send food and water and primary needs,\" said Jean-Pierre Gueatou, executive director of the Haitian Red Cross. \"The other things, they will come later.\" People trudged through city streets that were covered in murky brown water thigh-deep and higher in some places. Some residents camped out on their roofs, their clothing and blankets hung over the sides of buildings. \"Drinking water is the biggest problem,\" said Joel Trimble, co-founder of Haiti for Christ Ministries. \"That water that everybody's been wading in -- now for days -- is contaminated with dead carcasses of animals, and cadavers of people.\" \"We remember the last time this happened,\" a man told The Associated Press, according to the agency's translation. \"It was the same situation. A lot of aid money was given for nothing. They did nothing with that money. If that money had been invested in this town, we would not be in this situation today.\" \"People really have lost a lot of things,\" Kaulard said. \"They are asking for clothes, they are asking for water, they are asking for food. \"The situation is very tense, people are exhausted.\" Kaulard said World Food Programme officials hope to send another ship laden with similar supplies on Saturday, before Hurricane Ike, a Category 3 storm in the central Atlantic, approaches. Ike is predicted to sweep more than 100 miles north of Hispaniola -- the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. \"We really hope that the current trajectory ... is maintained,\" Kaulard said. On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard delivered enough hygiene kits, plastic sheeting and water jugs for 2,000 people in Gonaives, according to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. With those supplies, and others expected to arrive Saturday in Gonaives on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, the United States expects to help about 10,000 people, the embassy said. In addition, the USS Kearsarge is expected to arrive Monday in Haiti from Colombia to support relief efforts, the embassy said, though it noted that Hurricane Ike could delay its arrival. U.S. ambassadors in Jamaica and Haiti have authorized $100,000 in emergency relief for each country, and the United States is providing $50,000 worth for the Dominican Republic, said State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood in Washington. The United States offered to send humanitarian relief and a disaster assistance team to Cuba, but has received no response from the Cuban government, the State Department said. \"The situation in Gonaives is catastrophic,\" Daniel Rouzier, Haiti chairman of Food for the Poor, wrote in an e-mail, according to the AP. \"We, just like the rest of the victims ... have limited mobility. You can't float a boat, drive a truck or fly anything to the victims.\" CNN's Charley Keyes contributed to this report .","highlights":"International aid groups struggle to reach thousands after Tropical Storm Hanna .\nHurricane Ike also could hit Haiti this weekend .\nPoorest country in the Western Hemisphere has been hit by 3 storms in a month .\nDrinking water in Haiti is contaminated by bodies, Haitian volunteer says .","id":"afe434d9dcf0caec286c6d248d79046f1f99a360"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to examine whether prosecutors can aggressively prosecute illegal immigrants for identity theft if they didn't know the documents they were given belonged to someone else. The Supreme Court has agreed to grapple with the issues of identity theft and illegal immigration. The justices announced they will hear arguments in the appeal of a Mexican national arrested in a government work site raid in the Midwest. A ruling is expected by June. At issue is whether people who use fake IDs to obtain work in the United States but did not know the documents belonged to someone else can be convicted of \"aggravated identity theft.\" Stealing personal identification such as Social Security numbers is illegal, but federal courts around the country are divided over how to treat people who buy them on the black market. Federal law states that for aggravated identity theft to occur, it must be proved that a person \"knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person.\" Many criminals steal a person's identification to empty his or her bank account or falsely obtain loans or credit. Lawyers for the detained illegal immigrants say their clients simply used numbers picked \"out of thin air\" that happened to belong to another person. They used the numbers only to obtain work, not steal to money, the lawyers said. The Justice Department argues its prosecutors need not prove \"knowledge\" that the documents belonged to someone else instead of being fabricated. The difference could mean an additional two years in federal prison under an enhanced sentence. Most workers with false papers serve only a few months behind bars, and many are then deported. At stake is the government's crackdown on undocumented workers, most of whom must rely on fake IDs to obtain employment. Read a report from the front lines of the immigration debate . The case before the justices involves Mexican immigrant Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, who worked at a steel plant in East Moline, Illinois. He was arrested with phony Social Security and alien registration cards that had been assigned to someone else. He admitted obtaining the documents but said he did not know they were someone else's. He was convicted and sentenced to 75 months in prison. The court did not act on a similar appeal from a Mexican national who was arrested during a raid on a meat processing plant in Iowa, the largest criminal workplace enforcement operation in U.S. history. Nicasio Mendoza-Gonzalez was among 389 people arrested, most of whom were given five months in prison.","highlights":"Attorneys for illegal immigrants argue their clients used random numbers .\nU.S. says prosecutors need not prove \"knowledge\" that ID belongs to someone .\nA decision is expected by the end of June .","id":"2e3f026c0007e9acc51ab1a9504ad0b8137fff28"} -{"article":"YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Courts in Myanmar have sentenced a blogger, a poet and several dissidents to several years in jail for anti-regime activities, a court official told CNN Tuesday. Young people at an Internet cafe in Myanmar. The verdicts were announced Monday and Tuesday, the court official said. Blogger Nay Phone Latt was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail for his illegal Internet activities, the court official said. The blogger was a \"major source of information for the outside world\" when the military junta used force last year to suppress anti-government demonstrations, said The Irrawaddy, an online newspaper published by exiles from Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. The government exercises strict controls over media outlets in the southeast Asian country. Dissidents often turn to the Internet to disseminate information. In the second case, poet Saw Wai received a two-year jail sentence for a poem he wrote for Valentine's Day that contained a veiled jab at the junta's leading figure, Senior Gen. Than Shwe. The first words of each line in the eight-line poem, \"February the Fourteenth\" spelled out the message: \"Senior General Than Shwe is crazy with power.\" On Tuesday, the government handed down prison sentences to about a dozen members of a pro-democracy group known as the '88 Generation Students. Irrawaddy said the members were each sentenced to 65 years in jail, but CNN could not independently confirm the figure. Members of the group took part in the anti-government demonstrations that ended with the death of as many as 100 people last year after security forces clashed with thousands of protesters. The dead included 40 Buddhist monks. Witnesses said the violent crackdown in September 2007 came as hundreds of monks defied a military ban on public assembly. Until then, demonstrations led by the monks -- who are highly respected in the predominantly Buddhist country -- had gone largely unchallenged by the military, which has ruled the country since the 1960s. The protests were sparked by a huge fuel price increase imposed by the military government, and quickly escalated. The action was informally dubbed the \"Saffron Revolution\" because of the maroon robes with saffron sashes that the monks wore.","highlights":"Myanmar court jails blogger, poet and dissidents for anti-regime activities .","id":"07ef1d74392c67ca32807277f20037a163a0bb46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward relied on FBI insider W. Mark Felt as a reliable but anonymous source for their stories on the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. Carl Bernstein says \"Deep Throat's\" information on Watergate was \"absolutely invaluable.\" Felt, referred to as \"Deep Throat\" in the Washington Post stories and in Woodward and Bernstein's book \"All the President's Men,\" died Thursday in California at 95. He revealed his identity for the first time in 2005. Bernstein never met Felt until this year, but praised his courage during an interview Friday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" AM: What are your thoughts on the occasion of Mark Felt's death? Bernstein: I think it's a little emotional, even though he was 95 years old. He was integral to our coverage. He was one of many sources in Watergate who had both the intelligence and the courage to tell the truth. And in his own organization he was one of the few, and he was near the top. What his information enabled us to do was to confirm stories that we had really obtained elsewhere, more than anything else, rather than give us that much primary information. But it was invaluable, and he performed a great act of courage and national service. Watch a video obituary of W. Mark Felt \u00bb . AM: The way that he was portrayed by Hal Holbrook in \"All the President's Men\" was he would give your partner Bob Woodward a little bit of a tease and say, \"I'm not going to tell you anything more than that; you've got to follow the trail.\" Was that an accurate portrayal? Bernstein: Yeah. Yeah, that's what we did. But his knowledge gave us a grounding and assurance that we were right in what we were saying and reporting. [He gave us] a certainty in a situation where you had the leader of the free world attacking the press every day, making our conduct -- Woodward's, myself's, the Washington Post's -- the issue in Watergate rather than the conduct of the president and his men. So I think Mark Felt's confirming this information (and occasionally he gave us some important information that we hadn't obtained, toward the end, elsewhere), it was absolutely invaluable. AM: It was always Bob Woodward's intention to keep the identity of Deep Throat secret until the occasion of Mark Felt's death. Bernstein: Well, we both kept it. I knew who he was. The two of us knew. AM: Was it a surprise when it came out in 2005? Bernstein: To both of us. It was a total surprise, even though I'm a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine and they disclosed it. They scooped everybody on that one. Yeah, we were surprised. Bob and I went out to San Francisco a few weeks ago; we had a speech out there. And we went to see Mark Felt, and we had a kind of wonderful couple of hours with him. He knew we were coming; he was looking forward to it. But he had been very ill, and it was a kind of closing of the circle, and it was a wonderful experience. AM: Was that the first time you had met him in person. Bernstein: First time I had met him, yes. Bob had met him as a young ensign in the Navy, when he was a messenger at the Pentagon and had renewed the acquaintance. AM: So what did you think of him when you met him? Bernstein: First of all, I was aware that he was 95 years old and in the last stages of his life. But I was amazed at his relative vigor given the fact that he had been quite ill. I was also surprised that there were some moments of clarity, because he had dementia. AM: His family, when the news came out in 2005, declared him to be an American hero. Would you agree? Bernstein: Obviously he is. Look, Watergate was a constitutional crisis in a criminal presidency. And he had the guts to say, \"Wait. The Constitution is more important in this situation than a president of the United States who breaks the law.\" It's an important lesson, I think, for the country and for people in our business, as well.","highlights":"Watergate reporter Bernstein knew who Mark Felt was; only Woodward contacted him .\nImportant source for scandal story died Thursday at age 95 .\nBernstein: Felt \"performed a great act of courage and national service\"","id":"1130d1095505ab839216c88ef165095f34a96612"} -{"article":"WOODBURY, Minnesota (CNN) -- At 14, Andrew Busskohl got a second chance at life when he underwent a heart transplant. But four years later, neighbors have more fear than compassion for him. Police say Andrew Busskohl plotted to kill a neighbor but was stopped before it got to that point. Busskohl, 18, has been charged with two felony counts relating to a break-in attempt. But police say he was up to something more sinister: a murder plot that involved cutting out the victim's heart or slicing off his eyelids. Busskohl posted $100,000 bail on condition he undergo psychological evaluation. He's living with his mother and brother in the same neighborhood where authorities say he had planned to carry out his attack. As condition of his release, he is allowed to leave the Woodbury, Minnesota, home only for medical, psychological and legal appointments. Defense attorney Joe Friedberg says that his client is a threat to no one and that his medications affected his mood. \"The Woodbury police are excited because they got something that's more serious than a cat up a tree,\" Friedberg said. \"This is a very unique case, and frankly, I don't know the ramifications of anything yet.\" Busskohl has been charged with one count of first-degree attempted burglary with a dangerous weapon and one count of aggravated harassment with a dangerous weapon. He has not entered a plea in the case. Busskohl's release has sent shockwaves through this quiet Minneapolis suburb of about 50,000 people. Residents say they survey their homes before entering, secure their windows and check behind curtains and other household items once inside. Once rarely used, alarm systems now are on constantly. \"My whole family is feeling a lot more nervous,\" said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified. \"We're just always looking out the windows. ... The whole neighborhood in general is feeling the same way.\" Tim Kinateder said that his alarm system is on \"nonstop now\" and that everyone in his family has taken extreme precautions around the home. He didn't mince his words when he spoke of Busskohl being out on bail. \"That, to me, is ridiculous. I don't understand how that can happen,\" Kinateder said. Across the street, Jim Fratto has taken more security measures than most. Fratto sleeps with a baseball bat next to his bed and a flashlight on his nightstand. A 10-foot-long 2 by 4 barricades his bedroom door. He's installed lights with motion sensors on the outside of his home and added locks on his doors, both inside and out. Tour Fratto's high-security house \u00bb . It is Fratto who, authorities say, was to be Busskohl's possible victim. He lives just a few blocks from Busskohl. Walking through his home, Fratto shows off the locks on his interior doors. They rattle and clang with every movement. \"He's going to have to bang a little bit to get in at me. And hopefully, I'll be able to wake up by then,\" he said through a wild-eyed gaze and booming laugh. \"If not, sayonara.\" Busskohl admits breaking a window of Fratto's home, police say, in the early hours of August 6. Although it may not sound like much on the surface, police now say it was the first step of the plot. Busskohl was planning to return to that shattered window in the next couple of days for an easy entry, one without commotion, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. The complaint says one of Busskohl's friends, Eric Eischens, went to police shortly after the window-breaking incident. \"Mr. Eischens stated that Mr. Busskohl told him that he had come up with a plan on how to murder someone,\" the complaint says. \"Mr. Eischens stated that Mr. Busskohl wanted to find an adult male who lived by himself and within walking distance of the defendant's house.\" Eischens is quoted in the complaint as also telling police that \"Mr. Busskohl stated that he would then either stab the potential victim in the chest or slash his throat. Mr. Busskohl told Mr. Eischens that he would then either cut off the eyelids of the victim or cut out his heart.\" The complaint alleges that Busskohl acknowledged to police his conversation with his friend but also told them, \"I'm not even sure I would have gone through with it.\" Friedberg, the defense attorney, said he could understand Fratto being \"frightened or mad.\" \"The evidence I received, [Busskohl] discussed very openly these things with the police,\" Friedberg said. \"When you said bizarre, that's probably an understatement.\" Busskohl was taking seven or eight medications -- a combination of anti-rejection medicine for his heart and anti-depressants -- at the time of his arrest, according to Friedberg. He said a doctor who evaluated him in jail recommended that he be taken off one medication and two others be substituted in its place. \"Within eight to 10 hours, the bizarre type of thinking he was undergoing was gone,\" Friedberg says. \"If anybody were to meet him and talk to him at this point, he represents no threat to anyone.\" He has advised his client not to talk with members of the media. In 2004, Busskohl became a common face on local Minnesota media when he underwent a successful heart transplant. Shortly after the surgery, according to the Star Tribune newspaper, he showed off his scar to a reporter and said, \"I plan on becoming a surgeon.\" If convicted on the charges, Busskohl could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $17,500 for the first count and a maximum of 5 years and $10,000 fine for the second count. Busskohl has no prior arrests, and the prosecutor's office said that under the sentencing guidelines of Minnesota, it would be unlikely he'd serve more than 48 months if convicted. His arraignment is set for September 3. According to the criminal complaint filed this month, authorities obtained a search warrant for Busskohl's car and found a swim cap, black gloves, latex gloves, scrubs, gauze, an address card with Fratto's name and address, a map to Fratto's house, shoe covers, a pry bar, a black mask, two bags, one knife, two flashlights, one set of tweezers, two pairs of scissors and one scalpel. Busskohl told authorities the items were there \"if [he] somehow went through with the act,\" according to the complaint. Fratto says it was difficult to grasp when police first informed him of the alleged plot. \"I didn't even look at it as a murder plot until they actually started putting it on the news,\" he said. Standing in his backyard, he pointed into the air. \"What bothers me is: If you throw a rock, he's about four blocks away.\" Although many neighbors said they believe that a much more serious charge of attempted murder should have been pursued, the prosecutor stands by his decision. Washington County attorney Doug Johnson said the two felony counts Busskohl faces are the only ones he could pursue under state law. For a charge of attempted murder, he said, an individual has to follow through on an act \"which is a substantial step toward, and more than preparation for, the commission of the crime.\" \"Now I'm not saying I'm happy with that [law],\" Johnson said. \"But if we have somebody that's just simply preparing to commit the crime and does not take a substantial step toward committing that crime, we can't charge an attempt. And that's what this is all about.\" As for Fratto, he'll still keep locking his doors, armed with his flashlight and baseball bat. He's thankful to still be alive. \"If it wasn't for his friend and the grace of God, that'd be it.\"","highlights":"Police: Heart transplant teen planned to cut out possible victim's heart .\nAndrew Busskohl, 18, charged with two felony counts relating to broken window .\nProsecutor stands by charges; neighbors upset teen not facing attempted murder .\nDefense attorney says teen's medication affected his thinking .","id":"617e22da72fa75a05598656def31533153dffdc9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. attorney general is trying to prevent immigration authorities from sending a Muslim woman to her home country, where she was a victim of female genital mutilation. Attorney General Michael Mukasey ordered an immigration court to reconsider an African woman's case. In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled \"because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country.\" Calling the rationale \"flawed,\" Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider. The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe. The 28-year-old said if she returned and had a daughter, the child also would be subject to mutilation. The woman also said she faced forced marriage if she had to go home. Mukasey cited what he concluded were two significant factual errors in the court's rejection of her appeal. \"Female genital mutilation is not necessarily a one-time event,\" Mukasey said. He noted that the board in a previous case had granted asylum in to one woman whose \"vaginal opening was sewn shut approximately five times after being opened to allow for sexual intercourse and child birth.\" He also concluded that the Board of Immigration Appeals was wrong to assume that the woman \"must fear persecution in exactly the same form [namely, repeat female genital mutilation] to qualify for relief.\" Mukasey had been urged to look into the matter by angered members of Congress in the wake of the January decision. \"This recent action taken by the Board of Immigration Appeals is a step backward for the rights of women worldwide,\" declared Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, in a January letter. \"Female genital mutilation is a gross violation of a woman's human rights and has traditionally been grounds for the granting of an asylum claim,\" Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, said in the letter. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, issued a statement applauding Mukasey's action, and declaring female genital mutilation a \"barbaric practice widely regarded as a human rights abuse.\" The Justice Department acknowledged it is extraordinarily rare for an attorney general to jump into a relatively low-level immigration case. The immigration courts decide about 40,000 cases a year, and an attorney general has issued an opinion on a case only three times in the past three years. Female genital mutilation is common in parts of Africa, Asia and in some Arab countries, according to the United Nations. The operation is viewed by some ethnic groups as a means to control a woman's sexuality and is sometimes a prerequisite for marriage or the right to inherit. The procedure can cause tissue injury, severe infection and fever, among other complications. The U.N. has recorded cases in which hemorrhaging and infection lead to death.","highlights":"Court ruled that because woman already had surgery, she should not get asylum .\nIn rare move, Attorney General said court's ruling was \"flawed\"\nMichael Mukasey ordered court to reconsider its ruling .\nMali woman said she fears any daughter she had would be subject to mutilation .","id":"d701fec26950453b65fe0e270ca7985f330fafe9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The ozone hole over Antarctica in 2008 is larger in both size and ozone loss than last year, but not as large as in 2006, the European Space Agency said Tuesday. Some chemical processes produce ozone-depleting gases. The hole is a thinning area in the ozone layer over Antarctica and the size of the hole varies every year depending on weather conditions. This year, the size of the thinned area reached about 27 million square kilometers (10.4 million square miles), compared to 25 million square kilometers (9.65 million square miles) in 2007. In 2006, the hole was a record 29 million square kilometers (11.2 million square miles), larger than North America, the ESA said. The ESA announced its results based on information from German and Dutch researchers who analyzed satellite data. Depletion of ozone is caused by extreme cold temperatures at high altitude and the presence of ozone-destroying gases, such as chlorine and bromine, in the atmosphere, the ESA said. Those gases originate from man-made products like chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were phased out under a global agreement two decades ago but continue to linger in the atmosphere. Ozone is a protective atmospheric layer found at an altitude of about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles). It acts as a sunlight filter, shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays that put humans at greater risk of skin cancer and cataracts and harm marine life, the agency said.","highlights":"2008 ozone hole larger than in 2007, European Space Agency says .\nIt covers area of about 27 million square kilometers .\nOzone layer acts as a sunlight filter, shielding Earth from some ultraviolet rays .","id":"25eaf2e94aeee670372ac563c806aec1a91dbde2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A police officer chasing a theft suspect was fatally shot Thursday night by another officer after he failed to drop his weapon when ordered to, authorities said. Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was not wearing a bulletproof vest and did not fire a shot, authorities say. Authorities said Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was shot three times. The incident is under investigation. Edwards was in plainclothes and carrying a handgun as he chased the suspect past a police car. Authorities said the officer who shot him said he didn't realize Edwards was a police officer. Edwards had just left the Housing Bureau Station House on East 124th Street, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly at a news conference Friday. As Edwards approached his vehicle, he saw a man rummaging through it. Edwards took out his gun -- a Smith and Wesson 9 mm -- and chased the alleged thief, 43-year-old Miguel Santiago, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne. Meanwhile, a police cruiser with a sergeant and two officers, including Officer Andrew Dunton, had just turned onto 125th Street from 1st Avenue. Santiago ran in front of the unmarked vehicle as it approached halfway up the block and the vehicle stopped. The officer in the front passenger seat got out of the vehicle and shouted for Edwards to stop running and drop his weapon. According to Kelly, the officers reported that, after the command was given, Edwards turned toward Dunton with his gun in his hand. Watch Commissioner Kelly describe the shooting \u00bb . Dunton fired his Glock 9 mm six times, hitting Edwards three of those times -- once in the left arm, once in the left side and once in the back, according to police. Emergency crews responding to the scene found Edwards wearing a police academy T-shirt under his clothes and found his police shield and ID in his front left pants pocket, according to Browne. Edwards, who lived in Brooklyn, was recently married and had two small children, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV in New York. On Friday, his relatives remembered him as a good person who achieved what he set out to do. \"He was a wonderful, wonderful child from when he was small,\" his father, Ricardo Edwards, told WABC. \"His desire was always to be a policeman and to play football,\" his uncle, Jerome Harding told the New York TV station. \"And he did accomplish both, because he plays for the Police Department.\" Edwards was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital at 11:21 p.m. Thursday, according to Kelly. \"Tragic accidents like this are another reminder of the dangers our police officers often face as they keep our city the safest big city in the nation,\" Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. \"Rest assured we will find out exactly what happened here, see what we can learn from it so it may never happen again. All the city's prayers are with Omar Edwards and his family.\" Five eyewitnesses, along with 20 people who reported hearing gunshots, were interviewed by police. The officer who fired the shots has 4\u00bd years' experience, authorities said. The officers involved have been placed on administrative duties while the shooting is investigated. Police later arrested the alleged thief on suspicion of breaking into Edwards' car.","highlights":"Authorities: Omar Edwards, chasing a suspect, was fatally shot by another officer .\nEdwards, in plainclothes, witnessed suspect trying to break into his car .\nAnother saw his pursuit, jumped out of unmarked vehicle and fired six shots .\nOfficers placed on administrative duties while shooting is investigated .","id":"ab0d0f55603056da8d08078572a0ddb08f73ca39"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Antiviolence protesters stretched out 16,000 coconuts on Brazil's world-famous Copacabana beach Saturday, each one representing a victim of urban violence. Protesters used dummies to represent victims of violence on Brazil's Copacabana beach this week. Activists from ONG Rio de Paz led a protest march Saturday morning that included residents and tourists who usually can be found on the beach on weekends. The protesters strung up a sign on the sand that said \"Shame\" in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French. They finished with a minute of silence for the victims of violence. Rio de Paz said the coconuts represent victims of violence, homicides, dead police officers and those who have been shot in gunfights between authorities and gangs of narcotics traffickers. The figure itself was obtained from official information from the Rio de Janeiro governmental Institute of Public Security. It was the second protest staged this week on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach by the group Rio de Paz. On Tuesday, the group created a mock cemetery in the sand with mannequins representing 9,000 people who Rio de Paz says have been slain and secretly buried since January 2007. Rio de Paz President Antonio Carlos Costa said he believes that about 6,000 of the missing people were killed, many by drug traffickers fighting for territory in Rio's slums and poor neighborhoods. Others, he said, were killed by hit squads and police acting on their own. \"In general, they are assassinated by police -- police acting outside of their regular work hours,\" Costa said Tuesday. \"They are also assassinated by narcotraffickers. The bodies are disposed of in secret cemeteries in the metropolitan Rio de Janeiro area or incinerated alive by narcotraffickers in what they call 'microwaves.' \" To illustrate the point, demonstrators also constructed facsimiles of the \"microwaves\" that narcotics traffickers and death squads reportedly use to cremate remains of those they have abducted. CNN's Fabiana Frayssinet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Protesters line up coconuts on Brazil's Copacabana beach .\nRio de Paz says coconuts represent victims of urban violence, drug wars .\nProtesters string up sign in sand that says \"Shame\" in four languages .\nEarlier, group staged mock cemetery in beach sand representing missing people .","id":"7adc4fa795fef29322696eba626312709fe7aa58"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three years ago Tuesday, Leslie Marva Adams, an attractive, 40-year-old hair stylist from Atlanta, Georgia, chatted on the phone with her mother in the morning. Leslie Adams, 40, filed a restraining order against an old boyfriend and disappeared three years ago. It was the last conversation she would have with a family member. On the third anniversary of Adams' disappearance, her family is still waiting for answers. Her daughter, Cierra Burk, 19, clings to the belief that Adams is alive. \"We will find her,\" Burk says. The family became concerned when Adams failed to show up for her sister's birthday party the day after she talked on the phone with her mother. Two days after the missed party, Adams was officially reported missing. At her apartment in suburban Lilburn, police found evidence suggesting foul play -- a 12-inch blood stain near her bed and a .45-caliber bullet casing. Adams' car was parked in her driveway and a handwritten note was found on her door. Investigators soon learned the note was from her sister, Roberta. It said, \"Leslie, we're worried about you, please call me as soon as possible.\" Watch how the mystery began with a missed party \u00bb . Adams had been having trouble with her ex-boyfriend, Billy Joe Cook, in the days leading up to her disappearance. She had accused him of stalking her and had filed a restraining order. In the court document, she alleged that Cook had verbally and physically abused her. She said she feared for her life. A temporary restraining order was granted by the court, but Adams vanished before a scheduled hearing on the matter. Phyllis Adams said her daughter told her in their final conversation that she had argued with Cook over the phone on the previous day. According to the temporary restraining order, Cook was not to have any contact with Adams. Police brought Cook in for questioning and learned he had spoken to Adams on the phone twice the day before she last spoke to her family. Although he was questioned extensively, police have not named Cook a suspect. Police say he was very cooperative and there is no evidence suggesting his involvement in her disappearance, although they have not ruled him or anyone else out as a potential suspect or person of interest. Just when they thought the trail had gone cold, police found what could be a lead in the case. In May 2007, clothing was recovered that could belong to the missing hair-dresser. Police found a pair of men's size 8 Reebok sneakers, size 10 capri pants, and a black sweater in the woods along I-85 in Franklin County, 90 miles from Adams' home in Atlanta. They also discovered human bones and a breast implant near the clothing. Police have sent the remains to a DNA testing lab and they have yet to be identified. The results are inconclusive, and police continue to collect DNA samples from Adams family members for future tests. Leslie Marva Adams is an African-American female who stands 5 feet 5 inches, weighs 130 pounds, and has breast implants. Family members fear the remains could be Leslie Adams, but they are still hopeful that she will be found alive and well. Burk, Adams' daughter, says she struggles with her emotions at this time of year. \"I still believe she is alive and we will find her, but this time of year is very hard,\" she said, fighting the tears. \"It's my aunt's birthday, the day my mom didn't show up and we never saw her again, so it's hard not to break down.\" Police and family urge anyone with information on the whereabouts of Leslie Adams to call the Gwinett County Police Department at (770) 513-5300. There is a $25,000 reward for information that helps locate Leslie Adams or leads to the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance.","highlights":"Atlanta hair stylist Leslie Marva Adams disappeared three years ago .\nShe failed to show up at her sister's birthday party .\nAdams had taken out a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend .\nPolice continue with DNA tests to determine if skeletal remains are hers .","id":"5664550cbc54b04021d136e9b7b21dc167151c45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A grandmother, mother and her child died when a military fighter jet crashed into a house in San Diego Monday, igniting a huge fireball, CNN's San Diego affiliates and the San Diego Union Tribune are reporting. Fire rages in a San Diego neighborhood where an F\/A-18 jet crashed Monday. Another child is missing, authorities said. A search ended Monday when night fell but will continue Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the medical examiner said. The father is a businessman who was at work at the time of the crash, and was not reached for comment, according to the Tribune. The paper also reported that Monday night, a pastor and congregants at the family's church, the Korean United Methodist Church of San Diego in Clairemont. The pastor told a television station that the mother was in the home with her two sons -- a 2 month-old and 1 year-old. The mother was a nurse at a hospital. The F\/A-18D plane, which authorities described as disabled, was trying to land at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The jet had just performed landing training on a Navy aircraft carrier before the pilot reported having trouble, according to the Marine Corps. See map showing crash site, airfield \u00bb . \"It was, oh gosh, maybe a couple of hundred feet off the ground. And it was quiet -- I think the engine was off,\" said San Diego resident Ian Lerner, who was heading to lunch at a shopping center about a half-mile from the neighborhood of about 20 homes when he saw the jet flying low. iReport.com: See Lerner's photos . \"Then all of a sudden we saw the canopy of the jet explode and go up, and then we saw the pilot blast out of the plane and the parachute open,\" Lerner said. Another witness said the jet was flying at a low altitude, and \"just spiraled, right out of [the movie] 'Top Gun.'\" Watch witnesses describe the scene \u00bb . The house was destroyed. A photograph taken at the scene showed the pilot, who ejected safely, sitting on the front lawn, making a call on his cell phone. He was taken the hospital, the Marine Corps said in a written statement Monday. Watch burning debris near crash site \u00bb . The pilot, whose name was not released, was the only occupant of the two-seat aircraft, according to the Marine Corps. The Tribune spoke with Steve Diamond, a retired naval aviator, who found the pilot in a tree behind a house and helped the man who Diamond said was a lieutenant in his 20s, down from the tree. The pilot told him that after he lost power in the first engine, and that it was decided he would try to get the jet to Miramar on the single working engine, Diamond told the paper. The pilot was in communication with military air traffic controllers before the jet crashed, and the crash site is about two miles (three kilometers) from the airfield, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Burning debris scorched two additional homes and a slice of jet knifed another home. \"This could have wiped out half a dozen homes depending on how it landed,\" said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. See photos of fiery crash site \u00bb . Inside one of those houses, Robert Johnson sat in the living room with his daughter, Heather Certain, and her 2-year-old son, Nicholas, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. They heard the explosion then saw a giant fireball in their picture window facing their front yard, the Tribune reported. They ran out of the house. \"The house shook like an earthquake,\" Johnson said. \"I saw the flames right there in front of my house.\" iReporter Chris Morrow of San Diego said she went to the crash site Monday and saw \"Two houses that looked liked they'd blown up.\" One resident interviewed by CNN affiliate KFMB said he saw a fighter jet at a very low altitude, and \"it just spiraled, right out of 'Top Gun.' \" Watch aerial footage of crash site \u00bb . The Marine Corps said it is investigating what went wrong with the plane. The military has jurisdiction over the crash site. iReport.com: Smoke rises from fiery crash .","highlights":"Officials: Three people in San Diego home killed in crash of F\/A-18 .\nOne believed to have been in home is missing, officials say .\nMarines: Pilot -- the jet's only occupant -- ejected safely, was taken to hospital .\nTwo homes destroyed in crash about 2 miles from airfield, officials say .","id":"f0c7534d97975c1ff68f37860f0487c7f3260949"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 13-year-old Minnesota boy who has cancer has resumed chemotherapy treatments and is not responding well, a family spokesman said Friday. Doctors say Daniel Hauser's lymphoma responded well to a first round of chemotherapy in February. Danny Hauser started a second round of chemotherapy treatment this week, Jim Navarro said in a statement on the family's Web site, dannyhauser.com. \"The doctor changed the number of chemotherapy drugs in the protocol submitted to the court. Danny is not tolerating the drugs well and has been vomiting all day. He is understandably angry and depressed about being forced to go through the ravages of chemotherapy again.\" Daniel underwent his first round of chemotherapy in February, a month after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. But his parents were concerned about the treatment's side effects, which typically include nausea, and decided to end the chemotherapy regimen and pursue holistic treatments instead. When Daniel's oncologist learned of the decision to reject standard treatment, which doctors say is associated with a cure rate of as high as 90 percent, he asked a court to intervene to ensure the teen got chemotherapy. Doctors say that, without it, the disease would likely prove fatal. But last week, before the court could act, Colleen Hauser packed up her son and flew with him to Southern California, from where they were planning to continue to Mexico to seek alternative alternative medical treatment. She said he would have run on his own had she not helped him flee. She changed her mind before crossing the border and returned this week with Daniel to Minnesota, where the family agreed to comply with whatever treatment the court ordered. A medical examination revealed that the boy's tumor had grown since he was diagnosed and the boy's doctor recommended he resume chemotherapy. After examining the boy on Monday, Dr. Michael Richards estimated the tumor's size at 5.3 inches by 5.1 inches by 6.3 inches, and said it was \"protruding outside the chest wall.\" He said initiation this week of standard chemotherapy treatment was \"imperative.\" Richards recommended at least another five cycles of chemotherapy followed by radiation, and added that the \"goal will be to include alternative therapies in which the family is interested, as long as there is not data to suggest that a particular danger exists with any alternative medicine.\" District Court Judge John Rodenberg originally took custody of the boy away from his parents, but returned him to his family on the condition that they comply with the recommendations of the cancer specialist. Hodgkin's lymphoma is a cancer that affects the lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system. As the disease progresses, it compromises a body's ability to fight infection. CNN's Aaron Cooper contributed to this story.","highlights":"Daniel Hauser started second round of chemotherapy this week, spokesman says .\nDaniel \"angry and depressed\" at being forced to undergo chemo, Jim Navarro says .\n13-year-old needs chemotherapy, doctors and court say .\nMother took him out of the state to seek alternative treatment, returned this week .","id":"c34b473a860e237b37d1f9692f820e2c4a9a292d"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Engagement season is in full swing, which, of course, means an influx proposals, but more importantly, tons of creative \"will you marry me?\" scenarios to top. Take a cue from these celebrities by jaunting off to memorable destinations for a proposal your partner won't forget (or turn down!). Venice was the scene of Avril Lavigne and Dereyck Whibley's engagement. St. Barts . On their first date, Billy Joel took Katie Lee out to dinner, but on that November 2002 evening she got much more than a scene from an Italian restaurant. \"Afterward he took me to see \"Movin' Out\" [the hit musical based on Joel's tunes], got onstage and sang the last two songs,\" recalls Lee, 23, who was visiting New York from Ohio and first met Joel, 55, in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, where both were staying. \"I knew he was trying to impress me.\" It must have worked; six months after that meeting she moved to Long Island, New York, to live with him, and in January 2004 he proposed on a trip to St. Barts. \"He got down on his knee, and it was a complete surprise,\" Lee recalls. \"That made me feel really special.\" Though Scott Wolf, 35, of \"Everwood,\" and Kelley Limp, 28, formerly of \"Real World New Orleans,\" credit a friend with setting them up, in a way they can thank Oprah Winfrey. \"When I first called Kelley,\" says Wolf, \"she said, 'I just sat down with strawberries and chocolate milk to watch \"Oprah.\" '\" Apparently it was not the best timing. \"Nobody calls me at 4 o'clock,\" says Limp. \"It's an unwritten rule that I'm watching \"Oprah\".\" So Wolf decided to catch the episode, and they discussed it afterward. The chatting continued over a dinner date at Raoul's in New York City. A year later, on a trip to St. Barts, Wolf took Limp boating and pulled into a cove for a sunset dinner, where he gave her a Bruce Winston (son of Harry Winston) 2.7-carat diamond ring. \"I said yes, like, 15 times,\" says Limp. New York City . It was Stephanie March's first and last blind date ever. After weeks of delays, March, then starring on \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\", finally agreed to meet Food Network chef Bobby Flay for dinner at Nobu in New York. Within seconds of meeting Flay, her misgivings about blind dates were dispelled. \"I know it's a clich\u00e9, but I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, this is the rest of my life,\" says March. She was right: Just before Christmas 2003, Flay took March ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, where he surprised her with another kind of ice -- a princess-cut diamond ring -- and a proposal. Africa . On the golf course during the 2001 British Open was probably the last place Tiger Woods, 28, expected to meet his future wife, Elin Nordegren, 24. The thunderbolt struck when fellow golfer Jesper Parnevik introduced Woods to Nordegren, who was then working as the Parneviks' nanny. If his scores are any indication, Woods was more than a little distracted by the stunning Swedish former model. He lost the tournament but soon won her heart. And on a South African safari two years later, Woods proposed to Nordegren during a sunset stroll around the Shamwari Game Reserve. Nantucket, Massachusetts . Devon Gummersall, 29, thought he'd blown it after a 1998 date with \"Quarterlife's\" Majandra Delfino, 27. \"I showed up in this awful leather jacket, and Majandra was like, 'Who is this guy?'\" recalls Gummersall, the former co-star of \"My So-Called Life.\" After losing the leather, he reconnected with Delfino at a concert five years later -- and didn't miss a beat. Soon, the future groom bought a garnet ring from the Beverly Hills Watch Co. and hid it for a scavenger hunt on a Nantucket, Massachusetts, beach. Says Delfino, \"I dug up this white box, all sandy, and opened it. Devon said, 'Do you know what this means?'\" Delfino definitely did. New Zealand . The romance that blossomed between \"Two and a Half Men's\" Melanie Lynskey, 30, and Jimmi Simpson, 31, star of \"The Farnsworth Invention\" on Broadway, surprised them both. The pair, who had become friends while co-starring in a Stephen King miniseries in 2000, were sharing a taxi when \"good night\" turned into a good-night smooch. \"We kissed each other unexpectedly!\" says Lynskey of the moment. \"Once that happened, I was head over heels for him.\" Simpson chose a moonlit moment on the deck of Lynskey's family beach house in New Zealand in 2005 to get down on one knee. \"He opened the ring box,\" she recalls, \"but then he set it on the table. I was like, 'Can I try that on?'\" Six months after Matthew Perry introduced them at a 2004 barbecue, actor Jonathan Silverman, 41, proposed to \"Close to Home\" actress Jennifer Finnigan, 28, in a New Zealand rain forest. Hawaii . Channing Tatum surprised his \"Step Up\" costar Jenna Dewan with a weekend proposal in Maui in September 2007. Tatum arranged to have close friends of the couple fly in for the festivities. Canada . When commissioning an engagement ring for his girlfriend Heidi Klum, Seal had one key word for New York City jeweler Lorraine Schwartz: canary. Schwartz's sister delivered the 10-carat yellow diamond stunner to Whistler, British Columbia, where Seal proposed to Klum on a glacier -- with the sunny piece of ice. England . In May 2004 Jason Priestley arranged a trip to London, England, -- to the very street corner where he and girlfriend Naomi Lowde first met. Once there, Priestley presented Lowde with an emerald-cut, three-diamond ring by Steven Pomerantz. \"It became evident that my life was better with Naomi in it,\" says Priestley. In the summer of 2006, after 3 years of dating, \"Superman Return\" star Brandon Routh purchased the 3-carat diamond ring that had caught girlfriend Courtney Ford's eye during an earlier visit to Beverly Hills jeweler Neil Lane. But since the two were traveling for the \"Superman Returns\" press tour, Routh asked Gilbert Adler, one of the film's producers, to hold the ring until they arrived in England. \"Poor man!\" says Routh. \"He carried it around for two and a half weeks.\" Finally, while picnicking in Glastonbury, England, Routh popped the question. Italy . One year after Avril Lavigne and Dereyck Whibley's friendship turned romantic, Whibley, 26, proposed with a 5-carat diamond solitaire after a picnic and gondola ride in Venice, Italy. It was something of a shock for the bride-to-be. \"I might look like a tough chick -- and I am,\" Lavigne once said, \"but I'm a hopeless romantic inside.\" Puerto Rico . Just two days before Christmas 2007, under a full moon at midnight in a bay off the coast of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter were seated in a double kayak, taking in the bioluminescent organisms shimmering in the water all alone, except for a tour guide in a second kayak. After giving an \"amazing speech,\" Winter pulled out a 4.3-carat brilliant-cut diamond ring by Michael Barin, S\u00e1nchez's favorite jeweler. California . \"I can't remember the exact day I knew she was the one; I remember it was an accumulation of what she's about, where she came from, and her family,\" says tennis star Pete Sampras of his bride, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras. After nine months of dating, Sampras proposed to Wilson at his Los Angeles, California, home with a platinum ring with oval-shaped diamond from Cartier. The romance between Noah Wyle, 29, and Tracy Warbin, 31, a movie makeup artist, was born on the frigid Maine set of the 1997 film \"The Myth of Fingerprints.\" Recalls Warbin, \"At the end of one shoot, there was a huge snowball fight. Noah pushed my face into a snowbank. It really, really hurt! I knew then that he liked me, because it was so kindergarten-y.\" Wyle concurs: \"It's a technique I learned in grade school, and it's worked for me ever since.\" Three years later, on Valentine's Day 1999, at a picnic for two on the couple's Santa Ynez, California, ranch, Wyle got down on one knee to propose, a marquise-cut diamond ring in hand. In February 2005 Christina Aguilera and her beau, Jordan Bratman, went on a Valentine's Day getaway to Carmel, California, where Bratman proposed with a five-carat diamond-and-platinum ring by Stephen Webster. Eight months later, the pair -- who share a love of the wine country -- wed in Napa Valley. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Billy Joel proposed to Katie Lee in St. Bart's .\nRoselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter got engaged while in a double kayak .\nJordan Batman proposed to Christina Aguilera on a Valentine's Day getaway .\nSeal gave Heidi Klum a 10-karat yellow diamond on a glacier in Canada .","id":"e77d9a8ff1691c16f0dc0ce91c74776231bcc73f"} -{"article":"JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi King Abdullah confirmed Sunday that his country will increase daily oil production from 9 million barrels to 9.7 million in the near future to counter the sharp rise in international oil prices. Saudi Arabia has announced an increase in oil production in a bid to ease the pressure on oil prices. The Saudi petroleum minister, Ali I. Al-Naimi, said the country will reach the 9.7 million level by July. The announcement comes after Saudi officials announced modest increases. It would be Saudi Arabia's highest production rate since 1981. White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto praised the step, saying, \"Any increase in production in today's oil market is welcome. It is important that we also take steps to increase domestic production and our refining capacity.\" Meanwhile, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. rose nearly 10 cents in the past two weeks to almost $4.10 a gallon for self-serve regular, according to a national survey released Sunday. The survey showed the national average was just a fraction of a cent under $4.10 a gallon, said survey publisher Trilby Lundberg. That is up 9.7 cents a gallon from the same survey two weeks ago, Lundberg said. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, downplayed the Saudi increase. \"Nice try, but no cigar. When gas is at $4 per gallon, demand increases almost daily, and the Saudis have millions of barrels per day more in spare capacity,\" he said. \"This isn't nearly good enough.\" Al-Naimi, the petroleum minister, also said the Saudi government will invest in oil projects that would allow Saudi Arabia to have the capacity to produce 12.5 million barrels per day by the end of next year. King Abdullah's announcement came at the end of the Jeddah energy summit, where he also called for OPEC to set aside $1 billion for a strategy to ease the oil price crisis. He said $500 million should be given to developing nations to help them get the energy they need. King Abdullah said there are \"many factors that made oil prices high.\" Along with increased demand, he also cited oil speculators and an increase in taxes in consumer nations. \"Now we see a lot of people point the finger at OPEC as it is solely responsible for this,\" he said. The king's statement came a day after U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, attending the summit, blamed the record oil prices on lack of production. \"All nations must be better at conservation, and the U.S. is at the top of that list,\" said Bodman, who met with journalists ahead of the international meeting of oil producing and consuming nations focusing on high oil prices. Some observers have blamed speculators for driving up oil prices. A key adviser to Saudi Arabia's oil minister said Friday that a number of factors, including speculators and currency fluctuations, are to blame for rising oil prices. \"We need stability,\" Dr. Ibrahim al Muhanna said, adding that Saudi Arabia would like to see producers, consumers and distributors cooperate. But Bodman said he did not believe that they are the cause. Since 2003, he said, global demand for oil has increased because of industry in China, India and the Middle East. But from 2005 to 2007, there was very little increase in supply. Nations need an additional supply of energy to market, whether that energy is nuclear, coal, fossil fuels, solar or wind power, Bodman said. \"We spent 30 years digging ourselves into this hole,\" he said. \"It won't be solved soon.\" On Wednesday, President Bush asked Congress to permit drilling for oil in deep water off the U.S. coast to combat rising oil prices. He also renewed his demand that Congress allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, clear the way for more refineries and encourage efforts to recover oil from shale in areas like the Green River Basin, which encompasses parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. \"In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home,\" Bush said in a Rose Garden statement.","highlights":"Saudis will increase daily oil production from 9 million barrels to 9.7 million .\nIncrease from July, boosting production to highest level since 1981 .\nAnnouncement at Jeddah energy summit to help ease pain of oil price hike .\nSaudis: OPEC should give $1B for strategy, $500M of which for developing nations .","id":"421cdcf2fa76015c98cf831270fb651e123eaf4c"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani military says security forces have taken back the city of Mingora from the Taliban, calling it a significant victory in its offensive against the Taliban. Pakistani solders escort a suspected Taliban militant inside an army base in Mingora. Mingora is the largest city in Pakistan's Swat Valley where security forces have been fighting the Taliban in a month-long offensive. \"It is a great accomplishment,\" said Pakistani Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. \"This is the largest city in Swat and for all practical purposes, Mingora has been secured.\" Abbas said militants put up a stiff resistance, but their resistance weakened as troops moved in. Abbas told CNN pockets of militants remain just outside Mingora. The fighting has uprooted about 2.4 million Pakistanis from their homes in the northwestern region of the country, according to the latest data from the United Nations. Of those displaced, about 10 percent -- or 240,000 -- are living in refugee camps, according to the U.N. The announcement that the military has pushed the Taliban out of Mingora comes after days of Taliban attacks in other areas in the country. The military issued a press release on Saturday saying that 25 militants and a soldier were killed in fighting across the region over the last 24 hours. Pakistani authorities increased security throughout Islamabad on Friday after a string of deadly bombings in Lahore and Peshawar, and a threat by the Taliban to carry out further attacks. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide attack in Lahore on a building housing police, intelligence and emergency offices. Twenty-seven people were killed. The militant group also threatened to continue attacking cities in Pakistan until the military ends its operations against Taliban militants in the country's northwest.","highlights":"Pakistani military says it has taken back key Swat Valley city of Mingora .\nArmy spokesman says operation is a \"great accomplishment\"\nFighting in northwestern region has displaced about 2.4 million Pakistanis .\nPakistan raises security levels after deadly blasts in Lahore, Peshawar .","id":"1448d17be08916697a6238a7ff73ffcd09440ef8"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- With its tranquil beaches, the tiny northern island of Sylt is the country's best-kept summer secret. An ideal way to see the island -- especially in late summer when the heather is in full bloom -- is by bike. Where to stay . Long and narrow, and spread over 36 square miles, Sylt has a verdant countryside peppered with its signature low-slung cottages. Many house tiny hotels, like the secluded Dorint S\u00f6l'ring Hof (1 Am Sandwall, Rantum; 49-4651\/836-200; doubles from $550), a 15-room inn tucked into the dunes on the southern coast with its own hidden stretch of sugary sand. For those who want to be closer to the action, there's the Hotel Stadt Hamburg (2 Strandstrasse; 49-4651\/8580; doubles from $253), in the charming village of Westerland. You'll have to walk five minutes to the beach, but this tidy hotel, built in 1869, is an ideal base for exploration. Where to eat . The island's dining scene attracts a number of German celebrities (Claudia Schiffer, Boris Becker), and many frequent the stylish Sansibar (80 H\u00f6rnumer Str., Rantum; 49-4651\/964-656; dinner for two $130). The restaurant's North Sea-meets-Asian dishes, like fresh mussels in a sweet curry sauce, are a potent draw. In Kampen, you'll find Greta's Rauchfang (5 Str\u00f6nwai; 49-4651\/ 42672; dinner for two $92) next to Louis Vuitton and Herm\u00e8s. Here, socialites enjoy bottles of Kristall (opened dramatically with sabers), along with small plates of the sweet local shrimp. To get away from the fabulous set, head to Alter Gasthof (5 Alte Dorfstrasse, List; 49-4651\/877-244; dinner for two $65) on the isle's northern tip. This 200-year-old inn dishes out classic regional food, including stellar house-smoked salmon and eel. What to do . Sylt is known for its nude beaches. The most famous is Buhne 16 (133A Listlandstrasse, Kampen), where Germans of every stripe let it all hang out as they lounge in wicker basket chairs. For those who like things a bit more covered up, try Am Roten Kliff, just north of Kampen, which is also (no surprise) less crowded. An ideal way to see the island -- especially in late summer when the heather is in full bloom -- is by bike. Fahrrad am Bahnhof (49-4651\/5803), in Westerland's main train station, has a terrific rental selection, and the staff will happily suggest a route along Sylt's 136 miles of well-laid-out paths. Getting there . Sylt is reached by train from Berlin (5 hours) or Hamburg (3 1\/2 hours). By car, take the autobahn to Nieb\u00fcll from Berlin (290 miles) or Hamburg (120 miles). There is no road connecting Sylt to the mainland; vehicles board a train for the 30-minute trip to the island. For more, see bahn.de. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The island of Sylt is five hours from Berlin by train .\nSylt is known for its nude beaches .\nThe island's dining scene attracts a number of German celebrities .","id":"e447c04c719f9bd8d9f95e24bcf6abf222969cf5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Navy is investigating how thousands of dollars went missing in the rescue of the captain of the Maersk Alabama in April, a Pentagon source told CNN. The USS Bainbridge tows the lifeboat in which Capt. Robert Phillips was held for days. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened an investigation into how $30,000 disappeared after special forces snipers shot and killed three pirates, ending the multi-day siege and freeing the captain, who had been held hostage. Investigators are talking to anyone who may have had contact with the money or knowledge about what happened to it, the source said, including military personnel on the warship, Navy SEALs who rescued Capt. Richard Phillips, and the crew of the Maersk Alabama. The NCIS and the Maersk Line Ltd., which owns the Maersk Alabama, have not responded to CNN's request for comment. In a criminal complaint filed against the one surviving alleged pirate, Abduwali Muse, the government contends the alleged pirate demanded money from the ship's captain and led him by gun point to the ship's safe. Watch CNN's Chris Lawrence on the investigation \u00bb . \"The captain opened the safe and took out approximately $30,000 in cash. Muse and two other pirates then took the cash,\" the criminal complaint contends. It goes on to allege that Muse distributed some of the money to the other pirates who retreated to a lifeboat where they were holding the captain as a captive. See timeline of events that led to piracy case \u00bb . All three of the other pirates were killed by U.S. Special Forces snipers during the rescue but the complaint does not list any money recovered from the boat after the rescue. It only lists rifles, a hand gun, artillery, cell phones and handheld radios.","highlights":"The Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened an investigation into missing cash .\n$30,000 disappeared after rescue of captain of Maersk Alabama by Navy SEALs .\nSEALs shot and killed three pirates, ending multi-day siege, freeing captain in April .\nPirates reportedly led captain at gun point to the ship's safe .","id":"2f767d154cfd7a086b03439dcb882fc041fae58c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former first lady Nancy Reagan has been released from a hospital after fracturing her pelvis during a fall at home last week, a spokeswoman said Friday. Former first lady Nancy Reagan is shown at an event in the nation's capital in September. Reagan, 87, returned to her Bel Air, California, home, spokeswoman Joanne Drake said. Doctors expect a full recovery, prescribing a regimen of daily physical therapy and a reduced public schedule, Drake said in a written release. The former first lady admitted herself to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday after experiencing what Drake described as \"persistent pain.\" Tests revealed a fractured pelvis and sacrum, the triangular bone within the pelvis. She also was hospitalized for two days in February after a fall. President Reagan died in June 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Since his death, Nancy Reagan has remained involved with the national Alzheimer's Association and its affiliate, the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute in Chicago, Illinois. However, she has appeared in public only rarely in recent years. Reagan expressed her thanks in the release Friday to all those who prayed for her and sent cards, flowers, phone calls and e-mails.","highlights":"Nancy Reagan admitted herself to a hospital with a fractured pelvis Tuesday .\nReagan, 87, returned to her Bel Air, California, home Friday .\nShe previously was hospitalized for two days in February after a fall .","id":"6942fa9f78051bfe1c6df7618668884a8d8d42bf"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in January, will tell her story in a book, although no publisher has been found to sell it, her lawyer said. In addition to her reality TV show, Nadya Suleman has met with a ghost writer for a book. Jeffrey Czech also confirmed details of a \"less-intrusive\" reality show about Suleman and her 14 kids, although no U.S. network has been signed to carry it. The advance money for the TV show deal will help Suleman pay her bills, Czech said. \"Obviously, she needs to do something more than just flip hamburgers all day,\" he said. Suleman was set to sign an agreement with a ghost writer for her book Monday, Czech said. While he would not name the writer, he said the two \"hit it off.\" In addition to the eight children born this year, Suleman has six other children. All 14 were conceived through in-vitro fertilization. The TV deal was signed with the British division of EyeWorks, Czech said. Headquartered in the Netherlands, EyeWorks produces and distributes television programs in Europe, parts of South America, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Its U.S. productions include \"The Biggest Loser,\" which takes overweight participants through what producers call \"radical physical makeover without any kind of surgery.\" \"EyeWorks is a strong company and they did offer some money up front, which is obviously attractive to a woman with her financial situation,\" Czech said. He would not reveal terms of the TV deal or how much money was involved. The show would be similar to what EyeWorks has produced in Europe, in which a camera crew does not follow the family every day, he said. It would, instead, record milestones and special events. Suleman will handle the camera for much of the taping of her TV show, reducing the intrusion into her children's lives by television crews, Czech said. Though he said the show has not been named, Suleman has sought to trademark her media nickname -- Octomom -- for a TV show and a line of diapers. Suleman has said no to some opportunities to make money, Czech said. She declined an offer from Vivid, a porn movie company, to star in its productions, he said. CNN's Alan Duke contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nadya Suleman's lawyer says she's met with ghost writer; no publisher yet .\nShe's also getting an advance on reality TV show; she will handle the camera .\nLawyer: \"She needs to do something more than just flip hamburgers all day\"\nSuleman, already mother of six, gave birth to octuplets in January .","id":"9c48499e53c1bb7a5c898aa614239beceda39f9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mauricio Funes was inaugurated Monday as El Salvador's president, promising to work for the nation's poor and disadvantaged. El Salvador's new president, Mauricio Funes, takes power Monday after his inauguration in San Salvador. Funes, elected March 15, is a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago. He is El Salvador's first leftist president. \"The Salvadoran public asked for a change, and that change begins now,\" Funes said in an inauguration speech before an audience that included Latin American leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Funes, a member of the FMLN party, won a narrow victory over the ARENA party's Rodrigo Avila. Funes' victory ended a 20-year hold on the presidency by the right-leaning ARENA. With Funes' win, El Salvador joined other Latin American countries that have elected leftist leaders in recent years -- Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. The FMLN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, was formed in 1980 as an umbrella group for five leftist guerilla organizations fighting a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The guerrillas and the government signed a peace pact in 1992, and the FMLN became a legitimate political party. By some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the war. The new president will find \"a country that still retains a lot of bitterness, a lot of division,\" Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute, said before the election. \"This country is completely divided,\" ARENA party official Adolfo Torres said on CNN affiliate TCS TV on election night. Funes acknowledged that division Monday, promising to \"create a country without hate and without resentment.\" He also seemed to acknowledge the difficulties ahead, saying, \"We don't have the right to make mistakes.\" Despite a dire economy, Funes promised an ambitious social program that would include construction of 11,000 homes, scholarships for children ages 6 to 18 and improvement in delivery of water, electricity and sanitary services to 32 poor municipalities. He may be hard-pressed to follow through, some analysts said. \"Once Funes assumes office on 1 June, his government will face major challenges to boost the economy, cut government expenditures to trim the fiscal deficit and maintain support to the poor, who are being hit hardest by the economic downturn,\" analyst Heather Berkman wrote in a report last week for the Eurasia Group consulting firm. \"Cutting expenditures and reducing the deficit will be the most important challenges,\" Berkman wrote, adding that to \"do this, the Funes administration plans to cut government spending and eliminate redundant presidential commissions; retarget propane subsidies (and perhaps eventually eliminate them); and propose a number of new taxes on alcoholic beverages, tobacco and new vehicles.\" Funes campaigned on a platform of fiscal reform that aims to increase the government's tax take incrementally, Berkman said. Funes did not offer any details Monday, speaking instead in general terms of the El Salvador he would like to see under his five-year administration. He will not, Funes said, \"govern for a few or be complacent to corruption.\" Funes, a former freelance journalist for CNN en Espa\u00f1ol, noted in particular that his administration will fight organized crime and narcotraffickers. \"In this government,\" he said, \"those who have merit will be compensated and those who are guilty will be punished.\"","highlights":"Mauricio Funes is inaugurated as El Salvador's president .\nFunes of the FMLN party is El Salvador's first leftist president .\nFunes' political party waged guerrilla war against government till early '90s .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton among dignitaries at inauguration .","id":"3d4c687a67ef8d06f1b4e882afeb84ea41e8c599"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I'm the mother of two daughters, a teen and a tween. So every day, I tiptoe through hormonally laced minefields hoping to avoid emotional carnage in response to any of my random comments or actions. The cervical cancer vaccine, approved in 2006, is recommended for girls around 11 or 12. As I tiptoe, I sometimes stumble, as any mother of girls that age knows. No adult woman in her right mind would knowingly, willingly utter comments that result in young people hissing, hurling verbal grenades such as, \"Thanks, Mom, for calling me fat, AGAIN.\" Or \"Are you EVEN listening to me?\" Or any version of the very popular, \"I hate YOU,\" \"I hate you SO much,\" \"I hate this family,\" or just plain \"AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!\" followed by stomping feet and slamming doors. So given this background, you might understand why, when I chose to broach the subject of the latest vaccine for young girls, I was braced for a fight. Oddly enough, for once, the battle didn't come. I told my teenage daughter I wanted her to get the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine the next time she went to see her doctor. \"I don't want to.\" \"Well, sorry. You have to.\" \"I heard it hurts.\" \"Well, that's too bad. But it might prevent you from getting cancer later in life.\" \"Oh. (pause) OK.\" If you were keeping score, you might chalk that one up as a Mom win. The only problem with that is after winning over my daughter, I now had to convince myself. This drug has its own emotional battlefields. The HPV vaccine has been available to the public for almost two years. When Merck launched it in 2006 under the name Gardasil, many people enthusiastically embraced it as a wonder drug. Dr. Kevin Ault, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University's School of Medicine, says the vaccine helps women avoid an assortment of ailments, some not too serious, but others that are potentially deadly. \"There are about 100 different types of human papillomavirus,\" he said. \"Some of them are pretty common and not dangerous, like plantar warts or warts on your hand. About 30 of them infect the genital tract, and about a dozen of them are associated with cancer.\" Health for Her: Watch more the HPV vaccine and girls \u00bb . In this case, the cancer Ault is talking about is cervical cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that in 2008, there will be over 11,000 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed and almost 4,000 women will die from it in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that at least 50 percent of people who have had sex will have one type of HPV at some time in their lives. Given those stats, this vaccine would seem like a pretty good thing, right? The hitch is that the vaccine is suggested for adolescent girls, but the viruses in question are sexually transmitted. And that is one of the big reasons the HPV vaccine has divided parents in the question of \"to give or not to give.\" Let's face it. Parents don't like thinking about their daughters having sex at all. Ever. Now a new drug comes along, and not only are parents told they should embrace this new vaccine for their young daughters, but it's also part of the set of routine vaccines that doctors are strongly encouraged to give their patients. Merck says the drug has been safely tested for girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that girls get the vaccine at age 11 or 12. Ault explains why youth is key. Human papillomavirus is sexually transmitted, \"so one of the advantages of giving it to adolescents is that they are unlikely to have been sexually active, so they will not have been exposed to the virus before getting the vaccine.\" Another reason to do this early, Ault points out, is that \"our immune system is a lot better when we are 11 than when we are, say, at 22.\" Ault also suggests that parents could use this experience to teach their children about sex and, even more important, about the realities of life, such as sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. These arguments aren't convincing to some parents, the ones that are choosing not to have their daughters vaccinated. There are several reasons for doing this, including religious beliefs. Some faith-based groups feel the vaccine is inviting their young daughters to become sexually active. Others believe the drug is just too risky. CDC spokesman Curtis Allen says the vaccine is constantly being monitored by a joint CDC \/FDA hotline. Parents, patients and physicians can call the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, to report any adverse reaction to the vaccine. Through a Freedom of Information Act petition, the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch got records from VAERS that showed three deaths in girls who'd had the vaccine in March-April 2007 and over 1,600 adverse reactions reported from June 2006 to April 2007. All said the response came after getting the HPV vaccine. Allen cautions restraint in considering the reports. \"Most of these reactions were minor,\" he said, and the deaths \"were linked to circumstances not related to the vaccine.\" The CDC and the FDA are constantly monitoring the VAERS hotline and won't hesitate to act should they see any dangerous trends due to the HPV vaccine, he said. The vaccine does have some known side effects. Ault has seen his share. \"I certainly hear from women who get the vaccine that it's painful, and I think some dizziness has been reported.\" In fact, fainting has been added to the list of potential side effects to watch for. Allen says doctors are now recommending that girls stay in their doctor's office for a short period after they get the injection for just that reason. Three injections are necessary to get the full benefit of the vaccine. The shots need to be administered over a six-month period and at this stage are guaranteed to work for at least five years. All of this information leaves me confused. Frankly, I'm not really sure I have won myself over when it comes to the \"shot or no shot\" decision for my daughters. However, in the back of my mind, I hear the words a father spoke when he thought about not giving the vaccine to his still-young daughter. He said, \"How am I going to be able to turn to my daughter when she's older and tell her, 'When you were younger, I had the chance of making sure you never got a certain type of cancer, and I decided not to do it' ?\" That's an emotional minefield I truly don't think I'm emotionally equipped to walk through. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Human papillomavirus, or HPV, can cause cervical cancer .\nGardasil, a vaccine against HPV, was approved for U.S. use in 2006 .\nCDC: Girls 11-12 should get the vaccine, before they're sexually active .\nReported side effects causing some parents to reconsider vaccination .","id":"a0af279182f3fadc18776e180d3d5c0c20fabeca"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A passenger jet caught fire early Sunday, exploded and crashed into railway tracks in the central Russian city of Perm, killing all 88 people on board. Wreckage from the Aeroflot-Nord Boeing 737, which crashed near Perm, lies across a railway track. The exact cause of the pre-dawn crash is under investigation, but government spokesman Vladimir Markin said \"a technical breakdown\" was a likely cause. Markin said in televised remarks that the failure of one of the Boeing 737-500's two engines may have caused the plane to come down, The Associated Press reported. Airline officials have said there is no indication of terrorism. \"We think it's very doubtful that it was the result of a terrorist attack, because at the scene, there were no traces of explosives as we know for now,\" said Lev Koshlyakov, Deputy Director General of Aeroflot. It took firefighters more than two hours to extinguish the blazing wreckage. When the sun rose, pieces of the Aeroflot jet were strewn about the railroad tracks. \"It slammed in front of my house, and there was a huge flame,\" an unidentified woman in Perm told Russian state television. \"It looked like fireworks.\" She said the impact of the crash \"threw me across my sheets.... Then my daughter ran in from the next room and asked if a war had started.\" She and other witnesses said they saw the aircraft burning before it came crashing down. \"It looked like a comet,\" she said. The jet was en route to Perm from Moscow when the pilots lost communication with air traffic control just before landing about 3:10 a.m. (2110 GMT), an Aeroflot official said. He described the weather at the time as \"mediocre.\" The public safety minister for the Perm region said investigators were combing a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) area, including homes and railways. Watch more about the crash \u00bb . \"Right now, it's apparent that there was a fire on the plane at one kilometer in the air,\" Yuri Orlov said. \"After that, all contact was cut off -- the plane exploded.\" The flight data recorder has been recovered and will be analyzed by the International Aviation Commission, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said. The plane carried 82 passengers, including seven children, and a crew of six. At least 21 non-Russians were on board, including passport-holders from Azerbaijan, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine, said Lev Koshlyakov, Aeroflot's deputy director general. The U.S. Embassy confirmed that no Americans were on board the flight, even though one passenger was listed as a U.S. citizen. It is the second crash in the region involving a Boeing 737 in less than a month. An Iran-bound Boeing 737 with 90 people on board crashed on August 24 just outside the airport in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, killing 68. The 737 is a workhorse of the airline industry, with thousands of planes in service. Aeroflot said the one that crashed in Perm was manufactured in 1992 and was operated by its Aeroflot-Nord subsidiary. \"This Boeing 737 has all the necessary certificates,\" Koshlyakov said. \"We conduct audits and inspections of all the affiliate companies we work with in the realm of their effectiveness, safety and reliability of the airplanes.\" Airline safety in Russia and the former Soviet Union is among the worst in the world. Aviation experts say poor maintenance, inadequate pilot training and weak government controls are major factors. But Aeroflot is considered one of the safer airlines in the region. Sunday's crash is the first fatal accident for the airline since 1994, when a Russian pilot handed control of an Airbus to his 15-year-old son. It crashed, killing all 75 people on board. Russia's government has now ordered an inquiry into the latest incident, to find out how another routine flight could have ended in tragedy. The National Transportation Safety Board will send a team of investigators to Perm to look into the incident -- a standard practice when a U.S.-made aircraft crashes. CNN's Kathleen Koch and Michael Sefanov contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: National Transportation Safety Board to send team from U.S. to investigate .\nNEW: Crash likely caused by engine failure, investigator reported as saying .\nBoeing 737 en route to Perm from Moscow was operated by Aeroflot Nord .\nOfficials have said there is no indication of terrorism .","id":"7b052bcb848112230cf85ba4ad7d739a5d932f03"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of inmates rioted at the Reeves County Detention Center in Texas on Saturday, the second disturbance at the prison facility in the last two months. As many as 2,080 inmates from two of the center's three buildings began fighting in the prison yard about 4:30 p.m. CT, said county Sheriff's Office Dispatcher Anna Granado. Authorities from several law enforcement agencies responded to quell the violence. However, officials had not brought the unrest under control as of 1 a.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff's office. Officials said they do not know what prompted the riots. Three inmates were hospitalized, including one with a severed finger, the sheriff's office said. On December 12, inmates took two workers hostage and set fire to the recreation area at the center in Pecos, located about 430 miles west of Dallas. The inmates, who had made several demands, surrendered later that night. The prison is a 2,400-bed, low-security facility, operated by Geo Group Inc. It houses federal prisoners as well as inmates from other states. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Inmate unrest at Texas prison enters second day .\nNEW: Authorities: Three inmates have been hospitalized; one has severed finger .\nPrison was site of another inmate riot in December .\nOfficials say they do not know what sparked latest riot .","id":"7fe21d1a74acc2e0d605e454866818e34e5de8a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A drunk passenger tried to hijack a Turkish Airlines flight to Russia on Wednesday before he was brought under control, the head of Turkey's civil aviation authority said. The Turkish Airlines passenger jet was en route from Turkey to Russia when the incident took place. The plane landed safely and on time Wednesday afternoon in St. Petersburg. Russian authorities promptly arrested a \"slightly intoxicated\" passenger from Uzbekistan, Russia's Interfax News Agency reported, citing a national police spokesman. The suspect, in his early 50s, was arrested on suspicion of trying to hijack the plane, Interfax reported. Turkish media initially reported that the plane had been hijacked. When asked about those reports, a Turkish Airlines spokesman said the flight experienced an \"urgent situation\" as it headed to St. Petersburg, without offering further details. Interfax said the flight was carrying 164 Russian nationals. There have been several attempts to hijack Turkish airlines in recent years. In August 2007, two men hijacked an Istanbul-bound Atlasjet Airlines flight with 136 passengers and crew on board from Cyprus, claiming to have a bomb on board the flight. They forced the crew to make an emergency landing in Antalya. Both hijackers eventually surrendered to Turkish authorities. In April 2007, Turkish authorities detained a man they believed tried to hijack a Turkish airliner, possibly to Iran. The suspect, Mehmed Goksin Gol, was not armed and all 178 passengers and crew aboard the Pegasus Airlines flight were unharmed. The flight was heading from southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir to Istanbul, but landed at Ankara's airport, where the suspect was detained. In October 2006, a Turkish man hijacked a Turkish jetliner with 113 people aboard en route from the Albanian capital Tirana for Istanbul. He forced it to fly to a military airfield in Brindisi, Italy, where the passengers and crew were released unharmed. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow and Nicky Robertson in Atlanta contributed to this report .","highlights":"Incident on flight between Antalya, Turkey and St Petersburg, Russia .\nTurkish Airlines: Drunk man tried to hijack passenger plane .\nOfficials: Man brought under control, airline experienced \"urgent situation\"\nNEW: Interfax: Flight arrives at St. Petersburg, police arrest Uzbek man in his 50s .","id":"6b6924652ba141223bcd64416e874d690f1a253d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mauricio Funes was inaugurated Monday as El Salvador's president, promising to work for the nation's poor and disadvantaged. El Salvador's new president, Mauricio Funes, takes power Monday after his inauguration in San Salvador. Funes, elected March 15, is a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago. He is El Salvador's first leftist president. \"The Salvadoran public asked for a change, and that change begins now,\" Funes said in an inauguration speech before an audience that included Latin American leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Funes, a member of the FMLN party, won a narrow victory over the ARENA party's Rodrigo Avila. Funes' victory ended a 20-year hold on the presidency by the right-leaning ARENA. With Funes' win, El Salvador joined other Latin American countries that have elected leftist leaders in recent years -- Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. The FMLN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, was formed in 1980 as an umbrella group for five leftist guerilla organizations fighting a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The guerrillas and the government signed a peace pact in 1992, and the FMLN became a legitimate political party. By some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the war. The new president will find \"a country that still retains a lot of bitterness, a lot of division,\" Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute, said before the election. \"This country is completely divided,\" ARENA party official Adolfo Torres said on CNN affiliate TCS TV on election night. Funes acknowledged that division Monday, promising to \"create a country without hate and without resentment.\" He also seemed to acknowledge the difficulties ahead, saying, \"We don't have the right to make mistakes.\" Despite a dire economy, Funes promised an ambitious social program that would include construction of 11,000 homes, scholarships for children ages 6 to 18 and improvement in delivery of water, electricity and sanitary services to 32 poor municipalities. He may be hard-pressed to follow through, some analysts said. \"Once Funes assumes office on 1 June, his government will face major challenges to boost the economy, cut government expenditures to trim the fiscal deficit and maintain support to the poor, who are being hit hardest by the economic downturn,\" analyst Heather Berkman wrote in a report last week for the Eurasia Group consulting firm. \"Cutting expenditures and reducing the deficit will be the most important challenges,\" Berkman wrote, adding that to \"do this, the Funes administration plans to cut government spending and eliminate redundant presidential commissions; retarget propane subsidies (and perhaps eventually eliminate them); and propose a number of new taxes on alcoholic beverages, tobacco and new vehicles.\" Funes campaigned on a platform of fiscal reform that aims to increase the government's tax take incrementally, Berkman said. Funes did not offer any details Monday, speaking instead in general terms of the El Salvador he would like to see under his five-year administration. He will not, Funes said, \"govern for a few or be complacent to corruption.\" Funes, a former freelance journalist for CNN en Espa\u00f1ol, noted in particular that his administration will fight organized crime and narcotraffickers. \"In this government,\" he said, \"those who have merit will be compensated and those who are guilty will be punished.\"","highlights":"Mauricio Funes is inaugurated as El Salvador's president .\nFunes of the FMLN party is El Salvador's first leftist president .\nFunes' political party waged guerrilla war against government till early '90s .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton among dignitaries at inauguration .","id":"338fd1467b7460236764a9c20130a8e63d4567a5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea is to blow up a key part of its controversial Yongbyon nuclear reactor on Friday. Hyun Hak-Bong (right), North Korea's deputy negotiator to six-party talks, crosses the border into South Korea on June 5. The destruction of the plant's cooling tower is part of an agreement with the United States aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula in exchange for loosening some restrictions on the highly secretive Communist country. The North Korean government has invited news organizations, including CNN, to witness the event. Earlier this year, Pyongyang agreed to disable its nuclear reactor and provide a full accounting of its plutonium stockpile, \"acknowledge\" concerns about its proliferation activities and its uranium enrichment activity, and agree to continue cooperation with a verification process to ensure no further activities are taking place. North Korea has been taking Yongbyon's main reactor apart, but imploding the cooling tower is an exceptionally important psychological step given that the highly recognizable shape of the structure is synonymous with nuclear power plants. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says it would take a year to rebuild if North Korea decided to go back on its agreement, and that the construction could not be done in secret. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended U.S. diplomacy toward North Korea last week, saying the deal with Pyongyang made Asia and the U.S. safer. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, Rice said that \"North Korea will soon give its declaration of nuclear programs to China.\" China is the host of the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, along with Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States. Rice spoke in advance of her upcoming trip to Asia where she will be attending a meeting of G8 foreign ministers and meeting with her Asian counterparts. Rice said once North Korea submits its declaration, President Bush will notify Congress he intends to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and scrap some sanctions levied against North Korea because of nuclear concerns. But she noted that there would be no practical effect to loosening the restrictions because North Korea still was under the same sanctions because of other areas of U.S. law. Rice said a 45-day review would then begin to see if North Korea is telling the truth and living up to its end of the deal struck in the six-party talks. \"Before those actions go into effect, we would continue to assess the level of North Korean cooperation in helping to verify the accuracy and completeness of its declaration,\" she said. \"And if that cooperation is insufficient, we will respond accordingly.\" The United States softened its demand that North Korea publicly admit to having a highly enriched uranium program and to providing Syria with nuclear technology, key unanswered questions that have left negotiations stalled for months. North Korea has already handed over about 18,000 documents on its nuclear past to the U.S., which the U.S. says are critical to verify North Korea's claims. Rice said that the deal with North Korea wasn't perfect but offered the U.S. the best chance to learn about North Korea's nuclear history. \"We must keep the broader goal in mind: the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons and programs, all of them,\" she said. \"North Korea has said that it is committed to this goal. We'll see.\" Rice said that \"no final agreement can be concluded\" unless the U.S. verifies North Korea's claims. CNN State Department Correspondent Elise Labott contributed to this report .","highlights":"North Korea plans to destroy nuclear plant's cooling tower .\nImplosion is part of an agreement with the United States .\nU.N. says the cooling tower would take a year to rebuild .\nLong-term aim is to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons .","id":"53e5784f76fc11cda5670954475e7179a1346636"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Desperation, sophisticated smuggling operations and the emergence of a small Italian island as a migrant destination provide the sad backdrop to Monday's tragedy on the Mediterranean Sea -- the capsizing of a boat carrying African migrants from Libya to Italy. Libyan police officers help rescued migrants off an overcrowded boat that arrived this week in Tripoli. Jean-Philippe Chauzy, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said Tuesday that Libya for years has been a destination for migrants from the rest of Africa. Its relatively successful economy is a magnet for people from impoverished regions, and its proximity makes it a logical jumping-off point for Europe. People from places such as Ghana, Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso long have traveled to Tripoli and other Libyan locations and have gotten work there, from construction to washing cars. Chauzy said even people from the Horn of Africa, where Somalis and Ethiopians have fled to Yemen via the Gulf of Aden, are choosing to travel to Libya rather than pursue a trip to Yemen. Asians as well are opting to travel to Europe from Libya. While some Africans hope to settle in Libya, many others have their eyes on moving onward to Europe. They tend to sail to Lampedusa, an Italian island lying southwest of Sicily and just north of the African coast -- considered an advantageous way station for entrance into Europe. Italy has been bolstering its efforts to stop the illegal traffic. Some of the people who find their way to the island get asylum. Some migrants eventually are returned to their home countries, but others are taken from Lampedusa to facilities on the mainland, where they are sometimes simply released instead of being deported. Chauzy said people head to Europe first and foremost to help their families back home with a paycheck. He said the global economic crisis has led to a drop in the money sent back home, and that in turn has affected hurting African economies, where prices for staple crops have plummeted. He said that the bolstering of border controls sparked by such a tragedy could prompt migrants to take other dangerous routes. Watch as details emerge on latest tragedy \u00bb . Officials said at least hundreds of migrants are believed to have perished in the Mediterranean over the past year. In the latest incident, more than 200 African migrants are believed to have died after their vessel, carrying 250 people, capsized in rough waters. At least 20 people are confirmed dead, and 23 have been rescued. Another boat with more than 350 migrants aboard was rescued, and these migrants -- mostly Africans but also including some Asians -- were taken to Tripoli in Libya. The International Organization for Migration believes there are two other boats in the Mediterranean that could be carrying migrants. The flight of migrants on rough seas is not just a local phenomenon. \"We are seeing it all over the world,\" U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said Tuesday. Smugglers, for example, also take people from western Africa to the Canary Islands, from Myanmar to Thailand, and from Turkey to Greece. Guterres said the tragedy shows the urgent measures people take \"to escape conflict, persecution and poverty in search of a better life.\" Some of the people can be classified as refugees -- people fleeing war and persecution and who could qualify for asylum in other countries. Others are migrants from countries where there is no persecution. They are in search of jobs and a better life. Thousands have died on their journeys, but thousands have survived as well, with many awaiting asylum and resettlement opportunities. There has been much publicity about the flight of Ethiopians and Somalis across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Many have died en route, with smugglers at times throwing people overboard to avoid getting arrested by navies for their operations. Ron Redmond, the UNHCR spokesman, said he believes such movement will persist as the \"economic situation continues to worsen worldwide.\" The agency said the number of asylum seekers in industrialized countries increased last year for the second year running, in part because of higher numbers of asylum applications by citizens of Afghanistan, Somalia and other turbulent nations. Last year, 36,000 people arrived in Italy by sea from North Africa. Some 75 percent of them applied for asylum, and about 50 percent of those received some form of international protection from the Italian authorities. Demetrios G. Papademetriou, president of Washington-based think tank Migration Policy Institute, said the movement of migrants is organized, with smuggling syndicates making \"obscene profits\" and \"enormous amounts of money.\" \"These are organized flows,\" Papademetriou said. As for the tragedy, \"you will see this again and again and again,\" he said.","highlights":"Libya has long been a destination for migrants from the rest of Africa .\nMany African migrants try to find work in industries such as construction .\nOthers attempt to move on to Europe, with Italy a common destination .\nStrict border controls often prompt migrants to take other dangerous routes .","id":"b1be8a8a2190f1f5515e24680a017e541406e25c"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In \"Marley & Me,\" it doesn't take long to learn why Marley, an incorrigibly frisky golden Labrador retriever adopted by Florida newspaper writers John and Jenny Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston), is the \"world's worst dog.\" In \"Marley & Me,\" Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston's characters welcome a dog into their lives. He's friendly and lovable, but he devours everything in sight -- drywall, socks, big chunks of furniture (no, he doesn't just chew on them, he eats them). As a dog owner, I can testify that \"Marley & Me,\" based on the real John Grogan's smash 2005 memoir, is the single most endearing and authentic movie about the human-canine connection in decades. As directed by David Frankel (\"The Devil Wears Prada\"), though, it's also something more: a disarmingly enjoyable, wholehearted comic vision of the happy messiness of family life. John and Jenny share an existence that, from the standpoint of our current economic times, already looks like paradise. He's a reporter who gets refashioned, by his testy editor (Alan Arkin), into a lifestyle columnist (only to keep complaining about it -- poor guy!). She's a feature writer who becomes a stay-at-home mom. As the kids come along (three of them), the Grogans move into bigger and bigger houses, yet they have thwarted ambitions, fights that go on for days, and a general attitude of wistful loss toward all the freedoms they have given up to become parents. \"Marley & Me\" celebrates two ordinary people as they try to fit love, work, children, and one volcanically misbehaved pooch into a single space. Marley may be the dog from hell, but we're meant to see that the Grogans, in their hearts, wouldn't have it any other way. Marley stands in for all the unruliness that can never be domesticated out of life. You can domesticate Owen Wilson, but the shock is how good the role of beleaguered breadwinner looks on him. He and Aniston forge a nimble connection (they even get mad in style), and Wilson has a scene near the end with Marley that's the most wrenchingly tender acting of his career. Using his scratchy, lackadaisical warmth to voice a testament to family, and to where dogs fit into it, he makes you feel like it's a wonderful life indeed. EW Grade: A- . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Marley & Me\" works as both comedy about dog and profile of family .\nOwen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in film version of memoir .\nHigh marks for Wilson, in particular, as newspaper columnist and dog owner .","id":"596707bc6242418cd68bd49a041d3d073548b9be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Voluble real estate mogul Donald Trump called alleged Wall Street scam artist Bernard Madoff a \"sleazebag\" and \"a total crook\" Thursday in an interview on CNN. Donald Trump said investors who lost money in a Ponzi scheme were victims of their own greed. Trump recently hosted a party at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, Mar-a-Lago, that was attended by several people who say they were victims of an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme run by Madoff. Madoff, 70, is a former chairman of Nasdaq. He was charged last week with fraud. Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization, a New York-based real estate development empire, spoke with Kiran Chetry on CNN's \"American Morning.\" CNN: How angry are people at this situation with Madoff? Donald Trump: ... The people in Palm Beach, many of those people have been just ripped off by this sleazebag, and they'll never see the kind of money that they've seen. You have some people gave 100 percent of their net worth to him in trust, because they trusted him, they trusted his family, they trusted everybody, and now they literally are selling their houses in order to live. And some of them mortgaged their houses in order to give that money to this Madoff. And it's really a terrible thing. I'd see him around Mar-a-Lago, I'd see him around Palm Beach -- and he's a disgrace. Watch the possible ramifications of the Madoff case \u00bb . CNN: ... How did he get away with this? How did so many smart people entrust somebody -- and we keep hearing over and over again, 100 percent of their money going to this guy. Would you ever let 100 percent of your money go to something, even if you trusted the person? Trump: I would not, and a lot of my friends would not, but obviously a lot of my friends did. The word is very simple. It's a word called \"greed.\" Greed. That's all it is. People were greedy. They thought he was going to get them a little bit more return, or a lot more return. I mean, he was a Svengali for rich people. There are Svengalis for women; this guy was a Svengali for rich people -- very rich people. But when you think of a person putting up 100 percent of their net worth and even mortgaging their house, even though they had a lot of cash -- mortgaging their house to get more cash to this guy -- and now they're going to have to go out, literally, and maybe work in a drugstore. I don't know what they're going to do. CNN: Did you lose money from Madoff? Trump: No, I did not. CNN: Some are blaming the [Securities and Exchange Commission], saying for years they did not investigate any claims. Chairman Christopher Cox said there were some credible accusations against Madoff made nearly a decade ago that were never referred to the commission to act. So what's your take on the oversight, how the SEC and government handled this? Trump: I would not blame the SEC. This guy was a total crook. The people in his own organization supposedly didn't know about it. Now, that's another thing; I find that hard to believe. He's got two sons, and they didn't know about it? And they worked there for years? I think the whole thing is a swindle. I think even that's a swindle: The father said, \"Look, you guys turn me in and pretend you don't know anything and I'll save my two sons.\" But it's impossible for me to believe that his sons didn't know about this. CNN: So you also think it's impossible that he acted alone. Trump: I don't know how you could act alone. They had three floors of a major office building. How could one man be manipulating that much money without all of the people knowing -- without at least a large number of the people knowing about it? So I would certainly think that his sons are guilty.","highlights":"Real estate giant lashes out at suspect in $50 billion investment scheme .\nPeople were victims of their own greed, Trump says .\nTrump doubts that Bernard Madoff could have acted alone .\nTrump says he did not lose any money to Madoff .","id":"7f2f0949ebf14606e4de438cc9c708ef07c87a1e"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- A directive recently handed down by a Detroit-area suburban mayor has ignited the latest round of a seemingly endless debate -- one that always burns with more intensity in the home of the Big Three than anywhere else. Many residents in the Detroit, Michigan area are auto workers. Thousands have been laid off recently. It's the debate that relates to cars and goes something like this: \"Buy American!\" vs. \"I'll buy what I want!\" That debate sometimes, but not always, begins as a civil conversation. But the Detroit area has been hit hard in the last five years by the ongoing, sometimes enormous financial losses posted by the Big Three. The Big Three's financial woes have had a direct impact on the Michigan economy with hundreds of thousands of layoffs and\/or buyouts. Given that so many of the state's workers have lost their jobs -- and in some cases, their homes - it sometimes doesn't take long before the car debate escalates into an emotional one. That can lead to angry name-calling and insults - like many of the reader comments that flooded the online edition of the Detroit newspaper that first reported a controversial story. AOL Autos: Best new car deals this month . This latest round of the discussion was inspired by a decision made by Jim Fouts, the mayor of Warren, Michigan, a large Detroit suburb and Michigan's third-largest city, and where a good portion of the residents are (or were) autoworkers. In mid-August, Fouts told his department heads, which amount to 40 or 50 of the city's more than 700 employees that he \"expects\" the next car they buy will be an American model. More to the point, he expects them to drive General Motors or Chrysler vehicles, since both companies have various manufacturing or assembly plants in Warren -- not to mention GM's sprawling Tech Center -- and therefore are the city's two highest taxpayers. Fouts, who drives a 2001 Chrysler Concorde himself, isn't being draconian about it. That is, he hasn't ordered his appointees to run right out and dump their Hondas, Toyotas, Saabs or Audis immediately. \"But I strongly suggested that the next car they buy should be an American one, and that I had an equally strong expectation that they will do so,\" Fouts said. \"Legally, since they are 'at-will' employees, I have the right to mandate, and an expectation that they will meet that mandate.\" AOL Autos: Best hybrid SUVs . Some have accused Fouts of over-stepping his authority by \"butting in\" to his employees' private lives, while others have given the policy a hearty \"thumbs up.\" \"Some of them are not enthusiastic about it,\" Fouts said, noting that one department head currently drives a Mercedes-Benz vehicle. \"But many of these department heads make more than $100,000 a year, and I told them that they might not be able to enjoy the economic comforts they currently enjoy if it were not for the amount of taxes that GM and Chrysler pay to the city. AOL Autos: Luxury cars with the best MPG . \"I think of it as 'economic patriotism.'\" Fouts said he did not know how many of his department heads currently drive imports, although one of his appointees, Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer, guessed that about 90 percent of the appointees already drive American-made cars. \"But the ones who are not happy about this -- well, they won't talk to [reporters] about that, because they know how I feel about it,\" said Fouts. Dwyer, who drives a Jeep Cherokee, supports the mayor's \"buy American\" expectation. \"I believe that, the way the economy is that Americans should be buying American cars. And, as department heads, I think it's important for us to be setting an example for the other city workers.\" AOL Autos: Safest cars . One of the reasons usually cited for the U.S. automakers' loss of market share are consumer perceptions that imports are higher in quality -- although several recent surveys by various research groups have revealed that Detroit carmakers have closed the \"quality gap\" in recent years to the point that it is almost negligible. And the handful of Detroit-area residents\/natives we talked to about the \"Buy American\" debate had no complaints about the quality of their American-made cars - or their foreign-made ones, for that matter. One is Tracy Balazy of Dearborn, Michigan - the Detroit suburb that is home to the Ford Motor Company's world headquarters. AOL Autos: Most popular crossover vehicles . \"I drive a 2000 Saturn, because it was cheaper than a Honda,\" Balazy said. \"And other than brakes and the usual things, I've had no problems with it, and it now has 101,000 miles on it.\" Balazy has an interesting take on the topic of whether we should feel compelled to \"buy American,\" when it comes to cars, however - and whether we should be instructed to do so. \"The average American probably spends a lot more on other things - clothes, household goods, you name it - than on cars. I think it's hypocritical for someone to tell everyone to 'buy American' as it pertains to cars, but then take advantage of the great prices on imported goods at say, Wal-Mart,\" Balazy said. \"I've passed up many good deals, and have abstained from buying a lot of consumer goods I've wanted over the past year, just to avoid buying foreign-made products.\" Ken Reibel, a Michigan native who's lived in Milwaukee for more than 20 years, drives a 2002 Mazda Prot\u00e9g\u00e9, while his wife motors around in a 2001 Toyota Corolla. \"We bought both of them used, from neighbors,\" he says. \"They've both been good runners. No serious problems. The Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 is a sweet ride. \"But I'm not even sure what it means to 'Buy American' anymore,\" says Reibel. \"Ford has a huge stake in Mazda, and Japanese automakers build most of their cars for the American market right here in the U.S., with American labor. It's easier to 'Buy American' if you're purchasing a shirt or case of beer. But cars are different. I'm sure if you disassembled a Chevrolet Malibu or a Ford Windstar you would find an appalling number of foreign-made components and assemblies.\" Gary Galusky is a Detroit-area native\/resident who gives high marks to quality of his American-made vehicle. For the last couple of years, Galusky has actually maintained two residences: one in Dearborn and one in Sutton's Bay, in Northern Michigan - a five-hour drive. \"I make that commute regularly, about every three weeks, in a 2005 Ford Escape that I bought new. It now has 103,000 miles on it, and it's never required anything other than ordinary maintenance,\" says Galusky. Conrad Sutter grew up in Harper Woods, a Detroit suburb just a few miles from Warren, and now lives in Richland, in western Michigan. Sutter says he agrees with the \"Buy American\" sentiment. \"I believe what the mayor of Warren is doing is okay,\" says Sutter. \"I wouldn't suppose there are a lot of Apple Computers being purchased in Redmond, Washington (home of Microsoft Corp.), either. \"Nothing wrong with that.\"","highlights":"Detroit mayor sparks debate when he tells employees to buy American cars .\nBig Three's financial woes have had impact on Michigan economy .\nCustomer: Hypocritical to buy American cars then buy other imported goods .\nDifferences in quality between American and foreign are negligible .","id":"102d9b18344c158f1d069b9ddf17096f420a34df"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A rocket fired by Palestinian militants fell on a Gaza home and killed two children, Palestinian sources said Friday, the same day Israel opened three Gaza border crossings for the first time in 10 days. A truck carrying grain enters Gaza from Israel on Friday at the Karni crossing point, one of three Israel reopened. A third child was in critical condition. The children, all girls, were cousins -- the two who died were 7 and 12, and the injured child is 5, Hamas security and Palestinian medical sources said. The rocket struck a house north of Gaza City. In a separate development, the Israeli military said it allowed a Palestinian who was badly wounded by rocket fire Wednesday to enter Israel for treatment. The Palestinian entered Israel through the Erez Crossing between northern Gaza and Israel. Israel closed the crossing for all but humanitarian reasons because of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel by Palestinian militants. But it opened three other crossings Friday, allowing fuel and commodities into the Palestinian territory for the first time in more than a week. About 80 trucks filled with commodities were expected to cross into Gaza. Among the goods were 400,000 liters of fuel and 120 tons of cooking gas. The decision to open the crossings at Kerem Shalom, Karni and Nahal Oz came after requests from international aid groups and Egypt, said Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In addition, he said, Israel has no desire to hurt the civilian population in Gaza. Lerner said whether to keep the crossings open would be a daily decision. United Nations assistance programs in Gaza have run out of flour and several essential pharmaceuticals, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. A tenuous six-month truce between the Hamas government in Gaza and Israel expired a week ago. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Hamas agreed to end militant attacks on Israel from Gaza, and Israel agreed to halt raids inside the territory and ease its blockade on humanitarian goods. In reality, the truce started breaking down two months ago. Rocket attacks by militants became more frequent, and Israel resumed airstrikes inside Gaza. Since then, dozens of rockets have been fired by Palestinian militants into Israel. Israel Defense Forces said about nine rockets have been launched from Gaza since midnight, pushing the three-day total to more than 110. There are no reports of casualties in Israel. The crossings opened a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met in Cairo and Egypt expressed concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Livni criticized Hamas after her meeting with Mubarak. \"Hamas needs to understand that Israel's basic desire to live in a tranquil region doesn't mean that Israel is willing to accept ongoing shooting at its population,\" she said, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. \"Enough is enough. We cannot accept this situation, and the situation will change.\" Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has threatened to respond to the escalating violence. He warned Hamas again Thursday in an interview on the Al Arabiya television network and seemed to suggest that time was running out. \"We do not want to fight the Palestinian people, but we will not allow Hamas to strike our children,\" Olmert said. \"I did not come here to declare war,\" he continued. \"But Hamas must be stopped -- and so it will be. \"I will not hesitate to use Israel's strength to strike at Hamas and Islamic Jihad. How? I do not wish to go into details here.\"","highlights":"NEW: Militants' rocket hits Gaza house, killing Palestinian cousins .\nNEW: Military says it allowed wounded Palestinian into Israel despite blockade .\nTrucks filled with commodities cross into Gaza at three locations .\nMilitants have fired 110 rockets since Wednesday, Israel says .","id":"98e52c47d113b21331cb6ffd12f4a68c416b8c8c"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- From the runway to the store rack, Vivienne Tam is one designer who uses creativity and business acumen in equal measure. Leading fashion designer Vivienne Tam spoke to CNN's Andrew Stevens in The Boardroom. Since her start in the fashion business in the early '80s and establishing her own brand in the '90s, she has risen to fame with her east-meets-west styles. Today it's her skills in business which have expanded the label to some 30 stores worldwide, from New York to Beijing. CNN's Andrew Stevens caught up with the designer in Hong Kong to talk about what it's like to lead both the business and creative direction of a global fashion line. Tam: The business side is like designing, it's like I like the touch of the fabric, I like to know the details about it. And you feel about it, you know about the deal, because who's the person who knows what the best deal for you is? Yourself. It's like designing clothes, I love to know how to solve every single thing, you know. Like what kind of budget . Stevens: It's just natural curiosity? Tam: Natural curiosity, I love it. I love every aspect of it. Stevens: Who have you learned your business skills from or have you made it up as you went along? Tam: I self-taught myself in business; I know nothing about the business, I learned everything -- about the pricing, the shipping, the contracts, everything -- by doing it. When you're doing it yourself, you know everything. If you don't do it, you just listen to somebody telling you how to do it, you're not experiencing it. Once you're experiencing it, you can grow so much from it. Once you experience it, you can go further, much further. It's a feeling of it. Stevens: When you won the Hong Kong businesswoman of the year award, you said that your mother was one of your greatest inspirations. How did she inspire you? Tam: She inspired me so much you know, like you say, the determination, persistence. When she really wanted to make something, she would really go to the end, she'd really want to make it happen and I see her, she's really the force behind me. We were quite poor, we had no money, my parents were working really hard. When I grew up, I saw them working so hard, and then deep inside myself that I wanted to change the situation, I wanted to make something, this one thing. Stevens: What do you think are the most important qualities for a businessperson? Tam: For me, it's most important, a vision, determination, and to never say no to yourself. And be open to criticisms, open to learning, and open to criticisms and knowing nothing about the business; nothing, so you can learn everything by knowing nothing, you know, and be successful in the things that you didn't know. Stevens: You work in a very creative industry, how do you keep your staff motivated in this industry, how do you keep them going, how do you keep them working for you? Tam: I always tell them my story, how I was in school when my teacher asked for one outfit -- I give them 8 outfits. I told them, do things that I didn't ask you, give me, do your work with passion, it's more important than \"Oh, 6 o'clock, I have to leave.\" Do something that is out of the box. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Designer Vivienne Tam speaks to CNN's Andrew Stevens in The Boardroom .\nShe started in the fashion industry in the '80s, launched own brand in the '90s .\nSaid her mother was inspiration when made Hong Kong businesswoman of the year .","id":"3fc21c32495823f85fb84dd8535c66c7965e7ad3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two men were in custody and a third was still on the run Friday after the shooting of two police officers in Indiana sparked a manhunt across the Ohio River into Kentucky, authorities said. One of the injured officers is taken out of an ambulance and rushed into the University of Louisville Hospital. Vincent Windell, 22, and another man whose name was not released were in custody in connection with Thursday's shooting, Jeffersonville, Indiana, Chief Detective Charlie Thompson told CNN. A third suspect, Robert Dattilo, 37, fled into Kentucky, where Louisville police were pursuing him, according to Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Alicia Smiley. The incident began Thursday when Jeffersonville Police Cpl. Dan Lawhorn, 39, and Patrolman Keith Broady, 32, responded to a call from a Motel 6 employee about possible drug activity, Thompson said. The two were apparently ambushed when they arrived, Indiana State Police told the Louisville Courier-Journal. Lawhorn, an 11-year veteran, was shot in the leg, and Broady, a 4-year veteran, was shot in the upper body, Thompson said. The two officers returned fire, but it wasn't clear whether the suspects were hit. Lawhorn and Broady were able to reach their patrol cars and call for help after the shooting. They were rushed to the University of Louisville Hospital for surgery and are both listed in serious but stable condition, hospital spokesman David McArthur told CNN.","highlights":"Vincent Windell, 22, and another man in custody for Thursday's shooting .\nThird suspect, identified as Robert Dattilo, 37, fled into Kentucky, still on run .\nPolice say incident started when cops were ambushed responding to drug call .\nBoth officers who were shot are listed in serious but stable condition .","id":"7cfd324a1a8aeded607ccf504ff27a2c00294dfc"} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- There's probably no way to describe the feeling. Joe Pirrone's pride and joy, his F350 Super Duty turbo diesel truck, turned out to be a stolen \"clone.\" One moment, Guiseppe \"Joe\" Pirrone was on a long weekend at the beach. The next moment, he found out the pickup that he bought a year ago is stolen, and he is still on the hook for the $27,000 loan. Stories like Pirrone's are scattered across the country, and Tuesday the FBI announced that it has broken up one of the largest auto theft cases in the U.S. Capping \"Operation Dual Identity,\" arrest warrants for 17 people were executed in Tampa and Miami, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; and in Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico. The suspects were accused of \"cloning\" vehicles, which is making stolen cars look like legal ones. The FBI says that the ring was operating in the U.S. for more than 20 years. More than 1,000 vehicles were stolen in Florida, with more than $25 million in losses to consumers and banks. \"Individuals have been victimized at every level, from the average Joe, to the banks, to big companies,\" said Dave Couvertier, of the FBI's Tampa field office. Car theft rings clone vehicles by taking license plates, vehicle identification numbers (VIN), and other tags and stickers from a legal car and putting them on a stolen vehicle of similar make and model. \"This does not just affect big business. Anyone could become an unwitting victim of this particular scam. It could happen to anyone,\" said Couvertier. Pirrone knows how it was done because it happened to him. Last year, he bought a used 2005 F350 Super Duty turbo diesel pickup to use for his landscape business in Fort Myers, Florida. He bought it off a small used car lot and took out a $27,000 loan from a credit union. \"I had it for about nine months. It was a great truck,\" he told CNN. In the fall, Pirrone decided to drive across the state to spend a long weekend in Fort Lauderdale. He was lying on the beach when his father called him to tell him that a detective from the Lee County Sheriff's Office was at his house with a tow truck. Pirrone got back in his car and drove back home immediately. \"I was confused, honestly,\" he said. \"I had to ask the detective for credentials. I didn't believe what was going on.\" Pirrone said the detective explained to him that he was the victim of a scam, that he was sold stolen goods. Left without a truck, Pirrone called the Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union. He found that his $536 a month payment would live on after his truck was long gone. Pirrone said he was able to get a 30-day payment exemption, but was told that he had a signed agreement with the bank, and he was still obligated to pay the loan in full. \"I am making payments on a piece of property that I don't have,\" Pirrone said. \"They can't even repossess it. The bank doesn't have any help to offer me.\" The bank is a victim in the car cloning scam as well. Lisa Brock, a spokeswoman for Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, told CNN that the company never discusses private information about any of its members. \"It is a police matter, and it's nothing we can make any substantial comment on,\" she said. Pirrone has hired an attorney, and he is considering filing a lawsuit against the dealership to get the bank's money back. Pirrone said he was advised by his lawyer not to name the used car lot. Law enforcement hopes that this is the beginning of the end of the \"car cloning\" scam. The National Motor Vehicle Information system (NMVTIS) database was implemented in January. It allows state DMVs to share title and registration information. Cloned vehicles were moved and sold to buyers in 20 states and several countries, often for less than market value, the FBI said. Many of the vehicles were exchanged for drugs, according to the bureau. The FBI says that people need to be careful when buying a car independently. \"Folks should be educated enough so that they don't buy a car from a stranger, on the street, or in a back alley somewhere,\" said the FBI's Dave Couvertier. \"And if you're getting it for too good a deal, it should be raising flags.\" Like so many others, Pirrone is feeling the economic squeeze. Without a truck, he had to sell his landscaping business, which he had as a side business. He is still working his other job as a restaurant manager. \"It's not a good time for this to happen. I've had hours cut back at work, I'm not making what I used to make.\" \"I don't know what's real anymore,\" he said. CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti contributed to this story.","highlights":"FBI to announce 17 arrests in huge \"car cloning\" scam .\nUnder scam, VINs, other details taken from legal car, given to similar stolen model .\nIn one case, owner lost truck but was still saddled with payments .\nRing stretched from Chicago to Florida to central Mexico .","id":"4fe8cf568d17575a5c61ec056f90433c3abfe277"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Friday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown praises Mark Felt, the Watergate case's \"Deep Throat.\" (CNN) -- Cutting through the bull. It's hard to think of anyone who gave those words more meaning than Mark Felt. The man we all came to know as \"Deep Throat\" died Thursday at his California home after a life in the shadows. His willingness to risk everything -- career, family, and even his safety -- helped bring down President Richard Nixon in disgrace. Felt was the No. 2 man at the FBI. And yes, it's fair to say he had an ax to grind after being snubbed for the top job. Watch Campbell Brown's commentary \u00bb . But that didn't make his information less accurate or crucial. And even after taking that huge risk, he gave up all kinds of chances to cash in on his secret identity. Imagine the book deal \"Deep Throat\" would have gotten or the movie rights to a blockbuster like \"All the President's Men\"? What millions did he lose by not spending years on the lecture circuit? No, Felt's willingness to keep Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward pointed in the right direction as Woodward and Carl Bernstein flushed out the greatest political scandal in American history had its roots in the integrity that no one else would show back then. We remind you of this because the timing of Felt's death is not lost on us. Just this month, we've watched a governor accused of redefining crooked politics in Illinois. We're in the final days of a White House that pushed the limits of the Constitution and never appeared eager to share information with the American people. And just this week, the president-elect, who talks of change, tried to stop a journalist from finishing a question at a news conference. Now, as ever, we need people like Woodward and Bernstein to keep asking questions. But more importantly, we need people brave enough to give the answers. People like Mark Felt. A man whose name you never heard until he finally surfaced near the end of his life. By then, he was a quiet, meek-looking person who changed our country forever -- by cutting through the bull. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Mark Felt, Watergate's \"Deep Throat\" dies .\nBrown: Felt risked everything to help bring down a crooked president .\nFelt had integrity that no one else would show back then, she says .","id":"babaec80f77da7573695c22e290c12d04643f160"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hanny van Arkel was poring over photos of galaxies on the Internet in August 2007 when she stumbled across a strange object in the night sky: a bright, gaseous mass with a gaping hole in its middle. Hanny van Arkel made her discovery by poring over images of galaxies on an astronomy Web site. \"It looked a bit like an irregular galaxy, but I wasn't sure what it was,\" Van Arkel said. So she posted a query on the Web site of the Galaxy Zoo project, which encourages members of the public to join in astronomy research online. Van Arkel is a 25-year-old schoolteacher in Heerlen, The Netherlands, not an astrophysicist. But her startling find -- a mysterious and unique object some observers are calling a \"cosmic ghost\" -- has captivated astronomers and even caught the attention of the people who run the Hubble Space Telescope, who have agreed to take a closer look next year. \"This discovery really shows how citizen science has come of age in the Internet world,\" said Bill Keel, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Alabama and a Galaxy Zoo team member. \"There was a time when I spoke pejoratively of armchair astronomers. And I've gotten up at a star party and publicly apologized for that.\" Not so long ago, the term \"amateur astronomer\" conjured images of stargazers peering through backyard telescopes. But today's are as likely to be analyzing reams of sophisticated data collected by observatories and posted on space-related Web sites. Armchair observers like van Arkel increasingly are making significant contributions to science, said Steve Maran, spokesman for the American Astronomical Society, a group of 6,500 professionals. Amateurs have been invited to present papers at recent AAS conferences, \"which wouldn't have happened years ago,\" he said. A successful example of amateur-professional collaboration, the Galaxy Zoo project was launched last year by Yale University astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and Chris Lintott at the University of Oxford in England. The pair were looking for help in cataloging archived photographs of galaxies -- one million images -- taken by the robotic Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope in remote southern New Mexico. Knowing that the human eye is sometimes more sensitive than a computer at picking out unusual patterns -- and that they didn't have time to do all the work themselves -- Schawinski and Lintott posted the images on the Galaxy Zoo Web site last summer. The professors then invited amateur astronomers, with the help of a brief online tutorial, to classify the galaxies as spiral, elliptical or something else. Online galaxy-sorting might not sound as fun as, say, surfing YouTube, but it was an immediate hit. \"We were overwhelmed by the response. It completely melted the server,\" Schawinski said. \"People tell us it's addictive. Some of [the volunteers] are professional astronomers, but most of them are not. They're just regular people who got excited about the project.\" During the past year, more than 150,000 armchair astronomers from all over the world volunteered their time, submitting more than 50 million classifications. The public's collective wisdom -- the same principle that guides jury trials or Wikipedia -- proved remarkably astute, Schawinski said. For example, if 33 of 36 volunteers thought a galaxy appeared elliptical, then astronomers could be confident the classification was correct, he said. Van Arkel had been classifying photos on Galaxy Zoo for about a week when she came across the image that quickly became known as \"Hanny's Voorwerp,\" Dutch for \"object.\" The primary school teacher does not own a telescope -- \"my [astronomy] background doesn't really go further than looking at the stars when walking outside in the evening,\" she said -- but when she posted her finding August 13 on the Galaxy Zoo forum, the astronomers who run the site began to investigate. They soon realized van Arkel might have found a new class of astronomical object. The Galaxy Zoo team asked scientists working at telescopes around the world to take a look at the mysterious Voorwerp. Their best guess: The Voorwerp is probably a cloud of hot gas punctured by a central hole 16,000 light years across and illuminated by the \"dying embers\" of a nearby quasar, Schawinski said. Quasars are distant, highly luminous astronomical objects powered by black holes; scientists suspect that light from the quasar still illuminates the Voorwerp even though the quasar itself burned out in the past 100,000 years. \"It's this light echo that has been frozen in time for us to observe,\" said Lintott, the Oxford scientist. \"It's rather like examining the scene of a crime where, although we can't see them, we know the culprit must be lurking somewhere nearby in the shadows.\" Galaxy Zoo leaders are eagerly awaiting images from NASA's orbiting Hubble, which is scheduled to train its powerful instruments on the Voorwerp in 2009. In the meantime, van Arkel is enjoying the fuss over her contribution to astronomy. \"It's amazing to think that ... amateur volunteers can help by spotting things like this online,\" she said. \"What excites me the most is that all of this leads to more interest in science.\"","highlights":"Using the Web, a Dutch schoolteacher has discovered a strange astronomical object .\nThe find illustrates how more amateur astronomers are contributing to science .\nThe Galaxy Zoo project encourages the public to join in astronomy research online .\nHubble Space Telescope has agreed to take a closer look at the object next year .","id":"41c59873c94e590df780d93834350c75cd8a2ef9"} -{"article":"KINGSTON, Tennessee (CNN) -- The Environmental Protection Agency has found high levels of arsenic and heavy metals in two rivers in central Tennessee that are near the site of a spill that unleashed more than a billion gallons of coal waste. Four days after the spill, the water is cloudy on the east bank of the Clinch River in Kingston, Tennessee. The agency said it found \"several heavy metals\" in the water in levels that are slightly above safe drinking-water standards but \"below concentrations\" known to be harmful to humans. \"The one exception may be arsenic,\" the agency said in a letter to an affected community. \"One sample of river water out of many taken indicated concentrations that are very high and further investigations are in progress.\" However, arsenic was not detected in a water intake facility near Kingston, Tennessee, where the spill happened, said EPA spokeswoman Laura Niles. The metals were found in the Emory and Clinch rivers, near the site of a major spill last week that unleashed enough sludge to fill 1,660 Olympic-size swimming pools. The EPA's letter comes as the head of the largest public power company in the nation pledged to clean up the massive spill. \"This is not a time where TVA holds its head high,\" said Tom Kilgore, president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. \"But we won't hang our head, either, because that won't get the job done. I'm here to tell you that we will clean it up, and we will clean it up right.\" The sludge is a byproduct of the ash from coal combustion. A retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's power plant in Kingston, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, contained the waste until a wall breached last Monday, sending the sludge downhill to damage 15 homes and cover at least 300 acres. All residents in the area were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, according to the TVA. The TVA's initial estimate for the spill tripled from 1.8 million cubic yards, or more than 360 million gallons of sludge, to 5.4 million cubic yards, or more than 1 billion gallons. The plant sits on the Clinch River, which is a tributary of the Tennessee River. Video footage from the river, a popular fishing site, reveals piles of dead fish on its banks. The TVA says that has nothing to do with the toxicity of the sludge, though environmental advocates say the ash contains concentrated levels of mercury and arsenic. TVA officials have said water quality tests from a nearby water treatment facility have shown that the water from the river intake meets federal and state guidelines for potable water. But coal operation critics remain concerned about the long-term effects of the spill, and residents have expressed concerns about drinking water, especially from wells. Roane County Emergency Management Director Howie Rose said the county has asked the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to monitor groundwater from wells around the area. He and Kilgore spoke at a town hall meeting Sunday. Rose said the county has also requested air quality tests from the state and federal agencies. Steve Ahlstedt, an independent aquatic biologist, told CNN that a spill of this magnitude probably will affect the area's ecological balance. \"Once the ash has settled to the bottom of the rivers, all heavy metals will hang around for a long time,\" he said. \"When coal releases into the water, the mussel population goes into deep freeze. They are the 'canary in the coal mine.' They are the main indicator of how healthy our water is.\" CNN's Helena DeMoura contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Several heavy metals\" found in levels above safe drinking-water standards .\nTVA pledges cleanup; officials say treatment facility tests show water is potable .\nBreach at retention site has released more than a billion gallons of coal waste .\n15 homes damaged, at least 300 acres covered; area residents evacuated .","id":"888b721b674077b5894925fe70a56410b1fc05d6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The leader of a religious group that authorities believe preys on children was released from a Pennsylvania prison Friday but won't be required to register as a sex offender, triggering outrage in the community where he plans to live. George Feigley, who was released from prison Friday, is the subject of community protests. George Feigley, now 68, was convicted in 1975 on charges including statutory rape, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of minors. Because Feigley's 1975 conviction predated the passage of Megan's Law, he will not be required to register as a sex offender. And, having served his maximum sentence, he was not put on parole upon his release. Feigley's Neo American Church, which authorities have called a sex cult, operated a school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that police said was a front for sexual activity. The church's manifesto says, \"We hold that the changes called creation and procreation are divine and that human sexuality is to humans the most available expression of that function of divinity,\" according to community activist Scott Portzline, who has researched Feigley's history and that of the group. \"Sexual activity is the greatest act a human can do.\" Court documents filed in connection with Feigley's criminal case alleged a less lofty goal. \"The defendants' design was to operate a 'church oriented' school, which is free of any governmental regulation, for the ostensible purpose of education when their real goal was to gratify their own deviant sexual desires,\" the documents stated. One of Feigley's victims, identified only as \"J,\" told the Harrisburg Patriot-News she was part of the organization from the ages of 5 through 12, when her mother left the Neo American Church. Children were beaten for letting anyone but fellow cult members see them, she said, and their genitals were pierced with a lock to be controlled by Feigley, who called himself \"The Light of the World.\" Children also were photographed in graphic sexual poses, she said. Feigley is \"not a man who should be out with society,\" J said. \"He preys on -- at least he did -- the people who believed in him.\" And, community members say, there will be no protections in place to stop him from continuing to do so. Watch why the case inflames emotions \u00bb . Feigley was convicted of additional conspiracy charges in 1995. Authorities said he was attempting to direct sexual activity involving children by telephone from prison. However, conspiracy charges do not require listing on a sex offender registry. Feigley \"never admitted what he did was wrong,\" said John Goshert of the Dauphin County district attorney's office, who interviewed him last week as part of a pre-release program. Protests took place Friday in front of Feigley's Harrisburg home and the church headquarters. His wife, Sandra, still lives in the home. She was convicted in 1975 on one count of corrupting the morals of minors. She served a brief prison sentence, according to the Patriot-News. Sandra Feigley now operates a Web site ostensibly aimed at benefiting state, local and federal prison inmates. The site has a lengthy section with articles discussing sex in prison and elsewhere. Some of them are written by George Feigley, using his own name and some of his aliases. \"Thanks to the Christian crazies who were and are so influential in this country, America has criminalized more sexual conduct than any other Western nation,\" says an article on the site, which does not name an author. \"It's a neurosis. As a result, there are a lot of 'sexual offenses.' \" Another article bearing George Feigley's alias of G.G. Stoctay, Ph.D., and included in Portzline's research says, \"There is nothing injurious to sexuality. It's good and pleasant, not an evil. Children exposed to it are simply not injured.\" Angel Fox, who will be Feigley's next-door neighbor, helped organize Friday's protest and is circulating a petition to prevent his return to the neighborhood, according to the Patriot-News. \"I mean, what happens when I'm not at home?\" she asked. \"Do I have to worry about what's happening with my kids? I have to try to do something.\" The community is \"outraged,\" said Annette Antoun, publisher of a weekly newspaper. She said authorities are looking into whether Feigley would be required to register under a federal statute. And, she said, if there is a loophole in the law, legislators are starting to work on ways to close it. She said she has spoken to Feigley's victims, and \"they have scars they say will never go away. ... They're frightened.\" In 1976, Feigley escaped from a Pennsylvania prison. He was captured two years later in West Virginia but escaped again from a local jail and was recaptured by the FBI. In 1983, two members of the Neo American Church drowned in what authorities believe was an attempt to break Feigley out of prison. Laura Seligman and James Gilbert drowned in the sewer line outside the prison where Feigley was being held. The two had crawled a mile and a half through the line, according to Portzline. A rainstorm caused an overflow gate to open, flooding the line. CNN's Aurore Ankarcrona contributed to this report.","highlights":"Feigley was convicted before passage of Megan's Law .\nBecause he served a full prison term, he wasn't put on parole .\nProtests held at church and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, home of Feigley's wife .\nProsecutor says Feigley never acknowledged wrongdoing .","id":"24d0d960ed6237eb171f0bedfdf9c39c26f765ac"} -{"article":"Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist and a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Read his column here . Ruben Navarrette says Sarah Palin's critics challenged her because of prejudices about small-town values. SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- During the presidential election, some Democrats demanded to know how I could defend Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Simply put, Palin is my people. She's small-town folk who wound up in the big leagues. Because I grew up in a small town with a population of less than 15,000 people, I was disgusted by the insults and condescension coming from those who think of themselves as the enlightened elite. Meanwhile, in small towns, I detected great affection for Palin. People talked about how she was \"a real person\" who \"reflected their values.\" The most significant divide in America isn't Red State vs. Blue State, it's rural vs. urban. The country mouse and the city mouse are still slugging it out. In 1982, New York Mayor Ed Koch ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York. Some say the deciding factor was when Koch described life in upstate New York as \"sterile\" and said he dreaded living in the \"small town\" of Albany, if elected. That didn't play well in rural areas. Now comes Colin Powell. During a recent appearance on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS,\" Powell attempted an autopsy on the Republican Party's failed presidential bid. He went after Palin, accusing her of pushing the party so far to the right that it went over a cliff. \"I think [Palin] had something of a polarizing effect when she talked about how small-town values are good,\" Powell said. \"Well, most of us don't live in small towns. And I was raised in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx.\" You'd think the presidential campaign was about conservatives picking on urbanites. It wasn't. Sure, some Republicans probably made a mistake by using phrases such as \"real America\" or \"real Americans\" as a rallying cry for the base. Americans who live in cities might have thought they were being slighted. But those phrases referred as much to people's politics and values as it did their zip code. I live in a city with a population of more than a million people and I never thought the GOP singled me out as not being a \"real American.\" If anything, it appeared that big-city liberals were tapping into prejudices about small-town America to belittle the governor of Alaska . After Powell attacked Palin, one of the governor's most vocal defenders, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, returned the favor by attacking Powell. \"What is this hatred for conservatives and small-town people and Sarah Palin?\" Limbaugh asked on his radio show. \"I know a lot of people that are from the Bronx, Gen. Powell, and if you think the values there in the Bronx today reflect the ones you grew up with, take a trip back and see if the street corners and the activities there are the same as when you were growing up.\" Limbaugh got it. When people use phrases such as \"small-town values,\" it's as much about time as it is place. The idea isn't that people who live in small towns have better values than people who live in cities. It's simply an attempt to recall, with nostalgia, what life was like when more Americans lived in small towns. It used to be that more families ate dinner together and high school students worked summers and after school. It used to be that our schools didn't make excuses for why some kids don't learn because they were too busy trying to teach them. It used to be that parents weren't interested in being their kids' best friends, only good parents. And it used to be that people pulled their own weight and would never dare ask for a handout. During a recent interview with the conservative newspaper, Human Events, Palin was asked if she thought her humble background accounted for some of the flak she got from the media. Palin acknowledged that she didn't come from elite stock, but said that she was grateful for that. \"I got my education from the University of Idaho because that's what I could afford,\" she said. \"No, I don't come from the self-proclaimed 'movers and shakers' group and that's fine with me. It's caused me, or rather, allowed me, to work harder and pull myself up by my bootstraps without anyone else helping me. I think it allows me to be in touch with the vast majority of Americans who are in the same position that I am.\" Sarah Palin understands a lot about America. Too bad many Americans don't understand Sarah Palin. No worries. They may get another chance to acquaint themselves with her -- in say, four years. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette Jr.","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette: Sarah Palin rose from small-town life to big-time politics .\nShe's been accused by Democrats of polarizing the campaign, Navarrette says .\nHe says she was unfairly targeted by liberals prejudiced against small towns .\nNavarrette: We can expect to hear from Palin again, maybe in four years .","id":"13930436f15ad4739b3e41462c4cb18672c793f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton will win Florida's Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, CNN projects, although party sanctions have stripped the state of its convention delegates and no Democrats campaigned there. Hillary Clinton addresses a crowd in Davie, Florida, after winning the state's primary. Published polls showed the New York senator and former first lady was heavily favored in the state. Her leading rivals, South Carolina primary winner Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Edwards, did not campaign in Florida. They opted to concentrate on next week's \"Super Tuesday\" contests in states such as New York, California, Missouri and Georgia. CNN's projection is based on precincts reporting results, entrance polls and other statistical models -- including the number of votes outstanding in areas where Clinton was expected to do well. The sanctions make Tuesday night's results largely meaningless to the Democratic presidential race. Obama described the primary as a \"beauty contest\" Tuesday, and his campaign issued a statement declaring the race a tie in the delegate count: \"Zero for Obama, zero for Clinton.\" But Clinton has pledged to fight to have the state's delegates seated at the August convention in Denver, and has increasingly stressed the state's importance since losing Saturday's hotly contested primary in South Carolina to Obama. Though Democrats agreed to leave the state off their itineraries in a show of solidarity with the national party, Clinton attended permitted fund-raisers in Florida on Sunday and planned to appear with supporters there after polls closed. And turnout was high for the race even though no delegates were at stake. Nearly 400,000 people cast early or absentee ballots ahead of the primary, and Tuesday's vote was expected to top the nearly 800,000 who turned out in 2004. Donna Brazile, who managed former Vice President Al Gore's presidential bid, said many Democrats were likely to turn out to vote on a state constitutional amendment that would limit property tax increases and expand homestead exemptions. \"People are very afraid this will cut public services, cut back education,\" said Brazile, a CNN analyst. \"So the Florida Education Association and all of the unions are spending millions of dollars to get voters to turn out.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Rivals Sens. Barack Obama and John Edwards did not campaign in Florida .\nThere were no delegates at stake in Florida .\nObama and Edwards concentrated efforts on Super Tuesday states .","id":"f7795d55a73285762e5172c620247e4899293a9a"} -{"article":"AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- Austrian police believe a 73-year-old man held his daughter captive in his cellar for the past two decades and fathered at least six children with her, according to police and state-run news reports Sunday. The woman, identified as 42-year-old Elisabeth F., has been missing since 1984, when she was 18 years old, police said at a news conference. The situation came to light earlier this month after her daughter -- a 19-year-old woman, identified as Kristen F. -- was hospitalized in Amstetten after falling unconscious, according to police. She was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, outside Vienna, by her grandfather with a note from her biological mother requesting help. Amstetten is a rural town about 150 km (93 miles) west of Vienna. But police said a DNA test later revealed her grandfather, Josef F., was also her father, according to ORF, Austria's state-run news agency. That sparked a police investigation, which revealed that Josef F. may have fathered at least six children with his daughter, forcing her and three of the surviving children to live in the cellar of his house, according to ORF's Peter Schmitzberger. The children are now between 5 and 19 years old. Police are awaiting DNA tests to verify their relationship to Josef F., who faces arrest for \"severe crimes against family members,\" according to police. So far, he has not given a statement to police. Police spokesman Franz Polzer told ORF that the 73-year-old has led police to several hidden rooms in his cellar accessible only by an electronic passcode that he provided to police. Watch a report on the discovery \u00bb . On Sunday, police searched the hidden rooms where Josef F. admitted he kept his daughter and their children, Polzer told ORF. The rooms included sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a bathroom, which Josef F. told police he built, Polzer said. Neighbors told ORF they were shocked to hear the news, and had no indication such horrors were taking place in their town. \"One can't imagine how it could happen, how nobody could realize anything of what was going on in the cellar of this house,\" Schmitzberger told CNN. \"It's quite unimaginable.\" Acting on \"a confidential tip,\" Amstetten police apprehended Josef F. and Elisabeth F. on Saturday near the hospital for questioning, according to a police statement. Once police assured the daughter that she would never have contact with her father again, \"she was able to tell the whole story,\" Schmitzberger said. Josef F. lived upstairs with his wife, Rosemarie F., who police said had no idea about her husband's other family living in the cellar. Josef F. and Rosemarie F. had adopted three of the children that he had with his daughter, according to police. He told his wife that his missing daughter had dropped the unwanted children off at the house because she could not take care of them, police said. The other three children -- Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5 -- remained locked in the basement with their mother, according to police. None had seen the light of day during their entire time in captivity, police said. After she was detained Saturday, Elisabeth F. gave police a \"psychologically and physically disturbed impression,\" police said in a statement. She told them her story after she was assured her children would be protected from further harm. She said her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984 -- weeks before she was reported missing -- her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police. For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by her father, resulting in the six surviving children, she said, according to the police statement. She told police she gave birth to twins in 1996, but one of the babies died a few days later as a result of neglect, and Josef F. removed the infant's body and burned it. She told police that only her father supplied her and her children with food and clothing, and that she did not think his wife knew anything about their situation. When Kerstin fell ill earlier this month, Josef F. apparently told his wife and the hospital that his \"missing\" daughter had dropped off the sick girl on his doorstep. In an effort to find out what might be ailing 19-year-old Kerstin, the hospital asked the media to put out a bulletin requesting any information about the girl or her missing mother, attorney general Gerhard Sedlacek told NTV. Sometime later, Josef F. brought Elisabeth F. out of the cellar, telling his wife that she had returned home with her two children after a 24-year absence, police said. He took Elisabeth F. to the hospital to talk with doctors about Kerstin's condition, and at that point, authorities became aware of her situation, Sedlacek said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman tells Austrian police she was held prisoner in cellar for nearly 24 years .\nPolice believe the 73-year-old man may have fathered at least 6 of her children .\nThe 42-year-old woman had been missing since 1984, when she was 18 .\nOne of her children, a 19-year-old woman, is hospitalized in serious condition .","id":"ac26a1939a390896a9d6ef5359264cd105400839"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida boy remains in stable condition just days after he found his parents' long-forgotten handgun in a closet and accidentally shot himself in the head. Police are deciding whether or not to charge parents after their son found a forgotten gun and shot himself. Sheriff's detectives in Pinellas County, Florida, near St. Petersburg, say the boy found the .25-caliber European semi-automatic handgun in a box in a closet in their home. \"They are dealing with this very tragic situation, and at this point, no charges have been filed,\" said Cecilia Barreda of the Pinellas County sheriff's office. His stepfather found Jacob Larson, 12, with a gunshot wound to the head Friday. The stepfather called 911. Police say the shooting took place between 7:40 a.m., when his mother, Tracy Newman, leaves for work, and about 11 a.m., when his stepfather, Joseph Newton, returns home. The boy normally goes to school about 8:30 a.m. \"A few years ago, they moved, and [the gun] was stored in the closet. The mother never checked it, never fired it,\" Barreda said. \"They told detectives that they forgot they had stored it in a box inside a closet. Both her and her husband forgot about it,\" she said. Newman told detectives that she received the gun six years ago from a former employer. Police say that both she and her husband are cooperating in the investigation into the incident. The sheriff's office says it's unlikely that they will face charges. Florida law prohibits a person from leaving a loaded firearm where a minor might have access to it. Prosecutors do have some discretion, and depending on what happens with the gun, charges ranging from a misdemeanor to a felony can be filed in the event of death or serious injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that 17 states have child firearm access protection and safe-storage laws. Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett says that although laws are needed, an accident with a firearm can be a greater penalty than any judge could ever hand down. \"Sometimes, the injury of a child is more severe from a punishment standpoint than any kind of criminal charge,\" he said. The CDC says three children per day, on average, died in accidental incidents in the United States from 2000 to 2005, the last year data are available. Bartlett said his office has filed charges in previous cases when there was culpable negligence on the part of a gun owner. But, he says, there are cases where accidents happen, not crimes. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says that 34 percent of children in the United States live in homes with at least one firearm, so people have to be aware. \"It's a horrible thing, and those parents will blame themselves from here out, and you have to look at things real close to see if it warrants any enforcement from our end,\" Bartlett said.","highlights":"Boy, 12, found .25-caliber gun in box in closet .\nPolice have not charged anyone in relation to incident .\nFlorida law prohibits leaving a loaded firearm where minor can access it .\nProsecutor: \"Sometimes, the injury of a child is more severe\" punishment .","id":"d2c1c5a08504184b0a3e7395b9be19da2f32f2ea"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Five members of the Sri Lanka's Civil Defense Force (CDF) were killed in a suicide blast in Sri Lanka at a church outside the capital of Colombo Sunday morning, police said. Sri Lankan police officers investigate Sunday's suicide bombing near Colombo. Eight other CDF officers and two civilians were wounded, police said. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but police suspect the bomber was a member of the Tamil Tiger rebels. There was no immediate response from the Tamil Tiger rebels to the incident, which, police said, occurred at St. Anne's Church in the Colombo suburb of Wattala, located on a roadway to the country's only international airport about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the capital. The attack happened during a weekly festival that usually draws a large crowd shopping for vegetables and household goods. The suicide bomber walked into an area where CDF officers were stationed and detonated his explosives, police said. Investigators suspect the bomber targeted the area because 150 police officers who help patrol the road to the airport are billeted there. Government forces have engaged rebels in heavy fighting for more than a year in the Kilinochchi region, once the center of political power for the Tamil Tigers. The 25-year civil war between ethnic Tamil separatists and the Sri Lankan government has left more than 65,000 people dead. The Tamil Tigers were founded in 1976, and the U.S. State Department designated the group a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. The rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), are fighting for the creation of an independent nation, citing discrimination by the country's Sinhalese majority. Earlier Sunday, Sri Lanka's navy said it had destroyed a Tamil Tiger rebel boat allegedly attempting to smuggle in military supplies through the northern coast. Commander D.K.P. Dissanayake, a navy spokesman, told CNN that four rebels were killed in attack after the boat was engulfed in fire. He said the incident occurred just after midnight Sunday but gave no other details. There was no immediate response from the Tiger rebels to that incident. CNN could not independently verify the government's claim because media is debarred from Sri Lanka's battle zones. In the past, both sides in the conflict have exaggerated accounts of military operations. On December 20, the Navy said it destroyed a similar rebel boat trying to smuggle military supplies through the coast near the northeastern coastal village of Mullaitivu. However, a second supply boat was caught on Air Force aerial surveillance cameras unloading along the coast. \"They included assorted ammunition, artillery shells, mortar shells and other items,\" a senior Air Force official told CNN. He spoke on grounds of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media.","highlights":"NEW: Attack coincided during a weekly festival that draws a large crowd .\nNEW: Police suspect the bomber was a member of the Tamil Tiger rebels .\nNo immediate response from Tiger rebels on church blast, destroyed boat .\nFour rebels killed in boat attack after midnight Sunday, Navy says .","id":"811e3a168745cfc2233d7a0b4565885d34f9813a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lectures, slide shows and notes are often boring, but people are using technology to find entertainment in these unlikely places. Spoof notes of \"Star Wars\" are scribbled into a fun online \"pencast.\" Some use high-tech pens to track presentations. Others share PowerPoints in slide show form online. These technologically spiced-up presentations seem to be getting more attention these days. They're also creating buzz about what the future of presentations might hold. Consider \"pencasts,\" which are made using the Pulse SmartPen and specially gridded paper, both sold by the California startup Livescribe. The pen writes like an ordinary pen but also has a voice recorder, and it \"notes\" (so to speak) which notes were taken at which point in the recording. Some quirky SmartPen presentations come off as comedy sketches. One popular presentation muses about how George Lucas might have come up with the idea for Star Wars. Some university students love the technology because they can record and play back what their professor was saying at an exact point in their notes -- which is especially useful when you can't read your own writing. And many professors are all for it, too. \"I feel like this is one of those 'Rear View Mirror' moments in which a new technology comes into our lives with enormous potential and we just don't know what to do with it yet,\" blogs Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropology and digital ethnography professor at Kansas State University. \"We think of it in terms of what we know (pen and paper) and fail to recognize the potential.\" That potential -- for entertainment and serious uses alike -- can be gleaned from pencasts posted on the Livescribe Web site's community section, which is about a year old. The pencasts posted there have collectively received more than 1.5 million views. Soon, it will be easier to embed pencasts on other sites, like personal blogs, the company says. Slide shows are further along in popularity. A startup called SlideShare launched in late 2006 with the idea of allowing people to easily share their PowerPoint presentations. Its site had more than 15 million visitors last month, and its 2008 contest for the best presentations showed off the form's potential. The best are far removed from the dull bullet-point presentations you might have fallen asleep to. Many use dramatic images, striking design and memorable phrases. Former Vice President Al Gore developed his presentation on the planet's environmental challenges into the Academy Award-winning documentary and best-selling book \"An Inconvenient Truth.\" Last year's top SlideShare presentation, called \"Thirst,\" highlights the looming water crisis and has nearly 200,000 views. Others are more light-hearted. The No. 2 spot (with more than 60,000 views) went to a presentation called \"Foot Notes.\" It shows pictures of the narrator's feet in various places she's been (like on cobblestone corridors in Prague and a dance floor in Chicago), interspersed with inspiring quotes related to feet and walking. Finally, for many people, the most dreaded, boring form of communication of all is the lecture. But then, how to explain the popularity of the TED videos? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The conference started in the mid-'80s and has become a networking event of sorts for the world's best and brightest. Dozens of speakers give presentations of about 20 minutes each -- the perfect duration for a juicy \"media snack.\" TED.com started introducing TEDTalks to the public for free in July 2006, and by the following year, there were more than a hundred talks dating back to 2002. Broken down into dozens of themes, today they're popular fodder for video iPods. In one, the amputee athlete and model Aimee Mullins talks about how her many pairs of artificial legs often beat having a single pair of regular ones -- some make her taller, others are works of art. In another, Jill Tarter, an astronomer and director of the Center for SETI Research, discusses how insanely large the universe is and what a \"waste of space\" it would be if life on Earth were indeed all there is. It's hard to watch a handful of TED videos and not feel your perspective broadening. That helps explain how, despite the lecture format, TEDTalks has become hugely popular. A few months ago, the videos surpassed the 100 million views mark -- not bad for a bunch of lectures.","highlights":"Technology injects new life into a dull medium: presentations .\nSmartPens bring audio and written notes together .\nGrowth in online applications makes slide shows and lectures more interesting .\nSuccess of TED lectures means educational content can be popular .","id":"e64138722873e4756bfb35b814b35c5e154d89a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Thursday convicted the \"mastermind\" of the Rwandan genocide and sentenced him to life in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Theoneste Bagosora, right, and his co-defendant Anatole Nsengiyumva, left, arrive in court. It is the first time the tribunal has convicted high-level officials for the 100-day genocide in 1994 which left an estimated 800,000 people dead. Theoneste Bagosora, 67, a colonel in the Rwandan army, was found guilty along with two other men -- Major Aloys Ntabakuze and Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva. All were sentenced to life in prison. The tribunal -- located in Arusha, Tanzania -- acquitted General Gratien Kabiligi, the former head of military operations, and ordered his immediate release. CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour -- who covered the story -- called the verdicts \"a real turning point and a milestone in justice.\" Watch CNN's Christiane Amanpour on the verdict \u00bb . \"It sends a message that right up the chain of command, you cannot hide,\" Amanpour said. The court said Bagosora was a key figure in drawing up plans for the genocide. A Hutu, Bagosora was convicted of ordering Hutu militia to slaughter rival Tutsis. The massacres began after a plane crash on April 6, 1994 that killed the presidents of Rwanda and neighboring Burundi. The court said the plane was brought down by a surface-to-air missile fired from the airport in Kigali, the Rwandan capital. Watch what happened in the court \u00bb . Bagosora decided the military should take over and he refused to involve the prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, in any discussions, the court found. April 7, while Bagosora held a crisis meeting with top military officials, the prime minister was arrested, sexually assaulted and killed by top members of the Rwandan Army, the court found. Find out more about the world's killing fields \u00bb . That made Bagosora the head of all political and military affairs in Rwanda, and in that capacity, he was at the top of the chain of command. The same day the prime minister was killed, the court said, army personnel confined and killed four important opposition leaders -- including the president of the constitutional court and government ministers -- and murdered 10 Belgian peacekeepers who had been dispatched to the prime minister's residence. The court found Bagosora bore responsibility for those and other killings because he commanded those who carried out the crimes. \"Bagosora was the highest authority in the Ministry of Defense and exercised effective control of the Rwandan army and gendarmerie,\" said Presiding Judge Erik Mose. \"He's therefore responsible for the murder of the prime minister, the four opposition politicians, the 10 Belgian peacekeepers, as well as the extensive military involvement in the killing of civilians during this period.\" ICTR Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow said the convicted men \"prepared, planned, ordered, directed, incited, encouraged and approved the murder of innocent civilian Tutsis.\" The killings were carried out by military personnel on the orders of Rwandan authorities including Bagosora, the court said. The court found that from April to July 1994, Bagosora exercised authority over members of the Rwandan Army and their militiamen, who committed massacres throughout Rwanda with Bagosora's knowledge. \"In all the regions of the country, members of the Tutsi population who were fleeing from the massacres on their hills sought refuge in locations they thought would be safe, often on the recommendation of the local civil and military authorities,\" the indictment said. \"In many of these places, despite the promise that they would be protected by the local civil and military authorities, the refugees were attacked, abducted and massacred, often on the orders or with the complicity of those same authorities.\" The indictment against Bagosora alleged he had been opposed to concessions made by his government to Tutsi rebels at 1993 peace talks in Tanzania, and had left the negotiations saying he was returning to Rwanda to \"prepare the apocalypse.\" The U.N. established the tribunal in late 1994. The trial began in April 2002 and has been deliberating since June 1, 2007. During the trial, the court heard 242 witnesses -- 82 for the prosecution and 160 for the defense. The three convicted men will be held in the tribunal's custody until a state can be found to house them. The genocide's impact is still be felt today, with recent fighting in neighbouring Congo blamed on lingering tensions from the slaughter. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda says his forces are fighting to defend Congolese Tutsis from Hutu militants who escaped to Congo.","highlights":"Bagosora guilty of masterminding genocide which left at least 800,000 dead .\nGenocide began after plane carrying the leaders of Rwanda, Burundi crashed .\nBagosora was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity .\nThe United Nations established the genocide tribunal in late 1994 .","id":"11529057c7d3294c581d4a9f41517ad815b13f4b"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Frank Santa Maria buys two tickets to Italy on Expedia. But when an agent misspells his wife's name, he must embark on an odyssey to ensure she'll be allowed to use her tickets. Will he be successful? Q: I recently bought tickets to Italy by calling Expedia. I spelled my wife's first name to the agent. That afternoon we left town for a trip. When we returned the tickets were at the front door and a confirmation e-mail was waiting. My wife's first name was spelled Crista instead of Christa. I immediately called Expedia, and was told I should have contacted them the day the e-mail was sent to me and that there would be a $150 re-ticketing fee. After several more calls and being put on \"hold\" for more than half an hour, a supervisor told me that there was nothing they could do. They couldn't even change the name on the ticket. I contacted the airline directly and they told me they would make a note on my wife's passenger record. My wife's tickets are still wrong and I'm afraid we may have a problem with our connecting airline or with customs. What can I do? -- Frank Santa Maria, New Braunfels, Texas . A: Expedia should have spelled your wife's name correctly. When it was clear that the company had made an error, it should have done everything in its power to fix it instead of giving you the runaround and forcing you to deal directly with your airline. Then again, it should have never come to this. First, why are you phoning an online travel agency to buy tickets? It may be more convenient, but online agencies are built to handle your purchases online. It's more efficient and reduces the chance of an error being introduced -- like misspelling a passenger's name. Second, you should always check your verification e-mail immediately. Expedia could have made a change to your ticket if you had caught the mistake earlier. It's essential that you review your itinerary as soon as possible. Believe me, I know. I just made this mistake and had to spend an extra day at my destination because I put the wrong date in my reservation. (See? It can happen to anyone.) I've dealt with too many wrong-name cases to count, and here are a few things I've learned. Passengers aren't turned away at the gate because of a typographical error on their tickets. Reservations systems have limitations that sometimes truncate last names or render non-English names in funny characters. Last names and first names are frequently flip-flopped. Ticket agents, gate agents and security screeners know that, and will let you through. I haven't heard of anyone being denied boarding because of a one-character difference in a name. I'm reasonably sure your wife would have been allowed to travel using her ticket, even if this had happened after the May 15 implementation of the first phase of the Transportation Security Administration's \"Secure Flight\" initiative, which requires that you provide your full name as it appears on your government-issued identification. Incidentally, the \"notation\" in her reservation would have almost certainly been visible to any connecting airline. And a customs agent wouldn't even pay attention to your ticket under normal circumstances. It's your customs form and passport that matter to them. Next time you buy tickets by phone -- and I hope there's no next time -- do yourself a big favor: When you offer your name to the agent, ask to have it spelled back. That way, you'll catch any errors before the transaction goes through. Once you have a reservation, it becomes much more difficult (or even impossible) to make a change. It shouldn't be that way. In an ideal world, you'd be able to change a name on a ticket. Airlines say they can't allow name changes for \"security reasons\" but I'm inclined to believe it has more to do with the fact that they would lose lots of money if passengers could give their tickets to friends and family. Or resell them. I contacted Expedia on your behalf, and it issued a new ticket with your wife's name spelled correctly. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Passenger purchased airline tickets from Expedia by phone .\nWhen he received the tickets, his wife's name was misspelled .\nTroubleshooter urged him to purchase online and to verify information .\nExpedia issued a corrected ticket when contacted by the Troubleshooter .","id":"afb226cede6120feee5f59d00fb51445c4d84895"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Internet-based rip-offs jumped 33 percent last year over the previous year, according to a report from a complaint center set up to monitor such crimes. The report said that about 77.4 percent of perpetrators of Internet fraud were men. The total dollar loss from those crimes was $265 million. That's $26 million more than the price tag in 2007, the National Internet Crime Center said. For individual victims, the average amount lost was $931. \"This report illustrates that sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish as financial data migrates to the Internet,\" said Shawn Henry, the FBI's assistant director of the Cyber Division. Americans filed 275,284 reports claiming to be ripped off on the Internet, the highest number reported since the center began keeping statistics in 2000. The dollar loss has been on a steady increase since 2004, while the number of cases referred to law enforcement has decreased steadily since that same year. Complaints to the center have resulted in several arrests, the center said, although information comes only from agencies that voluntarily provide the results of investigations. Henry said the figures show the need for computer users, in businesses and in homes, to be wary and use sound security practices while using the Internet. The center said the top three most frequent complaints were about merchandise that wasn't delivered or payment that wasn't received, Internet auction fraud and credit\/debit card fraud. Other scams include confidence frauds such as Ponzi schemes, check fraud, the Nigerian letter fraud and identity fraud. One popular identity fraud scam used during 2008 involved sending e-mails crafted to appear as if they'd been sent by the FBI. Sometimes the scammers went so far as to say the mailings were from FBI Director Robert Mueller himself, according to the center. The e-mails would ask the recipient for personal information, such as a bank account numbers, claiming the FBI wanted the information to look into an impending financial transaction. One variation of the scheme, according to the center, was to send an e-mail saying the recipient is entitled to lottery money or an inheritance and the funds can be moved as soon as bank account information is supplied. The FBI has issued warnings about such scams in the past, and Monday's report included a new one: \"The FBI does not contact U.S. citizens regarding personal financial matters through unsolicited e-mails.\" The report said that about 77.4 percent of perpetrators of Internet fraud were men, and about half lived in either California, New York, Florida, Washington, Texas or the District of Columbia. More than 55 percent of those who filed complaints were men. But the report noted that anyone who uses the Internet can be a victim, and that the ages of victims have ranged from 10 to 100. Internet crime offers unique challenges to investigators. The report said the offender and victim often live in different states and sometimes different countries, requiring multiple law enforcement agencies to cooperate and conquer any issues of jurisdiction. Another big problem is the anonymity of using the Internet. In most instances, a victim never meets the criminal. The Internet Crime Complaint Center is a partnership of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.","highlights":"Internet users said they were scammed out of a total of $265 million last year .\nFBI: Report shows \"sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish\"\nAmericans filed record 275,284 reports claiming to be ripped off .\nReport said that about 77.4 percent of perpetrators of Internet fraud were men .","id":"582c5fe6bd0c7d5faf24a31629816268146a2e5c"} -{"article":"MARIANNA, Florida (CNN) -- Leaning against his cane, Bryant Middleton shuffled toward the makeshift cemetery. Tears welled in his eyes as he leaned down to touch one of the crosses. Bryant Middleton kneels by a row of white crosses on the grounds of a former reform school he attended. \"This shouldn't be,\" he said. \"This shouldn't be.\" Thirty-one crosses made of tubular steel and painted white line up unevenly in the grass and weeds of what used to be the grounds of a reform school in Marianna, Florida. The anonymous crosses are rusting away but their secrets may soon be exposed. When boys disappeared from the school, administrators explained it away, said former student Roger Kiser. They'd say, \"Well, he ran away and the swamp got him,\" Kiser recalled. Or, \"The gators got him.\" Or, 'Water moccasins got him.\" Kiser and other former students believe authorities will soon find the remains of children and teens sent to the Florida School for Boys half a century ago. Watch Middleton kneel by the crosses \u00bb . On the orders of Gov. Charlie Crist, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement last week opened an investigation to determine if anyone is buried here, whether crimes were committed, and if so, who was responsible. A group of men in their 60s, who once attended the school, have told investigators they believe the bodies are classmates who disappeared after being savagely beaten by administrators and workers. The FDLE is just beginning its investigation, so there is no way to know if there is any truth to the allegations. The investigation will be challenging. Finding records and witnesses from nearly half a century ago will be difficult if not impossible. Many of the administrators and employees of the reform school are dead. Read more about the investigation . Middleton is 64 now, a former Army Ranger. He was 14 then, a wayward boy. He was sent to the Florida School for Boys for breaking and entering. He recently accompanied CNN to the school grounds. \"This is a travesty against mankind and the state of Florida should be ashamed of themselves,\" he said, choking back tears. \"It's as if they were tossed out here like they were nothing but garbage. And it's just downright criminal. Somebody needs to be accountable for this.\" A single-story, nondescript building anchors the other side of the property. The white cinder block structure looks so simple, so bland, that it is difficult to imagine the pain, terror and torture it conjures up in the men who say their childhoods were ravaged within its four walls. The building was known as \"the white house.\" Watch a former student return to the building \u00bb . Middleton said he was brought there six times. He recalled that his tormentors, including one known as \"the whipper,\" would turn on a large industrial fan to muffle the screams of the boys who were beaten with long leather straps, reinforced with metal. See photos from Middleton's reform school days \u00bb . Dick Colon said he went to the white house 11 times during his 30 months at the school. He's one of four men known as \"the White House Boys.\" Colon, Kiser, Robert Straley and Michael O'McCarthy, the original four White House Boys, spoke out about the 31 crosses and their boyhood abuse and pushed for an investigation. Colon recalls his visits to the white house as if they were yesterday: . He said he was forced to lie face down in a blood-soaked pillow -- a pillow with small pieces of lips, tongue and skin on it from the previous boy. He'd clench the metal bar of the bed. The ceilings were low. He would hear the strap hit the ceiling and make a \"tick\" sound before it swung down on him. \"After that tick, you'd go 'Aaaahh,' and then you'd grab that bar, and go 'Ooooohhhhhhh,' and the spindles of the bed would bounce, and sometimes the bed would come off the ground,\" Colon told CNN. Watch Colon's face contort as he relives the beatings \u00bb . Kiser, a fellow White House Boy, said the beatings provided entertainment for the guards and administrators. \"There were bets, and money changed hands on who could draw blood on the first blow,\" he said. He recalled his reaction when he went into a bathroom to clean up after enduring another beating. \"I looked up into that mirror and I just screamed,\" he said. \"I just saw this monster. I couldn't even tell who I was.\" Colon said his reaction was to bury the pain inside. He told a story about how another boy's terror left him wrestling with his own best and worst instincts even to this day. He walked into the school's laundry room one day and saw a black teenager inside a large tumble dryer that was running. He wanted to save the boy, and tried to talk himself into being brave. \"I said, 'Do it! Do it! Do it!' \" he recalled, his eyes beginning to tear. \"And then I thought to myself, 'If you do it, they're gonna put you in there. You're gonna be next.' And I walked away.\" After a long, tearful pause, Colon continued. \"I've been married to my wife for 42 years, and never told her,\" he said, wiping tears away with a handkerchief. \"I don't know how often in a week I think about that.\" \"A chicken s---, I was,\" he sobbed. Still, Colon's is ultimately a success story. At the reform school, he studied to be an electrician and now owns a multimillion-dollar company in Baltimore, Maryland. Colon founded a scholarship fund for high achievers at the very same school that haunts his memories. It is called the Arthur Dozier School for Boys, and Colon returns every year to talk to the students about hope and hard work. \"They need to know they can do things and have a future,\" he said. \"Many just accept that they will be in prison someday.\"","highlights":"Former students talk about brutal days at a Florida reform school .\nOne recalls hearing the tip of a whip hit the ceiling before it came down on him .\nAnother regrets being too afraid to help a boy left in a tumble dryer .\nThird remembers beatings by a guard called \"the whipper\"","id":"dd31ffaf9e6e21d29e5915f2ab891c41dcfa9b1a"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha told CNN Sunday. The Dalai Lama with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on a recent visit to France. The check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours, but the Dalai Lama will not be admitted to the hospital, the spokesman said. The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the north Indian hill town of Dharamsala, will travel to the Indian capital on Monday. The 73-year-old Tibetan leader was hospitalized in Mumbai in August for abdominal discomfort. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday.","highlights":"Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a medical exam this week .\nDalai Lama was recently admitted for tests after suffering abdominal discomfort .\nThe check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours .","id":"6d836bf7dc1a756176466f81a72b4945ac4a46b2"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A power-sharing deal has been reached between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, South African President Thabo Mbeki said. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, left, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mbeki, who mediated the talks in Harare for the Southern African Development Community, said the deal would be signed Monday but did not give details of the agreement. Zimbabwe has had no Cabinet since the March presidential election that started the impasse. Opposition lawmakers booed and heckled Mugabe when he spoke at the opening of the country's parliament August 26. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in that election, but not enough to avoid a runoff, according to the government's official count. He withdrew from the June 27 runoff days before the vote, saying Mugabe's supporters had waged a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters. The main sticking point in the talks had been how much power Mugabe would retain. Tsvangirai had said he would sign a deal only if Mugabe gave up some power and his presidency became a ceremonial position. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the agreement, according to a statement released by his spokesperson, and \"hopes that this agreement will pave the way for a durable peace and recovery in the country and contribute to rapid improvement in the welfare and human rights of the people of Zimbabwe.\" The country is also reeling from hyper-inflation. In August, the country's Central Statistical Office said inflation was at 11.2 million percent, the highest in the world. Analysts have said the Zimbabwean government's official inflation rate figures are conservative. One of Zimbabwe's leading banks, Kingdom Bank, said the country's inflation rate was more than 20 million percent. The economic crisis has destroyed Zimbabwe's currency and made it difficult for Zimbabweans to buy basic commodities, electricity, fuel and medicines.","highlights":"Zimbabwe leaders agree terms for sharing power, South African president says .\nThabo Mbeki, who led mediation talks, said deal will be signed Monday .\nZimbabwe has been in political deadlock since controversial election in June .","id":"32cc4eec92096f0f85f06468be031fe2acd3bb9a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- American fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers, one of which buzzed a U.S. aircraft carrier in the western Pacific on Saturday, U.S. military officials told CNN Monday. Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that there was no violation of flight regulations during the incident. A ministry official said the flights are standard operating procedure for air force training. One of them twice flew about 2,000 feet over the deck of the USS Nimitz Saturday while another flew about 50 miles away, officials said. Two others were at least 100 miles away, the military reported. U.S. defense officials said four F\/A-18A fighter jets from the Nimitz were in the air. The Russians and the U.S. carrier did not exchange verbal communications. Watch U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz \u00bb . Four turboprop Tupolev-95 Bear bombers took off from Ukrainka Air Base, in Russia's Far East, in the middle of the night, Japanese officials told The Associated Press, adding that one of the planes violated Japanese airspace. Russian bombers have been making flights over the western Pacific for several months. There have been eight incidents off Alaska since July. Among the latest, on September 5, six F-15s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, adjacent to Anchorage, Alaska, intercepted six Russian bombers about 50 miles from the northwest coast of Alaska. Two similar incidents occurred in August, one near Cape Lisburne, Alaska, and the other near Cold Bay, Alaska, west of the Aleutian Islands. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Russia's Defense Ministry says there was no violation of flight regulations .\nOne bomber twice flew about 2,000 feet over USS Nimitz deck, U.S. military says .\nU.S. Defense officials say four F\/A-18A fighter jets from the Nimitz were in the air .\nJapanese officials tell AP one of the planes violated their country's airspace .","id":"101309778895e6ca14fca581352735a07b9fc6f7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States needs a new law requiring that the president consult with Congress before going to war, a blue-ribbon panel led by two former secretaries of state said Tuesday. James Baker, left, and Warren Christopher led a panel that recommended a new War Powers Act. The current War Powers Resolution is \"ineffective, and it should be repealed and it should be replaced,\" James Baker said in a joint appearance with Warren Christopher, announcing the results of the study they led. The recommendation follows failed efforts by Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the war in Iraq or to put conditions on President Bush's conduct of it. Congress passed a joint resolution to authorize armed force against Iraq in 2002, but some Bush opponents say it should not have been interpreted as a blank check for the United States to invade and occupy the Persian Gulf nation. Baker, who served in George H.W. Bush's administration, and Christopher, who served under President Bill Clinton, said their project was not prompted by any specific war, with Christopher adding that the commission had \"tried very hard not to call balls and strikes on past history here.\" \"We didn't direct this report at any particular conflict,\" Baker added. The existing law, the War Powers Resolution of 1973, has been regarded as unconstitutional by every president since it was passed as a response to the Vietnam War, Baker and Christopher said. It requires presidents to report regularly to Congress about ongoing conflicts, but the provision has been flouted. \"No president has ever made a submission to Congress pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since 1973,\" former Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican member of the committee, said Tuesday. The panel, formally called the National War Powers Commission, said a new law should be created requiring the president to consult with key members of Congress before sending troops into combat expected to last more than a week, or within three days of doing so in the case of operations that need to be kept secret. It should also make clear exactly who the president needed to consult. The panel suggests that the president talk to \"a joint Congressional committee made up of the leaders of the House and the Senate as well as the chairmen and ranking members of key committees.\" The new committee would have a permanent professional staff with access to intelligence information, Baker and Christopher said. Congress, in turn, would have to declare war or vote on a \"resolution of approval\" within 30 days, they said. If a resolution of approval failed, any member of Congress could introduce a \"resolution of disapproval,\" but it was not clear that such an act would stop a war in progress. Christopher was unable to say in the news conference what practical effect congressional disapproval would have. Baker said the commission had been in touch with the presidential campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as well as leaders of Congress. He declined to reveal what they thought of the proposal, but said: \"We haven't gotten a negative reaction.\" Congress has not officially declared war since 1942, when the United States entered formal hostilities with the Axis powers in World War II. But since then, presidents have sent troops into countries including Korea, Vietnam, Grenada and Iraq. The Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces, but gives Congress the power to declare war and approve military budgets. Baker and Christopher's group included both Republicans and Democrats and held seven meetings over 14 months.","highlights":"War Powers Act is \"ineffective\" and should be repealed, blue-ribbon panel says .\nFormer secretaries of state James Baker and Warren Christopher led the study .\nThey say the project was not prompted by any specific war .\nPanel proposes new law requiring president to consult with Congress .","id":"96ebc1a96673bfaac94195d8c3b4cb9d17eca5b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- FBI agents Monday raided a rural Georgia peanut butter plant suspected as the source of a nationwide salmonella outbreak, a CNN affiliate reported. The Food and Drug Administration launched a probe of Peanut Corporation of America on January 30. The Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, was sealed off by federal authorities Monday morning, WALB reported. The company is accused of knowingly shipping tainted products now linked to nearly 600 illnesses, including eight deaths, in 43 states. The recent outbreak has led to one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history, encompassing more than 1,000 products. The Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations launched a probe of the company on January 30. Previously, the Peanut Corporation of America had said said it shipped products only after subsequent tests came back negative for salmonella. Representatives from the company have not returned repeated calls from CNN.","highlights":"Peanut Corporation of America plant is accused of knowingly shipping tainted goods .\nThose goods are linked to nearly 600 illnesses, including eight deaths, in 43 states .\nThe outbreak has led to one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history .","id":"7e9e655a1bdb66ca474708ff59167c8fdf104c2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Northwest braced for blizzards Friday night while cities from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Boston, Massachusetts, were cleaning up after a major storm delayed air travel and created havoc on the ground. A commuter waits at a Detroit, Michigan, bus stop Friday morning. \"This is essentially the reincarnation of the same storm that brought the heavy snow to parts of California, southern Nevada and northern Arizona,\" Steve Corfidi, lead forecaster with the weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, told CNNRadio. Icy roads created from storms this week paralyzed much of the greater Seattle, Washington, area, where schools were closed and bus routes were suspended Friday as roads were too icy to navigate. Two charter buses carrying 80 people that collided and skidded off a road were pulled to safety, CNN affiliate KOMO reported. The buses crashed through a metal railing and hung precariously over Interstate 5 for several hours before tow trucks pulled them back on the road, KOMO reported. \"We hit it and everyone is in shock for a minute, and [the driver] says 'go to the back of the bus.' And people threw each other out the windows,\" passenger Tamera Vasquez told KOMO. Saturday was expected to bring heavy snows in Washington, damaging winds and power outages to a region still recovering from storms earlier in the week. Hurricane-force winds are possible in the eastern foothills of Snohomish, King and Pierce Counties. Further west, several inches of snow are possible in the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Everett metro area Saturday afternoon. Toward the Olympic Mountains, they could be measuring new snowfall in feet. Flights at most airports in the Midwest and Northeast were up and running after experiencing delays as long as three hours throughout the day. But storm warnings and watches remained in effect for most of region. Corfidi said the storm is expected to maintain intensity into Saturday, continuing east and \"spreading a swath of very heavy snow and freezing rain\" into Pennsylvania and New York. \"There could easily be up to a foot of snow over parts of Illinois, northern Indiana, perhaps into parts of Michigan and southern Wisconsin, eastward into parts of New York and Pennsylvania,\" Corfidi said. In Milwaukee, snowfall closed the airport for several hours and cut into local business hours for retail shops during the busiest shopping season of the year. Malls and shopping centers in Milwaukee, Glendale, Wauwatosa and Greendale opened later than usual, dealing another blow to retailers already struggling with a severe economic downturn. To compensate, some stores in the area, including Kohl's, Boston Store, J.C. Penney and Macy's are staying open until midnight on some days, the Journal-Sentinel Online reported. \"The snow has me concerned,\" Southridge Mall manager Mary Wenger told the newspaper. Another four to seven inches of snow is expected over the weekend. In New Hampshire, still reeling from an ice storm last week, crews worked feverishly to restore electricity service to more than 30,000 customers remaining in the dark, CNN affiliate WMUR-TV in Manchester reported. Southern New Hampshire could get 10 new inches of snow before midnight Friday, WMUR said. Elsewhere, police in Buffalo, New York, shut down the city's Skyway highway because of winds and snow, CNN affiliate WGRZ-TV reported. Western New York had several inches of snow on the ground by noon, the station reported. To the north in Ontario, Canada, southbound Highway 400 was shut down outside Toronto after an multivehicle accident in near whiteout conditions, CNN affiliate CTV reported. \"Lots of blowing snow. Visibility is next to nothing,\" CTV senior cameraman Tom Podolec reported from the scene. Ontario Provincial Police reported 70 accidents in less than five hours Friday morning. The system should move quickly, Corfidi said. It was not shaping up as an extraordinary event, he said. \"It is December, and winter storms certainly raise their ugly heads this time of year,\" Corfidi said.","highlights":"NEW: Tow trucks pull two buses to safety after they skidded off road .\nNEW: Blizzards, hurricane strength winds anticipated in Washington .\nNEW: Snowfall cuts into shopping hours for retailers struggling with downturn .\nUp to a foot of snow is expected from Illinois to New York .","id":"8ded9cea3e3001023ee8b145c278e523dc20d357"} -{"article":"(CNET.com) -- The HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8120n is proof positive that quad-core processing is ready for mass consumption. This $1,150 entertainment-minded desktop serves up Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, a quad-core chip that up to this point we've seen only in much higher-end systems meant for gaming. While HP's own Pavilion Slimline or Apple's Mac Mini might be better fits for most people looking for a PC to pair with their plasma, the m8120n is a great buy if you need a high-end PC that can do pretty much everything outside of gaming. This fixed-configuration retail PC serves up a host of audio and video connections, plenty of hard drive space, more memory than we were expecting, and integrated Wi-Fi -- all inside a functional and good-looking case. The result is a surprisingly powerful media PC; you won't find a better performer for less. Only its lack of a next-gen optical drive prevents a higher recommendation. We're also not thrilled with the amount of shovelware. Aside from its black exterior, the m8120n is similar in design to the Pavilion Media Center m7780n we reviewed at the start of the year (HP moved to its current Media Center chassis in the spring). We turned on the system and looked over the components, expecting to find a few incremental upgrades from the previous models. Instead, we were shocked to find not only a quad-core processor but also 3GB of fast 1,066MHz memory -- 1GB more than we anticipated. A quick scan of our quad-core reviews confirmed our suspicion: this is by far the cheapest quad-core PC we've reviewed. HP is able to keep the price down in large part by not going after gamers with this system (the preloaded trial offers -- shovelware -- also help subsidize the cost of the PC). Instead of putting money toward a powerful but pricey graphics card, HP uses a low-end Nvidia GeForce 7350LE TurboCache card. It borrows resources from the main system memory when it needs more than its 128MB of dedicated video RAM, but it's more than capable for everything but supplying suitable 3D framerates as our tests show. Beneath the graphics card is a TV tuner card that features an NTSC tuner, an over-the-air ATSC HD tuner, and an FM tuner. It allows you to connect it to your cable box or grab over-the-air channels via an HD antenna (which you'll need to supply yourself). The m8120n uses Vista Home Premium, which includes the Media Center shell. You can use it as your subscription-free DVR front-end to watch, pause, and record TV. It also lets you access other media files--photos, music, videos--via the included Media Center remote. A slick, slim wireless keyboard is also included, but it lacks a mouse control nub or ball, which means living-room use will require mousing on your thigh, the arm of the couch, or coffee table if it's something you can't control with the remote. A pair of 320GB hard drives provides ample storage out of the box, and you can add more via the Personal Media Drive bay on the front panel that can accept HP's external hard drives. The drives come in 160GB, 300GB, and 500GB capacities and require no wires to connect -- just slide them into the slot. They also feature a USB port should you need to connect them to another PC. Aside from that, there isn't much room for expansion. All four memory slots are occupied, as are both PCI slots. You can easily get rid of the modem card if you need a free PCI slot, however, and there is an available x1 PCI Express slot. Beneath the 15-in-1 media card reader conveniently located across the top of the front panel are two 5.25-inch drive bays. We were hoping HP's hybrid Blu-ray\/HD DVD drive would occupy one of the two slots, but, alas, we discovered a LightScribe DVD burner that might have excited us two years ago. Then again, it's probably too much to ask for that hybrid drive at this price. The Pavilion Media Center m8120n is a fixed configuration retail model, but you can customize a similar model on HP's site. The hybrid drive adds $760 to the cost of the system plus a necessary yet reasonable $130 graphics upgrade. Alternatively, you can configure the online model with a $200 HD DVD-ROM drive if you want to watch next-gen discs but not write to them. By comparison, the hybrid drive writes to Blu-ray and only reads HD DVD. The lack of a next-gen optical drive is disappointing on this type of PC because it offers so much media-consuming goodness. In addition to the TV tuner, the Pavilion Media Center m8120n serves up useful AV ports on the front panel. Along with the usual FireWire, USB, headphone, and microphone connections, the system gives you composite and S-Video ports along with two RCA audio ports. The front panel ports make it a snap to connect a camcorder or other video device should you have the PC tucked into your home theater setup where getting to the back-panel ports may prove difficult. Back-panel ports of note include digital audio in and out. The integrated Wi-Fi also increases its living-room appeal because it lets you connect to the Internet without running Ethernet all over your house. And for such a powerful PC, the system is remarkably quiet. About its power. The advantages of a quad-core processor are obvious when you compare the results of the Pavilion Media Center m8120n with two dual-core systems, the $1,470 Gateway DX430X and the $1,499 Velocity Micro ProMagix E2035, on our Photoshop and Cinebench tests. The m8120n completed our Photoshop CS2 benchmark 7 percent faster than the Velocity Micro system and 19 percent faster than the Gateway. The difference in performance is far greater on our Cinebench test that taxes multiple CPUs; the m8120m enjoyed a huge 69 percent advantage over the Velocity Micro and a 75 percent lead over the Gateway. Our Multitasking test provides a good glimpse of overall application performance under a typical workload. The Pavilion Media Center m8120n's showing on this test is particularly impressive when you consider that it easily outpaces a Gateway PC that costs a few hundred more. While Dell's original XPS 710 cost nearly five times more than the m8210n when we reviewed it in November 2006, it's used here by comparison to show what the scores of an overclocked, high-end, quad-core gaming PC look like. Also note that the Dell XPS 710 was running Windows XP, which isn't nearly as demanding as Vista. HP backs the Pavilion Media Center m8120n with an industry-standard one-year part-and-labor hardware warranty (software support ends after 90 days). Toll-free phone support and live chat are available 24-7. One piece of preloaded software we do appreciate is HP's Total Care Advisor, a suite of support tools that can help you schedule updates and backups and diagnose and repair problems. The included printed materials are thorough and clearly written, from the huge, full-color start-up poster to the lengthy Getting Started manual. E-mail to a friend . \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"The HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8120n retails for $1,150 .\nIt boasts a quad-core Intel processor and outstanding overall performance .\nNo next-gen optical drive on this retail model, little room for future expansion .","id":"2b7c9fc8cac19755eb4f702a05c9629e3d2a3556"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In tests for teacher Tom Farber's high school class, students can demonstrate their mastery of calculus and find out where to get braces or even a haircut. Calculus teacher Tom Farber is selling ad space on tests to defray printing costs. Squeezed by classroom budget cuts, the Rancho Bernardo High School teacher is selling ads on his exams to cover the costs of printing them. \"It raises money for the teachers and it's amusing for the kids, so it seems like a win-win,\" said Luke Shaw, 18, a student at the suburban San Diego, California, school. Parents and administrators also praise Farber, 47, for his creative classroom funding, but he doesn't want it to become the norm. \"My intention is, [selling ads] is a stopgap measure,\" said Farber. \"I don't want to be doing this year after year.\" Instead, he says, government must do more to help educators provide what students need. Farber started letting parents and local businesses sponsor tests this fall after learning budget cuts would limit his in-school printing allowance -- tracked by the school's copy machines -- to $316 for the year. The cost of printing quizzes and tests for his 167 students will easily be more than $500, he said. That meant Farber, whose courses prepare students for the Advanced Placement exam, would have to give fewer or shorter tests, or find money. Farber, who says 90 percent of his students got a 5 -- the top score -- on AP exams last year, said skimping wasn't an option. \"It has to be a certain quality, or they won't be ready,\" he said. So Farber, who says he'd never asked for money from parents in his 18 years of high school teaching, pitched the ad idea to parents at a September back-to-school night. For checks made to the math department -- $10 a quiz, $20 a test or $30 for a final exam -- they could insert an inspirational quote -- their own or someone else's -- or a business advertisement at the bottom of the first page. Watch how teacher came up with ad idea \u00bb . Of the seven to run so far -- one per test or quiz -- five were quotes, and two were ads from local businesses connected to the parents or someone close. \"Brace yourself for a great semester! Braces by Henry, Stephen P. Henry D.M.D.,\" read one of the ads in small type at the bottom of a quiz's first page. Farber said orders took off after recent media reports. He's collected more than $300, and he believes he'll top $1,000, with some ad buyers paying more than required. All amounts beyond his shortfall will cover colleagues' printing costs, he said. Farber said students and parents have gotten a kick out of the sponsorships. Student Scott Robison, 18, said: \"I liked it because all the teachers complain about budget cuts, and he did something about it. It hasn't hurt in any way.\" Luke Shaw's father, Jay Shaw, said he wants to sponsor a test next semester. And while Jay Shaw praised Farber's idea, \"It's just sad it came to the point where he needs to do that,\" he said. Farber said he doesn't want quiz ads \"to become the standard.\" \"What I'm doing now is ... dealing with the economic situation and making sure kids get what they need,\" Farber said. \"Teachers shouldn't have to scrounge for funding. To me, this is what our government is for, to provide necessities, and that's why we pay taxes.\" But California's budget crisis has forced Farber's school district, Poway Unified, to cut costs, district Superintendent Don Phillips said. The California Federation of Teachers says the state cut more than $4 billion in education spending this year. Phillips said that when the district sought to chop $11 million from its $265 million annual budget, it wanted to keep teachers but cut other areas. Among the things to go was 30 percent to 40 percent of Poway schools' materials spending -- including copying. Phillips praised Farber's ad idea as creative. But he said district officials are weighing whether to set guidelines, especially for business ads. Farber said he'd prefer to keep ads to local \"mom-and-pop\" operations. He's accepting one from hair salon Fantastic Sam's, noting that although it's part of a chain, the store that's buying the ad is locally owned. Farber and Phillips said they don't know of any Poway teachers wanting to replicate the ad idea, but they said educators there have long spent out-of-pocket for supplies. Susan Carmon of the National Education Association said a 2003 study on the issue found U.S. teachers spent an average of $450 of their own money yearly for school resources. \"You can only imagine -- with tighter school budgets in almost every state this year -- that this number can only get higher,\" said Carmon, the NEA's associate director for teacher quality. Fred Glass, the California Federation of Teachers' communications director, said things could get worse for teachers in the state, with California considering $2.5 billion in mid-year education cuts. Glass said he hopes Farber's ad selling \"will underscore for disinterested observers that this [funding shortfall] can't go on.\" Glass said he wouldn't like to see any classroom ads. \"The student needs not to be distracted by anything on the test. This is not instructionally sound,\" he said. But he said he doesn't blame Farber. \"This teacher shouldn't be put in this position,\" Glass said. To those who don't like his idea, Farber suggests asking legislators to better fund education or writing a check to a school. But he said most of the feedback has been positive. \"One person said, 'Too bad you're not a bank, because you might qualify for $700 billion,' \" he said. \"I thought that was pretty clever.\"","highlights":"California calculus teacher had budget for classroom supplies cut .\nParents or businesses can sponsor exams with small ad on first page .\nTeacher Tom Farber expects to raise $1,000 with ads this school year .\nFarber, education officials hope stopgap measure doesn't become the norm .","id":"8f029b709f176de24f3da784042aa42521f267ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From cyberspace to college campuses, many young conservatives are worried that Sen. John McCain is not appealing to their generation. Sen. John McCain says he knows how important young voters are. At a town hall meeting in Ohio this month, a student told McCain that Republicans were a dying breed on his campus. \"I understand the challenge I have, and I understand that this election is really all about the people of your generation,\" McCain said. Many young Republicans said Sen. Barack Obama, the 46-year-old junior senator from Illinois, is inspiring voters their age, but McCain, the 71-year-old Arizona senator who has been in office since the early '80s, is not. Eric Perlmutter, a Republican and student at the at the University of Southern California, said the roaring enthusiasm that follows Obama is missing among conservatives his age. \"We try to get people out to our college Republican meetings, but ... we can't seem to draw the same kind of vocal support,\" he said. At the July town hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, McCain said he knows that he has \"a lot of work to do\" with the younger voters. The senator said he needs young conservatives to help spread his message for him, because \"there's nothing that convinces young people like other young people.\" McCain also acknowledged the importance of using the Internet to reach out to a generation that stays in touch via social networking sites. On MySpace, Obama has more than 427,000 friends, compared with fewer than 60,000 for McCain. Perlmutter said he cringed when McCain admitted he doesn't use e-mail. Obama, however, is frequently seen with Blackberry in hand. Additionally, Perlmutter pointed out that the images used in McCain's campaign -- such as a message about small businesses showing a barber shop with a traditional red and blue pole -- hardly connect to the younger generation. \"Well, when you see the Main Street barber shop image, you think of 1950s America. An entrepreneur, a Silicon Valley guy would definitely make him more attractive,\" he said. Obama also has increased his college-age appeal by holding rallies and giving speeches at hundreds of campuses. McCain has said he recognizes that he needs to get out to those venues \"where young people are engaged and receiving their information and forming their opinions.\" \"Sen. McCain should demand that these same colleges and universities host him or else their tax-exempt status could be in jeopardy,\" said Jason Mattera, spokesman for Young America's Foundation, a conservative outreach group. McCain must work to connect young voters to conservative principles, Mattera said. \"So if they are suspicious of Uncle Sam telling them what Internet sites they can view, they should be equally suspicious of the federal government telling them what health care plan they are going to be a part of,\" he said. According to a Pew Research Center study conducted between October and March, McCain has a big numbers gap to close. The study found that the current generation of young voters, those who came of age during the President Bush years, are giving the Democrats a wide edge. Fifty-eight percent of voters under 30 identified or leaned toward the Democratic Party, compared with 33 percent who said they identified or leaned toward the Republican Party. The McCain campaign said it plans to increase the senator's presence on sites such as Facebook and MySpace in addition to the candidate making appearance on shows that appeal to younger viewers, such as \"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,\" \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno\" and the \"Late Show with David Letterman.\" In past elections, both parties have tended to put less focus on younger voters because historically, their turnout has been low. With fewer than four months until the November election, McCain said he's confident he can convince young voters that he is the candidate for them. \"I believe that I can convince them that I have the plan of action and the ideals and the goals and the inspiration that, as next president of the United States, I can serve better their interests than my opponent,\" he said.","highlights":"Young GOP voters say enthusiasm for Sen. John McCain missing in their age group .\nMcCain: \"This election is really all about the people of your generation\"\nMcCain says he doesn't use e-mail; Sen. Barack Obama has big MySpace presence .\nMcCain campaign says it plans to increase presence on MySpace, Facebook .","id":"6d4ba82f569397a3c13596d191bad9a473ba6986"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing. Under a Microsoft proposal, consumers would receive heavily discounted PCs, then pay fees for usage. U.S. patent application number 20080319910, published on Christmas Day, details Microsoft's vision of a situation where a \"standard model\" of PC is given away or heavily subsidized by someone in the supply chain. The end user then pays to use the computer, with charges based on both the length of usage time and the performance levels utilized, along with a \"one-time charge.\" Microsoft notes in the application that the end user could end up paying more for the computer, compared with the one-off cost entailed in the existing PC business model, but argues the user would benefit by having a PC with an extended \"useful life.\" \"A computer with scalable performance level components and selectable software and service options has a user interface that allows individual performance levels to be selected,\" reads the patent application's abstract. The patent application was filed June 21, 2007. \"The scalable performance level components may include a processor, memory, graphics controller, etc. Software and services may include word processing, email, browsing, database access, etc. To support a pay-per-use business model, each selectable item may have a cost associated with it, allowing a user to pay for the services actually selected and that presumably correspond to the task or tasks being performed,\" the abstract continues. Integral to Microsoft's vision is a security module, embedded in the PC, that would effectively lock the PC to a certain supplier. \"The metering agents and specific elements of the security module...allow an underwriter in the supply chain to confidently supply a computer at little or no upfront cost to a user or business, aware that their investment is protected and that the scalable performance capabilities generate revenue commensurate with actual performance level settings and usage,\" the application reads. 'A more granular approach' According to the application, the issue with the existing PC business model is that it \"requires more or less a one chance at the consumer kind of mentality, where elasticity curves are based on the pressure to maximize profits on a one-time-sale, one-shot-at-the-consumer mentality.\" Microsoft's proposed model, on the other hand, could \"allow a more granular approach to hardware and software sales,\" the application states, adding that the user \"may be able to select a level of performance related to processor, memory, graphics power, etc that is driven not by a lifetime maximum requirement but rather by the need of the moment.\" \"When the need is browsing, a low level of performance may be used and, when network-based interactive gaming is the need of the moment, the highest available performance may be made available to the user,\" the document reads. \"Because the user only pays for the performance level of the moment, the user may see no reason to not acquire a device with a high degree of functionality, in terms of both hardware and software, and experiment with a usage level that suits different performance requirements.\" By way of example, the application posits a situation involving three \"bundles\" of applications and performance: office, gaming, and browsing. \"The office bundle may include word-processing and spreadsheet applications, medium graphics performance and two of three processor cores,\" the document reads. \"The gaming bundle may include no productivity applications but may include 3D graphics support and three of three processor cores. The browsing bundle may include no productivity applications, medium graphics performance and high-speed network interface.\" \"Charging for the various bundles may be by bundle and by duration. For example, the office bundle may be $1.00 [68 pence] per hour, the gaming bundle may be $1.25 per hour and the browsing bundle may be $0.80 per hour. The usage charges may be abstracted to 'units\/hour' to make currency conversions simpler. Alternatively, a bundle may incur a one-time charge that is operable until changed or for a fixed-usage period,\" the document reads. Microsoft's patent application does acknowledge that a per-use model of computing would probably increase the cost of ownership over the PC's lifetime. The company argues in its application, however, that \"the payments can be deferred and the user can extend the useful life of the computer beyond that of the one-time purchase machine.\" The document suggests that \"both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model\" because \"the user is able to migrate the performance level of the computer as needs change over time, while the supplier can develop a revenue stream business that may actually have higher value than the one-time purchase model currently practiced.\" \"Rather than suffering through less-than-adequate performance for a significant portion of the life of a computer, a user can increase performance level over time, at a slight premium of payments,\" the application reads. \"When the performance level finally reaches its maximum and still better performance is required, then the user may upgrade to a new computer, running at a relatively low performance level, probably with little or no change in the cost of use.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing .\nUnder its plan, a standard PC would be given away or heavily subsidized .\nConsumers would then pay regular fees to use the computer .\nCharges would be based on length of usage time and PC performance levels .","id":"64b579813cab5ce844b19e26697fe0c1908e2ac1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man who police say dressed as Santa Claus and killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party lived with guilt from an incident that left his son from a previous relationship a paraplegic, according to an attorney who once represented the woman in that relationship. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo went on a shooting rampage in a Los Angeles suburb on Wednesday, police say. Prime suspect Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who police said committed suicide hours after he went on a shooting rampage and started a raging house fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, had a son who sustained severe brain damage several years ago in an apparent swimming pool accident while he was in Pardo's care, according to attorney Jeffrey Alvirez. Police have said Pardo targeted his rampage at his former wife, Sylvia Ortega Pardo, and her family at the family's Christmas Eve party. The Los Angeles Times reported that Pardo had kept his son's existence and condition a secret from his wife. When she found out, her anger over the situation and also finding out that Pardo had claimed the child as a tax dependent for several years became a major factor in divorce proceedings, the paper said, quoting an unidentified source close to the investigation. Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said Friday that a divorce between the two was finalized in court December 18 in a \"somewhat contentious proceeding.\" On Saturday, Covina police released the names of the nine people unaccounted for since the shooting and fire. Nine bodies were recovered from the rubble of the house, but authorities said they are having to work with dental records to establish identities. \"The bodies were so badly burned they cannot be identified any other way,\" Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan said. The nine unaccounted for are Sylvia Pardo, her parents, her sister, her two brothers, both brothers' wives and a nephew. Ages of the nine range from 17 to 80, police said. Police said Sunday a car believed to have been rented by Pardo on December 19, a gray Toyota RAV4, was found in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. Authorities had cautioned the missing car might be booby-trapped or contain explosives, but it was unclear whether any had been found. Another rented car that Pardo used to flee the scene was found booby-trapped after the shooting, police said. That car burned as the Covina bomb squad was trying to disconnect an explosive device in it, police said. In an interview Saturday with CNN, Alvirez -- who represented Pardo's former girlfriend Elena Lucano in a child support case against Pardo -- said that Pardo and Lucano were in an \"off-and-on again relationship\" in 2001 and that Pardo was watching their 13-month-old son, Matthew, one Saturday while Lucano went grocery shopping. When Lucano returned a short time later, she found Pardo frantically holding the unconscious toddler, Alvirez said. \"The child did get away from him for a few minutes and managed to crawl out of a patio door and slip into the pool,\" Alvirez said. The couple rushed the child to a nearby hospital, where paramedics resuscitated him. Later, the gravely traumatized child was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, a world-renowned trauma center that specializes in severe pediatric care, for specialized treatment, Alvirez said. During the first week in the intensive care unit, Pardo never left his son's bedside, Alvirez said. But a few weeks after the child was stabilized, doctors concluded that severe brain damage would confine him to a wheelchair for life, Alvirez said. Less than six months later, Pardo and Lucano ended their relationship, and Pardo stopped visiting his son. Pardo also neglected to contribute to Matthew's medical costs, which surged up to $340,000 within the first year, Alvirez said. \"We had to sue [Pardo] on his $100,000 homeowner's insurance policy, and I recommended that Elena sue Bruce beyond the policy,\" he said. \"She was not a vindictive type, and she knew he was living with overwhelming guilt and wanted to only pursue his policy.\" Alvirez said he never had any problems with Pardo and was able to collect the $100,000 policy to pay off medical bills and set up a special needs trust of $240 per month for the rest of Matthew's life. The boy is now 9 years old, Alvirez said. \"Once the settlement was reached in August 2002, Bruce stopped communicating completely and never saw Matthew or Elena again,\" Alvirez said. He said Lucano had maintained occasional contact with Pardo's mother over the years but she was unaware that Pardo had remarried and never anticipated the violent path that ended his life and left nine other people dead. \"She is overwhelmed by all of this, but Elena has managed to provide for Matthew as a single parent with a part-time nurse and a full-time job,\" Alvirez said. Lucano declined to be interviewed by CNN, Alvirez said.","highlights":"Bruce Pardo's son from previous relationship was brain damaged, attorney says .\nSecret of boy's existence was factor in divorce, newspaper reports .\nPolice are looking for car Pardo might have rented .\nAuthorities release information on those unaccounted for after fire .","id":"836b9d77e006db7bbb55422512b30c0e6bb9d575"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An internationally renowned paleontologist will plead guilty to stealing dinosaur bones from federal land, his attorneys said in a court filing. Paleontologist Nate Murphy is expected to plead guilty to stealing fossils from federal land. Nate Murphy, whose famous finds include Leonardo, one of the best-preserved dinosaurs in the world, will make that plea in federal court in Billings, Montana. Earlier this month, Murphy pleaded guilty to state charges of stealing a fossil from private land in order to sell it. An expert cited in that case said Murphy's find was worth between $150,000 and $400,000. The self-taught dinosaur expert, who is director of vertebrate paleontology at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute, could face jail time. Murphy and his attorney did not immediately respond to phone messages Friday from CNN. Jessica Fehr, lead prosecutor in the case, said the U.S. Attorney's Office would not comment until after the plea is entered. In court papers, federal prosecutors say Murphy knowingly took fossils from federal property between about August 2006 and August 2007. The \"paleontological resources\" were said to be worth at least $1,000. In the state case, Murphy pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft. As part of the plea, the state recommended Murphy's sentence be deferred for five years. Douglas Erwin, president of The Paleontological Society and curator of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said \"theft of fossils from pubic lands has long been a problem.\" In a written statement sent to CNN on Friday, he said such thefts \"can often result in the loss of important scientific information and the disappearance of specimens that belong to the public. \"At the same time, however, fossil collecting, particularly of common invertebrate fossils, has been a pastime enjoyed by many for decades, and is an important way of connecting people with their natural heritage.\" An omnibus public lands bill, which the U.S. Senate passed Thursday, includes penalties for fossil theft from public land.","highlights":"Attorney says well-known paleontologist will plead guilty to stealing dinosaur bones .\nNate Murphy, of the Judith River Dinosaur Institute, has made major fossil finds .\nMurphy is accused of taking fossils from federal lands in Montana .\nSmithsonian: \"Theft of fossils from pubic lands has long been a problem\"","id":"02037af85149fc16f053ff9f41db55852424dd8b"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe published a draft constitutional amendment in the government gazette Saturday, paving the way for the power-sharing agreement reached after violence disrupted this year's presidential election. President Robert Mugabe, left, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed the deal in July. Constitutional Amendment 19 details the posts and institutions that were created by the power-sharing deal, including the position of prime minister intended for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. The publication of the draft is the first step in creating a law in Zimbabwe. For the law to pass, it must be appear before parliament in 30 days, according to the country's constitution. If it is approved, it will be sent to Mugabe for his signature. The deal arose after Tsvangirai withdrew from a June 27 runoff days before the vote, saying Mugabe's supporters had waged a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters. The two leaders signed the initial agreement, brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, in July but have failed to agree on how to form a cabinet. The MDC, the main opposition party, noted that Mugabe's latest move does not legalize the amendment. \"Gazetting the bill -- which was done by [Mugabe's party] Zanu-PF -- does not automatically translate into passing it into law,\" MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. \"That can only take place if outstanding issues have been addressed. Otherwise we will not support the bill.\" The two parties agreed last month to the draft amendment during talks in South Africa, but Chamisa warned then that problems remained. \"We have differed with Zanu-PF for a long time while the citizens suffer, but fortunately we have agreed on something. I need to hasten to mention that we still have some outstanding issues, such as the cabinet, appointment of diplomats,\" he said in late November. Zanu-PF lost its majority in the parliament in the March elections. As no party has the two-thirds majority to pass the law, its passage relies on MDC support. If parliament does not approve the amendment, Mugabe may call for new elections, Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told state-run daily newspaper The Herald. \"I envisage that it will require two weeks for it to be debated and passed through both Houses. If no support is forthcoming, it means that Amendment Number 19 Bill will be dead matter,\" Chinamasa is quoted as saying The Herald. \"In the event that the collaboration that we envisage is not forthcoming, then that will necessitate fresh harmonized elections at some point in time,\" he said, according to The Herald. Tsvangirai won the most votes in the March election, but not enough to avoid a runoff, according to the government's official count. South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, chairman of the Southern African Development Community, welcomed the draft. \"The gazetting of Amendment 19 of the Zimbabwean Constitution is indeed a major step towards the formation of an inclusive government in Zimbabwe,\" he said in a written statement. \"We urge the Zimbabwean political parties to establish an inclusive government.\" Meanwhile, the country is battling a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 800 people since August, according to the World Health Organization. More than 16,000 people have been infected, WHO said. This week, Mugabe declared that \"there is no cholera in the country.\" His spokesman later said Mugabe was sarcastically ridiculing what he believes are Western designs to invade the country. Another Zimbabwean official, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said Friday that the disease was a \"calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country.\" Britain ruled the country as a colony until 1965. Ndlovu's claims triggered quick and pointed reaction from Britain and the United States. In Washington, State Department spokesman Rob McInturff called Ndlovu's accusations \"patently ridiculous.\"","highlights":"Amendment paves way for power-sharing deal after violence disturbed election .\nPresident Robert Mugabe, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed deal in July .\nAmendment describes prime minister post intended for opposition leader Tsvangirai .\nParliament must approve amendment before Mugabe can sign it into effect .","id":"c4b84237bb6b40f554bb98fa5f319329e8883695"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Screening Room went to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in the heart of London's West End, where a spectacular musical version of \"The Lord of The Rings\" is enjoying a successful run, to meet Indian composer A. R. Rahman, whose blend of Asian culture with rock and Western classical styles has revolutionized the Indian film industry. And now Rahman is about to make his mark in Hollywood. A. R. Rahman, interviewed by CNN's Screening Room . Virtually unknown in Europe and the U.S., Rahman has sold 200 million albums worldwide -- more than the Beatles -- and is worshipped throughout much of Asia, where he's known as the Mozart of Madras. Now he has added a Hollywood film score to his vast repertoire of movie music. Rahman explained to CNN what he thinks makes great movie music. \"A great soundtrack is like 'Laura\"s theme', the 'Love Story' theme, 'Chariots of Fire' and all those sorts of things, where it stood by itself,\" he said. But recently, he's noticed a changing mood. \"Now it is becoming too abstract and more ambient and more... I don't know, soundscape-ish, more than melody. People are afraid of melody: 'Oh, that melody is distracting my scene,' it is becoming like that.\" And that brings fresh challenges for the makers of film music. \"Now the challenges of the composer are much more,\" he told CNN. \"One needs to know of recording, production, it is not enough to compose a great theme and [know] how it can intertwine with the movie. And with Indian film it is an even greater challenge, because we need to be like Michael Jackson, John Williams, Hans Zimmer and an Indian folk composer all put together. So they expect finesse and they expect versatility.\" Rahman's compositions are versatile enough to be used by both Bollywood and Hollywood, a case in point being his music for the Hindi film \"Dil Se,\" which was used almost a decade later by Spike Lee for \"Inside Man.\" But for Rahman, the process to create film music is being challenged by increasingly crammed movie schedules. \"There used to be a time where the director and the composer would work together,\" he explained. \"They would develop themes and the director would shoot a scene, but now the world's so fast that people are finishing the movie even before going to a composer.\" As well as writing songs and scores, Rahman has featured in many Bollywood films singing the songs which are mimed by the acting superstars. He recently completed a sell-out tour of the U.S. performing highlights from his songbook to devoted fans. He explained to CNN how playback singing is a normal part of Indian film music. \"Well, until I worked in 'Bombay Dreams' six or seven years back, I never realized that it is not cool to have playback singing. Until then, it was the story of Indian films where somebody else lip synchs and somebody else sings.\" And Rahman has been converted to the Western model, where those singing on-screen usually provide the vocals themselves. \"In my future projects I would rather have a star who sings,\" he said. Director Shekhar Kapur recruited Rahman and fellow composer Craig Armstrong to provide the score for Cate Blanchett's sequel to \"Elizabeth,\" \"The Golden Age,\" which premieres at Toronto Film Festival in September this year. Kapur described the thrill of working with two such different -- and complementary -- composers. He told CNN, \"Here are two totally different cultures. Craig Armstrong is strings and heart, the skies, choir, angels and devils, and A. r. is modern, restless music.\" \"Just to get them together was very interesting for me. To sit there and see both of them jamming together, that was fascinating. They wouldn't talk, they would jam, and out of the jamming came the music. It was great.\" Rahman is still getting used to his new-found status as darling of both East and West -- and it leads to a somewhat chaotic lifestyle, as he explained. \"It is terrifying sometimes. I suddenly wake up in Scotland doing music for 'Golden Age,' and suddenly wake up doing an Indian superstar film, but I think after all these years I am probably getting a balance.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Composer A. R. Rahman has sold over 200 million albums worldwide .\nThe 'Mozart of Madras' works in both the Indian film industry and Hollywood .\nRahman's work includes the music for 'The Lord of the Rings' stage production .","id":"1d67c730590ba0b4626e0e150944d53f71ff6a2d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For a little while, it looks like \"Up,\" Pixar's 10th feature-length film, is going to be a downer. In \"Up,\" a curmudgeonly senior citizen, Carl, tries to cope with the enthusiasm of Russell, a young boy. Not that there's anything wrong with an animated film tugging at our tear ducts. But you can sense unease rippling through the younger halves of the family audience when, about five minutes into a spunky prologue, intrepid pre-pubescents Carl and Ellie abruptly morph into newlyweds, and then not-so-newlyweds. They gray and stoop before our eyes, youthful dreams of exploration traded in for the comforts of home and domestic bliss. Ellie wants a baby but can't have one. Their savings for the holiday of a lifetime are eaten up by this rainy day, that domestic disaster, until there's no more lifetime left -- not for Ellie, anyway. That leaves us with Carl, a grumpy homebody voiced by Ed Asner, who makes WALL-E look like a chatterbox. And he's one of the main characters. No, I didn't hear anyone demanding when the dancing penguins were going to show up, but I'll wager someone was thinking it. Watch a preview of \"Up\" \u00bb . Such misgivings are ill-founded. As far as razzmatazz goes, \"Up\" delivers the goods. Not penguins, precisely, but more than the airborne house promised by the commercials. There's a mythical multicolored bird, which may or may not be a snipe, but which answers to the name of Kevin and exhibits a sweet taste for candy bars. There are zeppelins and old-time explorers and talking dogs -- a whole pack of dogs, in fact. Dogs that serve wine and play cards and fly biplanes. And there's Russell, a chubby Boy Scout -- or \"Wilderness Explorer\" -- who turns up on Carl's doorstep when he least expects it. After all, Carl wants to be free, and to get there, he launches his house into the sky thanks to thousands of balloons. How was he to know Russell was around? \"Up\" doesn't always fly high. The dogs' canine high jinks are closer to \"Beverly Hills Chihuahua\" than we'd expect from Pixar, which tends not to play so fast and loose with the laws of nature for the sake of a few cheap laughs. But if the muttering mutts keep the kids happy, well and good. The movie is on surer ground teasing out the relationship between Carl and Russell, floating well above the Earth. Russell is all wide-eyed innocence and boundless enthusiasm, haplessly helpful. He's the mirror image of the child Carl used to be, if only the old man were capable of recognizing it. But instead of looking around him, Carl is focused on landing that prize home of his in the prime location he mistakes for his ultimate destination (the lost world of Paradise Falls). The image of Carl valiantly dragging his house through jungle and over mountains will strike a chord with anyone holding down a mortgage. iReport.com: Share your review of \"Up\" Written by Bob Petersen and directed by Petersen and Pete Docter -- both Pixar veterans -- \"Up\" mixes allegory with adventure and dumb imaginative exuberance. The balance isn't quite as tight as in Pixar's best movies, but the lightness is appealing, and Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) is an irresistible character. He's already carrying his own emotional baggage at 8 years old, but he's all heart, the kind to give kids a good name. Screening in 3-D where possible, \"Up\" doesn't go overboard on stereoscopic gimmickry, but does exploit depth of field in a string of exhilarating cliffhangers and dogfights. Funny and poignant and full of life, \"Up\" easily qualifies as one of the best movies of the year so far. Go with someone you care about. \"Up\" is rated PG and runs 96 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"CNN.com's Tom Charity: \"Up\" is another winner from Pixar .\nFilm concerns the adventures of an old man and a young boy ... and a talking dog .\nThere are some unlikely moments, but warmth and richness always come through .","id":"ffed8b965fdca0c5de4409a2e930ee399603cd6e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- They've been teasing and tantalizing female readers with images of muscular men oozing sensuality and the pretty women they are destined to save and then fall in love with. The \"beefcakes and bodices\" book covers have helped Harlequin sell their romance novels for more than half a century. Powerful men and demure women were stock in trade in early Harlequin novels. \"It's always great to feel like you're the girl in the book and the handsome guy is coming to rescue you,\" said Liz Lenz, 25, who has been reading Harlequin novels since she was a teen. \"It's always fun for the reader.\" Those covers also seduced Winnipeg, Canada, teacher Louann Bergen. \"There's usually good-looking males on the covers or something intriguing to make you want to read more,\" she said. \"I guess they change with the times, but they still have that same allure and that same passion behind them.\" As sort of a 60th anniversary gift to its faithful readers, Harlequin is displaying original artwork for its covers in an New York exhibit called \"The Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009.\" And before you sniff disdainfully at romance novel art, be reminded: That artwork sells a lot of books. Romance fiction is responsible for $1.375 billion in book sales every year, according to Romance Writers of America. The organization says more than a quarter of all books sold are romance novels, satisfying 51 million readers every year. The Harlequin exhibit comes from boxes and boxes of old novels that employees discovered at the company's headquarters in Toronto, Canada. \"I pawed through literally thousands of paintings,\" curator Elizabeth Semmelhack said, adding that she saw apparent shifts in women's historical desires began to emerge. Watch the curator discuss some favorites \u00bb . \"Rather than being retardataire [outdated], many of these images are extremely cutting edge,\" she said. \"There are images of women doctors before women were really embraced by the workplace. There are women who are adventuring around the world before independence is really part of women's culture.\" Many early Harlequin covers, like that of Elizabeth Houghton's \"Island Hospital,\" in which a man, woman and grizzly bear stand poised in confrontation, depict more than one (fully clothed) character in the crux of a suspenseful moment. \"You don't know, is the couple going to get together? Is the hero going to save the heroine? The happy ending is not on the cover,\" Semmelhack explained. The illustrations have changed their tone over the years. Where cover art used to hint at psychological intrigue, it's grown to instead promise a passionate physical conclusion. \"From the earliest covers, there's sort of an implied sexual tension, but there isn't much direct imaging of passion. That doesn't happen until the late '70s and into the '80s,\" she said. \"By the time you hit the sexual revolution and passion becomes of primary importance on these covers, then that lover's embrace in many ways signals the happy ending right there on the front of the book.\" And in recent decades, the once revolutionary depictions of the lovers' raw embrace have been reduced further. \"Today, covers might just be the undressed male body. He might even be headless. He's so truncated that all you're doing is looking at the object of desire, his masculinity.\" Although Harlequin romances are predominantly written for and read by women, according to Semmelhack, the majority of the publisher's cover illustration artists have been male. \"It is interesting that you have men imaging female desire,\" she said. \"It seems to work; the books certainly sell.\" This year, Harlequin books, which publishes 1,200 new titles annually, reported first quarter earnings up more than 13 percent. Debbie Macomber, who has published 153 books since 1983 -- and is most recently author of a May New York Times Harlequin best-seller, \"Summer on Blossom Street.\" -- visited the \"Heart of a Woman\" exhibit on opening night. \"There were some that really made me laugh out loud,\" Macomber said. \"It was amazing to see the role and the progression of the women's movement in the cover art itself. I get letters from 13-year-old girls and women who are in their 90s, and that's one of my goals as a writer: to write books that are relevant to my readers.\"","highlights":"Decades of busting bodices, bulging biceps, intrigue and glamour in exhibition .\nHarlequin displays half a century of romance book covers in New York .\nCurator: Covers go from psychological intrigue to passionate physical conclusion .\nReader says books \"still have that same allure and that same passion\"","id":"3a8b7c535c2c19637dafbfafb72f85e8a67b5ccb"} -{"article":"CORAL SPRINGS, Florida (CNN) -- Authorities solved a 31-year-old disappearance this year when they found the remains of Jeff Klee, missing since 1977, in a van in a canal. Jeff Klee had been missing since 1977; his remains were found this year. But prosecutors have announced that no charges would be filed against the man who, authorities say, admits that he put Klee's body in the van three decades earlier. \"Today is a sad day for our family,\" Klee's sister, Laurel Steele, told reporters Thursday. \"It tests my family's faith to its very core.\" Klee's remains were found in March during a routine police sweep for stolen vehicles in the C-14 canal in Coral Springs, Florida. The van was in neutral when police discovered it. DNA confirmed Klee's identity, but authorities say there was not enough evidence to determine how he died -- and whether he had been killed. Watch Klee's sister react to the decision \u00bb . The Broward County State Attorney's Office said the statute of limitations on possible manslaughter charges expired in 1980. As for a more serious charge such as first-degree murder to which a statute of limitations would not apply, prosecutors said they don't have any evidence of premeditation or that the death was caused by a criminal act. Police had long thought Klee's best friend, David Cusanelli, was the last person to see him alive June 21, 1977. According to a memorandum released Thursday by the Broward County State Attorney's Office, Cusanelli told authorities this July 28 that he put Klee's body inside his black Chevy van after he was dead and that his brother, Carl Cusanelli, helped shove the van into the canal. But Cusanelli denied involvement in Klee's death, prosecutors said. Mitch Polay, the defense attorney for the Cusanelli brothers, reiterated that denial. He said the brothers' statements \"were taken out of context, and they were posed as hypotheticals to drum up potential memories of the event.\" \"My clients, for 31 years, have denied any involvement,\" Polay told CNN. \"They had no involvement with pushing any van into the water, nor did they have any involvement with the death of Jeff Klee.\" According to the prosecution memorandum, Cusanelli told police that he and Klee had an argument over a former girlfriend. Cusanelli said Klee began to chase him out at the canal that night, the document alleges. Cusanelli said that \"all he remembers is, he turned around and saw that Jeff had fallen and was on the ground, and his head was split open, and there was a lot of blood,\" according to the document. \"There was definitely a confrontation that night, which resulted in Jeff Klee's death,\" lead Detective David Weissman said Thursday. Cusanelli told police that he ran away from Klee because he was in fear of his life and that he has no idea how Klee fell. Cusanelli concedes that he may have thrown a rock at Klee, according to the prosecution memo. Cusanelli, according to the memo, said he panicked and put Klee's body inside his van. He then called his brother Carl, who helped push the vehicle into the canal, the memo alleges. In the state attorney's memorandum, Cusanelli said Klee was bleeding from a serious head wound and was not breathing. He told authorities he would never have put Klee's body into the van and rolled it into the canal if Klee wasn't dead, the memo says. Carl Cusanelli told police he helped push the van into the canal, the memo says, but denied any knowledge that Klee may have been in the van at the time. David Cusanelli also told police that he thinks he blocked the whole incident from his memory and that only recently did some details begin to materialize, according to the prosecution memo. \"It's turned their worlds upside down. They are very upset,\" said Polay, the defense attorney. \"Thirty-one years ago, David was best friends with Jeff Klee.\" Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster expressed frustration that no charges are being brought. \"Jeff Klee was a loved member of someone's family, and that has no time limits,\" Foster said. \"It's just very, very frustrating for us.\" Steele, Klee's sister, said, \"Victimized by the loss of Jeff so many years ago, we are victimized once again.\" Klee's mother, Florence Klee, clutched a framed photo of her son but did not speak during Thursday's news conference. Klee's father died about two years ago. Authorities said the case remains open. The family and the police are asking for the public to help them find any possible evidence of what happened that summer night in 1977 at the canal. \"Justice has been denied,\" Steele said.","highlights":"Prosecutors say they won't pursue charges in death of man from 1977 .\nRemains of Jeff Klee were found in van in a canal in Florida this year .\nAuthorities say there's not enough evidence to determine cause of death .\n\"Justice has been denied,\" Klee's sister says .","id":"800af7acdfc0108d1a49fadf142ee7ce0c014068"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Reclusive author J.D. Salinger has emerged, at least in the pages of court documents, to try to stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen hero of his classic \"The Catcher in the Rye,\" as an old man. J.D. Salinger has stayed out of the public eye for most of the past half century. Lawyers for Salinger filed suit in federal court this week to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of \"60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye,\" a novel written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company that advertises joke books and a \"sexual dictionary\" on its Web site. \"The Sequel infringes Salinger's copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield, who is the narrator and essence of that novel,\" said the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New York. Published in 1951, \"The Catcher in the Rye\" is an iconic take on teen alienation that is consistently listed among the greatest English-language novels ever written. Salinger, 90, who has famously lived the life of a recluse in New Hampshire for most of the past half-century, last published in 1965. With the exception of a 1949 movie based on one of his early short stories, he has never authorized adaptations of any of his work, even turning down an overture from director Steven Spielberg to make \"Catcher\" into a movie. \"There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there,\" the court filing quotes Salinger as saying in 1980. \"Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.\" The filing refers to the new book's author as \"John Doe,\" saying that the name John David California probably is made up. The first-time novelist's biography on Amazon.com says California is the son of a Swedish mother and American father who was named after the state where he was born. It claims he is a former gravedigger and triathlete who found a copy of Salinger's novel \"in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia\" and that it helped him survive \"the most maniacal of tropical fevers and chronic isolation.\" The Web site's description of the book is written in the same choppy, first-person stream of consciousness that Salinger employs as Holden wanders the streets of New York. It describes a character, \"Mr. C,\" who flees his nursing home and \"embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York.\" The lawsuit names Swedish publisher Nicotext; its offshoot, Windupbird Publishing Ltd.; and California-based SCB Distributors as defendants. The Web site for Nicotext advertises such books as \"The Macho Man's (Bad) Joke Book\" and \"Give It To Me Baby,\" which it describes as an erotic \"flick book.\" Marcia Paul, Salinger's New York-based attorney, declined to speak on the record, citing her client's private nature. E-mail messages to Nicotext were not returned Wednesday. Aaron Silverman, president of SCB Distributors, said the people behind the new book plan to defend it against the lawsuit. \"We believe we have the right to distribute this book and the publishers believe they have the right to publish it,\" he said. Silverman, whose company distributes books by about 150 publishers, called \"60 Years Later\" a work of \"social science fiction,\" saying that California doesn't plagiarize, but sets a well-known character in an alternate place and time -- as literature has done for centuries. \"It's amazing,\" he said of the book. \"If it was something else, or it felt like a knock-off or whatever, I would have told the publisher we wouldn't do it. But it's really just amazing.\" Despite his cloistered lifestyle, Salinger nods to the contemporary marketplace in the lawsuit, noting that, as of last week, \" 'The Catcher in the Rye' currently sells more copies on Amazon.com than 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,' 'The DaVinci Code,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or 'Of Mice and Men.' \" A hearing in the case is expected Monday. Salinger's lawyers will ask a judge to freeze publication of the book until a final ruling is made. The book is already available in Europe and the United Kingdom, and is scheduled to be released in the United States in September. The lawsuit asks that sales be halted and that books already distributed be recalled and destroyed. The argument is reminiscent of the legal tussle over the 2001 novel \"The Wind Done Gone,\" a parody of Margaret Mitchell's \"Gone With the Wind\" told from the perspective of a slave. Mitchell's estate argued that the book, by novelist Alice Randall, infringed upon her copyright. But the 11th District U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Randall's favor, saying the book was protected as a parody of a well-known work. Salinger's lawyers say \"60 Years Later\" deserves no such protection. \"The sequel is not a parody and it does not comment upon or criticize the original,\" the lawsuit argues. \"It is a rip-off pure and simple.\"","highlights":"Lawsuit seeks halt to \"60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye\"\nJ.D. Salinger says \"sequel\" infringes on copyright of his classic novel .\nNew author says he's former gravedigger, discovered \"Catcher\" in Cambodia .\nCourt hearing scheduled for Monday in New York .","id":"06c7ebdcc58e41b68278c77d140916f986dce37c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The mysterious disappearance of Flight AF 447 over the Atlantic Ocean has fueled speculation among aviation experts about what caused the state-of-the-art airliner to come down. An airliner is struck by lightning strike at Washington's Dulles airport last year. According to Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the Airbus A330-200 encountered heavy turbulence about 02:15 a.m. local time Monday (10:15 p.m. ET Sunday), three hours after the jet carrying 228 people left Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for Paris, France. At that point, the plane's automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating \"several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down.\" The jet, which was flying at 35,000 feet and at 521 mph, also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said. Its last known contact occurred at 02:33 a.m., the Brazilian air force spokesman added. The assumption is that these electrical problems led to a catastrophic failure of the aircraft's controls. What brought Flight AF 447 down? \u00bb . Some experts have said that a lightning strike was a possibility, particularly since the plane disappeared in a storm-prone area along the equator known as the Intertropical Convergence zone (ITCZ). This is where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres converge. The intense sun and warm water of the equator heats the air in the ITCZ, raising its humidity and making it buoyant. Aided by the convergence of the trade winds, the buoyant air rises, releasing the accumulated moisture in an almost constant series of thunderstorms. The airliner's route \u00bb . According to CNN's Mari Ramos, these storms can reach altitudes of 52,000 ft -- way beyond the capacity of commercial airliners to fly over. Watch more about the weather systems \u00bb . Retired airline pilot John Cox told CNN that modern aircraft receive a constant stream of real time weather data which allows them to plot a course around storms. \"Because safety is the paramount concern, airliners don't fly into storms. They fly around them,\" he said. \"The ITCZ is no different. Planes fly through it every day. \"At 8 miles per minute, modern jets can easily fly around storms. Even if they encounter turbulence, they're designed to absorb it.\" When lightning strikes a plane, the bolt typically hits a sharp part of it, such as a wing tip. Huge amounts of energy surge through the aircraft before exiting out of another sharp point, such as the tail. But sometimes high voltages can cause electrical damage if components are not well-grounded. Unlike other aircraft where the pilot's controls are manually attached to the flaps and rudders, Airbus 330 airliners are equipped with a \"fly by wire\" system that sends electronic signals from an onboard computer to move key control surfaces. Experts say that it is possible for this system and its back-up computers to be disabled by lightning. \"If you have a massive electrical problem it's possible that you could cut off all the commands out to the control surfaces,\" said aeronautics expert John Hansman. However, Kieran Daly, from the online aviation news service Air Transport Intelligence, told CNN that this scenario, while not impossible, is inconceivable. \"It's more likely that lightning would cause a fire or punch a hole through the aircraft structure,\" he said. \"It could be significant that the jet reported a loss of pressure.\" He added that the aircraft would be able to continue without the fly-by-wire system. The \"trim tab,\" which enables the pilot to manually manipulate controls such as the rudder, would allow the crew to fly the aircraft safely. \"Pilots are routinely trained for these kinds of events in a simulator,\" he said. Former Airbus pilot John Wiley said on average every airliner is hit by a strike once a year. \"They don't go down,\" he said. According to Air France, the captain of Flight AF 447 had a record of 11,000 flight hours and had already flown 1,700 hours on Airbus A330\/A340 aircraft. Of the two first officers, one had flown 3,000 flight hours (800 of which on the Airbus A330\/A340) and the other 6,600 (2,600 on the Airbus A330\/A340). The aircraft had totaled 18,870 flight hours and went into service on 18 April 2005. Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009.","highlights":"Air France Airbus A330-200 encountered heavy turbulence .\nCEO: \"Several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down\"\nSome experts have said that a lightning strike was a possible cause .\nFlight 447, traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was carrying 228 people .","id":"d88572db112c470743f3da4e6ce04f87b95e18ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Everything you know about the world of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous character has changed. Thomas Dekker, Lena Headey and Summer Glau star in \"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.\" In the season finale of \"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,\" John Connor, the boy destined to lead humanity's battle against Armageddon, gets jolted into the future -- the one he was supposed to lead. But here, he has no identity. No one has heard of him. In this new future, he'll be fighting alongside his father, his uncle and a girl who looks just like the robot he came into the future to save. None of them has any idea who he is. Confused? Don't be. It was a daring, surprising, brilliant cliffhanger for a show that's gained a loyal following, particularly among people like me who are in awe of it. It also opens the door to anyone who hasn't discovered this show yet, allowing for a fresh start. Unfortunately, it may be too late. For fans, the big question is whether the \"Chronicles\" will be back, or canceled for inadequate ratings. We find out in a couple of weeks when Fox announces its schedule. The speculation online doesn't look good. Ending on this Season 2 cliffhanger would be a shame. When Fox picked up this \"Terminator,\" it took on one of the most successful sci-fi franchises in modern entertainment history. It courted \"Terminator\" fans, as well as people like me who never gave much thought to the movies but appreciate deep, high-quality TV storytelling. Ending on this \"what happens now\" cliffhanger would leave a gaping hole in the franchise's history. But of bigger concern, of course, is that \"The Sarah Connor Chronicles\" is just really good TV -- the kind that you want to believe can last. And that's thanks to Josh Friedman, the inspired executive producer. For him, \"Terminator\" isn't about special effects and metal monsters. It's a family drama; a mother and son entrusted with a huge secret and the responsibility to change the future, no matter what the cost. Without clobbering you with messages, Friedman gets you thinking -- about people whose secret struggles you can't know, about living with trauma and moving forward, about the strength and fragility of teenagers, and about the otherwise impossible things parents manage to do to protect their children. Sarah is parental adrenaline personified. It's also a show about cancer. We know Sarah can successfully battle robots, evil people and well-meaning authorities who want her locked up. But will cancer ultimately do her in? Friedman has talked about the show serving as a catharsis for his own real-life battle against cancer. Fans can't wait to find out what happens with Sarah (Lena Headey) in the new reality. Did she follow her son into the future? If not, what happened to her? Friedman might be the best storyteller on TV right now. He packs episodes with twists you don't see coming but make sense in retrospect. He changes up his style, drops lead characters for entire episodes, uses biblical references left and right and delivers dialogue that's simultaneously believable and eloquent. He lets major characters die. And the show's directors coax subtle, nuanced performances from the actors. You wouldn't guess any of this from Fox's promotions, which have focused too heavily on Cameron (Summer Glau), the robot who helps protect John Connor (Thomas Dekker), sending the signal that it's a show just for teenage fanboys. Cameron and John's relationship is actually a very clever exploration of something adults quickly recognize: the teenage boy with the mysterious girl who seems to have his best interest at heart but might be the most dangerous thing in his life. It's in some ways the reverse of \"Buffy.\" Speaking of which, Fox may have done better promoting \"Chronicles\" as a family drama and then pairing it with one, rather than \"Dollhouse,\" the latest from \"Buffy\" creator Joss Whedon. (Insider question for fans: Is Josh Friedman the new Joss Whedon? Weigh in here or here.) It's also not clear how, or if, the new movie \"Terminator: Salvation\" affects the show's chances of survival -- though strictly in terms of storylines, there's apparently no overlap and no conflict. The weekly adventures of Sarah and John Connor just aren't done. There's too much unanswered, too much left to explore. So here's my pitch to network heads: You can still change the future. Don't terminate these \"Chronicles\" before their time. What are your thoughts? Think Josh is right -- or misguided? Weigh in at Facebook or Twitter.","highlights":"Future of \"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles\" is up in the air .\nCNN's Josh Levs believes show is one of best on TV and is taking interesting turns .\nLevs: Fox has misplaced promotion, which should be focusing on mother-son bond .","id":"85f825ed08c1fb40e122524fc725c4b54b458e4a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian star Kaka has agreed to join Real Madrid from Italy's AC Milan in a $92 million deal, the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported on Tuesday. Former World Player of the Year Kaka has agreed to join Real Madrid in a $92m move according to reports in Spain. Cadena Ser claimed that Real president Florentino Perez had thrashed out a deal with AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani and Bosco Leite, Kaka's father and agent. Kaka is currently in Brazil with the national team ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay and earlier in the day had appeared to rule out a move from Italy's Serie A. \"I'll say it for the last time. The last time. I don't want to leave Milan,\" he told Gazzetta dello Sport. \"In this period I prefer to remain silent because I don't want to be misunderstood. Or, worse still, to be used. \"To the millions of Milan supporters, I say that I have made my choice. I have said what I want to stay. Leave me in peace, please.\" However, AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi also hinted at Kaka's departure just before Cadena Ser's claim. \"I do not know if we can keep Kaka at Milan because they (Real) have offered him so much money,\" Berlusconi was quoted as saying by Italian press agency Ansa. Spanish reports said Kaka will sign for five years with a salary worth nearly $13 million a year. Former team-mate Paolo Maldini, who retired at the end of the season, admitted he still had doubts about Kaka's future at the San Siro. \"I don't know if he'll still stay at Milan,\" Maldini told Gazzetta dello Sport. \"Ancelotti might have been cryptic about his future but Kaka has been even more so.\" Last January, Kaka rejected a move to Premier League Manchester City who were prepared to pay the 2007 world player of the year $750,000 per week. Kaka's coach at Milan Carlo Ancelotti was on Monday appointed manager at Premier League Chelsea who have also been linked with a bid for the Brazilian.","highlights":"Spanish radio station Cadena Ser claim Kaka agrees $92m Real Madrid move .\nKaka currently in Brazil with the national team ahead of a World Cup qualifier .\nReports said Kaka will sign for five years with salary worth nearly $13m a year .","id":"85b90eb0ff86868c5223f4ef8fa77daf41443034"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Italian football manager Carlo Ancelotti has gone from Milan to London in less than a day. Carlo Ancelotti will take over as manager of Chelsea from July 1 this year. Just 24 hours after resigning from his highly-successful eight-year stint at Italy's AC Milan, he has been announced as the new manager of English Premier League club Chelsea -- replacing temporary manager Guus Hiddink. Chelsea, who won the FA Cup at the weekend, were looking for a permanent manager for the start of next season -- and Ancelotti has been signed on a three-year deal to the west-London club. A statement on Chelsea's web site read: \"Carlo was the outstanding candidate for the job. He has proved over a long period his ability to build teams that challenged for, and have been successful in, major domestic and European competitions.\" Ancelotti, who turns 50 next week, has been in management since 1995, when he took charge of Italian Serie B club Reggiana. Although he only spent one season at Reggiana, he managed to earn them promotion to the top-flight Serie A league. Since then he has managed Parma and Juventus, before taking on the San Siro-based giants AC Milan. Is Ancelotti's appointment the right move for Chelsea? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. As a manager he has enjoyed plenty of success, particularly in his time at the Rossoneri. He steered Milan to the Coppa Italia in 2003, the Serie A title in 2003--04, the UEFA Champions League in both 2002--03 and 2006--07, the UEFA Super Cup in 2003 and 2007 and the FIFA Club World Cup crown in 2007. Before entering management, Ancelotti had a significant playing career as a midfielder with AS Roma and AC Milan. During his time at both clubs he amassed three Serie A titles, two European Cups, and he also won the Coppa Italia four times with Roma. He is one of only six people to ever win the Champions League as both a player and manager -- a list which includes current Barcelona manager and this year's winner, Josep Guardiola. Ancelotti also represented Italy on 26 occasions, scoring once. He played in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups alongside players such as Roberto Mancini and the recently-retired Paolo Maldini. Despite his management success at AC Milan, it has been widely reported that his relationship with the club's owner, Silvio Berlusconi, has not been strong in 2009. He takes over at Chelsea as the permanent replacement for Luiz Felipe Scolari, although Guus Hiddink has been in charge since Scolari was sacked from Stamford Bridge in February.","highlights":"London football club Chelsea appoint Carlo Ancelotti as their new manager .\nAncelotti has been in charge of Italian giants AC Milan for the past eight years .\nAs a manager, Ancelotti has enjoyed multiple Italian and European successes .\nThe Italian previously represented his country as a player, scoring one goal .","id":"0c578b08b9f0cef41ae34ad95609f4b11160645f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Big Ben, arguably the world's most famous clock, celebrates on Sunday 150 years of keeping London on time. The British landmark has lived through war, bad weather and disasters. Big Ben's distinctive bongs have been a part of the London scene for 150 years. Big Ben is the 14-ton bell inside the world's largest four-faced chiming clock, although most people use the name to describe the tower that houses it. The clock is perched on a 96-meter (310-foot) elegant tower at the Westminster Bridge end of the Palace of Westminster. The Victorian masterpiece, which provides distinctive chimes known as bongs, was voted Britain's favorite monument in 2008. It has been featured in films such as \"101 Dalmatians\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.\" Big Ben has been disrupted a few times over the years for various reasons, including weather and breakages. Its bongs went silent for about two months in August 2007 to allow a crew to repair its mechanism system. During that time, the rest of the clock was running on an electric system. It was fully restarted again October 1. The clock pays tribute to Britain's royal history: It has a Latin inscription of the phrase: \"O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First.\" The ornate masterpiece has some quirky features. The hour hand, which weighs 300 kilograms (661 pounds), is made of gun metal while the minute hands are made of copper sheet. The minute hands would not work when they were first made of cast iron because they were too heavy. The clock started working on May 31, 1859, after the lighter copper hands were installed. The origins of the landmark's name are obscure. Some say it was named after the 1850s heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt while others suggest it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a former member of parliament. Hall, the commissioner of works in 1859, was responsible for ordering the bell. Alan Hughes, the director of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made the bell, prefers the latter. \"I suppose I like it chiefly because it was a nickname of a man who was big and loud and pompous, and never used one word if 27 would do,\" he said in a 2008 interview. Hughes' company also made America's Liberty Bell and a number of others for cathedrals and churches around the world.","highlights":"London's Big Ben turns 150 years old on Sunday .\nLast year, Victorian masterpiece was voted Britain's favorite monument .\nNo one is quite sure where the clock's moniker came from .","id":"9277e56688ca3489ae396d67e197844218d6345a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shortly before President Obama departs for a trip to the Middle East, a new national poll suggests that one in five Americans has a favorable view of Muslim countries. President Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visit an Istanbul mosque in April. That view compares with 46 percent of the people questioned in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey who say they have an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries. That's up 5 percentage points from 2002, when 41 percent indicated that they had an unfavorable view. Meanwhile, three in 10 say they have a neutral opinion of Muslim countries. The poll also suggests that most Americans suspect people in Muslim countries don't think highly of the United States. Nearly eight in 10 questioned say people in Muslim countries have a unfavorable opinion of the United States, with 14 percent saying Muslims hold a favorable view. iReport.com: Your perspectives on the Muslim world . But the poll indicates Americans seem to be split on whether such negative opinions by Muslims matter. Fifty-three percent of those questioned say they think Muslim views of the United States matter greatly or moderately, with 47 percent saying that Muslim opinions of the United States don't matter very much or at all. The poll's release comes hours before the president flies to Saudi Arabia for meetings with King Abdullah. Following the stop in Saudi Arabia, Obama will head to Egypt, where he'll deliver a long-awaited speech Thursday on relations between the United States and the Muslim world. Watch the challenges Obama faces with the speech \u00bb . At a town hall in Turkey earlier this year, the president declared that \"the United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam.\" Many Americans seem to agree with the president: Sixty-two percent of those surveyed say they don't think the United States is at war with the Muslim world, with 36 percent indicating that the country is at war with Muslim countries. Those numbers have remained stable since CNN's 2002 poll. But the poll suggests that six out of 10 think that the Muslim world considers itself at war with the United States. \"The feeling seems to be mutual. We distrust Muslims. They distrust Americans. Views of Americans have not changed very much over the past seven years. There are some indications that Muslims' views of Americans have improved a bit since Barack Obama took office, but they are still not positive,\" said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst. The CNN\/Opinion Research poll was conducted May 14-17, with 1,010 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.","highlights":"Poll: One in five Americans has a favorable view of Muslim countries .\nPoll released on eve of President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt, to Muslim world .\nPoll: Americans say they aren't at war with Muslims but think Muslims at war with U.S.","id":"df40e9fc886814a559fec8c01aa611b985b5e684"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea has completed preparations for launching what it says is \"an experimental communications satellite,\" the reclusive nation's state news agency reported early Saturday. A satellite image shows a rocket sitting on its launch pad in northeast North Korea. \"The satellite will be launched soon,\" KCNA reported. How \"soon\" was anyone's guess. On Friday, President Obama reiterated that the United States strongly opposes any such launch. \"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative, it puts enormous strains on the Six-Party Talks and that they should stop the launch,\" Obama said while on a stop in France. Obama warned that the United States will join with its allies to take \"appropriate steps\" to let North Korea know it can't violate United Nations rules and get away with it. Western nations fear that North Korea plans a ballistic missile test rather than a satellite launch, but the administration's special envoy to the Six-Party Talks, Stephen Bosworth, said it didn't matter if the North Koreans were trying to put a satellite in space or testing a ballistic missile that could threaten Japan or the United States. \"Whether it is a satellite launch or a missile launch, in our judgment makes no difference. It is a provocative act,\" Bosworth said. Bosworth said the United States stands ready, in the event of a launch, to participate in U.N. deliberations on new sanctions against North Korea. A commentary carried by KCNA recently blasted critics for opposing its plans. \"This is nothing but a groundless outcry of the political philistines ignorant of any legality of the study of space for peaceful purposes,\" the commentary said. The U.S. Navy is monitoring the expected launch with at least four ships in the region around the Korean Peninsula and northern Japan, according to U.S. military officials. The ships -- three destroyers and one cruiser -- are capable of tracking and shooting down ballistic missiles using powerful Aegis radar systems aboard each vessel. Two ships are in the Sea of Japan, the USS Curtis Wilbur and the USS Stethem, both guided-missile destroyers. Two other ships are on the Pacific Ocean side of Japan to monitor the missile if it flies over that nation. Those ships are the USS Shiloh, a guided-missile cruiser and the USS Fitzgerald, another guided-missile destroyer, the officials said. All four U.S. ships are working with Japanese naval ships in the same region that are also equipped with Aegis radar. Watch report on launch preparations \u00bb . U.S. military officials say Pyongyang seems to still be on track to launch the missile as early as Saturday, but one official told CNN that winds strong enough to delay a launch are predicted for Saturday in the area of the launch site, in northeastern North Korea.","highlights":"N. Korea says rocket containing \"communications satellite\" is ready for launch .\nU.S. military officials anticipating Saturday launch, but windy weather could delay it .\nObama: U.S. opposes any such launch, which puts \"strain\" on Six-Party Talks .\nAegis-equipped U.S., Japanese naval ships are monitoring in Sea of Japan, Pacific .","id":"83b9c86e913f7fe7743b1b961f186dd581f15c57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Scottish Rugby Union has appointed Andy Robinson, formerly coach of bitter rivals England, as the new national team boss. Andy Robinson will be seeking to revive the fortunes of Scotland's struggling rugby side. The 45-year-old won eight caps as a flanker for England, and was assistant coach in Clive Woodward's 2003 World Cup-winning set-up before taking over for an ill-fated reign himself in 2004, winning just nine of 22 matches. Robinson returned to top-class coaching with Celtic League team Edinburgh in 2007, and has sufficiently impressed Scottish officials in the 20 months since then to win favor as the replacement for Frank Hadden. He had been part of Hadden's backroom staff, and had already been chosen to coach Scotland A this summer. Hadden resigned on April 2 after Scotland again struggled in the Six Nations, finishing second from bottom with just one win from five outings. Robinson was delighted to be given the chance to return to the international stage. \"With the World Cup in New Zealand in 2011, I believe we have a crop of players who can really challenge the world's best, and preparation for that starts now,\" he told the SRU Web site. \"I'm looking forward to leading Scotland A into the IRB Nations Cup in Romania next week and thereafter preparing for our Autumn Tests at Murrayfield against Fiji, Australia and Argentina.\" Robinson is believed to have headed off the likes of South Africa's World Cup-winning coach Jake White and former Australia boss Eddie Jones for the job. Former Scotland captain and British and Irish Lion Gordon Bulloch was part of the interview panel that determined the appointment. \"Andy was the outstanding candidate from a quite exceptional shortlist which underlines the allure of coaching the Scotland team,\" he told the SRU's Web site. \"I know from having had the privilege of his coaching and guidance on Lions tours that he is passionate about his rugby, is a skilled communicator and has values and an ethos which are absolutely at one with developing a winning Scotland team.\" Scottish Rugby chief executive Gordon McKie said he was confident Robinson would prove to be successful. \"Andy has proved himself at every level of the game and we are thrilled that he will now be leading the Scotland team as we look towards the challenges of the next three years, including the 2011 World Cup,\" McKie said. \"He has been part of the Scottish Rugby family for the past two years and has brought success both to Edinburgh Rugby, with their highest ever Magners League finish in successive seasons, and has also guided the Scotland A team to notable successes.\"","highlights":"Andy Robinson appointed new coach of Scotland's national rugby team .\nRobinson replaces Frank Hadden, who resigned in April after poor results .\nThe 45-year-old has played for and coached England's national side .\nHe rebuilt his career with Edinburgh after being sacked by England .","id":"e4d3f9788d1c4778974dcc6ca70d7fcfc29841b7"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Friends and relatives of the 216 passengers and 12 crew members on Air France Flight 447 are coming to terms with the news that wreckage from the flight was found in the Atlantic Ocean. Eithne Walls, who danced with Riverdance on Broadway, was aboard Air France flight 447. Among those on board were a member of Brazil's former royal family, a one-time performer with the Riverdance troupe, a Rio city official, executives from major international companies and an 11-year-old British schoolboy. Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, 26, was a descendant of the family that ruled Brazil until 1889, a branch of the former Portuguese royal family. The Orleans and Braganca family considered him to be fourth in line to the throne. Pedro Luis was the oldest son of Prince Antonio and Princess Christine, the family said. He was the only member of the family on the flight, his relatives said. Eithne Walls, who danced with Riverdance on Broadway, was also on the plane, said Julian Erskine, senior executive producer of the troupe. \"I never saw her without a smile on her face,\" Erskine said in a statement. \"It is hard to believe that such a bright light could be quenched so early and while burning so brilliantly.\" She joined the Irish dance troupe in 1998 and performed with them for most of a decade, studying medicine at the same time, Erskine said. Watch CNN's Paula Newton report on families awaiting news of Air France Flight 447 \u00bb . \"Anyone who traveled with Eithne will remember the medical books always on the go and her constant attention to her studies,\" he said. \"Without doubt she was someone with a rich future stretching out ahead of her.\" The wife one passenger said Tuesday she was only beginning to come to grips with the likelihood that he is dead. \"I have to say, maybe today I'm realizing he might not come back,\" Patricia Coakley told a reporter about her husband, Arthur. The structural engineer and designer had completed a business trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was flying to Paris, France, on his way back to their home in Whitby, North Yorkshire, near England's northeast coast. Coakley said her husband hated his cell phones and usually left them switched off. \"But yesterday it was ringing, so maybe they're not at the bottom of the sea. That's my hope. But I think it's maybe fading today.\" He had originally planned to return home on May 19, but his boss asked him to stay in Brazil until Sunday, she said. \"He shouldn't have been on that flight,\" she said. \"He should have been on the earlier flight.\" In a telephone call he told her he was excited about returning to see their three children and their plans to go on vacation Friday to the Greek island of Corfu, she said. \"All his stuff's ready should he turn up,\" she added. \"We had so many plans, and they've taken it all away, haven't they?\" she asked rhetorically, without identifying \"they.\" \"God wouldn't be so cruel.\" She described her husband as a religious man. \"It used to drive me mad. He used to read the Bible every night. And if he thought he was going to get pissed [drunk], he used to read it before he left the house.\" The two loved to travel, and he would ask her, \"Where should we go next, darling?\" she recalled. But they had been based in England for 25 years to give their children a sense of stability, she said. \"His priority was sea view and mine was trees and we found it,\" she said, pointing to both, her eyes welling. \"It was just going to be repainted next week.\" Thinking about the moment when an apparent catastrophic failure caused the jet and its 228 occupants to plunge into the ocean, she said, \"I hope Art was asleep and I hope he wasn't frightened.\" \"I know if he was awake, he would have been thinking of us.\" The passengers on Flight 447 also included Marcelo Parente, chief of staff in the office of Rio de Janeiro's mayor. Two executives of Michelin, one of the world's leading tire manufacturers, also were aboard the plane, a Michelin spokeswoman said. They were Luiz Roberto Anastacio, president of Michelin Latin America, and Antonio Gueiros, another top regional executive. Michelin employee Christine Pieraerts was also among the passengers, the company said. The spokeswoman said that Michelin was saddened by the tragedy. Alexander Bjoroy, 11, was on his way home to England after a vacation in Brazil, the headmaster of his school said. He was a \"well-liked and respected boarder who will be sorely missed by his fellow pupils and staff,\" said John Milne, the head of Clifton College Preparatory School in Bristol, England. Milne expressed the school's \"deepest sympathies\" to the boy's family. The passengers included 61 people from France, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans and people from 29 other countries, Air France said. An official list of victims by name was not available early Tuesday, but two Americans -- Michael Harris, 60, and his wife, Anne, 54 -- were identified by the couple's family and his employer. \"Anne and Mike were indeed a beautiful couple inside and out, and I miss them terribly already,\" said Anne Harris' sister, Mary Miley. Michael Harris was a geologist in Rio de Janeiro for Devon Energy, a U.S.-based natural gas and oil producer, according to a company spokesman. The Harrises were traveling to Paris for a training seminar and vacation, Miley said. CNN's Isa Soares, Helena DeMoura, Alysen Miller and Lianne Turner contributed to this report.","highlights":"Member of Brazil's former royal family among 216 passengers on missing plane .\nOne-time performer with Riverdance troupe, British schoolboy also aboard .\nAir France flight disappeared over Atlantic after taking off from Brazil .\nMajority of the presumed dead came from Brazil, France and Germany .","id":"38faba9f673aa5dde55760e0c77d1b347885ae54"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Going to the prom is a highlight in many teenagers' lives. But attending a prom isn't always an option for some young people, including those with special needs. Alex Gonzales passes under the Marines' sword arch Saturday in Washington as he arrives at the prom. That's where Helen McCormick comes in. \"We are dreaming for children who are excluded from their proms, and ... you're going to see people walk through the doors who are going to be just absolutely mesmerized,\" said McCormick, president of a Virginia-based nonprofit called The House, Inc. For the past four years, McCormick has organized a prom specifically for children with special needs. This year's prom, dubbed \"The Cinderella Ball,\" was held Saturday night at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington. More than 150 teens attended the gala, where they were greeted by 41 Marines. Each one of the teens went down a red carpet, under a Marine Corps sword arch, before being seated for dinner. Watch scenes from the spectacular prom \u00bb . \"The children that will be coming are various disabled children with kidney (ailments), children that are literally terminally ill, children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism,\" McCormick said before the event. Norman Gonzales brought his 13-year-old son, Alex. \"Their social life is very limited at school and outside school as well, so something like this is very good because they come to a place where they find themselves with people that they can relate to,\" Gonzales said. This was Alex Gonzales' first prom and he said he had a great time. \"Coming to an event like this -- I think it's a great experience,\" he said. The entertainment for the evening was 2007 \"American Idol\" winner Jordin Sparks. \"I think it's so amazing with all the kids that they get to have their prom. They get to dress up and feel really beautiful and have this night dedicated to them,\" Sparks said. Most of the teens attending the prom were accompanied by a parent or friend. Some of them brought dates. It was a night many of them said they wouldn't forget anytime soon. Victor Padgett attended the festivities with his daughter, Dede. He said events like these prove that the human spirit is alive and well. \"There is hope. There is love, and there is compassion for everyone,\" he said.","highlights":"\"The Cinderella Ball\" is held at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington .\nTeens with illnesses, autism, Down syndrome get to attend a prom of their own .\nTeens go down a red carpet and under a Marine Corps sword arch before dinner .\nOrganizer Helen McCormick arranges top talent -- 2007 \"Idol\" winner Jordin Sparks .","id":"1cf97bb420fd9fe92343ea5d78bbaef7d830456b"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Debris located early Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil is wreckage from the Air France jet that disappeared Monday, Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said. A French search and rescue crew scans the Atlantic for wreckage Tuesday. No survivors have been found, he said. Jobim made the announcement after meeting with relatives and friends of Brazilians who were among the 228 people aboard Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. Two debris fields were found about 650 km (400 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha Islands, an archipelago 355 kilometers (220 miles) off the northeast coast of Brazil -- or at latitude 2 north, longitude 30 west, the Ministry of Defense said on its Web site. One of the fields was 5 km (3 miles) long and that both lie near the flight path between Rio de Janeiro and Paris. Among the wreckage was an airplane seat, metal debris, an orange float, a drum and an oil spill, the posting said. See map of suspected crash zone \u00bb . Brazilian air force planes spotted the debris field Tuesday morning, but it was not until a French commercial vessel arrived on the scene that the debris' origin was confirmed. The planes searched 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) of ocean throughout the day and will continue to search for more debris overnight, the Brazilian Air Force Said. Two Netherlands-flagged vessels were expected to arrive in the area later in the day; a Brazilian navy ship was expected to arrive Wednesday, officials said. Brazilian air force jets were continuing to comb the area for other debris, and a U.S. P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft was assisting as well. Watch how wreckage has been spotted in Atlantic \u00bb . The searchers also want to find the cockpit voice and data recorders, which might shed light on what caused the jet to disappear before any of the three pilots was able to issue a mayday. \"That really is an ominous sign,\" said former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Managing Director Peter Goelz. \"It means, whatever happened, it happened so quickly that the pilots were not able to radio out. It probably indicates a catastrophic failure at altitude.\" He said that meteorologists have been checking weather data over the area \"to see if there was some phenomenon that was taking place -- so far, we haven't seen it.\" The Airbus A330 encountered heavy turbulence early Monday, about three hours into what was supposed to be an 11-hour flight, according to the airline. The plane carried 216 passengers -- 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby -- and 12 crew members, Air France said. The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. Other victims were from 29 other countries, including three from the United States. Of the crew, 11 were French, and one was Brazilian. A team of approximately 20 Air France staff members, including two doctors and a nurse, arrived Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro to assist families of the victims, the airline said. An inter-religious ceremony is to be held Wednesday afternoon inside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral for family and friends of the victims. Though it will be closed to news media, a sound recording of the ceremony will be broadcast into the square outside. An official list of victims by name was not available Tuesday afternoon, but two Americans on board -- Michael Harris, 60, and his wife, Anne, 54 -- were identified by the couple's family and his employer. Prince Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, a member of Brazil's non-reigning royal family, was also on the flight, his family said Monday. Pedro Luis was 26. Also on the flight were two executives of the French tire company Michelin: Michelin Latin America President Luiz Roberto Anastacio and Antonio Gueiro, director of informatics. Read more about victims on Air France Flight 447 . The jet was 4 years old and had last undergone routine maintenance April 16. The Air France plane has built-in homing devices, said Greg Feith, a former investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Homing devices such as \"pingers,\" which are underwater locator beacons attached to flight data and cockpit voice recorders, can transmit signals from as deep as 14,000 feet, about the maximum depth of the waters in the area. The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is about 12,000 feet: more than 2 miles. \"They're water-activated, so if they're sitting at the bottom of the ocean, of course, then the military assets will have to go in there with listening devices and try and home in on those particular signals,\" Feith said. Shortly before it disappeared, the plane's automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that \"several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down,\" Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said Monday. The jet, which was flying at 35,000 feet and at 521 mph, also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said. There was no contact with the crew during or after the time that the automatic messages were sent, Gourgeon said. \"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic,\" he added. CNN's John Zarrella, Kim Segal and Nesta Distin and journalist Helena DeMoura contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pilots' failure to issue mayday \"ominous sign,\" former NTSB spokesman says .\nNEW: Memorial service to be held Wednesday at Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral .\n2 debris fields found about 400 miles northeast of Fernando de Noronha Islands .\nFlight 447, traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was carrying 228 people .","id":"96a5cee55b386f5110d82c525971cb02bb7b59cf"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- When Japanese police arrested three sumo wrestlers and their stable master on Thursday over allegations they beat a 17-year-old wrestler to death, the case sent shockwaves across a country that links its national identity to the sport. Sumo stablemaster Junichi Yamamoto following the young wrestler's death in October. In scenes unprecedented in Japan's history, where wrestlers are seen as national heroes, the sumo stars were shown handcuffed and with jackets over their heads surrounded by cameras and reporters. Police arrested sumo wrestlers Masakazu Kimura, 24, Yuichiro Izuka, 25, Masanori Fujii, 22, and their stablemaster, Junichi Yamamoto, 57, who is also known as Tokitsukaze. Aichi prefectural police allege Yamamoto ordered the three wrestlers to beat a 17 year old junior wrestler so brutally that he died. Takashi Saito, 17, collapsed at his sumo stable and was rushed to the hospital. Initially, the boy's death was listed as \"ischemic heart failure\", until his family viewed his body. They say his body was covered in bruises, cuts and burns. They begged police to open an investigation, believing he'd been punished for trying to flee the stable. \"He said he'd be a good boy, I just need to come get him (from the stable),\" his father told reporters last summer, through choked tears. \"I should have listened and trusted him.\" Police say on June 25, Yamamoto instructed the wrestlers to beat the boy using sticks and a metal bat. Yamamoto publicly denied striking Saito inappropriately, though he did admit to striking him on the head with a beer bottle during dinner that day. He told reporters shortly after Saito's death, \"This was an ordinary practice. How could you think I would do anything to hurt someone I consider my child?\" The results of an autopsy conducted last year by Niigata University concluded that Saito died of shock caused by multiple injuries. In a separate autopsy, specialists at Nagoya University confirmed earlier this month that shock caused by multiple external injuries contributed to Saito's death. The arrests have shaken Japan's national sport to its core. The Prime Minister, on the floor of the Parliament, urged the nation to carefully examine its sport. The Sumo Association says it will look at how young sumo are hazed, a process that often batters them to toughen them up. \"There will be some change in the short-term, but in the long-run, nothing will change,\" says sumo analyst and Japan Times sumo columnist Mark Buckton. \"These are bad apples who took it too far.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Police arrest three sumo wrestlers and their stablemaster over wrestler's death .\nPolice allege the trainer ordered the wrestlers to beat the 17-year-old wrestler .\nThe case has shocked Japan where sumo is regarded as near-sacred sport .","id":"0963c147bc9d5370ae2062863e776853744c64a7"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dressed as Santa, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo walked up to his ex-in-laws' home in Covina, California, on Christmas Eve and knocked on the door. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo was sought for a Christmas party shooting before taking his own life, police said. An 8-year-old girl, elated to see Santa, ran toward the door. That's when, police say, Pardo lifted a gun and shot her in the face. Pardo, 45, with a gun in one hand and a wrapped present in the other, began shooting indiscriminately, police said at a news conference Thursday. He sprayed the living room with bullets. Watch police describe the child getting shot \u00bb . Nearly 25 friends and family members were at the home for an annual Christmas party. Some ran, some took cover under furniture, some broke windows in an effort to escape -- one woman jumped from the second-story of the home, police said. Neighbors heard gunfire and called 911 shortly before 11:30 p.m. Police said they arrived within three minutes to find the home engulfed in flames. Police said Thursday afternoon that six bodies had been recovered. The Los Angeles County coroner's office later said two more bodies had been recovered. The names of the victims have not yet been released by authorities. Police said they have not accounted for three people: Pardo's ex-mother-in-law, ex-father-in-law and ex-wife -- whom he recently divorced. The 8-year-old, whose injuries indicate the bullet went straight through her face, is recovering at a hospital in Los Angeles, police said. \"She has a very, very severe injury to her face. It's not life-threatening, but she's got a very tough road ahead of her,\" Lt. Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department said Thursday. A 16-year-old with a gunshot wound and the woman who jumped out the window were also being treated at the hospital. Police believe that after Pardo stopped shooting he unwrapped his gift -- a home-made device used to spread fire -- and used it to set the house ablaze. Watch firefighters on the scene of the inferno \u00bb . Buchanan said the device was \"something we have never seen before.\" Covina Police Chief Kim Raney described it as a pressurized tank attached to another tank filled with accelerant. Police believe that after Pardo set fire to the home, he changed into his regular clothing, went to another relative's home in the nearby Sylmar area and committed suicide. Authorities identified Pardo's body, said Buchanan. Police have not released the identities of any of his alleged victims. At the news conference Ed Winter, assistant chief Los Angeles County coroner, said the recovered bodies were \"severely burned and charred,\" making it necessary to use dental and medical records, and X-rays to establish identities. The intense fire caused the top floor of the two-story house to collapse onto the first floor, according to Winter. Raney said Pardo's former in-laws regularly have a party Christmas Eve and that one neighbor always arrives dressed as Santa. This year, that neighbor was away, police said. Police suggested marital problems as a possible motive for the attack and said they believe Pardo and his wife of one year finally settled a contentious divorce last week. Authorities said Pardo's name was given to them by people who were at the party. Police also said they recovered multiple weapons from inside the house.","highlights":"Pardo shot 8-year-old at ex-in-laws' home as she ran toward him .\nPardo carried gift-wrapped, homemade device to spread fire .\nEight found dead after shootings, fire at the Los Angeles-area house .\nSuspected gunman found dead at relative's house, police say .","id":"fadf1177939130b85670f8e671ad0cafce875331"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Several years ago, in honor of the new millennium, Playboy magazine asked musicians for lists of their top 10 songs of the previous 1,000 years. The Beatles placed six albums in Tom Moon's \"1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.\" Most of them stuck to the era of recorded sound, but guitarist Richard Thompson cheekily took Playboy's request seriously and submitted a list that included such songs as \"Sumer Is Icumen In,\" a hit from the 13th century, and \"Blackleg Miner,\" a folk ballad of the 1800s. Playboy was not amused, and did not print Thompson's list. Such is the fate that awaits many people who compile expansive lists of the greatest or most influential songs, movies, TV shows, romantic getaways or baseball players shorter than 5 feet 9. Everybody's a critic. At best, your list will inspire furious discussion; at worst, it will be ignored by your prospective debaters and sink as forlornly as a pebble in the Atlantic Ocean. Which hasn't stopped a slew of new entries in the list-making business -- and not just simple top 10s, either. A handful of authors and publications have released, or are planning to release, works with up to 1,001 suggestions you should know about right now. Tom Moon, author of \"1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die\" (Workman), knew what a daunting task he had been assigned. \"Could one person be counted on to do all kinds of music?\" says Moon, the former music critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer and a regular contributor to NPR, describing himself as apprehensive about the project. But he found himself warming to the idea. As a music journalist, he prides himself on being a generalist, though he admits he's mostly stayed close to the pop realms. A book such as \"1,000 Recordings,\" he says, can help people see past their particular favorite artists or genres and tap into the whole world of recorded music. \"It's like having a tour guide with a flashlight shining into unknown places,\" he says in a recent interview at CNN Center. \"It's someone saying, 'This is cool. Check this out.' \" Watch Moon defend the inclusion of Britney Spears' \"Toxic\" \u00bb . Moon isn't the only one marking time by making lists this season. Movie critic David Thomson put out \" 'Have You Seen ...?': A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films\" (Knopf) in October. The January issue of Blender magazine blares \"1,001 Greatest Songs to Download Right Now\" on its cover. The minds behind the music Web site Pitchfork have \"The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present\" (Simon and Schuster). And then there are the other big lists, past and future, including Dave Marsh's 1989 singles compendium \"The Heart of Rock and Soul\" (Marsh chose 1,001 influential singles) and Robert Hofler's forthcoming \"Variety's 'The Movie That Changed My Life' \" (120 notables pick their favorites). So where does one start? Thomson and Moon wanted references that included well-known titles and obscurities, often cheek by jowl. \"I wanted a 'bumper' book for your laps,\" writes Thomson in his introduction. \"I wanted old favorites to be neighbors with films you've never heard of. I wanted you to entertain the unlikely possibility that 'everything' is here. Of course, it is not -- everything remains out in our scattered 'there.' \" So \"Have You Seen ...?\", which is organized in alphabetical order by title, includes some interesting juxtapositions. The laconic Humphrey Bogart film \"The Big Sleep,\" directed by the no-nonsense Howard Hawks, precedes Alfred Hitchcock's \"The Birds.\" The Frank Capra-directed \"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,\" starring an earnest James Stewart, resides next to David Lynch's loopily creepy \"Mulholland Dr.\" Thomson picks some films for their artistry, others because ... well, because he wanted to, and it's his book. Moon says he set some ground rules. He wanted to stick with albums, not singles or specific cuts. He knew he'd have to include certain essential recordings, but wanted room to roam. \"There's no way to be definitive about music,\" he says. \"My thought was, let me find some of the best of the best ... then find stuff as thrilling, but perhaps not as accessible.\" So \"1,000 Recordings\" includes the Jimi Hendrix Experience's \"Are You Experienced\" and Glenn Gould's two albums of Bach's Goldberg Variations, but also Guided By Voices' \"Bee Thousand\" and Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko's \"New Ancient Strings.\" \"Born to Run\" makes the list; so does Henry Mancini's score for \"Breakfast at Tiffany's.\" But like Thomson's film book, it has some idiosyncracies. The Beatles get six selections; the Rolling Stones get two, and one is a singles collection. There's a Beau Brummels album, but only a Dion single (yes, Moon breaks his own rules occasionally). And the curmudgeonly listeners at Pitchfork, Down Beat and the classical magazine Gramophone no doubt are wondering where some of their favorites are. For Moon -- as with probably anyone who's ever tried to make a comprehensive list of anything -- that's all part of the fun. Go ahead and argue; passion is better than indifference. \"These are starting points,\" he says.","highlights":"Critics offering mega-lists of albums, films, other things to know about .\nCritic Tom Moon on his \"1,000 Recordings\": \"It's someone saying, 'This is cool' \"\nMoon says he's not providing be-all and end-all: \"These are starting points\"","id":"c49e58ac77d4001325fa36ccb5a1c26c2f293ce9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- It is one of the most notorious cold cases in recent memory. A 6-year-old girl, a child of beauty and privilege, was found dead in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado, on the day after Christmas 1996. The strangulation of JonBenet Ramsey is also among the coldest of cases. Twelve years have passed, and again it is Christmastime, the season of JonBenet's death. The investigation has taken many heartbreaking twists and turns, including a false confession and baseless suspicions cast for a time on the child's parents. After years of false starts, there are no solid leads. For many, the images of this tragic story are indelible: A doll-like child smiling flirtatiously at the camera in flamboyant costumes, heavy makeup and grown-up hairstyles parading on a beauty pageant stage. A tiny, lifeless body, dressed in long johns, found on the basement floor by her father. Watch how this case touched nearly everyone \u00bb . Just this past July, John and Patsy Ramsey were exonerated by police of having any role in their daughter's death. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June 2006. FBI lab results confirmed that a man, yet to be identified, touched JonBenet's long underwear. This so-called touch DNA also was found in JonBenet's underpants, mixed with the child's blood. Police believe the DNA belongs to the killer. They just don't know who he is. They are waiting for a match. From the beginning, police focused their attention on Patsy Ramsey, placing the entire family under what authorities later would admit was a cloud of suspicion. The investigators' working theory was that JonBenet's mother may have struck her in anger as punishment for bed-wetting, causing the little girl's death on Christmas night. Investigators theorized that a strangulation was then staged to direct suspicion toward an intruder or sexual predator. Patsy Ramsey told police she awoke early December 26 and found a two-page, handwritten ransom note on a back staircase. It said JonBenet had been kidnapped by a \"small foreign faction\" and that she'd be executed if the Ramseys did not pay a $118,000 ransom. The Ramseys checked JonBenet's room, discovered she was missing and immediately called 911. When police arrived, they suggested that John Ramsey and a family friend, Fleet White, search the house. Shortly afterward, Ramsey and White found JonBenet's body in a wine cellar in the basement. The child's body was wrapped in a blanket, with duct tape across her mouth and white cord wrapped around her neck and wrists. An autopsy showed the child had eaten pineapple shortly before she died. She'd been sexually assaulted, strangled by the cord and struck on the head. Crime scene photos show two small burn-type injuries on JonBenet's head. Private investigators Ollie Gray and John San Augustin, working as consultants on the case, said the burns are consistent with marks made with a \"stun gun.\" Investigators also concluded that the paper the ransom note was written on came from a notepad in the Ramsey home, as did the broken paintbrush handle used to form the garrote. However, the sources for the cord and duct tape were not found anywhere in the home. Other nagging clues include an open basement window near where the child's body was found. A suitcase stood directly below the window, and appeared to have been used as a step. There was a scuff mark on the wall beneath the window. A footprint of a Hi-Tec hiking boot was found in the dust in the wine cellar and cannot be connected to anyone in the Ramsey family or their friends. Police say they were initially suspicious of the Ramseys because there were no footprints in the snow outside the house. Lou Smits, a lead police investigator on the case, resigned because, he said, the investigation \"was misdirected and had developed tunnel vision, only focusing on the Ramseys as suspects and not following alternative leads.\" The contradictory facts have caused problems in the case. Many experts have said they believe Boulder police botched the investigation by failing to preserve the crime scene properly. When, for example, police arrived and directed John Ramsey to search his own home, Ramsey not only found his dead daughter but also picked her up and brought her upstairs, disturbing the crime scene. Police investigators, friends and family were allowed to walk in and out of the house freely, again contaminating evidence that could have been gathered. The District Attorney's Office has taken over the investigation, said spokeswoman Caroline French. \"This case is still an open and active investigation,\" French said. Prosecutors seek tips and ask anyone with information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for JonBenet Ramsey's death to call 303-441-1636.","highlights":"False suspicions, unsecured crime scene plague investigation from start .\nRamsey family spends years under \"cloud of suspicion\"\nNew touch DNA test cleared all family members earlier this year .\nAnyone with information is asked to call 303-441-1636 .","id":"3f45390503ae363a82456f2773f8b1a684fa1fcc"} -{"article":"(Coastal Living) -- The Little Dipper's seven patio tables overlook a twinkling Caribbean. Tonight, the chef -- who's also waiter and hostess -- prepares Creole fish with vegetables. Although the small restaurant is one of the best in Grenada, it's the vista that stands out. Founded in the late 17th century, the capital city of St. George's sits on the island's southwest coast. Sailboats sway at anchor on Clarkes Court Bay, and lights blink on against dark green hills. The island's hidden treasure is its views -- and not just from quaint seaside caf\u00e9s. Take the nearby resort of Laluna, on Portici Bay. With 16 hillside cottages huddled around a private cove beach, it overflows with scenic panoramas. Founded by a former fashion consultant from Italy, Laluna is chic, but not pretentious -- a stylish retreat on one of the Caribbean's quietest islands. Eco-inspired rooms feature fabric-draped four-poster beds from Bali, individual plunge pools, and bamboo-topped verandas. The most distant cottage sits 150 feet from the beach, making the resort a barefoot, lounging kind of place. Ultracasual dress code aside, Laluna takes meals seriously. Dinner comes prepared by an Italian chef who mingles his home country's techniques with Caribbean flavors. You can start with octopus salad with potatoes and chickpeas, then make your way down the menu to pappardelle with a nutmeg cream sauce. It won't be the last time you see nutmeg on a menu here. Grenada provides a third of the world's supply of the spice, which can be sampled as a powder, syrup, or jam. Almost every visitor brings some home, usually in a small basket also packed with cloves, cinnamon, mace, bay leaves, and ginger. The country may not claim flashy casinos or high-rise resorts, but Grenada grows more spices per square mile than any other place on the globe. Coastal Living: The other Caribbean . It takes a lush climate, such as the rain forest at Grenada's center, to produce these flavors. Grand Etang National Park preserves the island's tropical flora and fauna. Visitors can book guides to lead them through terraced banana farms and forests of giant gommier trees, teak, and wild orchids. From a mountain peak, 90 percent of the island is visible, vivid green after a midday rain. As one might expect, the cities here move at a sleepy, island pace. But the township of Gouyave on Grenada's western coast jumps to life on Fish Fridays, which are part street-food festival, part outdoor concert, and part extended-family gathering. Beginning late afternoon, the fishing village's streets and side passages fill with tables of seafood. Vendors sell sample-size servings of everything from lobster to jerked marlin to deep-fried fish cakes. Music lifts the spirit, as do the enthusiastic greetings of friends and relatives. Visitors to Gouyave are a little reluctant to leave. But eventually they'll head back to Laluna, along a cliffside road illuminated by stars on a cloudless night -- yet another unforgettable view. Island Info . Laluna's cliffside cottages start at $390. Rates do not include meals, but all snorkeling and kayaking is included; 866\/452-5862 or laluna.com. Guided hikes from Henry's Safari Tours cost $40 to $55 per person. Denis Henry offers trips tailored to your experience level. His taxi tours are also the best on the island; 347\/721-9271 or henrysafari.com. Reservations at Little Dipper on Clarkes Court Bay in Woburn can be made through Laluna, or by calling 473\/444-5136. From Laluna, a round-trip taxi to Fish Fridays in Gouyave costs roughly $100. Food at the festival will run between $15 and $20 per person. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright \u00a9 Coastal Living, 2009 .","highlights":"Grenada provides a third of the world's supply of nutmeg .\nThe casual, quiet island offers a wealth of spectacular views .\nThe township of Gouyave jumps to life on Fish Fridays .","id":"ec4f144df16ca027df4bfaf9e4cfac735009f754"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- After shooting several people at the home of his former in-laws, police say Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, still dressed as Santa Claus, sprayed gasoline throughout the home intending to set it on fire. Police carry the homemade device they believe Bruce Jeffrey Pardo used to set the home on fire. But his plan went awry. The home exploded, windows were blown out, and part of Pardo's Santa suit melted onto his skin. He suffered third-degree burns. That's why police say he decided to kill himself rather than use the airline ticket to Canada that was in his pocket. Pardo killed nine people, police said. Three others were injured, including an 8-year-old. A 16-year-old girl was wounded by gunfire and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. A woman who jumped out a second-floor window broke her leg and was hospitalized. None of the victims has been identified. Police said Pardo showed up at the home dressed as Santa and had $17,000 cling-wrapped to his legs and inside a girdle. Watch police talk about what was found on the gunman's body \u00bb . He knocked on the door. And when the 8-year-old ran to greet him, he shot her in the face. Watch police describe the girl's injuries \u00bb . Terrified people inside the home called 911. \"Stay away from the window!\" a woman can be heard pleading, \"Please come immediately ... he's shooting! He's shooting!\" See photos from the scene \u00bb . Some fled the house any way they could. Others sought shelter inside, some ducking under the dining room table, one witness said. Pardo was targeting his ex-wife's family, police said, shooting some of them \"execution-style.\" Afterward, he prepared to set the home on fire using a homemade device designed to spread fuel. Watch investigators at the burned-out home \u00bb . After the home exploded, Pardo removed his Santa suit, put on street clothes and began to knock out lights in the area as he fled the scene, according to a witness on a recording of a 911 call. Pardo fled to his brother's home in nearby Sylmar, California, police said. When Pardo realized his brother wasn't home, he broke in and eventually shot himself to death, police said. Police later found his rental car with the remnants of the Santa suit on the seat. It was rigged to explode if the costume was removed. During a search of Pardo's home in Montrose, California, police found five empty boxes for semiautomatic handguns, two high-powered shotguns and a container of \"racing fuel.\" Police said they recovered four handguns at various locations. Watch how the massacre unfolded \u00bb . Investigators have yet to identify the charred remains recovered from the burned house. Ed Winter, assistant chief Los Angeles County coroner, said the intense fire caused the top floor of the two-story house to collapse. Winter said the bodies were \"severely burned and charred,\" and dental and medical records and X-rays will be used to establish identities. Police said they have not accounted for Pardo's ex-mother-in-law, ex-father-in-law and ex-wife. Police suggested marital problems as a motive for the attack and said Pardo and his wife of one year settled a contentious divorce last week. Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said Pardo's former in-laws regularly have a party Christmas Eve and that one neighbor always arrives dressed as Santa. This year that neighbor was away, police said.","highlights":"Police say suspect had flight scheduled from Los Angeles to Canada .\nPolice believe Bruce Jeffrey Pardo's injuries prevented him from fleeing .\nPardo, who killed nine people, committed suicide after the attack, police say .\nPolice found $17,000 cling-wrapped to Pardo's legs, inside a girdle .","id":"2cb365e7b76af2184a0886492dc7e6a6f0ec48ba"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Every holiday season we are cursed with the same challenge: to articulate exactly how fond we are of our friends and family in the language of purchasable objects. Appreciate specific virtues of the people you're buying for and connect those qualities to fabulous presents. This begs a couple of questions, like, \"How do I shop for gifts that please both my brother and his wife without offending my own soul?\" Even if you love your brother dearly, you might spend way too much and give him a French designer tablecloth covered with a really terrific artichoke print, which would prompt his cute but rigidly uptight wife to say something like \"Artichokes? Wow. Ha ha; only you would give us something like that! No, really, it's great!\" And another deep and philosophical question: \"How the hell am I supposed to express fondness for my extremely fancy friends when I have only $40?\" Deciding I needed a psychic obstacle course that would train me to emerge victorious in this upcoming battle, I arrived at a strategy: I would theoretically buy gifts for people who were absolutely impossible to shop for. Oprah.com: Free (or really cheap!) gift ideas . If I could climb these holiday Matterhorns, I could find presents for anyone. I asked myself: \"Who in the world would best represent my worst nightmares in the area of budget holiday shopping?\" And I came up with a holy celebrity trinity: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (the mind-bogglingly fashionable, ex-supermodel wife of the president of France), Brad Pitt (the half-Brangelinian father of six, at last count), and ultracouple Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 (who I technically counted as one since I wanted to get something they'd both like). My budget for each: around $40. Obviously, this mission was going to require an insane level of creativity -- especially in a city like New York, where everything is so monstrously expensive. So I called women's clothing designer Gary Graham at his new boutique inside ABC Carpet & Home, a posh yet quirky department store filled with enormous golden Buddhas and strange chandeliers, and asked him to accompany me. \"We should get my friend Charlie to take us to Flatbush,\" he offered. I knew immediately what Gary was getting at. The Flatbush section of Brooklyn is a fertile mix of Caribbean families, art school hipsters, neighborhood discount stores, and specialty shops crammed to the ceiling with exotic imports. Charlie -- writer and artist Charles Beyer -- met us at Phat Albert, a legendary discount store that sells everything from leather baby pants to Lucite shower fixtures. We agreed that when shopping on a budget for people rich enough to buy their own islands, the goal was to find objects that would underline qualities we liked about them, and let them know we understood their particular needs. \"I think Brad Pitt would appreciate something that helps him control his children,\" I suggested. \"I mean, he has so many of them. We need to find him a six-headed lollipop, or something that can keep the kids consolidated in space for a few minutes so he can rest.\" Oprah.com: The secrets of thrifty shoppers . We found a gift that, with just a little bit of creative doctoring, might do the trick: an XXX-large T-shirt featuring the late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. \"We could cut five more neck holes in it and call it a six-pac,\" said Charlie. It was tempting. This masterpiece of modern babysitting cost only $8.99, which would enable us to buy more child management aids. But I wasn't satisfied that Brad would be as thrilled with it as I wanted him to be. \"Hey, check this out,\" said Charlie, having already moved on to Carla. \"It's a camouflage duffel bag featuring a fake McDonald's logo.\" Even more beguiling was a secret pocket outside the bag, the fabric of which was printed with the image of a cheerful, anthropomorphic French fry. The price: only $4. Oprah.com: Gifts that give back . True, Madame Sarkozy might love it. She is, after all, a tastemaker. Still, we wanted to see what they had at a few smaller shops. Hmmm. A bobble-headed decoy owl? Perhaps Carla could use it to keep pigeons off statues of her husband? No... Then we came upon the Goodwill Gospel Store, which promised that we'd be able to \"Give a Gift with Spiritual Importance.\" \"Look, hanging in the window!\" I screamed. \"It's the gift that perfectly reconciles Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's rock 'n' roll, freewheeling past, her new diplomatic role as a high-profile political wife, and her much-maligned singing career!\" It was perfect: a tambourine in the shape of a peace dove. It really said it all, and for the low, low price of $21.99. Score! With that, we turned to the grueling task of shopping for Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9. Since they are quintessential show people and are no doubt on the road a great deal of the time, living out of Louis Vuitton steamer trunks in six-star hotels with SWAT teams of hair and makeup artists, we wanted to find them something that would strike the right balance of sophisticated flair and down-home comfort. We came upon a $14 pair of boxer shorts covered with bags of money hanging on a rack in front of a clothing store (unlike Phat Albert, many of the smaller places have no visible names), which we thought Mr. Z might appreciate. Another nameless discount store had a fantastic 3-D chart for identifying the different hair bun attachments it sold. Perhaps, we agreed, we could buy Beyonc\u00e9 half a dozen of the various $7 \"donut buns\" and throw them into a Krispy Kreme box for extra whimsy! But neither of these options was really singing to us, maybe because they didn't speak to the couple's celebrated togetherness, which was the original sentiment behind buying them one gift. \"Oh, stop -- these are it,\" Charlie suddenly enthused as we passed a small, anonymous shoe store. \"These bandanna slippers are absolutely Runway Collection 2009!\" \"Actually,\" said Gary, \"they are really nice.\" The price: $19.99. We decided to buy red slippers for Beyonc\u00e9 and blue for Jay-Z. Besides satisfying our criteria (snazzy yet relaxing), since Mr. and Mrs. Z \"tied the knot,\" this matching-scarf footwear could serve as a lasting symbol of a peaceful Hollywood marriage. I was very pleased so far ... but I didn't feel we'd completely succeeded with Brad, so we wandered into a store called Gran Bwa that featured items of a West Indian nature. \"Hey, these could be great for Brad,\" said Gary. The air in the room started shimmering, because he had, indeed, found some divine objects: a stack of six child-size straw porkpie hats. They were utterly hip, as if designed for miniature jazz musicians. We figured if Brad could manage to get all of his adorable children to wear the hats at the same time, like a global version of the Partridge Family, he could sell the photo to a tabloid for more than $4 million and donate the proceeds to the charity of his choice. At $10 each, the hats were a tad beyond our price range. But we decided we'd splash out and spend the extra $20, since eventually they could end up housing, say, 30,000 displaced persons. We'd put Angelina on the gift card, too, and then we wouldn't have to buy her anything at the last minute. We were suffused with the joy of giving. Mission accomplished, we found ourselves considering the plight of the Three Kings. Even with an unlimited royal budget, it still must have been difficult to shop for a newborn Messiah. But they looked around their respective kingdoms and gathered up the swankiest stuff they could find. In the earliest example of holiday gift giving, it was the thought and the effort that counted. All in all, I came away with one really valuable lesson. You can learn a lot by shopping outside your ordinary consumer comfort zone. And during our practice pilgrimage, Gary, Charlie, and I remembered what's important about the whole insane gift hunt: appreciating specific virtues of the people we're buying for, and connecting these qualities, with love, to fabulous presents. And you gotta figure your brother's wife is going to hate everything you give her anyway, so you may as well save a few bucks, right? 'Tis the season! By Cintra Wilson from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" December 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Author decides to buy three gifts under $40 for have-it-all people .\nShe picks Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Brad Pitt and ultracouple Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 .\nAuthor and friends buy six child-size straw porkpie hats for Pitt .\nThey also buy Jay-Z and Beyonce matching slippers .","id":"47aba666b72ded91a9a5d9889d9c97fa8d597e40"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As Zimbabwe battles a cholera epidemic that has already killed hundreds, one company thinks it may have found a potential solution to the world water crisis. A shortage of clean drinking water has unleashed a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Element Four, a small Canadian firm, has applied its water technology to create the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that draws moisture from the air and purifies it into clean drinkable water. The compact WaterMill, which goes on sale in the spring, is designed for household use. More crucially for countries such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Element Four is also working on another device, the WaterWall, which could potentially supply an entire village in the developing world. The team at Element Four shares an ambitious goal: to quench the world's growing thirst for water. Now the 10-person company is taking on a challenge that global multinationals have struggled to meet. Rick Howard, the CEO of the company, says it was at a U.N. conference on water in New York last summer that he realized just how revolutionary Element Four's technology might be. \"There we were on the same stage as GE, Dow Chemical and Siemens, and it was a complete shock to us when we heard the solutions they were offering. We realized we had something that could effect change,\" Howard tells CNN. The WaterMill draws in air through a filter and then cools it into water droplets. This water then passes through a special filter and is exposed to ultraviolet light, which rids it of bacteria. The product Element Four is designing for the developing world is called the WaterWall and is constructed by taking several of the water-making cells of the consumer appliance and hooking them up in series on a wall. The U.N., which has declared 2005-2015 the International Decade for Water, expects 1.8 billion people to live in regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025. It's no wonder then that Element Four is being closely watched by the tech world. The WaterMill is being displayed at the Wired Store in New York, a temporary store the magazine opens every holiday season that showcases the future of technology. About one in five people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, and shortages pose serious health problems for much of the developing world. Lack of clean water, coupled with poor sanitation practices, can lead to outbreaks of water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, which in turn, can cause life-threatening forms of diarrhea. More than 500 people have died in Zimbabwe. Diarrheal disease is the third leading cause of death from infectious diseases, and the majority of those deaths are among children under the age of 5, according to the WHO and UNICEF. Most of those deaths could be prevented if improvements to sanitation and drinking water were made. But can an invention like the WaterWall really help ease the world's water shortage and help prevent health disasters like the outbreak in Zimbabwe from occurring in the future? \"There are some brilliant inventions out there, but they are expensive and difficult to get hold of,\" says Paul Jawor, an emergency water and sanitation consultant with international aid organization Doctors Without Borders. The WaterMill retails for about $1,300, but Howard estimates that a pared down version -- without the bells and whistle -- for use in places like Africa would cost about $300. The biggest challenge of a product like the WaterWall, Howard says, is the power consumed by the water-making cells. To counter that, the product is designed to turn on in stages so it doesn't overload fragile power grids. In comparison to solutions like desalination, which can cost billions of dollars to develop, that's cheap. \"For about $300 we can start saving lives. Ours is a very scalable product,\" Howard says. But there are skeptics. Frank Lawson, an engineering adviser at international charity WaterAid, said the solution Element Four is devising wouldn't be appropriate for the charity's projects. For one, the technology doesn't work in very dry climates. The machine only functions at or above about 35 percent relative humidity levels. Furthermore, it requires an energy source. \"Our technologies have to be within the capacity of the benefiting community -- both technically and financially,\" Lawson says. WaterAid uses a number of low-cost and sustainable solutions, such as rainwater harvesting and hand-dug wells, to help communities in more than 17 countries access water. But those solutions depend upon the availability of water in the area, and fresh water supplies worldwide are feeling the squeeze from population growth, pollution and climate change. Howard admits the company needs to focus on growing its business first, so it may be some time before the Element Four's products make their way to the developing world. \"We quickly came to realize that if we didn't first build a business to perfect the product and application, then we weren't going to be able to get to a point where we could have a significant humanitarian impact,\" he says. But Howard and partner Jonathan Ritchey are in various stages of discussions with several humanitarian groups in the field. Howard declined to name the organizations. It's early, but the company's core principle is \"to do good as we do well,\" he says. \"That's part of truly what drives us -- knowing that at some point we will be able to do some significant good.\"","highlights":"Element Four has developed a machine that creates clean water out of air .\nGrowth of water use has been outpacing the rate of population increase .\nShortages of clean water pose health challenges in the developing world .\nZimbabwe's water crisis has unleashed a devastating cholera epidemic .","id":"24bca61b48e79c13471bbafc99ef0d9214d0f9c3"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- What if we offered illegal immigrants a path to citizenship that included a stint in the U.S. military? Ruben Navarrette: Be wary of offering military service as a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The idea has been trumpeted by thoughtful people such as Max Boot, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who thinks this is the time for a \"freedom legion.\" He's talking about a unit of the military made up entirely of the foreign-born -- including illegal immigrants -- where the compensation would include U.S. citizenship. About 70,000 foreign-born men and women serve in the U.S. armed forces, or about 5 percent of the total active-duty force, according to the Pentagon. Of those, nearly 30,000 -- or about 43 percent -- are not U.S. citizens. Roping illegal immigrants into military service could accomplish two goals at once: helping alleviate the military's recruitment worries while giving the undocumented a chance to prove that their commitment to this country extends beyond a paycheck. We're already talking about requiring illegal immigrants to learn English, pay fines, and return to their home countries to earn legal status. Why not, some say, raise the stakes and require men and women between 18 and 42 to serve a couple of years in the military to earn something even more precious: U.S. citizenship for themselves and their children? The idea appealed to a reader in upstate New York who called me to gauge my reaction. I told him that I hadn't made up my mind, but that the concept did fit with my view that any conferring of legal status be laden with onerous conditions so that it really is earned. To earn it, illegal immigrants should have to do everything but walk across broken glass. Still, I told him, I'm not sure how those who oppose comprehensive reform but support turning illegal immigrants into cannon fodder go about squaring that circle. Restrictionists and racists have argued that illegal immigrants are invading this country, and that they're a dangerous menace to society that is prone to all sorts of violent and criminal behavior. Of course, many native-born U.S. citizens are just as menacing. But for those who believe that illegal immigrants are inherently violent, do they really want to give these folks military training and a M-16, to help them graduate from menacing to lethal? After all, assuming they survive their stint in the military, they eventually have to return stateside. Then they're our problem. Consider the ghastly events in Newark, New Jersey, where three African-American students were killed execution-style and a fourth was shot in the head but survived. The accused ringleader is Jose Carranza, an illegal immigrant from Peru, who was previously charged with raping a 5-year-old girl and threatening her parents. Twice indicted by grand juries, Carranza slipped through the cracks and was released on bail. Authorities say that the 28-year-old construction worker led at least four other individuals in attacking the youths with a gun and a machete. If convicted, Carranza could get the death penalty. Glad to hear it. If half the things they say about this creep are true, Carranza belongs on death row. But guess what? He sure doesn't belong on an Army recruitment poster, or handling heavy artillery. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Is it time for a military \"freedom legion,\" made up of all foreign-born troops?\nIs military service as a way to citizenship for illegal immigrants a good idea?\nJose Carranza, accused in the Newark killings, makes the proposal problematic .\nIllegal immigrants are considered dangerous menaces by some .","id":"cfd67e5d82e46362118fc08277a3bc15163f4729"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal slid to an astonishing 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6 defeat to Sweden's Robin Soderling at the French Open on Sunday. Soderling savors his unlikely triumph against Nadal in the French Open fourth round. Soderling, the 23rd seed, was a rank outsider against the world number one who had never lost a match on the clay at Roland Garros and was a short-priced favorite to win a record fifth straight title. But Soderling never looked back after breezing through the first set of their fourth round match and closed out victory as Nadal sent a volley wide after bravely saving a matchpoint in the fourth set tiebreak. The Spaniard tried to look on the positives after his shock defeat. \"It's not a tragedy, losing here in Paris,\" he told the official tournament Web site www.rolandgarros.com . \"It had to happen one day, and this is an excellent season for me. \"Of course it's a bit sad, but I have to overcome this as quickly as possible. No one remembers defeats on the long run. People remember victories. So I have to move forward and try and prepare the best I can.\" King of clay Nadal had compiled a 31-match winning streak at the French Open and was attempting to win the second grand slam of the year after beating world number two Roger Federer in the final of the Australian Open. Soderling took advantage of a strong serve and big forehands to give Nadal a torrid time in front of a stunned crowd on the Philippe Chatrier court. Defeat for Nadal opens up his side of the draw with world number three Andy Murray a possible beneficiary. Murray, who was seeded to meet Nadal in the semifinals, beat Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-5 7-6 6-1 in their earlier fourth round match. He will play Fernando Gonzalez of Chile for a place in the semifinals. Gonzalez beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-2 6-4 6-2 in their fourth round match. Soderling will next play Nikolay Davydenko of Russia as the 10th seed beat eighth-ranked Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2 6-2 6-4.in the final last 16 match of a dramatic day.","highlights":"Four-time defending French Open champion Rafael Nadal crashes out .\nTop seed beaten in four sets by Sweden's Robin Soderling in Paris .\nBritain's Andy Murray powers into quarterfinals with straight sets win .","id":"bb66a54aa1d8fbf52213ee1aaeb316059c03886b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. military forces landed at a compound in Pakistan to battle targets linked to recent attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. official confirmed Wednesday. Security in the South Waziristan area of Pakistan has deteriorated in recent years. The official declined to be identified, citing the extreme sensitivity of U.S. forces operating within Pakistan's borders. The action was an uncommon one for the U.S. military. Generally, NATO forces do not enter Pakistan except when pursuing insurgents in Afghanistan who slipped over the border or, in an extreme case, to pursue a high-value target. The Pentagon has refused to comment officially on the attack, but several defense officials acknowledged that U.S. military activity had taken place inside Pakistan. The senior U.S. official said a small number of U.S. helicopters landed troops in the village near Angoor Adda in South Waziristan, where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have hunkered down over the years. Local media reports said the troops came out of a chopper and fired on civilians. The U.S. official said there may have been a small number of women and children in the immediate vicinity, but when the mission began \"everybody came out firing\" from the compound. He said the U.S. troops specifically attacked three buildings in the compound. They were believed to contain individuals responsible for training and equipping insurgents who have been crossing the border into Afghanistan in increasing numbers in recent months and staging large-scale, high-profile attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. The official could not say if the troops were going after a specific individual. Officials told CNN there was no indication the target was Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday lodged a protest against U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces for what it said was a \"helicopter-borne ground attack\" from Afghanistan into Pakistan, an uncommon tactic in the coalition's fight against militants along the violent border. The coalition and NATO have been seeking a way to effectively battle militants launching attacks from Pakistan's swath of tribal areas along the border. They have become frustrated with Pakistan over the years, saying it is not being proactive enough against militants, a claim denied by Pakistan -- now in political flux after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf. Top U.S. and Pakistani military officials last week met on an aircraft carrier regarding American concerns that Pakistan hasn't been cracking down hard enough on the Taliban. Several times this year, U.S.-operated drone aircraft launched attacks inside Pakistan . The Pakistani Foreign Ministry described the strike as \"a helicopter-borne ground attack supported by air assets based in Afghanistan\" and called it a \"gross violation of Pakistan territory.\" Pakistani officials were still counting the casualties. One local official said the raid left 20 civilians dead. Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said seven civilians died and others were critically injured. \"It is, indeed, most unfortunate that coalition\/ISAF in Afghanistan have resorted to cross-border use of force against civilians,\" the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. ISAF is NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan was summoned to provide an explanation of the incident. \"Such actions are counterproductive and certainly do not help our joint efforts to fight terrorism,\" the ministry said. \"On the contrary, they undermine the very basis of cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are trying to extinguish. Moreover, any attack on Pakistani territory is unacceptable and constitutes a grave provocation.\" Owais Ahmed Ghani, the administrative head of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, called the strike \"a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan. And the people of Pakistan expect that the Armed Forces of Pakistan would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply to all such attacks.\"","highlights":"NEW: Assault targeted compound in area linked to Taliban, al Qaeda .\nNEW: Individuals in compound suspected of helping Afghan attacks .\nPakistani reports say from seven to 20 civilians killed in raid .\nPakistan calls on U.S. ambassador to explain attack .","id":"d63885ee251785ff2989627b2669228039daf0db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dr. George Tiller, whose Kansas women's clinic frequently took center stage in the U.S. debate over abortion, was shot and killed while serving as an usher at his Wichita church Sunday morning, police said. Dr. George Tiller was one of the few U.S. physicians that performed late-term abortions. Wichita police said a 51-year-old man from the Kansas City, Kansas, area was in custody in connection with the slaying of Tiller, who was one of the few U.S. physicians who still performed late-term abortions. The killing, which came about 16 years after Tiller survived a shooting outside his Wichita clinic, took place shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday at Reformation Lutheran Church. Officers found the 67-year-old dead in the foyer, police said. Witnesses provided a description of the car and a license number of the killer's getaway vehicle, Wichita police spokesman Gordon Bassham said. Police stopped a blue Ford Taurus matching the description about three hours later in Gardner, about 30 miles southwest of Kansas City, and took the driver into custody. No charges had been filed Sunday evening and no motive for the killing was immediately known, but Wichita police Detective Tom Stoltz told reporters: \"We think we have the right person arrested.\" \"We will investigate this suspect to the Nth degree -- his history, his family, his associates -- and we are just in the beginning stages of that,\" Stoltz said. See what people are saying about Dr. Tiller's murder \u00bb . Tiller's slaying drew condemnation from supporters, from some of those who tried to shut down his practice and from President Obama, who just two weeks ago urged Americans to seek \"common ground\" on the issue of abortion. \"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence,\" Obama said in a statement issued by the White House. The shooting prompted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to direct federal marshals to \"offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation,\" according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Tiller had been practicing medicine for nearly 40 years, said Peter Brownlie, president of the Kansas City-based regional Planned Parenthood office. His patients were \"almost always in circumstances where something had gone horribly wrong with a pregnancy,\" and where a woman's health would be endangered if the pregnancy continued, Brownlie said. He and his staff had been picketed for years, with some activists distributing leaflets around his neighborhood, Brownlie said. His clinic suffered serious damage from a bomb in the mid-1990s, and he was shot through both arms in 1993 by an anti-abortion activist who is currently serving time in federal prison. \"He endured that kind of stuff on a very frequent basis,\" Brownlie said. \"As recently as early this month the clinic sustained serious vandalism that put them out of commission for a week or so.\" Watch Tiller describe the philosophy of his clinic in 1999 \u00bb . Tiller had armed security at his clinic and a \"pretty rigorous\" security procedure at home, Brownlie said. But he \"made an effort to live his life as normally as possible knowing he could be a target at any time,\" he said. In a statement issued through Tiller's lawyers, his family -- a wife, four children and 10 grandchildren -- said their loss \"is also a loss for the City of Wichita and women across America.\" \"George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence,\" his family said in a written statement. \"We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere.\" In March, Tiller was acquitted of 19 counts of performing procedures unlawfully at his clinic. In 2008, a probe initiated by abortion opponents who petitioned state authorities to convene a grand jury ended without charges. Leading anti-abortion groups condemned Sunday's shooting, emphasizing they wanted to shut down Tiller's practice by legal means. Operation Rescue, which has led numerous demonstrations at Tiller's clinic, called the shooting as a \"cowardly act.\" And the National Right to Life Committee, the largest U.S. anti-abortion group, said it \"unequivocally condemns any such acts of violence regardless of motivation.\" \"The pro-life movement works to protect the right to life and increase respect for human life,\" it said. \"The unlawful use of violence is directly contrary to that goal.\" But Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who is no longer affiliated with the group, called Tiller \"a mass murderer.\" \"We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God,\" Terry said in a written statement. \"I am more concerned that the Obama administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder, and we still must call abortion by its proper name.\" The National Organization for Women, which supports abortion rights, called Tiller's killing an act of \"domestic terrorism.\" And NARAL Pro-Choice America said Tiller had worked for years under \"intense harassment tinged with persistent threats of violence.\" If Tiller was killed because of his work, he would be the fourth U.S. physician killed over abortion since 1993. See all abortion-related attacks since 1993 \u00bb . In 1998, a sniper killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in his Amherst, New York, home. Anti-abortion activist James Kopp was later arrested in France and is serving life in prison. In 1994, Dr. John Bayard Britton and one of his volunteer escorts were shot and killed outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Paul Hill, a former minister, was convicted of the killings and executed in 2003. And in 1993, another doctor, David Gunn, was shot to death outside another Pensacola clinic. His killer, Michael Griffin, is serving a life sentence. In addition, a nurse at a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic was maimed and an off-duty police officer was killed in a 1998 bombing by Eric Rudolph, who included abortion among his list of anti-government grievances. Rudolph admitted to that attack and three other bombings -- including the 1996 attack on the Olympic games in Atlanta, Georgia -- and is currently serving life in prison. CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspect in shooting death of Dr. George Tiller in custody, police say .\nTiller shot Sunday at his church in Wichita, Kansas, according to police .\nMotive unknown; Tiller was one of few U.S. doctors performing late-term abortions .\nSupporters, President Obama and anti-abortion groups condemn killing .","id":"2b30b8d4d927eb7c00e5a96c829273dfbab8f4f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Growing up in a small Sri Lankan fishing town, cricket changed Sanath Jayasuriya's life. But his association with the game and humanitarian work has also helped transform the lives of many others. Jayasuriya's stature and shot-making led to comparisons with India's Sachin Tendulkar. \"Without cricket I would have a small job in my home town. My mother is happy to say my name,\" he told CNN in Hong Kong. His mother's pride in his success has an extra poignancy as Jayasuriya's fame in some part helped his mother survive the south Asian tsunami on December 26, 2004. She was swept away by the first wave and only by calling out to get attention, saying she was Jayasuriya's mother, did a rescuer manage to spot her among the debris and destruction and pull her to safety. Thousands of others, including many of Jayasuriya's friends and neighbors, were not so fortunate, and the impact that the disaster had on Jayasuriya's hometown of Matara and many other parts of Sri Lanka is still felt today. \"Even now when many people hear the word (tsunami), they are still scared. When my mother hears it, she still can't run,\" he said. After nearly 20 years of international cricket, the 39-year-old is now just as happy to put bowling attacks to the sword as well as working as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. \"Coming from Sri Lanka you need to do a lot of charity work and help in anyway you can. People love cricket and they look to cricketers, so as a team Sri Lanka also does a lot for charity. It's a personal commitment,\" he told CNN. On the pitch he has always been just as committed to helping his team. Making his international Test match debut in 1991, he captained the Sri Lankan team for four years until 2003 and hit memorable centuries against every other Test side, bar the West Indies and New Zealand. He retired from the five-day version of the game in 2007. However it was in the one day game that the all-rounder has really made his mark. As part of the Sri Lankan team that won the World Cup in 1996, he played an explosive innings of aggressive shot-making that has been credited with revolutionizing the way in which batsman play the game. In 2005 he became only the fourth batsman to reach 10,000 runs in one-day matches and his current stats stand at 12785 runs from 421 one-day internationals. Having made his name in the 50-over version of the game he's still involved in cricket's latest revolution; the even shorter Twenty20 game that is being touted as the future of popularizing the sport. \"Cricket has changed all over the world. For the public to watch this game we need for it to change. You can now enjoy all that in around 3 hours (with Twenty20). The Indian Premier League (IPL) is good for cricket and good for cricketers. The one-day game will be phased down.\" Throughout his career he's shown his own resilience adapting to changing circumstances on the cricket pitch as well as off it. Before the 2003 World Cup he took the decision not to sign a contract with the Sri Lankan cricket board, citing the loss of potential earnings it would mean for him and fellow players. Despite not being a confrontational personality, the tension between himself and the Sri Lankan cricket board led to his resignation from the captaincy in 2003. With no Test cricket to play this year, Jayasuriya found himself omitted from the Sri Lanka squad for 2008 series one-day series against the West Indies. However his fine form while playing in the IPL -- he ended its inaugural season as the third highest run scorer with 514 runs and hitting 31 sixes -- convinced the selectors to pick him for the upcoming one-day series between Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. \"Looking back I could never have thought I would have come this far. Buddhism helped me a lot. It says that you should take the middle path and you will never go wrong,\" he said. \"But I've done a lot of hard work and everyone, my family and coaches, have given me support. Without that I wouldn't have got here.\" When he does finally retire you can expect Jayasuriya to keep giving all he can to the game and causes he loves so much.","highlights":"Sri Lankan cricketer recognized as changing the way one-day cricket is played .\nThe first cricketer to be a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador .\nSri Lanka's highest run scorer in Test matches and one-day internationals .","id":"c73c41926a20462d53622508d1dbc2796e221daa"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An extended trip to Ecuador by two Americans changed from a dream to a nightmare after a brutal attack last week, according the couple's blog and U.S. officials. State Department spokesman Robert Wood confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador had been told that two Americans from Bend, Oregon, were attacked in the city of Esmeraldas, on Ecuador's northern coast. But he said he could provide no further information because of privacy laws. Two State Department officials, however, said that the man was stabbed more than 24 times and that his fianc\u00e9e was beaten and raped. CNN does not name the victims of sexual assault and has removed publication of the man's name to help protect the identity of the woman. The couple was evacuated to the United States on Tuesday for treatment, the officials said. The couple wrote a blog throughout their trip. In the most recent post on Monday, the woman wrote that her fiance was in intensive care after three surgeries. \"I was informed by the head surgeon there is no certainty he will survive,\" she wrote. The earlier postings were happier reflections on their visit to Ecuador, a year-long trip they planned after getting engaged and selling all their belongings. In the blog, the couple seems unconcerned about safety, posting that they occasionally hitchhiked, visited the homes of strangers and posed for pictures with new friends they made on their travels. One senior official told CNN that the victims' parents complained to U.S. consular officers in Ecuador that the Embassy did not do enough to warn Americans that many people have been attacked in Esmeraldas. The State Department's Web site advises caution when traveling to the northern border region of Ecuador, including Esmeraldas. The travel advisory section notes that \"U.S. government personnel are under limitations with respect to traveling alone and over-nighting in these areas due to the spread of organized crime, drug trafficking, small arms trafficking, and incursions by various Colombian terrorist organizations.\" The Web site says that since 1998, at least 10 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped and one killed near Ecuador's border with Colombia. Wood on Tuesday expressed the State Department's \"deep sympathy\" for the victims and said the department worked with the victims' families to provide assistance. \"It's a horrible and shocking incident\" he said.","highlights":"U.S. officials say man was stabbed repeatedly, his fianc\u00e9e raped and beaten .\nRelative tells media that couple was attacked on beach in northern Ecuador .\nFianc\u00e9e writes in blog that her companion may not survive despite three surgeries .\nState Department site advises caution when traveling to parts of northern Ecuador .","id":"283a81605ddff80cf2f791097d28da5cd0b06dc5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The worst cholera outbreak in Africa in 15 years has killed more than 4,000 Zimbabweans, and the crisis threatens to worsen when the rainy season hits, the U.N. Children's Fund said Thursday. A cholera patient sits in his bed at a hospital in Harare. The rainy season could threaten more lives. The preventable disease has spread through the southern African country in the past 10 months because of faulty sewage systems, uncollected refuse and a lack of clean water, UNICEF said. \"Last year, we had a near collapse of basic social services,\" said Tsitsi Singizi, a spokeswoman for the organization. \"Municipal services were not providing clean water anymore and they were not collecting refuse anymore. There was also a collapse of the health-delivery system. So if you went to the clinic and you were affected by cholera, you would not be attended to.\" The possibility of a new wave of cholera cases looms, Singizi said. \"We might have another spike in the number of cases once we have our first rain, because cholera is waterborne and the contaminated water will be flowing towards open sources and people will be drinking from unprotected wells,\" she said. Nearly 100,000 people have been infected since the current epidemic broke out, according to a new Red Cross report. The cholera crisis comes as Zimbabwe is struggling with an economic meltdown. In May, Zimbabwe announced that it would receive a $22 million grant from the World Bank to help the country's battered economy.","highlights":"The cholera crisis has killed 4,000 Zimbabweans and could to worsen, the U.N. said .\nA new wave of cholera looms as the rainy season approaches, UNICEF said .\nThe crisis comes as Zimbabwe is struggling with an economic meltdown .","id":"477a63d8f7fef15eb0ffe247ae8e40852e0e76de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leszek Balcerowicz, Poland's former finance minister, recently said his country is enjoying \"its best period in 300 years.\" CNN looks at how the country emerged from communism to become one of eastern Europe's most stable and thriving democracies. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa addresses striking workers in Gdansk, Poland in 1989. Modern Poland gained independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Almost six million Poles, including the majority of the country's large Jewish population, died during the devastating six-year conflict. The shadow of Stalin continued to loom large over Poland after the war, when the communist-dominated government ensured that Poland would become a Soviet satellite state for the next 40 years. The following decades were punctuated by revolts against the repressive authoritarian regime in Warsaw, but none had a greater impact on Poland's political future than events in 1980 at a shipyard in western Poland. With a struggling economy and rumors of corruption and mismanagement within the state causing widespread discontent, a series of strikes by workers paralyzed the country. Eventually the government was forced to negotiate and on August 31, 1980, workers at the massive Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, signed a deal giving workers the right to strike and form trade unions. This heralded the creation of the Solidarity movement, which would ultimately be instrumental in bringing Poland's communist era to an end. The presence in the Vatican at the time of Polish-born Pope John-Paul II was also a significant influence on the movement throughout the 1980s, as the Catholic church had remained a very potent force in Polish life. The Pope even made a visit to the country in 1979. Despite Soviet-endorsed attempts to slow the erosion of the regime's grip on power -- including the declaration of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981 which outlawed Solidarity -- Poland's worsening economic situation, compounded by further nationwide strikes, meant that the government had no alternative but to negotiate a date for free elections with Walesa and the Solidarity movement. Solidarity members won a stunning victory in the election of 1989, taking almost all the seats in the Senate and all of the 169 seats they were allowed to contest in the Sejm or parliament. This gave them substantial influence in the new government. Activist and journalist Tadeusz Mazowiecki was appointed prime minister, while Lech Walesa was elected as president the following year. Were you in Poland in 1989? Send us your memories . After years of economic mismanagement under the communists, Poland embarked on a painful reform program under finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz -- especially in traditional heavy industries such as coal and steel -- which moved away from the inefficient state-controlled system of economic planning. Despite growing unemployment and a dilapidated infrastructure, Poland was slowly transformed into an investment-friendly, market economy. Banking and lending policies were reformed, while newly reshaped ownership relations, independent enterprises and strengthened domestic competition all had a massive impact. Over a relatively short period of time, Poland had become one of the most dynamically developing economies in Europe and by the mid-1990s, it became known as the \"Tiger of Europe.\" Poland also liberalized its international trade during this period. The national currency -- the zloty -- became convertible to other currencies and internal convertibility was also established, providing another platform for dynamic economic growth. New markets in countries that had been treated not so long before as ideological as well as economic enemies were opened up to Polish companies. The EU and U.S. were now the key markets for Polish goods. This realignment of policy was emphasized by its accession into the European Union in 2004. It had also joined NATO in 1999. Unfortunately the continuing problem of high unemployment and the promise of better salaries encouraged many Poles to work in other EU countries after 2004. However this trend started to reverse in 2008 as the Polish economy enjoyed a boom period. Politically, Poland has also successfully transformed itself into a fully democratic country. Since 1991 the Polish people have voted in parliamentary elections and four presidential elections -- all free and fair. Incumbent governments have transferred power smoothly and constitutionally in every instance to their successors.","highlights":"Poland was ruled by Soviet-backed regime after the Second World War .\nSolidarity movement became a key factor in the fall of communist regime .\nCentrally-planned economic system replaced by free market economy .\nPoland joined the European Union in 2004 .","id":"a7ae6005229a13ecc4a34d786c58c4f6d0585a30"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Solomon Brown of San Jose, California, is one of the millions of voters who helped elect Barack Obama to be the future president. He's also one of the voters in California, Arizona and Florida who cast ballots in support of same-sex marriage bans that got considerable support in each state. Jim Smotherman, left, and Pat Wright of La Mesa, California, rushed to get married in June. His voting choices are a picture-perfect model of the paradoxical results of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. They also illustrate how Obama's inclusive strategy won over many voters who didn't necessarily toe the Democratic Party line. The war in Iraq and the economy were the main issues Brown, 18, a first-time voter, said he considered in choosing a president. But when the time came to vote on the \"one man and one woman\" issue, he followed his moral beliefs and voted in support of California's Proposition 8. He said he isn't at all surprised that many voters did the same. \"They did that because of religion,\" Brown said of voters. \"They wanted change for the country but weren't going to change their religion.\" He had no qualms about voting for Obama, either, and adds that his choice wasn't related to race. But he worries what moral beliefs will be taught in coming years. iReport.com: Read Brown's thoughts on Proposition 8 . \"I don't want a man and a man to be married,\" Brown said. \"When I have kids, I don't want them to see that.\" Still, he says he doesn't hate gay people and has several gay friends. He emphasizes that he dislikes the fact that people are gay, but not the individuals themselves. \"I can't be prejudiced against them, with me being an African-American,\" Brown said. \"That would be hypocritical in my eyes.\" But Maggie Cassella of Toronto, Ontario, said she watched the U.S. elections and couldn't help but feel thankful for being in Canada. iReport.com: Watch Cassella express her disdain over the election . \"I'm tired of talking about it, because I live in a country where I have all my rights now,\" she said. \"I talk about politics, but it's never gay rights because we're done.\" She said she felt upset by the election and couldn't help but wonder why voters would want to make the decision to elect a black man as president and then outlaw gay marriage at the same time. \"I would just like someone to talk to an African-American gay person from California or any person from California and ask them what it feels like to have your rights to be an equal citizen taken away concurrent with this great day in history,\" she said. \"My guess is it actually doesn't feel so great. After all, civil rights are civil rights. I don't care what anybody says.\" iReport.com: Share your story or opinion of same-sex marriage . The issue hits close to home for Pat Wright of La Mesa, California, who married his partner, Jim Smotherman, in June. He says he doesn't like seeing the animosity from both sides and has personally lost friends over the issue. \"A lot of ugliness and nastiness has come out. I don't know how these people have a direct connection to God,\" Wright said. \"How can people be so badly informed, why are they qualified to vote on my marriage, and should 52 percent of the population be able to take away my rights? A very ugly situation.\" Wright said the couple rushed their marriage because of Proposition 8 and campaigned against it. They were saddened to see \"Yes on 8\" signs in nearby yards, but never expected the proposition to succeed. iReport.com: \"We are still numb and in mourning\" Two states away, Fred Thorne of Washington Terrace, Utah, said he was disappointed about the same-sex marriage decisions. Thorne says he comes from a long line of Mormons and that locals' views are highly shaped by their religion and the church. He describes his parents as \"freethinkers\" who encouraged him to break away from the church's views and support \"equal rights.\" Thorne said he thinks religious organizations in Utah have a huge local and national political influence that oversteps the separation between church and state. iReport.com: Watch Thorne discuss \"sexual equality behind the Zion curtain\" \"Gays have the right to marry and be openly gay, in my opinion,\" Thorne said. \"If it offends somebody, I'm sorry. I'm offended that you're offended by it.\" Jason Dinant of Las Vegas, Nevada, said the election of Obama made great strides for equality but didn't signify much \"progress for equal rights\" overall. iReport.com: Watch Dinant's retro black-and-white commentary . \"Even though it's 2008, we really are still in the 1950s when it comes to gay rights,\" he said. Dinant, who is gay, said he feels Obama must make the legalization of gay marriage part of his agenda for change as he assumes the nation's top post. The move to outlaw gay marriage adds \"discrimination into a state's constitution,\" he said. But the legal side of the issue looms large for John Riolo, a Rhode Island voter who prefers not to state the results of his last-minute voting decision. Riolo says both sides like to dig in their heels, and he wishes they would see eye to eye. iReport.com: Watch Riolo talk about his complex views . \"My liberal and some, but not all, of my gay friends see same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue,\" Riolo said. \"My conservative friends see gay marriage as fundamentally altering society and\/or a violation of religious tradition.\" Riolo doubts both religious consequences for gay marriage and violation of civil rights if the unions are banned. He said the decisions should be drawn up in courts and that both sides of the issue should maintain a clear head whatever the result. \"Marriage is little more than a license,\" Riolo said. \"It is a privilege given by the state and, like a driver's license or any other type of license, the state can set up rules and criteria.\" But for Wright, who feels fortunate he got to marry his partner, the decision boils down to legislating personal lives and Proposition 8 stings hard. iReport.com: Watch the scene of protests in California . \"It has been a kick in the teeth,\" he said. \"I can't imagine voting on someone's marriage.\"","highlights":"Solomon Brown voted for Obama and supports Proposition 8 .\nMaggie Cassella upset that black president elected, gay marriage opposed .\nPat Wright rushed marriage to partner in light of the upcoming vote .\niReport.com: What do you think? Share your thoughts on the issue .","id":"a5c9ee743fad5b6956f2fed493656fd3561db14e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Walk into Naughty Auties, a virtual resource center for those with autism, and you'll find palm trees swaying against a striking ocean sunset. Were it not for the pixelated graphics on the computer screen in front of you, you would swear you were looking at a tropical hideaway. David Savill, who has named himself Dave Sparrow in Second Life, has Asperger's syndrome. David Savill, 22, lives in Gloucester, England, in real life and created this spot within the virtual world of Second Life. Residents of this digital realm can represent themselves with 3-D images called avatars and connect with each other over the Internet. Savill has Asperger's syndrome and said he wanted Naughty Auties to serve those with autism spectrum disorders and their friends and family. Savill, who represents himself in the virtual world using an avatar named Dave Sparrow, said one benefit is that visitors can practice social interaction and find information about the condition. The graphical representations of real people create a \"comfort zone\" that can coax users out of their shells and get them communicating with others, he said. \"You're on your own computer, in your own room, your own space,\" Savill said. \"So you're not going out into the real world meeting people, you're going meeting people online and in your own home, so you're perfectly relaxed. It's just a fantastic tool to use to bring people together.\" Take a video tour of Naughty Auties with Savill \u00bb . Autism, more precisely the autism spectrum, is a range of brain disorders that can cause difficulties in social interaction, communication and behavior. Asperger's syndrome is at the milder end of this spectrum. People with Asperger's are often high-achieving but can have difficulty in social situations. CNN learned about Savill's Second Life place from an iReporter in England who has named herself Janey Bracken in Second Life. Bracken, who prefers not to share her real name, submitted stories to iReport.com describing Savill's resource center and providing information about other places where those with the condition can turn. \"[Savill] said that his life changed when his family decided to get the Internet,\" Bracken wrote. \"He was able to use chat rooms and soon realized that people used symbols to express themselves: the smiley signs, the angry signs, hug signs, etc., to enhance the text. He went on to say that subconsciously his brain was learning about communication from these sessions of chat.\" Second Life has its own economy and social scene, and Bracken and Savill hope it could become a haven for those seeking help for autism. While many think such computer interactions could eventually be helpful in treating autism, scientists say more information is needed to truly assess their value. Dr. Fred Volkmar, a professor in Yale University's Child Study Center, said he would want more concrete studies done before he could be sure. \"Although not much research is yet available, there is clearly considerable potential in use of new technologies for fostering social skills,\" Volkmar said. To answer this need, scientists are beginning to explore the possibilities in Second Life. One such researcher is Simon Bignell, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Derby in Derby, England, who is running a project that is evaluating teaching and research in Second Life. Bignell, known in-world as Milton Broome, said Second Life is an uncharted but promising area for new applied psychological research. Virtual reality can be used to simulate new environments for people on the autistic spectrum, he said. \"For people with autism, we've found it's a very nice way of setting up situations they might come across in their everyday lives,\" Bignell said. \"For people who have social, emotional, communicational problems ... we can get them familiar with an environment before they actually try it out in real life.\" Watch more on autism research in a virtual world \u00bb . He started the \"Autism Research\" discussion group within Second Life to serve as an information-sharing tool for interested parties. He also has an office within Second Life and can sometimes be found working in SL-Labs, the university's in-world psychology lab space. The lab areas contain meeting spots, informational kiosks and games. A portion of these areas contain information about autism and Asperger's. Savill said Second Life excels at minimizing geographical separations between people and bringing people from all over the world to meet together quickly and easily. He added that he wanted to emphasize that virtual worlds are an emerging and important tool not just for autistic people, but for the people who know them. \"It's not just to help people with autism, it's to help people whose lives have been affected by autism, be they family or friends or employees of people who have autism,\" Savill said. \"Naughty Auties is a fantastic meeting place for people.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"People with autism spectrum disorders could find a haven within Second Life .\nSecond Life is a virtual world where people represent themselves with avatars .\nDavid Savill, 22, has Asperger's syndrome and founded a virtual gathering spot .\niReport: See your Second Life stories and news of a virtual world .","id":"59f2392ed67df30cf5660068b58556eaa881b2d4"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, California (CNN) -- Singer Christina Aguilera joins fellow Grammy Award winners Alicia Keys and John Legend for \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,\" airing Thanksgiving night on CNN. Christina Aguilera performed her hit single \"Beautiful\" at \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.\" The show, taped before an audience of more than 2,000 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, pays tribute to the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008. Liz McCartney, dedicated to helping survivors of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes, has been named the 2008 CNN Hero of the Year. McCartney, of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, received the honor at Saturday night's taping of \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.\" The telecast airs at 9 p.m. ET\/PT on Thanksgiving on the global networks of CNN. McCartney, who will receive $100,000 to continue her work just outside New Orleans, was selected from among the top 10 CNN Heroes after six weeks of online voting at CNN.com. More than 1 million votes were cast. \"To the country and the world, I ask you to please join us,\" McCartney said. \"Together we can continue to rebuild families' homes and lives. ... If you join us, we'll be unstoppable.\" Hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper, \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute\" features moving musical performances by Aguilera, Keys and Legend. Watch a preview of the show, including Aguilera's performance \u00bb . Aguilera performed her hit single \"Beautiful.\" Legend, backed by the world-renowned Agape Choir, brought the audience of more than 2,000 to their feet with his powerful call to personal action, \"If You're Out There,\" from his just-released album, \"Evolver.\" Keys sang \"Superwoman,\" her tribute to women around the world, from her hit album \"As I Am.\" All three performances echoed the spirit of the CNN Heroes campaign, which salutes everyday people accomplishing extraordinary things in their communities and beyond. \"In this time of economic turmoil, it is such a relief to know that there are people like these heroes, people who care more for others than they do for themselves,\" Cooper said. The top 10 CNN Heroes, chosen by a blue-ribbon panel from an initial pool of more than 3,700 viewer nominations, were each honored with a documentary tribute and introduced by a celebrity presenter. Each of the top 10 Heroes receives $25,000. Watch a close-up look at the CNN Hero Award \u00bb . Actors Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, John Krasinski, Forest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, Terrence Howard, Lucy Liu, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and Selena Gomez were among the stars joining in CNN's tribute to the top 10. See photos of the presenters \u00bb . In addition, actor Hugh Jackman presented People magazine's 2008 Heroes Among Us award to six recipients honored by the magazine. Award-winning producer-director Joel Gallen returned to executive produce this year's program. Among his credits, Gallen produced telethon events supporting victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, winning an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for \"America: A Tribute to Heroes.\" The Kodak Theatre is best known as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards. In addition to its airing on CNN, the second annual \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute\" will air simultaneously on CNN International and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol at 9 p.m. ET Thursday (0200 GMT Friday). In alphabetical order, the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 as chosen by the blue-ribbon panel are: Watch the members of the blue ribbon panel \u00bb . Tad Agoglia, Houston, Texas: Agoglia's First Response Team provides immediate help to areas hit by natural disasters. In a little over a year, he and his crew have helped thousands of victims at more than 15 sites across the United States, free of charge. Yohannes Gebregeorgis, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Moved by the lack of children's books and literacy in his native Ethiopia, Gebregeorgis established Ethiopia Reads, bringing free public libraries and literacy programs to thousands of Ethiopian children. Carolyn LeCroy, Norfolk, Virginia: After serving time in prison, LeCroy started the Messages Project to help children stay connected with their incarcerated parents. She and volunteer camera crews have taped roughly 3,000 messages from inmates to their children. Anne Mahlum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: On her daily morning jogs, Mahlum used to run past homeless men. Today, she's helping to transform lives by running with them, and others as part of her Back On My Feet program. Liz McCartney, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana: McCartney moved to New Orleans to dedicate herself to helping Hurricane Katrina survivors move back into their homes. Her nonprofit, St. Bernard Project, has rebuilt the homes of more than 120 families for free. Phymean Noun, Toronto, Ontario: Growing up in Cambodia, Noun struggled to complete high school. Today, she offers hundreds of Cambodian children who work in Phnom Penh's trash dump a way out through free schooling and job training. David Puckett, Savannah, Georgia: Puckett started PIPO Missions to bring ongoing prosthetic and orthotic care to those in need. Since November 2000, he has helped more than 420 people in southeastern Mexico, free of charge. Maria Ruiz, El Paso, Texas: Several times a week, Ruiz crosses the border into Juarez, Mexico, bringing food, clothing and toys to hundreds of impoverished children and their families. Marie Da Silva, Los Angeles, California: Having lost 14 family members to AIDS, the nanny funds a school in her native Malawi, where half a million children have been orphaned by the disease. Viola Vaughn, Kaolack, Senegal: The Detroit, Michigan, native moved to Senegal to retire. Instead, a group of failing schoolchildren asked her to help them pass their classes. Today, her 10,000 Girls program is helping hundreds of girls succeed in school and run their own businesses.","highlights":"2008 CNN Hero of the Year is Liz McCartney of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana .\nGrammy winners Christine Aguilera, Alicia Keys and John Legend perform .\nThe show honors the top 10 CNN Heroes as selected by a distinguished panel .\nIt airs globally at 9 p.m. ET November 27 (0200 GMT November 28)","id":"b0de6f463d109dfa47b29f283d35c5a3741e8df9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Switzerland's Lara Gut made history on Saturday when she became the youngest-ever winner of a women's World Cup race when claiming victory in the super-G at St Moritz. Gut holds the Swiss flag aloft after becoming the youngest skier to win a women's World Cup race. Cheered on by the local supporters, the 17-year-old finished ahead of compatriot Fabienne Suter with Italy's Nadia Fanchini -- the winner of the opening super-G in Lake Louise, Canada, finishing third. Gut gave a clear indication of her immense talent on Friday when finishing fifth in the super-combined and she produced a near flawless run of 57.38 seconds to finish well clear of her rivals. Suter, who finished third on Friday, moved up one place on the podium with a time 00.63 secs behind Gut. World Cup leader Lindsay Vonn failed to finish on a piste that had been considerably shortened to deal with poor visibility caused by falling snow. American Vonn, the defending overall champion, was one of many racers caught out by a bump in a fast section after a sharp right-hand turn. Vonn said Gut's maiden win was not a surprise. \"She has been skiing well all season so far,\" said the 24-year-old. \"She has got a lot to learn still, but on a day like today, going first, it was a perfect chance for her. She definitely executed and seized the opportunity.\" Gut added: \"I was really nervous as I wasn't used to being the leader, but gradually I began to realise that in fact I had skied really well especially when I saw that Nadia and Fabienne were behind me.\"","highlights":"Swiss Lara Gut makes history by winniing the women's Super-G at St Moritz .\nThe victory makes Gut, 17, the youngest-ever woman to win a World Cup race .\nFellow-Swiss Fabienne Suter finished second with Italy's Nadia Fanchini third .","id":"8349bd72c5dd2c6329d51806313f9286a6395856"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama visited military personnel and their families enjoying Christmas dinner at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii Thursday during his holiday vacation. President-elect Obama shakes hands with troops having Christmas dinner at a military base in Hawaii. Obama went to Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay on Oahu where he mingled with Marines and sailors. Obama and the troops also had a traditional dinner including turkey, roast beef, ham and trimmings. Obama, dressed casually in a blue polo shirt and dark khaki trousers, chatted casually, shook hands and posed for photos with men and women in the dining hall, which had been decorated with Christmas trees and Santa figurines. Shortly before Obama entered the room, a Marine shouted to the crowd scattered across 25 tables, \"You need to take you seats, the president-elect is going to be coming.\" Obama, who spent about an hour at the Marine base, worked his way around the room, table by table. \"Just wanted to say, 'Hi, hey guys,'\" Obama said at one point while reporters were allowed in the room. \"Hey guys, Merry Christmas,\" he said to another group. Obama also highlighted the service of the country's military men and women now overseas in a holiday message to be broadcast on radio this Saturday. \"As we celebrate this joyous time of year, our thoughts turn to the brave men and women who serve our country far from home,\" he said in the message, which was posted online Wednesday. \"Their extraordinary and selfless sacrifice is an inspiration to us all, and part of the unbroken line of heroism that has made our freedom and prosperity possible for over two centuries.\" Watch Obama's holiday message \u00bb . More than 140,000 soldiers are currently serving in Iraq, as well as roughly 30,000 in Afghanistan. In the broadcast message, Obama also called on Americans to \"renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship.\" \"These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy,\" he said. \"Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans -- that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. ... We must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.\" Obama said that notion \"will guide my administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work ... and reach the promise of a brighter day.\"","highlights":"President-elect Barack Obama mingles with troops in Hawaii on Christmas Day .\nObama praised country's military men and women in online message .\nObama calls on Americans to \"renew a sense of common purpose\"","id":"618c3f9dc6f018b41aa3d921e762ce25019783a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A British man was jailed Tuesday for raping two of his daughters and fathering nine children over 27 years, a case with echoes of Austria's Josef Fritzl. The two daughters were made pregnant 19 times; there were nine births, five miscarriages and five terminations. Seven of the children are alive but suffer genetic deformities. The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons banning the identification of his victims and the surviving children, pleaded guilty Tuesday at Sheffield Crown Court, northern England, and was sentenced to serve 25 life sentences to run concurrently. The judge said the minimum term the 56-year-old rapist should serve in jail should be 19\u00bd years. South Yorkshire Police Chief Superintendent Simon Torr said, \"The victims of these terrible crimes have asked me to state the following: 'His detention in prison brings us only the knowledge that he cannot physically touch us again. The suffering he has caused will continue for many years, and we must now concentrate our thoughts on finding the strength to rebuild our lives.' \" Speaking for the police, Torr added, \"The main concern ... is for those who have been so badly affected: the victims who have suffered a terrible ordeal. We will continue to offer them our full support to try and help them get on with their lives. \"As far as the sentence goes, we are satisfied that this offender has received the strongest possible punishment for his heinous crimes. Now we need to ensure continuing support for those who have suffered as a result of his actions.\" The daughters first told police about their ordeal in June, but the abuse dated to 1981. It emerged that in 1998 one daughter rang Childline, a charity to help abused kids, and asked for assurances about being able to keep her children if she came forward. When Childline could not make that guarantee, the daughter did nothing more to raise her plight. Watch how the case came to light \u00bb . The UK's Press Association reported that the rapes began in 1981 with daily attacks and that for long periods, they would be raped up to three times a week, and the assaults would continue through pregnancies. Their only reprieve came after they had just given birth or when they were ill because of the abuse. If either daughter tried to refuse their father's attacks, they would be punched, kicked and or held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms, PA reported. Despite visiting hospitals and meeting with social workers over the 27 years of abuse, no investigation was launched into the family. The case comes in the wake of the death of a baby, known only as Baby P, which has dominated headlines in Britain. The baby endured horrendous torture and died despite being on the local authority's child protection register. In Austria this year, Josef Fritzl was arrested, accused of keeping his daughter in a basement dungeon and fathering seven children through the rapes.","highlights":"Dad in UK sentenced to life in jail for subjecting daughters to rapes over 27 years .\nRapes resulted in 19 pregnancies, nine births, seven children .\nSurviving children suffer genetic disorders .\nJudge questions why social workers, professionals did not find out about case .","id":"e6cbd754e22b93edc1c39bf3a20239d3a71edfe5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The wreckage of a C-130 cargo plane that disappeared shortly after takeoff in the southern Philippines Monday night was found Tuesday about two miles (3km) offshore, the Philippines News Agency reported. Searchers have recovered items from the wreckage of the cargo plane. The bodies of two of the nine crew members on board were recovered, the report said. The Philippines Air Force plane was declared missing after the control tower at Davao International Airport lost radio contact with the pilot halfway between Manila and Davao, an Air Force official said. The plane, with two pilots and seven crew members on board, was to have picked up members of the Presidential Security Group for transport to Manila. The wreckage was found at 6am Tuesday by a search team just off the coast of Barangay, San Pedro Extension, Davao City, the news agency said.","highlights":"The wreckage of a C-130 cargo plane is found close to Philippine coastline .\nThe bodies of two of the nine crew members on board were recovered .\nC-130 cargo plane was was going to pick up the Presidential Security Group .","id":"6d23b0212da7a9ac6d3f83477c1d474ac66767c6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The U.S. Marshals Service last week launched one of the largest weeklong fugitive sweeps in the southeastern United States. CNN takes you inside the operation. Authorities received a tip that a convicted child molester was living here. He was captured at a hardware store. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The trail for the convicted child molester seemed to grow cold as the police combed his empty apartment. James Maurice Robinson, 25, a confessed sex offender, had been on the run for more than two years, and it looked as if he would elude capture yet again. The authorities huddled in a nearby parking lot to discuss Plan B, an air of disgust hanging over them. James Ergas, the U.S. Marshal helping to lead this operation, acts on a tip. He pulls out his cell phone and calls a hardware store where the suspect may be working. Using a ruse, he begins speaking to the manager and, at one point, Robinson himself gets on the phone and unknowingly talks to the very man trying to catch him. Gotcha! Authorities now know exactly where their man is. He's seven miles away, on the other side of town. It's 11:02 a.m. Ergas guns his unmarked sport utility vehicle at 95 miles per hour through downtown Atlanta, zipping in and out of the city's notorious traffic congestion. Hear cops bang door, see raid on a home: \"Get down!\" \u00bb . \"I've got no place in my heart for pedophiles,\" he says, pressing down harder on the gas. The vehicle thrusts forward. Ten minutes later, he whips his SUV into the store's parking lot. The suspect's car, a burgundy, four-door Pontiac Grand Am, sits near a back stairwell. \"When we go in there, he's going to run out the back,\" Ergas says. He parks near the front of the building and alerts his backup. Within minutes, the full team arrives. Two take position near the back stairwell. Ergas and other team members, dressed in black flak jackets, enter the front door at 11:19 a.m. Robinson doesn't have a chance. He tries to run, but slips. Ergas points his Taser and prepares to zap him. Robinson knows his gig is up. He surrenders peacefully. \"He saw the Taser,\" Ergas says, with a smile. \"Nobody wants to be Tased.\" More than 100 miles away, the man who first arrested Robinson in March 2004 gets word of the capture. \"Anytime we can get a pervert off the street like that, it's going to make me happy,\" said Robert Tate, a detective with the LaFayette Police Department in northwest Georgia, near the Tennessee border. Robinson had been accused of exposing himself to a 10-year-old boy in a Wal-Mart bathroom and masturbating in front of him. Police records indicate the boy was so petrified he was afraid to leave the stall for 15 minutes afterward. Robinson pleaded guilty to one count of child molestation on May 26, 2005, according to the Walker County District Attorney's Office. But he skipped town and never made his sentencing hearing on February 14, 2006, authorities said. A warrant was then issued for his arrest. Robinson now faces five to 20 years in prison, the DA's office said. Robinson was one of 1,250 fugitives busted in Georgia last week as part of Operation Falcon, a nationwide sweep to arrest some of the most violent offenders. Of the arrests in Georgia, 724 came in metro Atlanta; two were suspected killers, authorities said. Multiple sweeps like these have already taken place in other cities in recent weeks as part of Falcon. More are coming to undisclosed regions of the country. Authorities would not release further details about the nationwide hunt due to the ongoing nature of the operation. \"Our primary focus when we do this operation are violent offenders, sex offenders and gang members,\" says Keith Booker, the commander of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force leading this sweep that included 115 federal, state and local agencies. The fugitives were wanted on felony charges ranging from murder and aggravated assault to rape and armed robbery to child molestation and an array of parole violations. On this day, while Ergas and his eight- to 10-member team hit multiple spots where fugitives were believed to be living, another 150 agents, investigators, detectives, officers and deputies were working other parts of metro Atlanta. Of the 700-plus arrests made around Atlanta, authorities smashed through 154 doors. Not every suspect was captured, but the hunt generated leads that will be followed up. The work involved grueling and dangerous 14- to 18-hour days, but the officers still found time to laugh. There was one who Tasered himself while running after a suspect, and another who held up a bag of oregano thinking it was pot and quizzed his subjects. Both provided fodder for the watercooler. Then, there was the suspect wanted for aggravated assault who authorities said tried to jump over a 30-foot wall, breaking several bones when he landed. \"He didn't want to go to jail. Instead, he went to jail crippled,\" Ergas said. The police kept close tabs on the six different teams' arrests, an internal competition to see who could bag more wanted felons. Team Vulture beat out Team Osprey with 147 arrests to 132. At the end of the operation, about 80 officers crowded into a large conference room and were briefed on the final results. \"You prevented a lot of victims this week,\" Booker told them. Law enforcement studies, he said, indicate the typical fugitive commits an average of 13 crimes while they're on the run. If that's true, more than 15,000 potential victims have been spared. \"These people can't commit crimes against other people while they're locked up,\" Booker said.","highlights":"U.S. Marshals carry out massive fugitive sweep, nab 1,250 fugitives in Georgia .\nThe operation was part of a larger nationwide hunt called Operation Falcon .\nOne sex offender surrendered peacefully in hardware store: \"He saw the Taser\"\nAuthorities message to those on the run: We're coming after you .","id":"f54e33e3ea87df98814f65c8c3f2c290413510a3"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe described the U.S. government and Western nations as \"quite stupid and foolish\" Tuesday for trying to be involved in the African country's affairs. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has ignored international calls for him to step down. Mugabe made the comments at the funeral for a former senior soldier, just days after a top U.S. diplomat said the United States no longer supports a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and his political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, that might pave the way for economic, health and other reforms. Jendayi Frazer, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Sunday that the U.S. felt a viable unity government was not possible with Mugabe in power. At the funeral, Mugabe reacted: \"The inclusive government ... does not include Mr. Bush and his administration. It does not even know him. It has no relationship with him. Watch U.S. say Mugabe needs to go \u00bb . \"So let him keep his comments to himself. They are undeserved, irrelevant and quite stupid and foolish. Who are they to decide who should be included or should not in an inclusive government?\" Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, signed the unity deal September 15, but Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the MDC have failed to implement it because they cannot agree on who should control key ministries. Under the power-sharing proposal brokered by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe would remain president while Tsvangirai would become prime minister. Watch what options the international community has in Zimbabwe \u00bb . U.S. President George W. Bush and other leaders have urged Mugabe to step down amid a cholera epidemic that the United Nations says has killed more than 1,000 people since August. Mugabe blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe's worst economic and humanitarian crisis since independence from Great Britain 28 years ago. The nation is facing acute shortages of fuel, electricity and medical drugs. The inflation rate -- the highest in the world -- is 231 million percent. Mugabe, referring to Bush's call for him to leave office, said: \"We realize that these are [the] last kicks of a dying horse. We obviously [are] not going to pay attention to a sunset administration. Zimbabwe's fate lies in the fate of Zimbabweans. They are the ones who make and unmake the leaders of the country. Their decision alone is what we go by.\" Bush leaves office January 20. Tsvangirai announced Friday that his party will withdraw from efforts to form a unity government unless 42 kidnapped party members are released or brought to court to face formal charges by New Year's Day.","highlights":"President Robert Mugabe describes U.S. and West as \"stupid and foolish\"\nPower-share deal is stalled because of dispute over control of ministries .\nZimbabwe faces cholera epidemic, economic crisis .\nMugabe has resisted international calls for him to step down .","id":"9765c41ca91b66b2707d4e943d40b2d11cbe59f8"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with the country's 32 governors Thursday to create a plan to combat the nation's staggering rise in crime and kidnappings. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has noted that kidnappings have reached an alarming level. In a heavily guarded meeting at Mexico's National Palace, the leaders devised a plan that detailed 65 specific actions to could be taken in the next several months. Those actions are aimed at helping families like that of prominent businessman Alejandro Marti. He told the group that the new focus on kidnapping has come too late for his 14-year-old son, Fernando. Fernando was grabbed from a car on a busy street at a fake police checkpoint this year. The next day, his chauffeur and bodyguard were found bound and strangled in the trunk of a car. Next to their bodies, police found a yellow chrysanthemum, a calling card from a gang that calls itself the Band of Flowers. Some investigators believed the flower was a coded message to police telling them not to investigate too closely, that the kidnappers were police, also. In July, Fernando's decomposed and bullet-ridden body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car. At least one police officer and one civilian have been taken into custody, accused of involvement in the kidnapping and killing, police and Alejandro Marti said. Marti told the group of leaders to do a better job to protect other children like his son. \"There are university students who could do their jobs better than you can,\" Marti scolded the group. To address the crime increase, Mexican leaders called Thursday for building special prisons exclusively for kidnappers, bolstering the justice system, cleaning up corrupt police forces, clamping down on kidnapping tools such as prepaid cell phones and money laundering. Calderon noted at the meeting that kidnappings had reached an alarming level. \"The truth is we are all responsible,\" Calderon told the group. \"We must recognize the traditional way of combating crime has not been sufficient. We must act in a more coordinated and vigorous manner.\" According to official figures, there have been 314 kidnapping in Mexico this year. The numbers topped 700 in 2007. Authorities say the real figures may be even greater because victims often don't report crimes to a police force they don't trust. Experts say the rise is also a result of a perception sense that crimes go unpunished. Non-governmental groups estimate that there have been more than 1,500 killings in Mexico this year linked to organized crime. The group of leaders pledged to implement changes within the next three months. Activists said they hoped the one-day crime summit does not end up becoming just a photo-op.","highlights":"Actions are aimed at helping families like that of businessman Alejandro Marti .\nMarti's son Fernando, his chauffeur and bodyguard were killed after kidnapping .\nMarti told group of leaders to do better job to protect other children like his son .","id":"627a3fcd3266537b512a25093a62734374772286"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Dust off every disaster plan from Washington to San Diego, scrutinize them to your heart's content, and it's still unlikely you'll find mention of the emergency services provided by Shary Shores. Eric Campbell of Palomar Mountain became a reluctant tailgater at Qualcomm Stadium with his two cockatiels. Shores, a volunteer registrar at San Diego's evacuee shelter, has appointed herself the shelter's \"hugger.\" Every person she signs in gets a warm, heartfelt hug. Having lost her own home to foreclosure in March, Shores says she has empathy for the suddenly homeless. Her embraces may not be government-sanctioned, but they are appreciated. \"I can't tell you how many people say 'Thank you. ... I needed that,'\" Shores said. Welcome to Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers and, for the time being, thousands of people who have fled the California wildfires that destroyed nearly 1,600 homes and burned some 679 square miles. Some 76,000 people stayed in 42 San Diego County shelters Wednesday night, county emergency spokeswoman Lynda Pfieffer said. Those numbers were dropping as residents were allowed to return home. Qualcomm Stadium housed 11,000 evacuees at the peak of the disaster, but that number dropped to 5,000 Wednesday morning. Those staying in shelters represented only a small fraction of the nearly 1 million evacuees. \"We believe many people are staying with family and friends or going to hotels,\" said Red Cross spokeswoman Jeanne Ellinport in Washington. Conceived on paper as a safe -- if uncomfortable -- refuge for thousands of people, Qualcomm Stadium has become in practice a wonderland of surprises. Were it not for the absence of a Ferris wheel, the tent city just inside the stadium's gates could be mistaken for a county fair. Watch volunteers make life easier at Qualcomm \u00bb . Stiltwalkers stroll around the grounds waving at gawking children. Food and drink are abundant. Signs hawk free massages, acupuncture treatments and spiritual aide. Math tutors -- admittedly not a staple of county fairs -- are available free of cost. \"This is amazing, what's going on here,\" said Robert Norman, who sought shelter at Qualcomm with his wife and 1-year-old son. \"They've made it very comfortable.\" The real purpose of this midway, however, becomes apparent only at second glance. At a booth where one might expect to buy cotton candy, a volunteer pharmacist dispenses aspirin and antacid. Other tents are labeled \"Safeco Insurance\" and \"All State.\" Catholic Charities has erected a tent, as has a local politician. And, in a cold slap of reality, there is a drab tent where evacuees can privately read the list of homes that have been destroyed. The cost of homes destroyed by the wildfires is likely to top $1 billion in San Diego County alone, an emergency official said. Watch how valiant efforts sometimes fall short \u00bb . The outpouring of help has been so massive that some volunteers are being turned away, and donated food and water is being stored in tents in the far reaches of the stadium's parking lot. \"If you need kosher food, we've got it!,\" exclaims Phillip Dewitt, a defense department contractor who is volunteering at the site. On Tuesday, volunteer teachers outnumbered kids three to one, said Edwin Lohr, another volunteer. Anitra Means showed up to volunteer on Tuesday and found herself managing one of several food banks that seemed to spontaneously appear on the midway's fringes. She doesn't know who organized the food bank, whether it be a city, state, federal government or a private enterprise, nor does she seem to care. Her one concern is that pallets of donated soup and pudding are appearing quicker then they are disappearing, she said, leaving her to wonder if food will be left over. Meanwhile, nearly 400 Red Cross volunteers from across the country were to arrive in the San Diego area Wednesday, said Red Cross worker John Degnan, who came in from Massachusetts. Also, 75 emergency response vehicles were coming to the region to deliver meals and other supplies to shelters. Disaster experts say planners sometimes focus on the negative consequences of disasters, such as public panic or rioting, which are rare. And planners rarely focus on the more likely consequences of disaster -- massive outpourings of help. But whether by accident or design, San Diego is offering emergency planners a lesson in harnessing volunteerism. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Volunteer registrar Shary Shores has appointed herself the shelter's \"hugger\"\nQualcomm Stadium has become a wonderland of surprises .\nTent allows evacuees to privately read list of homes that have been destroyed .","id":"a65828db3a105cb14f4ff97dcd77a71a6beed2f7"} -{"article":"ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Greg Melville's neighbors in Vermont looked at him like he was crazy 2\u00bd years ago when he drove what he refers to as his \"vegetable vehicle.\" It's a car that runs on vegetable oil instead of gasoline. Greg Melville converted a 1985 diesel station wagon to run on vegetable oil when his family needed another car. Back then, gasoline cost about $2.20 per gallon. Now that the cost of gas is nearly twice that, many Americans are starting to think that converting to a vehicle that runs on vegetable oil isn't such a bad idea. Melville, who now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, says the decision to convert a 1985 diesel station wagon to run on vegetable oil came about when his wife was in medical school and the couple needed a second vehicle. \"We did some research and found out that the old Mercedes engines were very easy to convert, just because they are practically indestructible,\" Melville explained. After he found a good deal online, the couple purchased the car and found a conversion kit from a company in Massachusetts called Grease Car. The Melvilles then took the car and kit to an expert installer in their area and in no time, they were driving around -- with free fuel. The kit and installation cost about $1,000 each, and Melville says it took about 1\u00bd years to recoup that cost. \"We're kind of playing with house money, because we're driving on free gas, and it's paid for itself many times over,\" he said. Melville, who is a writer, has driven the gas-free vehicle more than 60,000 miles, including two cross-country trips he's written about in an upcoming book. Veggie car makes a cross-country road trip \u00bb . The converted car was outfitted with a 15-gallon tank. Melville says it gets about 20 miles per gallon, the same fuel economy it would have gotten with the original diesel system. But according to a recent editorial he wrote for The New York Times, Melville says his carbon footprint is cut in half while driving the car fueled by vegetable oil. But all is not golden -- or green, as the case may be -- in this veggie tale. Melville admits that there are a few downsides to having a vegetable-oil powered vehicle. The process of collecting and filtering the grease can be time-consuming and a bit messy. He's made arrangements to get most of his waste oil from local restaurants, and each week, his suppliers leave him five-gallon drums that he must pick up. But when he travels long distances, he has to find new restaurants on the road that are willing to give him their used grease. Once Melville gets the grease, he pours it into a large gas can that's been painted black. The dark color helps absorb the sun's rays, which heat the oil inside. The process helps thin the grease and makes it easier to filter bits of onion rings and other fried foods. \"[It's] not always the cleanest thing. I've spilled it all over me a couple times,\" Melville said. Another side effect of using vegetable oil is the smell. The undeniable aroma of french fries and other deep-fried foods wafts up frequently from the exhaust. Depending on a person's palate, the aromatherapy could be a deal-breaker or a fringe benefit. Still, Melville says he would recommend a vegetable vehicle to anyone -- with the following caution: . \"Make sure you have a supplier lined up, because suppliers are becoming harder to find.\" Even though many Americans love to eat fried food, there's not enough leftover oil to power all of the cars in the United States. The vegetable-oil powered cars have become so popular, there have been reports of cooking oil thefts from eating establishments across the country and talk of restaurants charging for the leftover oil. For now, Melville isn't concerned. \"My hope is ... by the time that happens, some other alternative like plug-in hybrids will come along and make these cars obsolete,\" he said. \"Then I won't have to be filling it up with vegetable oil, and I can have a plug-in hybrid and go to a regular gas station and not have to feel guilty or worry about it.\"","highlights":"Greg Melville converted a 1985 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil .\nA car kit and professional installation cost about $2,000 .\nRestaurants supply Melville with free five-gallon drums of used oil, which he filters .\nCollecting and cleaning oil, smelly fumes are a few downsides of veggie cars .","id":"86d8b3b72399ff54db2fa0b0de3151c7b2536926"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the oldest surviving human brain in Britain, dating back at least 2,000 years to the Iron Age. A representation of the skull generated from the CT scans taken at York Hospital. The remains of the brain were found in a skull unearthed during excavations at York University in northern England, a statement from the university said Friday. The dig site was described by investigators from York Archaeological Trust as being in an extensive prehistoric farming landscape of fields, track ways and buildings dating back to at least 300 BC. They believe the skull, which was found on its own in a muddy pit, may have been a ritual offering. Rachel Cubitt, who was taking part in the dig, described how she felt something move inside the cranium as she cleaned the soil-covered skull's outer surface. Peering through the base of the skull, she spotted an unusual yellow substance. \"It jogged my memory of a university lecture on the rare survival of ancient brain tissue. We gave the skull special conservation treatment as a result, and sought expert medical opinion,\" she said in a statement on York University's Web site. A sophisticated CT scanner at York Hospital was then used to produce startlingly clear images of the skull's contents. Philip Duffey, Consultant Neurologist at the Hospital said: \"I'm amazed and excited that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin. I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition.\" Dr Sonia O'Connor, Research Fellow in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford added: \"The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare. This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide.\" According to York University, the find is the second major discovery during archaeological investigations on the site of the University's $745 million campus expansion. Earlier this year, the skeleton of a man believed to be one of Britain's earliest victims of tuberculosis was discovered in a shallow grave. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the man died in the fourth century late-Roman period.","highlights":"Skull found at site of York University's $745 million campus expansion .\nInvestigator spotted an unusual yellow substance inside the skull .\nHospital scanner used to produce clear images of the brain tissue .\nExpert: Survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is rare .","id":"517eee85d07a23173c83e48301c3a106f56a0cc7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of an 8-year-old boy suspected in the shooting deaths of his father and another man said Monday that the youngster \"loved his dad\" and had a strong relationship with him. \"He's a very good little boy,\" Eryn Bloomfield said on ABC's \"Good Morning America.\" \"What happened to being innocent until proven guilty?\" For legal reasons, Bloomfield -- who is identified in court papers as Eryn Thomas -- could not discuss details of the case. She said she is not even allowed to discuss the case with her son. Prosecutors in Apache County, Arizona, filed a motion Friday to dismiss one of the two murder charges against the boy -- the charge involving the death of his father. The filing gave no explanation, saying only, \"The state believes the interest of justice will be served by such a dismissal.\" Authorities last week released a videotape of the boy's police interview in which he initially denied any involvement in the shootings, but later said he had shot his already-wounded father \"because he was suffering.\" Watch the boy talk to police \u00bb . Legal questions surround the interview. One of the boy's defense attorneys said he was not read his rights and had no attorney or parent present. Police have not responded publicly to those complaints. Asked what she heard on the interview tape, Bloomfield responded, \"A scared little boy, that's what I hear -- someone who's very afraid of what's going on.\" \"He had a very good relationship with his father. He did a lot with him,\" she said. \"They did everything together. He loved his dad.\" She described her son as \"very outgoing. He loves animals. He likes to ride his dirt bike, skateboarding, you know, outdoor things.\" Asked if he's ever been in trouble at school, she replied, \"No. Not at all. I mean, acting out as far as not raising your hand when he needs to speak -- you know, just normal stuff like that.\" The boy lived with his father, Vincent Romero, 29, in St. Johns, Arizona. Bloomfield lives in Mississippi. The Apache County Superior Court clerk's office said the latest legal agreement between the boy's parents was from April 2006. The mother had weekly visitation rights and had the boy on some weekends and holidays, according to court documents. Romero and Tim Romans, who rented a room in Romero's home, were found dead inside the house November 5. Police said the next day that the boy had confessed to shooting the men with a .22-caliber weapon. Watch why observers find the interrogation troubling \u00bb . The killings shook the town of about 4,000 residents near the New Mexico border. Trying to hold back tears, Bloomfield told ABC that her son is scared and living alone at a juvenile detention center. The other children were removed so that older juveniles could not influence him \"in the wrong way,\" she said. \"So he's in there by himself, in his cell by himself,\" she said. Authorities have said the boy is attending school at the detention facility. Apache County Court Administrator Betty Smith said earlier this month, \"Every effort is being made to see that he's comfortable.\" Bloomfield described heart-wrenching visits -- 30 minutes each day -- when she can speak to her son through a glass partition. \"I get two visits with him that are physical visits -- to where we sit in a room and he will come and sit in my lap pretty much the whole time and hold onto me,\" she added. She will be allowed 48 hours with him at home over the Thanksgiving holiday, she said. \"We're going to watch movies, play games, try to keep things normal as possible,\" she said, adding that the boy had picked out the movie \"Kung Fu Panda.\" Officials from the juvenile detention center and a court-appointed guardian will be present during the visit, Smith said. According to a report in The Arizona Republic, Judge Michael Roca warned the media not to contact the juvenile. \"The minor is off-limits,\" he said, according to the newspaper. \"I think common decency should protect him, but, just in case, he is not to be contacted.\" Asked what she'll say to him on Thanksgiving, Bloomfield answered, \"I tell him every day that I love him, and I don't know how much more I can express that, but I definitely plan on doing that -- just to let him know that I'm here for him and how much I do love him.\"","highlights":"Mother: Son rarely in trouble outside of incidents like speaking out of turn in class .\nBoy will be allowed home for holidays, has asked to watch \"Kung Fu Panda\" movie .\nBoy is suspected in two shooting deaths, but prosecutors look to drop one charge .\nThe 8-year-old is scared, in \"cell by himself\" but visits often with mother, she says .","id":"488038ebd6c655b1a89b5a9304b8fc51c0778cec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At the time of his death, Heath Ledger had just concluded his work as the Joker in \"The Dark Knight,\" the sequel to 2005's \"Batman Begins.\" Heath Ledger died in January at age 28. He had been expected to hit new heights of stardom. The buzz surrounding his performance was electrifying. He was remaking the Joker; he wasn't a camp comedian like Cesar Romero or a malevolent clown like Jack Nicholson. He was pure nihilism, with his jagged makeup and ragged hair. Even glimpses of his smile on the \"Dark Knight\" movie posters were thrilling. And then he was gone. \"We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications,\" read the New York City medical examiner's office report, affectlessly. Who knows what could have happened? The hype surrounding \"The Dark Knight,\" partly fueled by Ledger's death, turned out to have been warranted; the film earned critical praise and planeloads of money. Ledger has been posthumously nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award and is expected to receive an Oscar nomination, as well. Had he lived, he could have named his price. We'll never know. \"Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future,\" the physicist Niels Bohr is credited with saying. Ledger's movie, \"The Dark Knight\" -- with its uncertain, bleak Gotham City --seemed symbolic of the year in entertainment. A writers' strike cast a pall over awards season. The paparazzi's favorite target, Britney Spears, was institutionalized for a time. Pixar's brilliant \"Wall-E\" depicted an Earth abandoned to the waste of consumerism. See some of the year's top entertainment stories \u00bb . Even the presidential campaign, source of so many laughs for late-night comedians, was fraught with 3 a.m. phone calls and \"terrorist fist bumps.\" Why wouldn't people be attracted to change and hope? Hollywood, usually a prime provider of optimism, is littered with the stories of lights put out early. James Dean was 24 when a Ford coupe crossed into his lane and hit his Porsche Spyder head-on near Cholame, California. River Phoenix was 23 when he died of a drug overdose outside the Viper Room in Hollywood. They are two of too many. So: On January 22, 2008, Heath Ledger was found dead in a New York apartment. He was 28. Asking \"what if\" is a dead end. \"Saturday Night Live,\" many years ago, used to mock it: What if Superman grew up in Nazi Germany? What if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly? The past is past, what's done is done, and the future can be fickle, anyway. So many of the year's stories had unexpected outcomes. Consider: For almost two decades, movie audiences eagerly awaited a new Indiana Jones film. This year, they got their wish with \"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,\" and the film was widely criticized for taxing the credulousness of even its most dedicated fans. It's one thing to chat with a centuries-old Grail Knight, but surviving an A-bomb by hiding in a refrigerator? Not quite. Then there was the ultimate reality show: the election. If you'd polled media professionals last year, they might have named Hillary Clinton and Fred Thompson as the future nominees. John McCain's campaign was on life-support; Barack Obama's was struggling. We all know how things turned out. And the election also made a star -- a celebrity, if you will -- of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate. Palin had a charisma -- the TV execs call it \"breakthrough\" -- that, at times, overshadowed the man at the top of the GOP ticket. iReport.com: What was your most memorable entertainment event this year? There was something else about Palin: She looked like Tina Fey, once the \"Weekend Update\" anchor and head writer for \"Saturday Night Live,\" now the star of the smart \"30 Rock.\" Fey went back on her old show and had great success parodying Palin, driving \"SNL\" to some of its highest ratings in years. (Palin also looked like \"King of the Hill's\" Peggy Hill, but unlike Fey, the animated character wasn't a Second City-trained comedy performer who could strike in real time.) Some observers foresee a bright future for the Alaska governor; others believe she'll wear out her welcome. Time, again, will tell. Cast members of \"Saturday Night Live\" are object lessons: John Belushi and Chris Farley, gone before their times; Robert Downey Jr. (1985-86) emerges from a lifetime of troubles with two hit movies and Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year distinction. Other notables had a chance to live out three rich acts. Paul Newman, who epitomized the best qualities of a performer and human being -- thoughtful, charitable, capable, courageous -- died in September. Visionary author Arthur C. Clarke died in March; elemental guitarist Bo Diddley died in June. And comedian George Carlin, who viewed life as \"a ticket to the freak show\" and \"a zero-sum game,\" died in June. Carlin, who reveled in absurdity, had the right attitude to try to figure out \"what if.\" In his surrealist way, he noted that the light at the end of the tunnel could be daylight -- or, maybe, an approaching train. Either way, it'll be here soon enough. \"The future,\" he once said, \"will soon be a thing of the past.\"","highlights":"Heath Ledger died in January, had been expected to reach new stardom .\nYear's other events included Britney Spears institutionalization, \"SNL\" heights .\nElection crossed over into entertainment realms .","id":"5c2109be0b4abaa7bc94535cf4c7d1d7cecfdfa4"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- 1. \"F\u00fcr Elise\" Bob Dylan wrote \"It Ain't Me, Babe\" for Joan Baez. Written by: Ludwig van Beethoven . Written for: Some girl probably not named Elise. In fact, as far as most historians can tell, Beethoven didn't even know an Elise. Instead, the song was originally titled \"Bagatelle in A minor\" based on some handwritten notation a Beethoven researcher claimed to have seen on a now-lost copy of the sheet music. Further complicating things, Beethoven had hideous handwriting -- to the point that some scholars speculate the song was actually written \"for Therese,\" as in Therese Malfatti, one of several women who turned down a marriage proposal from the notoriously lovesick maestro. 2. \"Philadelphia Freedom\" Written by: Elton John & Bernie Taupin . Written for: Billie Jean King, as a thank-you for a tracksuit she gave Elton. And what a tracksuit it must have been! The 1975 song remains one of the most popular disco hits ever, leaving thousands of Hustle enthusiasts wondering just what Billie Jean King had to do with Philadelphia, anyway. Turns out, the song was a reference to King's pro tennis team, The Philadelphia Freedoms. Prior to 1968, tennis players were all considered \"amateurs\" and weren't eligible to receive prize money. So, if you didn't have the wealth to support yourself, you couldn't play. Billie Jean King fought against those constraints, ultimately founding Professional World Team Tennis in 1974 and turning tennis into a paid league sport. 3. \"Lola\" Written by: The Kinks' Ray Davies . Written for: A transvestite. But the question is, which one? According to Rolling Stone, \"Lola\" was inspired by Candy Darling, a member of Andy Warhol's entourage, whom Ray Davies briefly (and cluelessly) dated. If that's the case, then \"Lola\" is just another notch on Darling's song belt -- she's also referred to in Lou Reed's \"Walk on the Wild Side.\" (\"Candy came from out on the Island\/ In the backroom she was everybody's darlin'.\") But, in the Kinks' official biography, Davies tells a different story. He says \"Lola\" was written after the band's manager spent a very drunken night dancing with a woman whose five o'clock shadow was apparently obvious to everyone but him. 4. \"867-5309\/Jenny\" Written by: Jim Keller (of Tommy Tutone) and Alex Call . Written for: Unknown, as the songwriters apparently make up a different story about its inspiration every time they're asked. While the woman continues to remain a mystery, however, the phone number is all too real. In fact, it's been wreaking havoc ever since 1982 and the passage of time hasn't quelled of the number of crank calls. In 1999, Brown University freshman roommates Nina Clemente and Jahanaz Mirza found that out the hard way, when the school adopted an 867 exchange number for its on-campus phone system. Immediately, the girls' innocuous Room No. 5309 became a magnet for every drunk college kid with a 1980s fetish. Other unfortunate phone customers have fought back with creative and profitable solutions, like the holder of 212-867-5309, who put his phone number up for auction on eBay in 2004. Bids approached $100,000 before eBay pulled the item at the request of Verizon, the number's actual owner. 5. \"Oh, Carol\" Written by: Neil Sedaka . Written for: Carole King, naturally. Sedaka and King actually dated briefly in high school -- a romance Sedaka was able to successfully milk with \"Oh, Carol,\" a then top-10 (if now somewhat forgettable) 1959 pop song. However, the real success of \"Oh, Carol\" came a few months later, when it inspired King to write a rebuttal entitled \"Oh, Neil.\" At the time, King and her husband, Gerry Goffin, were fledgling songwriters in need of a hit tune. \"Oh, Neil\" wasn't that, but it did pay off. After Sedaka gave a tape of the song to his boss, King and Goffin landed jobs at the legendary Brill Building pop music factory, where the duo went on to write chart-toppers like \"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow\" and \"The Loco-Motion.\" 6. \"It Ain't Me, Babe\" Written by: Bob Dylan . Written for: Joan Baez, though it clearly wasn't the nicest gift Dylan could have given her. The two met in 1961, when Baez was an up-and-coming folk singer and Dylan was a nobody from Minnesota. Desperate to make his break in the music biz, Dylan worked like crazy to get Baez's attention. He eventually ended up going on tour with her, which is how he first became famous, and also how the two began dating. For a while, they seemed like the golden couple, but things soon went downhill. During a European concert tour together in early 1965, they had a huge fight and parted ways. That May, Dylan was holed up in a hotel after being hospitalized with a virus, and Baez, hoping to remain friends, decided to bring him flowers. Sadly, that's how she found out that her ex was already dating someone else. That someone else was Sara Lownds, whom Dylan married a mere six months later. 7. \"Our House\" Written by: Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) Written for: Joni Mitchell. In December 1968, Nash and Mitchell moved into a cozy little house in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. Though commonly left out of the hippy pantheon, Laurel Canyon was sort of a commune-home away from commune-home for San Francisco society -- not just CSN&Y, but also Jim Morrison, the Eagles, Frank Zappa, and more. \"Our House\" was directly inspired by a lazy Sunday in the Nash\/Mitchell household. The couple went out to brunch, hit an antiques store, and then returned to find the house just a bit chilly, at which point Nash literally \"lit a fire,\" while Mitchell \"placed the flowers in the vase that she bought that day.\" No, really. The whole tableau seemed so ridiculously domestic to Nash that he immediately sat down and spent the rest of the day writing about it. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Several famous songs written by men for a woman .\nBeethoven's \"F\u00fcr Elise\" may have been written \"for Therese\"\nSongwriters make up stories about who is behind \"867-5309\/Jenny\"","id":"5a98bb695e595b59c02f4e6734466f118e8ff770"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Letters containing white powder were mailed to 16 U.S. embassies across Europe, according to the State Department on Wednesday. Emergency services surround U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain. The substance has proved to be harmless in 15 locations with results still pending for the final embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said. He said the list of U.S. embassies where the powder was received includes Berlin, Germany; Bern, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Bucharest, Romania; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France; Reykjavik, Iceland; Riga, Latvia; Rome, Italy; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; and The Hague. An envelope, containing what testing revealed to be white flour, prompted the U.S. Embassy in Madrid to close the staff entrance on Wednesday, a U.S. embassy official told CNN. Mail at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid is received near the front entrance and was closed amid security concerns, he said, though most employees remained at work. \"We know where the package is coming from,\" the official said, but declined to elaborate. The official spoke on coindition on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. He described the incident as \"very serious\" but went on to say there is probably \"more commotion\" outside the embassy, where local media reported police and ambulances had gathered. A similar letter was mailed to the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Tuesday, embassy spokeswoman Melissa Ford said Wednesday. She said the contents of that envelope \"still aren't in,\" contrary to Wood's statement. \"It usually takes more than 24 hours (for the cultures), so perhaps we'll know later today or early tomorrow,\" Ford told CNN. CNN's Elise Labott and Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sixteen U.S. embassies in Europe receive mail containing white powder .\nTests show powder harmless in 15 cases; results pending in 16th case .\nU.S. embassy official in Madrid: \"We know where the package is coming from\"","id":"a7bb45a2615abaf0ba2ee61bf87f56f8c67af395"} -{"article":"ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- In 1988, a relatively unknown rock and blues guitarist named Warren Haynes got some of his friends together to play music in Asheville, North Carolina. It was just an opportunity for local musicians to jam during the holidays, the one time of year they were all in town together. Warren Haynes' good work has been noted by the street named after him. The artists also wanted to give back to the community, so they gave the money raised by their show to various charities. The tradition has continued. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, Haynes' Christmas Jam has evolved into an epic annual event for the musicians, fans, and particularly Habitat for Humanity. \"We need Habitat For Humanity more now than ever, with the whole mortgage crisis that put us where we are now, and the fact that Habitat is about building homes for people that can't afford homes as opposed to lending money to people who can't afford homes,\" Haynes told CNN. Haynes and his wife, Stefani Scamardo, decided to donate 100 percent of the Christmas Jam proceeds to Habitat for Humanity years ago because they could see exactly where the money was going. They go back each year and meet the families they helped build homes for. Singer Joan Osborne echoed Haynes' thoughts. \"It's a scary time. A lot of people are losing their homes so it's good to be able to do something that helps with that specific problem,\" she said. Going into 2008's shows, which were held December 12 and 13, the Christmas Jam had raised more than $665,000 for Asheville's Habitat For Humanity. The money has gone into building 12 houses in Enka Hills, a wooded community surrounded by mountains on a street the organization appropriately named Warren Haynes Drive. (In 2005 Habitat also built a house in the New Orleans Musicians Village.) The Thursday before the show, Haynes presented the key to a new home to single mother Suzie Cromer and her 8-year-old daughter. \"Meeting the families and seeing the work that Habitat's doing with our help -- you know its hard to see that and not get emotional,\" Haynes said. \"Warren is a hero in our mind,\" said Habitat's Arianne Kjellquist. \"In western North Carolina, the housing costs are really out of whack with what the local wages are, so there's a big discrepancy there. There are more people that maybe would have been approved previously when the lending standards weren't so strict.\" This year's Christmas Jam lived up to the long-lasting and crowd-pleasing traditions of previous shows. The first night's show ran more than nine hours, ending with an Allman Brothers set after 4 a.m. The second night's show ended at 3:30 a.m. Performers included Ben Harper and Relentless 7, Travis Tritt, Michael Franti, Osborne, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Steve Earle and Haynes' band Gov't Mule. Perhaps the most anticipated addition this year among both fans and artists was former Led Zeppelin member John Paul Jones, who played acoustic mandolin, bass and keyboards throughout the weekend with just about everyone. Jones said he was happy to pitch in. \"In the economic climate like this, people really just want to get out and enjoy themselves and forget about the day to day stuff that they have to deal with. So it works on many levels,\" Jones said. \"The fact that it is for a good cause is just a huge bonus.\" Haynes says the 20-year evolution of the Christmas Jam reflects his career. \"We've grown up together. Its a parallel of the progress that I have achieved, and the event reflects not only the philosophy I share with these people but the mission.\" And as fans danced the night away while the artists played their hearts out, families' dreams of owning their perfect home come true. \"I would have never imagined or dreamed that it would turn into what its turned into,\" Haynes reflected with a huge smile.","highlights":"Guitarist Warren Haynes helped start Christmas Jam 20 years ago .\nAsheville, N.C., concert has raised thousands for charity .\nMoney has built 12 Habitat for Humanity houses in a local neighborhood .","id":"3a4db9e5228b2701ad6641d4343a3f2add6b66fa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The leader of this week's coup in Guinea assured senior officials Thursday \"they are safe,\" a journalist with the state-run newspaper told CNN. Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara with Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare. Coup leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara met with Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare and about 30 other top officials at a military camp in Conakry, the nation's capital, said Ousmane Barry, a correspondent for the state-run Horoya newspaper. Camara has declared himself president of the National Council for Democracy, which he called a transitional body that will oversee the country's return to democracy. In effect, that makes Camara president of Guinea, which was thrown into turmoil Monday after the death of President Lansana Conte. Souare called Camara \"Mr. President\" at Thursday's meeting, which was witnessed by journalists, Barry said. The two men also discussed Conte's funeral, scheduled for Friday. Camara has suspended the government, constitution, political parties and trade unions and formed his own government, Africa News reporter Mamdou Dian Donghol Diallo told CNN on Wednesday. The newly formed government, made up of 26 military personnel and six civilians, is negotiating a power-sharing deal that would reflect its ethnic make-up, Diallo said. International institutions, including the African Union, have condemned the coup. \"What we want to see is the transition to a more democratic governing structure for the people of Guinea,\" U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said earlier this week. Guinea, in western Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, has had only two presidents since gaining independence from France in 1958. Conte came to power in 1984, when the military seized control of the government after the death of the first president, Sekou Toure. The country did not hold democratic elections until 1993, when Conte was elected president. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2003 amid allegations of electoral irregularities. Worsening economic conditions and dissatisfaction with corruption and bad governance prompted two massive strikes in 2006, the CIA World Factbook says. A third nationwide strike in early 2007 sparked violent protests that resulted in two weeks of martial law. To appease the unions and end the unrest, the Factbook says, Conte named a new prime minister in March 2007.","highlights":"Safety guarantees given to leading Guinea officials, reporter tells CNN .\nCoup leaders made Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara de facto president .\nCamara met prime minister and about 30 other top officials .\nPresident Lansana Conte died Monday after near 25-year rule .","id":"f94b29dc58e911a767c282b772383cde7a000543"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming. This image shows the changing rate of mass in mountain glaciers on the Gulf of Alaska. Using new satellite technology that measures changes in mass in mountain glaciers and ice sheets, NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke concluded that the losses amounted to enough water to fill the Chesapeake Bay 21 times. \"The ice tells us in a very real way how the climate is changing,\" said Luthcke, who will present his findings this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California. NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, mission uses two orbiting satellites to measure the \"mass balance\" of a glacier, or the net annual difference between ice accumulation and ice loss. \"A few degrees of change [in temperature] can increase the amount of mass loss, and that contributes to sea level rise and changes in ocean current,\" Luthcke said. The data reflects findings from NASA colleague Jay Zwally, who uses different satellite technology to observe changing ice volume in Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica. In the past five years, Greenland has lost between 150 gigatons and 160 gigatons each year, (one gigaton equals one billion tons) or enough to raise global sea levels about .5 mm per year, said Zwally, who will also present his findings at the conference this week. GRACE measured that mountain glaciers in the Gulf of Alaska lost about 84 gigatons each year, about five times the average annual flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, according to NASA. \"Every few extra inches of sea level have very significant economic impacts, because they change the sea level, increase flooding and storm damage,\" said, Zwally, ICESat Project Scientist. \"It's a warning sign.\" Melting ice, especially in Greenland and the Arctic, is also thought to contribute to global warming, Zwally said. When the vast ice sheets and glaciers melt, they lose their reflective power, and instead, oceans and land absorb the heat, causing the Arctic waters and the atmosphere to warm faster. \"We're seeing the impacts of global warming in many areas of our own lives, like agriculture,\" Zwally said. As an example, he cited the pine beetle infestation of this summer in the forests of Colorado and western Canada. \"They were believed to be spreading because the winter was not cold enough to kill them, and that's destroying forests,\" he said. In the 1990s, Greenland took in as much snow and water as it let out, Zwally said. But now, about 15 years later, sea levels are rising about 50 percent faster, making the global climate situation even more unpredictable. \"The best estimates are that sea levels will rise about 18 to 36 inches by the end of the century, but because of what's going on and how fast things are changing, there's a lot of uncertainty,\" he said.","highlights":"About 2 trillion tons of ice have melted in Greenland, Antarctica, Alaska since 2003 .\nLost amount of water could fill up Chesapeake Bay 21 times, NASA scientist says .\nMost came from Greenland, where losses raised global sea levels .5 mm annually .\nScientist says sea levels rising 50 percent faster than 15 years ago .","id":"6912c6e163f3f51ef30ad7485efd3d8c8308c2e8"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- As millions of people enter the job market and business owners struggle to entice consumers, Ryan Taylor may be better positioned than most to weather the economic crisis. Ryan Taylor, right, and client Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men at Taylor's downtown Los Angeles office. Taylor is a custom tailor who brings his showroom to clients' homes and offices. The day before former New Edition artist Johnny Gill left for a U.S. concert tour in March, Taylor sat in the musician's modest condominium taking measurements for a customized shirt and suit that needed to be completed and shipped in a few days. Even on short notice, \"Taylor the Tailor,\" as he is known, delivered on his promise -- and made Gill a loyal and satisfied customer. Taylor says he wants to change the apparel business model by personalizing a customer's needs, instead of having large inventories and high overhead costs that can quickly put someone out of business in a bad economy. His recipe for success: virtually no inventory and prices competitive with brand name department stores. His story in the apparel business began with the word \"wardrobe\" itself. \"I had seen it numerous times and thought, 'Why would a word associated with business suits or casual attire have such a negative prefix?' \" He decided to remove the word \"war\" and create a brand called DROBE that would offer professionals and smaller mom-and-pop boutiques his personalized custom style. But his first foray into the apparel business began and ended about 10 years ago at a trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada. He borrowed money to pay for a booth, but like many entrepreneurial designers getting started, Taylor said buyers were not interested in clothing without established brand names. Soon after, Taylor was broke. \"When I came home from that show thousands of dollars in the hole, I thought, 'How can I create a better story?' \" Watch Taylor discuss how his business started \u00bb . Several months later, Taylor was surprised that some of his personal customers were coming back for more shirts because of his attention to size and detail. \"I discovered that clothes off the rack fit less than 50 percent of the consumer population,\" he said, \"and that my custom clothes can be generally close to the same price as those on the rack.\" He also began visiting his clients in their living rooms or offices for custom fittings and offering a range of fabrics, textures and designs conducive to an individual's style. When a sale is made, Taylor collects half the money up front, which helps pay for the cost of materials. \"Nine times out of 10 we visit clients in their home or offices, we take their measurements right there inside their office, have them select the fabric they prefer, take their measurements right then and there, and [in] a couple weeks have a tailor-made garment to wear,\" he said. Although he discovered his custom-tailored clients looked great in his shirts, he noticed that most Main Street customers wore pants and suits that did not properly fit, so Taylor saw that as another opportunity to expand. With no inventory and a small staff on commission, Taylor's reputation spread throughout the Los Angeles, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia, business communities, partly with the help of fellow Hampton University alumni. He said television shows and celebrities began to take notice, and soon he found himself in the fitting rooms of major motion picture and recording studios. Taylor told CNN's Ted Rowlands that one of his first clients was the late comedian Bernie Mac. \"I called the Bernie Mac show and the stylist there said come on in and he was my first celebrity client.\" Some of his other celebrity clients include Al Pacino, Martin Lawrence, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, George Lopez and musician and multi-Grammy winner Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men. But his reputation did not change his business style. \"Our business model is remarkably fit and lean,\" he said. \"We have no inventory because our inventory is simply fabric.\" The vast majority of men and women who make up Taylor's clientele earn a living on Main Street, like Brian Asciak, the sales manager of a Ford dealership in Long Beach, California, who became Taylor's most recent customer as he sat in his office. \"We eliminate the cost to have your clothes tailored and we eliminate the time it takes to go shopping,\" said Taylor. His business has expanded to include custom-tailored dresses, ties, shoes and accessories. What began as a small loan has turned into 1,300 loyal clients. He averages close to $30,000 per month in revenue, and sales are down by only about 15 percent this year, he said. In a volatile economic climate, Taylor is not cutting back. He recently opened a second DROBE office in Pasadena, California, and wants to add 200 clients before the end of the year. \"To survive in this tough economy,\" he said, \"you have to be willing to customize your product as well as your service for the specific nuances of individual people so they will talk about you with glow -- with a feeling of excitement about your product.\" CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ryan Taylor finds a niche in the apparel market with custom fittings .\n\"Taylor the Tailor\" starts with a small loan and a failed booth at a trade show .\nHe now has 1,300 clients, among them Al Pacino, Jay Leno and other celebrities .\nThe vast majority of clients earn a living on Main Street, he says .","id":"10c74c013fca7227b0a97d49e6a12810011aafe0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama showed Thursday night that they have more common ground than differences when it comes to making national service a priority in their presidential administrations. The presidential canidates put aside partisan politics as the nation remembers the terrorist attacks. The candidates took the stage separately in a forum sponsored by TIME at Columbia University in New York. A coin toss determined who took questions first from moderators TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel and PBS's Judy Woodruff. Asked why it seems the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, are \"fading\" in the minds of many Americans, McCain said: . \"We needed at that time [September 11, 2001] to take advantage of the unity in the United States of America.\" McCain criticized the Bush administration for not taking advantage of that sense of unity and instead imploring the American public to live their lives as usual and \"go shopping.\" \"I would have called them to serve,\" said McCain. The GOP candidate said he suspects people feel uninspired by leaders in Washington and that Americans want \"change\" in federal government. \"They understand the challenges that we have in this world. They see the Russian invasion of the little country called Georgia. They see the problems in Afghanistan growing larger. They see a whole lot of things happening in the world that's going to require us to serve, and that opportunity has to be provided to them.\" Watch McCain talk about service \u00bb . McCain praised the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, saying they and similar organizations don't receive \"sufficient recognition\" from Washington. But McCain was careful to say government should limit its involvement. Asked about compensation for service McCain said: . \"I'd be glad to reward [volunteers] them as much as possible. But you want to be careful that the reason is not the reward of financial or other reasons, but the reward is the satisfaction of serving a cause greater than yourself. ... Finding new ways to serve. That's what this next few years should be all about.\" McCain also fielded a question about his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissive comments about Sen. Barack Obama's community service in Illinois. \"Look, Gov. Palin was responding to the criticism of her inexperience and her job as a mayor in a small town. That's what she was responding to. Of course I respect community organizers. Of course I respect people who serve their community. And Sen. Obama's record there is outstanding.\" McCain also said that politics is \"tough business,\" and that Obama set the tone of the whole campaign when he refused to take part in town hall meetings with McCain across America. Obama said his views don't necessarily differ from McCain's on national service. He said creating opportunities for national service would be a priority for his administration as well. \"Part of what makes America work is the fact that we believe in individual responsibility and self-reliance, but we also believe in mutual responsibility, in neighborliness, in a sense that we are committed to something larger than ourselves.\" Obama cited a plan to provide college tuition aid in return for student community service. \"One of my central platforms in this campaign is we're going to provide a $4,000 tuition credit every student, every year, but in exchange for giving something back. And so, young people of modest means, who are interested in going to college, this gives them an opportunity to serve and at the same time, pay for their college education. I think there are a lot of creative ways where we can provide opportunities than exist right now.\" Obama also said he wants to attract more young people into civil service careers. \"The fact is that we have to have government. When a hurricane strikes, as it did with Katrina, we have to have a FEMA that works, which by the way, means that we should be encouraging young people, the best and the brightest, to get involved as civil servants, to pursue careers of public service so we've got people who are trained in federal emergency management who are able to take on the job.\" Watch Obama talk about service \u00bb . \"Now, that does not crowd out the Red Cross. That doesn't crowd out the thousands of church groups that went down there. What it means is that each area has a role to play.\" The forum is part of a two-day summit meant to promote national service. Nearly 500 leaders from business, foundations, universities and politics are meeting to \"celebrate the power and potential of citizen service\" and lay out a plan to address \"America's greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service,\" according to the organizers' Web site. Each presidential candidate has served his nation in different ways. McCain was a Navy officer for over two decades and often encourages Americans to serve a \"cause greater than oneself.\" Obama served as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago after he graduated from college. In a speech in December, the Illinois Democrat said he would ask Americans to serve if he becomes president. \"This will be the cause of my presidency,\" he said. Today's joint appearance came amid recent sniping between the campaigns. McCain's campaign recently attacked Obama for \"lipstick\" remarks made during a campaign stop in Virginia on Tuesday. \"John McCain says he's about change too, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out George Bush -- except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics -- we're really going to shake things up in Washington,' \" he said. \"That's not change. That's just calling ... the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing.\" Watch how tensions are rising on the trail \u00bb . The crowd erupted in applause when Obama delivered the line. McCain's campaign said Obama's remarks were offensive and a slap at vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, despite the fact that the Arizona senator himself used the phrase last year to describe a policy proposal of Hillary Clinton's. Obama shot back Wednesday and accused the McCain campaign of engaging in \"lies\" and \"swift boat politics.\" \"I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics,\" he said in Norfolk, Virginia. \"Enough is enough.\" Watch Obama deliver his harsh words \u00bb . The phrase \"swift boat\" comes from the 2004 presidential election, when the group \"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth\" launched an attack ad campaign against Democratic candidate John Kerry that was said by some to be false. But the two presidential candidates agreed to put aside partisan politics on Thursday. They appeared together in New York to lay a wreath at ground zero, where the World Trade Center towers collapsed after two airliners hijacked by al Qaeda operatives plowed into them on September 11, 2001. The two met with families of victims as well as state and local officials. Earlier in the day, McCain attended a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to remember those who lost their lives when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field there on September 11, 2001. Many believe that the hijackers intended to crash Flight 93 into the U.S. Capitol in Washington. \"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people at work in that building, when that fateful moment occurred, could have been destroyed along with a beautiful symbol of our freedom,\" McCain said. \"They -- and possibly I -- owe our lives to the passengers who summoned the courage and love necessary to deprive our depraved and hateful enemies their terrible triumph. \"I've had the great honor and privilege to witness great courage and sacrifice for America's sake,\" he said. The Obama campaign released a statement earlier Thursday for its candidate in which he said, \"We will never forget those who died. \"On 9\/11, Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country,\" Obama said. \"Let us renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose.\" Meanwhile, a CNN poll out Thursday suggests that voters view McCain as the better presidential candidate to handle terrorism but do not consider terrorism their primary concern in voting. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed, 62 percent, believe that the Republican presidential nominee would be the better candidate to handle the issue of terrorism, compared with 34 percent who believe that his Democratic rival, Obama, would be better on the issue. The poll's margin of error is plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Opinion Research Corp. conducted telephone interviews with 1,022 adults from September 5-7 for the poll. Time's Michael Duffy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sens. McCain and Obama met at a forum on national service in NYC Thursday night .\nTwo candidates appearing together at 9\/11 remembrance in NYC .\nNew poll: Respondents view McCain as better in handling terrorism .","id":"eac210df9ef39971d182d215e8a53228b0d4e578"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida woman accused of killing her toddler daughter made a rare court appearance Thursday for a hearing regarding \"disturbing\" images of the scene where her daughter's skeletal remains were found. Caylee Anthony, 2, had been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. The hearing began without Casey Anthony, as defense attorney Jose Baez saying she waived her right to appear. But prosecutors objected, saying Anthony should be brought into court and questioned before waiving her appearance. Orange County Circuit Judge Stan Strickland agreed, sending deputies to retrieve Anthony from jail but starting the hearing without her. She later was brought in, wearing navy jail scrubs. Answering Strickland's questions in a clear voice, Anthony confirmed that she had waived her right to appear in court. Watch Casey Anthony appear in court \u00bb . Strickland, however, had her remain for the rest of the hearing. She sat expressionless, appearing to listen closely as prosecutors and defense attorneys hashed out routine discovery and evidentiary issues. Anthony, 22, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, who was last reported seen in June. She was arrested in October and charged with first-degree murder and other offenses, even though Caylee's body had not been found. The girl's skeletal remains were found last month in woods about a half-mile from the home of Anthony's parents, where Caylee and her mother had been living. Authorities have been unable to determine how the girl died but said she was the victim of a homicide. In Thursday's hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys wrangled over defense experts' access to images from the scene where the body was found. Prosecutors said they did not want the defense to copy, print or send any photos or X-rays of Caylee to their experts, many of whom were outside Florida, out of concern they might wind up in the media's hands. Because the experts are outside the jurisdiction of the Florida court, Strickland would have little recourse if the photos wound up \"displayed on some magazine at the checkout at the Publix,\" prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick said Thursday. The pictures \"are not necessarily gruesome, but they are disturbing,\" especially images of the child's skull when it was found and removed from the woods, she said. Baez agreed he did not want the photos to be made public, and said he doubted his experts would jeopardize their reputations by leaking them, noting they have signed confidentiality agreements. The parties agreed that the defense would set up a secure Web site for its experts to evaluate the photographs. Strickland also ordered Baez not to copy the images or transmit them in any way. In an earlier hearing Thursday, another Orange County circuit judge ruled that a lawsuit filed against Anthony may proceed, but the judge is not requiring Anthony to submit to a deposition at this time. In questioning after Caylee's disappearance, Anthony told police she had left the child with a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez and had not seen her since. Checking out her story, authorities found that the apartment where Anthony said she left Caylee was vacant and located a Zenaida Gonzalez, who said she had never met Anthony. Gonzalez filed a defamation suit against Anthony, saying that as a result of Anthony's statements, she has been suspected wrongly of involvement in Caylee's disappearance. Her attorney, John Morgan, told the judge Thursday that Gonzalez lost her job because of those claims. Anthony's defense attorneys asked that proceedings in the Gonzalez suit -- specifically, Anthony's deposition -- be postponed until the criminal case against Anthony is resolved, because Anthony's answers to questions in the deposition could potentially incriminate her, meaning she would have to invoke her Fifth Amendment right in refusing to answer. Circuit Judge Jose Rodriguez agreed that Anthony should not be compelled to undergo an oral deposition, but said Morgan could depose her with written questions and answers. \"No matter how much we want to separate these cases, they're intertwined,\" Rodriguez said in issuing his decision. Morgan noted that Anthony has filed a countersuit against Gonzalez, and said Anthony cannot duck a deposition at the same time that she is suing his client. \"They cannot have their cake and eat it too,\" Morgan said, adding that Anthony \"can't sue someone and then say, 'You can't question me because of the Fifth Amendment.' \" Anthony's countersuit accuses Gonzalez of attempting to cash in on the high-profile case. A trial date has not been set for Anthony, who could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted of killing Caylee. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty against her.","highlights":"Judge calls Casey Anthony to hearing at request of prosecutor .\nHearing focuses in part on how to share crime scene images with defense experts .\nProsecutors fear images could wind up in hands of media .\nIn separate hearing, judge says defamation suit against Anthony can proceed .","id":"17797b934fb98cdf4c6addf3a4cc2f2c332d8dd1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion. Surveillance video shows storekeeper Mohammad Sohail holding a robber at bay with a shotgun. Storekeeper Mohammad Sohail was closing up his Long Island convenience store just after midnight on May 21 when -- as shown on the store's surveillance video -- a man came in wielding a baseball bat and demanding money. \"He said, 'Hurry up and give me the money, give me the money!' and I said, 'Hold on',\" Sohail recalled in a phone interview with CNN on Tuesday, after the store video and his story was carried on local TV. Sohail said he reached under the counter, grabbed his gun and told the robber to drop the bat and get down on his knees. \"He's crying like a baby,\" Sohail said. \"He says, 'Don't call police, don't shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.' \" Amidst the man's apologies and pleas, Sohail said he felt a surge of compassion. He made the man promise never to rob anyone again and when he agreed, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. \"When he gets $40, he's very impressed, he says, 'I want to be a Muslim just like you,' \" Sohail said, adding he had the would-be criminal recite an Islamic oath. \"I said 'Congratulations. You are now a Muslim and your name is Nawaz Sharif Zardari.'\" When asked why he chose the hybrid of two Pakistani presidents' names, the Pakistani immigrant laughed and said he had been watching a South Asian news channel moments before the confrontation. Sohail said the man fled the store when he turned away to get the man some free milk. He said police might still be looking for the suspect but he doesn't intend to press charges. \"The guy, you know, everybody has a hard time right now, it's too bad for everybody right now in this economy,\" said the storekeeper.","highlights":"Long Island storekeeper Mohammad Sohail faces man wielding baseball bat .\nSohail grabs shotgun; stunned man begins to cry, says he has no food at home .\nMan's story tugs at Sohail's heartstrings, and he offers man money, bread, milk .\nAfter act of compassion, man says he wants to become a Muslim like Sohail .","id":"7d255e035aaa23c3425651e2c83b2e1bf9f6240c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An emotional Nancy Reagan helped unveil a statue of her late husband, President Reagan, on Wednesday, calling the 7-foot figure \"a wonderful likeness.\" Nancy Reagan, with House Minority Leader John Boehner, wipes away tears at Wednesday's event. \"I know Ronnie would be deeply honored to see himself with a permanent home in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and very proud to be representing his beloved California,\" Nancy Reagan said. She appeared to battle emotions as she mentioned her last visit to the marbled hall for Reagan's memorial in June 2004. \"It's nice to be back under happier circumstances,\" she said. Watch Nancy Reagan unveil the statue \u00bb . The statue is one of two from California in the National Statuary Hall Collection donated by states to honor significant figures. Nancy Reagan stood arm-in-arm with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio to pull down the curtain from the statue. She thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for making the event possible. In her remarks, Pelosi noted that the former president's statue contains pieces of the Berlin Wall, \"as a symbol of his commitment to national security and to his success.\" The wall was torn down shortly after Reagan left office. \"I'm so grateful to Californians for giving him this honor,\" Nancy Reagan said. \"Artist Chas Fagan has captured his likeness so well, and I think the addition of the pieces of the Berlin Wall in the pedestal reflects my husband's commitment to freedom and democracy for everyone.\" The former president is credited with polices that led to the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the dismantling of the wall that divided Berlin as a symbol of Cold War politics. James Baker, a longtime Republican who served in the Cabinets of Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, recalled that Reagan inherited some major problems when he took office in 1981. Citing the former president's trademark optimism, he quoted from Reagan's first inaugural address that \"we are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline.\" Nancy Reagan attended a White House ceremony Tuesday marking Barack Obama's signing of legislation authorizing a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission. The 11-member commission will plan activities marking Reagan's 100th birthday on February 6, 2011. Reagan was president from 1981 to 1989.","highlights":"NEW: Former first lady touts husband's \"commitment to freedom\"\nCalifornia donated figure for Capitol Rotunda to honor former president .\nPelosi says statue contains pieces of Berlin Wall .\nCommission planning events to mark 100th birthday in 2011 .","id":"4d0bd90560ef42d0e3b6e92b844f5bb9443615e2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Famed Uruguayan author Mario Benedetti died at his home in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Sunday, his personal secretary, Ariel Silva, told CNN. Author Mario Benedetti, 88, was battling intestinal problems and had been hospitalized earlier this month. Benedetti, 88, was battling intestinal problems and had been hospitalized earlier this month. A descendent of Italian immigrants, Benedetti authored such best-selling novels as \"The Truce\" and \"Juan Angel's Birthday,\" as well as a collection of short stories and poems. The poet-turned-novelist became a part of a thriving era of Latin authors including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who often intertwined politics with their work. A supporter of Fidel Castro's government, Benedetti left Uruguay to live in exile, partly in Cuba, where his writings grew more political. \"I have never hidden my political position so I had to leave the country,\" he told CNN in a June 2005 interview. \"I've had many mishaps, many problems in my short life,\" he added. Journalist Dario Klein in Montevideo contributed this report.","highlights":"Mario Benedetti, 88, was battling intestinal problems; hospitalized earlier this month .\nBenedetti authored novels such as \"The Truce\" and \"Juan Angel's Birthday\"\nA supporter of Fidel Castro's government, Benedetti left Uruguay to live in exile .","id":"2260e4a2ffdebedfb8f9bd94daf77107cbe14783"} -{"article":"CNN's Susan Lisovicz sat down with her uncle Lenny Lisovicz, a decorated D-Day veteran, to talk about his experiences at war. CNN's Susan Lisovicz spoke to her Uncle Lenny about his D-Day and war experiences. HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Decorated D-Day veteran Lenny Lisovicz says the whispers are true. For 65 years my family had heard whispers that he and 220 men stormed Omaha Beach and that he and his captain later went AWOL in Paris, France. They heard he returned to combat and fought all the way to Germany and his courage was rewarded with the prestigious Silver Star. Then -- after that sacrifice and loss -- he was committed to a hospital. On the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Uncle Lenny finally talked at length about everything he had seen and done. And he said it was all true. Nowadays, Uncle Lenny lives a tranquil life. At 91, he is proud of his garden, where he grows corn, tomatoes and grapefruit. He takes in stray cats, attends Mass and sends money regularly to Catholic missionaries. But his thoughts are never far away from a sliver of sand thousands of miles away. He turned down my offer to visit Normandy. \"I don't want to see it. I try to rub that out of my mind. It won't go away,\" he said. But now, he finally agreed to share his memories. Watch Uncle Lenny describe storming the beach \u00bb . It began with The Longest Day: June 6, 1944. My uncle was a 26-year-old lieutenant with the Army 1st Infantry Division, the famed \"Big Red One.\" They had been training in England for something big for months. Then, over the loudspeakers in the barracks came the famous declaration from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: \"You are about to embark on the Great Crusade.\" The Germans were taken by surprise in one of the greatest amphibious invasions of all time, which would mark a turning point of the war in Europe. \"I just imagined what that enemy observer felt when he looked through that concrete bunker and looked out at that ocean and all he could see was boats, warships,\" Lisovicz said. But the Nazis had a superior position. \"They had you pinpointed. It was just like shootin' ducks on a pond. Your comrades would get artillery busted. A hand flying here, a leg there, guts laying out on the ground, asking for help and you couldn't help them. You had to move. You just had to push them aside,\" he recalled. But the Allies couldn't push their way onto the cliffs until a massive air assault began. \"At times there were so many planes in the sky you couldn't see the sky... ,\" Lisovicz said. \"You could see them forming from all directions coming into one pattern. And that's how we got off the beach, darlin'.\" Their orders were to meet up with the paratroopers, who landed behind enemy lines. My uncle said they found them by smell, because they were all dead. \"They backed them in a corner and machine gunned them down and didn't have enough decency to cover them,\" he said. That was when an unwritten order came down: \"No prisoners. And we didn't take any.\" It was shortly after this that he decided he had enough. He and the captain went AWOL in Paris. To add insult to injury, they stole the major's jeep. Their freedom lasted only about a week. \"The MP told us he was going to shoot us for going AWOL. But who cares? You didn't care anymore,\" Lisovicz said. \"You were just fed up with war, fed up with killing, just absolutely fed up.\" But they weren't shot -- not by Americans, anyway. My uncle and the captain went back into combat. The captain was killed by a camouflaged tank. My uncle was now the commanding officer. And the fighting was ferocious as he battled his way into Germany. He set trip wires for flares in one pivotal battle. At about 3 a.m., the flares went off. The Germans had overrun the outer defenses of the platoon. It was chaos. The Silver Star says that he \"skillfully deployed men and weapons into strategic positions and with accurately directed fire, held the foe at bay until supporting troops arrived and repulsed the attack.\" But there was more. \"When I looked up I seen a man walking up with two of my comrades. It was a German. So I went after him. And got him and brought my men back,\" he said. The Silver Star described it as \"extraordinary gallantry and aggressive leadership.\" Only 22 of the 220 men that stormed the beach with him came home alive. That was the last time my uncle saw combat. He had been hit. He learned about his Silver Star in the hospital. He wanted to return, but he was shell-shocked. \"It took them a year and a half of my life for them to straighten me out and get back to civilian life,\" he said.","highlights":"Sixty-five years after D-Day, CNN correspondent's uncle talks about experience .\nLenny Lisovicz describes day he and his unit stormed Omaha Beach .\nHe says the Nazis \"had you pinpointed. It was just like shootin' ducks on a pond\"\nLisovicz was one of 22, out of 220 men in his group, to return home alive .","id":"28f0d2737b05ffe192f13cfc3c43f1407f7386e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Paolo Maldini and Luis Figo brought down the curtain on their remarkable careers as their Milan clubs both scored victories on the final day of the Serie A season. Maldini was given a special presentation as he made his 902nd and final appearance for Milan. The 40-year-old Maldini was playing his 902nd game for Milan who won 2-0 at Fiorentina while Portuguese international Figo helped champions Inter to a 4-3 home win over Atalanta. Milan's victory helped them secure the third Champions League place in Italy and automatic qualification to the group stages. Juventus, who beat Lazio 2-0 with Vincenzo Iaquinta scoring twice, finished level on points with Milan, while Fiorentina will go into the Champions League final qualifying round after finishing fourth. Inter had clinched the title two weeks ago, with a Zlatan Ibrahimovic double making sure that they would round off their season in style, the Swede finishing Serie A's top scorer with 25 goals. Figo has been with Inter since 2005 and has helped the club to four straight league titles to become a firm favorite with the fans who gave him a rousing farewell. Former Italian international defender Maldini was completing an incredible 24 seasons at Milan. Inter finished top with 84 points with Milan and Juventus on 74, with Fiorentina fourth with 68. In the relegation dogfight, Torino joined Reggina and Lecce in making the drop from Serie A as they lost 3-2 at AS Roma. Bologna beat Catania 3-1 to finish in the 17th place with 37 points, while Torino ended on 34. Bari, Parma and the winner of the promotion playoff will be the newcomers in Serie A next season.","highlights":"Paolo Maldini plays 902nd and final match for AC Milan in 2-0 win over Fiorentina .\nLuis Figo ends his career as champions Inter Milan beat Atalanta 4-2 .\nTorino relegated to Serie B with 3-2 defeat to AS Roma .","id":"ebb7a704069b42bb8200940001bea5afa3fc0eb1"} -{"article":"HERMOSILLO, Mexico (CNN) -- President Felipe Calderon traveled to Hermosillo on Saturday to meet with health officials as the death toll of a day care center fire there grew to 38 children. A crib and baby seats lie outside a day care center Friday in Hermosillo, Mexico, as police cordon off the area. The cause of Friday's blaze remained unknown, but investigators concluded that the fire did not start inside the ABC Day Care, Eduardo Bours, the governor of Sonora state said. As of Saturday night, 23 children remained hospitalized, 15 of them in critical condition, Sonora spokesman Daniel Duran told CNN. Another 10 children had been transported to other hospitals: eight to Guadalajara, one to Ciudad Obregon, and one to Sacramento, California. A team of 29 medical experts in Hermosillo were deciding if any more victims would be moved to the Shriners Hospital in Sacramento, or elsewhere. In addition, six adults were injured, Duran said. \"Without a doubt this is the worst disaster we've had,\" Bours told CNN. The president arrived with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont and Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova to get firsthand updates from doctors and investigators, the state news agency Notimex reported. Calderon ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate the blaze. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation and not burns, Bours said. But the fire was enough for the roof to collapse, he added. At the time of the blaze, 142 children were inside the ABC Day Care. The day care is for children ages 2 to 4, but Bours confirmed that children even younger were among the victims. All the children at the day care had been accounted for by Saturday evening, Bours said. A severely burned 3-year-old girl arrived Saturday at the Sacramento hospital -- where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty -- and was in critical condition, according to Dr. Tina Palmieri, assistant chief of the burn unit. The child was burned over 80 percent of her body, the doctor told reporters. She said the hospital normally can save just over half of the children with burns that severe. In Hermosillo, a large crowd gathered outside of the emergency entrance of the city's general hospital and many people consoled each other, video from the scene showed. \"They told me that this happened in a matter of five minutes,\" Hermosillo Mayor Ernesto Gandara told reporters after surveying the scene.","highlights":"NEW: President Felipe Calderon travels to Hermosillo to meet with health officials .\nNEW: Officials believe blaze did not start in center; attorney general to investigate .\nNEW: 23 children remained hospitalized, 15 of them in critical condition .\nOne child admitted to Shriners Hospitals in Sacramento, California .","id":"7ce5f5bce014ceb8f83493de9dd0db8e79745320"} -{"article":"HOLLYWOOD, Florida (CNN) -- The slot machines are ringing, music is blasting at the crowded poolside bar, and people are dancing to celebrity DJs at hip nightclubs. But this is not a scene on the Las Vegas strip. This action is taking place on an Indian reservation. Richard Bowers Jr. says the Native American Group is intended to help tribes with basic needs. Business at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, is booming and contributing to the Seminole Indian Tribe's great wealth. Now the Seminoles are taking that wealth -- and the power that comes with it -- and using it to do something that has not been done before: organizing Native American tribes with the intent of spreading economic opportunities across Indian Country. \"Some of these reservations I have been to -- it's like the Third World right here in the United States,\" says Richard Bowers Jr. As president of the Seminole Tribe of Florida Inc., Bowers has oversight over all the Hard Rock caf\u00e9s, hotels and casinos in the world except the caf\u00e9 in London and the casino in Las Vegas. The Seminole Tribe purchased the Hard Rock properties in 2007 for a reported $965 million. Bowers, a former alligator wrester and cattle rancher, is thankful for his tribe's success and has used his influence to create a consortium of Native American Tribes called the Native American Group. The goal of this group is to bring tribes throughout the United States and Canada together in an effort to promote Native American-owned businesses and services. Keeping the dollar within Indian Country, Bowers hopes, will help the less fortunate tribes with basic needs such as housing, food and education. \"I view this as historic in nature,\" says Donald Laverdure, the chief legal counsel from Montana's Crow Tribe. \"We haven't had first-nation to first-nation actually occur, and now with the success of the Seminoles and others, they have an opportunity to help tribes such as ourselves.\" The help that the Crow Nation seeks is financial. For the Crow Tribe, gaming is not an option, according to Laverdure. \"There's less population, so the success in gaming cannot be paralleled as elsewhere,\" he says. \"So we've always viewed our future in energy.\" That energy would come from coal. The Crow Tribe wants to mine some of the 9 billion tons of coal that it estimates is on its land. Crow Nation Chairman Cedric Black Eagle hopes the success of his tribe will lie in turning coal into liquid diesel. \"It will open the door for Indian Country in energy fields and help this country start veering away from its dependence on foreign oil,\" he says. As the group meets to discuss coal, Bowers recalls that it was the need for beef that prompted his idea for the Native American Group. \"Here we have all these cafes, casinos -- everybody eats a hamburger,\" says Bowers. \"And than (I) realized that we don't have enough beef to supply our own needs, and that's when I reached out to other Native Americans that did have cattle.\" Bowers discovered there are more than 2 million heads of cattle on Indian land. If there is not enough cattle on Indian land, then members of the group are encouraged to keep the business in the country and buy American. The Native American Group has come a long way since Bowers was looking for cattle. The group now has more than 100 tribal members and more than 100 Native-owned businesses. One successful business that joined the group is the largest Native American-owned contractor, Flintco. Robin Flint Ballenger, who is Cherokee, is its chairman of the board. \"It wasn't a far stretch for me at all to take a risk on this new organization because we are successful, we're doing very well,\" says Ballenger, who adds that a third of the company's work is done for Native America. One of the projects Flintco is working on is a casino being built on Choctaw tribal land in Durant, Oklahoma. With every Native American-owned casino, Bowers sees an economic opportunity for all. \"Trash bags, everybody uses trash bags -- so just for an example, let's all get together and order trash bags and it's going to be cheaper on all of us,\" Bowers says, pointing out that there is a Native American trash bag supplier. When discussing the potential of the Native American Group, Ballenger remembers something her father used to show her. \"(He) showed me one stick and [said] you can break one stick easily,\" Ballenger recalls. \"When you bundle many sticks together, it is impossible to break.\" This is her wish for the consortium -- \"That we will bundle these many sticks together and become impossible to break.\"","highlights":"Seminole Tribe owns Hard Rock properties, looks to help unify Native Americans .\nThe Native American Group is a consortium of various tribes .\nKeeping the dollar within Indian Country seen as way to help less fortunate tribes .\nGroup now includes more than 100 Native-owned businesses .","id":"ea5061a82231d089151b66dec514c97efc477209"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fresh faced and pictured wearing a crisp military uniform, the photo of a young Jim Tuckwell looks like it was taken before he'd seen action. But in fact, at the age of just 22, he had already experienced the full horrors of war. World War II veteran Jim Tuckwell as a young soldier. Shot twice on Gold beach during the Normandy Invasion or \"D-Day landings,\" Tuckwell was later deafened by a shell that blew off his friend's legs nearby. By the end of the war, the British soldier had been promoted to the rank of full sergeant, as he put it, simply because so many of his seniors had been killed. Now 86-years-old, he and many of his former comrades will remember the 65th anniversary of the landings Saturday at ceremonies along the French coast. It was a massive air and sea operation that marked the turning point of the war in Europe. And he knows how lucky he is to be alive. \"My mate Jimmy went up the beach with two cases of bombs. I never saw him again. If I hadn't been hit, who's to say I wouldn't have been in the same position as he was when he was killed?\" With bullet wounds to his chest and arm, Tuckwell collapsed unconscious on the beach. It was more than nine hours later that he was picked up by the stretcher-bearers. Incredibly, he was back fighting within six weeks. Watch Tuckwell tell his story \u00bb . So much time has passed since then, but the pain is still etched into his face. Sitting there in full military uniform, blazer adorned with half a dozen medals, his voice frequently cracks with emotion. He frequently tails off as he relives the past. \"Every time I go back to Normandy I go to his grave, and it brings a tear to me eye even now. We were going do so much after the war ... but it never happened.\" Tuckwell, who saw action with the 1st Battalion, Dorset Regiment, has since formed a close friendship with Frank Rosier; they are members of the Normandy Veterans Association. Both men say their experiences were so commonplace among their generation that none were able to talk about it until 40 years later. Rosier told me that what he and the veterans discuss among themselves is very different to what is said in television interviews; but when pushed, he describes what it's like to kill another man. \"We could never get our fathers to talk about the first World War, because they were involved in close combat. And twice in the second World War it happened to me. \"I came face to face with a German, and I beat him to the draw. I killed him. I sat on the grass and was sick and I cried ... he was some mother's son.\" I get the sense that there was a great deal of respect between these soldiers and the Germans on the other side. Younger generations try to relate to the scale and the carnage of D-Day through movies like \"Saving Private Ryan.\" The veterans talk of the noise, \"big battleships firing, rocket ships firing, mortars landing, planes strafing, floating artillery and the Germans were totally unsociable about it, they were firing back at us, so there was a hell of a lot of noise there,\" recalls Rosier. They are lighthearted at times, citing the fact that British troops are renowned for their humor -- even in the darkest hours. But it is impossible to gloss over the horror and the danger they faced. Standing together in one of the landing crafts at the D-Day museum in Portsmouth, England, Rosier described what it was like to approach Gold beach. Watch Rosier's full interview \u00bb . He spoke of the bullets thundering into the sides of the craft, a ramp on one side hitting a mine and being disabled, and the knowledge that when the front ramp was dropped, the troops inside would be peppered with machine gun fire. He and his infantry were lucky that day - making it onto the beach with minimal loss. But as he told me later, of the 800 men in his infantry, only five survived the war unharmed, \"the rest were killed, missing or wounded.\" Rosier, who fought with the 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, bears the visible scars of battle. He lost an eye to a shrapnel wound -- a 'Blighty one,' meaning that he was taken home to recover in Britain -- and has had to live with the psychological trauma of facial disfigurement. But it's the pain of the ones they left behind that hurts the most. \"There was no time to mourn, you didn't have time to mourn,\" said Tuckwell. \"And the worst thing about later battles was that when you lost people, you normally had to bury them yourself. You couldn't leave the bodies on the ground, there was nowhere else to put them.\" Rosier added: \"When your best friend gets killed it is surprising how hard you can become on a battlefield, I think you switch your mind off. My best friend, we called him Smokey Joe, Battersea boy, London boy, he was 18 years when he died. \"At the time I just said 'oh Reggie is gone,' but ... I will be going back to Normandy and I will see his grave and cry. I have never figured out why I a mourn him now and not at the time. To lose a brother is a terrible thing and he was a brother. I lost two actual brothers in the war, but I miss Reg a lot.\" There was so much pain, so much suffering and such massive loss of life. Was it worth it? Rosier's response is emphatic. \"Yes, every minute of it. We go back to Europe quite frequently, and even in Germany people say to us 'thank you for our freedom'. It is only in recent years that I have realized how important freedom really is, you can't taste it, you can't feel or hear it. But it is so important to be free.\"","highlights":"D-Day soldiers remember the horrors of war and fallen comrades .\nOne tells how he survived despite being wounded storming Gold beach .\nAnother says he still mourns his best friend and cried after killing a German soldier .\nPresident Obama attending 65th anniversary services in France Saturday .","id":"7cf7a7fe60494a13b846e173c02fbd795549c131"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- The leader of Nepal's former communist rebels was named as the country's new prime minister Friday. Prachanda is still the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, was elected four months after elections in which his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party in the 601-member constituent assembly. Prachanda received 464 votes of the 577 votes cast, while his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress party received 113 votes. Most of the parties in the assembly voted for the Maoist candidate. A simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister. Prachanda's victory became certain on Thursday when the third and fourth biggest parties in Nepal's assembly decided to back him. He will now lead a coalition government, although talks are ongoing on about the allocation of ministerial portfolios. The Maoists signed a peace deal with the government in November 2006, joined an interim parliament and government in 2007 and fought multi-party elections in April this year. The Communist Party of Nepal unexpectedly became the largest party in the elections, winning 220 of the 575 elected seats in the assembly. The assembly declared Nepal a republic in May and in July elected Nepal's first president, physician Ram Baran Yadav. Prachanda, 54, entered politics when he was 17 but went underground in 1981, making his first public appearance after 25 years in 2006. The Maoists launched an insurgency to abolish the monarchy in 1996 and the ten-year conflict claimed more than 13,000 lives. According to the peace deal agreed in 2008, the estimated 19,602 Maoist combatants would be integrated into the country's security structure, the process of which is yet to be worked out. Prachanda remains the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Besides completing the peace process, the new government has to face many challenges including inflation, lawlessness, impunity and ethnic aspirations.","highlights":"Prachanda, Communist Party of Nepal chairman, won 464 out of 577 votes .\nA simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister .\nAssembly declared Nepal a republic in May and July elected first president .\nThe post of president is largely ceremonial. PM has executive powers .","id":"38e41acd745e37d4cbdf8f9362366369aadc501f"} -{"article":"LEESBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The clock is ticking for Ray O'Bryhim: he has less than a week to sell his last 40 cars. This Virginia dealership cannot legally sell any new Chryslers, Dodges or Jeeps after June 9. His ads for Pohanka Chrysler-Dodge scream, \"Everything must go, regardless of profit!\" On June 9, his franchise to sell new Chryslers and Dodges will be terminated, along with those of almost 800 other Chrysler\/Dodge\/Jeep dealers nationwide. This comes as a result of Chrysler's announcement last month that they would shrink their dealer base in the United States. O'Bryhim cannot legally sell any new cars he has left after June 9 -- and because the manufacturer is in bankruptcy protection it isn't obligated to take them back. A customer comes out of his showroom with the keys in her hand for a new Dodge Nitro SUV she just bought. She won't give her name, because she took the day off work to pounce on the discount. But she says she has been monitoring new-car prices for months, and they just took a steep dive, so she came in and made off like a bandit. O'Bryhim points to a new Nitro he has discounted 40% off the sticker: $17,510 instead of the MSRP of $29,170. Soon, he says, he may mark it down even further. \"As we get closer to June 9,\" he says, \"we're going to have to do what we have to do to move these cars.\" Watch how dealerships are making record price cuts \u00bb His salesmen have sold 80 cars in the 19 days since their termination letter arrived, with the cars and minivans selling faster than the trucks. Nationwide, Chrysler's terminated dealers had about 44,000 cars sitting on their lots when they got their notifications May 14. Chrysler spokeswoman Kathy Graham says the company plans to help redistribute any leftover inventory to the 2,400 surviving dealers, who could otherwise run low while factories are idled. \"Our manufacturing facilities have been shut down since May 1,\" she said. \"We have dealers that are looking for inventory.\" Down the street at Dulles Motor Cars, Hamid and Kevin Saghafi have sold off about half their $1.5 million inventory of Jeeps. Hamid says they are \"taking a beating,\" asking $10,000 less than the invoice price for high-end models like the Jeep Commander. But he still worries they won't be able to sell them all in time. \"Chrysler has told us they're going to help us send these cars to other dealers' inventories,\" he says. \"But we don't know what kind of prices we're going to be offered.\" The affected dealerships are not only furiously trying to sell off their inventory; at the same time, they are trying to figure out what they will do once they stop selling new Chryslers, and how they can save the jobs of their employees. Pohanka will focus on service and used-car sales, or maybe switch to another brand; Dulles will focus on the two other brands they already sell, Subaru and Kia. How much do the Saghafi brothers stand to lose in shutting their Jeep showroom? \"Millions,\" says Kevin. CNN's Brian Todd contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nearly 800 Chrysler\/Dodge\/Jeep dealerships must stop selling new cars by June 9 .\nThe company isn't buying the inventory back because it is bankrupt .\nChrysler has only offered to help find surviving dealerships willing to buy the cars .\nAs a result, the owners of the closing dealerships are suffering huge losses .","id":"5bf17bb8eacea27eaeaf74932da186933c40b9ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Korean Air was established as a private airline in March 1969. In nearly 35 years, it has grown 150 times and is poised to continue that growth into the next millennium. With a fleet of 124 aircraft, Korean Air is one of the world's top 20 airlines, and operates almost 400 passenger flights per day to 115 cities in 37 countries. Korean Air was named the Best First\/Business Class Airline and the Best Frequent Flyer Program in TIME Readers' Travel Choice Awards 2006. In April and July 2007 respectively, the carrier was named the Best Economy Class in the OAG Airline of the Year Awards and the Skytrax 2006\/7 World Airline Awards. It is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global airlines alliance partnering Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM and Northwest Airlines. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Korean Air was established as a private airline in March 1969 .\nIt has a fleet of 124 planes and operates almost 400 passenger flights per day .\nIt is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global airlines alliance .","id":"ba3d47bb767a0fc91108049df70c171dbca21c57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For CNN, Tiananmen Square was a watershed story -- a seminal moment in the network's history. Beijing bureau chief Mike Chinoy, producer Nancy Lane and Moscow bureau chief Steve Hurst . Only nine years old in 1989, CNN was the only 24-hour news station on the air at the time. But staffers say the network suffered an inferiority complex when comparing itself to the major players in American television, who had dismissed the new upstart for years as \"Chicken Noodle News.\" Enter Tiananmen Square. Change the face of television news. Take your place in the big leagues. \"It put CNN on the map,\" said Mike Chinoy, CNN's Beijing bureau chief during the crisis. \"It was the first time an upheaval in a previously isolated, distant, inaccessible location suddenly was available on television sets in living rooms and foreign ministries around the world. It was a pivotal moment for television.\" And it was an accident too. Foreign reporters had flooded Beijing to cover the historic visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Suddenly, they found themselves covering a very different story. For CNN, it all started in early April when Alec Miran, CNN's special events producer for the Gorbachev visit, went to Beijing to propose an \"outlandish idea\" to the Chinese authorities -- bringing in the network's own transmission equipment to beam live television pictures from China. \"It was unprecedented,\" said Miran. Before that, networks would feed their material from CCTV (Chinese Central Television), who would monitor -- and censor -- everything that was sent out. \"Our own transmission was a scary idea to them,\" said Miran. But he says he thinks the Chinese eventually agreed -- after much back and forth -- because, above all, they wanted international coverage of Gorbachev's visit. The Chinese gave CNN permission to bring in their own \"flyaway\" satellite dish and additional microwave gear to be able to transmit live -- a permission unheard of at the time in closed, Communist China. CNN was granted exactly one week's permission, timed to coincide with the Soviet leader's visit. See photos of the CNN team in Tiananmen Square in 1989 \u00bb . CBS was also granted permission to transmit live, but because CNN was on the air 24 hours a day, the permission it was granted turned out to be much more significant. \"On the first day of the Gorbachev visit, we not only had our own satellite transmission, we also had a live camera overlooking the square,\" said Miran. \"We were really well set up.\" But the situation was deteriorating rapidly for the Chinese leadership. Huge groups of students demanding reform had occupied Tiananmen Square and had launched a hunger strike just days before the Soviet leader's visit was about to begin. CNN's live camera, at the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking the square, showed the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in Tiananmen Square where Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was due to greet Gorbachev at the Great Hall of the People. \"On the day of the big meeting, we waited, and waited, and waited, watching the signal from CCTV,\" said Miran. \"No picture. We called our contact at CCTV to see if there were technical problems. Nope.\" \"They couldn't take Gorbachev in the front door of the Great Hall of the People because there were more than a million people in the square asking for reform,\" said Cynde Strand, CNN's cameraperson in Beijing at the time. \"The students upstaged Deng in one of his biggest moments, his big rapprochement with the Soviet Union.\" And the massive crowd -- as well as the non-appearance of Deng welcoming Gorbachev at the Great Hall of the People -- was all captured live on CNN. Soon afterwards, the Chinese informed CNN they could no longer maintain their live position overlooking the square, a position that had become vital for the network's coverage. Entire shows anchored by Bernard Shaw had been taped there. Miran and Chinoy huddled and decided that although the Chinese had forbidden further transmission from the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the network still had permission to use its portable microwave transmitter. So for the next few days -- always looking nervously over their shoulder -- CNN continued live transmissions using their microwave transmitter, both from their bureau at the Sheraton hotel -- but also from the middle of Tiananmen Square. \"Everywhere you looked, there was a great picture,\" said Miran. \"Soldiers would be on the steps of the Great Hall of the People and students would go up to them, offering flowers or to read to them. There were long staring contests between the armed soldiers and the students. It was riveting television.\" On the night of May 19, after the network had gotten word that troops were moving towards Beijing, Shaw and Moscow correspondent Steve Hurst broadcast from Tiananmen Square for several hours -- in the dark. The students in the square were edgy and had asked them to turn off their lights. \"I don't remember what we were able to show people that night,\" Miran said, \"little flickers of light.\" The next morning, Chinese authorities arrived at CNN's bureau and ordered the network to cease transmitting -- before its week-long permission had expired. Watch a Chinese official order CNN staff in Beijing to stop broadcasting \u00bb . Again, the entire exchange between CNN and the Chinese officials was captured on live television. Watch the moment when CNN stopped transmitting \u00bb . \"You get almost numb to it now,\" said Vito Maggiolo, CNN assignment editor on duty in Beijing at the time. \"But that live capability -- people watching events as they happen -- was truly special at that time.\" \"It was our first big live moment,\" said camerawoman Strand, now director of coverage for international news in Atlanta. \"And it became our signature, what we did very well.\" At one point in the live stand-off, while CNN tried to buy time before pulling the plug on itself, Marin gave out his telephone number for the Chinese authorities to call him -- an attempt to squeak out just a few more minutes of air time. The phone rang. It was a woman from Minnesota, a viewer who had been watching the events unfold in China from the comfort -- and safety -- of her living room. \"You're doing a great job' she said to me,\" Miran recalled. \"Everybody's watching. And we're rooting for you.\" \"It was all just momentous,\" Miran said. \"I felt like we had actually made a difference. And if people hadn't heard of CNN before, they had certainly heard of it then.\" Daniela Deane was a chief sub-editor at the Reuters news agency in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen crisis .","highlights":"The story \"put CNN on the map,\" said former Beijing bureau chief Mike Chinoy .\nReporters had flooded Beijing to cover the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev .\nFor the first time, a TV network beamed its own live pictures from China .\nAs protests grew, Chinese authorities ordered CNN to stop transmitting .","id":"94e5133cfa301b574f273fd8464c1b8d485d3e7d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fresh faced and pictured wearing a crisp military uniform, the photo of a young Jim Tuckwell looks like it was taken before he'd seen action. But in fact, at the age of just 22, he had already experienced the full horrors of war. World War II veteran Jim Tuckwell as a young soldier. Shot twice on Gold beach during the Normandy Invasion or \"D-Day landings,\" Tuckwell was later deafened by a shell that blew off his friend's legs nearby. By the end of the war, the British soldier had been promoted to the rank of full sergeant, as he put it, simply because so many of his seniors had been killed. Now 86-years-old, he and many of his former comrades will remember the 65th anniversary of the landings Saturday at ceremonies along the French coast. It was a massive air and sea operation that marked the turning point of the war in Europe. And he knows how lucky he is to be alive. \"My mate Jimmy went up the beach with two cases of bombs. I never saw him again. If I hadn't been hit, who's to say I wouldn't have been in the same position as he was when he was killed?\" With bullet wounds to his chest and arm, Tuckwell collapsed unconscious on the beach. It was more than nine hours later that he was picked up by the stretcher-bearers. Incredibly, he was back fighting within six weeks. Watch Tuckwell tell his story \u00bb . So much time has passed since then, but the pain is still etched into his face. Sitting there in full military uniform, blazer adorned with half a dozen medals, his voice frequently cracks with emotion. He frequently tails off as he relives the past. \"Every time I go back to Normandy I go to his grave, and it brings a tear to me eye even now. We were going do so much after the war ... but it never happened.\" Tuckwell, who saw action with the 1st Battalion, Dorset Regiment, has since formed a close friendship with Frank Rosier; they are members of the Normandy Veterans Association. Both men say their experiences were so commonplace among their generation that none were able to talk about it until 40 years later. Rosier told me that what he and the veterans discuss among themselves is very different to what is said in television interviews; but when pushed, he describes what it's like to kill another man. \"We could never get our fathers to talk about the first World War, because they were involved in close combat. And twice in the second World War it happened to me. \"I came face to face with a German, and I beat him to the draw. I killed him. I sat on the grass and was sick and I cried ... he was some mother's son.\" I get the sense that there was a great deal of respect between these soldiers and the Germans on the other side. Younger generations try to relate to the scale and the carnage of D-Day through movies like \"Saving Private Ryan.\" The veterans talk of the noise, \"big battleships firing, rocket ships firing, mortars landing, planes strafing, floating artillery and the Germans were totally unsociable about it, they were firing back at us, so there was a hell of a lot of noise there,\" recalls Rosier. They are lighthearted at times, citing the fact that British troops are renowned for their humor -- even in the darkest hours. But it is impossible to gloss over the horror and the danger they faced. Standing together in one of the landing crafts at the D-Day museum in Portsmouth, England, Rosier described what it was like to approach Gold beach. Watch Rosier's full interview \u00bb . He spoke of the bullets thundering into the sides of the craft, a ramp on one side hitting a mine and being disabled, and the knowledge that when the front ramp was dropped, the troops inside would be peppered with machine gun fire. He and his infantry were lucky that day - making it onto the beach with minimal loss. But as he told me later, of the 800 men in his infantry, only five survived the war unharmed, \"the rest were killed, missing or wounded.\" Rosier, who fought with the 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, bears the visible scars of battle. He lost an eye to a shrapnel wound -- a 'Blighty one,' meaning that he was taken home to recover in Britain -- and has had to live with the psychological trauma of facial disfigurement. But it's the pain of the ones they left behind that hurts the most. \"There was no time to mourn, you didn't have time to mourn,\" said Tuckwell. \"And the worst thing about later battles was that when you lost people, you normally had to bury them yourself. You couldn't leave the bodies on the ground, there was nowhere else to put them.\" Rosier added: \"When your best friend gets killed it is surprising how hard you can become on a battlefield, I think you switch your mind off. My best friend, we called him Smokey Joe, Battersea boy, London boy, he was 18 years when he died. \"At the time I just said 'oh Reggie is gone,' but ... I will be going back to Normandy and I will see his grave and cry. I have never figured out why I a mourn him now and not at the time. To lose a brother is a terrible thing and he was a brother. I lost two actual brothers in the war, but I miss Reg a lot.\" There was so much pain, so much suffering and such massive loss of life. Was it worth it? Rosier's response is emphatic. \"Yes, every minute of it. We go back to Europe quite frequently, and even in Germany people say to us 'thank you for our freedom'. It is only in recent years that I have realized how important freedom really is, you can't taste it, you can't feel or hear it. But it is so important to be free.\"","highlights":"D-Day soldiers remember the horrors of war and fallen comrades .\nOne tells how he survived despite being wounded storming Gold beach .\nAnother says he still mourns his best friend and cried after killing a German soldier .\nPresident Obama attending 65th anniversary services in France Saturday .","id":"ebad440abe632c1e5ba6c685278f2ddc2974d19b"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Gunmen on motorcycles fired Friday on a campaign office for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wounding two adults and a child, according to a report by Iran's state-run news agency. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not present at the time of the attack. The shooting happened about 5 p.m. in front of the entrance to the campaign office, campaign representative Mohammed Reza Zahed Shaikhi told IRNA. Ahmadinejad, who is running for a second term in office, was not present. Iran's presidential election will take place on June 12. The attack happened in Sistan-Balochistan province in southeastern Iran, the same province where a Shia mosque was bombed Thursday. Several suspects have been arrested in connection with Thursday's attack in the town of Zahedan, which killed between 15 and 20 people, according to Iranian media reports. No group publicly accepted responsibility for the mosque attack, but the provincial governor, Ali-Mohammad Azad, blamed a terrorist group that he said would be unveiled to the public once the suspects have been interrogated, IRNA reported. Zahedan is about 1,100 km (700 miles) southeast of Tehran, near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Balochistan province -- which shares a border with Pakistan -- is the site of frequent clashes involving Iranian police, drug dealers and armed groups. The province is located on a major narcotics-smuggling route between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Azad said information on the arrested terrorist group would be unveiled to the public once interrogations were complete. \"The terrorists and notorious gang planned to stir order and security in the province on the eve of (the June 12 presidential) elections, using ongoing insecurity in our eastern neighbors,\" he said Thursday. Several days of mourning were reported to be under way for victims of the explosion. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line cleric who led Friday prayers in Tehran, said there were signs that the United States and Israel were involved in the mosque bombing, IRNA reported. The cleric, who put the death toll at 25, condemned the bombing before a congregation on the Tehran University campus. CNN's Shirzad Bozorghmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gunmen fire on campaign office for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, .\nTwo adults and child wounded in attack; Ahmadinejad not present .\nAttack happened near where Shia mosque bombed Thursday, killing up to 20 .\nNo group has accepted responsibility, but local governor blamed terrorist group .","id":"08d845c78055627eb898cb74bc38274794351b17"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Free elections 20 years ago this week in Poland marked the unraveling of the Soviet bloc of Eastern European nations and the beginning of market reforms. Shipyard workers hold Solidarity trade union flags on the anniversary of free elections in Poland. The events of June 1989 also marked the turning point for companies like KGHM, which has grown into a global player in the world's copper market and one of Poland's largest companies with 18,000 employees. \"A lot of changes have happened since that moment, since 1989,\" said Zbigniew Klich, a development engineer who has worked at a company copper smelter near Lubin for more than 30 years. \"This is the Poland of my dreams,\" Klich said. \"Even though I will probably retire in the next few months I feel so fortunate to have seen the last 20 years in my professional career.\" The financial crisis has had minimal impact on the company so far. \"In comparison to other sectors of the Polish economy, the commodity business has been doing quite well,\" said Jarek Romanowski, sales director of KGHM. Poland's export prowess has led the nation to become one of the great success stories of former communist bloc economies. In 2008, it ranked 22nd in the world with more than $190 billion in exports, ahead of Australia and India, according to the CIA Factbook. The country's economy has grown every year since 1992, and bucked the recessionary trend of other European Union nations by expanding its economy by just under 1 percent in the first quarter of this year. \"Poland is not an island and we are very much linked to other EU countries so a lot depends on the performance of the German economy,\" said Dominik Radziwill, Poland's deputy finance minister. \"But even with the current forecasts which are really pessimistic for the German economy, we still think Poland should be doing relatively OK.\" Leszek Balcerowicz was the country's first Finance Minister after the fall of communism and initiated Poland's free market reforms. \"Socialism (was) a very bad system and everybody knew that it was a bad system without any hope for a better life,\" he said. \"Transition to a better system is sometimes difficult but you have to overcome these difficulties on the way to a better regime.\" One industry that exploded was Poland's once state-run media industry, which now includes eight daily national newspapers plus dozens of television channels and radio stations. \"The transformation had many phases in Poland. The state totally withdrew from the press market and step-by-step, private TV stations appeared,\" said Polish journalist Adam Mischnik. \"So, today we have a pluralist media which represents very different tendencies.\" Janusz Weychert and Mariusz Walter founded the ITI group, a leading private media company in Poland with television stations - including the influential news network TVN24 - as well as a home video, new media and theatrical production operations. \"Under one umbrella there's various projects put together,\" Weychert said. \"The advantage it gives us is the free flow of content and information between all the platforms.\" Communism and absolute media control may have only been twenty years ago - but in Poland today, certainly for the country's youth and the media, it's a lifetime. Maciej Popowicz set up \"Nasza-Klasa\" - Poland's equivalent to Facebook -- with three friends in 2006. Its success made 25-year-old Popowicz one of Poland's youngest millionaires. He's also too young to remember what life was like under Communism. \"I'm very glad that I live in these times because we have so many more opportunities than our older friends so for example, you couldn't manage your own business twenty years ago, now there is an opportunity to do that,\" Popowicz said. \"So you can develop your ideas, create your own firms.\" But market reforms haven't been kind to the historic shipyards of Gdansk, where the Solidarity Union movement began with union leader and future Polish president, Lech Walesa. Marching with him was Brunom Baranowski, a shipyard worker for more than 30 years who spent nearly a year in jail for civil disobedience for his role in the union. In the 20 years since the end of communism, he's seen the shipyard workforce shrink from 18,000 to about 2,700 today. The shipyard, in danger of going bankrupt, was given a lifeline this week when Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition, met with Polish officials and told the press an EU bailout of the shipyard was likely. Still, Baranowski said \"shipyard workers don't have much reason to be happy. Over the past 20 years we have been trying to save our jobs.\" While the fortune of his nation improved, he still lives in the same tiny apartment as he did in 1989 and has the same worries about his job. But Brunom says it was all worth the fight. \"Of course it's much better. In the old days all you could get at the shop was vinegar and mustard. To get anything else you had to know people. Now everything is available,\" he said. CNN's Fred Pleitgen and Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Twenty years after democracy Poland has strongest economy in former Soviet bloc .\nThe country's economy has grown every year since 1992 .\nBy export it ranks 22nd in the world, ahead of Australia and India .\nShipyards like Gdansk, home of the democracy movement, struggle to survive .","id":"b3b26c6fa49fe84b4a87eeeb052866831d858edf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leszek Balcerowicz, Poland's former finance minister, recently said his country is enjoying \"its best period in 300 years.\" CNN looks at how the country emerged from communism to become one of eastern Europe's most stable and thriving democracies. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa addresses striking workers in Gdansk, Poland in 1989. Modern Poland gained independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Almost six million Poles, including the majority of the country's large Jewish population, died during the devastating six-year conflict. The shadow of Stalin continued to loom large over Poland after the war, when the communist-dominated government ensured that Poland would become a Soviet satellite state for the next 40 years. The following decades were punctuated by revolts against the repressive authoritarian regime in Warsaw, but none had a greater impact on Poland's political future than events in 1980 at a shipyard in western Poland. With a struggling economy and rumors of corruption and mismanagement within the state causing widespread discontent, a series of strikes by workers paralyzed the country. Eventually the government was forced to negotiate and on August 31, 1980, workers at the massive Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, signed a deal giving workers the right to strike and form trade unions. This heralded the creation of the Solidarity movement, which would ultimately be instrumental in bringing Poland's communist era to an end. The presence in the Vatican at the time of Polish-born Pope John-Paul II was also a significant influence on the movement throughout the 1980s, as the Catholic church had remained a very potent force in Polish life. The Pope even made a visit to the country in 1979. Despite Soviet-endorsed attempts to slow the erosion of the regime's grip on power -- including the declaration of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981 which outlawed Solidarity -- Poland's worsening economic situation, compounded by further nationwide strikes, meant that the government had no alternative but to negotiate a date for free elections with Walesa and the Solidarity movement. Solidarity members won a stunning victory in the election of 1989, taking almost all the seats in the Senate and all of the 169 seats they were allowed to contest in the Sejm or parliament. This gave them substantial influence in the new government. Activist and journalist Tadeusz Mazowiecki was appointed prime minister, while Lech Walesa was elected as president the following year. Were you in Poland in 1989? Send us your memories . After years of economic mismanagement under the communists, Poland embarked on a painful reform program under finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz -- especially in traditional heavy industries such as coal and steel -- which moved away from the inefficient state-controlled system of economic planning. Despite growing unemployment and a dilapidated infrastructure, Poland was slowly transformed into an investment-friendly, market economy. Banking and lending policies were reformed, while newly reshaped ownership relations, independent enterprises and strengthened domestic competition all had a massive impact. Over a relatively short period of time, Poland had become one of the most dynamically developing economies in Europe and by the mid-1990s, it became known as the \"Tiger of Europe.\" Poland also liberalized its international trade during this period. The national currency -- the zloty -- became convertible to other currencies and internal convertibility was also established, providing another platform for dynamic economic growth. New markets in countries that had been treated not so long before as ideological as well as economic enemies were opened up to Polish companies. The EU and U.S. were now the key markets for Polish goods. This realignment of policy was emphasized by its accession into the European Union in 2004. It had also joined NATO in 1999. Unfortunately the continuing problem of high unemployment and the promise of better salaries encouraged many Poles to work in other EU countries after 2004. However this trend started to reverse in 2008 as the Polish economy enjoyed a boom period. Politically, Poland has also successfully transformed itself into a fully democratic country. Since 1991 the Polish people have voted in parliamentary elections and four presidential elections -- all free and fair. Incumbent governments have transferred power smoothly and constitutionally in every instance to their successors.","highlights":"Poland was ruled by Soviet-backed regime after the Second World War .\nSolidarity movement became a key factor in the fall of communist regime .\nCentrally-planned economic system replaced by free market economy .\nPoland joined the European Union in 2004 .","id":"4710a000e96bb7b1155180943a006b2e65d576b6"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- A Brazilian supreme court judge on Tuesday suspended a lower court's order that would have given custody of a 9-year-old boy to the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, where he was to be reunited with his American father. David Goldman has been fighting for custody of his son, Sean, since the boy's mother took him to Brazil in 2004. Judge Marco Aurelio argued against taking Sean Richard Goldman from what has been his home for almost five years to the United States \"in an abrupt manner.\" Doing so, he wrote in his order published on the court's Web site, could subject the boy to psychological harm. The decision, which means the entire Brazilian supreme court will take up the case, comes a day after a superior court justice ordered Sean taken Wednesday to the U.S. Consulate in Rio and handed over to his father, David Goldman, who arrived Tuesday from New Jersey to pick up his son. The two were separated in June 2004 when the boy's Brazilian mother, Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro, told Goldman -- to whom she was then married -- that she was taking the boy on a two-week vacation to Brazil. Watch Goldman describe his fight to get his son back \u00bb . Mother and son never returned. Instead, Bianchi stayed in Brazil, where she divorced Goldman and married a Brazilian lawyer. But in September, Bianchi's death during childbirth led Goldman to renew his efforts to regain custody of their son. Sean, who has been living with his half-sister and his stepfather, was to have spent a 30-day adaptation period in the United States before his father gained full custody. That prospect sparked outrage from an attorney representing the boy's Brazilian relatives. \"The child wasn't heard,\" lawyer Sergio Tostes said. \"The child said many times that he wanted to stay in Brazil. This is not human, and it is a cruelty.\" The case has attracted high-level attention. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to the case Monday, telling reporters, \"I also wanted just to take this opportunity to recognize the decision by the Brazilian federal court today ordering a young American boy, Sean Goldman, to be reunited with his father, David. It's taken a long time for this day to come, but we will work with the Goldman family and the Brazilian government, with the goal of ensuring this young boy's return.\" David Goldman's attorney, Patricia Apy, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. CNN's Rob Frehse and Alessandra Castelli contributed to this report.","highlights":"Brazilian supreme court judge suspends lower court's order .\nLower court had ordered son taken to dad at U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro .\nBoy's parents divorced after mom moved with son to Brazil in 2004 .\nMom died in childbirth in 2008, leaving boy with stepfather .","id":"ee8963a896694bd9c8eef0fd7b2cf00cfaecaec8"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Recently, I discovered that one of my best friends had ditched me after I logged onto Facebook and found her profile had disappeared from my page. When you break up with a best friend online, things can get murky. We'd been having problems that had culminated in a huge argument the day before, but I figured we'd get through it. I figured wrong. Still, being given the heave-ho by way of a social networking site? My first reaction was to laugh. I mean, we're adults. Unfriending me seemed tantamount to toilet-papering my locker or scribbling my phone number on the boy's locker room wall. We had been close for well over a decade. We supported each other through parental deaths, and together we'd bitched and moaned about men for untold hours. I loved her amazing daughter -- buying that little girl Christmas presents was the highlight of my holidays. Suddenly, that was all gone. Suddenly, I wasn't laughing. I was crying. We know what to do when boyfriends dump us: sob. We eat everything in the house or take to our beds and refuse all sustenance. Usually, there's yelling -- at least at my house. The Frisky: How NOT to help heal a broken heart . We purge them from our lives. We delete all their emails and erase their number from every electronic device we own. But when you break up with a girlfriend, things are murkier. For one thing, people don't feel sorry for you the way they do when a romantic relationship bites the dust. You can't blame them; it's not like you were in love or planning a future with your friend. (Even though you assumed she'd be part of it.) So, getting wound up about the loss seems somehow, I don't know, less legit. Is it? It hurts as much as any other heartbreak. Victoria Clark made a short film on the subject: \"Ruminations on You and Me.\" I asked her about the process of grieving a dead friendship. \"As a woman, I expect men to come and go because of the nature of love,\" she explained. \"But your girls are supposed to be on your side, no matter what ... That's what I wanted to believe for a long time, but now I know that that's not always reality.\" The Frisky: What are your rules for friendship on Facebook? A friend of mine was saddened when her BFF excised my friend from her life after landing a boyfriend. \"She hated being single, so if there was a man anywhere in the vicinity, you'd be kicked to the curb,\" my pal explained wistfully. Even forewarned with this knowledge, it stung when she was dismissed from her friend's life. The Frisky: Five ways to unfriend a friend . Unlike my breakup, there was no dramatic defriending. This woman utilized the passive-aggressive method of choice: the slow fade. \"I remember buying her a birthday gift, but somehow she just never had the time to come collect it.\" The Frisky: Ten songs about friendship . Like any other kind of relationship, friendships end. It's not like I've never dumped a pal. I've gotten back together with a few. Because I miss her and love her, I gave making up a shot with this one. A few weeks after I was banished from her Facebook page, I emailed her an apologetic note. I never heard back. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Author gets ditched on Facebook by good friend and doesn't know what to do .\nPeople don't feel as sorry for you with a friend breakup .\nYou can't blame your friend -- it's not like you were in love .\nLike any other kind of relationship, friendships end but you have to go on .","id":"e9b176c1d425c27a63dbf74af257dfd7c0f1f4af"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- The Brazilian air force said that debris picked up Thursday near where officials believe Air France Flight 447 crashed Monday into the Atlantic Ocean was not from the plane. Image released by the Brazilian Air Force shows oil slicks in the water near a debris site. \"It has been verified that the material did not belong to the plane,\" Brigadier Ramon Borges Cardoso told reporters in Recife about the material recovered Thursday. \"It is a pallet of wood that is utilized for transport. It is used in planes, but on this flight to Paris, there was no wooden pallet.\" He added that oil slicks seen on the ocean were not from the plane, either, and that the quantity of oil exceeded the amount the plane would have carried. \"No material from the airplane was picked up,\" he said. The announcement left open the question of whether other debris that had not yet been plucked from the ocean might be from the plane. On Wednesday, searchers recovered two debris fields and had identified the wreckage, including an airplane seat and an orange float as coming from Flight 447. Officials now say that none of the debris recovered is from the missing plane. Helicopters had been lifting pieces from the water and dropping them on three naval vessels. Brazilian Air Force planes spotted an oil slick and four debris fields Wednesday but rain and rough seas had kept searchers from plucking any of the debris from the water. Officials said searchers had found objects in a circular 5-kilometer (3-mile) area, including one object with a diameter of 7 meters (23 feet) and 10 other objects, some of which were metallic, Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral said. The debris was found about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha Islands, an archipelago 355 kilometers off the northeast coast of Brazil. Eleven aircraft and five ships are engaged in the search, including airplanes from France and the United States. Earlier Thursday, a public interfaith service was held for the 228 victims at a 200-year-old Catholic Church in downtown Rio. Joining family members were members of the Brazilian armed forces, who are leading the recovery effort. \"Whoever has faith, whoever believes in God, believes in the eternity of the soul,\" said Mauro Chavez, whose friend lost a daughter on the flight. \"This means everything.\" Investigators have not yet determined what caused the plane to crash. The flight data recorders have not been recovered, and the plane's crew did not send any messages indicating problems before the plane disappeared. A Spanish pilot said he saw an \"intense flash\" in the area where Flight 447 came down off the coast of Brazil, while a Brazilian minister appeared to rule out a midair explosion. Meanwhile, a report in France suggested the pilots were perhaps flying at the \"wrong speed\" for the violent thunderstorm they flew into early on Monday before the Airbus A330's systems failed. Le Monde newspaper reported that Airbus was sending a warning to operators of A330 jets with new advice on flying in storms. As several ships trawled the debris site in the Atlantic, Brazil's defense minister said a 20-kilometer (12-mile) oil slick near where the plane, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, went down indicated it probably did not break up until it hit the water. If true, that would rule out an in-flight explosion as the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters. However, both pilots of an Air Comet flight from Lima, Peru, to Lisbon, Portugal, sent a written report on the bright flash they said they saw to Air France, Airbus and the Spanish civil aviation authority, the airline told CNN. \"Suddenly, we saw in the distance a strong and intense flash of white light, which followed a descending and vertical trajectory and which broke up in six seconds,\" the captain wrote. Air Comet declined to identify the pilot's name but said he waited until landing to inform Air Comet management about what he saw. Air Comet then informed Spanish civil aviation authorities. The Air Comet co-pilot and a passenger aboard the same flight also saw the light. But Robert Francis, former vice chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said the question of determining where a plane broke up \"is a very difficult one to deal with.\" He told CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\" that \"there are lots of things that cause a plane to go out of control.\" He added that extremely strong winds are not unusual near Brazil. Pilots who fly over that part of the world keep track of radar and \"are very, very wary about the weather as they go back and forth down in that area.\" Jobim said currents had strewn the debris widely and that the search area had been expanded to 300 square miles. Watch report on the struggle to find pieces of the plane \u00bb . The Airbus A330 went down about three hours after beginning what was to have been an 11-hour flight. No survivors have been found. Map of Flight AF 447's flight path \u00bb . The NTSB said Wednesday it has accepted an invitation from the French aviation accident investigation authority, the Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses, to aid in the investigation. The aircraft's computer system did send about four minutes of automated messages indicating a loss of cabin pressure and an electrical failure, officials have said. Some investigators have noted that the plane flew through a severe lightning storm. Foul play has not been ruled out. Air France had received a bomb threat May 27 for a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Paris, sources in the Argentine military and police told CNN on Wednesday. Watch as experts question whether recovery is possible \u00bb . According to the officials, who had been briefed on the incident and declined to be identified because of the ongoing investigation, the Air France office in Buenos Aires received the threat from a man speaking Spanish. Authorities checked the Boeing 777 and found nothing. Security was tightened during check-in for Flight 415, which left on time and without incident, the officials said. Most of the people on Flight 447 came from Brazil, France and Germany. The remaining victims were from 29 other countries, including three passengers from the United States. CNN correspondent John Zarrella in Rio de Janeiro and journalist Brian Byrnes from Buenos Aires contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wreckage, debris found earlier is not from missing plane, air force says .\nConflicting reports over why Air France jet crashed with 228 aboard .\nOil slick appears to rule out midair fire or explosion, Brazil minister says .\nBut two Spanish pilots say they saw \"intense flash\" in area where jet crashed .","id":"1bbe0e3fb9a75a309d7fbb7c8daaca5cc1ee99e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For three years, the thieves crept into some of the poshest homes in the most exclusive enclaves in the nation. The gated community of Bel Air was one of several enclaves targeted by the so-called \"Hillside Burglars.\" Police said they finally have a break in the case, and wealthy residents of Los Angeles, California, are breathing a sigh of relief. \"These guys were real good,\" said L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss, who oversees Bel Air where some of the burglaries were committed. \"They were professionals.\" The thieves hauled away more than $10 million worth of valuables and cash from 150 homes in upscale neighborhoods such as Bel Air, Pacific Palisades and Beverly Hills, police said. Homes of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and multimillionaires were hit. According to CNN affiliate KABC, country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and former Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing were among the victims. DNA evidence led the LAPD to suspected ringleader Troy Corsby Thomas, 45, of Los Angeles. He was arrested near L.A. International Airport last weekend. Police say Thomas led a gang dubbed the \"Hillside Burglars\" that targeted the neighborhoods overlooking Sunset Boulevard. \"It's a very euphoric, satisfying feeling that we got this person,\" said the police Lt. David McGill. \"It's a very frustrating feeling to tell the victims, 'I'm sorry I don't have any news for you.' Finally when we got some good detective work and breaks, things started lining up.\" Police are looking for more suspects linked to the three-year spree but are not naming them. Thomas is being held on $2 million bail, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office. He is likely to stay in custody because he must reveal the origin of any funds used to pay the bail, authorities said. At a court appearance Tuesday, Thomas pleaded not guilty to two charges of residential burglary, one in January 2006 and another in March 2008. The preliminary court date for Thomas will be set on January 29 and additional charges are expected to be filed, according to CNN affiliates KABC and KTLA. Police will not comment on Thomas' background. The Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas told police he had been working as an auto broker. The Hillside Burglars have not struck since Thomas' arrest, police said. \"Hallelujah!\" said L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. \"Even a crafty crook does make his mistake and that's what happened to this one.\" Some residents are cautiously optimistic. \"We're delighted,\" said Robert Ren\u00e9, president of Brentwood Homeowners Association, which represents about 800 homes. \"We are very fortunate to have the due diligence of the Westside LAPD.\" Harvey I. Saferstein, president of the Bel Air Association, agreed, \"We are all obviously thankful and relieved.\" The financially strapped LAPD created a Hillside Burglars task force. People donated cameras and other equipment and police stepped up patrols. The outlay amounted to \"millions of dollars,\" Rosendahl said. Neighborhood watch groups formed. One in Bel Air donated $8,000 for infrared cameras that can spot burglars in the dark. Robert Ringler, president of the Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, hosted a community meeting with the LAPD at the five-star Bel Air Hotel a year and a half ago. As swans swam in ponds in the background, about 150 Westside residents sipped Perrier and vented their fears. \"It had gotten to be such an epidemic,\" Ringler said. The impressive mansions -- usually gated and hidden by walls and hedges -- dot the lush hillsides and canyons between the coast and the mountains. The qualities that make them so desirable also make them vulnerable. The seclusion that appeals to upscale homeowners also appeals to thieves. Because many of the homes are tucked into the sides of mountains and canyons, behind gates, it's easy for a thief to escape unseen and hard for police to get there quickly. \"It's the perfect target,\" Ringler said. \"You can access the property and nobody would ever see you.\" Frequently, maids, pool workers and gardeners have access to the property, which allows burglars to pass as the help and slip in unchallenged. According to police and media reports, the methods were sophisticated. Burglars waited till homeowners went on vacation or out for the night. They used lawn furniture and ladders to creep into the second floor, which often lacked alarms. They quickly went in, looked for jewelry, safes and cash, and ducked out with the goods. They never attacked any of the homeowners, preferring stealth to confrontation. Residents say they learned to keep jewelry and other valuables in safety deposit boxes and out of sight. Many added alarm systems and insured their belongings. \"It's not just about money,\" said Robin Stevens, who lives with her husband and son in Brentwood. \"A lot of people lost things of sentimental value.\" Stevens, whose neighbors have been burglarized, said she feels safer knowing that police arrested Thomas, but will continue hiding her mother's antique jewelry and locking the windows. During a two-week trip to the South Pacific last fall, Stevens made sure to e-mail her neighbors, notifying them that she would be gone so they could look out for strangers. Other residents remain skeptical. Pacific Palisades Community Council Chairman Richard G. Cohen said he feels relief but is waiting for a conviction. \"The arrest doesn't mark the end of our concern,\" he said. With the economy in a tailspin, Steve Twining, who serves on the West Los Angeles Police advisory board, believes thefts will continue. \"In these dire economic times, I don't think it's going to dissuade others from trying to do the same thing,\" he said. \"The burglary situation will probably get worse before it gets better.\"","highlights":"Wealthy Bel Air, Beverly Hills residents feel cautious relief .\nPolice say Troy Thomas led gang that stole $10M from 150 upscale homes .\nThomas in custody, pleads not guilty to felony burglary .","id":"bbb94b762ff20aba840b25d6581ebd62f41d6c9e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British authorities and environmental groups were welcoming the launch this week of the world's first biodegradable chewing gum, which they say could help save some of the millions spent on clearing up the mess ordinary gum creates. Manufacturers say the gum decomposes within six weeks. The new gum becomes non-adhesive when dry and decomposes to dust within six weeks, a spokesman for Mexico's Chicza Mayan Rainforest Chewing Gum told CNN. The makers of Chicza say it is the first biodegradable chewing gum ever sold. Environmental and waste management groups told CNN that they, too, believe it is a first. Unlike other gums that contain petrochemicals the natural gum is produced from the sap of the chicozapote tree found in the Mexican rainforest, a spokesman for Chicza told CNN. A spokesman for campaign group Keep Britain Tidy told CNN they welcome any product that can help eradicate the staining on pavements caused by dropped chewing gum. Removing chewing gum litter costs local authorities \u00a3150 million ($222 million) a year, a spokesman for the Local Government Association told CNN. Sixty-five percent of British streets have chewing gum stuck on them, a spokesman from Keep Britain Tidy told CNN. One of the worst-affected areas is Westminster in central London, where a comprehensive gum clean-up would cost \u00a39 million ($13.4 million), according to Westminster City Council. \"Gum litter is a constant problem for us, especially given the vast number of visitors to Westminster every day. We spend \u00a3100,000 ($148,000) a year cleaning ugly blobs of conventional chewing gum off our streets,\" Westminster City Councilor Danny Chalkley said in a written statement. \"It's an incredibly expensive and time-consuming task, so anything that could reduce the problem is very welcome indeed.\" he said. British parliamentarians have called on the government to introduce a tax on chewing gum, with the money raised going toward the cost of gum removal. In Britain, offenders can be fined up to \u00a380 ($119) for discarding used chewing gum on a street. The producer of the new gum is Consorcio Chiclero, which comprises 46 cooperatives with around 2,000 chicleros farmers, working in an area of 1.3 million hectares of rainforest, according to a statement from Chicza. Locals have been extracting the natural chicle gum base from the bark of the chicozapote trees for a century, a spokesman for Chicza told CNN. After years of exporting the gum base to be used as an ingredient in the manufacture of regular chewing gum, the cooperative recently decided to start making its own gum using only chicle gum base and natural flavorings and sweeteners, Chicza said. The company launched its gum in Britain this week. It is available at a chain of supermarkets and Mexican restaurants. The Chicza gum sells for \u00a31.39 ($2.06) for a pack of 12 squares.","highlights":"Authorities, green groups welcome launch of world's first biodegradable gum .\nChewing gum costs millions to remove from city sidewalks .\nManufacturers say new Mexican product decomposes in six weeks .","id":"06c328528f2ba3ab2f45e1cc2b05b82ffd6bd389"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For actress Jane Alexander, the criticism of a $50 million boost in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts is a sequel. Tony-award winning actress Jane Alexander says giving money to the arts will save and create jobs. She was chairman of the agency from 1993 through 1997 when arts funding was cut sharply by the Republican-led Congress, which questioned whether it was an appropriate way to use government money. Now the issue is whether giving money to the arts should have been part of the economic stimulus program. Among those who have criticized the new spending this year is Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama's message to Congress Tuesday. On Monday's \"Larry King Live,\" Jindal said, \"Fundamentally, I don't think $30 million for the federal government to buy new cars, $1 billion for the Census, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts is going to get the economy moving again as quickly as allowing the private sector to create jobs.\" It's no surprise that Alexander disagrees and argues that arts spending can give a vital boost to the economy. The actress, who will appear later this month in a new comedy at the New York theater company Primary Stages called \"Chasing Manet,\" won a Tony Award for her role in the \"The Great White Hope.\" She has been nominated eight times for an Emmy and four times for an Oscar for films including, \"All the President's Men\" and \"Kramer vs. Kramer.\" Alexander spoke to CNN.com last week. CNN: What do you think of the controversy over the $50 million in increased government spending for the arts? Alexander: I think it's long overdue and I was very, very happy to see it. Since 1995-96 we had an incredibly decreased budget for the NEA. Finally we're getting back to where it was when I came in [as chairman]. It's all vitally needed. In fact, the endowment has not kept pace with inflation as other agencies have. ... This $50 million will certainly help a great deal. What people forget is that there are over 2 million people in the United States of America who are professional artists. Those are jobs like any other jobs. The artists have families, they have people for whom they're responsible and they give to their communities. We all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The life part would be health and housing. The liberty part would be our civil rights. And the pursuit of happiness, the arts would come under that. And it's as vital a part of well-being in the United States as anything else. CNN: When you say 2 million artists, could you define artist? Alexander: Well they include everything from writers, painters, all the visual arts spectrum and that's pretty large, including graphic arts. Theater and so on, music, ceramicists, costume designers, makeup artists, filmmakers, it's a huge panoply. CNN: How far can $50 million go? Alexander: Well for the endowment which has had a budget of around $144 million currently, it can go quite a way. When I came in it was about $175 million and then it was cut under my aegis by Congress down to $99 million. CNN: Some people will say that while the NEA may consider this a victory, it's really a pittance, a drop in the bucket, so little money given the challenges many arts organizations are facing today. Alexander. It will help, it will help enormously, because every single NEA grant that goes out is a challenge to the community to come up with the same amount of money, or a 3 to 1. ... By the way, the public should know that within this coming year, we're going to see an awful lot of arts organizations closing. I just came from working at a theater in Pittsburgh, [Pennsylvania] and the International Poetry Forum, which has been going for 43 years, will close its doors this year. The Milwaukee Shakespeare Festival has already closed. The LA [Los Angeles] Opera has laid off 17 percent of its staff. CNN: So this isn't going to be enough to reverse those kinds of things? Alexander: No, but it will challenge the community to understand what the imperiled status of their arts organizations are. It will only help. It will help an enormous amount, and for some organizations, it will make all the difference in their staying alive. Now the NEA this fall gave out 884 grants, totaling $20 million and that was 38 percent of the project cost of the applicants. So 38 percent is a nice healthy piece of change for the cost of a project. CNN: How did you personally get involved in this cause? Alexander: As an actress who spent most of my career in nonprofit theaters, They began with the seed of an NEA grant back in the late 60s, most of them. Today we have about 450 nonprofit theaters across the United States. Back in 1965, when the NEA was founded, there were only about 23 of them. CNN: Your forthcoming play -- is that being done for a nonprofit theater? Alexander: Yes. It's another nonprofit called Primary Stages in New York City, a small theater. What people don't quite understand about theaters is that they never increase their size. They're bound by the number of seats within a given theater, and meanwhile there's inflation and the costs rise. So currently most theaters can never make more than 50 percent of their income from ticket sales. The rest has to be raised. CNN: How's the company doing? Alexander: It had a good play last year, \"Dividing the Estate,\" by Horton Foote, which got a lot of attention but I don't think it made back its nut on Broadway. It transferred from the nonprofit to a commercial venue on Broadway. ... In the film business, independent films are considered nonprofit in many instances. It's interesting to see that an independent won the Academy Award. Of course it was distributed by a major studio. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" started off as an independent. It did extraordinarily well. ... Many of the commercial arts are fed by the nonprofit arts. And that's another thing most people don't fully understand. Where do you think the Tom Hanks, the Cate Blanchetts of the world come from? They come from small venues that are independent and are nonprofit usually and then they move into the mainstream. CNN: What's your attitude about the future, under the Obama administration. Do you think there's reason for hope about the arts, or despair? Alexander: I think there's reason for great hope. President Obama has said repeatedly and he's said it for a couple of years now, that he thinks arts education is vital for children of all ages, starting right away. We have the arts in nursery school anyway, but he believes in institutionalizing the arts so it's part of the curriculum for every child in America. ... Everybody in all walks of life know people who are out of work presently or are about to be out of work. And the same is true for artists. I know so many artists -- for example visual artists, the gallery has closed or it's cut back. Theaters that are no longer going to do productions with more than five actors. And so on. So I know a lot of people out of work: costume designers, makeup people. And let's not forget all the ancillary jobs from having an arts organization in your neighborhood. That includes restaurants, taxicabs, whatever. CNN: Gov. Jindal said he didn't think the arts money should be part of the economic stimulus plan. Alexander: Well what he doesn't understand is that $50 million goes directly ... as a grant to organizations which employ people. It's quick and it's a system that works beautifully and it's done within a year.","highlights":"Jane Alexander: Increasing funds for the arts is a good way to boost economy .\nShe chaired the NEA when Republican-led Congress sharply cut its budget .\nShe says about 2 million Americans are employed as artists of all kinds .\nAlexander: Injecting funds into the arts will quickly support jobs .","id":"e6e5b19179a86490b071beb2a239f07086948b99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than nuclear bomb tests, the suicide of former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun has stunned the South Korean public. While the news has shocked the nation, perhaps the level of surprise at the method wasn't as great. The suicide of former president Roh has shocked South Korea. In a country with one of the highest suicide rates among economically advanced countries, traditional concepts of honor and public \"face\" remain powerful social forces. According to World Health Organization figures, rates of suicide in South Korea doubled to 21.9 deaths per 100,000 people between 1996 and 2006. The United Nations cites that 90 percent of suicide cases were caused by mental disorders, but socio-cultural and economic pressures play a large part. While each case of suicide has a number of complex personal issues, the connection between suicide and honor has a historical basis in many Asian countries. \"There are cultural histories in Asian societies of honorable suicide, such as hara-kiri in Japan, where the person assumes total responsibility,\" said Dr. Erminia Colucci, research fellow at the University of Melbourne's School of Population Health. \"In many western countries, a suicide in someone of Roh's position might be more about looking for understanding. In collectivist societies, like Japan and Korea, where a person's identity is more tied closely to other groups, suicides can be seen as the ultimate way to rebuild or reclean your image, if it changes.\" \"I think there is something paradoxical in it. On one hand, some see it as a way of maintaining status and restoring honor to you and the people you represent, but the pressure from that group could contribute to you considering suicide.\" Roh was under investigation for corruption and some believe the pressures he felt just became too great. \"Roh had come to power as a human rights lawyer, as an uneducated outsider pledging to clean up Korean politics, so it was particularly hard on him to have what he stood for and the reality of what happened under his administration. I think that was particularly hard for him to take,\" David King, director of the Korean Studies Institute at the University of Southern California told CNN. Watch more on the rise and fall of Roh . In a suicide note to his family, Roh described his life as \"difficult\" and was sorry for making \"too many people suffer.\" Roh had said he was ashamed about the scandal and in the first round of questioning, he said he was losing face and that he was disappointing his supporters. In South Korea, Roh is the latest and highest profile of recent suicides of public figures. In late 2008, two South Korean actors took their lives. Police cited malicious online rumors as a possible cause for the suicide of Cho Jin-sil in October 2008. The blogs and chat rooms had speculated that she had been pressuring fellow actor Ahn Jae-hwan to repay a debt before he took his own life in September 2008. Video: How South Korean continue mourning \u00bb . High-profile suicides can make for lurid headlines, which Dr Paul Yip, director of the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong, believes are far from helpful in combating suicide rates. \"Common in Asia is to sensationalize suicides, especially among celebrities. Often the local or national media publish lots of details of how it was done. The media (in Hong Kong) has got better in their responsible reporting,\" he said. \"Whenever famous people kill themselves there is an effect on those people who are most vulnerable from a similar age group -- we see this in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan and China, \" said Yip. \"People at risk can see Roh's death as an example and say, 'Well if he can do it, so can I'. Neither Roh nor any of the high-profile people who have committed suicide would have thought about this affect. There are a number of complex issues. There isn't just one that leads someone to take their life.\" Copycat deaths are a worry for Yip, and Colucci agreed that there can be lots of meaning in the method of a suicide, which people may be encouraged to follow. \"The way that Roh died is similar to some of the methods used in Japan, which is interesting. It really suggests it's about the people wanting to relieve the burden they feel they are on others. For young people, it can be really connected to ideas of identity. For many, they feel it's the last thing they have control over,\" said Colucci. Watch CNN's report on Japan's suicide forest . Yip advised the South Korean Ministry of Health during Roh's administration to help them devise a new approach to dealing with mental health issues and the problem of suicide. \"It is sad that Roh, whose government really did a lot to tackle the issue, should have done this. Last year a mental health act was passed by the South Korean government, as it recognized that more steps needed to be taken,\" said Yip. While there are distinct differences between the societies and traditions of Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, Yip was at least encouraged that the Chinese Special Administrative Region has seen a decline in the number of suicide cases since its peak in 2003 of some 1,200 to around 9000 . A key element has been breaking though the taboo of talking about mental health issues, one that Yip believed was common across Asia. \"They've been stigmatized, and very common that it would not be talked about, especially if there is not a good mental health support system in place. Ten years ago in Hong Kong, people didn't want to talk about it.\" However, Yip is well aware of the link between suicide rates and economic change, which many have cited as a reason for suicide rates increasing. \"The rate generally goes up more in Asian countries than the west when there is an economic downturn. For an age group like Roh's, suicide can seem like a very traditional, if extreme way to solve problems. The problems at first are economic, but make people feel great shame or disgrace. There is a large sense of pride in middle-age men and working people.\" Making it acceptable to talk about problems, making people feel connected to their community and having a support system in place were methods Yip believed has helped to reduce those at risk. But it was not just something that charities or governments can work on, Yip said: \"We have to reach out to the main concern groups, it's a multi-layered approach.\"","highlights":"South Korea has one of the highest rates of suicide in developed countries .\nConcepts of honor and \"face\" remain strong social forces in many Asian societies .\nSuicide is a complex mix of issues, but ideas of 'honorable' death persist .","id":"5b62d3c738e9c06c0f38def327aaef5000ae684f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- William Whitaker is certain that somebody in the central Oklahoman community where he lives knows who killed his daughter. Taylor Paschal-Placker, left, and Skyla Jade Whitaker were found shot to death along an Oklahoma road a year ago. The dirt road where the bodies of 11-year-old Skyla Jade Whitaker and Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, were found is too remote for the killings to be the work of a stranger passing through, he says. \"There's absolutely no way that somebody from out of the area could've just stumbled upon the place,\" Whitaker said. \"I know whoever did it told somebody, whether they were drinking or bragging or whatever, and whoever knows just needs to bring the information forward.\" It has been a year since the two friends were shot multiple times in the stomach and chest less than a half a mile from Taylor's home in the rural community of Weleetka, with a population just over 1,000. \"Taylor was shot five times. My daughter was shot eight times. Thirteen shots between two little girls who never did anything to anyone,\" Whitaker said. \"I don't know how a person can go to work, eat or sleep knowing what they did. I couldn't live with that on my conscience, but they've been doing it for a year now.\" Watch father plead for answers in killings \u00bb . In the beginning, hundreds of tips poured in. Authorities pursued leads and analyzed evidence, but a year later, they have no suspects or witnesses leading them to any viable conclusions. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Jessica Brown said during a press conference Monday that authorities have \"good evidence\" in the case but lack the final piece to make an arrest. \"If we could get this one piece of evidence that would help solve this case, that's what we need,\" Brown said Monday. Investigators believe that the killer or killers could be from Okfuskee County, or that a member of the community knows something about what happened to the girls the afternoon of June 4, 2008. \"What we are frustrated about is the lack of cooperation we're getting from members of the public,\" Brown said. She stressed Monday that a $36,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to a conviction. The girls were shot with two different guns, leading to the possibility that two people were involved, Brown said. The OSBI released a sketch of a person wanted for questioning last year, but they have not received information leading to him, she said. But the killings remain fresh in the minds of Oklahomans. A billboard with the girls' faces and a tip hotline has loomed over Interstate 40 for several months. A memorial service was planned for Monday in Weleetka to mark the anniversary. \"I can't go to the dry cleaners, the gym without people asking me, 'what's going on with those two girls?' Everyone in Oklahoma is emotionally involved in this case, and I think it's because it happened to two small children in an area you wouldn't think you'd ever have to worry about,\" Brown said. The same posters adorn storefronts and bulletin boards in banks, restaurants and post offices throughout Okfuskee County, a sparsely populated manufacturing region best known as the birthplace of songwriter Woody Guthrie. Weleetka Police Officer Stacey Rice will never forget the image of the dead girls. He was the second officer on the scene after a relative called 911 around 5:30 p.m. that day. \"I really hope I never see anything like that again. It's just emotionally and visually traumatic. You see two small children lying on the ground like that and it's kind of hard to explain. Makes you want to go find your children,\" said Rice, a father of two teenage boys. \"It took me several minutes to realize what happened, but after a while, it kind of sank in, and that's when emotions started running ... anger, lots of anger, sadness, disbelief. Nobody wanted to believe what had happened.\" The incident stripped the small, close-knit community of its innocence as people came to realize that they weren't safe, Rice said. Parents kept close tabs on their children and started locking their doors. Since then, the guard has come down, Rice said. \"I don't think the fear level is as high as it was. People are kind of aware of it, that something like this can happen. They're still cautious, but I don't think as cautious,\" he said. \"Just the monotony of everyday life, the basic routine, people get used to it and they forget about the dangers we face every day. We're not oblivious, but we put it in the back of our mind.\" Skyla's father says he and his wife try to carry on for the sake of their youngest daughter, who asks about her older sister nearly every day. Skyla's room is the same as it was a year ago except for the boxes of cards from across the globe, as far as Japan, expressing sympathy and support. Whitaker finds solace in visiting the memorial site set up at the crime scene, where people leave bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals, cards and other mementos. The most recent addition to the site is an 8-foot cross donated by members of the community. \"I just get a feeling whenever I'm there. It's real quiet out there, and I see the stuff people brought and it's kind of comforting, it really is. I know she's in a better place right now, she don't feel sickness, don't feel pain. She's in a better place, and it's my way of remembering.\"","highlights":"Skyla Jade Whitaker, 11, Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, fatally shot on rural road .\nLocal resident may be involved or have information, girl's father believes .\nBillboard, posters around Okfuskee County serve as reminders of girls' brutal deaths .\nSkyla's father finds comfort in visiting memorial at crime scene .","id":"b61ae40b886051d09adcf081df8e2d9873e5f0e2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers have discovered a previously unknown group of rare monkeys in the forests of Vietnam. The Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys were so skittish, researchers captured a photo of only one: an adult male. Several biologists caught fleeting glimpses of about 15 or 20 Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys in a remote area near the Chinese frontier, the wildlife conservation group Fauna & Flora International said Thursday. The \"bizarre-looking\" monkeys -- on the brink of extinction -- were so skittish around people that researchers were able to snap a photo of just one of them: an adult male scampering through the trees. The monkeys were \"very sensitive to the presence of people, giving warning signs to one another and fleeing\" whenever biologists approached, the group said in a statement. \"It was apparent that the monkeys associated humans with danger -- perhaps due to ongoing threats from hunters,\" the group said. So few Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys have survived in the wild that scientists thought until recently that they were extinct. Now they estimate that roughly 200 remain, mainly in parts of northern Vietnam near the Chinese border. Hunters with a taste for bush meat and the loss of habitat have pushed the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey toward extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. It classifies the primate as critically endangered \"because its population size is estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals, with no subpopulation greater than 50 mature individuals, and it is experiencing a continuing decline.\" Fauna & Flora said it is working with a variety of groups to improve the livelihoods and \"reduce human pressures on the forest ecosystem\" in an effort to safeguard the newly discovered group, which was spotted in a patch of forest in the Quan Ba district of Vietnam's Ha Giang province. The sighting thrilled conservation biologist Le Khac Quyet, described by Fauna & Flora as \"one of the few people in the world who can claim to be an expert on this mysterious species\" and as the person credited with discovering the new group of that species. \"When I saw the Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys ... I was overjoyed,\" he said in the Fauna & Flora statement. \"There is still time to save this unique species, but with just 200 or so left and threats still strong, we need to act now.\"","highlights":"About 15 or 20 Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys seen near Chinese frontier .\nPopulation thought to be \"fewer than 250 mature individuals,\" wildlife group says .\nGroup says monkeys fled humans, possibly because of hunting .\nTo save species, \"we need to act now,\" conservation biologist says .","id":"4861396da28e67513d46a496565dacc378e47835"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings didn't work for Eddie Freas, he sought another way to kick his 20-year drug and alcohol addiction. Eddie Freas fights drug addiction by putting all his energy into training for triathlons. He swam 2.4 miles. He biked 112 miles. He ran 26.2 miles. The Pennsville, New Jersey, resident found relief in triathlons. \"I feel better when I'm working out,\" said Freas, 33. \"It does wonders for the mind. The reason I started running -- it was a switch that went off in my head. I started feeling positive and feeling great about myself.\" Freas spent his youth in pursuit of drugs. At the age of 13, he snuck bottles of Amaretto and rum from his mother's liquor cabinet. He also developed a taste for marijuana and cocaine. By his senior year of high school, Freas was kicked off the wrestling and football teams after failing a drug test. Then in 2007, after a three-day binge, \"I came home and was crying,\" Freas said. \"I was so depressed. I turned on the TV.\" The set was tuned to ESPN, which was airing a story about a former drug addict who competed in triathlons. The program's subject was Todd Crandell, who had lost a college hockey scholarship because of a drug addiction. After 13 years of using drugs, Crandell started competing in Ironman races and championed finding positive ways to fight addiction through his program called Racing for Recovery. \"Having an athletic background, I was drawn to getting back in shape,\" Crandell said. \"It makes you turn intellectually and spiritually fit. Exercise is essential. It decreases addiction, depression and you use it as part of the recovery.\" Freas was entranced by the parallels. \"His whole story seemed like mine,\" Freas said. \"That's why it hit me so much. It was my story but it happened to somebody else. I knew I had to get back into fitness.\" He took a bus to Racing for Recovery's office in Sylvania, Ohio. There, Freas said he learned to \"stay clean and use other things -- fitness, instead of drugs.\" On his first day, Freas pushed himself to run 10 miles. \"It killed me,\" Freas said. \"I was just motivated. I was sore for a week and I gradually got into it. As soon as I started including fitness into my everyday lifestyle, it made it so much easier. It kept me busy and because of the physical fitness, it was making me feel better about myself.\" He pushed himself to run farther and raced in his first Ironman competition in 2008. \"It's different when you use drugs, you temporarily feel good and afterwards, you feel like doing more drugs,\" Freas said. \"When you go for a long run and do physical fitness, you feel good doing it.\" Research in animals and humans show that exercise can be a mild antidepressant. \"It isn't a huge surprise when you consider many positive effects exercise can have with regards to the brain chemistry: dopamine, serotonin, endorphin, epinephrine -- these are all associated with mood altering effects,\" said Dr. Cedric Bryant, the chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. \"If they're able to get this natural high, through a natural endeavor such as exercise, it allows them to replace the means to achieve that high with a more positive approach.\" One study showed that women trying to quit smoking were more successful when they exercised. And the National Institute on Drug Abuse held a conference last year to explore the possible role of physical activity in substance abuse prevention. \"The thought centers around the release of mood-altering brain chemical, mainly endorphins,\" Bryant said. \"It gives you euphoria or what you call 'runner's high.' \" Crandell said some people who battle drug addiction \"want something more than sitting in support groups filled with smoke, complaining about drinking.\" \"I've had some of my naysayers from other programs who say you've taken one addiction and replaced it for another,\" Crandell said. \"I've taken addiction and put into a new focus that includes exercise. Exercise for me is essential to my recovery and well-being.\" The purpose of Racing for Recovery is not to turn everyone into an athlete, but to focus on positive pursuits in a person's life. \"Whatever you lost during your addiction, that should be your Ironman, not just running,\" Crandell said. \"If your goal is to become a teacher, let that be your Ironman.\" After Freas spent six months in Ohio, he returned to his hometown. \"I didn't want to come back home, because this was where I did all the dirt, all the partying and stuff,\" Freas said. \"As time went on, I had to come back here. My life is turned around. I got to help people in my hometown.\" Back in New Jersey, Freas helped train Dustin Deckard, 19, a former high school star wrestler, who is recovering from a four-year heroin addiction. Deckard wanted to get clean after a near-fatal overdose. \"I have to be clean the rest of my life,\" Deckard said. \"Sometimes that overwhelms me. I just feel that sometimes it's not fair that other people can go out and have fun and drink and do whatever at a party. But me -- if I do anything -- it's off. I can't stop. I definitely have troubles with that.\" Freas and Deckard have developed a brotherhood. \"I know how he was feeling, being down, not wanting to use drugs,\" Deckard said. \"I just relate to him in every way. We both used. He's also into sports and into wrestling like I was. That's what's cool.\" This Sunday, Freas and Deckard head to Racing for Recovery's half triathlon at Monroe, Michigan where the teen will race for the first time.","highlights":"New Jersey man finds solace in exercise after spending youth on drugs .\nEddie Freas now member of group that advocates physical fitness in place of drugs .\nFreas competes in Ironman and also mentors a New Jersey teenager .","id":"3ccc6b28d4b2d86f47bb351d8c8fb41004e31d31"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Photographer David DeJonge plans to capture a vanishing bit of history Tuesday on a trip to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. Antonio Pierro, 110, of Massachusetts served with the U.S. military in World War I and died in 2007. There, he hopes to photograph 107-year-old Frank Buckles, one of the few men still alive who fought in World War I. Buckles will lay a wreath at the grave of Gen. John J. \"Black Jack\" Pershing, who led U.S. forces in Europe in World War I. The visit comes 90 years to the day after the end of World War I, an occasion that led to Veterans Day in the United States and Armistice Day in other nations. For DeJonge, it's a poignant reminder that time is running out in his quest to find and photograph the few surviving veterans of the war, which raged from 1914 to 1918. \"In my view, America has missed the boat in documenting this part of history,\" said DeJonge, a portrait photographer from Zeeland, Michigan. \"It was such a pivotal moment in global history.\" He has raced the clock for the past two years to photograph the dwindling number of surviving World War I veterans, a mission he embraces with a keen appreciation for the ticking clock: Eight of 12 veterans he has photographed in the past two years are now dead. \"It's a tragic loss: a tragic loss for the project and for global history,\" he said. \"These are the last breaths of the last souls who witnessed one of the most horrific wars this world has ever seen.\" Watch photo sessions with remaining veterans \u00bb . DeJonge knows of only 10 living veterans worldwide who fought during World War I. Four live in Britain, two in Australia, two in France and two in the United States: Buckles and 108-year-old John Babcock of Spokane, Washington, who served with Canadian forces during World War I, DeJonge said. Each week or month that passes, it seems, brings news of an aging veteran succumbing before DeJonge can find the time and money to photograph him. Not long ago, he said, two Jamaicans who fought with the British during World War I died. The last known German, French and Austro-Hungarian veterans died in the last year as well. \"These are the last of the last,\" he said. DeJonge said he became interested in photographing war veterans in 1996, when he worked on a project to chronicle U.S. veterans of several wars. The subjects included two men who served during World War I. He tried to interest a photography organization in a national project to document the remaining U.S. World War I veterans -- about 600 were alive in the mid-1990s, DeJonge said -- but that didn't happen. So he set out two years ago to try to do it on his own. DeJonge has received some financial help here and there, he said, but has paid most costs himself. \"I have paid about $100,000 of my own money,\" he said. He spends about half his time at home in Michigan, taking photographs to earn his living. He spends the other half conducting research, traveling to points distant or photographing aging vets. \"I have an incredibly supportive wife,\" he said. He is trying to find money and time to take pictures of two vets in Australia and two in France, he said. And he would love to check out unconfirmed reports of an elderly man in the Ukraine who says he served with the Russian military during what also is known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars. In March, he donated nine portraits of World War I veterans that the Pentagon plans to display permanently. He traveled to Washington that month with Buckles, who drove an ambulance in Britain and France during the war as a corporal in the U.S. Army. In a White House ceremony in March, President Bush paid tribute to Buckles, who said he lied about his age and enlisted at age 15. \"Mr. Buckles has a vivid recollection of historic times, and one way for me to honor the service of those who wore the uniform in the past and those who wear it today is to herald you, sir, and to thank you very much for your patriotism and your love for America,\" he said during the March ceremony. DeJonge and Buckles plan to drive Tuesday from Buckles' cattle farm in Charles Town, West Virginia, to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. The photographer said he feels \"just an unbelievable respect\" for men and women who served their country. And he savors the living history lessons they provide. \"It really is like stepping back in time,\" he said.","highlights":"David DeJonge photographs the surviving veterans of WWI, which ended in 1918 .\nDeJonge knows of only 10 living veterans worldwide who fought during World War I .\nNine portraits of World War I vets have been donated to the Pentagon .","id":"8211d8fa2249f10a5841abfd13959e554b59ee42"} -{"article":"WEIMAR, Germany (CNN) -- A long narrow road winds through a thick forest up a hill called the \"Ettesberg,\" on the outskirts of Weimar in central Germany. The ovens where tens of thousands of bodies were cremated are restored and working. The road goes on for miles through the forest, but every once in a while you see an old railway station, a tower, or an old structure withering in the German rain. This road was named \"the trail of blood,\" by inmates of the infamous concentration camp Buchenwald, because of the death marches they were forced to undertake as they were deported to work as slave laborers for Nazi Germany's defense industry from 1937 to 1945. \"The trail of blood\" leads straight to the entrance gate of the former concentration camp -- a structure with a huge iron gate in the middle, a tower with a clock above, and arrest cells in the building's wings. U.S. troops saw the horror of the Nazi regime first hand when they came through this gate on April 11, 1945, and found camp inmates starved to the bone, many too weak to stand. \"We couldn't even show our joy at this moment, which we had been waiting for so long,\" said former inmate Zeev Factor, recalling the day American troops came to liberate the camp. Now the camp is getting ready to host President Obama, who has a special relationship with Buchenwald. His great-uncle Charlie Payne, 84, helped liberate a sub-camp here when he was an infantryman fighting in World War II. \"The survivors see President Obama almost like a grandson of theirs,\" said the director of the Buchenwald memorial, Volker Knigge, speaking just outside the front gate. \"The president is related to one of the brave men who came here and saw the Nazi horror first hand. The soldiers only had vague knowledge of what concentration camps actually were, but here they saw people too weak to survive, even after having been liberated.\" Historians estimate that of the 20,000 inmates who were liberated by U.S. troops, 1,000 died shortly after because of exhaustion and the effects of years of starvation. It is easy to see why. Every building in the Buchenwald complex radiates death, suffering and evil. In the crematorium, where tens of thousands of bodies were burned, the ovens have been restored and are fully functional. In a cellar below the cremation room, meat hooks in the walls were used by SS guards to hang and strangle more than 1,000 inmates, many of them women and children. Obama will see these testimonies to the barbarism of the Nazis when he takes a tour of the camp with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He will also meet some of the survivors who Volker Knigge says feel so close to this president.","highlights":"President Obama visits Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, on Friday .\nHis great-uncle helped liberate one of the complex's sub-camps during WWII .\nDirector of Buchenwald camp memorial: Survivors see Obama as a grandson .\nObama will meet some camp survivors during his visit .","id":"89fce279bc22d644d39653c64df9413eb636d9d9"} -{"article":"On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. This week, King traveled to Georgia to learn about the toll military service is taking on two veterans. Chris Tucker, who served three tours in Iraq, suffers from hearing, back, foot problems and still has nightmares. SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- As his tank rolled into Baghdad in April 2003, Chris Tucker mounted his camera to capture the moment. \"It's history; we made history,\" he told CNN back then. \"It's my first war, hopefully my last war.\" He could not have imagined then that six years later, Iraq would still be a combat zone. \"I thought we would get there quick and handle our business and we'd be out,\" Tucker told us this week. \"At least, that's what we were told anyway.\" Tucker received a medical discharge from the Army last year and he now is Officer Chris Tucker of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department. \"You still get to serve your community and your country in other ways,\" he said. At age 26, he is a veteran of three combat tours. The patrol skills he learned on the streets of Baghdad, Fallujah and Sadr City come in handy as he drives his police cruiser around the neighborhoods of his Savannah precinct. \"Some people -- you will be moving around the corner and they will just run,\" Tucker said as he drove his cruiser. \"And you can tell they are favoring one side -- maybe they have a gun.\" He loves his new job, and the joys of fatherhood. His daughter Callie was born three months ago. iReport.com: Send your salute to troops . \"So my life is slowing down,\" Tucker said. \"But I enjoy the slow pace.\" But he hasn't left it all behind. As the war hits the six-year mark, Tucker is part of a history -- and a legacy -- still being written as the military tries to better understand the depth of the damage to those exposed repeatedly to the violence. \"I still have the nightmares and wake up and find myself downstairs and I don't know how I got there,\" Tucker said. \"I still see and dream the same things. ... Faces. Kids' faces. People that you have engaged or you have had contact with. ... You see your colleagues blown up. Things like that.\" He left the Army with a sour taste. He was sent back for his third tour despite the nightmares, depression, major hearing loss and painful injuries to his back and both feet. Then, the Army decided to give him a medical discharge for his back issues even though Tucker believes he could have recovered with rehabilitation. But he tries not to dwell on his frustration. \"I try to distance myself from it as much as I can, because for me, the more I think about it, the more I reflect on what happened and what we did, the more I think the dreams and the nightmares actually come back.\" Tucker is as tired of the Iraq war as anyone, but his experience tells him things can suddenly take a turn for the worse, and so he is skeptical of President Obama's promise to get most combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010. Watch former VP Cheney discuss Iraq war strategy \u00bb . \"I think we are in too deep to pull out,\" Tucker said. \"You can't just commit the way we committed and then say, 'OK, we are done.' ... Politics should not be involved in the way the war is handled.\" There will be no more tours for Tucker, but a colleague on the Savannah-Chatham force will soon deploy for his first Iraq tour, and is being ribbed around the precinct, by Tucker and others, as \"the grandpa going off to war.\" Police Cpl. Randy Powell is 50 years old and became a grandfather just last week. Watch Tucker and Powell tell their stories \u00bb . Powell served nearly 20 years ago in the Persian Gulf War, then in 1992 took an early retirement package when the Army was downsizing after the war. The deal required him to stay on what the military calls the IRR -- the Individual Ready Reserve -- but even as troops were sent to Afghanistan after 9\/11 and then to Iraq for repeat combat tours, Powell heard nothing. Then last year, nearly 15 years after leaving the military, he was told to report to a local Reserve center. Another request came in January of this year. Both times, after some perfunctory paperwork, Powell was sent home. But when he returned home from work one day last month, an overnight letter from the Army had arrived with orders that he was being activated for an Iraq deployment. First, starting next month, he'll have refresher training on radar systems at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. \"They're kind of shocked,\" Powell said of his family. But there are no complaints from Powell -- to the contrary. \"I still feel I am fully capable of being a soldier,\" he told us outside at his police precinct. \"Once a soldier, always a soldier. I find that it's an honor to serve within the military. I enjoyed the military while I was in. Kind of looking forward to getting back in the groove.\"","highlights":"Savannah police officer lives with physical, mental injuries from Iraq war .\nVeteran is skeptical about plans to pull out of Iraq .\n50-year-old colleague on force is being called back into service .\nHe's not complaining -- \"Once a soldier, always a soldier,\" he says .","id":"e3f131a91da04fdcb04197aac6f101ad9beb11b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An SUV carrying almost two dozen undocumented immigrants crashed in Arizona over the weekend, killing 10 people and injuring several others, state police reported Sunday. This Ford Excursion was packed with 22 passengers inside when it crashed in Arizona late Saturday night. The Ford Excursion crashed at about 11:55 p.m. Saturday in a remote area about 30 miles north of the Mexican border, ejecting almost all the 22 passengers inside, police said in a statement. In addition to the dead, 12 people were hospitalized. The identity of the driver, passengers and owner of the Excursion were not released.","highlights":"SUV is packed with almost two dozen undocumented immigrants .\nFord Excursion crashes about 30 miles north of Mexican border in remote area .\nAlmost all of the 22 people jammed inside are ejected from vehicle .\nIn addition to 10 dead, 12 people are hospitalized .","id":"4507e1fc11bdd95990cdc7da86b7856e67723361"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eighteen people, including two soldiers, were killed Saturday in a gunbattle between the Mexican army and organized-crime suspects in the Mexican resort town of Acapulco, the Mexican Ministry of Defense said Sunday. Mexican soldiers hold rifles Saturday during a clash with organized-crime suspects in Acapulco. The incident began about 7 p.m., when the soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco \"to exploit information obtained through an anonymous tip,\" the ministry said in a statement. The soldiers were met by gunfire, it said. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Two soldiers and 16 gunmen were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. The gunmen were not identified, but the statement called them \"members of organized crime.\" Authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said. CNN's Arthur Brice and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Luisa Calad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mexican soldiers, organized-crime suspects fight in Acapulco, authorities say .\nTwo soldiers, 16 \"members of organized crime\" killed; nine other soldiers wounded .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nSoldiers were investigating anonymous tip, says Mexican Defense Ministry .","id":"c88a4a0f6eb06ad55b31073e8a6ed8d985829057"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ken Ballen is president of Terror Free Tomorrow: the Center for Public Opinion, a nonprofit institute that researches attitudes toward extremism. Amjad Atallah co-directs the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, a think tank that promotes ideas across the ideological spectrum. Kenneth Ballen says Iranians overwhelmingly favor better relations with the United States. (CNN) -- In a new public opinion poll before Iran's critical June 12 presidential election, by large margins, most Iranians said they support an American-Iranian rapprochement for bringing a new era of peace to the Middle East. Surveyed on a wide range of issues, Iranians overwhelmingly favor better relations with the United States and greater democracy for Iran. The poll shows that the Iranian public remains far removed from the stereotypes of apocalyptic fanatics commonly asserted in some circles in the United States. The survey suggests that Iranians instead are a people with self-confidence and hope in a more democratic future. It also reveals a population with a strong awareness that the United States is as much a potential ally as it is now seen as a current threat. This holds much promise for U.S. national security interests in the region. These are some of the many findings from a new nationwide public opinion survey of Iran, to be released Monday. Independent and uncensored nationwide surveys of Iran are rare. Typically, pre-elections polls in Iran are either conducted or monitored by the Iranian government and other affiliated interest groups. Consequently, they are notoriously untrustworthy. By contrast, our poll -- the third in a series over the past two years -- was conducted by telephone from a neighboring country, uncensored, with time-tested methodology. Funding for the survey was provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The poll was led by Terror Free Tomorrow: the Center for Public Opinion and the New America Foundation, with fieldwork by KA Europe SPRL. The full results and methodology are available at terrorfreetomorrow.org. The survey was conducted from May 11 to 20, with 1,001 random interviews proportionally distributed covering all 30 provinces of Iran, and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Though our poll results show President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the lead, it appears that that none of the presidential candidates will pass the 50 percent threshold needed to automatically win; a second-round runoff between the two highest finishers -- as things stand, Ahmadinejad and Mir Hussein Moussavi -- is likely. Regardless of whom they may vote for, the No. 1 priority Iranians have for their government is improving the Iranian economy, very closely followed by ensuring free elections, a free press and better trade and relations with the West. It is in this context that the Iranian people strongly support a fundamental change in American-Iranian relations. Right now, Iranians consider the United States and Israel as the greatest -- and only -- threats to Iran. As a result, more than six out of every 10 Iranians oppose any peace deal with Israel and are in favor of the government of Iran providing military and financial assistance to Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as providing military and financial assistance to Iraqi Shiite militias. A majority of Iranians also favor Iran developing nuclear weapons. These \"hard-line\" attitudes dramatically change, however, as part of a potential deal with the United States. More than 70 percent of Iranians favor providing full access to inspectors and a guarantee not to develop or possess nuclear weapons, in return for outside aid and investment. In another consistent trend over the past two years, 77 percent of Iranians also back normal relations and trade with the United States. Indeed, as part of a deal with the United States, 54 percent of Iranians would endorse the Iranian government ending support for Iraqi militias instead of providing military assistance. Rather than supporting the destruction of the state of Israel, as they do now, as part of a deal with the United States, a majority of Iranians would even favor recognizing the state of Israel. Greater democracy, economic progress and good relations with the United States are the ultimate goals for most Iranians. In another indication of the public's strong support for a more open and fully democratic system of government, 77 percent said they support a political system where the supreme leader, along with all leaders, can be chosen and replaced by a free and direct vote of the people. The vision of the Iranian people for a more democratic future, with normal trade and relations between Iran and the United States, remains the consensus over our three nationwide surveys. Iranians also view their support for Ahmadinejad -- or whoever might be elected the next president of Iran -- as consistent with those goals. The Iranian people are apparently looking to their next president, whether or not it's Ahmadinejad, to be a Persian Nixon going to China. They want a tough negotiator to bring home a deal for Iran. His mandate is not to continue current hard-line polices with the United States but to change -- if the United States, in turn, is willing to recognize the Islamic Republic and end its policy seeking regime change in Tehran. For Washington, this means that the Iranian people are not an obstacle and that a real bargain can be struck that would find popular support. But the Iranian people are endorsing a negotiating position that leaves little time and much room for miscalculation. President Obama needs to integrate this reality into his strategy for the greater Middle East and, once the elections are complete, engage Iran on the potential of a new strategic relationship. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ken Ballen and Amjad Atallah.","highlights":"Ballen, Atallah: Most Iranians are not extremists; they favor peace with U.S.\nThey say poll shows overwhelming support for negotiations .\nPoll finds Iranian support for a deal regardless of whether Ahmadinejad is re-elected .","id":"cd8a32b30de396821807af26e4a65fe030d56996"} -{"article":"Editor's note: James Alan Fox is Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice and professor of law, policy and society at Northeastern University in Boston. Fox has written 16 books, including \"Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder\" and is writing a book on school violence and security. James Alan Fox says perpetrators of mass shootings usually do not suddenly go berserk. (CNN) -- Massacre\/suicide has become an all too familiar sight on the electronic pages of this and other news sites. But Tuesday's rampage in Samson, Alabama -- with a body count reaching to the double digits -- forces us to struggle mightily in search of plausible explanations and effective solutions. What could have prompted 28-year-old Michael McLendon to shoot to death his mother, grandmother, uncle, cousin and six others -- some of whom appear just to have been in the worst place at the worst time -- before turning the gun on himself? Mayor Clay King summarized the collective bewilderment in Samson in the immediate aftermath of the bloodshed. \"I don't think anybody has any idea of what the motive is,\" he said. In just over a few moments of horror, this rural community of a couple thousand residents that hadn't had a single homicide in well over a decade, based on FBI crime reports, now had a multitude of questions about the will to kill. \"Apparently something just snapped,\" speculated Wynnton Melton, mayor of Geneva, Alabama, the community just outside Samson where McLendon ended his own life after a police chase. Because McLendon chose suicide, the complete truth to his motivation may never be known. But from what can be learned from countless similar episodes in America and abroad, the crime may not be so unfathomable after all . Contrary to the widely held belief of \"snap judgment,\" perpetrators of mass murder -- and family annihilation in particular -- generally do not suddenly go berserk. If he was like most others who have walked in his shoes, McLendon would have contemplated his actions for some period of time, surely more than the few moments it took to load his assault rifle. With a list of enemies and a large arsenal, his planning would probably have reflected calm deliberation and cool determination. In decades of research in collaboration with my Northeastern University colleague Jack Levin, certain common characteristics of mass killers emerge time and time again. First, the perpetrators tend to have experienced a long history of frustration and failure, resulting in a diminished ability to cope with life's disappointments. Second, they typically externalize blame, frequently complaining that others didn't give them a decent chance. Without this, their destructiveness would instead be directed inward. In addition, these killers generally lack emotional support from friends or family. They are loners as well as losers. Lacking this support system and reality check, they come to perceive some precipitating event as being absolutely catastrophic. This most often involves some kind of major disappointment: the loss of a job, the breakup of a relationship or financial ruin, surely a major issue in today's economy. Finally, they need access to a weapon powerful and rapid enough to satisfy their intense need for revenge. Without much hope for a brighter tomorrow, these assailants often decide that life is not worth living; rather than just taking their own life in quiet solitude, they are eager for payback. It becomes their all-consuming mission to avenge, with a death penalty, against those who caused them to suffer -- in reality or perhaps only in their paranoid interpretation of events. Experiencing disappointment and failure so profound as to extinguish their desire to survive, most mass killers deliberately and methodically execute those closest to them, those they hold responsible for their troubles. There is little surprise, therefore, that mass murder overwhelmingly involves family members or co-workers, not total strangers. Although there certainly are many well-known episodes of random slaughter of complete strangers, these are more the exception than the rule. In the wake of extraordinary shooting sprees like the Alabama tragedy, calls for tighter gun control typically surface as a possible policy response for prevention. Yet the mass shooting just hours later and thousands of miles away in rural Germany, where gun limits are stricter than in the United States, reminds us that any debate must confront questions broader than just guns, even if the use of a high-powered firearm tends to increase the victim toll. Regrettably, there are no simple fixes nor any means for reliably identifying mass killers before they act, despite the consistent profile. There are tens of thousands of Americans who would fit the mold, yet, fortunately, very few of them decide literally to take matters and guns into their own hands . The best we can do, in terms of public policy and hometown approach, is to reach out to those around us who appear to be struggling emotionally or financially and offer friendship, compassion and understanding. At the end of the day, our efforts may not eliminate the risk of mass murder or necessarily deter the next Michael McLendon from turning his community into a personal battle zone, but at least we can enhance the well-being of countless citizens in the process of trying. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of James Alan Fox.","highlights":"James Alan Fox: Alabama and Germany shootings raise questions about motive .\nEvidence in many cases shows killers don't suddenly go berserk, he says .\nFox says mass killers react after losses and lack social support system .\nHe says they blame others, rather than themselves, for their failures .","id":"92b98bb8784945ab3ed6603243986bca412706a9"} -{"article":"PLAYA DEL REY, California (CNN) -- The black sedan pulled up to the parking lot at Dockweiler State Beach in California, and the five members of The Lost Trailers stepped out -- no chauffeur, no publicist, no manager, no entourage. From left to right, Jeff Potter, Stokes Nielson, Ryder Lee, Manny Medina and Andrew Nielson of The Lost Trailers. But that's the way this rising country band rolls these days. When they embarked on their current \"Lean, Clean and Local\" tour, they streamlined their operation in the greenest way possible. Since September, they've reduced their carbon footprint by 132 tons. That meant giving up their tour buses, as well as their road crew and traveling with their own equipment. Their new buzz phrase is \"hiring local\" -- local roadies, local T-shirt vendors, local suppliers for amps and equipment. If they can't stuff it in a suitcase, they don't bring it. The Lost Trailers have also partnered with Keep America Beautiful, a national organization dedicated to litter reduction and recycling. On a recent day off in Los Angeles, singer Ryder Lee, guitarist Stokes Nielson, bassist Manny Medina, keyboardist Andrew Nielson and drummer Jeff Potter met up with a group of young adults from the L.A. Conservation Corps for a little coastal cleanup -- country style. Watch the band at work on the beach \u00bb . Three of the band members sported cowboy boots as they sifted through the sand. The kids were from South Central Los Angeles, an inner-city area not generally known for its love of country music. After the cleanup, we pulled the CNN van up to the beach, popped in The Lost Trailers' CD, and hit \"play\" on their hit single, \"Holler Back.\" As the fiddle and banjo strains of the high-octane hillbilly tune blared through the speakers, there were blank stares all the way around from the students. But after joining in the chorus of \"heys\" and \"hos,\" one young man named Virgil LaFlora started rapping over the verses. It was the most unexpected country\/hip-hop mash-up since Tim McGraw and Nelly joined forces for \"Over and Over\" in 2004. All of a sudden, the two camps had discovered some common ground, and the song ended in cheers and hugs. One girl asked if she could have the CD. CNN talked to the Trailers' members about their activism and their tour. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: \"Lean, Clean and Local\" isn't just about recycling. You guys are actually going into the community and hiring local people. Stokes Nielson: We did a show with Tim McGraw in New York at the end of last year. It was a fly date for us, so we hired local, and this guy came up to us and said, \"Thank you so much for hiring local, 'cause I haven't had a check in three weeks.\" And we realized as the recession was heading into place, that one of the things we could do to benefit these communities is hire local, and not just bring in our own crews and just extract money form the locals and then leave, but we could also leave a small stimulus of our own. CNN: As rising artists, you work hard to earn the right to have a tour bus. Now you're giving it up. Stokes Nielson: Since we won't have a crew, we thought, \"OK, we're not going to have the bus anymore, and we're just going to fly to dates,\" and that cut down our diesel consumption. Andrew Nielson: We travel really light so that we can roll into town, hire the crew, and also hire local equipment. Potter's a drummer, and everywhere we go, we rent drums. Jeff Potter: We were trying to figure out a way that was practical to get a drum set on a plane, but it didn't really work out. I like it because I get to show up, and somebody working there locally has already set it up for me, and I get to just sit down and play. Ryder Lee: We were trying to get Potter some of those electric drum pads (which will fit into a suitcase), but that's just not as cool. CNN: Or you could just get a drum machine and eliminate the problem altogether! That would save the most money. Potter: I like being in the band. Manny Medina: I'm afraid they're going to hire local bass players, and I'll be out of a job! (Laugh) CNN: Do you save money by hiring local, or does it cost you more this way? Stokes Nielson: No, it's about even. It's not about the money. Obviously, the government is putting a lot of money into trying to get this thing (the economy) kick-started. As small-business owners, we want to do our part as well. It's also really been great to realize that we actually can do something besides just writin' a song and singin' it. Lee: We've set up a Web site: LeanCleanAndLocal.com, and that's become kind of a Yellow Pages for the local businesses we've hired. And we have videos on there, and a directory of the folks we've used, so if other acts were to hire this way, they could come in and use these same people. CNN: Doesn't that lead to disaster sometimes? Medina: So far, it's been great. Potter: Either we've been very lucky, or we've really come up against some great people, but when you're a national act, there's a certain level of competence with the people you deal with, and that's great to see. CNN: I'm sure there were a lot of organizations you looked at before partnering up with Keep America Beautiful. Why that organization? Lee: I think as country artists, it's really important to preserve the things that we grew up with. We're naturally outdoors men because of where we grew up, and keeping the rivers and streams clean is part of being country, and we're really proud of that. And Keep America Beautiful and their efforts in recycling and litter cleanup was really fitting for us, so it was a natural place to reach out -- not to mention, at our shows, there tends to be a few bottles and cans that build up. (Laugh) Stokes Nielson: This tour may not last forever. Maybe just until the recession is over. But definitely, we want to do our part to give back. Medina: Plus you really get to know the towns better. You meet the people. You don't just stay on your bus, play a show and leave. You really get to know the towns.","highlights":"Members of The Lost Trailers try to hire local, reduce carbon footprint .\nBand partners with Keep America Beautiful, a group dedicated to litter reduction .\nGuitarist: \"We want to do our part to give back\"\nBand travels light so members can rent local equipment .","id":"e3900a490f87e73a03763a932dc239afd10d6405"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- John Travolta, still in mourning over the death of his teenage son earlier this year, issued a rare public statement urging fans to see his latest movie, \"The Taking of Pelham 123,\" which he filmed last year. John Travolta stars as a villainous ex-inmate in \"The Taking of Pelham 123,\" which opens in theaters Friday. \"I promise, you won't be disappointed,\" said Travolta, who plays a deranged ex-inmate who takes hostages on a New York subway. Travolta did not join co-star Denzel Washington in the promotional tour for the movie -- which hits theaters Friday -- because he said his family needed \"additional time to reconcile our loss.\" His son Jett, 16, was found unconscious on January 2 while on vacation with his family in the Bahamas. The teen was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, local police said. Washington, who plays a subway train dispatcher forced to face down Travolta's character, said he talked to the actor about three weeks ago. \"Needless to say, he's struggling,\" Washington said in an interview last week. Travolta's statement, which can be read on his official Web site, said Washington, director Tony Scott and the producers \"stepped up without hesitation to help promote this wonderful film, and their unselfish efforts have allowed my family the additional time to reconcile our loss.\" Making the movie was \"a labor of love,\" Travolta said. \"Tony gave me the freedom to define, and then to become, the ultimate evil mastermind,\" he said. \"This role as an actor gave me the chance to dispense with all moral and ethical limitations, and explore just how bad this character could really be. I believe you will like the result.\" Much of the movie is a dialogue between Washington and Travolta's character over a two-way radio. Many of the action shots were filmed in New York subway tunnels.","highlights":"John Travolta releases statement on his Web site about \"The Taking of Pelham 123\"\nTravolta, still mourning son's death, praised colleagues for \"unselfish efforts\"\nTravolta's son Jett died in January during family vacation .","id":"17d550e0932545400e0cb52b65f7361be4f89a69"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of Pakistani residents have taken up arms and are battling local Taliban militants in the wake of a deadly mosque attack last week. A Pakistani police stands guard at a checkpoint in Peshawar, Pakistan on June 8. It is the first major battle between the residents of northwest Pakistan and Taliban militants near the Afghanistan border. The residents are outraged over a suicide attack on a local mosque during Friday prayers that killed at least 40 people and wounded some 80 others. Starting on Saturday morning, some 400 villagers in the Upper Dir district formed a \"lashkar\" -- or militia -- to fight the Taliban, killing 14 of the militants as of Sunday evening, according to local administrator Atiq Ur Rehman. Four of the villagers have been injured in the battle, Rehman said. The militia have burned a number of houses thought to be sheltering the militants, according to Upper Dir police chief Ijaz Kahn. Both the residents and Taliban fighters are using heavy weapons, including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft weapons, Rehman said. There is a long history of Taliban presence in the area, including foreign fighters in leadership roles, local officials said. Authorities said Taliban fighters were driven out of Shot Ghas and Ghazigay -- two villages where the Taliban have support. The villagers took up arms against the Taliban after Friday's suicide attack at a mosque in Hayagay Sharqi -- a village in Upper Dir located about 35 km (22 miles) from the Afghan border and known for being against the Taliban. Upper Dir is a part of the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani military has waged a month-long operation against Taliban militants, but the district has not been part of the ongoing military offensive. The United Nations has said an estimated 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced by fighting between the Pakistani military and Taliban militants. The militants threatened to continue attacking cities in Pakistan until the military ends its operations against Taliban militants. As a result, Pakistani authorities have increased security in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city. CNN's Ingrid Formanek and journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report .","highlights":"Upper Dir, part of Swat Valley, is where Pakistan army are fighting Taliban militants .\nU.N. says an estimated 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced by fighting .\nBacklash follows suspected Taliban suicide attack Friday at a mosque .\nOfficial: Both sides using heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft weapons .","id":"4eefac56b830a32c9f871fc630d33a19c0a51e27"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Hobbled with age, weathered with time, the World War II veterans stood at attention. One by one, a two-star general delivered flags flown over the Pentagon in their honor. He looked them in their eyes and snapped his right hand in salute. Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles salutes Berga survivor Edward Slotkin, 84, at an event in Orlando Saturday. \"National treasures,\" Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles said Saturday evening. It marked the first time in history the U.S. Army recognized 350 soldiers held as slaves inside Nazi Germany. The men were beaten, starved and forced to work in tunnels at Berga an der Elster where the Nazi government had a hidden V-2 rocket factory. Berga was a subcamp of the notorious concentration camp Buchenwald. \"These men were abused and put under some of the most horrific conditions,\" the general told a private gathering of Berga survivors. \"It wasn't a prison camp. It was a slave labor camp.\" No ranking Army official had ever uttered the words \"slave labor camp\" in reference to the men's captivity at Berga. Boles knew the gravity of his statement -- that he was setting the historical record straight after 64 years. Watch general set record straight after six decades \u00bb . \"That's why I'm here. That's why the Army sent me here: To look them in the eye and tell them that.\" It's a rare moment to witness history, even more rare when it pertains to America's greatest generation six decades later. But that's what happened at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, first in a private meeting and then in the larger ceremony to honor them. \"It's humbling,\" Boles said. It was a bittersweet moment. More than 100 of the Berga soldiers died at the slave camp or on a forced death march of more than 200 miles in April 1945. About 80 of the 350 soldiers had been singled out for being Jewish by the Nazis. Dozens more survived captivity but died as the years passed. There are 22 known Berga survivors still alive, but only a handful made the trip here. \"He used that term slave labor camp. That was never used by anyone before,\" said survivor Samuel Fahrer. \"It was a long time coming.\" See photos inside the camp \u00bb . The six Berga survivors present -- Fahrer, 86; Morton Brooks, 83; Sidney Lipson, 85; Peter Iosso, 83; Wallace Carden, 84; and Edward Slotkin, 84 -- looked on stoically as Boles spoke privately with them. The men's faces hid decades of pain from what they endured in the waning months of World War II in 1945. They'd given up decades ago that the Army would recognize them. \"It means a great deal -- that it's being recognized and understood,\" Brooks told the general. See excerpts from diary inside Berga \u00bb . Boles recited a soldier's war ethos: I will always place the mission first; I will never quit; I will never accept defeat and I will never leave a fallen comrade. He looked at each of the weathered war heroes and said, \"Just as they never left their fallen comrades, we will never leave them.\" \"You were good soldiers and you were there for your nation.\" Boles added, \"They're looking around and they're thanking me for coming. And I'm the one thanking them because I get to bask in the character of these great heroes.\" If there was a skeptic coming into the evening, it was Fahrer, a U.S. medic held at Berga. He had dedicated much of his life in the years after the war seeking recognition for the men. He had been outraged that the government in 1948 commuted the death sentences of two Berga commanders, Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz. Fahrer sought for their death sentences to be reinstated. See document from War Department letting commanders off \u00bb . A native of Long Island, New York, the typically talkative Fahrer was rendered nearly speechless as the general spoke. \"After 60 years, I gave up hope a long time ago, and I'm glad you're here with us tonight,\" Fahrer told Boles. Boles said he couldn't speak to why the Berga commanders got off so easy, but he said he knew \"it caused a great deal of pain for these men.\" In modern times, he said, if U.S. soldiers were held at a slave camp in Iraq or Afghanistan, he'd expect justice for those responsible. \"I think full justice is the right word.\" The general even addressed documents that many of the Berga survivors signed before they were sent back home to the States. \"The interests of American prisoners in the event of future wars, moreover, demand that the secrets of this war be vigorously safeguarded,\" it says. The survivors believed the document meant they were never to speak about their Berga experience. \"That was not our intent at all, but we screwed that up,\" Boles said. \"What the intent of the documents was, for those who had been POWs, not to talk about escapes, people who had assisted them, people who had helped them. Our inability to explain that correctly was, therefore, misunderstood by them.\" He added, \"What they went through didn't need to be kept a secret.\" The night would get more special as this evening progressed. The Berga soldiers were honored in front of a gathering of World War II POWs. About 100 veterans and their families packed a banquet hall. Boles told the group what he said in private -- that the men are \"national treasures.\" \"You may wonder if it mattered, if your service and sacrifice made a difference, if it stood the test of time,\" he said. \"You may rest easy. I have seen your service live.\" The room grew quiet. The general, in dress blues, strode to the six Berga survivors and presented each one with the flags flown over the Pentagon. \"Your nation remembers and it salutes each of you,\" Boles said. Each of the elders saluted the general back. The room was then told to stand on orders of the president of the United States. The entire room came to a hushed silence and rose to its feet. Fahrer, the medic who had fought so hard for justice for his Berga comrades, was asked to step forward. And there before the crowd on this historic evening, he was presented with one of the nation's highest honors, the Bronze Star. \"To all who shall see these presents, greeting: this is to certify that the President of the United States of America authorized by executive order, 24 August 1962, has awarded the Bronze Star Medal to Private Samuel Fahrer, Army of the United States, for meritorious achievement while serving with Medical Detachment, 110th Infantry Regiment in the European Theater of Operations on 19 December 1944, in military operations against an armed enemy of the United States.\" He had earned the medal 65 years ago, but due to clerical errors it had never been given to him. Fahrer beamed with pride. He had shed few tears since his time at Berga. But on this night, even Fahrer had trouble containing his emotions. \"I'm not the crying type, but it got me right here,\" he said, his hand over his heart as he searched for words. At long last, the Berga men finally had some comfort. \"It's satisfying that after all this time amends could be made,\" Brooks said. \"When there's talk of the Holocaust, we understand it.\" The general commended CNN for its reporting on the issue in recent months, saying those reports helped change the men's legacy. Boles applauded Reps. Joe Baca, D-California, and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Alabama, who urged the Army to act to honor the Berga soldiers. At one point Saturday evening, Berga survivor Sidney Lipson pulled me to the side. \"Why did you care so much that we be recognized?\" \"Because you deserved it,\" I replied. He clutched his encased flag, pulled it to his heart and smiled. \"Thank you.\" Note from CNN's Wayne Drash: For Berga survivors who were not able to attend the Orlando event, the Army is working to coordinate events in the men's communities. I also want to thank CNN's audience who lobbied Congress and the Army to give these soldiers recognition.","highlights":"For first time in history, Army recognizes soldiers held as slaves in Nazi Germany .\nMaj. Gen. Vincent Boles presented six Berga survivors with flags flown over Pentagon .\n350 soldiers held at Berg an der Elster; \"It was a slave labor camp,\" general says .\n\"These men were abused and put under some of the most horrific conditions\"","id":"7302a541259f8667d8ce4342a313404f442343dd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jane Velez-Mitchell is host of the HLN show, \"Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell,\" a topical event-driven show with a wide range of viewpoints. Velez-Mitchell is the author of \"Secrets Can Be Murder: What America's Most Sensational Crimes Tell Us About Ourselves.\" Jane Velez-Mitchell says tougher penalties are needed to keep sex offenders from committing more crimes. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Early last month, beautiful 25-year-old Laura Garza went missing. Her family holds out hope she is still alive. An aspiring dancer from Texas, Garza moved to New York City to pursue her career. On December 2nd, she went to the posh Manhattan nightclub Marquee to blow off some steam with her friend. Security video shows Garza leaving the club with convicted sex offender Michael Mele, according to the New York Police Department. NYPD officials confirmed that Mele then drove Garza about an hour away toward his apartment. Garza was reported missing the next day. New York state police searched Mele's apartment and court documents indicate officers observed apparent bite marks on Mele's hand and scratches on his back and shoulder. According to court records and state police, large pieces of carpet were missing from his apartment and days later, carpet pieces that seemed to match Mele's were found on the side of a nearby road. Search parties have been combing roads, woods, and swampland, and police divers searched for clues in a nearby lake, but the search has gone cold in recent weeks. Mele is in jail for violating probation and is a suspect, but he has not been charged in Garza's disappearance, according to state police. Laura Garza is still missing more than a month later. Her family has joined search efforts in New York and prays they will find her alive, but police are treating the case as a homicide. The worst part about this tragic story? It may have been preventable. Laura Garza had no idea she was leaving that club with a sex offender. After all, most of them look pretty normal. Few fit the Hollywood stereotype of the creepy guy wearing a trench coat and driving a white van. Laura Garza may have been unaware who she was with that night, but the legal system certainly knew him. Michael Mele previously pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault, including one count of masturbating in front of two women. And he was violating probation. And he had an outstanding warrant for allegedly exposing himself to a woman in a mall parking lot. Mele hasn't been convicted of anything in this case or charged in Garza's disappearance, but even if he is innocent, the larger question of how the criminal justice system deals with sex offenders remains a vital issue. In a sane world, Mele is not a free man on that night, able to allegedly target Laura Garza. But we don't live in a sane world. We live in a world where sexual assault is business as usual. Where's the outrage? The Garza case is a microcosm of a societal problem. As a nation, we must realize there is no such thing as a \"minor\" sexual offense -- because sex offenders often start small and graduate to more serious crimes. According to a 2003 Department of Justice study, 78 percent of imprisoned sex offenders had prior arrests and 28 percent had prior arrests for sex crimes. According to the same study, one quarter of men serving time for rape and 19 percent of those serving time for sexual assault had been on probation or parole at the time of the offense that landed them in prison. The formula is simple. Sex offenders start off by nabbing the easy prey -- committing the so-called \"minor\" sexual offenses like flashing random women, or the crimes Michael Mele committed. Then, after getting away with it or receiving a slap on the wrist, they become hungrier and develop into full-fledged predators. And it's only when they sink their teeth into their prey that the legal system finally brings down the hammer. But it's too late. To stop this progression, we must start treating all sexual offenses as major crimes. In the same Justice Department study, on average, the sex offenders served less than half of their sentences. So basically that means Paris Hilton served more of her sentence than the average person convicted of a sex crime does. I'm glad our justice system has its priorities straight. The simple answer is to take all sex offenders off the streets, from the moment they commit the first \"minor\" offense. I'm not just talking about putting them behind bars. We need to rehabilitate these predators at the earliest stage possible, before their behavior worsens. And if the prisons are too crowded to hold them, how about releasing some of the nonviolent drug offenders to make some room? They can't be worse than sex offenders on the prowl who, compared with non-sex offenders released from prison, are four times more likely to be rearrested for a sex crime, according to a government study. This problem is out in the open. I see it. My viewers see it. But how many Laura Garzas will it take to before politicians and judges see it and are willing to do something about it? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jane Velez-Mitchell.","highlights":"Jane Velez-Mitchell: Sex offenders are often let out on the street too soon .\nVictims pay the price for inadequate punishment and rehabilitation, she says .\nVelez-Mitchell says we must treat all sex offenses as serious crimes .","id":"1579bf54b842acced81f66d975f3bd82d1365842"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gabon's President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest-serving ruler, died Monday morning, the country's prime minister said, settling conflicting reports from government and media accounts. Gabon's President Omar Bongo, who died Monday, was Africa's longest-serving ruler. Calm was reported after the announcement, but Gabon's Ministry of Defense nonetheless announced it was closing all of the country's land, air and sea ports, according to a ministry statement. The statement, which was broadcast on state television and radio, said that in \"the best interest of the nation, the Ministry of Defense calls on the population to increase their vigilance and patriotism during this difficult and painful time the country is facing.\" In a statement, Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong said Bongo suffered cardiac arrest at a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. \"He dedicated his political life to his country and the Gabonese people, always cultivating the unity and cohesion of the Gabonese toward a true peace,\" Ndong said. The government declared a 30-day national period of mourning. Bongo, 73, had been receiving treatment for intestinal cancer at the Quiron clinic in Barcelona, Spain, according to the Gabonews agency. Earlier in the day, the prime minister strongly refuted initial French news reports of Bongo's death. He had vowed to lodge a protest with the French authorities about \"repeated leaks in the French press.\" Shortly afterward, hospital officials reported Bongo's passing to Gabonese officials. Bongo took power in 1967, seven years after the West African country's independence from France. He imposed one-party rule a year after succeeding the country's first president, who died in office. He allowed multiparty elections after a new constitution in 1991, but his party has retained control of the government since then. President Obama said Bongo \"played a key role in developing and shaping the strong bilateral relationship that exists between Gabon and the United States today.\" \"President Bongo consistently emphasized the importance of seeking compromise and striving for peace, and made protecting Gabon's natural treasures a priority,\" Obama said in a statement Monday. \"His work in conservation in his country and his commitment to conflict resolution across the continent are an important part of his legacy and will be remembered with respect.\" CNN's Per Nyberg and Al Goodman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Defense Ministry closing all of the country's ports after leader's death .\nBongo took power in 1967, seven years after Gabon's independence from France .\nAt the time of his death, he was being treated in Spain for intestinal cancer .\nEarlier Monday, there had been conflicting reports about the state of Bongo's health .","id":"ebf4366dab81fca333a19f5905c3e7c774960014"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gunmen killed three police officers in Acapulco, Mexico, early Monday morning in attacks on two police stations, the state news agency Notimex reported. Suspected gang members are handcuffed after a gunbattle in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday. The attacks came two days after a ferocious street gunbattle that left 18 people dead, including two soldiers. Mexican soldiers, in trucks and helicopters kept watch over the resort town Monday. Along with swine flu fears, the uptick in violence threatens the tourist economy of Acapulco and other popular resort areas. Witnesses told police that just before 6 a.m., gunmen armed with AK-47s stepped out of two luxury vehicles, walked toward the police station in the Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood and began shooting. Acapulco officers Gilberto Reducindo Salazar and Arturo Tonala Aguilar were killed in that incident, according to Notimex. Shortly afterward, at a second local police station, attackers fatally wounded officer Andres Guzman Casiano, Notimex said. A fourth officer was injured. The Guerrero attorney general's office said the attacks could have been conducted by the same people, as there was a 30-minute gap between them, the state agency reported. It was unknown whether the attacks were connected with Saturday's shootout, which started when soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco on an anonymous tip. They were met by gunfire, according to a statement from Mexico's Ministry of Defense. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Sixteen gunmen and two soldiers were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. After that incident, authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said.","highlights":"Attacks came 2 days after ferocious street gunbattle that left 18 people dead .\n2 soldiers, 16 suspected gang members killed; 9 soldiers wounded Saturday .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nMexican soldiers, in trucks and helicopters kept watch over Acapulco on Monday .","id":"0ecd4af9312b07986ce4173f28e89b8b1f222171"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Enya is an anomaly. Think about it: How many recording artists have enjoyed 20 years of success while never having toured? Enya sets her own pace when making albums. \"And Winter Came\" is her first CD in three years. \"The fans are very, very loyal,\" says the Irish chanteuse. \"They're always saying, 'When is the next album?' They know when I finish in the studio it's got to be a few years before the next album.\" Perhaps it's the vast gaps between releases that help make Enya, 47, the Emerald Isle's second-biggest-selling artist of all time (after U2). Thanks to a stipulation in her recording contract, the Grammy winner has the luxury of setting her own pace with each project, another rarity in the music business. She'll devote two to three years to each album, flitting between her Dublin castle and the studio, where she works tirelessly to perfect every celestial chord and layer harmony upon harmony. \"I always felt that the music sells by itself,\" she says. \"The music has always been the successful aspect on my career and that means that, to me, I can always still stay very focused on music.\" Watch Enya revel in harmony \u00bb . Her latest album -- the seventh of her career -- celebrates both the drama and quiet contemplation that come with the winter season. Called \"And Winter Came,\" the release has reached the top 10 on album charts across Europe and in the U.S. since its November release. And while Enya won't commit to the idea of taking her tunes on the road, she does hint at the possibility. \"To actually tour with the songs would be wonderful. It would be very much on a large scale: the orchestra, the choir. There'd be a lot of rehearsals, but it'd be very exciting,\" she says. Enya spoke to CNN about how her music is like an onion (think layers, not tears), keeping a low profile, and marking the 20-year anniversary of \"Watermark,\" her breakout album. CNN: What does wintertime mean to you? Enya: Wintertime for me is a time when I do a lot of my writing in the studio. It's a time I enjoy. And it's very reflective and a very calming time of the year. Throughout the year I gather a lot of musical inspirations and this is where I bring them to the studio and see what will evolve musically. CNN: You set out to make a Christmas album. How did the project evolve? Enya: I've always wanted to put together a Christmas album. So I was writing some Christmas carols and what happened was some of the songs started to veer more into winter themes. And when I discussed it with [producer and lyricist] Nicky and Roma [Ryan], they felt, well, within winter is the celebration of Christmas, so let's infuse the two themes together. CNN: A lot of people think of Enya as a soloist, but really you're kind of a trio, aren't you? Enya: I work with two other people, the producer Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan, the lyricist. The way I work with Nicky and Roma is firstly I do the writing of the melodies in the songs, and that's kind of the solitude moment for me in the studio, which I enjoy very much. When I have the melody -- the idea of the melody -- I play that to Nicky and Roma. ... I get to see their reaction immediately. Is this a song for the album? And I can see from their reaction -- \"Yes, this is going to work,\" or perhaps it's not. There are a lot of ideas that Nicky had wanted to experiment with. When I met with him first he had this idea of using a voice -- one voice -- as an instrument to layer many times and he knew my love of harmonies. Some people who hear the songs think that we have a set routine, a set formula we work with. It isn't, ... because each song is very different, and it's very spontaneous on my part. CNN: About the layering of your voice ... at any given time how many Enyas might we be listening to? Enya: I don't count! It's a very spontaneous moment on my behalf. I will listen back to the last harmony I've sung, and then I'll sort of try to enhance that harmony. Then Nicky will decide if he'll record my voice 20 times or 30 times [for] that one part. CNN: I read that you might [record] as many as 80 vocal tracks. Is that a reasonable number? And then I read 500. That's got to be ridiculous! Enya: Yes, it can be, but you have to remember that [if] it's 500 vocals I wouldn't have sung them at the same time. We're talking about over two years that we keep going back to arrange vocal parts on these songs. It's a very slow process. CNN: It's hard to believe that it was about 20 years ago that you made \"Watermark.\" Do you ever go back and listen to that record? Enya: Well, with the anniversary, yes, I've been listening to \"Watermark.\" It's kind of like a journal for me. It takes you back to that time in your life. Each song has its own little story and I can hear the life of that song. You know how it was written, what inspired me, what worked, what didn't work. But the nice thing about spending two to three years on an album is I can say there's nothing I would change on any of the albums. CNN: You've said that you change the formula a little with each album, but to an untrained ear your music has sort of stayed the same throughout your career. Are you a believer in the saying \"If it ain't broke, don't fix it\"? Enya: Musically it has to be something that I'm comfortable to perform. Would we ever hear Enya with a guitar solo? I say, \"Never say never.\" And there's a guitar solo on \"My! My! Time Flies.\" This happened because it suited the song. It's always got to sound like me because it's my voice and there's always this little sense of melancholy that is inherent in my melodies. I think that's because of my Irish culture. CNN: Your manager has suggested that one of the secrets to your success is that you keep a fairly low profile. Do you agree? Enya: It's very easy for me to keep a low profile because the focus I feel is always on the music. Success and fame are two different things. And so I feel the success is always towards the music, which means that I can have a very normal and private lifestyle.","highlights":"Enya's new album is \"And Winter Came\"\nIrish singing star keeps a low profile, works on albums for years .\nEnya's voice may be overdubbed hundreds of times for each album .","id":"dfb8190eb28672c065f164eca9153433a504ae6b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Oooooooshie the clown knows the instant effect he has on patients. The Lev Leytzan clowns perform for children and patients in hospitals to spread laughter and joy. \"When you walk out of a room hearing people laugh and smile, you hear them talking about it,\" said the clown, whose real name is Asher Mechanic. He entertains children and patients as part of a clown troupe in New York called Compassionate Clown Alley, bringing laughter to those in hospitals. \"It's the spreading of giving from one person to another, like a chain reaction,\" Mechanic said. The clown organization is also known as Lev Leytzan, a name derived from the program's roots working with Jewish youth. In Hebrew, lev means heart, and leytzan is a clown, so the translation is \"The Heart of the Clown.\" Watch the clowns talk about their work. \u00bb . \"Lev Leytzan allows me to take [something] scary and mundane for the patient and into something exciting beautiful and playful,\" said the group's founder, Dr. Neal Goldberg, a Woodmere, New York-based clinical psychologist. For the last two and half years, the clowns have been bringing cheer to the patients at the South Nassau Communities Hospital. \"The patients get satisfaction from having some sunshine coming to them in the hospital,\" said Phyllis Citera, director of volunteer services at the hospital. \"Sundays at the hospital are typically quiet, especially for those patients who don't have visitors stopping by. The clowns especially cheer them up.\" A positive approach empowers people who are ill, said Goldberg, who works with children, teenagers and young adults. Six years ago, while working on a bereavement project, he realized he was making a clown of himself and others in an effort to help people cope with pain. He wondered what would distract the patients from their pain and bring joy. Inspired by the work of Dr. Patch Adams, who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1998 film \"Patch Adams,\" Goldberg thought of running a similar program in which he and others could bring joy to people in orphanages, hospitals and retirement homes using the same whimsical approach. Goldberg researched the subject before putting on a red nose and trying out therapeutic clowning for himself. \"I found it powerful in terms of my own growth and freedom of expression and creativity, and thought it would be something wonderful and powerful to bring back to the community, to teens in particular,\" he said. Goldberg's clowns range from 13 to 22 years old and say they find it both empowering and humbling. \"As a clown, you get more than you give,\" said Dassy Newman, a former clown. \"You can't hold back, you have to give it all. You have to give your heart, your soul, your energy, everything. It's the most exhausting thing you've ever done, but at the same time it's the most exhilarating.\" Dr. Carolyn Fein-Levy, a pediatric oncologist at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York, said Goldberg's clowns provide relief to the patients. \"Whenever the clowns are around, the children are happier,\" Fein-Levy said. \"When they are happier, their parents enjoy watching them. They recapture their childhoods lost as a result of being sick. Clowns are a good distraction and it helps them feel normal. Nothing is more important for them than feeling normal, because their lives are not normal while going through therapy.\" She also teaches an oncology class to the Lev Leytzan clowns. \"It adds another dimension to their training and gives them an overview and an understanding to know what it's like to be a kid with cancer,\" she said. Fein-Levy also draws from her own experience, having survived ovarian cancer as a child after a year of chemotherapy. \"I teach in the clown school but I'm not worried about patients being harmed,\" she said. \"I'm more worried about harm for clowns because it's hard to see sick children. Some of the clowns have never really seen illness, and they can be afraid, and that's OK.\" Clowning might be assumed to be all fun and games, but Goldberg takes the work very seriously. \"Some of the kids may have told you there's intense amounts of hours of training and rehearsals with doctors and clowns and debriefings,\" he said. Ultimately, Goldberg said, the goal of Lev Leytzan is to \"change people's worlds, create worlds for people that need it, and to help people play.\" He does it all under the mantra of \"serious clowning, a story behind every smile.\"","highlights":"Clown group Lev Leytzan gets name from working with Jewish youth.\nFounder says he was inspired by Dr. Patch Adams to bring joy to patients .\nClowns who perform for patients say experience is humbling .\nMantra of group is \"serious clowning, a story behind every smile\"","id":"970a47c8dee6e803400f5f688ba984311804b4f8"} -{"article":"BETHESDA, Maryland (CNN) -- Josh Winston is a self-described problem solver. From his spacious office on the seventh floor of a high-rise building in Bethesda, Maryland, he fills out tax returns and keeps the books balanced for a number of his accounting clients. Josh Winston stands outside the 1983 RV he was converting to run on vegetable oil. \"Everything on the left always equals everything on the right. For math-oriented people and musicians like me, that's very satisfying,\" he says. Four years ago, Winston was watching a late-night news program and saw a segment about converting diesel vehicles to run on alternative fuels. That night, Winston was hooked. He ordered a conversion kit for $900 and proceeded to convert a truck to run on used vegetable oil -- just to see if he could. Soon after, he converted his 1998 Jetta and affixed a sticker to the rear bumper that said, \"This vehicle runs on straight vegetable oil.\" \"For a single bumper sticker, I was surprised at how many people stopped me and said, 'Hey, how do you do that?' \" Before taking on his first conversion, he hadn't worked on a car since his 1978 Plymouth Volare -- which he drove in college. By Winston's estimate, there are fewer than 10,000 vehicles on the road that have undergone these diesel conversions. Now, he sells and installs his own kits -- and he's the only person in the Washington, D.C., area to offer the service. Though his side business, named \"Feed My Wheels dot com,\" has only converted a handful of vehicles, he recently took on his largest project by far -- a 1983 Itasca RV. \"There's a lot of trial and error,\" says Winston. Watch the \"problem solver\" at work \u00bb . Over the course of two days, Winston ran into many a problem. First, the batteries kept dying. Later, there was an issue with the alternator. By the end of Day 2, as Winston was preparing to fill a 40-gallon veggie-oil tank in the RV with recycled oil from a Chinese food restaurant, a neighbor watching him tipped over an 80-gallon holding tank, spilling tens of gallons of brown, smelly oil down his street. \"It's OK,\" Winston quipped, \"earthworms love this stuff.\" After nearly 50 hours of cutting and reattaching hoses, Winston managed to get the RV running and successfully switched over to the vegetable oil tank. He claims that veggie-oil emissions are about half of those of petroleum-based diesel fuel. \"If you're emitting half the carbon dioxide that our neighbor is, that means one of two things: Either your neighbor can drive twice as much, or you're having a significant positive impact on the environment,\" Winston says. \"In some small way, we're contributing to saving the environment. It's going to save a glacier somewhere.\"","highlights":"\"Problem solver\" converts vehicles to run on vegetable oil, not diesel .\nA 1983 RV recently became this converter's largest project .\nRecycled vegetable oil for RV came from Chinese food restaurant .\nSmall steps can add up: \"It's going to save a glacier somewhere\"","id":"1b7c0767b22b99d07bc84631c7c98cd4758aa8e6"} -{"article":"EL PASO, Texas (CNN) -- CNN Hero Maria Ruiz has been changing the lives of children and their families in Juarez, Mexico, for more than 12 years. But lately, it's been Ruiz's own life that's been changing. Crews prepare to demolish Maria Ruiz's home as part of ABC's \"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.\" In November, \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute\" honored Ruiz for crossing the Texas border to Juarez several times a week to deliver food, clothing and toys to impoverished children and their families. Months later, Ruiz and her family received another surprise, courtesy of ABC's \"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.\" Ruiz, her husband and their two children were sent on a five-day vacation to the Bahamas while thousands of volunteers built the family a custom-designed home. \"When Ty Pennington came to our home and said, 'Ruiz family, come on out,' we all just ran out and couldn't believe that we were chosen,\" Ruiz said. \"It's a blessing to us, but we weren't expecting all of this at all, and it has been overwhelming.\" Pennington is the host of \"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,\" which selected Ruiz and her family from thousands of applicants throughout Texas. Pennington said the idea was to give Ruiz what she needed most: the tools to do more. Watch Ruiz and her family react to their new home \u00bb . In addition to bringing supplies to the people of Juarez, Ruiz and her family are completing construction of a complex there, which includes a community kitchen, an orphanage and a trade school. Read more about Ruiz's work . In order to devote their time to the Juarez community, the family put construction of their own home on hold in 1996, Ruiz said, leaving many parts unfinished. They were also using much of their living space as a warehouse for all of the donations for the Juarez families, she said. \"A home is somewhere you can go after a long day's work and relax and where the family can get together and be able to sit down and talk about our day,\" Ruiz said. \"When we had the things in the living room, we couldn't do that there.\" Upon returning from the Bahamas, Ruiz and her family were surrounded by thousands of volunteers and community members who blocked them from seeing the changes by the show's large bus. After chanting the show's coined phrase -- \"Move that bus!\" -- Ruiz and her family were introduced to their new home. \"For us, it is a new beginning, and it's going to change our lives,\" Ruiz said. With her new home, Ruiz will be able to continue -- and even expand -- her family's work for those in need. According to Executive Producer Anthony Dominici, both an additional kitchen and storage space were built in the new home for Ruiz. And \"through the generosity of the community,\" enough donations of food, clothes and toys were collected to fill a 20-foot shipping container and a 16-foot cube truck -- including more than 75,000 cans of food, Dominici said. \"That's the whole point here,\" Pennington said. \"To give her what she needs to make her life easier to literally spread dreams and hope to people who have absolutely none of either one of those.\" For Ruiz, it's about teaching young minds so they can in turn give back to their community. \"If you teach them and train them as a child and they go out and do the same, we would live in a much better world.\" \"CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute\" introduced Ruiz to the world when it premiered on Thanksgiving on the global networks of CNN. Actress Selena Gomez introduced and presented Ruiz with her CNN Hero award. Each of the top 10 CNN Heroes also received $25,000. Watch Ruiz accept her CNN Hero Award \u00bb . Nominations for 2009 CNN Heroes opened January 1 and can be submitted at www.CNN.com\/Heroes. The Ruiz family episode of \"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition\" is scheduled to air March 15.","highlights":"Thousands of volunteers rebuilt CNN Hero Maria Ruiz's home for ABC show .\nCNN had honored Ruiz for bringing food and supplies to poor children in Mexico .\nFinishing construction on her home had taken a back seat to her charitable work .\nNew home will be revealed March 15 on \"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition\"","id":"19df46e637845b95cbb2825fe954ce9bc80b5bd8"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that disappeared overnight as it entered an area of strong turbulence probably crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, the CEO of Air France said Monday. Anne and Michael Harris, who lived in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, were two Americans aboard the flight. Brazilian and French ships and planes were looking for any sign of the missing plane, authorities said. The first three hours of what was to have been an 11-hour flight appear to have been uneventful, CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said. But about 4:15 a.m. Paris time, Flight 447's automatic system began a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that \"several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down,\" he said. \"This succession of messages signals a totally unforeseeable, great difficulty,\" he said. \"Something quite new within the plane.\" During that time, there was no contact with the crew, Gourgeon said. \"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic,\" he added. He said the Airbus A330 was probably closer to Brazil than to Africa when it crashed. He noted that turbulence made flying \"difficult\" in the area but that it is \"too early to say\" exactly what happened. The chances of finding any survivors were \"very low,\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted Monday. \"This is a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen before,\" he said at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, where he met with relatives of the missing. \"I said the truth to them: The prospects of finding survivors are very low,\" he said. The airline company identified the nationalities of the victims as two Americans, an Argentinean, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, five British, a Canadian, nine Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French, a Gambian, 26 Germans, four Hungarians, three Irish, one Icelandic, nine Italians, five Lebanese, two Moroccans, three Norwegians, two Polish, one Romanian, one Russian, three Slovakian, two Spanish, one Swedish, six Swiss and one Turk. An official list of victims by name was not available late Monday. The American victims were identified as Michael Harris, 60, and his wife, Anne, 54, by the couple's family and his employer, Devon Energy in Oklahoma -- the largest U.S.-based independent natural gas and oil producer. Michael Harris was a company geologist in Rio de Janeiro, according to a company spokesman. Anne Harris' sister, Mary Miley, told CNN the couple had been living in the city since July 2008 and that they were traveling to Paris for a training seminar for Michael and for a vacation. \"Anne and Mike were indeed a beautiful couple inside and out and I miss them terribly already,\" Miley said in an e-mail. Sarkozy said French authorities sent ships and planes to the area about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Brazil. \"Our Spanish friends are helping us; Brazilians are helping us a lot as well.\" French Transport Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told CNN affiliate France 2 that France asked the U.S. military to assist in the search through U.S. detection satellites. Pentagon officials in Washington did not immediately confirm the request. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters in San Salvador, El Salvador, that he had spoken with Sarkozy but neither leader knew what to say. \"All we could do was thank each other,\" Lula said. \"He thanked me for the speed with which the Brazilian air force took charge.\" He added, \"In times like these, there is little to do but to deeply lament, to wish the families a lot of strength, because there are no words in times like these.\" Sarkozy said authorities were seeking the help of satellites that might be able to pick up signs of what happened to the 4-year-old Airbus 330. No possibility was being excluded: Turbulence in the area was strong, but other planes were able to pass through it without incident, he said. The plane reported a problem with the electrical system, \"but the specialists refuse for the moment to express themselves about any possibility,\" Sarkozy said. The jet also sent a warning that it lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said. Watch aviation expert describe possible scenarios \u00bb . It lost contact with air traffic control between Galeao International Airport in Rio de Janeiro and Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, the airline said Monday. The Airbus A330 sent out an automatic signal warning of the electrical problems just after 2 a.m. GMT Monday as it flew \"far from the coast,\" said an Air France spokeswoman who declined to be identified. It had just entered a stormy area with strong turbulence, she said. The jet was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet and a speed of 521 mph, the air force said. Among the passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby, in addition to the 12 crew members, Air France officials in Brazil said. Much of the route is out of radar contact, Brazilian air force Col. Henry Munhoz told TV Globo. The flight, AF 447, took off from Galeao International Airport at 11:30 p.m. Sunday GMT. It was scheduled to land in Paris at 9:10 a.m. GMT. Learn more about recent notable airplane crashes \u00bb . Its last known contact occurred at 2:33 a.m. GMT, the Brazilian air force spokesman said. It was expected to check in with air traffic controllers at 3:20 a.m. GMT but did not do so, the Brazilian air force said in a statement. Brazilian authorities asked the air force to launch a search mission just over three hours later, at 6:30 a.m. GMT, the statement said. The plane reported no problems before takeoff, Joao Assuncao, Air France's manager in Brazil, told the country's Record TV. The airline set up a crisis center at the Paris airport. It listed numbers for families to call: 0 800 800 812 for people in France and 00 33 1 57 02 10 55 for families outside France. At a crisis center at the airport in Rio, relatives of the missing complained of a dearth of information from Air France, the Brazilian state news agency reported. One man, who identified himself as Bernardo, said his brother, Romeo Amorim Souza, and his wife were on the missing flight. \"I came to the airport because I wasn't finding information, and my parents are very nervous,\" he told Agencia Brasil. The missing A330 last underwent a maintenance check on April 16, the airline said. CNN air travel expert Richard Quest said the twin-engine plane, a stalwart of transatlantic routes, had an impeccable safety record, with only one fatal incident involving a training flight in 1994. \"It has very good range and is extremely popular with airlines because of its versatility,\" he said. Its crew was composed of three pilots and nine cabin crew members, including a captain who has logged 11,000 hours in flight. About 1,700 of those hours were on the A330 and A340. Of the two co-pilots, one has 3,000 hours of flying experience and the other 6,600 hours. The aircraft has flown 18,870 hours. The model is \"capable of communicating in several different ways over quite long distances even if they are out of radar coverage,\" said Kieran Daly of the online aviation news service Air Transport Intelligence. The French Accident Investigation Bureau for civil aviation is investigating, the company said in a statement. CNN's Lianne Turner, Ayesha Durgahee, Helena DeMoura, Isa Soares and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"CEO: \"Several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down\"\nPassenger jet carrying 228 people disappears off coast of Brazil, airline says .\nAir France says jet may have suffered electrical problems after hitting storm .\nExpert says plane is extremely popular with airlines .","id":"68d3401b856e4bcde9c23f30452c574a035d5cc3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Four men were indicted Tuesday in what prosecutors said was a plot to bomb two New York City synagogues and fire surface-to-air missiles at U.S. military planes. Three of the four suspects in the alleged synagogue bombing plot are shown after their arrests. The defendants -- James Cromitie, 44; David Williams, 28; Onta Williams, 32; and Laguerre Payen, 27 -- were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States, conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles and six other counts. They face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. The plot was uncovered in a yearlong investigation involving an FBI informant. It ended with federal agents and New York police used an 18-wheel truck to block a vehicle carrying the suspects after they planted what they believed were explosive devices in cars near the synagogues, said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The planted devices were actually duds. The four are accused of plotting to detonate explosives near two synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and seeking to fire missiles at planes at an Air National Guard base. Kelly described the plot as homegrown, with no known links to any foreign or domestic groups. At a court hearing on May 21, U.S. Magistrate Lisa Smith ordered three of the suspects -- Cromitie, David Williams and Onta Williams -- to remain in custody without bail. Prosecutor Eric Snyder described the suspects as violent men \"eager to bring death to Jews.\" At a later hearing, the fourth suspect -- Laguerre Payen -- also was remanded without bail. Payen received medical treatment for injuries during the arrest and had a bandage over one eye at his hearing. Payen's lawyer told the hearing that her client had a history of mental instability, but Snyder, the prosecutor, said videotapes of the plotters showed Payen to be a coherent and willing participant. Payen told the judge he has prescriptions for drugs used to treat depression and conditions including bipolar disorder. Cromitie, David Williams and Onta Williams are U.S. citizens, while Payen is Haitian, according to the New York governor's office. Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the work of his city's Police Department and federal authorities in uncovering the alleged plot. \"The good news here is that the New York Police Department and FBI did exactly what they're trained to do and prevented what could have been a terrible event,\" Bloomberg said. \"We have to constantly be vigilant.\" \"Unfortunately, this is the world we live in,\" said Nurit Bacharach of the Gan Miriam Early Childhood Center at the Hebrew Institute in Riverdale. \"We just have to forge ahead and keep a positive mind and live life and just be cautious and aware.\" According to state and federal authorities, an FBI informant met with Cromitie in June 2008 in Newburgh, New York. During that meeting Cromitie said his parents live in Afghanistan, he was angry about the U.S. war there and that he had an interest in \"doing something to America.\" The four suspects began meeting with the informant at a home equipped with concealed video and audio equipment, plotting to bomb the synagogues, authorities said. The suspects also conducted surveillance, including photographs, of an Air National Guard base where they wanted to blow up planes, authorities said. The informant provided the men with a surface-to-air guided missile and C-4 plastic explosives, none of which could actually be used. \"No one was at risk,\" said Kelly, the police commissioner, describing the explosive devices as duds created to dupe the suspects. CNN's Laurie Segall contributed to this report .","highlights":"Four men accused of plotting to bomb two synagogues, fire missiles at military jets .\nPolice say informant gave conspirators phony explosive devices, which they planted .\nNew York City mayor praises police, FBI: \"We have to constantly be vigilant\"\nOne of the suspects tells judge he has depression and bipolar disorder .","id":"5df98ccc87a84c07e294ccc17ab9c0963dca6590"} -{"article":"PALMETTO, Georgia (CNN) -- The idea of investing in new home construction and high-end restaurant businesses would send most entrepreneurs running these days, but developers in a small community in rural Georgia say they're still growing. The community of Serenbe in rural Georgia is surrounded by 40,000 acres of dense forest. At first glance Serenbe is a bucolic scene of horses and stables ringed by 40,000 acres of dense oak and pine forest, but as you drive around the first bend, a collection of look-alike white houses emerges, giving the distinct impression of a conventional high-end housing development. But a 21st century high-tech eco-village soon emerges from the mists. There are paths leading to water recycling facilities, composting, recycling, and 25 acres of organic-certified farmland, four of which are planted with anything from hops for beer making to sweet peas. A silver sign is prominently displayed in recognition of Serenbe's ecologically sound construction, proving that Serenbe is not the average cookie-cutter housing development. Serenbe, a community founded on principles of farm-to-table cooking and environmentally conscious building techniques, has seen its fortunes rise while the rest of the country struggles. The development's founders have sold four homes and five building lots at the development since January alone, and they believe that innovation may be just the thing the economy needs. Founders Marie and Steve Nygren say they're running their business the old-fashioned way: looking back to what they call a \"village model,\" where people shop and dine locally, helping to sustain each other's business while also creating less waste. \"People are looking for what's important, quality of life, for them and their children. Many of the residents want to know their neighbors, and we're creating public spaces where they can interact,\" Steve says. The community started small: the Nygrens bought a farmhouse and 90 acres of land back in 1991. At first they used it as a weekend retreat from nearby Atlanta, but three years later they made it their permanent residence and workplace. Soon the 90 acres became 1000, the farmhouse became an inn, and the Nygrens developed a vision of community. \"We're intentional in the way that we respect the environment. It's about the way you live, the way you interact, the way you eat,\" says Marie. It has also been a business success: today Serenbe is a four-year-old upscale housing development, where the starting price for a house is $350,000. In the last three years Serenbe has grown to a community of 160 residents, mostly young families who work in the Atlanta area, the self-employed or retired. So far, 102 freshly built environmentally friendly homes and business spaces have been rented and sold, a small collection of boutiques and galleries has popped up, and at the heart of the community, three restaurants are thriving. See photos of what the community looks like \u00bb . Hilary White is the latest chef to join Serenbe's community, and her 18-month-old restaurant, The Hil on the Hill, is now the centerpiece of the community's small commercial block. White came to Serenbe for the four-acre organic farm that is now steps away from her kitchen. She gets her kale there in the winter, her fruit in summer, and for most of the year enough produce for all of her cooking at the restaurant. Not only does she save fuel and energy by minimizing the products she has to have shipped in, but diners near and far are drawn to the freshness of farm-to-table cuisine. \"The winter is a smaller menu, but in the summer it's endless,\" she says. Harvesting the last delicate bundles of this season's spinach for tonight's dinner, she already knows how to use them: \"We like these leaves, nice and crinkly, holds the vinaigrette really well, and it's just got a real good flavor.\" In colder months she makes her culinary creations with hearty winter vegetables like shitake mushrooms, cabbage and Kohlrabi, a water chestnut-textured turnip. But what's driving the restaurant's success in these cold economic climes? Jim White, Hilary's husband and business partner, says it's the alternative nature of their business that has saved them from going under. \"We don't have as much of a roller coaster ride, people are traveling to see us, and they come from the city because of the whole farm-to-table concept.\" Watch a farm-to-table cooking demo \u00bb . Hilary and Jim admit that the restaurant's sales have slowed recently, but business is brisk enough that they have no plans to scale back. And Serenbe is also bucking some of the national trends, especially when it comes to real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, new home sales in 2008 were down nearly 37 percent, and it is projected that in 2009 sales could fall another 39 percent. The figures have scared developers away from investing in new types of property, but Steve Nygren says that Serenbe is maintaining sales even now. \"We still have consistent movement,\" Steve says, \"and considering the current environment we're really pleased.\" Shelton Stanfill was one of Serenbe's first full-time residents. Before moving to the development in 2006 he ran Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center. He says he was attracted to Serenbe because he saw it as a \"poster child for the anti-sprawl mentality.\" Like many other residents, Stanfill was also drawn to the communal feel of the development. \"We lived in Atlanta for 11 years and within four months of being at Serenbe I knew more people by first name than I ever did in my old neighborhood,\" he says. When Steve Nygren started building his vision of an eco-community, conventional developers were skeptical about Serenbe, but now Steve says that \"a lot of those developers are coming out now with tape measures and cameras to see what we're doing. They're realizing that high-quality environmental developments sell.\"","highlights":"Serenbe founded on principles of farm-to-table cooking, green building techniques .\nRural Georgia community's developers say they're still growing .\nHigh-tech eco-village is surrounded by oak and pine forest .\nHomes, galleries, boutiques, restaurants all part of community .","id":"e5312b878d5abd8ff216db90c108fc14bc843b86"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- You don't expect to hear an electric saw in church, but Kevin Cross uses the tool along with a frying pan, blender and toaster oven to help free people from debt. Kevin Cross holds the boards steady as a woman uses a reciprocating saw to cut up her credit cards. This money missionary helps people destroy those little plastic shovels, otherwise known as credit cards, that so many people have used to dig their way to financial ruin. \"It's such an easy message. It really is,\" says Cross, an ex-con who credits religion for his conversion from thief to money coach. \"That's why it doesn't take a rocket scientist, it doesn't take a CPA to do it. A first-year bookkeeper can figure out that you can't spend more than you make,\" he said. Earlier this month, Cross spoke to about 150 people at the Miami Vineyard Community Church where Kevin Fischer is the pastor. \"You've got to plan your spending; you've got to give back a part to God. You've got to save for the future, and you've got to learn to be content,\" said Fischer. Fischer says the pressure of money and debt is enormous on people, especially more recently. \"We should change the marriage vows from 'till death do us part' to 'debt do us part' because that's what's going on, and it's so true,\" he said. Cross is breathless. As he speaks to the crowd, he's a non-stop, doesn't-come-up-for-air, high-octane money missionary. He uses Christian principles, prayer, common sense, and a few good one-liners to get his message across. \"I had a 401k, it went to a 201k, went to 101k, now it's just K,\" he said as the crowd laughs. \"I'm thinking I got a thousand bucks left, and I can retire for about a week.\" Cross presides over a day-long sermon on how people can make their lives better by taking control of their spending. He says he tries to demonstrate the long-term effects of irresponsible borrowing. Simple stuff, he says, will make people more content and give them the cushion necessary to give back. His new book is \"Building Your Financial Fortress in 52 Days.\" \"I want to get people to have more margin, so instead of investing in stuff, and stuff that doesn't last, they can invest in people's lives,\" he said. The tools he uses to hammer home his message go beyond his overhead TV screens, charts and calculators. Cross invites his guests, who pay $25 a head to hear his message, to come up to the front of the room for what he calls the beginning of \"freedom.\" On a table, sit a frying pan, a toaster oven, a blender and a wooden sawhorse and an electric saw. About six people cut up their credit cards and bake them in the toaster oven as if they were TV dinners. Others sliced and diced their Visa, MasterCard and Amex, before mixing the pieces with Spam in the blender. At one point, Cross called for some cooking oil as one lady stood over her credit card-saute with a spatula. Holding a plate full of the little pieces of credit card, Cross said, \"This looks like a melted credit card, but this really represents freedom in these people's lives, because it's the first step.\" Cellie Mayol says she used to have 10 or 11 credit cards. She put on protective goggles, taped her cards to a two-by-four and shredded them with a reciprocating saw. \"It just felt like the right thing to do to get me started on the right path,\" she said. \"The Sawzall [reciprocating saw] was exhilarating. I love that feeling.\" Kevin Cross wasn't always this way. About 20 years ago, as a teen, he embezzled about $300,000 from the sheriff's office in Broward County, Florida. Yes, the sheriff's office. Cross was a bookkeeper and skimmed money from an account filled by payments from court judgments. He invested the stolen funds and profited about $50,000 before he was caught. He was charged with fraud and theft, and spent minimal time in jail. He paid half the money back. But, he says, that was another life ago. Cross says it took him four years to crawl out of his own hole; He was $100,000 in debt. \"I could spend a thousand dollars a day,\" Cross told the crowd. \"Although, I'd have to spend about two days recovering from that -- you know what I mean,\" he said. \"I completely sabotaged my life, all in one year. I did more damage in one year than most people do in their whole life.\" One night, as a 20 year old, he says, he was parking cars at Miami's Hyatt Regency hotel. He was wearing black ladies garden shoes, because he couldn't afford the black sneakers that were part of his uniform. A Jaguar pulled up, and inside was one of Miami's most recognizable newsmen, anchorman Dwight Lauderdale. He took the car, turned on the radio, and heard a Christian financial expert say, \"There is hope for the hopeless. All you have to do is give your heart and soul to the Lord.\" \"And then, I thought, oh Lord, if you're there. I need you.\" \"I wasn't going to find satisfaction in money. The only place I was going to find it was outside of that, and I found it, in turning my heart over to God.\" He became a CPA and spends one full day each week doing free financial counseling for needy people. He says he no longer gets high on money. He only helps people understand that they can manage their money in a way that can help themselves, their families and others. Juan and Beth Diaz were at the seminar. They said they ran up their credit cards and that their home, south of Miami, went into foreclosure last year. \"America has been a very greedy, give-me-now country for so long, and I think it's a wake-up call for everybody that we can live differently,\" said Beth Diaz. Juan Diaz, her husband, says doing away with credit cards has helped them. The couple plans to be debt free in about 18 months. \"They're telling you: 'Use me, you need me' -- and they own you. We've gotten to the point where we just don't need credit cards,\" he explained. \"Everything we do, we plan, and if we don't have the money, we just don't buy it,\" he said.","highlights":"Kevin Cross teaches churchgoers about the evil of credit cards .\nCross was convicted of fraud and theft as a teenager .\nHe turned to religion after hearing a radio message in a car while a valet .\nSaws and frying pans among the tools he uses to \"free\" clients .","id":"31ed5c11f0ed89bd2b42cb57f911f964a0aafe18"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officers became the first department fatalities since 1995 Saturday morning while responding to a domestic dispute call, Police Chief Nathan Harper said. Law enforcement from several jurisdictions respond to a shooting standoff at Pittsburgh home Saturday. \"We have never had to lose three officers in the line of duty at one time at one call,\" Harper said. Suspect Richard Poplawski surrendered around 11 a.m. outside the Stanton Heights home he shares with his mother after a standoff that lasted nearly four hours and left two more officers injured. Wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with an AK-47, a long rifle and a pistol, Poplawski fired about 100 rounds during the standoff, Harper said. Watch officers respond at the scene \u00bb . Poplawski was taken into custody after surrendering to law enforcement. He is expected to face charges of homicide, aggravated assault and other related offenses, Harper said. Officer Paul Sciullo III was the first to approach the home after responding to the scene around 7:05 a.m. He was shot in the head as he entered the doorway. When Officer Stephen Mayhle tried to help his fellow officer, he too was shot in the head, Harper said. Officer Eric Kelly, who rushed to the scene on his way home after finishing his shift, was fatally shot as he attempted to assist his fallen colleagues, Harper said. The shootings triggered a standoff between Poplawski, who was shooting from his bedroom window, and law enforcement agencies from several jurisdictions, Harper said. Poplawski opened fire at an Army SWAT vehicle that arrived around 8:30 a.m., preventing them and medics from reaching the wounded policemen. Officer Timothy McManaway also was shot in the hand, the chief said. Another officer, Brian Jones, broke his leg while trying to get over a fence while securing the rear of the house, he said. Some neighbors were evacuated during the standoff. Neighbors reported that the family had caused trouble before and Harper said police had responded to calls from the home two or three times.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect was wearing bulletproof vest, armed with AK-47, police chief says .\nNEW: Third officer killed was on his way home after finishing shift .\nOfficers were responding to domestic call in Stanton Heights area of Pittsburgh .\nTwo more officers were injured in the nearly four-hour standoff that ensued .","id":"347d1892b319f4d967bd11df2e4cdd4d0cf51512"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Midway through Jason Dinant's fitness journey to get six-pack abs by June, the 27-year-old had a breakdown. Halfway through his fitness goal, Jason Dinant said he sees a four-pack gradually forming. After months of eschewing junk food in favor of lean protein -- egg whites, chicken breast and vegetables -- he devoured pie. The slice came from Marie Callender's, drizzled with caramel, loaded with candied apples and layered with cream cheese. Yes, it was delicious, Dinant said. Then he got home and had a Tootsie Roll. Then, he ate a Klondike ice cream bar. The breakdown came late February after months of following a lean diet. It also came with consequences. \"When I woke up the next day, I had a horrible stomach ache,\" Dinant said. \"My trainer said once you're on the diet, you can try to go back and have a day where you binge on bad food and it's going to give you a stomach ache.\" Since January, CNNhealth has been following the progress of three iReport contributors as they strive to meet their New Year's diet and fitness goals. One of them is Dinant, a Las Vegas, Nevada resident, who wanted to get a six-pack by summer in time for his 10-year high school reunion. He also wants to show off a chiseled stomach on his blog called \"Naked Boy News,\" where he stands shirtless to give \"the naked truth about today's news.\" The junk food breakdown came after almost two months of staying on a lean diet. The self-described \"candyaholic\" often craved his favorite treats like York Peppermint patties, macaroons, Mounds bars and Coca Cola. \"The key to falling off the wagon is not to stay off the wagon,\" said Gregg Avedon, a certified fitness trainer and model whose chiseled six-pack has appeared on the cover of Men's Health magazine 18 times. \"If you fall off the wagon for one day, the problem is it could lead to two days, three days, a week, then you fall off completely. Next thing you know, it leads to two weeks of binge eating.\" Dinant has maintained his diet of 16 egg whites, one and a quarter-pound of meat, four cups of vegetables, potatoes and rice a day. He treats himself to one Tootsie Roll a day, and sometimes indulges in gelato. Dinant's quest for six-pack abs -- which initially included 500 daily crunches -- brought attention from his neighbors, an egg company that ships him 15 dozen eggs every two weeks and news media such as USA Today and his hometown newspaper, Las Vegas Review-Journal and blogs. Some people left words of encouragement for Dinant's quest for tight abs, but others were less supportive. A picture compared him to a toothpick. Another one showed a kitten shooting a shirtless Dinant. \"A lot of people said, 'You need to put on a shirt,'\" he said, so Dinant set up a Web site called putonashirt.com where he compiled the comments. The hate mail comes \"when they see a thin guy trying to be more fit. They're jealous,\" Dinant said. The negative comments add fuel to his fire. \"I've wanted to do this before and last year, I had the same resolution,\" Dinant said. \"I did it for two weeks and by January 15, it was time to move on. So I applied for iReport. I wanted people to follow it, so I'm motivated to do it. So many people are watching, so mentally, I have to do it. I put my mind to it. I have to do it.\" Watch Dinant's video . Dinant doesn't have a six-pack yet. \"You can see four,\" he said. \"It's more defined. The middle two are coming in. I need a tan. I'm so white it's hard to see.\" In January, Dinant's exercise regimen started with 500 stomach crunches a day, after hearing a Britney Spears interview about her sit-ups for toned abs. Dinant has abandoned the crunches and enlisted a personal trainer who has designed 11 core body exercises. For 20 minutes, Dinant performs 25 repetitions of the exercises, which include a floor bicycle, upward leg lifts and a type of sit-up where he lifts his legs and arms up at the same time. He spends an hour jogging, doing cardio and lifting weights. He also changes his exercise routines and works out four to five times a week. Recently, Dinant lost his job in sales for a Las Vegas show, which he attributes to a sluggish economy. He still has his job as an emcee for a night club and on the bright side, he said he \"can dedicate more time to work out.\" \"I'm working out my legs and arms to burn the calories, to lose the layer of fat,\" he said. \"I don't want to plateau and have a two-pack.\" Many fitness fanatics do the same exercises and never see improvements because they plateau, said Avedon, a trainer in Sunrise, Florida. \"In the gym, you need to change the factors of what you're doing,\" he said. \"If you're doing heavy weights and lower reps, you can change to more moderate weights and moderate repetitions. You can change exercises, do different types of cardio. It's creating change. The body adapts to change quickly and responds really well when you hit a plateau.\" At the same time, some people have difficulty getting a six pack, because of elevated levels of cortisol which can lead to belly fat, said Avedon, author of \"Muscle Chow: More Than 150 Meals to Feed Your Muscles and Fuel Your Workouts.\" \"You've got to make sure the cortisol level is not elevated,\" he said. \"One way is proper sleep and reducing stress.\" Before blaming hormones for flab, Avedon warned, \"you really need to make sure you're doing all the right things first. So many people don't take accountability.\" The good news for Dinant is that the hardest part is getting the initial six pack and afterwards, it gets easier. \"There's a big learning curve,\" Avedon said. \"Granted there are people who can eat pizza and can get a six-pack. For people struggling to get a six pack, you learn to eat properly, get in a gym and be consistent. You know what you need to do. Definitely, it would be easier to maintain it and more difficult to obtain it in the beginning.\"","highlights":"iReporter Jason Dinant on a quest for six-pack abs has sweet tooth binge .\nMen's Health model and fitness expert said falling off wagon is OK if temporary .\nDinant reports that so far, his abs are looking more like a four-pack .\nHe eats 16 egg whites, 1\u00bc pounds of meat, 4 cups of veggies, potatoes, rice a day .","id":"e124bb5ad08980e38cf0091b3dd3c58838b9b26a"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A paper cape sits loosely around your shoulders, covering your naked chest. A radiology technologist directs you toward an imposing-looking machine. As you hold your breath, one bare breast at a time is tightly compressed between two flat panels and X-rayed. You'll undress from the waist up for a mammogram; wearing two pieces, not a dress, makes it easier. It's a scene that's been repeated more than 35 million times in the past year at certified mammogram facilities around the United States. No matter what their age, race or medical history, the female patients probably shared a similar experience during the 20-minute procedure. \"Mammograms are known to be uncomfortable,\" concedes Dr. Sujatha Reddy, an Atlanta, Georgia,-based gynecologist. \"The harder they squeeze and squish that breast, the less tissue the X-rays have to go through and the more likely they are to find something.\" The American Cancer Society reports two to four mammograms out of every 1,000 lead to a diagnosis of cancer. About 10 percent of women who have a mammogram will require more tests. Accuracy often depends on patient cooperation, but Reddy reveals there's another side as well: \"A mammogram is only going to be as good as the technician and the doctor who read it, so you want to go to a good place.\" A recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports that doctors reading mammograms miss an average of two in every 10 cases of breast cancer. Medical experts remind women that mammograms alone don't guarantee a clean bill of health. \"I wish I could say the mammogram could find 100 percent of breast cancers,\" Reddy said. \"I think we have to rely on having a clinical breast exam once a year at a health care provider and doing your self-breast exam on a monthly basis.\" Reddy recommends having mammogram screenings at a reputable facility that is certified. She also suggests going to the same office every year so that old X-rays can be compared with new films. A convenient location is another factor that makes it more likely that someone will actually show up for an annual mammogram appointment. Health Minute: Watch more on what to expect during a mammogram. \u00bb . Fear of discomfort is what often keeps some women away. Reddy advises her patients to schedule a screening appointment for the early part of their menstrual cycle. \"The best time of your cycle to do a mammogram is going to be when your period is over, maybe the week after your period is done when the breasts are not going to be tender.\" Caffeinated coffee, tea and soft drinks may also contribute to tender, lumpy breasts. Experts recommend avoiding caffeine for a week before the procedure. Before having any type of imaging test, the Cancer Society warns patients to tell technicians if they think they might be pregnant or are breast feeding. Similarly, reveal any unusual breast symptoms or problems before a mammogram. The screening requires women to undress from the waist up. You'll be given a disposable wrap to put around your shoulders and chest. Wearing a two-piece outfit will make the process easier and more convenient. Technicians tell patients not to wear deodorant, antiperspirants, perfumes or powders. They might leave a residue that can be picked up on the X-rays, interfering with the results. All mammogram facilities are required to issue results within 30 days, but many will contact patients within a week if there is a problem with the mammogram. The Cancer Society recommends women 40 and older get a mammogram every year. Younger women may be advised to be screened earlier if there is a family history of breast cancer. E-mail to a friend . Judy Fortin is a correspondent with CNN Medical News. CNN medical producer Linda Saether contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 35 million mammograms performed annually in the U.S.\nBe screened at the same place every year; makes comparing images easier .\nMinimize discomfort by going early in your monthly cycle .","id":"c2fd6af222c9dd97e10eed2350756fe8fdf26aea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You'd love to go. Just think of the history, the beautiful artwork ... the things you could learn. But upon hearing the word \"museum,\" your kids break into a chorus of \"I'd rather die.\" Your children can pet some of the world's insect species at the Insectarium in New Orleans, Louisiana. So you wheel, deal and promise ice cream in massive amounts. In return, they agree to whine only when it's absolutely necessary -- or every five seconds, whichever comes first. Perhaps you can avoid a situation like this on your vacation. Pauline Frommer, creator of the Pauline Frommer Guidebooks, has two kids, ages 6 and 10. As a travel author, she knows what makes a museum educational and interesting for adults. As a mom, she knows what will keep children from being bored to tears. \"I think it's impossible to pick the very best five,\" Frommer said. \"But here are five really terrific museums, with very different subject matters, that both kids and adults will groove on.\" The Spy Museum, Washington . Frommer describes this museum as \"an intriguing, surprisingly scholarly, fun and highly interactive introduction to the shadowy world of spies.\" When you enter the Spy Museum, you will be asked to pick an alternate identity. Throughout the building, you and your kids will be tested on keeping this cover. In addition to seeing all kinds of cool spy gadgets -- umbrellas with poison tips! --- you'll learn about famous spies throughout history, how the government uses these undercover agents and the common ways spies practice their trade. \"I had trouble dragging my kids out of this one,\" Frommer said. \"And I've been through it twice and enjoyed it both times.\" Adults $18; children ages 5-11 $15; children under 5 free . The Grammy Museum, Los Angeles, California . Only 3 months old, the Grammy Museum goes well beyond the famous music awards. \"In truth, it's a museum that celebrates the history of recorded music and does so in a cutting-edge, highly interactive manner,\" Frommer said. Every genre from rock to hip-hop to country music is explored here. Top recording artists serve as your guide as they discuss, for example, what makes jazz such an important American phenomenon, what the song-writing process is like or how one genre of music has deeply affected another. Sound like child dull-ville? \"Kids will love the booths that allow them to mix and produce music,\" Frommer said. The museum also has a dynamic touch-screen map that allows visitors to explore the nation's musical heritage and several video displays that will distract any kid's short attention span. Adults $14.95; children 6-17 $10.95; children under 5 free . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York . You might not think world-renowned art exhibits would be a good fit with your kids; priceless objects don't often mesh with PB&J-smeared fingers. But Frommer says you will be doing your children a great disservice if you visit New York and don't bring them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. \"Don't worry, what with all the armor, the mummies and Egyptian temples, the always fun costume collection and the over-the-top grandeur of the place, there's no way they could be bored,\" she said. The museum also offers a number of family programs, associate museum educator Mike Norris said. The museum's kids Web site has activities to keep kids entertained while visiting, including guides that focus on specific areas of art like a scavenger hunt, from animals to doors to stained glass. Norris' top recommendation is not to view the museum as a whole, but as 16 to 18 mini museums. \"It's best not to conquer us in one visit,\" he said. \"Remember, [kids'] legs go at twice the RPMs that yours do.\" Other offerings from the museum include family audio guides that are best for ages 6 to 12, Norris said, and a \"Make your Mark!\" sketching book that is aimed at younger children. Suggested admission for adults $20; children under 12 free . The Insectarium, New Orleans, Louisiana . The Insectarium, part of the Audubon Nature Institute, pays tribute to everything creepy and crawly. Many up-close insect encounters will take place here, from watching winged beauties in the butterfly garden to the bugs you (or just your children!) can pet. The Insectarium's Web site boasts of trips through the Louisiana swamp, an animated insect film and a special exhibit where you'll be shrunk to insect size. \"I thought I'd be grossed out but came away fascinated,\" Frommer said. \"And all the kids around me were enthralled.\" Can't make it there in person? Visit the Web site to download butterfly origami and coloring pages or let your kids read Harry the Praying Mantis' blog. Adults $15; children 2 to 12 $10 . Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois . \"What kid doesn't love dinosaurs?\" Frommer asked. The Field Museum of Natural History sports one of the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils around. The museum also has a new exhibit called \"Real Pirates,\" running through October 25, that will let your children experience the pirate life. They can hoist the skull-and-crossbones, tie pirate knots, learn how to fire a cannon and more, the museum's Web site says. Permanent exhibits include displays about Africa, animal biology, bird habitats, ancient Egypt, Eskimos and Native Americans. And for a more focused trip, the museum's Web site provides downloadable \"Family Adventure\" self-guided tours that cover anything from scavenger hunts through the museum to biodiversity and conservation. Adults $15*; children 3 to 11 $10* *More for entry into special exhibits like \"Real Pirates\"","highlights":"Travel author Pauline Frommer recommends five museums for adults and kids .\nFrommer: Sure, take your kids to the Metropolitan Museum of Art .\nThe Insectarium pays tribute to everything creepy and crawly .\nField Museum of Natural History has giant Tyrannosaurus rex fossil .","id":"d6f10b1658322ef9ca4329903d546fa26e2f1020"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- Bolivian officials have declared a health emergency after three deaths attributed to dengue hemorrhagic fever, the often-lethal form of a mosquito-borne disease that more than 1,000 Bolivians are thought to have contracted since November. Brazilian soldiers pour insecticide to fight dengue fever in 2008. Bolivia also is battling the mosquito-borne disease. At least 12 unconfirmed instances of dengue hemorrhagic fever have been reported in the first 17 days of 2009, the official ABI news agency said. About 250 cases of dengue fever, the milder, nonlethal form of the disease, have been confirmed in the past two weeks, said Health Minister Ramiro Tapia in the Los Tiempos de Cochabamba newspaper. Authorities said they have committed more than 20,000 military personnel and 2.5 tons of insecticide to combat the disease. A preteen boy died last week at Children's Hospital of La Paz, a few days after arriving with internal bleeding, hospital director Christian Fuentes told La Razon newspaper in La Paz, the nation's capital. \"By that time, there was nothing we could do. He had multiple internal hemorrhages,\" Fuentes said. A 17-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman also died last week, the ABI news agency said, citing the national director of epidemiology, Juan Carlos Arraya. Cases of dengue fever usually spike from November through January, which is Bolivia's hot and rainy season. Alberto Nogales, the country's vice minister of health, said the fight against mosquitoes will last until April. Dengue occurs in tropical and subtropical parts of the world, transmitted by the bite of a mosquito infected with one of four dengue viruses, the World Health Organization says. Symptoms, which appear three to 14 days after the bite, can include mild to high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain and a rash, the WHO says. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a potentially fatal complication that affects mainly children, the WHO says. Symptoms include fever, abdominal pain, vomiting and bleeding. The disease cannot be transmitted directly from one person to another. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are up to 100 million cases worldwide each year. \"It actually is quite common,\" Dr. Ali Khan of the CDC told CNN last year. \"And unfortunately, over the last 30 years or so we've seen an increase in the number of countries infected with dengue fever.\" Khan attributes the increase in part to population growth. Mosquitoes that carry dengue typically breed in areas near humans. \"This is a disease that occurs where there's lots of population,\" he said. The WHO says mosquitoes carrying dengue viruses breed in exposed water, including places as shallow as jars, discarded bottles and plant saucers. Last year, 55,000 people in southeastern Brazil contracted the disease. The outbreak was confirmed as causing the deaths of at least 67 people -- almost half of them children under 13 -- and another 58 deaths were under investigation last summer, the Rio de Janeiro state's ministry of health reported at the time. Final statistics on the outbreak were not immediately available.","highlights":"At least 12 unconfirmed instances of dengue hemorrhagic fever reported in Bolivia .\nBolivia fights disease with 20,000-plus in military, 2.5 tons of insecticide .\nCases of dengue fever usually spike in Bolivia's hot and rainy season .\nAt least 55,000 contracted disease last year in Brazil .","id":"f9cf43ab9f68b91fcab03fcf7391b9f67aac550d"} -{"article":"CANTON, Georgia (CNN) -- Meet Kaden, bomb-sniffing dog in training. Jeff Schettler coaches handlers on how to work with detection dogs, including Kaden, far right, in the field. His name, a Gaelic word meaning \"little battle,\" is fitting for the energetic 12-pound puppy with a perky tail that curls like a cinnamon bun. At 4 months old, Kaden is a playful, black- and white-coated basenji being schooled at Georgia K9 National Training Center. Once fully trained, he will assist federal and local police officers as well as private corporations in nosing out deadly explosives at schools, airports and public events. His detective skills can potentially save thousands of lives in an era where law enforcement agencies are aggressively fighting against drugs and terrorist attacks. \"Think about a scenario like the 1996 Olympic bombings,\" says Kaden's trainer Jeff Schettler, a cheery man who has coached hundreds of dogs to sniff out bombs, drugs, missing people and corpses since the mid-1990s. Demand for these detection canines -- including bomb dogs such as Kaden -- has surged as homeland security and drug crackdowns become a bigger priority for government and law enforcement. The North American Police Work Dog Association says 35,000 dogs are trained to do detective work in the U.S. The association estimates up to 10,000 dogs have been added since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Watch three detection puppies in action \u00bb . Official records of training puppies to work as detection dogs date back to the early 1900s in the U.S. In more recent years, police departments realized a dog's nose was a valuable asset. Dogs possess impressive olfactory abilities -- some breeds more than others. For each drop of odor detected by a dog, the human nose would require 1,000 to 10,000 drops of odor, veterinarians say. Can your pooch be a detection dog? \u00bb . Other animals may have smelling skills that rival a dog's, such as pigs nosing for truffles in France or honey bees that can sniff out TNT particles, but veterinarians say dogs are the most controllable and sociable for their human handlers. Police dogs remain the most affordable and reliable solution to solving crimes that require scent detection, police officers say. Trained dogs can track down cocaine camouflaged inside car seats. They can find children who have mysteriously vanished overnight. Detection dogs can even weed out pest-infested apples and oranges accidentally left in suitcases at airports. \"They are a growing aspect of law enforcement,\" says Jim Watson, secretary at the North American Police Work Dog Association and a handler for decades. Earlier this month, investigators were baffled during the international manhunt for George Zinkhan, a former University of Georgia professor accused of fatally shooting his wife and two other people. Two weeks into the search, two cadaver dogs, a German shepherd named Circe and an Australian shepherd named Madison, arrived. Within 10 hours, the dogs picked up the scent of Zinkhan's remains in a shallow pit hidden in a thick forest. Once the dogs neared the suspect's body, they gave their handlers personalized signals. Circe barked excitedly. Madison lay down. Trainer Jeff Schettler explains Kaden is an unlikely candidate for police work. Basenjis, a breed that originated in central Africa, are usually used as hunting or show dogs. There are only two other trained police dog basenjis recorded by the North American Police Work Dog Association. Most trainers in the police dog world dislike experimenting with new dogs, preferring to stick to breeds with a proven track record. Most law enforcement agencies rely on Belgian Malinoises and German shepherds for detection work because of their protective yet friendly personalities, but labs, bloodhounds and beagles also can be used. \"We're not trying to fix anything,\" Schettler says. \"We're trying to enhance it.\" Schettler points out some of Kaden's advantages: The dog's weight will peak at about 25 pounds, enabling him seamlessly to sift between cramped luggage and lockers. Kaden is barkless because basenjis have an oddly shaped larynx, ideal for quiet searches. On a recent rainy Saturday morning at the Georgia K9 National Training Center, little Kaden undergoes testing. Passing the exam depends on his whiffing talents. Upon the instructor's command, Kaden's pencil-thin legs playfully trot along the damp grass to an oversize wall scattered with dozens of holes. His instructor has hidden black gunpowder wrapped in pantyhose in one of the holes. If Kaden's nose sniffs out the gunpowder, he will immediately sit. Kaden begins on the left side, quickly taking a zigzag pattern from one hole to another. His pace is methodical, a sniff for each hole. Soon he slows, pauses, inhales again and then sinks his tiny hindquarters to the ground. \"What a good boy,\" coo several of Kaden's trainers, stroking his sleek fur and rewarding him with one of his favorite treats, torn bits of venison jerky. As Kaden nibbles on his treat, Schettler admits there are drawbacks to training basenjis. Basenjis don't have a furry coat to endure cold weather like a German shepherd. Basenjis are also a highly independent, stubborn breed with personalities similar to cats, making them difficult to train. Kaden's personality, however, is contrary to most basenjis. He was culled from a litter in Atlanta at 7 days old because of his unusual sociability with humans. \"At eight weeks, he was in the airport going up to people and running around like he owned the place,\" Schettler says. Training detection dogs such as Kaden often begins during puppyhood so imprinting scent differentiation becomes innate, handlers say. Puppies are selected based on breed purity, confidence, sociability and temperament. In any training program, there are doggie dropouts. In those instances, the puppies become pets. On the job, dogs can suffer from on-site injuries, such as mild sprains and bruises. Some dogs have even been killed when a bomb explodes or buildings collapse. As police dogs age, health problems such as arthritis can send them into early retirement. A work dog's career typically spans about seven years, instructors say. Different breeds specialize in certain detection jobs, says Joseph Morelli, a canine handler for the Connecticut State Police. Morelli says he relies on Labrador retrievers for arson cases. German shepherds at his school are saved for patrolling or drug cases. \"People are really starting to see how useful these dogs can be,\" says Morelli, who has started to train dogs from neighboring states in recent years. \"We're really seeing our program take off.\"","highlights":"Police dogs can nose out explosives, drugs, bodies and missing people .\nKaden, at 4 months old, is training to become of the the few basenjis bomb dogs .\nTraining usually begins in puppyhood so handlers can imprint skills .\nAbout 35,000 police dogs work in the U.S., group says .","id":"9f1d85f2a54a34d90cbab972e0944f29eb851db6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Come out and join CNN's Fit Nation! Our tour is coming to your city with a digital interactive experience, free Fit Nation gear and a chance for you to be on CNN TV with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The Fit Nation bus will criss-cross the country starting in July to connect with people who are on ready to commit to a healthy lifestyle. Check the list of scheduled stops below to find out when the tour is coming to a city near you. Upcoming Tour Dates - July 11-13: Taste of Dallas, Dallas, Texas - July 18-20: Bite of Seattle, Seattle, Washington - July 26: Aquatennial River Blast Minneapolis, Minnesota - August 1-3: Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio Do you have a weight loss success story you'd like to share? Send us your story, photos and video.","highlights":"CNN's Fit Nation launches it's great American road trip this summer .\nMeet Dr. Sanjay Gupta and take part in a digital interactive experience .","id":"f5ed1ae6cb51599cd82fe5b0a31dcd02e151afb1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You can call 18-year-old Marc Davis a veteran of the racetrack. On everything from BMX bikes and Bandolero cars to Legends and Late Models, Davis has steadily moved up the ranks of competitive racing. Marc Davis, left, talks strategy with crew chief Billy Venturini in Concord, North Carolina. \"I've been racing for 13 years. Started out when I was 6 years old,\" said Davis, who is set to race this month as NASCAR's only current African-American driver\/owner. Two years ago, Davis signed a six-year contract with the Joe Gibbs Race team as a developmental driver. But then the economy went south, and Davis was let go in a cost-cutting move. He was another casualty of the recession. \"We got bit by the economy,\" Davis said. Mike Herman Jr. has worked as Davis' coach for the past two years and feels that NASCAR could be in store for even rougher financial times. \"In my honest opinion, I feel like motorsports is a year away from feeling the brunt of the recession.\" Davis' father, Harry, breaks it down further and says it's all about sponsorship money. \"Sponsors are harder to find. Teams want more money. So now instead of being unemployed, Marc is now self-employed, moving forward and racing his own team.\" Watch Marc Davis at the track \u00bb . Davis formed his own two-car team to compete in this year's Nationwide Series, with his first entry set for Bristol, Tennessee, on March 21. His team is being funded by family and a few sponsors, not an easy feat when it costs a minimum of $75,000 to enter a Nationwide Series race. In fact, a two-car team is considered a skeletal operation by NASCAR standards. Some of the better-funded racing teams have 12 to 20 cars at their disposal. But Davis' crew chief, Billy Venturini, says a two-car team can work for the time being. \"It's a start-up deal, but I think with the short schedule he's got, I think we'll be in fine shape.\" Several NASCAR teams have scaled back on their budgets, and Davis feels that it actually levels the playing field a bit. \"With a lower-budget team, you have a better shot of making races and winning races to be more competitive, since a lot of the higher teams have cut back their budgets as well.\" NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston agrees with Davis and goes one step further. \"Several teams are watching their spending, and that brings more parity in the sport, with the result being a more competitive and enjoyable product for race fans.\" Davis plans to compete in a number of Nationwide Series races before moving on to the Sprint Cup Series. \"I want to progress through the Nationwide Series and enter the Sprint Cup Series and win championships and hopefully be a full-time owner years down the road, so I think everything's going in the right direction,\" Davis said. With a strong family and a nuts and bolts crew behind him, Marc Davis could be on the cusp of something special.","highlights":"NASCAR racer Marc Davis,18, lost driver's contract and became owner .\nHis father says recession has cut sponsorship money .\nFamily and friends sponsor Davis' 2-car team in Nationwide Series .\nTeen is only current African-American racer and owner in NASCAR .","id":"7f6acea525de3019bff7e71a6838a71a5be1ac84"} -{"article":"In the dining room's soft amber glow, dozens of patrons peruse the menu at Rock Creek restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. From a health standpoint, making a smart choice is easy. Watch your portion size and inquire about the nutritional content of your meal when you eat out. Whether it's the slow-cooked salmon with sesame seeds, warm bok choy salad, and miso mustard dressing or the jumbo lump crab cakes with celeriac-apple slaw and lemon-caper aioli, each meal contains 600 or fewer calories -- nearly half the amount found in a typical restaurant entree. \"We offer what you're supposed to eat -- proper portions, great flavor-and we use fresh, local ingredients as much as possible,\" says co-owner Tom Williams, who, with partner Judith Hammerschmidt, opened Rock Creek two years ago. The pair worked with Cynthia Payne Moore, R.D., a Baltimore, Maryland-based dietitian, to obtain nutritional analyses for every item on the menu, and they adjust recipes to avoid unnecessary fat and determine portion sizes. \"We put the nutritional information in the back of the menu-people who want to look at it do, and those who don't, don't,\" Hammerschmidt says. The concept and execution have proved so successful that earlier this year, the pair opened another Rock Creek in Washington, D.C. Enjoying restaurant food like Rock Creek's -- tasty, good for you, and with a reasonable amount of calories -- was once a difficult order to fill. No longer. \"The idea that eating healthy doesn't mean feeling deprived is something restaurants see as a vehicle for change, as a way to differentiate their offerings from their competitors,\" says Master Chef Mark Erickson, vice president for continuing education at the Culinary Institute of America. While some restaurants make it clear they offer more healthful fare -- by using symbols, calorie counts, and the like -- others practice what Erickson calls \"stealth health,\" making some healthful changes on the menu without fanfare. \"When restaurants make their menus more healthful, consumers benefit,\" Erickson says. And, in fact, eating well when dining out is a growing trend. Healthfulness on the menu . Part of what's driving these positive changes is consumer demand. Nearly three out of four adults say they are trying to make healthier choices when eating out than they did just two years ago, according to the National Restaurant Association. \"It's hard to refute that health is related to diet,\" Erickson says. \"And restaurants are making up more and more of the daily diet -- the average American eats one out of three meals away from home.\" Increasingly, savvy consumers expect restaurants to have a conscious approach to food preparation similar to the one they use in their own kitchens -- using fruits and vegetables creatively or cooking with less saturated fat or salt. CookingLight.com: Secrets to eating out . Legislative changes are also having an effect. The New York City-initiated ban on trans fats has become far-reaching; at least eight other major metropolitan areas have legislated similar bans, as have restaurants, hotels, theme parks, cruise lines, and many other businesses. Meanwhile, New York City recently took another stand on upgrading restaurant menus. In a move affecting mostly fast-food restaurants, the city's board of health recently asked food service establishments with standardized preparation methods that already have nutrition analyses to post calorie information on menus so customers can see it when deciding what to order. Many restaurants purposefully take their offerings to a more healthful level. Since he took over the kitchen at the highly regarded Gramercy Tavern in New York City last October, Executive Chef Michael Anthony has created lighter dishes, many of which feature vegetables rather than meat as the plate's centerpiece. \"The goal is to leave consumers feeling invigorated, not lethargic because they've overindulged,\" Anthony says. Like Rock Creek, some restaurants are building their business around a more healthful model. Seasons 52, which has five locations in Florida and two in Atlanta, Georgia, takes a lighter approach to dining by featuring fresh foods that rotate with the seasons and dishes that contain a maximum of 475 calories. The chefs do this by taking out fat, lowering sugar and salt when possible, and relying instead on flavorful accents such as balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and fruits. \"We call it 'palate distraction,'\" explains Clifford Pleau, director of culinary development. \"If you can give the mouth something else to focus on, it says, 'Wow! I haven't tasted something that interesting before,' instead of 'Wow! Something's missing.'\" CookingLight.com: An expert take on healthful dining-out trends . Tap into the trend . \"While restaurants are becoming more health-conscious, it's only going to keep happening if people ask for it,\" says Katherine Tallmadge, R.D., a Washington, D.C.-based spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Here's how to support the trend while ordering sensibly: . \u2022 Do a little homework. \"If you decide ahead of time what you want to order, it will eliminate temptation while you are at the restaurant,\" Tallmadge says. Many national chains post nutrition analyses on their Web sites, so you can find out how much fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and calories a potential meal contains. Healthydiningfinder.com, a Web site operated by the National Restaurant Association, can help you pinpoint nutritious fare at nearly 30,000 restaurants across the country -- enter your ZIP code or your city, and you can search for restaurants by cuisine or price range. \u2022 Watch portion size. Prodigious entrees remain common in many restaurants, despite other changes for the better. Because patrons tend to place a premium on value -- they want to feel as if they're getting their money's worth -- piled-high plates aren't likely to become a relic of the past anytime soon. \"You can negotiate such situations by having part of your meal boxed to take home, downsizing your order by selecting an appetizer and side salad instead of an entree, or splitting the entree with someone,\" says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., a Chicago, Illinois-based ADA spokesperson. CookingLight.com: How to practice portion control . \u2022 Sample small plates. Tapas-sized servings -- i.e. small plates -- will continue to be in fashion in coming years, according to Restaurant Startup Consultants, Inc., which counsels new food service businesses. Small plates allow you to sample a variety of dishes without consuming too many calories. In addition to high-end restaurants, the trend is also appearing in some national chains. In March, TGI Friday's unveiled a new Right Portion, Right Price menu, offering smaller portions of certain entrees that contain 500 calories or less and 10 grams of fat or less per serving. CookingLight.com: Tapas at home . \u2022 Choose seasonal ingredients. A less-is-more approach governs the preparation of fresh, seasonal ingredients: They're often minimally dressed or sauced, allowing fresh flavors to play the starring role. Look for items like spinach and roasted beet salad or roasted butternut squash on fall menus. \"If you have a high-quality meat, fish, or vegetable that has a great deal of flavor, you don't need to eat a lot of it to feel satisfied,\" says Hugo Matheson, chef-owner of the Kitchen Caf\u00e9, who practices this principle at his Boulder, Colorado, restaurant. CookingLight.com: Ultimate summer cookbook . \u2022 Select healthful sides. These days, healthful sides, ranging from steamed broccoli to grilled asparagus to saut\u00e9ed spinach with garlic, have more space on restaurant menus. \"The idea that you can have an indulgent entree but improve your sides is something I enjoy because it's a small change,\" Blatner says. \"If you make small steps to improve what you eat, you'll be healthier for it.\" \u2022 Look for balance. Chefs and restaurateurs are reexamining the fundamentals of their offerings. At Seasons 52, for example, each entree plate is made up of one-third protein and two-thirds fruits, vegetables, and starches. Others are practicing what the Culinary Institute refers to as \"the protein flip.\" \"Finer dining establishments are flipping the traditional plating concept. Vegetables and carbohydrates are the main component, and protein is secondary,\" Erickson says. \u2022 Ask questions. When ordering, inquire about the meal's composition or preparation. \"Go to restaurants where the people serving the food know what the ingredients are,\" Pleau says. For example, Rock Creek uses phyllo instead of traditional lard-laced dough in its piecrusts; but unless you ask them, you won't know that you can enjoy a slice of their pie and avoid unnecessary saturated fat and calories. \u2022 Enjoy yourself. While we're all eating out more often these days, consider a restaurant meal to be a treat. Savor the flavors, and select dishes you can't or wouldn't make in your own kitchen. \"Look at the meal as a source of pleasure,\" Anthony says. \"The key is to relish the experience -- within moderation.\" For more tips on making healthy taste great, try Cooking Light - CLICK HERE . Copyright 2009 Cooking Light magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"More and more high-end restaurants are offering low-calorie, healthy menus .\nThe New York City-initiated ban on trans fats has become far-reaching .\nMany national chains post nutrition analyses of menus on their Web sites .\nYou can often order a healthful side like broccoli or spinach .","id":"9c96ab22f0395ae016dc6ec1d8a9726d3ad434d2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's \"Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull\" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the \"Cutting through the Bull\" segment of Wednesday night's broadcast. CNN's Campbell Brown says The Huffington Post has audio of an executive talking about the \"awards.\" (CNN) -- And timing is everything when it comes to cashing in during the bailout. The soon-to-be-combined Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney will be doling out bonuses to its financial advisers, even as both firms take $60 billion of your bailout dollars. And it gets better. The bonuses, which could total $3 billion, will be based on the companies' 2008 numbers, which, while bad, will almost certainly be better than this year. How do we all know this? Someone gave The Huffington Post Web site audio from a conference call where, by the way, a Morgan Stanley executive told them not to use the \"b\" word. Conference audio: \"There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus. It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration.\" Sounds like a bonus to us. The dictionary describes a bonus as a sum of money granted to an employee on top of their regular pay, usually in appreciation for work done, length of service, or accumulated favors. Semantics aside, the companies have good reason to want to hide the truth. But in the middle of a bailout, we have good reason to call this bonus -- bogus. Jim Wiggins, spokesman for Morgan Stanley, would not confirm the authenticity of the tape, but he did defend their practice of so-called retention programs. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.","highlights":"Brown: Banks reportedly giving \"retention awards\" to employees .\nShe says awards are bonuses, given by firms accepting bailout money .\nBrown says that's wrong, to the tune of up to $3 billion in bonuses .","id":"196f076f17d582ce5f394d916ad5b26c9b267701"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- On March 30 the Open Skies treaty went into effect, liberalizing air travel between the U.S. and Europe. But how will the ease of restrictions on transatlantic routes affect business travelers? Under Open Skies, European and U.S. airlines will be given unlimited access between Europe and U.S. points. The treaty puts an end to the exclusive arrangement granted to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and American Airlines to fly transatlantic out of London Heathrow. But with the airport currently operating at almost-maximum capacity, new flights will be severely limited. As a result competition is fierce for Heathrow slots, with airlines paying as much as $60 million to get their hands on them. For each flight that is added, another less lucrative service is scrapped. Airlines are giving priority to high-yield business routes to and from Heathrow. While European carriers are now allowed to fly from any point within E.U across the Atlantic, the U.S. domestic market remains closed to them. Operators in Europe hope that a second phase of the Open Skies deal will mean a relaxation of restrictions on European airlines' investment in U.S. carriers and the ability for European airlines to compete in the U.S. domestic market. The issue is pending in U.S. Congress. If the U.S. doesn't deliver, there is a clause in the agreement that states the Open Skies treaty -- phase I included -- can be torn up. Industry experts foresee some fare wars in both economy and business-class. Service options are also likely to improve as competition intensifies. U.S. airlines will vie with BA, the dominant carrier at Heathrow, that currently has flights to 24 U.S. cities. The biggest challenge to the incumbent airlines operating out of Heathrow will come from carriers in the SkyTeam alliance, that includes Air France and KLM, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines News, and Continental Airlines. Before Open Skies, the SkyTeam alliance offered no transatlantic routes to and from Heathrow. By summer they will offer 10 percent of these flights. SkyTeam carriers will be located for the first time in Terminal 4. Given the size of the market for U.S.-London flights, airlines will continue to offer services from Gatwick, London's second-busiest airport. Open Skies will intensify competition for ailing U.S. airlines on what has been their most profitable route. Analysts expect to see consolidation between U.S. airlines as they combine international networks to beat competition. One advantage U.S. airlines can offer is opportunity for connecting flights to other European cities as well as on to Asia and the Mideast. European carriers on the other hand, cannot operate domestic flights within the U.S. New flights and new airlines . Oneworld Alliance . British Airways will shift its Dallas and Houston services from Gatwick to Heathrow and its Warsaw operation to Gatwick. Flights to Detroit and Harare will be axed. In June, the airline will also launch services between Continental Europe and New York. Operated by subsidiary OpenSkies, the daily flights will fly from either JFK or Newark to Brussels or Paris CDG using Boeing 757s from its existing fleet. In the future, OpenSkies plans to fly to other business centers, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, and Geneva. BA will also commence business-only flights between New York and London City Airport next year using Airbus A318 jets in a 32-seat layout. SkyTeam Airline Alliance's new transatlantic flights starting between March 30 and June 2008 . \u2022 Air France in joint venture with Delta: daily service to Los Angeles \u2022 Continental: twice-daily service to Houston and twice-daily service to Newark Liberty International (EWR) from May 29 2008 \u2022 Delta in joint venture with Air France: daily service to Atlanta and twice-daily service to New York JFK \u2022 Northwest in joint venture with KLM: daily service to Detroit, daily service to Minneapolis and daily service to Seattle. Slots were secured as a result of Air France ditching four daily rotations from London to Paris Charles de Gaulle and KLM dropping three of its slots to Northwest from Eindhoven and Rotterdam. Non-aligned airlines . Aer Lingus launched services from Dublin to Washington DC, Orlando and San Francisco last year. This followed agreement between the Irish and U.S. governments that the airline could begin operations before others. Low-cost airline Ryanair is considering setting up a separate long-haul carrier that would fly ultra-low-fares between secondary airports in Europe and U.S. such as Stansted and Baltimore-Washington International. Virgin Atlantic has decided to wait to see if Open Skies Phase II is adopted before starting new flights to New York from non-UK cities. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Biggest challenge to Heathrow incumbents will come from SkyTeam alliance .\nNew flights start this year from Air France, Continental, Delta and Northwest .\nBA will launch services between Continental Europe and New York in June .","id":"f9288ed2c6003798da48582b1d629f1983055043"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The current debate over controversial interrogation practices -- tactics that some say constitute torture -- is rooted in the early years of the fight against terrorism and the Iraq war. The photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq sparked outrage across the globe. After the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Bush administration crafted the legal basis for aggressive interrogation techniques of prisoners and terrorism suspects. The techniques included keeping the prisoner in stress positions for extended periods of time, sleep deprivation, slapping, enclosing the prisoner in a box with insects, and waterboarding, which simulates drowning. Those techniques were detailed in four Bush-era legal memos -- one from 2002 and three from 2005 -- released by the Obama administration last month. The memos concluded that such techniques did not constitute torture and were not illegal. See timeline of events \u00bb . The Obama administration disagrees. President Obama formally banned the techniques by issuing an executive order requiring that the U.S. Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations. \"I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture,\" he said during an address to a joint session of Congress in February. More than 400 people have been disciplined based on investigations involving detainee abuse, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He said the punishments have ranged from prison sentences to demotions and letters of reprimand. \"The policy of the Department of Defense is to treat prisoners humanely, and those who have violated that policy have been investigated and disciplined,\" he said. The most notorious of the cases centered on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In 2004, images leaked to the media showed U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners. Some prisoners were stacked atop each other while naked, and others were being threatened by dogs. See disturbing images from Abu Ghraib (discretion advised) \u00bb . One widely disseminated photograph showed an Iraqi prisoner hooded and wired, as if an electrocution were about to take place. Eleven American soldiers were tried and convicted of Abu Ghraib offenses, and some officers were reprimanded. Some received prison sentences. Janis Karpinski, a brigadier general and commander of the prison during the time the photographs were taken, was demoted to colonel. She was eventually rotated out of Iraq. The prison was shut down in September 2006. Karpinksi, now retired, said the recent disclosures have validated her earlier claims that she and her troops were following orders and that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not simply the work of a few \"bad apples,\" as once described by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. See gallery of key players \u00bb . \"That is what we have been saying from the very beginning, that, wait a minute, why are you inside pointing the finger at me? Why are you pointing the fingers at the soldiers here? There's a bigger story here,\" Karpinski said. \"I was never inside an interrogation room where they were conducting interrogations, but I read the memorandums many times over,\" she added. \"Waterboarding is torture.\" Other recent disclosures of harsh interrogation tactics have also raised questions. One Bush-era memo -- dated May 30, 2005, and recently released by the Obama administration -- said CIA interrogators used waterboarding at least 266 times on two top al Qaeda suspects. The technique was used at least 83 times in August 2002 on suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah, according to the memo. Interrogators also waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- said to be the mastermind of the September 11 attacks -- 183 times in March 2003, the memo said. Obama said last week that he felt comfortable releasing the classified memos because the Bush administration acknowledged using some of the practices associated with the memos, and the interrogation techniques were widely reported and have since been banned. \"Withholding these memos would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time,\" Obama said in a statement. \"This could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past and fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States.\" However, Obama recently reversed course on the court-ordered release of hundreds of additional images said to show abuse in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. He argued that the photos could \"inflame anti-American opinion\" and have \"a chilling effect\" on further investigations of detainee abuse. The photos \"are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib,\" he said last week. The Obama administration said last month that it would not object to the release of the photos. The images are from more than 60 criminal investigations into detainee abuse between 2001 through 2006, Pentagon officials said. The release was ordered in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. \"Essentially, by withholding these photographs from public view, the Obama administration is making itself complicit in the Bush administration's torture policies,\" ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said. Bush-era officials, especially former Vice President Dick Cheney, have defended the controversial interrogation tactics, arguing that they helped provide valuable information in the fight against terrorism and other conflicts. \"I know specifically of reports that I read,\" Cheney told Fox News last month, \"that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.\" The Obama administration \"didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort,\" he said. The memos' release has added momentum to the debate over whether Bush administration officials ought to be prosecuted for authorizing such policies. Obama said Attorney General Eric Holder would decide whether to investigate Bush administration officials who formed the legal basis for the techniques. The Obama administration has said that CIA interrogators who followed the instructions would not be prosecuted for their work. \"We are going to follow the evidence, follow the law and take that where it leads,\" Holder said. \"No one is above the law.\" CNN's Arwa Damon, Terry Frieden, Ed Hornick, Jonathan Mann, Mike Mount and Samira Simone contributed to this report.","highlights":"Recently released Bush-era memos detail controversial interrogation practices .\nThe practices were used to interrogate in Iraq and Afghanistan .\nThe Obama administration has said some of those practices constitute torture .\nThe memos have added to the debate over investigating Bush-era officials .","id":"ea97874a9dacffb31b1b4123cdf9eafbbcc1930c"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Now that stereo Bluetooth has become a common feature in a lot of music phones, it's no surprise that stereo Bluetooth headsets have become quite popular as well. Stereo Bluetooth headsets come in many shapes and sizes, from the behind-the-ear style of the Motorola Rokr S9 to the over-the-head style of the Jabra BT8030. The Jabra BT3030 is in the style of a pendant, or as its design suggests, more of a dog tag. It's been available for a while now, but we think it's still worth it. The Jabra BT3030 can be purchased for around $39.99. Of course like any stereo Bluetooth headset, the Jabra BT3030 requires a cell phone with the A2DP or stereo Bluetooth profile. The Jabra BT3030 consists primarily of a small remote control unit housed in a dog-tag style pendant. Measuring 2.1-inches long by 1.6-inch wide by 0.38-inch thick, the pendant is slim and compact with a metal finish and a rubberized border all around it. All of the controls are laid out right on the front face in a straightforward grid. They are the Play\/Pause key, the track shuffle keys, the volume controls, plus the multifunction Call key. The keys are all made of rubber, and are raised above the surface for a nice tactile feel. The 3.5mm headset jack is on the right spine, while the charger jack is on the bottom. On the top is an opening for an optional lanyard. Also on the top is a tiny microphone. Getting the headset set up is pretty simple. Just power it on via the multifunction Call button, and turn on the Bluetooth pairing mode on your cell phone. We managed to pair the Jabra BT3030 with the LG Chocolate 3 without a problem. From there, we could play\/pause tracks, skip songs, and adjust the volume, all from the Jabra BT3030. The Jabra BT3030 comes with nice pair of ear buds that sit comfortably in the ear, but since it has a 3.5mm headset jack, you can use any headphones of your choosing. Aside from using the Jabra BT3030 for music, you can also use the it to make calls via the last number redial or voice command. When there's an incoming call during music playback, the music will pause and you will hear a ringing tone. You can then hit the Call button to answer the call. After you hang up, the music will resume from the paused point. Other features include call-waiting support, the ability to reject calls, plus the ability to transfer calls from the headset to the phone, and vice versa. Sound quality was quite good, and comparable to most MP3 players on the market. The bass was a little weak, but the overall quality was decent. Call quality was mixed. While we heard our callers just fine, we did have to bring the pendant close to our mouths for callers to hear us. They reported a little bit of static and echo from us as well. This seemed to vary from caller to caller, however, so we urge you to give it a trial run before you settle for it. The Jabra BT3030 also comes with an optional clothing clip accessory, plus an AC adapter. It has a rated battery life of 8 hours talk time, 7 hours music streaming, and 9.58 days standby time. \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"The Jabra BT3030 is a great, affordable option for a stereo Bluetooth headset .\nDevice is slim and lightweight, plus it has tactile and easy-to-use controls .\nIt comes with a 3.5-mm headset jack so you can use it with any headphones .\nIts music quality is decent, although the call quality could be improved .","id":"19e9c694e67ffa2e5678e669907f7a1c777ab8f3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three people were arrested Saturday after chaos broke out at an \"America's Next Top Model\" audition at a New York hotel, police said. \"American's Next Top Model\" is hosted and produced by supermodel Tyra Banks. Six people were injured, and two of them sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said. Police said they didn't know what provoked the bedlam, which resulted in three people being charged with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot in connection to the incident at the Park Central New York hotel in Manhattan. The audition was shut down after the incident, authorities said. Calls to Park Central management were not immediately returned on Saturday. The \"Top Model\" competition, hosted and produced by supermodel Tyra Banks and aired by the CW network, is in its 12th cycle.","highlights":"Police: 3 people were arrested Saturday after chaos broke out at a TV show audition .\n\"America's Next Top Model\" audition was being held at a New York hotel, police said .\nTwo people sought treatment at a hospital, authorities said .\n\"Top Model\" competition is hosted by Tyra Banks and airs on CW network .","id":"b8e054c23466ccbf59c5bd9a117181b3e4b2b594"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Perveen Crawford became Hong Kong's first female pilot in 1995 and is soon to be Hong Kong's first female astronaut when she blasts off to sub-orbital space as a paying customer on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne. Po Toi O is in Clear Water Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The Hong Kong socialite shows us around her city's favorite haunts. For the best seafood in the city, Crawford recommends Po Toi O a small fishing village at Clear Water Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. At the village's two seafood restaurants diners can sample the freshest fish picked from teeming water tanks and enjoy specialties such as fried mantis shrimp with peppery salt and fried rice with sea urchin. There's also a 300-year-old temple in the village and hiking trails abound in the hills around the bay. Po Toi O is a 45-minute drive from Hong Kong Island and can be reached using minibus route 16 from Po Lam and by car along the Po Toi O Chuen road. Another of Hong Kong's hidden gems is the retro-chic China Club on the 13th floor of the Old Bank of China building on Bank Street. The style is 1930s Shanghai with traditional furniture as well as contemporary Chinese art and dazzling views from the balcony. On the menu is traditional Chinese food (monosodium glutamate is completely banned) as well as Western tea, coffee and cakes during the day. China Club, The 13\/F, The Old Bank of China Building, Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong. Telephone: 25218888.","highlights":"Perveen Crawford, Hong Kong's first female pilot, shows us around her favorite spots .\nFor the best seafood try Po Toi O a small fishing village in the New Territories .\nThe retro-chic China Club in Central Hong Kong serves traditional Chinese food .","id":"1f1d562238e0aa50badb0cedf90dc4266e331336"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Mariska Hargitay went to a hospital for tests Wednesday after she \"experienced some discomfort\" related to the collapsed lung she suffered in January, her publicist said. Mariska Hargitay plays Olivia Benson on \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.\" \"She is undergoing routine tests and expects to be feeling better soon,\" Leslie Sloane said in an e-mailed statement. Hargitay stars as Detective Olivia Benson in \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.\" \"Production will not be affected,\" Sloane said.","highlights":"Mariska Hargitay in hospital for tests related to collapsed lung .\nActress suffered collapsed lung in January .\nHargitay is star of \"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\"","id":"178553e5464c8537272fa666dcca40dc6e2b2569"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- From Fitzrovia to Covent Garden, London is embracing its charming -- and sometimes cheeky -- past. Every era, from the roaring '20s to the swinging '60s, is represented, with new takes on old-fashioned locales: chip and sweets shops, hidden Prohibition-style hangouts, even ballrooms. The shelves at Hope and Greenwood, in Covent Garden, are filled with glass jars brimming with British sweets. But rather than flaunt themselves as fusty Churchillian relics, these new spots are drawing stylish Bright Young Things who can't get enough of the city's collective nostalgia trip. They're celebrating inspired design, tastes and bygone lifestyles with zeal. At the forefront of London's retro renaissance: sugar. Behind a shiny strawberry-red fa\u00e7ade in Covent Garden, British confectionary is experiencing a resurgence at Hope and Greenwood, a sweet 1950s-style candy store named after its sugar-loving owners. Glass jars and cut-crystal candy dishes that grandma would love brim with classic and all-but-disappeared \"pick and mix\" English candies -- Minty Humbugs, Raspberry Ruffles and Traffic Light Lollies. It's the kind of place that will even inspire adults on a strict diet to indulge in sweets (and sweet thoughts) of yesteryear. Travel + Leisure: See London's best retro spots . Over in the trendy, up-and-coming neighborhood of Marble Arch, Cocomaya is attracting followers with its jewel-like handcrafted chocolates tantalizingly displayed under glass domes on marble counter tops and antique mirrors. And places such as East End's Treacle are delighting locals and visitors alike with a return to the no-nonsense proper British teahouse, serving up comforting classics like Jammy Dodgers and buttercream cupcakes. Bourne & Hollingsworth (named after the department store that once existed on its site) is decidedly more adult; the quirky basement bar in Fitzrovia is tricked out to feel like grandma's -- complete with signature floral wallpaper and consciously stodgy d\u00e9cor. Still, zany accents, like a fireplace full of discarded Champagne bottles, reflect the underground bo\u00eete's joie de vivre spirit of excess. On Prohibition themed nights, vintage gin cocktails arrive hidden in teapots, as Billie Holliday sets the mood. Geales, in Notting Hill, is the ideal spot to start -- or end -- an evening on the town, London-style. Now a shadow of its former 1939 no-frills self, the newly renovated fish and chips shop is giving a lighter gourmet twist to an old London standby; golden, delicately fried cod and haddock is the restaurant's main event, supported by more elegant briny treats like raw oysters and classic shrimp cocktail. No matter where you go in London town these days, vintage style is everywhere. What's old is new -- again! -- in England's retro-mad city. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Sugar is at the forefront of London's retro renaissance .\nHope and Greenwood is a sweet 1950s-style candy store .\nEast End's Treacle is a return to the no-nonsense proper British teahouse .","id":"ac9f9c3657035fd64ed4fea5d5d10c3e4dc39020"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Florida man told police he drove across the country to meet \"Dancing with the Stars\" contestant Shawn Johnson because she was communicating with him through the television, according to a restraining order application filed this week. \"Dancing With the Stars\" contestant Shawn Johnson is a gymnast who won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. Robert Michael O'Ryan entered a not guilty plea Thursday to a felony count of stalking and two misdemeanor counts of carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle stemming from his arrest outside the \"Dancing with the Stars\" studio earlier this week. O'Ryan, 34, was ordered held on $220,000 bail, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office said. O'Ryan is accused of driving from Florida to Los Angeles to meet Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson, 17, who is appearing on the show, prosecutors said. He was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly tried to jump a security fence at CBS Studios in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles, where the ABC television show is filmed, authorities said. Police found a loaded handgun and shotgun in his car. O'Ryan was also ordered to have no contact with Johnson or her family and to stay 500 feet away from the gymnast and the CBS studio. A preliminary hearing was set for April 27. O'Ryan told police at the time of his arrest that \"he packed all his belongings, permanently left Florida to drive across the country because he believes [Johnson] is speaking to him personally through the television and via ESP and that he will be with her no matter what,\" according to an application for a restraining order against him filed by Johnson's mother, Teri. Also found in O'Ryan's car were love letters, clippings and other information on Johnson, the court documents said, along with items such as duct tape and \"zip ties.\" The application said Johnson fears for her life. \"She is extremely upset by this incident and her entire family and those around her are all extremely concerned and fearful that the respondent might try to kidnap her or harm her in an effort to make good on his statements.\" O'Ryan was attempting to contact Johnson at the studio, and was detained by security while police were summoned because no one knew who he was, Teri Johnson said in an affidavit accompanying the application. \"It was extremely disturbing to us that this person had so much information on my daughter's life,\" the court documents said. \"This incident has caused us severe emotional distress. We have been on the move ever since and have not been able to rest at all for fear that this disturbed person will attempt to make good on his statements and attempt to harm my daughter and possibly us as well.\" A temporary restraining order was put in place, with a hearing set next month on the matter. If convicted, O'Ryan could be sentenced to up to four years in prison, prosecutors said. It was not known whether he had retained an attorney. \"The appropriate authorities are handling the matter,\" a Dancing With the Stars\" spokeswoman said. \"The matter has been turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. It is currently an ongoing investigation and we are confident that it will be handled appropriately by all involved,\" said Johnson's publicist, Susan Madore. Johnson won a gold medal on the balance beam and three silver medals in the women's team, all-around and floor competitions at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Robert Michael O'Ryan ordered held on $220,000 bail in stalking case .\nNEW: Police find love letters, duct tape, zip ties in O'Ryan's car .\nHe allegedly told police that contestant Shawn Johnson was talking to him via ESP .\nO'Ryan is ordered to have no contact with Johnson or her family .","id":"64a545455285f19f2babda2abc8aed43b7478164"} -{"article":"(Southern Living) -- Mount Vernon is undergoing a renaissance. Today the site's annual attendance matches its highest since 1976. Why? Visitors used to spend only an hour or so at his house, then leave still thinking of George Washington as that grim, old man on the dollar bill. Now, visitors meet him face-to-face in three life-sized statues, and they can't get enough of America's first action hero. At the museum at Mount Vernon, the 45-year-old future president is depicted riding in Valley Forge. \"He's tall! He's strong! He's handsome!\" they may exclaim when seeing him for the first time. Today's first President is a well-rounded figure at the expanded visitors center, museum, and education facility at Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens in Virginia. A new face for George . Washington now startles visitors. As they walk through the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, one of three life-size models depicts him at age 19, standing 6'2\", with his auburn hair pulled back in a queue. He's lean and lanky like an athlete, with muscular hips and thighs -- the marks of a man comfortable in the saddle. SouthernLiving.com: D.C. Travel Planner . \"He was the best horseman in America,\" James C. Rees, executive director of Mount Vernon, remarks. \"He was a great architect and landscape designer, and a terrific ball room dancer.\" Washington seems alive, except for breath itself. Step around another museum corner and he appears at 45 astride his horse in the snow at Valley Forge. Down another corridor he takes the oath of office at 57. More than mere mannequins, these figures are based on forensic research. To piece the elements together, scientists sized Washington up with measurements of his breeches and waistcoat. They determined the jut of his jaw from his dentures. They analyzed locks of his hair to determine its color at various ages. Getting to know the man . Admirers esteem his intellect, compassion, and self-restraint. (He was the only Founding Father to free his slaves.) After winning the Revolutionary War, Washington could have crowned himself king. Instead of reigning, however, he resigned and went home. Visitors tour the home, stopping to marvel at the stately main hall and gliding their hands along the same banister that supported the likes of the Marquis de Lafayette. They crowd into upstairs halls to see bedrooms that hosted more than 700 guests each year in George and Martha's time. SouthernLiving.com: Come Home to Virginia . Then they explore the estate with its 18th-century sights, sounds, and scents. The distillery and gristmill are now open, and a reconstructed slave structure tells the African American story. There's more to come. This spring, bellows will breathe fire to life in the new blacksmith shop. Meanwhile, the orientation center and museum are close at hand yet hidden, tucked into the earth so they don't interfere with the historic landscape. He who would not be king . It's working. Washington is undergoing a renaissance. \"King George III told an associate that if Washington gave up all his power and went back to his farm, he would be the greatest man in the world,\" James remarks. \"That's like the Dallas Cowboys coach saying something nice about the Redskins.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2009 Southern Living magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Today Mount Vernon's annual attendance matches its highest since 1976 .\nThree new life-size models depict George Washington at different ages .\nVisitors can explore the distillery, gristmill and a reconstructed slave structure .","id":"914235f37540ad92d9b2bae5ee957e9368897ff9"} -{"article":"LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Seven children and two teachers were killed Monday when a bridge collapsed in southern Peru, according to a health department official. Fifty-five others were injured in the incident, which occurred near a school in Peru's Ayacucho province, said Director Maria Torrealba. Further details were not immediately available, nor were the conditions of those injured in the incident. Journalist Maribel Salas contributed to this report .","highlights":"Fifty-five others were injured in the collapse .\nThe incident has occurred near a school in Peru's Ayacucho province .\nThe conditions of those injured in the incident is not immediately available .","id":"21dddc46484d7e3fdae03d03b2fbfb3ea9f97082"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigeria's military has rescued 18 hostages held by militants in its oil-rich Niger Delta region, a military spokesman said Monday. File image shows Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta fighters. The first group -- nine Filipinos and five Nigerians -- were released on Saturday, while four Ukrainians were released on Sunday, according to Col. Rabe Abubakar, spokesman for the Nigerian military's joint task force. Nigeria's military began clearing the western Niger Delta region last week, its first major operation against the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, an armed militant group that demands a better distribution of the country's oil wealth. Both the Nigerian military and the militants have said the ongoing fighting has resulted in a high number of casualties. As many as 1,000 have been killed, according to Victor Burubo, a spokesman for the Ijaw National Council which represents the region's largest ethnic group. However, aid groups and journalists have been unable to verify that figure. \"We want the international community to know that we are getting rid of criminals and terrorists in our communities so foreigners who come here to work and invest are safe,\" Abubakar said. Four villages near the militants' camps have been destroyed in the fighting, Burubo said. However, the military spokesman stressed that Nigerian forces are not targeting civilians, blaming such attacks on the militants. \"We are not attacking villages -- just (militant) camps,\" Abubakar said. On Friday, MEND declared \"an all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be reinvested in the region instead of enriching those the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent. The recent violence -- which has included attacks on pipelines and hostage-taking -- has limited shipment of crude oil supplies out of Nigeria, Africa's largest producer. MEND has threatened to blockade oil vessels, and has warned oil companies in the region to leave and \"cease oil production until further notice.\" The militant group said Friday the country's armed forces conducted \"indiscriminate aerial bombardment on the defenseless civilians in the Gbaramatu area of Delta state.\" It said the strikes were punishment \"for the humiliating defeat\" of the army in raids on two militant camps Wednesday. \"Casualties are mostly women, children and the elderly who could not get away quickly into the bush or high sea,\" the militant group said. The military says it is responding to the militants' attacks on troops, hijackings of vessels, and threats to innocents, such as the \"expatriates who were given ultimatum to leave the region by the militants.\" It characterized the various claims by the militants as \"propaganda.\" \"We are not at war with any individuals or groups in the region,\" Abubakar said. \"Ours is to protect lives and property and also to rid the region of criminals who hide under the guise of struggle agenda to perpetrate crime.\" CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"9 Filipinos and 5 Nigerians released Saturday, 4 Ukrainians released Sunday .\nNigeria's military began clearing the western Niger Delta region last week .\nOperation against militants demanding better distribution of country's oil wealth .\nMovement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has declared \"all-out war\"","id":"dd59bf0cfd7ebc0f0afba48260bc4d8f735d5fc1"} -{"article":"ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo acknowledged Monday that he is the father of a 2-year-old child who was conceived when he was a Roman Catholic bishop. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo speaks at a news conference in Asuncion on Monday. \"It's true that there was a relationship with Viviana Carrillo,\" Lugo told reporters, citing the mother. \"I assume all the responsibilities that could derive from such an act, recognizing the paternity of the child.\" He said he was making the acknowledgment \"with the most absolute honesty, transparency and feeling of obligation.\" The announcement came in the week after Carrillo had filed suit in a city in southern Paraguay seeking a paternity test. Judge Evelyn Peralta, who is overseeing the case, said she was treating it routinely. \"It is a case like any other, which involves the president and nothing more,\" she said. \"It will be processed as it should be.\" Some Cabinet members interpreted Lugo's acknowledgment of paternity as an indication of the change he has promised to bring about to achieve greater transparency in the public sector. \"This is the Paraguay that we want,\" said Liz Torres, minister of children's issues. \"This is the Paraguay of serious change, in which there is no double standard or secrets. It seems to be an example, a very big lesson.\" But some opposition party members said it appeared that Lugo had practically been forced to acknowledge what happened; that he had not done so willingly. Sen. Julio Cesar Velasquez of the opposition Colorado Party called on the Vatican to excommunicate Lugo. Lugo was laicized last year, around the time he assumed the presidency. Journalist Sanie Lopez Garelli contributed to this report from Asuncion.","highlights":"Fernando Lugo says he's the father of a 2-year-old conceived when he was a bishop .\nAnnouncement comes in the week after child's mother sued, seeking paternity test .\nSome Cabinet members say paternity disclosure reflects government transparency .\nBut opposition party member calls on Vatican to excommunicate Lugo .","id":"e479b8ecf55f49de45b83d9851332027739a7b58"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some of the worst fighting to hit Somalia's capital city in recent months uprooted nearly 34,000 people in less than a week, according to a United Nations report released Monday. A young girl feeds her baby brother at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. Relief workers said the fighting between the Somali government and rebels over Islamic law has left Somali civilians with the choice of facing bloody battles or fleeing to squalid camps. The displaced people have found shelter in already overcrowded camps in and around Mogadishu, while others have fled into neighboring Kenya, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA said that an estimated 34,000 people were displaced by the fighting between insurgents and Somalia's government from May 8-14. Although Somalia's border with Kenya is officially closed, an estimated 5,000 displaced Somalis arrive every month in the U.N. refugee camps in the Kenyan border town of Dadaab, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF. \"The situation is simply scandalous,\" said Joke Van Peteghem, who heads the MSF mission in Kenya. \"These refugees have risked everything to escape the fighting in Somalia. Now some are telling us they would rather take their chances in Mogadishu than die slowly here.\" One nurse called the refugee camps in Kenya \"public health time bombs.\" \"The refugees, many of whom are already suffering from serious war-related injuries or illnesses, are packed together without the bare minimum to survive,\" said Donna Canali, who worked for MSF at Dagahaley Camp. \"After all these people have endured, how can their most basic needs continue to be so woefully neglected?\" Nearly a quarter of the more than 90,000 refugees at Dagahaley suffer from acute malnutrition, according to MSF. MSF is calling on the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Kenya's government, and international donors to help alleviate the \"dire living conditions\" at the camps in Kenya which house more than 270,000 Somali refugees. More than 100 people have died in the latest fighting in Somalia, and hundreds more have been wounded in the bloody insurgency, government officials said last week. The violence stems from an interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. Somalia's new president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, recently approved implementing sharia, but the al-Shabab rebel group wants the country to institute a stricter form. On Sunday, al-Shabab seized control of Jowhar, the president's hometown about 55 miles (88 km) north of Mogadishu, according to a local journalist. The violence is exacerbating the already precarious humanitarian situation in Somalia, where an estimated 40 percent of the country's population -- more than 3 million people -- need humanitarian support, according to the U.N. The fighting erupted days after a mortar attack on Somalia's parliament that killed six people and wounded more than a dozen others on April 25. The fatalities included a soldier and three children who were killed when the rounds struck a nearby school, a police spokesman said. Members of parliament were meeting when the attack occurred, but none of them was injured, an official said.","highlights":"Fighting in Somalia uproots 34,000 civilians in a week, report says .\nCivilians have choice: Face bloody battles or be forced into squalid camps .\nMore than 100 have died in most recent fighting .\nViolence stems from an interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law .","id":"dff78b728f51137110b5d4561da02b81938723c4"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- After weeks of enduring cajoling and threats that culminated in a hunger strike by President Evo Morales, Bolivia's congress on Tuesday approved a law allowing him to run for re-election in December. Evo Morales on hunger strike at the presidential palace in Bolivia's capital, La Paz. Bolivia's first indigenous president credited his five-day hunger strike for the decision, which came after an all-night debate. \"That effort has not been in vain,\" the leftist leader said as he approved the law, which calls for general elections to be held on December. 6. The congress also approved a new census, seven parliamentary seats to be reserved for representatives of indigenous villages, and a referendum on autonomy for five resource-rich eastern regions and the eastern province of Gran Chaco. It also set April 4, 2010, for regional and municipal elections. For the opposition, the requirement of a new electoral census and tighter rules regarding who gets to vote was an important victory. \"It will give to all of us the assurance that our vote counts, that our vote will not be manipulated and that, therefore, we will define our future and the future of Bolivia,\" said Oscar Ortiz, a senator with the opposition Democratic Power party. But Jose Antonio Quiroga, a political analyst, predicted that the national electoral court will face big difficulties in deciding how the new census will affect who gets to vote -- both inside and outside the country. \"That's an enormous job that must be decided not only by the electoral court, but the Office of Civil Registry, the National Police or perhaps the office of personal identification, which is where I believe the biggest problems will emerge,\" he said. The approval of the electoral law marked the end not only to days of political tension but to the hunger strike by Morales, who reportedly carried out an 18-day hunger strike in 2002 -- when he was expelled from Congress.","highlights":"December 6 set as date for country's general elections .\nPresident Evo Morales is expected to win another five-year term .\nMorales began a hunger strike to force the congress to approve the election law .\nThe Congress also approves a new electoral census .","id":"a8c88f6601d733b2586674c6777d26f24fc0abc1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two high-profile political officials linked to Guinea-Bissau's recently assassinated president were killed Friday, according to a statement from the West African country's interim army chief. The killings raised fears that a military coup may be under way. Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr, left, and interim President Raimundo Pereira are currently out of the country. The military confirmed the killings of former Defense Minister Helder Proenca and presidential candidate Baciro Dabo, saying the men were killed because they were plotting a coup against the current government. The military said several members of the ruling party have been arrested on allegations of taking part in the plot, which included a plan to assassinate the current prime minister and the interim president, according to the statement from interim army chief Zamora Induta. However, the move by the military has raised fears that the military itself is plotting to take over the government, particularly since the arrests and killings took place while Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., interim President Raimundo Pereira, and defense minister Artur Da Silva are out of the country. President Joao Bernardo Vieira, 69, was assassinated on March 2 during an attack on the presidential palace. The attack happened a day after Gen. Tagme Na Waie, chief of Guinea-Bissau's military, was killed in a bomb explosion in his office. The army and Guinea-Bissau's president clashed in the months prior to Vieira's assassination. Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, has a history of military coups.","highlights":"Two former allies of Guinea-Bissau's assassinated president killed, military says .\nMilitary says pair were plotting against government; some fear military plans coup .\nPresident Vieira assassinated March 2 in attack on presidential palace .\nFormer Portuguese colony has a history of military coups .","id":"b6614c5a95c21d0f0ab078e372813da6360019b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales on Sunday pledged to continue his hunger strike until Monday, when Congress -- including the opposition-led Senate -- is set to reconvene. Evo Morales on hunger strike at the presidential palace in Bolivia's capital, La Paz. Morales' speech, televised by a state-run station, was his first formal address to the nation since starting the strike Thursday in the government palace. More than three days into the strike, Morales appeared healthy during his address. The president wants the opposition-led Senate to set a date for general elections that are expected to give him another five-year term. Morales on Friday called on opposition members -- who walked out of the Congress in mid-session late Thursday -- to pass the election law, the government-run Bolivian Information Agency said. The nation's first indigenous president reportedly carried out an 18-day hunger strike in 2002, when he was expelled from Congress.","highlights":"Evo Morales initiated his hunger strike Thursday in the Government Palace .\nOpposition-controlled Senate yet to pass law setting December date for vote .\nGeneral election expected to give him another five-year term .\nMorales is the South American nation's first indigenous president .","id":"0bdc0ca2c32a8f32b0ada06c81505e018fbb9a35"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- May 15, 2009 . Where in the World? You've heard many different places mentioned this week on CNN Student News. Show you know your news by identifying the location described in each clue. Write your answers in the space provided. Click here for a PDF version of this Newsquiz. 1. This country, whose general election lasts for a month, is considered the world's largest democracy. * . * . 2. Russia celebrated its defeat of Nazi Germany with Victory Day parades in this city. * . * . 3. Journalist Roxana Saberi was freed from imprisonment in this country. * . * . 4. Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to visit this country in nine years. * . * . 5. This is the location on the earth's surface directly above where an earthquake begins. * . * . 6. A small team from Operation Blessing helped this earthquake-ravaged town in China's Sichuan Province rebuild. * . * . 7. Graduating seniors at Dillard University, Xavier University and other colleges in this U.S. city were displaced as freshmen due to Hurricane Katrina. * . * . 8. This Afghan capital's only college for music has reopened. * . * . 9. Controversy surrounds a scheduled commencement speech by President Barack Obama at this Catholic university. * . * . 10. According to a report by RealtyTrac, this state led the U.S. in foreclosures in April. * . * .","highlights":"You've heard many different places mentioned this week on CNN Student News .\nShow you know your news by identifying the location described in each clue .\nWrite your answers in the space provided .","id":"7e77c51d97ead7a22778b5ffa275988389725e0e"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- From barefoot tomboy to fashion supernova, fearless pop renegade Rihanna lives to bust all the rules. \"I love the heavy chain over this pretty dress -- it's exactly the way I would do it,\" says Rihanna. What are some rules you'd like to crush? The idea of not wearing brown and black together seems so dated. The other day I wore a black T-shirt, black Nobody jeans, a brown leopard-print belt by Dolce & Gabbana, and brown Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, and it looked awesome. Also the rule about not matching your makeup to your outfit. I do that onstage, matching red lipstick to a bright red jacket or neon-pink eye shadow to a pink jumpsuit. And I also love to mix prints. We've had the Meg, the Jennifer, and now people ask for the Rihanna at salons. Will you be switching it up again? The first time I heard people were asking for the Rihanna, it was really flattering and maybe a little strange. It caught me by surprise, but now I feel it's a very cool thing. I don't feel the pressure to change it up again at all. I like it, as they like it. Can you talk about your style obsessions and how your look has evolved over the years? It has evolved without my even noticing it. Lately I'm obsessed with Thierry Mugler... Grace Jones inspires me. She is the most iconic woman ever, in my eyes. She has extraordinary style and she's fearless. I love designer Martin Margiela; Kanye West told me about him. I also like Dsquared, Chlo\u00e9, Zac Posen... But you weren't always a fashion maven? Growing up in Barbados, you were a tomboy. I wore my brother's clothes, dresses with sneakers, or no shoes at all. I would always get into trouble with my mom. She would say things to scare me like, \"You're going to get cut!\" But I couldn't help it. I would climb trees, steal mangoes, catch birds--silly things that were fun to us at the time. My cousin and I were the only girls in the group. We would have to stand up for ourselves because the guys didn't want us around. You stood out in Barbados because of your light complexion. Do you remember having trouble fitting in at school? Definitely. It made me angry... For the first six years of school, I would go home traumatized. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school. High school was better. I read that your mom owns a boutique and your dad works at a garment factory -- it seems you have the Rihanna fashion line already partly sewn up. [Giggles] Well I am working on that right now. It takes a lot of effort, and I want to be involved with every step of the process. What do you do for kicks in L.A.? I don't go out much. I'm moving into a new four-bedroom home in Los Feliz that I'm excited about. Parts of it will be inspired by India. I love things like canopy beds, printed fabrics and Spanish touches. Then I can stay at home and cook West Indian dishes like callaloo [stewed greens]. But I do want a sports car--as soon as I get my license. Who knew you were so domestic. Wait a minute. You're such a rebel. In the video for \"Take a Bow,\" you drive a car. I have my Barbadian license, just not my American one. How will you celebrate your 21st birthday? Don't scare me! I have till February. I feel like I have so much more to accomplish before I'm 21. No party plans yet. Many showbiz types say, \"Don't ever read your own press,\" but you do, even the online stuff. What's the kookiest thing you've read about yourself? The Grammy thing -- that I brought Jay-Z on stage and Beyonc\u00e9 was upset, which is so ridiculous. Or the idea that I've had breast implants -- I don't even have much cleavage. It was just the dress! So yes, I read about myself and about everybody else in the gossip pages. It's comedy to me; I laugh about it. The tattoo behind your ear is a Pisces symbol -- two fish swimming head to tail in a circle--which represents life after death. If possible, what would you be reincarnated as? If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog, DJ. He gets the best treatment, all the attention in the world, and he's so adorable. Plus, he goes everywhere I can take him. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Rihanna wants to crush the idea of not wearing brown and black together .\nHer light complexion gave her trouble fitting in at school in Barbados .\nSinger's new four-bedroom home decor in Los Feliz to be inspired by India .\n\"If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog,\" Rihanna says .","id":"6a9161e3463c294767dc0d929e4e0fa2956c4404"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN wants to hear from viewers in both English and Russian for its weeklong focus on modern Russia. CNN Moscow Correspondent at Star City, the Russian cosmonaut training facility. Reflecting on Dmitry Medvedev's first year as president, and looking ahead to President Obama's first trip to the Kremlin in July, CNN delves beyond politics to profile the many facets of this vast land through an ambitious bi-lingual audience initiative and a wide-ranging week of programming. The audience initiative -- CNN's first with a Russian-language component -- complements an energetic mix of live reporting and interviews, feature and documentary programming, and cultural despatches running the gamut of sports to space travel, fashion to music, business to farming, as CNN travels the length of the country to bring viewers the Russia of today. CNN wants to hear from both Russian residents and worldwide viewers, in English or in Russian, what they think about Russia's role in the international community. Send us your comments via Sound Off below. or send your videos and pictures via iReport or to youtube.com\/CNN. The best will be posted online to be read and watched by CNN.com Youtube audiences around the world, while English language contributions have the additional opportunity to feature on air in CNN's programming output. \"Russia is making its voice heard far beyond its borders at a time when the global community has never been more interdependent,\" said Mike McCarthy, CNN International's vice president of coverage and feature programming. \"We want our compelling interviews and reports to stand alongside the very best in audience commentary to provide a really lively insight into what contemporary Russia looks like at a time when its impact is being felt not just in politics but in a diverse array of other fields. We're also excited to offer an online outlet for the first time for Russian language audience feedback as well.\" The week of programming kicks off with a special travelogue documentary Eye on Russia: Moving Forward where CNN's Moscow-based Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance rides the train from the Arctic north of Murmansk down to the southern climes of Sochi by way of St Petersburg and Moscow, to offer a diverse range of reports. He visits a Russian farm to look at the country's ambitions to be an agricultural superpower, checks out the Star City astronaut training center, meets with seven-foot boxing world champion-turned-movie star Nikolai Valuev and talks along the way with entrepreneurs and environmentalists working to make the city of Sochi home to green Olympics in 2014. CNN also catches up with famous faces like NHL hockey star Alexander Ovechkin, Russian Vogue editor in chief Aliona Doletskaya, A list model Natalia Vodianova, acclaimed conductor Valery Gergiev, the \"Russian Madonna\" singer Valeriya, and London-based Russian art collector Nonna Materkova to bring together an eclectic mix of Russians who have made it on the world stage. Additionally, there are reports on Russian communities around the world that have sprung up in places as different as Ashdod, Israel and Brighton Beach, New York. CNN is also live every night from a range of iconic Moscow locations as Chance gives his topical insights into a country increasingly at the center of international headlines, to complement a range of interviews with top Russian CEOs and industry leaders airing throughout CNN's prime time evening programming. From St Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin, Christ the Saviour Cathedral and Manej Square, Chance gives us the latest on what makes the Russia of today, from domestic and foreign policy, to business, to culture. The Eye on series has travelled around the world visiting France, Russia, India, South Korea, China, South Africa, Brazil, Beirut and Poland.","highlights":"CNN launches week-long series of special programming on modern Russia .\nMoscow Correspondent Matthew Chance rides train from Arctic to Black Sea .\nSeries also features hockey star Alexander Ovechkin, conductor Valery Gergiev .\nTell CNN what you think about Russia's role in the international community .","id":"731bdf4bcd7babc076979dfdeb8743153e73e029"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Actress Cameron Diaz talks candidly about love, guys, friends, family and charting her own course. Sunny days and a smiling Diaz, here shot near the Malibu shore. \"I'm mostly a jeans girl,\" she says . Casual style . Diaz doesn't strive to be taken seriously. Her style is relaxed, never more evident than with her wardrobe. \"I don't like overdone or being too put-together,\" she explains. \"I like casual chic. Eclectic style. I want to feel like I can go anywhere, whatever I'm wearing.\" Today is no exception. She's half glam, half laid-back. Her casualness comes courtesy of frayed jeans that show off her lightly tanned legs. \"I found these jeans today and was, like, 'Well hello, Abercrombie jeans!' They're really old, and I love them. I don't care that they've got holes in them.\" Watch thoughts on friends and sexy poll results \u00bb . She has paired them with a simple black sweater and added a dash of glitz with a crystal-and-gold cocktail ring from Barneys. \"I'm Cuban, so I'm drawn to things that sparkle. I like to use accessories to give things a bit of my own flavor.\" Men . So, is Diaz dating? \"I'm a woman,\" she says, like, Duh! \"Of course I'm dating. And is that so surprising? Oh my god, she's dating!\" So when you make a reported $15 million per movie, how do you make the call that someone is boyfriend material? \"I trust my judgment,\" she says. And though she won't divulge whom she's spending time with, she's clear on what she's looking for. \"My list is all about balance. You can have smart but not funny. You can have funny but not very smart. You can have intellectual but not social. But ... I want it all!\" Not that her life has gone exactly as planned. \"I thought I'd be married and have kids by the time I was 22. But when I got to 22, I realized that wasn't what I wanted, which was a huge lesson for me,\" she says. \"Am I going to have a baby? Who knows? I don't. I'm not going to live my life looking just for that. How can I know what my future holds?\" She pauses, then offers an answer: \"How about this -- I am happy right now. Does that count for anything?\" Family . Diaz lives 45 minutes from her family and has always spent a great deal of time with them. She raves about her parents, crediting them with fostering her sense of humor. \"They just celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary. They're just really good, cool people.\" This is one woman with a well populated inner circle. Says Diaz: \"I know I'll never be in a situation where I can't get to somebody for support.\" That support will never be more important. Sadly, after this interview was conducted, her father, Emilio Diaz, passed away unexpectedly. In the following days, the actress released a statement on behalf of her sister and mother: \"My dad was so loved by so many people, and his humor and spirit will always live in our hearts.\" Two of her father's favorite groups were the ocean conservation organizations Reef Check and Surfrider. To honor her father, she has asked that donations be made to those organizations in his name. In her interview, Diaz remembered how her dad taught a then scrawny young girl how to fight bullies in school. \"He said he'd always back me up if I got in trouble. He is a good man, stand up and loyal.\" Looks like that runs in the family.","highlights":"Actress Cameron Diaz likes \"casual chic, eclectic style\"\nSays she trust her judgment when it comes to dating .\nHer father taught her how to fight bullies in school .","id":"19cb5579bb48dcb484ecd80317021f273a95fbf3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's House of Lords voted Wednesday to suspend two of its members over corruption claims -- the first time a lord has been barred from the chamber since 1642, a spokesman for the chamber said. Britain's House of Lords voted to suspend two of its members. It's first time a lord has been barred since 1642. Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Truscott allegedly agreed to use their influence to get a loophole into a proposed tax law in exchange for cash, but the person offering the bribe turned out to be an undercover reporter. The Sunday Times newspaper ran the sting operation, in which journalists approached members of the House of Lords, claiming to be acting on behalf of a foreign business looking to open a chain of stores in the United Kingdom. \"Secret recordings showed Lord Truscott, a former energy minister, discussing a fee of up to $113,000 to work 'behind the scenes' on behalf of the lobbyists, while Lord Taylor offered to conduct a campaign to persuade ministers and officials for a one-year retainer of $189,000,\" the newspaper said. \"Neither peer took any money or offered to [introduce] an amendment themselves.\" Truscott and Taylor were among four lords investigated by the House of Lords Sub-Committee on Interests. The ethics panel found last week that Truscott \"was advertising his power and willingness to influence parliament in order for substantial financial inducement.\" He called the verdict \"outrageous and slanderous,\" according to the official report by the panel, which rejected his appeal against the decision. Taylor said he knew the journalists were running a sting operation and that he made \"increasingly extravagant and outlandish claims in an effort to 'flush out' the truth,\" according to the official Lords report on the incident. The ethics committee considered his defense \"full of internal contractions\" and found him in breach of the Lords Code of Conduct. Two other lawmakers, Lord Moonie and Lord Snape, were found not to have breached the code. The suspension of Truscott and Taylor is officially for breaching the Code of Conduct, which states that members are required to \"always act on their personal honor.\" They will not face criminal charges, London's Metropolitan Police said. The suspension will last until the next session of parliament begins in November. Only the Queen can permanently strip a lord of his title. Both Taylor and Truscott are associated with the governing Labor Party. Thomas Taylor joined the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament, in 1978. Peter Truscott got his baronage in 2004. Their historic suspension comes a day after the speaker of the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament, was forced to resign -- the first such resignation in more than 300 years. CNN's Nicola Goulding contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Truscott barred for corruption charges .\nThey allegedly agreed to take cash to influence specific legislation .\nThey will not face criminal charges, London's Metropolitan Police said .","id":"c1de748bbd170dd3bcf3732c5bd4b96d9c6fae61"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British new wave ska legends The Specials rounded off the Brixton leg of their 30th anniversary tour with an electric performance that threatened to bring the crumbling south London venue crashing to the ground. The frenzied crowd at London's Brixton Academy . The six-piece 2-tone outfit originally from the English Midlands played a total of five dates at what is now the O2 Academy, such was the phenomenal demand for tickets. It's no surprise really. From the rarefied perspective of the VIP bar, the sea of bobbing heads and mobile phone displays (which seem to have replaced cigarette lighters) created a fantastic spectacle. But down among the rude boys and rude girls the carnival atmosphere seemed to ratchet up a notch with each song. Balding, sweaty 40-something men in Fred Perry polo shirts were transported back to the late 1970s as they bounced around unselfconsciously, while post-Margaret Thatcher indie kids sloshed their pints in the air and enjoyed this unique experience for the first time. No one was standing with their arms folded here. Despite songwriter Jerry Dammers' continued absence and Lynval Golding's lost voice, the band was as tight as it ever was, both musically and personally. As soon as the curtain rose the band wasted little time plugging into the hysteria that greeted them. If \"Do The Dog\" appeared to hit the spot, then tracks such as \"Too Much Too Young,\" and \"Gangsters\" literally had the earth moving in this imposing old theatre. Terry Hall, showing no sign of fatigue after a recent throat infection and the band's homecoming gig in Coventry the previous night, was in a chirpy mood. The Manchester United fan enjoyed reminding the London audience about his team's league success that afternoon. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Neville Staple seemed to galvanize the rest of the band with his seemingly limitless energy -- he must have spent the entire gig running on the spot. The dapper singer has aged well and was clearly reveling in the band's return to the spotlight. Despite only reforming recently, The Specials have rediscovered their mojo. They possess the kind of stage presence reserved for the truly great acts, while their lyrics still resonate today. \"Ghost Town\" encapsulated the gritty reality of Britain's urban landscape in 1981, and few in the audience would have argued that it remains a relevant portrait in today's troubled economic times.","highlights":"The Specials reformed for a 30th anniversary tour .\nThe six-piece 2-tone outfit are originally from the English Midlands .\nSongwriter Jerry Dammers chose not to take part in the tour .\nBand played hits including \"Too Much Too Young,\" \"Gangsters\" and \"Ghost Town\"","id":"c11dfe02f4b8e810fff143590bc2062244f7a3bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chris Helmbrecht is a 37-year-old German who lived in New York and Spain before moving to Moscow nearly six years ago. He runs an advertising agency and also writes Moscow Blog, a lifestyle blog about the city. Chris Helmbrecht: \"Not many places have as much energy as Moscow.\" CNN: You've traveled around a lot -- what makes Moscow unique? Chris Helmbrecht: Not many places have so much energy and so many things going on. It can be very nerve wracking and exhausting, but on the other hand it's very exciting. New York is one of those places, Tokyo too, but there are only a handful of cities in the world that have that kind of energy. CNN: You used to be a DJ -- what's your opinion of Moscow's nightlife? CH: For some people the nightlife is the best in the world, but for me it's very commercial and posh. You can sum it up in one sentence, which is a general thing about Moscow: people here live \"Sex and the City.\" They just want to go out and spend money and pretend they're rich and successful and live this dream. I recently had a conversation with the club editor of Timeout Moscow and I asked her if she thought the clubs were suffering right now with the economy. She said that in the modern \"New Russian\" culture people would rather sell their Mercedes than not go out and spend anywhere between $4,000 and $6,000 on a table in a club and admit that they're not rich anymore. Moscow is dominated by posh parties, but it's no different at a subculture place like a techno club -- you're always judged by the labels you wear, the car you drive and the music you identify yourself with. CNN: Where do you like to go in the city? CH: Novodevichy Monastery is a really beautiful old monastery. Stalin demolished a lot of churches and monasteries but this one was spared. There's a pond below it that you can walk around, and all the Russian Orthodox popes are buried in he cemetery. It's a very nice place. Another place is would be Vorobyovy Gory (Sparrow Hills), where you can look out over Moscow. It's pretty industrial looking but it has good views. I also enjoy the center of Moscow. I like hanging out on the roof bar of a hotel, having a drink, looking out over Red Square. It makes you feel like you're away from the noise of the city. What makes Moscow special to you? Let us know. CNN: What do Muscovites do at the weekend? CH: It depends on the time of year, but in the summer they take every opportunity to get out of the city. Everyone has a little weekend house called a \"dacha\" and every Friday night after work people leave the city. From 4pm in the afternoon to 10pm at night you have long traffic jams on all the roads out of the city. People will spend three or four hours in traffic jams just to travel 60km -- and on the way back on Sunday and Monday mornings it's the same. Some \"dachas\" are really basic wooden houses and some are palaces but every family has one, or even two or three. People go out to the woods or lakes and they have barbeques, they drink and they do some gardening. They value this \"dacha\" life so much that they're willing to spend 6 hours in traffic to spend 1 \u00bd days in the woods. CNN: So is Moscow is deserted in the summertime? CH: Moscow is very quiet in the summertime -- it's my favorite time. You can already notice that there are less people in the clubs and less people in the streets at the weekend. Towards the end of June, Moscow is really empty. You really notice it from the middle of July until September, when it's school vacations. CNN: Has Moscow change a lot since you moved there? CH: Yes -- you can see it renewing itself. I know how it went with Berlin -- in 10 years you won't recognize Moscow anymore. Streets have changed so much in the last five years, in a good way and a bad way. A lot of cool-looking brick buildings were torn down to create business centers, but on the other hand you have great new modern buildings and hotels -- the Ritz Carlton for example. There are lots of new museums popping up, art centers, alternative art, new shops and cafes. It's so different to when I came here five years ago and to be honest, I never would have expected it. CNN: What do you miss about Moscow when you're away? CH: I miss the excitement. There's something going on all the time. There's so much choice in terms of theater, classical ballet, the nightlife, the galleries. You have that in Berlin but it's harder to find and not as exciting, and New York has lost a lot of its flavor, glamour and energy at the moment. CNN: If Moscow were a person, what would he or she be like? CH: An ugly princess who wears a lot of makeup and tries to be pretty! She would probably seem pretty rude, but inside she's a good person.","highlights":"Chris Helmbrecht is a 37-year-old German who now lives in Moscow .\nHe says Moscow's energy makes it exciting, but it can be exhausting .\nMuscovites love to get out of the city at the weekend, says Chris .\n\"Moscow is renewing itself. In 10 years you won't recognize it,\" he says .","id":"f99222c8eda66eb6dfbc3556329ba5cf6c983e58"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Style-maker, TV host and opinionated fashionista Carson Kressley explains how to give yourself a complete makeover--inside and out. Style-maker Carson Kressley spills the naked truth on giving yourself a mental makeover. Minimize the negative . As Coco Chanel said, \"Fashion is architecture: It's a matter of proportions.\" In other words: No matter which part of your body you dislike, there's a clever way to divert the eye elsewhere. Try different styles and employ horizontal (widening), vertical (elongating) and diagonal (slimming) lines as necessary. Venture out of your comfort zone . \"Many women get used to dressing their body a certain way because they think it's the only thing that works for them,\" says Kressley. Find a boutique or department store with well-trained salespeople and try on three styles you've never worn. It might be a fabric such as jersey that you've always deemed too clingy or an Empire-waist camisole that you're convinced looks too young. Not every experiment will be a success, but even one new style or color will prove that there are more ways than you thought to look your best. Don't be ruled by your insecurities . If you've been avoiding the beach or missing out on parties because you're afraid of being the largest person there, grab a friend and go to the very place that incites terror--just be sure you're wearing an amazing outfit. Avoid a blackout . \"Have you ever seen a happy goth?\" muses Kressley. \"I think everyone needs color to feel good.\" Too many women rely on head-to-toe black as a form of camouflage. But any hue can be slimming if worn monochromatically--so instead of black, reach for plum, gray or chocolate brown. Clean out your closet . Whether you're holding on to clothes that are too small because you hope you'll fit into them someday, or clothes that are too big for fear you'll grow back into them, you're keeping past wounds open. \"Old clothes stop you from living in the present,\" says Kressley. \"They reinforce what you used to look like.\" Get rid of anything you haven't worn in two years and replace it with something new that makes you feel pretty. And while you're out shopping, have a house-cleaner swing by for good measure. Write yourself a love note . Some women are so obsessed with their hips that they fail to notice their flat tummy. Remind yourself of your virtues by writing a note that says something like \"Hey, you have a great chest!\" Tack it to the bathroom mirror so you'll see it in the morning and before bedtime. \"We're so trained to look for the negative that we need a physical reminder of the positive,\" explains Kressley. Have a princess moment . Treating yourself to a massage, a body exfoliation, a professional blow-out, a brow shaping or a mani-pedi can elevate your mood by affirming to yourself that you're worth the splurge. Get naked . Some women on Kressley's show are so self-conscious about their bodies that they're reluctant to be naked around their husbands. That discomfort affects how they feel when dressed too. Before you can move as if you own the room, you'll have to be at ease inside your skin, and spending time in the buff can help. One idea: Take a bath with the (gasp!) lights on--no candles. \"Feeling comfortable with your body alone is the first step to feeling comfortable with your body around others,\" says Kressley. If all else fails, fake it . One of Kressley's favorite mantras is \"looking cute is feeling cute.\" So if you're having a low day, force yourself to go through the motions. Put on your makeup, do your hair, wear a great outfit. Sometimes faking it can give you enough of a boost to lift you out of the doldrums. \"Feeling pretty,\" Kressley says, \"changes your whole outlook because you feel good about yourself.\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Fashionista Carson Kressley: Women get stuck in fashion ruts .\nWell-trained salespeople can help you try new styles, colors .\nOld clothes reinforce old looks; toss anything you haven't worn in 2 years .\nRemind yourself of good things about your body .","id":"ffb85c7b55ef0e9fb36a07ee01bcb75e3d848e02"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A U.N. team entered Gaza on Monday to investigate possible human rights abuses by Israel and Hamas during a three-week conflict that ended January 18. Palestinians run from an Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school in northern Gaza on January 17. Richard Goldstone, a former Rwanda and Yugoslavia war crimes prosecutor, is leading the Human Rights Council investigation of the conflict that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Goldstone and three other investigators entered Gaza via Egypt for a five-day visit. Upon crossing into the Palestinian territory, Goldstone told reporters, \"We've come here to see. We've come here to learn. We've come here to talk to people in all walks of life, ordinary people, governmental people, administrative people, obviously nongovernmental organizations that are so important in this sort of situation.\" The Geneva, Switzerland-based Human Rights Council established the fact-finding mission April 3 \"to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.\" Israel launched its offensive in Gaza with the stated intent of stopping a barrage of rockets -- primarily short-range homemade Qassam rockets -- fired from the territory into southern Israel by Hamas fighters. The Israeli government is not assisting the investigators, who are not scheduled to visit Israel as part of the inquiry. Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that \"there is not a chance we will cooperate with this mission\" under the terms of the Human Rights Council mandate. \"The resolution was adopted by a vote of non-Democratic countries, and the democratic countries either abstained or rejected the resolution,\" Palmor said. Israel has been long been a critic of the Human Rights Council, arguing that it is one-sided in its approach to the Jewish state. The Israeli military conducted an investigation of its actions in the Gaza conflict and concluded in a report released in April that it \"operated in accordance with international law.\" An Israeli human rights group called that conclusion problematic since an impartial external body did not lead the investigation. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has said that 1,417 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, of which 236 were active combatants. The Israeli military put the death toll at 1,166 and has maintained that more than half were \"Hamas terror operatives\" The Hamas movement welcomed the arrival of the investigators. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said, \"We are ready to help these committees and encourage them to unveil the truth and bring out all the hidden details of what took place during the war, hoping to show the entire world the truth.\" Barhoum went on to say that Israel's lack of cooperation was evidence that it was trying to cover up crimes committed in Gaza. The U.S. State Department has labeled Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, a terrorist group. Its military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.","highlights":"Human Rights Council enters Gaza to investigate possible abuses by Israel, Hamas .\nThree-week conflict between the two sides ended January 18 .\nThirteen Israelis and more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed .\nIsraeli government is not assisting investigators .","id":"e293e382bfb36009f10c2598045eb9fcc79031a7"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- The holiday season is also the engagement season! A gorgeous cushion-cut stunner by Daniel K. Yes, you read that right. It's been said that nearly 40 percent of all marriage proposals occur between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. If you're one of the lucky ladies hoping for a ring this season (or one of the nervous gentlemen contemplating popping the question), use this guide to popular diamond shapes and cuts -- and the stars who sport them -- to get acquainted with the dazzling world of engagement rings. Emerald . No shape more aptly fits the diamond nickname \"ice\" than the emerald, a rectangular cut with lean facets extending down the sides. This elegant art deco shape received its confusing name during the 1920s, when it was typically used for emeralds. Characterized by a flat top and step-shaped side facets, an emerald cut cries out for a clean setting. Star Power: Eva Longoria, Ellen Pompeo, Melania Knauss . Asscher . The Asschers of Amsterdam, gem cutters for the British royal family, designed this striking, dramatic shape in 1902. A square with diagonally cropped corners and stepped sides, it features a high crown and sheds a gentle light. Star Power: Tameka Foster, Ashlee Simpson, Christine Costner . Cushion . A square with curved sides and rounded corners, this stone shines softly instead of sparkling. Cushion-cut center stones surrounded by tiny diamonds are especially in vogue. Star Power: Jeri Ryan, Courtney Ford, Guiliana DePandi . Princess . Think of this flirty, flashy option as the \"Yeah, baby!\" stone, and not only because it was dreamt up in London during the swinging sixties. The arrangement of the gem's many (49 to 144) facets produces a hall-of-mirrors effect. Star Power: Stephanie March, Kara Janx, Sarah Michelle Gellar . Oval . Ovals have been enjoying a high profile since Tom Cruise placed a gorgeous one on Katie Holmes's finger. The cool cousin of the round, the oval shares many of that stone's features, with plenty of sparkle and versatility when it comes to settings. The long shape is especially flattering. Star Power: Bridgette Wilson, Toni Braxton, Rebecca Romijn . Pear . Made to sit with the point facing up, this lusciously feminine (and unusual) cut frequently goes solo because few wedding bands fit easily beneath the large underside of this stone. Star Power: Katherine Heigl, Lela Rochon, Tiffany Fallon . Marquise . The name for this cut comes from 18th-century Versailles, where courtiers wore ship-shaped rings as a sign of their rank. Today the marquise can be worn lengthwise or sailing sideways across the finger. Star Power: Catherine Zeta Jones, Victoria Beckham, Portia de Rossi . Round . Created by Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919, the round diamond is the most popular shape for engagement rings. It's often called the round brilliant because it has triangular facets, arranged to direct light from the bottom of the stone up through the top for maximum sparkle. Star Power: Katherine McPhee, Roselyn Sanchez, Mary J. Blige . Radiant . This rectangular stone, introduced in the seventies, lives up to its name: By combining long, lean, step-cut and triangular facets, it refracts lots of light. So if you decide on this shape, keep the setting simple. Star Power: Heidi Klum, Leslie Grossman, Anna Chlumsky . Rose-Cut . Most diamonds have a flat top with facets on the edges and bottom, but a rose-cut diamond is domed and covered with facets. Carat for carat, rose-cut diamonds, which cast a mellow, soft light, are typically less expensive than other shapes. Star Power: Melissa Akey . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Think of the flirty, flashy Princess cut as the \"Yeah, baby!\" stone .\nThe name for the Marquise cut comes from 18th-century Versailles .\nA rose-cut diamond is domed and covered with facets .\nThe round diamond is the most popular shape for engagement rings .","id":"2ff0418487edb02ae5cefb3b9f06471fc3056bb3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's not as achingly hip as Barcelona and it's more manageable than Madrid: Spain's third city has plenty of flavor, an urban edge and uniquely Valencian oddities. From medieval cathedrals to Calatrava's futuristic City of Arts and Sciences, Valancia packs in plenty. Where else could you glimpse the Holy Grail in the morning, gorge on paella on a Mediterranean beach for lunch and then wander along a old river bed transformed into a park and visit architectural blockbusters that look like a Star Trek vision of a colonized planet? After an early morning shot of coffee and, depending on your sugar tolerance, churros, the Cathedral in the heart of the old city is the best place to start the day. Located on the Plaza de la Reina, the cathedral is an impressive mix of gothic, baroque and Romanesque architectural styles. As striking as the many parts of the cathedral are, the sight of the Holy Grail my leave you underwhelmed -- to the unenlightened it resembles something closer to a plastic mug circa. 1973. If you're in town on a Thursday, catch the enactment of a tradition almost as old as the grail. The Tribunal de las Aguas, or Water Court, is the meeting of the city's elders, who gather outside the cathedral's Plaza del Palau for around twenty minutes. It generally involves a number of old men sitting down not doing very much, while one pronounces what has been decided, and it's a bit of a tour-group hot spot. On the other side of the plaza is the octagonal Miguelte Bell Tower, where you can climb 207 steps for a panoramic view of the low-rise old city. Not far through the old city's happy tangle of narrow streets is the Lonja: a fifteenth-century trading house, studded with a fine collection of mugging gargoyles now preserved under UNESCO Heritage status. Bringing yourself out of the city's medieval landmarks, you can feast on modern culture at IVAM, the city's cheap and excellent modern art gallery. But for a vision of the future as designed by local superstar architect Santiago Calatrava, wander along the city's old river bed towards The City of Arts and Sciences. It's made up of four gleaming white architectural confections, including the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofia concert hall, which is covered in cracked white tiles that glisten in the sunlight. A few minutes away is the final piece of the architectural dreamscape, the Oceanografico -- one of the world's biggest aquariums. With two shark tunnels, beluga whales, walruses and thousands of fish it should sate anyone looking for a glimpse of the life aquatic. The Mediterranean Sea itself is not far away, and public transport in Valencia is a convenient way to get around town when things get out of comfortable walking distance. To get to the beach from the center of town hop on a tram on line 5 from Colon towards Neptu. When there you'll find a beachside strip of hotels and paella restaurants offering versions of the city's most famous culinary dish. The area was scrubbed up when Valencia hosted the Americas Cup, sailing's blue riband event, in 2007. Beyond the rice and seafood delights and the anodyne redeveloped area by the docks, the beach bar of Hotel Neptuno offers some choice classy cocktails. To be extra chilled, snag one of the massage therapists walking along the promenade for a bargain 10 euro beach massage or reflexology session. Back in town, the covered market of the Mercado Central is a must, not just for foodies, but for people-watching. The beautiful modernista building was constructed in 1928 -- look out for the green parrot weathervane. Eating and drinking in the city is a rich experience. Tapas is ubiquitous, but make sure you try horchata -- a sweet local specialty made from a mix of water, sugar and ground tigernut. Among the city's numerous specialist bars serving the cooling drink, the Horchataria de Santa Catalina provides some fine mixes in a traditional tiled interior. For late night drinks the bars and cafes around Barrio del Carmen are popular with locals and visitors -- San Jaume, housed in an opulent old pharmacy, is a prime spot for people watching at any time of day or night and a little further away, Caf\u00e9 Lisboa is buzzy and friendly on the Plaza Dr Collado. Summers in the city are blistering, with mid-autumn and spring the best seasons to visit. But it's every March that Valencians exhibit the Spanish love for a street party during the Las Fallas festival. Its origins are a bit murky, harking back to pagan rituals, but today it's a noise fest, with daily processions and ear-splitting fireworks set off through the city's streets, even during the daytime. The biggest daily barrages take place in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento -- the city's main square. Out of season some of the effigies and floats built during previous festivals can be seen year round at the Museum of Las Fallas on Plaza Monteolivete. CNN's Linnie Rawlinson contributed to this report .","highlights":"Spain's third city has a fun mix of culture and entertainment .\nCity of Arts and Sciences is Santiago Calatrava's architectural masterpiece .\nOld city center can be explored by foot; city's river was transformed into a park .\nChill out with a massage on the beach; light up at the Las Fallas festival .","id":"7c1d0782d732946e195a54e752dd19511bc66797"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Any woman who's ever watched \"Sex and the City\" has at some point tried to guess which of the characters she's most like. The overly confident Samantha? The slightly prudish Charlotte? The pessimistic Miranda? The overanalytical Carrie? Candace Bushnell attends a fashion show during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in September. But an honest viewer probably would have to admit that she's similar to all of the characters in some way. As a writer, that is Candace Bushnell's gift. In her books, including \"Sex and the City,\" \"4 Blondes\" and \"Lipstick Jungle,\" Bushnell has given the pop culture world feminine role models with which it can identify. And the best-selling author's newest book, \"One Fifth Avenue,\" provides a few more -- including attorney Annalisa Rice, gossip columnist Enid Merle and gold digger Lola Fabrikant. Although all of her characters are fictional, Bushnell said each one is based on a common type of person. \"I've always been interested in people. It's part of being a novelist, really, part of the job,\" she said. \"As a writer you can never know a real person as well as you know your characters.\" Watch Bushnell talk about her new book \u00bb . Bushnell said a minor character or two often will appear in several of her books. Other characters she develops in her head for years before releasing them on the literary scene. For instance, she kept one fictional character, Schiffer Diamond, under wraps for 20 years, never seeing a place where she fit in -- until \"One Fifth Avenue.\" The story of a vicious scramble for a penthouse apartment once owned by a high-society queen shows the life of New York City women through the lens of where they live. One Fifth Avenue -- an actual building near Washington Square Park -- is an address that each character thinks will be her ticket to fortune. Bushnell contrasts old and new money -- and old and new media -- in the course of her tale. A New York lover herself, Bushnell looks like she belongs on a fashion walkway. Arriving at CNN in a blue dress, bright green jacket and what look like 6-inch heels, it's obvious the author isn't just a bystander of the fashion capital. But those expecting a who's who of the designer world should take another look at Bushnell's subject matter. \"My books are social satire. They have a sense of the absurd,\" Bushnell said. \"They have to say something about contemporary life.\" \"One Fifth Avenue\" touches on art and antiquities theft, crosses back into the world of blogging and zips over to the stock market in less than 400 pages. Though the book is just out in stores, it was written months ago. So how did the author -- who's been celebrated in the past for her ahead-of-the-curve approach to trends -- know the economy would be such a central focus of her readers' current lives? \"I keep my eyes open,\" she said with a smile.","highlights":"Candace Bushnell has a new book, \"One Fifth Avenue\"\nIt's story of the scramble for a penthouse apartment owned by a high-society queen .\nBushnell says she often knows her characters better than any real person .\nBooks \"have to say something about contemporary life,\" she says .","id":"4e3bcc815470fa0a3b8300dad7d4418c857e7ab2"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- At the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, some of the best music happens miles from the Fairgrounds, hours after the crowds have gone and the last of the crawfish bread has been consumed. Shamarr Allen, Mark Mullins and Ben Ellman sport the Midnite Disturbers T-shirts as they perform. It happens with the arrival of Midnite. At 1:18 a.m., Bonerama -- a brass-funk rock band lead by three trombones -- has just finished a 90-minute set that started with a soulful, passionate original tune written by bandleader Mark Mullins, and concluded with a cover of Jimi Hendrix' \"Crosstown Traffic,\" complete with the trombones running through wah-wah pedals. Suddenly the crowd of about 75 clears out of the way as a dozen musicians parade in the room. Dressed in black shirts, they are the Midnite Disturbers, a Jazz Fest supergroup whose appearance is as infrequent as a lunar eclipse. Each member of the Midnite Disturbers fronts his own band, and the artists are rarely in the city at the same time. The band was started by New Orleans drummers and longtime friends Stanton Moore and Kevin O'Day. In the weeks following Katrina, O'Day had moved into Moore's house, where the two hit on an idea. \"We realized we had never had our own band together, and we decided to invite all of the best horn players we know to play with us,\" O'Day said. Each artist has a name, printed in red, on his shirt, following the command \"Listen to\": Smokey Johnson ... Brian O'Neill ... Henry \"Red\" Allen. They're the band's predecessors and mentors. Although probably little known outside the Crescent City, they're the musicians who shaped New Orleans music: masters of their craft. Modern-day masters in their own right, the Midnite Disturbers live up to their name, splitting the night with their loud, hard, funky jams. There are up-and-comers Troy Andrews and Shamarr Allen, and veterans such as Mullins from Bonerama, Stanton Moore and Ben Ellman from Galactic. Their black shirts are drenched with sweat by the time they finish playing. \"Its an honor to play with such veterans because it's confirmation that I'm doing my thing on a level to where people are noticing the hard work that I have been putting in,\" said trumpet player Shamarr Allen. \"Playing with this kind of band keeps you on your toes. It's more interesting and challenging to try to understand everyone's musical approach and find a spot for yours to fit. \"That's the beauty of it,\" he said. \"How to sound good, have fun, listen to each other, entertain a crowd, and stay on the same page at the same time. It lets me know, if I'm not there yet, I'm on my way to being one of the big boys.\" The Midnite Disturbers will be at Jazz Fest -- of course -- holding down a 5:55 p.m. slot Saturday afternoon. And then, when it's over, they'll be gone -- ready to get together when the moon beckons.","highlights":"Midnite Disturbers is an all-star band of New Orleans musicians .\nGroup does brassy funk, New Orleans style, calling attention to influences .\nDisturbers scheduled to play Jazz Fest Saturday afternoon .","id":"b3c215800b8a8863228ee87d528c0e9d8261f738"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of the most cosmopolitan cities in Africa, Johannesburg is multicultural and multifaceted. Make the most of your time there with these tips. The Apartheid Museum is an often disturbing view of South Africa's troubled past. Apartheid Museum It's a disturbing experience, but a visit to Apartheid Museum is essential if you want to understand the city's troubled past. On arrival, visitors are randomly allocated a pass labeling them as white or non-white, referencing the apartheid pass laws that obliged black South Africans to carry identity passes at all times. Harrowing multimedia displays and news footage recreate the brutality of the apartheid era, while nooses hanging from the ceiling represent the political prisoners executed under the system. Less bleak are the tributes to those who fought against the injustice of that era, paving the way for equality and democracy in today's South Africa. The museum is open between 10 am and 5 pm (GMT +2) Tuesday to Sunday. Admission is R30 ($3.20). For more information visit http:\/\/www.apartheidmuseum.org\/ . Meaty treat The Carnivore is one of the city's more unusual restaurants. A few miles outside Jo' burg proper, on the Muldersdrift Estate, The Carnivore is designed to satisfy your primal meat cravings. As well as the usual chicken, lamb and beef dishes, this eatery offers an intriguing selection of big game dishes, including crocodile, giraffe and ostrich. There are veggie options available for those who aren't tempted by the thought of slow-roasted impala, but if you choose the vegetable lasagna you may never find out if crocodile really does take like chicken. See Hugh Masekela's Johannesburg \u00bb . Day tripping Jo' burg is well positioned for some interesting day trips. Pretoria is just 50km away, but has a very different to feel to Johannesburg, offering more of an insight into Afrikaans history. The Voortrekker monument and museum, just outside the city, celebrate the pioneer spirit of the Boer and their \"Great Trek\" from the Cape to the country's interior. If African wildlife is more your scene, head to The Lion Park, a small nature reserve about 25km north of Johannesburg. It's not the full safari experience, but you will get to see lions, cheetahs, antelopes, zebra and impala, among other local fauna. What are your tips for Johannesburg? Let us know below. Get around Too big to explore on foot, Jo' burg is a driver's city. Public transport is generally poor and minibus taxis and the Metro train are crime hotspots. There are plenty of car-hire outlets in the city but if you'd prefer someone else to do the driving City Tours offer minibuses to destinations including Soweto and The Lion Park. The advantage of a tour is that your guides can offer a local's insight into the city's history and culture. Crime There's no doubt that progress has been made in reducing crime over the last couple of years, but it remains a problem in many parts of the city. ATMs are a magnet for criminals. Be sure to only use ATMs in well-lit areas and be wary of people offering to help you use them. If you're driving, keep the car doors locked at all times and don't open the windows too wide. Keep your wits about you when stopped at traffic lights and when you're getting into and out of the car, and keep your valuables out of sight. Put bluntly, it is not safe to walk around most of Johannesburg after dark.","highlights":"A visit to the Apartheid Museum offers an insight into the city's troubled past .\nSample the delights of crocodile and giraffe meat at the Carnivore restaurant .\nIf you prefer your game alive and in its natural setting, head to The Lion Park .\nThe best way to explore the city, and visit nearby Pretoria, is to hire a car .","id":"1148a8e2323e952807fda306513455968bf7de82"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If Lagos were a person, he (or she) would be described as \"mad, bad and dangerous to know.\" Locals get about in traffic-heavy Lagos on motorcycles known as okadas. But we all know that these types of people are usually the most exciting kind. They are a lot of fun and you just never know what's going to happen when they're around. By the same token, any visitor to Lagos should prepare for the unexpected -- it can feel like a literal assault on the senses from the moment you step off the plane and feel the intensity of the dense tropical heat. Lagos is big, brash and bold and creaks under the weight of the 17 million people who live there. The former capital of Nigeria, Lagos remains its economic nerve center and teems constantly with the buzz of buying and selling (usually performed at the top of the vendors' voices.) There's only one volume level in Lagos and that's loud. From the constant tooting of horns in the snail-paced traffic, known locally as go slows, to music blaring from homes round-the-clock, the city buzzes constantly with noise. Getting around is not easy and you will be caught in the frequent go slows, where you will be confronted by vendors selling all manner of things, from English football team merchandise to dinner sets to plantain chips to frozen yogurts. Locals often joke they can kit out their entire home in a short car journey. The city is divided into three islands adjacent to each other and the mainland. Most expatriates and employees of multinationals, that proliferate in Lagos, are based on two of the islands; Ikoyi and Victoria Island. The vast majority of wealth in the city is concentrated on these upmarket islands, with their western-style shopping malls and entertainment complexes. The best restaurants, bars, boutiques and galleries can also be found here and it's best to stick to these areas to make the most of your time in Lagos. A stay in Lagos would be incomplete without visiting one of the lively and colorful markets like the Balogun market off Breadfruit St, Lagos Island. It is not for the meek or faint-hearted but you're guaranteed to get a bargain or two if you're prepared for a good haggle. It's great for African prints and carvings but is a maze of a market, so best to hop on the back of popular motorcycles known locally as okadas to help you navigate it. To relax from all that haggling, you can head down to one of the five beaches in the city -- the best of them is Tarkwa Bay -- a small beach at the entrance to the Lagos port. It is easily accessible by boat from Tarzan Jetty at Maroko (around $6 per person) or under Falomo bridge on Victoria Island. At Tarkwa Bay you can browse through some local African arts, cloth or even locally produced honey brought round by the occasional hawker. For a spot of lunch, make like locals and indulge in some \"pepper fish\" or suya -- very spicy chunks of meat, similar to kebabs, cooked over a charcoal grill), washed down with ice cold beer. For authentic Nigerian cuisine that won't give your stomach too much \"wahalla\" (trouble), the Yellow Chili restaurant on Oju Olubun Close, Victoria Island is recommended. Those with an adventurous palate can order the special delicacy of Isi-Ewu - goat's head, while others can tuck into jollof rice and chicken or spicy bean cakes (moi-moi) -- a favorite with most Nigerians. For a spot of culture, a short taxi ride away is one of the city's main attractions, the National Museum on King George V Road, Onikan. It opened in 1957 and houses bronze sculptures and ivory carvings from Benin dating back 300 years. Is Lagos the most exciting city in Africa? Use the Sound Off box below to have your say. If you are in the market for some art, you can pick up some tasteful, but admittedly, not cheap, Nigerian art at the Bogobiri boutique hotel in West Ikoyi. The hotel owner's brother, Azu, will take you to his studio where you can see the artists at work. Lagos is a see-and-be-seen place and later you can party at one of the most fashionable places in town, Caliente on Goriola Street, off Adeola Odeku Street, a fun cocktail bar with a South American vibe and salsa dancing. Lagosians also let their hair down over a bucket of champagne or two at Bar Ten in Saka Tinubu Street, owned by Nigerian football star Jay Jay Okocha. There's no chance of missing it as his name is engraved with golden letters above the entrance! Be prepared to empty your wallet though, as Lagosians are big spenders. However, if your taste is less opulent, visit one of the numerous beer parlors found on every street corner and which are open 24 hours a day. Lagos is a city that never sleeps. For those staying on the mainland, check if musician Femi Kuti is in town on a Sunday and go to \"The Shrine\", Ikeja - the home of Afrobeat. This is an amazing experience reminiscent of his dad, the legendary musician Fela Kuti. Or you can catch the current king of Afrobeat, Lagbaja at his club Motherlan' on Opebi Road, Ikeja. The clubs don't kick off in earnest until around 10pm and you can party well into the night, just don't forget to make it in time for your flight home! CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lagos is a vibrant, exuberant city that never sleeps .\nYou can shop for African fabrics at the local markets, just be prepared to haggle!\nParty at The Shrine nightclub, home of legendary Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti .","id":"302c6550efd4209382040d788b461e31d4870850"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As the swine flu outbreak escalates across the globe, U.S. travelers returning from Mexico are wondering what to do when they come home. Travelers leaving a Mexican airport fill out questionnaires about their health. On Wednesday, Christine Kovar of San Francisco, California, returned from a vacation to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. She said she wasn't sure whether she should attend work or stay home. \"I feel fine,\" said Kovar. \"It will be the discretion of my boss whether I go back to work.\" The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, is advising U.S. travelers back from Mexico with at least two of the swine flu symptoms to stay at home and avoid public places upon return. Symptoms of swine flu, also known as 2009 N1H1, can include a fever, sore throat, cough, chills, headaches and runny nose. People with symptoms should report to a health care provider or local health department and provide itinerary details and symptoms, according to the CDC. If infected, the swine flu is contagious for up to seven days. People who aren't sick should continue to work and use normal precautions like washing hands, according to the CDC. They should monitor their health for seven days. \"As long as they aren't presenting any flu-like symptoms, there is no reason why they can't continue to do things that they normally would,\" said Llelwyn Grant, a spokesman for the CDC. Meanwhile, the death toll from swine flu continues to climb. On Thursday, the World Health Organization reported 236 cases of swine flu worldwide. In the United States, the CDC said it confirmed 109 cases of swine flu, or 2009 H1N1, in 11 states, an increase of 18 from its previous total. On Wednesday, the WHO raised the pandemic threat level to 5 on a six-step scale . These numbers are causing alarm among the public, as schools and businesses try to contain the disease and protect the health of others. Some companies are erring on the side of safety, telling employees who returned from Mexico to stay at home for a few days. One university in Pennsylvania barred nearly two dozen students back from Mexico from attending graduation. More than 100 schools across the country have shut down. Greenville County School District in South Carolina shut down on Thursday to clean the buildings and busses when 18 students reported flu-like symptoms after a band trip to Disney World in Florida. School officials are awaiting the test results of the children. \"We are being proactive and trying to take [the] right precautions,\" said Oby Lyles, spokesman for the Greenville County School District. Several state health departments such as the New York, where there are 50 confirmed cases, and Kansas, where there are two confirmed cases, said they haven't made state-level advisories yet on whether travelers from Mexico who feel healthy should attend work or not. If travelers are feeling sick, the state departments said travelers should follow CDC guidelines and stay at home. \"If you aren't sick, make sure you are practicing the common sense precautions,\" said a spokesman at the New York State Department of Health. \"Wash your hands. Cover your mouth when you sneeze.\" In addition to advising ill U.S. travelers returning from Mexico to stay confined, government officials are turning to the travel industry for help, particularly air travel. The CDC is advising airline crew members who have arrived from domestic and international areas affected by the swine flu to be on the lookout for ill passengers. Airlines have been advised to stock the planes with gloves and face masks in case of an emergency. The CDC said airline crew members need to ask passengers who appear sick to be quarantined at one of the CDC's 20 locations across the country. It's been smooth sailing at U.S. airports, several passengers say. There have been no nationwide questionnaires being issued at the airports, according to a spokeswoman at U.S. Customs and Border Protection yet. In contrast, at some Mexican airports, travelers are asked to fill out forms asking about his or her health, passengers interviewed say. Still, travelers will find warnings about swine flu all over the airport. At O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, travel warnings about the flu are being distributed. Signs informing passengers about swine flu, particularly in the international terminal, are posted. As of Friday, the CDC was recommending U.S. travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico.","highlights":"Travelers with flu-like symptoms coming back from Mexico should stay at home .\nHealthy travelers coming from Mexico can continue to go to work and school .\nThere are more than 230 confirmed cases of swine flu worldwide, according to WHO .\nCompanies and schools are erring on the side of safety asking people not to come .","id":"6e6bb9ba1728f7b0f0c56441f4e52f822963ec68"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- If you're interested in actor Marlee Matlin, you'll want two questions answered before deciding whether to read her memoir, \"I'll Scream Later\": . Actress Marlee Matlin appears on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" to talk about her sexual abuse. 1. What does she say about her relationship with William Hurt, her former lover and costar in \"Children of a Lesser God,\" for which Matlin won a Golden Globe and an Oscar in 1987? 2. Why does she want to scream? The answer to the first is easy: Yes, yes, good Lord, yes, Matlin can't stop talking about Hurt and their passionate, turbulent, at times violent relationship. For instance, \"We made amazing, mind-blowing love. And we fought.\" Good to know. And also, \"No matter what triggered our fights, they were made far worse by his drinking and my drug use.\" Got it. Mr. Hurt no doubt sends his regards. The answer to the second is more complicated -- something to do with Matlin's being deaf in a hearing world, and being headstrong and wild, and receiving news of her Oscar nomination while dealing with drug addiction (at the age of 21) at the Betty Ford Center. This memoir, dutifully wrestled into order by L.A. Times film critic Betsy Sharkey, is more ramble than holler, but Matlin clearly enjoys making some noise. EW Grade: C+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Marlee Matlin's memoir \"I'll Scream Later\" says plenty about William Hurt .\nBook more muddied when it comes to why she wants to scream .\nFor a ramble, it isn't bad, but EW gives it a C-plus .","id":"f3c235ed08eb9caf00da936de972d7912bba73ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rick Perlstein could have called his book \"Paranoia.\" Richard Nixon was \"the guy who exploited these tensions to create a new kind of politics,\" says Rick Perlstein. If Perlstein's history of the 1960s and early '70s in America has a throughline, it's mistrust. Parents don't trust their children. Enlisted men don't trust their officers. Blacks don't trust whites, Southerners don't trust Northerners, the Silent Majority doesn't trust the Intellectual Establishment, and -- soon enough -- nobody trusts the government. And in the midst of it all was Richard Nixon: Red-baiter, former vice president, failed gubernatorial nominee, punch line, political strategist and president, a master at playing both sides to maintain his hold on power. In doing so, he provided a roadmap for his successors. Hence Perlstein's actual title: \"Nixonland\" (Scribner). \"I'm fascinated with how Americans fight with each other,\" says Perlstein, 39, who was born the year Nixon took office. \"And the '60s is the best, the most -- besides the Civil War, I can't think of a more dramatic canvas. And Nixon fits in as the guy who exploited these tensions to create a new kind of politics that we're still living with now.\" Slideshow: What made the '60s the '60s \u00bb . Perlstein's book has earned rave reviews. In The Atlantic magazine, conservative writer Ross Douthat praised the author for \"the rare gift of being able to weave social, political, and cultural history into a single seamless narrative.\" Newsweek's Evan Thomas called it \"the best book written about the 1960s\" in more than a quarter-century. Perlstein says he's long had an obsession with the '60s -- which, in \"Nixonland,\" start with the Democratic landslide of 1964 and end with the Nixon landslide of 1972. The author, now a senior fellow at the left-leaning Campaign for America's Future in Chicago, considers the book a sequel to his earlier work, a biography of Barry Goldwater and the rise of the conservative movement. But \"Nixonland\" is as much a cultural history as a political chronicle; indeed, in the '60s the two were tightly enmeshed. The decade saw the full flower of youth culture, which was intertwined with Vietnam War protests, increasing drug use and distinctive music. It also saw the rise of what Nixon, in a major 1969 speech, termed the \"Silent Majority\" -- older, more conservative Americans buffeted on all sides by change, taking refuge in the familiar. Both groups had their pop culture heroes and touchstones, Perlstein observes. \"The generational divide went so deep as to form a fundamental argument about what was moral and what was immoral,\" Perlstein says. \"This was how people lived in the world -- through popular culture and through politics. The two feed off each other.\" Though the era is now remembered through the rosy lenses of the baby boomers, their parents -- the heart of the \"Silent Majority\" -- didn't look upon the culture so fondly. Many disdained the era's pop music, the most obvious expression of youth. Moreover, some of the highest-rated TV specials of 1969 and 1970 were Bob Hope programs, Perlstein writes, and when a movie such as 1970's \"Joe\" came out -- about a hardhat who loathes the hippies -- many in the audience came to cheer for the hardhat. Movies may have been the most revealing mirror of society. The rise of the youth culture coincided with the death of the studio system. Some of what emerged were films willing to show the grit and ugliness of the cities (\"the cities\" being a common euphemism for civic decline). \"Midnight Cowboy\" and \"The French Connection,\" the Academy Awards' best pictures of 1969 and 1971 respectively, show a weary, cold New York crumbling under its residents' feet. Television tiptoed more gingerly into the new age, Perlstein says. With just three networks catering to the entire country, \"everything had to have this lowest-common-denominator mass appeal,\" he says. \"You could watch TV in 1966 and it's really not any different from what it looked like in 1956. \"When you did get interesting shows, it was often an accident -- a midseason replacement,\" he adds. \" 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' was supposed to be a typical variety show. [CBS] never would have signed it up had they known that they were going to start talking about how much they hated the Vietnam War and started putting on Pete Seeger and making jokes about Richard Nixon. It was an accident.\" An underlying theme of \"Nixonland\" is how the various cultural and political movements eventually borrow from each other, with varying results. The mass gatherings of youth -- \"be-in,\" \"sit-in\" -- became \"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in,\" a colorful comedy show hosted by two nightclub comics, with a writing staff that included an old Nixon hand, Paul Keyes. The nightly arguments between parents and children became the sitcom \"All in the Family,\" a show whose central figure -- the bigoted construction worker Archie Bunker -- became a cultural hero. And then there was Nixon, a controlling man who, in trying to stay at least one move ahead of everyone else, ends up consumed by his own power. The result is Watergate, which is just being uncovered as \"Nixonland\" ends. Could it have been different? Countless commentators have tried to replay history from the hinge year of 1968, wondering if a surviving Robert Kennedy could have beaten Nixon and salved an angry culture. Perlstein, whose next book will chronicle the '70s, will have none of it. \"I don't like that magic thinking. I'm very suspicious of it,\" he says. \"Martyrs seem to get 100 extra bonus points in the annals of history, and that's a bias. By the same token, nostalgia systematically cheats the past. \"I think that it pulls around to one of the huge themes of my book and my work, which is that we really want to believe that somehow magically we can transcend our differences in American and as Americans without working hard at it. \"If only this person had lived; if only this event hadn't gone the way it did. But the fact of the matter is, we are a deeply divided nation, and transcending those differences isn't the work of an afternoon or a single person. It's something we all have to fight for.\"","highlights":"\"Nixonland\" is Rick Perlstein's history of the '60s and early '70s .\nCentral character is Richard Nixon, who exploited era's tensions for his ends .\nBook shows how politics and pop culture intertwined -- and created gaps .\nEnd result? We're still living in Nixonland, author says .","id":"fdd6051c33fe13656fe88b840543b9d87dc06156"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It was one of the greatest humanitarian acts in history. Pondering an imaginary Yiddish-speaking place produced \"The Yiddish Policemen's Union,\" says Michael Chabon. At the beginning of World War II, as the Nazis tightened their grip on Europe, the U.S. government allowed millions of Jews to resettle from their homes in Poland and Russia to southeastern Alaska, along the panhandle. Two million Jews had died at the hands of the Nazi scourge, but millions more were saved as the Federal District of Sitka, Alaska, became the new Jewish homeland -- all the more important when the fledgling State of Israel went down to defeat in 1948. However, 60 years later, Sitka is about to be returned to local jurisdiction, and the island's Jews -- including a noted detective, Meyer Landsman -- are wondering where to go next. The Jewish people, forever rootless, will have to wander some more. Landsman's got other problems, too. He's rootless himself, biding his time in a seedy hotel. There's the body that turned up in a nearby room, a onetime chess prodigy who appears to have major connections with some big shots -- machers, in the local Yiddish lingo. There's his ex-wife, now his boss -- at least until the department is disbanded -- and his partner, a half-Jewish, half-Tlingit named Berko who's far more responsible than Landsman. And there are a host of old enemies with long memories, particularly when Landsman decides to root around the dead chess player's case. Landsman's world is fiction, of course, a product of Michael Chabon's imagination. Chabon's new book, \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" (HarperCollins), combines Landsman's hard-boiled detective's terrain with the landscape of alternate history, one in which world events take a startling turn. The story is rooted in fact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Chabon (\"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay\") observes. Chabon had written an article about the decline of Yiddish, and the reaction to the piece -- some of it very negative -- \"got me thinking about ... a possible, but nonexistent, imaginary Yiddish-speaking place in the modern world,\" he says in an interview at CNN Center. In the article, he noted an actual plan by Franklin Roosevelt's Interior secretary, Harold Ickes, to create a refuge for European Jews in Alaska, still 20 years from statehood. In reality, the plan was squelched thanks to the opposition of Alaska delegate Anthony Dimond, but in the \"Yiddish Policemen's\" world, Dimond is conveniently killed off and the plan goes forward. Chabon's Federal District of Sitka is a land of tall apartment blocks and grimy streets, as if \"Hong Kong had moved to the other side of the Pacific Ocean,\" he says. The novel is peppered with clever conceits. The book's black hats, as in villains, are actual \"black hats,\" a slang term for ultra-Orthodox Jews. The characters are fond of Filipino doughnuts, a twist on the Jewish taste for Chinese food. The place names of Russian Alaska are an apt companion to the Eastern European surnames of Chabon's Jews, and then there are throwaway bits -- such as in the Sitka of 2001, Orson Welles did release a version of \"Heart of Darkness.\" Doing a genre novel -- or several at once, as \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" is part detective story, part alt-history, part modern Jewish folktale -- isn't considered the natural turf for a so-called literary writer like Chabon, but the author -- who has been vocal in support of genre fiction -- makes no apologies for the work. \"I only ever try to write in genres that I love ... I love hard-boiled detective novels, I love fantasy, I love science fiction,\" he says. \"It feels like a natural impulse to want to integrate that passion that I have as a reader into my writing. I didn't see a good reason not to. ... And to say that there's something inherently inferior about the mystery genre is just silly.\" In writing \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union,\" Chabon says, the key was re-reading Raymond Chandler, creator of L.A. detective Philip Marlowe and a distinctive tough-guy style, as well as the Russian-Jewish short story writer Isaac Babel, \"whose use of simile and metaphor strangely echoed Chandler,\" he says. Babel also had a \"clear-eyed view of violence. ... There's a kinship there between Chandler and Babel, and that's what helped me kind-of forge the voice for this novel,\" Chabon says. But, he adds, \"the whole novel is itself a simile. It's setting up a series of semblances and mirrorings of the world we live in, so it seemed almost necessary, not just from a stylistic point of view but from a thematic point of view.\" Chabon's layered themes include reason's conflict with religious extremism, an idea that comes to the fore as the novel progresses. Holding a mirror to our world is a common theme of alternate histories, and Chabon says he is fond of the type in general. The noted comic-book fan -- he co-wrote \"Spider-Man 2\" -- cites two favorites: the \"what-if\" scenarios often proposed in the Superman comics, and an issue of National Lampoon that celebrated John F. Kennedy's fifth inaugural with the cover line, \"JFK's First 6,000 Days.\" \"I read and re-read that a dozen times,\" he says. \"It had an undertone of poignance. ... It was like a perpetual November 21, 1963. America never went through any of the turbulence of the '60s. ... It was the opposite of most counterfactual fiction, which tends to present the catastrophic -- what if the bad things happened. ... This was presenting an 'if only,' not a 'what if.' \" Which is not to say \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" is presenting a better -- or worse -- future. There is a darkness in the book, Chabon observes. But there's also the idea that millions of people were saved from the death camps. \"I'm certainly not presenting the world of this novel as 'it would have been better this way.' It's a dark world, and the Jews of Sitka are on the brink of the abyss,\" he says. \"But there is a certain 'if only' quality.\" \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" has earned mostly admiring reviews. \" 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union' builds upon the achievement of 'Kavalier & Clay,' \" wrote the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times. Reaction from the public has been positive and even put him on The New York Times' hardcover bestseller list, a rarified place for any author. \"I feel like the book has been embraced,\" says Chabon. Perhaps the only people concerned about the book's subject matter are some Jews, who have asked Chabon if the book isn't, well, \"too Jewish.\" \"It reminds me of when my first novel, 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,' came out ... and everybody in Pittsburgh said, 'Are you crazy? Why would you set a novel in Pittsburgh? Who's going to want to read a novel about Pittsburgh?' \" he laughs. \"The reason we read fiction is know what it would be like to really be someone else. ... That kind of transport across time and place is the magic of fiction.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Yiddish Policemen's Union\" posits Alaskan Jewish homeland .\nAuthor Michael Chabon won Pulitzer for earlier novel .\nNew book inspired by thoughts of Yiddish, love of genres .","id":"6505176e30e931b9e3d46c5202083a27c15d65e0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Listening to writer Brian K. Vaughan summarize the plot of his comic book, \"Y: The Last Man,\" makes it sound like just another pulp title. Brian K. Vaughan says he's \"depressed\" about the end of \"Y: The Last Man,\" but he's got other projects to work on. \"A plague of mysterious origin destroys every male mammal, human being and animal on the planet,\" he says, \"except for one boy and his monkey. And wackiness ensues.\" Well, that's the story boiled down to its basics. But the tale of amateur escapist Yorick Brown, the last man alive on an Earth now home to only women, and his monkey, Ampersand, is actually far more complex than Vaughan's description reveals, involving long journeys, the value of memory and the politics of gender roles. The title, which has had a very successful five-year run, is coming to an end this week with the release of issue No. 60. It is a finale that is equally emotional for both fans and its creator. \"I guess I've moved into acceptance but that doesn't mean that I'm not still depressed about it,\" says Vaughan, 31, a soft-spoken Cleveland, Ohio, native who now makes his home in Los Angeles. Gallery: The worlds of Brian K. Vaughan \u00bb . \"It's been weird because it's a gradual [form of] saying good-bye,\" he says. \"First, you finish the script, but then it still has to be penciled and inked, and there's so many stages in comics that it's sort of been like the stages of death.\" Vaughan's career in comics dates back more than a decade, but his love for the medium stretches back to his adolescence. Already an avid fan of comic books, he discovered Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel \"Watchmen\" on a family vacation. It would be the spark that inspired him to give life to his own stories. Watch Vaughan pick out some of his influences \u00bb . When Vaughan first pitched his concept for \"Y: The Last Man\" to Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, he was focused on a specific ending, without knowing whether the series would last long enough to reach it. \"We had a long-term idea [of doing] five years but realistically, I knew I had just gotten 'Swamp Thing' canceled at Vertigo and most people hadn't heard of Pia [Guerra], the artist,\" he says. \"It's not like we were destined for a long and successful run,\" he adds, smiling. Almost immediately following its debut in 2002, the series found success, earning critical praise as well as five Eisner Awards, the comic-book Oscars, along the way. Yorick's quest to find his girlfriend, lost somewhere in a world forever changed by this mysterious plague, was just as much an international adventure story as it was the tale of the women in his life: his bodyguard, the enigmatic Agent 355; medical researcher Alison Mann; even his sister, Hero, and his mother. Their experiences can be read as parables on humanity in a world where gender has been all but eliminated from the equation. Now, as their stories come to a close, Vaughan likens it to ending a relationship. \"It'll be a drag not to get to spend more time with these characters,\" observes Vaughan. He adds he will also miss his collaborating with Guerra, who has provided the art for the entire series run. \"It's hard to not think about working with Pia, just because I think she is the best 'actor' in comics,\" he says. \"[That's] a weird thing to say, but she captures emotions better than anyone. I'm very hopeful we'll work together again.\" Meanwhile, Vaughan's other work in comics, including \"Ex Machina\" (Wildstorm) and \"Runaways\" (Marvel), has captured the attention of Hollywood. Both \"Y\" and \"Ex Machina\" are currently being developed into films. Meanwhile, Vaughan, a one-time film student, has begun a career in television, working as a writer on ABC's \"Lost.\" Remaining true to the mysteries of the island, Vaughan says he can share \"just about nothing\" from the upcoming fourth season of the series, which has been cut from 16 episodes to eight as a casualty of the continuing writer's strike. The fourth season premieres Thursday night. \"Everything is still sort of in flux, sadly, but I know I'm disappointed,\" says Vaughan, who was a fan of the show before \"Lost\" producer and fellow \"comic book geek\" Damon Lindelof approached him to write for it. \"I think these eight episodes are eight of the best in the entire series.\" As production remains shut down both on \"Lost\" and the film adaptation of \"Y: The Last Man,\" Vaughan considers himself fortunate. Comic books aren't covered by the Writer's Guild of America, allowing him to continue to work while his colleagues cannot. Despite the accolades and opportunities, Vaughan sees his growth, both personally and professionally, as very much a work in progress. \"I was just a kid when I came up with the idea for 'Y' so I like to think that I've evolved as much as Yorick has over the course of the book. But I'm a comic book writer,\" he continues, \"so I'm still a big dumb child, and I think I always will be.\" DC Comics is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Brian K. Vaughan's \"Y: The Last Man\" ending its run .\nComic book took on big themes with its story of last man on earth .\nVaughan, now a writer on \"Lost,\" believes the show's next 8 episodes terrific .","id":"09519bef94d0ce563b88a850df0a9770a8ebf20e"} -{"article":"Tim Welch was never the kind of guy who worried about his weight. Tim Welch topped 260 pounds at his heaviest weight, before his cousin convinced him to join Weight Watchers. In fact, the 37-year-old accounts manager from Seattle, Washington, ate a fairly balanced diet and loved participating in sports while growing up. \"I was thin and fit my whole life,\" Welch remembers. \"I was always active in sports such as running cross-country in high school and swimming on the swim team in college.\" Things started to change in 1995 after he graduated from college. Welch got a job, moved out of his parents' house and began indulging in late-night meals with his friends. \"I remember specifically in 1995, my waist size went from a 34 [inches] to a 38 in a matter of months,\" Welch said. \"I got a size 36 pants to accommodate my waist size and I had to ask for a bigger size for Christmas because they were too tight.\" Welch was in total disbelief when he stepped on the scale and realized he was carrying 200 pounds on his 5-foot-10-inch frame. Despite the initial shock, he continued to gain weight. Even though he fit the medical definition of obese, Welch stayed physically active. He joined a master's swim team, hiked and walked regularly. Because he was physically active, Welch thought he could keep eating whatever he wanted. As his weight crept up, his desire to exercise waned. By the winter of 2005, the extra calories and his now-sedentary lifestyle caught up with him. During a doctor's visit, Welch discovered that his weight had skyrocketed. \"That was pretty depressing to see that 262 [pounds] on the physical. Just knowing that I had become that heavy,\" said Welch. About the same time, Welch started walking with a cousin who had lost 70 to 80 pounds on Weight Watchers. During their walks, she would gently encourage him to give the program a try, he says. She also tried to calm his fears that he'd have to stop eating all of the foods he loved in order to lose weight. \"I kept expressing a really persistent fear I had of restricting my comfort foods. I felt to truly lose weight, I couldn't ever eat the things I loved -- hamburgers, ice cream, chocolate, bacon, cheese [and] cookies,\" said Welch. \"I felt like in order to lose weight I would have to give up those things.\" Welch started to become depressed and ashamed of his increasing waist size. Embarrassing moments such as asking for a bigger pants size and having a homeless man yell, \"Hey, big guy!\" on the street -- began to take a toll on him. As a new year approached, Welch reached his breaking point. In January 2006, as part of his New Year's resolution, Welch reluctantly attended his first Weight Watchers meeting, but not before making one last stop for what Welch called his \"last meal.\" \"I had a double-cheeseburger, onion rings and milkshake at Johnny Rockets right before the meeting,\" said Welch. \"I weighed 252.6 at my first meeting.\" During the first week on Weight Watchers, he dropped 7 pounds. Welch also learned how to enjoy his favorite foods through portion control, eating in moderation and choosing healthier foods first. Welch, who was already walking 3.5 miles a day roundtrip to work, started taking water aerobics three times a week and swimming again competitively. The weight continued to come off, about 2-3 pounds a week. CNN iReporters before-and-after weight loss photos \u00bb . \"When I got to 200 pounds, I decided, well, 'Why don't I go for a weight that's a healthy weight range for my height,'\" said Welch. \"So I did, and by that point the weight had slowed down. It doesn't come off as quickly as you get closer to your goal weight. But it was still coming off.\" Eight months later, Welch had lost 87 pounds and reached his goal weight of 174 pounds, which is the maximum weight for someone who is 5 feet 10 inches tall, according to the national guidelines. People were stunned by his dramatic weight loss. \"I literally had people that knew me that didn't recognize me,\" said Welch. So, what's the best advice Welch has for others who want to lose weight? \"Be the best friend you can to yourself while you're going through this weight loss journey. I've always been someone who was very hard on themselves and suffered from low self-esteem.\" Welch said he tried to be very forgiving of himself during the whole process and he still is. He said you should congratulate yourself and focus on any accomplishment you make each day or each week, rather than focus on areas were you have failed. For example, Welch says if you have an extra helping of mashed potatoes, don't beat yourself up. Stop yourself and focus on the fact that you chose salmon and peas for dinner and ate two helpings of mashed potatoes -- compared with the cheeseburger and French fries you would have eaten two years ago. Welch also says people shouldn't deny themselves completely. Allow yourself to indulge in some chocolate when you want it. But instead of eating the entire candy bar, break off a few squares, count the calories, and enjoy it. Also, learn to recognize the fats that are better for you. Don't cut out all of the fat. Instead, choose a healthier fat. For example, Welch often allows himself to eat peanut butter or guacamole, which are higher in fat but are a healthier fat than eating something fried. How has the weight loss changed Welch's life? Welch can bend over and tie his shoes without discomfort. He feels much lighter going up a flight of stairs and he can hike much faster. More importantly, he's become more optimistic. \"It made me realize I can, in fact, do anything I set my mind to,\" said Welch. \"It gave me a confidence I desperately needed that I try to apply to other areas of my life.\" iReport.com: Have you lost weight? Share your story, tips and photos E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At his heaviest, Tim Welch tipped the scales at 262 pounds .\nBattling depression, he reluctantly joined Weight Watchers .\nHe lost 87 pounds through exercise, portion control and better food choices .\nWelch says he's become a more optimistic person .","id":"9d6f134b05665b5d4b6b0b706972a65eaea24b0e"} -{"article":"MARTINSBURG, West Virginia (CNN) -- Hardly a day that goes by that you won't find Tracey Wygal working out at the gym. Tracey Wygal weighed 295 pounds before starting a \"clean diet,\" keeping a food journal and exercising. The 30-year-old middle-school teacher does cardio exercise, strength trains and follows what she calls a \"clean diet.\" That's quite a change for a woman who tipped the scales eight years ago at 295 pounds. Wygal first started gaining weight in her early teens. A fast-food diet and little to no exercise helped her pack on the pounds, and her weight ballooned to over 200 pounds. \"It was my first year out of college, and that number, along with being diagnosed as morbidly obese, was very frightening,\" remembers Wygal. \"I went to several doctors, trying to get them to prescribe a weight-loss pill.\" But none of her doctors would give her the quick fix she was looking for. Instead, a physician handed her a 1,600-calorie-a-day diet and told her to start moving. At first, Wygal was shocked and refused to begin a diet that she thought was too restrictive. Even though her weight was rapidly approaching 300 pounds, she believed she had a pretty good diet and an active lifestyle. As her weight crept up, Wygal grew more frustrated, and eventually she decided it was time to gain control of her life. She started by keeping track of her daily calorie intake in a food diary and soon realized that her eating was worse than she thought. Watch more from Tracey Wygal on her weight loss success. \u00bb . \"I was amazed by how many calories I was eating,\" Wygal said. \"The food diary showed me that I really needed to get my food intake under control and helped me maintain my diet realistically.\" She also started exercising. At first, Wygal says, she was too embarrassed to go to a gym, so she bought an elliptical machine and started working out 15 minutes a day in her apartment. \"It was all I could do at first. I didn't give up, though,\" she said. \"Gradually, my endurance improved. After losing about 30 pounds, I decided to join a small gym.\" Several months later, Wygal was ready to take the next step. She hired a trainer and began a short strength-training program. That's when something clicked. Instead of feeling intimidated, Wygal started to love her workouts and the physical changes taking shape with her body. Ready to take the next step, she joined a larger gym, began researching different workouts and got into weight training. Over the next three years, she lost 120 pounds and dropped seven dress sizes. Wygal, who's 5 feet 10 inches tall, says the fear of gaining weight motivates her to stick to her diet and exercise regimen because she never wants to look like she did at 295 pounds. Now comfortable with her weight, which she says fluctuates between 170 and 180 pounds, Wygal works out at least five to six days a week. She says the key to losing weight and keeping it off is being honest about what you eat, writing it down and staying consistent. She wants people to know they can do it, but there are no quick fixes or easy outs -- just hard work. \"It won't happen overnight,\" Wygal advises. \"Know that it will take time but it is worth it in the end.\" iReport.com: Have you lost weight? Send your story, photos and video . CNN Medical News producer Matt Sloane contributed to this report.","highlights":"Teacher Tracey Wygal was morbidly obese when she weighed 295 pounds .\nA doctor prescribed a 1,600-calorie-a-day diet and exercise .\nWygal started eating clean, keeping a food diary and working out at home .\nEventually she joined a gym, hired a personal trainer and lost 120 pounds .","id":"475474d0a820cf70476fee82cfb5d0866746ef76"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama said that he hoped his administration wouldn't get hung up on matters of race. Judge Sonia Sotomayor, center, meets with staffers from the White House Counsel's Office on Monday. But several Republicans have said recently that his nomination of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court has made race an issue. Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called Sotomayor a racist. Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called the president \"the greatest living example of a reverse racist,\" and said that he has picked another for the Supreme Court vacancy of retiring Justice David Souter. Limbaugh later equated Sotomayor to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. At issue is what she said at the UC Berkeley School of Law in about her hope that \"a wise Latina woman would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.\" One top GOP senator said he wants more than an explanation. \"I think she should apologize, but I don't believe any American wants a judge on the bench that's going to use empathy or their background to punish someone,\" South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News. Democrats have said conservative reaction to the pick is over the line. \"She's been called the equivalent of the head of the Ku Klux Klan by Rush Limbaugh; she's been called a bigot by other Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich. I want to give her an opportunity to answer these kind of people,\" said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who chairs the Judiciary Committee that will conduct Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. The ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, tried to turn down the heat over the weekend. Watch range of comments on Sotomayor and race \u00bb . \"We should not demagogue race. It's an important issue in our culture and our country. We need to handle it with respect that it deserves,\" Sessions said on NBC's \"Meet the Press\" on Sunday. GOP leaders have focused on Sotomayor's appellate court decision against a mostly white group of firefighters who say they were discriminated against after a promotion test was thrown out, because critics said it discriminated against minority firefighters. But legal experts have said her full record on race isn't that controversial -- in 96 race-related cases decided by Sotomayor on the court of appeals, she and her fellow judges ruled against discrimination 78 times and agreed with the claims in 10 cases, according to Scotusblog.com. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who will meet with Sotomayor on Tuesday, told CNN's \"State of the Union\" on Sunday that he couldn't predict how long it will take for Republicans to examine her record. But CNN political analyst David Gergen said they risk putting themselves on trial in front of Latino-Americans. \"If they line up uniformly in hostility against the first Hispanic woman to the court, they risk paying a terrible price with the biggest and fastest-growing minority in this country,\" Gergen said.","highlights":"Some Republicans call Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a reverse racist .\nGOP leaders avoid that stance; \"We should not demagogue race,\" one says .\nDems say the charge is over the line and Sotomayor deserves chance to answer .\nLegal experts say Sotomayor's case record on race is not very controversial .","id":"44f55c84c4a580853e384c860bb2ba3a7f1ea095"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Kenneth Cole is the first to admit he has a bit of a language problem. Pun-loving Kenneth Cole pays tribute to inspiring people in his new book. \"I need to distort not just leather and fabric, but also words,\" he said. \"It's a disorder I have.\" The pun-loving fashion designer has raised plenty of eyebrows with advertising copy that ranges from the provocative and the political to the lighthearted and cutesy. Browse his online store and you can buy a T-shirt that reads \"In war is it who's right, or who's left?\" A canvas tote bag says, \"Use me again and again and again ... (I'm used to it).\" Should you purchase either product, you're assured that all your money will go to Cole's \"Awearness Fund,\" an initiative designed to draw attention to social issues like homelessness and AIDS. To that end, Cole has just released a new book called \"Awearness: Inspiring Stories About How to Make a Difference\" (DK Adult). It's a collection of essays from influential types intended to encourage readers to get involved in service and volunteerism in their communities. Watch Cole talk about 'Awearness' \u00bb . Former President Bill Clinton contributes a piece on the global fight against HIV\/AIDS. Actress Rosario Dawson writes about empowering young Latinos to vote, and cyclist Lance Armstrong discusses the merits of starting a movement like Livestrong, his effort to energize the fight against cancer. As Cole says: \"No good deed should go unpublished.\" Pun intended. The book commemorates 25 years in the fashion business for the New Yorker, as well as a quarter century as an advocate for social activism. Cole spoke to CNN about the book, the belief, his wife and the cover. (OK, so not everyone is brilliantly punny.) The following is an edited transcript of the interview. CNN: What is the big message you're hoping to get across with this book? Kenneth Cole: The message is that these are extraordinary times. They're transformative in so many ways. And America recently expressed the reality that there is an appetite for meaningful, significant, social change like we've never seen before. CNN: In the introduction of your book, you talk about how you've met a lot of people who have inspired you. Is there one person who stands out above the rest? Cole: There are so many people that inspire me, and there are 90 role models in this book, some of whom I've been very close to. I am the closest of all to my wife, who is in and of herself a change agent and has committed to impacting the realities of homelessness -- and making sure I get out of the house every day to do what I have to do. So she's inspired me and she's done great stuff. So I think I'll stay with that answer. CNN: In Robert Redford's essay on freedom of speech, he encourages the use of humor when speaking out about a cause someone feels passionate about. Has humor helped you? Cole: I think it does. I agree with Mr. Redford, and he's been a model of mine. ... And I think we also have these walls around us, and when people disagree, we're inclined not to listen, but to a degree you can break through that wall often with humor. Jon Stewart has shown us how to do that, as have some other people who are in the art of doing it well. CNN: What's your biggest hope for President-elect Barack Obama's presidency? Cole: He has already surpassed my greatest hopes. I think he's created a sense of spirit and energy and opportunity in this country that we've never seen. And I think it has transformed, in a sense, who we are as a nation globally within 24 hours. We saw that happen. CNN: How does a successful fashion designer, who also has a big conscience, feel in a weak economy? Cole: I think it's an extraordinary opportunity. There are only so many things we can do that make us feel better. We pick up the newspapers and we want to cry every day. We turn on the news and we want to jump out the first window, jump in front of the first truck. And there's not a lot you can look forward to right now ... but you can make yourself look better, and if you look better, you'll feel better, and it becomes self-fulfilling. I think fashion can do that to you. You can do it with some older stuff and mix it with newer stuff, or you can just do new cool stuff by a new cool American designer (smiles). And starting from the ankles down, and then up. CNN: Do you think that fashion gets a hard rap? [Are] people too quick to write it off as frivolous and underestimate its power? Cole: I've struggled with that over the years. Is fashion relevant? Is it frivolous? Is it trivial? Because I give so much of my essence to it, as do everybody I work with. I've come to two conclusions. One is that it's as relevant as anything, because most of the people you encounter in a given day don't get to know anything more about you than how you appear. You're making a very thoughtful statement ... so I think fashion is important. And then at the end of the day if someone you know is sick or someone you know can't afford the roof over their head or the food on the plate, then it becomes not so important. So I think it's relevant, and for me it's been an extraordinary resource for me to do so much. And I love fashion. I think it makes us feel good. And if you feel good, we do good.","highlights":"Kenneth Cole highlights public-spirited people in \"Awearness\"\nFashion designer Cole admires use of humor to leaven passion .\nCole: Fashion is relevant, even in tough times .","id":"d90ad1ad9c5febad5ea91e1022a19d12ee5d575b"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When Patricia Cornwell began writing thriller novels, she ruled the world of forensic science. \"I'm very interested in what motivates people, why they do what they do, how they do it,\" Patricia Cornwell said. \"I could treat readers in each book to some new aspect that they wouldn't be familiar with,\" Cornwell said. Now the author is bombarded with \"CSI\"-like information from every side -- from \"Bones\" to \"Forensic Files\" to, well, \"CSI.\" \"It's like you create this monster and find out it's living in the house with you, and it's banished you to a room because it has more power than you,\" she said. Cornwell knew she had to adapt to the changing entertainment climate. \"One of the questions I really did ask myself was, 'What's the one thing I have no one else does?' \" The answer was chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell's heroine. Scarpetta is independent, feisty and someone Cornwell knows better than she knows herself. To honor that close relationship, Cornwell decided to name her 16th book in the series after its main character, titling it simply \"Scarpetta.\" \"I realized, here it is 2008. I finished my first book 20 years ago in 1988. This is a really big anniversary,\" Cornwell said. In the novel, Scarpetta leaves South Carolina for New York, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured psychiatric patient. The patient has a graphic tale to tell -- one of paranoia and murder. The novelist said her books all have two things in common: First, of course, is a plot twist that allows Scarpetta to make a Sherlock Holmes-like deduction. The second is intriguing character interaction. \"What's going on with them in this book? What are they doing with or to each other? Who's in love? Who isn't? Who's on the outs with whom? Because I hope, in the end, [my books] are like high-level, crime soap operas.\" With two decades of character history, Cornwell has a lot to work with in that area. But her books are also full of intellectual fodder. Scarpetta is a disciplined academic -- a scientist with a law degree. Cornwell spent six years working in a medical examiner's office before writing her first book, and she continues to spend time with professionals to keep up on new forensic technology. In recent weeks she has researched an autopsy in Florida and worked with the National Forensic Academy. If she's going to write about trace evidence, she believes, she's going to go to a trace evidence lab. \"I was never a scientific person,\" Cornwell said. \"When I got interested in science I had to learn it after the fact... and that was good because I had already learned how to describe things, how to ask questions the audience would want answered. I was much better able to translate things into a language someone else could grasp.\" Her dedication to understanding her subject translates into other areas as well. Cornwell became a helicopter pilot, a certified scuba diver and qualified for a motorcycle license, all because she was writing about characters who were doing those things. Fans appreciate Cornwell's enthusiasm and writing style, pushing 12 of her novels onto USA Today's best-seller lists. But Cornwell said \"Scarpetta\" is actually more uplifting than her last couple of books, which took on a more twisted aura. \"I'm glad because I think we live in very dark times and no one wants to read a depressing book now.\" Still, Cornwell has been delving deeper into her characters' minds with each new book, and \"Scarpetta\" won't alter that trend. \"I'm very interested in what motivates people, why they do what they do, how they do it,\" she said. \"It probably has something to do with where I am in life. I'm 52 years old and I think differently than I did at 42.\" Fans have asked if this is Cornwell's last book in the series -- noting that the title \"Scarpetta\" is very ominous-sounding. But she promises to keep writing as long as the characters let her. \"It's certainly not by intention to be the last book,\" she said. \"I wanted to make this a very special book. I decided that early in the writing process. I wanted to make it longer, a richer book, a feast for the fans. So no, this isn't the last book about Scarpetta.\" Which sounds, well, ominous. Kay Scarpetta, watch out.","highlights":"Patricia Cornwell releases 16th book about Kay Scarpetta called \"Scarpetta\"\nScarpetta leaves South Carolina for new case in New York .\nCornwell enjoys exploring her characters' minds and criminal psychology .\nAuthor still spends time researching forensic science .","id":"ff37e7ab8b062a465198bfc70367110125b84935"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After several delays, NASA said Friday that space shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch in five days. The space shuttle Discovery, seen here in January, is now scheduled to launch Wednesday. Commander Lee Archambault and his six crewmates are now scheduled to lift off to the International Space Station at 9:20 p.m. ET Wednesday. NASA said its managers had completed a readiness review for Discovery, which will be making the 28th shuttle mission to the ISS. The launch date had been delayed to allow \"additional analysis and particle impact testing associated with a flow-control valve in the shuttle's main engines,\" the agency said. According to NASA, the readiness review was initiated after damage was found in a valve on the shuttle Endeavour during its November 2008 flight. Three valves have been cleared and installed on Discovery, it said. Discovery is to deliver the fourth and final set of \"solar array wings\" to the ISS. With the completed array the station will be able to provide enough electricity when the crew size is doubled to six in May, NASA said. The Discovery also will carry a replacement for a failed unit in a system that converts urine to drinkable water, it said. Discovery's 14-day mission will include four spacewalks, NASA said.","highlights":"NASA now says that space shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch Wednesday .\nShuttle is set to lift off for the International Space Station at 9:20 p.m. ET .\nThe launch date had been delayed to allow additional testing .\nDiscovery's 14-day mission will include four spacewalks .","id":"696731f0ed7cc4a1551cbe2934a1b51feb60df98"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The author has ridden motorcycles more than 125,000 miles since 1999, including solo trips from Georgia to California and Canada. She takes us inside the world of motorcycle travel. Bikers approach Mount Mitchell, North Carolina, during a road trip through the Blue Ridge Mountains. SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Virginia (CNN) -- We were parked at a peaceful, shady overlook beside Virginia's Skyline Drive, admiring the green mountains and the river far below, when Keith realized he needed a new rear tire, and he needed it now. A bald tire is a serious problem when you're traveling by motorcycle: We don't carry spare tires, for obvious reasons, and a blowout on two wheels could be life-threatening. Keith decided he could make it 100 miles to the Harley-Davidson dealership in Richmond, Virginia, as long as we kept it slow, so our seven bikes headed that way. It's been said that a great trip in a car is like watching a first-rate movie -- but a great trip on a motorcycle is like living the movie. For our road trip, we had chosen an eight-day itinerary from our homes outside Atlanta, Georgia, through the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia, then east to the Atlantic shoreline and south along the coastal islands of the Outer Banks. The trip offered a spectacular ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway, a winding two-lane that clings to the ridgeline through North Carolina and Virginia. The elevation often reaches 5,000 feet or more, so temperatures were cool despite a heat wave down below. See map \u00bb . Our motorcycle motorcade passed panoramas of blue-tinged mountains and rolling meadows set off by split-rail fences. We motored through dense forests whose overhanging branches turned the road into a cool green tunnel. Rhododendrons and mountain laurels in bloom lined the road. See photos of this Harley road trip \u00bb . It all looks better from a motorcycle, because you're so immersed in it -- not just looking out from inside a cage of steel and glass. In fact, we call cars cages and the people who drive them -- you guessed it -- cagers. See how motorcycle travel differs from car travel \u00bb . The smells were intense: fresh-cut hay, pine trees baking in the sun, honeysuckle -- and sometimes, the not-so-pleasant aroma of ripening roadkill. Songs of determined birds rang out over the rumble of the motors. Riding a motorcycle on a road like this is a physical pleasure, too, as you lean right, then left, then right, to guide the bike smoothly through the parkway's sweeping curves. You swoop, you glide -- it's like dancing, or like those dreams where you're flying. In Virginia, Skyline Drive offered an abundance of wildlife. We saw five deer in 40 miles, including a small fawn with its mother -- none of them close enough to threaten a collision, and all of them smart enough to run the other way when they saw us coming. Finally we arrived at the dealership in Richmond to replace Keith's balding tire. We knew we'd be there for a while -- so we made ourselves at home. We ordered pizza to be delivered and Neil brought in his laptop so everyone could upload their snapshots. It might seem strange for customers to take over a retail establishment, but a Harley dealership always feels like home. There's a strong sense of community among motorcycle riders (and by extension, the stores). Almost all riders wave to other riders on the road, whether they're on Harleys like ours or small, speedy sport bikes or huge, silent Honda Gold Wings. Bikers fall into conversations with other bikers as if we already know each other because -- in a way -- we do. We've all experienced the same joys and aggravations -- but it's mostly joys. One of those pleasures is how people go out of their way to be helpful or to strike up a conversation with a group of bikers. All kinds of folks wave to us on the road -- from Boy Scouts selling doughnuts on a street corner, to a man walking his dog, to shy-but-fascinated kids in a car stopped next to us at a traffic light. A couple of hours (and several hundred dollars) later, Keith's tire was replaced and we headed for Elizabeth City, North Carolina. We hit a huge blanket of smoke from a massive wildfire about 40 miles away. The thick, yellowish smoke made the rural landscape look like another planet, with the late-afternoon sun glowing red through the haze. The next morning, the smoke was gone, and we headed for the Outer Banks and a day of lazy meandering toward Ocracoke, the southernmost town on the string of narrow islands. We stopped at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, built in 1875. The sight of a long line of other tourists persuaded us not to climb its 214 steps. At the Wright Brothers National Memorial near Kitty Hawk, we checked out the windy dune where aviation began and rode our bikes around a monument to Orville and Wilbur. We spent the next day in Ocracoke investigating artsy-craftsy shops in the village and stores that sell hokey pirate souvenirs, in honor of the fact that Ocracoke was supposedly a hangout of the legendary pirate known as Blackbeard. We watched descendants of the island's wild ponies that now live in a fenced-in pasture to safeguard them from traffic. The final leg of our trip began with a two-hour ferry ride from the island to the mainland. But we came to a standstill the next day in traffic in Marion, South Carolina -- which was cause for some concern. Most Harley engines are air-cooled, so we can't just leave them idling for long periods because they can overheat. We managed to turn off the highway onto a series of small side roads, where we pulled over to figure out our next move. A mini-van pulled up beside us. \"Where are y'all trying to go?\" the passenger asked. \"I-95,\" we said. \"Come on!\" she yelled, signaling us to follow. After a few turns, we were on I-95, waving our thanks to the mini-van. By the time we reached Georgia, it was obvious there was a thunderstorm between us and home. Despite the 10-minute cloudburst, we were too hot to stop and put on rain suits. We did slow down, since it's hard to see with rain running down your face shield or glasses. Soon we went our separate ways toward home. But I would have been ready to leave on another long motorcycle trip the next day, if it weren't for the suitcase full of dirty laundry and the need to deal with real life for a while. The unfiltered sights and smells, the enjoyment of riding, the companionship of other riders, the friendly encounters with strangers -- there's nothing like it.","highlights":"Bikers: Motorcycle road trips are more exciting than in other vehicles .\n\"It's like dancing, or like those dreams where you're flying,\" says Harley owner .\nFollow CNN.com writer's road trip through Blue Ridge Mountains, Outer Banks .\nEight-day ride includes tire repair, wildfire, Kitty Hawk, pirate lore, wild ponies .","id":"5f4c049521f99380d8cd7055e7717734f2e67510"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Remember the worst job you ever had? You know, back when there were jobs to be had? Jesse Eisenberg tries to strike up a relationship with Kristen Stewart in \"Adventureland.\" For writer-director Greg Mottola, it was the summer he spent on hiatus between college and the real world, working as a carny at the local carnival. He's turned the experience into the basis for the wonderful \"Adventureland.\" Handing out stuffed animals to the lucky customer whose tin horse romps home in first place -- this is not how James (Jesse Eisenberg from \"The Squid and the Whale\") would choose to see himself. The paycheck is dismal, but undeniably commensurate with (as a character puts it) \"the work of pathetic, lazy morons,\" which is what it comes down to. Most jobs have their compensations, though. At Adventureland, for James, the biggest benefit comes in the form of Em (Kristen Stewart), another recent grad with plans to move to New York in the fall, and who isn't entirely disdainful of his company. Last time out of the gate Mottola enjoyed a hit with the spectacularly lewd \"Superbad,\" an angle that Miramax Films is understandably keen to play up in the marketing this time around. At first glance the cap seems to fit. James' sexual experience -- or rather the lack of it -- is a defining element in the story. \"Adventureland\" comes with the usual farcical peccadilloes of teen comedy -- barf gags, car wrecks and inopportune erections -- as well as several familiar supporting players from the Judd Apatow stable. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are engagingly upbeat as the mutually besotted park managers, and Martin Starr (from \"Freaks and Geeks\") is James' cerebral, pipe-smoking buddy, Joel. (Mottola directed a couple of episodes of Apatow's short-lived Fox series \"Undeclared.\") There's also an extended cameo from Ryan Reynolds, an actor whose faintly supercilious good looks have graced innumerable dumb slacker comedies, including \"Van Wilder,\" \"Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle\" and \"Waiting.\" Yet, after an initial flurry of gross guffaws, the movie edges toward something rather different: a nuanced, sensitive coming-of-age story that finds its heart in post-adolescent romantic turmoil. Obviously adept with actors, Mottola respects his characters too much to let first impressions stick. The relationships in \"Adventureland\" are much richer, and stickier, for it. The understanding that James arrives at with his father (Jack Gilpin), for example, is delineated in just a handful of looks and glances between them, but it's enough to imply the older man's resignation at his fate, and his appreciation for James' tacit sympathy. It's in moments like these (and there are a number of them) that we're reminded Mottola made a fine indie movie, \"The Daytrippers,\" more than a decade ago now, another sharp and tender comic distillation of family bonds and fractures. Blessed with comical seriousness, Eisenberg is like a young Woody Allen: fretful, intelligent, naive and deluded. And like Allen, he seems to enjoy more than his fair share of luck with the opposite sex. Still, \"Adventureland\" makes more effort than \"Superbad\" -- not that hard admittedly -- to develop a character for Stewart. Looking wan and pensive (the \"Twilight\" star always looks in need of a good night's sleep), Stewart as Em gives the impression she's living life more acutely than the others. She seems to have more on the line. Set in the mid-'80s, the film suggests the period unobtrusively, but predominantly through pop music. Lou Reed provides sweet relief to repeated bursts of Falco's \"Rock Me Amadeus.\" Yes, in retrospect, that's exactly what being young in 1987 was like. A mature movie about immature young people, \"Adventureland\" may be too muted to succeed in today's marketplace, too sensitive for its own good. Like an anxious parent, a critic can only send it on its way and hope the world treats it well. \"Adventureland\" is rated R and runs 107 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Adventureland\" is about a young man spending a summer in a crummy carnival .\nTom Charity: Film pays attention to teen movie clich\u00e9s but goes much deeper .\nDirector Greg Mottola cares about characters, making movie richer, Charity says .","id":"f28a416b4ed8abe799066852a4940048f7ee4acc"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Gregory Maguire absently cleans his glasses with his tie as he talks about pushing someone down the stairs. \"I use children's stories as kind of a snare and temptation and illusion to draw in readers,\" Gregory Maguire says. \"I wonder if you've ever stood at the top of the stairs behind someone who's really annoying and just imagined putting your foot out and planting your boot in somebody's objectionable behind?\" he asks. \"You know, I think that thought is a fairly common human thought.\" Maybe for the author of \"Wicked,\" who looks more like a college English professor than someone who spends his days writing about the world of Oz. Maguire often imagines evil, and how those without self-control respond to it. Maguire's \"Wicked\" series puts a spin on the classic \"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz\" tale, bringing in corruption, political prisoners and war. His first book, \"Wicked,\" has sold more than 2.5 million copies, and the musical based on the book reportedly has been seen by more than 3.75 million people in New York alone. National tours have been huge successes. Maguire's newest book in the series, \"A Lion Among Men,\" tells the story of the Cowardly Lion -- the motherless cub defended by Elphaba in \"Wicked.\" Watch Maguire roar about \"Lion\" \u00bb . CNN talked to Maguire about the book's main character, his life before \"Wicked\" and why he has never written realistic adult fiction. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: To someone who's never read your books before, how would you describe your style? Gregory Maguire: I would describe [my books] as being, not quite allegories, but commentaries on contemporary society -- and indeed politics to some extent -- enshrouded in, and disguised by, the guise of children's stories. In other words, I use children's stories as kind of a snare and temptation and illusion to draw in readers who say this is going to be easy ... and it's going to be fun. And indeed I hope it is fun. But once I get people involved in the plot, I hope to also communicate some of the questions I have about the way we live our lives in the 21st century. CNN: Talk to me about Brrr. What's his personality like? What is he going through? Maguire: Well, Brrr is the name that I've given to the cowardly lion who is the main character -- the protagonist -- in this novel called \"A Lion Among Men.\" And I gave him that name for two reasons: One, because it does sound like a shiver, and he is always slightly spooked by the world; and the second reason, because the two letters in it B-r-r-r are both letters from the name of Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion so famously in the 1939 MGM film. His character arises in the hollow space in our perceptions between that giant roaring lion at the MGM logo ... the ideal lion, and the kind of sad, sacked, out of work, vaudeville performer in lion pajamas that we see when Dorothy actually runs into the lion on the Yellow Brick Road. In other words, there's a huge disconnect between the image we project of ourselves -- the best we might ever hope to possibly be -- and the way we feel about ourselves at our absolute worst -- when we're the most down in the dumps. There's a huge space in between there. So the novel's really in some ways about character and taking control of the destiny of your own character. CNN: Everyone knows of your success with \"Wicked\" -- it's huge. But what was your life like before you wrote that book? Maguire: I had written children's books for 14 years before I published \"Wicked.\" And none of them were poorly reviewed, and none of them sold enough for me to be able to buy a bed. I was the traditional artist in the garret, expecting to live that way or maybe to give up writing soon because I would eventually have to get a job that was going to pay me some kind of retirement package. Silly thought, that, these days. CNN: You often take the point of view of the \"wicked\" or \"evil\" characters in your books. How do you get inside their heads? Maguire: Well, I like to think I'm a pretty good-natured guy and pretty civil and probably not ever truly guilty in any serious way of any legal infractions. But I do seem to have an unconscionable, easy time of thinking about how people might do wrong, of what they might feel like and how they might behave if they had less self-control than I do. And then also, how they would have to deal with the weight of being called evil. If everyone was always calling you a bad name, how much of that would you internalize? How much of that would you say, all right, go ahead, I'll be everything that you call me because I have no capacity to change your minds anyway so why bother. By whose standards should I live? In a way, all three of my adult books come down to that question -- by whose standards should I live? Can I find my own standards? Can I recognize them? Can I value them if I can name them? And are they good enough, are they strong enough, standards by which to live? CNN: You talked about writing children's books. How is writing for children different than writing for adults? Maguire: Well, for one thing children are intensely more impatient than adults. So you have to start out active, you have to start out strong and you cannot be, for a moment, self-indulgent. Everything has to be a sound bite or something that the children can visualize as if they're running a little Super 8 projector in their mind. Now I date myself with ancient technology, but you know what I mean ... write the scene that you want Steven Spielberg to film, which means every sentence has to give us something to see. Make it intensely visual and this is, I think, the main rule for writing for children. But in no way do I make it less thoughtful. I just actually have to work harder. Writing for children is like the difference between writing a sonnet and writing a gossip column. I mean you have a lot more restrictions so you have to work a lot harder. I'm not saying that a gossip column can't be intensely rewarding, but I dare say it's easier to write. CNN: Have you ever considered writing anything that's not magical, or more real life? Maguire: I have, but I never seem to get very far. In a way, and I don't mean to talk myself down, but sometimes I look at the mysteries of other people and I think, \"How do I know if they think anything like I think?\" I can only guess who you might be. You might see the world in a whole different range of colors than I do. You might be super sensitive to nuances of body language or music or ... I just don't know. So I always feel when I try to write realistic fiction for adults, that maybe I don't have enough life experience, even though I'm 54. I'm not sure I trust it. But when I write something that has a magic base to it, I put in everything I do know about the infinite varieties and subtleties and ambivalences in adult behavior, but nobody can call me out and say, \"You don't even know who human beings are\" because I've couched it. I suppose it's a kind of safety net for myself, or a security blanket. If I'm writing magic, nobody can say I got it wrong because we all know magic doesn't exist.","highlights":"Gregory Maguire's new book, \"A Lion Among Men,\" is about the Cowardly Lion .\nMaguire wrote children's books for 14 years before writing \"Wicked\"\n\"Wicked\" has sold more than 2.5 million copies .\nNew novel is about \"taking control of the destiny of your own character,\" Maguire says .","id":"6decda2aaf04452ef410312d22329ee11fc4aa1c"} -{"article":"TUSKEGEE, Alabama (CNN) -- A trip through sweltering Alabama to experience some of the civil rights movement's most important sites brought history books to life for my family and me. A marker shows the 54-mile route from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that voting rights marchers took. The road trip, with my wife and 14-year-old son, was an extraordinary experience, and not only because I'm African-American. As an American, it was inspiring to experience the places where people fought and died for equality and the right to vote. Many of the places we visited are maintained by the National Park Service, which has made an extraordinary effort to preserve pivotal places related to the movement. When you think of national parks, great natural attractions like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon come to mind. But the National Park System has also preserved and restored many living history sites from the civil rights movement. We started our road trip at Moton Field in Tuskegee, the site of one of the early battles in the civil rights movement. In the 1940s, the U.S. government trained the nation's first black military aviators at Moton in what it labeled a military experiment. Before that time, African-Americans \"were believed to be incapable of flying complex combat aircraft,\" Park Ranger John Whitfield said. Watch more on Moton Field \u00bb . The aviators were trained in every aspect of their combat aircraft, from flight to maintenance. They made their mark during World War II by not losing a single bomber to enemy fire in more than 200 combat missions -- a record unmatched by any other fighter group. Moton Field was declared a historical site in 1998, and the National Park Service has gone through painstaking efforts to restore and rebuild its hangars and outbuildings, which were used by more than 15,000 men and women from 1942 to 1946. iReport.com: Share your meaningful road trips . The site now offers only a small visitor's center in a temporary trailer as construction and restoration are completed. The \"Tuskegee experience,\" as park rangers call it, will officially open in October, when Hangar One, and eventually Hangar Two, will be retrofitted to look as they did when the facility was in full operation in the 1940s. Moton field is a little over three miles from Tuskegee University, the only college campus in the country with a national park. The park includes The Oaks, home of university founder Booker T. Washington, and a museum that houses the work of the renowned slave-turned-scientist George Washington Carver. We browsed the various artifacts and exhibits that outline the life and scientific work of Carver, who is well known for the hundreds of uses he found for the peanut. My family and I learned that Carver was an accomplished painter who made his own paints from red Alabama clay. We grabbed lunch at Taliaferro's, just off Tuskegee's main square, which takes its moniker from the middle name of Tuskegee University's founder. The restaurant offers a buffet of Southern favorites like okra, macaroni and cheese, banana pudding and peach cobbler at low prices. The fried chicken and \"mean greens\" are listed in \"Alabama's 100 meals you should eat before you die\" brochure. The chicken certainly lived up to the brochure's claim. It's a 38-mile ride to Montgomery, where we visited Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which is the only church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. served as senior pastor. Amazingly, the church literally lies in the shadow of the Alabama State Capitol, the very building where lawmakers passed segregation laws. Entering the church basement, we could visualize protest strategy meetings for the Montgomery bus boycott or the voting rights march that King presided over in this very room. The church is still home to a congregation of about 300 and is very active in Montgomery's community. Driving down U.S. Highway 80, now the historic National Voting Rights Trail, we thought about the 15,000 people who walked the same 54-mile route in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, protesting Alabama laws that prohibited African-Americans from registering to vote. In between Selma and Montgomery, we discovered the Lowndes County Interpretive Center, which stands where a \"tent city\" once stood to support the marchers in 1965. Watch more on the center \u00bb . A 20-minute film about the march, told by people who took the journey, moved us to tears. We toured the interactive exhibits to learn more about the protest, the challenges and the hurdles African-Americans had to conquer for their constitutional right to vote. At the center, and at several museums during our trip, we met volunteers who were participants in the voting rights movement who gave us first-hand accounts of their experiences. See photos from the trip \u00bb . Joe Glover, a volunteer at the center, said he was a resident of the tent city as a 15-year-old. He said that in retaliation for participating in the voting rights march, his family was kicked off a plantation where they share-cropped. \"I love sharing my experience with young people by letting them know how important it is to get an education and what their foreparents and other people shed their lives and blood for in order for them to have a right to vote,\" Glover said. We ended our road trip in Selma by crossing the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge. There, on March 7, 1965, protesters demanding their right to vote met a wall of state police armed with bully clubs and cattle prods. The protest was the first of three attempts to march to Montgomery and came to be known as Bloody Sunday. We are thankful for the sacrifices of those who crossed the bridge in 1965 and regretful for those who don't take advantage of their right to vote.","highlights":"First stop provided early peek at Tuskegee Airmen site, which will open in October .\nTuskegee University museum houses work of scientist George Washington Carver .\nIn Tuskegee, Taliaferro's offers tasty, reasonably priced buffet of Southern favorites .\nDuring trip, those who experienced civil rights movement gave first-person accounts .","id":"083b2cc688a70517cf388b3f868389c18ce0ec78"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Peter Bregman is chief executive of Bregman Partners Inc., a global management consulting firm, and the author of \"Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change\". He writes a weekly column, How We Work, for HarvardBusiness.org. Peter Bregman says good times persuaded people to sacrifice what they loved for money. NEW YORK (CNN) -- I started my consulting business 11 years ago with a laptop computer in a living room. It grew quickly. The first year I made more money than I had in the previous three combined, the second year I doubled that and by the third year I began to fantasize about retiring within the decade. Then everything crashed; the dotcom revolution, the financial services industry and my business. I had a large number of subcontractors and a small number of employees who had become friends. I also had a bad feeling things wouldn't turn around quickly. My wife and I were in a tough spot. We had one child and another on the way, bills that were accumulating and hopes for the future that were moving out of reach. However bad it was then, these days it's worse. Back then the recession hit certain sectors and left other ones alone. Home prices were going up, so people felt protected, and there were loans to help. Today, everything's been hit, nothing's going up and credit is frozen. Many have already lost jobs, homes, self-identities, luxuries and necessities. And there's more to come. That's especially true for many older Americans, who might not have 10 years to recover and who don't have sources of income other than their savings -- which have dwindled dramatically. They don't deserve to live with the fear they now feel. I'm still living in a rental apartment because I didn't want to take out a loan I couldn't pay back. I saved money. Invested it. And now my investments are down 70 percent. But it is what it is. And when we wake up in the morning we are left with the question, \"Now what?\" It's actually a great question, because in a situation in which we've lost control, it gives us a little back. \"Now what?\" means we have a choice, in this moment, to do something. What's it going to be? I think it's a mistake to try to rebuild what we've lost. We have less now and I think we can do better with less. Having less forces choices. And consciously making those choices can bring us closer to the things we care about. Which can make a poorer life richer than a rich one. Because the research is clear. Above a basic threshold, more money doesn't make us happier. But we think it will, so we do all sorts of things that make us unhappy in order to get it. A senior leader in an investment bank called to tell me she was leaving her job. She realized she wouldn't make much money in the next few years and didn't want to miss her children growing up. Did you get that? She was willing to miss her children growing up if the money was good enough. People act in ways they'd rather not in order to make money that doesn't make them happy. Maybe, if we do this downturn right, we can get out of that cycle. So, what makes you happy? Is it spending time with people you love? Working on a pet project? Having the time to exercise? Being part of a community and feeling cared for? Knowing the answer enables you to make decisions that will prioritize those things. Of course, losing money can break people apart; we fight about money, people lose jobs and get depressed; tension rises as mortgage bills sit on the kitchen table unpaid; resentment builds when one person doesn't live up to his own and others' expectations. But I am also seeing the opposite. Losing money can bring you closer to your values; can actually bring people together. It's hard to appreciate in the midst of our loss, but embracing the forced reduction in lifestyle can be positive. I know of a couple whose marriage was saved when they moved from a bigger house into a smaller one and actually began talking to each other again. Last weekend, two people had a beautiful wedding in Central Park surrounded by family and friends, months before they had planned, avoiding thousands of dollars of expenses and all the tension that goes with it. Why? Because she lost her job and needed to get onto his health insurance. Friends of mine held their daughter's bat mitzvah at another friend's house, avoiding tremendous expense while creating the warmest community celebration, filled with gratitude and tears, that I have ever seen. In 2003, after my business crashed, my wife and I decided to move to Savannah, Georgia, where she grew up and life was much cheaper. Had my business continued to grow we could never have afforded to make that choice. When the business crashed, we couldn't afford not to. While there, we spent priceless time with her family, had another child, made lifelong friends and rebuilt my business -- this time very differently. I love consulting and writing and speaking, but the bigger the business became, the less I did those things and the more I managed others doing it. Eventually we returned to New York. Now I'm back to a laptop in a living room and I love it again. It's smaller, more sustainable and a lot more fun. And I have the time to spend with my family and friends. My fantasy is no longer to retire; it's to keep doing what I'm doing for as long as I can. Life is not a linear path of increasing wealth, accumulation and achievement. Don't let the money crisis draw you apart from people you love and things you love to do. Use it to draw you closer. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bregman.","highlights":"Peter Bregman: In the boom, people sacrificed their joys for more money .\nHe says beyond a certain point, money doesn't increase happiness .\nBregman: Use hard times to evaluate what makes you happy and pursue it .","id":"aa763931923943426fca42fecebfa6de3949a8dc"} -{"article":"COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (CNN) -- World leaders gave thanks Saturday to military veterans for their efforts in the D-Day landings of 65 years ago at a ceremony in northwest France, warning that their legacy must not be forgotten as the world faces renewed threats of tyranny. President Obama and Britain's Prince Charles were among those attending the ceremony. President Obama joined Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a ceremony at the American Cemetary in Normandy, close where many died in the World War II offensive. More than 150,000 allied troops, about half of them Americans, took part in D-Day on June 6, 1944, overwhelming German forces in an operation that proved a turning point in driving the Nazis out of France. Allied forces secured the beaches at a cost of about 10,000 casualties in what was the first step in a campaign that would, in a matter of weeks, liberate Paris, which had been under Nazi occupation for more than four years. Brown praised those who fought on that day, saying, \"as long as freedom lives, their deeds will never die.\" He said their sacrifices had put obligations on people living today in what he called \"the great covenant of D-Day. \"We must be as if liberators for our day and our generation too,\" he said, citing Burma (renamed Myanmar) and Zimbabwe, as well as the \"mortal threat of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease and want.\" Obama addressed the 288 veterans said to be attending the ceremony, telling them: \"You are why we keep coming back.\" Watch Obama deliver speech to veterans \u00bb . \"You remind us that in the end, human destiny is not determined by forces beyond our control. You remind us that our future is not shaped by mere chance or circumstance. \"It has always been up to us,\" he said. Watch Obama arrive in France \u00bb . He urged the world to remember what happened at nearby Omaha Beach, one of the main landing points for U.S. troops involved in the operation. \"Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget -- what we must not forget -- is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century.\" Sarkozy described the horrors of the battle, where so many died before they were able to land that \"those who did make it ashore waded through the bodies of the dead and wounded that floated in on the tide.\" He cited a letter from a U.S. soldier who said the day \"was like a waking nightmare. The ground was so strewn with bodies that you could practically cross the beach without touching the sand.\" \"Never, never will France forget,\" he vowed. The speeches were followed by a 21-gun salute, a lone trumpter playing taps and a flyover by American, British and French jets. Among veterans attending Saturday's remembrance ceremonies will be 86-year-old former British soldier Jim Tuckwell, who said the events will help those present to remember fallen comrades lost in the heat of battle. \"There was no time to mourn, you didn't have time to mourn,\" he said, recalling the events of 1944. Read Tuckwell's story . \"And the worst thing about later battles was that when you lost people, you normally had to bury them yourself. You couldn't leave the bodies on the ground, there was nowhere else to put them.\"","highlights":"Dignitaries, World War II veterans pay tribute to D-Day fallen .\nPresident Obama, France's Sarkozy, UK's Brown among those attending .\n150,000 allied troops took part in operation on June 6, 1944 .","id":"38c738039ede29cadb34607eebbeaf4e66531342"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An ex-convict, a mobster, a serial killer -- after more than two decades in the movie business, Ray Liotta is still perhaps best known for these \"bad guy\" roles in such films as \"Something Wild\" and \"GoodFellas.\" Ray Liotta (right) co-stars with Seth Rogen in \"Observe and Report,\" which opened Friday. But in his most recent film, \"Observe and Report\" -- a dark comedy co-starring Seth Rogen as a bipolar mall security guard and Anna Faris as the vapid make-up counter clerk he's in love with -- Liotta inches away from his edgy persona to play a detective investigating a flashing incident at the mall. \"A flasher keeps flashing people at the mall, so they call in the 'real police,' which is me,\" Liotta told the Columbus Dispatch. \"The last thing I want to do is investigate.\" The film, which opened in theaters Friday and has earned rave reviews by critics, is not Liotta's first comedic undertaking. The 54-year-old actor also starred in 2007's \"Wild Hogs,\" a comedy co-starring Tim Allen and John Travolta about a group of middle-aged suburban men who decide to become bikers. The film was one of that year's surprise hits, taking in more than $150 million at the domestic box office. See some of the highlights of Liotta's career \u00bb . Liotta first made his mark on the film industry by playing a psychotic ex-husband determined to win back his ex-wife in \"Something Wild.\" The role propelled Liotta to fame and earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor. From there, Liotta starred as mobster Henry Hill in the Martin Scorsese classic \"Goodfellas\" (1990), working alongside renowned actors Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. \"Edgy guys stand out in people's minds,\" Liotta said of his famous \"bad guy\" roles, according to the Dispatch. But, to avoid being typecast as the \"bad guy\" forever, Liotta decided to break from the mold in his next role as a caring father in the heartwarming film \"Corrina, Corrina\" (1994), co-starring Whoopi Goldberg. Liotta soon proved that acting was not his only forte. He formed his own production company in 2002 and made his debut as a producer on the film \"Narc,\" in which he also starred as a corrupt cop. He's also earned plaudits for his television work. In 2004, Liotta starred in an episode of the hit NBC drama, \"ER,\" winning an Emmy for his guest appearance. The actor got his start on daytime TV, playing the character Joey Perrini on the soap \"Another World.\" With several films currently in production, Liotta shows no signs of stopping. The actor told the Dispatch that he hopes to try his hand at romance in the future, joking that he'd like to \"kiss the girl without having to choke her first.\" CNN's David Daniel contributed to this story.","highlights":"Ray Liotta known for bad-guy roles such as gangsters, serial killers .\nLiotta tries something a little different with comedy \"Observe and Report\"\n\"Edgy guys stand out in people's minds,\" Liotta has said .","id":"005a250b7a98f9a5b26906b62279940b050cf8c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Like most stories that end up with a man mowing his friend's lawn in a dress, it started out innocently enough. Craig Harrell takes a quick break for the camera while fulfilling his end of the bargain. Not long after Robert Klein began working on his man cave, his friend Craig Harrell paid Klein a compliment. He noticed Klein was looking trimmer since they'd last met. As Klein continued to slim down, they made a bet: Whoever could get down to 200 pounds first would be the winner, and the loser would have to mow the winner's yard -- in a dress. Klein started building his man cave in Pasadena, Maryland, so he could have the bar of his dreams and a home theater. He worked on his basement for more than a year and ended up losing 65 pounds in the process -- more than enough to win his bet with Harrell. CNN.com and iReport.com got an overwhelming response when we asked readers to send in photos and stories of their man caves: spaces that foster men's hobbies, decorating skills and technological needs. Some of their stories were so outrageous that we decided to profile a few of them. Klein's man cave, however, was the only one to combine dramatic weight loss and cross-dressing, so we had to give him a call to find out more. Klein said his friends wanted to talk about two things while he was building his man cave: how his amazing bar was coming along and how they thought Harrell would lose the bet. The bet was popular with everyone Klein and Harrell knew. Their wives even started a dress committee, to make sure the loser was appropriately attired, and their kids delighted in the prospect of seeing Dad in a dress. To lose weight, Klein said Harrell played golf and cut out chips, while he adopted a balanced, calorie-restricted diet, and spent at least six hours a day on the man cave, which took most of his free time. Klein did all the electric wiring himself, worked on the framing and put three coats of paint on all the walls and ceilings. He attributes his weight loss success to replacing TV-watching with hard work. \"I lost at least 10 pounds on the painting alone,\" he said. \"My neck was sore for weeks.\" Klein knew he couldn't build the kind of man cave he wanted all by himself, so he contracted out some of the big jobs, like cutting a hole in the foundation to add 6-foot-tall French doors to the side of the house in place of a window well, and finding someone to do the woodwork on a custom bar he designed. Although he started out with a carefully planned budget, Klein quickly found he needed to spend more money to make his dreams a reality. The hardest part, he said, was finding someone who could build his bar for a price he could afford. After some disheartening estimates (one was $65,000), Klein found Lyle Delfosse, a local furniture maker who had built libraries in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., and constructed a chair for a U.S. Supreme Court justice over his long career. Now 76 and retired, Delfosse told Klein, \"I can build anything out of wood.\" Klein said Delfosse was true to his word, and they didn't go over the initial estimate of $19,000, although he said Delfosse told him \"if he had it to do all over again, he'd have charged double.\" Klein calls the bar \"magnificent,\" and said that when people come over to see it, they feel underdressed. Convinced he'd saved money by doing a lot of the work himself, Klein splurged on a new sprinkler system. The bet he'd made earlier in the year was on his mind, and he wanted to ensure that the grass in his front yard would be nice and green once the weigh-in arrived. At the height of summer, Klein's man cave was finished, and he decided it was time to step on the scales. Harrell was 208 pounds, and Klein was 195. At the party Klein threw to show off his new bar and theater, Harrell was ready. With some help from the dress committee, Harrell became Klein's newly acquired, frock-sporting landscaper. The wives had sewn two pink, strapless dresses together to fit Harrell, and then layered on accessories like a bow-topped headband and a corsage. All decked out, Harrell graciously mowed Klein's front yard, with 80 people cheering him on. Somehow, as Harrell was mowing, Klein's new sprinkler system went off, soaking Harrell and his dress. In a phone interview, Klein was coy about who the perpetrator might have been. These days, Harrell has his own man cave, complete with bar. Klein points out that his bar is nicer, but says he's got his buddy's back: Harrell's wife thinks a dishwasher would be a practical addition to the man cave, but Klein is trying to convince her that the keg refrigerator Harrell wants is a good idea. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Man builds man cave, loses 65 pounds in the process .\nOf all the man cave tales submitted to iReport.com, this is first to include a dress .\nBar of man's dreams is \"magnificent\"\nDress committee sews two dresses together to fit the loser of the bet .","id":"479147e4fb0f2c7ada2bd88cd68e6087f591d788"} -{"article":"DINGLE, Ireland (CNN) -- Fewer tourists and relatively warm temperatures may be reason enough to put Ireland on your list of winter travel destinations, especially Dingle Peninsula, once ranked by National Geographic Traveler as \"the most beautiful place on Earth.\" Winter offers tourists a chance to explore Ireland's west coast unhindered by bothersome crowds. The peninsula, on Ireland's west coast, includes the oceanside town of Dingle, which boasts more than 1,000 full-time residents. Winter visitors will avoid the area's hundreds of thousands of summertime tourists. Boats crowd Dingle's popular marina, bringing fresh seafood catches of the day. Some of the marina vessels also will ferry visitors to see Fungie, a locally famous dolphin who has lived in the waters outside town since 1984. See breathtaking photos of Dingle \u00bb . Outside Dingle, numerous vacation cottages are available to rent, including homes in the village of Dunquin. In winter, rates are drastically cut, and rental period dates may be more flexible. Most shops and restaurants have shorter hours during winter, and traditional music is found in some of the pubs on the weekends. As with most of Ireland, pubs abound, even in the smallest villages. A beer (preferably Guinness) and some hearty pub grub are a perfect way to cap a day of exploring the wintry sights of the peninsula. Because Ireland sits near the warm waters of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, the Emerald Isle has an average temperature of 46 degrees Fahrenheit (7 Celsius) during December, January and February. But pack smart and bring layers of clothing, including warm sweaters and jackets, because winter weather often means rain on Ireland's western shore.","highlights":"Dingle, Ireland, called \"most beautiful place on Earth\" by National Geographic .\nEscape summer crowds by traveling to Dingle Peninsula during winter months .\nCottage rentals are cheaper in winter, and periods are more flexible .\nWinter temperatures in western Ireland average 46 degrees F (7 Celsius)","id":"01cd6515607eee6ef4f01964a56960ab1b34b290"} -{"article":"OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, Washington (CNN) -- Taking a road trip by yourself can be good for the soul. The freedom and beauty of the open road on a recent trip in the Pacific Northwest and California brought me back to what is really important in life. Vistas along the California coast near Mendocino can be breathtaking. My road trip started in Seattle, Washington, and ended two weeks later in Sacramento, California, covering 2,277 miles with a stunning backdrop of natural beauty along the way. Living in the moment and charting my own course gave me a sense of self empowerment that extends to my path in life and what I want out of it. For those who wish to set out on their own solo road trip, I recommend research and planning -- while still leaving time to be spontaneous. Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park . As I drove into the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington's Olympic National Park, the only words I could muster were Holy ... Wow! The greenness of it all and the smell of fresh air stimulated a part of my brain that hadn't been stimulated in years, if ever. Here I was in the good, old U.S. of A., driving through a rain forest. Having just left Seattle, where my trip started, this was the first leg of my self-proclaimed big adventure. From the start, Olympic National Park was always a must-see. See map of my road trip \u00bb . I mean, who knew you could hike through rain forests, climb glaciers, walk beaches or hit up mineral hot springs all in one place? The Hoh Rain Forest offered enchanting hikes, with plenty of trails to choose from. Huge ferns, endless amounts of beautiful moss, and trees -- some 500 years old -- made up much of the landscape. On my second day, as the rain started to come down hard, I decided to squeeze in a late afternoon visit to Ruby Beach, about 45 minutes east of Hoh. There's something special about walking a beach in a virtual downpour: You've pretty much got it all to yourself. See photos from my trip \u00bb . Sol Duc Hot Springs . After two days in the rain, accidentally stepping on a couple of mammoth-sized banana slugs outside my tent, and looking a bit like Chewbacca, I decided to treat myself to the popular Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, about 30 minutes north of the Hoh Rain Forest in Port Angeles, Washington. Named by American Indians, Sol Duc, which means sparkling water, is also thought to have healing values, something I was in desperate need of by this point. Three pools are heated by the nearby hot springs and there's one freshwater pool if you need to cool off. I threw on my suit, quickly showered and then headed straight for the hot spring. Aaaaaah, this was perfect. The pools were crowded and the smell of the minerals in the water was obvious. With a backdrop of tree-lined hills, it's easy to sit, relax and soothe your bones for hours. Oregon Caves . Oregon is a beautiful state from top to bottom. It seems to have it all, the ocean, rivers, cool towns and caves! Oregon Caves National Monument is located outside Junction Caves, Oregon. To get to the cave's entrance you have to drive 20 miles along a very windy -- but beautiful -- two-lane road, deep in the Siskiyous Mountains. I arrived just in time for the last tour which ran about 90 minutes. Bring a jacket since the temperature inside the cave is around 44 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) year-round. Our group had just started the tour when one woman traveling with her daughter announced she couldn't do it. She wasn't comfortable walking within confined spaces. Our guide was very helpful and mentioned to all of us this was the right time to speak up if you didn't think you could do the tour. Moments later our group, minus two, made its way through the inside of the mountain. This place rocked -- literally and figuratively. In 1907, poet Joaquin Miller coined the cave's nickname, \"The Marble Halls of Oregon.\" You'll hear a lot of stories on the tour; from its discovery in 1874 by Elijah Davidson, whose dog chased a bear into the cave, to a couple who got married inside the cave, complete with cavemen outfits and fur. Our guide, Rachel De Nardis, called the cave intimate and personable. Steve Thede, chief of interpretations, says the Oregon Caves offer an opportunity to connect with the inside of Earth. Besides, he adds, this is something you'll remember 10 years from now. The drive to the caves is a little bit off the beaten path, but it's well worth the side trip. Mendocino, California . My day in Mendocino County was completely unplanned. I had a full day between planned stops on my route, so I headed to Mendocino because it's known for its scenery and its art community. Everyone talks about the gorgeous coastline in Northern California, so I thought, we'll see if they're right. The vistas along the way were stunning. It took me longer than I had estimated because it's so easy to constantly stop and snap pictures. Eventually I arrived in Mendocino, found a great spot on some rocks by the Pacific and ate lunch. Eating an avocado sandwich as waves crashed against the rocks was an inspiring moment. How often do you get to find those kinds of spots, I asked myself. Another traveler's gem I found in Mendocino would be of interest to gardening gurus -- or those who just like flowers. The Mendocino County Botanical Garden showcases beautiful gardens and a gift shop. Big Trees of Calaveras County, California . The Big Trees of Calaveras County is home to the giant Sequoias. Located about four miles east of Arnold, California, the trees in the park are the biggest in the world. As soon as I began my stroll in the North Grove portion of the park, I was overtaken by the sheer massiveness, power and age of these trees. Some trees in the park are believed to be up to 2,000 years old. The largest tree in the park is about 25 feet in diameter and 250 feet tall. Pick up the guided tour sheet for 50 cents. It gives you perspective and stories behind the trees. Big Trees State Park is inside the Stanislaus National Forest, a huge forest spanning from just south of Lake Tahoe to the southern reach of Yosemite National Park. I stayed with a friend who lives in an A-frame home along the west boundary of the forest -- a neighborhood which is pretty unusual. Imagine driving out of your neighborhood and, instead of passing houses, you're driving by mammoth trees and clear blue running rivers. Who has that? To me, to live in the heart of Mother Earth like my friend does would be a privilege. Overall, I surprised myself during this solo adventure. I learned that during a trip alone, you find yourself doing things that you didn't plan on -- that you wouldn't put down on paper beforehand. A lot of people are afraid to be by themselves -- to travel by themselves. Some people don't even like to eat by themselves. This trip showed me that going solo can be a valuable experience. It forces you to appreciate yourself, and realize that you are often times your own best company.","highlights":"Olympic National Park has rain forests, glaciers, beaches, mineral hot springs .\nOregon cave stories include dog chasing bear and a \"caveman\" wedding .\nStunning seaside lunch in Mendocino, California, with amazing scenery .\nAmong giant Sequoias, strolling among 2,000-year-old trees overtakes author .","id":"93708def3a6bc282d7ca852759e602108c7d79e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Skier Paul Wampach, a 49-year-old manager from Chicago, Illinois, hardly matches the stereotype of a hostel dweller: an under-30 backpacker from outside the United States who can't afford fancy lodging. Travelers looking to meet new people might consider staying at hostels, say experts. For the fifth time in two years, Wampach plans to head to the Fireside Inn in Breckenridge, Colorado, where he's booked a dorm-style room for less than $40 a night during his ski vacation. \"If I'm traveling by myself, there's no reason to splurge,\" said Wampach, who is single and described himself as neither rich nor poor. \"That $40 or $50 [I save on lodging] goes to food, beer and ski-lift tickets.\" And amenities such as Internet access and a hot tub at the hostel add creature comforts to the trip. Wampach's travel habits are consistent with a growing number of travelers called \"flashpackers.\" They are usually over 30, in mid-to-late career and can afford higher-end hotels but instead choose budget options -- albeit better-furnished and well-kept ones -- because it fits their lifestyle, said Mark Vidalin, Marketing Director for Hostelling International USA, a nonprofit network of hostels. Flashpackers also tend to stay connected by traveling with gadgets and seeking accommodations with free Wi-Fi, Vidalin said. The term \"flashpacker\" likely originated in Australia, and combines the term \"flash\" -- meaning \"stylish\" -- with \"backpacker,\" according to Vidalin. Flashpackers and regular backpackers are booking hostels at U.S. vacation destinations in full force this year. Attendance at hostels has been consistently rebounding from lows following the September 11, 2001. This year's turbulent economy appears to be fueling demand for hostel space. Heading into ski season, Loree Weisman, the owner of the Crested Butte International Lodge and Hostel in Crested Butte, Colorado, said her hostel bookings are trending ahead of the town's other lodging options -- and up about 25 percent from her bookings by the same time last year. Amid the unsteady economy, she said, people \"don't want to give up a vacation, but they might need to adapt a vacation.\" Instead of canceling pricey vacations due to economic fears, many travelers are rejecting accommodations with private bedrooms and bathrooms. They're going for hostels with their dorm-style bunk beds, community bathrooms, and, most importantly for many hostel dwellers, shared living spaces. \"There's a sense of community, and there's a social aspect to it that's pretty significant,\" said Jim Williams, editor of \"The Hostel Handbook\" and a former hostel owner. \"That is the heart of hostelling. You don't go to a hotel and lock the door.\" Wampach agreed, saying that hostels offer \"a tremendous way to meet people from different cultures and talk to people you wouldn't normally talk to.\" But the communal atmosphere of hostels leaves many travelers skeptical, particularly Americans, Williams said. \"Americans have privacy issues. If you suggested to most people they were going to share a room with five other people, most of them wouldn't want to do it,\" he said. What if a roommate snores or what if he smells or doesn't stop talking? -- these are legitimate questions for travelers considering the hostel option, said Williams. Frequent hostel dweller Mandy Creighton, 30, said she enjoys the overall hostel experience, but it's a \"huge challenge\" to \"walk through the room and to my room without having to talk to 20 people.\" Creighton and her partner, Ryan Mlynarczyk, 32, who are documentary filmmakers from Sebastopol, California, are bicycling around the United States for a year and stopping in ecologically sustainable communities along the way. Their choice to stay in hostels is rooted in a desire to maintain a green lifestyle by sharing resources as well as saving money. Mlynarczyk experienced the other side of the privacy issue when he stepped out of a shower in a San Francisco, California, hostel to discover he had a female audience. \"I ... didn't have my towel on -- and some girl walks in and was like, 'Woo!' I'm totally open to that sort of thing, but I think she was a little bit new to it, and she kind of was giggling. But obviously the immediate reaction was, 'Oh my God!' \" Mlynarczyk said. In contrast to Americans who treasure their personal space, the communal environment is more ingrained in European culture, experts said. It's possible to trace that cultural divide to post-World War II, said Williams, when Europe underwent its financial recovery in the 1950s and its culture was more communal. On the other hand, the U.S. economy was booming, and there was no need for Americans to share resources. \"At the same time [Europeans] were creating hostels, American teenagers were focused on getting their own cars,\" Williams said. Nevertheless, Hostelling International reported its hostels in many destination cities saw notable increases in October versus the same time last year: New York overnight guests increased by 9.8 percent, Washington by 9.7 percent and San Diego, California, by 22.1 percent, according to Hostelling International. Despite the rise in many hostel bookings, Williams said hostelling still isn't part of mainstream American culture. \"We do hostelling about as well as we do soccer. We do it, but it's a limited market, and we do it a certain way. Otherwise, most Americans aren't very comfortable [with] it,\" Williams said. Wampach said he believes this represents Americans' \"relatively conservative views and lifestyles.\" But people are respectful of each other's space, he said, and they rarely spend time together in the dorm room aside from sleeping anyway. \"You just do your best; everybody understands you are who are,\" Wampach said. \"Sometimes you get a guy who snores but ... that's part of the deal.\"","highlights":"\"Flashpackers\" are professionals older than 30 who prefer hostels to hotels .\nHostels in New York, Washington and San Diego, California, report increased guests .\nSense of community is the \"heart of hostelling,\" expert says .\nMany Americans uncomfortable with hostels' lack of privacy .","id":"346bb8388ba574679ea898c11075de07a786f817"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The government is delaying legal action against Pennsylvania landowners who haven't yet agreed to sell their land for a memorial to victims of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, federal officials said Friday. This plot of land is scheduled to house the permanent United Airlines Flight 93 memorial. The government has been negotiating with several landowners since 2003 in an effort to purchase their properties near Shanksville where the hijacked jet crashed into a field, killing everyone aboard. If final efforts at negotiations are unsuccessful, officials intend to use eminent domain to acquire the property. That right allows governments to take private property for public use without an owner's consent, after paying a fair price for the land. The government is seeking to buy 166 acres in western Pennsylvania to complete the area needed to build a memorial on 2,200 acres. \"The (National Park Service) will negotiate with the landowners to reach agreement. If agreement is not reached, eminent domain remains as a backstop to acquire these lands,\" said Kendra Barkoff, spokeswoman for the Department of Interior. See plans for the proposed Flight 93 Memorial . Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, met with landowners and some 9\/11 victims' relatives Friday in Somerset County, where the plane crashed into a field. \"The goal remains to finish phase one of the memorial by September 10, 2011,\" Barkoff said. \"We'll try to negotiate with the families, but eminent domain has always been and will continue to be the last resort.\" Landowner Randy Musser told CNN he is encouraged that the government is recognizing that the negotiations aren't working. While the threat of eminent domain stills seem to be on the table, \"it finally seems like the lines of communication are open,\" Musser said. Producers Eric Fiegel and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government may use eminent domain to seize land needed for 9\/11 memorial .\nHijacked United Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania .\nFederal officials say they hope to have first phase of memorial complete by 2011 .","id":"b40e823c3233b41947a100f5c584438b0f915ac8"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- You haven't experienced Christmas lights until you've seen nearly four miles of them artfully hung in patterns dictated by Tiffany's head designer in Copenhagen's famed historic amusement park, Tivoli Gardens -- and that's not counting the 1,800 strands dramatically draped on the lakeside willows. Salzburg, Austria's Christkindlmarkt is one of Europe's oldest markets. Copenhagen celebrates Jul (as in \"yuletide\") in high style, with its famed Christmas market the centerpiece. Stalls stocked with fine handmade crafts, including traditional figurines of clog-clad elves in pointy red caps, compete for space with vendors selling iced doughnuts slathered with black currant jam and hefty cups of gl\u00f8gg, a steaming hot mulled red wine laden with raisins, almonds, cinnamon sticks and cloves -- all of which, for good measure, are steeped in aquavit or schnapps. Christmas in Europe is a time for elaborate pastries straight out of a medieval cookbook, for lyrical midnight masses in Gothic churches and for the upholding of quirky local traditions -- in many countries, Christmas just isn't complete without mischievous pixies, kindly witches (Rome), treacherous demons (Salzburg) or an 8,000-pound fruitcake (Dresden). However else Europeans celebrate the Yuletide season, Christmas still centers around an Advent market that, in most cases, has filled the square before the cathedral each December for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Many markets start on the Friday before Advent, which is four Sundays before Christmas Eve; most end on December 24, especially in Germanic countries, where Christmas Eve is set aside for trimming the tree at home. Others keep celebrating until Epiphany on January 6. Travel+Leisure.com: See Europe's best Christmas markets . These markets are where the romance of the holiday comes alive in grand tradition -- smells of gingerbread and roasting sausages waft through the cold air, handmade ornaments adorn ancient fir trees, master glassblowers and other artisans ply their crafts in wooden stalls, shoppers bustle past Gothic church facades and half-timbered houses, pausing to sip their gl\u00fchwein, heavily spiced and mulled \"glow wine\" -- the piping-hot beverage of choice at any self-respecting Teutonic Christmas market. This is what Christmas should be -- a holiday free of mall Muzak and the frantic need to lay your hands on the superstore's last Tickle Me Xbox. It's an old-world Christmas of heartfelt caroling and wooden toys, where every gift is crafted by hand and Santa hasn't outsourced his workshop to China. For a few precious frost-nipped weeks, these museum-piece cities of Olde World Europe flicker back to the Middle Ages -- not the ossified medieval throwbacks of soot-blackened cathedrals and tourist-bedeviled museums, but the living, breathing yesteryear of a bustling outdoor marketplace. A few practical notes: It's wise to book as far in advance as possible in these Christmas hotspots, especially for trips between December 15 and January 1 and definitely for December 24 and 25. That goes not only for your lodging but also for restaurants, many of which close on Christmas Eve and Day; those that are open usually offer a set-price feast and book up fast with locals. Planning a Caribbean getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's new Ultimate Caribbean Hotel Guide - CLICK HERE . Copyright 2007 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens glitters with lights during the market .\nAdvent markets have been held for hundreds of years .\nHandmade crafts, local snacks and mulled wine are typical .","id":"15c65dfd2db58d368a048e25ed61178cb82ba413"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House did not intend to show any disrespect toward Nancy Reagan when it failed to invite the former first lady -- a vigorous supporter of stem-cell research -- to a bill-signing ceremony on the subject, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. Nancy Reagan watches President Obama sign the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act Tuesday. \"I think she speaks in real personal terms about the issue,\" Gibbs told reporters. \"And I think her candor and her courage have been heartening, and we certainly meant no slight to her whatsoever.\" On Monday, Vanity Fair published an interview with Nancy Reagan on its Web site in which she suggested the Obama administration missed an opportunity by not inviting her to witness President Obama signing a measure in March expanding federal support for stem-cell research. The former first lady has long promoted such steps despite objections from many in the GOP. She has argued that expanded stem-cell research could have helped her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. \"I would have gone, and you know I don't like to travel,\" she told the magazine. Watch more on Gibbs' reaction to the controversy \u00bb . \"Politically, it would have been a good thing for (Obama) to do. Oh well, nobody's perfect. He called and thanked me for working on it. But he could have gotten more mileage out of it,\" she said. Gibbs' comments also come the same day Mrs. Reagan attended a White House ceremony marking Obama's signing of legislation authorizing a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission. The 11-member commission will plan activities marking Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday on February 6, 2011. Watch Obama laud Reagan's optimism \u00bb . Mrs. Reagan is slated to attend the unveiling of a new statue of President Reagan on Wednesday morning at the Capitol and then share a private White House lunch with first lady Michelle Obama. Obama issued an apology to Mrs. Reagan earlier this year after joking in a news conference that she held seances during her years in the White House -- an apparent reference to reports she consulted with astrologists during her husband's presidency.","highlights":"Former first lady Nancy Reagan is a strong supporter of stem-cell research .\nMrs. Reagan tells magazine: Obama should have invited me to stem-cell bill signing .\nShe's slated to attend the unveiling of a new statue of President Reagan Wednesday .\nShe witnesses signing of Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission legislation .","id":"37e6037b28ff5c517ab64e586f86babd725650a1"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Turn up the music, crack the window -- falling gas prices have flipped on the road-trip ignition switch. The Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle is 104 feet long and 95 feet wide at the alcove. I decided to celebrate the unofficial return of reasonable driving vacations with a venture to the ultimate temple of excess -- Hearst Castle. From Los Angeles, my family and I retraced the journey of Hollywood luminaries who headed north to hang out with publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck, Carol Lombard and Hearst's mistress Marion Davies all made the trek to what Hearst called \"La Cuesta Encantada,\" or the Enchanted Hill. Winston Churchill and President Calvin Coolidge also rested here amid art and antiquities from around the world. Hearst Castle looks down over golden fields, the glistening Pacific and the town of San Simeon, California, home to less than 500 people. We took a tour bus from the visitors center to the mansion, a long gull's dive from the ocean, 1,610 feet above sea level. Hearst hired San Francisco architect Julia Morgan in 1919 and by 1947 the 165-room estate stretched over 127 acres. It's crystal clear Hearst was a demanding mastermind of his kingdom on the hill, putting Morgan through what must have been agonizing brain twisters. Visitors see that when Hearst wanted European choir chairs wedged into his assembly room, Morgan made it work. When he wanted elaborate ceilings salvaged from Europe, Morgan expanded their reach to fit into the estate's rooms. A massive 95 x 104-foot outdoor swimming pool, made of concrete and Vermont marble, is one of the central jewels of the property. Our guide recounted Hearst house rules. In an effort to control his guests' alcohol consumption, Hearst banned them from bringing their own liquor. The Hollywood types reportedly snuck it in anyway, like frat boys at a football game. Guests stayed in opulent guest houses adorned with religious icons, art and other worldly treasures. Hearst mandated unmarried guests sleep apart, while violating his own edict by sleeping with his beloved actress friend Marion Davies. Though Hearst remained married to Millicent Hearst, with whom he had five children, Davies' ghost is everywhere at Hearst Castle. Images of the actress, along with Charlie Chaplin and others stars, flicker about in a short film shown in the mansion's 50-seat movie theater. Museum-worthy pieces fill the property, including intricate Flemish tapestries in an east-facing sitting room called the Morning Room. Owing to my Belgian roots, I looked at the tapestries and cracked to my kids, \"No wonder my 83-year-old mother can still sew a tiny patch onto a Girl Scout vest.\" The castle's grandeur was enough to hold the childrens' attention. We saw them as young as 4 years old, eyes popping while taking in ancient Egyptian statues or towering Christmas trees. \"This guy was rich!\" my friend's 7-year-old-son, Nicolas, exclaimed. Perhaps a headline from Hearst's San Francisco Examiner in another era could best describe our trip: . \"The road to fun is back and affordable!\"","highlights":"William Randolph Hearst entertained Hollywood stars at his estate near San Simeon .\nThe 165-room estate stretches over 127 acres overlooking the Pacific .\nHearst filled the rooms with art and antiquities from around the world .","id":"63c1c05d6758e308bf0a20678e11189cf737c43a"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's lower house of parliament elected a woman as its speaker Wednesday, a first in the male-dominated chamber's history. Meira Kumar was nominated by the ruling Congress party. Meira Kumar is also a member of the \"untouchable\" Dalit class, the lowest rung in the centuries-old caste system in the country. The speaker conducts the proceedings of the house. She will preside over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women. Kumar, 64, was elected to the position unopposed. She was nominated by the ruling Congress party but also had the backing of the alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Women play a prominent role in the politics of India, the world's largest democracy. The South Asian country of 1.1 billion people has a female president, Pratibha Devisingh Patil. And four of the country's political parties, including the Congress Party, are led by women. Hindus believe there are five main groups of people. The last group is the Dalits. They're considered impure and are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells and use different entry ways to come and go from buildings. Dalits number about 250 million in India, about 25 percent of the population, according to the Colorado, U.S.-based Dalit Freedom Network. India's constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Meira Kumar a member of the Dalit class -- lowest rung in centuries-old caste system .\nShe will preside over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women .\nKumar, 64, was elected to the position unopposed .","id":"95ff1ffa9f650f9c6f3056d38e2a58d136fa77ae"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Do you know your \"futtock\" from your \"baggywrinkle?\" A sailor stands on the \"widow-maker\" -- or bowsprit of his yacht. Don't be concerned if you don't, as they are both relatively obscure terms used in sailing. It is a sport littered with odd words and phrases and MainSail has put together a list of 10 of the weirdest below. They are bound to raise a smile and will certainly make you more knowledgeable on the water -- who knows, you could even impress friends and colleagues with your mastery of obscure nautical terminology. Scuttlebutt The scuttlebutt is a cask on a ship containing the vessel's drinking water. It was named this as the container was traditionally a small barrel, the so-called \"butt,\" which had been \"scuttled\" -- had a hole made in it -- so water could be accessed. As sailors would often gather around the scuttlebutt to chat, the word has also taken on a slang meaning of rumor or gossip. Rollocks A commonly used spelling for \"rowlocks.\" These are the spaces cut into the vessel or small clasps raised up from the side of smaller boats that are used to rest oars when the boat is under paddle. Are there any other nautical words you'd like to add? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. Poop deck A poop deck is a deck at the rear of a ship, generally formed by the roof of a cabin. If a wave washes over this deck from behind the vessel, it is said to be \"pooped.\" Widow-maker This is a colloquial term for a boat's bowsprit -- the long pole, or \"spar,\" extending from the bow used by sailors to tend to sails. The treacherous bowsprit earned its name and reputation from of the number of sailors who have lost their lives falling from the it. Baggywrinkle This strange-sounding gem is simply a soft covering for ropes aboard yachts that prevent chafing of the sails. Where ropes and lines come into contact with sails there is serious potential for damage to the sail due to the abrasive nature of most rigging. Mainsheet The mainsheet is a rope or line attached to the boom that allows the sailor to control the speed of a boat by adjusting the main sail. Bilge The bilge is the lowest part of the interior of a ship. It marks the spot at the inside-bottom of the hull, below any floorboards, and it sits below the water-line. Futtock Futtocks are the curved timbers used to form the interior ribs on the hulls of wooden ships. Cat-head The cat-head is a large wooden beam that extends from vessels at a 45 degree angle and is used to assist in raising and lowering the anchor. Many cat-heads have had the faces of lions or other large cats carved into them -- however, it's not known if this gave the cat-head its name, or came as a result of the name. Escutcheon The place on the stern of a ship where the boat's name is written is known as the escutcheon.","highlights":"MainSail lists ten of the strangest and most humorous nautical words .\nSailing and marine sports full of obscure terms and phrases .\nTerms include \"baggywrinkle,\" \"poop deck\" and \"futtock\"","id":"4bc354487d057907e31c6ceb5b923d316919af5f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- As Britain's Prince Harry neared the end of his second and final day in New York City on Saturday, he described his experiences as \"fantastic.\" Prince Harry smiles whilte touring the Harlem Children's Zone on Saturday during a 36-hour visit to New York. The 24-year-old visited the Harlem Children's Zone, a nonprofit organization that offers free programs and classes in a low-income area, then went to Governors Island in New York Harbor to play in the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic. Profits from the match will benefit Sentebale, a charity for orphans in Lesotho, Africa, a cause Harry's mother, Princess Diana, had promoted. The prince was accompanied by Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, who also lost his mother when he was young. The men toured the Children's Zone with founder Geoffrey Canada, and spent time in a classroom where some students were studying for a math test. A 10-year-old girl sitting at a desk covered with drawing paper and colored markers gave Harry a picture. \"Is this for me?\" Harry asked as he accepted it. Pointing to the desk and pens, he then asked, \"You find yourself very lucky to have all this?\" When she nodded, he replied \"Good.\" A young boy gave Harry a bowl containing a dish he had prepared, and the prince ate it while the child sounded off the ingredients. Throughout the classroom visit, the prince smiled and chatted easily with students. Watch Soledad O'Brien's report on the Children's Zone \u00bb . Cheering people lined the street as Harry entered the building. As he left, reporters shouted questions. Asked how he liked his first official visit overseas and meeting the children, the prince responded, \"It's been fantastic -- really, really worthwhile.\" \"It's my first visit to New York. I'm hopeful I'll come back to visit again.\" He also was asked whether he thought his appearances would change any image the public might have of him, apparently referring to some of his wild exploits ways when he was younger. Those incidents included a one-day stint in drug rehab in 2002 and accusations of racism in January. \"I don't know what the image is of me. There is always the image that's been given to me, but people have their own opinions, it's the media that likes to stamp on the image which isn't really me.\" On Friday, the youngest son of Princess Diana offered his condolences to September 11 victims at the former site of the World Trade Center. The prince met New York Gov. David Paterson and briefly spoke with family members of 9\/11 victims. The prince then laid a wreath at the site and bowed his head in a moment of silence. Watch Prince Harry's visit to Ground Zero \u00bb . He left a handwritten note tacked to the wreath, citing an \"the courage shown by the people\" of New York on September 11, 2001. Harry later paid tribute to his fellow citizens at Lower Manhattan's British Garden at Hanover Square, where he honored the 67 British victims of the September 11 attacks, officials said. The third in line for the British crown, Harry is active in the British Army. He received a promotion to lieutenant in April 2008 and is currently training for an Army Air Corps pilot position, according to the prince's Web site.","highlights":"Prince Harry visits a nonprofit that offers free programs and classes in Harlem .\nHarry also takes part in the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic .\nOn first visit to New York: \"Fantastic. ... I'm hopeful I'll come back to visit again\"\n24-year-old plays down criticisms of past, says media \"stamps on\" false image .","id":"7297b0f37e809c5ca79467a535aecb3290a83070"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cynde Strand, CNN's Beijing camerawoman during the crisis, had spent night after night in Tiananmen Square, amidst a heap of trash, leaning on her ladder, her head over her camera, just waiting for something to happen. Cynde Strand: \"I just knew this was the day it was going to end.\" If she was really exhausted, she'd lay plastic over the trash and cat-nap on that. \"Every night I would stay there,\" she recalled. \"Every night there'd be rumors that the troops were coming, or they weren't coming. And then there were all those kids we had gotten to know,\" she said about the demonstrators. \"Some days I'd start around 5 and just stay the whole night,\" she said. \"The sun would come up and I would just ache. But I knew I wanted to be there when it happened.\" She and Mike Chinoy, both based in Beijing and both keen watchers of the Chinese leadership, shared the feeling that the situation was going to end badly. The Chinese had been deeply embarrassed by the demonstrators during the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, they reasoned, and the students were still occupying Tiananmen Square, although their numbers had dwindled. See photos of the CNN team in Tiananmen Square in 1989 \u00bb . In their minds, the Chinese leadership just would not stand for that. And Strand had a feeling that whatever was going to happen was going to happen at night, when energy levels were low. \"That Saturday (June 3), I just knew this was the day it was going to end,\" she said. \"That peaceful people-power picnic sit-in was gone. There was anger, rock-throwing behind the Great Hall of the People. The tension was much higher.\" And then Strand and her team got word of troops coming towards the giant square. And then kids started running into one side of the square with bodies. \"I got everybody together and said, 'okay, this is it,'\" she recalled. \"'If you don't want to stay, you can go. You don't have to stay here with me, but you have to leave now.'\" She and soundman Kit Swartz stayed in the square for that entire historic night, determined to witness history. \"Bullets were whizzing overhead and then about 3 or 4 in the morning, they turned all the lights off,\" she said. \"Troops started pouring out of Mao's mausoleum, different troops came out from under Mao's portrait. Tanks moved in. By early morning, they had taken over the square and crushed that tent city.\" Strand didn't get to film much that overnight of June 4. It was dark, she and Swartz took shelter behind public bathrooms for awhile, and the most dramatic images she had managed to film had gone with producer Donna Liu back to the CNN bureau. Strand had no idea what had happened to the tapes. And no one at CNN knew what had happened to her and Kit. Her walkie-talkie battery was long dead and nobody had cellphones then. From CNN's base at the Beijing Hotel, the square, she knew, \"looked like hell, with buses on fire, APCs [armed personnel carriers] on fire and the Goddess of Democracy statue backlit by the fires burning on the road.\" Daytime broke. Chinese troops controlled the square. Strand and Swartz needed to get back to the CNN bureau. They flagged down a flat-bed rickshaw driver, who pedaled them and their gear to the Beijing Hotel. As they arrived, journalists leaned out of the hotel windows, begging to hear what had happened overnight. She walked into the CNN bureau. She and Chinoy looked at each other. She could see the palpable relief on his face. \"It was one of those moments,\" she recalled, \"just a deep connection between us. It said: 'We knew it was coming, and we survived it.'\" Cynde Strand is now Director of Coverage at CNN International, based in Atlanta . Daniela Deane was a chief sub-editor at the Reuters news agency in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen crisis .","highlights":"Camerawoman Cynde Strand had spent night after night in Tiananmen Square .\nAs troops arrived, she \"got everybody together and said, okay, this is it\"\n\"Bullets were whizzing overhead ... then they turned the lights off\"\nShe and soundman Kit Swartz stayed in the square for the entire historic night .","id":"8cc09ba4548758518a139f7013cc26f6e84772e4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man shot and killed his wife and two of their children and then killed himself in central Florida on Sunday night, authorities said. Troy Ryan Bellar shot and killed his wife, Wendy, and two of their children, sheriff's officials say. Troy Ryan Bellar, 34, used a high-powered rifle with a scope to shoot his 31-year-old wife, Wendy, when she tried to leave their home, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Two of the couple's children -- 5-month-old Zack and 7-year-old Ryan -- also were killed, but a 13-year-old got away, with the father chasing and firing after him, officials said. \"It is beyond my understanding why a man would shoot and kill his 5-month-old baby boy, his 7-year-old baby boy, try to kill his 13-year-old son, shoot his wife and then turn the gun on himself,\" said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. \"There is no explanation for that.\" The shootings happened in Lakeland, Florida, just east of Tampa. When the shooting began, the couple's son, Nathan, ran out of the house and down the street -- with his dad chasing him through the garage and firing several shots, authorities said. Nathan was unhurt and will be placed with family members. Investigators do not know what led to the shooting, but believe it was preceded by \"some kind of domestic disturbance,\" a statement from the sheriff's office said. Bellar was arrested twice in Polk County: for aggravated assault in 1994, and for driving under the influence in 1999. His wife was arrested in March for battery domestic violence.","highlights":"Bodies of gunman, wife, 2 children found at Lakeland, Florida, home, officials say .\nBoy, 13, was chased down street, fired at, but got away unharmed, officials say .\nGunman used a high-powered rifle with scope, authorities say .","id":"41e73af437e99be62879852e256ee3907eb839c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two U.S. lawmakers have urged U.S. Army Secretary Peter Geren to recognize 350 American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II, saying \"these heroes have not received the recognition and honor they deserve.\" Bernard \"Jack\" Vogel died in a Nazi slave camp in the arms of a fellow U.S. soldier, Anthony Acevedo, in 1945. \"As Anthony Acevedo, one of the soldiers chosen, recently described to CNN, the Nazis picked those soldiers who looked Jewish, had a Jewish name or were considered 'undesirable,' \" Reps. Joe Baca, D-California, and Spencer Bachus, R-Alabama, said in a letter sent to Geren last week. \"The trials and sacrifices made by those detained have largely gone unrecognized even to this day. As proud Americans, we wish to recognize and honor them for their service.\" Both congressmen have pushed for a congressional resolution to honor the 350 soldiers held at Berga an der Elster, a subcamp of Buchenwald where dozens of American soldiers were beaten, starved and killed. Baca and Bachus say they will continue to fight for the resolution. Listen as Acevedo tells brother of victim: \"I had him in my arms\" \u00bb . Army spokesman Paul Boyce told CNN that the Army is in the process of responding to the congressional letter. \"The U.S. Army has recognized hundreds of thousands of veterans of World War II and has expressed interest in this group's history to see what could be done,\" he said. Anthony Acevedo was a 20-year-old medic when he was sent to Berga with the other soldiers in February 1945. Acevedo kept a diary that details the day-to-day events inside the camp and lists the names and prisoner numbers of men as they died or were executed. Open up the pages of Acevedo's diary \u00bb . The soldiers were put on a forced death march in April 1945 as American troops neared. For much of that march, Acevedo pushed a wooden cart with emaciated men inside. Many of them died. \"More of our men died, so fast that you couldn't keep track of their numbers,\" Acevedo wrote on April 19, 1945, four days before he was liberated by advancing U.S. troops. Asked what it would mean if the U.S. Army officially recognized the soldiers of Berga six decades later, Acevedo, now 84, wept. \"This is for all the fellas,\" he said. Norman Fellman, another Berga survivor, was one of the men on the wooden cart pushed by Acevedo so many years ago. He said that wounded men and corpses were stacked on top of him -- and that he believed he could survive just one more day when he was liberated on April 23, 1945. \"There's a certain amount of pain involved when the country you serve fails to acknowledge the conditions under which you were kept,\" Fellman told CNN. There are only 12 known Berga survivors still living. It is difficult to ascertain exactly how many of the 350 U.S. soldiers died in captivity and on the subsequent death march. CNN has cross-checked a list of the names of 70 dead soldiers provided to the U.S. War Department after the war with the names of the dead listed in Acevedo's diary. Watch as a soldier's diary sheds light on atrocities \u00bb . It appears the death toll was well over 100, roughly one in three soldiers. Acevedo says that more than 300 U.S. soldiers were alive at the start of the march, and that about 165 were left by the end. He says he was unable to keep track of the dead in the final days because soldiers were dying too fast. \"At Berga, captured soldiers were forced to endure inhumane conditions and suffer from the Nazi policy of physical destruction through labor,\" Baca and Bachus said in their letter to Geren. \"Over 100 American soldiers either died at Berga or on the death march from the camp -- the highest number of American fatalities at any German camp.\" The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging. But the U.S. government commuted their death sentences in 1948, and both men were eventually set free in the 1950s. U.S. soldiers who survived captivity were interviewed by the U.S. Military Intelligence Service in Europe after they were liberated. Before they were sent home, they signed a document that instructed them to never speak about their captivity. \"Some activities of American prisoners of war within German prison camps must remain secret not only for the duration of the war against the present enemies of the United States but in peace-time as well,\" the document says. \"The interests of American prisoners of war in the event of future wars, moreover, demand that the secrets of this war be vigorously safeguarded.\" When Acevedo finally returned home, little had prepared him for his own father's reaction. \"My dad told me I was a coward,\" he said. Baca and Bachus said men like Acevedo deserve the respect of the nation: \"We are writing to you to encourage the Department of the Army to acknowledge the heroism and sacrifice of those soldiers held captive at Berga in a manner appropriate for their service. It would be an honor well-deserved for the remaining survivors and the many colleagues that have gone before them.\" Editor's note: To support the congressmen's effort, Spencer Bachus has asked for faxes to his Washington office at 202-225-2082, or send letters to Congressman Spencer Bachus, 2246 Rayburn Building, Washington, D.C., 20515.","highlights":"350 U.S. soldiers were held as slaves at camp in Germany during World War II .\nCNN recently reported on the captivity of one soldier held at Berga an der Elster .\nCongressmen urge Army secretary to honor the \"sacrifices made by those detained\"\n\"As proud Americans, we wish to recognize and honor them for their service\"","id":"1d7f8bbebe13107541a3f409160b8582472b830b"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tensions eased in the northern Indian state of Punjab on Tuesday, following widespread violence across the region after a Sikh guru was shot to death and another was wounded at an Indian temple in Vienna, Austria. Sikh demonstrators brandish sticks as they shout slogans during a protest in Amritsar. The situation was tense, but under control, Punjab's inspector general of police said Tuesday morning. The army and federal security forces were called in to restore order, added inspector general Parag Jain. Thousands took part in demonstrations across the Doaba region, where protesters attacked public transportation, knocking out train service in some areas. They also blocked a national highway to Jammu, CNN sister network CNN-IBN reported. A number of businesses were ransacked as well. Police reported one death. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, appealed for calm, in a statement. \"There is no place for violence in a secular society like India's and certainly no excuse whatsoever for the violation of the sacred premises of a (Sikh temple) for narrow sectarian or other purposes,\" India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Killed in Sunday's attack in Vienna was 57-year-old Sant Rama Nand. A second guru, Sant Niranjan Dass, 68, was seriously injured. His health has improved noticeably, according to the Indian Embassy, the Austria News Agency reported. Fifteen others were also wounded. \"Sant Niranjan Dass is doing well,\" the embassy said. \"He could soon be released from the hospital.\" Six people were arrested in connection with the attack, which occurred Sunday afternoon in Vienna's 15th district, police spokesman Schwaig Hofar told CNN. One suspect shot the two gurus, and five other attackers wielding knives assaulted people in the congregation during prayer, Hofar said. Four of the wounded were suspects, two of them in serious condition, he said. About 150 people were in the room when the violence took place, he said. Authorities are investigating what triggered the attacks, but Austrian Interior Minister Maria Fekter said Sikhs have lived \"exceptionally peacefully\" in Austria. CNN's Ben Brumfeld and Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tensions ease in Punjab after widespread violence over Sikh guru's death .\nSant Rama Nand shot dead in temple in Vienna, Austria; another guru wounded .\nSituation remains tense in Punjab, police say; also unrest in Doaba region .\nSeveral businesses ransacked, one person reported dead, according to police .","id":"f7dd5f9cb91c77ee9acdcf85a6dcbb904c53ee04"} -{"article":"LONDON (England) -- CNN -- When CSKA Moscow lifted the UEFA Cup in 2005, becoming the first Russian team to win a European trophy, manager Valeri Gazzaev described it as \"a landmark victory for Russian football.\" Andrei Arshavin has become Russia's first football superstar since the Soviet era. Three years later, Zenit St Petersburg matched the achievement a month before the Russian national team reached the semifinals of Euro 2008. After years on the margins, Russian football was back in the limelight. Jonathan Wilson, author of \"Behind the Curtain, Travels in Eastern European Football,\" told CNN that recent successes mark a renaissance of Russian football. A far-cry from the early years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when teams previously funded by state bodies -- such as the police force or the army -- were left chronically short of money. Wilson said that under communist rule Spartak Moscow had been funded by a trade union representing catering workers and were less directly dependant on state support than other Russian clubs. Consequently, when the Russian Premier League was formed in 1992, Spartak found themselves in a better position than many of their rivals and stormed on to win nine of the first 10 titles up for grabs. See photos of Russia's post-Soviet football stars. \u00bb . While Spartak flourished, the rest of the division remained in desperate need of money; that is, until a new source of funding came in the shape of Russia's rising force of oligarchs -- men who had amassed fortunes buying cheap but highly profitable energy companies . These oligarchs and energy corporations now play a vital role in funding the game. Zenit St Petersburg is backed by Gazprom, the world's biggest producer and exporter of natural gas and Spartak Moscow has oil and gas company Lukoil as its primary sponsor. CSKA Moscow's 2005 UEFA Cup triumph was financed by Sibneft, whose majority shareholder at the time was Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, currently the 51st richest man in the world according to Forbes.com. Abramovich's cash meant the club could afford to sign quality foreign players, including Brazilian internationals Daniel Carvalho and the free-scoring Vagner Love. Other examples of imported talent includes Dynamo Moscow's signing of Champions League winners Maniche and Costinha from FC Porto in 2005, and Zenit St Petersburg capturing Portuguese midfielder Danny for a reported league record of $40 million. There are so many foreign players in Russia that Premier League regulations now limit clubs to fielding no more than six foreign players at a time. What are your views of Russian football? Sound off below. But the injection of money into the Russian game isn't only useful for buying foreign talent, Wilson says the national game is also having a revival because of the oligarchs' money. Abramovich funds Russia's National Football Academy, which, along with providing plastic pitches and coaches for young footballers, is also responsible for paying the wages of national team coach Guus Hiddink. Dutchman Hiddink led Russia to the semifinals of Euro 2008, with the team having never made it past the first round of international competition prior to his appointment in 2006. Marc Bennetts, author of \"Football Dynamo\", about the state of Russian football, is based in Moscow. He told CNN that Hiddink's arrival was a turning point in the national team's fortunes. \"Hiddink really shook up the national football team. He left out some of the veterans and began picking players who were young and fresh, like Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko,\" he said. In Arshavin Russia has found its first football superstar since the Soviet era. He signed for English club Arsenal in February 2009 and has made an instant impact in the English Premier League. Bennetts says one cloud on the horizon is that Russian football's dependence on energy companies means the global economic crisis and low oil prices could have a negative impact on the sport. But if the oligarchs keep supplying the Roubles, there's no reason why Russian football won't continue to blossom.","highlights":"Recent UEFA Cup successes mark a \"new era\" for Russian football .\nWhen the Soviet Union broke up, Russian clubs faced a funding crisis .\nOligarchs now back many Russian teams, bringing money into the game .\nAndrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko are Russia's newest stars .","id":"4ce67f89d3dc5de6304dace71a35c5ebe54ed2b8"} -{"article":"ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- For the past few years, Dan Redmond has been on a mission to change the way his household uses energy. Dan Redmond uses an electric bicycle with a trailer to run errands. As concerns about global warming and rising energy costs grow, many families like the Redmonds are looking for ways to change the way they use energy. Three years ago Redmond began embracing solar energy to power his suburban Washington home. And he's not alone in turning to the sun for energy. The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates there are about 250,000 homes in the United States with some sort of solar power, although not all of them have taken the concept as far as the Redmonds. Last year, 13,000 homes installed solar power. \"We're just making different decisions about how we live our life,\" Redmond said, \"And what's important to us as well, as being able to show our two boys that when they grow up they're going to need to know to be more flexible in most parts of their life and they're going to need to be adaptable.\" Redmond's excitement about solar energy has changed his family's daily routine and also saved money -- he paid $28.61 for electricity last month compared with $150 a month last year. The biggest change came when Redmond put solar panels on the roof of his 1925 bungalow, which he shares with his wife, Margaret McGilvray, and the couple's two young sons. The system, which still allows the family to use energy from the traditional power grid when the sun is not shining, uses what is known as net-metering. No electricity is stored in the house. Energy produced in excess of what is needed is fed back to the power grid, effectively making the Redmonds' electric meter run backward. Twelve panels on the roof feed power to a device in the basement called an inverter. The solar power system cost $23,000 after a $2,000 tax credit. Redmond estimates that the system will pay for itself in 10 to 15 years. \"As we know, our power rates are going up.\" He said \"So it probably will take less because that number is based on what we're paying right now. \"About 80 percent of our power is used with the solar panels.\" Redmond says. To get that kind of benefit, though, the family greatly cut the amount of energy they use. \"We've made a real effort to reduce how much electricity we need to use in the first place, which is much less expensive to do than to produce energy that you're wasting inside of your home.\" The biggest lifestyle change is as low-tech as the solar panels are high-tech -- the family uses a clothesline to dry its laundry. \"It's OK just to simply hang your lines ... and not use your dryer,\" says Redmond, who cut his electric bill by 15 to 20 percent by ditching the dryer. \"That to me would be the very first thing anybody should do in terms of conserving electricity for their home.\" Redmond cooks using a solar oven, a small appliance that uses four reflectors, to heat food in Redmond's front yard. The device uses only solar power and leaves no carbon footprint. Richmond says he can heat food to about 350 degrees in his solar oven, but the stove's manufacture says it can heat food up to 400 degrees. On the days when the sun is not shining, the family uses their traditional oven powered from electricity provided by the power grid. The family also uses a small array of solar panels to charge iPods and cell phones. Whenever possible, Redmond runs errands on an electric bicycle that pulls a small trailer. Every little bit helps keep their power bill low. Redmond works from home as a photographer, and McGilvray telecommutes as a consultant for IBM. The couple decided that since they spend a lot of time in their 1,400-square-foot home, and not much time on the road, their best option for saving energy was the solar panels. \"We had several years of back and forth consternation. Should we buy the Prius? Should we get the solar panels?\" Redmond said. \"What we decided is, opposed to spending that same amount of money on a hybrid, let's offset what we're using for our home and business from our roof. ... This would make much more difference in how we live.\" For Redmond, it's not just about the money. \"It was more about what we thought was important for ourselves and the decisions we're making for our family,\" he said. Yet he does look forward to many years of lower power bills. \"This system that we have on our roof is going to last 30 years, which will put me into my 70s,\" he said. \"That's a lot of free energy.\"","highlights":"Solar power cuts family's monthly electricity bill from $150 to under $30 .\nRedmond family home uses solar panels for 80 percent of its energy .\nSun-powered oven cooks meals; family runs errands with bikes .\nAbout 250,000 homes in U.S. use solar power, industry group says .","id":"bceedcc6452131ed11b52f34d7cd1565cf9f724c"} -{"article":"MBOLA, Tanzania (CNN) -- Moved by a 2007 trip to Ghana, singer\/songwriter John Legend joined the fight to end extreme poverty in his lifetime. And based on his experiences in poor, rural areas of Africa, he says, real change is possible. John Legend says \"Mama\" Mwadawa Ruziga's role in uplifting her community inspired him. \"I don't want people to only see Africa as a bunch of victims,\" Legend says. \"The people that I've come across in these extremely impoverished villages, they want to work. They want to participate in their own development.\" To help people lift themselves out of poverty, Legend founded the Show Me Campaign, named after one of his songs. Partnering with economist Jeffrey Sachs' Millennium Promise organization, Legend's group adopted Mbola, a remote village in Tanzania that has little access to drinking water and improved farming techniques, according to Millennium Promise. \"The folks in Mbola are starting at a supreme disadvantage. Most of them are living on less than a dollar a day,\" Legend says. \"It's difficult for them to even survive.\" On his 2007 visit to Mbola, Legend met \"Mama\" Mwadawa Ruziga, a single mother of two who was freeing herself from poverty. Her entrepreneurial spirit impressed Legend and solidified his belief that sustainable development at the community level can work in the fight against poverty. Ruziga leads a local business collective that sells products -- like wine, jam and juice -- that it makes out of indigenous fruits. \"I was really inspired by her willingness to not just wait for a handout, but really take an active role in helping to uplift her community,\" he says. Through the Show Me Campaign, Legend has pledged to raise $1.5 million over five years to support programs similar to Ruziga's that are aimed at alleviating poverty in Mbola. But this is not just about cutting a check, he says. \"You can always go in and bring an influx of money and address things temporarily. But if development's not sustainable, then something's wrong,\" Legend says. \"This is about teaching them how to farm better, improving the education system, getting water pumps. The idea is that [the community] will continue to sustain themselves over time.\" Before joining her collective, Ruziga, 47, says her life was at an all-time low. For years, she suffered through malaria and droughts. \"The only thing I did was farming, then I would just sit idle with nothing to do. But after joining the group, my life changed for the better, slowly by slowly,\" Ruziga says. In addition to agricultural processing, Ruziga's group focuses on horticulture and tree planting. Ruziga herself has been instrumental to the success of the group, traveling to trade shows in the Tanzanian cities of Tabora and Dar es Salaam to sell their products. \"Our group has spread to other areas of Tanzania, and we've experienced great success because many people have come to know about us,\" Ruziga says. Watch Legend talk about meeting Ruziga, and see her group making products \u00bb . Six different villages have adopted the group's successful model. \"I think she's a great example of someone who's given the tools to succeed, having the energy, having the follow-through, having the leadership skills to go ahead and do it,\" Legend says. Not only has Ruziga's group changed her own life, but other members' lives have also improved. This is the first time that some of them have ever earned an income. \"Now they are more educated than before,\" Ruziga says. \"The group provides them with a platform to exchange and explore ideas, and the revenue collected enables the members to cater for their basic needs.\" Ruziga believes that the future depends on women taking an active role in their future and says her community is happy with the help and encouragement Legend offers them. For Legend, Ruziga's passion is inspiring and motivating. Watch Legend visit with Ruziga and her group during his trip to Mbola \u00bb . \"Mama Ruziga is an example of someone who is personally taking her destiny in her hands, and the destiny of her community into her hands. She is a leader, she's inspirational, and she's one of my heroes.\"","highlights":"Legend's hero, \"Mama\" Mwadawa Ruziga, is lifting herself and others from poverty .\nThey met when the singer\/songwriter visited Tanzania on an anti-poverty campaign .\nRuziga leads a business collective that makes products from local fruits, sells them .\nThis is the first time some members of her group have ever earned an income .","id":"73ee5ef45b9a402f6c9872101180bf56d9154346"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Irrawaddy, one of the world's rarest species of freshwater dolphins, have been found in surprisingly large numbers deep in the waterlogged jungles of Bangladesh. The Irrawaddy is considered to be one of the world's rarest species of freshwater dolphin. Conservationists thought the Irrawaddy had dwindled in number to just a few hundred, but they have now counted almost 6,000 of them in the Sundarban mangrove forests and the adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal. The forests of the Sundarban -- Bengali for \"beautiful forest\" -- lie at the delta of the Ganges and two other rivers on the Bay of Bengal. Until now, little mammal research had taken place in the area. \"Every time we had done a study to look into the population (elsewhere), they came out critically endangered,\" said Brian Smith of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, who led the study. \"It was a very pleasant surprise and a shock to find that Bangladesh supports such a large number (of dolphins).\" The discovery is noteworthy because scientists do not know how many Irrawaddy dolphins remain. The next step, they say, is to ensure the mammal's survival. One rare dolphin species -- the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji -- is extinct. Another, the Ganges River dolphin, is critically endangered. Some of the threats affecting the Irrawaddy are man-made. The construction of dams has reduced the flow of fresh water in many parts of Bangladesh. And the population is dwindling because the dolphins sometimes get caught in fishermen's nets. The dolphin, which has a large, rounded head, can grow up to 8 feet in length and is related to the orca, or killer whale. It is found in large rivers, estuaries and freshwater lagoons in south and southeast Asia. In Myanmar, the dolphins help herd schools of fish toward fishermen's boats and nets. In Bangladesh, fishermen hold them in high regard, Smith said. \"There is no market for dolphin products,\" he said. \"In a country like Bangladesh, with protein deficiency and where food is scarce, there is a real cultural prohibition against harming them. It gives us hope because it means fishermen are very receptive to working with us.\" The results of the study were shared Wednesday at a conference for marine mammal protected areas in Hawaii, and published in the winter issue of the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. Conservationists are now working with the Bangladesh government to establish a protected area for the dolphins. \"There are so many bad news (stories) coming out of the conservation community that this is a real sort of positive story,\" Smith said.","highlights":"Rare species of freshwater dolphins found in Bangladesh's waterlogged jungles .\nFears Irrawaddy had dwindled in number to just a few hundred .\nHowever, researchers have now counted almost 6,000 .","id":"d4c6e31bd1871100d86afda50633fc97dc8613df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Walking through an Albuquerque park a passerby made a startling discovery -- a tiny black and lime shoe protruding from beneath the playground sand. Police say this shirt was found on the boy, dubbed \"Baby Justice\" or \"Baby Angel.\" It led police to the body of a young boy, who had been buried there in a shallow grave less than 48 hours earlier. That was Friday. On Tuesday, police still had no answers as to what happened at Alvarado Park -- or even who the boy was. His name is unknown, though the community has dubbed him \"Baby Justice\" or \"Baby Angel.\" Nobody in the area has claimed his body and nobody has reported a child of his age missing. Police said they couldn't even show a photo or give a sketch of the boy because his body was so disfigured by the sand's heat. All they have is a description based on how they found him. Police say the Native American or Hispanic boy was between 3 and 5 years old, 38 pounds, 38 inches in height, with brown eyes and dark quarter-inch hair. When he was found, he was wearing Arizona brand clothing, size 3T -- nylon black running pants with red stripes, a red shirt with a monster truck on it and black, gray and lime green Skechers sneakers. Police aren't sure how he died. Albuquerque Police Department Spokesman John Walsh said a preliminary autopsy didn't reveal a cause of death. Walsh said there were no obvious signs of bruising on the boy. Watch where boy was found buried \u00bb . Walsh said the department is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create a forensic reconstruction of what the boy may have looked like in hopes that someone will recognize him. \"We have canvassed the entire adjoining neighborhood,\" Walsh said. \"We're knocking on every door. We've been broadcasting and pleading for tips from the community. But still, nobody has come forward.\" Watch authorities discuss boy in the sand case \u00bb . Though police have received numerous tips from the public, Walsh said nothing has come from them. Albuquerque police are working with other local, state and nationwide law enforcement officials to try to piece together what happened. Until then, members of the community have spent hours at memorials for the boy -- who none of them knew -- praying for him and raising money. French Mortuary, in the town, has offered to pay all funeral costs for the boy. Resident Rachel Lesperance told CNN affiliate KOAT-TV she spent her weekend collecting $3,600 for the boy. Her money, and the donations raised by others, will go toward a plaque at the park in the boy's honor, buying extra lights for the playground and to a fund toward finding out what happened to the little \"Baby Justice.\" \"He doesn't have a family,\" Lesperance told KOAT-TV. \"We're his family now and we want him to be taken care of like one of our own.\"","highlights":"Boy found Friday at Alvarado Park buried under sand in playground .\nPolice say nobody has been reported missing, nobody has claimed body .\nNobody knows name of boy dubbed \"Baby Justice\" or \"Baby Angel\"\nNo cause of death for boy who may be Native American or Hispanic .","id":"510b6348aa453323bc5f4e99ea8c21af9cc74102"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Facetime with Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC . Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC, says $40 a barrel is not enough for oil producing countries in the current economic climate. In a TV exclusive, Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC, talks to Marketplace Middle East on how $40 per barrel is not enough for oil-producing countries, and the ongoing search for the right balance for the consumer and the producer. The Secretary General says the Organization is prepared to trim more production if demand continues to fall and urges Non-OPEC producers to do the same. In focus: London Philharmonic Orchestra . Ever think you'd hear of a Qatar, Abu Dhabi or Dubai Philharmonic Orchestra? Well, it won't be long before you do. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is selling its brand to the Middle East. Can they succeed? Or will they hit the wrong note amidst the global downturn? Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: Friday: 0915, 1945 Saturday: 0645 Sunday: 0815 .","highlights":"Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC, talks exclusively to MME .\nEl-Badri is prepared to trim production if demand falls any further .\nPlus, The London Philharmonic Orchestra is selling its brand to the Middle East .\nCan an orchestra succeed in this region?","id":"6177976db1bcc9699662894a574b194fac9a657b"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Truly appreciating the beauty of Paris is a pleasure that can't be hurried. Stop, breathe, appreciate and perhaps kiss in the romantic city of Paris. Take time to wander down its wide boulevards, savour every sip of strong, black coffee and resist the temptation to fall into step with the throng of tourists and sightseers. Our advice to anyone who finds themselves with 24 hours to spare in the French capital is to stop, breathe, appreciate and indulge. Start the day with a walk down the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. For some, it retains the title of the world's most beautiful avenue. For others, the road's historical charm has been blighted by the arrival of global brands, traffic and tourists. Sunrise offers the history without the hurry. Take a leisurely stroll down its expansive pavements and look up for impressive architecture without fear of bumping into shoppers. Treat yourself to breakfast at one of Paris' oldest tea salons. Ladur\u00e9e was founded as a family business in 1862 and now appears in luxurious locales in London, Monaco, Switzerland and Japan. The original, Ladur\u00e9e Royale on Rue Royale, doesn't open until 8:30am (and later on Sundays), so for early morning pastries drop into the Champs-Elysees store which opens at 7:30am every day. The queues at Paris' most famous art gallery, the Louvre, are notorious so impatient visitors are advised to go to the Mus\u00e9e de l'Orangerie, set in the historic Jardin des Tuileries. You won't see the Mona Lisa, but the gallery does boast a collection of Claude Monet's Water Lilies. The queues are shorter the earlier you go and to really beat the crowds pre-book your time slot online. Head north to have your own images sketched by street artists in Montmartre, a former stomping ground for famous names including Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. Drop into the Basilique du Sacr\u00e9 Coeur to pray, light a candle or simply enjoy the spectacular views over Paris. From there, visit Rue Lepic where you will find Caf\u00e9 des Deux Moulins, where actress Audrey Tautou waited tables in the 2001 film \"Am\u00e9lie.\" Note that when you ask for a coffee in France, you'll automatically receive a black espresso. If you'd like something bigger and milkier, ask for a caf\u00e9 au lait (already popular elsewhere) or caf\u00e9 Americain (filter coffee) with milk (lait). Further down Rue Lepic you'll find Au Virage Lepic, a quaint bistro dripping in traditional Parisian atmosphere. It's usually crowded with locals so book in advance. Getting around is easy in Paris. Take a bus or the Metro or join the legion of cyclists on hugely popular V\u00e9lib rental bikes. Pick up your own bike at one of the service points scattered around the city. You'll need a credit card to register for a one-day subscription, or to speed up the process pre-book a one-day ticket online. It'll cost you one euro and the first 30 minutes of every journey for the next 24 hours is free. After than, any additional time will be charged to your credit card until you return the bike to any stand in the city. In the afternoon, walk -- or cycle -- down Boulevard Saint-Germain on the historic Left Bank. Discover your inner intellectual over a coffee or dinner at Les Deux Magots, a former meeting place for Paris' great literary minds including Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. From Boulevard Saint-Germain, walk down Rue Saint-Sulpice, past Saint-Sulpice, a striking church founded in the 1646 and brought to a new audience as one of the buildings featured in Dan Brown's best-selling novel (and subsequent film) \"The Da Vinci Code.\" Wander further on to Rue de S\u00e8vres where you can batter your credit card with some upmarket shopping at Le Bon March\u00e9 and La Grand Epicerie. In the evening, soak up some Parisian chic at the De La Ville Caf\u00e9 on Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, or indulge in the opulence of Hotel Costes on Rue Saint-Honore. Both serve food and close at 2am. Treat yourself to a glass of champagne and start planning your next sojourn in Paris!","highlights":"It's difficult to truly appreciate Paris with one eye on your watch, so slow down!\nWander through its historic areas, still popular with artists and intellectuals .\nTreat yourself to breakfast at Ladur\u00e9e, end the day with champagne .","id":"75d61fbd5a4adabf3c89fb55bc5afde8b85945de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Facetime with Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum . Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airlines talks strategy and adresses rumours about the airline. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airlines is at the center of Dubai's aviation industry. As the world witnesses an unprecedented economic downturn, Emirates has embarked on a $4 billion expansion plan. MME speaks to Sheikh Ahmed to find out about his strategy, and address rumors about the airline itself. In focus -- Risky business . Northern Iraq holds great potential, which is largely underdeveloped and the country is thirsting for investors. But, there are risks, with the potential for conflict on three fronts. There are other risks too, according to Herish Mohammed, Head of the Board of Investment of the Kurdish Controlled Region -- an ancient banking system, lack of insurance policies and corruption. But as one American entrepreneur put it -- it's not just about the money, it's about the adventure. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: . Friday: 0915, 1945 Saturday: 0645 Sunday: 0815 .","highlights":"Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airlines .\nAl-Maktoum, who is at the heart of Dubai's aviation industry, on the economic downturn .\nPlus, the huge investment potential in Northern Iraq, despite the risks .","id":"0b298eb6aa9e30c8df62d45ce1e5b7f4ff0fcef1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Facetime with Saad Hariri, Leader of Future Movement . Saad Hariri is the leader of Lebanon's majority party, Future Movement. Lebanon's economic growth may have slipped from an estimated 7 percent to 4 percent so far this year, but according to politician and businessman Saad Hariri, the country should largely escape the effects of the global slowdown. The leader of Lebanon's majority party talks to MME about the credit crisis, its impact on remittances, and how he believes peace in the Middle East is the only way to bring political and economic stability to his country. In focus -- The Land Grab . The Gulf might have oil, but it has a shortage of arable land. A year ago, food prices skyrocketed and there were shortages of all kinds -- even for basics, such as bread. The shortage caught the region flat-footed, and now food security is a top concern for many countries. It has prompted the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to use their petro-dollars to buy farmland in Africa and Asia to feed their people. In the long run, could this search for food security also develop sustainable agricultural businesses and local jobs in the process? Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: Friday: 0815, 1945 Saturday: 0545 Sunday: 0715 .","highlights":"The leader of Lebanon's majority party discusses the impact of the credit crisis .\nHariri explains why peace in the Middle East is needed to stabilize Lebanon .\nFearing a food shortage, the Gulf countries are buying land in Africa and Asia .","id":"5ea2e43c0b356a9b2e1e56c94f1b4ba48c11bb47"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In focus: OPEC quota cuts . OPEC, which pumps 40 percent of the world oil, is set to announce this week plans to cut its output when it meets in Oran, Algeria. CEO Naguib Sawiris is expanding his mobile phone services into North Korea, an area where few businessmen venture. The cut in crude is hoped to stabilize prices and will be the third cut in quotas since September. So what's behind the supply cuts? Is it just a matter of price stability? Or is OPEC trying to protect the cost of future investments? Facetime with Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom . Amidst the economic downturn, one company is venturing into markets where others fear to tread. Orascom launches its mobile phone services in North Korea this week. CEO Naguib Sawiris tells MME about the company's ambitious expansion plans and the effects of the international financial crisis. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: . Friday: 0915, 1945 Saturday: 0645 Sunday: 0815 .","highlights":"OPEC, which supplies 40 percent of world oil plans on cutting more output .\nThis is the third cut since the fall and is supposed to stabilize prices-will it?\nOr is OPEC just looking out for its own interests?\nPlus, CEO Naguib Sawiris talks about his North Korea expansion plans .","id":"8bfdb7cfbcb3ac5732e9170f30a49a2673fb273a"} -{"article":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed victory in Puerto Rico on Sunday and insisted that she is leading Sen. Barack Obama in the popular vote. Clinton won 68 percent of the vote compared with Obama's 32 percent. Her vote tally was 263,120; his was 121,458. The win gives Clinton the larger share of Puerto Rico's 55 delegates. The Democratic primary season ends Tuesday when Montana and South Dakota cast their votes. \"When the voting concludes on Tuesday, neither Sen. Obama nor I will have the number of delegates to be the nominee,\" she said in San Juan, Puerto Rico. \"I will lead the popular vote; he will maintain a slight lead in the delegate count,\" she said. Obama leads in the overall delegate count -- 2,070 to Clinton's 1,915. CNN analysts weigh in on Clinton's next steps \u00bb . A candidate needs 2,118 to claim the Democratic nomination. The Clinton campaign has been focusing on the popular vote as it tries to convince superdelegates to pick her instead of Obama. The superdelegates are a group of about 800 party leaders and officials who vote at the convention for the candidate of their choice. But the popular vote count is debatable. If all the primary results including Florida and Michigan are counted, but not the caucus votes, Clinton leads in the popular vote 17,461,845 to Obama's 17,244,762, according to CNN estimates. That number includes giving Obama all the \"uncommitted\" votes from Michigan. Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early. Clinton won both states, but Obama's name was not even on the ballot in Michigan. The Democratic National Committee decided Saturday to reinstate all of Florida and Michigan's delegates to the national convention, with each delegate getting a half-vote to penalize the two states for holding their primaries earlier than party rules allowed. The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee's move gave Clinton 87 delegates and Obama 63. In a second scenario, which adds in CNN's estimate of the caucus-goers, Obama leads Clinton 17,928,000 to 17,843,000. And in a third scenario, which includes all of the caucuses but does not give Obama Michigan's \"uncommitted\" vote, Clinton leads 17,873,000 to 17,703,000. Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed confidence that Obama would clinch the nomination in the coming days. \"If not Tuesday, I think it will be fairly soon,\" he said Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"We hope this week, absolutely,\" he added. At a campaign stop in Mitchell, South Dakota, Obama congratulated Clinton for her win Sunday and praised her for being an \"outstanding public servant.\" \"She is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans,\" he said. Watch Obama rally in South Dakota \u00bb . As Clinton tries to win over the undecided superdelegates, she argued Sunday that she would be the stronger candidate to face Republican John McCain in the fall. \"In the final assessment, I ask you to consider these questions: Which candidate best represents the will of the people who voted in this historic primary? Which candidate is best able to lead us to victory in November? And which candidate is best able to lead our nation as our president in the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad?\" In the Puerto Rico primary, Clinton swept Obama in every major demographic group, including groups Obama generally wins, such as younger voters and higher-income voters, according to CNN's exit polls. CNN estimated turnout to be between 325,000 and 425,000. \"Most people in Puerto Rico, I would venture to guess, they are not even aware that there's a primary going on,\" said Luis Pab\u00f3n-Roca, a local political analyst. Part of the reason for the lack of interest, he said, is because voters feel the primary isn't meaningful since Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the general election. The Democratic and Republican parties run the primaries and caucuses, and they allow U.S. territories, such as the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to take part in the process. But only the 50 states and the District of Columbia vote in the general election. CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez, Willie Lora, Bill Schneider, Xuan Thai and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton claims she'd be the stronger candidate to face McCain .\nElections officials report low turnout .\nObama campaign spokesman: Obama could clinch nomination soon .\nMontana, South Dakota hold final two contests Tuesday .","id":"26caf51f5a53e1a5f1ae7bab37d536c2e711dc34"} -{"article":"OAKLAND, California (CNN) -- A former transit police officer charged with murder was released from custody Friday after posting a $3 million bail. Video shows Johannes Mehserle shoot Oscar Grant III in the back as another officer knelt on him. Dozens of demonstrators gathered in downtown Oakland to protest the release of Johannes Mehserle, 27, charged with killing an unarmed man on New Year's Day. iReport.com: Watch the protest . The former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer's release funds came from unknown sources, Alameda officials told CNN. Video taken by a bystander showed Mehserle pulling his gun and fatally shooting Oscar Grant III, 22, in the back as another officer kneeled on Grant. Mehserle may have intended to draw and fire his Taser instead of his gun, according to a court filing by his attorney. In January, protests turned violent after a judge decided to allow bail for Mehserle's release. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for March 23, authorities said. CNN's Jackie Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former BART officer accused of murder posts $3 million bail .\nJohannes Mehserle charged with murder of Oscar Grant III .\nMehserle may have intended to use Taser instead of gun, attorney says .","id":"88a68ba405416463fee10345cc99d1f89bc6cd56"} -{"article":"A new company in Germany is trying to break into the fashion business selling stylish clothes designed and produced by prison inmates. Inmates design and produce the Haeftling range. The company Haeftling, which in English means inmate, has just opened its first store in Berlin. \"We want to have basic, durable, timeless, beautiful clothes,\" said Stephan Bohle, one of the company founders. Many of the clothes, cooking aprons and even stainless steel food trays offered in the Berlin store were either designed or manufactured in jails, but not just German ones. One design shows a female comic figure that was drawn by a man sitting on death row in Texas. Bohle said part of the proceeds from sales go to organizations that support prisoners' rights and better conditions for inmates, like Amnesty International. But in some cases, money goes directly to the inmates that designed certain pieces. \"In the case of the female cartoon figure, this man was almost granted a stay from execution because of the design he did for us but in the end unfortunately the appeals court ruled against him,\" Bohle said . The clothes offered at the Haeftling shop also tell the story of the inmates that designed individual pieces. A small text inside the item lays out the prisoners story, including the name, where he is in jail and how long the term will be. Some of the clothes are manufactured at a corrections facility in Halle, near Leipzig, in Eastern Germany. Watch the inmates at work \u00bb . Prisoners sew cooking aprons in a jail workshop for several hours a day. \"It's wonderful, at least it takes your mind off jail for a little while,\" says Mario Hildebrand, who is serving a 20 month term in Halle. \"We can really identify with this label,\" he said. \"We are the prisoners and without us this label would not be possible, so we do take some pride in making these clothes.\" However, Mario said he would not wear the clothes himself: \"Look, I am a prisoner, and I'm really not proud of it. It isn't something I want to be parading around.\" But others seem to be catching the fever. Bohle said the company wants to start selling in the United States. \"We've had people from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles ask about Haeftling,\" he said in an interview in the flagship store in Berlin. Bohle said he hopes socially responsible clothes will also make for a good business for the company. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Prison inmates design clothes for new shop in German capital .\nPortion of profits go to prisoner rights organizations .\nClothes include tag include prisoner's name and sentence .\nProducts include design by inmate on death row in Texas, U.S.","id":"428edcd5c3380a5cc20b6a4fa0fba7c8dc88489d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite Hillary Clinton's landslide victory in Kentucky, Barack Obama has won a majority of pledged delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination. Clinton won Kentucky by more than 30 points, but Obama's share of the state's 51 delegates was enough put him over the threshold, according to CNN estimates. Obama is expected to pick up at least 14 delegates in Kentucky, and by CNN estimates, that will give him 1,627 of the 3,253 pledged delegates at stake in all of primaries and caucuses. Obama will also pick up a win in Oregon, CNN projects, giving him the larger share of the state's 52 delegates. Obama's top strategist, David Axelrod, said getting the pledged delegate majority was an \"important milestone,\" but not the end of the trail. Neither candidate is expected to reach the 2,026 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. That means the race is likely to be settled by \"superdelegates\" -- party leaders and officials who will cast votes at the Democratic convention in August. Speaking in Iowa, where he won the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Obama told supporters, \"it was in this great state where we took the first steps of an unlikely journey to change America.\" Watch Obama say he's in reach of the nomination \u00bb . \"The skeptics predicted we wouldn't get very far. The cynics dismissed us as a lot of hype and a little too much hope. And by the fall, the pundits in Washington had all but counted us out. But the people of Iowa had a different idea,\" he said. Obama continued to look to the general election, focusing his attacks as he has for the past week on Sen. John McCain, while commending Clinton for \"her courage, her commitment and her perseverance.\" Obama said McCain's policies don't represent change. \"This year's Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that is the contest John McCain won,\" he said. McCain's camp accused Obama of launching \"the tired old political attacks of a typical politician, not the 'new politics' he's promised.\" \"Without a doubt, Barack Obama is a talented political orator, but his naive plans for unconditional summits with rogue leaders and support for big tax hikes on hardworking families expose his bad judgment that Americans can ill-afford in our next president,\" spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. After Kentucky's results came in, Clinton thanked her supporters for handing her a win \"even in the face of some pretty tough odds.\" \"Tonight we have achieved an important victory,\" she said in Louisville. \"It's not just Kentucky bluegrass that's music to my ears. It's the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence even in the face of some pretty tough odds.\" Watch Clinton vow to keep going \u00bb . Clinton beat Obama across all age groups, income groups and education levels in Kentucky. Eighty-nine percent of Tuesday's voters in Kentucky were white, according to the exit polls. Among them, Clinton won 72-22 percent. Nine percent of the voters were African-American and they overwhelmingly broke for Obama, 87-7 percent. The exit polls from Kentucky also suggest a deep division among Democrats. Watch how Clinton's win could affect the race \u00bb . Two-thirds of Clinton's supporters there said they would vote Republican or not vote at all rather than for Obama, according to the polls. Forty-one percent of Clinton supporters said they'd cast their vote for McCain, and 23 percent said they would not vote at all. Just 33 percent said they would back Obama in the general election, according to the polls. Those numbers are even worse for Obama than in West Virginia one week ago, where 36 percent of Clinton voters said they would back him in the fall. Obama on Tuesday downplayed the idea that his party will have trouble unifying once there is a nominee. \"Some may see the millions upon millions of votes cast for each of us as evidence that our party is divided, but I see it as proof that we have never been more energized and united in our desire to take this country in a new direction,\" he said. \"More than anything, we need this unity and this energy in the months to come, because while our primary has been long and hard-fought, the hardest and most important part of our journey still lies ahead.\" Obama leads Clinton in the number of states won and in the popular vote in the primary and caucus contests this campaign season, but he has been careful not to declare victory in the Democratic contest. Obama doesn't have enough delegates to capture the nomination outright; Clinton still has a chance, if a slight one, to win the nomination if enough of the roughly 800 superdelegates were to back her. \"I'm going to make [my case] until we have a nominee, but we're not going to have one today, and we're not going to have one tomorrow, and we're not going to have one the next day,\" Clinton said Monday in Kentucky. She argues that she leads in the popular vote, but her argument is debatable. For Clinton to claim such a lead, primary states but not caucus states -- which Obama mostly won -- would only be counted, plus the popular vote totals in Florida and Michigan. Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early, in violation of Democratic Party rules. Obama's name wasn't on the Michigan ballot, and he received no votes in that state's contest. Clinton also argues that she's won the states that she contends would stack up stronger against McCain in the general election. \"The states I've won total 300 electoral votes. If we had the same rules as the Republicans, I would be nominee right now,\" she said. \"We have different rules, so what we've got to figure out is who can win 270 electoral votes. My opponent has won states totaling 217 electoral votes.\" CNN's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama captures majority of pledged delegates .\nObama: \"Most important part of our journey still lies ahead\"\nClinton wins Kentucky across all age, education, income groups, polls show .\nClinton voters in Kentucky more likely to back McCain than Obama, polls show .","id":"15d3d8a91849e3128b3632d9ded7c0f278059229"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Obama approaches day 100 of his administration, some in Washington caution that the torture tug-of-war could be a costly distraction. Leg restraints await detainees at Guantanamo Bay in this 2006 photo. Earlier this month, the Obama administration released four Bush-era memos detailing \"enhanced interrogations\" of suspected al Qaeda members. Now, the White House is reviewing former Vice President Dick Cheney's request to make more memos public. Two weeks before Obama released any memos, Cheney submitted a request to the National Archives calling for the release of other documents. He says that what he requested will prove that the Bush interrogation tactics -- which critics have called a torture program -- worked. \"I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country,\" Cheney said in an interview with Fox News last week. The White House is signaling that not only is it considering honoring Cheney's request, it may go even further. \"I think the president, as you know, is a big believer in transparency,\" White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday on NBC's \"Meet the Press.\" \"I think one of the things that will have to be examined is whether there are additional memos that have to be released that give a broader picture of what's gone on in enhanced interrogation techniques.\" The almost daily revelations are dividing Democrats between those calling for full disclosure and those urging caution. \"We don't just turn the page without reading it. We want to make sure what the mistakes were so that the Obama administration doesn't make these mistakes,\" Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. said Sunday. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, warned Sunday against moving to quickly. \"We need to find these things out, and we need to do it in a way that's calm and deliberative and professional, because I think all of this, on the front burner, before the public, does harm our intelligence gathering, it does harm America's position in the world,\" she said on CNN's \"State of the Union.\" Across the aisle, Republicans are insisting the Justice Department drop any investigation of Bush administration officials who authorized harsh interrogations. \"I think that would be a stab in the back. I think he has already demoralized the CIA, put them in a CYA mode,\" Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri, said Sunday on Fox News. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, said prosecuting those who gave legal advice is wrong. \"I don't think those memos should have been released, but the fundamental point now is whether to prosecute people who gave the president, in my view, legitimate advice, even though it was wrong,\" he said. \"We should not be prosecuting people who gave legal advice. It's wrong to do that to them, and it sets a terrible precedent for the future.\" Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio are calling on the White House to release a list of who was briefed about the interrogation programs. \"Congress and the American people deserve a full and complete set of facts about what information was yielded by CIA's interrogation program, and they deserve to know which of their representatives in Congress were briefed about these techniques and the extent of those briefings,\" Boehner said in a statement Monday. \"To date, the administration has fallen short in providing this information. ... The American people have been provided an incomplete picture of exactly what intelligence was made available by the interrogation program,\" he said. But Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent, said the whole debate over the memos is \"moot.\" \"What do we gain, first, by releasing the memos; but, secondly, what do we gain from indicting lawyers for their opinions, if that is a possibility here? ... It will poison the water here in Washington. It will achieve nothing. It will make it harder for President Obama to do some of the big things he wants to do for the country,\" he said.","highlights":"Former Vice President Dick Cheney wants more memos released .\nCheney says memos will show what was learned through interrogation process .\nSome Democrats are calling for full disclosure; others are urging caution .\nGOP opposes any investigation of officials who authorized tactics .","id":"ef4a606ab243b34cbc8295a49f34379400ce1ece"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In just one day, you'll get a mere glimpse of Rome, a city teeming with over two millennia of culture -- but it will surely whet your appetite for more. The sun sets behind St. Peter's Basilica on a beautiful spring day in Rome. Spring is one of the most beautiful times of year to visit the \"eternal city,\" when flowers begin to bloom from ancient monuments, cafe tables reappear on bustling sidewalks and throngs of summer tourists are yet to descend en masse. Food-lovers will also be thrilled to find many traditional Italian ingredients in high-season -- look out for fresh fava beans, agretti and wild mushrooms. Before dawn, head up to the Janiculum Hill to catch the sun rise. From here you'll be able to see the Vatican, Borghese Gardens, Pantheon, Colosseum, Castel Sant'Angelo and Campidolgio, all come to light in one breathtaking cityscape. In Rome, breakfast is on-the-go. Your best bet is to stroll through one of the early morning markets to pick up a hot cornetto and some fresh fruit. One of the oldest is Campo di Fiori, a daily mix of food and flower stalls in an eclectic renaissance square. Proceed from the Campo through the ruins of the Roman Forum, past the spot where Julius Caesar was slain, toward the Pantheon. Built in 124 A.D. as a temple to all the gods of Rome, the Pantheon remains today as a Catholic church and a tomb for Italian luminaries, such as the artist Raphael and King Vittorio Emmanuelle II. Stand in the center of the rotunda and gaze up to the heavens through the eight-meter-high oculus at the center of the five-ton concrete dome --a stunning feat of ancient engineering, still intact after two thousand years. The most important part of the morning is the coffee, and Romans are passionately divided as to who makes the best cup: Sant Eustachio (Piazza Sant'Eustachio, steps behind the Pantheon) or Tazza d'Oro (Via degli Orfani, a few feet in front of the Pantheon). Take your coffee the traditional Italian way, standing up at the bar. Spend the rest of the morning exploring St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums. Home to the papacy, Vatican City is brimming with extraordinary artworks and monuments of history. Once inside St. Peter's, admire Michaelangelo's \"Pieta\" and the incredible soaring dome he helped complete. Climb to the top of it for an incredible view, and perhaps another coffee. Image gallery: See more of Rome's art treasures \u00bb . Splurge on a private tour guide for the Vatican museums to avoid the hour-long lines outside. Highlights include the Sistine Chapel, featuring Michelangelo's famed ceiling fresco series and \"Last Judgment,\" works by Raphael, da Vinci, Caravaggio, and ancient wonders from Rome and Egypt. After the Vatican, stroll across Via Cola di Rienzo and the Ponte de Margherita to the Piazza del Popolo, where an Egyptian obelisk of Rameses II has stood since 10 B.C. The food at Dal Bolognese, a fixture on the well-heeled lunch scene, is consistently outstanding and the view on the square cannot be beaten (don't miss the Caravaggios tucked inside the tiny Santa Maria del Popolo church nearby). In the afternoon, head to the Borghese for a leisurely stroll through the gardens and a stunning collection of Baroque sculpture. If you're in the mood for shopping, head down the Via Babuino towards the Spanish Steps. Drop into l'Offatorio perfume bar on the way for a \"fragrance tour\" and get a custom-made scent bottled. Also check out TAD, a minimalist-design luxury lifestyle store for everything from shoes to a haircut. Some of the city's best boutiques are nearby - find them by meandering through the side streets between Via Croce and Via Condotti. Essential to any afternoon in Rome are a few scoops of ice cream. The renowned classic Giolitti, in the Piazza Colonna, is an Italian institution: politicians flock here between their government meetings. Enjoy a few of their 40-odd flavors of gelatto as you stroll around the Column of Marcus Aurelius. If you're over by the Spanish Steps, try San Crispino on Via della Panetteria, and sit at the edge of Bernini's Trevi Fountain while you indulge. In the evening, take in a performance before dinner either at the Teatro dell'Opera, or the Accademia Santa Cecilia, for classical music. For dinner, Rome's casual outdoor trattorias cannot be beaten. For pizza, locals line up outside Da Ivo in Trastevere, then take their piping-hot thin-crust pie over to Piazza Santa Maria, the neighborhood's heart, and watch impromptu performers and musicians cheer the crowds. For homemade pasta, try Maccheroni or Da Francesco (particularly for gnocchi) near Piazza Navona. For a formal meal, head to the Michelin three-starred La Pergola at the Cavelieri Hilton. Arrive early for a gorgeous view of the sunset from the hotel bar, perched high atop Monte Mori. At night, the spirit of Fellini's \"La Dolce Vita\" lives on, in low-lit cafes, wine bars and nightclubs. Bar della Pace is a fashionable Roman classic for drinks. For all-night dancing, try the see-and-be-seen La Maison. Both are tucked behind the Piazza Navona, where you can stroll past Bernini's \"Quatro Fiumi\" (Four Rivers) fountains, beautifully lit up in the early hours of the morning. What are your tips for getting the most out of the city? Use the Sound Off box below and have your say.","highlights":"Our tips for Rome: Hire a private guide to see Michaelangelo's stunning frescoes .\nIndulge in homemade gnocchi and gelatto in Rome's bustling piazzas .\nTaste the good life with the late-night locals at Bar della Pace .\nWhat are your favorite places in Rome? Share them with CNN users below.","id":"30a8832d15101985f28cfbe5e798c65568403451"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The arrival of autumn in Australia will be a welcome relief for international visitors emerging from a bleak winter in the northern hemisphere. There's no mistaking the city of Sydney -- fine weather means you may struggle to see a cloud in the sky. Peak season may be winding up but with temperatures off their sticky summer highs it's a great time to sample one of the country's most recognizable cities. While few international visitors are likely to find themselves stranded in Sydney for 24 hours (if only!), here's our fast-track tour for travelers short on time. See the sun come up over Sydney Harbour. At this time of year, the sun rises at around 6:30am, an hour after the first ferries leave the wharf, so there's plenty of activity on the water. Early risers can waste no time in immersing themselves in Sydney's cultural highlights. At 7:00am, the Sydney Opera House hosts tours for just eight people to backstage areas normally off-limits to theatre-goers. At $100 per person, the two-hour tour is not a budget option but it does include breakfast. Be warned, the tour includes 300 steps. If you're not exhausted by the machinations of the Opera House, cool off with a relaxing dip. A recent spate of shark attacks may have put you off Sydney's beaches, but there are plenty of outdoor pools that offer both sun and seawater. For serious laps, try the North Sydney Olympic Pool (next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge) or for a lazier affair have a massage at Wylies Bath in Coogee. Image gallery: 24 hours in Sydney \u00bb . Once in Coogee you can admire the Australian coastline by following it all the way back to Sydney's famous Bondi Beach. Most people start in Bondi but there's no reason why you can't do it in reverse. The two-hour walk takes you past bays and beaches and through the dramatic Waverley Cemetery where you can reflect on life while breathing in the views. The path ends at the Bondi Icebergs surf club where you can grab a cold fizzy beer at the bar or stay for lunch at the Bistro. The hungry seagulls and pelicans at the Sydney Fish Market make lunch there a more interesting affair. Select your meal from the huge variety of seafood inside the market, grab a bottle of wine and an outdoor table and prepare to guard your chips. There is no shortage of up-market alternatives when it comes to dining out in Sydney. For one of the best try Tetsuya's in Kent Street. It was opened by Japanese-born Tetsuya Wakuda in 1989 and was lauded in a recent review as \"magical dining.\" It's only open for lunch on Saturdays and you'd be advised to book well in advance for dinner. A cheaper option would be any of the BYO (bring your own) restaurants dotted around the city. Most restaurants allow you to bring your own bottle of wine, but they will charge you corkage. Still, it's cheaper than the mark-ups on bottles at licensed premises. Until May 24, visitors can drop into the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the finalists and the winner of this year's Archibald Prize, Australia's leading portraiture contest. Shoppers can pick up a souvenir close by in one of Sydney's oldest and most beautiful shopping centers, the Queen Victoria Building. The building opened in 1898, underwent major refurbishment in the 1980s and is now not only a great example of Victorian architecture but a stunning place to grab a quick coffee. (Note: The builders are back but the building remains open. The new improvements are scheduled to finish in July 2009.) In the evening, take a twilight cruise of Sydney Harbour aboard a yacht. Sunsail invites everyone for a \"fun blast\" around the harbor every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. The yacht leaves from the Boat House in Lavender Bay, a short hop from the city on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Two new festivals have been added to a busy calendar in Sydney this year. In June, Vivid Sydney promises to turn the city into \"a living canvas of music and light.\" And on October 25, 20,000 people will have the opportunity to have \"Breakfast on the Bridge\" (yes, the Sydney Harbour Bridge) as part of the month-long Crave Sydney festival. Check the NSW Master Events Calendar for more. In the evening, join the pretty young things at The Ivy in George Street, or take the lift to the fourth floor of the Hilton Hotel where you'll find the Zeta Bar. The Loft on King Street Wharf is also popular, but it has a strict dress code so don't turn up looking like a traveler or you won't get in. And finally, there's no better place to end the night than in one of Sydney's karaoke bars. Some allow you to bring your own drinks. Check out the private booths at Karaoke World on Elizabeth Street where you can warble without shame until the early hours.","highlights":"Start the day in Sydney with a backstage tour of the famous Opera House .\nAvoid shark scares by swimming in one of the city's many outdoor pools .\nEat fish and chips with the seagulls and pelicans at the Sydney Fish Market .\nEnd the night in one of the city's Karaoke bars: some allow you to BYO .","id":"e8dc2b04eca76ad685596c005bb098d87b68de09"} -{"article":"SINGAPORE (CNN) -- Co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity, Cameron Sinclair opened the second Principal Voices debate on Design for Good by outlining just what the term means to him, but also what it means to the communities his design solutions are aimed at. 'When your focus is social change... why wouldn't you want to share that openly?' Taking the ego out of architecture, Sinclair sees the sharing of transformative design ideas as being a moral responsibility of today's designers and architects. \"When your focus is social change and not financial change why wouldn't you want to share that openly?\" Below are some of Sinclair's thoughts on a number of topics that were discussed at the debate. On shared design . \"I always think of the design world like the medical world; we have people who are plastic surgeons, but we have a lot of people who are in the emergency room and a lot of our designers are in the emergency room dealing with the critical issues like post-disaster issues or systemic issues or poverty. When I was in college the idea of being a socially responsible architect was unheard of, it was almost taboo: 'We're trying to make jewels in the city', whereas a lot of us wanted to create cities that were jewels.\" \"When your focus is social change and not financial change why wouldn't you want to share that openly? Innovation only succeeds when it's shared. If you're a pioneer and you come up with something that can change the world and you turn round and say 'I'm not going to share this idea with anyone' then you only impact the few and not the many.\" \"But we're in a situation right now where we have to deal with a huge variety of issues. If you have a design idea that can improve the lives of a million people it's almost ethically irresponsible to keep to it yourself.\" On sustainability . \"It angers me when sustainability gets used as a buzz word. For 90 percent of the world, sustainability is a matter of survival. When you as a designer design something that burdens a community with maintenance and old world technology, basically failed developed world technology then you will crush that community way beyond bad design; you'll destroy the economics of that community and often the community socially is broken.\" \"You have to do this marriage between what is appropriate, learning from the local nature, but also can we leapfrog technologies, so we're not burdening people with outdated technologies. If we can come up with that, then it truly is sustainable.\" On community involvement in design . \"The community is not your client but your partner. You don't just put up some nice big rendering and tell them this is what you might have and do a Q&A. Doing workshops within the community and having them design these quiet moments of innovation within the larger developments, not only allows an empowerment of that community, but also ownership.\" \"Just because you put their name on the building doesn't mean they feel like they own it; but empower them in the process not only does it quicken the process, but you find you have the political will you can put through things you never even imagined.\" \"When you have strong common will, then projects go forward. There's nothing worse than selling or convincing, but if you're inspiring and including then it's a beautiful thing, and at the end of it you're part of the community.\"","highlights":"Second Principal Voices debate took place in Singapore on July 9 .\nCameron Sinclair lead calls to take ego out of architecture .\nBelieves that designers have moral responsibility to share good ideas .","id":"12159be07f8f26436ad9d60ea4c2dab08eca5286"} -{"article":"High blood pressure is truly a silent killer. In fact, a heart attack or stroke may be the first sign that you even have a problem. That's why it's so important to get your blood pressure checked every time you go to the doctor -- especially if you're a woman. High blood pressure can lead to stroke, kidney problems, heart trouble and other conditions. About 35 million American women have high blood pressure, and a third of them don't know it. In part, experts say, the increase comes just because women are living longer and doctors are paying more attention to the problem. But less-benign factors -- such as the exploding use of anti-inflammatory medicines (which make your body retain salt) and ever-increasing waistlines -- may be at play in what the American Heart Association calls a rise in uncontrolled hypertension in women. Fortunately, there are many ways to control your blood pressure, even without medication. And just knowing your numbers is half the battle, says Dan Jones, M.D., president of the AHA. But that doesn't mean fighting high blood pressure is a cinch. Here are the stories of three women whose high blood pressure took them by surprise. Think about them the next time that cuff goes around your arm. Erin O'Connell Peiffer, 45 . While Peiffer exper\u00adienced hypertension during all three of her pregnancies, her blood pressure always returned to normal after each birth. Later, as she juggled working and caring for her young children, the thin, nonsmoking telecommunications executive who lives outside of Baltimore, Maryland, considered herself healthy (except for her high cholesterol). Then one day about seven years ago, she couldn't stop coughing during a water aerobics class. A month later, she was shocked to find out that she had congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, or swelling of the lungs. High blood pressure was behind the problems. Following open-heart surgery to repair a 99 percent blockage in her left main coronary artery, Peiffer was terminated from her job because of her illness and went on disability. She hasn't worked in seven years because of chronic chest pain and other conditions. Learn some tricks to lower your blood pressure . Looking back, she remembers that in her 20s, her blood pressure was elevated when she was first found to have high cholesterol. \"They said it was white-coat hypertension [the idea that just being in a medical office can drive blood pressure up],\" Peiffer says. \"No one said, 'Hey, you need to exercise,' or anything.\" So she didn't. Now she's on two blood pressure medications -- an ACE inhibitor that lowers levels of blood vessel-tightening chemicals and a beta-blocker that slows heart rate -- and her pressure's normal. Daily two-mile walks help, too. \"Get a baseline number, and keep an eye on it,\" she says. \"Take care of yourself first so you can be there to take care of your children.\" Carolyn J. Daniels, 43 . On the way to a regular medical checkup last year, Daniels, an Atlanta, Georgia-area marketing director, was in good spirits. Her weight was under control at 145 pounds, and she thought she was healthy. Her blood pressure had been slightly elevated at past checkups, but she had never been told to do anything about it. This time was different. Her reading was 160 over 100, and she remembers her doctor saying, \"You're like a firecracker -- ready to pop.\" Daniels was petrified: \"I thought I was going to die.\" Her doctor put her on blood pressure medication immediately. Read which 10 foods are best for your heart . Now she takes a beta-blocker and a calcium channel blocker, which also relaxes blood vessels. To stay healthy, she and her husband walk every other evening after dinner. The hardest part? Giving up the fried foods she loves. \"Every now and then, I'll cheat and have some fried chicken over at my sister's house,\" she confesses. But she's learned to broil, bake, and stir-fry tomatoes, collards, cabbage, and other vegetables. Daniels is among the 43 percent of African-American women who have hypertension. The risk for African-Americans is much higher than for Asians or whites, although it's not clear why. Daniels thinks there is only one way to cope: \"I felt fine, but that' s not good enough. It's especially important for African-American women to go to a doctor routinely. That's the only way you're going to know you have it.\" Antoinette Trammell, 50 . Even though her mother had hypertension, Trammell, a hospital human resources specialist in Richmond, Virginia, didn't think about her family medical history 20 years ago when she started having headaches and blurred vision -- two of the very rare symptoms of high blood pressure. Then one of the hospital's nurse managers took Trammell's blood pressure and sent her straight to a cardiologist. Read who is at risk of high blood pressure . Her blood pressure is now under control thanks to an ACE inhibitor, a diuretic, and some overdue diet changes. She's trying to lose weight -- hoping to drop 30 pounds -- and the self-professed saltaholic has cut way back on her favorite foods. \"Potato chips, fries, all those good things,\" Trammell says. \"I could literally put salt in my hand and eat it.\" Too much salt makes many people retain water, which increases blood volume and puts more pressure on arteries. The diuretic also helps break that cycle. Why wasn't Trammell more active in controlling her risks at a younger age? Probably because she grew up on a farm, and her parents rarely saw a doctor. Her mother died at age 80 in 2002 after a stroke and heart attack. \"Now I make sure to have my blood pressure checked once a week,\" Trammell says. \"This isn't a condition that I can just take care of when I have the time.\" Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Health - CLICK HERE! Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"About 35 million American women have high blood pressure; a third don't know it .\nForty-three percent of African-American women have hypertension .\nWeight loss, excercise and cutting salt in diet can help lower blood pressure .","id":"5b5af3ab3c6a84c559c275650d35948f53028655"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Teratomas of the brain are very rare and comprise less than 1 per cent of all brain tumors. Teratomas have been the subject of intense fascination among scientists because of their sometimes strange qualities -- some have been reported to contain hair, teeth, bone and, very rarely, more complex organs such as eyeballs. Thoughts about the origin of these tumors have attracted much debate. CNN spoke with Dr. Thomas L. Ellis, senior neurosurgeon at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in North Carolina, United States, about the tumors sometimes known as \"the monsters\". He explained some quick facts: . \u2022 \"Teratoma\" comes from the Greek word \"teraton,\" meaning \"monster\". \u2022 Teratomas are seen most commonly in children and young adults. \u2022 Teratomas are made up of tissue from all three germ layers -- mesoderm, ectoderm, and endoderm -- that occur during the formation of an embryo. \u2022 Although teratomas can occur during embryonic development, most arise much later in life. \u2022 Teratomas occur most often in the midline of the brain, therefore often obstructing and putting pressure on critical areas of the brain. This can lead to loss of basic functions, but this loss can be temporary -- until the tumor is removed or reduced in size. \u2022 Teratomas are commonly very solid and rubbery making them resistant to dissection with standard instruments.","highlights":"Teratomas of the brain are very rare tumors -- less than 1% of all brain tumors .\n\"Mature\" teratomas sometimes contain highly developed tissues like teeth and hair .\n\"Teratoma\" comes from the Greek word \"teraton,\" meaning \"monster\".","id":"3c9ecd19b5bad365a8bcb90445d9d18f7453a4a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has prompted neighboring Angola to close its border with that country, Angola's state news agency reported Tuesday. Angolan Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem announced the \"suspension of migratory movements\" at the country's north-eastern border Sunday, the Angop news agency reported. The World Health Organization reports 41 suspected cases of the deadly fever in Congo since November 27. Thirteen people have died, and 183 cases are under observation. Two people are being held in quarantine. The handling of dead monkeys may be the source of the outbreak, the WHO suspects, according to Angop. Diosdado Nsue-Micawg, the WHO representative in the Angolan capital of Luanda, said the health agency does not know the source of the virus, but fears that hunters and women who visit the forest might have been in contact with infected monkeys. The outbreak is centered in the western Kassi province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been reporting intermittent cases of the disease since 1976, according to Angop.","highlights":"Democratic Republic of Congo has reported intermittent cases of ebola since 1976 .\nWorld Health Organization reports 41 suspected cases, 13 deaths, since Nov. 27 .\nAs a result of the outbreak, neighboring Angola has closed its northeastern border .","id":"fe6f12b7bd00fc593ef7290930a9731d30c3b77d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis has lost her appeal to clarify Britain's laws on assisted suicide, a charity working with the woman said Thursday. Debbie Purdy and husband Omar Puente pictured outside the High Court in October 2008. But the woman did get a strong hint that anyone who helped her travel to a country where assisted suicide is legal would not be prosecuted. Debbie Purdy, 45, had asked the Court of Appeal to clarify Britain's laws on assisted suicide -- an option she has said she wants if her pain one day becomes unbearable. Under the current laws, Purdy says, it is not clear at which point her husband would be breaking the law if he helped her to travel to an assisted suicide clinic. Purdy was appealing an October ruling by the High Court, which also refused to clarify the laws. Purdy suffers from primary progressive multiple sclerosis, in which symptoms become progressively worse over time. She has said she wants the option to travel abroad to have an assisted death should her condition deteriorate. Under Britain's current law, Purdy's husband, Omar Puente, could face 14 years in prison if he accompanies her to a country, such as Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal. Purdy had asked the High Court judges to tell her at what point Puente would be subject to prosecution -- whether it would include helping her into a car, sitting with her on the plane to the clinic, or helping her with her bags. In its judgment Thursday, the appeal court did imply Puente would be safe from prosecution. The judges referred to the earlier case of Dan James, a 23-year-old British rugby player who died in an assisted suicide last year. James had been paralyzed from the neck down in a rugby accident. James' parents, Mark and Julie James, flew with their son to an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. They faced questions on their return to Britain but were not prosecuted. The court said the decision not to prosecute the Jameses \"is illustrative not only of the care with which the issue in these cases would be approached, but also an extremely helpful example of the kind of broad circumstances in which ... the ultimate decision would be that a prosecution should not be mounted,\" according to an excerpt released by Dignity in Dying, the charity that worked on Purdy's case. \"If the prosecution amounts to an abuse of process, the court will dismiss it,\" the court said in its judgment. Purdy said that wording made her feel like she had won her argument, even though she lost the appeal. \"I am very grateful for, and respect the ruling of the appeal court,\" she said in a statement. \"They have done everything they can do to clarify that, given the Dan James judgment, Omar would be unlikely to be prosecuted if he were to accompany me abroad for an assisted death, and we are therefore one step closer to the clarification I need.\" Dignity in Dying has said it is important for the British government to distinguish between people who maliciously encourage suicide and those who accompany a loved one abroad to die. Under current law, the 1961 Suicide Act, assisting a suicide is a crime punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. Anyone who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or an attempt by another to commit suicide, is liable. Dignity in Dying has said it ultimately wants British law changed to allow the terminally ill the choice of assisted death. To date, no one who has accompanied a loved one to the Swiss clinic Dignitas has been prosecuted, but they have been questioned by police and threatened with prosecution, according to Dignity in Dying. \"The courts have done all they can,\" said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying. \"They make quite clear that only Parliament has the authority to change the law. If there's no public interest in prosecuting, there must be a public interest in updating the law to remove doubt.\"","highlights":"UK court rejects appeal calling for clarification of laws on assisted suicide .\nBut verdict hints anyone helping another go elsewhere to die wouldn't be prosecuted .\nMS sufferer Debbie Purdy wants option to travel abroad for assisted death .\nParents of rugby player who died in Switzerland last year were not prosecuted .","id":"d3430eaecb7a2b8586c46a85413c69f8f99dba91"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inspectors found mildew on a ceiling and other problems last year at a peanut butter producing plant in Georgia that has been linked to a salmonella outbreak, according to reports released Monday by the state Department of Agriculture. A salmonella outbreak linked to a peanut butter plant has sickened nearly 500 people, the CDC says. But the owner of the Blakely, Georgia, plant -- Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America -- described the problems as \"relatively minor and for the most part corrected on site.\" PCA this month stopped production at the Blakely plant and launched a nationwide recall of peanut butter and peanut paste made there after July 1, 2008. The New York Times reported Monday that Georgia agriculture inspection reports from 2006 and 2007 depicted a series of sanitation lapses in the Blakely plant. Citing an inspection report from August 23, 2007, the Times noted at least three incidences in which \"food-contact surfaces\" were \"not properly cleaned and sanitized.\" In an apparent response to the Times article, PCA released a statement saying, \"When the observations were noted during inspections by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, corrective action was taken immediately where possible and subsequently when immediate action was not possible.\" The statement, which PCA sent to CNN accompanied by a copy of a state inspection report from last October, said \"the most recent inspection observations by the state [the October inspection report] were relatively minor and for the most part corrected on site.\" In the October 23, 2008 report, an inspector said she found \"mildew and possibly some static dust on ceiling of butter storage room.\" The report did not specify the amount of mildew. The report continued with the notation, \"Correct By: 11\/05\/2008,\" but the report did not indicate whether any action was taken or whether a follow-up inspection occurred. Moisture was blamed for an unrelated salmonella outbreak two years ago. That outbreak was traced to a different Georgia peanut processing plant. A June 2008 inspection of PCA's Blakely plant found violations including dust buildup on a fan in the butter room, and \"possible metal flakes from metal scrubber which is used to clean outside of equipment,\" according to an inspection report. The report did not indicate where the flakes were found. PCA has said that the peanut butter and peanut paste made at the Blakely plant were sold in bulk to manufacturers, and that the recall does not involve any peanut butter jars sold directly to consumers. However, more than 125 products that include peanut butter or peanut paste, including Trader Joe's celery with peanut butter packs and nutrition bars from Clif Bar, NutriSystem and Luna, have been recalled in connection with the PCA's recall. See a list of recalled products . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted nearly 500 cases of salmonella illnesses in 43 states from the most recent outbreak, and says the bacterial infection might have contributed to seven deaths. The American Peanut Council has a list of peanut products that are not affected by the recall.","highlights":"Inspectors: Plant linked to salmonella outbreak had mildew, other problems last year .\nNew York Times: Earlier inspections found sanitation lapses at plant .\nOutbreak has led to nearly 500 salmonella illnesses, CDC says .\nProducts made with Georgia plant's peanut butter recalled this month .","id":"c8db0e10a3c13799ef7cc7ce37a0bc1c44856696"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Would you still watch your favorite television program if you had to cycle for an hour before you could view it? A computer-generated image of Club Watt, Rotterdam's human-powered club. Couch potatoes will be horrified, but fresh advances in human-powered technology -- where users power appliances through their own motion -- could one day see a 'workout-to-watch' scenario become reality. Human power is rapidly gaining in popularity worldwide as businesses seek 'greener' methods of operating. The profile of the technology is set to receive a further boost this month when a human-powered gym opens in Portland, Oregon, and again in September when the human-powered 'sustainable dance club', Club Watt, opens its doors in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Human power is already being used to run the 'California Fitness' gym in Hong Kong, and to power the recently opened 'Club Surya' in London. iReport.com: Can you predict what the future will be like? Beyond all of this, further concepts have been developed for human-powered 'river gyms' for the waterways of New York. But, how does your sweat and strain turn into power for lights, music and machines? The general concept is known as energy harvesting, which simply refers to the gathering of energy from one source and applying it to power an object. Italian inventor Lucien Gambarota, who designed California Fitness's method of storing energy and using it to power lights and music in the gym, told CNN the concept is straightforward. \"One of the oldest types of energy used by people is muscular energy -- so this is nothing new.\" Gambarota said machines such as exercycles created a load, used as a counter-force by means of a resistor. \"I disconnected the resistor and started storing the energy into a battery... that is then used as power. It was a way to show there can be very simple solutions. It doesn't always have to be high-tech,\" he said. Portland's 'green' gym will have spinning bikes connected to wind-generator motors. The users should generate enough electricity to power the gym's music system or run personal DVD players on the machines, the gym's manager Adam Boesel predicts. While harnessing the energy from people working out at a gym seems logical, utilising the movement of clubbers at dance clubs is a little more complex. Two methods have developed -- the first of which is piezoelectricity, used by Club Surya, where crystals in blocks under the dance-floor rub together with the assistance of dancers on the floor. This generates an electrical charge which is then fed into batteries. A second method using wheels to generate energy under a slightly moving floor will be used at the soon-to-be-opened Club Watt. This model involves coils and magnets which move under the dance-floor to create a charge. Vera Verkooijen, spokeswoman for Sustainable Dance Club, the company which is behind the floor for Club Watt and produces smaller, portable floors, said the human power would be enough to power about 30 percent of the club's requirements. Verkooijen admitted the first floors were not very efficient, and said the designers were already working on new models to improve the amount of energy captured. \"This is just the first version. We are willing to take it further,\" she said. At Club Surya the power shortfall is made up by solar panels and a wind turbine. Putting the current buzz aside, how far could this human-powered technology develop? And how widely can it be applied? Verkooijen told CNN she already had some indications of where the technology was heading. \"We receive a lot of requests from other companies for people who want to use the floors. We get many of these for bus and train stations -- places where there are lots of people.\" Lights and display boards at those spaces could be powered applying the same concept as that being used in Club Watt, she said. Evert Raaijen, technical director of energy conversion company Exendis, felt the technology could have a number of different applications. From pedal-powered computers on bicycles, to self-powered soldiers in militaries, Raaijen predicted human power would be developed widely in coming years. \"I think it's a science field which will be one of the future,\" he said. Gambarota believed there were ways human power could be brought into practical use in the home. He had generated an idea of using human-powered batteries for television or portable video game consoles. \"With so many kids not exercising enough, a battery could be created for these devices so they had to create the energy to use them. The same could be done for television sets. \"We could get the situation where people have to cycle so they can use it,\" Gambarota said. Despite these potential developments, human-power is attracting its share of criticism. Although he shows enthusiasm for the battery project, Gambarota, who now spends much of his time developing micro wind turbines, is sceptical about the future of human-power on a mass-scale. He raises doubts about the efficiency of human power and questioned its economic viability. The average amount of power one person could produce going about normal activities on any given day was about one kilowatt-hour (kWh), which only amounted to about \u20ac 0.10 worth of electricity, Gambarota said. \"It's a very good marketing tool for businesses, but in terms of economics it does not make sense at all.\" The main reason it was being used was because companies wanted to \"look green, taste green and smell green\", he said. Raaijen, who was consulted on the Sustainable Dance Floor project, agreed that opting for human-powered technology at present was not a financially-based decision. \"The project (dance floor) in itself doesn't save a lot of energy. It's more of a statement than anything.\" Observing recent trends, the sustained drive for 'green energy' should continue to push human-powered technology forward, and despite the limitations to development, human-powered gyms, dance clubs, and maybe even video game consoles are likely to feature strongly in our immediate future.","highlights":"A Hong Kong gym and London dance club are part powered by human power .\nItalian inventor Lucien Gambarota says human power is simple to use .\nThe concept could be taken to busy places like train stations or into homes .\nThere are some questions about the economic sense of human power .","id":"319ed9f05d96b9ab2a78a95351c0d9e02c7429e7"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Hong Kong authorities Sunday announced that two recalled candy products made by British confectioner Cadbury had high levels of melamine. The industrial chemical has recently been found in Chinese-made milk products that have sickened nearly 53,000 children in China, killing four. Countries around the world have since banned the import of Chinese products containing milk, or have withdrawn products that contain milk from China -- such as candy -- amid worries they contain melamine. Last week, Cadbury recalled all of its Chinese-made candy products after preliminary tests showed they contained trace amounts of melamine. Cadbury took the action because \"no level of melamine is appropriate,\" spokesman Tony Bilsborough told CNN on Sunday. He could not comment on the latest test results. The company stresses that its products manufactured at its Beijing plant are only exported to Taiwan and Hong Kong, with one product -- Cadbury Eclair -- sent to Australia, Nauru and Christmas Island. Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety tested 104 samples of products made by a variety of manufacturers, including Cadbury, Nestle, and some U.S. and Chinese companies. Only two of the samples showed unsatisfactory levels of melamine -- Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate (bulk pack 5kg) and Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate (bulk pack 5kg). The sample of the Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate contained melamine levels of 65 ppm (parts per million) which is more than 25 times the acceptable level of 2.5 ppm, according to Hong Kong's government. According to the center, a child weighing 22 pounds (10kg) would have to eat more than 10 small pieces of the hazelnut chocolate to surpass the tolerable daily intake. An average adult weighing 132 pounds (60kg) would have to eat more than 112 small pieces to surpass the level. The melamine levels in the samples of Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate were 6.9 ppm -- more than twice as high as the legal limit of melamine. Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety said it will continue to test dairy products and other products with dairy ingredients. Test results on other products -- including milk powder, soya drinks, yogurt, butter, baby food and frozen confections -- would be released on Monday, it said. Chinese authorities have implicated 22 Chinese dairy companies in the tainted milk scandal. Investigators suspect people watered down milk in an attempt to sell more of it, and added melamine in order to fool quality checks, Chinese authorities have said. The toxic chemical is used to bolster apparent protein levels in diluted or poor-quality milk. On Saturday China announced that a test of 607 batches of liquid milk from 27 cities found the samples to be melamine-free, state-run media said. The tests were the sixth Chinese officials have carried out since melamine was discovered in powdered infant formula last month. Chinese authorities have promised to subsidize farmers hit by the shrinking demand for milk, the news agency Xinhua said. Among them is the northern Hebei province, which has earmarked 316 million yuan ($46.1 million) for subsidies. That translates to giving a farmer 200 yuan ($29) per cow, Xinhua said. Melamine is used to bolster apparent protein levels in diluted or poor-quality milk. Chinese authorities have arrested 40 people in connection with the scandal, including two brothers who could face the death penalty if convicted. Authorities have implicated 22 Chinese dairy companies in the scandal.","highlights":"Hong Kong authorities say two Cadbury products have high levels of melamine .\nCadbury recalled all of its Chinese-made candy products last week .\nChinese milk products have sickened nearly 53,000 children in China, killing four .","id":"95c44178831325d6146f937e467a544725ef44ec"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- An American Airlines Boeing 757 made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport an hour after taking off because the crew smelled smoke in the cockpit, a fire department official said. Inflatable chutes extend from a jet that made an emergency landing Tuesday in Los Angeles. American Airlines spokesman John Hotard said there was evidence of smoke in the cabin, but he could not say if it was visible or just an odor. Flight 31 was headed from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii. There were 188 passengers and seven crew members aboard. When it landed, the pilot ordered an emergency evacuation. Passengers evacuated by inflatable slides. Watch passengers slide down chutes \u00bb . \"It was split-second, 'Go, go, go. Don't take any bags with you. Just go, get off,' \" said passenger Julie Brown. \"And we just walked to the exit door, and there's that huge slide.\" Five passengers had minor cuts and bruises, Hotard said. Hotard said the flight was the first of the day for the aircraft, and there were no reports of problems with it in the past 30 days. The pilot requested an emergency landing as a precaution, Hotard said. Watch as official tells what happened \u00bb . American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said most passengers would take an afternoon flight to Hawaii, although he added that a \"handful\" of passengers were not continuing to Honolulu. He did not specify why. CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Honolulu-bound American jet lands at Los Angeles International Airport .\nPilot requests emergency landing after smoke in cabin reported, official says .\nPassengers slide down inflatable chutes to get out of cabin; minor injuries reported .","id":"bc69d883d88d09888054ac9a1b4ebd29626b7871"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Greek physician Hippocrates was the first to use the words \"carcinos\" and \"carcinoma\" in 400 BC to describe tumors, which led to the term \"cancer\" being coined. Greek physician Hippocrates was the first to use the words \"carcinos\" and \"carcinoma\" to describe tumors, which led to the term 'cancer.\" Since his day, medical advances in the treatment of cancer have evolved significantly. Below we chart some of the key moments in the battle against cancer. 1890 -- William Stewart Halsted, the first professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Yale, performs the first mastectomy to treat breast cancer. 1895 -- Wilhelm Conrad R\u00f6ntgen discovers X-ray radiation, which makes the detection of tumors in the body much easier and non-invasive. Later in 1899, Tage Anton Ultimus Sjogren becomes the first person to successfully treat cancer with X-rays. 1896 -- Removal of the ovaries is performed for the first time to treat breast cancer. 1898 -- Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium and later use it to treat tumors. 1900 --Thor Stenbeck cures a patient with skin cancer using small doses of daily radiation therapy. This technique is later referred to as fractionated radiation therapy. 1900s -- Dr. George Papanicolaou invents the Pap smear test after his findings suggest that vaginal cell smears reveal the presence of cancer. 1943 -- The first electron linear accelerator is designed for radiation therapy. Today, it is widely used for treatment of cancer. Late 1960s -- Lars Leksell develops the Gamma Knife -- a radiosurgical tool that uses a high dose of radiation to eradicate cancerous cells. 1964 -- The Epstein-Barr virus is linked to human cancer for the first time. 1974 -- Dr. Lawrence Einhorn finds a cure for advanced testicular cancer. This changes the cure rate from 5 percent to 60 percent. 1975 -- Scientists Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein develop tailor-made antibodies in large quantities in a laboratory, leading to ways of attacking cancer and diagnosing disease. They go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1984. 1976 -- Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus discover oncogene, a gene that, when mutated or expressed at high levels, helps turn a normal cell into a cancer cell. They win the 1989 Nobel Prize. 1980s -- Anti-nausea drugs are developed to suppress the side effects of chemotherapy. 1991 -- The U.S. Human Genome project begins. The first gene transfers in humans also take place in that same year. 1998 -- Tamoxifen, a drug that helps reduce the risks of breast cancer by half in women is approved for wide use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 2004 -- The FDA approves Avastin, a monoclonal antibody that restricts tumor growth by blocking the formation of new blood vessels for the treatment of metastatic cancer. 2007 -- The FDA approves Nexavar, an oral inhibitor for liver cancer. This is the only drug approved for liver cancer. 2008 -- German scientist Harald zur Hausen wins a Nobel Prize for his research that found that oncogenic human papilloma virus, or HPV, causes cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. He made the discovery in the early 1980s. Sources: Emory University, Cure Today, Britannia.com . CNN intern Priyanka Deladia contributed to this report .","highlights":"Wilhelm Conrad R\u00f6ntgen discovers X-ray radiation in 1895 .\nLars Leksell develops the Gamma Knife in 1960s .\nAnti-nausea drugs to suppress chemotherapy side effects created in 80s .\nGerman scientist Harald zur Hausen wins a Nobel Prize in 2008 for HPV work .","id":"772134d8c5f68efc91bf71a887509022c98a0b42"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi Security Forces captured 66 people believed to be connected to al Qaeda in Iraq terror cells, the U.S. military said Thursday. Members of the Iraqi Security Forces are working in Iraq to capture terrorists and insurgents. The suspects were captured during separate operations in northern Iraq this week, according to a military news release. The suspects included 45 men from al Qaeda in Iraq and 21 suspected terrorists from an umbrella group of al Qaeda in Iraq known as The Islamic State of Iraq, the statement said. The suspects are believed to be part of terror cells responsible for bombings, torturing of civilians, conducting attacks and warning insurgents about upcoming Iraqi and U.S. military operations, the military said. One of the suspects is believed to have conducted more than 12 attacks since July. \"These operations show the ability of Iraqi Security Forces to repeatedly capture criminals who undermine the security of Iraq,\" said Lt. Col. Neil Harper, a U.S. military spokesman.","highlights":"Suspects blamed for bombings, civilian torture, warning insurgents about operations .\nSuspects include 45 men from al Qaeda in Iraq, 21 from the Islamic State of Iraq .\nOne of the suspects is believed to have conducted more than 12 attacks since July .","id":"c7816bbe007f9a24cec53b793ac210082d45fb49"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Beginning December 1, Mexico City plans to hand out free medicine to elderly men with erectile dysfunction, the local government said. Medications such as Viagra, Levitra or Cialis reportedly will be offered under medical supervision. \"Everyone has the right to be happy,\" said Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, governor of the federal district that encompasses the Mexican capital. \"We have to protect people -- senior citizens above all,\" he said in a statement Thursday. \"Many of them are abandoned and lack money. They don't have medical services, and a society that doesn't care for its senior citizens has no dignity.\" The government said it plans to offer Viagra, Levitra or Cialis -- medication used to treat erectile dysfunction -- under adequate medical supervision. It cited figures saying that 70 percent of elderly men suffer from the condition. To obtain the medicine, men must first undergo a \"very, very detailed\" medical check to screen for and possibly treat ailments such as hypertension and diabetes, the government said. Centers in Mexico City also will offer a variety of treatment to elderly men and women.","highlights":"Elderly men in Mexico City must undergo medical screening first .\nFree medicine will be out handed out to those with erectile dysfunction in December .\n\"Everyone has the right to be happy,\" official says .\nFigures show 70 percent of elderly men suffer from condition, local government says .","id":"bb147bfbd327a208aa3a7ee65bb7b903441788b8"} -{"article":"Having a CT scan of the heart to check for heart disease? You may want to ask how your hospital plans to conduct the test. A new study suggests that people who get the common heart test can get a dramatic range of radiation exposures. When cardiac CT angiography is used appropriately, the benefits far outweigh the risk of the radiation, experts say. In the study of 1,965 patients undergoing the CT scans (also known as cardiac CT angiography), the median exposure was roughly equivalent to 600 chest X-rays, or about 12 milliSievert (mSv) of radiation, according to the report in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Traditional angiography -- a technique in which a catheter is snaked though a blood vessel and dye is injected near the heart -- exposes patients to roughly half the dose of CT angiography, or about 5--8 mSv, says study author Jorg Hausleiter, M.D., of the University of Munich in Germany. It's also about the same amount of radiation as other standard cardiac screenings, such as the nuclear stress test. There was a wide range of exposures in the study depending on the medical center and the way the tests were performed. The median radiation dose ranged from 4.6 to 30 mSv. About 80 percent of the centers studied used techniques to reduce radiation, such as adjusting the CT scan to the patient's size (meaning smaller patients get less radiation) or precisely timing the radiation dose to a particular point in the heart rhythm (which shortens the duration of exposure). Health.com: How to help your heart for better health . Overall, the danger posed by radiation is very small, according to Hausleiter. Being exposed to 10 mSv increases an individual's cancer risk by 0.02 percent, he says. However, the greater the exposure to radiation, the greater the risk. Watch Dr. Gupta talk about the cardiac CT scan \u00bb . Nearly all of the 50 sites in the international study, which included sites in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, were making at least some effort to limit excess radiation. Other medical centers may be doing even less to cut down on radiation during the test, says Andrew J. Einstein, M.D., Ph.D., of Columbia University Medical Center, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. \"Probably the group of centers which were studied in this paper are more sophisticated and more aware of radiation-reduction methods than your typical center that is performing cardiac CT angiography,\" he says. According to Einstein, many other sites may not be using radiation-reduction techniques at all. When cardiac CT angiography is being used appropriately -- meaning, for example, in people with chest pain suggesting blocked heart arteries, rather than as a screening test for people with no symptoms of heart disease -- the benefits far outweigh the risk of the radiation, according to Einstein and Hausleiter. However, cardiac CT scans are often marketed directly to patients interested in finding out how much plaque they have in their arteries, even though there's no evidence to show that this is an appropriate way to use the test, Hausleiter says. Health.com: 28 days, 28 ways to slash your risk of heart disease . Critics of cardiac CT angiography question whether its benefits warrant its current widespread use and the amount of radiation exposure. In fact, on Monday the American Heart Association issued an advisory warning that imaging tests, including CT scans, be used cautiously to minimize exposure to radiation. In the new study, Hausleiter and his colleagues looked at patients who underwent cardiac CT angiography at 21 university hospitals and 29 community hospitals between February and December 2007. They found some regional differences in radiation exposure; for example, the median dose was three times higher in South America and Latin America than in Canada and the United States. More than 70 percent of the centers in the study were using electrocardiographically controlled tube current modulation (ECTCM), which is currently the best-known strategy for reducing radiation dose. It involves timing the radiation beam to the diastole, when the heart is resting between beats. This is when the heart is the quietest, so it's easiest to get a good image of the organ. Health.com: Tricks to lower blood pressure . Another strategy involves using less energy (100 kV instead of the standard 120 kV), which is effective but useful only for patients who are not obese. Finally, sequential scans take a series of pictures of the heart at the same exact point in the cardiac cycle, which also reduces radiation dose. This approach, as well as ECTCM, can be used only in people with slow, steady heartbeats. Another problem, Einstein noted, is that doctors often don't know what a patient's heart rate will be until he or she is on the table being readied for the scan. But the fact that centers were able to use at least one radiation-reduction technique in most patients \"should serve as a wake-up call to cardiac CT laboratories that do not routinely use these methods,\" Einstein writes in his editorial. Health.com: I paid $450 to up my cancer risk . Patients who undergo cardiac CT angiography are within their rights to ask about what strategies, if any, are being used to reduce radiation dosage, he said. \"I would not recommend anyone to have this test done without discussing it with their doctor first. It's not something patients should be initiating on their own,\" he adds. Caution is warranted not only due to the radiation exposure, according to Einstein, but also because the dye that must be injected into the veins to perform the test can cause kidney damage in some people. While a person's doctor would be able to judge if he or she would be harmed by the dye and thus shouldn't have the test, he said, \"there are some sites that would be willing to perform this test on anyone.\" David J. Brenner, Ph.D., D.Sc., of Columbia University's Center for Radiological Research was not involved in the current study, but he coauthored a 2007 report warning that overuse of CT scans could contribute to excess cancer risks. He said that such CT scans are still controversial. New technology can decrease the radiation dose from cardiac CT scans, but as this study shows, \"It's very variable from institution to institution -- in part because there is no regulatory body making sure that there is some degree of quality control,\" says Brenner. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Study finds dramatic range of radiation exposures for cardiac CT angiography .\nMedian exposure for the heart CT scan is roughly equivalent to 600 chest X-rays .\nSeveral radiation-reduction techniques may be used, but protocol not standardized .\nIncrease in cancer risk is small, slightly more than 0.02 percent for median exposure .","id":"10683977e6e54553a321a7094455674c848ffa58"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery, plans to be back on the bench when the Supreme Court resumes oral arguments in 17 days. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also had surgery for colorectal cancer in September 1999. Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Friday that the 75-year-old justice is expected to be on hand for the next public session February 23, when the court will hear appeals in two cases. Ginsburg remains hospitalized at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center a day after undergoing surgery for the disease. Sources close to Ginsburg say that she continues to do well after surgery and that doctors and family remain cautiously optimistic. Those sources said she was resting comfortably and speaking with her staff about the court's upcoming caseload. Watch friends talk about Ginsburg's resilience \u00bb . The justice could be released from the hospital next week. A court statement Thursday said she will probably remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days, according to her attending surgeon, Dr. Murray Brennan. \"Justice Ginsburg had no symptoms prior to the incidental discovery of the lesion during a routine annual check-up in late January at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland,\" the court said. The justices are on a month-long recess but return for a closed door conference February 20. There is no word on whether Ginsburg will attend that meeting, among just the nine members of the court, to go over pending appeals. President Obama was hoping to speak with Ginsburg by phone later Friday, said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Ginsburg underwent surgery for colorectal cancer in September 1999. Court sources said she continued to work on pending cases while in her hospital bed and her subsequent recovery. Less than a month later, she appeared in public to give a speech and said, \"I am still mending but have progressed steadily.\" She never missed a day on the bench. The Brooklyn, New York, native has been on the federal bench since 1980, the past 15 on the high court, where she is the he only female justice.","highlights":"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expects to return to the bench by February 23 .\nThe only woman on the Supreme Court is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer .\nIt is her second bout with cancer .\nShe was treated for colon cancer in 1999-2000 .","id":"b43ab8c203df3d826afe62c6b653c3ead3649c14"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ever caught a glimpse of the secretive Iberian lynx? Or heard the croaking bark of a Mediterranean monk seal? Arctic foxes are trapped and skinned for the pelts. If not, and you want to do so, you had better hurry because pollution and habitat degradation have pushed both species to the brink of extinction. According to a recent study by the Switzerland-based World Conservation Union (IUCN) human activity is threatening almost one-sixth of Europe's total land mammal population. Among marine mammals the situation is even more grave, with some 22 percent of total numbers being pushed towards annihilation. The IUCN's recently published European Mammal Assessment identified 17 European mammal species that are \"vulnerable,\" seven that are \"endangered,\" and six that are \"critically endangered.\" The Mediterranean monk seal population, for example, has now dwindled to just 350-450 individuals. The outlook for the Iberian lynx is even worse, with only an estimated 150 still surviving, making it the most endangered cat species on earth. Other species on the critically endangered list include the Arctic fox, Bavarian pine vole, European mink and North Atlantic Right whale. \"This new assessment proves that many European mammals are declining at an alarming rate,\" said IUCN Director-General Julia Marton-Lef\u00e8vre, a position echoed by the EU's Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. \"The results of the report highlight the challenge we currently face to halt the loss of Europe's biodiversity,\" said Dimas. \"It is clear that the full implementation of the Habitats Directive (adopted by the EU in 1992 to safeguard Europe's endangered wildlife) is of the utmost importance to protect Europe's native mammals.\" Europe is home to a rich diversity of native mammal species ranging from the small such as shrews and voles, to the large such as wolves and brown bears. to the enormous -- in the case of the 70-ton North Atlantic Right Whale. Human activity, however, especially in the form of agriculture, deforestation, hunting and pollution, has reduced the numbers of these species, leaving many of them in danger of vanishing. The aforementioned Habitats Directive -- a corollary of the 1979 Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats -- introduced a range of measures aimed at protecting endangered species (including plants, birds and fish as well as mammals). That directive has certainly had an effect, with a number of mammals that previously seemed destined to disappear from Europe now enjoying something of a revival. The Alpine Ibex, for example, was almost hunted out in the 19th century, its population reduced to just a small group of survivors in Italy's Gran Paradiso National Park. Thanks to extensive conservation and protection efforts, however, the species is once again flourishing and has been downgraded to the \"least concern\" category on the IUCN's \"Red List.\" It is the same story for the European bison, which was limited to just a few zoos before re-introduction programs across eastern Europe helped re-build the population to current levels of around 1,800. \"The fate of the European bison provides an example of the way in which a species may be brought to the brink of extinction in a very short time, and then saved only through great efforts,\" said Dr. Zbigniew Krasinski of Poland's Bialowieza National Park. \"The saving of the bison has been an undoubted success, although further action will continue to be essential.\" Dr. Jean-Christophe Vie, Deputy Head of the IUCN's Species Program, agrees that significant progress has been made. \"In Europe we now have a network of protected areas, as well as strong conservation laws,\" he told CNN. \"It is possible for species to recover even when their numbers drop to extinction level. \"Both the Alpine Ibex and European bison are recovering well because of appropriate conservation measures. \"The European beaver is another example. It was persecuted almost to extinction but has now been re-introduced and is colonizing all over the continent.\" While there are positive stories, however, the overall picture remains a disheartening one, as the European Mammal Assessment demonstrates. Commissioned by the European Commission and a year in the drafting, it is the first such overview of its kind and draws on the work of a Europe-wide group of scientists, zoologists and conservationists. Its findings provide an unequivocal picture of biodiversity loss and species decline. Habitat destruction, usually due to agricultural practices, is the key driver of that decline, although many other factors are involved, including pollution, disease and the introduction of invasive foreign species. The case of the European mink, one of the IUCN's six critically endangered European mammals, is an example of how different elements can combine to drive a particular species to the brink of destruction. Once found in great numbers across Europe from Spain to the Urals, the mink population has plummeted in recent years. While hunting has certainly contributed to this decline, the main causes have been habitat loss and competition from invasive foreign species, according to Vie. \"The mink is freshwater dependent,\" explains Vie. \"The more you damage its habitat by polluting rivers, or channeling them, or building dams, the more the population declines.\" The introduction of the American mink into Europe for fur-rearing also proved disastrous, with some of those mink escaping from captivity, establishing their own colonies in the wild and setting up direct competition for food and resources with the native population. The result: an 80 percent decline in that population in the last decade alone (in 1993 the IUCN only classified it as \"vulnerable\"). But experts say that species loss can be reversed. \"There is more and more perception across Europe that biodiversity conservation is crucially important,\" says Vie. \"And we are seeing good recoveries in some species. \"The picture in the mammal world is not nearly as bad as, say, among freshwater fish, where the number of threatened species is far, far higher.\" At the same time, the latest figures remain a source of considerable concern. At a time when so many conservation initiatives and laws are already in operation, the population of many European mammal species is in apparent free fall. It is not simply the possibility of losing a particular species that worries experts, but also how the loss will affect the species' wider ecosystem . \"The food web is extremely complex,\" says Vie. \"If you lose one element that has a very specific role in that web, it has a knock-on effect and the whole system is threatened. \"It is very worrying. Some people think it is a disaster if a famous painting is lost in a fire, but that is just the work of a few weeks or months. These species and systems are the product of millions of years of evolution. \"I am biased, of course, but I think it would be an absolute tragedy if we lost these native species.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Only an estimated 150 Iberian lynx remain .\nHuman activity is endangering many animals .\nExperts say situation is redeemable .","id":"f7c348e02c1b84e9a41fe961b4b6660975a8ead9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A severely disfigured woman received the nose, cheeks, upper jaw and facial tissue from a female cadaver in the first near-total face transplant in the United States, the woman's surgeon said Wednesday. Cleveland Clinic doctors replaced 80 percent of a woman's face two weeks ago in the first such U.S. surgery. The 22-hour face surgery was completed two weeks ago by a team of eight surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic. The patient had severe deformity in the middle of her face and was missing her right eye and upper jaw, the Cleveland Clinic doctors said. She could not taste or smell, and she had trouble speaking. Dr. Maria Siemionow, the head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland, Ohio, hospital, said many people are \"hiding from society because they're afraid to walk to the grocery stores; they're afraid to go to streets because they're called names and humiliated.\" \"Our patient was called names, and our patient was humiliated,\" she said. \"We very much hope for this special group of patients, there is hope, and one day they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things which we take for granted.\" The patient is doing well, the doctors said. Interactive: More details of the surgery \u00bb . Details about the recipient, including her name and age, were withheld at her request. In the surgery, 80 percent of the woman's face was transplanted. The forehead and chin were left intact. In this transplant, tissue from the donor's face was shaped and fitted into position. Multiple layers of tissue, bone, muscles and blood vessels, nerve grafts and each artery and vein were connected. Watch an explanation about face transplants \u00bb . \"Our hope is she should be able to smile again,\" said Dr. Frank A. Papay, chairman of the Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. With physical therapy, surgeons hope the patient will regain her ability to smell and blink and will have other facial functions. Siemionow said the patient never saw a photo of the donor and said, \"the donor never looks like the recipient. The recipient never looks like the donor.\" Siemionow had medical and ethical clearance for a full facial transplant since 2004. She said it has taken 20 years of research and four years to find the right patient who understood the risks involved. The doctors' approach from the beginning was to consider \"only patients who are the most disfigured\" and had \"exhausted all existing procedures,\" Siemionow said. \"This patient exhausted all conventional means of reconstruction and is the right patient,\" she said. Watch Dr. Siemionow in the news conference. \u00bb . Dr. Eric Kodish, the professor and chairman of the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Bioethics, said doctors thought she would adhere to medications after the surgery. \"This patient had very robust decision-making capacity,\" he said. Like with all transplants, there is a risk that the recipient's body could reject the graft. The doctors say they haven't seen any such signs. The transplant recipient has to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of his or her life to prevent rejection of the donated tissue. In the past three years, facial transplants have been completed in France and China, but these cases have raised medical and ethical questions. Read about the first facial transplant . Some candidates for a face transplant are survivors of trauma, such as burn or accident victims, who have exhausted all other reconstructive possibilities. The recipient in France, Isabelle Dinoire, had been mauled by a dog, and the Chinese man, Li Guoxing, was attacked by a bear. Both received major facial disfigurements. In 2007, a French team performed the third partial facial transplant on a man who was disfigured by a genetic disorder that created large tumors on his face. Watch a 2006 report about China's first face transplant . Guo Shuzhong, the face transplant doctor who handled Li's case, confirmed to CNN that he died in July of unknown causes. Li last visited the hospital in summer 2007, and he stayed in his hometown in Yunnan province. The doctor told CNN that Li had a checkup in a small hospital in his hometown three weeks before his death but that no health problems had been found. Watch an ITN report about the Li's case . The facial transplants in France and China generated much controversy as questions arose about whether the patients were adequately vetted and informed about the risks. Those procedures have been \"under an ethical cloud,\" said David Young, a professor of plastic surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. The current face transplant patient understood the risk of rejection and of immunosuppressants, doctors said. Criticism of facial transplants . Critics such as Peter A. Clark, director of the Institute of Catholic Bioethics at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said a facial transplant introduces unnecessary risks for a procedure that is not a matter of life and death. \"With something like a liver or kidney transplant, it's a life or death transplant,\" Clark said. \"Even with a kidney or liver [transplant], you have to be put on immunosuppressants with serious side effects.\" Bioethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania's Medical Ethics Department, said Wednesday on CNN's \"American Morning\" that he initially had similar qualms about the facial transplant, which improves the quality of a life rather than saving it, but was gradually convinced. People with major facial disfigurements \"don't come out and basically stay at home and have a huge suicide rate,\" Caplan said. \"They're really up against it.\" At the news conference Wednesday, Kodish said the transplant had \"abundant moral justification\": the face as a personal embodiment as self. He added that people with disfigurements are often isolated and suffer tremendously and that this case was \"not cosmetic surgery in any sense.\" Patient's reaction . Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic said that because the patient has limited vision after the surgery, she has yet to see herself. \"At this point she can't see herself but can feel her face,\" Siemionow said. \"She was happy when she could go over her face\" and could feel that \"she has a nose, she has jaws and has a full face.\" After the surgery, the patient was heavily sedated from being on the breathing machine. As she was slowly awakening, medical staff members asked her how she was feeling and whether she was comfortable. \"She gave a thumbs up, first indication she was comfortable,\" said Dr. Chad Gordon, a fellow at the clinic's department of plastic surgery. \"She has been speaking to us very slightly. Most of communication has been through writing.\" Siemionow said the patient will need re-educate her facial motion and need three to six months of nerve regeneration. CNN's Miriam Falco and Judy Kwon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow led face transplant team .\nEighty percent of trauma patient's face reportedly transplanted .\nSiemionow has had clearance to perform full facial transplant since 2004 .\nPrevious transplants have come under ethical cloud, professor says .","id":"0b656a724fee00bd58bb982c8ff786bdb58ca51b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the hero pilot who safely landed a full passenger jet in the Hudson River, was once again honored with cheers and applause Tuesday during a ceremony for him hosted by the governor of his home state. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gives hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger a flag and license plate. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, first lady Maria Shriver and other dignitaries greeted Sullenberger at the state Capitol rotunda in Sacramento. Taking a break from difficult negotiations over a troubled state budget, the governor presented Sullenberger with a jacket with the state seal, a California state flag that had flown over the state Capitol, a proclamation and a \"California Hero\" license plate. \"Today is a very important day,\" Schwarzenegger said. \"There are legislators upstairs that are negotiating and working on a budget -- [we] need a great hero in a state capitol.\" The Sullenberger family lives in Danville, California. Sullenberger's response was understated -- as it has been at other ceremonies, including a New York City Hall event when he was given the key to the city by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. \"On behalf of the other four crew members of Flight 1549 and also on behalf of the many thousands of aviation professionals whose daily devotion to duty keeps air travel safe, I gratefully accept this recognition,\" he said. Sullenberger and his crew safely landed the damaged airplane, believed to have hit a flock of birds, in the Hudson on January 15. All 155 passengers aboard the US Airways flight survived. CNN's Scott Thompson contributed to this report.","highlights":"California governor honors U.S. Airways pilot Capt. Chesley Sullenberger .\nSchwarzenegger: \"We need a great hero\" in state legislature like Sullenberger .\nSullenberger safely landed flight 1549 in the Hudson River in New York .\nSullenberger accepts recognition on behalf of crew members, others .","id":"433bc6c1d2622cca547936a55a15809c228f49df"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When HIV-positive Winnie Sseruma was invited to speak on the subject at the United Nations in New York last June, she never expected that her condition would prevent her from obtaining a visa. HIV positive Winnie Sseruma was repeatedly questioned before being allowed into the United States. Winnie Sseruma has been living with the disease for over 20 years. Preparing for her trip, UK-based Winnie discovered that the United States was one of 70 countries worldwide that either banned or restricted inbound travel for people with HIV. \"I was told I needed to come to the U.S. embassy for an interview and bring a doctor's letter stating I was fit to travel,\" Sseruma, HIV coordinator for charity Christian Aid, told CNN. \"At first, the embassy told me that the first available appointment for my interview would be at a date past the U.N. High-level Meeting I was meant to attend.\" Only when the U.N. intervened on Sseruma's behalf was she granted an earlier interview date. Sseruma was relieved when she finally received her visa on time. But the hurdles were far from over. At the airport in New York, Sseruma was detained twice for further questioning. \"It was so humiliating,\" Sseruma said. \"The immigration officers were asking me very personal questions about my health.\" A month after Sseruma's ordeal, the U.S. Senate passed the re-authorization of President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), including an amendment to the ban on travel and immigration for HIV-positive non-citizens. But the United States travel ban still remains in effect, and will continue to be the law until the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) modifies its regulations. Fifty-eight Members of Congress have sent a letter to the HHS, urging them to take action. Russia also places restrictions on travelers with HIV. Affected visitors are not permitted to stay in the country for more than three months. Anyone applying for a visa for long-term stay must present a certificate stating that they are HIV negative. The Russian embassy's spokesperson in London told CNN no changes to the ban were currently being considered and declined to comment further. Crusading against these bans is \"Ctrl.Alt.Shift,\" a UK-based organization that attempts to engage youth to combat global and social injustices. The organization argues that there is no public health rationale for \"restricting liberty of movement or choice of residence on the grounds of HIV status.\" Are these laws outmoded? What do you think? Tell us in the Sound Off below. The fight against stigmas associated with HIV and AIDS has been widely adopted by the organization's young members. Many are joining Ctrl.Alt.Shift's protests across London. Last week, following two protests at the embassies of Saudi Arabia and South Korea -- both countries ban HIV positive travelers from entering their borders -- the organization launched its third protest in front of the Russian embassy in London. \"The level of proliferation of the HIV virus in countries that do not implement bans on HIV travelers is proof that these bans have no impact whatsoever, except for reinforcing the stigma,\" said Neil Boorman, Ctrl.Alt.Shift's project manager. Boorman told CNN that the bans and restrictions further the spread of the epidemic by driving the issue underground and force people to lie about their health on visa applications. Tinchy Strider, a 22-year-old British rap artist, was also present at the protest. \"I'm here because many young people are not aware of these issues, but if they knew these bans existed, they would want to do something about it,\" Tinchy explained. Eighteen-year-old Sian Anderson agrees. Anderson believes it is bad enough to live with HIV and that these regulations make life \"even harder.\" \"Some people are completely not at fault, they might have gotten the virus through blood transfusion and Russia doesn't take that into consideration,\" Anderson said. \"Science has moved on from the days where HIV was an unknown virus. Now the world needs to move on too,\" Sseruma said. \"Stigma remains our biggest challenge.\"","highlights":"Russia is one of 11 countries worldwide that restricts HIV positive visitors .\nThe U.S. lifted similar ban last July, but has not yet been implemented .\nProtesters argue that ban forces people to lie about health to gain entry .","id":"cddaf436b87cc636d350508c5c2d2851931fc78a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just after 7 a.m. Tuesday in the fifth district of Kabul, Afghanistan, a suicide bomber struck a bus carrying Afghan police and civilians. Afghan I-Reporter S. Samimi sent this photo of a bus struck by a suicide bomber on Tuesday. At least 10 people were killed, including four children. I-Reporter S. Samimi was in his car on his way to work, only 100 meters from where the blast went off. He jumped from his car, unsure of what had happened. Samimi asked people around him what was going on. Finally, the truth dawned on him. Samimi, 23, grabbed his camera and made his way to the site of the attack. He said it was difficult taking pictures because his whole body was shaking. It was the first suicide bombing he had ever witnessed. Hands and limbs were scattered about the ground. Within minutes a crowd of hundreds had gathered around the bus, some of them family members of victims. \"People were screaming and crying,\" Samimi said. \"The situation was so bad. So tragic. I am so sad about it.\" Samimi said security guards were quickly on the scene and ordered him to stop taking pictures. He said at that point he was ready to leave. Samimi, who works as a secretary, said he was too shaken to concentrate on the job. \"I couldn't work well, because my condition was so bad after having seen a scene like that for the first time. It was so tragic.\" He said he returned home to learn that one of his neighbors, a policeman, had been killed in the bombing. \"I saw his family screaming and crying over his death,\" he said. He talked about the bombing with his family. \"They were so sad when they heard about what had happened and when they saw my pictures. People in the neighborhood are still crying.\" Samimi explained why he sent his photographs to CNN. \"The world should see what's happened in Afghanistan. The situation is not good in Afghanistan at the moment.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"On Tuesday, a suicide bomber struck a bus in Kabul, Afghanistan .\nSamimi, a 23-year-old resident of Kabul, witnessed the bombing .\nHe shares photos, first-hand account of the tragic situation .\nI-Report: Send photos, video of breaking news situations near you .","id":"a80d2959846819d5ac9dca4bae9c6838d3b88be4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan government said Thursday it has made more inroads into the remaining territory held by ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels after troops seized their command center in the north of the country. Sri Lankan workers bury the bodies of some 38 suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed in recent fighting. The defense ministry's announcement, also reported by the country's Lankapuvath national news agency, could not be independently verified. Military jets pounded the rebel's \"transit camp\" in the district of Mullaittivu Wednesday evening, the agency said. The defense ministry said rebels were firing at and killing civilians who were trying to flee the fighting. \"In the face of humiliating defeat, LTTE terrorists are tailoring a civilian tragedy,\" it said on its Web site. The LTTE, or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. They have fought for an independent homeland for the country's Tamil minority since 1983 in a civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. In recent days, the military has made significant progress in its campaign to recapture rebel strongholds. Earlier this month, troops regained control of the northern town of Elephant Pass, the point at which mainland Sri Lanka links to the northern Jaffna peninsula. It had been in rebel hands for more than nine years. The re-capture enabled the government to use a highway linking the mainland to the peninsula to move troops and supplies. Previously, it was done by air and sea.","highlights":"Sri Lanka news agency says government jets bombarded rebel transit camp .\nDefense ministry says rebels killing civilians .\nReported capture is latest in a series of claimed government successes .","id":"ba1dd3ba6cdc5a8adcf14e5ce9197268358ec599"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The leading champion of democracy in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, emerged from house arrest Wednesday to meet with political supporters, a diplomatic source told CNN. Activists display a portrait of detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar. Military leaders in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, let Suu Kyi leave her house to meet with senior leaders of the National League for Democracy, the source said. The meeting comes after the U.S. State Department criticized Myanmar for arresting 10 democracy activists. \"The United States condemns the regime's decision to press criminal charges against ten Burmese pro-democracy activists ... for the peaceful expression of their political beliefs,\" the department said in a statement Tuesday. The department noted that the 10 were charged with crimes that can carry lengthy sentences. \"If the regime were serious about engaging in a peaceful transition to democracy, it would stop arresting and prosecuting Burma's democratic leaders, and instead engage them in a genuine dialogue.\" The military government in Myanmar held Suu Kyi under house arrest from 1989 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2002. It restricted her travel afterward and put her back under house arrest in 2003. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The regime in Myanmar used force to suppress a pro-democracy movement a few months ago. The government admitted that its crackdown killed at least 10 people, but human rights groups said they suspect the number is much higher. The government also acknowledged arresting several hundred people after democracy protests led by Buddhist monks. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report .","highlights":"Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from house arrest to meet with political supporters .\nJunta allowed her to meet senior leaders of the National League for Democracy .\nMeeting comes after the U.S. criticized Myanmar for arresting 10 democracy activists .","id":"3adecc1cb641dcda2985db4ec8fd05f161f492b9"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For more than two decades, artist Robert Wyland -- simply known as Wyland -- has wowed people with his giant whale murals that cover the walls of city parking decks, high-rises, convention centers and hotels around the world. Arist Wyland in front of his 50th Whaling Wall in Atlanta, Georgia. They are an expression of his love of the sea and all its inhabitants, he says. Wyland, a conservation advocate, believes art can change the way people, kids especially, look at the ocean. \"Art can play a role in the 21st century for conservation of clean water and healthy oceans,\" he says. \"There are things we can do everyday to protect water and conserve it.\" Wyland is taking his campaign for clean water across the nation. Wyland and his non-profit Wyland Foundation will visit kids at zoos, aquariums and schools showing them how they can help conserve water. Watch Wyland paint a whale shark \u00bb . \"If we are going to keep the oceans clean we need to think about what we are doing here on land. We need to protect the rivers, the lakes, the ponds, the streams, the estuaries -- it's all connected. Every drop of water on the planet is connected,\" Wyland explained. Along with mural painting with children, Wyland's Clean Water Challenge tour includes a mobile learning truck where participants can learn about water quality. He hopes to encourage everyone to reduce water waste by 10 million gallons or more over the next year. Wyland and his team kicked off their campaign at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on October 7. Stops along the East and West coasts as well Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; and Phoenix, Arizona, are planned over the next month. At the Georgia Aquarium, Wyland was surround by children who joined him in painting a mural that will hang inside the aquarium. \"I got to paint a whale shark with kids. That was fun,\" he said. \"We have some great artists here in Georgia.\" \"Looking fantastic, everyone. Keep painting!\" Wyland shouted enthusiastically. Roxie Stricker, 8, from Atlanta, Georgia, asked Wyland if she could paint a baby right whale tail right next to his adult right whale tail. \"What a great idea,\" Wyland responded. Wyland says that when children paint their favorite animals of the sea, they become more aware and sensitive to those animals' needs. And it's this awareness that can make a difference. \"I learned that we should start saving water and stop throwing trash in it,\" said Stricker. \"I believe that this art is going to make a difference and these kids are going to change the world,\" Wyland said. \"Every drop counts.\" Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Wyland, 51, was surrounded by lakes but it was the ocean that captured his imagination. \"I was inspired by Jacques Cousteau,\" Wyland says. \"He was my hero.\" At 14, he traveled west to visit his aunt in Southern California. \"I jumped into the ocean and I immersed myself in the Pacific for the first time. And as I came up two gray whales were migrating along the coast and spouted right in front of me and that changed my life,\" he says. Those two whales became the subject for his first Whaling Wall in 1981 in Laguna Beach, California. Over the past 26 years he has painted 95 Whaling Walls. See some of Wyland's amazing Whaling Walls \u00bb . He collects no fee for his murals. Each is a gift to its city. In 1993, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for painting the largest mural in the world. Wyland's \"Planet Ocean\" mural wraps around the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California. The mural, depicting a variety of sea life, is 1,280 feet in diameter and 185 feet high. He will reach his goal of 100 murals in the summer of 2008 in Beijing, China. Wyland, along with student artists, will paint an epic mural that will span nearly 3 miles. The Beijing Olympics will be his inspiration. He's been selected as the official artist for the U.S. Olympic team. Wyland won't be taking any breaks after he completes his 100th Whaling Wall. He plans on tackling 100 over-sized bronze marine-life sculptures for 100 cities around the world. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Artist Wyland world famous for his Whaling Walls .\nWyland wants to teach kids about the importance of clean water .\nWyland Foundation on a North American campaign to get kids involved .\nWill paint his 100th Whaling Wall in Beijing, China, in the summer of 2008 .","id":"5db1d2382705c8b5cd2467869abb266e940932f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistani civilians were given a brief window on Friday to flee the ongoing fighting between government forces and Taliban militants in the country's north, according to military officials. Pakistani civilians pack a bus leaving Mingora, the capital of the troubled Swat Valley. The Pakistan army is trying to push the Taliban away from regions within the troubled Swat Valley. A curfew was relaxed until 2 p.m. local time Friday in Kabal, Kanju and Mingora -- in the Swat Valley -- and in Malakand Agency, which is a separate district. The government provided an estimated 150 vehicles to evacuate people, as private cars are not allowed to enter Mingora. The Taliban have been concentrating forces there -- digging trenches, laying mines, taking positions on rooftops, according to strategic expert Reva Bhalla of Stratfor, a firm that describes itself as a global intelligence company. \"The Taliban are concentrating forces in Mingora -- digging trenches, laying mines, taking positions on rooftops,\" said Bhalla. \"It is not clear if the Pakistani military is trained and even equipped to go into a situation like that,\" she said, adding that even the United States military \"would have to think twice\" about such an offensive. She estimates there are 5,000 Taliban fighters in the area. \"The question is: Are they going to try to stand and fight, or try to regroup?\" she asked. With a government offensive against the Taliban nearly three weeks old, a spokesman for Pakistan's army said the military intends to drive the Taliban out of the contested area. \"The whole resolve of the government and the military is to once and for all finish the Taliban from the Valley of Swat,\" Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN's Reza Sayah. The Pakistani military is trying to push the Taliban away from the heavily forested and mountainous regions of the Swat district toward the south, so the army can encircle the militants, Bhalla added. According to the chief minister of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, some 1.5 million people have been displaced by 10 months of fighting between the military and Taliban militants along its border with Afghanistan. The number of people at the Yar Hussain displaced-persons camp in Swabi district is expected to reach 2 million, Amir Haider Hoti said. The military announced earlier this week the number was 1.3 million. The huge refugee camps that the conflict is creating could be \"the perfect recruiting grounds for the Taliban to prey on,\" Bhalla said. Meanwhile, the United Nations' top official on refugees told CNN Thursday the world must launch a \"massive international effort\" to care for the refugees, or it will be \"absolutely impossible\" to provide for them. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a speech to parliament Thursday, called the refugee crisis a massive and unprecedented predicament. \"They are our own people and their children are my children,\" Gilani said.","highlights":"Curfew relaxed from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. local time in Swat Valley, Malakand .\nTaliban \"digging trenches, laying mines\" in disputed western city, expert says .\nPakistan wants to push Taliban south so it can encircle militants, expert says .\nSome 1.5 million people have been displaced by 10 months of fighting .","id":"94c5ada4f9f54d12e104fda1104ff2acfebdba82"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A court has lifted a ban on identifying a man charged with one of a number of deadly wildfires that scorched southeastern Australia this month. A dirt track runs through the burnt out forest in the Kinglake region of Victoria state. The man, 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk, did not appear in Monday's hearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court, the Australian Associated Press reported. An order banning the publishing of Sokaluk's street address or his image remains in place. Public passions are running high in the aftermath of the fires that have killed scores of people. One T-shirt says, \"The bastards who lit Victoria's fires should: Burn in hell.\" Sokaluk is suspected of lighting a fire on February 7. He was charged with arson causing death, intentionally or recklessly lighting a bush fire, and possessing child pornography, Victoria state police said last week. The fire Sokaluk is accused of setting killed at least 21 people in Gippsland. See map of fire-hit areas \u00bb . Sokaluk's identity had already been revealed on social networking sites before the court lifted the suppression order on his name. There were 12 Facebook groups carrying details about Sokaluk, with one attracting more than 3,600 members. Watch more on arrest \u00bb . Robbie Shenton, who has joined one such group, told CNN: \"The judicial system had no right to suppress his name or photograph.\" Melbourne's Age newspaper reported Police had contacted Facebook seeking removal of Sokaluk's details. The death toll in a string of fires across Victoria climbed to 189 on Monday, police reported. The number of fires burning had dropped to six, from about a peak of about three dozen, the Country Fire Authority said. Watch a survivor tell his story \u00bb . Meanwhile, more than 150 detectives were working on the arson investigation, authorities said. The fires have destroyed more than 1,800 homes and displaced about 7,000 people. Priyanka Deladia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Court lifts ban on identifying man charged with starting deadly wildfire .\nBrendan Sokaluk, 39, did not appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court .\nOrder banning publishing of Sokaluk's address or image remains in place .","id":"6792c8a2394d64873106a7f43087225d0ff22123"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Lebanon on Sunday to pledge U.S. support for the country and its push for free elections. Lebanon President Michel Sleiman greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday. \"The people of Lebanon must be able to choose their own representatives in open and fair elections, without the specter of violence or intimidation, and free of outside interference,\" Clinton said during an unannounced visit to Beirut. It was Clinton's first time visiting the country since taking office. Lebanon is preparing for legislative elections in June that analysts say could bring the militant group, Hezbollah, to power. The Obama administration backs the unity government of Sleiman, while Syria is allied with Hezbollah. \"Both of us are committed to supporting President (Michel) Sleiman's efforts to build a peaceful, prosperous, sovereign and democratic Lebanon.\" Clinton is expected to meet with Sleiman and lay a wreath at the tomb of former Lebanon Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a bomb attack in 2005. Many Lebanese, as well as the United States, accused Syria of orchestrating the assassination of Hariri, an outspoken opponent of Syria. Damascus denied responsibility. But massive popular protests after Hariri's death led to the pullout of thousands of troops that Syria maintained in Lebanon from the 1970s. A senior state department official said Clinton's visit is intended to reassure Lebanon that the United States will not forgo its support of the country as it opens dialogues with Syria and Iran. \"Beyond the election, we will continue to support the voices of moderation in Lebanon, and the responsible institutions of the Lebanese state they are working hard to build,\" Clinton said. CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes unannounced visit to Lebanon .\nClinton says people of Lebanon should vote \"without the specter of violence\"\nClinton also reassures U.S. support of Lebanon in ongoing talks with Syria, Iran .","id":"bce5740a024852f16c19be9faf1448326f1ef4c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The surgeon who performed heart surgery Wednesday on former first lady Barbara Bush said Thursday that she is recovering well from the 2 1\/2-hour surgery in which her aortic valve was replaced with a pig valve. Former first lady Barbara Bush had heart surgery Wednesday in Houston, Texas. \"From our perspective, this was a very routine procedure, and we expect her to make an excellent recovery,\" Dr. Gerald Lawrie told reporters at Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston. Bush had experienced \"severe narrowing of the main valve that lets the blood come out of the heart into the circulation,\" Lawrie said. \"This valve, instead of being a soft, flexible structure that opens and closes, breaks down,\" he said, adding that calcium deposits cause it to stiffen, which can result in fluid in the lungs and progressive deterioration. He said an echocardiogram showed her condition was \"extremely severe.\" Typical symptoms of problems with an aortic valve include shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness and swelling, he said. Though his patient is 83, \"she's a very fit lady,\" which helped make the operation a \"relatively straightforward\" procedure,\" he said. Diagnosed with the condition less than a week before the surgery, Bush entered the operating room at 7 a.m. and, after an hour of preparation during which lines were attached to her and anesthesia was administered, the main work began, Lawrie said. In all, she was on a heart-lung machine for 55 minutes; the implantation of the valve took 45 minutes, he said. She required no blood transfusion. Bush was back in the intensive care unit by 10:45 a.m., where she awoke \"quicker than most\" patients of her age, he said. He described her as \"very lucid.\" \"She recognized all of us immediately and actually started tearing us up with some humorous comments just as soon as we took that tube out.\" He predicted she would remain in the ICU until Friday or Saturday, and then be transferred to a standard hospital floor for another five to seven days. But already, he said, she is \"walking around the room a little bit.\" Bush's husband of 64 years, former President George H. W. Bush, visited her shortly after the operation. \"I've been a nervous wreck about it,\" said the former president, who said he had received telephone calls of support from President Obama and all the other surviving former presidents. \"I think there is a lot of interest because of who she is,\" he said, his voice cracking. \"She looks well. I just came from her room and she's doing well. I keep saying, 'You look great.' [She says] 'Don't tell me that.' But you know, she does ... she looks well to me -- and beautiful.\" Bush added, \"She's in command. She's in control of our whole family.\" Asked to describe what occurred between the two when he saw her, he said, \"I don't remember any words. I'm not the anecdotal one in the family. It was just a reunion of two people who love each other.\" Afterward, the former president turned to a hospital administrator and said, \"I'm sorry I get emotional, but I can't help it.\" The Bush family matriarch is the mother of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.","highlights":"Surgeon: \"We expect her to make an excellent recovery\"\nSurgeons spent 2 1\/2 hours replacing Barbara Bush's aortic valve with a pig valve .\nEchocardiogram showed her condition was \"extremely severe\"\nDoctors think the former first lady will be in ICU until Friday or Saturday .","id":"9336a8f7b8c990f814907253f91bf997cb07b2e2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, \"Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism,\" will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events. Julian E. Zelizer says it's vital that new media provide support for journalism that strives for objectivity. (CNN) -- Last week, Sen. John Kerry convened a discussion of the troubled state of journalism in America by way of a hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. In Kerry's home state of Massachusetts, the Boston Globe is barely surviving. Several major metro papers have closed down, and there are indications that many more could soon follow. Experts have been warning in recent months that much of the newspaper industry may not survive. While the end of the metro newspaper would constitute a huge blow to journalism and the political system, realistically there might be nothing that we can do. The popularity of news on the Web and the potential of mobile devices such as the Kindle makes it difficult to see how we can sustain news in print -- unless electronic delivery can produce enough revenue to support the cost of newspaper staffs. Sometimes technological innovations and consumer preferences cause changes that are irreversible. The industry has seen other important shifts in the way that Americans receive their news, such as the advent of television news in the 1950s and 1960s. But the real issue is not whether we can save the newspapers, but how we can create the best Internet news system possible. As Kerry said in his opening statement: \"There also is the important question of whether online journalism will sustain the values of professional journalism, the way the newspaper industry has.\" The first challenge we must address has to do with editorial control. A great danger of blog-based news is that information disseminates instantly with very little editorial supervision. On too many sites, information goes right from writer to reader. In the heyday of daily newspapers and network news, the news cycle was slow, lasting over the course of a day. There was a considerable amount of time for reporters, editors, and producers to check and verify information before it reached the public eye. Those days are gone. The result is too often that incorrect information circulates quickly. It will be crucial that television news networks continue to maintain Web sites which have the financial capital to support an editorial and production staff and that the newspapers which do survive find ways to expand their online operations, turning them into commercially lucrative ventures. Only they can finance the kind of infrastructure that good journalism requires. The second challenge we face has to do with polarization. Most studies of politics show that polarization has increased significantly throughout American politics. The media are both a product and cause of this political phenomenon. In Congress, there are fewer centrists in either party who are willing to compromise. Unfortunately, we have seen a similar phenomenon in the news business. During the 1990s, FOX News promoted a style of journalism framed within a clear conservative perspective. In recent years, liberals have mimicked these efforts. The nightly broadcasts of MSNBC have offered a counterpoint on the left, with television shows offering news from a liberal perspective. Bloggers on the Web follow this model as well. Not believing that the norm of objectivity is attainable, they prefer to present their political views openly and tend to be much more partisan in how they interpret world events. Moreover, readers and viewers tend to go for their information to sites and channels where they can see their own perspectives confirmed. It will be difficult to counteract these kinds of trends since they are so deep-rooted in American politics. But at a minimum, someone needs to fund reporters who keep covering the story and who at least strive to achieve as much objectivity as possible. There are many Web sites that do undertake this mission, but it will be essential that there is continued and expanded support for reporting as the metro newspapers slowly vanish. The final challenge has to do with fragmentation of news outlets. One of the great advantages of the Internet is that it has broken the monopoly the networks and major newspapers maintained on reporting the news. But the cost of fragmentation is that there are so many competing sites, some run by lone individuals and others by organizations, that Americans have fewer sources that can expose them to a diverse range of stories and that can make clear the interconnections between events that are taking place. When you read the newspaper, it is possible to get a rounded picture of the world by flipping through the international news, national news, arts, business, sports, and more. Now, many sites focus on narrow subject matter. How can we bring the pieces together? The multiplicity of sources on the Web forces the reader to be his own editor, and not many people are inclined to do all the work of scanning a variety of the relevant sites to get a full picture. All of these are challenges to journalism, but we should not lose hope in the potential of the Internet to provide high-quality news. The Internet offers many advantages. The speed can be an asset as readers learn of breaking stories more quickly. Editors have less power to stifle stories because of political or economic pressure. With so many more outlets, somehow the news will get out. Hyperlinked stories can offer readers easy connections to related information and even to original documents through which they can draw their own conclusions about what reporters are saying. The Internet offers room for many more perspectives than existed when just three network anchors and the local newspaper told Americans what was happening. The Internet can also combine written news with video and audio sources, as well as disseminate stories through social networking sites. Readers have the opportunities to interact with reporters and comment on stories. The death of the metro newspaper would be a huge loss. But rather than only focusing on lament, our best response would be to make the new medium of Internet news as strong as it can possibly be. We must address the major challenges by developing sites with the resources to edit, insisting on venues where the pursuit of objectivity remains a goal, and cultivating sites that help bring together different subject matter. If we do, the technological transition that we are living through can turn into a positive moment of advance for the media rather than a moment of decline. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Sen. John Kerry held hearing on future of newspapers and news .\nZelizer says newspapers are endangered by rise of new media .\nFocus should be on what new media can do to ensure quality reporting .\nZelizer: Pursuit of objectivity is a needed goal for Web-based news .","id":"31f8b7449b825ed8143b9ac72ebf0dd02e7bade5"} -{"article":"L'AQUILA, Italy (CNN) -- The youngest hadn't lived half a year. The oldest had lived nearly a hundred. A rescue worker Friday kisses the coffin of a child killed by this week's earthquake in central Italy. The official government list of victims from this week's earthquake in central Italy reached 287 on Friday, as Italians held a mass state funeral to lay the victims to rest. They included Antonio Loavan Ghiroceanu, who was born December 11. He would have been 6 months old on Saturday. The oldest-known victim of the quake was Evandro Testa, 96, who was born in 1913. More than 200 caskets were lined up at the funeral, draped with flowers. At least one small white coffin belonging to a child sat atop a larger coffin, a baby's pastel outfit hanging off the side. The funeral was being held outside a hangar in Coppito, a town adjacent to the earthquake's epicenter of L'Aquila. Officials elected to hold the Mass in the open air to avoid the risk of injury from falling debris. Aftershocks continue to shake the region more than four days after the earthquake, and some were even felt during Friday's funeral. All of the area's cardinals and bishops, along with 100 priests, attended the special funeral Mass. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was also there, greeting and embracing some of the thousands of mourners before the service. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone presided over the Mass as an envoy from Pope Benedict XVI, who plans to visit the region after Easter. Watch Italy bury its dead \u00bb . Bertone said the funeral was a \"precious moment\" to understand the meaning of life and death. \"Everything can stop in a second -- projects, plans -- everything finishes. All that remains is love,\" he said. Watch more on funeral . Mourners, who were transported to the funeral on buses, dabbed their eyes and noses. Some stared at the ground or held each other. Few appeared focused on anything but remembering the victims. \"I feel rebirth in the heart, because below that rubble there is a will to rebuild, to start again, to plan and to dream,\" Bertone said, offering a message of hope. The towns of L'Aquila and the surrounding region, he said, \"will come back stronger, will have more courage and give life to these places with that power and strength and dignity of the soul that distinguishes them.\" As well as sending Bertone to deliver his message, the pope sent holy oils to L'Aquila and a chalice with which to take Communion. Archbishop Giuseppe Molinari of L'Aquila also planned to deliver a message. The 6.3-magnitude quake Monday morning left about 30,000 people without their homes. Almost 20,000 of them are braving chilly nights in tents while about 11,000 others are staying in hotels, said Agostino Miozzo, a spokesman for the Italian Civil Protection Agency. Watch more on the aftermath . Recovering from such losses and rebuilding the city of L'Aquila will take several years, according to Miozzo. The medieval city is about 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Rome. Berlusconi has said rebuilding will cost several billion euros. Aftershocks have heightened anxiety in the area -- including a moderate 5.6 magnitude tremor that struck the area Tuesday. \"The mood is a little bit afraid,\" said Marco Volponi of the Civil Protection agency. He was working in a tent camp, housing people whose homes were inhabitable. In the nearby village of Onna, 40 people -- more than one out of every eight residents in the town of 300 -- were killed in the earthquake. On some streets, every single home was destroyed. Anna Rita Difilice lost her son, Fabio, 20, to the quake -- the deadliest to strike Italy in decades and the first major quake in the country in seven years. She said she doesn't know what comes next for her. Her village has become populated with tents, fold-up beds and feeding stations handing out food, water and other supplies for survivors. But she said she knew one thing: she's not going anywhere. \"My son died here,\" she said. \"There is no way I'm leaving this town -- not ever.\"","highlights":"Italians have gathered to farewell nearly 300 earthquake victims .\nAlmost 20,000 have braved chilly nights in tents, about 11,000 others in hotels .\nToll from Monday morning's earthquake continues to rise: 287 now dead .","id":"049521d3ac15f361d84d0c9d87304ba586e13cd6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some of the $85 million in hurricane relief supplies given away as federal surplus will be sent back to Louisiana and given to nonprofit agencies for distribution, the state's hurricane recovery office said Tuesday. Hand towels sit unused in Fort Worth, Texas. Goods ranged from cots to camp stoves to coffee makers. \"Today we can report that we have been notified that some of the surplus property has been located in Texas and will be coming to the state of Louisiana for distribution by Unity New Orleans,\" said Paul Rainwater, the executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. A CNN investigation revealed last week that FEMA gave away the supplies as government surplus, even though agencies like Unity -- which works to resettle hurricane victims -- were still seeking the kind of supplies given away. After the disclosure, Rainwater's organization asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to return some of the extensive stockpiles of household goods that had been purchased as \"starter kits\" for people living in trailers after Hurricane Katrina. After CNN reported on the giveaway, other Louisiana officials also asked that the supplies be redirected to the state, which originally passed on them. John Medica, director of Louisiana's Federal Property Assistance Agency, told CNN he was unaware Katrina victims still needed the items because no agency had contacted his office. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, an outspoken critic of FEMA's response to the hurricane, told CNN the supply giveaway was \"just a shame.\" \"It's just another example of the failings of the federal bureaucracy,\" Landrieu said last week. She wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to request an explanation. FEMA Administrator David Paulison on Sunday defended the agency's decision, telling CNN that Louisiana had been offered some of the stockpiles, but that state officials had declined the goods. Rainwater said state officials \"will move to quickly get these supplies in the hands of those who need them.\" \"Moving forward, we have made it clear that I am to be the point of contact for FEMA when supplies for Katrina and Rita victims are set aside for our state,\" he said. \"We will also be informing nonprofits about how to access such supplies, so that we can all better serve our citizens who are struggling to rebuild their lives.\" CNN's Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost contributed to this report.","highlights":"Some of the $85 million in supplies will be given to state nonprofit agencies .\nCNN investigation revealed FEMA gave away supplies as government surplus .\nFEMA administrator has defended the agency's decision to give away items .","id":"2836f2e1c8a73956c66cdd509a4884696b00f6c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- United Airlines and US Airways have joined American Airlines in charging passengers to check bags on certain flights. Passengers check in at the United Airlines counter at the Miami International Airport Thursday in Miami, Florida. Citing higher fuel prices, United Airlines said Thursday it will begin charging domestic passengers $15 each way for one checked bag. The Chicago, Illinois-based airline said the fee to check a second bag will be $25 each way. The fee to check three or more bags, overweight bags or \"items that require special handling\" will increase from $100 to $125 or from $200 to $250, depending on the item, United said in a statement. The $15 charge will apply to customers who purchase a ticket on or after Friday for travel within the United States, and who buy on or after August 18 a ticket to or from Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The $15 service fee will not apply to customers flying in United First or United Business or who have premier status with United or Star Alliance airline network, the carrier said. iReport.com: How do you feel about the new fee? For itineraries that include international flights (except Canada), checking a first and second bag will continue to be free, United said. The cost to check more than two bags or items that are overweight or require special handling varies by destination. US Airways, meanwhile, said it will begin charging passengers $15 for their first checked bag for travel on or after July 9. The airline said it also has recently started charging passengers $25 for second checked bags. The new policy applies to flights in the United States as well as flights to and from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. Some airlines have been adding fees to once-free benefits, such as snacks. Despite this cost-cutting, airlines are finding it harder to survive as they get squeezed by soaring fuel costs. \"With record-breaking fuel prices, we must pursue new revenue opportunities while continuing to offer competitive fares, by tailoring our products and services around what our customers value most and are willing to pay for,\" said John Tague, United's executive vice president and chief operating officer. United said it estimates that the $15 fee will apply to one out of three customers, and the potential revenue from baggage handling service fees, including those for checking a first and second bag, will be approximately $275 million a year. The move comes a month after American Airlines announced a $15 service charge for the first checked bag. Delta, Continental and Northwest told CNN they are not charging for passengers' first checked bags. However, a spokesman for Northwest said the airline is well aware of changes in the industry. \"We are always keeping an eye on what our competitors are doing,\" the spokesman said.","highlights":"United: Second bag to cost $25; $125 to apply to three or more or overweight bags .\n$15 fee will not apply to those in United First, United Business or with premier status .\nSome airlines add fees to once-free snacks .\nUnited: $15 fee will apply to one out of three customers .","id":"dd53ef9cecd0e6b3cfe2d78cb53b2f45edff16c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir landed in Qatar on Sunday for an Arab League summit, a move that could put him at risk of arrest on war crimes charges leveled by a U.N. tribunal. Omar al-Bashir is the subject of an ICC arrest warrant over allaged war crimes in Darfur. Al-Bashir met with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, after arriving in Doha, Qatar's capital. Earlier this weekend, al-Thani criticized the timing of the arrest warrant issued in early March by the International Criminal Court, arguing it has undercut his government's efforts to resolve the long-running conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. \"We believe that peace and justice should go hand in hand to settle the conflict in Darfur, or for that matter, any other conflict,\" al-Thani told Arab League foreign ministers Saturday in remarks carried by the Qatar News Agency. \"But we also believe that justice cannot be reached in the absence of peace.\" The March 4 arrest warrant is the first issued for a sitting head of state by the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, based at The Hague in the Netherlands. But the ICC has no arrest powers of its own, and depends on its 106 member states to take suspects into custody. Qatar is not a member of the tribunal. Sudan refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the ICC, and has made no efforts to hand over two other officials indicted by the court. Al-Bashir has called the charges an attempt by Western powers to recolonize Sudan. The court accuses al-Bashir of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in his government's campaign against rebels in Darfur, in western Sudan. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict. Qatar had been mediating talks between Sudanese officials and representatives of one of the rebel factions, who signed a confidence-building agreement in February. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrives in Doha, Qatar .\nMove puts him at risk of arrest for war crimes .\nInternational Criminal Court has issued arrest warrant over Darfur campaign .","id":"648ddd4d6db13f11a45b53ebaf4c0d5b68197aaa"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban commander has issued a new threat to foreign aid workers, saying that under the insurgent group's new \"constitution\" they will execute them as spies or hold them in exchange for the release of Taliban fighters. Taliban militants pose with their weapons as they drive their car in Wardak province. (File photo) In an exclusive telephone interview Friday night with CNN, Mohammed Ibrahim Hanafi said the Taliban intelligence wing was actively gathering information on foreign aid workers. \"If we get someone, that is how we will deal with it under our new constitution,\" he said. He added that he was telling \"Afghan brothers not to work with NGOs.\" In the 15-minute interview, arranged by an intermediary for CNN, Hanafi repeated the Taliban's pledge to keep girls out of public schools. \"Our law is still the same old law which was in place during our rule in Afghanistan,\" he said. \"Mullah Mohammad Omar was our leader and he is still our head and leader and so we will follow the same law as before.\" \"In my opinion,\" he added, \"Taliban aren't allowing girls to go to schools because Taliban want women to preserve their respect by staying in their homes, not to work as laborers for others.\" Dozens of crimes across the country, especially acid attacks, have marred the opening of the new school year in Afghanistan. Afghan girls have been burned and scared randomly with acid as punishment for going to school. More than 600 schools did not open this year because of security issues, according to the Afghanistan Education Ministry. Watch what females face in Afghanistan \u00bb . The schools that did open, however, remain defiant. Young women admitted to CNN being fearful but also said they are determined to get an education and better their lives. It is a sentiment echoed by their principal, a 35-year veteran of Afghanistan's girls schools. \"I am asking those who close schools and throw acid on girls to let the children of this country go to school because it's crime to close the schools, a crime against the children of this country,\" said Safia Hayat, principal of the Zarghona Girls School in Kabul. Hanafi, meanwhile, went on to discuss possible reconciliation talks with the Afghan government. \"I don't think there can be any discussion of peace until the the foreigners leave Afghanistan,\" he said referring to the presence of coalition troops. While he seemed to confirm that some reconciliation talks were ongoing, Hanafi also said he wondered what kind of peace was possible as long as Afghans are still dying in NATO bombardments. Hanafi described himself as a commander in the southern province of Helmand, but announced a new Taliban offensive in the north was about to begin and that he would be playing a key role there.","highlights":"Top Taliban commander issues threat to execute foreign aid workers .\nMohammed Ibrahim Hanafi said intelligence wing was gathering information .\nHanafi repeated Taliban's pledge to keep girls out of public schools .\nCommander gave exclusive telephone interview Friday night to CNN .","id":"83167214407a4b1a816ebfe22b1d2eb59ddbaf2c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- What to do with 50,000 used, possibly smelly and dirty prison mattresses that need to be disposed of every year? Discarded mattresses pile up alongside trash in London in January of this year. Britain's Prison Service won praise Thursday for its innovative solution to the problem: recycle the mattresses for carpet underlay, or break them down for fencing or even roof tiles. Most of the mattresses are sent to landfills. There are enough of them each year to fill 30 double-decker buses, the National Audit Office said Thursday. The Prison Service wanted to find a better way to dispose of the mattresses -- a \"zero-waste\" solution that also cost less money, the NAO said. It worked with suppliers and launched a competition to find the best solution. They ended up coming up with several proposals to reuse the mattresses, and the Prison Service is now testing them out, the NAO said. Thursday's report highlighted several other examples of ways that government departments have used innovation to their advantage. \"We have selected them as good examples of innovative approaches which have lessons for how innovation can be managed in government,\" the report said.","highlights":"UK's prison system wins praise for recycling mattresses .\nPrison mattresses sent to landfills could fill 30 double-decker buses .\nUK's Prison Service sought a \"zero-waste\" solution to tossed mattresses .","id":"ebfef9108eca197d600887bb03fc9abf4f000ab5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctors Without Borders has embarked on a massive vaccination campaign in three African countries to combat an outbreak of meningitis that has killed hundreds of people, the organization said Wednesday. A child gets vaccinated against meningitis in Niger in August 2007. The vaccinations are being carried out in Niger, Nigeria, and Chad -- part of a large swath of what is known as the \"meningitis belt\" of sub-Saharan Africa, the organization said. The \"belt\" stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia. Doctors Without Borders, widely known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said medical teams have treated and vaccinated 5.4 million people and plan on vaccinating another 1.7 million -- making the vaccination campaign the organization's largest ever. The group said more than 1,900 people have died in this outbreak since January. More than 56,000 cases have been reported in Nigeria, Niger and Chad alone, the organization said. Last month, the World Health Organization said the disease was at epidemic level in 76 areas of in Niger and Nigeria, and a spokesman in Nigeria, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, said the outbreak was \"bigger than usual.\" In March, the organization said a total of 24,868 suspected cases had been reported in the \"meningitis belt,\" including 1,513 deaths. The outbreak began around the start of the year, Soyinka told CNN. It usually peaks in the dry season because of dust, winds and cold nights, before dipping around May when the rains come, he said. Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, according to the World Health Organization. Several different bacteria can cause meningitis but Neisseria meningitidis -- which is to blame for the current outbreak -- is one of the most important because of its potential to cause epidemics.","highlights":"Doctors Without Borders embark on vaccination campaign to combat outbreak .\nVaccinations being done in Niger, Nigeria, Chad, where over 56,000 cases reported .\n5.4 million people have been treated, vaccinated; 1.7 million more to be vaccinated .\nOver 1,900 people have died in this outbreak since January .","id":"3afb05c033c51fbf34bc3ed1307e48a36a51d12f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The most eagerly anticipated animated film this year hits big screens this weekend, as \"The Simpsons Movie\" opens worldwide. The Screening Room spoke to creator Matt Groening and writer Al Jean in London about everyone's favorite two-dimensional yellow family. Simpsons supremo Matt Groening with his creations at the film's premiere in Springfield, Vermont . Matt Groening told the Screening Room that fans had driven the demand for the movie. \"We've had fans clamoring for a movie for the past 18 years,\" he said. The film has taken four years to come to fruition, as writer Al Jean explained. \"What really held us up for a long time was to have enough people to do the show and the movie,\" he said. \"We talked for a while about doing the movie after the show is done, but the show is never done! So it really started in earnest in 2003, when we started working on this story that became the movie.\" Technology has also played its part. Jean continued, \"The technology to do this film really wasn't even around five years ago. For example, there was this joke I once pitched and David Silverman, the director, started drawing and as I was pitching it, it went into the film and it was cut a day later. To go from pitch to cut in two days is pretty impressive.\" Its creators hope that \"The Simpsons Movie\" will both satisfy long-term fans and bring Homer and Marge's family to a new audience. Groening told the Screening Room, \"This movie is designed to both honor the people who have loved the show all this time, so there's lots of little details for them in the movie, little characters and stuff who they know and love, but we also want people who don't know the family to not be completely confused. It is a complete movie experience, but again, we have a lot of little details that only the really, true die-hard fans are going to get.\" And fans can expect to be entertained by plenty of cartoon mishaps. Groening said, \"When you see somebody fall off the roof in a live-action film, it's funny -- we all love it. But it's not as funny as when Homer falls off the roof. I don't know what that says about humanity, but we do like to see cartoon characters hurt themselves and there's quite a bit of that.\" But how have Springfield's finest led the field for so long? Groening believes that a large part of the Simpsons' success is down to the traditional animated techniques used to create it -- and that its hand-drawn charm puts the movie ahead of its CGI rivals. He told CNN, \"The difference between our film and these other films is that we have no penguins, okay? So that's the big difference. (Although we do have one penguin.) \"But the other thing is, our film is done the old fashioned way. It's got a lot of errors and flaws in it. These computer-animated films -- and I love them -- are perfect. They're spooky, they're so good. Ours is a way for us to honor the art of traditional animation.\" Al Jean thinks that the series' success is also down to its wide appeal. He says, \"I have a two year old and she loves the Simpsons already, just because of the way it looks and the family. And then on the other hand, we do satirical references that only an adult would get.\" A large part of the appeal of \"The Simpsons\" comes from its ability to portray the more touching moments in family life, like Jean's favorite moment in the movie. \"It's a scene where Bart is really mad at his father,\" he told CNN. \"He's sitting in a tree outside the Simpson house at night. He looks over and sees the Flanders house and thinks how wonderful it would be if he lived there. It's just really sweet: there's something really warm about that scene.\" Groening, who has been meeting fans worldwide while promoting the movie, said that the Simpsons phenomenon has excelled his wildest dreams. \"It's not just the numbers,\" he told CNN. \"The numbers are good, but it's the intensity and the tattoos. The tattoos are freaky. You know? And it's not all just Bart and Homer. You'd think it would be just Homer. I talked to this one guy and he had Millhouse, and I said, 'Oh my god, Millhouse!' and he said, 'Yeah, everybody gets Bart.'\" While Groening never expected the series to run for so long, he told the Screening Room he has no plans to quit while it's ahead. \"The answer is, 'No end in sight! No end in sight!'\" he said. \"We're having fun, we hope the audience has fun, and as long as that's true, we'll continue doing the show.\" Jean believes the show has proved it has longevity. \"I'm sure [it], like Mickey Mouse, will live on and on,\" he said. And he also hopes the Simpsons' success will continue. \"In terms of new episodes, we're doing another season after the movie comes out for sure, and then the casts' contracts expire, but I'd love to get another three seasons and maybe another movie,\" he said. But what is the legacy of this much-loved yellow family? Matt Groening sees the film as the culmination of two decades of hard graft. He says, \"I want to make sure that everyone who's ever worked on this show is proud of their work on this movie, so this rewards the writers, the animators, the actors. It's basically a celebration of twenty years of The Simpsons.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Simpsons creator Matt Groening: Movie is culmination of 20 years' hard work .\nWriter Al Jean says success is down to show's universal appeal .\nMovie uses traditional hand-drawn animation techniques .","id":"3b50208cc9459b9061d3297dbacbc55f323698ec"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian police foiled a plot by Marxist guerrillas to assassinate the nation's defense minister, according to President Alvaro Uribe. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says authorities foiled an assassination plot against the country's defense chief. Ten guerrillas dressed as police planned to infiltrate the family farm of Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos over Easter week and kill the official and his family, Uribe said Thursday on national television. The guerrillas, who belong to the FARC, the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, were captured, Uribe said. Uribe thanked and congratulated federal authorities, saying, \"This investigation had been proceeding for several months, and fortunately the National Police has dealt this well-placed blow.\" Police Director Oscar Naranjo said eight of the guerrillas were captured at a property near Santos' farm in the municipality of Anapoima, 54 miles (87 kilometers) from Bogota, the capital. Officials did not reveal where the other two guerillas were captured. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts have said the FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, analysts said. The guerrilla group is known to pull off audacious operations, sometimes dressed as police, soldiers or other government officials. On April 11, 2002, a 20-member commando group dressed in police and military uniforms faked a bomb alert at the parliament building in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city. They tricked 12 congressmen into getting on a bus by telling them the military provided it for their safety. They then drove off, taking the congressmen into captivity. Eleven of those congressmen died in June 2007 during a shootout between military and the FARC. The sole surviving congressman, who was released in February, said the FARC shot the hostages when the soldiers approached.","highlights":"Plot was against Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, president says .\nTen guerrillas planned to kill Santos' family, President Alvaro Uribe says .\nMembers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were captured, Uribe says .","id":"66cb993a1c73d34717cc96f7a4c111bf632166f5"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The suspected leader of the Basque separatist group, ETA, and two alleged accomplices were arrested over the weekend in France. Jurdan Martitegui Lizaso is the fifth ETA suspect arrested in France in the past two weeks. Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso, 28, was arrested Saturday in a French-Spanish operation near Perpignan in southeast France, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Sunday in a nationally televised news conference here. Hours later, in northern Spain's Basque region, six other ETA suspects -- ages 25-31 -- were arrested, Rubalcaba said. Police suspect Martitegi replaced the suspected ETA military chief who was arrested last December and who, in turn, had replaced the alleged ETA military chief who was arrested last November, Rubalcaba said. Those arrests occurred in France, from where ETA has launched a number of attacks into Spain. ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its more than four decades of fighting for Basque independence and is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States. Rubalcaba said police had also dismantled two ETA commando cells before they could strike, one of them last October in northern Spain's Navarra province, and the other late Saturday, when the six suspects were arrested. Martitegi's arrest came after police trailed an alleged ETA local leader from Spain to a meeting in France with Martitegi for a two-hour training session on the use of explosives and weapons, Rubalcaba said. Police made the arrests in France right after the meeting, before the alleged local leader could return to Spain to share those details with his alleged commando cells, Rubalcaba said. Police seized three pistols, two vehicles, and a small quantity of explosives from Martitegi and the two others arrested in France, Rubalcaba said. \"I think it's very good news and shows the constant police coordination and the cooperation between the police and the courts,\" Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who was involved in the latest investigation, told reporters. Martitegi is the fifth ETA suspect arrested in France in the past two weeks. Given the heavy police crackdown, Rubalcaba said investigators have noted some internal discussion among ETA members about whether they should continue their armed fight or try for a negotiated end to the violence. But he said the government, which held failed peace talks with ETA under three prime ministers since the 1980s, was no longer willing to negotiate. \"The process of dialogue is the past, and the past never returns,\" Rubalcaba said, adding that ETA would have to decide to end the violence itself, or the state would force the group to end it. Over the past two years, police in Spain and France have arrested 365 ETA suspects, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in December. But top Spanish officials have repeatedly warned that ETA, while weakened, is not finished. There are about 600 ETA convicts or suspects in Spanish jails and 150 others in French jails, authorities in both countries have told CNN.","highlights":"Jurdan Martitegui Lizaso wanted for various ETA attacks in Spain .\nState security forces say Martitegui was ETA's \"No.1\"\nETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in fight for Basque independence .","id":"c60bde8b32cad2c5305d95e621a09cb2d1d9f5db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Goldendoodle? Bernese Mountain Dog? Irish wolfhound? Chihuahua? Gina Goodman says a Pomeranian would be a good pet because they're like a stuffed animal come to life. After selecting a chief of staff, President-elect Barack Obama quickly turned to the more pressing issue of finding the perfect puppy for his girls, Sasha and Malia. \"We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic,\" Obama said Friday in Chicago, Illinois. \"On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog. But, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me.\" CNN asked iReporters to weigh in on what kind of dog he should get and what to name it. The response was tremendous. After all, everyone's got an opinion about which pooch will be the Obamas' best friend. Gail Hurson, who lives outside Allentown, Pennsylvania, shared the opinion of many iReporters who want the Obamas to get a shelter dog. She says these pups appreciate having loving owners and a place to call home. iReport.com: What do you think the Obamas should pick? \"Mr. Obama, I say give your girls both a puppy of their own to care for, and give those dogs a second chance, like this country is going to get now that you've been elected to lead us back on track,\" Hurson said in her iReport. Although there was a mix of monikers for the First Dog, many iReporters believe that Hope would be a good name. \"I really believe that with a new president in the White House, there will be hope,\" Teri Satterlund said. The Troutdale, Oregon, resident wants the dog's name to reflect Obama's message of change. Barbara Martinez remembered that Malia is allergic to dogs, so she suggested that Obama get a Goldendoodle or a Labradoodle. Both breeds are hypoallergenic and have a sweet temperament, perfect for a family with children, she said. See some of the more popular hypoallergenic breeds \u00bb . America's Yankee Doodle Dandy would make for a great name, Martinez said. Of course, it's a mouthful, but \"Dude,\" \"Doodle\" or \"Dandy\" could work as nicknames. Finding a name that would celebrate Obama's African heritage was what led Don Belgard to the name Ubuntu. The Pittsfield, Maine, resident said Ubuntu is an African philosophy that promotes \"peace, harmony and good will.\" Because Dale Jacquef shares a birthday with Obama -- August 4 -- he jokes that he is qualified to give some puppy advice. The San Jose, California, engineer says his Alaskan Klee Kai is a big hit with everyone. \"All my daughter's friends go crazy over him, so I thought it would be a good one for the Obamas.\" Elizabeth Shumway of Geneva, New York, envisions the Obamas having a fluffy Bernese Mountain Dog. These \"big, cuddly pieces of fur\" take a while to grow up, maintaining their puppy playfulness, Shumway said. \"I could picture them standing in front of the White House with this big, beautiful dog.\" Huguette Rainforth raised Irish wolfhounds on her farm outside Montreal, Canada, for seven years and thinks the Obamas should get one, too. Rainforth thinks Obama and an Irish wolfhound would make a fine pair because of their comparable personalities. \"I think it's a very noble dog. It's very loyal, trustworthy,\" she said. \"I just felt it was the dog for him.\" A Pomeranian would be the perfect pooch for Obama, according to Gina Goodman, who runs a petsitting service out of her home in Malvern, Pennsylvania. \"They would be ideal for the sweet little Obama girls because they would be like having their stuffed animals come alive for play,\" she wrote in her iReport. Paris Pujol's pet Rocco died a month ago, but she will always remember him for being a great pup. The white Chihuahua loved to zip around outside his home in Natalbany, Louisiana. Being fast and fun-loving does not mean a Chihuahua will be too much for Obama to handle. Obama won't have to fret about it taking too long to train the puppy, because Chihuahuas are easy to train, Pujol said. iReport.com: Spunky little pup brought family lots of love . Dogs are too high-maintenance for Jeremy Larson of Belleville, Illinois, who says Obama should get a cat instead. \"Cats are easier to take care of you don't have to walk them outside. They run around inside and entertain themselves.\" Rusty Clark of West Springfield, Massachusetts, suggests that the Obamas go for a more unusual pet: a llama. iReport.com: An Obama llama? When Clark thought of the \"cute and fuzzy\" creature, she couldn't help but chuckle at the rhyme that popped into her head. \"Obama llama. It just sounded like a '50s doo-wop song,\" she said. \"If they've had donkeys and ponies at the White House, then why not a llama?\"","highlights":"CNN.com readers suggest the perfect presidential pet .\nLabs, Pomeranians and a llama top the list .\nMany said the Obamas should pick a mutt from the shelter .\nTell us what you think at iReport.com .","id":"20880b81d1f1f0425046175009331730bd187ec0"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- January 18, 2008 . Quick Guide . Focus on: The Economy - Hear about the \"r\" word, and see how a possible recession could be fought. No Girls Allowed - Learn why a Florida family is balking at a statewide baseball rule. A Song for Spain - Consider what it would be like to have a national anthem without lyrics. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome! Thanks for spending part of yours with CNN Student News! From the CNN Center, I'm your host, Carl Azuz. First Up: Focus on: The Economy . AZUZ: First up today: Technically, recession isn't a four-letter word. But it is one that Americans don't like to use, because it describes a downturn in the economy over time. Why might this happen? Well, many Americans' home mortgages are going up. And they're not able to pay. More people are out of work, consumers --like you and me-- are spending less money overall. And we don't even need to mention gas prices. Now these factors add up to an economic forecast that's not so good; Your family may be feeling the pinch. And all this is lighting a fire under government officials to fight a possible recession. Brianna Keilar considers the options Congress has, to try to prevent America from slipping into the red. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN REPORTER: With fears of a recession growing, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was on Capitol Hill Thursday, urging Congress to act quickly on an economic stimulus package. BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Stimulus that comes too late will not help support economic activity in the near term and it could be actively destabilizing if it comes at a time when growth is already improving. KEILAR: The president had a conference call with Senate and House leaders from both parties, the White House characterizing it as a consultation rather than a negotiation. All sides are indicating partisan bickering will take a backseat to finding a quick solution. Today marks the first time the White House has said President Bush is backing a stimulus plan, but spokesman Tony Fratto shied away from discussing specifics. TONY FRATTO, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECY.: The headwinds that we're dealing with right now are things that we see over the next coming quarters. So we do want to try to pass something quickly. KEILAR: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner met for the second day in a row. Both sides are stressing a bipartisan effort, but proposals are still vague. One option Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on: tax rebates: checks sent to taxpayers in an attempt to quickly pump money into the economy. Democrats say they'll scuttle any Republican attempts to extend the president's tax cuts as part of the stimulus package. Privately, congressional Republicans acknowledge it's a fight they can't win. What's more, Bernanke told Congress Thursday, making the tax cuts permanent won't help in the short term. BERNANKE: I think that the evidence suggests that measures that involve putting money in the hands of households and firms that will spend it in the near term will be more effective. KEILAR: Speaker Pelosi is hoping to have a final agreement before the State of the Union on January 28th. Brianna Keilar, CNN, the White House. (END VIDEO CLIP) No Girls Allowed . AZUZ: The next question today is, are girls as good as boys at sports? And if they are, should they be allowed to play at the organized, school level? Swing by Jacksonville, Florida, and you'll find that very controversy rounding the bases. But it's not over a school rule-- It's a state one. Laura Mazzeo of affiliate WJXT steps up to the plate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALYSSA PITRE, WANTS TO PLAY BASEBALL: I can play as well as a boy. LAURA MAZZEO, WJXT REPORTER: Twelve-year-old Alyssa Pitre is passionate about baseball . PITRE: I just love the sport. MAZZEO: She lives by the motto, \"practice makes perfect.\" PITRE: I'm gonna try harder. MAZZEO: She spends hours here in the batting cage and working with coaches on her curveball. But this week, Alyssa went to try out for the middle school baseball team at the Providence School and was told she couldn't play. PITRE: I'm a girl. So what? You're not supposed to discriminate against females if they want to try to do something new, and try to make history at their own school. MAZZEO: The school's headmaster says they have no problem with her playing with the boys, but that she isn't allowed by the Florida High School Athletic Association. DON BARFIELD, HEADMASTER OF PROVIDENCE SCHOOL: Since we have a softball team, the state has indicated to us that she would not be permitted to play baseball. MAZZEO: The most obvious difference between softball and baseball -- it's the ball. The softball and the baseball. But Alyssa says there's much more to it than that. PITRE: The pitching is different. The ball is different. In softball they have longer bats -- different gear. MAZZEO: Alyssa isn't alone in her baseball dreams. her parents are considering taking legal action in hopes of changing the rules. ALYSSA'S MOTHER: If she wants to pursue baseball, then we'll pursue baseball. I just want to give her a chance. You know, give her a chance to try out, to see if she's good enough to make any team. MAZZEO: Alyssa is a humble, yet confident 7th grader. PITRE: I was going to give them something to show, instead of wearing pretty jewelry and short skirts. MAZZEO: She believes she is good enough to play with the boys. PITRE: There's really no difference - girls an play just as good as boys. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo . AZUZ: Standing up for what she believes in; gotta give her props for that. Another famous American who stood up to create change: Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. CNN Classroom Edition will air 'The MLK Papers - Words that Changed a Nation.' It's on at 4 am Monday morning. Be sure to set your DVR's now. For special curriculum on the program, check out CNNStudentNews.com. Shoutout . MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Simmons' geography classes at Dixon-Smith Middle School in Fredericksburg, Virginia! Who wrote the lyrics to \"The Star-Spangled Banner\"? If you think you know it, shout it out! Was it: A) Betsy Ross, B) Thomas Jefferson, C) Susan B. Anthony or D) Francis Scott Key? You've got three seconds, GO! Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the U.S. national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, after witnessing a battle during the War of 1812. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Song for Spain . AZUZ: For many of us, it's hard to say, \"Oh Say Can You See\" without singing it --the words and music are sort-of glued together. In Spain, there's just a tune to hum. And though one Spaniard recently got really close to putting official words to it. Al Goodman explains why many people there, didn't like the way they sounded. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AL GOODMAN, CNN REPORTER: The English proudly sing their national anthem, the Americans croon to theirs. And then, there's Spain. Hold it. The Spanish anthem doesn't have any words. This man won a nationwide contest with his lyrics for the anthem. But then suddenly the Spanish Olympic Committee, which sponsored the contest, withdrew the winning entry. ALEJANDRO BLANCO, SPANISH OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Once Spaniards heard these lyrics, they sparked a lot of controversy, even rejection. GOODMAN: Viva Espana, or Long Live Spain, is how the now-discarded lyrics began. The phrase struck a sour note. Critics say it harkened back to the long right-winged dictatorship of Francisco Franco. MARGARITA SAENZ-DIEZ, JOURNALIST: You have to understand that many Spaniards do not consider the national anthem as their own. It was played a lot under Franco. GOODMAN: Spain is now a democracy, but many still bristle at the military march that's served for more than two centuries as the national anthem. Spain is made up of many different peoples, and five languages are spoken across the country. So, naturally, getting agreement on one set of lyrics is no easy task. One of those languages, ancient Basque, is among those taught in Madrid: Basques have their own national anthem and lyrics. At the Basque Cultural Center we found a Spaniard who liked the proposed lyrics for the Spanish national anthem. They're good, he says, and very neutral about Spain. Many others say the proposed lyrics lacked polish and shine. ANTONIO VILLALON, RETIRED CIVIL SERVANT (TRANSLATED): The French and American anthems speak about an enemy to defeat; our lyrics mentioned fields, wheat and friends. It's just stupid. MANUEL RINCON, TAXI DRIVER (TRANSLATED): The anthem should give us goose bumps. Spain's long history and diverse culture should show, in the lyrics. GOODMAN: The Spanish Olympic Committee says the search will go on, but in Beijing, Spanish athletes will likely have to just hum along to a wordless anthem, as they've done for years. It's a tune almost every Spaniard knows. Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid. (END VIDEO CLIP) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, smaller cell phones: Cool. Smaller MP3 players: Cool. Smaller bridges? You're not gonna get too much traffic across this Golden Gate bridge. It's pictured next to a toothpick because it's made from one! Check that out-- you can even see the lines on the hand holding it! This thing was carved, with a great deal more precision than I've got, from a single toothpick and glue. The footage sent in to us by I-Report. The guy who did this says he's been a toothpick artist for 36 years! Goodbye . AZUZ: And as you could see, he really knows how to 'pick' his subjects. That's just painful! And that's where we conclude our week's last broadcast. We'll return on Tuesday, next week. Enjoy your three-day weekend, everyone! I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Hear about the \"r\" word, and see how a possible recession could be fought .\nLearn why a Florida family is balking at a statewide baseball rule .\nConsider what it would be like to have a national anthem without lyrics .","id":"9862b8aab2db9c82fd1012792783a90ec79f7269"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Movie director John Landis is suing Michael Jackson, accusing the reclusive entertainer of fraud in his handling of profits from the iconic \"Thriller\" video the two made together more than 25 years ago. \"King of Pop\" Michael Jackson, seen in 2005, made the \"Thriller\" video with John Landis more than 25 years ago. Landis claimed his 1983 contract with Jackson gave him 50 percent of net profits from the 14-minute video and the documentary about the making of it, both works that he directed and co-wrote with Jackson, court documents say. Jackson \"wrongfully refused to pay or account for such profits,\" the suit, filed against the singer and Optimum Productions, says. The suit characterizes Optimum as \"a defunct corporation\" Jackson has used as an alter ego. The suit accuses Jackson of \"concealing the extent of net profits\" by not giving an annual accounting for at least the past four years, and maintains that Jackson is \"guilty of fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct.\" Jackson's lawyers have not responded to the suit, which was filed on January 21. The video was based on Jackson's 1982 album by the same name, one of the top-selling of all time. Landis, best known as director of \"Animal House\" and \"An American Werewolf in London,\" made the song into a short horror movie, complete with Vincent Price adding narration. Word of the suit comes just after an announcement that Jackson has signed a deal to take the dancing zombie story to the Broadway stage. The Nederlander Organization, a Broadway production company, announced Tuesday that it had signed a contract with Jackson to produce \"Thriller\" on stage. The show, which Jackson is to be involved with, also is to include music from other Jackson albums, the company said. The court has set May 11 as the date for lawyers to hold a conference with a judge concerning the lawsuit.","highlights":"Director John Landis, Michael Jackson made \"Thriller\" video 25 years ago .\nLandis claims 1983 contract gives him 50 percent of net profits from video .\nJackson \"wrongfully refused to pay or account for such profits,\" suit says .\nJackson's lawyers have not responded .","id":"a603e0f2579db93695b602ddac90ebef32219155"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- August 20, 2007 . Quick Guide . Stories of Summer '07 - Catch up on some of the big news stories from the summer of 2007. Hurricane Dean - Find out how some U.S. officials are preparing for Hurricane Dean. Earthquake in Peru: Learn about relief efforts in Peru following a deadly earthquake. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We're back with a brand new school year of CNN Student News. Glad to have you with us everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. Bracing for the storm: U.S. and Mexican authorities are preparing for a powerful hurricane tearing through the Caribbean and looks to be headed for the Gulf of Mexico. And wrapping up the summer: You might have been out of school, but the news doesn't take time off. So we're reviewing some of the summer's big stories . First Up: Stories of Summer '07 . AZUZ: You might have spent the last couple months working at a summer job or working on your tan, but the news didn't stop when school let out last spring. There was tragedy in the Twin Cities when a bridge in Minnesota collapsed during rush hour, and questions in America's pasttime when a slugger's record-breaking trip around the bases raised a cloud of controversy. We've followed it all and we're ready to get you caught up on some of the biggest headlines of the summer. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUSTY DORNIN, CNN REPORTER: It was an extended family of rescue workers from around the country who converged on Charleston to honor the nine fallen firemen, joining blood relatives, friends and the local community. HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN REPORTER: The relatives of those victims deal with the wrenching but definite news that everybody on board the flight from Puerto Allegre died during yesterday's crash. LIZ KENNEDY, CNN REPORTER: The questions for the CNN-sponsored debate were submitted to the online video sharing Web site YouTube. BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER: Animal rights protesters target their rage at an NFL star as he enters a federal courthouse. Inside, Michael Vick pleads not guilty to felony charges of dogfighting and conspiracy. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN REPORTER: Six o'clock on Wednesday evening, rush hour in Minneapolis. Cars, trucks, buses crawl across the I-35W bridge bumper to bumper. Just minutes later, that slow traffic comes to a tragic halt. JOHN VAUSE, CNN REPORTER: Many of the toys made here for the U.S. giant Mattel were coated in lead paint, and earlier this month more than a million were recalled. BARRY BONDS: This record is not tainted at all, at all, period. You guys can say whatever you want. JOHN LORINC, CNN REPORTER: Nearly a week into the search for six miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon coal mine, rescuers will now try a new tactic: drilling a third hole in an effort to find the men. BARBARA STARR, CNN REPORTER: Top U.S. commanders are now using the strongest language to condemn the killing and wounding of hundreds after multiple suicide vehicle bombs exploded in remote northern Iraqi villages, home to a religious minority group known as Yazidis. HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN REPORTER: People waited in lines for hours, desperate for food, water and blankets. Civil defense authorities estimate more than 17,000 homes were destroyed in one town alone. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo . AZUZ: If you want to keep the discussion going on the stories in our summer round-up, we've got a learning activity that will help you take a closer look. Students can talk about how time and perspective might shape opinions about news events and examine how the stories from this summer might be presented in a history textbook. You can check out the free activity at CNNStudentNews.com. Hurricane Dean . AZUZ: Several countries are preparing for a deadly storm that's blowing through the Caribbean. Hurricane Dean has been tearing across the area since late last week, and on Friday, it strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane. Jamaican officials turned off some power grids in advance of the storm's approach and advised residents to move into shelters, and the Mexican government issued a hurricane watch for areas in Dean's projected path. This massive storm is large enough to easily be seen from space, and with its menacing winds bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico, Liz Kennedy reports on what officials are doing to get ready. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LIZ KENNEDY, CNN REPORTER: FEMA officials came out Sunday with a message: If Hurricane Dean does make landfall on the American Gulf Coast, help is ready to go. DAVID PAULISON, FEMA DIRECTOR: We are ready. This is one of the best efforts I've seen, the best coordinated efforts I've seen. KENNEDY: FEMA says their latest information shows the storm not making it as far north as Texas. However, they say hurricanes are ultimately very unpredictable and they are working under the assumption the United States will be affected. The White House has already approved a request to free up federal assistance for Texas. On the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast Sunday, oil rig workers were evacuated via helicopter to nearby Galveston. A veteran of the rigs says he was happy to comply. KEN YATES, OIL RIG WORKER: I know what its like to be on, get caught, trapped on one and you can't get off of it. Its not much fun. KENNEDY: Dean is being blamed for several deaths in the Caribbean. Forecasters say it could bring up to 20 inches of rain in heavily populated Jamaica, which could trigger life-threatening floods. I'm Liz Kennedy, reporting from Atlanta. (END VIDEO CLIP) Fast Facts . GEORGE RAMSAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for some Fast Facts! Using categories of 1 to 5, the Saffir-Simpson scale gauges how much power a hurricane packs. A Category 1 hurricane, for example, has wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour and is capable of lightly damaging trees and shrubs. Contrast that to a seriously damaging Category 4, which has wind speeds of more than 130 miles per hour and a storm surge of up to 18 feet above normal. Earthquake in Peru . AZUZ: As you saw in our summer wrap-up, parts of Peru are recovering from a different natural disaster. A massive earthquake struck there last week, killing more than 500 people. This tremor registered an 8.0 on the Richter scale, which measures the magnitude, or strength, of earthquakes. Towns along the country's Pacific Coast suffered the most severe damage, and many Peruvians were left in need of food, shelter and supplies. Harris Whitbeck has more on the relief efforts in the South American nation. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN REPORTER: Three days after the powerful earthquake, aid continued to flow into the stricken Ica region of southern Peru. A sports stadium in the regional capital hummed with activity as workers sorted supplies. Among the workers, Peruvian President Alan Garcia's daughter. GABRIELA GARCIA (Spanish): We are trying not only to give support and all the solidarity that we have, but also to give our time to help in moving and classifying things. WHITBECK: People waited in lines for hours, desperate for food, water and blankets. Civil defense authorities estimate more than 17,000 homes were destroyed in one town alone. Many of the area's residents spent the night in the streets for a third time in a row. They were surrounded by the destruction, accompanied by little more than what lay beneath the rubble . EARTHQUAKE VICTIM (Spanish): The dead are still buried under all this. It is going to start stinking here and we can be contaminated by cholera or many other epidemics. WHITBECK: Military personnel patrolled the stricken cities in efforts to prevent looting. Gunfire was heard throughout the night in Ica. Eyewitnesses reported armed inmates who had escaped from a nearby destroyed prison were roaming parts of town looting homes. Amid the chaos, a sign of hope. A baby was born to an earthquake victim while the visiting President Alan Garcia looked on. But other parents worried about the future for their families. EARTHQUAKE VICTIM (Spanish): I need to think about rebuilding so that my son can live here. I know it is too soon, but someday I will die and my children will live on. WHITBECK: They might live on, but they will do so with the memories of the horror of the past. Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Lima, Peru. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo . AZUZ: CNN Student News has a new address, at least online. Check out CNNStudentNews.com. You'll find all of our free curriculum materials, transcripts of all of our programs and of course our show. Plus, you won't want to miss our brand new blog. It's all right there at CNNStudentNews.com. Shoutout . RAMSAY: Time for the Shoutout! Fill in the blank: A pachyderm is a _____. If you think you know the answer, shout it out! Is it a: A) Reptile, B) Mammal, C) Bird or D) Arachnid? You've got three seconds -- GO! Elephants, hippos and rhinos are all pachyderms, and they're all warm-blooded mammals to boot. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, we've got a look at an elephant's trip over the hill. Siri the elephant turned the big 40 this weekend. The plodding pachyderm has been the main attraction in her zoo's elephant exhibit for 35 years. She may be a little long in the tusk, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to party! Plenty of fans were on hand to sing happy birthday and cheer her on as she dove trunk first into her peanut butter birthday cake. Siri's friends at the zoo say she's got quite the fan club. NICK PIRRO, ONONDAGA COUNTY EXECUTIVE: She's the matriarch of the herd here, and we have one of the finest elephant breeding programs in the country. So we're very proud of it. Goodbye . AZUZ: And that's our last bite for today. But we'll see you again tomorrow for more CNN Student News. Thanks for watching, everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Catch up on some of the big news stories from the summer of 2007 .\nFind out how some U.S. officials are preparing for Hurricane Dean .\nLearn about relief efforts in Peru following a deadly earthquake .","id":"f873214b61f5870d03af8785c616fba82f28e810"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Guerrillas in Colombia tortured and killed 17 Indians who they believed were helping the government, a governor and two human rights organizations said Wednesday. Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, swept into a village in southwest Colombia last week and abducted an undetermined number of Awa Indians, Human Rights Watch said. The guerrillas tortured and killed 17 Awas, including at least two minors, the human rights group said. Another human rights group, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, or ONIC, also reported the allegations. Navarro Wolff, the governor of Narino province, where the Awas live, decried the reported killings. \"The guerrillas took several families, recriminating them for their supposed collaboration with the army,\" Wolff told El Pais newspaper. \"A young man was able to escape and told how he had been tied. Later, they tortured him, they beat him and they killed eight with with a knife.\" Nine other villagers also were executed, unconfirmed reports said. The allegations are based partly on the information provided by the young man who said he escaped. Human Rights Watch also said it received reports from \"reliable sources,\" whom the organization did not name. \"These cruel killings violate the most basic principles of human decency and dignity,\" said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch. \"There is no possible excuse or justification for these horrific actions.\" The remote village is a 12-hour trip away from the nearest large town, and no independent verification has been obtained. Besides the unforgiving terrain, the presence of land mines and the existence of numerous armed groups virtually prevent outsiders from visiting the area. Monsignor Ruben Salazar Gomez, the president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, joined the chorus of criticism, alleging a \"crime the whole country should condemn.\" Another religious leader said the Awa need protection. \"We are very worried about the Awa community,\" said Monsignor Gustavo Giron Higuita, the bishop of the city of Tumaco. \"It is a community that is pretty unprotected and that in the past five years has received a type of persecution by armed groups.\" The prelate said that although there were indications that the FARC was behind the killings, \"we are not certain of that,\" El Pais said. The Awas, he said, \"are pacifist, want respect of their organization and want to regain their traditions. We have been accompanying them in this process, and that's why this hurts so much.\" New York-based Human Rights Watch said group members have made numerous visits to Narino, which is one of Colombia's 32 departments, or states. Narino is in southwest Colombia, on the Pacific Ocean and the border with Ecuador. The area has a heavy presence of various armed groups and Colombian military forces, and has among the worst human rights conditions in Colombia, the human rights group said. The Awa territories have been particularly affected. The Colombian government has issued a \"risk report,\" warning authorities that civilians in the region are at risk. The FARC is said to have \"confined\" some villages, cutting them off from the outside world and not allowing anyone to enter or leave. In another report Wednesday, ONIC, the indigenous human rights group in Colombia, said the FARC has abducted 120 Awas since February 4. ONIC said the FARC kidnapped 20 Awa men, women and children February 4 from the Barbacoas area in Narino. The rebels returned the next day and grabbed children who had remained behind, ONIC said, according to Caracol Radio. ONIC also reported that a number of Awa had been knifed to death. The FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Colombia, has been waging war against the government since the 1960s. Security analysts say the FARC has 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas. The guerrilla group operates mostly in Colombia but has carried out extortion, kidnappings, bombings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador.","highlights":"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia accused of torture, slayings .\nFARC guerillas killed the Indians for helping the Army, governor reportedly said .\nAllegations are based in part on information from man who said he escaped .\nHuman rights group in Colombia says FARC has abducted 120 Awas since February .","id":"22a2da07347287c210db3c596da6c061ee41cca3"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- In its opening weekend, \"The Haunting in Connecticut\" scared and thrilled millions of moviegoers across the country. In \"The Haunting in Connecticut,\" Virginia Madsen sees strange things happen in her old house. The film, which earned $23 million to finish No. 2 at the box office, emphasizes psychological horror over slasher film blood 'n' gore, which its audience apparently appreciated. But Virginia Madsen, who plays Sara Campbell in the film, confessed that, while filming, fear was not just reserved for the screen. \"We all stayed in this big, old hotel which was kind of like the one in 'The Shining,' one of those turn-of-the- century big, old hotels,\" Madsen told CNN. \"I had a little chat with my room. I said, 'Just out of respect, if there are any entities around, I need to stay here, I have a lot of work to do, I have to sleep at night, so please leave me alone.' \" Yet, Madsen admitted, her belief in ghosts is not very strong. \"I do have an attraction to paranormal investigation and all those kinds of shows but I'm not sure if I really believe in ghosts,\" she said. \"The Haunting in Connecticut\" is based on the true story of Sara Campbell, a mother who moves her family into an old house in Connecticut in order to be closer to the hospital where her son, Matt (Kyle Gallner), receives cancer treatment. The house was once a funeral home and, shortly after their move, the family begins witnessing strange, supernatural activities. \"Something very powerful and very real happened to this family. Whether or not you believe it was some sort of demon or, you know, they're manifesting it -- whatever it is -- it changed their lives,\" Madsen said. Madsen, 47, is probably best known for her Oscar-nominated turn in \"Sideways\" as Maya Randall, the restaurant waitress who gets involved in a romance with the prickly writer played by Paul Giamatti. Since that 2004 film, the actress has made several films, including \"A Prairie Home Companion\" and \"The Number 23.\" She and the rest of the cast developed a close relationship on the set and were much like a family behind the scenes. \"I was more like a mother bear with my young actors,\" Madsen said. In fact, Madsen added, her close relationship with the younger actors made filming difficult at times. \"One scene in the movie that was the hardest for me to do was when [Matt] wakes up ... and his skin is all carved with these different incantations,\" she said. \"And I open his shirt and he's just looking up at me with these big blue eyes with tears ... and he really felt like my boy, he really felt like my second son.\" Madsen said the film, complete with ghosts, s\u00e9ances and creaking floorboards, is successful because it has all the elements of a good horror flick. \"The movie works ... because it plays on our most basic childhood fears. 'Something's under the bed, something's in the closet, something's in the mirror.' And all of us still have those same childhood terrors,\" she said. The desire to experience those same terrors and to forget about everyday life, Madsen added, draws people to the theaters at an older age. \"I like things that go bump in the night, and scary things that are fun,\" she said. \"That's really what this movie really is. I think horror movies are so popular because times are especially hard and I think a horror movie more than any other kind of movie is a true escape ... You're forgetting about your life because you're like, 'Oh my God!' \" CNN's Elham Khatami contributed to this story.","highlights":"\"The Haunting in Connecticut\" had a successful opening weekend at box office .\nVirginia Madsen, who stars in film, likes \"things that go bump in the night\"\nMadsen, best known for \"Sideways,\" took motherly role over young co-stars .","id":"f8aae4ae8292da229cc031c4096080505a2bf61f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- They've been called \"bromances\": those buddy films and TV shows, such as the movies \"Pineapple Express\" and \"The 40-Year-Old Virgin,\" that feature non-sexual but deep friendships between two or more males. Jason Segel and Paul Rudd star in \"I Love You, Man,\" which opens Friday. The forthcoming \"I Love You, Man,\" which opens Friday, appears to fit the bill. In the film, Paul Rudd plays a man who needs a best man for his wedding but has never made any male friends. Enter Jason Segel as Sydney Fife, whom Rudd's character, Peter Klaven, pursues on several \"man-dates\" that end up threatening his relationship with his fianc\u00e9e (Rashida Jones). But don't call the film a \"bromance\" in the presence of Rudd and Segel. \"We hate that word,\" Segel told CNN. \"It was not part of the lexicon while we were filming,\" added Rudd. Still, both actors have plenty of experience in the, uh, guy-pal genre. Rudd has been in several comedies written, directed or produced by Judd Apatow, considered one of the leaders of the \"bromance\" trend with his softer, more openly emotional male characters. Segel has also been in Apatow projects -- including last year's \"Forgetting Sarah Marshall\" -- and he stars in the TV series \"How I Met Your Mother,\" which finds plenty of humor in male bonding. Segel observes that what helps the films work is the discomfort of two men trying to talk about their emotions while hoping to maintain a dispassionate, hard-edged, prototypically manly fa\u00e7ade. And he knows he's good at bringing out that discomfort in his co-stars. \"Judd Apatow told me that my special skill was that I am able to maintain my likability while getting incredibly close to the creepy line, and that's what I should try to cultivate,\" he said. \"That's what he does,\" Rudd noted. \"He just holds [the moment] a little too long.\" \"It's the fraction of a second too long that makes people uncomfortable,\" Segel added. In \"I Love You, Man,\" Segel's character is rougher and looser than his characters in \"Sarah Marshall\" and \"How I Met Your Mother.\" He welcomed the change. \"It was a real treat for me, to be honest for a minute, to play this character, because I've played sort of a puppy dog guy in 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' and on ['Mother'] I play a husband, you know, a loving husband,\" he said. \"So to get to play a character who is a bit more of a man of mystery was very exciting for me.\" In real life, claims Segel, he even has a man cave. \"It's filled with puppets,\" he said. \"And I keep wondering why I don't have a girlfriend. I'm like, 'hey, this is my house; come check it out. This is where I keep my 40 puppets.' ... I think that I have a reputation for being weird because of that.\" But he quickly turns serious and maintains that \"I Love You, Man\" does have a message to go along with its comedy. \"I think we both had something to learn from each other,\" he said. \"Paul's character had to learn that it's all right to take a little distance from your significant other and have some dude friends and someone to vent to about things you can't necessarily talk about with your girl.\" \"Sometimes buddies hold a mirror up to the way you behave in ways that relationships with the opposite sex don't,\" Rudd said. \"Yeah, and my character had to learn that maybe it's time to grow up a little bit,\" Segel added. So, this \"bromance\" thing, allowing a few feelings to show. Perhaps it's not so bad after all? Rudd says that the idea has its upside, despite its name. And he's glad it's been successful. \"That's us in a nutshell, not macho, not tough,\" he said. \"I think that we've all been kind of drawn to real stories, you know, characters that hopefully people can relate to and what's funny about just certain insecurites and just certain things in life. \"They could easily be dramatic,\" he pointed out. \"Just less fart jokes.\"","highlights":"\"I Love You, Man\" stars Paul Rudd, Jason Segel as two men trying friendship .\nNeither Rudd nor Segel likes the term \"bromance\"\nComedy makes some serious points about friendship, Segel says .","id":"07f313a84eaa657e73dad1a1b61105ded67f6fd7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With President Barack Obama limiting how and where detainees at Guantanamo Bay can be interrogated, some analysts are asking if intelligence agencies will be able to get the information they need to keep the country safe -- and where the prisoners will eventually end up. President Barack Obama recently ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Fresh off his inauguration, Obama issued executive orders relating to Guantanamo, including one requiring that the detention facility be closed within a year. During a signing ceremony at the White House on January 22, Obama reaffirmed his inauguration pledge that the United States does not have \"to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals.\" The president said he was issuing the order to close the facility in order to \"restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism.\" At its peak, Gitmo held 770 people the U.S. government believed may have been involved in terrorist activity or military action against the nation. The facility drew sharp criticism, including from Obama as he campaigned for the presidency. Human and legal rights advocates complained that many Gitmo detainees were being held indefinitely without charge. There were a handful of reports of mistreatment of detainees and Obama, among others, said the facility was not an effective way to deal with alleged enemy combatants or gather good intelligence. With the closing of Gitmo and secret overseas CIA prisons, future detainees may stay in foreign custody. Those countries might not have the same constraints on interrogations, and they could share what they learn or let U.S. intelligence sit in. Watch more on the Gitmo dilemma \u00bb . \"While you're able to say that you don't have U.S. secret prisons, in effect, you may be able to get the benefit through your relationship with foreign intelligence services,\" said CNN national security contributor Frances Townsend, who served as President Bush's national security adviser. But some say it's the mere image of closing Gitmo that will help U.S. relations around the world. \"Guantanamo is an extraordinary debilitating symbol in the United States and the United States' standing in the world community. Closing it makes good sense,\" Charlie Swift, a former naval defense attorney, said on CNN's \"State of the Union with John King,\" on Sunday. But Douglas Feith, who helped shape the Bush administration's terrorism policy, downplayed that notion. \"I don't think that it's much more than a symbolic decision,\" he said. \"The real issue is whether we can make sure that the extremely dangerous people that we're holding at Guantanamo can continue to be held so they don't engage in terrorism in the future.\" That issue was raised last week amid a new report by the Pentagon -- released days before Obama took office -- which said 18 former detainees are confirmed to have participated in attacks, and 43 are suspected to have been involved in attacks. Watch more on where Gitmo prisoners may go \u00bb . But security experts are questioning information released by the Pentagon, saying 61 former detainees from Gitmo may have returned to terrorist activities. That figure would be about 11 percent of the roughly 520 prisoners who have been released from the Guantanamo facility. But in a briefing Thursday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates -- an advocate for closing Guantanamo while serving under Bush and, now, under President Obama -- seemed to downplay the number of former detainees who have returned to fighting. \"It's not as big a number if you're talking about 700 or a thousand or however many have been through Guantanamo,\" he said. On Friday, a Pentagon spokesman defended the integrity of the report but would not directly answer questions about where the figures come from. \"We don't make these figures up. They're not done willy-nilly,\" spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Pentagon officials said they would not discuss how the statistics were derived because of security concerns that such information could give clues to how U.S. intelligence officers collect their data. CNN learned some former Guantanamo detainees have returned to the fight. An al Qaeda video viewed by CNN's Nic Robertson showed militants labeled with their former prisoner numbers. Saeed Shihri, Prisoner No. 372, is believed to have been responsible for an attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen that killed nearly a dozen people in September, barely a year after he was released from Guantanamo. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Ed Hornick and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama signs executive order calling for Gitmo facility to close .\nSecurity experts question where the detainees will be relocated to .\nThere are also concerns about how intelligence will be collected under new rules .\nCNN learned some former Gitmo detainees have returned to terrorism .","id":"6d2ea4228fa9a43adf51792d95c4e79cec6d6aa1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No longer able to fit into a booth at a restaurant and too embarrassed to ask for seatbelt extensions on an airplane, Maggie Sorrells was desperate to lose weight. Maggie Sorrells lost 300 pounds and went from wearing a size 5X or 64 in men's clothing to a size 6. The day she stepped on a hospital scale and realized she weighed 440 pounds she knew she had to do something. Name: Maggie Sorrells Age: 32 Hometown: Franklin, Tennessee Occupation: Receptionist in doctor's office Height: 5 feet 6 inches Heaviest weight: 440 pounds Current weight: 140 pounds Pounds lost: 300 pounds Defining moment The moment I saw that I weighed as much as I did, it scared me, and I knew I had to do something about it. How did you finally lose the weight? Diet: Weigh Down Workshop, a faith-based weight loss program. I ate whatever I craved, but only when I was truly hungry, and then I ate a lot slower, so I could tell when to stop. Exercise: Nothing out of the ordinary, occasionally I'd go for a walk, but never because I felt like I had to. How long did it take you to lose weight? Four years with two pregnancies within the same time period. One month after I lost 300 pounds, I became pregnant for the third time with my son. How has this changed your life? Drastically, the way I eat, the way I live my life. I am able to move better. I feel better emotionally and physically. I'm just a much happier person. I love to hike and I could never go when I was big. I almost killed myself going a half-mile. My chest would hurt and I would think I was having a heart attack. Just after we had our daughter, we went hiking all day and climbed rocks. I also love the beach. I'm no longer ashamed to go to the beach or wear a bathing suit. Do you have any tips for other people who want to lose weight? Yes, don't think about how much weight you have to lose because you'll get overwhelmed and discouraged. Set small goals, like 15 pounds. There were times I wanted to give up and there were days I felt like I couldn't do this. Food was my drug. Take [weight loss] in small increments because when you lose 15 pounds you'll be excited and before you know it you'll lose 50.","highlights":"Maggie Sorrells could no longer squeeze into restaurant booths at 440 pounds .\nDoctors had warned her that she might not live to the age of 30 .\nShe shed 300 pounds following a faith-based weight loss program .","id":"38b272340a65252b964b881dcad3be99b00907ca"} -{"article":"SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday accused a U.S. diplomat of contacting opposition groups, declared him \"persona non grata\" and ordered he be expelled. \"Francisco Martinez, a Mexican-U.S. citizen, was in permanent contact with opposition groups during the whole era of conspiracy,\" the leftist president said. \"He was the U.S. embassy person who contacted ex-police officers,\" Morales told reporters, according to The Associated Press, whose tape of the speech was broadcast on CNN en Espanol. \"The times of the colony will end in Latin America,\" Morales vowed to reporters. \"We are in profound transformation.\" Martinez was identified in media reports as the second secretary at the embassy in La Paz, Bolivia's capital. Heidi Bronke, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department's Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau, acknowledged the move, but said it had not been communicated through diplomatic channels. \"We reject the accusations made by the government of Bolivia,\" she said. \"This decision is unwarranted and unjustified. It is inconsistent with recent statements by the government of Bolivia expressing a desire to improve bilateral relations.\" Morales' move comes six months after he declared U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg persona non grata for allegedly having encouraged anti-government demonstrators to violence. Goldberg denied the charge. Journalist Gloria Carrasco contributed to this story from Santa Cruz, Bolivia .","highlights":"Bolivian President Evo Morales expels U.S. diplomat .\nFrancisco Martinez identified in media reports as second secretary .\nDiplomat \"contacted ex-police officers,\" said Morales .\nU.S. State Department rejects accusations, says spokeswoman Heidi Bronke .","id":"272bab3fc399de13e1c153484da191efdfe9c6d4"} -{"article":"LYON, France -- Inter Milan have agreed to the transfer of Italian World Cup winning defender Fabio Grosso to six-time French champions Lyon. Grosso made 23 Serie-A appearances for Inter Milan last season. \"The player arrived late on Friday evening and passed his medical test before signing his contract with the club on Saturday morning, all three parties involved are in agreement,\" said Olivier Blanc, communications director of the French club. The 29-year-old Italian will be present at a ceremony at Lyon's Town Hall to launch the French champions 2007-08 season. Grosso is Lyon's highest-profile summer signing and will come as much sought after relief by a club who saw the departure of France international left back Eric Abidal to Barcelona. Lyon, chasing a record seventh consecutive League One title, have also signed Nadir Belhadj from French first division rivals Sedan and Mathieu Bodmer and Kadar Keita both from Lille. The Italian League champions Inter Milan decided to release Grosso after a below-par season and just one year at the club. The imposing defender played 23 matches in the league last term, scoring two goals. He will be bitterly remembered in France for scoring Italy's winning penalty in the final shootout that denied France their second World Cup success. Grosso will be the third Italian to play for the club since it was founded, following Orenzo Dito and Aridex Caligaris in the 1950s. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lyon have completed the signing of Inter Milan defender Fabio Grosso .\nThe Italian World Cup winner signed his contract on Saturday morning .\nLyon will be bidding for a seventh consecutive French title next season .","id":"cae3be83296fc3d65f3df81dba528650eb9606d6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Taresh Moore is a student at Winston Salem State University in North Carolina. The 21-year-old senior traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the inauguration. Alfred Bouey is a World War II veteran and a grandson of slaves. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Alfred Bouey, an 84-year-old African-American, still remembers the stories from his grandfather about the scars on his body from the beatings he took as a slave in the South. Bouey, of Oak Park, Illinois, attended Tuesday's inauguration of President Obama. Words can't express his excitement and happiness about witnessing history. A World War II veteran, he never thought he would live to see a black president in America. Bouey grew up in Arkansas and saw racism firsthand. He witnessed his mother being mistreated by whites in the South, but he never saw her give up. He eventually left Arkansas for Chicago. Bouey attended the inauguration after winning Brookdale Senior Living's Experiences of a Lifetime contest. Residents at various Brookdale Senior Living communities nationwide shared their experiences and submitted their wishes as part of the contest. Bouey shared his story and said he'd like to be there when Obama was sworn in. \"My grandfather and grandmother were whipped and beaten, and had the scars to prove it,\" he said. With CNN.com's help, Taresh Moore spoke with Bouey about the inauguration ceremony. Below is a transcript of their interview. Moore: How are you today? Bouey: I'm great. I couldn't feel any better right now. Moore: How did it feel to take part in this historic inauguration? Bouey: It felt very great. I can't find any words to express my happiness. I am speechless and full of joy. Moore: What will you remember most about the inauguration? Bouey: I will remember that I was actually there. I lived to see this historic event. I'm 84, and I had the chance to witness this. Not too many people had that opportunity, and I am honored. Moore: How did you feel when you found out that you and your family were going to Washington, D.C., to take part in the inauguration? Bouey: I was happy. At first when I was asked to take part in the survey, I didn't mind sharing my story because I had many stories to share. When I found out I had the opportunity to go, I was very grateful. I couldn't wait to get here. Moore: Did you ever believe you would live to see an African-American president in your lifetime? Bouey: No. I never thought I would live to see one. Growing up, my mother wanted me and my brother and sister to get an education. And we all did. An education will take you far, and we see that it did for our new president and for me. But I'm glad I lived to see this. It's a wonderful experience, and I am very proud of it! Moore: How was it growing up in the South? Bouey: I was born in Philadelphia and moved to Arkansas at the age of 1. Growing up, everything was segregated -- in the schools, restaurants and just everywhere. Blacks couldn't do this and we couldn't do that. I came to the point where I got tired of it all in the South and just moved away. I moved to Chicago on June 2, 1946. Moore: Was it better in Chicago? Bouey: Yes, a lot better. Better opportunities for blacks. Moore: You have lived a life that has seen the scars on the body of a former slave, who was your grandfather, to seeing America's first African-American president all in one lifetime. How does that make you feel? Bouey: I feel that America has come a long way. And I mean a very long way. My grandfather had scars from slavery. My mother wasn't a slave, but she still was beaten in the cotton fields. Beatings didn't stop for some years after slavery. But there are no slaves now. It shows the great progress this country has made. Moore: How do you think your grandparents and mother would feel to see the first African-American president? Bouey: I believe it would mean more to them than it means to me because of how they were treated and the hard work they put in. This would be like their reward for all of the work and suffering they endured. Others, like Martin Luther King, who I marched with, would be very happy as well. Moore: How did you feel when President Obama was first elected? Bouey: Well, I had tears of joy on Election Night. I cried. They almost had to mop up the floor due to all of the tears that came out of my eyes. It was just a great feeling. Moore: How do you feel about President Obama and the future of America? Bouey: I feel that America is headed in the right direction. The youth are our future, and the youth in the African-American community has a great example of a role model to look up to. Any youth from any race can look to President Obama. They don't have to sell drugs or other bad things. Be like Obama, get an education and succeed in life. Moore: Millions of people of all races filled Washington this weekend to witness history. Of those people, many white Americans filled the city to see a black man being sworn in as president. How does that make you feel? Bouey: I feel happy. It shows change. It's good to see the white Americans appreciate and show love to the new president. And it's good to see everyone come together for a special occasion. We're all equal, no matter what color your skin is. Moore: If you could say anything to President Obama, what would it be? Bouey: I would say job well done. Our prayers are with you. Keep your faith in God, and he'll keep you.","highlights":"Alfred Bouey, 84, attended the inauguration of the nation's first black president .\nBouey, who grew up in Arkansas, saw his mother being mistreated by whites .\n\"It's good to see the white Americans appreciate and show love to the new president\"\nBouey says, \"I am ... full of joy\"","id":"b75262ad6470bf36f482c74983c02c010d711a59"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: CNNU is following two student teams from the University of Southern California as they work to improve the quality of life in India. The student teams will be writing about their experiences for CNNU throughout the summer. Check back regularly for updates on their work. CNNU first introduced the Oral Cancer Awareness Team. It now introduces the Water and Health Team. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CNN or its affiliates. Students visited slums to obtain data on the history of health and access to water in each household. (CNN) -- The World Health Organization reports that 88 percent of the 1.8 million deaths resulting from diarrhea can be attributed to unsafe water or inadequate hygiene or sanitation. Unfortunately, a significant population in the city of Hubli, India, fall victim to these causes, and they are not even aware of the cause. The University of Southern California Hubli Water and Health Team is spending this summer implementing a project model that will improve these statistics in the community. The team of six students, visiting from the University of Southern California, will guide a pilot project in the under-served community of S.M. Krishna Nagar. Over the course of the next year, the Team will employ local college students to maintain the program and monitor the efficiency of the water purification technology. And by subsidizing the cost for those living within S.M Krishna Nagar, the Team will be providing state-of-the-art purification systems at affordable prices, creating an important sense of ownership and empowerment for the people. The team also plans to build awareness within the local community about the need to drink purified water. While the source of water currently received by the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation is filtered, sewage leakage and the poor management of waste often contaminates drinking water on its way into the homes. This means that while the water from these pipes or the bore wells may look clean, it can be hazardous to drink. To compound the issue, even water contained in holding tanks on vehicles that visit the community is by no means guaranteed to be of sufficient, purified quality. The tanks carrying the water are rarely cleaned and the taps through which the water is dispersed may easily be contaminated. Families must be aware that the water they are provided is harmful to their health and provides a catalyst for breeding mosquitoes carrying malaria and other transferable diseases. Local reports have proven this, and communities in the past have fallen victim to water-related illnesses as a result of their consumption of unclean water. The USC Hubli Water and Health Team team hopes to shed light on this threatening issue, as confronting the challenge of dirty drinking water is a \"gateway\" step towards achieving measured, sustainable improvements in a wide array of serious health related issues. Through education at key points of community influence and the measured introduction of new technologies that encourage responsibility over simply charity, the Team will use its time in Hubli to affect change that is both scalable and sustainable.","highlights":"Students from University of Southern California go to India to improve quality of life .\nTeam provides innovative water treatment measures to stop disease .\nOther team teaches how to prevent oral cancer, one of top 3 cancers in India .\nStudents employ locals to maintain program and monitor efficiency over next year .","id":"6f32644a39224b088e1f3a96f6a36420a4f95c79"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Frank Micciche is managing director of the Next Social Contract Initiative at the New America Foundation, a think tank that promotes thought from across the ideological spectrum. He has worked for Sallie Mae, former Michigan Gov. John Engler and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Frank Micciche says Detroit has to justify its bailout while Wall Street is getting more without tough scrutiny. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There was good news and bad news in the recent filings Chrysler and General Motors made with the federal officials overseeing their multibillion-dollar rescue. The good news was that, if the federal government can see its way clear to adding another $21 billion or so to the more than $17.4 billion they received in bridge loans in December -- including a cool $7 billion by the end of March to forestall their insolvency -- the companies are confident that they will be able to retool, return to profitability and repay the money provided them. The bad news: it won't happen until late in President Obama's first term, if at all, and in the meantime they will eliminate at least 50,000 jobs this year alone, close even more plants than previously announced and discontinue several of their most recognizable lines of cars. If you think keeping the automakers afloat for another few years is expensive, you won't believe how much it would cost to let them fail. In the same report, GM CEO Rick Wagoner put the price tag for the feds should his company file for bankruptcy at $100 billion. Such is the through-the-looking-glass nature of bailout economics, circa 2009. Of course, even Wagoner's worst case scenario is a pittance compared to the more than $600 billion that will eventually flow to Wall Street through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Which begs the question of why, after four months and nearly $400 billion in capital from the U.S. Treasury, we have still not seen anything remotely resembling the detailed disclosures and strategic planning required of the automakers from the banks that have received TARP funds? For that matter, shouldn't the state and local governments that stand to receive hundreds of billions of dollars under the recently enacted economic stimulus bill have to submit something, anything, that would explain how they intend to use this money, what their spending will do to speed and sustain the nation's overall recovery and what they will do to wean themselves from this emergency aid once the crisis has passed? Small nonprofits and community organizations that receive federal grants will tell you that the paperwork and scrutiny that comes with even the most modest federal award is often so exhaustive as to nullify the benefits of the grant. Not so, apparently, if your request is in the billions. Perhaps the secret to avoiding the withering glances of bean-counting bureaucrats is to ask for serious cash from Uncle Sam. How do we square the double standard in reporting required of Chrysler and GM, whose combined request is in the range of $40 billion, with the inability of even a pit bull like U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, to get answers as to exactly where and to what end the TARP money has gone? It may be that the situation on Wall Street is so complex, and the stakes so high, that lawmakers themselves have little confidence in their abilities to map a successful recovery for the industry, so they are relying on the sheer magnitude of their spending and the ingenuity of those left standing on Wall Street to work their market magic and revive the economy. The idea of a single \"Car Czar\" to oversee the rebuilding of the auto industry is now out the window, replaced by a task force led by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, two of the most over-extended men in the history of American government. But it's still easier for Washington to imagine that they can manage Chrysler and GM back onto the road to viability than that anything short of massive infusions of vaguely traceable capital will unfreeze the credit markets and restore financial stability. In the meantime, the automakers await word on the acceptability of their plans to dramatically reduce production and add tens of thousands of new Americans to the ranks of the unemployed. Forty billion just doesn't go as far as it used to. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frank Micciche.","highlights":"Frank Micciche: Auto companies are planning job cuts and plant closings .\nHe says they were required to give detailed plans in return for bailout money .\nMicciche: Wall Street firms getting much more money from federal government .\nHe says the bankers haven't been required to provide their restructuring plan .","id":"baea51387993f7a4fc5b86945f9b740abf7b910c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Penn Jillette -- the larger, louder half of Penn & Teller -- is a magician, comedian, actor, author and producer. Obama and McCain both promise a government that will watch over us ... \"I don't like that,\" says Penn Jillette. (CNN) -- Everyone I talk to seems to think the president of the United States right now is stupid. The Bush presidency is stupid speeches, stupid high gas prices, stupid bad economy, stupid war on terrorism, stupid war on drugs, stupid hurricane fixing, stupid global warming, stupid war -- stupid, stupid, stupid. They all seem to think we need to get a smarter guy in the White House fast, and Bush is so stupid, that task shouldn't be too hard. Not me. I'd like to say that I believe every president in United States history, including the stupid one we have now, is smarter than me. My alma mater is Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Clown College, so I'm damning with faint praise, but I'm stupider than this here stupid president. Maybe I'm less stupider than Bush than I'm stupider than Jefferson. But I'm stupider than all the stupid in both of them put together. The idea, especially from the Democrats that I know, is, we just get a smarter guy in the White House, and all the problems will go away. We'll have smart speeches, smart high gas prices, smart bad economy, smart war on terrorism, smart war on drugs, smart hurricanes, smart global warming, smart war in Georgia -- smart, smart, smart. Barack Obama is way smarter than Bush -- so way, way smarter than me. Obama is way more charismatic than me. He did his big speech for about 80,000 people; I'll do my show tonight in Vegas for about 1,000 people. He's more ambitious than I; he's going to be the next president of the United States, and I couldn't even get to week three of \"Dancing with the Stars.\" Obama is a great leader. He can fire people up and get them to do what he wants. He does smart speeches that promise everyone everything they need and make us feel good about our country and how much greater our government could be. But I don't think our next president being a great leader is a good thing. I'm worried about someone smarter than Bush taking over that tremendous power. Charisma and ambition increase my fear exponentially, and a great leader scares me to death. We need someone stupid enough to understand that the president of the United States can't solve many problems without taking away freedom and therefore shouldn't try. The only reason John McCain scares me a little less is because I think he's a little less likely to win. They both promise a government that will watch over us, and I don't like that. I don't want anyone as president who promises to take care of me. I may be stupid, but I want a chance to try to be a grown-up and take care of my family. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, and that's what I want. I don't want anyone to feel my pain or tell me to ask what we can do for our country, or give us all money and take care of us. Gene Healy at the Cato Institute explains that the Founding Fathers wanted the president \"to faithfully execute the laws, defend the country from attack and check Congress with the veto power whenever it exceeded its constitutional bounds.\" That sounds like plenty to me. You gotta be smarter than me to do all that, but you don't have to be as smart as Obama, and you sure don't have to be a great leader. Our first seven presidents averaged a bit more than three public speeches a year, and they didn't promise jobs for everyone, day care, dental exams and free stuff. It's really hard to find someone who trusts Americans to take care of themselves and each other without government force. It's hard to find someone running for president who would be content to be what George Washington humbly called the \"chief magistrate.\" I think Ron Paul and Bob Barr mean it when they say they want much smaller government. But the government is already big enough, powerful enough and bipartisan enough (and \"bi\" means exactly two and no more) that Ron and\/or Bob won't even be in the debates. People won't even hear someone suggesting that our president should do less and individual citizens should do more for themselves. The choice shouldn't be which lesser of two evils should have the enormous power of our modern presidents. The question should be, who would do less as president? Who would leave us alone? If we could find a lazier, less charismatic, stupider person than me to be president, I'd be all for it. But, it's not going to be easy; stupider than me is rare breed. So remember, the only way to waste your vote is to vote! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Everyone thinks we need to get a smarter guy in the White House, says Penn Jillette .\nJillette: Obama is a great leader who fires people up, gets them to do what he wants .\nMcCain scares Jillette a little less because he's a little less likely to win .\nRon Paul, Bob Barr say they want much smaller government .","id":"108f1a5fece32ab11114add3c2f8dfa3f1d90b59"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the age of digital audio, what does good old-fashioned radio still have to offer? Teca Lima, the voice of RadarCultura, consults the Web site before talking into the mic. Plenty, according to the creators of RadarCultura, a community-based Web site and a daily three-hour AM radio program broadcast from Brazil's S\u00e3o Paulo. \"Radio is 'now,'\" says 22-year-old Brazilian Andr\u00e9 Avorio, who implemented the Web site. \"[Radio] is generally quick and live. This adds a special dynamic to the medium. Moreover, it is still one of the most popular means of mass communication in Brazil. Combining it with the power of the Internet can result in many new possibilities.\" RadarCultura is an experimental project of the Padre Anchieta Foundation to promote public participation in audio-visual programming, eventually aiming to fuse its radio, television and Web programs into a single interactive, real-time platform. Like many online music sites, RadarCultura is always looking for new music and emerging talents, but its primary focus is to preserve the memory of the Brazilian repertoire by resurfacing classic, forgotten or unknown songs. The Padre Anchieta Foundation also happens to boast the biggest archive of Brazilian music in Brazil, including more than 15,000 songs dating from the 1920's to the present. \"Making it easy to search through the vast archive of songs was an important feature since version one of the Web site,\" says Avorio. Producer Alceu Maynard observes two types of RadarCultura members: \"There are people who listen to the show because they are fans of Brazilian music. There are others who like to produce the content on our site -- they collaborate actively with suggestions, playlists and all aspects of programming.\" Meanwhile, RadarCultura team members Alceu, speaker Teca Lima and project manager Lia Rangel are busy podcasting interviews, moderating conversations, blogging, twittering and keeping the site relevant. Old media gets new blood . True to its non-visual origin, RadarCultura's Web site is strictly text-based, with icons that link to votes and streaming audio. And true to its Web-based platform, the site has adopted, and adapted, all Net-native systems for its daily operations. The site itself runs on the free Drupal content-management system, which allows content to rank and flow according to input and feedback from the site's online community. Members who wish to contribute their own audio material to RadarCultura's archive must either podcast it themselves first, or else they may upload it to the U.S.-based Archive.org to clear it of online rights. Given the quantity of music aired from the ever-expanding repertoire, copyright issues are the most common pretext to negotiation, most notably with ECAD, a privately owned civil society for the collection and distribution of copyright managed by 10 Brazilian music associations. Online, however, RadarCultura distributes the entirety of its streaming content under a Creative Commons license. The team has also been experimenting with the free CoveritLive software to enable live blogging, chatting and Twittering among audience, presenters and guests during its online coverage of radio and TV events, including the popular Roda Vivo TV show. RadarCultura's first live event coverage in February 2008 was of Campus Party Brasil, a seven-day tech-fest that saw people camping out in tents with broadband cables while sharing ideas and technological innovations. In April 2008, RadarCultura struck again with its live coverage of Virada Cultural, Brazil's largest cultural event, including art performances and exhibits in the streets of S\u00e3o Paulo during 24 continuous hours, attracting some 4 million people. \"I came up with the idea of inviting the audience to report directly from the streets using their mobile phones,\" says Avorio. \"A telephone system was installed, and the calls from the participants were automatically recorded. Our non-stop production team listened to every recording as they arrived and not only immediately published them online but geo-localized them on an interactive map of S\u00e3o Paulo. \"It was RadarCultura's first truly collaborative coverage, as the audience produced most of the interviews and reviews, of not only the main attractions of Virada Cultural, but also the very obscure ones that otherwise would not be covered by the mainstream media.\" Next: Music for the masses, on demand . But still much remains to be done with RadarCultura's original content -- music. \"Due to legal restrictions, it has been very difficult to exploit many of the possibilities previously imagined for the RadarCultura Web site, like listening online to playlists or to the thousands of songs in the archive,\" Avorio reflects. \"Live radio has been a great success and will remain so for a long time, but it is now clear the value of on-demand content -- whenever you want it, wherever you are, on whatever device you have handy -- from the iPod to your mobile phone.\" RadarCultura's Web site not only introduces Brazilian music and culture to the international online community, it brings its programming well beyond the limited broadcasting range of the station's native S\u00e3o Paulo to the rest of Brazil. In a nation notorious for violence rooted in social inequality, the democracy of the Web -- not unlike radio -- is a welcome new medium of communication. \"Certainly S\u00e3o Paulo is the most 'wired' city in the country, but the Internet and the possibilities associated with it have reached the most distant towns,\" says Avorio. \"It is amazing the value that such a technology delivers to a country in a fast development pace such as Brazil -- from education to more subtle ways of social inclusion.\" For Gioconda Bordon, Padre Anchieta Foundation's radio coordinator, RadarCultura's most memorable moment took place on December 17, 2008, when the program celebrated its first anniversary. \"We had here in our studio the great composer Tom Z\u00e9, a very well-known musician, singing and talking live with a very young singer, Mallu Magalh\u00e3es, a teenager, actually,\" she recalls. \"The listeners were as happy as we were and, of course, as moved as the two artists were. It was a day in our history.\"","highlights":"RadarCultura is a daily 3-hour radio program and community Web site .\nIts father foundation boasts the biggest archive of Brazilian music in Brazil .\nWeb site invites members to create playlists, vote on, suggest music for air .\nRadarCultura also covers live culture and technology events .","id":"778f812b59cef5312ecd13952657d6fb414408c7"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Brittany Zimmerman, a 21-year-old college student who wanted to be a doctor, called 911 as she was being attacked by a stranger, police say. Brittany Zimmerman's screams and struggle for her life were captured by a 911 tape. But the police did not come for 48 minutes. By that time, Zimmerman was dead. Her fiance found her body. Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents. Spring was in the air when college student Zimmerman returned April 2 from classes at the University of Wisconsin to the off-campus apartment she shared with her fiance, Jordan Gonnering. He was out when she arrived home. He discovered her body when he returned. Zimmerman had been stabbed multiple times in her chest, near her heart. She'd also been beaten and strangled, according to warrants released recently. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . Zimmerman managed to call 911 at 12:20 p.m. The call was taken by the Dane County 911 center and an internal investigation revealed the dispatcher did not hear any sounds that would signal an emergency. Because of that, police were not sent to the apartment until 48 minutes after Zimmerman made the call. Her fiance was already there. Dane County has taken some harsh criticism from the public regarding the delay, and tough questions have been raised about whether a prompt response might have saved Zimmerman's life. Police are still looking for her killer. \"We are working diligently on this case, have generated significant leads, and are making progress,\" said Joel De Spain of the Madison Police Department. The police said they believe Zimmerman was attacked by a stranger. Her apartment door showed signs of forced entry. After interviews with Zimmerman's family, friends and acquaintances, investigators determined there was no personal motive for the attack. \"In fact, we have not been able to determine any motive yet in this case,\" De Spain said. He emphasized that police have no reason to believe Zimmerman was the victim of a serial killer. During the investigation, police have tracked leads pointing to vagrants in Zimmerman's off-campus neighborhood. The vagrants often would knock on doors and beg for money. \"We are still investigating this avenue, but at this time we have not been able to develop any specific suspects,\" De Spain said. Zimmerman's family and friends describe her as a loving, warm young woman, who had much to look forward to. She was engaged to the love of her life and had dreams of earning a medical degree, they said. She was idealistic, and her goal was to help people, not to earn a large salary, they said. Other details in the released warrants reveal that Zimmerman was murdered in her bedroom, that her cell phone was found in \"parts,\" and that her bloody slippers and bloody computer paper were recovered. The murder weapon is described as a knife, two to five inches long. Police are not saying whether they have recovered it. DNA was collected from Zimmerman's body, as well as hair, blood samples, footprints and fingerprints. So far, no match has been made to a suspect. Zimmerman's family is offering a $14,000 reward, and Crime Stoppers is offering $1,000 for tips leading to the arrest and\/or conviction of anyone responsible for Zimmerman's death. Please call the tip line at 608-266-6014.","highlights":"College student's battle for her life caught on 911 tape .\nPolice did not respond to her call for help for 48 minutes .\nBrittany Zimmerman's fiance found her body .\nPolice suspect she was attacked by a stranger and are eyeing vagrants .","id":"9bb863e0e73bb232f877f15fddd385e90faae80f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The case against a Marine accused of murder in a 2005 incident involving the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha \"is simply not strong enough to prove against a reasonable doubt,\" the investigating officer said Thursday. The investigating officer has recommended that Sgt. Frank Wuterich not be tried for murder. Lt. Col. Paul Ware recommended that Sgt. Frank Wuterich face trial for lesser charges of negligent homicide. The case involved allegations that Marines killed up to two dozen Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005. Ware said the evidence indicated Wuterich \"failed to exercise due care in his own actions in supervising his Marines.\" \"When a Marine fails to exercise due care in a combat environment resulting in the death of innocents, the charge of negligent homicide, not murder, is the appropriate offense,\" he said in a statement. The recommendation goes to Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general overseeing the case, who will make the final decision. If the recommendation is accepted, it could mean that no one in the Haditha case will be tried for murder. Four enlisted Marines were initially accused in the case, and charges against two have been dropped. Murder charges remain against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, although Ware has recommended dropping all charges against him. Ware said the evidence is too weak for a court martial. Four officers were later accused of failing to investigate and report the deaths properly. Charges against two of them have been dropped. Haditha, along the Euphrates River, was the target of previous Marine campaigns aimed at rooting out insurgents. Wuterich was leading a patrol through the city on November 19, 2005, when the unit was hit by a roadside bomb that killed one of its members. Twenty-four civilians were killed in what a human rights group and military prosecutors said was a house-to-house rampage by Marines after the bomb exploded. The military began investigating the killings in March 2006, and charges were brought the following December. A statement from the Marine Corps originally blamed the civilian deaths on the roadside bomb, triggering a parallel investigation into how commanders handled the incident. Arrest made in terrorist financing case . Earlier Thursday, the U.S. military announced the arrest of a man who smuggled $100 million into Iraq during the past few months to finance terrorist operations. The unidentified man, arrested Tuesday near Baghdad, allegedly employs 40 to 50 extremists at $3,000 per job for al Qaeda in Iraq bomb attacks against coalition forces, using money from supporters outside Iraq, the military said. \"The extremist financier is suspected of traveling to foreign countries to acquire financial support for terrorist activities and is suspected of supplying more than $50,000 to al Qaeda each month,\" the military said. The suspect, captured during a coalition raid in Kindi, operates a network of financing cells across Iraq, the military said. \"He is believed to have received $100 million this summer from terrorist supporters who cross the Iraq border illegally or fly into Iraq from Italy, Syria and Egypt,\" the military said. The $100 million figure is based on intelligence report estimates over several months, a spokesman for Multi-National Corps-Iraq said. The man is also accused of purchasing some of the explosives and weapons used in the 2006 attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque, also known as the Golden Mosque, and a second attack on it in 2007. The attacks heightened sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. During a separate operation in Radwaniya on Tuesday, Iraqi forces detained a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq platoon leader who commands 15 men in attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces with roadside bombs and direct assaults, the military said. Meanwhile, an Iraqi Ministry of Information spokesman said Thursday that Iraq has entered into a \"substantial\" deal with China to purchase weapons and light military equipment for its police forces, because the Asian nation promised the fastest delivery. Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf told CNN he was unable to confirm that his country was spending $100 million for the items, a number reported in Thursday's editions of The Washington Post, which quoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Khalaf said there have been delivery delays from other countries, including the United States, and adequately arming police forces is a priority in Iraq's goal to provide its own security. In the United States, there are several layers of review before military equipment sales are approved. Khalaf said the deal was made last June during a visit to China by Talabani and Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani, whose department is in charge of policing and border control. Other developments: . CNN's Jamie McIntyre, Saad Abedine and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"If advice accepted, it could mean no one in Haditha case will be tried for murder .\nIraq to buy weapons from China; $100 million worth, Washington Post says .\nPentagon: Detainee financed terror operations across country .\nFinancier allegedly paid $3,000 per roadside bomb operation .","id":"a154105be1c270513ca0a7a53619a2856b96b0cf"} -{"article":"(Oprah.com) -- It came as no surprise to a woman we'll call Joan when, after 16 years of marriage, she and her husband started discussing the possibility of divorce. Deep down she'd never believed her marriage, or any marriage, could be genuinely happy. Still, the reality was crushing. \"I was desperate,\" she says. \"I thought, 'I'd do anything to feel better.'\" How about singing every day, making lists of things that made her happy, and getting a \"joy buddy\"? Those are among the suggestions given in Awakening Joy, a class taught by James Baraz, a meditation instructor and founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. A series of exercises, lectures, and meditations stretched over 10 months, Awakening Joy is designed to bring more happiness to people's lives. Like some participants, Joan, who heard about the program while attending a meditation retreat at Spirit Rock, initially balked at the idea of singing. \"I thought James wanted me to join a choir,\" she says, \"but I took it on faith that the singing was going to work.\" So she started trilling along with the \"Hairspray\" soundtrack while driving. \"It seemed ridiculous, but that's what initially helped me the most.\" \"The course uses practices that lead the mind toward states of happiness and well-being,\" says Baraz. \"In other words, it teaches you to focus on how it feels to feel good.\" The first and most important step, he says, is intention: making the decision to be happy. Robert Holden, Ph.D., author of \"Happiness Now! Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good Fast\" and director of the Happiness Project in the United Kingdom, agrees that this is key. \"Intention is another word for focus. Whatever you focus on will become more apparent and will grow. For centuries, optimists and pessimists have argued over who's right, and the answer is they both are; each sees what they're looking for. If you focus on happiness, that's what you become more aware of.\" Once participants have made up their minds to be happier, Baraz gives them the tools -- delivered in lectures to the live class he teaches in Berkeley and in twice-monthly e-mails sent to participants in other areas -- to teach them how to cultivate a positive state of mind. Among them: . \u2022 Writing what the word joy means to you . \u2022 Doing some form of physical movement -- such as yoga, dance, or walking -- a few times a week . \u2022 Making a \"nourishment list\" of activities you enjoy, checking off those you do regularly and circling the ones that could be done more often . \u2022 Checking in with your \"joy buddy,\" a kind of running partner in the pursuit of happiness. \"That's important,\" says Holden. \"One of the major blocks to happiness is a sense of isolation. If you're alive, you need help.\" There are also guided meditations, including instructions on how to be mindful --being present for whatever you're doing and, as Baraz says, \"simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different.\" For Joan, that turned out to be a bigger challenge than singing -- especially when her husband suggested that they begin the separation process. \"Awakening Joy isn't about being a happy little do bee,\" she says. \"You're taught that when feelings arise, no matter what they are, you stay with them. When my husband said we should contact a mediator, I cried years of tears. But by accepting those painful feelings, I had a watershed moment: I realized that I really wanted this marriage.\" Rather than assuming divorce was inevitable, Joan started to see other possibilities. \"From that day to this, it's been a whole different experience,\" she says. \"My husband and I are still together, and in a way that I honestly didn't think was possible.\" For Baraz, the best testimonials come from former skeptics; he admits that he himself wouldn't be the best case study. \"I've always been a relatively joyful, celebratory kind of person,\" he says. He found his spiritual path in Buddhism, but when his studies became very serious, so did he. \"Then I realized that the Buddha was called the Happy One, and he said, 'Go for the highest happiness.' That became the focus of my teaching.\" (Baraz points out that one needn't be a Buddhist, or of any particular faith, to reap the benefits of Awakening Joy. \"Ministers, rabbis, and secular experts have successfully used these basic principles,\" he says.) The idea for the course began eight years ago, when Baraz's wife, Jane, gave him a book called \"How We Choose to Be Happy,\" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks. \"The instructions made a lot of sense, but they didn't have a spiritual dimension,\" Baraz says. \"So I added that and presented it as a series of talks with my weekly meditation group for about three months to see what would happen.\" The results: \"We got happier and happier!\" Baraz then turned Awakening Joy into a six-month class and found that participants maintained a positive attitude even after it ended (as long as they practiced the exercises; as with diets or working out, continuity is essential). Word of mouth about the course that could make people happier began to spread: The first round of Awakening Joy meetings consisted of about 40 members. The next numbered 100; the next, 200, and then 500. It went international when its members began e-mailing their monthly homework assignments from the lectures to friends. Baraz was thrilled to receive messages from strangers in Europe, Africa, and New Zealand. \"It works!\" they wrote. Apparently, you didn't have to be there to get the joy. Nor do you have to be the type who can deftly turn a frown upside down. \"I'm the person who walks into a nicely designed room and notices only that the painting was hung too high,\" says Gretchen, age 56. In addition to being a \"serious\" woman from a depressive family, Gretchen also found herself in chronic pain after sustaining a back injury. \"It was horrible,\" she recalls. \"Medication made me sick. I felt guilty about not being able to work, and I thought people were judging me.\" Though a specialist was able to alleviate some of her physical discomfort, Gretchen fell into a deep depression. She heard about Awakening Joy after taking Baraz's meditation classes at Spirit Rock. \"The first thing I was hit by was the instruction to notice what it feels like when you're happy,\" she says. \"I loved the walks I took to help my back, but before, I just plodded down the street, not noticing anything. Now I'm aware of how I feel when I'm walking, which enhances my enjoyment.\" Writing lists of things she's grateful for was also a big help. \"A lot of my seriousness has lifted,\" she says. \"I have a lighter heart. I still have chronic pain, but I know there's a lot to feel good about.\" Baraz is writing a book about Awakening Joy and the people who now routinely roll up the windows in their cars so they can sing as loudly as they want to. \"More than 2,000 people have tested it, so it's not some airy-fairy idea,\" he says. \"I've learned that it's possible to change, no matter what your history or the limiting beliefs you've held on to. If you have the intention to be happy and you do the practices, if you give it your best shot and are very patient, it works.\" We're all so used to thinking that we'll finally be content when we find the perfect partner, lose weight, or get our dream job. Is it really possible to become happier just by deciding you can? \"We use the language of having, getting, and chasing to describe happiness, rather than being,\" says Holden. \"What we've learned about happiness is that it isn't an it or a thing. Research has proven that there is no one set of circumstances that makes someone happy; it's more about having a healthy mental attitude toward whatever you're experiencing. So, you can either chase happiness or you can choose to be happy. It really is that simple.\" By Suzan Col\u00f3n from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" January 2008. E-mail to a friend . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Joy is different for everyone, but some may not recognize it .\nMake a list of activities that nourish your spirit .\nExpert: What you focus on in your life will grow .\nGet a partner to encourage and nudge you towards joy .","id":"0f81b75410062d52138ab8a67ae49d03321e991f"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The grandparents of missing 2-year-old Caylee Anthony continue to stand by their daughter, who is accused of killing Caylee, an attorney said Monday. Caylee Anthony, 2, has been missing since June in a case that has received national attention. The lawyer's announcement came just hours before a source confirmed authorities discovered bones in the area where a body believed to be Caylee's was found last week. The bones were scattered in the dirt, perhaps by an animal, the source said. Crime scene investigators were searching the area where the body was found and will continue searching through at least Wednesday, according to Commander Capt. Angelo Nieves with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Outside agencies, including the FBI, were helping the sheriff's office sift through the area \"in order to make sure that no stone, no area, is left untouched where the child's remains were found,\" Nieves said. \"Significant finds have been made,\" he added. \"At this point, we cannot identify what items have been recovered.\" George and Cindy Anthony were \"devastated\" upon learning a toddler's corpse had been found near their Orlando, Florida, home, attorney Brad Conway said, but the couple is waiting for authorities to confirm the body's identity. \"They're not grieving yet, because they don't know whose body this is, but if it is identified as Caylee they're going to go through that grieving process privately, and when they're ready to speak, they will,\" Conway told reporters. A utility worker discovered the remains in a plastic bag Thursday and alerted authorities. CNN affiliate WFTV-TV in Orlando reported the utility worker, a meter reader, picked up a bag at the site and a skull fell out. Listen to the disturbing 911 call \u00bb . Later that day, authorities searched the Anthonys' home and removed \"a number of items,\" Conway said. Authorities have said Casey Anthony, 22, waited about a month before telling her family Caylee was gone. Caylee's grandmother called police on July 15, saying her daughter would not tell her where Caylee was. See where remains were found \u00bb . The girl was 2 at the time of her disappearance. The FBI is using DNA analysis to try and positively identify the remains, Conway said. Though bureau spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday he did not know when tests would be complete, Conway said the FBI is likely to have results \"within the next week.\" Watch Conway describe the grandparents' devastation \u00bb . \"Everybody wants to make sure that there are no mistakes made, that the person responsible for this crime is held responsible for it and, if that happens to be Casey, a jury of her peers will have to make that decision after the state of Florida proves beyond a reasonable doubt,\" he said. If the remains prove to be those of their granddaughter, the body would be released to the Anthonys \"for proper and respectful burial,\" he said. Conway described his clients as \"good, honest, decent people that are getting publicity that they do not deserve.\" Orange County Sheriff Office's spokesman Carlos Padilla said last week that authorities believe the remains are Caylee's because no other children have been reported missing in the area, the remains are consistent with a child Caylee's age and the remains were found near the grandparents' home. Watch how a home became a crime scene \u00bb . Caylee and her mother had lived in the house with Caylee's grandparents, but Casey Anthony moved into an apartment at the time Caylee disappeared. Casey Anthony faces charges including first-degree murder in Caylee's disappearance. If convicted, she could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Prosecutors said this month they would not seek the death penalty. Casey Anthony's attorneys have insisted she is innocent. Watch Caylee's uncle dismantle a memorial \u00bb . After learning a corpse was found last week, attorneys sought a court order allowing them to observe the autopsy and conduct their own forensic tests. A judge denied the request after prosecutors said the motion was premature because the body had not yet been identified. Watch why police think it's Caylee \u00bb . \"What I don't want to see, bluntly, is 24 hours after viewing an autopsy, a defense expert on a national news show describing this child's remains,\" prosecutor Jeff Ashton argued. \"The specter of that is nauseating to me.\" Asked Friday how Casey Anthony responded to the news her daughter's remains may have been found, lawyer Jose Baez said, \"It's not something that someone takes well.\" Casey Anthony remains in protective custody and has no contact with other inmates, corrections officials said. A psychologist has seen her, and she is on psychological observation, which is not the same as suicide watch, according to a statement. Casey Anthony's trial, originally set for January, has been postponed until at least March. When questioned by police this summer, Casey Anthony gave conflicting statements, including some that were later disproved, according to hundreds of documents and investigative reports released in the case. She claimed she dropped Caylee off with a babysitter, but when police checked out her story, they learned the address Casey Anthony supplied belonged to an apartment that had been vacant for weeks. The woman Casey Anthony named as her babysitter told police she did not know her. Review a timeline of the case \u00bb . Investigators said cadaver dogs picked up the scent of death in Anthony's car as well as in her parents' backyard. They also said air quality tests conducted by the FBI found evidence consistent with human decomposition and chloroform in the car's trunk. A neighbor told police Anthony had asked to borrow a shovel. CNN's John Couwels and Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sheriff's official says \"significant finds have been made,\" doesn't elaborate .\nSource says authorities find bones near site where corpse was found .\nFBI should have DNA analyzed \"within the next week,\" he adds .\nHair, age, measurements of remains match toddler, police and attorneys say .","id":"d7563aca75960ed389c15b08f74091ca28fc94c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied his nation was involved in last week's deadly attacks on Mumbai, India, and told CNN on Tuesday he's seen no evidence that a suspect in custody is a Pakistani national as Indian officials claim. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says he believes the Mumbai attackers were \"stateless actors.\" \"I think these are stateless actors who have been operating all throughout the region,\" Zardari said on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" in an interview set to air Tuesday night. \"The gunmen plus the planners, whoever they are, [are] stateless actors who have been holding hostage the whole world.\" At least 179 people were killed when a band of gunmen attacked 10 targets in Mumbai on Wednesday night, triggering three days of battles with police and Indian troops in the heart of the city -- the hub of India's financial and entertainment industries. Most of the deaths occurred at the city's top two hotels: the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal. Watch Zardari blame \"stateless actors\" \u00bb . Indian officials have publicly blamed Pakistani militants for the attacks, and called on Pakistan to hand over a group of wanted militant leaders suspected of plotting them. On Tuesday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi proposed a joint investigation into the attacks and said, \"This is not the time to point fingers.\" Zardari confirmed he is willing to have Pakistani security officials participate with India in a joint investigation. \"The state of Pakistan is in no way responsible,\" Zardari told King. \"... Even the White House and the American CIA have said that today. The state of Pakistan is, of course, not involved. We're part of the victims, Larry. I'm a victim. The state of Pakistan is a victim. We are the victims of this war, and I am sorry for the Indians, and I feel sorry for them.\" Indian officials have said that the only suspected attacker in custody has told police he is a Pakistani national. Indian intelligence sources have told CNN's sister network, CNN-IBN, that police believe all the attackers were Pakistanis. Indian police say nine of the 10 attackers were killed by Indian forces. Asked about the suspect in custody, Zardari said: \"We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it, Larry, that he is a Pakistani.\" He said Pakistan is looking into the allegation, but added, \"Like I said, these are stateless individuals. ... We've had incidents the past two days in Karachi where we've lost more than 40 to 45 people, hundreds injured. These are stateless actors who are moving throughout this region.\" India summoned Pakistan's high commissioner, the top-ranking Pakistani diplomat in New Delhi, to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's office Monday to inform him that last week's massacre in Mumbai \"was carried out by elements from Pakistan.\" It renewed a demand that Pakistan hand over a group of militant leaders whose extradition it has sought since a 2001 attack on India's Parliament that brought the South Asian nuclear rivals to the brink of war. \"The government expects that strong action would be taken against those elements, whosoever they may be, responsible for this outrage,\" a statement from India's Foreign Ministry said. \"It was conveyed to the Pakistan high commissioner that Pakistan's actions needed to match the sentiments expressed by its leadership that it wishes to have a qualitatively new relationship with India.\" The list reportedly includes Hafiz Mohammed, the head of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a now-banned Islamic militant group that denied last week that it was involved in the Mumbai attack. The group is blamed for the 2001 attack on India's Parliament. \"I am definitely going to look into all the possibility of any proof that is given to us,\" Zardari said. \"At the moment, these are just names of individuals. No proof, no investigation, nothing has been brought forward.\" If proof of the individuals' involvement is provided, he said, \"We would try them in our courts, we would try them in our land, and we would sentence them.\" Indian authorities said the suspect in custody was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. Zardari told CNN that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is a \"banned organization\" in Pakistan and around the world. \"If indeed they are involved, we would not know,\" he said. \"Again, they are people who operate outside the system. They operate like -- al Qaeda, for instance, is not state-oriented. They operate something on that mechanism, and ... I've already offered India full cooperation on this incident, and we intend to do that.\" \"I'm firmly committed to fighting terrorism per se,\" he said. \"That's why we are fighting them every day, Larry.\" Asked about the possibility of Indian military strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan, Zardari said: \"I would not agree with that because this is a time to come together and do a joint investigation and look at the problem in the larger context. We have a larger threat on our hands ... it's a threat throughout the region. So that would be counterproductive.\" Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers, have a tense relationship and have fought three wars since the subcontinent was divided in 1947. On whether the Mumbai attacks could trigger a fourth war, Zardari said: \"Larry, democracies don't go to war. All those wars you're talking about did not take place in any democracy. They all happened in the times of dictators. ... \"The whole nation of Pakistan is united to ... becoming friends with India,\" he said.","highlights":"Pakistani President Zardari: \"Stateless actors\" behind attacks in Mumbai, India .\nIndian intelligence sources tell CNN-IBN they believe attackers were Pakistani .\nZardari says he doubts suspect in custody is Pakistani .\nHe says he's willing to have Pakistan participate in a joint investigation with India .","id":"668e4180ecb6194902d1bf61c8c93d64f2fd217a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Michelle Crawley says she's a \"freak\" about putting sunscreen on her two girls. Emily Crawley and her dad, Jere, hit the pool on the first day of a Florida vacation, which left Emily sunburned. \"They are both pretty fair skinned,\" says the West Chester, Ohio, mother of two. So every time Emily, 6, and Claire, 3, go out into the sun, she slathers them with SPF 30 or higher . But during a recent trip to Key Largo, Florida, Crawley's vigilance wasn't enough. \"I wasn't sure if it was my technique, the sunscreen or being in Florida,\" Crawley said, but \"that evening they were just fried beyond belief.\" Slathering on sunscreen has become as much a part of the summer ritual as the vacation itself, but a consumer advocacy group has a warning for parents like Crawley who think they're protecting their family with sunscreen: You may be getting burned. The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based nonprofit, has released an investigation of nearly 1,000 brand-name sunscreens that says four out of five don't adequately protect consumers and may contain harmful chemicals. The group says that some of the products of the nation's leading brands -- including Coppertone, Neutrogena and Banana Boat -- are the poorest performers. Read about the study . Coppertone was named by the Environmental Working Group as having 41 products that failed to meet the group's criteria for issues ranging from failing to protect adequately to containing potentially harmful ingredients to making unsubstantiated claims. But in a statement to CNN, the company says it \"rigorously tests all its products in the lab and in the real world\" to ensure that they're safe and effective. Watch more on what to look for in sunscreen \u00bb . The makers of Banana Boat, which also failed to meet the Environmental Working Group's standards for various reasons, did not respond to CNN's requests for comment. Neutrogena says its sunscreen products have been \"embraced by dermatologists and consumers for their efficacy\" and says its new Helioplex technology provides broad-spectrum UV defense against sun damage. The science of sunscreens is simple: Active ingredients are compounds that absorb, reflect or block ultraviolet light. Sunscreens are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration not as cosmetics but as over-the-counter drugs. Sunscreens are rated based on their SPF, or Sun Protection Factor. The higher the SPF, the better the protection against sunburn. The Environmental Working Group says that the SPF rating on a sun product is only part of what consumers need to know and that one of the biggest problems with sunscreens is that they don't fully protect against sunlight. \"A good, effective sunscreen must prevent against a broad spectrum of rays,\" said Sonya Lunder, a senior researcher at the Environmental Working Group. Sunlight is composed of two types of ultraviolet light: UVB rays, which cause sunburns, and UVA rays, which tan. Although both may increase the risk of skin cancer, sun damage and wrinkles, the FDA doesn't require sunscreens to protect against both, just UVB. The FDA acknowledges that new rules mandating UVA testing and labeling requirements are being evaluated, but the Environmental Working Group wants tougher standards now. \"The fact most sunscreens still don't don't offer UVA protection and the fact the FDA has been working for years to finalize its rules is really what provoked us to look at this issue,\" Lunder said. Another issue: Is a key sunscreen ingredient safe? Oxybenzone is a a popular UV filter in many sunscreens, one evaluated by the FDA as safe. The Environmental Working Group says its analysis of hundreds of studies of more than a dozen sunscreen chemicals finds that oxybenzone can penetrate the skin and pose health concerns, anything from hormone disruption to cancer. The industry group representing sunscreen makers denies that oxybenzone causes harm and deems such claims irresponsible. \"Questions about the safety of oxybenzone unnecessarily alarm consumers,\" said John Bailey, the chief scientist for the Personal Care Products Council, which offers its scientific information about the safety of sunscreen ingredients online. \"Safe sun\" has always been a priority for the American Academy of Dermatology, which sees sun overexposure as the single most preventable risk factor in the more than 1 million new cases of skin cancer expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year. Although dermatologists agree that broad-spectrum sun protection is important, some experts see an even bigger sun danger if people perceive that their sunscreen isn't safe. \"We're concerned this will raise unnecessary confusion and cause people to stop using sunscreen,\" said the Skin Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to educating the public about sun safety. \"Consumers should rest assured that sunscreen products are safe and effective when used as directed.\" While sunscreen effectiveness is debated, all skin experts agree that how a sunscreen is used is just as important as what kind of sunscreen is used. Dermatologists say that an ounce of sunscreen should be applied to all exposed areas 30 minutes before going outside and should be reapplied every two hours, or immediately if you swim or sweat. Common sense can also protect from the sun. Experts agree that children under 6 months old should be kept out of direct sun. Children need sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher. If you are sensitive to sunscreen, never go without. Instead, try sunscreens that provide a physical barrier, such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. New micronizing technology makes both appear more transparent on the skin, so you don't have to look like a lifeguard with a white nose. After her girls were sunburned, Crawley bought aloe and sun shirts, which they wore for the rest of their Florida trip. She is frustrated some consumers may not be getting the protection they think they are when they buy sunscreen. \"I think it's disappointing if you are putting your trust in these companies,\" she said. \"Someone needs to be keeping an eye on it to make sure they are meeting their claims.\" CNN correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, senior producer Jennifer Pifer and Melanie Diaz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Environmental Working Group: 4 out of 5 sunscreens tested don't adequately protect .\nGroup says chemical in sunscreens can penetrate skin and pose health concerns .\nFDA allows the chemical in sunscreens, says it is safe .\nSunscreen manufacturers say their products are safe and effective .","id":"57b5682422f6db6e00623a5fad8528a30fd8153f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter whose absurdist and realistic works displayed a despair and defiance about the human condition, has died, according to British media reports. He was 78. The much-honored Harold Pinter received the French Legion d'honneur in 2007. Pinter's wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, confirmed his death. Pinter, who had been suffering from cancer, died on Christmas Eve, according to the reports. Fraser told the Guardian newspaper: \"He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten.\" Pinter was known for such plays as \"The Birthday Party\" (1957), \"The Homecoming\" (1964), \"No Man's Land\" (1974), \"Mountain Language\" (1988), and \"Celebration\" (2000). The works caught a linguistic rhythm -- the legendary \"Pinter pause\" -- and an air of social unease that resonated throughout the English-speaking world and in myriad translations. His movie credits, like his plays, span the decades and include \"The Quiller Memorandum\" (1965) and \"The French Lieutenant's Woman\" (1981). Pinter also wrote the screenplay for his 1978 play \"Betrayal,\" the story of a doomed love affair told backward, which was made into a 1983 film with Ben Kingsley, Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge. He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005. Pinter's later plays were more overtly political, with works such as \"One for the Road\" (1984) and \"The New World Order\" (1991) focusing on state torture. In commentaries, he became a blistering critic of the United States, writing in his Nobel lecture that the country \"quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.\" But Pinter could also be a man of great humor. In 2006, he recounted a story about a fall that had landed him in the hospital a year earlier. \"Two days later, I woke up to find that I'd been given the Nobel Prize in literature,\" he said. \"So life is really full of ups and downs, you see.\" Harold Pinter was born in London on October 10, 1930. He was the son of Jewish immigrants, his father a dressmaker, his mother \"a wonderful cook,\" he once recalled. In 1948 he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, then as now one of Great Britain's most renowned drama schools. But the RADA didn't take; Pinter hated the school and dropped out after two terms. He became an actor and turned to playwriting with his first work, \"The Room,\" in 1957. Later that year he wrote \"The Birthday Party,\" a \"comedy of menace,\" in the words of one critic, that helped make Pinter's reputation -- though, in an irony he could appreciate, after it closed in London due to scathing notices. Ensuing Pinter plays, including \"The Dumb Waiter\" (1957) and \"The Homecoming,\" made him Britain's most famous playwright, as influential to \"late 20th-century British theater [as] Tennessee Williams is to mid-century American stages,\" CNN.com's Porter Anderson wrote in 2006. \"What's generally meant as a 'Pinter play' in the purest sense usually revolves around one or more characters who are imposing on themselves a constricted, even deprived existence in order to hold off a presumed but uncertain threat,\" Anderson wrote. Pinter's plays featured sparse dialogue, often spiced with paranoia or simple befuddlement. In \"The Birthday Party,\" a boardinghouse resident is accosted by two malevolent visitors who insist it's his birthday; in \"The Homecoming\" -- which won the Tony Award for best play when it premiered on Broadway in 1967 -- a professor and his wife return to his working-class British family, where the wife becomes the center of attention. Pinter credited Samuel Beckett, among others, as an influence. (He starred in a production of Beckett's \"Krapp's Last Tape\" in 2006.) In turn, writers such as David Mamet and Sam Shepard followed Pinter's elliptical lead. \"One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness,\" Pinter once said. He was married first to the actress Vivien Merchant. Following a 1980 divorce, Pinter married writer-historian Lady Antonia Fraser.","highlights":"Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve, his wife tells British media .\nPinter, 78, had been suffering from cancer .\nHe won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 .","id":"ce1fb9a97df0d6176b2f4f9d7706c2e865fa765b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three professors and a former professor at Columbia University's Teachers College received hate mail this week, the New York Police Department said. It's the campus that was shaken by several bias crimes directed at black and Jewish professors in 2007. Columbia University's Teachers College is once again the target of a hate campaign. Three professors received manila envelopes Tuesday with images of swastikas in them. The fourth, a former professor who is an African-American, was sent a manila envelope containing an image of a noose, according to NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne. Among those receiving a swastika image was Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Jewish psychologist who has studied psychological principles in the context of the Holocaust, police said. In 2007, her office door was spray-painted with a swastika. (A swastika is the right-angles cross symbol used on Nazi Germany flags). The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into the incident. No arrests have been made. \"The TC community deplores these hateful acts, which violate every Teachers College and societal norm,\" said an e-mail Wednesday to faculty and students from the college's president, Susan Fuhrman; and dean, Tom James. No arrests were been made in the 2007 incidents. Police declined to say if they believe there is a connection between those cases and the mailings this week.","highlights":"Three professors, one former one at Columbia University receive hate mail this week .\nJewish psychologist at Teachers College among those receiving swastika .\nIn 2007, same psychologist's office door was spray-painted with a swastika .\nNYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading investigation; no arrests made .","id":"e7ae9256da82342a77aea7a6a9a5736814f05ece"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two teams of scientists say they have found a key area of the H5N1 bird flu virus which seems to be vital to its ability to copy itself, and hope the discovery could lead to new drugs to fight the infection. Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but in some cases, the virus has passed from poultry to humans. The discovery is generating excitement among scientists who are looking for a new weapon against the bird flu virus that typically kills more than half its human victims. Two separate groups of scientists -- one in China, one in France -- used a highly technical process to identify protein that seems to be involved in its ability to replicate itself. That gives researchers a new target, as they try and develop new medications. The announcements, detailed in the British-based journal Nature, come at an uneasy time for those who follow the bird flu strain called H5N1. So far this disease is mainly affecting birds in some countries and the number of human cases remains small, but the virus has shown no sign of growing milder since it first infected people back in 1997. It continues to decimate bird flocks in sporadic outbreaks, mostly in Asia, and occasionally breaks into the human population. China's Ministry of Health reported eight human cases last month, including four deaths. Since 2003, the World Health Organization has confirmed 404 human cases worldwide. Nearly two-thirds of the victims have died. While H5N1 doesn't make headlines the way it did in 2005, health officials say the continuing severity of the infections means the alarm is still on. Influenza viruses, in general, spread easily. If H5N1 were to acquire the genetic ability to pass easily from person to person, it could turn into a major catastrophe. Many countries have stockpiled both vaccines and antiviral medications, for such a scenario. The same medications that are used to treat regular flu, oseltamivir (Tamiful) and zanamivir (Relenza), also seem to be effective against H5N1. But that's no reason to rest easy. All flu viruses tend to mutate rapidly, which is why the flu vaccine one year, won't protect you against the next year's flu. Those rapid mutations mean the virus tends to develop a resistance to any widely used medication. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, told CNN, \"It always happens that eventually, sooner or later, the [flu] virus will develop varying degrees of resistance. You just hope that it's kept to a minimum.\" The findings in Nature may lead to another option to fight bird flu, but an actual new drug is years away. A vaccine could be effective, but they first have to know what strain of flu they're fighting. The current strategy of health officials around the world is to try to contain isolated cases before they spread. The best case scenario would be, that this H5N1 killer remains primarily a disease for the birds.","highlights":"Experts say they have found key component of the H5N1 bird flu virus .\nIt is hoped this will lead to better medication to fight the infection .\nChina reported its first human-to-human infection in 2005 .\nSince 2003, the World Health Organization has confirmed 404 human cases .","id":"607a84a9449c5a61b5bd35beb45c39ec68fcd1ea"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A company accused of encouraging hundreds to illegally enter the United States and then hiring them using fake Social Security numbers has agreed to pay the largest settlement ever in a workplace immigration bust, the Department of Justice said Friday. Relatives of people arrested in IFCO raids gather for a news conference in July 2006. IFCO Systems North America, a pallet and crate company, will pay a $20.7 million settlement, which includes $18.1 million in fines and $2.6 million for overtime violations, the Department of Justice said. In early 2006, immigration officials raided 45 IFCO sites, arresting almost 1,200 low-level workers. Federal officials also charged several managers, accusing them of using \"as a business model the systematic violation of United States law.\" To date, nine IFCO managers and employees have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct, the Justice Department said. Four managers are awaiting trial on felony charges and the investigation is continuing, it said. The Justice Department said it will not pursue criminal charges against the company if it complies with the terms of the settlement. \"The agreement severely punishes IFCO for its serious immigration and employment violations,\" acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Baxter said. \"But it also allows the corporation to continue its operations, so that its lawful employees and innocent shareholders do not suffer the consequences of a business failure in this economy.\" IFCO's violation of the law was flagrant, officials said. More than half of the company's 5,800 workers during 2005 had invalid Social Security numbers, and the company ignored at least 13 letters from the Social Security Administration about questionable Social Security numbers. IFCO records suggests that as many as 6,000 illegal immigrants worked at company plants from 2003 to 2006, the Justice Department said. Federal officials said Friday that IFCO \"acknowledges and accepts responsibility for the unlawful conduct of its managers and employees.\" An IFCO official could not be reached for comment.","highlights":"Pallet and crate company IFCO Systems North America will pay $20.7 million .\nIFCO accused of luring workers to U.S., giving them fake Social Security numbers .\nJustice won't pursue criminal charges if company complies with settlement .\nAs many as 6,000 illegal immigrants worked for company from 2003 to 2006 .","id":"317f13d1a913313630aa396503a41a28f7de2122"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Searchers looking for a woman believed to have fallen from a cruise ship off the Yucatan coast of Mexico have seen no sign of her, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said Friday afternoon. The Norwegian Pearl is on a seven-day Caribbean cruise. Lt. Matt Moorlag, based in Miami, said crews would work into the night to find 33-year-old Jennifer Feitz, whose husband reported her missing aboard the Norwegian Pearl about 3:40 a.m. Friday. Ship personnel called the Coast Guard for help when they couldn't locate Feitz. Moorlag said he had not spoken with the woman's husband. The search was centered about 15 miles east of Cancun, Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Ameen, a Coast Guard spokesman. \"Initial reports indicate the guest may have gone overboard while the ship was at sea, east of Cancun,\" a spokeswoman for the Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. AnneMarie Mathews said the ship left Miami on Sunday on a seven-day western Caribbean cruise. The Coast Guard dispatched an Air Station Miami HU-25 Falcon jet crew, and a C-130 fixed-wing aircraft crew from the Air Station in Clearwater, Florida, also was headed to the site, Ameen said. The Mexican government was aiding the search with a helicopter crew and three water- and ground-surface crews.","highlights":"Passenger Jennifer Feitz, 33, reported missing on Norwegian Pearl ship .\nU.S. Coast Guard in search about 15 miles east of Cancun, Mexico .\nCruise line says, \"Initial reports indicate the guest may have gone overboard\"\nMexican government also is helping in the search .","id":"ff8d7b6968be69825b227edc49d66446bb62c1ac"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's prime minister held emergency meetings on Monday to discuss the growing garbage problem in Naples, where more than two weeks of closed dumps and uncollected garbage has led to mountains of trash across the city. Collectors stopped picking up rubbish on December 21, saying that dumps are full. The garbage problem has become so bad that Neapolitan residents have started burning their waste, leading to noxious fumes permeating the air in the southern Italian coastal city. On Monday, the government called on the army to help with emergency trash collection for the second time in a year. Bags of rotting, uncollected waste now line city streets and sit in alleys beneath residential apartment blocks. In some places, the piles of trash tower over the cars driving past. Prime Minister Romano Prodi met with the interior and environment ministers in Rome after President Giorgio Napolitano, who is from Naples, said he was alarmed by the crisis. The latest problems began on December 31, when the government closed one of the area's two working dumps. Gian Francesco Raiano, a spokesman for the government's \"garbage crisis administrator,\" said the dump was closed at the request of residents. That left only one working dump, in the town of Serre, which is able to accept only 2,000 tons of trash a day. Raiano said that was the reason trash started piling up on the streets. Authorities are hoping to alleviate the problem when they reopen a long-closed dump in the town of Pianura, near Naples, by the end of this week. The government announced on December 30 that it planned to reopen Pianura, and the decision immediately sparked protests by nearby residents. They blocked roads to stop trucks from entering the site to prepare to open it after 12 years out of commission, and there were scuffles as police tried to move protesters away. Problems with Naples' garbage have been around in some form for 14 years, when Italian authorities first declared the situation an emergency. Complicating the issue is the involvement of organized crime, which has long controlled the region's waste business. The Camorra, as the mafia is known in Naples, controls both dumps and garbage trucks, making the problem enormously difficult for the government to solve. Forty dumping sites have operated in the Campania region over the past 30 years, but most have been closed for various reasons, including criminal investigations related to the Camorra. Residents' protests, over-saturation, and lack of proper equipment were other factors. Italian media have cited statistics saying that Naples produces 1.6 million tons of garbage a year, and that the government has spent 1.8 billion euros ($2.7 billion) over the past 14 years to deal with the problem. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Prime Minister Romano Prodi holds emergency meetings over trash problems .\nProdi forced to act after army called to help clear rubbish piles around Naples .\nCity collectors stopped work on December 21 because dumps are full .\nResidents in a city suburb set up roadblocks in protest at dump reopening .","id":"8838d475a2f76de6a87f4cc92f596191340a227c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's the butt-kicking, karate-chopping, kung fu superstar who rose from nowhere to conquer Hollywood in a spectacularly visual style. Action star Jackie Chan celebrates winning Best Actor at the 25th China Golden Rooster in 2005 . With his compact but wiry 5-foot, 9-inch frame, Jackie Chan seems to pale into insignificance when compared with muscle-bound Hollywood tough guys such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme. But combining extraordinary athleticism and an acrobatic style, Chan could probably take them both on in a fight and emerge victorious. Best known to western audiences as star of the Rush Hour trilogy, Chan is a prolific actor who has made more than 100 films spanning three decades. But success did not come easy for Chan, who made a string of flops in the early 1970s in Asia. He struggled for years to break out of the shadow of Bruce Lee, the undisputed kung fu king of the time -- even appearing as a stuntman in two of Lee's films. But in 1978, Chan landed his first hit in Asia with \"Snake in the Eagle's Shadow.\" This was quickly followed by \"Drunken Master,\" which catapulted him to fame, and he suddenly became one of the highest-paid actors in the industry. Chan is credited with creating a new film art form, with his comedic take on martial arts, reminiscent of Buster Keaton's slapstick style. \"He totally reinvented Hong Kong cinema,\" said Renee Witterstaetter, author of \"Dying For Action: The Life and Films of Jackie Chan.\" \"He created a new film art form, mixing humor with martial arts,\" Witterstaetter said. \"It was so different and unique.\" Watch TalkAsia's exclusive interview inside Jackie Chan's den \u00bb . Although a household name in his native Hong Kong and most of Asia, Hollywood seemed largely oblivious to his talents. It was not until 1994 when he made \"Rumble in the Bronx,\" which grossed $10 million in its opening weekend and made it to number one at the U.S. box office, that Chan finally cracked Hollywood. Soon big-budget hits such as the \"Rush Hour\" series and \"Shanghai Noon,\" followed. \"Rush Hour\" was Chan's first movie to break $100 million at the U.S. box office, earning $141 million, according to the box office tracking Web site, Box Office Mojo. \"Rush Hour 2\" made $226 million and \"Rush Hour 3\" has earned $137 million so far. His current cinematic venture sees him paired with longtime friend Jet Li in \"The Forbidden Kingdom\" in their first movie collaboration. Set in a mythic, ancient China, it is described as \"The Wizard of Oz with lots of martial arts.\" The martial arts dream team have already seen \"Kingdom\" debut at No. 1 with $20.9 million in ticket sales last weekend, but Chan says the reason it took him so long to work with Jet Li is because he didn't like the Hollywood scripts they were initially offered. Chan, 54, is also quite candid about the fact that he doesn't like most of the Hollywood films he has made. He revealed to CNN: \"I didn't really like 'Rush Hour.' In America, everyone likes 'Rush Hour,' but in Asia nobody likes it. \"They like talking too much in America but in Asia they like to fight more in the films.\" After the film wrapped in 1998, he wrote on his Web site: \"When we finished filming, I was very disappointed because it was a movie I didn't appreciate and I did not like the action scenes involved. \"I felt the style of action was too Americanized and I didn't understand the American humor.\" Chan has certainly come a long way from his impoverished childhood in Hong Kong, where the story has it that his parents were so poor, they nearly sold him to a British doctor for less than $100. However, his parents instead enrolled him at the China Drama Academy, a talent school of hard knocks with a draconian regime that included training in music, acrobatics and martial arts that lasted 18 hours a day. Beatings were commonplace. Children were made to perform headstands for hours on end and Chan describes being forced to run, arms outstretched, carrying two full cups of water, with strict instructions not to spill a drop. With his parents now living in Australia, Chan stayed at the school for ten years and was adopted by his Master. Undoubtedly, the academy's grueling regime would later stand Chan in good stead, turning him into an incredibly driven and disciplined stuntman turned actor, who always choreographs and performs his own stunts. As a consequence, no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, which are legendary for his death-defying super stunts. They include water-skiing barefoot behind a speeding hovercraft, jumping off a building and swinging from a hot air balloon. Chan holds the Guinness World Record for \"Most Stunts By A Living Actor.\" He also holds the record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a badminton game in \"Dragon Lord.\" Unsurprisingly, Chan has suffered a litany of injuries in the course of his film career. Over the years, he has dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck and ribs on numerous occasions. When filming \"Police Story\" in 1985, he suffered second-degree burns to his hands and palms after sliding 100 feet down a pole festooned in Christmas lights. Many of the injuries have appeared, in eye-watering viewing, as outtakes or bloopers during the closing credits of his films. But in 1986, he came close to death while filming \"Armor of God,\" when he fell 45 feet from a tree and fractured his skull, leaving a permanent hole in his head. Chan explained to CNN's TalkAsia host, Anjali Rao that he never insists on doing his own stunts. It's just the way things are done in Hong Kong. \"Making a film in Hong Kong in the old days was not like Hollywood,\" he says. \"We didn't have protection like elbow pads and we didn't have the knowledge about safety. I had to risk my life jumping from building to building.\" Chan is a one-man movie-making machine. He has his own production and distribution company -- Jackie Chan Emperor Movies -- and controls all aspects of the movie-making process, from casting to directing, producing, screenwriting, choreographing and stunt coordinating. He even has his own stunt team and casting agency. His director on the Rush Hour series, Brett Ratner told CNN's The Screening Room that Chan's versatility gives him the edge over other martial arts stars like Bruce Lee and Jet Li. \"Jackie is the most gifted actor of the three because he has the most range. Bruce Lee is a legendary performer and martial artist, but I don't think he is as funny as Jackie Chan. \"Jackie can be funny, he can be dramatic, he can do the action and the stunts, he can direct, edit, shoot. He is also a stunt coordinator so he is everything wrapped into one.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Action star Jackie Chan is famed for combining humor with martial arts .\nHis new film \"The Forbidden Kingdom\" is first pairing with kung fu star Jet Li .\nChan holds the Guinness World Record for \"Most Stunts By A Living Actor\"\nHe has suffered a litany of horror injuries over his 30-year movie career .","id":"72b895817c9a7915e83b3decf4182c76a946853b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince William received his Royal Air Force pilot's wings at a graduation ceremony Friday. Prince William while attending Remembrance Sunday ceremonies last November in London. His father, Prince Charles, presented the wings to his son and 24 other graduating students at the ceremony, held at the Cranwell Air Force base in northern England. Prince Charles smiled broadly as he pinned the badge on his son's lapel. The two shared a few words and shook hands as the audience clapped. William's girlfriend, Kate Middleton, was among those watching the ceremony. Watch William being presented with his wings \u00bb . William, 25, is already a second lieutenant in the British Army, where he serves in the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals). Since January, he has been on a four-month attachment with the Royal Air Force designed to give the future king experience with the various branches of the military. William plans to complete a similar attachment with the Royal Navy later in the year, according to his office at Clarence House. During his time with the RAF, William learned to fly three different aircraft: a Grob 115E light aircraft, the faster Tucano T1 plane, and a Squirrel helicopter. The prince was only eight days into his flying course when he made his first solo flight, Clarence House said. At the time, William described it as \"an amazing experience.\" \"Going solo is one of those things -- if you had a list of the top 50 things to do before you die, it would be in there,\" he said in January. Clarence House said it was William's \"lifetime ambition\" to learn to fly. After the ceremony, he will be known in the RAF as Flying Officer Wales. Prince Charles earned his wings more than 35 years ago at the same air force base, graduating as a Flight Lieutenant. William's uncle, the Duke of York, flew Sea King helicopters during the Falklands War in 1982. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Britain's Prince William due to receive his Royal Air Force pilot's wings .\nFuture head of British armed forces completes four-month stint with RAF .\nThe 25-year-old has trained as a helicopter and fighter pilot .\nHis father, Prince Charles, presented his wings at graduation ceremony .","id":"fa1011b987395d402913cbb3667a3cf95ed0f3d6"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York police have made an arrest in the case of an Ecuadorian immigrant beaten to death in an apparent anti-Latino and antigay hate crime in December, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced Wednesday. Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten after leaving a party at a church. Police arrested Hakim Scott, 25, on Tuesday and charged him with second degree murder as a hate crime. Police are still looking for a second suspect. On December 7, 2008, police say Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel had left a party at a church and were embracing each other to keep warm in the cold when Scott and another man approached them in a car in Brooklyn's Bushwick section, about a block from the brothers' home. Police say the two assailants shouted antigay and anti-Latino vulgarities and attacked the brothers. Scott first assaulted Jose with a beer bottle before chasing after Romel, police said. The second assailant proceeded to \"savagely beat Jose about his ribs, shoulders,\" head and back with an aluminum bat, according to Kelly. Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, died of his injuries in December hours before his mother arrived in New York from Ecuador. Romel Sucuzhanay, 34, suffered minor scrapes. Police were able to identify two suspects after inferring that they had crossed the Triborough Bridge in the course of their flight from the crime scene. They interviewed bridge toll booth employees and combed through videotape of cars passing through cash-only lanes on the bridge. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said the incident should send a message that antigay violence endangers straights and gays alike. \"If there was ever a message to the people of this city or anywhere as to why heterosexuals have to stand up and not permit this type of violence ... it is this case,\" Hynes said.","highlights":"Hakim Scott, 25, charged with 2nd degree murder in New York case .\nSecond suspect sought in beating of Jose and Romel Sucuzhanay .\nBrothers were hugging to stay warm; assailants made antigay remarks .","id":"f46464638f5a58fb302c67266f898eb0351350fb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The slayings of two super-yacht staff within two weeks have shaken the luxury yacht industry and sparked calls for crews to exercise extreme caution. Australian luxury yacht captain Drew Gollan was killed in January in English Harbor, Antigua. Both slayings occurred in popular yachting destinations in the Caribbean and involved violent attacks. Last week, U.S. luxury yacht chef Sara Kuszak, of Savannah, Georgia, was killed after being abducted during a morning run in Puerto Rico. The body of Kuszak, who was five months pregnant, was found with a slashed throat in a field. A local man has been arrested by police in connection with the incident. On January 22, Australian Drew Gollan, captain of Perini Navi yacht Perseus, was shot dead in what was described as a \"failed robbery\" in English Harbor, Antigua. Gollan, 38, was described as a \"widely respected member of the yachting community.\" His death came less than a year after the double killing of a British couple on the island. Suspects have been arrested and charged with murder in both cases. Antigua, in particular, is highly dependent on the luxury yacht industry to boost its local economy -- and it appears news of the crimes is already having a negative impact. In a press release, the Antigua Charter Yacht Meeting acknowledged that \"a number of boats have decided to leave Antigua in the wake of this incident.\" Further reports from yachting magazine SuperYachtWorld suggest several captains on the island have also decided to leave. Meanwhile, luxury yacht staff who are remaining in the Caribbean have been urged by industry Web site yotcru.com to \"exercise vigilant personal safety at all times.\" After the death of Gollan, local Antigua politicians and yacht industry representatives held an emergency meeting to discuss the problem. At the meeting, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, said: \"Antigua is still a safe place to be. It's an unfortunate situation, however we are all hoping that justice will be done,\" SuperYachtWorld reported. Spencer also pledged new security efforts to help prevent future crimes. An international charter company manager and luxury yacht industry expert, Els Bucknell, said yacht crews and clients were \"shocked and saddened\" by the deaths, and there would likely be a short-term impact on the Caribbean region. \"Most people assumed that this part of Antigua was safe and I think it has come as a shock,\" she said. \"Some boats have already left and I think you will see some of that.\" However, Bucknell felt the incident would not affect the region in the long term. \"People do forget about these things over time ... and the local business people with police and other authorities have made a serious attempt to make it safer. \"The economy being the way it is has more to do with how business operates than these kind of things,\" she said.","highlights":"Australian captain Drew Gollan shot dead in Antigua on January 22 .\nU.S. yacht chef Sara Kuszak was abducted and killed in Puerto Rico last week .\nReports indicate some yachts and crew members leaving Caribbean .","id":"0870f22e8cb80979e991b0a8522dc9a4c54d4059"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly seven years after the remains of federal intern Chandra Levy were found in a Washington park, a jailed laborer from El Salvador faces a murder charge in her death, authorities said Tuesday. Ingmar Guandique is serving a 10-year sentence for two assaults in the park where Levy's body was found. A judge on Tuesday signed an arrest warrant for Ingmar Guandique, 27, who is serving a 10-year sentence for two assaults in Rock Creek Park that occurred around the time of Levy's disappearance. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park about a year after she was reported missing. \"We believe Levy was a random victim of Guandique, who attacked and killed her as she jogged in Rock Creek Park,\" said Jeffrey Taylor, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Guandique's public defenders said the case was far from over, and urged the public not to jump to conclusions. \"This flawed investigation, characterized by the many mistakes and missteps of the Metropolitan Police Department and every federal agency that has attempted to solve this case, will not end with the simple issuance of an arrest warrant against Mr. Guandique,\" the federal public defender's office said in a statement ... We look forward to trying this case before unbiased jurors who will not rush to judgment.\" Guandique faces a first-degree murder charge. A conviction on the charge would bring a mandatory sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison, Taylor said. The massive publicity surrounding the Levy case was largely a result of her romantic affair to then-Rep. Gary Condit, a California Democrat. Police questioned Condit many times in connection with the slaying, but the congressman was never considered a suspect. Watch the police announce arrest \u00bb . A California native working as an intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Levy, 24, disappeared May 1, 2001. Her remains were found in May 2002 by a man walking his dog in a remote area of the park. Guandique has been imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution-Victorville, a medium-security facility northeast of Los Angeles, California. Officials hope to transfer him from California to the nation's capital in 45 to 60 days. He's serving his sentence on the two assault convictions in California because there are no prisons in the District of Columbia. Those convicted of federal crimes in the capital are sent to various federal prisons across the country. Guandique was considered a person of interest in 2002 in connection with Levy's death, authorities said Tuesday. Before the new charges, his projected release date from prison was October 5, 2011. According to officials at Tuesday's news conference -- and the affidavit supporting the arrest warrant for Guandique -- circumstantial evidence played a large role in the case. Authorities presented no evidence Tuesday of anyone seeing Guandique and Levy together. Timeline of Levy's disappearance \u00bb . But the affidavit said a witness reported seeing and running from a man in the park, and she said she believed that occurred on the same day as Levy disappeared. Upon seeing a photograph of Guandique in the interim, the woman thought he looked like the man who followed her in the park, the affidavit said. Another witness reported seeing Guandique with \"a fat lip and scratches on his face\" about the time of Levy's disappearance, the affidavit said. The witness added that Guandique said he was injured by his girlfriend during an argument. Interviewed by police, Guandique's girlfriend at the time said that while he was violent with her on occasion, \"at no time during any of the arguments or fights did [she] ever strike Guandique or cause any injuries to his face or neck.\" Two other witnesses reported that Guandique told them he committed crimes against women, including rape and murder, according to the affidavit. And another witness last month told police Guandique admitted his involvement in Levy's killing, as well as that he tried to rape two other women in the park at knifepoint, the affidavit said. When news emerged last month that Guandique's arrest was imminent in the Levy case, the same witness told police Guandique \"became very anxious and said something to the effect of, '[Expletive], it's over. They got me now. What am I gonna do?' \" Authorities searching Guandique's cell in California in September found a photograph of Levy that apparently had been taken from a magazine, the affidavit said. Speaking last month as news emerged that an arrest in the case was imminent, Levy's mother, Susan, said, \"It's a bittersweet situation for me as the mother of a daughter who is no longer here. I want justice. I want to know that the person who did it is in jail and will not do it to anybody else.\" She added, \"Every day the elephant is there. Every day you get a knot in your stomach. It doesn't go away. It's a life sentence for the families and relatives that miss their loved ones. We have a life sentence of hurt.\" CNN's Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Affidavit says suspect told fellow inmate last month \"They got me now\"\nNEW: Witness told police she saw man resembling suspect in park, affidavit says .\nIngmar Guandique is serving a 10-year prison sentence for two assaults .\nLevy disappeared in May 2001; her body was found a year later .","id":"2f11f7e4b96b131bf6afa5008935c0de071fd69a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A longtime employee and vault manager for a jewelry company in Long Island City, New York, stole millions of dollars worth of gold and gold jewelry from her employer over a six-year span, the Queens district attorney has alleged. Teresa Tambunting, 50, of Scarsdale, New York, is accused of stealing as much as $12 million from Jacmel Jewelry, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement Wednesday. At an arraignment Wednesday, she did not enter a plea to charges of first-degree grand larceny and first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, the district attorney's office said. She was released on $100,000 bail and will return to court May 19, the office said. Her attorney, David Kirby, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Tambunting, who worked for Jacmel for 28 years, has returned about $7 million worth of gold, but $4 million remains missing, according to Brown. \"The defendant is accused of establishing a virtual mining operation in Long Island City which siphoned off millions of dollars' worth of the precious metal from her employer,\" Brown said. Police say Tambunting -- whose job responsibilities involved monitoring the vault in which fine gold, finished products and raw materials were stored -- confessed that for several months last year, she hid gold in makeshift slits in her purse. An inventory in January revealed that as much as $12 million in merchandise was missing, Brown said in the written statement. After an investigation, Tambunting arrived at the jewelry company's offices wheeling a suitcase containing about 66 pounds of gold, an estimated $868,000, the district attorney's office said. In February, about 450 pounds of gold was taken from her residence, the office said. Tambunting became vault manager in 1991, the office said. The dates of the alleged thefts were not immediately clear. The value of the gold returned fluctuates because of the rise and fall of gold prices. However, the charges are based on what Jacmel claims it lost: $3 to $12 million, according to the Queens district attorney. Jewelry manufacturer owners often find themselves in precarious circumstances when protecting their companies from thievery, said Benjamin Mark, who owned a jewelry manufacturing company in New York for 20 years. \"Unless you have metal detectors where every single employee removes their shoes and belts, you can't be certain,\" said Mark, who now operates a one-man business. \"Stealing jewelry is relatively simple.\" Jacmel Jewelry is one of the country's largest manufacturers and distributors of popular price jewelry, according to its Web site. It employs more than 1,000 people worldwide, according to its president, Jack Rahmey. Rahmey said he is cooperating with authorities. Tambunting faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.","highlights":"Vault manager worked for Jacmel Jewelry for 28 years .\nAuthorities say she confessed to hiding gold in her purse .\nDistrict attorney says she's returned about $7 million in gold .\nShe could get 25 years in prison if convicted .","id":"f27d18d39039f4d8becf21507e7670af354270a3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- More than $20 million from dozens of clients is unaccounted for in the aftermath of what police say was a murder-suicide by the attorney who invested the money, according to a source with direct knowledge of deceased lawyer William Parente's financial dealings. Police say Stephanie Parente's father killed his family and himself in a Baltimore hotel Monday. Some investors fear their entire life savings have been wiped out, said the source, who based the $20 million amount on knowledge of Parente's finances. Some other investors are missing what could amount to another $7 million, CNN has learned, so the total of missing money tied to Parente could be upwards of $27 million. Baltimore County, Maryland, police say Parente, 59, killed his family before committing suicide. The bodies of Parente, his wife and their two daughters were found in a hotel room in Towson, Maryland, on Monday. The source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive financial information involved, said one investor had been involved with Parente for more than 15 years, receiving regular monthly payments from Parente until April 16, four days before the bodies were found. The source said Parente solicited personal loans from clients at high interest, promising to use the money for bridge financing of real estate projects such as shopping centers. The source did not know whether Parente, of Garden City, New York, had actually used the money for any legitimate investments. The source, who knew Parente for more than 15 years, described him as \"serious, somber and conservative.\" Parente told investors he was generating returns of more than 13 percent even in down markets, according to the source. Investors were not given investment statements and were not charged a management fee, but Parente did provide notices informing investors that he owed them money, according to the source. In other developments Friday, police said Parente bought a set of knives from a Crate and Barrel store in Towson, and one of the knives is believed to be the one Parente later used to take his own life. Baltimore County police said that knife is being tested as evidence in the murder\/suicide case. Investigators say they found a receipt for the knife in the hotel room where the deaths took place, and the time stamped on the receipt was 5:25 p.m. Sunday. Police have said Parente's wife, Betty, 58, and daughters Catherine, 11, and Stephanie, 19, were killed by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma Sunday afternoon. Authorities said Parente took a call about midnight Sunday from his elder daughter's college roommate asking whether she was returning to her dormitory. Police believe Parente's daughter was already dead. He told the roommate his daughter was spending the night at the hotel with the family. Also Friday, other details emerged about some of Parente's other clients. One of Parente's investors was Queens lawyer Bruce Montague, and Montague's office has heard from 10 Parente clients whose investments are unaccounted for. Together, those clients had invested about $7 million. Through a law partner, Craig Gardy, Montague said he is missing $450,000. The clients are from New York, New Jersey, California and Florida, according to Montague's office. The office has referred those clients to the FBI. Gardy said Montague, who considered Parente to be a personal friend, remains too devastated about the deaths to provide details himself, but he authorized his partners to speak on his behalf. The scenario as given by his partners was that after the Bernard Madoff scandal broke last fall, Montague got \"cold feet\" and repeatedly asked Parente for his investment money back. On April 16, Montague tried to deposit a check from Parente for $245,000. On Tuesday, April 21, when Montague's bank notified him the check did not clear, he called Chase bank, where Parente's funds were held. Montague was told Parente's account was empty, according to Gardy, and it would be useless to deposit other checks received from Parente. Then Montague called the New York attorney general's office. He called the attorney general's office again after he learned about Parente's murder\/suicide. Gardy said Montague believed he was investing in real estate notes -- short-term, high-interest loans made to developers, for example, who wanted to circumvent conventional bank loans. Montague did not receive monthly or quarterly statements. Gardy said Montague believed he was making money on interest from those loans and would sometimes get a check when the note was paid off. The FBI is continuing its investigation. Spokesman James Margolin said a number of banks are being contacted. He would not identify them. Funerals for Parente's wife and daughters are scheduled for Tuesday at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Garden City, New York. The funeral home handling arrangements said a separate, private service will be held for William Parente.","highlights":"Police say William Parente killed wife, 2 daughters and himself .\nParente may have taken more than $27 million from dozens of clients .\nClients got no investment statements and were not charged a management fee .\nA client nervous after Madoff case found there was no money in Parente's account .","id":"10fc87641cd899bdcef6e7cef6546d0a8e7712cd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal judge whose husband and mother were slain in their family home in Chicago, Illinois, four years ago was honored Monday by U.S. marshals charged with combating a growing number of threats to the judiciary. Judge Joan Lefkow has advocated improving judicial security since her husband and mother were killed. Judge Joan Lefkow, who eventually returned to the bench, credited the marshals who protect federal judges at work and at home with major improvements in judicial security in the years since her family tragedy. \"It's now four years later, and I do see dawn has broken,\" Lefkow told a crowd of friends and federal officials gathered at the Marshals Service headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington. The improved security -- including home intrusion security systems and coordinated intelligence and threat analysis -- was badly needed, according to both judges and the Marshals Service. The number of threats has increased each year, and is expected to exceed 1,500 this year, up from 1,278 last year. \"We've already had 600 inappropriate communications reported in the first months of this year,\" said Marshals Service spokesman Dave Turner. Whether real threats or hoaxes, every e-mail, phone call, written note and letter -- including some with white powder -- is investigated. The scope and seriousness of the protective effort increased sharply after the Lefkow tragedy. On Tuesday, the Marshals Service dedicated the \"Joan Lefkow Conference Room\" in the new Threat Management Center to the memory of her slain husband, Michael Lefkow, and mother, Donna Humphrey. Judge Lefkow returned home on February 28, 2005, to find them shot to death. The man authorities said was their killer committed suicide 10 days later when he was stopped by police in Wisconsin. The killer was angry that Judge Lefkow had dismissed his medical malpractice case and he sought revenge, police concluded. U.S. Marshals Director John Clark credits Lefkow's advocacy for better security as the catalyst for dramatic changes. \"Because of her courage to speak out and her advocacy for reform in the protection of judges, things started to happen,\" Clark said. He cited congressional funding for home-intrusion alarms in every judge's residence and a sharp increase in funding to hire more threat investigators, protections specialists, analysts and trainers. The threat management center has been open for more than a year. Deputy marshals in the judicial protection effort attribute a growing number of the threats to disgruntled members of what is known as the sovereign citizenship movement. The movement is a loosely organized network of individuals and groups claiming not to be accountable to the federal government. The movement includes tax protesters, white separatists, zealots of fringe religious groups and desperate individuals lashing out at bankruptcy courts or judges who had wronged them. As a result, some judges have been given around-the-clock protective details by deputy marshals. \"While steady progress has been made, we must be ever vigilant and progressive in order to ensure we are providing the best possible protection to our nation's judiciary,\" Clark said.","highlights":"U.S. Marshals honor federal judge whose husband and mother were killed .\nFamily killed by man angry at judge's decision to dismiss malpractice case .\nJudge Joan Lefkow, marshals have worked to help increase security for judges .\nLefkow: \"It's now four years later, and I do see dawn has broken\"","id":"7b8b2687e3f3b9ebf0d3db9959825f7ff754fefd"} -{"article":"HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- On the tape, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan appears to burn with rage. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, pictured here, allegedly tortured a business associate on videotape. Believing he was cheated in a business deal, the member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family was trying to extract a confession from an Afghan grain dealer. With a private security officer assisting, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan is seen stuffing sand in the Afghan's mouth. As the grain dealer pleads and whimpers, he is beaten with a nailed board, burned in the genitals with a cigarette lighter, shocked with a cattle prod, and led to believe he would be shot. Salt is poured on his wounds. In the end, the victim can muster up only weak moans as an SUV is repeatedly driven over him. The 45 minutes of torture appears on a nearly three-hour-long videotape shot in late 2004 in the desert outside Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf region. It was made at the direction of the sheikh himself. The tape has been viewed by CNN. Now the tape has surfaced as a piece of evidence in a federal civil suit filed in Houston, Texas, against the sheikh by his former business partner, Bassam Nabulsi. As media, U.S. governmental and human rights questions and concerns emerged, Abu Dhabi's government on Tuesday issued a statement saying it deplored the contents of the video and plans an immediate and comprehensive review of it. Nabulsi, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen living in Houston, says he met Sheikh Issa when the royal came to Houston for medical care in 1994. Watch portions of the tape and Nabulsi tell his story \u00bb . According to Nabulsi, the men became friends and business partners, and Sheikh Issa eventually recruited Nabulsi to move to Abu Dhabi to work for him. \"We were buddies,\" said Nabulsi, who met with CNN journalists in Houston. \"He gave me his personal vow. He swore to look after my family in case something happened to me.\" The sheikh, who holds no official government position, is the half-brother of the country's ruler. In the lawsuit, Nabulsi says was disturbed by the sheikh's \"increasingly bizarre behavior\" after the November 2004 death of his father, UAE ruler Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan. Nabulsi's lawsuit says that Sheikh Issa's father \"kept tight control over Sheikh Issa\" but after the father's death, he \"apparently no longer felt constrained.\" Nabulsi claims he confronted his business partner about the Afghan's treatment, telling him that to do such a thing he \"must not be a God-fearing person.\" Nabulsi says his boldness prompted the sheikh to turn on him. Later, Nabulsi was arrested on drug charges. Security officers working for the sheikh ransacked his home and demanded the torture video, Nabulsi claimed. By this point, the tape -- shot by Nabulsi's brother at the order of the sheikh -- had been smuggled out of the country. According to an affidavit, Nabulsi's brother worked for Sheikh Issa as a personal assistant. In 2005, Nabulsi was arrested, jailed and ultimately convicted on drug charges. And, he said, he was tortured and humiliated by UAE police, who demanded he return the tape. \"It was a lot of humiliation,\" Nabulsi told CNN. \"And I really don't like to talk about it.\" Nabulsi was fined and deported. Darryl Bristow, the sheikh's Houston attorney, argued in court papers that American courts have no jurisdiction over his client. In a statement to CNN, Bristow said Nabulsi is using the videotape of a third party, Nabulsi's brother, to influence the court over a business dispute. \"The public should know that the man behind the camera was Bassam Nabulsi's brother and that Bassam Nabulsi kept the video from the media while his lawyer was asking for money. What do you call that where you come from?\" Bristow asked. Nabulsi's attorney denied wrongdoing. The Houston case languished in the U.S. court system after it was filed in 2006 but it eventually moved forward when the sheikh's personal assistant was served with court papers last year. Nabulsi's attorney, Anthony Buzbee, said he has deposed the sheikh, but the deposition is under seal. The case was filed in Houston because the Sheikh Issa-Nabulsi business partnership was formed and focused in Texas and \"claims at issue in this case arose out of contacts within Texas.\" Nabulsi claims breaches of contract and fiduciary duty. He wants $80 million he says is owed to him from their business relationship. He also wants to be awarded punitive damages for torture, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and malicious prosecution. Initially, the UAE Interior Ministry said Sheikh Issa \"does not hold any official position\" in the government and that Nabulsi's lawsuit is \"a private dispute.\" Asked about the torture allegations, the UAE said it investigated and found \"...all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the police department. The review also concluded that the incidents depicted in the videotapes were not part of a pattern of behavior.\" The shocking case has made waves recently as news organizations asked about the tape. U.S. senior officials familiar with the case say the administration is holding off sending a nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates to Congress for ratification because they fear a fallout from the torture story. Congress has to ratify the civil nuclear agreement signed in January between the Bush administration and the UAE. Those senior U.S. officials said the agreement was supposed to be sent to the Senate, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held off doing so because of the story's sensitivity. One American lawmaker, Rep. James McGovern, D-Massachusetts, asked Clinton to investigate and that all \"expenditures of funds, training, sales or transfers of equipment or technology, including nuclear\" to the UAE be put on hold until the matter is reviewed. He also wants the United States to deny any visas for travel by Sheikh Issa or his immediate family. \"I think we have an obligation to say we want to step back a bit and look at this a little more closely,\" said McGovern, co-chairman of the congressional human rights commission. He promised hearings on the issue, probing the case and how the U.S. Embassy in the UAE handled it. \"I am not going to let it go away,\" McGovern said. Human Rights Watch, the humanitarian watchdog group, is calling for the United Arab Emirates to \"investigate and prosecute\" the grain dealer's torture. With media questions about the tape mounting, Abu Dhabi said on Wednesday it decided to renew its inquiries -- more than four years after the incident. As for the grain dealer, UAE officials say he survived the ordeal, and said the sheikh and the grain dealer settled the matter privately by agreeing not to bring formal charges against the other. How much money was the grain dealer accused of stealing from the sheikh? \"It's nothing,\" Nabulsi said. \"No more than about $5,000.\" CNN's Scott Bronstein, Drew Griffin, Stan Grant, Elise Labott, Octavia Nasr, and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former business partner of Sheikh Issa of Abu Dhabi suing royal .\nBassam Nabulsi's tape shows sheikh severely torturing grain merchant .\nNabulsi, of Houston, says he himself was tortured in jail, sheikh owes him $80M .\nU.S. senior officials say case is holding up a U.S. nuclear deal with the UAE .","id":"cc7392014d2055e9218a269895d1740ec676244c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Paul Goydos pulled ahead of overnight co-leader Justin Leonard to move into a three-stroke lead at the halfway point of the Valero Texas Open. Goydos posted six birdies to hold a three-stroke lead after 36 holes of the Texas Open. The American had begun the day tied on seven-under-par with former Open champion Leonard, a Texas native, who started early at the par-70, 6,896-yard Resort Course at La Cantera and followed his first-round 63 with a two-under 68 to move to nine-under. Goydos set off in pursuit later in the day and got off to a bad start with a bogey on his first hole at the par-four 10th. But it was to be the only blemish on his card as the 2008 Players Championship runner-up knocked off six birdies for a five-under 65 to get to 12- under-par. \"Another good day,\" Goydos told reporters afterwards. \"Really only had one mediocre shot all day, and that was on the first hole. I made bogey, and after that I played reasonably well.\" Mathias Gronberg led a Swedish charge in San Antonio, opening the day on four-under and going one better with a second-round 65 to take a share of the clubhouse lead with Leonard on nine-under. American Ted Purdy improved by three strokes with a 67 while his compatriots John Mallinger, with a 64, and Scott Sterling, who posted a 63, made it a five-way tie overnight for second place.","highlights":"Paul Goydos leads by three strokes after the second round of the Texas Open .\nGoydos cards six birdies for five-under-par 65 to get to 12-under after 36 holes .\nJoint first round leader Justin Leonard among quintet to share second position .","id":"e33cbc74cdca8f7afa2bf0bd88c70a612a3201b5"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A Thai judge fined dozens of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of illegal entry after escaping from their own country a month ago -- amid allegations that other Rohingya have been dumped at sea by the Thai army. Male refugees show scars they say were caused by beatings at the hands of the Myanmar navy. The Ranong Provincial Court judge ordered each of the 66 ethnic Muslim refugees to pay 1,000 Thai baht (less than $30). He imposed the fines via a closed-circuit television link to Ranong Provincial Prison, where the refugees will continue to be held until they can pay the court. Twelve additional refugees, all teenagers, were being detained at a police station and are exempt from prosecution. The 78 refugees will be handed over on January 31 to immigration police, who will deport them. It is unclear where they will be sent. The refugees arrived by boat on the Thai shore, and Thai police said many had severe burns from a fire that broke out on board their craft after it left neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma. Members of Myanmar's Rohingya minority have been fleeing the country for years, saying they are persecuted by its military government. One refugee, who called himself Mohamed, told CNN that their boat had been at sea for a month, and that Myanmar's military had detained and attacked them before setting their boat on fire. The refugees are unwelcome in Thailand, where authorities say about 20,000 have settled illegally. Other boatloads of Rohingya have allegedly been set adrift after being towed out to sea by Thai authorities. A recent CNN investigation found evidence of such activity. Photos obtained by CNN include one that shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees. Watch Dan Rivers' BackStory on the investigation \u00bb . CNN also interviewed a refugee who said he was one of the few who had survived after a group of six rickety boats was towed back to sea and abandoned by Thai authorities earlier this month. The Thai government has launched an inquiry. The Thai army has denied the allegations. But after extensive questioning by CNN, one source in the Thai military confirmed that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. The source defended it, saying that each boatload of refugees is given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source said Thai villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and they had accused the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. The Thai government has said that \"there is no reasonable ground to believe\" that the Rohingya are fleeing Myanmar because of persecution. \"Their profile and their seasonal travel further support the picture that they are illegal migrants, and not those requiring international protection,\" the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday. One of the refugees who came ashore Tuesday said they will be killed if returned to Myanmar because of their minority status. He said the Rohingya are stateless because they lack bribe money to obtain identification cards in Myanmar. In Tuesday's statement, the Thai government said it deals with all illegal migrants in accordance with its laws and international guidelines. It said \"basic humanitarian needs\" such as food and water are met among the migrants before they are returned home. Their boats also are fixed, officials said. The Thai government said that \"accepting those arriving in an irregular manner would simply encourage new arrivals.\" The government denied media reports alleging that Thai authorities mistreat the illegal migrants and intentionally damage their boats. CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sixty-six Rohingya refugees from Myanmar fined by Thai court .\nThey will be handed over to immigration police with 12 others .\nRohingya refugees are at center of allegations of mistreatment by Thai army .\nPhotos obtained by CNN show army towing boatload of 190 refugees to sea .","id":"92de0d68ee1b4032cacf82391e36351535b5cb83"} -{"article":"MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) -- When James Earl Ray bought a white Mustang in the summer of 1967, he stood on a streetcorner in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, and pulled the cash out of his shirt pocket, $2,000 in all. James Earl Ray paid $2,000 cash for a white Mustang, similar to this one, the seller told the FBI. \"Mostly twenties, with some $100 bills,\" the seller would later tell the FBI about the sale to Ray, later convicted of assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. \"He must have had a roll of twenties, if he paid that guy $2,000 in twenties, that'd be a lot of money,\" said Jerry Ray, James Earl Ray's brother. Police Capt. John Light, who was chief of detectives that year in Ray's hometown of Alton, Illinois, suspects the wad of money came from a still-unsolved bank robbery. While Ray was on the run as a prison escapee from Missouri that summer, two men walked into the Bank of Alton with a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun. Both wore stocking masks. The leaner man went behind the counter, scooped up the cash and fled with close to $30,000. Ray, King crossed paths before shooting \u00bb Within a day or two of that robbery, Ray would leave the area and head to Canada -- just as he did almost a year later when he fled the scene in Memphis, Tennessee, after King's murder. Light told CNN the stolen bank money consisted mainly of $20 bills. The partially burned shotgun and the stocking masks were found abandoned in a wooded area near a cemetery where Ray's mother is buried. Ray returned from Canada and bought the Mustang after seeing a classified ad in Birmingham the month after the robbery. In the months to come, Ray would keep spending $20 bills. When Ray underwent plastic surgery in Los Angeles 30 days before King's death, he paid in cash -- denomination unknown. When he drove back to Birmingham six days before the murder to buy a .30-06 high-powered hunting rifle for just under $250, the gun store salesman later told investigators, \"I remember he paid for the gun with $20 bills, paid cash.\" On April 4, 1968, only hours before King would die, the landlady at the boarding house where Ray rented a room told police, \"He gave me a $20 bill\" when he paid for a week's rent just across the street from the Lorraine Motel. In the sporting goods store where Ray went to buy binoculars, the salesman told police, \"He gave me two twenties; I think he had two twenties left... The bills came out of his right pocket, neatly folded, and nothing but bills.\" For Light, the bank holdup is the most likely answer to the question of where Ray got the money to travel as a fugitive to Canada and Mexico, then to flee again to Canada and finally London, England, after King's murder. \"Thirty-thousand dollars back in 1967 was a lot of money,\" Light said. In London, Ray ran short of money. Four days before he was caught, he robbed a bank. His thumbprint was found on the holdup note. He got little more than $200 -- enough to buy an airline ticket to Brussels, Belgium, where he hoped to join mercenaries fighting to keep white rule in southern Africa. He was stopped at a London airport when a police sergeant spotted his phony Canadian passport. Ray lived very cheaply on the run. He got change back for his $20 bill at the Memphis boarding house -- a week's rent there was $8.50. The original prosecutors in the Memphis case decided it would not have cost that much for all of Ray's travels. \"He was living on a dollar to two dollars a day,\" said current prosecutor John Campbell. \"He was even darning his own socks to be able to save money.\"","highlights":"Police: James Earl Ray's money came from a bank robbery in his hometown .\nGun, masks used in robbery found near burial plot of Ray's mother .\nRay bought a Mustang and underwent plastic surgery before King's death .\nProsecutors believe he lived very cheaply on the run .","id":"7dc9c7399c2e313bbc6264072f6a592b6915b082"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Now it's the Republicans' turn. Charlie Daniels will headline a concert Wednesday in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. The Democrats turned out the star power for its convention in Denver, Colorado, right up to the final night, when the 80,000-strong crowd attending Sen. Barack Obama's closing speech at Invesco Field was serenaded by Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder, among others. The Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, may not have the same oomph, but it won't lack for well-known visitors. After mixing and mingling in Denver with Democrats, the nonpartisan Creative Coalition is scheduled to join the festivities in the Twin Cities. The organization is devoted to arts advocacy as well as issues such as health care and affordable housing. Its spokespeople include Warren Beatty, Dana Delany, Tim Daly, Giancarlo Esposito and Matthew Modine. The group is showing a film, \"14 Women,\" about the 14 female senators of the 109th Congress. Creative Coalition Executive Director Robin Bronk told The Hollywood Reporter that the organization was determined to present some steak with its celebrity sizzle. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos from around the Republican Convention . \"We have a great track record of bringing substance with splash,\" she said. The group is sponsoring a Charlie Daniels Band concert on Wednesday. The Black Eyed Peas played the group's Denver show. Retail chain Target is co-sponsor of both shows. Also in Minneapolis: a show titled \"The Songwriters Circle: The Songs We Love,\" which will feature performances by Brett James (who wrote \"Jesus, Take the Wheel\") and Greg Laswell (\"What a Day\"), according to RollingStone.com. The show is sponsored the The Recording Academy and its GRAMMY Foundation. Among other celebrities expected to be present are the Beach Boys -- who will be headlining a concert of their own Monday -- Gretchen Wilson and Sammy Hagar. However, one of the GOP's biggest celebrity names, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, may not make the trip. Schwarzenegger has said that state business may keep him in Sacramento. Not every event will be sanctioned by the convention, of course. The politically active band Rage Against the Machine, which played a free show in Denver, has scheduled a Minneapolis concert, though it's far from free: Tickets are $60 for the show at the Target Center on Wednesday. Rage guitarist Tom Morello is also teaming with Steve Earle for a union rally on Labor Day. There are also several arts-related events in a lower key. According to The New York Times, artists will be coming to Minneapolis-St. Paul to mount various forms of political theater, from creating ice sculptures to inviting the public to perform karaoke versions of convention speeches. Though some of the exhibits will be politically pointed, organizers are careful to characterize them as nonpartisan -- and expect some unusual discourse. \"You expect people to respond by organizing a protest and throwing their fists in the air, and you also expect people to respond by flying 1,000 American flags,\" Sarah Peters of Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, which is taking part in that city's \"UnConvention,\" told the Times. \"And those are two legitimate ways to respond to politics, but there is a whole in-between area that doesn't get talked about.\"","highlights":"GOP convention to include celebrities, some performing, others visiting .\nRage Against the Machine, which played in Denver, Colorado, also in Twin Cities .\nArt installations reportedly to express nonpartisanship .","id":"586ae50a3629159595d730236b268ede4bd1b11a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Actor, author and Parkinson's disease activist Michael J. Fox spoke with CNN's \"Larry King Live\" to be aired Thursday. Michael J. Fox: \"I still travel with my kids, and I'm with them part of the day, every day.\" In the interview, Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991, talks about his new book, which he describes as \"a memoir of the last 10 years.\" In it, he explores the nature of optimism. He also talked about his family, a new approach to acting and President Obama's lifting of a ban on stem cell research, among other things. Here are some excerpts from the show. Larry King: He's founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. He's a best-selling author -- the new book is \"Always Looking Up.\" By the way, he has got an ABC special, \"Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist.\" It airs on May 7. You remain -- is it easy to be an optimist? Michael J. Fox: Well, for me it's second nature. It's just the way I look at life. And it's certainly a challenge now for most people to be optimistic, obviously, with all of the troubles we have and the problems that the country is facing. But I think it's exactly in those times when our optimism kicks in highest gear. I think -- there's an expression that I like that I always use: \"Don't wish for a lighter load, wish for broader shoulders.\" And I think that people are really -- I see a lot of broader shoulders these days, people are really working on the delts, you know? King: What was it like when you were diagnosed? Fox: Well, you know, it's hard to describe it, because I was so young, I was 29 years old. And so Parkinson's is not what you expect to hear. I had a twitch in my pinky and I figured it was some kind of nerve damage or I'd done something probably athletic. ... But then I got this diagnosis, and I thought the guy was kidding. And then it was shock, and then I had a certain amount of fear and I started to react to it in certain ways. I started drinking more heavily as a way of self-medicating it. And it took me -- you know, it's funny, because I sit and talk about \"Always Looking Up\" and being optimistic, and accept the losses and move on or find new gains, but it took me about seven years, I think, to really get to the point where I could tell people about it. ... I was diagnosed in '91, and it wasn't until '98 that I admitted publicly that it was a situation I was facing. King: It is not life-threatening, is it? Fox: No. And I would say you don't die from it, but you -- up to now, you'll definitely die with it if you have it. ... King: Why did you write the book? Fox: The book was -- I wrote the first book because I had to, I think I had to kind of tell that story just for myself, just kind of to acknowledge all of the work that I had done on getting through that journey. And then this book was -- I thought about writing another, and I thought about people responding so positively to the optimism in the first book. And so many people wanted to talk to me about that. So I thought, well, optimism: What is optimism? And so I started to think about it more kind of empirically, writing a book about optimism as a subject, and interviewing researchers about it and talking to people who are optimistic and traveling to places where people are optimistic and all of this stuff. ... So I had to kind of tell it -- I couldn't tell, talk about optimism without -- and separate it from my experience. I had to make it part of my experience. So then, having done that, and written this book, which is really a memoir of the last 10 years, I still have these questions about optimism. So I went to ABC and I said, 'There was a thing I was going to do a book on, but I'd like to do a documentary special on.' And they said, great. And so we've been traveling around, talking to optimists. We went to Bhutan, which is a country in the Himalayas that actually measures its gross national happiness along with its GDP. King: Really? Fox: Yes. And it makes decisions on its development as a country based on how to affect the happiness of the people. And the people are uniformly happy. It's amazing. ... King: Speaking of optimism, in March, President Obama lifted the ban on federal financing for embryonic stem cell research. You've long fought for that. You've got to feel like a -- it has come true. ... Watch Fox's talk about the lifting of the ban \u00bb . King: When you act, is it hard? Fox: Oh, yes. I don't have any access to the same tool kit that I always had. But it's like anything. It's like, you find new ways of doing things. And in those new ways, you maybe are able to do things you couldn't do before in ways you might not have approached before. And that's my whole kind of philosophy of life is -- in dealing with Parkinson's or any kind of setback or loss, is that if you avoid it or it creates a hole that you try to fill up with other stuff, with your ego and your needs and your wants and your control issues, then you're just going to dig deeper in a hole. But if you just recognize, 'look, it is what it is' -- now what's around it? I mean, the only thing that I don't have a choice about is whether I have Parkinson's. Everything else I have a choice about. ... Fox explains how he handles the bad days \u00bb . King: Parts of your book are a love letter to your wife, Tracy. Without being saccharine, how important has she been? Fox: I couldn't have made the journey that I've made without her. And certainly I wouldn't have this family that I have. And three-quarters of our children were born after the diagnosis. And we knew what we were facing, what we were dealing with, and had some sense of what the prospects were, although they've turned out a lot better than we could have imagined. I mean, I'm 20 years after diagnosis, and there's very little that I don't do now that I used to do. I still travel with my kids, and I'm with them part of the day, every day. King: How old are they now? Fox: My oldest is 19 -- he'll be 20 next month. And the twins are going into high school next year; they are 14. And then I have a 7-year-old.","highlights":"Fox gratified Obama lifted ban on federal money for embryonic stem cell research .\nHe says the research doesn't guarantee a cure, but it can't hurt .\nFox has some bad days, but he tries to separate the physical from the emotional .","id":"fb3c5b6ff747491268eef5d74cdf01f2f0ab9232"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Ethiopian immigrant with a history of mental health problems is in custody after being accused of mailing a letter with HIV-tainted blood to Barack Obama when he was president-elect, according to court records. Police say blood-stained letters were addressed to President Obama and top aide Rahm Emanuel. Saad Bedrie Hussein told investigators that he is an admirer of Obama and that the letter -- containing his photo, an admission ticket to Obama's election night victory party in Chicago's Grant Park and six index cards containing writing and reddish stains -- was his way of seeking government help and tickets to Obama's inauguration. Hussein, who has HIV, said he \"purposely cut one of his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter,\" according to an affidavit by Terry L. Cullivan, an investigator with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The letter, postmarked December 27 and written in an Ethiopian language, was addressed to Obama at the Illinois Department on Aging in Springfield, Illinois. When the letter was opened two days later, it was found to contain an orange powder, Cullivan said. A state employee then took the letter to another state office, resulting in a two-hour lockdown of the building, affecting more than 300 people, the affidavit says. During an interview, Hussein was unable to remember what the orange powder was, but tests revealed it to be a drink-mix powder, the affidavit says. According to the affidavit, during a December 29 interview, Hussein denied mailing any additional letters. But, the affidavit said, two days later, the Illinois Department of Revenue notified him it had received two similar letters, both with Hussein's return address. One was addressed to the Illinois Department on Aging, and the second to \"Emanuel,\" which investigators believe was intended for Obama aide Rahm Emanuel. Both letters contained what appeared to be dried blood and an orange powder. The criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Illinois alleges that Hussein \"knowingly mailed\" the letters containing HIV-infected blood \"with the intent to kill or injure another.\" In January, a federal judge ordered a mental evaluation of Hussein, saying \"there is reasonable cause to believe [Hussein] may ... be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent [and] unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him.\" According to court records, Hussein was arrested March 29, 2006, by Chicago police after setting a fire in the middle of a Chicago intersection, waving a Quran in the air and yelling \"Allah[u] Akbar\" -- Allah is great -- and other words. Hussein \"created a standstill in the traffic and refused to comply\" with police commands, Cullivan's affidavit says. Hussein's attorney, public defender Robert J. Scherschlight, could not immediately be reached for comment. U.S. Postal Service Inspector Peter Rendina said this is the second known case in which a person is alleged to have sent HIV-tainted blood through the mail for malicious reasons. In the other case, which is ongoing, a man sent blood to a person he thought was a business associate.","highlights":"Affidavit: HIV-positive man \"cut one of his fingers ... so he could bleed on the letter\"\nThe note, mailed with orange powder, was sent to Obama at an Illinois state building .\nInvestigators think another letter, to \"Emanuel,\" was intended for Obama aide .\nJudge ordered mental evaluation of man, citing his history of instability .","id":"8d604acc5b4c97b793b4a61578ae7635efdf6c86"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This holiday season, it's still shoes off and liquids out at airport security, but changes may be on the way to part of this routine, and agents will be watching much more than the contents of your carry-on. Passengers prepare for a security screening at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. In the coming months, the government expects to revisit its rule for the amount of liquids that may be brought aboard planes, while boosting the number of behavior detection officers deployed at checkpoints across the country. More than 2,000 are already on the job, and the program is growing every day, said Christopher White, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. \"What the officers are looking for are physiological signs that cannot be manipulated that indicate stress, fear or deception,\" White said. \"We find bad people everyday with behavior detection officers.\" The specially trained agents, who work in teams, establish a baseline of behavior and then search for people who rise above that level, he added. The TSA has been taking steps to reduce stress for all travelers at security, such as adding special family lanes, to make it easier for the officers to spot passengers who are acting suspiciously. \"By calming the checkpoint down, it makes people with potential hostile intent really stand out,\" White said. \"If there's a shark fin in a rough sea, it's impossible to see. If there's a shark fin in a lake, it's very easy to see.\" The word on liquids . Meanwhile, new technology may help change a familiar part of the security screening process. By now, most air travelers know the government's 3-1-1 rule for liquids and gels: Containers no larger than 3 ounces are allowed in carry-on luggage, provided they are packed into one quart-size clear plastic zip-top bag, with one bag allowed per person. Those restrictions could be eased next year with the help of advanced X-ray machines that can be upgraded with software, like computers, White said. \"Scientists at the national labs have been working to develop an algorithm to plug into the machines that would allow us to tell the difference between a bottle of Coke and a bottle of liquid explosives,\" he said. The TSA is planning to have 600 of the machines installed at airports across the country by the end of this year and may look at changes to the 3-1-1 rule in fall 2009, White added. Coming much sooner: the expansion of the family lane program to every airport in the country starting Thursday. See where the nation's busiest airports are \u00bb . The special lanes are designed to make security screening as smooth as possible for people traveling with children, passengers with special needs or anyone unfamiliar with security procedures, while improving wait times for other travelers. What's not changing for the foreseeable future: taking your shoes off at security. Running them through the X-ray machine is simply the fastest way of ensuring there's nothing hidden inside, White said. Preparation and planning . If you are flying this Thanksgiving, expect lots of company but fewer people than last year. The Air Transport Association of America predicts a 10 percent drop in the number of people traveling on U.S. airlines during the holiday, compared with the same time period in 2007. \"Some of the capacity cuts that carriers put into place have finally taken effect, but also we do think that the economic downturn is finally taking a toll on consumer spending when it comes to travel,\" ATA spokeswoman Elizabeth Merida said. The trade association for U.S. airlines predicts that the busiest travel days of this Thanksgiving holiday will be Wednesday, November 26; Sunday, November 30; and Monday, December 1, with planes 90 percent full on average on those dates. Airports across the country are gearing up for the travel rush. \"We are making a commitment that even during peak periods, the [security] line will not exceed 20 minutes,\" said Ben DeCosta, aviation general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia. The world's busiest airport has spent more than $25 million on improvements, including 10 additional \"high-productivity, speedy\" security lanes for a total of 32, he added. Hartsfield-Jackson also offers a number of queuing options for the more than 40,000 people who line up at its security checkpoints every day. \"Our line management segregates people by expertise and by preference, and it helps to speed everything up and to make people less anxious about the beginning of their trip,\" DeCosta said. Hartsfield-Jackson is also joining the growing number of U.S. airports with whole-body imagers at security checkpoints. The machines offer an alternative to pat-downs by officers. No matter what airport you're passing through, be prepared, White said. \"If you're ready for security with your boarding pass and your ID out, with your shoes and your coat off, and with your liquids out of the carry-on bag, your experience is going to be very good and very pleasant,\" he said. \"For passengers who are not ready, they not only slow down themselves, they slow down the entire checkpoint line.\"","highlights":"Government's 3-1-1 rule for liquids and gels could be eased next year .\nTSA aims to reduce travelers' stress, making it easier to spot suspicious behavior .\nTaking shoes off at security expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future .\nFamily lane program expands to every airport in the country starting Thursday .","id":"6a4c73837aa806f1a9af4423c2add45ac2b4ced4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A diabetes test that measures a person's average blood glucose control over the preceding two to three months is being recommended as the new diagnostic tool for the condition. Diabetics have too much glucose in their blood when the condition is uncontrolled, and must monitor it. A committee of international experts recommended the test, called the the A1C assay, at the American Diabetes Association's 69th Scientific Sessions over the weekend. The report could instigate a change in the way diabetes is diagnosed, the American Diabetes Association said. The A1C assay, which has been used for nearly 30 years to determine how well a patient controls diabetes, is a more stable, reliable diagnostic tool than the techniques currently in use, the authors of the report said. \"This committee that I chaired is recommending that this be used as widely as possible to diagnose diabetes instead of the blood sugar test,\" said Dr. David Nathan, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and chairman of the committee. The A1C test, which consists of a simple blood test, is also more convenient than the two tests commonly used for diabetes -- the fasting plasma glucose and the oral glucose tolerance test -- the authors said. In the fasting test, the patient does not eat for about 12 to 14 hours before a blood test. In the tolerance test, the patient drinks a sweet solution and has blood drawn two hours later. In addition, Nathan said, \"It probably is better related to the development of eye disease with diabetes, and therefore probably serves as a better diagnostic tool.\" The international committee was assembled by the American Diabetes Association, International Diabetes Federation and European Association for the Study of Diabetes, but those organizations have not officially endorsed the report. \"Basically, the American Diabetes Association supports the concept, supports the use of the A1C to diagnose diabetes, and just has to look at the implications of it, and the implementation of it,\" said Richard Kahn, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association, who was part of the committee. Using A1C in diagnosis would be particularly useful for determining whether patients have type 2 diabetes, which is more difficult to diagnose than type 1, said Dr. William Bornstein, assistant professor of endocrinology at Emory University, who was not part of the committee. \"This will be beneficial to the population in terms of helping us more clearly diagnose folks who are at risks for complications and help them manage that earlier,\" Bornstein said. Still, controversy likely will arise over the use of the A1C in diagnostics because of the long, established track record of using the other two methods, Bornstein said. iReport.com: Boxing champ talks about diabetes struggle . How it works . Humans cannot live without having sugar called glucose in their blood. Too much glucose, however, attaches to a variety of proteins in the body and harms them. Uncontrolled diabetes is characterized by too much glucose in the bloodstream. This excess glucose then glycates with -- or sticks to -- a protein called hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's cells. The A1C test measures the percentage of glycated hemoglobin in the blood, which is a reflection of average blood glucose control, according to the American Diabetes Association. A1C is a better measure of the problem that diabetes causes than glucose-based tests, at least for monitoring, said David Schoenfeld, professor of biostatistics at Harvard University. He and colleagues, including Nathan and a large group of international researchers, studied the relationship between A1C and average blood glucose. While many diabetics monitor their average blood glucose levels daily, at the doctor's office the patient receives a measurement in terms of hemoglobin A1C, Schoenfeld said. He and researchers created a chart to convert these two measurements, so that patients would not have to interpret two different numbers and feel confused. They concluded in a 2008 paper that, for most patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, A1C levels can be expressed as average glucose. The international committee concluded that an A1C level of 6.5 percent indicates that a person has diabetes, while values between 6 percent and 6.5 percent are likely to be at highest risk for developing diabetes. Experts note, however, that there is a continuum of risk for complications, and the \"cut-point\" of 6.5 percent should not be considered an absolute dividing line. All adults who are overweight and have additional risk factors, such as family history of diabetes, high blood pressure or abnormal lipid levels, should be screened for diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Adults aged 45 or older should be tested even if they do not have these risk factors, the association said.","highlights":"Committee says A1C test is more reliable and convenient than other tests .\nTests in use now are fasting plasma glucose and oral glucose tolerance test .\nA1C test is currently used for monitoring patients' control of diabetes .\nExpert: Report may cause controversy because of track record of using current tests .","id":"1080281e8e5c72730f5983fc14e6dc4e819ec637"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Award-winning journalist and best-selling author Carl Bernstein, best known for his reporting work with Bob Woodward about the Watergate scandal, serves as a political analyst for CNN. Most recently, Bernstein wrote \"A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton,\" a detailed portrait of the junior senator from New York and former Democratic presidential candidate. Carl Bernstein says Republicans returned to old themes, including patriotism, to attack Democrats. (CNN) -- Democrats take note: the Republican convention was resolutely on-message Tuesday night, sounding old themes and buzzwords that have worked for the GOP in the past. It's those same themes that John McCain, who once rejected the approach, has now embraced as the only way to the White House. \"The Angry Left,\" \"Liberals,\" \"The Media,\" -- the familiar litany of right-wing Republican demons -- rocked the house in St. Paul, Minnesota. The message: McCain, Sarah Palin and the Republicans are the true party of patriotism, as if the Democrats aren't. In the repetitious theme of the evening, the Republicans would \"Put Country First,\" as if the Democrats wouldn't. The Democrats' first response to the evening, in a statement from the Obama campaign about the GOP's failure to address economic problems in the country, said nothing -- perhaps at its peril -- about the real Republican message. The theme was first sounded by actor Robert Duvall in the short film he narrated; followed by speaker after speaker and later interspersed in filmed tributes to Ronald Reagan and to a Navy Seal hero who died in Iraq. That is the theme invoked as the motif of John McCain's life. Perhaps the most extreme example of the implication that the Republicans have a lock on patriotism and \"Putting Country First\" came in video footage of a first-responder going underwater to rescue occupants of a car that plummeted in the Minneapolis bridge collapse. (No word at the convention about problems of infrastructure in the country -- just people (apparently only Republicans) who would \"Put Country First.\" Meanwhile, consistent with the demonizing subtext of this theme, President Bush attacked (rather incongruously, but with plenty of antecedents in Republican history) \"The Angry Left\" -- perhaps an attempt to stigmatize those who would question Sarah Palin's credentials. A quick video tribute to Ronald Reagan referred to \"the media [who] despised him.\" Former Sen. Fred Thompson pounded Barack Obama as \"the most liberal\" presidential candidate in history, and brought the convention to its feet. He also warned of losing the Supreme Court to the Democrats and \"liberalism\" (to delirious applause). Thompson said McCain's pick of Palin had thrown the Democrats' \"friends in the media into a state of panic\" (pandemonium in the hall). John McCain, in a different time in his life (i.e. running against George W. Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000), specifically rejected this approach. He courted and charmed the dreaded \"media\" monolith and enunciated a post-partisan vision (yet definitely consistent with conservative orthodoxy on many big questions). McCain also railed against the culture wars that his party and campaign are now intent on stoking as the way to victory. (Remember, only months ago, when the promise of this election was that there were two nominees who understood the enduring damage of the culture wars to the country and its political system?) Will the Republican message on display last night work? It was essential to George W. Bush's defeat of John Kerry and pulled Bush to parity with Al Gore in 2000. George H.W. Bush relied on the approach in 1988. Bill Clinton recognized the strategy, addressed it substantively and forthrightly and buried it. The McCain campaign and the Republican Party of 2008 are betting that Barack Obama won't be nimble enough to repeat Clinton's feat, and that they have found the formula (including putting Palin on the ticket at a moment when the election seemed to be eluding them) to victory. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Tuesday's themes at GOP convention dealt with patriotism, \"Putting Country First\"\nPresident Bush attacked \"The Angry Left\" at convention .\nBernstein: McCain once rejected old GOP themes, now embraces them .","id":"f8a4fb4209a76d3b90103dc9500a331239babbf0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Everything about Jupiter is super-sized, including its colorful, turbulent atmosphere. But there's fresh evidence that one of the planet's most recognizable features, the Great Red Spot, is shrinking. NASA's Cassini spacecraft photographed Jupiter and its Great Red Spot, seen center near the equator, in 2000. The spot, which is actually an ancient monster storm that measures about three Earths across, lost 15 percent of its diameter between 1996 and 2006, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found. It shrank by about 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) a day during that time period, said Xylar Asay-Davis, a postdoctoral researcher who was part of the study. Astronomers have observed for years that the clouds of the Great Red Spot have been waning, but this newest research focused on the motion of the storm -- a much more reliable way to measure its size, Asay-Davis said. He and fellow Berkeley researchers Philip Marcus, Imke de Pater, Michael Wong and Sushil Shetty developed software that tracked the movement of the spot's cloud patterns over long periods of time. \"It's not just the motion of the spot as a whole object. Within it, it has a very complicated swirl to it -- sort of a thin ring on the outside and then a sort of quiet area in the center -- and that shape of it has been changing over time,\" Asay-Davis said. \"What we actually look at is where the winds are the strongest in the vortex. It's the ring where they're the strongest, and that ring has been shrinking over time.\" The findings have been submitted for publication in Icarus, the International Journal of Solar System Studies. See photos of the other planets and find out what makes them stand out \u00bb . What makes it red? The researchers do not know why the storm is shrinking. In fact, little is known about the Great Red Spot at all. Even the exact cause of its distinctive color is a mystery. \"We don't actually know what causes any of the colors on Jupiter,\" said Amy Simon-Miller, chief of the Planetary Systems Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. \"One of the leading theories is that [the storm] is dredging up stuff from much deeper below in the atmosphere that turns red when it's exposed to sunlight.\" The spot isn't always bright red; sometimes it's actually quite pale, Simon-Miller noted. Astronomers have been tracking it since the 1870s, said Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory who investigates planetary atmospheres. It is possible that the spot may one day disappear, he added. \"It's just a storm that, like many things, has a natural growth and disintegration rate,\" Orton said. Astronomers see a dramatic difference in the spot's shape when comparing photos of Jupiter taken more than a century ago to recent images of the planet. Orton joked that the Great Red Spot used to be so long that its acronym should have stood for the \"Great Red Sausage.\" \"I just happened to look at an old picture and said to myself, 'That looks like a breakfast sausage.' It's very long. I mean, if you look at one of those pictures back from then and a picture now, you think, 'My God, this thing is going on a diet,\" Orton said. Now eye-shaped, the spot is expected to become circular by about 2040, he added. Chemical stew . The storm is a fascinating feature on a fascinating planet. It has some of the characteristics of a hurricane on Earth, including a circular motion and strong winds. They're Jupiter-strength inside the spot, with some gusting up to 400 miles per hour, Simon-Miller said. Unlike hurricanes on Earth, which are low-pressure systems, the Great Red Spot is a high-pressure system, so it's more stable -- one of the reasons it has lasted so long, she added. Another factor in its longevity is that there is no land on Jupiter to slow a storm in the way landfalls cause hurricanes to lose steam on Earth. Jupiter's atmosphere of colorful dots, swirls and bands may look like an impressionist painting from above, but it would quickly lose its beauty on closer approach. The clouds visible from space consist of ammonia ice and ammonium hydrosulfide -- a sort of smoggy chemical stew -- and the conditions below are brutal, especially inside the Great Red Spot. \"The winds are so strong, everything would get pulled apart pretty quickly. There's no surface to stand on and look up at it,\" Simon-Miller said. Probes sent by NASA towards the interior of the planet have been crushed by the gas giant's enormous atmospheric pressure. Still, the images of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot mesmerize astronomers. \"The pictures are just so beautiful, and they're different every single time we look,\" Simon-Miller said.","highlights":"Scientists: Great Red Spot lost 15 percent of its diameter between 1996 and 2006 .\nIt is possible that the spot may one day disappear, astronomers say .\nJupiter's famous feature is a monster storm that's been tracked since the 1870s .\nWinds inside gust up to 400 miles per hour; it's not exactly known what makes it red .","id":"8b1741313331983719ed6d55b40079278fb3e85d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The bay pilot who steered a container ship into the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, causing a massive oil spill, pleaded guilty Friday to violating misdemeanor pollution laws and faces up to 10 months in prison, federal prosecutors said. The Korean-flagged Cosco Busan rammed into San Francisco's Bay Bridge on November 7, 2007. Prosecutors dropped felony charges against him. John Joseph Cota, 61, pleaded guilty to violating the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a law enacted in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Cota gave orders to officers controlling the Korean-flagged Cosco Busan as the ship was leaving fog-shrouded San Francisco Bay, California, on November 7, 2007. The 901-foot ship struck fenders around the base of a bridge support tower, rupturing two of the ship's fuel tanks and spilling about 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay. At least 2,000 migratory birds were killed. At the time, officials estimated clean-up costs at $60 million. \"Today's guilty plea is a reminder that the Cosco Busan crash was not just an accident, but a criminal act,\" said John C. Cruden, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. \"John Cota was an experienced ship pilot that was handsomely compensated for his special knowledge of ships and expertise in local waters. His failure to act prudently under the circumstances caused a major environmental disaster that could have been far worse,\" said Joseph Russoniello, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. Cota has piloted about 4,000 ships in the bay during his 27-year career, said his attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein. Bonstein said Cota is remorseful and accepts responsibility for his part in the accident. But Bornstein also criticized the accident investigation. He said it was unfair and protected others who also bear responsibility. \"Captain Cota has been vilified by the media, lost his job, will now go to jail for at least 60 days, and still suffers under the weight of crushing civil lawsuits,\" Bornstein said. \"He understands and accepts responsibility for his part in the accident and hopes that others will step forward and accept their roles and responsibilities as well.\" Cota will be sentenced to 2 to 10 months in prison and be fined between $3,000 and $30,000, if the plea terms are accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston. Sentencing is scheduled for June 19. Prosecutors said the plea included factual admissions by Cota, including an acknowledgment his negligence \"was a proximate cause of the [oil] discharge.\" Cota also admitted that he failed to discuss the planned route with the ship's master or crew as required, or to use the ship's radar in the final approach to the bridge. He also failed to recognize two red triangles on the ship's electronic chart system that marked bridge tower buoys. Attorney Bornstein said the ship's master told Cota the red triangles represented the lights on the bridge, \"which in Capt. Cota's knowledge were at the center of the span. He had no reason to think that the master didn't know what he was talking about.\" See the path . As part of the plea agreement with Cota, the government agreed to dismiss false statement charges pending against him. Those charges alleged that Cota failed to disclose his medications on required Coast Guard forms. The court ruled those charges would be tried separately. But Cota admitted in the plea papers filed Friday his 2006 physical exam form failed to disclose some of the medications he was prescribed. Among them were two pain medications, three different drugs prescribed as sleeping aids and an antidepressant prescribed for an off-brand purpose. Bornstein said there is no evidence that medication played any role in the accident. At Friday's hearing, Illston set trial for the remaining defendant in the case, the ship's manager, Fleet Management Ltd. (Hong Kong), for Sept. 14. The charges include acting negligently, killing protected migratory birds, obstructing justice and making false statements by falsifying ship records after the incident.","highlights":"John Joseph Cota pleads guilty to violating misdemeanor pollution laws .\nThe pilot faces up to 10 months in prison, federal prosecutors say .\nContainer ship Cosco Busan slammed into San Francisco's Bay Bridge in 2007 .\nMassive oil spill killed more than 2,000 birds and cost $60 million to clean up .","id":"926a2ede143398e5fbeaba5f847a10815513a123"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The debate about using technology to help referees has been re-ignited following a number of controversial decisions in the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona. The Hawk-Eye system is already widely used in tennis and has transformed the game. Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, the game's governing body, has consistently opposed the use of in-game video replays, but goal-line technology, to determine if the ball has crossed the goal line, has received more support. The Hawk-Eye system is extensively used in tennis, using cameras to calculate the trajectory of the ball. The system then uses the trajectory data to determine exactly where the ball has hit the ground, making it invaluable for marginal line calls. Using similar technology, Hawk-Eye Innovations, based in England, has developed a football system to determine if a goal has been scored. It again uses cameras to track the ball and computers to calculate its position. If the system detects that the ball has crossed the goal line a central computer transmits a signal to the referee via either a watch or earpiece. The system was tested at Premier League football club Fulham in 2006 and then at Reading's training ground in 2007. It was backed by the British Football Association and funded by the Premier League. Another goal-line technology, a microchipped football, was developed by Adidas and German firm Cairos Technologies. A microchip built into the football detects a magnetic field generated by underground cables in the penalty area. Like the Hawk-Eye system it uses a computer to send a signal to the referee's watch when a goal is scored. The system was tested at the World Under-17 Championships in 2005 and the 2007 World Club Championship in Tokyo. The International Football Association Board (IFAB), which decides the laws of the game, discusses new rules at an annual general meeting consisting of four representatives from FIFA and one each from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Explaining the IFAB's decision, Blatter said the microchipped ball had failed in one of the seven World Club Championship matches because of interference to the signal sent to the referee and that it would be difficult to implement the chip technology in the many types of football used around the world. He added that it was not possible to ensure that the Hawk-Eye system worked in a crowded goalmouth, where players might block the cameras' view of the ball. \"FIFA are of the opinion that the systems are very costly, would not add anything to the game and would harm the position of the referee,\" the UK's Press Association reported at the time. Do you think goal-line technology should be used? Share your thoughts in the Sound Off box below. But Hawk-Eye managing director Paul Hawkins told CNN that he believes FIFA has decided that it doesn't want technology in football. \"I saw FIFA last week and told them that we can provide a system if they want it, but it's very clear they don't want the system,\" he said. Hawkins said his company cannot develop the technology any further without more testing in real stadiums, but that kind of testing requires FIFA's consent. The idea that football's governing bodies are opposed to more technology in football has been supported by statements from the sport's governing bodies. In March 2009, Blatter said in a statement: \"The IFAB believes that football is a game for human beings and, as such, we should improve the standard of refereeing - and not turn to technology.\" Michel Platini, President of UEFA, European Football's governing body, has expressed similar views. Instead of pursuing goal-line technology, the IFAB chose to trial the idea of having two extra match officials, one behind each goal. A FIFA spokesman told CNN that while the use of goal-line technology hasn't been ruled out forever, even after recent refereeing controversies, the IFAB's current position is to continue to experiment with extra officials. The IFAB's decision means there will be no goal-line technology used in the Champions League final on 27 May, which means there is the potential for more refereeing disputes. \"Maybe there will be a controversial goal in the Champions League final and maybe the discussion over the technology will begin again,\" Oliver Braun, marketing and communications director at Cairos Technologies told CNN. Hawkins agrees that it will take a controversial goal-line incident in a big FIFA match to get the IFAB to change their position, saying it took a series of contentious calls at the 2004 US Open for tennis authorities to seriously consider using the Hawk-Eye system. If that is the case, there will be some football fans hoping for plenty of goal-line drama come May 27.","highlights":"Debate over whether technology should be used to help referees .\nFIFA is opposed to video replays but has considered goal-line technology .\nHawk-Eye system and microchipped footballs were rejected by IFAB .\nSome feel it will take a big-match controversy to re-open the debate .","id":"463f143e1bfef716c8176644db2d0e731d9b070c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- How does a man from an unassuming Dutch village go to being loved in South Korea, adored in Australia, revered in Russia and admired in England? Guus Hiddink, the Russia and Chelsea coach, has had much to smile about in his 22-year managerial career. By being an exceptional football manager, for one. Enjoying success around the world -- at different levels with different players in different cultures -- has made Guus Hiddink one of the most admired bosses around. Born in rural Varsseveld, near the German border, in 1946, Hiddink's early years were unremarkable. While playing semi-professional football, he spent 10 years as a gym teacher at a school for children with learning difficulties. Most of his playing days were in the midfield of De Graafschap, a smallish club with no history of winning silverware. He later spent two years playing in America before returning to retire at De Graafschap. Watch CNN's exclusive interview with Hiddink \u00bb . Little, then, to suggest that here was a man who would achieve so much in his later career. But great players seldom become great managers. His first steps in that direction came at De Graafschap, Holland, where he was assistant manager before moving to the same role at Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven. See key moments from Hiddink's career \u00bb . By 1987, at the age of 40, he was in charge of PSV and led them to their 1988 European Cup win, a feat unthinkable today. He almost reached the final again in 2005 during his second spell in Eindhoven. Hiddink's keeper at PSV, Hans van Breukelen, revealed some of the manager's methods. \"He's very interested in people and immediately tries to create a family environment,\" he told Britain's Sun newspaper. \"I can vividly remember him smoking and having a cup of coffee with his players. I don't know if he still smokes, but he was a chain smoker at PSV.\" Hiddink's resume includes stints in other high-pressure jobs such as Fenerbahce, Valencia and Real Madrid, but it's on the international scene where his shrewd tactical mind, organizational skills and motivational prowess grabbed attention. Semifinalists with Holland at the 1998 World Cup, he took over South Korea in 2001 and led the co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup to the last four. No Asian country had ever gone as far in a World Cup before and he left the job a national hero. He agreed to coach another underdog in the shape of Australia in 2005 and led them to the 2006 World Cup. There, the Socceroos had eventual winners Italy rattled for much of their second-round match before succumbing to a late, controversial penalty. Hiddink took Russia to Euro 2008, where they were beaten by Spain at the semifinal stage. Naturally his hometown Varsseveld wanted to capitalize on Hiddink's huge global popularity. The \"Guuseum\" was built in his honor, which for a time was particularly popular with South Koreans on a pilgrimage to see from where their idol hailed. Chelsea were in the doldrums when he arrived on a short-term deal in January as a favor to his comrade, Roman Abramovich, the club's billionaire owner. And the Hiddink magic has worked again, giving the Blues direction to a season that was drifting under previous boss Luiz Felipe Scolari. But the straight-speaking Dutchman is loyal to the project he has in charge of the Russian national side and insists he will leave Chelsea at the end of the season regardless. Sure of himself but free of ego, Hiddink knows what he wants. And, as he's repeatedly proved, he knows how to get it too.","highlights":"Born in 1946, Hiddink has become one of the best managers in the world .\nDutchman has enjoyed huge success at club and international level .\nHe's currently coach of Russia and is in charge of Chelsea until end of May .","id":"643575e562d8d7de04d868ac70dd3c2f71a7e4df"} -{"article":"SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- Walt Peters knows what it's like to fear for his life. He knows how it feels to board a plane, deploying for combat. He knows the feeling of making it home alive. Walt Peters is often among the last people soldiers see as they deploy and the first they see upon their return. That's why the retired Vietnam veteran has stood outside at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, for the past four years as a beacon of pride and support, welcoming home returning soldiers and wishing \"Godspeed\" to those deploying. \"To me, if it wasn't for our soldiers and our veterans, we would not have this beautiful country,\" says Peters. \"These guys are our freedom.\" Peters, 64, has been one of the last people that about 20,000 soldiers so far have seen before boarding the plane for the war zone -- and one of the first seen upon return. No matter what time the soldiers' flights are arriving or departing -- many take place in the middle of the night -- Peters is there to shake their hands and give them a token of support: a small American flag. Some of those flags, Peters says, have gone to Iraq and back. \"When they touch that flag, we're giving them a piece of our country, saying, 'Thank you.'\" Peters is not the only volunteer showing his support at each flight. But he does all of this nearly blind. He says learned he had chemical diabetes nearly 10 years ago after he was exposed to Agent Orange during his Vietnam tours. He has lost almost all of his sight over the past few years, but that hasn't depleted his dedication to the soldiers. \"When I went to Vietnam on my tours I'd never had this. I had never had nobody say, 'We appreciate your service. We thank you for what you're doing for our freedom,'\" Peters says. \"When they get on that plane, they're gonna know that this old Vietnam vet cares.\" Peters first became involved greeting flights through the Savannah Red Cross in 2004 when a friend from his fraternal Moose Lodge brought him to welcome a returning flight. Peters has since become a flight greeting leader, bringing in and training his own volunteers. His crew includes Moose members and Vietnam veterans. So many flights come in, Peters says, that it's impossible to be present for all of them. He's worked as many as three flights in one day, in a 26-hour period. Watch how Peters sends off and greets deploying and returning U.S. soldiers \u00bb . Peters and his volunteers arrive two hours before a flight's arrival or departure to set up their tables and brew coffee. He makes sure he walks around and talks with the troops when they come through for processing. \"I'm a combat veteran; the soldiers know I can relate to them,\" Peters says. \"I tell them, 'It's OK to be scared. You stay scared, you stay alive.'\" Peters also talks to the soldiers about the Adopt-A-Soldier program, asking them to fill out a card so a family can \"adopt\" them and send care packages and necessities to them in Iraq or Afghanistan. Watch Peters and volunteers interacting with U.S. soldiers before their deployment to Iraq \u00bb . Peters says the most important thing is to show the soldiers \"the support and the spirit that they need behind them as they step up to get on that plane.\" \"Sometimes it breaks your heart because you ask yourself, 'Which one of these beautiful people is not coming home?'\" But as long as there are soldiers deploying and returning, Peters says he'll be there. Watch Peters talk about one of the highlights of his military career \u00bb . \"I see the roots of our country and our future in every one of these soldiers,\" he says.","highlights":"Walt Peters welcomes soldiers home, wishes \"Godspeed\" to those deploying .\nThe Vietnam veteran has greeted an estimated 20,000 soldiers since 2004 .\nHe says he lost sight as a result of chemical diabetes from Agent Orange exposure .","id":"ebe35f41ec76aacf87c5d018ae97dd6441d111df"} -{"article":"HIGH BRIDGE, New Jersey (CNN) -- \"The thought that I can reach out and permanently improve someone's life for the better is addictive,\" says Dave Schweidenback. Dave Schweidenback saw transformative effects of bikes while in the Peace Corps in Ecuador from 1977-80. Several times a year, the 55-year-old can be found prepping large shipments of used bicycles bound for a developing country. For Schweidenback, gathering and breaking down these bikes is a labor of love -- one that is helping to keep the bikes out of landfills and give them new life. \"Used bicycles can transform the economic and social condition of families,\" says Schweidenback. \"[They] give people access to jobs, health care and education that is too distant for walking.\" Since 1991, Schweidenback's nonprofit Pedals for Progress has collected and shipped more than 115,000 used bicycles to 32 developing countries worldwide, where they are sold at a low cost to local residents like Don Roberto Garcia. \"A used woman's mountain bicycle changed my life,\" says Garcia, 54, a house cleaning supplies salesman in Nicaragua who works six days a week to support his six children and buy medicine for his wife, who suffers from cancer. For 20 years, Garcia walked six to seven hours a day, hauling his merchandise in a wheelbarrow along a 6 mile route. This earned him $2-$3 a day. \"More than anything, I would always return home so tired from the walk,\" Garcia recalls. Little by little, Garcia saved his money and was able to buy a used bicycle six years ago from a Pedals for Progress partner agency in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. \"Because of a bicycle, I now earn about $4 a day,\" says Garcia. \"I sell more and I do my rounds quicker. I tell everyone to go buy a bicycle.\" Watch Garcia explain how a used bicycle has helped him in Nicaragua \u00bb . The seeds for Schweidenback's Pedals for Progress were planted years ago while he was volunteering for the Peace Corps from 1977-80 in Ecuador, near the Amazon Basin. \"Besides the bus that comes through town and one guy that owned a pickup truck, everybody walked everywhere all the time,\" he recalls. \"My landlord was the exception because he owned the only bike in a 500-mile radius. He was the most successful man in the region because he could access a job and get wherever he needed to go.\" Years later, Schweidenback noticed used bicycles at garage sales and in garbage cans throughout his New Jersey community. \"I remembered how [the need] in developing countries was so great, that I couldn't stop thinking about it,\" he says. Knowing the bikes could be put to better use, Schweidenback asked members of his community to donate 12 used bicycles; he planned to send them to Ecuador. The community brought him 140. Within a year, Schweidenback had created Pedals for Progress and shipped roughly 500 bicycles to developing countries. Today, Schweidenback organizes 140 used bike drives each year and, on average, collects 90 bicycles in three hours. Donors are asked to pay a $10 fee per bike to help cover shipping costs and reduce the cost of the bicycle when it's sold overseas. Each bike is sold for about $15. Watch how Pedals for Progress bikes get from donors to people in developing countries \u00bb . \"There's a bike that's unloved in every garage in this country. Rather than put these old bikes in landfills for no reason, we can use them as economic stimulus to aid our neighbors,\" Schweidenback says. \"This is the transfer of wealth between nations because these have great value overseas. And they give people the ability to hold a job or a child the ability to go to school.\" Watch Schweidenback talk about his inspiration for Pedals for Progress \u00bb . Pedals for Progress bicycles have been sent to countries in Central America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. For Schweidenback, knowing he's making an impact keeps him going. \"You can change someone's life with your bike.\"","highlights":"CNN Hero's nonprofit Pedals for Progress gives new life to used bicycles .\nDave Schweidenback saw transformative effects of bikes while in the Peace Corps .\nMore than 115,000 used bikes have been sent to 32 developing countries since '91 .\nLow-cost bikes help local residents gain access to jobs, health care and schools .","id":"da220ee946f22e1af76f3707239280b71057cf30"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is currently enjoying a third term as President of the Republic of Iceland. Since first being elected in 1996, Grimsson has been a passionate advocate of international cooperation in combating climate change. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson . Whilst Iceland still imports oil for its transport, electricity is generated from hydroelectric power. And heating is provided by geothermal power -- an abundant source in energy due to Iceland's geographical position sitting above two continental plates. Iceland is also pioneering the use of hydrogen power with several projects testing the viability of this renewable energy. In his youth, Grimsson studied Economics and Political Science at Manchester University, gaining a B.A. and a Ph.D before returning to Iceland to take up a post as a professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland. He entered Althingi, the Icelandic parliament in 1978, served as minister of finance between 1988 and 1991 and was leader of the Peoples' Alliance from 1987 to 1995. Grimsson promotes the intelligent use of renewable energy resources and is providing world leaders with an invaluable insight into how their own economies might make the switch to more renewable sources of energy.","highlights":"Olafur Grimsson is Principal Voices' Frontline Pioneer for the Economics of Energy .\nGrimsson has been President of the Republic of Iceland since 1996 .\nHe has called repeatedly for international cooperation on climate change .","id":"52261ffa24759b4664656022dabf771638b3c55d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The concept may be radical, but it might just have to be if the worst predictions of climate change are realized. The Lilypad as imagined by architect Vincent Callebaut moored off the coast of Monaco. The Lilypad, a floating ecopolis for climatic refugees, is the creation of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. \"It is\" he says, \"a true amphibian, half aquatic and half terrestrial city, able to accommodate 50,000 inhabitants and inviting biodiversity\". Callebaut imagines his structure at 250 times the scale of a lilypad, with a skin made of polyester fibres coated in titanium dioxide which would react with ultraviolet light and absorb atmospheric pollution. The Lilypad comprises of three marinas and three mountain regions with streets and structures strewn with foliage. \"The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature,\" said Callebaut. With a central fresh water lagoon acting as ballast, the whole construction would be carbon neutral utilizing solar, thermal, wind, hydraulic, tidal and osmotic energies. With high density populations living in low-lying areas -- The Netherlands, Polynesia, Bangladesh -- the ecopolis, its creator believes, could be the answer to mass human displacement that global warming is predicted to cause. In its most recent 2007 report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted sea levels will rise by 60-90 cm during this century. Some climate scientists like James Hansen think that if greenhouse gas emissions aren't checked then those figures might be much, much worse. In practice, Callebaut envisages the Lilypad sailing the seas, following currents like a futuristic cruise ship. He also thinks that it could \"widen sustainability in offshore territories of the most developed countries such as Monaco\". You can't help thinking that the well-heeled residents of the Principality might have a thing or two to say about 50,000 climatic refugees bobbing around in the harbour, but you cannot fault Callebaut's ambition. His previous creations -- showcased on his website -- reveal an imagination working at full throttle with sustainable design lying at its heart. Anti-Smog -- a prototype of depolluting architecture and Ecomic -- an ecotower rising up from the foundations of Aztec ruins are two further examples of his eco design credentials. The Perfumed Jungle, Fields in Fields and The Fractured Monolith may sound like titles for various genres of novel but are, in fact, names for sustainable projects in Callebaut's growing portfolio. Now all he needs is to find someone brave enough to build on the vision he has created.","highlights":"Belgian architect imagines climate refugees living on a futuristic Lilypad ecopolis .\nThe structure would support 50,000 inhabitants in a zero carbon environment .\nThe goal is to \"create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature\"","id":"f078b33c9c92be6b12c7c1d6ac96d7bf056835e5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The creators are billing it as one of the coolest hostels in the world and it's undoubtedly one of the most novel overnight stays you are ever likely to experience. Welcome to the Jumbo Hostel -- an old Boeing 747 which is being converted into a 25-room hostel at the Stockholm-Arlanda airport. The Jumbo Hostel is currently being refurbished and will open for business in December 2008. The idea is the brainchild of Swedish businessman and entrepreneur Oscar Dios, who has been running hostels in Uppsala, Sweden for the past five years. Renovation work is underway on a plane which used to carry in excess of 350 passengers. Jumbo Hostel is scheduled to open for business in December 2008 and will provide accommodation for up to 85 guests. CNN spoke to Dios about how he got the project off the ground. \"We were looking to expand the business but it was more or less impossible to find reasonably priced housing at the airport. And you cannot build a new house and run a hostel because it is too expensive,\" he said. It was in 2006 that Dios first heard about the Boeing 747, which was for sale. Formerly flown by the now defunct Transjet Airways, the plane was wasting away in a hangar at Arlanda airport and hadn't flown since 2002. \"The plane was in a terrible state when we first saw it,\" he said. \"But we contacted the owners and gave them a fairly good offer, I think.\" Although he wasn't prepared to let on exactly how much he paid for the old Boeing, Dios confirmed that the price tag was a six-figure sum (in euros). Dios took possession of the 1976 Boeing 747-200 -- one of 393 built by the company until 1991 -- in June 2007 and by December he had reached agreement with the airport authorities about his unique proposal. In August 2008 the plane was finally moved to its permanent home at Arlanda airport's main entrance, where it will now stay. Apart from the engines being removed from the wings before purchase, the plane, from the outside, looks almost exactly as it did when it was grounded. The interior, for obvious reasons, is a different matter. Dismantling and stripping out all the old equipment and instruments started earlier this year. The final phase of refurbishment is nearing completion and Dios says it complies with the same building regulations required for a house. There will be two types of accommodation. A basic room will be roughly six square meters in size with sleeping space for three adults. It will cost \u20ac110 ($150) per night. But if you fancy splashing out, you can book the top deck, complete with the cockpit suite, which comes with a private bathroom and panoramic views of takeoffs and landings. Dios envisages newlyweds taking advantage of this more expensive option, which costs \u20ac500 ($700). If you don't want to spend a whole night on board you can hop on and relax in the cafe suite for a couple of hours at a cost of \u20ac25 ($35). This will also afford you the opportunity of striding out onto the wing and taking in the views of the bustling airport. While most large commercial planes end up in vast aircraft boneyards, some, like the Jumbo Hostel, find new lives. New York based urban architects Lot-ek plan to create a library in Guadalajara, Mexico, made by recycling 200 Boeing 727 and 737 fuselages. And Californian millionaire Francie Rehwald has started building a house from the parts of another scrapped 747.","highlights":"Swedish entrepreneur to open a Jumbo Hostel at Arlanda airport in Sweden .\nDecommissioned Boeing 747-200 currently being renovated into a 25 room hostel .\nJumbo Hostel will cost \u20ac110 per room per night or \u20ac500 for the cockpit suite .","id":"9560cbddf20e1395f88c4a2017828972de947996"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Plans to rejuvenate a dilapidated London icon -- known worldwide to movie and music fans -- were unveiled last week. The redevelopment of Battersea Power Station includes a new eco-dome and a solar chimney. Battersea Power Station, which has dominated the west London skyline since 1933, will -- subject to planning approval -- undergo an $8 billion redevelopment including shops, homes, a hotel, offices and a striking 300 meter eco-tower. The building appeared on the cover of the 1977 Pink Floyd album \"Animals,\" complete with a giant pig floating above its four distinctive towers. It has also appeared in numerous movies including sci-fi drama \"The Children of Men\", new Batman feature \"The Dark Knight\" and Alfred Hitchcock's \"Sabotage.\" Real Estate Opportunities Ltd (REO), who currently own the 38 acre site say the defunct and crumbling edifice will be: \"brought back to life in the most spectacular way. It will be a place to live, work and play\". An Irish development company, REO is planning to spend $300 million repairing the old coal-powered station and get it working again -- this time producing energy from biofuels, waste and other renewable energy sources. At the heart of the regeneration stands a vast new chimney and eco-dome, which as well as housing apartments and offices will act as a vast solar ventilation system cutting down the building's energy demand by two thirds. Managing Director of REO's development manager, Treasury Holdings UK, Rob Tincknell describes it as \"a power station for the 21st century...supporting a truly sustainable, zero carbon development\". Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly whose daunting job it was to come up with a workable new design for the much loved site describes the old power station as a \"remarkable architectural presence\". In creating a vast transparent chimney Vinoly hopes that it will contrast with what he describes as the \"monumental mass\" of J. Theo Halliday and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's original design. Of course, we've been here before. Since the turbines were shut down for the final time in 1983 the power station -- situated on the south bank of the river Thames -- has been the subject of several failed redevelopment ventures. In 1983, a scheme proposed by UK businessman John Broome promised to turn the power station into a gigantic theme park. But by the decade's close and despite the enthusiastic backing of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher his funding package for redevelopment, much like the site itself, were in a ruinous state. In 1996, development company Parkview International headed up by Victor Hwang acquired the freehold for the site. By the time its current owners REO bought the site a decade later another over ambitious redevelopment scheme -- which included a single table restaurant atop one of the four chimneys -- had come and gone. By now the entire site was in a pretty parlous state -- the chimneys being declared beyond repair and threatened with imminent demolition. This new proposal has already provoked a chorus of dissent. Writing in London's Evening Standard newspaper, architecture critic Rowan Moore described the idea as: \"spectacularly, riotously, extravagantly nuts,\" telling the developers and planners to: \"Forget it. Do not try to compromise with a tower two-thirds as high. Do not build a tower. Aim for zero-carbon and beautiful buildings...\". The Guardian's resident architecture expert Jonathan Glancey gave the designs a cool reception describing them as; \"more than a little over the top\". CNN spoke to Keith Garner, an architect and member of the Battersea Power Station Community Group about the new proposals. He didn't mince his words. \"If you take it as a serious proposal, it's immensely harmful,\" he said. \"It is a massive tower -- about the same size as the gherkin. Battersea Power Station is a Grade II* listed building. If you put a tower of that mass next to it, you are going to diminish its significance. \"If you are serious about rescuing this building you would do it in stages. The old turbine halls and the switch houses are easily reusable. A sensible, rational approach to this would involve starting with the power station itself and doing the work in small achievable phases.\" Consequently, Garner doesn't believe that the new plans are credible. \"I think the developers have overplayed it. This is a joke and I think it needs to be denounced for what it is -- a ludicrous and unnecessary diversion from the principal task of repairing the building.\" Take a look at the photos of the new proposal and classic images on the tab at the top of the page. Tell us what you think of the latest redevelopment plans in the sound off box below. Do you think they will dwarf the old power station and compromise its iconic status?","highlights":"New plans to rejuvenate the iconic Battersea Power Station site have been unveiled .\nA new chimney and eco-dome form part of a 21st century blueprint for sustainability .\nCritics remain unconvinced that the new development is desirable or achievable .","id":"51283b33404f29be4db8803e104fac451ba179ae"} -{"article":"JOHNSTON, Iowa (CNN) -- Politics meets technology Thursday as a group of undecided Iowa Democrats has allowed themselves to be wired for the debate of Democratic presidential hopefuls. A dial-test graph is displayed over candidate Rudy Giuliani during a recent GOP debate. By the end of the debate, CNN hopes to be able to gauge which debater was the group's favorite and whose popularity fell -- and perhaps -- who may win the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on January 3. Across town, six Democratic candidates will be facing off for their final scheduled debate in the Hawkeye State before caucus night. The debate is hosted by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television. Each member of the randomly selected group will watch the debate on a large-screen TV while operating special hand-held dial-testing devices which are approximately the size of typical remote-control devices. Viewers will react to the debate as it happens -- second-by-second -- as they move their dials to the right or the left. Dialing right indicates a positive response and dialing left represents a negative response. Southern Methodist University professors Rita Kirk and Dan Schill will track the average response of the group corresponding with each moment of the debate. Responses will be represented by a moving line on a video monitor. The group of Iowans, randomly selected by phone from a list of registered voters, will be recording their impressions of every moment of the debate. The Democratic participants will answer a series of questions both before and after the debate, to determine how the event may change their minds about the candidates. Among the questions to be posed before the face-off: Who do the group members think will perform best in the debate? Afterwards, they'll be asked who they think did the best. They also will be asked who they would vote for if the election were held today and who they think will win the nomination. All participants are planning to attend caucuses, but have yet to pick a candidate. Some are wavering between two candidates while some are considering several. They're hoping to get a better sense of the race from watching this debate, and CNN is hoping to get a better sense of their impressions of the debate by watching them. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Randomly chosen, undecided Democrats will watch debate while turning dials .\nDials will rate their positive and negative responses to each debater .\nGroup members will be asked questions about candidates before, after debate .","id":"b50d1faf9ac1c79e1b3b9e32da7357e0c25300ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The September issue of Essence magazine features an interview with Sen. Barack Obama and his family inside their Chicago home. Angela Burt-Murray is editor-in-chief of Essence magazine. Essence editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray said it took a year for the magazine to gain access to the Obama's Illinois home for an intimate interview with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia. Burt-Murray talked Thursday with CNN \"American Morning\" anchor Kiran Chetry about the interview and the Obama family. Chetry: You are the first African-American media outlet to get this inside look. Did your team get a chance to see the real Obamas? Burt-Murray: I think we did. We went to their home on the South Side of Chicago and it was wonderful to see them as a family interacting with each other, and see the girls skipping around the house, just acting like it's a normal, everyday occurrence to have a camera crew in their home and Secret Service at different points throughout the house and around the yard. But it didn't really seem to impact the girls in any way. Watch what Essence found inside the Obamas' home \u00bb . Chetry: Much was made of an earlier televised interview they with their daughters and they said, looking back, they probably shouldn't have done that. There is so much interest about their family, and yet they want to protect their girls. How do they balance that? Burt-Murray: They try to take a look at who is around the family and make sure they try to keep things as structured as possible. But also, you have instances where magazines like Essence show up to take photographs, but the girls are very relaxed because they're in their home environment. And I think that's the difference between our photo shoot and what you saw on television. Taking the girls outside of their home and putting them in the spotlight is probably a bit more challenging for them as parents. Chetry: They have to deal with completing stereotypes, if you will: They were parodied as these angry black radicals and as these Ivy League elitists. In the magazine, Gwen Ifill wrote, \"The Obamas pride themselves on creating a family picture that is authentically black with shades of Norman Rockwell.\" Explain that. How are they getting that image out. Burt-Murray: I think it's the idea that they're just an average American family. They have strong family values, they're deeply rooted in their community and they want to show their girls a great example of achievement. But they also want to be a model for the rest of their community. The Obamas talk about in our story how important it is for them to continue to live in their South Side Chicago neighborhood because it's a neighborhood in transition. So you have children who have the opportunity to see an African-American man run for the highest office in the nation right in their neighborhood. So they're modeling not only for their children but also for the larger community. Chetry: They do live in a gated community, a $1.6 million home, so it's out of reach for a lot of people. Burt-Murray: But it's so accessible. While we were there photographing them for Essence, you could see the cars going by and stopping and people getting out to take photographs. The girls were on the porch and people could see them. There is some normalcy there, but it's also obviously something very special and different. Chetry: They said race had been prominent on the campaign trail. Barack Obama told Gwen Ifill that he thinks race is a national obsession. He thinks the racial divide is not as big an issue in this country as it's made out to be. Burt-Murray: As evidenced by the success that he's had with his campaign, you can certainly see that attitudes are shifting. But there are still challenges, obviously, that need to be addressed. And it keeps coming up throughout the campaign. So it will be interesting to see what happens when the country goes to the polls in November.","highlights":"Essence magazine interviews senator, wife and children in Chicago home .\nEditor says candidate, Michelle Obama try to keep daughters' life normal .\nObamas have strong family values, roots in community, Angela Burt-Murray says .","id":"d4c80108d09bceec0f5a242e6ab745440d89e0c4"} -{"article":"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- The Taliban in Afghanistan have momentum that makes any effort to negotiate with them difficult, the U.S. defense secretary said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday. He's visiting Afghanistan on Wednesday. Secretary Robert Gates spoke to CNN's Chris Lawrence in an exclusive interview Tuesday evening before leaving for Afghanistan, where he is visiting troops and bases Wednesday. \"The political level of the Taliban probably isn't ready to think about reconciliation or any kind of accommodation at this point,\" Gates said in the interview. \"They probably feel like they have the momentum with them. And until that momentum changes, it will be difficult.\" As part of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, the military and Afghanistan government are attempting to reach out to elements of the Taliban who are engaged in the battle for financial gain, rather than ideological gain. \"There are really two groups we're talking about -- the younger, or less committed, who do this mainly to earn a living and put food on the table for their families, and those that are more ideologically committed. The latter are going to be a tougher pull, and we'll probably have to wait awhile before there's an opportunity there.\" On Monday, CNN's Nic Robertson interviewed a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, who said the Taliban will only negotiate with the Afghanistan government when the United States leaves the country. \"Our conditions are clear, we want to negotiate and they [the U.S.] will not interfere in our affairs; secondly, they [the U.S.] will leave the country,\" Mujahid told CNN. Gates said the stance was not surprising. \"Well I don't know what else he'd say. He's leading the opposition, he's leading this insurgency. He's not going to sort of, sort of throw down and say 'We're ready to negotiate, we're about done here,' \" Gates said. The United States is adding 21,000 troops to the Afghanistan battlefield. The majority will be moving to the south to confront the Taliban along the porous Pakistani border. The Taliban have had mostly free rein in that area with few U.S. or coalition forces to confront them until now. Gates admitted moving the battle to the south will mean there is \"a tough fight ahead.\" \"I think, certainly, I have been pretty clear. As we move into areas of the south that have not seen any Afghan or coalition forces so far, we're clearly going to be going into areas where the Taliban are very entrenched,\" he said. \"And, sad to say, I expect with the rising level of our activity and operations, there probably will be higher casualties.\" In recent weeks, the Pakistani government has seen the Taliban gain control on its side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Privately, Pakistani officials have expressed concern to the United States that the increased fighting in southern Afghanistan will only push the Taliban back to the Pakistani side. \"Well I think it's just the reality that there are extremists on both sides of that border. And they threaten both the elected government of Afghanistan and the elected government of Pakistan. So like it or not, they both have a certain common enemy,\" Gates said. Gates said he is encouraged by recent cooperation efforts between the two countries to deal with the problem, and by Pakistan's recent confrontation with the Taliban in Bunir province, near the capital of Islamabad. \"The signs right now are pretty positive,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"U.S. defense secretary: Political level not ready for reconciliation, accommodation .\nU.S. trying to reach out to Taliban interested in financial gain, not ideological gain .\nTaliban spokesman: We will negotiate with Afghan government when U.S. leaves .\nGates says that as U.S. forces build up in southern Afghanistan, fight will be tougher .","id":"c58b78af8f386a7e4612496e7a53a086bb497188"} -{"article":"DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) -- The worldwide economic recession has exposed a \"crisis of global governance\" that can only be addressed by the radical reform of the United Nations, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday as the World Economic Forum got under way in Switzerland. Kofi Annan says the United Nations needs to be reformed. \"The current architecture of managing global affairs is broken and needs to be fixed,\" Annan said on the opening morning of the five-day annual meeting of global political and business leaders. \"We have major new players coming on the scene and they need to be integrated and given a voice.\" Referring to the U.N. Security Council, which gives permanent places and vetoing powers to the U.S., the UK, Russia, China and France, Annan said: \"We cannot continue to run the world based on countries that won a war 60 years ago. It's either destructive competition or cooperation. We live in an interdependent world and the only way to move forward is to cooperate.\" Annan is one of six co-chairs at this year's WEF gathering, along with news tycoon Rupert Murdoch, HSBC Chairman Stephen Green, Werner Wenning of the German chemical group Bayer, Indian industrialist Anand G. Mahindra and Maria Ramos, Chief Executive of the South African transport group Transnet. He also urged delegates to address three interconnected challenges: the global recession, energy and security, and climate change. \"It is important leaders work on ways of finding effective, far-reaching policies -- even if they are radical -- that will allow us to create sustainable economic growth and create jobs for those who are out of jobs,\" Annan said. Newscorp. CEO Murdoch said delegates needed to be \"absolutely honest about where the world is at this point,\" warning that the consequences of $50 trillion being wiped off personal fortunes had left people feeling \"depressed and traumatized.\" \"We've been living in the Western world way above our means. We've been on a great binge and it's come to an end and we have to live though the correction,\" Murdoch said. But he said the downturn offered a chance to set about tackling issues of energy sufficiency and pollution. \"We must treat this crisis, whether it lasts for a year or five years, as an opportunity to set goals for how we want to come out of it. This is a time to shape the policies to help to solve some of those problems.\" HSBC boss Green said the banking industry needed to admit that it had not \"covered itself in glory\" in contributing to the collapse of the financial industry and called for continuing government intervention to \"stop a nasty recession spiraling down into something else.\" But he said the major banks could contribute to solving the crisis as well: \"I do not believe for a moment that you can have a successful economy without successful and properly functioning international capital markets.\" Wenning said he didn't expect any solutions to emerge from this year's meeting, but hoped delegates could achieve \"a joint understanding of the reasons for the financial crisis\" and called for a return to \"the basics of sustainable behavior.\" \"If we are really able to address these mega-challenges of the future then we would be able to restore the trust in leadership -- and I believe the world needs leadership.\" Political leaders will join the discussions later Wednesday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin both due to deliver agenda-setting addresses.","highlights":"Kofi Annan calls for reform of U.N. at World Economic Forum in Davos .\nAnnan says economic recession has exposed a \"crisis in global governance\"\nRupert Murdoch: Western world has been living \"way above our means\"\nHSBC boss Stephen Green admits banks \"didn't cover themselves in glory\"","id":"270e801fab3dd83a3515b94101868c9e7368d52c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Taliban militants, who implemented Islamic law in Pakistan's violence-plagued Swat Valley last week, have now taken control of a neighboring district. Protests in Karachi against the creation of sharia courts in Swat Valley. Here are some answers about the Swat Valley, its history and what's taking place there. What is Swat Valley? Swat Valley is located in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, near the border with Afghanistan and about 185 miles (300 kilometers) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The alpine region once was one of Pakistan's premier tourist destinations, boasting the nation's only ski resort until it was shut down after Taliban militants overran the area. It also was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts and those wishing to visit the ancient Buddhist ruins in the area. What's happening in Swat Valley? In recent years Taliban militants unleashed a wave of violence that claimed hundreds of lives in the province. The militants wanted sharia law -- or Islamic law -- imposed in the region. They took over the valley in 2008. The central government of Pakistan, which long exerted little control in the area, launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out the militants. In retaliation, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly attacks and began gaining ground, setting up checkpoints in the area. Has the government intervened? The militants and the Pakistani government reached a peace deal earlier this year, which was recently signed into law by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Under the deal, sharia law was imposed in the region. While the peace deal drew criticism for the Pakistani government, some analysts and political observers say the government had little choice but to capitulate, as militants have terrorized the region with beheadings, kidnappings and the destruction of schools. What's happening now? This week, the Taliban moved to seize control of the neighboring Buner district, bringing it closer to Islamabad than it has been since Taliban insurgency began. What is sharia law? Sharia law is Islamic law. While there are different interpretations of it, the Taliban's strict interpretation forbids women from being seen in public without their husbands and fathers, requires veils for women and beards for men, and bans music and television. Consequences are severe; during the Taliban struggle to impose sharia law, anyone found disobeying was pinned to the ground and lashed. Others were beheaded and hung from poles, with notices attached to their bodies that anyone daring to remove the corpse before 48 hours had passed would also be beheaded and hanged.","highlights":"Taliban militants in Pakistan's Swat Valley take control of neighboring Buner district .\nSwat Valley was once one of Pakistan's top tourist attractions .\nMilitants are now closer to Islamabad than any point since start of insurgency .","id":"0a06e1c26ef6cbadd8f508ec2ade220f755de6a8"} -{"article":"BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- If Russell Jackson has his way, any child who needs medical care but lacks the transportation to get there will have a safe and reliable alternative. Russell Jackson started Kid One, which has ferried thousands of children to medical appointments. \"We found that there were 80,000-plus children in Alabama living in a home with no car,\" Jackson says. \"And in the rural areas, there are no cabs, there are no buses, there are no trains. ... Millions of children in our country every day have no access to medical care when they need to reach it.\" Jackson is so determined that in 1997 he gave up his career as an Alabama firefighter, moved in with friends and dug into his retirement account to start Kid One Transport, a nonprofit organization that provides rides for needy children in his home state. In 11 years, Kid One's fleet of vans has ferried more than 16,000 kids to and from scheduled medical-related appointments all over Alabama. Watch Jackson describe the need for medical transportation in rural Alabama \u00bb . Jackson never anticipated he would leave the fire department to head up a nonprofit organization. After all, firefighting was the culmination of a lifelong dream. \"What little boy doesn't want to be a firefighter?\" Jackson says, laughing. But an emergency call to his department in March 1992 changed everything. Jackson was dispatched to help an unresponsive 2-year-old who had accidentally hanged himself in the family car while trying to retrieve a toy. \"We did everything that we could to try to revive that young child,\" he says. The 2-year-old died despite their efforts. \"I took it pretty tough,\" Jackson remembers. \"It's not that I had not been exposed to tragedies before, but this one hit me differently.\" At the advice of a counselor, Jackson started volunteer work to help him process his grief. A friend suggested Jackson volunteer in the small rural town of Sayre, Alabama. Jackson was stunned by what he saw just 25 minutes from his home. \"When I drove into the community, it was a world of its own. It was a lot of homes that were deplorable. And that's really the only way I can explain them,\" he says. Jackson says he was instantly ashamed by his own comfortable lifestyle. Watch Jackson describe the \"turning point\" that led to Kids One Transport \u00bb . \"All it took was the one visit,\" he recalls, \"and I knew I really wanted to come out and work with these folks, hand in hand, and do whatever I could to help make life a little bit easier for them.\" When social workers told him about the neighborhood children who had no way to travel to and from appointments for chemotherapy, physical therapy and even for regular checkups, Jackson started driving them there himself. Before long this one-man operation grew into a 13-van team covering 30 counties. Though Jackson recently stepped down from a daily role in the organization he founded, he says the best part of his work has been meeting the families and witnessing firsthand so many medical transformations. There were some who learned to speak, another who learned to walk, and others who recovered from life-threatening illnesses -- even when doctors were less than hopeful. Watch a child who relies on Kid One to get to medical appointments \u00bb . \"I saw so many lives changed, so many determined children and parents who wanted to beat the odds that were against them,\" Jackson says. He says he believes that getting them to the care they needed made the difference. \"We're that missing part of the puzzle that is preventing so many people from reaching what we'd consider as world-class medicine. ... To know that they beat it all because of a simple ride,\" he adds. \"That has definitely been worth every bit of founding Kid One Transport.\"","highlights":"More than 80,000 children in Alabama reportedly live in homes without a car .\nFireman Russell Jackson quit his job to start a nonprofit to help fill that gap .\nKid One has ferried 16,000 children to and from medical-related appointments .","id":"1bcf861fca197cb629499b982c093252a78c0be6"} -{"article":"DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- One look outside the window gives a glimpse of the \"economics of energy\" in Doha, Qatar. Cranes dot the tops of half-finished towers, a monumental work in progress; the result of vast energy wealth being pumped out of the ground and poured into project after project. Doha, Qatar: A city skyline awash with cranes and towers powered by abundant oil and gas supplies. It's here that our Principal Voices met for the first of this year's roundtables. Outside Qatar, the economics of energy present a very different picture. Rising fuel costs are pricing power out of the means of some of the world's poorest people. And the environmental cost of continuing to exploit the world's fossil fuel supplies is now almost universally agreed to be so great that society can no longer afford to ignore it. Our Principal Voices come from diverse backgrounds: . The Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson -- the first head of state to sit on a Principal Voices panel -- grew up on a small island in the North Atlantic Ocean and over the past forty years has witnessed the country abandon coal to become the world's first clean economy. Dr Joseph Adelegan from Nigeria has seen poverty first hand in Africa where he worked closely with villagers to convert slaughterhouse waste to gas they use for cooking. And, Qatar-based businessman Hesham Ismail AbdulRahman Al Emadi is leading an ambitious project to create a global network of \"Energy Cities\" to house the oil and gas industry. For an hour and a half they spoke about how to solve what Icelandic President Grimsson called, \"the most fundamental question of the 21st century\": energy and whether there will ever be enough alternative sources of power to satisfy global demand if, and only if, the world manages to shake its addiction to oil and other fossil fuels. They spoke not only about the need to find alternatives to traditional energy sources, but whether there'll ever be a concerted effort in developed countries to conserve rather than consume precious resources. So what is holding us back? \"We are creatures of habit,\" Grimsson offered by way of explanation, adding that \"it usually takes a crisis to bring about change\". He warned that there is one potential disaster looming: the predicted melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas in 30 to 40 years which will cause catastrophic flooding in India and China. \"This is not just a discussion about the rich, about cities or about Europe or America or even China or India, the great economic powerhouses. This is also a question about the poorest of the poor.\" In a response to an emailed question about whether the developed world should face sanctions for not meeting any targets set by the international community on climate change, Dr Joseph Adelegan called for aid to help poorer countries --like the ones in Africa -- find alternatives to fossil fuels. The Middle East is facing different challenges. Hesham Al Emadi says energy subsidies in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and ignorance of the issues provide little incentive for residents to conserve energy or find greener alternatives: \"there is lots of ignorance. Awareness is a major issue.\" And what of countries like the U.S.? Would higher taxes on fuel be enough to move residents in the right direction? Acknowledging he's an optimist and \"a great friend of America,\" Grimsson said, politically, all the elements are already in place for a big shift in attitudes in the U.S. \"McCain, Hillary and Obama are all on the positive issue, as I call it,\" he said. He also said the world might be wise to look to the Middle East for guidance. \"I believe they are probably more aware than we are that the odds are that oil will run out sooner rather than later,\" Grimsson said, adding \"A visionary leader of a country who wants to create a good living for his or her grandchildren or great grandchildren thinks about these issues.\" We'll put more content from the debate on the website as soon as possible, including video highlights. What's your point of view? Send us an email by filling out the form on the front page, or perhaps send us an iReport explaining your views. Join the debate.","highlights":"First Principal Voices round table debate takes place in Doha, Qatar .\nOlafur Grimsson states \"it usually takes a crisis to bring about change\"\nJoseph Adelegan calls for aid to help poor countries find alternatives to fossil fuels .","id":"7899727e2e1cd93aa92ea149e097a019f6a6f964"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Maury Klein is professor emeritus of history at the University of Rhode Island. He is the author of 15 books, including \"Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929\" and most recently \"The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Made Modern America.\" Historian Maury Klein says it's important to remember that psychology plays a huge role in financial markets. (CNN) -- Friday marks the 79th anniversary of the day that launched the stock market crash of 1929. As an unprecedented wave of selling threw the floor of the New York Stock Exchange into pandemonium on a day that became known as Black Thursday, a show of organized support by a coterie of leading bankers halted the panic. But on the following Monday, the market collapsed in a tsunami of selling. Every intense convulsion of the stock market raises primal fears spawned by the Great Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, which dragged on for a full decade and has haunted Americans ever since. The Panic of 2008 is no exception. In the past year, the market's fall has at times rivaled that of 1929. Are there connections or similarities between those earlier national traumas and our current crisis? First some facts about that earlier experience. The Great Crash and the Great Depression were two separate events. The Crash was a financial panic, the Depression an economic downturn. The one does not necessarily lead to the other; the market has collapsed several times in American history without bringing on a depression. Great Depression holds lessons for surviving a tough economy . The Crash began in October 1929, and the worst of it was over in three weeks; the Depression did not fasten itself on the nation for another year. To this day, the connection between them remains unclear, which makes it difficult to draw lessons or analogies from them. The Dow plunged 39 percent between October 23 and November 13, 1929, but it regained 74 percent of that loss by March 1930. Only when the economy failed to gain momentum in the spring did the market slip back. By fall the country had slipped into a depression, and the market resumed a downward course that did not touch bottom until July 1932. It did not again return to the levels of 1929 until 1954. The Depression did not end until increased military spending revived the economy in the spring of 1940. The bull market of the 1920s was unique in that it marked the first time large numbers of ordinary people participated. The market moved from Wall Street to Main Street and aroused intense interest even among people who were not active in it. The new investors, or \"fish\" as the pros called them, were prone to panic when the market fell sharply. Could it happen again? History never repeats itself, but historical patterns do -- though always in a new context. Here are just a few of the similarities and differences between the earlier crisis and its modern version. During the 1920s, the financial industry underwent a great expansion, bringing into the business many inexperienced people and new investment vehicles -- most notably the investment trust, the forerunner of the modern mutual fund. Nobody knew what impact they would have on the market with their buying and selling on a large scale. The business world hailed the 1920s as the \"New Era,\" one with new rules in which the old pattern of cyclical depressions would no longer occur and prosperity would be continuous. Compare this delusion with the \"New Economy\" of the 1990s. The 1920s marked the beginning of the consumer economy, and with it a broad expansion of credit. Installment buying made its debut on a large scale. Credit also was used to buy stocks on margin, greatly increasing the market's volume and volatility. The banking system was shaky throughout the 1920s, and failures escalated steadily after 1929. The Crash exposed many cases of fraud that led to investigations and passage of the most significant banking reform in American history. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC, gave rise to the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and separated investment banks from commercial banks. The latter reform was repealed in 1999, giving banks free rein to perform both activities once again. Some differences between the eras are worth noting. Prior to 1933, the federal government played virtually no active role in relieving the banking crisis of the 1920s. The stock market did not have giant institutional buyers moving huge blocks of stock. Nor did it operate on a global scale, though it was deeply influenced by international events. After the crash, the banks had plenty of money to lend but no takers, the opposite of today's situation. Deflation became the mortal enemy as people removed their cash from banks and hoarded it. A familiar pattern emerged from these events. Business and the Republican Party in the 1920s demanded and got a \"free\" market unrestrained by government. Neither Wall Street nor the New York Stock Exchange was regulated by the government. The resulting disaster prompted outraged demands that Washington \"do something.\" Regulation was then forthcoming. Later, as prosperity returned and the market began soaring, the restraints were gradually removed and the pattern of excess began anew until it collapsed once again in our own time. With the fall comes renewed pleas for government to \"do something.\" Finally, it is important to remember that psychology plays a huge role in financial markets. Every panic has been at bottom a crisis of confidence. So too with the economy. As Frederick Lewis Allen observed, \"Prosperity is more than an economic condition; it is a state of mind.\" The trick is always to find out what exactly is needed to restore it. We are still fishing for the answer to that riddle. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Maury Klein.","highlights":"Maury Klein: The 1929 market crash and the Depression were separate events .\nMany financial panics have not led to depressions, Klein says .\nBefore 1933, the government wasn't active in trying to save banks, he says .\nAfter crisis, people demanded regulation, which eventually faded, Klein says .","id":"d92c5fe83cca7bbe0451c497c69399410a5d68a9"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- On a historic night for America, Barack Obama secured the Democratic Party's nomination for president and emerged for the first time on stage in Denver with running mate Sen. Joe Biden. Obama on Wednesday officially became the first African American to lead a major party ticket. Delegates cried and cheered as former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton motioned to cut the roll call vote short, saying \"Let's declare together with one voice right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.\" The dramatic move was carefully choreographed to put down any fears of a divided party following the protracted primary battle. Watch emotional crowd nominate Obama \u00bb . The Democrats jumped to their feet as they made history with Obama as their leader. Outside the hall, Republican leaders also hailed the achievement. On Thursday, the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s \"I have a dream\" speech, in the culmination of the Democratic National Convention, Obama will address an estimated 70,000 people at Invesco field in Denver. Read more about the historic anniversary . \"This is something people like me have been waiting for for days, weeks. Years,\" said Howard Hemsley, an African-American delegate from New York. \"He's going to the White House. He's going to be our next president.\" iReport.com: \"Never thought I'd see this day\" Former President Bill Clinton reflected on the significance of the moment in his address before the Democratic National Convention. Read more on Clinton's case for Obama . \"Now, Sen. Obama's life is a 21st-century incarnation of the old-fashioned American dream. His achievements are proof of our continuing progress toward the more perfect union of our founders' dreams,\" he said. \"Barack Obama will lead us away from the division and fear of the last eight years back to unity and hope.\" Watch the sights and sounds of the convention events \u00bb . President Clinton and Biden, two of the party's elder statesmen, lavished praise upon the newly crowned nominee and did their best to paint Republican rival Sen. John McCain as a candidate who would lead the country down a dangerous path. Clinton cast Obama as the safe pick, and the only one who could bring about change. He sought to put to rest the main criticism of Obama -- that he does not have the experience to lead. Watch Clinton wow the Democrats \u00bb . Obama's perceived weakness compared to McCain on foreign policy and national security issues has been of concern to Democratic strategists, especially since Russia's conflict with Georgia intensified this month. According to a new CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 78 percent of registered voters said they believe McCain can handle the responsibilities of commander in chief, compared to 58 percent for Obama. \"Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American dream and to restore American leadership in the world,\" President Clinton said Wednesday night. iReport.com: Share your reaction to the convention speeches . \"And here's what I have to say about that. Everything I learned in my eight years as president, and in the work I have done since in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.\" The ex-president had been one of the most vocal critics of Obama during the protracted primary season. Republicans have used the Clintons' earlier criticism of Obama's experience in their attacks on the Democratic presidential nominee. Going into the convention, there were still a lot of questions about whether the Clintons were ready to embrace Obama following the bruising primary battle. Clinton seemed to change that narrative as he declared his support for Obama. David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst who worked in the Clinton administration, said the speech was \"the most effective and the most important speech Bill Clinton has delivered since he left the White House.\" View an analysis of day 3 \u00bb . Continuing criticism leveled by Clinton and other speakers this week, Biden took to the stage and delivered an assault on Republican policies. \"As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out,\" he said. Biden rattled off a list of McCain's positions on issues ranging from taxes to alternative energy, repeatedly saying: \"That's not change -- that's more of the same.\" Read more about Biden's attacks . Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is widely believed to have been chosen for the Democratic presidential ticket based on his foreign policy credentials. Watch Biden accept the nomination \u00bb . The six-term senator pointed to his friendship with McCain, but said \"I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country.\"","highlights":"Barack Obama becomes first African American to lead major party ticket .\nDelegates cry, cheer during historic night .\nFormer President Bill Clinton says Obama is ready to lead .\nVP nominee Joe Biden slams Republican John McCain, his long-time friend .","id":"1a1d99bf2d28dae643e982a100835775ededc149"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Deaths in Zimbabwe related to the cholera epidemic are approaching 2,000, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, and close to 40,000 people have been affected by the preventable water-borne disease. Two men rest in a cholera rehydration tent on the South Africa-Zimbabwe border in December. Statistics released by the Geneva, Switzerland-based organization WHO on Tuesday show 1,937 people have died in the raging epidemic from the 38,334 who contracted the disease since its outbreak in August. Cholera has spread to neighboring countries South Africa and Botswana. The epidemic comes at a time when President Robert Mugabe's government is facing its worst economic crisis, manifested in shortages of all essentials from food, fuel, cash, foreign currency and electricity and a hyperinflationary economy. Health experts have said Harare's failure to import adequate stocks of water-treating chemicals is the main driver of the disease. Most residents have resorted to rivers and shallow wells for drinking water, because taps are usually dry. On top of that problem, the waste-disposing system has collapsed. Children can be seen playing on heaps of uncollected garbage in the suburbs of most urban areas in Zimbabwe. Last month, Mugabe's government declared the cholera epidemic a national emergency. Since then, international governments and organizations such as WHO, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, USAID and other U.N. groups have moved in to combat the disease that has engulfed all of Zimbabwe's provinces. But the situation has not immediately improved. Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa warned this month that the epidemic could get worse as the rainy season develops. Harare issued a warning Monday that some parts of the country are going to experience floods during rainy season, further compounding the fight against the disease. The season peaks in January or February and ends in late March. Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal in September to run the government after a hotly contested presidential election. It was widely hoped that the deal would be the panacea to the humanitarian and economic problems bewildering the once-prosperous Zimbabwe, but the pact is yet to take effect. The sides continue to debate the sharing of key Cabinet ministries such as information, local government, finance, defense and home affairs.","highlights":"World Health Organization says 1,937 people have died since outbreak in August .\nCholera epidemic comes as Zimbabwe faces worst economic crisis .\nExpert: Failure to import adequate stocks of water-treating chemicals behind disease .\nCholera has spread to neighboring countries South Africa and Botswana .","id":"b78e881949436a0cad56b60d5f2b974d40d24c1f"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- One of Chicago's most well-known real estate moguls appears to have shot himself to death, police said. Steven Good was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot Monday, police said. The body of Steven L. Good was found in his Jaguar on Monday. The car was spotted in a parking lot of a wildlife preserve in Kane County, Illinois, just outside Chicago, authorities said. No note was found, and police say they do not know how long the 52-year-old had been in the vehicle. Good was the chairman and chief executive officer of Sheldon Good & Co., a major U.S. real estate auction company. The death comes amid great turmoil in the country's real estate industry. In his role as chairman of the Realtors Commercial Alliance Committee, Good commented on tough conditions last month at a business conference. On a memorial blog set up by the Chicago Association of Realtors, for which Good once served as president, friends and colleagues described him as a gregarious man with a big personality. He was a savvy businessman who built his company into a major national real estate company that did deals with Donald Trump, they said. \"It is testimony to Steve's leadership that Sheldon Good & Co. remains well-positioned for the future,\" said Sheldon Good President Alan R. Kravets. \"The guy was a true blue Realtor,\" said Barbara Matthopoulos, the association's spokeswoman. She was new to real estate when she met Good more than a year ago. He took time to give her advice that has helped her grow to love the business. \"Anybody who knew him would speak to his leadership, his generosity, his attitude. The guy was just very positive, always smiling, always telling you a story. He was engaged. Everyone is really very shocked,\" she said. \"I doubt anyone could help explain why this happened.\" Kane County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler said authorities don't have any \"concrete evidence if this had anything to do with his finances.\" The company was founded by Good's father, Sheldon Good, in 1965, according to the firm's Web site. Steven Good had \"been involved in the sale of more than $4 billion of real estate, including commercial, office, retail, industrial, residential, and vacant land sites,\" it says. \"Mr. Good is the driving force behind the expansion of the company, which has been ranked as the largest firm in the United States exclusively conducting real estate auctions.\" Good, who was also an attorney, wrote a book, \"Churches, Jails and Gold Mines: Mega-Deals From a Real Estate Maverick.\" According to Amazon.com, Donald Trump wrote the afterword. The first chapter begins, \"Our auction company is to the real estate business what Sotheby's and Christie's is the fine art and collectibles business.\" The book goes to say that as of its 2003 publication, the firm had sold 40,000 properties totaling $8 billion. \"If you lined up 1,000 people and said pick the one that might do this to themselves, he would be the last person I would choose,\" said Wayne Caplan, who worked at Sheldon Good for six years and knew Steven Good personally. \"He had a zest for life. He has a wife and kids and he had so much in his life.\"","highlights":"Steven L. Good was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound in his car Monday .\nGood was a well-known real estate businessman in Chicago .\nFriends, family shocked, saddened by what police say appears to be a suicide .","id":"d063f4bcacc9785761ea9a5aa82cc7cb1c6a244b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Thomas Friedman is never short of a word or two. Thomas L. Friedman: \"Incredible opportunities masquerading as insoluble problems.\" The celebrated commentator occupies a position in his profession that many of his contemporaries would rival. He gets to go where he wants, when he wants and write about what he thinks, or as he puts it: \"I get to be a tourist with an attitude.\" Officially, he's The New York Times' foreign affairs columnist -- a position he's held since 1995 -- as well as the author of five books. Through his syndicated column his opinion has become a recognizable American voice on the international stage, and with it has come a sense of responsibility. \"I agonize over every column. Precisely because I know it is going to be read by a lot of people and it's going to be in Google forever,\" he told CNN. \"So there is that sense of responsibility, but at the same time you do have to take the attitude of 'This is what I think. This is why I think it.' I'm not in a popularity contest.\" Before his current position, Friedman served in various posts at the New York Times, including chief economic correspondent, chief White House correspondent and bureau chief in Beirut and Israel. His reporting from Lebanon in 1983 and work in Israel in 1988 won him Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting. Taking in the world provides never-ending fascination, he says. \"I have the best job in the world, I mean, somebody has to have it.\" He's recently trained his eye on how America can reassert itself by leading the way in green technology, encapsulated in his latest book \"Hot, flat and crowded.\" As he admits, the environmental aspect is not the point of the book; really it's a treatise on how America \"lost its groove and why we need to get it back by taking the lead in the energy revolution.\" One man who will need to take a pivotal role is the incoming U.S. president, Barack Obama, Friedman says. \"I have a lot of high hopes for him. I think we are very lucky to have someone with his raw material as the next president. I think he brings together several things that we haven't had,\" Friedman told CNN. Whether Obama can solve the raft of problems he faces is another matter. \"Is he ready to be as radical as the moment? Really have the courage of our crisis? At the end of the day it's gonna be Barack Obama and (Chinese President) Hu Jintao. We're not going to get out of this without cooperating and working closely with China,\" Friedman said. While presenting a view from the United States, Friedman is still able to do a mea culpa on America's behalf when it comes to the current economic crisis. \"We were in the middle of a huge credit bubble which in its own way was a Ponzi scheme. We gave the world financial SARs. We just spread it around the world.\" An optimist by nature -- \"I do live by the motto that pessimists are usually right, but all the great change in history was done by optimists\" -- he's sanguine when it comes to the planet in the current climate of economic depression and environmental urgency. \"What I'm basically arguing is that you can look at the world today that is hot, flat, and crowded and you can have one of two reactions. One reaction is to say 'We're cooked, let's party,'\" he said. \"That's not the way I'd look at it. I'd look at it the way John Gardner, the founder of Common Cause, once described. I look at these problems that come from hot, flat and crowded and what I see are incredible opportunities masquerading as insoluble problems.\"","highlights":"Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author: \"I'm not in a popularity contest\"\nOn U.S. and global economic situation: \"We gave the world financial SARS\"\nOn Barack Obama: 'Is he ready to be as radical as the moment?'","id":"fb577e3b4ee5b10a1d28b7f1d24cf8b7b40ac22b"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- Janice Shih might be the most educated pastry chef you'll ever meet. Janice Shih left her career in medicine at age 38 and became a pastry chef. Shih attended Johns Hopkins University, followed by medical school at George Washington University, then practiced for eight years as an obstetrician\/gynecologist before realizing that baking, not medicine, was her calling. \"Everyone would say, 'You're a doctor; it must be so great to be able to save lives,'\" she says. \"But I felt like I was just pushing papers and feeling pressure to see more patients in less time. It was very draining. It just wasn't fun anymore.\" So in 2004, at age 38, she swapped her stethoscope for a rolling pin and enrolled in the pastry program at L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland. \"I had always been interested in pastries -- mostly interested in eating them,\" she says with a laugh. Shih now owns Tenzo Artisan, a bakery and catering company in Baltimore that specializes in pastries for people with food allergies -- it's rewarding, she says, to make birthday cakes for people whose dietary sensitivities had forbidden such treats. She's one of thousands of career changers who have left their cubicles for culinary school. Enrollment has risen 40 percent since 2000 at the Culinary Institute of America, and it's up 15 percent this year at The Art Institutes, which operates 30 culinary programs across the country. The trend is helped by a growing cultural interest in gourmet food and a proliferation of cooking-themed TV shows like the Food Network's \"Ace of Cakes\" and Bravo's \"Top Chef.\" Plenty of possibilities . Students attending the grueling programs, which can last six to 38 months, can dole out as much as $30,000 to $40,000 for the diploma. And then the real work begins. Neil Robertson, 44, was technical director at a graphic design firm in 2003 and felt like he no longer fit the mold. He quit his 18-year career and attended the French Pastry School in Chicago. \"I've always loved to bake,\" he says. \"But baking in a professional kitchen? I wasn't sure that I could handle it.\" In his first professional experience after pastry school, he found out how tough it can be: \"I came very close to tears.\" Yet he persevered, and five years later became head pastry chef at Seattle's Canlis restaurant. \"You're not a chef as soon as you finish culinary school,\" says Michael Ruhlman, author of \"The Making of a Chef,\" an inside look at life at the Culinary Institute. \"You're a chef only after spending several years further honing your craft and learning the ropes. To say otherwise would be like saying grads of medical school could instantly be called pediatric neurosurgeons the day after graduation.\" And becoming a chef isn't the only option. \"There are so many possibilities today,\" says Culinary Institute President Tim Ryan. \"Catering, sales, manufacturing -- we even have graduates who have launched clothing companies (or) become food scientists.\" Jen Beltz, 38, and Thom Householder, 40, testify to that. In 2004, they quit their jobs at AARP and followed their palates to Italy. Using the proceeds of their house sale, the couple attended a five-month culinary program in Florence, then a nine-month course in Canada. All the while, they had no idea where their gastronomic education would take them. \"Some of our friends and family seemed to think we were a bit insane,\" Beltz recalls. But with their newfound culinary know-how, Beltz and Householder launched Front Burner PR, a boutique public-relations and marketing firm in Portland, Maine, that focuses on restaurants, hotels and other food-related clients. Don't quit your day job just yet . Think carefully before writing your resignation letter -- culinary school is no cakewalk, says Robertson. \"It's hot. It's fast. It's high-stress. It's a pressure cooker.\" Ruhlman agrees. \"I can't even tell you how many people have read my book and thanked me for saving them from going to culinary school,\" he says, \"because they had no idea how hard it really is.\" Before taking the plunge, Robertson and Ruhlman suggest getting a feel for the job via a culinary vacation, like those offered through gourmetontour.com and foodvacation.com, or by shadowing a chef. For the second option, \"go to a restaurant that you like and respect and ask if you can spend a day in the kitchen,\" suggests Ruhlman. It's called trailing, and some restaurants are open to it. If you have some food experience, you might be able to stage (pronounced stauge), which entails working in a kitchen alongside a chef, without pay, for a day or two. \"You get to see what life is really like in a professional kitchen,\" he says, \"and it will really open your eyes.\" Looking back, Robertson says leaving his job for the culinary world was a bold move, but worth every deflated souffl\u00e9 along the way: . \"I'm much more excited about what I'm doing now.\" LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Sarah Jio's work has appeared in \"Gourmet,\" \"Health,\" \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" and many other publications.","highlights":"Physician one of thousands to leave office drudgery for cooking school .\n\"It just wasn't fun anymore,\" says doctor, now owner of catering business .\nChef: School is \"hot. It's fast. It's high-stress\"\nTrend is fed by TV shows \"Ace of Cakes\" and \"Top Chef\"","id":"fdb158b94bccf83c43496543808cab19f9aaff74"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gunpowder, fireworks and attention-grabbing installations mark Cai Guo-Qiang as one of the world's biggest and brightest artists. Cai's fireworks will be seen by millions during the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. The Chinese artist is about to show the world what he can do with a spectacular pyrotechnics display at the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Despite not having lived in China since 1986, Cai has been selected to be the Director of Visual and Special Effects for both the opening and closing ceremonies at the Games. For the 51-year-old contemporary artist, whose work has previously caused controversy in China, the politics that have been swirling around the Games are secondary to the event itself. \"In any country, in any city, there will be political influence on what is said, what kind of images are to be projected and, yes, of course artists can be and are influenced by politicians,\" he told CNN. \"But what I also think is that our leaders at the very highest level want artists to be able to be free, to be creative and to show this other side of China that is vibrant.\" While some of his art is politically charged, Cai has established his reputation as much as a director of the spectacular, with his work often providing a visceral and visual bang. He studied stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute between 1981 and 1985 before moving to Japan a year after graduation. Now residing in New York, he gained wide-spread international recognition at the Venice Biennale in 1999, winning the Golden Lion prize. However, the work he displayed -- Rent Collection Courtyard, a replica of famous Chinese socialist-realist sculpture -- upset artists of the original piece in Shanghai who believed it diminished the sentiment behind the original work. Born in Fujian in 1957, Cai's father was also an artist, but had a much more traditional outlook than the one Cai developed. \"He and his friends always lamented about the good days and, that there's no vitality in today's art and culture. So, I really rebelled against that. I felt that what they were talking about had very little to do with how our lives were like at that moment,\" he said. Cai began using gunpowder in his work after moving to Japan. Detonating large trails of it on his two-dimensional pieces, creating small mushroom-clouds, or lighting enormous firework displays, explosions have been a continuous theme of his work. \"I have always been a coward as a child. I am not very brave. I am very aware of the fact that I am not very gutsy. So, I am always trying to do things to kind of boost my own sense of courage a bit. So maybe that is why I use gunpowder,\" he told CNN. Cai has proffered different explanations for different projects that feature the same motifs. Perhaps that is not surprising when his influences come from a myriad of sources that include Taoism, Buddhist philosophy and UFO-observations. Recently exhibited at New York's Guggenheim Museum, \"Inopportune: Stage One\" is a set of 9 cars suspended above each other with illuminated shards shooting out. Cai has previously said it denotes Chinese craftiness in stealing western technology, while arrows piercing the life-sized stuffed tigers of \"Inopportune: Stage 2\" are also about the aesthetics of pain. \"For me cars are tigers, they are all bodies of the human form and it is a human form I am working with through this medium. For the cars the energy goes inward out and for the tiger piece the energy flows in,\" he told CNN. Meanings and interpretations then can be fluid, but as well as the explosions and visual excitement, there is a common social theme in his work. The most connected to this ethos is \"Reflection-A Gift from Iwaki 2004.\" The skeleton of a wooden boat found off the coast of Iwaki, Japan, that spills delicate pieces of porcelain from its hull is recreated piece by piece by the people who helped excavate it. \"This work and the history of this work belongs to the people of Iwaki and me. It is a shared experience, a shared history,\" he said. \"Some works of art have material other works have form, but this piece has something additional, it has a narrative, it has a story that is just as important as the material and form itself.\" Ultimately the most unifying and social part of his work is the spectacle of it all. Everyone loves fireworks, and if Cai's own careful planning and that of the Games organizers come together, he should provide a fitting opening and finale to the world's biggest spectacle.","highlights":"Chinese artist will curate Olympic Games' opening ceremony pyrotechnic display .\nUses gunpowder and fireworks to produce spectacular large-scale pieces .\nInternational recognition winning Golden Lion at 1999 Venice Biennale .","id":"b5aca2a5d57e131531524b76e96cdd9bb71c9f35"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau, the last two months have been a whirlwind. \"Full of the best moments and the scariest moments of my life,\" says the 24-year-old Olympic swimmer. Eric Shanteau said he felt angry when he found out he had testicular cancer. \"Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, 'I want to make an Olympic team. That's where I want to be'.\" In June, a week before the qualifying round of the Olympics he was told he had testicular cancer. \"My initial reaction was probably anger more than anything else,\" he says. \"I'm used to being in control of everything. I'm in control of how I train, how I race and then to all of a sudden have that control ripped away from me was tough.\" After weeks of tests to determine the \"stage\" or spread of the cancer, Shanteau's team of doctors cleared him to compete in the Beijing Olympics, which meant carefully monitoring his tumor but delaying treatment. Though putting off the surgery was controversial to some, Eric says it was an educated choice based on numerous doctor evaluations. \"I hope people understand that if I was in a different position with my test results, then I wouldn't have put off having surgery.\" Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from Eric Shanteau's surgery \u00bb . He swam a personal best in the 200 meter breaststroke. He did not qualify for the finals. Cancer was a motivator, he says, because he knew it meant he could be facing his last competition. He put everything he had into that heat. \"Leave it all in the pool, and I don't look back and regret anything as far as how I raced.\" Once back from Beijing, Shanteau invited CNN to spend time with him the night before his surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Though admittedly a little scared, he spent the evening relaxing with his family, cooking dinner, walking the dog. A source of inspiration, he says, were fans who shared their stories of beating cancer. \"They send me their story and it helps me to learn that people are going through the same thing I am all over the world,\" says Shanteau. \"They all affect me in a different way and it's been really encouraging to share in this experience with other people.\" Testicular cancer is diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime. It is the most common form of cancer for 15- to 34-year-olds. It is also one of the most curable if discovered early. Nearly 140,000 men in the United States are testicular cancer survivors. Shanteau says he experienced no symptoms of cancer and came across the tumor by chance. \"I've been in a Speedo half my life,\" he says. \"So I am really comfortable with my body. One day I just felt something that wasn't suppose to be there. I decided to go and get it checked out.\" He adds that although he had the \"greatest excuse in the world\" -- an Olympic dream -- to ignore the lump, he understood the importance of early detection. Shanteau's father Rick, is battling lung cancer and responding well to treatment. \"A lot of guys, if they hear a rattle in their car, they're at the mechanic the next day,\" he says. \"But if they feel something [physically] that they don't think should be there, it takes them a year to get to their doctor and that just is not smart. There's really no excuse, because it can save your life.\" Fast forward to Shanteau's recent operation at Emory University Hospital. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was with Shanteau during the surgery and spoke with the lead surgeon, Dr. Jeff Carney, moments afterward. \"I think the operation went very well,\" Carney said. \"Eric's a very healthy young man, very thin, in excellent shape. That makes my job easy.\" Later that week, Shanteau's pathology results revealed that the operation removed the most of the cancer. \"The majority of it is gone.\" he tells CNN. \"There is a small chance it could come back but I shouldn't need chemotherapy at this point, so I am really optimistic.\" His treatment plan is to keep a close eye on his health for the next year with regular medical tests. \"Obviously, it would have been nice if the doctor said, 'You're completely in the clear,' but my results are exactly what the doctors expected.\" Eric says the cancer diagnosis gave him a different perspective on life. \"I appreciate life much more now,\" he says. \"I don't let myself get upset about the little nitpicky things anymore. Food even seems to taste better. It is really great.\" As for Shanteau's swimming career, he plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome, Italy. \"2012 [the next Olympics] is a push for me. Right now I'm just kind of taking it year by year and we'll see what happens.\"","highlights":"Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau found out about his cancer in June .\nHe delayed treatment so he could compete in the games in Beijing .\nHe plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome .\nTesticular cancer is diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime .","id":"6e6d12b1ec646c929ee771b1a95a8f18678728ec"} -{"article":"As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues high-level talks with Mexico's leaders this week, her comments about responsibility in the U.S.-Mexico drug trade have struck a chord with officials familiar with U.S. anti-drug efforts. Mexican federal police have been deployed openly in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas. Clinton said the United States' \"inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border\" was a major contributor in Mexican violence along the border. She went on to say that the United States has \"a co-responsibility.\" In an interview Wednesday on \"American Morning\" with CNN anchor John Roberts, former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Robert Strang talked about the three-pronged approach needed to curb drug use in America and the need to bust distribution rings. Strang is also CEO of Investigative Management Group. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . John Roberts, CNN anchor: Everybody's blaming Mexico for [the U.S. drug trade], but the secretary of state yesterday said, 'Hey, the United States shares a lot of the blame because of the pent-up demand here, the insatiable demand for drugs.' Do you agree with her? Watch Clinton say, \"We have to do a better job\" \u00bb . Robert Strang, former DEA special agent: Let's face it, the average first drug use is 12 years old in our country. That means kids that are in the sixth grade are trying drugs for the first time. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, all these drugs are coming across the border because we demand them. We have the cash to pay for them, and we really are pretty much the No. 1 consumer in the world for these drugs. Roberts: Is the United States doing enough to try to curb demand? The Office of National Drug Control Policy, I don't remember much coming out of it during the Bush administration, and I haven't seen anything come out of it in the Obama administration. Strang: We're trying all the time. I'm on the board for D.A.R.E. America, and that is teaching kids about the dangers of drugs and violence in schools. And constantly, we're trying to get money federally for this program and police officers go into the school. They teach the kids. It's a wonderful program in those trouble years, the fourth, fifth and sixth grade especially, and we need to have a little bit more money in this area. amFIX: React to Strang's comments about U.S. anti-drug effort . There's three things, John: It's treatment, it's enforcement and it's education. And it's like a three-legged stool. If all three things don't work, it's going to fall down. So, we can send all of the agents in the world down to the border. We can seize all the coke, heroin, methamphetamine that we want. If we don't have treatment on demand, and if we're not educating our kids in our country about the dangers of drugs, the problem's going to grow. Roberts: When you see the Department of Homeland Security prepared to spend these hundreds of millions of dollars on border security, what do you think? Strang: I'm happy that they're doing something. This is a small piece of the enforcement operation. The best thing to do is like the case that we saw three weeks ago, when the DEA announced 750 arrests involving 250 cities between Mexico and the United States, mostly in the U.S., this huge distribution network. Because when you dismantle those networks that constantly are putting drugs from the cartels to the street, when you can put those guys in jail, when you take their assets, then you have an impact. Watch how drugs from Mexico enter U.S. \u00bb . Roberts: But would you like to see them take some of that money, and you know, they take, I think, what, $700 million, and they throw it at the border. Would you like to see them take some of that money, maybe even just a fraction of it, and throw it into prevention programs? Strang: Absolutely. Instead of going to some of the financial institutions, I'd like to see it go for the drug problem. I'd like to see enforcement, treatment and prevention. I'd like it to be evenly divided, and I really think we could have an impact on the problem. We've got to look at this a different way. And I think that it's a combination of these things, and we're moving in that direction. Let's hope that we make some headway here.","highlights":"Robert Strang, former DEA special agent, says drug use starts as early as 12 .\nStrang: \"We can send all of the agents in the world,\" but border patrol not enough .\nMoney aimed at financial institutions should go to prevention programs, Strang says .","id":"5b71a7f86c76792a69fe44fb442b3241d35ff293"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans have varied feelings about guns. In Focus: Guns in America is a series of stories by CNN photojournalists that looks at the complex views and emotions that surround this controversial subject. In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Washington, D.C.'s, ban on handgun ownership, saying it violates the constitutional right to \"keep and bear arms\" by preventing individuals from having guns in their homes. In this series, Americans tell their stories about guns on a first-hand basis, providing a more intimate look at a topic that is often ignored until gun violence erupts. In one video, 32-year-old Steve Ferguson talks about a shooting in Washington that left him paralyzed, his battle to recover and his views on guns. In another story, Scott Morris shares his passion for his shooting range on a road he named 2nd Amendment Drive. CNN photojournalists also traveled to Massachusetts to play paintball, rural Pennsylvania to hunt turkeys, and to Hollywood to hang out on a movie set. They also meet Dale Tate, who hand-makes guns that he considers works of art, and they learn about new technology for less lethal weapons.","highlights":"The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Washington, D.C.'s, ban on handgun ownership .\nCNN photojournalists take a look at the views and feelings about guns in America .\nIn this series, individual Americans tell their stories about guns .","id":"412df27c88e98df5689a8748257b9697020f7858"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militants fired more rockets into Israel on Friday as a tenuous six-month truce between Hamas and Israel expired. Palestinian children look at a blast crater following an Israeli airstrike over southern Gaza on December 18. Two Qassam rockets were fired Friday morning from Gaza into separate Israeli communities, the Israel Defense Forces said. Earlier, Palestinians in Gaza shot at Israeli farmers working in their fields in Kibbutz Nirim, the IDF said. No one was hurt in the attacks and one car was damaged, it added. Islamic Jihad sources claimed responsibility for firing the rockets. Under the Egytian-brokered truce, which began June 19, the Hamas government in Gaza agreed to end militant attacks from Gaza on Israel. The pledge applied to all militant groups in the coastal territory, including Islamic Jihad. In return, Israel agreed to halt raids inside Gaza and ease its blockade. The truce held well for the first four months but began to fall apart in October, when there was a marked increase in the number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel -- estimated at 200. Israel resumed airstrikes in Gaza as a result. Watch what may follow the end of the truce \u00bb . Israel has said a major military operation in Gaza may be unavoidable if daily rocket fire from the territory continues. However, both sides have expressed a desire not to see the situation worsen. Islamic Jihad said it planned a rally in Gaza City in the afternoon, after Friday prayers, announcing the end of the truce but also calling for a lifting of the Israeli siege. Israel has tightened its restrictions on border crossings and the flow of goods into the impoverished territory, making life extremely difficult for residents. Gaza depends on Israel for 90 percent of its imports, according to the U.N. Development Program. -- CNN's Ben Wedeman and Michal Zippori contributed to this report.","highlights":"Egyptian-brokered truce, which began June 19, has expired .\nCeasefire had applied to all militant groups -- including Hamas, Islamic Jihad .\nQassam rockets fired Friday from Gaza into separate Israeli communities .\nIslamic Jihad sources claimed responsibility for firing the rockets .","id":"531b265d03f11146778f6b6b371ce9851b79118a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two inmates at New Jersey's Union County Jail made a movie-style escape Saturday and remained at large Monday, according to Union County Prosecutor Ted Romankow. Otis Blunt, left, and Jose Espinosa escaped from the Union County Jail Saturday night, officials say. Twenty-year-old Jose Espinosa and 32-year-old Otis Blunt, who are considered armed and dangerous, were discovered missing from their cells at about 5:15 p.m. Saturday, Romankow said. The men left behind dummies in their beds, cinder block dust and a note wishing authorities \"Happy Holidays.\" Espinosa, who recently pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, was to be sentenced on January 25 and faced a minimum of 17 years in prison. Blunt was being held in lieu of $75,000 bond on weapon and robbery charges. Both men were being housed in the high security area of the multilevel jail, Romankow said. Police said Espinosa and Blunt were in adjacent cells and used a long metal wire to scrape away mortar around the cinder block between their cells and the outer wall in Espinosa's cell. Once the cement block between the cells was removed, they smashed the block and hid the pieces in a footlocker. According to police, Blunt, who is 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 210 pounds, squeezed into Espinosa's cell through an approximately 16- to 18-inch hole. The two inmates wiggled through another 18-inch hole in the outer wall. From a roof landing, the two men \"took a running jump or they were standing and they jumped approximately 15 feet out and about 30 feet down,\" Romankow said. Then they jumped a razor-wire fence onto a New Jersey transit railroad bed to freedom, police said. Authorities found two sets of footprints in the snow heading in opposite directions. At a news conference Monday, Romankow read the note that was found in Espinosa's cell, saying it represented the \"arrogance of these two men.\" \"Thank you officer -------- for the tools needed, you're a real pal, Happy Holidays,\" the note read, with a smiley face drawn next to it. Authorities are investigating the note's claims about the guard, the Associated Press reported. The guard has not turned in a report and disciplinary action has not been taken, Romankow said, according to AP. To delay discovery of the escape, Espinosa and Blunt used dummies made of sheets and pillows in their beds. They also hung photographs of bikini-clad women to hide the holes in the walls, a move reminiscent of a scene in the Hollywood hit \"The Shawshank Redemption.\" Romankow played down the comparison. \"I think this is a very serious situation you saw,\" he said. \"I really prefer not to compare with any movie, although I can understand why you might because it does look certainly very similar to some of them. Except in 'The Shawshank Redemption' they had a better poster on the wall.\" According to police, Blunt tried to escape in September using similar methods. There is an $8,000 reward for the men's capture. Romankow said a statewide hunt is under way, with several agencies involved. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Brian Vitagliano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two inmates broke out of Union County Jail Saturday night, officials say .\nThey removed blocks from walls, hiding their work behind pinups of women in bikinis .\nThe duo made it over 25-foot fence to escape jail's top-security area .\nOne was awaiting sentence for manslaughter; the other faced robbery charges .","id":"f42491b08208020d11f0b20864145b3905ed50e4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, \"Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism,\" will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian E. Zelizer says Democrats should be questioning themselves on several key points. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- This week, Jews will conclude the eight-day celebration of Passover, a holiday that has often found its way into the political realm. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. frequently invoked the story of the liberation of the Jewish people from the Egyptians in his struggle against white oppression. President Obama made headlines last week when he hosted a Passover Seder in the White House. Today, Democrats can draw an important lesson from Passover, this time not so much from the story that is retold during the holiday but through the rituals that are the focus of the week. Last Wednesday and Thursday evenings, Jews gathered with families, friends and other groups to have a Seder. These meals are not just about eating and talking, but also about learning and debating the stories of the holiday contained in a book called the Haggadah. There is no right answer to many of the questions that are raised, and discussions change over time as the life experiences of the participants bring new perspectives to the table. The highlight of the Seder is when the youngest child asks the Four Questions, asking the adults what makes these nights different from the others and then offering some possible answers. Politicians could learn a lot from the Seder, particularly when one party controls both the executive and the legislative branch, and the temptation is to act in lock-step. Republicans did not have enough moments of questioning and reflection between 2002 and 2006, which many observers agree was not just damaging to the country but to the party as well. While there was strong private, internal disagreement among Republicans over how to conduct the war on terror, over whether the war in Iraq was a wise move and over the basic contours of economic policy, most Republicans stayed silent in public. Even when they gathered in the private corridors of the White House, according to memoirs that have been published by former officials such as Scott McClellan, Republicans tended to remain deferential to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Historically, vigorous internal party debate has had the ability to strengthen a party politically. The fight that took place between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primaries, where Reagan pushed President Ford to be more responsive to the growing conservative movement and avoid making all his decisions from inside the beltway, created a GOP that in the 1980s was a formidable political force. Bill Clinton's insistence that Democrats needed to rethink some of their conventional wisdom from the New Deal and Great Society periods, with his preference being to move toward the center, opened up a healthy debate about what Democrats should stand for that helped result in Barack Obama's victory in 2008. Thus far, Democrats have been more comfortable openly criticizing each other. Princeton economist Paul Krugman has emerged as the leading liberal critic of the administration by arguing that President Obama is not spending enough to stimulate the economy and that his financial bailout plan will only provide Band-Aid solutions that place all the risk on taxpayers. But Democrats will feel less comfortable having internal debates as the elections of 2010 and 2012 get closer, as the pressures of re-election intensify and as Republicans become more aggressive and more coherent in their attacks. To get the conversation started, it would be worth thinking about the four questions that Democrats should keep asking when they get together in the next few years. The first is: What are the issues on which Democrats are willing to compromise with Republicans, if any? The compromises will not be easy given that Republicans have refused to endorse Democratic proposals in the first few months of Obama's presidency. However, if the popularity of the GOP continues to erode and Obama's stays strong, there might be an opportunity for the president to act. Compromises means giving something up, so Democrats will have to talk among themselves about what that might be. The second question is: Where are Democrats willing to renege on campaign promises? Since November, Democrats have already backed off some very big promises. Though Obama ran as a candidate who promised to change the way that government worked, government reform has quickly dropped off the agenda. Nor has the White House been fully compliant with its promise to end the secrecy practiced by the Bush administration. It is natural that a party won't be able to do everything it said in a campaign, but Democrats need to think about which issues they are willing to let go and which they are determined to fulfill. The third question is: What is the foreign policy agenda of the current administration? This has been the murkiest part of the First 100 Days. When Barack Obama ran for president, it was clear what kind of foreign policy he opposed. His campaign took aim at the unilateralism, militarism and pre-emptive strategy of the Bush administration. Yet it is easier to be against something than for something. Now the burden is on President Obama to define what he will be about in the next four years and what he hopes to pursue. This agenda will be dynamic and unfold as international crises occur. But Democrats need to keep coming back to the questions and keep forcing the president to articulate what his goals are in this arena. The final question is: What are the policy priorities of the Democratic Party? This is always one of the most difficult questions for any party given that events move politics in unexpected directions. This White House has naturally been consumed by the economic freefall and the effort to stabilize economic conditions. With his budget, Obama has highlighted two priorities from the campaign -- health care and the environment, though some will get traded away in upcoming negotiations. Another issue that the White House may make a priority is immigration reform. Whereas the campaign established a certain framework for thinking about priorities, that framework fades as the election moves farther away. Democrats must keep getting together, asking their own version of the four questions and insisting on internal debates. Although the discussions can become uncomfortable (as most Jews will recall from their Seders), this is a formula for making the strongest party possible. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Passover Seders involve four questions asked by youngest .\nHe says Democrats should be asking themselves four key questions .\nZelizer: Are they willing to compromise on their objectives to win GOP support?\nHe asks what priorities will take precedence for the Democrats .","id":"252981a4a714e5f5473dc789652866eed7576757"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Ahri's chin quivers, and his large dark eyes fill with tears the 11-year-old can't control. Holding Eka Jaya, Nuraini leads son Ahri, 11, to the orphanage with dad Joni Lubis and brother Mohammed. \"Be tough. I am sorry you have to go,\" his grandmother whispers while hugging him. His parents are taking Ahri to live in an orphanage. They swear they are not abandoning their son. \"I am not throwing my child away,\" says his mother, Nuraini, wiping away tears. \"I just want him to get a proper education. I hope that one day he'll do something useful for this country and help his brothers, because we are living in poverty.\" The family lives crammed into a home that's 17 feet by 17 feet in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Jakarta. Nuraini runs a small shop the family opened to try to make ends meet. Ahri's father, Joni Lubis, collects bottles from the streets, selling them to plastic and glass factories. Watch Ahri say goodbye \u00bb . Ahri's parents make $2 to $3 a day, with about half of that going toward their daily rent. With the increased cost of living, what's left just isn't enough to send Ahri to school and to feed him and his two brothers, 3-year-old Mohammed and 7-month-old Eka Jaya. \"I never imagined it would come to this,\" Nuraini admits. But for many Indonesians, it has. More than 80 percent of children in child care institutions have both their parents, according to the most recent survey conducted in 2006 by the Indonesian government. A recent study by Save the Children, UNICEF and the government says Indonesia -- the world's fourth most populous nation -- has more orphanages than any other country. This year, orphanages are reporting even higher number of parents giving up their children because they can no longer afford to feed them or send them to school. In the past year, the cost of living increased beyond many people's reach. In May, a 30 percent fuel hike set off countrywide protests. Ahri peers intently as his mother signs off custody of him to the orphanage. The other children cram their faces up against the window to see the new arrival. At least half of them at the Putra Utama 1 orphanage have been through this before as well. \"The prices have gone up. [Families] can't balance their income with the prices,\" orphanage staffer Utari says. \"By putting their children here, they are hoping that their children's education will improve.\" It doesn't take long for Ahri to make new friends. Soon, he's stuffing rice into his mouth and chatting with the other boys. His parents stand against the doorway and watch their son playing soccer. Here at least, there's enough space to do so. \"If my son can adapt, then I am happy,\" says Ahri's father, Joni Lubis. \"I can see that it's calm and peaceful here. That makes me happy. So does the school -- my son can be educated.\" Nuraini adds, \"There has to be a better chance for my two other sons.\" It's all they can hope for: that economic pressures will ease so they won't have to face such a decision again.","highlights":"Mother of three insists she is not \"throwing away\" her first-born child .\nParents take 11-year-old to orphanage because they say they can't make ends meet .\nMore than 80 percent in orphanages have two living parents, Indonesian study says .","id":"3e6941972dbd86a45e666849a57ab4aef3ca706e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Taliban advances in Pakistan are raising concerns in Islamabad and capitals as far away as Washington. CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson looks at how the Taliban spread and what could be done to help Pakistan. Students in burqas in Buner district . How is the Taliban extending its influence in Pakistan? It has extended its influence considerably over the last few years moving northwards along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, from South Waziristan to North Waziristan to Bajur and across now to Swat and Buner. But the Taliban has also extended its influence because it is now involved with several Punjab terrorist groups that have affiliated themselves with the border Taliban and have helped commit some attacks such as one on a police station in Lahore. The Pakistan government has been cutting deals with the different elements that were Taliban or became Taliban since 2004-2005. Those deals have enabled the Taliban to extend themselves. Is Pakistan going to fall or fail? The overall answer to that is no. But the Taliban is further destabilizing an incredibly unstable situation. There is a weak government that faces challenges, not only from the Taliban but also from almost every political party in the country. It faces challenges from across the border with its old enemy India, which means a large percentage of the Pakistan army is tied up on that border rather than fighting terrorism. The Taliban is not going to take Islamabad, but its attacks and advances are going to weaken an already unstable government and make an already dangerous situation even more volatile... and that will mean the Taliban will be able to wield more influence in the future than they do today. What options are open to the Pakistan government and other countries? Pakistan could form a broad-based government of national unity and appeal for more international support in terms of encouraging financial aid and having trade restrictions lifted so they can improve the economy. The international community could help Pakistan resolve issues with India. It would help the economy and help the government focus on its own internal problems and better influence the situation in Afghanistan. What the Pakistan government would also need to do is convince its people that outside support and help is in their best interests to deal with terrorism and stabilize the country. To do that the government would also have to win the support of its large Pashtun minority, from whom the Taliban draws a lot of its support ... and that is difficult particularly as the U.S. -- which would need to be a principle supporter of Pakistan -- continues to bomb targets in Pashtun areas leading to civilian casualties.","highlights":"Taliban influences in Pakistan has developed over years .\nPakistan government weak and could be weakened further .\nPakistan has options to deal with Taliban, but they come with problems .","id":"f179da432fe224657dcd798b934e934fee0a1e77"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration is giving General Motors 60 days worth of financing for restructuring, according to senior administration officials. General Motors' Rick Wagoner, CEO of the company since 2000, is on his way out, sources say. Chrysler will receive as much as $6 billion and 30 days to complete an agreement with Italian automaker Fiat, the officials said. Meanwhile, White House and GM sources told CNN Sunday that GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will resign as part of the federal government's bailout strategy for the troubled automaker. Wagoner's departure comes as President Obama is expected to announce Monday the latest details of the government's plans for restructuring GM and Chrysler LLC, which have been pushed to the brink by huge losses and a sharp decline in sales. Fritz Henderson, GM's chief operating officer, is expected to be named GM's interim CEO, according to two GM sources. A GM spokesman declined to comment on reports of Wagoner's resignation. A company statement said: \"We are anticipating an announcement soon from the administration regarding the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry.\" GM and Chrysler face a Tuesday deadline to prove to the Treasury Department that they can be viable in the long term. Without such a finding, the government can recall the $13.4 billion it already loaned to GM and the $4 billion it loaned to Chrysler. Wagoner, a 32-year company veteran, has been CEO of General Motors since 2000. Before becoming CEO, he was chief operating officer and led the company's North American operations. He also served as chief financial officer from 1992 to 1994. A senior GM official official told CNN that the White House and its auto task force had \"sent very clear signals\" that the key to more help was \"new leadership\" and something that would help the administration see real change. General Motors has been hit hard as auto sales have plummeted. Sales have continued to tumble through the early months of this year, falling 40 percent across the industry and about 50 percent at GM and Chrysler. The companies and industry analysts have slashed their sales estimates for the year, and that has heightened the need for more loans to keep GM and Chrysler afloat. Last month, the two companies filed reports on their restructuring efforts. GM said it needed up to $16.6 billion more in loans. Chrysler asked for an additional $5 billion, and said it would need the money by the end of March to avoid running out of cash. The Obama administration had been widely expected to approve the requests. Obama has repeatedly spoken about the importance of saving the struggling auto industry, and on March 19, the Treasury Department announced $5 billion in federal help for GM's and Chrysler's auto parts suppliers. CNN's Kate Bolduan and John King contributed to this report.","highlights":"Departure of General Motors' CEO part of government's bailout strategy, sources say .\nGM official: White House signaled that \"new leadership\" was key to more aid .\nOfficials: GM to get 60 days of financing; Chrysler could get $6 billion .\nGM, Chrysler were told to prove viability to Treasury Department by Tuesday .","id":"1debf06c8377d121cb048bd4a03dbb54e01699f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A thin girl with caramel skin and a yellow silk blouse walks alone through a barren landscape of rubble. Nway prepares for her new job, selling vegetables from her aunt's garden. Her legs are marked by cuts. Her face is smeared with white streaks of powder. And her eyes are blank as she sifts through the debris of what used to be her home before Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar one night and swept her parents away. Her name is Nway, and that's how she looked when aid workers found her after Nargis destroyed her isolated village. She refused to talk about the cyclone, pretending it never took place. She became, according to a CNN story, the \"girl who refuses to remember.\" A year later, an aid worker returned to the village to see how Nway was doing. She found Nway living in a tidy, bamboo house flanked by palm trees. The 8-year-old greeted her visitor with a big smile. Then she asked whether she could play with her visitor's hair. Pam Sitko, the aid worker, said Nway -- like thousands of people in Myanmar -- is slowly recovering one year after Nargis demolished their country. \"After all of her pain and loss, she really is a spunky girl,\" said Sitko, who works with World Vision International, a humanitarian group. \"She wasn't shy about reaching out to touch my blonde hair.\" The night everything changed . Nway's resilience is shared by many in Myanmar, aid workers say. Last year's cyclone was catastrophic. It killed at least 140,000 people and left at least 2 million people without homes, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. The brunt of the storm hit Myanmar's delta region, the country's bread basket. It wiped out crops, shrimp farms and fish ponds. A year later, many fields remain unplanted; supplies are short, and the lack of drinking water complicates recovery efforts, World Food Programme officials say. Yet some sense of normal life is returning, said Mia Marina, a program support manager for World Vision's Nargis response efforts. World Vision is building cyclone-resistant schools and providing supplies to cyclone survivors. \"Most of the people are going back to their livelihoods,\" Marina said. \"Kids are going to school. The markets are open.\" The people of Myanmar are also buying planting tools and seed in preparation for the monsoon rains that typically come in May, Sitko said. \"Everyone is hoping that this is the moment that it turns around,\" Sitko said. \"It's an exciting time, a time of hope.\" That hope appears to have spread to Nway. She is fortunate to be alive. The cyclone killed her mother and father. The winds were so powerful that they blew away the village buffalo. In Nway's village, 120 people out of a population of 430 people lost their lives. Nway survived because she was staying with her aunt. The pair joined a group squeezed in to the village headman's house to survive, Sitko said. Nway wouldn't talk about the cyclone after aid workers found her a month later. She would walk away whenever she was asked about that night. Now, according to Sitko, who wrote about her meeting for World Vision, Nway can talk a little about her loss. Sitko said Nway shared one memory from the morning after the cyclone while sitting in her aunt's house: . \"When I walked to my aunt's house that day, my legs were scratched, and I passed lots of dead bodies,\" Nway said. \"I wanted to help, because everyone was working, but I was too scared, so I only helped clean up my auntie's yard.\" Nway dreams of her future . Nway prefers to talk about other subjects. One is her new job. She helps her aunt sell vegetables from their garden. On most mornings, she smears white powder made from tree bark on her cheeks (it's used as a skin beautifier by women and children in Myanmar). Then she balances a tray of vegetables on her head and walks to a village road to call out to potential customers. Nway told Sitko that she's made \"four new best friends.\" They like to memorize new words and play hide and seek after school. \"I'm always the fastest runner,\" she told Sitko. Nway is starting to become aware of life outside her village. \"She was very proud,\" Sitko said. \"She explained that she had recently taken a trip to another village with her aunties, and she wasn't afraid.\" Nway doesn't know, though, where she would attend school as she gets older, Sitko said. She'll have to pay to attend school away from her village one day, but her aunt and uncle can't afford the costs. \"She wanted to study and said that she was smart,\" Sitko said. \"She said she would be willing to travel to a school outside of her village if she had to.\" Nway has already taken a more difficult journey. The shocked girl who aid workers met a year ago has changed, Sitko said. Now Nway can remember -- and smile again. \"I was expecting a very different girl,\" Sitko said. \"The little girl I met was very confident. I think she's been really transformed by our experience.\"","highlights":"Girl who survives Myanmar cyclone pretends it never happened .\nCyclone survivor becomes known as 'the girl who refuses to remember'\nAid worker returns to Myanmar a year later to see the girl .\n\"I was expecting a very different girl,\" worker says .","id":"09219dd44d20f76a3d09330ee3a38d8566a32b64"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Environmentalists are encouraged by President Barack Obama's focus this week on renewable energy and stricter emissions standards, although some economists are skeptical he can pull the country out of the recession while cleaning up the planet. President Barack Obama with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. Obama must strike a careful balance between stimulating the economy in the coming months and investing in the long-term future of the environment, said Raj Chetty, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. \"If you spend money too quickly, you lose site of the long-term vision,\" Chetty told CNN. \"If you focus too much on the long term, you may not act on spending money.\" Framing his remarks with an eye on the recession, the president on Monday announced a plan for \"a new energy economy that will build millions of jobs.\" Obama proposes to put 460,000 Americans to work through clean energy investments, increasing fuel efficiency in vehicles and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By 2025, the Obama administration hopes one-fourth of the nation's energy will come from renewable sources. Over the long term, the president hopes to create millions of new jobs by investing $150 billion in taxpayer money to help private companies develop new sources of clean energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal power. It's about time, say scientists who often clashed with former President George W. Bush on environmental policy. \"By repowering our nation with clean energy, we will create millions of jobs that can't be sent overseas. By harnessing the energy of the sun and wind, we can refuel our nation and end our addiction to oil,\" said Wesley Warren, director of programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Environmental scholars, however, say the changes Obama seeks are not easy. \"These technologies are not new. They have been around for 10 to 15 years,\" said Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of Environment at Duke University. \"Government can push new policies, but it has to prove to be economically competitive or else it will not happen.\" \"It is going to require massive investments,\" said Joseph Romm, former acting assistant secretary of energy under the Clinton administration and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. \"The only question is, are we going to be the leader and export our technologies or a follower and continue importing our resources?\" Some economists question whether spending government money on new energy technologies is the best way to stimulate the economy in the short term. Opponents of Obama's proposals say renewable energy would be expensive, take up large amounts of land, and might not even be able to generate sufficient energy given the aging infrastructure of the nation's electric grid. \"If the private sector will not invest in these technologies, it will not be efficient,\" said Alan Reynolds, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. \"Creating jobs by switching from one form of energy to another is a bad idea,\" he added. \"You don't need subsidies for anything that is free. Getting a $7,000 rebate on a $100,000 plug-in electrical hybrid that gets its power from a coal plant doesn't make a lot of sense.\" Several events in Washington this week underscored the Obama administration's commitment to environmental issues. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday named a special envoy to pursue global agreements combating global warming. On Wednesday, former Vice President Al Gore urged Congress to approve Obama's stimulus package and said the United States needs to join international talks on a climate-change treaty. \"For years our efforts to address the climate crisis have been undermined by the idea that we must chose between our planet and our way of life, between our moral duty and economic well-being these are false choices,\" Gore told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. \"In fact, the solutions to the climate crisis are the same solutions that will address our economic and national crisis as well.\" Obama may have science on his side. By overwhelming consensus, scientists agree that our warming planet poses a greater global threat with every passing day. The replacement of current technology with energy generated from natural resources, such as sunlight and wind, could help reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. \"Frankly the science is screaming at us,\" said Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at Wednesday's hearing. \"Carbon dioxide emissions grew at a rate of four times faster in the Bush administration than they did in the 1990s.\" Even so, experts agree the faltering economy will complicate any discussion about investment in clean energy. \"The country is running two deficits,\" said David Orr, a professor of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College, \"the economy in the short term, which will take one to five years to figure out [and] the environment in the long term, which if we don't do anything about it will see catastrophic effects.\"","highlights":"Environmentalists are encouraged by President Obama's focus on renewable energy .\nSome economists are skeptical he can fix the economy and the planet at once .\nScholar: Obama can push new policies, but they must be economically competitive .\nPresident announced a plan for \"a new energy economy\" that will build jobs .","id":"b55dcb3597b2e3fd1ac54ffef3aa7ee0c2313ab7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea vowed Wednesday that it \"will take every necessary measure to protect its sovereignty\" in the midst of 12-day U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises. South Korean soldiers move into a building during a joint military exercise with U.S. troops in Pocheon Tuesday. \"These war exercises were kicked off by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet war-like forces across South Korea at a time when the inter-Korean relations have reached the worst phase and the situation has grown so tense that a war may break out (at) any moment due to the reckless policy of confrontation pursued by the South Korean conservative authorities,\" North Korea's official KCNA news agency said. Referring to \"war maneuvers\" and \"nuclear war exercises,\" a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said they were \"designed to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) in terms of their scale and contents from A to Z,\" according to KCNA. South Korea has defended the joint exercises. \"We have said several times that the U.S.-South Korean military exercises are annual defensive exercises,\" said Kim Ho-nyun, a Unification Ministry spokesman, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Monday. \"We again urge North Korea to maintain the agreed stance of mutual respect and to stop its verbal attacks and actions that are raising tensions on the Korean peninsula,\" he said. Tensions have ramped up in recent days, as North Korea threatened retaliation in the event of an interception of its \"satellite\" launch. U.S. and South Korean officials have said that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, under the guise of launching a satellite into space. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers), which -- if true -- could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii. On Saturday U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth said he wanted dialogue with North Korea, but he also spoke against North Korea's move to go forward with a launch, saying it would be \"ill-advised.\"","highlights":"N. Korean Foreign Ministry refers to U.S.-South Korean \"nuclear war exercises\"\nSouth Korea calls exercises \"annual defensive exercises,\" Yonhap reports .\nNorth Korea threatens retaliation in event \"satellite\" launch is intercepted .\nU.S., South Korea say North Korea appears to be prepping missile test firing .","id":"a51c303f37488320b6fe21b009a17ff79702ca4e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has expressed his \"deep concern\" and regret to Iraq's prime minister over the desecration of a Quran by an American soldier, the White House said Tuesday. President Bush called Nuri al-Maliki over the incident, al-Maliki's office says. The leaders are seen in September. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday in one of their regularly scheduled secure video teleconferences. \"President Bush expressed his deep concern over the incident and told Prime Minister Maliki that the soldier has been reprimanded by his commanders and removed from Iraq,\" Johndroe said. Al-Maliki's office on Tuesday said Bush issued an apology for the action on behalf of the United States and \"promised to present the soldier to the courts.\" The office said Bush made the apology in a call to al-Maliki on Tuesday morning. An American staff sergeant -- a sniper section leader -- used a Quran for target practice in Iraq earlier this month. The U.S. commander in Baghdad issued a formal apology Saturday and read a letter of apology by the shooter. Watch the U.S. military formally apologize \u00bb . The sergeant has been relieved of duty as a section leader \"with prejudice,\" officially reprimanded by his commanding general, dismissed from his regiment and redeployed -- reassigned to the United States, the U.S. military said. Reports of the Quran desecration have enraged Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere around the world. The soldier, whose name was not released, shot at a Quran on May 9, villagers said. The Quran used in the incident was discovered two days later, according to the military. A tribal leader said \"the criminal act by U.S. forces\" took place at a shooting range at the Radhwaniya police station on Baghdad's western outskirts. After the shooters left, an Iraqi policeman found a target marked in the middle of the bullet-riddled Quran. Pictures of the Quran show multiple bullet holes and an expletive scrawled on one of its pages. Officials said the soldier asserted he wasn't aware the book was the Quran, but U.S. officials rejected the claim. On Saturday, Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, appeared with leaders from Radhwaniya and apologized. \"I come before you here seeking your forgiveness,\" Hammond said to tribal leaders and others at the ceremony. \"In the most humble manner I look in your eyes today and I say please forgive me and my soldiers.\" Hammond also read a letter from the shooter, who called his actions \"shortsighted, very reckless and irresponsible,\" but he insisted he was not being malicious. \"I sincerely hope that my actions have not diminished the partnership that our two nations have developed together,\" the letter said. Hammond said the soldier's actions were tantamount to \"criminal behavior.\" \"I've come to this land to protect you, to support you -- not to harm you -- and the behavior of this soldier was nothing short of wrong and unacceptable,\" the general said. Another military official kissed a Quran and presented it as \"a humble gift\" to the tribal leaders. Many Iraqi leaders said the apology alone would not suffice. Watch villagers protest the desecration \u00bb . On Monday, the Iraqi Islamic Party, the movement of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, condemned what it said was a \"blatant assault on the sanctities of Muslims all over the world.\" The party said it reacted to the news \"with deep resentment and indignation\" and wants the \"severest of punishments\" for the action. \"What truly concerns us is the repetition of these crimes that have happened in the past when mosques were destroyed and pages of the holy Quran were torn and used for disgraceful acts by U.S. soldiers,\" al-Hashimi said. \"I have asked that first this apology be officially documented; second a guarantee from the U.S. military to inflict the maximum possible punishment on this soldier so it would be a deterrent for the rest of the soldiers in the future.\" CNN's Ed Henry and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nuri al-Maliki's office: President Bush \"promised to present the soldier to the courts\"\nAn American staff sergeant used a Quran for target practice .\nIraqi Islamic Party has demanded \"the severest of punishments\" for the soldier .","id":"6d20ba58865d331a2427971c1557a58969c9f62d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The negotiations are over. The treaty has been signed. The skies across the Atlantic are now open for free movement of flights between European and U.S. cities. Now the battle commences between airlines as they prepare for their new-found commercial freedom when the Open Skies agreement comes into action in March 2008. The choice of transatlantic routes is set to increases with the advent of the Open Skies agreement. The main beneficiaries of increased competition between airlines are likely to be business travelers. And while they may not see a dramatic reduction in ticket prices, they can look forward to a greater choice of flights from a greater number of airlines as well as an increase in business-only services. Airlines with the strongest brands and best quality products are likely to lure passengers away from European rivals by launching flights from other major European cities. British Airways has confirmed it will launch its first transatlantic flights from continental European cities once the agreement comes into place next year. And while it is not ready to confirm branding, types of aircraft, or even final routes, a BA spokesperson said likely contenders for new transatlantic routes will be from business destinations such as Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels and Milan. She also confirmed that, contrary to expectations, these flights would not be exclusively business class. Though they will offer premium cabins for business customers. Virgin Atlantic is expecting to place a greater focus on its business customers and has established a team to work towards the launch of business-only flights in 2009. These will fly from airports such as Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich and the airline is currently in discussion with Airbus and Boeing to place orders for between 10 and 15 aircraft. Virgin and BA are both confident they can entice customers away from European national carriers due to the strength of their brands and service offering. As Paul Charles, director of corporate communications at Virgin Atlantic says, \"we are seen as a truly global brand and well-placed to compete with the quality of business services currently coming out of cities such as Paris and Milan.\" Open Skies will put an end to the exclusive arrangement granted to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and American Airlines to fly transatlantic out of Heathrow. As a result, airlines including BMI, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines are all lined up to launch direct transatlantic flights from Heathrow from next year. But with the airport currently operating at almost-maximum capacity, it is likely that new flights will be limited. Airlines operating from other airports, in particular the new business-only players such as Eos, Silverjet and Maxje, will, however, see an opportunity to expand their own services across the Atlantic. Joshua Marks, executive vice president for planning and development at U.S. business-class airline, Maxjet, says it expects to \"strengthen its position at Stansted\" as a result of the Open Skies agreement. \"With more flights moving from Gatwick to Heathrow, three major airports will become two in London.\" As such, he adds, Stansted could become the default airport for travelers coming from and to the east of the city. Now that the U.S. Department of Transport has given approval for Maxjet to launch flights from Stansted to other countries with open skies agreements with the U.S., business travelers in London should also be able to pick up Maxjet flights to destinations such as India. Maxjet has confirmed that it will not fight for slots at Heathrow, which Marks says has become an \"operational nightmare.\" Yet, other premium-only services are not ruling out the move. Silverjet, currently operating out of Luton, has been in discussion with (un-named) airlines interested in striking deals to launch flights out of Heathrow. Opportunities have been offered for flights to U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, says Lawrence Hunt, Silverjet's chief executive. \"This is an ongoing dialogue,\" he says. But before they make the move, they would need to see major changes to facilities at Heathrow in order for it to offer the \"personalized, discreet and carefree\" travel experience Silverjet offers customers from Luton. \"Heathrow has become a zoo and the customer experience has become appalling,\" he says. Airline executives agree that growth in transatlantic flights as a result of the Open Skies agreement will be aimed at business customers. As Hunt says, airlines have little else to offer, or gain, in terms of economy long-haul seats. And as Charles at Virgin points out, given the success of the new business-only entrants and the simultaneous ongoing demand for its business class seats, \"there's clearly a market out there for business-only flights.\" While there may be some softening of prices from Heathrow as airlines fight for slots, few expect prices for business travelers to drop dramatically as a result of the Open Skies agreement. As BA's spokesperson says, UK to North America is already a very competitive market. \"It is not as if we are moving from a monopoly,\" she says. Despite this, there is still a great deal to offer business customers and those that will make the most of the opportunity, says Anthony Concil, spokesperson from IATA, will be the most innovative. \"We have created a new playing field and it is up to players to make the most of that and for governments to take the agreement forward towards further liberalization.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Open Skies agreement lifts restrictions on transatlantic air services .\nBritish Airways and Virgin will launch flights from European capitals .\nBusiness-only services set to expand across London airports .","id":"87dd80705d5fb453b6c0e186c5906ebd359726d3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United Nations has sent police and military patrols to a camp in western Sudan after reports fighting there killed civilians, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday. A file photo of refugees queuing for food in the Kalma camp in western Sudan. Aid groups have started evacuating wounded from the Kalma camp, home to 80,000 internally displaced people in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The U.N. said it received reports that Sudanese police vehicles surrounded the camp and that civilians were killed Monday during subsequent attacks inside the camp. The U.N. African Union Mission in Darfur \"is extremely concerned by this serious incident [and the] circumstances will be investigated,\" the mission said in a statement. \"It is closely monitoring the situation and [calls] on all parties to exercise restraint.\" A spokesman for the mission, Noureddine Nezni, said Tuesday the Dutch wing of Medecins Sans Frontieres had evacuated 47 wounded people who were being treated at a nearby hospital. Some of them -- mostly young men -- refused to be evacuated for fear of being arrested for having participated in the fighting, Nezni said. Nezni would not say how many people were killed in the Monday attacks. \"There are many figures being thrown around and we hesitate to give any numbers before we are sure,\" he said. \"We are still checking and hopefully we will have the correct figure late today.\" The Sudanese government said it entered the camp to look for \"huge quantities of arms and criminals,\" Nezni said. The U.N. African Union Mission in Darfur said it sent police and military patrols to Kalma to confirm the details of the incident and provide assistance. Nezni added that the mission and some aid groups were in talks with refugees at the camp to find a lasting solution to the problems. Fighting has displaced more than two million Sudanese -- and more than 238,000 refugees live in camps across the border in eastern Chad, the U.N. says. They have been displaced by fighting that broke out in 2003, when rebels began an uprising in Darfur and the government launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign. The Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the U.N., Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw strength. In the past five years, an estimated 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease, or malnutrition, the U.N. says. Another 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces, and allied Janjaweed militias. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last month for the campaign of violence in Darfur. CNN's Eunice Mafundikwa contributed to this report.","highlights":"United Nations sends police and military patrols to a camp in western Sudan .\nMove prompted by reports of fighting which killed civilians .\n47 wounded people evacuated for treatment at a nearby hospital .","id":"13599e214ff83f1bbae0e76778bd4f41ab394241"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 200 people have died of meningitis in the past week alone in Niger and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. A health care worker vaccinates a child during an earlier outbreak of meningitis in Niger. The disease is an epidemic in 76 areas of the two countries, the health agency reported Wednesday. A spokesman for W.H.O. in Nigeria, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, said Saturday that the outbreak is bigger than usual and stretches across the African meningitis belt from east- to west-sub-Saharan Africa. The outbreak began around the start of the year, Soyinka told CNN. It usually peaks in the dry season because of dust, winds and cold nights, before dipping around May when the rains come, he said. A shortage of vaccines means officials are relying on \"effective prevention,\" in which they watch for outbreaks and then vaccinate people in the epicenter and surrounding areas, Soyinka told CNN. There have been nearly 25,000 suspected cases and more than 1,500 deaths in the meningitis belt in the first 11 weeks of the year, W.H.O. reported. More than 85 percent of those cases happened in northern Nigeria and Niger. Nigeria's Ministry of Health has reported 17,462 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 960 deaths, the world health agency said. In the past week, it reported 4,164 suspected cases with 171 deaths. Sixty-six local government areas in Nigeria have crossed the epidemic threshold. Epidemic thresholds are a way the W.H.O. confirms the emergence of an epidemic so it can step up vaccinations and other management measures. Niger's Ministry of Health has reported 4,513 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 169 deaths, since the start of the year. In the past week, 1,071 suspected cases and 30 deaths have been reported, the W.H.O. said. Ten of Niger's 42 districts have crossed the epidemic threshold. By comparison, other countries are reporting fewer than 50 cases a week. Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. Several different bacteria can cause meningitis but Neisseria meningitidis -- which is to blame for this outbreak -- is one of the most significant because of its potential to cause epidemics. Health authorities have released 2.3 million doses of vaccine to Nigeria and 1.9 million doses to Niger, the W.H.O. said. CNN's Christian Purefoy in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.","highlights":"W.H.O.: Meningitis killed more than 200 people in the past week in Niger and Nigeria .\nOutbreak stretches across African \"meningitis belt,\" at epidemic levels in 76 areas .\nVaccine shortage forces an \"effective prevention\" approach .\n25,000 suspected cases, 1,500 deaths in the belt in the first 11 weeks of 2009 .","id":"89e56412fad6436b08988d0dbf8e33cc90a28fb3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of people packed a soccer stadium in Cameroon Thursday, including President Paul Biya and his wife, for the first large-scale mass of Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to Africa. Tens of thousands of people gathered at a football stadium in Cameroon to see the pope. Africa is the last continent that Benedict had left to visit, and one he could not avoid, said David Gibson, a biographer of the pope. \"He knows he has to do this. He knows Africa is the future of the (Roman Catholic) Church, as it is for all of Christianity,\" said Gibson. Christianity, like Islam, is on the rise in Africa and Latin America, even as the northern hemisphere tends to become more secular.\" One in five of the world's Christians lives in Africa -- up from less than one in fifty in 1900, said Brian Grim, an editor of the World Religion Database. So Benedict is making the visit although travel \"is not his cup of tea,\" Gibson said. \"John Paul II loved the travel and loved the different cultures. Benedict is a European through and through.\" Watch the pope at the soccer stadium \u00bb . But Benedict understands that travel has become an essential part of a pope's duties, said Gibson, the author of \"The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World.\" Benedict drew cheers at the mass at the 40,000-seat Amadou Ahidjo Stadium when he told worshippers that God had not forgotten orphans, poor and abused children, and those \"forced to join paramilitary forces,\" Cameroon TV reported. He did not mention condoms, a subject which sparked controversy when he reiterated the Vatican's opposition to artificial birth control Monday while flying to Cameroon. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it. The pope's mention of birth control may have been an effort to draw attention to the trip, which \"is not getting much of a bounce in the Western media,\" Gibson speculated. \"They are savvy enough to know that if the pope mentions condoms, it is going to be a headline,\" he said of the pontiff's advisers. The issue did not come up by chance, he pointed out. \"These were pre-selected questions for which they had prepared answers,\" he said. The pope also Thursday met local Muslim leaders in Cameroon, a west African country which is just over one-quarter Roman Catholic and just under one-quarter Muslim. Both religions are expanding rapidly in Africa, said Grim, a senior research fellow in religion and world affairs at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Less than one in ten people in sub-Saharan Africa was Christian in 1900. Today nearly six in ten are, he said. The region was about 14 percent Muslim at the beginning of the 20th century, he said, and about 30 percent Muslim now. Benedict outraged Muslim leaders around the world in 2006 by quoting the 15th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus when he said, \"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.\" He repeatedly apologized for the citation, which he said did not reflect his own views. \"It was a painful lesson but clearly the pope learned something from that,\" Gibson said. The pope's meeting Muslim leaders in person can help relations between the Church and Islam, the analyst added. Face-to-face encounters make \"the pope a human figure. That's what these trips are really about -- to see that the pope is not the boogeyman, he is someone who is kind and wise and wants to discuss issues. \"It's so easy to see caricatures, so for the pope simply to show up can be an enormously positive development,\" Gibson said. Gibson said this week's visit may be Benedict's only trip to Africa. \"Knowing that the pope is older, he cannot travel as much -- he does not like to travel -- makes these trips more poignant. He may never come back to Africa again.\"","highlights":"Tens of thousands of people pack soccer stadium in Cameroon for pope's mass .\nPope tells followers that God has not forgotten orphans, poor and abused .\nHe did not mention condoms after sparking controversy earlier in the week .","id":"8df3cd25d50728abbc4016d951829a0cf56810ea"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Prosecutors dropped corruption charges Monday against South Africa's ruling party president Jacob Zuma, who is expected to win the presidential race later this month. Jacob Zuma is expected to win the country's upcoming presidential election. The leader of the African National Congress had been charged with more than 700 counts of corruption and fraud. The charges, which were linked to a multibillion dollar arms deal in the country, were dropped after eight years of investigations. Zuma, who was named one of Time's Most Influential People in 2008, is favored to win the country's next presidential elections scheduled for April 22. He served as deputy president of South Africa from 1999 until he was fired in 2005 by President Thabo Mbeki over his alleged involvement in a bribery scandal. Opposition parties are accusing prosecutors of buckling under pressure from the ruling party. Mokotedi Mpshe, head of the National Prosecuting Authority, disagreed. \"An intolerable abuse has occurred,\" Mpshe said after reading transcripts of telephone conversations between two prosecution chiefs who appear to be planning to charge Zuma before ANC party elections. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report .","highlights":"Jacob Zuma is president of the ANC, the most powerful party in South Africa .\nHe is widely predicted to win the presidential vote, expected to take place in April .\nZuma has denied claims of accepting bribes, money laundering, among others .\nOpposition parties accuse prosecutors of buckling under pressure .","id":"1dd94dd767d0fe671d8414cb3107eac3b5cc052f"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The backstage gossip at recent fashion shows wouldn't be complete without rampant speculation about who is likely to replace esteemed American Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour. Vogue editors Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld at AmfAR's 10th Annual New York Gala in January 2008. Wintour has yet to announce any plans to retire but her advancing age -- she's 60 this year -- has stoked speculation that after more than 20 years in the role it might be time to leave. One name touted as a possible replacement is Carine Roitfeld, the highly respected editor in chief of Vogue Paris. Read more about Carine Roitfeld . Roitfeld is accustomed to the speculation, describing it as \"frustrating.\" She told CNN she hadn't been offered the job and even if she was she probably wouldn't take it. \"It's a bit like for an actor. Do you want to go to Hollywood or do you want to stay here in Paris and do the cinema I like to do?,\" Roitfeld said. \"I think I prefer to stay here in Paris.\" Watch Carine Roitfeld Revealed . A fixture at the U.S. title since 1988, Wintour has a fearsome reputation, mostly courtesy of the 2006 film starring Meryl Streep, \"The Devil Wears Prada.\" The film is based on a book penned by a former assistant at American Vogue who has denied suggestions Wintour was the inspiration for the demanding and odious lead character. Roitfeld is anxious not to create any friction between her and her U.S. counterpart, telling CNN \"I think Anna does a great job... I think she's a great person.\" She said she would be honored to be asked to fill Wintour's shoes, but pointed out that \"it's a very different job.\" \"I'm very happy at French Vogue to be able to do everything -- almost everything -- I want in the magazine,\" she said. \"It would be too political at American Vogue for me. And I'm not sure I'm talking enough good English to work there.\" At Vogue Paris, Roitfeld knows her readers. They are a select group of incredibly stylish and wealthy women who are thrilled rather than alienated by unconventional ideas. The best-selling edition so far, in August 2003, featured French actress Sophie Marceau on the cover smoking a cigarette. At French Vogue, there's less pressure to appeal to the masses. Its circulation of some 139,000 is dwarfed by the million plus readers of American Vogue. Fashion shoots are about fantasy. There's no imperative to make any clothes they feature wearable. If it's unusual and innovative, then it's in. With just 25 staff, Roitfeld describes the team at French Vogue as like a family. And that's how she prefers it. Having said that, she told CNN she wouldn't dismiss any offer out of hand. \"Of course I would consider it because it would be ridiculous not to consider such a huge position -- in terms of money and in terms of power,\" she said. \"But I'm very happy. It's very much a small team (in Paris). America is a huge team. I know because I've worked for them before. I think it's not for me.\"","highlights":"Style icon Anna Wintour is rumored to be leaving American Vogue in 2009 .\nVogue Paris Editor in Chief Carine Roitfeld touted as a possible replacement .\nRoitfeld told CNN: \"I think I prefer to stay here in Paris... I'm very happy\"","id":"7eb1c661b8827c901d878c5bca001e2a342c299c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven members of a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping patrol have been killed by a heavily armed militia group in Sudan's Darfur region, the U.N. said. Peacekeepers drive into a Sudanese refugee camp near Farchana, east of Chad. Five of those killed were Rwandan, a U.N. peacekeeping official said, and the other two were a Ugandan and a Ghanaian. Twenty-two others were wounded in the attack, which was immediately condemned by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. \"The attackers used heavy weapons and engaged the UNAMID convoy in an exchange of fire for more than two hours,\" according to the statement released by Ban's spokesman. UNAMID is the acronym for the U.N.-AU mission in Darfur. The peacekeepers are allowed to used force when fired upon directly. \"The secretary-general condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence against AU-U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur and calls on the government of Sudan to do its utmost to ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly identified and brought to justice,\" the statement said. \"The secretary-general expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the peacekeepers who lost their lives, and reiterates his appreciation for their service, valor and commitment to the search for peace in Darfur.\" The ambush happened around 2:45 p.m. (1145 GMT) in northern Darfur. The rescue mission did not take place until after dark, she said. The peacekeepers who were attacked operated out of Shangil Tobayi -- a base to the west of El Fasher. In five years of war the U.N. says more than four million people have been affected: Two-and-a-half million people forced from their homes and more than 300,000 killed. Sudanese officials dispute those numbers claiming only 10,000 have died -- a number they say is normal for five years of war. U.S. President George W. Bush calls the killings genocide and has put sanctions on Sudan. The U.N. says Sudan's government is guilty of crimes against humanity and of violating international human rights laws every bit as heinous and serious they say as genocide. In February 2008, a fresh wave of killing forced 58,000 people to flee their homes as government troops and Janjaweed militiamen retaliated against rebels. A U.N. report said Sudan broke international law as 115 innocent civilians were killed using tactics similar to those employed in 2003, 2004, the worst years of the war. Peacekeepers are frequently targeted by militias in Darfur, where they are trying to protect civilians from \"janjaweed\" militias -- nomadic Arab militias, supported by Sudan's government, which target pastoral black Africans. Ten African Union peacekeepers were killed in October in an ambush on their peacekeeping base -- the deadliest single attack on AU peacekeepers since they began their mission in late 2004. A U.N. commission concluded in 2005 that the Sudanese government and militias \"conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement\" in Darfur. In 2006, the U.N. Security Council authorized the creation of the joint AU\/U.N. hybrid force of peacekeepers to protect civilians in Darfur. That hybrid force formally took over peacekeeping duties late last year from the force composed solely of members of the African Union. Yet the force is under-manned as a result of the Sudanese government's opposition to a U.N. presence, with just over 9,500 troops of an authorized strength of 26,000.","highlights":"U.N.: Seven peacekeepers, including five Rwandans, killed and 22 wounded .\nAttack immediately condemned by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon .\nIn five years of war U.N. says more than 4 million people have been affected .","id":"68eb471ce36b8597f11dc57ac6ce189b80a137ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prince William has spoken in depth publicly for the first time about death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, 12 years ago, saying \"mummy\" is now a hollow word \"evoking only memories.\" Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris car crash 12 years ago. Prince William was only 15 and his brother Prince Harry 12 when Diana died in a Paris car crash along with Dodi Fayed in 1997. The Prince made the comment Thursday during a speech to mark his new role as patron of Britain's Child Bereavement Charity -- a group his mother was once involved with. The British Press Association reported that he told the launch of the charity's Mother's Day campaign: \"My mother Diana was present at your launch 15 years ago, and I am incredibly proud to be able to continue her support for your fantastic charity, by becoming your royal patron. \"What my mother recognized then -- and what I understand now -- is that losing a close family member is one of the hardest experiences that anyone can ever endure. \"Never being able to say the word 'Mummy' again in your life sounds like a small thing. Tell us what you think about Prince William's moving comments . \"However, for many, including me, it's now really just a word -- hollow and evoking only memories. \"I can therefore wholeheartedly relate to the Mother's Day campaign as I too have felt -- and still feel -- the emptiness on such a day as Mother's Day.\" Listen to Prince William discuss his mother. \u00bb . The charity wants to raise awareness of the problems suffered by mothers bereaved of a child or children bereaved of their mother. Based in Buckinghamshire, a region west of London, it educates professionals and supports families after a death. Writing in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper about his new role, the Prince said the reality of losing a child or parent was \"awful.\" \"Initially, there is a sense of profound shock and disbelief that this could ever happen to you. Real grief often does not hit home until much later. \"For many it is a grief never entirely lost. Life is altered as you know it, and not a day goes past without you thinking about the one you have lost.\" Mother's Day in the UK always falls on the fourth weekend of Lent, and this year is on March 22. Earlier this week France's leading society magazine, Point de Vue, reported that the Prince would marry his long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton, this summer. The magazine claimed an official announcement was \"imminent.\"","highlights":"Prince William says he feels \"emptiness\" every Mother's Day .\nHis mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris car crash 12 years ago .\nPrince: \"For many, including me, [Mummy is] now really just a word\"","id":"248c7706d2f5e52ea724974f031981399ba34d8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The future of Detroit is electric cars, the governor of Michigan declared in an opinion piece on Newsweek's Web site. The Chevy Volt is one of the electric cars being developed by Michigan's auto industry. \"In Michigan, we are doing everything we can to become the home of this new electric auto industry -- and to the jobs this industry will create,\" wrote Gov. Jennifer Granholm. \"Again, the road to a stronger future for our country will begin in Michigan.\" She said that for automakers, replacing the 100-year-old internal-combustion engine is both \"revolutionary and daunting.\" Ann Marie Sastry, director of the energy systems engineering program at the University of Michigan, said the industry will have to take risks and government support will be essential. \"Gov. Granholm is doing exactly what we all hope our elected officials will do -- she is supporting partnerships and growth in critical economic areas,\" Sastry said. \"She's enunciated a vision for clean vehicles that builds our regional economy and provides global, sustainable transportation solutions. \"We understand that these investments will take time to reach profitability, but these are hard problems, and they are worth investment and risk. The risk of doing nothing is much, much greater. I'm glad she is making the case for Michigan.\" Granholm said all of Detroit's Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- are working on electric vehicles. \"General Motors plans to make lithium-ion battery packs to power the Chevy Volt, which is expected to earn a fuel-economy rating of more than 100 mpg,\" she wrote. \"... As Ford celebrates the sale of the 100,000th hybrid Escape, it is preparing for the introduction of a full line of new hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Chrysler, too, is electrifying its product lines.\" Sastry said she couldn't be more delighted with GM's plans for the Volt as a \"truly mass-marketed electrified drive train using electric technology.\" In 2008, GM sold 14,439 hybrid vehicles, according to a statement from the company. \"These companies are serious about transforming themselves and transforming us into a nation less reliant on foreign oil,\" Granholm wrote. Sastry said public opinion toward energy conservation is a major factor in the companies being willing to take the risk of creating the new types of cars. \"These very large companies are placing a bet on the future in no small measure because of the American public's change in attitude toward it,\" she said. In her commentary, Granholm referred to President Barack Obama's plan, announced in February, to direct $2 billion from the economic stimulus package into technology aimed at putting 1 million American-made, plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. Sastry said it's hard to predict when something of that scale will happen -- many industry experts disagree on an exact time -- but it will happen. \"Keep in mind, several industries have to work together to make this happen,\" she said.","highlights":"Gov. Jennifer Granholm says auto industry's future is electric .\nUniversity of Michigan expert agrees Big Three need to move to electric cars .\nPublic opinion on energy conservation is pushing the move, expert says .","id":"a19a6007ab06d56d0af598578e760d11e58c2ddc"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A well-known Iranian filmmaker has written an open letter calling for the release of journalist Roxana Saberi. In a letter, Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi blames himself for urging Roxana Saberi to stay in Iran. Bahman Ghobadi said he kept quiet about the arrest and conviction of the Iranian-American journalist at the request of her family. After Saberi was convicted last weekend and sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence, he said he felt he had to do something. He told CNN that Saberi, whom he described as his fiancee, is caught in a \"game of politics.\" In his letter, which has been posted by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Ghobadi blames himself for urging Saberi to stay in Iran despite her desire to leave. Also, he writes, \"My letter is a desperate call to all statesmen ... and to all those who can do something to help.\" \"From the other side of the ocean, the Americans have protested against her imprisonment, because she is an American citizen,\" he writes. \"But I say no, she is Iranian, and she loves Iran. I beg you, let her go! I beg you not to throw her in the midst of your political games! She is too weak and too pure to take part in your games. Let me be present at her trial, sit next to her wise father and gentle mother, and testify she is without guilt or reproach.\" The 40-year-old filmmaker said that Saberi was planning to leave the country, but he kept her from leaving until his latest film -- which will be shown at this year's Cannes film festival -- was completed. Ghobadi won the 2000 Golden Camera award at the Cannes festival for his feature film, \"A Time for Drunken Horses.\" Saberi, 31, was sentenced Saturday to eight years in prison after a one-day trial that was closed to the public. The decision prompted sharp denunciations from President Barack Obama, as well as other U.S. and international officials. Iranian officials initially said Saberi was held for buying a bottle of wine. The Foreign Ministry later said she was detained for reporting without proper accreditation. On April 9, word emerged that Saberi had been charged with espionage. Saberi's lawyer has said he will appeal the verdict. Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi has ordered the head of Tehran's Justice Department to make sure the appeals process is quick and fair. Ghobadi wrote that he is \"optimistic about her release, and I firmly hope the verdict will be canceled in the next stage of the trial.\" \"My Iranian girl with Japanese eyes and an American ID, is in jail. Shame on me! Shame on us!\" CNN's Igor Krotov and Shirzad Bozorghmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi writes letter calling for release of jailed journalist .\nFilmmaker says fiancee Roxana Saberi is caught in a \"game of politics\"\nJournalist \"is without guilt or reproach,\" filmmaker's letter says .\n\"Shame on me! Shame on us!\" the letter concludes .","id":"20cbc842a0a4652f894116f1dc8a7a3b42e9cf0a"} -{"article":"Tokyo is a huge and often confusing city for travelers, but with these tips you needn't be daunted by the Japanese capital. 100 Yen shops are great value for money. Subway Tokyo has an incredibly efficient subway, but the 13 lines are run by two different companies, Toei Subways and Tokyo Metro, meaning a bewildering variety of day passes are available. A good bet is the Toei and Tokyo Metro One-Day Economy Pass, which costs \u00a51,000 and gives you a day of unlimited travel on all subway lines. During rush-hour the subway becomes an unbearable crush. All social niceties go out the window in a free for all that's best avoided completely. Taxis During the day traffic can be gridlocked, but in the evening, when traffic is lighter, taxis are reasonably alternative to the subway. Enter and exit taxis by the back left-hand door. Don't make the novice's error of trying to open or close the door -- your white-gloved driver will do that from the front seat. Ideally, have a map of your destination, or at least an address written in Japanese. Tipping is not expected. ATMs Although Tokyo is ultra-modern, you may have to revert to carrying travelers' checks for the duration of your stay. Few ATMs accept foreign cards, although you should have more luck at post offices and branches of Citibank. ATMs in busy areas stay open until 9 p.m. and most are closed at weekends, although Citibank has 24-hour ATMs. Credit cards are still not accepted as widely as you might expect, so travelers' checks are your best bet -- and make sure you're carrying cash if you're planning a night out away from the city center. What's on The best way to keep up with events and entertainment is with one of Tokyo's English language magazines. Metropolis and Tokyo Notice Board are two of the best -- and they're both free. 100 Yen shops These bargain stores are hugely popular in Tokyo, selling everything from food to toiletries for \u00a5100 plus \u00a55 tax -- about $1. They are also a great place to pick up an inexpensive, kitschy souvenir. Daiso 100-Yen Shop in Takeshita-dori (Village 107 Building, 1-19-24 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku) has four floors of cheap thrills. Etiquette As a foreigner, having a generally courteous demeanor will cover a multitude of sins, but there are a few rules you should try to remember: . - Never use your chopsticks to take food from someone else's and don't stick your chopsticks upright in your food when you've finished -- both of these denote funerary customs. - If you're eating with other people, don't pour your own drink. Fill your neighbor's glass and wait for them to reciprocate. - The Japanese don't pour sauces onto their rice. Leave any sauces in their serving dish and dip your food in lightly. - It's a faux pas be seen eating in public -- especially on a train. And blowing your nose in public is an absolute no-no. .................................. What are your tips for a great stay in Tokyo? Where have you found the \"real\" Tokyo? Send us your suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best.","highlights":"Tokyo has a fantastic subway system -- just don't use it during rush hour .\nFew ATMs accept foreign cards, so you should take travelers' checks .\n100 Yen shops are hugely popular in Tokyo and are great value for money .","id":"0cc1922056d969b090b3e0a0b64c2ade332feea3"} -{"article":"ROCKVILLE, Maryland (CNN) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced it is blocking the import from China of five species of seafood until their importers can prove they are not contaminated. About 10 percent of catfish eaten in the U.S. comes from China, according to the National Fisheries Institute. \"FDA is initiating an import alert against several species of imported Chinese farmed seafood because of numerous cases of contamination with drugs and unsafe food additives,\" said Dr. David Acheson, the agency's assistant commissioner for food protection, in a conference call with reporters. The species cited are catfish, eel, shrimp, basa and dace, he said. Basa is similar to catfish; dace is similar to carp. The medications cited include the antimicrobials nitrofuran, malachite green, gentian violet and fluoroquinolones. Nitrofuran, malachite green, and gentian violet have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Use of fluoroquinolones in food-producing animals can result in antibiotic resistance. None of them is approved for use in farmed seafood in the United States and some of them have been shown to cause cancer when fed to laboratory animals for \"prolonged periods of time,\" Acheson said. Alerts have been issued in the past, but Thursday's announcement is the largest. The food will not be allowed into the United States until the importer can prove it is free from harmful contaminants, Acheson said. He said the agency decided to broaden its previous alerts for products from individual companies to a countrywide alert after tests showed that 15 percent of those species of seafood produced by 18 companies in China contained traces of one or more of the contaminants. \"FDA is taking this action to protect the public health of the American people,\" he said. Watch more on the FDA's import alert on five kinds of fish from China. \u00bb . The products \"could cause serious health problems if consumed over a long period of time,\" he said. Still, Acheson added, the low levels of contaminants means that there is \"no imminent threat\" to the public health. China is the world's largest producer of farmed fish, accounting for 70 percent of the total produced, he said. It is the third-largest exporter of farmed fish to the United States. The action is an import alert, which means that these products from Chinese processors \"will be detained and refused entry into the United States until the importer can demonstrate that the product is safe and in compliance with applicable regulations,\" said Margaret O' K. Glavin, FDA's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. Last year, the FDA slapped a countrywide alert on all Chinese eel after tests showed residues of an antimicrobial agent, she said. Since then, and \"despite extensive communications between FDA and appropriate Chinese authorities to correct the problem, we have continued to find residues of certain veterinary drugs or food additives that are not permitted for use in the United States,\" she added. Glavin said the FDA inspects 5 percent of seafood from China. The first alert on Chinese seafood occurred before 2001, she said. \"We're not asking for this product to be withdrawn from the market or for people to take this out of their freezers and throw it away,\" Acheson said. \"This is a long-term health concern; it is not an acute health concern.\" China is not the sole offender, Glavin said. Import alerts have been ordered for firms in the Philippines, Mexico \"and several others,\" though this is the first countrywide import alert, she said. More than 80 percent of shrimp eaten in the United States is imported, including 7 percent from China, according to the National Fisheries Institute. About 10 percent of catfish eaten in the United States comes from China, the seafood industry advocacy group said. Last year, the United States imported 590,299 metric tons of shrimp from abroad; 68,150 metric tons of which came from China, according to the Department of Commerce. The United States imported $1.2 billion of fish from China in 2004, according to H. M. Johson & Associates, a seafood industry research group. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"FDA blocks import of shrimp, catfish, eel, basa and dace from China .\nFish won't be allowed until importers prove they are safe .\nThe fish were treated with antibiotics and antifungal medication .\nThe antibiotics are not allowed in U.S. fish .","id":"ae7373ae67da31f417d0f3599c9ce5c7c92b67e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tokyo was known as Edo until 1868, but it's hard to imagine that this high-rise, high-tech metropolis could possibly have existed in a time before electricity and concrete. Tokyo isn't just a futuristic city; it's the place that has shaped our vision of what the future will look like. In Tokyo, the future is a long-standing tradition. There's a sci-fi familiarity to areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara; the skyscrapers glowing with illuminated signs, subway stops inside shopping malls and taxis with automated doors could be straight out of \"Blade Runner\" or \"The Fifth Element.\" But the space-age topography of Tokyo has been shaped by a history of catastrophe. In the 20th century alone Tokyo suffered earthquakes, fires and devastating bombing. The result is a city that has repeatedly been forced to rebuild, shedding its past with each successive redevelopment. In Tokyo, the future is a long-standing tradition. After centuries of expansion, Tokyo has grown vertically to accommodate its 12 million residents. Perhaps the inevitability of another catastrophic earthquake accounts for the lack of emotional attachment to the city's architecture; buildings are continuously being pulled down and replaced, creating the sensation that Tokyo's skyline is a permanent work in progress. While it can seem that the city is intent on stream rolling over its past, you can still see traces of old Edo. The Meiji Jingu Shrine tells of the city's Shinto heritage and there's something timeless about the charming chaos of Tsukiji Fish Market. Even the enduring formalities of Tokyo's social etiquette and the joy with which Tokyoites greet the coming of the cherry blossom are signs that the city maintains a lingering affection for its traditions. At first glance, Tokyoites may seem sober and industrious, efficiently going about the business of making their city a world capital of techno commerce, but shops filled with manga comics and anime DVDs hint at a desire to escape the obligations of real life. That appetite for escapism is most colorfully expressed in the phenomenon of \"cosplay\", which sees teenagers dress as characters from cartoons and comic strips, or in the outlandish uniforms of various distinctive subcultures. In the 80s, Japan's bubble economy created unsustainable growth in Tokyo and property prices in the capital went through the roof. When the bubble burst in the early 90s, Tokyo was hit particularly hard but, after years of recession, Tokyo has the buzz of a city regaining its confidence. For this endlessly fascinating city, it's back to business -- and back to the future.","highlights":"Known as Edo until 1868, Tokyo has been shaped by a history of disasters .\nThere's a sci-fi familiarity to areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara .\nThere are still traces of traditional Tokyo, such as at the Meiji Jingu Shrine .","id":"3a1158fac120dc69e73d002402d144e550246a0c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Danielle Dayton and Patrick Murray received the call Saturday afternoon: Their 4-pound son, Brayden Murray, was shipping out. Patrick Murray and Danielle Dayton say their tiny son's evacuation went smoothly. As coastal hospitals prepared for Gustav, tiny babies in the Newborn Intensive Care Units were among the first to be evacuated. \"The NICU babies are our first priority when it comes to evacuation,\" said Keith Darcey, a spokesman for East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, Louisiana, where Brayden was a patient before being evacuated to Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, Lousiana. Woman's Hospital started receiving phone calls Wednesday from coastal-area hospitals inquiring whether there was room in their NICU, spokeswoman Jodi Conachen said. By Sunday evening, the hospital was taking care of 32 evacuated babies. \"The hospitals started preparing early this time,\" she said. \"They learned their lesson from Katrina.\" The babies have done well since arriving in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said Darcy Gann, director of the NICU at Woman's Hospital. \"They act like they were barely affected by the transfer.\" The babies arrived by ambulance without their parents. Dayton and Murray drove to Baton Rouge to join their son after dropping off their 7-year-old daughter, Breanne, to stay with relatives far from the storm. While the couple took care of their children, they had a friend board up their business in Metairie. \"You have to deal with it the best you can. You can't panic, because it doesn't do anyone any good,\" Murray said. \"You do what's best for the baby.\" Although Murray said Brayden's evacuation went smoothly, one hospital administrator said the patient evacuation process had been \"incredibly frustrating.\" Watch part of the NICU evacuation \u00bb . \"There was at least a six- to eight-hour delay in evacuating the babies,\" said Dr. Kevin Jordan, chief medical officer of Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, which sent seven NICU babies to Woman's Hospital. \"It was very, very, very disorganized.\" Jordan blamed the state office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. He said Touro is still waiting to evacuate four critically ill adult patients on ventilators. \"It's been incredibly frustrating,\" he said. The secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said each hospital is responsible for evacuating its own patients, adding that Touro asked for assistance Sunday morning, days after other hospitals had asked for help. \"It's never a perfect process,\" he said. \"It's never easy to evacuate thousands of people in 48 hours.\" Touro, which usually has between 215 and 245 patients, has evacuated all but around 65 to 70, he added. \"The sickest of the sick patients we're keeping and sheltering in place,\" Jordan said. \"We're concerned that evacuating them could do significant harm.\" Other hospitals took a different approach. East Jefferson evacuated only its three NICU babies, keeping its 210 adult patients in the hospital. \"We survived Katrina quite well and learned a lot from the experience,\" Darcey said, adding that since Katrina, the exterior of the hospital has been fortified. \"But you don't want to take any chances with the little babies,\" he added. \"Their temperatures have to be very carefully regulated, and if the air conditioning goes out, that could have a detrimental effect on their health.\"","highlights":"Sick newborn babies among first evacuate area, as Gustav approaches .\nTouro Infirmary, sent seven NICU babies to Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge .\n\"It was very, very, very disorganized,\" says Touro's chief medical officer .","id":"7c571ef803503ece05d0bc2ccc2da31841af9df6"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of refugees on Wednesday blocked a main road in northwest Pakistan, to protest living conditions for some of the 1.5 million Pakistanis forced to flee their homes in the past three weeks. The refugee situation in Pakistan could be a bigger threat than fighting with Taliban, U.N. says. \"The government has been making big promises, but none of those were ever fulfilled,\" said Hazrat Bilal, a protester and refugee whose family has taken up temporary residence in a primary school. The refugees had blocked the main road in Pakistan's Mardan district since 8 a.m. Wednesday, Bilal said by telephone. The demonstrators were demanding food, water and other government services, he said. Mardan is a main transit point for the large numbers of Pakistanis fleeing the Swat Valley, the site of fierce fighting between Taliban militants and Pakistani soldiers. The first pictures from the fighting \u00bb . The refugee crisis could pose a bigger threat to stability in Pakistan than the war itself, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told CNN while touring a refugee camp in the nearby Swabi district last week. The Pakistani government has been working with international aid agencies to establish camps for refugees, where tents, food, water and basic medical services are provided. But the scale and speed of the displacement -- said to be the worst since the Rwandan genocide in 1994 -- have overwhelmed aid workers, Guterres said. \"The scale of the problem is such that all our resources combined cannot cope with it. And it's very important for this population not to feel abandoned,\" Guterres said. \"Without massive support of the international community for the Pakistani people, this will become a very dramatic problem, and not only a humanitarian problem.\" On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced $110 million in humanitarian aid for Pakistani refugees. She also unveiled a system that lets Americans donate to the U.N. refugee effort, by sending a text message on mobile phone, including the word \"Swat.\" Meanwhile, Pakistan's military said it was continuing the assault on Taliban militants. Pakistani forces have targeted regional Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah and Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan, but have \"no information about whether we have been successful,\" said the spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. He said 80 \"terrorists\" were killed Tuesday night in \"intense fighting\" in the town of Sultanwas, located in Buner district. One Pakistani soldier was also killed in recent fighting, Abbas said.","highlights":"Nearly 1.5 million Pakistanis have registered as displaced since May 2, U.N. says .\nU.N. believes refugee crisis could be bigger threat than fight with Taliban .\nUnited States is sending $110 million in aid to Pakistan .","id":"4469629e86abf75224bd5b6393a7ad3e1cdbf4a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rick Warren, founder and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is one of America's most influential authors and religious leaders. In August, he moderated a discussion on key issues between presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. Rick Warren says no matter what problem you have, there's a purpose behind it. His latest book is \"The Purpose of Christmas.\" He was interviewed by Kiran Chetry on \"American Morning\" on Friday. Here is an edited version of the exchange: . Chetry: We always say we don't want Christmas to be commercialized. It seems that at the end of the year, we end up in the same position, worried about buying presents, worried about spending money, worried about holiday cards, and how do you get back to the real meaning? Rick Warren: A lot of people are really hurting because of the economy and because of the fears about what's going to happen, and really those same problems are the problems that Mary and Joseph went through. Housing, no room at the inn, travel, economic unrest, things like that. So I wrote this book really to focus us on what is the true meaning of Christmas. It's a book of hope, and the big idea behind it is that no matter what problem you're going through, there's a purpose behind it. God has a purpose, and that purpose can help you make it through even the stressful times when we decide to write a note to everybody, buy a gift for everybody, redecorate our house, have five or six meals and go to eight or nine parties. Rick Warren: Shop more or pray more? \u00bb . Chetry: Exactly, because that's usually what ends up happening, and sometimes the spirit of giving and fellowship is lost in that. You also write in the book, remember that God loves you, but for somebody who is facing foreclosure -- let's say you lost a loved one or your job or dealing with an illness -- it can sound pat in a way. What do you say to people who say, pastor, I don't feel that God loves me or I wouldn't be going through this . Warren: Actually, sometimes what we think is a problem is actually a protection. For instance, last month my daughter-in-law, who is 25 years old, went through a brain tumor. She had her first child premature, about six weeks early, and when she had that baby early, it was breech. The cord was wrapped around its neck and it stopped breathing and they actually had to do an emergency C-section and resuscitate the child and save the baby's life and save her life. We looked at that and we thought, boy, that's a pretty tough problem, but we now know that she had a three-inch brain tumor at the base of her brainstem, and if she had pushed, it would have killed her. And so actually, seven weeks later, when she should have been delivering the baby, we discovered the brain tumor, and she would have been trying to have brain surgery, three surgeries, one was 20 hours long, at the same time as having a baby. So what we thought was a problem was actually a protection saving her life. And sometimes, we look at a tapestry, and from the top down, you can see the picture. From the bottom up, it's all of these different colors of threads. It makes no sense. It's all jumbled. When God looks down, he sees what he's doing. When we look up, we just see the jumble. Chetry: And she's OK? Warren: She's OK. Chetry: Thank goodness. I want to turn to politics now and ask you about the summit you hosted for both of the candidates. Great provocative questions and interesting answers we weren't hearing on the campaign trail. Now that the campaign is over, what is your reaction to the outcome and to President-elect Barack Obama? Warren: Well, there's no doubt about it, we need to be praying for our president. I don't think any president has come into a crisis so quickly as President-elect Obama has, and no president has come in with probably as high expectations as President-elect Obama. So we need to pray for him. We need to support him where we can, and we need -- we want the best for America. Chetry: Religion factored heavily into some of the back-and-forth in the campaign season. Many people believed [incorrectly] that Barack Obama wasn't really Christian, that he was Muslim, and, of course, the Jeremiah Wright thing. Religion ended up, unfortunately, being a divisive issue at times as opposed to one that was a uniting issue. How do you change that? Warren: Part of it is we have to end the caricaturization of the candidates. I know all of the candidates on both sides, and none of them were exactly as they were portrayed. We tend to overportray them whether it's Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain. They're not anything like the caricaturization that we often hear. We tend to push to extremes. They are a lot more practical and pragmatic, I think, than we want to give them credit for, and every president, when he becomes president, has to let go of some ideology and become more of a pragmatist because there's so many issues that you don't probably understand until you actually hold the office.","highlights":"Pastor Rick Warren: Problems we face similar to those of Mary and Joseph .\nHe says we need to look for the purpose of Christmas and of our problems .\nWarren: We need to pray for new president and support him where we can .","id":"74cc49eaec2cc19f48b357e9f9800c7f28ab20ae"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- The children in their party outfits on the red carpet were in full agreement with the woman in the middle of the slum: \"It's unbelievable!\" Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali got to leave their homes in Mumbai to go to Hollywood for the Oscars. Nine-year-old Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, 10, were living a very different life and apparently loving every minute of it. The two, some of the child stars of the Oscar-winning \"Slumdog Millionaire\" movie, know the Indian slum well. It's where they've grown up, and it's where they will return at the end of their Hollywood dream trip. But before that, there was the red carpet and an interview with E! host Ryan Seacrest, where they grinned and repeated their disbelief at what was happening to them. \"Unbelievable. I never thought it would be an Oscar, this movie,\" said another of the children, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar. Then it was to the awards show itself, where their movie won first for its cinematography, script and music. Toward the end of the evening, Danny Boyle picked up best director, and then Rubina, Azharuddin and many of the movie's other stars got to storm the stage with producer Christian Colson to collect the best picture award. By that time, it was late morning in the children's home city of Mumbai, where family, friends and many fellow residents of the slum watched the results from Hollywood. Watch how Mumbai celebrated \u00bb . \"I don't really know what the Oscars are,\" Rubina's mom said. \"I'm just glad my daughter looks happy, though she told me she misses Indian food.\" The Oscar success of \"Slumdog\" distracted some from the drudgery of their daily lives. But the poverty and lack of opportunity that's a central theme of the film is always all around. \"Our children lead a dog's life,\" Rubina's mother said, pointing out garbage everywhere, the open drains and the lack of education opportunities. That at least may change for Rubina and Azharuddin. In a few days they will be back in Mumbai and back in the slums that are their home. Watch how 'Slumdog Millionaire' dominated at the Academy Awards \u00bb . But, according to media reports, Boyle has promised to help the children he plucked from the obscurity of the slum and see that they will now get to go to a proper school.","highlights":"Two child stars of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" come from the slum featured in the movie .\nThey traveled from Mumbai to Hollywood for Academy Awards .\nDisbelief, joy echoed amid the red carpet glamour and in the squalor of the slums .","id":"8ddadffa5aca8d895243ca4354b412f0867403cf"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi police and soldiers on Saturday launched major raids in a once-notorious insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. Saturday's raids in Falluja by Iraqi forces were similar to U.S.-led sweeps in the city in 2004, shown here. A police official in the Anbar province city of Falluja told CNN that a large number of security forces were scouring its Sinaie district for an array of weapons -- machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. The Sinaie area, in Falluja's southeastern section, is an industrial district with factories, scrap yards and large, abandoned yards. The area used to be a stronghold of the insurgency in Falluja until the militants were driven out in major military operations five years ago. At that time, the U.S.-led offensive was largely in response to the brutal ambush, killing and mutilation of four U.S. security contractors. Their charred bodies were left dangling from a bridge over the Euphrates River in spring 2004. In November of that year, U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked insurgents in Falluja, killing about 1,200 militants. Eight Iraqi soldiers and 51 U.S. troops, mostly Marines, died in urban combat, according to the Pentagon. About 95 percent of Falluja's population was displaced. Falluja is about 37 miles, or 60 kilometers, west of Baghdad . After the city was pacified, the United States committed more than $200 million to reconstruction projects there, and changes became evident. Small cafes and grocery stores lined the streets once dusty and abandoned. Iraqis in Falluja got back to the rhythms of everyday life: They worked, shopped -- and rebuilt. As fragile security gains took root, American military officials marveled at the resurgent city of several hundred thousand. On Saturday, a police official denied reports that armed groups were trying to re-establish a foothold in the area. The U.S. military said Marines and police in the nearby town of Karma were also participating in a combined cache sweep. Violence has dropped in Iraq, and President Obama's administration has been gearing up to withdraw U.S. troops. The U.S. military continues to be on guard for flare-ups in violence and insurgent activity. The vast and predominantly Sunni Arab Anbar province was a battleground between the U.S. military and al Qaeda in Iraq during the earlier years of the Iraq war. But the insurgents eventually lost ground when a grass-roots movement called \"the awakening\" emerged. The tribe-based awakening forces rejected al Qaeda in Iraq and turned their allegiances toward the U.S. and Iraqi government. While the awakening doesn't have clout in Falluja, there are pockets of support just outside the city, as well as in the rest of the province. Al Qaeda in Iraq's strongest presence in the country is now in the Mosul area, in Nineveh province, north of Baghdad.","highlights":"Iraqi police official says security forces were scouring Sinaie district of Falluja .\nU.S. military: Marines and area police assisting in combined cache sweep .\nAnbar province is vast and violent scene of U.S. and al Qaeda in Iraq encounters .","id":"6f91fbd39910d1f4a395c78f4cac317e5701ddcb"} -{"article":"SINGAPORE (CNN) -- Hundreds of customers flocked to the Singapore office of troubled insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG) on Wednesday, many hoping to pull their investments and policies from the company. People in Singapore queue outside the office of AIA, a subsidiary of AIG. The crowd formed just hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend $85 billion to a crumbling AIG. In return, the federal government will receive a nearly 80 percent stake in the company. One person who lined up in Singapore, retired teacher Wong Yoke Inn, said she was going to pull her investments from AIA even though it would cost her about $3,000 -- the equivalent of about $2,000 in the United States. She joined an orderly crowd whose members were each given a number and a time to return to meet with a representative of AIA Singapore -- AIG's division in the island nation. AIA tried to allay investors concerns in a statement distributed outside the Singapore office and posted on the company's Web site. \"AIA Singapore has more than sufficient capital and reserves ... to meet our obligations to policyholders,\" the statement said. \"The funds maintained in Singapore are segregated from American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and are held specifically for the purpose of meeting our obligations to policyholders.\" The U.S. government announced Tuesday night that it would act to save America's largest insurer from filing for bankruptcy. Such a move almost certainly would have further roiled world markets already reeling from the bankruptcy filling of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. AIG has $1.1 trillion in assets and 74 million clients in 130 countries.","highlights":"Hundreds queue outside AIG subsidiary in Singapore following news of U.S. bailout .\nU.S. Fed announces $85 billion loan to one of world's largest insurers .\nSingapore offices try to ease worries of policyholders .","id":"382b20bf58f3070337aa1352f25c20e289974f36"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York Times endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination over Rudy Giuliani and the rest of the GOP field, strongly criticizing the former mayor of its home city. Sens. John McCain, left, and Rudy Giuliani took part in a debate in Florida on Thursday. In endorsements posted on its Web site for Friday's editions, the Times also endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. \"Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe,\" the paper's editorial board wrote. \"With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.\" The endorsement anticipated readers asking how the New York paper could reject Giuliani, a man it endorsed for re-election in 1997 and praised for his work cleaning up crime in the city and during the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. \"That man is not running for president,\" the paper wrote. \"The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9\/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city's and the country's nightmare to promote his presidential campaign,\" the paper writes, describing Giuliani as \"a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man.\" Giuliani played down the harsh words, suggesting that the Times has a liberal editorial staff that often disapproved of him. \"I probably never did anything the New York Times suggested I do in eight years as mayor of New York City, and if I did, I wouldn't be considered a conservative Republican,\" Giuliani said during a Republican debate Thursday night hosted by MSNBC in Boca Raton, Florida. \"I changed welfare, I changed quality of life, I took on homelessness -- I did all the things that they think makes you mean and I believe show true compassion and true love for people.\" His wasn't the only Republican campaign taking that tack. An e-mail from the campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sarcastically noted that McCain had been endorsed by \"[t]hat bastion of conservative advocacy.\" The editorial was hardly full of praise for McCain, despite calling him a \"genuine war hero\" and a \"staunch advocate of campaign finance reform.\" \"Mr. McCain was one of the first prominent Republicans to point out how badly the war in Iraq was being managed. We wish he could now see as clearly past the temporary victories produced by Mr. Bush's unsustainable escalation, which have not led to any change in Iraq's murderous political calculus,\" it reads. \"At the least, he owes Americans a real idea of how he would win this war, which he says he can do.\" The paper praised Clinton's chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, but called Clinton more qualified for the job. \"It is unfair, especially after seven years of Mr. Bush's inept leadership, but any Democrat will face tougher questioning about his or her fitness to be commander in chief,\" it reads. \"Mrs. Clinton has more than cleared that bar, using her years in the Senate well to immerse herself in national security issues, and has won the respect of world leaders and many in the American military.\" The Democratic editorial contrasts Clinton and Obama -- calling her \"the brilliant if at times harsh-sounding senator from New York\" and him \"the incandescent if still undefined senator from Illinois.\" The paper says Clinton \"sometimes overstates the importance of [her] resume,\" but that upon hearing \"her policies and answers for America's big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience.\" New York is one of a host of states that will vote during the February 5 Super Tuesday primaries. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Paper rips Rudy Giuliani as \"a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man\"\nGiuliani responds: I wouldn't be a conservative Republican if I did what paper wanted .\nOpinion piece says McCain will \"end the George Bush style of governing\"\nPaper praises Barack Obama but calls Hillary Clinton more qualified for the job .","id":"2703b1415c70255518d7008d622573b56a684d1f"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Rev. Martin Luther King is looking down on the United States, smiling, Otis Sutton said Wednesday. Otis Sutton, 78, recalls how times have changed since he grew up in the segregated South. \"That's what he wanted. He'd been preaching that all along,\" Sutton, 78, said of the nation electing its first African-American president. Sutton, who has worked on and off at the historic Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia, since it opened in 1947, was baptized by the civil rights icon's father, King Sr. He remembers playing pick-up football games in a dirt lot with King Jr. when they were both youngsters in Atlanta. Asked if King Jr. was any good at football, Sutton chuckled. \"He liked to read and study,\" he said with a reverence that prohibited him from disparaging King Jr. in any way, \"but he loved the game.\" Walk around Atlanta and you'll find plenty of African-Americans who hope Sen. Barack Obama will inspire young people to reach for a book rather than a football. \"As young, black Americans our society and our communities had told us that the only way we could make it out is if we entertain,\" said Cortez Tarver, 28, who cuts hair at the University Barbershop, just down the street from the historically black Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. Hear Tarver talk about Obama's win \u00bb . \"They want us to be funny. They want us to cook their food, entertain them and play their sports -- and we do all that, we're just going to fit in.\" The media reinforce the erroneous notion that successful black men exist only in the realms of hip hop, football and basketball, Tarver said. The result is that fewer and fewer African-American children aspire to occupations like doctor and lawyer, he said. All that changed after Obama locked up the Electoral College vote on Tuesday night. \"Now, they can say they want to be president,\" Tarver said of young blacks. \"This shows us, hey, if we go to college, we study hard, we help out our communities, we can become president, we can become something great -- other than shucking and jiving, other than putting on a show.\" Sutton likens Obama's rise through the political ranks to Tiger Woods' rise through professional golf. Until about 12 years ago, when Woods turned pro, it was rare to find black youngsters swinging clubs at their local links. Even if they had the natural skills, they did not believe the game belonged to them, he said. \"You never seen black children playing golf till [Woods] started playing,\" said Sutton, explaining that even his 7-year-old grandson, Josh, now enjoys playing golf. What Woods did for golf, Sutton said, Obama has done for politics. Children across the nation were told Tuesday night that they, too, can aspire to the highest office in the land. \"If he can do it, they believe they can do it,\" Sutton said. Back at University Barbershop, Tarver's colleague, Spot Jackson, 28, said the only thing keeping him awake was some Burger King coffee and a few doughnuts after staying up until 6 a.m. watching election news. Like Tarver and Sutton, Jackson said he believes Obama shattered the ceiling for black men and women. He joked that Obama's victory made him want to start a foundation. Its mission would be simple, he said. \"We're going to eradicate the word 'can't.' We're going to try to get it out of every dictionary known to man,\" he said. \"There's nothing you can honestly say you can't do anymore; it just changes your perception as far as what you think is possible in this country.\" Jackson dismissed a question about whether the change was made possible by Obama's skin color, saying it was more about the man's character and platform. \"He could've been green and if the message was the same and it resonated the same way it did, then he still would've gotten the same support,\" he said. Jackson said he saw television footage of people in Indonesia celebrating the U.S. presidential election, something he's never seen in the 10 years he's been voting. Morgan Blanchard, 20, a junior at Clark Atlanta, said she also was impressed to see international footage from Italy and Australia of people celebrating the election. It shows Obama has broad appeal, which speaks more to his honesty and principles than to his skin color, she said. \"Oh gosh, it's not even that he's African-American,\" she said, noting with a sly smile that Obama's mother was white. \"It's the way he carries himself, the way he puts himself out there. I don't think race has anything to do with it.\" Her sentiments were echoed by fellow Clark Atlanta student Ashante Smith, 18. A sophomore studying music, Smith said many African-Americans voted for Obama because of his race, but she pointed out that he also snared millions of votes in white and Latino communities. \"I think he was just really committed to all communities,\" she said. And while she thinks Obama can help improve education, unemployment and the economy in general, she concurs with many who say he can hearten generations of African-Americans to reach higher in life. \"It just inspires me to go for what I want,\" she said. \"It's like we can do anything.\"","highlights":"African-Americans in Martin Luther King Jr.'s hometown say Obama shattered ceiling .\nOtis Sutton says Obama did for politics what Tiger Woods did for golf .\nBlacks no longer relegated to \"shucking and jiving\" to get ahead, barber says .","id":"91ddd5b2411ffb401700ba8283b15bf947ff7018"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Taliban leader has instructed fighters in Afghanistan to target U.S. and other coalition troops in response to the United States sending more troops into the war. U.S. Army soldiers, right, watch two Afghan soldiers at ISAF's Camp Bostick in the eastern Kunar province. A two-page statement sent to CNN instructs fighters to start new attacks against coalition troops and Afghan parliament members, and urges suicide bombers to strike. The statement was written by Mula Birather, a Taliban chief of at least 12 military groups in Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to CNN that the statement came from Birather. The statement also warned Afghans to not get \"near U.S. troops anywhere because we will target them any where they are and if anybody is killed in a attack on them we will not be responsible for their death.\" The statement comes as U.S. troops begin increased deployments in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama approved sending 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in March and pledged to send 17,000 more. Col. Greg Julian, a spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, responded to the statement. \"The Taliban extremists are promising to bring more death and destruction to Afghanistan and limit the freedom of movement of all Afghans,\" Julian said. \"They offer no hope for the future, and only seek to kill... We will continue working side-by-side with our Afghan partners to improve security and demonstrate to these ruthless murders and criminals that they will not stop progress in Afghanistan.\" Meanwhile across the border in Pakistan, the country's military intensified its drive against the Taliban in the country's restive tribal regions, reclaiming a key town in the northwest district of Buner. CNN's Nic Robertson and Atia Abawi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taliban leader instructs fighters in Afghanistan to target U.S., coalition troops .\nStatement written by Mula Birather, chief of at least 12 Afghan military groups .\nU.S. troops are beginning increased deployments in Afghanistan .","id":"b8204e6418c3731e412d9173f76a3df255e9af31"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Republican strategist Alex Castellanos was a campaign consultant for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and has worked on more than half a dozen presidential campaigns. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and public affairs consulting firm that specializes in advertising. Alex Castellanos says stimulus bill is a cover for a bold plan for government to rule key parts of private sector. (CNN) -- Two Congressmen walk into a bar to watch President Obama's first prime-time press conference. The Democrat says to the Republican.... D: Just watch the president tonight and you'll see how to get this economy back on track. Monopolies. R: Monopolies? D: Monopolies so big they will shame Parker Brothers and make them put the board game in a bigger box. Monopolies so huge, they'll make railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt look like a push-cart operator. R: Why monopolies? D: In these desperate times, we can't afford to let Americans choose inefficient cars or wasteful health care. We can't let innovation run wild on Wall Street or Main Street. We have to make sure Americans are secure in their health care and jobs, their incomes and energy. To serve the greater good, we have to organize America's economy so it achieves the best possible ends for all Americans. We can't leave that to chance. Who knows what might happen if individual Americans make those choices in a free market and organize themselves? R: A little less freedom, a lot more organization, all for the collective good? D: My friend, we need a directed economy, where we limit people's choices to those that serve the best social ends. Our nation's development is best controlled by monopolies, not some atomistic economy where Americans are free to make almost any choice and organize bottom-up, according to their own whims. That means, big, honking, all-powerful monopolies. R: But during the campaign, Obama talked about change, fueling \"bottom-up prosperity.\" This sounds like the same old, top-down, industrial-age stuff Democrats have been pitching for years. D: You betcha! Bottom-up campaign rhetoric just ran into the top-down Democratic establishment from Washington. Guess who won. We're going to create monopolies in the biggest sectors of the economy, starting with banking and financial services. Even after the meltdown, that's still the largest stock market sector, 16 percent of the S&P. R: Follow the money. D: Exactly. With massive regulation, caps on pay and restrictions on risk and competition, we can turn the entire financial sector into a cross between a public utility and the DMV. R: And then? D: We'll create an energy monopoly that would make J. D. Rockefeller look like a gas station attendant. If it has anything to do with energy, we will control it, plan it and direct it. You are going to love your windmill. R: I'm not feeling so good. D: That's next. A health care monopoly alone will organize another 16 percent of the economy. Choice and diversity are great, but not so much in health care. We'll throw in $20 billion at the start for paperless health records. Data, my friend, is power. You know where we will go: Cost controls. Restricted formularies. Nancy Pelosi can be your doctor. You don't need a lot of choice. Just a good choice. Or a good-enough choice. Cough for me. R: Watch that. I'm leaving. D: Now that you mention it, we can't forget the good old American auto industry. To borrow from Henry Ford, consumers can pick any color car they want, as long as it is green. R: Who are you going to get to run these monopolies? You are dealing with increasingly complex economic networks. How are you going to coordinate the sophisticated relationships, the subtle interests and ever-changing needs of millions of American consumers? Americans have traditionally done that themselves, in a natural and organic way, one to another, through the market. Who is smart enough to replace all that? D: Congress. R: You are making this stuff up. The president isn't talking about huge government-run monopolies. All he's talking about is the stimulus bill. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus package . D: Of course. That's the beauty of the thing. As long as we call it \"stimulus,\" we can pass almost anything that expands the power of government to command people's lives. Why do you think Newsweek's cover says, \"We Are All Socialists Now?\" R: I need a drink. Don't they serve Congressmen in this bar? D: No. But you can buy one from a lobbyist. The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Alex Castellanos.","highlights":"Alex Castellanos: Democrats think we can't let the free market rule economy .\nHe says Democrats are trying to micro-manage the crucial finance sector .\nCastellanos says they also want to make key decisions for health care .\nHe says stimulus bill is being used as cover for introducing bigger government .","id":"4d62b2f97d7c48744a8d41a587023b27134d9947"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- My eyes stung, I was coughing, my nose was running. Along with cameraman David Hawley and freelance producer Kareem Khadder, I had just been tear-gassed -- not for the first time last Friday -- during a day-long clash between Palestinian kids and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Na'alin, on the West Bank. An Israeli soldier confronts Palestinian protesters during a demonstration Friday in the West Bank village of Jayyus. We had gone there to gauge the Palestinian view of Tuesday's Israeli elections. Na'alin, and many other towns and villages like it in the West Bank, are in the forefront of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Here, it all comes down to the most basic element in the century-old conflict: control of the land. Na'alin is an old town, with factories and workshops, surrounded by olive groves. But in recent years neighboring Israeli settlements, built since the June 1967 war, have increasingly encroached on Na'alin's farmland, and Israel, on grounds of security, has built its security barrier around the town. As a result, Na'alin residents say they have lost access to much of their land, their water sources, in short their livelihood. Beginning two years ago, every Friday they hold protests against Israel's settlement expansion and barrier building. Most Na'alin residents are not ideological hotheads; before the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000, many worked in Israel. Most are still fluent in Hebrew and do business with Israelis looking for a good deal on car repairs and other services. For that reason I thought Na'alin would be a good place to see what Palestinians were thinking. What I heard was universal pessimism. No one I spoke with expressed the slightest hope that any of the leading candidates --Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu, Kadima's Tzipi Livni, Israel Beitenu's Avigdor Lieberman and Labour's Ehud Barak -- would do anything to remove the settlements that are slowly closing in on Na'alin. As we sheltered from the tear gas behind a house, Na'alin resident Hani Khawaja told me, \"I don't expect anything to come out of the elections that will please the Palestinians. Just killings, expulsions and land confiscations.\" Another man, Ayub Srour, had a slightly different approach. He prefers Israeli leaders to be honest about their intentions, and not raise hopes only to dash them later. He wants Likud leader and long-time hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu to win. \"At least he's honest. He says he'll expel us, and he will expel us. He says he's slaughter us, and he will slaughter us.\" I've covered almost every Israeli election since 1996. With each election, the Palestinian feeling of despair and hopelessness only deepens. Since the last election in the spring of 2006, Palestinians have seen Israel and Hezbollah go to war, West Bank settlements continue to expand, Hamas and Fatah fight it out in Gaza with Hamas taking control in June 2007. They've also seen a series of Israeli incursions into Gaza, culminating recently in the 22-day Israeli offensive that left large parts of the strip in ruins. Meanwhile many Palestinians say their leadership -- often described as moderate and pro-western -- in Ramallah is incapable of reversing the trend of settlement expansion. The same leadership has been unable to convince Israel to remove few of the hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints that make travelling around the West Bank a test of patience and endurance. In short, when Palestinians look back over the last 15 years since the Oslo Accords were signed, they've seen their lot only go from bad to worse. As a result, more and more Palestinians are convinced the only way to beat the Israelis is to join them, to discard failed attempts at creating a Palestinian state in an ever smaller, ever more economically unviable territory, and go for what is known as the one-state solution. That would mean Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza relinquishing their dream of an independent Palestinian state, and instead insisting on equal rights in the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, an area that is, for all intents and purposes, under Israel's control anyway. The one-state solution is an anathema to many Israelis, who are well aware that, with their higher birth-rate, Palestinians (those living within Israel proper, plus Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza) could well become a majority within a generation. Israelis increasingly worry the national struggle between Israel and the Palestinians will be transformed into an internal struggle, for equal rights for all those living within historic Palestine. Those fears prompted Israel's current caretaker prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to warn as far back as November 2007 that if Israel doesn't move quickly to achieve a two-state solution, it will be in a position not unlike South Africa during the apartheid area, whereby a minority -- in this case Israeli Jews -- rules over a restive majority -- the Palestinians -- by means of force, repression and discriminatory laws. Many Palestinians argue that is already the case, citing Israeli restrictions on movement, residence, and work. The bedrock of Israeli antipathy toward the Palestinians is part of the reason for the growing strength of the Israel Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) Party, led by Avigdor Leiberman. He argues that Israel's Palestinian minority (they make up about 20 percent of the population) as a potential fifth column working against the aims of the Jewish majority. Leiberman has focused much of his fire on Palestinian Knesset members such as Ahmed Tibi, accusing him and others of sympathising with Israel's enemies, Hamas and Hizballah. His solution is to compel all of Knesset members -- and possibly all Israeli citizens -- to take an oath of loyalty to the state. Another of Leiberman's proposals is to redraw Israel's boundaries to exclude as many of its Palestinians as possible. Tibi responds that Leiberman's growing clout is symptomatic of \"an obvious fascist phenomena invading Israeli society. During the last years, racism became mainstream.\" Back in the town of Na'alin, the kids throwing stones at Israeli troops do have some odd companions. Young Israelis, some of them self-described anarchists, also take part in the protests. They don't throw stones, but they do offer useful advice. \"Laththam! Laththam!\" one Israeli with black tattoos on his arms tells a young boy, no older than 12, hurling rocks with a home-made sling. \"Laththam\" is Arabic for \"cover your face,\" the advice imparted because if Israeli troops can identify stone throwers, they arrest them. There still is cooperation of sorts between Palestinians and Israelis, but it's an increasingly rare commodity. And this election probably won't do anything to bridge the growing gap between the two -- the curious friendship in Na'alin notwithstanding.","highlights":"CNN correspondent finds moods of universal pessimism in West Bank town .\nIsrael votes Tuesday after election campaign dominated by the country's right .\nMore and more Palestinians see \"one-state solution\" as only way forward .\nIsraelis oppose one-state solution for fear Palestinians would be majority .","id":"884c59fa37b142b0321bab3aeb2ee52c5b1157ce"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that House committees will begin action on President-elect Barack Obama's proposed economic recovery package in the next couple of weeks, with a vote in the full House slated for the week after Obama's inauguration. Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will not go on a break until an economic recovery package is passed. Obama will take office January 20. If that schedule slips, Pelosi, D-California, pledged to cancel the House's planned weeklong break in mid-February for Presidents Day. \"We are not going home without an economic recovery package,\" Pelosi said. Pelosi said Obama's plan has broad public support \"almost sight unseen,\" citing a poll from Politico that says 79 percent of Americans support the president-elect's plan. A senior Pelosi aide said discussions about the details are ongoing between the Obama transition team and key leaders. The Ways and Means Committee will focus on the tax piece, approximately $300 billion in tax cuts. Obama transition aides met with Democrats on that committee Wednesday morning to discuss various proposals, according to another Democratic aide. The Appropriations Committee is tasked with drafting details on spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, food stamps and other aid to states. Sidestepping a question on possible roadblocks for the bill, Pelosi instead touted the new muscle of the expanded Democratic majority. \"We have been so used to an uphill fight, but now we have arrived. We have a big, strong, something like an 80-vote majority in the Congress, in the House, with a Democratic president in the White House,\" she said. In a speech Thursday, Obama said it was imperative that Congress move quickly to pass the stimulus package once he takes office, warning that a failure to do so would have devastating long-term consequences to the nation's economy. \"We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime, a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks,\" Obama said at George Mason University in Virginia. Watch Obama call for \"dramatic action\" on the economy \u00bb . \"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible,\" Obama continued. \"If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years.\" Key members of Obama's own party, however, said they opposed central tax measures of the president-elect's proposals after emerging from a closed-door meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. Watch Obama explain his tax proposals \u00bb . In particular, they do not think that giving employers a $3,000 tax credit for each worker they hired would work. \"I'm not that excited about that,\" said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. \"Having a tax credit for hiring is not going to change that dynamic; creating a direct job will. So I'd rather spend the money on the infrastructure, on direct investment, on energy conversion and other kinds of things, much more directly and much more rapidly and much more certainly create a real job.\" Sen. Kent Conrad agreed. \"I think it's unlikely to be effective,\" the North Dakota senator said. \"If you think about it, businesspeople are not going to hire people to produce products that are not selling. Who is going to hire in the auto industry if you give them a $3,000 credit to make cars that people are not buying?\" A second Obama tax proposal that several Democrats were down on is payroll tax credits, amounting to about $20 per paycheck and totaling $500 per person and $1,000 for couples earning less than $200,000 a year. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said he doubted that proposal would do much to stimulate the economy. \"We have an example from the first stimulus that indicates just giving people $500 to $600, while certainly welcome when there's this much economic hurt, may not be the best use of stimulus,\" Wyden said. Instead, Wyden said, pumping more money into infrastructure spending would be more effective in creating jobs. Conrad agreed with Wyden. \"Twenty dollars a week? I don't think that will be effective, either. That is in terms of economic impact. We have got to focus on what is actually going to lift the economy,\" Conrad said. None of the senators CNN spoke with after the meeting said they thought the opposition to these provisions would derail the bill but suggested that many meetings would be needed with the Obama team to hammer out an agreement. First votes in the Finance Committee, which must approve the tax components of the stimulus plan, could come in the next two weeks, senators and aides said. CNN's Deirdre Walsh, Dana Bash and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"Speaker Nancy Pelosi sets full House vote on stimulus for week of January 25 .\nHouse committees will work on Obama's plan over the next couple of weeks .\nSenate Democrats balk at proposal to give employers $3,000 for each worker hired .","id":"a126bd1041eaf065ccca24f4b089d2bf7ab2abab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The stock market crashed. Wall Street panicked. People stashed silver and gold under mattresses while businesses shut doors across America. People in Detroit, Michigan, line up for food at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. We're talking, of course, about the Great Depression ... of 1873. That's the event that Scott Reynolds Nelson cites when asked to give an historical perspective on today's sputtering economy. The historian says the economic panic of 1873 started with the same toxic mix as today's crisis: risky mortgages, a stock market dive and the use of complex financial instruments that few understood. \"Until 1929, when people used the word[s] Great Depression they referred to 1873,\" says Nelson, a professor of history at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. \"That was a worldwide international depression that started with the banks. That's what we're seeing now. This looks like 1873.\" The nation's economic crisis is not only causing people to look more closely at their 401(k) account statements. They're also turning to their history books. Politicians and commentators routinely invoke the Great Depression and other historical events to describe today's economic crisis. Watch the debate over 'Depression' talk \u00bb . But how fair is that historical analogy? Why Great Depression comparisons may be unfair . James Kolari, an economist at Texas A&M University, says the nation experienced two \"rough\" recessions in the mid-1970s and the early 1980s. A recession is generally defined as a decline in the Gross Domestic Product for two or more consecutive quarters. He says it's not fair to compare the current economic crisis to the Great Depression, because the federal government was far more passive in the 1920s. \"We let 15,000 out of 30,000 banks fail,\" he says. \"Government efforts to jump-start the economy were slow and relatively weak until President [Franklin] Roosevelt came along with the New Deal.\" Kolari says people can learn more by looking at Japan. He says the U.S. economy is facing the same crisis as Japan in the 1990s when the Japanese economy collapsed from a real estate bubble and never fully recovered. \"The Japanese government moved too slowly and not aggressively enough,\" he says. \"The problems festered.\" David George, a professor of economics at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says the federal government better protects ordinary people from financial ruin today than during the first stages of the Great Depression. Today we reap the benefits of policies created during that era, George says. Roosevelt helped create New Deal legislation to insure bank deposits and enacted other modern relief efforts like unemployment compensation to help those in distress. \"By any measure, incomes were lower then than now, and the worst imaginable loss of output today would still keep the nation well above where we were back then,\" George says. Marjorye Heeney is not an economist, but she definitely knows something about the Great Depression. Heeney, 83, grew up on an Oklahoma farm during the Great Depression and lived through the 1930s Dust Bowl storms. For much of that decade, \"black blizzards\" -- formed by a prolonged drought and poor farming techniques -- ravaged the southern Plains. Heeney, who now lives in Topeka, Kansas, snorted when told that today's conditions remind some of the Great Depression. During the Depression, crops failed, and few had a job, car or clothes, she says. \"Everyone had one nail for themselves in the clothes closet,\" Henney says. Henney says the Great Depression toughened people up. People grew and canned their own food, sewed their own clothes and learned how to make possessions last. \"No one really came from wealth, and nothing was easy,\" she says. \"But people got by because they had a wonderful spirit of survival. We're not as gutsy. I don't know if we have that today.\" Why this economic period is still frightening . Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, says the nation's most recent recession was the dot-com bust, which hit around March of 2001. \"This recession has already eclipsed the dot-com bust in every fashion,\" he says. \"During that time, the GDP did not fall much, and unemployment did not rise much.\" Matheson offers one bit of good news, though. He says today's unemployment rate is not as bad as in previous eras. The unemployment rate reached 10.8 percent during the early 1980s and 25 percent during the Great Depression, he says. Yet Matheson says there is an ominous feature to the current situation: The Federal Reserve has already lowered interest rates as far as they can go, to around zero percent, but the recession marches on. The current recession is so \"scary\" that Matheson says he has reversed his attitude on Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan. He once opposed it but now supports it because he can't think of anything that might work better. He says the economy will not bounce back on its own anytime soon . \"You gotta go with what you got,\" he says. \"The Federal Reserve has loosed all of its cannons, and it has nothing left. Now we're down to fiscal policy.\" Nelson, the historian who has studied the panic of 1873, says today's economy might even be worse than the American economy in 1873. \"This is a perfect storm: banks failing, stock markets declining and commodity prices dropping,\" Nelson says. Nelson says it took America four years to recover from the 1873 panic. Tens of thousands of workers -- many Civil War veterans -- became homeless. Thousands lined up for food and shelter in major cities. The Gilded Age, where wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few \"robber barons like John D. Rockefeller,\" followed the panic. America, of course, pulled out of the panic. Nelson is just not quite sure how the nation is going to do it now. His ultimate assessment of today's economy is blunt: . \"It looks grim.\"","highlights":"Is it fair to invoke Great Depression?\nSome economists say comparison overblown .\nNation had another Great Depression few remember, scholar says .\nDepression survivor: \"People had a wonderful spirit of survival\"","id":"3a40605f77264e040be26b9244dd3b8024421d8b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN agreed not to use the full names of the family members in this article due to concern for their safety. Youssif and his surgeon, Dr. Peter Grossman, shake hands at the end of their Wednesday visit. SHERMAN OAKS, California (CNN) -- Youssif nervously scanned the doctor's examining room, his dark brown eyes darting around, from the floor to the wall to the ceiling. His mother stroked his hair and then his forehead to put him at ease before the doctor walked in to the room. A day earlier, the badly burned 5-year-old Iraqi boy had boarded a plane in Amman, Jordan, with his family, their first trip on an airplane. Now, more than 7,500 miles later, his mom, dad and 14-month-old sister were with him at the Grossman Burn Center in the heart of sunny Southern California. Dr. Peter Grossman strode into the room, a warm smile across his face. He held Youssif's hand. The boy turned shyly around and buried his face into his father's leg. \"This is not unusual,\" said Grossman, a plastic surgeon with more than 12 years of experience, including helping one young girl whose face had melted to her shoulder after a horrific accident. Watch Youssif show his scars to Grossman for the first time \u00bb . A father of two children, Grossman spoke softly and reassured Youssif that they would soon be friends. \"We're going to do everything we can to make him better,\" he told Youssif's parents. Perhaps haunted by the pain he suffered in Baghdad's hospitals, Youssif hiccupped back sobs as his father lifted him onto the examination table. But the boy put on a brave face after his father told him to let the doctor do his job. \"Who's the brave one? Youssif,\" his father whispered reassuringly. \"He's not going to hurt you, I promise.\" Grossman pulled out measuring tape and took measurements of scars under the boy's chin and around his nose. One swollen scar around his chin measured nearly 3 inches. He also examined burns on Youssif's hands, forehead and right ear. At one point, Youssif thrust his head back and opened his mouth as best he could for the doctor. But his lips barely separated, their movement hampered by the swollen, hardened flesh. \"What we want to eventually do is be able to get him to open his mouth as wide as he can,\" Grossman said. Youssif faces eight to 10 operations, possibly more, over the next six to eight months. He also will undergo psychological therapy to help him better adapt to all that has happened to him. See photos of the boy's arrival in the U.S. \u00bb . On January 15, masked men grabbed Youssif outside his central Baghdad home, doused him in gas and set him on fire. Grossman won't be able to make all the scars go away, he said, but he's confident that \"we can make him significantly better.\" \"We're going to do everything we can to move forward and to do a good job,\" he said. The boy's mother nodded solemnly. \"I just want my son's smile back,\" she told the doctor. Watch how masked men stole a boy's smile . Youssif was introduced to his other doctors, a pediatrician and anesthesiologist. The boy cuddled into the warm confines of his father's chest. His dark eyes kept a keen watch on all those around him. His first operation could come as early as next week and involve multiple procedures. Grossman will cut away scar tissue around his nose and put temporary skin from a cadaver over it. \"We're also going to stick a balloon underneath the good skin under his neck and on his face,\" the doctor said. \"The purpose of that is over time we will stretch the good skin, so that in about three months he will be able to go back to surgery, remove the scar tissue and pull up the stretched out good tissues.\" Grossman eventually will work to repair Youssif's upper lip. \"We're going to make you a lot better,\" he said. With that, the doctor brought this introductory session to a close. The two shook hands. He also tried teaching Youssif an American guy classic: hitting your fists together in cool approval. Youssif watched and listened. He stretched his fist out, then pulled it back. He looked up at his father and then slammed his fist with his father's -- the only man this wounded boy trusts right now. His father caressed his son's hair and planted a soft kiss on his head. He risked so much for this moment for his son. This was more than just a journey from Iraq to America. \"I'm emotionally exhausted,\" Youssif's dad said. \"We went from death to a new life.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Burned Iraqi boy will undergo eight to 10 surgeries in coming months .\nYoussif's medical treatment in California follows CNN story about him .\nYoussif remains cautious around doctor but eventually warms up .\nBy the end of first visit, the boy, 5, and doctor shake hands .","id":"7cca52d6d5b25ddc960614bb972dbfe7331275fd"} -{"article":"KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Some of the toughest criticism of Pakistan's pro-democracy movement comes from an unlikely source: the 25-year-old niece of Benazir Bhutto, who says Pakistani party politics do nothing but support military rule. It's an environment, she said, her late aunt is partly responsible for. Fatima Bhutto says she's not interested in \"perpetuating a really ineffectual form of politics ... because of my name.\" \"At this stage, we are in a state in Pakistan where so-called democratic forces are only interested in coming into office. So ultimately, they only prop up dictatorships,\" she told CNN from her home in Karachi. She raised her voice as she described what she feels is the core of Pakistan's political problems: the lack of a true democratic culture. Instead, she said, the country is run by power grabbers. \"Ultimately to them, it's a game of revolving chairs. As long as they get to be in one, they don't care who's in the other one.\" Fatima Bhutto said her aunt played this \"game of revolving chairs\" at huge costs to the Bhutto family, shattering the clan's unity. In 1996, Fatima Bhutto's father, Murtaza Bhutto, was gunned down by Pakistani security forces in front of the family compound. His sister, Benazir, was prime minister at the time. His widow blames her sister-in-law for the killing, because Murtaza had become a political rival. Watch Fatima Bhutto say she's not \"interested in being a symbol\" \u00bb . \"We have to seriously look at her political legacy, which is deeply flawed,\" Fatima Bhutto said. \"Both her governments were known for widespread corruption, for an abuse of human rights, and for an excess of police violence.\" Fatima Bhutto was estranged from her aunt and had not spoken to her since Benazir Bhutto returned to the nation for Pakistani elections. Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bloody December 27 attack. Her niece says now that Benazir Bhutto has herself been killed, she does not look back in anger. Watch a struggle over the Bhutto legacy \u00bb . \"We also have to take into account that Benazir Bhutto died bravely and that the attack on her is ultimately an attack on her country,\" she said. She added that she did attend her aunt's funeral. Some here in Pakistan believe Fatima Bhutto -- and not Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal -- is the true heir to the Bhutto political dynasty. Fatima Bhutto said she's a political person and does campaign for a splinter group of the Pakistan Peoples Party. That group is now run by her mother following the death of her father. She said her main political goal is to empower Pakistan's largely disenfranchised masses and end what she calls the perpetual cycle of \"dynastic\" cronyism. What her role would be in making that happen remains the great unknown. \"What I think we need to do is open the field,\" said Fatima Bhutto, who went to college in the United States and graduate school in England. \"It has to stop being this autocratic, dynastic environment. ... When that day comes and this happens -- that we have an open field -- if there's a way for me to serve this country, then I would be proud to.\" Until then, she said, she exerts her power from her writing. Fatima Bhutto is a successful columnist, author and poet; a staunch critic of Pervez Musharraf's government. And though her name would probably propel her to the highest levels of Pakistani politics almost instantly, she said that won't happen anytime soon. \"I'm not interested in being a symbol for anyone,\" she said emphatically. \"And I'm not interested in perpetuating a really ineffectual form of politics simply because of my name.\" She added, \"I have never believed in dynastic politics, or the politics of birthright. ... I think that's dangerous to the cause of democracy in Pakistan, and ultimately doesn't serve the people.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Benazir Bhutto's niece: Pakistan's democratic forces only \"prop up dictatorships\"\nFatima Bhutto, who was estranged from aunt, says country is run by power grabbers .\nHer goal: empower Pakistan's masses, end cycle of \"dynastic\" cronyism .\nThe columnist, author and poet is a critic of Pervez Musharraf's government .","id":"e2893012b34b4d8ff0d36ec5934c4baaeb2d995e"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken for the first time about the reasons her divorce in an interview with a French newspaper. The announcement ended weeks of speculation over their marriage. Cecilia Sarkozy told L'Est Republicain on Friday that the couple's relationship had not been able to survive the glare of the media spotlight following a highly public separation in 2005. The Sarkozys announced on Thursday they were divorcing by mutual consent after 11 years of marriage. A former model, Cecilia Sarkozy said that she was not comfortable with her position as first lady. \"I am someone who likes the shadows, serenity, tranquility. I had a husband who was a public man, I always knew that, I accompanied him for 20 years. But me, I think that is not my place. It is no longer my place,\" she was quoted as saying. The couple has been dogged by persistent rumors of infidelities, which Cecilia Sarkozy seemed to confirm in her newspaper interview. Explaining the events that led to the couple separating in 2005, she said: \"Two years ago an event happened of which unfortunately the whole of France is aware. In 2005, I met someone, I fell in love and I left.\" The French president, in Portugal for an EU summit, has declined to comment on his marriage breakdown. His divorce comes as he deals with crippling public sector strikes at home that have shut down much of France's transit system. Cecilia Sarkozy was a smiling figure at her husband's inauguration in May as she stood with the couple's five children. But she said recently she didn't see herself as having any role at all as the president's wife. For the French public, news of the divorce is unlikely to come as a shock. French presidents and their spouses have a long tradition of leading separate lives, even while carrying on the functions of state. Former President Francois Mitterrand not only lived apart from his wife, Danielle, but he maintained a secret second family that turned up in public only at his funeral. Jacques Chirac, who stepped down when Sarkozy was elected this year, hinted at a number of affairs. He and his wife lived largely separate lives, appearing together only at presidential functions. Nicolas Sarkozy said at the start of his term that he had no worries as president, except for his wife. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia says she didn't like spotlight .\nFormer model said it was no longer possible to keep their marriage together .\nThe split came after 11 years of marriage .","id":"847bf21072e7a1b776a12d9537db378ecac6a36c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Katy Brown is an Internet-savvy college freshman with conservative perspectives who worries about the future of the Republican Party. Katy Brown, Kevin Neugebauer, Barbara Rademacher and Chuck Burkhard discuss the future of the GOP. Brown, a student at Kent State University in Ohio, joined other Republicans and conservative independent iReporters in an online roundtable discussion. The Republican National Committee selected Michael Steele to become its chairman Friday during its annual winter meeting after the decisive victory of President Obama in November. Over the next four years, Republicans must regroup and establish a strategy, and the new GOP leader must navigate a political landscape where the Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress. \"I think we'll come with somebody who has experience, knows what they're talking about, is good with both liberals and conservatives, both Democrats and Republicans,\" Brown said of a future Republican presidential nominee. iReport.com: Watch Brown respond to one of Obama's Cabinet picks . Kevin Neugebauer of Katy, Texas, a Republican who voted for Sen. John McCain in the election, said during the chat that he thinks the majority of Americans are conservative and that he wants to see the party head in a more conservative direction. iReport.com: 'McCain wasn't conservative enough to win' Neugebauer thinks that abiding by conservative principles, especially fiscally, is the only way to solve the country's financial problems. \"I don't want to have to mortgage my kids' future to get us out of the things we're doing today,\" he said. Another panel participant, Chuck Burkhard of Windber, Pennsylvania, voted for McCain as a registered Republican but plans to become an independent. Watch the iReporters talk over a Web chat \u00bb . He feels that the Bush administration failed at making government smaller and reducing spending, which he thinks Republicans should make a top priority. He hopes that the party will take a new direction and reach out to more people. \"I really think the Republicans will reach out with a grass-roots campaign,\" he said. iReport.com: 'I choose Sen. McCain' Neugebauer said he thinks the Republican Party needs a \"fresh new face\" who can set the agenda. He says the government needs to be smaller and thinks politicians waste money on \"stuff that the government has no business being in.\" The fourth panel participant, Barbara Rademacher, said she had a difficult time making her decision during the 2008 election. She finally settled on McCain but says she is very much an independent voter. Social issues such as abortion are what swung her to the right, but she said the party focused too much on attacks. \"I hate the Republican Party the way it is right now. I hated the way they acted during the election and some of the ideas they came up with as election strategies,\" she said. Rademacher said she thinks former Gov. Mike Huckabee, a candidate in the 2008 race, would be a good president because of his experience. She says he has integrity, intelligence and charisma, as well as the ability to manage money. iReport.com: How will Huckabee reform the party? \"I think he may be the only hope for the Republican Party,\" she said. Burkhard, Brown and Neugebauer all agreed that Huckabee would be a good presidential candidate. Neugebauer said he also likes former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and advocated for a return to strong Republican politics. \"I just think what we need to do is, we need to concentrate on the core values that the Republican Party was started on,\" he said. \"There's too many fence-huggers. They'll say one thing just to get votes, and they actually are thinking the other way. You really need someone in there that can rally the troops and somebody with good morals and a good record.\" Paul A. Beck, a political science professor at Ohio State University, said that although Obama is president, there is a large number of conservative people in the country, and they will want their say. \"We have to remember that the 2000 and 2004 elections were very narrow elections,\" Beck said. \"The country was very divided in those elections.\" He said he feels that many voters looked at Bush's administration and blamed him for the downfall of the economy and the war in Iraq, creating trouble for the Republican candidates who would attempt to follow him. \"It looks like the Bush administration fumbled the ball. McCain didn't know quite what to do,\" he said. Hao Li, a student at the University of Southern California, said he wasn't Bush's biggest fan but thought the former president did \"the right thing.\" Li said he lives the divide in this country every day as a committed Republican and McCain voter in a state that went for Obama. He describes himself as strongly fiscally conservative and socially moderate. He feels that the GOP needs to make greater efforts to reach out to minorities and young people if party members hope for success. Watch Hao Li ask about reaching out to young people in a 'Digg Dialogg' \"The party has its way of saying, 'Just work hard, and you'll get there,' and they don't really outreach to the minority community. The party shouldn't change its basic principles, but the party should outreach to women and minorities.\"","highlights":"Republican National Committee names Michael Steele as chairman .\nKaty Brown advocates bipartisan cooperation during iReport roundtable chat .\nKevin Neugebauer suggests Republicans need to return to conservative roots .\niReport.com: Hao Li asks how the party can reach out to younger voters .","id":"907d7de4690fed83df465efdec623869f4d09406"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The last eight years In the United States have included momentous events including the September 11 attacks, the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina and an economic recession. Ted Stanke of New York created a symbolic map of the United States out of toy soldiers to protest the Iraq war. Historic moments defined President Bush's time in office, and now the world must wait to see how history will define him. Just 27 percent of the respondents to a recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll said they approved of Bush's handling of his job as president. Respondents also indicated they didn't want him to have future influence, with 66 percent saying they didn't want to see the president return to public life. We asked readers to share their views on Bush's legacy on iReport.com. The majority of the responses expressed disappointment with the president's performance. Many readers with whom we spoke said they were deeply frustrated with the way Bush handled issues such as the Iraq war, the economy and Hurricane Katrina. Watch Bush discuss handling of Katrina \u00bb . Cathy Cott, 49, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, vented her \"boiling anger\" on iReport.com. She voted Republican for 22 years until after the 2000 election when Bush won a narrow victory over Democrat Al Gore. She says she is now a registered Democrat who voted for Barack Obama. iReport.com: Bubbling over . \"I guess the simplest reason for my boiling anger is I have three kids and they will spend their lives paying for Bush's policies, wars, economic disasters and the general mess he is leaving behind both monetarily and in their general quality of life,\" Cott said. \"Eight years of frustration\" over the Iraq war and other military decisions inspired New York artist Ted Stanke to create painstakingly detailed and unmistakably symbolic artwork from toy soldiers. One piece shows a map of the United States with an inset globe made from the tiny fighters, while another depicts a bush constructed from the soldiers. iReport.com: See Stanke's toy soldier art . Some iReporters say they still support Bush, while others said they voted for him but changed their minds about him later. Kathi Cordsen is a Republican who describes herself as a Bush supporter. The Fullerton, California, resident says the September 11 attacks profoundly changed the way people perceived Bush. She says many people were too unwilling to give him a chance. iReport.com: In defense of Bush . \"He is a funny man, a kind man, a bit of a goofball and not very well-spoken,\" Cordsen said. \"But, he would not have been treated the way he is being treated now if not for 9\/11. His presidency was thwarted by the 'evildoers.' I love that term of his.\" Chuck Burkhard of Windber, Pennsylvania, hopes history will remember Bush as a strong man who loved his country. Burkard said the president juggled unprecedented challenges during his term, including dealing with terrorism and facing up to financial forces that may not have been under his control. Critics of Bush should look within themselves for answers, he said. iReport.com: Working overtime . \"Most of us are spoiled by a have-it-our-way-now and reckless generation that must stop borrowing so much and start working more. We shift blame instead of looking to ourselves for resolve and drive.\" Burkhard said he feels Bush is one of the most overworked presidents in history and has shouldered too much blame for the current state of the economy. \"I personally have never seen this much responsibility thrown onto our country, in such a small amount of time,\" Burkhard said. \"We are responsible for the world economy, the global war on terror, global warming. You name it, we have our hands in it.\" Chris Molisani of Rochester, New York, says September 11 was a defining moment, not just for Bush's presidency, but also in his own life. He was in high school and college during Bush's eight years in the White House. iReport.com: Look back on how Bush changed the country . He can scarcely remember the Bush presidency before 9\/11 and expects phrases such as \"weapons of mass destruction,\" \"Axis of Evil\" and \"You're either with us or against us\" to be associated permanently with him. He hopes for a brighter future with President-elect Barack Obama. \"History will likely be kinder to Bush than his contemporaries are, but a Washington, Lincoln or Roosevelt he will not become,\" Molisani said. \"What is interesting to note is that some of the worst presidents in history have been followed by the best presidents. Perhaps we will have a bright future to look forward to.\" Maria Davis of Prescott Valley, Arizona, voted twice for Bush but now regrets her decision. Her dislike for the Democratic candidates' running mates in 2000 and 2004 was a major factor, she said. iReport.com: Watch Davis discuss the pros and cons of the president's time . Although she wants Bush to get out of the national spotlight, she feels he needs to speak to the people and mend wounds. She hopes he will follow Sen. John McCain's example and make a gracious speech after the inauguration. \"Speak to the American people passionately and gracefully about Obama taking the presidency,\" Davis said. \"That would probably help people.\" His presidency wasn't all bad, she said. \"Well, he was good for 9\/11, and he caught Saddam [Hussein], but he ran the country into the ground with unneeded funding for an unneeded war in Iraq,\" she wrote. Overall, Davis has mixed feelings now and has felt uneasy for a long time. She was laid off from her job and is trying to run a home eBay business that barely pays rent. She is having trouble finding jobs that pay more than $7 per hour. Her brother, who has a house payment and a child to support, was recently laid off, as well. She hopes the country can rebuild. \"It's hell, it's absolutely hell,\" she said. \"I really hope Obama can fix the economy so we can have our lives again and live the American dream.\" The desire to dream again was a common theme, and many iReporters said they yearn for more hopeful times. Robin Savage of San Juan Capistrano, California, said Bush's greatest legacy is the passionate voter turnout he unintentionally inspired in the 2008 election. She said she is glad to see Obama's rise as a result. iReport.com: One last thing before he goes . \"I think the one thing President Bush will be remembered for is not being able to really connect with people. If you compared him to Obama, I tell you, what a difference there is.\" Patrick Finney of Portland, Oregon, said he felt there was a large disconnect between Bush and the American people. He says the president ignored what ordinary folks wanted. \"I am afraid that George Bush will be judged harshly by history,\" Finney said. \"I am also afraid that judgment will be deserved.\" But critics should be careful about taking aim at Bush, warns David P. Kronmiller of Burbank, California. \"I do not think we should be blaming him for the misery of the last eight years. He is not to blame. We are. You are, the American people. We voted him into office.\" iReport.com: The Bush paradox . Kronmiller says he voted for Bush in 2000, but not in 2004, adding that he feels Bush is responsible for day-to-day decisions that placed the country in a state he finds unfortunate. He watched the final presidential news conference and said he thinks Bush should have better addressed the hardships faced by residents who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. \"I learned my lesson in four years,\" Kronmiller says. Jimmy Deol of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, said he believes Bush had good intentions. \"I think he meant well,\" Deol said. \"I wholeheartedly believe it. In his convictions, he always thought he was doing the right thing. The people elected him. There must have been something people liked.\" iReport.com: Quotes and commentary . Deol said he thinks Bush should take time out to help the veterans of the war he helped create. Overall, he said, the meaning of the Bush presidency will be defined by those who pick up where he left off. \"The movement of change? That's Bush's legacy.\"","highlights":"iReport.com: Readers share impassioned, often angry, thoughts on Bush .\nCathy Cott says she feels frustration coming to a boil at the mention of him .\nChris Molisani says he can't remember Bush's years before September 11 .\nMaria Davis wants to see him give a unifying departing speech .","id":"551f3d88d05567e87b91bd9b222335605867604f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN agreed not to use the full names of the family in this article due to concern for their safety. Youssif is able to smile again, and his scars are healing well. Doctors are monitoring the swelling on his right ear. WOODLAND HILLS, California (CNN) -- Youssif happily pulls off his plastic face mask and pats his cheeks, which were once covered by horrific burns. \"No hurt,\" the 5-year-old Iraqi boy says in English. \"No hurt.\" He then shows off his right hand. It too had been marred by hardened scar tissue after he was attacked by masked men outside his central Baghdad home January 15, 2007. Now, his hand is smooth. Youssif flashes a proud grin. A few moments later, he darts off and comes back toting his kindergarten portfolio. In less than a month of schooling, he's now writing the alphabet in upper- and lowercase. See photos of a transformed Youssif \u00bb . He reads a book, repeating each word after the narrator. When he gets to the word \"you,\" he gets tickled. He points at the name \"Youssif\" and then covers the final four letters. \"You,\" he says. Youssif began attending an American school just last month, one year to the day after he was so savagely attacked in Baghdad. In a recent letter to those who have helped his son, Youssif's father described the anniversary as a \"very hard day\" to endure but one that also brought joy. \"But this year, it was the day for another miracle, Youssif's first day of kindergarten. It was a very happy day,\" Youssif's father said. Youssif begins each day with his father strapping him into a bike trailer. Dad then pedals him to school. On one recent outing, his dad's mobile phone blared Arabic music as Youssif quietly sat in the back, a helmet securely strapped to his head, the wind whirling past. As soon as they reached the school, Youssif's slow walk away from his father, his head held down, quickly changed into a sprint toward his classroom, and all you could see was the big red \"S\" on his Superman backpack flying away. \"Harry,\" Youssif says in a small, muffled tone, reading the writing on the dry-erase board after receiving a little help from some classmates seated on the rug. Watch Youssif-inspired music video \u00bb . He then receives a congratulatory high-five from one of his kindergarten teachers. Youssif is adjusting well to school, able to write out the alphabet and count to 12 without hesitation. He always finishes with an accomplished sigh, wide eyes and a smile so big, it's as if he is making up for the 10 months he was not able to smile. He is quick to show the pencil box on his desk, pointing to his name written on it and then pointing to himself with the same tiny finger and nodding his head, letting you know that it is his. \"The kids love Youssif. They get more excited than he does when he learns a new word in English, and they brag about it for hours,\" the mother of a classmate says. Youssif is attending the school thanks to help from the Children's Burn Foundation, the Grossman Burn Center and hundreds of thousands of dollars donated by you, the CNN.com user, to help bring him and his family to the United States for treatment. Youssif has undergone more than half a dozen surgeries. One removed the most massive scarring, which stretched about half a foot, from one of his ears to below his chin. See how doctors removed Youssif's scars \u00bb . He could undergo as many as 12 more procedures, his doctors say, mostly to tweak scars. His right ear has swelled, and doctors are monitoring it to figure out the best way to keep it in check. He wears a clear plastic face mask for much of the day to keep his skin tight and to allow it to heal correctly. But the young boy's transformation -- both in looks and in spirit -- is nothing short of remarkable. Back at his apartment, Youssif peels a clementine. He uses exaggerated motions as he plops each section in his mouth. At one point, he places his hand on his hip and taps his foot, waiting for an acknowledgment of this feat. When he came to America in September, he couldn't eat -- or at least not like this. He smiles again. \"Now, Youssif eats anything he wants, because he can open and close his mouth,\" his father said in the letter. \"I have begun to see my son's lively spirit return. The surgeries have removed more than just external scars, they are also beginning to remove his internal scars. \"A few weeks ago we went to the park and Youssif rode on the merry-go-round. Every time he passed by, he shrieked and laughed and waved wildly to me. I thought my heart would burst with happiness.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Youssif began attending school in metro LA one year to the day of his attack .\nBoy burned in Iraq is already writing the alphabet and counting .\nDad says, \"I have begun to see my son's lively spirit return\"","id":"55d6bad270142ba3e9ae4f560be9038116f9888c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Despite the rain, \"Slumdog Millionaire\" shone brightly at the British Academy Awards Sunday, scooping a clutch of honors. \"Slumdog Millionaire\" director Danny Boyle shields composer A.R. Rahman from the rain as they arrive Sunday at the BAFTA awards in London. Not even the drizzle could dampen Danny Boyle's spirits as \"Slumdog,\" his Mumbai-set rags to riches movie phenomenon won a remarkable seven awards at the glitziest night in the UK film calendar. \"You make a film like this and you just hope and pray it will be seen by a few people,\" the British director told CNN. \"And the journey it's been on, the reception it's had around the world, has just been extraordinary.\" Watch Danny Boyle, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto talking about \"Slumdog\" on the red carpet. As was widely expected, following its haul of four Golden Globes last month including Best Motion Picture, \"Slumdog\" took the Best Film award. \"I'd like to acknowledge the blood, sweat and tears of our cast,\" said the film's producer, Christian Colson who accepted the award. \"The film you saw is the film Danny Boyle imagined and it's very rare you can say that. He dreamed the dream, 24-hours a day, seven days a week for two and a half years.\" Boyle's labors were recognized by the Academy, handing him the Director award, which he can add to the BAFTA he won for debut feature \"Shallow Grave\" in 1995. \"Slumdog\" has touched audiences and critics alike. Boyle thinks the film's extraordinary effect is down to its universal message of hope. \"It's the contrast I think between where the kid comes from and what he achieves,\" said Boyle. \"And he achieves everything on his own terms, and that gives you a kind of hope, really, which we all, no matter how romantic it is, we all need that.\" Watch Bollywood legend and \"Slumdog\" star Anil Kapoor talking about the \"Slumdog\" phenomenon. \"Slumdog\" also won the Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Music, Sound and Editing awards. Closest rival David Fincher's \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,\" which was up for 11 awards, bagged only three. These included a richly-deserved Make Up & Hair award for the feat of transforming Brad Pitt into an octogenarian baby to tell the curious story of a man who is born old and gets younger as he ages. Actress Kate Winslet also continued her success streak, scoring the Leading Actress honor for her powerful portrayal of a former-Nazi concentration camp guard in Stephen Daldry's \"The Reader.\" Conversely, Winslet both won and lost the award having been nominated twice in the same category, which included Meryl Streep for \"Doubt,\" and Kristin Scott Thomas for \"I've Loved You So Long.\" But most eyes were on the actress to see if there would be a repeat performance of the breathlessly incoherent acceptance speech she made at the Golden Globes last month after winning two awards. \"These are really special moments. And I don't want to waste them,\" Winslet told CNN on the red carpet before going on to accept her award with no tears or obvious emotion. Instead she simply thanked her parents and the late Anthony Minghella and the late Sydney Pollack, two of the film's producers. Watch Kate Winslet talking about her \"amazing year\" on the red carpet. Reformed Hollywood badboy Mickey Rourke provided the only mild controversy of the night with a few expletives in his acceptance speech for the Best Actor award. \"Thank you Darren Aronofsky who gave me a second chance after I'd f***ed up my career for 15 years. Such a pleasure to be here, and be out of the darkness,\" he told the audience. Earlier, the actor told CNN how things have changed for him since the accolades started pouring in for his extraordinary performance in Aronofsky's \"The Wrestler.\" \"I got a whole bunchy of new friends that I don't need,\" Rourke said. \"But I've also heard from some people that I'd worked with years ago that I'd burned bridges with that have come around. \"It's taken me a long time to change and come back and do things the right way. I'm just grateful for the second chance.\" There were also gongs for Spain's Penelope Cruz, who took home Supporting Actress for her fiery scene-stealing performance as an unhinged artist in Woody Allen's \"Vicky Cristina Barcelona,\" and the late Heath Ledger whose chilling reinvention of the Joker in Christopher Nolan's \"The Dark Knight\" was recognized with the Supporting Actor award. Now, as attention turns to the upcoming Oscars, \"Slumdog's\" BAFTA wins will only increase the momentum behind the Best Picture nominee. After success at both the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, Kate Winslet could also be justified in looking forward to the Oscars with confidence.","highlights":"\"Slumdog Millionaire\" wins seven prizes at British film awards .\nMickey Rourke named best actor; Kate Winslet named best actress .\nPenelope Cruz, late Heath Ledger win supporting actor awards .","id":"994341fa7e634d176b3a600ec7d4f6a565d53de5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Dutch international Clarence Seedorf has revealed he is flattered to be linked with a move to Premier League Chelsea but insists he will still be an AC Milan player next season. Clarence Seedorf wants to remain with AC Milan, despite Carlo Ancelotti's recent switch to Chelsea. There has been speculation that the 33-year-old midfielder could move to Stamford Bridge to link up with his former Rossoneri coach Carlo Ancelotti, who was confirmed as Blues manager on June 1. But the player is not interested in moving to the English Premier League and has told his own official Web site: \"It's beautiful news, that Ancelotti wants me in London, but next year I will still be playing for Milan. \"I have a contract with Milan and I am a player of Milan. I hope to still play for at the San Siro for at least three or four more years. After that I have a whole lifetime ahead of me to do good.\" Seedorf played for six-and-a half years under Ancelotti at Milan. Together they won two Champions League titles, the Club World Cup, two European Super Cups, the Coppa Italia and Italian Supercoppa. His comments will come as a welcome boost to Milan following the sale of Seedorf's fellow-midfielder Kaka to Real Madrid.","highlights":"Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf says that he has no plans to quit AC Milan .\nSeedorf was replying to rumors linking him with Premier League side Chelsea .\nSeedorf's former coach Carlo Ancelotti recently left San Siro to coach Chelsea .","id":"b61438ec34641178a04913c236bd99eb18331038"} -{"article":"CAMEMBERT, France (CNN) -- We're up in the north central part of France -- Normandy -- to see what's happening with French cheese. Cheese lovers will be happy to know, just about nothing, at least as far as the traditional cheeses are concerned. Cheese from the Camembert region now carries the same cachet as a chateau label for wine. But for the milk industry in general, it's another story. It has now a larger annual turnover than the steel industry in France (which admittedly is in decline.) Somehow the French have figured a way to export dairy products to people who already have cows and their own dairy industries-- to the tune of nearly \u20ac4 billion ($6 billion) per year. CNN spoke to a few of the people who do just that everyday and who are part of the changing face of France. Philippe Meslon, the mayor of Saint-Loup de Fribois and the administrator of the Saint-Loup cheese works says: \"A camembert not made out of raw milk is like making love without sex. \"A Frenchman is someone who cultivates with modern evolution his past. It's someone who protects moral values, cultural values and artistic values, and when I say cultural values I would include camembert.\" Meslon and small cheese makers like Francois Durand, who has 40 cows, have struggled and won the right to an Appelation d'Origine Controllee -- the mark AOC for their \"Camembert de Normandie\" which carries the same cachet as a chateau label for wine. For Durand making cheese is about not cutting corners. \"You have to have the passion,\" he says. \"Yes it's difficult because it means a lot of work. We make it all by hand. I do believe it is important because the cheese is an emblem of France. It is a gastronomic emblem.\" Still some small cheesemakers have been driven out of business and the taste and smell of their particular cheeses are lost to the world forever. For Michel Delorme it was a combination of new, more stringent rules and his age that led him to quit producing his handmade Camemberts. Michel Delorme: \"It's more and more complicated for those who stay in the business. They must hold out! Yes I miss the cheese a little. That's true. But I've kept my souvenirs, you see I've kept my old milk cans so I can stay in the spirit of Camembert!\" Despite those who've quit, the actual number of the variety of cheeses in France is growing. At the last cheese census more than 1,000 different kinds of cheeses were made here. The milk industry is no small cheese in France, thanks to the efforts of people like Philippe Jachnik who travels the world endlessly promoting milk products, which these days include protein supplements and milk derivatives that can go into all sorts of processed food. Jachnik, who works for the milk marketing consortium, says: \"I really would say I am selling the French approach to milk. We EAT a lot of milk. We DRINK a lot of water, wine, beer and coffee. But drinking milk is not a big business here. \"France has developed technological and marketing knowledge about adding value to a raw material-- milk. I have been traveling for 40 years all around the world and I feel so welcome. When you are French and you demonstrate that being French you can listen to others, people are interested in knowing about this country, about its people, about the way of life here.\" Jachnik must be doing a good job as it's not just abroad that the French are selling more milk products-- cheese consumption in France has doubled from 12 to 24 kilos per person per year. It seems there's no curding their enthusiasm ... E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Milk industry is booming in France, now has larger turnover than steel industry .\nDairy industry worth $6 billion, French eat 24 kilos of dairy per person a year .\nCheesemaker: Cheese is gastronomic emblem of France .\nLast cheese census found around 1,000 different kinds of cheeses in France .","id":"4cac5287442087a69103407f6b25c5bb038355e5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- After a lifetime of playing characters past-their-prime, Clint Eastwood appears to still be enjoying his own. Clint Eastwood stars as inspector Harry Callahan in \"Dirty Harry\" (1971). Just last week the 78-year-old actor, best-known for his portrayal of \"tough guys\" like \"Dirty Harry,\" was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival. The American film-maker accepted the Palme d'Or (only the second they've ever given for lifetime achievement), while he was in town promoting his new film \"Gran Torino.\" What is your favorite Clint Eastwood movie? Tell us below in the SoundOff box. Eastwood both directs and co-stars in \"Gran Torino,\" as a prejudiced Korean war veteran who comes to the rescue of troubled Asian teens who live next door. For Eastwood the honor caps a 40 year career acting, directing, producing and composing. During this time, he has won five Academy Awards, five Golden Globes and received many more nominations. The Hollywood veteran earned perhaps most acclaim for two films: \"Unforgiven\" (1992) and \"Million Dollar Baby\" (2004). For each of these films he was awarded both Best Director and Best Picture Oscars, as well as being nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Eastwood got his break in 1959, landing the role of Rowdy Yates in the television series \"Rawhide.\" A successful seven-year run helped turn Eastwood into a household name and landed him several other roles in so-called Spaghetti Western films, including the hit \"A Fist Full of Dollars\" (1964), directed by Sergio Leone. Leone then re-hired Eastwood for two more successful films: \"For a Few More Dollars\" (1965) and \"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly\" (1966). The trilogy earned Eastwood greater fame and a reputation for playing tough-guy, gun-slinging cowboys. Eastwood found another friend in director Don Siegel who gave him perhaps his most iconic role, starring in \"Dirty Harry\" (1971) as no-nonsense, \"loose-cannon\" cop Harry Callahan. The film was such a hit that it four spin off sequels were made: \"Magnum Force\" (1973), \"The Enforcer\" (1976), \"Sudden Impact\" (1983) (the highest grossing film of the series), and \"The Dead Pool\" (1988). In the 1990s Eastwood returned to westerns -- this time as director as well as star -- earning critical acclaim and a monumental nine Oscar nominations for \"Unforgiven\" (1992). Throughout the decade he also had considerable success helming blockbuster projects, like \"In the Line of Fire\" (1993), \"Bridges of Madison County\" (1995) and \"True Crime\" (1999). In 2000 Eastwood co-starred in the box-office hit \"Space Cowboys.\" In 2004, he put employed his entire array of movie skills directing, producing, scoring and co-starring alongside Hillary Swank in boxing drama \"Million Dollar Baby.\" Until his most recent return to the screen in \"Gran Torino,\" Eastwood had been concentrating on directing, releasing two films about World War II in 2006, \"Flags of our Fathers\" and \"Letters from Iwo Jima\" and directing Angelina Jolie to BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar nominations this year in \"Changeling.\" Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is the only other film-maker to have received the Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement from the Cannes Film Festival.","highlights":"Clint Eastwood wins a Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement .\nIngmar Berman is the only other filmmaker to have received this honor .\nEastwood directs and stars in his new film \"Gran Torino\"\n\"Dirty Harry\" star still enjoys playing gun-slinging \"tough guys\"","id":"e714ab612b5d98634ff8d71e8c01d435f9808a6b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A yellow smiley-face badge, smeared with blood, has become the trademark for \"Watchmen,\" the most critically revered of all comic-books -- but it could also represent its troubled journey from page to big screen. \"Watchmen\" opens with the unexplained murder of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Note smiley badge. The subject of fervent debate in the geekosphere for more than two decades, \"Watchmen,\" finally rolls out in the U.S. and other territories from the first week of March onward. But it's not as well known to wider audiences, who may puzzle at all this heat about a superhero movie with no A-list star attached. Instead, they may simply ask: \"Watch-what?\" Are you looking forward to \"Watchmen?\" Or think it's just hype? Tell us your views . \"Watchmen,\" created by the UK comic-book team of writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, surfaced in 1986 as a monthly 12-issue series published by DC Comics (part of Time-Warner, which owns CNN parent company Turner Broadcasting). It was a defining year for the medium: aside from \"Watchmen,\" '86 also saw Pulitzer-prize winning holocaust drama \"Maus,\" from The New Yorker contributor Art Spielgeman; and Frank Miller's hyperviolent Batman reworking \"The Dark Knight Returns.\" \"Watchmen,\" set in 1985, sets up a parallel world in which America never lost Vietnam, Russia is about to invade Afghanistan and Nixon still holds power (Bernstein and Woodward were murdered). Meanwhile a superhero team -- only one of whom has special powers -- reforms after a fellow operative is mysteriously slain. So far, so what. But what lifts \"Watchmen\" is a complex, multi-layered narrative and depth of characterization that ensured it was the only comic-book to make Time's 100 best novels since 1923. A dark, downbeat work with a heady 11th-hour twist, it puts as much store on subsidiary characters like a newspaper seller as its does blue-skinned man-god Dr Manhattan. Watch \"Watchmen\" trailer. \u00bb . Perfect fodder, one might think, for the multiplex -- but \"Watchmen\" has been lodged in Development Hell for the best part of two decades. At various times Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vin Diesel were mooted to play Manhattan; Mickey Rourke and Ed Norton suggested for right-wing vigilante Rorschach. Directors set to shoot have included Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greengrass and David Hayter (whose script has been retained for much of the final film). Several planned shoots failed to materialize due to studio fears about the budget (locations include Antarctica and Mars as well as New York) and how the ending might be perceived in a post-9\/11 world. But film-makers such as Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro also believed that the complex material would be better treated as a TV mini-series (as the \"Pan's Labyrinth\" film-maker told IGN: \"I just couldn't get my head around 'Watchmen' being two or three hours long.\") Whoever made \"Watchmen\" would also do so without Moore's blessing. Still resident in his hometown of Northampton, central England, Moore cuts an imposing figure. At least six-and-a-half feet tall, with chest-length beard and hair, talon-like rings on his fingers and the skull of a centuries-old Buddhist monk in his study, he resembles Doctor Who as reimagined by Edgar Allan Poe. (In person he's gracious and affable, as this writer will attest from a few years back). Moore has had a mixed relationship with both the mainstream comic-book industry (which he accuses of over-commercialization and exploiting creators' rights) and Hollywood. The comic-book series \"From Hell,\" in which Moore uses the Jack the Ripper killings as a precursor to 20th-century violence, runs to about 500 pages, including 40-plus pages of footnotes. On film it became a melodramatic pad around Victorian London, gamely carried by a pre-\"Pirates\" Johnny Depp. Two other Moore adaptations also failed to translate. Stephen Norrington's \"The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen\" (2003) was widely derided and the subject of a court case into which Moore was dragged; by the time of James McTeigue's better judged \"V For Vendetta\" (2005), Moore had asked his name be taken off any movie adaptations and refused to take royalties. Enter Zack Snyder. In 2004, Snyder came to the attention of mainstream cinemagoers with his well-regarded remake of George A Romero's zombie flick \"Dawn of The Dead.\" Following the $450m-plus taken worldwide by Snyder's \"300\" (2006) -- a hyper-stylized take on Frank Miller's ancient Greek suicide-mission -- it was announced that \"Watchmen\" would be his next project with Warner Bros. Paramount, which abandoned plans for the movie in 2005, took international rights. The $150-million feature went into production in Vancouver in mid-2007, wrapping in early 2008, and with a cast including Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley. Snyder has retained \"Watchmen's\" 1980s setting and also recruited original artist Gibbons -- who still retains friendship with Moore -- to advise on production design. Mindful that a narrative so complex could never work as a movie, Snyder has jettisoned several parallel subplots, which will surface as DVD extras and in director's cuts. Word is that the ending has also been changed. But wary of over-tweaking, Snyder told Entertainment Weekly last year: \"You can't make it into something else, you really can't. It's not 'Fantastic Four,' it's got to be hard R [cinema rating], it's got to challenge everyone's ideas.\" Meanwhile Moore, who sometimes mentions that he worships a Roman snake-god, hinted in the LA Times that he had cursed the feature. \"I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come,\" he added. So was it Moore who saw \"Watchmen\" end up in the courts for a case that risked scuppering its release? Last year Twentieth Century Fox claimed it still retained rights through an earlier deal with producer Lawrence Gordon in the 1980s; Warners Bros disagreed but a judge decided there was a case to answer. A settlement was eventually thrashed out last month, only weeks ahead of release. And so \"Watchmen\" ticks toward early March and a rollout in spring, the now-traditional season for edgier comic-book adaptations like \"300\" and \"Sin City.\" Trailers and early footage have drawn praise, with several scenes playing like detailed frames from the original artwork. But key will be whether Snyder can match \"Watchmen's\" dramatic beats against its green-screen chicanery for more than two hours (IMDB lists the running time at 163 minutes). After all, successfully mixing pyrotechnics and narrative is how the most satisfying genre features of recent years -- such as Peter Jackson's \"Lord Of The Rings\" trilogy and Christopher Nolan's \"The Dark Knight\" -- have found artistic, as well as commercial, favor. Should Snyder pull it off then will he earn the gratitude of fan boys everywhere, as well as no small thanks from a fair few movie executives. What Alan Moore might think is another issue.","highlights":"Comic-book movie, directed by Zack Snyder, took two decades to reach cinemas .\nDirectors Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greengrass, previously attached .\nSource material regarded by many as the best comic-book ever written .\nCo-creator Alan Moore has objected to the idea of story being made into movie .","id":"f80aebe761ea76f539b72139ff1b660fffb39981"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The designers behind a \"thinking\" yacht are hoping to break a world record by sending it across the Atlantic Ocean without any human assistance. The autonomous yacht Avalon is hoisted to have her keel put in place before launching . The four-meter boat, \"Avalon\", was designed and built by an eight-strong team of third-year engineering students at Swiss science university ETH Zurich. The students are planning to take the boat to a robotic sailing regatta in July, before launching it into the Microtransat Transatlantic challenge in early September. Using sensors to detect the speed and direction of the wind, the boat is programmed to reach a given co-ordinate and will attain it by automatically adapting to the changing conditions. One of the \"Students Sailing Autonomously\" (SSA) team's project managers, Hendrik Erckens, told CNN that if the Atlantic crossing succeeds it will be a world record as an unmanned boat has not previously made the voyage. It is planned the crossing will begin from the west coast of Ireland and finish in the Caribbean. \"For us the Microtransat challenge is the big goal. I'm pretty confident we can do it. This week in testing it is pretty much doing what it's supposed to do. And it is water tight. \"Over the last couple of days we tried some autonomous tacks and jibes and now we are testing the navigation,\" he said. See photos of the autonomous yacht from construction to launch \u00bb . The team has been working on the project since September 2008, and are currently at the on-water testing stage, having designed and built the boat. While the team will be able to track the boat through an onboard global positioning system (GPS) during the transatlantic voyage, Erckens said as long as the challenge is active they won't have any control over the vessel. \"We will set it out and it will be completely autonomous. There are solar cells on the back for power and extra power supplies on board. \"There is a satellite communication system on board and the boat can download weather information by itself so it can calculate the best route to travel,\" he said. Erckens said the team is positive that the carbon-fibre boat will survive the rough Atlantic seas -- an issue that has stopped many manned crossings before -- including Richard Branson's attempt at the fastest transatlantic crossing aboard the 99-foot Virgin Money last fall. \"We feel our advantage over other teams is that we are mechanical engineers. We have designed this boat ourselves and exactly for this purpose.\" Erckens said the idea could one day offer a new autopilot option for large yachts. \"The idea came as there are autopilots for boats out there, but currently the commercially available autopilots only steer the rudder. We are looking to control the sails as well.\"","highlights":"University students at ETH Zurich have designed and built a robotic boat .\nThe boat needs no sailors and uses sensors to sail in changing conditions .\nIt is hoped the yacht will sail autonomously across the Atlantic Ocean .\nIf it succeeds it would be the first Atlantic crossing by an unmanned boat .","id":"689b0f5b5c08307f004e79aab2b3f9cbe7465c7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama won a battle against Somali pirates. But does he really want to go to war? The USS Bainbridge tows a lifeboat in which the captain of the Maersk Alabama was held hostage. You may have seen the headlines in the last few days: a Somali pirate attack and hostage-taking ended with a precision operation by U.S. snipers and a successful rescue. Somali pirates have been the scourge of the Horn of Africa for years. They've attacked dozens of ships and taken hundreds of hostages from several countries. The attack on the Maersk Alabama was the first on an American ship. But when it was over, Obama made a particularly broad pledge. \"We are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region,\" Obama said. \"We're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks. We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise.\" See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa \u00bb . Experts say that means addressing the anarchy ashore which allows the pirates to operate. Somalia is a failed state, where lawlessness is a license for every kind of criminal enterprise. James Christodoulou of Industrial Shipping Enterprises Corporation told CNN that if the US wants to do something about piracy, it has to \"go to Somalia and deal with the cause there. Whether it's with bullets or butter, the solution lies on land not at sea.\" The U.S. tried once before to impose order in Somalia, with disastrous results. It led a humanitarian mission to oversee the delivery of food aid that turned into an armed operation against local warlords. More than 40 U.S. personnel were killed before U.S. forces withdrew. That's the challenge facing the leader of every nation whose ships have fallen prey to the pirates. An international effort has been underway to patrol the troubled waters. The French navy has been particularly active. But no one has rushed onto Somali soil. The Obama administration is already managing wars in two countries. Wait and see whether it's really willing to risk a third.","highlights":"President Barack Obama says U.S. is committed to tackling piracy off Somalia .\nHostage captain of U.S. cargo ship rescued in U.S. Navy operation this week .\nBut experts say tackling piracy on seas means tackling failed state of Somalia .\nWith wars in two countries, is Obama willing to risk getting involved in another?","id":"4c4b5bd1ffc5caad6ca51d95a2e40483b5a2a42f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Natalie Cole's search for a new kidney ended this week when someone with a compatible organ died and their family asked that it be given to the singer, according to the organ procurement group that handled the donation. Natalie Cole received a kidney transplant Tuesday in Los Angeles. Cole, who underwent a successful kidney transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles Tuesday, was \"responding well and recuperating\" Thursday, her publicist said. Cole had been on what she called \"a very long list\" of people waiting for an organ donation when she got word recently that OneLegacy, an organ procurement agency in Southern California, had a kidney that was a biological match. It was a \"directed donation\" from a deceased organ donor, according to OneLegacy CEO Tom Mone. \"Having heard of Ms. Cole's need for a kidney, the family asked that one of their loved one's kidneys be transplanted to Ms. Cole if they were a match,\" Mone said. Directed organ donations are rare, and rarer still are those directed to someone not related to or known personally by the deceased, he said. The donor will remain anonymous until the family gives permission for the name to be made public, he said. Cole's need for a kidney donation was highly publicized, including with an appearance on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on March 31. \"I'm on a very long list, which is why we are looking to donors,\" said Cole, the daughter of legendary crooner Nat King Cole. Cole said her kidney troubles date to February 2008 when she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. Cole said she attributes the Hepatitis C to her well-publicized struggles to stop using cocaine and heroin. Cole said she has been sober for some time now after two stints in a rehabilitation clinic. Cole said she underwent chemotherapy in an aggressive way to fight the virus. Within four months of getting chemotherapy, both of Cole's kidneys failed. \"I couldn't breathe. I -- I went into -- literally, my kidneys stopped functioning. They stopped, you know, processing the fluid that was starting to build up in my body.\" Since then Cole has been on dialysis three days a week and has been searching for a kidney, she told King in one of the first public interviews about the issue. Cole won six Grammys for her 1991 critically acclaimed album \"Unforgettable: With Love,\" a jazzy tribute to her father. She won a Grammy this year for her new album \"Still Unforgettable\" and another Grammy for her work on another album. Cole was still able to tour this year even with her kidney ailment. She canceled a planned show last week in South Korea because of her illness, which meant she was in Los Angeles when the organ became available. \"I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It's -- it's amazing,\" Cole said. During King's show, dozens of people sent e-mails to CNN telling Cole that they would get tested to see if their kidney could be donated. King handed a thick stack of paper to Cole. \"These are all e-mails from dozens -- dozens of people offering to be tested to see if they can match, who want to give you a kidney,\" King said. Cole stared at the papers for a moment. \"There are some great human beings out there. That's all I can say,\" Cole said. Cole is expected to return to the tour after three to four months of recovery. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Natalie Cole's new kidney came from deceased fan; fan's family asked for Cole .\nNatalie Cole underwent kidney transplant surgery Tuesday .\nSinger received supportive e-mails when on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" in March .","id":"32ab320dd6703c48eaf4f24fb380a05faca5805d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A process that started months ago among White House lawyers to compile a list of possible Supreme Court picks has accelerated with word Justice David Souter plans to step down from the bench in June. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the only female high court justice. Women likely will be high on the Souter successor list. The nominee would give President Obama an immediate opportunity to place his stamp on the nation's highest court, and perhaps to begin cementing his legacy with a lifetime appointment to that bench. Obama on Friday said he will seek \"somebody with a sharp, independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity.\" That person must honor traditions, respect the judicial process and share Obama's grasp of constitutional values, he said. The president said he intends to consult with people in both political parties as he makes his choice to replace Souter. Legal sources say Obama's legal team will begin refocusing what had been an aggressive effort to fill federal vacancies on lower federal court seats. Now their attention will be directed into a search for Souter's replacement. Administration officials have been working closely with key senators and Democratic legal advisers on possible choices. \"The [Obama] White House and the Justice Department certainly have people there already thinking about the issues, compiling lists, starting to vet the backgrounds of those candidates,\" said Edward Lazarus, a Supreme Court legal expert and a legal adviser during the Obama transition. A mix of federal judges and political allies are among the names the administration is said to be informally considering, said legal and political sources. Among them are federal appeals court judges Sonia Sotomayor, 55, of New York; Diane Wood, 59, of Chicago; and Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Those sources say women candidates will be at or near the top of the list of finalists. \"The president has long recognized the need for more gender diversity on the high court,\" said one source who asked not to be identified. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76, is the only woman on the high court. Sotomayor is near the top of the list of many sources consulted by CNN. She is a Hispanic-American named a federal trial judge by President Bush in 1992 and elevated to her seat in 1996. Her supporters call her a moderate who would enjoy bipartisan support in the Senate. But conservative legal blogs in recent weeks have been sharply questioning her judicial philosophy, perhaps anticipating a high court vacancy. Fights over judicial nominees have grown increasingly partisan and nasty in recent years, sparked by the confirmation fights over Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court. Bork was rejected by lawmakers, while Thomas sits on the high court. Many of President George W. Bush's judicial choices were blocked by Democratic senators, and his two Supreme Court picks were the subject of massive ad campaigns launched by advocacy groups on both sides of the political debate. Conservatives have vowed to give Obama the same treatment over his choices. Most of Bush's lower court choices were not named until August 2001, seven months into his first term. The political and practical stakes are high. Sources have said privately the president is not interested in choosing \"extreme\" liberals to the bench, an idea echoed by some legal analysts. Watch CNN's Bill Schneider examine Obama's options \u00bb . \"I don't expect to see President Obama naming some real firebrands, the kind that might be real lightning-rods for controversial confirmation hearings,\" said Lazarus. Conservatives \"are assuming that in his heart of hearts, Obama is an activist, old-fashioned, liberal firebrand on judicial issues, and, at least if one goes by what President Obama has written on the subject, he's not.\" Obama, a Harvard Law School graduate, has taught constitutional law in Chicago. Republicans have warned the White House not to shut them out of the overall judicial selection process. In a March 2 letter, 41 GOP senators urged Obama \"to consult with us as it considers possible nominations to the federal courts from our states.\" If not consulted, they said, \"The Republican Conference will be unable to support moving forward on that nominee.\" Watch CNN's Dana Bash report on how Republicans might respond \u00bb . Translation, say liberal groups: filibusters and obstructionist tactics. \"Republican senators fought hard against some of President Clinton's candidates,\" said Nan Aron, who heads the the Alliance for Justice. \"I think we saw it during Eric Holder's hearing [for attorney general]. Republican senators were testing out messages, not designed to deny confirmation to Eric Holder but to test them to see whether those tactics would work with some of Obama's judicial nominees,\" Aron said. \"That's going to happen. There's no question about it.\" The fight over Souter's seat could be just the opening act to perhaps two more high court vacancies under Obama. Bush burnished his conservative credentials by naming Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the high court, and helped increase the overall conservative bent of most federal courts. Republicans have controlled the White House -- and thereby court nominations -- in 28 of the last 40 years. Seven of the nine high court members were named by GOP presidents. Obama has said Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- liberals named by President Clinton -- are his kind of judges, but Obama has spoken only in general terms about the type of person he would nominate. \"I will look for those judges who have an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect, and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through,\" he said at the October 15 presidential debate.","highlights":"President Obama has chance to place his stamp on the Supreme Court .\nSources: Women candidates to be at or near the top of the list .\nRepublicans hint at confirmation confrontation if they are ignored .\nSeven of the nine high court members were named by GOP presidents .","id":"6b8ee15b78ef86816e3dd9901affec1188ff4d5e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The question is starting to feel a little old: Whom will Barack Obama pick as his vice president? Sen. Barack Obama has a big event scheduled Saturday. Will his No. 2 man (or woman) be by his side? With the clock ticking (the Democratic VP candidate delivers a big speech next Wednesday) the announcement is at most days and at least a few hours away. Everyday seems to be \"the day,\" the day the guessing game will finally end. In a poke at all of the VP buzz, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail to reporters Wednesday with the subject line \"Vice presidential ...\" The first line of the e-mail: \"Just kidding.\" The e-mail contained details about Obama's schedule with no mention of any of the potential vice presidential candidates. But if the top contenders have any inside information, they're doing a good job of keeping quiet. Sen. Joe Biden told reporters camped outside his Delaware home Tuesday that it's not him. \"You got better things to do, guys; I'm not the guy,\" he said. Asked where he would be Saturday -- when Obama is reportedly scheduled to hold a campaign event in Springfield, Illinois, that may feature his new running mate -- Biden replied, \"here,\" pointing to his driveway. He softened up a little later that night, telling reporters, \"I promise you, I don't know anything.\" Along with Biden, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine are considered to be among the top tier of VP contenders. Watch the latest on Obama's VP selection \u00bb . Bayh has managed to stay out of the spotlight this week. Does that mean he's dodging the question? He hit the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend and tried out the attack dog role, criticizing Republican John McCain for his stance on Georgia, Iraq and national security. When asked about the veepstakes, the former governor said he had \"nothing to report today.\" Kaine, on the other hand, seems to have no qualms about taking the main stage this week. A relative newcomer to national politics, Kaine is scheduled to appear alongside Obama on Thursday as the presumptive Democratic nominee campaigns in central Virginia. Could he be introduced as Obama's No. 2 man? The pair will host an invitation-only town hall meeting Thursday in Chesterfield County, a suburb of Richmond. Kaine's sturdy performance in the traditionally conservative Richmond suburbs helped vault him to the governorship in 2005. Obama has stops scheduled in Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday before returning home to Illinois for the Springfield event, which takes place where he first kicked off his presidential run. The event marks the beginning of a tour of battleground states leading into next week's convention in Denver, Colorado. The Obama campaign has kept the details on both the timing and selection of the running mate under wraps. They would neither confirm or deny whether Obama would appear with his VP candidate this weekend. iReport.com: Whom do you think Obama should pick? Although the focus in recent days has been on Bayh, Biden and Kaine, there are quite a few other serious contenders, and a curveball pick could always be in the works. Other big names thought to be in the running include retired Gen. Wesley Clark, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Obama's campaign says that when he makes up his mind, he'll send a text message and e-mail to his supporters to let them know who his sidekick will be.","highlights":"Democratic VP candidate gives big speech next Wednesday at convention .\nBarack Obama's campaign sends e-mail with subject: \"Vice presidential ...\"\nEvan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine considered top tier contenders .\nObama has big campaign event Saturday; VP pick could join him .","id":"bc8c4aaf7e727c7c5ac1370123ef2c82210b0c36"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Walking through a maze of narrow streets south of Tiananmen Square, Nick Frisch appeared unfazed by the sight of drastic changes -- traditional courtyard houses that once lined up these hutongs, or alleys, now in different stages of being knocked down. Nick Frisch's underground exploration in Beijing has attracted the attention of a Singapore TV crew. While the Qianmen area is going through an extreme makeover -- a restoration of its Qing dynasty flavor ahead of the Olympics -- Frisch's destination is safe from the city's ubiquitous wrecking balls. Upon reaching the entrance to the Underground City, however, he was told it was closed for \"renovation,\" just like the surrounding neighborhood. \"It's like they're trying to literally bury this place before the Games,\" said Frisch, a recent graduate of Columbia University in the United States, with a major in history and Chinese language. This place is a vast network of tunnels built beneath Beijing's city center during the 1970s in anticipation of a nuclear war with the Soviets. Covering an area of 85 square kilometers and containing 1,000 anti-air raid structures, the subterranean complex was said to have been mostly hand-dug by 300,000 local residents. \"The plan was to move half of Beijing's population underground and the other half to western hills in the event of a nuclear attack,\" Frisch explained. The 22-year-old New York native has lived in China on and off for a year and is fascinated by the bomb shelter and its history. After the authorities opened part of the Underground City as a tourist attraction to woo foreigners, he turned a routine visit to an adventure in 2006. Armed with a flashlight, Frisch veered off from the mandatory guided tour. Moving sandbags and unchaining doors, he explored the off-limit area and found rooms with bunk beds and decayed cardboard boxes of water purifiers. \"It's more than just propaganda posters down there -- it really is a parallel universe, with street signs stenciled on the wall,\" Frisch said. Since then, Frisch has discovered other shelters linked to the network -- many of them turned to cheap hostels -- on busy streets. Not surprisingly, the time-warped part of the Underground City remains his favorite. \"I sometimes wish I was born earlier to witness the Cold War unfold -- and the tunnels have given me a unique vantage point to look into that period of history,\" Frisch said. \"While Beijing is transforming itself for the Olympics, it's just amazing to see this space in such a sharp contrast to the city aboveground.\" E-mail to a friend . Steven Jiang is a Beijing-based freelance writer and former CNN producer.","highlights":"American university student exploring Beijing's underground tunnels .\nPart of capital's \"Underground City\" now open to tourists .\nBeijing's underground tunnel network was built in 1970s as giant bomb shelter .","id":"5b5f2ec7ef3526ce445e99501010768fe752bb9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This month, Just Imagine has looked at the future of space, and the potential it holds for humanity. Should humanity aim for the stars ... The proponents of the NewSpace movement, like our featured commentator Bob Richards, hold that humanity must expand into space if we are to survive. They say that the limitless resources held by the stars will help humanity seek a bold new future. But some say that we should fix Earth's problems, especially the challenge of global warming, before we set our eyes on the stars. They say space travel is too expensive, and its carbon footprint too great, to be a priority for us right now. We want to hear your views. Should space be our next frontier? Or should we focus on fixing things here on Earth first? Post your comments in the Sound Off box below, and we'll publish the best.","highlights":"We ask, should humanity expand into space?\nThose in the NewSpace movement say space is humanity's future .\nBut others say we should focus on fixing issues on Earth first .\nWhat do you think? Post your views and we'll publish the best.","id":"48571fa4c5e34dd7b5b1576e0b6bbad2076006fe"} -{"article":"COPENHAGEN, Denamrk (CNN) -- Actress Connie Nielsen hit the big time when she starred in \"Gladiator\" as Lucilla, sister of the deranged Emperor Commodus. Since then she has appeared in hit movies including \"One Hour Photo\" and \"The Hunted\". Connie Nielsen has always refused to play the Hollywood fame game. But Nielsen has refused to play the Hollywood fame game and seems drawn to challenging roles in controversial movies, including \"The Situation\", about the current Iraq war, and \"Battle in Seattle\", about the anti-globalization riots that took place in Seattle in 1999. Nielsen now lives in the US and returns to Copenhagen every year. She talks to My City, My Life about what makes the city, and its people, so special. CNN: How do you define yourself? Connie Nielsen: I absolutely refuse the fame part of my business. I refuse even the money side of my business. I try to do as good work as I can do, I try to grow in my art and reach for truth. That's what I want from my art, that's what I aspire to. I try to combine my work with my family, that's what I aspire to. I don't say that's the only thing. It's not all work and family, because otherwise you would be saying no to the many other things in life and there are many other things. CNN: The people here are supposed to be incredibly happy -- what do you think? Connie Nielsen: I think it's funny in a way because when I grew up here it was very unusual to hear the word \"happiness\". If you asked somebody, \"what do you wish for in life?\" they wouldn't say \"happiness.\" I would have answered \"excitement, knowledge,\" God knows -- I mean, many, many different things, but certainly not \"happiness\". It seemed like a foreign concept to wish for something that specific and that singular. And I think that a lot of Danes kind of feel like that about being the happiest people in the world. CNN: Is there anything you'd like to change about the city? Connie Nielsen: Anywhere there are social buildings that stuff people into boxes, concentrate poor people there. It's specific to any big city. There was an effort to create buildings that concentrate these people very closely, and their social problems. They are still around in New York, Paris, London and here too. So if I could change anything about Copenhagen, or any other major big city, I would change the way we build buildings or housing for lower income people. I don't think people who are already burdened with social, economic, psychological situations, dysfunctional families, need to be burdened with other people with the same problems. CNN: Is the city politically driven? Connie Nielsen: I don't think I can remember a moment in my life where people didn't discuss politics. People discuss politics at the table. I think some of the first information I received was politically charged (laughs). It was at a time when girls were being told, \"Why don't you go and learn how to repair machines rather than learn to repair your jumper? Why don't you learn to cut wood rather than learn to keep a house clean?\" in school. It was to make us conscious of what we were, how we defined ourselves and why you would accept one concept of yourself rather than another. Have you searched through the truth of that concept? Have you deconstructed? Have you made sure that its foundations are valid? That's how I grew up and I think it was wonderful. CNN: How would you describe the city architecturally? Connie Nielsen: It's everything here from very late renaissance to this 19th century golden age we had here. It's that, intermixed with pure Danish modernism. I love the juxtaposition of it all. I love when we bring in metaphors for our past as well. CNN: A lot of the places you have taken us to have been very romantic, do you think there is a fairy tale quality to Copenhagen? Connie Nielsen: An alternative society ... yes I do, I do feel that. I do feel that most things are possible here. I can dream here. I can imagine. CNN: What is it about the city that makes people creative? Connie Nielsen: Well, we have a very, very long winter and it gets a little boring, so you better think of something to do! It can get deathly boring, so you start using your imagination. Sometimes it's necessity that produces it, because you need to do something. CNN: Is there something about the people here that want to change things for the better? Connie Nielsen: I think so -- I think we're an idealistic people. I think there are disillusioned people everywhere, there are doubters everywhere, but I do think there are constructive people here; I do think that people believe in people. CNN: Do you take any inspiration from the city? Connie Nielsen: Yes, yes I do. Whenever I come back here I remember that I want to write poetry (laughs). I want to take more time to sit and paint some more. I want to do so many more things whenever I come back -- I'm always reminded of that when I come here. CNN: You've lived in lots of cities all over the world and still do. Why is Copenhagen special to you? Connie Nielsen: I was born here and it's the capital of my home country. It's also immensely beautiful. Many of my friends live here and much of my partner's family lives here too and so we bring our kids back here every year. It holds all the museums that hold our history, our culture, and I take our children there and I go there for my own pleasure all the time. I love going to museums. I love this city and I love cities that are on the water. I love the water element, specifically the sea. I grew up on the sea and I grew up sailing -- I love sailing -- and the presence of the sea gives the air and the light a very special quality that I absolutely adore. CNN: It seems that for a small place it has a lot of cultural influence. Connie Nielsen: Yes, it's sort of a little pearl in the middle of the seas. There's a lot of traffic through this place, from the east, west, north and south. And we are the southern part of the north, so everything from the south comes up here on its way towards the north, and the opposite. And it has left its mark. We are definitely some kind of place where culture is being deposited over and over and over again, but it also springs from here. It's the kind of place that attracts creative people and so it springs from here too. CNN: If Copenhagen was a person, how would you describe it? Connie Nielsen: If Copenhagen were a person, that person would be generous, beautiful, elderly, but with a flair. A human being that has certain propensities for quarrelling, filled with imagination and with appetite for the new and with respect for the old -- somebody who takes good care of things and of people.","highlights":"Connie Nielsen says she refuses the fame and money side of acting .\nShe says the long winters mean the residents have to be creative .\nCopenhagen is full of history and culture, and Nielsen loves its museums .\nThe city is very beautiful and the light has \"a very special quality,\" she says .","id":"cef9c0fc07ccd15bae11cdcc11c863292ed20954"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A construction company and three supervisors were indicted Monday on manslaughter and related charges in the deaths of two firefighters battling a 2007 blaze at the Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan. Firefighters Joseph Graffagnino, left, and Robert Beddia died in the Deutsche Bank building blaze. Prosecutors also reached an agreement with the city of New York requiring the implementation of new fire safety measures. \"Our goal is to put in place procedures which will prevent a disaster of the magnitude of the Deutsche Bank fire and to make sure that firefighters are never again exposed to the risks they faced in that fire,\" Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said. The indictments against the John Galt Corp., Jeffrey Melofchik, Mitchel Alvo and Salvatore DePaola also allege negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. The indictment is the result of an investigation into an August 18, 2007, blaze that consumed nine floors of the Deutsche Bank building. The building had been scheduled for demolition after being contaminated by debris, asbestos and other hazardous substances after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings. The two firefighters killed in the blaze -- Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33 -- were caught in a smoke-filled stairwell that prosecutors say was improperly blocked off by barriers erected to seal off floors being stripped of contaminants. In addition to the deaths of Beddia and Graffagnino, 105 other firefighters were injured combating the blaze. The agreement with the city of New York mandates the creation of a new civilian inspection unit at the city's fire department, the sole purpose of which will be to perform inspections at construction sites throughout the city. \"The regulatory measures we have put in place and the additional reforms set out today are designed to prevent any firefighter again confronting the conditions that firefighters faced at the Deutsche Bank building that tragic day,\" New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a written statement. The father of one of the firefighters killed in the blaze, Joseph Graffagnino Sr., said the indictments did not go far enough. \"I don't understand if the [city] agency can't be indicted, why can't individuals be indicted who we already know should have been responsible for doing their jobs and did not do their jobs,\" he said to reporters. Graffagnino was referencing the lack of criminal charges brought against employees of the city fire department, the city's department of buildings and the building's landlord, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.","highlights":"John Galt Corp., three supervisors indicted; city to change procedures .\nFirefighters died when caught in smoke-filled stairwell .\nProsecutors allege doorway was improperly sealed .\n105 other firefighters were injured fighting blaze .","id":"4bd59406bc09b624b4ea65482b3522892317fccc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- \"Doing it nature's way has the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business.\" Janine Benyus . When self-confessed \"nature nerd\" Janine Benyus coined the term \"biomimicry\" in a book she published a decade ago, little did she know it would make her into an household name, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood stars. Janine is a champion of the biomimicry movement and helps companies to improve designs by turning to Nature. The natural sciences writer now gives talks on the subject to riveted crowds and is a consultant to some of world's biggest companies. In her capacity as \"biologist at the design table,\" Janine helps companies like Nike and Hewlett Packard to innovate and improve their designs by using what already exists in nature. She also appeared as a consultant in the apocalyptic environmental documentary \"11th Hour,\" produced by Leonardo DiCaprio last year. Janine coined the term \"biomimicry\" from the Greek \"bios,\" meaning \"life,\" and \"mimesis,\" meaning \"imitate.\" \"It was a surprise to me when the phone started ringing after my book came out in 1997,\" she told CNN. \"It was companies and individual inventors, companies that were inventing everyday and they had problems to solve. They said, 'gee the book is fabulous, it's about all this science that's happening in early stage research. But we're doing innovation in real time. Can you come and be a biologist at the design table?\" So far, using nature's design genius has led to the creation of bat-inspired ultrasonic canes for the blind, synthetic sheets that collect water from mist and fog as desert beetles do, and paint that self-cleans like a lotus leaf. Scientists are also working on making solar cells like leaves and supertough ceramics that resemble the inner shells of abalone, which is twice as durable as the ceramics used in jet engines. Before Janine wrote her book, there wasn't even a word to describe the work of a few scattered scientists looking for inspiration through nature in different corners of the world. History is, of course, littered with examples of humans copying nature's design. One of the most notable was invented by the Swiss engineer George de Mestral. Whilst out walking his dog one day de Mestral became annoyed by the burrs catching and sticking to his clothes and in his dog's fur. He decided to study them under a microscope. The magnification revealed a network of tiny hooks. The product of his labors was Velcro, which was patented in 1951. At the core of Janine's beliefs is that nature has already spent 3.8 billion years on research and development. Its failures are now fossils. She believes its successes contain strategies the human race can copy in its quest for a sustainable future. Janine has cultivated a deep knowledge of the natural world, beginning with direct observation in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, continuing in habitats from Maine to West Virginia where she worked as a backcountry guide, and now, in her home wilds of Montana. She graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University, New Jersey, with two degrees in Natural Resource Management and English Literature\/Writing. Named by Time magazine as an environmental hero of 2007, she's now writing the sequel book, \"Nature's 100 Best Technologies,\" and also consults through her firm The Biomimicry Guild, which came about following the massive demand for her knowledge. \"From interiors, manufacturing everything from apparel to transportation to bath and kitchen and carpets and furniture and sneakers, and even cities,\" she told CNN. \"I'd be talking to groups of mayors and talking to the European parliament, policy makers and they all wanted to know how can we learn from nature how to design a more sustainable world.\" \"They want to know if there are blue prints, and of course there are. And they said 'great, bring over your biologists.\" One of the companies that Janine has worked with is Interface, Inc, the world's largest commercial carpet manufacturer . The process is particularly hard on the environment as it uses petrochemicals in every step and consumes vast amounts of energy, and produces tons of waste. But after working with Janine and the Guild, Interface introduced Entropy, a carpet inspired by random pattern formation in nature. It was a greener product that gave customers more flexibility as they could replace individual tiles instead of the whole carpet. Entropy quickly rose to become Interface's top-selling line of carpet and still represents 40 percent of their carpet tile sales. With results like that, it seems, you can't argue with Mother Nature.","highlights":"Janine Benyus coined the term \"biomimicry\" in her influential 1997 book .\nBiomimicry is the concept of looking for inspiration for design through nature .\nShe was named by Time magazine as an environmental hero of 2007 .","id":"5bbb0ded33f00493d94a5803a39a68c02911440c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Deepa, 40, was born in Mumbai, where she is now a banking technology consultant, as well as running a company that offers \"offbeat sightseeing tours\" of six Indian cities, including Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur. Deepa Krishnan: \"When you live in Mumbai you feel like you're in the nerve center of the country.\" Deepa's Mumbai tours take in the city's bazaars, backstreets and culture and her blog, Mumbai Magic, is a personal view of life in the city. CNN: How does Mumbai compare to those other cities your company offers tour of? Deepa: Mumbai is a very young city by Indian standards, only 500 years old, whereas a city like Delhi is really ancient. Mumbai used to be a fishing hamlet and it grew after the British arrived. So it's a young city and one that has been formed by migrants. Almost everyone in Mumbai has arrived here in the course of the last few generations, and so the city has a vibrancy and cosmopolitanism that is different from other cities. CNN: What makes Mumbai special to you? Deepa: The fact that I am so grounded here -- I was born here and four generations of my family live here. But also, Mumbai is on the move, it's vibrant, it's accepting of change and it's got a very active citizenry. It's the one place where you can make a mark, where you can make a difference. When you live in Mumbai you feel like you're in the nerve center of the country. You feel like all the big events are near you and you're connected to everything. In other cities I tend to feel more remote. If there's a new play it premieres in Mumbai, if there's a new band they play in Mumbai -- everything happens here. We're close to the center of commerce and I would rather be close to the center of commerce than the center of politics! What makes Mumbai special to you? Let us know . CNN: What are your favorite parts of the city? Deepa: I think my favorite is a place called Bhuleshwar. It's the \"native\" bazaar area that sprang up outside the old British fort. It's got a certain colorful energy and retains its 18th Century-feel to some extent. Everything under the sun can be bought there; it's got a spice market, a jewelry market. It's a busy, bustling area where a lot of trade happens, so I love it. CNN: Where do people go if they want to escape Mumbai's bustle? Deepa: We head out of the city -- we run for the hills! We go to the Western Ghats, which is a mountain range that runs parallel to the coast, barely a two-hour drive from where I live. \"There's climbing and a whole bunch of very interesting mountain forts to explore; there's whitewater rafting, paragliding, cycling. Ecologically, it's a very bio-diverse area so it attracts photography enthusiasts and bird watchers. We're very lucky that we're so close to it. We also have a lot of beaches just outside the city and they are popular as well. Within the city there are little enclaves of peace -- even in Bhuleshwar market there are temple complexes where there's a surprising silence compared to the bustle of the streets. We also have our seaside promenades where we love to hang out. The young, who have no other place to go, find romance on Marine Drive and Bandra Bandstand. It's Mumbai's version of Lovers Lane -- except the lane is wide open! CNN: What's a typical weekend in Mumbai? Deepa: We party quite hard, so Saturday and Sunday evenings are days when you go out with friends and family. There are a huge number of restaurants with all sorts of cuisines on offer. There are some great clubs -- my favorite right now is a place called The Blue Frog -- and there's an active cultural scene. Alongside all the partying we're all in a mad race to lose weight and look good. Bollywood is helping men wake up to the fact that there's nothing wrong with a well-toned physique. In all the suburbs of Mumbai there's a mushrooming of places where young guys are pumping iron and trying to be 'he-men.' CNN: Do you think the city's changed since the terrorist attacks last November? Deepa: Yes, I think there's a hardening of stances and an unwillingness to accept platitudes. I also think there is increased uneasiness between communities. CNN: Has tourism been affected by the attacks? Deepa: My own business went bust for two weeks. For two weeks I had nothing but cancellations in Mumbai and I was only saved by the fact that I was doing business in other cities. But then business picked up again. My first clients after the attacks were a Jewish American couple and I was heartened by the faith and support they showed for Mumbai. Mumbai also gets big tour groups that arrive by bus and I think that kind of group tour has lessened, but my business gets more independent travelers and they are still coming. People choose to respond to crises more positively than we think they will and I'm seeing very strong individual responses. CNN: If Mumbai was a person what would he or she be like? Deepa: This is a city which is strangely beautiful and strangely warty. At its heart this city is about money, it's a city of exchange and commerce, so it would be a trader or a wheeler dealer -- someone who's on the move, making deals and making money!","highlights":"Deepa lives in Mumbai, where her company runs \"offbeat sightseeing tours\"\nShe says Mumbai is younger and more cosmopolitan than most Indian cities .\nPeople in the city party hard, she says -- and there's an active cultural scene .\nLast November's terrorist attacks have increased tension in the city, she says .","id":"758f82345b07db0a07f4360e59a44f14886db303"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three Staten Island men are charged with violating voting rights, accused of assaulting African-Americans after Barack Obama's win in the November presidential election, authorities said Wednesday. A grand jury indicted Ralph Nicoletti, 18, Michael Contreras, 18, and Brian Carranza, 21, on charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights. All three pleaded not guilty in federal court Wednesday afternoon. According to the indictment, the three \"knowingly and intentionally\" conspired to intimidate African-Americans \"in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right ... and because of having so exercised that right, to wit, the right to vote.\" Nicoletti and Carranza are white, and Contreras is Latino. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. At the arraignment, Nicoletti and Contreras were ordered held without bail, while Carranza was released on a $200,000 bond but ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device. Contreras' attorney, public defender Len Kamdang, could not be reached for comment. Nicoletti's attorney, Bob LaRusso, had no comment. Prosecutors said in court filings that on the night of November 4, the defendants were at a \"makeshift outdoor clubhouse\" in the Rosebank section of Staten Island when they learned of Obama's victory. At that point, prosecutors said, Nicoletti drove Contreras, Carranza and another friend to the predominantly African-American Park Hill neighborhood in Staten Island. Their purpose, prosecutors said, was to assault African-Americans because of Obama's win. Their first victim, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, was 17-year-old Ali Kamara, whom they beat with a metal pipe and a collapsible police baton. Kamara escaped after suffering a concussion and injuries to his legs. \"The first swing that swung -- it hit my head. It cut my head,\" Kamara told CNN affiliate WABC. \"I got staples on my head now.\" Kamara said he hid in a neighbor's backyard until the boys moved on. Continuing to the Port Richmond section of Staten Island, the group assaulted a second African-American man, pushing him down, the federal prosecutors alleged. They then allegedly accosted a Latino man, demanding to know how he voted, and shouted profanities about Obama at a group of African-Americans at a hair salon. Next, prosecutors said, the group targeted Ronald Forte, a man they mistakenly believed to be African-American who was walking along Blackford Avenue in predominantly African-American Port Richmond. Forte is white, but because he was wearing a hoodie, the men were unable to identify his race and assumed that he was African-American. According to the indictment, the men decided to assault Forte with the police baton as they drove by, but at the last moment, Nicoletti swerved the vehicle directly into the 38-year-old man instead. Forte was thrown onto the hood of the car, shattering the front windshield. According to Staten Island Real Time News (silive.com), Forte was in a coma for 45 days, returning to his family's home in New Jersey in mid-December, said his mother, Eileen. She added that her son now has serious brain damage and motor control problems. \"He's not good. He's never going to be good,\" she said. \"Every day, I just see something different, and it's so scary.\" U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell decried the attacks. \"Violence and intimidation aimed at interfering with the constitutional rights of every citizen, including the right to vote, will not be tolerated,\" he said in a written statement. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Nicoletti has an extensive history of violent criminal activity including burglary, car break-ins, firebombing, assault, and marijuana and cocaine distribution. He is also a member of the \"Rosebank Crew\" (RBK) founded by his now-incarcerated younger brother, Anthony Nicoletti. Investigators found a cache of weapons and police batons stolen from vehicles owned by police, as well as letters from Nicoletti's brother urging Ralph to maintain RBK loyalty and not cooperate with authorities. Nicoletti and three others approached Contreras three weeks ago at his house, believing he was cooperating with authorities, according to a filing with the U.S. Attorney's Office. They allegedly attacked him and called him a snitch, according to a letter from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Pamela Chen and Margo Brodie to the judge in the case. The letter petitions for home confinement, drug testing and other pretrial release conditions for Nicoletti and Carranza. The judge has not responded to the request. CNN's Mythili Rao and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Indictment says three men conspired to intimidate African-Americans .\nThey've pleaded not guilty of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights .\nTwo held without bail; other out on bail with monitoring device .\nProsecutors: Men went to African-American neighborhoods, assaulted 3 people .","id":"7585dda5f5e53bd17cd54129688f928b668a1d4e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In 1981, Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni was preparing to leave Egypt for a clinical attachment in England when her father had a heart attack. He fell in the street, and was taken to a public hospital, where Dr Kamal-Yanni kept vigil at his bedside until he regained his strength. A doctor at a hospital in India where health indicators have showed no significant improvement in seven years. During his stay in the hospital, she was appalled at the low level of healthcare available to him. \"It was awful. There was no medicine,\" she told CNN. As a doctor, Kamal-Yanni was able to watch over her father's progress. Her professional opinion on his recovery was striking. \"My father survived that heart attack for two reasons,\" she said. \"One, because of God's will, and two, because he had a strong will. It was nothing to do with the health service.\" The following year, Kamal-Yanni came to England to do a clinical attachment. She found herself deeply affected by the stark contrast between the healthcare available in Britain, on the publicly funded National Health Service, and the healthcare available at home in Egypt. She found herself slipping into depression. \"I couldn't talk to the patients; I couldn't talk to the doctors. I just couldn't cope with it,\" she revealed to CNN. \"I couldn't understand why every time I saw a monitor next to a patient I was so upset.\" It dawned on her that the gulf in care was troubling her. \"I kept thinking why on earth my dad didn't have that. The only reason was that he happened to be born in Egypt and these people had the luck to be born [in England].\" Kamal-Yanni is now a senior health & HIV policy advisor at third-world charity Oxfam. Her first-hand experience of the divide between the healthcare available in richer countries, and that on offer in poorer ones, has given her the impetus to try and narrow the gap. While Western countries are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge, discovering the potential of nanotechnology and other high-tech solutions to the developed world's diseases, like diabetes, cancer and obesity, poor countries are struggling to combat health problems such as HIV, malaria and TB. Lack of infrastructure . And it's not as simple as shipping medicines and supplies in bulk quantities. Oxfam's \"Paying for People\" report, published in February this year, said that poor countries are suffering because they lack the infrastructure of a health service. The WHO's 2006 \"World Health Report\" also indicates that 4.25 million doctors, nurses and health workers are needed across 57 countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has 600,000 health workers: one million more are required. Without these key workers, it is questionable whether healthcare in poor countries can be improved. Nicky Wimble, a spokesperson for Oxfam, told CNN, \"There is money coming in for drugs now, but there's no commitment to long-term aid.\" Governments are unable to give healthcare workers with job security and doctors and nurses, where they do exist, are largely poorly paid: so people choose other careers. \"They're either becoming taxi drivers, or working for private businesses,\" Wimble says. This double brain-drain (one internal, one external as those who do train are tempted away by higher salaries and brighter futures in developed countries) means that even if drugs make it to poorer areas, there can be no one to administer them. \"Drugs are sitting in cupboards,\" Wimble told CNN. \"Or they're available in cities but people in rural areas don't have the bus fares to get to them.\" Vulnerable to disease . Dr Kamal-Yanni backs this up. She told CNN, \"There is no public investment in health systems so people have to pay for it. If you're poor you can't buy your healthcare and if you're a woman who happens to be poor you might as well forget it.\" And in countries where no healthcare system exists, people are extremely vulnerable to diseases, which can spread rampantly and unchecked through communities. Dr Kamal-Yanni paints a worrying picture. \"Particularly in Africa, they're not equipped to face anything -- not HIV, let alone avian flu. If something like avian flu hit Africa with no health system, no health workers and no money, it would spread. We can't contain it in Africa. The world would wake up and realize that, but in the meantime, it would have wiped out goodness knows how many millions of people.\" It's not just in Africa. HIV is a known crisis there, but it is anticipated that more people will be infected in India than anywhere else, as the disease spreads quickly through its billion-strong population. Increasingly, countries like these are having to deal with a boom in incommunicable diseases, like diabetes and cancer. Chronic diseases like diabetes have the additional problem that they require long-term care, and therefore long-term funding. Dr Kamal-Yanni explained the difficulties of that situation. \"You buy the pills today, but maybe tomorrow you don't have enough money so you're never cured and develop complications.\" What lies ahead? Dr Kamal-Yanni sees three possible outcomes for health in poor countries. The first, as she explained, is bleak. She told CNN, \"If things continue as they are, with rising infection, increasing resistance to drugs, HIV and malaria run unchecked, chronic and non-communicable diseases are ignored and no money is spent on a health system, then the gap will just increase and the situation will get worse and worse.\" Dr Kamal-Yanni is hopeful, however, that the situation will improve somewhat. She explained a second scenario, the one she feels is most likely to happen. \"If the international community invests a little bit, things will be slightly better,\" she told CNN. \"More people with HIV will get treatment, as will people with TB and malaria. But non-communicable chronic diseases [like diabetes] will be ignored.\" But large-scale epidemics like avian flu or SARS would still remain a huge threat in this scenario, as would diseases like cancer. \"Who's going to pay for medicine for cancer, which is increasing like anything in developing countries?\" asks Dr Kamal-Yanni. \"Nobody.\" Hope for the future . But there is a third scenario, which holds out more hope for people in developing countries. Dr Kamal-Yanni says, \"If public pressure is high, southern governments, donors and the international community will decide that health is really a priority. We'll put our money where our mouth is and we'll fulfil the commitments that we've made before.\" She says that in the first instance, African countries need to be encouraged to divert 16 percent of their budget to health. (Currently, nearly a third allocate less than five percent.) \"Then they will realize that this is not enough, so they'll put in more,\" she continues. If this money were to be added to the $50 billion promised by G8, the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, in Gleneagles in 2005, it would have a huge impact on health and education, particularly in Africa. And education is the key, Dr Kamal-Yanni believes. She explained, \"You can't separate health and education because unless you educate doctors and nurses, and midwives and pharmacists, you can't run a health service.\" Working together . It's also important for donors and governments to work together to provide a cohesive service, she says. \"They really need to start coordinating their work so it's not a series of vertical programs that don't relate to each other and waste resources.\" Oxfam's Nicky Wimble agrees. She told CNN, \"Over the last 100 years, countries like France, Britain and America have developed by giving their people free education and healthcare. It's a major way to bring people out of poverty.\" Wimble cites the example of education, where the number of children not in school worldwide has fallen from around 120 million to around 80 million. \"The key is getting governments to commit to it as a part of their aid package, and monitoring the aid package so that the money is tracked to ensure that it gets to where it's intended,\" she said. \"It's working for education, and they think it'll work for healthcare too, but it needs committed investment.\" And in the meantime, people like Mohga Kamal-Yanni will continue their work to pressure governments to encourage positive change. She says, \"That's my motivation to do this work. It's not for me; it's a life thing. My dream in life is for everybody in Africa to have access to a publicly financed, publicly run healthcare service with strong regulation, quality, care and equity.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Oxfam: Lack of infrastructure is the greatest danger to health in poor countries .\nWHO: 4.25 million more doctors and nurses needed worldwide .\nPoor countries won't cope with SARS, avian flu .\nPositive policy changes have seen number of children not in school fall by a third .","id":"91ff93e174c9aaa8db0c407b9f34d6fd9356d1be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Botswana has been hailed as one of Africa's success stories and a beacon for democracy on the continent. It's home to Africa's longest continuous multi-party democracy and has remained politically stable since gaining independence in 1966. President Ian Khama took office in April 2008 promising steady progress. At its helm is President Ian Khama, the country's former vice president and son of Botswana's founding president. The diamond trade and disciplined government have helped to transform Botswana from one of the world's poorest nations to a middle-income country. But there are still large problem facing the country, including the world's second high level of HIV infections, according to the World Bank, and a slowing of the countries economic growth. The 56-year-old Khama took over office in April 2008, succeeding Festus Mogae who had been in power for 10 years, promising no radical departure from his predecessor's policies. Khama was born in southern England and trained at the UK's Sandhurst Military Academy before returning to Botswana and later becoming the commander of the Botswana Defence Force. He left the military in 1998 to take up the position of vice president. As the son of Botswana's most popular former president, political analysts inside the country have expected Khama to unite the factions in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and continue steady economic and political progress. While Khama has only been in power for 11 months, there has been some criticism that his style is too authoritarian. Citing Afrobarometer, an independent research group, Botswana's newspaper Sunday Standard recently wrote that there was a growing public perception that Khama has issued more directives compared to his predecessors. One area in which he has taken a definite line is on his policy towards neighboring Zimbabwe, publicly opposing the government of President Robert Mugabe and declaring it illegitimate. A general election is set for October 2009, with the BDP expected to win. No other political party has held power in Botswana and some commentators fear the emergence of a political dynasty that would affect Botswana's democracy.","highlights":"Botswana's President Ian Khama talks to CNN on 'African Voices'\nFormer military general and son of Botswana's first president .\nBotswana is one of Africa's success stories although HIV and Aids are rife .","id":"08e26f10bc604e99bbfad02a56e87cfd1e0e921e"} -{"article":"LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police raided an Islamic school and arrested seven students hours after a blast in a mosque in northern Pakistan left at least 50 dead and dozens injured, according to an Associated Press report. A man, right, mourns the death of his two sons in a suicide attack near Peshawar that killed at least 50. A bomb, packed with ball-bearings and nails, tore through Eid prayers at a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers northeast of Peshawar on Friday, targeting Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, former Pakistani interior minister, local police told CNN. The blast left blood-stained clothes, hats and shoes as well as body parts and pieces of flesh scattered across the mosque, according to reports. The attack is the most recent in a series of attacks in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and occurred near Sherpao's residence in Charsadda -- an area approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of the city of Peshawar. Watch what's known about the blast \u00bb . Police investigators say Taliban or al Qaeda elements could have been involved and they believe the former minister was targeted over his supervision of operations against militants in Pakistan's tribal areas including the restive NWFP. This attack is the deadliest in Pakistan since 136 people were killed in the southern port city of Karachi on October 18 in a suicide bombing targeting the convoy of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister. See photos from the blast's aftermath \u00bb . Bhutto returned to the country after eight years in self-imposed exile ahead of January parliamentary elections. The attack comes in the midst of continued operations by the Pakistani army to rout out militants in the swat valley in the north of the country, an area the government considers a front-line in the so-called global war on terror. A former tourist destination about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Islamabad, The Swat Valley has been plagued by violence and has become a hotbed for militants. Earlier this month, the army said it has retaken towns seized by militants over the summer, killing 290 and capturing 140. The attack also comes less than a week after President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency he said was necessary to ensure the country's stability but that critics said was a move to stifle the country's judiciary, curb the media and secure more power. While Musharraf has promised free and fair parliamentary elections, continued instability in the tribal areas and the threat of attack on large crowds has kept people from attending political rallies and dampened the country's political process. Campaigners from various political parties say fewer people are coming out to show their support. The president -- who survived two assassination attempts in December 2003 -- denounced Friday's attack, speaking out against what he said was a small number of Muslim extremists who would carry out such an act, according to a report from the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. He ordered security and intelligence agencies to find those responsible. A spokesperson for the U.N. said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemns the attack and he \"urges all political forces in Pakistan to unite against the scourge of terrorism and to act together to create a peaceful environment ahead of the Parliamentary elections.\" This is the second attempt on Sherpao's life since April, when a suicide bomber blew himself up just a few feet from Sherpao during a political rally, injuring him and killing at least 28 people. The APP reported that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber inside the mosque, as people were gathering for religious observances of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim celebration of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. \"We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred,\" said Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast whose white cloak and pants were torn and spattered with blood, an AP report said. Despite security measures at the mosque, the bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive, provincial police chief Sharif Virk said, the report added. A Peshawar hospital was wracked with chaos as the injured arrived in pickup trucks, ambulance sirens wailed and the wounded screamed for help, the report said. The bomb contained between 13-17 pounds of explosives and was filled with nails and ball bearings to maximize casualties, said the head of the bomb unit at the scene, who declined to give his name. Sherpao and his two sons were in the first row of the mosque, the APP report said. Mustafa Khan Sherpao had leg injuries while Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao \"escaped unhurt.\" Sherpao was Pakistan's interior minister -- the country's top civilian security official -- before Musharraf announced a caretaker government in November ahead of elections. He heads the breakaway political group Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao, is a vocal critic of religious extremism, pro-Musharraf and a candidate in upcoming elections. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bomb detonated at mosque northeast of Peshawar, Pakistan .\nLocal police: At least 50 dead in attack on Eid prayers .\nReports: Former interior minister was target, escapes blast, one son injured .\nMinister supervised military operations in tribal areas against militants .","id":"6ffc52e56343bfe00af799a6b4cb6ee8c7c8e6ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former prison secretary has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for having sex with an inmate she was supposed to be supervising, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in the District of Colorado said Friday. Janine Sligar, 47, of Wray, Colorado, was sentenced Thursday for sexual abuse of a ward. After serving her sentence, she will serve five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender, spokesman Jeff Dorschner said in a news release. Sligar, who must surrender to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons on March 2, did not respond to a telephone call to her home for comment. She was indicted in July by a federal grand jury in Denver and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in October. According to the plea agreement, Sligar, a 14-year Bureau of Prisons veteran, said she and inmate Eric McClain met in February 2007, when he was assigned to clean her office. \"They began to have conversations and realized they had similar interests,\" the plea agreement said. That summer, they initiated a sexual relationship that included 10 to 20 sessions of oral sex and sexual intercourse, ending in October 2007, it said. The liaisons primarily occurred in a staff restroom in the housing unit at the Federal Prison Camp in Florence, Colorado, according to the agreement. Sligar, who acknowledged having detailed her activities in a journal, said she obtained a cell phone with a non-local phone number so McClain could call her without raising suspicion and admitted she gave him contraband that included photographs with explicit sexual poses, the plea agreement added. \"Defendant also admitted using her cell phone camera to take graphic pictures of a sexual nature which depict defendant and this inmate,\" it said. Authorities began investigating the incident after receiving a tip about the inappropriate relationship. They then learned that Sligar had changed the primary beneficiary on an insurance policy from her children to McClain. A subsequent search of her home turned up the journal and photographs.","highlights":"Former prison secretary Janine Sligar had sex with inmate .\nSligar sentenced to six months on charge of sexual abuse of a ward .\nDocuments: Sligar, inmate had 10 to 20 sexual encounters .\nSligar detailed liaisons in journal, admitted taking and giving inmate graphic photos .","id":"d46e226f6c8a5912fd99e1f13571ddc809baac98"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- At 80, Maya Angelou says her \"knees are not all that swift and my lungs need some extra help but other than that, my desire to learn and to share, that has not abated.\" Maya Angelou urges politicians to \"aim for the high ground\" in her new book, \"Letter to My Daughter.\" She shares what she's learned in an eventful life in her best-selling new book, \"Letter to My Daughter.\" Angelou achieved fame for her autobiographical writing, including \"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings\" and her poetry. She read her poem \"On the Pulse of Morning\" at President Clinton's first inauguration. She was only the second poet invited to read at the swearing in of a new president. But her career has had many facets -- Angelou has been a singer, dancer, playwright, director and teacher. In 166 pages, \"Letter to My Daughter\" distills stories from Angelou's life into universal lessons. She writes about birth, life and death, about the ways people misunderstand each other and then transcend their conflict. She calls on national leaders to raise the country's spirit and on Americans to remember that this is the nation that defeated the Nazis and expanded people's freedom through the civil rights movement. \"Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow,\" she writes. \"Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.\" In an interview last week in her 1881 brownstone in Harlem, decorated in vibrant, bright colors, Angelou sat at the round table in her dining room, sipping coffee, as she talked about the election and her work. She supported Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination and then backed Sen. Barack Obama once the primaries were over. CNN: In the chapter called \"National Spirit,\" you call on political leaders to raise the level of discussion. Could you elaborate on that? Maya Angelou: What I've encouraged voters to do is to vote for the person I am extolling, and also don't expect that if your man or woman gets in, that all things will be rectified immediately. It's taken us a long time to come to this place of weariness and almost hopelessness. So because Obama gets in or McCain gets in, it's not going to be repaired overnight. The economy is not going to be repaired, the schools -- the disaster in our schools -- will not be repaired overnight. Nor will the social conversation be repaired overnight. However, I would encourage every voter to say to his or her candidate, go in and do it, and you will not do it alone. I will help. You have to get up off that sofa or off that couch and give something to the country -- even if it's one hour every other week to an old people's home -- I will read, go into the children's ward and read, or give to your church or your synagogue or your mosque. ... Offer something to the country. So you don't just sit there. CNN: What does it say about the country that Barack Obama is a candidate to be president? Angelou: The country is growing up and confessing to something we've known all along. What prevented us from admitting that we knew that? And I was taken back to slavery. If you will have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is convince yourself that the person is subhuman. The second thing you have to do is convince your allies so you'll have some help, and the third and probably unkindest cut of all is to convince that person that he or she is subhuman and deserves it. Well, such a job has been done on all of us that people found it very difficult to admit that human beings are more alike than we are unalike. We've known it. But to admit it, you have to stop saying because this guy speaks another language, because their eyes are shaped differently from mine, because they're first-generation Americans from Eastern Europe, then they don't count, I don't have to consider them. With this, the country is finally able to see through complexion and see community. CNN: You've known and worked with people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Could you imagine what their reaction would be to this? Angelou: I think everybody would be weeping tears of joy really. I think of my grandmother who raised me. She was a daughter of a former slave. She knew this was going to happen. You know that when I was young, I was physically abused and so I stopped talking. I thought that my voice had killed the criminal. ... The man had been found dead. Police said he had been beaten to death. So I knew, because I told [people] that he did it, that my voice could just go out and kill people. So after a few months, my mother's people sent me and my brother back to this little village in Arkansas to my grandmother, my father's mother who was raising me, and she used to braid my hair. My hair was huge and very curly, black. And my grandmother put her hand behind my neck and held it so she wouldn't break my neck by accident. And she would start to brush my hair and she would say, \"Sister, Mama don't care what these people say about you, that you must be an idiot, you must be a moron because you can't talk. Mama know when you and the good Lord get ready, you're going to teach all over this world. You're going to be a mighty teacher.\" I didn't speak for six years. She said that to me all the time, in this little village in Arkansas. [Now] I teach all over the world, I teach in French and Spanish, so when I stand up on a stage or see a book of mine gets accolades or a piece of music I've written, I think about my Mama, and she died before I really came of age, and I just think she knew it. CNN: She was prophetic about you, but beyond that? Angelou: Yes, [she believed] it will get better. And you have to continue to prepare yourself, continue to build yourself, continue to elevate yourself and be a benefit, be a blessing rather than a curse, and things will get better. And they have, so when I think of Dr. King and Malcolm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, I also think of Chief Albert Luthuli, one of the first Africans to earn the Nobel Prize. I mean that after Chief Luthuli, apartheid was so rigid, unbreakable that men had to carry their IDs on plastic cards that were too large for any suit, so they flapped, reminding them constantly who they were. It was my blessing to meet Nelson Mandela before he went into prison and I've seen him many times since. He knew this day would come, and to be able to stay in prison for 27 years, knowing that the day would come. CNN: What gave you the inspiration to call the book, \"Letter to My Daughter,\" even though you don't have a daughter? [Angelou has a son, the writer Guy Johnson.] . Angelou: There was an African-American poet, her name was Anne Spencer; she wrote a poem called \"Letter to My Sister,\" around the turn of the 20th Century. ... I started making notes to Oprah [Winfrey] about 20 years ago. She really became a daughter to me. So there were things I wanted to talk to her about; I made notes, copious notes, and about a year and a half ago, I got out that box called WIP, works in progress, and I started going through two or three lines and I said, \"Hmmm, there's an essay in here.\" So it is a letter to all my daughters, to those who don't know they are. It is my intent to say you may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. You will be changed, events will change you, but you have to decide not to be reduced. CNN: Have you been in touch with Oprah lately about the election? Angelou: I spoke to her about a week ago ... [During the primaries], a newspaper reporter said this proves that Oprah Winfrey doesn't listen to everything Maya Angelou says, because she was supporting Sen. Obama and I was supporting Sen. Clinton. And when I was asked by the reporter, \"What do you say to Oprah?\" my answer was, \"I say nothing, she's a woman who thinks carefully and profoundly and she has courage. So she's chosen the person she thinks would be the best person for our country. I do the same.\" The primaries proved that Oprah had selected the one that most people wanted, so I went to Sen. Obama right after that. Hillary Clinton ... telephoned me and thanked me for my unwavering support, and then asked me to please put that same energy behind Mr. Obama. CNN: Another theme in the book is to believe in yourself, to have faith in yourself. Why is that important? Angelou: You need to know that you can go somewhere. You're not just like grass growing on the street. You're like trees, you have roots, and they've done wonderful things, and you need to know that, and by knowing that, you see how outfitted you are for these times. And that you really owe it to those who went before so that you can add to them for those who are yet to come. You need to know that you are in a continuum, and if you understand that, you realize that you are worthwhile. This continuum would be broken without me.","highlights":"Maya Angelou: No matter who wins, don't expect an overnight turnaround .\nAngelou says politicians should raise the level of discussion .\nShe says voting is not enough, people need to volunteer to help others .\nAngelou: You will encounter defeats, but don't be defeated .","id":"12ffb33bba8ed9fa1c5ab96150f04058b7739401"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Mike Mette has been a Chicago police officer for almost four years. But now, as a result of a fistfight one night in Dubuque, Iowa, he is a convicted felon. Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, says he acted in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque. Mette has been sentenced to almost five years in prison after Dubuque County Judge Monica Ackley found him guilty of assault causing serious injury. Mette says he's been wronged. \"I was arrested for self-defense ... I was defending myself,\" he said. Mette's saga started in October 2005 after a night of drinking in Dubuque, where he was visiting his brother Mark. After the bars closed, Mette and his crew made their way to an after-hours party thrown by Jake Gotthard, a student at the University of Dubuque. According to court documents, Mette and his friends entered the house party, but decided to leave without paying the required $5 entry fee when they saw the room was mostly empty. Gotthard became angry, and with the help of his roommate, began chasing Mette down the street. Gotthard claims someone in Mette's group had stolen his cell phone and he wanted it back. Exactly what happened to the cell phone is still unclear. The altercation continued a block and a half down the street and eventually ended up in front of the house of Mette's brother. Fight could land cop in prison \u00bb . \"That's when Mr. Gotthard hit me. He hit me with two fists like this, straight into the chest,\" Mette said. \"He was yelling about his cell phone, telling me if he didn't get his cell phone back he was going to beat the crap out of me. He hit me several more times and then I pushed him away from me. It wasn't until after the third time is when he came back at me again and that is when I struck him.\" When police arrived, they found Gotthard lying on the ground with bruises and lacerations on his face, cheek, nose, chin and forehead. Mette, who had blood on his shirt and whose knuckle was bruised and cut, was arrested and charged with a felony. \"[Gotthard] had bruises on the side of his neck, his arms, his elbow, his shoulders, on his back, that were simply not consistent with Mr. Mette's version that he only struck him once,\" said Assistant County Attorney Tim Gallagher. Dubuque doctors testified the injuries were consistent with someone who had been stomped and kicked. But a doctor testifying for Mette's defense rejected the Dubuque findings. He said all those injuries could have come from Mette's single punch and the impact from falling on the sidewalk. Gallagher said the decision to prosecute Mette was a tough one. \"It's never an easy situation when someone is sentenced to prison, particularly when it's a police officer that we have to rely on,\" he said. \"But we can't allow individuals to be given certain privileges because of their occupation.\" The case spawned a battle between newspaper columnists in Chicago and Dubuque. \"Mette played baseball in college. But what's happening to him isn't about Iowa baseball mythology. It doesn't smell of corn. It stinks of the pig barn,\" wrote Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass. He chalks the judge's decision up to small town politics. In a reply, a columnist for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald wrote that Kass is a \"legendary muckraker\" who is \"training his scorn\" on Ackley, the judge. Mette is currently on unpaid leave from the Chicago Police Department and is appealing his case. He will begin serving his five-year sentence in November. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mike Mette, a Chicago police officer, is heading to prison this November .\nHe says he was acting in self-defense when he punched Jake Gotthard .\nDoctors testified Gotthard appeared as though he had been stomped, kicked .\nMette, currently on unpaid leave, is appealing the court's decision .","id":"12ed0a34a02255c17be7d7a65ace05b817fef621"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Prosecutors in Florida are taking a new look at the 2007 death of Anna Nicole Smith to see if recent evidence that California investigators gathered might cause them to open an inquiry. Prosecutors in Florida are reviewing evidence gathered in California for a probe into Anna Nicole Smith's death. Howard K. Stern -- Smith's longtime partner and attorney -- and two doctors were charged this month in California with conspiring to furnish drugs to Smith before her fatal overdose. \"Our prosecutors have met with representatives of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the California Department of Justice and discussed the evidence they have turned up in their investigation,\" said Ron Ishoy, a spokesman for Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz. \"We are now examining that evidence to see where it might lead in relation to Ms. Smith's death here in Broward County in 2007.\" The Broward County state attorney's office never opened a probe into Smith's death but assisted the Seminole police in its investigation in the days afterward. Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8, 2007, after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Hollywood, Florida. A coroner said she died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Officials said both prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three anti-depressant or anti-anxiety drugs. Human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, also were found in toxicology tests, officials said. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor were charged in California with several felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007 -- only weeks before Smith's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich also were charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" And each was charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, prosecutors said. \"Anna was the center of a cruel tabloid feeding frenzy,\" Eroshevich's attorney, Adam Braun, told CNN in a statement after his client was charged. \"In the face of this, Dr. Eroshevich did her best to help the patient while protecting what little privacy Anna had left. Any actions were done with the patient's well-being in mind and were certainly not criminal.\" Watch allegations over photos and the doctor \u00bb . California Attorney General Jerry Brown said the doctors and Stern devised a plan to use fake names so Smith could be prescribed \"thousands of pills.\" The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star was drugged \"almost to the point of stupefaction,\" Brown said. \"The quantity of the drugs, the variety of the drugs, the combination at any given point, and her continuing to use that -- that, to a professional, is clear evidence of addiction,\" Brown said Friday. \"These cocktails of methadone and anti-depressants and sleeping pills and Xanax, you put all that into a cocktail, it explodes and can cause death, injury and permanent morbidity and disability.\"","highlights":"Broward County, Florida, prosecutors taking new look at death of Anna Nicole Smith .\nEx-Playboy playmate found dead in Florida hotel room in February 2007 .\nCoroner: Smith died of accidental overdose of prescription drugs .\nSmith's boyfriend, two doctors charged recently in California drug case .","id":"ab05b9ddbf03bdaff1c8cf8aa5e350ff779f4681"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi King Abdullah has pardoned a rape victim who had been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison in a case that sparked international attention, a Saudi newspaper has reported. The case cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic law. Al-Jazirah newspaper quoted a Saudi Justice Ministry official saying King Abdullah issued a royal pardon Monday -- the same day that the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, begins in Saudi Arabia. The victim's husband told CNN he has not received an official letter regarding her pardon, but considers it to be legitimate since it was announced in an official Saudi newspaper. He thanked King Abdullah for the pardon, saying: \"This fatherly care and noble gesture will help (in) lifting the emotional and psychological stress and suffering that our family has been enduring.\" \"This is not something new because we know that the King was always generous in dealing with his people and the entire world,\" the husband said. \"This week, we have two holidays to celebrate; the Eid and this great news of the pardon.\" Saudi sources told CNN that the king's pardon was not related to the beginning of the Hajj nor the Eid al-Adha festival that follows, which is normally when the Saudi monarch issues amnesty for prisoners. Watch how Arab media is reporting the story. \u00bb . Saudi Arabia's Justice Minister Abdullah Bin Mohammad al-Sheikh told al-Jazirah newspaper that the king felt the pardon would be in the best interests of the Saudi people, and the decision did not reflect any lack of confidence in the Saudi justice system. The White House welcomed King Abdullah's decision, but National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe stressed that \"this is obviously a matter for the Saudi Arabians and King Abdullah.\" A Saudi court ruled the 19-year-old had an \"illegitimate relationship\" with a man who was not her husband, and that she was raped after she and the man were discovered in a \"compromising situation, her clothes on the ground.\" The rape took place in Qatif in March 2006 when the woman was engaged to be married. The case has drawn international attention, provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under strict Islamic law in Saudi Arabia. The woman was meeting with a man -- described by the woman's attorney as a former friend from whom she was retrieving a photograph -- when they both were abducted last March. Seven men, convicted of abducting the pair and raping her, were sentenced from two to nine years in prison. Abdul Rahman al-Lahim, the lawyer who represented the woman, faced a disciplinary hearing for \"insulting the Supreme Judicial Council and disobeying the rules and regulations\" of the judiciary. The hearing has been postponed. The woman's husband has been outspoken in his support for his wife. He called a Lebanese TV show to defend her, when a former Saudi judge claimed on the program that she \"spoil(ed) their marital bed\" by meeting an unrelated male \"in secret\" and admitted her guilt. Al-Lahim has said he hopes the case changes the Saudi justice system. \"We want to highlight the rape crimes in Saudi Arabia and the way they are handled and sentenced in court,\" he added. \"This is a new era for all of us.\" He said that the rape case had elicited a fierce response, including calls for his beheading. U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that King Abdullah \"knows our position loud and clear\" on the case. Under Saudi law, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, Saad Abedine and Isha Sesay contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Sources say pardon unrelated to Hajj nor subsequent Eid al-Adha .\nNEW: Justice minister says king felt pardon in best interests of Saudi people .\nReport: King Abdullah pardons rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes .\nA Saudi court had ruled the 19-year-old had an \"illegitimate relationship\"","id":"fa42ca51163a8dc2ea243a100687867b61cd691e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain has inched ahead of Sen. Barack Obama in national polls, but the Democratic candidate holds a steady lead in the most recent Electoral College estimates. John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning hard in battleground states. In national surveys, McCain leads by 2 points, 47 percent to 45 percent, according to CNN's poll of polls released Monday night. In the Electoral College standings, the most recent survey shows 243 electoral votes either safely in Obama's column or leaning his way. At this point, McCain can claim only 189. Many of the state polls used to determine the Electoral College standings, however, were conducted before the conventions. Monday marked the first time McCain passed Obama in CNN's poll of polls. Watch how the race has tightened \u00bb . On Saturday, Obama was up by 3 in the poll of polls. That lead shrank to just 1 point Sunday before disappearing Monday. In the most recent survey, 8 percent of respondents said they were still unsure about who they were going to vote for. The poll of polls is an average of five surveys: CNN (September 5-7), ABC\/Washington Post (September 5-7), CBS (September 5-7), Gallup (September 5-7) and Diageo\/Hotline (September 5-7). The poll of polls does not have a sampling error. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Monday shows McCain and Obama tied at 48 percent. The poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was based on 1,022 telephone interviews. Republicans are hoping that if McCain can close the popular vote gap, he can also make gains in the electoral gap. The Electoral College will ultimately decide who takes over the White House. Watch what the different standings mean \u00bb . Although polls across the country are open on one day, the election is not a national poll but a series of 51 state-level elections that decide the members of the Electoral College. Technically, voters aren't choosing a candidate but a slate of electors who have pledged to vote for that candidate when the Electoral College meets. With 538 electors up for grabs, the candidate with more than half -- 270 -- wins the presidency. The number of electors from each state equals the number of senators and representatives the state sends to Congress . Both candidates are turning their focus to battleground areas as they try to stack the states in their column. According to CNN's electoral map, the states that could go either way are Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, are campaigning Tuesday in Lebanon, Ohio, just 30 miles from Obama, who is in Riverside. No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio. Obama's running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, is campaigning in Missouri. Both parties are putting a lot of emphasis on Missouri. For the past century, the state has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election except one. (Missouri picked Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.) McCain and Palin campaigned there Monday. They're hoping the state's landscape will help them take its 11 electoral votes. The state has the 13th oldest population in the country, and Obama has struggled with older voters. Also, 37 percent of Missourians are evangelical Christians, according to the Pew Forum. That's substantially higher than the 26 percent nationally. If McCain can take Missouri and tilt the toss-up states of Florida and Ohio, which also have older populations, he will pull ahead of Obama. CNN's Tom Foreman contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN's poll of polls shows John McCain leading Barack Obama, 47-45 percent .\nObama ahead in Electoral College count, but some polls taken before convention .\nCandidates focusing on battleground states like Missouri, Ohio .\nCandidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election .","id":"67ee7de17c700aa985a893d4386faff0eb6d6784"} -{"article":"YUSUFIYAH, Iraq (CNN) -- Until recently, Yusufiyah was among the most dangerous places in Iraq. U.S. Col. Michael Kershaw meets with Sunni leaders in Yusufiyah, formerly a hot spot for insurgent activity. Located in the so-called \"triangle of death,\" a violent area south of Baghdad, it was the site of frequent clashes between coalition forces and Sunni fighters. In May, two U.S. soldiers went missing in Yusufiyah and were never found, despite a massive search. But today, Sunni tribal leaders in this town cooperate with U.S. forces in their battle against foreign fighters and al Qaeda in Iraq. \"It's all the roll of the dice. It's people and politics all intertwined down here,\" said Col. Michael Kershaw, commander of the Second Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. Kershaw now greets his former enemies with kisses, hears their grievances, spends time in their homes and even shares meals with them. He is surprised at how far relations have progressed. \"Our hope a year ago was to establish very basic inroads down here,\" Kershaw said. \"We thought the insurgency was far too deep for us to be able to effectively root it out and develop the relationship with the locals.\" As happened in Anbar province to the west, local Sunni leaders from this town south of Baghdad finally turned on the al Qaeda extremists in their midst when the death and destruction became too much to bear. \"Killing people, stealing goats, everything, you name it,\" said Sheik Hamid Karbouli, when asked why he and his men now oppose al Qaeda. Karbouli has recruited some 150 volunteers to man checkpoints and carry guns. Sunni sheik lists grievances against al Qaeda \u00bb . The U.S. military calls the men concerned local citizens. \"I haven't had more than one IED destroy a vehicle in an area where concerned citizens were located ... in the past two months,\" Kershaw said. To further encourage local tribesmen to turn against al Qaeda, the U.S. military pays local sheiks to provide security in their area; they receive up to $10 per man. It's a controversial policy, but one that has helped the U.S. military identify and stop insurgents, Kershaw said. \"In the three months since this has started, we have gathered more insurgents up, more terrorists, than we did in the preceding nine months. And that's because they have pointed out to us these people within their own ranks,\" Kershaw said. The next step is to have these young Sunnis join the Iraqi police. For that to happen, the U.S. military needs the cooperation of the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. Cooperation, however, is slow in coming. Iraq's central government is concerned these gunmen might turn into armed militias if the U.S. pulls out and civil war erupts. To assuage these concerns, Kershaw is registering as many of the local volunteers as possible, taking photographs and retinal scans, hoping leaders in Baghdad will agree to hire them as Iraqi police. \"What we see as being the end state down here is these tribes being brought back full into the government process,\" Kershaw said. The Second Brigade has lost 53 men in Iraq. Their photos are proudly displayed in the brigade's headquarters. Some of the U.S. soldiers here have a hard time forgiving the Sunnis for what they might have done in the insurgency. \"Were some of these people part of the insurgency? Sure they were,\" Kershaw said. \"Our job over here isn't to do what's comfortable for us, and it isn't to do what we want,\" he said. \"Our job is to do the nation's bidding. If this gets our nation closer to a solution for this country ... then that's what we're gonna do.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Yusufiyah, south of Baghdad, was among the most dangerous places in Iraq .\nLocal Sunnis tired of the destruction wrought by al Qaeda in Iraq .\nThey partnered with U.S. forces to keep their town safe .\nIraq's Shiite-dominated central government remains wary of such partnerships .","id":"e852311ff422ff99d5c3945e70efebc1e5ef0f41"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's rundown housing estates and deprived inner cities will be the setting for a new project that aims to use classical music to lift children out of the poverty trap. Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra rehearse ahead of a performance at New York's Carnegie Hall in November last year. Organizers are modeling the plan on a hugely successful scheme already in place in Venezuela that gives free instruments and training to children from poor and vulnerable backgrounds. They are hoping that lessons learned in the slums of Caracas can be made to work in Britain. Internationally renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is spearheading the initiative he hopes will give \"a sense of purpose\" to the lives of the most in need. Under the government-backed project, children as young as three will be taught to play classical instruments by trained musicians. \"We're really trying to go to the most deprived children, to the most poor areas,\" Lloyd Webber told CNN. \"You're talking about children from a background where classical music has almost certainly played no part.\" The inspiration behind the scheme is the El Sistema social program in Venezuela, which has helped improve the lives of thousands of young people since it began over 30 years ago. Many of those youths have gone on to be part of the Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar Youth Orchestra, which was created as a result of the program and has performed around the world to rave reviews. The scheme has launched the musical careers of several of its members. One graduate, Gustavo Dudamel, currently conducts the orchestra but has been signed up to take over as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic next year. The 27-year-old prodigy described by the New York Times as \"classical music's hottest young podium property\" was born to a poor family in the Venezuelan interior and took up the violin aged 10. However for Lloyd Webber, who has worked with a range of top musicians from Yehudi Menuhin to Elton John, the purpose of the UK project is not to create a new batch of professional musicians. \"That's not the way we're looking at it. It's very likely most of those involved will not turn professional but they will hopefully be empowered to make something more of their lives.\" The Venezuelan project has grown from around 100 or so members when it started to involve 250,000 children and young people today. In the 1970s, Venezuela had only two professional orchestras mainly composed of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Italy. Thanks to El Sistema that number has expanded to over 110. But will the British version be able to match this astonishing success, given the very different social conditions that exist in the two countries? After all, though there are deprived areas in the UK they can't be compared with the grinding poverty of Venezuela's slums where the incentive to escape to a better life is surely much greater. Lloyd Webber disagrees, insisting that levels of poverty in Britain are far worse than many realize. \"We have many of the same problems here that they've encountered there. We have drug issues, prostitution issues, gang warfare issues. \"The Venezuelan project has been hugely helpful in reducing those kind of problems, and save children who would have possibly died without it.\" What about the wide array of distractions on offer in the West such as video games and television, not to mention the low regard many young people have for the world of classical music, which is still considered stuffy and uncool? Again he disagrees, claiming that children in poor areas of Britain often have nothing to distract them, which he says leads to anti-social behavior. \"There are very poor areas in England and for the children who live there, there is often very little to do. That's why you see them out on the streets drinking, bored out of their heads.\" Lloyd Webber is charged with chairing the steering group set up to organize the project, which is initially funded to run for the next three years. He says the scheme will focus on three or four specific areas of the country considered to be especially deprived. Charismatic teachers will be recruited to inspire the children. Although the cellist says the experience of performing in an orchestra should serve as a powerful inspiration on its own. \"I grew up performing in youth orchestras,\" says Lloyd Webber, who is the son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and younger brother of Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has written and produced several major West End and Broadway musicals including Phantom of the Opera and Evita. \"It will give them a sense of purpose and a sense of togetherness. It's a wonderful feeling when you've a group of a hundred players wanting to produce something bigger and better than they are. \"It could be that through this some of those involved feel self-worth for the first time in their lives.\"","highlights":"UK project to provide musical instruments and training to children in poor areas .\nThe scheme is modelled on a successful program in Venezuela .\nEl Sistema has helped lift many youths out of the slums through music .\nThe UK scheme is being led by famous cellist Julian Lloyd Webber .","id":"bc59b7c188eb0f4cfe90aa88b2b062b756756d5e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- She is one of the world's most likeable and photogenic leaders, has her own YouTube channel, and is determined to change the face of learning in the Middle East. Queen Rania's down-to-earth personality has won hearts and minds all over the world. She is also, according to you, the most inspirational leader featured on CNN's \"The Spirit of...\" in 2008. Thousands of CNN Web site users voted to award her the honor for her matchless energy working with Jordan's young people, ahead of luminaries such as peace advocate Kofi Annan, activist Wangari Maathai and environmentalist James Lovelock. This is Queen Rania's second award in as many months. In November, she was presented with the first ever YouTube Visionary Award for her bold use of the video-sharing network to discuss stereotypes about Islam and the Arab world. The channel fielded questions from young people about all aspects of Islamic culture. She could not be present to personally receive the honour at YouTube's Live event in San Francisco, but her pop-culture-savvy pre-recorded acceptance speech showed her to be possibly the coolest queen alive. She delighted viewers with a lighthearted top-ten list of reasons for registering her own YouTube channel, which included, \"Because I didn't have enough friends on Facebook,\" and \"Because anything Queen Elizabeth can do I can do better.\" The experimental venture gained her a faithful online following, and since then the channel has become a platform for entertaining, non-hostile debate. It is exactly this willingness to set aside her royal image and interact with the public that her fans say has shown Queen Rania's dedication to bringing about change. She first entered the international spotlight 15 years ago after marrying Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, the then future king of Jordan. In 1999, she was proclaimed Queen, the world's youngest at age 28. She wasted little time in applying herself to various causes, and soon made her name as an engaging advocate for women's rights and moderate Islam, and as a heavy investor in youth. The 38-year-old mother of four has said that she cares about her people as if they were her own children, and wants to ensure as many of them as possible get the most out of school. Queen Rania may be light-hearted in some of her approaches, but she is very serious when it comes to revitalizing education in the Middle East. She has made closing the Middle East's \"knowledge divide\" -- the gap in knowledge that has grown as a result of people in richer countries having more access to computers, the Internet and education than those in poorer countries -- a top priority over the next few years in the hope that it will unlock the economic potential of the region's population. Queen Rania certainly has a challenge on her hands. Earlier this year, the Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organisation revealed that nearly one in three between the ages of 15 and 45 is illiterate. Alongside promoting equal rights for men and women and the importance of literacy, Queen Rania has strived to convince both the education and private sectors that existing education systems need reinvigoration. She has repeatedly called for creative instruction and explorative learning to be embraced in the classroom. In April of this year, Queen Rania launched the Madrasati (\"My School\") project, which encourages Jordanians to get their neediest schools back on their feet. Under the program, communities are working with the public and private sectors to raise funds and recruit volunteers to renovate school facilities and provide school supplies and equipment. This is expected to improve the learning environment for children, and ultimately have a ripple effect on the neighborhoods where the schools are located. Queen Rania's campaigns in various areas have helped to inspire other Middle Eastern policy-makers to see globalization in a more positive light -- a truly inspiring leader.","highlights":"Queen Rania voted \"The Spirit of...\" most inspirational leader of 2008 .\nOnline readers acknowledge her work with education, women's rights and Islam .\nQueen Rania personally encourages open dialogue through her YouTube channel .","id":"86dea9e02a971ed163a99679980f86c34894c766"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's GDP fell 4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace on record, the government said on Wednesday. A homeless man pulls his cart filled with possessions and goods for recycling on March 18 in Osaka, Japan. The January-March quarter for Japan was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year, according to figures released by the Cabinet Office. Exports fell 26 percent on quarter, while imports were down 15 percent. The GDP slide in the world's second-largest economy is the greatest drop among the world's leading economies. By comparison, GDP in the United States fell 6.1 percent on an annual basis. This was the fourth straight quarter the Japanese economy contracted. Analysts say the drop reflects cuts in domestic spending with job cuts, factory closings and less capital spending as a result of spiraling sales abroad. The news punctuates a month of poor economic news out of Japan in recent weeks. Panasonic, one of the world's largest makers of electronic devices, announced it lost nearly $4 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31. Hitachi lost $8 billion in the fiscal year, with consolidated revenues down 11 percent from last year, the largest loss ever recorded by a Japanese manufacturer. NEC Corporation lost $3 billion in the past fiscal year, down nearly 11.5 percent from last year. Meanwhile, Nissan lost $2.3 billion for the year.Sony Corp. announced net losses of $1 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, finishing a year in the red for the first time in 14 years.","highlights":"Japan's GDP fell 4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace on record.\nFirst quarter GDP was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year .\nThis was the fourth straight quarter the Japanese economy contracted .","id":"041539e0165ff2ce92f5872116fad56daf0e1dab"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In sport, being the best is not just about the having the greatest players. Here are five teams that have gone from zeroes to heroes, and in the process left their mark on sporting history. 1. The European Ryder Cup team . The 1980 U.S. hockey team's 'Miracle on Ice' against the Soviet Union. Europe's Ryder Cup team has become renowned for upsetting the form book, frequently triumphing against higher ranked American opposition. Since European players were first allowed to join the British and Irish team for the famous golf tournament (to improve the level of competition) in 1979, the U.S. has won six times; Europe seven; and the teams have tied once. The slight edge enjoyed by Europe, however, belies the lowly status of their players in world golf. For the last tournament two years ago in Ireland, for example, the Americans boasted 68.4 world-ranking points and the top three players, including world number one, Tiger Woods. Compare this with just 47.8 ranking points for the Europeans. Even so Europe went on to achieve a record third consecutive win. The key to this success has been the camaraderie and teamwork exhibited by the Europeans. Their players have consistently rallied around their position as underdog, managing to achieve a level of togetherness made all the more surprising since the team is made up of a collection of nationalities that are better known for falling out with each other. 2. The 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team . A famous victory against a seemingly invincible Soviet Union side propelled this team of college players and amateurs to the level of national heroes. Although the U.S. team went on to win the gold medal by defeating Finland at the Winter Olympics, it was the earlier match against the Soviets that captured the popular imagination. Classed as amateurs, the Soviet players were essentially professional, and were provided with different job titles by the communist government to allow them to compete. Many of their players were considered legends of world ice hockey at the time. The U.S. team coached by Herb Brooks was, by contrast, genuinely amateur and came into the tournament in Lake Placid, New York, as rank outsiders. Their youthfulness and tenacity combined with patriotic home support saw them upset predictions, defeating the Soviets 4-3 in a match that became known as the \"Miracle on Ice.\" The win over their Cold War enemies seized the imagination of the U.S. public -- it inspired two films and was voted the greatest sporting moment of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. Dave Ogrean, former executive director of USA Hockey, called the victory \"the most transcending moment in the history of our sport in this country.\" 3. The 'Crazy Gang' defeat Liverpool in the FA Cup . Nobody expected lowly Wimbledon Football Club to do anything other than turn up when they played Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium. Dubbed the 'Crazy Gang' by British media because of the eccentric antics of their players and staff, who included future film actor Vinnie Jones, the team was outclassed on every front. At the time Liverpool were the dominant force in English football, having won the league title that year for the seventh time in a decade. Managed by former player Kenny Dalglish and boasting a host of stars, the team was expected to cruise past Wimbledon, who had little resources and were considered something of a joke. Under the chairmanship of Lebanese businessman Samir \"Sam\" Hammam, Wimbledon earned a reputation for bizarre behaviour, with players setting fire to new signings football kits, and Hammam once offering to buy a camel for the team's striker if he scored 20 goals in a season. The practical jokes helped to foster an extraordinarily strong team spirit, however, which saw them topple Liverpool 1-0, with Wimbledon captain Dave Beasant the hero of the hour after he saved a penalty. 4. Joe's Jets win the Superbowl . When the New York Jets took on the Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Superbowl, it was the team from Baltimore that was strong favorites. The Colts had stormed the National Football League (NFL) championship, considered at the time a much stronger competition than the American Football League (AFL), headed that year by the Jets. This news, however, seemed to have escaped Joe Namath, the Jets' charismatic quarterback, who gave a \"guarantee\" a few days earlier at a news conference in Miami -- where the Superbowl was being staged -- that his team would win. True to his predictions, the Jets came out on top with Namath taking all the plaudits (Sports Illustrated described him as a \"folk hero of the new generation\") after a blistering performance that saw his team triumph 16-7. 5. The Magical Magyars . The legendary Hungarian national football team of the 1950s is still considered one of the greatest teams in the history of sport. Although many of its players -- most notably striker Ferenc Puskas, who eventually moved to Real Madrid -- went on to play in the West, during its heyday the majority of the team was drawn from the Honved club in Budapest. The Magyars remained unbeaten for an unprecedented 33 consecutive matches (a record that still stands today) finally losing out in the 1954 World Cup Final to Germany. This golden age of Hungarian football was brought to an abrupt end in 1956 by the events of the Hungarian Revolution. Puskas and some of his team mates opted to defect to Western Europe, and never played for their country again.","highlights":"Europe's Ryder Cup team has often beaten the U.S. despite lower profile players .\nAmerica's ice hockey win against the Soviets is known as the \"Miracle on Ice\"\nWimbledon's defeat of Liverpool in the FA Cup was considered a major upset .\nNew York Jets Superbowl win in 1969 was inspired by quarterback Joe Namath .","id":"faee3fae948c100ad07d387da0eb28fb5303b96d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Is it possible to have a building that can make you happy, sad, or even angry? The Experience Music Project in Seattle has appeared in the Forbes list of ugly buildings. Does it affect your mood? Alain de Botton thinks it is. The Swiss-born British writer, modern-day philosopher, and author of international bestseller \"The Architecture of Happiness\", believes there is more to buildings and architecture than we may think. Taking on 19th Century French writer Stendhal's motto that \"beauty is the promise of happiness,\" de Botton analyzes human surroundings and considers how our needs and desires are transferred into architecture. He also discusses the amount to which architecture can affect our personal happiness. De Botton told CNN he felt that a beautiful building, or likewise, an ugly structure, could affect how we feel. \"Beauty has a huge role to play in altering our mood. When we call a chair or a house beautiful, really what we're saying is that we like the way of life it's suggesting to us. It has an attitude we're attracted to: if it was magically turned into a person, we'd like who it was. \"It would be convenient if we could remain in much the same mood wherever we happened to be ...but unfortunately we're highly vulnerable to the coded messages that emanate from our surroundings,\" he said. But, how do buildings manage to cast their bricks and mortar over our emotions? \"One might say that architecture suggests a mood to us, which we may be too internally troubled to be able to take up. Its effectiveness could be compared to the weather: a fine day can substantially change our state of mind -- and people may be willing to make great sacrifices to be nearer a sunny climate,\" de Botton said. De Botton believed that structures communicate with us in various ways. \"This book focuses our minds on the idea that buildings speak -- and on topics which can readily be discerned. They speak of democracy or aristocracy, openness or arrogance, welcome or threat, a sympathy for the future or a hankering for the past.\" So, indeed your own house could be making you happy or sad, de Botton suggests. \"They (houses) tell us of certain moods that they seek to encourage and sustain in their inhabitants. While keeping us warm and helping us in mechanical ways, they simultaneously hold out an invitation for us to be specific sorts of people. They speak of particular visions of happiness,\" he said. De Botton said there are \"thousands\" of public buildings which are ugly and could possibly force a negative, saddening, or even potential anger-producing mood upon us. What are some examples? De Botton is quick to mention the new Westfield mall opening in Shepherd's Bush, London, which he describes as a \"monument to human idiocy\" which represents a \"large, confused shed, which offers the wider community nothing but a windowless fa\u00e7ade clad in nauseating green paneling, with an utter indifference to symmetry, proportion or beauty\". And what other buildings could be considered a structure of sadness? Certainly, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Experience Music Project building in Seattle has to be a nominee -- featuring in the Forbes list of the top ten ugliest buildings in the world. Elsewhere, London's Millennium Dome (or 02 Arena) and Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are other well-known candidates for buildings that could destroy one's day, after featuring in various \"ugly\" lists. At the other end of the scale, de Botton has some ideas about structures we should cast our eyes upon to make us happy. While all of this is rather subjective, de Botton said there were some aesthetic values that were universally appreciated. He was particularly fond of the highly-detailed yet serene Senate House in Bloomsbury, London, and also the Georgian-style architecture of Bedford Square, also in London. It's fair to say though, that not everyone in the architectural world is as optimistic about the power of architecture over people. In a debate with architect Robert Adam organized by building.co.uk, Adam attacked de Botton's ideas. After questioning de Botton's use of the word \"us\" when presenting some opinions, Adam said he did not believe that people were culturally aware enough to take notice of such details. \"I wouldn't call myself a pessimist because it would mean I feel bad about popular culture, which I don't. What I think we have at the moment is people who are unprepared to take on the language of the greater part of the population,\" he said. We want to know what you think. Do you believe buildings can influence the way we feel? Give us your examples of buildings that make you happy or sad in the Sound Off box below and we'll publish the best.","highlights":"Alain de Botton authored The Architecture of Happiness .\nHe believes emotions are shown in, and can be deduced from architecture .\nArchitect Robert Adam disagrees with many of de Botton's ideas .","id":"45a06a56ec2ba877096bb54674f2be2c69054a0a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Myanmar is facing a food shortage largely due to last year's deadly Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed nearly all the rice crops in the fertile Ayeyarwaddy delta, the United Nations said Wednesday. A young farmer ploughs a field in preparation to grow rice in Dalla, about 20 kms south of Yangon on July 9, 2008. Rice production in the cyclone-affected areas of Ayeyarwaddy and Yangon, the largest city and former capital of Myanmar, is expected to be 50 percent of last year's, according to the report issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP). Rat infestation in western's Myanmar's Chin State has also contributed to the food shortage, the report says. \"Access to food remains the critical challenge for the poorest people and for vulnerable populations in remote areas of Myanmar,\" Chris Kaye, WFP's representative for Myanmar, said in a written statement. \"And for many of those affected by Cyclone Nargis, who are engaged in rebuilding their lives and livelihoods, the limited delta harvest means they will continue to rely on assistance to meet their food needs.\" Watch Paul Risley of the WFP discuss the food crisis \u00bb . Although rice production is expected to be adequate this year because of strong crops in other areas of the country, access to food remains a serious challenge to Myanmar's poor, especially in the delta region, the report said. More than 5 million people fall below the food poverty line and emergency food aid is still needed in cyclone-affected areas, the report said. The cyclone also hurt the cattle and fishing industries, contributing to the food crisis. \"Humanitarian assistance has not restored the production capacity of small to medium-sized farms,\" He Changchui, FAO's Asia-Pacific regional chief, said in a written statement. \"Farmers and fishers are unlikely to self-finance their needs this year, thus entering into a spiral of pauperization of the delta.\"","highlights":"Myanmar is facing a food shortage largely due to last year's deadly Cyclone Nargis .\nCyclone destroyed nearly all the rice crops in the fertile Ayeyarwaddy delta .\nRice production in the cyclone-affected areas expected to be half of last year's .\nDespite adequate crops this year, food access remains a problem for the poor .","id":"fe6dd67b9e4f16ba37ce9796cb0bbff192dfcecc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Football fans are set to benefit from the recession as clubs slash season ticket prices to keep supporters coming back. Some Premier League fans will save on season tickets after five clubs cut prices. Price cuts have been announced at five English Premier League clubs. Manchester City, Sunderland, Everton, Portsmouth and Newcastle United have cut prices, while five further clubs announced price freezes on their season tickets. Bolton dropped their season ticket prices last season. Manchester City have taken an average of seven percent off their prices, while at Everton the cheapest adult season ticket will now be \u00a3399 ($550). At Sunderland under-16 season passes will be just \u00a31($1.39) per home match for the 19 matches (\u00a319 [$26] total) when purchased with an adult pass. The move comes amid a slight decline in Premiership football crowds this season. The average attendance at Premier League matches is down about 800 per match compared to the 2007\/2008 season -- however, on average the stadiums are still at almost 92 percent capacity. Outside the United Kingdom, fans also stand to benefit from lower ticket prices. In the U.S. Major League Soccer side Kansas City Wizards recently announced they would drop ticket prices for the coming season. Wizards president Robb Heinemann was quoted in the Kansas City Star saying; \"We understand these are tough economic times.\" Other countries in Europe have maintained lower prices in recent years, with single tickets available for about 10 Euros in club games in Italy and Germany. Tickets in Australia's A-League tended to be cheaper yet, while South America and Africa\/Middle East remained the cheapest. In England's League One and League Two competitions crowds had dropped more significantly. Dan Johnson of the Premier League told CNN the clubs cutting ticket prices were simply responding to the financial climate. \"Given the economic situation, there will be pressure on fans' ability to spend and the clubs have acted accordingly. \"It's a very real way that they can help at this time,\" Johnson said. Johnson said the drop in crowds this season was not significant and may be made up towards the end of the season when attendances are traditionally higher. Sport business expert Professor Simon Chadwick, founder of the Center for the International Business of Sport (CIBS) at Coventry University, told CNN recessions could have a strong impact on football crowds. \"In previous recessions there is evidence to suggest that as unemployment rises, the attendance at football matches decreases,\" he said. However, Chadwick said English football fans shouldn't hope for significant price reductions. \"Some Premier League clubs are running at nearly 100% capacity and there's excess demand ...so in the short-to-medium term they should be able to continue at premium prices,\" Chadwick said.","highlights":"Football fans to benefit as club teams lower season ticket prices .\nFive English Premier League teams have dropped prices for season passes .\nDan Johnson of the Premier League says the move is due to recession .\nA U.S. Major League Soccer team has also announced a price drop .","id":"3fef6e98a966fcb764a0f5b45546f794284bc190"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If one hardened cockpit door is good, would two barriers be even better? Many airline pilots believe the answer is \"yes,\" and are hoping to reinvigorate efforts to require so-called \"secondary barriers\" on every commercial plane in the country. Pilots praise the hardened cockpit doors mandated after 9\/11, saying they have done as much as anything to protect aircraft from terrorist assaults. But planes remain vulnerable for short periods of time during some flights when pilots go to the lavatory, get meals or, on long flights, change out crews. Currently, flight attendants sometimes block the aisle with beverage carts to prevent possible terrorists from rushing the cockpit. But pilots believe the barriers -- relatively inexpensive gates that would be deployed before pilots come out of the cockpit -- would solve that vulnerability. \"This is an absolute no-brainer,\" Capt. Bob Hesselbein of the Air Line Pilots Association said. \"Of all the things we could do, the most cost-effective thing we could do right now is put the device in.\" ALPA this summer published a position paper calling on the U.S. and Canadian governments to require secondary flight deck barriers on all airliners by January 1, 2010. The barriers would be designed to delay anyone trying to attack the cockpit by at least five seconds, giving pilots time to retreat to the cockpit, ALPA said. Hijackers have attempted to gain access to flight decks on planes overseas four times in the past year, according to ALPA. The airline industry has fought efforts to require the barriers, saying airlines should be allowed to decide for themselves if the barriers would improve security. The barriers would not be useful on short hauls where pilots don't ordinarily leave the cockpit, and the airline industry claims other layers of protection are sufficient on longer flights. Hesselbein disagrees. \"You can never guarantee that you're going to have an armed pilot protecting that cockpit from inside that cockpit. You can never guarantee that you're going to have a federal air marshal, or federal air marshal team, in the cabin to defend that cockpit. \"But the secondary barrier, once installed, will always be there,\" Hesselbein said. The government has classified the number of federal air marshals and armed pilots, but it is widely known that they cover a small percentage of flights in the U.S. In a June 2005 report to Congress, the Transportation Security Administration said the barrier \"appears to be a simple solution that offers greater security at a relatively low cost.\" \"Valuable time is gained in deterring the movement of an unauthorized individual towards the flight deck,\" the report said. But the TSA recommended against mandating secondary barriers, citing \"the costs of engineering and installation that would be incurred by the [airlines] to retrofit\" aircraft. \"The economic fragility of the industry due to increasing costs, including persistently rising fuel prices, makes this a decisive recommendation.\" The Air Transport Association, which represents the nation's major airlines, said hardened cockpit doors and other measures provide effective security and that mandating other measures should not be done \"in the absence of appropriate risk analysis.\" Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, said he is again introducing a bill to require barriers on passenger planes. \"Everybody recognizes the vulnerability,\" he said. \"The airline industry recognizes the vulnerability and thinks that the federal government ought to pay for the secondary barriers. The federal government recognizes the vulnerability and thinks that the airline industry should pay. \"Meanwhile, for as long as the debate continues, the flying public is less safe.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pilots praise the hardened cockpit doors mandated after 9\/11 .\nMany pilots support efforts to mandate secondary cockpit barriers .\nThe airline industry has fought efforts to require the barriers .\nThe TSA recommended against mandating secondary barriers .","id":"987f467e75d0c28132a24e3a285e31b55db62ad5"} -{"article":"KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- (CNN) -- Fighting resumed Tuesday in a disputed oil-rich town in Sudan, threatening to reignite a calamitous civil war which ended three years ago. Fresh fighting in Sudan over an oil-rich town has raised fears civil war could again erupt. Fresh fighting in Sudan over an oil-rich town has raised fears civil war could again erupt. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon deplored the fighting between the Sudanese military and troops with the Sudan People's Liberation Army. The SPLA fought a rebellion against the government for more than 20 years until both sides signed a peace deal in 2005. The deal's Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended a north-south civil war that killed about 2 million people and displaced more than 4 million others. An impasse over the boundaries of the town of Abyei is a major reason the peace agreement has not been fully implemented. Fighting erupted in Abyei on May 13. It resumed Tuesday despite a cease-fire and has \"resulted in the destruction\" of the town \"and the displacement of between 30,000 and 50,000 people,\" the secretary general said in a statement. Don't Miss Sudanese opposition leader arrested Sudan cuts ties with Chad after attack Darfur rebels advance on Sudan capital, their leader says \"If the situation is not urgently addressed, the achievements thus far of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement could be placed at serious risk,\" he said. The civil war in Sudan, which started in 1983, pitted a northern government dominated by Arab Muslims against black Christians and animists in southern Sudan. That conflict was not directly related to ongoing violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Human rights groups and United Nations say the Sudanese military armed and trained Arab militias in Darfur after a rebellion erupted in 2003. They say the military and militias have engaged in widespread killing, rape and forced displacements in Darfur as they battle about rebels who have splintered into roughly a dozen groups. One of those groups staged a daring attack this month near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The government said it quashed the attack. Nearly 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur in the last five years, the UN says.","highlights":"Fighting in disputed oil-rich Sudan town raises fears of return to civil war .\nUp to 50,000 people displaced by latest outbreak of fighting .\nDespite cease-fire agreement Abyei has been destroyed and deal is at risk .","id":"f98f87d0543fb8bf529132578efb3688a5cb6978"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York State Assembly passed a same-sex marriage bill Tuesday evening, bringing New York one step closer to legalizing such marriages. Gov. David Paterson has said he'd sign a same-sex if it's passed by the New York Senate. The bill, which passed 89-52, will now go on to the state Senate for a vote. If it is passed there, it will go to Gov. David Paterson, who has made it clear he will sign the bill. \"I applaud ... members of both parties for moving this historic legislation forward,\" New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement released by the mayor's office. \"I hope New York will soon become the latest state to adopt a law whose time has come.\" State Sen. Thomas K. Duane, a Democrat, said in a statement, \"I am confident that this year my Senate will uphold this fundamental legal principle and vote for my right, our right, to be married this year.\" This is the second time New York's Marriage Equality Legislation has been approved by the State Assembly -- it passed in 2007, but subsequently stalled in the then Republican-controlled Senate.","highlights":"New York State Assembly passes bill by vote of 89 to 52 .\nSame-sex marriage bill will go to the state Senate .\nGov. David Paterson has said he would sign a same-sex marriage bill .\nNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg applauds legislators for vote .","id":"a0083ab2071bab3e4bc285c356645103a6912b61"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- First it was instant messaging during office hours that gave us the thrill of passing notes in class. Then it was ogling ourselves on Web cams, ranting our minds on blogs, uploading our baby photos on Flickr and poking each other on Facebook. These days, as corporate records show, we choose to spend our lunch breaks watching YouTube, if not chatting over Skype. CSL's flagship One2Free shop stands at the corner of Hong Kong's trendy Causeway Bay district. The bad news is the Web 2.0 revolution is over. The good news is now we can take it with us. Over the past two years, well over a dozen startups have sprung into action, bringing everything from IM to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to our mobile phones, in a quest to conquer the cellular fourth screen. Winner of Silicon Valley\/San Jose Business Journal's 2007 Emerging Technologies Awards in the category of Social Networking, Mig33 is confident about the viability of its future: \"The next wave of Internet growth is mobile. The number of mobile devices worldwide has exceeded three billion, and the next billion subscribers will have their first Internet experience using a mobile phone.\" Like the Rotterdam-based Nimbuzz, Mig33 also offers instant messaging, photo sharing and VoIP for cheaper telephony, in addition to social networking via profiles, chatrooms and, of course, friends. Applications are free to download and communities are free to join, while members are charged only for SMS and VoIP calls, bridging communications between mobile devices and desktop computers. The softwares are fully functional on both 3G and any smart (Internet-enabled) 2.5G phones running such platforms as Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, S60 and the iPhone OS. Nimbuzz in particular boasts compatibility with Skype, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Live Messenger, Jabber, MySpace and Facebook. But it is hardly alone in partnering with traditional desktop live chat sites, as well as industry partners around the world. Playfully packaged, internationally-based Fring works with WiFi providers in Europe and Australia as well as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) providers based in both North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, South Africa and China, also consolidating all chat buddies into a single mobile contact list. In this context, one way to stand out from the all-encompassing bunch with the global reach is through niche audience focus. MyHappyPlanet, a free online language-exchange network that allows members to create profiles and chat with language partners in real time (text, voice, video), will go mobile in the near future. A2Aworld, an upcoming mobile social networking startup, will focus on connecting social networkers between the world's two largest online communities -- America and Asia -- in terms of communication, information, culture and e-commerce. Furthermore, its business model is based on revenue from emerging online advertising, VoIP calls and premium membership fees, without the mobile ads and viral marketing. Fierce competition . Meanwhile in the mobile marketplace, VoIP competition is getting fierce. While SIPphone's open-source Gizmo Project was heralded by early beta testers as \"the first viable Skype alternative\" in July 2005, it's clear today that Skype itself is the big winner in the VoIP game. Most recently, iSkoot has extended its partnership with Skype, following its collaboration with mobile operator 3 for the global launch of the 3 Skypephone in October 2007, which was the first mass-market Skype-enabled handset as a carrier-integrated solution for mobile-VoIP IM services. But mobile VoIP itself still faces multiple challenges, including fragmented access and distribution. While some applications choose to collaborate with mobile network carriers, others choose to compete with them by using data networks such as WiFi. \"In the near future, there will be a hyper-convergence solution,\" predicts A2Aworld's Michael Liu. \"However, WiFi\/WiMax to cell\/IMS will be playing a bigger and bigger role. In the long run, there will be all-in-IP IMS solutions.\" Insecure communications also pose a new threat to VoIP, as Liu points out: \"In the early days of VoIP, people were mostly concerned with its cost, functionality and reliability. Now that VoIP is gaining wide acceptance and becoming one of the mainstream communication technologies, security has become a major issue.\" And to satisfy the YouTube generation, applications such as myZen Mobile encourage the circulation of photos and viral videos optimized for mobile viewing in real time, with an all-in-one interface featuring YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Yahoo podcast, etc, with the possibility to add other community sites such as ifilm and blogger. Going mobile . Simon Newstead, founder and CEO of Frenzoo, a social-networking site specialized in 3D fashion avatars, is enthusiastic about going mobile. \"We have a roadmap to implement our service on mobile platforms such as iPhone,\" he says. \"Today users are already using 3D in gaming platforms like the wildly successful Nintendo DS Lite, so the logical integration of 3D avatars into the mobile platform will certainly present a great opportunity. \"Technically, new handsets already integrate hardware acceleration for 3G, and battery life is increasing rapidly. Now the only remaining factor is availability or higher-speed affordable mobile bandwidth, which is already emerging in advanced mobile markets such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.\" Indeed in Hong Kong, where the mobile-phone penetration rate hovers around 150 percent, mastering the mobile market is becoming increasingly lucrative. Hong Kong's largest mobile network carrier CSL introduced Asia's first 3G video-sharing service in 2005, launched Hong Kong's first 3G interactive mobile TV in 2006, and partnered with blogging site Xanga in early 2008. From the carrier's point of view, people's choice of mobile communication is a question of coverage and user-friendliness -- of \"price, packaging, usability,\" according to CSL's (\"Create a Simple Life\") chief marketing officer Christina Teo. \"We try to 'replicate' any desktop experience to the mobile phone. You can call it replicating, extending, adding value,\" continues Teo. \"And with every new partnership, we need to make sure that the application works on each new handset we launch... With mobile phones [as opposed to desktop computers] there is still some concern, stigma, so we need to educate people to get over that hurdle. It's the faster we can get it at the click of a button.\" More and more, the mission of the mobile industry is to make seamless that virtual space between desktop and handset. \"It's where we want people to embrace life,\" says Teo. \"It's what we all aim to do. No downtime, no downspace... Over time Xanga will add more features, and we will mobilize as much as possible.\" The good news is the Web 3.0 revolution is only beginning. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Startups offer applications to bring social networking sites to mobile platforms .\nVoIP faces challenges on mobile market: competition, distribution, access .\nMobile mission to make seamless space between desktop and handset .","id":"3d1e748024a5a1622cbe77a6527305a743d04d1b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pakistan is optimistic about the Obama administration's commitment to its region and will work with the United States on trying to root out extremism within its borders, Pakistan's foreign minister said. Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi meets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi cited a \"convergence of interests\" between Washington and Islamabad and a \"willingness to work together.\" \"I see a lot of hope in the new administration, the new leadership, and Pakistan is willing to work with the American administration to fight extremism and terrorism,\" he said Tuesday. \"We are determined to defeat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.\" Qureshi is in Washington to take part in strategic review of U.S. policy to stabilize Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. The effort is being led by South Asian security expert Bruce Reidel and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin D. Spanta also was leading a delegation from his country to take part in the review. He and Qureshi will meet with both Clinton and Holbrooke this week. U.S. President Barack Obama and Clinton tapped Holbrooke as special representative for the two countries, a signal of how the new administration considers Afghanistan and Pakistan intertwined in any solution to the war in Afghanistan and the terrorist threat along their shared border. \"We are consulting very closely with the government of Pakistan on our strategic review of our way forward and I'm very grateful for the minister's advice and counsel,\" Clinton said after meeting with Qureshi. Last week Obama announced he is sending another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to fight a strengthening insurgency, which Obama has called the \"central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.\" The troops will be sent to southern Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan and is a haven for Taliban insurgents. Pakistani officials have expressed concern the deployment will push the Taliban across the border into Pakistan and further destabilize their country. The Obama administration is conducting several reviews of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, including a review by Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in the region. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the original mission in Afghanistan was \"too broad\" and needs to be more \"realistic and focused\" for the United States to succeed. Pakistan is engaged in its own effort against Taliban militants in its Northwest Frontier Provence. The militants, who effectively control the country's Swat Valley, extended a cease-fire Tuesday as part of an agreement with the government, a deal the U.S. and NATO warn risks granting a safe haven to extremists near the Afghan border. Watch why the deal is being viewed as a capitulation \u00bb . Swat Valley was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. It is situated near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 kilometers) from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. In recent months, militants have unleashed a wave of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives across the province. The militants want to require veils for women and beards for men and to ban music and television. The fighting has displaced nearly half of Swat's population, officials said. The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants. As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly bombings, beheadings and kidnappings -- and said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out. The Taliban said Tuesday it was indefinitely extending a cease-fire Taliban leaders declared eight days ago after signing a controversial deal with the government to impose Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. The Pakistani government's decision now to negotiate with Pakistan has been met with international criticism. Holbrooke has said the Obama administration was \"troubled and confused\" by the truce in Swat. Holbrooke and NATO officials have expressed concerns that such an accord could cede effective control of the Swat Valley to extremists.","highlights":"Qureshi: \"I see a lot of hope in the new administration, the new leadership\"\nHe and Afghan foreign minister will meet with Clinton, Holbrooke this week .\nU.S. troops will be sent to southern Afghanistan .\nTaliban militants extend cease-fire as part of deal with Pakistan .","id":"4a70b1bf46a8b7efba8b8e723e12a7b6977baa90"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- In a city famous for being the birthplace of the avant-garde, it can be hard to keep up with the latest trends. Here's a rough guide to what's hot right now in the French capital. This beat is Tecktonik: The latest dance craze to hit the Parisian streets. Tecktonik Parisian youths love their trends. The latest dance craze sweeping the city is Tecktonik, a fusion dance style usually accessorized with spiked hair and neon accessories. Look out for kids dancing in packs outside the Trocadero. You might even be lucky enough to spot a Tecktonik\/breakdance dance-off. Le Scrapbooking Scrapbooking is the current craze amongst Paris' more sedate residents. Head to Le Temple Du Scrap (13 Rue Ernest Cresson) for pretty paper supplies, trimmings, ribbons and associated frippery. Bike around town Much of Paris is walkable, but the city's cheap bike-hire scheme, Velib, which launched in 2007, makes dashing around the city even easier. There are thousands of bikes stashed across the city at bike stations around 300m apart. The first 30 minutes of any trip is free; you'll need a credit card to register with the scheme. Once you've got your bike, you're ready to career around the cobbled streets of Montmartre and rattle along the Seine. Caf\u00e9 hotspots The classic Parisian image of smoky cafes is now banished to the pavements, thanks to a smoking ban in bars and restaurants that came in at the end of 2007. Quel dommage! In the winter, caf\u00e9 culture's hotspots are those with heated terraces. You'll still be able to light up while you sip a petit caf\u00e9 cr\u00e8me, but only if you sit outside -- bring a turtleneck and a beret to keep you warm as well as stylish. Massages at the Mosque Paris is home to a large Muslim population, and La Grande Mosqu\u00e9e de Paris (rue Geoffroy St. Hilaire.) reflects that. From the outside, the building is absolutely stunning; it's even more spectacular inside. Treat yourself to a massage at the hammam (Turkish bath) and you could easily think you are in Morocco. Relax post-massage by sipping a mint tea in the courtyard. Check in advance which days are for men and which are for women. Subway style Taking the subway in Paris can be a drag. Striking drivers and filthy platforms can make the Metro a misery. But the light at the end of this often dark and dingy tunnel is the Palais Royal - Mus\u00e9e du Louvre stop, or namely the Palais Royal entrance. Like a lot of things in Paris, it's an artwork in its own right, by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. His design of brightly colored class beads is a delight, and nearby Place Colette is a great spot for people watching: pull up a pew and enjoy.","highlights":"Watch out for spikey-haired Parisians getting all Tecktonik -- the latest dance style .\nGet ahead, get a bike: the city's cheap bike-hire scheme has proved a success .\nMarvel at the Mus\u00e9e du Louvre's sumptuous metro stop .\nGet a taste of the exotic with a massage at the La Grande Mosqu\u00e9e's own hammam .","id":"25355d6bbe65545a5cc6bf3a6cd37adbecb39388"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An audio message reportedly from al Qaeda's deputy chief vows revenge for Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza and calls the Jewish state's actions against Hamas militants \"a gift\" from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri is said to address Muslims in Gaza in an audio message released Tuesday. The speaker, identified as Ayman al-Zawahiri, addresses Muslims in Gaza. He said the violence \"is one part of a series of a crusade war against Islam and these air strikes are a gift from Obama before he takes office, and (Egyptian President) Hosni Mubarak, that traitor, is the main partner in your siege and killing.\" The message, posted Tuesday on various Islamist Web sites with a picture of al-Zawahiri next to an image of a wounded child, urges militants to rally against Israel. \"My Muslim brothers and mujahedeens in Gaza and all over Palestine, with the help of God we are with you in the battle, we will direct our strikes against the crusader Jewish coalition wherever we can.\" The 10-minute message also address Muslims worldwide, claiming that Obama was portrayed as \"the savior who will come and change American policy\" during the U.S. election but is now \"killing your brothers and sisters in Gaza without mercy or even pity.\" Obama's transition team did not immediately respond to the message. Earlier Tuesday, the president-elect said he was \"deeply concerned\" about the loss of life in Gaza and Israel, and he promised to make the issue a top priority in his administration. It was Obama's first public reaction to the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, which began with Israeli air strikes 11 days ago. He reiterated that only one president can speak for the United States at a time. \"Starting at the beginning of our administration, we are going to engage effectively and consistently to try to resolve the conflicts that exist in the Middle East,\" Obama said. CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson said the al Qaeda message speaks to al-Zawahiri's cause in two ways: It bashes the new U.S. president before he takes office and it criticizes Mubarak, who has drawn al-Zawahiri's ire for not allowing goods and aid through Egypt's border with Gaza. Al-Zawahiri is a native of Egypt who has served jail time there. Robertson, who is reporting from the Israeli-Gaza border, noted on CNN's \"Situation Room\" that al-Zawahiri got the message out quickly -- \"within 12 days, that's very fast.\" He said that indicated \"there's many issues there that are dear to him.\"","highlights":"Ten-minute message delivered by Ayman al-Zawahiri, a native of Egypt .\nIn address, al-Zawahiri says violence a \"gift\" from Obama before he takes office .\nThe message, on various Islamist Web sites, urges militants to rally against Israel .\nIn Obama's first public reaction to the violence, he says he is \"deeply concerned\"","id":"186054e2f53735f5f32df67540e9a9e17e26c1a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces charges of crimes against humanity, visited Zimbabwe on Sunday for a regional trade meeting. Sudan president Omar al-Bashir is the first head of state ever indicted by the ICC. Al-Bashir landed Saturday in the capital, Harare, for the two-day African leaders' summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on March 4, accusing him of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in his government's campaign against rebels in Darfur in western Sudan. It was the first arrest warrant for a sitting head of state by the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, based at The Hague in the Netherlands. Sudan expelled 13 international aid agencies from the Darfur region after the warrant was issued. Al-Bashir has denied the charges, calling them an attempt by Western powers to recolonize Sudan. The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 after rebels in the western region of Sudan began attacking government positions. The government responded with a fierce military campaign that has left about 300,000 dead and more than 2.5 million displaced, the United Nations estimates. The International Criminal Court has no arrest powers and depends on its 106-member states to take suspects into custody. Al-Bashir has visited other counties, including Qatar and Ethiopia, since the warrant was issued. In Zimbabwe, the summit will be at the Victoria Falls, a popular tourism spot on the Zambezi River. Sudan is a member of the trade group, which consists of 19 African nations.","highlights":"Sudan president Omar al-Bashir visits Zimbabwe despite arrest warrant .\nICC accused al-Bashir of alleged war crime against rebels in Darfur .\nAl-Bashir has denied charges against him .","id":"07493cdde0fe60c860a9e682243d562cdcf9ae35"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lanka ordered an end to combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north, the president's office said Monday. But the rebels accused the military of continuing to bomb civilians. Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard next to a tank captured from the Tamil Tigers. \"Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties,\" according a statement from the Presidential Secretariat. A rebel Web site, Tamilnet.com, immediately accused the government of violating its own order and \"deceiving the international community.\" \"Two Sri Lanka air force fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks,\" Tamilnet said, citing S. Puleedevan, director of the Tamil Peace Secretariat. \"Obviously we need to see what that means in practice,\" John Holmes, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations, said about the government announcement to end combat operations. \"But, on the face of it, I think it's good news.\" The military will now concentrate on \"saving\" and \"rescuing civilians,\" who have been caught in the fighting between government forces and rebel fighters, the presidential statement said. The government's decision followed an unscheduled meeting of the National Security Council called by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The session included the commanders of the army, navy and air force. The developments came a day after Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil rebels, warning instead that government troops would continue a new offensive until the group surrendered, a senior government official told CNN. \"The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer,\" said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security. The Tiger leadership had asked the international community to \"pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate\" on the cease-fire offer. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and India have called for a cease-fire. The foreign ministers of three nations are due in Sri Lanka on Wednesday -- David Miliband of the United Kingdom, Bernard Kouchner of France and Carl Bildt of Sweden. The rebels' proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan army sources. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of \"fresh displacement\" now exceeds 100,000 people. Watch civilians describe what they are experiencing \u00bb . Fifty metric tons of relief supplies -- which landed in Colombo on Monday -- will be sent by UNICEF to the north to help displaced residents. UNICEF, which called the situation in the north a \"catastrophe for children,\" said the displaced lack food, water and basic medical supplies. The rebels estimate the number of civilians still located in the territory at more than 160,000. The Sri Lankan military said it \"freed 3,254 civilians from LTTE clutches\" in operations Sunday. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.","highlights":"Tamil rebels say Sri Lankan forces ignoring orders to end military operations Sri Lanka: Forces ordered to cease use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft Rebels say fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets after announcement .\nDevelopments come after Sri Lankan officials reject rebels' cease-fire offer .","id":"ab844d0601dc0e0308291823ff1e8074ed87e567"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It takes a savvy film star to invest in the only business that's keeping audiences away from cinemas. In the case of India's biggest Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan that's cricket. Photographers mob Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri as they arrive for the inaugural Indian Premier League players' auction, February 20, 2008. Over 45 days from April to June, India's newest big money cricket competition -- the DLF Indian Premier League -- infected the country with the kind of excitement usually reserved for the item number in the latest Bollywood blockbuster. Off the pitch, among the cheerleaders and dancing girls, was actor Shah Rukh Khan, the proud new co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, a cricket team whose name was said to be inspired by David Hasselhoff's 1980s television hit. The team, captained by Indian cricketing hero Sourav Ganguly, took to the field in black and gold uniforms created by Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra; black for the color of goddess Kali and gold, because as Khan said, \"We aim for gold.\" In fact, the Knight Riders were knocked out of the competition before the semi-finals, with Khan announcing to fans via SMS:\"Al of us have become part of a failed script, a bad IPL script. Let's try and keep our chin up.\" Shah Rukh Khan, one of the few people in the world also known by his initials, has every reason to keep his own chin up. Twenty years after his first onscreen role in the Indian television series \"Fauji,\" SRK -- the man and the brand -- is more popular than ever. On Sunday night, he won the Best Actor award in Bollywood's version of the Oscars -- the International Indian Film Academy Awards -- for his role as coach of the Indian national women's field hockey team in \"Chak De! India.\" The film took nine awards in all, including Best Film and Best Director. Shah Rukh Khan's previous box-office outing, \"Om Shanti Om,\" scooped five awards, adding icing to its title of Bollywood's highest-ever grossing film. In India, you don't have to go to the cinema to see Shah Rukh Khan. He has returned to the small screen, this time as a television quizmaster. After fronting the Indian version of \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,\" he's back with a new series, the local take on the U.S. hit \"Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.\" If there's any proof of Shah Rukh Khan's global appeal, it comes in the form of 15 year old Shabana Shaheen who lives in Virginia in the U.S. The high school student created her own Shah Rukh Khan Fansite last year -- www.freewebs.com\/srkplace. All that and she's never been to India. \"The thing he's like a normal person. He's down to earth and humble,\" she says. \"He values his family -- his parents who have passed away, his wife and children. He's so normal; he just behaves like a normal human being.\" Shabana inherited her love of Shah Rukh Khan from her mother who moved to the U.S. from Pakistan. In Virginia, it's not hard to keep up with the latest Bollywood action. A cinema close to Shabana's home shows the most popular productions. And then there's the internet. Shabana's website gets as many as 1000 hits a day, mainly from fans in the United Kingdom and India. \"It's amazing -- so many people are crazy about him, even in Germany,\" she says. \"A lot of people in Mexico are also apparently very big fans of his films.\" In part, Shah Rukh Khan's fame can be put down to expert merchandising. He's the consummate salesman, charming and keenly aware there's a huge market for his product. The Kolkata Knight Riders may be one of the newest sporting teams in the world, but within months, Khan and Co. has turned them into a lucrative brand. While they didn't win the IPL on-pitch title, they took away the prize as the team who made the most money. Jerseys, t-shirts, sneakers, caps, key chains, coasters, mugs, bandanas, sippers and posters all came with KKR branding through a merchandising deal with Reebok and Indian music group Planet M. Fans could even buy the CD, featuring the KKR theme song, 'Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo,' which means \"We will do it, fight it and win it.\" Shah Rukh Khan made the most of his iconic status by writing a blog on the team website under the title of \"12th man\". Fans were encouraged to become a 12th man as well. So far there are more than 46,000. Another wave of SRK mania is set to sweep through cinemas in December 2008 with the release of \"Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,\" translated as \"A Couple Made by God.\" It's a love story directed by Aditya Chopra, the man behind Shah Rukh Khan's enduring hit, \"Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.\" DDLJ, as it's known, has been playing to packed cinemas for the past 13 years. With Shah Rukh Khan topping the bill, it's likely to be there a lot longer.","highlights":"Bollywood superstar makes sporting debut as owner of Kolkata Knight Riders .\nShah Rukh Khan still wildly popular 20 years after his television debut .\nNow presents India's version of \"Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader\"\nFilming \"Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,\" a Bollywood love story to be released late 2008 .","id":"8f04727535af65c0ed0ac099f106df288666f88b"} -{"article":"LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales nationalized the Chaco petroleum company Friday, taking over the BP subsidiary with the military on standby. Bolivian leader Evo Morales speaks before parliament Thursday in the capital, La Paz. \"With this decree,\" Morales said in a nationally televised address from an oil field in Cochabamba, \"we nationalize all the petroleum business in Chaco for all Bolivians.\" Chaco is jointly owned by Pan American Energy and the Bolivian Pension Fund, each with a 50 percent stake, BP spokesman David Nicholas said from Great Britain. BP owns 60 percent of Pan American Energy, and Bridas Corp. owns the other 40 percent, Nicholas said . Nicholas declined comment on the nationalization. \"We are aware of the presidential decree but cannot comment,\" he said. \"We support Pan America's energies with any discussions they have with the Bolivian government.\" Morales wore a white safety helmet with the words \"Chaco nationalized\" printed on the front when he made his announcement. The Bolivian president guaranteed the petroleum workers that their jobs will be safe. Formed in 1997, Chaco employs about 90 Bolivians, the company says on its Web site. Chaco is dedicated to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons, BP says. Morales decreed in 2007 and 2008 that the government should nationalize various petroleum companies. His actions Friday came less than 48 hours before Bolivians vote Sunday on a new constitution that would give the central government more power and control.","highlights":"Bolivian President Evo Morales nationalizes Chaco petroleum company .\nMorales guarantees petroleum workers that their jobs will be safe .\nMilitary on standby in nationalization of BP subsidiary .\nMove comes 48 hours before Bolivian vote on new constitution .","id":"dc7e4f7e9ede93e38c63f3aca1ede1556c755e80"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian officials are blaming the FARC guerrilla group for an explosion in an upscale Bogota neighborhood Tuesday night that killed two people and wounded 20. Police inspect one of two dead bodies after an explosion Tuesday night in Bogota, Colombia. President Alvaro Uribe, who is in France, issued a statement expressing sorrow for \"the new terrorist attempt against Bogota\" and accusing FARC of hypocrisy for talking about human rights while setting off lethal bombs. FARC, the Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the largest and oldest revolutionary group in Colombia. \"Let us always remember that Bogota cries but will never give up,\" Uribe's statement said. The blast occurred around 9 p.m. at a Blockbuster video rental store in an exclusive neighborhood in northern Bogota, causing major damage to the building, most notably the parking lot. Debris was scattered for more than a block, and nearby buildings and cars also were damaged. Senior presidential aide Fabio Valencia Cossio said 11 pounds of explosives were used, El Espactador newspaper reported. A female passer-by and the store's parking lot attendant were killed in the blast, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told the newspaper. Another newspaper, El Tiempo, said the woman was about 25 years old and was carrying notebooks and books, so authorities believe she was a university student. Police said they were looking into a tip that the bombing might have been part of a FARC extortion attempt, said Radio Caracol, citing presidential aide Valencia. Blockbuster has been complaining to authorities for months that criminals who said they were associated with FARC had been demanding money, news reports said. In his statement from France, Uribe referred to FARC \"combining extortion with terror.\" There was an explosion at another Blockbuster store in the Colombian capital a year ago. Authorities are offering the equivalent of $50,000 for information that would lead to an arrest. The explosion occurred in an neighborhood known for posh restaurants and nightclubs. Ricardo Serrano described to El Tiempo how he felt a loud explosion and the immediate confusion that ensued. \"People were running from one place to another,\" he told the newspaper. \"There were a lot of sirens and police.\" Angel Alberto Arias, a doorman at a nearby building, told El Tiempo, \"I felt like the whole building was going to come down on top of me.\" FARC has about 9,000 to 12,000 armed guerillas and several thousand supporters, mostly in rural areas, according to security analysts. The guerrilla group was established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. The guerrillas operate mostly in Colombia but have carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, according to the Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program. Fernando Ramos and Toby Muse contributed to this report for CNN.","highlights":"Explosion in upscale Bogota neighborhood kills two people and wounds 20 .\nColombian President Alvaro Uribe condemns FARC rebel group for blast .\nEleven pounds of explosives reportedly used in front of Blockbuster video store .","id":"d1d320576087e798580c367127aaf728ba632fe4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- \"No matter what I do in life I think I will always be remembered as the wrap dress\" -- (Diane von Furstenberg, CNN 2008) Calling the shots: Diane von Furstenberg oversees a meeting to discuss handbags in New York. Belgian-born, New York-living, ex-member of the German royal family, daughter of a holocaust survivor, socialite and business-woman, Diane von Furstenberg is famous for one thing: a single item of clothing. Her wrap dress -- a patterned piece of jersey tied around the body like a kimono -- sold in the millions. In the 70s, when Von Furstenberg launched her dress business, the wrap's simplicity became synonymous with feminism and the sexual revolution. \"I was selling clothes that would make other women feel confident,\" (Von Furstenberg, CNN, 2008). And the designer herself came to become the face of the brand. Photographed modeling her own clothes, launched a face that became so iconic that Andy Warhol painted her. But with success came boom then bust -- the 80s saw a dramatic nose-dive in the quality and distribution of the DVF brand. \"I became successful very quickly, a lot of people wanted my name and I licensed a lot of things .. the spirit of the brand disappeared\", (Von Furstenberg, CNN, 2008). In the late 90s, wrap dresses came back in to fashion, and DVF returned to the fashion pages, and subsequently fashion shows, of the age. The comeback is recorded as one of the most successful business stories of the decade. Her 30 stores and countless concessions in department stores make the DVF brand a multi-million dollar fashion empire. She dresses celebrities from Madonna to Sharon Stone, but keeps her products affordable and maintains an ethos of \"easy to wear\" \"When a woman goes in to a DVF shop and tries something on, it's like a light turns on\", (Von Furstenberg, CNN, 2008). Celebrities are often snapped wearing Von Furstenberg's designs. DVF often clings to Eva Longoria Parker's silhouette who declares to Revealed \"She is one of my favorite people -- not just a designer!\" Honored by the Council of Fashion of Designers of America (CFDA) by inviting Von Furstenberg to act as President -- she is now seen as the Grand Dame of New York fashion. CNN gains access to her as she prepares for the 2008 CFDA Awards -- deciding at the last moment to ditch one of her own designs and wear an Yves St Laurent tuxedo in a tribute to her friend, the designer who died a few days before the ceremony. Clearly moved, Revealed includes footage of her rehearsing the changes to her speech to include a touching farewell to YSL: \"He brought art into fashion, and fashion into art. He used to joke that he always wanted to be Matisse. But I think if we could have asked Matisse, he would have wanted to be Yves St Laurent\" she tells CNN. Revealed follows Diane von Furstenberg at an exciting moment in her catwalk history. For the first time she is showing outside of the United States, and the setting for her European debut is a romantic private Florentine garden, under the full moon. The Tuscan capital is a special place for her, as it was half an hour down the road that her first wrap dress was produced in a local textile factory. We document the magnificent event from a behind-the-scenes perspective. Interviewing Von Furstenberg herself, along with supermodel Natalia Vodianova, and DVF Creative Director Nathan Jenden; we get a sense of the unfolding of a magical star-lit event. From fittings and dress rehearsals, to visits from the 9-year-old granddaughter Von Furstenberg lovingly calls 'her assistant,' we experience the excitement of the designer returning home to Europe and putting on a magnificent show to herald her arrival. The theme of the collection is \"Le Petit Valise\" -- a group of outfits that can be easily packed and will not crumple; a notion in keeping with the spirit of the DVF brand. Inspired by the Talented Mr Ripley, 600 guests including Lapo Elkan (heir to the Fiat empire) witness the 50 wardrobe changes of a young American traveling abroad. To experience the elegant, informal, party-loving spirit of DVF and her team of designers and models, tune in to \"Revealed\" on CNN International in November. ALL TIMES GMT Wednesday, November 19 0930 1830 Saturday, November 22 0830 1900 Sunday, November 23 0530 1830 Monday, November 24 0400 .","highlights":"In November, CNN's Revealed explores the life of Diane von Furstenberg .\nThe Belgian designer wowed the fashion world with her simple wrap dress .\nDVF became familiar initials used to sell anything from homeware to lipstick .\nCNN's Revealed follows the designer backstage at a fashion show in Florence .","id":"d428daeff86847ba778f6fcd0c371e6c736776d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two people were found dead and a third person is still believed missing in a North Carolina food plant heavily damaged in a morning explosion, police said Tuesday night. Part of a collapsed ConAgra Foods plant lies atop parked cars Tuesday in Garner, North Carolina. Four people were in critical condition after the explosion at the ConAgra Foods plant in the town of Garner, CNN affiliate WRAL-TV reported. The explosion, reported about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, caused sections of the roof to collapse. Search efforts for those missing were slowed by ammonia leaks and a fire that was not extinguished until afternoon. \"There was no warnings, no signs,\" Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said. \"It all happened very abruptly.\" At least 38 people were transported to area hospitals, said Jeff Hammerstein, district chief for Wake County Emergency Medical Services. Four burn victims -- two males and two females -- were undergoing critical care at the North Carolina Jaycees Burn Center, said Dr. Charles Cairns, director of emergency medicine for UNC Hospitals. The patients suffered burns that covered from 40 to 60 percent of their bodies, Cairns said. Police said recovery workers still were trying to get the two bodies out of the plant, which makes Slim Jim food products. The victims' names weren't immediately available. More than 300 people were in the plant when the explosion happened, authorities said. The cause of the blast was unknown, according to Garner police spokesman Joe Binns. Rescuers were crawling into the rubble -- sometimes in pockets of space less than 30 inches tall -- in attempts to access the two bodies and find the missing person, officials said at a news conference Tuesday night. The search crews were moving slowly in part because the building is very unstable, officials said. Video from the scene showed holes in sections of the roof of the 425,000 square-foot plant. First responders set up a makeshift triage area near the building. A section of the roof was collapsed, and pipes could be seen spewing liquid believed to be ammonia. Watch liquid spew from building \u00bb . ConAgra Foods' brands include Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee and Orville Redenbacher, among others. The Garner plant is known for producing Slim Jim beef jerky products. The company was \"working with authorities on the ground to ensure that their employees are getting all of the support that they need,\" said Stephanie Childs, ConAgra director of corporate communication. \"The employees' health is their only real concern at this time.\" Gail Ruffin, a ConAgra worker who was in the plant when the explosion happened, told WRAL she heard a boom. \"The ceiling start coming down, and we all start running,\" Ruffin, who wasn't injured, told WRAL. \"Everyone was trying to get to the exit door. ... I was just trying to get out, and then we just [saw] people that [were] burned -- blood all over them.\" Garner is seven miles south of Raleigh.","highlights":"NEW: Police: Teams looking for missing person, trying to recover two bodies .\nPart of roof collapses in explosion at ConAgra Foods plant in North Carolina .\nAt least 38 taken to hospitals; four said to be in critical condition .\nOfficials don't know cause of blast .","id":"1a31604c7a0860a959f1a59107821170776d302c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Democratic congressman from Mississippi plans to hold a hearing into how millions of dollars worth of supplies meant for Gulf Coast hurricane survivors ended up being given away as surplus property. Rep. Bennie Thompson says he'll hold a hearing into how supplies for Katrina victims were diverted. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called the situation \"a debacle.\" In June, CNN revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had warehoused $85 million worth of household goods for two years before giving them away to federal agencies and 16 states. But Thompson said there is still a great need for basic supplies in Mississippi. \"We just think that FEMA needs to come and tell the committee how such a debacle could occur, and in the process, what are they going to do to assure Congress and the taxpaying public that it will never happen again,\" Thompson said. The household goods were meant to help Gulf Coast households rebuild. But they sat in FEMA warehouses for two years before the agency declared them surplus property and gave them away in February. The state of Louisiana had not asked for any of the supplies, prompting outrage there after the original CNN report. Since then, the state has taken steps to claim some of the stockpiles and distribute them to groups working to resettle victims of Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that flooded New Orleans and ravaged the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Mississippi took the supplies it was offered but did not give them to Katrina victims. Instead, as CNN reported this week, the state distributed them to prisons, volunteer fire departments, colleges and other state agencies. Thompson said he was stunned at how Mississippi officials made \"a mockery of the whole process.\" \"I'm disappointed that my state decided that prisoners had a higher priority than Katrina victims and has made no effort to correct it even when this mistake was made,\" he said. \"Any time items intended for victims of Katrina end up in the hands of the Department of Corrections or state employees, then clearly, Mississippi dropped the ball.\" Watch victims tell why they need the items \u00bb . Thompson said his committee would \"ask all the tough questions\" and demand any documents associated with the matter. \"So we are prepared, if necessary, to put those officials under oath,\" he said. \"We are prepared if necessary to subpoena any and all documents relative to this situation.\" FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said the agency welcomed any congressional hearing. \"We always make ourselves available to answer the questions. That's something we are always ready to do,\" he said. FEMA said it was costing more than $1 million a year to store the supplies, but officials have not been able to answer why the agency didn't get the supplies to Katrina victims. FEMA said the agency has launched an internal probe into the issue. Jim Marler, director of Mississippi's surplus agency, failed to return repeated phone calls over several months to explain what happened there. But spokeswoman Kym Wiggins said the agency was not told the items were still needed -- a statement that didn't sit well with groups working to rebuild the stricken coast. Bill Stallworth, executive director of the Hope Coordination Center in Biloxi, said he and other community leaders would have begged for the FEMA stockpiles had they known they were available. \"When I hear people stand up and just beat their chest and say we've got everything under control, that's when I just want to slap them upside the head and say, 'Get a grip, get a life,' \" said Stallworth, also a Biloxi city councilman. If you have a story tip, e-mail SIU.TIPS@CNN.com .","highlights":"Rep. Bennie Thompson wants FEMA to explain giveaway of hurricane supplies .\nFEMA held $85 million worth of supplies meant for Katrina victims for two years .\nGoods later given to federal agencies and states, CNN revealed .\nThompson's state, Mississippi, didn't give the goods it received to hurricane victims .","id":"bdd113102608bae7b71e868e3ba8882c698dd55e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The alleged leader of a firearms trafficking network believed to be smuggling guns into Mexico -- where police say they are used against law enforcement officers by members of Mexican drug cartels -- was arrested Thursday in Arizona, authorities said. Victor Varela was arrested by the ATF as part of the agency's ongoing Project Gunrunner. Victor Varela was arrested by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as part of the agency's ongoing Project Gunrunner, according to an ATF release. He was in the custody of the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff. \"Law enforcement officers disrupted a group of gun traffickers and recovered several weapons, including .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles and several handguns, allegedly intended to supply drug traffic organization members of the Juarez Cartel in Palomas, Mexico,\" the statement said. In state charges, prosecutors allege Varela and his co-defendants bought a number of guns in Arizona intending to supply the Mexican cartel members. The group allegedly transported the illegally purchased guns to New Mexico, and then into Mexico. A .50-caliber weapon is the largest that can legally be bought in the United States, and is illegal in Mexico. Authorities believe a .50-caliber weapon was used in recent months to kill Francisco Ledesma Salazar, a police commander in Juarez, Mexico. He is among five high-ranking Mexican police officials killed this year in what Mexico authorities describe as an escalating war between police and drug cartels. Last week, 2,000 troops were sent to Juarez by the Mexican government in an effort to quell the violence there, which has claimed some 200 lives since January. Guns are difficult to buy legally in Mexico, but can be obtained just north of the border at gun shows and gun shops. Project Gunrunner was launched as an effort to help Mexican police by cracking down on illegal smuggling of guns and ammunition, and has led to several arrests and seizures. Watch how the weapons fuel a little-known war \u00bb . \"This case was made one of our highest priorities because of the nature of the crime alleged to be committed by Varela,\" U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said in the ATF release. Guns featured in a CNN Special Investigations Unit report last week, confiscated by Juarez police, are believed to have been smuggled into Mexico by Varela, according to an ATF spokesman. Authorities said one recent discovery, in a storage locker in Yuma, Arizona, yielded 42 weapons and hundreds of rounds of .50-caliber bullets already belted to be fed into a machine gun-style weapon, as well as Fabrique Nationale pistols, semiautomatic handguns that fire a 5.7-by-28-millimeter round. \"What's interesting about this gun, why it's in high demand, is the nickname that it has in Mexico,\" said William Newell, ATF special agent in charge, about the Fabrique National pistol. \"It's called 'mata policias,' or 'cop killer.' \" Charging documents allege that Varela was attempting to buy a fully automatic M-60 machine gun for a drug cartel associate in Palomas, authorities said. \"Additionally, a number of firearms recovered by Mexico law enforcement ... allegedly were trafficked by Varela's gun smuggling network,\" the ATF statement said. U.S. authorities are sharing intelligence with their Mexican counterparts to assist in ongoing investigations, the ATF said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's John Murgatroyd and Drew Griffin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspect is alleged leader network believed to be smuggling guns into Mexico .\nLast week, 2,000 Mexican troops were sent to Juarez, Mexico, to quell violence .\nMexican drug cartels blamed for killings of police officers .\nATF: U.S. authorities sharing intelligence with their Mexican counterparts .","id":"5ab37f46839e2c1b8368c2734e962ac868c62aae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singapore's Gross Domestic Product is expected to shrink as much as 5 percent in 2009, far more than the 1 to 2 percent contraction predicted earlier this month, the government said. People walk out for their lunch break in the financial district of Singapore on Wednesday. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said it expected a GDP reduction of between 2 and 5 percent this year. Singapore's economy grew by 1.2 percent in 2008, the government said, far lower than its 7.7 percent growth in 2007. Slowdowns in manufacturing, trade, transport and storage, information and communications and the financial services sectors contributed to the decline, the government said. The global financial crisis led to a \"significant decline in fund management and stock broking activities in the second half of 2008,\" and a sharper downturn was expected in 2009, the ministry said. The ministry cited data on retail sales and unemployment in the United States, industrial production in Europe and on Asian exports for the weaker outlook. Inflation was expected to ease slightly, however. The finance minister is expected to deliver the 2009 budget statement on Thursday.","highlights":"Gross Domestic Product reduction between 2 and 5 percent expected .\nMinistry cites data on U.S. retail sales and unemployment, Asian exports .\nFinance minister expected to deliver the 2009 budget statement Thursday .","id":"9abb5d0a6a87b40f2887f8bec9cd4e83fc821ed4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that despite President Bush's low approval ratings, people will soon \"start to thank this president for what he's done.\" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says \"there is no greater honor than to serve this country,\" \"So we can sit here and talk about the long record, but what I would say to you is that this president has faced tougher circumstances than perhaps at any time since the end of World War II, and he has delivered policies that are going to stand the test of time,\" Rice said in an interview that aired on CBS' \"Sunday Morning.\" The secretary of state brushed off reports that suggest the United States' image is suffering abroad. She praised the administration's ability to change the conversation in the Middle East. \"This isn't a popularity contest. I'm sorry, it isn't. What the administration is responsible to do is to make good choices about Americans' interests and values in the long run -- not for today's headlines, but for history's judgment,\" she said. \"And I am quite certain that when the final chapters are written and it's clear that Saddam Hussein's Iraq is gone in favor of an Iraq that is favorable to the future of the Middle East; when the history is written of a U.S.-China relationship that is better than it's ever been; an India relationship that is deeper and better than it's ever been; a relationship with Brazil and other countries of the left of Latin America, better than it's ever been ... \"When one looks at what we've been able to do in terms of changing the conversation in the Middle East about democracy and values, this administration will be judged well, and I'll wait for history's judgment and not today's headlines.\" Asked by CBS' Rita Braver why some former diplomats say Americans are disliked around the world, Rice said that's \"just not true.\" \"I know what U.S. policy has achieved. And so I don't know what diplomats you're talking to, but look at the record,\" she said. Rice said she wasn't bothered by criticism about her or the administration's polices, saying if a person in her business is not being criticized, \"you're not doing something right.\" \"I'm here to make tough choices, and this president is here to make tough choices, and we have. And yes, I -- there are some things that I would do very differently if I had it to do over again. You don't have that luxury. You have to make the choices and take the positions that you do at the time,\" she said. Asked about historians who say Bush is one of the worst presidents, Rice said those \"aren't very good historians.\" \"If you're making historical judgments before an administration is already out -- even out of office, and if you're trying to make historical judgments when the nature of the Middle East is still to be determined, and when one cannot yet judge the effects of decisions that this President has taken on what the Middle East will become -- I mean, for goodness' sakes, good historians are still writing books about George Washington. Good historians are certainly still writing books about Harry Truman,\" she said. Rice, 54, said she has enjoyed working in the Bush administration during the last eight years, first as national security adviser, then as secretary of state. \"There is no greater honor than to serve this country,\" she said, adding that there is also no greater challenge. Rice said when the new administration takes over, she plans to return to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and write two books -- one on foreign policy and one about her parents.","highlights":"Condoleezza Rice says Bush's policies will \"stand the test of time\"\nRice says she's not bothered by criticism; says she's \"here to make tough choices\"\nSecretary of state says historians criticizing Bush \"aren't very good historians\"\nRice says she plans to write a book about foreign policy .","id":"82b7ee7b2e3f721b26cf61dac7821000f784ef5d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rapper T.I., who was sentenced to a 366-day prison sentence in March, reported Tuesday to a federal prison complex in Forrest City, Arkansas, according to CNN affiliate WSB-TV. T.I., left, performed to a packed crowd Sunday, days before he was to start a prison term. The rapper -- whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr. -- was required to be at the prison before noon local time to begin serving his sentence on federal weapons charges. According to news reports, officers from Forrest City and the prison set up a roadblock along Arkansas Highway 1 about one-tenth of a mile from the complex. Reporters were not allowed any closer to the prison. T.I. threw himself a going-away party Sunday night at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, before a packed house. During Sunday's concert -- called \"T.I.'s Final Goodbye Bash\" -- the 28-year-old Grammy winner reiterated a message that's become familiar in recent weeks: He wants others to learn from his mistakes. \"I'm doing the best I can to get out there, man, and put something positive on these young kids, man,\" T.I. said during the show. \"I try my best. I need y'all help, though.\" The rapper played to a sell-out crowd of 16,000 people, said Kenan Woods, a spokesman for the arena. T.I. played through much of his catalog, including the hits \"Whatever You Like,\" \"Live Your Life\" and the Grammy-winning \"Swagga Like Us,\" Woods said. At times in the show, Harris was joined on stage by fellow rapper Soulja Boy and by his five children and mother, Woods said. T.I. was sentenced in March on weapons charges related to purchasing machine guns and silencers. In addition to serving prison time, T.I. was placed on house arrest, was given community service and was ordered to pay a $100,300 fine. Though he had been in legal trouble before, Harris' current situation began when he was arrested just hours before he was to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. The rapper had provided a bodyguard with $12,000 to buy weapons. Harris was not permitted to own any guns, however, because he was convicted in 1998 on felony drug charges -- possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute -- in Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta. After his arrest, he entered a plea agreement, which federal authorities called unique because it allowed the rapper to remain out of prison for a year while he performed community service. Harris has already left a strong mark on the hip-hop genre, music experts told CNN, which should position his career well when he is released. Harris had been named to the Forbes list of top-earning rappers, making an estimated $16 million in 2006. Some music industry observers have said T.I.'s prison term will only make him more popular. \"I think that if anything, it will gain him more fans and actually support his fan base, because he's talked about making a mistake,\" Emil Wilbekin, editor in chief of Giant Magazine, told CNN. \"He's talked about taking care of the error of his ways.\" The Atlanta rapper has expressed remorse for the situation. \"I would like to say thank you to some and apologize to others,\" he said at his sentencing in March. \"In my life, I have been placed in the worst-case scenario and had to make the best of it.\" In a March interview with CNN's T.J. Holmes, Harris said he no longer felt like he needed to carry weapons to protect himself. He said people should not idolize him for what he's gone through, but should take note of the fact that he has taken responsibility for his actions. \"You shouldn't take the things that I've gone through, and the negative parts of my life, and admire me for that. If anything, admire me for how I've accepted responsibility for the part I played in placing myself in these situations, and what I've done to recover from it,\" Harris said. Harris has been the subject of an MTV reality show, \"T.I.'s Road to Redemption,\" in the lead-up to the prison term.","highlights":"T.I. performed Sunday, less than two days before his prison term was to start .\nThe rapper has been sentenced in connection with federal weapons charges .\nHis prison term of one year and one day starts Tuesday .","id":"727be29bd782e229c5f8bea2accb37a9e0bebd12"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 5-year-old girl found the note tucked inside a plastic bag and left in a basket used as a flower pot. April Tinsley, 8, abducted in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was raped and killed 21 years ago. The case was not solved. \"Hi Honey I Been watching you,\" it said. \"I am the same person that kidnapped an Rape an kill Aproil tinsely here is a present foR yo you are my next vitem.\" A used condom was stuffed in the bag alongside the note. It was March 2004 -- nearly 16 years after 8-year-old April Tinsley was abducted from a Fort Wayne, Indiana, neighborhood, raped and killed. Her killer remains at large, and police believe he has surfaced several times, scrawling a message in crayon on a barn in 1990, then leaving four chilling notes for children in the Fort Wayne area years later. Indiana authorities are now asking an FBI task force -- the Child Abduction Response Deployment (CARD) team -- to help take a fresh look at the case. \"Investigators believe the case is 'highly solvable,' and after 21 years, their desire to bring April Tinsley's killer to justice is stronger than ever,\" the FBI said. CARD teams were created three years ago, aimed at bringing together \"a variety of experts in child abduction cases who could quickly respond on the ground to help local authorities with time-sensitive investigations,\" the FBI said. While CARD responds to abductions and disappearances, the team also works cold cases, like April's, the agency said. \"As team members discovered, there is enough evidence -- including notes, pictures, and DNA left by the killer years after the murder -- to make investigators hopeful they can break the case.\" The team includes behavioral profilers, agents and analysts from the FBI's Crimes Against Children Unit and coordinators and representatives from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. April Marie Tinsley was playing outside with friends on Good Friday, April 1, 1988. As the three girls were moving from one friend's home to another's, the first-grader realized she had left her umbrella behind and went back to get it. She never returned. Her body was found three days later, in a ditch some 20 miles northeast of the Tinsley home. April's body was clothed, but an autopsy showed she had been raped and suffocated. Two years later, a teenage boy called police to report a message scrawled in crayon and black marker on the front doors of a barn about 10 miles from April's home. He never saw the writer, according to the TV program \"America's Most Wanted,\" which profiled the case in May, but each day noticed the print was getting darker and more pronounced. Although the message was hard to read, the person wrote he had killed April, and that he would kill again. Crayons were left behind at the scene, \"America's Most Wanted\" said on its Web site. Police attempted to conduct forensic analysis on them, but came up empty. Then, in spring 2004, the four notes appeared at various Fort Wayne homes, several of them placed on bicycles that young girls had left in their yards. All the notes were written on lined yellow paper and placed inside plastic bags along with used condoms or Polaroids of the killer's body, the FBI said. Several notes referred to April. Authorities have reason to believe the writer of the 1990 note also left the notes 14 years later, Fort Wayne police said. \"That tells us that the person's still around, still out there,\" said Fort Wayne police Capt. Paul Shrawder. \"It's definitely very odd,\" he added. \"Even the FBI is puzzled by the behavior, that the letters would come out so many years later and then nothing again.\" DNA evidence was recovered from April's body and from the condoms, Shrawder said. While police have no one to match it with at this point, \"things have been resubmitted and retested\" as technological advances have been made, he said. The advantage of the CARD team, from a local police standpoint, is that members only work such cases, while \"we're local -- we work on whatever happens here,\" Shrawder said. The team has experience in such matters, and might look at new aspects, angles and possibilities that local authorities haven't thought of, he said. Federal investigators were deployed to Fort Wayne to work the Tinsley case earlier this month. After the \"America's Most Wanted\" profile and the renewed push, authorities received between 400 and 500 tips, Shrawder said. Some could be ruled out right away -- someone who had died between the murder and the 2004 notes, for instance, he said. DNA samples were taken on about 150 people. Police are still trying to run down about 50 or 75 tips, he said. \"That was the purpose, was to go out and run down every single one of these, no matter how vague it was.\" Some of the authorities' leads, according to the FBI, include identifying Fort Wayne residents who used Polaroids as late as 2004; tracking down a green paisley bedspread similar to that seen in one Polaroid; and looking at misdemeanor offenses in the area near the time of April's death and the 2004 note spree, as offenses like indecent exposure could indicate more serious sex crimes. In addition, the FBI has released a behavioral profile of Tinsley's killer. Police believe he is a white male currently in his 40s or 50s who prefers and desires sexual contact with children, particularly little girls. \"This offender has demonstrated that he has strong ties to northeast Fort Wayne and Allen County,\" the profile said. \"This is where he likely lives, works and\/or shops. You may be standing next to him in line at the grocery store, sitting beside him in the pew at church, or working beside him on the production line.\" Such profiles can be helpful in that they might spur local residents to tell police, \"You know, I always wondered about this one guy,\" Shrawder said. To offer information on the Tinsley case, contact your local FBI office or Fort Wayne police at (866) 602-7745.","highlights":"FBI task force considers girl's slaying \"highly solvable\"\nApril Tinsley, 8, was abducted in 1988 while walking home from a friend's house .\nWriter claimed responsibility for slaying in barn-door message in 1990 .\nFour more notes, believed to have been written by the killer, surfaced in 2004 .","id":"6aebd70085293a25edc515262f2c6372ec8f78be"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Those extra service fees tacked on to concert ticket prices -- long a source of grumbling by ticket buyers -- will disappear for millions of seats sold by the largest U.S. concert promoter this summer. Live Nation is awaiting government approval of a merger with giant Ticketmaster. Live Nation launches \"No Service Fee Wednesdays\" this week for lawn seats at amphitheaters, removing extra fees from 5 million lawn seats for shows at amphitheaters across the United States. Live Nation insisted that the promotion was about selling more tickets and helping music fans hit by hard times, not improving public relations while it waits for government approval of its merger with Ticketmaster. But the promotion could soothe some bad feelings. \"People get a little ticked off when they think they're paying $20 for a ticket and as they progress along the various pages of the electronic transaction, they see more fees added a long the way,\" said Ray Waddell, who writes about live music tours for Billboard magazine. Live Nation will waive fees on lawn seats for 24 hours, beginning at midnight Tuesday local time and lasting through Wednesday. Lawn seat tickets available this week include concerts by Aerosmith, Blink-182, Coldplay, No Doubt, Nickelback, Depeche Mode, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley and many others, Live Nation said. Other shows coming later in the summer include Crosby Stills & Nash, Crue Fest 2, Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick, Jason Mraz, Kid Rock & Lynyrd Skynyrd, Incubus, New Kids on the Block, Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction, Phish, the Dead, Rascall Flats with Darius Rucker, the Allman Brothers Band, the Fray and the Killers. \"They're sacrificing quite a lot of revenue here,\" Waddell said . He estimated that fees add up to about a third of the average price for lawn seats. The economic recession has not seemed to slow the live concert business, which \"considering everything else, is going like gangbusters,\" he said. \"It looks like it could be a really strong year,\" he said. \"People want to go to shows. They want to hear music.\" Every tour offers some type of promotion, he said, including a lot of $10 lawn seats. \"This is a business that's pretty flexible when it needs to be,\" he said. Live Nation began selling tickets to its own concerts only last year, just months before announcing plans to merge with Ticketmaster, the world's largest ticket-seller. Before that, Live Nation promoted shows but had no infrastructure to sell tickets, and it contracted out to Ticketmaster or others to sell them. The Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger plan has drawn criticism. The Justice Department launched an investigation of the proposed merger in February. Neither Live Nation nor Ticketmaster executives would respond to questions about the merger. However, Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff did talk about it before a U.S. Senate subcommittee earlier this year. The merger \"will give us greater flexibility in how we promote, market and sell tickets to events,\" he said. \"It will give us a pathway to alternative pricing and fee structures. And we will be better able to develop new and innovative products and services that enhance the fan experience and make all forms of entertainment more accessible to everyone.\" CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Live Nation's \"No Service Fee Wednesdays\" applies to 5 million seats .\nPromotion could soothe feathers ruffled by Ticketmaster merger .\nIt applies to shows such as No Doubt, the Dead, Jason Mraz, Nine Inch Nails .","id":"894686d5b01416753fb7fee3b1cd53fc86598463"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Turkey's military said it killed at least 15 rebels in operations in northern Iraq earlier this week, but a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Security Forces denied the report, saying Turkey has not conducted any military operation or air assault there in the past two weeks. Turkish troops patrol near the border with Iraq during an offensive in February. A statement posted on the Turkish armed forces' official Web site said a group of PKK, or members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, was identified in northern Iraq, and said the group was believed to be planning an attack and trying to leak through the border into Turkey. The PKK, labeled a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, is comprised of militants who have been launching attacks against Turkey from bases in northern Iraq. The Turkish military said the PKK group \"came under fire by long-range weapons\" on Thursday, and 15 terrorists were killed. The same region was targeted by a Turkish air assault on Friday, the military said, adding that the number of casualties was not yet available. \"In the missions, only the places that were confirmed to belong to the terrorist group were targeted,\" the military statement said. \"Turkish armed forces acted with utmost sensitivity in order to avoid any negative impact of the strikes on the civilians in the region.\" However, Jabbar Yawer, a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Forces, said no air assault was conducted Thursday or Friday, and added that no operations have been conducted in northern Iraq for the past two weeks. The PKK has spent two decades fighting for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, with some of its attacks launched from inside Iraq \u00bb. The Iraqi government opposes the PKK's presence, but views a Turkish military incursion as a violation of its sovereignty. E-mail to a friend . CNN Turk's Begum Donmez and CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkey: At least 15 rebels in operations in northern Iraq earlier this week .\nSays Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members trying to get into Turkey .\nIraqi Kurdish Regional Security Forces denies the report, says no operation .\nPKK, labeled a terrorist group by U.S., EU, has attacked Turkey from N Iraq .","id":"509ddf71e3aaab0c5293f026b917004a5cc29b24"} -{"article":"Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland Martin says men are harming their health by their reluctance to go to the doctor. (CNN) -- A couple of years ago, my dad told me that he had a cataract in his eye and could barely see out of it and that he needed to get it fixed. \"Cool. Go to the doctor and get it taken care of,\" I said. \"I will,\" he replied. One month became three; three months turned into six months; and a year later and numerous calls later by a ticked-off son, he still had not gone to the doctor. So one morning, when I was hosting the 6 to 9 a.m. talk show shift on WVON-AM in Chicago, Illinois, I told my producer, Geneen Harston, to call my dad, but don't tell him he'll be on the air. When the commercials ended, I pulled him up on the air and asked, \"So, dad, have you made that doctor's appointment?\" He started to laugh and said that he had done so the day before and that he was seeing the doctor later in the week. Luckily, he followed through, and they discovered that he had another one growing in the other eye. Both eyes were taken care of, and all has been well since. Yet what ticked me off was that here was a guy with insurance, a son who could pay for the bill even if he didn't, but he still refused to go to the doctor! Watch Roland's commentary segment \u00bb . My dad's story is all too common to a lot of you who must deal with fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands and male cousins, church members and co-workers, who are obstinate and absolutely refuse to go to the doctor. \"Oh, I'll be fine.\" \"I can handle the pain.\" \"I don't want a doctor poking on me.\" \"If it's bad, I'm sure it would hurt worse.\" All typical responses, and all pretty dumb. Yes, it's true that women all around the globe have outlived men for years. In the United States, the life expectancy for men is 74 and for women is 80. Yet when that is broken down racially, there is a huge gap between whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Men are dying earlier due to prostate cancer, heart disease, stroke and other maladies, and their actions play a large role in it. Black men in particular drive me nuts. I've heard several mention that their aversion to doctors stems from the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the study conducted between 1932 and 1972 that monitored black sharecroppers who were infected with the disease but didn't treat them, much less inform them that they had it. That program by the U.S. Public Health Service was hideous but shouldn't be used as an excuse today. Men can no longer be so hard-headed about their health. I've given speeches on this issue and told married women that they should say, \"no doctor's visit, no sex.\" That'll get his attention! We all love the men in our lives. But being silent means we are aiding them in their health dilemma, and that's wrong. If it means lovingly reminding, fine. If you have to badger them, whatever. Just like Dad told us to eat our vegetables when were kids, saying we'll be better off as adults because of it, we should tell Dad or any other man to stop acting like a child and go see the doc. It really could save their life. The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Roland Martin.","highlights":"Roland Martin: Men are foolishly reluctant to go to the doctor .\nHe says some black men cite the infamous Tuskegee Experiment .\nMartin: Men already have a shorter life expectancy than women .\nHe says that failing to detect and treat illness makes no sense .","id":"a30280ba2911d545d62c055919439e15ca3f5190"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police said they are pursuing leads in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found Monday stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her Tracy, California, home. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared March 27. Her body was found at a dairy-farm pond near her Calilfornia home. \"We are heading in a direction,\" Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters. \"To comment on that would compromise the investigation, and I can't do that.\" A search warrant was executed at the Tracy mobile home park where the girl lived, and a related search was to be conducted Tuesday at a nearby church, he said. He implied more than one person may have been involved in the death of Sandra, who had been missing since March 27. \"Investigators are looking at additional information they received since yesterday and, hopefully, that will lead us to Sandra's killers,\" he said. Asked if his use of the plural meant police were looking for more than one person, he responded, \"We have no specific suspects, ma'am.\" Sheneman also implied the killer likely was familiar with the location where the body was found. He said he himself was unfamiliar with the location where the girl's body was found, despite having lived in the community for nearly 12 years. \"Someone would have to be familiar with that area to know to go there,\" he said. Watch how the suitcase was found \u00bb . Sheneman said police had no one in custody, despite having interviewed hundreds of people regarding the case. \"Everyone that we speak to right now is being considered a person of interest,\" he said. \"We're not eliminating anyone.\" The autopsy was being conducted Tuesday, but it was not clear when the report would be available. \"It's going to be some time before we hear from the coroner,\" Sheneman said. \"I can't tell you when that's going to be.\" More than 10 search warrants have been executed as part of the investigation and \"a lot\" of evidence has been recovered, Sheneman said. The day Sandra was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman. Police said Monday the girl's clothing helped them identify the body.","highlights":"NEW: Police imply person or persons involved in Sandra Cantu's death from area .\nPolice plan to church near mobile park home where Sandra's family lived .\nSandra was found in suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her California home .\nSandra had been missing since March 27 from her home in Tracy, California .","id":"d76b651ed2864cecffef991f1c4efcbb7fef7f66"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Elizabeth Taylor went to the Hollywood Bowl to hear Andrea Bocelli in concert, the first night out in months for the big-screen legend. Elizabeth Taylor went to see Andrea Bocelli at the Hollywood Bowl, a rare outing for the film legend. Taylor, bound to a wheelchair by scoliosis, said her mind and soul \"were transported by his beauty, his voice, his inner being.\" The 77-year-old actress posted online messages through the Twitter social network after the Italian tenor's concert Monday night. \"I went to see Andrea Bocelli last night. The first time I've been out in months. The Hollywood Bowl allowed me to use my wheelchair,\" Taylor's first tweet said. \"My mind, my soul were transported by his beauty, his voice, his inner being. God has kissed this man and I thank God for it,\" she wrote in a second message. Taylor opened her Twitter account this year as \"DameElizabeth\" at the suggestion of her close friend, model-actress-author-businesswoman Kathy Ireland, her publicist Dick Guttman said. Taylor is \"very adventurous\" and \"exceedingly active\" despite health problems that sent her to a hospital for a week last month, Guttman said. She is working on a new perfume to follow up on her popular White Diamonds, he said.","highlights":"Elizabeth Taylor attended Andrea Bocelli concert at Hollywood Bowl .\n\"The first time I've been out in months,\" Taylor wrote on Twitter .\nTaylor was in hospital last month but still \"exceedingly active,\" says spokesman .","id":"f6d6bc3a1fd19ea90cd65d6e0b7b3aac63d9b65e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The government is delaying legal action against Pennsylvania landowners who haven't yet agreed to sell their land for a memorial to victims of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, federal officials said Friday. This plot of land is scheduled to house the permanent United Airlines Flight 93 memorial. The government has been negotiating with several landowners since 2003 in an effort to purchase their properties near Shanksville where the hijacked jet crashed into a field, killing everyone aboard. If final efforts at negotiations are unsuccessful, officials intend to use eminent domain to acquire the property. That right allows governments to take private property for public use without an owner's consent, after paying a fair price for the land. The government is seeking to buy 166 acres in western Pennsylvania to complete the area needed to build a memorial on 2,200 acres. \"The (National Park Service) will negotiate with the landowners to reach agreement. If agreement is not reached, eminent domain remains as a backstop to acquire these lands,\" said Kendra Barkoff, spokeswoman for the Department of Interior. See plans for the proposed Flight 93 Memorial . Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, met with landowners and some 9\/11 victims' relatives Friday in Somerset County, where the plane crashed into a field. \"The goal remains to finish phase one of the memorial by September 10, 2011,\" Barkoff said. \"We'll try to negotiate with the families, but eminent domain has always been and will continue to be the last resort.\" Landowner Randy Musser told CNN he is encouraged that the government is recognizing that the negotiations aren't working. While the threat of eminent domain stills seem to be on the table, \"it finally seems like the lines of communication are open,\" Musser said. Producers Eric Fiegel and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government may use eminent domain to seize land needed for 9\/11 memorial .\nHijacked United Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania .\nFederal officials say they hope to have first phase of memorial complete by 2011 .","id":"4ca29639845a40551a62d10212a46aec7caf3369"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A series of major international sporting events, a weak currency and its perennially sunny perch on the tip of South Africa are making Cape Town one of the hottest sailing destinations of 2009. Lucky strike: The port city of Cape Town is set to benefit from several major sporting events . The Indian Premier League cricket tournament was recently relocated to South Africa because of security concerns, and now Cape Town is slated to host the opening match on April 18. Both the Lions Tour rugby and the FIFA Confederations Cup football will follow the cricket tournament, heading down to South Africa later this year. Combined with the arrival of the World Cup in 2010, South Africa has suddenly become the ultimate holiday spot for sports fans. Calvyn Gilfellan, chief executive of Cape Town Routes Unlimited -- the region's tourism board -- told CNN the boost to the region had arrived at a crucial time. \"When the financial crisis started people went into gloom and doom but these events are helping a lot to restore confidence in the industry. \"The fact that we have a positive exchange rate also helps us a lot as a destination,\" he said. But South Africa's government is so focused on ensuring the success of the upcoming games that it recently denied a visa to The Dalai Lama. Critics contend that South Africa bowed to pressure from the Chinese government in refusing Tibet's spiritual leader entry to attend a peace conference that was partially intended to help promote the World Cup. As the focus strengthens on these international events, the Cape Town region looks set to benefit more than many from the expected surge in tourism. Gilfellan says this is largely due to the city's location. \"We are lucky to be in such a wonderful spot. A lot of these events revolve around the marine industry and revolve around the harbor.\" This weekend harbor will play host to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival -- one of many upcoming festivals in the area. Cape Town's picturesque Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, set against the backdrop of Table Mountain, has become South Africa's most visited tourist attraction. Commodore of the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) John Martin, told CNN the Cape Town port was used widely for business, leisure and sports. As well as being the country's second biggest functioning port for trade, the port played host to racing yachts in events such as the Volvo Ocean Race and the Clipper Round-the-world Challenge. \"We have several major yachting events that stop here and we are very proud of that.\" Martin said the popularity of the port means water space is \"at a premium,\" but there are hopes a new harbor and breakwater will be constructed in the next few years. Still, Cape Town has the capacity to cater for foreign visitors on super-yachts and international cruise-liners. \"Cape Town is a real focal point for refueling and repairs and it's also quite cheap here so people tend to stay for a while,\" he said. Gilfellan said she felt the surge of massive sporting events would undoubtedly have spin-off benefits for the marine industry. The Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket, which starts this month, had been tipped to go to England, but ultimately South Africa was chosen for its sunny weather. The tournament, which will feature 59 matches across six venues, will run from 18 April to 24 May . The 2009 British and Irish Lions tour officially kicks off on May 30 in Rustenberg. Matches will be held in Cape Town on June 13 and June 23. The eight-team Confederations Cup runs from June 14-28, and will take place across four cities. The event marks the first time an African nation will host an international FIFA tournament. The landmark event foreshadows the much-anticipated World Cup football tournament in June 2010, for which qualifying matches are currently being held. Although that's still a year away -- there are signs that the excitement in South Africa is already palpable. A new television commercial that began airing last month features Spain and Liverpool star, Fernando Torres, and Brazilian icon Kaka showing off their football skills. The advertisement ends with Torres saying \"Ke Nako\", which in South Africa's Sotho language means \"it's time.\" It seems for Cape Town and the whole country -- this could not be more true. Mike Steere contributed to this report.","highlights":"MainSail's 'Port of the Month' is Cape Town, South Africa .\nThe area is one of South Africa's most popular tourist destinations .\nCape Town is set to benefit from major international sporting events .\nThe port is the country's second biggest and hosts major yacht races .","id":"01ace4f8c335b9e2fb528d34bd26fedd85130bea"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A U.S. company is offering a rare chance to holiday on a mega-yacht once used by a Hollywood star and her husband -- and thanks to the recession it's actually affordable. The 100 foot Katania was chartered by Hollywood star Hilary Swank and her husband Chad Lowe. Seattle-based mega-yacht rental business CEO Expeditions usually charges around $100,000 a week to charter their 100+ foot yachts, however, they have introduced a deal waiving the charter fees -- so guests will only need to pay for the running of the vessel. The move to make such vessels more affordable comes as the recession continues to put pressure on the luxury holiday and mega-yacht industries. Although the costs of crew and luxury food aren't extremely cheap, it is expected this move will open up the recession-hit market to many more potential holiday-makers. One of the company's mega-yachts, Katania -- a 100 foot vessel which Hollywood actress Hilary Swank once chartered, now costs less than $3000 per day. Normally it would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. At the $2950 per day special rate four people can stay on the Katania -- but with the maximum six on board ($450 extra per person), the cost per person is a slightly more achievable $642. The price includes full crew, premium wines, gourmet food prepared by a private chef, amenities such as kayaks, hot tub, fishing\/crabbing\/shrimping equipment, and even a 30' Whaler for guest use. According to the company, Swank said of her charter holiday: \"We had an absolutely enchanted time aboard the Katania. A more beautiful yacht does not exist.\" There is one small catch with the deal -- the boat is based in the San Juan islands, and any cruises to other destinations will attract an additional charge to cover fuel costs. The company's owner, Bruce Milne, said in a statement that the deal was largely due to the impact of the recession. \"Travel is down, agents and brokers need deals, so rather than just a few full price charters, we decided to stay busy, put more people to work, and help island tourism by doing charters at cost. \"Since we started chartering 10 years ago, we have been looking for a chance to provide our 'Expeditions to the Extraordinary' in the San Juan Islands at a price any luxury traveler can afford - this recession provides that opportunity,\" he said. Tim Wiltshire, director and sales broker at international yacht company Burgess Yachts, said the charter market wasn't a complete disaster, so he was surprised to see such a discount. \"I wouldn't have expected to see that. We are seeing discounts on average of about 25 percent. Although, some people are trying interesting gimmicks to inspire new business,\" he said . Wiltshire said that CEO Expedition's fleet isn't among the biggest or most luxurious on the market, and that this deal appeared to be clever marketing stunt. He felt that other larger vessels still warranted their greater price tags.","highlights":"U.S. mega-yacht charter company waives massive $50,000 charter fees .\nThe impact of the recession is reason given for the discounted deal .\nA yacht chartered by Hilary Swank can now be rented for under $3000 a day .","id":"10446add14f271cea0978573cabd6aa226402192"} -{"article":"HERMOSILLO, Mexico (CNN) -- Thirty-one children were killed and more than 100 others were injured Friday when their day-care center caught fire in the northwestern state of Sonora, a spokesman for the state's governor said. A crib and baby seats lie outside a day-care center where the deadly fire broke out Friday. The victims were from 1 to 5 years old, said Jose Larrinaga, the spokesman. The fire appeared to have started at 3 p.m. in a warehouse next door to the one-story concrete building that housed the state-run ABC Daycare and spread to the state-run institution, news reports said. By then, many children had already been picked up by their parents from the one-story building. But others came after the blaze had been put out, with parents screaming their children's names as others fainted. In a message of condolence, President Felipe Calderon wished a quick recovery for the injured, who were taken to several area hospitals. He also called on the nation's attorney general to investigate the fire. Authorities dispatched 15 specialists in reconstruction and three air ambulances to the area along with respirators and specialized medicines, and a U.S. hospital will help treat some of the victims. Watch chaos in aftermath of tragedy \u00bb . Admissions will begin Saturday, said Catherine Curran, a spokeswoman for Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento, California. Shriners Hospitals is a health care system that gives children free treatment for burns, spinal cord injuries, orthopedic conditions, and cleft lip and palate, according to its Web site. It admits children under 18. The first hospital opened in 1922. The system has burn units in Boston, Massachusetts; Cincinnati Ohio; and Sacramento, California. Journalist Guadelupe Gutierrez contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Hospital in California to treat some of the victims .\nThe victims were from 1 to 5 years old, official says .\nThe fire appears to have started in a warehouse next door to the state-run day care .\nPresident Felipe Calderon orders investigation, sends condolences .","id":"2d2d7637d79c713778c9a8b758562fda200c5a83"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- One portion of macaroni and cheese. One slice of chocolate cake. One pair of svelte black pants. Do some very simple, if highly emotional, addition and subtraction, and you arrive at a whole new way to see yourself. The first documented instance of my distorted body image is an entry in my fourth-grade journal. \"I just ate three cookies,\" it says. \"I feel fat.\" There is no way that I actually was; my jeans, although dorky, fit just fine. Nevertheless, the disconnect grew worse as puberty approached -- especially in eighth grade, when the body mass index (BMI) entered my life. This is a formula that tells you whether you need to drop pounds -- and while it's generally reliable, it doesn't take body composition into account. At 5'4\" and 140 pounds, I'm close to the overweight category, but that's only because I've got heavy bones and a sprinter's thighs. Every time I calculate my BMI, I get angry at myself, even though I'm aware that I am in good shape. But what do feelings have to do with numbers? Most women know that it is possible to immediately gain 15 pounds by eating one pint of Ben & Jerry's. And when it comes to your butt (which can enlarge six sizes in the wrong pair of jeans), the rules of physics no longer apply. Oprah.com: Start loving the way you look . We need a better way to quantify these fluctuations -- a formula that goes beyond your BMI and calculates the feel of overweight. So I propose the personal body image index (PBII). The general idea is as follows: . \u2022 Start with your weight. \u2022 Subtract seven pounds if you have just worked out. \u2022 Add five if you've single-handedly finished a plate of guacamole and chips; four for macaroni and cheese; six for death-by-chocolate cake. \u2022 Subtract 10 pounds if people nearby are fatter than you. \u2022 If you're wearing black pants, subtract two; if in a bathing suit, add eight. \u2022 If you are more than seven years older than the group average or are surrounded by bikini-clad undergraduates with toned stomachs and cellulite-free thighs, add 20. iReport.com: What kinds of things do you do you stay fit? I don't advocate letting the PBII dictate how you live your life; it could turn you into one of those people who spend their beach time camouflaging their lower halves with sarongs. But once you acknowledge that the PBII exists, you can take steps to improve your score. Some suggestions: . Hang out with people older than you, preferably much older. This has three benefits: . (a) You probably have fewer varicose veins than they do. (b) Truly old people are inspiring; they tend not to give a damn about what they look like in bathing suits. (c) Except for my elderly neighbor, who once greeted me by announcing that I'd gained weight in my face, older people are usually effusive with compliments. My friend Luba, who lived to 99, used to tell me how beautiful I was every time I saw her, even though she was blind. Watch those college girls on the beach. Notice how often they adjust their bikinis and glance at themselves in other people's sunglasses. They are totally insecure. Granted, they are probably also judging you, but still -- I find their self-doubt liberating. Isn't there some cosmic limit on how much body insecurity the universe can handle? Embrace the bikini now: \"Look how skinny I was!\" my mother says every time she sees a picture of herself from the 1970s. \"I thought I was so fat. I was 130 pounds.\" My mother, now 66, is living proof that you should do everything in your power to enjoy your body as it is right now so you never have to look at an old photograph of yourself and wish you'd spent more time in a two-piece bathing suit. When it comes to my own PBII, I still have a way to go. It doesn't take too much extra chocolate to convince me that I should never be allowed to wear shorts. But recognizing the illogical logic behind my self-image helps me to control it better. And by my calculations, that's worth subtracting at least five pounds. By Catherine Price from \"O, The Oprah Magazine,\" July 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Calculating your body mass index (BMI) does not take feelings into account .\nThe personal body image index uses other things besides height and weight .\nStanding next to fat people, wearing black pants lowers your score .\nStanding next to young, toned, bikini-clad women -- adds 20 points .","id":"48f51a9cf3fb49e93083fee3e433326b52579fbf"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese voters were heading to the polls on Sunday with their main choices to lead the next government a Hezbollah-backed alliance or a U.S.-backed coalition. Hezbollah party workers in the southern town of Nabatiyah hope for an election victory. Analysts say the race will be tight, with the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" possibly winning a majority of seats in parliament. The polls opened at 1200 GMT and will close 12 hours later. Turnout is expected to be high among the country's 3 million registered voters. About 50,000 troops were on the streets, but the run-up to the balloting had been free of violence. The vote comes at a critical time for Lebanon as it sits amid a power struggle between a weakened pro-Western government and a stronger pro-Syrian Hezbollah political bloc that has gained political momentum in recent years. The United States considers Hezbollah -- which is supported by both Syria and Iran -- to be a terrorist organization. The group grew in popularity after its militant wing claimed victory over Israel after a 34-day military conflict in 2006. Since then, it has been more widely perceived by its supporters to be the \"defenders\" of Lebanon. Though U.S. President Barack Obama didn't mention the Lebanese general election in his address on Thursday, he did call for religious tolerance in the Muslim world, noting sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites and the struggles faced by religious minorities. \"The richness of religious diversity must be upheld -- whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt,\" he said, referring to Christian groups in those countries. \"And if we are being honest, fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.\" In Lebanon's unique power-sharing government, the presidency is reserved for Maronite Christians, the speaker of parliament is always a Shia Muslim, and the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim. The law was created to balance power among Lebanon's three main religious groups. Analysts say the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" may win a parliamentary majority with the support of Christian opposition leader Gen. Michel Aoun -- the only prominent Christian politician to back the bloc. \"They keep trying to scare the Christian voters with their stories about Hezbollah's weapons, so to all of those who complain about Hezbollah, can they tell us how they will disarm the party,\" Aoun told supporters Friday. \"Hezbollah's weapons will no longer be a problem when the causes behind its existence disappear, including the borders' issues.\" A close look at Lebanon's political landscape reveals that the country's Christian voters are split on how they will cast their ballots. Some Christian voters want their representatives to step out of the shadows of Hezbollah and Saad Hariri, who leads the Sunni-dominated \"March 14 coalition.\" Christian voters are divided between supporting Aoun and other Christian leaders who want Hezbollah to disarm. \"In these elections, Christians look more divided than ever while others seem more unified than ever,\" said Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. For the Obama administration, the elections could be indicative of the president's odds of pushing stability in the region. Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jimmy Carter said the United States should work with whichever coalition wins. Carter was in Beirut as part of more than 200 international observers monitoring the election. He also oversaw balloting in Gaza during the elections in the Palestinian territory in January 2006. The Palestinian militant group Hamas won that race \"fairly and squarely\" by a huge margin, Carter said. The United States and Israel later refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Hamas win. \"And it's resulted in a split in the Palestinians and a very difficult situation there,\" Carter added. \"I think they (the United States) learned a hard lesson that they should accept the results of an election.\" Two senior Obama administration officials -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden -- have visited Lebanon in recent months, signaling concerns with a possible Hezbollah victory. During his trip to Beirut two weeks ago, Biden warned the country that while the United States supports Lebanon's democratic process, it will reconsider its assistance to the country if its next government strays from certain \"fundamental principles.\" Biden's visit followed Clinton's April trip to Beirut in which she called for an \"open and free\" election without outside interference -- a veiled reference to Iran and Syria. Such rhetoric has been dismissed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as \"meddling.\" The Hezbollah leader has been increasingly vocal in the lead-up to the election, blasting the current government as powerless. However, part of the reason Lebanon's government is crippled is that it made concessions to Hezbollah -- including giving them veto power -- in order to end a political stalemate that boiled over into violence of historic proportions last year. While some analysts are concerned Hezbollah could gain more control over Lebanon's government after Sunday's vote, a key Lebanese politician, Dori Chamoun, warned that assessment may be misleading. Chamoun, who opposes the March 8 alliance, said talk of Hezbollah's possible victory may be based on \"rumors\" and propaganda being spread by the Shiite militia and their political allies. \"They (Hezbollah) think they can scare many but no one is scared,\" Chamoun told CNN. \"They can spread all kinds of rumors on their four TV stations saying that they will win this upcoming elections.\" Chamoun, whose father, Camille Chamoun, was Lebanon's president in the 1950s, is running for a seat in parliament. Even if a Hezbollah-dominated government does move in, it could have trouble working with Christian and Sunni Muslim politicians who -- under Lebanese law -- must participate in the government. It would also be difficult to find a Sunni political figure willing to serve as prime minister in a Hezbollah-led government since the majority of Lebanon's prominent Sunni politicians are aligned with Hariri's March 14 coalition, which has declared it will not participate in any government if Hezbollah wins. Lebanon's political landscape could be shifting after a similar shift in neighboring Israel. Voters in the Jewish state overwhelmingly supported conservative parties over more moderate groups, bringing into power Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. Netanyahu is viewed in the Arab world as more hawkish than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who ordered the war against Hezbollah in 2006. A Hezbollah victory in Lebanon could further inflame tensions with Israel, particularly with an estimated 30,000 rockets pointed at Israel from southern Lebanon -- all under the control of Hezbollah. CNN's Cal Perry, Octavia Nasr and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Analysts say the race will be tight .\nSome say the Hezbollah-dominated alliance may win a parliamentary majority .\nTurnout is expected to be high among the country's 3 million registered voters .\nAbout 50,000 troops deploy to the streets .","id":"6d83942019a4f237147bd9cd025a198585c1a0b7"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- While the horse racing world is all abuzz over Rachel Alexandra, the amazing three-year-old filly who recently beat Kentucky Derby winner Mine that Bird (along with a field full of other colts) in the Preakness Stakes, we're reminded of some other female athletes of the two-legged variety who also beat the boys at their own game. Danica Patrick finished third at the 2009 Indianapolis 500 on Saturday. 1. Billie Jean King -- tennis . In 1973, Billie Jean King was 29 years old and the reigning queen of women's tennis. In an era when female athletes were paid significantly less than their male counterparts, King still managed to earn $100,000 in 1971. Bobby Riggs had won Wimbledon back in 1939, but by the 1970s his star was fading. He kept his name in the press by proclaiming himself a male chauvinist pig and declaring that women athletes could never be as good as men. After defeating Margaret Court in May, he proclaimed \"I want King!\" The much-hyped \"Battle of the Sexes\" was held at the Houston Astrodome on September 20, 1973. The idea of a woman beating a man in any sport was so unbelievable at the time that Las Vegas oddsmakers heavily favored the 55-year-old Riggs. A worldwide television audience watched via satellite as King neatly thrashed Riggs 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3. Billie Jean King not only took home the prize money and several endorsement deals, she also opened up a new playing field for professional sportswomen. Mental Floss: Song Elton John wrote for Billie Jean King . 2. Margaret Murdock --shooting . Margaret Murdock's father was a Kansas state rifle champion, so it was logical that both she and her sister took up the sport as children. When Murdock attended Kansas State in the early 1960s, she won her varsity letter by competing on the men's rifle team. In 1976 she became the first woman to represent the U.S. on its Olympic shooting team. The small-bore three position competition calls for the shooter to fire off 40 shots each in the standing, kneeling and prone position. The competitors fire from 50 meters away at a target that is a little smaller than a dime. At the end of the competition, Murdock was tied with Lanny Bassham, the team captain. Bassham requested a tie-breaking shoot-off, but Olympic rules forbade it; instead, Bassham was awarded the gold medal because he had scored three \"100s\" to Murdock's two. During the medal ceremony, Lanny pulled Margaret up from the silver pedestal to stand with him during the national anthem to indicate that she deserved the gold as much as he. 3. Jackie Mitchell -- baseball . Virne Beatrice Mitchell, known to her family as \"Jackie,\" entered the world ahead of schedule and weighed only a little over three pounds at birth. As soon as she learned to walk, her father took her to the ballpark. The Mitchell's next door neighbor in Memphis was future Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance, who was still playing in the minors at the time. He coached Jackie in the art of pitching when she was eight years old and even showed her his trademark \"drop pitch,\" a dazzling throw in which the ball swooped down just before crossing the plate. When Mitchell was 17 she was offered a contract with the Chattanooga Lookouts, today the AA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. On April 1, 1931, the New York Yankees were in town to play an exhibition game against the Lookouts. The game was postponed a day due to rain, and there was a crowd of 4,000 on hand when Mitchell finally took the mound. Babe Ruth stepped up to the plate and southpaw Jackie threw her special pitch. Ruth took the first pitch for a ball, but the next three were strikes. Lou Gehrig, baseball's Iron Man, was up next and similarly struck out. The crowd was on its feet, but some skeptical reporters wrote that the whole thing had been staged, since the game was originally scheduled for April Fool's Day. Nevertheless, Commissioner Kennesaw Landis was sufficiently threatened by the tiny female dynamo that he had her contract voided, stating that baseball was \"too strenuous\" for women. Mental Floss: 7 silly products licensed by Major League Baseball . 4. Seana Hogan --cycling . To Ultra Cyclists, 100-mile events are kid stuff. Ultra Cyclists consider events like the Race Across America (RAAM) -- a 2,950 mile cross-country jaunt -- to be a real competition. Seana Hogan of San Jose, California, has won the female division of RAAM an amazing six times, and her finish times in each case usually placed her in the top 15 finishers overall. Ultra Cycling requires about 20 hours of continuous pedaling per day, up hills (a combined total of about 82,000 feet of climbing), down dales and in all weather. Hogan holds the record for the San Francisco to Los Angeles race (beating even the best men's time) and was the overall winner of the 1995 Furnace Creek 508, which runs from Valencia through Death Valley to Twentynine Palms. 5. Danica Patrick -- auto racing . Danica Patrick's parents met on a blind date at an auto race, so she felt that racing was her destiny. Patrick started competing on the go-kart circuit at age 10, and moved to England at 16 to participate in various racing events and advance her career. In 2000, she finished second in the Formula Ford Festival, the highest finish by an American in that event. She moved back to the States where she competed in the Toyota Atlantic series for Rahal Letterman Racing and won her first pole position. Patrick started her Indy career in 2005, making her only the fourth woman to compete in the 500. Three years later she won the Twin Ring Motegi in the Indy Japan 300, the first female driver to win an IndyCar race. 6. Sonya Thomas -- competitive eating . At five feet, five inches tall and just under 100 lbs., Sonya Thomas gives the impression that the slightest breeze could blow her away. But despite her wispy stature, Thomas is known in competitive eating circles for blowing away the competition, including male contestants three times her size. Thomas remembers being inspired to enter the world of competitive eating after watching Takeru Kobayashi munching his way to the championship at the Nathan's Coney Island hot dog contest in 2002. In 2005 she set a record for female frankfurter consumption in Nathan's annual contest. That wasn't quite good enough for Sonya, however, and she began a training regimen that included walking two hours per day on an inclined treadmill and eating only one large meal per day. Scientific-types hypothesize that Sonya's slim physique gives her an advantage over her more zaftig competitors -- she lacks a layer of fat around her abdomen, which gives it more room to expand. Whatever the explanation, Thomas has defeated all-comers in various International Federation of Competitive Eating contests, including \"the most\" oysters, chicken wings and Krystal hamburgers downed in a prescribed amount of time. Mental Floss: Food challenges for the super competitive . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Female pitcher Virne Beatrice Mitchell struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig .\nSeana Hogan holds the record for the San Francisco to Los Angeles cycling race .\nSonya Thomas wins eating contests of oysters, chicken wings, Krystal hamburgers .","id":"8f43443d1a74b8d6b3ebcc2fe899d8eaa7836f2c"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand's military has denied abusing refugee boat-people from Myanmar after claims some were whipped on a tourist beach and hundreds more left dead or missing after being towed at to sea without food and water. Photograph released by Thai navy showing a group of illegal immigrants captured on December 12. Photos showing refugees being made to lie face down on a popular beach and media reports claiming refugees been deliberately lost at sea have sparked concerns for their safety. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it is \"concerned\" about the fate of the Muslim ethnic minority Rohingya people, who have fled from Myanmar's border with Bangladesh. The agency says it has written a formal note to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking for clarification of what is happening. CNN spoke to one Australian tourist, who declined to be named for fear of being barred from Thailand, who says boat-people were \"whipped\" by Thai guards on popular diving resort island in the Similan Archipelago last month. Local media also report claims by Rohingya survivors that the Thai military have been detaining hundreds of them an island called Koh Sai Daeng before towing them back out into open water without supplies. The survivors say hundreds of them drowned and only the lucky ones made it to the Indian Andaman Islands or Indonesia's Aceh province. The Thai Navy denies knowledge of the incident. Rear Admiral Naris Pratumsuwan told CNN \"as a normal practice, if Navy finds illegal immigrants, we will hand them over to related authorities, e.g. police or immigration police.\" He said he had not received any information on an island where migrants are being detained. There were reports of another boatload of 46 Rohingya detained by the Thai military Friday, but there was no official confirmation. The Rohingya have been fleeing persecution of the hard-line military regime in Myanmar, formerly Burma, for years and often seek refuge in Malaysia. Boat loads of Rohingya arriving in Thailand is nothing new, but non-governmental organizations are increasingly worried about what they say is an apparent change of government policy. They say the army's Internal Security Operations Command is forcing the Rohingya out to sea rather than deporting them overland back to Myanmar. \"The Thai government is taking highly vulnerable people and risking their lives for political gain,\" says Refugee International's Sean Garcia says. \"It should be engaging the Burmese government on improving conditions at home for the Rohingya if it wants to stem these flows. \"The Rohingya will continue to make the journey because they have no hope for a better life in Burma. Pushing them back out to sea is not an effective deterrent it just jeopardizes lives.\"","highlights":"Thai military denies abusing refugees from Myanmar .\nWitnesses say ethnic Rohingya whipped face down on tourist beach .\nReports say hundreds missing after being towed back out to sea .","id":"5fed72f78693114cbac2b9aa9592c96bc6402280"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With 17 Grammys, five gold records and -- by his count -- almost 130 albums, polka superstar Jimmy Sturr might just be the most successful musician you've never heard of. Polka artist Jimmy Sturr is up for a possible 18th Grammy Award at the upcoming ceremony. Sturr and his orchestra, superstars in the polka world, are one of a multitude of musical acts nominated this year in some of the lesser-known Grammy categories. When there are 110 categories, \"lesser-known\" might be putting it lightly. \"I try not to get too worked up over it,\" said Sturr, who is once again nominated this year in the best polka album category. \"But when the [awards] season comes along I am right there saying 'I hope I win. I hope I win.' It just never gets old.\" Sturr is among the unsung artists whose statuette presentation doesn't make it to the prime-time televised broadcast, which will air 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS. While categories like best Hawaiian music album, best traditional world music album and best historical album may linger in the shadows of the big Grammy show, they are no less important to the performers and fans who love them. See some of the lesser-known categories \u00bb . The Grammy Awards are trumpeted as \"music's biggest night,\" and Grammy officials there are cognizant of the heavy competition to appear on the broadcast. There just isn't enough time to honor everyone on the televised presentation, said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards. He said about a dozen awards, including album of the year and best new artist, are given out during the live show. \"Every Grammy is of equal value and importance in our minds,\" Portnow said. \"That said, with 110 categories and 3\u00bd hours of television, physics dictate the reality that we can't do everything on the national broadcast.\" Instead, the other nominees are feted at an event held earlier in the day, Portnow said. \"We created a very significant and somewhat extravagant pre-telecast, which is conducted in a separate facility right across from the Staples Center the afternoon of the show,\" Portnow explained. \"We build a substantial stage, we have co-hosts, we have music performances and we have presenters,\" he said. \"Many, many of our nominees come to that event to pick up their Grammys.\" This year, fans of the best contemporary folk\/Americana album or best engineered album (nonclassical) categories -- among others -- will be able to see their favorites on the Web, because this year's pre-telecast will be streamed live on Grammy.com and available for viewing for 30 days after the ceremony. Singer Wayna, who is nominated for best urban\/alternative performance for her song \"Lovin You (Music)\" featuring Kokayi, said she feels honored simply to have been chosen. \"I'm not sure if I've taken it all in yet,\" the Bowie, Maryland, singer said. \"I'm really proud of this category.\" The increase in independent artists shows a trend Portnow said \"speaks to the importance of what we do to a very broad segment of the music community.\" No doubt that community includes at least a few admirers of the vivacious dance music that is polka. Sturr may not be burning up the charts or even generating the heat of fellow Grammy nominees Lil Wayne and Radiohead, but he gets his fair share of love from those who follow his genre. Some admirers have gone on to become collaborators. Sturr's recording partners have included Willie Nelson, the Oak Ridge Boys and Charlie Daniels. He's often surprised by who is a fan, he said. \"I was in Jupiter, Florida, a few years ago and the manager of a restaurant I knew came up to me and said there's a fan of yours that would like to meet you,\" recalled Sturr. \"I went over and it was Burt Reynolds.\" Sturr and his orchestra's popularity have been bolstered by appearances on \"Saturday Night Live\" and at the Grand Ole Opry, as well as his own variety show, which airs twice a week on Direct TV. Polka's partisans are well aware that the music is often mocked, and believe an appearance on the Grammys would go a long way toward widening the genre's audience. \"To get a legitimate, great sounding orchestra on national television would certainly help,\" said Ray Zalokar, director of 247Polkaheaven.com. Zalokar added that younger fans are discovering the music thanks in part to newer bands, such as one that covers Pink Floyd tunes as polkas. The genre might also take heart from what happened to rock 'n' roll. The Academy, Portnow said, is careful to implement a category only after it has been established as viable, but it also doesn't want to miss the boat when it comes to new music. Such was the case with rock 'n' roll in the 1960s. \"Years ago the Academy was, not a secret, late in recognizing particularly the rock area coming out of the middle of the road times,\" he said. \"[In the] Rolling Stones versus Andy Williams scenario, the Rolling Stones were not in the mix,\" he said. \"I think that as an organization we may have fallen behind, but that really hasn't happened in the recent past because we have a fantastic process here.\" While honored to have his first clarinet featured in the new Grammy Museum, Sturr said he'd relish a chance to perform on the show and give a wider audience a taste of what his fans know from albums like \"Polkapalooza\" and \"Sturr-It-Up.\" \"I'd love to have just 30 seconds on that show,\" he said. \"Just to play so people can see that this is not your grandmother's kind of music.\"","highlights":"Polka is among several of the lesser known Grammy categories .\nArtist Jimmy Sturr up to possibly win Grammy number 18 .\nAcademy exec: \"Every Grammy is of equal value and importance in our minds\"\nPre-telecast for those not included in live show growing in popularity .","id":"64e23d8dda75eb36cc6273479254c42be5e252a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jero is making old, new again in Japan. African-American Jero is famous for singing Japanese enka. The 27-year-old American has made a name for himself singing enka, a traditional form of lounge music that flourished in 1940's Japan. It seems an unlikely musical style for the Pittsburgh native to pursue. Enka's fan based comes generally from an older generation and is practically unknown outside of Japan, with simple song themes about love and loss. But Jero, real name Jerome White, with his youth, hip-hop look and fine singing voice has propelled enka into the 21st century and captured a new audience. It was the influence of his Japanese grandmother that first led him on the path to enka. She ensured that Jero was aware of his connection to the culture of Japan and sang enka songs in Japanese with him when he was young. He went on to study Japanese at high school and spent time in Japan while on an exchange with the University of Pittsburgh. After he graduated he moved to Japan, working as a computer scientist and teaching English. His big break came when he appeared on an amateur singer TV show. On the back of that success he released his first single in early 2008, promoting it with live appearances in record stores and the odd impromptu street performances. It shot up the Japanese singles chart, reaching No 4, the highest ever position for a first time enka release. Watch the show on CNN as we spend time with him in a karaoke spot in Tokyo and find out how he's dealing with sudden fame in a foreign country.","highlights":"Jero has made traditional Japanese enka songs hip and found new audience .\nHe sang enka with his Japanese grandmother when he was a young boy .\nFound success on talent show and first single made No.4 in charts .","id":"2d504e23986cbf893b5c0fda20cdd76a4ce64d24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met her match while appearing on NBC's \"Saturday Night Live\" to deliver the show's trademark opening line and provide an \"editorial response\" to a mock presidential debate. During the opening sketch -- which featured SNL actors playing Clinton, rival candidate Barack Obama and the debate moderators -- Clinton complimented the performance of Amy Poehler, who regularly lampoons Clinton with her impersonation of the senator from New York. \"I simply adore Amy's impression of me,\" Clinton said, providing the cue for Poehler to enter the stage, wearing the same two-button brown jacket and sporting Clinton's medium-length, layered hairstyle. Poehler giddily thanked Clinton for appearing. \"I love your outfit,\" the identically dressed Poehler told Clinton. \"Well, I love your outfit,\" Clinton responded, putting her hand on Poehler's shoulder, \"but I do want the earrings back.\" The quip sparked a hyperbolic cackle from Poehler. Clinton asked, \"Do I really laugh like that?\" The two jokingly agreed she did. Clinton appeared on the show ahead of several do-or-die primaries that will determine the fate of her campaign. During the segment, Poehler -- who also does impersonations of talk show host Kelly Ripa, \"American Idol\" judge Paula Abdul and pop star Michael Jackson -- asked Clinton, who trails Obama in the Democratic race, how her campaign was going. \"The campaign is going very well. Very, very well,\" the former first lady responded before earning some laughs with a deadpan: \"Why? What have you heard?\" Clinton said she appeared on the show to \"just relax, have fun\" without politics, but she didn't miss her chance to address voters in delivering the opening line. Saying she was appealing to all Americans -- whether they're from Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont, Pennsylvania \"or any of the other states\" -- Clinton opened the show with \"Live from New York, it is Saturday night!\" Watch Clinton open the show \u00bb . Pennsylvania's primary is slated for next month, while the other four states Clinton mentioned are holding primaries Tuesday. Clinton's appearance was a poorly kept secret. The media were tipped off when she failed to arrive for a campaign charter flight from Dallas, Texas, to Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday. Her campaign would not say where she was, but an entertainment industry source confirmed she was set to appear on SNL. The late-night skit show has been a popular spot on the campaign trail. Obama appeared unannounced in October, and GOP candidate Mike Huckabee did a bit on the show's \"Weekend Update\" last week. Also, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who dropped out of the GOP presidential race this year, appeared later in the show that Clinton opened. During an MSNBC debate in Ohio on Tuesday, Clinton referenced an SNL skit in which the comedy troupe satirized the media for being too friendly with Obama. \"Maybe we should ask [Obama] if he's comfortable and needs another pillow,\" she said during the debate. Clinton is scheduled to appear on Jon Stewart's \"Daily Show\" Monday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Clinton appears during the opening segment with impersonator Amy Poehler .\nClinton mentions upcoming primary states in opening line, \"It is Saturday night!\"\nHer rival Sen. Barack Obama appeared on the show last year .\nClinton referenced a recent SNL skit during a debate in Ohio on Tuesday .","id":"ec1ea284fc6df9d8d01bfb43fd9d040973b12b9f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As the saying goes, \"Pain is temporary, film is forever\" and noone in the movie business knows this better than stuntmen. Stunt double Terry Leonard performs a hazardous jump from horseback to a truck as Indiana Jones in \"Raiders of the Lost Ark.\" Hollywood's athletes regularly defy death in pursuit of ever more extreme spectacles to keep us on the edge our cinema seats. \"The Screening Room\" takes a look at some of the best stunts ever pulled off -- and a few that didn't end so well. Don't agree with the list? Think we've missed one? Tell us in the SoundOff box below. 1. \"Steamboat Bill, Jr.\" (Charles Reisner, 1928) Stunt: Building falls down Stuntman: Buster Keaton . Charlie Chaplin may be better remembered, but no early stuntman was more willing to risk eternal oblivion for a great stunt than Keaton. In perhaps his most perfect stunt, the side of a building crashes down on top of him and Keaton is saved only by an open window that fits neatly around him. The window was built to have clearance of two inches around each shoulder and on the top of his head. As Keaton himself said, \"You don't do these things twice.\" 2. \"Stagecoach\" (John Ford, 1939) Stunt: High speed stagecoach jump Stuntman: Yakima Canutt . Ex-rodeo cowboy Yakima Canutt was probably the first celebrity stuntman, best known as a stunt double for John Wayne. In this stunt -- which has since become a Western classic -- he portrays a galloping warrior during an Indian attack on a stagecoach. He jumps from his own horse to the six-horse team pulling the stagecoach, is shot, falls, and is dragged underneath the fast-moving team and stagecoach. 3. \"Ben Hur\" (William Wyler, 1959) Stunt: Chariot race Stuntman: Joe Canutt . Canutt (son of Yakima) doubles for Charlton Heston in the famous chariot race. Half way through, things veer off plan and he is forced down the inside part of the track straight towards a wrecked chariot. When his charito hits, Canutt is flung over the front of the chariot, where he clings before clambering back on. The sequence was completely unplanned but made it into the film because Canutt kept a cool head even though he was injured. 4. \"Raiders of the Lost Ark\" (Stephen Spielberg, 1981) Stunt: Truck drag Stuntman: Terry Leonard . This intense stunt sequence was so hazardous to perform that veteran stuntman Terry Leonard only agreed to do it if his friend and fellow stuntman Glenn H. Randall Jr. was driving the truck. A ditch was dug underneath the path of the truck to give Leonard enough room to manoeuver. Harrison Ford, an accomplished stuntman in his own right, performed an earlier portion of the sequence, where Indy hung onto the bonnet of the truck only by a bending hood ornament. 5. \"GoldenEye\" (Martin Campbell, 1995) Stunt: 750 foot bungee jump Stuntman: Wayne Michaels . This breathtaking Bond stunt was performed at the Verzasca hydro-electric dam in Switzerland and done in one take. Michaels jumped from a specially-constructed platform built to jut out from the dam to prevent him making contact with the front of the dam, which was studded with steel pegs. This, combined with his high falling velocity, could have proved fatal. 6. \"Who am I?\" (Wo shi shei) (Jackie Chan, 1998) Stunt: 21-storey slide Stuntman: Jackie Chan . It's almost impossible to choose just one of Chan's stunts, but his faintly slapstick 21-storey slide down the side of a skyscraper is pretty impressive -- even more so when you find out he did it without a harness. He never uses stunt doubles or special effects and as a result has broken just about every bone in his body over the years. Now that's commitment. 7. \"Sharky's Machine\" (Burt Reynolds, 1981) Stunt: Free-fall jump Stuntman: Dar Robinson . At 220 feet, legendary stuntman Dar Robinson's jump from Atlanta's Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel remains the highest free-fall stunt ever performed from a building for a commercially-released film. Ironically, despite it being a record-breaking fall, moviegoers only see the briefest moment of the actual stunt in the film. The rest of the fall from the skyscraper is disappointingly a dummy. 8. \"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\" (George Roy Hill, 1969) Stunt: Cliff Leap Stuntmen: Mickey Gilbert\/Howard Curtis . Trapped by the Superposse, Butch and Sundance leap from the top of a cliff into the boiling waters of a river below. It's set up nicely with some humorous dialogue: \"I can't swim.\" \"Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you!\" Robert Redford and Paul Newman did jump off the cliff, but landed on a ledge with a mattress about six feet below. The stuntmen jumped off a construction crane at a studio lot obscured by a painting of the cliffs. 9. \"Terminator 2: Judgment Day\" (James Cameron, 1991) Stunt: Motorcycle jump Stuntman: Peter Kent . Stuntman Peter Kent's resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger was the basis of a 14-year association with the ex-action hero. As Schwarzenegger's stunt double he performed the T-101's famous motorbike jump into a massive storm drain. To get the effect, his motorbike was rigged up to a web of one-inch cables, to cut the impact when the bike and rider hit the ground. The cables were later digitally erased. 10. \"Deathproof\" (Quentin Tarantino, 2007) Stunt: Car chase on bonnet Stuntwoman: Zo\u00eb Bell . Bell won an award at the Oscars of the stunt world, the Taurus stunt awards, for this daredevil action piece. She clings precariously to the bonnet of a car going at 85 miles per hour while receiving hits from a second car in a long, climactic chase scene. Bell is a stuntwoman by trade but it's easy to see why Tarantino flouted the unspoken Hollywood convention that stuntmen stay out of the limelight and cast her as the film's lead. And five tragic stunts that didn't come off ... Stunts are a dangerous business, and it doesn't always work out. We pay tribute to five brave stunt men and women who fell in the line of duty. 1. \"Top Gun\" (Tony Scott,1986) Renowned aerobatic pilot Art Scholl died during the making of \"Top Gun\" in 1985 after his plane never recovered from a flat spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. 2. \"The Crow\" (Alex Proyas,1994) Martial arts legend Bruce Lee's son Brandon was shot and killed during a stunt shooting sequence, when the cap of a blank accidentally penetrated his abdomen and lodged in his spine. 3. \"Twilight Zone: The Movie\" (Joe Dante\/John Landis, 1983) Actor Vic Morrow and child actors Renee Chen and My-ca Dinh Le were instantly killed when a special-effects explosion caused a helicopter to spin out of control and crash down on top of them. 4. \"Cannonball Run\" (Hal Needham, 1981) Stuntwoman Heidi Von Beltz was paralysed from the neck down when her sports car crashed head on into a van during a stunt on the set of the film. 5. \"Armour of God\" (Jackie Chan, 1987) Chan fell 15 feet while jumping from a wall to a tree branch. He landed hard on his head, causing part of his skull to crack and lodge in his brain. He required major surgery and now has a permanent hole in his head which is filled by a plastic plug.","highlights":"The Screening Room chooses the some of the best stunts ever filmed .\nBuster Keaton is saved by an open window in \"Steamboat Bill Jr.\"\nJames Bond turns bungee jumping into an art form in \"GoldenEye\"\nWe want to hear from you: what is your favorite movie stunt?","id":"87aab92fdf6d9e35d233e4da4ae5fc491e8d4758"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Think of a bullwhip and fedora and one man immediately springs to mind: Indiana Jones, the sardonic archeologist played by Harrison Ford in Steven Spielberg's '80s trilogy which started with \"Raiders of the Lost Ark.\" \"If you learn how to talk I'm in deep trouble,\" quips Harrison Ford (right) to Vic Armstrong (left) on this photo which shows how similar the pair look. But if you were to venture on set during the filming of \"Raiders\" hoping to catch a few moments with the star you might have had a surprise. The tall, rangy man in the dented hat signing autographs could just as easily have been Ford's stunt double, Vic Armstrong. Back then, in the right light Armstrong could easily be mistaken for Ford -- both of them over six feet tall and bronzed with crinkly eyes. And it's this that is at the root of his success as Indy's \"fall guy.\" In fact, Ford is a talented stuntman in his own right and Armstrong says that his biggest headache on set was trying to stop Ford from getting involved in action that was too risky. \"The biggest stunt I always say on the Indiana Jones films was stopping Harrison doing the stunts because I had to fight nearly every time to stop him,\" Armstrong chuckles. An accomplished horseman (his first career choice was steeplechase jockey), it's Armstrong's Indy you see galloping along in the stained khaki shirt and jumping from his horse onto a tank in \"The Last Crusade.\" \"Technically very difficult,\" Armstrong says, \"I had to rely on a horse, and horses have a sense of survival and they don't actually do what you tell them to do as they haven't read the script.\" It may have been his close resemblance to Ford that clinched the \"Raiders\" job but the pair developed a rapport that led Armstrong to work on the other two installments of the trilogy, \"Temple of Doom\" and \"The Last Crusade.\" \"It always works better if you do have a relationship with [the actor]. You can mimic how they move, how they work when you coordinate fights for them like I did with Harrison,\" Armstrong tells CNN. Armstrong was just 16 years old when he started in the stunt industry in 1965. He utilised his horseriding skills to double as Gregory Peck in spy movie \"Arabesque.\" He had to jump a huge moat and then fall off his mount but it was the simple lifestyle and travel that hooked young Armstrong -- \"Forty dollars a day and all you can eat. Fantastic living.\" After over 40 years and countless movies, his filmography reads like a who's who of Hollywood: he has doubled for Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, John Voight and collaborated with directors like Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Michael Cimino and Sir Richard Attenborough. His work for three decades on classic Bond films like \"You Only Live Twice\" and \"Live and Let Die\" cemented his reputation as a stuntman who could pull off complicated of stunts with precision. \"The films I've done I've been very lucky to have been very prolific in an area and a time when iconic films were being made. \"My first stunt on a Bond film was in 1966 in the winter of \"You Only Live Twice\". I was one of the ninjas coming down firing guns into the volcano, which for me was sensational.\" He doubled for Roger Moore in \"Live and Let Die\" for a short while and was then propelled into working as a stunt coordinator and director of action units. Armstrong then added a superhero to his already impressive roster of action idols, standing in for Christopher Reeve in \"Superman.\" Despite this, his allegiances lie solidly with cinema's 'real' heroes. \"If you look at \"Spiderman\" and movies like that, or the \"Incredible Hulk,\" they are far more computer-generated and so therefore slightly more cartoonish or video game-ish. \"My personal preference is for real action just enhanced or maybe helped by computers. We use computers to take away fall pads or wires if you're getting snatched or thrown in the air.\" And in the spirit of keeping it real, Armstrong has gone to great lengths to help stuntmen achieve their crazy feats as safely as possible. In the 1980s he modified a tool known as the \"fan descender\" for the film \"Green Ice.\" It would allow stuntmen to safely slow down when performing high freefalls. It revolutionized the stunt industry and in 2002 he was awarded a Science and Technology Academy Award for his invention -- the only one ever handed out to a stunt man. Earlier this year, he was honored by the Screen Actors Guild for his work on 2007 action horror \"I am Legend.\" He has just finished work on \"The Mummy 3\" -- it was his prior commitment to this movie that stopped him working on the fourth Indy film \"Kingdom of the Crystal Skull\" -- and is now stunt coordinating on the Weinstein production \"Shanghai.\" Even after all this time, Armstrong, the authority on how to create a death defying stunt, still reckons Ford is the best stuntman actor he has ever worked with -- \"Harrison has to be the ultimate.\" So why bother with a stunt double? \"I was cheaper and it didn't matter if I got hurt.\"","highlights":"Vic Armstrong was Harrison Ford's stunt double in the Indiana Jones movies .\nHis physical similarity to Ford is at the root of his success as Indy's \"fall guy\"\nAfter 40 years in the business, Armstrong is the authority on death defying stunts .\nArmstrong on Ford as a stuntman actor: \"Harrison has to be the ultimate\"","id":"252c1d4ddfbb69c417c0a16ed7f827f609c18e09"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flamboyant and fearless, Roberto Cavalli is the peacock of the fashion world; with his body-hugging clothes, he woos women the world over. Fashion designer Roberto Cavalli . But his clients are no dainty damsels: Cavalli's women are Amazonian warriors and Grecian goddesses, whose armor is fashion and whose weapon is sex. His colorful creations are unabashed celebrations of the female form: dresses slashed to the hip or barely skimming the buttocks, necklines that plunge where no other designer dares. Cavalli's woman knows she looks fabulous, and isn't afraid to show it: to her, it's not just clothing, it's an announcement that she's arrived. Born in Florence in 1940, Cavalli was immersed in an intensely creative environment from childhood. That influence came from his father, a tailor, and his artist grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, whose work is shown in the famous Uffizi Galleries. Following in his father's footsteps, Cavalli studied textile design at the local art institute. By the early 70s, he had developed an innovative technique for printing on lightweight leather, and his Florentine flair had led to commissions with Hermes and Pierre Cardin. In 1970, he presented his first namesake collection at the Salon for Pr\u00eat-\u00e0-Porter in Paris. His trademark work with unconventional fabrics like embellished denim and leather, mixed with wild animal prints and exotic patterns, was embraced by the jet set and Cavalli opened his first boutique in Saint Tropez in 1972. Cavalli married his wife, Eva Duringer, a former Miss Universe, in 1980; she is now his business partner and right-hand woman. His fondness for bright color, exotics, fur and bold prints -- which he designs in his factory on the outskirts of Florence -- have won him a name as the king of fashion excess. Beloved by A-listers and pop princesses, these are not clothes for the shy: this is old-school glamour, infused with power, wielded by women who have flounced and shimmied their way to the top. See Cavalli's designs on the catwalk \u00bb . His main line is sold in over 50 countries worldwide, along with his diffusion lines RC Menswear and Just Cavalli, plus a children's line, knitwear, accessories, eyewear, watches, perfumes, underwear and beachwear. He's even ventured into Cavalli-branded vodka and wine. His collaboration with high-street fashion store H&M in November 2007 caused stampedes as his fans flocked to get their hands on his creations, desperate to capture some of that Cavalli magic at tiny prices. Some have asked whether his latest collections have taken a more gentle direction -- but the tiger's inner fire still burns bright. Spring\/Summer 2008's bold flower prints and flirty feathered dresses were followed by Autumn\/Winter 2008's flowered dresses that at first glance appear dewy and fresh -- but look closer, and the hip-hugging cut belies their innocence. Cavalli is adored by his celebrity clientele, who flaunt his show-stopping creations on red carpets from Los Angeles to Sydney. Fans of his work include Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Beyonc\u00e8 Knowles, Charlize Theron and Victoria Beckham. If anyone sums up the glamour and glitz of show business, it's Cavalli: fashion as theatre, shameless decadence where the whole world is a stage. That's underlined by his eponymous 133'9\" long yacht, built 2004, and color-coordinated, naturally, with his helicopter and fleet of cars.","highlights":"Florence-born fashion designer Roberto Cavalli is known for his bright, sexy clothes .\nHe is the grandson of Impressionist painter Giuseppe Rossi and the son of a tailor .\nHis clothes are adored by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Victoria Beckham .\nCavalli's extravagant lifestyle includes color-coordinated yacht, cars and helicopter .","id":"a317704e525a50d55a6edd7b2883f2fdca52994d"} -{"article":"For a city of its size, Copenhagen has a remarkable range of shops that ooze class and individuality. The Georg Jensen store has some exquisite silver jewelry. The city's main shopping hub is Str\u00f8get, a collection of pedestrianized streets that lead from R\u00e5dhuspladsen to Kongens Nytorv; you can easily spend hours, and a small fortune, browsing its boutiques and chain stores. Don't miss Illums Bolighus (Amagertorv 10), with its four floors of contemporary Scandinavian design. Once you've got a taste for stylish home accessories, make your way to Normann Copenhagen (Strandboulevarden 98) or Hay Cph (Pilestraede 29-31) for a masterclass in simplicity and elegance. When you've finished kitting out the house you might want to work on your wardrobe. Kronprinsensgade is full of hip boutiques, among them Bruuns Bazaar (Kronprinsensgade 8-9), with its collection from the ever-so-trendy, and suitably pricey, Bruuns label. Nearby, Designers Remix (Pilestraede 8) offers sophisticated styles for women, while K\u00f6nr\u00f8g (Hyskenstr\u00e6de 11) has cutting-edge fashions from a collective of Danish designers. For something more traditional, but no less beautiful, head to the Georg Jensen store in Amagertorv, for silverware that ranges from intricate jewelry to timeless tableware. If that's not exclusive enough for you, Peter Hertz in K\u00f8bmagergade is jeweler to Danish royalty. Pick up something for the kids at Aniel (Frederiksberg All\u00e9 70), which has too-cute baby grows, children's clothes and wooden toys made from organic and natural materials. Frydendahl (Store Regnegade 1) has some unusual hand-knitted toys among the selection of homeware strewn along the pavement outside. If your eyes are bigger than your wallet, then you might be interested in the flea market held on Saturdays in Israels Plads, where high-street stores are said to unload the goodies they can't sell in their shops. If it's raining you might prefer Det Bl\u00e5 Pakhus (113 Holmbladsgade), the city's biggest indoor flea market and a treasure trove of bargains begging to be hunted. ...................... Copenhagen city guide: . Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . ...................... Do you agree with our Copenhagen picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best.","highlights":"Str\u00f8get, a collection of pedestrianized streets, is the city's shopping hub .\nIllums Bolighus has four floors of modern Scandinavian design .\nBruuns Bazaar sells clothing from the popular and stylish Bruuns label .\nDet Bl\u00e5 Pakhus is an indoor flea market and has some great bargains .","id":"add3a86734ef272062505281dd1962a4e35e94db"} -{"article":"CHENNAI, India (CNN) -- At 68, Christian Fabre, CEO of Fashions International, might be expected to be thinking about retiring. Christian Fabre, or Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadutha, or just Swamiji for short . But Fabre, or Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadutha as he is also called, is a practicing Hindu monk as well as a businessman, and retirement doesn't really enter his thoughts. \"I'm having too much fun,\" he says with a chuckle. Hardly a gnomic mysticist, Fabre comes across as a jolly old soul, and greets me wearing saffron robes, sandals and sporting the most stylish pair of rimless glasses ever worn by a monk of any denomination. As we chat in his light, open office on a sunny morning in Chennai, his BlackBerry beeps with new e-mails. Tools of the trade, or at least business, are allowed then? \"How can a man who is supposed to be meditating in a cave do this, you may say. But there is no dichotomy between this and my spiritual beliefs,\" he says. A MacBook on his desk and a picture of his guru on the wall, plus the company's 25 percent growth last year, Fabre life seems to be in balance. However, he admits that reaching the place he's in today, both spiritually and physically, \"was no pleasure cruise.\" Instead of a backpack and a pocket full of marijuana, he arrived in Chennai in 1971 with a job in the textile-buying business, a wife and a young son. Three years later the job had gone, so too his wife, taking their son with her. Rather than return to France, he stayed, having been seduced by the richness of Indian culture, but struggled to find more work. He met his current business partner in Fashions International, A. Jayapalana, when embarking on an ill-fated and short-lived venture with a fashion designer. However his rag-trade to rags to saffron robes existence only developed when he was introduced to the guru of his yoga teacher. \"He'd suffered from leprosy, but radiated happiness and energy. It dried my tears; I had no right to cry over myself. I also wanted to know his secret, and after meeting regularly for six months, he told me I was right to become a swami.\" As a child, Fabre had wanted to become a priest, something his communist railway-worker father completely rejected. \"Who knows how he would take it, but I'm sure if I was telling him about my spirituality, he would agree. Communism and Hinduism go well together in some Indian states, although I'm sure Karl Marx would wonder what it's doing here,\" he says. Depending on how much work he has to do, every month Fabre spends around a week at his ashram, where he has some disciples. It's an eight-hour drive from Chennai and two miles from the nearest village, where he has more time and space -- and less clothing -- in which to further his spiritual practices. His personal life is more ascetic than his BlackBerry-bleeping office existence. He does however have satellite TV at home and the Internet at his hermitage, plus a personal driver, but one thing he always carries with him is a spiritual self-awareness. \"Everything is the ultimate. It is a very leveling spirituality, is it not?\" he says, the French accent slipping into an Indian lilt. \"I can be a businessman and a swami without losing that awareness. It's within and it's without. It's the ultimate and the universal and beyond the universal. It makes you understand a lot in a split second, and you can see things from many angles.\" Watch financial advice from Fabre \u00bb . Business karma . One thing he clearly understands is the fashion business. As an outsourcing supply company, Fabre's company is indirectly responsible for employing around 80,000 people in 200 factories around Tamil Nadu, and his clients include labels such as Kenzo, Lee Cooper and Oxbow. Fabre himself is given a modest monthly salary of around $400 (kept in a safe, bank accounts aren't allowed), most of which goes on food, bill and petrol. His spirituality and belief in karma informs the way he lives as well as his business ethics, but don't affect his business decisions. There would be no problem with dismissing a staff member if the need arose, he tells me. However being a swami, he can't sign contracts either with his staff or Fashions International's clients, which he says has only caused a problem once. Much of that he owes to the open-minded people who work in fashion. \"They tell me I am well integrated,\" he says with a laugh. \"They also feel that you are an honest person, although I don't agree with that reasoning. You could be a monk and a bad one.\" If there's no contradiction between being a Hindu monk and running a successful company, there's a certain irony about Fashions International's new venture: their own line of clothing named after their CEO, whose wardrobe consists of four yellow pieces of cloth and is more taken to being naked. Not quite the emperor's new clothes, Fabre business acumen tells him they're getting in on selling their own range of clothing at the right time. \"Going into the domestic market is a wise choice. If the American market, or circus, I might call it, goes wrong, we'll have something to fall back on. Also we are taking the brand to South Africa, which is also booming.\" Openness and change . Walking around his office, he appears more like a favorite teacher than a boss with his staff of young designers and sales and marketing employees, but he admits that he's not always easy to work with. \"My guru said: 'Never prevent anyone from coming and seeing you.' But sometimes its strenuous when someone is boring, but then you keep it short and they leave feeling positive,\" he says with a smile. As his personal assistant of 13 years, Pinky Lahiri knows as much about the swami formerly known as Christian Fabre as well as any. \"He is strict and he has his principles,\" she says, while Fabre takes a break for lunch. \"He used to get angry quite easily, he's much calmer now than when I first met him. It could be his age,\" she jokes, \"but it's probably his spirituality.\" Switching from caffeine and a 60-cigarette-a-day habit to a strict vegetarian diet no doubt helped reduce stress levels. He's been to parties with designers and fashionistas including Jean-Paul Gaultier -- \"a lot of fun\" -- and is regularly feted by the French chamber of commerce, but that's not the reason he's spent so much of his life in the fashion industry. As well as the jobs he's helped to create, he sees fashion as something that gives people the chance to express themselves, present an image and change it if they want. More significant transformations though are harder to come by. Gandhi's famous quote: \"For things to change, first I must change\" appears on signs on desks throughout his office. \"People don't like to change. They're ensconced in their traditions, their habits, my god! You have to have tradition in society, but some are no longer valid. You have to be able to balance that correctly. \"It's not a question of faith; it's not an intellectual thing, either. It comes from the intellect and the heart, and usually this distance is not far away, but for some it takes a long time,\" he says. A businessman, a swami, and now a brand, Fabre is clearly enjoying himself and prepared for any more changes. \"I'm having a hell of a good time, but it would very boring if everyone was like me.\"","highlights":"Frenchman Christian Fabre is CEO of fashion company and also a Hindu monk .\nSplits time between his office in Chennai and ashram in the hills of Tamil Nadu .\nHas been in India for 37 years; clients include Kenzo and Lee Cooper .\nRecently launched own clothing label, despite not wearing clothes himself .","id":"3433afd9067cde97aee70a695acc938d864e3a7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What does it take to become the CEO of India's biggest biotech company and the richest woman in India? Mazumdar Shaw with Shah Rukh Khan. India's richest woman is ready to answer your questions. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of biotech pharaceutical company Biotech answers your questions, below. Yours is a very inspiring story. Could you tell us more about what challenges you had to overcome to bring Biocon to a global level? Vishala Vasandani . Mazumdar Shaw: My journey started 30 years ago at a time when I had to face credibility challenges that pertained to my gender, my inexperience as a business entrepreneur and my unfamiliar biotechnology-based business model. My business evolved in tandem with challenges. Once I overcame these credibility challenges, I faced technological challenges of trying to build a Biotech business in a country that had infrastructure that was too primitive to support a high tech industry that demanded uninterrupted power supply, high quality water, sterile labs, imported research equipment, advanced scientific skills etc. Over the next 10 years, we systematically addressed these challenges and built a self contained enterprise that had captive power and water supply, state of the art labs and facilities and a team of highly experienced scientists and engineers capable of delivering world class research and technologies. Today, our challenges address those posed by new medical wisdom: addressing unmet medical needs, researching new drugs, new drug delivery systems and new therapies. Overcoming each of these phases has been a rich learning experience that has helped us to develop world class expertise in biotechnology. Innovation and quality have been integral to our business ethos. Can Biocon's oral insulin IN-105 replace traditional and painful needle based insulin delivery system for type1 diabetics? Can a diabetic who is taking insulin by needle based delivery system hope for change in near future? Ajay Kumar Singh . Mazumdar-Shaw: Oral Insulin is not just about delivering Insulin in a tablet. It is about delivering Insulin very rapidly to the liver (hepato-delivery) which is the main organ responsible for glycemic control in our body. Injectable Insulin takes approximately 30 minutes to act. Oral Insulin takes approximately 5 minutes to act which mimics how non-diabetics respond to glucose uptake when food is consumed. This will help both Type I and Type II diabetics to manage their diabetes better. We hope that early intervention with Oral Insulin will help to manage Diabetes especially in Type II diabetics much more effectively than is being done by oral diabetic agents like Metformin, Sulphonyl Ureas and Glitazones which stimulate the pancreas to produce Insulin. This is unlike oral Insulin which will allow a poorly functioning pancreas to rest and hopefully help to revive Insulin secreting beta cells. Should our Oral Insulin program succeed, this will revolutionize Diabetes therapy in the future. If you had to do the IPO again what would you do differently and when can we see Biocon listed in NASDAQ? Harish Swaminathan . Mazumdar-Shaw: I don't believe so. I think we got the valuation we were expecting through an Indian listing. A NASDAQ listing is only something we will address when one of our branded drugs are close to commercialization in either the U.S. or European markets. Today NASDAQ is risk averse and not valuing biotech companies any better than the BSE or NSE. I am so humbled by your story. What does it take as a woman to get to where you are today? What obstacles did you have to overcome, especially in an industry that is deemed to be a \"man's world\"? Would women setting up business in India today find it easier than you did? Irene Gonza, Uganda . Mazumdar-Shaw: I believe that women need to believe in themselves. I set up Biocon with a spirit of challenge and a deep sense of purpose. The challenge was to break the gender bias in the business world. My sense of purpose was to create a Biotech business in a country like India which had a very poor research culture with limited opportunities for scientists and engineers to pursue a career. It was about stopping the \"brain drain\" from India. It was about providing exciting career opportunities to young scientists and engineers. It was about encouraging young women to pursue careers. When one is passionate about a mission that is about change, it enables you to persevere and endure. I do believe that if I could achieve success, any woman can overcome obstacles with a sense of determination! When you set up Biocon did you aim to make it one of the biggest and most successful in the world? Do you need ambition like that be a success in any kind of business or does it take luck, too? David James, London . Mazumdar-Shaw: When I set up Biocon, I certainly did not have such a big ambition! I basically wanted to run a successful and profitable business to start with. Ambition is evolutionary and one does not see the big picture until you reach a certain critical mass. It was only a few years ago that we developed a global ambition and built global scale in our operations. Whilst luck can be described as \"being at the right place at the right time\" or \"being prepared to address an opportunity,\" I personally believe that it is about being able to seize opportunities by leveraging existing capabilities to reach new levels. In our case, we leveraged our enzyme capabilities to pursue bio-pharmaceuticals; it was also about picking the right products (statins & Insulin) that had large markets. We chose to partner with innovative companies and in-license innovative technologies which spearheaded our new drug development programs. We have always chosen to differentiate ourselves from the market and this has allowed us to \"think out of the box\" and stand apart. How do you think the global economic downturn will affect Biocon and Indian companies in general? Alicia van Waveren, The Hague . Mazumdar-Shaw: The economic meltdown will certainly bring tremendous pricing pressure and we expect to see our margins shrink. We also expect payment terms that involve extended credits. However, we also see a silver lining amidst this gloomy scenario as R&D and manufacturing are likely to shift to countries like India in order to bring down costs. We have two subsidiaries that offer research and clinical services, Syngene and Clinigene that are likely to see their businesses increase. We also expect generic drugs to become a larger part of healthcare budgets in western economies. Finally, new drug development costs are under tremendous pressure both in terms of funding and development. India and companies like Biocon provide very effective co-development partnership opportunities to bring these costs down. The differences between wealth and poverty in India are starker than anywhere else in the world. Do you think the poverty gap will ever be closed? Richard Ng, Hong Kong . Mazumdar-Shaw: Poverty poses a huge challenge. Education and employment are the only answers. India is striving to address these two areas through various education and vocational training initiatives. What we also need is employment generation through a myriad of projects that span infrastructure development, co-operative agriculture to entrepreneurship. India needs to provide rural connectivity both in terms of roads and tale\/IT connectivity. This will unleash inclusive growth in a huge way. Today we are caught between a political ethos that finds it convenient to keep its vote bank ignorant and unemployed and a civic India that wants to educate and harness the potential of its human capital. It seems that Indian biotech and pharmaceutical industry is relying more on being the outsourced resource of the U.S. and EU companies rather than creating their own intellectual property.Do you think this a culture in India to not be active in creating IP or is it related to the inadequacies in the patent law? Dipanjan Nag . Mazumdar-Shaw: A very correct observation. The risks associated with proprietary products are high and Indian businesses and more importantly Indian investors and banks are extremely risk averse. Hopefully, the rapid commoditization of generics and services will force companies to differentiate on the basis of IP. At Biocon we strongly believe that our proprietary programs will help us sustain growth in the future. It is a challenge to convince our investors of this but we think they will understand this in the near future. In hindsight, what is the one piece of advice you wish you'd been given when you were starting out in business? Karl Malone, Winchester . Risk is not about taking but about managing. I took a huge risk when I started a Biotech company in 1978 and I soon realized that I had to manage the risk by addressing very serious challenges of a very primitive infrastructure at the time. It took me a lot longer than I thought to build the company but in hindsight it was still worth the effort! What drives you to achieve what you have and to keep going when times are tough? Melinda Cook, Melbourne . The belief that we can deliver the world's first Oral Insulin and other life saving drugs for cancer and auto-immune diseases. I am driven by my desire to see novel drugs being developed by Biocon for global markets with a \"Made in India\" label. I am determined to see India earn a strong reputation in innovation. At a time when most Biotech companies in the western world are challenged with funding, I believe we can forge ahead and succeed. About Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw . Mazumdar-Shaw is founder of Biocon, the biotech and pharmaceutical company that made her India's richest self-made businesswoman. She was named as one of Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in 2007 and was instrumental in forging India's biotechnology industry. Living and working in Bangalore, she set up Biocon in 1978 and has developed it into a global biopharmaceutical player with highly developed research and development facilities focusing on cancer and diabetes treatments. Biocon was bought first by Unilever in 1989 and then sold to ICI in 1997, but Mazumdar-Shaw remains the company's Chair and Managing Director and has been part of the Indian government's Council on Trade & Industry.","highlights":"India's richest woman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is founder and CEO of Biocon .\nEmail her your questions on business and secrets of her success .\nHer answers will appear here on Friday, November 28 .","id":"a23b9e4ef5a577e3ec435c0801b8526bd4c33657"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- No matter when you go, Paris has that certain 'je ne sais quoi' that makes it special. But time your visit right and you could find yourself taking part in one of the city's signature events. Ice skating in front of the grand facade of the Hotel de Ville on a crisp winter day. Fashion Weeks Paris is eponymous with style, and fashionistas will be in seventh heaven during the city's haute couture fashion weeks, in January and June\/July each year. Celeb-spotting, cooing over clothes and scrambling for a seat at Galliano are par for the course: just make sure your image is up to it. Bastille Day If freedom and fireworks are your thing, what better time to be in Paris than 14 July, or Bastille Day, when you can celebrate the storming of the hated prison, symbol of repression and aristocratic excess. Watch the military parade down the Champs Elysees, enjoy the Eiffel Tower fireworks from the Champ de Mars, and raise a glass to liberte, egalite and fraternite. No guillotines allowed -- and most of the metros are closed, so be prepared to walk home. Paris Plages It's still true that many of Paris' residents leave the city in August, shutting up shop and heading to the beach, but for the past few years the Paris Plages have brought that holiday feel to the city. Sand dunes, swimming pools and petanque are all things you might associate with France's south coast resorts, but all can be found on the riverbank from late July until late August each year. The FIAC (International Fair of Contemporary Art) October's Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) sees gallery-owners and collectors of contemporary art descend on the Louvre and the Grand Palais for one of the art world's major dates. There's an emphasis on up-and-coming artists and newer galleries from across Europe. Works of art in all media -- painting, drawing, prints, photography, sculpture and more -- are on display and available to purchase. Ice skating in front of Hotel de Ville If you like your outdoor pursuits to be frosty and free, you'll love the ice rink that's outside the Hotel de Ville every December until March. Rent your skates or bring your own and glide around the rink, hand in hand with a loved one, gazing at the beautiful buildings that surround the square, then warm up with a chocolat chaud at a nearby cafe. Could Paris be any more romantic?","highlights":"The biggest date in the calendar is 14 July, which celebrates the French revolution .\nFrom July to August, sun worshippers can bathe on beaches on the riverbank .\nStyle gurus migrate to the city twice a year to take part in fashion week .\nIn Winter, ice skate in front of the Hotel de Ville for the ultimate romantic moment .","id":"31e424f7a6fe1f5ec61486eec17a85c78ca2ce8c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- To the litany of challenges that confront India's path to a better life, we can now add subdued economic growth as a result of the global financial crisis. A banana vendor stands on a flooded street as he waits for customers in Amritsar, India, on August 13. After three spectacular years of 9 percent-plus annual growth, India will reach just 6.3 percent next year, according to the latest forecast by the International Monetary Fund in early November. The Reserve Bank of India is forecasting a more optimistic 7.5 to 8 percent. While 7.5 percent may still sound a good result, it is barely enough for the economy to keep pace with the 10 million-plus young people who will join the Indian job market in 2009. India's major shortcomings in infrastructure, education, health care and environmental protection are well known, as are the constant problems of corruption, poor governance, rural poverty, communalism, domestic terrorism, child labor, discrimination against women and natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. But at least in recent years India could point to a strong economy as the platform on which it was making its push for higher living standards, social modernization and economic reform. Since May 2004, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram took on the reins of government, India's economy has had a charmed run. Strong growth in business sectors such asinformation technology, pharmaceuticals, automotive, financial services and retail have coincided with a better performing agricultural sector, and a housing and consumption boom driven by easier credit. India's young working men and women -- more than half the country's 1.15 billion people are aged 25 or less -- have shown a much greater propensity to spend, compared to their thrifty, risk-averse parents and grandparents. This willingness to go into debt rather than save has seen a massive rise in sales of consumer goods such as mobile phones, flat screen TVs, refrigerators, household utensils, motorcycles and cars. The same goes for spending on services, from tourism to healthcare to self-improvement. Now the halcyon days appear to be over, as the international credit crunch flattens demand everywhere. Already the downturn is seeing job losses in sectors such as aviation, financial services, retailing and export industries, as companies tighten their belts and put expansion plans on hold. The government admits things will get tougher, with Singh telling the nation on October 20 that \"we must be prepared for a temporary slowdown in the Indian economy.\" Earlier that day, the Reserve Bank of India cut its key repurchase (short-term lending) rate by 100 basis points to 8 percent, saying it needed to ease the pressure on India's credit markets and maintain financial stability. It followed that with another cut to 7.5 percent on November 1. RBI Governor Dr. D. Subbarao noted the global downturn could be deeper and the recovery might take longer than earlier expected. \"Consequently, the adverse implications through trade and financial channels for emerging economies, including India, have amplified,\" he said. Economists and analysts have welcomed the central bank's moves, which have included a 350-basis point reduction in the cash reserve ratio -- the amount of money Indian banks must keep on hand -- between July and November. Tushar Poddar, head of Asian economic research at investment bank Goldman Sachs, said the RBI's October 20 action was \"well ahead of market expectations\" and showed a bias towards growth and financial stability, against inflation. Goldman Sachs had earlier cut its growth outlook for the 2009-10FY to 7 percent and has warned the figure could go lower if the international financial turmoil continues over the next few months. But Poddar believes that India's export drive -- which has seen exports triple since 2003 to about $163 billion in 2007-08FY -- may not suffer too greatly. In a recent study, he found that about two-thirds of India's exports go outside the United States and the European Union (the two trade areas most affected by the downturn) to China, Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa. While Indian exports would slow, \"the downside is limited,\" he said. A lower Indian rupee would also help. Foreign investment is slowing in line with the downturn. Morgan Stanley's India economist Chetan Ahya noted recently that \"adverse global circumstances\" are weighing on India's ability to attract overseas money. Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the global credit markets, Ahya believes capital inflows could slow to $40-50 billion in the year ahead, compared with $110 billion in 2008. On the broader political front, India has to deal with a range of internal and external risks that include domestic communalism-cum-terrorism and the constant threat of conflict with Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir territory. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka all add to a difficult neighborhood, while India's relations with China are cool at best, even as trade ties grow. Territorial disputes linger from the 1962 border war between the two. That helps explain why India was named recently by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) as the Asia-Pacific country with the highest political and social risk for 2009. A report by PERC in late October assessed 16 countries in the Asia Pacific region, and assigned India the highest risk rating of 6.87, ahead of Thailand with 6.28. China was seventh with 5.33, behind Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia. PERC cited uncertainties surrounding India's coming general election -- due to be held by May 2009 -- along with rising communal violence and incidents of terrorism. \"The biggest risk is that a deterioration in political and economic conditions in neighboring Pakistan could aggravate social unrest in India further, and hurt national security,\" it noted. But it said India's underlying attractions to foreign investors should remain, \"no matter who wins the next election. Prime Minister Singh, with six months of his government to run, is putting on a brave face. \"It is when India is challenged that the Indian people rise to the occasion and convert the challenge into an opportunity. There is no place for fear,\" he told the nation late last month. Geoff Hiscock writes on Indian business and is the author of \"India's Global Wealth Club\" (2007) and \"India's Store Wars\" (2008), both published by John Wiley & Sons.","highlights":"India's economic growth will slow in 2009, most economists project .\nNation's young population has shown willingness to go into accrue debt to spend .\nInfrastructure, corruption, health and education worries remain economic hurdles .\nIndia faces political, social risk in 2009, according to Hong Kong-based group .","id":"2a19040a2ce5d0c404bdf8c89b58c76b2434c314"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In November we step inside the world of design as show host Becky Anderson searches for the Spirit of Architecture. The \"Gherkin\" designed by Norman Foster is one of the most familiar features on London's skyline. In late October, Barcelona hosts the World Architecture Festival during which the great and good will attempt to choose the best building in the world. CNN will get exclusive access to the event, the nominations, and the jury which includes some of the world's greatest architects. The program will start with an explanation of Barcelona's unique architectural heritage. It will then feature short pieces on six of the architects and the buildings that have been nominated for awards. These profiles have been filmed in Mumbai, Tokyo, Pretoria, Munich, London and Maryland. The program will also feature interviews with some of the world's leading architects including Lord Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Wolf D Prix. Foster is the founder of the London-based Foster and Partners architecture company which has recently won a competition to build Virgin Galactic's New Mexico Spaceport Authority Building for space tourism. In September 2007, Foster was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, for his efforts on the Petronas University of Technology, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia. Hadid meanwhile has won numerous international architecture awards and is currently involved in the construction of a 17,500-seat aquatics centre for London -- one of the venues being built for the 2012 Olympics. Finally, the Austrian-born Prix, who founded top company Coop Himmelb(l)au is a legend of the architecture world. Prix has scooped many of the top international architectural awards over the last quarter century, and today continues his active involvement in the world of design. Once we have taken you through the festival highlights, at the end of the program the best building in the world will be chosen and we will interview the winning architect.","highlights":"November's show comes from the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona .\nInterviewees include Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Wolf D Prix .\nThe best building in the world will be chosen at the end of the show .","id":"65bf64fa27c924fea32979b277939f4d96938981"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Peter Bergen is a fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that promotes innovative thought from across the ideological spectrum and at New York University's Center on Law and Security. He's the author of \"The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader.\" Peter Bergen says deals with the Taliban could further destabilize the situation in Afghanistan. (CNN) -- It is a longstanding clich\u00e9 that there is no military solution in Afghanistan, only a political one. Linked to this is the newer, related notion, rapidly becoming a clich\u00e9, that the United States should start making deals with elements of the \"reconcilable\" Taliban. As with many clich\u00e9s, there is some truth to both these notions, but neither of these comforting ideas are a substitute for a strategy that is connected to what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sunday's New York Times ran an interview with President Obama in which he said that, just as the U.S. had made peace agreements with Sunni militias in Iraq, \"There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region.\" He also cautioned that this could be \"more complex\" than was the case in Iraq. It's not only going to be more complex, but doing deals with the Taliban today could further destabilize Afghanistan. Before getting to why that is the case, let's stipulate first that there are always going to be some local commanders of the Taliban who can be bribed, coerced or otherwise persuaded to lay down their arms. In fact, the Afghan government already has had an amnesty program in place for Taliban fighters for four years. Thousands of the Taliban already have taken advantage of the amnesty, a fact that tends to be glossed over in most of the recent discussions of the issue. That being said, there are nine reasons why doing deals with most of the various factions of the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are labeled \"the Taliban\" are more in the realm of fantasy than a sustainable policy. First, the Afghan government is a sovereign entity and any agreements with the Taliban must be made by it. Right now the weak and ineffectual Afghan government is in no position to negotiate with the Taliban, other than to make significant concessions of either territory or principle, or both. Second, while Obama didn't talk about dealing with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, it is worth pointing out the Taliban leadership, including Mullah Omar, has in the past several months taken every opportunity to say that it has no interest in a deal with the Afghan government. And just last week, Mullah Omar urged the Pakistani Taliban to refocus their efforts on attacking U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Those statements should be taken at face value. Third, Mullah Omar's intransigence is utterly predictable. He was prepared to sacrifice his regime on the point of principle that he would not hand over Osama bin Laden after 9\/11. And he did. This does not suggest a Kissingerian realism about negotiations, but rather a fanatical devotion to his cause. Fourth, the Taliban believe they may be winning in Afghanistan, and they also are confident that they are not losing, which for an insurgent movement amounts to the same thing. They see no need to negotiate today when they can get a better deal down the road. Fifth, the Taliban leadership is largely in Pakistan. Side deals done with the Afghan Taliban will have little or no effect on the fact that the command and control of the insurgency is in another country. Sixth, when Pakistan's government has done \"peace\" deals with the Taliban in the Pakistani tribal regions in 2005 and 2006 and in the northern region of Swat earlier this year, they were made following military setbacks by Pakistan's army. Those deals then allowed the militants to regroup and extend their control over greater swaths of Pakistani territory. Why would new agreements with the Taliban on either side of the Afghan-Pakistan border yield different results? Seventh, \"reconcilable\" Afghan Taliban leaders have already reconciled to the government. Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the former foreign minister who met with Afghan government officials in Saudi Arabia in September, to discuss some kind of agreement with the Harmid Karzai administration, was a foe of bin Laden's long before 9\/11 and was never a hard-liner. Muttawakil has no standing today with Taliban leaders, who have been waging war now for 7\u00bd years against Karzai, and who quickly denied they were in any negotiations with his government. Eighth, while the Taliban was never a monolithic movement, it is much closer to al Qaeda today than it was before 9\/11. Yes, there are local groups of the Taliban operating for purely local reasons, but the upper levels of the Taliban have morphed together ideologically and tactically with al Qaeda. Baitullah Mehsud, for instance, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, sent suicide attackers to Spain in January 2008, according to Spanish counterterrorism officials, and sees himself as part of the global jihad. The Haqqani family, arguably the most important component of the insurgency on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, has ties with bin Laden that date back to at least 1985, according to the Palestinian journalist Jamal Ismail, who has known the al Qaeda leader for more than two decades. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a commander allied to the Taliban, has been close to bin Laden since at least 1989, according to militants who know both men. Al Qaeda was founded in Pakistan two decades ago, and bin Laden has been fighting alongside Afghan mujahedeen groups since the mid-1980s. Al Qaeda Central on the Afghan\/Pakistan border is much less of a \"foreign\" group with far deeper and older roots in the region than Al Qaeda ever was in Iraq. The Taliban's rhetoric is now filled with references to Iraq and Palestine in a manner that mirrors bin Laden's public statements. The use of suicide attacks, improvised explosive devices and the beheadings of hostages -- all techniques that al Qaeda perfected in Iraq -- are methods that the Taliban have increasingly adopted in Afghanistan and have grown exponentially there since 2005. iReport.com: Should there be a deal with the Taliban? One could go on listing examples of the Taliban's ideological and tactical collaboration with al Qaeda, but the larger point is that separating al Qaeda and the Taliban is not going to be as relatively simple as splintering Iraqi insurgent groups from al Qaeda in Iraq. And ninth, unlike Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was a foreign-led group that sought to impose, unpopular Taliban-style rule on Sunni areas of Iraq, the Taliban in Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan are not outsiders, but are often neighborhood people whose views about religion and society are rooted in the values of the Pashtun countryside. While, of course, the U.S. should be splintering, buying off and co-opting as many elements of the Taliban as possible, American officials also need to be realistic about how much closer Al Qaeda and the Taliban have grown together in recent years, and the fact that the insurgency has mushroomed in size on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Winston Churchill once observed that \"it's better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.\" True enough. But \"jaw-jaw\" with the Taliban won't work if they think they are winning as they do right now. The Obama administration has ordered 17,000 additional American soldiers to go to Afghanistan this year. As a result, two Marine brigades and a mobile, well-armored Stryker brigade will deploy into the heart of the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan. Marine and Stryker brigades are not the kind of units you send in to play nice. Those deployments strongly suggest that for all the public discussion of negotiations with the Taliban the decision already has been made that any such negotiations should precede from a position of strength rather than weakness. These comments are, in part, based on Peter Bergen's testimonybefore the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on March 4. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen.","highlights":"Peter Bergen: Idea of dealing with moderate Taliban is gaining more support .\nBergen says it's not likely to be a strategy for success in the Aghanistan war .\nTaliban leadership thinks it's winning the war and won't cut a deal, he says .\nBergen: Afghan government too weak to engage in meaningful talks .","id":"083644a1a707d4be26a8a56daef117135990be8c"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Some of Zimbabwe's children are \"wasting away\" as political turmoil and economic crisis have caused a severe food shortage, according to a report from Save the Children. Children sleep in rough conditions on the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. The number of acute child malnutrition cases has risen by almost two-thirds in the past year, the report from the UK-based agency said in its appeal to world donors for help. \"There is no excuse for failing to provide this food,\" program director Lynn Walker said. \"The innocent people of Zimbabwe should not be made to suffer for a political situation that is out of their control.\" Five million Zimbabweans -- out of a population of about 12 million -- are in need of food aid now, the report said. The group is appealing for 18,000 tons of food for next month. \"We have already been forced to reduce the rations of emergency food we are delivering because there isn't enough to go around,\" the report said. \"If, as we fear, the food aid pipeline into Zimbabwe begins to fail in the new year the millions of people who rely on emergency food aid will suffer.\" Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic and humanitarian crisis since its independence from Great Britain 28 years ago. There is an acute shortage of all essentials such as cash, fuel, medical drugs, electricity and food. President Robert Mugabe blames the crisis on the sanctions imposed on him and his cronies by the West for allegedly disregarding human rights. But Mugabe's critics attribute the crisis to his economic policies. As the economy has faltered for almost a decade now, a cholera epidemic is raging, fueled by the collapse of health, sanitation and water services in Zimbabwe. The epidemic has claimed more than 1,100 lives and infected more than 20,000 people since its outbreak in August. Health experts have warned that the water-borne disease could infect more than 60,000 unless its spread is halted. The political crisis rose to a boil in this year when the opposition party claimed that it won the presidential election, but Mugabe's government refused to recognize the result. Instead, the race was thrown to a runoff, which was boycotted by the opposition. Mugabe signed an agreement with the opposition in September to form a unity government, but a bitter dispute over the division of cabinet seats has prevented its formation. Inflation is so severe that the government was forced to print $10 billion currency notes last week, with each expected to buy just 20 loaves of bread.","highlights":"Some Zimbabwean children \"wasting away\" amid food shortage, aid group says .\nSevere malnutrition cases rise two-thirds in year, Save the Children warns .\nAlmost half of 12 million Zimbabweans need food aid now, report says .\nCountry facing worst economic, humanitarian crisis since independence in 1980 .","id":"b250dc38b50eb2d9f0245df35665c72780cb257c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- If your neighbor mentions their green roof you might think they have a moss problem. Maybe they are simply referring to the color. But you're unlikely to think that they have just had a mini ecosystem installed. Majora Carter says green roofs can help alleviate the problems caused by storm water . Simply put, green roofs are gardens on your roof. They come in all shapes and sizes and range from a simple layer of turf to bite-sized hanging gardens of Babylon. But green roofs are not just aesthetic. They have important environmental benefits: they absorb storm water, reduce noise pollution, absorb heat (thus lessening the urban heat-island effect) and add an extra layer of insulation to buildings. That's why they are increasingly being used on new builds as the construction industry looks to make use of greener technologies.. The concept of a green roof goes back centuries: The turf roofed dwellings of the Vikings are early examples, but the modern green roof we know today was developed in Germany 50 years ago. Since then, they have become increasingly popular, yet the industry still struggles against skeptics, who believe green roofs to be expensive and liable to leaking. The exception to the rule has been Germany, where the industry is now annually worth $77 million. Even by the end of the 1990s, 50 million square meters of German roofs, the equivalent of 10 percent of flat roofs, were recorded to be green. The industry is not faring so well in other parts of the world. While the UK has seen a steady increase in interest since the 1960s, a lack of input from the industry and policy-makers has left Britain far behind Germany's booming market. In North America, green roofs have taken even longer to catch on. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a Canadian non-profit industry association, conducted a survey in 2005 which indicated that only 233,000 square meters of green roofs existed in North America. But this was up 80 percent from the previous year, and the market continues to grow. Majora Carter, who set up Sustainable South Bronx to help lift the area out of poverty by creating green-collar jobs, is frustrated by this difference between the European and American industries. \"In Germany they are down to $20 per square meter, which is way cheaper than a regular roof here,\" she told CNN. \"There are mandates over there because of the storm water they retain,\" she continued, \"Which is a huge drain on their resources, as it is on ours. What we are trying to do is champion the policies behind storm water.\" Storm water is a growing problem in cities. The lack of permeable surfaces are loading drainage systems and increasing the risk of flooding. It's green roofs' ability to retain high levels of precipitation that are seen as way to control and slow the water run-off. The mandates Carter refers to are part of Germany's Green Area and Biotope Area Federal Law. They are not a legal requirement, but through incentives set up at a city level, the mandates have helped to encourage cheaper prices. Dusty Gedge, co-founder of Livingroof.org, a UK Web site promoting the green roof industry, believes it is the government's responsibility to help the industry grow. \"We need government bodies to accept certain civil engineering benefits, such as storm water amelioration, like the Germans, Austrians and Swiss do,\" he told CNN. \"This will encourage uptake.\" In many countries, the green roof industry is vulnerable to non-acceptance and a lack of understanding. Gedge says, \"There are problems with the construction industry viewing vegetation as a problem and not a benefit.\" Green roofs also struggle against better-known technologies such as solar panels, but Gedge points out, \"Solar panels can work better on green roofs than on gray roofs.\" Despite this lack of support, the green roof industry is growing. In London alone, there are approximately 1 million square meters of green roofs planned, with about 200,000 square meters already installed. And as climate change stays in the headlines, the popularity of green roofs is growing. According to Gedge, \"Over the last eight years, green roofs [in the UK] have gone from being a very marginal approach to a mainstream approach. Cities such as London and Sheffield are now asking for them as part of planning applications.\" But Gedge also believes that support from local government, as opposed to a centrally driven policy, is key to the industry's growth. \"In Switzerland, green roofs are federal law, but again this is interpreted at a cantonal and city level,\" he told CNN. \"This is a much better approach than driven by the center.\" Managing the industry through federal laws offers a general framework which can then be interpreted as needed. In an industry that varies from project to project, this flexibility is a valuable asset. So the green roof industry continues to grow -- but there's a feeling that government support could be better. With a little more encouragement, what once was an eccentric way to roof your home could soon become the universal standard, turning our cities into lush, green metropolises. But then, it's not easy being green. ................................... Would you put a green roof on your home? Do green roofs really help the environment -- or are they an expensive indulgence? Share your views in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Green roofs date back to before the time of the Vikings .\nNot just aesthetic, they help fight against climate change, especially in cities .\nGermany's green roof market is the biggest, making up 10 percent of all flat roofs .\nSupporters say government support is need to spur growth elsewhere .","id":"17c446453cdcff2c857f6462594a317a3ce4dc6c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The apocalyptic tales of nature's impending demise are as well worn as they are numerous. Dr. Joseph Adelegan has pioneered new energy sources, including using cow waste to create cooking gas. But while our leaders wrangle over quotas for greenhouse emissions over banquets at lavish summits, there are remarkable individuals who are doing their small bit to prevent our planet from peril. Take Nigerian civil engineer, Dr Joseph Adelegan for instance. He firmly believes that the world's future fuel demands can be met through renewable energy. And he is using increasingly innovative methods to achieve these results. Three years ago Adelegan won plaudits for his \"Cows to Kilowatts\" project, which used effluents and waste products from abattoirs to produce cooking gas. The project was a winner of the prestigious 2005 Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) International Awards. It is still going strong and being used to provide cooking fuel for nearly 6000 homes in Ibadan, southern Nigeria. Adelegan tells CNN there are now plans to roll it out across most of Africa, including Zimbabwe, Kenya and Egypt. This time he's back with another groundbreaking idea to use waste from the cassava plant, a staple food of Nigeria, to generate electricity. His project \"Power to the Poor: Off-Grid Lighting from Cassava Waste in Nigeria,\" was awarded a $250,000 grant in May from the World Bank after being named one of the best projects in Africa. According to Adelegan, Nigeria produces over 20 percent of the world's output of cassava, it is a $5 billion industry and provides the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food. However, waste from cassava refining is a major public health problem in Nigeria, causing water pollution and emitting noxious greenhouse gases. Through innovative biogas technology, zero emission bioreactors at specially constructed plants treat the cassava waste and produce biogas which drives microturbines for low cost, safe and reliable off-grid efficient lighting to thousands of rural homes. Using this method, Adelegan says he hopes to generate 200kw daily, which will provide basic electricity for more than 2000 households initially. He told CNN: \"There will be four lighting points in their homes. We're thinking in terms of basic lighting, they will be able to use their TV, cassette player, that sort of thing, but it will not be able to power a refrigerator. \"These people currently rely on kerosene lamps that are very bad for emissions and pollution. We also plan to provide them with low wattage lamps that use just 5kw to bring down usage.\" Through his not-for-profit organization-- Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research)-- Adelegan has achieved the impressive feat of galvanizing the notoriously bureaucratic Nigerian government into action. He told CNN that the governor of Kwara State, in northern Nigeria has donated a plot of land for the launch of the project, scheduled to start next month. The scheme will cost $310,000 and will become profitable in little over three years, Adelegan says. \"This can never replace fossil fuels because of the huge demand we have for them, but we can help to reduce greenhouse emissions by creating alternative sources of energy,\" he said. The Ice Man Cometh . In the furthest reaches of northern India, glaciers once stretched far down the mountains, now they are all but gone as global warming takes its devastating toll. Hardworking but impoverished farmers in the Ladakh region have watched as their sole source of fresh water slowly melts away. But one man is taking matters into his own hands. Enter Chewang Norphel, a softly-spoken but sprightly 72-year-old has created artificial glaciers and managed to generate water and greenery in this barren landscape. Perched high up in the remote cold deserts of the Himalayas, Norphel has mastered the art of harvesting water by using just a few hundred meters of iron pipes and stone embankments. \"Fifty to sixty years ago, we used to have huge glaciers here, the retired civil engineer, told CNN. \"They have been reduced now because of global warming and now they are on high peaks.\" The idea of the 'artificial glacier' was born after he noticed that taps were left running in winter to stop the water from freezing in the pipes. The water then flowed into the drains surrounding the taps and froze. \"And it then occurred to me: 'why not try and make artificial glaciers in the winter?' So that local farmers get a real headstart when they need it most,\" Norphel says. The result was a device which traps the waters which melt down the high mountains by turning them into chunks of ice. The largest artificial glacier Norphel has built so far is near the village of Phuktsey. About 1,000 feet (300 meters) long, 150 feet (45 meters) wide, and four feet (1 meter) deep, it supplies irrigation water to the entire village of around 700 people. For Norphel, there are several advantages of an artificial glacier over a natural one. Firstly, it is closer to the village and at a comparatively lower altitude. Natural glaciers, on the other hand, are located way up in the mountains and they melt slowly in summer, releasing water to the villages quite late. Now engineers from other mountainous regions in India and Afghanistan have visited to learn his methods. One artificial glacier costs just $7,000, compared to $34,000 for a dam. Only local materials are needed, and the villagers themselves can build and maintain them. For his efforts, Norphel has been awarded the Far Eastern Economic Review's 1999 Gold Asian Innovation Award, twelve years after he created the first one. However, he is frustrated at the lack of investment and funding to help modernize the design. \"The funding is not sufficient,\" he said. \"We are getting very little amounts and we need a lot more. I hope to get more as this year I want to make two or three more glaciers, with a new design to improve the efficiency.\" In 1996, one year after he had retired, Norphel joined the Leh Nutrition Project, a non-governmental organization, as project manager for watershed development. \"Watershed development is the only solution for Ladakh's rural economy. Otherwise, you will have rural folk flocking the city in search of jobs. And there are not many to go around,\" he says. Do you have other examples of how people are using innovative ways to create renewable energy sources? Share your views and experiences in our sound-off box below.","highlights":"Individuals around the world are devising innovative ways to save the planet .\nJoseph Adelegan has created fuels using cow waste and cassava plant .\nChewang Norphel is known as the \"Ice Man\" after creating artificial glaciers .","id":"825532077a964634ba2464d47ea0e0683604ad3d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Of course the TV series Miami Vice seems dated now, but it's not just because Don Johnson's white Armani suits and slip-on shoes belong to a mercifully bygone era. The fact is, Miami is no longer the same city as the one portrayed in the 1980s cop show. Party time in Little Havana. The expansive sandy beaches are still there, as is the surfeit of sunshine, the hint of the exotic and the hordes of sun-hungry tourists who have flocked to this holiday hotspot for the last 80 years. But Miami has shed much of its unwanted baggage from the 80s and has grown beyond a resort town into something more substantial. Still barely 100 years old, Miami was a tourist destination almost from its inception. The offshore sandbar called Miami Beach was quickly recognized as having all the ingredients of a world-class holiday resort and the hotel-building spree that took place in the 1920s and 30s has left Miami Beach with hundreds of stunning Art Deco structures that give the area its distinctive look . By the 1980s, as well as being the destination of choice for holiday makers, retirees and 'snowbirds' (Canadians and northern Americans wintering in Florida), Miami had attracted an uninvited guest -- the 'cocaine cowboy.' Miami's proximity to South America made it a key point of entry for Colombian cocaine smugglers and the city became a battleground for ruthless drug barons intent on grabbing their piece of the American Dream. The mid 80s was the Miami Vice era, when the city's reputation for glamour and hedonism came with a side order of carjackings and gangland shootouts. But by the mid 90s, Miami had largely driven the cocaine cowboys out of town and hoteliers like Ian Schrager began converting some of those Art Deco classics into sophisticated boutique hotels fit for the international jet set. The guns may have gone but the glitz was never far away. Now that Miami's been to rehab and come out cleaned up and healthy, it turns out there's more to the city than glitzy nightclubs and the surgically enhanced bodies of the beautiful people. Miami has acquired a reputation as the new kid on the block in the modern art scene, a reputation that was cemented when the world's most prestigious modern art fair, Art Basel, arrived in the city in 2002. Just like the snowbirds, Art Basel returns to Miami each winter and the Wynwood neighborhood has now become a bona fide art district, with exclusive galleries showcasing cutting-edge art all year round. Nearby, the Design District is full of studios and workshops producing contemporary furniture and art. Then there's the fact that Miami is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, with some 60% of the population born outside the U.S. The food, music, culture and language of Latin America have all become part of modern Miami, giving the city a cultural heritage that belies its youth. But don't think Miami's reinvention as a cultural destination has done anything to dent it's appetite for the good times. When it comes to partying, there's not many places that can keep up with Miami, and even fewer that can do it with as much style. In truth, there's still a touch of the old Vice about Miami, and who knows, with the 80s revival, we may not have seen the last of those white suits.","highlights":"Miami has shed its 80s reputation for carjackings and 'cocaine cowboys'\nWynwood and the Design District are up-and-coming arts neighborhoods .\nThe language and culture of Latin America are part of modern Miami .\nMiami still attracts the international jet set and is a party city like no other .","id":"092b1785f7cbefbf8e5601ba3b44ff3240847a39"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The discovery of HIV, a breakthrough in the treatment of bipolar disorder, the advent of the contraceptive pill ... CNN looks at some of the scientific discoveries that changed the world. HIV was isolated by scientists in 1983 and named in 1986 by an international committee . THE DISCOVERY OF HIV\/ AIDS . Originally called slimmer's disease, as sufferers lost a lot of weight, the first recorded case of HIV occurred in the Congo in 1977. After several infections, a Danish doctor died of pneumonia, which normally doesn't break through the body's immune system. The components of her disease had not yet been placed together, indicating that this was a new form of illness. Other cases spread in following years around Africa and in homosexual men in New York and San Francisco. By 1980, 55 American men had been diagnosed with the disease. Research began in Europe, the U.S. and Africa to ascertain what this new disease could be. The Centers for Disease Control found that the disease was caused by a virus being passed around by bodily fluids such as semen or blood. In 1981 it published its findings, saying the disease attacked T-cells, which help the body fight infection. By 1983 the disease was isolated by teams of American and French researchers. In 1986 an international committee decided the virus should be called human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Education campaigns were unrolled around the world, advising people to avoid risky sexual behavior or sharing needles. By June 1990, 139,765 people had the disease, with a 60 per cent mortality rate. The progress of the disease slowed down in the West with education campaigns and the development of protease inhibitors, which provided sufferers with almost complete remission. But in Africa, the spread and treatment of HIV remains a global concern. THE DISCOVERY OF LITHIUM TO TREAT MOOD DISORDERS . Australian psychiatrist John Frederick Joseph Cade once said, \"I believe the brain, like any other organ, can get sick and it can also heal.\" He made huge gains in healing the brain through his work with sufferers of bipolar disorder by discovering that lithium salts -- a naturally occurring chemical - could be used to treat the illness. Previously, electro-convulsive therapy and lobotomies had been the major treatments for bipolar disorder. After having been a prisoner of war in World War II, Dr. Cade served as the head of the Bundoora Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne Australia. It was at an unused kitchen in Bundoora where he conducted crude experiments that led to the discovery of lithium as a treatment of bipolar disorder. After trials on humans, Dr. Cade speculated that bipolar disorder was a \"lithium deficiency disease\" and that a dose of lithium had a calming effect. Dr. Cade published findings in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1949 entitled \"Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement.\" He died in 1980. Lithium is still used successfully in the treatment of mental illness to this day. THE DISCOVERY OF BACTERIA . Dutchman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was known as the \"father of micro-biology.\" He drew scientific attention to the many bacteria that he discovered. His research was helped by the different types of microscopes that he developed over his lifetime. From his powerful lenses he was able to ascertain many different types of lifeforms too small for the human eye to see. It was by observing the build-up of plaque on teeth that the Dutch scientist discovered what we now know to be bacteria. His initial observations on bacteria make for amusing reading. On September 17, 1683, Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about the plaque between his own teeth, \"a little white matter, which is as thick as if 'twere batter.\" He then observed two women and two old men who had never cleaned their teeth in their lives. Looking at these samples with his microscope, Leeuwenhoek wrote of \"an unbelievably great company of living animalcules, a-swimming more nimbly than any I had ever seen up to this time. The biggest sort ... bent their body into curves in going forwards ... Moreover, the other animalcules were in such enormous numbers, that all the water ... seemed to be alive.\" He also observed algae on water surfaces and the furry coating on human and animal tongues during illness, bringing his theories to the attention of the Royal Society. Most bacteria are harmless, although some bacterial diseases are fatal: tuberculosis kills about 2 million people a year. Bacteria are important in the production of cheese and yogurt, in processing wastewater and in manufacturing antibiotics. THE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL . The oral contraceptive commonly known as \"the pill\" was invented during the 1950s in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. It contains hormone-like substances, usually estrogen and progestin, that enter the blood stream and disrupt the production of ova and ovulation, with the aim of preventing pregnancy. It originated after an unexpected discovery made in a jungle in Mexico in the 1930s. While Professor Russell Marker was experimenting with plant steroids, he discovered a chemical process that transformed these steroids into the female sex hormone, progesterone. Researchers in the late 1940s began to explore the possibility of an inexpensive oral contraceptive. Chemist Gregory Pincus tested a derivative from Marker's findings on 1,308 volunteers in Puerto Rico in 1958 and Searle Pharmaceuticals applied for US Food and Drug Administration approval to market the drug. The pill came on to the market in the U.S. in 1960 and is still widely used today. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"HIV was isolated in 1983 and can be controlled with protease inhibitors .\nPsychiatrist John Cade pioneered lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder .\nDutchman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria as a build-up on teeth .\nProfessor Russell Marker's experiments with plant steroids led to the Pill .","id":"58886139cfc52156248ff38816eb87b1a589da81"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Officials found 13 bodies in the rubble of a scorched supermarket in downtown Nairobi Friday and are investigating a tip that security guards locked people in the burning building, a police spokesman said. Members of the public helped to fight the fire which left at least 47 people missing. The blaze started on Wednesday afternoon in the Nakumatt supermarket. The Standard Newspaper reported harrowing tales of families trying to find their missing loved ones, at times making the job of firefighters more difficult. So many people crowded the scene that police on foot and on horseback periodically chased them away. Riot police with tear gas and batons stood nervously around the edge of the scene -- where a barricade has been erected. Joseph Mwangi waited among the crowd, hoping for news of his cousin Daniel. On Wednesday, Mwangi sent 16-year-old Daniel Njoge with 6,000 shillings (about $75) to the market. \"He was coming to shop for school,\" said Mwangi, a waiter at a nearby restaurant. \"I sent him to the store to get stationery supplies.\" \"On Wednesday night, I got so worried. Now I think he is just in there,\" Mwangi said, pointing at the burned-out store. \"The response was not good,\" he said. \"A person who fights a fire must go into the building, but they just stayed outside.\" Mwangi registered with the Kenya Red Cross on the scene, as scores of others did, and now he waits. Justin Mule, who works at the Stanley Bookstore across the road from the supermarket, described the start of the fire to CNN: \"I saw smoke coming up from the building on Wednesday afternoon. In a few minutes, there were explosions. I saw some guys jumping from the burning roof. Soon after the fire, I saw the store security guards closing the doors because they feared looting. The doors were locked. That was a mistake. They shouldn't have locked the doors.\" Other witness corroborated his account. Police launched a criminal investigation to look into that allegation, said Eric Kiraithe, a police spokesman . Employees of the supermarket refused to comment on the allegations. The fire has angered Kenyans for what they perceive is a lack of disaster preparedness. Local newspaper editorials slammed the government's response to the tragedy. \"Disaster preparedness is still a challenge, and the operation was hampered by the Nairobi city layout,\" said Kenya Red Cross spokesman Titus Mung'ou said. Emergency numbers failed to work and water ran out during attempts to put out the fire, he said. According to local news reports, the fire ignited Wednesday afternoon during a busy hour in the 24-hour supermarket. Hundreds of people crowded around the scene and tourists peered through their hotel windows as firefighters, security guards and civilians struggled to get the fire under control. Periodic explosions rocked the city and debris fell around the building. The crowd cheered each incoming fire truck, and water had to be brought to the scene from a nearby soccer stadium.","highlights":"Rescuers find 13 bodies in scorched rubble of Kenyan supermarket .\nMassive fire engulfed the building in downtown Nairobi on Wednesday .\nIncident angers Kenyans for what they perceive is a lack of disaster preparedness .","id":"cacf4dfcc4b3a66705b473e690dc92ac0bbae604"} -{"article":"BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Erin Sheehan is one of the almost 28,000 students making the bittersweet return to the Virginia Tech campus for fall classes, a journey she was afforded only because of some quick thinking in April. Students return to the Virginia Tech campus Monday for the first day of fall classes. When Seung-Hui Cho stormed into Sheehan's German class that horrifying Monday morning -- firing off indiscriminate rounds of gunfire that killed the German teacher and four of Sheehan's classmates -- Sheehan hit the deck and played dead. \"He went around the room shooting everyone,\" she said. Cho's April 16 rampage through Norris Hall left 29 students and faculty dead. The mentally disturbed Cho also killed two others and himself in the mass shooting, the worst in modern U.S. history. Though she is heading back to class, Sheehan is admittedly still shaken. Four months after the tragedy, Sheehan is haunted by memories of the massacre, and she still jumps when she hears a loud noise in her Virginia Tech dorm room. Regardless, she is prepared to move on. \"When classes started again in the spring I didn't come back,\" Sheehan said. \"It was just too hard to do then, but now I'm ready.\" The campus was buzzing over the weekend. Parents and students crowded the sidewalks, toting boxes and furniture into the dorms, including West Ambler Johnston, where the first two victims were killed. Norris Hall, meanwhile, has been refurbished and will no longer host classes. Virginia Tech has discreetly beefed up security since the tragedy. Locks that operate from the inside have been placed on classroom doors. Dormitory entrances are secured 24 hours a day. Students can sign up for emergency text messages from the university. Despite the precautions, not everything has gone as smoothly as planned. On the eve of the students' return to classes, 23 people fell ill from a carbon monoxide leak in an apartment building near campus. Five Virginia Tech students were hospitalized, police and hospital officials said. Blacksburg Police said a valve on a water heater that was malfunctioning is believed to be the cause of the incident. Police said the valve was stuck in the open position, causing a constant burn-off of fuel and creating carbon monoxide that was not ventilating. Kirsten Halik and Kristin Julia, both 19, were upgraded from critical to serious condition Monday and Elizabeth Burgin, Carolyn Dorman, and Nichole Howarth, all 19 -- are conscious and alert, according to hospital officials. Burgin, Dorman, and Howarth were upgraded from serious to good condition, hospital officials said, after they received treatment in a hyperbaric chamber on Sunday and Monday. The chamber pushes pressurized oxygen into the tissues and blood. Meanwhile, the university dedicated a permanent memorial to the victims and their families -- a semicircle of 32 engraved stones bearing each victim's name. One student said she wanted to attend the ceremony until she woke up at the Collegiate Suites apartment building feeling nauseous, The Washington Post reported. Spirits are high, however, said professor Nikki Giovanni, and students and faculty are ready to move past the tragedy. Watch Giovanni applaud the university's new security measures \u00bb . \"The Hokies' spirit is alive and well. I think that we're very excited that classes are starting -- that we're moving into a new year,\" she said. Perhaps indicative of that resilience is the size of the incoming freshman class. According to a university news release, the university accepted deposits from 5,215 freshmen this year. That is more than its enrollment target of 5,000 and about 30 more deposits than the university received from incoming freshmen last year, the news release said. \"Virginia Tech took a big hit, but I think that we have embraced each other. We have been embraced on this planet,\" Giovanni said, explaining that the Virginia Tech community has received greetings \"from every country on Earth and it's been a wonderful thing.\" Students concur they are ready for the new school year. Playing Frisbee with friends at a drill field near the newly christened memorial, Aaron Friedman said the summer break was a welcome reprieve, but he was ready to return to Blacksburg. \"It was good to get away. Being back with everybody at home really helped,\" Friedman said. Fellow sophomore Mike Giancola said he, too, is ready to move on, even if he is still disturbed by memories of the shootings. \"I still think about it every day, but I'm ready to get my life going.\" Sheehan echoes the sentiment of Giovanni and her fellow students but noted that she made some changes in her life, and she still battles post-traumatic stress symptoms every day. \"Even being in my new dorm, when I hear a loud noise or something unexpected, I'll peer out through the little hole in my door to make sure everything is OK,\" she said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Reggie Aqui, Brianna Keilar, and Gary Nurenberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Student says she avoided being shot during massacre by playing dead .\nNo classes will be held in Norris Hall, where 29 of the victims were killed .\nProfessor: \"I think that we're very excited that classes are starting\"\nCarbon monoxide leak leaves 23 sick but some students getting better .","id":"eee0fe44d8e1d83155e39064788e59b20183982f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As the lights went down in the theater the low murmur built to a thunderous ovation as the odd-looking man in the crumpled suit and bowler hat took to the stage. Tom Waits in Paris on the European leg of his tour. The excitement that greeted the eccentric American singer songwriter Tom Waits' appearance in Edinburgh last month may come as a surprise to the many, who have never heard of him. The 58-year-old has stayed for most of his four-decade career on the edge of the music mainstream. This is despite a showering of critical acclaim and a host of high-profile fans including the movie star Scarlett Johansson, who recently recorded an album of Waits covers. Waits' position on the periphery of pop music (he admits that the 60s scene largely passed him by), may be because he belongs to a bigger historical tradition -- that of the singer-storyteller that has its origin in folk music. His music comes from a different place from most artists. A laconic, bar room philosopher with a wry sense of humor, Waits is an avowed fan of the Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac and the author and poet Charles Bukowski. Many of his songs are stories containing a cast of characters from America's underbelly: the drunks and disenfranchised, the lost souls hiding out from life in seedy night spots. It is the same world that Kerouac chronicled in his writings, including his most famous work \"On the Road,\" which describes a journey across America in the late fifties. Waits, who is notoriously interview-shy, acknowledged his debt to the author in a promotional interview to accompany the release of his 1974 album \"The Heart of Saturday Night.\" He said the record was a search for the \"center of Saturday night,\" a quest he said that Kerouac himself had \"relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.\" Waits' place in the folk tradition is something he has acknowledged, consciously or otherwise, in his music. In 1990, he wrote the music and lyrics for \"The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets,\" a theatrical collaboration with the American writer William Burroughs based on a German folktale. Like all great writers, Waits is a conscientious observer of people and their strange foibles. Born in Pomona, CA. he moved to Los Angeles in the late sixties to pursue his music career, finding work as a doorman at an LA nightspot. It was at this time that he honed his skills as a storyteller, eavesdropping on the lives of others. \"I was picking up people's conversations in all-night coffee shops - ambulance drivers, cabdrivers, street sweepers,\" he said in an interview with The New Yorker. \"I did research there as an evening curator, and I started writing gingerly. I thought at some point I'd like to forge it all into something meaningful, and give it dignity.\" The results of this labor are songs like \"Frank's Wild Years,\" a hilarious and sinister tale of a man -- Frank -- trapped in suburbia with a wife and pet dog that has a skin disease. The song is spoken in a lounge room style over a soft jazz accompaniment, and like much of Waits' work it drips irony: \"They had a thoroughly modern kitchen\/ Self-cleaning oven (the whole bit)\/ Frank drove a little sedan\/ They were so happy.\" In a 1983 promotional interview published by his then record company Island, Waits credits a short story by Bukowski with giving him some of the inspiration for the song. \"Bukowski had a story that essentially was saying that it's the little things that drive men mad,\" Waits said. \"It's not World War II. It's the broken shoe lace when there is no time left that sends men completely out of their minds. \"I think there is a little bit of Frank in everybody.\" In the song, Frank eventually runs amok, setting fire to the family home and blazing a trail up the Hollywood freeway because, as Waits quips in the pay-off \"he never could stand that dog.\" This taste for the absurd carried into his recent live show with the set for the \"Glitter and Doom\" tour decked in a bizarre array of old speaker cones. Waits took to the stage dressed in a Chaplinesque suit, delivering his set from a slightly raised platform that gave up a cloud of dust each time he bashed his feet into it. In spite of the entreaties from the crowd he kept quiet between songs at first. Eventually after a few numbers he broke his silence. \"This is a lopsided love song,\" he rasped, introducing the next track. \"By that I mean the person doing it is lopsided, not the song itself.\" Lopsided or not, it's an authentic voice we could surely do with hearing more from.","highlights":"Singer songwriter Tom Waits has won critical acclaim for his music .\nHis strange tales of the seedy side of America have attracted a cult following .\nThe actress Scarlett Johansson is a fan and recorded a recent tribute album .\nWaits counts U.S. writers Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski as influences .","id":"883fb959ed08655a64ca91a90ea1b6c772f3ce9a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates have hijacked two European-owned chemical tankers off the coast of Somalia in the past 24 hours, the European Union Maritime Security Center said Thursday. The 23,000-ton Norwegian-owned and Bahamian-registered M\/V Bow-Asir was captured 250 miles east of the southern Somali city Kismayo on Thursday morning, the security center said in a release. The M\/V Nipayia, a 9,000-ton Greek-owned and Panamanian-registered vessel with 19 crew members, was attacked approximately 450 miles east of Kismayo on Wednesday afternoon, the security center said. Officials have issued an alert site notifying all vessels in the area to be aware of the increase in pirate activity.","highlights":"Pirates hijack two European-owned chemical tankers off the coast of Somalia .\n23,000-ton Norwegian-owned M\/V Bow-Asir captured .\nM\/V Nipayia, a 9,000-ton Greek-owned vessel also seized .","id":"31d58cb7bd8419354732528ae347149b6caf8202"} -{"article":"Remember the days when a washing machine lasted for decades? If it broke down it could be fixed. But now it seems it is cheaper to discard our broken products and buy new ones. The side effects of our throwaway society are ever-larger waste mountains festering with toxic chemicals and the depletion of natural resources such as rare metals. Europe produced 8.3 to 9.1 millions tons of waste from electrical projects in 2005. Product makers are responding by designing goods that have a reduced carbon footprint at their point of manufacture, but leading thinkers in the field of sustainable design believe that a radical re-think in the way we consume products is required if we want to halt the growing mountain of toxic waste piling up on the world's rubbish dumps. Figures recently announced by the U.N. University suggest the production of electronic and electrical products is running neck-and-neck with their disposal: An estimated 10.3 million tons of electronic products were put on the market in the European Union in 2005, while 8.3 to 9.1 million tons of waste from electrical products found their way into Europe's rubbish bins. Electronic and electrical products account for four percent of Europe's waste and the rate is growing at three times the speed of any other form of waste. What is sustainable design? Sustainable design is a reaction to the global environmental crisis. It aims to produce products, buildings and services, which have a low impact on climate change and the depletion of the world's resources. In industrial design this includes the use of recycled and recyclable materials; reducing pollution through cutting down the need for transportation, such as by using locally-sourced materials; making products which can be taken apart once they are discarded so that their parts that can be used again; and designing goods which use as little energy as possible while they are being made. While many companies are beginning to think of ways in which they can reduce their environmental impact during the manufacture of their products, many sustainable design experts believe that these measures are not enough to reduce the damage the constant manufacture of products is doing to the world's eco-system. A change in culture . \"Daily life is becoming increasingly mediated by electronic artifacts,\" says Jonathan Chapman, editor of Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories, a book which seeks to bring together new thinking on sustainable design. \"These products are great but it seems that as their popularity grows, their impermanence grows with it.\" Chapman believes that true sustainability can only be achieved if we moderate our inclination to strive for the newest product, and he argues that the onus is on designers to initiate a shift away from a disposable culture. He proposes a model for consumer behavior based on a service economy -- that products are designed to last longer and to be fixed when they break; brands can make their profits by providing the services to ensure that this can be done. \"It's quite conceivable to make objects that don't necessarily make a profit at the point-of-sale but that, because their life-spans are extended and are punctuated with service and upgrade options, can generate turnover over long periods of time that is greater than making a small profit and having to remanufacture,\" he explains. He believes that consumers would be prepared to pay more for their electronic goods if they knew they would last longer. It is an economic model that would make most manufacturers choke, but it is an unfounded fear, says economist Andrew Charlton, author of Ozonomics: Inside the Myth of Australia's Economic Superheroes. \"The key thing to remember is that human desires know no bounds -- we are never satiated,\" he says. \"If we replace an expensive disposable product with a permanent one, that just frees up income to spend on other things. \"Ballpoint pens last longer than quills, tarred roads last longer than cobblestones -- and the economy moves on. Every time we satisfy one demand, another one comes along to take its place.\" \"A quarter-inch hole\" But it's not enough to expect consumers to sign up to a longer-life model just because it is 'green', says Steve Bishop, head of sustainability at design firm IDEO. Consumers concerned with the sustainability of the products they buy still only make up a small fraction of the market and designers must incorporate energy-saving measures into mainstream thinking, with sustainability as a by-product. Marketing a product as environmentally friendly is \"really addressing a niche market,\" he argues. \"It's putting the responsibility on people and it's effectively guilting people into buying these things. It shouldn't be about guilt or sacrifice. It should be about connecting to people's values and what really matters to them.\" Often what really matters to people is saving money. He cites as an example of sustainability-achieved-by-stealth some research IDEO made into the effectiveness of hybrid electric cars. They found that the single feature of the cars that maximized their energy-efficiency was not the variable transmission, the regenerative brakes or the electric motor but a small widget on the dashboard that measures fuel consumption and tells you when you are driving the car most efficiently. \"It's not so much that they are trying to be green as much as they are trying to get high score,\" Bishop concludes. Sustainability must understand and adapt to human behavior, not vice versa, is his verdict. \"People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole,\" Theodore Levitt, former marketing professor at Harvard Business School and author of Marketing Myopia, used to tell his students. Apple's iTunes software, a service which allows music fans to download audio files directly onto their computers, is an example of Levitt's analogy in action. While its main aim was to make listening to music easier, it has inadvertently become a sustainable design model by canceling the need for the compact disc. People still get their end-product -- listening to music -- but without the waste and unnecessary energy consumption that goes into manufacturing a physical item on which to store it. His point is that businesses will have to shift their goal posts and might even have to change the mentality that says that producing more products is the only way to make money. Making a real impact . Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important to the public and manufacturers may have to combine 'green' production techniques with a dramatic change in how consumers relate to the products they buy. \"The real impact happens when you integrate both those things - when you look at the scientific basis and reduce the energy footprint during production but you also look at the psychological and emotional factors during use,\" says Chapman. \"When you start to integrate like that, that's when you start to achieve sustainable design.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Europeans find it cheaper to throw away rather than fix electrical products .\nElectrical products are Europe's fastest growing form of waste .\nDurable products reduce energy needed to manufacture new ones .\nSustainable design products have low carbon footprints and use little energy .","id":"6a59bf870a6411c032dd63e364dca0eca09fbb16"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an age of unromance, of Internet dating, of gut reaction cynicism -- I love hearing a story about how Lenny Ann Low of Sydney met her fianc\u00e9 Alan of Glasgow. Lenny Ann Low made sure every week to do something scary that would in some way alter her future . \"Tell the story again!\" I would beg her in the manner of a child wanting to be read her favorite fairytale, never tiring of the narrative, always smiling with delight at the ending. Lenny met Alan when she was in Edinburgh at the annual comedy festival. She was lining up for a hot tuna melt and a latte at a station caf\u00e9 with 9 minutes to catch a train back to London. She stood at the back of the long queue thinking, probably, of anything but love -- when she locked eyes with the young man behind the steaming coffee machine -- the man who in a few short minutes would be making her latte, than in an even shorter minute later would be consigned to the distant memories of coffee makers past. But when their eyes locked from over the Gaggia machine down the snaking queue, Lenny felt an unmistakable current. Could this be love? And if so -- what could be done in the nine minutes she had left in the country? Lenny knew exactly what to do as she had formulated a plan that she had been following for some years. Called Future Friday it was a game she played with herself each week. In order to gain more confidence and \"get out of a rut\" she decided that by Friday each week she would do something scary that would in some way alter her future. Minutes ticked up. She moved up the queue. She ordered her tuna melt. She took her coffee and sat in the train. Six minutes until it pulled out bound for London. She thought of Future Friday. She wrote her email address on a piece of paper, leapt off the train, raced back to the caf\u00e9, barged through the queue and gave Alan her address. \"Email me!\" she told the stranger as she thrust the paper in his hand and bounded back to catch her train. He did email when she was on a plane halfway to Australia. They emailed for a while, then eventually he came out to Sydney. They got on with the business of falling in love and next month they will marry. Unlike other pundits with a self-help plan, Lenny's not promising hers will deliver riches, fame or love. What she does say however is that if you follow it, you will have a lot of adventures and take all sorts of risks that will enrich your life in many ways. Lenny explains how it works: \"Future Friday is so simple it's embarrassing. By Friday at the end of every week you must do something that is good for your future that is a risk or something scary.\" For Lenny, \"it could be something like getting pap smear, making a dental appointment or telling someone that you fancy them or ring someone out of the blue and asking them if they've got a job. I've done all those things.\" Feeling like she was stagnating inspired Lenny to develop the scheme. \"Being in a bit of a dead-end job made me want to do this - I thought I needed a trigger. It also lets you off the hook -- you can say I've done my Future Friday now -- I don't have to do anything else for the rest of the week.\" Lenny isolated particular areas of her life that she had neglected. \"I put off making a dental appointment for five or six years. I put off telling men they were nice. I put off my pap smear all my life.\" The list of things to do each week for Future Friday then became \"a combination of exciting thrills and horrible must dos.\" Lenny made sure she told all her friends about Future Friday so she could get extra support during the difficult weeks. \"You'd get praise. I'd tell various people about it. You'd move enormous blocks. I really was quite down and just the little sense of doing stuff helped enormously.\" Memorable Future Fridays included doing a stand-up comedy gig, flying in a jetfighter, and of course -- meeting Alan. Lenny started doing Future Friday in 1996 to boost her confidence and expand her world, but she had no idea how it would change her world. She was also contacted by a number of people \"friends of friends, strangers\" who had heard about Future Friday and started practicing it themselves. She recommends starting your own Future Friday if you are also \"swimming around and drowning in a lot of stuff. \"It's a good way to anchor yourself. Now I have formed a habit of getting on with things now -- today I had to get the celebrant form done and I just did it.\" Every time you tick off a Future Friday item Lenny says to give yourself a pat on the back. \"It's about the power of affirmation and realizing you're not a failure -- and its small and it doesn't cost anything. You can take delightful risks.\" Lenny's Future Friday Tips: . \u2022 Pick a couple of basic but difficult issues in your life -- a niggle. Make the appointment or ring about a job and you are on your way. \u2022 Go and see that man at the pub who you thought was cute. Don't be shy. \"I told a number of men I liked them and they didn't always feel the same way, but at least I didn't die wondering.\" \u2022 I didn't keep a diary but it's a great idea to keep track of your progress . \u2022 Tell other people and they can get inspired and also support you in your Future Friday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Lenny Ann Low created Future Friday to gain more confidence .\nShe must take one risk that is good for her future by each Friday .\nLenny has done stand-up comedy, flew a jetfighter, and met her fianc\u00e9 Alan .","id":"7ac165e8854d915c6cd025ae1b0f77690fed77de"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The commander in chief's priority is preventing another terrorist attack in the United States, President Bush told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Tuesday. President Bush and first lady Laura Bush sit down with CNN's Larry King Live on Tuesday. \"The most important job I have had -- and the most important job the next president is going to have -- is to protect the American people from another attack,\" Bush said. Accompanied by first lady Laura Bush and engaging in a wide-ranging conversation with King, Bush also said that his administration has been involved in stopping specific threats against the United States since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. \"We've learned a lot of information about al Qaeda that we didn't know before,\" Bush said of intelligence activities during his tenure as president. \"We've stopped some specific threats -- we're decimating [al Qaeda's] leadership.\" He did not offer specifics, but he did offer a self-assessment of his leadership in national security post-9\/11. Watch Bush talk about the aftermath of 9\/11 \u00bb . \"I told the American people I wouldn't tire and I wouldn't falter, and I haven't,\" the outgoing president said. Bush brushed off the low opinion-ratings and declining polls that have marked his waning presidency by saying, \"Look, opinion polls are nothing but a shot of yesterday's news.\" \"Opinion polls aren't going to be high when the economy is in the tank,\" he added. \"People aren't happy with the economy. Neither am I. But you can't make decisions based on popularity polls.\" Bush took that train of thought on to another topic, Iraq. \"If the military thinks you're making decisions based on the Gallup poll, they're not going to follow a commander in chief,\" he said. Asked about inaccurate intelligence reports on alleged weapons of mass destruction that led up to the war in Iraq, Bush refused to criticize the CIA, saying only that he was \"disappointed.\" On Iraq, he maintained that actions taken by his administration were correct. \"I don't think Iraq was wrong,\" Bush said in response to a question from King. \"What I was worried about, (was) Iraq going to fail -- not Iraq was wrong,\" he said. \"And the surge has worked and a young democracy in the heart of the Middle East has taken hold. There's more work to be done. But al Qaeda has been denied the base in which they wanted to operate.: . When discussing the nation's economic slump, Bush cautioned his successor \"not to become an economic forecaster once he gets to be president.\" King and Bush discussed President-elect Barack Obama's predictions for a bad year ahead for the U.S. economy and King asked Bush, \"That's not a good idea to say?\" \"I don't think so. I think he can say it's going to be a tough period, but to predict what the economy is going to do ... it is going to be bad. How bad? How long?\" Bush responded. \"What he ought to be saying -- and I know he feels this way -- is he's going to take the steps he thinks are necessary to get us back on the road to recovery and we will recover.\" Bush said he is looking forward to the inaugurationTuesday, describing it as \"a historic moment for the country.\" Asked by King if he liked Obama, Bush replied, \"I do. I do like him. You'd like him, too.\" But Laura Bush said she took some of Obama's critiques of her husband personally. \"Were you angry at it?\" King asked. \"Yes, sort of. George didn't really even know about it because he didn't really watch it that much,\" Laura Bush said, laughing. Watch Laura Bush express her disapproval \u00bb . \"So what's new?\" Bush piped in. \"When you make big decisions and tough calls, you're going to get criticized.\" \"During the course of this presidency, I've been disappointed at times by the silly name-calling that goes on in Washington -- it's really not necessary,\" Bush said. \"I've done my best, though, to make sure I didn't bring the presidency down to that level.\" On other topics: . \u2022 Bush said he favors closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but only \"under the right circumstances. \"The problem is, you've got a bunch of cold-blooded killers down there that if they ever get out they're going to come and kill Americans, and I'd hate to be the person that made that decision.\" \u2022 Asked by King, \"Are we ever going to find (Osama) bin Laden, Bush replied, \"Yes, of course, absolutely. We've got a lot of people out there looking for him, a lot of assets. You can't run forever. \u2022 As to whether the United States had ever come close to capturing bin Laden, Bush said, \"I don't know -- I can't answer that. I really don't know. I'm not trying to hide anything.\"","highlights":"\"Most important job ... is to protect the American people,\" Bush tells CNN's Larry King .\nBush agrees rocky times are ahead, but cautions Obama against making predictions .\nOutgoing president says Obama should talk more about getting on \"road to recovery\"","id":"35d8606498d932f816e8b74f7eaa6bcbedf1f410"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain is prepared to send more troops to Afghanistan, the head of the British Army said in an interview published Friday. Britain currently has 8,300 troops in Afghanistan. Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff, did not say how many troops he would be prepared to deploy. Britain currently has 8,300 troops in Afghanistan. Dannatt told The Times newspaper that elements of the 12th Mechanized Brigade had been \"earmarked for Afghanistan.\" He said there are no plans to send the whole brigade of 4,000 troops. \"If we're asked for more and we say we can, it's not going to be 4,000 -- it's going to be something in between\" that and the current troop level, Dannatt told the Times. The Ministry of Defense confirmed his remark. British defense sources told The Times that a rise of 1,700 to 2,000 was \"the uppermost ceiling.\" U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan on Friday that includes sending another 4,000 troops to the country with hundreds of civilian specialists, senior administration officials told CNN. The troops -- which are in addition to the 17,000 that the president announced earlier would be sent to Afghanistan -- will be charged with training and building the Afghan Army and police force. The plans include doubling the Army's ranks to 135,000 and the police force to 80,000 by 2011, the officials said. Military officials told CNN earlier that the Afghan government had requested the additional troops.","highlights":"Britain is ready to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan, army chief says .\nRichard Dannatt told the Times up to 2,000 more could be sent .\nArmy waiting for formal request by U.S. government, he says .","id":"489f182eb0172bdd2c49689f1bc03333a051c8cc"} -{"article":"CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and photojournalist Peter Morris traveled to southern Afghanistan with Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps. CNN's Barbara Starr is on assignment in Afghanistan, where she says Marines are living in very tough terrain. HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Our travels in Afghanistan continue. I feel like the title of this posting should be \"why I had to get power-washed in Afghanistan\" or \"the body armor is only heavy until they start shooting at you.\" OK, now I will explain. CNN photojournalist Peter Morris and I just wrapped up spending several days in southern Afghanistan with Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, touring the combat zone. The Marines are living in some of the toughest terrain there is. It is remote and often raining. That means dust turns to mud, and you find yourself covered in it from head to toe. Stinky, cold, wet, oozy mucky mud. The good news is, everybody stinks, so you lose any sense of self-consciousness about it. But you do dream of getting power-washed. So, yes, after a few days a shower was, shall we say, more than essential. For the Marines, however, it is a seven-month tour of duty in mud in the winter and dust in the summer. It seems very grim, especially when compounded by the fact that the Marines are wearing heavy body armor all the time. Ask them if it's heavy to wear, the typical answer goes something like, \"It's only heavy to wear until the bad guys start shooting at you. Then it's OK.\" The young Marines know exactly how tough the fight they are facing in the coming weeks and months will likely be. Several of them told me security had gotten considerably worse in recent days. Their bases were being repeatedly shelled by insurgents, several roadside bombs had gone off, and local Afghan police had died at the hands of suicide attacks. Senior commanders usually have a more cheery outlook, but here in southern Afghanistan, everyone is cautious. Almost everyone is a veteran of Iraq and learned the tough lesson there about not declaring victory too soon. Even Conway, who commanded U.S. forces in Fallujah, picks his words very carefully. He tells me he believes that everyone must be ready for a spike in U.S. casualties as the Marines begin to move into the region in greater numbers this spring. All of this was rattling around in my head when I saw the Marines riding around in what they call \"a 7-ton truck.\" As the name suggests, it's huge and has some armor plating on the sides. But what it doesn't make clear is that the truck is open in the back and sides. The Marines insist it is a safe way to transport troops. For years now, the Army has used fully armored vehicles only in the combat zone. The Marines have a somewhat different view. They believe heavy armor isn't everything; sometimes being able to get around on the battlefield faster is better. But then again, when someone starts shooting at you, I think you want all the armor you can get. Next stop, Iraq. Yeah, there is still a war there, too.","highlights":"With all the mud in southern Afghanistan, everyone stinks, Barbara Starr says .\nMarines also wear heavy body armor all the time, adding to the discomfort .\nArmor is only heavy \"until the bad guys start shooting at you,\" Marines say .\nMarines often travel in \"7-ton truck\" that's open in the back and sides .","id":"f6f1674e90735788a379df95cc5209f431e9c2ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just weeks before a Continental Connection commuter plane crashed near Buffalo, another airline had reminded its pilots about safety issues with instrument approaches at the airport. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. However, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it was extremely unlikely the February 12 crash and the warning were related. Instrument approaches are those in which pilots use cockpit displays to line up their aircraft with the runway when visibility is low. The alert, initially issued by Southwest Airlines and reissued Wednesday by the airline's pilot association, warned there was a \"potentially significant hazard\" concerning the instrument landing system's glide slope guidance signal for runway 23. The airline advised, \"Pilots who are preparing to configure and land have the potential to experience abrupt pitch up, slow airspeed, and approach to stall if conditions present themselves in a certain manner.\" Southwest Airlines spokesperson Linda Rutherford said an earthen dam at the end of the runway was interfering with the signal being sent to inbound flights. Rutherford would not confirm if any of Southwest's recent flights into Buffalo experienced problems on approach. \"We often put out alerts on obstructions to a navigation aid,\" Rutherford told CNN. She also pointed out, though landing on the same runway, Southwest Airlines flights approach runway 23 from the north, turning right, while the Colgan Air flight that crashed was approaching from the south turning left. Rutherford called that distinction important. View a Google Earth image of runway 23 \u00bb . The National Transportation Safety Board told CNN the agency was \"aware\" of the Southwest Airlines alert, but would not comment further. The issue is caused by a geographic feature at the airport, a valley, \"something we can't do anything about,\" said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. She said the \"altitude reading makes it look like you're a lot higher than you are, because there is a valley there.\" The feature has been noted on FAA charts for years, she said. \"As far as we can tell, there is no way this had any role in the accident,\" Brown told CNN. \"It's not a navigation aid that would have applied to the approach.\" The alert from Southwest Airlines advises pilots that the problem could cause the planes navigational system to interpret data \"in such a way as to result in a nose-up pitch and loss of airspeed.\" Flight data recorders obtained by the NTSB of the crashed Colgan air Flight 3407 show during its approach to runway 23, the twin turbo prop Dash-8 pitched up 31 degrees before going into a stall due to lack of airspeed. Southwest Airlines Pilot Association told its pilots the \"issue is being addressed on several levels in an attempt to address procedures, facilities, and communication regarding this matter.\" The alert advises any pilots experience trouble to contact the association's safety office.","highlights":"NEW: FAA spokeswoman says it doesn't appear issue was related to crash .\nWarning concerned runway 23, the same one the crashed plane was lined up to use .\nAirline advised possibility of \"abrupt pitch up, slow airspeed, and approach to stall\"\nSouthwest Airlines spokeswoman said earthen dam was interfering with signals .","id":"470f52e6f6e7f78802f51f7ac2760151df1fad2a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama is expected to approve a proposal to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq within 19 months, Pentagon officials told CNN Wednesday. U.S. soldiers stand guard outside a mosque during a prisoner release Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq. The decision will be announced at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Friday, according to one senior administration official. Although the White House has made no announcement yet, \"That's the way the wind is blowing,\" a Pentagon official said. A White House spokesman said the president has made no final decisions about Iraq policy. Obama's campaign pledge was to withdraw combat troops within 16 months. But shortly after taking office, he asked Pentagon and military commanders for an analysis of other time frames. The Pentagon sent Obama options for withdrawals at 16, 19, and 23 months. It is expected that the final plan will call for the majority of combat forces to be withdrawn, and keep as many as 50,000 in Iraq to serve mainly as military trainers or advisers. U.S. military officials said even those residual forces could find themselves in combat. For the last two months, the U.S. Central Command has been assessing how equipment and personnel will be withdrawn from Iraq, according to a U.S. military official. Watch what Obama said Tuesday night about Iraq \u00bb . The official did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of discussing withdrawal details before the president's announcement. However, he said the U.S. military is looking at exit routes through Jordan and Kuwait. The military is trying to determine what equipment might be returned to the United States; transferred to the Iraqi or Jordanian government; sent to Afghanistan; or simply discarded.","highlights":"NEW: Decision to be announced Friday at Camp Lejeune, official says .\nObama to approve 19-month time frame, military sources say .\nDuring campaign, Obama pledged to get troops out within 16 months .\nPentagon said to be looking at exit routes through Jordan, Kuwait .","id":"7e8f2d35d33927afc736567dd0a0a622b25854fd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Iraq war has strained U.S. forces to the point where they could not fight another large-scale war, according to a survey of military officers. U.S. troops patrol Haifa Street in Baghdad last week. Of those surveyed, 88 percent believe the demands of the Iraq war have \"stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin.\" On the other hand, 56 percent of the officers disagree that the war has \"broken\" the military. Eighty percent of officers believe it is unreasonable to expect the U.S. military to wage another major war successfully at present. Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for a New American Security on Tuesday issued the U.S. Military Index, a survey of 3,400 present and former U.S. military officers. \"We asked the officers whether they thought the U.S. military was stronger or weaker than it was five years ago,\" said Michael Boyer, who helped write the report. \"Sixty percent said the U.S. military is weaker than it was five years ago,\" Boyer told reporters. The report found that officers \"see a military apparatus severely strained by the grinding demands of war.\" More than half of the officers responding cited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the \"pace of troop deployments\" needed for those conflicts, the survey said. The report comes a few weeks before the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war, where a troop \"surge\" is winding down by summer. The U.S. military is proposing a pause in troop reductions for a period of review before any more decisions on withdrawals. The officers have \"an overwhelmingly negative view\" of many of the early decisions shaping the Iraq war, but most believe the present U.S. counterinsurgency strategy and troop increases are good omens for success in Iraq. A majority of officers in the Iraq war say some policy decisions have \"hindered the prospects for success there.\" \"These include shortening the time units spend at home between deployments and accepting more recruits who do not meet the military's standards. Even the military's ability to care for some of its own -- mentally wounded soldiers and veterans -- was judged by most officers to be substandard,\" the survey found. At the same time, 64 percent of the officers believe morale in the military remains high. Nearly three-quarters of the officers believe civilian leaders set \"unreasonable goals for the military in post-Saddam Iraq.\" \"They believe more troops were needed on the ground at the start of the fighting. They believe disbanding the Iraqi military was a mistake,\" the survey said. However, nearly nine of 10 think the surge and Gen. David Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy are \"raising the U.S. military's chance for success there.\" The officers believe \"that either China or Iran, not the United States, is emerging as the strategic victor\" in the Iraq war. \"The United States has been preoccupied away from Asia,\" said Kurt Campbell, the head of the group that conducted the survey. China's rising influence worldwide predates the war but is part of a \"great game under way in Asia for influence, for relationships,\" Campbell said. The U.S. focus on Iraq \"sends a message to our friends and others that maybe we're not as focused on the drama that's playing out there,\" he said. Iran has gained from the war because of the removal of Iraq \"as a strategic counterweight,\" the report said. The survey portrayed Iran, the Taiwan Strait (where tensions have flared between China and Taiwan), Syria and North Korea as four potential hot spots and sought opinions of how prepared the U.S. is \"to successfully fight a major combat operation there.\" Officers were asked to judge the preparedness of the U.S. on a scale of one to 10, with 10 meaning \"fully prepared\" and one indicating \"unable to execute.\" Iran was rated 4.5, the Taiwan Strait ( where there have been tensions between China and Taiwan) 4.9, Syria 5.1, and North Korea 4.7. The officers ranked the Navy and Air Force readiness the highest at 6.8 and 6.6, respectively. The Army and Marines, which have assumed the \"bulk of the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan,\" ranked 4.7 and 5.7, respectively. Other results of the survey: .","highlights":"Eighty percent of officers: It's unreasonable to expect U.S. to wage another major war .\nOfficers have \"overwhelmingly negative view\" of early decisions shaping Iraq war .\nFifty-six percent of officers disagree that the Iraq war has \"broken\" the military .\nResults based on survey of 3,400 present and former U.S. military officers .","id":"a6d6b3e16c68e9021e484cef5f7de28dfab02b4f"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- Anti-election demonstrators threw stones at two polling stations and clashed with Indian security forces Sunday as voters stood in long lines in Indian-controlled Kashmir to cast ballots in the second stage of state elections. An Indian Border Security Forces soldier watches as voters in Indian-controlled Kashmir wait to vote Sunday. The protesters yelled pro-independence and anti-poll slogans and threw stones at polling stations in two villages in the Ganderbal constituency, police said. Police used batons to restore order, but no one was injured, police said. People demonstrated in two other villages, Duderhama and Beehama in Ganderbal constituency -- one of six constituencies voting Sunday in the second of seven stages in the state assembly elections. The elections began after months of violent protests by anti-Indian groups, fearful state elections will firm up Indian control of the Muslim majority Himalayan state, and by Indian nationalists, fearful that separatist groups will gain control. Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, has been wracked by an 18-year bloody separatist campaign that authorities say has left at least 43,000 dead. Sunday's protests came a day after Indian paramilitary forces, according to authorities, gunned down two youths, one of them a high school student apparently taking part in an anti-India demonstration. Police Saturday fired on protesters in the town of Baramulla, killing 10th-grader Manzoor Ahmad Kumar, a senior police officer told CNN. Hundreds of protesters followed Kumar's body into the \"Old Town\" area of Baramulla, where demonstrators clashed with police. Protesters threw stones at a candidate's escort vehicles, the office said. Indian authorities deployed heavy paramilitary and police reinforcements to maintain order. Six protesters were injured in the fighting, police said. A police official said paramilitary forces in the Baramulla's Old Town area Saturday, shot and killed a second youth, Tanvir Ahmad Sheikh. Elsewhere Sunday, voting continued without incident. In Kangan constituency, voting picked up in the late morning and afternoon, and there and in Ganderbal, voters -- including many women -- lined up to cast their votes. Indian poll officials said the turnout was about 65 percent of eligible voters. Heavy security was also deployed in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian paramilitary troopers carried automatic weapons and blocked roads with barricades and coils of razor wire there and in other towns. The first phase of elections was held November 17 and the third will be held November 30.","highlights":"Anti-election demonstrators, Indian security forces clash during state elections .\nPolice say they used batons to restore order, and no one was injured .\nAuthorities: Protests come a day after Indian paramilitary forces killed two youths .\nVoting was second stage of seven-stage election in Indian-controlled Kashmir .","id":"409311c55e454c546b0391f1fe61070df0495263"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Violence and drug-trafficking have become such a major threat to Latin America that the presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Panama will sit around a table Friday in Panama to discuss what they can do about it. Cartridges and weapons seized from gangsters and drug-traffickers at the Military Headquarter in Mexico City. Their summit comes at a particularly troubled time for these governments, especially Mexico, which tallied a record number of drug-related killings last year. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich characterized the battle in Mexico among drug cartels and with government authorities as a \"civil war\" on a news program this week. But Mexico is not alone. Colombia has been fighting drug cartels for decades. Panama has been a center of money-laundering for dug cartels and other organized crime groups for many years. And Guatemala has seen its share of slayings and bloodshed. \"It's a recognition that there is a shared problem and that they can't solve that problem independent of each other,\" said Robert Pastor, a professor of international relations at American University in Washington who served as a national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. Jennifer McCoy, the director of The Americas Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, says it is \"encouraging\" that presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Alvaro Colom of Guatemala and Martin Torrijos of Panama not only recognize the problem but want to meet to see what they can do about it. \"The issue of security is vital in these countries and in Latin America,\" McCoy said. It's not just a threat for Latin America, a recent report from the U.S. military says. The violence in Mexico and elsewhere south of the border could spill over to the United States, says the report, issued in November by the U.S. Joint Forces Command. \"The growing assault by the drug cartels and their thugs on the Mexican government over the past several years reminds one that an unstable Mexico could represent a homeland security problem of immense proportions to the United States,\" says the report, \"Joint Operating Environment 2008.\" That instability could threaten the United States' underbelly along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. \"Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone,\" the report says. Mexican Secretary of Governance Fernando Gomez Mont rejected that notion in an interview with CNN this week, saying it is \"inadmissible\" that the United States would have to intervene. Pastor, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1994 to become U.S. ambassador to Panama, believes the United States should be more involved now. \"The United States is a major part of the problem,\" he said. \"The dollars are coming from the United States. The demand is coming from the United States. The arms are coming from the United States.\" Pastor pointed out that there are 7,600 gun shops in the United States within 100 miles of the Mexican border. \"We ought to have a clear recognition that that we are part of their problem, and they can't solve it without us,\" he said. Panamanian Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro indicated at a news conference this week that other nations also need to be more involved. He didn't mention the United States but it was clear whom he was talking about. The summit leaders will ask nations that have high drug consumption to do their part to reduce that demand, the Spanish news agency EFE quoted Lewis as saying. Mexican President Calderon met with President-elect Barack Obama in Washington this week and security was a prime subject of their discussions. \"Both countries share a long border,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue. \"They are terribly worried about the violence from organized crime in Mexico and slipover into the U.S.\" Hakim met with Calderon at a private dinner hosted by the Mexican president Sunday night. After his meeting with Obama on Monday, Calderon stressed the level to which the two nations are intertwined when it comes to security. \"The more secure Mexico is, the more secure the United States will be,\" the Mexican president said, first in Spanish and then in English, to make sure no one missed the point. Obama is likely receptive to that message, said Michael Shifter, a vice president at the Inter-American Dialogue. \"I think Obama is going to understand that Mexico is very important to the United States,\" Shifter told CNN last week. \"This isn't an issue that he has focused a lot of attention on up until now. But he's going to understand that if Mexico really deteriorates or if the violence spills over into the border states, this is a war that he really has to deal with.\" Drug-fueled violence reached record levels in Mexico last year, with around 5,400 slayings, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said last month. The situation is so dire in Mexico that the Joint Forces Command report says, \"In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.\" The report goes on to say that the \"Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.\"","highlights":"Presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama to meet Friday in Panama .\nThey will discuss ways of countering growing violence and drug-trafficking .\nDrug-fueled violence reached record levels in Mexico last year, with 5,400 slayings .\nInstability caused by crime in Mexico could threaten U.S. which shares a border .","id":"5c74e6df24cd8e8b4e54a23f5c3ab4c917ee151a"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Like that other famous environmentalist, Thomas Friedman began his talk at the Asia Society in Hong Kong on December 16 with a simple PowerPoint slide. But that's where the similarities between Al Gore and The New York Times columnist end. Thomas L. Friedman has taken on a green hue with his latest book, \"Hot, Flat and Crowded\". Unlike Gore, Friedman is a distinctly different shade of green, a deeply pragmatic green that believes economic forces can usher in a revolution in environmental policy. He argues that systemic change simply requires showing the world that it needs green technology and letting pure economics do the rest. As a journalist, Friedman makes no claims to having scientific expertise in climate change. He is approaching it from a philosophical standpoint. Green capital . Friedman's new book \"Hot, Flat and Crowded\" is not a major departure from his previous books. Whether he's discussing globalization or green industry, he is writing from his deep-seated belief in the markets. He is an unabashed capitalist. For Friedman, the system works but it's not immune to bad decision-making. Green industry like globalization will come of age if given the right market environment. His faith in capitalism is equal to that in green technology -- for him, these are two things that are clearly reconcilable. So how do we do this? America as the bastion for innovation, Friedman argues, should play a big role. In fact, he confesses it really isn't a book about the environment and energy, its a book about America. For Friedman, America is slipping down the ranks of hegemonic power and climate change is its big chance to reposition itself as a global leader. The environment is merely an allegory for how the U.S. will achieve this revival. As an extension of that argument, all countries need to do the same. Right now, no country has really taken the lead in environmental technology, so what we have at the moment is an all out race to the top. Indeed Friedman's book was written before the financial meltdown but recent events have furthered his argument that environmental technology is the solution of all solutions. It's a sentiment I also came across at the recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting. Green Dream Team . Friedman seemed cautiously optimistic about Obama's ability to lead the green revolution. Given the disarray of many of America's financial institutions, it's unclear whether this new green message will get through. A glimmer of hope however is Obama's newly appointed energy secretary Steven Chu. There's been extensive chatter about him on environmental blogs in recent days with the media calling Chu the head of Obama's \"Green Dream Team.\" Friedman made a ringing endorsement of Chu as did many in the audience that day. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and the head of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, is seen as a promising choice for many environmentalists, one perhaps that proves Obama's intention to fulfill a key campaign promise on energy policy. Chu himself underwent an interesting move from physics to environmental technology. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 but left the world of Quantum Physics to study the science of global warming. As head of Berkeley National Lab, he led projects to the tune of $650 million channeling much of it towards green technology to develop advanced biofuels and solar power. Watch a video of Steven Chu from Berkeley University . Changing light bulbs and leaders . The audience listening to Friedman that day was clearly appreciative of his no-nonsense approach to the green issue. As Friedman puts it, \"it's not about changing light bulbs, it's about changing leaders.\" He confessed to having attended too many Earth Day concerts in the past and that no matter how many celebrities you get to show up or how you offset the event, it won't be enough to set off this green revolution. So as I sat there wondering whether the fish the guests had been eating for lunch was sustainable, for Friedman, it didn't really matter. For his revolution, he had bigger fish to fry.","highlights":"Journalist and author of \"Hot, Flat and Crowded\" spoke at Hong Kong event .\nPragmatic approach to environmentalism also a means to transform U.S. economy .\nFor Friedman, innovation in energy technology is solution of all solutions .","id":"b193dfeedc74cd10d429a6c0997799f8778aba3c"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Oscar Reynoso owed his bosses $300,000, and he was running out of time. One anti-drug operation in Atlanta netted $10.6 million, 108 kilos of cocaine, 17 pounds of meth and 32 weapons. Gunmen snatched Reynoso and locked him in the basement of a home to try to settle the drug debt. He was chained to a wall of the basement by his hands and ankles, gagged and beaten. His captors, members of a powerful Mexican drug cartel, held Reynoso for ransom, chained in the sweltering, dirty basement for six days without food. Reynoso's ordeal could've been a scene from the drug war in Mexico. But it played out recently in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. U.S. federal agents are fighting to keep that kind of violence from gripping Atlanta, as the city known for Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines has become a major distribution hub for Mexican drug cartels. In fiscal year 2008, authorities confiscated about $70 million in drug-related cash in Atlanta, more than anywhere else in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration says. This fiscal year, Atlanta continues to outpace all other U.S. regions in such seizures, with $30 million confiscated so far. Next are Los Angeles, California, with about $19 million, and Chicago, Illinois, with $18 million. \"There is definitely a center of this type of drug activity here, and we are working to make sure the violence does not spill out to the general public,\" Atlanta U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said. Atlanta has become a stopping point for truckloads of Mexican cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine, agents say. The drugs are held in stash houses before being distributed up the East Coast. \"The money comes down here also to money managers in Atlanta, who get the books in order before it is sent out,\" said Rodney Benson, Atlanta's chief of the DEA. Agents attribute the growth in drug trafficking to Atlanta's location, proximity to other major cities and access to major highways. Authorities also point to the growth of the Hispanic population in Atlanta, which allows practitioners of the Mexican drug trade to blend in among hard-working, law-abiding Hispanics. No place is that more evident than in Gwinnett County, a community about 20 miles north of Atlanta. Gwinnett's Hispanic population rocketed from 8,470 in 1990 to 63,727 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census. By 2010, 20 percent of the county's projected population of 700,000 is expected to be Hispanic. \"In Gwinnett County, the drug dealers are able to hide in plain sight,\" county District Attorney Danny Porter said. \"To combat this, we have to be much more coordinated between my office, the police department and the federal authorities. The presence of the organizations is a dilemma enough that we have to develop new tactics.\" Federal agents say arrests and drug-related violence in Atlanta have been linked to the two most powerful Mexican organizations: the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels. A battle over drug routes has been blamed for the recent surge in violence in Mexican border towns, bloodshed that has included hundreds of deaths. The fear is that the battle will extend deeper into the United States, causing more to suffer a fate similar to Reynoso's ordeal in the Gwinnett County basement. Lucky for Reynoso, federal agents had a wiretap on his captors' phones. Agents stormed the home just as it appeared that the debt would not be paid and Reynoso would be killed. \"There is no doubt in my mind that we saved his life that day,\" said the DEA's Benson. One case resolved, as cartels thrive in Atlanta.","highlights":"City outpaces all others in the United States in drug-related cash seizures .\n$30 million has been confiscated in Atlanta this fiscal year .\nLocation, proximity to other cities and highways cited in trafficking growth .\nDrug dealers \"hide in plain sight\" in suburban Gwinnett County .","id":"e79e0c95311ff603e8d7a1a8179061c592aca14a"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's main political parties Sunday reached a deal designed to allow non-U.S. foreign troops to stay in the country past the end of the year, when a United Nations resolution authorizing their presence expires. Iraqi and British soldiers during an Iraqi army training session in Basra last week. The deal would set a deadline of July 31, 2009, for all non-U.S. foreign troops to withdraw, according to Abdul Hadi al-Hassani, a lawmaker with the main Shiite parliamentary bloc, who spoke to Iraqi state television on Sunday. The agreement awaits approval by Iraq's Parliament, which is expected to vote on the measure on Monday, several Iraqi lawmakers said. The emergency negotiations came after lawmakers Saturday rejected a similar proposal that would have been law. Sunday's proposal, by contrast, was drafted as a resolution that would empower the Cabinet to authorize international troop presence without requiring Parliament to pass a law. Washington and Baghdad have already worked out a separate agreement that will keep U.S. troops in Iraq but tighten restrictions on them. Countries other than the United States that have troops in Iraq could be left with no legal cover for their presence there if Baghdad does not act swiftly. Iraq's Cabinet had approved a draft law authorizing non-U.S. foreign troops Tuesday, the first step in passing legislation, but it fell at the next hurdle -- Parliament. That left lawmakers scrambling Sunday for a way to give foreign troops legal cover quickly. Lawmakers expect Sunday's agreement to cut through the problem, because a resolution can be passed in a single day, while it takes at least a week to pass a law. British government lawyers, meanwhile, are studying \"all possible options\" to legally extend the presence of British troops in Iraq beyond New Year's Day in case Iraq's Parliament rejects the new compromise. Britain has the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq -- about 4,100 -- after the United States, which has about 142,500. All other countries combined have only several hundred troops in the country. Britain and Iraq announced last week that British troops would begin leaving Iraq in May 2009, while a \"handful\" of British military personnel would remain after that date to continue naval training for Iraqi sailors, primarily to protect oil platforms. The United States reached a security agreement with Iraq in November. That deal, which was ratified by the Iraqi Parliament, calls for American troops to leave Iraqi cities by June 2009, and to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Beginning New Year's Day, U.S. commanders will have to get prior Iraqi government approval for any operations. American military personnel who commit crimes while not on duty or who commit grave crimes while on duty would be subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction under the new agreement. The U.S. security agreement does not govern the presence of troops from other coalition countries. The Parliament's rejection of the Cabinet's proposed law allowing foreign forces to remain in Iraq after January 1 came after heated arguments that lasted for days. The session became so contentious that Parliament's speaker threatened to resign, lawmakers said. Some political blocs, notably the Sadrists, oppose any extension of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq. That group, headed by Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr -- an anti-Western cleric -- is demanding an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces. CNN's Jill Dougherty and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Deal would permit non-U.S. troops to stay into 2009 .\nNEW: Agreement would set July 31 withdrawal deadline for those troops .\nU.K. examining options in case Iraqi Parliament doesn't OK deal .\nSadrists oppose any extension of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq .","id":"69c8fbda350314be68fe4db9f655ac16eec45390"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid a visit to Baghdad on Friday to congratulate its citizens for last weekend's \"remarkable\" Iraq-led provincial elections, a process he said \"augurs well for the transition process and the solidifying of Iraq's national reconciliation.\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, meets Friday in Baghdad with Iraq President Jalal Talabani. On a tour that also has taken him to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Ban met with Iraqi leaders and appeared at a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose allies won big in nine of the 14 provinces where the local elections were held. \"I have been following the electoral process closely from the early days of the parliamentary debate over the elections law last summer to the final stages of adjudication of the complaints and yesterday evening's release of the provisional results,\" Ban said at the news conference, according to prepared remarks issued by the United Nations. \"It will be some days before final results are known, but current indications are that the elections have been successfully carried out.\" Ban last visited Iraq in 2007. In March of that year, he got a taste of the violence that often rocks the Iraqi capital. An explosion rattled Baghdad's International Zone, where he was holding a televised news conference with al-Maliki. Apparently used to such blasts, al-Maliki remained stoic, while Ban briefly ducked before regaining his composure and continuing. Now, he said, he's \"very much impressed to have witnessed myself the great success and progress the Iraqi government and people have made under the leadership of Prime Minister Maliki, and I congratulate you,\" he said, emphasizing the improvements in security. The secretary-general praised the turnout of millions of voters in \"an environment free of violence,\" a development he called a \"remarkable achievement\" in a strife-torn nation. \"Iraq has come a long way in taking their own affairs in hand, this being the first Iraqi-led and Iraqi-owned electoral process. It is a tribute to the growing effectiveness of the Iraqi security forces, and testifies to the increasing stability in the country,\" he said. Ban praised Iraqi election officials, the local U.N. office and its special representative, Staffan de Mistura, and election workers. Voters in 14 of 18 provinces turned out last weekend to elect provincial councils. The nation's three Kurdish provinces will hold elections in May, and voting in Tameem province has been suspended because of political disputes in Kirkuk. \"This marks an important event, these being the first polls to affect the day-to-day lives of Iraqi voters,\" Ban said. \"In fact, these elections are about real power, in the sense that local leaders are nominated to be accountable for the delivery of basic services.\" The United Nations helped Iraq with logistics in its election process and plans to help in this year's parliamentary elections and to deal with sticky disputes, such as the status of Kirkuk and disputes over some internal boundaries. Al-Maliki thanked the United Nations for the supportive role it played. He noted that the provincial elections \"changed the political map\" of Iraq, but he said the elections were successful for all Iraqis. He said he was proud people voted for blocs based on political goals and not along sectarian and ethnic lines. Ban also met with the three members of the presidency council -- Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. secretary-general visits Iraq, lauds \"remarkable\" elections there .\nBan Ki-Moon last visited Iraq in 2007, when violence was still raging .\nVoters in 14 of 18 provinces turned out last weekend to cast ballots .\nIraq prime minister thanks United Nations for assistance, support .","id":"5a1090b00f7f66194f3b088e4d39bd410721a063"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden assured Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday that the incoming Obama administration will continue to support Pakistan's efforts to strengthen democracy and combat terrorism, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vice President-elect Joe Biden meets Pakistani officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday. Biden told Zardari that the new U.S. administration would also help Pakistan \"meet its socio-economic requirements and capacity building,\" the ministry said in a written statement. The vice president-elect \"assured the Pakistani leadership\" of the United States' \"continued assistance to Pakistan,\" the statement said. No additional details were provided. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, accompanied Biden on the trip. Biden \"described Pakistan as an incredibly valued U.S. ally and said that the U.S. recognized Pakistan's important contribution and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism,\" the ministry said. Zardari, who took office in September, said \"Pakistan needed the support and understanding of the international community in this effort,\" according to the statement. Pakistan's government is waging a bloody battle against Taliban and al Qaeda militants in its tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. The United States has provided Pakistan with billions of dollars in aid for those counterterrorism activities. Last year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill authorizing $7.5 billion in non-military aid over the next five years. The measure is sponsored by committee chairman Biden and the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. It would provide money for developments such as schools, roads and medical clinics, and it conditions security aid on State Department certification that Pakistan is making efforts against the Taliban and al Qaeda. The bill has not come before the full Senate. Biden also said he was hopeful that India and Pakistan could resolve their conflicts, according the ministry. \"The U.S. vice president-elect expressed the hope that both Pakistan and India will be able to overcome the current tensions and would resolve their differences peacefully,\" the ministry's statement said. November's attacks in Mumbai, India, fueled tensions between Pakistan and India, longtime rivals that have fought three wars since independence and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998. India has said Islamic militants trained in Pakistan were behind the three-day siege of India's financial capital. Pakistani officials have promised to cooperate with the investigation but have insisted that India show it the evidence supporting its case. On Wednesday, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the sole surviving suspect in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people, is a Pakistani national, state-run media reported.","highlights":"NEW: Vice President-elect Joe Biden hopes Pakistan, India overcome tensions .\nBiden and Sen. Lindsay Graham meet in Islamabad .\nBiden assures Pakistani president of support against terrorism .\nPakistan is one of main focus points in war to defeat the Taliban .","id":"356112828cd67593b7851b3f3b9868ef163f28db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Utah is the nation's fastest growing state, increasing 2.5 percent from July 2007 to July 2008, according to new population estimates from the Census Bureau. Barack Obama greets one of the newest members of the U.S. population this year on the campaign trail. The main reason for Utah's growth is a \"natural increase\" -- births minus deaths -- said Census Bureau demographer Greg Harper. \"Utah has a strong rate of natural increase and domestic migration, where more people move into the state and [are] not moving out,\" he said. \"Second is Arizona,\" Harper said. \"It grew by 2.3 percent, and the increase is due to domestic migration, meaning more people are moving into the state than moving out. Also, it's a natural increase, more people were born there than died.\" Arizona is followed by Texas, North Carolina and Colorado, each with a 2.0 percent growth rate. Texas added more people than any other state -- about 500,000 -- making it the third-fastest growing state. Because it has a larger population size, its percentage growth was less than Utah. \"Nevada was last year's fastest-growing state, but it fell to eighth,\" said Harper. \"Overall, that state had been among the four fastest-growing states each of the past 23 years.\" Only two states lost population: Michigan and Rhode Island, losing 0.5 and 0.2 percent respectively. Overall, Northeastern states are not growing as fast as other parts of the country, but they have been on the increase since 2005. The South added the most people during the period, 1.4 million. But Western states, with a 1.4 percent increase, saw the fastest growth rate. One state that has reversed its course of growth is Florida. A few years ago more than 250,000 people per year were moving there. But for 2007-2008, the state's 0.7 percent increase was below the nation's 0.9 percent overall increase. According to the estimates, the United States had a net gain of just over 2.7 million people from July 2007 to July 2008.","highlights":"Utah population grows 2.5 percent by \"natural increase,\" Census Bureau says .\nTexas adds more people than any other state -- about 500,000 .\nTwo states lose population: Michigan and Rhode Island .\nFigures are Census estimates for growth from July 2007 to July 2008 .","id":"e15d6ea99d8961aaa65ec768539d7bd0827a77d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Now that Caylee Anthony's remains have been identified, the search for the Florida toddler turns into a prosecution of her mother. Casey Anthony, 22, is accused of killing her daughter. Investigators say her alibi didn't check out. Although Orange County, Florida, Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia said Friday she could not determine how Caylee died, she concluded the death was a homicide. The child's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, faces charges including murder in the disappearance and death of Caylee, who was 2 when she vanished last summer. The remains were found last week in woods about a half-mile from Anthony's parents' house and identified through DNA testing. See where Caylee's skeleton was found \u00bb . On Saturday, investigators finished 10 days of sifting through the crime scene and served a warrant at the Anthony house for a third search for evidence, said Capt. Angelo Nieves of the Orange County sheriff's department. Cindy and George Anthony, the child's grandparents, were present for the search. The mother's defense team had claimed since her October indictment that the child might still be alive, even claiming witnesses spotted Caylee since her disappearance. The finding of the body \"has really cut the legs out of the defense,\" Stacey Honowitz, an assistant Florida state's attorney, said Friday night on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Watch experts size up the legal case \u00bb . The lack of a cause of death and the absence of any soft tissue on the toddler's skeletal remains poses a challenge for prosecutors, forensic expert Lawrence Kobilinsky, a defense consultant for Casey Anthony, told Larry King. \"If you don't have a cause of death, isn't it possible that it might have been an accident?\" Kobilinsky said. A murder conviction would require proof the victim was killed intentionally. Legal experts say duct tape reportedly found on the body could convince a judge or jury that Caylee's death was not an accident. Perhaps of greater significance, though, is Casey Anthony's behavior since -- and even before -- her child went missing. According to earlier reports, Caylee was the result of an unintended pregnancy, and Anthony made an attempt to give her up after birth. She referred to Caylee as \"the little snot head\" and continued to maintain an active social life. Follow a timeline of the case \u00bb . When Caylee went missing, Anthony did not tell her family for a month. It was the child's grandmother who called police. Anthony told conflicting stories at the beginning of the investigation, including a tale that Caylee was with a nanny. The name and address turned out to be bogus. As police searched for Caylee, they say Anthony's active social life continued -- including one memorable evening dancing at an Orlando bar that was hosting \"Hot Body Contest.\" Investigators said they found the scent of decomposing flesh and a trace of chloroform, a powerful knockout agent, in the trunk of a car Anthony drove at the time. Anthony's family offered various explanations, including a rotting pizza and a dead squirrel. Watch a tribute to the little girl \u00bb . On the Anthonys' home computer, police found there had been searches for chloroform, missing children and \"neck-breaking,\" although Garavaglia said Friday that she did not find evidence of trauma to the bones. \"The prosecution is going to have a great deal of circumstantial evidence, and this is a physical evidence case,\" Kobilinsky said. \"This is not a question about credibility, although obviously a jury looks at credibility and contradictions, but the physical evidence will either include her or exclude Casey. It's an uphill battle for the defense.\" Nevertheless, forensic expert Kathy Reichs, who also is working with Anthony's defense team, sees an opening. \"Given that there's no evidence as to the cause of death, ... you could have an accidental death and a mother that panics,\" she told King. \"There are alternative explanations.\" Perhaps not enough to save Anthony, said famed defense attorney Mark Geragos, who is not associated with the case. \"The defense will try to focus, I'm sure, on all of the forensic evidence and whatever else they can do,\" he told King. \"But they're always going to be up against it with the 'She didn't act right' evidence, and that's the hardest thing to combat in this case.\" Prosecutors don't need to show what killed Caylee, Geragos said. The defense needs to overcome Casey Anthony's statements and behavior. \"Somebody is going to have to give an explanation at some point as to when she last saw the child, who she gave the child to,\" he said. \"And until that is done, I don't care what they put together, it's not going to carry any weight.\"","highlights":"Casey Anthony's defense team has big challenge, experts say .\nLack of cause of death, physical evidence could hinder prosecution .\nMother's partying, other behavior don't help her defense .\nOfficials have identified remains of Florida toddler who vanished last summer .","id":"f011151803990e1915abafef6dc537245b59c952"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Most people like gossip. Come on! You do too. Don't you glance every once in a while at US Weekly, In Touch, Page Six? And how about that Spitzer scandal -- even I can't get enough of that one. A freshman talks about how cruel postings on the Juicy Campus web site have tainted her college experience. But what happens when the gossip is about you or your boyfriend or your kid? And what if it's there on the Internet, for the entire world to see on a Web site called Juicy Campus? That's what happened to Jane Smith (her name has been changed to protect her privacy), a college freshman I spoke with recently. She said she learned from a friend that her name had been posted on the Web site and people were anonymously posting not so nice things about her. Things like she was promiscuous, \"ugly,\" \"overrated,\" \"racist.\" Things she says are not true. Her post has received over a thousand page views -- in non-techie speak, everyone is reading and writing about her. She even got a request for a \"hook up\" from a guy hundreds of miles away at another college. She told me that when she read the posts, she felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. She called her parents in the middle of the night crying. She has lost weight, has trouble sleeping, and has become suspicious of those around her. She told me that it has ruined her freshman year -- and will likely taint her entire college experience. Watch how campus poison pens inflict pain \u00bb . So what is Juicy Campus and who is behind it? Juicy Campus is a Web site, founded on August 1, 2007, which claims to have \"the simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses.\" The site allows and encourages posters to anonymously post uncensored gossip and rumors -- the juicier the better -- about others. There is a separate section on the site for each college or university, over 60 campuses at last count. Some recent posts discuss the breasts of a professor, sluttiest girls and sexiest guys on campus. Some posts even contain racist, sexist and anti-Semitic remarks. Juicy, huh? It was founded by a Duke alum, a former frat house president who has gone to lengths to keep his identity secret. We tried to reach him for comment. He didn't return our calls or e-mails. Instead, we received this not-so-juicy statement from a publicist: . \"While there has been much attention given to the critics ... Thousands of students from across the country have written in to request that their campus be added.\" Come on! Why is he hiding? Jane can't even sue him. In fact, there is little she can do. Juicy Campus and similar Web sites are protected under Communications Decency Act of 1996. The Act aims to shield Web publishers from liability for libelous comments posted by third parties. The section states \"no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.\" Juicy Campus is one of those sites that openly hides behind its immunity. The site's Frequently Asked Questions page states: \"There is no way for someone using the site to find out who you are. And we at Juicy Campus are not keeping track of who you are or what you post. In fact, we prefer not to know who you are. We like to think that famous people like Justin Timberlake and Beyonce are using our site. We love them ...\" But what about those cowards, I mean posters, who like to call people names behind the wizard's curtain of protection provided by the Communications Decency Act? The First Amendment certainly protects free speech, even unpopular speech. Opinions are protected. The truth is protected. But lies are not. To successfully sue the posters, Jane would have to show that they made false and defamatory statements about her (racist and slutty would qualify, I think) published them to a third party (I read them) and that her reputation was damaged (check). In fact, most jurisdictions also recognize \"per se\" defamation, where the allegations are presumed to cause damage to the plaintiff, such as attacks on a person's professional character or standing; allegations that an unmarried person is unchaste; a person is infected with a sexually transmitted disease or has committed a crime of \"moral turpitude.\" Should Jane sue the pants off the posters? How would she find them? When you file a civil lawsuit against even an anonymous individual, a judge can issue a subpoena. Juicy Campus says it will respond to any \"lawful subpoena.\" A subpoena could reveal a poster's IP address. But in the end, it really is sooooo high school. Actually, it's more grade school. So Juicy Campus posters, come out, come out wherever you are. Or Jane, file a lawsuit and find them. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"College gossip site Juicy Campus allows anonymous posting .\nSome of the postings are gossipy, others are cruel .\nOpinions are protected under the law, lies are not .\nLegal action may be difficult unless site cooperates in identifying posters .","id":"e33a47f102aade5c9ecc4c760a38ebcbcf727175"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's government has authorized Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to submit to Washington amendments to a draft security agreement with the United States, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday. Students protest the status-of-forces agreement Tuesday at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University. Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi government approved several amendments that were \"necessary, essential and appropriate\" to the draft status-of-forces agreement, which would set the terms for U.S. troops in Iraq after the United Nations mandate on their presence expires at the end of this year. \"The Iraqi government authorizes the prime minister to bring up these amendments to the U.S. side in order to reach a draft agreement that will preserve the fundamental principles and the sovereignty of Iraq and its high interests,\" al-Dabbagh said. It is unclear when al-Maliki will submit the changes to the draft document. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said that there was \"great reluctance\" to make any more changes to the agreement. However, senior U.S. officials -- speaking under the condition of anonymity -- are not ruling out possibly renegotiating parts of the deal with Iraq if the country's parliament does not approve it. The most vocal opponent of the draft security deal in Iraq has been the political party of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which opposes any U.S. military presence in Iraq. U.S. military helicopters Tuesday flew over Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, where hundreds of students took part in a demonstration organized by the Sadr movement against the status-of-forces deal. \"We are against this agreement between the Iraqi government and between the American government because it is against Iraqi sovereignty,\" said law student Ahmed Fadhil Abbas, one of the demonstrators. Fellow demonstrator and law student Hisham Mohammed said the students plan to organize a sit-in and a strike across universities in Iraq to protest the agreement. The draft status-of-forces agreement, according to a copy obtained by CNN, calls for U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraqi cities and villages by July 30, 2009, and out of the country entirely by December 31, 2011. The agreement allows for an earlier withdrawal or an extension of the U.S. forces' stay in Iraq, by agreement of both parties. It also allows the Iraqi government to ask \"the United States government to leave certain forces for training and for support purposes for the Iraqi forces.\" Legal jurisdiction over U.S. forces in Iraq has been a sticking point in the negotiation, with the U.S. side preferring that its troops and contractors remain immune from Iraqi law. Baghdad had sought the power to arrest and try Americans accused of crimes not related to official military operations, plus jurisdiction over troops and contractors who commit major crimes in the course of their duties. Under the draft agreement, U.S. forces or contractors who commit \"major and premeditated murders\" while off duty and outside U.S. facilities would fall under Iraqi jurisdiction, according to the copy obtained by CNN. All other crimes -- and murders committed inside U.S. facilities or by on-duty forces -- would fall under American jurisdiction, the agreement says.","highlights":"Official calls changes \"necessary, essential and appropriate\" to the draft agreement .\nStatus-of-forces pact would set terms for U.S. troops in Iraq after U.N. mandate ends .\nU.S. has shown \"great reluctance\" to change pact but hasn't ruled out renegotiations .\nHundreds of students protest status-of-forces deal Tuesday at university in Baghdad .","id":"d3adcf013125ab88e0df6c446e3a978ed0bb1ea1"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A huge man-made island shaped like a date palm tree opened Thursday off the coast of Dubai with a celebrity-studded gala and a three-day party. The island officially opens with a spectacular fireworks display. The Palm Jumeirah increased Dubai's shoreline by 100 percent after work started on it in 2001. It features resort hotels, homes, luxury shopping and entertainment. Though the entire island officially opened Thursday, parts of it already opened weeks ago -- including the Atlantis, The Palm, a sister to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. The Atlantis played host to the opening celebration Thursday night. Stars including Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson and the Duchess of York were in attendance. Pop star Kylie Minogue performed at the party. Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra started what was billed as the world's largest-ever fireworks display, with more than 100,000 pyrotechnic devices. When work on the island began, a team of Dutch engineers were employed to create the Palm by using a technique called rainbowing -- a vessel dredging sand from the seabed and spraying and piling it onto the desired area and into the requested shape.","highlights":"The Palm Jumeirah man-made island officially opens off Dubai .\nThe island of luxury shops, hotels, entertainment doubled Dubai coastline .\nRobert De Niro, Janet Jackson and the Duchess of York at opening party .","id":"ccaf053c87d21a67aec33c5f89e37c4ade7aa9f5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A yellow smiley-face badge, smeared with blood, has become the trademark for \"Watchmen,\" the most critically revered of all comic books -- but it could also represent its troubled journey from page to big screen. \"Watchmen\" opens with the unexplained murder of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Note smiley badge. The subject of fervent debate in the geekosphere for more than two decades, \"Watchmen\" finally rolls out in the U.S. and other territories from the first week of March onward. But it's not as well known to wider audiences, who may puzzle at all this heat about a superhero movie with no A-list star attached. Instead, they may simply ask: \"Watch-what?\" \"Watchmen,\" created by the UK comic-book team of writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, surfaced in 1986 as a monthly 12-issue series published by DC Comics (part of Time Warner, which owns CNN parent company Turner Broadcasting). Are you looking forward to \"Watchmen?\" Or think it's just hype? It was a defining year for the medium: aside from \"Watchmen,\" '86 also saw Pulitzer-prize winning holocaust drama \"Maus,\" from The New Yorker contributor Art Spielgeman; and Frank Miller's hyperviolent Batman reworking \"The Dark Knight Returns.\" \"Watchmen,\" which takes place in 1985, is set in a parallel world where America never lost Vietnam, Russia is about to invade Afghanistan and Richard Nixon still holds power (Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were murdered). Meanwhile a superhero team -- only one of whom has special powers -- reforms after a fellow operative is mysteriously slain. But what lifts \"Watchmen\" above its superhero peers is a complex, multi-layered narrative and depth of characterization that ensured it was the only comic book to make Time's 100 best novels since 1923. A dark, downbeat work with a heady 11th-hour twist, it puts as much store on subsidiary characters like a newspaper seller as its does blue-skinned man-god Dr. Manhattan. Its influence can be traced to current small-screen favorites like \"Heroes\" and \"Lost.\" Watch \"Watchmen\" trailer. \u00bb . Perfect fodder, one might think, for the multiplex -- but \"Watchmen\" has been lodged in Development Hell for the best part of two decades. At various times Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vin Diesel were mooted to play Manhattan; Mickey Rourke and Ed Norton were suggested for right-wing vigilante Rorschach. Directors set to shoot have included Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greengrass and David Hayter (whose script has been retained for much of the final film). Several planned shoots failed to materialize due to studio fears about the budget (locations include Antarctica and Mars as well as New York) and how the ending might be perceived in a post-9\/11 world. But film-makers such as Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro also believed that the complex material would be better treated as a TV mini-series. As the latter, the \"Pan's Labyrinth\" filmmaker, told IGN: \"I just couldn't get my head around 'Watchmen' being two or three hours long.\" Whoever made \"Watchmen\" would also do so without Moore's blessing. Still resident in his hometown of Northampton, central England, Moore cuts an imposing figure. At least six-and-a-half feet tall, with chest-length beard and hair, talon-like rings on his fingers and the skull of a centuries-old Buddhist monk in his study, he resembles Doctor Who as reimagined by Edgar Allan Poe. (In person he's gracious and affable, as this writer will attest from a few years back.) Moore has had a mixed relationship with both the mainstream comic-book industry (which he accuses of over-commercialization and exploiting creators' rights) and Hollywood. The comic-book series \"From Hell,\" in which Moore uses the Jack the Ripper killings as a precursor to 20th-century violence, runs to about 500 pages, including 40-plus pages of footnotes. On film it became a melodramatic pad around Victorian London, gamely carried by a pre-\"Pirates\" Johnny Depp. Two other Moore adaptations also failed to translate. Stephen Norrington's \"The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen\" (2003) was widely derided and the subject of a court case into which Moore was dragged; by the time of James McTeigue's better judged \"V For Vendetta\" (2005), Moore had asked his name be taken off any movie adaptations and refused to take royalties. Enter Zack Snyder. In 2004, Snyder came to the attention of mainstream cinemagoers with his well-regarded remake of George A. Romero's zombie flick \"Dawn of The Dead.\" Following the $450m-plus taken worldwide by Snyder's \"300\" (2006) -- a hyper-stylized take on Frank Miller's ancient Greek suicide-mission -- it was announced that \"Watchmen\" would be his next project with Warner Bros. Paramount, which abandoned plans for the movie in 2005, took international rights. The $150-million feature went into production in Vancouver in mid-2007, wrapping in early 2008, and with a cast including Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley. Snyder has retained \"Watchmen's\" 1980s setting and also recruited original artist Gibbons -- who still retains friendship with Moore -- to advise on production design. Mindful that a narrative so complex could never work as a movie, Snyder has jettisoned several parallel subplots, which will surface as DVD extras and in director's cuts. Word is that the ending has also been changed. But wary of over-tweaking, Snyder told Entertainment Weekly last year: \"You can't make it into something else, you really can't. It's not 'Fantastic Four,' it's got to be hard R [cinema rating], it's got to challenge everyone's ideas.\" Meanwhile Moore, who sometimes mentions that he worships a Roman snake-god, hinted in the LA Times that he had cursed the feature. \"I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come,\" he added. So was it Moore who saw \"Watchmen\" end up in the courts for a case that risked scuppering its release? Last year Twentieth Century Fox claimed it still retained rights through an earlier deal with producer Lawrence Gordon in the 1980s; Warners Bros. disagreed but a judge decided there was a case to answer. A settlement was eventually thrashed out last month, only weeks ahead of release. And so \"Watchmen\" ticks toward early March and a rollout in spring, the now-traditional season for edgier comic-book adaptations like \"300\" and \"Sin City.\" Trailers and early footage have drawn praise, with several scenes playing like detailed frames from the original artwork. But key will be whether Snyder can match \"Watchmen's\" dramatic beats against its green-screen chicanery for more than two hours (the Internet Movie Database lists the running time at 163 minutes). After all, successfully mixing pyrotechnics and narrative is how the most satisfying genre features of recent years -- such as Peter Jackson's \"Lord Of The Rings\" trilogy and Christopher Nolan's \"The Dark Knight\" -- have found artistic, as well as commercial, favor. Should Snyder pull it off then will he earn the gratitude of fan boys everywhere, as well as no small thanks from a fair few movie executives. What Alan Moore might think is another issue. 'Watchmen' is released in the UK on 6 March.","highlights":"Comic-book movie, directed by Zack Snyder, took two decades to reach cinemas .\nDirectors Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greengrass, previously attached .\nSource material regarded by many as the best comic-book ever written .\nCo-creator Alan Moore has objected to the idea of story being made into movie .","id":"09d95513143829486be87d83fe09cdf2b98ac13d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- First it was the airlines, now it's the turn of hotels to take the budget concept into the mainstream. Demand is surging for cheaper hotel rooms, not just from thrifty tourists but also from business travelers in search of value. And budget brands are responding to the demand with ambitious expansion plans. Not just for backpackers: easyGroup opened its first budget hotel in 2005 targeting short-stay tourists. Other brands are improving the . service to woo business travelers. According to recent research from market analyst Mintel, the UK budget hotel market increased by 38 percent between 2002 and 2006, to reach \u00a31 billion. This growth was three times that of the overall UK hotel market. And while top-end establishments prepare for a decline as consumer spending falls, budget hotels are determined they are recession resilient. Research from Melvin Gold Consulting for Travelodge last year predicted the budget sector will grow by a further 10 percent in the next five years. By 2027 it will account for over a quarter of the total supply of hotels in the UK with almost 850,000 rooms. In the U.S., budget hotels already account for 33 percent of the supply and 24 percent in France, says the report. Premier Inn, the 500-strong UK budget chain (that added 2,500 rooms to its portfolio last year and plans to add another 3,500 this year) is now taking the budget model further afield. In March the chain, owned by Whitbread, will unveil a hotel in Dubai and it is currently scouring India for sites. The boom in budget hotels has been greatest in China. Here both businessmen and tourists, foreign and domestic, are relishing the arrival of rooms that cost less than $50 a night. There are nearly 100 economic hotel chain brands in China, over 1,000 budget hotels with over 100,000 rooms. Brands are both local and from overseas including Accor's Ibis and Wyndham Hotel Group's Super 8. More budget rooms are likely to emerge this year in the build-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing in August. Home Inns, the largest budget hotel chain in mainland China, has built 400 hotels in just five years. They plan to grow this to more than 1,000 hotels in three to four years in cities across China as well as further afield in Asia. In Europe, Richard Cope, senior travel analyst at Mintel said the arrival of boutique and lifestyle brands such as The Big Sleep, the Hoxton Hotel and base2stay raised the game of the sector by providing an affordable but luxurious alternative. New capsule hotels such as Yotel and nitenite also helped boost the market, he added. The increased interest from business travelers in value from hotels has been a further boost. According to a recent study by TRI\/BDRC business travelers spent 1.5 million nights in budget hotels in the UK in 2006, up from 0.93 million in 2000 and only 0.38 million in 1994. In the U.S., 74 percent of travel managers that responded to a Runzheimer International survey last year said their business travelers now frequently use economy-type hotels. And although first-class properties continue to be used most often, economy-type hotel use is up 31 percent from the previous four years. Electronics firm, Royal Philips Electronics spends about $134 million globally on hotels every year. Currently three per cent of this is with budget chains, including Accor's Ibis and Holiday Inn Express. This may sound small, says Roman Asboth, Philips' senior sourcing specialist for hotels, but it adds up to an impressive $3.7 million every year. And that figure is rising, he adds. Travelers choosing the budget option, says Asboth, are not just from lower down the organizational ranks. Managers and even executives conscious of cost are also making the switch. As Asboth says, it all comes down to a perception of value. \"Travelers come back from a trip to New York having paid more than $300 for a lousy room that hasn't been renovated in ages and they don't see the worth. But they come back from a Holiday Inn Express, which is brand new, and they are more than happy.\" Phillips is also making increased use of serviced guest apartments -- particularly in countries such as India -- that offer the same level of quality as a four or five star property for a budget price. Sally Rademaker, travel sourcing manager, sub-Saharan Africa at Ericsson says while budget may not be an option in Africa, where they pay a premium for security at top end hotels, the communications firm is considering budget options in Europe and the United States where quality is better. \"Of course business travelers would prefer to stay in a five or four star hotel given the choice,\" she acknowledges. \"But if the reasons given are good enough, and we choose somewhere where the standard is acceptable and it is in a good location, then they accept it.\" Gerard Tempest, marketing director at Premier Inn believes budget hotels offer a genuine alternative to mid-market hotels with the same convenience and quality but at better value. \"Every guest bedroom gets refurbished every 24 months which is extremely frequent compared to the wider hotel industry,\" says Tempest. Premier Inn is also refurbishing rooms to a higher quality than some mid-market chains, he says. Following the acquisition of a chain of mid-market hotels last year, they invested a further $10 million to meet their \"budget\" standards. All desks and chairs in rooms are ergonomically designed, desks are cleared of clutter and Wifi is available in every hotel. Some Premier Inns also feature meeting space for business travelers as well as branches of Costa Coffee also owned by parent company Whitbread. \"Business customers are responding well to these and using them as meeting places,\" says Tempest. So with recession looming could this be the end of Egyptian sheets and luxury saunas for business travelers? Perhaps not, but in cities where rates continue to increase even for poorest quality rooms, the budget option may not be as bad as all that. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Growth of budget hotels has been three times that of overall hotel market .\nDemand is strong among tourists and business travelers in Europe U.S. and China .\nBoutique budget brands have helped raise the profile of the economical option .","id":"adf150b203ce3d4db35f9c9fe4c5ae2af9e3ec90"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two Supreme Court justices on opposite sides of the ideological aisle exchanged tough words Monday over the fate of a Florida murderer who has been on death row for 32 years. Siding with the court's majority, Justice Clarence Thomas described brutal details of a Florida slaying. The high court has refused to hear the appeal of William Thompson, who had plead guilty twice in the March 1976 kidnapping and torture-murder of a woman. His case and subsequent appeals have been litigated since, but a new execution date has not been set. A key part of his request to be spared lethal injection is that three decades as a capital inmate constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. \"Our experience during the past three decades has demonstrated that delays in state-sponsored killings are inescapable and that executing defendants after such is unacceptably cruel,\" said Justice John Paul Stevens, who disagreed with the court's decision to allow the execution to proceed. He was supported by Justice Stephen Breyer in his objection to the court's ruling on Monday in the case, Thompson v. McNeil (08-7369). But Justice Clarence Thomas took issue with his colleagues' conclusions. \"It is the crime and not the punishment imposed by the jury or the delay in execution that was 'unacceptably cruel,'\" he responded. Thomas took time in his concurrence to detail the graphic crime that led to the conviction of Thompson and his co-defendant. The men had held Sally Ivester and another woman in a motel room and were demanding money from the victim's families. Ivester had promised she could raise hundreds of dollars but was only able to secure $25. That enraged the men who savagely beat the woman with a belt, chair leg and nightstick, causing internal injuries. She was also burned with cigarettes. The other woman witnessed the murder and said she feared for her life if she tried to leave. Thompson and his co-defendant both pleaded guilty but the state's high court initially tossed out Thompson's sentence. The man's lawyer had told the defendant if he accepted responsibility for the crime, he would not get the death penalty, a crucial mistake. Thompson later pleaded guilty a second time and again received a capital sentence. Then he began a series of appeals, claiming ineffective counsel, trial errors, limited mental capacity and a dysfunctional childhood. All those factors were ultimately rejected by state and federal courts. Stevens noted that during a third penalty hearing, five members of a state advisory jury recommended against lethal injection, but the court again imposed death. The circumstances of his current imprisonment, said Stevens, no longer justify such a sentence. \"As he awaits execution, petitioner has endured especially severe conditions of confinement,\" said Stevens, \"spending up to 23 hours per day in isolation in a 6- by 9-foot cell. Two death warrants have been signed against him and stayed only shortly before he was scheduled to die. The dehumanizing effects of such treatment are undeniable.\" But Thomas said all such inmates are subjected to a \"restricted confinement\" because of the security risks they pose. And the prisoner had only himself to blame for his prolonged imprisonment on death row. Quoting his conclusions from a similar 1999 capital case, Thomas said, \"I remain unaware of any support in the American constitutional tradition of this Court's precedence for the proposition that a defendant can avail himself of the panoply of appellate and collateral procedures and then complain when his execution is delayed.\" Thomas has long backed the right of states to impose death sentences. Stevens, who as a newly seated justice cast a key 1976 vote upholding the death penalty, has since grown increasingly frustrated with how it its carried out. Last April, he declared his open opposition to it. \"I have relied on my own experience in reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes,\" he wrote. \"A penalty with such negligible returns to the state (is) patently excessive and cruel and unusual punishment violative of the Eighth Amendment.\" The 88-year-old justice was supported by three of his more liberal colleagues. But Stevens also said he would respect court precedents in favor of capital punishment.","highlights":"Florida killer says 32 years on death row is cruel and unusual punishment .\nWilliam Thompson faces execution for 1976 torture killing .\nJustice Clarence Thomas cites details of brutal crime .\nCourt rejects Thompson's appeal .","id":"a7e655ed66bc99b9e33c7cd3293a571b5a290111"} -{"article":"Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. The U.S. Interior Department is considering changing regulations on guns in national parks. CHANTILLY, Virginia (CNN) -- I'm at the Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia, the biggest gun store in northern Virginia. I'm looking at a holster on the hip of Arsenal's John Summer in which a black .22-caliber pistol sits snugly. I didn't notice it before because Summer is wearing a large plaid shirt, not tucked in, covering his navy blue polo shirt. But he sweeps the big shirt back and tells me, \"I've been to 7-Eleven, Starbucks -- you can go to Applebee's and have dinner.\" \"With a gun?\" I ask. \"With a gun,\" he says with a nod. Summer has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, so he can go to dinner with a gun whenever he wants. He can also wear his gun openly almost any place in Virginia. That's the law. The next place he may be able to take his loaded, concealed weapon is to a national park. That's because the U.S. Interior Department is considering a proposal from 51 U.S. senators to change its regulations on guns in national parks. As the law stands, a person can take a gun -- unloaded -- into a national park, but it must be packed away or rendered temporarily inoperable. The country's 391 national parks, recreation areas, monuments and scenic trails are operated under a single set of regulations by the U.S. Interior Department. The proposed change would have the parks adopt the gun laws of the state in which they are located. This means a person would be able to take a loaded, concealed weapon into a national park if he or she holds a valid permit to carry a concealed weapon in a given state and as long as they would be allowed to carry a concealed weapon in that state's parks. Summer tells me that's a good idea. In some national parks out west \"you could flat out dead sprint for an hour and never see another human being -- except maybe a drug dealer,\" he says, \"in which case he's probably got a gun.\" Gregory Hylinski, a gun owner from Connecticut visiting a friend, tells me there's another reason for guns in national parks: \"It's important for people to be able to protect themselves at all times and in all places even from wild animal attacks.\" When Maureen Finnerty hears warning like that she gives an exasperated shrug. Finnerty and I are walking down a path in the woods not far from her house. She worked for 31 years with the National Park Service, including six years as Associate Director of Park Operations in Washington. \"Right now parks are very safe, they're very safe places to take your family,\" she tells me. \"Our crime statistics are very, very low and you put loaded weapons in people's hands and there's a tremendous possibility that there will be increased violence.\" Finnerty knows the National Park Service statistics by heart. The latest data, from 2006, shows 272,623,980 people visited the parks that year. There were 11 cases of homicide or manslaughter, 61 robberies and 35 rapes or attempted rapes. \"Now, could something happen? Of course it could happen, but the chances are extremely, extremely remote,\" she says. Finnerty is a member of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, which includes a number of former directors. The group is actively lobbying against the change, insisting the current regulations are working. The proposed change, their Web site says, \"could significantly increase the danger to visitors in national parks.\" It would put wildlife at risk, they claim, and make poaching easier. But Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association, tells me many states allow residents with permits to carry guns in state parks -- why not the federal government? \"They (the states) have changed their firearms laws within the last 15 years to allow good people to protect themselves from bad people and this simply puts federal law in compliance with that change in terms of state law.\" Finnerty sees another reason behind the proposal: \"I think this is an attempt by the policy people in the [Bush] administration,\" she says, \"to take care of one of their very important constituencies, the National Rifle Association.\" A half-hour drive and I am at Great Falls National Park. The water far below at Mather Gorge is white with foam. Half of this park is in Virginia, where gun laws allow people with permits to carry concealed weapons; half is in Maryland, where they do not. If the regulations are changed, the National Park Service says they will put up signs and run educational outreach to explain the law. I strike up a conversation with photographer Maria Stenzel. She's watching the gray heron. \"We have too many weapons already,\" she tells me. \"We have too much violence all over the country and we don't need to allow them in new places.\" Graduate student Nathanael Snow, watching the Potomac River roar downstream, says, \"For me, I feel safer if I know that people who are qualified and proficient in handling a weapon have it on them because the bad guys are going to have guns on them anyway.\" The public has until the end of June to comment on the proposed change. The Interior Department then will decide.","highlights":"A new proposal would change regulations on guns in national parks .\nIt would allow the parks to adopt the same gun laws as the state they are in .\nNow the parks operate under U.S. Department of the Interior regulations .\nProponents say guns would increase safety, opponents say the opposite is true .","id":"238c0c7950f86f0bc99368db527bdee96171b8f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven states and two organizations have sued the Bush administration in an attempt to block a federal regulation that would further protect health care workers who refuse to perform abortions or other medical procedures because of religious or moral reasons. A rule protecting the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures is under fire. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of his state, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. Blumenthal said the regulation would put women's health care at risk and would undercut state contraception laws. \"On its way out, the Bush administration has left a ticking legal time bomb set to explode literally the day of the inaugural and blow apart vital constitutional rights and women's health care,\" Blumenthal said in a statement. \"Women's health may be endangered -- needlessly and unlawfully -- if this rule is allowed to stand.\" He said the regulation \"intentionally shrouds\" abortion in \"new and unnecessary ambiguity,\" encouraging individuals to define it and to \"deny virtually all forms of contraceptions, even emergency contraception to rape victims.\" The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and American Civil Liberties Union, which was acting on behalf of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, also filed separate suits Thursday. The Department of Health and Human Services said the regulation would allow the federal government to withhold federal funds for state and local governments, health plans and health care facilities that do not follow existing federal laws that ban discrimination against doctors and other health workers who refuse to participate in procedures such as sterilizations or abortions or to make referrals for such procedures. \"We have not had an opportunity to review the lawsuits and we will respond to the court on any pending litigation,\" department spokeswoman Rebecca Ayers said in an e-mail. \"The department followed appropriate procedures to put the regulation in place and the regulation is fully supported by law.\" The department promulgated the rule last month. \"Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,\" Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement then. \"This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience.\" The department has said that it believes the public and health care providers are unaware of the federal anti-discrimination laws. \"Many health care providers routinely face pressure to change their medical practice -- often in direct opposition to their personal convictions,\" said the department's assistant secretary of health, Adm. Joxel Garcia, in a statement in December. \"During my practice as an OB-GYN, I witnessed this firsthand. Health care providers shouldn't have to check their consciences at the hospital door. Fortunately, Congress enacted several laws to that end, but too many are unaware these protections exist.\"","highlights":"Connecticut attorney general: Regulation would put women's health care at risk .\nRule further protects health workers who refuse procedures on moral grounds .\nDepartment of Health and Human Services promulgated the rule last month .\nHHS: Rule protects workers' right to care for patients in accord with their conscience .","id":"bac6071e32cb630b305c335288d43fece39f7716"} -{"article":"PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- The United States no longer supports a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the country's main opposition because a viable unity government is not possible with Mugabe in power, a top U.S. diplomat said Sunday. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, in a speech to supporters Saturday, refused calls to step down. The statement from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer follows recent calls from President Bush and other world leaders for Mugabe to abandon power amid a growing cholera epidemic that the United Nations says has killed more than 1,000 people in recent months. Frazer visited southern Africa to articulate the change in U.S. policy toward Mugabe at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She made the comments Sunday during a roundtable discussion with journalists in Pretoria, South Africa, before her expected return to the United States later in the day. She called for a new vote in Zimbabwe. \"Fresh elections are necessary but not possible under the current environment,\" Frazer told reporters. Zimbabwe has had no Cabinet since the March presidential election, during which no candidate won enough votes to avoid a runoff, according to the government. After opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from a June runoff, saying Mugabe's supporters had waged a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, Tsvangirai and Mugabe reached a power-sharing agreement that has yet to be implemented. The political impasse has aggravated the country's humanitarian and economic crisis, including a cholera outbreak that began in August. Frazer said that during her trip, she consulted with the leaders of Zimbabwe's neighbors who are stuck between their concerns about Mugabe's grip on power and their support of the power-sharing agreement, which they still think is the best way to deal with the crisis without creating a backlash. Frazer said she believes it could be weeks before African leaders put pressure on Mugabe to step down, which she said could be achieved by simply telling him with one voice that he should go. She said the U.N. Security Council will deal with the issue of Zimbabwe next month. This time, she said, South Africa will not be able to block resolutions calling for more sanctions because South Africa will no longer hold a seat on the council in 2009. Watch what options the international community has in Zimbabwe . \"The South African government will be held responsible for what is happening in Zimbabwe because they are the country with the most influence in Zimbabwe than any other in the world,\" Frazer said. The Security Council's recent failure to impose sanctions on Mugabe's regime drew scoffs from the 84-year-old Mugabe, who has accused Britain -- Zimbabwe's former colonizer -- of trying to take over the country to get its resources. Tsvangirai said Friday that his party will withdraw from efforts to form a unity government unless 42 party members who have been kidnapped are either released or brought to court to face formal charges by New Year's Day. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai, have failed to implement the September 15 power-sharing deal because they cannot agree on who should control key ministries. Under the deal, brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe would remain president while Tsvangirai would become Zimbabwe's prime minister. There had been hope that a unity government would reverse Mugabe's policies, which are widely blamed for the country's economic crisis. Mugabe blames economic sanctions imposed by Western nations for Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, is now a net importer of food and facing acute shortages of most essentials such as fuel, electricity and medical drugs. Its inflation rate -- the highest in the world -- is officially at 231 million percent. Last week, Zimbabwe's central bank introduced a $10 billion note worth less than 20 U.S. dollars. Mugabe has repeatedly refused calls from Western leaders to step down, most recently telling his supporters late Saturday that he would not follow the U.S. president to his \"political death.\" \"They now want to topple the Mugabe government. Mugabe must go because Bush is going,\" he said in his address Saturday to his party's 10th annual conference outside Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. \"Zimbabweans will refuse that one of their sons must accompany Bush to his political death,\" Mugabe said. \"Is it a ritual now that Bush with his political death must be accompanied by some African from Zimbabwe, and that African must be the leader himself, and that leader is Mugabe?\" Mugabe did not mention the cholera epidemic, which his government has said is under control despite the United Nations' assessment that half the country's population may be at risk. There are more than 20,000 suspected cases of the water-borne disease in Zimbabwe, and the U.N. said it fears that number will triple by the time the rainy season ends in April. In addition to Bush, the leaders of Britain, France and several African countries have called on Mugabe to abandon power and let a national unity government take over to help prevent the cholera epidemic from spilling across Zimbabwe's borders.","highlights":"U.S. diplomat: Zimbabwe power-share deal can't work with President Robert Mugabe .\nPower-share deal is stalled because of dispute over control of ministries .\nZimbabwe faces cholera epidemic, economic crisis .\nMugabe has resisted international calls for him to step down .","id":"3fbc08f3bf0469eeb2913fc5273c2d8eb03b7406"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ted Turner appeared Tuesday on CNN, the network he founded, to talk about last week's election results, his business ventures, and his relationship with ex-wife Jane Fonda. CNN founder Ted Turner tells the network he's \"encouraged\" by the results of last week's election. Turner is promoting a new autobiography, \"Call Me Ted\" (Warner Books), which documents his life, loves, successes and failures. Probably best known for his 1980 launch of CNN, the first 24-hour all-news cable network, Turner has also made news as a philanthropist and supporter of the United Nations. He won the America's Cup of yachting in 1977, and owned the Atlanta Braves when they won the World Series in 1995. Turner discussed the book on CNN's \"American Morning.\" The following is an edited transcript. CNN: Let me ask you first of all, before we get involved in the actual book and the story of your life: What do you make of the results of this presidential election? Ted Turner: Well, I'm encouraged. I think we needed change that we can believe in. Watch Turner talk about his relationship with ex-wife Jane Fonda \u00bb . CNN: Is [President-elect Barack Obama] the guy to pull this economy? Turner: Well, I don't know. I mean, our country in my lifetime has never been in this shape before. So we'll have to see. I think we are really heading into uncharted territory. But I think the main problem is, I hope he doesn't get blamed if things get tough -- because I think they are going to. CNN: [Obama] seems to be talking about a lot more government involvement in the business community going forward, more government money for an auto industry bailout, another economic stimulus package. As a person who pulled [himself] up in the business community from his bootstraps, is that the way to do it, with more government involvement? Turner: Well, I don't think so. It was a struggle financing CNN, but I did it without ever asking the government for a nickel. In fact, I gave the government $32 million when they were a little short and couldn't pay the dues to the U.N. CNN: A lot of people in this economic community losing an awful lot of money, something you know something about. Turner: I've lost a lot, too. We all have. CNN: You lost $7 billion when the dot-com bubble burst after the Time Warner-AOL merger. How did you not see the dot-com bubble bursting? How did you not see that that was all built on air? Turner: Maybe I did, but I was on a board of directors and a founder, and I was concerned about the AOL merger, but we didn't know that the books were cooked. We didn't do enough due diligence. CNN: Was that the worst business decision of your life? Turner: Oh yeah. Absolutely. CNN: If you could go back and do it again, would you have just completely called the whole thing off? Turner: Well, I couldn't have. At the time, there was so much momentum to do the deal, everybody was for it -- all of Wall Street and the management of both companies. And I wouldn't -- we could have stopped it if we had known of the accounting irregularities. But we didn't know. So there was no way to stop it. CNN: At about the same time, you were hemorrhaging money at the rate of about $10 million a day over the course of more than two years, your marriage to Jane Fonda broke up. And many people close to you were concerned -- because your father, who passed off his billboard business to you, committed suicide -- that you may follow him down that road. Turner: I wouldn't do that to my children and grandchildren. CNN: But they were concerned about it. Turner: Well, they might have been concerned about it, but there was no reason to be. CNN: You went through counseling, though, to try to come back. What was that road like? Turner: What, counseling? I've been in all kinds of counseling. I believe in doctors. Where I really spent the time was in couples and marriage counseling. It helped some. I was married for 10 years one time and 18 another. CNN: ... Jane Fonda has said, and said in the \"60 Minutes\" interview that aired over the weekend, that she still loves you. Is there-- . Turner: She didn't say that. CNN: Well, she says that she would be at your side in a blue minute. Turner: If I needed her. CNN: I would assume that somebody wouldn't do that unless they love you. Turner: It was nice of her to do. CNN: Any chance for a reconciliation? Turner: I don't think so, but you never know. CNN: What would it take? Turner: I don't know. More than a television interview. CNN: Have you thought about picking up the phone? Turner: No. I talk to her all the time. ... CNN: She said that -- this is a quote from the interview -- she said, \"It's impossible to really be with Ted the way he needs someone to be with him and have any kind of life of your own.\" Are you tough to live with? Turner: I travel a lot. I'm on the move. CNN: You don't like to be alone? Turner: No. CNN: Why are you on the move so much? Turner: I don't know. I just got in the habit of it because that's how you get a lot done. Going from here to Philadelphia, and from Philadelphia to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Chicago, and Chicago to Los Angeles. When you are promoting a book, you really move. CNN: I know you've got to move around a lot. But some people have observed that when you are chased by demons, you have to move around a lot to stay out in front of them. Turner: Well, I'm not chased by demons. I feel pretty good. CNN: Why would people say that? Turner: I don't know. That I'm chased by demons? I don't know. They don't know. The only person who knows about demons is me. CNN: It's been a while since you have been involved with CNN. When you look -- . Turner: No, I'm involved every day, because I watch it just about every day. CNN: Involved in terms of the business aspect. Turner: That's OK, but viewers have got a lot of rights, too. ... [If] you don't have viewers, you don't have a business. CNN: ... When you come here and see how it's grown up, you see the international aspect of it, you see that on Election Night, CNN -- Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Campbell Brown, John King -- . Turner: They did a good job. CNN: They beat the networks. What do you think what you see that? Turner: I think it's great. CNN: This is the little entity that you started out of nothing. Turner: It's not so little. And it wasn't when we merged with Time Warner, either. Was the world's most important network. CNN: So what's next for you, if anything, at 70 years old? Turner: Well, I'm still promoting the book. It just came out two days ago. So that's a lot of work. CNN: ... [The book describes your] getting stuck on a sandbar, getting caught in a storm, almost dying off the coast of Cape Hatteras. ... How did you go from being a sailor that got stuck on the reef and almost died to somebody who managed to win the America's Cup on the Courageous?. Turner: Well, the same way in baseball, [the Atlanta Braves] set a record for consecutive last-place finishes in divisional play in baseball. First four years, we finished last, four years in a row. But I stuck with it and after 18 years, we won the World Series. And that's what I did with sailing. CNN: Just stick to it? Turner: Yeah. [I] stuck to it. And I wasn't losing -- I was just learning how to win.","highlights":"Ted Turner says he's \"encouraged\" by election of Barack Obama as president .\nThe CNN founder expects tough economic times ahead .\nTurner: Reconciliation with ex-wife Jane Fonda unlikely, \"but you never know\"\nTime Warner didn't do enough \"due diligence\" before merging with AOL, Turner says .","id":"1c886637c5be85807b2397bb5a20dd017234e25f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Churches can stop a shooter or anyone else intent on harming church members with the proper security measures in place, an expert on protecting places of worship said Monday. Police say the attacker walked into First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, on Sunday and began firing. \"A church is not helpless when they have a plan, and properly trained security,\" said Jeff Hawkins, the executive director of the Christian Security Network. First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois, had a security plan in place when a gunman walked into services Sunday morning and killed Pastor Fred Winters, said Tim Lawson, another pastor at the church. Lawson told CNN he was not prepared to disclose details of his church's security plan on Monday. But Maryville police Chief Rich Schardam said Winters was keenly aware of the security issues, had sought out police advice and had identified police and medical personnel in the congregation who could help in an emergency. \"They did have plans on what to do,\" Schardam said Monday. Schardam said neither of the men who subdued the gunman had a law enforcement background. \"Those parishioners were just real-life heroes,\" Pastor Lawson said. See how gunman killed Illinois pastor \u00bb . Schardam said the suspect in Sunday's shooting, 27-year-old Terry J. Sedlacek, had no known relationship to the church or Winters, and random attacks are impossible to anticipate. Hawkins called the Illinois killing \"tragic,\" but he said in the year or so since the Christian Security Network has been actively training churches, numerous other tragedies have been averted. \"These incidents aren't going to make the news,\" said Hawkins. \"But they are happening everywhere, big city or small town.\" Hundreds of church leaders have told him about all kinds of attacks they have recently faced, from arsons and burglaries to assaults on members and church leaders. In the first two months of 2009, churches have described more than 140 acts of violence to the Network, he said. In one incident, congregants noticed a person dressed inappropriately for the weather and acting odd. The man was taken outside and questioned. Under his coat, he had two machetes strapped to his back. \"He said that he had been hearing the devil speaking to him, telling him to cut the pastor's head off,\" Hawkins said. \"There was no struggle, and everything was calm. The man was removed.\" Hawkins combined his professional security background with his experience working in a Christian ministry in founding Christian Security Network last year, not long after a gunman killed two people and wounded seven in a Knoxville, Tennessee, church. The shooter attacked children who were performing a musical in front of the congregation. Violent crime in churches is not tracked, Hawkins said. \"The church is really behind in secular world in terms of planning,\" he said. Browse a U.S. map of other recent church shootings \u00bb . It's essential that a church must balance having a security presence while still keeping a house of worship open to everyone, he said. \"Some churches choose armed guards, some have a much more subtle security presence where you wouldn't even know it's there.\" A church should have five security plans in place to deal with evacuation, long-term shelter, medical emergencies, lost or missing children and violent confrontations, he said. \"Every church is different so you need something that is going to work for that particular church's culture and size,\" he said. \"And I think now, especially after September 11, people want to feel secure. They want to know if they bring their family somewhere, it's going to be a safe environment. \"Everyone should approach this realistically and not say, 'This couldn't happen here in church,' because we see it happen all the time.\" Dale Annis, founder of Church Security Services, a consulting company that advises houses of worship on security strategies, told CNN in November that his business has been growing for five years. \"You have to take some of the incentive yourself. I don't think you walk down dark alleys in bad parts of town and say 'God will protect me,' \" said Annis, who is also in charge of security at his parish, the Olive Drive Church in Bakersfield, California. In states where laws allow people to carry concealed weapons, volunteers have become a cost-effective means of providing security, Annis said. A bill that would have allowed concealed weapons in Arkansas churches failed to get out of a state Senate committee last month. Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, has a volunteer security force consisting of at least one armed guard during any given worship service. \"We realized that, as the largest Baptist church in Kentucky, we'd be a little naive to think something would never happen to us,\" Highview Pastor Randy Record, who is also a police officer, told CNN last year. \"We're catching up in an era of terrorism and a church is no different.\" CNN's Ashley Fantz, Emanuella Grinberg and Brad Lendon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Slain pastor discussed security plans with police, chief says .\nNEW: Attack on Illinois pastor appeared to be random, police chief says .\nPastor gunned down at Illinois church on Sunday .\nNumerous tragedies averted by security planning, one expert says .","id":"795f9a583e507b75d3fd887f5819b8333c69a15f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a dramatic reversal, the Florida state attorney's office announced Monday it will seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony, the 23-year-old woman charged in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of her daughter Caylee, 2, Trial is set for October. The state had previously said it would not ask for the death sentence for Anthony. The development could have a major impact on how the case plays out at trial, including whether defense attorney Jose Baez can stay on the case. Baez has not been certified by the court to defend capital punishment cases. Prosecutors announced their change in strategy in a letter of intent. Read the letter of intent (pdf) Meanwhile, Anthony's defense filed a motion on Friday with Orange County Circuit Court, seeking more phone records from a dozen people involved in the case. The motion asks for any and all records for \"phone calls, text messages, P2P communications, Internet usage, WAP usage, and cell tower pings.\" The defense wants records from the defendant's parents, George and Cindy Anthony; her former fianc\u00e9, Jesse Grund; her brother, Lee Anthony; a friend, Amy Huizenga; and Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found Caylee's remains in December of last year. Kronk had called authorities as early as last August to report he had seen a suspicious bag in the area. Other names on the list include several former boyfriends, two private investigators, a volunteer searcher and Richard Cain, an Orange County Sheriff's deputy. Cain was fired after an internal investigation found he failed to respond to repeated calls from Kronk about the suspicious bag. Cain has refused to leave the job and is awaiting an appeal. \"Various cell phone service providers are in possession of certain items which are material to the preparation of the defense in this cause,'' the motion says, adding, ''the items sought by this application cannot be obtained through normal discovery.\" The motion says the release of these records could lead to admissible evidence in Anthony's trial, which is set to begin in October. Anthony is charged with first-degree murder of Caylee, whose remains were found in woods near her grandparents' home in Orlando.","highlights":"Florida's turnaround could have a major impact on how the case plays out .\nCasey Anthony's defense filed motion for more phone records from a dozen people .\nMotion asks for all \"phone calls, text messages\" of those associated with case .","id":"4662f7c48aca6d5f462eecafa2ee15d8458ab306"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil Tiger rebels Sunday, warning instead that government troops intended to continue a new offensive until the group surrenders, a senior government official said. Tamil demonstrators call for a cease-fire in Sri Lanka during a rally Saturday in Paris, France. \"The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer,\" said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security. The proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in the country's northern area. Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan Army sources. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of \"fresh displacement\" has now exceeded 100,000 individuals. \"In the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the U.N., EU, the governments of the USA, India and others, the (LTTE) has announced an unilateral cease-fire. All of LTTE's offensive military operations will cease with immediate effect,\" the rebel leaders said in a written statement issued earlier Sunday. \"We welcome the attempts by the U.N. and its agencies to assist the civilian population and are ready to engage and cooperate with them to address the humanitarian needs of the population. ... We are in full agreement that the humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by declaration of an immediate cease-fire.\" The Tiger leadership asked the international community to \"pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate\" on the cease-fire offer. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.","highlights":"Government says it will continue offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels .\nRebels control a dwindling swath of north Sri Lanka .\nU.N. agency says 100,000 refugees have fled fighting .","id":"181a854c809120f9bce6be4714d6fbbd80770542"} -{"article":"CNN -- When Maria Rubeo closed her arm, she felt something \"very big -- like a lemon.\" Although Hispanic women have a lower incidence rate for breast cancer, they often get the diagnosis at later stages. Her doctor said the lump in her breast was nothing, so Rubeo, who didn't have health insurance, didn't seek a second opinion. With two jobs and two kids, she was busy and didn't go to the doctor's office for another year. During her next visit, with a different doctor, Rubeo learned she had breast cancer -- and the tumor had been there for a while. Her story may not be particularly rare. Research suggests that breast cancer may be harder to treat in Hispanic women because they wait longer to receive care. Women in the fastest-growing minority group in the United States face issues such as language and cultural barriers, lifestyle choices and lack of insurance that could affect their health and medical care, according to research released Wednesday at the Science of Cancer Health Disparities Conference. Like Rubeo, about half of women in a study of 230 Mexican-American breast cancer patients in Arizona and Texas noticed changes in their breasts, but waited more than a month to seek medical attention, according to research presented at the conference hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research. \"We asked what the reasons were,\" said Rachel Zenuk, a graduate student at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, who spoke about the study. \"A third cited they didn't have insurance or were unable to afford medical care. Or they thought it was not important to report the medical finding to a professional.\" Other factors included fear of the results and difficulty scheduling an appointment, she said. More than a decade after her mastectomy, Rubeo urges Hispanic women in the San Francisco, California, Bay area not to wait after seeing changes in their breasts. \"I explain: Take time for you to see the doctor,\" she said. \"[Some women] don't have insurance, don't speak English, it's very difficult.\" Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority group, constituting 14 percent of the nation's total population. While Hispanic women have a lower incidence rate for breast cancer than whites, blacks and Asians, they have a less favorable prognosis because of delayed treatment. \"They're not getting more breast cancer than other women, but they're less likely to survive as long,\" said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, a member of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's National Health Advisory Council and chairwoman of the Komen Foundation National Hispanic\/Latino Advisory Council. \"The reason is they're diagnosed at a later stage of the cancer.\" \"We're seeing them at later stages, so the cancer is more advanced. Their five-year survival rates are lower than non-Hispanic whites,\" Ramirez said. Data also showed that about two-thirds of breast cancer cases in the 230 Mexican-American women were found through self-detection, which suggests that the women were not receiving routine mammogram or exams. Rubeo said that when she first noticed the lump, she \"had no time for me to take care of myself. Only work, work, running, no time to eat. Sometimes you forget yourself, so there's time for everybody and not enough for yourself.\" At the Latina Breast Cancer Agency in San Francisco, she tells other women how she didn't take care of herself while working two jobs, 16 hours a day. \"I explain to the ladies my experience. Sometimes they cry and say it's true,\" Rubeo said. She now runs support groups for breast cancer patients, talking about health screenings, accompanying women to the hospital and helping them with paperwork. Aside from the pressures of being a busy, working mother, there are language and cultural barriers for Latina women. \"For women we work with, our focus is breast health,\" said Olivia F\u00e9, founder and executive director of the Latina Breast Cancer Agency. \"Within Latino culture, within family, the husband doesn't want the wife to see a male doctor. ... That is a big deal.\" The group partnered with public hospitals in San Francisco and San Mateo counties and made sure the medical staff who work with Hispanic breast cancer patients are female and speak Spanish. Hispanic women don't take advantage of the free breast health screenings, because there's a lack of awareness, F\u00e9 said. Many women speak only Spanish, so prevention messages in English don't get through. Research showed that the women with more education and exposure to English-language media, such as television and radio, were more likely to have had a mammogram. Ramirez said there are now public service announcements in Spanish that target Hispanic women of all ages, so the younger ones will know the importance of family history and the older ones will become informed about the importance of mammograms. The Komen Foundation funds local efforts to increase enrollment of Hispanic women in clinical trials, provide medical interpretive and transportation services, and have Spanish peer support for 24-hour breast cancer hotlines. Lifestyle choices have an important role in breast cancer development, said Esther John, a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center. One study that examined 2,533 Hispanic women found that the women born in foreign countries had 50 percent less risk of developing breast cancer than women born in the United States. This San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study compared the known breast cancer risks such as obesity, use of hormones, alcohol consumption, fat intake and lack of physical activity between the two groups and found women born in the United States had greater risk. \"The pattern suggests that when Hispanic women move to the U.S., there are important changes from the traditional lifestyle to the Americanized lifestyle,\" John said. \"There are lifestyle factors that increase risks of breast cancer.\"","highlights":"Hispanic women learn of breast cancer at later stages, research shows .\nLanguage, cultural barriers and lack of insurance may impede medical care .\nOther factors include fear of results and difficulty scheduling an appointment .","id":"f43094ce4be3ee042ac4850e5b713f48d5fa8324"} -{"article":"CHONGQING, China (CNN) -- Anna He is like a lot of kids about to turn 10. She plays with her brother, fights with her sister, practices piano, hates vegetables and is adapting to her new life -- adapting, because even though she's Chinese, this little girl seems far from happy about living in China. Anna He, 9, finds it hard to adjust to life after she was returned to her biological parents, Jack and Casey He. \"I always hate staying in China,\" she says. \"It's one of the worst places I have ever been. When I first went to the big city, there was so [much] pollution and so [it] always makes me feel bad. I also don't like the smell.\" Her new life in China began after the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled last year that Anna should be returned to her biological parents, Jack and Casey He, known in China as He Shaoqiang and Qin Luo respectively. The decision ended a six-year custody battle. Anna was born prematurely while her parents were in Memphis, Tennessee, on temporary work visas. Unable to cope financially, they decided to give her up temporarily until they were able to get back on their feet. That's when Jerry and Louise Baker stepped in and agreed to take temporary custody of Anna, when she was 4 weeks old. The Bakers said they made a verbal agreement with the Hes to take care of Anna until she was 18. But the Hes dispute that. They wanted their daughter back soon after her first birthday and eventually went to court to have their parental rights restored. After a bitter legal battle, the Hes finally prevailed and Anna was returned to her parents. Anna was given a six-month transition period to adjust to her biological family before the Hes left the United States. Now back in China, Anna is still finding it hard to adjust. Her biological parents have separated since returning to their homeland. Casey He relocated her family from Changsha, China, to Chongqing -- a sprawling mega-city on the banks of the Yangtze River with a population of 32 million. Like most of China's big cities, it's heavily polluted. During the winter, the sun rarely breaks through the heavy brown smog. Jack He says the marriage is over. Casey He appears shaken when asked about her husband and why she packed up and left, with Anna and her younger brother and sister -- Andy, 8, and Avita, 6. \"A lot of things were not what I intended and not what I had hoped,\" said Casey He. She said she would talk about why she left \"one day when the kids are bigger.\" Jack He says the couple disagreed over how they should raise their children. He has limited contact with his family; Anna has seen him only once in the past two months but says she doesn't miss him. Asked why, she said, \"I don't know. It's just a feeling in me.\" Now a single mother, Casey has enrolled all three children in a boarding school during the week. A tough decision, she says, but necessary -- especially for Anna, who was a straight-A student in the U.S. but now struggles because she can't speak Chinese. \"I know American people say I am bad, I take the kids to school, this is not good. But in China, the Chinese people don't think so. They study very hard,\" Casey He said. She lives with her children in a small, two-bedroom apartment; it's clean and sparsely furnished. Casey bought a new piano for Anna and Avita, who are both taking lessons. The apartment and school are both paid for by Casey He's brother, a wealthy businessman. Life is difficult, she says, but she has no doubt that despite Anna's struggle to fit in, the little girl is still better off with her in China rather than living in Memphis with the Bakers. \"In China one single mother take three kids -- for me, it is very hard. But I love my kids, mother's love from my heart,\" said Casey He. \"I can take care of the kids. Give them better life.\" Since her parents split, Anna has re-established regular contact with the Bakers, who call every Saturday. But after more than a year with her biological family, Anna is still unsure of where she would rather be -- with her mom or the Bakers. \"I cannot pick anyone. I would die if I would pick one,\" she said.","highlights":"Anna He was taken in by Tennessee couple during her parents' financial hardship .\nIn 2007, Tennessee Supreme Court ruled she should return to biological parents .\nParents Jack and Casey He separated; Anna still adjusting to life with mom, siblings .\n\"I cannot pick anyone,\" says 9-year-old Anna about her 2 sets of parents .","id":"eeee45e398ceb2bfdfbb63988efbc39021c2eb65"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There are few cities in the world blessed with a more beautiful setting than Seattle. It is surrounded by rugged green wilderness; to the west the Olympic Mountains, to the east the volcanoes and glaciers of the Cascade Range, and all around the brisk waters of the Northwest. The Space Needle dominates the Seattle skyline. Over the years, Seattle has inspired a number of nicknames. It's not hard to understand why some refer to it as \"Rain City,\" but visit when the sun is shining, when lakes Union and Washington are sparkling under a blue sky and majestic Mount Rainier is visible in the distance, and you'll realize that \"Emerald City\" is the most appropriate of its monikers. Seattle started out as a logging town, grew as a stop-off point for gold prospectors at the end of the 19th century, and earned another nickname, \"Jet City\", when plane manufacturer Boeing rose to prominence in the 1950s and 60s. At the height of its powers, Boeing employed some 100,000 locals and the Jet City remained a solidly working-class town until the 80s, when local startup Microsoft started making a name for itself. As Microsoft grew into the behemoth it is today, other tech firms such as Amazon.com and Nintendo were drawn to the city, bringing with them a wave of young, educated and affluent workers. Seattle began to shake off its blue-collar roots and in recent years its cultural credentials have been boosted by the addition of the Olympic Sculpture Park and a showpiece public library, while the acclaimed Seattle Symphony, Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet have all moved into impressive new buildings in the last decade. Some resent Seattle's gentrification, bemoaning the near-gridlocked traffic and arguing that the city's most interesting neighborhoods have lost their individuality to the property developers. But if you spend some time in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill or Fremont, the self-proclaimed \"Center of the Universe,\" you'll find there's still plenty of the native free spirit in evidence. It was that free spirit that gave birth to Grunge, the post-punk guitar noise that came out of the city in the early 90s, when local bands Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana became international stars. Now Grunge is just a memory, but in popular culture it remains as much of a symbol of the city as the Space Needle, the persistent drizzle and the excellent, ubiquitous, coffee shops. Despite its rapid growth, Seattle has kept its trees and parks and many areas maintain an almost suburban feel. The city and its residents are laidback and liberal, and that famous free spirit is as at home in the great outdoors as in Seattle's boho neighborhoods. As a modern, civilized outpost among outstanding natural spectacle, the place once known as the \"Queen City of the Northwest\" still reigns supreme.","highlights":"Seattle has been known as \"Jet City,\" \"Rain City,\" and \"The Emerald City\"\nIt has a great location, surrounded by mountains, lakes and fantastic scenery .\nThe city boasts a symphony orchestra, and ballet and opera companies .","id":"8703f8e66ae6405f2bf2d40723298fff515e277d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Hank Sheinkopf, a CNN contributor, is a longtime political consultant who was a member of the media team for President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. Sheinkopf was a media consultant for Eliot Spitzer's campaign for New York attorney general in 1998 and has represented candidates around the country and the world. He represented Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat whose name has been mentioned for the New York senate seat, in 2000, but hasn't had a business relationship with him since. Sheinkopf, who also represents corporate clients, does not represent any of the other politicians whose names have been mentioned for the Senate seat. For a rival view, read here. Hank Sheinkopf says Caroline Kennedy hasn't earned the nod for a Senate seat from New York. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Judging by the screaming newspaper headlines and the steamy ecstasy of the gossip columns, people from other worlds might presume that it has already come to pass: that a woman who happens to be named Caroline Kennedy was pole-vaulted above the crowd and sent with magic wand and golden slippers to the U.S. Senate from New York, in the hope of saving the Empire State and bringing goodness to all its inhabitants. After all, why shouldn't she be sent to the Senate? Her unique experience of writing a book or two, smiling well, appearing from time to time -- but not too often -- at city mayoral news conferences announcing help for those who attend New York City public schools -- and, well, just being a Kennedy -- should suffice. Her social standing alone, some might argue, would give her the advantage of all advantages. A Kennedy. Camelot. Ah! The greatness of it all? Not. The man who has to make the decision whether or not New York is to be so vaunted in representation is Gov. David Paterson, the former lieutenant governor who had the fortune of replacing morally triangulated Gov. Eliot Spitzer after Spitzer's resignation in the face of a publicly humiliating sex scandal. Paterson will have to face the voters in 2010. So will his pick to fill the seat that will be left vacant after Hillary Clinton is confirmed as secretary of state in early 2009. The governor's poll numbers suggest that voters like him. Paterson has taken a tack much unexpected by challenging all to tighten belts, cut spending, pay more fees to the state and get rid of waste after Wall Street's collapse and the subsequent free fall in tax collections from the financial services business. Paterson could have a tough time. Voters don't like losing money, they hate losing services, and all the earnest explanations about fighting the good fight together won't put better food on the table or pay the bills. He needs someone who can help him win, and he needs someone who can win. He and the senator he chooses will both face the voters together. With that in mind, is Caroline Kennedy the correct choice? On the issues of the day, Kennedy has been mighty silent. Financial cretins stealing for fun, profit and because they can? Not a word. The wars? Syllable-less. Millions of humans evaporated in Africa's inner madness? Quiet and silent. The auto bailout? Nada. The printing of a trillion soon-to-be inflated dollars that will further sap our savings? On such matters, Kennedy remains absolutely silent. What about the destruction of the economy of western New York? Does she know that there is a deeply pained world beyond the Westchester County border just a bit north of New York City that benefited little from some fairy-tale place called Camelot and less from well-orchestrated and timed public relations campaigns afforded only by the rich? Why should Caroline Kennedy be named a U.S. senator? Is it because merit no longer matters? Surely, Kennedy offers the dazzle of an unmistakable surname and the kind of celebrity appeal that seems to follow members of the New York social elite. But for the white ethnics who gave their vote to Democrats on the promise of fairness and merit, Kennedy's star quality may not suffice. The simple fact is that if the governor passes on other options -- candidates, many of whom serve in Congress and have earned their right to represent New York -- then he does so at his own risk. In 1964, Robert Kennedy wanted then-Sen. Kenneth Keating's job so badly that he ran for office. President Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory in New York helped Kennedy win the election, but not before the challenger ran a campaign that made its appeal to voters and proved worthy. His niece has done neither. If Kennedy wants to be New York's junior senator, she should stand in line and run for office in 2010. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hank Sheinkopf.","highlights":"Hank Sheinkopf: Some treating Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid as a done deal .\nHe says Kennedy hasn't been vocal on many of the key issues we face .\nSheinkopf: What qualifies Kennedy to be given priority for the vacant seat?\nHe says Gov. Paterson has to worry about facing voters in 2010 .","id":"9a6a0dc543eea62d572bdc170c879a027a6c4b16"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Polish court has ordered the detention of a man accused of holding his daughter captive for six years and repeatedly raping her, ultimately fathering two children with her. The accusations recall the case of Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter captive for 24 years and fathered seven children. The man, whose name was not released, was arrested Monday, Polish national police said in a statement. The court on Tuesday ordered him jailed for three months pending a trial. The charges against him were not immediately known. Police said they arrested the man at the train station in Siedlce, a town between Warsaw and the border with Belarus. Police said they believed he was trying to escape abroad. The investigation began last week when the man's 21-year-old daughter approached police in Siemiatycze, in eastern Poland, accompanied by her mother, police said. The daughter spent several hours talking with a policewoman, detailing her alleged ordeal over the past six years, police said. She described living through a \"hell\" that involved rape, beatings, and being kept as a slave, police said. In 2005, the woman said, she gave birth to a boy at a hospital in Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland, police said. Two years later, in 2007, she gave birth to a boy at a hospital in Siemiatycze, in eastern Poland, also near the border with Belarus, police said. Both times, the woman told police, she left the baby in the hospital, a common practice in Poland when the mother wants to give her children up for adoption, police said. Police did not say how the daughter managed to escape her alleged ordeal or whether the mother was aware of what had gone on. Police themselves acknowledged many facts were still unclear. \"There are still a lot of questions to which answers have to be found,\" the statement from the national police said. The case has drawn comparisons to the shocking incest case in Austria in which Josef Fritzl is accused of holding his daughter captive in an underground network of tiny rooms for 24 years. Fritzl repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, and fathered seven children with her, six of whom survived. All of the children were born in captivity. That case became public when Elisabeth's oldest child, 19-year-old Kerstin, became ill and fell unconscious in April. Elisabeth persuaded her father to let her bring Kerstin to a hospital, where staff grew suspicious and called police, who opened an investigation and uncovered the abuse. Kerstin and her family are now recovering and slowly adapting to modern life, Austrian authorities have said. CNN's Diana Magnay in Berlin and Antonia Mortensen in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"Daughter accuses Polish man of holding her captive 6 years, fathering 2 sons .\nPolice detained 45-year-old man in eastern city of Siedlce .\nOfficers to conduct tests on boys to determine if the man is their father .\nRecalls case of Austria's Josef Fritzl, accused of holding daughter for 24 years .","id":"8f66460b96bb0b64c507a2458b819b2268287b84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than just the quintessential Seattle shopping experience, Pike Place Market is a tourist attraction in its own right. This historic farmers market is the place to pick up all manner of fresh local produce, as well as handmade crafts, jewelry, antiques and paintings. Keep your camera handy to snap the colorful floral displays and the fishmongers tossing whole salmon to each other. Flying fish at Pike Place Market. If Pike Place whets your appetite for fresh produce, check out the Ballard Sunday Farmers Market (5330 Ballard Avenue, Sundays) for delicious farm-fresh goodies. Another great Sunday market is the weekly Fremont Flea Market (400 N 34th Street), a cornucopia of used, vintage and antique goods. For the avid antiques hunter the underground Pioneer Square Antiques Mall (602 First Avenue) has more than 60 stalls. If you prefer big brand names you'll want to head downtown, where you'll find the likes of Banana Republic (500 Pike Street) and a colossal Nike Town (1500 6th Avenue). Downtown is also home to Macy's (1601 Third Avenue), still known to locals as \"The Bon\" from its former incarnation as Bon March\u00e9. Macy's can be good for a bargain, but the city's best department store is the flagship Nordstrom (500 Pine Street), famed for it exemplary customer service. For something more cutting edge, Capitol Hill and Belltown are full of funky boutiques and vintage clothing stores. Crossroads Trading Company (325 Broadway Avenue E and 4300 University Way) is a good option for second-hand threads, while sneaker freaks will find that Gems (615 Western Avenue) is a treasure trove of fancy footwear. Bibliophiles will love Seattle for its numerous independent books stores. Set aside a couple of hours to visit the Elliot Bay Book Company (101 South Main Street), a vast space crammed full of new and used books. It boasts an excellent selection of titles about the region, a pleasant caf\u00e9 and readings or signings almost every night. University Bookstore (4326 University Way) has a huge selection, while Fremont Place Books (621 N 35th Street) is a cozy little place with an interesting range of titles. If you're planning an expedition into the beautiful wilderness around Seattle, you can get kitted out at the flagship REI (222 Yale Avenue N). There's everything you'll need for hiking, biking, rock climbing and skiing, and you can even hire stuff, so you won't have to drag it all back home with you. Bamboozle your friends by getting them an eccentric souvenir from Archie McPhee (2428 NW Market Street). Of course, eccentric is a relative term, but squirrel underpants (which, apparently, are also suitable for hamsters, frogs and gerbils) and inflatable fruitcakes should qualify as eccentric by most standards. If you plan to visit this bazaar of the bizarre you should note that Archie's is set to move to the corner of North 45th Street and Stone Way North, in Wallingford, some time next year. Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop | . ...................... Do you agree with our Seattle picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best.","highlights":"You have to visit Pike Place Market, a fantastic, historic farmers market .\nDowntown is the place for chain stores; Capitol Hill is great for boutiques .\nSeattle is full of independent bookshops -- Elliot Bay Bookstore is the best .\nArchie McPhee is a bizarre store where you can buy some quirky souvenirs .","id":"a7109e0a589eda190f98c1a68e03dfee3d7058db"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Authorities arrested two high school students in suburban Atlanta on Thursday after they were warned that one of the students planned to \"do harm\" at the school with a weapon, police said. Several schools in Woodstock, Gerogia, were on lockdown after authorities found a gun in a bathroom ceiling. Sgt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said Woodstock Middle School, Woodstock High School and Etowah High School were put on lockdown -- meaning no one could enter or leave the buildings -- after authorities learned of the threat. Police arrested Forrest Busby, 17, at Woodstock High School and found a revolver he is said to have brought to school and hid in the bathroom ceiling, authorities said. A subsequent search of Busby's home turned up an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Mini-14 assault rifle, as well as 200 rounds of ammunition, Baker said in a statement. Six marijuana plants were discovered in the student's closet. A 15-year-old student was also arrested in connection with the incident, the statement said. Baker said another student is being interviewed by authorities but has not been charged in the case. Busby has been charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, carrying a concealed weapon and manufacturing and distributing a controlled substance, among other counts. He's being held without bail at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center, the sheriff's statement said. The 15-year-old has been charged as an accomplice on various weapons violations and is being held at the Paulding Youth Detention Center. The lockdown orders for the schools were lifted after the weapons were recovered, Baker said. Woodstock is about 30 miles north of downtown Atlanta.","highlights":"Teen planned to \"do harm\" at school outside Atlanta, Georgia, tipster said .\nPolice find gun in bathroom ceiling, arrest 17- and 15-year-old .\nOther weapons, marijuana found at teen's home .","id":"9ec7cd476e5f27ae4576ebe9e8f89bec04fde245"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- After a long apprenticeship, it's been an astonishingly fast rise for R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan. Jazmine Sullivan is up for five Grammys next month, including best new artist. Before she was in her teens, Sullivan sang on \"It's Showtime at the Apollo.\" At 13, she met Stevie Wonder. Soon she was performing regularly at the jam sessions called Black Lily in her hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She went to that city's performing arts high school and was signed to a contract by Jive Records, where she was paired with producers such as Timbaland and Cool & Dre. It didn't work out -- then. But soon, Sullivan signed with Clive Davis' J Records, and suddenly she was everywhere. Her debut single, \"Need U Bad,\" hit No. 1 on Billboard's R&B\/Hip-Hop chart, and her album \"Fearless\" hit the Top 10 on Billboard's album chart. Now she's up for five Grammys on February 8, including best R&B performance (for \"Bust Your Windows\") and best new artist. CNN's KJ Matthews talked with Sullivan about her inspirations, who she's bringing to the Grammys and the mysterious person behind \"Bust Your Windows.\" The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: How would you describe your sound? Jazmine Sullivan: I can't really describe it; that's the whole thing. Once you hear the CD, you'll hear that one sound doesn't sound like the next. You know, I've been influenced by so many different styles and different genres of music that I felt like that should be represented on my first album, so when you get it, you get a taste of gospel, jazz, R&B, hip-hop, reggae, pop ... everything is on there, there's something for everybody to enjoy. I didn't want to exclude anybody from the album. CNN: Let me ask you this: When you saw or heard the other nominees in the best new artist category who happen to be a little bit more well-known, was it intimidating? I mean, you got the Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, Adele ... Sullivan: Yeah, the Jonas Brothers, specifically. I didn't even know they were new artists because they are so huge, so, you know, so after, when my name was called after theirs, I thought, \"Wow, they're new artists, too?\" I got a little scared, I tell you that. But I'm just so honored to be mentioned to be in the same categories with such wonderful artists, so I'm looking forward to February and the Grammys and just being in that atmosphere. CNN: I was looking at your background, and I didn't know that you're a protegee of Missy Elliott. I was thinking to myself, you would think that you would do rap, but you're this big voice, this soulful voice. You might not equate that with Missy. Sullivan: Yeah, and a lot of people don't know that Missy Elliott ... grew up in the church, and she's really into vocalists. When I met her, was I was about 13 or 14, [and] she was ecstatic about me. When nobody else was there to support me, Missy was there, so she's a good friend of mine, and I'm happy to have her by my side. She's definitely taught me a lot of things. CNN: So everybody wants to know, the guy behind \"Bust Your Windows\" -- is there one? Sullivan: We won't talk about that on camera -- that's an off-camera conversation -- but it's definitely a song that relates to a lot of women especially. You know, even if they really haven't busted windows out of anybody's car, they have wanted to. A lot of women have been through that, so I'm glad that my music is touching those people . CNN: \"Need U Bad\" is rising as well. What's the thought process behind that one? Sullivan: \"Need U Bad\" ... a lot of men actually pointed out to me that women don't come out and admit that they made mistakes and say that they actually need the male, so I think that was kind of cool. I haven't thought of it like that when I was writing it. So, you know, it's a song for the fellas, saying that we appreciate them and we need you as much as you need us. But on the flip side, I do a song like \"Bust Your Windows,\" so on the album you have a lot of different perceptions and everything. CNN: How old are you? You look like you're 10. Sullivan: I'm 21 years old. CNN: Success that early, that's sometimes tough for people. Sullivan: Well, I've been in this industry for a very long time. I started out when I was 12; I got signed when I was 16, so it wasn't an overnight success story at all. I put a lot of hard work into it, and this is just a byproduct of all of that. CNN: It's great that you write your own music too, because a lot of people don't do that. You have a lot more creative control. Sullivan: Most definitely, and I've dealt with not having that control when I was younger and I was signed. I wasn't writing at all, and so I've been through all of that. So now to be in a position where I write my music, and I have that control -- it feels so much better. CNN: All right, the big question: Grammy night. What are you wearing? Who are you bringing? What are you going to be doing? Sullivan: I'm bringing my mother. She's been my rock and my support ever since I was a baby. She was my first huge fan, that what she is. I don't know what I'm wearing. I'm trying not to think about that. I want to perform. Hopefully I can get on stage and I can show everybody who I am and what I'm about. But I haven't thought about the dress or the shoes or the hair or anything about that. CNN: You're just trying to enjoy the moment. Sullivan: Enjoy, yes.","highlights":"R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan is up for five awards next month .\nSullivan's hits include \"Need U Bad\" and \"Bust Your Windows\"\nSinger is a protegee of Missy Elliott's .","id":"79290c5e76ee45032dcc86b99eb9a6638cb0b537"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With U.S. gasoline prices setting records, opponents of the war in Iraq have raised a new complaint this week: The budget windfall that skyrocketing oil prices has given Baghdad. Iraqi employees attend the opening ceremony of a new oil refinery plant in Najaf, Iraq, on March 15. Crude oil futures topped $112 a barrel in Wednesday's intraday trading in New York -- up from about $35 a barrel before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Though Iraq's oil exports have yet to top prewar levels, the price rise has meant a $6.4 billion surplus for the Iraqi government, according to the Pentagon's last quarterly report on the war. With the five-year-old war's cost to U.S. taxpayers estimated at more than $600 billion, the Iraqi windfall provoked sharp questions from Congress during two days of testimony by the top U.S. officials in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. \"This nation's facing record deficits, and the Iraqis have translated their oil revenues into budget surpluses rather than effective services,\" Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday. \"Under these circumstances and with a strategic risk to our nation and our military readiness, we and the American people must ask: Why should we stay in Iraq in large numbers?\" Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, proposed the Iraqi government pay the cost of stationing U.S. troops in its country under any future agreement between Washington and Baghdad -- and said he would introduce legislation to require that. \"The United States government and the people of the United States have paid an awful price,\" Rohrabacher said. \"It's time for the Iraqis to pay that price for their own protection.\" Crocker said Iraq has allocated $13 billion for reconstruction projects in 2008 and plans to add another $5 billion this summer. The U.S. focus will shift to improving Iraq's economy at the local level and expanding its export capacity, he said. \"The era of U.S.-funded major infrastructure projects is over. We are seeking to ensure that our assistance, in partnership with the Iraqis, leverages Iraq's own resources,\" he said. Five years after Baghdad fell to a U.S.-led army, many Iraqis still lack basic services such as water, sewer connections and electricity. Nevertheless, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the government is \"doing its best\" to spend money to improve the country. \"I think the government has a responsibility, definitely, to care for its people, to provide services and to use the oil money for reconstruction and development,\" Zebari said. The United States has committed about $45 billion to Iraq's reconstruction since the March 2003 invasion, according to a report last month from the Government Accountability Office. The agency, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded that Iraq's oil revenues could top $100 billion in 2007 and 2008. When President Bush announced he was dispatching almost 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq in January 2007, he told Americans that Iraqis would spend $10 billion on reconstruction projects and pass a law allocating the country's oil wealth as steps toward a political settlement of the war. The GAO, however, found Iraq had spent only 7 percent of that budget by November 2007, and the proposed oil law has stalled in the country's fractious parliament. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh blamed the ongoing insurgency and the \"socialist command economy\" left behind by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein for the slow pace of reconstruction. \"At the time we were trying to reform it, open up the system, when we are faced with the terrible challenge of al Qaeda and this tornado of terrorism afflicting the society day in, day out,\" Saleh said. \"People should not be too judgmental.\" But Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said Tuesday the issue is \"a burr in the saddle of the American people\" -- particularly since Bush administration officials told Congress before the invasion that Iraq could finance its own reconstruction with oil revenues. Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina -- a Republican opponent of the war -- pointed out the United States \"is borrowing money from foreign governments to pay our bills\" while oil and gas prices have more than doubled. \"The issue is that we in this Congress are going to be cutting programs to help our elderly with health care,\" he said Wednesday. \"The American people want to know that the Iraqi government understands that we do not have treasure and blood to go on and on and on.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jill Dougherty in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pentagon: Rising oil prices result in a $6.4 billion surplus for the Iraqi government .\nThe Iraq war's cost to U.S. taxpayers is estimated at more than $600 billion .\nLawmaker proposes Iraq should pay the cost of stationing U.S. troops .\nAmbassador: \"The era of U.S.-funded major infrastructure projects is over\"","id":"59c95f120045a816807d683638044c10dc27312e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For years, retired Air Force Col. John Leech has had no desire to return to the Pentagon. Retired Col. John Leech narrowly escaped death at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Leech narrowly escaped death September 11, 2001, when a hijacked American Airlines jetliner hit the building. He will attend Thursday's dedication of the Pentagon memorial honoring the 184 people killed in the terror attack. In an earlier visit to the memorial, Leech left a note for his friend Navy Capt. Jack Punches: \"Thanks Jack for serving and dying for our nation.\" Leech could barely contain his sadness recently as he watched a Department of Defense videotape showing the burned interior of the area in the building where he was that fateful morning. \"Wow. My God. ... It makes you weak in the knees to see these pictures,\" Leech said. Leech, 54, recently took CNN into an office not far from the conference room where he was that morning. He has avoided touring the building since the attack but finally decided he was ready to \"re-engage\" with the past. In 2001, Leech was working as a Defense Department liaison officer to the White House Drug Policy office. He worked primarily out of the White House but attended meetings at the Pentagon every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Watch as he returns to the crash site \u00bb . As he walked the now-renovated halls where he spent the morning of September 11, he recalled the horror of the day. The shock, he said, was indescribable. \"It hit with such force. I had never experienced anything like it in my life. It rattled you right down to the bone,\" Leech said. Flight 77 slammed into the west wall of the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. ET. Among the 184 people killed in the building and on the plane were a 3-year-old girl and a 71-year-old retired Navy captain, the youngest and oldest victims, who were both passengers on Flight 77. A closer look at the new Pentagon memorial \u00bb . Several people were killed or severely burned not far from where Leech took cover. He remembers people screaming, \"bloodcurdling screams.\" \"I was so lucky. ... It was almost like we were in a protective cocoon,\" Leech recalled. \"I mean, I inhaled a lot of jet fuel vapors, and I got dusted up, but that was the extent of my injuries.\" The married father of a 26-year-old woman remembers snaking his way outside the burning building, where in a stupor he noticed a comb that appeared to belong to a small child. \"A little girl's comb that was untouched. It was not scorched; it didn't have smut on it,\" Leech remembered. \"It was a pristine red comb sitting off the side, and next to it was a tattered suitcase, and I can remember looking at that and thinking, who did that belong to? What little girl did that belong to?\" Leech served 28 years in the military and now works for the Department of Homeland Security but hopes to return one day to the Defense Department. Seven years after that horrible day, Leech visited the chapel at the new Pentagon Memorial, a two-acre park, which opens to the public Thursday. It was built at the spot where Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon and will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thumbing through a condolence book in the chapel, he found the friend whom he was with that day, Navy Capt. Jack Punches. He wrote, \"Thanks Jack for serving and dying for our nation -- John Leech.\" \"I've avoided ... anything to do with 9\/11, so it feels good to be here,\" he said. \"I mean, a lot happened that day. A lot of good people died. A lot of very good people.\" CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre contributed to this story .","highlights":"Retired Col. John Leech narrowly escaped death on September 11, 2001 .\nPentagon survivor recalls shock, terror of that terrible morning .\nFleeing for safety, he saw a little girl's red comb untouched near a tattered suitcase .\nWatch 9\/11 memorials in New York and Washington on CNN.com Live .","id":"bc07310120f775135be134bb1eca09efcbe94110"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roughly etched onto Brian's arm is a swastika tattoo. Brian's sinister-looking tattoo is etched into his skin . The 11-year-old says his 10-year-old friend Temashi spent two days \"scratching\" the image onto his skin with a match stick. It only hurt a little bit, said Brian, one of thousands of Zimbabwean children who have fled their ravaged homeland for what they hope will be a better life in South Africa. For Brian and his friend, the symbol of the swastika does not represent the horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. Instead, they say the ominous jagged lines on their arms mean \"Germans never surrender.\" It is a twisted interpretation that, however misguided, gives strength to Brian, marking him as a \"man\" and \"someone who does not surrender,\" he said quietly in a soft voice. Watch the boys explain what the tattoos mean to them \u00bb . Brian and his young compatriots from Zimbabwe are on their own in a new country. Charities such as Save the Children and UNICEF classify them as \"unaccompanied minors,\" but those words do not begin to describe their situation. They endure unimaginable hardships traveling to South Africa by themselves or with small groups of friends. They hitch rides on trucks, trains and taxis. Brian and his friends told CNN that when they got to the South African border at Beitbridge authorities let them walk through without passports or other documents. They then made their way to the border town of Musina, where boys beg on the streets or work on farms, and girls seem to disappear into South African society. UNICEF representative Shantha Bloemen said many Zimbabwean girls either turn to prostitution or work as domestic servants. Nearly all of the children -- some younger than 10 -- leave Zimbabwe because they hope their life will be better in South Africa. They said hunger, non-functioning schools and poverty were the reasons they left. Many are orphans, while some have parents, but they all dislike Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime -- a government that has left them with no choice but to abandon their homes and join the exodus south. A quarter of Zimbabwe's population has fled the country, mostly to neighboring South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, humanitarian groups said. The United Nations and Save the Children, which has an office based in Musina, report there has been a troubling increase in the number of children under 18 years old who are making the risky journey south from their homes in Zimbabwe to South Africa in search of work and food. Social workers from Save the Children and UNICEF told CNN that in June, 175 Zimbabwean children came over the border illegally and alone. In November, 1,016 kids made the same perilous journey. The boys older than 16 hang around Musina, sleeping on the sidewalk by a sports stadium along with older homeless men. Their days are spent waiting in line, jostling alongside hundreds of Zimbabwean adults, trying to apply for political asylum at a makeshift center opened by South African authorities. A South African official who processes asylum applications says it is common for youngsters to lie about their age so they can get the papers to stay in the country legally. Many, though, cannot get the necessary papers because they do not carry documentation or have adults who can vouch for who they are and where they come from. So, they wander the streets, begging for money. The younger ones like Brian are picked up by police and housed in a safe place until authorities and aid agencies can figure out what to do with them. While they wait for a future that never seems to arrive, boys like Brian and Temashi -- a legacy of Mugabe's regime -- struggle to survive in the world they now find themselves in.","highlights":"25 percent of Zimbabwe's population has fled the nation, humanitarian groups say .\nIn November, 1,016 kids traveled to South Africa, social workers say .\nMost children say they leave due to hunger, poverty, non-functioning schools .\nBoys work in South African farms, beg on streets; girls become prostitutes, maids .","id":"1f220ef6e69e8f91c97e1ffdff2cc9b510d13ef2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Wednesday approved a bill to put new rules in place for intelligence agency eavesdropping on suspected terrorists. Communication technologies like mobile phones have made the 1978 FISA bill out of date, supporters say. The bill also effectively protects telephone companies from being sued for cooperating with a government surveillance program launched in the wake of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The White House pushed hard for the provision, with a threat to veto the bill if it did not contain protection for phone companies. The vote was 69-28, with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois voting in favor. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona was not present for the vote. President Bush said Wednesday afternoon he will sign the bill, calling it \"vital\" and \"long overdue.\" Watch Bush praise the new FISA bill \u00bb . The bill, formally known as the FISA Amendments Act, updates the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It will: . Opponents argued that the provision creating a judicial review of cases against the telecommunication companies is a sham. The bill essentially grants immunity to the telecommunication companies, the opponents said, because all of the telephone carriers received government certifications saying their participation in the program was legal. Obama was criticized for backing away from his early opposition to the bill by liberal bloggers and individuals commenting on his campaign Web site. Before voting for the bill, Obama voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, that would have stripped the language granting immunity to telecommunications companies. Civil liberties groups have vowed to fight the legislation in court. \"This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,\" Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project, said in a statement issued minutes after the Senate approved the bill. \"The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans' international telephone and e-mail communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.\" President Bush acknowledged in 2005 that he ordered the secretive National Security Agency to intercept communications between U.S. residents and people overseas suspected of having ties to terrorism. The administration says the program was authorized when Congress approved military action against al Qaeda after the 2001 attacks. CNN's Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill updates Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 .\nSenate passes measure by a vote of 69-28; Bush says he will sign the bill .\nBill updates eavesdropping rules to take into account technology changes .\nCivil liberties groups vows to fight bill in court .","id":"cd6c2d621ce3c6920cbf090ce4e1581b194d6bc3"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Attackers in a Taliban-controlled area of Pakistan shot and tried to behead a Pakistani journalist on Wednesday, according to his employer GEO TV. Mosa Khankhel was reporting for GEO TV when he was killed. The slain correspondent, Mosa Khankhel, had been covering the recent peace deal between the Pakistani government and Taliban militants in Swat Valley when he was killed, GEO TV managing director Azhar Abbas said. \"He is the first martyr of this peace deal,\" Abbas said, adding that he believes it is unlikely the deal will end the campaign of violence that has centered in Swat. Khankhel was traveling in a caravan with Sufi Mohammed, who was leading the peace deal negotiations for the Taliban, when he went missing, Abbas said. His body was found about an hour later. He had been shot three times and his killers had attempted to cut off his head. Abbas called on Pakistan's government to fully investigate the killing of Khankhel, who was the network's correspondent based in North West Frontier Province as part of GEO TV's Peshawar bureau. His death comes a day after Pakistan's government recognized the Taliban's interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, in the entire Malakand Division, which includes Swat and its surrounding district. Watch questions raised by Khankhel's death \u00bb . The agreement marked a major concession by Pakistan in its attempt to hold off Taliban militants who have terrorized the region with beheadings, kidnappings, death threats, and the destruction of girls' schools. The regional government in the Swat valley struck the deal to allow sharia law, in return the Taliban agreed to a 10-day cease fire. The Taliban control of Swat -- which is about 100 miles northwest of Islamabad -- is the deepest advance by militants into Pakistan's settled areas, which are located outside its federally administered tribal region along the border with Afghanistan. The peace deal is the latest attempt by Pakistan's civilian government -- which took power last year -- to achieve peace through diplomacy in areas where Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are believed to have free rein. But analysts as well as critics within the establishment have warned that Pakistan's previous dealings with the Taliban have only given the fundamentalist Islamic militia time to regroup and gain more ground. Khadim Hussain, a professor Bahria University in Islamabad who studies Pakistani politics, said the government has set the stage for two contradictory, parallel states in North West Frontier Province. \"If you leave them like that and you give ... a semblance of peace in a particular area, what does that mean?\" Hussain said. \"It means you're capitulating. It means you're surrendering the state to them. It means your submitting the state authority to them because they are running a parallel state.\" He said the government's decision amounts to a marriage of convenience made under duress. Swat has been overrun by forces loyal to Maulana Fazlullah's banned hardline Islamic group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) which has allied itself with Taliban fighters. TNSM was once led by Sufi Mohammed, Fazlullah's father-in-law, who is leading the latest negotiations. Sufi Mohammed was released from jail last year by Pakistani authorities after he agreed to cooperate with the government. He was jailed in 2002 after recruiting thousands of fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Fazlullah took over TNSM during Sufi Mohammed's jail stint and vowed to continue his fight to impose fundamentalist Islamic law in the region. Last May, Pakistan's government announced it reached a peace deal with militants in Swat Valley. In the months that have followed, the Taliban have seized control of the region and carried out a violent campaign against government officials, including local politicians. The head of the secular Awami National Party -- which represents the region -- was forced to flee to Islamabad amid death threats from the Taliban. Pakistan is under enormous pressure to control the militants within its borders, blamed for launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting militants. The United States -- using unmanned drones -- has carried out several airstrikes inside Pakistan on suspected militant targets, including one on Monday that killed at least 15 people, Pakistani sources said. Such airstrikes, which sometimes result in civilian casualties, have aggravated tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan's military operation in the region is unpopular among Pakistanis, but efforts to deal diplomatically with militants have not worked in the past. Pakistan's previous leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reached a cease-fire deal with militants in South Waziristan in 2006 which was widely blamed for giving al Qaeda and Taliban a stronger foothold in the region. CNN's Stan Grant contributed to this report .","highlights":"Journalist for Pakistan's GEO TV killed in Taliban-area of the country .\nGEO says Mosa Khankhel was shot and his attackers tried to behead him .\nKhankhel was traveling with Taliban lead negotiator when he went missing .\nIncident happened in Swat where Pakistan-Taliban agreed to allow sharia law .","id":"37044ab8d7a8fc8f8026f0353ad09747b22954cd"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich vowed Friday to fight federal corruption charges and stay on the job, despite calls for his resignation amid allegations that he attempted to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich spoke to reporters at a news conference Friday but did not take questions. \"I will fight, I will fight, I will fight until I take my last breath. I have done nothing wrong,\" Blagojevich said in a brief news conference in Chicago. \"I'm not going to quit a job that people have hired me to do.\" The spirited comments were the first public statements from the second-term governor about the allegations since his arrest December 9 on federal corruption charges. Federal prosecutors have accused the governor of trying to sell Obama's former Senate seat. Prosecutors also allege the governor and his former chief of staff, John Harris, tried to have Chicago Tribune editorial board members fired by leveraging state assistance to the parent company of the newspaper, the Tribune Co., in its sale of Wrigley Field. Blagojevich said he was \"dying\" to show his innocence, but maintained he would reserve his comments for an appropriate forum. \"I'm not going to do what my accusers and political enemies have been doing, and that is talk about this case in 30-second sound bites on 'Meet the Press' or on the TV news,\" he said. \"I have on my side the most powerful ally there is, and it is the truth.\" Watch Blagojevich speak at the news conference \u00bb . Quoting Rudyard Kipling's poem, \"If,\" Blagojevich called on the public to be patient and reserve judgment until the facts unfold in criminal proceedings. \"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting, too; if you can wait and not be tired by waiting; or being lied about, don't deal in lies; or being hated, don't give way to hating,\" he said. Blagojevich did not take questions from reporters. Earlier Friday, his attorney, Ed Genson, said he did not feel it was prudent for the governor to answer questions now. Genson has said that the governor did nothing wrong and that evidence obtained through wiretaps in Blagojevich's office and home was \"illegally obtained.\" The 76-page criminal complaint against Blagojevich includes snippets of intercepted phone calls involving the governor's alleged efforts to benefit from the Senate vacancy. After Blagojevich's statement, Genson's co-counsel, Sam Adam Jr., told reporters that the U.S. attorney's office has not provided them with information related to the criminal complaint. \"We've been asking for the documents. We've been asking for the tapes. We've been asking for the witnesses, we're asking for a witness list. We have not gotten that,\" he said. Blagojevich's arrest has thrown Illinois politics into chaos. Many of the state's political leaders -- including Obama -- have called on the governor to resign. Harris, who was also arrested on federal corruption charges, resigned days after his arrest. Watch Illinois lawmakers discuss impeachment \u00bb . Members of an Illinois House of Representatives panel met Wednesday to continue discussions about whether there is a basis to impeach Blagojevich.","highlights":"Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of criminal wrongdoing .\nBlagojevich says he has the truth on his side, vows to stay on the job .\nGovernor accused of trying to sell President-elect Obama's Senate seat .\nBlagojevich's lawyer says evidence was illegally obtained .","id":"30a12bcdb3d0209f356b4c91503b02475075764a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Since the early days of pop music, the music industry has been searching for the secret formula to writing a successful song -- for that special alchemy that separates a Grammy-winner from a dud. For a period in the 1970s and 80s, the self-styled King of Pop Michael Jackson seemed to have stumbled upon it, but somewhere along the line he, too, seems to have misplaced it. Hit Song Science claims to be able to predict whether a song will be a pop hit . But now a piece of software claims it can compute whether a song has chart-topping potential, and a number of record companies and musicians are using Hit Song Science (HSS) to gauge whether they have a hit on their hands. The software, developed by Barcelona-based Music Intelligence Solutions, works by breaking down more than 60 elements of a song, including melody, harmony, tempo, pitch, octave, beat, rhythm, fullness of sound, noise, brilliance and chord progression, and compares it against a database of over 3.5 million past commercial hits. The program organizes songs into clusters with similar-sounding equivalents and then rates the song on a scale of one to ten, with a score of 7.3 being deemed likely to do well in the music charts. Curiously, clusters of songs do not necessarily contain songs that sound the same to the human ear, but from a mathematical perspective they share similarities. HSS analyzed music from Norah Jones' first album before she broke through and the program's algorithms placed her in a cluster with Linkin Park, Aerosmith and JayZ. If you have ever wondered why you sometimes find yourself humming along to some smooth jazz on the radio when you consider yourself a strict thrash metal fan only, then perhaps HSS has discovered the scientific answer. Besides Norah Jones, the program also predicted success for Mika, while \"Turn Your Car Around,\" a song penned by Ben Novak, a singer-songwriter from New Zealand, was rated as a potential hit by HSS, who recommended it to Sony Music in the UK. It eventually ended up as a vehicle for ex-Blue band member Lee Ryan and scored a respectable UK chart position of 16 in 2005. Record producer Carlos Quintero, director of Orixe and Jamm Records in Spain, believes that the software has a high accuracy rate. \"I was very skeptical when I was told about it for the first time,\" he says. \"I thought it was science fiction. \"But when we choose a tune for an artist and we like it and feel it will be a hit, the surprise is that 85 percent of the time the tracks we have chosen get a positive analysis from the software.\" The emergence of hit prediction programs such as this -- New York-based Platinum Blue Music Intelligence provides a similar service -- raises concerns that the creative element of writing music would be eroded by breaking it down into mathematical algorithms. But Quintero claims the program in no way writes a song, it simply tells you whether it has the potential to be a hit. He says he mainly uses the software to tweak and refine songs so that he can maximize his chances of scoring a high chart position. \"There was a particular case where we had to revise the song as at first it wasn't completely right. Using the software, we managed to make it work,\" he explains. \"The problem with the software is that it can only indicate whether a song is suitable or not. It's up to the producer, the technical team and the artist to make it suitable in the first place.\" Quintero has since become a member of Music Intelligence Solutions' advisory board, so he is bound to have a positive take on the service. Jimena Llosa, General Manager EMEA of Music Intelligence Solutions, claims the company has thirty to forty clients in the record industry in Europe and the U.S., but she says she cannot reveal who they are, citing privacy issues. CNN attempted to contact several record companies in London, but A&R departments claimed they had not heard of the service, suggesting either a certain coyness to admit using it or that it is not as widely used as Music Intelligence claims. The software can also be used as a way of recommending new music to audiences. In Spain, cellular phone company Orange is using the technology in its New Talents enterprise. Listeners can enter in their favorite songs and the program will suggest songs they might enjoy according to its cluster system. \u00d3scar Sainz is one musician who has profited from this new way of connecting musicians with an audience. A national tennis monitor by profession, he struggled to make an impact in the music industry despite the best efforts of Pablo Pinilla, one of Spain's most successful music producers. But since the Orange initiative his career has taken off and he is now selling well through Orange and touring the country. \"A machine or at least mathematical or scientific formulas that could analyze the parameters that a song needs to be a hit? The truth is I doubted it at first,\" he says. \"My first instinct was it must be a con. \"Don't ask me what parameters they use, or formulas, or machines they use, because I don't know. But it works.\" But the software has its skeptics. Jim Elliot, writer and producer of Kylie Minogue's new single \"2 Hearts\" is unconvinced about the accuracy of the program. He entered tracks from her new Album \"X\" and they were, unsurprisingly, rated as potential hits. But he also entered a little-known, unreleased, song by 70s band Gong that included cows mooing, and it was also rated as a potential chart-topper. He thinks that the program negates the unpredictability of human behavior. \"The fact is that it's the human errors introduced in the music-making process that are always the most interesting,\" he says. \"Who would have thought Lily Allen would do so well? I doubt anyone would have predicted that. \"It's so hard to categorize music. There's a real danger of doing that. If you are writing and producing music you can try to fit it to certain formulas but it's so abstract that it has to be free -- and then something good will happen.\" With just one fifth of their musicians making a profit for today's record companies, executives are always searching for new ways to narrow the risk margin. Hit Song Science may become a useful string in their bow in the elusive art of predicting a hit. Otherwise they will have to keep relying on tried and tested -- and more human -- methods, such as gut instinct. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Barcelona company claims its software can tell if a song will be a pop hit .\nHit Song Science analyzes song's melody, harmony, tempo, beat .\nSoftware cannot write hits, just predict whether they will find success .\nCompany says A&R departments are using it to tweak tracks for the top .","id":"f7398a856a4b06b81c27ff623c0765c9b0f0a189"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A Russian naval ship rescued a Dutch container vessel under attack by suspected Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the head of the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday. The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Sirius Star was recently released by pirates off Somalia. Two or three pirate speedboats were chasing the Dutch ship, with the goal of boarding it, when the Russians intervened, said Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau in London. He said the pirates fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the Dutch ship, but no injuries were reported. The incident occurred about midday Tuesday. The Russians chased one of the speedboats but the pirates got away, Mukundan said. He said he did not know where the Dutch ship was headed. \"It is important that the naval vessels continue to respond robustly to these pirates,\" he said. Watch how attacks peaked in 2008 \u00bb . Hijackings off the coast of East Africa have become a growing international concern, prompting a number of foreign navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden and neighboring coastal areas. The Gulf of Aden links the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. About 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route near Somalia each year. Most of the attacks are blamed on pirates based in largely lawless Somalia, a country racked by poverty and conflict. Watch CNN's exclusive interview with a pirate . According to the United Nations, there were 115 reported pirate attacks off the Somali coast in 2008, including 46 successful hijackings. Read blog on how CNN contacted a pirate . The troubling rise in Somali piracy has led the United Nations to step up efforts to tackle the crime. The first U.N. group to address piracy met Wednesday in New York. Mark Kimmitt, U.S. assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs chaired the \"contact group\" of two dozen nations and five multi-national organizations. He said the group was formed to \"establish a counter-piracy coordination mechanism,\" and the members believe more can be done to halt piracy. Still, Kimmitt noted that less than one percent of manifests off the Somali coast are attacked by pirates and only 50 percent of those have crew and passengers taken hostage. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution in December expanding counter-piracy measures off the Horn of Africa, including a stipulation that allows national and regional military forces to chase pirates onshore in Somalia when in \"hot pursuit.\"","highlights":"NEW: First United Nations group to address piracy meets in New York .\nTwo or three speedboats were chasing the Dutch container ship, IMB says .\nIMB: The pirates fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the Dutch ship .\nHijackings off East Africa have led international navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden .","id":"f8e796ffad73288b1a6f53a59f408b70df0ea8aa"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- From TVs to handsets, LG Electronics is on a mission -- to become a top three player in the global electronics industry. Yong Nam, CEO of LG Electronics . Leading the campaign is CEO Yong Nam who took on the top job in January. CNN's Andrew Stevens met him at the LG headquarters in Seoul, where he showed off the latest Viewty camera phone. While Nam hopes this gadget will boost market share, he's also on a bigger quest to shake up the South Korean company's corporate culture. Yong Nam: I try to empower, rather than make decisions. I think frontline people that know customers better can make better decisions. I just try to keep pushing authority downwards instead of upwards. Andrew Stevens: You have been 30 years, more or less, with LG Electronics, what are the most important business lessons you have learnt during that time? Yong Nam: Earlier in my career I was deeply engaged in selling of electronic products in the U.S. market, where I was able to put myself in customers' shoes rather than manufactures' shoes. And that was a great experience for me to understand the frontline and customers. And secondly I spent more than 10 years in the chairman's office, so that gave me a great opportunity to learn top management perspective, as well as problem solving capabilities. Andrew Stevens: You've pledged to make LG Electronics a more inspirational place to work. Now with 82,000 employees what do you mean by that and how do you do it? Yong Nam: In a very hierarchical, bureaucratic and big company culture and working environment, people try to hide issues and problems instead of raising and solving them. I try to get people engaged -- I call it waste elimination activities. If it is solved it can turn into a treasure, so there are so many treasures in the process of doing every day work among our people, and I try to encourage them to be engaged in finding out that waste. Andrew Stevens: Obviously you are a fluent English speaker, how important is it for a business leader to have a second language, to have those language skills? Yong Nam: Just Korean talent itself is not sufficient enough, so I have to attract a best in class global talent into our organization, so that they can feel comfortable working in this environment. This means that English has to be a common language in our company going forward. So me speaking English is very, very important to encourage people to speak out with bad English instead of good Korean. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN's Andrew Stevens talks to CEO of LG Electronics, Yong Nam .\nHe became CEO in January, 2007, has been with the company since 1976 .\nNam believes speaking English is very important in the company .","id":"36396075809674f7e5279953e9b886f488b765c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan's president signed a bill Friday to close an air base that the U.S. military uses as a route for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan, the president announced on his Web site. Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan serves as a U.S. supply route for troops and supplies into Afghanistan. The news came as two other central Asian nations -- Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- reportedly agreed to let U.S. cargo pass through their countries on the way to Afghanistan. Such deals, if confirmed, could help fill the void left by the closing of the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz order became effective on Friday when President Kurmanbek Bakiyev reportedly signed legislation that the parliament in Bishkek backed on Thursday, the Pentagon said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry on Friday officially notified the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek that a 180-day withdrawal process is under way. Embassy spokeswoman Michelle Yerkin told CNN the United States hopes to retain the base. Officials in Washington and Bishkek signed a deal three years ago allowing the United States to renew the arrangement annually through July 2011. \"We do remain in contact with the government of Kyrgyzstan,\" Yerkin said. \"The Manas Air Base continues to operate under existing agreements, as per the coalition's efforts in Afghanistan.\" U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday the United States will continue to work with Kyrgyzstan on keeping the base open. Watch why Kyrgyzstan wants to close the base \u00bb . \"I continue to believe that this is not a closed issue and that there remains the potential at least to reopen this issue with the Kyrgyz and perhaps reach a new agreement,\" Gates said at a NATO meeting in Krakow, Poland. \"If we are unable to do that on reasonable terms then, as I have suggested, we are developing alternative methods to get resupply and people into Afghanistan.\" The Manas Air Base outside Bishkek is the only U.S. base in Central Asia and is a major resupply hub for the war in Afghanistan. Its closing could deal a significant blow to the U.S. military effort there, especially following President Barack Obama's announcement of additional troops to halt a resurgence of the country's former Taliban rulers. The United States pays $17.4 million a year to use Manas, a major logistical and refueling center that supports troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said. About 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo reportedly move through Manas monthly, it said. The air base currently employs more than 1,000 servicemen, 95 percent of whom are Americans, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. \"This is an important facility, it has been an important facility, but it's not irreplaceable and, if necessary, we will find other options,\" Whitman said. How far is Manas from Afghanistan? View our map \u00bb . Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two other Central Asian nations that border Afghanistan, have agreed to allow U.S. cargo to be transported to Afghanistan through their countries, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Friday. The agency said Rear Adm. Mark Harnitchek, U.S. transportation command director for strategy, policy, programs and logistics, held a meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Kharokhon Zarifi, after which he said he had also secured Uzbekistan's consent. A Tajik government statement said only that the two sides discussed the issue, but a spokesman for the Tajik foreign ministry told CNN that \"practically all issues\" to allow U.S. cargo transit through the country have been resolved. If confirmed, success would still depend on how much access the United States would have to those countries for flights and cargo, and even then, it may not totally replace the capacity lost in Kyrgyzstan. U.S. General David Petraeus, who oversees the war in Afghanistan, was in Uzbekistan this week for talks on Afghanistan and other regional issues. A Pentagon spokesman told CNN that his discussions included the regional supply network into Afghanistan. The U.S. military leased a base in Uzbekistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But after Uzbek troops were accused of killing at least 150 people during a demonstration in 2005, the autocratic government of President Islam Karimov came under criticism from Washington and severed most of its military ties with the United States.","highlights":"Tajikistan, Uzbekistan may allow U.S. military supplies heading to Afhanistan .\nKyrgyzstan president completes next step towards closure of U.S. base .\nThe U.S. says it's still working with the country to keep the operation open .\nThe Manas base is used to transport key supplies and troops into Afghanistan .","id":"cd20536ba3ed67f206d5d648937177a677804789"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Barack Obama's election as president of the United States won't see a change in American relations with the Taliban, a senior Taliban leader in Pakistan says. A Taliban leader says Barack Obama's election will bring little change. \"For us, the change of America's president -- we don't have any good faith in him,\" said Muslim Khan, a grizzled Taliban spokesman who is one of the most wanted men in Pakistan, in a rare interview with CNN. \"If he does anything good, it will be for himself.\" With an assault rifle on his lap, Khan answered 10 written questions, sharing his view on a range of topics from slavery to Obama's middle name -- Hussein. He spoke in the remote Swat Valley of northwestern Pakistan, the site of frequent and fierce clashes between Pakistani troops and Taliban and al Qaeda militants. There was no opportunity for follow-up questions. Khan said Obama's election may change conditions for black Americans. \"The black one knows how much the black people are discriminated against in America and Europe and other countries,\" he said. \"For America's black people, it could be that there will be a change. That era is coming.\" He said he doubted Obama's victory would lead to changes in relations between the United States and the Taliban. Watch the Taliban spokesman on Barack Obama \u00bb . U.S. forces dislodged the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. America and its allies have battled the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan ever since, with fighting spreading across the border into Pakistan. \"American should take its army out of the country,\" Khan said. \"They are considered terrorists.\" Obama has minced no words in describing how he would administer U.S. policy toward the Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in August, Obama pledged to \"finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.\" And the president-elect included a blunt warning in remarks on the evening of his election victory: \"To those who would tear the world down,\" he said, \"we will defeat you.\" Khan noted that Obama's middle name was fairly common in the Muslim world, referring to him at times as \"Hussein Barack Obama.\" \"If he behaves in the way of a real Hussein, then he has become our brother,\" he said. \"If Barack Obama pursues the same policies as Bush and behaves like Bush ... then he cannot be Hussein. He can only be Obama.\"","highlights":"Taliban leader: We have no faith in Barack Obama .\nTaliban not expecting change in relationship with U.S.\nObama has committed himself to defeating the Taliban and al Qaeda .","id":"ed06f087a9d8068ca2e30d8feff0053c64b06a36"} -{"article":"CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (CNN) -- Attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq with bombs believed linked to Iran -- known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) -- have risen sharply in January after several months of decline, according to the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Explosively formed penetrators are more sophisticated and deadlier than typical improvised explosive devices. Iraqi and U.S. officials indicated just a month ago that Iran was using its influence to improve security in Iraq by restraining cross-border weapons flow and militia activity. The U.S. military had said in recent months that the number of EFP attacks had gone down. Gen. David Petraeus disclosed the reversal to reporters after a meeting with President Bush who was visiting troops in Kuwait. \"In this year, EFPs have gone up, actually, over the last 10 days by a factor of two or three, and frankly we're trying to determine why that might be,\" Petraeus said. Petraeus did not say how many American troops have been killed or wounded by EFPs in recent days. The U.S. military announced nine troop deaths from bombings in the first 11 days of January, but the death announcements did not specify if EFPs were involved. EFPs are more sophisticated and deadlier than the typical improvised explosive devices (IED) used by insurgents as roadside bombs to attack convoys and foot patrols until last year. EFPs use components manufactured in Iran and militants are trained in Iran to use them, the U.S. military has said. President Bush, in remarks to reporters in Kuwait, said: \"Iran must stop supporting the militia special groups that attack Iraqi and coalition forces, and kidnap and kill Iraqi officials.\" The Bush administration and the military have long maintained that Iranian agents, particularly the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- have been arming and training Iraqi insurgents. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Emily Schultz contributed to this report .","highlights":"U.S. military says January increase in bombs believed linked to Iran .\nDevices are known as EFPs (explosively formed penetrators)\nGen. Petraeus: EFPs increased by a factor of two or three over last 10 days .\nBush administration, military say Iran arming, training Iraqi insurgents .","id":"573e46e86045679087c28514ae70f3a355ff1edf"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed an eight-point peace agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday at a summit in Pyongyang, North Korea. The leaders pledged to work toward forging a permanent peace treaty between their nations, which ended the 1950-1953 war with a cease-fire. The Koreas have remained technically at war for 54 years. The armistice was signed July 27, 1953. \"South and North Korea agree on [the] need to end the current armistice and establish permanent peace,\" the fourth point of the agreement says. In addition, the two sides will push \"for a declaration of the ending of the Korean War in cooperation with neighboring nations.\" \"If there is nuclear disarmament, and if the peace treaty moves forward, I believe that the Cold War era will end and there will really be reunification and peace between the two countries,\" Roh said in a speech to government officials that was nationally televised on his return home. \"Any conflicting issues, we said we would talk about it. And we said that we would work together,\" Roh said. \"I don't think there will be problems in the future.\" U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement \"a major step forward to enhance inter-Korean cooperation as well as peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.\" \"The United Nations stands ready to provide assistance as may be required, in cooperation with the international community,\" Ban said in a statement issued by his office. Roh admitted that after arriving in the North Korean capital and meeting Kim, he was so worried that he couldn't sleep that night. \"I can say simply [that] we were able to communicate. Things went better,\" said Roh. On Tuesday, Roh became the first South Korean leader to walk across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone between the two countries. His predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, flew to Pyongyang for the first Korean leader summit in 2000. Roh said one of the most important aspects of the talks was an agreement to designate a joint fishing area and economic zone along the disputed western sea border, where there were bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. \"We believe the north-south summit went a step further and confirmed what is happening in the six-nation talks,\" Roh said. The United States, North Korea, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea are involved in nuclear agreements made earlier in the year that will lead to the disabling of North Korea's nuclear facilities. On Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said that a U.S. team, including technical experts, will head to North Korea next week, after the communist country agreed to begin the process. The experts will make it difficult to restart a nuclear program by sealing North Korea's main nuclear facility and removing certain components that would not be easy to replace. The goal in the next phase, Hill said, is complete dismantlement, but that could take up to five years. The reconciliation pact also calls for North and South Korean leaders to meet often for discussions on \"pending issues.\" That pact stipulates that there will be a meeting between Korean prime ministers in Seoul in November. Military ministers for the two Koreas will meet in Pyongyang on Friday. Among the long list of agreements made during the summit are expanded economic cooperation and a proposed exchange of video letters between families separated by the divided Korean peninsula. Roh and Kim opened formal talks Wednesday at the first summit between the divided countries in seven years. Hundreds of North Koreans cheered Roh's arrival at the April 25 Hall of Culture in downtown Pyongyang on Tuesday, waving large spikes of KimJongilia, the brilliant pink flower named for North Korea's reclusive leader. The two leaders shook hands during a short opening ceremony. The meeting with Kim Jong Il, announced in early August, was initially scheduled for the end of that month but was postponed after massive flooding in Pyongyang. The Koreas summit also comes in the final months of Roh's scandal-ridden term, and some analysts suspect the South Korean leader is hoping the Pyongyang meeting will boost his sagging approval ratings and help position his party in the upcoming elections against the conservative opposition. The 2000 summit, part of Kim Dae-jung's policy of engagement with North Korea, paved the way for his Nobel Peace Prize awarded that same year. But South Korean investigators later revealed that Kim Dae-jung paid hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the meeting, the first between Stalinist North Korea and capitalist South Korea. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-ae contributed to this report.","highlights":"North, South Korea agree on need to \"establish permanent peace\"\nPact calls for North, South Korean leaders to meet often on \"pending issues\"\nAlso discussed was an exchange of video letters between separated families .\nMilitary ministers for the two Koreas will meet in Pyongyang on Friday .","id":"55852cb710ed6b7c39d16d2ae6220dae87294bb6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.\" -- Mark Twain . Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, whose expeditions have inspired others to seek adventure . Adventure comes to those who seek it. Some are born with an adventurous streak, an insatiable curiosity that can only be quelled through discovery, while others seek out adventures as a means of conquering the demons within: fear, boredom, stagnation, a sort of dry rot of the soul. We see adventurous people as being somehow different from ourselves: stronger, braver, tougher, fitter. They are versions of our best selves: the doers in life, the fearless, those who go over the mountain and come back to tell us what's on the other side. While we may think the true adventurers are a species apart, we are all adventurers at heart -- yet sometimes the urge is stifled by modern life. The lust for adventure is planted in childhood. How many of us sat enthralled under the blankets as our parents read us the adventures of the Famous Five, \"Treasure Island,\" \"Where the Wild Things Are,\" \"The Swiss Family Robinson,\" \"Tarzan\" and \"Peter Pan\"? Children weaned on such stories may be forgiven for assuming adulthood is one long adventure that swings wildly between jungles, swamps, deserted islands and alpine heights. Yet modern life is increasingly sedentary and safety-conscious. The desire for comfort and convenience ameliorates our contradictory urge to explore. A few have it thrust upon them: stranded in an inhospitable place, lost in a jungle or called up for combat -- and they find themselves dropped in an adventure that they may not have chosen; but for the main part, adventure comes to those who seek it. Dr. James Thompson, a senior lecturer in psychology at University College London, says seeking adventure is more common \"amongst people who are extroverted, who are outgoing, who are sociable, because one of the things they need -- apart from the excitement of people -- is excitement generally.\" But if you think adventure is something that only happens to other people; that you are too unfit to climb a mountain, too scared to sail across the open sea, too nervous to travel through a country where you can't speak the language; perhaps you should rethink. After all, having an adventure could be good for you. Psychologists have linked adventure-seeking with a range of positive qualities. Adventure can: . Following the stories of this age's greatest adventurers such as polar explorer Douglas Mawson, Everest climber Edmund Hillary and mountaineer Reinhold Messner, we are encouraged not just to follow their paths up mountains or along rock faces -- they also inspire us to take more risks, to seize more from each day. Who could fail to be inspired after watching CNN interview the world's greatest living mountaineer, Reinhold Messner? In 1980, Messner was the first person to ascend Mount Everest alone without supplementary oxygen. Later, he crossed Antarctica on skis. He tells CNN anchor Becky Anderson: \"I'm a normal person, a totally normal person, and I was really lucky in my life to have to have the opportunity to follow my dreams. So in the beginning I was a rock climber, and all my enthusiasm, my energy and my willpower went into rock climbing.\" Many young people are naturally adventurous -- throwing their energy and enthusiasm behind sport, hobbies and travel. Witness the explosion of school leavers taking gap years (a year off in between school and university or the workforce), with the destinations becoming more and more exotic and activities accompanying the travel designed to expand their mind as well as their horizons. But later in life, we can wake up and find our lives leeched of adventure. We may be loaded down with a mortgage, kids or a demanding job. Adventure then becomes something we prefer to read about rather than live. We fall into the trap of the armchair traveler and become transfixed by all the journeys we didn't make. Instead of setting out on our own expeditions, we read Joe Simpson's account of his near-death mountaineering experiences in \"Touching the Void.\" Or we follow Sebastian Junger's account of wild sea adventures in \"The Perfect Storm.\" But while we are great armchair adventurers, a craving for the real thing can stir in us when we feel the need to change and shake things up. Women in their 40s are leading the charge towards adventure. A survey released by the Adventure Travel Trade Association in March 2007 said today's typical adventure traveler was \"female and fortyish.\" \"Women make up the majority of adventure travelers (52 percent) worldwide, with the most common destination being South America,\" said the trade association. The survey of travelers from 35 countries also found that people aged 41 to 60 are the highest participating age group in adventure travel. A survey by YouGov in the UK has identified a new subset of British -- the Nifty Fifties. They've had the responsible jobs and raised their children -- and now they want adventure. Tesco Life Insurance has noticed: \"They've decided to take the five star version of the student gap year, encompassing all of the adventure with none of the discomforts. Neither burgeoning waistlines nor graying hair is going to hold them back.\" Some older people are inspired to seek adventure by their children's gap year experiences. Others just want to spend their kids' inheritances. In a survey of older people carried out by Tesco Life Insurance they compiled the Nifty Fifty wish list. Adventure is a common component to their aspirations, the most popular of which are noted below: . Tony Wheeler, one of the founders of guidebook giant \"Lonely Planet,\" is now an aging baby-boomer, yet he still pops up in Iran, a place that has recently dominated headlines the world over for all the wrong reasons. In a recent piece in UK newspaper The Observer, he also recommends holidays in North Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. Messner now is 63 years old and although he no longer has the strength of his youth, he is still setting himself challenges. \"So my challenge today is this one (setting up a museum), I will finish this one and afterwards I will invent a new challenge and it will be not on Everest and not in Antarctica it will be probably in a mental dimension because mentally we can go very far also in later years,\" he told CNN. But the yearning for adventure can strike at all ages. Dave Wroe, 33, and Penny Bradfield, 28, both gave up exciting jobs in the Australian media to travel. They are spending April and May in Iran and have already braved trekking in the Amazon, train travel across India, diving in Syria and traveling in Columbia. \"I see adventure as going beyond something you feel comfortable with. If you are uncomfortable going to the end of your street and you go beyond this, then you are being adventurous,\" said Wroe. Wroe has a point. You don't have to emulate the deeds of Messner to be an adventurer. The spirit of adventure can infiltrate all areas of your life. You can infuse life's \"ordinariness\" with an adventure: cooking a meal that you may not have tried before, walking to work on a different route, striking up conversation with someone at the office whom you perceive to be intimidating. Successfully pushing your natural boundaries can lead to increased confidence. \"The general things which determine whether you start being adventurous is your personality and your youth. But once you start noticing that you have been able to overcome a challenge, it becomes a reward in its own right,\" said Dr. Thompson. For Messner, adventure now takes place on the ground, with establishing a climbing museum and being elected a member of the European Parliament. Speaking to CNN with the mighty mountains behind him, there was a restless but playful look in his eyes. He said he wasn't the type to sit around, drink beer and collect his pension in his old age. Adventure is so much a part of his life, it seems, that it is an urge that can only be extinguished by death. And so while the strength in his body diminishes, the adventures will take place in his mind. Messner is an extraordinary man, and while most of us would struggle to climb Everest with or without oxygen, we can still emulate his spirit of adventure in our daily lives.","highlights":"Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner has inspired others to seek adventure .\nPsychologist Dr. James Thompson says adventurers tend to be more extroverted .\nWomen in their 40s are leading the charge towards adventure .\nInsurers say \"Nifty Fifties\" are seeking adventures once the kids have left home .","id":"23a87dcd1007f73c4a6278d230aacb6411c71266"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy released nine of the 16 suspected pirates it was holding on a ship for the last few weeks, according to defense officials. The U.S. Navy apprehends suspected pirates February 12 in the Gulf of Arden. The pirates were released because the Navy did not have enough evidence to hand them over to Kenya for prosecution in court, in accordance with a recent agreement between the United States and Kenya, the officials explained. The nine were brought into Somali waters and then handed over to the Puntland coast guard. Puntland is the self-proclaimed Somali state that includes the point of the horn of Africa. The suspected pirates were detained by the Navy after the captain of the Indian-flagged ship Premdivya broadcast a distress call to all ships in the area that it had come under attack by a small boat. The Navy saw a small boat meeting the description given by the Premdivya, and the occupants were detained and moved to the nearby USS Vella Gulf, where they were held.","highlights":"Navy didn't have evidence to hand suspected pirates to Kenya for prosecution .\nNine people were brought into Somali waters, handed to coast guard .\nSuspected pirates were detained after a captain broadcast a distress call .\nCaptain said he was under attack by pirates in small boat .","id":"3bca5d54ae64dcf510e8aec5e014253b93e11124"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Although President-elect Barack Obama will become the next commander-in-chief in just two weeks, several key issues remain to be resolved regarding the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq and the buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A U.S. soldier patrols in a village north of Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. A closed-door meeting Monday at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. David Petraeus -- who is in charge of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- ended with no consensus on troop plans for either country, several top U.S. military officials told CNN. The officials, who did not want to be identified because the meeting was private, all offered CNN similar accounts of the discussions. In addition, a review of the Afghanistan war strategy being conducted by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen is also incomplete and has not been approved by the Joint Chiefs. That review, according to one official, will not be finished until the Obama administration is in office. The Monday meeting was polite, one official said, but also interesting and intense. A second official described the discussion as lively and said it ranged further than originally anticipated. The session was held in the \"tank,\" a secure meeting room inside the Pentagon reserved for some of the most sensitive and classified conversations by top officials. It was called to discuss yet again how the drawdown of troops in Iraq could be scheduled so that more troops could be sent to Afghanistan -- an issue that the chiefs have struggled to resolve for months. According to the officials, a 10-page plan from the U.S. Central Command calls for a very gradual drawdown between now and the end of 2011, when all U.S. troops are supposed to be out of Iraq under the terms of a recent agreement between the two countries. But Petraeus and other top U.S. commanders in Iraq are reluctant to agree to any specific drawdowns of units more than six months ahead of time because of the uncertain security situation and the upcoming elections in Iraq, according to a second official. \"The real debate is over the timing and risk of drawing down troops in Iraq,\" the second official said. That decision is considered a vital first step. Military officials have long said the Pentagon needs to have some assurance of drawdowns over the next year in order to free up enough troops to send more units to Afghanistan, where commanders are asking for up to 30,000 additional troops. The Marine Corps is continuing to press its position that several thousand Marines could be withdrawn from Iraq in the coming months, with their replacements going to Afghanistan instead. The current calculation is that the full complement of troops for Afghanistan could not be completely sent until sometime next year or in 2011. Some commanders in Afghanistan say that's too late, given the deteriorating security situation there. Once in office, Obama is expected to ask commanders to develop a plan for a 16-month drawdown, as he promised during his campaign for the White House. It's not clear if the Joint Chiefs and Petraeus will recommend that there is unacceptable risk in the quicker drawdown option. The second official also emphasized that even though Washington and Baghdad have agreed that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by 2011, there is a general private understanding by both sides that some U.S. troops could remain there or in neighboring Kuwait to provide help in key areas such as training, securing borders and providing airlift capabilities. Obama has also said he wants a residual force to remain in Iraq.","highlights":"Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David Petraeus hold closed-door meeting .\nOfficials say meeting ended with no consensus on troop plans .\nDiscussions deal with pulling troops out of Iraq, beefing up forces in Afghanistan .\nObama, once in office, is expected to ask for plan on Iraq troop drawdown .","id":"bc424cbf48b978f1a64fdd40ecff81dac48d37f8"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people and injured 70 -- many of them women -- during a Shia pilgrimage in northwestern Baghdad Sunday, Iraqi officials told CNN. Pilgrims, pictured above, have gathered to celebrate the Shia holy period of Ashura. The dead included at least 16 Iranians who had come to mark the Shia holy period of Ashura, which commemorates a central event in the history of the movement. At least 32 Iranians were among the wounded. The other casualties were Iraqi, an Interior Ministry official said. The bomber was a woman wearing an abaya, a robe-like dress, said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, military spokesman for Fardh al-Qanoon, an interagency domestic security body. She seems to have been targeting women, Atta and an interior ministry source said. The Interior Ministry official declined to be identified. The attack appears to be the single deadliest suicide bombing in Iraq since a bomber killed 47 people in Kirkuk in December 11. It took place in Baghdad's Kadhimiya neighborhood, not far from the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim holy shrine. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected in Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Karbala for Ashura, which falls on January 7 this year. Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He was killed in battle in Karbala in 680, one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suicide bomber kills at least 40 people and injures 70 in Baghdad .\nDead included many Iranians who were marking Shia holy period of Ashura .\nThe bomber was a woman wearing an abaya, a robe-like dress, official says .","id":"c610e033700120e0f51110ddd438595cae4de80b"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of militants, believed to be foreign fighters, launched attacks on various military check posts in Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Saturday night and early Sunday morning, military officials said. A Pakistan soldier on patrol last fall against militants on the border of the Mohmand agency district. The ensuing fighting left 40 militants and six Pakistan soldiers dead, said military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas. \"This is one of the largest attacks we have seen,\" Abbas said. The attacks occurred at checkposts and military camps in the Mohmand agency, part of the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas where U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a presence of militants. Abbas said the fighters crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, and used rocket launchers and machine guns in their attacks. They have since been repelled, he said. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a porous 1,500-mile border. In recent months, Afghan officials have blamed militants operating from havens in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan of sneaking into their country and attacking security personnel. Pakistan has repeatedly denied involvement and bristled at the accusation, saying that Afghan lawmakers were making allegations without proof. Abbas' Sunday comments reverse those allegations, with Pakistan now blaming militants from Afghanistan attacking inside its soil.","highlights":"Attacks occurred at checkposts and military camps in the Mohmand agency .\n40 militants, six Pakistani soldiers killed in fighting, Pakistan says .\nMilitants crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, official says .","id":"0b76e72cc8c72b53ae56fad21effb2bf324a7adb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mumia Abu-Jamal sits on Pennsylvania's death row, perhaps the most recognized of the 228 condemned inmates at the Greene Correctional Facility, an hour south of Pittsburgh. Former radio host and convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal during a 1994 interview . Abu-Jamal, inmate AM8335, awaits three milestones. His new book, \"Jailhouse Lawyers,\" will be released next month. He's also awaiting a pair of Supreme Court decisions, which could come in the next two weeks. The former Black Panther was sentenced to die for gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 28 years ago. The high court will decide whether he deserves a new hearing to determine whether his execution should go forward. The state is appealing a federal appeals court ruling on the sentencing question that went in Abu-Jamal's favor last year. The case has attracted international attention. Abu-Jamal's lawyers filed a separate appeal claiming that racism led to his 1982 conviction. That petition is scheduled for consideration by the Supreme Court on April 3. If either case is accepted by the justices for review, oral arguments would be held in the fall. The former radio reporter and cab driver has been a divisive figure, with many prominent supporters arguing that racism pervaded his trial. Others counter that Abu-Jamal is using his skin color to escape responsibility for his actions. They say he has divided the community for years with his provocative writing and activism. He was convicted for the December 9, 1981, murder of officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, in Philadelphia. Faulkner had pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a late-night traffic stop. Witnesses said Abu-Jamal, who was nearby, ran over and shot the police officer in the back and in the head. Abu-Jamal, once known as Wesley Cook, was also wounded in the confrontation and later admitted to the killing, according to other witnesses' testimony. Abu-Jamal is black, and the police officer was white. Incarcerated for nearly three decades, Abu-Jamal has been an active critic of the criminal justice system. On a Web site created by friends to promote his release, the prisoner-turned-author writes about his fight. \"This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America.\" His chief defense attorney, Robert Bryan, has filed appeals asking for a new criminal trial. \"The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection,\" he wrote to supporters last month. \"We are in an epic struggle in which his life hangs in the balance. What occurs now in the Supreme Court will determine whether Mumia will have a new jury trial or die at the hands of the executioner,\" Bryan said. Ten whites and two blacks made up the original jury panel that sentenced him to death. A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals kept the murder conviction in place a year ago but ordered a new capital sentencing hearing. \"The jury instructions and the verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from finding a mitigating circumstance that had not been unanimously agreed upon,\" Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote in the 77-page opinion. The federal appeals court ultimately concluded that the jury was improperly instructed on how to weigh \"mitigating factors\" offered by the defense that might have kept Abu-Jamal off death row. Pennsylvania law at the time said jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance, such as the fact that Abu-Jamal had no prior criminal record. Months before that ruling, oral arguments on the issue were contentious. Faulkner's widow and Abu-Jamal's brother attended, and demonstrations on both sides were held outside the courtroom in downtown Philadelphia. If the Supreme Court refuses now to intervene on the sentencing issue, the city's prosecutor would have to decide within six months whether to conduct a new death penalty sentencing hearing or allow Abu-Jamal to spend the rest of his life in state prison. Many prominent groups and individuals, including singer Harry Belafonte, the NAACP and the European Parliament, are cited on his Web site as supporters. Prosecutors have insisted that Abu-Jamal pay the price for his crimes and have aggressively resisted efforts to take him off death row for Faulkner's murder. \"This assassination has been made a circus by those people in the world and this city who believe falsely that Mumia Abu-Jamal is some kind of a folk hero,\" Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said last year, when the federal appeals court upheld the conviction. \"He is nothing short of an assassin.\" The city has honored the fallen police officer with a street designation and a commemorative plaque placed at the spot where he was shot and killed. The officer's widow, Maureen Faulkner, wrote a book two years ago about her husband and the case: \"Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice.\" She writes that she was trying to \"definitively lay out the case against Mumia Abu-Jamal and those who've elevated him to the status of political prisoner.\"","highlights":"Mumia Abu-Jamal's case has become an international cause .\nHe has two appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court .\nRacism responsible for his conviction, death sentence, appeal says .\nAbu-Jamal convicted in 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer .","id":"599351a18cd0454fc7591d5e9c94803d18ab8c78"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A string of bombings around Iraq's capital has killed eight people, including three Iraqi soldiers who died when their weapons truck was hit, and wounded at least 32, the country's Interior Ministry said. Blood stains the ground following the explosion of an IED on Kahramana Square in Baghdad on January 12. The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad about 10:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) on Monday. The blast also set off small arms ammunition loaded on the truck. Four civilians were wounded in the attack. Separately, three civilians died when a car bomb went off outside a bakery in the eastern district of New Baghdad, followed shortly by another car bomb. Ten people were wounded, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. In central Baghdad, two civilians died in roadside bomb attacks -- one near Kahramana Square and the other targeting a police patrol in the Sheikh-Omar commercial area. A total of seven people, including three police officers, were wounded in those incidents. Two other roadside bombs went off near police patrols in neighborhoods on opposite sides of the city -- the Ghazaliya neighborhood in western Baghdad and the Zayuna district on the city's east side. There were no fatalities in either attack, but 11 people -- including one police officer in Ghazaliya and three in Zayuna -- were wounded. The attacks came as U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden on Monday met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad. Biden -- who had been the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- has been on a foreign visit that included stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Barack Obama, the incoming U.S. president, is planning to shift the military focus in the region to fighting militants in Afghanistan, while withdrawing all but a residual force of troops from Iraq. The U.S. military said two of its troops died as a result of non-combat-related injuries on Sunday. One soldier died in northern Iraq and a U.S. Marine in western Iraq. Five U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month, and 4,225 since the war started. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Monday .\nSeparately, three civilians died when a car bomb went off in the city's east .\nAttacks came as U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden met with Iraq's president .\nU.S. military says two troops have died as a result of non-combat-related injuries .","id":"32cf0c0791c53e1ad5d113be750aaae135c1ac22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The heady days of New York epitomized by Wall Street excess and rampant wealth may seem a far-flung memory, but the city still retains its buzz, its high-octane spirit that is the essence of its magical personality as a place where anything can happen. The original 24 hour city, but still the best? You can turn a trip to NYC into anything you want it to be. New York remains firmly in first place as the world's 24 hour city, with nearly anything accessible at any hour. There is a frustratingly vast number of sights to see, places to eat, shopping, partying and serious cultural gems dotted throughout the place. So many films, books, television shows and musicians have personified New York that it's hard not to feel you already know it before you arrive. While many of those stereotypes ring true, entering the city -- whether the first or twentieth time -- with an open mind will make each visit seem an adventure. At first, the glittering, noisy and even rude aspect of the city may send timid visitors running. Look below the surface and you may see more than just shimmering skyscrapers and neatly manicured inhabitants but a multifarious bunch of people somehow co-existing astonishing well within the city's grid structure. Despite their sometimes alarming candor, New Yorkers are as much a part of the city's entertainment as catching a Broadway show. A starting point for 24 hours in the city should begin with breakfast or brunch New York style: eggs (however you'd like) and some good strong coffee to charge you up for the day. Almost every corner of Manhattan has a local diner, otherwise head downtown to breakfast stalwarts Bubby's or Kitchenette in Tribeca, or more recent favorite New French in the West Village. Continue south to Lower Manhattan, with an excursion on the free, 25-minute (each way) Staten Island ferry. The views of downtown, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island give a closer glimpse of what it must have been like to arrive in the city as an immigrant in days past. Next head up to lively Chinatown to shop and bargain for knock-off designer handbags and various tat around Canal Street. If feeling peckish, have dim sum at New Green Bo Restaurant, known for its no-frills decor and delicious dumplings. Or continue on to Nolita (via Little Italy) to lunch at cool, low-key Caf\u00e9 Gitane, or in SoHo at the beautiful French restaurant Balthazar (often a hangout of celebs). Shoppers will want to save time for the boutiques of Nolita and the higher-end designer shops in SoHo. If strolling is your thing, don't miss the opportunity to wander the leafy, village-like streets of the West Village. Loads of tiny boutiques (many of which have gone high-end in years past), inviting sidewalk cafes and the general laid-back style of the place seem the perfect antidote to otherwise hectic areas of town. Art enthusiasts should head straight to West Chelsea next, where there are enough galleries to spend several days. The Chelsea Gallery District is home to New York's contemporary art scene and sits over near the Hudson River, spanning several streets going north. Outdoor lovers will also be enticed to the West Chelsea neighborhood as the New York High Line is opening in June 2009. The former elevated railroad has been converted into a park including floating ponds, sundecks and lookout spots over the Hudson River and Manhattan. One of the city's most exciting recent projects, the public park will span 22 blocks (once it's all open in 2010), a huge accomplishment after many locals fought for years to turn it into green space. After a rest in the park, take in Midtown for its neck-wrenching skyscrapers. Admire the Chrysler Building, the city's homage to art deco, and gape up at the city's tallest building, the Empire State Building. Stop in Grand Central Terminal, taking note of its Beaux Arts beauty and its constellation-inspired ceiling, where you may have time to sneak a drink in the tucked away, wood-paneled Campbell Apartment bar. Then admire the nineteen buildings comprising Rockefeller Center, before glimpsing at St. Patrick's Cathedral across the street. (Shoppers beware: the temptations of Fifth Avenue shops and department stores may pull you off schedule here). If your feet can still keep up the pace, stroll up to Central Park, for a glimpse of New Yorkers oasis of green. A variety of activities in the park will amuse you, from sporty rollerbladers dancing around to the peaceful Conservatory Gardens where you can rest. Cultural buffs should head up the park's east side to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It could easily command several hours if not days, but if short on time choose one section. All nearby, the Frick Collection, Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum are each possible on their own in an hour or two. Time for a tea or coffee break? Visit the pretty Viennese Caf\u00e9 Sabarsky inside the Neue Galerie, or stop in for a chi-chi cocktail at the Carlyle Hotel nearby. For a classic New York dining experience in an elegant setting, end the perfect New York day at Gramercy Tavern before retiring to a nearby bar for a nightcap. Otherwise, if a Broadway show is on the agenda, visit Times Square by night, taking in the dazzling lights and mayhem of New York's entertainment district. For cheap theater tickets, visit either the TKTS booth in Times Square at 47th Street and Broadway, or call ahead to the selected theater to see if last-minute \"rush\" tickets are available. Another option, head downtown to hear some jazz in Greenwich Village at the Village Vanguard or the Blue Note, or take in some drinks in one of many of New York's watering holes. A few favorites include Simone Martini Bar in the East Village, Sunita in the Lower East Side or Epistrophy in Nolita.","highlights":"The original 24-hour city has plenty of offer for first- or tenth-time visitors .\nFuel up for the day with a typical NYC breakfast and head to lower Manhattan .\nMid-town sights and shopping can provide plenty to delight and distract .\nIt remains an international city where you can make your own adventures .","id":"ac74a1638f5958935e352e8b1aa059514e60027f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Law enforcement officials in southern California searched urgently Wednesday for a 3-year-old boy who was kidnapped at gunpoint during a weekend home invasion. Briant Rodriguez, 3, was taken by armed men during a home invasion in San Bernardino, Caifornia, police say. Two men broke into a house in the San Bernardino area on Sunday and tied up the boy, Briant Rodriguez, his mother and other siblings. They ransacked the house and fled with the boy, authorities said. One of the children freed himself and untied the rest of the family, CNN affiliate KTLA reported. The boy's father was at work at the time, KTLA said. An Amber Alert was issued late Sunday. Sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino County released composite sketches of the suspects during a news conference on Tuesday. Watch how the boy was taken at gunpoint \u00bb . Sheriff's officials said they placed the boy's picture on billboards along the U.S.-Mexican border and have followed up on half of 80 or so leads from the Amber Alert tip-line. Federal, state and local authorities are working the investigation, which is sparing no expense, Sgt. Doug Hubbard. said. \"Every type of known technology is working on this case,\" he added. Officials said the kidnappers have not contacted authorities or the parents. At the news conference, the boy's mother, Maria Millan, held her son's T-shirt and begged that he be released. \"My son, my son, my pretty son,\" she said. Millan said she told the kidnappers \"I don't owe you a thing\" and has said she didn't know the men. There has been speculation that the boy's abduction was a case of mistaken identity or carried out by people involved with organized crime. Authorities say they have found no motive in the case, and they are not ruling out any possibility. They said the parents are not suspects. Hubbard, the sheriff's department's lead investigator in the case, said \"the family obviously has been very distraught.\" \"Every second that goes by for us is critical,\" Hubbard said of the round-the-clock and robust investigation. He also added that in his 20-year career he has never experienced a case where a home-invasion robbery resulted in a kidnapping. Briant is described in the Amber Alert as a Hispanic male who was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with blue sleeves and blue-striped shorts with two different colors of blue. The boy's hair is longer than shoulder length. Both suspected kidnappers are Hispanic males -- one 5-feet, 5 inches tall, between the ages of 18 and 20 with a thin build, unknown hair and eye color, last seen wearing a black baseball hat, blue jeans and green T-shirt. The other is 5-foot-10, around age 24 with a thin build, black boots, a black shirt and a bandanna.","highlights":"Police say the boy's abductors haven't contacted his family .\nBriant Rodriguez taken during home invasion in San Bernardino, California .\nAuthorities have posted billboards along U.S.-Mexico border .","id":"1cc7892302e383302689a4de0cc733c36ca87b51"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The family of a woman who faces charges of killing an 8-year-old playmate of her daughter's said Sunday the accusations are \"completely out of character.\" The Tracy, California, family offered their prayers to the victim's family. Melissa Huckaby was charged with kidnapping and murder in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. \"We are deeply saddened by the loss of this beautiful girl,\" said a man who would not give his name, identifying himself only as a relative of suspect Melissa Huckaby, 28. He was referring to Sandra Cantu, who was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family -- the same mobile home park where Huckaby lives with her own 5-year-old daughter. The two children were close friends and played together frequently, Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said. Sandra's body was found Monday, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. Huckaby was arrested late Friday after she was questioned by police. She faces kidnapping and murder charges in Sandra's death. Watch police discuss the arrest \u00bb . Sheneman told reporters Saturday he \"couldn't begin to theorize\" a motive. Family members went to visit Huckaby in jail Sunday, but were told they could not see her, the relative told reporters. \"We do know that the information we've been given regarding the charges against Melissa Huckaby are completely out of character for her,\" he said. Relatives are in \"absolute shock\" at Huckaby's arrest, he said. Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police have said. The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death. Lawless was at the press conference, but declined to speak. \"We are distressed at the possibility that such a tragedy might have happened in a place of worship,\" the relative said Sunday, adding that the family asks the press and the community to \"understand the church's desire to continue their worship and ministry outreach.\" Watch neighbors remember slain girl \u00bb . The church \"is a community of loving people,\" he said. \"They love God. They love their community and they have ministered to the people of this community for many, many years.\" Huckaby's family expressed appreciation for the support and prayers received from other churches. Although it has been difficult, the church has \"done everything that we can to be cooperative\" with the investigation, the man said. The family thanked law enforcement for what the man said was \"gracious treatment.\" \"Our prayers are with Sandra's family and the community for God's comfort and mercy as we work through the process of healing for such a tragic event,\" the man said. \"We trust in God's peace.\" The church was planning to hold Easter services at noon Sunday, he said. \"We're very shocked,\" said a woman, who also identified herself only as a family member. \"It's very out of character for Melissa. We love her dearly.\" She described Huckaby as \"a fantastic mother, very loving. ... This is a very difficult time for us and it's very difficult to express to you right now how we're feeling.\" Huckaby's relatives know no more on the investigation than what has been reported by the media, the relatives said, and were not told why police were searching the church. \"The only reason why our family is making it through this at all is because of our faith in God and because of his mercy,\" the woman said. Asked whether she believes Huckaby is innocent, she declined comment. In a Friday interview with the Tracy Press newspaper, Huckaby acknowledged owning the black rolling suitcase in which Sandra's body was found, but said she reported it missing the day before the child's body was found. She said the suitcase disappeared at about the same time Sandra did. Sheneman told reporters Saturday that \"inconsistencies\" between that interview and statements Huckaby had made to police were one reason police asked to re-interview her Friday night. He would not say whether police believe Sandra's death was planned. Police said earlier Saturday that they believe Sandra was already dead by the time she was reported missing. The day Sandra was last seen, she came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, she left to go to another friend's home, a family spokeswoman has said. Huckaby told the Tracy Press that Sandra came by her home to see if she could play with Huckaby's daughter, but Huckaby would not let her daughter play because she wanted her daughter to pick up her toys. Sandra left for another friend's house, Huckaby told the newspaper. The girl was last seen wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings. Police later used that clothing description to identify her body.","highlights":"Relatives are in \"absolute shock\" at arrest of Melissa Huckaby, they say .\nHuckaby faces murder charges in death of Sandra Cantu, 8, her daughter's friend .\nPolice sergeant says he \"couldn't begin to theorize\" about a motive .\nSandra disappeared March 27 after going out to play; body found Monday .","id":"aa462b7e4020ace0e96ca69ce4bfee9b32b42f39"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been quarantined in China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office said Sunday. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin flew to China as part of an economic development trip, his office said. Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, flew on a plane that carried a passenger being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus, commonly known as the swine flu virus, the mayor's office said in a statement. Nagin, his wife and a member of his security detail have been quarantined in Shanghai, China, though all three are symptom free, the statement said. \"The mayor is being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials,\" the statement said. Ceeon Quiett, the mayor's director of communications, told CNN that Nagin had been sitting beside a passenger who \"exhibited the symptoms of H1N1,\" but Nagin showed no signs of illness. \"We have talked with him and he is in good spirits,\" Quiett said, adding that there was no indication how long the quarantine would last. While not confirming identities, the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention said three Americans are being quarantined in a hotel called the Jinjiang Inn in the Nanhui district of Shanghai.","highlights":"Passenger on Mayor Ray Nagin's plane has possible H1N1 symptoms .\nNagin's office: Nagin, his wife and an associate are symptom-free but quarantined .\nNagin was on economic development trip in China .\nMayor is \"being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials,\" his office says .","id":"3f08c7b243bbdf006d128c19cc4a18dbe7086613"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The woman who received the first-ever near-total face transplant in the United States told her doctor she has regained her self-confidence, said Dr. Maria Siemionow, head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland Clinic and leader of the transplant team. This illustration represents the transformation of a patient who underwent a near-total face transplant in December. The patient, who prefers to be anonymous, is finally able to breathe through her nose, smell, eat solid foods and drink out of a cup, Siemionow told participants of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago over the weekend. The complex surgery, a 22-hour procedure, took place in December at the Cleveland Clinic. The patient received her new face in one graft from a donor cadaver. \"I believe this procedure is justified because you need a face to face the world,\" Siemionow said. Watch an animation of the face transplant \u00bb . The patient had previously \"suffered severe facial trauma,\" the Cleveland Clinic said. She had no nose, right eye or upper jaw before the procedure, and could not smell or eat normally. People would call her names on the street, Siemionow said. The surgery gave the patient a nose with nasal lining, as well as a palate. This, combined with the olfactory receptors in the brain, gave the patient the ability to smell, Siemionow said. Social reincorporation is as important as the face transplant itself, Siemionow said. At this point, the patient doesn't want to face the \"common world,\" but she is facing her family, the surgeon said. The patient said she is happy because when she puts her hands on her face, she feels a nose, Siemionow said. She can also taste a hamburger and pizza, and drink coffee from a cup, the \"things we take for granted every day,\" Siemionow said. The patient also received lower eyelids, upper lip, skin, muscles, bone, hard palate, arteries, veins and nerves. As for the aesthetics of the new face, Siemionow suggested that restoring function was more important. \"At this point, no one is really looking at beautification,\" she said. Siemionow, who has been working on face transplant research for 20 years, received approval from the Institutional Review Board in 2004 to conduct a full facial transplant. Only patients who had already exhausted all possible options for conventional repair were considered for the transplant, Siemionow said. Currently, cancer patients are not candidates for face transplants because transplant recipients must take immunosuppression drugs for life so that the body does not reject the donated tissue, Siemionow said. In the future, however, lifelong immunosuppression may not be required, she said. While burn damage is normally patched with pieces of excess skin from a person's own body, this does not work if the whole face needs to be covered -- the skin of the entire back is less than half of what would be needed to cover the full face and scalp, Siemionow said. Previously, three facial transplants had been completed -- two in France and one in China. The Chinese recipient, Li Guoxing, died in July of unknown causes, Guo Shuzhong, a doctor involved in the case, confirmed to CNN. One of the French face transplant recipients was a man who had a genetic disorder that created large tumors on his face. The other French patient had been bitten by a dog. The Chinese patient had been attacked by a bear. European news media recently reported that a surgeon in Spain received approval for another face transplant, which would be the fifth in the world. Researchers are also making headway into treatments for disorders that give rise to facial abnormalities, experts say. They are identifying genes that become mutated and cause the skull and facial features to become distorted. \"We're moving into the arena where we can do medical treatment,\" Dr. Ethylin Jabs, professor of developmental and regenerative biology at Mount Sinai Medical School, said at the conference. One example is Treacher Collins syndrome, a condition found in one in every 50,000 births, which affects the development of bones and other tissues in the face. Scientists have determined that the gene TCOF1 is involved in the disorder, and research is ongoing into the precise function of this protein. By looking at the genetic underpinnings of disorders that lead to facial deformities, scientists can also understand what accounts for the normal differences in face and skull types. \"These are going to be some of the genes that cause some of that variation,\" Jabs said.","highlights":"Face transplant recipient can now eat solid foods, smell, breathe out of nose .\nThe patient received her new face in one graft from a donor cadaver in December .\nSkin on surface of a person's back is not large enough to cover a face and scalp .\nDoctor: Social reincorporation is as important as the face transplant itself .","id":"0b06db092bbca8a143f9151bd07db7b4123f72e1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Pam Biggers, a 52-year-old woman from Hueytown, Alabama, disappeared while on a business trip to the Florida Panhandle. Pam Biggers disappeared while on a business trip to the Florida Panhandle in January 2008. She drove to the La Quinta Inn at Panama City Beach on January 27, 2008, a Sunday. She checked in and talked with her husband over the phone about 5:30 p.m. She told him she was going out to eat with a colleague who was staying across the hall. After an early dinner, the two women returned to their rooms about 7 p.m., police said. And then Pamela Biggers simply disappeared. \"It's completely baffling,\" said her husband, Don Biggers. \"All of her belongings, clothes, purse, cell phone, were left in her room.\" Biggers' bed did not look slept in, police said, but it appeared that she had been reading in bed. Her open book and glasses were on the bedside table, and the pillows were propped up against the headboard. She had not changed into her pajamas, and her hotel room key and car keys were in the room. There was no sign of struggle, police said. Watch Rupa's report on this baffling cold case \u00bb . Biggers' family believes that she left the hotel and either lost her way or became the victim of foul play. \"We think she may have initially wandered off on her own,\" Don Biggers said. \"She had some episodes ... complaining of voices in her head and paranoia.\" She'd been on medication but had decided to stop taking it, he added. Biggers said he was concerned about his wife's health and urged her to not go on the business trip. Police searched for Biggers for weeks. Her family brought in Texas Equusearch, a specialized search and rescue operation. The group conducted ground and air searches and used cadaver dogs but was unable to find any clues. The hotel did not have surveillance cameras, so it is not known when Biggers left or whether she was alone. Hotel staffers did not recall seeing Biggers leave. She had driven to Florida in the family car, which was in the hotel parking lot. According to her family, Biggers had never wandered off before, nor had she suffered from memory loss. She had just learned that her son, Jacob, was to be dispatched for a tour of duty in the military to Afghanistan and may have been stressed about that, her husband said. Police and the Biggers family are asking the public for help. Anyone who has seen Pam Biggers or has more information leading to the person or people responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the Bay County Sheriff's Office tip line at 850-747-4700. A $20,000 reward is offered. Biggers was last seen wearing a white sweater, black pants with white pinstripes, a wedding band and an aquamarine ring. She is a white female who stands 5'8\" tall, weighs 135 pounds and has green eyes and gray hair.","highlights":"Pamela Biggers was last seen in Panama City, Florida, on January 27, 2008 .\nThe 52-year-old from Huey, Alabama, was on a business trip .\nShe talked to husband on phone, went to dinner with colleague before vanishing .\nKnow something? Call 850-747-4700. A $20,000 reward is offered .","id":"0b843c646f493292bdf60cf4b87c6a3b305ec2f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fire that claimed the lives of 44 children at a day-care center in Hermosillo, Mexico, started Friday in an air-conditioning unit in an adjacent warehouse, the attorney general of Sonora said Monday. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns her daughter, Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla, 2, on Sunday. Investigators have not determined whether the fire was caused by an overheated motor or deficiencies in its installation, said Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, according to the state-run news agency Notimex. However it started, there's no doubt it moved toward papers in bookshelves on the wall shared with the building housing ABC Day Care, where 141 children and day-care workers were, he said. The two buildings also shared a roof, which contained a false bottom made of polyurethane, which overheated, emitting highly toxic fumes, he said. He blamed all 44 of the deaths on the fumes. The general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security vowed investigators will pursue the case wherever the evidence takes them. Daniel Karam Toumeh had said Sunday that the building had passed an inspection on May 26. \"Here, I want to be very emphatic, in the sense that in Social Security we don't cover for anyone, don't defend anyone, we are the most interested in finding out what it was that happened,\" he said. As of Monday morning, 20 children ages 1-5 were hospitalized in Hermosillo, and 13 had been taken to other hospitals, including three to Sacramento Shriners Hospital in California, where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty. Watch parents gather at the site of the fire \u00bb . Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora, is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the U.S. border in northwestern Mexico. On a radio show, a firefighter said Monday that many of the children were napping at the time of the fire and died in their sleep. Jose Jesus Diaz, the first firefighter to enter the day-care center, told Radio Los Cheros that he arrived to find some people ramming the building with their vehicles in an effort to reach the children. Inside, Diaz said, he saw children in sleeping positions on the floor. \"They never knew what happened,\" Diaz told the radio station. The scene was one of people crying, calling out names and running with babies, he said. \"There's an image that I will carry for the rest of my life: a shirtless man walking outside holding a young boy, yelling 'fireman, fireman, save my son,' but the boy was already dead,\" Diaz said. Watch a town in deep shock \u00bb . Of the 20 children hospitalized in Hermosillo, 12 were in serious condition. The children taken to Children's Hospital in Sacramento are a 2-year-old boy in serious condition with burns over 20 percent of his body, a 3-year-old boy in critical condition with burns over 50 percent of his body, and a 3-year-old girl in critical condition with burns over 80 percent of her body, a hospital spokeswoman said. CNN's Mariano Castillo in Atlanta and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Rey Rodriguez in Hermosillo contributed to this story.","highlights":"Deadly fire at Mexican day-care center began at nearby warehouse, state official says .\n44 children killed in blaze; 30-plus kids hospitalized, some in serious condition .\nOfficial: Fire started with air conditioner; warehouse, day care shared wall .\nFirefighter found children in sleeping positions: \"They never knew what happened\"","id":"4a8ebc335b142b94c6c85fab32a9fc00b17277eb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eighteen people, including two soldiers, were killed Saturday in a gunbattle between the Mexican army and organized-crime suspects in the Mexican resort town of Acapulco, the Mexican Ministry of Defense said Sunday. Mexican soldiers hold rifles Saturday during a clash with organized-crime suspects in Acapulco. The incident began about 7 p.m., when the soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco \"to exploit information obtained through an anonymous tip,\" the ministry said in a statement. The soldiers were met by gunfire, it said. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Two soldiers and 16 gunmen were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. The gunmen were not identified, but the statement called them \"members of organized crime.\" Authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said. CNN's Arthur Brice and CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Luisa Calad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mexican soldiers, organized-crime suspects fight in Acapulco, authorities say .\nTwo soldiers, 16 \"members of organized crime\" killed; nine other soldiers wounded .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nSoldiers were investigating anonymous tip, says Mexican Defense Ministry .","id":"f3f0b5bdbecc68074a2e9b37c17a62eb1b622728"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This week, Giyen Kim, 34, reached a personal milestone: She has lost 10 pounds since the beginning of the year. Giyen Kim, 34, has lost 10 pounds since January 1. She said she feels like it will be easier to lose more weight. This progress feels slow, she said, in comparison with her previous weight loss attempts, which consisted of crash dieting. But she found that those diets weren't sustainable. This time, she's looking to find a lifestyle she can keep. CNN asked viewers to talk about their New Year's resolutions on iReport.com and upload photos and videos during their journeys of change. Kim, who lives in Seattle, Washington, is one participant who frequently updates the iReport community with video updates on her progress. iReport.com: Watch Giyen talk about losing weight . Reaching this 10-pound milestone, from 190 to 180 pounds, makes her feel as if it will be easier to lose more weight, she said. \"You feel definitely more motivated when you actually quantify it in a number that feels good,\" she said. Visit CNNhealth, your connection for better living . She doesn't feel physically different, but she does notice a change from previous pictures of herself, she said. Her original goal for the year was to get closer to her pre-pregnancy weight of 120 pounds. Kim has had a hard time exercising recently because her uncle, 90, passed away, and the grieving process has been difficult. But she plans to resume working out soon and wants to take classes at her gym. She also eats one vegan meal every day. Kim felt frustrated earlier this month because her progress felt slow, losing a pound a week. Read about her weight loss journey . Often, the initial weight loss will seem the easiest, and then the loss slows somewhat over time, said Tara Gidus, dietician for the Orlando Magic NBA team and owner of Tara Gidus Nutrition Consulting in Orlando, Florida. Exercise is key in speeding things up when you've reached a plateau, she said. It's important to find a physical activity that you enjoy doing and to vary the exercise routine -- for example, raising the incline on a treadmill to step up the intensity, she said. Gidus usually recommends losing about 2 pounds a week, or about 5 to 8 pounds a month. At that rate, someone like Kim could lose 50 pounds in six months, she said. A pace faster than that -- such as 10 pounds per month -- would be hard to keep up, Gidus said. People with on weight-loss journeys should have encouragement from friends, family or people in support groups or online communities, she said. Kim certainly has people supporting her in the virtual world: A video she posted a few weeks ago after she'd lost 4 pounds had more than a dozen motivational comments from others on iReport.com. Watch her video . Her next goal is to lose 15 more pounds -- for a total of 25 -- by her birthday, March 24, and reward herself with a digital single-lens reflex camera, which professional photographers use. \"That's basically 2 pounds a week, plus 3 more,\" she said. \"It's ambitious, but I really want that camera.\"","highlights":"Giyen Kim, 34, has lost 10 pounds since January 1 .\nReaching this milestone makes losing more weight look easier, she said .\nDietitian: Often, speed of weight loss slows down over time .\nShare your journey to change with iReport.com .","id":"e4ef985709d034e584bd59e0e228655b3fc02284"} -{"article":"CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- Stephen Colbert left no doubt about his solidarity with American troops when he taped the first of four Comedy Central shows he'll produce in Iraq this week. Stephen Colbert high-fives a serviceman after submitting to a military-style haircut in Iraq on Sunday. Colbert, wearing a business suit made of the same camouflaged material used for soldiers' desert uniforms, submitted to a regulation military haircut as hundreds of U.S. troops cheered wildly Sunday. The comedian, who satirizes conservative TV pundits on his \"Colbert Report,\" began his \"Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando\" USO tour Sunday in the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq. \"It must be nice in Iraq, because some of you keep coming back again and again,\" Colbert said, joking about the multiple tours many troops have had in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Some troops had accumulated enough frequent flyer miles to earn them a free ticket to Afghanistan, he joked. Colbert told his guest, Gen. Ray Odierno, he felt \"a little intimidated\" by him, not because he was he top U.S. commander in Iraq, but because it felt like he was \"interviewing Shrek.\" Odierno is an imposing bald figure at 6-feet, 5-inches tall. Odierno said the military is \"not yet ready to declare victory\" in Iraq and that there was a little more work to be done for long-term stability. \"I, Stephen Colbert, by the power invested in me by basic cable, officially declare we won the Iraq war,\" Colbert said, as his audience broke out into applause. The interview was interrupted when President Obama appeared on large television screens. The commander-in-chief told his general it was time to \"cut that man's hair.\" With white electric hair clippers in his hand, Odierno stood up and began shaving Colbert's trademark thick dark hair. The troops stood and cheered as a female member of Colbert's staff finished the job. After the haircut, Colbert ran through the audience, high-fiving the troops as he showed off his new military look. One Army major said that \"shaving of the hair is an amazing show of support\" that was \"very touching.\" Former Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain also made a pre-taped appearance on the show, jokingly reminding the troops to \"take time to clean your muskets.\" Lt. Col. Debra Shoemaker, a native of Colbert's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, said the show was a \"nice break\" from the monotony of service in Iraq. USO Senior Vice President John Hanson said the shows are an important diversion for the troops. Colbert's USO tour is unusual because it's the first time a show taped in a combat zone has been edited and aired so quickly. The Sunday show will be televised on the Comedy Central network Monday night.","highlights":"Stephen Colbert tapes first of four shows he'll produce in Iraq this week .\nComedian tells guest, the imposing Gen. Ray Odierno, it's like \"interviewing Shrek\"\nAt President Obama's taped orders, Odierno cuts Colbert's hair to wild cheering .\nSunday show to be televised on the Comedy Central network Monday night .","id":"8b24ada18d50e8f06e1898b9982420f4535f461d"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Madame Tussauds says it will repair the wax figure of Adolf Hitler beheaded by a visitor over the weekend and return it to its Berlin exhibition space as soon as possible. A wax likeness of Adolf Hitler sits in Berlin's Madame Tussaud's wax museum before Saturday's attack. German police said that a 41-year-old man entered the exhibit shortly after the museum doors opened Saturday and \"made for the Hitler figure,\" scuffling with a guard and the manager before tearing the head off the life-size statue. A police spokesman confirmed to CNN that the man was a former policeman, having spent three years in police training between 1984 and 1987. He did not finish that police training, for personal reasons. The man was released from police custody late afternoon on Saturday. Watch a museum official describe the attack \u00bb . Despite the incident, Madame Tussauds officials said they will show the waxwork of Adolf Hitler in the exhibition again. In a statement the Museum said: \"Madame Tussauds is non-political and makes no comment or value-judgement either on the persons who are exhibited in the Museum or on what they have done during their lifetime. \"Figures are chosen for their popularity or for their influence on the path of history -- for better or for worse. Adolf Hitler stands for a decisive part of Berlin's history, which cannot be denied.\" Saturday was the opening day of the Berlin branch of the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum. The presence of the waxwork, which depicted the Nazi dictator sitting at his desk in his bunker shortly before he committed suicide in 1945, in the new museum led to criticism in German media over recent weeks. But the museum's defenders argued Hitler's role in German history must not be ignored. Hitler was shown with a sullen expression, his head slightly down, and one hand on the desk. Berlin is the eighth wax museum for London-based Madame Tussauds, known for its lifelike waxworks depicting famous people including celebrities, politicians, sports stars, artists, and scientists. Famous Germans included in the exhibits are Chancellor Angela Merkel, scientist Albert Einstein, composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and tennis champion Boris Becker. CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hitler waxwork damaged by a man in Berlin's Madame Tussauds to be repaired .\nMuseum: \"Hitler stands for decisive part of Berlin's history, which cannot be denied\"\n41-year-old said he wanted to protest the figure being included among exhibits .\nPolice said man being investigated for causing damages and injury to a guard .","id":"de5a66289ebfded0471d7b273fa2e75c3038f068"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A nervous calm settled over northwest Peru on Monday night, three days after clashes between indigenous citizens and national police left more than 30 dead and 50 wounded. Alberto Pizango, a leader of the protesters, says his followers did not kill police officers. A 3 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew seemed to be holding, and both sides in the bloody episode said they wanted dialogue, not bullets. \"The situation is much more tranquil,\" foreign minister Jose Andres Garcia Belaunde told CNN. \"There's the possibility of entering into a dialogue.\" The violence started Friday when national police attacked a roadblock near the city of Bagua in the Amazonian part of northwestern Peru. About 2,500 indigenous people had blocked the main road to protest measures the government has taken to sell land to energy companies and other businesses. Indians native to the area say that it is their land even though they don't have formal property titles. When it was over, many lay dead and wounded. How many -- and what happened -- depends on who's telling the story. Belaunde said 24 police were killed and nine Amazonian natives lost their lives. He said he did not know the number of wounded. Amnesty International, however, said more than 30 demonstrators and 22 police have been killed since Friday. The Web sites for RPP radio and El Comercio newspaper said at least 33 people died, including 22 police. More than 50 people have been injured, various reports said. Indian rights advocates put the number of dead and missing as much higher, with some groups saying more than 100 were killed or are missing. The Amazon Watch advocacy group accused the government of ditching bodies in rivers and the jungle to suppress the death count. \"There seems to be a concerted government effort to cover up the number of indigenous deaths,\" said Gregor MacLennan, Peru program coordinator for Amazon Watch. Belaunde emphatically denied the accusation. \"That is a lie,\" he said. \"Part of the great lies that have been told about Bagua -- that a massacre occurred, but more police than indigenous were killed. If this is true, let the family members come forth and tell us this happened.\" Amazon Watch and indigenous supporters say the police -- some in helicopters -- opened fire indiscriminately and without provocation on the roadblock about 450 miles (730 kilometers) north of Lima, the capital. \"Police began in the morning by firing tear gas,\" MacLennan told CNN. \"When people did not move and were standing strong, they began firing shots.\" Belaunde said the helicopters fired tear gas and police were fired upon, too. \"The police did not want to use their arms,\" he said, noting that many of the dead officers were killed with weapons protesters had taken from authorities. Ten police were killed after they were taken hostage when they arrived to help other officers and were surrounded by protesters, Belaunde said. More than 70 suspects have been arrested, Belaunde said. MacLennan placed the count at 150 and said 900 others are in hiding. \"Eight to 10 police officers had their throat slit,\" Belaunde said. \"Somebody must be held accountable for that, don't you think?\" MacLennan agreed that if \"indigenous people tortured and killed police, they should be brought to justice.\" Authorities had been searching for Alberto Pizango, leader of the indigenous rights group behind the Bagua demonstrations, but he sought refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Lima, Peruvian Prime Minister Yehude Simon said Monday night. Officials said Monday they will remove a roadblock within the next two days in the main highway between the cities of Yurimaguas and Tarapoto. Yurimaguas officials met with indigenous leaders Monday to negotiate dismantling the roadblock, the state-run Andina news agency said. The roadblocks have been hurting Peru's economy, since export shipments of oil and other resources have not been able to get through. Peruvian President Alan Garcia vowed to put down the demonstrations, some of which have been going on since early April. \"We will not give in to violence or blackmail,\" he said in a speech Sunday. Garcia blamed unnamed foreign governments for influencing the indigenous uprising. Belaunde pointed to Venezuela and Bolivia, which have held demonstrations in favor of indigenous rights. \"They are badly informed, accusing the government of Peru of genocide,\" he said. He called statements by high-level Venezuelan and Bolivian officials \"an act of intervention into Peru's internal affairs.\" Regardless of the cause, analysts agree this is the worst violence in Peru since the brutal Marxist Shining Path guerrilla insurgency died down in the 1990s. \"That's a lot of violence,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy group. \"There's no question the government is in a very difficult period.\" Bernard Aronson, who was U.S. President George H.W. Bush's assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs from 1989 to 1993, sees a danger that the violence could escalate. \"When there are that many people in a clash, that's very bad regardless of the specifics,\" he said. \"That's worrisome. ... It obviously raises fears and concerns that you could have some kind of rekindling of violence.\" The crux of the issue concerns Peru's economy and how the indigenous population fit in a 21st-century world. \"Garcia has committed to rapid growth, rapid development,\" Hakim said. That means Garcia has opened up vast parts of undeveloped land to companies that want to extract natural resources. The indigenous populations feel they are being displaced and are pushing back. \"This is very different from what happened with the Shining Path because these are indigenous people. They are not political people,\" MacLennan said. \"All they are asking for is their rights.\"","highlights":"More than 30 people have died, 50 have been injured since Friday, reports say .\nIndigenous people protest government plan to sell land to energy companies .\nPeruvian President Alan Garcia vows to put down the demonstrations .","id":"b913fdc784fdbfab13af6474c01674c45675095a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gunmen killed three police officers in Acapulco, Mexico, early Monday morning in attacks on two police stations, the state news agency Notimex reported. Suspected gang members are handcuffed after a gunbattle in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday. The attacks came two days after a ferocious street gunbattle that left 18 people dead, including two soldiers. Mexican soldiers, in trucks and helicopters kept watch over the resort town Monday. Along with swine flu fears, the uptick in violence threatens the tourist economy of Acapulco and other popular resort areas. Witnesses told police that just before 6 a.m., gunmen armed with AK-47s stepped out of two luxury vehicles, walked toward the police station in the Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood and began shooting. Acapulco officers Gilberto Reducindo Salazar and Arturo Tonala Aguilar were killed in that incident, according to Notimex. Shortly afterward, at a second local police station, attackers fatally wounded officer Andres Guzman Casiano, Notimex said. A fourth officer was injured. The Guerrero attorney general's office said the attacks could have been conducted by the same people, as there was a 30-minute gap between them, the state agency reported. It was unknown whether the attacks were connected with Saturday's shootout, which started when soldiers went to a location called Avenida Rancho Grande in Acapulco on an anonymous tip. They were met by gunfire, according to a statement from Mexico's Ministry of Defense. Five people were arrested in connection with the shootout. Sixteen gunmen and two soldiers were killed, and nine soldiers were wounded, the statement said. After that incident, authorities seized 36 large-caliber weapons, 13 small-caliber weapons, two grenade launchers, 13 fragmentation grenades, 3,525 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 180 charges and eight vehicles, the ministry said.","highlights":"Attacks came 2 days after ferocious street gunbattle that left 18 people dead .\n2 soldiers, 16 suspected gang members killed; 9 soldiers wounded Saturday .\nFive people arrested in connection with shootout; authorities seize weapons .\nMexican soldiers, in trucks and helicopters kept watch over Acapulco on Monday .","id":"d21bf3135feaab2c3066ff0fe555fc08e43cf607"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Matt Aldridge would have trouble contemplating life without the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina. Maddie Aldridge has received extensive care at South Carolina's Shriners Hospital, including leg amputation. Aldridge, 28, and his 21-month-old daughter, Maddie, were born without shinbones. Both had their legs amputated at Shriners near their first birthdays. Like all care given to youths admitted to any of North America's 22 Shriners Hospitals, their surgeries and follow-up treatments were free to them. Aldridge estimates the care he received through his teens in the Shriners' system -- which admits children irrespective of their parents' income -- cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, approaching the lifetime limits of some insurance policies. Now, he and his wife, Renee, take Maddie to Greenville -- about a 90-minute drive from their South Carolina home -- at least every six weeks, partly for treatment of a hip condition. Without Shriners' cover-all-costs policy, the family would be in serious trouble, said Aldridge, who works at a Wal-Mart cell phone connection center. Renee is a stay-at-home mother, and the family doesn't have private medical insurance. \"If it weren't for Shriners, we'd be financially devastated,\" Matt Aldridge said. \"With just the care Maddie has received already, we probably would be bankrupt.\" For the Aldridges and many other families, accessing care from Shriners may get a lot more difficult. The system's board says it may ask the fraternity's membership in July for authority to close six hospitals -- including the one in Greenville -- largely because the endowment fund that supports the hospitals dropped from $8.5 billion to $5.2 billion over the last year as the stock market plummeted. The others that could close are in Erie, Pennsylvania; Shreveport, Louisiana; Spokane, Washington; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Galveston, Texas. The Galveston hospital's operations have been suspended since Hurricane Ike flooded it last year. See map of where all 22 Shriners hospitals are \u00bb . Deflated investments aren't the only reason the fund has dropped. The hospitals normally operate with donations and the fund's interest, but the system's $856 million 2009 budget is outpacing both, causing the hospitals to take about $1 million per day from the fund, said Ralph Semb, president and CEO of Shriners Hospitals. Other proposals from the system's board would close just one hospital or none, but slash spending systemwide. Leaders also are exploring other options, such as partnering with non-Shriners hospitals. But one way or another, the system must cut spending by about 30 percent to survive, Semb said. \"If we do nothing, every hospital would have to cut 25 to 30 percent from their budgets, which in effect would shut about six of them anyway, because they couldn't give the services they've been giving,\" Semb said. Still, the hospitals can't close without consent of the fraternity's membership. Two-thirds of the roughly 1,400 representatives at the group's July 6-8 Imperial Council Session in San Antonio, Texas, would have to vote for it. Learn about the Shriners fraternity \u00bb . History shows that might be difficult. Members, some of whom transport children to hospitals themselves, killed a 2003 proposal to close the hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a similar market downturn. \"I don't think it will happen. I don't think it should happen,\" said Carl V. Nielsen, a 40-year Shriner and a board member for the Minneapolis hospital, which is not on the current possible-closure list. \"That would leave large areas of the country without a Shriners hospital, and the cost of transportation of the patients back and forth [to the remaining hospitals] would be too great.\" Shriners Hospitals, which deals with certain specialties up to age 18, have treated hundreds of thousands of children free of charge since the first facility opened in Shreveport in 1922. Most offer orthopedic care. Four, including the Galveston hospital, care for children who are burned. One of those facilities, in Sacramento, California, is treating a few children burned in Friday's day care center fire in northern Mexico. The Greenville hospital, which generally draws children from six states, gets about 900 inpatients and about 1,100 outpatient visits yearly, according to Rod Brown, the chairman of that hospital's board of governors. Since news of the possible closures broke, many -- including some Shriners and people who've used the hospitals -- have spoken out in hopes of keeping the facilities open. Hundreds have turned out for rallies in some of the cities. Several \"save Shriners Hospital\" pages on Facebook call on readers to support fundraisers. Families who lose a nearby Shriners hospital -- even those who have insurance -- would be in trouble, said Nielsen, an Iowa resident, retired attorney and former state legislator. \"Say you've got a series of operations to do on the child, and it's going to cost $100,000. Even with the good insurance policies, the families still have to pay 20 percent on that, and that's more money than most have stashed away,\" he said. The Aldridges have more surgeries in their future. In addition to being born without her shinbones, Maddie has only eight fingers. She will need operations to make her hands more efficient. Watch how hospital's closure would affect the Aldridges \u00bb . If the Greenville facility were to close, the family would think about moving to Kentucky, where the next nearest Shriners hospital is. Or, they would stay and drive eight hours to the Kentucky facility. Option No. 1 would take the lifelong South Carolina residents from friends and relatives. The other would mean more missed days at work and school for the family, which also includes Maddie's 3-year-old sister. In any event, the family says it won't consider taking Maddie out of the Shriners system. Matt Aldridge, who took up competitive power-lifting thanks in part to encouragement from Shriners staff and competed in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Greece, said the system gives top-notch care. \"Not only is it a financial thing, but it's also quality of care,\" said Aldridge, who became a Shriner himself in part because of the care he received. \"Shriners doctors are considered to be the foremost experts in what they treat.\" Semb said some of the six hospitals -- which he said were chosen because they were relatively underutilized -- could stay open if they strike a partnership with non-Shriners facilities. In such a deal, Shriners doctors would perform major surgery at the partner hospital, and the partner would bill the patients' insurance if they have it. Follow-up care would be done at the Shriners facility, still free of charge. Nielsen and other Shriners are proposing an alternative for the July meeting: Let Shriners hospitals themselves accept insurance or Medicaid from the families who have it, but cover the co-pays and deductibles. Semb said the idea has some merit, but he cautioned that to accept insurance and Medicaid, the hospitals would subject themselves to more federal oversight and possibly curtail their ability to treat patients as they see fit. Meanwhile, Renee Aldridge is circulating petitions against the closures and intends to deliver them to the San Antonio meeting. Wide swaths of the country shouldn't be deprived of the expertise and the free treatment that Shriners doctors give, she said. \"Some may be able to go to another place, but a lot of doctors won't put the time and care in that Shriners does,\" she said.","highlights":"Hospitals' leaders seek savings after endowment fund shrinks in stock market .\nOne solution could be closing six of 22 hospitals .\nFraternity representatives would have to approve closures in July meeting .\nSouth Carolina family: We'd be devastated without Shriners' free, expert care .","id":"455898f60c01deb7422f759aca474c6130b4c27b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A U.S. company is offering a rare chance to holiday on a mega-yacht once used by a Hollywood star and her husband -- and thanks to the recession it's actually affordable. The 100-foot Katania normally would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. The 100-foot Katania was chartered by Hollywood star Hilary Swank and her husband, Chad Lowe. Seattle, Washington-based mega-yacht rental business CEO Expeditions usually charges around $100,000 a week to charter their 100-plus-foot yachts, but they have introduced a deal waiving the charter fees -- meaning guests will only need to pay for the running of the vessel. The move to make such vessels more affordable comes as the recession continues to put pressure on the luxury holiday and mega-yacht industries. Although the costs of crew and luxury food aren't extremely cheap, it is expected this move will open up the recession-strained market to many more potential holiday-makers. The Katania now costs less than $3,000 per day. Normally it would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. At the $2,950-per-day special rate, four people can stay on the Katania -- but with the maximum six on board ($450 extra per person) the cost per person is a slightly better $642. The price includes full crew, premium wines, gourmet food prepared by a private chef, amenities such as kayaks, hot tub, fishing\/crabbing\/shrimping equipment, and even a 30-foot whaler for guest use. According to the company, Swank said of her charter holiday: \"We had an absolutely enchanted time aboard the Katania. A more beautiful yacht does not exist.\" There is one small catch with the deal -- the boat is based in the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington and British Columbia, and any cruises to other destinations will attract an additional charge to cover fuel costs. The company's owner, Bruce Milne, released a statement saying the deal was largely a result of the impact of the recession. \"Travel is down, agents and brokers need deals, so rather than just a few full-price charters, we decided to stay busy, put more people to work, and help island tourism by doing charters at cost. \"Since we started chartering 10 years ago, we have been looking for a chance to provide our 'Expeditions to the Extraordinary' in the San Juan Islands at a price any luxury traveler can afford -- this recession provides that opportunity,\" he said. Tim Wiltshire, director and sales broker at international yacht company Burgess Yachts, said the charter market isn't a complete disaster, so he was surprised to see such a discount. \"I wouldn't have expected to see that,\" he said. \"We are seeing discounts on average of about 25 percent. Although some people are trying interesting gimmicks to inspire new business.\" Wiltshire said CEO Expedition's fleet isn't among the biggest or most luxurious on the market, and this deal appears to be clever marketing stunt. His opinion is that other larger vessels still warrant their greater price tags.","highlights":"U.S. mega-yacht charter company waives massive $50,000 charter fees .\nThe impact of the recession is reason given for the discounted deal .\nA yacht chartered by Hilary Swank can now be rented for less than $3,000 a day .","id":"ee65a3cf9aacc426d10ca8354905a691456b4c0f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- \"American Idol\" runner-up Adam Lambert confirmed publicly what he assumed everyone already knew: He is gay. Adam Lambert talks about his sexuality and his \"Idol\" experience in the new Rolling Stone. \"I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I am gay,\" Lambert told Rolling Stone magazine. He said he is \"proud of my sexuality\" and never sought to hide it during the \"Idol\" competition. \"I embrace it,\" he said. \"It's just another part of me.\" Still, he stayed silent when, in March, a picture of him, dressed in drag and kissing an ex-boyfriend, emerged online. Lambert told Rolling Stone he was worried coming out would \"be so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing.\" The photo was taken on one of the three or four times he's dressed in drag, Lambert said, \"but 'sucking my boy's face? Yes, that I will own.' \" He took down all of the pictures on his Facebook and MySpace pages before the \"Idol\" season, but he forgot about another Web site profile that included the drag photo, he said. Watch Lambert pose with a snake for the cover \u00bb . With the competition over, Lambert's public confirmation of his homosexuality is in preparation for the \"American Idol\" national tour, which starts next month. He said he wanted to avoid \"the Clay Aiken thing and the celebrity-magazine bulls--t.\" \"I find it very important to be in control of this situation,\" he said. \"I feel like everyone has an opinion of me, and I want a chance to say, 'Well, do you want to hear how I really feel about all this?'\" Aiken, the runner-up on \"Idol's\" second season, dodged questions about his sexuality until coming out in People magazine last year. Lambert said his coming out is not a political statement. \"I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,\" he said. The Rolling Stone article revealed some \"bi-curious\" ambiguity for Lambert, whose tall, dark and handsome looks appealed to the female audience. \"I loved it this season when girls went crazy for me,\" he said. \"As far as I'm concerned, it's all hot.\" He said he is \"kind of interested\" in girls. Lambert made another revelation to Rolling Stone that might not be expected. His decision to audition for \"American Idol\" came after a week at Burning Man -- an annual festival held in a Nevada desert -- where he experimented with \"certain funguses.\" \"I had a psychedelic experience where I looked up at the clouds and went, 'Oh!' \" he said. \"I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen.\" And what he wanted to do was be on \"American Idol,\" he said. \"I knew it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it's fast and broad.\"","highlights":"Adam Lambert subject of cover story in Rolling Stone; says he is gay .\nLambert said he never sought to hide sexuality, but didn't want it sensationalized .\nDecision to try out for \"American Idol\" came after psychedelic experience .","id":"d9310b2306cea6a08e0faf3aff9fdbab740ec7c6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Members of the Screen Actors Guild overwhelmingly voted to approve a new two-year contract with studios and producers, the union announced Tuesday. Alan Rosenberg, national president of SAG, calls the terms of the contract \"devastatingly unsatisfactory.\" \"This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future,\" said David White, the group's interim national executive director. The union endorsed the package 78 percent to 22 percent. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hailed the vote, after a two-year-long negotiating process. \"The ratification vote by SAG members is good news for the entertainment industry,\" the alliance's Web site said. \"We look forward to working with SAG members ... to emerge from today's significant economic challenges with a strong and growing business.\" The actors had been working without a contract for nearly a year and the new contract did not immediately clear away the bad feelings. \"The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory,\" said Alan Rosenberg, the Screen Actors Guild national president. \"I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead.\" Before the agreement, the two sides had been at odds mainly over the amount actors should be paid when their movies or TV shows are distributed on discs or through new media, such as mobile phones and the Internet. The talks were tumultuous for Hollywood's biggest actors union. During the drawn-out process, SAG fired its executive director and named a new chief negotiator amid a bitter division among the actors over the question of calling a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.","highlights":"Screen Actors Guild endorses package with studios and producers 78% to 22% .\nAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hails the vote .\nSAG National President Alan Rosenberg thinks union settled for bad deal .\nMain sticking point had been how actors get paid in new-media distributions .","id":"974a30d64b63b661fe4cc2f0b2a1c68f44a7dcea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fewer Americans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, but those who are taking to the roads and skies may still face congestion. Travelers gather their luggage before checking in for a flight at San Francisco International Airport Tuesday. About 41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home around the holiday, according to AAA auto club. That figure is down 1.4 percent from last year, meaning 600,000 fewer travelers. The dip represents the first decline in travelers since 2002. \"I think with the economy going downward, people are holding off on traveling,\" AAA spokeswoman Christie Hyde said, noting that the largest drop this Thanksgiving is in flying. The Air Transport Association of American is projecting a 10 percent decrease in the number of air passengers flying over a 12-day period around the holiday, but airline capacity cuts prompted by record-high fuel prices over the summer mean planes will remain crowded. Travel in the skies appeared to be off to a good start Wednesday afternoon. Only a few major airports were experiencing delays by mid-afternoon, and most delays were well under an hour. The ATA expects planes to be close to 90 percent full, on average, on the busiest travel days. \"You'll see plenty of people on airplanes that are full,\" ATA spokesman David Castelveter said. He urges air travelers to arrive at the airport early, be prepared to go through security checkpoints and travel light, as space in overhead compartments and underneath seats will be limited. iReport: Share your travel experiences . Ball State University student Katie Dorsey, 21, planned to fly out of Indianapolis' new airport for the first time. She usually makes the trip to Orlando, Florida, to visit her father a couple times a year. \"I know they have more TSA checkpoint lanes, so it should be faster getting through security, but I'm not sure as far as lines,\" Dorsey said of the new airport. \"I'm going to try to get there at least two hours before my flight this time.\" Last week the TSA expanded its family lane program to every security checkpoint. Families, individuals who are unfamiliar with security procedures, travelers with special needs and those carrying medically necessary liquids in amounts exceeding the TSA's allowances can use these lanes to get through security at their own pace. Dorsey planned to check a bag on her AirTran flight because her travel dates dodge the carrier's fee for a first checked bag, going into effect December 5. Many major carriers have instituted fees on passengers' first checked bags, with higher fees for additional bags. In addition to mounting airline fees, Thanksgiving holiday travelers are paying on average 8 percent more for tickets this year, according to AAA's Leisure Travel Index. iReporter Bart Wible, 28, couldn't afford to pay the fares he found to fly from West Palm Beach, Florida, with his son and fiancee to visit family in Indiana. He looked for tickets online four or five times a week for several months, but the lowest fare he could find was $348 per ticket. Wible said he drives to Indiana when he has time to make the 16\u00bd-hour trip. \"Lately, it's turned into a trip that I have to drive. Even whenever gas prices were at almost $4 a gallon, I had to drive it, because it's still less expensive than flying when you look at three people traveling,\" Wible said. Driving isn't an option for the long weekend, he said, even with average gas prices dipping below $1.90 a gallon. Wible won't be among the 33.2 million Americans AAA expects to travel by car this year. The projected number of holiday drivers is down 1.2 percent from last year's 33.6 million drivers. AAA expects to assist five million stranded motorists during the holiday season. AAA's Hyde urges motorists to get their vehicles checked out before hitting the road. \"Even though people might be trying to tighten their purse strings right now, it's not the time to let your maintenance lapse on your car, especially if you live in a cold-weather environment,\" Hyde said. Have your antifreeze checked, check your windshield cleaning fluid, replace your wiper blades and monitor your tire pressure, she advised. As with any travel, the weather will be a big factor in how smoothly drivers are able to get to their destinations. To ease congestion in the sky that may be compounded by weather, President Bush has authorized the use of military airspace for Thanksgiving \"express lanes.\" Corridors along the East Coast, in the Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast will be opened to commercial airliners. \"Every little bit helps, no question about that,\" said the ATA's Castelveter. \"When we run into congestion in the airspace, having those extra lanes is a benefit. It's not a solution to delays. It's one of a number of solutions to reducing delays.\"","highlights":"41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving .\nA slight dip in the number of travelers is the first decline since 2002 .\nThe largest predicted decline is among air travelers .","id":"85f5eac9183de36754ab256fe2139cf327e506a6"} -{"article":"AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- The Atlanta lawyer with tuberculosis who caused an international health scare after traveling to Europe and back underwent surgery Tuesday to remove the diseased portion of one of his lungs. TB patient Andrew Speaker set off an international health scare when he traveled to Europe for his wedding in May. Andrew Speaker, 31, had the roughly two-hour operation to remove the upper lobe of his right lung at the University of Colorado Hospital. He's been under treatment at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver since the end of May. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who observed the surgery for about an hour, explained that the unusual procedure consisted of inserting a video camera in a tube in one small incision in the right side of Speaker's chest, and putting instruments through another incision. When the infected portion of the lung was cut out, it was placed inside a bag while still inside the attorney's chest cavity and the bag was sealed inside a tube before being removed. The main reason for sealing the infected tissue was to prevent it from re-infecting Speaker as it was removed, Gupta said after the operation. Doctors also wanted to make sure they didn't \"release any of that tuberculosis bacteria into the operating room, into the rest of the hospital,\" Gupta said before the surgery on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Watch Andrew Speaker discuss his reasons for having surgery with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta \u00bb . Doctors said the operation went well and there was not much bleeding, Gupta said. The portion of the lung that was removed showed the effects of the disease, Gupta said. \"A regular lung is very pink with a smooth, glistening surface,\" he said. \"This had a lot of bumps on it, and the areas that were diseased were very dark with white nodules.\" Speaker will most likely recover at the University of Colorado Hospital for another couple of days, and will return to National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver to finish his antibiotic course. He will still have to continue taking the medications prescribed by his doctors to fight the tuberculosis until cultures taken from him are negative for tuberculosis bacteria for eight weeks. At that point, he will be considered non-infectious, but he will still be monitored by health care professionals. Speaker said it was his decision to have the surgery, which is just one of his treatment options. \"With the amount of treatment I'm going to be on, the doctors said if you go ahead and have this surgery, you don't have to worry 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, or 30 years from now if it's ever going to come back, so it's worth the peace of mind to me,\" the attorney said. Speaker was originally found to have an extremely drug resistant strain (XDR-TB) of the respiratory disease earlier this year, but on July 3 doctors said he had multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which is treatable with less toxic drugs. Speaker and his fiancee had gone to Europe on May 12 for their wedding in Greece, despite warnings from the Fulton County Health Department in Georgia that he should not fly because he risked infecting fellow passengers. Since then, eight people who shared a flight with Speaker have filed a lawsuit against him, seeking $1.3 million in damages. Rosalind Yee -- an attorney for the plaintiffs who said her clients include a ninth person related to one of the passengers but who was not on the flight -- said all eight passengers have undergone TB tests since they returned home. One of them, a 72-year-old man, tested positive for TB on a skin test, though it was not clear that Speaker was the source. The man's X-rays were normal, she said, and he is awaiting results of further tests. In the past year, there have been about 124 cases of MDR-TB in the United States. About half of those patients have elected to undergo the surgery to remove the diseased portion of their lungs, Gupta said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Doctors remove TB-infected lung tissue from Andrew Speaker .\nHe said decided to have surgery so he won't have to worry about TB in future .\nSpeaker sparked health scare after flying with disease .\nEight people on flight with Andrew Speaker sue him for $1.3 million .","id":"7ac4cadfaf805dbb225595f92cc90810ea43622c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United have accepted a world-record $130 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. Ronaldo is set to smash the world record transfer fee if he agrees to move to Real Madrid. The English champions have given the big-spending Spanish giants permission to talk to the World Player of the Year, according to the official United Web site. United said on Thursday that the Portugal winger had again expressed his desire to leave Old Trafford, and the club now expect the deal to be concluded by June 30. Madrid confirmed on the club's Web site that it hoped to seal an agreement with Ronaldo \"in the coming days.\" Real, who have fallen behind bitter rivals Barcelona, have swooped to follow up the $92 million signing of Brazil star Kaka from AC Milan earlier this week. What's your view? Tell us what you think about Ronaldo joining Real. Real also held the previous record when they paid \u20ac77 million (now worth $108 million) for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. The club's president Florentino Perez said after the Kaka deal was concluded that he would do \"everything possible\" to sign the 24-year-old Ronaldo, as he sought to build a new empire that would match his first stint at the Bernabeu. The 20 most wanted players in the world. United held off Real's advances last summer, with manager Alex Ferguson traveling to the Portugal camp during the Euro 2008 finals to hold crisis talks with Ronaldo. The player committed himself to another season in Manchester, but was affected by injuries early on and -- despite a sizzling end to the campaign -- was unable to help United retain the UEFA Champions League title, losing to Barcelona in last month's final. Perez is seeking to rebuild a team which finished second in the Primera Liga last season, nine points behind Barcelona, and again failed to progress past the first knockout stage of Europe's premier club competition. He failed in his first bid for the presidency in 1995, but won the 2000 elections on a promise to sign Luis Figo from Barca. Perez duly brought in the Portuguese forward and followed it up with a series of budget-busting transfers, including that of Zidane and David Beckham, as he created a team dubbed the \"Galacticos.\" United have been linked with moves to sign Bayern Munich's France star Franck Ribery and Wigan's Ecuador winger Antonio Valencia as Ferguson seeks to replace Ronaldo. Check out the latest transfer rumors and gossip. Perez has also expressed an interest in bringing Ribery to Spain from Germany. Ronaldo moved to Old Trafford in August 2003 in a $20 million transfer from Sporting Lisbon just days after scoring against United in a pre-season friendly. He made his first senior outing for the national side that November and helped Manchester United win the FA Cup in May before suffering heartache as Portugal lost to underdogs Greece in the final of Euro 2004 on home soil. In November 2005, he agreed a two-year extension to his contract until 2010. He was vilified in England in the summer of 2006 after his antics helped get United clubmate Wayne Rooney sent off as Portugal progressed to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Germany. After the tournament, Ronaldo revealed that he would like to leave United, but at the end of the 2006-07 season the forward agreed a new five-year contract. Watch CNN on why Ronaldo moved \u00bb . The next campaign he beat George Best's 40-year-old club record for goals scored by a winger in a single season, with 33 in the Premier League and 42 overall. Ronaldo suffered an ankle injury as Portugal lost 3-2 to Germany in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, and told Portuguese newspaper Publico he would remain with United \"for at least another year\". In December he was named Europe's top player, then the next month he escaped uninjured after writing off his Ferrari sports car when crashing into a roadside barrier under a tunnel near Manchester Airport on his way to training. Read about it here. Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on January 12 and went on to held United retain the Premier League title, but the club failed to become the first to retain the Champions League since its inception in 1992.","highlights":"Real Madrid given permission to talk with Cristiano Ronaldo after record offer .\nSpanish club offer a world-record $130 million for Manchester United winger .\nThe World Player of the Year is expected to conclude his transfer by June 30 .\nReal have been seeking to sign the Portugal international for the last two years .","id":"0ab92342d8a66208107c6226c3ab0a75ba42445b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Fawaz A. Gerges holds the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. His most recent book is \"The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global.\" This is the first of two pieces by Gerges on the Iranian election. Fawaz Gerges says Iran's president is vulnerable on the economy and broken promises of women's rights. (CNN) -- In Iran, as in every country, all politics is local. While there exist few substantive differences among leading presidential contenders over foreign and nuclear policy, there are divisions over the economy. With uncertain and declining oil revenues and a global financial crisis, Iran has fallen on hard times. The nation suffers from high inflation and an unemployment rate that tops 30 percent (according to unofficial figures) -- one of the highest in the region, despite the country's huge oil exports. Public discontent over the faltering economy has seen President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad become increasingly unpopular. His reformist and conservative opponents alike have criticized him publicly for spending too much time agitating the U.S. and Israel and not enough trying to fix the crumbling economy. Regardless of which candidate wins on June 12 or in a potential runoff, he will inherit a grave economic crisis and a restive population. Dealing with foreign affairs is likely to be some way down his list of priorities. At his first press conference after announcing his presidential candidacy, Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's main opponent, pledged to increase freedoms for Iranians and curb controversial restrictions that require women to cover their hair in public. \"Can a security patrol save our youths?\" Mousavi said of the increase in the moral police operations to prevent women from allowing their hair to show in public. \"Or can they be saved by the words of a grandfather who talks to his granddaughter?\" he asked rhetorically. The patrols began after Ahmadinejad became president, though his government denies responsibility; many women claim that his administration has institutionalized discrimination against them. Criticizing the president's rhetoric and the strictures he has imposed on daily life and public discourse, Mousavi, who appeals to the youth vote and women, said social controls are the domain of the people, not the government -- a radical departure from the dominant orthodoxy of the ruling mullahs. Mousavi frames his reforms as an affirmation of Iran's constitution, which he says has been \"violated and undermined\" by Ahmadinejad. The reason for his rhetoric is that women and young voters could tip the balance of power in his favor. Half of the 46 million eligible voters are women. In 1997, more than 60 percent of the votes that brought former President Mohammad Khatami to power were cast by women, and in 2000 women voters were instrumental in giving reformists a sweeping majority in the parliament. Promising greater individual freedoms to Iran's young people was instrumental in the two landslide victories by Khatami in 1997 and 2001. Ironically, during the 2005 presidential election, candidate Ahmadinejad said he would loosen state control over people's personal affairs. Trying to garner support among women and young voters, in one of his pre-election television interviews he questioned the role of the morality police: \"Let our children arrange their hair any way they wish. It does not concern you and me. ... The government should fix the economy of the nation and improve its atmosphere. ... People have variegated tastes.\" His broken promises to women voters could cost him the presidency on June 12. A reformist woman and a former member of parliament said in a newspaper article that the president's days are numbered: \"The women's movement in Iran is gaining momentum and these elections may be the first step towards Ahmadinejad [being] forced out.\" Indeed, women have become critical players in Iran's electoral map. More women activists are making their voices and demands heard and have formed coalitions to defeat the incumbent. Almost 600 women have registered for the forthcoming 290-seat Majlis (parliamentary) election, which will be crucial in determining the future of the ultra-conservatives who broadly back Ahmadinejad. There are currently only two women in secondary Cabinet positions and 11 in parliament, but these numbers seem certain to rise. It is no wonder then that leading reformist contenders have appealed to women by pledging to give them a greater say in the political and social order. Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliament speaker, said he has always supported women's rights and that if elected, he would appoint a female minister to his Cabinet: \"Having a female minister will make no major changes, but it will be a major step toward removing the obstacles to the active participation of women in Iran's politics.\" So although this month's presidential election is unlikely to cause a rupture internationally, either for better or worse, the result could have a critical impact on the domestic arena in Iran, particularly in terms of the empowerment of women. As such, the election will provide a glimpse of how far Iran has evolved and how far it has to travel. Regardless of who emerges victorious, neither Iran's foreign policy nor its geostrategic posture will dramatically change. Although the president is the human face and representative of the Islamic-based regime in Tehran, he is not the top executive decision-maker or commander-in-chief. He does not make decisions of war and peace. Rather, his authority lies in the domestic arena, particularly in managing the economy and framing the moral debate, and communicating Iran's message(s) to the world. iReport.com: Human chain in support of Mousavi . The most powerful and influential man in today's Iran is the unelected Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assisted by a National Security Council that includes dozens of political leaders. Together they are responsible for constructing the country's regional and foreign policies, including the nuclear portfolio and relations with Western powers. They set the broad parameters of Iranian foreign policy and strategy, leaving the president with a limited ability to maneuver in determining the country's international relations. Nevertheless, the president's personality and discourse play an important role in Iran's foreign relations, either heightening tensions with the world or presenting a more accommodating stance -- as clearly shown by the contrasting styles of President Ahmadinejad and his predecessor Mohammad Khatami. While Ahmadinejad's aggressive rhetoric has caused a further rupture with Western states, Khatami's stress on civilizational dialogue and co-existence was warmly welcomed in European capitals and many U.S. circles. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Fawaz Gerges.","highlights":"Fawaz Gerges: Iranian election likely to turn on local issues, not foreign policy .\nIran's economy in trouble due to lower oil prices, inflation, joblessness, he says .\nWomen think Ahmadinejad has broken his promises to them, Gerges says .\nGerges: Women and young people have been key factors in past votes .","id":"b4d42cf6aba5a426f9da6a3c14e5fddbce073cd5"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ted Epperly, M.D., a family physician in Boise, Idaho, is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. He spent 21 years in the U.S. Army, including service as a family physician, chief of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital emergency room during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, and deputy commander of an Army medical center. Ted Epperly says recruiting more primary care doctors would improve access to quality health care. (CNN) -- Clayton Christensen, Jason Hwang and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan are right about one thing in their CNN commentary titled \"We don't need more doctors.\" America's health care system is broken. It requires significant reform if patients are to have access to convenient, affordable and -- most importantly -- high-quality care that results in good outcomes. But they have missed a central point. We need more primary care physicians now and we will need even more in the future as the baby boom generation ages. If Americans are to see meaningful health care reform, they must have a primary care doctor to whom they can turn for everyday problems: annual physicals and preventive care, diagnosis and treatment for common illness, and diagnosis and treatment of complex, chronic conditions, referral to subspecialists, and coordination of care provided by a team of professionals. Our current system has a serious and growing shortage of these primary care physicians. Today, only 30 percent of physicians provide primary care and 70 percent subspecialize in a single organ system or disease. We need a system in which patients get the right kind of care at the right time in the right place by the right type of provider. They need health services that provide not just convenient hours for minor health problems, but also medical expertise that ensures consistent, ongoing care; accurate diagnoses of symptoms; coordination with pharmacists, other specialists and allied health professionals such as physical therapists; consistent follow-up; and convenience. All at an affordable cost. Several health reform proposals set forth by President Obama and Congress would move federal policy in that direction. How? They incorporate convenience, efficiency, continuity of care and access to a system that relies on the patient-centered medical home -- a concept in which physicians coordinate care with a team of health professionals, offer evening and weekend office hours, and use electronic communication with patients and members of the health care team. But this concept won't be fulfilled unless we have health reform that increases the number of primary care physicians. Right now, America has a current and worsening shortage of primary medical care. Christensen, Hwang and Vijayaraghavan contend that increasing the number of physicians also leads to \"greater intensity of care, but not better health outcomes.\" But their argument leaves out a major caveat. Although a greater number of subspecialists does increase the intensity, number and cost of services, research by Barbara Starfield at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health consistently demonstrates the opposite occurs in communities with more primary care physicians, particularly family physicians. Starfield concludes that an increase of one primary care physician per 10,000 population resulted in a reduction of 34.6 deaths per 100,000 population at the state level. Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics at Harvard School of Public Health, and Amitabh Chandra at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government confirm these findings. Their research shows that increasing the number of primary care physicians results in a significant increase in the quality of health care and a reduction of cost to patients. However, increasing the number of subspecialists was associated with higher costs and poorer quality. At issue, then, is not the total number of physicians, but the number of family physicians and their primary care colleagues. Demographics, an aging population and resulting increased demand for services will require a significant increase in the number of these physicians. Given the long-term process required to train primary care physicians, we will continue to struggle with a shortage of primary care physicians, and that shortage will affect patients' access to care. Family physicians now are working to fill some of those gaps, according to a 2008 survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The survey found 42 percent of respondents offer extended office hours and 29 percent provide open access or same-day scheduling. Moreover, 36 percent offer Web-based health information, 32 percent (up from 10 percent two years ago) prescribe medications by e-mail, and 21 percent (up from 18 percent two years ago) offer e-mail interactions. In short, despite the financial disincentives and other barriers in the current system, family physicians are working to meet patients' needs for convenience and access. They are improving this convenience and access with the help of nurses and nurse practitioners, who are excellent sources of care when patients have a known set of conditions and diagnoses that are amenable to treatment protocols. Likewise, walk-in clinics can fill the access gap when patients have an acute problem that requires a treatment that can be spelled out by an accepted protocol. However, even these clinics rely on an adequate number of primary care physicians. Most walk-in clinic staff realize that convenience should not trump quality or continuity, and most will refer patients to a primary care physician for follow-up and ongoing care. Again, without an adequate number of primary care physicians, these patients will have only partial access to the care they need. Family physicians and other primary care providers are part of the solution, not part of the problem. It is important at this critical time of restructuring the health care system to understand clearly what we are trying to accomplish. What we are building is a high-quality, accessible health care system that increases patient satisfaction and health care outcomes while we decrease cost and ethnic disparities. This is what a primary-care based health system will deliver. This is why President Obama and Congress aim to rebuild the U.S. health care system around primary care. This is why we need more primary care physicians. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dr. Ted Epperly.","highlights":"Dr. Ted Epperly: America needs more primary care doctors to expand access .\nHe says studies show primary care doctors improve health-care outcomes .\nEpperly: Doctors are seeking to make services more easily available .","id":"e8b119c40d8eb580a077f248996d547fb84f1770"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Scottish woman who became an Internet singing sensation after her performance on a British talent show said Friday she doesn't want fame to change her. Susan Boyle at home with her piano. Susan Boyle, 47, has said she's still the same humble girl next door despite her knockout singing on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" She shocked and inspired the audience, judges, and Web watchers with her rendition of \"I Dreamed a Dream\" from the musical \"Les Mis\u00e9rables\" in the first round of the show. \"I wouldn't want to change myself too much because that would really make things a bit false,\" she told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday. \"I want to receive people as the real me, a real person.\" Boyle's appearance belied her talent, but in the end it was the very reason she won over the audience. There is speculation TV producers might give Boyle a makeover for the rest of the show, but she refused to say whether she'd accept one. iReport.com: Have you been judged on looks? \"I can't make a comment on that,\" she said. Watch Boyle sing a new song for CNN's Larry King \u00bb . A clip of Boyle's performance on the talent show had more than 15 million views on YouTube by Friday, and the world's media have beaten a path to her door in Blackburn, Scotland. Watch Boyle's singing wow the world \u00bb . While she said she's the same person -- the shy girl who has never been kissed -- it's clear that Boyle's life already is changing. In her home are heaps of fan mail and cards from well-wishers. Throngs of fans have been shrieking at her doorstep begging for her autograph. Boyle said she's still in shock and overwhelmed by her overnight stardom. Watch how Boyle sees herself \u00bb . \"I'm gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked,\" she told CNN on Friday morning. During an earlier interview with CNN's Atika Shubert, Boyle expressed amazement at people's reaction to her -- \"the way everyone seems to have embraced me, the way they seem to have apparently fallen in love with me,\" she said. Watch young fans flock to Boyle's home \u00bb . The singer acknowledged she noticed the initial sniggers when she got onstage for her performance on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" But she said she didn't let it get to her. If nothing else, it fueled her motivation. \"I just thought mentally, I'll show them, so I did,\" she said. \"If people are cynical, you try and win them 'round and it worked. It must have been a miracle, but it worked.\" Boyle still has a long way to go -- having just gotten through to the second round of \"Britain's Got Talent\" after judge Simon Cowell described her first performance as \"extraordinary.\" If she can make her way through the show's final rounds, she will get to sing for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show. Boyle has promised to be on her best behavior if she gets that far. \"Whatever comes my way, I am ready. It would be lovely to sing for the queen. There would be less of the carry-on from me and more of the singing. \"She is a very regal lady, very nice, so I would be nice, too, and just get up there and give it a bit of wellie [try],\" Boyle told the show's Web site. Boyle began singing in school productions at 12. She had private lessons and won local competitions, but a professional career never took hold partly because of circumstances at home. Boyle said she cared for her aging parents, both of whom have died. Thoughts of her mother led Boyle to apply to be on the talent show, she said. \"She was my inspiration, and she was the driving force behind my application,\" Boyle told CNN. \"I felt it was a tribute to her. She was a wonderful lady.\" Watch Boyle say, \"It must have been a miracle\" \u00bb . Boyle said she was trying to take her newfound fame in stride. \"It's a challenge. Life is a challenge sometimes, but this is different. And I like to test myself. \"If it all gets too much and they lock me up, I want a great big straitjacket with spots on it -- a pink one ... and a big zip on the back so I can escape.\" Cowell reportedly is trying to piece together a record deal for Boyle, an unemployed charity worker who lives with her cat, Pebbles. But Boyle said she's not focusing on any of that yet -- she still spends her time concentrating on the current competition.","highlights":"NEW: YouTube sensation credits late mother for inspiration to perform .\nSusan Boyle wowed audience, judges on \"Britain's Got Talent\"\nBoyle says, \"I wouldn't want to change myself too much\"\nUnexpected star grabs spotlight with more than 15 million Web views .","id":"e65cfdce945df6624f2516a9ad2f9292586c847d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States will allow Americans to send mobile phones to relatives in Cuba under a change in policy that President Bush announced Wednesday. President Bush announces the U.S. policy allowing cell phones to Cuba at the White House on Wednesday. Bush said he is making the change since President Ra\u00fal Castro \"is allowing Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time.\" \"If he is serious about his so-called reforms, he will allow these phones to reach the Cuban people,\" Bush said. Bush urged the Cuban government to loosen restrictions further, saying if Cubans can be allowed to own mobile phones, \"they should be trusted to speak freely in public.\" They should be allowed to watch uncensored movies and have free access to the Internet, he said. And he called for the government to implement major free-market reforms. Relations between the United States and Cuba remain tense nearly 50 years after Fidel Castro overthrew the pro-American government in Havana. The United States has maintained an embargo against Cuba for decades. Cuban officials on Monday accused the top U.S. diplomat in Havana of delivering money from private anti-Castro groups in Florida to dissidents in Cuba. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that \"the U.S. government has programs to provide humanitarian assistance to people that are essentially forgotten by the Cuban government and that we ... do not stand in the way of private groups doing that as well.\" As to how that is done, he said, \"I'm not aware of the mechanics; I don't steep myself in these things.\" Fidel Castro, beset with health problems, handed day-to-day governing power over to Ra\u00fal, his younger brother, earlier this year. After being elected president in February, Ra\u00fal Castro announced that Cubans who can afford them could buy cell phones and DVD players and stay in hotels previously reserved for foreign tourists -- overturning bans from the Fidel era. The goods and services remain out of reach for most people on the island, where $120 cell phones plus $10.80 calling cards cost about six times the average monthly salary. Bush said Wednesday it is \"the height of hypocrisy to claim credit to allow Cubans to purchase appliances that virtually none of them can afford.\" Though the price may put mobile phones out of the reach of most Cubans, they are affordable for many of those who have access to U.S. dollars -- typically either sent from relatives abroad or earned internally by tourist workers. Bush on Wednesday marked what the White House called a Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People, which the president said he hopes will be an annual event.","highlights":"President Bush: Cubans also \"should be trusted to speak freely in public\"\nBush calls for Cuba to implement major free-market reforms .\nU.S. has maintained an embargo against Cuba for decades .\nNew leader Ra\u00fal Castro allowing Cubans to buy cell phones, DVD players .","id":"6444243677df2ff84ac4ee07988874afeefcc626"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The Chinese women's gymnastics team did not use underage competitors during this year's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the International Gymnastics Federation said Wednesday. Widespread reports claimed that gold medal winner He Kexin was only 14 years old. The federation said it has concluded its inquiry into the matter after it confirmed the gymnasts' ages through official documents that the Chinese Gymnasts Association provided. The documents included passports, identity cards and household registers. However, the organization intends to further investigate the ages of two gymnasts, Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun, who participated in the 2000 summer games in Sydney, Australia. The federation said it did not consider the explanations and evidence that Chinese authorities provided in regard to those athletes as satisfactory. The International Olympic Committee had asked gymnastics officials to clarify the situation after numerous commentators, bloggers and others questioned whether about half the members of China's team were old enough to compete. Watch tiny gymnasts work out \u00bb . Athletes must be at least 16 in the year the games take place. In women's gymnastics, younger girls can have an advantage over older competitors on account of their often smaller, lighter and more agile bodies. The Chinese women's gymnastics team won a gold medal in a team competition at the Beijing games, and five members won individual medals. One of the challenges came from a blogger known as \"Stryde Hax.\" The blogger claimed to have uncovered proof that Chinese gymnast He Kexin is only 14. In Internet searches, \"Stryde Hax\" allegedly uncovered Web pages showing lists complied by China's General Administration of Sport that show a 1994 date of birth for He. CNN was not been able to independently verify the information, but snapshots of the Web pages appeared to back up the claim. Other bloggers joined the search and reported similar results. The New York Times conducted its own investigation, producing similar results that seem to implicate He and two other members of the team. The Times uncovered a 2006 biography on He that lists her birthday as January 1, 1994. The International Gymnastics Federation, however, has said that those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct. Chinese gymnastics coaches also defended their team. \"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion,\" said Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's teams, referring to media inquiries. \"They shouldn't be suspicious.\"","highlights":"Athletes met age requirements, international commission concludes .\nSome writers, others suspected girls were younger than rules allowed .\nChinese team won gold medal in Summer Olympics at Beijing .\nPassports, identity cards, household records examined .","id":"f03dc8199916fcf5577df5c8c8c3aacfdc225c81"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of Africa's most successful footballers, Nwankwo Kanu, has had a glittering career on the pitch. The 6 ft 5 in Nigerian footballer has used his sizable stature in the game to help many others. Winning a gold medal with Nigeria in the 1996 Olympic Games he has also won the European Cup with Ajax; the English Premier League Title and FA Cup with Arsenal in 2002, and in 2008 scored the winning goal for Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final. But off the pitch, Kanu has worked just as hard to improve the lives of others. He set up the Kanu Heart Foundation in 2000 that raises money to help children with hearth defects. It's an issue that Kanu is particularly connected to. In 1995, when he was already a double-European Cup finalist, Kanu was told by a doctor for Inter Milan, the club he had just signed for, that he a faulty value in his heart. He was told he could never play football again. However he spent 14 months rehabilitating and then moved to Arsenal in England and arguably had the most successful years of his career. Now nearing the end of his career, Kanu has set up another foundation. Founded in 2008, The Kanu Football Foundation aims to help advise young African footballer who can face all sorts of pressures when trying to become a professional football and avoid being exploited.","highlights":"Nigerian footballer is European Cup and English Premier League winner .\nAge 19, told he could never play football again after hole was found in his heart .\nA UNICEF ambassador has also set up two charitable foundations .","id":"c75fefcc136e2d73a0bbce9547248b87a3cd131f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- British police Wednesday arrested 12 people in a counterterrorism operation, and locations were being searched, authorities said. A Scotland Yard official's papers show details of the raid, which have been obscured in this photo. Arrests were carried out in a series of raids in northwest England, police said. Participating agencies included Merseyside Police, Greater Manchester Police and the Lancashire Constabulary, according to a statement from Greater Manchester Police. The men arrested were involved in a \"very serious\" plot closely associated with al Qaeda and escaped al Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf, whom British intelligence have linked to the 2006 plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners, according to a security source with knowledge of the investigation. The new plot was not believed to be targeting national infrastructure, such as rail lines, airports or utilities, nor was it clear if the plot was to involved bombs or an assault involving gunmen, the source said. Details, the source said, were speculative at this point in the investigation. The source also said authorities don't believe the targets would have been in the north of England, where the arrests took place, and that at least some of those arrested were Pakistanis in the United Kingdom on student visas. Several hundred officers were involved in the raids, according to a later Greater Manchester Police statement. The men arrested range in age from a youth in his mid- to late teens to a 41-year-old, the statement said. No further information was available, police said. \"Today's action is part of an ongoing investigation and we have acted on intelligence received,\" said Steve Ashley, chief superintendent of Merseyside police. \"We understand that this kind of police activity can cause concerns to people living in nearby communities. The extra patrols, cordons and measures we have in place have been implemented to make sure we are doing everything we can to reassure the public and maintain public safety.\" Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, in a written statement, congratulated police for the \"successful anti-terrorism operation which has resulted in 12 arrests at a number of locations.\" She said the actions were an operational decision by police and Security Services, but she and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were kept apprised. Police rushed to make the arrests after press photographers on Tuesday snapped images of the U.K.'s chief terrorism officer as he got out of a car at the prime minister's residence, according to the security source. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick was carrying a document containing the names of those to be arrested, the source said, and the photographers were able to easily read the names when they enlarged the photographs. But, the source said, the arrests would probably have taken place Thursday, and preparations for the arrests were the reason for Quick's visit to see Brown. \"Tonight, the focus is the ongoing operation. That's my priority,\" Smith said. Scotland Yard issued a statement regarding the incident. \"Quick accepts he made a mistake on leaving a sensitive document on open view and deeply regrets it. He has apologized to the commissioner and the colleagues.\" CNN's Andrew Carey and Laura Perez-Maestro contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Men involved in plot associated with escaped al Qaeda operative, source says .\nNEW: Some of those arrested were Pakistanis in the U.K. on student visas .\nNEW: U.K.'s chief terrorism officer apologizes for pictures of him with documents .\nPolice from Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire Constabulary involved .","id":"63c221d65b606207d5c41ca6e319f222fb16b979"} -{"article":"FAIRBURN, Georgia (CNN) -- In a south Atlanta neighborhood lined with palatial homes and manicured lots, the Hicks family was living out its American dream. Breylan and Terese Hicks play with their sons Bryce, 3, and Jordan, 2. But like many Americans, that dream was interrupted when they almost lost their home to foreclosure. Terese, a firefighter, and her husband Breylan, a police sergeant, had always dreamed about owning a spacious house in the suburbs. When they began their search, the young family was living in a south Atlanta neighborhood. They grew concerned and decided to move when crime in the area started to pick up. Although they didn't think they could afford their 'dream home,' they started searching in an affluent area just south of the airport and across the street from the 190-room estate owned by famed heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield. \"I've always been looking in this subdivision, but never thought we could afford a home here,\" Terese Hicks said. After discussing their financials with a mortgage broker, the family was presented with a deal and payments they could afford. The interest-only, adjustable rate loan sounded good at the time. And since they were not first-time homebuyers, they thought they knew what they were getting into. Terese Hicks figured they could always refinance before the interest rates were adjusted. Soon, the family settled in their seven-bedroom, five-bathroom plantation-style home with a pool. It all seemed like a dream come true, until the couple learned the interest rate on their loan would readjust in just six months, making the loan a short three-year ARM. The mother of two, who handles the family's finances, had wrongly assumed that their loan was a five-year ARM. The news couldn't have come at a worse time. Breylan was unable to work because of a serious back injury, and the family's income took a hit. They were also paying mortgages on vacant rental properties when they couldn't find tenants because of the housing crisis. To make matters worse, Terese Hicks, a city employee, had to take a 10-percent pay cut in her salary, and the family was burdened with a mountain of medical bills for numerous surgeries their 6-month-old son Jordan underwent to treat a birth-related medical condition. Struggling to pay the new adjusted mortgage, Terese Hicks appealed to their mortgage company, Homecomings which is owned by GMAC, for help. \"They said there was nothing they could do about the rate readjusting, so I said let's weather the storm and see what we can do,\" she said. She continued to make regular payments for all of their mortgages in order to maintain their good credit. But within a year, they were in the eye of the storm and their savings dropped to around $75. Desperate, the Hickses asked their mortgage company again for help. But they were told there was nothing they could do because they were current on all their payments. The Hickses decided they had no other choice but to \"play the game\" and stop paying their mortgage, even if it meant damaging their hard-earned credit. Homecomings acknowledges that the guidelines for modification at that time made little sense, but they were caught in the middle of a \"symptomatic\" relationship between working with third-party investors and homeowners. \"In order for us to have been able to modify the loan we needed to get permission on the investor on whose behalf we are servicing the loan,\" said Jeanine Bruin of GMAC. \"It's a balancing act, what's in the best interest of the customer and the investor.\" At the time of the Hickses request for a loan modification, investors backing the loans required some proof of financial difficulty. Things have changed since then, including new government concessions geared towards helping homeowners, explained Bruin. \"The proof was in the pudding,\" said Bruin, \"You had to be late in your payment to prove hardship.\" The Hicks family's story is one that Marcia Griffin, founder of HomeFree-USA, has heard all too often. \"We advise homebuyers not to talk to a realtor or lender before we can meet with them for a Mortgage Profile Meeting,\" said Griffin. \"Within 30 minutes the client will know if they can fly, run, walk or crawl.\" HomeFree-USA is a nonprofit organization devoted to homeownership development and financial empowerment. It's one of several national nonprofit organizations that offer mortgage assistance and home ownership counseling. The Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America and the National Urban League offer community advocacy programs geared toward counseling lower- and middle-income families who are purchasing or refinancing their homes. With offices in Washington and Atlanta, HomeFree-USA's clientele is mostly minority borrowers. During the recent housing crisis, Griffin says people of color have become \"easy prey\" because they often don't know the right questions to ask about subprime and ARM loans. Some may find her no-nonsense attitude a bit difficult to swallow. \"You cannot buy a house without any money, and you cannot buy a house with poor credit,\" cautioned Griffin. As an African-American, Griffin believes she's the right messenger to help financially empower the African-American community. Griffin believes families like the Hicks could have qualified for a better, less risky loan and should have been better informed about the terms of their loan. If the Hicks family had known sooner about HomeFree-USA's program they might have been able to save their good credit rating and a lot of aggravation. It was only after receiving notice that their home was going up for auction that Terese Hicks learned about HomeFree-USA. She contacted the Atlanta office and within a few days there was a resolution. The Hicks family learned that they qualified for President Obama's new homeownership assistance program. The program offered institutionalized loan modifications for people who could prove they were suffering economic hardship. With a low interest rate locked in for the next five years, the family was able to keep the home and pay an affordable monthly mortgage. Griffin hopes other homebuyers can learn from the Hickses' situation and seek out an advocate early in the process of refinancing or modifying a loan -- before they are caught in a financial storm. \"People don't know where to go and who to talk to,\" says Griffin. \"They are suffering in silence.\"","highlights":"The Hicks family purchased a \"dream home\" just south of Atlanta, Georgia .\nThe couple struggled to pay the interest-only mortgage after it adjusted .\nThey suffered a series of financial blows from health issues to loss of income .\nHomeFree-USA consulted with their lender to avoid foreclosure .","id":"06ee2326ddc286c4610c36e53b68f66dfaffe498"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI visited Jerusalem's holiest sites Tuesday, touring areas sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians and stressing the common threads of the three faiths. Pope Benedict XVI prays at the Old City's Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. After visiting the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, the pontiff prayed at the Old City's Western Wall. Also known as the Wailing Wall, it was once part of Judaism's Second Temple, which was destroyed. Later, the pope was scheduled to celebrate Mass at Gethsemane, the site where the Bible says Jesus prayed to God for guidance the night before his crucifixion. \"The Dome of the Rock draws our hearts and minds to reflect upon the mystery of creation and the faith of Abraham. Here the paths of the world's three great monotheistic religions meet, reminding us what they share in common,\" the pope said at the Islamic shrine after a meeting with the grand mufti of Jerusalem, the city's top Muslim religious leader. \"Each believes in one God, creator and ruler of all. Each recognizes Abraham as a forefather, a man of faith upon whom God bestowed a special blessing,\" the pontiff said. Muslims believe that the Dome of the Rock is where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, while Jews believe that it is where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac. A short distance away in the Old City is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be located on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. The visit took place under extremely tight security. Security personnel with machine guns could be seen across the Temple Mount.","highlights":"Visits Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, before meeting city's top Muslim leader .\nIn Islam Dome of the Rock is where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven .\nPope: \"Here the paths of the world's three great monotheistic religions meet\"\nVisit takes place under extremely tight security .","id":"40cf07072ab3dfaa5daa854ec6948e339d96a398"} -{"article":"MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) -- After earning a reputation as a killer in Haiti, Tropical Storm Hanna amounted to little more than a windy rainstorm along the Atlantic Coast on Saturday. Water almost covers the dock at the Marine Corps Air Station marina near the New River in North Carolina. No states have \"expressed any damage that they couldn't handle,\" said Glenn Cannon, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistant administrator for disaster operations. He said there were some concerns about flooding near rivers and in low-lying areas. \"We're monitoring Hanna, but it seems to be a heavy rain event,\" he said. According to the Associated Press, Hanna did cause one death in a traffic accident on Interstate 95 in Maryland. Many people in Huntington, Virginia, about 8 miles northwest of Virginia Beach, voluntarily evacuated Saturday afternoon because of concerns about flooding, Fairfax County public information officer Merni Fitzgerald said. The area, which has flooded in the past, was receiving heavy rain, she said. She could not provide an exact number of people who had evacuated. The storm drenched the Carolinas and Virginia with heavy rain pushed by 55-mph winds as it zipped northward near 30 mph (48 kph), the National Hurricane Center reported at 11 p.m. ET Saturday. At that hour, the center of the storm was 90 miles (145 kilometers) west-southwest of Long Island, New York, and about 135 miles (220 kilometers) southwest of Providence, Rhode Island. Hanna would travel the coast all the way up to Canada's Maritime Provinces by Sunday night, forecasters said. Hanna came ashore at 3:20 a.m. ET near the North Carolina-South Carolina state line. It caused a surge of 1 to 2 feet of water along the shore and was expected to deliver 4 to 6 inches of rain, with some areas getting more. Flooding, wind damage and power outages were minor across the Carolinas, according to emergency officials. View a map of Hanna's projected path \u00bb . \"It's actually going fairly well, with some reports of minor flooding,\" said South Carolina Emergency Management spokesman Derrec Becker. About 10,000 South Carolina homes were without power Saturday morning, mostly in the Myrtle Beach area, Becker said. He also said 444 South Carolina residents were staying in 15 shelters. In North Carolina, nearly 12,000 homes had no electricity, mostly in the counties near where Hanna came in, said State Emergency Management spokesman Mark Van Sciver. See what impact Hanna had on Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina \u00bb . No deaths were reported, flooding was limited, and no highways were closed, Van Sciver said. Nearly 1,500 residents sought refuge Saturday in 49 emergency shelters in North Carolina, Van Sciver said. The storm snarled some travel plans. It triggered delays for arrivals to Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania and departures from Newark International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Delays at JFK airport averaged about four hours, the FAA said. Hanna's eye made landfall near Little River Inlet at the South Carolina-North Carolina line, according to CNN meteorologists. Watch wind whip a South Carolina beach \u00bb . Pounding waves flattened some sand dunes on the beaches at Oak Island, North Carolina, just east of the storm's landfall. The island's Ocean Crest pier, rebuilt after Hurricane Floyd destroyed it nine years ago, held up under Hanna, but the American flag flying above it was in tatters and barely attached to its pole by sunrise. By Saturday afternoon, the hurricane center had discontinued a tropical storm warning southward from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A tropical storm warning covered much of the East Coast from Cape Hatteras to Merrimack River, Massachusetts, about 31 miles north of Boston. The warning included all of Chesapeake Bay, Washington, New York Harbor and Long Island Sound, as well as popular vacation islands Martha's Vineyard, Block Island and Nantucket. The warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area within the next 24 hours. iReport.com: Are you getting soaked? Hanna caused severe flooding and killed at least 137 as it lingered for several days over and just off the coast of Haiti. U.N. relief supplies started arriving in the beleaguered country Friday, even as Hurricane Ike threatens to do even more damage. Ike will pass near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands, just north of Haiti, and the southeastern Bahamas in the next day, the hurricane center said. Ike's impact on the United States is less certain, but it could brush South Florida and hit the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane next week. iReport.com: \"There's now a pond in my car\"","highlights":"Residents in Huntington, Virginia, voluntarily evacuating because of flooding .\nFEMA says no states have requested help with damage from storm .\nLittle damage reported from storm in U.S. after at least 137 deaths in Haiti .\n4 to 6 inches of rain expected all along Atlantic Coast .","id":"1ee1d9882a23d4032ec6d9ade5a60f802977774c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lighthouse keeper J.A. Eckerman was the last person to see World War II Soviet submarine S-2 before it sank in January 1940 between Sweden and Finland. A team of Swedish and Finnish divers had been searching for the Soviet submarine S-2 since 1999. As the submarine dove near the island of Market, northwest of Aland, Eckerman heard a loud explosion and saw smoke rise from the water. The long-lost wreck was missing for 69 years until a team of Swedish and Finnish divers -- including Eckerman's grandson Ingvald -- discovered it this year. What remains of the sub was found between the Swedish coast and the Finnish island of Aland, northeast of Stockholm, in late February, the divers announced Tuesday. The submarine was very badly damaged by the explosion, said Marten Zetterstrom, one of the divers. The front gun is still there, and a torpedo is still in one of the tubes, but about 20 meters (about 65 feet) of the vessel is missing. The search had been going on for nearly 10 years, the divers said in a news release. The sub had a crew of 46 and four passengers when it sank. Sweden and Finland claim credit for sinking the submarine with mines. Russia has contacted Swedish and Finnish authorities to clarify what caused the submarine to sink, the divers said. Finland was at war with the Soviet Union at the time the sub sank. A deal between Germany and the Soviets had put the Nordic nation within the Soviet \"sphere of influence,\" and Soviet troops had invaded Finland late in 1939. The fighting was mostly confined to Finland's eastern border. Just two months after the submarine's sinking, a temporary peace agreement was reached. Sweden remained neutral in World War II. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lighthouse watchman last saw it 69 years ago before it sank near island of Market .\nThe Soviet submarine S-2 had a crew of 46 and four passengers when it sank .\nRemains found between Swedish coast and Finnish island of Aland in February .\nSweden and Finland claim credit for sinking the submarine with mines .","id":"c74ee8bc65d3b95ac5cdd2688d95108d923acddc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- London commuters crammed onto buses, scrambled for taxis, cycled or simply walked on Wednesday as a strike by Tube workers shut down most of the subway network. Commuters queue for packed buses in London on Wednesday morning. The strike began Tuesday at 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) but the first full effects were felt during Wednesday's morning commute. The strike was set to last for 48 hours with a normal service resuming Friday morning, according to Transport for London (TfL), which runs the city's transportation network. The RMT trade union called the strike after talks with management over pay, job cuts, and disciplinary issues broke down. \"RMT doesn't resort to industrial action lightly,\" General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement. \"The fact is that Tube workers have been driven into walking out today.\" Transport Commissioner Peter Hardy said the talks had been making progress on all issues and he urged the RMT to return to the table. \"The RMT leadership says we were close to a deal,\" Hardy said in a statement. \"If that is the case, then they should call off the strike, return to talks ... and resolve this issue without any more disruption to Londoners.\" TfL was running extra buses and free shuttle services across the River Thames during the strike. Electronic travel cards used for the TfL network were temporarily being allowed on all train lines in greater London, it said. While most services on the Tube were shut because of the strike, one line -- the Northern line -- was running normally and five others were running on a reduced schedule, TfL said. \"It's been really good,\" a girl on Oxford Street told CNN about her commute. \"The Northern line is running perfectly.\" Still, some bus services were packed with commuters who normally ride the underground trains or who failed to find a taxi. \"I think we'd all like to strike for more money, but unfortunately we can't,\" said one woman at Oxford Circus, where the Tube is closed. Others hit the pavement and walked. \"It's OK -- quite refreshing,\" said a man on Regent Street. He said he had just walked from Liverpool Street Station, a train station as well as a Tube stop that is more than 2.5 miles away. The RMT represents about half of the 20,000 employees on the Tube, a TfL spokeswoman said. Other unions including Unite and TSSA represent the rest, she said, and were not on strike.","highlights":"London transport system crippled as Tube workers go on strike .\nNormal service not due to resume until Friday morning .\nBuses crammed with commuters; many chose to cycle, walk to work .\nRMT trade union called strike in dispute over pay, job cuts, disciplinary issues .","id":"005acf7ab98656d8a9df9cc305cf0de84545b35a"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- A Pablo Picasso sketchbook with 33 pencil drawings disappeared from a locked glass case in a museum in Paris overnight, the French Ministry of Culture announced Tuesday. The sketchbook was discovered missing from the Picasso Museum in Paris overnight. The police were immediately alerted, as was a special unit that combats the trade in stolen cultural artifacts. The sketchbook has a red varnished cover with the word \"Album\" inscribed on it in gold lettering, and measures 16 centimeters by 24 centimeters (6 inches by 9 inches). Picasso used the sketchbook between 1917 and 1924 when he was in his late 30s and early 40s. The period was extraordinarily eventful for the artist, including collaborations and tours with the Ballets Russes, his marriage to Olga Khokhlova, a dancer from the company, and the birth of his son Paul. Picasso was shifting from the famous Cubist style he helped create to his neo-Classical phase during the years covered by the sketchbook, according a biography on his official Web site. CNN's Niki Cook contributed to this report .","highlights":"Sketchbook of Pablo Picasso drawings missing from Paris museum, officials say .\nSpecial unit that combats the trade in stolen cultural artifacts was notified .\nThe artist used the sketchbook between 1917 and 1924 .\nDescription: Red varnished cover with \"Album\" inscription, 6-by-9 inches .","id":"cc420f3c4c9b3d1385f1e8a3d4049a67a518d3eb"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- He was black and white, the perfect gift for the 6-year-old daughter of Donna and Ronald Gleason. His name was Tommy. The death and mutilation of Tommy the cat has been linked to a serial pet killer, say police in Miami, Florida. The black and white tuxedo cat was one of a dozen pets that have been killed and mutilated recently by someone in the Miami area, police said. On Thursday, the list of confirmed cat deaths and mutiliations grew to 19 pets, police said. They are looking into another 14 feline fatalities. The Gleasons do not want their daughter's name to be published. Donna Gleason asked the child to leave the room before telling CNN the gruesome details of what happened to their cat. \"Part of his skin was missing underneath ... and part of his legs,\" Gleason said. \"He was partially skinned.\" Miami-Dade County police say Tommy's demise is part of a string of sadistic feline fatalities that have occurred recently in the Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay areas of southern Miami-Dade County, south of Miami. Miami-Dade Police spokesman Bobby Williams said two of the cat carcasses were \"posed.\" He said that anyone capable of such cruelty toward and torture of an animal \"is disturbed at some sort of level.\" The crimes began May 13. A reward of up to $10,000 has been offered for any information leading to an arrest. Police have been inundated with dozens of phone calls from people who have discovered dead cats throughout the community. Investigators have determined that most of the cases are not related to the string of cat killings. The number grew from 12 to 15 to 19 in just the past two days. Ronald Gleason found Tommy lying in their yard May 25. At first, he thought his family's pet had been killed by a dog, but a closer look revealed the cruelty behind his death. Tommy was a gift for the Gleasons' little girl. She desperately wanted a cat, Donna Gleason said. She searched for a cat that could get along with their dog, but none of the shelter cats they brought home was compatible. \"We prayed that we would find a nice cat that liked our dog, and a few days later, he just showed up at our front door,\" Donna Gleason said. Tommy was adopting them. The Gleasons put signs up in the neighborhood, and when no one claimed him, they kept Tommy. \"It's disturbing to know that this happened right in front of your house, while you're sleeping inside,\" Donna Gleason said. \"I'm not terrified, but I'm not sleeping as well as I used to.\" Others in south Miami-Dade County are telling similar stories. A woman whose Siamese mix cat, Caesar, was killed and mutilated didn't want her name published. \"This person killed my cat. He doesn't need to know anything else about me,\" she said. \"I don't know if it's a gang initiation thing or a satanic ritual thing, but to do what he's doing, he has to be extremely sick.\" The month-long cat-killing spree has police concerned. \"We're telling people to be aware where their cats are at. Keep your pets inside,\" said Williams, the police spokesman. \"If anyone looks or acts suspicious, call police,\" he added. \"Have us come out there and check them out. This could be the missing link we're looking for.\" For the Gleasons and 11 other cat owners, it's too late. All they can do is break the news gently to a little girl who always wanted a kitty. \"She loved him and played with him every morning. ... She just misses him,\" Donna Gleason said. \"We told her that Tommy was killed by an animal,\" she said. Then she added, \"Well, an animal did kill him.\"","highlights":"Tommy the cat showed up one day on the Gleason family's doorstep .\nFlorida couple was looking for a pet for their 6-year-old daughter .\nTommy was found dead and mutilated in his family's yard south of Miami .\nPolice believe that he was one of 19 victims of a serial pet killer .","id":"96d37ce74ce6e6321e53a9f06d6840b9780706e6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- What are reigning world champions Italy, European champions Spain, and football giants Brazil doing taking on teams like New Zealand and Iraq this month? Robinho (left) and Ronaldinho (right) celebrate Brazil winning the Confederations Cup in 2005. It sounds like a complete mismatch, but the eight-team FIFA Confederations Cup which starts in South Africa on Sunday, will see these teams pitted against one another in what is a dress-rehearsal of sorts for next year's World Cup. Dubbed by FIFA, world football's governing body, the \"festival of champions\", the tournament involves primarily the winning teams from regional competitions in each of the world's six football federations -- Spain from Europe (UEFA), Brazil from South America (CONMEBOL), Iraq from Asia (AFC), U.S. from the Americas (CONCACAF), New Zealand from Oceania (OFC), and Egypt from Africa (CAF). These sides qualified for the tournament by winning their respective regional competitions, while South Africa gained automatic entry as the tournament hosts, and Italy as World Cup holders. The tournament format sees the eight teams split into two groups of four for a round-robin stage, before the top two teams from each group progress to knock-out semi-finals and then the final on June 28. In-form Spain head to the tournament as favorites, while a resurgent Brazil side and World Cup holders Italy also can't be discounted. Egypt could be the dark horses of the event -- but they do have a tough group with games against both Brazil and Italy. The scrap for second in Spain's pool could well be the other interesting storyline from the competition, as South Africa, Iraq and New Zealand fight it out for a place in the final four. \u2022 See profiles of the eight teams involved in the 2009 Confederations Cup. \u00bb . While the tournament doesn't carry with it the same prestige as a World Cup, it is essentially a trial run of the main event for the host nation, and for the lower-ranked countries involved it offers invaluable experience playing against the world's best. Ricky Herbert, coach of New Zealand's national team the \"All Whites\", told the NZ Soccer Web site the tournament is always hugely attractive to the South Pacific nation as it offers a great opportunity for the national team. Herbert's side narrowly lost 4-3 to World Cup holders Italy in a friendly on Wednesday, and he said the big-game experience is excellent. \"It's a fantastic opportunity. It may be mammoth gap between where they are and where we are but it gives a chance on that world stage to put a good foot forward, and I think we can.\" \"Whilst it'll be great for the players on the pitch to play the best players and the best teams in the world, football fans can switch that on and watch their own team play the likes of Fabio Cannavaro or Fernando Torres or whoever,\" Herbert said.","highlights":"The Confederations Cup tournament takes place in South Africa this month .\nEight teams are involved in the tournament including Spain, Italy and Brazil .\nEntry is limited to regional champions, the World Cup holders and the hosts .","id":"c20bb879664fb3d865ca77e3464cdd7e10d78152"} -{"article":"WATERLOO, Illinois (CNN) -- A southwestern Illinois man accused of strangling his wife and two young sons did not ask how his family was killed or see their bodies after he learned of the deaths, a police official said at a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Christopher Coleman has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. Christopher Coleman, 32, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Garett, 11, Gavin, 9, and his wife, Sheri Coleman, 31. The victims were strangled in their beds last month. A pathologist will testify during the trial that the time of deaths May 5 was between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., hours before Coleman said he drove to a gym, said Chief Joe Edwards of the Columbia Police Department. Coleman, a security supervisor, was arrested May 19. The chief also said that a handwriting expert has concluded that the profanity-laced messages scrawled in red spray paint throughout the house match Coleman's handwriting. Spray-painted messages were also found on Gavin's bed sheets, he said. Watch more on the profane messages \u00bb . Threatening letters left in the family's mailbox and an e-mail allegedly sent to Coleman before the killings were traced back to the suspect's laptop, he said. The letters had no envelopes and no postage, according to Edwards. Testifying at a hearing at the Monroe County Courthouse, the chief said that a police chaplain noticed an abrasion on Coleman's right arm as he was escorted to an ambulance after the bodies were discovered. Coleman then repeatedly punched the gurney with the arm, Edwards said, adding that when the suspect's father asked him about the abrasion, he said it was from punching the gurney. The suspect was having an affair with a friend of his wife who lives in Florida, according to prosecutors. Computer forensics found videos, photos and messages between the two, Edwards said. Coleman pleaded not guilty to all charges. The next court date is set for August 26.","highlights":"Police chief testifies at preliminary hearing for man accused of slayings .\nSheri Coleman, 2 sons killed in Columbia, Illinois, home .\nChristopher Coleman, husband and father, is accused in the deaths .\nGraffiti, threats against family tied to Coleman at hearing .","id":"6e8f2758b57f32e1d1b8d5855e1fcffd12d536de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert Thursday to its highest level, saying the H1N1 virus has spread to enough countries to be considered a global pandemic. Kindergarten students, some wearing masks, attend school in a residential estate in Hong Kong on Thursday. Increasing the alert to Phase 6 does not mean that the disease is deadlier or more dangerous than before, just that it has spread to more countries, the WHO said. \"This is an important and challenging day for all of us,\" WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a briefing with reporters. \"We are moving into the early days of the first flu pandemic of the 21st century.\" The last previous pandemic occurred in 1968. As of Thursday, the virus had spread to 74 countries, the health agency said. There were 28,774 confirmed cases and 144 deaths. The United States had 13,217 cases and 27 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said June 5 in its weekly update. Cases have been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. See where H1N1 flu cases are in the U.S. \u00bb . The U.S. death toll is expected be higher when the CDC releases its latest figures Friday, said Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. New England -- particularly Massachusetts -- and the New York and New Jersey areas have been hit the hardest, Schuchat said Thursday at a CDC news conference. The Phase 6 pandemic designation had been widely expected for weeks. \"Further spread is considered inevitable,\" Chan said at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. \"The scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.\" The announcement came after a meeting of the WHO's Emergency Committee, which has debated since April whether the spread of a novel H1N1 flu virus was fast and widespread enough to warrant a Phase 6 designation. Phase 6, Chan said, is meant as a signal to countries to recalibrate their strategies to minimize the harm from swine flu. In countries where the virus and the response to it are already widespread, it is not likely to mean significant changes, but Chan urged countries that have not seen cases, or seen only limited cases, to get ready. \"The virus is not stoppable,\" she said. \"I would advise them to maintain vigilance, enhance surveillance and be prepared for the arrival of the novel H1N1 in their country.\" The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security said those agencies have been acting for weeks as if Phase 6 were already in effect and no additional measures would be put into effect. The United States declared a public health emergency April 26. \"WHO continues to recommend no restriction on travel and on border closures,\" Chan said. Discussions about shifting to Phase 6 have been under way for weeks. Chan indicated that a major factor in the decision was surveillance from countries in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is under way. In Chile and Australia, two countries with many flu cases, she said H1N1 appears to be the dominant strain, \"crowding out\" the seasonal influenza virus. Chan said she would recommend that vaccine manufacturers proceed with mass production of an inoculation against the new swine flu strain as soon as they finish production of seasonal vaccine, which she estimated would be complete in about two weeks. HHS spokesman Bill Hall said Thursday that no decision has been made on full-scale production because there is no need yet to make that decision. It is a step-by-step process that is moving forward. \"We're doing as much as we can now,\" he said. The agency awarded a contract several weeks ago to five manufacturers to develop an H1N1 antigen. The companies are producing pilot lots. Clinical testing will take place over the summer, Hall said. At the end of the summer, HHS will decide whether to go into production. \"There's no specific date on the calendar,\" Hall said. If officials decide to produce a vaccine, the first doses would be ready early in the fall. Hall noted that even full-scale production doesn't mean there will be an immunization campaign. Federal officials may have a vaccine and decide not to use it, he said. Also Thursday, authorities in Hong Kong ordered the closure of all elementary schools, kindergartens and day care centers in the city after 12 students were found to be infected with the virus. Authorities have not determined the source of the infection, said Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang. This makes it the first cluster of swine flu cases in the city without a link to someone who had traveled overseas. The schools and day care centers were told to close for 14 days as investigators tried to identify the source of the infection, said Tsang, the chief executive. The health department will decide after two weeks whether to continue the shutdown. Also on Thursday, Israel's health ministry announced that the number of people diagnosed with swine flu there was 68. Health officials use the virus' clinical name -- H1N1 -- to reflect that it's actually a combination of several different types of flu and to reduce confusion about whether eating pork can spread the virus. It cannot. CNN's David S. Martin, Roya Shadravan in Hong Kong, and Michal Zippori in Jerusalem contributed to this report.","highlights":"Further spread of swine flu inevitable, World Health Organization says .\nWHO calls H1N1 a global pandemic, raises alert to highest level .\nU.N. agency says that doesn't mean disease is worse, but that it's in more countries .\nHong Kong orders closure of all elementary schools, kindergartens, day care centers .","id":"bf5e508390bd7fe58e2a53f1baf28a11440d4f85"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil's highest court said Wednesday it does not have jurisdiction over who should have custody of a U.S.-born 9-year-old boy -- his Brazilian stepfather or his father in the United States. David Goldman is seeking custody of his son, Sean, who is living with relatives of his deceased mother in Brazil. The high court's ruling sends the ongoing case back to an appeals court in Rio de Janeiro. In the unanimous vote, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court said it could not rule over The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, of which Brazil is a signatory. Brazil is undergoing constitutional reforms and has recently voted on a law that would make all international human rights conventions part of its constitution. Last week, Judge Marco Aurelio, who sits on the Supreme Federal Court, suspended a lower court ruling that custody of Sean Richard Goldman be turned over to the U.S. consulate, which was to have then handed him over to the boy's father, David Goldman, who is a U.S. citizen. Aurelio's decision was based on a conservative party's petition that said the boy's removal from Brazil would cause him psychological harm. But the father responded that his son was suffering psychological harm simply by remaining with his Brazilian relatives, whom Goldman -- a part-time model who captains boats -- accused of turning Sean against him. The case now goes to the Federal Appeals Court in Rio de Janeiro and does not mean the boy will return to his father without further rulings. Goldman said that he and his lawyers would have to study the high court decision, but he expressed optimism about what he had learned. \"There seemed to be a lot of good remarks that they want to honor the Hague Convention; they believe in the Hague Convention and they want to return children. Hopefully, they sent that message to the lower federal courts, and they'll hear that message.\" Watch CNN's Campbell Brown talk with Goldman before latest ruling \u00bb . He said, \"It's not over.\" The incident began in June 2004, when Goldman's then-wife, Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro, took Sean from the family's New Jersey home for what was to have been a two-week vacation in her native Brazil. But instead of returning, she divorced Goldman, married a Brazilian lawyer, and remained in Brazil with the boy. She died there last September giving birth to a daughter. In Rio, Sean attends a private school and lives in a sprawling home with his half-sister and his stepfather. In March, a spokesman for the boy's Brazilian relatives said he did not dispute the father's biological rights, but said other matters needed to be weighed. \"The fact of the matter is that, in order to be a parent, you have to be more than a DNA donor,\" said Helvecio Ribeiro. \"Fatherhood is not about making home movies and taking pictures. It's about sacrifice; it's about providing support for your child; it's about being there even when you are not there.\" He said Goldman had failed to do that and accused him of having \"paid not a dime of child support\" and made allegations \"all over the place about us not allowing him to visit the child that are completely untrue.\" Goldman responded, \"Can you take someone's child to another country and then expect the parent to support you in the abduction of the child?\" He said he had been making tireless efforts since his son was \"abducted\" to have him repatriated, \"never, ever stopping.\" The case has attracted attention from politicians. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has discussed the matter with Brazil's foreign minister. According to the U.S. State Department, some 66 American-born children have been taken by a parent to Brazil, in violation of international treaties. Journalist Helena DeMoura contributed to this story.","highlights":"Brazil's highest court says it doesn't have jurisdiction in custody case of U.S.-born boy .\nDavid Goldman expresses new hope: \"There seemed to be a lot of good remarks\"\nGoldman's wife took son Sean to Brazil in 2004; she filed for divorce, later died .\nCustody case has attracted attention of U.S. politicians, including Hillary Clinton .","id":"580f96fed0f4b488b8e100ddb1190b8b36fc2873"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three of five Americans contractors detained in Baghdad have been ordered released by an Iraqi judge, because of insufficient evidence, a court spokesman said Thursday. In a CNN exclusive, video shows U.S. contractors taken into custody by Iraqi authorities. The other two other contractors remain in custody, according to Judge Abdul Sattar al-Beeraqdar, a spokesman for Iraq's Higher Judicial Council. One of the men has been released on bond, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed Thursday. The embassy did not identify the man, who was released Wednesday. However, a spokesman for his employer, Corporate Training Unlimited, said it was Donald Feeney. Judy Feeney, Donald's wife, also confirmed his release. The contracting company said the release of the others has been delayed because of a procedural issue. Judy Feeney said her son, Donald Feeney III, and Mark Bridges were to be released Thursday morning, but it may take more time to release the other two, Jason Jones and Micah Milligan. But al-Beeraqdar said, without naming names, that two contractors were being held on charges involving \"illegal substances\" found on the men when they were taken into custody. Those who have been released are not allowed to leave the country because of an ongoing investigation and the judge may want to question them again, according to al-Beeraqdar. Except for Jones, the detained contractors work for the Fayetteville, North Carolina-based CTU, a security firm headed by the elder Feeney. An Iraqi judge decided earlier on Wednesday that charges against the five contractors were not warranted and that they could be released, according to an Iraqi security source and a source close to the five. The sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, in which the contractors have been detained since last week for reasons that remain unclear. The contractors initially had been told they were being held in connection with the May death of another contractor, James Kitterman, said the source close to the five. But on Monday, according to a judicial source, the men were told they were being held on suspicion of having unregistered weapons. Still, they were asked about their activities around the time Kitterman was killed, and Iraqi government officials told CNN Monday the five were detained as suspects in connection with Kitterman's slaying. Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed in a car in Baghdad's Green Zone on May 22. The 60-year-old Houston, Texas, resident owned a construction company that operated in Iraq. The Green Zone is the high-security area in central Baghdad that contains the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government buildings. Access to the area, formally known as the International Zone, is tightly controlled. The five contractors were taken into custody on June 3 in a pre-dawn Green Zone raid by Iraqi and U.S. personnel, the security source told CNN on Sunday. During the raid, troops also confiscated weapons, the Iraqi security source said. Three of the contractors were suspected of being directly involved in Kitterman's death, the Iraqi source said. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the search was an Iraqi operation, but FBI representatives were present at the request of Iraqi authorities. The five were transferred to a prison within the Green Zone on Friday. \"After this murder inside the Green Zone, a joint investigation committee from U.S. and Iraq sides has been formed to investigate this incident,\" Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf told CNN, \"and this committee managed to collect a number of indications that those five are linked to this murder.\" Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said the men were detained based on information linking them to the Kitterman slaying. Under Iraqi law, after a person is detained, an investigative judge questions the accused and assesses the evidence. The judge then decides whether there is sufficient evidence, and either refers the case to trial or dismisses it. The Iraqi source said the five had been held in a separate holding area and not with other Iraqi detainees, but spent time in a courtyard with other Iraqi detainees. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said consular officials had visited with them and \"they appeared well.\" The source close to the suspects said Sunday that each of the five men insisted they had alibis that will clear them and they were eager to tell their stories to a judge. The Feeneys had known Kitterman for six years from their time in the Green Zone and \"respected him,\" Corporate Training Unlimited spokeswoman Sarah Smith told CNN. CNN's Alan Duke in Los Angeles and Jomana Karadsheh in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge orders three of five U.S. contractors held in Iraq to be freed .\nTwo others remain in custody on charges involving \"illegal substances\"\nContractor already released on bond; wife, employer identify him as Donald Feeney .\nMen detained in connection with slaying of another U.S. contractor, sources say .","id":"9a888602b845b05ef64e6a28dfa407fb9f8651ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chastity Bono, gay-rights activist and child of performer Cher and the late entertainer and politician Sonny Bono, is in the early stages of transitioning from a female to a male and will be known as Chaz, his spokesman said Thursday. Activist Chastity Bono is transitioning from female to male and will be known as Chaz. \"Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity,\" Howard Bragman said in a written statement. \"He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his 'coming out' did nearly 20 years ago.\" Someone's decision to transition does not necessarily mean they are undergoing gender reassignment surgery, and in many cases they do not, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality. \"The whole media fixation on surgery is kind of misplaced,\" she said. \"Almost no transgender people ever have surgery. We don't have any idea how many do.\" iReport.com: Do you have a transgender story? An estimated one-quarter to one-half percent of the American population is transsexual, however, Keisling said. \"It's sort of a general term that encompasses both or either a social transition or a medical transition.\" Keisling said she was unaware of the specifics in Bono's case, but speaking generally, a transition means that he will now want to be \"known, seen, viewed\" as a male. \"The actual details depend on his needs and wants and his doctor's needs and wants,\" she said. Bragman asked that the media \"respect Chaz's privacy during this long process, as he will not be doing any interviews at this time.\" Now 40, Bono as a little girl made regular appearances on her parents' show, \"The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.\" As an adult, he has been a longtime gay-rights advocate and been closely associated with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. See more photos from Chastity Bono's life \u00bb . Bono's father, Sonny Bono, was a U.S. representative from California when he was killed in a skiing accident in January 1998.","highlights":"Chastity Bono transitioning to male, will be known as Chaz .\nBono is longtime gay-rights activist .\n\"Transitioning\" is either social or medical transition, how person wants to be viewed .","id":"5f73a2930245edaff1faa363b011355f3c7264b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barack Obama is a married man but there's another woman with a hold on him that his wife can never match: she runs the House. Nancy Pelosi has been an easy target for Republican ire. She is Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, the most powerful woman in Washington and lately, a target for Republicans. Pelosi is easy to spot in any crowd of U.S. politicians; she's the small brown-haired woman in the smartly tailored suit. Conservatives like to stereotype some Democrats as rich, isolated and out-of-touch. As the wife of an affluent investment banker, the always expertly coiffed Pelosi looks like exactly the kind of \"Limousine Liberal\" they're talking about. Ironically, it's money that makes her powerful. Under the U.S. constitution, the president can't spend a penny without the permission of Congress. Within the Congress, the Senate has its own powers but the House is the place where taxes and spending start. So almost every one of Obama's plans needs a push from Pelosi. Maybe that's part of the reason she's in trouble right now. The issue isn't really part of her daily duties: \"waterboarding\" and other extreme interrogation tactics used against prisoners in the Bush era. Obama ordered an end to the harsh methods, but Republicans are asking why Democrats who knew about them years ago didn't try to stop them then. Pelosi was one of a handful of lawmakers who was briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, but she now accuses the agency of lying to her and hiding what it was doing. Republicans have been attacking Pelosi for making unsubstantiated and damaging accusations against a crucial national security agency. The man who once had her job, former Republican speaker Newt Gingrich, says Pelosi is lying in a way that is \"despicable, dishonest and vicious.\" Whether or not he's right, it's smart politics. Obama is still remarkably popular. Most of the country hopes that he'll succeed in rebuilding the economy and ending the war in Iraq. If the president is immune to most easy attacks from the opposition, it needs to find someone who isn't. Pelosi is a crucial part of his plans. As potential targets go, with her nearly perfect hair and nearly perfect clothes, Pelosi is nearly perfect.","highlights":"Nancy Pelosi, speaker in House, is most powerful woman in Washington .\nU.S. President Obama needs Pelosi to ensure his plans get House approval .\nPelosi under attack over Democrats' failure to challenge CIA over waterboarding .\nTactic is smart move by Republicans as Pelosi an easier target than Obama .","id":"7d8e9d1271250dcb3e1981d0655f4141ac30d763"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a new anti-Israel, anti-U.S. video, an American al Qaeda member makes reference to his Jewish ancestry for the first time in an official al Qaeda message. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, is seen in an earlier al Qaeda video. In the video, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza that started in late December 2008 and continued into January. \"Let me here tell you something about myself and my biography, in which there is a benefit and a lesson,\" Gadahn says, as he elicits support from his fellow Muslims for \"our weapons, funds and Jihad against the Jews and their allies everywhere.\" \"Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather,\" he says. Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan and has appeared in al Qaeda videos before. He was indicted in the United States in 2006 on charges of treason and material support to al Qaeda, according to the FBI. Gadahn is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, with a reward of up to $1 million leading to his capture. FBI records show Gadahn's date of birth as September 1, 1978. The video -- in which Gadahn speaks Arabic, with English subtitles -- surfaced on Saturday. This account is based on an English transcript provided by As-Sahab Media, the media production company used by al Qaeda. Gadahn's Jewish ancestry has been reported in the news media. But terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield says it is the first time Gadahn acknowledged his Jewish ancestry in an official al Qaeda message. Gadahn says his grandfather was a \"Zionist\" and \"a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations.\" \"He used to repeat to me what he claimed are the virtues of this entity and encouraged me to visit it, specifically the city of Tel Aviv, where relatives of ours live,\" says Gadahn, referring to Israel. He says his grandfather gave him a book by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called \"A Place Among the Nations\" -- in which the \"rabid Zionist\" sets out \"feeble arguments and unmasked lies to justify the Jews' rape of Muslim Palestine.\" But Gadahn says that despite his youth at the time, he didn't heed his grandfather's words. \"How can a person with an ounce of self-respect possibly stand in the ranks of criminals and killers who have no morals, no mercy, no humanity and indeed, no honor?\" he says in reference to Zionists and Israel. \"Isn't it shameful enough for a person to carry the citizenship of America, the symbol of oppression and tyranny and advocate of terror in the world?\" Mansfield thinks the video may have been made between late April and mid-May, before President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt, addressing U.S. relations with Muslims. Gadahn notes Obama's inauguration, Netanyahu's election in February, and Obama's speech in Turkey in April. Specifically mentioning the Gaza offensive and citing other hot spots such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Somalia, where the \"Zio-Crusader alliance\" is fighting his \"brothers,\" he says \"this open-faced aggression\" comes as Obama has risen to power. He scorns Obama's statements in his inaugural address and in Turkey that America isn't and won't be at war with Islam, and \"other deceptive, false and sugarcoated words of endearment and respect.\" He says Obama's language is similar to words Netanyahu uttered in the Knesset in 1996. Gadahn also backs the idea of targeting \"Zio-Crusader\" interests anywhere in the world, not just \"within Palestine.\"","highlights":"Californian convert to Islam castigates U.S., Israel in al Qaeda video .\nAdam Yahiye Gadahn says grandfather was a member of \"Zionist hate organizations\"\nGadahn criticizes Obama's \"deceptive, false and sugarcoated words\"\nSpeaker refers to his American citizenship as \"shameful\"","id":"bf488a8f1fbd295aa9a482af9a880e800642cc95"} -{"article":"(Coastal Living) -- Visitors love driving Oregon's coast, but it's a shame not to get out and hike the stunning landscape, too. Here are several trails to get you started. Explore forested headlands, tour tide pools or stroll the beach barefoot on some of the Pacific Northwest's best coastal trails. Ecola State Park area, near Cannon Beach . Novice explorers can trek along the Pacific on Clatsop Loop Trail, a two-mile historical interpretive route in Ecola State Park that leads travelers in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. More seasoned hikers might want to drive the extra miles to Tillamook State Forest for the Kings Mountain Trail, known for panoramic views and wildflower meadows. But be warned: Hikers must endure a 2,546-foot elevation gain in two and a half miles to enjoy the stunning mountain scenes. Devil's Punch Bowl, near Depoe Bay . Formed by the collapsed roof of two sea caves, this \"punch bowl\" features dramatic water displays that are definitely worth the hike. An easy walk down Beverly Beach and a cliff-climbing staircase leads to the nature-carved basin. Spend the day exploring extensive tide pools, then amble back over to the bowl to witness the wildly churning waves that accompany high tide. The area also promises whale watching and birding. Seaside accommodations are within walking distance at The Inn at Otter Crest. Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and environs, near North Bend . Wind-sculpted dunes, a sparkling blue freshwater lake, and a historic lighthouse all await visitors here. Set aside a day for roaming the path at William M. Tugman State Park, which circles Eel Lake and its many inlets, and expect a few wildlife encounters along the way. The nearby Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area contains the largest coastal sand piles in North America and offers an array of arduous hiking opportunities. Travelers looking for a more laid-back excursion, however, can make their way to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park for relaxing walks and a glimpse of the 65-foot tower known for its distinctive red-and-white flash. CoastalLiving.com: Oregon's Perpetual Appeal . Columbia River Bar and Fort Stevens State Park, near Astoria . The Columbia River Bar has always been a navigational nightmare for sailors, and a hike beside the \"Graveyard of the Pacific\" will show you why. Pass by the shipwrecked remains of Peter Iredale, one of 2,000 ships that have sunk in this area, on your way to the viewing platform overlooking the jetty. For another slice of history, take a walking tour of Fort Stevens, or enjoy a scenic two-mile jaunt around the fort's Coffenbury Lake. Humbug Mountain State Park, near Port Orford . Rising 1,756 feet over the Pacific, the forested peak of Humbug Mountain provides visitors with switchback trails and magnificent coastal vistas. Family-friendly paths, such as the paved Old Highway 101 Trail, wind through old-growth Douglas fir, Oregon myrtle, and Western red cedar and yield striking seaside views. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright \u00a9 Coastal Living, 2009 .","highlights":"Devil's Punch Bowl, near Depoe Bay, features dramatic water displays .\nEnjoy a scenic two-mile jaunt around Fort Stevens' Coffenbury Lake .\nHumbug Mountain, near Port Oxford, rises 1,756 feet over the Pacific .","id":"fee626dc3feb6abc0fef5facc5cb24c7f54f2357"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Expressing hope that the future of Tibet and China will move beyond mistrust, the Dalai Lama accepted the Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush Wednesday during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. \"I am deeply touched that this great honor has been given to me, a Buddhist monk born of a simple family,\" he said. Earlier, China slammed the United States for bestowing the nation's highest civilian honor on the Dalai Lama, calling the ceremony an affront to the budding relations between the countries. But the Dalai Lama repeated his stance that he's seeking a \"meaningful autonomy\" for the Tibetan people, not independence from China. \"Despite all this, Beijing continues to allege that my hidden agenda is a separation and restoration [of] Tibet's old social political system. Such a notion is unfounded and untrue,\" he said. \"Much of the world is waiting to see how China's concepts of harmonious society and peaceful rights would unfold.\" Though Bush said the ceremony was not meant to antagonize the Chinese, he made repeated references to religious oppression. \"Americans cannot look to the plight of the religiously oppressed and close our eyes or turn away,\" Bush said. Calling the Dalai Lama a \"universal symbol of peace and tolerance, a shepherd to the faithful and a keeper of the flame for his people,\" Bush presented the medallion to the Dalai Lama. Watch actor Richard Gere explain the importance of the ceremony \u00bb . The spiritual leader grinned broadly, pulling the award from its case and showing it to the lawmakers with whom he shared the stage. Democratic and Republican leaders praised the Dalai Lama's record of promoting peace and urged China to allow the return of the exiled leader. Bush also lauded the spiritual leader who as a boy kept a model of the Statue of Liberty by his bedside. The president met privately Tuesday with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th dalai lama, in the White House. Before the Wednesday honor, Bush said he was attending the ceremony because he admires the Dalai Lama, the two of them both support religious freedom and because \"I like going to the gold medal ceremonies.\" He further said fostering religious freedom was in China's best interests and that Beijing should meet with the Dalai Lama. \"If they were to sit down with the Dalai Lama, they would find him to be a man of peace and reconciliation,\" Bush said. China saw the ceremony as a political statement and believes the honor represents U.S. acquiescence to the Dalai Lama's calls for Tibetan autonomy. Tibet, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, is \"an inalienable part of China\" and Chinese-Tibetan affairs are strictly a matter of Chinese domestic policy. \"U.S. leaders meeting the Dalai [Lama] seriously violate the basic principles of international relations,\" Liu said. The Dalai Lama laughed off Chinese criticism of his visit, saying Tuesday in Washington, \"That always happens.\" The Congressional Gold Medal -- one of four honors Congress is doling out Wednesday -- is presented \"both for singular acts of exceptional service and for lifetime achievement.\" Past recipients include Mother Teresa, former South African President Nelson Mandela, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson. White House spokesman Dana Perino said Bush considered the Dalai Lama \"a great spiritual leader.\" Bush, who has met with the Dalai Lama four times, told Chinese President Hu Jintao at a summit in Australia last month that he would be attending Wednesday's ceremony, Perino said. She quickly dismissed the notion that the president was trying to make a statement by attending the ceremony. The White House is generally measured in its criticism of China as it seeks to manage a booming trade relationship and a desire to enlist Chinese cooperation on nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran. Beijing has claimed to be the legitimate and rightful government of Tibet since 1951, the year after China invaded the then-independent state. Some say the claim doesn't jibe with international law. Allegations abound that China has stifled Tibetans' religious and other fundamental freedoms, sometimes violently. The Dalai Lama has led a government in exile from neighboring India for decades. In 1959, the then-24-year-old Buddhist leader fled Tibet during a failed uprising against the Chinese. Perino said she did not think the meeting -- which the administration had worked to downplay -- would seriously affect U.S.-China relations. Added Bush on Wednesday, \"I don't think it ever damages relations when an American president talks about that religious tolerance and religious freedom is good for a nation. I do this every time I meet with [Chinese leaders].\" The promise of good intentions did not seem to assuage the Chinese government, who labeled the Dalai Lama's work \"separatist activities.\" \"The words and deeds of the Dalai Lama in the past decades show he is a political refugee engaging in secessionist activities under the cloak of religion,\" the Foreign Ministry's Liu said. Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party secretary of Tibet, had even harsher words for the Tibetan spiritual leader. \"He is a person who has tried to split the motherland, who lacks love for his home country,\" Zhang told reporters in Beijing. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has said he advocates autonomy for Tibet and is not calling for it to be a separate country. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jaime FlorCruz and Lesa Jansen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Dalai Lama: China's allegation of a hidden agenda is unfounded, untrue .\nPresident Bush encourages China to sit down with \"man of peace\"\nWhite House says it isn't \"poking a stick\" in China's eye with Dalai Lama honor .\nChina: U.S. leaders \"violate the basic principles of international relations\"","id":"b7be265c6b29cea3276f46a2e02f41daa7577de0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anita Dunham's first heart attack started with a mysterious pain in her arm -- and, suddenly, the 34-year-old felt as if she couldn't breathe. After she got dressed, she could barely speak because the pain was so great in her arms and chest. Jolen Johnson took this photo of co-workers wearing red Friday in Cedar Park, Texas. Dunham, who had a second heart attack in 2002, wore red Friday to spread awareness about heart disease. Now 64 years old, she said she wants women everywhere to know that heart disease, the No. 1 killer for women, can affect women in all walks of life. She and others shared their stories with CNN's iReport.com. Read more about Dunham . The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, promoted the red clothing day to spread the message that \"Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear -- It's the #1 Killer of Women,\" according to its Web site. Others who wore red have family members who succumbed to heart disease. Robin Savage, 42, of San Juan Capistrano, California, said her grandfather, father and mother all had heart disease. Besides wearing red herself, she goes to heart events and takes pictures of them for a local Web site. See more from iReporters on National Wear Red Day \u00bb . Savage has to take beta blockers because her heart sometimes races when she eats certain things, particularly foods containing the preservative MSG. She watches her diet closely and exercises 30 minutes a day to keep herself healthy. iReport.com: Heart Disease runs in my family . For her sons, 9 and 12, she monitors their diet closely, but fears that she will die while they are young. \"It's such a huge void in your life, especially when you have your own kids and you don't have your mom around to, say, ask questions,\" she said. \"I was completely lost when I had kids.\" Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection to better living . Peggy Roesch, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Cincinnati, Ohio, said her grandfather had a heart attack five years ago. She was recently inspired by her mother, who runs marathons, to start running more herself. iReport.com: Seeing red . Eileen Velez from West Palm Beach, Florida, has been organizing her co-workers to wear red to show heart awareness every year since 2007. \"If everyone is wearing red at the same time, somebody is going to notice,\" she said. iReport.com: Kimley-Horn and Associates . Despite the nationwide movement, Dunham said she hadn't noticed anyone else in her town of Earlimart, California, wearing red on Friday. Her message to others at risk for heart disease is to watch their weight. \"I tell [my daughter] every day, 'You know you need to start watching your diet or you're going to be in the hospital with a heart attack,'\" she said. CNN's Cristina Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NIH promotes National Wear Red Day on February 6 .\nThe event is intended to spread awareness of heart disease, especially for women .\niReport.com: Share your National Wear Red Day experience .","id":"16d038ba7bd35d42e308cf41890deca93f1d8b37"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday stressed the need for a two-state solution in the quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace, a position out of step with the current Israeli government. U.S. envoy George Mitchell says Israel and the United States will remain close allies. It was one of several key issues both sides must emphasize if they are to take advantage of the current \"historic period\" and achieve peace, Peres told visiting U.S. envoy George Mitchell. \"Nobody knows whether it will recur and nobody will forgive himself if we miss the opportunity to make peace,\" Peres said, according to a release from his office. In their meeting, Mitchell said U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking a prompt resumption of the stalled Mideast peace talks and played down tensions that have arisen between the U.S. and Israel in recent days -- particularly over Israel's recent settlement expansion. \"Israelis and Palestinians have a responsibility to meet their obligations under the road map,\" Mitchell said. \"And we all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations.\" The 2003 road map is a peace plan that calls for an independent Palestinian state with a secure border with Israel, and the implementation of a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office in March, has stated his opposition to an independent Palestinian state, and his opposition has cast doubt on the future of the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process. Peres was elected president during the term of Netanyahu's predecessor, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who supported a two-state solution to achieve peace. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts as foreign minister to secure peace, along with Israeli President Yitzak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But in his discussions with Mitchell, the 85-year-old president stood firm on Israel's current settlement policy, despite the road map's provision for Israel to halt building settlements in occupied territories. \"There is agreement in Israel regarding the evacuation of illegal outposts and not to build new settlements,\" Peres told Mitchell. \"However, the issue of natural growth in the settlement blocs must continue to be discussed intensively in order to reach agreement.\" In recent days, the Obama administration has repeatedly called on Israel to stop construction of settlements. In a speech to the Muslim world Thursday in Egypt, Obama said his country \"does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.\" So far, Netanyahu has refused U.S. calls to stop them, and said he will deliver a major speech Sunday in which he will lay out his plan for the country's peace and security. \"Let me be clear. These are not disagreements among adversaries,\" said Mitchell, who was dispatched to the region to try and kick-start the negotiating process. \"The United States and Israel are and will remain close allies and friends.\" Peres, too, tried to calm the diplomatic waters. \"I think (Obama's) address was extremely sensitive, touching, concerning all sides without trying to play one against the other, paying compliments when it was justified, criticizing when it was necessary in the most honest way,\" he said after last week's speech. Watch a review of Obama's visit to the Mideast, Europe \u00bb . He told Mitchell that the Obama administration's focus on \"a single issue ill-serves the wider diplomatic process which is supposed to set the agenda for Israel and its neighbors.\" Mitchell also met Tuesday with Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and is expected to meet with Netanyahu, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Meanwhile, the State Department announced that Mitchell will spend two days in Syria this weekend as part of the Obama administration's vision for comprehensive peace in the region. Before heading to Damascus, Mitchell plans to visit Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington. \"This is a very high priority,\" Kelly said. U.S.-Syrian ties have been strained in recent years over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the ongoing political struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian factions in Lebanon. The United States has not had an ambassador in Damascus since 2005. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Israeli President Shimon Peres says this is an \"opportunity to make peace\"\nPeres meets with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who urges resumption of peace talks .\nIsraeli prime minister to give major speech Sunday on his plan for peace, security .\nNEW: Mitchell will travel to Syria this weekend, State Department announces .","id":"b31aaf23e9f419f07932dd0569dee5ecddeb447c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thanks to dedicated people like Bob and Katherine Rude, many homeless animals in Maryland will have a warm home this winter. Bob and Katherine Rude run an animal shelter out of their home in Harwood, Maryland. The Maryland couple currently cares for 116 cats and six dogs at Rude Ranch Animal Rescue, which they run out of their home in Harwood. \"We take in a lot of abused and neglected animals; animals that for whatever reason find themselves down on their luck,\" Katherine said. It all started a decade ago when the couple found a group of cats in an alley behind a restaurant. They began working with other organizations to help place the cats, but quickly realized that they could do more. See how 100 cats live in one house \u00bb . \"The more we got involved, and the more we found out about the world of animal rescue, the more we found out there was a lot more need. ...We felt we could fill a void,\" Katherine said. A few years later, they bought a ranch house in Harwood and converted it into a shelter. Eventually, Bob and Katherine left their government jobs to work at the shelter full time. They now work seven days a week, morning through night, caring for their cats and dogs. \"Now we're doing adoptions, we're doing search and rescue, we're helping people out with spay and neuters, and we're helping out other animal controls with animals that they can't place, but think deserve a shot at a life,\" Katherine said. The Rudes originally planned on keeping the shelter on one floor, and living in the rest of the house. But they quickly found that many of the cats required full-time care, so they expanded the shelter throughout their home. \"We still have a bedroom that's sort of ours, but we share it with a bunch of special-needs animals. We have anywhere from two or three dogs and 10 to 12 cats that share a bed with us,\" Bob says. The extra space has allowed the Rudes to take in cats that most shelters cannot. Cats that require special attention or medical care -- those that have been abused or are suffering from feline immunodeficiency virus, for example -- all have a place at the ranch. Katherine says this was one reason they started their own shelter. \"It was for ... the ones that maybe don't have an alternative, don't have somewhere else to go. We figured they had as much of a chance at a life as someone else,\" she said. Working with the animals is incredibly rewarding, Bob says, but expanding the shelter has also increased the number of mouths to feed. \"For the evening meal, we go through about 25 cans of cat food. For the whole day, we go through about 40-50. ...We go through about 100 pounds of dry food a week for the cats, [and] 10,000 pounds of cat litter a year,\" Bob said. Even buying in bulk hasn't helped the Rudes escape the financial woes that have begun to plague most business owners. Katherine says that so far, they have been able to support themselves but are concerned about rising costs and falling donations. At the same time, demand for the Rudes' help is increasing. Higher costs of food and supplies, as well as the foreclosure crisis, have affected people's ability to care for their pets, Katherine says. \"[Pet] adoptions have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth right now, but people are calling more and more to turn animals in,\" Bob said. And as more people turn to them to care for their pets, the Rudes have no plans to change their tune. Since 1997, they have helped rescue or place more than 3,000 cats. Katherine estimates that they have helped make 2,500 to 2,700 adoptions to families or individuals. \"They're getting a home, they're going to have individual people doting on them, and that's what we want for all of the residents here,\" Katherine says.","highlights":"Maryland couple operates Rude Ranch Animal Rescue out of their home .\nBob and Katherine Rude currently care for 116 cats and six dogs .\nThe pair is concerned about rising costs, falling donations and more pets in need .","id":"279b672dfdfb81af6ae32cc05ae4aefac98da1b7"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A woman who survived last week's Spanair airline crash in Madrid left the hospital Tuesday, saying she was \"born again\" by the disaster. Beatriz Reyes has been released from hospital after surviving the plane crash which killed 154 people. Beatriz Reyes, 41, has been credited with saving two of the three children who survived the crash which killed 154 people. She is the second survivor to be sent home, while 16 others remained hospitalized Tuesday. The first to leave the hospital was a 6-year-old boy, apparently one of the children Reyes helped in the moments after the Spanair MD-82 airliner crashed on takeoff from Madrid's Bajaras airport Wednesday. \"I saw some kids and I got them out,\" Reyes said. \"I think anyone would have done it.\" All 18 who survived were seated in the front section of the plane, the only part not to catch fire. Reyes was in seat 5-D. She said she remained conscious throughout the crash. \"I felt a strong blow and then my stomach went up and down,\" she said. \"That's when I knew there was an accident.\" She said it was ironic that she was treated in the maternity ward at Hospital Infanta Sofia in the Madrid suburb of San Sebastian de los Reyes. \"On the 20th of August, I have been born again,\" she said. She was returning home from a vacation in Germany when she boarded the flight to the city of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Reyes said she will continue to fly, a necessity for her job as a bank executive in the Canary Islands. Going home to the Canary Islands, she said, will be hard since the bodies of many of the dead will be arriving there with her. Initially, there were indications an engine might have caught fire as the plane was taking off, but a source familiar with the investigation said that an airport video showed the plane lifting off, veering sharply right, and then dragging or skidding down the right side of the runway. There is a cloud of dust, the source said, followed by a fireball. The crash remains under investigation. CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman who survived Spanair crash in Madrid says she has been \"born again\"\nBeatriz Reyes, 41, saved two of the three children who survived the crash .\nReyes remained conscious throughout the crash which killed 154 people .","id":"9c1eeebb8d152ba684c729b5485285b8651637c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Second seed Andy Roddick is forced to retire with an ankle injury during the first set of his Queen's Club semifinal against fellow-American James Blake, meaning he misses out on a final showdown against British top seed Andy Murray. Andy Roddick feels his ankle injury before retiring from his semifinal against fellow-American James Blake. Roddick, who was bidding for a record fifth title at the London grass-court tournament, injured his right ankle when he slipped at the back of the court in the fourth game of the first set. He eventually called for treatment three games later and resumed only after having his ankle and foot heavily bandaged. However, Roddick was clearly still in some discomfort as he served in the next game and decided to take the safety-first option with Wimbledon starting in just nine days. \"I'm going to do everything I can to play at Wimbledon,\" Roddick told Press Association Sport. \"We're scheduled to get it looked at again on Monday and do some scans on it, then we'll see where we're at. \"Initial tests have shown the stability and strength is OK. We're looking at days, not weeks. My trainer and doctors don't think anything is torn.\" Blake, beaten in the 2006 Queen's final by Lleyton Hewitt, admitted he did not take much pleasure from this victory. Speaking after the match, Blake said: \"It was unfortunate but Andy is such a great player and he doesn't want to endanger the injury anymore. He normally moves so well and you could tell this wasn't the same Andy Roddick.\" Meanwhile, Murray swept into his first-ever Queen's final with a ruthless 6-2 6-4 win over unseeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero. Murray is bidding to become the first Briton to win the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event since Bunny Austin in 1938. The world number three has not dropped a set in four matches and, in reaching his fifth ATP Tour final this year, he also becomes the first British finalist here since Tim Henman in 2002. \"I felt it was a good match. I started well but the second set was very close,\" Murray said in a courtside interview after the match. \"I'm obviously happy to win in two sets. I was very happy with the way I played all round. \"I didn't have the easiest draw so it's been a good week all around and hopefully I can finish it off on Sunday,\" added the Scot. In the other men's grass-court tournament being played, second seed Novak Djokovic is through to the final in Halle after a 7-6 6-4 victory over Belgian Olivier Rochus. The Serb will now face unseeded German Tommy Haas, who defeated compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6 7-6 7-6 in an epic encounter. Meanwhile, in women's action, Maria Sharapova crashed out in the semifinals of the Birmingham grass-court event, beaten in straight sets by China's Li Na. Russian Sharapova had been bidding for a third victory in the tournament, after winning in both 2004 and 2005, but went out 6-4 6-4 in a match lasting 90 minutes. Fourth seed Li, the highest-ranked player left in the competition, will face Magdalena Rybarikova in the final, after the 13th-seeded Slovakian beat Indian Sania Mirza 3-6 6-0 6-3.","highlights":"Andy Roddick forced to retire from his Queen's Club semifinal with ankle injury .\nThe injury means fellow-American James Blake will face Andy Murray in final .\nMurray secures his place with a straight sets victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero .","id":"59b7730a6ceb9b089619292d4bcd2e7bb07ee8fe"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Tami Farrell, who became Miss California USA last week when Donald Trump dumped Carrie Prejean, promises to avoid controversy during the five months of her reign. Tami Farrell became Miss California USA last week and is set to reign for five months. \"I'm trying my best to kind of calm the waters,\" Farrell said in an interview Sunday at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Prejean's same-sex marriage comments, semi-nude photos and personal feud with state pageant officials contributed to a storm of controversy that brought unusual attention to the title Farrell now carries. \"I think that everything in life happens for a reason, and I'm just blessed to have this opportunity,\" Farrell said. Farrell, 24, said, \"it's been a crazy few days\" since Wednesday, when she got the call that Prejean had been ousted. \"I keep stepping into controversy, but hopefully I can avoid it for a while,\" she said. She hopes the extra attention will help launch her show business career. \"A couple of my favorite music groups have called, because I sing, so maybe we could record something together,\" she said. Farrell did not name the groups. She is also a writer and has had meetings in recent days about a screenplay she's written. \"All I can tell you is that it's hilarious and that if (actor) Will Farrell or (director) Adam McCay could give me a call, things would be wonderful,\" she said.","highlights":"Tami Farrell replaces Carrie Prejean for the next five months .\nFarrell says she hopes to avoid the controversy that plagued Prejean .\n\"I'm just blessed to have this opportunity,\" Farrell says .\nFarrell hopes ascending to title will help launch her show business career .","id":"e8b628a28298b157667ca6e244f12c9c69b8da4b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The company that produced the peanut butter linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak said late Tuesday that it was voluntarily recalling all products made in its Blakely, Georgia, plant. Salmonella bacteria are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. The Peanut Corporation of America, a peanut processing company, made the peanut butter sold by King Nut company. Health officials in Minnesota have said that salmonella they linked to an open container of King Nut peanut butter was the same strain of bacteria responsible for the apparently ongoing outbreak, which has infected at least 434 people in 43 states. However, the King Nut product is unlikely to be responsible for the entire outbreak, since it distributes its peanut butter only to food service companies in just seven states: Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire. So, the Peanut Corporation of America said it was voluntarily recalling all peanut butter produced in its Blakely plant \"out of an abundance of caution.\" Some of it is distributed to another company. What you need to know about food poisoning \u00bb . \"We deeply regret that this has happened,\" company president Stewart Parnell said. Over the past few days, Food and Drug Administration inspectors visited the Blakely plant, where they took hundreds of samples for testing, Parnell said. The salmonella outbreak has been spreading across much of the country since September. Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium played a role in the deaths of an elderly person from southwestern Virginia and an adult from northern Virginia. The third death was a nursing home resident in her 70s in Minnesota. All three of the patients who died had underlying illnesses that could have contributed to their deaths, state officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a written statement, has called peanut butter \"a likely source\" of the infections. But it said that no association had been found with common brand names of peanut butter sold in grocery stores. The first cases of salmonella were reported September 3, but most occurred between October 1 and January 6, the CDC said. About 18 percent of cases were hospitalized as a result of their illness, and patients have ranged from 2 months to 98 years of age. CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said a preliminary analysis suggests peanut butter as a likely source of the outbreak. No cases connected to the outbreak have been reported in Montana, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida or Alaska. Very young people, older people and those with compromised immune systems are most vulnerable to severe side effects of salmonella infection, including death, health officials have said. CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Peanut Corp. of America recalls all products made in Blakely, Georgia, plant .\nPeanut butter linked to salmonella outbreak has sickened 425 in 43 states .\nThree deaths possibly linked to the outbreak; two in Virginia, one in Minnesota .","id":"84de14121ae353e22d045cb3ec4d3bece7b37bd7"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The rift between Russia and Western powers over Georgia burst back into full view on the U.N. Security Council when Russia vetoed a resolution that would have extended the U.N. observer mission in Georgia. The observer force had been in existence since 1993, but Russia claims that the mission was invalidated by last year's conflict over breakaway regions in Georgia. \"The U.N. mission's previous mandate has actually ceased to exist in the wake of Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia last August,\" said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador, who said it was \"unacceptable\" to extend the mission. After the veto Monday night, a statement from the office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. would \"take all measures required to cease the operations of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia effective 16 June.\" Ban \"will consult with his senior advisors and his special representative on the immediate next steps,\" the statement said. Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war last August over the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- the first time Russia sent troops abroad in anger since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Both sides blame the other for starting the conflict. Western powers, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France backed the Georgian government in a conflict that rekindled Cold War sentiments. The European Union launched a probe to determine how the war began that is due to be completed by the end of next month. The crux of the controversy remains Georgia's territorial integrity. As a result of last year's war, Russia now considers South Ossetia and Abkhazia sovereign nations independent from Georgia. Russia has no international support for that position aside from the nation of Nicaragua. The Georgian ambassador to the United Nations, Kakha Lomaia, addressed the Security Council following the vote, saying his nation deeply regrets the apparent end of the mission. He called Russia's position \"unconstructive.\" The statement from Ban's office added, \"the Secretary-General regrets that the Security Council has been unable to reach agreement on the basis of a package of practical and realistic proposals he submitted to the Security Council aimed at contributing to a stabilization of the situation on the ground.\"","highlights":"Russia: \"The U.N. mission's previous mandate has actually ceased to exist\"\nRussia considers South Ossetia and Abkhazia independent nations from Georgia .\nOnly Nicaragua supports that position .","id":"9497fe2ae2fb5db38341dee493aaf5087d323ef2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An era in American broadcast television will end Friday as the nation finishes its delayed transition to digital TV. Without a converter box, satellite service or cable hook-up, analog TVs will deliver only static now. By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down their outdated analog transmitters, leaving static to watch for those who are not ready. Stations all over the country will be making the historic switch all day Friday, Federal Communications Commission officials said. American TV viewers were given four extra months to get ready for the switch, when Congress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition. At that time, an estimated 6.5 million homes -- including many elderly, poor and disabled Americans -- weren't prepared for a February 17 switch to digital, supporters argued. \"In any change this big, there are going to be disruptions,\" said Michael Copps, the Federal Communications Commission acting chairman. \"We are trying our best to provide people, especially those who are most at-risk, with the help they need to make the switch as smoothly as possible. And we're going to keep offering it after June 12, so people should call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC.\" People who pay for cable or satellite TV service are unaffected by the change. Republicans opposed the delay, saying the government had given people years to prepare. The end of analog television frees up that part of the broadcast spectrum for other uses. The federal government raked in $20 billion in auctions by selling licenses for the frequencies vacated by local television stations for other commercial uses. Some of the frequencies also have been reserved for emergency agencies to use for communications. Stations have been broadcasting in digital and analog for the past several years, but the switch puts an end to the transition and a form of broadcasting that's existed since the first regularly scheduled television service began in the United States in 1928.","highlights":"By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down outdated transmitters .\nCongress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition by four months .\nHaven't converted yet? Call 1-888-CALL-FCC for help .\nEnd of analog frees up that part of the broadcast spectrum for other uses .","id":"bfda9967ba21587defb52cab8a87987f721394bd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave European champions Manchester United for Real Madrid if he wants, says FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Manchester United made a formal complaint to FIFA about Real Madrid's interest in Ronaldo last month. Questioned about the protracted wrangle over the 23-year-old's future, Blatter told Sky News that the practice of binding players to lengthy contracts amounts to \"modern slavery\". Ronaldo himself later agreed with Blatter's assessment of his transfer standoff with Manchester United. United have vowed not to sell their star winger to Real Madrid, but Ronaldo has spoken of his desire to join the Spanish champions -- although he is yet to submit a transfer request. He told Portuguese broadcaster TVI: \"You know what I said, what I want and what I would like. Let's see, I agree completely with the president of FIFA. Now I have to wait and see, but I do not know where I will begin the season.\" Ronaldo also added that he will be sidelined for 10 or 12 weeks while he recovers from Monday's surgery on his right ankle. The Portuguese winger's future at Old Trafford has been the source of heated speculation, with Spanish giants Real making clear they want to sign him at any cost. United made a formal complaint to FIFA about Madrid's interest last month, but football's governing body said that no regulations had been broken. \"I'm always in favor of protecting the player, and if the player wants to leave, let him leave,\" said Blatter. \"If the player wants to play somewhere else, then a solution should be found because if he stays in a club where he does not feel comfortable to play then it's not good for the player and for the club.\" Ronaldo, who hit 42 goals for United last season, has a contract until 2012 and Blatter believes the issue raises concerns about the way transfers and contracts are dealt with in the game. He said he was \"very in sympathy\" with Ronaldo over his current position. \"I think in football there's too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere,\" he added. \"We are trying now to intervene in such cases. The reaction to the Bosman law is to make long-lasting contacts in order to keep the players and then if he wants to leave, then there is only one solution, he has to pay his contract.\" A United spokesperson told PA Sport: \"All our players -- like at other clubs -- enter into their contracts after an open and free negotiation. \"Most of whom do after taking advice from a FIFA-registered agent. Many do so on a number of occasions and enjoy long and successful stays at Old Trafford.\" UEFA have warned that players are becoming ever more powerful as a consequence of the Bosman ruling -- and played down Blatter's suggestions they are slaves to clubs. Communications director William Gaillard, who also serves as special advisor to UEFA president Michel Platini, gave a different point of view and claimed salaries are \"spiralling out of control\". \"It would be useful to remind people that slaves in all of the slavery systems never earned a wage,\" Gaillard told Sky Sports News. The Bosman ruling came into effect in 1995, allowing players free transfers at the end of contracts, and those coming to the conclusion of their deals have become prey for other clubs. \"It seems that both clubs and players are trying to negotiate an exit before the player is free,\" said Gaillard. \"It is a consequence of the Bosman ruling -- there is nothing we can do about that. \"It is obvious that today players have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago, undoubtedly, and agents have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago. It is true that salaries are spiralling out of control. Many clubs have pointed that out.\" Blatter went on to dismiss the Premier League's much-criticised '39th step' proposals, insisting plans to play competitive matches overseas -- either in the league or domestic cups -- was doomed to fail. He said: \"The 39th game as presented will never happen. To my knowledge what they (the Premier League) want to do is perhaps to play some of the League Cup matches somewhere outside of England. That's the last information I got.\"","highlights":"Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave Manchester Utd says FIFA chief .\nBinding players to long deals amounts to \"modern slavery\" says Sepp Blatter .\nRonaldo was later quoted as saying: \"I agree completely with FIFA president\"","id":"20efb174d2ab81d1fff117c808b96caeea8cd836"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy has checked into an unnamed medical facility for help with his recovery from substance abuse, the Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement Friday. \"I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine,\" Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy says in a statement. In May 2006, Kennedy, the son of Sen. Edward Kennedy, was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a day after slamming his car into a security barricade on Capitol Hill. At the time, Kennedy said he had been suffering from addictions and depression since he was a young man. \"I have always said that recovery is a life-long process and that I will do whatever it takes to preserve my health,\" Kennedy, 41, wrote in Friday's release. \"In consultation with my doctors, I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine to ensure that I am being as vigilant as possible in my recovery. I hope that in some small way my decision to be proactive and public in my efforts to remain healthy can help remove the stigma that has served as a barrier for many Americans reluctant to get the help they need.\" A Democratic aide declined to say what facility is providing treatment or how long Kennedy might be there. Kennedy left for treatment earlier this week, said a close associate who didn't want to be identified. Since the 2006 incident, the associate said, Kennedy often goes to the Mayo Clinic for one- or two-day stints without anyone knowing. This time, Kennedy and his aides realized the stay would be longer and more aggressive and decided to put out a statement. There was no \"culminating event\" this time, the associate said, and he did not think it was related to Edward Kennedy's ongoing battle with brain cancer. \"He's human,\" the source said of Patrick Kennedy. \"He has good days and bad days. This is a part of his effort to make sure there are more good days than bad days.\" CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Congressman from Rhode Island seeks help against substance abuse .\nRep. Patrick Kennedy, 41, acknowledges long struggle with addiction, depression .\n\"I have always said that recovery is a life-long process,\" lawmaker says in statement .\nSon of Sen. Edward Kennedy sought help after 2006 auto accident .","id":"bf84186935d76f104a0ad63207d48afb0a88de3e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Marcus Schrenker, the financial manager who officials say faked his own death in a plane crash after scamming his customers, has been found after an apparent suicide attempt, Florida and federal authorities said Tuesday. Marcus Schrenker was taken to a hospital after he was found in Quincy, Florida, on Tuesday, authorities said. The man was found in Quincy, Florida, with marks on his body consistent with a suicide attempt, said Lt. Jim Corder, a spokesman for the Gadsden County sheriff's office. He was taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Porter said. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Peter Swaim said late Tuesday the man has been identified as Schrenker. The service was leading the manhunt for Schrenker, who has been missing since Sunday. A Marshals Service source, who asked not to be named because the case is still under investigation, said federal agents found Schrenker inside a tent at a camp site with a cut on his wrist. He was airlifted to the hospital, the source said. The source would not say how marshals knew to look at the camp site. Schrenker was charged in Hamilton County, Indiana, on Tuesday with unlawful acts by a compensated adviser and unlawful transaction by an investment adviser. Authorities believe Schrenker defrauded investors through three companies he owns before attempting a bizarre and potentially deadly vanishing act. Schrenker took off alone Sunday night from Anderson, Indiana, in a Piper PA-46 en route to Destin, Florida. Over Alabama, he contacted air traffic controllers, saying the windshield had imploded and he was bleeding profusely, authorities said. Police suspect he then put the aircraft on autopilot and parachuted to the ground. The plane later crashed near the Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida, missing a group of homes by only 50 to 75 yards, said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, sheriff's department. \"We do consider him dangerous,\" U.S. marshals Deputy John Beeman said Thursday. \"He has shown his disregard for life by letting this plane go unmanned until it crashed into the ground in Florida.\" Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Monday, hours after the crash, Schrenker showed up at a residence in Childersburg, Alabama, and said he had been in a canoeing accident, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. A resident gave him a ride into Childersburg, and police made contact with him, identifying him through his FAA pilot's license, authorities said. Childersburg is about 35 miles south of Birmingham. Unaware of the crash, the officers took Schrenker to a hotel in nearby Harpersville. After hearing about the crash, they went back to the hotel, where they found that Schrenker had checked in under a fictitious name and was gone, possibly into a wooded area, police said. Officials now believe he fled Harpersville on a 2008 red Yamaha street bike he had stashed at a storage unit earlier, also using an assumed name. Investigators found the unit empty of the motorcycle and with some wet clothes left behind. When leasing the storage facility, Schrenker brought the motorcycle in a brown pickup with a trailer and told the leasing agent he would return for it Monday, according to the Marshals Service. Back in Florida, military aircraft from Whiting Field in Milton, Florida, were dispatched Sunday to intercept the plane after Schrenker reported the emergency. The pilots saw that the plane's door was open, the cockpit was dark and witnessed the plane's crash, according to the Santa Rosa County sheriff's office. Watch what authorities believe happened \u00bb . Although Schrenker had said he was bleeding, no blood was found in the downed plane. Before authorities said Tuesday night that Schrenker was found, friends of Schrenker's seemed as mystified as police, who were seeking him in several states. \"Why someone would jump out of a plane and leave it on autopilot with his training and his background is beyond me,\" Tom Britt said. \"There's no reason for him to do it other than trying to stage something.\" Watch Schrenker perform airborne stunts \u00bb . Britt said he received an e-mail Monday night from someone who identified himself as Schrenker. The message said Schrenker had been reading accounts of his disappearance on CNN.com and other news outlets and was \"disturbed and wanted to set the record straight,\" Britt told CNN affiliate WRTV in Indianapolis. Britt said the message writer said that he would never abandon a plane and let it crash somewhere but that he \"panicked.\" The writer claimed he blacked out and was disoriented, Britt said. The e-mail also implied that Schrenker might commit suicide, Britt said. The message said, \"By the time you read this, I'll be gone.\" On Monday, a judge in Indiana froze Schrenker's assets at the request of investigators looking into his business dealings, said Jim Gavin, a spokesman for the Indiana secretary of state. The order also applies to Schrenker's wife, who was seeking a divorce, and his three companies, Gavin said. Those companies -- Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services and Icon Wealth Management -- are \"the subjects of an active investigation by the Indiana Securities Division,\" Gavin said. Public documents list Schrenker as president of Heritage Wealth Management in Fishers, Indiana. Court papers contain allegations that Schrenker defrauded several investors. A search warrant related to the inquiry was served December 31, Gavin said. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Kathleen Johnston and Tristan Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Authorities: Marcus Schrenker apparently attempted suicide, taken to hospital .\nNEW: Schrenker found in Florida two days after plane crash, authorities say .\nPolice: Schrenker bailed out of plane before crash, fled on stashed motorcycle .\nAuthorities file charges against Schrenker, accused of defrauding investors .","id":"6453007524f6a6dc7d1467954d839cabf16edf85"} -{"article":"Jamison Green is an educator, adviser and advocate on transgender issues, and the author of \"Becoming a Visible Man\" (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004). Jamison Green transitioned from female to male just before his 40th birthday. Welcome, Chaz! Before the word \"transsexual\" had been coined in English, an intrepid young person whose family belonged to the British nobility set out to transform herself from female to male. He received a medical school education, obtained hormones -- relatively new substances that were poorly understood at the time, and independently began living as a man in the early 1940s. Eventually, he found a plastic surgeon to help him, and his physical changes were complete by 1949, but his family rejected him. The British tabloids hounded him. To escape publicity, he was forced to carve out a life for himself virtually alone. He became a Buddhist monk, and died in Tibet in 1962 at the age of 47. His name was Michael Dillon, and he one of the Western world's first transsexual people, that is, someone who changes sex and\/or gender by medical means. His extensive writings were suppressed and destroyed by his family -- only fragments survive. By 1988, when I began my transition (just before my 40th birthday), there was scarcely more information about female-to-male transsexualism available than there was in 1949. Even in the early 1990s, doctors told transsexual people that we should not socialize together, because people might notice there were things about us that were different from \"normal\" people. Many transsexual women were tall and some had broad shoulders, large hands and feet. Most transsexual men were on the short side, and had small hands and feet. It's one thing if you mix in with other people where there is a lot of physical diversity, but if you congregate with others like you, you may risk discovery. To be discovered as a transsexual person was a horrible fate. And fitting in, being \"normal,\" was the goal of treatment, after all. I was convinced that having a \"sex change\" was going to be a very straightforward process. I would take the hormones, have some surgery, and then go home and mow my lawn. I expected life to just be ordinary, just the way it was supposed to be. There were a few surprises in store for me, though, not the least of which was that I learned that the fear and shame of being known or discovered to be a transsexual person was probably responsible for a tremendous amount of suffering. I learned that people like me hid themselves from the world, often were under-employed or unemployed, avoided seeing physicians when they were ill, and often expected that they would never have intimate partners. After I began transition, I met more and more transsexual men like myself, and I saw firsthand the fear and shame that limited their lives. These were kind, gentle, thoughtful, serious men, and they did not deserve to live in a state of fear and shame. I knew then that education about who we were, and what our lives were like, would be absolutely necessary to do two things: first to let people like me know we were not alone and we didn't have to be afraid; and second to let other people know we existed, to make the world safe for us, for our difference and our uniqueness. Like a handful of other trans men in North America, Europe, England, and Japan, I began to do public education, to write about our experience, and to educate legislators and policy makers, helping them change the laws, hoping to ease the suffering of others like ourselves who would follow in our footsteps. And now Chaz Bono announces his transition through his publicist. O, brave new world! The words are here, some protective laws have been passed, America has learned that it can no longer simply destroy what it doesn't understand. Not that some people won't try, though. Chaz, here's hoping your transition from female to male will be effortless, but experience tells me you're liable to have (at least) a few surprises and inconveniences along the way. Here's hoping you can maintain the privacy you want, and that you have the ability to experience your transition fully, that you aren't robbed of the experience by the demands of a public life. Your visibility can bring new understanding. Where others of us have run from the spotlight, and still others have been denied a voice by a disinterested public, you have the ear of the media, and you will not be ignored. But don't be tempted to expose yourself when you're not ready. Your life must be your own. For me, the goal of transition was not to become \"normal\" -- whatever that is -- but to become balanced as myself. It's a life goal that non-trans people strive for, too, and we all have different paths to get there. My path worked for me; I hope yours works for you. Good luck, brother! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jamison Green.","highlights":"Jamison Green began his transition from female to male in 1988 .\nChastity Bono is transitioning from female to male and will be known as Chaz .\nGreen hopes Chastity Bono's transition will be filled with less heartache than others'\nGreen says key to easing sex change process is education .","id":"264fee5e58cce6deef05503450586a7dfe0fb9f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sports stars seem to have it all -- from seven-figure salaries to big endorsement deals. But lately, what some don't have is a good reputation. The NBA's Dwyane Wade started a foundation to help inspire kids in at-risk situations. With the steroids controversy in baseball and drug allegations against the world's greatest swimmer, many adoring fans may wonder, \"Where are the good guys in sports?\" Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat is one of those good guys. He stays out of the controversy and insists that his fame should be used to help others. CNN's Nicole Lapin talked to the NBA star about the foundation he started and his partnership with National Recess Week. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Nicole Lapin: It feels like you're getting paid for recess now. You're 27 years old. Do you look at your paycheck sometimes and are like, \"I get paid for this? Watch more of Nicole Lapin's interview with Dwyane Wade \u00bb . Dwyane Wade: First of all, to do something that you love, and to get compensated for something that you love at a very, very great rate, is unbelievable. And it's something that a lot of kids dream of. They've just got to have somebody who believes in them. And that's something I'm trying to do with being the spokesman for this Recess Week. Y'all need to get back out there. We need to get back out there with the kids and help them believe in themselves. Lapin: Some people see you as the role model. Who was your role model growing up? Wade: You know, I had different role models growing up. Of course, I'm from Chicago, so when it comes to sports and when it comes to basketball, Michael Jordan. No question about it. But, you know, on a personal level, I always looked at people that were close to me that were doing things. My sister was always a role model to me, just because of the way that she always helped kids. And even though we didn't have much, she always helped the ones that were less fortunate than us. And it's something that just stuck with me. And it's something that I'm trying to do now. Lapin: So, as a role model, to take little kids wearing your jerseys and playing video games of you, do you take that seriously? Wade: It's still, you know, crazy to me when I see people wearing my jersey. I mean, just on a regular day. Not a game day. Just on a regular day walking down the street, see somebody with your name on their back. It's like, wow. Or when you see yourself on video games. All that to me is still, you know, mind-blowing. And the main thing, the only thing you can do is try to go out and talk to kids. You try and tell them the importance of being you. You try and tell them the importance of being a certain way. You try and give them the message that a lot of people gave you. Lapin: In 2003, you started Wade's World to help those kids, to talk to those kids. Because you were never talked to when you were growing up. Wade: Yes, yes. I never was. It may have helped me out; helped my drive out. But unfortunately, I've never had anyone come to the community I grew up in and give out that helping hand. And to give us hope, in our community, that we can do something special. I always heard that we couldn't or you know, it's one in a million or something like that. Well, our job and my job at the Wade's World foundation is to go out and let these kids know that we believe in them. And there's more than what you see out your front window or your front door that's in life. And you can do anything you want. Lapin: You said on your bio that you want to leave the world a better place. You think you've done that? Wade: I think I've got a lot more \"doing\" to do. Lapin: What do you want to do? Wade: I think the main thing you think of is to know you can change the whole world, but you can touch many people on the way. And my main thing is like, when I go out and talk to kids or I do different events through my foundation, I just want to change one person's thought in that room. They had a negative thought or belief coming in, I want to make them believe. And if I can change one kid's mind, he can change someone else's mind, and it can be a chain effect that can continue to keep going.","highlights":"Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade started foundation to help at-risk kids .\nWade is national spokesperson for National Recess Week .\nNBA star says sense of community and sportsmanship are pivotal for kids .\nSays he wants to leave the world a better place .","id":"2fcf31c9742a92cde5037ac8267391f638026569"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Perhaps he should be called Captain Phoenix? Captain America will return in a new comic book series July 1. Its title: \"Captain America Reborn.\" Rising from the dead after being killed off over two years ago, Captain America is being resurrected by Marvel Comics. Though the circumstances of his return are being closely shielded, the star-spangled superhero returns July 1 in a five-comic-book series, \"Captain America Reborn.\" A big-budget movie in development by Marvel is also expected in 2011. After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in 2007, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes, amid a controversial story line. He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of super-villains, but a sniper's bullet cut Captain America down in 2007, a move that shocked many of his fans. \"The reaction was amazing,\" says Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. \"It certainly was like the world went crazy for three days. Everybody had a point of view about it, including fans who hadn't read the comic for 30 years.\" In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero's tragic mistake causes a 9\/11-like event. Marvel said the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the war on terror and September 11. Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse steps. It was a violent and strange end for an American hero and icon. The primary shooter, Crossbones -- working under the orders of Captain America's longtime nemesis, the Red Skull -- was caught. The identity of a second shooter is revealed in issue 600, which goes on sale Monday. Many felt Captain America's death in 2007 was symbolic of the time. And his return now? \"The tenor of the world now is when we're at a point where we want to believe in heroes. Someone who can lead the way,\" said Brevoort. \"It just feels like the right time.\" Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers. As originally conceived by creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Rogers was born before the Great Depression in a very different America. He disappeared after the war and only reappeared recently in the Marvel timeline. Keeping superheroes dead and buried does not come easy. Even Superman, who was killed off by DC Comics in 1993, came back to life a year later. And what of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes? After taking up the shield and mission of Captain America for the past year, it'll be time to relinquish the mantle. Is there room for two sentinels of liberty? Stay tuned. Glenn Perreia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Captain America being resurrected; superhero was killed off over two years ago .\nRecent issues of Marvel comics shed light on plot behind superhero's death .\n\"It just feels like the right time,\" says Marvel Comics editor .","id":"43f55534e5a8015ec798ce08601a2bf934e5d481"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lanka's quarter-century-long civil war is in its final phase, the government suggested Friday, as its troops pounded Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north. This picture, released by the Sri Lankan defense ministry, is said to be of a dead Tamil Tiger body captured after fighting on May 14, 2009. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- have fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the end of the current military push, which is often referred to as a civilian rescue mission, is less than 48 hours away. He spoke from Jordan on Friday, where he's attending an economic summit. \"The Tamil civilians held hostage by the LTTE in small area of land in the north would be rescued, and the Tamils would be saved from the threat of LTTE terrorism,\" Rajapaksa said. In a rapid military push, Sri Lankan forces have squeezed Tamil Tiger fighters into approximately 1.5 square miles (four square kilometers) of coastal land. The United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 civilians are trapped there. CNN's Paula Newton reports on the plight of trapped civilians \u00bb . The chunk of land, known as the no-fire zone or civilian safety area, was under siege by government forces Friday, according to Tamilnet.com, a rebel Web site. \"The entire safety zone area is in smoke ... as shelling by the Sri Lanka army was destroying all the structures within a narrow strip of coastal land, which is densely populated with tens of thousands of people,\" Tamilnet said. Humanitarian aid groups have reported mass civilian casualties in the fighting. \"The government is moving forward in extremely difficult circumstances. After all, the ... Tamil Tigers are seeded amidst the middle of all these civilians. It's very difficult to weed out and identify who is a fighter and who is not,\" said Gordon Weiss, a U.N. spokesman. \"It makes it very very dangerous for civilians, and it explains the very large toll on civilian life that we've seen at this point.\" Weiss called the fighting a \"bloodbath\" at the beginning of the week. The situation had worsened by Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. It suspended evacuation and medical rescue operations in the no-fire zone. Aid agencies had been stuck offshore, unable to deliver badly needed relief supplies and evacuate civilians. \"Our staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,\" said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the Red Cross' director of operations. \"No humanitarian organization can help them in the current circumstances. People are left to their own devices.\" The U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for both sides to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid into the conflict zone. Watch frustration build at the United Nations \u00bb . In a statement at the White House, Obama urged Sri Lankan government troops to halt the \"indiscriminate\" shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country's Tamil Tigers. He also prodded the rebels to stop using civilians as human shields. Security Council members issued a statement demanding \"that all parties respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.\" A Red Cross worker was killed Wednesday during shelling in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka -- the third aid worker killed in six weeks -- the Red Cross said.","highlights":"Sri Lanka president says end of current military push less than 48 hours away .\nU.N. estimates more than 50,000 civilians trapped in area under siege .\nRed Cross: \"Staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe\"\nTamil Tigers have fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka since 1983 .","id":"88dcb487e800175e3f8074c0304a7204a5a0cf44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For four days, an American sea captain and four Somali pirates rode the waves of the Indian Ocean in an enclosed lifeboat, far out of sight of most of the world. Capt. Richard Phillips, right, stands with U.S. Navy Cmdr. Frank Castellano after Phillips' rescue Sunday. But for those four days, they were on the minds of people around the globe, from the captain's hometown in Vermont, to the White House, to port cities and anywhere that families send their loved ones off to sea. \"I actually was more concerned for his family,\" said Adm. Rick Gurnon, head of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where Capt. Richard Phillips had trained. \"I was pretty sure he would be OK,\" Gurnon said of Phillips, adding, \"as a captain at sea, in a lifeboat, he was in an environment he was comfortable with even if he was sharing it with four armed Somali pirates. \"I was more worried for his family. They've been going through hell since Wednesday. This is truly a joyous day for them.\" Watch Gurnon praise Phillips' courage, professionalism \u00bb . The waiting ended Sunday with news that U.S. Navy snipers had shot and killed three of Phillips' captors, with the fourth pirate in custody onboard the nearby USS Bainbridge, and that Phillips had been rescued uninjured. The expressions of relief and praise flowed. Watch how SEALs took down pirates \u00bb . \"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Capt. Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew,\" President Obama said. \"His courage is a model for all Americans.\" Phillips offered himself as a hostage after the pirates stormed the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama on Wednesday morning, according to Maersk Line Limited, which owns the ship. The pirates eventually left the Alabama with Phillips that day aboard the lifeboat, where they would stay for four days. In Phillips' hometown of Underhill, Vermont, Maersk spokeswoman Alison McColl said Phillips' wife, Andrea, had spoken to her husband by phone after his rescue. \"She was laughing while she was on the phone with him,\" McColl told reporters. \"She was saying his trademark sense of humor was still very much intact, and he's in great spirits. If you guys could have seen her light up when she talked to him, it was really remarkable.\" McColl said Andrea Phillips and her family \"have felt a tremendous amount of support from the entire nation.\" Watch statement from Andrea Phillips \u00bb . \"The thoughts, the prayers, the sentiments, the support you've shown has really helped them endure this very difficult situation,\" McColl said. Still speaking for the captain's wife, McColl added: \"She believes she can feel it, and she believes that her husband felt it out there in the middle of the ocean. So thanks to the entire nation, the local community, the state of Vermont, for all your help there.\" Phillips was being praised for his apparent willingness to put his own life in jeopardy to secure the release of his crew and his ship. But Gurnon, who described the captain as \"the good shepherd who willingly exchanged his life for the lives of his flock,\" cautioned that the end of one hostage situation should not be taken as the end of the growing problem of piracy, especially with scores of other lives in peril from pirates who are holding ships and crews off the expansive Somali coast. \"While this is a great day for Massachusetts Maritime Academy and for all of our alumni and all mariners around the world, we still have more than 200 men and women held hostage in Somalia,\" Gurnon said. \"We should not let the spotlights, the TV cameras, the focus of the world be removed from that problem,\" he said.","highlights":"Captain's family had been \"going through hell,\" head of maritime academy says .\nCapt. Richard Phillips, rescued from pirates Sunday, had been trained at academy .\n\"I was pretty sure he would be OK,\" academy leader says .\nWife talked to, laughed with Phillips on phone after rescue, spokeswoman says .","id":"73e38eb2d1de6fafc488fb9a0ea6a7af1120c5d6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mohsen Rezaie may have little chance of winning Friday's presidential election in Iran, observers say, but they believe he's running with a purpose: getting rid of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mohsen Rezaie could garner enough conservative votes to swing Iran's election, experts say. \"He came there just to defeat Ahmadinejad. He didn't come to win,\" said Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Hardliners disappointed with Ahmadinejad and reformers eager for new leadership are both glad Rezaie is running, Karim Sadjadpour wrote in a recent article for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he is an associate. \"Intimidating in appearance and lacking in popular appeal, reformists are happy to have Rezaie in the race, believing he can take some of the votes from Ahmadinejad in the first round,\" Sadjadpour wrote. Khalaji said the incumbent will lose votes at both ends of the political spectrum. Watch how the campaign is a watershed for Iran \u00bb . \"Look, everybody in this country wants Ahmadinejad out,\" Khalaji said, \"except the Supreme Leader and his organizations.\" Rezaie, no ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, was a founder of the Revolutionary Guard in 1979 and its leader from 1981 to 1997, a period that included the devastating eight-year war with Iraq. \"Iranian people don't like the military at all, \" Khalaji said. \"He's considered a military man, despite his claims that 'I'm a civilian.' But his image is associated with war, and people don't like it.\" Many people blame Rezaie for prolonging the war and failing to achieve victory, Khalaji said. In an interview this week in the Los Angeles Times, Rezaie said the conflict taught him \"that war is a terrible thing, that we should do everything to avoid war.\" \"Look at what happened to us, the chemical weapons attacks on Iranian cities and Halabja [in Iraq],\" he told the newspaper. \"War is a terrible thing. I saw dead people and crushed children, families destroyed and fleeing from their homes, here in Iran but also there in Iraq. \"I also learned the value of unity,\" he went on. \"The war created a fusion between the population and the state. Everybody was together and everybody was united. I learned the value of self-sacrifice and martyrdom.\" Rezaie has been linked to terrorism. The 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, by Revolutionary Guard client Hezbollah occurred under his watch. The blast killed 241 Americans. Rezaie is one of several people indicted in Argentina for the 1994 bombing of Jewish and Israeli sites in Buenos Aires. He has denied responsibility for those attacks. In the Los Angeles Times interview, Rezaie said he sees an opportunity for improving relations with the United States. \"I propose to put together a package of eight or nine topics that the U.S. and Iran would work toward,\" he told the paper. \"What is important is to just start the talks. It can be on drug trafficking, it can be anything, but the idea is just to start some kind of dialogue. If we solve one or two problems, we're on our way.\" Watch how the campaign has heated up at the end \u00bb . Rezaie is a member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, a \"council of elders\" from many parts of government and society whose job is to reconcile the needs of the state with the rulings of the Council of Guardians, the arbiter of Islamic law in Iran. Rezaie was raised in a poor family in southern Iran and founded the Manssouroun, a paramilitary force that resisted the reign of the Shah, Khalaji said. That experience led directly to his role in founding the Revolutionary Guard, a force created by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei to protect against coup attempts by army officers who remained loyal to the Shah. The Revolutionary Guard eventually came to dominate the military. In 1998, Rezaie's son Ahmad fled Iran and sought political asylum in the United States, but eventually was persuaded to return home and now is a wealthy businessman, Khalaji said.","highlights":"Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaie led Revolutionary Guard for 18 years .\nHis only goal in campaign is to undermine incumbent, Iran expert says .\nRezaie led Revolutionary Guard during war with Iraq, Beirut bombing .\nHe tells newspaper he would seek to improve relations with United States .","id":"cf0e97062d486c2920391efafa263c1d5a0629af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mir Hossein Moussavi, Iran's former prime minister, has emerged as a serious contender to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was, for months, considered a shoo-in for re-election to the Iranian presidency. Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi holds up the \"V\" sign after casting his vote on Friday. A painter and architect who withdrew from the political front for two decades, Moussavi has emerged with a platter of promises. He has said he wants to reform Iran into a global communicator that embraces freedom of speech. He's also taken an usual step in politics in Iran by relying heavily on his wife, a college professor. Her public support of his candidacy has underscored his professed support of women's rights. Largely an unknown to the rest of the world when he announced his bid in March, Moussavi has tried to be the foil to Ahmadinejad, who has earned a reputation internationally as a fundamentalist for his Holocaust denials, calls to annihilate Israel, and cat-and-mouse games with the United States and the United Nations over Iran's nuclear activities. \"This anti-Ahmadinejad image is connecting with a lot of Iranians because many feel Ahmadinejad has gone too far, said too many outlandish things and is responsible for a serious financial crisis the country is in,\" said Afshin Molavi, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington. Molavi is also the author of \"The Soul of Iran,\" a book about Iran's middle-class struggling to free itself, under intense economic and cultural restraints, from the control of the state. Moussavi was Iran's prime minister from 1981 to 1989 and oversaw the nation's eight-year war with Iraq. He has been largely praised by analysts across varied political leanings for that. But when the constitution was reformed in the late 1980s, removing the job of prime minister, Moussavi retreated to a life outside the public sphere for two decades. \"Twenty years -- what has he done in that time? No one really knows,\" said Shireen Hunter, a Georgetown University visiting professor and Iranian author of numerous books on the nation's political history who interviewed Moussavi just as he was officially exiting politics. \"What you have is a war and a history that the younger Iranians do not know about or remember, so they know less about him and see him as the reformer he says that he is,\" Hunter said. She spoke with Moussavi for her 1992 book \"Iran and the World.\" \"I quoted Moussavi as saying that Iran did not suffer as much from the Soviet Union as it did from America,\" Hunter said. \"He was very anti-Western. He presided over a lot of nationalism [during his time as prime minister,] and now he is saying that he is a reformer? I don't believe in born-again Democrats. I'm skeptical.\" It's an image or impression the people are being moved by, she and Molavi contend, that may not be based on hard evidence. \"There were still freedoms that were stifled under Moussavi,\" Molavi said. \"[But] what Iranians seem to remember, what is lingering, is that he steered the country relatively well in a time of crisis during the war.\" Now Moussavi has seized on Iran's most pressing problem: its economy. \"There's a sort of overwhelming support now for an opening up of the country to the international community and some access to the free-market economy because, frankly, Iran's own economy is on the verge of utter collapse,\" said Reza Aslan, an analyst for DailyBeast.com and author of the book \"No God But God,\" an analysis of Islam in politics and culture. Last week, tensions between the candidates reached a fever pitch. During a recent fiery television debate, Moussavi accused Ahmadinejad of being a radical and turning Iran into a \"dictatorship.\" He said Ahmadinejad was an \"adventurist\" when it came to foreign policy. The acrimony between the candidates has appeared to help Moussavi. During a June 3 television debate, Ahmadinejad called Moussavi \"corrupt.\" The president then showed a picture of Moussavi's wife, a well-known political science professor, and accused her of skipping university entrance exams. Zahra Rahnavard, who has been touted as a possible first \"first lady\" of Iran, has threatened to sue Ahmadinejad for defamation, according to several reports. The heated tone of the election has translated to the streets. Watch Moussavi's supporters explain why they're backing him \u00bb . This week, crowds divided between the candidates are facing off on opposite sides of the street in Tehran. A few fistfights have broken out, but there has been relatively little violence. Signs aloft, some are wearing green headbands and chanting \"Moussavi, Moussavi!\" That crowd has more women, and it's markedly younger. One young woman on the side of Moussavi said, \"This is like a revolution.\" CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mir Hossein Moussavi, Iran's ex-PM, hasn't worked officially in politics in 20 years .\nAnalysts: He is wooing support by portraying himself as the \"anti-Ahmadinejad'\nMoussavi says he's a reformer, believes in more freedoms and an open Iran .\nAuthor who has interviewed him says she is skeptical that he truly feels that way .","id":"67577388c689c05cee5016416e44065aeacf41ac"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy -- Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney scored a goal in each half as Manchester United won 2-0 in Roma's Olympic Stadium to virtually assure the Premier League leaders a place in the Champions League semifinals. Cristiano Ronaldo rises above the Roma defense to power home a superb header. United proved they can still dominate the Italian side, following last season's 8-3 aggregate triumph at the same stage of the competition, with a stylish display. The visitors enjoyed a lot of the ball in the first period as Roma -- missing talismanic striker Francesco Totti -- sat back, seemingly intent on not giving anything away. On 12 minutes, United opened up the Roma defense but after Park Ji-Sung took the ball down on his chest he was crowded out. Christian Panucci headed over the bar from a David Pizarro corner and Mirko Vucinic shot over as he was falling backwards, after Rio Ferdinand had slipped, as Roma briefly threatened. United then suffered a blow as defender Nemanja Vidic was stretchered off with a leg injury, to be replaced by John O'Shea. Chances were few and far between but on 39 minutes United produced a move of majestic quality to take the lead. United switched the ball around the edge of the Roma box before Paul Scholes eventually crossed for Ronaldo to come steaming in to out-jump Marco Cassetti and thump home a header. Just three minutes later Roma had their best chance of the half after a mistake from Ferdinand, but Vucinic dragged his shot from the left just beyond the far post. Roma came out after the break with more purpose and Vucinic played in Max Tonetto, but he lashed his shot wide of the near post, failing even to force Edwin van der Sar into making a save. From a quick throw Panucci had great chance but skied his volley from five meters. Substitute Ludovic Giuly then got behind the United defense but Van der Sar cut out his cross. And the big Dutch keeper then made a stunning one-handed save on 62 minutes from a Vucinic header to keep the scores level. Four minutes later, United scored a crucial second as Park headed a deep cross from Wes Brown back across goal and Rooney mopped up the loose ball after goalkeeper Doni and Panucci impeded each other. Moments later Ronaldo had a shot deflected onto the outside of the post as United threatened to run riot. Rooney had two glorious chances to heap more misery on Roma late on but had one shot blocked and sent the other wide. Ronaldo then almost scored with a stunning late volley from substitute Carlos Tevez's cross but the ball flew over the bar. With Barcelona taking a 1-0 lead over Schalke in the other semifinal, it looks increasingly likely that United will face the Catalan giants for a place in the Moscow final mext month. Ronaldo played down his goal, simply saying his 36th of the season was \"a good header\" and preferred to comment on the team's overall performance. \"That was a very good performance in what was a top game,\" he said. \"We created a few chances,scored twice and deserved the victory. \"The defense were terrific and they played their part. It was a good job overall but we must remember that the Champions League is a different style to the Premier League and this match is not over yet,\" added the Portuguese winger. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Manchester United win 2-0 in Roma in the Champions League quarterfinals .\nGoals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney put the visitors in control .\nThe winners will face Barcelona or Schalke for a place in the final in Moscow .","id":"949857e2128dd635e7c317eb663b82afd4f09a97"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates off the eastern coast of Africa fired on U.S. sailors Saturday as they tried to reach the lifeboat where an American captain is being held, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told CNN. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, is now at the scene. The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, back to the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, the official said. Capt. Richard Phillips reportedly offered himself as a hostage to the pirates during an attack Wednesday on the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean. The Alabama was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, with a cargo of food aid when it was hijacked about 350 miles off the Somalia coast. The American crew regained control of the vessel, but the Maersk company would not say how. There are about 20 crew members. The Alabama arrived Saturday in Mombasa, along with an 18-person armed security detail on board. \"For security reasons, the vessel will berth in a restricted area of the port and will not be accessible to the media. FBI agents will debrief members of the crew on board the vessel before they disembark. The crew will not be available to the media in Mombasa,\" Maersk Ltd. said. Watch the latest Maersk briefing \u00bb . The U.S. Navy -- which is in charge of the situation -- requested help from the FBI to resolve the standoff. The FBI is launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI's New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Agents from the office were scheduled to leave for Africa sometime this weekend, the officials said. Phillips lives in Underhill, Vermont, where neighbor and longtime family friend, Tom Walsh, told CNN the captain's wife, Andrea, was surrounded by relatives. \"If they need us to help with anything. That's kind of the way it is in these communities. ... just showing that we're concerned. We want to do whatever she needs,\" Walsh said. \"She has a lot of family there.\" Watch more about the hostage situation \u00bb . Earlier Saturday, pirates sailing a hijacked German cargo ship returned to port after failing to reach the area of the standoff with the Bainbridge, a local journalist told CNN. The German ship Hansa Stavanger was among several pirated vessels trying to sail to the area some 300 miles off the Somali coast, a Somali journalist told CNN. The pirate crew had intended to help the pirates holding Phillips but turned back because of the U.S. naval presence, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger is now at the Somali port of Eyl, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger was hijacked April 4 off the Somali coast. Pirates have been searching the waters off Africa's coast for the Alabama's lifeboat, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation said Friday. They are using hijacked vessels and skiffs launched from larger ships, the official said. The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has joined the Bainbridge in the area. A third ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer -- with a medical facility aboard -- should be there by the end of the day. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on how the pirates are being handled . Phillips is being held by four gunmen in the covered, fiberglass lifeboat. He jumped overboard at one point to try to escape, but one of the pirates jumped into the water after him and brought him back onboard the 28-foot boat. The pirates fired shots, the military official said, without providing further details. Phillips appeared to be tied up by the pirates after the escape attempt, a Defense Department official told CNN. For the U.S. Navy, bringing in more firepower is more than just a means to resolve a hostage situation, said Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Attacks in the area have picked up so drastically in recent months that the Navy has to reposition some of its fleet to deal with the threats, he said. The pirates have shown no signs of giving in. Meanwhile, the acts of piracy were having an effect on tourists disembarking from ships in Mombasa. \"Well, we got the international news stories on television on the ship and everybody's concerned about the route that we were on because there was always the possibility that we would be approached by pirates,\" one male passenger said. CNN's Stephanie Elam, Mohammed Jamjoom and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gunfire from pirates forces sailors, who did not return fire, to turn back .\nNEW: FBI launches criminal investigation into hijacking, hostage-taking .\nMaersk Alabama arrives in Mombasa, Kenya under armed guard .\nCapt. Richard Phillips is being held by four gunmen in covered, fiberglass lifeboat .","id":"404fa43e6d472bbdf6d3d9a48392fd659da700cd"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Attention single ladies! Comedian Steve Harvey, the best-selling author of \"Act Like a Lady, Think Like Man\" and a self-professed expert on manhood, is here to take you inside the male mind. Comedian Steve Harvey says real men like to provide and protect, but some also like to cheat. Whether you're looking for Mr. Right or trying to forget Mr. Wrong, Steve isn't holding anything back. Many women have long lists that describe what they're looking for in a man...but are their standards simply too high? Yinka and Lynell are two 30-something friends who have long lists. They're here to ask Steve if they'll ever find a man who meets all their requirements. Lynell says she's looking for a God-fearing, spontaneous African-American millionaire with straight teeth and nice shoes who wants children...among other things. \"That would be the Lord,\" Steve jokes. \"I'll be trying to meet him the same time you do.\" If a woman is serious about her list, Steve says she should ask herself one question before turning down a date. \"Are you willing to be the same thing to him that you're talking about on that list?\" he says. \"A lot of women are not.\" In general, do women even need a list? Steve says single ladies do need to set standards. \"I think lists are great. You've got to have them. You've got to know what you're looking for,\" he says. \"Without standards, you settle for stuff.\" Before you get discouraged, Steve reminds women to stay patient and remember that real men aren't afraid of standards and requirements. \"You've got to wait on this guy to come along. He's coming. He's out there. He's already created. God has already made him,\" he says. \"He has a job. He's wearing the clothes you like. He's walking around. You're not waiting on him to be born. He exists today. All you've got to do is stay patient.\" Why do many successful, independent women have a hard time finding love? There are millions of smart, beautiful women around the world who can't figure out why they're unlucky in love, including a group of friends from New York. Steve is here to set them straight. Steve says many successful women dated good men but didn't know it at the time. \"You don't know the DNA of a good man,\" he says. Even if you look like a million bucks -- and you have a few million in the bank -- Steve says a woman needs to know how a man shows his love. It's all about the \"three P's.\" Oprah.com: Can a list help you find love? \"We profess, we provide and we protect,\" he says. \"A man has got to see where he fits into the providing and protecting role. If you've got everything, you can do everything, you've got your own car ... you've got a guard dog and a handgun. The guy is thinking, 'Where do I fit in here?' \"You've got to make a space for him to fit in so he can come in and do what men do.\" Steve doesn't advise women to downplay their success or pack up their designer shoes. Instead, he says strong women have to walk a thin line. \"You can't let your independence and your ability to take care of yourself be the dominant factor of who you are,\" he says. \"You know how many times I hear women say: 'I don't need a man. I've got this. Why don't a man just come to me?' Just like you're saying it, you're projecting it. If you're projecting it, where does a man fit in there? Just relax.\" Oprah.com: How to act like a lady, think like a man . After a few dates, some guys just stop returning calls and texts. Even if they aren't interested, don't they want closure? Steve has a simple answer to this question...no. \"Ladies, you're not going to get closure from a man,\" he says. \"We don't do closure. And you know why? Because we don't even know you're having an issue. We're stupid.\" If you're hoping for a courtesy call, Steve says you can forget about that too. \"We're not courteous. Listen, it's not in our DNA as great communicators anyway,\" he says. \"See women keep waiting on closure. Bring it on. If you want closure, close. Move on with your life.\" How important is sex in a relationship? Sex, or \"the cookie\" as Steve calls it in his book, is a major point of contention for many couples. If you don't think it's important to your man, Steve says you're wrong. \"It's critical,\" he says. \"It's one of the three things that a man has to have. A man has to have love, support and the cookie. [If] anyone of those three things is missing in the relationship, he's going to go get it somewhere else.\" If a man is cheating or has the intention to cheat, why pursue commitment with one woman? Michele found out her boyfriend of many years was cheating after he told her he was ready to settle down and get married. The male mind may be a mystery to women, but Steve says there's a simple explanation for this behavior. \"A man having sex outside of his relationship is very different from [a woman],\" he says. \"Once we shower and wash off, we cool. \"Please know that about a man. If he's going to cheat, it has nothing to do with his emotional attachment to you or his feelings for you.\" Steve says cheaters make promises to their significant others because they know that's what women want to hear. \"Michele, there's nothing wrong with you. You haven't done anything,\" he says. \"Please release yourself. Let the baggage go.\" Sadly, many women have dated men who cheat...and most of them don't even know it. Steve says there are a few major reasons why men stray, though none of them excuse the behavior. The top 5 reasons: . \u2022 They can . \u2022 They think they can get away with it . \u2022 The man hasn't become who he wants and needs to be or found who he truly wants to be with. \u2022 What's happening at home isn't \"happening\" like it used to. \u2022 There's always a woman out there willing to cheat with him. If you're married to a mama's boy, is there anything a wife can do to become the number one woman in his life? Before Jill married her husband of 13 years, she says she knew he was a mama's boy. Over the years, she's grown tired of coming in second. Steve says the first mistake women like Jill make is thinking they can change their men. \"You think if you give him enough cookie, bake it just right, he'll straighten up,\" he says. \"That's not what happens with a mama's boy.\" Men stay in this adolescent mind-set because their mothers set standards when they were boys and upheld those standards throughout their lives, Steve says. Wives must enter into their marriages with their own set of rules to stand a chance. Oprah.com: Get more of Steve's love advice! \"You have to start saying: 'Hey, look, you have to respect me. You have to be here to show your son how a man treats a woman. You have to be here to show your daughter how a man should treat her,'\" he says. \"'You can't do it if you're playing me second to your mama.'\" If that doesn't work, Steve suggests appealing to the \"three Ps\" -- profess, provide and protect. \"If you don't say to your man: 'Okay, look, next time she calls, do not leave us in the middle of the night. We're unprotected,'\" he says. \"Every man has it in his DNA to do these things when we love you. When you call on it and require it, we rise to the occasion.\" From The Oprah Winfrey Show \u00a9 2008 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Looking for a man? Know what you want, Steve Harvey says .\nA man must feel he can provide and protect his woman, he says .\nHarvey's Top 5 reasons men cheat includes other women who are willing .\nOne of Harvey's tips for curing a mama's boy: Demand respect .","id":"98ebd85013fb1cda2d8607bdaa15429c74e4f8ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov will be free to launch his competitive comeback before the end of next month following a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling in Switzerland on Tuesday. Kazakh rider Vinokourov will be free to resume competitive cycling before the end of next month. Vinokourov was originally suspended for one year by his federation (KCF) after the pre-race favorite was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping. The International Cycling Union (UCI) disputed the length of the ban which should have been for two years under their rules. Parties involved agreed the issue should go to arbitration and Vinokourov, who 'retired' after being banned, has now been told his ban will be for two years. This year's Tour de France runs from July 4-26 while Vinokourov has been told by CAS he can resume competitive action two days before the race ends in Paris. Vinokourov has said he wants to launch a comeback, preferably with Astana alongside Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador. \"My dream would be to win the world championship and wear the rainbow shirt for my last year in 2010,\" he said last month. Swiss-based CAS issued its preliminary decision in the arbitration between the UCI, Vinokourov and the KCF in a Web site statement on Tuesday . CAS said: \"The decision adopted on 5 December 2007 by the Anti-Doping Commission of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation is set aside. \"Mr Vinokurov committed an anti-doping rule violation under Articles 15.2 of the Anti-Doping Regulations of the Union Cycliste Internationale and, according to Articles 261, 268 and 275 of the Anti-Doping Regulations, is declared ineligible for a period of two years commencing on 24 July 2007. \"Mr Vinokurov will be eligible to compete in international competitions as of 24 July 2009.\"","highlights":"Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov is told his doping ban is for two years .\nPre-race favorite was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping .\nBanned for year by Federation, Vinokourov can resume cycling on July 24 .","id":"c1ed3eec658f680ecc8d9a8899c1d6b6a79ec95c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new shoe outfitted with a GPS chip aims to offer peace of mind to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. It's common for people with Alzheimer's or other types of dementia to wander from their homes. The embedded GPS tracking system will allow the wearer of the shoe to be located instantly online and for their whereabouts to be monitored in real time. The shoe may offer hope to the growing number of people with Alzheimer's disease. More than 26 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer's, and the figure is set to exceed 106 million by 2050, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. \"This could not only save lives but potentially save governments billions in search and rescue operations,\" Andrew Carle, a professor at George Mason University who was an adviser for the project, told CNN. Patients of Alzheimer's, the leading cause of dementia, can easily become confused or disoriented, and it's common for them to wander from their home and not be able to find their way back. The shoe is the latest in a wave of assisted-living devices, from home sensor systems to pill boxes that remind people to take their medication, targeted at keeping Alzheimer's patients safe. Kathi Cordsen, an iReporter from Fullerton, Calif., whose aunt has Alzheimer's, welcomed the development of the shoes. \"It's really sad how this illness creeps up on a person out of the blue,\" she said. \"I think these shoes could help quite a few families to be able to keep [their loved ones home] instead of putting them in a home.\" What do you think about GPS-outfitted shoes? Tell us in the SoundOff below . Carle, an expert in aging and assistive technologies, said businesses are honing in on ways technology can improve the quality of life for older adults. The market for microchip-based technology alone is worth an estimated $5 billion, he said. While tracking devices may help those with dementia live independently, they have also raised ethical concerns about informed consent and personal privacy, according to Gayle Willis of the Alzheimer's Society in the UK. \"As long as people with dementia are involved in the decision-making progress, assisted living technologies can play an important role to help people live well with dementia,\" she told CNN. But, Willis noted, they cannot be a substitute for good quality care and more research needs to be done to see what products work best for people. The shoe is a collaboration between GTX Corp., a firm that specializes in miniaturized GPS tracking devices, and footwear company Aetrex. Details are still being worked out, but GTX Chief Executive Patrick Bertagna expects the shoe to retail for around $200 to $300. For a monthly fee of about $20, caregivers will also have the option to subscribe to a GTX service that automatically alerts them when the wearer of the shoe leaves a designated boundary. Sixty percent of Alzheimer's patients will get lost at least once, said Carle. Because they often will not seek help or respond to assistance, nearly half of them risk death if not found within 24 hours, he said. Electronic wristbands and ankle bracelets have been used to track sufferers of dementia before, but those devices tend to be bulky and uncomfortable. The shoes, on the other hand, are designed to be unobtrusive. Testing of a prototype is expected to be completed by the end of the year and the shoe will likely be rolled out in 2010.","highlights":"Shoe with GPS system aims to improve safety of seniors with dementia .\nAlzheimer's patients often wander from home and can't find their way back .\nDevice would locate them if they get lost and allow caregivers to monitor them .","id":"cad0c7174ac9f9e1c64627f57d2d771fb1ece69b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For more than a half-century Jerry and Marilyn Damman wondered what happened to their 2-year-old boy, who mysteriously vanished into thin air outside a Long Island bakery. Steven Damman and his sister disappeared from outside a bakery in 1955. His sister was found safe. Now, 54 years later, a Michigan man claims he is the missing child whose name was Steven Damman. Within the last six months, the unidentified man contacted Nassau County, New York, police and said he had credible evidence that would link him to the case of the missing toddler, according to police Detective Lt. Kevin Smith. Nassau County police turned the case over to the FBI in Detroit. So far, authorities will not release the Michigan man's identity and won't say why he believes he is Steven Damman. The FBI is conducting DNA testing, Smith said. Sandra Berchtold, spokeswoman for the FBI Detroit bureau, said only, \"The FBI investigates all leads in kidnapping cases, but cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation in this matter.\" In 1955, Marilyn Damman took her toddler, Steven, and his baby sister, Pamela, to a bakery in East Meadow. The mother went inside to do some quick shopping, leaving her 2-year-old and baby girl in the stroller outside. But when Damman returned, her children were gone. A short time later, blocks away, the baby girl was found unharmed and the stroller was intact, but Steven was missing, Smith said. Thousands of searchers looked for the toddler, but the boy was nowhere to be found. Hitting one dead end after the next, the Dammans packed up and moved from New York back to Iowa, Jerry Damman said. And until now, they thought there was little chance of ever seeing their son again. Jerry Damman, who lives on a farm in Iowa, told CNN, \"You never give up hope, [but] things dim after all those years.\" He said he isn't ready to comment on the latest developments for various reasons. Damman says authorities have contacted him, but he has not yet given DNA samples. A few years back, Steven Damman's sister gave a DNA sample in connection with the 1957 Philadelphia case of a young boy's body found in a box. In that case, all indications were it was not Steven Damman.","highlights":"Unnamed Michigan man says he was toddler who went missing in 1955 .\n2-year-old Steven Damman vanished from in front of a Long Island, New York, bakery .\nToddler's father: \"You never give up hope, [but] things dim after all those years\"\nThe FBI is conducting DNA testing, says Nassau County police detective .","id":"74e2bdb912c9aed849224c444011e5ac74d4bb2c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Accused terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay complained of abuse that they said led them to tell their CIA interrogators lies, according to sections of U.S. government transcripts made public on Monday. A detainee walks at Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in May. Suspected al Qaeda figure Abu Zubaydah told a military tribunal in 2007 that he was physically and mentally tortured for months. \"They did not care about my injuries,\" said Zubaydah, according to the newly released transcripts, adding, \"doctors told me that I nearly died four times.\" When Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan and badly wounded during a shootout in March 2002, U.S. intelligence officials considered him a major player in al Qaeda. He was treated for his injuries, then later subjected to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques after CIA interrogators said he stopped cooperating with them. According to a Justice Department memo released in April 2009 by the Obama administration, Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times by CIA interrogators in August 2002. See timeline of events \u00bb . In the newly released section, Zubaydah said his interrogators discovered \"that I am not number three in al Qaeda.\" The transcripts were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Obama administration reviewed the highly redacted portions of the transcripts that were released shortly after the Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held at Guantanamo Bay in the spring of 2007. The sections made public on Monday still remain heavily blacked out. See key players in interrogation policy \u00bb . Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9\/11 attacks, told the military panel he made up stories when tortured. In broken English, Mohammad told of being questioned about the location of Osama bin Laden. \"Where is he? I don't know,\" said Mohammad. \"Then he tortures me. Then I said yes, he is in this area...\" Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 Americans in 2000, said his interrogators \"drown me in water,\" apparently in reference to the times he was subjected to waterboarding. According to the transcripts, he claimed he was able to run 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) before he was detained, \"now, I cannot walk more than 10 minutes.\" ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner said in a statement that the documents \"provide further evidence of brutal torture and abuse in the CIA's interrogation program and demonstrate beyond doubt that this information has been suppressed solely to avoid embarrassment and growing demands for accountability.\" Wizner said the ACLU will go back to court to seek the full release of all of the documents. CNN's Carol Cratty, Mike Ahlers and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sections of U.S. government transcripts on Guantanamo made public Monday .\nReleased sections still remain heavily blacked out; ACLU to seek full disclosure .\nKhalid Sheik Mohammad tells military panel he made up stories when tortured .\nSuspected al Qaeda figure waterboarded at least 83 times by CIA in August 2002 .","id":"80c443d397f5b598783fe2bd52d4348007a3c395"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main political rival attended demonstrations at separate locations in Tehran on Tuesday in the wake of last week's disputed presidential election. Al-Alam footage shows Ahmadinejad supporters rallying Tuesday in central Tehran. While pro-Ahmadinejad crowds descended on Vali Asr Square in central Tehran, Mir Hossein Moussavi urged his own supporters to cancel their plans to rally at the square after mass protests a day earlier in which seven people were reportedly killed. Instead, his supporters gathered at a different location in Tehran, according to video footage of the rally. Iran's government banned international journalists from covering election rallies Tuesday and blocked access to some online communication tools. (Full story) Reporters for international news outlets, including CNN, could talk about the rallies in their live reports but were not allowed to leave their hotel rooms and offices. The decision was an apparent reaction to video showing violence at recent demonstrations in support of Moussavi, who is disputing the results of Friday's presidential election. Watch government coverage of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally \u00bb . Iran's government has criticized some of that coverage and the images, describing them as biased. Also Tuesday, Iran's powerful Guardian Council announced a partial vote recount, an apparent U-turn after the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed ultraconservative Ahmadinejad's win. The Guardian Council met with the three opposition candidates -- Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen Rezaie -- and asked them to specify the areas where they wanted a recount, a council spokesman told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Watch how the decision may not satisfy the opposition \u00bb . Moussavi rejected the recount, according to an official close to his camp, demanding fresh elections and accusing the country's religious elite of trying to further manipulate the outcome of the original vote. An official close to the opposition leader's camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a recount would provide another opportunity for the government to manipulate the results. He said the council ordered the printing of 53 million ballots for the elections, but only 39 million were used. Fourteen million ballots were missing. Khamenei appealed to Iranians on Tuesday to stand behind the Islamic republic. \"Some people are against the unity of the Iranian nation and the solidarity of the Islamic system,\" Khamenei said in a meeting with representatives of the four presidential candidates, government-funded Press TV reported. \"Such acts and vandalism and some crimes that were committed are not related to the candidates' supporters but to disturbers of peace and all should stand against them,\" Khamenei said. A former Iranian parliamentary speaker, addressing Tuesday's pro-Ahmadinejad rally, called on Moussavi to accept defeat. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel urged Moussavi to \"take the leaders' advice\" so that \"everyone will benefit\" \"I want to remind my brother Mr. Moussavi that we do know that the leadership of the revolution likes you and he has advised you if you have any complaints please refer to the Council of Guardians,\" Adel said. Iranian security forces arrested three reformist politicians Tuesday for their alleged involvement in orchestrating post-election violence, Press TV reported. Mohammed Ali Abtahi, an adviser to presidential candidate and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, was one of the three detained. Abtahi was also Iran's vice president under reformist President Mohammed Khatami. The other two were identified as Behzad Nabavi and Saeed Hajjarian. Ahmadinejad's resounding election win surprised many experts who had expected Moussavi to win or put up a much stronger fight. Moussavi, a former prime minister thought of as a reformist, enjoys tremendous support among youth, who make up almost 60 percent of Iran's population of 70 million. He tapped into their dissatisfaction with the faltering economy under Ahmadinejad and with an unemployment rate that tops 30 percent by some accounts, analysts said. Watch how cyberspace is used by opposition \u00bb . But Kaveh Afrasiabi, a political scientist who supports Ahmadinejad, said the incumbent's widespread support in rural areas and small towns was the reason for his win with more than 62 percent of the vote. Since Moussavi contested the results, his supporters have taken to the streets every day, often clashing with police and Ahmadinejad's backers. iReport.com: On the ground in Iran . Seven people were killed on Monday night in the capital, Tehran, after they allegedly attacked a military post near Azadi -- or Freedom -- Square, government-funded Press TV said. The site was the same one where Moussavi had earlier in the day appealed to his supporters, a crowd of at least 10,000. Watch crowds call for change \u00bb . Moussavi's presence was his first public appearance since the election. He called on authorities to stop attacks on his supporters and urged his followers to continue demonstrating peacefully. \"You are not breaking glass,\" he said. \"You are breaking tyranny.\" Watch Christiane Amanpour report from rally \u00bb . Ahmadinejad was in Russia on Tuesday to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev. He was welcomed as the \"newly re-elected president of Iran,\" with deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov telling reporters, \"The issue of elections in Iran is an internal affair of the Iranian people.\" Reaction from other world leaders to the disputed election has been, for the most part, guarded. In Washington, President Obama reiterated his \"deep concerns\" about the election during a White House Rose Garden appearance Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. \"When I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me and of concern to the American people,\" he said. \"My hope is that the Iranian people will take the right steps in order for them to be able to express their voices, express their aspirations.\" He said the initial reaction from Iran's supreme leader indicates that \"he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election.\" \"People want to see debate,\" he said. \"How that plays out is something for the Iranian people to decide.\" Criticism of the Iranian election earned the representatives of several European nations -- France, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and the Czech Republic -- a visit to Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, where each received a notice of protest for interfering in Iran's internal affairs, according to Press TV. The European Union had expressed concern over the use of force on protesters. CNN's Octavia Nasr, Reza Sayah and Samson Desta contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei urges Iranians to stand behind republic .\nThousands of Ahmadinejad supporters crowd streets of central Tehran .\nSupporters backing Mir Hossein Moussavi protest for fourth day elsewhere in city .\nIran's election authority to recount disputed votes in presidential election .","id":"f8ec93382155871a5096fa88f4fb88958490a5bb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Fawaz A. Gerges holds the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. His most recent book is \"The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global.\" Fawaz Gerges says the elite running Iran has lost the support of two key groups -- women and young voters. (CNN) -- With an apparent political coup in Iran by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters over the weekend, the ruling mullahs have dispensed with all democratic pretense and joined the ranks of traditional dictators in the Middle East. The hardliners in Tehran, led by the Revolutionary Guards and ultraconservatives, have won the first round against reformist conservatives but at an extravagant cost: loss of public support. Widespread accusations of fraud and manipulation are calling into question the very legitimacy and authority of the mullahs' Islamic-based regime. The electoral crisis has exposed a deepening divide between female and young voters, who represent about 70 percent of the population, and a radical conservative ruling elite out of touch with the hopes, fears and aspirations of young Iranians. The consensus in Iran, particularly among young voters, is that the election was stolen from reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Moussavi, and that the outcome did not reflect the electorate's genuine will. After the Interior Ministry announced the final election results showing a nearly 2-to-1 landslide for Ahmadinejad (62.63 to 33.75 percent), thousands of young protesters took to the streets and clashed with police and set trash bins and tires ablaze. Shock and disbelief turned to anger and rage. What poured gasoline on a simmering fire among the youth was a belief of widespread fraud. \"It's like taking 10 million votes away from Moussavi and giving them to Ahmadinejad,\" said Tehran-based analyst Saeed Leilaz. That is equivalent to more than 30 million votes in the American electorate. \"Death to the dictatorship\" and \"down with the dictator\" shouted the demonstrators while being clubbed by police and anti-riot squads. For the first time, young Iranians showed defiance against their tormentors and overcame their fear. Many young men reportedly roamed Tehran streets looking for a fight with the police. The ruling mullahs face an unprecedentedly serious crisis at home. While it does not threaten their existence, the crisis risks undermining their ability to govern effectively and pursue a successful foreign policy. In his first response to the results of the election, Moussavi nailed it on the head. \"I won't surrender to this manipulation,\" he wrote on his Web site. \"The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny.\" Moussavi's warning to the mullahs that stealing the election would weaken the very foundation of their regime and ultimately bring about its collapse carries weight because he has been part of the political inner circle of the Islamic Republic, not an outsider. Moussavi is a former prime minister admired for the way he managed the country's economy during the prolonged and bloody Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, a conflict which cost Iran over $500 billion. He worked closely with Ali Khamenei, then Iran's president and today supreme leader, and clashed with him over political authority and powers. Moussavi is a member of Iran's Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and the non-elected Guardian Council led by Ayatollah Khamenei. Initially, many reformists were skeptical about Moussavi's reform credentials and feared that he was too conservative for their taste. Throughout the presidential campaign, Moussavi labored hard to portray his proposals on social policy and foreign affairs as an extension of the Islamic system in order to disarm conservative critics, even denying that he is a mainstream reformist candidate in the hope of winning the support of reformers and moderate conservatives. Indeed, as the presidential campaign progressed, Moussavi won the backing not only of an important conservative segment of the electorate but also the formidable youth constituency. His charismatic wife, Zahra Rahnavard, electrified the female vote and won the hearts and minds of women voters who flooded their campaign rallies. In the past two weeks, Moussavi's campaign gained momentum. There was increasing evidence that the tide was turning and that women and young voters would tip the balance of power his way, if they turned out to vote in large numbers. Some important facts: There are 46 million eligible voters in Iran, half of whom are women. In 1997, more than 60 percent of the votes that brought moderate Mohammad Khatami to power were cast by women, and in 2000, women voters were instrumental in giving reformists a sweeping majority in the Parliament. Promising greater individual freedoms to youths was instrumental in the two landslide victories by Khatami in 1997 and 2001. Surely, if the turnout was 85 percent as the Interior Ministry said, Moussavi should have done much better than the mere 33.8 percent he supposedly received. According to many independent media reports from all over Iran, women and young voters turned out in record numbers, especially in cities where Moussavi is very popular. That should have given Moussavi a comfortable lead over the incumbent. Multiple irregularities were reported, including the fact that Moussavi supposedly lost the vote in his home province. There is an alarming discrepancy between the final results and the voting patterns of the Iranian electorate over more than a decade. Lack of transparency in the vote count has reinforced Iranians' suspicion. The weight of evidence is at odds with the final outcome given by the Interior Ministry. Before Moussavi formally appealed the election result, supreme leader Khamenei closed the door for any possible compromise. In a message on state TV, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a \"divine assessment.\" Yet the Guardian Council, not Khamenei, is the authority that either ratifies or annuls the results. It is refreshing that Khamenei has finally ordered an investigation into allegations of ballot fraud. It is a good start. A more reassuring intiative would be for the Guardian Council to order a full recount with the presence of independent observers. That would go a long way to putting to rest Iranians' concerns. In the meantime, trying to divert attention from the mess at home, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have blamed external \"enemies\" and \"foreign media\" for instigating a \"full-fledged fight against our people.\" The truth is that the crisis is internal and has nothing to do with foreign media or the West. The Obama administration has done the right thing by keeping a low profile and not actively interfering in Iran's unfolding domestic crisis. Unlike his predecessor, Obama has defused the minefield of relations between Washington and Tehran, shifting the focus of Iranians to their own society. But the disputed result shows that the ultraconservative mullahs are not only out of touch with a plurality of their citizens but also with reality. Their conduct reflects a deeper crisis of self-confidence and fear of the future. Has the Islamic revolution run out of ideological steam? If the mullahs fear Moussavi, a loyalist, they must be scared of their shadows and uncertain about their authority and power. That speaks volumes about where the Islamic Republic is and where it is heading. The mullahs are swimming against the dominant current of Iranian society. In the next four years, Iran will likely be engulfed in social and political turmoil unless the electoral crisis is resolved in a transparent manner. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Fawaz Gerges.","highlights":"Fawaz Gerges: Iran's ruling mullahs forfeited their public support in the election .\nGerges: Ruling mullahs are out of step with women and young voters .\nHe says hardliners are swimming against the current of Iranian society .","id":"bd8c23f0bf1a5e36a8b5a2317b8a9327bbd41c37"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nigeria's main militant group issued a veiled threat Monday against an upcoming world football tournament that is tentatively scheduled to take place in the west African nation later this year. Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, pictured September 2008 in the Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta warned the international football association FIFA that it should \"rethink\" allowing Nigeria to host the upcoming under-17 World Cup series later this year. \"The safety of international players and visitors can not be guaranteed due to the current unrest,\" MEND said in an e-mail. Only two out of the nine stadiums in Nigeria are close to being ready for the tournament which is scheduled to take place between October 24 and November 15, according to FIFA. The association has given the country a grace period to start constructing the remaining venues, FIFA Vice President Jack Warner said. In its e-mail, MEND claimed to have attacked a Chevron oil station in the Niger Delta region Monday as part of its latest offensive against the Nigerian government, dubbed \"Hurricane Piper Alpha.\" \"Hurricane Piper Alpha hit the Abiteye flow station operated by Chevron today, Monday, June 15, 2009 at about 0200 Hrs triggering another 'systems failure' which resulted in a massive fire outbreak that is consuming the entire facility,\" MEND said. It threatened further attacks in other states in the Niger Delta region, as well as offshore oil facilities. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it is investigating the reported attack on its Abiteye flow station. \"We are working to ensure the safety of our people, restore the integrity of our operations as soon as possible and are not speculating on any comment while investigations are being undertaken,\" according to an e-mailed statement from Chevron spokesman Scott Walker. Last month, the militant group declared an \"all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be reinvested in the region instead of enriching those whom the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent. The recent violence -- which has included attacks on pipelines and hostage-taking -- has limited shipment of crude oil supplies out of Nigeria, Africa's largest producer.","highlights":"Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, produces 2.4 million barrels of oil per day .\nRecent attacks by MEND have limited shipment of crude oil supplies .\nTournament to take place between October 24 and November 15, according to FIFA .\nOnly two out of the nine stadia for under-17s competition close to being ready .","id":"f7661ab7793832e25cda88c86857789b0a09121d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two undocumented workers from Mexico and one from Ecuador have reached court settlements in recent weeks for a total of $3.85 million in damages for New York construction-site accidents, an attorney for the men announced Wednesday. \"All three cases involve construction and terribly unsafe working conditions,\" the attorney, Brian O'Dwyer, said in a news conference. \"We're here today to re-emphasize -- as we have in the past -- to the Latino community and all undocumented workers that they have the same rights once they're on the job as any New York citizen.\" A 33-year-old undocumented plumber from Mexico who was scalded by an exploding pipe at a Wall Street construction site in 2004 settled his damage claim for $2.5 million, according to a statement given to reporters at the news conference. The married father of two, who says he still has nightmares from the accident, hopes to open a restaurant or bar with the settlement money, his cousin told reporters. In a separate statement, owners of the Wall Street site said only that the injured plumber was \"employed directly by [the] contractor and not by the owner of the property nor the managing agent.\" Reached through a public relations firm, a spokesperson for the contractor, Swig Equities, had no comment. Another undocumented Mexican worker suffered severe injuries to his left foot and other parts of his body when a steel beam fell on his lower body at a building site in downtown Manhattan, the news conference statement said. The 52-year-old settled his damage claim against Beway Realty Corp. and F.J. Sciame Construction Co. Inc. for $750,000, according to the statement. David Koeppel, a managing member of Beway Realty, said he was not familiar with the case. F.J. Sciame Construction, the site's contractor, did not respond to inquiries. A 36-year-old Ecuadorian laborer who worked at the Arverne by the Sea community in Queens -- a neighborhood The New York Times has called a \"bright spot\" in the housing market for its strong sales and low foreclosure rates -- settled a damage claim for $600,000, the news conference statement said. He was injured when three large 44x10-foot trusses, each weighing 200 pounds, collapsed onto him in August 2007, fracturing his hip and causing other injuries, according to the statement. The father of three, who had worked in construction for more than a decade and owned his own company at the time of the accident, said he was very sad after the accident because he did not know how he would support his family. His two sons, now 7 and 8, and his 16-year-old daughter were all born in the United States. \"The contractor tried to blame me,\" he said at the news conference, speaking in Spanish. What message would he give other workers? \"Don't be afraid to talk to a lawyer.\" Although he had not yet recovered enough to resume construction work, he hopes to use the settlement money to build a home for his family in New Jersey. Messages left for The Beechwood Organization, developers of Arverne by the Sea, were not returned. Joel Magallan, executive director of Asociacion Tepeyac, an immigrant advocacy group, said that while construction work is often dangerous, undocumented workers are likely to work at sites that lack safety equipment and OSHA regulation compliance. \"This is a great day for the undocumented immigrants,\" Magallan said. \"They have to know today that they have rights -- the same rights as other workers who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.\" \"Many workers are threatened by their employers with deportation or discharge if they bring their cases to court,\" O'Dwyer said. \"What we find normally on work sites in New York is that deaths occur to the undocumented far out of proportion to their work in the workplace, and that is because of the fact that they just do not receive the safety protections,\" he said. In 2005, O'Dwyer won a historic $4 million settlement for a 33-year-old Mexican worker who had fallen 30 feet in a scaffolding accident in the Bronx. The injured worker, who was hospitalized for four weeks and underwent seven surgeries after the 2001 accident, told CNN on Wednesday that workers -- documented or undocumented -- should not to be afraid to stand up for their rights. Although it is illegal for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who is undocumented, according to the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs, if an undocumented worker is hired by an employer, he or she then has the right to be paid minimum wage and overtime, the right to health protection and workplace safety, and the right to organize to improve labor conditions. \"Each of these men was injured in the course of their work on construction sites, and their immigration status was irrelevant to their right to seek redress for those injuries,\" O'Dwyer explained in a statement. \"Enforcing laws requiring a safe workplace serves the interests of all Americans, whether they are citizens or not.\" The men involved in the settlements said they chose to remain anonymous to protect relatives outside of the United States, who could become the target of kidnapping schemes if knowledge of their settlements became public.","highlights":"Two undocumented workers from Mexico, one from Ecuador reach settlements .\nThe three had been injured in different construction accidents around New York .\nAttorney says undocumented workers have same rights once they're on the job .\nAdvocate says undocumented construction workers often have less-safe sites .","id":"a35e3821a7623ad9ac9d725964b35ab0711fb0bd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 15-year-old girl with a 500-texts-a-day texting habit thumbed her way to the $50,000 grand prize at the L.G. National Texting Championship in New York on Tuesday. Kate Moore, 15, of Des Moines, Iowa, out-texted more than 250,000 participants for the texting title in New York. Over 250,000 participants of all ages entered the competition, whose championship rounds were held in New York on Monday and Tuesday and won by Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa. Some challenges were straightforward tests of speed and accuracy, but others required a little extra texting savvy. In one round, texters had to send texts while blindfolded. Another round quizzed contestants' knowledge of texting acronyms. The only acronym to stump every texter was PAW -- parents are watching. The fourth-place finisher, 21-year-old Jordan Rowe, saw her dreams of texting glory vanish in the \"pressure cooker\" round, where actors dressed as emoticons attempted to distract contestants tasked with texting tongue-twisters. Rowe failed to accurately text \"Which wicked witch wished which more wicked witch in the well?\" while a human emoticon talked trash about her sister. Riffing off texters' sometimes dangerous tendency to text while performing other tasks, another round required contestants to complete an obstacle course while firing off difficult-to-type texts. \"I felt like I was gonna die,\" the eventual champion said of the texting gauntlet, getting a big LOL from the audience. The finals on Tuesday afternoon pitted Dynda Morgan, 14, of Savannah, Georgia, against Moore. The two went head to head in a best-of-three showdown to see who could most quickly pound out lengthy texts predetermined by the judges -- with no errors. Morgan, whose stepsister also made it to the championships, took the first round. Faced with a do-or-die situation in the second round, Moore seemed to bet on accuracy over speed, finishing well behind her opponent but winning the round. In the tiebreaker, the two girls furiously raced to thumb the final text: \"Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy...MY oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin' my way....Zippitty Do Dah Zippity Aay! WondeRful Feeling Wonderful day!\" The pregnant pause before the winner was announced stretched into a seeming eternity because Moore apparently forgot to hit send after finishing her text. But then Moore's phone began to vibrate, signaling that she was the grand champion. Kate's beaming mother, Claire, acknowledged that she has confiscated her daughter's phone on occasion, but said she appreciates that her daughter's texting habit means she's in constant touch. \"I can get ahold of [her] at all times,\" she said. Nor does Moore's mother have to foot an appallingly large phone bill each month, because her daughter is on an unlimited texting plan. She did concede that the texting portion of one of Moore's recent phone bills stretched to 294 pages. Moore's victory was all the more awe-inspiring because she got a phone with text capability less than a year ago. Moments after her victory, Moore agreed to an exclusive text message interview with CNN. CNN: OMG U r ltrlly the wrld's bst txter. How does it feel? Moore: It feels the best! Im so prd of myself & it feels aswm that ive gottn so far! :) CNN: How mny txts do u snd a day? A month? Moore: Uhhh about lyk 400-500 in a day, an avrg of 12014 thousand a month? CNN: Wht r u going to do w the 50 k? Moore: Idk yet! Prlly spend a good amount of the $$$......but ya gotta save some 2 b smart of course! CNN: Do u ever get in trubl in skwl 4 txting 2 much? Moore: haah just once or 2ce, teachers hv seen it and taken it away...lol that sux when that happens tho. CNN: What's ur crzst txting story? Moore: Haha I actually have a scar on my hand from txtingg....i was txting on the top bunk and I sat up cuz it was a cool txt and then I hit it in the ceiling fan . CNN. Do ur thumbs hurt? Moore: Hahah not at all! Ud b surprised they don't get stressed out. CNN: Kthxbi. Moore: cya! :)","highlights":"Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa, says \"I felt like I was gonna die\"\nOf the $50,000 prize, Moore texts she'll \"prlly spend a good amount of $$$\"\nText messaging competition includes texting while blindfolded .","id":"0f0229fdb0ea0f102a40afd86f2b12cf4df92059"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Before Jada Pinkett Smith took the role of producer and star of TNT's \"HawthoRNe,\" she made sure her family was fine with her being away from her mother and wife duties during filming. Jada Pinkett Smith's new TV show, \"HawthoRNe,\" premieres Tuesday on TNT. Pinkett Smith plays a single mom and a hospital's chief nurse on the medical show, which debuts Tuesday night on cable's TNT Network, which is owned by the parent company of CNN. \"I sat down with kids and my husband and I really asked their permission,\" she said. \"I said 'Listen, there was this show I'd love to do and it will be three months that you might not see Mommy a lot.' And they're looking at me like 'Really? What does that mean?'\" It meant that on weekdays Will would get Willow, 8, and Jaden, 11, out of bed each morning, tuck them in at night and take care of them in-between. \"So they get to eat chocolate for breakfast and go to bed whenever they feel like it for those three months while I'm working,\" Pinkett Smith said. \"So, it works out, and they know that the rest of the year, I'm off.\" While the show is based on a Richmond, Virginia, hospital, it's produced in a recently closed Inglewood, California, hospital just a few miles from the Smiths' home. \"The great thing is that my kids do know I'm in town,\" she said. It's close enough for Will to spend time on the set with Jada while still taking care of the kids. \"He's an extra in one of the episodes, so just see if you can catch him,\" she said. \"He's walking by, doing a drive-by, and we could hardly afford that. It was a very costly walk-by.\" Smith also works as a \"ghost producer\" helping structure her episodes, she said. \"He's quite a fantastic story structuralist,\" she said. \"So right now, I'm learning from him just how to structure a story in a way that speaks to the universal voice and to understand how to hit those human emotional cords that resonate universally, no matter what country you're from, your economic status.\" Will Smith was also on the set at Paramount Studios last month when daughter Willow taped her TV sitcom debut on Nickelodeon's \"True Jackson, VP.\" His role then was stage dad. Hollywood's highest paid actor, as ranked by Forbes magazine, sat with the other parents through the day-long rehearsals and taping \"like a regular dad,\" according to the parent of a cast member. By the way, Jada reports her daughter came home saying she wanted to do more television acting. When \"HawthoRNe\" production ends later this summer, Jada may have to return the \"supportive spouse\" favor to her husband when he travels to Beijing, China, to work on a \"Karate Kid\" remake. Will Smith will produce, with son Jaden playing the lead role, opposite Jackie Chan. It's not clear if Jada will seek work as a background extra.","highlights":"Jada Pinkett Smith's new TV show, \"HawthoRNe,\" premieres Tuesday on TNT .\nJada's actor-husband Will Smith will appear as extra in an episode .\nActing runs in family: Jada's daughter will appear in TV sitcom, son will be in film .","id":"f63190fae79184f217f74ae2e89dfdf025855a5c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- John Symons lost his wife Jo to a mysterious cancer two years ago. But he isn't done battling the disease. The CUP Foundation was founded in memory of Jo Symons, who died in 2006 of the mysterious disease. Jo suffered from cancer of unknown primary, or CUP, a diagnosis that is given when doctors find cancer in the body but aren't able to identify where it began. That inevitably complicates treatment, as doctors are at a loss as to whether they are dealing with breast, lung or countless other types of cancer. \"Any cancer diagnosis is devastating for patients and loved ones. But not knowing where in the body the cancer has originated and what type of cancer we are dealing with is a double blow, it's double agony,\" Symons told CNN. After his wife died in 2006, Symons abandoned his career as a business school professor to set up the Cancer of Unknown Primary Foundation, also known as \"Jo's friends.\" The charity aims to raise awareness of CUP and campaigns for more research in the hope that it will lead to better treatment. Symons said he also wanted to help others faced with the challenging diagnosis. People from 35 countries visit the foundation's Web site. \"Most of them say there's nowhere else [for them to turn to],\" he said. It is unclear how many people are faced with the cancer of unknown primary worldwide, but according to Symons, 3 to 5 percent of all cancers are CUP. The CUP Foundation estimates that in the UK alone, more than 10,000 people are diagnosed with the mystery disease annually, giving it a higher incidence than pancreatic and ovarian cancers. Find out more about rare conditions \u00bb . Cancer needs to be treated by identifying the anatomical location of where the cancer has started, and therapy is always based on where that cancer starts in the body, Symons explained. In the case of CUP, the cells lose their unique features as the cancer spreads. \"So if you don't know where the cancer has started, it is very difficult to treat it,\" he told CNN. Many CUP sufferers have just weeks or months to live after the cancer has spread. Jo died at the age of 46, only eight months after being diagnosed. Jo discovered she had cancer when she developed a lump in her neck, according to Symons. But it was only a secondary tumor, and doctors believed the primary tumor was too small to locate or possibly had already disappeared. At first, the Symons were hopeful: \"We kept thinking it's only a matter of time before someone figures out where this comes from and are able to treat it, that we'd have good news and that while she might not be cured, she would be able to live with the cancer.\" But as time went by, they realized this wasn't going to be possible. Doctors first thought Jo might have ovarian cancer, but ruled that out after several tests. Subsequently they thought it might be breast cancer, so Jo underwent grueling chemotherapy treatment for several months. That didn't help, and further tests were conducted to try and identify the genetic profile of the tumor where the cancer originated. These tests suggested Jo might be suffering from pancreatic cancer. For the last months of her life, Jo was treated for pancreatic cancer. \"But sadly, that was too late, even if it had been the correct diagnosis, to turn the tables,\" Symons recalled. He never found out what cancer his wife had suffered from. \"It has been difficult for me,\" Symons said. But faced with the choice of putting the ordeal behind him or trying to do something about it, he picked the latter. \"In a sense this charity has been therapeutic.\" But at the same time, \"I'm living daily with a reminder of what it is like for people to go through this terrible disease.\"","highlights":"\"Cancer of unknown primary,\" or CUP, is a mystery disease .\nWith CUP, doctors don't know what type of cancer they are dealing with .\nCUP Foundation casts light on the challenging diagnosis .","id":"914ac3ea0b610286fe66cd61643799884f65df05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An American graduate student who went to Iraq to find ways to help ordinary citizens persevere in a transitioning government was one of two American civilians killed in a Sadr City bombing. Nicole Suveges, a political scientist working toward her doctorate, died in a Sadr City bombing Tuesday. Nicole Suveges, a married political scientist from Illinois, was part of a program that embeds academics into military units to help personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan navigate the local environment, according to her employer, BAE Systems. Suveges, who started her tour with Human Terrain System in April, had been assigned to support the 3rd Brigade Combat Team for the 4th Infantry Division in \"political, cultural, and tribal engagements,\" a statement from the program said. She was one of four Americans to die in the Sadr City bombing Tuesday. Two U.S. soldiers and a State Department employee, Steven Farley, who worked with the provincial reconstruction team, also were killed in the blast. \"Nicole was a leading academic who studied for years on how to improve conditions for others,\" Doug Belair, president of BAE's Technology Solutions & Services, said in a written statement. \"She came to us to give freely of herself in an effort to make a better world.\" Suveges was the second BAE employee to die in a combat zone this year. Michael V. Bhatia, 31, a social scientist from Medway, Massachusetts, died in a roadside bombing May 7 in Afghanistan, BAE said. Scott Fazekas, BAE's director of communications, said Suveges and Bhatia were among three dozen social scientists hired by the company and its subcontractors to support the program. The Johns Hopkins University graduate student was also working toward a doctorate in political science with an emphasis on international relations. The focus of her dissertation was on the transition from an authoritarian regime to democracy and how it affects ordinary citizens, the university said. \"Nicole was committed to using her learning and experience to make the world a better place, especially for people who have suffered through war and conflict,\" William R. Brody, president of the university, said in a message Wednesday to the campus community. \"She exemplifies all that we seek to do at Johns Hopkins: to use knowledge for the good of humanity.\" Mark Blyth, Suveges' primary faculty adviser, said that when Suveges came to Johns Hopkins, she planned to write her Ph.D. dissertation on how ideas move across borders from society to society, exploring how radical Islamic ideas filtered through Western European mosques. After the outbreak of the Iraq war, Suveges decided to shift her focus to the experience of ordinary citizens under a transitional government, said Blyth, a topic that had interested Suveges since her experience in Bosnia with the SFOR\/NATO Combined Joint Psychological Operations Task Force. \"She was a very bright, engaging, sweet person, very intellectually curious,\" Blyth said Wednesday. BAE said Suveges' experience, which included a tour in Iraq as a civilian contractor and a stint in Bosnia in the 1990s as an Army reservist, made her especially valuable in efforts to improve the lives of Iraqis. A Human Terrain System statement said Suveges and others were attending a meeting of the District Advisory Council on Tuesday to elect a new chairman. The officials were helping mediate disputes among the Sadr City leadership and \"facilitate the development of a more representative local government,\" the statement said. The attack was blamed on a Shiite insurgent cell. Suveges graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1992 and received a master's degree in political science from George Washington University in 1998. She had delivered papers to international relations organizations and served as a graduate teaching assistant, the company said. At Johns Hopkins, she was managing editor for the Review of International Political Economy, the university said. Maj. Mike Kenfield, spokesman for the Army's training and doctrine command, said that the program was credited for \"reductions in non-lethal operations\" and that there had been talk about expanding the purview of the team to outside Iraq and Afghanistan. CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report .","highlights":"Nicole Suveges, 38, was part of team of academic embeds advising military in Iraq .\nThe political scientist and Johns Hopkins grad student died in Sadr City bombing .\nSuveges is second Human Terrain System employee to die in combat zone this year .\nShe was also finishing dissertation on citizens in transitioning governments .","id":"33be33e3ff063b39dcc1feca20976104c221d11a"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban targets in the country's northwestern region Tuesday, part of a wider military crackdown on militants inside its borders. A Pakistan army gunship flies over the troubled Dir region on Monday. The airstrikes killed between 70 and 75 militants in the Dir district and flushed out many more, military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told reporters. It is part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out drone attacks against militant targets in Pakistan, rankling Pakistan. But Pakistan's recent military crackdown has led to an exodus of civilians in the region. Between 15,000 and 30,000 residents have left the Dir district, which is less than 160 km (100 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad, according to an aid agency operating in the region. The Pakistani military on Tuesday completed its operation to eliminate and expel militants in Dir and is now focusing on the Buner district, Abbas said. About 300 militants entered Buner a few days ago in violation of the Taliban's recent agreement to leave the district, he said. Buner is about 60 miles away from Islamabad, but Abbas said the militants posed no threat to the capital city. Fighter jets pounded targets in Buner and the Swat Valley in an effort to block the militants' entry and exit points, he added. The general also released a recording of what he said was a conversation between a regional Taliban commander, Maulana Fazlullah, and some of his lieutenants. On the call, the purported Taliban leaders discuss how to stage an announced retreat from Buner last weekend while remaining in control of the territory. \"Those who will remain there will stay apart, so that the world gets to know that Taliban have left Buner,\" one of the commanders says, according to the transcript. \"Not more than two Taliban should sit on a vehicle. Moulvi Sahib will lead. Other vehicles will follow.\" Showing off for news organizations \"is all right, but we have to implement a permanent plan,\" Fazlullah said. Pakistan's government insists that its military crackdown has growing popular support for taking on the Taliban -- an issue that has divided the Pakistani people, particularly in the Pashtun areas. \"The government has been hesitant and divided in going after these guys, but public opinion -- judging by what I read in the Pakistani newspapers -- may be shifting,\" analyst Michael Krepon told CNN. \"They have thought the Taliban is America's war, \" said Krepon, a co-founder of the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank. \"We led them to that conclusion with our drone attacks on Pakistani soil.\" But he warned that a Pakistani military operation against what is sometimes perceived as \"going after its own people\" will not be an easy task for the government. \"The military will go into the field and reclaim territory, but it's not going to be pretty and it's not going to be easy,\" he said. Amnesty International's Asia Pacific director Sam Zarifi told CNN he thinks the test for Pakistan's government is not a military defeat over the Taliban, but \"whether the schools will once again open, whether the health units will once again operate (in Buner).\" He also warned that a Pakistani military operation could be worse than Taliban rule in Buner and other regions. \"What people are telling us over and over again from Buner, from Swat, and other areas, is that they're very intimidated, very scared about life under the Taliban,\" Zarifi said. \"But what really frightens them is the idea that the Pakistani military will launch operations.\" He said that local residents have told Amnesty in recent months that Pakistani military operations have \"destroyed houses, destroyed markets, without in any way impacting the Taliban.\" \"And that's what really frightens people,\" he said. \"We've seen over 500,000 people are now registered as displaced from areas and most of those are people who are afraid of military operations.\" CNN's Samson Desta, Nic Robertson and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pakistani military says operation completed against militants in Dir .\nNEW: General releases recording of conversation he says is among Taliban leaders .\nPakistan criticized for not cracking down on militants along Afghan border .","id":"90fa7cd1e519ec617dc3de4d94281158e1f775c4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iranian-Americans demonstrated on the streets of Washington on Wednesday evening, marching from Iranian diplomatic offices to the Russian embassy, in protest of both governments' actions. A Tuesday meeting of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, and Dmitry Medvedev has angered Iranian-Americans. The demonstration came in the wake of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Moscow on Tuesday, despite allegations of ballot fraud in Ahmadinejad's re-election last week. \"We're hoping that the world attention does not end from what the Iranians are doing right now, because this is not going to end in the next few days, because this is a long haul, a long battle,\" said Washington protest and group organizer Morteza Ahmady. \"Iranians are very capable of deciding their own destiny.\" The group Whereismyvote.org organized the demonstration of about 100 people and aims to build support for its \"global protest\" this Saturday. \"I think it's a very new thing from a historical point of view; it's a civic movement. People try to keep it as nonviolent and civil as possible,\" said group organizer Negar Mortarzavi. In Russia, Ahmadinejad was welcomed as the \"newly re-elected president of Iran,\" with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov telling reporters, \"the issue of elections in Iran is an internal affair of the Iranian people.\" Eighty-five percent of the country's 46 million eligible voters went to the polls on Friday, an unprecedented turnout, Iran's interior ministry said. When the ballots were counted, the government declared Ahmadinejad the winner, with 62.63 percent of the vote. The man many analysts had widely expected to win, Mir Hossein Moussavi, received 33.75 percent. The speed with which the election results were released -- two hours after polls closed -- insulted the Iranian people, said Ahmady, who cited that as a sign of fraud. Moussavi's camp has demanded new elections. Sarah, a Washington protester who would give only her first name, agreed. \"We're not saying that pro-Ahmadinejad supporters don't exist; they do exist,\" she said. \"And we're saying that, yes, if they indeed did win the vote, then the election should be theirs, because we are a democratic people. But we don't feel comfortable with the numbers that came out of Iran. And we're not saying that we don't accept it altogether. We're just asking for a revote.\"","highlights":"They march from Iranian to Russian embassies, protesting both governments .\nRussian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after election .\nD.C. protest organizer: \"This is a long haul, a long battle\"\nIran has been gripped by protests since Ahmadinejad was declared victor in election .","id":"0cf7de8e37a2ad7d66bab7c345b579cf106c3ef8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police are searching for any other alleged victims of a Sunday school teacher accused of raping and killing an 8-year-old girl from Tracy, California. Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was a friend of her own daughter. \"We are asking the public if they have any indication that any of their children may have had inappropriate contact with [the suspect] to contact us,\" Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said Tuesday evening. \"There has been no indication that this has happened. But she is a Sunday school teacher and did have contact with children, so that is why we are asking.\" Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested and charged with killing and raping 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, a friend of her 5-year-old daughter. Huckaby, wearing red jail scrubs over a white T-shirt, was in court Tuesday for an arraignment. She was charged with murder, kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14 and rape by instrument. If convicted, Huckaby would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett told reporters after the hearing. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made later, he said. Huckaby did not enter a plea or speak during the court hearing, although she flinched when Sandra Cantu's name was spoken, and she cried at times. Sandra's body was found April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. Huckaby was arrested Friday night after questioning by police. Sandra was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family -- the same mobile home park where Huckaby lives with her daughter. The two children were close friends and played together frequently, police said. Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police have said. The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death. Before her arrest, Huckaby acknowledged to a newspaper reporter that she owned the suitcase that contained Sandra's body. But Huckaby said the suitcase had been stolen. Willett declined to comment on any of the evidence or allegations in the case, saying evidence would be presented in court. A memorial ceremony is scheduled for Sandra at 1 p.m. Thursday at a high school in Tracy, police said. -- CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police comb community for other possible victims .\nMelissa Huckaby was arrested and charged with killing and raping Sandra Cantu .\nSandra, 8, was friends with Huckaby's 5-year-old daughter .","id":"0b2a6c6e4f708e226cb51dbad67528166d541632"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On Friday afternoon, Robin Meade, HLN anchor of \"Morning Express with Robin Meade,\" sky-dived just before former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who was commemorating his 85th birthday. HLN Anchor Robin Meade chats with former president George H.W. Bush on his 85th birthday. In recent years, Bush's jumps have been about fun and celebration, but he first parachuted out of a plane when he was a naval aviator shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. On Friday, Meade and Bush were each strapped to a member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team. They made their jumps over Kennebunkport, Maine. Before the jumps, Meade sat down with Bush to learn more about why he sky-dives. Plus, the former president weighed in on his and his son's legacies, Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor, and his view on the country's most pressing problems. This is an edited transcript of the interview. Robin Meade: Thank you for making time for us to talk to you today. George H.W. Bush: Oh, no, listen, I'm so glad you're here. Meade: Happy birthday -- 85. Bush: I thought you didn't know. Meade: Everybody knows, right? Bush: I know. It's exciting. It really is wonderful. Meade: What's with your penchant for jumping still? Bush: Well, two reasons. One, it still feels good. You still get a charge out of it. Not easy to do at 85, but ... Meade: I don't think it's easy to do at any age. Watch Bush talk about why he still sky-dives \u00bb . Bush: And secondly, just because you're old, that doesn't mean you can't do fun stuff. And you don't want to sit around drooling in the corner. And so it's a wonderful release. And you know, because I was president, it sends a message all around. You can go out and get something going. Old guys can still have fun and still do stuff. And so, those are the two reasons. ... Meade: You know, I'm thinking about, too, last Saturday we had the 65th anniversary of D-Day, and that was the first time, in World War II, that you jumped, because you had to ditch your plane. Bush: Yes. Meade: Being back with service members up in a plane and getting ready to jump, does that kind of rekindle your feelings of connection? Bush: A little bit of deja vu. A little bit, but not that much anymore. But yes, that's one of the reasons I made the first controlled jump, is because I did the first jump -- or had to get out of the plane. And that was kind of ugly. I pulled the ripcord too early and hit my head on the tail of the plane going by. I was just lucky I'm still alive. And the parachute hung up for a minute on the tail of the plane. It's all kind of war stories. If I start telling you that, then you'll tell me about your father's war stories or something, or grandfather's. And so it wouldn't be fair. But I wanted to do it right. And I did it wrong then. It did save my life, but I did it wrong. So then I've been out with the Golden Knights and I made several solo jumps. And now it's tandem. I think they hope the old boy will remember to push. Meade: Did I read somewhere that you asked President Clinton to jump once? And he hasn't jumped with you. Bush: I may have asked him. I can't remember. Maybe I did, but I have a good relationship with him, a very good one. Watch Bush leave plane, land \u00bb . Meade: Now that you're 85, are you thinking a little bit more about the \"L\" word, \"legacy?\" Bush: I was thinking of the \"L\" word being \"life.\" Life its own self. But no, I think my view on legacy is let the historians figure out what I screwed up and figure out what I got right. And I'm confident that, you know, we had a good administration and good people. And I think the same thing is true of our son. And you know, he had tough times and all, but he's doing it right. He's laying back there and he's not criticizing the president. And I'm very proud of him. Watch Bush and sons talk after the jump \u00bb . And I hope that we both have set examples for how you ought to conduct yourself when you've been president and then go out of office. Let the other guy do it, and support him when you can, and be silent. Don't be out there criticizing all the time. Meade: The one guy at the helm? Bush: Yes. And the \"L\" word, so it doesn't -- I mean, my view is the historians will decide these things, for better or for worse and for right or for wrong. So I'm not doing any biography or anything like that. And I'm confident, because we had such a great team around us, that it will be favorable. Meade: Tell me a little bit about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, she's someone that you appointed to a U.S. District Court. Bush: District Court. Meade: Now she's been nominated for the Supreme Court. What would her impact be on the Supreme Court, do you think? Bush: I think she'd pull a ripcord just at the right time and make a very nice parachutist. I'm going to leave that to others to analyze, but she should be given a fair hearing. She should be accorded every courtesy that goes with her record as a judge and her aspirations to be a Supreme Court justice. And I have a feeling she will be confirmed, but again, I don't go into that day in and day out. ... I think she's had a distinguished record on the bench and she should be entitled to fair hearings. I like the way Sen. John Cornyn said it. I mean, he may vote for her, he may not. But he's been backing away from these -- backing off from those who use radical statements to describe her or to attribute things to her that may or may not be true. I mean, she was called by somebody a \"racist.\" Well, that's not right. I mean, it's not fair. It doesn't help the process to be out there name-calling. So let them decide whether they want to vote for her or not, and get on with it. Meade: There are so many causes and so many problems, so many issues right now. Bush: Right. Right. Meade: What is our most pressing problem, do you think, in the country? Bush: Well, I'd have to say as long as people are hurting, the economy, and those who are out of work, can't find work. I think it will get better. I remain optimistic about our recovery and all of that. But I'd say that's -- and health care. But those -- we've got a lot of people working on those problems. Meade: Oh, by the way, one more question. Is there going to be another jump after this? Bush: I think when I finish this one, I'll say, \"See you on my 90th.\" Whether I do it or not, it gives me a goal. I'm a goal-oriented guy. I really believe in goals. And so -- but we finish this one ... Meade: I hope we do. Bush: ... we'll all be standing there. And they'll say to you, \"What are you going to do?\" And you'll say, \"Five more years, I'm going to do another one.\" And I'll say, \"I'll be there.\" Ninety years old. I'll do it. Meade: Is it a deal? In five years, we'll do it again? Bush: I'm for it. I'm for it. Meade: OK. All right.","highlights":"HLN Anchor Robin Meade sat down to interview George H.W. Bush .\nLater, the two went sky-diving to celebrate former president's 85th birthday .\nBush talks to Meade about how he stays young, and what his legacy will be .\nSee more at the Morning Express blog and showpage .","id":"54ffe8a16c505610dbce10c456421234df20c4b2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Building upon the success of the Green Week franchise, CNN International expands its environmental coverage this year with special Earth Day reports on April 22, and plans additional specials in July and October and a series of comprehensive reports around the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December. On Earth Day, Wednesday April 22, CNN International's special coverage, \"Going Green,\" will showcase the network's extensive global resources with an array of reports and live coverage of Earth Day events around the world. From specific signature newscasts to business shows, the network will focus its attention on everything green and help make sense of what it means to be green today. In addition, CNN International will change the network's signature red logo to green during the coverage. \"CNN International is committed to green coverage,\" said Katherine Green, senior vice president of CNN International. \"It is a topic that resonates with our viewers and with our correspondents. We have reporters all over the world. They find stories no else can. This allows us to give our viewers a true global picture of the environmental issues and solutions.\" The network's business programs, 'World Business Today' and 'Quest Means Business', will focus on the business of going green. From the CEO of an up-and-coming green company to a climate change skeptic, these programs will speak to a variety of people to offer viewers many perspectives on green topics. Throughout the day, CNN International will engage their international audiences asking them what they are doing to be green. iReport correspondent, Errol Barnett, will solicit iReports and ask viewers to describe what they have done to \"go green\" in the past year. He'll also share those iReports throughout the day in special segments across CNN International's programs. On Saturday, April 25 at 1300 BST and Sunday, April 26 at 0100 and 1900 BST, a special programme, 'Your Green World', will focus on the current state of green initiatives around the planet. Correspondents from different parts of the world will report on how the current concern over the state of the environment touches the lives of global citizens. The special will explore many stories, including an initiative in Jakarta, Indonesia that promotes the planting of trees before a couple can get married, and a US recycling plant that tackles financial hurdles brought by the country's financial downturn.","highlights":"CNN International to broadcast series of reports on Earth Day, April 22 .\nAdditional specials are planned for July and October .\nCNN plans in-depth reporting around Copenhagen Climate Conference .","id":"4e0baadd7f21a930d3cdb7a180a355694df1509b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Should he stay or should he go? Manchester United insist Cristiano Ronaldo will still be wearing a red shirt next season but the Portuguese winger, courted by Real Madrid, has refused to rule out a move to Spain. Cristiano Ronaldo has refused to commit himself to Manchester United. Football Fan Zone presents five reasons why Cristiano Ronaldo should stay at Manchester United and five reasons why he should move to Real Madrid. Let us know what you think below. Stay: . Loyalty: Manchester United took a huge risk when they signed Ronaldo as an unproven 18-year-old for what seemed a vast sum of $25 million in 2003. Since then, under the tutelage of Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz, Ronaldo has developed from a raw talent more famous for his stepovers into the most effective and consistent player on the planet. United also stood by Ronaldo when he was widely blamed in England for getting his club mate Wayne Rooney sent off during the 2006 World Cup. At 23, Ronaldo owes his best years to United, the club that has helped him fulfil that potential. He has almost four years left on a contract worth $240,000 a week -- making him United's best paid player -- and he should honor it. Glory: Having dominated the English Premier League for the past two seasons and won last season's Champions League, Manchester United are a club in the ascendancy. With a young team boasting the attacking talents of Ronaldo and Rooney, outstanding young prospects such as Anderson and Nani and a solid defense built around Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, United could be the preeminent force in European football for seasons to come. If football is primarily about winning trophies, rather than money or lifestyle, then Ronaldo should stay where he is. The Premier League: The English Premier League is the most watched football tournament on the planet and increasingly the stage on which the world's best players want to showcase their talents. It was no coincidence that three of last season's four Champions League semifinalists came from the EPL. This week the current world footballer of the year, Kaka, has been linked with a big money move to Chelsea. Real Madrid may be the Spanish champions and one of the world's most famous clubs, but United are currently the biggest club in the biggest league in the world. Continuity: Leaving a club is always a risk and there is no guarantee that a player will settle successfully into a new set-up in a different country, as Thierry Henry has discovered at Barcelona. At Old Trafford, Ronaldo is the undisputed star with a system built around him and teammates working for him. At Real Madrid he would be one ego among many. Real's Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder has already warned that Ronaldo's arrival on a massively inflated salary would not be welcomed by other squad members: \"It would be bad for the dressing room if he gets a much higher salary than the rest of the squad. It's not important to me but I know other teammates would not like that at all.\" Injury: Having been carrying an ankle injury since March, Ronaldo finally went under the knife earlier this month and is expected to be sidelined until at least October -- long after the summer transfer window has closed. Ronaldo should be concentrating on getting back to full fitness as quickly as possible rather than worrying about a possible transfer. A move to a new club would also likely put him under more pressure to play before he has made a full recovery. Go: . A fresh challenge: Ronaldo has achieved everything he can in English football after two near perfect seasons at Old Trafford, winning back-to-back English Premier League titles and player of the year awards and a European Champions League winner's medal. If the 23-year-old is to continue developing he needs to find new challenges; what bigger challenge than joining Real Madrid -- the club of the \"Galacticos\" -- for a world record transfer fee? Carlos Queiroz: The former United assistant manager was a big influence on Ronaldo's career and an important mentor figure. With Queiroz departing to coach the Portuguese national side, will Old Trafford hold the same appeal for his protege? Ronaldo has said he is prepared to \"upset\" Alex Ferguson and admits he has not spoken to the United manager in weeks while apparently taking advice from former national team coach Luis Felipe Scolari -- now managing United's biggest rivals Chelsea. Money: Real Madrid are apparently prepared to make Ronaldo the most expensive and best paid player in the world. A transfer fee of around $140 million would smash the $92 million Real paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. On top of that, Ronaldo could command wages of up to $400,000 a week. By comparison, United have said they are not prepared to renegotiate Ronaldo's current deal worth $240,000 a week. In an industry driven by money, Ronaldo should go where he can command the highest wages. Lifestyle: It's a long way from the sun-drenched beaches of Ronaldo's home island of Maderia to the dreary gray skies of the northwest of England. Madrid may not have any beaches either but at least the weather and the food are more familar and it's a lot closer to home. As a city, Madrid is far better suited to Ronaldo's southern European temperament than Manchester. Real Madrid: Manchester United may be big but Real Madrid are in a league all of their own. With nine European Cups and 31 Spanish titles to their name, Madrid's achievements are unrivalled. Having written himself into Manchester United folklore, Ronaldo has the opportunity to do the same on the Bernabeu pitch once graced by the likes of Francisco Gento, Alfredo di Stefano and Fernec Puskas. Ronaldo may already have done enough to win this year's world footballer of the year award but a move to Madrid would likely seal that honor: in recent years Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Brazilian striker Ronaldo and Fabio Cannavaro have all won the honor while wearing the most famous white shirt in sport.","highlights":"Cristiano Ronaldo linked with big move from Manchester United to Real Madrid .\nMove would likely make Portuguese forward the world's most expensive player .\nUnited have urged Ronaldo to stay, say moving to Spain would be a mistake .\nLet us know what you think by commenting below .","id":"39280855cddc7319a86f51622d68933b8bd15013"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board and a nationally syndicated columnist. Read his column here. Ruben Navarrette says hate crimes should be punished severely because they're aimed at society as a whole. SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- To think there are some people who still argue that the law shouldn't categorize some offenses as hate crimes and allow for enhanced criminal penalties. They claim that all sorts of crimes are motivated by hate, and to separate some from others elevates some victims over others and amounts to the state policing thoughts and feelings. They also fear that politicians and institutions are simply yielding to political correctness, liberal pressure groups and identity politics. My view is that hate crimes deserve special punishment because they don't just victimize whoever they're aimed at; they're intended to send a message, and they terrorize the whole society. That debate might have been settled Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where hate was on display. A shooting left one man dead: Stephen Tyrone Johns, a six-year veteran of the museum's security staff who, according to museum director Sara Bloomfield, \"died heroically in the line of duty.\" The alleged assailant is James von Brunn, a Holocaust denier who created an anti-Semitic Web site. The 88-year-old often challenged the authenticity of \"The Diary of Anne Frank,\" the book about a teenage girl living in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. So it was probably no coincidence that the shooting occurred on the same day the museum had scheduled a play based on a fictional meeting between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, a martyr of the civil rights movement. Von Brunn also had longstanding ties to white supremacist groups, according to authorities. These outfits flourish in bad times because they give underperformers something really valuable: convenient scapegoats for their troubles, failures and shortcomings. Without that, these misfits might actually have to look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own lives. Although these groups are properly categorized as \"hate groups\" by organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, what also fuels them are things like fear and insecurity. Nowadays, their targets are often Latinos, especially immigrants. But, before that and for much of the history of this country, the targets have been African-Americans. And, for much of the history of the world, they have been Jews. And that prejudice hasn't gone away. Consider what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former Chicago, Illinois, pastor whose relationship with Barack Obama became an issue in the presidential election, recently told the Virginia newspaper, the Daily Press, when asked if he speaks to Obama. \"Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me,\" Wright said in an apparent reference to some of Obama's aides. Wright later said he misspoke and meant to refer to \"Zionists.\" A researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center has said her group had a thick file on von Brunn going back 20 years and that he had become a \"hardcore neo-Nazi.\" Von Brunn blamed a six-year prison term he once served -- for the attempted kidnapping of Federal Reserve board members in 1981 -- on \"a Negro jury,\" \"Jew\/Negro attorneys\" and \"a Jew judge,\" according to his Web site. In documents read at trial, von Brunn wrote that his goal was to \"deport all Jews and blacks from the white nations.\" Also, on his Web site, there's a message lamenting how \"bit by bit government institutions and Congressmen fell into JEW hands -- then U.S. diplomacy, businesses, resources and manpower came under Jew control.\" You get the picture. It's no mystery what this guy is, to anyone but himself. His court-appointed lawyer from the Federal Reserve case said von Brunn, a veteran, considers himself a patriot. He's no such thing. That concept is best defined as love for one's country, not hatred for everyone else. It's also obvious that, while Americans are always in a hurry to close our most unpleasant chapters, anti-Semitism is alive and well in parts of our society. Like its equally vile cousins -- racism and nativism -- it thrives because many people are threatened by change and eager to cast others as villains. Meanwhile, President Obama said the museum shooting \"reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms.\" So true, Mr. President. Here's to vigilance. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette Jr.","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette: Hate crimes should be punished more severely .\nHe says hate crimes terrorize society as a whole .\nNavarrette: Latinos, blacks and Jews have all been targets of haters .\nHe says Obama is right to urge constant vigilance against hate .","id":"950aef754717479014968380f116da5489bb0a60"} -{"article":"Metropolis, Illinois (CNN) -- Superman will not be saving Lois Lane this time, but the residents of Metropolis are hopeful his fans will. Metropolis, Illinois wants a companion statue for Superman, but the economy may block its efforts. The villain is the economy. Despite being about $70,000 shy of the funding needed to cast a figure in the image of the fictional \"Daily Planet\" reporter, this town of 6,000 residents says it's going forward with a ground breaking. Metropolis wants its Lois Lane statue. There are no skyscrapers here. If you search the local telephone book you won't find any familiar names. There's no Lex Luthor or Perry White. The closest Jimmy Olsen lives in Aledo, Illinois. If you call the nearby nuclear plant and ask about kryptonite they won't take you seriously. Most days of the year you can walk about town without seeing anyone in a cape or leotard. Very little about Metropolis, Illinois, resembles the metroplex made famous in \"Action Comics,\" except for the constant presence of Superman. His statue stands 15-feet tall outside the Massac County Courthouse and 50 yards away is the county justice center. In 1972, DC Comics, the current owner of the character, declared the town the official home for Superman. Since then, it's residents have fashioned a monument, a museum, and an annual festival around the superhero. \"We've had groups from as far away as Japan and Australia,\" said Karla Ogle, one of the festival organizers. \"There's a family that comes every year from Canada.\" And each year Noel Neill is honored. She's the original Lois Lane. Neill starred opposite George Reeves in the 1950s \"Adventures of Superman\" television series and it's her image the local chamber of commerce wants to immortalize in a statue. The town first came up with the idea of a companion statue for Superman in 2005. A lot has changed since then, primarily the economy. \"We've been affected pretty heavily because most of our revenue comes from the casino,\" said Mayor Billy McDaniel. The Harrah's Casino is the closest thing this little burgh has to a tall building. \"Their revenue has been down as much as 30 percent,\" noted McDaniel. And the Metropolis budget is not bulletproof either. The town has not been replacing some workers as they retire, because of the lower tax receipts. What about the prospects for Lois Lane? \"If there's any money out there we're going to find it,\" said the mayor. Metropolis has agreed to foot half the statue's bill, if the Illinois Board of Tourism provides a matching grant. Private donations have raised only $9,000 in four years, not even enough to pay for the monument's base. \"They were good initially, but slowed down to a trickle,\" said Clyde Wills with the Metropolis Chamber of Commerce. \"We're committed to the project,\" despite the economy. The city plans to break ground for the statue on June 11, during the opening night of their annual Superman festival, even though the state is months away from a decision on their grant request. Lois Lane's fate, like in most issues of the comic, is \"to be continued ...\"","highlights":"Illinois town came up with idea for Lois Lane statue in 2005 .\nSince then, the economy has taken a downturn and the funding is short .\nTown plans to go through with groundbreaking, despite the budget shortfall .","id":"a4702e399231b8fcb6ad4f822100394e088bf621"} -{"article":"If home is where the heart is, a new survey suggests that most people aren't sure exactly where they live. More than half of people cannot pinpoint the exact location of the human heart on a diagram, and nearly 70 percent can't correctly identify the shape of the lungs, according to the survey. This lack of knowledge isn't just embarrassing -- it could lead to a poorer quality of health care, some experts say. In the study, published in the journal BMC Family Practice, a research team surveyed 722 Britons -- 589 hospital outpatients and 133 people in the general population. They gave the volunteers four diagrams of human figures and asked them to choose the one that showed the correct size and location of a specific organ. (For example, the heart diagrams showed various size organs on the far left side of the chest, directly in the center, anchored on the center\/left chest, and on the right side of the chest.) Overall, people knew less basic anatomy than the researchers expected -- even those patients being treated for a specific condition involving that organ. Participants generally answered half the questions correctly, including 46.5 percent who knew which drawing represented their heart. In all, 31.4 percent correctly identified the lungs, 38.4 percent the stomach, 41.8 percent the thyroid, and 42.5 percent the kidneys. The intestines and bladder were the most easily identified, with 85.9 percent and 80.7 percent, respectively, answering the question correctly. Health.com: Are you cholesterol smart? Take this quiz . There was little to no improvement compared with a similar study conducted in 1970, says lead author John Weinman, Ph.D., of King's College London. In that study, subjects correctly identified eight major body parts about half of the time. (The researchers used the same body parts from the 1970 study and added three more: the pancreas, gallbladder, and ovaries.) Given the accessibility of the Internet and the prominence of health stories in the news media today, Weinman's team expected that people would now know more about their body. Weinman says he wouldn't be surprised if a study based in the United States produced similar results -- or worse. \"I imagine they would be similar, but there could well be regional variation, depending on which part of the U.S. the participants were from,\" he says. \"Actually, I asked one of my colleagues, who is from the U.S., and she felt that Americans might be worse because, to quote her, 'Very many Americans don't even know where New Jersey is, so how would they know where their pancreas is?'\" Health.com: Eat Smarter in your 30s, 40s, and 50s . That may sound harsh, but time and again, U.S. studies have shown that doctors overestimate how much their patients understand about their conditions and treatment. Adam Kelly, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas, conducted a 2007 study, that showed that doctors overestimate patient literacy and that a lack of patient knowledge leads to poorer care. Kelly believes the problem could be \"even more profound\" in the United States, although a similar study has not been conducted in America. Still, anatomy may not be the best measure of health literacy, says Sandeep Jauhar, M.D., the director of the heart failure program at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and the author of \"Intern: A Doctor's Initiation.\" Health.com: Computer games that boost your memory . \"They would like us to draw the conclusion that because the patients can't identify these organs anatomically that that is an indication of low health-care literacy -- and that may or may not be true,\" he says. \"I work with heart failure patients, and whether they can identify where their heart is is not so important to me as long as they know which medicines to take and when.\" Many patients with heart failure, unfortunately, don't know which medicines to take, can't identify their symptoms, and don't follow up with their doctors, Jauhar says. \"So health illiteracy is definitely a big problem,\" he adds. \"I just don't know that this is the best study to show that Americans or Europeans are illiterate when it comes to their health care.\" The study suggests that patients with liver disease and diabetes may be the most health-literate: They were the only two groups to do better than the general population when identifying their affected organ. Overall, 75.3 percent of those with liver disease could find the liver (versus 45.9 percent in the general population) and 53.7 percent of diabetics could locate the pancreas (versus 30.8 percent). Health.com: How I survived a heart attack at 43 . \"It is possible that patient-education material for people with diabetes may help to increase their knowledge [of the pancreas], but it is still only at the 50 percent level,\" Weinman says. \"The same explanation may also be true for liver disease, but it may be a chance finding due to the sampling of patients for this study, and it really needs replicating in other larger studies to be certain it is a robust finding and to search for possible reasons for it.\" Weinman says there's a mountain of evidence to prove that effective communication from doctors increases patient satisfaction and understanding, leading to better clinical outcomes and improved adherence to treatment. Health.com: I lost my insurance, stopped my diabetes medication, and had a heart attack . Jauhar agrees that health literacy improves not only the quality of health care, but also life expectancy. \"Health literacy is clearly very important, and how well patients are versed in their own health care is probably just as important a factor in determining longevity as genes or socioeconomic status,\" he says. \"These are important factors in how long someone lives.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"More than half in British survey couldn't identify heart's location .\nU.S. results could be similar or worse, some experts speculate .\nHealth literacy contributes to better care received, better patient outcomes .","id":"2e466f1b1eefa6056c7366ae0cd3cddb33c4c55f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Family members of Phillip Markoff visited him in jail Friday for the first time since his arraignment on murder charges connected to the slaying of a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad. The parents, brother and sister-in-law of accused killer Philip Markoff visited him in jail on Friday. Markoff's parents, brother, and sister-in-law visited him Friday, having to get through a throng of media members who gathered near the Boston, Massachusetts, jail. Richard Markoff and Susan Haynes arrived early in the afternoon, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. Markoff's parents stayed at the jail for about two hours and left without making any comments to media, the affiliate reported. Markoff's brother and sister-in-law also visited him on Friday, the affiliate reported. John Salsberg, Markoff's attorney, addressed the crowd of reporters Friday and said he was speaking on behalf of the family. \"They love their son very much. They are supportive of him, that's what they would say if they were speaking themselves,\" he said. It is not yet known if Megan McAllister, Markoff's fiancee, would visit him in jail, but in an e-mail sent to ABC News, she said police have the wrong man and \"was set up.\" \"Unfortunately, you were given wrong information as was the public,\" she wrote. \"All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!\" Markoff, 23, a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine, is charged with killing Julissa Brisman, who lived in New York, April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Police have said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service. They say Markoff may have met her through the online site. Prosecutors say Brisman sustained blunt head trauma and said the she was shot three times at close range. One of the bullets passed through her heart, killing her, prosecutors said. Markoff is also charged in connection with the April 10 robbery of Trisha Leffler, 29, at a Westin Hotel in Boston, another woman he allegedly met on Craigslist. Leffler was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards, police reports said. Prosecutors said she was bound and held at gunpoint. Brisman's mother, Carmen Guzman, released a statement Friday about her devastation. \"The feeling of losing my daughter in this way and the pain she must have felt will haunt me for the rest of my life,\" Guzman said. \"She won't live to see her dreams. We will hold Julissa in our hearts every day.\"","highlights":"Philip Markoff's family visits him in jail .\nPhilip Markoff, 23, charged in death of Julissa Brisman's death .\nPolice say they believe Markoff met Brisman on popular online classifieds Web site .\nMarkoff's fiancee says police have wrong man, husband-to-be \"was set up\"","id":"adc122d5c5ec3887557aadb50df6959e225fdcdc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk was granted an emergency stay late Tuesday to block what appeared to be his imminent deportation to Germany. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents remove John Demjanjuk from his home Tuesday. The ruling, handed down by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, came less than two hours after federal immigration officials took Demjanjuk into custody at his home near Cleveland, Ohio. Demjanjuk, 89, is wanted by German authorities for his alleged involvement during World War II in killings at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland. The Justice Department would not immediately comment on the stay, saying officials needed to review the order. The last-minute legal maneuvering leading to the order was the latest chapter in one of the longest-running pursuits of an alleged Holocaust perpetrator in history. The deportation of Demjanjuk, who had been transported to an Ohio detention facility when the stay was issued, would set the stage for what would likely prove to be an extraordinary German war crimes trial. \"Upon due consideration of the motion for a stay and the opposition by the attorney general, we conclude that a stay of removal is warranted,\" the circuit court wrote. Representatives of Attorney General Eric Holder argued in response to an emergency motion filed by Demjanjuk's attorney that the circuit court does not have jurisdiction over the case. But the court acted anyway. \"Because it is our understanding that the government may remove the petitioner later today, we are compelled to rule on the motion for a stay prior to addressing the jurisdictional concerns raised by the government,\" the court said. On Friday, a federal immigration board rejected an emergency appeal for a stay of Demjanjuk's deportation. His attorney, John Broadley, had argued that deporting him would constitute torture because of his health problems. Broadley has said Demjanjuk suffers from pre-leukemia, kidney problems, spinal problems and \"a couple of types of gout.\" When Broadley filed another appeal with the 6th Circuit Court, Justice Department officials said they believe that his chances of getting the board's ruling overturned are slim. \"Looking at what's going on in Cleveland ... is truly appalling,\" Broadley said shortly after Demjanjuk was taken into custody. \"You have an 89-year-old man with various physical ailments, and you have eight guys from [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] trying to stuff him into a wheelchair to send him to Germany. This looks like something taking place in Germany and not in the United States.\" Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center found irony in Broadley's argument for his client. \"He wants to plead the sense of fairness that he regularly denied all of the victims at Sobibor,\" Hier said. He called Demjanjuk's comparison of his planned deportation to torture \"preposterous coming from a person that served the [Nazi organization] S.S. in a death camp. It is a preposterous argument and insulting to the survivors of the Holocaust.\" Hier said that 250,000 Jews were killed at the camp and that none of the guards who worked there was blameless. \"You were there for one job: kill the Jews,\" he said. \"And that's what they did full-time.\" He called the evidence against Demjanjuk \"overwhelming.\" German authorities issued an arrest warrant for Demjanjuk on March 10, accusing him of being an accessory to 29,000 counts of murder as a guard at Sobibor from March to September 1943. The warrant was issued after the authorities concluded that an identification card provided by the U.S. Office of Special Investigations was genuine. Demjanjuk, a retired auto worker, has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for more than two decades. He was previously extradited from the United States to Israel, where he was convicted in 1986 of being \"Ivan the Terrible,\" a guard at the notorious Treblinka extermination camp. The conviction was overturned by Israeli courts on appeal, and he returned to the United States. The United States filed new charges against him in 1999, again alleging that he had been a concentration camp guard. He was stripped of U.S. citizenship and has been awaiting deportation since 2005, after fighting his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian, says he saw action in the Soviet army and later was a prisoner of war held by the Germans. CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attorney general's representatives said court has no jurisdiction .\nImmigration agents picked up John Demjanjuk at home near Cleveland, Ohio .\nDemjanjuk, 89, has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for 20-plus years .\nGerman authorities accuse Demjanjuk of involvement in killings at Nazi death camp .","id":"8a660dc84ee0edc53d8efe9d507b652318bdcfb1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A New Jersey man whose efforts to gain custody of his son in Brazil attracted international attention may have finally gotten his wish. David Goldman has been fighting for custody of his son, Sean, since his mother took him to Brazil in 2004. David Goldman's lawyer, Patricia Apy, said Monday night that a Brazilian federal court has ruled that Goldman's son should be returned to the United States. Apy said she found out Monday afternoon about the court's decision, which calls for 8-year-old Sean Goldman to be turned over to the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. Apy said David Goldman was traveling to Brazil and was expected to arrive in Rio de Janeiro early Tuesday morning. Sean's mother, who was Brazilian, divorced Goldman, and in 2004 returned to Brazil with Sean. She died in 2008 while giving birth to another child. Sean was was being raised in Brazil by his stepfather. Apy said that Goldman was \"very happy\" at the news, and that it had been \"a long five years.\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to the case Monday, telling reporters, \"I also wanted just to take this opportunity to recognize the decision by the Brazilian federal court today ordering a young American boy, Sean Goldman, to be reunited with his father, David. It's taken a long time for this day to come, but we will work with the Goldman family and the Brazilian government, with the goal of ensuring this young boy's return.\" Apy said she had not received a copy of the Brazilian court decision but expected to get one on Tuesday. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sean Goldman, 8, to be turned over to U.S. Consulate on Wednesday .\nSean's parents divorced and mom moved him to Brazil in 2004 .\nMom died in childbirth in 2008, leaving Sean with stepfather .","id":"96c58353665e1a7ad15f56725c65efbc5cde1058"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Islamist fighters in Somalia have made significant gains in the country, according to the latest statement purportedly from al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ayman al-Zawahiri, pictured here in 2006, also spoke about Yemen, Gaza, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 25-minute audio recording, titled \"From Kabul to Mogadishu,\" focuses primarily on the \"important developments\" in Somalia, which al-Zawahiri called \"a step on the path of victory of Islam.\" CNN cannot authenticate the message, which was released on Sunday and was interspersed with television news reports and statements from various al Qaeda-linked commanders. CNN analysts who listened to the recording say the voice is consistent with his intonation and accent. This is the third message from al-Zawahiri espousing the views of the al Qaeda terror network in 2009; the other two focused on Israel's recent military operation against Hamas leaders in Gaza. In addition to Somalia, al-Zawahiri also addresses the situations in Yemen, Gaza, and Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al-Zawahiri praised Al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia who recently seized control of Baidoa, where the U.N.-backed transitional government had been based. He warned the newly installed government, under President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, not to squander those gains by submitting \"to American demands\" and not abiding by sharia, or Islamic law. \"I call on my Muslim brothers in beloved Somalia ... to not be deceived by those who agree to the secularist constitutions which vie with the sharia in its right to rule,\" he said. Al-Zawahiri also addressed the \"awakening\" in Yemen, where many suspected al Qaeda militants wanted in neighboring Saudi Arabia are believed to have fled. That group includes several former detainees of the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The al Qaeda leader accused Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih and his government of being \"servants and slaves\" to the United States by allowing Yemen to be used as \"a supply center ... against Muslim countries.\" \"How can you agree to let the ruling authority in Yemen be the CIA?\" al-Zawahiri asked the people of Yemen. Al-Zawahiri spent the last eight minutes addressing the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Gaza. His focus on Somalia and Yemen -- which accounted for more than 17 minutes of the 25-minute address -- is a departure from the topics of his previous messages. CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen suggested that is a reflection of al Qaeda's recent losses as a result of U.S. missile strikes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. \"There were three in 2007 and 34 in 2008 by my count,\" Bergen said. \"These strikes are causing al Qaeda leaders to consider their options.\" Al Qaeda has considered relocating its base to Somalia or Yemen, according to a former U.S. official who is familiar with the intelligence. Other analysts have suggested that it would be difficult for al Qaeda to gain a stronghold in Somalia because its radical agenda is unpopular in the moderate Islamic country. John Prendergast, who studies the Horn of Africa for the Center for American Progress think tank, said he expects Al-Shabaab's overseas ties to dry up after the recent withdrawal of Ethiopian forces, which was its only basis of support in Somalia. J. Anthony Holmes, director of the Africa program for the Council on Foreign Relations, said it is unlikely Somalia will emerge as \"a breeding ground for terrorism\" because of its clan-based society. But Bergen noted that both Somalia and Yemen lack a strong central government and \"therefore (are) attractive locations for al Qaeda.\" \"Al Qaeda also has had an on-and-off presence in Somalia since 1992 and even earlier in Yemen,\" he said. \"As we have seen also, Yemen's weak government and permissive attitude to jihadists have made it an increasingly attractive venue for Saudi members of al Qaeda.\" Bergen said that is most likely why al-Zawahiri chose to focus more than half of his latest message on Yemen and Somalia.","highlights":"The 25-minute audio recording is titled \"From Kabul to Mogadishu\"\nVoice claiming to be Ayman al-Zawahiri praises Al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia .\nThird message from al-Zawahiri espousing views of al Qaeda network in 2009 .\nAl Qaeda considered relocating base to Somalia or Yemen, ex-U.S. official says .","id":"df93a13be226e6b0d17921eb800c993341435e92"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Negotiations between the United States and Libya that could result in compensation for past acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Libya are under way, a senior State Department official said Friday. The wreckage of Pan Am 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland; the bombing killed 270 people in 1989. U.S. and Libyan officials met Wednesday and Thursday, the official said. The nations hope to hammer out a deal in which Libya would \"resolve all outstanding claims in good faith\" and offer \"fair compensation\" to victims and their families, he said. \"We are just at the beginning of this process. The goal is to get something that is fair and comprehensive,\" the official said. The official said that any agreement would cover about eight acts, including the 1989 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground; and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle disco in Berlin, Germany, that killed two people and injured at least 120, including 40 Americans. Outstanding terrorism claims have been a problem for Libya in its attempts to normalize relations with the United States and to begin development of its oil resources. Libya has expressed disappointment that it has failed to reap any political and economic benefits promised by the U.S. government and others after Libya renounced terrorism and stopped development of weapons of mass destruction. And some of the largest U.S. oil companies are eager to begin exploration and development of Libya oil fields, among the 10 largest in the world. The new negotiations and development of an agreement would ideally fulfill all outstanding lawsuits against Libya and allow investment to move forward. A joint U.S.-Libyan statement said, \"Both parties affirm their desire to work together to resolve all outstanding claims in good faith and expeditiously in the establishment of a fair compensation mechanism.\"","highlights":"Nations hoping for deal in which Libya would compensate terrorism victims .\nEights acts would be covered in possible agreement .\nLibya has tried to normalize relations with U.S. by renouncing terrorism .\nU.S. oil companies want to explore and develop Libya's oil fields .","id":"8dccd156b8f39e19c1348c0c742330c427e5dc8c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Every weekend for more than four years, Fred Murray has walked the road where his daughter, Maura, vanished. Family, friends and volunteers help him look in the woods and mountains near Haverhill, New Hampshire, for clues to what happened to her. Maura Murray, 21, disappeared while driving in the New Hampshire woods on a snowy night in 2004. Maura Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, disappeared on a cold and snowy night in February 2004. She was last known to be driving from Massachusetts through New Hampshire. It is still unclear where she was heading in her black 1996 Saturn. The car was found abandoned, its front end crashed against a tree. It apparently had skidded off a road at a sharp curve. Shortly after the accident, a passing bus driver stopped and asked Murray if she needed help. She said no. Ten minutes later, police arrived. Inside the crumpled Saturn, they found some of Murray's belongings -- school books, running gear, snack foods and alcohol -- police won't say what kind. But Murray was gone, along with her car keys and a backpack she always carried. There was nothing to hint she'd be motivated to run away, according to her fianc\u00e9, William Rausch, and her father, Fred Murray. Watch why this cold case is a true mystery \u00bb . Maura Murray had just gotten engaged to Rausch, her college sweetheart and an Army lieutenant stationed in Oklahoma. They planned to marry after she graduated from nursing school in June 2005. She'd found a summer nursing job in Oklahoma. She had everything to look forward to. \"She was in good spirits and had no worries or reason to run away from her life,\" Fred Murray said. Investigators initially operated under the theory that the dean's list student was troubled and had decided to escape from the demands of her life for a while. As a result, they did not immediately begin to look for her. The search did not begin until 39 hours after her crashed car was found. When it finally got under way, helicopters, search dogs and ground teams covered the area near where Murray's car was found. The dogs picked up her scent for about 100 yards, leading investigators along the road to an area between two homes. There, the dogs lost the trail. Murray's credit cards and cell phone have not registered any activity since the night she disappeared, February 9, 2004. Tom Shamshak, a private investigator hired by the Murray family to continue the search, said police and volunteers looked for her for two days. \"No footprints were even found in the snow,\" he said. \"Luckily there hadn't been any fresh snowfall in those two days.\" Shamshak has concluded that only two scenarios could explain what happened to Murray. Either she was picked up by someone driving on the road, or she walked to a nearby house to ask for help. Police say they did not treat Murray's case as an abduction because they saw no signs of a struggle at the scene. Before she left campus, police learned, Murray had e-mailed her professors and informed them she'd be absent for a few days because of a death in the family. Murray's family and friends said no one in the family had died. Police also noted that Murray had enough food and other items in her car to suggest she might be taking a short getaway vacation. Murray is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 120 pounds, with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She was last seen wearing a dark coat and jeans and carrying a black backpack and Samsung cell phone. A $40,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to her whereabouts or the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance. The tip line is 603-271-2663, New Hampshire State Police.","highlights":"Maura Murray told her professors there had been a death in the family .\nThere was no death, relatives say .\nCar was found crashed into a tree along snowy New Hampshire roadway .\nA $40,000 reward is offered. Tips? Call 603-271-2663 .","id":"20c60072d013b1bb80518898c960fa187b48153f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Who'll win and who will lose? The following are the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards. Winners will be announced February 24. For more details on the nominees in some of the major categories, check out our gallery of nominees. See the nominee gallery \u00bb . Best Picture \"Atonement\" \"Juno\" \"Michael Clayton\" \"No Country for Old Men\" \"There Will Be Blood\" Actor George Clooney, \"Michael Clayton\" Daniel Day-Lewis, \"There Will Be Blood\" Johnny Depp, \"Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\" Tommy Lee Jones, \"In the Valley of Elah\" Viggo Mortensen, \"Eastern Promises\" Actress Cate Blanchett, \"Elizabeth: The Golden Age\" Julie Christie, \"Away From Her\" Marion Cotillard, \"La Vie en Rose\" Laura Linney, \"The Savages\" Ellen Page, \"Juno\" Supporting Actor Casey Affleck, \"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford\" Javier Bardem, \"No Country for Old Men\" Hal Holbrook, \"Into the Wild\" Philip Seymour Hoffman, \"Charlie Wilson's War\" Tom Wilkinson, \"Michael Clayton\" Supporting Actress Cate Blanchett, \"I'm Not There\" Ruby Dee, \"American Gangster\" Saoirse Ronan, \"Atonement\" Amy Ryan, \"Gone Baby Gone\" Tilda Swinton, \"Michael Clayton\" Director Julian Schnabel, \"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly\" Jason Reitman, \"Juno\" Tony Gilroy, \"Michael Clayton\" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, \"No Country for Old Men\" Paul Thomas Anderson, \"There Will Be Blood\" Foreign Film \"Beaufort,\" Israel \"The Counterfeiters,\" Austria \"Katyn,\" Poland \"Mongol,\" Kazakhstan \"12,\" Russia . Adapted Screenplay Christopher Hampton, \"Atonement\" Sarah Polley, \"Away from Her\" Ronald Harwood, \"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly\" Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, \"No Country for Old Men\" Paul Thomas Anderson, \"There Will Be Blood\" Original Screenplay Diablo Cody, \"Juno\" Nancy Oliver, \"Lars and the Real Girl\" Tony Gilroy, \"Michael Clayton\" Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, \"Ratatouille\" Tamara Jenkins, \"The Savages.\" Animated Feature Film \"Persepolis\" \"Ratatouille\" \"Surf's Up\" Art Direction \"American Gangster\" \"Atonement\" \"The Golden Compass\" \"Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\" \"There Will Be Blood\" Cinematography \"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford\" \"Atonement\" \"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly\" \"No Country for Old Men\" \"There Will Be Blood\" Sound Mixing \"The Bourne Ultimatum\" \"No Country for Old Men\" \"Ratatouille\" \"3:10 to Yuma\" \"Transformers\" Sound Editing \"The Bourne Ultimatum\" \"No Country for Old Men\" \"Ratatouille\" \"There Will Be Blood\" \"Transformers\" Original Score \"Atonement,\" Dario Marianelli \"The Kite Runner,\" Alberto Iglesias \"Michael Clayton,\" James Newton Howard \"Ratatouille,\" Michael Giacchino \"3:10 to Yuma,\" Marco Beltrami . Original Song \"Falling Slowly\" from \"Once,\" Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova \"Happy Working Song\" from \"Enchanted,\" Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz \"Raise It Up\" from \"August Rush,\" Nominees to be determined \"So Close\" from \"Enchanted,\" Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz \"That's How You Know\" from \"Enchanted,\" Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz . Costume \"Across the Universe\" \"Atonement\" \"Elizabeth: The Golden Age\" \"La Vie en Rose\" \"Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\" Documentary Feature \"No End in Sight\" \"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience\" \"Sicko\" \"Taxi to the Dark Side\" \"War\/Dance\" Documentary (short subject) \"Freeheld\" \"La Corona (The Crown)\" \"Salim Baba\" \"Sari's Mother\" Film Editing \"The Bourne Ultimatum\" \"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly\" \"Into the Wild\" \"No Country for Old Men\" \"There Will Be Blood\" Makeup \"La Vie en Rose\" \"Norbit\" \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End\" Animated Short Film \"I Met the Walrus\" \"Madame Tutli-Putli\" \"Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)\" \"My Love (Moya Lyubov)\" \"Peter & the Wolf\" Live Action Short Film \"At Night\" \"Il Supplente (The Substitute)\" \"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)\" \"Tanghi Argentini\" \"The Tonto Woman\" Visual Effects \"The Golden Compass\" \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End\" \"Transformers\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"No Country for Old Men,\" \"There Will Be Blood\" lead with eight nods each .\nGeorge Clooney and Johnny Depp are among best actor nominees .\nBest actress nominees include Julie Christie and Laura Linney .\nCate Blanchett is nominated for both best actress and best supporting actress .","id":"7d7e6131873f6316ad6a265cb4b79e1c2e467f4b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each -- a total of $1.9 million -- for 24 songs. Illegal downloads of musical files will cost a Minnesota woman $1.9 million, a jury has decided. Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said. Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at the fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents. She plans to appeal, he said. Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said the association was \"pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable.\" \"We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do,\" she said. Thomas-Rasset downloaded work by artists such as No Doubt, Linkin Park, Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow. This was the second trial for Thomas-Rasset. The judge ordered a retrial in 2007 after there was an error in the wording of jury instructions. The fines jumped considerably from the first trial, which granted just $220,000 to the recording companies. Thomas-Rasset is married with four children and works for an Indian tribe in Minnesota.","highlights":"Federal jury finds Jammie Thomas-Rasset guilty of illegally downloading 24 songs .\nMinnesota wife, mom slapped with fine of $80,000 per song, for total of $1.9 million .\nAttorney says client shocked at fine, noting the songs costs 99 cents each .\nSpokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America lauds jury's finding .","id":"94c30847cd2f4284b1e1092fa2be03c38c674f8b"} -{"article":"Americans love beef; we eat nearly 63 pounds per person each year. Although that's a lot, the amount is down from our 1976 high of 89 pounds. When buying beef, we tend to stick to what we know, which may be why almost 60 percent of our beef dollars go for ground beef. Even as an experienced chef, I often brought home familiar cuts. But researching my book, \"Field Guide to Meat,\" led me to expand my repertoire to tasty, if less familiar, cuts like hanger steak and tri-tip. Soon you can do the same, knowing which cuts to choose for maximum flavor and nutrition. A 3\u00bd-ounce serving provides 27g to 30g of protein and is an excellent source of iron, zinc, and phosphorus. Beef Background . Humans began domesticating cattle, Bos taurus, about 8,500 years ago. Columbus first brought cattle to the New World, and by 1690, descendants of Columbus' cattle ranging in Mexico were driven north and became known as Texas Longhorns. Others arrived later with the colonists. America's top five cattle breeds are Angus from Scotland, Hereford from England, Limousin from France, Simmenthal from Switzerland, and Charolais from France. More than 90 percent of the beef we buy originates in America, while most of the rest is Canadian bred. The beef we eat comes mostly from 18- to 24-month-old steers, averaging about 1,000 pounds, and yielding about 450 pounds of meat. Each is divided for wholesale into eight primals (major portions): the chuck (shoulder and upper ribs), the rib, the loin, the sirloin (hip), the round (upper leg), the brisket (breast), the plate (belly), and the small flank. Organs like liver and kidneys are called variety meats. When evaluating your choices at the grocery store, here are a few key terms and facts to know: . \u2022 Grain-finished: Nearly 75 percent of U.S. beef comes from cattle fattened on grain (usually corn) for three to six months in feedlots. Since corn is not a natural part of a cow's diet, cattle fed on it may experience stress and other ailments, so they are routinely treated with antibiotics. They also receive growth hormones to increase their size (and value, as beef is sold by weight). Until recently, inexpensive corn has helped keep down the price of beef. \u2022 Grass-finished: Grass- or pasture-finished beef comes from cattle that forage on grasses and legumes. Their meat is lower in saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories than grain-finished. (Because it is quite lean, cook rare to medium-rare for juiciness.) Grass-fed beef has a distinct flavor, often described as bold, complex, and gamy. Many people believe that grass-fed cattle are a more sustainable choice. However, raising grass-fed cattle is time-consuming and requires large open spaces, variables that raise its price. Most is imported from Canada, followed by Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Brazil. \u2022 Aging: Dry-aging is the traditional process preferred by many steak lovers. The concentrated, intense flavor of dry-aged beef develops as it hangs in special temperature- and humidity-controlled rooms from 10 days to six weeks. The longer the aging, the better the flavor and tenderness, but also the more the shrinkage as water evaporates and a dark crust develops, which must be cut away. About 90 percent of American beef is sold as large vacuum-packed cuts. During the average seven-day period the beef spends \"in the bag,\" it ages in a process called \"wet-aging.\" \u2022 Processing and packaging: Until the 1960s butcher shops bought beef as half- or quarter-carcasses. Packers then began selling vacuum-packed beef, the same large cuts sold at warehouse club stores. Retailers refrigerated the boxes until needed, then opened the package and cut the meat into portions for sale. Next came case-ready meat, which precluded the need for skilled butchers on-site in markets. Leak-proof and easily stackable, case-ready packages are produced in USDA-inspected plants and have a longer shelf life. Packages covered with a sealed layer of clear plastic are modified-atmosphere packages, which have a gas-filled space inside to help preserve freshness and color. Nutrition . \u2022 Fat content: The USDA defines \"lean beef\" as having less than 10 grams (g) of total fat, 4.5g or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per 3\u00bd-ounce serving (100g) of cooked beef. Half of the fat is saturated and half is heart-healthy monounsaturated. There are 29 naturally lean cuts of beef, including many familiar to Cooking Light readers, such as tenderloin, flank steak, and sirloin, as well as five lesser-known cuts. Others, such as ribeye or chuck roast, naturally contain more fat, although it is similarly divided between saturated and monounsaturated. Because lean beef contains less fat, it's best cooked to medium-rare (145\u00b0F) or medium (160\u00b0F) to optimize tenderness. If using fattier cuts, slice away the outer rim of fat and cut or pull out any pockets of fat before cooking. For larger cuts, allow the fat to baste the meat while cooking, then trim away before eating, or skim it from the surface of braised dishes or stews. \u2022 Other nutrients: A 3\u00bd-ounce serving provides 27g to 30g of protein -- more than half of the 50g recommended daily in a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet. All beef is an excellent source of iron, zinc, and phosphorus. In general, the redder the meat, the more iron it contains (beef liver has the most). Beef also contains thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin and is a rich source of B12, found naturally only in animal foods. CookingLight.com: Fat and Ground Beef . At the Market . \u2022 Inspection and grading: USDA inspectors examine all live animals and beef shipped out of state, which encompasses most of today's supermarket beef. Grading is voluntary and done by the same inspectors. The more marbling -- the small white flecks of fat within the muscles -- the higher the grade. Three grades of beef are sold to consumers. Only three percent is highly marbled Prime, sought after by top steak houses and butcher shops. About 57 percent is moderately marbled Choice, the most common supermarket grade. The remaining 40 percent is lean Select. \u2022 Private labels: Supermarket chains and large food distributors also have developed private brands with their own specifications. The first such program began in 1978 with Certified Angus Beef, which must come from Angus cattle. Niman Ranch Natural Beef and Certified Hereford Beef are two others. \u2022 Natural and Organic: Beef labeled \"natural\" must not contain any artificial ingredients and cannot be more than minimally processed, such as ground beef. \"Organic\" beef must come from cattle raised and certified according to the USDA's National Organic Program. Organic cattle must be fed 100-percent organically and without antibiotics or hormones. Both natural and organic beef can be either grass- or grain-finished. Ways to Save . \u2022 Buy lean cuts. Often, leaner cuts are cheaper than fatty ones. And when the fat cooks away, lean cuts provide more meat for your dollar. \u2022 Buy in bulk. Large or family-sized packages cost less per pound than smaller packages. Divide into portions, and freeze the surplus. \u2022 Be your own butcher. Beef that has been presliced into steaks or made into patties costs more than less processed meat. Buy bigger cuts, and do some of the preparation work yourself. CookingLight.com: Beef on a Budget . \u2022 But don't go overboard. Advice to buy a side or quarter of beef may seem sensible, but you'll likely have more meat than you can store. Such a purchase may yield what one buyer describes as \"cheap steak and expensive hamburger.\" For more tips on making healthy taste great, try Cooking Light - CLICK HERE . Copyright 2009 Cooking Light magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Humans began domesticating cattle, Bos taurus, about 8,500 years ago .\nAmericans today consume nearly 63 pounds of beef per person each year .\nMost of us tend to stick with beef cuts we know .","id":"5f30411f9d79ea6147d3fa8d98db51eee263dd94"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In 1991, Nirvana changed American rock music with an album that featured a naked baby on the cover. Fred Thorne played in bands for 18 years and says Kurt Cobain's legacy always stuck with him. Now, that naked baby is 17 years old and a high school graduate. The album, \"Nevermind,\" is a classic beloved by music aficionados across the world. It soared to the top of the Billboard charts, swiftly ending the '80s era of dance pop and \"hair metal\" and replacing it with the \"grunge\" movement. In doing so, it irreversibly changed the tastes and even lives of millions of musicians and music lovers. \"One song changed the way we look at rock music,\" said Russ Lancaster of \"Smells Like Teen Spirit,\" the first track on the record. \"Just like the Beatles changed pop music 30 years prior, Nirvana's breakthrough album achieved the same level of power in terms of changing pop music. They weren't singing anymore about happy, funny songs. They were taking a real dark turn to pop music, and it changed everything. Back then it was really different to hear that on the radio. It opened up a floodgate of artists that might never have been heard before that.\" What artists, exactly? Lancaster says Pearl Jam comes to mind, and that the entire emo genre might never have come into existence if it wasn't for grunge. \"It wouldn't have the visibility it has today without the stepping-stone that grunge gave it,\" he said. iReport.com: Passing grunge onto the next generation . Pat Ferguson said grunge also was crucial to indie rock becoming mainstream. \"What I appreciate 'Nevermind' the most for was paving the way for other indie bands that I really ended up liking to get put out into the mainstream. Not so much for the exposure they got, but so that everyone could more readily get their product,\" he said. \"It was a world without iTunes, Rhapsody or Napster. The only way you got exposure to music that wasn't pop [or] country was living close enough to a university-run radio station or having a friend who had access to it. It wasn't long after the grunge era started that other indie rock bands like Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Superchunk, fIREHOSE and a wealth of others broke out and started becoming a bit more accessible.\" iReport.com: 'A lot of bands owe a lot to that record' For Derek Ivy, the influence of Nirvana is a little more personal. Hearing \"Nevermind\" and the band's other albums inspired him to learn guitar as a teenager, and he still plays in a band called Golden Hours. \"Nirvana taught me to play music,\" said Ivy. \"Everybody has the first few songs they ever learn to play, and for me it was mostly this Nirvana stuff. When I hear this album or think of it, I recall the countless afternoons I spent playing these songs on guitar and, later, drums. I remember learning every song on it, and pretty much every other Nirvana song.\" Ivy said Nirvana front man and songwriter Kurt Cobain was an important influence in his life, musically and otherwise. \"Kurt Cobain was one of my earliest and greatest musical influences, as I'm sure countless others can attest to. And he's a tremendous influence on me in a lot of different ways,\" he said. \"When Kurt died, I felt like I'd lost a personal friend, even though I didn't know him and I was only 14 at the time. It was sort of like, here you go, here's adulthood.\" iReport.com: 'My teenage years would have been considerably less bearable were it not for this band' Cobain was also a profound figure in Fred Thorne's life. Thorne played in bands for 18 years, and he said Cobain's success on the charts and ultimate suicide led him to heed the Nirvana front man's advice: \"Be careful what you wish for.\" \"These words were the fuel for the angst I needed to 'kill it' on stage and give everything I had to just flat out rocking,\" Thorne said. \"That meant no record deals, no big crowds, no bitching at the sound man because I couldn't hear the vocals in the monitor, no perfect intonation, no perfect pitch, and if I blew out my voice...bonus! These words left me not wanting, but left me satisfied that I played that bar gig to 10 or 20 people like it was my last. In a way I felt like I did it for Kurt. I did it because I knew how badly he wanted to go back to those days of being a nobody and getting booed off the stage, or duct taping gear together and saying...we can just make noise, vent our angst and throw all regard for approval out the window.\" iReport.com: 'Kurt will always be an icon for indie musicians' Of course, not everybody enjoyed \"Nevermind\" or the grunge movement it popularized. Take David Gillespie, for example. He agreed that \"Nevermind\" was a turning point in music, but for him, the turn was for the worse. \"Thanks for ending the greatest era of music ever,\" he wrote in his iReport.com submission. \"The onslaught of grunge killed off the best music. The '80s brought such incredible talent and songs that no other decade or era could match.\" Gillespie said he doesn't think the grunge movement could compete with styles like glam rock and 1980s dance pop in terms of musicianship. \"Nirvana was not exactly the most musically talented band. Then again, they didn't really need to be,\" he said. \"Grunge as a music form wasn't about technical prowess and didn't need to sound good.\" iReport.com: 'Their music was bland and depressing' Amy Suarez, who called the record \"the pinnacle of my music heaven,\" said that opinions of \"Nevermind\" and the grunge movement are probably just a reflection of the different generations. \"I truly believe that Nirvana, its predecessors and like bands of that time will forever be thought, to me, to be the best and most influential music of my life,\" she said. \"I know that everyone who loves music can say that about the music of their prime. So, I guess I would agree with others who would say that Nirvana was great for many and meant nothing to others; it's just a matter of timing.\" iReport.com: 'Not everything has to be complicated to be good'","highlights":"iReporters share their memories of Nirvana and the \"grunge\" era .\nPat Ferguson says Nirvana opened the door for indie rock groups of the 1990s .\nFred Thorne and Derek Ivy say they were profoundly influenced by Kurt Cobain .\niReport.com: Share your memories of the grunge era .","id":"5b2a82da46d94c7aa699580523af125fa86290a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As reports of swine flu continue to rise in the United States and around the world, the average American is probably asking, \"How should I protect myself?\" U.S. health officials stress the importance of frequent hand washing during outbreaks of illness. Health officials' advice is to follow common-sense precautions: Wash your hands, stay home if you're sick and listen to your local health authorities. \"Very frequent hand-washing is something that we talk about time and time again and that is an effective way to reduce transmission of disease,\" said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"If you're sick, it's very important that people stay at home. If your children are sick, have a fever and flu-like illness, they shouldn't go to school. And if you're ill, you shouldn't get on an airplane or another public transport to travel. Those things are part of personal responsibility in trying to reduce the impact. \" So far, Mexico has been hardest hit by swine flu. Cases have been confirmed in the United States, as well as countries including Canada, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, and Israel. \"In areas with no disease yet, a lot of what we can do sounds simple and repetitive but helps,\" said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director of the CDC's Science and Public Health Program. In addition to washing hands often, she recommends covering your mouth when coughing and sneezing and avoiding touching your eyes and nose in case the virus is on your hands. The World Health Organization calls the situation a \"public health emergency of international concern,\" and the United States has declared a \"public health emergency,\" likened by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to preparations for a potential hurricane. No authorities are calling the outbreak a pandemic. The CDC expects U.S. numbers will grow and recommendations will change depending on what happens in individual communities, said the CDC's Schuchat. The public should pay attention to what is happening nearby and heed the guidance of local health officials regarding school, work and public events. Because so much is still unknown at this point, the main risk factor is people traveling to areas where cases have already been identified. \"However this virus may already be in other places in the United States,\" CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told CNN. \"With enhanced surveillance, we will see more cases and that is why it makes good sense to be proactive, by doing things we know are effective in reducing exposure.\" Explainer: Swine flu facts \u00bb . Schuchat noted swine flu symptoms are relatively general and nonspecific. \"So many different things can cause these symptoms. it is a dilemma,\" she said. \"It is a challenge that we are wrestling with. There is not a perfect test right now to let a person or doctor know exactly what this is.\" But Schuchat specifically advised anyone who feels ill after returning from Mexico to see a doctor. Unfortunately, since this is a new strain of influenza, the flu vaccine for this past flu season offers no protection. \"However, we do have anti-virals that work against this swine flu,\" said Skinner, referring to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). \"Someone who has [swine flu], if they are treated early, the anti-flu medicines work against this.\" According to Skinner, health officials are still trying to figure out where exactly the virus originated, how transmissible it is and why it is mild in some cases and deadlier in others. CNN's Mary Carter contributed to this report.","highlights":"Take standard flu season precautions to avoid infection, CDC advises .\nChief risk factor is traveling to areas where swine flu has been identified .\nNo vaccine for new strain exists but antiviral drugs can shorten duration .","id":"b55875833b2ed6760997be0d331b1dbaaa782f79"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's amazing how a huge global phenomenon can begin. Tetris, the simple puzzle video game, has been addicting players for 25 years. In 1984, Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov was playing with one of his favorite puzzles when he had an inspiration: How about creating a computer version? Pajitnov wrote the program in his spare time, simplifying the idea to make it easier for those of us who aren't math geniuses. He used shapes made of four squares -- hence \"Tetris,\" which comes from the Greek word for four, \"Tetra.\" In the game, players must position and stack blocky shapes to fill a grid without leaving spaces in between. Successfully completed sections disappear. The more sections the player completes without reaching the top, the higher the score. iReport: 25 years of Tetris . Steadily, the game worked its way around the world. Millions of people found themselves glued to their computers and game players -- hearts racing and screaming in frustration -- all over getting a simple horizontal line of digital squares to disappear. \"I would just play it for hours and hours,\" said iReporter Joel Vetsch of New Haven, Connecticut, who got addicted to Tetris on a Game Boy when he was 10. \"I'm 29 now, and I still love it.\" See Vetsch's iReport here . Vetsch became so obsessed with Tetris that the game even showed up in his dreams. \"I'd go to sleep and in my head I'd see blocks. . .going into each other,\" he told CNN. \"It was weird.\" More than 125 million Tetris products have been sold, and Guinness World Records' 2009 Gamers' Edition book ranked Tetris No. 2 on its list of the top 50 console games of all time, behind Super Mario Kart. Twenty-five years to the month after Tetris was born, CNN spoke with Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, CEO of Blue Planet Software, the company that manages the exclusive licensing rights to the game. The two men talked about what makes Tetris so addictive, how they believe the game can help unite the world, and -- no joke -- why they want a Tetris competition in the Olympics. See Josh Levs' interview with Pajitnov and Rogers \u00bb . CNN: Alexey, I want to start with you. When you first dreamed up this scenario all those years ago, did you ever imagine it would turn into a global phenomenon? Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris creator: The very first time when my small game started working even without scoring or leveling, I couldn't stop playing. It's a really good game, but I [couldn't] imagine that it would be that big. Henk Rogers, CEO of Blue Planet Software: When I first found it at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1988, I kept on coming back and playing more. And that was a for sure sign that this was going to be a good game. CNN: There are stories of people going in to work on the weekends just to sit at their computer and play for hours. They even dream the Tetris shapes if they play for too long. Could one of you explain to me why it's so addictive and what goes on when you play it? Pajitnov: First of all, it's a very simple game and it has a really strong creative spirit in it. So instead of destroying something, you kind of build up the profile out of those small pieces and enjoy doing it. And that's probably the very important addictive factor. CNN: The simplicity and also the immediate satisfaction -- but then immediately it's time to work for the next one. Pajitnov: Yes. CNN: Henk, tell us some of the stunning statistics. Rogers: Over 70 million products have been sold as a box product, and more recently on the mobile [market] we're almost reaching 80 million downloads worldwide. Last year 10 percent of all games on mobile phones in this country were Tetris. CNN: We have some videos of takeoffs -- turning buildings into Tetris or human Tetris. Is that great publicity or are you concerned in a legal way, like, \"Stop grabbing our name and doing what you want with it?\" Rogers: It's all flattery. I like it. CNN: Alexey, you were originally unable to make a penny off of this for a long time. What happened there and how did it ultimately pay out for you? Pajitnov: Back in the '80s when I designed the game, the situation with intellectual property was very unclear in Russia. Communism Party didn't inspire some individual kind of activity. That's why I decided I granted my rights for Tetris for 10 years to Soviet Union to my computer center. And I didn't receive anything from this 10 years. But 10 years naturally ended, and I'm fine now. (laughs) CNN: You all put something into your news release: \"We have a vision of the future where people all over the world can meet and become friends without speaking the same language.\" You go on to say that people will be \"connected through the universal language\" of Tetris. Are you guys being sarcastic about that or is that an actual hope? Rogers: No that's a real dream for us. Games are a universal language and Tetris breaks all culture, language and age and gender barriers. CNN: Have you had complaints from people saying that Tetris is a drug, that it's more addictive, there should be some kind of warning with it? Pajitnov: It happens to me all the time. People approach me and say, \"I spent so much of my college time on Tetris I almost blow my exams.\" And I usually ask, \"But was it good hours which you spent on Tetris?\" And everybody say, \"Yes it was really good hours.\" So I say, \"I not waste it, I gift it to you!\" Rogers: I think that Tetris is the first virtual sport. And we'll see a Tetris Cup in the future and international competition. Hopefully we'll be part of the Olympics someday. CNN: The actual Olympics? The Olympics Olympics? Rogers: Sure, why limit the Olympics to physical sports? Why not mental sports? CNN: Wow, that would open up a whole new realm. I know you have a lot of plans for building this. What will we see when we envision the future? Will there be 3-D Tetris? Or will I have goggles and play virtual Tetris? Rogers: Tetris is the ultimate casual game, so we need to keep it simple. If 3-D takes it out of simple-to-understand games, then it probably won't go there. CNN: You want to tell me how much you have made off Tetris over the years? Rogers: A lot. (laughter) CNN: Alexey, how about you? Pajitnov: Yes, I am happy. CNN: Enough to give Oprah a run for her money? Pajitnov and Rogers: No, no. (laughter) CNN: No, I don't think real people do that ever. Have memories of Tetris? Send us iReports or join the discussions at Facebook or Twitter.","highlights":"Tetris, the addictive building-block video game, turns 25 this month .\nCNN speaks with Alexey Pajitnov, the game's creator, about its popularity .\nLast year, 10 percent of all games on mobile phones in the U.S. were Tetris .\nPajitnov: \"It's a very simple game and it has a really strong creative spirit in it\"","id":"6a043cd8aff9a54ebfa907fb7a98c288c72347eb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of uprooted people across the world dropped slightly last year, but new displacement this year in conflict zones like Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka so far \"has already more than offset the decline,\" the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. Pakistani displaced battle severe winds and dust at Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar. \"Today, we are seeing a relentless series of internal conflicts that are generating millions of uprooted people,\" U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a news release. This is one of the main points in Global Trends, an annual report by the U.N. agency on developments regarding refugees, internally displaced people, asylum seekers and stateless people. The number of \"uprooted people worldwide\" in 2008 was 42 million, a drop of about 700,000 from 2007, according to the report. \"In 2009, we have already seen substantial new displacements, namely in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia,\" Guterres said. \"While some displacements may be short-lived, others can take years and even decades to resolve. We continue to face several longer-term internal displacement situations in places like Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Each of these conflicts has also generated refugees who flee beyond their borders.\" The number of refugees and internally displaced people who returned home in 2008 was around 2 million, a decline from 2007, the report said. Refugee repatriation, which was 604,000, was down 17 percent. Displaced people's returns were down by 34 percent at 1.4 million people. \"Traditionally the largest durable solution for refugees, it was the second-lowest repatriation total in 15 years,\" the report said. \"The decline in part reflects deteriorating security conditions, namely in Afghanistan and Sudan.\" The report listed other statistics and trends in 2008: .","highlights":"U.N. reports shows slight decline in global refugee numbers to 42 million in 2008 .\nBut numbers set to rise in 2009 because of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia conflicts .\nPakistan hosted the largest number of refugees in the world at 1.8 million .\nAround 2 million refugees returned home in 2009 .","id":"18b794c0303fb0d120845bea703f215059c8bad6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six days after official election results awarded him victory in Iran's presidential elections and four days after he compared the putative losers to fans of a losing soccer team, unleashing a wave of fury in his country, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a broadcast aired Thursday his remarks had been taken out of context. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained Thursday that earlier comments had been taken out of context. \"I was addressing those who started riots and set up fires and attacked people,\" he told the state-run news agency IRINN in an interview. \"I said these [people] are nothing, they are not even part of the nation of Iran. They are alien in relation to Iran.\" Ahmadinejad said that the official results, which gave him an overwhelming margin of victory that many Iranians are challenging as rigged, mean that \"everybody is victorious ... We are a big family, and we have to put our hands together.\" In Sunday's remarks to a rally at Vali-e Asr Square in Tehran, he said, \"The Iranian nation is united. In a football match, there are 50,000 to 70,000 spectators. Those whose team has lost are angry and will do anything to vent their anger. Forty million people participated in the elections in Iran. They themselves were the players, and they determined [the outcome]. \"Now four or five dirt or dust creeping from the corners may do something. But you must know that the pure river that is the Iranian nation will not allow them to put themselves on display.\" His reference to unhappy Iranians as \"dirt\" or \"dust\" was seen by many as particularly galling, and he offered a qualified apology on Thursday. \"I am sorry about the degree of accuracy of the news that some publicize,\" he said. \"The very clear statement of the president is being distorted.\" He said that he had noted that all 40 million Iranians had emerged as victorious in the elections, not just those who may have voted for him. And he attempted to include supporters of Mir Hossein Moussavi, the opposition leader who reportedly lost, in his embrace. \"These all are victors of the election forum; they are all dear,\" he said. \"We are all brothers. And I even said the road is open. Everyone should come. And nobody has the right to ask anybody else whom did you vote for. This means this is how much the government cares for the rights of the people.\" Watch report on online sites that support Ahmadinejad \u00bb . He added, \"I am sorry that some people base their movements and political activities on these rumors that are basically untrue, and I hope this will be corrected.\" Key religious conservatives have publicly complained of Ahmadinejad's treatment of the protesters in rallies demanding a new vote. Watch the latest from the streets of Tehran \u00bb . One of the critics was Habibolah Asgharoladi, a senior member of a key conservative voting bloc allied with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which represents Tehran's influential bazaar merchant class. Asgharoladi has accused Ahmadinejad of treating the pro-Moussavi demonstrators improperly and urged him to treat them with more respect. These developments marked an extraordinary rebuke to Ahmadinejad and a rare public airing of the existing rift among ruling conservatives. Watch report on conservatives' reaction \u00bb . Other segments of Iranian society are planning to hold rallies, including the Association of Combatant Clerics. The group of influential clerics has requested permission to demonstrate on the streets of Tehran on Saturday, Iran's government-funded Press TV reported. Khamenei has asked the authority, the Guardian Council, to recount some of the votes. But Moussavi and his supporters are demanding fresh elections.","highlights":"Ahmadinejad's comparison of election losers to soccer fans unleashed wave of fury .\n\"I was addressing those who started riots and set up fires,\" he says in broadcast .\nPresident of Iran attempts to embrace opponents: \"These all are victors\"\nKey conservatives have complained of Ahmadinejad's treatment of protesters .","id":"e9432a7830192451b7a9dd1916041ea9bdca8278"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If he knew then what he knows now, he might have made some different decisions before the start of the Iraq war in 2003, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters Friday. Outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace says he now thinks more troops were needed at the war's start. \"One of the mistakes I made in my assumptions going in was that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Army would welcome liberation, that the Iraqi Army, given the opportunity, would stand together for the Iraqi people and be available to them to help serve the new nation,\" Gen. Peter Pace said. But \"they disintegrated in the face of the coalition's first several weeks of combat, so they weren't here,\" Pace said. Had he known that would happen, he would have recommended more troops be sent at the outset of the Iraq war, he said. In addition, Pace said, if he had been asked in January 2006 whether the United States should build up its Army and Marine Corps contingents in Iraq, he would have said no, because the plan at the time was to build and equip an Iraqi Army and turn over security duties to it. The force was built and equipped, Pace said, but the February bombing of the Golden Mosque -- one of the holiest Shiite sites -- ignited long-simmering tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, further destabilizing the region and cutting short any plans for U.S. troop reduction. Thousands of people have died in reprisal killings and bombings since the attack. Still, Pace said, \"Given what I knew at the time, I'm comfortable with the recommendations that I made.\" Any errors that were made are to be learned from, he added. Watch how Pace details the mistakes made at Iraq war's start \u00bb . And he continued to voice his support for the Iraq invasion. \"Twenty-six million Iraqis have the opportunity now,\" he said. \"They are working their way through 3\u00bd decades of being trod upon, held down, no opportunity at all for freedom of expression, for living their lives the way they wanted to, for picking [their] leaders.\" Pace will retire when his two-year term ends this month. Also Friday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- in his first public comments since President Bush announced Thursday night he was accepting the Iraq troop level recommendation of Gen. David Petraeus -- noted all Bush's senior military advisers are in agreement with those recommendations. Gates said he asked Pace and Adm. William Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command, to begin examining U.S. options in Iraq months ago, knowing that Petraeus -- the top U.S. commander in Iraq -- was doing the same. \"I wanted the president this month to have the benefit of more than one senior military voice as he considered the next steps in Iraq,\" Gates said. \"I also did not want Gen. Petraeus hanging out there all by himself. \"While the analyses of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CentCom and Gen. Petraeus varied in emphasis and approach, all of the president's senior military advisers are in full agreement with the recommendations made by Gen. Petraeus,\" he said. The United States' next steps in Iraq, among other things, \"had to avoid even the appearance of American failure,\" Gates said. \"Extremist Islam was dramatically empowered by defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The first attack against us by the extremists, the World Trade Center in 1993, was launched from Afghanistan just four years after the last Soviet soldier left there. \"Should the jihadists be able to claim a victory in Iraq over the United States, the sole remaining superpower, I believe it would empower them worldwide far, far more than their victory over the Soviets,\" Gates said. \"The regional consequences would be significant and highly destabilizing.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says he thought Iraqis would welcome liberation .\nGen. Peter Pace continues to voice his support for the Iraq invasion .\nPace's two-year term ends this month .\nDefense secretary says Pace, other Bush military advisers agree with Petraeus .","id":"89450fb102edb71962fa68604826768fcdf22a62"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Imagine arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, one of the busiest and most bustling airports in the country. People are dashing about, waiting at checkpoints and scanning the screens for departure and arrival times. Invariably there are delays and since you aren't going anywhere anytime soon, you might as well enjoy the tunes playing over the public announcement system. Hey, isn't that the Peaches and Herb classic \"Shake Your Groove Thing\"? You haven't heard that in years! But wait, what are they singing? It sounds like \"Shake Your Groove Thing,\" but the lyrics playing don't match the ones you know. Click on the image above to hear two of the airport's new songs. \"Opening Day fresh, Opening Day fresh, . Yeah, yeah . Hartsfield-Jackson do it now . Opening Day fresh, Opening Day fresh, . Yeah, yeah . Show 'em how we do it now! Show 'em how we do it now!\" Welcome to parody with a purpose. As part of an initiative to keep the airport clean and get people excited about the airport's new shops and dining options, officials there bought the rights to three popular R & B classics: \"Shake Your Groove Thing\" by Peaches and Herb, \"Bustin' Loose\" by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers and \"Fantastic Voyage\" by Lakeside. With rights secured, Doug Strachan, Creative Innovations Manager for the City of Atlanta Department of Aviation, rewrote the lyrics and invited the original artists to record the revamped songs. \"Whereas words reach the mind, music reaches the heart,\" Strachan said. \"These are hit songs that people love ... real powerful, catchy and make you want to dance. If you can make someone dance, you can probably motivate them to do other things.\" So \"Groove Thing\" became \"Keep It Opening Day Fresh,\" \"Bustin Loose\" morphed into \"We're Steady Cleaning Up,\" and \"Fantastic Voyage\" was reborn as \"Our New Concessions.\" Clean music with a clean message -- literally. The concept of \"opening day fresh\" refers to keeping the airport as clean as if it were opening day, which means smelling fresh and looking as spotless as possible. The catchy tunes are a way to subtly remind visitors that it takes a team effort to keep the airport sparkling. \"Our New Concessions\" reminds travelers about the facility's retail offerings and food service. Strachan said much effort was put into making sure the songs were produced in such a way that they were respectful to the song and the artist. \"The whole idea is to make it sound as much like the original as possible,\" Strachan said. \"If it's not really done with deft, then it kind of detracts from it rather than enhances it.\" Herb Fame, half of Peaches and Herb, loved the idea and was pleased to remake his classic. \"Shake Your Grove Thing\" \"was a worldwide song and people recognize the melody,\" said Fame, who continues to perform. \"It was fun to do and every time I come through the airport I listen to it.\" Mark Wood, lead vocalist of the group Lakeside, said Strachan did a great job transforming \"Fantastic Voyage\" into a new, yet familiar song. \"It's important to send the message in a way that the message will get through,\" Wood said. \"Ours is a song that people may have grown up hearing or they may have played for their kids and so you might have generations that can relate to it.\" Such messaging can be extremely effective, said Matt Wallaert, lead scientist for Thrive, an online financial advisory company for young adults. Wallaert, an expert in behavioral finance and social psychology, said the airport is obviously attempting to do something his company also aims for -- offering useful information in a way that is less stressful for the user. \"If you put up a sign that says 'Don't Litter,' people see it the first time you put it up, but every time after that it loses its impact, because it becomes a standard part of what they see,\" he said. \"Music is pervasive in a way that a sign is not because it's everywhere.\" Strachan said officials at the airport definitely want those coming through to enjoy their time. As part of that, the airport recently launched the initial phases of a program that uses a scent called \"Breeze\" to help enhance visitors' mood. Strachan said the scent, which was first tested on a limited group of passengers, uses a variety of different notes, including vanilla and a little lavender. The pleasant, relaxing scent is going over so well that Strachan said a custom scent that will be exclusive to Hartsfield-Jackson is being developed. \"We want to make people feel better,\" he said. \"We wanted to give them an olfactory cue which suggested that the airport is opening day fresh and we want to enhance their travel experience.\" Stefanie Michaels, also known as Adventure Girl, is a travel commentator and writer who is a frequent traveler. Anything airports can do to make air travel more relaxing is more than welcome, especially in the times we live in, she said. \"Movie theaters and restaurants have been using scents and those kinds of subliminal tactics for years,\" Michaels said. \"Music makes people feel good and with the economy the way it is, people are just stressed to no end, so from a subconscious level it's a really wise thing for the airport to do.\"","highlights":"Visitors to Atlanta's airport will hear some familiar classics .\nOlder R&B hits reworked to promote airport cleanliness .\nOriginal artists re-record songs meant to gently prompt passengers .\nAirport also using scent to help relax visitors .","id":"ced7b5149cc7c09efac2e12605816cdb7ef1023f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A cancerous tumor in 13-year-old Danny Hauser's chest has shrunk significantly since he was ordered by a court last month to resume chemotherapy treatment, a family spokesman said. Danny Hauser, 13, was headed for a clinic in Mexico until an arrest warrant was issued for his mom. But the Hauser family attributes much of his progress to the complementary use of vitamins and minerals to boost his immune system, Dan Zwakman said. \"The family is doing it on their own, with the doctor's knowledge,\" Zwakman said. \"Everybody is pleased that the tumor is shrinking, of course. The goal is to get rid of the cancer, but they'd rather be doing it without the chemo.\" Danny's case made national headlines last month when he and his mother, Colleen, fled Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, for Mexico to seek alternative cancer care despite a court order that he undergo chemotherapy. They eventually returned after an arrest warrant was issued for Colleen Hauser. But had they made it to their destination -- the Rubio Clinic in Tijuana, according to Zwakman -- they would have joined the ranks of an estimated hundreds of other cancer patients who head south of the border each year for cancer care. \"Their intentions started long ago with Colleen. She's been involved in natural healing for many years now. She believes the world was created with everything needed to sustain and heal life,\" Zwakman said. Despite controversial origins and consistent bad press in the United States, Tijuana's border clinics continue to attract people like the Hausers, who are in search of more holistic approaches to cancer treatment. Because little data exist on how many clinics are operating, it's unclear how many American cancer patients visit Mexico each year, said Stephen Barrett, a patient advocate who runs the Web site, http:\/\/www.quackwatch.com\/. \"If they answered, you could not be sure they were telling the truth. They might have an incentive to raise the number,\" he said in an e-mail. \"To make matters more complicated, many of the 'cancer' clinics also see people who don't have cancer.\" The concept of complementary and alternative cancer treatment has slowly been gaining acceptance for more than a decade in the United States, with the creation of entities including the National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine. \"Clinicians and researchers have realized that it's important to conduct methodologically sound studies to help guide patients to understand what's safe and what's effective,\" said Dr. Ted Gansler, medical director of health content for the American Cancer Society. But no one recommends that alternative treatment be used to replace conventional care, such as chemotherapy or radiation, he said. \"The important thing to remember is there is no recommended alternative to conventional treatment, and the reason is because if it worked, it would become conventional,\" he said. As far as Tijuana's border clinics are concerned, the American Cancer Society cautions that \"methods promoted in Mexican border clinics are not consistent with scientific understanding\" of cancer and its treatment. \"Although these clinics often claim great success in advertisements and books, they have not published convincing evidence in medical journals to support those claims,\" the ACS says in a section on its Web site called Questionable Cancer Practices In Mexico. \"Patients traveling to the Tijuana area for treatment appear to be subjecting themselves to costly and potentially hazardous regimens, especially if they postpone standard medical care.\" Loose regulatory standards in Mexico allow Tijuana's clinics to thrive, many offering expensive treatment in luxurious, spa-like settings, complete with fresh meals, exercise classes and emotional and spiritual counseling. Many herbs and dietary supplements used in border clinics are not considered dangerous; they just have not been put through the rigorous clinical trials required for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve them for use as cancer treatments. Others, like the antioxidants carotene, lycopene and vitamins C, E and A, have produced inconsistent results in large-scale trials and are still being researched. Still others, like laetrile, a chemical compound whose active ingredient is cyanide, can be dangerous, the National Cancer Institute says. But many patients say they are attracted by the warm, caring relationship between patient and clinic staff. \"They don't just see the disease. They see the person behind the disease and know how to care for them in every way,\" says Sarah Sackett-Hutcheson, who claims she has been cancer-free for 17 years. When she was 11 years old, her oncologist told her family she had six months to live and recommended chemotherapy and radiation to battle her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Instead of undergoing the debilitating treatments, she went to the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, where she received low doses of chemotherapy along with intravenous vitamins. The American Cancer Society says there is no scientific evidence that low doses of chemotherapy or large doses of supplements are effective against cancer. But Sackett-Hutcheson believes the small doses of chemo attacked cancerous cells without destroying her immune system while the vitamins boosted her immunity. \"I remember thinking if they'd given me the high doses of chemo I wouldn't have made it. Even the low doses made me so incredibly sick. I'd be getting up like every 15 minutes, puking in the middle of the night,\" Sackett-Hutcheson said. Like Danny Hauser, Sackett-Hutcheson was entangled in a court battle over her family's decision. However, a judge allowed her to continue treatment in Mexico, while last month a judge ordered Hauser to undergo chemotherapy. Sackett-Hutcheson's case was ultimately dismissed after doctors from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston declined to evaluate her progress on the grounds that they felt she was receiving \"inadequate treatment,\" according to court documents. Four months after her diagnosis in 1991, she says, she was cancer-free, and has remained so. Dr. Francisco Contreras, Oasis of Hope's head physician and the son of its founder, says Mexico's \"open-mindedness\" toward alternative therapies is related to the socioeconomic standing of most of its citizens. \"Mexican authorities are much more open to natural therapies because most Mexicans live under the line of poverty so they would not have access to conventional medicine,\" he said. \"I don't know if that's for benefit of our patients or not, but we have this open-mindedness because we have to do something to help our people.\" Like many border clinics, Contreras says his center takes an integrative approach, combining conventional treatment, such as chemotherapy and radiation, with alternative methods to create individualized regimens that focus on healing the entire body with fewer debilitating, long-term side effects. Not everyone leaves Tijuana's clinics happy. Several articles on www.quackwatch.com and its sister sites contain negative testimonials from people who say they sought alternative treatment, mostly laetrile, for parents or a loved one only to have them die of cyanide poisoning a few weeks later. Such cautionary tales didn't stop Jennifer Woods from following the example of her grandfather by going to Tijuana to receive the Alivizatos treatment, an intravenous serum that its makers say consists of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. During her first monthlong visit, Woods paid about $15,000 for surgery to remove her tumors, 20 days of worth of the dosage and two meals a day, plus lodging expenses across the border in San Diego, California. But Woods says it was worth every penny. \"I feel well. I've never had any ill side effects, and I have learned so much about nutrition and how to maintain my health,\" she said in a telephone interview from her home in Denver, Colorado. Woods says she has not seen a doctor in the United States since. She says she returns to IBC about every six months for six days at a time to receive \"booster treatments\" for about $1,200 a visit. \"It's a very well-rounded program. You don't just go there and let somebody give you something and then walk out and forget about it. You take responsibility from that day forward to do the right thing to keep your health in order.\"","highlights":"Tumors have shrunk in teen who was ordered to resume chemotherapy .\nFamily credits alternative treatments he's getting in addition to chemo .\nMany clinics is Mexico promise cancer healing through alternative therapies .\nExpert: If alternative therapies really cured cancer, they'd be standard treatment .","id":"965921073e4607b47883e08d522ad5377c6b332e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jeff Kepner just wanted to hold his 13-year-old daughter's hand again. The nine-hour operation completed on Monday was the first double hand transplant in the United States. The 57-year-old Augusta, Georgia, resident underwent the first double hand transplant in the United States on Monday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. On Friday he remained at the transplant intensive care unit. He is \"very stable, awake and alert, and he's talking with us,\" said Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, who led the nine-hour surgery. \"He is having good circulation in the transplanted hands.\" Kepner shows no signs of transplant rejection, Lee said. The patient was groggy, but asked more questions about the operation as he started feeling better, said his wife, Valarie Kepner. He is expected to remain in the intensive care unit for a week, said Lee, chief of the division of plastic surgery and professor of surgery and orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In 1999, Kepner lost both hands and feet to a strep infection. As the bacterial infection spread throughout his body, it stopped blood flow to his limbs and shut down his liver and kidneys. While most strep infections are mild, in some cases the bacteria can destroy muscles, fat and skin tissue and cause toxic shock syndrome. At the time, Kepner's daughter was only 3 years old. \"She doesn't remember her dad any other way but this. We looked through pictures and we can't find one of him holding her hand. That's one thing she was looking forward to -- that she's going to be able to hold her dad's hand again.\" The infection came at a time when Kepner had just earned a degree in pastry arts. \"He was a good cook all the way around. I worked full time,\" his wife said. \"I was spoiled, because when I came home dinner was on the table. He did it very well.\" For the last decade, Kepner adjusted to prosthetic limbs. He drove his teenage daughter, Jordan, to school and worked part-time at Borders bookstore. But he could no longer cook. Although he could do some of the basic tasks, Kepner said her husband could not perform activites that required fine motor skills. She had to help him in the shower and help him get dressed. \"He would be on my schedule, that's why this [the hand transplant] would give him a whole level of independence,\" she said. With his new hands, Kepner hopes to perform small tasks such as changing a light bulb and using a remote control. \"I'm looking forward to his cooking,\" his wife said. \"I'm looking forward to him doing the things he wants to do when he wants to do them.\" Kepner initially had doubts, especially since it was an elective procedure. \"The two points that changed his mind as we talked was, No. 1, the independence he wanted to gain,\" his wife said. The second point was that they believed there were fewer risks with this particular surgery. The Kepners knew a double hand transplant meant Kepner would have to take drugs to suppress his immune system for the rest of his life (like any transplant, the recipient's immune system could attack the new organ as a foreign object). But for this surgery, the Pittsburgh doctors would also transplant bone marrow from the donor to reduce the amount of immunosuppressants Kepner would have to take. According to the doctors, the bone marrow cells could re-educate the immune system so it wouldn't reject the hands. Despite the risks, Lee said hand transplant recipients regain much of their autonomy. \"They can perform activities of daily living -- the simple things you and I take for granted such as personal hygiene, brushing our teeth, combing our hair,\" Lee said. \"When you don't have either hand, you are often completely dependent on another person, a family member or in Mr. Kepner's case his wife, for a lot of very basic activities during the day.\" On January 22, Kepner signed up to be a candidate for the medical center's clinical trial for hand transplants. He had to pass a screening process, which included a physical and a psychiatric evaluation of his coping skills, his expectations and his understanding of the transplant. Three months later, Kepner received the call. There was a donor whose hands matched Kepner's skin color, gender and size. After getting permission from the donor's family, the surgeons removed the donor's hands extending midway to the elbows. A team of surgeons attached arteries and veins, repaired tendons and nerves and set the bones for both hands. The surgery involved 27 bones, 28 muscles, three major nerves, two major arteries, multiple tendons, veins and soft tissue. Kepner still cannot feel with his new hands, Lee said. \"We really don't expect him to [now],\" Lee said. \"The nerves grow at a speed of one inch per month, and there are many inches between the mid-forearm to the fingers.\" After Kepner leaves the intensive care unit, he is expected to begin three months of physical therapy to gain mobility in his joints, wrists and fingers. \"Based on the results of hand transplants performed so far around the world, just about everyone regains protective sensation, which is the ability to distinguish between hot and cold and feel a pin prick,\" Lee said. While it's difficult to predict how much movement and sense of touch Kepner will have in his new hands, Lee said, \"We are optimistic he will regain protective sensation and even more than that.\" More than 32 patients have received hand transplants. Some of these recipients in the United States and Europe have lived with their new hands for more than a decade.","highlights":"Former pastry chef received double hand transplant Monday .\nJeff Kepner lost both hands and feet after fighting strep infection 10 years ago .\nDoctor says Kepner shows no signs of rejection .","id":"2d2acd3a0bf242dfdb90a6b9931030dcd0552dae"} -{"article":"SATSUMA, Florida (CNN) -- The father of a missing 5-year-old Florida girl made a renewed plea Thursday for the return of his daughter. The search continued Thursday for Haleigh Cummings, 5, who went missing from her home near Orlando. \"If you have my daughter and you're watching this, drop her off somewhere safe,\" Roland Cummings said of his daughter Haleigh. \"I'm not out for revenge, I'm not out for nothing else. I want my daughter back,\" Cummings said, with his girlfriend, Misty Croslin, at his side. He said he could think of no reason Haleigh would be taken. \"Why would anybody be sick enough\" to abduct a child? he asked. Cummings, 25, said earlier that he and Croslin had passed lie detector tests. Croslin, 17, was the last person to see Haleigh when she put the girl to bed Monday night in their Satsuma, Florida, home. She said she awoke in the middle of the night to find Haleigh gone and the back door to the double-wide trailer propped open with a brick. Putnam County authorities on Thursday continued working with the FBI and state investigators to search a five-mile area for Haleigh. Police have no official suspects, but say they are treating everyone they interview as one. \"All the world's a suspect\" now, a sheriff's spokesman has said. Cummings said earlier that he was surprised when he arrived home from work at 3 a.m. Tuesday to see his girlfriend awake, and he asked her why she was up. \"She said, 'Your back door's open and your daughter's gone,' \" Cummings told Nancy Grace on her show on CNN's sister network HLN on Wednesday night. Watch Cummings describe his shock \u00bb . Croslin waited until Cummings came home to phone 911 about the girl's disappearance, though it's unclear how long that wait was. Watch the father describe what happened \u00bb . Police said Wednesday that Croslin had tucked the girl and her 4-year-old brother into bed at 8 p.m. before going to sleep at 10. Croslin told police she woke up around 3 a.m. to use the bathroom and returned to find the girl missing. The boy was still in bed, Cummings told CNN. A brick was propping the trailer's door open, Croslin told a 911 dispatcher. Hear the frantic 911 call \u00bb . The father said he has used the back door only two times since he's been living in the trailer. Police say they believe the girl was abducted. \"There's no longer any reason to believe that the child simply wandered outside,\" Maj. Gary Bowling of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. The police must \"assume abduction,\" he said, adding, \"All the answers to why you'd want to take a 5-year-old are ugly.\" Haleigh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, shook as she spoke Thursday near the search area. Sheffield's mother, Marie Griffis, said that she and her daughter are devastated. \"It's like I've got a hole in my body, and she feels helpless because she can't do anything but sit here.\" A nationwide Amber Alert says the girl was last seen wearing a pink shirt and underwear. Croslin is staying with relatives as the investigation continues, said Bowling, describing the girlfriend as a \"child herself.\" Griffis said that her daughter and Ronald Cummings had a \"rocky relationship\" and that the two took turns spending weekends with their daughter. Watch mother's tearful plea \u00bb . It's unclear if Sheffield and Cummings were ever married, but they are \"legally separated,\" police said Thursday. Authorities were unable to answer media questions about how and why Cummings had custody of Haleigh. Sheffield lives near the Florida-Georgia line and has been interviewed by law enforcement, according to police. Investigators are looking into various angles of the case, including finding out the location of 44 registered sexual offenders who live within a five-mile radius of the Cummings home, said Lt. Johnny Greenwood of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. Police are offering but not requiring all those interviewed in the case to take polygraph tests. A familiar face from the Caylee Anthony case is involved in the search. Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla joined the hunt Tuesday and is offering a $25,000 reward for the girl's return. Padilla initially bonded out Caylee's mother, Casey, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the toddler's death, and then helped launch one of several searches for Caylee. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at 386-329-0800 or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse at 888-FL-MISSING. CNN's John Couwels, Brad Lendon and Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Father of missing child says he, girlfriend took and passed lie detector tests .\nHaleigh Cummings reported missing around 3 a.m. Tuesday, police say .\n17-year-old girlfriend was caring for Haleigh on Monday night, police say .\nAuthorities say they believe the girl was abducted; bounty hunter offers reward .","id":"89ddc36d4a34bf7a98b031d02b36a82269a0dc4b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University, is the author of \"History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving.\" She was the target of a British libel lawsuit by Irving, a historian she said had become a spokesman for Holocaust denial. Lipstadt won the case in April 2000. Read her blog here . Deborah Lipstadt says the Holocaust love story seemed incredible on its face. (CNN) -- I don't know whether to be sad or angry -- or both. The recent expos\u00e9 of the fact that Herman Rosenblat's Holocaust memoir is a hoax was no surprise to me. From the first time I heard the story of his \"miraculous\" survival during the Nazi era, I doubted that it could be true. Rosenblat's claim that, as an inmate in a Buchenwald sub-camp, he had survived because a young girl had tossed an apple over the fence each day for seven months just did not seem credible to me. The notion that a concentration camp inmate could approach the fence without the SS shooting him beggared the imagination. I could not believe that a little girl whose family was supposedly passing as non-Jews would allow their daughter to engage in such an act. The fairy tale nature of the incident was enhanced by the supposed reunion of the couple on a blind date years later when both had moved to America. The story was that they discovered each other's true identity and, after a whirlwind romance, decided to marry. Survivors who had been in the camp with Rosenblat and had kept in touch with him since the end of the war protested that the story could not be true. They wondered why Rosenblat had never mentioned the incident until the late 1990s. A number of other historians shared my doubts, which I posted on my blog. As one of the first to express skepticism about this, I became the target of attacks from those who thought I was demeaning the Rosenblats. We doubters could not, however, initially overcome the power of Oprah, on whose show Rosenblat and his wife appeared twice. Credulous reporters, who should have sought some form of verification, kept writing about this \"miraculous\" event. The producer who acquired movie rights tried to intimidate those of us who raised questions. He wrote to me saying, \"I have traveled all over Eastern Europe for several years in preparation for what will be a major feature film. I may be more of a Holocaust expert than you, even though, I have no title nor university affiliation. What I do know for sure is before I make any statements I know the facts. You simply do not know those facts, and that Deborah, is the greatest sin to the memory of all those perished so long ago.\" The publisher refused to let anyone see the book. Public relations people circulated versions of the story urging recipients to send it on so eventually it would reach millions of people. Slowly, thanks to the power of the Internet and the work of some intrepid historians, the hoax was exposed. The publisher pulled the book. The movie producer cried foul, presenting himself as a victim who had been duped. This is not the first time such a hoax has been perpetrated. Most of the previous stories have been spread by people who were passing as survivors. In contrast, the Rosenblats were both survivors of the Holocaust. But that fact has now been lost in the shuffle. What, then, is the danger of these sorts of hoaxes? First of all, they give ammunition to Holocaust deniers. This is a bonanza for them. Deniers expend great efforts in trying to implant doubts in young people about the veracity of the Holocaust. They spend so much energy attacking \"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl\" because it is a book that is widely read by young people. The fact that this \"apples over the fence\" story has already been published as a widely successful children's story provides the deniers with a great opportunity to peddle their wares. However, the danger posed by deniers is not the primary reason why such fabricated stories should be exposed. The events of the Holocaust are horrible in and of themselves. They do not need to be aggrandized or exaggerated to be made to sound any worse than they were. They also do not need to be rendered as joyful love stories that make us feel good about what happened. Both are insults to the survivors and inimical to the pursuit of historical truth. The optimum way of teaching about the Holocaust and presenting its history is, to quote Detective Joe Friday from the old TV show, \"Dragnet,\" \"just the facts, just the facts.\" What we need, particularly in relation to something as mind-boggling as the Holocaust, are \"just the facts.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Deborah Lipstadt.","highlights":"Deborah Lipstadt: People raised questions about Holocaust love story .\nShe says backers of the story rejected the doubts .\nLipstadt says such tales give ammunition to Holocaust deniers .\nShe also says the fake story insults the memory of the survivors .","id":"9cd2163087d231ac8b5664949ce9bcc5284369ce"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Airways is asking thousands of its staff to work for free for up to four weeks, spokeswoman Kirsten Millard said Tuesday. British Airways plans to reduce capacity by 4 percent next winter by parking up to 16 aircraft. In an e-mail to all its staff, the airline offered workers between one and four weeks of unpaid leave -- but with the option to work during this period. British Airways employs just more than 40,000 people in the United Kingdom. Last month, the company posted a record annual loss of \u00a3400 million ($656 million). Its chief executive declared at the time there were \"absolutely no signs of recovery\" in the industry. \"In 30 years in this business and I've never seen anything like this. This is by far the biggest crisis the industry has ever faced,\" said Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive. Watch more about BA's request \u00bb . A spokesman for one of Britain's biggest unions said its workers could not afford to work for free for a month. \"It's all well and good for Willie Walsh to say he's prepared to work for free when he earns four times in a month what they do in a year,\" said Ciaran Naidoo, a spokesman for Unite. He pointed out that the airline was not ordering staff to work without pay. \"It's a request -- you can take unpaid leave or you can work for free, and the chances of people working for free are very unlikely, but there might be some people who want to take unpaid leave.\" Demand for the airline's passenger seats and cargo holds fell during the last financial year, while its fuel bill rocketed to almost \u00a33 billion ($4.7 billion). Walsh said British Airways' woes were inextricably linked to the downturn in the global economy and that there had been no sign of any \"green shoots\" of recovery. Like its premium-class competitors, British Airways is losing customers to cheaper rivals. The airline's premium passenger numbers fell 13 percent in the second half of last year, in line with the industry average. Total traffic fell 3.4 percent and while the airline carried 33.1 million passengers last year, it was a drop of 4.3 percent from the previous year. The dip in demand for British Airways' flights has forced a switch in strategy at the airline. From the end of last year, it has been trying to tempt passengers with lower fares, sacrificing profit per seat for \"bums on seats.\" It plans to reduce capacity by 4 percent next winter by parking up to 16 aircraft. CNN's Alysen Miller contributed to this report.","highlights":"Union spokesman: Workers could not afford to work for free for a month .\nBritish Airways employs just more than 40,000 people in the United Kingdom .\nAirline's CEO: There are \"absolutely no signs of recovery\" in the industry .\nLast month, the company posted a record annual loss $656 million .","id":"13eac811c726ff1a23310a44fe40c43b3beae787"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was working from home Thursday after fracturing her right elbow during a fall the day before, State Department officials said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was treated and released after fracturing her elbow. Clinton fell Wednesday afternoon at the State Department on her way to the White House and was taken to George Washington University Hospital. She was treated and released. She will have surgery to repair her elbow in coming weeks. Clinton was with Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, when she fell. \"Secretary Clinton appreciates the professionalism and kindness she received from the medical team who treated her this evening and looks forward to resuming her full schedule soon,\" said department spokeswoman Cheryl Mills. Philip Crowley, an assistant secretary of state, said Obama was one of the first people to call Clinton Wednesday night. Clinton was at home \"resting comfortably, or uncomfortably. She is working from home. She is already taking some calls, and I'm sure starting to learn the limits of movement -- how well you can text with one arm in a sling,\" Crowley said. CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton breaks elbow in fall .\nClinton was on her way to White House .\nClinton plans to have surgery to repair elbow .","id":"55023ed0e44f5452289ea1f4218c4f17325f06c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 28-year-old Oregon woman has been charged with murder after the body of a new mother was found in the crawl space of her home. Police released a photo of Korena Roberts, who is charged with murder. Rescue crews first went to Korena Roberts' home in Washington County on Friday in response to a call of a newborn in distress. They found Roberts' boyfriend unsuccessfully trying to revive the baby using first-aid techniques. Roberts told deputies the baby was hers, the county sheriff's office said. Medics noticed a lot of blood at the home, and sent Roberts and the baby to a hospital. \"Doctors at the hospital were not able to revive the baby,\" said Sgt. David Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff's Office in a news release. \"They also discovered that Ms. Roberts had not delivered a child at anytime in the recent past.\" Deputies returned to the home, where they found the body of 21-year-old Heather Snively in the crawl space under the kitchen, Thompson said. Authorities learned Snively had been pregnant at the time she was attacked, and they determined she was the mother of the infant. An autopsy will now determine how the baby was delivered, and whether he died before or after birth, Thompson said. The outcome could result in another murder charge for Roberts, deputies said. Residents in the woman's Mill Creek Drive neighborhood said Roberts had told them she was expecting a child, according to CNN affiliate KPTV. \"She didn't appear to be pregnant to us,\" neighbor Doug King told KPTV.","highlights":"Rescue workers called to Korena Roberts' house after report of baby in distress .\nRoberts told medics she had just delivered baby .\nDoctors unable to save baby; then learned Roberts had not been pregnant .\nAuthorities later find baby's mother's body in crawl space of Roberts' house .","id":"167426eb7e7b44dde1c6454a2383ae3f49113993"} -{"article":"DAVID, Panama (CNN) -- Dozens of families frightened by aftershocks slept outside overnight Wednesday after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook coastal Panama near the border with Costa Rica. The quake was centered about 235 miles (380 km) west of Panama City, near the town of David, according to the U.S. Geological Survey . The temblor occurred at 1:11 a.m. ET and residents reported feeling three aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but damage was reported in the cities of Paso Canoa, David and Puerto Armuelles. The extent of the damage was not immediately known. Many families opted to stay outside their homes, saying that they felt as if the earth were swallowing them and that trees and their houses were falling down. One resident, Carlos Estribi, said he picked up his children in his arms and ran to the public plaza in David, seeking protection since he felt like his house was collapsing. Family members told CNN that patients at the Regional Hospital of David went outside and refused to go back in because aftershocks were still being felt. Patients at the Materno Infantil Jose de Obaldia Hospital and the Regional Rafael Hernandez Hospital also fled their rooms. Cyclists from Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Germany, who were in David for a bicycle race, also had to leave their hotel rooms. Police and other security officials were inspecting schools, hospitals and private and public buildings for damage. Journalist Demetrio Abrego in David contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Frightened patients flee hospital and refuse to return as aftershocks rumble .\nNEW: No immediate reports of casualties; damage reported but extent not yet known .\nQuake struck at 1:11 a.m. ET about 235 miles (380 km) west of Panama City .","id":"9b24d3fc9b2862d5aeca645ff707d527458c0069"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The unlikely alchemy of a hard-rock legend and a bluegrass superstar created Grammy gold Sunday night, as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss picked up five awards -- including album and record of the year -- for their work, \"Raising Sand.\" Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's song \"Please Read the Letter\" won record of the year. \"Sand\" won album of the year honor, while a song from the set, \"Please Read the Letter,\" won record of the year. \"I'm bewildered. In the old days we would have called this selling out. But it's a good way to spend a Sunday,\" said Plant, the legendary Led Zeppelin front man. \"Raising Sand\" was produced by T Bone Burnett, whose production and oversight of the \"O Brother, Where Art Thou\" soundtrack won three awards -- including album of the year -- in 2002. For \"Sand,\" Burnett selected several songs, mostly obscurities such as Gene Clark's \"Polly Come Home\" and Sam Phillips' \"Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,\" and let Plant and Krauss mix it up in stark, often subdued fashion. The result was widely praised and reached No. 2 on the album charts. Watch Plant and Krauss talk about their win \u00bb . The win adds to Krauss' eye-popping Grammy total of 26 awards -- more than any female artist in history and third only to conductor Sir Georg Solti (31) and producer-arranger-mogul Quincy Jones (27). The awards were overshadowed by news that performer Chris Brown, who had been up for two Grammys, had become the focus of a domestic-violence allegation. Brown turned himself in to Los Angeles police Sunday evening. Watch a report on the latest developments in the Brown case \u00bb . He was released on $50,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Authorities said Brown and a woman were involved in an argument in a vehicle. Read more about Brown . The argument escalated when Brown stopped the car and the woman got out, the LAPD said, citing the victim's account. A representative for Brown at the ICM agency in Los Angeles could not immediately be reached for comment. Coldplay took home one of the Grammys' big three honors, song of the year, for the title track of their album \"Viva La Vida.\" The group also won best rock album. \"Thank you and sorry to Sir Paul McCartney for blatantly recycling the 'Sgt. Pepper' outfits,\" the band's Will Champion said, noting the group's colorful attire. See the stars on the red carpet \u00bb . Adele won best new artist. The Grammys are often better remembered for the colorful performances than the winners, and this year's 3\u00bd-hour telecast seemed determined to showcase nominees, often in unusual combinations and settings. Watch Tia Carrere discuss the best Hawaiian music album \u00bb . Jennifer Hudson brought the house down with an emotional performance of a new ballad, \"You Pulled Me Through,\" and won best R&B album -- an award presented by another big-voiced vocalist, Whitney Houston. Hudson was equally emotional in her acceptance speech. \"I'd like to thank my family in heaven and those who are with me today,\" she said, her voice catching. \"Everybody, thank you all,\" she concluded. Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were murdered last October. Watch Carrie Underwood talk about her meeting with Hudson \u00bb . Jamie Foxx took a star turn with a quartet of singers -- including Smokey Robinson -- in a medley of Four Tops songs in tribute to the group's late lead singer, Levi Stubbs. The University of Southern California marching band backed Radiohead's performance. Paul McCartney, backed by powerhouse Dave Grohl on drums, did \"I Saw Her Standing There\" -- the first track from the Beatles' first album, \"Please Please Me,\" in 1963. Four famed rappers -- T.I., Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne -- were called the \"Rap Pack\" in a segment that followed a tribute to one of the Rat Pack singers, Dean Martin, who received a lifetime achievement award. With them was M.I.A., extremely pregnant but giving it her all. Then there was the pairing of Stevie Wonder with the Jonas Brothers in a medley that concluded with Wonder's \"Superstition.\" Brown and Rihanna, each scheduled to perform, were notable for their absence. Rihanna was scheduled to sing \"Live Your Life\/Disturbia\" and Brown was later to sing \"Forever.\" Apparently substituting for one of the slots was an all-star version of Al Green's \"Let's Stay Together,\" led by the good reverend himself. With more than 100 categories, only a relative handful were presented on the show. Among the winners not televised on the broadcast -- though available on the Internet -- was best comedy album, which went to the late George Carlin for \"It's Bad for Ya.\" It was his fifth Grammy. Carlin's daughter, Kelly, accepted on his behalf, saying she'd take better care of it than Carlin did with his first Grammy. That one, she observed, was taken apart in a \"chemically induced, altered state.\" Carlin was eventually sent a new Grammy for his trouble.","highlights":"Robert Plant, Alison Krauss \"Raising Sand\" is album of year .\nPlant, Krauss' work wins five Grammys total .\nColdplay wins song of the year for \"Viva La Vida,\" best rock album .\nJennifer Hudson wins best R&B album .","id":"fd0bc374ea3b2b5dca258bfbb6aa90b904ebe6c8"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The alleged surviving attacker from last month's Mumbai terror attacks is seeking help from Pakistani officials, India said Monday. Guests arrive at the reopening of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai. The suspect, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, wrote a letter to Pakistan's High Commission in India that was handed over to Pakistan's acting high commissioner in New Delhi on Monday evening, India's foreign ministry said. Asked about the statement, Pakistan's foreign ministry said the government in Islamabad \"has so far not received any information or evidence relating to the Mumbai incident from the government of India.\" According to India's foreign ministry, Kasab, 21, stated in his letter that he and the other attackers were from Pakistan and asked for a meeting with Pakistan's High Commission. Indian authorities said Kasab had admitted he was one of 10 gunmen who attacked several targets in Mumbai on November 26, sparking three days of battles with police and Indian troops in the heart of the city that is the hub of India's financial and entertainment industries. India said Kasab told investigators he and the others were trained for more than a year in Pakistan by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a banned Islamic militant group. The attacks left more than 160 people dead, as well as nine of the gunmen. Most of the deaths occurred at the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident hotels, which reopened on Sunday -- three weeks after the attacks. CNN's Sara Sidner in New Delhi and Zein Basravi in Islamabad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged surviving attacker from Mumbai terror attacks seeks Pakistani help .\nMohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab writes letter to Pakistan's High Commission .\nIndia officials say Kasab has admitted he and other attackers were Pakistani .","id":"0ae58a5b4ad10ec89e92c0948db76ca2105cca6d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police violated the rights of a man charged in the death of a Little Rock, Arkansas, anchorwoman by interviewing him twice without his lawyer present, defense attorneys said in a motion. Anne Pressly spent five days in the hospital before she died from her injuries. The motion requests a judge bar police from \"interviewing, interrogating or otherwise communicating with\" Curtis Lavell Vance. In their response, however, prosecutors note that Vance initiated both interviews with police and waived his right to have an attorney present. A hearing is scheduled Tuesday on the issue, according to the Pulaski County court clerk's office. Vance, 28, is charged with capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft in the death of Anne Pressly. Pressly, 26, was found unconscious in her home October 20 and died five days later at a hospital. She was the morning news anchor for KATV, a CNN affiliate. Authorities have said Vance is linked to Pressly's death through DNA testing. Little Rock Police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings and prosecutor John Johnson declined comment to CNN Monday, citing a gag order imposed in the case. However, in Johnson's response to the motion, he notes Vance initiated both of the interviews. In the defense motion filed earlier this month, Vance's public defenders wrote they notified the court in December that he intended to assert his right to remain silent and communicate only through his counsel. A judge issued an order directing that police provide sufficient notice to defense counsel before transporting Vance. However, the defense alleges Little Rock Police transported Vance to a police station and interviewed him without notifying them in December and again in February. In December, the attorneys said they were notified by jail staff that Vance had been taken for a police interview. They went to the jail and waited at the inmate entrance in hopes of seeing him as he arrived but police \"deviated from normal practice and took him through an entrance on the opposite side of the building from that which is ordinarily used, thereby avoiding the possibility that Mr. Vance would see his attorneys.\" They said in December, police did not allow them to speak with Vance. In February, they claim in the motion, Vance was not notified of their request to speak with him during the police interview. Although police claim that both of the interviews were initiated by Vance, \"the detectives' lack of candor with Mr. Vance during the interviews violates his Sixth Amendment right to counsel,\" the defense motion said. \"LRPD detectives have engaged in subterfuge and have violated both the meaning and the express language of a standing court order in their successful attempts to interrogate Mr. Vance outside the presence of counsel.\" But, prosecutors point out in their response, a defendant is allowed to initiate contact with authorities, even if represented by counsel. \"The only issue here is whether the defendant waived his Sixth Amendment right to counsel by initiating contact with the police, and clearly he did,\" Johnson wrote. They also said defense attorneys were notified in December that Vance was being transported from the jail -- by the jail staff. And in February, they said, police could not have violated the district court order in the case because the district court lost jurisdiction over the case when it was filed in circuit court -- as spelled out in the order itself. Prosecutors also note that despite requests by the defense to speak to Vance, \"As counsel knows ... law enforcement is under no obligation to allow an attorney access to their client under these circumstances unless the defendant asks for the attorney.\" Vance's trial has been set for September 9, according to court documents.","highlights":"Motion says Little Rock Police interviewed suspect twice without lawyers .\nCurtis Vance, 28, is accused of raping, murdering KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly .\nProsecutor says Vance initiated interviews, waived right to have attorney present .","id":"d482fe66ee37f5cd4477693a8abe37abebfe7c8f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Slave labor in developing countries such as Brazil, China and India is fueling part of their huge economic growth, according to a State Department report released Wednesday. Amnesty International activists protest human trafficking during an event in Greece in March. The department's annual \"Trafficking in Persons Report\" found increased allegations of forced labor made in connection with a variety of agricultural products and manufactured goods in developing countries. In Brazil, the report found a \"trafficking phenomenon.\" It said thousands of trafficked and forced laborers had been found on plantations growing sugar cane for Brazil's booming production and export of the biofuel ethanol. The report cites shrimp processed in Thailand and Bangladesh; clothing from Bangladesh, India, Jordan and Malaysia; and bricks made in India, China and Pakistan as being among the products of booming industries in which workers are subjected to forced labor, debt bondage and hazardous working conditions. Laws are not adequate to punish those responsible, it adds. China was found to have a \"significant\" problem with forced labor, including forced child labor. Children as young as 12 are reportedly subject to forced labor under the guise of \"work and study programs\" and subject to excessively long hours, dangerous conditions, low pay and physical abuse. The report found China's growing brick industry is fraught with cover-ups of the problem. For the fourth year in a row, China was put on a \"watch list\" of countries that could face sanctions if they don't improve their efforts to combat trafficking. India was also placed on the watch list for not doing enough to solve its trafficking problem, according to the report. While commercial sexual exploitation remained a problem in India, the State Department found internal forced labor \"may constitute India's largest trafficking problem.\" It said men, women and children are forced to work in brick kilns, rice mills, agricultural businesses and embroidery factories. Once again, the report found U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf to have dismal records on trafficking. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman were listed as destination countries with widespread trafficking abuses. The report cites forced laborers trafficked from Asia and Africa who are subject to restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats, and physical and sexual abuse. The report found those countries made weak efforts to rescue the workers and prosecute the traffickers. The other countries on the blacklist are Algeria, Myanmar, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Moldova, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Sudan and Syria.","highlights":"State Department report documents human trafficking .\nSlavery rampant in industries in Brazil, China, India, report says .\nU.S. allies in Persian Gulf have dismal record, according to report .\nWithholding of passports, threats, physical and sexual abuse reported .","id":"e33770be4a9171047560f037832fd8cccdd079ee"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- More than six hundred workers at Total's Lindsey oil refinery in Northern England have been told they no longer have jobs after staging what the company calls an \"unofficial, illegal walk out.\" Protesters gathered outside Total's Lindsey oil refinery on Friday, June 19, after hundreds of striking workers were sacked. The steel workers started striking last Thursday after one contractor axed 51 jobs while another employer on the same site was recruiting. Protesters gathered outside Total's Lindsey oil refinery Friday with placards calling for solidarity from fellow workers. The dispute has prompted a number of wildcat strikes at power stations and oil refineries around the United Kingdom. The workers' union GMB, which represents around half of the sacked workers, estimates that, as of late yesterday, up to 4,000 other workers at four power stations and three oil refineries had walked off the job in sympathy. Early this afternoon, Total confirmed that negotiations had started between the workers' employers and ACAS, the British Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Earlier, in a statement posted on its Web site, Total announced that its contractors had started the process of ending employment contracts for 647 workers on the HDS-3 construction project. The statement said the project has been temporarily shut down and that all employees had until 5pm on Monday to reapply for their jobs. Phil Davies, national secretary and head of the manufacturing section at the GMB Union, told CNN the invitation to a job interview would only stoke workers' anger. \"I think that would just humiliate people to be quite honest and it will put their backs up and make them more determined to win it,\" he said. He said union representatives were in the process of gathering information to hold an official industrial ballot, a process that could take six weeks. The British Press Association published one sacked Lindsey worker's appeal for support from fellow union members: \"We are asking for support from workers across the country which I am sure will be given. Total will soon realize they have unleashed a monster.\" Workers at the Lindsey oil refinery walked off the job for more than one week in early February to protest against the hiring of hundreds of foreign workers. They returned to work after the unions and the company gave assurances that half the jobs would go to British workers.","highlights":"NEW: Total says the workers' employers and ACAS are in negotiations .\nHundreds of striking workers at Total oil refinery told to reapply for their jobs .\nDispute started after 51 workers were axed, while another company was hiring .\nStrike prompted walk outs at four power stations, three refineries in the UK .","id":"2eeb05872e15b5fa2642ec733f0fad2fa4c46a3d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Are circus elephants abused? Or are the elephants under the big top healthy and thriving in a caring environment? Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephants pass the U.S. Capitol in a parade this week in Washington. That's the issue a federal judge must decide in a 9-year-old legal dispute pitting four animal rights groups against the nation's most famous circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Closing arguments will be heard Wednesday in the case in which the circus is accused of mistreating its 54 Asian elephants, which are protected under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Under the law, endangered species cannot be \"harmed, harassed, wounded, injured or killed.\" The circus \"is in fact in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act as a result of their routine practices that they use on the elephants,\" according to Tracy Silverman, general counsel for the Animal Welfare Institute. Silverman alleges that the circus uses \"bull hooks\" and electrical prods called \"hot shots\" to train and manage the elephants and that handlers chain the elephants for extended periods of time. These practices violate federal law, Silverman says. But the circus says that no evidence was presented at the six-week trial that such tools as bull hooks and hot shots are used on elephants. \"Ringling Bros.' practices are well known to the federal government who regulates their business,\" says Ringling Bros. attorney Michelle Pardo. The tools the circus uses to handle animals \"are time-tested, approved and commonly used,\" she added. Pardo insists the trial evidence \"showed the elephants are healthy, well cared for and they're thriving in Ringling Bros. care.\" Besides the Animal Welfare Institute, other groups involved in the suit are the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Fund for Animals and Born Free USA, acting with the Animal Protection Institute. While the animal rights groups allege the circus \"severely mistreats and abuses\" elephants, the circus says the animals are not only healthy but \"really do benefit from the enrichment that the circus provides.\" No immediate ruling is expected from the judge.","highlights":"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey accused of mistreating 54 Asian elephants .\nJudge is set to hear closing arguments in nearly decade-old legal dispute .\nAnimal rights groups say circus violating 1973 Endangered Species Act .\nCircus attorney says elephants \"thriving in Ringling Bros. care.\"","id":"e5c570faa2d62aca611ef43a1e61c8bffc58bed8"} -{"article":"Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland S. Martin says it's time to get over the fact that baseball turned a blind eye to steroid use. (CNN) -- I loved baseball as a kid. I still have fond memories of my siblings and me, members of the \"Astro Buddies\" club, heading to the Astrodome, the eighth wonder of the world, to watch the Houston Astros play. I played the game in elementary and high school. But now, I'm sick of it, especially when steroids are brought up. The latest baseball drama surrounds a New York Times report quoting two lawyers who say that former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa's name was on a list of players who tested positive for an illegal substance in 2003. The list supposedly contains more than 100 names of players who tested positive that year. This report comes on the heels of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs a few years ago; Manny Ramirez testing positive and suspended for 50 games; and the continuing drama surrounding Roger Clemens. All three were considered locks for the Hall of Fame. But based on what we keep hearing, that'll never happen in this holier-than-thou era. OK, got it. Baseball had a terrible drug problem. Now they have a drug testing plan in place that has some teeth in it. So, can we just move the hell on? Seriously, I'm tired of rehashing the drama. As a sports enthusiast, I would love nothing better than to think that athletes in baseball, football, basketball or any other sport are as pure as heroes from yesteryear. But cheating is cheating. It has been around from Day One, and if a player thinks he can get an edge, well, it's a good bet some will try to get it. Sosa has always been suspected of using drugs, but now that two lawyers say they saw his name on the infamous sheet, he has gone, according to Rick Telander's column in the Chicago Sun-Times, \"from hero to zero.\" But you know what? I don't care. Can we just all accept the fact that all of baseball -- players, management, owners, the unions -- turned a blind eye to performance-enhancing drugs ravaging the sport? And they did so because baseball was on its way to being comparable to the National Hockey League or soccer in the U.S. -- irrelevant to sports fans. After the strike in 1994 wiped out the World Series, fans were angry and didn't give a lick about the sport. But then came 1998 and the home-run derby put on by St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire and Sosa, both trying to break the record of 61 homers in a year set by Roger Maris of the New York Yankees. Fans were riveted by the hitting prowess of the two, and people were following their every at-bat. I was working at KRLD-AM in Dallas, Texas, that summer, and we would break into programming to broadcast the call of their at-bats when they were about to break the record. Yea, everyone had Sosa-McGwire fever. Baseball became relevant again. The players redeemed themselves, management was happy to say they worked for the sport, and the owners were delirious because the money came rolling in. So there we have it. All of baseball pulled a Robert Johnson, as in the legend of the classic blues singer who supposedly got his gift for music by making a pact with the devil. Or maybe more like Judas. The sport turned in its integrity for a few pieces of silver. Let's just accept this as a fact, acknowledge those were the dark days and move on. It's just tiring to keep going back to what happened then. It's done. It's over. So let it go. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland S. Martin.","highlights":"Roland S. Martin: Baseball was in the doldrums until 1998 home-run race .\nMartin: Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa race to break home-run record stirred interest .\nMartin says baseball had a terrible drug problem .\nBut he says it's time to turn the page on baseball's deal with devil .","id":"acf14f7f541494fb9bfdab6d4f90c39694fd938d"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Some Israeli archaeologists are having a particularly happy Hanukkah, thanks in part to a British volunteer who took time off from her job to work on a dig. Archaeologists found a hoard of gold coins from the 7th century in Jerusalem on Sunday. The Israel Antiquities Authority reported a thrilling find Sunday -- the discovery of 264 ancient gold coins in Jerusalem National Park. The coins were minted during the early 7th century. \"This is one of the largest and most impressive coin hoards ever discovered in Jerusalem -- certainly the largest and most important of its period,\" said Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, who are directing the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Researchers discovered the coins at the beginning of the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which started at sunset on Sunday. One of the customs of the holiday is to give \"gelt,\" or coins, to children, and the archaeologists are referring to the find as \"Hanukkah money.\" Nadine Ross, a British archaeological volunteer, happened onto the coins during the dig just below the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. \"To be honest, I just thought, 'Thank God I didn't throw it in the rubbish bucket,' \" said Ross, who had taken four weeks off from her engineering job in England to work at the site. \"I was just glad I sort of spotted it before I disturbed it too much.\" The 1,400-year-old coins were found in the Giv'ati car park in the City of David in the walls around Jerusalem National Park, a site that has yielded other finds, including a well-preserved gold earring with pearls and precious stones. They were in a collapsed building that dates back to the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period. The coins bear a likeness of Heraclius, who was the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. The authority said that while different coins had been minted during this emperor's reign, the coins found at the site represent \"one well-known type.\" In that style, the emperor is clad with military garb and is holding a cross in his right hand. On the other side is the sign of the cross. Authorities said the excavation of the building where the hoard was discovered is in its early stages. They are attempting to learn about the building and its owner and the circumstances of its destruction. \"Since no pottery vessel was discovered adjacent to the hoard, we can assume that it was concealed inside a hidden niche in one of the walls of the building. It seems that with its collapse, the coins piled up there among the building debris,\" Ben-Ami and Tchekhanovets said. The find is a a golden moment for Ross, who said \"it is a pity that I can't take it home with me. But there you go.\" CNN's Shira Medding and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Coins were found by British volunteer; \"Pity that I can't take it home,\" she says .\nResearchers find ancient coins in car park in Jerusalem's City of David .\nCoins were minted in 7th century and depict Byzantine emperor of the era .\nThey were found in collapsed building being excavated by archaeologists .","id":"25cf08e3d0dfa36c178a63683e48974f85260223"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former champion Maria Sharapova has been seeded for next week's Wimbledon championships. Sharapova powers a forehand during the WTA tournament in Birmingham last week. The Russian has only recently returned to action after a serious shoulder injury, but despite performing solidly in the French Open and reaching the semifinals of the WTA grasscourt event in Birmingham last week, she remained 59th in the rankings. But Wimbledon, who are alone among the grand slams in not sticking entirely with the official rankings of the ATP and WTA in deciding the seedings, have given Sharapova the 24th berth. World number one Dinara Safina of Russia is top seed, followed by Serena Williams and defending champion Venus Williams, who is elevated to third because of her prowess on grass. Rafael Nadal, who remains a slight injury doubt to take his place in the draw, is the top seed in the men's tournament, with the top six spots in the list following the ATP rankings list. The defending champion will test his injured knees by playing in two exhibition matches on grass at the Hurlingham Club in London later this week, organizers announced Wednesday. The Spaniard will play Lleyton Hewitt of Australia on Thursday and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland on Friday. Five-time champion and pre-tournament favorite Roger Federer is second seed at Wimbledon as he bids to set a record of 15 grand slam wins after his French Open triumph. Home hope Andy Murray, who won the Queen's Club tournament on Sunday, is seeded third with Novak Djokovic of Serbia in fourth. Eighth-ranked Fernando Verdasco of Spain gets the seventh seed spot ahead of Frenchman Gilles Simon. Outside of the top seeds, Marat Safin of Russia has been elevated to 15th from his world ranking of 23. Former world number one Safin reached the semifinals at the All England Club last year. Big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic is lifted to 23rd from 31st. The third grand slam of the year starts next Monday with the all-important draw being made on Friday. In the pre-Wimbledon warmup action on Wednesday, top seed Dinara Safina of Russia beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3 6-3 in the Ordina Open in the Netherlands. But Amelie Mauresmo of France was beaten 7-6 7-6 by Russian Ekaterna Makarova at the WTA tournament in Eastbourne.","highlights":"Maria Sharapova elevated to 24th seed by as Wimbledon announces seeds .\nInjury-doubt Rafael Nadal top seed as he defends his Wimbledon crown .\nNadal to test his injured knees in exhibition tournament at Hurlingham Club .\nDinara Safina reaches third round of the Ordina Open in the Netherlands .","id":"27af664a38a64b6588b320b8e93c3d6a033f013d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The New Zealand All Blacks secured a narrow 14-10 victory over France in Wellington on Saturday to square their rugby Test series at 1-1, but France still secured the Dave Gallaher Cup for the first time since it was introduced in 2000 by virtue of their five-point victory in Dunedin last week. Ma'a Nonu goes over for New Zealand's only try in their narrow victory over France in Wellington. Having been out-muscled and out-played 27-22 in the opening Test, the New Zealanders played with far greater intensity, physicality and urgency at a cold, wet and windy Westpac Stadium. A Ma'a Nonu try midway through the first half opened the scoring for the host nation before Stephen Donald slotted home a penalty for an 8-0 advantage at the break. The French reply was swift after the restart, with wing Cedric Heymans crossing the line with a superb solo effort and then Julien Dupuy's conversion getting them back into the game. But another Donald penalty and one from substitute Luke McAlister edged the All Blacks further ahead before a late three-pointer from Dimitri Yachvili kept things interesting. Meanwhile, a much-changed Australia side comfortably accounted for Italy 34-12 in Melbourne on Saturday. Man-of-the-match Adam Ashley-Cooper, who started on the bench, finished with two tries, one in each half, after coming on initially when Peter Hynes was blood-binned, then as a replacement for James O'Connor at full-back. Three first-half tries gave the Wallabies a 20-6 lead at the break and that was a fair reflection of the difference between the teams, but the hosts were held at bay for much of the second half before late tries by Lachie Turner and Ashley-Cooper. Australian-born full-back Luke McLean landed four penalties for Italy for whom fellow-Aussie Craig Gower was effective and creative in his second start at fly-half.","highlights":"The New Zealand All Blacks defeat France 14-10 in Wellington to level series .\nTourists France won the opening Test match 27-22 in Dunedin last weekend .\nA much-changed Australian side defeats Italy 34-12 in Melbourne on Saturday .","id":"1468a9e5187637144eedf51a3934fe2d092d5a82"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- More than 100 Romanians fled their homes Tuesday night in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following what politicians called \"racist attacks and intimidation.\" A Romanian woman and her child are escorted by police in Belfast on Wednesday. \"On Tuesday evening, when the Romanians saw their windows starting to be smashed, they felt the threats were very real and contacted the police,\" said Trish Morgan, the media relations manager at the Belfast City Church, which took them in. A church member was advised by the police that \"the situation was getting too tense,\" and that the group -- 113 people in all -- needed to find a safe place that could accommodate them quickly. The member contacted the church, and that's where they went, Morgan said. The Romanians were \"quite scared\" upon arrival at the church but \"relieved to be out of the situation,\" she added. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday condemned what one member of Parliament called \"appalling racist attacks,\" and said he hoped the authorities would be able to \"take all the action necessary to protect them.\" Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland -- a province of the United Kingdom -- visited the families on Wednesday, his party Sinn Fein announced. \"People are shocked and completely disgusted by this incident,\" he said in a statement \"I came here this morning to show very clearly my commitment to facing up to any form of intimidation in our community, no matter where it may come from. \"I met with numerous families who are genuinely fearful for their lives and those of their families; I held a five-day-old baby girl in my arms today. She was born in Belfast and now forced to leave her home as a result of attacks by racist, criminal thugs,\" McGuinness said. He was speaking at the O-Zone leisure center, where the families have moved because the space is larger than the church. Race-hate crime in south Belfast has increased in the past six months, Sinn Fein equality and human rights expert Vincent Parker said. The incident came only a day after violence broke out at an anti-racism rally in support of Romanians in Belfast. Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long called Monday's scuffles \"totally unacceptable.\" \"A small minority of people have sadly taken away from an event which had been organized by the local community to show solidarity for their Romanian neighbors, and to express their abhorrence at their homes being subjected to racist attacks,\" she said Tuesday. CNN's Eve Bower contributed to this report.","highlights":"113 Romanians flee homes in Belfast after windows smashed .\nRomanians were sheltered by local church, later moved to leisure center .\nNorthern Irish politicians condemn \"racist attacks and intimidation\"\nUK PM Brown urges authorities to \"take all action necessary to protect them\"","id":"6db21c392bde874c07dcc4bcfff4f310cc962e95"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The government is warning that taking the psoriasis drug Raptiva could result in serious brain infection and even death. Raptiva may cause a serious brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The Food and Drug Administration cited three confirmed cases, and a possible fourth, of people diagnosed with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) after being treated with Raptiva. \"Three of those patients have died,\" the FDA said in a public health advisory. \"All four patients were treated with the drug for more than three years.\" None was receiving other treatments that suppress the immune system. Raptiva's product labeling was revised in October to highlight a boxed warning about the risks of life-threatening infections, including PML. \"At that time, the FDA directed Genentech, the manufacturer, to develop a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) to include a medication guide to educate patients about the drug's risks,\" the FDA's advisory says. In the advisory, issued Thursday, the FDA highlighted the confirmed cases and promised to \"take appropriate steps\" to ensure that Raptiva's risks do not outweigh its benefits. The FDA also said it will ensure that patients \"are clearly informed of the signs and symptoms of PML\" and that health care professionals \"carefully monitor patients for the possible development of PML.\" Overseas, the European Medicines Agency has gone further, recommending that no new prescriptions for Raptiva be issued and that patients taking the drug talk to their doctors about an alternative. On Thursday it asked the European Commission to make that recommendation legally binding. The group's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use determined \"that the benefits of Raptiva no longer outweigh its risks, because of safety concerns, including the occurrence of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in patients taking the medicine.\" It said patients who have been treated with the drug should be \"closely monitored for neurological symptoms and symptoms of infection.\" \"Patients who are currently taking Raptiva should not stop treatment abruptly, but should make an appointment with their doctor to discuss the most appropriate replacement treatment,\" the agency said. Raptiva, a once-weekly injection for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, works by suppressing T-cells -- cells that help fight infection -- in the immune system. Those cells cause the skin inflammation associated with psoriasis. By suppressing T-cells, Raptiva \"decreases the function of the immune system, which increases a patient's susceptibility to infections,\" the FDA said. The National Institutes of Health says the prognosis for PML \"remains grim; the disease usually lasts for months and 80 percent die within the first six months, although spontaneous improvement has been reported. Those who survive PML can be left with severe neurological disabilities.\" Around 6 million to 7 million Americans have psoriasis, which is incurable, the NIH says.","highlights":"NEW: European Medicines Agency discourages new Raptiva prescriptions .\nRaptiva's product labeling was revised in October to highlight risks .\nRaptiva is an injection for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis .\nThe drug suppresses T-cells, which makes it decrease immune system function .","id":"ffb0c441ab15bc7c87856aff293ac2728394957b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea qualified for the 2010 World Cup finals for the first time since 1966 by battling to a 0-0 draw away to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday night. North Korea have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1966. The point captured in searing temperatures in Riyadh, saw the Koreans edge into second place in Asian qualifying Group 2 to finish ahead of Saudi Arabia on goal difference and seal their place in the finals. It means both group winners South Korea, who co-hosted the World Cup with Japan in 2002, and neighbors North Korea will play in the 2010 showpiece in South Africa. North Korea coach Kim Yong-Jun Kim had nothing but praise for his players after the final whistle. \"We focused on the defending as we had come under a lot of pressure from the Saudis and I think our preparation for the game was one factor that earned the victory tonight,\" the North Korean boss told FIFA's official Web site. \"We monitored the Saudi team from the beginning of our campaign and I noticed that they have a problem in finding good strikers. We battled to qualify for the World Cup finals and I would like to thank my players for the great performance that they showed during the whole match,\" added Kim. \"It was so hot in Saudi Arabia and as you know the journey from Korea was long but our belief in the ability of the players snatched the ticket to South Africa,\" Kim stated. The booking of North Korea's ticket to the finale will see the reclusive nation compete against the world's best despite growing international political concern regarding Pyongyang's testing of a nuclear bomb recently. Their form in the tournament is one of upsetting the odds after they Italy 43 years ago en route to the quarter-finals. The home draw sees Saudi Arabia finish in third place to go into the playoffs where they will face Bahrain. The winners will play New Zealand for a place in the finals, while Iran miss out after finishing fourth in Group 2. Earlier on Wednesday, they were denied a victory in Seoul as Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung scored a late equalizer to give South Korea a 1-1 draw. Iran took the lead from an own goal early in the second half against the group winners, but Park popped up to score a brilliant 81st minute goal as he beat several men before firing home. In Group 1, Tim Cahill scored twice as Australia came from behind to beat Japan 2-1 to clinch top spot in the section. The result was academic as both teams had already sealed automatic qualification for the World Cup finals in South Africa. Japan went ahead in front of a big crowd of nearly 70,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) as Marcus Tulio Tanaka headed home a Kengo Nakamura corner in the 40th minute. But the Socceroos, who went through qualifying unbeaten, hit back in the second half. Everton's attacking midfielder Cahill again worked his scoring magic to secure the victory. He was on target in the 59th and 76th minutes to take his tally to 16 in 33 internationals. \"This is a step forward for us, it's great to finish top of the group,\" Cahill told FIFA.com after the win, while captain Lucas Neill paid tribute to their opponents. \"They really played the game with intensity and they were running us ragged for a bit and we couldn't get ourselves in the game,\" Neill said. Bahrain later clinched third spot in the group and their playoff spot with a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan. A 74th minute goal from Mahmood Abdulrahman from a free kick gave his side a crucial three points.","highlights":"North Korea qualify from Group 2 with 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia .\nAustralia top Group 1 of Asian qualifying with 2-1 win over Japan .\nBahrain clinch playoff spot from Group 1 with 1-0 win over Uzbekistan .","id":"703da9de057a350203af0a8d0e14d7549ab3e1bd"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A plane carrying California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an emergency landing Friday evening after the cockpit filled with smoke, his office said in a statement. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called his plane's emergency landing \"a little adventure\" on Twitter. Schwarzenegger confirmed the incident with a tweet on the social-networking Web site, Twitter. He also included a photo of the jet on the tarmac. \"A little adventure just now when my plane made an emergency landing. All's OK, though,\" he posted. The governor was on his way to the Santa Monica airport after a speech in Mendota, California, about the drought affecting the state. The jet was diverted to Van Nuys Airport after the pilot reported \"smoke emanating from the instrument panel in the cockpit,\" Schwarzenegger's office said, adding that there were no visible signs of a fire. The pilot made a \"quick, steep, but safe landing,\" his office said. No one was injured. Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to update what they are doing using 140 characters or less.","highlights":"California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plane makes \"steep\" emergency landing .\nJet diverted after smoke emanates from cockpit panel .\nSchwarzenegger tweets about landing, calls it \"a little adventure\"","id":"5683f5fe9a58bc820c982c148791c58f50157be9"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Members of Iran's national soccer team wore green arm and wrist bands Wednesday during their World Cup qualifying match against South Korea. Members of Iran's National Soccer Team sport green bands in their game against South Korea on Wednesday. The team does not normally wear green bands. Many Iranians are viewing the team's bands as a sign of support for Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, although that has not been confirmed. Green is the campaign color of Moussavi and has been widely worn by his supporters who have staged massive rallies in Tehran before and after last week's presidential election. Moussavi is disputing the results of the vote that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term and is calling for a new election. The players took the wrist bands off when the team came out for the second half of the game that was taking place in Seoul, South Korea. It is unclear whether the players were asked to remove the wrist bands. The match ended 1-1.","highlights":"Many Iranians viewing team's bands as a sign of support for opposition leader .\nGreen is the campaign color of Mir Hossein Moussavi .\nIranian national team was playing a World Cup qualifier in Seoul, South Korea .","id":"4c8e2b5ced62d79b5a83336334c37305a336615a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- DNA test results reveal that a Michigan man is not a Long Island, New York, boy who went missing 54 years ago, according to the FBI. John Robert Barnes claims a DNA test shows he's Steven Damman, who vanished in 1955. John Robert Barnes, of Kalkaska, Michigan, approached police in New York twice in March claiming to be Steven Damman, a toddler who vanished while on a shopping trip with his mother in 1955. Barnes tracked down Pamela Damman Horne, Steven's sister, and the two had private tests performed that showed a \"probability\" they were siblings, according to Nassau County, New York, detective Lt. Kevin Smith. But samples from Barnes and Horne analyzed by the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, determined that they do not share the same mother, the FBI in Detroit said Thursday. Sandra Berchtold, spokeswoman for the FBI Detroit bureau, said the FBI follows strict testing protocols and used mitochondrial DNA to determine Barnes and Horne were not linked to the same mother. Marilyn Damman took her toddler, Steven, and his baby sister, Pamela, to a food market in East Meadow, Long Island, in 1955. The mother went inside to do some quick shopping, leaving her 2-year-old son and baby girl in the stroller outside. But Damman told authorities that when she returned, her children were gone. A short time later, blocks away, the baby girl was found unharmed and the stroller was intact, but Steven was missing, Smith said. CNN's Stacey Newman contributed to this report.","highlights":"John Barnes claimed he was Steven Damman, who went missing 54 years ago .\nFBI tests show Barnes and Steven's sister, Pamela, have different mothers .\nSteven went missing in East Meadow, Long Island, in 1955 .","id":"736d9c401f26c6af1b7b986f706dbdec816589b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Italians, a Dane, a German, a Frenchman and a Brit walk into a space station... or will, in 2013, if all goes according to European Space Agency plans. Europe's six new astronauts hope to join their American counterparts on the Internation Space Station. The six new astronauts named Wednesday were chosen from more than 8,400 candidates, and are the first new ESA astronauts since 1992, the space agency said in a statement. They include two military test pilots, one fighter pilot and one commercial pilot, plus an engineer and a physicist. \"This is a very important day for human spaceflight in Europe,\" said Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of Human Spaceflight at ESA. \"These young men and women are the next generation of European space explorers. They have a fantastic career ahead, which will put them right on top of one of the ultimate challenges of our time: going back to the Moon and beyond as part of the global exploration effort.\" Humans have not walked on the moon since 1972, just over three years after the first manned mission to Earth's nearest neighbor. The six will begin space training in Germany, with an eye to being ready for future missions to the International Space Station and beyond in four years. They are: Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, a fighter pilot with degrees in engineering and aeronautical sciences; Alexander Gerst, a German researcher with degrees in physics and earth science; Andreas Mogensen, a Danish engineer with the private space firm HE Space Operations; Luca Parmitano of Italy, an Air Force pilot with a degree in aeronautical sciences; Timothy Peake, an English test pilot with the British military; and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, an Air France pilot who previously worked as an engineer at the French space agency.","highlights":"2 Italians, a Dane, a German, a Frenchman and Briton make astronaut list .\nSix new astronauts named Wednesday chosen from 8,400 candidates .\nGroup will undergo four years of training in Germany .","id":"de1292c70f8daa79abc85d0ff9d5f77881e2e5da"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A nonprofit consumer group said Thursday that it will sue Bayer HealthCare, alleging \"deceptive and irresponsible\" advertising that contends selenium in two of its multivitamins may reduce men's risk of prostate cancer. One A Day Men's 50+ Advantage ads say selenium may cut men's risk of prostate cancer, a consumer group says. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said it informed the multinational company of its intent Thursday. David Schardt, the center's senior nutritionist, told reporters during a teleconference that the center already has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. \"We are standing behind all the claims we make in support of the products,\" Trish McKernan, Bayer's global spokeswoman, told CNN. \"The selenium claims are made by a [Food and Drug Administration]-approved qualified health claim. We regularly review the evidence, and we change our claims if necessitated. The emerging science hasn't compelled us to change our claims, and the FDA claim is intact.\" Bayer's HealthCare division, based in Leverkusen, Germany, researches, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products. Bayer promotes One A Day Men's 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men's Health Formula multivitamins on package labels, TV and radio ads and on its Web site. In its promotions, the company says \"emerging research\" suggests that selenium might reduce the risk of prostate cancer, the center said. \"Did you know that there are more new cases of prostate cancer each year than any other cancer?\" according to one radio ad. \"Now there is something you can do.\" Both dietary supplements contain 105 micrograms of the trace mineral selenium per daily dose, or about twice the Recommended Daily Allowance, which is 55 micrograms a day for adults, according to the center. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for better living . \"It's astounding that a company such as Bayer ... would make such deceptive claims,\" the center's litigation director, Steve Gardner, told reporters during the same teleconference. Supporting the center in its letter of complaint to the FTC are nine researchers, who wrote a separate letter to Mary Engle, associate director of advertising practices. Among the signees are medical professionals from the Harvard School of Public Health, American Cancer Society and University of Illinois at Chicago Division of Pathology Research. All agree there is scant evidence to support Bayer's claim. A seven-year, $118 million study funded by the National Institutes of Health found last year that selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in healthy men, the center said. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial involving 35,000 U.S. and Canadian men was halted in October when researchers determined that selenium was not protecting the men from prostate cancer and may have been causing diabetes in some of them. According to the researchers in their letter supporting the FTC's complaint, \"the federally financed study was the largest individually, randomized cancer prevention trial ever conducted, and, given its high rates of adherence and its statistical power, it is unlikely to have missed detecting a benefit of even a very modest size.\" \"Bayer Healthcare is doing a disservice to men by misleading them about a protective role for selenium in prostate cancer,\" they added. CNN's Ann Curley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Center for Science in the Public Interest plans to sue Bayer HealthCare .\nGroup says claims that ingredient in men's vitamins may cut cancer risk are false .\nBayer spokeswoman: \"We are standing behind all the claims\"\nNIH: Selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in healthy men .","id":"dc0ab5725bc3acac217d76899e713b9795aaf859"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's election authority has rejected claims of voting irregularities by a defeated presidential candidate, while acknowledging that the number of ballots cast in dozens of cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there, state-run TV reported Monday. Protesters face Iranian riot police on a street in Tehran on Saturday. Iran's Guardian Council -- which approves all candidates running for office and verifies election results -- said candidate Mohsen Rezaie alleged irregularities in 170 cities, and that excessive ballots were found in 50 cities, according to government-funded Press TV. Council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei said voting in those locations did not noticeably affect the outcome of the election, adding that the council will continue to investigate complaints that are filed through \"legal channels,\" Press TV said. The council declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of the June 12 election. Rezaie had reported some irregularities and called for a recount of some ballots, while opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi and candidate Mehdi Karrubi have rejected the election as fraudulent and demanded a new one. Earlier Sunday, thousands of riot police and militia lined Tehran's streets as the public rift among Iranian leaders appeared to be widening. The country's foreign minister disputed allegations of ballot irregularities in Iran's disputed presidential election, and the parliamentary speaker implied the nation's election authorities had sided with one candidate. Amateur video showed large crowds marching down a major Tehran thoroughfare shouting, \"Don't be afraid, we're together!\" and \"Death to dictator!\" The person who shot the video said it was taken Sunday, but CNN could not immediately verify that the protest had taken place. Eyewitnesses reported a protest also took place at southern Tehran's Azad University, where final exams were postponed after about 200 students refused to take them. Thousands of riot police and members of the Basij militia lined the streets of the city, according to eyewitnesses. Security personnel surrounded the headquarters of the country's state television and radio. Many shops were closed, and shopkeepers whose stores were open said they planned to close early Sunday. However, no tanks were seen on the city's streets. Traffic was light. Watch amateur video of a volunteer paramilitary forces headquarters burning in Tehran \u00bb . A statement purportedly from Moussavi on Sunday called on Iranians to \"exercise self control\" during protests in Tehran, while still supporting their right to demonstrate against the government and the results of the disputed June 12 presidential election. \"The country belongs to you. The revolution and the system is your heritage,\" the statement attributed to Moussavi said in a statement posted on his Web site. \"Protesting against lies and cheating is your right. Be hopeful about regaining your rights. Do not allow anyone who tries to make you lose hope and frighten you make you lose your temper.\" The authenticity of the message could not be verified; it was posted in Farsi and translated by CNN. The message came a day after hospital sources said 19 people were killed in clashes between anti-government protesters and police. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 150. See images of the clashes Saturday \u00bb . \"The sad news of the martyrdom of another group who protested the results of the elections has caused our society astonishment and our people mourn them,\" said the statement attributed to Moussavi. \"Firing on people, militarization of the city's atmosphere, threats, agitations and show of force are all the illegitimate children of law breaking and we are facing all of that. It is a wonder that the perpetrators accuse others of breaking the law for expressing their opinions.\" Watch how social-networking sites spread the word on Iranian news \u00bb . Police have not been given permission to use firearms in confronting protesters, Tehran Police Chief Azizollah Rajabpour told Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency. Police have not used firearms on the public, he said. Allegations to the contrary are false and \"spread by those who want to muddy the waters,\" the agency reported. News coverage in Iran has been limited by government restrictions on international journalists. On Sunday, the BBC said Iran had expelled Jon Leyne, the British network's permanent correspondent in Tehran. And Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based Arab satellite network, said its Tehran bureau was ordered closed. Press TV confirmed 13 fatalities Saturday, saying the deaths resulted from police clashes with \"terrorist groups\" in Tehran. But the station did not say whether all the deaths took place Saturday or spanned the length of the weeklong protests. iReport.com: Share images from Iran . Videos posted on social networking Web sites depicted tense scenes and chaos Saturday, and one graphic video that captured the death of a young woman became the iconic symbol of a brutal day. But like most of the information coming out of Tehran, it is impossible to verify her name -- Neda -- or the circumstances of her apparent death. Watch a portion of the video \u00bb . Press TV also reported Sunday that five relatives of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were arrested for allegedly \"inciting and encouraging rioters\" in Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square on Saturday, the Web site reported. Faezeh Rafsanjani, the former president's daughter, was released Sunday, and the four others were released earlier in the day, Press TV reported on its Web site. The woman's brother said she was arrested while taking part in a protest. The elder Rafsanjani is chairman of the Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for appointing or removing the supreme leader. He is a supporter of Moussavi, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained staunch in his defense of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A spokesman for the Guardian Council told state television that Wednesday is the last day it can recount the votes disputed by candidates. Meanwhile, prominent figures, many of whom were part of Iran's Islamic revolution 30 years ago, issued conflicting statements, a sign that Iran's leadership was far from unified. The foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said Sunday an investigation into claims of fraud in the election will be announced by week's end. But speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, he called the possibility of irregularities almost nonexistent. \"The possibility of organized and comprehensive disruption and irregularities in this election is almost close to zero given the composition of the people who are holding the election,\" Mottaki said. On the other hand, Iran's influential parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, implicated the same people -- the Guardian Council -- of siding with one candidate. \"Although the Guardian Council is made up of religious individuals, I wish certain members would not side with a certain presidential candidate,\" Larijani told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting on Saturday, without naming whom he meant. The comments were reported on Press TV and on another news Web site, Khabaronline, Sunday. Larijani's statement was in direct contrast to that of Khamenei, who in a sermon Friday declared the elections a \"definitive victory\" for Ahmadinejad and rejected charges of vote rigging. \"A majority of people are of an opinion separate\" from that of a minority, Larijani said. While Larijani and Ahmadinejad have had a tense relationship in the past, Larijani is seen as being aligned with Khamenei. For him to directly contradict the leader's statement amounts to another example of the growing disagreement among ruling conservatives. Meanwhile, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in an open letter posted on his Web site, said, \"the presence of the people is one of the achievements of the revolution and must be respected.\" \"Sensational and insulting propaganda against the people, who have always acted independently, and insinuating that their healthy movement is directed by foreigners is itself a sign of the implementation of faulty policies which will widen the gap between the people and the government,\" Khatami wrote. The election and the subsequent clashes in Iran were the subject of protests in some U.S. cities Sunday. See photos of some of the protests in the U.S. \u00bb . In Washington, roughly 400 Iranian-Americans gathered in front of the Iranian Interests Section on Sunday to protest the disputed election. The protesters, dressed in the colors of the Iranian flag, waved signs and chanted slogans such as, \"Down with the dictator,\" \"Democracy for Iran,\" and \"Where's my vote?\" Some carried signs with images of injured and bleeding Iranian protesters. Protests also were held in Los Angeles and New York.","highlights":"NEW: Iran's Press TV: Council acknowledges excessive balloting in 50 cities .\nAmateur video purportedly shows protesters in Tehran for eighth straight day .\nRift between Iranian leaders seems to be growing .\nOn Web site, purported message from Moussavi supports protests, urges caution .","id":"5957de81c7c1d82f9479617f08daec8bc8b48c39"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A car bomb exploded Friday morning in Spain's northern Basque region, killing a police officer inside the vehicle, officials said. Police investigate the vehicle destroyed by a car bomb in Spain's Basque region. Spain's Prime Minister blamed the attack on the Basque separatist group ETA, although there was no warning call before the explosion, as often happens in ETA attacks. The car exploded at 9:05 a.m. (3:05 a.m. ET) in an open-air parking lot in the Basque town of Arrigorriaga and damaged five other cars. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, and police moved in to investigate. The Spanish national police officer killed was Eduardo Puelles, said the new Basque regional president, Patxi Lopez. \"ETA showed us the road to pain,\" Lopez said on national TV. \"We will show them the road to prison.\" The officer was a senior figure in the fight against ETA and the explosion was caused by a limpet bomb placed underneath the car, officials told CNN partner station CNN+. A limpet bomb is one that is stuck to the underside of vehicle. Arrigorriaga is about 30 miles south of the largest Basque city of Bilbao. ETA's last fatal victim was a businessman who was shot dead in the same region last December. \"My stance to stop ETA is unbreakable, so that people in the Basque country and Spain can live in peace, to halt this barbarity,\" said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, after the attack. ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its more than four decades of fighting for Basque independence. The European Union and the United States list it as a terrorist group. ETA has threatened Lopez, who is a socialist and the first non-nationalist Basque president in 30 years. He has also vowed to stop the group. There are about 600 ETA members or suspected members in Spanish jails and 150 others in French jails, authorities in both countries have told CNN.","highlights":"Car bomb explodes in northern Spanish city of Arrigorriaga .\nBasque president: Victim a national police officer named Eduardo Puelles .\nOfficial: Explosion was caused by a limpet bomb placed underneath the car .\nArrogorriaga in Basque region at heart of long-running separatist campaign .","id":"13c489438d218d411dcfceaee225979df4c97c50"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A jury Friday acquitted W.R. Grace & Company and three of its former executives of having knowingly exposed mine workers and residents of Libby, Montana, to asbestos. The W.R. Grace plant in Libby, Montana, in an undated photograph. \"We at Grace are gratified by today's verdict and thank the men and women of the jury who were open to hearing the facts,\" said Fred Festa, chairman, president and CEO of the company in a written statement. \"We always believed that Grace and its former executives had acted properly and that a jury would come to the same conclusion when confronted with the evidence.\" Festa said that during the time Grace owned and operated a vermiculite mine in Libby, \"the company worked hard to keep the operations in compliance with the laws and standards of the day.\" The jury began deliberating Thursday and returned its verdict Friday morning. The Department of Justice's response to the verdict, which came after a three-month trial, was measured. \"The jury has spoken, and we thank them for their service,\" said a written statement issued by the office of public affairs. \"We are refraining from further comment at this juncture because one individual awaits trial in connection with this case.\" Prosecutors plan to try another executive separately. Asked if the Justice Department plans to appeal, department spokesman Andrew Ames said, \"I wouldn't want to comment on that.\" Federal prosecutors had accused the mining company and its executives of exposing Libby's 100,000 residents to asbestos for decades, resulting in more than 200 deaths and 1,000 illnesses. The product covered patches of grass, dusted the tops of cars and drifted through the air in a hazy smoke that became a part of residents' daily lives. \"There's never been a case where so many people were sickened or killed by environmental crime,\" said David Uhlmann in an April interview. He helped spearhead the case when he was the Justice Department's top prosecutor of environmental crimes before stepping down in 2007. During the trial, those who lost loved ones testified at the federal courthouse in Missoula, about 130 miles southeast of Libby, that residents had been kept in the dark about the dangers. Until 1990, W.R. Grace & Company operated a mine in Libby that produced vermiculite, a substance used in all sorts of products, from insulation to fertilizers. The vermiculite was contaminated with tremolite asbestos -- linked to numerous illnesses including mesothelioma, a cancer that can attack the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart. The government's indictment alleged that W.R. Grace conspired to \"knowingly release\" the asbestos. It said the company tried to hide the dangers from employees and residents, leaving them \"in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.\" \"It was a purpose of the conspiracy to conceal and misrepresent the hazardous nature of the tremolite asbestos contaminated vermiculite, thereby enriching defendants and others,\" the indictment read. The indictment also said W.R. Grace tried to \"defraud the United States and others by impairing, impeding, and frustrating\" the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies once they launched an investigation in 1999. The 10-count indictment included charges of wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Had it been convicted, the company could have faced criminal fines of up to $280 million, which is twice the value of its profits from the mine. Grace executives, who were named as defendants, could have faced prison time. The company did not deny that asbestos emanated from its plant. Nor did it question that some people had been sickened and killed, though a definitive number of deaths linked to the vermiculite plant probably will never be known. But W.R. Grace denied any kind of conspiracy. In fact, the company said, it acted responsibly and took appropriate steps. It said it had voluntarily paid millions of dollars in medical bills for 900 Libby residents. In the courtroom, defense attorneys noted that the asbestos problem dates back to about 1920, long before W.R. Grace took over the mine in 1963. The attorneys said that, as information about the asbestos came to light, the company took numerous steps to mitigate the dangers and were open about it. Defense attorney David Bernick said he was not surprised by the verdict. \"The evidence showed that what was going on internally with the company was anything but conspiratorial,\" he told said. \"It was responsible.\" However, some townspeople did not share Bernick's view. \"I don't see how they could have gotten out of it,\" said Steven Schnetter, who worked at the mine for 17 years until it closed in 1990. Shortly afterward, Schnetter was diagnosed with asbestosis, a lung disease caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. The 60-year-old retiree said he told his managers in the late 1980s that he was concerned to find that tremolite is a form of asbestos. \"They said, 'Oh, yeah, but it's the short-fiber type that won't hurt you,'\" he said. Schnetter settled with the company for a \"small amount,\" he told CNN Friday in a telephone interview. When asked about his frequent coughing, he said, \"I do that all the time. ... My lungs won't expand right.\"","highlights":"Jury acquits W.R. Grace, three former execs in asbestos exposure case .\nChemical company accused of hiding asbestos dangers from employees, residents .\nProsecutors claim pollution left 200 dead, more than 1,000 sick .\nW.R. Grace claims it took steps to mitigate danger, paid residents' medical bills .","id":"f77911107ee2b2b56162d31b79efaba6fd84ef11"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the midst of the ongoing culture wars, can it be a good idea to put out a comedy about two Stone Age men who wander into the Bible? In \"Year One,\" Jack Black stars as an inquisitive Stone Age man, with Michael Cera as his sidekick. Harold Ramis thinks so. \"Year One,\" which he directed, concerns two men -- played by Jack Black and Michael Cera -- who leave their home and, in their travels, meet biblical characters such as Cain, Abel, Abraham and Isaac. Among the locales: ancient Sodom, which \"didn't seem worse than Las Vegas to me,\" Ramis told CNN. \"Year One\" comes out Friday. Ramis, whose writing and directing credits include \"Groundhog Day\" and \"Analyze This,\" said it was time for a new biblical epic -- of sorts. \"No one had done this film for our generation,\" he told CNN. It's like, you know, when 'Animal House' [which Ramis co-wrote] came out, there were college films. Every generation had college films, but our generation didn't have one yet, and I don't know that our generation - this young, new generation of kids has a, you know, a sandal epic yet, and this is the one. This is for them.\" Ramis rounded up a cast of comedians familiar to any watcher of Judd Apatow-produced movies -- no surprise, since Apatow is a producer of \"Year One.\" Christopher Mintz-Plasse (\"Superbad\"), Horatio Sanz (\"Saturday Night Live,\" \"Step Brothers\") and Bill Hader (\"Tropic Thunder\") all have parts. \"A lot of them were new to me,\" said Ramis. \"[But] Jack knew them, Michael knew them, they were connected -- all connected through Judd Apatow, through 'Saturday Night Live' ... the comedy world is a club.\" Black joked that everyone's a member of a secret society, requiring retinal scans, that meets \"inside the O of the Hollywood sign -- the first O,\" he noted.. \"All the projects are laid out on a table,\" he said. \"And we talk generally about how we're gonna take over the planet, take over the comedy and keep a vise grip on it.\" Black said he revels in the chance to find the humor in the Bible. \"That was the fun of this thing,\" he said. \"It's like, we are going to have some fun with the Bible; you don't see it very often. It hasn't really been done since Monty Python days. 'Life of Brian.' \" However, the film could get more than it asked for. Films poking fun at the Bible -- or, indeed, treating the Bible with anything less than reverence -- have been the subject of protests and criticism. \"Life of Brian,\" the Python troupe's 1979 comedy about an assumed messiah that parodied the story of Jesus, was protested by clergy in the U.S. and banned outright in Ireland. French protesters threw Molotov cocktails into a Paris theater showing \"The Last Temptation of Christ,\" Martin Scorsese's 1988 film version of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel. More recently, Mel Gibson's \"The Passion of the Christ,\" though a huge financial success, was criticized by some observers for alleged anti-Semitism, as well as its violence. Ramis, who observed that a number of biblical films focus on the New Testament, said he deliberately chose to make the Old Testament his subject. \"I told people that I wanted to do for the Old Testament what Monty Python did for the Gospels,\" he said. \"Which is just to kind of take a funny look and project a contemporary sensibility back to these treasured myths of Western civilization. \"It wasn't so much to attack any particular religion,\" he added. \"I figure all religions are good. They all make sense on paper; it's just the exploitation of religion that's been a problem, by ... people using religion to justify war, or to justify government or, you know, 'God made me do it.' \" Ramis said one of his intentions with \"Year One,\" which he co-wrote with \"Office\" writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, was to focus on people, not God. Paraphrasing the liberal clergyman and activist William Sloane Coffin, he said, God's not the event itself, but \"God's in our reaction to the event.\" \"I wanted to do a film that kind of addressed these fundamental beliefs and urged people to take personal responsibility, no matter what they believe God is or isn't,\" Ramis said. \"It's still up to us in the final analysis.\" Which is not to say that the film skimps on its comedy -- and with Ramis, Black, Cera, Hank Azaria, David Cross and producer Judd Apatow (\"The 40-Year-Old Virgin,\" \"Superbad\") around, there's no shortage of jokes. \"It's really just a good, dumb, broad comedy,\" Ramis told Entertainment Weekly. Improvisation often played a role, said Cera and Black. \"We weren't locked to anything,\" Cera said. \"It was a very honest set. If something wasn't working then we would address it.\" \"We got a lot of different options [from observers], and they were able to play with different options in the editing room. I thought it was a cool way to do it,\" said Black. \"I've never done a movie like that -- and now I wanna do that on all my movies.\" iReport.com: Seen \"Year One\"? Share your review . The handful of early reviews have been positive, and Ramis is pleased with the result. He's particularly happy the film was received warmly in the Sodom shooting location -- Sibley, located in northwest Louisiana, in the heart of the Bible Belt. \"It's funny, because Southern people living in the heart of the Bible belt, there's a Baptist church every 150 feet in that area, and here we are in Sodom, in the city of Sodom,\" he said. \"And they just got into it, they enjoyed it so much.\"","highlights":"\"Year One\" stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as Stone Age men in Bible .\nDirector and co-writer Harold Ramis says the film uses comedy to make points .\nBiblical films are sometimes met with protest; will \"Year One\" qualify?","id":"8e6ff4301c263bce8fc8fddc06dbf78fc2ef1bb2"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Smoking in youth-rated movies has not declined despite a pledge two years ago by Hollywood studios to encourage producers to show less \"gratuitous smoking,\" according to an anti-smoking group. The American Medical Association Alliance has been trying to get movie studios to make smoking-free films. The American Medical Association Alliance, pointing to research that big-screen smoking leads teens to pick up the tobacco habit, called for an R rating for any movie with smoking scenes. The head of the group that gives U.S. movies their ratings, however, said the smoke has been clearing from youth-rated movies, a result of the film industry's sensitivity to the issue. The alliance, the medical association's advocacy arm, launched a summer campaign this week aimed at publicly shaming studios into making smoke-free films. \"Research has shown that one-third to one-half of all young smokers in the United States can be attributed to smoking these youth see in movies,\" said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, head of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department. Fielding cited another study that he said \"found that adolescents whose favorite movie stars smoked on screen are significantly more likely to be smokers themselves and to have a more accepting attitude toward smoking.\" The Motion Picture Association of America, the industry group that issues ratings and parental guidance for U.S. films, added smoking scenes as a factor in ratings two years ago, but Fielding said it has not made a difference. \"In all, 56 percent of the top box office movies with smoking released between May 2007 and May 2009 were youth-rated films -- G, PG or PG-13,\" he said. Joan Graves, who chairs the Motion Picture Association's movie rating committee, offered her own statistics, based on all of the 900 films rated each year, not just the top movies included in Fielding's numbers. The association has given no G ratings in the past two years to a movie with smoking, Graves said. Overall, 55 percent of the movies rated in the past two years showed some smoking, but 75 percent of those with smoking scenes were given R ratings, Graves said. Twenty-one percent were rated PG-13 and the remaining 5 percent were PG, she said. A G movie is deemed suitable for all audiences, while a PG rating is a signal to parents that a film may include some material they might consider inappropriate for children. PG-13 indicates a stronger warning that some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. No one under 17 can be admitted to see an R movie without a parent or guardian. American Medical Association Alliance President Sandi Frost used as her chief example of a movie with \"gratuitous smoking\" this month's blockbuster \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine,\" which was rated PG-13 \"for intense sequences of action and violence, and some partial nudity.\" \"Millions of children have been exposed to the main star of the film, Hugh Jackman, with a cigar in his mouth in various scenes,\" Frost said. \"I'm willing to bet that not one child would have enjoyed that movie or Mr. Jackman's performance any less if he hadn't been smoking.\" A spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox, the studio responsible for the Wolverine movie series, said Jackman's cigar was never lit and it was limited to just two scenes. In one scene, the cigar is shot out of his mouth, prompting Jackman's Wolverine character to suggest its loss would lead to clean living -- an anti-smoking statement -- the studio spokesman said. He said that while the Wolverine character has a cigar in his mouth in almost every panel of the comic book series, producers made \"a conscious decision\" to limit the cigar in the movie. The American Medical Association Alliance, hoping to draw studio executives' attention, hired a mobile billboard to drive around the major studios this week. \"The billboard shows a teenage girl asking the question, 'Which movie studios will cause me to smoke this summer?' \" Frost said. The alliance will keep an online scorecard throughout the summer to count \"how many tobacco impressions each studio delivers to G, PG and PG-13 audiences,\" she said. \"At the end of the summer, whichever studio has delivered the most tobacco impressions to youth audiences will be named in a billboard that will run outside of their headquarters,\" she said. Motion Picture Association of America spokeswoman Angela Martinez said the group \"is very sensitive to the concerns of parents about the purpose of the rating systems.\" \"It's reflective of society,\" Martinez said. \"It's really a tool for parents to help determine what their kids see.\" They began factoring smoking scenes into the ratings two years ago as \"a reflection of changes in society and health concerns,\" she said. \"Smoking is rated like all the other factors, including violence and sex,\" she said. Fielding said it should be absolute -- and not just a factor. \"Any movie with smoking should be rated R,\" he said. \"And if they worry about an R rating hurting their profits, then they should work with studios to remove smoking from films that hurt youth.\" Graves, whose committee makes the decisions, indicated such a zero-tolerance policy would not be accepted.","highlights":"American Medical Association Alliance wants films with smoking to be rated R .\nAMAA says that kids who watch smoking often turn to habit .\nHollywood rating organization says smoking in movies has declined .","id":"1876e587359be6fdbb83ea0d54f776f109f5e65f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A four-story residential building collapsed Sunday in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, and at least four people suffered minor injuries, according to the New York City Fire Department. Firefighters and other personnel arrive in the Fort Greene neighborhood on Sunday. The cause of the midday collapse of the building on Myrtle Avenue between Ryerson and Hall streets was not immediately known. All residents of the building were accounted for, authorities said. Three people were given medical attention at the scene and a fourth person was taken to a Brooklyn hospital, said a fire department spokesman. It was not clear whether any of the injured lived in the building. The New York Department of Buildings said residents in six adjacent buildings were told to leave those structures as investigators worked to determine the cause of the collapse. Watch video of the rubble \u00bb . A spokeswoman for that department confirmed that the owner of the collapsed building was cited in May after inspectors noticed several vertical cracks on an exterior wall. Watch video of the rubble . That case was scheduled to be heard Monday by the city's Environmental Control Board, which handles citations issued by the buildings department.","highlights":"Residential building collapses in Fort Greene area; 4 people have minor injuries .\nResidents in six adjacent buildings told to leave those structures .\nOwner of collapsed building cited in May after inspectors saw vertical cracks on wall .","id":"625e8e552a822867d49790b0bb5a522279f6f722"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Hugh Masekela is the legendary South African musician whose songs were an inspiration in the fight to end apartheid. He tells CNN about growing up under apartheid, why he left South Africa and what is was like to move back to Johannesburg after 30 years away. Hugh Masekela: \"The people of South Africa deserve entertainment, recreation and freedom.\" CNN: How did the suffering of the apartheid influence your art? Hugh Masekela: I don't think what I do is influenced by suffering. I come from a talented people who are prolific in music and dance. We have wonderful singers and we have a diversity of music here that is just amazing. But in spite of being oppressed these people were very resilient and they were mostly resilient through song. I think we are the only society where music played such a major part in our resistance. We grew up in rallies and in the street. We didn't have televisions so we played in the streets and made up songs about what was happening. Watch Hugh Masekela take CNN on a tour of Johannesburg \u00bb. CNN: What's your earliest memory of Johannesburg? HM: I came to Jo' burg from Springs [a town near Johannesburg]. My family moved to Alexandra township and the first time I went to town alone I must have been 10 or 11. Jo' burg used to be scrubbed every night with fire hoses and those hard brooms and the granite on the sidewalks would always sparkle. I remember that because I came from Alexander township where there were no lights, no sewage and no cafes. The most vivid memory I have -- we used to stop and look through restaurant windows at the white people eating fancy food, and we'd say \"what do you think that is?\" and \"there are so many types of food!\" CNN: How did it feel to leave South Africa? HM: When I left South Africa in 1960 I was 20 years old. I wanted to try to get an education and music education was not available for me in South Africa. I wanted to learn from the same kind of teachers that taught Miles Davis and Clifford Brown and Chad Baker and they were not in South Africa. I hoped that one day I could go and learn some of those things and then come back and teach. It was a rough time, when the apartheid government first started showing that if you don't behave, they'll shoot you -- women and children too. You saw police with guns, with machine guns, and for the first time you saw tanks. We had a group called the Jazz Epistles and we were about to take off on a national tour. We were the first African group to play on an LP, but gatherings of more than 10 people were banned so we couldn't do our tour. But four years later, when I was ready to come back to South Africa, I couldn't. The place was impenetrable. By then Mandela had been sentenced to life imprisonment. So I stayed 26 years longer than I planned to. See Hugh Masekela's Johannesburg \u00bb . CNN: Tell us about coming home. HM: It was great, but it was also a tense time coming back to South Africa and we were not naive about it. It was a time of real turmoil. There were no-go places in the townships, there was sniping, there were major clashes and it was a time when civil war was threatening. When I left South Africa there were 10 million people -- when I came back there were more than 40 million. I had to learn how to get to the highways because when I left where there were no highways. And I had to adjust my language because people would say \"we don't' talk like that anymore!\" I was like a sponge trying to learn to do the right things. Not many people came back from exile compared with those who left. About a million left -- 50,000 came back, and of those about 25,000 did a U-turn because it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy but it's been a great experience. CNN: How would you define the culture of Jo' burg? HM: There's no one culture -- it's a cosmopolitan city. It's so diverse, like South Africa itself has so many diverse cultures. But again, we are still living in the culture of ethnic grouping. If we could beat that and have a major festival of tolerance, it would be the shining path. CNN: Where do you like to go out in Jo' burg? HM: I go to Newtown, I go to the Market Theater a lot, and also to the Dance Forum, because we have very brilliant dance choreographers. Old Jo' burg was vibrant, there were things going on all the time -- concerts, festivals, clubs -- but in the last 10 years or so it has become a very quiet city at night. CNN: What is life like in the city? HM: It's not very easy to enjoy the city because the safety and security is not such that you can just go anywhere any time. There's a sadness about this city that everybody talks about. People in South Africa have become inward; they spend most of the time in their homes. When it gets dark, everyone wants to go home as quickly as they can. That is not only Jo' burg's problem, it is a national problem. What we're talking about doesn't make me very popular with the people who run this country, but it's nothing new -- you see it in the newspapers every day. It has to be fixed, because the people of South Africa deserve entertainment, recreation and freedom to enjoy the beauty of their country and to show guests around and say \"this is my country.\"","highlights":"Hugh Masekela songs were an inspiration in the fight to end apartheid .\nHe left South Africa to get a musical education and couldn't return for 30 years .\nUnder apartheid black South Africans were resilient through song, he says .\nHe says Johannesburg is cosmopolitan and multicultural, like South Africa .","id":"9f054c85616ff47b771a11bca9bc434403cecd46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the pre-dawn darkness Saturday, long after her parents and brother were asleep, Atefeh Yazdi lay in bed cradling the house phone and her cell phone in her hands. Atefeh Yazdi visits with her grandfather, Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, during his trip to America last year. The only light was from a television tuned to the latest news from Iran, and her laptop displaying her Facebook page in hope of any updates on what was happening halfway around the world. \"I kind of felt I was more there when I couldn't see the rest of the room, just the TV and the Facebook,\" the 28-year-old Iranian-American told CNN by telephone from her home in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Repeated calls to relatives in Tehran only got the \"annoying\" Farsi-language error message. She recounted the thoughts running through her brain all night: \"Are they going to really shoot people? What's going to happen? Is this going to turn into massive killing and violence?\" In Houston, Texas, Reza Soltani said the anxiety of waiting and wondering was like endless pacing at a hospital during a loved one's operation. \"It feels like the operation started last week and it hasn't ended,\" Soltani, 28, told CNN by telephone. \"I'm worried. I'm hoping it will be good but I'm worried it will get very ugly.\" The jumble of emotions -- fear, hope, anxiety, frustration -- were reality for millions of Iranian-Americans trying to find out if Iranian authorities would crush protests over last week's election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming victor in voting that opposition groups called rigged. No independent monitors were permitted for the election. A threatening statement Friday by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei increased fears of bloodshed. Iranian authorities have cut off traditional communications such as cell phone connections, and also banned foreign news outlets from covering the protests. Thousands of protesters took to the streets Saturday, even though the demonstrations were banned and police confronted them with clubs, tear gas and water cannons. The uncertainty and unrest strikes close to home for Yazdi, whose grandfather -- a longtime politician in Iran -- was arrested from his hospital bed this week. He's been returned to the hospital, she said, but she doesn't know if he'll be arrested again or what will happen to other relatives. \"It's very exhausting,\" Yazdi said. \"I have this feeling I want to be there. I want to book the next flight. I want to be with the people. I don't care about the risks involved.\" Her parents, who left Iran in the 1970s before the Islamic Revolution, say such talk is foolish, she said. They are as worried as she is, but fear returning now would bring too much risk. \"There's a generation gap, a culture gap,\" she explained. It runs deep, defining her life as an American-born citizen of both Iran and the United States, who refers to Iranians as \"my people.\" \"Being born and raised in America, where I was able to voice my opinion, do what I want, say what I wanted, I'm culturally confused,\" Yazdi said. \"I'm not completely American the right way, and I'm not completely Iranian the right way.\" Soltani also mentioned the generation gap among Iranian-Americans, but he described it as more political. His parents' generation lost everything in the revolution, and will only consider returning when the revolutionary regime has been toppled, he said. Older Iranian-Americans in the United States \"actually boycotted the election, saying if you vote you're just legitimizing the government,\" Soltani said. \"We sacrificed everything for you guys, and now you're going to the other team,\" is how Soltani characterized their attitude. \"They think the system needs to go completely,\" he said. \"All they care is for the system to collapse. They think if the system collapses, they're going to be able to go back.\" No matter what happens, Soltani and Yazdi said, Iran is changed forever by this week's events. \"I believe that anything that comes out of it will be positive,\" Soltani said. \"Even if they fail now, the people know if they get in the streets in millions, they're not going to be able to stop them.\"","highlights":"Pair describe fear and anxiety as they wait for news .\nThey believe Iran will be changed forever by the week's events.\nCulture gap exists between older, younger Iranian-Americans, woman says .","id":"32913fbc34001074cb6704241a8ae2d0ecb6d6fd"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Eleven-year-old Hiroki Ando will likely die if he does not get a new heart. Hiroki in an ambulance on the way to catch his flight to New York, where he will wait for a heart. Hiroki suffers from cardiomyopathy, which inflames and impairs the heart. The same disease killed his sister five years ago. \"We have two children in our family who got a disease that happens one out of every 100,000 people. I am sorry for my children. We are having my daughter and Hiroki going through this harsh experience,\" said father Ryuki Ando. \"We were told by his doctor at the end of last year that the heart transplant operation was the only way for him to survive,\" Ando said. But the law in Japan prohibits anyone under the age of 15 from donating organs -- meaning Hiroki can't get a new heart in his home country. According to the web site for Japan Transplant Network, a non-governmental group that supports changing Japan's transplant law, \"this stipulation has greatly reduced the possibility of transplants to small children; heart transplants to small children have become impossible.\" Watch Hiroki's trip to the United States \u00bb . Lawmaker Taro Kono is spearheading efforts to change the law, which was enacted in 1997. Japan's parliament is now debating four proposed amendments-- including one that would scrap the age limit. But, beyond the age matter, the issue of organ transplantation in general, has been a difficult one for the country because of perceptions of brain death. Some refuse to accept it if their loved ones' hearts are still beating. \"For a long time, it's the heart that mattered in Japan. Some religions ask us not to declare being brain dead as death. But that is not the majority,\" Kono said. \"So it is simply that we have been doing things this way and a lot of people are very skeptical about it.\" Kono, who gave a kidney to his father, said a total of 81 organ transplants have been conducted in Japan since the transplant law was enacted in 1997, whereas nearly thousands of transplants occur in the United States each year. \"A lot of people in Japan waiting for a transplant, waiting for a liver, a heart, other organs, most of them just die simply because they couldn't get any organs,\" he said. Kono said he believes the public supports changing the law to allow organ donation from children, noting that \"when the parents of the child are going on the street asking for donations, they can actually raise more than a million dollars.\" Incredibly, that's just what Hiroki's family has done. They started a group called \"helping Hiroki\" and raised $1.7 million in donations. \"It was very tough to get the donations, but so many people from all over Japan donated the money,\" he said. \"It was not only the money, but so many letters and messages to energize us, sent to the group. We realized there are so many people supporting us, and they are the reason that we made it this far and will be able to continue after going to the U.S.\" Hiroki is now at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, awaiting a new heart. His father says he knows that the transplant issue is a difficult one for families. \"The honest wish from the recipient's side is to have a donor show up as soon as possible,\" he said, pausing. \"I still do not know whether I can make a decision to give my child's heart to someone else if I am faced with such a situation. But unless the people face the issue and think about it seriously, I do not think the time will come soon to see more people volunteering to donate organs.\" Ando said he hopes that one day he will be able to play baseball with his son, who is an avid sports fan. \"I would like to have a fun time again with Hiroki. I would like to make it home with everyone in good health,\" he said. \"That's the biggest hope I have now.\" Ando's mother wrote in a blog on her Web site (http:\/\/www.hirokikun.jp\/) that Hiroki was high on the waiting list for a heart transplant in New York. \"I believe Hiroki will be all right,\" she wrote.","highlights":"Hiroki Ando, 11, suffers from cardiomyopathy, which inflames and impairs the heart .\nHe can't get heart in Japan because people under 15 not allowed to donate organs .\nHiroki's family raised $1.7 million in donations to send Hiroki to New York for surgery .","id":"c37eb2dbc650f401db4a8ab2325248ac3d71648c"} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- An Egyptian business tycoon and a former police officer have been found guilty of last July's slaying of a rising Lebanese pop singer. Suzanne Tamim was found dead in her Dubai apartment in July. The case, with its high-profile victim and defendant, has captivated Egypt and the region. A judge convicted and sentenced to death real estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa and the former officer Muhsen el Sukkari on Thursday. Egypt's Grand Mufti -- the country's highest religious official -- will review the sentence and rule on June 25 if the men will be executed, the judge said. Because the two men were sentenced under Islamic law, it is widely expected that they would be hanged. Moustafa's lawyer told reporters outside the courtroom that he will appeal the conviction, saying there was \"a one million percent guarantee\" the sentence would be overturned. The singer, Suzanne Tamim, was found slain in her apartment in the United Arab Emirates. She had been stabbed and her throat slit. Prosecutors alleged that Moustafa, a parliament member for the ruling National Democratic Party, paid el Sukkari $2 million to kill Tamim. During the trial, Moustafa's lawyer told CNN his client loved the singer, but could not take Tamim as a second wife because his family objected. Polygamy is legal in Egypt, and it's not unusual for men -- such as Moustafa, a married father of three -- to take on additional wives. Prosecutors have said Tamim's death was a \"means of taking revenge,\" but have not elaborated. Moustafa and el Sukkari claim the prosecution's evidence could have been fabricated or tampered with by UAE authorities and should not be used against them. Although Tamim was killed in the United Arab Emirates, the Egyptian judiciary tried the case in Cairo because the accused were arrested in Egypt. After his arrest in September, Egyptian authorities indicted Moustafa, stripped him of his parliamentary immunity and jailed him pending trial. He also resigned as chairman of Talaat Moustafa Group -- a conglomerate with construction and real estate arms that was founded by his father, Talaat Moustafa. Moustafa's brother, Tarek Talaat Moustafa, now chairs the company. CNN's Raja Razek and Housam Ahmed contributed to this story.","highlights":"Egyptian mogul and ex-police officer guilty of Lebanese singer's murder .\nHer body was found in apartment in United Arab Emirates .\nProsecutors alleged ex-officer was paid $2M to kill singer Suzanne Tamim .\nEgypt's Grand Mufti -- highest religious official -- will review death sentence .","id":"36d9a9dd192f45fdba5ce2dc62465bd8143ff3d2"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The Arab world is among the worldwide audience that has been closely watching as events in Iran have unfolded over the past week. Protesters fight running battles with motorcycle-mounted militia members Saturday in Tehran. \"In all honesty, I am amazed by these Iranians,\" Egyptian human rights activist and blogger Walid Abbas posted on his Twitter page. \"I have no green t-shirt\" Abbas tweeted Saturday. He was referring to the color worn by many supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose supposed failure to win last week's election sparked the wave of unrest that has gripped the nation. Watching the events unfolding in Iran on Twitter, Youtube and other social networks, the Egyptian activist said he is learning from the Iranian activists. He said he does not support Moussavi because he is part of the Mullah system. \"We are not with Moussavi,\" Abbas tweeted, \"We are with the Iranian people and their demands.\" Taghlob Salah, a 24-year-old Iraqi student at Baghdad Law College, told CNN that the Iranian youths who make up most of the protesters can be inspiring to Iraqis, despite cultural differences. See images of the clashes Saturday \u00bb . \"Despite the difference that we have with Iran and the fact that many Iraqis don't trust their Persian neighbor, we are still Muslims and at the end of the day that matters a lot,\" he said. \"We will look at this phase in Iranian history and learn, for sure and I can say that we will learn from them, 100 percent.\" Iraq and Iran are culturally linked because their populations are predominantly Shiite Muslims, as opposed to Sunni Muslims who make up the majority of most Arab countries. Salah credited the Internet for giving everyone involved a chance to have their voices heard. \"There are so many Iraqi groups all over Facebook,\" he said. \"The world is evolving; we are developing our approach to our surroundings.\" Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, expressed dismay over the continued protests. He called on Moussavi to be \"responsible enough to protect his people and avoid bloodshed, instability and confrontation in his country that may rupture the Iranian internal unity spreading chaos throughout the region.\" Atwan said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made it clear in his speech during Friday prayers that his patience had run out and he praised the supreme leader for having displayed \"leniency\" in his dealings with the protesters, but predicted that that leniency would not continue. iReport.com: Share images from Iran . Abd Rahman Rashed, editor of the Saudi-owned, London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, expressed a different point of view. In an editorial published Saturday, Rashed directed comments to Arab supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose landslide victory in last week's election is being challenged by Moussavi and his supporters. \"No matter what happens, Iran did technically change and will shift its course in a great way,\" Rashed wrote. \"It is over,\" he said. \"Iran the one system, the street and the agenda is over.\" They may not understand Farsi or why some Iranians voted for Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but Arabs can surely relate to the passionate shouts of \"God is Great!\" And \"Down with the dictator\" in defiance of Iran's theocracy. Relations between Iran and Arab states have always been tense: through its proxies, Iran sometimes accuses some of the leading Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, of being subject to the whims of Western imperialism and of failing to confront America and its ally, Israel, in the region. Rashed credited Iranians for speaking with courage against their government's funding of controversial organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas and anti-government groups in Yemen and elsewhere. He said Iranians voted against the current system because they don't want the government to dedicate the country's budget to ally itself to such organizations instead of focusing on the average citizen. Some Arab states look to Iran as a regional superpower that can support them financially, militarily and politically in their confrontation with the international community. Those states include Syria and Sudan, which support organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah -- deemed terrorist organizations by the United States -- that are used as a proxy to challenge America and Israel in the region. Some Arab states have long warned that Shiite Iran wants to spread its power across the Sunni-dominated Arab world, causing more mistrust and friction between the Persian nation and the Arab world. Recently, Egypt and Morocco accused Iran of attempting to spread the Shiite faith among its Sunni population and creating Shiite converts and activists in their communities and in the rest of the Arab world -- a charge that Iran has denied.","highlights":"Arab world has closely watched as events in Iran have unfolded over past week .\nRelations between Iran and Arab states have always been tense .\nEgypt, Morocco accuse Iran of trying to spread Shiite faith among its Sunni population .\nSome Arab states look to Iran as a regional superpower that can support them .","id":"9b528df53fb5a54fad0b924dbf1ac07bd47e5ed9"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose new book, \"Late Edition: A Love Story,\" will be published next month. Bob Greene recalls a radio exec who was ahead of his time by working an almost endless day. (CNN) -- I think perhaps the oddest person I have ever known was a man by the name of Robert Hyland. But the truly odd thing is that we all seem to have turned into him. Hyland was the vice president and general manager of KMOX radio, the 50,000-watt powerhouse in St. Louis, Missouri. He came to work every day at 2:30. In the morning. That's right: Hyland would show up at his office at 2:30 a.m. each day. He would then work straight through until 5 p.m. He didn't do this once in a while; he did it each and every day. He didn't do it to set an example for his employees. He did it because he couldn't seem to stop working. \"I'm not one of those people who need sleep to be refreshed,\" Hyland told me once. \"I'll go to bed between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., and I'll wake up at 1:30 a.m. I have an alarm clock, but I never set it. I wake up automatically. I shower and shave, and I'm at the office by 2:30.\" I asked him if this schedule made any sense at all. \"It's a good time to get a lot of work done,\" he told me. \"The phone isn't ringing, and there are no distractions. I have a pile of paperwork on my desk, and I go through it.\" At 9 a.m., he said -- after he had been at work for 6\u00bd hours -- the other people at the office would show up. And he would keep going. Hyland may have seemed eccentric -- he readily understood that perception; he said to me: \"I think what you're thinking is that you're talking to a nut\" -- but if he had lived a little longer (he died of cancer in 1992 at the age of 71), he would have witnessed something that might have astonished even him: . The rest of the world joined him in his obsession. Hyland died just before the era in which everyone began using cell phones and staring at home computer screens. Society might never have been ready to do what he did -- come to the office in the middle of the night and routinely work 14\u00bd hour days -- had the technology revolution not come along. But come along it did -- and with it came the erasure of all the boundaries that at one time separated the workday from leisure time. E-mails and text messages and BlackBerrys and all their digital cousins may have given us the illusion of freedom -- we tell ourselves that we are unfettered by traditional offices, that we can go anywhere we please -- yet in the end they have created a nation of Robert Hylands. We're never off the clock; that cell phone may ring at dinnertime, that allegedly urgent e-mail may arrive at 11 p.m., that instant message from the regional manager may pop onto the screen when we're on vacation with our families. And what do we do? If your answer is, \"We ignore them,\" good for you. But the truth is, mostly we don't ignore them -- mostly we snap to attention. Ask yourself this: What do you think would happen to an employee who received an e-mail at home from his boss at 8 o'clock on a Tuesday night, and who responded to the e-mail by writing back: . \"I'm sorry, but I'm only available for work-related e-mails during office hours. If you'd like to communicate with me about this matter, please feel free to do so tomorrow after 9 a.m.\" That might be the rational answer. But how many people -- especially in this economy, and in this job market -- do you think would dare to do that? And it's not just when we're working for our bosses -- it's when we're purportedly doing things for ourselves. Try to picture your father's or grandfather's reaction if in, say, 1958, he had been trying to make an airplane reservation and he had been told by the airline: . \"We'd like you to purchase a computer and set it up inside your house. You pay for it; you also pay for the electricity to run it. Now, we'd like you to buy a printing machine -- you pay for that, and you pay for the ink inside it, and you pay for the paper that feeds into it. Now, we'd like you to use the computer you've paid for to do the work of reservation agents, so we don't have to hire as many of them. Got it? Now, use that computer, make your own reservations, and print out your own ticket. On your own time.\" Had your dad or granddad been told that, half a century ago, he might have thought he was having a nightmare. But we're grateful for it; we tell ourselves this is progress. If we log on at the moment the seat-selection process opens up, and we manage, by playing airline-roulette on our keyboard, to get ourselves an aisle seat, we feel triumphant. We barely stop to consider that we're working for the very airline company to which we're paying our money. Robert Hyland said he would feel funny not working all those hours -- he even did it on Saturdays; on the sixth workday of his week he would come in, as usual, at 2:30 a.m. \"I just don't think that most people have the commitment to their jobs that I do,\" he told me. If only he had lived to see 2009. He would have been just a face in the crowd -- just another American to whom the notion of quitting time has lost all meaning. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: I once knew radio exec who started work at 2:30 a.m.\nHe says Americans now accept that they are always on call for work .\nGreene: In tough economy, workers are reluctant to draw boundaries .","id":"d268130d59eb5fc06d7bb05a0bb281577d26f0cc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Chevron Corp. CEO David O'Reilly says Big Oil is not to blame for skyrocketing gas prices. Chevron Corp. CEO David O'Reilly says world demand for crude oil has been growing, which is affecting gas prices. In an interview Tuesday with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's \"The Situation Room,\" O'Reilly said high demand and a short supply of crude oil were key factors causing gas prices to spike. Despite reports of record profits among major oil companies, O'Reilly downplayed a recent poll in which Americans said corporate avarice played a role. O'Reilly also discussed President Bush's and GOP presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's proposal to lift the ban on new offshore drilling as well as presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama's call for taxing companies' windfall profits. The following is an edited version of the show's transcript: . Blitzer: You know you have -- you and ExxonMobil, the Big Oil companies --have a huge public relations problem. In all the recent polls, when the American public is asked, who do you blame for these huge gas prices at the pump, they -- more than any other single source -- they blame Big Oil. They blame you. What's going on? Watch Blitzer grill O'Reilly \u00bb . O'Reilly: Well, I don't think they blame us as much as you think. It looks to me like there's a lot of blame to go around. Blitzer: There's other blame, but more than any other single source, they blame Big Oil. O'Reilly: It depends on the poll you look at. Blitzer: The recent Gallup Poll. O'Reilly: Let me point out what we're trying to do about this because I think the issue here is one of supply. And prices are high today, but it's fundamentally a concern about oil supplies -- 75 percent of the price of gasoline is related to crude oil. We're very dependent on crude oil imports. The total world demand for crude oil has been growing steadily over the last decade. And that is affecting everybody's price. So it is a concern, but we need to work on the supply side, as well as the demand side, to bring change. Blitzer: Because you have had record profits, right? O'Reilly: We're investing those record profits. Blitzer: But billions and billions of dollars in profits, more than ever before. O'Reilly: Yes, but it's a big business. And on a return-on-sales business, we're right in there with the average of American business today. What we're doing is investing that money. For example, last year, we did make a lot of money, $18.7 billion. This year, our capital investment in new supplies is $22.9 billion, almost $23 billion. Blitzer: You know that Barack Obama says if he's president, he wants a windfall profits tax. He wants to take a chunk of your profits right now and give it back to the American people. John McCain opposes that, as you know. So I assume you would like to see John McCain elected president? Watch McCain explain his stance \u00bb . O'Reilly: Well, I would like to see no windfall profit tax. And I will tell you why. First of all, we are already heavily taxed as an industry. Our tax rates last year were at 45 percent, compared with in the 30s for the average of all industry. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, we're investing the money. If you take the money away, it will reduce investment, reduce supply and have exactly the opposite effect of helping the problem that you have referred to. And, thirdly, we have done it before. We have had windfall profit taxes. Congress has studied them about 30 years ago. And what happened under those circumstances is supplies dropped domestically, and we became even more dependent on imported oil. You don't want to do that today. Blitzer: Here's how Sen. Obama put it. Listen to this. Obama (in a video clip): Sen. McCain wants to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to Big Oil and opposes a windfall profits tax on oil companies like Exxon to help families struggling with high energy costs. I think that is exactly why we need to change Washington. Blitzer: So, I guess, given the stark difference when it comes to Big Oil between Obama and McCain -- let me rephrase the question -- do you want McCain to be elected? O'Reilly: I want someone to be elected who will help resolve our energy crisis. And I don't know enough about Sen. Obama's position or Sen. McCain's position to pass judgment on either one of them. What I do know, though, is that if we want to solve this problem of high energy prices, we're going to have to work not only in the demand side, as Congress has done with [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards and alternatives, but we're going to have to work on the supply as well. Blitzer: Do you want offshore drilling to be approved on both coasts and in the Gulf, which Sen. McCain now says is a good idea? O'Reilly: I do think that's a good idea. Today, our shores, except for the gulf off Texas and Mississippi and so forth, are off-limits today. So, look, Europeans who are very environmentally conscious -- the British, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch -- they can allow sensible offshore production from their oceans. Why can't we? See where drilling is allowed, banned \u00bb . Since we have -- over the last 20 years, domestic production has steadily declined -- and we have been more and more dependent on imports. We definitely need to do something about it. We don't know yet how much oil is under there, but we should at least be given the opportunity to look. Blitzer: We invited our viewers to ask you a question, and some of the I-Reports came in. iReport.com: See what iReporters are saying about gas prices . Unidentified male (in a video clip): If you would had told me a year ago that gas prices were going to reach about $4 a gallon, I wouldn't have doubted you. And if you had told me the year before that that they would reach $3 a gallon, I still wouldn't have doubted you. So what should Americans expect in terms of pricing of gas in the future? Blitzer: What do you think? O'Reilly: Very good question. I mean, $4 gasoline is a reality today because ... Blitzer: In some parts of the country, it's approaching $5. O'Reilly: Well, 75 percent of that is the price of crude oil. And that is the crude oil that we have been talking about here that's driving the current crude oil -- energy market. Blitzer: So, how high is it going to go? O'Reilly: Well, if crude oil prices come down, I think those prices could moderate. But it's a big if. Crude oil prices have to come down. We need to send a very strong signal to the market that we're serious about increasing supplies in this country. Blitzer: Do you think manipulators, stock manipulators, are paying -- are doing things to cause this spiral? O'Reilly: I don't know enough about the financial markets. We're a physical player. But I think most of the price that we see today is because of concern about physical long-term supply. Blitzer: Just because of the huge demand in India and China, also? O'Reilly: Huge demand around the globe, including here in the United States. Blitzer: Here's another question. Unidentified male (in a video clip): Have we reached peak oil supply? And, if not, when do you expect that we will? And, once we do, when do you expect that the prices of gas will go down to a reasonable level? O'Reilly: You know, peak oil is a big question today, and it's a very good question. One of the issues that we face has been addressed -- around people -- has been addressed to the National Petroleum Council study, which was issued last year by the secretary of energy. It is a very important study. What it really says is, there's enough oil and gas in the ground, but the access is what's impeding production. So, we could have a squeeze in the years ahead if we don't get after increasing our supplies, not only here in the U.S., but creating a global environment which permits access around the globe and free trade around the globe as far as oil is concerned.","highlights":"Chevron CEO says his company is investing windfall profits in supplies .\nDavid O'Reilly says he is opposed to windfall profits tax, favors offshore drilling .\n\"I want someone to be elected who will help resolve our energy crisis,\" O'Reilly says .\nCiting report, O'Reilly says plenty of oil is in ground but access is the problem .","id":"420d8b930d57ee905c1f8cee167e06b1f96a5a40"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Health and Human Services' acting secretary has appointed Dr. Richard Besser as the interim director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. William Gimson will return to his position as the CDC's chief operating officer. He replaces William Gimson, who took over as interim CDC director at noon on January 20. Gimson notified CDC employees that HHS acting secretary Charles E. Johnson had announced the appointment. Gimson replaced Dr. Julie Gerberding, who was the head of the CDC from 2002 until two days ago. Gerberding, along with other senior officials, also resigned on January 20, when Barack Obama and his administration took over. Past HHS secretary Michael Leavitt said that the interim directors would take over until the next HHS nominee -- former Sen. Tom Daschle -- is confirmed and makes the permanent appointments. Gimson told employees he's returning to his post as the CDC's chief operating officer. The CDC usually has a physician as its director, which Gimson is not. According to the biography posted on the CDC Web site, Besser's last position at the CDC was as the director of the Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response, where he was responsible for public health emergency preparedness and emergency response activities. According to CDC sources, Besser was seeing patients when he learned of his new position. In addition to heading the CDC bioterrorism preparedness division, he is a practicing pediatrician.","highlights":"Dr. Richard Besser has been designated acting director of the CDC .\nBesser replaces William Gimson as interim director .\nDr. Julie Gerberding was CDC head from 2002 to end of Bush administration .\nHHS-nominee Tom Daschle, upon confirmation, will appoint permanent CDC head .","id":"6cf523d9786dbea94d340bda092ca50a15d9d8b2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dubai could lose its place on the Women's Tennis Association Tour calendar after Israeli Shahar Peer was denied entry to compete at this week's event, the WTA supremo warned Monday. Shahar Peer told CNN she learned of her visa ban Saturday, just before her scheduled flight to Dubai. Peer was scheduled to fly into the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, but was informed Saturday night by telephone that she would not be granted a visa. WTA Chairman and CEO Larry Scott said the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour \"will review appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament.\" Scott added: \"The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking.\" Peer, who had just finished playing in the Pattaya Open in Thailand, where she reached the semifinal, said she is \"very, very disappointed\" to have been denied the opportunity to play in Dubai. \"They really stopped my momentum because now I'm not going to play for two weeks and because they waited for the last minute I couldn't go to another tournament either,\" Peer said from Tel Aviv. \"So it's very disappointing, and I think it's not fair.\" Watch Peer describe her disappointment \u00bb . Scott, meanwhile, confirmed: \"Following various consultations, the Tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the Tour's Board of Directors. \"Ms. Peer and her family are obviously extremely upset and disappointed by the decision of the UAE and its impact on her personally and professionally, and the Tour is reviewing appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer.\" Scott said Peer's visa refusal has precedence: Last year an Israeli men's doubles team was denied entry to Dubai. He said the Emirate cited security reasons following recent unrest in the region. \"At that time I was in Dubai. I made it clear to the authorities, the representatives of the government, that next year when our top players wanted to play this very prestigious tournament all of them had to be allowed to play,\" Scott said. \"They had a year to work on it and solve it. We've spent time through the year discussing it. We were given assurances that it had gone to the highest levels of government,\" Scott said. \"I was optimistic they would solve it. And we've made crystal clear to the government, to the tournament organizers that there could be grave repercussions not just for tennis in the UAE but sports beyond that.\" Watch CNN's interview with Larry Scott \u00bb . The Dubai government issued a short statement through the state-owned news agency, saying that Peer was informed while in Thailand that she would not receive a visa. The agency quoted an official source in the organizing committee saying, \"The tournament is sponsored by several national organizations and they all care to be part of a successful tournament, considering the developments that the region had been through.\" Earlier an official source who did not want to be named, said, \"We should check what happened in New Zealand, when Peer was playing there with all the demonstrations against Israel during the attacks on Gaza. We have to consider securing the players and the tournament.\" In January, a small group of about 20 protestors waved placards and shouted anti-Israel slogans outside the main entrance to the ASB Classic tournament in Auckland. They were moved on before Peer played her match. The Israeli player said she's received phone calls of support from her fellow players. \"'All the players support Shahar,\" world No. 6 Venus Williams told The New York Times, adding, \"We are all athletes, and we stand for tennis.\" Peer is uncertain of her next move. She said the last-minute decision had left her at a loose end. She said she was concerned about her points and ranking and may go to the U.S. this week to try to take part in another tournament. \"I don't think it should happen,\" she said. \"I think sport and politics needs to stay on the side and not be involved. I really hope it's not going to happen again, not only to me but to any other athlete.\" CNN Dubai bureau chief Caroline Faraj contributed to this report .","highlights":"Israeli tennis player back in Tel Aviv after being denied entry for Dubai event .\nShahar Peer told night before tournament she would not be granted visa by UAE .\nWTA chief Larry Scott warned Dubai tournament could lose place on calendar .\nScott: \"This runs counter to everything we were promised and is a setback\"","id":"b8ea58ec322b94a3223d35658cd2974a7df2a2de"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steve Bierfeldt says the Transportation Security Administration pulled him aside for extra questioning in March. He was carrying a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and an iPhone capable of making audio recordings. And he used them. Steve Bierfeldt is accusing the Transportation Security Administration of \"harassing interrogation.\" On a recording a TSA agent can be heard berating Bierfeldt. One sample: \"You want to play smartass, and I'm not going to play your f**king game.\" Bierfeldt is director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an outgrowth of the Ron Paul presidential campaign. He was returning from a regional conference March 29 when TSA screeners at Lambert-St. Louis (Missouri) International Airport saw a metal cash box in his carry-on bag. Inside was more than $4,700 dollars in cash -- proceeds from the sale of political merchandise like T-shirts and books. There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Bierfeldt's cause and is suing Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, whose department includes the TSA. Their complaint alleges that Bierfeldt was \"subjected to harassing interrogation, and unlawfully detained.\" Larry Schwartztol of the ACLU said the TSA is suffering from mission creep. \"We think what happened to Mr. Bierfeldt is a reflection that TSA believes passenger screening is an opportunity to engage in freewheeling law enforcement investigations that have no link to flight safety,\" he said. Schwartztol believes many other passengers have been subjected to the same kind of treatment, which he claims violates constitutional protections against unlawful searches. The TSA wouldn't comment on the lawsuit, but said in a statement that the movement of large amounts of cash through a checkpoint may be investigated \"if suspicious activity is suspected.\" Unbeknownst to the TSA agents, Bierfieldt had activated the record application on his phone and slipped it into his pocket. It captured the entire conversation. An excerpt: . Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question. Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question. Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money. Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question? Officer: So you refuse to answer that question? Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing. Officer: Well, you're not answering. Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law. The officers can be heard saying they will involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and appear to threaten arrest, saying they are going to transport Bierfeldt to the local police station, in handcuffs if necessary. Bierfeldt told CNN he believes their behavior was inappropriate. \"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me.\" But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money. Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul? Bierfeldt: Yes, sir. Officer: You're free to go. According to the TSA, \"Passengers are required to cooperate with the screening process. Cooperation may involve answering questions about their property. A passenger who refuses to answer questions may be referred to appropriate authorities for further inquiry\" Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights. \"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't.\" The TSA says disciplinary action has been taken against one of its employees for inappropriate tone and language.","highlights":"Passenger questioned about large amount of cash .\nHe says the money was from sale of political merchandise .\nACLU is suing Homeland Security Secretary on behalf of passenger .\nTSA says movement of large sums of cash may be investigated .","id":"8ec4da79ab48679f38e555b08b6cedea68f9f2c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A white tiger mauled a zookeeper to death at a New Zealand wildlife park Wednesday as a group of tourists watched in horror, police say. The zookeeper at Zion Wildlife Gardens in New Zealand could not be saved by other staff. The attack took place at the Zion Wildlife Gardens near Whangarei, about three hours north of Auckland. Two zookeepers had gone in to clean an enclosure at the park, when one of two white tigers inside lunged at a keeper, said Sarah Kennett, spokeswoman for Northland Police. The second keeper and other zoo staff tried to pull the tiger off the man but failed. He died shortly after, Kennett said. The tiger was put down, the park said. Watch park officials, visitors react \u00bb . A group of eight tourists who were on a guided tour of the park witnessed the Wednesday morning attack, Kennett said. \"This is an incredibly sad day,\" the park said in a statement, adding that it would provide counseling to its employees. The Zion Wildlife Gardens is home to several endangered tigers and lions. It is best known in New Zealand as the setting for the popular television series \"Lion Man.\" In February, an employee needed surgery after he was attacked by a white tiger, according to local media reports. Last year, the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry released documents to CNN affiliate TVNZ that said animals at the park were kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions. Inspectors were so concerned about the conditions that they considered having 40 cats put down, the documents said.","highlights":"White tiger mauls a zookeeper to death at a New Zealand wildlife park .\nAttack happened in front of group of tourists .\nAnother keeper and zoo staff tried to pull the tiger off the man but failed .","id":"085123e98b88844153659e3eaa3f9e8f5c065bb7"} -{"article":"Only about one in 10 workers who lose their job opt to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance through the safety-net program COBRA, most likely because the premiums are too expensive, according to an analysis released Friday by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health care issues. Only about one in 10 workers who lose their job opt to keep their insurance through the COBRA program. Experts worry that the highest unemployment rate in 16 years, combined with a health care system dependent on employer-sponsored health insurance, is a recipe for disaster, and will swell the ranks of the uninsured particularly if people aren't using COBRA. About 46 million people in the United States (18 percent of those under 65) lacked health insurance in 2007. Health.com: Laid off? The healthiest ways to spend your time . The new report is based on a 2007 survey of 3,501 people. The researchers found that two-thirds of workers, if they were laid off, would be eligible for COBRA. Data from 2006 data suggest that only 9 percent would opt into the program. Health care insurance premiums have risen since then, so it's likely that the problem is getting worse not better, they say. \"The affordability issue gets worse every year, that's the big concern,\" says Meredith Rosenthal, PhD., an associate professor of health economics and policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study. \"Of course [some people can] still get an offer of coverage through a spouse, but we're still talking about very, very serious increases in the number of uninsured.\" Health.com: Natural cold and flu remedies . COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) was passed in 1985 to allow laid-off workers to continue their health insurance if they lose their job. (COBRA only covers workers in companies that offer health insurance, have 20 or more employees, and are still in business.) But there's a catch. Most employers pick up 75 percent to 85 percent of the tab for their workers' health insurance, and once a person has been laid off, the entire bill falls on the ex-employee's shoulders. That means that health insurance costs dramatically escalate at a time when people have little or no money to burn. The Commonwealth Fund estimates that the cost of COBRA is four to six times higher than what people pay when they are employed; $4,704 per year for an individual and $12,680 for a family. Health.com: Live healthy for way less . Erin McCullar, 26, of Birmingham, Alabama, has type 1 diabetes and was laid off from her job as an interior designer in October. At the time, she didn't sign up for COBRA, a decision she now seriously regrets. Overwhelmed, she didn't realize she had a 60 days to sign up for the program and missed the deadline by a couple of days. \"On the day I got laid off I got a packet slapped in front of my face and that was it,\" she says. \"I was just totally in the dark.\" She quickly found out that she couldn't get health insurance that would cover her type 1 diabetes, at least without a six-month or year-long waiting period, because it is considered a preexisting condition. She stockpiled a six-month supply of lifesaving insulin in the two-week period before she lost her job, but since then has scrimped on the drug to make it last longer. At one point, she even disconnected her pump, which delivers a continuous dose of insulin, for about three weeks. She used only a couple of insulin injections in that time to control high blood sugar, a potentially serious threat to her health. Even if she did sign up, she's not sure she could afford the premiums, which would have cost about $8,000 a year. Health.com: Healthy meals for under $10 . \"Ultimately, yes, I need it, but cost did factor into it,\" she says. \"I don't know that I would have been able to keep up my payments because I was barely able to keep up on my rent.\" Cost is clearly a major issue for most laid-off workers, says Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund. Only 3 percent of workers near the poverty level who are eligible for COBRA opt to keep their insurance, compared to 14 percent of workers who made more money before they lost their job. It's a problem that \"is not going away,\" says Davis, \"The Congressional Budget Office estimates that we're going to go to 8.3 percent unemployed in 2009 and 9 percent in 2010,\" says Davis. (The unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in December.) She notes that each percentage point increase in the unemployment rate leads to a 1.1 million increase in the number of uninsured. \"So it's pretty urgent that the economic stimulus bill not only address the job situation, but address health insurance coverage too,\" she says. While some laid-off workers may get health insurance coverage though a spouse or partner, their research suggests that only about 14 percent of people who are not eligible for COBRA could get coverage through a partner or some other source after losing their job, she says. Rosenthal and other experts hope that if there is a silver lining, it's that there may be more political will to change the current health care coverage system. \"One of the biggest challenges to health care coverage reform has been that the status quo is okay for many people, particularly for many people who vote,\" she says. \"If that is no longer true, and if the people who have coverage now are insecure enough, they may be willing to give up something to get coverage security.\" McCullar just hopes she can get health insurance soon. \"It sounds just colossally stupid to not have heath insurance, but I luckily had enough vials and insulin so I'm not near running out now, but I have to get health insurance in the near future,\" she says. \"God forbid I had to go to the hospital during this; that would be a nightmare.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"About 46 million people in the United States lacked health insurance in 2007 .\nThe new report is based on a 2007 survey of 3,501 people .\nCOBRA was passed in 1985 to allow laid-off workers to keep health insurance .","id":"23bf4df6b980ca5238d33f08f8c344088291cadf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No one expected them to live long. A glass tree at the University of Miami commemorates those who died from complications of HIV\/AIDS. Many of their peers succumbed to unusual infections by their first or second birthdays. They were living on borrowed time, it seemed. While their friends' parents visited schools, these kids visited their parents' graves. When their classmates planned for the future, they often thought about death. But those babies who were born with HIV\/AIDS in the 1980s have defied initial expectations. With advances in medicine, the babies born with what was once thought of as a sure-fatal virus have danced at their high school proms, walked on stage to receive their diplomas and even experienced the birth of their children. \"It's a battle -- not because the HIV is going to defeat us,\" said Quintara Lane, a 22-year-old student with long braids. \"It's more of what we have to go through to take care of ourselves.\" Lane is part of a generation that was born with the virus. Since the mid-1990s in developed countries, antiretroviral drugs have largely prevented mothers from transmitting HIV\/AIDS to their babies. A new kind of family . On a warm Florida Friday, boys in high-tops and loose jeans hanging from their thighs greet one another with a nod and then a slap on the hand. They tease relentlessly. Others pay little attention, listening to music blasting through their earbuds or texting so quickly that their thumbs appear a blur on pink, sparkly phones. See more photos. \u00bb . Nearly 30 young adults and teenagers who were born with HIV\/AIDS meet every week at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. \"The teens are teenagers,\" said Ana Garcia, an adjunct assistant professor in pediatric infectious disease and immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who helped form the group. \"They just happen to have HIV. It's about fitting in, being normal, and having goals and living long enough to meet them.\" The group of HIV-positive teens, which calls itself the Kool Kids, formed in 1995. The youth who grew up with HIV\/AIDS describe the usual complications of adolescence -- dating, high school drama and rumors. But they also experienced broken families, medical complications and fights for acceptance. As their parents and family members died, the peer group here became a new family, Garcia said. Over an hour of joking, merciless teasing and eating Chinese food, the teens scarcely mention HIV\/AIDS. It's a fellowship that silently understands one another's struggles. \"We don't want to talk about HIV every day,\" said Eric Koumbou, 19. \"If you talk about HIV and you don't have it and I do, sometimes it makes me angry or makes me sad.\" Even if they don't talk about it, it helps a young person with HIV who may think, \"This is the end of my life. I don't know what to do,\" said Lane, who joined when she was 11. The older teens support the younger ones and show that HIV\/AIDS doesn't consume one's life. Quintara Lane . Lane was raised by her grandmother after her mother left her at the hospital. More than two decades ago, \"The families frequently lacked hope,\" said Dr. Gwendolyn Scott, director of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who treated the newborns. \"Many times, the parents died when children were at a young age.\" As a child, Lane understood she had to take \"vitamins\" -- two dozen antiretroviral pills chopped into pieces and taken with orange juice every day. The pills made her nauseated and gave her headaches and skin rashes. Side effects of taking the medications can include gastrointestinal problems, weight gain, neuropathy and other symptoms. \"I didn't want to take the medicine,\" Lane recalled. She lied to her grandmother about taking them for nearly two years. \"I could say I took 'em when I didn't. Being around friends, I didn't want to take them and I didn't want them to ask questions.\" After fainting from a decimated immune system at the age of 12, Lane started to understand the gravity of her situation. But questions and the anger occasionally surfaced. \"Why did I get it?\" Lane would ask. \"All these questions of why, why, why -- all that anger makes this worse. Dealing with school, relationships, dealing with life -- it could be overwhelming. But I try to look at the best of everything and not dwell so much on myself.\" Lane counsels other young adults who have new HIV diagnoses, answering questions about how HIV\/AIDS affects dating and how to handle the medications. Young patients with HIV\/AIDS often get pill fatigue, Garcia said. \"It makes me different. I feel sick. I'm allergic to them,\" they tell her. Some of her young patients died because they stopped taking the pills. \"There are kids who are set with, 'I don't want to be in this world. I want to be with my mother or I want to be with my father,' or they don't care,\" she said. \"It doesn't matter what you offer them. So it's very complicated to move through that -- sometimes you run out of time.\" The next generation . Over the years, the number of pills required to treat HIV\/AIDS has dwindled significantly. But, it's not the physical side effects that bother patients. \"I'm only reminded of it when I have to take medication,\" said a 28-year-old with HIV who asked to be identified only as \"Mike.\" \"That's what we do. That's our lives.\" Mike contracted HIV after receiving a contaminated blood transfusion as a newborn. \"I wasn't promised to live on Earth long enough,\" he said. \"At times, I'd think about suicide and think 'Why me? Why would the doctor give me dirty blood?' I come to realize that it's no one's fault.\" He joined the HIV support group as a teenager. There, he met his wife, who had contracted the virus from her mother. Their primary focus now is raising their 5-year-old daughter, a petite, shy girl with wavy brown curls. This newest generation of children born to HIV-positive parents has a different fate. \"My wife took her medicine to reduce chances of our daughter being infected with the virus,\" Mike said. \"By the grace of God and praying, my daughter is HIV-negative.\"","highlights":"Babies born with HIV\/AIDs in the 1980s defy expectations .\nHIV\/AIDs transmission through pregnancy has been curbed through medicine .\nTeens living with virus have unique camaraderie .","id":"a5668c3aa5662177e0d73c00764de9ec6a177825"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Nestle plant linked to an outbreak of illness has been shut temporarily, and the company said Monday that it expects to lay off more than 200 workers as a result. Preliminary results \"indicate a strong association with eating raw prepackaged cookie dough,\" the CDC says. \"It's likely that we're going to have some temporary layoffs at that facility,\" Nestle spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn said of the Danville, Virginia, facility that was churning out refrigerated cookie-dough products until Thursday. About 550 people work at the factory, but only about half of them work on cookie dough, she said. The rest work on Buitoni pasta and sauce in a separate facility at the plant. She said there is little chance that the Buitoni products might be tainted, because -- even if the cookie dough is proved to be the source of the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 -- it is a kosher product, meaning it is made from a segregated stream of ingredients. Danville's Economic Development Office said the city's unemployment rate is 14.3 percent. Nestle was first alerted to the problem late Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, O'Hearn said, adding: \"Less than a day later, we made the decision to remove the product. We shut down. We stopped shipping.\" Included in the recall are 300,000 cases of the product. Each case contains 12 packages, and each package contains 24 cookies. That's a total of 86.4 million cookies' worth of dough. The recall does not include Dreyer's or Edy's ice cream products with Nestle Toll House \"cookie dough\" ingredients. That's because the \"dough\" in ice cream is not really dough at all; it is cooked. \"Ice cream is a different formulation,\" O'Hearn said. \"Since it's not meant to be baked before consumption -- those cookie crumbles that are in the formulation -- they're all cooked. For the cookie dough that's present in the ice cream, Dreyer's is using heat-treated ingredients.\" According to the CDC, between March 1 and Monday, 70 people in 30 states had been infected with a strain of E. coli. The ages of the people affected ranged from 2 to 57 years, though more than 70 percent were younger than 19, and 75 percent were female, the agency said on its Web site. Twenty-five people had been hospitalized, and seven had developed a kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No fatalities had been reported, it said. \"Preliminary results of this investigation indicate a strong association with eating raw prepackaged cookie dough,\" the agency said. \"Most patients reported eating refrigerated prepackaged Nestle Toll House cookie dough products raw.\" Though cooking the product would kill the bacteria, the agency did not recommend that people holding on to the company's cookie-dough products do so, \"because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces.\" The recall does not include Nestle Toll House morsels, which are used as an ingredient in many homemade baked goods, or other baked cookie products. CNN's Louise Schiavone contributed to this story.","highlights":"Nestle may lay off factory workers after illness linked to cookie dough .\n70 people in 30 states infected with a strain of E. coli. believed to originate in dough .\nThe company recalled about 300,000 cases of the product last week .\nThe factory also makes Buitoni products, but in separate facility .","id":"50e279ca4d48736540d28503e532d495d0a28fec"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The high-end specialty coffee industry isn't immune to the effects of a recession, but many companies are still doing well. Growers, roasters and equipment manufacturers were represented at the coffee expo in Atlanta. Portland Roasting had a slow holiday season, but business is picking up, said owner Mark Stell. \"February was a great month for us,\" he said. Stell traveled from Oregon to Atlanta, Georgia, for the Specialty Coffee Association of America expo, where the show floor was filled with nearly 800 booths featuring everything from exotic coffee beans to the latest Italian espresso machines. Stell's company sells about a million pounds of coffee a year. He said sales to offices and hotels are down but are being replaced by orders from grocers and universities. \"People don't leave coffee,\" he said. \"They just get it differently.\" Tony Riffel owns Octane Coffee in Atlanta and was watching the 10th annual World Barista Championship, held in conjunction with the expo at the Georgia World Congress Center. Pushcart owner Gwilym Davies of London, England, won the 2009 barista crown. Watch baristas battle for the world title \u00bb . Riffel said business at his coffee shop was flat last summer, but sales are up 10 percent for the first quarter of 2009. \"The first part of this year has been our best ever,\" he said. \"People are being careful with what they're spending money on, but they're spending it on quality products.\" Business is good enough that Riffel plans to open a second location this year. \"Now is a really good time to do that,\" he said. \"Developers and landlords are more flexible and negotiable,\" even though banks are \"pickier than normal.\" Joseph Taguman also knows about picky banks. The general manager of the Zambia Growers Association said the lack of financing is holding back the association's 80 farmers. Taguman said the farmers could grow more than their current rate of about 300 metric tons per year, but trees take time to grow and long-term financing is hard to come by in Zambia. A couple of aisles over from Taguman's booth, Shawn Contreras sees a similar problem. Contreras is the sales director for Diedrich Manufacturing, which has been selling roasting equipment for nearly 30 years. He said wholesale roasters are continuing to grow, but smaller operations are having \"an extraordinarily difficult time\" getting funding. Consultant Andrew Hetzel acknowledges that credit is a hindering factor for companies, but he is optimistic about the specialty coffee industry. \"The U.S. market is continuing at a steady pace,\" he said. But it's a slower pace than the past few years. \"Coffee is something that has been with humanity for 1,500 years,\" Hetzel said. \"It's not going anywhere any time soon.\"","highlights":"High-end specialty coffee industry not immune to effects of recession .\nMany companies still doing well, with some looking to expand .\nHundreds of companies from around the world gathered in Atlanta for annual expo .\nBritish barista wins World Barista Championship held in conjunction with expo .","id":"6e18c6c34149087bd9d699a6042ff7748e1133c6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After touring the wreckage Tuesday of two Metro transit trains that crashed the day before, killing nine, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said it was a sight that \"no one should have to see.\" Investigators work Tuesday at the site of a Metro train crash in Washington. Officials said that all the wreckage has been cleared and that no other bodies have been found in what was the worst subway train accident in the history of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Three bodies discovered Tuesday were lodged behind the driver's compartment of the rear train, an official said at the scene. The driver of that train, who was among the dead, was Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Virginia, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. McMillan had worked at Metro since January 2007. McMillan's aunt, Venice Foster, said her niece loved her job and \"was just a joy to be around.\" Retired Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr., former commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, and his wife, Ann, also were killed in the collision. Both were 62. Names of the other casualties were released by authorities Tuesday afternoon: Mary Doolittle, 59; Lavanda King, 23; Veronica Dubose, 26; Cameron Williams, 36; and Dennis Hawkins, 64, all of Washington; and Ana Fernandez, 40, of Hyattsville, Maryland. Watch what officials know about the crash \u00bb . The Metro's board approved a $250,000 hardship fund to assist the victims' families with funerals and other immediate expenses. According to Fenty, at least three bodies were trapped in a \"very compressed area.\" It wasn't clear whether those were the bodies found behind the operator's station. \"It just brings home what an awful tragedy this was,\" the mayor said. The crash occurred along the Red Line just before 5 p.m. Monday on an above-ground track in the District of Columbia near Takoma Park, Maryland. See location of crash \u00bb . Both cars were on the same track, traveling in the same direction: southward from the Fort Totten Metrorail station to the Shady Grove station. The train in front had stopped behind another train undergoing service and awaited directions to move ahead. \"We don't know at this point whether the operator could see the train in front of her in time to stop,\" said Deborah Hersman, who is leading the investigation for the National Transportation Safety Board. The weather at the time of the crash was good, she said. See pictures of crash site \u00bb . \"I did have the opportunity to walk the track with our investigators. I can tell you it is a scene of real devastation,\" Hersman said. Jamie Jiao was sitting in the front car of the second train. He said he suffered injuries to his feet and back. \"I see the train in front a split second before we crashed. That's all. You don't have time to react or do anything,\" he told CNN's Jeanne Meserve. He said that after impact, \"You just hear really loud noises, as if there was an explosion. I could see things falling apart, tearing apart.\" A pole fell on top of him, but he was able to throw it off. The car broke open, and he crawled outside, where he waited for firefighters. He said he didn't notice whether the driver tried to brake before hitting the other train. Many of the passengers in his car were injured, he said. \"I'm lucky to be alive,\" Jiao said. \"My injuries aren't too bad.\" iReport.com: Were you there? Share your photos, video . Hersman said there was a telescoping effect when the second car slammed into the first and landed atop it. \"The first car [of the second train] overrode the rear car [of the front train], and much of the survivable space on that first car of the striking train was compromised,\" she said. One of the factors the NTSB will examine is the crash-worthiness of the cars. \"The safety board has long been on record making recommendations about survivability when accidents do happen to make sure that operators and passengers are protected as much as possible,\" Hersman said, but those haven't been implemented. She didn't elaborate. The safety board has called since 2006 for the transit authority to modernize its fleet of transit cars. The agency has sought more safety features and higher technology, such as data boxes on each car that can provide valuable information in case of a crash, Hersman said. Citing the most recent federal data, she said the average age of the cars in the fleet was 19.3 years old. The lead train in the crash contained 5000-Series and 3000-Series cars, which are newer and have better technology than the cars in the rear train, with 1000-Series cars. Watch woman say she, fellow passengers \"went flying\" \u00bb . The Metro board is \"aggressively seeking\" to replace 300 1000-Series cars purchased between 1974 and 1978, said Jim Graham, chairman of Metro's board of directors. There should be nine data recorders aboard the first train, which will aid the investigation a great deal if they aren't damaged, Hersman said. The recorders provide data on such things as speed, braking and emergency applications. She said there were no recorders on the rear train. \"We've recommended for years that WMATA either retrofit those cars or phase them out of the fleet. They have not been able to do that. And our recommendation was not addressed, so it has been closed in an unacceptable status,\" she said. \"If there are changes we can make to those cars, we will do so,\" said John Catoe Jr., general manager of the transit authority. Fenty said 76 people were injured, and two remained in critical condition Tuesday. The condition of another critical patient was upgraded. Two of the injured were emergency responders, Washington Fire Chief Dennis Rubin said. Watch injured passengers limp from the scene \u00bb . All trains were to operate in manual, instead of automatic, mode Tuesday, Catoe said at the briefing. He called the move \"an extra safety precaution\" until there is more information on the crash. The rear train was operating on \"automatic\" mode, which is routine during rush hour, and preliminary evidence shows that the driver may have employed the brakes, Hersman said. Hersman addressed reports that the trains may have been two months past due on brake inspections, saying, \"We are very interested in looking at those records, and we're interested in looking at all of the records.\" She said cell phone and texting records would also be reviewed, which is standard. \"We've investigated a number of accidents where there were distractions,\" she said, adding that it's unknown whether cell phone use was a factor in this crash. Nine safety board teams will examine aspects such as train operations and communications, signals, tracks, crash-worthiness of equipment, maintenance and survivability -- ease of fleeing the trains after the crash and other survivability factors, Hersman said. The transit authority gave Red Line riders several options for commuting Tuesday morning and was providing free shuttle buses to drive people around the accident scene. The only other time in Metrorail's 33-year history that there were customer fatalities was in January 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment between the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian Metrorail stations. In 2004, two trains collided at the Woodley Park\/Zoo-Adams Morgan Metrorail station. There were minor injuries.","highlights":"Former commanding general of the D.C. National Guard among those killed .\nDeath toll in accident is 9, spokesman says; 76 people were injured .\nOfficial says driver of rear train may have employed brakes .\nInvestigator says it's unclear whether train operator could see stopped train .","id":"6c3cc2be908f5dad7a7736b39e5b6ffde81a9169"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Which is more important -- the customer being king or the employees being highly motivated (keeping in mind reduction of operating expenses and being competitive)?\" - Ronald Mahondo, I&M Bank, Kenya . The customer is king. The customer is always right. These are phrases that have been with us for a while. As business and marketing environments have become tougher, it's true that those companies that have found out what the king wants -- and provided it -- have been successful. This would make it easy, if only it was clear which king to ask. Many companies draw a distinction between \"consumers,\" those who are the end-user of a product or service, and \"customers,\" those who are the trade, distributors and so on. This kind of customer is very powerful indeed -- especially if they are Wal-Mart or Tescos. So which customer is more king than the other? And what if they don't agree on what they want? Sounds like war. In global companies the complexity rises. They have consumers and customers, but it's also common that employees of that company are also customers of other employees. A trend at the moment is that regional employees are customers for central employees. Motivation and, more importantly, aligned goals, are absolutely critical to success. Getting this wrong can be costly in many ways -- not least in morale, time and money. The real truth is that this is not a question of \"or.\" Customer and employee satisfaction and motivation are critical. The challenge is to create a virtuous circle. Motivated employees are a great way of delivering what the customer wants, be that service, fast moving consumer goods, innovation, or anything else, and happy customers make employees feel rewarded. Of course, the virtuous circle has to start somewhere. In creative industries such as ours, often the job is to stretch further than the customer can see. They can tell you what they like today, but tomorrow looks misty and murky. A motivated group of creative individuals love nothing more than the art of invention, the creation of the new, the alchemy of an idea. If you want a king, it's the idea, not the customer or the employee. Being competitive comes from having better ideas than your competition: an idea about targeting a particular group of people, an idea about a new product, an idea about how or where to distribute it, or an idea about how to advertise it. In 1944 James Webb Young, an employee of JWT, defined an idea as \"nothing more or less than a new combination of old elements.\" It's a definition that we continue to find very useful today. Your customers are an excellent source of the familiar; a highly motivated employee will most likely be the one who combines the familiar in a new way, creating the idea, and the competitive edge. On my way to work this morning with a trainload of people in glorious iPod isolation, I wondered what kind of company Apple would be today if the employees had been thinking the customer was king instead of working out how to combine some music with a little bit of one of their computers.","highlights":"Motivation and aligned goals are absolutely critical to success .\nBeing competitive comes from having better ideas than your competition .\nJWT idea: \"nothing more or less than a new combination of old elements\"","id":"c87075eff29e9abb29abd5087248f8fad12ac343"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There is a general consensus that women's tennis needs a new name to ignite some excitement into it and, at this week's Wimbledon, it does appear likely that the Williams sisters will once again be the ones to beat at the grass-court grand slam. The Williams sisters have dominated Wimbledon this century and contested last year's final. Defending champion Venus (five wins) and younger sibling Serena (two wins) have dominated the tournament since 2000, with only Maria Sharapova (2004) and Amelie Mauresmo (2006) breaking that monopoly. In fact, the Williams domination has been so great this century that the 2006 final -- when Mauresmo beat Justine Henin -- is the only final when one of the American duo has not been involved. Both Sharapova and Mauresmo are back this year, although their participation had seemed in doubt in the early part of 2009. Sharapova certainly has the powerful game to claim another Wimbledon title, but a persistent shoulder injury has plagued her all year and she comes into the competition poorly prepared. At nearly 30, Mauresmo is now a veteran of the WTA Tour. She had looked a spent force last year, but has enjoyed some better results this year and comes into the tournament as the 17th seed. A potential third round showdown with top seed Dinara Safina will test her to the limit, although she would undoubtedly have the fans' support should that encounter materialize. Safina's standing as world number one has divided opinion. The Russian is yet to win a grand slam and wasted another opportunity to end that particular hoodoo when losing to compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in the French Open final last month. The 23-year-old comes into the tournament with a niggling knee injury and has not impressed in her pre-tournament displays. The feeling remains that should the Williams sisters decided to play more WTA events then one of them, and not Safina, would be topping the world rankings. Russians Elena Dementieva and Kuznetsova are seeded fourth and fifth and both have chances should they bring their top game to SW19, although again it is hard to see one of them defeating an in-form Williams sister. Former world number one Jelena Jankovic has slipped down the world rankings this year and she too has yet to win a major, while 13th-seed Ana Ivanovic has not shown anything like the form that saw her win last year's French Open. Last year's semifinalist Jie Zheng of China loves the surface and could figure again. Unfortunately for her, she is due to face Serena Williams in the fourth round.","highlights":"The Williams sisters are expected to dominate women's singles once again .\nThe American have won seven out of the last nine Wimbledon tournaments .\nTop seed Dinara Safina heads the rankings despite not winning a grand slam .","id":"ce316cafc787195fd60b7459b27ebbb51c66cda7"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Puzzled zookeepers in northern Japan have discovered the reason why their attempts to mate two polar bears kept failing: Both are female. A 4-year-old polar bear sent to impregnate a female polar bear at a zoo in Kushiro was found to be female as well. The municipal zoo in the city of Kushiro in Hokkaido brought in a polar bear cub three years ago. They named it Tsuyoshi, after the popular baseball outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo, and waited until it reached reproductive age. In June, the zoo introduced Tsuyoshi to its resident bear, an 11-year-old female named Kurumi, and waited for sparks to fly. But much to the disappointment of zookeepers, Tsuyoshi never made any amorous advances toward Kurumi. Earlier this month, zookeepers put Tsuyoshi under anesthesia to get to the bottom of the matter. That's when they made their discovery: Tsuyoshi is a female. Still, the Kushiro zoo plans to keep Tsuyoshi because he -- or rather, she -- has become immensely popular with visitors. \"I have rather mixed feelings, given the need for breeding, but Tsuyoshi is an idol for Kushiro,\" Yoshio Yamaguchi, head of the Kushiro zoo, told Japan's Kyodo news agency. Tsuyoshi will even keep her name. \"We will not be changing it to 'Tsuyoko' since it is loved by citizens (by the current name),\" Yamaguchi said. \"Ko\" is a common suffix for a Japanese female name. Meanwhile, Tsuyoshi's \"brother,\" who was adopted by another zoo, has also turned out to be female, Kyodo reported. -- CNN's Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report .","highlights":"Zoo introduced polar bear cub to its resident bear and waited for sparks to fly .\nAnd it waited and waited: Tsuyoshi never made amorous advances toward Kurumi .\nMonths later, the zoo makes key discovery: both bears are female .","id":"abe59d5683cdebd9122e80a6361af34b6723a2da"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Scientist and author Stephen Hawking is \"very ill\" and has been hospitalized, according to Cambridge University, where he is a professor. Stephen Hawking in Pasadena, California, in March. Cambridge University said the 67-year-old is \"comfortable\" and will stay overnight at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. Hawking, one of the world's most famous physicists, is also a cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician. Wheelchair-bound Hawking is perhaps most famous for \"A Brief History of Time,\" which explored the origins of the universe in layman's terms. The book is considered a modern classic. Hawking has Lou Gehrig's Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS), which is usually fatal after three years. Hawking has survived for more than 40 years since his diagnosis. On his Web site, Hawking has written about living with ALS. \"I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many,\" he wrote. He added: \"I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope.\" The disease has left him paralyzed -- he is able to move only a few fingers on one hand. Hawking is completely dependent on others or technology for virtually everything -- bathing, dressing, eating, even speech. He uses a speech synthesizer with an American accent. Hawking has been married and divorced twice. In 2004, police completed an investigation into accusations by Hawking's daughter that his second wife was abusing him. Authorities said they found no proof. His Web site says he has three children and one grandchild. Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on what turned out to be an auspicious date: January 8, 1942 -- the 300th anniversary of the death of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. A Cambridge University spokesman told CNN: \"Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge.\" Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university's department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: \"Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague, we all hope he will be amongst us again soon.\" At Cambridge, he holds the position of Lucasian Professor Mathematics -- the prestigious post held from 1669 to 1702 by Sir Isaac Newton. Hawking has guest-starred, as himself, on Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Simpsons. He also said if he had the choice of meeting Newton or Marilyn Monroe, his choice would be Marilyn. In October, CNN's Becky Anderson interviewed Hawking. The following are some quotes from that interview: . \"Over the last twenty years, observations have to a large extent confirmed the picture I painted in 'A Brief History of Time.' The one major development that was not anticipated was the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating now, rather than slowing down... We live in the most probable of all possible worlds.\" CNN's Jennifer Pifer contributed to this report .","highlights":"Physicist Stephen Hawking hospitalized Monday in \"very ill\" condition .\n67-year-old suffers from degenerative condition known as Lou Gehrig's Disease .\nHawking is considered by many to be world's greatest living scientist .","id":"052d16e813df698f7864588f0f21740364727e8e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A New York Times reporter who was held by the Taliban for seven months has escaped, the newspaper reported Saturday. New York Times reporter David Rohde, shown in 1995, escaped from the Taliban. David Rohde told his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, that he and a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, climbed over the wall of a compound late Friday where they were being held in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Pakistani military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN that the Pakistani military was involved in freeing Rohde. Additional details were not immediately available. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement expressing her relief about Rohde's \"return to freedom.\" \"I would like to thank the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan for their assistance in ensuring his safe return,\" Clinton said. \"Journalists put themselves at risk every day to report the news in regions gripped by conflict. We rely on their vital role and I am grateful for their service.\" Watch CNN's Nic Robertson report on the escape \u00bb . Rohde, Ludin and their driver were kidnapped outside of Kabul, Afghanistan, on November 10, and Afghan and Western officials said recently that Rohde was being held in Pakistan. After leaving the compound Friday night, the two men then found a Pakistani army scout who led them to a nearby army base. On Saturday, they were flown to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, the newspaper said. A U.S. official told CNN that Rohde will arrive in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates at 10 p.m. Saturday. \"They just walked over the wall of the compound,\" Mulvihill said, according to the newspaper. Ludin hurt his foot during the escape, but otherwise both men appear to be in good health, the newspaper said. The driver, Asadullah Mangal, did not escape, the newspaper said. \"It is hard to describe the enormous relief we felt at hearing the news of David and Tahir's escape and knowing he is safe,\" a statement from Rohde's family said. \"Every day during these past seven months, we have hoped and prayed for this moment,\" said the statement, which was provided to CNN by The New York Times . It asked that the family's privacy be respected. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House was \"very pleased to see that David Rohde is now safe and returning home.\" \"This marks the end of a long and difficult ordeal for David's family, friends and co-workers. The FBI has been the lead agency on his case, and we refer you to them for any further information,\" he said. The New York Times and other media outlets had kept the kidnapping quiet out of concern for the men's safety. \"From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David's family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted, was that going public could increase the danger to hostages,\" The New York Times said in a written statement. \"Therefore, we did not publicly discuss the kidnapping. We are deeply grateful to the other news organizations that honored our request to refrain from reporting on it.\" A Taliban spokesman told CNN several weeks ago that the Taliban had released two \"proof of identity\" videos and had demanded negotiations. The Taliban wanted some of its leaders in U.S. custody to be released as well as money, the spokesman said. Rohde, 41, had traveled to Kabul in early November to work on a book, The New York Times said. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his reporting on the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia while working for The Christian Science Monitor. He was also part of The New York Times reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize in May for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan last year.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. secretary of state Clinton thanks Pakistan, Afghanistan for help .\nDavid Rohde was kidnapped outside of Kabul, Afghanistan, on November 10 .\nRohde, 41, said he climbed over the wall of a compound late Friday .\nRohde was being held in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan .","id":"ec85e296124014469d954480e4d8357c655e346c"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Convicted \"Unabomber\" Ted Kaczynski, who terrorized the country with a series of mail bombs over nearly two decades, is fighting to stop a public auction of his diaries and other personal possessions. Ted Kaczynski is fighting auction of possessions like this jacket and sunglasses made famous by a police sketch. But Kaczynski's five-year legal battle will come to an end soon unless he can convince the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. \"I regard him as the essence of evil. He's evil and amoral. He has no compassion,\" said Dr. Charles Epstein, who was seriously injured in 1993 when a bomb went off in a piece of mail he opened at his home. The blast destroyed both of Epstein's eardrums, and he lost parts of three of his fingers. Epstein, 75, is a world-renowned geneticist and retired professor at the University of California at San Francisco. He is one of four victims who are owed $15 million in court-ordered restitution from Kaczynski, and he told CNN the auction was important to victims. Watch why the auction is causing controversy \u00bb . \"Who would think that we would still be sitting, this many years later, still having dealings ... with the man who tried to kill us?\" Epstein said. Kaczynski was arrested in 1996, pleaded guilty in 1998 and is currently serving a life term in the federal \"Supermax\" prison in Florence, Colorado. CNN was given exclusive access to videotape the items that will be up for auction, which were seized from the Montana cabin in which Kaczynski lived for years and held in evidence by the FBI in San Francisco and Washington. See who else calls \"Supermax\" home \u00bb . The property includes tools, typewriters, knives and a hatchet; Kaczynski's degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan; and the glasses and hooded jacket made famous by an artist's rendering of the suspect. But experts say the most valuable items probably will be the 40,000 pages of Kaczynski's diaries and other writings. \"Personally, I don't think he has any rights to anything,\" Epstein said. \"I think he abrogated all of his rights by his behavior.\" The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the victims earlier this year, and now Kaczynski has until June 15 to file a notice of appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. Steve Hirsch, a California attorney who represents the four victims, said he doubts the Supreme Court would consider an appeal, and thinks the auction could happen later this year. A private company will handle the auction, but no company has yet been selected. \"The victims were placed in this terrible position of either accepting this idea of an auction with all of its problems or letting Kaczynski have all of his things back, which would have been another wound for them,\" Hirsch told CNN. In handwritten legal documents, in which Kaczynski refers to himself as \"K,\" he claims, \"The District Court's orders violate K's First Amendment rights.\" \"The case involves the question of whether the government, consistent with the First Amendment, can confiscate an individual's personal papers and sell them at public auction to enforce payment of a debt,\" Kaczynski wrote in one of his numerous legal arguments. Lawrence Brown, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said his office has no choice but to support the auction. \"This is a directive from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,\" he said. \"We were put in a situation where it was sort of an either-or. Either we returned all of the property back to Kaczynski, or we sought to maximize its value by holding an auction to put it back towards the $15 million that's owed in restitution.\" Kaczynski, now 67, killed three people and wounded 23 others in a string of attacks from 1978 to 1995. The remainder of the victims have declined to seek restitution. Federal agents gave the case the code name \"Unabom\" because universities and airlines were the early targets. Kaczynski quit a tenure-track position at the University of California-Berkeley in 1969 to build a 13-by-13 foot shack near Lincoln, Montana, where he lived without running water or electricity until his 1996 arrest. Agents closed in after his brother noted similarities between his old letters and journals and the bomber's 35,000-word anti-technology manifesto. The New York Times and the Washington Post agreed to publish the document under a promise that the bombings would stop. \"If some funds are raised by this auction, to help out some of the victims, well, then that does help promote some level of justice,\" Brown said. \"But you just cannot right the tremendous wrong that Kaczynski committed.\"","highlights":"\"Unabomber\" Ted Kaczynski fighting to stop auction of his personal possessions .\nKaczynski terrorized the country with mail bombs over nearly two decades .\nFour victims are owed $15 million in court-ordered restitution from Kaczynski .\nProperty includes 40,000 pages of Kaczynski's diaries and other writings .","id":"cdb228470ff5614d045ea79fa925ad8a9759dc0b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three attacks were made on Royal Dutch Shell oil facilities in Nigeria on Sunday, according to a company spokesman who said details were not immediately available. Investigating the attacks will be difficult because they happened in remote areas, Royal Dutch Shell says. The attacks were against pipelines in the eastern part of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, said the spokesman, Rainer Winzenried. \"Shell is investigating the impact on facilities, the environment and the production capabilities,\" he said. The attacks happened in remote areas, making investigations difficult, he said, adding that the company would not send in investigators until it was certain the area was secure. It was not known whether there were any casualties, he said. The pipelines are part of a Shell joint venture that provides oil to several companies, Winzenried said. Shell runs the venture, and Nigeria is the operator. Winzenried refused to speculate on who was behind the attacks, but Nigeria's main militant group -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND -- said it had attacked an offshore facility earlier Sunday and that \"the structure is ... engulfed in fire.\" Winzenried had no information about that claim. MEND, which demands a fairer distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth, claimed Friday that it destroyed a pipeline owned and operated by the Italian gas company Agip, but Agip has not confirmed that report. Earlier in the week, MEND claimed to have destroyed Royal Dutch Shell's main trunk line in Bayelsa state and a Chevron oil station in the delta region. Shell confirmed an attack on that pipeline and said it had shut it down to avoid an environmental impact. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it was investigating. Last month, the militant group declared an \"all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be invested in the region instead of enriching those whom the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent.","highlights":"Royal Dutch Shell: Pipelines attacked in eastern part of Nigeria's Niger Delta .\nFew details available; company says remote area will make investigation hard .\nCompany won't speculate on who was behind attacks .\nMilitant group MEND claimed it attacked an offshore facility earlier Sunday .","id":"6776c9cd96b7d152544a9b974cc9e0f0bf2d4244"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- World War II didn't just divide the world. It also divided four brothers. Ken (left) and Harry Akune served in the U.S. military during World War II. Not long after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Harry and Ken Akune were sent to live in an internment camp in Amache, Colorado. When the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service came to their camp to recruit Japanese-speaking volunteers as interpreters, they joined so they could prove their loyalty to their country. Across the world in Japan, their father Ichiro was raising the rest of his large family -- which had returned to his home country after the death of his wife -- in a fishing village, Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu. The youngest brothers, Saburo and Shiro, were just teenagers when they were drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy. The brothers, four of the Akunes' nine children, had all been born or raised in the United States; Ichiro Akune owned a grocery business before moving back to Japan. Harry and Ken had been sent back to America to work and earn money for the family. Watch how brother fought brother during the war \u00bb . Harry and Ken graduated from language school in 1942 and were dispatched to the Pacific Theater. Ken served in Burma at the Office of War Information. His job was trying to create propaganda to persuade the Japanese to surrender rather than sacrifice their lives on the battlefield. Harry served in New Guinea and the Philippines. His ethnicity didn't endear him to some of his colleagues. \"I had an intelligence officer who disliked me,\" Harry recalled. Before a parachute jump onto the island of Corregidor with the 503rd Paratroopers late in the war, the officer stripped Harry of all of his gear, including his weapon. \"I got onto the airplane with only my parachute. A soldier took pity on me and helped find a rifle and one clip,\" he said. He survived, but many of his fellow soldiers did not. Twenty percent of them lost their lives just on the jump because of the jagged terrain and enemy fire. iReport.com: What did you do in the war? His work was heroic. Harry's interrogation of prisoners and translation of captured documents revealed a Japanese occupation force of over 5,000, which vastly outnumbered the American forces. \"My information helped reduce casualties,\" he said. Most of the Japanese soldiers chose death over what they perceived as dishonor. Harry says only 22 were captured, with the rest dying in combat or suicide attacks -- and they often weren't satisfied with dying alone. At one point, with Harry's back turned, a prisoner jumped him and tried to kill him. Harry recalls the incident vividly. \"My guard beat him with his gun. It seemed like this prisoner was clinging to me for dear life,\" he said. \"That feeling I have never lost. Even though he was the enemy, to see him die the way he did, affected me.\" The Japan-based Akune brothers saw death from the other perspective, as part of the war effort. Saburo became a spotter for kamikazes, known for their suicide dive-bomb missions on Allied ships. Shiro, just 15, served at Sasebo, a naval base, helping to orient new recruits. He remembers American Grumman torpedo planes flying into the harbor. \"Bap, bap, bap ... ships going down ... we just watching! We cannot do anything!\" he remembered. After the war, the Akune brothers discovered they served against each other, leading to ill feelings on both sides. Harry and Ken, now in Japan as members of the Allied Prisoner of War Recovery Team, joined Saburo and Shiro at a family reunion in Kagoshima. \"When we first met, the topic of the war came up. Both sides were saying their side was right,\" Ken said. \"Saburo and Shiro got really hot and stood up, they wanted to fight us.\" \"The propaganda situation in Japan was very extreme,\" Shiro said. \"The elders told you what you should do is revere the emperor like a god, and if you didn't abide by it, you were physically harmed.\" It took the intercession of their father to stop the familial battle. \"Shut up,\" the elder Akune said. \"The war is over.\" All four brothers ended up in the United States, with Shiro -- ironically -- serving as an American GI in Korea. Saburo died several years ago, but Shiro, Harry and Ken continue to live in Southern California. Ken still volunteers full time with the \"Go For Broke\" National Education Center, which preserves the memory of Japanese-American soldiers who served the United States in World War II. Harry says his military service helped him identify as an American. \"The benefit of going to war for the United States helped me manage myself not as a Japanese-American, but more like an American. I feel very happy I was able to do that,\" he said. But he holds nothing against the two brothers who fought for the other side. \"They were in Japan, educated there. It's only right to be loyal to the Japanese force,\" he said. \"I feel like they were like any other Japanese and we were like any other American. Two sides had their ideas, and there was a clash,\" he said. \"Everything worked out. All four of us were able to survive without having to be casualties of the war.\"","highlights":"Two Akune brothers fought for U.S., two for Japan in World War II .\nU.S. brothers had been in internment camp; served as interpreters .\nJapanese brothers drafted as teens; one was spotter for kamikaze pilots .\nBrothers reunited after end of war; all ended up living in U.S.","id":"394b24c04d15fdf65b951d043cd5c6ad882975bf"} -{"article":"RECIFE, Brazil (CNN) -- Eight more bodies have been recovered from last week's crash of an Air France jetliner in the Atlantic Ocean, bringing the total to 24, Brazil's military announced Monday. Recovery efforts have found several items confirmed to have come from Air France Flight 447. The bodies were found floating about 440 kilometers (273 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago northeast of the Brazilian coast on Monday, military officials said Monday evening. Air France 447 disappeared over the Atlantic early June 1. The jet was en route to Paris, France, from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro with 228 passengers and crew aboard. The military said earlier Monday that 16 bodies had been recovered. Items found in the same area Saturday were confirmed to have come from the jet, including pieces of the aircraft's wing section, luggage and a leather briefcase containing an airplane ticket with a reservation code for the doomed flight, Brazilian air force spokesman Jorge Amaral said. The exact location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents probably caused the bodies and debris to drift in the days since the crash. Two key pieces of evidence -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- remain missing and could lie on the ocean floor. Map of Flight 447's flight path \u00bb . The part of the ocean where the debris and bodies have been found ranges from 6,000 to 8,000 meters (about 19,700 to 26,250 feet) deep. The search area covers 200,000 square kilometers (77,220 square miles), an area nearly as big as the country of Romania. Watch CNN's Karl Penhaul report on more bodies found \u00bb . Brazilian officials emphasized Monday that finding bodies was their priority. The French are in charge of finding the black boxes, and a submarine was en route as part of that mission. Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- were participating, along with five Brazilian ships and one French frigate. In Washington, a U.S. defense official said the U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen for emergency beacons still operating in deep water. The \"towed pinger locators,\" which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, will be placed aboard two French tugs that are part of the search efforts, the official said. Recovery of bodies and debris is significant not only for families but also for crash investigators, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. \"Even if they don't find anything else, they can get some very important clues from the pieces that they do find and from the human remains,\" she said Saturday. Watch an explanation of what could have caused the crash \u00bb . She said investigators would be able to tell whether there was an explosion from possible residue on the bodies or other items. Or, if water is found in the lungs of victims, investigators would know that the plane went down intact, she said. Investigators in Paris said Saturday that the Air France flight sent 24 automated error messages about four minutes before it crashed. The messages suggest the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through severe thunderstorms it encountered before the crash, officials said. Schiavo said four minutes \"was a very long time\" for automated signals to be sent from the plane. Investigators also reported that the airline had failed to replace a part as recommended by the manufacturer, Airbus. Airbus had advised airlines to update part of the equipment that monitors speed, known as pitot tubes. The recommendation was a result of technological developments and improvements, an Airbus spokesman said. The change was not mandatory, and the spokesman would not comment on Air France's failure to follow the advice. CNN's Karl Penhaul, Richard Quest, Helena DeMoura and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Brazilian officials emphasize that finding bodies is their priority .\nMilitary says total number of bodies found stands at 24 .\nPlane disappeared over Atlantic Ocean last week .\nU.S. to contribute high-tech devices to look for plane's emergency beacons .","id":"b0777d0d971cd08df9c9a8641d2a9b313b8bc32b"} -{"article":"(Southern Living) -- When I was 5, my parents went to a conference on Hilton Head Island and let me tag along, leaving my brothers landlocked in central Mississippi. Two memories stand out from my first encounter with the watery majesty of this Southern icon. Hilton Head Island's relaxed atmosphere is ideal for families. For starters, it's the first place I ever heard the term \"market price.\" Daddy encouraged me to eat whatever I wanted at restaurants -- no kid's menu here -- so I tried my hand at swordfish. I figured anything so fresh they couldn't put a price on it until the day it was served had to be good. And for years, I ordered based on that idea. From the right side of the menu. If it was fresh (and expensive), it had to be the best. More boats than cars . Second, water was everywhere. I'd been to the beach before, but never an actual island. It seemed like Hilton Head had more boats than my hometown had cars. And even then, I understood that the marinas were the real lifeblood of the community. On my most recent visit to Hilton Head, my brothers and their wives joined me, while my parents stayed home with the gaggle of grandkids. The tables had turned. But I discovered a few constants remain: From fresh cobia (available only in May and June) to wild shrimp caught in local waters, ordering \"market price\" from the menu isn't a bad way to go. Water is everywhere. And each marina celebrates the spirit of the island with its own special style. Explore them, one by one. SouthernLiving.com: A coastal S.C. retreat . Harbour Town: The classic . Known for its candy-striped, red-and-white lighthouse, the Harbour Town marina is easily the most-touristed waterfront on Hilton Head. Large yachts moor behind the newly expanded seawall, shops stock the requisite \"I heart Hilton Head\" souvenirs, and water sport outfitters launch Jet Skis and hoist Para-Sails in Calibogue Sound. The waterside restaurants don't shine for their innovative cuisine, but they're worth a stop for the prime real estate -- westward-facing Harbour Town is one of the best spots on the island to catch the sunset. SouthernLiving.com: Top 10 budget getaways . While there: Hard-bottomed Zodiac boats crouch closer to the water than a traditional boat does. We booked a one-hour tour with H2O Sports (www.h2osportsonline.com or [843] 671-4386) and spent the afternoon watching dolphins play. Broad Creek Marina: The local . You don't get more homegrown than Broad Creek, a modest port just off the Cross Island Parkway, where area residents drydock their boats. At Up the Creek Pub, a rickety seafood shack with killer views of the water, we stopped in for a bite (food=fried) and lingered on the deck for (my brother, Jeremy, might argue in spite of) the nightly strum-fest. www.broadcreekmarinahh.com or (843) 681-3625 . While there: Join Capt. John Maires, a huge Buffett fan with a sly smile, a weathered face, and a twinkling laugh, for a sunset sail on his 45-foot sloop Cheers. www.cheerscharters.com or (843) 671-1800 . South Beach: The beach bum . I thought we were going to have to drag my always-up-for-a-good-time brother, Prentiss, away from South Beach. This laid-back harbor feels like a Northeastern-style fishing village, complete with blue clapboard buildings connected by a sprawling weathered deck. It's New England meets Caribbean cool, polished with Southern charm. The omnipresent music ranges from Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley by the DJ to jam-friendly local bands. Dancing is optional, but you won't want to be the only one left sitting. SouthernLiving.com: Great summer getaway . While there: Rain or shine, locals and tourists mingle in the late afternoon over heavy-handed cocktails; ice-cold brews; and steaming, hot-boiled shrimp at the open-air Salty Dog Caf\u00e9 (www.saltydog.com or [843] 363-2198). Arrive early and snag a table; they tend to fill up quickly. Shelter Cove Harbour: The unassuming naturalist . The quiet Shelter Cove Harbour and neighboring Palmetto Dunes Resort (just across U.S. 278), with upscale boutiques, smartly casual restaurants, and untainted Lowcountry views, ooze understated elegance without an ounce of priss. Capt. Scott Henry's little Hurricane deckboat bobs among Goliath-sized mega-yachts but somehow doesn't seem out of place. Lowcountry Nature Tours specializes in personalized, eco-friendly trips of Broad Creek and Calibogue Sound. www.lowcountrynaturetours.com or (843) 683-0187 . While there: The 11-mile saltwater lagoon system in Palmetto Dunes Resort is a maze of water courses, full of redfish, trout, and black drum. We rented kayaks for an early morning paddle through the tree-canopied canals. Palmetto Dunes Outfitters can hook you up with everything you need, from kayaks to private fly-fishing charters with Capt. Trent Malphrus.www.palmettodunes.com or (843) 785-2449 . Palmetto Bay Marina: The everyman . With a working boatyard and a everyone-knows-your-name dockside bar (Captain Woody's), Palmetto Bay gives off a relaxed vibe that transcends labels such as \"local\" and \"tourist.\" Our group settled onto the patio at Black Marlin Bayside Grill for brunch -- a perfect place to dawdle on a lazy morning ([843] 785-4950). My personal favorite: the shrimp hash -- a hearty combo of poached eggs, delicate shrimp and spicy sausage -- is like something you'd expect for breakfast on board a fishing boat. My brother bogarted the sushi nachos with seared tuna and avocado. And the sisters-in-law did serious damage to the dessert-like bananas Foster French toast. While there: Reserve a spot on the PAU HANA or FLYING CIRCUS catamarans for a bring-your-own-picnic twilight cruise through the sound -- a trip highlight. www.hiltonheadisland.com\/sailing or (843) 686-2582 . Skull Creek Marina: The seafood connection . Local fish and shrimpboats unload their nets along the piers at Skull Creek, where a trio of restaurants, all with waterside dining, take advantage of the seasonal catch. Hudson's On The Docks (www.hudsonsonthedocks.com or [843] 681-2772) is a perennial crowd-pleaser with down-home seafood platters. Charley's Crab (http:\/\/www.muer.com\/ or [843] 342-9066), a khakis-and-button-down kind of place, delivers she-crab soup and fried green tomatoes with a shrimp-and-crawfish salsa. The vibrant Boathouse II, with great food, an extensive wine list, and an anything-goes attitude, suited us best. If cobia is in season, a local catch with the density of swordfish and the flakiness of cod, this is the place to try it. www.boathouserestaurant.net or (843) 681-3663 . While there: The Benny Hudson Seafood market is the go-to for fresh oysters from the nearby May River and wild American shrimp just off the boat. If you're renting a house or condo, stock up to create your own locally inspired feast. (843) 682-3474 . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2009 Southern Living magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Harbour Town is one of the best spots on the island to catch the sunset .\nBroad Creek Marina is where area residents drydock their boats .\nThe harbor at South Beach feels like a Northeastern-style fishing village .","id":"64f14679bfe063024f457fc186ca72df139a4152"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal drug officials say they've arrested 124 people and busted 56 labs in the largest illegal steroid investigation in U.S. history. The Drug Enforcement Administration says it busted 56 steroid labs in 27 states. The 18-month investigation, dubbed \"Operation Raw Deal,\" targeted traffickers who allegedly imported raw materials from China and used them to make anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and insulin growth factor, the Drug Enforcement Administration said. \"Today we reveal the truth behind the underground steroid market: dangerous drugs cooked up all too often in filthy conditions with no regard to safety, giving Americans who purchase them the ultimate raw deal,\" DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said in a statement. Authorities made arrests in 27 states, including busts in Los Angeles, California; New York City; San Diego, California; Providence, Rhode Island; and Kansas City, Missouri. They seized more than 530 pounds of raw materials and 11.4 million steroid dosage units in the United States, officials said, enough to supply hundreds of users. Most of the arrests were made between Thursday and Sunday, the DEA said. Chinese authorities cooperated with the investigation, which targeted 37 companies in China, the DEA said. So far, one Chinese lab has been shut down, officials said. The Chinese \"have done everything\" they were asked to do, said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne. Watch DEA officials say bust is only the beginning \u00bb . The operation, according to the DEA, also cracked down on underground trafficking of counterfeit medications as well as Web sites that were distributing materials that helped in converting raw steroid ingredients into the finished product. \"DEA successfully attacked the illegal steroid industry at every level of its distribution network-from the manufacturers in China who supply the raw materials, to the traffickers in the United States who market the deadly doses,\" the DEA statement said. Besides China, other countries which cooperated in the operation included Mexico, Canada, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Thailand, officials said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Authorities arrest 124 people, shut down 56 labs .\nInvestigators seize raw materials imported from China .\nChina cooperates with probe, shuts down one lab .","id":"94e36584a981fe2e384cfbf81722a29105eddbb6"} -{"article":"JESSUP, Maryland (CNN) -- The beer is flowing, the polka band is playing, and dancers are twirling across the dance floor. Couples dance at Blob's Park, a dance hall that owes its revival, in part, to the economic downturn. Blob's Park lives again. The popular Bavarian beer hall and weekend nightspot had closed its doors in 2007, the victim of an unlikely foe: progress. Developers, eager to build on the 400 acres of prime real estate in the bustling Baltimore\/Washington, D.C., corridor, had purchased the 400 acres upon which the dance hall sat. It was the end of an era for the farmland first owned by Max Blob, a German immigrant, who, among other things, helped found America's first \"Oktoberfest\" 70 years ago. Blob was the great-uncle of Max Eggrel, who grew up on the land in Jessup, Maryland. Standing on that farmland recently, Eggrel recalled the old days. \"We would farm during the week and have a biergarten during the weekend,\" Eggrel says. Those weekend events were held in a small, wood-framed building situated between rows of golden crops. The building would come to be known as Blob's Park, a restaurant, dance hall and German-style biergarten. It opened in 1933. Thousands of patrons came to know the dance hall, which saw most of its business on Friday and Saturday nights. But time marched on, and developers came calling. \"My brother ran the park until New Year's Eve (of 2007), and the rest of my family members decided, with the pressure from developers, to sell the land,\" Eggrel says. \"Our land butts right up to Fort Meade and the NSA (National Security Agency) facility,\" Eggrel explains. Fort Meade is currently going through major renovation and upgrades on its facility. The fort is part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program implemented by the Department of Defense in 2005 that will see thousands of new jobs on base. With all these jobs comes a need for housing, Eggrel says. \"There are people that are going to be working there, and they are going to have to live somewhere, and so this is one of the spots.\" Private developers are expected to build townhomes, condominiums and retail storefronts on the rolling hills of farmland where Blob's Park stands. But that's somewhere in the future. For now, the economic crisis gripping the country has played a role in the revival of Blob's Park. With the economic slowdown, developers couldn't see spending all the money on building upon the land since there currently isn't a demand. \"The infrastructure is going to take time to develop. There is no water or sewer on the property right now,\" adds Eggrel, who still lives on the property. Once the land was sold and Blob's Park shut down, Eggrel found himself gazing out his front yard at the facade of a dance hall and all the open space surrounding it. \"The building was sitting there, just inviting someone to jump in and bring it back,\" Eggrel says. That's exactly what he set out to do. But it wouldn't be an easy task. \"To open it back up took a sizable financial risk,\" Eggrel says. \"I just had the vision that it could succeed again and be bigger then it was before, and I was just willing to take that risk.\" Eggrel took his idea to the developers and a few attorneys. The developers agreed to rent 40 acres of the land back to Eggrel, a small portion compared to the land he grew up on, but it gave Eggrel the right to reopen the doors to Blob's Park. Eggrel spent five months renovating the hall, and in January 2009 he and his employees reopened the doors to the public. Watch the action on the dance floor \u00bb . The hall currently has a three-year lease, but Eggrel speculates the dancing could go on for as many as 10 years -- or so he hopes. Eggrel says his customers share a deep affection for his place. For $8, they can listen to or dance to live musicians who play for five hours every Friday and Saturday night. The customers who keep coming back to the hall week after week have as much fondness for the hall as the owner himself. \"Every week someone else comes up to me and thanks me for opening it back up,\" Eggrel says. As for the economy and Blob's Park, Eggrel has this to say: \"I hope it takes a long time to rebound. The longer this place stays open, the happier I'll be. And so will hundreds of other people.\"","highlights":"Popular Bavarian dance hall opened in Maryland in 1933 .\nDevelopers bought land, club closed its doors on New Year's 2007 .\nWith slow economy, developers aren't building on the land .\nFamily member leases back enough land to reopen dance hall .","id":"dc151e4e415eb55143a265c2824db1d029163932"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- The five remaining defendants in the racially charged \"Jena Six\" case will appear in court Friday and are expected to enter a plea, a spokesman for the district attorney's office said. Protesters converged on the small Louisiana town in September 2007 after the \"Jena 6\" were charged. Bill Furlow, spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, declined to say whether the defendants will plead guilty. \"It's not a done deal until it's a done deal,\" he said. In December 2006, six African-American teenagers were charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy in the beating of a white classmate. The incident followed months of racial tension in the community of about 3,000 people. Jena, Louisiana, is about 140 miles southeast of Shreveport in the north-central part of the state. The case drew national attention from civil rights groups, who argued that the charges were excessive. An estimated 15,000-plus demonstrators turned out for a rally on behalf of the teens: Carwin Jones, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Mychal Bell. The charges were eventually reduced. Bell pleaded guilty to battery in a juvenile court and moved to Monroe, Louisiana. In January, Bell said he had attempted suicide the month before by shooting himself in the chest but was recovering. Friday's hearing is set for 1:30 p.m.","highlights":"\"It's not a done deal until it's a done deal,\" spokesman says .\n6 teens charged in December 2006 with beating a white classmate .\nIncident followed months of racial tension in town of about 3,000 people .\nOne of the the \"Jena 6\" pleaded guilty to battery in juvenile court this year .","id":"d087f93033ef3156b5b76c32f9655fa4d8476c8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man suspected of fatally shooting an Iowa football coach Wednesday was released from a hospital the day before, without the knowledge of police, who had asked to be notified, authorities said. Ed Thomas had been with the school district for more than 30 years and was well-known in the region. Mark Becker, 24, faces first-degree murder charges in the death of Ed Thomas, 58, a longtime football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High School. Investigators believe Becker walked into the school's weight room, where Thomas was overseeing athletes' weight lifting, about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday and shot him multiple times as about 20 horrified students looked on. Thomas was flown to a hospital, where he later died. \"It's just too early to speculate\" on a motive for the shooting, said Kevin Winker, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Authorities said Becker was a former student at Aplington-Parkersburg, which is about 100 miles northeast of Des Moines, Iowa, and a former football player. The agency, however, noted that Becker had \"recent contact\" with police in Cedar Falls, Iowa, about 25 miles to the east of Parkersburg. On June 20, Becker led police on a high-speed chase after he allegedly broke into a man's house, according to a division statement. He was taken into custody, but early the next morning authorities determined he needed medical attention and he was taken to a hospital. Police asked to be notified when he was released, the statement said. But on Tuesday, Becker was released and spent the night at his parents' Parkersburg home before heading to the high school Wednesday morning, the division said. \"Law enforcement was unaware that Becker had been released.\" Cedar Falls police earlier said in a statement that they responded June 20 to a report of a man breaking several windows in a Cedar Falls home with a baseball bat and driving his car through a garage door. Just before officers arrived, the man fled the scene in his car and was seen leaving the area. Becker was arrested after a pursuit that reached speeds of more than 80 mph, Cedar Falls police said. He was taken into custody by Butler County authorities and later taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, according to the statement. \"Cedar Falls police was awaiting notification that the subject was to be released from custody in order to arrest Becker and file the charges relevant to the Cedar Falls incident,\" according to the police statement. He faces felony charges of criminal mischief and eluding authorities, along with traffic offenses, in the Saturday incident, Cedar Falls police said. Winker would not provide further details about why Becker was transported to the hospital. A 911 call was received at 7:47 a.m. Wednesday regarding the high school shooting, the Division of Criminal Investigation said. Becker was located in the driveway of his parents' home, where he was arrested without incident. Coincidentally, Becker had been released from the same hospital where his alleged victim died -- Covenant Hospital in Waterloo, Iowa. Thomas had been with the school district since 1975 and was a regionally well-known coach, according to district Superintendent Jon Thompson. The coach's son, Aaron Thomas, spoke briefly to reporters Wednesday, saying that his father would want to be remembered not only as a coach, teacher and father, but also for his involvement in his church, calling him \"a man of deep faith who touched many lives.\" \"God always has a reason,\" he said. \"At this time, it's very tough for us to understand that.\" He thanked the community for an outpouring of support, recalling residents' struggle to rebuild after a deadly tornado struck the Parkersburg area last year. But he also reminded residents to have concern and compassion for Becker's family. \"We ask that people pray for them as well, and that people take time to comfort and be with them,\" he said. \"I know that my father's legacy ... will live on,\" Aaron Thomas said. \"Without a doubt, we're going to miss him. We will have many great memories to share and to think back upon. We were lucky to have the father we had ... I feel very fortunate to be the son of Ed Thomas.\" No students were injured or threatened in Wednesday's incident, authorities said. The school was placed on lockdown immediately. Crisis counselors were on the scene to assist students who witnessed the shooting, Thompson said. A vigil was planned in Thomas' honor Wednesday night. CNN's Kara Devlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mark Becker, who faces murder charges, had \"recent contact\" with police .\nNEW: Police say they weren't notified suspect was released from hospital .\nOn June 20, Becker led police on a high-speed chase after an alleged burglary .\nCoach Ed Thomas has died after being shot inside a school .","id":"7d2d5759546dfefd0eb9becbcd488f1f67cc92d8"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- An ex-astronaut accused of assaulting a romantic rival in a Florida parking lot will stand trial December 7, a judge ruled. Prosecutors accuse Nowak of driving nearly 900 miles wearing NASA diapers to track down her rival. Lisa Marie Nowak, 46, is accused of stalking Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman and pepper-spraying her in a parking lot at Orlando International Airport in February 2007. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, battery and burglary of a vehicle using a weapon. If convicted, she could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Prosecutors accuse Nowak of driving nearly 900 miles from Houston to Orlando -- wearing NASA diapers to cut down on the number of stops she needed to make -- and donning a disguise before following Shipman from baggage claim to a parking lot. Her attorney, Don Lykkebak, has denied that she wore the diapers. Shipman told police that after she got into her car, Nowak feigned distress and knocked on the window. When Shipman cracked it to talk to her, Nowak sprayed her in the face with pepper spray, Shipman said. Police said Nowak was apprehended as she was disposing of her disguise in an airport trash bin. Nowak has said she went to the airport to talk to Shipman, who had begun dating Nowak's former love interest, Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein, who was also an astronaut but has since left the astronaut corps. Judge Marc Lubet handed Nowak a legal victory in November 2007 when he ruled evidence found in her car and statements she made to police after her arrest were inadmissible at trial because both were unlawfully obtained. Prosecutors appealed, however, and in July 2008, the Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled that evidence found in Nowak's car was admissible, although it agreed her statements to police were not. At a hearing in August 2007, Orlando police detective William Becton testified that when he searched Nowak's car, he found maps showing how to reach the airport, maps of the airport's layout, a buck knife and papers including a letter Nowak appeared to have written to Oefelein's mother. He also testified he found used and clean diapers in the car. Police previously said they also found a BB gun, a steel mallet, a 4-inch knife and rubber tubing in the vehicle. Nowak's attorneys have said they intend to utilize an insanity defense, saying in court documents her diagnoses include more than a dozen psychiatric disorders. A pretrial conference in the case is set for November 10, Lubet ruled Tuesday. A hearing set for Friday was canceled. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lisa Marie Nowak, 46, is accused of stalking Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman .\nProsecutors say Nowak, wearing diapers, drove 900 miles to confront Shipman .\nNowak donned disguise, pepper-sprayed Shipman, authorities say .\nEx-astronaut says she was at airport to talk to Shipman .","id":"d384291cfd04bf939553710ee5e28da71fc425d3"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- President Obama misinterpreted Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro's offer to start talks with the United States, Castro's brother Fidel said Wednesday, appearing to dismiss the U.S. leader's call for Cuba to release political prisoners. Fidel Castro appears with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, left, and brother Ra\u00fal Castro in a photo released in June. In an essay published in state-run newspapers Wednesday, the ailing revolutionary leader said the people Washington calls political prisoners are \"in the service of a foreign power that threatens and blockades our homeland.\" Fidel Castro's comments come after signs of a thaw in the decades-old impasse between the United States and the communist-ruled island to its south. Obama lifted all restrictions on visits and money transfers between American citizens and relatives in Cuba this month, while Ra\u00fal Castro said Cuba is prepared to talk with the United States about \"everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners.\" Speaking at a conference of inter-American and Caribbean leaders Sunday, Obama said the Cuban leader's declaration was \"a sign of progress.\" He added that the Cuban government could send a much clearer, more positive signal by releasing political prisoners or reducing fees charged on remittances Americans send to relatives in the country. But Fidel Castro wrote Wednesday, \"There is no doubt that the president misinterpreted Ra\u00fal's statements.\" \"When the president of Cuba said he was ready to discuss any topic with the U.S. president, he meant he was not afraid of addressing any issue,\" Castro wrote. \"That shows his courage and confidence on the principles of the revolution.\" He said Cuba would be willing to release prisoners held since a 2003 crackdown on dissidents if the United States would release five Cubans convicted of spying in 2001. And he criticized Obama for not doing more to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba, imposed in 1962. \"Should we wait for so many years before his blockade is lifted?\" Castro asked. \"He did not invent it, but he embraced it just as much as the previous 10 U.S. presidents did.\" Castro ceded power to his brother in 2006 before undergoing surgery for a still-undisclosed intestinal condition. But he remains head of the Communist Party, and his essay raises the question of who would be calling the shots in any talks with Washington. \"Who's in charge?\" one Havana man asked Wednesday. \"Raul -- ah, Fidel -- ah, Ra\u00fal.\" But a woman who spoke to CNN said, \"The president is Ra\u00fal. He's the one you have to listen to now.\"","highlights":"Fidel Castro essay seems to dismiss U.S. leader's call for Cuba to free dissidents .\nRa\u00fal Castro has said Cuba is prepared to talk with U.S. about \"everything\"\nPresident Obama responds by saying Cuba should send signal and free prisoners .\nFidel Castro also criticizes Obama for not doing more to lift U.S. embargo on Cuba .","id":"dc6e94a69ced28eab5b9e731bd6c7ef4e099dc3e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A pilot dragged his passenger to safety and buried him neck-deep in sand to protect him from hypothermia Sunday night after their helicopter crashed in crocodile-infested mudflats in Australia's Northern Territory. Air ambulance workers attend to a man buried in sand following a helicopter crash. \"The pilot thought that in this remote location, nobody would find them. So he buried his friend to try and stop the hypothermia,\" said Ian Badham, director of CareFlight, the air ambulance service involved in the rescue. The two friends had gone camping on a remote beach without road access, about 130 km (80 miles) from the Northern Territory capital of Darwin. While leaving Sunday night, the pair decided to fly their two-seater helicopter over waters that are home to large crocodiles. \"It's an area known for its big saltwater crocodiles,\" Badham said. \"Those things make alligators look like wussies.\" The pilot later told rescuers that they flew in to take a closer look. The next thing he remembered was lying upside down in the mud with the wreckage of the helicopter on top of him, Badham said. The men, both in their 50s, were about 100 meters (328 feet) from the main beach. Finding his friend seriously hurt, the pilot dragged him back to shore, away from the crocodiles -- and buried him in sand up to his neck to prevent him from freezing to death. Rescuers responded after the pilot used a satellite phone to alert them. The friend remained hospitalized Monday in serious but stable condition, Badham said. He suffered head and chest injuries. He also fractured his arm and several ribs. The pilot suffered minor injuries. \"It was the opinion of the (air-ambulance) doctor that the friend's injuries were grave and, quite likely, this man would not have survived the night,\" Badham said.","highlights":"Helicopter pilot buries injured passenger in sand to save him from hypothermia .\nPilot dragged him from crocodile-infested mudflats in Australia's Northern Territory .\nHelicopter crashed as they flew in low over mudflats to look for the giant reptiles .\nPassenger remains hospitalized Monday in serious but stable condition .","id":"7abd0bdd1b6ca440447e211b0bf8301f1d90db25"} -{"article":"LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Peru's Congress voted overwhelmingly to revoke two decrees that indigenous groups had said would result in the exploitation of their native lands for oil drilling, mining and logging. A man shouts slogans at a demonstration in Lima against the Garcia government on June 11. The 82-14 vote on Thursday with no abstentions came after five hours of intense debate. \"Today is a historic day,\" said Daysi Zapata, vice president of the Interethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Jungle, in a statement on the group's Web site. She repeated the group's call this week to its members to abandon further opposition efforts, including blockades of rivers and roads. \"My brothers from Yurimaguas affirmed that they will return to their communities as soon as the legislative decrees are repealed,\" she said. \"We are thankful because the will of the indigenous people has been heard and we only hope that, in the future, government will pay attention to and listen to the people and not legislate behind their backs.\" However, despite praising President Alan Garcia for supporting the revocation of the decrees, Zapata said that had he done so earlier, lives might have been saved. She called for the repealing of seven remaining legislative decrees and the immediate lifting of the state of emergency and curfew in the city of Bagua. And she asked the government to stop the political persecution of her group's leaders, including Alberto Pizango, who faces charges in Peru related to the clashes. He flew this week to Nicaragua where he was granted asylum. The vote came a day after Garcia's cabinet chief, Yehude Simon, called on lawmakers to repeal the laws which have created tension between the government and indigenous communities in the Amazon. Striking the contentious Forestry and Wildlife Law and a related decree -- laws that Congress had voted last week to suspend indefinitely -- \"will prevent more blood from being spilled,\" Simon said Wednesday. \"The government must have the wisdom to know when its best to back down,\" Andina cited him as saying. He announced this week that he will resign once peace is restored. Simon's call marked a turnaround, considering that last week, he called the repealing of laws in response to the protest the equivalent of bowing to extortion. Violence earlier this month in northwest Peru left more than 30 dead and more than 50 wounded, according to reports. Indian rights advocates put the number of dead and missing higher, with some groups saying more than 100 were killed or missing. The controversial laws were part of numerous decrees that Garcia passed through special powers awarded to him by Congress last year with the goal of having Peru meet rules set in a free trade agreement with the United States. The decrees made it easier for companies to gain concessions for oil drilling, mining and logging, including on indigenous lands. The forestry law, in particular, removed some 45 million hectares (more than 170,000 square miles) of Peruvian jungle from the government's list of protected lands. The government is taking three major steps to address protesters' concerns, Vicki Gass, senior associate for rights and development at the Washington Office on Latin America told CNN. Those include requesting to repeal the controversial laws, ending a state of emergency in the Amazon area and forming a working group with the indigenous groups, she said. The government's responses have diffused tensions, but \"had the government done this process of consultation earlier, we wouldn't have seen the blockades, and avoided the violence,\" Gass said. The real test for the Garcia government will be how seriously officials listen to the concerns of indigenous citizens, Gass said. \"These are positive steps, but the question is the process -- will they really allow for detailed debate?\" she said. CNN's Mariano Castillo and Maria Elena Belaunde contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Indigenous leader Zapata calls for end of political persecution of other leaders .\nIndigenous leader Pizango faces charges in Peru, is granted asylum in Nicaragua .\nLaws led to violence between government, indigenous .\nDecrees made it easier for firms to gain concessions for oil drilling, mining, logging .","id":"4c1d23109868dc1f920f47995ec665984a21ba0f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former middle-school student who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain medication won a partial victory of her Supreme Court appeal Thursday in a case testing the discretion of officials to ensure classroom safety. Savana Redding leaves the U.S Supreme Court in April. She was 13 when she was strip-searched. Savana Redding was 13 when administrators suspected that she was carrying banned drugs. No medication was found, and she later sued. The justices concluded that the search was unreasonable but that individual school administrators could not be sued. The larger issue of whether a campus setting traditionally gives schools greater authority over students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed was not addressed fully by the divided court. \"Savana's subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening and humiliating,\" wrote Justice David Souter for the majority, likely his last opinion before he steps down from the bench next week. But reflecting the divisiveness over the issue, Souter said, \"We think these differences of opinion from our own are substantial enough to require immunity for the school officials in this case.\" Whether the school district would be liable was not an issue before the high court. \"I'm pretty excited that they agreed with me, they see that it was wrong for the school to do that,\" Redding said from her Hobbs, New Mexico, home after the ruling was announced. \"I'm pretty certain that it's so far less likely to happen again\" to other students. Redding was an eighth-grade honor student in 2003, with no history of disciplinary problems at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. During an investigation into pills found at the school, a student told the vice principal that Redding had given her prescription-strength 400-milligram ibuprofen pills. The school had a near-zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission. Redding was pulled from class by Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. The girl denied the accusations. A search of Redding's backpack found nothing. A strip search was conducted by Wilson's assistant and a school nurse, both females. Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear and to pull on the elastic of the underwear, so any hidden pills might fall out, according to court records. No drugs were found. \"The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had,\" Redding said in an affidavit. \"I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.\" Souter said Wilson initially had \"sufficient suspicion\" to justify searching the girl's backpack and outer clothing. But when no contraband was found, the officials went too far by continuing the search of her underwear. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Redding and her family sued, and a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled against the school, calling the search \"traumatizing\" and illegal. That court said the school went too far in its effort to create a drug- and crime-free classroom. The Supreme Court found little agreement on key issues. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed that the search was illegal but would have also made individual officials liable for damages by Redding. \"Wilson's treatment of Redding was abusive, and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it,\" said Ginsburg, who was especially forceful during oral arguments in April, criticizing the school's actions. But Justice Clarence Thomas took the opposite view: that administrators deserved immunity and that the search was permissible. \"Preservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution,\" he said. \"And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative.\" In 1985, the high court allowed the search of a student's purse after she was suspected of hiding cigarettes. Such a search was permitted if there were \"reasonable\" grounds for believing that it would turn up evidence and when the search was not \"excessively intrusive.\" Opinions in 1995 and 2001 allowed schools to conduct random drug testing of high school athletes and those participating in other extracurricular activities. The court was being asked to clarify the extent of student rights involving searches and the discretion of officials regarding those they have responsibility over. Adam Wolf, an ACLU attorney who represented Redding, applauded the decision. \"When parents send their kids to school, they can now breathe a sigh of relief they will not end up naked before school officials,\" Wolf said . But school administrators said the ruling does not make their jobs any easier. \"The home medicine cabinet now poses a serious threat to students, who may take those medications for abusive purposes,\" said Francisco Negron, general counsel for the National School Boards Association. \"That's a problem schools are trying to stem.\" \"How they determine now whether the drug is dangerous, whether it's not dangerous -- that kind of clarity and that kind of guidance, the court did not give us.\" Redding, now 19, said she has never gotten over her experience. \"Before it happened, I loved school, loved everything about it. You know, I had a 4.0 GPA, honor roll, and now, well, afterwards I never wanted to go to school again.\" She is attending college. The case is Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding (08-479).","highlights":"Savana Redding was 13 when administrators suspected she was carrying drugs .\nNo medication was found, and she later sued .\nJustices: Search was unreasonable, but individual school officials can't be sued .\nRedding, now 19, has said she has never gotten over her experience .","id":"b075dda5eae2528e0e7c21590ffa04721284c51c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 14-year-old girl stoops and screams above the body of a Kent State University student killed in 1970 by an Ohio National Guardsman. John Filo's 1970 photo at Kent State University became a symbol of the anti-war movement at the time. A police chief aims his gun at a Vietcong prisoner's head in 1968, while executing him on a Saigon, Vietnam, street. And in 1989, an unarmed man in Beijing, China, stands defiantly in front of a column of tanks as they rolled into Tiananmen Square. These are iconic images, the kinds of shots that changed the way people viewed history as it unfolded. They put human faces on conflicts and became rallying cries for movements, inspiring those who demanded change. But while these photographs -- chronicling a single, silent moment -- were taken by seasoned photographers, two of whom won Pulitzer Prizes, this time amateur cell phone video is grabbing worldwide attention. It captures the death of a young woman named Neda Agha-Soltan, galvanizing protesters in Iran and shaping perceptions of a land and people few Westerners know. See how images have inspired change \u00bb . \"Every revolution needs icons and symbols -- an image that embodies a sense of universality of blight and at the same time innocence,\" said Roya Hakakian of Connecticut, a writer, poet and journalist who was born and raised in Iran. \"The image of Neda does both.\" The graphic video of Neda's death, caused by a gunshot fired during a protest in Tehran, Iran, records her final moments: Her eyes turn toward the camera, people scream and struggle to revive her while blood streams across her face. Watch how Neda's proven to be a tipping point \u00bb . Having gone viral with the help of social networking sites such as Twitter, the video of Neda's death has earned her the highly revered status of martyr. The woman who by all counts was an innocent bystander is now known as the \"Angel of Iran\" and is inspiring poetry. She is mourned publicly despite Revolutionary Guard threats, and her likeness graces posters. For Hakakian, who left Iran about 25 years ago, the significance of Neda's image runs deep. She said it's part of a larger picture of current protests being propelled by women, and a reflection of the Iran and the Iranians she knows. What outsiders have seen over the past three decades, she said, are fist-pumping men decrying America, images of hostages and \"the burning of Uncle Sam effigies.\" Americans, she continued, have gotten to know little beyond the talk of Hezbollah and Hamas support, discussions of nuclear bombs and the rants of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling for, among other things, the destruction of Israel. \"We come from different corners of the world, but we see the same thing,\" Hakakian said of the video of Neda's death. \"You don't need to be Iranian. You don't need to be her neighbor. You don't need to know her name. ... Anyone can watch this and come away with the sense of injustice and what's taking place, and I think that's why it's catching on.\" Graphic images have long played a role in driving social awareness and change, said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The skeletal figures of concentration camp victims drove home the horrors of the Holocaust. And the brutalized body of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy killed in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman, was shown at the insistence of his mother at his funeral, galvanizing the civil rights movement, Shapiro said. In more recent years, amateur video was credited with capturing the 1991 beating by Los Angeles police of Rodney King. And the first images out of Virginia Tech during the 2007 campus shooting were taken by students before professionals could hit the scene, added Nora Paul, founding director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota. The challenge today, in a time when anyone can post images, is making sure graphic photos or videos are put in context and used by news organizations in a way that moves stories forward, both Paul and Shapiro agreed. While news outlets may blur faces, offer warnings to viewers or not even use some images, the vastness of the Internet means that once they are out there -- no matter how horrifying or inappropriate for viewers -- it's next to impossible to stop them from being circulated. \"Even if you try to control access, the dam is already broken,\" Paul said. As for the impact on viewers, the effect of disturbing and violent images is hard to measure, said Elana Newman, who teaches psychology at the University of Tulsa and is a specialist in psychological trauma. An image often can communicate \"the depths of pain\" in a way that words alone cannot, Newman said. But she added scholars often debate whether such images turn people away from news, desensitize them or bolster a story's credibility. And there is also the challenge to consider of \"balancing the privacy of the victim with the importance of telling the story.\" Her own opinion? \"These images are helpful when these events are far away,\" she said, because they can bring home a story. They, however, are \"not helpful to people when they're in their own backyard.\" And the impact on the person who captures the image is often untold. John Filo was a senior photography student at Kent State when he snapped the photo that became a symbol of the shootings on campus and helped propel the anti-war movement at the time. He doesn't remember going through six rolls of film that day, but he remembers being shot at and is all too aware that a mere feet -- even inches -- separated him from life or death. In 13 seconds, four students were killed and nine were wounded. It took \"a good nine years\" for him to sort through the experience, he told CNN. His relationships suffered, as did his confidence as a photographer. He grappled with survivor's guilt, the images he saw but didn't share and the anxiety about how his work affected other people's lives. \"Everyone that was there that day was affected,\" said Filo, now director of photography for CBS media relations. \"At least I had something to do that day. There were people who felt totally helpless -- people who tried to hide behind a four-inch street curb.\" When no one could believe what was happening around them, he had the power to show it. \"You sit there as a journalist and say, 'If it was my brother or my mother, would I have taken this picture?' \" he reflected out loud. It's \"your purpose of being there. So yes, if it was my brother, if it was my mother, I'd still shoot the picture.\"","highlights":"Photos from Vietnam, Tiananmen Square and Kent State galvanized movements .\nCell phone video of death of Neda Agha-Soltan, at a protest in Iran, goes viral .\n\"Every revolution needs icons and symbols,\" Iranian-born writer says .\nAmateur videos and photos powerful but need context, experts say .","id":"62a70630d1e1b0a943670892e1ecde0756a829d9"} -{"article":"MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNN) -- Nicaragua's election council will allow a review of the mayoral election in the nation's capital after opponents of the ruling Sandinista Party raised fraud allegations, the council's president said Wednesday. Opponents of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista party have raised election fraud allegations. Election council President Robert Rivas announced that ballot tally sheets from Managua would be reviewed after violence followed a resounding victory for the Sandinistas in Sunday's municipal elections. The leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front won mayoral races in 94 municipalities, while the main opposition party, the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC), captured 46 posts and minor parties won six, according to results provided by the government. The PLC and other groups rejected the results and called for an international investigation. The Organization of American States met with opposition leaders Wednesday. Jose Pallais, a PLC leader, asked for the annulment of the elections. The Supreme Electoral Council is to verify final results by November 23, but a tally is possible by next week. \"Everyone is waiting for the final numbers,\" journalist Rosemary Thornton said. \"Once they do, there might be violence again.\" Election critics cite many irregularities for their allegations, including the government's refusal to allow foreign and local monitors, the delay in tabulating ballots and discrepancies between results certified by election officials and the tallies released on television. In addition, ballots were found in trash dumps in the municipalities of Tipitapa, which is part of Managua, and Leon. La Prensa newspaper published 40 photographs on its Web site that appear to show discarded ballots and other election material at an unnamed dump. Ethics and Transparency, a Nicaraguan observer group that was not sanctioned by the government, has reported discrepancies in about one-third of the polls it monitored. The group said it had 30,000 volunteers nationwide monitoring the election. The monitoring group said the results in more than 100 of the 146 elections were correct, a local newspaper reported. But the results in another 30 municipalities require further investigation into possible irregularities, La Prensa newspaper said on its Web site, citing Ethics and Transparency executive director Roberto Courtney. The Catholic Church asked the electoral council for a recount. The Sandinista government is led by President Daniel Ortega, a leader in the guerrilla movement that ousted Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in July 1979. Ortega served as president from 1985-90. After three unsuccessful bids, he won the presidency again in 2006. Sunday's elections were the first since he regained the presidency.","highlights":"Ballot tally sheets will be reviewed in mayoral election in nation's capital, Managua .\nAnnouncement follows fraud allegations from opponents of ruling Sandinista party .\nThe leftist party won mayoral races in 94 municipalities, including Managua .\nCritics highlight delays in tabulating ballots, ballots found in trash dumps .","id":"9290b1f8349d7d7684427500d6c3706d40008d75"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A defiant and chaotic protest sprouted in and around a public square Monday despite a warning by Iran's Revolutionary Guard against the kind of street demonstrations that have roiled Iran for more than a week, witnesses said. Security forces patrol the streets of Tehran on Monday. Thousands of Iranians congregated and passed through Haft-e Tir Square, but riot police and the pro-government Basij militia confronted them and smacked their batons against their shin guards, making loud cracking sounds that seemed like gunshots, the witnesses said. As the protests continued, an election official with the Interior Ministry said the \"box-by-box details\" of the ballots -- which were confidential in previous elections -- would be released in response to claims that the election was rigged, Press TV reported. Iran's Guardian Council declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of the election with 62.63 percent of the vote. His closest rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, received 33.75 percent, surprising many experts who expected him to win. Iranians have continued protesting the results by taking to the streets. Most stores around the square were closed as the unrest reverberated, with some guarding against damage by erecting steel fences on their windows. Helicopters hovered overhead as the security forces wielded batons and used a spray to push the crowd out of the square. After that, police chased down demonstrators in nearby alleys and streets, with protesters and lawmen playing cat and mouse over several tension-filled hours until the crowd began to thin out around dusk. There were isolated face-offs and quarrels that broke out between demonstrators and the riot police and the Basij militia -- a volunteer paramilitary force that takes orders from the Revolutionary Guard, a military unit under the direct control of Iran's supreme leader. There were no reports of serious injuries, but there were at least eight arrests, witnesses said. \"Thirty years after the revolution, this is what we get,\" one man said dejectedly, watching the noisy and chaotic scene as he remembered the birth and the promise of Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. The location was the spot where a vigil was to be held in memory of Neda, a young woman who became a symbol for the opposition after her death was caught on camera. While Internet postings on Twitter, Facebook and an Iranian opposition leader's Web site had mentioned a possible rally, it was unclear whether people who were at the square were there for a vigil. Some people were clad in black, a symbol of mourning, but placards and banners about Neda and candles have not been seen. However, security forces and demonstrators appeared at the square at the time the vigil was to be held. Watch how women are on front line of protests \u00bb . Meanwhile, a message on opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi's Facebook page, which could not be authenticated, called for a peaceful demonstration in Tehran on Thursday to honor the dead. \"We are waiting for the route of the march to be announced as well as the location of the sit-in,\" the message said. \"Presently the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic seems to be the safest place for the sit-in, so that we can mourn for our martyrs in a place that is close to the spirit of that free man. Demonstrators Monday had brushed off a warning from the Revolutionary Guard that people who \"disturb the peace and stand up to security forces\" would be met with a strong response. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the Revolutionary Guard as saying \"the guardians of the Islamic revolution and the courageous Basiji together with the security forces following the orders of the supreme leader and following him unquestioningly.\" It said the authorities \"are determined to act strongly to return peace and tranquility to society ... and to clean the country of these plotters and hooligans.\" Iran's Revolutionary Guard is directly under the control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and enforces the government's Islamic codes and morality. With more than 200,000 members, it is tasked with overseeing the country's crucial interests, including guarding its oil fields and missile arsenals. The regime's lawmakers called for a review of ties with Britain amid concerns over so-called Western \"meddling\" in the country's daily unrest. The government-funded Press TV reported that Iranian lawmakers were calling for a review of the country's ties with Britain because of its \"interference in Iran's recent post-election unrest.\" Britain's Foreign Office announced Monday it is withdrawing the family members of its embassy staff from Iran until the situation there improves. News coverage in Iran has been limited by government restrictions on international journalists. On Sunday, the BBC said Iran had expelled Jon Leyne, the British network's permanent correspondent in Tehran. Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based Arab satellite network, said its Tehran bureau was ordered closed. At least 19 people were killed in clashes in Tehran on Saturday as Iranians took to the streets to protest the results of the June 12 presidential election, according to hospital sources. Iranian-funded Press TV confirmed 13 fatalities, while unconfirmed reports put the number as high as 150. Tehran's prosecutor general's office said it has launched an investigation into the killings. Watch one woman's account of clashes with security forces \u00bb . The station also said police arrested 457 people Saturday who vandalized property. See images of the clashes Saturday \u00bb . Moussavi has called on Iranians to \"exercise self-control,\" while still supporting their right to demonstrate, a statement attributed to Moussavi said late Sunday on the candidate's Web site, Ghalam news. CNN has not been able to verify the authenticity of the site. Watch Iran's former crown prince call election a \"fraud\" \u00bb . On Monday, the site was intermittently inaccessible, but said at one point that Moussavi had met with a group of clerics in the city of Ghom on Monday morning to discuss current events. A spokesman for the Guardian Council told state television that Wednesday is the last day it can recount the votes disputed by candidates.","highlights":"NEW: Interior Ministry will release box-by-box ballot details, Press TV reports .\nBasij militia smack batons against shin guards as protesters pass through square .\nHelicopters hover as thousands play cat and mouse with police, witnesses say .\nAt least 8 reported arrested, but no reports of serious injuries .","id":"9193616db8998c76e9638ba583f53b52124762a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Attacks in January and February by Sudanese forces on Darfur villagers are described in a U.N. report as \"violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.\" Between January and February, Sudanese forces killed 115 people -- including women, children and elderly -- in air and ground attacks on four Darfur villages, according to the report. Prepared by the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, the report says attacks in January and February point to a deliberate plan to destroy civilian infrastructure. Helicopter gunships and fixed-wing aircraft targeted the villages while armed militias rode in on horses and camels to force about 30,000 people from their homes, according to the report. The attacks were \"carried out during a major military push by the Sudanese government to regain control of West Darfur's northern corridor, and drive out an insurgent group,\" it said. The village of Saraf Jidad, Sudan, was attacked three times in January, while the villages of Sirbal, Silea and Abu Suruj were attacked within hours of each other on February 8, UNAMID said in the report. The militias and the Sudanese armed forces looted, vandalized and burned homes, schools, shops, community centers and other buildings in the villages, the report said. Sometimes, buildings were burned with people inside, it said. The attacks \"amount to violations of international humanitarian and human rights law,\" they said. \"The scale of destruction of civilian property, including objects indispensable for the survival of the civilian population, suggests that the damage was a deliberate and integral part of a military strategy.\" The Sudanese government had no immediate response. However, last week, Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir accused the international media of \"exaggerating\" the situation in Darfur to detract from atrocities in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Somalia. He said the crisis in Darfur is a \"media fabrication\" and that in most of the region there is little or no conflict and people are living normal lives, he said. Citing Sudanese government statistics, el-Bashir said fewer than 10,000 people have died in the conflict and fewer than 500,000 have been displaced. International figures, including U.N. data, put the death toll in Darfur at 200,000, with another 2.5 million people displaced. The conflict began five years ago when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese government. Sudan's Arab-dominated government is accused of responding by unleashing tribal militias known as Janjaweed, which have allegedly committed the worst atrocities against Darfur's local communities. Rebels fighting the government-backed militias have also been accused by the United Nations of widespread human rights abuses. El-Bashir rejects claims that the Darfur conflict is being fought along ethnic lines. At the start of this year, more than 9,000 UNAMID peacekeeping troops were deployed to the region to address the fighting and humanitarian suffering. Plans are for the force to eventually number 26,000. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Report: January through February, Sudanese forces killed 115 people in Darfur .\nHelicopter gunships and fixed-wing aircraft targeted the villages while , .\nArmed militias -- Janjaweed -- rode in to force about 30,000 people from their homes .\nReport: Attacks \"amount to violations of international ... human rights law\"","id":"85594f3a0961d2459461db53ffce605275c907a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Stanley Cup for a third time after a pair of second-period goals by Max Talbot gave them a narrow 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in the deciding game of the best-of-seven series. The Penguins celebrate with the Stanley Cup after claiming a narrow game seven victory at Detroit. Talbot opened the scoring early in the second period and added a second on a two-on-one break midway through the session to help the Penguins to avenge their defeat to the Red Wings in last year's finals. Jonathan Ericsson pulled a goal back for the home side with just over six minutes remaining in the game but Detroit were unable to prevent Pittsburgh from becoming the first team in 38 years to claim the Stanley Cup with a game seven victory on the road. The Penguins, who last won the title in 1992, were depriving the Red Wings of becoming the first team since Detriot themselves (in 1998) to retain the Stanley Cup. \"We're going to enjoy this one. We're going to sit back and relish the moment. We're going to get our names on the Cup, and we'll get our day with it,\" Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma told their official Web site. The result proved a difficult pill to swallow for Red Wings winger Marian Hossa. Last summer, the Slovakian turned down a lucrative long-term contract with the Penguins, thought to be worth in the region of $50 million, to sign a one-year $7.5m deal with Detroit -- thinking they had a better chance of hoisting the Stanley Cup. However, he failed to score once in the finals and cast a lonely figure watching his former team-mates lift the trophy.","highlights":"The Pittsburgh Penguins secure Stanley Cup for the third time in their history .\nPenguins beat Detriot Red Wings 2-1 in deciding game of best-of-seven series .\nTwo Max Talbot goals ensures Penguins claim trophy for first time since 1992 .","id":"c1e1b80b5c9f98174866ae59c241800ec196d542"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama is planning to sign an executive order Monday to overturn Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research, according to administration officials familiar with the deliberations. President Obama will overturn Bush policy on embryonic stem cell research, administration officials say. Obama's move will be hailed by advocates for those suffering from a host of afflictions, ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's disease, who believe that an expansion of stem-cell research could boost medical progress toward eradicating the debilitating diseases. But many conservatives object to the destruction of human embryos because they contend that it ends a human life. The officials said the administration is planning a Monday event at the White House at which Obama will overturn the executive order signed by President George W. Bush in August 2001. It barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time. Interactive: Unlocking the promise of stem cells \u00bb . Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council accused the White House of leaking the details Friday night so that the move gets little attention, declaring that it is \"a slap in the face to Americans who believe in the dignity of all human life.\" House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, \"Advancements in science and research have moved faster than the debates among politicians in Washington, D.C., and breakthroughs announced in recent years confirm the full potential of stem cell research can be realized without the destruction of living human embryos.\" In addition to signing the executive order, Bush twice vetoed legislation -- in July 2006 and June 2007 -- that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research. At the time, Bush also argued that scientific advances allowed researchers to conduct groundbreaking research without destroying human embryos. Bush's moves led to Democratic charges that he had put politics over science.","highlights":"NEW: Critic says move is \"a slap in the face\" to many Americans .\nBush-era policy on stem cell research to be reversed, officials say .\nOfficials say the administration is planning a Monday event at the White House .","id":"b1e12b5e79ddcd893c69e4bd32a560c6a5dd59ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The \"King of Pop\" had been topping music charts long before he ever pulled on that white-sequined glove, made the moonwalk a household move and sent screaming fans into a frenzy. In spite of all of the rumors and his \"Wacko Jacko\" persona, Jackson's musical draw remained strong. But the spotlight that followed Michael Jackson, earned him headlines and made him a tabloid favorite as an adult, often had little to do with the artistry. While filming a commercial for Pepsi in 1984, a pyrotechnic accident set his hair ablaze, leaving him with second-degree burns on his scalp and igniting what would eventually became an odyssey of reconstructive work. Rumors about his face, the ever-changing nose and lightening skin fueled the \"Wacko Jacko\" persona, a moniker he'd be given later and seem to embrace. There was, for instance, Bubbles, a chimpanzee he adopted, befriended and allowed to share his toilet. Jackson didn't fight and even perpetuated claims, even though they weren't true, that he'd bought the remains of The Elephant Man and slept in a hyperbaric chamber -- although he would deny both years later during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. It was then, in that 1993 interview, that he also shot down rumors that he was dying his skin to make it lighter. Instead, he spoke for the first time about having vitiligo, a skin pigmentation disorder. iReport.com: Share your favorite Jackson memory . Meantime, he had designed his dream home, the Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, as if he were the Peter Pan he so admired. Replete with a zoo, his own amusement park and the bevy of children who surrounded, played and sometimes slept over with him, he proudly set out to recapture the childhood he publicly said he'd never had. Allegations of what went on privately, however, landed him in a big-boy pool of legal hot water. He was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. Soon after came talk about his addiction to prescription drugs. He settled the civil lawsuit with the accusing family in 1994 and was never charged criminally. Then came the shocking, albeit relatively short-lived, marriage to Lisa Marie Presley -- a move that set off a whole new round of speculations. More facts about Jackson's life \u00bb . Did he tie the knot to fight the child abuse speculations that dogged him? Was this eccentric \"King\" aspiring to be the son-in-law of \"The King,\" Elvis Presley? Or could it have been true love? Despite this two-year marriage, and the reported relationships he'd had earlier with Tatum O'Neal, Stephanie Mills and Brooke Shields, Jackson remained sexually ambiguous and, in many people's eyes, sexless altogether. He'd later marry once more for several years, this time a nurse named Debbie Rowe. People debated whether they consummated that marriage or if artificial insemination played a role, but Jackson left in 1999 with custody of two children, a son known as Prince Michael and a daughter named Paris. For years when they appeared in public, the children wore veils or masks. Prince Michael II was born in 2002. An unidentified woman gave birth after reportedly being artificially inseminated with Jackson's sperm. His second son was semi-revealed to the public in Berlin, Germany, when Jackson momentarily dangled the baby, his face hidden beneath a blanket, over a balcony four stories above the ground and a mass of fans. Watch Jackson introduce Prince Michael II \u00bb . It was yet another move that spawned talk and accusations, and it was one he'd apologize for later. In recent years there was yet another child sexual abuse accusation, one Jackson was acquitted of in May 2005. The trial was a media spectacle, and one where the fashion icon wore his pajama bottoms to court and danced atop a car. He also had enormous financial problems to deal with and narrowly escaped bankruptcy and foreclosure on his Neverland property. But in spite of all of this, Jackson's draw remained strong. More than 25 years after the release of his epic album, \"Thriller,\" it was being celebrated again. He was scheduled to start what he described at a March press conference as his \"final curtain call\" concert tour, which had recently been postponed to next year. See Jackson make his final tour announcement \u00bb . What Jackson would have brought to the stage then, and to the headlines before and after, will never be known. What is certain is that he's one who'll always be remembered.","highlights":"Michael Jackson, the \"King of Pop,\" made headlines for more than his music .\n\"Wacko Jacko\" known for Bubbles the chimp, his changing nose and skin tone .\nAt Neverland Ranch, he played Peter Pan, amid a zoo, rides and lots of kids .\nHe was dogged by accusations and whispers, but a comeback tour was on tap .","id":"b19f4cdcf83518b1f2a2fa20ecd6b31fa2f55c8a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson had a level of hero worship on a par with Elvis Presley or the Beatles but he was the first black star to inspire such a massive following around the world. Michael Jackson, the ultimate showman, craved attention and was rarely disappointed. Total worldwide sales of more than 350 million records over his 40-year career give just a hint of the adoration there was for the \"King of Pop.\" The fact that his death came on the eve of a comeback tour in London will leave his devotees feeling even more bereft. While his career -- and wealth -- had waned greatly in recent years, there was still enough support for the concerts to sell out at a rate of nearly 40,000 an hour. Fans from as far afield as Japan, Germany and Dubai queued to buy their tickets. Steve Greenberg, founder and CEO of S-Curve Records, was a disc jockey in Tel Aviv, Israel, when \"Thriller\" first dropped and witnessed first-hand how Jackson became an international icon. His was a global appeal, Greenberg said, among fans and artists worldwide. \"He was as big in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as he was in America and Europe,\" Greenberg said. \"He had that universality that not many people had. The Beatles had it, Muhammad Ali had it, but not many other people have had it.\" Jackson was known for far more than his music though. Speaking after his death in Los Angeles was announced, U.S. civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton paid tribute to the work of a \"trailblazer\" in helping people around the world through his charities. How will you remember Michael Jackson? Sharpton added that the song Jackson co-wrote with Lionel Richie, \"We Are the World,\" a 1985 charity single that raised an estimated $50 million for famine relief in Africa, ushered in Live Aid and the era of celebrity philanthropy. Jackson was the supreme showman who had an unrivalled knack of grabbing headlines. From his precocious abilities as the 11-year-old singer in the Jackson 5 to his legendary \"moon-walk\" dance, the star craved attention, and was rarely disappointed. Jackson \"as big as it gets\" \u00bb . But in the years after his colossal 1982 hit album \"Thriller\" and its 1987 follow-up \"Bad,\" much of the focus did not cast him in a good light. In 1996 the lead singer of Pulp, Jarvis Cocker, caused a furor at the Brit Awards in London when he invaded the stage during Jackson's performance of \"Earth Song\" in protest \"at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing.\" Jackson failed to see the humor in Cocker's mockery, responding that he was \"sickened, saddened, shocked, upset, cheated, angry\" by the protest. He also alleged that Cocker had attacked children on stage, something that the Pulp singer denied. But many in the music industry backed Cocker, who was arrested but later released without charge. The theme of children was one that continued to haunt Jackson. In 2002 he caused a public outcry by dangling his baby son Prince Michael II from a third-floor hotel balcony in Germany before the world's press. He later said he regretted the incident. Watch video of the incident \u00bb . And in a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir that was supposed to repair his image around the world, the singer revived allegations of child abuse when he said of sharing a bed with a young boy: \"It's a beautiful thing. It's very right, it's very loving. Because what's wrong with sharing a love?\" A warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of sexually molesting 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo. Jackson surrendered himself to police amid a media furor. In the 2005 trial conducted in the glare of the world's media spotlight, Jackson was cleared of child molestation charges. Following the trial, Jackson's finances took a hit and he was forced to sell his Neverland ranch in California. He later kept a low profile in the United States and spent time in Britain, where his friends included psychic spoonbender Uri Geller and Harrod's owner Mohamed Al Fayed, and also in Bahrain. But in November last year, Jackson was sued by an Arab sheikh at the High Court in London for $7.7 million. They parted \"amicably\" after agreeing a settlement. Jackson had been invited with his children and entourage to Bahrain by the king's son, Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who lavished money on Jackson and built a recording studio, which he believed would be used to record albums by Jackson using material the sheikh had helped to write. But Jackson insisted there was no valid agreement and that the sheikh's case was based on \"mistake, misrepresentation and undue influence.\" He said sums of money paid out by the sheikh were \"gifts.\" As fans around the world mourn it is likely Michael Jackson will be remembered as a musical hero -- but also a man with human flaws.","highlights":"Michael Jackson was adored by fans around the world .\nTotal sales exceeding 700 million records over his 40-year career .\nU.S. civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton paid tribute to his charity work .","id":"bcabde7c3ab6f56feee752d86f1745d782e536b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stars at the legendary Glastonbury, one of the world's largest music festivals, have begun to pay tribute to Michael Jackson, who died Thursday. Glastonbury at Worthy Farm in Somerset is the world's largest music festival. Singer Pharell Williams of U.S. group N.E.R.D acknowledged the music icon's legacy as his band played on the English festival's main stage, the Pyramid Stage. \"The music was so incredible and what he and Quincy Jones did was change music and the way people looked at music,\" Williams was quoted as saying on the BBC's Glastonbury Web site. Teenage Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi was the first artist at the festival to pay tribute to Jackson, Friday, singing a few bars of song \"Billie Jean\" during her set. Organizer Emily Eavis wrote on her Twitter site: \"So sad to hear the news about MJ. There will be tributes all over the site all weekend. \"A truly great artist.\" Other artists are expected to honor the singer, who died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 50, throughout the 3-day festival weekend in southwestern England. Festival-goers woke to an unexpectedly somber first day of Glastonbury, Friday, as the news of Jackson's death began to sink in. See images of reactions to the star's death from around the world \u00bb . Rumors of the singer's death had circulated the isolated 900-acre site the previous evening, but many fans had dismissed them as the hearsay and misinformation that thrives each year in the site which has no TV or Internet-access. Confusion quickly turned to shock for many, as Jackson's music played in festival bars and news of his demise spread by cell phone. \"It's totally weird,\" Sally Anne Aldous, 29, told CNN on Thursday night. \"People are just getting text messages saying 'Michael Jackson is dead. Michael Jackson is dead.'\" With a laid-back focus on mainly alternative music, the Glastonbury festival -- expected to attract as many as 137,000 music-lovers -- is not a venue where people would normally expect to hear Jackson's music. Watch more reaction from Glastonbury \u00bb . But few here deny the singer's influence. An impromptu memorial was held by mourning fans late Thursday at the \"Stone Circle,\" a neolithic monument in the festival's grounds. Other headline acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Lady GaGa and Lily Allen, performing at the festival, are expected to pay tribute to Jackson. iReport: Share your memories of Michael Jackson . Anouk Lorie contributed to this report .","highlights":"Singer Pharell Williams of U.S. group N.E.R.D paid tribute to the music icon .\nEarlier Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi sang a few bars of \"Billie Jean\"\nFestival goers awoke to the news on an unusually somber day one of the festival .","id":"90ed33d8492a329620d87fdedc0eec01dfad561c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A search was under way Tuesday for the pilot of an F-16 that crashed over the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City, Utah, the Air Force said. An F-16 from Hill Air Force Base trains in Utah in 2001. The F-16 crashed about 10:25 p.m. Monday, according to a posting on the Air Force's Web site. The crash site was found in a remote area of the range, but no contact has been made with the pilot, the Air Force said. Emergency responders from nearby Hill Air Force Base were searching for the pilot. The F-16 was assigned to the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base and was on a routine training mission when it crashed, the posting said. Air Forceofficials will investigate the incident.","highlights":"Emergency responders from Hill Air Force Base in Utah searching for pilot .\nCrash site found in remote area of Utah Test and Training Range .\nNo contact has been made with the pilot, who was on a routine training mission .","id":"7502ddca220180e851cad8b57bba7549b58fea2c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A rush-hour collision Monday between two Metro trains north of downtown Washington, D.C., killed at least six people and injured scores, Mayor Adrian Fenty said. One train was stationary when the crash happened, according to Metro General Manager John Catoe. He called it the deadliest crash in the history of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, known as Metro. One of the dead was the female operator of one of the trains, Metro officials said. \"The scene is as horrific as you can imagine,\" Fenty said in a news conference. \"One car was almost squeezed completely together.\" Seventy-six people were treated for injuries, including two with life-threatening injuries, said Chief Dennis Rubin of Washington's Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department. Two of the injured were emergency responders, Rubin said. See location of crash \u00bb . The crash happened just before 5 p.m. on an above-ground track on the Red Line in the District of Columbia near the border with Takoma Park, Maryland. Both trains were on the same track, and one of them was stationary when the crash happened, said John Catoe, Metro general manager. Watch woman say she, fellow passengers \"went flying\" \u00bb . Video footage of the scene showed two cars of one train lying atop the cars of the other train. Emergency personnel carried injured passengers, some on stretchers, from the wreckage. Watch injured passengers limp from the scene \u00bb . \"Metro officials do not know the cause of the collision and are not likely to know the cause for several days as the investigation unfolds,\" a Metro statement said. Fire department personnel cut through the trains to help people from the wreckage, officials said at a press briefing. Some three hours after the accident, fire department sources said rescue operations had ceased, with ongoing work focusing on recovery. See pictures of crash site \u00bb . President Obama issued a statement saying he and his wife Michelle were \"saddened by the terrible accident,\" and thanking the first responders to the scene \"who arrived immediately to save lives.\" A survivor, Jodie Wickett, described feeling a bump on the track, and then being flung forward when the train suddenly halted a few seconds later. She said she hit her head, but managed to get out and go to where the collision occurred a few cars up, where one subway car lay atop another. \"There was debris, and people pinned under in-between the two cars,\" Wickett said. \"We were just trying to get them out and help them as much as possible, pulling back the metal.\" People were badly injured, she said. \"Ones that could speak were calling back as we called out to them.\" One car was \"about 75 percent compressed,\" and recovery workers aren't sure if any more bodies are inside, Fenty told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Monday night. \"We just haven't been able to cut through it to see if there's bodies in there,\" Fenty said. A certified nursing assistant who was on one of the trains told CNN affiliate WUSA she was trying to help those in severe condition after the crash, including a lady who appeared to be in her 20s. \"She is very, very torn in her legs -- the muscles and everything are torn, ripped through. She had metal pieces in her face,\" said the nursing assistant, who said her name was Jeanie. Other witnesses described seeing more blood than they had seen before. Tom Baker, who was in the train that hit the stationary train, told WUSA that after the collision, he looked toward the front of the car, and when the smoke cleared, \"all you could see was sky.\" Jasmine Gars, who also was on the moving train, told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that the collision \"was like nothing I've ever felt before.\" \"It was like we hit a concrete wall,\" Gars said. \"Almost immediately I fell off my seat. Another person -- I don't know who -- flew off their seat. And the lights went off and smoke started filling the train car.\" Four people were taken to Providence Hospital in Washington, including two with back injuries, one with a hip injury and one complaining of dizziness from hitting her head, hospital officials said. Washington Hospital Center reported seven patients from the crash with injuries ranging from serious to minor, while Howard University Hospital reported three and Suburban Hospital in Maryland reported two. Groups of people wearing green plastic ribbons to show they had been checked by paramedics left the scene about 90 minutes after the crash. Some were crying, and a woman with her arm in a sling who gave her name as Tijuana described the crash as \"an earthquake.\" A National Transportation Safety Board team arrived to investigate the crash, assisted by the FBI Evidence Response Team, according to NTSB board member Deborah Hersman, who said she walked the tracks by the wreckage. \"I can tell you it is a scene of real devastation down there,\" she said. Hersman said both trains contained six cars. One train struck the other train from the rear and and its \"first car overrode the last car of the other train in an accordion fashion,\" she said. She said it wasn't clear if the trains involved in the accident carried devices that recorded speed and other data. At least two FBI officials were at the scene, and the FBI confirmed it was assisting as part of the National Capital Response Squad. Amy Kudwa of the Department of Homeland Security said \"at this early stage,\" there was no indication of anything other than an accidental collision. It was the second Metro crash to involve fatalities in the 33-year history of the transit authority. In January 1982, a derailment killed three people. The only other collision between Metro trains occurred in 2004. \"We are extremely saddened that there are fatalities as a result of this accident, which has touched our Metro family,\" Catoe said in a statement. \"Our safety officials are investigating, and will continue to investigate until we determine why this happened and what must be done to ensure it never happens again.\"","highlights":"One train was stationary when crash happened, Metro official says .\n76 people treated for injuries, fire chief says .\nTwo Metro trains collide north of downtown Washington .\nCrash happened just before 5 p.m. on above-ground track .","id":"fcb8da5befcff25bce393829384bb612d959d3e9"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from Larry King's autobiography, \"My Remarkable Journey,\" published by Weinstein books. Larry King anchors \"Larry King Live\" at 9 p.m. ET on CNN. Larry, left, at age 10 with his younger brother, Marty, shortly after their father died. I was walking home from the library carrying nine books. That's the way my memory sees it. I can't know for sure if it was exactly nine books. Maybe I picture nine books because I was nine years old. I'm certain that I was nine years old, because I'm sure of the date -- June 9, 1943. There were a lot of books under my arm on that summer day because I loved books. I wonder what happened to those nine books ... There were three squad cars in front of my apartment building. Flivvers, we called them. I don't remember exactly when I started to hear my mother's screams. But as I hurried up the steps, a cop quickly came down, straight for me. He picked me up and the books went flying. Watch Larry on his \"Remarkable journey\" \u00bb . I'm not sure if I knew the cop. But I may have. For years, before the war started and my father went to work in the defense plant, he'd owned a little neighborhood bar and grill. He was friendly with all the cops. The cops loved my father the way they loved any bar owner who had a great sense of humor. I remember having my own police costume when I was very young. A badge and a little nightstick came with it. I'd make like I was walking the beat. The cop put me in the squad car. He told me that my father had died. Heart attack. I didn't cry. I remember that. I didn't cry. I was more befuddled than anything else. It must have been difficult for the cop. He started the car and drove. We wound through the streets of Brownsville and ended up at a movie theater. I'll never forget the movie, Bataan, starring Robert Taylor as Sergeant Bill Dane. It was about a bunch of American soldiers trying to stave off the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Larry King's life in pictures \u00bb . Sergeant Dane and his patrol are ordered to blow up a bridge to stop the advancing enemy. They're cut down one by one until only Sergeant Dane and two others remain. The first is killed by a sniper. The second is stabbed by a Japanese soldier who'd been playing dead. The movie ends with Sergeant Dane firing his machine gun straight into the camera at the Japanese soldiers coming at him in one last act of courage and defiance. I don't remember what it was like when I got home that day. A lot about that day I've blocked out. My younger brother Marty has blocked it out, too. He was only six at the time. But there are a few more memories attached. I didn't go to the funeral. I'd been so close to my father -- yet I refused to go. I stayed at home. There must've been somebody watching me, but I remember being alone. I remember bouncing a spaldeen -- the Spalding rubber ball we used to play stickball -- off the front stoop. Two other things I can tell you for sure. I never went back to that library again, and from that day on I was nervous if I saw a squad car in my neighborhood. If one parked by my apartment building, I'd start running home, in fear that my mother had died.","highlights":"Larry was 9 years old when his father died of a heart attack in 1943 .\nLarry says he has blocked much of that day from his memory .\nHe recalls a police officer broke the news, then took him to see a movie .\nLarry refused to attend funeral though he and his father were extremely close .","id":"c422811ae3f5d0debd5db0015671bb53a1fd633a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- To guard against public indifference to climate change the United Nations has enlisted a coalition of the world's leading advertising agencies. The world in their hands: New campaign aims to empower public. Leading up to the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen in December, the global \"Hopenhagen\" campaign has been unveiled. The initiative is aiming to generate active interest and persuade the public into believing they have a say in the negotiations between world leaders that will ratify a new global climate treaty. \"Climate change is one of the epic challenges facing this and future generations. World leaders will come together for the Copenhagen climate change conference in December, and every citizen of the world has a stake in the outcome. It is time to seal a deal. We need a global movement that mobilizes real change,\" said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a press statement. \"It is about global action for a global climate treaty and a better future for humankind.\" The campaign is a collaboration between a number of the world's largest communications companies. The strategy and creative concept for the Hopenhagen idea came from WPP's Ogilvy & Mather team; digital framework and direction were developed by MDC Partners' Colle+McVoy; and the global PR and messaging plans are spearheaded by Omnicom Group's Ketchum. Michael Lee, executive director of the International Advertising Association called the coalition of media companies involved \"unprecedented,\" adding that it was \"testament to the significance the industry places on the need for action to address climate change.\" According to the campaign brief, the aim is to change from the idea that we are just \"coping\" with global climate challenges to \"hoping\" and ultimately acting to combat the perils of climate change. The Hopenhagen Web site will be the center of an open source campaign where the public can send messages to the delegates of the UN summit meeting as well as raise awareness and debate issues. While the Web site will be developed as the months go by, the IAA also hopes that businesses, governments and NGOs engage in the campaign as well to create a broad global community with shared goals. Unveiled at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival this week, the first elements of the campaign can be seen at New York's JFK International, LA International and London Heathrow airports. From September a more \"aggressive\" consumer launch of the campaign will commence until the conference begins on December 7. What do you think? Does climate change need to be branded to keep us engaged? Are we in danger of \"climate change\" fatigue? Have your say in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"U.N. launches climate change awareness campaign ahead of Copenhagen summit .\nU.N. enlists broad coalition of communications companies across media platforms .\nBan Ki-moon: \"We need a global movement that mobilizes real change\"","id":"571b18757fe9d74f9df0220b4c875b9d9fe4c9a8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The U.S. Open golf championship had a humble beginning when 11 players in 1895 completed on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island. Tiger Woods celebrates his triumph over pain with victory in the 2008 U.S. Open . Since then it has gone on to become one of the most prestigious golf events in the world. Now in its 109th year the tournament has produced some truly unforgettable golf. Here CNN takes a look at some of the greatest moments in the history of the shoot-out. Disagree with our assessment of the best moments in U.S. Open history? Let us know by posting your comments on the Sound Off box below. 1 Tiger Woods plays through pain 2008 Woods had struggled throughout the tournament at Torrey Pines with a fractured left leg but was still in contention heading into the final round. The American, who was visibly in pain, managed to summon enough strength to force a play-off with Rocco Mediate after he sunk a 12-foot put on the 72nd green. Woods' mental tenacity then shone through as he maintained his concentration levels to defeat Mediate with a birdie on the 18th hole in the subsequent play-off to claim his 14th major championship. 2 Arnold Palmer's remarkable comeback 1960 Few people would have considered Palmer a contender to lift the title at Cherry Hills Country Club when he began his final round in 15th place -- seven strokes behind leader Mike Souchak -- but what followed was one of the greatest comebacks in golf history. Palmer ousted Ben Hogan and then Jack Nicklaus with a virtually flawless round of 64 to finish on four under and take the U.S. Open crown for the only time in his career by two shots. 3 Ben Watson's chip 1982 There was little to choose between Watson and Jack Nicklaus when the pair came up against each other at Pebble Beach at a time when they were both vying for the title as the best golfer on the planet. In the final round Watson struck perhaps the most famous shot in U.S. Open history, when he produced an audacious chip from a bad lie in thick rough for a birdie on the 71st hole to move a shot clear of Nicklaus before eventually winning the championship by two strokes. 4 Tiger Woods wins by record margin 2000 Old Tom Morris' achievement of a major victory by the record margin of 13 strokes in the British Open in 1862 had not been broken for 138 years, but at the peak of his powers Woods was also to add that accolade to his collection. He finished 15 strokes ahead of second-placed Ernie Els at Pebble Beach and also became the first player in the history of the U.S. Open to finish at double-digits under par as part of his 'Tiger Slam' when he held all four major championship titles. 5 Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie collapse 2006 Australia's Geoff Ogilvy was handed the U.S. Open trophy when two of his rivals for the title pressed the self-destruct button. Ogilvy had earlier chipped in at the 17th and holed a brave putt at the 18th to set the target at five over par for victory. Montgomerie dropped two shots on the 18th hole when a first major title seemed to be within his grasp and moments later Mickelson, who needed only a par to secure the title, also suffered a case of the last-hole jitters and double-bogeyed to completed the double collapse. 6 Ben Hogan puts crash behind him 1950 With heavily bandaged legs after a near-fatal car accident 16 months earlier, which left medical experts predicting he may never walk again, Hogan defied the odds to lift the title at Merion Golf Club. He had struggled to find form in the build up to the tournament which led to some commentators predicting his career was over. But Hogan proved he was made of sterner stuff as he defeated Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in an 18-hole playoff to win his second of four U.S. Open titles. 7 Tony Jacklin dominates in 1970 Europe was without a U.S. Open winner since Willie Macfarlane's victory in 1925 but Jacklin was able to end the 45-year hiatus and give fans across the pond a moment to savor on a challenging course at the Hazeltine National Golf Club. Jacklin produced some superb golf and what made the victory all the more impressive is that he led the event from start to finish, eventually taking the title by seven shots with a margin that has been bettered only by Tiger Woods. 8 Payne Stewart wins four months before death 1999 Famed for his eccentric patterned trousers and ivy caps Stewart won the last of his three major titles at the Pinehurst Resort. Having first won the U.S. Open in 1991 Stewart clinched his second title in style when he rolled in a superb 20-foot par putt at the 18th hole which he celebrated with fist pump over the hole. He was unable to defend his title after he died in a plane crash four months later at the age of 42. 9 Francis Ouimet's shock win 1913 As the leading players of the era Harry Vardon and Ted Ray from Great Britain were hot favorites to land the title at The Country Club in Brookline. But the pair were shocked by the performance of the relatively unknown 20-year-old American who became the first amateur to win the U.S. Open after victory in an 18-hole play-off. Ouimet's modest background saw him turned into a folk hero and the unlikely victory also helped raise the profile of the sport which had been considered the preserve of the elite up to that point. 10 Glover conquers Mickelson and Duval 2009 American journeyman Lucas Glover denies Phil Mickelson, a perennial bridesmaid at the event, a fairytale victory at Bethpage Black. It was the 29-year-old's first major title, but what was of greater note was the fact Glover won with a final round three-over-par 73 in tough and windy conditions, holing only one birdie on the final day.","highlights":"Some of the most memorable moments in golf have been at the U.S. Open .\nRemarkable comebacks against the odds feature strongly in the list .\nTiger Woods' 2008 victory through the pain barrier is ranked as one of the best .","id":"2cec1cb536cc73c0f3c44c6c04178371fc9b3630"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- DreamWorks Studios will back out of plans to produce a movie about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. unless King's three surviving children settle their differences over the deal, the studio said Wednesday. From left, Dexter, Bernice, Martin and Yolanda King. The three surviving siblings have had several public rifts. A longtime friend of the three Kings predicted peace may be at hand for the squabbling siblings and that all of them want Steven Spielberg's studio to portray their father's life on the big screen. The latest public rift between Dexter King, the chief executive of the King estate, and his brother and sister -- Martin Luther King III and Bernice King -- erupted Tuesday after it was made public that Dexter King, 48, had finalized the deal with DreamWorks. Martin King, 51, and Bernice King, 46, learned that a deal had been struck when Dexter sent them an e-mail Tuesday morning, just as the news media was being told by the studio, a source close to the family told CNN. Yolanda King, the eldest of the Kings' four children, died two years ago at age 51. Martin King and Bernice King, who live in Atlanta, Georgia, had known that Dexter King, who lives in California, was negotiating with Spielberg on a possible movie deal, the source said. Bernice King and Martin King said they knew nothing about the DreamWorks project. They said they embraced the idea of a film about their father but told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" they were concerned about the deal. \"I think Mr. Spielberg is a great producer and we look forward to hearing from him about the scope of this agreement,\" Bernice King said. \"We know nothing about the scope of this agreement. We have no details to say whether or not this particular one is a good idea.\" DreamWorks issued a statement Wednesday that suggested King family unity was essential for the movie to be made. \"The purpose of making a movie about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is to tell a great story which could bridge distances and bring people together,\" the statement said. \"We remain committed to pursuing a film chronicling Martin Luther King's life provided that there is unity in the family so we can make a film about unity in our nation.\" DreamWorks executives appeared caught by surprise by the King family's infighting, although such squabbles are not new -- Martin King and Bernice King filed a lawsuit against Dexter King last year over publication of their mother's recently discovered love letters. Martin King and Bernice King have complained in court filings that Dexter King has acted independently for years on estate business matters, refusing to call a family meeting. Over the past year, angered over Dexter King's move to publish their mother's love letters, neither Martin King nor Bernice King has spoken to Dexter King, the source close to the family said. Dexter King, in a written statement Wednesday evening, said he has \"always upheld my duty\" as CEO of the King estate to communicate with the others. \"Although my communication with family members has been somewhat stymied by the current litigation, I have continued to reach out and I remain committed to working together with my siblings on projects to educate people about the life, leadership and teachings of our father, Martin Luther King Jr.,\" Dexter King said. DreamWorks is \"a company with unrivaled resources for making epic films of the highest quality, offers an unprecedented opportunity for educating the largest possible audience about our father's legacy as the leader of America's greatest nonviolent movement,\" he said. \"Just as Sir Richard Attenborough's film, 'Gandhi,' educated many millions of people all over the world about the Mahatma's teachings, I believe this project can do the same regarding the life, work and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., and I sincerely hope my brother and sister will join us in supporting this urgently needed project,\" Dexter King said. Tom Houck, an Atlanta public relations agent who has known all three children since the 1960s, when he was their father's driver, suggested the dispute could be resolved. \"I don't think that either Martin or Bernice are opposed to having a megafilm done on the big screen by DreamWorks, but I think it's the mechanism and the way it was done that's got them upset,\" Houck said. \"They're feeling that, until they resolve some problems with Dexter, that they're not going to be very forthcoming in letting this project go forward,\" he said. Houck suggested someone such as the Rev. Andrew Young, a close aide to the patriarch during the civil-rights movement, might be able to help the siblings reconcile. Young is a former Atlanta mayor and former U.N. ambassador. \"Martin and Bernice want to have some reconciliation with Dexter before they sign off on it,\" Houck said.","highlights":"DreamWorks Studios hesitates on movie about Martin Luther King Jr.\nStudio says film won't go ahead unless King's three children agree .\nDexter King has OK'd project without notifying his siblings .\nSource close to family says resolution may be at hand .","id":"2635a2ebf069c17ae005084b7ff66a255ffd3e23"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kimberley Locke knows a thing or two about singing competitions. \"American Idol\" finalist Kimberley Locke is the new co-host of \"Gospel Dream.\" Having placed third during season two of \"American Idol\" -- just behind winner Ruben Studdard and runner-up Clay Aiken -- the singer is back in reality show action as the new co-host of \"Gospel Dream.\" The Gospel Music Channel's talent search is going into its fourth season, and Locke joins fellow host Mike Kasem (son of Casey Kasem) and the judges -- gospel artist J. Moss, Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams and industry executive Mitchell Solarek -- on the show. Locke has worked steadily since she first burst onto the \"Idol\" scene in 2003. She has modeled, served as a spokesperson for plus-sized clothier Lane Bryant and Jenny Craig and appeared on VH1's \"Celebrity Fit Club.\" All the while, she has continued to pursue her music. Her \"8th World Wonder\" was a big hit, making the Top 10 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts. She's had three dance chart No. 1s. Locke recently spoke with CNN about the \"Gospel Dream,\" life after \"American Idol\" and the one reality show she really wants to appear on next. CNN: How did you get involved with \"Gospel Dream?\" Kimberley Locke: Funny enough, I've been wanting to do more hosting, and I had been talking to my manager about it. They contacted me out of the blue, and I was like \"Oh, I put it out to the universe, and here it is.\" CNN: Are you a gospel music fan? Locke: I am a gospel music fan. Of course I grew up in the church singing gospel music. I don't listen to as much as I used to, but I used to sing in a girl a cappella group and that's how we started, performing in church. CNN: Why do you think so many performers in the music industry come out of the church? Locke: I think a lot of people become stars in their church. ... The church environment is so supportive. When you are first starting out and learning how to sing in front of an audience, that's the kind of audience you want to be in front of. Even if you mess up and you sound horrible, they kind of let you stand there and collect yourself while the pianist keeps playing. Then they plow through it with you. That's a part of the business, a professionalism that really comes in handy when you get to this level. CNN: You've had some experiences with singing competitions. How is \"Gospel Dream\" different? Locke: It's different in that the contestants are very focused on where they want to be and the type of music they want to sing. When you are on \"Idol,\" you are forced to fit into all of these different genres you may or may not want to do and you may or may not even be familiar with them. The \"Gospel Dream\" contestants' direction is really clear and defined, so they are picking songs that really speak to them on a personal level. Watch Locke talk about the show \u00bb . CNN: How has life been for you post-\"Idol?\" Locke: Life has been great post-\"Idol.\" So many opportunities, so many things I would have never imagined. Things that I didn't even associate with singing, like modeling, hosting, being a spokesperson, owning a restaurant. It just opened so many doors. CNN: You were a plus-sized model and spokesperson for Lane Bryant, but now you are way too small to do that. Locke: That really opened me up to bond with my fans. I tell people I'm still a big girl at heart. CNN: When is your next album coming out? Locke: I just started working on the next album. We are in the very preliminary stages of putting together the concept of the record and we just compiled a bunch of songs to start listening to. CNN: Are you planning on doing any other reality shows? Locke: I'm not really a big reality show fan. I did \"Celebrity Fit Club\" because there was a purpose behind that in my wanting to lose weight. There is only one reality show I really, really want to do, and that's \"Dancing With the Stars.\" I want to be on that show because then I'd lose the extra 10 to 15 pounds I want to lose.","highlights":"Singer Kimberley Locke finished third during season two of \"American Idol\"\nShe is co-hosting the fourth season of the talent competition \"Gospel Dream\"\nLocke has worked steadily since \"Idol\" as a spokesperson, host and performer .\nShe says she'd like to appear on \"Dancing With the Stars\"","id":"677acae5ab0ca650580391e84465c8486a3370f2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pop icon Michael Jackson, 50, who died Thursday afternoon after being rushed to a Los Angeles hospital in cardiac arrest, had a long history of confirmed health problems, in addition to rumored conditions. Michael Jackson, seen here in 2005, was taken to UCLA Medical Center in cardiac arrest Thursday. In 1984, Jackson was burned while singing for a Pepsi-Cola commercial in Los Angeles, when a special-effects smoke bomb misfired. He had to have major surgery on his scalp and said that because of the intense pain, he developed an addiction to painkillers. He also was reported to have a form of lupus in the 1980s, but it was later said to have gone into remission. Jackson also had had numerous plastic surgeries, including rhinoplasty and a chin implant. In 1993, Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, released a statement saying that Jackson had a skin disease called vitiligo. The condition causes a person to lose melanin, the pigment that determines the color of skin, hair and eyes, in patches or all over the body. Vitiligo affects 1 million to 2 million people in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health, and no one knows what causes it. Learn about the difference between heart attack and stroke . He was also hospitalized with chest pains in 1990 and postponed a concert because of dehydration in August 1993. A concert tour was cut short in November 1993 because of an addiction to prescription painkillers amid allegations of child molestation. During a rehearsal at the Beacon Theater in New York in December 1995, the entertainer collapsed onstage from apparent dehydration and low blood pressure and was hospitalized. While jurors deliberated in a case in which he was accused of child molestation in June 2005, Jackson went to a hospital for treatment of what his spokeswoman said was recurring back pain. He had complained of back problems before. Rumors circulated in December that Jackson was ill and in need of a lung transplant because of Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a rare genetic condition. More rumors emerged in May that Jackson had skin cancer. But Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, told CNN at the time, \"He's as healthy as he can be -- no health problems whatsoever.\" Jackson apparently collapsed in his home in Los Angeles on Thursday and was taken by ambulance to UCLA Medical Center. Watch CNN's Sanjay Gupta talk with Anderson Cooper about Jackson's death \u00bb . Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman told CNN on Thursday that Jackson's use of medications had gotten in the way of doing rehearsals. \"His injuries, which he had sustained performing, where he had broken a vertebra and he had broken his leg from a fall on the stage, were getting in the way. I do not know the extent of the medications that he was taking,\" he said. Cardiac arrest, distinct from heart attack, affects about 300,000 Americans every year, Dr. Clyde Yancy of the American Heart Association told CNN. Without immediate efforts to resuscitate a person, the survival rate is usually 5 percent to 15 percent, he said. If resuscitation takes longer than three to five minutes, a person could experience profound impairments, particularly neurologically, he said. Beyond five minutes, the likelihood of success falls quickly, especially in older people. Younger people can tolerate cardiac arrest somewhat better, he said.","highlights":"Jackson was burned while singing for a Pepsi-Cola commercial in 1984 .\nHis skin condition, vitiligo, causes a person to lose melanin, the pigment in skin .\nJackson collapsed in 1995 from apparent dehydration and low blood pressure .\nMore rumors emerged in May that Jackson had skin cancer, but were discredited .","id":"809f3cb516b80722ab065d4f83e606a9464bbed2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jenny Sanford said Thursday that her husband Mark Sanford's political career is \"not a concern of mine\" and that she'd be just fine -- regardless of whether their marriage survives. Jenny Sanford, here with her husband, was a Wall Street executive before she married Mark Sanford. She would not speculate whether her husband would resign as South Carolina governor. \"His career is not a concern of mine,\" she told reporters as she departed the family's vacation home in Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. \"He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children.\" She added that she would be fine, with or without her husband. \"I have great faith and great friends and great family. We have a good Lord in this world and I know that I'm going to be fine and not only will I survive, I'll thrive,\" she said. \"I don't know if he'll be with me, but I'm going to do my best to work on my marriage because I believe in marriage. I believe in raising good kids is the most important thing in the world,\" she said. After disappearing from the public eye for nearly a week, Gov. Mark Sanford, 49, admitted to having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman. He also admitted Wednesday that he had not hiked the Appalachian Trail during his absence -- as his staff had said earlier -- but had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jenny Sanford would not reveal whether she was headed back to the family's home in Columbia. \"Right now we're taking it a day at a time. Right now we're going out on a boat.\" Watch more of Jenny Sanford's comments \u00bb . Gov. Sanford, leaving the family home in a different car, was in a far less talkative mood. \"I'm going back to Columbia,\" he said. The State, the Columbia-based newspaper that acquired what it said were e-mail exchanges between Sanford and the woman in Argentina, acknowledged Thursday that there would likely be people who would call for the governor's resignation. \"We are not ready to join them at this point,\" its editorial said.","highlights":"Jenny Sanford: I'll be fine regardless of whether our marriage survives .\nSouth Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted affair with Argentine woman .\nGovernor also admitted he just got back from Argentina .","id":"5d15827faa190fb12086ba1ccc520cbc30658efc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Monica Conyers, Detroit's embattled City Council president pro tempore, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to commit bribery, a federal court representative in Michigan told CNN. Detroit City Council member, Monica Conyers, admits accepting bribes to sway a $1.2 billion contract vote. Conyers, 44, admitted accepting bribes in exchange for her vote to sway the City Council to approve Synagro Technologies Inc.'s $1.2 billion contract in 2007. It's unclear when Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, began her relationship with Synagro, but court papers say she received money from Synagro until December 2007. Conyers voted in favor of the wastewater treatment contract on November 20, 2007, the same day she received an envelope filled with cash from Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson, court papers say. Jackson pleaded guilty to providing Conyers with the money. He had been a paid consultant of Synagro. On December 4, 2007, Conyers received another envelope of cash from Jackson in a McDonald's parking lot, said Terrence Berg, the U.S. attorney from the eastern district of Michigan. \"She was the swing vote in this deal,\" Berg said. \"She used her power to get the deal done, and she acknowledged that.\" The mood was somber at Conyers' office on Friday, an official there told CNN. A few office workers cried. They found out about the developments through news reports, said Denise Tolliver, Conyers' deputy chief of staff. \"We've been going through this for a while,\" Tolliver said. \"Reporters would ask us questions about anonymous sources, and we just didn't believe them.\" Office workers were preparing for an afternoon meeting with City Council President Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. later Friday. According to state law, Conyers will have to forfeit her seat, Tolliver said. Cockrel said there's language in the law that makes it unclear whether she needs to forfeit her seat immediately or after sentencing . \"It hurts the City Council's image, for sure,\" Cockrel said. \"But we need to remember, this is only one member of the council. You can't paint the entire council with the same brush.\" For a seven-month period in 2008, Cockrel replaced former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick after Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two counts of obstructing justice. During that time Cockrel terminated the city's contract with Synagro because of rumors circulating about bribes, he said. Conyers faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, according to prosecutors. Synagro would not comment on Conyers' plea, but a spokeswoman said, \"We have cooperated fully with the federal investigation and will continue to do so.\"","highlights":"Detroit City Council president pro tempore admits taking bribes for contract .\nMonica Conyers sealed $1.2 billion wastewater treatment deal, U.S. attorney says .\nState law forces her to give up seat, she faces up to five years in prison .\nConyers is the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers .","id":"40868f7b4784bb8fd5b414578aea1323af5d062d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Few have had a bigger influence on today's musical artists than Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson performs with Usher in September 2001 at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. Younger singers, from Justin Timberlake to Usher and Chris Brown, have emulated his dance moves, his look and his sound. He was, for many, the ultimate performer. \"[His influence] feels like something that is instilled and embedded in anyone who wanted to create anything musically,\" said Marsha Ambrosius, one half of the duo Floetry that wrote the single \"Butterflies.\" That single appeared on Jackson's 2001 \"Invincible\" album. \"He will always be the King of Pop, and no one will ever be able to fill those shoes with those shiny socks and that glove,\" Ambrosius said. For many of the younger generation, he was the first to not just cross over but explode onto the pop charts from the R & B scene. His phenomenal talent and worldwide appeal made his throne one to be aspired to even as they stood in awe of him. \"If you're a singer and you don't want to be like Michael Jackson, something is wrong,\" said 19-year-old singer and rapper Sean Kingston, who scored a hit in 2007 with the song \"Beautiful Girls.\" \"He's a huge influence.\" Sonia Murray, a longtime Atlanta-based music columnist, said Jackson was for the younger set what James Brown had been for Jackson: an inspiration. \"It was the many dimensions he had as a performer,\" Murray said. \"A lot of those artists strive to be all around entertainers. Michael looks to James Brown and Sammy Davis Jr. and for the younger guys, he was the closest thing they had.\" His music videos were must-see TV, and aspiring artists learned that it took more than just holding a microphone if they really wanted to make it big. \"He was the total package,\" said Gail Mitchell, senior editor for R & B and Hip-hop for Billboard. \"I was talking to somebody the other day about what trends they were seeing, and they said that a lot of the acts these days seem to going back to the whole entertainer thing.\" \"It's not just good enough anymore to lip-synch or program your computer, but some of these newer artists are more concerned about putting on a great show for their fans.\" Steve Greenberg, founder and CEO of S-Curve Records, was a disc jokey in Tel Aviv, Israel, when \"Thriller\" first dropped and witnessed first-hand how Jackson became an international icon. Greenberg said Jackson \"influenced everyone who has come after him.\" \"He's been around so long that everyone on the contemporary scene has come after him,\" Greenberg said. \"His was the first very contemporary, very exciting dance music to emerge after the death of disco.\" His was a global appeal, Greenberg said, among fans and artists worldwide. \"He was as big in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as he was in America and Europe,\" Greenberg said. \"He had that universality that not many people had. The Beatles had it, Muhammad Ali had it, but not many other people have had it.\" His music also crossed genres. He was a favorite of rappers to sample and working with him was a badge of honor in the industry. Producer Dallas Austin worked with him on Michael Jackson's \"HIStory: Past, Present and Future\" and, like the rest of the world, was stunned by his death. \"Michael Jackson was a magical person to work with,\" Austin said in a released statement. \"I am saddened by his death. The world won't be the same without him.\" Even for the most hardcore in hip-hop, there was no shame in admitting love for the King of Pop. \"Michael Jackson has always been an inspiration to me as far as his music is concerned,\" Rapper Snoop Dogg told MTV in 2001. \"You can't take nothing from him.\" Wyclef Jean released a statement saying \"Michael Jackson was my Musical God.\" \"He made me believe that all things are possible, and through real and positive music, he can live forever,\" Jean said. \"I love Michael Jackson. God Bless him.\" Floetry member Marsha Ambrosius said she felt blessed to have spent two weeks working with Jackson in New York City a few years ago after he fell in love with a song she had written. She had the opportunity to get to know him, not just as a superstar, but as a fun-loving family man who stayed in touch with her even after the project was finished. \"He was one of the most amazing people you would ever want to meet ,\" she said. \"I can say I worked with the most incredible artist on planet Earth.\" CNN's Shanon Cook contributed to this report.","highlights":"Michael Jackson's dance moves, his look were emulated .\nJackson inspired artists such as Usher, Justin Timberlake and rapper Snoop Dogg .\nRecording CEO: Jackson \"influenced everyone who has come after him\"","id":"c2417e889f18e2cc3d5b88ee92472753ab8cd03b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five of the six black high school students charged with attempted murder in 2006 for allegedly beating a white classmate pleaded no contest in a Louisiana court Friday, closing the book on a racially charged case. Terms of the settlement include restitution to Justin Barker, shown here in 2007 in Jena, Louisiana. The men agreed to plea deals that settled lawsuits filed against them by Justin Barker and his family the year after the December 4, 2006, incident in the town of Jena, population 3,000. The case was referred to as the \"Jena Six.\" An underage boy also allegedly was involved in the case, but was not named as one of the attackers. Each man, excluding Theo Shaw, was fined $500, must pay $500 in court costs and will have seven days of unsupervised probation. They also were ordered to pay restitution to Justin Barker and to have no contact with the Barker family. The $500 fine was waived for Shaw because of the almost seven months he has spent in jail. According to Barker's mother, Kelli, her son was taken to a hospital with cuts and with injuries to his eyes and ears after the assault. His right eye had blood clots, she said. Parents of the Jena Six say they heard Barker was hurling racial epithets, but Barker's parents insist he did nothing to provoke the beating. In the settlement, the Barkers received an undisclosed amount of money. The family also had sought to retain the right to sue the school board and to receive a percentage of any profits the youths might receive in the next five years from book or video deals, family attorney Henry Lemoine Jr. told CNN before the hearing. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The case drew national headlines when the teens were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder. After the charges triggered protests from critics who said they were too strict, a judge reduced the charges against Shaw, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis to battery and conspiracy. The sixth defendant, Mychal Bell, pleaded guilty in December 2007 to a misdemeanor second-degree battery charge and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. At the hearing, attorneys representing the five men read a statement expressing sympathy to the Barkers and acknowledging that Justin Barker did not use a racial slur. They also apologized to the residents of Jena for the uproar caused by the case. \"They are pleased with the settlement. The settlement is under a gag order,\" the Barkers' lawyer, Henry Lemoine Jr., said after the hearing. \"Hopefully, all the wounds that were opened will now be healed.\" James Boren, an attorney for Bailey, added, \"We're all proud of our clients, who are doing well.\" \"They're moving on with their life.\"","highlights":"The family of Justin Barker filed lawsuits after alleged beating in 2006 in Jena .\nThe 5 men agreed to plea deals that settled suits; they'll pay court costs, restitution .\nCase drew national protest when teens were charged with attempted murder .\n\"Hopefully, all the wounds ... will now be healed,\" said attorney Henry Lemoine Jr.","id":"98ad17aca1b0d552d17512d394d583bc8ce23aa4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In 2003, the BET Awards had a priceless moment when Michael Jackson surprised his idol, James Brown, by showing up on stage where the duo thrilled the audience with an electrifying performance. Michael Jackson performed with James Brown at the BET Awards in 2003. This year's show is dedicated to Jackson. Now, both the King of Pop and the Godfather of Soul are gone. Sunday night's 9th Annual BET Awards is sure to be filled with tributes to Jackson, whose videos and performances were a staple for the network in his heyday. BET has already paid tribute to the singer, going wall-to-wall with Jackson videos Thursday night. Many of the celebrities scheduled to attend the show were also fans of the singer and it is expected that the night will provide an opportunity for them to salute the star. \"Words cannot capture the impact Michael Jackson has had on pop culture around the world,\" said Debra L. Lee, chairman and chief executive officer of BET Networks. \"He changed the way we hear and feel and move to music; he epitomized what true musical talent and star power really mean. He is and always will be the King of Pop.\" Academy Award-winning actor and R&B singer Jamie Foxx is set to host the show. Several of the scheduled performers include artists, such as Ne-Yo and Beyonce, who have acknowledged the influence of Jackson on their music and careers. The annual event is a premier one for the network and this year's plan was to recognize the musical legacy and longstanding career of the legendary soul trio, the O'Jays, with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Artists Alicia Keys and Wyclef Jean are to be honored with the Humanitarian Award for their respective charitable work. BET CEO Lee said Sunday's show will be dedicated to Jackson and will also pay tribute to his legacy. Lee reflected on Jackson's career and his importance to BET -- which stands for Black Entertainment Television -- in a prepared statement after his death, while also offering heartfelt prayers for the singer's family and friends. \"Michael's influence is felt every day in so many ways at BET Networks, and it's been that way throughout our network's entire 29-year history,\" she said. \"We watched him grow up and, like everyone around the world, he feels like he is a member of our family. \"He will be missed more than we can say ... but his legend and memory live on in the artists, musicians, producers, dancers, fans and everyone else who looks to him for inspiration.\" The BET Awards is scheduled to run live on the cable network Sunday at 8 p.m.","highlights":"BET Awards are scheduled for Sunday night .\nMany of the planned attendees expected to pay tribute to Michael Jackson .\nNetwork CEO: \"Michael's influence is felt every day in so many ways\"","id":"0cfc1157523b9b729492f12300794754c4c27ccb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Several of Michael Jackson's comeback concerts in London have been postponed until next year because producers can't be ready in time for the July debut, according to a \"Dear Customer\" e-mail sent to ticket holders Wednesday. Michael Jackson gestures to the crowd at the March announcement of his series of London concerts. The delay comes days after the concert promoter said Jackson was in good health, contrary to media reports he was diagnosed with skin cancer. Jackson's \"This Is It\" shows were to begin July 8 at London's 20,000-capacity O2 Arena. \"It was not an easy decision to change the schedule but in the end we wanted to ensure that all of Michael's fans attending the concerts get the same quality in staging and level of entertainment,\" said the Ticketmaster e-mail sent to someone who bought tickets for the third show. \"In order to deliver a phenomenal and unprecedented show -- the first show on the 8th July will take place on 13th July 2009,\" according AEG Live, the promoter of the London concerts. \"The subsequent shows on 10th July will be moved to 1st March 2010, 12th July will be moved to 3rd March 2010, and the show on the 14th July will be moved to 6th March 2010.\" The delay is \"due to the sheer magnitude\" of the concerts, AEG said. The decision \"to move back a few of the opening shows\" was needed \"in order to meet the challenges presented by such a massive and technically complex show,\" it said. Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, last week denied reports that Jackson had skin cancer. \"He's as healthy as he can be -- no health problems whatsoever,\" the executive told CNN on Saturday. \"Michael, who is directly involved with all aspects of the styling\/choreography\/band selection and rehearsals, is working around the clock to ensure this is the show to end all shows!\" AEG said in it's delay announcement. Jackson held open auditions for dancers last month at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, California. Promoters released a video this week showing that process and ending with a clip of the 12 dancers who were chosen meeting Jackson in an undisclosed gym in the Los Angeles area, where he has been preparing for the shows. Ticketmaster, in its e-mail, assured the ticket holders they would \"have the same seat originally purchased.\" \"You do not have to do anything as you will be automatically allocated the same seats and moved to the revised date,\" it said.","highlights":"Michael Jackson was scheduled to perform 50 shows starting July 8 .\nSeveral shows being postponed until 2010 because of \"sheer magnitude\"\nJackson health said to be fine, despite UK rumors .","id":"2d17c32675407099cc44c315e3789d9d04139b93"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- It's that time again, when you turn on the A\/C to chill out from the summer heat and all you get is hot air! Air conditioning on the fritz? Taking your car to an A\/C tech will keep you from getting hot headed. Ughhhh! How do you restore that refreshing, cool air to your vehicle's interior cabin so you can survive the heat? Well ... sit back and relax, and I'll tell you exactly what to expect from your shop. System performance test . First, the tech should perform an A\/C system performance test. He\/she will first check vent temperature to confirm that the system is indeed inoperative. Should this be the case, the tech will then perform a head pressure check. During this process, gauges are installed on the high and low side of the system to determine if there's any refrigerant in the system. An extremely low (or no) pressure reading usually indicates a lack of refrigerant in the system, which means it has leaked out. Sometimes the pressure reading may be too high, in which case there is a restriction in the system, inhibiting the flow of refrigerant. There are three diagnostic paths, depending on the initial evaluations. Should the system be low on refrigerant, the tech should run a leak test, identify the location of the leak, repair it, and recharge the system with refrigerant and oil. If the pressure in the system is too high, the tech should locate the restriction, often caused by dirt that finds its way to the orifice tube, a small in-line filter designed to screen out any particulates in the system. (Restrictions can occur for other reasons that I will not go into here for the sake of space.) Once the plug is found, it is removed, and dirt is flushed from the system. Finally, if the system seems to be operating properly (all head pressures are in line with factory specifications), then the tech will look to the duct system for problems. The duct system . The engine in your car generates vacuum as a result of taking in air. This vacuum is used for the duct system. How the system works: Vacuum is collected in a vacuum reserve chamber; this device usually resembles a plastic ball or a coffee can. The vacuum builds up inside this chamber and when A\/C is called for, vacuum is channeled through the switch and small vacuum lines (capillary tubing) to the servo motor. The servo motor is responsible for opening a special duct door (the air blend door), which directs the correct amount of cool air into the vehicle's cabin. Problems crop up when vacuum is lost due to a cracked vacuum reserve chamber, broken vacuum line, faulty vacuum servomotor, bad switch, or poor engine vacuum. The tech must track down the cause of the vacuum loss and repair it in order to restore the system. Other causes of poor HVAC air volume are broken air blend door or door hinge, organic debris in the fan squirrel cage inhibiting airflow, worn blower motor shaft bearings slowing down the squirrel cage, or electrical wiring \/ component problems that control fan operation. Proper A\/C leak test procedure . The main cause of A\/C system failure is refrigerant leak. This system is a closed system, so the refrigerant chemical and lubricant are sealed from the outside atmosphere. When a leak forms, the system drains of both refrigerant chemical and the lubricant vital to compressor life and function. In addition, moisture and dirt can get in through the leak causing contamination. This contamination eats away at the inside of the system resulting in rust and scale buildup, corrosion and erosion in vital A\/C system parts. Proper A\/C system leak tests are necessary to identify the source of a leak. There are three types of leak inspections: visual, halogen, and dye testing. The visual test includes inspection of all lines and external components (specifically condensers, hi and low pressure lines, compressors, air dryers, and expansion valves). Any indication of refrigerant oil on these components is an indication of a leak and the component must be replaced. The halogen tester is designed to detect the presence of leaking refrigerant gas, which is odorless and colorless. The tech scans the system with the flexible probe on the tester. If there is a leak, then the tester will howl, light up, or click. Finally, if the tech is convinced that there is a leak in the system and he cannot find it, then he performs a dye test. After a fluorescent dye is charged into the system, an ultra violet light is shown on the system. If there is a leak, it will show up as a bright yellow color under the light. These are tried and true diagnostic methods that have been used in A\/C system diagnostics and repairs for years and are guaranteed to track down the most stubborn A\/C leaks. A word about refrigerant chemicals . As a result of the Clean Air Act, all chlorofluorocarbons are no longer used as refrigerant chemicals because of their negative effect on the ozone layer. Consequently, all A\/C systems now use an ozone-friendly refrigerant called R134A. Any vehicles that still run the road with the old R12 chemical have to be retrofitted to run R134A. In addition, the tech is required by Federal Law to recapture the R12 into a reclaiming station for disposal (it cannot be released into the air). Venting of chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere is considered a Federal Offense. Should you have a vehicle that still has the old R12 system in it, have the system converted. This procedure involves the installation of new schrader valves for system charging and testing, as well as a complete and thorough cleaning and flushing of the system. It is essential that all of the R12 be removed, because the mixing of R12 with R134A results in 'system meltdown. Now that you know all about the air conditioning in your car, you can see that there are many sources of potential problems. Thus, proper diagnosis of problems with this system can save you a lot of money; so make sure you take it to a reputable shop that has the necessary equipment and experienced techs. And enjoy the summer heat!","highlights":"Problems with your A\/C\/ system can cost you money by wasting extra gas .\nTech should first do a car A\/C system performance test .\nProblems with vacuum system can also limit cooling in car .","id":"a6a6aec7394e1532b7b4eb478d06923720df0ccc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She hit the big time in the 1980's with Eurythmics and found huge success as a solo artist with her 1992 album \"Diva\", but for singer Annie Lennox, being able to express her passion has always been the motivating factor in whatever she's done. Annie Lennox will continue to SING with her AIDS awareness charity. As a result her musical career has taken a back seat to her political activism and charity work in recent years; most notably with SING her AIDS awareness in Africa charity, as well as working with Amnesty, Save the Children and as a UNICEF ambassador. Yet the 54-year-old maintains that she'll always keep singing as well as working on the other things that she feels passionate about. \"I'm a multi-tasker. I have to do a lot of things at once. I love music. And I want to keep making music. I hope that I'll always be a music-maker and I'll always be an activist,\" she told CNN in Hong Kong. Growing up in Aberdeen, Scotland, Lennox found enormous success with Eurythmics and the 1983 album \"Sweet Dreams\" and single of the same name. It catapulted her to international success and stardom, something she had always wanted, but at first found difficult to adjust to. \"We were really on a whole kind of roller coaster with [Eurythmics], which on the one hand I was very grateful for, and on the other hand, it sort of sucked out your life, any sort of privacy,\" she said. \"Just the ability to be anonymous which I absolutely really value. I love to just to be mixing with people and not have to be the one person in the room with the spotlight and the heads all turning. So that was a little bit hard to adapt to...I might as well have a neon light for a head.\" She's sold over 80 million records during a career that has spanned four decades, which she credits to hard graft fueled by an unending passion for music. \"The glamour side to it is what we see as the end result. But all the rest of it is hard work and dedication. And it's not easy always, you have to be very focused. And you have to be really, really motivated to do it. You have to have a kind of yearning, a passion for that. \"I was never thinking, 'Oh, I'm in this for the long haul.' I just think as I'm still thinking, I want to have a life where I'm able to do the thing that makes me feel alive.\" Aware of the downsides of a career in music, Lennox also has a greater sense of the perils and pitfall in life, something she has often expressed in her music. \"I have encountered individuals and I've encountered things in the industry that were vile. Bad things happen everywhere. And the music industry and all that surrounds it, is no exception.\". Having experienced unscrupulous people in the music industry and been through her own personal upheaval through two failed marriages, Lennox remain passionate, energetic and sanguine. Ultimately, she says, \"its all part of life's rich tapestry.\"","highlights":"Sold over 80 million records in career that has spanned four decades .\nFound success first with Eurythmics, British band founded with Dave Stewart .\nLennox set up SING charity to combat HIV and AIDS in Africa .","id":"867123ae22648bdf1c23405b23d1b9d34dd94354"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The woman and children held captive in a cellar for years by their incestuous father will take years to recover from their disturbing ordeal, doctors warned Wednesday as the family at the center of the case remained in psychiatric care. The bathroom used by Elizabeth Fritzl, who was held captive for more than two decades, and her three children. Members of the Fritzl family will also be offered the chance to adopt new identities in an effort to help them lead normal lives, officials said. Hans-Heinz Lenze, the head of local social services said the family was \"doing as well as can be expected in the circumstances\" and said any change of identity would be the family's decision. Elizabeth Fritzl -- now 42 -- spent more than two decades in the windowless basement after being drugged, handcuffed and locked up by her father, Josef Fritzl, as an 18-year-old. Repeatedly raped, she gave birth to seven children by Fritzl, one of whom died as an infant. Three of the children -- Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5 -- remained imprisoned underground with their mother. The other three lived in an apartment upstairs with Fritzl and his wife who believed Elizabeth had abandoned them after running away from home. Elizabeth and five of the children were continuing to receive treatment at a local clinic near Amstetten after being reunited on Sunday. Kerstin, whose hospitalization at the weekend finally brought the family's plight to the attention of authorities, remained in a coma at a nearby hospital. \"It is astonishing how easy it worked that the children came together, and also it was astonishing how easy it happened that the grandmother and the mother came together,\" clinic director Berthold Kepplinger said. But Kepplinger warned that the family would require extensive counseling. \"We're talking of 20 years of darkness, incest and its effects and other illnesses they might have suffered from.\" Kepplinger said the two sets of children were tentatively getting to know one another, adding that the two boys who had lived underground had an unusual way of communicating with each other. A policeman who had accompanied the boys to hospital after their discovery on Sunday said the pair had \"screamed with excitement\" during the car journey as they experienced the outside world for the first time. \"The two boys appeared overawed by the daylight they had never experienced before,\" said Chief Inspector Leopold Etz. \"The real world was completely alien to them... We had to drive very slowly with them because they cringed at every car light and every bump. It was as if we had just landed on the moon.\" In an interview with the Austrian newspaper, Oesterreich, psychiatrist Max Friedrich, who treated the abducted teenager Natascha Kampusch, estimated it would take \"between five and eight years\" for the children to recover from their experiences. Another psychologist, Bernd Prosser, told Austrian television that it would be impossible for the four held prisoner underground to lead normal lives. \"I am afraid it is too late for that.\" Kampusch, the Austrian girl abducted as a 10-year-old and held captive in a basement for more than eight years until she escaped in 2007, also offered her help to the family on Tuesday, but questioned the decision to move them from the cellar into psychiatric care. \"Pulling them abruptly out of this situation, without transition, to hold them and isolating them to some extent, it can't be good for them,\" said Kampusch, now 20, in an interview with Austrian TV station Puls 4. \"I believe it might have been even better to leave them where they were, but that was probably impossible. This case is not like mine, where that was not my environment. They were born there and I can imagine that there is a strong attachment to that place.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Austrian family held captive in a cellar will take years to recover, doctors say .\nFamily are undergoing treatment at a local psychiatric clinic .\nChildren kept underground may never lead normal lives, psychiatrist warns .\nFamily have been offered opportunity to adopt new identities .","id":"33ea674fce31a87721283b7f6dd78d1753a4aac8"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Gene Seymour has written about movies, music and culture for The New York Times, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly and The Washington Post. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Gene Seymour says we want to relive Michael Jackson's youth, not the sad and bizarre aspects of his later life. (CNN) -- Seconds after the news first hit the airwaves, your own shock merged with everyone else's in the immediate vicinity. And you could feel it rolling through the rest of the planet like a runaway diesel. As with most things you neither expected nor wanted to hear, you thought that there had to be more to it than what was being said. Especially because it was Michael Jackson, who seemed too dominant, too other-worldly and, more than anything, too complex to be brought down by anything as simple as cardiac arrest. And also because most of what we'd been hearing about Jackson's personal life over the last decade and a half had been bizarre, sordid and sad. It was to those aspects -- the deepening isolation, the child molestation trials, the financial woes, the \"Wacko Jacko\" moments like that 2002 interlude on the balcony with the baby -- that the talking heads on TV devoted tentative attention within minutes of the official announcement. The commentariat presumed it had a responsibility to poke those embers for clues of something beyond the single, dreadful fact of Jackson's death. Even if we didn't care for this conversation, we had been conditioned by the most recent events to wonder, deep down, if there was something stranger or more unpleasant attached to his passing. But acceptance came easier -- and sooner -- than any of us expected last night. And when it did, we wanted the talking heads to go away and leave us with our memories ... and nothing but the good ones, thank you very much. We wanted the loop of performances and hit singles. Retrieve for us, please, the electricity of the 10-year-old wunderkind who literally leapt into our consciousness in that shattering year of 1968 with \"I Want You Back\" and \"ABC.\" Let us see that transfiguring moment 15 years later at the Motown Anniversary TV special when Jackson seized dominion over the pop firmament with his shattering, moon-walking recital of \"Billie Jean.\" We wanted the videos -- \"Beat It,\" \"Bad,\" \"Thriller,\" \"Black and White\" and all that incredible, unearthly dancing. That was all we needed to see and hear. Save the armchair psychoanalysis for later. Maybe, much later. No one would have understood or indulged such yearnings as quickly or as intuitively as Michael Jackson. As surely as he was the King of Pop, Jackson was also a high priest of wish fulfillment. His performances as both precocious child and child-like adult made growing up or growing old the only unimaginable things in the known world. This Peter Pan mystique even became part of the Jackson brand to the point of naming his combination of retreat and theme park the Neverland Ranch. The promise of eternal youth was embedded in pop music way before Jackson and his four brothers emerged from the grit of Gary, Indiana, to jump-start Motown's winning streak. But it's when that promise expands to shatter boundaries and expand possibilities beyond Top-40 parameters that pop music becomes pop phenomena. And Michael Jackson, in the early 1980s, was a pop phenomenon powerful enough to pool together previously polarized audiences -- heavy metal, disco, funk -- and get them all on the same bandwagon. Only twice before -- with Elvis Presley and the Beatles -- had the cultural landscape been changed as decisively by a pop star. It hasn't happened since -- and may never happen again. Certainly, \"Thriller,\" the best-selling LP of all time, won't be surpassed because LPs have been superseded twice over by discs and downloads. Jackson's off-stage public diffidence gave the impression that his transformations of both self and society were all happening by off-hand magic. But his wispy speaking voice belied a steely resolve to control his image, his artistry and his product. The energy he devoted to keep what he considered \"negativity\" at bay was meant to nurture his audience's dreams of release -- and to maintain his primacy in the pop marketplace. Even the eccentricities, at the peak of his influence, seemed calculated to promote, if not perpetuate, his product. But time (by far, Jackson's worst and most formidable enemy) couldn't stop even his most devoted admirers from wondering what drove him to change his appearance so drastically over the years. Or why he wanted to both save the world and hide from it with the same ferocious intensity. If he'd been able to stop the clock at 1985 or even 1987 (the year of \"Bad\"), life would have been so much easier. The magic faded. Setbacks and embarrassments were occasionally offset by a tour or show that transported us back to the better, happier times when we were willing to overlook real life for our most elemental dreams of release. We seek those dreams even more urgently now that we know, for certain, that we'll never again see him on stage -- the one place where he was happiest and most assured. But perhaps the hardest dream to give up -- and the reason so many people in so many countries were almost physically leveled by yesterday's news -- is of finding common ground and sharing common awe in a song or a dance or a single act of outreaching, transcendent audacity. However divided (or worse) we may have felt about Michael Jackson at the end, we cherish how he brought out the best in us at the beginning. Whatever the days ahead, that will be more than enough for now, forever. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gene Seymour.","highlights":"Gene Seymour: We want to relive the promise of Jackson's eternal youth .\nHe says the final years of his life were bizarre and sad .\nSeymour: Jackson pooled heavy metal, disco and funk audiences .\nJackson's \"Thriller\" LP will never be surpassed, he says .","id":"192f7eceefb2176d10b375533d6267e000e13250"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Roya Hakakian is the author of \"Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran.\" Her web site is http:\/\/www.royahakakian.com\/live\/. Roya Hakakian says she lived through an earlier moment when Iranians thought freedom was at hand. (CNN) -- Since last Saturday, the images of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman who died on the streets of Tehran, keep playing before my eyes. When I don't look at the clip on my computer, it runs on its own in my mind's eye. What has me so riveted is not entirely empathy, the intuitive human response the images are bound to stir in everyone. There is also something less noble at work in me, an obsession with seeing my own face upon hers. Each time I see her die, I die along with her. I, too, was born and raised in Iran. My coming-of-age years coincided with the Iranian revolution of 1979. I, too, was on the streets, watching and rooting for the demonstrators. Nothing seemed more natural, more compelling than being on the streets, calling for freedom, breathing the intoxicating, the dangerously euphoric Tehran air. I was 12 in 1978, yet I was as undaunted as any adult. Nothing, least of all my pleading parents, could keep me away from the rooftops at 9 p.m. Amid the night's dark, where the crowds were as indiscernible as ghosts, the shouts of \"Allah-o-akbar\" rose from every rooftop like smoke rising from an invisible bonfire. We were all victims of the flames and the very arsonists at once. We were burning in the fire of our own making. Thirty years hence that fire still burns in Iran, because moments before her death, Neda Agha Soltan cried: \"I'm on fire!\" I am entranced by her because she and I are the only two possibilities of the dictatorial narrative: Death or escape. She died. I escaped. I live. And because I live I cannot escape her death -- the memory of her large eyes languidly drifting to one side, then freezing upon the abyss. Survival of this kind brings its own eternal damnation: A bifurcated existence lived in the here and now, but perpetually haunted by there and then. Making peace with the past would have been easier, if only the essence of that past had not been in doubt, if its dignity were intact. But in my first American ride in my first American taxi cab, I learned the staggering counter-narrative that I would hear again and again, dominating the western perceptions of Iran, when the driver asked: \"So, where are you from?\" \"I come from Iran,\" I said, in broken English. \"Eeran,\" he asked with uncertainty. \"Eeeran?\" Then passing his fingertips across his throat like a knife, he said, \"Eeran ... Khomeini?\" In that, 2,500 years of civilization was reduced to one vile name and the invocation of a throat being slit. It did not take long for me to learn that between the Iran that I knew and the Iran that Americans knew was a discrepancy as vast as the waters that separated us. I soon learned that the images of a fist-throwing mob of angry men and darkly veiled women burning the Uncle Sam effigies were the only images that most Americans had of Iran. Those images had little in common with the Iran I knew -- greater in numbers and in the grip of the same fist-throwing crowds. With Neda's death, the Iran I know finally has a face. The sequence of her death is the sequence of our nation's struggle in the past 30 years: The democratic future that 1979 was to deliver collapsing, then trails of blood -- that of so many executed or assassinated -- streaming across its bright promise. The film of Neda's death is the abbreviated history of contemporary Iran. If history is a contest among competing narratives and icons, let the image of a young woman lying on the ground endure as that of Iran today. Let it loom so large to wipe away the memory of the thugs marching American hostages out of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Let the scarf that loosens and falls off her head to expose her dark hair be emblazoned in our memories as the metaphor for the plight of Iran's women. As if her death were not tragic enough, the authorities have banned all mosques throughout Tehran from holding prayer services for Neda. Silence in the face of such inhumanity is a sin as great as the one a war could spur. This Friday evening throughout Iran, people will be lighting candles in memory of Neda and others who have died in the past few days. Here in the United States, I hope you join me and thousands of my compatriots in a memorial campaign for Neda by asking your religious and spiritual leaders to include a prayer for Neda and other fallen Iranians of the recent days in this week's services. For 30 years, Iran's regime has appropriated God. Let us reclaim God from those who deny a family the right to properly mourn the death of their child through our prayers and help bring peace to a tormented nation. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roya Hakakian.","highlights":"Roya Hakakian: I was a girl in Iran during the revolution of 1979 .\nShe says she saw the hopes of democracy and freedom quashed .\nHakakian: Join me in praying for Neda and other fallen Iranians .","id":"9d38743af3b241a1fdfa9903526b909867a8a638"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including \"Off the Wall,\" \"Thriller\" and \"Bad\" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed. He was 50. He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center. As news of his death spread, stunned fans began to react and remember one of the most remarkable careers in music.","highlights":"Video shows ambulance rushing the pop star to the hospital .\nCrowds gather at the hospital where Jackson was rushed .\nA.J. Hammer: This \"is big as it gets\"; Rev. Al Sharpton: He was \"a trailblazer\"\nMotown founder Berry Gordy Jr. says he's \"numbed and shocked\" at the news .","id":"008fc24ca9f4c48a54623bef423a3f2f8db8451a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From street corners, buses and subways to phone calls, e-mails, text messages, online posts and tweets, people around the world commented, pondered, and paid tribute to pop legend Michael Jackson, who died Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles. Pedestrians in Sydney, Australia, watch a TV screen announcing Michael Jackson's death on Friday. Around midnight at London's Leicester Square, as news of Jackson's death spread, Luis Carlos Ameida and his friends were surrounding a car listening to the star's music. Ameida said he'd gotten tickets to see Jackson at his \"This Is It\" concerts beginning on July 13 in London. \"From a young age, you know, I used to have the video game,\" said Ameida. \"I used to have the white suit, and I'd wear it on my birthday. I used to moonwalk ... I remember my mum used to send me to lessons to be like Michael Jackson. And when I heard the news, I had tears in my eyes because of that connection I had because of all the songs he used to play.\" In Glastonbury, southern England, where one of the world's largest music festivals was to kick off Friday morning, initial rumors and then confirmation of Jackson's death added to confusion and then shock among festival goers. Watch British fans react \u00bb . \"As I was walking back through the crowd it was the word on everyone's lips,\" Sally Anne Aldous, 29, told CNN over the phone. Reaction from around the world in pictures \u00bb . Backstage, Michael Jackson songs were being played in tribute, and fans talked of an impromptu memorial for the late singer at the \"Stone Circle,\" a neolithic monument in the grounds of the venue. In Adelaide, Australia, Christos Winter of the MJ Fan Club had organized a petition to bring Jackson to tour there. \"It didn't matter if you were 60, 40 or 20 like I am. Michael Jackson's music just spoke to everyone ... It was always uplifting and happy music,\" Winter told CNN. On a street in New Delhi, India, 31-year-old Sachina Verma said on Friday, \"Any of the baby boomer generation or, you know, people from my age or our time, I mean they have grown up on his music. Literally, people have been inspired by his dance movements, by his music. Tributes appeared on YouTube and CNN's iReport. \"I remember growing up in the Middle East, influenced, enjoying his music, waiting for his albums,\" CNN iReporter Rany Freeman, an Egyptian living in Canada, said in a video submission. \"Regardless to his strange behaviors or questionable events that happened to his life, let's remember him as the great entertainer he was.\" Another iReporter, Peter Maiyoh, a Kenyan student studying in the U.S. city of Kansas, Missouri, called Jackson \"the voice of change,\" saying \"he was there before Tiger Woods, before Michael Jordan, even before Barack Obama ... I hope people remember him for the work he did.\" On a Facebook page dedicated to Michael Jackson, fans across the world left hundreds of messages in languages ranging from French and Spanish to Japanese and Hebrew. Watch fan reaction in Tokyo, Japan \u00bb . \"SHANGHAI WILL MISS YOU! NOT JUST SHANGHAI!..EVERYONE IN THIS WORLD WILL MISS YOU! WE LOVE YOU MICHAEL!!!\" wrote Vrishti Bhowmik. Kase Ng, a 24-year-old manicurist and member of the Michael Jackson Hong Kong Fan Club, told CNN by phone she had been planning to go with four friends to his August 1 concert in London. Watch fans in Hong Kong, China, react \u00bb . Expressing sadness and shock over Jackson's death, Ng recalled being inspired by an interview he once gave to Oprah Winfrey. \"He said if you have power, try to give it back and help the others, and I will try to do that,\" she said. At a music store in Beijing, China, Jackson songs were being played, and his albums were put on special display. \"I rather enjoyed it (his music) because in my family my brother's generation likes his music,\" said customer Xu Wei. \"Many, many people in China like him a lot.\" Watch reaction from around the world . Although Jackson never played in mainland China, his music was among the first in the West made available there, as the peak of his popularity during the 1980s coincided with the opening up of the communist country. On Friday, Chinese netizens had set up a Web site memorial to Jackson, and on Fanfou.com, China's version of Twitter, the pop star has become the most popular tag. Fanfou user Layla Suen, or \"Leilajiang,\" of Shenyang city in Liaoning province wrote about her memories of Jackson: \"When I was only four, my brother demanded that I learn his 'Thriller.' It was the second song I've ever learnt (the first one being something taught by the kindergarten teacher). Everytime I sing it at my kindergarten it would scare a bunch of little children.\" Chinese blogger and media commentator Michael Anti wrote on his Facebook page: \"So sad about Jackson's Death, for my English first name is really named after him when I was a freshman.\" Ethan Zuckerman, a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, tweeted in the hour after Jackson's death was announced, \"My twitter search script sees roughly 15% of all posts on Twitter mentioning Michael Jackson. Never saw Iran or swine flu reach over 5%.\" As Jackson's death quickly overshadowed all else Friday, commentators worried that the world would forget about political developments in Iran. \"Am I the only one who thinks that Michael Jackson's passing is the worst thing that could have happened to the protesters in Iran?\" wrote Melissa Cohen, or mcohen00, on Twitter. CNN's Emily Chang, Jaime FlorCruz, Miranda Leitsinger, Mairi Mackay, Linnie Rawlinson and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fans across the world remark on Jackson's music .\nPostings on Twitter express concern Jackson will overshadow Iran .\n\"I remember growing up in the Middle East ... waiting for his albums,\" iReporter says .\nChinese netizens set up Web site memorial for Jackson .","id":"af7116521155625b7b27a02b1b68d622fd3f6690"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- There are two good ways to buy your new car or truck at a reasonable low price and avoid all of the negotiating games and hassles: . 1. Buy through the Internet . Buying your new or used car or truck through the Internet is the easiest and most hassle-free way to make the purchase. All you have to do is choose the vehicle brand and model you wish to purchase as well as provide some basic contact information such as your name and e-mail address. In return, you'll receive - via e-mail - low bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area for the exact vehicle you want to buy. Compare the various selling prices and find the lowest one. Then, simply go direct to that dealership's Internet Department, sign the papers and drive your new car home - no negotiating, no hassles. To begin the process, get your free price quotes from AOL Autos. It only takes a few minutes. This service is totally free and you are under no obligation or pressure to buy. AOL, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner. Within 24 hours, you'll receive your bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area. Once you've compared the various prices and found the lowest one, you then have four good options: . \u2022 You can go to the dealership that gave you the lowest price, sign the papers and drive your new car home -- no hassles, no negotiating. AOL Autos: Best deals of the month . \u2022 You can try to negotiate the lowest price with the dealership in order to get the price even lower. There's nothing that says you can't. AOL Autos: Aggressive car buying tactics . \u2022 You can shop the lowest price around to other dealerships to see if any of them are willing to beat it. AOL Autos: Which dealers treat you best? \u2022 You can do nothing. If you feel unsure or uncertain, then set it aside for a while. You are not obligated to buy anything you don't want. By getting these low bottom-line selling prices via the Internet, you're avoiding the car salesman's entire negotiating game altogether. And you're buying your car at about the same price you would expect after lengthy negotiations. It's certainly the fastest and easiest way to beat the car salesman. AOL Autos: New rules to car buying . 2. Buy through the dealership's Fleet Department . Almost every dealership has a division called the \"Fleet Department.\" It usually consists of only a handful of salespeople who specialize in selling fleets of cars -- large orders of several vehicles direct to businesses. This department is authorized by the dealership to sell their cars at bottom-line non-negotiable prices. The prices they offer are about the same as you would expect from an online price quote or after lengthy negotiations. A secret of the car business is that many dealerships' Fleet Departments also sell direct to the public. By the rules of the game, however, they can't advertise to the public since they don't want to compete with the dealership's retail sales team. So to buy from the Fleet Department, you have to specifically ask. To buy your vehicle direct from the dealership's Fleet Department, simply call the dealership and ask to speak with the Fleet Manager. When you get him on the line, explain to him that you're ready to buy a car and you'd like to buy it from him. If he asks you what business you are associated with, tell him where you work. He'll probably be happy to set up an appointment with you. When you arrive at the dealership, the Fleet Manager will show you the vehicle, allow you to test drive it, and then bring you to the office to discuss price. With absolutely no negotiations, he'll offer you a reasonable bottom-line non-negotiable selling price for the vehicle. If the price he gives you falls within the pre-set limits of your buying goal and you're satisfied with the deal, then you can buy the car. No pressure, no games, no hassles. If for some reason, you don't want to buy the vehicle, you are under no obligation. Simply thank the salesman for his time and leave on good terms. Then, if you'd like, you can visit (or call) the Fleet Departments of other dealerships to compare prices. The selling prices offered by the various Fleet Departments can vary depending upon their inventories. AOL Autos: Have a car shopping game plan .","highlights":"You can solicit best price quotes from car dealers over the Internet .\nYou can shop the lowest price to other dealers to see if they will match or beat it .\nIndividuals can also buy car from dealer's Fleet Department .","id":"22fcc679bafcf54a01a486e5a3f3da1439941740"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One female fan on Twitter said \"Off the Wall\" was the first cassette tape she owned. \"I have it on CD now and still listen to it,\" she said. Many people found out about Michael Jackson's death through Web sites like Twitter and Facebook. \"I saw the Victory Tour at Dodger Stadium in 1984,\" posted a man on his Facebook status update. \"Anybody else?\" And on CNN's iReport.com, a tearful Melissa Fazli of Yorba Linda, California, posted an emotional video. \"I grew up with Michael Jackson,\" she said, choking back tears. \"This is just a very sad day.\" From Facebook to Flickr, Twitter to YouTube, stunned and saddened fans came together across the vast online universe to share their memories of the iconic pop star, who died Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles. By Thursday evening, 9 of the 10 top trending topics on micro-blogging site Twitter were about Michael Jackson. Because traditional media outlets were slow to confirm the news of Jackson's death, many people appeared to find out through messages on social-networking sites. Some of those linked to celebrity gossip site TMZ.com, which was among the first to report the news. \"Damn ... it's official,\" posted one Twitter user, shortly after the news of Jackson's death was confirmed. \"RIP to the BIGGEST star the world has EVER seen.\" Another woman vowed in a tweet never to change her cell phone's ringtone, which was set to \"P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing),\" a hit from Jackson's classic \"Thriller\" album. Sony BMG, Jackson's music label, removed from its Web site a list of dates for the singer's European tour, which was to kick off next month in London. Within minutes, Jackson's Wikipedia page had been updated to reflect his death, with biographical information changed to the past tense. On Flickr, fans posted images from all phases of Jackson's career, from his child-star, large-Afro days to moody publicity shots to dramatic photos of a costumed, windblown Jackson in concert. While most fans celebrated Jackson's buoyant music and dynamic stage presence, others viewed him as a tragic figure with an increasingly bizarre public image who, in his later years, battled child molestation charges and mounting debt. One grieving fan posted an image on Flickr of herself, head in hands. \"He was ... amazing. And had amazing songs. :( What's so weird is that I was singing his songs today before I found out about this,\" she wrote. \"At least he'll be safe now. Away from all the troubles and stuff. :)\" On Twitter and other sites, several online mourners posted \"Never Can Say Goodbye,\" echoing the title of one of the Jackson 5's early hits. Another fan quoted from Jackson's \"Man in the Mirror,\" saying, \"If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, then make a change.\" The swirling news may have overwhelmed Facebook, which was inaccessible at times Thursday evening. When the site was viewable, people filled their status updates with Jackson memories, lyrics and links to his videos. Others remarked on the coincidence of two pop icons, Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, dying within hours of each other. \"Johnny [Carson] is going to have a great show in heaven tonight,\" wrote a Los Angeles man on Facebook. Ed [McMahon]'s back, and he's got two great new guests.\"","highlights":"Stunned fans came together across the Web to share memories of Michael Jackson .\nThursday evening, 9 of the 10 top trending topics on Twitter were about Jackson .\nMany people appeared to find out about his death through social-networking sites .\nSony BMG removes a calendar for the singer's concert tour from Jackson's Web site .","id":"8160ac0cf16fa777c2e6ff97df62cc9c82e52a1c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A huge crowd gathered in London, UK on Friday for a mass \"moonwalk\" -- paying tribute to Michael Jackson by dancing to his most iconic songs and replicating his famous walk. Two young fans who say Michael Jackson meant a lot to them donned self-made T-shirts at the event in London. The horde of people gathered on the streets outside Liverpool Street train station, one of the city's major transport hubs, and burst out into cheers, chants and dances to the tunes of \"Billie Jean,\" \"Bad\" and \"Thriller.\" Life-long Jackson fan Milo Yiannopoulos organized the moonwalk, the singer's trademark backwards shuffle, by sending messages via Twitter and Facebook. His messages went \"viral\" --spreading like wildfire around the Internet -- as the number of people wanting to join his impromptu \"flash mob\" event far exceeded his expectations: . \"I don't know what I've unleashed here,\" Yiannopoulos, who said he doesn't even know how to moonwalk, told CNN. He came up with the ideas \"because of all of the stuff people are saying about Michael Jackson -- surgeries, molestation etc. -- I wanted to do something to remind people how great he really is and remind them of his music.\" But those who were there did not seem to need much reminding of Jackson's greatness. \"He is the biggest idol in my life. Unfortunately, I did not grow up with all his best hits, but he has been so important for me. I am very sad,\" said 13-year-old Paul Graham, who wore a self-made Michael Jackson \"Rest in Peace\" T-shirt. See images of Jackson fans at the moonwalk event \u00bb . Another of the many young fans there was 17-year-old George Webster, who spontaneously performed a perfect Michael Jackson dance routine for a cheering audience. He told CNN: \"This is a celebration. We are here to remember Michael Jackson's best moments.\" And the laughing crowd did indeed seem to be celebrating, rather than mourning: . Hanging off lampposts and standing atop telephone booths, people were brandishing everything from white paper gloves to black hats and face masks. Watch video of the crowd singing to Billie Jean \u00bb . British television presenter Gail Porter was also at the tribute: \"As soon as I saw it on Twitter, I thought 'let's go and have a dance',\" she told CNN while twittering away on her cell phone. The gathering started off to a rocky start, as the short notice had left London city police unsure about how to handle it and what to expect. They were overheard telling organizer Yiannopoulos that they would not allow him to do the moonwalk outside the station and that he had to limit his gathering to 300 people. Eventually the crowd was allowed to gather outside, attracting many more tourists, commuters and passers-by to join in the event. \"I want to thank the police for being so cool,\" Yiannopoulos told the audience. \"You guys are great, let's continue dancing.\" More tributes are now expected to take place around the world and Austria has already replicated London's moonwalk event with their own on Friday.","highlights":"A huge crowd gathered in London, UK on Friday for a mass \"moonwalk\"\nThe crowd paid tribute to the Michael Jackson by dancing to his famous tunes .\nThe celebratory event was organized through Twitter and Facebook .","id":"a3be7504e56588505bf42864b40e5c6d2b242698"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Two cable powerhouses have announced an ambitious pilot program that aims to convince their customers that, actually, TV on the web should not be free. Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, speaks at the NCTA conference in Washington. With a service called TV Everywhere, Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers access to \"premium\" television content via broadband, and later cellphone connections. To begin with, 5,000 Comcast subscribers will begin testing the system next month, giving them access to Time Warner's TBS and TNT channels on their computers, and the same channels' video-on-demand catalogs on their cable boxes. If you made peace long ago with the idea of paying a monthly cable bill, this probably sounds great. It means watching your existing subscription on new screens without paying additional fees or buying more hardware. (Of course, as consumers adopt TV Everywhere, they can probably expect price increases.) But if you prefer to watch your television for free on ad-supported sites like Hulu while paying only for the internet connection that delivers it, you could be in for a rude awakening. TV Everywhere represents an alternative -- and possible threat -- to the popular Hulu model. If the pilot program impresses the group -- and proves to other networks that its user-authentication system is secure -- Comcast and Time Warner expect the other television programmers, ISPs and mobile providers to join, giving all cable subscribers a way to watch the content they pay for on their televisions using any broadband-connected computer or authenticated cellphone. Already \"at least 92 percent of Americans qualify to watch this for free online,\" according to Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner. For these subscribers, TV Everywhere represents a potential win. The only question is whether they will keep paying for the old cable subscription model as their viewing habits shift online. There's nothing to stop television networks from putting their content on both Hulu and TV Everywhere, because TV Everywhere's contract will be non-exclusive, according to Bewkes. However, given the choice between Hulu and TV Everywhere, television programmers have an incentive to go with the latter. Only the TV Everywhere model promises to port yesterday's lucrative business model onto today's platforms. And that, according to some critics, is exactly the problem. \"[TV Everywhere] raises substantial anti-competitive issues by restricting the availability of programming to the favored distribution methods,\" said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of the public interest group Public Knowledge. \"Under the TV Everywhere plan, no other program distributors would be able to emerge, and no consumers will be able to 'cut the cord' because they find what they want online. As a result, consumers will be the losers. \"In addition, we are concerned that this program violates the open nature of the internet. By adding this additional toll lane, Comcast and Time Warner want to create their own 'managed channel' within the internet and turn the internet into their own private cable channel.\" So, what about Hulu? Will its deals fall through given this new option? \"There will be some part [of Time Warner's content] that will be out there [on Hulu], said Bewkes.\"Short-form content, I think, will continue to be available -- promotional content will continue to be available.\" However, only cable subscribers will be able to access other content online -- through officially licensed avenues, anyway. Bewkes added that some other television programmers have avoided Hulu \"for security concerns and because they didn't like the model,\" but that they will give TV Everywhere a chance. \"Consumers vote every single month with their pocketbook,\" he added. \"They don't have to subscribe to cable. They don't have to pay for these services, yet they do. The number of people paying for subscription television has gone up and up and up every single quarter that we've been in the business.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers online access to tv content .\nProgram is called TV Everywhere and will begin testing next month .\nTV Everywhere represents alternative -- and possible threat -- to popular Hulu model .\nSome of Time Warner's content will remain on Hulu.com .","id":"0cf3e8bd130f83305d53c4a886136e95fd4ba696"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The teenage niece of golf superstar Tiger Woods has failed to make the cut in her first professional tournament. Cheyenne Woods was handed entry into the Wegmans tournament on a sponsor's invite. Cheyenne Woods was four strokes shy of qualifying for the weekend rounds of the LPGA Tour's Wegmans event at Locust Hill in Rochester, New York. The 18-year-old had to complete her second round on Saturday along with half of the 140-player field due to delays of almost five hours following thunderstorms in the area. Competing on a sponsor's invite, the college amateur followed up her opening 75 with a two-over-par 74 to be well down the field. She had been two-under for the round after 10 holes on Friday, but fell back again with a triple-bogey at the par-four 12th before finishing strongly with a birdie. Cheyenne is the daughter of world No. 1 Tiger's half-brother, Earl Jnr. Defending champion Eun-Hee Ji also missed the cut after completing a 71 which saw her seven over the card. South Korean Shin Jiyai had led by three strokes overnight after posting a 68 which gave her a 36-hole total of 11-under-par 133. However, Morgan Pressel reduced that advantage to just a single stroke when she picked up two birdies to complete a 66, leaving her one shot ahead of third-placed fellow American Stacy Lewis.","highlights":"Cheyenne Woods four strokes shy of qualifying for final rounds of Wegmans event .\nThe 18-year-old completed a weather-delayed second round of 74 on Saturday .\nThe college amateur opened her debut LPGA Tour tournament with a 75 .\nPlaying on sponsor's invite, she is daughter of Tiger Woods' half-brother .","id":"4e1c51c804e3cc13b06736676fa5e1e180ca47db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sharp-witted. Direct. In control. Loyal. Jenny Sanford, here with her husband, was a Wall Street executive before she married Mark Sanford. That's how friends describe Jenny Sanford, the wife of Gov. Mark Sanford, who confessed to the nation in a rambling news conference that he was having an affair with a woman in Argentina. Jenny Sanford, unlike so many wives of cheating politicians, was not there facing the cameras, standing beside her husband. A reporter asked the governor if he and his wife of 20 years were separated. \"I'm here, and she's there,\" he replied. As romantic e-mails between her husband and his mistress were published by a local newspaper Thursday, the state's first lady, a former Wall Street executive, stayed far away from reporters. She was at the family's home on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina with her four sons and a few friends. \"Don't you know that is what Jenny Sanford is about? That is what is authentic about Jenny Sanford. She is not going to humiliate herself by standing next to a story,\" said Cyndi Mosteller, a friend of the Sanfords since 1992 and the former first vice chairwoman of the South Carolina GOP. \"She will stand next to Mark emotionally, but she cannot stand in the glare of others,\" Mosteller continued. \"She is out there taking a dignified road, one that is defined by principle, even if her heart might have difficulty following that principle. But her overriding priority is to protect her children.\" Jenny Sanford released a lengthy statement late Wednesday making clear she had learned of her husband's infidelity before his recent secret trip to Buenos Aires. His whereabouts were a mystery for six days, leaving his family in the dark and creating a power vacuum and considerable confusion in the Capitol, with aides telling reporters he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. \"When I found out about my husband's infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage,\" she wrote. \"We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago. \"This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage. During this short separation it was agreed that Mark would not contact us. I kept this separation quiet out of respect of his public office and reputation, and in hopes of keeping our children from just this type of public exposure.\" Mosteller's brother-in-law was with Jenny Sanford on Thursday as the e-mails penned to \"Maria\" became public. The messages from Mark Sanfordcompliment the woman on her \"tan lines\" and \"gentle kisses.\" The e-mails were published by The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina's capital, which said the governor's office confirmed they are authentic. When contacted by CNN, the governor's office would neither confirm nor deny their authenticity. \"[The e-mails] are almost like reading a novel that you would embarrassed to buy,\" Mosteller said. \"To be one of his four children and know that is there for the world to see, it is incredible to all of us.\" Jenny Sanford grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and earned a degree in finance from Georgetown University. She met Mark Sanford when they worked for investment firms in New York, she at Lazard Freres and he at Goldman Sachs. The two married and moved to his native South Carolina, and she managed his campaign for Congress in 1994. \"Mark started out with five other opponents, and he didn't really have a shot. That was the opinion of most people,\" Mosteller said. \"But she and Mark worked together and turned that thing around so that candidate three, four and five ended up throwing their support behind him, and he won.\" The two are equals intellectually, according to people who know them. She went on to manage his gubernatorial campaign in 2002, turning her home into campaign headquarters. Jenny Sanford was more than a visible first lady of South Carolina; she was involved in the finances of her husband's office to an extent that drew heated criticism from his opponents. She also took a $70,000 deficit from the operations of the governor's mansion and put its finances into the black. \"I pretty much am in his office in the mornings most days, and I do pretty much anything he wants me to do for him. I help to bridge the gap between things that have been commonplace themes in his life and make sure everybody in the office is on pace with his agenda,\" Jenny Sanford told Charleston's Post and Courier in June 2005. The governor told the newspaper that his wife is \"particularly good with financial analysis [and] working with numbers.\" She took up health as a key issue in her role as first lady, advocating nutrition, exercise and cancer prevention, serving on major boards and speaking at various functions to raise funds for disease research. \"This is a classy woman who lacks pretension,\" Mosteller said. \"I took a road trip with her last year, and she just automatically got into the back seat. When we were making a lot of appearances, and the schedules were hectic, she called and said, 'I've figured out that the key is changing your deodorant.' \"Jenny is someone you can talk politics with, you can talk about grand issues with, and you can also discuss deodorant,\" Mosteller said. \"She's a remarkable, classy woman with a lot of integrity who is trying to keep it together.\"","highlights":"Friend: Jenny Sanford, former Wall Street executive, is avoiding media .\nGov. Mark Sanford's wife ran his political campaigns, was major force in his career .\nGovernor's e-mails called \"novel that you would be embarrassed to buy\"","id":"b738c1c285ef913bf6f1bcd7a71337f90581afb8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I was a high school student in 1983, when the video for \"Thriller\" was released, getting plenty of air time on MTV. By then, the network's \"M\" could just as easily have stood for Michael. It was an event. At a time when MTV was criticizing for not featuring black artists, Michael Jackson's success changed all that. I can remember getting together with a group of friends to watch the premiere like it was a new movie release. The video did not disappoint. Once again Michael disregarded all conventions of the genre and not just redefined, but completely re-imagined, what a music video could be. But most people don't know that the album broke new ground in a non-musical way, too. Viewers today of MTV, with its steady stream of reality shows like \"Real World 22 - Cancun\" and \"16 and Pregnant,\" might forget that, when it started nearly three decades ago, MTV was all music, all day. Actually, it wasn't really all music. It was just what MTV considered rock music. By the late 1970s, radio formats had essentially resegregated the music world. When MTV launched in 1981, it modeled its playlist on the popular album-oriented rock radio format of the day, which meant that music by black artists was effectively excluded from the network. You might see the occasional Jimi Hendrix clip, but there was no room for funk, disco, R&B or that new emerging form -- rap. It wasn't long before the public took note of the glaring absence of African-American artists. MTV was called to task on the air in 1983 for its lack of black artists by none other than David Bowie. At about the same time, MTV famously refused to air Rick James' \"Superfreak\" video. It defended itself by claiming it wasn't a rock song. Michael Jackson changed all that. Jackson opened the door with the video for \"Billie Jean,\" which was simply too good for its time to be overlooked. He blew that door wide open with \"Beat It,\" which featured a guitar solo by the reigning rock god of the day, Eddie Van Halen. Jackson succeeded in this not just because he was a great singer, but because of his musical daring. \"Beat It\" was a song that was incapable of being slotted among the genres of the day. Yes, it had all the signatures of a rock song -- overdriven guitars, a driving tempo and a searing solo. But it had more. It had a backbeat. You could dance to it. You wanted to dance to it. And the viewers loved it, regardless of their race or ethnicity. iReport.com: Share stories of Jackson's success, legacy . Jackson's effect on MTV was both immediate and permanent. His videos became cultural events and his success laid waste to the notion that white rock audiences wouldn't tune in for \"black\" music. In the aftermath of Jackson's breakthrough success, MTV helped usher rap into the mainstream with shows like \"Yo! MTV Raps,\" and black artists like Prince and Chaka Khan became mainstays of the network. It wasn't long before young people schooled on a diet that ranged from Public Enemy to AC\/DC began to experiment with what those genres would sound like if they were combined -- just as Jackson had done with \"Beat It.\" The outcome was some of the most interesting music of the next decade. Artists like Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, P.O.D. and Beck all owe a debt of gratitude to Jackson for creating a welcoming environment. And we as fans all owe him the acknowledgment reserved for those individuals whose achievements transcend their chosen field and reshape the world around us. Watch fans in Los Angeles react to Jackson's death \u00bb . I was always mournful about the sad spectacle his life became in recent years. But that should not detract from the meteor-like impact he had on popular culture at his peak. Michael Jackson was the Jackie Robinson of MTV. He disregarded the conventional categories of the day and created something that was both new and immediately accessible to millions of listeners. In so doing, he forced an industry still informed by stubborn prejudices to rethink itself. Most successful entertainers can ride in tandem with the zeitgeist for only so long before they drift away. Michael Jackson did more than that. He inhabited the zeitgeist and bent it to his will. No matter where his life may have gone after that, it cannot overshadow this transcendent moment.","highlights":"Michael Jackson's breakthrough success forced MTV to rethink itself .\nMTV had been criticized for not airing videos by black artists .\nMany viewers, regardless of race or ethnicity, loved Jackson's videos .","id":"53f963f3481c5232eea63613f08f66c5fff57dc1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- United States accident investigators are probing two recent failures of airspeed and altitude indications aboard Airbus A330s -- the same type of plane that crashed into the Atlantic nearly a month ago. Investigators are looking into incidents aboard two other Airbus A330s. The planes landed safely and there were no injuries or damage, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. One flight was between the United States and Brazil in May and the other between Hong Kong and Japan in June. The probes were launched in the aftermath of the June 1 crash in the Atlantic Ocean -- when Air France Flight 447 was flying to Paris, France, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All 228 people on board the plane, an A330, were killed. Investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as pitot tubes, among other factors, as a possible cause of the Flight 447 crash. That flight sent 24 automated error messages in the four minutes before it crashed, the head of the French accident investigation board, Paul-Louis Arslanian, has said. The error messages all indicate there were problems with on-board information about the plane's speed, which can cause some of the plane's instruments to stop functioning, Arslanian said. Search teams are looking for the bulk of the plane's wreckage and for its flight data recorders. The first of the two incidents being investigated by the NTSB happened May 21, when a TAM Airlines flight from Miami, Florida, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, experienced a loss of primary speed and altitude information while in flight, the NTSB said. \"Initial reports indicate that the flight crew noted an abrupt drop in indicated outside air temperature, followed by the loss of the Air Data Reference System and disconnections of the autopilot and autothrust, along with the loss of speed and altitude information,\" the NTSB said. The flight crew used backup instruments and the primary data was restored in about five minutes, the NTSB said. Another \"possibly similar\" incident happened June 23 on a Northwest Airlines flight between Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan, the NTSB said. Investigators from the NTSB are gathering data recorder information, monitoring system messages, crew statements and weather information, the NTSB said.","highlights":"Probe involves two failures of airspeed and altitude indications aboard A330s .\nOn June 1, an Air France A330 crashed into the Atlantic .\nInvestigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors in that crash .\nThe planes involved in the other two incidents landed safely .","id":"e7c88f96c859fe7d2c7c406bfe01a5106c5a0b34"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A sharply divided House of Representatives narrowly passed a White House-backed climate change bill Friday after hours of cajoling and arm-twisting by Democratic leaders among members worried about the legislation's potential economic and political fallout. The House of Representatives passes an energy bill that includes a \"cap-and-trade\" program on emissions. The bill passed 219-212, with virtually no Republican support. The bill would reduce nationwide greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a so-called \"cap-and-trade\" program under which companies would buy and sell emissions credits. Among other things, the bill would also require utilities to generate an increasing amount of power from renewable sources. Even before daybreak Friday, consternation over the bill brewed anew. The Democrats released a 301-page amendment to the bill at 3:09 a.m. Friday, drawing protest from Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. \"This is the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House of Representatives. Right here. This bill,\" Boehner said. The leaders of the House are customarily granted unlimited speaking time, but when the Boehner's speech went more than 2\u00bd hours, Democrats objected. \"Is this an attempt to try to get some people to leave on a close vote?\" asked Rep Henry Waxman, D-California, the bill's lead sponsor. Also Friday, the House of Representatives phone switchboard went down as conservative radio hosts and congressmen made direct pleas for voters to dial the Capitol to voice their opposition to the bill. \"Phone traffic has increased to a level where some callers are receiving an 'all circuits are busy now, please try back again later' message,\" communications director Jeff Ventura said via e-mail. Congressional sources said Democrats were hoping their constituents would also attempt to match phone calls opposed to the bill with phone calls for the bill. \"Call your congressman, right now!\" urged Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, from the House floor as the chamber seemed near a vote. Ventura said the bill was likely behind the phone-line crash. \"The suspected cause ... is believed to be interest and inquiries regarding the expected vote on the climate bill,\" he wrote. The House vote came one day after President Obama made an urgent plea for congressional approval in what could be an early make-or-break test of his young administration. \"Now is the time for us to lead,\" Obama said during an appearance Thursday in the White House Rose Garden. \"We cannot be afraid of the future. We cannot be prisoners to the past.\" The president said the bill will spark a \"clean energy transformation\" of the U.S. economy and \"make possible the creation of millions of new jobs.\" \"Make no mistake,\" he emphasized. \"This is a jobs bill.\" Several moderate and conservative Democrats indicated that they received heavy constituent pressure in the final hours to buck their party leadership and vote against the bill. \"I can't begin to tell you how many calls we've received,\" said Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas. \"And it's disproportionately vote 'no.'\" Gonzalez, who voted \"yes,\" believes special interest groups generated many of the calls on both sides, including the late surge of negative feedback. However, Gonzalez also said Obama tried to counter much of that pressure by personally reaching out to swing members since Thursday night. Republicans have argued the bill would have the unintended consequence of devastating the country's battered industrial base while pushing polluting industries to countries with lower environmental standards. Having cleared the House, the bill now faces an unclear future in the Senate, where Democratic leaders have held off on introducing their own version of the legislation. CNN's Evan Glass contributed to this report.","highlights":"Democratic leaders, Obama twist arms to get politically dicey bill passed .\nBill would reduce nationwide greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020 .\nGOP says bill would drive polluting companies to less-regulated countries .\nBill faces unclear future in Senate, where it has not been introduced .","id":"1ab0e39e7dfea7c1bfe3873ed89ff84cf2eb1856"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Refugees are the most vulnerable people on Earth. They are fighting to survive.\" -- Angelina Jolie, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees goodwill ambassador . Children play in floodwater at a Pakistan refugee camp after floods displaced residents in August 2008. The world's population at the end of last year included 42 million displaced people, 80 percent of them in developing nations, according to a report this week by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Many of these refugees are living in minimal standards for shelter and are exposed daily to the harshest elements of weather, the report says. For example, in Pakistan, some 300,000 refugees are living outdoors, in tents or similar structures, said Michael Kocher, vice president of international programs for the International Rescue Committee. That part of the world has been hit hard by extreme weather over the past couple of months. First, extreme heat plagued Pakistan, with temperatures in May and June soaring past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). The heat is escalating the discomfort for many. \"People are living in cramped situations, often unsanitary situations, and it's very hot,\" Kocher said. \"In many places, there is not enough clean water or adequate sanitation. Heat exacerbates that problem.\" As World Refugee Day approaches -- it falls on Saturday this year -- the forecast calls for even more dramatic weather changes in the coming weeks. In Southeast Asia, long stretches of scorching temperatures are usually the prelude to the rainy, or monsoon, season. Watch Angelina Jolie talk to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the world's refugee problem \u00bb . The term \"monsoon\" refers to a seasonal reversal of wind that typically occurs in late June or early July. For countries like Pakistan and India, this change brings daily, nonstop downpours. The change in the weather is essential for local crops, according to John Fasullo, project scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. \"The Southeast Asian monsoon is the key source for regional agriculture,\" he told CNN. \"It provides the majority of the moisture to support food needs for one-half the world's population. ... It also brings a beneficial cooling of the temperatures.\" The problem is, monsoon rains can also cause devastating floods. Fasullo says the threat for flooding can be \"continual from late June through early September.\" In Pakistan, for example, where agencies have witnessed a large increase in displaced people over the past year, the monsoon of 2008 was particularly intense. If 2009 brings similar floods to the country, there will be a new threat for refugees exposed to the storms: mud. Watch how the monsoon is affecting refugees \u00bb . \"The camps are quite threadbare,\" Kocher said. \"Tents are held to the ground by rope. It's hard to keep people dry. The ground gets muddy, which can lead to dirty water and bad sanitation facilities.\" Vulnerability to nature's dangerous elements is not only a concern for people displaced in Pakistan. Refugees in Afghanistan are subject to brutal winters, while in Iraq, scorching heat and sandstorms are common challenges for those without sufficient shelter. Of World Refugee Day, actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie says, \"Please do not forget them, and remember them on this day.\" Here are answers to some commonly asked questions: . \u2022 How can I help world refugees that are exposed to the monsoon season and other weather dangers? Go to CNN.com\/ImpactYour World. There, you will find links to charities that help refugees and others in need. \u2022 Does the monsoon season affect the weather in the United States? Southern Arizona and parts of New Mexico see heavy rain during the North American monsoon season, which runs from June 15 through September 30. This time of year, the wind shifts, tapping into moisture from the Gulf of California and the Gulf of Mexico, and producing strong thunderstorms that bring the majority of the region's annual rainfall.","highlights":"As World Refugee Day approaches, monsoons could compound refugees' troubles .\nWorld contains 42 million displaced people -- 80 percent in developing nations .\nIn Pakistan, the 2008 monsoon season brought rains that flooded refugee camps .\nUN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie: \"Please do not forget them\"","id":"04a493862117e11b005ed42d3c23125c1b533dc3"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Kevin Fenton is director of the National Center for HIV\/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fenton has written for journals including The Lancet, AIDS, the British Medical Journal and the Journal of Infectious Diseases. After graduating from medical school, Fenton earned his Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his Ph.D. in Epidemiology from University College London. Dr. Kevin Fenton urges Americans to get tested for HIV. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Every 9\u00bd minutes someone's brother, mother, sister, father, or neighbor becomes infected with HIV in the United States. That's 56,000 people every year. But there's something we can all do to help protect ourselves and our partners from this disease -- get tested for HIV. In the fight against HIV, I can tell you that few things are more important than testing. It's an essential step in reducing the number of new HIV infections and extending the lives of those who are infected. Put simply, HIV testing saves lives. As a CDC official, I've spoken with hundreds of people who have made the decision to get tested. Many described the relief they felt when they found out they were HIV-negative. Thanks to the HIV test, they could take steps to make sure they and their partners stay that way. I've also met people who found out they were HIV-positive. Although initially worried about their diagnosis and their future, they were thankful they had their infection diagnosed early, and were able to live long, healthy and productive lives with HIV. They had the knowledge and will to protect their partners from infection, or to prevent their infants from becoming HIV infected. I recently met one young woman who learned about her HIV infection after being diagnosed during routine HIV testing in pregnancy. By getting tested early, and having access to effective treatment, her child was born without HIV, and she now has two healthy children. She is a living testament that life does not stop with this disease. Instead, knowledge of her HIV status along with effective treatment and care has given her the freedom, resolve and respect to make choices to protect her life and the lives of those she loves. Yet today, not everyone has benefited from knowing their HIV status. Far too many individuals with HIV don't know that they're infected. CDC estimates that one in five people with HIV in the United States is unaware of being infected. That's more than 200,000 Americans who may be transmitting the virus to others without knowing it, and who can't take advantage of HIV treatments that could prolong and improve the quality of their lives. As we mark National HIV Testing Day on Saturday, I strongly encourage all Americans to get tested for HIV. At CDC, our goal is to make HIV testing as routine as a blood pressure check. HIV testing has never been quicker, easier or more accessible. In fact, with rapid HIV tests, results can be available in as little as 20 minutes, and tests can be given in your doctor's office or other locations in your community, such as churches and college campuses. To ensure that all Americans know their HIV status, CDC recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV as part of routine medical care -- regardless of their perceived risk for infection. CDC also recommends that those at increased risk, such as sexually active gay and bisexual men, get tested at least annually. We are also working with our partners to bring HIV testing services directly to communities across the nation. Increased HIV testing will make it possible to significantly reduce the number of new infections. Research indicates the majority of new sexually transmitted HIV infections are transmitted by people who do not know they are HIV-infected. Studies also show that most people who test HIV-positive take steps to protect their partners from infection. Nearly 30 years after the start of the epidemic, far too many people continue to be diagnosed late in the course of their infection. Too many times, I've heard stories from people who went to the emergency room after a few days of flu-like symptoms. Once there, doctors conduct tests and inform them they have both pneumonia and AIDS. They never knew they were HIV infected, and yet they had the virus for years. In fact, data released today show that nearly 40 percent of people develop AIDS within just a year of being diagnosed with HIV. Many of these people could have stayed healthier if they were diagnosed with HIV and began drug treatment much earlier. Anti-retroviral treatment can lower the amount of the virus in the blood, slowing progression from HIV to AIDS. We must remember that AIDS still kills in this country -- more than 14,000 people die every year. Yet we have the tools to diagnose an HIV infection early, to begin life-prolonging treatments to prevent progression to AIDS, and to ensure a strong quality of life for HIV-infected people. But without a test, there is no diagnosis -- and no treatment. The fight against HIV here at home is far from over. But too many mistakenly believe that HIV in the United States is no longer a serious problem. In fact, a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found a troubling decline in awareness and concern about the domestic HIV\/AIDS crisis, in the general population and among those at greatest risk. To help combat this complacency, the White House recently joined CDC and the rest of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to announce a new communication campaign, \"Act Against AIDS.\" The campaign is working on a number of fronts to refocus national attention on the U.S. epidemic, and to increase the number of Americans who get tested for HIV. Although HIV\/AIDS continues to pose a serious threat to the nation's health, HIV testing is a powerful weapon against the disease. By increasing the number of people who know their HIV status, we can decrease the number of new HIV infections, and help save thousands of lives. What you don't know can hurt you. In fact, it can kill you. But a simple test could change your fate and the fate of others. That's why today I urge all Americans to take the test -- and take control. To learn more about HIV\/AIDS and where you can receive a confidential HIV test, visit hivtest.org, call 800-CDC-INFO, or text your ZIP code to \"Know It\" (566948). For comprehensive information about HIV prevention, visit http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nineandahalfminutes\/index.html, the Web site for the first phase of CDC's recently-launched Act Against AIDS campaign.","highlights":"Fenton: Testing is essential to reducing the number of new HIV infections .\nMany who get tested are relieved when they find out they are negative after all .\nThose who are positive can prolong their lives and ensure the health of loved ones .","id":"73421cca6d933c8acdcb3b080d46d2cd2d56df00"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson knew \"exactly how his fate would be played out\" and feared his death would echo that of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley wrote in an online blog posted Friday morning. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley in 1994. Presley says, \"I loved him very much\" and believes he loved her. Presley -- the daughter of Elvis, the \"King of Rock,\" and the ex-wife of Jackson, the \"King of Pop\" -- wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted \"to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.\" Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog. She said her short marriage to Jackson -- from May 1994 until January 1996 -- \"was not 'a sham' as is being reported in the press,\" but she divorced him because she was \"in over my head in trying\" to save Jackson \"from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" Jackson talked with her about his death during \"a deep conversation\" 14 years ago about \"the circumstances of my father's death.\" Watch more from Presley on Jackson \u00bb . \"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,' \" Presley wrote. \"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.\" That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson's death Thursday, she said. \"I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,\" she wrote. \"A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.\" Elvis Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem. \"As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977, happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted,\" she wrote. \"I wanted to 'save him',\" she wrote. \"I wanted to save him from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" \"The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow,\" Presley wrote. Their marriage, which some suggested was only to help Jackson's image, was real, she said. \"It was an unusual relationship, yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a 'normal life' found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part,\" she wrote. \"Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.\" Presley called Jackson \"an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.\" \"When he used it for something good, it was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad,\" she wrote. Presley's blog entry ended with a thank you to those who would read it. \"I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.\" Presley's blog can be found online at http:\/\/bit.ly\/5wR7p .","highlights":"Lisa-Marie Presley, Jackson were married from 1994 to 1996 .\nShe says Jackson feared he would die like her father, Elvis Presley .\nPresley says their marriage was not \"a sham\" as press has said .\n\"I wanted to save him from the inevitable,\" she says .","id":"f62b8adc41a427da17954d86549893587573747e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There's a photo of the Jackson family on the cover of the September 24, 1971, issue of Life magazine. In it, Joseph and Katherine Jackson stand at the foot of a set of stairs, their star children -- known as the Jackson 5 -- arrayed behind them. The Jackson brothers, here in the 1970s, were driven to be great by their father, Joseph. They appear to be the all-American clan, gold records arranged behind them, the boys loose and smiling, the parents more awkward and serious in their demeanor. Over the years, that fa\u00e7ade crumbled. The brothers bickered; some made accusations of abuse. But the group remained tight-knit through crises, including Thursday's tragedy, when Michael Jackson collapsed at his house and later died at UCLA Medical Center. The journey began with music in Gary, Indiana. Joseph Jackson, the patriarch, played in a short-lived band called the Falcons (no relation to the Detroit-based group featuring Wilson Pickett) in the 1950s. His primary job, however, was as a crane operator at U.S. Steel. Katherine Jackson, the musical and devoutly religious woman who he married in 1949, tended to the couple's large family: Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael and Randy, all born between 1950 and 1961. Daughter Janet arrived in 1966. By that time, the three oldest boys -- Jackie, Tito and Jermaine -- had started their own group, which Marlon and Michael eventually joined. Joseph Jackson saw a chance for his sons to have the musical career he'd found elusive. Joseph Jackson admitted being a harsh taskmaster. He drove his sons hard, forcing them to rehearse with a James Brown-like intensity. He wasn't above emphasizing his feelings to his seventh child, Michael. \"My father teased me and I just hated it and I cried every day,\" Michael told Oprah Winfrey in 1993. He said his father also beat him: \"He was very strict, very hard, very stern. ... There's been times when he'd come to see me, I'd get sick, I'd start to regurgitate.\" He quickly said, imagining his father's reaction, \"Please don't be mad at me.\" Joseph Jackson disputed the word \"beat,\" but didn't question Michael's account. \"I whipped him with a switch and a belt,\" he told the BBC in 2003. He added, \"I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick.\" In a 2005 interview with CNN's Larry King, Jermaine defended his father's actions. \"We grew up like any other black family. You did something, you got your butt tore up, and it wasn't tore up, it was just, you got a spanking,\" he said. \"I will say this. He kept us off of the streets. He kept us away from drugs. He kept us away from gangs and ... we've been able to project a talent out there and have the support of strong people to entertain the world.\" By 1968, when Michael turned 10, the Jackson 5 was a professional musical machine. They'd won an Apollo Theater talent night the previous year and were working the \"chitlin circuit\" of black clubs when producer Bobby Taylor urged Motown to sign the group. Motown founder Berry Gordy was impressed and made them \"the last big stars to come off my assembly line,\" according to a biography on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Web site. The group shot out of the gate with four No. 1 hits and gained a huge fan base, along with an animated TV show. But success took its toll, particularly when it wasn't so easy to come by. In the mid-1970s, the band -- minus Jermaine, who'd married Gordy's daughter Hazel -- moved to Epic Records, where they were produced by the Philadelphia soul-funk team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The two remember nothing but good times from the sessions, which produced two albums and the Top 10 hit \"Enjoy Yourself.\" \"It was a collaboration,\" Gamble said. \"They all participated in creating. Tito was a great guitarist -- they were all great musicians.\" Huff said he visited the Jackson compound during a trip to California and remembered a warm family setting, complete with a \"fantastic meal\" cooked by Katherine Jackson. \"I've got nothing but respect for the father,\" added Gamble. \"He's a great man. He made something out of nothing.\" Even during that era, however, Michael was standing out. Gamble and Huff recalled him taking a keen interest in recording technology and the way he sounded. Going solo with Quincy Jones producing, as he did in 1979, was the right move, Gamble and Huff said. The family dynamics kept changing as the siblings grew older. After Michael's \"Thriller\" became the biggest album of all time, the brothers -- including Jermaine -- regrouped for a new album, \"Victory,\" and accompanying tour. But Michael, now the undisputed draw, disagreed with some of the tour plans and ended up donating his earnings to charity. Michael's brightened spotlight boosted the careers of his siblings; even Rebbie had a hit. But it was Janet who broke out with the most success, including the No. 1 singles \"Miss You Much,\" \"Black Cat\" and \"Again\" in the 1980s and '90s. With the increased interest in the Jacksons came tabloid scrutiny of the family's every move. When La Toya appeared nude in Playboy magazine, the story made headlines. She later criticized Michael and was on the outs for several years. Jermaine put out a song called \"Word to the Badd,\" an attack on Michael, in 1991; he later changed the lyrics. Janet's relationships were probed in detail, as were the brothers' marriages. And Michael, of course, was seen as increasingly eccentric, his personality overwhelming his music. But for all their own bickering, the family closed ranks when a member was attacked. In 1992, Jermaine co-produced \"The Jacksons: An American Dream,\" a TV miniseries based on Katherine Jackson's memoir, which chronicled their rise to stardom. When Michael faced molestation allegations in the early '90s and was tried in 2005, the family rallied around. \"The Jackson family was groomed to be a team,\" said Linda Johnson Rice, president and CEO of Ebony and Jet magazines' Johnson Publishing and a longtime family friend. \"As you can see through their performances, they were always there for each other.\" In recent years, La Toya has appeared on the reality shows \"Armed and Famous\" and the UK \"Celebrity Big Brother.\" She originally had a scene in the forthcoming Sacha Baron Cohen movie, \"Bruno,\" but CNN confirmed the scene has been cut, \"out of respect for Jackson's family,\" the studio told The (UK) Guardian. Jermaine, who converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Abdul-Aziz, appeared on \"Celebrity Big Brother\" in 2007. Jackie runs a record label, Tito remains involved in the music business, and according to a 2008 article in the New York Post, Marlon and Randy have struggled financially. In the hospital emergency room Thursday, Randy and Jermaine were witnessed hugging and crying over their late brother. \"We're a family,\" Jermaine told Larry King in the 2005 interview. \"We're no different than any other family who has feuds and problems. ... But at the same time, we're united, and we have a united front that is very, very strong, and it's supported by God. \"My mother and father did a great job in instilling the morals and principles in us from the very beginning. We feel that with that, that's all you need to go through life.\" CNN's Alan Duke contributed to this article.","highlights":"Jackson family has been in spotlight along with Michael .\nFather Joseph was a sometimes rough taskmaster .\nSiblings have been in news for relationships, intrafamily bickering .\nBut group closes ranks when member is in trouble, as happened with Michael .","id":"4de1b3c0e607af438895b4cbaecbc7f3773b9054"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he won't push to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center during his visit to the United Nations next week. Iran's president said he wanted to \"pay his respects\" and lay a wreath at the site of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks. The controversial leader asked to \"pay his respects\" and lay a wreath at the site of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks, but New York city officials on Wednesday denied that request, citing safety concerns at what is now a construction site. Ahmadinejad said he would try to visit the site \"if we have the time and the conditions are conducive.\" But if local officials cannot make the proper arrangements, \"I won't insist,\" he said in an interview to be aired Sunday on CBS' \"60 Minutes.\" The Bush administration considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, and State Department spokesman Tom Casey called the request \"the height of hypocrisy.\" CBS correspondent Scott Pelley told Ahmadinejad he \"must have known that visiting the World Trade Center site would infuriate many Americans.\" \"Well, I'm amazed,\" he said, surprised by the question. \"How can you speak for the whole of the American nation? The American nation is made up of 300 million people. There are different points of view over there.\" More than 2,700 people died in the attack on the World Trade Center, when al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked passenger jets into the twin towers. A third jet hit the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers resisted their hijackers. Iran is ruled by a Shiite Muslim government hostile to the fundamentalist Sunni al Qaeda. Ahmadinejad's predecessor, Mohammed Khatami, condemned the attacks and cooperated with the U.S.-led campaign to topple al Qaeda's Taliban allies in Afghanistan that followed. But the United States calls Iran the world's top state sponsor of terrorism because of its support of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah and other militant groups. Washington and Tehran have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1980 after Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and held Americans hostage for 444 days. The Bush administration has also accused Iran of meddling in Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are battling Taliban and al Qaeda remnants more than six years after the September 11, 2001, attacks. It accuses Iran of supplying advanced explosives to Shiite Muslim militias, some of which have used the devices against U.S. troops. Ahmadinejad also has drawn fire for his hard-line anti-Israel stance and his insistence that Iran will defy international demands that it halt its production of enriched uranium. Iran insists it is producing nuclear fuel for civilian power plants, but Washington accuses Tehran of trying to create a nuclear bomb. The Iranian leader has made statements suggesting that Israel be politically \"wiped off the map,\" though he insists that can be accomplished without violence. He has questioned the existence of the Holocaust, the genocidal Nazi campaign against European Jews, and warned Europeans that they may pay a heavy price for its support of Israel. Ahmadinejad is also slated to speak on the campus of Columbia University during his visit, university President Lee Bollinger said. His presence is likely to spark protests on and off campus. Bollinger said the appearance is part of the World Leaders Forum -- an annual university event \"intended to further Columbia's long-standing tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had asked to visit ground zero .\nCity officials turned down request; Iranian president says he won't insist .\nThe United States calls Iran the world's top state sponsor of terrorism .\nThe Iranian leader questioned why such a visit would be considered insulting .","id":"7b93c08dea282cbb8fec007c41ea5bca32821329"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A defiant and chaotic protest sprouted in and around a public square Monday despite a warning by Iran's Revolutionary Guard against the kind of street demonstrations that have roiled Iran for more than a week, witnesses said. Security forces patrol the streets of Tehran on Monday. Thousands of Iranians congregated and passed through Haft-e Tir Square, but riot police and the pro-government Basij militia confronted them and smacked their batons against their shin guards, making loud cracking sounds that seemed like gunshots, the witnesses said. As the protests continued, an election official with the Interior Ministry said the \"box-by-box details\" of the ballots -- which were confidential in previous elections -- would be released in response to claims that the election was rigged, Press TV reported. Iran's Guardian Council declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of the election with 62.63 percent of the vote. His closest rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, received 33.75 percent, surprising many experts who expected him to win. Iranians have continued protesting the results by taking to the streets. Most stores around the square were closed as the unrest reverberated, with some guarding against damage by erecting steel fences on their windows. Helicopters hovered overhead as the security forces wielded batons and used a spray to push the crowd out of the square. After that, police chased down demonstrators in nearby alleys and streets, with protesters and lawmen playing cat and mouse over several tension-filled hours until the crowd began to thin out around dusk. There were isolated face-offs and quarrels that broke out between demonstrators and the riot police and the Basij militia -- a volunteer paramilitary force that takes orders from the Revolutionary Guard, a military unit under the direct control of Iran's supreme leader. There were no reports of serious injuries, but there were at least eight arrests, witnesses said. \"Thirty years after the revolution, this is what we get,\" one man said dejectedly, watching the noisy and chaotic scene as he remembered the birth and the promise of Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. The location was the spot where a vigil was to be held in memory of Neda, a young woman who became a symbol for the opposition after her death was caught on camera. While Internet postings on Twitter, Facebook and an Iranian opposition leader's Web site had mentioned a possible rally, it was unclear whether people who were at the square were there for a vigil. Some people were clad in black, a symbol of mourning, but placards and banners about Neda and candles have not been seen. However, security forces and demonstrators appeared at the square at the time the vigil was to be held. Watch how women are on front line of protests \u00bb . Meanwhile, a message on opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi's Facebook page, which could not be authenticated, called for a peaceful demonstration in Tehran on Thursday to honor the dead. \"We are waiting for the route of the march to be announced as well as the location of the sit-in,\" the message said. \"Presently the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic seems to be the safest place for the sit-in, so that we can mourn for our martyrs in a place that is close to the spirit of that free man. Demonstrators Monday had brushed off a warning from the Revolutionary Guard that people who \"disturb the peace and stand up to security forces\" would be met with a strong response. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the Revolutionary Guard as saying \"the guardians of the Islamic revolution and the courageous Basiji together with the security forces following the orders of the supreme leader and following him unquestioningly.\" It said the authorities \"are determined to act strongly to return peace and tranquility to society ... and to clean the country of these plotters and hooligans.\" Iran's Revolutionary Guard is directly under the control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and enforces the government's Islamic codes and morality. With more than 200,000 members, it is tasked with overseeing the country's crucial interests, including guarding its oil fields and missile arsenals. The regime's lawmakers called for a review of ties with Britain amid concerns over so-called Western \"meddling\" in the country's daily unrest. The government-funded Press TV reported that Iranian lawmakers were calling for a review of the country's ties with Britain because of its \"interference in Iran's recent post-election unrest.\" Britain's Foreign Office announced Monday it is withdrawing the family members of its embassy staff from Iran until the situation there improves. News coverage in Iran has been limited by government restrictions on international journalists. On Sunday, the BBC said Iran had expelled Jon Leyne, the British network's permanent correspondent in Tehran. Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based Arab satellite network, said its Tehran bureau was ordered closed. At least 19 people were killed in clashes in Tehran on Saturday as Iranians took to the streets to protest the results of the June 12 presidential election, according to hospital sources. Iranian-funded Press TV confirmed 13 fatalities, while unconfirmed reports put the number as high as 150. Tehran's prosecutor general's office said it has launched an investigation into the killings. Watch one woman's account of clashes with security forces \u00bb . The station also said police arrested 457 people Saturday who vandalized property. See images of the clashes Saturday \u00bb . Moussavi has called on Iranians to \"exercise self-control,\" while still supporting their right to demonstrate, a statement attributed to Moussavi said late Sunday on the candidate's Web site, Ghalam news. CNN has not been able to verify the authenticity of the site. Watch Iran's former crown prince call election a \"fraud\" \u00bb . On Monday, the site was intermittently inaccessible, but said at one point that Moussavi had met with a group of clerics in the city of Ghom on Monday morning to discuss current events. A spokesman for the Guardian Council told state television that Wednesday is the last day it can recount the votes disputed by candidates.","highlights":"NEW: Interior Ministry will release box-by-box ballot details, Press TV reports .\nBasij militia smack batons against shin guards as protesters pass through square .\nHelicopters hover as thousands play cat and mouse with police, witnesses say .\nAt least 8 reported arrested, but no reports of serious injuries .","id":"f2b1cd473b3f1e9c36c18df83066a721c2616b7d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two of the biggest stars in the NBA will be team-mates next season after a blockbuster trade which sees Shaquille O'Neal move from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers -- the home of league MVP LeBron James. Shaquille O'Neal is hoping his arrival will put a smile on the faces of Cleveland fans. The 37-year-old O'Neal is one of the all-time greats of basketball, winning four NBA championships, three straight with the Los Angeles Lakers and the other with Miami Heat. James is widely recognized as the sport's current superstar, but the 24-year-old has been left frustrated by Cleveland's failure to win the title. He stormed off the court after their loss to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals, not even shaking hands with 2008 Olympic teammate Dwight Howard. The trade, which sees Phoenix get center Ben Wallace and guard Sasha Pavlovic, has been talked about since February but finalized on Thursday night. \"I was elated about the trade because I get to play with one of the greatest players to ever play the game in LeBron James,\" O'Neal was quoted on the NBA's official Web site www.nba.com. O'Neal averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in 75 games for the Suns last season and believes he still has much to offer the NBA. \"My numbers are not good enough to retire. Three more years left,\" O'Neal wrote on his Twitter blog. His career averages are 24.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots, with his peak seasons coming as he led the Lakers to three straight titles from 2000-02. The Lakers traded him to Miami where he spent three seasons, helping them to the NBA Championship three years ago. He has played in Phoenix for the past two years, restricted by injuries in his first season. The Cavs, powered by James, won 66 regular season games and their first eight in the playoffs before coming unstuck against the Magic. They will be hoping that O'Neal will be the final piece in the jigsaw to land the first American sports championship for Cleveland in 45 years.","highlights":"Shaquille O'Neal is traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers .\n7 foot one inch O'Neal has been named in the NBA's All Star team 15 times .\nO'Neal, 37, will now pair up with 2009 NBA MVP LeBron James at Cleveland .","id":"57ceb56e267040eb4363ac458768b12baef93d91"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From street corners, buses and subways to phone calls, e-mails, text messages, online posts and tweets, people around the world commented, pondered, and paid tribute to pop legend Michael Jackson, who died Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles. Pedestrians in Sydney, Australia, watch a TV screen announcing Michael Jackson's death on Friday. Around midnight at London's Leicester Square, as news of Jackson's death spread, Luis Carlos Ameida and his friends were surrounding a car listening to the star's music. Ameida said he'd gotten tickets to see Jackson at his \"This Is It\" concerts beginning on July 13 in London. \"From a young age, you know, I used to have the video game,\" said Ameida. \"I used to have the white suit, and I'd wear it on my birthday. I used to moonwalk ... I remember my mum used to send me to lessons to be like Michael Jackson. And when I heard the news, I had tears in my eyes because of that connection I had because of all the songs he used to play.\" In Glastonbury, southern England, where one of the world's largest music festivals was to kick off Friday morning, initial rumors and then confirmation of Jackson's death added to confusion and then shock among festival goers. Watch British fans react \u00bb . \"As I was walking back through the crowd it was the word on everyone's lips,\" Sally Anne Aldous, 29, told CNN over the phone. Reaction from around the world in pictures \u00bb . Backstage, Michael Jackson songs were being played in tribute, and fans talked of an impromptu memorial for the late singer at the \"Stone Circle,\" a neolithic monument in the grounds of the venue. In Adelaide, Australia, Christos Winter of the MJ Fan Club had organized a petition to bring Jackson to tour there. \"It didn't matter if you were 60, 40 or 20 like I am. Michael Jackson's music just spoke to everyone ... It was always uplifting and happy music,\" Winter told CNN. On a street in New Delhi, India, 31-year-old Sachina Verma said on Friday, \"Any of the baby boomer generation or, you know, people from my age or our time, I mean they have grown up on his music. Literally, people have been inspired by his dance movements, by his music. Tributes appeared on YouTube and CNN's iReport. \"I remember growing up in the Middle East, influenced, enjoying his music, waiting for his albums,\" CNN iReporter Rany Freeman, an Egyptian living in Canada, said in a video submission. \"Regardless to his strange behaviors or questionable events that happened to his life, let's remember him as the great entertainer he was.\" Another iReporter, Peter Maiyoh, a Kenyan student studying in the U.S. city of Kansas, Missouri, called Jackson \"the voice of change,\" saying \"he was there before Tiger Woods, before Michael Jordan, even before Barack Obama ... I hope people remember him for the work he did.\" On a Facebook page dedicated to Michael Jackson, fans across the world left hundreds of messages in languages ranging from French and Spanish to Japanese and Hebrew. Watch fan reaction in Tokyo, Japan \u00bb . \"SHANGHAI WILL MISS YOU! NOT JUST SHANGHAI!..EVERYONE IN THIS WORLD WILL MISS YOU! WE LOVE YOU MICHAEL!!!\" wrote Vrishti Bhowmik. Kase Ng, a 24-year-old manicurist and member of the Michael Jackson Hong Kong Fan Club, told CNN by phone she had been planning to go with four friends to his August 1 concert in London. Watch fans in Hong Kong, China, react \u00bb . Expressing sadness and shock over Jackson's death, Ng recalled being inspired by an interview he once gave to Oprah Winfrey. \"He said if you have power, try to give it back and help the others, and I will try to do that,\" she said. At a music store in Beijing, China, Jackson songs were being played, and his albums were put on special display. \"I rather enjoyed it (his music) because in my family my brother's generation likes his music,\" said customer Xu Wei. \"Many, many people in China like him a lot.\" Watch reaction from around the world . Although Jackson never played in mainland China, his music was among the first in the West made available there, as the peak of his popularity during the 1980s coincided with the opening up of the communist country. On Friday, Chinese netizens had set up a Web site memorial to Jackson, and on Fanfou.com, China's version of Twitter, the pop star has become the most popular tag. Fanfou user Layla Suen, or \"Leilajiang,\" of Shenyang city in Liaoning province wrote about her memories of Jackson: \"When I was only four, my brother demanded that I learn his 'Thriller.' It was the second song I've ever learnt (the first one being something taught by the kindergarten teacher). Everytime I sing it at my kindergarten it would scare a bunch of little children.\" Chinese blogger and media commentator Michael Anti wrote on his Facebook page: \"So sad about Jackson's Death, for my English first name is really named after him when I was a freshman.\" Ethan Zuckerman, a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, tweeted in the hour after Jackson's death was announced, \"My twitter search script sees roughly 15% of all posts on Twitter mentioning Michael Jackson. Never saw Iran or swine flu reach over 5%.\" As Jackson's death quickly overshadowed all else Friday, commentators worried that the world would forget about political developments in Iran. \"Am I the only one who thinks that Michael Jackson's passing is the worst thing that could have happened to the protesters in Iran?\" wrote Melissa Cohen, or mcohen00, on Twitter. CNN's Emily Chang, Jaime FlorCruz, Miranda Leitsinger, Mairi Mackay, Linnie Rawlinson and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fans across the world remark on Jackson's music .\nPostings on Twitter express concern Jackson will overshadow Iran .\n\"I remember growing up in the Middle East ... waiting for his albums,\" iReporter says .\nChinese netizens set up Web site memorial for Jackson .","id":"06fe669aadfa7f9c5a37b9b9686199b220b570c7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Transportation investigators Wednesday discovered \"anomalies\" in an essential control circuit of a track where a fatal crash between two Washington subway trains killed nine people. Investigators work Tuesday at the site of the Metro train crash in Washington. Each section of the transit system's track contains a circuit that transmits and receives signals that generate speed commands for trains, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board. She said the circuits are \"vital providing information to the operators and the train itself when on automatic.\" Investigators found no problems in five of the six circuits on the stretch of track in the crash area. But they found \"anomalies\" with the sixth circuit, Hersman said. She would not say what those anomalies were but said simulated crash tests would be conducted to try and determine what caused the deadly accident. The findings could mean that the striking train, which was on automatic, did not know to slow down because another train was stopped on the track ahead. Hersman said investigators walked the tracks Wednesday, finding markings on the track that indicated emergency braking had taken place. Investigators hoped Thursday to interview the operator of the struck train, who was released from a hospital Wednesday. The driver of the striking train was killed. The crash, the worst in the history of Washington's transit system, known as the Metro, occurred along the congested Red Line just before 5 p.m. Monday on an above-ground track section near Takoma Park, Maryland. Both cars were on the same track, traveling in the same direction -- southward from Fort Totten Metrorail station to the Shady Grove station. The struck train had stopped behind another train undergoing service and was awaiting directions to move ahead. The striking train was pulling some of the oldest cars in the fleet of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he plans to seek $3 billion for Metro transit capital improvements, some of which would likely be spent to replace some those old Series 1000 cars, purchased between 1974 and 1978. Upon impact, the train pulling those Series 1000 cars jumped on top of the other train. All the fatalities were on the striking train, Train 112, Metro transit spokeswoman Angela Gates told CNN on Wednesday. In the collision, the front car of the striking train was severely damaged, leaving minimal space for survivability, said Hersman. According to one report, 50 feet of the 75-foot length of that lead car were lost to the accident, leaving only one-third of the space after the crushing impact. Watch Hersman talk about previous warnings \u00bb . The NTSB recommended in 2006 that Metro transit replace or retrofit all of its Series 1000 trains, to bring them up to current safety standards. Metro transit responded that because it was constrained by tax-advantage leases, it intended to keep the 1000 Series until the end of 2014. \"Our recommendation was not addressed, so it [the case] has been closed in an unacceptable status,\" Hersman said. The NTSB has no regulatory powers and can't force implementation. Watch Hersman talk about the computer systems \u00bb . \"The safety of our citizens is our highest priority and we must take every precaution that this loss of life does not occur again,\" said Hoyer, a Democratic congressman from Maryland. He said he would soon introduce a final measure to authorize dedicated federal and local funding for Metro. The Series 1000 cars comprise a quarter of Metro transit's 1,126 cars, or nearly 300 cars, Gates said. At $3 million per car, the agency can't afford to replace them all at once, Gates said. Each car has a 40-year life and can last until fiscal year 2015, she added. \"So we've taken steps to keep them in good condition.\" She said they have been phasing out the outdated cars as new cars are bought, she said. That plan hasn't gone as quickly as anticipated, however, because of an increase in ridership, Gates added. The lead train in Monday's crash contained newer 5000-Series and 3000-Series cars. These have data recorders, which will aid the investigation a great deal if they aren't damaged, Hersman said. The recorders provide information on such things as speed, braking and emergency applications. She said there were no recorders on the rear train. The rear train was being operated in automatic mode, which is the normal operating procedure during rush hour. Washington transit trains are being operated manually until the cause of the crash is determined, Hersman said. She said there is no indication that any of the brakes on the rear train failed before it rear-ended the other train. \"Our investigators on scene yesterday did find some evidence of emergency brake application. They found the emergency mushroom, which is a button that was depressed in the control cab, and they also examined the wheels and the brakes, and they found that the rotors showed some bluing,\" Hersman said. \"That bluing is consistent with an emergency brake application,\" she said. Bluing indicates the rotors have been subjected to extremely high temperatures, and this can be caused by hard stops.","highlights":"House majority leader to push for $3 billion in Metro transit funding .\nThe transit authority wants to replace its aging Series 1000 cars .\nA train of Series 1000 cars rear-ended another train Monday, killing nine .\nInvestigators question why computerized emergency system failed .","id":"7b24e63604d5d6e534bde19631869c344a144156"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Carly Smithson wants to make one thing clear: She is not the new lead singer of Evanescence. Former \"American Idol\" contestant Carly Smithson is the lead singer of the new band We Are The Fallen. There may be some confusion because the former \"American Idol\" contestant has joined forces with original Evanescence members Ben Moody, Rocky Gray and John LeCompt for the new band We Are The Fallen. The dark-haired Irish rocker made it to the top six during season seven of \"American Idol\" before being eliminated. Smithson said that since then, quite a few opportunities have come her way that were not a good fit. This new band, which also includes bassist Marty O'Brien, is perfect for her, Smithson said . Guitar player LeCompt agrees. \"I've said many times about Evanescence that we caught lightning in a bottle ... and I think we are doing it again,\" he said. \"Carly is a good fit for the band because more than anything she is a brilliant, brilliant vocalist who is very down to earth and a humble person. She wants to do something where everyone is involved rather than being a posturing diva.\" Smithson recently spoke with CNN about why she is thankful to Moody's roommate, why the group gets along so well and how they want to collaborate with fans. CNN: You must be pretty psyched about this new band. Carly Smithson: I am. It's pretty awesome and everything I think we have all ever wanted. We all blend together and it's all about making business. CNN: With all of the opportunities that have come your way since \"Idol,\" why go this route? Smithson: I had a lot of the wrong opportunities approach me. They were very flattering offers, but musically not on the same page with where I envisioned myself. As soon as Ben [Moody] came to me, he was actually someone that I had in mind, after coming off the \"Idol\" tour, to go and try and work with. He's worked on some music that I had a lot of respect for and really admired, but he was busy, oddly enough, working on this project. CNN: So how did you two connect? Smithson: He had never watched \"American Idol\" and he didn't know who I was. I am good friends with his roommate who recently moved in and I had met him briefly. My friend came and saw me live and then planted the seed in his head. She said, \"You should really consider my friend for this band,\" and he said \"Who is your friend?\" She said, \"You know, the girl you met down the basement,\" and an artist he has been working with played him a bunch of YouTube clips of me. We were hanging out at about one in the morning and he called my friend and said, \"I just watched your friend. I should have done this a long time ago. Where is she, when can I meet her, I need to meet her right away.\" She said, \"Well, actually we are out right now and we're going to be at the house in about 20 minutes.\" We came back to the house and we had a meeting which lasted until about 4 a.m. ... Obviously it was a decision I needed to make very fast because they were looking for a singer and people don't wait forever. I called my manager and it was a done deal pretty much the next day. CNN: Sounds like it was meant to be. Smithson: Everybody was very excited and thought it was the right direction to go. I'm happy that it happened in such an organic way. It's really weird, but as people we are all very alike. We all like the same jokes, watch the same TV shows and play the same music. It's great. CNN: Do you at all feel pressure because of the success that Evanescence had? Smithson: No, because this is a new band. Evanescence is still out there. We are not Evanescence and our band isn't here to follow. Watch Smithson talk about the new band \u00bb . I'm here to make music. Obviously I want to be successful but I think we all are in a contented place to make music. If we can grab some fans, that's great. If we can grab a bunch of fans, that's awesome. We are here to compete with ourselves and put out something epic. CNN: What does the name mean? Smithson: It's more of a statement rather than a name. We feel like our fans can say \"We Are The Fallen\" as well as us. It's not just a band name, it's kind of like a movement name. We are trying to create a group of people that are in to the same thing. It's a collaboration of our fans and us appreciating music that we are making. CNN: So what do you all stand for, since you want the fans to be a part of it. Smithson: Freedom. Every since we all came into this band, we feel so free to go and be who we are. I embrace that.","highlights":"\"Idol\" finalist Carly Smithson is lead singer of new band We Are The Fallen .\nGroup is made up of some former members of Evanescence .\nSmithson finished sixth of season seven of \"American Idol\"","id":"660e84747545c7688ce1bdd5dc56837accbb1bdc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rem Koolhaas revolutionizes city landscapes with distinctive and cutting-edge buildings. Seattle's Central Library is one of Rem Koolhaas' recent builds. Responsible for the iconic CCTV headquarters in Beijing the Dutch architect was named one of \"The World's Most Influential People\" by Time magazine. Similar to the man himself, his buildings are not afraid to make a statement. \"We felt it was very important for an entity like CCTV to make its presence felt... To generate a space and to define a space, that is the main thing,\" he told CNN at the opening of his \"Transformer\" building in Seoul, South Korea. Koolhaas admits that the current economic climate is not particularly favorable to big and bold architectural plans, but from adversity comes creativity. \"Definitely there were a number of projects that we worked on put on hold, but on the other hand certain things were also accelerated because the price of construction is getting so cheap.\" Despite these new parameters he remains optimistic that his profession will continue to invent and be relevant, \"because it means kind of smaller, but more complex and kind of interesting things, kind of related to, not necessarily with commerce, but more connected to culture and to the social world.\" His buildings have attracted worldwide fame and given Koolhaas himself a form of semi-celebrity status. Yet Koolhaas still feels a sense of unease being labeled a \"Starchitect.\" \"I think it's a name that is actually degrading to the vast majority of people it is applied to. And it really is a kind of political term that for certain clients is important because they use star architects. My hope is that through the current complexity that title will exit discretely and disappear,\" he said. He believes that by being able to respond to different demands architecture is evolving into something new. \"It is not possible to live in this age if you don't have a sense of many contradictory forces,\" he said. \"Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly contradictory demands. So yes, I'm definitely perhaps contradictory person, but I operate in very contradictory times.\"","highlights":"Dutch architect is creative force behind landmark buildings across the world .\nBeijing's CCTV building and Seattle's Central Library are two bold examples .\nKoolhaas embraces contradictions in a project and creative-commercial tensions .","id":"013d30619cf213637ab69ce7b77df5e47af380cc"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- The five remaining defendants in the racially charged \"Jena Six\" case will appear in court Friday and are expected to enter a plea, a spokesman for the district attorney's office said. Protesters converged on the small Louisiana town in September 2007 after the \"Jena 6\" were charged. Bill Furlow, spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, declined to say whether the defendants will plead guilty. \"It's not a done deal until it's a done deal,\" he said. In December 2006, six African-American teenagers were charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy in the beating of a white classmate. The incident followed months of racial tension in the community of about 3,000 people. Jena, Louisiana, is about 140 miles southeast of Shreveport in the north-central part of the state. The case drew national attention from civil rights groups, who argued that the charges were excessive. An estimated 15,000-plus demonstrators turned out for a rally on behalf of the teens: Carwin Jones, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Mychal Bell. The charges were eventually reduced. Bell pleaded guilty to battery in a juvenile court and moved to Monroe, Louisiana. In January, Bell said he had attempted suicide the month before by shooting himself in the chest but was recovering. Friday's hearing is set for 1:30 p.m.","highlights":"\"It's not a done deal until it's a done deal,\" spokesman says .\n6 teens charged in December 2006 with beating a white classmate .\nIncident followed months of racial tension in town of about 3,000 people .\nOne of the the \"Jena 6\" pleaded guilty to battery in juvenile court this year .","id":"1dbab7cec17822bd2d506fff95ffd51f43446860"} -{"article":"JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (CNN) -- Alfa Demmellash grew up on less than a dollar a day, and against the backdrop of torture and murder. But these days she's living the American dream and helping others do the same. Alfa Demmellash helps low-income entrepreneurs in New Jersey start or grow their businesses. \"Entrepreneurs are at the very heart of what the American dream is all about,\" says Demmellash, a native of Ethiopia. And from her small office in Jersey City, her nonprofit, Rising Tide Capital, is helping small businesses flourish. Robin Munn, who runs a flower shop in Jersey City, says the skills she learned through Demmellash helped her transform the way she operates her business. \"I was thinking about closing, but once I started taking the classes I found that the fire came back.\" Kim Bratten, a 39-year-old painter and mother of six, says she's seen her yearly income increase by 50 percent since she started working with Demmellash and her team. \"They put hope back into the community,\" Bratten says. Watch small business owners describe how Demmellash has helped them \u00bb . Demmellash's own struggle began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, amid instability and unrest. Thousands of Ethiopians -- including her aunt -- disappeared or were tortured and\/or killed under the ruling military regime. When Demmellash was 2, her mother fled the country, leaving the toddler in the care of her grandmother and aunt. Demmellash lived on less than a dollar a day but never considered herself poor. Watch Demmellash talk about her childhood \u00bb . Nearly a decade later, Demmellash and her mother reunited in Boston, Massachusetts. But Demmellash found her mother wasn't living the American dream she'd envisioned. \"I [thought] I would find my mom in a beautiful mansion with trees [and] gold everywhere,\" recalls Demmellash, now 29. \"I was shocked when I found her in her tiny apartment ... working very, very hard.\" Her mother had worked as a waitress during the day and a seamstress at night to earn money to bring her daughter to the United States. Watching her mother sew beautiful gowns for low profits, Demmellash thought there had to be a way for her to increase what she was making as a seamstress. \"Even though she had the skills, she did not necessarily have the business skills,\" she says, adding that her mother's pricing \"was completely off.\" Still, her mother worked tirelessly to keep her daughter adequately fed, clothed and in school. Demmellash was later admitted to Harvard University, which she was able to attend with the help of \"wonderful financial aid.\" At Harvard, Demmellash and classmate Alex Forrester discussed what their generation could do to alleviate poverty on a local level. They set out to learn what resources people needed -- or as Demmellash says, \"to find people like my mom.\" In 2004, the pair started Rising Tide Capital (RTC) to help those who had ideas and abilities but needed the education and support to launch or grow their businesses. \"You hear a lot of talk about Main Street and Wall Street, but no one really talks about how exactly you go about helping the Mom-and-Pops,\" says Demmellash. The group runs the Community Business Academy, an intensive training session coupled with year-round coaching and mentorship to help individuals \"really work on the hands-on management side of their business,\" Demmellash says. The organization supports underserved populations, including women, the formerly incarcerated, minorities, unemployed and working poor, and immigrants and refugees. Demmellash and Forrester -- now married -- have helped 250 entrepreneurs and small-business owners in New Jersey so far, 70 percent of whom are single mothers. RTC raises money from corporations and works with local governments for funding in order to provide classes and support its participants at affordable costs. Participants pay a small materials and registration fee based on their income range: either $100 or $225 for the course that Demmellash says would cost thousands of dollars otherwise. The organization has also built partnerships with micro-lenders, so when students are ready, the lenders provide financing. \"The ability to become self-reliant, to have economic hope, [that is] the fabric of this country and we have to fight for it,\" Demmellash says. Many of RTC's students use the increased earnings from their new business to supplement their wages, allowing them to better provide for their families and transform the face of their communities, according to Demmellash. \"There are thousands of entrepreneurs, millions across this country, who do incredible things and make money to put food on the table, to pay their bills, and to save for the future and their children,\" she says. \"If we were to literally bank on them, invest in them [and] support them ... that's the kind of stuff that changes lives and strengthens families.\" Want to get involved? Check out Rising Tide Capital's Web site and see how to help.","highlights":"Alfa Demmellash helps low-income entrepreneurs start or grow their businesses .\nHer nonprofit, Rising Tide Capital, primarily serves single mothers .\nDemmellash, an Ethiopia native, was inspired by her mother's struggle .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"3b885199b77fd859adfe275046a6526d4b8c2867"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is providing weapons and ammunition to Somalia's transitional government as it fights al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Thursday. Somali government soldiers, who are fighting Islamic militants, patrol Mogadishu. \"At the request of that government the State Department has helped to provide weapons and ammunition on an urgent basis,\" he said. \"This is to support the Transitional Federal Government's efforts to repel the onslaught of extremist forces which are intent on destroying the Djibouti peace process.\" Kelly said the weapons shipments are in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, which ban some arms shipments to Somalia. There is growing concern that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said that the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. \"Our concern right now is that likely safe havens are areas in the Horn of Africa, like Somalia and Yemen, that are countries that because of their political status can be attractive to al Qaeda in order to operate there,\" Panetta said earlier this month. \"We are focusing on those countries as well in order to ensure that there is no safe haven for al Qaeda as we continue to pressure them, continue to push them, and hopefully continue to make the effort to destroy them, not only in Pakistan but throughout the rest of the world.\" Somalia is not new territory for al Qaeda, according to CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. \"Al Qaeda was running training camps in Somalia in the early and mid-1990s,\" he said. \"If this is now coming back, this is something that al Qaeda has already done and it's worrisome for the future. ... \"The fact that we're seeing evidence of this already happening in both Yemen and Somalia suggests that, A, the drone program in the tribal areas of Pakistan has been effective, but, B, you know it's pushing al Qaeda into areas where they'll build up larger operations.\" Somalia recently called on its neighbors to send military forces to help government troops stop hard-line Islamist militants from taking over. The call for help came hours after a third top politician was killed this month in ongoing fighting. The deaths included Mogadishu's police chief and Somalia's internal security minister, who was killed in a suicide car bombing in the central city of Beledweyne. A Pakistani militant who is a high-ranking official in al Qaeda is leading the fighting in Somalia against the government, said Sheikh Adan Madowe, Somalia's parliament speaker. Madowe warned that militants will spread fighting into the rest of the region if they topple the government in Somalia. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year. \"We think this government ... represents Somalia's best chance for peace, stability and reconciliation,\" Kelly said Thursday. \"This government is the best chance they've had in the last 18 years.\" Somalia's current President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is a former member of the Islamic Courts Union, which took part in the 2006 coup. His decision to renounce the bloody insurgency and try to establish peace in Somalia has put him at odds with Islamist hard-liners who are still battling for control of Somalia. Residents and journalists in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, have reported seeing foreign fighters among Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamic militia that is battling to overthrow the weak transitional government. Those foreign fighters recently distributed recorded messages from al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden calling for the overthrow of the government. Al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahideen Youth Movement, was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in March 2008. It is waging a war against Somalia's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or sharia.","highlights":"State Department: Weapons for fighting al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants .\nWeapons shipments are in accordance with U.N. Security Resolutions, Kelly says .\nThere is growing concern that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda .","id":"dc6410c8d6a6ff14a26c18a6be251b681de0856c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A blossoming of cinematic creativity has swept Argentina in recent years, bringing about a second golden age of film. Pablo Trapero's latest movie \"Lion's Den\" stars Martina Gusman (left) and was in competition at Cannes. In Argentina, the renaissance marks a return to form for a cinematic tradition that was prolific and highly successful until creativity was stifled by a succession of military regimes that began with the ascendancy of Juan Peron in the 1940s. A revival occurred after the country returned to democracy in 1983 as filmmakers focused on life under the military dictatorship -- Luiz Puenzo's \"The Official Story\" (1985) won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. But an economic malaise ensued, turning off the taps to film financing. An economic boom in the 1990s quickly turned unstable, resulting in a crippling financial crisis earlier this decade that plunged Argentina into its worst recession ever. Out of the chaos, a new group of Argentina filmmakers emerged. The leaders of the so-called \"New Argentine Cinema\" have become critical contributors to the wider Latin American film movement that has captivated international critics and audiences alike. What's fueling New Argentine Cinema? Argentina's economy has recovered remarkably since its collapse in 2001, and the national film institute, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), has been keen to foster the industry's development. The combination of cheap production costs and a flourishing artistic community has made Buenos Aires a hub of creativity. Already one of the most cosmopolitan cities in South America, the city is attracting everyone from local bohemians to big Hollywood names. Francis Ford Coppola, the most recent notable to tap into the vibrant scene, opened an Argentine unit of his Zoetrope production company last year to film his Buenos Aires-set family drama \"Tetro,\" which is anticipated to be released next year. What movies are creating buzz? Pablo Trapero's \"Lion's Den\" about a woman who gives birth and raises her child in prison was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year. Trapero is best known for his depiction of ordinary people. He gained acclaim with \"Crane World\" (1999) -- a gritty look at Argentina's working class -- and is widely considered one of Argentina's leading directors. Also in competition at Cannes this year was \"The Headless Woman\" from the ever subtle Lucrecia Martel. The film focuses on a woman's guilt after a hit-and-run accident and like Martel's other works, offers up a dose of social criticism. Martel burst on the scene with her first movie \"The Swamp\" (2001), winner of the Alfred Bauer Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Lucia Puenzo stirred debate with \"XXY\" (2007), an exploration of adolescent sexuality centered around the life of a teenage hermaphrodite. The daughter of award-winning Luiz Puenzo, Lucia took home the Critic Weeks Grand Prize at Cannes last year. Are you excited about Argentine cinema? What is your favorite movie or director? Enough with the dramas -- who makes Argentines laugh? Daniel Burman has cited Woody Allen as one of the auteurs he most admires, and the influence is quite clear in his work, in which his identity as a Jew in Argentina figures prominently. \"Waiting for the Messiah\" (2000), \"Lost Embrace\" (2004) and \"Family Law\" (2006) make up the trilogy of films about fatherhood for which he has gained praise. The young director's latest film \"Empty Nest\" (2008) takes a touching and comedic look at married life. What's this I hear about a Hollywood in Argentina? You're referring to Palermo Hollywood. No, it's not a Las Vegas casino but rather a neighborhood in Buenos Aires where many film and TV studios are based. A bohemian spirit distinguishes the neighborhood from its more polished cousin to the south, Palermo Soho. Once occupied by desolate factories and warehouses, the area is now humming with activity. An abundance of hip lounges, cafes and trendy restaurants keep the buzz going all day and through the night. How does Argentina figure in the Latin American film scene? As the Latin American film renaissance has gained stride, filmmakers across the region have become more interested in collaborating on projects. The end of military dictatorships which ruled Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s \"created really interesting national cinemas that blossomed a little bit everywhere but also created a correlation between directors from different countries,\" Brazilian director Walter Salles told CNN earlier this year. Salles works frequently with Argentine directors. He co-produced Trapero's \"Lion's Den\" and Julia Solomonoff's \"Sisters\" (2005). Meanwhile, Eduardo Constantini Jr, of the philanthropic Constantini family in Argentina, recently launched a fund with the Weinstein Co. aimed at backing Latin American movies. He is also behind The Auteurs, an \"online movie theater\" where Web users can watch and discuss film. Is this boom going to run out of steam? The renaissance in Argentina has been building for some time, but it's only just hitting its stride now. Earlier films were mainly art house successes but now with the spotlight shining on Latin America cinema, Argentine films may start to connect more with international audiences. The country continues to attract productions, and there is a vast pool of talent that is being groomed to lead the next generation of auteurs. More than 12,000 undergraduates are currently studying film directing, scriptwriting and technical production, according to the INCAA. Five other must-see Argentine films . 1. \"The Night of the Pencils\" (Hector Olivera, 1986) 2. \"Nine Queens\" (Fabian Bielinsky, 2000) 3. \"Son of the Bride\" (Juan Jose Campanella, 2001) 4. \"The Dog\" (Carlos Sorin, 2004) 5. \"The Holy Girl\" (Lucrecia Martel, 2004)","highlights":"The filmmakers of New Argentine Cinema are winning acclaim worldwide .\nVibrant Buenos Aires has attracted big names like Francis Ford Coppola .\nEverything you need to know about the directors and movies creating buzz .","id":"2da72921a86e84e0b7670307c779ab4edbe12f5f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former rugby superstar Jonah Lomu has revealed that he is poised to make a shock playing comeback at the age of 34 with French third-division club Marseille Vitrolles. Jonah Lomu pictured in action for New Zealand's All Blacks during the 1999 World Cup in France. The giant New Zealander, who became a global name after an electrifying series of performances on the wing for the All Blacks at the 1995 World Cup, retired in 2007 after a succession of injuries hampered his attempt to return following a kidney transplant. He played 63 internationals, the last of them in 2002, but was never able to regain his previous dominance even after regaining full health. \"Marseille Vitrolles is on the point of finalizing the transfer of the greatest legend in world rugby,\" said statement on the club's Web site. Lomu, who is featuring in a new worldwide advertising campaign for sportswear manufacturer adidas called \"Nothing Is Impossible\", was also quoted as confirming his desire to return to the playing field. \"I took a sabbatical year to be at my pregnant partner's side and to fully enjoy this important moment in any man's life,\" he said on the Web site. \"Everyone thought I had ended my playing career, but that was wrong. I still feel the desire to play and it will be me alone who decides when to call it a day. \"My ambition is to help a club like Marseille join the group of top clubs in France.\" Lomu was first diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a rare and serious kidney disorder, at the end of 1996. He successfully returned to the game after treatment, but in May 2003 he was put on dialysis three times a week due to deterioration in his kidney function, with the treatment's side effects leaving him with severe nerve damage in his feet and legs. Lomu faced life in a wheelchair if a kidney transplant was not performed, so underwent the operation. He signed a two-year contract with New Zealand province North Harbour in 2005, and also played for Welsh club Cardiff Blues during the southern hemisphere's off-season. However, he was unable to achieve his goal of being selected in the All Blacks squad for the 2007 World Cup in France, having suffered a shoulder injury. Lomu agreed to play in a charity match in England last year, but withdrew after injuring his ankle in training.","highlights":"Former All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu to join French third-division club .\nThe 34-year-old will play for Marseille Vitrolles after supposedly retiring in 2007 .\nNew Zealander became rugby's first global superstar after the 1995 World Cup .\nHe previously returned to playing after having a kidney transplant .","id":"db6234133d1a4fb9f7b6f6c3cbdc009eafc01924"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Tess Sosa and her daughter have had a hard time forgetting US Airways Flight 1549's emergency landing in New York City's Hudson River in January. Tess Sosa holds her infant son, Damian, as her daughter Sophia, 4, plays on the couch. Sosa and Sophia, 4, have needed therapy, and the Sosas have had to pay out of their own pockets because US Airways' insurer says only three counseling sessions are covered. The family has private insurance and large deductible. The airline and insurer say compensation to the passengers has already exceeded US Airway's obligation, adding they gave $5,000 to passengers after the incident. But Sosa said she thinks the airline is still falling short . \"They have gone to incredible measures to get all of our belongings back, dry them out,\" she said. \"However, I think in doing so, there was this huge oversight in 'Let's take care of these passengers.'\" Watch Sosa explain her expectations \u00bb . Relief over her family's survival can't undo the trauma she endured after the January 15 landing, during which she had to scramble over seats with her infant son, Damian, in tow. Water rushed into the plane as she turned and saw her husband, Martin, sitting at the back of the plane with their then-3-year-old daughter, Sophia. She recalled her husband \"in shock with my daughter being held up high, the water coming in, and hoping they'd see me.\" Another passenger \"bear hugged\" her and Damian and escorted them to the exit. Today, Sosa still remembers how she felt that day: \"the possibility, the imminent death, just waiting to see if the plane was going to plunge any further in the river.\" Following the emergency ditching of Flight 1549, Capt. Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger was quickly crowned a hero for ably landing the Airbus A320 after birds disabled its engines. He made the cover of several magazines, including People, which featured him holding Damian Sosa. See other notable air accidents \u00bb . U.S. Airways hired a firm to restore and return thousands of personal items to passengers -- items ranging from boarding tickets to suitcases. The airline's insurer, American International Underwriters Holdings, a unit of AIG, says US Airways went above and beyond its obligations because the airline is not liable in the crash and the insurers' responsibility \"is to pay valid claims on behalf of US Airways as a result of its legal liability.\" Commenting for AIU, Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, said he concurred that the airline and insurer had fulfilled their obligations. \"We have a flock of birds flying into jet engines for a perfectly well-functioning aircraft and a crew that exhibited extraordinary professionalism in this particular incident. This is very important to recognize, but again, the liability does not exist,\" he said. This is little consolation to the Sosas, whose private insurance has a $3,000 deductible. Sosa said the family still needs help dealing with the trauma, especially Sophia. The family just received another $1,000 bill for therapy sessions. \"I expect my family to be taken care of in the very best way possible, and I don't feel like that's happening when you're balking at my claims to a therapist and you are setting limits on that,\" she said.","highlights":"Family paying for therapy out of pocket after Flight 1549's crash landing .\nPilot ditched plane in Hudson River in January after birds crippled engines .\nUS Airways, its insurer say they have exceeded obligations to passengers .\nMother says she, daughter still experiencing trauma from landing .","id":"723deb3dfd448ec1f5cbf64dc05f38a6fcd58273"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- One year before the FIFA World Cup kicks off, 26 teams of gay and lesbian footballers are battling for global supremacy in the Gay Soccer World Championships. Players from the London Stonewall Lions hold the 2008 Gay World Soccer Championship trophy aloft . Co-ordinated by the International Gay & Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA), the tournament, which began on Sunday, is being hosted by the Federal Triangles club in Washington D.C., and supported by the local Major League Soccer (MLS) side D.C. United. IGLFA spokesman Michael Pranikoff told CNN that the competition has been running annually since 1992. \"We started very small. There were just a few clubs from around the world. But we have gone from strength to strength. Last year the tournament was in London and sanctioned by the Football Association.\" Pranikoff said there are no professional players involved, but the standard of play is strong and the teams in the top divisions are very competitive. Although the tournament involves club sides -- rather than national teams, there is still a strong international feel with players from the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Argentina, Italy, and Norway all taking part. The London Stonewall Lions are the reigning champions in the men's division and expected to figure in Sunday's final at Trinity Washington University, he said. Despite the competitive nature of the event, Pranikoff said there are also less serious divisions where there is a more important message. \"When you are on the pitch it's all about the game. But it's also about providing an environment where people can be free to be who they are. \"It's a lot about camaraderie too. There are a lot of places in the world where gays and lesbians aren't accepted.\" So, is the competition restricted to only gay and lesbian players? Not at all, said Pranikoff. \"It's very open, we don't discriminate.\" He said gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and heterosexual players were all welcome to play. Pranikoff said he is happy with how the 2009 event is unfolding, despite numbers being slightly down on what was expected -- due to the effects of the recession, swine flu and the upcoming Out Games in Denmark which has made attending the football tournament unaffordable for some teams. \"This year we didn't have as big a global turnout as we hoped for but there have been a lot of challenges -- so we're pleased to have 26 teams here.\" Outside of organizing the current world championships, the IGLFA has also been involved in helping other organizations at stamping out homophobia, Pranikoff said.","highlights":"The Gay World Soccer Championships are being held in Washington D.C.\nTwenty-six teams with players from 12 different countries are competing .\nMajor League Soccer team D.C. United have supported the tournament .","id":"59369636ea1808819090c7d3dd8d357348f19f74"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Media maven Oprah Winfrey earned 10 times more than Angelina Jolie last year, but the actress bumped the talk show host from the top spot on Forbes' 2009 Celebrity 100 list just released by the business magazine. Angelina Jolie has ousted Oprah Winfrey from the No. 1 spot on Forbes' 2009 Celebrity 100 list. Jolie's fame, evidenced by magazine covers and TV, radio, newspaper and Web stories, outweighed Winfrey's, giving her the edge as \"the most powerful celebrity in the world\" based on Forbes' formula, Forbes Senior Editor Matthew Miller said. Winfrey, who was at the top for two years straight, grossed $275 million last year, compared with Jolie's $27 million, Miller said. \"We try and measure a celebrity's power, and we look at two metrics to do that,\" Miller said. \"We look at money, and we look at fame.\" A world tour, which helped Madonna pull in $110 million, and a bumper crop of tabloid gossip pushed the Material Girl into the third spot, up from her 21st ranking on last year's list. Beyonce Knowles held steady in fourth, same as last year, with $87 million in income from her multiplatform empire, Miller said. Forbes leveraged the singer-actresses fame by placing her on this week's cover. A bad knee kept Tiger Woods off the PGA tour over the past year and lowered him to the fifth spot on the Forbes list. The golfer, still the highest-paid athlete in the world, was second last year. Bruce Springsteen's tour landed the Boss in sixth, while director Steven Spielberg's latest Indiana Jones movie helped him to seventh place. Actress Jennifer Aniston and her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, were eighth and ninth, respectively, on the strength of successful movies and tabloid headlines. Basketballer Kobe Bryant's endorsements and popularity, boosted by his play on the U.S. Olympic team, jumped to the 10th spot. Miller said Forbes' has spent a great amount of time compiling the list for the past decade because \"celebrities play an ever increasing role in everyone's lives, whether we like it or not.\" \"Celebrities are brands, and they are marketing to us and there's stuff we consume off of them, from movies to albums to concerts to books to speaking tours to everything in between, and we sort of all buy into it,\" he said. The income figures used are gross numbers and do not take into account what goes to agents, managers, taxes and expenses, Miller said. \"It can be very expensive to be a celebrity,\" he said. \"What they're taking home to their personal checking accounts is far less than their gross earnings.\" The list, which has been \"put through our special sauce of earnings and fame,\" is used as a barometer of who has the real power in Hollywood, Miller said. \"When you look at the components of fame and earnings, you can get a good vibe as to who's important this year and who's not,\" he said. \"Angelina Jolie is, by far, the most famous celebrity on the planet,\" he said. \"There's not a day that goes by where she's not on the cover of a tabloid magazine or a regular magazine. There's not day that goes by when people are not talking about her philanthropy or her relationship with Brad Pitt or her movies or her children. All of that lends to a more popular, more robust and, frankly, more valuable brand.\" Miller estimated that Jolie was on about 20 to 30 times more magazine covers last year than Winfrey. It's normal for celebs to fall down or off the list for a year if they are between projects, he said. One newcomer to the list of top 100 celebrities is Barack Obama, debuting at 49. Obama is the first sitting head of state to appear in Forbes' Celebrity 100 rankings. CNN's Jim Roope contributed to this report.","highlights":"Angelina Jolie's fame factor is too much for Oprah Winfrey's money-making machine .\nForbes senior editor: \"Jolie is, by far, the most famous celebrity on the planet\"\nForbes' annual Celebrity 100 list takes media moxie and income into account .\nMadonna, Beyonce Knowles and Tiger Woods round out the Top Five .","id":"d83c7e4817c2b41014260e68879d707cc5a5e8ce"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former middle-school student who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain medication won a partial victory of her Supreme Court appeal Thursday in a case testing the discretion of officials to ensure classroom safety. Savana Redding leaves the U.S Supreme Court in April. She was 13 when she was strip-searched. Savana Redding was 13 when administrators suspected that she was carrying banned drugs. No medication was found, and she later sued. The justices concluded that the search was unreasonable but that individual school administrators could not be sued. The larger issue of whether a campus setting traditionally gives schools greater authority over students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed was not addressed fully by the divided court. \"Savana's subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening and humiliating,\" wrote Justice David Souter for the majority, likely his last opinion before he steps down from the bench next week. But reflecting the divisiveness over the issue, Souter said, \"We think these differences of opinion from our own are substantial enough to require immunity for the school officials in this case.\" Whether the school district would be liable was not an issue before the high court. \"I'm pretty excited that they agreed with me, they see that it was wrong for the school to do that,\" Redding said from her Hobbs, New Mexico, home after the ruling was announced. \"I'm pretty certain that it's so far less likely to happen again\" to other students. Redding was an eighth-grade honor student in 2003, with no history of disciplinary problems at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. During an investigation into pills found at the school, a student told the vice principal that Redding had given her prescription-strength 400-milligram ibuprofen pills. The school had a near-zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission. Redding was pulled from class by Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. The girl denied the accusations. A search of Redding's backpack found nothing. A strip search was conducted by Wilson's assistant and a school nurse, both females. Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear and to pull on the elastic of the underwear, so any hidden pills might fall out, according to court records. No drugs were found. \"The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had,\" Redding said in an affidavit. \"I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.\" Souter said Wilson initially had \"sufficient suspicion\" to justify searching the girl's backpack and outer clothing. But when no contraband was found, the officials went too far by continuing the search of her underwear. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Redding and her family sued, and a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled against the school, calling the search \"traumatizing\" and illegal. That court said the school went too far in its effort to create a drug- and crime-free classroom. The Supreme Court found little agreement on key issues. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed that the search was illegal but would have also made individual officials liable for damages by Redding. \"Wilson's treatment of Redding was abusive, and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it,\" said Ginsburg, who was especially forceful during oral arguments in April, criticizing the school's actions. But Justice Clarence Thomas took the opposite view: that administrators deserved immunity and that the search was permissible. \"Preservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution,\" he said. \"And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative.\" In 1985, the high court allowed the search of a student's purse after she was suspected of hiding cigarettes. Such a search was permitted if there were \"reasonable\" grounds for believing that it would turn up evidence and when the search was not \"excessively intrusive.\" Opinions in 1995 and 2001 allowed schools to conduct random drug testing of high school athletes and those participating in other extracurricular activities. The court was being asked to clarify the extent of student rights involving searches and the discretion of officials regarding those they have responsibility over. Adam Wolf, an ACLU attorney who represented Redding, applauded the decision. \"When parents send their kids to school, they can now breathe a sigh of relief they will not end up naked before school officials,\" Wolf said . But school administrators said the ruling does not make their jobs any easier. \"The home medicine cabinet now poses a serious threat to students, who may take those medications for abusive purposes,\" said Francisco Negron, general counsel for the National School Boards Association. \"That's a problem schools are trying to stem.\" \"How they determine now whether the drug is dangerous, whether it's not dangerous -- that kind of clarity and that kind of guidance, the court did not give us.\" Redding, now 19, said she has never gotten over her experience. \"Before it happened, I loved school, loved everything about it. You know, I had a 4.0 GPA, honor roll, and now, well, afterwards I never wanted to go to school again.\" She is attending college. The case is Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding (08-479).","highlights":"Savana Redding was 13 when administrators suspected she was carrying drugs .\nNo medication was found, and she later sued .\nJustices: Search was unreasonable, but individual school officials can't be sued .\nRedding, now 19, has said she has never gotten over her experience .","id":"003f8c8953025e086fa773c9b40d9b8cd6d9754c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Will Smith's Hancock wasn't the first superhero with bad habits and a bad attitude. Hellboy, the protagonist of \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army,\" has a bit of the devil in him: His skin is red; he has two shorn-off horns on his head, a gargantuan club fist and a long, slippery tail. Ron Perlman returns in the title role in \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army.\" He also has a down-to-earth side: a fondness for Cuban cigars, Mexican beer, TV and candy. He has a short fuse and he'd like a little appreciation for his efforts, please. He deserves it, too. This rank outsider isn't a billionaire like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark. He's not even a scientist like Bruce Banner. He's more of a working stiff, a slugger with a gruff manner and a stogie in the side of his mouth -- but he wants to bat for the right team. (According to writer-artist Mike Mignola, the character was inspired by his father, a cabinetmaker.) Hellboy -- or \"Red\" to his friends -- has switched studios since his 2004 big-screen debut, from Columbia to Universal. Not that it shows. Writer-director Guillermo del Toro is still pulling the strings, and the key creative personnel are all back, including Ron Perlman in the title role, Selma Blair as the pyrokinetic Liz (now Mrs. Hellboy), Doug Jones as the piscine Abe Sapien (the brains to Red's brawn), and -- behind the scenes -- cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, and art whizzes Stephen Scott and Peter Francis. Between them, they conjure up one hell of a creature feature. \"Hellboy II\" boasts a dazzling multitude of imaginary beings: the deceptively delicate tooth fairies (so called because they eat bone, with a fondness for teeth in particular); the elfin king whose antlers grow out of his head to form a crown; the plantlike forest god that collapses into a strangely beautiful floral mulch right under the Brooklyn Bridge; the magnificent Angel of Death, an old crone who unfurls her wings to reveal a sparkling set of eyes (an avian variation on the creepiest creation in the acclaimed \"Pan's Labyrinth,\" del Toro's last movie). Then there's the redoubtable Johann Kraus, an officious but in many ways admirable German who only exists as a vapor trail -- except when he's bottled up in an ingeniously modified, but still splendidly archaic, deep-sea diving suit. When a filmmaker can invest even a puff of smoke with so much chutzpah you know he's on to something. It's wonderful to see del Toro let his imagination run rampant like this. iReport.com: Did you see \"Hellboy II\"? Share your review . The plot concerns an ancient race that's determined to wage war on humanity, but it's secondary to del Toro's amazing characters. The Mexican director's first Hollywood movies (\"Mimic\" and \"Blade II\") were far less distinctive than his Spanish-language films: \"Cronos,\" \"The Devil's Backbone\" and \"Pan's Labyrinth.\" You couldn't really call \"Hellboy II\" an advance on the latter -- \"Pan's\" was nominated for six Oscars and won three -- but it's obvious he relishes this material. It's pulpy and hammy and unashamedly lowbrow, and del Toro has the confidence and power to make it his own. The film feels very free, loose and (unusually for a special-effects picture) improvisational. An outsize personality such as Perlman is in his element here. Even when the wisecracks fall short -- there are an awful lot of \"ass\" gags -- they are closer to the grubby, subversive impulses of the comic books than the over-hyped, market-tested, industrial-strength blockbuster adaptations Hollywood churns out. It's not for nothing that the central tension running through this movie is Red's anarchic streak, his sometimes irresponsible need to be his own man in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the \"X-Men\"-like institution where he works) and in his marriage. Scratch the surface, and this is a film about love and loyalty, figuring out where your deepest bonds lie. Highbrows may damn \"Hellboy II\" as a \"comic book movie,\" though even they would have to grant that its wonderful idiosyncrasies indicate brilliance. But it's more than that. Hellboy does so much growing up over the course of these 110 minutes, we may have to call him \"Hellman\" from now on. Let's hope Universal stays the course and gives us that opportunity. People as creative as del Toro and his gang need all the support we can give them. \"Hellboy II: The Golden Army\" is rated PG-13 and runs 110 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"CNN.com's Tom Charity: \"Hellboy II\" shows more Guillermo del Toro brilliance .\nRon Perlman is back as the cigar-chomping title character .\nPlot is secondary to amazing characters, including a vaporous mass .","id":"eac0b7fdea655881a64be94f11c628ca5e98a47a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's Olympic adventure may be over, but new age chanteuse Sa Dingding is one global export that in many ways echoes the Beijing Olympic fantasy of \"One World. One Dream.\" Sa Dingding's music should find a home on the iPods of millions of chill-out world music fans. Born to a Mongolian mother and Han Chinese father, she sings in Mandarin, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and the rare dialect of Lagu, while fusing chill-out beats and floaty instrumentation played on zither, horse head fiddle and bamboo flute. Already hugely popular in China, she has been finding similar success farther afield: Her first album sold 2 million copies in Southeast Asia, and she has appeared on MTV. Earlier this year she won a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award as well as performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Her linguistic skills and musicianship were honed from a young age. Born in Inner Mongolia in 1983, she spent three years until the age of 6 with her grandmother, living a nomadic life in northern China, where her imagination and creativity were allowed to roam free. \"We actually lived in a small city between grassland and the big city. In spring time, we move to the grassland. And in winter time, we moved back to the city,\"she told CNN's Talk Asia. \"The whole memory of my childhood is in one word: Play. I just played everywhere on the grassland. And there a lot of interesting things happened which affected the ... life of mine.\" Later she became a student of Buddhism and yoga as well as becoming a multi-instrumentalist, releasing her first album at the age of 18. Melding different musical cultures and ethnic influences, notably Tibetan, has also caused a certain amount of discussion, especially on her own position toward the status of Tibet within China. \"From a musician's point of view, Tibetan culture and its music cannot be seen as an isolated subject... lots and lots of other ethnicities have added their colors on the Tibetan culture. So I see the Tibetan culture nowadays as an integral part of the greater Chinese culture,\" she said. Aiming to avoid controversy, organizers of the Glastonbury festival dropped her from this year's lineup. \"I don't quite understand the reason behind [it]. To me, art and music really belong to the whole world and they shouldn't be limited by boundaries. So I really hope that I could join Glastonbury next year,\" she said. Until then further explorations in language and music beckon, and there have been recent collaborations with house music DJ Paul Oakenfold and French chill-out duo Deep Forest in Europe. \"It's very amazing because when I had to return to China, they drove me to the airport and told me: 'Life is full of miracles. When you first arrived here, these three songs didn't exist. But now you're leaving, and we have three wonderful new songs.'\"","highlights":"Half-Mongolian, half-Chinese musician mixes ethnic influences with chill-out beats .\nFirst album sold over 2 million copies in South East Asia .\nDeemed too controversial by Glastonbury Festival and dropped from line-up .","id":"7164258ab49828bde71d2044a1a9d09f7120f865"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 6-foot-4 football player is more than a million times the size of a typical Staphylococcus bacterium. But under the right conditions, that athlete could find himself defenseless against the microscopic bug. Kellen Winslow recently had a second staph infection and has accused his team of covering it up. The problem came to the forefront last week with Cleveland Browns player Kellen Winslow, who recently had his second staph infection. He is reportedly the sixth player to acquire staph among the Browns in five years. Winslow recently said the Browns treated him like a \"piece of meat\" when he was hospitalized for the condition, and he claimed they covered up the cause of his illness. After Winslow spoke out, the organization suspended him for one game, then rescinded the suspension after a settlement with Winslow over the weekend. The Browns said in a statement Saturday that the team and Winslow had worked through their differences, and that the team looked forward to his return. Winslow joined the team again Monday. Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts was revealed to have a staph infection, the Indianapolis Star reported Friday. University of North Carolina-Asheville fans also recently learned that Kenny George, the 7-foot-7 center on the basketball team, had a staph infection complication that led to part of his foot being amputated. It's unclear how these high-profile athletes acquired their infections, but locker rooms have been found to habor staph bacteria in previous outbreaks. The topic is generating buzz throughout the sports world as more players' staph cases are revealed. Hospitals have long been known to be hot spots for transmitting staph, but recently cases have cropped up in other community settings. Regardless of where these players got their infections, the close quarters of a locker room raise questions about overall risks. About 30 percent of people carry staph in their noses without exhibiting symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts say Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a form of staph resistant to common antibiotics, has become a more prevalent problem in settings such as contact sports that involve skin-to-skin touching. Most MRSA infections acquired in community settings present themselves as sores or boils and often appear red, swollen, painful or with drainage such as pus, the CDC says. Infections often occur in cuts and abrasions but also on body parts covered in hair, such as the back of the neck, armpit or groin. Schools, prisons and other crowded environments are particularly known for transmitting MRSA, said. Elaine Larson, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. MRSA may spread particularly easily among athletes because they have repeated skin-to-skin contact, share items and surfaces that touch skin and have a hard time staying clean, the CDC says. Athletes often get cuts and abrasions; MRSA can enter uncovered skin breaks and cause infection. Dr. James Steinberg, medical director at Emory University's Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, said that environment plays a role in the spread of MRSA but that it's less a factor than coming into contact with a person's skin. \"If you have somebody who has an infection -- he has a draining infection -- and he gets some of his pus on a bench, that staph's going to be there for hours or days before it dries out,\" he said. \"But the higher concentration is going to be on that person's skin.\" A second infection in the same person could result from re-exposure or from treatment that didn't get rid of the bacteria colonization, he said. MRSA has been around in hospital settings since the 1970s, but community-associated MRSA was born in the late 1990s, and is now widespread in the community, said CDC spokesperson Nicole Coffin. A report from the CDC said that the deaths of four children from MRSA in North Dakota and Minnesota during the late 1990s \"demonstrate the potential severity of community-acquired MRSA infections.\" A study on the St. Louis Rams published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that during the 2003 football season, there were eight MRSA infections among five of the 58 Rams players. To protect against MRSA, the CDC recommends practicing good personal hygiene and taking care of your skin, which includes wearing protective clothing and covering cuts and abrasions with clean, dry bandages. Also, do not share items that come into contact with your skin, such as towels, razors and ointments. Put something between your skin and shared equipment -- for example, sit on a towel on a bench. Larson said she is not directly familiar with Winslow's situation but understands the dilemma that a team would face if a player contracted a staph infection. There could be economic and psychosocial repercussions -- for example, another team might not want to play against that one, she said. But in general, other team members should be made aware of the situation so they do not share towels or engage in other behaviors that might transmit the infection. Still, there is a danger of overreaction, she said. In some instances when a child in a public school has died, the whole school panicked and fumigated the facility, she said. \"It's a good idea to avoid that level of fear, because it's costly and it scares people unnecessarily,\" she said. On Thursday, the Brown's General Manager Phil Savage said the team did not alert players to Winslow's staph infection partly because of the health privacy laws and partly because the team was in \"game mode\" when Winslow had a confirmed diagnosis. \"To come out and talk about that just was going to be another distraction,\" Savage said on his regular weekly appearance on WTAM radio in Cleveland, Ohio. \"That's our job, is to limit distractions as much as we can.\" Winslow said in a statement released through his publicist, Denise White of EAG Sports Management, that he had been discouraged from making the issue public. \"This has nothing to do with football, and this has nothing to with my current contract situation,\" he said. \"This is a health concern.\" A spokesperson for the Browns did not return a request for comment. An NFL representative said the league has no statement on the issue.","highlights":"Several professional athletes have recently had staph infections .\nExperts say it is a growing problem in settings that involve skin-to-skin touching .\nCDC: Don't share towels; put something between your skin and the bench .\nCleveland Browns' Kellen Winslow brought issue to forefront .","id":"190289afc3b4c0fb0197cd3dce9ad30ceeb4667a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A student who videoed a re-enactment of the \"Jena 6\" incident apologized and said the video was not intended to make fun of the six black students arrested in the beating of a white classmate, according to The News-Star newspaper of Monroe, Louisiana. The incident involving six black students has sparked protests across the country, like this one in Washington. The video, taped by University of Louisiana-Monroe student Kristy Smith, shows students in blackface apparently acting out the beating of Jena High School student Justin Barker. One of the males in the tape runs onto the beach acting as if he is holding a noose, and three others -- covered in river mud -- pretend to knock him to the ground, punch and kick him. At least one racial epithet can be heard. It was unclear when the video was made. Smith said she taped it on the banks of the Red River in Alexandria, Louisiana, and posted it on her Facebook page, according to The News-Star. The page has since been made private, but the video was posted on YouTube and The Smoking Gun. Watch Jena 6 re-enactment \u00bb More than 500 people attended a forum held Tuesday night at the university in response to the video, a university statement said. \"The majority ... decided not to let the actions of a few define the entire student body.\" Vice President of Student Affairs Wayne Brumfield told students \"there are no words to express the dismay at what happened in that video ... We're here tonight because the action of one or two set our university in motion.\" In a Tuesday interview with the News-Star, a tearful Smith denied being racist. \"This is so not me,\" she said in the Wednesday article. \"It wasn't that we were making fun of the Jena 6 incident. We were just fed up with it ... I have just as many black [friends] as I do white friends.\" School administrators are reviewing the incident for possible disciplinary action from ULM's Office of Judicial Affairs, university spokesperson Laura Harris said. Smith and another participant in the video are ULM students, Harris said. The beating of Barker followed an increase in racial tensions in Jena, Louisiana, including at least two fights, sparked originally when three white teens hung nooses from an oak tree on the grounds of the town's high school. The six black teens arrested in the beating were initially charged with attempted murder. Those charges, later reduced and moved to juvenile court, focused nationwide attention on Jena and led about 15,000 protesters to the town to participate in a march on the youths' behalf. Smith did not respond Thursday to an e-mail from CNN. Harris said she has left the ULM campus and returned home. Smith told the News-Star she has taken the video off her Facebook page and has apologized to Facebook groups and bloggers. She said she is getting threats that have prompted her to delete her e-mail address and has had to keep her cell phone off. \"My dad's back home dying of cancer, and I can't call him,\" she said. Brumfield told students at Tuesday's forum that Smith \"is suffering terrible shame right now.\" ULM asked Facebook and YouTube to remove the videos, Brumfield said, but it was still available on YouTube as of Thursday afternoon. Brumfield also created his own Facebook account to respond to the video. University President James Cofer has directed that educational materials be developed for students, especially freshmen, on cultural sensitivity and racial diversity, according to a university statement. \"We are naturally appalled, and we intend to face this matter directly by gathering our community together and exploring these difficult issues,\" Cofer said in a statement. Students at the forum offered ideas for strengthening racial unity on the campus of about 8,500 students. \"What we're doing here right now is a very important thing,\" said Ma'ya Blount, a ULM junior from New Orleans, according to a university statement on the forum. \"Racism doesn't get resolved when people hush up about it and sweep it under the rug. It only gets resolved when we talk about it in an educated manner ... As long as we continue to do this, maybe 10, 20 years from now, race won't be so much of an issue. We need to talk about it in a positive manner. We can only learn from this.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Student tells News-Star of Monroe, Louisiana, she wasn't making fun of \"Jena 6\"\nKristy Smith posted tape on her Facebook page; it has since been removed .\nHundreds meet on University of Louisiana-Monroe campus in response to video .\nSix black students, dubbed \"Jena 6,\" accused of beating white student .","id":"a77dac61e9a5d80b064b212ccd6983e13c602674"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. fans of Michael Jackson are pouring out their grief through music and dance, impromptu shrines at symbolic locations and heartfelt remembrances online. Valerie Rojas Pruitt, 12, lights a candle Friday at Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was surrounded hours before dawn Friday by candles, flowers, posters and balloons. As the sun rose, a man crouched on the sidewalk and painted a portrait of the pop star, who died suddenly on Thursday. \"This is a very sad day here in Hollywood, California,\" sobbed Melissa Fazli, a CNN iReporter. \"This is very, very sad. I can't believe it.\" The star emblem had been covered until almost 3 a.m. by a red carpet for the premiere of the Sasha Baron Cohen film \"Bruno\" at Grauman's Chinese Theater, but fans started leaving mementos as soon as the carpet was removed. The film's producers reportedly cut a scene referencing Jackson, at least for the premiere. Watch the Walk of Fame shrine grow \u00bb . \"He was an innovator,\" a fan named Delores said outside the theater. \"He's basically an icon in his own time -- legendary. It's going to take years [to sink in] that he's gone, because he's always with me. ... I'm just trying to assess it all right now. I'm still mourning, and at the same time missing him. It's a little bit much to bear.\" See what celebrities had to say \u00bb . Fans gathered near the gates of the Los Angeles home where the King of Pop collapsed Thursday, and hundreds more assembled outside the UCLA Medical Center, where Jackson was pronounced dead. The U.S. fans' reaction was part of a worldwide outpouring of grief over Jackson's death and celebration of his life and art. See how people reacted in other countries . People stopped in their tracks Thursday in New York's Times Square, staring up at the giant TV screens bearing news of Jackson's death. Some people set up lawn chairs in the evening. Watch the reaction on Times Square \u00bb . Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Motown Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan, a two-story house where the Jackson 5's recording career began in 1969, according to CNN affiliate WDIV-TV. Fans built a makeshift shrine to Jackson, whose hits could be heard booming from passing cars, the station reported. View a timeline of Jackson's career \u00bb . Fans frequently broke into song and dance around Jackson's childhood home on Jackson Street, renamed in honor of the family, in Gary, Indiana, CNN affiliate WRTV-TV reported. Watch fans gather at the home \u00bb . \"I knew Michael. I only lived three blocks from him myself,\" Gary resident John Moore told WRTV-TV. \"It's a really sad day. I'm very hurt and disappointed right now. He was a great guy.\" CNN iReporter Egberto Willies of Kingwood, Texas, summed up the conflicting feelings Jackson engendered among his admirers: . \"I grew up on Michael Jackson,\" Willies said in a video post on iReport.com. \"I loved Michael Jackson. I hated Michael Jackson. I admired Michael Jackson. I was ashamed of Michael Jackson. I was sorry for Michael Jackson. I was proud of Michael Jackson. iReport: Share your thoughts about Michael Jackson . \"Michael Jackson was a complicated human being who was [denied] a childhood in order to provide us with great musical and dancing entertainment,\" Willies went on. \"But with all his wealth and success he never seemed happy with himself. He never viewed himself as we viewed him: simply the best entertainer alive. May he rest in peace, his demons left behind.\" CNN's Kara Finnstrom and Dan Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Admirers gather at symbolic locations to salute the late \"King of Pop\"\nCandles, flowers, posters, balloons surround star on Hollywood Walk of Fame .\nFans sing and dance outside Detroit house where Jackson 5 first recorded .\nNeighbors remember Jackson at childhood home in Gary, Indiana .","id":"c72fc57e96d98bf22eb67678e538a0a4543afe60"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A veteran of over 20 years of mountain climbing, Dave Bunting has been in some pretty tight scrapes. Soldier mountaineer Dave Bunting on Mount Everest. His team tried to summit via the mountain's notorious West Ridge in 2006. He and his climbing partner once watched in terror as a huge avalanche careered down a Himalayan mountainside straight for them. They were miraculously spared when the wall of snow parted on either side of the promontory where they were standing at a distance of just 50 meters. On another occasion he spent an agonizing night hanging precariously over a 3,000-foot (900 meter) drop during an electrical storm in the Alps. He estimates he was electrocuted \"half a dozen times\" during the course of the night. Faced with the fearsome power of nature mountaineers like Bunting rely on one indispensable ally -- other mountaineers. Teamwork is essential in climbing. The first successful ascent of Everest was as much about the bond of trust that existed between modest New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and his diminutive Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, as their individual talents. To illustrate this point, when Bunting -- a warrant officer in the British Army -- was compiling a team of soldiers to attempt an ascent of Everest's notorious West Ridge the first quality he and the rest of the selection panel looked for was not climbing expertise, but compatibility. \"A lot of people think that when you go and do something like that, you immediately look for all the best climbers in the army,\" he says. \"But what we based our selection process on, compatibility was first.\" Of course, all team sports rely upon a strong dynamic between the individual members. But there can be few disciplines in which the stakes are as high as in mountain climbing, where your life often literally rests in someone else's hands. Bunting, 40, led the expedition of 21 army mountaineers to Everest's West Ridge two years ago. It was a daunting undertaking. Of over 2,200 climbers who have made it to the top of the world's tallest peak since it was first conquered, only 19 have done so via this route. The ridge is rarely attempted because of its steepness and because its position leaves it exposed to high winds and the risk of avalanche. The army's summit attempt took three and half years in the planning and preparation and was the subject of a documentary, 'Everest: Man v Mountain.' Much of this build-up involved establishing strong bonds between team members. Practice climbs, social events and corporate-style teambuilding days were all employed to try to instil an atmosphere of mutual trust within the group. An essential factor on a mountain as significant as Everest, Bunting says. \"You are massively wrapped up in emotions there because you've spent three and a half years preparing for it,\" says Bunting, who now runs his own outdoor events company in the Bavarian Alps. The prestige of getting to the top of Everest can sometimes blur a climber's moral judgement, leading to acts of single-mindedness that border on the downright callous. During the same season as Bunting's army expedition, David Sharp, a 34-year-old British climber died of cold, exhaustion and lack of oxygen on his descent from the summit. As details of Sharp's death became public it emerged that 40 climbers had passed him, making no attempt to save the stricken climber as he lay stranded in the scant shelter of a rock alcove on the mountain's northeast ridge. The incident drew much soul-searching in the mountaineering world, with Sir Edmund Hillary complaining to New Zealand's Otago Daily Times of the \"horrifying\" attitudes it revealed. \"(On Everest) a lot of people are out for themselves completely,\" says Bunting. He says this selfish streak is exacerbated by the fast turnover of commercial climbing expeditions, which often meet for the first time just a couple of weeks before a summit attempt, meaning there is little opportunity to build team morale. By contrast, among Bunting's army mountaineers the needs of the group were always put before personal ambition. He gives an example: . \"As we went for the summit there were a number of support teams, one of whose job it was to break trail from base camp right the way up to 7,500 metres, clambering through two foot of snow. \"Each step you take at those altitudes is absolutely horrendous. There's a clip in the documentary of one of the lads breaking trail, every step up to his knees in snow, and you hear him say: 'Well, this is our job so we've got to get on with it.' \"A brilliant demonstration of teamwork.\" The biggest test of this togetherness came when Bunting was left the unenviable task of telling his team of ambitious young soldiers he was abandoning the summit attempt because of a high risk of avalanches. \"Two or three of the guys were pretty pissed off, to be honest. \"Instead of getting wrapped up in emotions -- because Everest is a very emotional place -- I looked at it in very black and white terms. I couldn't risk sending my team up the mountain with that kind of real and present danger involved.\" This clear-headed thinking meant his team braved one of the most dangerous climbs in the world and made it back down again, together.","highlights":"Army officer Dave Bunting recruited a team of 21 soldiers to summit Everest .\nThe 2006 attempt was via the mountain's notoriously dangerous West Ridge .\nThey spent over three years preparing by building cameraderie and team spirit .\nBunting says personal ambition can sometimes get the better of climbers on Everest .","id":"0cd1b7e6b17a9a884868ab8fb281719b6413c6d7"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Smoke blanketed the Argentine capital Friday as brush fires apparently set deliberately consumed thousands of acres in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre R\u00edos. A haze surrounds the Palermo neighborhood of the Argentine capital early Thursday. The smoke, from about 300 fires, is blamed for at least two fatal traffic accidents this week that left eight people dead. Sections of major highways and the Buenos Aires port, among the busiest in the world, have been closed. Incoming flights to the city's domestic airport, Jorge Newbery Airpark, have been diverted. The Argentine government has blamed farmers looking to clear their land for crops and grazing for the fires, which are estimated to cover 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares). \"This is the largest fire of this kind that we've ever seen,\" Argentine Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said Thursday. Randazzo called the situation a \"disaster.\" As of Friday morning, little progress had been made extinguishing the blazes. No rain is predicted for the next few days, but the National Meteorological Service predicts that the winds will change direction soon, dispersing the smoke. On Friday morning, the National Roads Administration closed sections of the heavily traveled Panamericana Highway, which leads in and out of Buenos Aires. Spokesman Ernesto Arriaga said \"visibility is 5 meters\" (about 16 feet) in some sections of the highway. \"Covering highways with smoke just to clear a field of weeds is unforgivable,\" Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez told Radio Diez. \"It's incredibly irresponsible.\" Hospitals have reported an increase in visitors complaining of breathing problems, sore throats and burning eyes in the past three days. Citing a high level of carbon monoxide in the air, officials have encouraged people not to exercise outside. Schools in Pilar, a city in the province of Buenos Aires, were closed Friday because of the gray, thick air. The smoke has obscured views of some of the capital's landmarks, such the Obelisco monument and the government house, Casa Rosada, and people were seen walking on the city streets covering their faces with clothes. This month, Argentina's farmers suspended a three-week strike over a new government export tax on commodities. The bitter lockout left grocery shelves empty and caused major friction between President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's government and Argentina's large agricultural sector. E-mail to a friend . Journalist Brian Byrnes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Parts of highways, Buenos Aires port closed by heavy smoke from fires .\nWildfires cover 173,000 acres around Buenos Aires .\nArgentine government blames farmers for setting the blazes .\nShifting winds may help clear Buenos Aires .","id":"f6b32354ded350ee30d0b9c718a0ef957f13a47d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One 12-year-old Virginia boy was playing baseball when it happened. Lightning strikes Las Vegas in 2006. Already this month 11 people have been killed by lightning in the U.S. The same week, a 33-year-old man was struck while jogging in Texas, a 70-year-old California woman was hit while doing yard work and a Kentucky man, 44, fell victim while waiting under a tree for a ride. They are among 11 people killed already this month by lightning strikes in the United States, according to the National Weather Service. \"Lightning is very random in terms of fatalities,\" National Weather Service lightning safety expert John Jensensius told CNN. \"We normally see a good amount of lightning in June, but this is unusually high. There really is no good explanation of why that's the case.\" Six of the 15 lightning-strike deaths in the U.S. so far this year occurred in California, Texas and Florida, with the rest scattered through the South, Midwest and West. No deaths have occurred in the Northeast so far, \"likely due to the cool, damp pattern we've seen in New England,\" Jensensius said. \"There have been less severe thunderstorms there.\" Summer is the deadliest season for lightning strikes because of the frequency of thunderstorms and the fact that more people are outdoors. This week, the first official week of summer, marks \"Lightning Safety Awareness Week\" for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The agency's message is \"When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors.\" That's because all the people killed by lightning in the U.S. so far this year -- and the 28 killed in 2008 -- were outdoors. Taking shelter under trees offers little safety -- nearly one-third of the people killed by lightning last year were under a tree when they were hit. More than 400 people in the U.S. are hit by lightning each year, according to the National Weather Service. Lightning, on average, kills more people than hurricanes and tornadoes combined (among all weather-related fatalities, only floods kill more). While not all injuries result in death, many victims are left with devastating and permanent disabilities. You may remember that as a child you were told to count the seconds between a lightning flash and thunder to see how far away the lightning was. But by the time you calculate it, it may be too late. Sometimes thunder and lightning can happen simultaneously. Despite its \"Sunshine State\" nickname, Florida receives more cloud-to-ground lightning than any other state in the country, according to data from NASA satellites. But Florida does not receive the most lightning in the world. According to NASA research, that dubious honor goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 158 strikes per square kilometer each year. Thunderstorms occur in Central Africa year-round. Here are some commonly asked lightning questions: . How powerful is lightning? According to the National Weather Service, \"each spark of lightning can reach over five miles in length, soar to temperatures of approximately 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit and contain 100 million electrical volts.\" Can wearing rubber shoes protect you from lightning? No. That's a myth, and there are lots of them out there. For facts on lightning safety, visit http:\/\/www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov\/.","highlights":"Eleven people have been killed already this month by lightning strikes in the U.S.\nAll the U.S.'s 15 lightning deaths this year occurred in the South, Midwest and West .\nSummer is the deadliest season for lightning because of the frequency of storms .\nThis week, the first official one of summer, is Lightning Safety Awareness Week .","id":"02ea79f6d146310657b394e15c7996a85ff3340c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former rugby superstar Jonah Lomu has revealed that he is poised to make a shock playing comeback at the age of 34 with French third-division club Marseille Vitrolles. Jonah Lomu pictured in action for New Zealand's All Blacks during the 1999 World Cup in France. The giant New Zealander, who became a global name after an electrifying series of performances on the wing for the All Blacks at the 1995 World Cup, retired in 2007 after a succession of injuries hampered his attempt to return following a kidney transplant. He played 63 internationals, the last of them in 2002, but was never able to regain his previous dominance even after regaining full health. \"Marseille Vitrolles is on the point of finalizing the transfer of the greatest legend in world rugby,\" said statement on the club's Web site. Lomu, who is featuring in a new worldwide advertising campaign for sportswear manufacturer adidas called \"Nothing Is Impossible\", was also quoted as confirming his desire to return to the playing field. \"I took a sabbatical year to be at my pregnant partner's side and to fully enjoy this important moment in any man's life,\" he said on the Web site. \"Everyone thought I had ended my playing career, but that was wrong. I still feel the desire to play and it will be me alone who decides when to call it a day. \"My ambition is to help a club like Marseille join the group of top clubs in France.\" Lomu was first diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a rare and serious kidney disorder, at the end of 1996. He successfully returned to the game after treatment, but in May 2003 he was put on dialysis three times a week due to deterioration in his kidney function, with the treatment's side effects leaving him with severe nerve damage in his feet and legs. Lomu faced life in a wheelchair if a kidney transplant was not performed, so underwent the operation. He signed a two-year contract with New Zealand province North Harbour in 2005, and also played for Welsh club Cardiff Blues during the southern hemisphere's off-season. However, he was unable to achieve his goal of being selected in the All Blacks squad for the 2007 World Cup in France, having suffered a shoulder injury. Lomu agreed to play in a charity match in England last year, but withdrew after injuring his ankle in training.","highlights":"Former All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu to join French third-division club .\nThe 34-year-old will play for Marseille Vitrolles after supposedly retiring in 2007 .\nNew Zealander became rugby's first global superstar after the 1995 World Cup .\nHe previously returned to playing after having a kidney transplant .","id":"4c85dee84a3eddd9e6297ec070668c03197aa306"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The nation's foreclosure crisis threatened a high-profile victim this week: TV legend Ed McMahon, best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick on \"The Tonight Show.\" Ed McMahon and his wife, Pam, talk to CNN's Larry King about their mortgage problems. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default. McMahon and his wife, Pam, appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Thursday night to talk about their financial woes and other topics. Some highlights: . Larry King: What did happen, Ed? Ed McMahon: It's a combination, it's like a perfect storm. Economy problems. Selling the house right now is a tremendous operation .... We've had this house on the market for two years. We've shown it, I don't know how many, 50 organizations or people. Nobody has made an offer. I mean, it's just a lovely home. I hate to leave it. I want to keep the home. I want this all to work out. Watch McMahon tell King what went wrong \u00bb . King: And the payments, you can't make -- what's the problem? Ed McMahon: Well, if you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that. And, you know, things happen. You want everything to be perfect, but that combination of the economy, I have a little injury, I have a situation. And it all came together. King: Did you break your neck? Ed McMahon: I broke my neck. I had a fall. ... King: Has that stopped you from working? Ed McMahon: Oh, sure. You know, you can't work with this [brace] around your neck. And I have to wear this. King: But, Pam, the assumption is that the McMahons are multimillionaires and multimillionaires -- how much behind are you, $644,000, right? That's what's reported? ... If you're a millionaire, shouldn't you be able to pay $644,000? Pam McMahon: I think over the years, you know, it's just a kind of a combination of maybe Ed working so hard and not kind of looking at proper management, which happens a lot. ... Because you're a celebrity, people think you have a lot more than you have. And you always want to take great care of all of your friends and your family and everybody, and you do. And you don't, and I think, you know, we didn't keep our eye on the ball. We made mistakes. King: And are they foreclosing? Pam McMahon: Yes, they are. ... King: So you will lose this home? Ed McMahon: It's possible, yes. But now, I'll tell you what's happened, oddly enough. Today, all kinds of wonderful things have happened. New things have happened. And new interest in this house. Where the house had no interest, now there's all kinds of, tons of interest. So who knows what's going to happen. I'm optimistic. ... King: Ed, why have you gone public? Ed McMahon: Well, I figured I wanted to, in a sense, speak for the million people you mentioned [facing foreclosure]. I heard that figure today and I just couldn't believe it. Anyway, the million people that now have foreclosure signs on their house, or nearby. And I just want to give them hope, give them optimism, give them some kind of guidance. Get the best corrective people you need around you. Keep working on it. Don't stop. There's a lot of people that are hard workers, did everything right, didn't do anything wrong, and all of a sudden, they're in this boat. And I speak for all of them, as far as I'm concerned.","highlights":"Ed McMahon in danger of foreclosure on his multimillion dollar home .\nHome has been on market for two years with no offers, McMahon tells Larry King .\nMcMahon blames bad economy, broken neck for difficulty making payments .\nTV legend says he wants to speak for all who are in danger of losing homes .","id":"d048878e3608b91f9361f4cbe1f1ce1cb5596f58"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In compiling a new George Harrison greatest-hits collection, the idea was to focus on the flow, his widow, Olivia, told CNNRadio Monday. George Harrison, shown here in 1992, had hits with \"My Sweet Lord\" and \"All Those Years Ago,\" among others. \"It's a collection that spans his career, and we put them together in a way we thought they would just kind of flow, you know, musically, into one another,\" she said of \"Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison,\" out Tuesday. \"But, it's all George, you know.\" In 1970, the Beatles broke up. Harrison burst out of the palace with \"All Things Must Pass,\" a monster three-record set that featured friends like Eric Clapton, Leon Russell and former bandmate Ringo Starr. Critics and fans agree the album is among the best solo offerings from a former Fab. Although five cuts from \"All Things\" got the nod on this package -- the title track, \"Isn't it a Pity,\" \"What is Life,\" \"The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp\" and, of course, \"My Sweet Lord\" -- this look back displays Harrison's solo work throughout his career. The 19-cut CD extends all the way through \"Brainwashed,\" his final album, featuring that album's chirpy \"Any Road\" and the hypnotic instrumental \"Marwa Blues.\" The Beatles are present too. Three live Harrison songs from \"The Concert for Bangladesh\" -- \"While My Guitar Gently Weeps,\" \"Something\" and \"Here Comes the Sun\" -- sound as good today as they did on that August date in 1971 at Madison Square Garden. And, of course, his bouncy, tongue-in-cheek \"When We Was Fab,\" from his 1987 release \"Cloud Nine,\" shows Harrison looking back without anger. \"I think that there is an underlying thread that he always expressed, always a bit of humor, always a bit of longing,\" said Olivia Harrison. \"You know, I don't like to overuse the word spirituality, but, you know, he was interested in things not of this world.\" Harrison is a two-time inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a Beatle and once as a solo artist.","highlights":"New George Harrison collection, \"Let It Roll,\" out Tuesday .\nCD songs from 1970s \"All Things Must Pass\" through 2002's \"Brainwashed\"\nWidow: Harrison's songs had \"always a bit of humor, always a bit of longing\"","id":"53069cd8cde0729a554e088a49087cb010d35517"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A private funeral service for actress Farrah Fawcett will be conducted Tuesday afternoon at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, California, according to her publicist. Actress Farrah Fawcett, known for her blonde mane and gleaming smile, died Thursday at age 62. The family did not release any details about who would deliver the eulogy or how many people have been invited. Fawcett, the blonde actress whose best-selling poster and \"Charlie's Angels\" stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62, and had been battling anal cancer on and off for three years. Fawcett's beauty -- her gleaming smile was printed on millions of posters -- initially made her famous. But she later established herself as a serious actress. She starred as a battered wife in the 1984 TV movie \"The Burning Bed.\" Learn more about Fawcett's life and career \u00bb . She appeared on stage as a woman who extracts vengeance from a would-be rapist in William Mastrosimone's play \"Extremities,\" a performance she reprised on film in 1986. Other Fawcett films include \"Logan's Run\" (1976), \"Saturn 3\" (1980), \"The Cannonball Run\" (1981), \"The Apostle\" (1997) and the Robert Altman-directed \"Dr. T and the Women\" (2000). But to many, Fawcett will always be best known for the poster of her in a red swimsuit, which sold an estimated 12 million copies after its release in 1976. CNN's Karen Bonsignore contributed to this report.","highlights":"Funeral will be held at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles .\nThe family did not release any details about who would deliver the eulogy .\nService will be private with no indication on how many people invited .","id":"9487ae54c6db48019e4b11a877b205ab4ad7648d"} -{"article":"BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- The case of Mychal Bell, a black teenager accused of beating a white classmate in Jena, Louisiana, will be heard in juvenile court, Louisiana's governor announced Wednesday. Mychal Bell, 17, is accused with five others of beating Justin Barker in a school fight. Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that she discussed Bell's case with LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters on Wednesday, and that Walters agreed not to challenge a state appeals court ruling that dismissed Bell's battery and conspiracy convictions. The court ruled that Bell, who was 16 at the time of the beating, should have been tried in juvenile court instead of having the case transferred to adult court. Blanco made the announcement with civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton. Last week, they led about 15,000 marchers to Jena, a town of 3,000, to protest how authorities handled the cases of Bell and five other black teens accused of beating white high school student Justin Barker. Many said they are angry the students, dubbed the \"Jena 6,\" are being treated more harshly than three white students who hung nooses from an oak tree on high school property. The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters say they should have been charged with a hate crime. Prosecutors originally charged all six black students with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy . The black students now face charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy in the schoolyard beating. The altercation was the culmination of racially tense events in the town, including two fights sparked by the hanging of the nooses. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mychal Bell's case will be heard in juvenile court, Gov. Kathleen Blanco says .\nLaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters agreed to that, she said .\nBell and five other black teens are accused of beating white student Justin Barker .\nBeating followed white students hanging nooses from a tree on school grounds .","id":"11acd527344b5cd7ce41d1474142f6a885a7e9fb"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Scientific tests prove bones housed in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome are those of the apostle St. Paul himself, according to Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict XVI looks at the tomb of St. Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome in 2007. \"Tiny fragments of bone\" in the sarcophagus were subjected to carbon dating, showing they \"belong to someone who lived in the first or second century,\" the pope said in a homily carried on Italian television. \"This seems to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle St. Paul,\" Benedict said in Sunday's announcement. The tomb also holds \"traces of a precious linen cloth, purple in color and laminated with pure gold, and a blue colored textile with linen filaments,\" the pope said. The tests were carried out by inserting a probe into a small opening in the sarcophagus, \"which had not been opened for many centuries,\" the pontiff said. The probe \"also revealed the presence of grains of red incense and traces of protein and limestone.\" Separately, archaeologists have uncovered an image of St. Paul which \"could be considered the oldest icon of the apostle known to date,\" the Vatican's official newspaper reported Sunday. The painting, in the St. Tecla Catacomb, is \"among the oldest and best-defined figures from ancient Christianity,\" according to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, L'Osservatore Romano reported. St. Paul is one of the most significant figures in Christianity. Originally a persecutor of early Christians, he became a follower of Jesus after seeing a vision on the road to Damascus, according to Christian tradition. \"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?\" the vision of Jesus asks Paul, using the apostle's birth name, in the Acts of the Apostles. Saul then took the name Paul and became a missionary. His letters, or epistles, to early Christian communities around the Mediterranean form a significant portion of the New Testament. Paul was beheaded by Roman authorities sometime between 65 and 67 A.D., according to the Catholic Church. He was buried a few miles away, and when the Roman Empire stopped persecuting Christians some 250 years later, the Emperor Constantine had a basilica built over his grave. It currently lies under a marble tombstone bearing the Latin inscription PAULO APOSTOLO MART (Apostle Paul, martyr), according to the Web site of the basilica. A papal altar stands over the tombstone, which is visible through a window-like opening, the Web site says. Monday marks the end of a year of celebration in honor of the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth. It also happens to be the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientific tests prove bones are those of the apostle St. Paul, pope says .\nVatican tomb also holds \"traces of a precious linen cloth\"\nTests were carried out by inserting probe into small opening in sarcophagus .","id":"a55003fe8bc3ad2ebf33cfe49b35feefa7c0174c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cal Ripken Jr. will always be known for his consecutive games played streak, but it may surprise many people that just two years into his big-league career, he already was planning for life after baseball. Cal Ripken Jr. is introduced to the crowd at the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While many of the athletes who took to the playing fields of major league baseball this season only are focused on the game, Ripken began saving and planning for retirement long before his career neared its end. \"When I joined the Orioles [in 1982], the team was transitioning,\" said Ripken, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July. \"I saw guys who were 34, 35, 36 years old -- still young guys -- about to get out of the game, and I wondered what will they do now? \"It got me thinking about what I would want to do when I got out of the game. Most people don't realize how fast the time goes, but I turned those questions on myself.\" Though he quickly points out that he didn't dwell on those questions, Ripken admits it got him thinking, and eventually planning, so that when retirement came in 2001, the shift from baseball to business was easy. \"From the outside, I'm sure it looked like a smooth transition just by virtue of the fact that I had another thing to go into,\" he said. \"I had prepared for what was next.\" These days, five seasons after retiring from a 21-year career he spent with the Baltimore Orioles, Ripken is a businessman, team owner, radio-show host and author. He also will be a baseball analyst for TBS, which like CNN.com is owned by Time Warner. Ripken jumped full time into his company, Ripken Baseball, without taking any break, lessening the emotional jolt of retirement. \"I didn't give myself the luxury of taking a month off [after the baseball season],\" he said. \"I think I would have opened myself up to regret, thinking about the past. I had to get a minor league baseball team in that stadium. I just put my head down and started working.\" Ripken's first post-baseball venture was developing a youth ballpark in his hometown of Aberdeen, Maryland, financed in part by a $75,000 gift from the Major League Baseball Players Association. It was presented to him the night he broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. Ripken was a \"rookie\" for the second time in his life, this time in business. \"I was learning all over again, learning what was important,\" he said. \"The off-season never went by so fast. I had meetings, phone calls, plans and long days in the office. \"By the time I looked up, [the Orioles] were at spring training. I didn't think, 'They left without me,' which is what I thought I would do.\" Ripken's latest project is a business principles book called \"Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference,\" co-authored by Donald T. Phillips. The book, available April 10, was born out a speech Ripken gave about the \"secrets\" of his success. Writing it turned out to be an emotional journey, he said. \"I got to reflect on what my parents had taught me, the values and principles, right and wrong,\" Ripken said. \"It's good to be in touch with those things.\" The fact is, whether in baseball or business, Ripken rarely strays from the principles he learned from his late father, Cal Sr., a former player and manager. The book is filled with anecdotes from on and off the field. Now 46, Ripken is president and CEO of Ripken Baseball, and his brother, Bill, a former teammate, is executive vice president. The company owns minor league teams in Aberdeen and in Augusta, Georgia. The brothers also have co-written two books on baseball and co-host a baseball call-in show on weekends on XM Radio. There were reports in December that Ripken was heading a group that was interested in buying the Orioles, but Baltimore owner Peter Angelos denied that claim. \"There is no question that Cal and I have a great relationship,\" Angelos told The (Baltimore) Sun. \"He was a great player for the Orioles, and I have an affection for him. But what's being reported, there is simply no substance to it. It has not happened. There have been no such discussions.\" Still, Ripken said he probably would \"stick his nose in\" if the Orioles became available. Ripken, who has a boy and a girl, also has ventured into children's literature, and his first book is scheduled to be released Thursday. \"The Longest Season\" tells the story of the 21-game losing streak Ripken and his Orioles teammates endured in 1988 and teaches the lessons of perseverance. Ripken also continues his longstanding association with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America through the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. The foundation says it has refurbished fields, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the country and teamed up with Nike to help provide baseball and softball equipment to school sports programs nationwide. Asked what type of advice he would offer to young professional baseball players, Ripken said, \"Put that [huge contract] aside, save your money, that's your nest egg. In the off-season, think about skill development or the interests you have in a small way but be very careful. \"You can't think too much about retirement as a young player. You have to live a narrow existence for your sport.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive MLB games .\nNow runs baseball organization with brother Bill .\nFormer shortstop has written several books, hosts radio show .","id":"73282b6040459d299f35068bf26c78b0b824472a"} -{"article":"LAVONIA, Georgia (CNN) -- Sonya Savage's back door opens to a cozy wooden porch that serves as a shelter for her 9-year-old son's bicycles and spare parts. Residents of Beaver Creek in Lavonia, Georgia, say they had no idea a neighbor was holding his family captive. A 30-foot tract of red clay and splotchy crab grass separates her mobile home from the home of Raymond Daniel Thurmond, a residence so rank and squalid that it forced a seasoned police investigator to vomit upon entering. Another officer donned a gas mask just to walk inside. Savage and her neighbors say they had no clue that Thurmond, 36, had a wife, let alone four kids; they were also oblivious that Thurmond may have held the five hostage in the three-bedroom mobile home for three years. \"My son, he's a little bicycle mechanic. He's always in the backyard, and he don't recall ever seeing nobody over here,\" said Savage, 29, who also has a 4-year-old daughter. \"Usually I've got a yard full of kids, but I've never seen any of those kids come out and play.\" Savage recalls speaking to Thurmond once, after someone stole one of her son's bike tires. Thurmond kindly told Savage he hadn't seen anything suspicious. \"He was nice, polite, seemed like a normal guy,\" she said. Watch a walk-through of the filth \u00bb . Alma Medina, the property manager for the 100-unit Beaver Creek mobile home park, lives three doors from what is now a crime scene. She remembers Thurmond was a polite fellow. He always called her \"Miss Alma\" when he dropped by the office to explain that his rent was late, a routine occurrence that eventually led Medina's maintenance man to a foul discovery. She occasionally saw Thurmond mingling with other tenants, but she never saw his family. The only indication that one existed, Medina said, was that he and his wife both signed a lease August 22, 2005, and noted on their application that they had three sons and a daughter. \"I never saw them outside, never,\" she said. See what the trailer looked like \u00bb . Lavonia, a city of about 2,000 on Interstate 85, about five miles from South Carolina and the sprawling Lake Hartwell, is not the best place to keep secrets. The locals know each other, if only by face, and the police chief personally directs school traffic and walks the entire town daily to check on local businesses. The self-professed \"big-time small town\" has its share of crime, but hasn't seen a murder in six years. Lt. Missy Collins, the investigator who had Thurmond arrested Tuesday after a two-week investigation, said her husband used to work with Thurmond at a pump-manufacturing facility in nearby Toccoa. Chief Bruce Carlisle remembers seeing the burly 6-foot-4 Thurmond around town, at hardware and grocery stores. He generally wore shorts, work boots and a tank top or sleeveless shirt. Carlisle and Thurmond weren't acquainted, but the chief heard he was always cordial. \"You never saw anybody with him,\" the chief said. Authorities never had a problem with Thurmond until August 4, when Collins received a call from a women's shelter. \"They said they had a mother and four kids, and apparently they'd been kept at home, and there was some abuse allegations and the dad wouldn't let them leave,\" Collins said. Collins interviewed the women and children, who all gave the same story: Thurmond had forced the wife, three sons (9, 13 and 14 years old) and his 12-year-old daughter to remain inside. Police are still investigating how. Medina on Wednesday provided CNN a tour of the trailer that revealed a hasp, used to secure a door with a padlock, that had been fastened to the mobile home's back door. Holes on the inside of the front door and on one of the children's bedroom doors indicate hasps had been placed there as well, Medina said. Collins said police are not sure if padlocks were the only way Thurmond imprisoned his family. There is no indication Thurmond had any accomplices, but he was prone to bouts of rage. Collins said Thurmond had once allegedly raped his wife with the children in the next room. Watch Collins explain how Thurmond instilled fear \u00bb . \"The entire family lived in fear of this man,\" the investigator said. \"Just his presence alone was enough for them to comply.\" They had never left the trailer except for a few hours in April, when Thurmond allowed them to visit his in-laws in North Carolina. Collins said the wife's parents had been sending the family money and threatened to cease sending cash if their daughter and grandchildren didn't visit. The wife's mother answered the phone Wednesday, but said she had been told not to speak to the media. It is unclear by whom. Her parents' names are being withheld to protect the woman's identity. Collins said she is not certain exactly what emboldened the family to flee the filthy trailer, but the mother told police that Thurmond had said he was leaving her for another woman. He'd be back in a few days, he told her, and he'd left some food for them, Collins said. The food was insufficient, Collins said, but she is not sure if it was hunger or ire over the mistress that provided the impetus to leave -- \"only the mother could really tell you why.\" When Collins interviewed the family, all but one of the children were pale and thin, she said. Only one, the 14-year-old, had ever attended school, and though the mother said the other children were home-schooled, the children told Collins that Thurmond wouldn't buy them school supplies. When Collins visited the home, the only educational implement she found was an old dictionary, she said. After interviewing the family, Collins launched a manhunt that ended without incident Tuesday at Thurmond's workplace, a poultry processing plant in neighboring Stephens County. About the time Collins kicked off her hunt for Thurmond, Medina was growing frustrated that he hadn't paid his rent. On August 6, after Thurmond hadn't responded to a notice on his door threatening eviction, Medina sent her maintenance man to the mobile home. He returned disturbed and told Medina he hadn't entered the home, she said. \"I want you to see this with your own eyes,\" she recalled the maintenance worker telling her. \"You better wear some shoes and gloves or something.\" The kitchen floor was rotted. Heavy, brown stains covered both toilets. There were anthills under a mattress in the master bedroom. Roaches freely roamed the inside of the refrigerator, and maggots owned the stove. There were several piles of trash, including one reaching the laundry room ceiling and a mound of Diet Mountain Dew bottles between a recliner and the living room couch. Tufts of human hair were scattered on the kitchen floor among bags of fetid trash. Watch how the home remained squalid after a week of cleaning \u00bb . Collins said she went behind an adjacent mobile home and vomited when she and another officer first opened the door. This was after the windows had been opened to air out the residence. Collins said she had never experienced such a stench -- this from a police investigator who as recently as last week rode in an ambulance with a corpse that had been pulled from a burning building. When Collins went in the bathroom and pulled back the once-clear-but-now-chocolate-brown shower curtain, it revealed so many roaches that the bathtub floor appeared to be moving. On Wednesday, after a week of cleaning that has already yielded two Dumpsters of trash, dozens of roaches still scurried across the floor and walls. A stench still lingered, and a film of bug feces covered the kitchen counters. Medina said she has to gut the entire trailer and replace the floor, walls and ceiling before she can rent it again. Collins said rebuilding the family may take more work. As of Thursday morning, Thurmond still didn't have an attorney and no bail hearing had been set, Collins said. In an interrogation after his arrest, Thurmond seemed \"even-tempered\" and didn't behave like someone being charged with rape and a host of other felonies, Collins said. Though he was not forthcoming and admitted nothing during the interview, Collins said, one aspect of his behavior stoked her suspicion. \"If I had been arrested and hadn't done anything, my first reaction would be, 'Where's my wife and kids?' \" Collins said. \"He didn't even ask until he was behind bars.\"","highlights":"Neighbors say they saw Daniel Thurmond on occasion but never his wife, kids .\nInvestigator says wife, children fled after Thurmond said he had a mistress .\nLavonia a small town where police chief directs school traffic, patrols town on foot .\nThurmond charged with rape, cruelty to children, false imprisonment .","id":"16891819e12c08ca1c7c1e279b401f57d67c5911"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Brian Levin is director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Jack McDevitt is the director of the Institute on Race and Justice and Associate Dean in the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University. Both have testified before Congress in support of federal hate crime legislation and are co-authors of a book on hate in America, due to be published next year. Brian Levin says a new federal hate crime law is needed to combat violent incidents of bias. SAN BERNARDINO, California (CNN) -- America needs a coordinated and multifaceted response to combat the continuing scourge of violent hate crime like the crime committed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 10. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, originally introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy a decade ago and nearly passed during the most recent legislative session, is expected to go before the Senate for a vote soon. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified on its behalf Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is a crucial step in the nation's evolving response to hate crime. A hate crime occurs when an individual intentionally targets a victim or their property because of his or her actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability or sexual orientation. While some have argued that these kind of laws criminalize free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the 1993 case, Wisconsin v. Mitchell, that well-drafted hate crime laws are constitutional and do not punish speech. Rather they enhance the penalties only for acts that are already considered crimes. The act is named for Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student who was kidnapped, robbed, tortured and left to die, tied to a fence in a remote area outside of Laramie, Wyoming in October 1998. His mother Judy has been a tireless advocate for hate crime laws and victims. The Shepard Act remedies legal loopholes in federal and state criminal law that fail to protect against bias-motivated attacks based on such characteristics as sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability. It also removes antiquated \"Klan era\" language that forces federal prosecutors to tie violent racial attacks to a small number of activities such as participating in a jury, voting or using hotels. As recent events have indicated, today's violent hate offenders, unlike their predecessors, will often swing into brutal action on their own initiative without waiting for a victim to exercise a specific activity covered by old 1960s laws. However, much of the act's potency lies not in what it punishes, but rather in its recognition of the primary role local authorities now play in combating hate crime. Nearly all hate crime investigations and prosecutions in the United States are handled by state and local authorities, such as the Boston Police or Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police. Gone are the days where masses of federal agents and soldiers had to swoop into states to protect new students and freedom riders from thugs in Klan-dominated municipalities. The act has a clear bias in favor of local prosecution and has restrictions that require federal prosecution only in limited cases where the leadership of the DJ approves. However, reporting data indicates that some states apparently provide limited assistance to hate crime victims. These jurisdictions report either zero hate crimes or a handful of crime to the FBI, year after year, while neighboring states with similar demographics and crime profiles report far more. A 2005 Bureau of Justice Statistics victimization study found that only a small fraction of hate crimes nationally are actually reported. Thus, there appear to be various instances where federal help or prosecution are still necessary. Today, in the midst of our economic downturn, federal authorities are needed much more to assist cash-strapped local departments, not as an unwelcome occupying force, but as a desperately needed partner to assist with forensics, technical assistance and investigations. Even in police departments with model hate crime investigative units, such as the Boston Police Department's Community Disorders Unit, modern cases increasingly involve interstate travel or Internet hate networks, and require sophisticated ballistic and DNA testing or computer forensics. These measures may be beyond the capacity of many local police agencies, particularly in difficult economic times. The act also provides greater access to local communities for federal training programs and mediation services that can prevent hate crimes before they boil over into violence. Our research has established that hate crimes are a qualitatively unique category of offenses. Compared to non-bias motivated crimes these crimes are more likely to involve violence, injury, hospitalization, psychological trauma and a greater risk of retaliatory attacks, which can often spill across municipal borders. And while we cannot say whether hate crimes overall are actually increasing, there does appear to be an increase in the most violent hate crimes. In 2007, hate-motivated homicides claimed nine lives, up from three in 2006, and the last year has seen a steady stream of violent plots and attacks against symbolic targets by hardened hate-mongers. Since the beginning of the year we have seen many examples of extremist crimes. Here are a few: . Brockton, Massachusetts: January 21 -- White supremacist Keith Luke 22, allegedly kills two, rapes one, and shoots another while en route to a synagogue to kill Jews. Miramar Beach, Florida: February 26 -- Dannie Baker, 60, a man known for anti-immigrant rantings, allegedly shoots 5, killing two Chilean immigrants. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: April 5 -- Neo-Nazi Richard Poplawski, 22, agitated over the belief that President Obama would ban guns, allegedly kills three police officers during a domestic violence call. New York: May 20 -- Four Muslim converts are arrested on federal charges relating to a plot to bomb Jewish and military targets. Pima County, Arizona: May 30 -- Leaders of the Minuteman American Defense group allegedly kill a 29-year-old Latino man and his nine-year-old daughter in an attempt to steal drugs and money to finance their civilian border patrol group. Washington: June 10 -- Holocaust denier James von Brunn, 88, allegedly kills a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Two national research reports released last week document a disturbing level of supremacist activities and overall violence against a broad range of groups. Another report from the Southern Poverty Law Center counted a record number of 926 hate groups in the United States last year. But there is something more to hate crime's harms that cannot be completely captured by statistics or criminological studies. As the Holocaust Museum attack demonstrates, hate crimes threaten pluralistic democracies in a way that other crimes do not. Unlike many other crimes, they are at once discriminatory and terroristic. As law professor James Weinstein observed: \"The effect of Kristallnacht on German Jews was greater than the sum of the damage to buildings and assaults on individual victims.\" Violence and threats that destabilize the bonds between citizens and the democratic institutions that they share are worthy of additional punishment and federal assistance. Moreover, victims of hate-motivated violence are entitled to legal protection no matter where they reside. That is why over two-thirds of the American public favor hate crime laws, and why the Senate should heed their call to pass the Shepard Act. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian Levin and Jack McDevitt.","highlights":"Levin, McDevitt: Senate to vote on Matthew Shepard hate crime bill .\nThey say loopholes in existing laws require new legislation .\nThey say bill would provide federal help to localities fighting hate crime .\nLevin, McDevitt: Hate crimes target pluralistic societies along with victims .","id":"4b73ca83e3aacc54168e5cdadeabbffe0b5ec914"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian playmaker Kaka was officially presented as a Real Madrid player, after being handed the number eight jersey in front of thousands of supporters and a huge media contingent at the club's Bernabeu stadium on Tuesday evening. Kaka parades his new Real Madrid jersey after completing his $92 million transfer to the Spanish giants. An estimated 50,000-strong crowd, almost three times the anticipated number, turned up to watch the ceremony as Kaka was unveiled as Madrid's latest addition by club president Florentino Perez and honorary president Alfredo di Stefano. Latest transfer gossip and rumors . Kaka, who completed his medical earlier in the day having landed in the Spanish capital in the morning, has penned a six-year contract and has cost Madrid a reported $92 million. There had been speculation that Kaka would be handed the number five shirt that Zinedine Zidane had once worn for Madrid, but the new arrival will instead take up the number eight shirt formerly worn by Fernando Gago. The presentation took place on a stage erected on the Bernabeu pitch that also included Madrid's record nine European Cup trophies, a giant screen and with a backdrop of four huge images showing club legends Raul, Juanito, Di Stefano and Zidane. The 27-year-old Kaka, who was named player of the tournament after helping Brazil win the Confederations Cup in South Africa over the last few weeks, told supporters: \"Today is a very happy day for me. \"I'm very happy because this new stage of my career will be at Real Madrid. I hope to write my name into the history of this club with many victories and successes.\" Kaka was the first signing confirmed by Madrid after Perez returned to the club presidency at the start of June. Soon after bringing in the Brazilian, Perez also agreed a world-record 80 million euros fee with Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo. That deal was finalized on Friday night and will come into effect from Wednesday, with Ronaldo, who like Kaka will be tied to the Spanish giants until 2015, being presented on July 6. Aside from Kaka and Ronaldo, Madrid also struck a deal to sign Valencia defender Raul Albiol last week for a fee believed to be around 13 million euros, while the likes of Franck Ribery, David Villa and Xabi Alonso are all being linked with moves to the Bernabeu as Perez relaunches the famous 'galacticos' policy that he presided over during his first tenure at the club. Then, while president from 2000-06, Perez sanctioned the big-money signings of superstars such as Zidane, David Beckham, Luis Figo and Ronaldo, a policy that reaped indifferent rewards with Madrid winning seven trophies under Perez in total but none in his final three years.","highlights":"Kaka is unveiled as a Real Madrid player after completing his move from Milan .\nThe Brazilian playmaker is handed the No.8 shirt in front of thousands of fans .\n27-year-old just helped Brazil to victory in the Confederations Cup tournament .","id":"a91f6b2af855bf5d7afdbb1b16a868f08c605613"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA and Japan improved our world view this week, or at least our view of the world. This image using ASTER imagery shows the Himalayan glaciers in Bhutan. The American space agency and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have released a new digital topographic map of Earth that accurately portrays more of our planet than ever before. The new map consists of 1.3 million images taken by NASA's Terra satellite that have been pieced together to form a unified picture of the planet. The images were taken by a Japanese imaging instrument called the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER. \"This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world,\" said Woody Turner, a program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington. The map covers more than 99 percent of Earth's land mass from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Antarctic Circle. During February 2000, space shuttle Endeavour mapped about 80 percent of the planet's surface. \"The ASTER data fill in many of the voids in the shuttle mission's data, such as in very steep terrains and in some deserts,\" said Michael Kobrick, a shuttle project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which manages the program. \"NASA is working to combine\" the new data with that from the shuttle and other sources \"to produce an even better global topographic map.\"","highlights":"New digital topographic map reveals more of Earth than ever before .\nImages were taken by Japanese imaging instrument on NASA satellite .\nMap consists of millions of satellite images to form unified picture of planet .","id":"aa1cbe64c77e84a4562ea03512fca33a9ed8cc6b"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Had the government not delayed its controversial order that all computers be equipped with Green Dam by July 1, the result would have been the same -- Chinese computer retailers were far from ready. The Green Dam's developers say they've received death threats. PC sales representatives at Bainaohui, one of Beijing's largest electronics retailers, say their merchandise is not pre-installed with Green Dam, a Web filtering software the government said was necessary to prevent children from viewing pornography and other harmful content. Some retailers were unclear as to when the software would even be available on new units. Computer experts say manufacturers have not had enough time to pre-install new computers with the software -- which is one reason behind the government's delay. PC companies may also be taking more time to test the software after programming errors, with the potential to make computers susceptible to hackers, were detected by University of Michigan professors. The Chinese government said that these errors have been fixed. The international backlash against the Green Dam directive may be further delaying the pre-instillation process. Twenty-two chambers of commerce and trade groups made an appeal to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urging that he abandon the software mandate. \"China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues,\" said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in a press-release. With the support of U.S. trade officials, computer-makers including Dell and Hewlett-Packard are threatening to bring the matter to the World Trade Organization. Other computer manufactures, including Sony and Acer, say they are bound to comply with the Chinese policy. Domestically, Chinese Internet users are rallying against the government. Last week an anonymous group of \"netizens\" posted an open letter on Chinese blogs and forums. \"We hereby decide that from July 1 2009, we will start a full-scale global attack on all censorship systems you control,\" the message said. The Chinese artist, activist, and architect who designed the Olympic \"Bird's Nest\" stadium, is one of the leaders behind the cyber battle. Ai Weiwei called for his Twitter followers to boycott the Internet on July 1st. The Green Dam's developers say they've even received death threats. The Chinese online community has been in an uproar since the new policy became public, and a \"Declaration of Anonymous Internet Users 2009\" circulating directly addresses government censors, said Charles Mok, chairman of the Internet Society of Hong Kong. \"They are showing altered pictures of their own face using masks like that from 'V for Vendetta',\" said Mok, referring to the 2005 film updating the story of Guy Fawkes, who tried to destroy Parliament building in England in the 17th Century. \"It says, 'We're behind the mask; if one of us falls down, ten others will join.'\" Mok also questions the true intent of the Green Dam software. \"On its black list are 2000 words related to pornography and 6000 other types of politically sensitive key words like 'Falun Gong',\" he said, referring to the banned Chinese religious group. \"That ratio alone makes it obvious what's behind it.\" Sharp criticism of the software partially stems from fears that the software will simply further strengthen the government's control and censorship of the media. Yet the government said it is simply acting in response to parental complaints about the negative affects of the Internet on children. Responding to reporters' questions, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang acknowledges the controversy over the software in and outside China. \"However,\" he said in a regular press conference last week, \"no matter how many different views there are, the Chinese government assumes the responsibility to protect our youth from unhealthy information on the Internet, and so do various social circles and enterprises. This is the essence of this problem.\" The government said it is simply providing the software free of charge, as a pre-installed file on computer hard drives or as a CD, to give users to choice to install the software. China is not the first country to try to censor the Internet; Iran, Myanmar, even France and Germany in various ways attempt to put limits on the blogosphere. But analysts doubt whether this particular policy can even be enforced. Said Victor Gao, a former government functionary who now heads a policy think tank: \"The government always has its own views, but whether they are able to execute it to the detail and push it through the country is another issue.\" Watch why the filtering software mandate has been postponed \u00bb . The extent to which the software's can block harmful content is still in question. Unofficial tests by Internet enthusiasts showed that while Green Dam considered a cartoon of a cat in blue clothes safe, pictures of Garfield the Cat were sometimes blocked by the software because it is programmed to categorize images with large areas of \"yellow\" as pornographic. Over at Bainaohui, a hub of computer and Internet commerce in central Beijing, many salespersons seem oblivious to the new government edict. \"I think I've read something about it on line,\" said one. And what do they think of Green Dam? \"I have no idea since I have not used it yet,\" said a seller of computer software. Worried? \"I don't think there would be any impact,\" replied another. Meantime, Bainaohui's robust IT business continues unimpeded. CNN's Kevin Voigt contributed to this report.","highlights":"China extends deadline for Internet filtering software to accompany PCs .\nInternational backlash, unreadiness of retailers may be reasons behind the delay .\nGovernment says Green Dam software is designed to block porn .\nCritics say software can block all non-government sanctioned content .","id":"1480d4943ccd3ec7f000eb85a1fdaf47d04e90da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In death, Michael Jackson is topping charts all over the world again. Stores around the globe are seeing a surge in sales for Michael Jackson's music. Jackson's albums hold the top nine positions of Billboard's \"Top Pop Catalog Albums\" chart, according to Nielsen SoundScan sales data released Tuesday. Jackson's albums are not eligible for the current Billboard 200 chart, which is for newer albums. But if they were eligible, his record sales would bounce the Black Eyed Peas' current No. 1 album to fourth place, Billboard said. Jackson's albums \"Number Ones,\" \"The Essential Michael Jackson\" and \"Thriller\" all sold more than 100,000 copies last week, close to 20,000 more copies than the Black Eyed Peas' \"The E.N.D.\" Scores of listeners have downloaded Jackson's music on iTunes as well. Jackson's songs were on the Top 10 download lists in 21 countries, according to iTunes' Web site early Wednesday. Watch crowds pack Apollo Theater for Jackson tribute \u00bb . In the United States and United Kingdom, Jackson's introspective song, \"Man in the Mirror,\" was No. 1 in iTunes downloads. In France and the Netherlands, \"Billie Jean\" was No. 1. In Sweden, \"Smooth Criminal\" was in the top spot, while pop fans in Luxembourg preferred \"Earth Song.\" Of the 22 countries that iTunes tracks, Japan was the only one without a Jackson song in its Top 10. Jackson had 25 songs on the Top 75 \"Hot Digital Songs\" chart, according to Billboard. Twenty-one of the songs were solo tunes, while the other four included Jackson's siblings.","highlights":"Michael Jackson's music sales are soaring after singer's death .\nThree of Jackson's albums all sold more than 100,000 copies last week .\nListeners worldwide have also downloaded Jackson's music on iTunes .","id":"c4d5c701d02a75d49af8f34d51617bee2c8974d8"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Bollywood's recent financial growth has been as dizzying as the swirling dancers, colorful costumes and pulsating music that typify the industry's films. Mumbai's once booming flamboyant Hindi-language film industry is hit hard, as overseas investment dries up. Foreign money has poured into Mumbai's flamboyant Hindi-language film industry, which churns out more than 1,000 films each year. Twice as many films as Hollywood -- and for a fraction of the cost. But a financial drama has arrived on the movie sets and production suites of India's largest city courtesy of the world economic downturn and a producer's strike -- fewer films are being made; less tickets are being sold and money is suddenly tight. \"It's become more difficult now to green light films; to be able to think of developing films,\" Nikhil Advani of People Tree Films who works as both a producer and a director told CNN. \"Today you think twice how you're going to be able to put that thing together before you commit any money to it.\" It's the new reality: Money that was gushing into the market from abroad to finance films a year and a half ago is now just trickling in. Production of Bollywood movies has only just resumed, having ground to a halt for seven weeks due to a producer's strike. The strike is finally over, but money is still tight and this is affecting the number of films going into production. \"The number of movie projects has come down by almost 30 percent,\" Farokh Balsara, a partner at business consultants Ernst & Young told CNN. Balsara heads Ernst & Young's media and entertainment division in Mumbai and looks at trends in the market. What's more, after several years of fast-rising film revenues due to India's exploding middle classes who were willing to spend, Bollywood finds itself back on a budget. If you don't have a solid financial plan these days, getting funding for a film is nearly impossible. Throwing around a known filmmaking family name and getting a star signed up won't cut it anymore. \"The easy finance is a thing of the past,\" Balsara told CNN. Some producers are asking big name talent to take a cut in their pay or at least get paid on the \"backend.\" In other words, waiting until the movie releases -- if it does well you get a piece of the pie; if not, you eat it. In some cases, accountants are actually on movie sets crunching numbers daily to make sure the budget is on target. \"They are getting into daily audits,\" Balsara said. The thought of an accountant on set might make some producers shudder, but many believe the slowdown has done Bollywood a favor. \"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?\" says Advani of the changes the slowdown has forced on the way he produces upcoming films. \"I think it's a very good [thing].\" He currently has several in the works: an animated film in post-production called \"Ab Dilli Door Nahin\" and a gritty action-packed thriller \"Basra,\" named after the Mumbai street term for heroin. The slowdown has made Bollywood focus on making better, not more movies, according to Advani: \"I don't call it a credit crunch, I call it a credit correction. \"I think what has happened is it's corrected itself, because I think Bollywood or the Indian film industry was going absolutely crazy last year.\" Mairi Mackay contributed to this story.","highlights":"The economic downturn and a producer's strike have hit Bollywood financially .\nForeign money pouring into Mumbai's film industry a year ago is now trickling in .\nIt's harder to get funding for films, and accountants are on set auditing daily .\nSome producers are positive, saying Bollywood needs to make fewer, better films .","id":"c87c2ff8329ec53b743b916ffa19eb96ceaaf738"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- France has awarded its highest decoration to veteran CNN correspondent Jim Bittermann. CNN's Jim Bittermann at the special ceremony in Paris where he was made a chevalier. At a special ceremony presided over by the Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Paris Tuesday, Bittermann was presented with the \"chevalier\" (knight) of the National Order of the Legion of Honor. Bittermann, CNN's senior European correspondent based in Paris, said: \"For the past 30 years, I've been explaining France and the French to the rest of the world.\" During his career with CNN in Paris Bittermann has covered the death of Princess Diana, the last days of Yasser Arafat, the French triumph at the 1998 World Cup and the Concorde air disaster. He joined CNN from ABC News, where he was a Paris news correspondent from 1990-1996; before that Bittermann was a European correspondent for NBC News. He began his career in broadcast journalism in 1970 in Milwaukee. Founded in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize outstanding accomplishment, the chevalier is given annually to around 3,500 Frenchmen and women -- but few non-nationals. Of the 13 honorees this year from outside France, two are American. Previous non-French recipients include former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, fillm legends Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles and Norman Schwarzkopf, who led allied forces against Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. Apart from his work for CNN, in recent years Bittermann has been a featured speaker at journalism events such as the International Diplomacy Institute, as well as lecturing and moderating panels at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 1999 Bittermann was appointed a professor at the American University of Paris, teaching courses broadcast news, writing and production and politics and media among others.","highlights":"Only two Americans are set to be award the rank of chevalier this year .\nJim Bittermann, a journalist for nearly 40 years, joined CNN in 1996 .\nFirst awarded by Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize outstanding accomplishment .","id":"05c1a0913ef707dc46f78fcd34e5ca53e38765b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton will stop telling an emotional story about a uninsured pregnant woman who died after being denied medical care, Clinton's campaign said. Sen. Hillary Clinton was repeating a story she heard from someone on the campaign trail. A hospital has raised questions over the accuracy of the story, and Clinton's campaign has said although they had no reason to doubt the story, they were unable to confirm the details. In the story, Clinton describes a woman from rural Ohio who was making minimum wage at a local pizza shop. The woman, who was uninsured, became pregnant. Clinton said the woman ran into trouble and went to a hospital in a nearby county but was denied treatment because she couldn't afford a $100 payment. In her speeches, Clinton said the woman later was taken to the hospital by ambulance and lost the baby. The young woman was then taken by helicopter to a Columbus hospital where she died of complications. Watch why the story is raising questions \u00bb . The New York senator heard the story during a campaign visit to a family's living room in Pomeroy, Ohio, in late February. Bryan Holman was hosting the candidate and told Clinton the story. She has repeated it frequently since then. As recently as Friday night in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Clinton said she was \"just aching inside\" as she was listening to the story. \"It is so wrong, in this good, great and rich country, that a young woman and her baby would die because she didn't have health insurance or a hundred dollars to get examined,\" she said. While Clinton never named the hospital in her speech, the woman she was referring to was treated at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. The hospital said the woman did indeed have insurance, and, at least at their hospital, she was never turned away. Hospital Chief Executive Officer Rick Castrop in a statement said, \"we reviewed the medical and patient accounts of the patient\" after she was named in a newspaper story about Clinton's stump speech. \"There is no indication that she was ever denied medical care at any time, for any reason. We clearly reject any perception that we ever denied any care to this woman.\" A hospital spokesperson confirmed to CNN the woman had insurance. She said the hospital decided to come forward after people in the community began to question if they had denied her care. Clinton's speech accurately reflects what she was told that day, but the campaign admits they were not able to confirm the account. Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said, \"She had no reason to doubt his word.\" \"Candidates are told stories by people all the time, and it's common for candidates to retell those stories. It's not always possible to fully vet them, but we try. For example, medical records are confidential. In this case, we tried but weren't able to fully vet the story,\" he said. Elleithee added, \"If the hospital claims it didn't happen that way, we certainly respect that, and she won't repeat the story.\" \"She never mentions the hospital by name and isn't trying to cast blame. She tells this story because it illustrates the point that we have a very serious health care problem in America. That's a point very few people will dispute.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Clinton had been repeating a story she heard about an uninsured pregnant woman .\nIn the story, the woman was denied treatment, later died from complications .\nHospital says woman had insurance, was never denied care .\nClinton campaign says they had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the story .","id":"ac4213070624020e25715bb2569e76adcf035029"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Serving time for lesser crimes, Scott Kimball is leading investigators to bodies. Scott Kimball is currently serving a 48-year sentence on theft and habitual criminal convictions. Partly mummified bones thought to be those of his uncle, Terry Kimball, were discovered Monday in a remote Rocky Mountain pass near Vail, Colorado. DNA tests are pending to confirm the victim's identity, and the cause of death is pending a forensic examination, authorities said. Terry Kimball is one of several suspected homicide victims associated with Scott Kimball since his jailing in 2008. He is serving a 48-year sentence in state prison in Fairplay, Colorado, on theft and habitual criminal convictions. Kimball will also serve a 70-month federal sentence on firearms charges after the state sentence. The firearms charges led to Kimball's 18th conviction. However, Kimball probably will not be charged in any of the deaths. Sources with knowledge of the cases said Kimball's December 2008 plea to theft and habitual criminal charges, and the 48-year sentence, was part of a deal that included revealing the locations of the bodies. Authorities wanted to give victims' families resolution. Without his cooperation, authorities doubt they have enough evidence to convict him. Earlier this year, Kimball revealed where the remains thought to be his uncle's were, according to law enforcement sources close to the case. However, the search was delayed until snow had melted. The FBI would not confirm that Kimball, 42, identified the site. However, FBI spokeswoman Kathleen Wright said, \"we went to (a) specific location for a specific reason. It wasn't random.\" Terry Kimball, 60 at the time, was last seen with Scott Kimball in September 2004, according to a 2007 federal search warrant affidavit. Scott Kimball told his wife that his uncle had won the lottery and left for Mexico with a stripper, the affidavit said, but FBI investigators think Kimball killed his uncle and dumped his body in Vail Pass, more than 100 miles from the home they shared in a Denver suburb. In March, Kimball accompanied FBI investigators to southeastern Utah to search for the body of Leann Emry, who was 24 when she vanished after departing on a camping trip in 2003. FBI agents found Emry's remains shortly after Kimball returned to jail. Kaysi McLeod was 19 when she disappeared in 2003. McLeod, the daughter of Kimball's ex-wife, was last seen getting a ride to work from Kimball, according to the 2007 affidavit. In fall 2007, a hunter found her remains in northwest Colorado. Kimball is also suspected in the disappearance of exotic dancer Jennifer Marcum, who disappeared in 2003, according to the affidavit. Sources close to the investigation say they think Kimball killed Marcum and buried her body near Rifle, Colorado. Authorities have not found her remains. \"We are continuing to look for Jennifer, and we will leave no stone unturned,\" Wright said. Kimball drew the FBI's attention in 2002 while jailed for writing bad checks. Kimball offered authorities information about his cellmate, Steven Ennis, who was suspected in a drug ring, according to the 2007 affidavit. After Kimball served his sentence, the FBI began paying him as an informant. Kimball was supposed to report back to the FBI on Marcum, Ennis' former girlfriend, when she disappeared. The FBI would not reveal how long or how much Kimball was paid. He was arrested again in March 2006 near Palm Springs, California, after a police chase and standoff.","highlights":"Habitual felon likely to avoid charges in presumed murders of four people .\nScott Kimball's plea deal includes revealing location of bodies, sources say .\nAuthorities say all four people were last seen with Kimball .","id":"c2e27377095af38462e41683a105aac8fc268439"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Summer excursions seem out of reach to many struggling young professionals, and the faltering economy isn't helping. But one New York City company, offering trips aimed at the young and thrifty, is capitalizing on the urbanite's desire to get away -- and finding success despite the downturn. A group of Urban Escapes NYC hikers stops for a snack during an expedition in New York's Harriman State Park. As a slightly broke young professional myself, with a taste for adventure but living in a very expensive city, the idea behind Urban Escapes NYC was intriguing. The company offers an array of activities -- from short hiking, sky diving or canoeing trips to international journeys that combine various activities. On the company's user-friendly Web site, I scrolled through the offerings. There were trips ranging from one-day hiking or fruit-picking excursions priced at around $60 to $800 weeklong international expeditions. The average trip includes ground transportation, the cost of the activity, guide fees, equipment rental and meals. Jumping out of planes put the company's founder and CEO, Maia Josebachvili, 25, on the path to becoming a business owner. While attending Dartmouth College, Josebachvili developed a passion for sky diving. To pay for the pricey dives, she began to lead trips for her friends and her friends' friends. Soon she realized that the people she was guiding were outside of her original social network, and an idea began to emerge. After graduating from Dartmouth and working as a trader on the New York Stock Exchange, Josebachvili decided working in the concrete jungle was not for her. At 24, Josebachvili started a business out of something she had been doing for years during college -- leading outdoor adventure trips. The company launched in early 2008, just months before the economy tanked. \"I started to wonder if this is really going to work,\" Josebachvili said. But with trips designed with budget and value in mind, the suffering economy did not stunt the business. Josebachvili said the company was able to break even within six months. The business relies on social networking avenues for promotion, and word spread rapidly. It also quickly developed a reputation as a great way to meet people and make new friends. \"I was the market,\" Josebachvili explains, \"My friends were the market. Anyone just out of college working on Wall Street didn't have the time to plan and research the trips. There is no shortage of those kinds of people in New York.\" After perusing the site, I rather nervously picked a $59 six-mile hike. This may not sound so cheap, but after factoring in the planning of the trip, transportation, gas, experienced guides and a post-hike discount at a local restaurant, the value becomes apparent. I hadn't been hiking in years and still am sadly out of shape. My imagination ran wild with images of young, sporty folks racing up high peaks as I huffed and puffed behind. Terrifying. After a rainy start to the morning, our upbeat guides for the day, director Bram Levy and guide Roget Lerner, drove a group of 12 north of the city to Harriman State Park. They encouraged us to get to know each other and joked that we would be quizzed on it later. Waiting to get into the van, I asked a man standing next to me why he was on the trip. \"I moved from San Francisco a year ago,\" public relations professional Michael Lindenberger said. \"I need some trees.\" After an hourlong drive, we arrived at our hiking destination. Levy and Lerner checked our sneakers, water supply and told us a bit about how the day was going to unfold. And then we began the hike. Throughout the day, there was lots of laughing, squealing and helping each other over rocks and through slick patches of mud. I was surprised how quickly a team mentally developed among the group. We were all strangers, but after a day of hiking, I knew everyone's name, profession and a good deal more. And this was no accident -- the guides were deliberately networking and bonding us together. Jen Badali, a city transit planner, was on her third trip with Urban Escapes. \"I went by myself my first hike,\" she said. \"It was fun to get away and do something different.\" She said she still keeps in touch with people she met on the other excursions. \"I made some good friends out of it,\" she said. At the end of the day, sweaty, sore and smiling, I realized why Urban Escapes NYC was defying the recession. With a plethora of affordable outdoor excursions, cheerful guides and a youthful mindset, the company was the ideal destination for an urban professional with a slim wallet.","highlights":"Urban Escapes NYC offers trips aimed at the young and thrifty .\nDay trips out of New York start at about $60; company also offers trips abroad .\nUrban Escapes NYC founder, 25, was a stock trader before starting company .\nThe company was able to break even within six months, founder says .","id":"43d39b390653b25182ee4476adc774d7ada769b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson was an international superstar, and many in the black community herald him for breaking down racial barriers in the music industry. Michael Jackson was one of the first black global superstars. \"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama,\" said the Rev. Al Sharpton. \"Michael did with music what they later did in sports and in politics and in television. And no controversy will erase the historic impact.\" As the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson and his brothers \"became a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists,\" said Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture at Duke University's Department of African and African American Studies. \"You basically had five working-class black boys with Afros and bell bottoms, and they really didn't have to trade any of that stuff in order to become mainstream stars,\" Neal said. Young Michael Jackson was the first black \"bubblegum teen star\" in the vein of Monkees singer Davy Jones, Neal said. Jackson continued as a pioneer in the black culture when he broke barriers by appearing on MTV, and by breaking sales records with the 1982 album, \"Thriller.\" Timeline: The life of a \"King\" \u00bb . \"At the time that he releases 'Thriller,' I always argue that MTV was arguably the best example of cultural apartheid in the United States,\" Neal said. The former president of CBS Records, Walter Yetnikoff, remembered with scorn that MTV would not play \"Billie Jean\" or \"Beat It\" because it billed itself as a rock station. Looking back on that era, a 1991 Los Angeles Times article quoted MTV founder and then-CEO Robert Pittman as saying the channel's format didn't lend itself to other musical styles, including R&B and country. And Pittman accused his critics of attempting to impose their musical pluralism on the channel's die-hard rock fans. But Yetnikoff said he threatened to pull videos of his other artists unless MTV played Jackson's videos. Watch Yetnikoff talk about getting Jackson's videos played \u00bb . Soon Jackson's videos were heavily in rotation on MTV. Showcasing a black artist paved the way for the popular show, \"Yo! MTV Raps,\" and other black artists, Neal said. In turn, Jackson became one of the first African-Americans to be a global icon. He also influenced a new generation of black musicians, including Usher, Ne-Yo and Kanye West, according to Joycelyn Wilson, a professor of African-American studies at Morehouse College, who specializes in popular culture and hip-hop studies. Slideshow: Michael Jackson and his music \u00bb . Changing appearance . Jackson's changing physical appearance in the past two decades led to criticism he was trying to be less black. \"Here's a man who started off looking very typically African-American and ended up looking like something few people would have recognized early in his career. His nose was trimmed, his lips were different ... his skin was different,\" said Cheryl Contee, who writes as Jill Tubman on Jack & Jill Politics, a blog centered on African-American issues. \"The only thing that seemed to almost stay the same were his eyes,\" said Contee, who also called Jackson \"a genius and more than a trailblazer.\" \"I think [it] troubled a lot of people that he left his skin color behind and seemed somehow to be ashamed of who he was [when] he was born,\" Contee said. But during a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Jackson shot down rumors that he was dying his skin to make it lighter. He told the talk show host that he had vitiligo, a disorder that destroyed his skin pigmentation. Black popular culture professor Neal said Jackson's physical changes did not reflect his life on the whole. \"I think if you solely pay attention to Michael Jackson's physicality, you actually miss something that's much more complex. ... Michael Jackson artistically and aesthetically never turned his back on blackness. His work was always in conversation with black culture both in the United States and more globally,\" said Neal. Neal said Jackson's changes were not to deny blackness, nor to become more white. \"This was somebody who most of his career we read as being asexual. And I think that many of the changes to his face, particularly his skin tone, he was almost trying to achieve an a-raciality,\" said Neal. Contee upset some commenters on her blog when she highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of Jackson's life, or what she termed his \"mixed legacy.\" \"Some people were very offended that I would dare to mention some of the unfortunate aspects of his later years,\" she said. \"But others [acknowledged] that they had mixed feelings about his legacy and what that meant to African-Americans.\"","highlights":"Jackson 5 went mainstream and maintained black identity, professor says .\nMTV didn't play videos of black artists before Jackson .\nExpert: Despite his changing appearance, he was always in touch with black culture .","id":"e28f2d1cf58f607debe8f33143fe340690a5d7d3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The CEO of Southwest Airlines said Friday he has ordered an investigation into charges the discount carrier flew airplanes that weren't properly inspected for safety. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly tells CNN the airline is surprised at FAA charges. Gary Kelly said Southwest was caught off guard when the Federal Aviation Administration notified it on Thursday that it may be hit with a record $10.2 million federal fine for alleged violations involving fuselage crack inspections. Kelly called the fine \"unfair\" and \"unprecedented.\" The FAA on Thursday accused Southwest of operating the 47 airplanes last year without conducting mandatory checks for fuselage cracking. The airline has 30 days to respond. Kelly told CNN safety was never an issue. \"In this particular situation, we identified a gap in our documentation. We voluntarily reported that to the FAA. We worked out with the FAA how to fix that problem, and we fixed it,\" he said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Asked why, then, the discount carrier was called on the carpet, Kelly replied, \"We were surprised yesterday to get that notification by the FAA as well. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported as late as last month the FAA said that it had no safety issues with Southwest Airlines.\" \"I've ordered an investigation as to exactly what happened in this event,\" Kelly said. \"It occurred in March of 2007. These aircraft are inspected inch by inch. In this particular incident, over 99 percent of the inspections were completed, according to documentation.\" Watch what's raising concerns about Southwest \u00bb . He said that after fuselage cracks were discovered in about half a dozen of the airline's 737s, 47 planes were reinspected over a 10-day period. Boeing Inc., the plane's manufacturer, which was contacted when the problems arose, said that at no time were the cracks unsafe, Kelly said. \"Cracks do occur. That's why we do inspections.\" He said Boeing issued a release Thursday saying Southwest \"acted responsibly, and at no time were the aircraft operated in an unsafe manner.\" The FAA issued a statement saying that Southwest improperly inspected the planes for cracks, then allowed them to fly an additional 1,451 flights, knowing they weren't airworthy. Kelly was asked about FAA allegations that an inspector knew about the problems, but continued to allow the planes to be flown. He didn't answer the question directly, saying the airline has an ongoing relationship with the federal agency and there is a complicated system of inspections. \"Our interpretation of the guidance that we got from the FAA at the time was that we were in compliance with all laws and regulations,\" Kelly said. \"I think the FAA has a different view of that today, and that's something that we're investigating as well. But the important point is that at no time were we operating in an unsafe manner, and I think our history proves it.\" Calling the situation detailed in the FAA documents \"one of the worst safety violations\" he has ever seen, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, is expected to convene a hearing to ask why the airline may have allegedly put its passengers in danger. He heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Watch passengers react to the charges \u00bb . The FAA documents allege that Southwest flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks. The 117 number includes the 47 planes alleged to have flown without fuselage checks and 70 additional planes allegedly flown without mandatory rudder inspections. In some cases, the documents say, the planes flew for 30 months past government inspection deadlines. It should have grounded them until the inspections could be completed. The planes were \"not airworthy\" according to congressional air safety investigators. Southwest Airlines, which carried more passengers in the United States than any other airline last year, said in a written statement Thursday that it looks forward to making details of the case public -- saying those details will support the airline's actions. The documents were prepared by two FAA safety inspectors who have requested whistle-blower status from Oberstar's committee. The two inspectors have been subpoenaed to testify before the committee. The whistle-blowers say FAA managers knew about the lapse in safety at Southwest, but decided to allow the airline to conduct the safety checks on a slower schedule because taking \"aircraft out of service would have disrupted Southwest Airlines' flight schedule.\" Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman, told CNN that the administration has taken action and that a supervisor who was in charge of overseeing Southwest is \"no longer in a supervisory position.\" The mandatory checks for fuselage cracks were required after the cabin of an Aloha Airlines 737 tore apart in midair in 1988, killing a flight attendant. The incident was blamed on cracks in the fuselage that grew wider as the plane underwent pressure changes during flight . Southwest Airlines has never had a catastrophic crash. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Drew Griffin and Scott Bronstein contributed to this report.","highlights":"Southwest Airlines CEO says airline was surprised at FAA charges .\nFAA charged Thursday that Southwest skipped mandatory inspections of 117 planes .\nSouthwest CEO Gary Kelly says safety was never compromised .\nFAA has started process to fine a record $10.2 million over 47 fuselage inspections .","id":"bddb3d3be0fbcda4155c60f60094e76e2c56b4ef"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's memorial service will take place Tuesday morning in the Staples Center, the 20,000-seat coliseum in downtown Los Angeles where Jackson rehearsed his show the night before he died, according to a person who has been briefed by a representative of the family. Michael Jackson was rehearsing at Los Angeles' Staples Center. His memorial will now be there. No other details about the service, set to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, have been revealed. Thursday, CNN learned the family trust created by Jackson to receive all of his assets includes his mother, his children and a list of charities, according to a person with direct knowledge to the contents of the trust. Katherine Jackson's 40 percent share would go to Michael Jackson's three children after her death, the source said. The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- will also share 40 percent of the estate's assets and the remaining 20 percent will benefits charities designated by the executors of the will, the source said. Jackson's will did not specify where he wished to be buried. Many of his fans had hoped they'd get a chance to pay last respects at Neverland Ranch, which Jackson purchased in 1987, filled with animals and amusement rides, and named after the fictional world in J.M. Barrie's \"Peter Pan.\" Planning had been under way for a motorcade to carry Jackson's body from Los Angeles to the ranch in Santa Barbara County, California, which state and local officials suggested would be difficult and costly. A public viewing at the ranch on Friday also had been under consideration, law enforcement sources said. Gregory Son, a 31-year-old musician, was among many fans who had planned to ride to the ranch to say goodbye to Jackson. \"I think he was a modern-day prophet,\" Son said outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. \"We kind of lost our father.\" DEA joins investigation . On Wednesday night, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday night that the Drug Enforcement Administration had joined Jackson's death investigation, once again fanning speculation that drugs may have been involved in the pop icon's passing. Two law enforcement officials separately confirmed the DEA probe, saying agents would look at various doctors involved with Jackson, their practices and their possible sources of medicine supply. Neither official wanted to be identified because they could not comment publicly on the matter. Officially, a DEA spokeswoman referred questions to the Los Angeles, California, police department -- which would not confirm the involvement. \"We routinely offer assistance to any agency regarding the Federal Controlled Substance Act,\" said Sarah Pullen of the DEA. \"However, at this time, we have nothing further to comment about the death of Michael Jackson.\" Speculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died on June 25 at his rented estate in Holmby Hills. The cause of his death, at age 50, was pending toxicology results. On Wednesday, police released a car belonging to Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. They had impounded the vehicle Friday, saying it might contain evidence -- possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Murray's lawyers issued a statement, asking the public to reserve judgment about the cause of death until the coroner's tests are complete. \"Based on our agreement with Los Angeles investigators, we are waiting on real information to come from viable sources like the Los Angeles medical examiner's office about the death of Michael Jackson,\" the statement said. \"We will not be responding to rumors and innuendo.\" The comments were in reaction to a claim by a nutritionist who said Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and pleaded for the powerful sedative, Propofol, despite knowing its harmful effects. \"I told him this medication is not safe,\" said Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse. \"He said, 'I just want to get some sleep. You don't understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.' \" Will nominates Jackson's mother as kids' guardian . Meanwhile, details of Jackson's will -- written on July 7, 2002 -- showed that the singer estimated his estate to be worth at least $500 million. In it, he nominated his mother, Katherine Jackson, as the guardian of his three children. If his 79-year-old mother is not living, \"I nominate Diana Ross as guardian,\" Jackson stated. Singer Ross, 65, is a lifelong friend of Jackson's. The will said Jackson \"intentionally omitted\" his former wife and the mother of his two oldest children, Debbie Rowe. It will be up to a court to decide who gets custody of the children, ages 7, 11 and 12. Rowe has not publicly indicated whether she will challenge the Jacksons for custody. The two men whom the will named as executors immediately filed a request to take control of the estate. One is John Branca, who represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. The other is music industry executive John McClain, a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. The men said in their filing in Los Angeles Superior Court that control of the estate would allow them to tend to Jackson's numerous outstanding debts, legal cases and business obligations. Judge Mitchell Beckloff held an emergency hearing Wednesday morning and decided there was no urgency to replace Katherine Jackson -- whom he appointed temporary administrator earlier this week. Another hearing has been set for Monday. -- CNN's Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston, Michael Carey, Paul Vercammen, Carol Cratty and Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Michael Jackson trust includes mother, children, charities .\nMichael Jackson memorial to be Tuesday at L.A.'s Staples Center .\nThe Drug Enforcement Administration has joined Jackson's death investigation .\nSpeculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died .","id":"83afc4c9d05d9cc4ac589bda126d04670494ca45"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Three leading Iranian reformists who have rejected the results of last month's election questioned the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government Wednesday. Mehdi Karrubi is vowing to \"stand by the people and the revolution, until the end of my life.\" This comes as Ahmadinejad is set to take office at the end of the month. Presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi wrote a letter in his party's newspaper, saying he would not recognize the government and vowing to \"stand by the people and the revolution, until the end of my life.\" His statement prompted Iran's government to block publication of the newspaper. Read Karrubi's letter PDF . Ahmadinejad's main political rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, also released a statement Wednesday criticizing the government and its crackdown on the media, which he said has created a \"bitter, coup d'etat atmosphere\" in Iran. \"We will stand firmly in order to preserve this valuable accomplishment [revolution],\" Moussavi said. \"Unless we succeed in this, this government will not have legitimacy. The system and the heritage of the Islamic revolution are the fruits of our 200-year-old struggle against oppression.\"Read Moussavi's statement PDF . Iran's former reformist President Mohammad Khatami called on Iranians to keep up the struggle, noting that \"all doors are not yet closed.\" Read Khatami's letter PDF . \"We must not lose our social capital this easily,\" Khatami told progressive Iranian newspaper Tahlile Rooz. \"I know Moussavi as one of the faithful, original and valuable capitals of our revolution, and considered his return to the political scene as a great chance.\" In a separate posting on his Web site, Khatami accused the government of having restricted communications in the country. \"The state-owned media outlet shows the same scenes over and over again, in order to provoke people's feelings,\" he said. \"Where was this media outlet when tens of people were killed and hundreds of people beaten?\" In his statement, Moussavi called for the release of jailed reformists and said he will participate in the creation of a \"legal organization\" that will release proof of fraud in the June 12 presidential election and take its case to the courts. He said the current political issue is a \"family dispute\" and cautioned against asking for outside help, warning, \"We will regret it.\" \"Many\" have asked Moussavi to end his struggle and \"close my eyes,\" but he warned, \"If we do not stand our grounds now, then we will have no guarantees that we won't be at this exact point in the future, face to face with the bitter events of this election.\" Karrubi called the actions of the government before and after the controversial June 12 voting \"the foundation for the annulment of the elections,\" according to a copy of his letter on the party newspaper's Web site. \"I will not recognize the legitimacy of the government which has resulted from this process,\" Karrubi said in the letter. The 72-year-old cleric also said he \"will not participate in any of its processes, in any way\" and said he is \"ready to cooperate with pro-change people and groups.\" Karrubi's party, Etemed Melli, said Iran's Ministry of Culture and its attorney general prevented the publication of its newspaper because it carried the letter. He and Moussavi have questioned the legitimacy of the vote count of the presidential election that gave Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory. That outrage sparked bloody street protests and a clampdown on international media coverage, as well as access to certain Web sites. At least 20 protesters were killed in the chaos and more than 1,000 were detained in Tehran, the head of Iranian internal security forces Brig. Esmaeil Ahmadi said, according to Iranian state-run media reports on Wednesday. The actual death toll may be higher, but restrictions on media have made it difficult to verify. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Iran to release prominent Iranian reformist Saeed Hajjarian, who has been imprisoned since June 15. He is one of several jailed reformists accused of orchestrating the post-election violence in Iran. Hajjarian, 55, was severely disabled after he was shot in the head in a 2000 assassination attempt that left him confined to a wheelchair with severe brain and spinal cord injuries. His wife, Vajiheh Marsoussi, is a physician and has visited Hajjarian in Tehran's Evin prison. She told Human Rights Watch that his medical condition was \"deteriorating severely.\" Meanwhile, questions surrounded an announcement in government-run Iranian media that Ahmadinejad canceled his trip to Libya on Wednesday. The trip, which had not been finalized, was canceled because of the president's \"huge workload\" at home and \"other priorities,\" Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency. Four days after the controversial election, Ahmadinejad went to Russia to meet with leaders there, where he was welcomed as the \"newly re-elected president of Iran\" despite the ongoing street protests. He returned to Iran that same day. Ahmadinejad will be sworn in before parliament Sunday, July 26, according to Iranian media reports. He will participate in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a couple of days later, and then his second term will officially begin.","highlights":"NEW: Former President Khatami accuses government of restricting communications .\nMehdi Karrubi says he will not recognize government .\nMir Hossein Moussavi criticizes government's crackdown .","id":"229a5e86238896a58b06522aace9a4be0a1ae660"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's that time of year for seasonal trips to the movies, and to celebrate, the Screening Room is taking a look back at our favorite family hits over the years. The best of Spielberg: \"E.T.\" is our perfect family movie and perfectly captures childhood. From blockbuster to blockbuster, these are the films with something for everyone. They've got to be live action -- we've covered animated films before -- and family friendly. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Post your comments to the Screening Room blog and we'll publish the best. Read other CNN viewers' favorite and worst family films, and tell us yours >> . 1. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) Spielberg's magic captures a perfect moment in childhood. We laughed and wept as his ugly little critter from outer space stole our hearts, while the kids fell firmly on the cute side of annoying. And oh, the music... 2. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) Gene Wilder's whacked-out Willy Wonka adds a pinch of sinister to Roald Dahl's anarchic sweet treat, while the ignoble exits of Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop and Mike Teevee were delicious. 3. Babe (Chris Noonan, 1995) \"That'll do, pig.\" Babe is wide-eyed with wonder in Dick King-Smith's touching tale of a lonely little sheep-pig. Comic relief from the ewes, subtle special effects and a heartwarming turn from James Cromwell as Farmer Hoggett make this a magical tale for all. 4. Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976) Jodie Foster and Scott Baio (Yes, Chachi from \"Happy Days!\") star in this glorious escapade set in a musical world of pint-sized gangsters and mini-molls. Al Capone for the kids; just watch out for the splurge guns... 5. Oliver! (Carol Reed, 1968) Jack Wild is delightful as the Artful Dodger, Ron Moody's devilish Fagin glints with avaricious greed and Shani Willis shines as poor, ill-fated Nancy. But it's Oliver Reed's dark and sinister Bill Sykes who stayed with us -- and left us wanting more. 6. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) Christopher Lloyd's mad professor, a Delorean-cum-time machine, rock 'n' roll and a convenient bolt of lightning see Biff the bully get his come-uppance. All that, and a skateboarding Michael J. Fox? Mr Zemeckis, you spoil us! 7. Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990) Macaulay Culkin's abandoned little boy sees off bungling burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern with a series of eye-watering stunts. It proves just how great a child actor Culkin was; pity the unpopular babysitters who became the victims of copycat pranksters... 8. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984) Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis blast ghostly green monsters to oblivion in this slime-filled romp around NYC, while taking time out to annoy Sigourney Weaver en route. Who you gonna call? 9. The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979) Kermit and Co.'s roadtrip to Hollywood is a fabulously fuzzy tale of friendship and following your dreams, but the Muppet Movie's not just for kids: there's cameos a-plenty (Bob Hope, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, ORSON WELLES!) for Dad and smart one-liners by the bucketful for Mom. 10. Harry Potter (Various, 2001-present) The Hogwarts trio's wizarding adventures, backed by a cast plump with the best of British actors. Fast-paced plots, spellbinding special effects and magical sets, but be warned: it'll have the li'l critters pestering you to go to boarding school... And our favorite hide-behind-the-sofa moments... The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) \"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!\" Margaret Hamilton's green, cackling Wicked Witch of the West is hell-bent on revenging the death of her sister and getting those ruby slippers; she'll use deadly poppies and flying monkeys to do it. Terror as a rite of passage. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ken Hughes, 1968) With his battered top hat and lank hair, Robert Helpmann's creepy Child Catcher prowled from Vulgaria into our nightmares, hoping to catch a whiff of his prey with his unfeasibly long nose. The only film character to give the Wicked Witch of the West a run for her money. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) Darth Vader may cast a formidable shadow, but it's the sound of his labored breathing that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up -- as it gets closer, closer, closer... Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984) Rule 475 of Surviving the Movies: Never go into the basement! The thick silence in New York's Central Library masks a phantom infestation -- and they're not going quietly. As the gray-haired librarian switched to shrieking ghoul, a generation of children was put off reading for life. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993) And again, it's the sound effects that make the Velociraptors so scary -- as the frighteningly intelligent pack of lizards hunt for Lex and Tim among the kitchen workbenches, their hissing grows ever nearer... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Sound off and read others' thoughts in the Screening Room blog. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"CNN's The Screening Room picks the top 10 live-action family films .\n\"E.T.,\" \"Willy Wonka\" and \"Babe\" head the list .\nHide-behind-the-sofa moments include \"The Wizard of Oz,\" \"Jurassic Park\"\nThink we've missed one? Post your comments to the Screening Room blog .","id":"20233f9f75e059aa112972d38978e4e3da1a333c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The second cut in U.S. interest rates in as many weeks is putting further pressure on the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to reconsider their currencies' peg with the dollar; and none more so than Qatar. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad tells MME Qatar has not made any decisions regarding dropping the dollar-peg. The small emirate has the highest inflation rate in the region, and it threatens to spiral further northward as its government brings Qatari interest rates into line with the U.S. The Qatar Central Bank lopped half a percentage off its deposit rate after the Federal Reserve sought to stave off recession in the U.S. with an emergency cut of 75 percentage points on January 22. Eight days later, the Fed moved again, this time with a cut of half a percentage point to take U.S. interest rates to three percent. After the first cut, MME's John Defterios sat down for an exclusive television interview with Qatar's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, who is also the emirate's Foreign Minister, and controls Qatar's sovereign wealth fund through the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). John Defterios started by asking Sheikh Hamad whether the sharp decline in U.S. interest rates was putting too much pressure on Qatar's dollar-peg. (HA): Oil and gas are saleable in dollars, but most of our imports are not in dollars but in Euros or Asian currencies. All of these currencies went 40 percent to 50 percent above the level which we experienced two years ago. For us, there is a pressure. We know that a decision needs to be made by the Fed because of the situation on the stock market in the United States; it might be a wise decision. But for countries like the GCC and Qatar, especially Qatar, it puts us under pressure on how to deal with inflation and our currency, which is undervalued already by at least 35 percent. (JD): What is your instinct telling you, to go to a basket of currencies to buffer this fall of the dollar? (HA): We are studying all options at the moment, but what I can say is that at the GCC meetings in December the agreement was to hold onto the dollar and to see. Every country has to see its way out of this, but only after a consultation with the GCC. For us, our wish is that it's a policy to be taken by the whole GCC, to either basket or revalue our currency. I cannot see a decision. Even in Qatar, we have no decision up to now. (JD): At the December meeting there was a commitment to move forward with the single currency, realistically by 2010, or is that just a target? (HA): It's just a target. I don't think we will reach that target. (JD): What is a realistic timeline? (HA): Well, first we need all of us to agree. Most of the GCC countries agree about the currencies but we would like to do it together, and some would like to wait. We cannot put a target on when it will be done. (JD): President Bush, during his swing through the Gulf States, was asking the producers to put more oil on the market because of the U.S. recession that may be pending. Is it time for OPEC to put more crude oil onto the market? (HA): Is there is excess oil to be put on the market? I am not sure there is more oil. I think all countries at the moment are pumping their capacity, if we are talking in real terms. If we are just telling the market there is some excess if something happens, then that is another situation. In my opinion everyone is at full speed, enjoying high prices, but there is no excess capacity immediately. Maybe there is 200,000 to 300,000 extra with one of the producers, but no more than that. (JD): We have seen oil stabilize around $80 per barrel right now. That seems to be the new floor. Can we get to $100 per barrel and use that as a new floor within the next 12 months? (HA): Well, anything is possible, but with the slowdown in the United States, and I don't know what effect in Asia, $70 or $80 is more likely than $100 this year. Unless the situation changes in the economy, which from what we hear cannot be changed so quickly. (JD): We have seen a huge debate over the last four weeks about sovereign wealth funds and President Bush has actually gone to put tighter controls and a greater review of these funds. Do you think it's correct to provide greater scrutiny to the funds going into the United States and perhaps into Europe? (HA): I'm surprised about these talks. We know these talks were more serious six months ago. But after the crisis I think most of the sovereign wealth funds, which have helped in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, this has been welcomed by the government. They are talking about this fund coming from a different space, from another space, and taking over the market. First of all, we are not politically ambitious to play a role in these companies. We do not want to take over companies. Maybe some, but not all. (JD): I have talked to both the OECD and the International Monetary Fund and there is discussion about establishing a set of rules to adhere to for these funds. Would you go to a set of rules that were international in terms of the outlook as opposed to country by country? (HA): If it is an international rule done by an international body and consulting all the countries, yes. But if there is one country that wants to set its own rules, we will respect their rules as a country, but we have other options to invest somewhere else. (JD): You have a very good dialogue with the White House. Were you surprised by President Bush's actions? (HA): Well, I don't know exactly what he means by this, but let us wait and see what will come. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"MME speaks exclusively with Qatar PM Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani .\nSheikh Hamad says Qatar hasn't made a decision regarding the dollar-peg .\nExpresses surprise over talks suggesting greater controls on sovereign funds .\nOn oil capacity: \"I am not sure there is more oil\", prices of $70-$80\/bbl likely .","id":"28467d57c70787b7221c708074c2107be581bf0a"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An internationally known Catholic priest sometimes called \"Father Oprah\" has been removed from his posts in Florida after published photos showed him lying down bare-chested in an embrace with a woman on a beach. The photos of the Cuban-American priest appeared on the cover of this week's TV Notas magazine. The Rev. Alberto Cutie (pronounced koo-tee-AYE) -- who got the nickname \"Father Oprah\" because of the advice he gives on Spanish-language media -- remains a priest. But he was relieved Tuesday of his duties at St. Francis De Sales Church in Miami Beach, Florida, and at the Radio Paz and Radio Peace networks, said a \"deeply saddened\" Miami, Florida, Archbishop John C. Favalora. The photos of the Cuban-American priest appeared on the cover and on eight inside pages of this week's TV Notas magazine. The cover says in Spanish: \"Good God. Padre Alberto. First photos of a priest 'in flagrante' with his lover.\" In a message posted on the Miami archdiocese Web page, the archbishop apologized to parishioners and radio listeners for what he called a \"scandal.\" \"Father Cutie made a promise of celibacy and all priests are expected to fulfill that promise with the help of God,\" Favalora said. \"Father Cutie's actions cannot be condoned despite the good works he has done as a priest.\" Cutie apologized in an online statement Tuesday, saying he \"wants to ask for forgiveness if my actions have caused pain and sadness. ... I assure you that my service and dedication to God remain intact.\" Watch pictures that led to priest's dismissal. \u00bb . Other media outlets throughout Latin America, including the official Notimex news agency in Mexico, picked up the story on Tuesday, and it became an Internet sensation. Cutie has millions of followers in the Spanish-speaking world. \"We got a bunch of calls from sobbing women,\" said Miami archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta. Archdiocese officials declined to say where Cutie was Tuesday or what his new assignment might be. A woman who answered the telephone Wednesday at St. Francis De Sales said, \"He is no longer here.\" The identity of the woman in the photos remained publicly unknown Wednesday. Cutie was ordained in May 1995 and was the first Catholic priest to host a daily talk show on a major secular television network, his information on the LinkedIn online professional network says. In addition to his TV and radio appearances, he has written newspaper advice columns and a self-help book, \"Real Life, Real Love.\" He was president and general director of Pax Catholic Communications, home of Radio Paz and Radio Peace in Miami. CNN's John Zarrella and Arthur Brice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Miami archbishop apologized for what he called a \"scandal'\nThe Rev. Alberto Cutie says his \"service and dedication to God remain intact\"\nPriest wrote self-help book \"Real Life, Real Love\"","id":"efe78294316e42103c52b95c4ced470497389b7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lanka's prime minister warned Saturday that his country \"stands on the brink,\" as its soldiers cornered Tamil Tiger fighters in an assault that is trapping more than 50,000 civilians on a small plot of coastal land. Sri Lanka's defense ministry says this handout photo shows troops with a captured Tamil Tiger craft Thursday. The United Nations estimated the number of civilians, who were trapped on about 1.5 square miles (four square kilometers) of land. Government troops seized the last remaining coastal stretch under the control of Tamil Tiger rebels, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday, marking a possible end to more than 25 years of fighting in the island nation. The seizure marks the total capture of coastline territory previously controlled by the rebels, it said, after army divisions advanced from the north and south to link up. An army source told CNN that about two square kilometers in the region remain to be captured, and that military officials expect that to happen in a couple of days. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began. \"Sri Lanka stands on the brink,\" Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickremanayake said in a written statement. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . \"We have called repeatedly for the violence to cease. The humanitarian agencies must be granted access to civilians caught in the crossfire of a dreadful conflict. Watch iReporter Thileepan's footage of the \"safe zone\" \u00bb . \"We are backing U.N. efforts to secure an orderly end to the conflict. The LTTE must lay down its arms and allow civilians to leave. Sri Lanka must understand that there will be consequences for its actions.\" No formal declaration of victory is expected at least until Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa returns to the country from Amman, Jordan, where he is attending the World Economic Forum. In an address to the summit in Amman on Saturday, Rajapaksa said the Sri Lankan armed forces had defeated the rebels. \"I will be going back to my country Sri Lanka that has been totally freed from the barbaric acts of terrorism of the LTTE. This freedom comes after 30 long years.\" \"Our economic prosperity must essentially rest upon global peace and stability. Terrorism has for decades denied us this right. All eleven countries gathered here today have suffered the effects of terrorism, some more than others. \"Terrorism has raised its ugly head in different forms from time to time and destroyed all development initiatives in most of our countries\" he said. On Friday, the Navy arrested the wife of Soosai, a leader of Sea Tigers -- the ocean-going arm of the rebel group. His daughter and son-in-law were also arrested. Navy officials, quoting those who were arrested, said Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is believed to be inside the area of the latest fighting. Other sources have said he has escaped. CNN's Iqbal Athas contributed to this report.","highlights":"No formal declaration of victory expected until President Mahinda Rajapaksa returns .\nPM: Country is on the brink, we have called for violence to stop .\nRebels have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils since 1983 .\nNavy officials: Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran believed to be in area of fighting .","id":"bfd027334b96f1da371f0e3cc15474395a4a01b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With an unbroken chain of blockbuster hits under their belt -- including \"Toy Story,\" \"Finding Nemo,\" \"The Incredibles,\" \"Cars\" and many others -- the talented team of men and women who work for Pixar seem to have the Midas touch. An elderly balloon salesman uproots his house with the help of thousands of balloons in \"Up.\" Their latest endeavor, \"Up,\" follows the life of Carl Fredricksen, a balloon salesman who has recently lost the love of his life, Ellie. Now in his golden years, Carl decides it's finally time to make Ellie's lifelong wish come true -- to visit Paradise Falls in South America. He quickly becomes aware he has a stowaway: Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer who's trying to earn one more merit badge. It's the unusual form of transportation that Carl chooses that creates the backdrop for this week's \"The Scene.\" Watch the balloons take off \u00bb . CNN traveled to Emeryville, California -- the site of the famous Pixar campus -- and sat down with actor Ed Asner, who lends his voice to Carl; technical director Steve May; and co-director Pete Docter to get behind The Scene. Ed Asner: Well, the first 10-15 minutes, that's a grabber. Nobody can resist it. Steve May: Even though we have a cartoony world, you are trying to make the audience believe that the world and the characters exist. The biggest challenges were a flying house that flies underneath a big canopy of balloons. So, if we can kind of capture that on the computer and animate our balloons to look believable too, then the audience will believe that the house can fly. Pete Docter: There is an amazing group of computer scientists that really approach these things both as an artist but also as a scientist. May: You have thousands of balloons that all interact with each other, and all the balloons have strings, so this is a very complex animation problem. Docter: They think about the physics of the balloons. They bump into each other, they can turn wind up or down so they can dynamically move, and then you get the strings that attach those balloons to the house. It's a fairly complex mathematical problem. We tried to make things more like a window you look into, opposed to things coming out at you. May: And then when Russell is on the front porch of the house and you look down and see how far down it is, the audience is scared. Docter: This one I really feel close to, and weirdly, even though it's a film about a 70-year-old man who floats his house away, I feel it's a really personal film.","highlights":"\"Up\" is latest Pixar animated film; concerns an old man seeking adventure .\nKey scene involves attaching balloons to his house, taking off into sky .\n\"Up's\" makers say animators, programmers had to pay attention to physics and art .","id":"2cdbb78dddf6b0ab330e743e637fd95a4ad1e800"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There are likely to be two hot-button issues in Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearings as senators gauge not only her positions but also some controversial comments she has made. Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Issue No. 1: Abortion. It is the traditional hot-button issue in Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll taken May 14-17, 68 percent of Americans say they don't want the court's Roe vs. Wade decision giving constitutional protection to abortion rights overturned. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. Sotomayor was raised Catholic. If she is confirmed, six out of the nine justices on the high court will be from the faith. Catholics make up about 25 percent of the U.S. population. Of the 110 people who have served on the Supreme Court, 11 have been Catholic. Five of those justices -- Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts -- are currently on the court. Read more about the justices on the court \u00bb . Barbara Perry, a government professor at Sweetbriar College, said she sees Catholics as swing voters with a base of socially conservative principles, and therefore attractive for Republican presidents. Catholic League President Bill Donohue said Catholics have conservative credentials on issues such as abortion, without the political baggage of terms such as the \"religious right\" or \"evangelicals.\" \"Is it safer to nominate a Catholic as opposed to an evangelical to get votes? I think the answer is decidedly yes.\" Court observers wonder what, if anything, six Catholic justices would mean for Supreme Court decisions. The five Catholics on the bench concurred in a 2007 decision, Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld a state ban on late-term abortions. Sotomayor has faced few abortion cases, and no tests on issues such as gay rights or the death penalty. However, Donohue expects a Justice Sotomayor to lean more left than her fellow Catholics on the court. Watch more on the issues confronting Sotomayor \u00bb . \"I think she's more reliably liberal,\" Donohue said. Issue No. 2: Same-sex marriage. Four states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Maine and Massachusetts -- allow same-sex couples to wed. New Hampshire could soon follow with legislation pending before the state Legislature. Vermont has also legalized same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples in California, however, suffered a defeat Tuesday when California's Supreme Court upheld the Proposition 8 ballot initiative in 2009 that outlawed same-sex marriage. The state had previously allowed such marriages after the same court ruled that, \"An individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.\" On Tuesday the court said: \"Our role is limited to interpreting and applying the principles and rules embodied in the California Constitution, setting aside our own personal beliefs and values.'' Recent CNN polling has shown that a majority of Americans are against legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Fifty-four percent of Americans questioned in an April 23-26 CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll said marriages between gay or lesbian couples should not be recognized as valid, while 44 percent said they should be considered legal. But there was a gap between the opinions of younger and older people, with younger people far more likely to approve of same-sex marriage. In fact, 58 percent of people age 18 to 34 said same-sex marriages should be legal. Among people ages 35 to 49, 42 percent agreed, as did 41 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds. Twenty-four percent of people 65 and older agreed. The survey's sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. But is marriage a right under the federal Constitution? The federal courts have not ruled on that. \"That's an issue that may well come up within the federal courts ... almost certain to do so,\" Justice Samuel Alito has said. Will Sotomayor set aside her personal beliefs and values? Maybe. A recent clip of Sotomayor has surfaced that is being used by opponents to prove their belief she will rule a certain way. \"The court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know, I know that this is on tape, and I should never say that. Because we don't make law, I know,\" she said at a 2005 conference at Duke University. \"OK, I know, I know. I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it.\" Read about Sotomayor's key rulings \u00bb . Another comment that could be scrutinized during the Senate hearings is from 2001, when Sotomayor said the gender and ethnicity of judges does and should influence decisions. \"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life,\" she said. That comment has outraged conservative critics such as the group Judicial Watch, which said that if confirmed, Sotomayor may rule more on the basis of racial identity than law. \"It is outrageous and racist on its face, and if a nominee that had conservative credentials made a similar although reverse statement they would be laughed at. They would never be put on the court,\" said Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch. But one liberal academic said too much is made of these comments and not enough of Sotomayor's legal opinions. \"I don't think having a particular background is going to cash out as having a particular ready style or opinion,\" said New York University Professor Kenji Yoshino. \"If you actually read over 400 opinions that she has written, you will see she is a judge's judge.\" One case that will get greater scrutiny is Sotomayor's role in dismissing the appeal of 19 white and one Latino firefighters from New Haven, Connecticut. They claim they were denied a promotion despite doing better on exams, because not enough minority candidates qualified. Sotomayor was one of a three-judge panel who in a one-paragraph summary sided with a lower court. Other judges on the court criticized the decision, arguing it failed to grapple with questions of exceptional importance. \"In a case like this where there are important competing concerns, it is important for the appellate court to explain the basis of her decision,\" said Case Western Reserve University professor Jonathan Adler. He said it was as if the court wanted to \"make the case go away or brush it under the rug.\" The Supreme Court decided it would hear the firefighters' appeal. Legal analysts said they expect Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee will want to ask Sotomayor about her role in that case, as well as her comments about ethnicity and the bench. That, coupled with her views on abortion and same-sex marriage, could electrify an already heated debate over her nomination. Soon there will be even more known about Sotomayor. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee's ranking Republican, on Wednesday released the bipartisan questionnaire the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Sotomayor to complete. Once the questionnaire is completed and returned to the committee, copies will be made available online and in print. CNN's Lisa Dejardins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge Sonia Sotomayor nominated to be the next Supreme Court Justice .\nSotomayor likely to face hot-button issues in Senate confirmation hearings .\nShe has also come under fire for controversial statements, rulings .","id":"e071b8c2f35265522425ab225c086fd5393c5f33"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- It is the most popular photograph in history: Argentine revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara stares pensively at the horizon, his steely eyes shielded behind a thick beard and his trademark beret. The shot -- taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda in Havana on March 5, 1960 -- turned the charismatic and controversial leader into a cultural icon. Che's image, here advertising soda, is still seen around the world. Now, nearly a half-century later, the photograph is used by communists and capitalists, Marxists and marketers to sell ideas. In his new book, \"Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image\" (Vintage Books), journalist Michael Casey examines how this photograph came to take on a life of its own and become the most reproduced photograph in the world. \"The Korda photograph can be seen on t-shirts, beach towels and condoms, even,\" he said. \"And it is in all corners of the world. You can find it in East Timor, parts of Africa, Israel, as well as Lebanon. You can see it in the United States and here in Latin America. And what this book is trying to do is discover why. What made this thing so big? So universal?\" The life of Che, the Argentine-born doctor turned revolutionary, has been well documented since his death in a Bolivian jungle in 1967. Countless books have been written about his role in leading Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution and translated into dozens of languages. Hollywood has given Che the treatment twice: in 2004's \"Motorcycle Diaries\" and last year in a two-part biopic starring Benicio Del Toro. Last month, \"Che: The Musical\" premiered at the Konex Cultural Center in Buenos Aires. What Casey -- the Buenos Aires bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires -- discovered during three years of investigation throughout Latin America for the book, was that Korda's image became so popular because it was promoted by people from all walks of life, including Castro, pop-artist Andy Warhol and countless students from Paris, Berkeley and beyond, who embraced the image as a symbol of rebellion during an era when the world was aching for change. \"Whether or not people believe in Che's hard-line version of Marxism, they want hope,\" Casey said. \"They want hope and beauty -- and somehow both of those things are encapsulated in this image. And so you get people investing their dreams in it. I think that is at the heart of it, with all these other forces: political, artistic, marketing, economic, all coming together in a way that really makes it a ubiquitous brand.\" Watch author Michael Casey discuss the Che Guevara image \u00bb . The brand, Casey writes, is the \"quintessential post-modern icon\" but may be surpassed by a newer image: artist Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama \"Hope\" poster, which Obama used during his run to the White House. \"I think that Obama is extremely cognizant of the power of images,\" Casey said. \"[The 'Hope'] poster is very much caught up in some of these forces that moved Che forward. They are very different people, obviously, but that's only part of the point. \"Part of the point is that the U.S. is engaged in a battle of brands, always has been. 'Uncle Sam vs. Che' if you really want to boil it down to what Latin America and its ugly history in part has been,\" he said. \"So, part of the United States' battle to improve relations with the region is improving its image. And in some respects you now have an alternative brand with Obama. The previous brand did not sell very well in Latin America. The new brand is getting off to a much better start.\" So while U.S. relations with Latin America, and much of the world, look to be changing, it's safe to say that the Che image -- and its ability to mean all things to all people -- will likely always stay the same.","highlights":"Photo of revolutionary Che Guevara is the most reproduced image in history .\nMichael Casey examines how photo became \"quintessential post-modern icon\"\nThe picture was taken on March 5, 1960 by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda .\nThe image is now seen around the world, on everything from t-shirts to condoms .","id":"cd11075a7253dad7dc95b97f4d65c1271af875be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When a film cast includes names like Ben Stiller, Robin Williams and Owen Wilson, a bit of improvisation on set is to be expected. Ben Stiller and the gang are back in \"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.\" \"I think the movie is really only 25 percent scripted, maybe even less than that,\" said Shawn Levy, director of the new film \"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,\" which boasts those comedic actors and several others. \"It just so happens that the scenes that get some of the biggest laughs are the improvised scenes, so it feels like more than that, but we had a very good script and it's still very much there.\" The sequel to 2006's \"Night at the Museum\" welcomes back the trio and director as well as other original cast members, including British actor Ricky Gervais, while also adding fresh faces such as Hank Azaria (as a villainous pharaoh) and Amy Adams (as Amelia Earhart). Watch the group laugh about the film \u00bb . The new romp features Stiller's character, security guard Larry Daley, in action at the Smithsonian, where some of the pieces from the Museum of Natural History -- the setting for the original movie -- are now being housed. Story writer Robert Ben Garant said watching the actors take the script and run with it was painless. \"It's always hard to watch bad actors improv on your skit,\" Garant said. \"But when it's Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill and Hank, it's such a pleasure because it always starts with the idea of our script and sometimes they stick to the words, but most of the time they do stuff much, much funnier and weirder. It's really great to watch.\" Owen Wilson is back as Jedidiah the miniature cowboy, who is now being held hostage at the Smithsonian. Azaria turns up the mean as Kahmunrah, the bitter brother of the pharaoh from the last film. Azaria said he thoroughly enjoyed his turn as the film's resident bad guy. \"When the villain is this ridiculous, it's fun,\" Azaria said. \"When he actually has a sense of humor and self-awareness, and goes from frivolous to really mean bully.\" \"In the end I had to be forced to do the mean stuff because I always wanted to do the silly stuff,\" he added. \"But watching it ... I enjoyed the mean stuff the most. \" Even with the good times on set, filming at the iconic Smithsonian was a monumental task, given that it wasn't always closed while the actors worked. Stiller said the crowds who watched the movie making magic were respectful and quiet during filming, often breaking into applause after a scene. \"We weren't really doing much, it was just the best audience in the world,\" he said. \"So it was sort of like doing a live show at the Smithsonian.\" Funny man Stiller even got to monkey around on set -- literally. In this film, there were two simians that took on the actor in a scene that found him getting the short end of the branch. \"I basically get slapped by both of them, but I am not allowed to slap them back because of animal rights, so I have to slap a dummy or a tennis ball when they're off-screen,\" Stiller told the British newspaper, The Mirror. \"It's a weird experience.\" Robin Williams, who is recovering from heart surgery, said he was excited to return as Theodore Roosevelt -- this time with a twist. \"I got to play two versions of Teddy Roosevelt,\" Williams said. \"One, the Teddy that was in the first movie and the other was kind of a brassy, bitchy Teddy and the one that's a bust of Teddy Roosevelt.\" With so many comics on board, it can't help but be a zany ride. Wilson said he believes those good times will translate to the audience. \"Shawn was really great about kind of letting people try things,\" he said. \"So it just had that kind of spirit on it where everybody was having a good time. I think you kind of feel it when watching the movie.\" Director Levy said the actors weren't the only ones who had fun. It's not every day a crew has access to the secret life of a museum, especially the Smithsonian, and Levy immersed himself in the privilege. \"It's such a fun world to explore, it's so dynamic, and the possibilities are literally endless,\" he said. \"I just love telling these stories.\" Since filming was such a blast, might there be a \"Night at the Museum 3\" in the works? \"Ask me after Memorial Day,\" Levy said, laughing.","highlights":"\"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian\" reunites cast and director .\nDirector says cast improvised much of the film .\nMovie is sequel to a 2006 film .\nBen Stiller got into a slap fest with a pair of monkeys .","id":"4682a301bd76e088de29505df8290ca01b4d625e"} -{"article":"PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Cambodia has sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council to call attention to its continuing standoff with Thailand over an ancient border temple on disputed land. Cambodian soldiers stand guard near Preah Vihear temple, close to the Thai border. The country is not asking for U.N. intervention, said Information Minister Kheu Kanharith. Rather, the letter that Cambodia's permanent mission in New York submitted to the chairmen of the Security Council and the General Assembly is meant to draw attention to a crisis that entered its sixth day Sunday. The two countries agreed to meet Monday to defuse tensions -- even as each side continued to amass more troops to the site of the Preah Vihear temple. Both Cambodia and Thailand lay claim to the 11th century temple, which sits atop a cliff on Cambodian soil but has its most accessible entrance on the Thai side. The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962. Thailand claims, however, that the 1.8 square mile (4.6 sq. km) area around it was never fully demarcated. Thailand further says that the dispute arose from the fact that the Cambodian government used a map drawn during the French occupation of Cambodia that places both the temple and the surrounding area in that country's territory. Earlier this month, the United Nations approved Cambodia's application to have the temple listed as a World Heritage Site -- places the U.N. says have outstanding universal value. The decision re-ignited tensions, with some in Thailand fearing it will make it difficult for their country to lay claim to disputed land around the temple. Opposition parties in Thailand used the issue to attack the government, which initially backed the heritage listing. A Thai court overturned the pact, prompting the resignation of Thailand's foreign minister, Noppadon Pattama. He had endorsed the application. Cambodia, meanwhile, is preparing for general elections on July 27. And Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since the mid-1980s, has portrayed the U.N. recognition as a national triumph. The current flare-up began Tuesday, when Cambodian guards briefly detained three Thais who crossed into the area. Once they were let go, the three refused to leave the territory. Cambodia claims Thailand sent troops to retrieve the trio and gradually built up their numbers. Thailand denies the charge, saying its troops are deployed in Thai territory. Each side has asked its troops to withhold fire unless they are fired upon. So far, the only casualty has been a Thai soldier who was injured Tuesday by a landmine -- possibly left over from the time the Khmer Rouge occupied the area. The Khmer Rouge, a radical communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, won power through a guerrilla war. It is remembered for the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Cambodians. -- Journalist Soeum Yin contributed to this report .","highlights":"Cambodia: Letter to Security Council meant to 'draw attention to crisis'\nThe two countries agreed to meet Monday to defuse tensions .\nBoth Cambodia and Thailand lay claim to 11th century Preah Vihear temple .\nThe International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962 .","id":"73dedb102d871abdebb99f996e1b9a1fd7fe6742"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian serial murderer dubbed the \"Chessboard Killer\" was given the maximum sentence of life in prison Monday and ordered to undergo psychiatric therapy for a string of at least 48 murders that terrorized Moscow for years. A Moscow jury convicted Alexander Pichushkin last week of 48 murders and three attempted murders. Pichushkin claimed he had actually committed 60 murders, though prosecutors were unable to find evidence to prove that. Pichushkin earned the nickname \"Chessboard Killer\" for saying he had intended to kill one person for each of the 64 squares on a chessboard. In ordering Pichushkin to receive compulsory psychiatric therapy, the judge said the defendant has a mental disorder but is still sane and cannot avoid responsibility for his crimes. Throughout his trial, Pichushkin gloated over his crimes and ridiculed the police case against him. \"I was dismayed my work had been attributed to others,\" Pichushkin said. \"In one week, I killed two people. If they hadn't caught me, I would have never stopped. Having caught me, they saved many lives.\" Watch video report on serial killer Alexander Pichushkin . For years until his arrest in June 2006, Pichushkin kept Moscow on edge, stalking the heavily forested Bitsa Park on the city's southern outskirts and preying on the homeless and elderly. Pichushkin claimed to have committed all but one of his murders in the park. He lured his victims with the promise of alcohol and, after getting them drunk on vodka, he beat them to death and dumped their bodies in the park. It led Russian media to give Pichushkin his other nickname, the \"Bitsa Maniac.\" Over the years, Russian police recovered dozens of corpses, some with sticks and vodka bottles rammed into their skulls. But the crucial lead came in 2005, when a woman Pichushkin worked with at a vegetable store was found dead. She had left a note at her home saying she was going for a walk with him. Pichushkin said he had been aware of the note but killed her anyway. E-mail to a friend . CNN Correspondent Matthew Chance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Moscow court sentences serial killer to maximum sentence of life in prison .\nAlexander Pichushkin was found guilty of killing 48 people .\nHe was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment at the prison .","id":"1b5174e9a4a2c77cb677d87ebcc8a3098ddc608a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson fans who purchased tickets for his final concerts will receive a full refund or, if they chose, a commemorative ticket, the concert promoter said Tuesday. A fan shows off the first ticket bought at the O2 Centre in London for one of Michael Jackson's concerts. \"The world lost a kind soul who just happened to be the greatest entertainer the world has ever known,\" said Randy Phillips, president and chief executive officer of AEG Live. \"Since he loved his fans in life, it is incumbent upon us to treat them with the same reverence and respect after his death.\" Fifty sold-out Jackson concerts were scheduled for the O2 Arena in London, starting July 13, with admission costing at least $105. The shows were billed as the final concerts of his career and were called \"This Is It.\" Tell us what you think -- would you take the ticket or the refund? Fans who decide they would rather have a souvenir will receive a ticket conceived by Jackson. There are eight designs that include holographic images of the entertainer on the front. Images of the tickets will be available on michaeljacksonlive.com in coming days, according to the promoter. Refunds will be processed by the issuing ticketing agencies -- See, Ticketline, Ticketmaster and Viagogo. Billboard magazine has estimated that $85 million in tickets were sold for the concert series. Additional packages, merchandise and secondary market sales could have raised the total to $115 million. AEG Live declined to comment on the figures. Jackson was expected to earn $50 million from the London shows. He died Thursday in California after his doctor found him in bed not breathing, but with a slight pulse. Efforts to revive the 50-year-old singer failed and he was pronounced dead at a Los Angeles medical center.","highlights":"\"This Is It\" ticket holders who choose a souvenir will get tickets conceived by Jackson .\nFifty sold-out Jackson concerts were scheduled to start July 13 in London .\nJackson was expected to earn $50 million from the London shows .","id":"d0eb74e9e21be6c73c53331635456fed98a2a0f5"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- On a plot of soil, nestled against the backdrop of skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, a group of residents are turning a lack of access to fresh produce into a revival of old traditions and self-empowerment. Urban farming is a way for African-Americans to connect with the earth, says Cashawn Myers of HABESHA. HABESHA Gardens is one of many urban gardens sprouting up around the country. Fruits and vegetables are thriving in this community garden located in an economically depressed area of the city known as Mechanicsville. But the garden serves an even greater purpose. The harvest helps feed some of the neediest members of the neighborhood. \"It's a reawakening going on. It's almost like it's a renaissance,\" says Cashawn Myers, director of HABESHA Inc. \"There's a Ghanaian proverb that says Sankofa. Sankofa means return to your past so you can move forward. Even if you look at coming over here during our enslavement, we were brought here to cultivate the land because that's something we did on the continent. So really, that's what many of the people are doing now,\" he said. Myers believes urban farming is a way for many African-Americans to reconnect with their past. iReport.com: Show us your urban farm . \"They are going through a process of Sankofa and going to what they traditionally did, which is connect to the Earth so they can move forward and grow,\" he says. But HABESHA Gardens isn't unique. Former pro basketball player Will Allen, who is considered to be one of the nation's leading urban farmers and founder of Growing Power Inc., estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of urban gardens in inner cities across America. Urban farms help feed people, sustain neighorhoods \u00bb \"It's beyond a movement at this point. Its more like a revolution,\" says Allen. Both Allen and Myers agree that the boom in urban farming for African-Americans is born out of necessity and not just echoing traditions. \"Minority people are affected by poor food, more than any other groups,\" and many inner cities lack access to quality fruits and vegetables, Allen says. \"Our food system is broken.\" \"When you're poor, when you don't have access to resources, you have to create your own,\" says Myers. \"So this is a way for people of African descent to use their creativity to grow their own food.\" Many poorer communities don't have full-scale grocery stores. Allen charges that companies have red-lined those areas and won't build stores there. So community activists like Myers have taken up the fight. \"[Starting] community gardens in local communities, specifically in urban areas, is important, so you create your own food security network,\" says Myers. \"You're not relying on large grocery stores to provide food for everyone because if those grocery stores have problems, your access to food is done.\" HABESHA Gardens makes the fresh food accessible to people in Mechanicsville by opening up the garden to people in the community every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. \"We invite people from the local community here, the immediate community but also from the greater Atlanta community ... to come out, work in the garden; learn, reconnect with the Earth and also be able to take food home with them after the harvest.\" In addition to providing food for those that work in garden, HABESHA partners with organizations such as the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the MLK Senior Center to provide food from the garden to the hungry and elders in the community. HABESHA is more than just an urban garden. HABESHA, an acronym for Helping Africa By Establishing Schools at Home and Abroad. The organization mentors young African-Americans by sending them on a yearly trip to Ghana and educates the youth in Mechanicsville through the garden's after-school program called Sustainable Seeds. \"Not only are we teaching them about agriculture, [we're] teaching them about solar technology, rainwater catching,\" Myers says. \"A majority of the food that was planted here was done by the youth in the after-school program. They helped to build the shed, they helped to build the greenhouse, they helped to build the shade nursery ... They are very much a vital part of the process that goes on here.\" Malik Parks, 12, is a member of HABESHA's mentoring program. \"Well, it feeds us. That's a big thing -- to know that we're helping the earth. Us planting it, that gives us exercise; then also, eating it gives us nutrients,\" says Parks. Sporting a \"Black to Our Roots\" T-shirt, Parks is already well aware of the higher purpose he and HABESHA have with their garden. \"I believe to some, its hope. I know there are a lot of people over here that live in poverty. I know you can come and pick food, so that's food for them,\" Parks says. \"So it's hope to stay alive longer and be energized and do what you have to do to get back on your feet.\" Myers, who is his mentor, agrees. \"We encourage the people in the community to come, be a part of the process of growing the food, so it's more empowerment than it is giving as charity,\" says Myers. And with urban farms like Will Allen's becoming half-million dollar enterprises in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, and many other farms in New York City and Detroit, Michigan, urban gardening is spreading like the roots of the vegetables they grow. \"This has become a multicultural, multigenerational movement, a revolution,\" says Allen. \"This isn't just the hippies and tree huggers. Everyone is getting on board. It's really exciting.\"","highlights":"HABESHA Gardens is one of many urban farms sprouting up around the country .\nCashawn Myers says it's important for urban areas to create their own food sources .\nHABESHA offers mentoring programs, harvests food to feed the local community .\nAllen: Urban farming is a 'multicultural, multigenerational movement, a revolution'","id":"3b3b90e4ef0549dfbed887e820049cf7d9c89569"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Before lighting up that patriotic sparkler this weekend, remember to play it safe. The Consumer Product Safety Commission uses mannequins to show the dangers of fireworks. That was the message from the Consumer Product Safety Commission Tuesday, which put out an early July Fourth holiday warning urging families to put safety first when celebrating with fireworks. \"We know that 70 percent of all [fireworks-related] accidents occur between June 20 and July 20,\" commission head Inez Tenenbaum said during a demonstration of fireworks safety on the National Mall. \"This is the time of year that people are using fireworks.\" Tenenbaum noted that the largest number of young people injured by fireworks are between the ages of 14 to 17. Learn more about fireworks-related injuries \u00bb . According to the latest report from the CPSC, there were seven fireworks-related deaths and roughly 7,000 reported injuries in 2008. Tenenbaum stressed that parents should always supervise young people around fireworks and that consumers should only buy legal products. Watch the CPSC warnings about fireworks \u00bb . \"Never pick up a firework that is a dud [and] hasn't fired, because it might go off in your hand,\" she added. After Tenenbaum spoke, government lab technicians demonstrated some of the potentially deadly consequences that can result from a failure to observe basic firework safety. Using mannequins posed in typical outdoor settings, the technicians showed how a simple sparkler often used by children can easily cause clothing to catch fire. They also demonstrated the explosive power of cherry bombs, among other things, using them to blow up large watermelons. In another setting, they showed how professional-grade and illegal fireworks often use faster-burning fuses, which do not give the person lighting enough time to get away. \"Parents need to exercise caution and make certain they're buying fireworks that comply with their state and local and county ordinances,\" Tenenbaum warned.","highlights":"Consumer Product Safety Commission put warning on fireworks out Friday .\n70 percent of fireworks accidents occur between June 20 and July 20, says CPSC .\nLargest number of young people injured by fireworks are between 14 and 17 .","id":"888aa336193d81a62b06d18b89fbdec217408e1a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Early in Michael Mann's vivid, incisive, but half-cocked gangster opus \"Public Enemies,\" Johnny Depp's John Dillinger returns to jail a few scant months after leaving it. Johnny Depp plays the charismatic John Dillinger in \"Public Enemies.\" Only this time he's just visiting -- and he's taking his friends out with him. It's an audacious opening gambit, and when the getaway gets messy -- one of the gang panics and soon bullets are flying all over the place -- we glimpse another insight into what makes Dillinger tick. As he clings to a wounded comrade for dear life, and stares death long in the face, he has to make a decision: What to do with the guy who panicked and brought this upon them? Dillinger lets him go. Based on Bryan Burrough's well-sourced account of the Depression-era crime wave that gave rise not only to Dillinger, but also to a whole gallery of criminal poster boys -- Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, the Barker gang, Bonnie and Clyde -- \"Public Enemies\" whittles the book down to its most dramatic duel: the nationwide manhunt for Dillinger presided over by J. Edgar Hoover (a knockout Billy Crudup) and led by his Chicago, Illinois, bureau chief, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). Dillinger and Purvis assumed folk-hero proportions in their day. According to Burrough, when newsreels showed Dillinger -- public enemy No. 1 -- he was applauded more loudly than the president. A 20th-century Jesse James, he was an underdog with a reputation for fairness. It was said he never killed anybody, and he was gallant and jocular with members of the public, once offering his overcoat to a kidnapped bank teller he had taken as a human shield. The role is tailor-made for a self-styled rebel like Depp. He understands the outlaw's swagger, the ferocity that sits hand in glove with his soft-spoken sensitivity. All the romance in the picture comes from Depp: the graceful ease with which he vaults a bank railing, his astonishing self-confidence and his dedicated courtship of hat-check girl Billie Frechette (an eager Marion Cotillard). She's swept up less by the high life he promises than the passionate conviction of his pitch. Burrough paints Purvis as an ineffectual, even inept agent who was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to nab Floyd, Nelson and Dillinger. The movie has no truck with such revisionism, but betrays little interest in Bale's dour, narrow lawman. The film's parallel cop-and-robber structure recalls Mann's modern classic, \"Heat.\" Purvis and Dillinger meet only once -- to talk -- and then face off just once more, at the climax, to kill and be killed. If the confrontation of Bale and Depp doesn't pack the same iconic punch as \"Heat's\" Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the (entirely fictitious) exchange in a Midwestern jail cell remains central to the film. At one point, Dillinger reprimands Purvis for shooting down Pretty Boy Floyd, extending the poetic license still further -- as a point of historical fact Floyd died several months after Dillinger, and though Purvis was at the scene he almost certainly didn't pull the trigger. But Purvis did coordinate the execution of John Dillinger, an assassination as much as it was an attempted arrest, and maybe the nastiest crime in the picture. So when the incarcerated Depp advises the smug Bale that he should find a different line of work for his own peace of mind, his words carry a certain weight. Still, the movie's resolve to take Dillinger at face value feels a bit perfunctory, even old hat. At 140 minutes it takes a long time to find its rhythm; indeed, this is one film that would be better if it were 20 minutes longer. Still, there's little here that Arthur Penn didn't anticipate 40 years ago in \"Bonnie and Clyde,\" except maybe the intriguing idea that organized crime pulled the plug on the old-style go-it-alone bank robber in a belated attempt to forestall Hoover's dream of a federal law enforcement agency. For all its loving period detail, the movie scarcely notices the desperate poverty of the times. Shot largely on high definition video, \"Public Enemies\" doesn't look like the old gangster films -- it looks like TV. The images gain in immediacy what is lost in luster, but left this spectator looking for more texture, more depth -- more heat. iReport.com: Depp's best film? One of the new Hollywood's last great stylists, Mann is well aware of the sacrifice involved in this transition. You can see it in the loving way he pictures Johnny Depp's doomed Dillinger watching Clark Gable's doomed gangster embrace his fate in \"Manhattan Melodrama\" while Purvis and his deputies assume their places outside Chicago's Biograph Theater. There is something ritualistic about this sequence, as if Dillinger divines some measure of grace from the screen, and we congregants also play our part. The faces change, but it's the same old movie we remember.","highlights":"\"Public Enemies\" is a solid gangster flick that's not quite great, says Tom Charity .\nFilm stars Johnny Depp as bank robber John Dillinger .\nDepp is terrific, Christian Bale as FBI man is more colorless .","id":"ce9a391e8e1714246d937a212d43d6af0c1063d2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Of all of the calculations Zainab Ibrahim made during her accounting career in Baghdad, this one was a snap. Iraqi refugee Zainab Ibrahim lives in a modest, sparsely furnished apartment outside Atlanta, Georgia. After a bullet whizzed by her head and death threats showed up at her doorstep, it was time, she figured, to leave. She went to Jordan four years ago and arrived last June at her ultimate destination -- the United States. Once a target of insurgents because her job at the Iraqi Finance Ministry involved working with the U.S. military, Ibrahim is now trying to avoid another pitfall -- falling through the cracks of America's recession. She and thousands of refugees across America who fled war and persecution just can't seem to find full-time jobs in a weak economy. And that just doesn't add up for Ibrahim, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from Baghdad University and risked her life for the U.S. government. \"It's everybody's dream being in the United States. I thought I would get the opportunity I always dreamed about,\" she said in fluent English in her sparsely furnished apartment outside Atlanta, Georgia. \"I'm really shocked. I found out everything is slow.\" View video highlights from her interview \u00bb . The recession has made life tough nationwide for refugees. \"It's the most challenging time I've seen and I've been doing this work for 25 years,\" said Robert J. Carey, vice president of resettlement and migration policy at the International Rescue Committee, one of several nonprofit organizations that the U.S. government pays to resettle refugees. Lavinia Limon, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, says, \"it's a significant problem.\" \"All refugees are required to become self-sufficient in a very fast time period. Our program is designed with that in mind. There isn't a long-term basis of support,\" said Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops. \"What we have right now is a situation where it's becoming more and more difficult to find employment in a very short time period.\" The U.S. government resettles a limited number of refugees each year. They have full legal rights to live and work in the United States and can apply to become U.S. citizens after five years. Both the U.S. State and the Health and Human Services departments pay for limited refugee services. The State Department allocation for living expenses per refugee on arrival to the country is $450, a sum the department calls \"modest.\" Individual refugees also are eligible to get eight months of cash assistance and medical assistance under the HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement. Depending on states' eligibility requirements, refugee families could be eligible for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Medicaid. State governments stipulate welfare benefit cash levels. There are five years' worth of social services, such as English language instruction. Refugee agencies across America pursue various state and federal programs that can help newcomers stay afloat, but they say they rely more and more on private donations to help provide food, clothing, money and furniture. That increasing reliance on community support shows that the U.S. program for resettling refugees needs reform, resettlement agencies argue. Three agencies -- Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service -- said in a recent statement that \"the recession is making it harder for refugee newcomers to find jobs within 180 days of arrival as the program prescribes.\" They said the government's \"one-size-fits-all\" approach -- the $450 per refugee and eight months of limited cash assistance plus food stamps and Medicaid -- \"reflects neither what resettlement actually costs nor the importance the U.S. refugee program holds in U.S. foreign policy,\" they said. The public-private partnership that has been the \"genius\" of the U.S. program has \"fallen out of balance,\" with the private sector is bearing much of the cost, these agencies say. More than 60,000 refugees were admitted to the United States during the fiscal year 2008, according to figures from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The largest number was from Burma, with 18,139. There were 13,823 from Iraq. Traditionally, refugees -- no matter their skill level -- have had a better chance of landing menial jobs, in places like hotels or restaurants or in plants with low-paying and arduous jobs. Now refugees are competing with Americans for low-paying jobs. Many are having a hard time finding the non-skilled positions. Refugee support agencies are scouring the job market, exploring job opportunities on farms as well as work in other sectors of the economy, said Carey, the International Rescue Committee senior vice president. He's also chairman of the Refugee Council USA, a coalition of non-government organizations helping refugees. \"For the first time I'm aware of,\" he said, \"large numbers of refugees are receiving eviction notices.\" It's even hard for those refugees who go places where they have friends, relatives or members of their same faith. In San Diego, California, Iraqi Chaldean Christian refugees are facing strains despite having access to an established Chaldean community, said Michael McKay, refugees services department director of Catholic Charities in San Diego. There's \"great competition\" for jobs, from menial to highly skilled. Several Iraqis in San Diego have even talked about returning to Iraq. Yet some communities still have those one or two big employers with jobs well-suited to newcomers. In Bowling Green, Kentucky, refugees from Burma, Burundi, Iraq, Cuba and Bhutan have over the years found low-paying factory jobs that Americans shun, such as work at a Perdue Farms chicken processing plant, said James Robinson, executive director of The Bowling Green International Center. How long will that last? \"We're good now,\" said Robinson. \"But you never know what tomorrow will bring.\" Back in Atlanta, Zainab Ibrahim makes no bones about how she feels: She wants work in her field, as an accountant, not just any job. But she knows she has to recalibrate her goals. She worked from September to November as a foreign language specialist with the U.S. Army in Mississippi, working with soldiers before they deployed to Iraq. During tax season this year, she worked another temporary job, as an assistant office manager and tax preparer for the Tax Service of America Inc.. Yet to her dismay, she has been unable to find what she covets -- a full-time job. She has produced a resume, gone to job fairs, and applied for clerical and administrative full-time jobs at places like hotels. She mines the job sites on the Web every day, using a computer at the public library because she can't afford Internet or cable service at home. David Oliver, the IRC job developer who works with her, said \"the recession is a big factor\" in her predicament. She is competing with other Americans for jobs and, he said, \"I think employers prefer to take somebody whose work experience is recognizable.\" Along with refugee cash assistance and food stamps, Ibrahim saved money from her part-time jobs, and her family in the Middle East is ready to help her as they did when she lived in Jordan. Living frugally, she has been able to pay $600 a month to rent her sparsely furnished apartment. She has a $60 a month phone bill and a fluctuating power bill that once reached $240 a month. There's $50 to $60 a week in food and then gas for her car. Ibrahim's money is running out, and she wonders whether she will be able to pay her next month's rent. Oliver says there's help, such as IRC emergency funds and local rent assistance, but Ibrahim yearns to support herself, to pay her own way. Her struggles disappoint Louis Culpepper, president and chief executive officer of Culpepper & Associates Security Services in Atlanta. Ibrahim worked for his firm in Baghdad, and Culpepper called her a \"real go-getter.\" \"I really feel bad about it that someone who put her life on the line can't get a job,\" he said. Ibrahim exudes optimism and determination despite her frustrations. She reminds herself that she survived the war and is still living a dream in America. And she applied for a job not long ago. \"Keep your fingers crossed,\" she said.","highlights":"More than 60,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S. in FY 2008 .\nFinding jobs proves difficult as U.S. economy in downturn .\nState Department allocation for living expenses per refugee on arrival is $450 .\nCharities, churches can take up the slack but they are feeling the recession pinch .","id":"bc20d20b013a0415da2f96a9b49e91639c55ebc7"} -{"article":"PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- Ricardo Martinelli, the multimillionaire owner of a supermarket chain, was inaugurated as president of Panama on Wednesday. Ricardo Martinelli is a pro-business conservative who defeated a candidate from the ruling center-left party. National Assembly President Jose Luis Varela performed the swearing-in and placed the presidential sash on Martinelli, a pro-business conservative who defeated a candidate from the ruling center-left party in May. The citizens of Panama \"want things to be done differently,\" Varela said at the inauguration. \"An attitude of change starts today.\" In his first speech as president, Martinelli promised a smaller government budget but raises for public workers. Public safety, an issue that the outgoing administration of Martin Torrijos struggled to maintain, will be a priority, Martinelli said. \"Our prisons will be rehabilitation centers, not schools for criminals,\" he said. Panama will also work with Mexico and Colombia to combat drug trafficking in the region, Martinelli said. Among the dignitaries at the inauguration was deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military-led coup Sunday. The Organization of American States has condemned the coup, and Zelaya has continued to carry out his presidential duties. The son of Italian immigrants, Martinelli, 57, is a self-made businessman who is chairman of the Super 99 supermarket chain, one of the largest private companies in Panama. The U.S.-educated president previously served as minister and chairman of the board of directors of the Panama Canal Authority and formerly was director of social security for Panama, according to his Web site. Martinelli won the presidency with 60 percent of the votes in a race against ruling-party candidate Balbina Herrera.","highlights":"NEW: Deposed Honduran president attends ceremony .\nSupermarket chain owner Ricardo Martinelli inaugurated .\nMartinelli promises smaller government budget, raises for public workers .\nNew president says Panama will fight drug trafficking in region .","id":"d7b5355aa830a657717ef6db8ea347749ca07439"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australia's reputation as the happy-go-lucky country was turned on its head in the late 1990s as the usually safe streets of the Victorian capital were transformed into a gangland war zone. Police investigate the scene where Des Tuppence Moran was killed in Melbourne in June 2009. Melbourne's \"underbelly\" of organized crime suddenly became public. Men hungry for easy money, power and control of the state's lucrative illegal amphetamines trade were prepared to do whatever it took to be the boss of the underworld. Violence erupted between two families -- the Morans and the Williams. Police say both had trafficked drugs in Melbourne for years and for a while had been associates. But as public demand for amphetamines grew, the rivalry increased with both camps desperate to secure the market. On one side was the Moran family -- brothers Jason and Mark, father Lewis and matriarch Judy Moran. The brothers were notorious for their short tempers and relied on violence to achieve what they wanted. On the other was Carl Williams and his crew. He began as a small-time drug dealer but would become Australia's most notorious serial killer. Watch how a feud between two families has spawned a TV miniseries \u00bb His lieutenant was Andrew \"Benji\" Veniamin -- a tattooed former kick boxer who would become Williams' main hit man -- but eventually became a victim of the gang wars himself. The feud began on October 13, 1999, on Carl Williams' 29th birthday. The Moran brothers accused Williams of undercutting them, by selling cheap pills on the street. They allegedly shot Williams in the stomach. But this didn't frighten him. Instead, Williams planned his revenge, sparking a public underworld war that would leave police, the legal system and politicians struggling to cope. Eight months later, Mark Moran was gunned down outside his home while he put out the rubbish. Then in 2003, in the most horrific of all the gangland murders, Jason Moran and his associate Pasquale Barboro were gunned down in the front seats of a van in the car park at a children's football game. Five children were sitting in the back seats. Witnesses described the shooting as disgusting and callous. At Jason's funeral, his mother made a graveside threat. Leaning over the coffin, Judy Moran said \"all will be dealt with my darling.\" But it didn't end there. A year later, Judy's husband was murdered. Crime patriarch Lewis Moran, who was facing drug charges, was shot dead while drinking at his local pub. Victoria Police Commissioner Simon Overland said \"regardless of anyone's circumstance in life no one deserves to die in this fashion. It's outrageous this is happening in Melbourne.\" But it wasn't just the Moran family that was wiped out. Over the course of nine years, 30 people were killed in this high-profile turf war. Matriarch Judy Moran expressed her sorrow and loss: \"I've lost 3 members of my family, lots of close friends and I feel for their families as well.\" Williams was now in control of Melbourne's illegal drug trade. He had amassed millions of dollars, power and a reputation -- and believed he was untouchable. He referred to himself as \"The Premier\" because, as he told the Australian newspaper The Age, \"I run this f---ing state.\" But the law would finally catch up with Carl Williams. Victoria's Purana police task force had spent years investigating the drug kingpin and they finally had enough evidence to arrest Williams, charging him with multiple murders. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to four of them, including the murders of Mark and Lewis Moran. Police say Williams was connected to at least 10 underworld murders and would have kept killing if he had not finally been jailed. He is serving a more than 30-year prison sentence. The war inspired a smash hit television series in Australia called \"Underbelly.\" However, when it was released at the beginning of last year, the 13 episode mini-series was banned from being shown in Melbourne because of the possible impact it would have on related criminal trials. It aired in Victoria once the trials were completed. Just when police thought the underworld killings were over, another member of the Moran family was shot dead in June. But in a surprising twist, this was not a gangland hit -- apparently the enemy was from within. Family matriarch Judy Moran was arrested as an accessory to the murder of her brother-in-law, Des Tuppence Moran. Police say she has had no comment about the charges. Police claim there was bad blood over money, but it marks the end of one of Australia's best-known criminal dynasties. \"Fact is almost stranger than fiction with what we've seen\" said Victoria Police Commissioner Overland. \"If you were a scriptwriter and sat down and wrote this stuff you'd probably say: 'Look, no, it's a bit far fetched. No one will believe it.'\"","highlights":"War erupts between two families -- the Morans, Williams -- over drug trade .\nOne man shot in van with kids, another while taking out garbage .\nThirty people killed in the high profile turf war .\nWar inspires smash hit television series called \"Underbelly\"","id":"22ee5b33353e8535ceef693b0887f11831a86554"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Barely six months after being crowned the winner of \"American Idol,\" David Cook has released his self-titled debut album. David Cook recently released his debut album, which includes songs about his family. The Missouri native (no relation to the author of this article) described the recording process as \"squeezing a year's worth of work on a record into 2\u00bd months.\" But he's very happy with the result. \"It's a very accurate definition of where I'm at, where I was and where I want to be,\" he said. Cook sticks to his rock roots on the release, eliciting help from ex-Soundgarden member Chris Cornell to write the lead single, \"Light On.\" He also keeps loved ones close: The track \"Heroes\" is a tribute to his family. \"Permanent\" (which Cook describes as having a \"delicate and lullaby feel\") and \"A Daily AntheM\" (\"sing-alongy and grandiose\") acknowledge his older brother, who is battling brain cancer. The latter song was written three years before Cook's \"Idol\" run, when he was cutting his teeth as a grass-roots rocker. Watch David Cook show his chops \u00bb . Cook, 25, dropped by CNN's New York offices (with his mother, Beth Foraker, in tow) to talk about keeping creative control, losing his privacy and his responsibility as Idol No. 7. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: You were very involved in the making of your debut album, weren't you? David Cook: Yeah. Out of 12 songs on the record, I wrote or co-wrote 10, and the label was even kind enough to let me get involved with the art direction on the record. So it was a busy summer. CNN: You actually have a degree in graphic design, don't you? Cook: I spent five long years at the University of Central Missouri. It should've been four, but I enjoyed college a little bit more than I should have. CNN: There's skepticism that American Idols have very little control over the music they ultimately make. That wasn't the case for you? Cook: Well, I can't speak for anybody else except myself, and I guess in that sense, I lucked out. I mean, 19 [Entertainment] and RCA really [gave] me a little bit of carte blanche to allow me to make a record that is me. And to that end, I think we managed to pull something really cool off. CNN: What was your approach with the music? Cook: I tried to put music down on this record that [translated] live. I want these songs to make people feel things and invoke certain responses in an audience. And so it's a lot of very epic choruses and open bridges and stuff like that. Something that will give a show some room to meander and feel like a unique experience for everybody. CNN: [Lead single \"Light On\"] debuted on the Billboard charts at No. 17, and then several weeks later -- about four -- it dropped to No. 80. Was that discouraging? Cook: No, not really. I think, for us, it's all about the long-term results. And I feel like the song seems to be getting speed now, especially with the record coming out. It just feels like everything's headed in the right direction, so I'm definitely not one to hang my head on immediate results. I'd rather the song hit No. 1 four months from now if it's gonna do it. I'm just excited to get this record out. I'm excited to have people hear it. CNN: When you were catapulted to fame, did you ever experience any self-doubt or feelings of insecurity? Cook: I'll be the first to admit there are [musicians] out there who are way better than me. I feel almost a responsibility to do everything that I can with this on their behalf as well as my own. But I've always been a confident person. I feel like I know why I'm here, I know what put me here. It's just a matter of trusting it and going with it. CNN: All this talk about you and [\"American Idol\" runner-up] David Archuleta being mortal enemies is absolute garbage, isn't it? Cook: It is. David is one of the most unassuming, down-to-earth people I think I've ever met. It seems like he has no idea he was even on the show, let alone did well. And I find that really endearing. He'll be the first to congratulate you. He seems to just appreciate every moment . CNN: You seem to be a very private person. Has all this attention been a little intrusive? Cook: In a sense, yeah. It's a little strange to go from toiling in obscurity to having to worry about walking out of a restaurant and [seeing] who's going to shove a camera in your face and all that. But it comes with the territory, and if dealing with that on occasion allows me to make music that I want to make ... then, I'll take it.","highlights":"David Cook became the seventh \"American Idol\" in the spring .\nCook wrote or co-wrote most songs on debut, even helped design art .\nCook and \"Idol\" runner-up David Archuleta get along fine .","id":"3ba98c23e140ec4afdf1424fbc5e9834c08af575"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit near the Greek island of Crete on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It struck at 12:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. ET), the USGS said. It was centered about 80 miles (130 kilometers) off the city of Iraklion on Crete, the USGS said. An earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude is capable of causing significant damage, especially in areas of poor construction. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. A staff member at Iraklion Airport told CNN they didn't feel the earthquake. Similar reports came from staff members at hotels just outside Iraklion and in western Crete. A spokesman at the Greek Ministry of Health in Athens, 450 kilometers (280 miles) from the epicenter, also said he didn't feel the quake. David Booth, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, explained that the earthquake happened deep below the sea, leading to little risk of tsunami and reducing the likelihood that people would feel tremors. -- CNN's Claudia Rebaza and Krsna Harilela in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hits near the Greek island of Crete .\n6.7 quake can cause major damage, especially in areas of poor construction .\nNo immediate word on casualties or damage .","id":"7d16fbe67a96e115edb46aaedb9ab8fa36ff77c2"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Even in the midst of Japan's deepest economic recession since World War II, the country's love hotel industry is thriving. The Style A hotel in Tokyo offers amenities. \"I'd hate to use the term \"recession-proof,\" but it's certainly proven very resilient over the last six to nine months,\" said Steve Mansfield, CEO of New Perspectives, which operates six love, or \"leisure,\" hotels in Japan. One of them, the Bonita Hotel in Isawa, boasts a 257 percent occupancy rate. Rooms can be rented for three to 24 hours. Mansfield's company estimates the industry in Japan pulls in $40 billion a year in revenue. \"It's a natural human desire. Even these days, on the weekend, every love hotel is full of people -- it's hard to get in. You can never stop sexual desire,\" said a woman with her boyfriend in Tokyo, who laughed in embarrassment when asked for her name. Love hotels fill a need for privacy in a country where high population density often means couples have little time alone. Rooms offer a broad assortment of features, including karaoke machines, PlayStation game consoles, DVD players, a variety of cosmetics, customized condoms and indoor-outdoor Jacuzzis. Watch Morgan Neill's report from inside a love hotel \u00bb . Though required by law to have a front desk, most can be rented and entered without talking to a clerk. The days of Japanese being ashamed to enter love hotels are coming to an end, though, Mansfield said. \"Seventy-five percent of our guests are members of our points program,\" he said. \"They carry our points cards, they collect points and they receive gifts. That's something people are very comfortable with, and I think that reflects the customers that we attract.\" Takashi Yamamoto, who designs love hotels in Tokyo, agreed. \"The bad image that love hotels had has faded over time. Also, customers started to raise their voices and became more selective about choosing hotels. In response, management has improved.\" The flashiest love hotels are found in Osaka, including a Hello Kitty-themed hotel and one with a room featuring a merry-go-round. Tokyo hotels tend to be tamer, focused on winning customers with amenities. The Style A Hotel, for example, offers a suite for $190 that includes a full-size Jacuzzi and a private sauna. Though young couples make up the majority of customers, they are not the only ones. One man, who declined to be named, said: \"I go to love hotels when I'm drunk and don't feel like going home.\" Whatever the reasons, the hotels have been doing well enough that Mansfield recently went to London, seeking investors to expand. \"The industry has 25,000 hotels, and through our research we've worked out that 90 percent of owners have five or fewer hotels,\" he said. That fragmentation is a structural inefficiency in the market, he said, one he would like to help correct.","highlights":"Industry has 25,000 hotels, says Steve Mansfield, CEO of a love hotel operator .\nVenues include a Hello Kitty-themed hotel; another has a merry-go-round in a room .\nMansfield: the industry pulls in some $40 billion dollars a year in overall revenues .\nMost customers are young people; flashiest hotels found in Osaka .","id":"6250f7330606f08745bc167be861032b3ac96d5e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and pleaded for a powerful sedative despite knowing its harmful effects, a nutritionist who worked with the singer said Tuesday. Cherilyn Lee is a holisitic health practitioner and has been in healthcare for 23 years, her Web site states. Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse and nurse practitioner who first met Jackson in January to treat his children for a common cold, said she rejected his requests for Diprivan and informed him of the side effects. \"I told him this medication is not safe,\" Lee said. \"He said, 'I just want to get some sleep. You don't understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.' \" \"I told him -- and it is so painful that I actually felt it in my whole spirit -- 'If you take this you might not wake up.' \" According to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, nurse practitioners \"provide high-quality healthcare services similar to those of a doctor.\" They can also prescribe medications, according to the academy's Web site. CNN could not independently verify whether Lee worked with Jackson. When asked about Lee's account, Jackson family attorney Londell McMillan said: . \"I wonder why someone would make a comment about drugs when they haven't seen him take the drug or anyone who administered it.\" The drug, known by its generic name Propofol, is administered intravenously as an anesthetic during surgeries. Watch nurse describe Jackson's drug request \u00bb . An initial dose puts a person to sleep. An overdose can lead to cardiac arrest, doctors say. Jackson died June 25 at the age of 50. Authorities are awaiting toxicology results to determine what killed him. Lee is licensed as a registered nurse, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing Web site. According to her Web site, she is a proponent of alternative medicine that uses a holistic approach. Lee said that four days before Jackson's death, she received a call from a Jackson staff member who said the singer felt that one side of his body was cold; the other hot. \"I could hear Mr. Jackson saying in the background, 'Please have her come see me now. Can she come now?' \" Lee, who was in Florida at the time, said she told Jackson's staffers to take him to a hospital. \"I was really afraid because of the symptoms they were telling me,\" she said. \"It could have meant something going on in the nervous system or something cardiovascular.\" After his death, Lee said she didn't go to the authorities. \"When I saw it on the news, I really didn't know what to do,\" she said. \"I was saddened. I heard there was a physician there.\" Lee also could not say why Jackson would call on her, when the last time she saw him was three months ago. \"The only think I can think of is he recalled the symptoms I was telling him,\" she said. But, she added, she didn't know of any doctors who would have given him the drug. \"I asked him, 'What doctor gave you this drug?' \" she said, when the singer initially brought up the medicine. \"He told me, 'Oh it was a long time ago.' \" Dr. Rakesh Marwah of the anesthesiology department at the Stanford University School of Medicine said Propofol can lead to cardiac arrest, which is suspected in Jackson's death. \"Propofol slows down the heart rate and slows down the respiratory rate and slows down the vital functions of the body,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Lawyer: Nurse never saw Jackson take, be administered drug .\nJackson said \"I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep,\" nurse said .\nCherilyn Lee: I told Jackson \"if you take this you might not wake up\"\nSedative Jackson requested given through IV as anesthetic during surgeries .","id":"0473b210dfad3ac8d0b7a2074b107e2cf2dfe78b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Video of a fresh-faced Susan Boyle confidently singing a Barbra Streisand track to a room full of football fans in 1984 has been unearthed. Susan Boyle as she looked during a performance filmed at a Scottish football club in 1984. The \"Britain's Got Talent\" singing sensation, looking trim and a bit like Abba's Anni-Frid Lyngstad, is invited on to the stage at Motherwell FC's Fir Park Social Club to take part in a singing competition between rival fans by a man wearing a checked coat and bow tie. Boyle, who had to wait 25 more years to be catapulted into the spotlight via her television appearance in front of Simon Cowell last month, quickly chats with the band before they launch into a low-key, lounge-style version of Streisand's \"The Way We Were.\" Boyle, her hair style a classic 1980s perm, confidently looks down the barrel of the camera, giving meaningful expressions as she moves slowly round the stage. Watch latest Boyle video . At one point she even takes the hand of a pearl-necklace wearing middle-aged woman in the front row and sings directly to her. Watch how things have changed in Boyle's hometown \u00bb . When she finishes, the crowd breaks into rapturous applause and Boyle gets a peck on the cheek from the MC before slipping quietly back to her table in the smoke-tinged room. The video became public Friday after it was handed to Scotland's Daily Record newspaper. Gerry McGuinness, 61, who watched Susan sing live that night and kept the video, told the Record that he remembered the evening clearly. Watch Boyle sing on Larry King \u00bb . \"I can remember that she was a shy young girl, but also very attractive back then -- she turned a few heads when she came into the club. \"Even back then, I don't think anyone expected too much from her because she was so shy, but when she began singing people took notice.\" The 47-year-old Boyle's appearance on \"Britain's Got Talent,\" where she sang \"I Dreamed a Dream\" from the musical \"Les Miserables,\" has now been viewed more than a 100 million times on YouTube. Watch Larry King interview Susan Boyle \u00bb . She famously told the show's hosts that she had never been kissed and lived alone with her cat in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland. The world's media beat a path to her home, from where she even appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Boyle has been installed by bookmakers as the favorite to win the show which, as part of the first prize, includes the right to perform in front of the queen.","highlights":"New video of Susan Boyle singing to room full of football fans unearthed .\n25-year-old footage taken at Motherwell FC's social club .\nBoyle, sporting a perm and looking trim, belts out Barbra Streisand track .\nSinging sensation was catapulted into spotlight after TV appearance last month .","id":"bbbcd67f733df273dbafec92d24279080cb6744f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What's a July Fourth celebration without fireworks? Many cities across the United States will find out Saturday. Milwaukee holds its lakefront show on July 3, so as not to compete with surrounding communities. As municipalities grope for ways to shore up budgets, expensive pyrotechnics displays are becoming the latest victims of the economic downturn. \"They need to have things in the community like that to keep things going. So I'm sad to see it going,\" said Seth Stolz, of Flint, Michigan, which will go without its traditional July Fourth explosions in the sky this year, according to CNN affiliate WJRT. He was accustomed to watching the show from his home. The Greater Flint Arts Council puts on the show every year, and when the city and county said they couldn't afford the $40,000 for the Flint Fireworks Festival, it was canceled last month. Private donors tried to save it, but the mayor expressed concerns that safety measures might be overlooked if the event was hastily organized, WJRT reported. Watch how town brings bikinis into the mix \u00bb . \"Yeah, a very hard decision to make,\" Greg Fiedler with the arts council, told the station. In Florida, Miami-Dade County canceled one of its two shows to save about $40,000, CNN affiliate WPLG reported. The Monterey, California, City Council in April also nixed its show and accompanying lawn party to save about $150,000 . \"Although the 4th of July festivities are a very popular community-wide event, we cannot recommend continuation of this costly one-day event during a fiscal downturn,\" a city staff report said. In Illinois, CNN affiliate WLS-TV reported that Harvey, Berwyn, Elgin, Gurnee and North Riverside had canceled their shows. Blue Springs, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, also 86'ed the pyrotechnics to give the city \"some immediate budget relief,\" city officials told CNN affiliate KCTV. The American Pyrotechnics Association says that despite the economic challenges, fireworks display companies are working with their clients to make sure the shows go on. Communities are also finding alternative funding or cutting back to make sure the sky rockets light up their July Fourth sky. The nation hosts about 14,000 fireworks shows each Independence Day, according to the association, and the majority of shows will prevail because communities \"realize the importance of continuing this annual tradition of providing their citizens with free entertainment to celebrate our freedom and independence,\" Julie Heckman, the group's director, said in a statement. \"The industry has been tested time after time and each challenge unites the industry, makes it stronger, and ensures that communities do not go dark on Independence Day,\" Heckman said. iReport.com: How are you celebrating the Fourth of July? The Illinois towns of Elmhurst and Wooddale couldn't foot their own shows, so they chipped in funds for the show in nearby Bensenville, WLS reported. Evanston, Illinois, had to shorten its show, and North Aurora forewent its own show in favor of bolstering the celebration in neighboring Aurora, CNN affiliate WGN reported. Tucson, Arizona, canceled it's $55,000 fireworks display to save money, but CNN affiliate KGUN reported Friday that private donors stepped in to save the celebration. Joliet, Illinois, almost canceled its 63rd annual skyrocket display because businesses weren't able to send their customary donations. The show had a $23,000 price tag, but local businesses could muster only about $14,000, according to WGN. City residents were not content to go without fireworks Saturday. \"It's a tradition in Joliet. It's an American tradition. You can't give up on that,\" said Robert Svarz, who has been attending fireworks shows in Joliet for 50 years, according to WLS. Residents scraped together the remaining $9,000 to make sure the city staged its show, which draws thousands to Joliet Memorial Stadium and the surrounding parking lots each year. \"Not only did they send in contributions, but they all sent notes on how important it was to keep this thing alive,\" Russ Slinkard, CEO of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce, told WLS. Despite Chicago's budget crisis, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office told WGN that there will be no cutbacks to the Windy City's fireworks display. Fireworks also will be part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's, celebration, as U.S. Bank has sponsored the hourlong, lakefront show for the past few years. The city holds its show the day before Independence Day to not compete with surrounding communities' shows. Middletown, Connecticut, also held its celebration early, on Thursday -- but for a different reason. Holding the celebration on Saturday would have meant $20,000 in overtime pay for city workers, on top of the $65,000 bill for the actual show, Mayor Sebastian Giuliano told CNN affiliate WTNH-TV. Rescheduling the celebration had an added bonus: Businesses that usually close for the holiday were able to cater to the crowd of about 15,000. At least one community had no problem finding the funds for this year's festivities. In fact, Olive Branch, Mississippi, more than tripled its budget, according to CNN affiliate WPTY-TV. The town seemed split over the move. While one resident said it would be \"unfair\" to deprive the town of the show, another said upping the fireworks budget from $10,000 to $35,000 seems irresponsible, WPTY reported. So, what about people who don't live in towns like Olive Branch? What are their options when their fireworks shows are canceled? Well, they can always enjoy a show in another town, or -- as Blue Springs Mayor Carson Ross suggested to KCTV -- put on their own show. Watch the safeguards you should take \u00bb . Blue Springs is one of the few western Missouri towns that allows residents to shoot their own fireworks, and indeed, the American Pyrotechnics Association reported last month that the popularity of backyard fireworks had more than doubled since 2000. However, those who aren't mindful of the laws in their city could find the economic downturn taking an even greater toll. Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan told CNN affiliate WTMJ-TV that the city is serious about stopping backyard fireworks. Because no one respected the ban last year, the city is \"going to hit them in the pocketbook,\" he said. The fine for each citation? $676.","highlights":"The nation hosts about 14,000 fireworks shows each Independence Day .\nMany shows have been canceled or downsized because of frail city budgets .\nJoliet, Illinois, residents chipped in money to put on show, station reports .\nMississippi town gets mixed reaction to tripling its fireworks budget, station reports .","id":"1739d57c10680a55d22fb0381e6124905fc99278"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amid all the talk about storm clouds gathering over the U.S. economy, it's easy to forget there are other places in the world where the sun is still shining. A shortage of housing is contributing to an inflation rate of almost 14 percent in Qatar . Take Qatar, for example; a small emirate in the Gulf whose economy is booming. When the final figures come in, Qatar's economy is expected to have grown 17.8 percent in 2007. Qatar National Bank predicts growth to slow in 2008, but at 16.5 percent who could complain? Well, consumers for one. While growth has steamed ahead, so has inflation. At the end of 2007, Qatar's official inflation rate was nearing 14 percent -- the highest in the region. Three major factors are contributing to Qatar's soaring inflation rate: High levels of government spending; growing demand for housing, which is pushing up house prices and rent, and the riyal's peg with the dollar, which is pushing down interest rates. The U.S. Federal Reserve exacerbated the latter problem by slashing U.S. interest rates twice in the past eight days to three percent. Gulf States with currencies linked to the U.S. dollar were under pressure to follow suit. Qatar reduced its deposit rate to 3.5 percent, but left its lending rate at 5.5 percent. Liz Martins, Head of MENA, Business Monitor International says Qatar is facing a serious problem. \"You've huge a amount of monetary easing and if you think that that's not even going to feed through properly for six to nine months then, you've got a really dangerous inflationary outlook,\" she says. \"The only policy option really that they have is to revalue the exchange rate.\" Kuwait did just that in May, ditching the dollar-peg for a basket of currencies, and speculation is growing that other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries will do the same. Tristan Cooper, Vice President and Senior Analyst at Moody's Middle East, says the argument for revaluation is becoming more convincing. \"The economic justification for revaluation is growing stronger as inflation multiplies and the government increases expenditure.\" He says any move by Gulf governments to curb public spending would not be welcomed by locals facing higher living costs. In Qatar's instance, new housing stock is expected to come onto the market to help ease inflation in the rental market. \"There is some hope that prices will begin to slow as that supply comes onto the market, but that's not guaranteed,\" Tristan Cooper says. So that leaves a currency revaluation. \"The easier policy option would presumably be to revalue, but that also has political difficulties. It involves to some extent coordinating with GCC members.\" In the past, Saudi Arabia has ruled out any change to its dollar-peg. Qatar has made it clear that it prefers any move to be made with a GCC consensus. In an interview with Marketplace Middle East, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani said that the emirate is \"studying all options\" in relation to the dollar-peg. \"Every country has to see its way out of this, but only after a consultation with the GCC,\" he said. \"For us, our wish is that it's a policy to be taken by the whole GCC, to either basket or revalue our currency. I cannot see a decision. Even in Qatar, we have no decision up to now.\" This week, one of Qatar's leading economic advisors was quoted as saying any policy change would have to be substantial. In an interview with Reuters news agency, Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim said, \"change should be major; minor change won't solve the problem.\" He ruled out any potential moves to float the Qatari riyal. \"As a small country we cannot float our currency... it has to be tied,\" he said. One of the main reasons GCC members are reluctant to abandon their dollar link is because they're working towards their own monetary union. A policy diversion now may make it more difficult to unite again under a common currency by the nominated deadline of 2010. There's widespread skepticism that that deadline can be reached. \"The timeframe of 2010 is rather unlikely now, and the project itself seems to be facing increasing difficulties given the pressure on individual states to go their own way and revalue,\" Tristan Cooper says. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Qatar's economy is booming, but emirate has the highest inflation rate in Gulf .\nTwo recent cuts in U.S. interest rates putting pressure on Gulf currencies .\nQatari PM says \"studying all options\" on dollar-peg, GCC consensus ideal .\nMembers reluctant to drop the dollar-peg despite growing inflationary pressure .","id":"42d16060ba8988c60bd632846efe0c01be2ddd3d"} -{"article":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The head of the Organization of American States said Friday he has found no willingness among leaders of Honduras' interim government to return President Jose Manuel Zelaya to power. OAS Secretary General Jose Insulza doubts Honduras' new leaders will restore ousted President Jose Zelaya. \"They have, for the moment, no intention of reversing the situation,\" Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters. He said he had reached that conclusion after speaking Friday with members of the Supreme Court, among others. Insulza also rejected assertions by the interim government that the change in leadership was not really a coup d'etat. \"I don't know what else you would call it when a group of military take a president out of power and sends him to another country,\" he said. At the end of Insulza's comments, Deputy Foreign Minister Marta Lorena Alvarado said Honduras is willing to withdraw from the OAS. \"If the Organization of American States doesn't deem Honduras worthy of membership of the Organization of American States, then Honduras would renounce, with immediate effect, the inter-American charter.\" Vice Chancellor Martha Lorena de Casco also said Honduras was ready to leave the OAS, which she called a political organization rather than a tribunal of justice. \"Honduras will defend its sovereignty,\" she said in a televised response. Zelaya was ousted in a military-led coup Sunday and sent to Costa Rica in his pajamas. The same day, the Honduran Congress voted to install Roberto Micheletti as interim president. That sparked international condemnation, with the OAS on Tuesday passing a resolution calling for Zelaya's reinstatement by Saturday and threatening to suspend Honduras from the group. Zelaya has said he will return this weekend with presidents of other OAS member countries, despite Micheletti's vow to have him arrested for violating the country's constitution if he does so. On Friday, thousands of people assembled in front of the presidential residence in Tegucigalpa, where Micheletti praised the armed forces for their efforts and offered a different version of events. \"We must tell the world that there was no coup d'etat here,\" he said, his voice hoarse. \"It wasn't a coup! It wasn't a coup!\" He promised that the nation would revert to a democracy, but did not say when. \"Here, in front of Honduras and the entire world, I guarantee we will have free elections, as soon as we decide when,\" he said. Micheletti has promised not to run in elections slated for November. \"You may choose any candidate from any party,\" he told the crowd. \"I want to tell you that I am governing for all political parties. I am governing for the poor, for the businessmen, for the rich, for the children and for all the people of Honduras.\" Though the two sides appeared far apart, a compromise might be possible, said Jennifer McCoy, an Americas expert at the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center. \"The options are that neither side backs down and that President Zelaya shows up tomorrow and the police are there waiting to arrest him.\" If Zelaya returns accompanied by international figures, the result would be \"awkward,\" she said. McCoy added there could be \"some kind of compromise, including mutual guarantees.\" One such scenario -- Zelaya's promise not to pursue legal action against the coup plotters in exchange for their agreement to step aside and not to pursue his Cabinet ministers who are in hiding. McCoy praised U.S. President Obama for supporting Zelaya without qualification. \"By taking the principled stand for democracy that he took in this case in favor of a government that is an ally of Venezuela, he did not let politics intervene. This is a change from the previous administration,\" she said. McCoy was referring to the tacit U.S. approval that was given to the coup that in 2002 briefly toppled leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been a consistent U.S. critic. \"It helps to recuperate the pro-democracy credential of the United States in this hemisphere,\" she said. Meanwhile, Amnesty International accused the new government Friday of intimidating media workers. \"Recent reports suggest that journalists who have published news stories on the crisis or covering the issue of protests and scores of detentions have been intimidated,\" it said. \"Prosecutors have also reported threats on account of their attempts to verify human rights abuses during protests.\" At the center of the dispute was a referendum that Zelaya had vowed to carry out last Sunday even after the country's supreme court and congress declared it would be illegal. The nonbinding referendum could have opened the door to the creation of a constitutional assembly to modify the country's charter. Opponents accused Zelaya of having sought to rewrite the constitution to allow him to run for re-election. Zelaya denied that was his intent. However, international support for the new government has been virtually nonexistent. On Thursday, the European Union announced that all its ambassadors had left Honduras. Also Thursday, the U.S. State Department said it was suspending some aid programs to the country. Earlier, the U.S. military, which has trained Honduran forces for years, postponed some planned exercises with the Honduran military until the situation in the country settles down. Zelaya narrowly won the presidency in 2005 with 49.8 percent of the vote to 46.1 percent for Porfirio \"Pepe\" Lobo. After 18 years of nearly uninterrupted military rule, Honduras returned to civilian control in 1981. Since then, the military has not seemed interested in holding power in the nation of more than 7 million people, about 70 percent of whom live in poverty. Military interventions were once common in Latin America, but civilian governments have held sway since the 1980s. Before Sunday, the only other barracks revolt this decade was the unsuccessful 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, when the military displaced him but backed down days later and allowed his reinstatement. CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report.","highlights":"OAS head doubts Honduras' interim leadership will restore ousted President Zelaya .\nVice chancellor: Honduras prepared to withdraw from OAS .\nZelaya vows to return to country despite arrest threat .","id":"7765eade8e3b413dedbdacaae94d03c21b610b24"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The ongoing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq \"shows that the (Iraqi) government and the occupation are not serious about the withdrawal,\" a key Shiite cleric in the country said Wednesday. A crowd gathers Tuesday after a deadly bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Muqtada al-Sadr made the statement on his Web site a day after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns in accordance with the security agreement between the United States and Iraq. About 131,000 American troops remain in the country, on bases and in outposts outside of population centers. \"The withdrawal should include all the occupation forces: army, intelligence, militias, and security companies and others. Otherwise, the withdrawal will be uncompleted and useless,\" al-Sadr said. \"We want a withdrawal and stopping the interference with Iraqi political, social and economic affairs,\" the statement said. Al-Sadr commands the loyalty of the Mehdi Army, one of the largest independent militias in the country. His agreement to a cease-fire with the government and its allies is considered a key factor in reducing the level of violence in the country. But he seemed to suggest Wednesday that Iraqis had the right to attack foreign forces in the country -- if not Iraqi security forces. \"If the occupation forces violate this claimed withdrawal, even with a government cover, then the people of Iraq will have all the right to express their opinion in a peaceful way, and the right to self-defense on condition of not harming the Iraqi people and the security forces,\" he said. Under an agreement signed in the waning days of the Bush administration, all U.S. forces will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Most will be gone by August 2010 under the withdrawal plan laid out by President Barack Obama, Bush's successor. The U.S. troops who remain are now tasked with supporting Iraqi troops and police, and must seek Iraqi permission to launch operations in the cities. the top U.S. general in the country said Tuesday that much of the country was safe. \"There is not widespread violence in Iraq,\" Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters in a video conference from Baghdad. \"There's still gonna be bumps in the road. There's still gonna be violence here,\" he added. Meanwhile, the death toll from a huge blast in northern Iraq rose to 35, local security officials said Wednesday. The car bombing took place in a busy commercial district in a predominantly Kurdish area of Kirkuk early Tuesday evening when the neighborhood was busy, security sources said. About 17 shops and houses were destroyed and 95 people were wounded, a police official in the Iraqi city added. Kirkuk is about 378 kilometers (235 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. CNN's Yousif Bassil and Jomana Karadsheh in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"About 131,000 American troops remain in the country .\nMuqtada al-Sadr: Withdrawal should include all the occupation forces .\nAl-Sadr commands the loyalty of the Mehdi Army, an independent militia .\nU.S. must now seek Iraqi permission to launch operations in the cities .","id":"898c2c9a9b12b8fec08c520f2e325489086865c6"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- It's a nightmarish scenario straight out of the movies: A passenger is forced to land a plane after its pilot becomes incapacitated. Passanger Doug White landed this Super King two-engine turboprop after the pilot fell unconscious. \"Descend and maintain 5,000. Just take your time, we'll set you up for the airport,\" an air traffic controller says. In a calm voice, a passenger responds: \"I need to get my throttle set for this descent. I don't know where to set it at.\" The reality was playing aboard a plane over Florida on Sunday in what the National Air Traffic Controllers Association called \"an Easter miracle.\" The incident began about 1:30 p.m. The plane, a Super King Air two-engine turboprop with four passengers on board, was headed to Jackson, Mississippi, from Marco Island, Florida, about 18 miles south of Naples. The plane entered the jurisdiction of air traffic control at Miami Center, the facility responsible for high-altitude air traffic in southern Florida and the Caribbean, according to a statement issued by the air traffic controllers association. The pilot notified controllers that the plane was at 9,000 feet and climbing, said Steve Wallace, Miami Center spokesman for the association. However, a controller at the center tried twice to raise the pilot after that and received no response, Wallace said. Hear audiotape of emergency landing \u00bb . After a few moments, a different voice came over the radio: Passenger Doug White told air traffic controllers the pilot was unconscious and they needed help. His wife and two teenage daughters were flying home to Louisiana with him, he said. Listen to White describe seeing the pilot's eyes roll back in his head \u00bb . He reported the plane's autopilot was on and the plane was continuing to climb from 10,000 feet. \"I told my girls to pray hard,\" White later told CNN television affiliate WINK. White later told the Naples Daily News he has a pilot's license and about 130 hours experience flying a single engine Cessna, but had never flown the larger, faster King Air. The difference, experts said, is not as simple as driving a different model of car. A turboprop multi-engine, Wallace told CNN, \"probably lands at a faster speed than he's ever flown a single-engine plane before.\" White told air traffic controllers it appeared the pilot had died, according to the statement, and he reported that the plane's autopilot was on and the plane was continuing to climb from 10,000 feet. Two air traffic controllers worked to help him disengage the autopilot, as other controllers stepped in to lighten their workload. \"Keep it coming around when you can ... the turn looks good, very good sir,\" a controller said. The controllers then turned the plane over to air traffic controllers at the airport. One of them had called a friend who was certified in the King Air planes for advice. \"They walked him through flipping the switches, turning the knobs,\" Wallace said. White, who was composed for the most part, seemed doubtful for a brief moment. \"When I touch down ... If I ever touch down, do I just kill the throttle or what?\" he asks. The landing was successful. \"I knew we had to do something ... I knew that much,\" White told WINK. The Federal Aviation Administration has not given any of the involved air traffic controllers permission to speak about the incident, Wallace said. However, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association lauded all of those involved in landing the plane. \"If you were to ask any one of the controllers who worked this even about what happened over the skies of south Florida, they would tell you that it was just a typical day at the office and that it was merely their job,\" association President Patrick Forrey said in the statement. \"However, the actions they all took to save the passengers aboard the flight were beyond heroic.\" Victoria Moreland, spokeswoman for Southwest Florida International Airport, said the pilot's death was confirmed after the plane landed. The cause of death was unclear, Moreland said. It's rare for a pilot to suffer a medical emergency during flight, said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Frederick, Maryland-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The organization issues a yearly summary of accident trends and factors based on National Transportation Safety Board reports involving aircraft of less than 12,500 pounds -- smaller than the King Air involved in Sunday's incident. According to the most recent report, which covers the year 2007, out of 22 million general aviation flight hours, an estimated 15 million to 20 million flights, only six instances of a pilot's medical incapacitation were reported, he said. In four of those instances, the pilot died. CNN's Ashley Broughton contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passenger Doug White commandeers plane after pilot loses consciousness .\nWhite: \"When I touch down ... If I ever touch down, do I just kill the throttle?\"\nCraft was carrying White, his wife and two daughters from Florida to Mississippi .\nControllers help him turn off autopilot, land plane: \"The turn looks good, very good sir\"","id":"a57ad11a93c732bd33f9c2231cc9a480f3dc59b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday that more Africans have fled poverty and conflict on the continent during the first 10 months of this year than in all of 2007. A woman who has been displaced by the current fighting in the Congo. The bulk of the more than 96,000 African refugees headed to Yemen and Italy, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office. The rest sought refuge in Malta, Greece, Spain and the Canary Islands, the agency said. Last weekend, at least 60 refugees died en route to Yemen, a frequent destination for Somali and Ethiopian refugees, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF. UNHCR said most of those who died were forced overboard in deep water off Yemen's coast by smugglers who demanded more money than the $100 they paid for the journey. \"Those who did not or could not pay extra were severely beaten by the smugglers,\" UNHCR said in a news release Tuesday. \"Up to 40 -- mainly Ethiopians -- [were] thrown overboard despite their pleas for mercy.\" Andreas Koutepas, MSF's field coordinator in southern Yemen, said such a high number of refugee deaths in a short period of time \"is not usual at all.\" \"For the whole of September until now, we've had 27 dead and now suddenly we reach this number,\" Koutepas told CNN from MSF's base in Ahwar, Yemen. \"We are quite shocked here.\" About 30,000 African refugees arrived on boats on Italy's shores during the first 10 months of this year compared with 19,900 refugees last year, according to UNHCR. In Malta, an estimated 2,600 boat people arrived in the first nine months of this year from North Africa, compared with 1,800 last year, UNHCR said.. The agency said that from January to October this year, 509 of those attempting to make the journey to Italy and Malta died, compared with last year's death toll of 471. More than 38,000 people have made the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen during the first 10 months of this year, a \"considerable increase from the 29,500 who made the same journey during the whole of last year,\" UNHCR said Tuesday. However, the death toll on that route has remained lower so far this year: more than 600 have died or disappeared en route to Yemen compared to 1,400 killed last year. In late September, at least 52 Somalis died when the boat smuggling them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen broke down, and they were left adrift with no food or water for 18 days, according to the U.N. Many are fleeing the war in Somalia, but Koutepas of MSF told CNN on Monday that he has noticed a recent increase in the number of refugees from Ethiopia. \"It used to be 10 percent of total arrival, and now it's around 50-50,\" he said. Yemen is a common destination for Somalis fleeing economic hardship and war because of its proximity. It is also an attractive location because Somalis receive automatic refugee status in the fellow Muslim country. New smuggling routes, including some based out of Djibouti -- which lies north of Somalia and is much closer to Yemen -- have also led to the increase in refugees, according to the UNHCR. But according to the Yemen Post, Yemen is just a stopping point for most of the refugees, who then travel on to the wealthier Persian Gulf states or Europe and the United States. Earlier this year, Yemen's coast guard stepped up patrols of its coastline in an attempt to deter the smugglers. Some of the smuggling boats seized by Yemen's coast guard are given to Somali fishermen who suffered losses in the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As part of a $19 million operation, UNHCR operates shelters and reception centers for the refugees in Yemen and has increased its efforts to discourage people from making the illegal crossing to Yemen. It has also sponsored training programs for coast guard personnel and other officials. MSF said the plight of the refugees has been overshadowed by the dozens of pirate attacks off Somalia's coast that have grabbed international headlines in recent months. \"A lot of attention has been paid lately to tackling the issue of piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa,\" said MSF Yemen mission leader Francis Coteur. \"Unfortunately, little attention is paid to the drama of the refugees crossing the same waters in horrific conditions. Much more needs to be done to address this issue.\"","highlights":"More Africans have already fled poverty and conflict so far this year than in 2007 .\nBulk of the more than 96,000 African refugees headed to Yemen and Italy, U.N. says .\nRest sought refuge in Malta, Greece, Spain and the Canary Islands .","id":"2d4314372de3193a8f5a1c8a7e501ae19a2c49c9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Reigning hot dog-guzzling champ Joey Chestnut and nemesis Takeru Kobayashi of Japan attempted to psych each other out Thursday at the weigh-in for the 94th annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest. Competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi take part in an official \"staredown.\" Chestnut and Kobayashi glared long and menacingly into each other's eyes in an official \"staredown.\" At last year's contest, 25-year-old Chestnut, a civil engineering student at San Jose State University, eked out a win over Kobayashi, 31, in a tiebreaker after both initially consumed 59 dogs apiece. It was Chestnut's second slim victory over Kobayashi in as many years. Kobayashi vowed he will avenge those two defeats on Saturday. He also said he no longer suffers from the \"jawthritis\" that some cited as the culprit for his 2007 defeat, which snapped his six-year winning streak at Coney Island. Chestnut, for his part, said he had no intention of ceding the coveted mustard yellow belt -- competitive eating's answer to golf's green jacket. He is setting his sights this year on 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Saturday's competition will be partially about redemption for Chestnut, too. In May, he suffered a stinging defeat to Kobayashi in a loss he said \"really set a fire underneath me\" and \"made me hungry for this contest.\" Chestnut revealed the extreme dietary regimen he is following in the days leading up to the contest. He said he is sticking to water to make sure he is \"empty\" when the mountain of hot dogs is placed in front of him. In addition to Chestnut, Kobayashi admitted to keeping a watchful eye on 32-year-old Tim \"Eater X\" Janus, whose signature painted face was described by Major League Eating impresario Richard Shea as an attempt to mask his \"inner torment.\" In a recent trial round, Janus downed a personal-best 55 hot dogs -- a weiner's throw from the 59 that Chestnut and Kobayashi wolfed down last year. As a lead-in to the main event, Major League Eating on Friday will hold a first-of-its-kind \"cross-species\" eating contest between three competitive eaters and three Asian elephants. MLE's Shea described it as the realization of one of his two lifelong dreams, the other being a scenario in which a dozen competitive eaters eat the entire contents of a convenience store. Twenty finalists will compete in the championship on Saturday. They were culled from 18 preliminary contests and comprise a Who's Who of the world of competitive eating. For people who stuff their faces with record-breaking quantities of food, many of the contestants at the weigh-in boasted surprisingly svelte physiques. Juliet Lee, a 44-year-old Maryland salon owner fresh off the feat of downing 13.23 pounds of cranberry sauce in 8 minutes, clocked in at a mere 105 pounds. Kobayashi, at 123 pounds, lifted his T-shirt to reveal the sort of chiseled abdomen one would expect at a bodybuilding competition. Others contestants were not quite as disconcertingly trim. Fearsome world matzo ball-eating champion Eric \"Badlands\" Booker tips the scales at 400 pounds.","highlights":"Reigning hot dog-guzzling champ Joey Chestnut, Takeru Kobayashi have staredown .\nLast year Chestnut won after a tiebreaker with Kobayashi .\nKobayashi vowed to avenge defeat from last year .\nChestnut: Kobayashi beat me in May contest and \"set a fire underneath me\"","id":"961b0464080e60c9a1e3686ecc9d19417e14d6a1"} -{"article":"INDIO, California (CNN) -- For some concertgoers, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival really kicked into action on Day Two. Festival attendees enjoy the music Saturday, Day Two of the Coachella music festival in Indio, California. Day One was leisurely and pleasant -- the weather was mild, the acts were fairly mellow and the big headliner was Paul McCartney. On Day Two, someone took the dial and turned it up a notch, as the desert sun beat down a little harder, the music pumped a little louder and the crowds who packed the VIP tent threw a little more attitude. There were the usual celebrity sightings. Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon snuck in the back just as rapper M.I.A. hit the stage, Paris Hilton took in Travis Barker and DJ AM's set in the Sahara tent and David Hasselhoff was spotted making out with a mystery lady near the restrooms. Forty-six acts performed on five stages scattered about the grassy field of the Empire Polo Club near Palm Springs, California. Massive eco-friendly art installations fashioned from scrap metal and reclaimed wood doubled as shelter from the heat, as well as mini-stages for dancers and performance artists. There was good buzz for thenewno2, an indie-pop band fronted by Oli Hecks and Dhani Harrison, whose vocals are reminiscent of his late father, George, but warmer, and less haunting. \"It's the first festival we've ever played, and our 12th gig overall,\" said Harrison. \"Normally with festivals, people come to check you out, stand in the back, and then move on pretty quickly, even if they like you -- but people stayed! It's the best performance we've ever had.\" Unfortunately Fleet Foxes was not so lucky. The Seattle,Washington, group's delicate baroque harmonies were drowned out by the world music beats of Thievery Corporation's percussion section bleeding over from the neighboring main stage, as one of their female vocalists crowd-surfed. As usual, the day's line-up was a mix of up-and-coming indie artists sprinkled with tried-and-true veteran acts. The Killers have played Coachella in both capacities. The Las Vegas, Nevada, quartet received their first invitation from festival organizers in 2004, the same year their debut album, \"Hot Fuss,\" was released. \"We played at 11:30 a.m. in a tent. It was 150 degrees out, and backstage, it smelled like horse droppings,\" said drummer Ronnie Vannucci, referencing the fact that there are certain consequences to holding an event on a polo field in the desert. This time, as the marquee act, The Killers enjoyed their own backstage compound decked out with a white picket fence, tablecloths and festive party lights in the shape of daisies. Palm trees gently swayed in the distance, silhouetted against the desert backdrop. You could hear the crowd going crazy for a feisty M.I.A. slotted on the main stage before The Killers. Vannucci and his three bandmates had just rolled in on their tour bus from Vegas. He spoke with CNN while warming up his hands and wrists with drumming exercises. \"With festivals, you have to realize the audience is not necessarily there to see YOU. So we'll play some stuff off our new album, 'Day and Age,' and work in some songs that everybody knows, like 'Mr. Brightside' from our first album.\" Half an hour later, The Killers took the stage, opening their set with their latest hit, \"Human.\" Frontman Brandon Flowers soon had the crowd singing the along to the perplexing lyrics, \"Are we human, or are we dancer?\" At Coachella, it doesn't matter if you're human or if you're dancer. But if you're dancer, you'll probably be relegated to one of the mini-stages inside an art installation. \"The first time I heard about Coachella 10 years ago, I thought, 'That could be the cool festival here in America,\" said Vannucci. \"It's since become a successful festival with good bands, swarms of people coming in from all over the world -- even art elements. It's strange to think we're headlining one night.\"","highlights":"46 acts perform on 5 stages at Empire Polo Club near Palm Springs, California .\nMassive art installations of scrap metal and wood shelter people from heat .\nThe Killers enjoy backstage compound with picket fence, tablecloths, festive lights .\nKillers frontman Brandon Flowers has crowd singing the along to new hit, \"Human\"","id":"7884bc2e9985d5dd232447aa849bb1b3fed0d3eb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bringing a growing health concern to Congress, scientists squared off Thursday over whether cell phones contribute to brain cancer. Rep. Denis Kucinich of Ohio holds a model of a 5-year-old child's brain absorbing cell phone radiation. Studies have indicated that long-term cell phone use may be associated with brain cancer, according to Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Dr. David Carpenter, director of Institute for Health and the Environment at University of Albany. They both testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy. \"I cannot tell this committee that cell phones are definitely dangerous. But, I certainly cannot tell you that they are safe,\" Herberman said. Herberman and Carpenter cited the results from a study recently presented by Dr. Lennart Hardell of \u00d6rebro University in Sweden. The results indicated that people who use cell phones have double the chance of developing malignant brain tumors and acoustic neuromas, which are tumors on the hearing nerve. The study also said people under age 20 were more than five times as likely to develop brain cancer. But Dr. Robert Hoover, director or Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program at the National Cancer Institute, said the study has not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, so has not come under sufficient scrutiny. The evidence for the connection between cell phones and cancer is inconclusive and more research is needed, he said. \"Larger studies are needed to sort out chance and bias,\" Hoover testified. Interphone, a series of multinational studies on the risk of cancer from cell phones, has not found an increase in tumors associated with the first 10 years of mobile phone use, he said. Some findings show an increased risk of tumors diagnosed on the side of the head that the cell phone is pressed against, but this pattern has not been seen consistently, Hoover said. CTIA, the International Association for Wireless Telecommunications, declined the invitation to testify, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential candidate from Ohio, who led the hearing, said. Steve Largent, CEO of CTIA, issued a statement Wednesday saying the industry has supported scientific research on these issues and supports the Federal Communications Commision's safety guidelines. \"The available scientific evidence and expert reviews from leading global health organizations such as the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, United States Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization reflect a consensus based on published scientific research showing that there is no reason for concern,\" Largent's statement said. The overall evidence for the cancer-phone link has not been statistically significant at a 95 percent confidence level, a standard in science, Carpenter said. But he also noted that U.S.-funded research is very scarce. \"Are we at the same place we were with smoking and lung cancer 30 years ago?\" he asked. Carpenter and Herberman testified that the risk of brain cancer for children is far greater than for adults. Herberman demonstrated a model showing that the radiation from cell phones would penetrate far deeper into a 5-year-old's brain than an adult's. See models from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh \u00bb . But the incidence of brain cancer in children has not increased significantly from the late 1980s to 2005, Hoover said. The Federal Communications Commission limits cell phone radio frequency energy emissions, called the specific absorption rate (SAR), at 1.6 watts per kilogram, as measured over one gram of tissue. The standard was developed in 1997 in consultation with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a professional association open to everyone, including manufacturers and health specialists. But the SAR standard reflects a biological response to cell phone radio frequency energy heating tissue, Kucinich said. Many experiments show that radio frequency energy does cause \"biological effects\" without heating tissue, although not all of those effects are harmful, Carpenter said. Hoover agreed that there could be such effects related to cancer risk, but they have not been properly vetted in a laboratory. The FCC itself does not have the expertise to evaluate whether this standard is appropriate protection for possible heath risks, Julius Knapp, director of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, testified. The hearing took place just a week after the Cleveland Clinic reported a study showing that keeping a cell phone on talk mode in a pocket can decrease sperm quality. Herberman had issued a warning to physicians, scientists, and staff at the University of Pittsburgh in July advising them to limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer. The Israeli Health Ministry endorsed this recommendation within a week, he said. Ellen Marks of Lafayette, California, whose husband found out he had a brain tumor on his right frontal lobe in May, attended the hearing. The tumor is on the same side of his head where he held his cell phone, which he used about 30 hours per month. She believes the tumor is the result of cell phone use. \"I often threatened to throw it in the garbage, and how I wish I had,\" she said. \"This horror could have been avoided with a simple warning.\"","highlights":"Studies conflict; do not consistently show cell phones cause cancer, expert says .\nExpert says he cannot say they are definitely dangerous or definitely safe .\nChildren are at higher risk for cancer-causing radiation from phone, scientist says .\nWoman at House panel hearing says her husband's brain cancer from cell phone .","id":"05091bd7113f6e8409191ddd474ebf6dcef784e4"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Have you ever wondered about the origins and namesakes of our favorite spreads, sauces, and dressings? Here are a few stories that you can use to regale your friends the next time you chow down. Peppers were imported from the Mexican state of Tabasco to make spicy Tabasco sauce, giving the condiment its name. 1. Thousand Island Dressing . Is the delicious dressing that gives a Reuben its tanginess named after an actual chain of islands? You bet it is. The Thousand Islands are an archipelago that sits in the Saint Lawrence River on the U.S.-Canada border, and there are actually 1,793 of them, some of which are so small that they contain nothing more than a single home. So why is the dressing named after an archipelago? No one's quite sure. Some people claim that early film star and vaudevillian May Irwin, who summered on the Thousand Islands, named it, while others contend that George Boldt, the famed proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria, gave the dressing its name because of his own summer place in the region. No matter who named it, it's tough to beat on a sandwich. 2. Ranch Dressing . Yep, the beloved dressing and dipping sauce actually got its start on a real ranch. When Steve and Gayle Henson opened a dude ranch in California in 1954, they had an ace up their sleeves: a delicious dressing that Steve had concocted while the couple was living in Alaska. The couple did a nice business at their Hidden Valley Ranch, but guests were always flipping out over just how tasty Steve's dressing was. Eventually, the Hensons started bottling the stuff, and the popularity grew so quickly that they had to hire a twelve-man crew just to help mix up each batch. Steve's culinary creativity turned out to be lucrative; in 1972 Clorox forked over $8 million for the recipe. Mental Floss: Foods named after people . 3. A1 Steak Sauce . According to the brand's Web site, A1 has been around for quite a while. Henderson William Brand worked as the personal chef for King George IV from 1824 to 1831, and at some point during this employment mixed up a new sauce for the king to use on his beef. George IV allegedly took one bite of Brand's creation and declared that it was \"A1.\" Brand then left the king's employ in order to go peddle his new sauce. 4. Tabasco Sauce . Tabasco sauce is perhaps the most famous of all hot sauces, but where did it get its name? When Edmund McIlhenny, a former banker, invented the sauce in Louisiana in 1868, he didn't have a huge supply of chili peppers at his disposal. To keep cooking, he imported peppers from the Mexican state of Tabasco and slapped the region's name on his bottles. Mental Floss: The origins of salt, pepper and other popular spices . 5. Heinz 57 . Legend has it that Heinz 57 takes its name from H.J. Heinz's company formerly marketing 57 products at once, and except for the number, the story holds up. Heinz's Web site tells a story that Henry John Heinz was riding a train when he saw a billboard advertising 21 varieties of shoes. He so liked the idea he wanted to try it with his own condiment company. Thus, he started touting Heinz's 57 varieties. There was only one catch: Heinz marketed well over 60 products at the time. So where did the 57 come from? Heinz thought the number was lucky. Five was Heinz's lucky number, and seven was his wife's. He mashed the charmed digits together, got 57, and never looked back. 6. Tartar Sauce . Fish's best friend is named after an alternate spelling of the word \"Tatar,\" which was how Western Europeans once referred to almost anyone of Mongolian or Turkic descent. Many of these Tatars\/Tartars ran roughshod over Europe in the time of Genghis Khan, but they knew how to cook. One of the dishes they left behind, beef tartare, came back into fashion in 19th-century France. These helpings of steak tartare came with a number of garnishes, including the creamy white stuff that eventually became generically known as tartar sauce. Mental Floss: The history of utensils (spork included) 7. Hollandaise Sauce . Hollandaise, the lemon-butter-and-egg yumminess that Eggs Benedict can't live without, isn't actually Dutch. Instead, it's one of the most well known French sauces. The sauce first appeared in French cooking in the 17th century, and is apparently named both because it somewhat resembles an old Dutch sauce and because the Dutch had such thriving butter and egg industries that provided two of the sauce's main ingredients. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Thousand Island dressing is named after 1,793 islands in the Saint Lawrence River .\nTabasco's founder imported peppers from the Mexican state of Tabasco .\nHollandaise isn't actually Dutch; it's one of the most well known French sauces .","id":"c46975509fa62df6eef05a3d55ade0fed7d8b40c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- About 1.6 million fans registered for a chance at fewer than 9,000 pairs of tickets to Michael Jackson's memorial service next week, organizers said. Some memorial tickets went out to \"friends and family\" on Sunday. Registration ended at 6 p.m. Saturday. Officials will now \"scrub\" all entries to eliminate duplicates and those they suspect may have been registered using software that ticket scalpers use to generate multiple hits. A random drawing will follow. The winning 8,750 registrants will receive an e-mail Sunday after 11 a.m. (2 p.m. ET), AEG Live said. \"I know I'll be hitting the 'refresh' button on my inbox over and over again,\" said Jackie Flower, an arts student in San Diego, California. The e-mail will assign the selected registrants a unique code and direct them to a designated distribution center away from the Staples Center. There, they will each receive two tickets to either the memorial service at the Staples Center arena or a simulcast of the event at the adjacent Nokia Theater LA Live, AEG said. Jackson's family has still not announced the singer's burial arrangements, saying only that it will hold a private ceremony ahead of the massive public memorial service Tuesday. Journalists staked out several possible burial locations. A long line of television satellite trucks remained parked outside the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Cemetery in case it was chosen by the family, but there has been no word from cemetery officials. Police set up metal barricades around the front lawn, creating spaces for media and fans. Two state trooper cruisers idled at the Hall of Liberty inside the grounds, which contains a 1,200-seat auditorium. Watch reporters prepare for Tuesday's service \u00bb . The family has not decided whether Jackson's body will be brought to the Staples Center arena, where the public ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. PT. At the time of his death, Jackson was working with a concert promotions company on 50 sold-out shows in London, England, beginning in mid-July. Also Saturday, a handful of fans milled about the Jackson family home in Encino, California, bringing flowers and taking pictures next to an informal sidewalk shrine to the pop star. Farzana Payind of Los Angeles snapped a picture of her 6-year-old daughter, Enayah. Payind said Enayah loves to dance to Jackson songs \"Billie Jean\" and \"Thriller\" and cried when she learned of the singer's death. \"Does that mean his music died too?\" the girl asked, according to Payind. Neighbor Michael Singer watched the activities with interest. \"This makes Elvis look like nothing,\" he said. \"When you grow up with Michael Jackson's music pretty much your whole life, you feel like you lost a family member, and you have to go to the funeral,\" said Add Seymour of Atlanta, Georgia, who registered Friday morning and planned to fly out if picked. \"I got some frequent-flier miles just in case I wanted to do something wild and crazy -- and this is wild and crazy.\" Tickets will be handed out Monday outside the Staples Center, said Tim Leiweke, president of AEG Live. Ticketholders will also have wristbands to match their tickets, a precaution against people \"trying to take advantage\" of the system, he said. Although 11,000 seats are available for fans inside the Staples Center, another 6,500 can watch from the Nokia Theater site across the street, according to Leiweke. Police said they will close the area near the Staples Center to all those without a ticket. The family will provide a free live video feed to networks so it can be televised everywhere. \"I want to stress to those people who are coming, or are thinking about coming, to the city for this special event that you might want to consider watching this from the comfort of your home,\" said Councilwoman Jan Perry, the city's acting mayor while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is out of the country. The city government will provide security for the event, despite a budget crisis, Perry said. Despite the interest surrounding the service, few details have emerged. Ken Ehrlich, known for producing the Grammy Awards, is producing the memorial show, his company said. And Kenny Ortega, who was to have co-directed Jackson's series of concerts in London this summer, will direct it. Singer Jennifer Hudson will be among the performers taking the stage, CNN has confirmed. Drug rumors swirl . Meanwhile, speculation that anesthetic drugs might have played a role in the singer's death June 25 continued to swell Friday after a Los Angeles law enforcement source told The Associated Press that investigators found Diprivan, a powerful sedative, in Jackson's home. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta talk with physician who accompanied Jackson on tour \u00bb . Earlier in the week, a nutritionist, Cherilyn Lee, said Jackson pleaded for the drug despite being told of its harmful effects. And sources close to Jackson said Thursday that the pop icon traveled with what amounted to a mini-clinic, complete with an IV pole and an anesthesiologist who medicated the insomniac singer, during his HIStory world tour in the mid-90s. Authorities do not know what killed Jackson and await toxicology results, which are due back in two to three weeks. \"We are treating all unnamed sources as rumors. And, as we have stated before, we will not be responding to rumors or innuendo,\" said lawyers for Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray, on Friday. \"We are awaiting the facts to come out, and we will respond at that time.\" Los Angeles police have interviewed Murray, who apparently tried to revive the singer after he was found unconscious at his rented Holmby Hills estate. The department said it is now working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the state Attorney General's Office as it looks into Jackson's death. \"For anything that has to do with drugs, the DEA are the experts on that,\" said Jim McDonnell, assistant police chief. \"And if you're looking at the prescription issues, where else would you go?\" CNN's Susan Roesgen, Allison Blakely, Jeff King, Denise Quan, Don Lemon, Kay Jones and Drew Griffin in Los Angeles, California, and Danielle Dellorto in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Registration for tickets to singer's memorial service closes .\nMichael Jackson's family deciding whether to bring body to public service .\nFamily has not announced any plans for his burial .\nJournalists stake out possible locations of singer's burial .","id":"58cbe870411aed280bdd30b4d94dff1eaabe7832"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller, according to a study that suggests climate change can trump natural selection. Can't see me now: Climate change could be shrinking Soay sheep in Scotland. The authors of the study published in \"Science\" believe that it highlights how wide-ranging the effects of global climate change can be, adding further complexity to the changes we might expect to see in animal populations in future. \"It's only in the last few years that we've realized that evolution can influence species' physical traits as quickly as ecological changes can. This study addresses one of the major goals of population biology, namely to untangle the ways in which evolutionary and environmental changes influence a species' traits,\" said Andrew Sugden, deputy and international managing editor at Science. The researchers analyzed body-weight measurements and life-history data for the female members of a population of Soay sheep. The sheep live on the island of Hirta in the St. Kilda archipelago of Scotland and have been studied closely since 1985. They selected body size because it is a heritable trait, and because the sheep have, on average, been decreasing in size for the last 25 years. According to the findings lambs are not growing as quickly as they once did as winters have become shorter so do not need to put on as much as weight in the first months of life to survive. The results suggest that the decrease is primarily an ecological response to environmental variation over the last 25 years. Evolutionary change, the report says, has contributed relatively little. \"Sheep are getting smaller. Well, at least the wild Soay sheep living on a remote Scottish island are. But according to classic evolutionary theory, they should have been getting bigger, because larger sheep tend to be more likely to survive and reproduce than smaller ones, and offspring tend to resemble their parents,\" said study author Tim Coulson of Imperial College London. \"Our findings have solved a paradox that has tormented biologists for years -- why predictions did not match observation. Biologists have realized that ecological and evolutionary processes are intricately intertwined, and they now have a way of dissecting out the contribution of each. Unfortunately it is too early to tell whether a warming world will lead to pocket-sized sheep,\" said Coulson.","highlights":"Study of wild sheep in Scotland suggests climate change making them smaller .\nAuthors of report suggest that climate change can override natural selection .\nWild Soay sheep in remote Outer Hebrides closely studied since 1985 .","id":"909211efba919c499ecb77775a8dda5eeed91d1e"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- About 13,000 employees at state-run Air India walked off the job for two hours Friday after the airline failed to pay their monthly wage. A man walks past the Air India building in Mumbai. Staff staged a strike to protest against unpaid wages. The strike was the last resort for some employees who say management failed to keep a promise to pay them Friday, said J.B. Kadian, the general secretary of the Air Corporation Employees Union. There have been strained talks between management and three unions -- that includes everyone from the cabin crew to sweepers -- after Air India told the bulk of its employees their pay would be delayed by two weeks. The unions said 13,000 employees participated in the strike but Air India did not provide a number. The walkout comes after management did not follow through on its latest verbal agreement to pay the lowest paid employees by July 3, employees say. Employees normally get paid on the last day of the month. The lowest paid unionized employees make less than $100 a week. Employees said they were angered that their pay was delayed at a time when the airline has continued to buy new planes. Air India's spokesperson J. Bhargava told CNN: \"We will not tolerate any strike. Striking employees will be subject to loss of wages and productive incentives.\" Air India is in deep financial trouble. It lost about a billion dollars last year alone. It says it is in a fight for survival due to lower volumes of passengers, the high cost of employing about 31,000 employees as well as the current world financial downturn. Analyst Kapil Kaul from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said Air India's problems may stem from bad business decisions rather than the global financial downturn. \"We have seen Air India continue to get planes when they have no money to pay salaries,\" Kaul said. \"At the present time the airline does not have a well structure and realistic business case.\" Air India has asked the government to bail it out. It also said it has avoided layoffs unlike other struggling airlines around the world.","highlights":"Air India employees stage flash strike after monthly paychecks weren't paid .\nSome airline staff had been told they would be paid by Friday, July 3 .\nBosses warned most staff that their paychecks would be two weeks late .\nAir India tells CNN: \"Striking employees will be subject to loss of wages\"","id":"9fb16ed1f4599a679b8452d98282374d27929a20"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Texas used a Taser on a 42-year-old pastor and pepper spray to disperse members of his church after police said the pastor interfered with a traffic stop. Jose Moran was arrested early Wednesday morning after interfering with the duties of a public servant in the parking lot of a Webster, Texas, building that is being remodeled for the Iglesias Profetica Peniel Church, Webster police said in a written statement. Moran's son, Omar, said his father had been trying to help. He added that his father has heart problems. Moran approached an officer who was handling a traffic stop in the church's parking lot on Wednesday morning, police said. Moran identified himself as the church's pastor and began yelling at the officer, police said. The officer told Moran to leave several times, but Moran did not, police said. The officer then tried to arrest him. But Moran pushed the officer and ran into the church building, police said. Moran's son said after his father asked the officer if he could help, the officer began yelling. The son said his father went back inside the church. The officer followed him and kicked in the church door, he said. The pastor came outside, and a second officer used his Taser twice on the pastor, the younger Moran said. The son's account differs from the police version of events. Police said Moran emerged from the church building with dozens of other people who subsequently surrounded the officer. The officer used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, the statement said. Police said Moran pushed a second officer, who had arrived for backup, when the officer was trying to arrest him. The officer used a Taser to subdue him, police said. Omar Moran said his father remains hospitalized, although police said he had been treated and released. Webster Police Chief Ray Smiley said the Taser was only used once on Moran, but that the tool causes two marks. The driver who had been pulled over was issued two citations and released, police said.","highlights":"Police, pastor's son give differing accounts of Taser incident .\nThey don't agree on whether Jose Moran is still hospitalized .\nPolice say Moran interfered with a traffic stop .\nPolice say church congregation surrounded officer .","id":"b9d14bb5d2874d94da5a5d05180e3356f0765db9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thirty people joined National Park Service rangers Saturday in climbing to the crown of the Statue of Liberty, the first tourists to go into the landmark's crown since the 9\/11 attacks. Chris Bartnick, 46, and daughter Aleyna, 8, of Merrick, New York, look out from the statue's crown on Saturday. The New York Harbor monument was closed after the terrorist assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon for safety and security reasons, the Interior Department said. \"Once again, Americans can climb to Lady Liberty's crown and gaze out over New York Harbor, where so many of our ancestors first saw the New World and first breathed the fresh air of freedom,\" Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said as he welcomed visitors back on the Fourth of July holiday. \"This is a celebration of America and the joy of being an American.\" Visitors on Saturday were grateful they could go inside the landmark. \"It's just basically safety for our country and at least they opened it,\" visitor Ira Semapadilla told CNN affiliate NY1 before the visit. \"That's one thing that I was like, wow, I'm never going to experience it. ... They ruined it for us. \"Now that it's going to open again I'm excited, and I'm just really looking forward to being in there.\" Watch as CNN's Susan Candiotti treks to top \u00bb . Gov. David Paterson, D-New York, Gov. Jon Corzine, D-New Jersey, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Salazar at the reopening ceremony. Even with the reopening of the monument, only a rare few will get to scale the 354 steps to the crown. Only 10 visitors are permitted to ascend the steps at any one time, meaning about 240 people can make the climb during the park's 8:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. hours of operation. The opportunity to climb Lady Liberty will end again in two years, when work will begin on further safety and security upgrades.","highlights":"Monument in New York Harbor closed since 9\/11 attacks .\nThirty people make climb to reopened crown .\n\"This is a celebration of America,\" Interior secretary says .","id":"3555943d5b9b479d2c5aa836a2d56a0df8f669a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators have heard a signal from the flight data recorders of the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed last week, they announced Sunday. Search parties continue their operation to locate the Yemenia Airbus A310 off the Comoros Islands Saturday. \"A signal was picked up from two acoustic transmitters from the plane's flight data recorders during a sea search to locate the data recorders this morning,\" the French air accident investigation agency, known as the BEA, said in a statement. Commonly known as \"black boxes,\" the data recorders should contain information to help determine what caused the crash. The Yemenia Airways Airbus 310 crashed into the Indian Ocean early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands. One person, a 13-year-old French girl, survived. Bahia Basari, who lives in Marseille, escaped with cuts to her face and a fractured collarbone. Watch teen survivor from crash \u00bb . The teen's father, Kassim Bakari, told a French radio network that his wife and daughter were flying to Comoros to visit relatives. \"When I had her on the phone, I asked her what happened and she said, 'Daddy, I don't know what happened, but the plane fell into the water and I found myself in the water... surrounded by darkness. I could not see anyone,'\" Bakari told France Info. The head of the rescue team in the Comoros told French radio RTL that the teenager beat astonishing odds to survive. \"It is truly, truly, miraculous,\" Ibrahim Abdoulazeb said. \"The young girl can barely swim.\" Another rescuer told France's Europe 1 radio that the girl was spotted in the rough sea, among bodies and plane debris in darkness, about two hours after the crash. The Airbus 310 plane tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said soon after the accident. A French official said the nation had banned the plane after it failed an aviation inspection in 2007. \"Since this check-up, we have not seen the plane reappearing in France,\" said Dominique Bussereau, the transport minister. But Yemenia Airlines was not on the European Union's list of banned airlines, he added. Passengers on the flight included 66 French citizens, 54 Comorians, one Palestinian and one Canadian, according to Yemeni and French officials. The crew was made up of six Yemenis, two Moroccans, one Ethiopian, one Filipino and one Indonesian. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar.","highlights":"Comoros Islands lie between east African and the island nation of Madagascar .\nData recorders should contain information to help determine what caused the crash .\nTeenage girl only person to survive plane crash off Comoros islands .\nFrench, U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies from the plane .","id":"48daef451a8ba77c86e85567a5346ccd83dec0ca"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Dean Still had been researching and developing cleaner, more environmentally-friendly wood-burning stoves for almost two decades when, while working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he spotted a coal stove for sale on a street corner near Tibet, China. Workers at Shengzhou Stove Manufacturers prepare wood-burning stoves for firing. He had been looking for an established manufacturer who could mass-produce the more efficient, lower-emission stoves he had been developing with the Aprovecho Research Center (ARC), a non-profit research and education center based in Oregon in the United States. \"It looked perfect. It had all the components,\" Still told CNN. \"I knew we could change it to a wood-burning stove. There was a cell phone number on the side, so I called it.\" Shen Huiyang of Shengzhou Stove Manufacturers (SSM), based over a thousand miles away, answered. The two met and a short time later, in August 2007, an agreement was signed between ARC and SSM. Shen's factory began producing the new wood-burning stoves last year. Last week, the two companies were declared \"Global Energy Champions\" by the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy at a ceremony in London, England. The vast majority of the 60,000 stoves they've sold since entering their partnership have gone to Envirofit International, a U.S.-based non-profit organization which markets the stoves in India, supported by the Shell Foundation. Others are sold in Argentina, Chile, the Marshall Islands, Madagascar, South Africa and Tanzania. Shen said: \"We have produced coal stoves for many years, and it is wonderful to be able to use our experience to make a wood stove that brings benefits to so many people.\" The pair won $65,000 to develop the scheme which Still says will be spent on research and development, and to employ more sales people. \"What I'm doing now is talking to the U.N., to relief agencies, just anybody in the world who might have an interest in burning wood more cleanly, and using less of it,\" he said. The principle behind the stove is simple. With a better insulated combustion chamber, the fire requires less wood and burns hot enough for the smoke to combust as well, which means far fewer emissions. According to the World Health Organization, about half the world still cooks with biomass or coal, using open fires or traditional stoves. The resulting emissions cause indoor air pollution, leading to pneumonia, chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer. This indoor air pollution causes 1.6 million deaths a year, primarily among children and women. The emissions also contribute to climate change, and the collection of firewood contributes to deforestation and erosion. ARC say tests performed on the stoves indicate major breakthroughs for both the environment and health in the developing world. The stoves reduce the use of wood for fuel by up to 50 percent, and cut carbon monoxide emissions by up to 70 percent compared to a traditional fire.","highlights":"U.S. research center, Chinese stove manufacter win joint environment award .\nThey make stoves that use less wood, reduce carbon monoxide emissions .\nSince 2007, they have sold 60,000 stoves in India, Argentina and Chile .\nCurrently talking with the U.N. and relief agencies about potential deals .","id":"159e2fe9c845d604832bb3c6de4c1ff9d3b3a51b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Friday's two-train collision killed 25 people and injured more than 130 others near Los Angeles after an engineer failed to heed a traffic signal, a spokeswoman for Metrolink commuter trains said. A commuter rail car lies on its side after a collision Friday near Los Angeles, California. The engineer was guiding the Metrolink train that slammed head-on into a freight train and is not believed to have survived, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said on Saturday. \"It was human error,\" Tyrrell said, adding this was Metrolink's belief \"barring any new information\" from an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB spokeswoman Kitty Higgins said the agency would \"look at everything before we rule anything in or out.\" Tyrrell said the engineer, whom she didn't identify, was a subcontractor employed by another company. She said she did not have details of his record. The crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. PT Friday in Chatsworth, a northwest Los Angeles suburb. The Metrolink train had about 220 passengers and two crew members on board at the time, according to Tyrrell. Watch rescuers search for victims \u00bb . Forty-five of the injured were in critical condition, with 40 flown to hospitals, Tyrrell said. Another 50 had minor injuries, and 40 others were treated at the crash site but transported to hospitals for evaluation. \"It was like running into a brick wall at 60 miles an hour,\" an injured passenger told CNN affiliate KABC. In the minutes after the crash, passers-by joined emergency personnel in an effort to free passengers from the wreckage. On Saturday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the search of the wreckage had finished. Earlier in the day, authorities were picking through the wreckage and freeing trapped bodies. Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County coroner's office, told reporters two bodies -- both of females -- had yet to be identified. If the females had carried identification, it probably was lost in the crash, he said. As of 9 a.m. PT Saturday, authorities had been able to notify relatives of eight victims, he said. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the crash site on Saturday, telling reporters it was \"one of the worst train accidents in modern history in California.\" The NTSB will make a final determination of the crash's cause. Higgins, the agency's spokeswoman, said data recorders have been recovered from both trains, along with a video recorder from the freight train. Higgins said that out of the trains' five crew members, four survived. Authorities will interview the surviving crew members, Higgins said. Tyrrell said a review of \"a number of programs,\" including the signal system, showed the commuter train's engineer failed to heed a stop signal, Tyrrell said. \"We don't know how the error happened, but this is what we believe happened,\" Tyrrell said. The wreck occurred on a curved part of the track where the speed limit is 40 mph, Tyrrell said. She said that just like road vehicles, trains are subject to signal systems. At the wreck site is a siding where one train can wait while another passes, she said. \"They receive a signal to stop and they must hold their location until other traffic has passed,\" she said. Villaraigosa praised police officers and firefighters for working under emotionally draining conditions and treating the victims with respect. \"This has been a grueling night for them,\" he said. The crash sparked a fire that impeded firefighters's efforts to reach the front commuter car, where most of the injuries occurred, Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. The fire eventually was brought under control. \"We've already found survivors trapped under fatalities,\" Whitmore said late Friday. Among those killed was Spree Desha, 35, a Los Angeles police officer on her way home from work, officials said Saturday. \"It's not unusual for us to respond to disasters,\" said Jerry Szymanski, an assistant commander for the LAPD. \"When we got here, we found it was one that hit close to home.\" Desha had \"mentored and trained a lot of the young officers in the North Hollywood area,\" Szymanski said. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Friday night a sheriff's deputy was in a hospital's intensive care unit after collapsing while conducting rescue work. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Engineer failed to heed stop signal, Metrolink spokeswoman says .\nNEW: At least 25 killed, 135 others injured in head-on wreck, officials say .\nNEW: Search for bodies and survivors has finished, Los Angeles mayor says .\nPassenger and freight trains collided Friday in Chatsworth .","id":"4c14f024436984cbc6331f84781cdc7b717fc61a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The court battle may finally be over, but there is still a great mystery hanging over the next America's Cup event: What will the holders use to defend the trophy? America's Cup team Oracle has trialed a trimaran which it revealed in September 2008 . Established in 1851, the America's Cup is the oldest active trophy of any sport and by far the most prestigious match race sailing event in the world. Scheduled for February 2010, the 33rd edition of the America's Cup will be contested by the holders -- Swiss syndicate Alinghi, and U.S. challenger Oracle, owned by Larry Ellison. The date follows protracted court battles which saw both teams fighting over the terms of the next event. Last month's New York Supreme Court ruling which finally decided the terms and date of the regatta also announced that the contest is to be decided in a one-off series in multihull boats. While Oracle revealed a 90 ft trimaran last year, defenders Alinghi are still building their boat for the event -- and they are refusing to give away any secrets about it. CNN's MainSail show visited the Alinghi base in Switzerland to try to catch a glimpse of the mystery vessel -- but they came no closer to seeing the boat under construction. MainSail presenter Shirley Robertson only got as far as the compound gates in her quest to see the vessel. Watch video of CNN visiting the Alinghi team base \u00bb The team's design co-coordinator, Grant Simms, told CNN that the design would not be revealed until the latest possible point. \"It's quite unusual and we are trying to keep it a secret as long as we can. \"We are hoping to stop our opponents from seeing it and reacting to it,\" he said. The design of the boat is generally a crucial part of any America's Cup regatta -- and none more so than this one, where a different type of boat is being introduced. Also, the size and shape of the boat could indicate where the regatta may be held -- something that doesn't need to be announced by defenders Alinghi until six months before it is set to begin. The cup holders can set the terms of the next defense, in conjunction with the \"challenger of record\" -- whichever team signs up as the first challenger. This is important as different locations can have a wide variety of wind strengths and sea swells, which can suit varying sizes of boat and types of sail. You can watch this month's MainSail show in full on CNN International or on the MainSail Web site from Thursday 18th June.","highlights":"Next America's Cup to be decided between Alinghi and Oracle in February .\nRegatta will be contested in multi-hull boats -- trimarans or catamarans .\nU.S. team Oracle revealed its design of a 90 ft boat last year .\nCNN's MainSail tries to get a sneak preview of the as yet unseen Alinghi boat .","id":"3b65e81c80b51179b9389597af3056375ac67a51"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Janelle Monae is a girl from another planet, and she's invading your world. Janelle Monae creates \"cool, futuristic soul with a real '80s quality,\" says a DJ. Sightings of the singer-songwriter will include this week's \"American Idol\" finale, the Hollywood Bowl and concert stages across America this summer and TV's Sci Fi Channel this fall. Monae insists that her real identity is Cindi Mayweather, an android traveling through space and time to escape destruction ordered because she fell in love with a human, a fatal infraction of robots' rules. Along the way, she's making music that moves into the future while drawing from decades past. \"It is cool, futuristic soul with a real '80s quality,\" said Garth Trinidad, a disc jockey at Los Angeles, California, radio station KCRW. Trinidad spotted Monae three years ago, and he's been watching her like an astronomer tracking the approach of a distant comet destined to light Earth's sky. \"I believe she's going to be a household name in the next year or two,\" said Trinidad, a self-described \"champion of the underdog\" who is credited with giving Jill Scott and Gnarls Barkley early radio airplay. Monae -- the human -- is a striking combination of voice, style, imagination and fearlessness that defies conventional description, making it easier to buy into the fantasy of Mayweather the android. When her song \"Many Moons\" was nominated for a Grammy in December, it was in the urban\/alternative category. If Monae is an android from the future, her musical programming included the past. Trinidad compared her \"very fluid, very pleasing\" voice to Donna Summer, circa 1976. At a Los Angeles show this month, she mixed 20th-century classics with her own futuristic songs. Monae delivered a sweet version of Nat King Cole's \"Smile\" while standing atop a barstool. Senior citizens danced the \"Twist\" when her band broke out into the Beatles' 1964 hit \"I Saw Her Standing There.\" She loves timeless music, Monae said after her show. \"We look to a lot of people whose bodies are dead and gone, but their spirit is still with us,\" Monae said. Her choreography borrows from James Brown, Michael Jackson and Devo, with dance moves from the future. Monae -- or Mayweather -- thinks she can fly. She jumped head-first into the audience, \"crowd surfing\" the unlikely mosh pit in UCLA's Royce Hall. Search Monae's name on YouTube and you'll see her jumping into swimming pools to end her shows. She climbed a tree in New York -- after her swim. Unlike some performers, her talent matches Monae's onstage antics, Trinidad said. \"It's one thing for her to perform a certain way, but she backs with it up with talent,\" he said. Monae's android-on-the-run theme, reminiscent of the 1982 movie \"Blade Runner,\" reminds Trinidad \"of all the great albums from the past that had a story and concept attached.\" \"She was just kind of like bored with everything else going on, and she wanted to transcend it and tell a story,\" he said. Monae said she is not following a formula, that she is \"being led by my maker.\" \"I'm very similar to a terminal,\" she said. Monae will inevitably capture the world's attention because she is \"outshining a lot of what's happening in the mainstream,\" Trinidad said. That time may be near. Sean \"Diddy\" Combs signed her to his Bad Boy Records, giving her music distribution. Coca-Cola hired Monae to sing on its \"Open Happiness\" ad campaign. It airs on this week's \"American Idol\" finale. Her tour stops next month include at least six shows in the northeastern United States, opening for Gwen Stefani's reunited rock group No Doubt. Monae then plays the Hollywood Bowl with the legendary jazz singer Etta James. She plays herself in two episodes of the Sci Fi Channel's \"Stargate Universe\" this fall.","highlights":"Janelle Monae popping up on commercial, on tour, on TV .\nSinger has alter ego: Cindi Mayweather, futuristic android on the run .\nObservers praise talent: \"I believe she's going to be a household name,\" says DJ .","id":"58651ff40c5bd60642a7572e9108441454939394"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Singapore man undergoing treatment for cancer was detained for four hours by U.S. immigration officials after the drug he was taking caused his fingerprints to disappear. Foreign visitors undergo mandatory fingerprint screening when they enter the United States. Now, the unidentified man's oncologist is asking patients taking the commonly used drug, capecitabine, to carry a doctor's note when they travel to the United States. The oncologist, Eng-Huat Tan of the National Cancer Center in Singapore, described the encounter in a letter published in the current issue of the cancer journal Annals of Oncology. The 62-year-old cancer patient, identified as Mr. S, eventually was allowed to enter the United States and visit relatives after officials determined he did not pose a security threat. According to the oncologist, the patient had neck and head cancer that had spread. He responded well to chemotherapy. To prevent a recurrence, doctors placed him on capecitabine, marketed in the United States as Xeloda. One of the side effects of the drug is hand-foot syndrome. It causes the skin on the hands and feet to peel. With time, the drug can erase fingerprints. \"It is uncertain when the onset of fingerprint loss will take place in susceptible patients who are taking capecitabine,\" the doctor wrote. His patient started on the drug in July 2005. \"However, it is possible that there may be a growing number of such patients as Mr. S. ... These patients should prepare adequately before traveling to avert the inconvenience that Mr. S was put through.\" Foreign visitors undergo mandatory fingerprint screening when they enter the United States.","highlights":"U.S. immigration officials detain cancer patient who lacked fingerprints .\nDrug causes skin to peel, sometimes obliterates prints, doctor writes .\nPhysician suggests affected travelers carry notes from doctors .","id":"5f12d119e096d844bd590d3eec1784afe1cb089c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former head of the CIA slammed President Obama on Sunday for releasing four Bush-era memos, saying the new president has compromised national security. Former CIA chief Michael Hayden said Sunday it is wrong to make interrogation methods public. Michael Hayden, who served as former President Bush's last CIA director from 2006 to 2009, said releasing the memos outlining terror interrogation methods emboldened terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. \"What we have described for our enemies in the midst of a war are the outer limits that any American would ever go to in terms of interrogating an al Qaeda terrorist. That's very valuable information,\" Hayden said during an appearance on \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"By taking [certain] techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult -- in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine -- for CIA officers to defend the nation,\" he said. But Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, and Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said certain techniques should not have been allowed in the first place. McCaskill called them \"a great recruitment tool for those who want to do harm to our country.\" White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dismissed Hayden's assertion that releasing the memos had undermined U.S. intelligence efforts by giving al Qaeda critical new information. \"One of the reasons the president was willing to let this information out was that already the information was out,\" he said on ABC's \"This Week.\" \"Go get the New York Review of Books. It's there.\" Hayden said he called several senior White House officials to express his opposition before the president released the documents. Hayden also noted that four previous CIA directors, as well as current agency director Leon Panetta, opposed the release. The memos said, among other things, that interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture absent the intent to cause severe pain. Obama prohibited the use of so-called \"enhanced interrogation techniques\" such as waterboarding shortly after taking office in January. Such techniques \"undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer,\" he said Thursday, when the White House released the memos. The Obama administration has said it won't pursue charges against CIA officers who used those tactics against prisoners in their custody. And Emanuel told ABC that the people who crafted the policy \"should not be prosecuted either.\" But in a sharply worded editorial Sunday, The New York Times called for the impeachment of Jay Bybee, a federal appeals court judge who was a Justice Department official when he wrote one of the memos that authorized those techniques. \"These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution,\" the newspaper editorialized. The memos \"were written to provide legal immunity for acts that are clearly illegal, immoral and a violation of this country's most basic values,\" it stated. Asked about that call on \"Fox News Sunday,\" McCaskill said: \"I think we have to look at it.\" McCaskill, a member of the Senate's standing investigative subcommittee, said the Obama administration made the right decision by agreeing not to prosecute intelligence officers. But she added: \"A lawyer that's responsible for this kind of advice that clearly went too far in terms of stretching what our law is -- it worries me that he's sitting on the federal bench right now.\" Graham, however, said seeking to punish lawyers who advised the Bush administration \"is a very bad precedent.\" \"I think it would be disaster to go back and try to prosecute a lawyer for giving legal advice that you disagreed with to a former president,\" said Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a lawyer in the Air Force reserve. Hayden said the administration's decision to release the Bush administration memos will make CIA officials less willing to engage in interrogation tactics now sanctioned by the federal government. \"The basic foundation of the legitimacy of the agency's action has shifted from some durability of law to a product of the American political process. That puts agency officers in a horrible position,\" he said. \"The really dangerous effect of this [decision] is that you'll have agency officers stepping back from the kinds of things that the nation expects them to do. ... You're going to have this agency -- on the front line of defending you in this current war -- playing back from the line,\" he said. Hayden also said that, contrary to the assertions of many critics, the interrogation techniques in question had forced suspected terrorists to reveal valuable information and made the country safer. He predicted that the release of the memos would be \"just the beginning.\" \"There will be more revelations, more commissions, there will be more investigations,\" Hayden said. McCaskill told \"Fox News Sunday\" that the United States will be better off in the long run by clearly prohibiting interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. And Graham said that while he was concerned that the release of the memos was a \"huge tactical and strategic mistake done for political reasons,\" the decision to allow certain enhanced interrogation techniques was a mistake as well. Graham added that he always thought waterboarding \"was a procedure that would come back to haunt the country, and quite frankly it has.\"","highlights":"Michael Hayden: Releasing Bush-era interrogation memos harmful .\nRelease puts CIA officers \"in a horrible position,\" subject to political process, he says .\nWhite House chief of staff defends release, saying info was already public .\nSens. Claire McCaskill and Lindsey Graham say techniques were a mistake .","id":"138c575e2fef915b11d8f1619b786bc33f8803a6"} -{"article":"GAFFNEY, South Carolina (CNN) -- Investigators believe the serial killer blamed for five deaths in South Carolina died in a shootout with police in neighboring North Carolina on Monday, a South Carolina state police official said. Patrick Tracy Burris, 41, was believed to be the suspect in five slayings in South Carolina, authorities say. Tests on the gun found on 41-year-old Patrick Tracy Burris match the weapon used in the killings that have haunted Gaffney, South Carolina, since June 27, said Reggie Lloyd, director of South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division. The dead suspect and his vehicle appear to match descriptions circulated by investigators in Gaffney, he said. \"We believe a killer is off the streets,\" Lloyd said. Burris was killed early Monday morning in Dallas, North Carolina, after police received a call about a possible burglary in progress, officers there said. At a news conference Monday evening, investigators described him as a \"habitual felon\" with a record in several states who was on probation at the time he was killed. When police arrived at the home, they found inside two people who lived there and a third who was an acquaintance, said Bill Blanton, the sheriff of Cherokee County, South Carolina. Police checked Burris' background and found there was an outstanding warrant on him from a probation violation from Lincoln County, North Carolina. Watch Lloyd say why police think they've got their man \u00bb . When police attempted to serve the warrant, Burris shot at the officers, who returned fired, Blanton said. One officer was shot in the leg and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. At a news conference Monday night, Lloyd held up what he said was Burris' 25-page rap sheet, including a lengthy history of armed robberies, forgeries, break-ins and several other charges from several states. \"At some point the criminal justice system is going to have to explain why this individual was out on the streets -- we owe that to the victims,\" he said. About 100 investigators from North and South Carolina were working the case, Blanton said. Leaves for all members of the Gaffney Police Department and the Sheriff's Department were canceled, their respective chiefs have said. The first shooting occurred June 27, when peach farmer Kline W. Cash, 63, was killed. His wife found him dead in their home, the sheriff's office said, and Blanton said the home may have been robbed. Four days later, the bound and shot bodies of Hazel Linder, 83, and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, were found in Linder's home, where she lived alone. Blanton said authorities are still trying to determine if anything was taken from that home. The killer's last victim was 15-year-old Abby Tyler, who was shot last week and died Saturday. Her father Stephen Tyler, 48, had been pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, in their family-run furniture and appliance store. See a map of where the bodies were found \u00bb . Lloyd said investigators had evidence that put Burris at the scene of the killings, but did not know a motive. \"There's no hard evidence as to what connections he had with this community or why he targeted these victims,\" Lloyd said. He added that the investigation is ongoing, and that officials are trying to determine what the suspect was up to between the killings and after the last the shooting. \"We don't believe at this point anyone else was involved in the murders, but anything could turn up,\" he said. CNN's David Mattingly, Carolina Sanchez, Richard Lui, Mike Brooks and Stan Moberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"We believe a killer is off the streets,\" official says .\nNorth Carolina authorities shoot Patrick Burris, 41, after he confronts police .\nWeapon found on man matches gun used in South Carolina killings .\nKiller has slain five people in Gaffney, South Carolina, area, police say .","id":"3da53f4e328e06079bf1333527cda7912aa693b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Bank cut China's economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent Wednesday, down a full percentage point from November's projection. Workers assemble toys on a production line at a factory in Shantou, in China's Guangdong province. Despite the downgrade, \"China is a relative bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global economy,\" said the World Bank's David Dollar. Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated projections that the nation's economy will grow by 8 percent in 2009, despite doubts expressed by domestic and international economic analysts. Some have forecast growth as low as 5 percent. \"I will admit it will be a difficult job [to reach 8 percent]. This being said, I also believe with considerable efforts it's possible for us to obtain this goal,\" Wen said at a news conference following the annual session of the country's rubber-stamp legislature. China has seen a sharp decline in demand for its exports since November as other major economies have struggled. In February, Chinese exports plunged 25.7 percent compared with the previous year's, Beijing reported last week. Even with the slowdown, China's economy -- the third largest in the world -- has gone from white-hot to merely robust. In 2007, China's gross domestic product grew at 13 percent. The two largest economies -- the United States and Japan -- are in recession. \"So a lot of things will go down in 2009 globally,\" Dollar said. \"But we see China's contribution as being very positive in keeping many markets from going down as far as they would otherwise.\" The World Bank expects China's economy to outgrow most others in 2009. In November, China announced plans to inject $586 billion (4 trillion yuan) into its economy to offset declines in industrial and export growth. That economic stimulus plan included the loosening of credit restrictions, tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending.","highlights":"World Bank cuts China's economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent .\nReduction is down a full percentage point from November's projection .\nLast week, Chinese Premier projected nation's economy would grow by 8% in 2009 .\nChina has seen a sharp decline in demand for its exports since November .","id":"fca09ad0a06a47f356315f148f2bf67f537839df"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Coca cultivation and cocaine production have decreased in Colombia but increased in Bolivia and Peru, the United Nations reported. Workers help eradicate coca plantations in northwest Colombia in May. Colombian cultivation was down 18 percent, and production decreased 28 percent in 2008, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report issued Friday. But cultivation increased 6 percent in Bolivia and 4.5 percent in Peru, the report said. Likewise, production went up 9 percent in Bolivia and 4.1 percent in Peru. \"The increases for Bolivia and Peru show a trend in the wrong direction,\" said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. drug office. Much of the decline in Colombia resulted from the manual eradication of 237 acres of coca, an increase of 44 percent over 2007, and the spraying of another 328 acres with herbicide, the U.N. said. The production level is at a 10-year-low, the report said, and the cultivation amount is down to 2004 to 2006 levels. \"This is a remarkable achievement,\" Costa said in a release. \"It means that more coca bush was eradicated in Colombia than was grown in all of Bolivia and Peru.\" The value of coca leaf in Colombia is decreasing, making it less attractive for farmers -- 20,000 fewer households grew coca in 2008 than in 2007, a decrease of 26 percent. The drug trade also is being disrupted, the report said. In Colombia, the U.N. said, authorities seized 200 tons of cocaine in 2008, a 57 percent increase in seizures over 2007, the report said. Peru reported an 86 percent increase in seizures of coca base and a 100 percent increase in the seizure of cocaine. Bolivia, likewise, reported a 45 percent uptick in seizures of coca base and a 145 percent increase in the seizure of cocaine. \"Cocaine supply is shrinking, as is demand in major markets of North America while cocaine use in Western Europe has stopped growing,\" Costa said. \"This may explain why prices are up, and purity is down. This may also explain why cartels are becoming so violent.\"","highlights":"Coca cultivation, cocaine production decrease in Colombia, U.N. report says .\nBut both on rise in Peru and Bolivia, report finds .\nU.N. official: \"Increases for Bolivia and Peru show a trend in the wrong direction\"\nProduction level is at a 10-year low, report says .","id":"0db2978bc8a6de7c9d5d816351e4f35366db7e68"} -{"article":"OXON HILL, Maryland (CNN) -- Crew members of the Maersk Alabama, safely back in the United States after being attacked by pirates last week off Somalia, recounted their ordeal Thursday. Navy personnel recover the lifeboat from which Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued Sunday. \"They start firing before they climb, with AK-47,\" crew member Zahid Reza said. \"I was scared for my life. I was almost close to that. And they tried to shoot me many times,\" he said, pointing to his head. \"Pointing gun all over. Here, there, in the back.\" Pirates tried three times to board the U.S.-flagged cargo ship before their fourth attempt was successful, fellow crew member William Rios said, adding that the groups of pirates were different but that he thinks they were working together. Rios said he was working on deck when he was called back to lock down the ship. Then, he said, there were gunshots, and an alarm went off to alert all crew members to wake up and get on deck. \"We went to our training,\" he said, declining to provide details: \"If I tell you all what we did, pirates, they would know.\" Watch the crew praise their captain \u00bb . The pirates intended to ask for a $3 million ransom, Reza said. He said he and the ship's chief engineer took one of the pirates hostage. Reza said he persuaded the pirate -- whom he described as a young man, maybe 18 or 19 -- to trust him, pointing out that he is Bangladeshi and the pirate was Somali. \"His name is Abdul,\" Reza said. \"I told him, 'Trust me. I am Muslim; you are Muslim.' \" He told Abdul he would take him to the engine room to find more crew members. When they got there, the room was dark, he said, and he didn't know the ship's chief engineer was in there. He said the chief engineer jumped the pirate first, then Reza stabbed him with his knife, and the two men tied the pirate's hands and feet. Reza said he intended to kill the youth, but the chief engineer told him, \"No, we need him alive.\" Watch Reza talk about wanting to kill the pirate \u00bb . \"He was fighting me and chief engineer, to get away from us. A lot of yelling, shouting and screaming.\" Rios said he went to the lifeboat, where Capt. Richard Phillips was being held, to exchange Abdul for Phillips but was unsuccessful. The captain -- who offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the freedom of his crew -- was rescued by U.S. Navy SEALs on Sunday. The SEALs, on the nearby guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, fatally shot three pirates and rescued Phillips. A fourth pirate was arrested. \"I feel great they got killed,\" Reza said. \"I am happy.\" He said he was proud of the Navy. Phillips arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, aboard the Bainbridge on Thursday. The crew arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland overnight. Watch crew arrive in U.S. \u00bb . Rios said Phillips is \"outstanding; he's extraordinary; he's [a] very brave man.\" Another crew member, John White, said they were \"damn lucky to be alive.\" Rios called for more security in the Gulf of Aden. \"Put more military to patrol the waterway for us transporting material back and forth,\" he said. \"... All the countries got to get involved with this.\" Reza echoed the call. \"I think government should get involved,\" he said. \"They should think about our safety, yes. ... This piracy is getting bigger and bigger.\" CNN's Paul Courson, Virginia Nicolaidis and Dugald McConnell contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Maersk Alabama crew tell about pirates' takeover of ship .\nNEW: Crew member says he gained confidence of, tried to kill pirate .\nNEW: \"I feel great they got killed,\" crew member says of pirates .\nNEW: Crew calls for international effort to secure shipping lanes .","id":"6f2369bc8a9bdad152e7f998a63c4f2cac4b8396"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a key architect of the U.S. war in Vietnam under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, has died at age 93, according to his family. Robert McNamara took a lead role in managing the U.S. military commitment in Vietnam. McNamara was a member of Kennedy's inner circle during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. But he became a public lightning rod for his management of the war in Vietnam, overseeing the U.S. military commitment there as it grew from fewer than 1,000 advisers to more than half a million troops. Though the increasingly unpopular conflict was sometimes dubbed \"McNamara's War,\" he later said both administrations were \"terribly wrong\" to have pursued military action beyond 1963. \"External military force cannot reconstruct a failed state, and Vietnam, during much of that period, was a failed state politically,\" he told CNN in a 1996 interview for the \"Cold War\" documentary series. \"We didn't recognize it as such.\" A native of San Francisco, McNamara studied economics at the University of California and earned a master's degree in business from Harvard. He was a staff officer in the Army Air Corps during World War II, when he studied the results of American bombing raids on Germany and Japan in search of ways to improve their accuracy and efficiency. After the war, he joined the Ford Motor Company and became its president in November 1960 -- the first person to lead the company from outside its founding family. A month later, the newly elected Kennedy asked him to become secretary of defense, making him one of the \"whiz kids\" who joined the young president's administration. In October 1962, after the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, McNamara was one of Kennedy's top advisers in the standoff that followed. The United States imposed a naval \"quarantine\" on Cuba, a Soviet ally, and prepared for possible airstrikes or an invasion. The Soviets withdrew the missiles in exchange for a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba, a step that allowed Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev to present the pullback as a success to his own people. In the 2003 documentary \"The Fog of War,\" McNamara told filmmaker Errol Morris that the experience taught American policymakers to \"put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes.\" But he added, \"In the end, we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war.\" McNamara is credited with using the management techniques he mastered as a corporate executive to streamline the Pentagon, computerizing and smoothing out much of the U.S. military's vast purchasing and personnel system. And in Vietnam, he attempted to use those techniques to measure the progress of the war. Metrics such as use of \"body counts\" and scientific solutions such as using the herbicide Agent Orange to defoliate jungles in which communist guerrillas hid became trademarks of the conflict. McNamara made several trips to South Vietnam to study the situation firsthand. He, Johnson and other U.S. officials portrayed the war as a necessary battle in the Cold War, a proxy struggle to prevent communism from taking control of all of Southeast Asia. But while they saw the conflict as another front in the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, which backed communist North Vietnam, McNamara acknowledged later that they underestimated Vietnamese nationalism and opposition to the U.S.-backed government in Saigon. \"The conflict within South Vietnam itself had all of the characteristics of a civil war, and we didn't look upon it as largely a civil war, and we weren't measuring our progress as one would have in what was largely a civil war,\" he told CNN. Casualties mounted, as did domestic opposition to the war. In 1965, a Quaker anti-war protester, Norman Morrison, set himself on fire outside McNamara's office window. In 1967, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on the Pentagon, which was ringed with troops. By November 1967, McNamara told Johnson that there was \"no reasonable way\" to end the war quickly, and that the United States needed to reduce its forces in Vietnam and turn the fighting over to the American-backed government in Saigon. By the end of that month, Johnson announced he was replacing McNamara at the Pentagon and moving him to the World Bank. But by March 1968, Johnson had reached virtually the same conclusion as McNamara. He issued a call for peace talks and announced he would not seek re-election. After leaving the Pentagon in early 1968, McNamara spent 12 years leading the World Bank. He said little publicly about Vietnam until the publication of a 1995 memoir, \"In Retrospect.\" \"You don't know what I know about how inflammatory my words can appear,\" he told Morris. \"A lot of people misunderstand the war, misunderstand me. A lot of people think I'm a son of a bitch.\"","highlights":"Robert McNamara was key architect of war in Vietnam under two presidents .\nMcNamara became lightning rod for his management of that war .\nHe was member of President Kennedy's inner circle during Cuban Missile Crisis .","id":"cd403750e6a12220e3ca5fb0d375fe8744be10fa"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Accidents happen, said the Supreme Court, but the criminal penalties can still be tough, at least for one \"bungling bank robber.\" The case involved Christopher Michael Dean, arrested after he and a partner robbed a bank five years ago. By a 7-2 vote, the justices ruled Wednesday that the sentencing for a felon who accidentally fired a gun during a crime should be the same as if he had fired intentionally. The case involved Christopher Michael Dean, arrested after he and a partner robbed a Rome, Georgia, bank five years ago. The masked Dean had waved a gun and ordered patrons and staff to get down. While grabbing bills in one hand, the gun he was carrying in his other hand went off. The bullet hit a partition, and no one was injured. After the shot, Dean cursed and immediately ran out of the bank. Witnesses later testified he seemed surprised the weapon had gone off. Dean was charged in federal court and admitted committing the robbery. His sentence included a mandatory 10-year prison term for \"discharging\" a weapon during a crime. He appealed, saying the sentencing enhancement required proof that he intended to discharge the firearm, and his actions were accidental. But in his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said federal law \"does not require that the discharge be done knowingly or intentionally.\" In what has become a regular feature of his writing, the 54-year-old chief justice displayed a sense of creativity and sly humor in his conclusions. He openly called Dean the \"bungling bank robber\" and quoted one patron's reaction to the bank gunshot: \"Melissa in the lobby popped up and said, 'Oh, my God, has he shot Nora?' \" Nora turned out to be all right. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented in the case, noting, \"Accidents happen, but they seldom give rise to criminal liability. Indeed, if they cause no harm they seldom give rise to any liability. The court nevertheless holds that petitioner is subject to a mandatory additional sentence -- a species of criminal liability -- for an accident that caused no harm.\" He was supported by Justice Stephen Breyer. Roberts, however, saved the best for last in his bench remarks, when summarizing the ruling. \"An individual who brings a loaded weapon to commit a crime runs the risk that the gun will discharge accidentally,\" he said. \"Those criminals wishing to avoid the penalty for an inadvertent discharge can lock or unload the firearm, handle it with care during the underlying violent or drug trafficking crime, leave the gun at home, or -- best yet -- avoid committing the felony in the first place,\" Roberts wrote . That brought barely contained laughter in the audience of several hundred gathered in the courtroom.","highlights":"Robber appealed 10-year sentence for discharging a gun in a bank .\nWeapon went off accidentally, say attorneys for Christopher Michael Dean .\nChief Justice John Roberts called Dean 'the bunging bank robber'\nRoberts: Best way to avoid sentence for gun discharge is to leave gun behind .","id":"43041202fdb1517184d4d099848f7f66701ce465"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Defending champion Venus Williams ensured the Wimbledon final would be another family affair with a devastating performance against Russia's Dinara Safina in Thursday's second semifinal. Venus dropped only one game as she crushed top seed Dinara Safina to reach her eighth Wimbledon final. Third seed Venus produced an awesome display on Centre Court, crushing world No.1 Safina 6-1 6-0 in just 51 minutes, after sister Serena had earlier won an epic three-set semifinal against Elena Dementieva. There was no way five-times champion Venus, was being sucked into such a dogfight. Her match was a much more subdued affair as she outclassed the top seed from the moment she settled into the match, winning the first nine points and breaking the Safina serve. Safina simply could not cope with the Williams serve, with one ace in the third game clocking in at 124mph, the fastest in the women's tournament. Safina managed to get her side of the scoreboard ticking in the sixth game but it was no consolation as Venus stepped up the power on her groundstrokes. When Venus broke the Safina serve again at the start of the second set the match was essentially over. Unforced errors sprayed from Safina's racket throughout the second set and a double fault in the fifth game handed Williams another break of serve. The end eventually came when Safina dumped another forehand into the net to allow Venus to take the match, after which she expressed her delight at another all-Williams, all-American final on July 4. Venus told the BBC: \"This is my eighth final and it is a dream come true to have another opportunity to hold the plate up. \"I was able to stay focused and I have so much experience on this court. But the hardest part has to come, to play Serena in the final.\"","highlights":"Holder Venus Williams eases into her eight Wimbledon women's singles final .\nFive-times champion crushes top seed and world No.1 Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0 .\nAmerican third seed takes just 51 minutes to set up clash with sister Serena .\nSerena through to fourth all-Williams final after epic win over Elena Dementieva .","id":"3af4b99565d53c1e77f7cb58b8a099e6059546f4"} -{"article":"PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Wendell Potter says he is finished defending the insurance industry, which he says is \"beholden to Wall Street.\" Wendell Potter once was a vice president in the public relations department for insurance giant Cigna. At a hearing last week before the Senate Commerce Committee, the former vice president of corporate communications at the insurance giant Cigna testified, \"I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry.\" The committee's chairman, Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, told Potter, \"You are better than Russell Crowe on 'The Insider,' \" referring to the award-winning 1999 film about cigarette company executive Jeffrey Wigand, who blew the whistle on the tobacco industry's practices. In his testimony and during an interview with CNN, Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies. Industry executives refer to the practice as \"purging,\" Potter said. \"When that business comes up for renewal, the underwriters jack the rates up so much, the employer has no choice but to drop insurance,\" Potter said. CNN obtained a transcript of a 2008 Cigna conference call with investors in which company executives use the term \"purge.\" But in an e-mail to CNN, Cigna spokesman Chris Curran denied the company engages in purging. \"We do not practice that. We will offer rates that are reflective of the competitive group health insurance market. We always encourage our clients to compare our proposed rates to those available from other carriers,\" Curran wrote. Cigna had revenue of $19.1 billion in 2008, according to the company Web site. P . \"It was almost like an electrical jolt,\" Potter said. At the event, Potter took pictures of doctors offering free health care to the uninsured. \"The volunteer doctors were seeing patients in barns, people in animal stalls,\" Potter said. \"It changed it for me.\" He says he finally decided to quit in 2007 after Cigna's controversial handling of an insurance claim made by the family of a California teenager, Nataline Sarkysian. The Sarkysian family made repeated appeals at news conferences for Cigna to approve a liver transplant for the 17-year-old, who had leukemia. Cigna initially declined to cover the operation, then reversed its decision. Sarkysian died hours after the company's reversal. As Cigna's spokesman during the controversy, Potter had no role in the decision to deny coverage. But he was inundated with angry phone calls. \"After she died, my voice mail and my e-mail inbox were just filled with messages from people who were just outraged, \" Potter said. Now a senior fellow on health care for the nonpartisan watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, Potter writes a blog on health care reform. In particular, he is keeping an eye on efforts to defeat legislation that would give Americans the option of joining a government health care plan, something he now supports. He says he witnessed how the insurance industry torpedoed health care reform efforts during the Clinton administration. \"They conduct what I call duplicitous PR campaigns. They'll say what people want to hear,\" Potter says. \"It's how they operate. You cannot trust these guys.\" Potter is also taking aim at some of the TV commercials aired by groups opposed to changes. One such ad caught Potter's eye. Run by the conservative organization Patients United Now, the ad says that \"now, Washington wants to bring Canadian-style health care to the U.S.\" \"Sometimes you'll see misleading information. And sometimes you'll see outright lies, like that [ad] is,\" Potter said, referring to the spot. Patients United Now spokeswoman Amy Menefee disagreed. \"We're not saying there's a Canada health care act of 2009,\" Menefee said. \"It is a trend. It's trending in that direction.\" Potter notes that the leading proposals for health care in Congress do not seek to set up Canadian-style health care in the United States. He says claims that overhauling the system would lead to \"rationing\" of care are missing his point. \"What we have is rationing by corporate executives who are beholden to Wall Street. And it happens all the time,\" Potter said.","highlights":"Wendell Potter says insurance companies only out to please Wall Street investors .\nCigna would make it hard to renew policies for some expensive clients, he says .\nFormer PR executive left the company after teenager died awaiting transplant .\nCigna says it does not purge and encourages business to compare rates .","id":"578f63270cc6e3b60eb39f1ccf5d6fb3937c6e86"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose current book is \"When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams.\" \"Tumbling tumbleweeds\" have been romanticized in song, but they're no fun in some parts of the U.S. (CNN) -- \"Do we like them?\" Patrick Victor, a game and fish commission employee in San Carlos, Arizona, repeated the question back to me as if I had proved my lunacy by asking it in the first place. \"Do we like tumbleweeds?\" he said. \"No one likes them. They're not like in the cowboy movies. We consider them garbage -- worse than garbage. There is nothing to treasure or cherish about a tumbleweed.\" We were talking about tumbleweeds because of a theory I had been pondering: . In this country, because of the immediacy of news, it seems as if everyone from one coast to the other is worrying obsessively about the same thing at the same time. You name it: the banking meltdown one day, the feared floods in Fargo, North Dakota, the next; the forced ouster of the head of General Motors one morning, followed soon after by the street demonstrations in London during the Group of 20 summit. We all tend to fret together about one crisis at a time; undoubtedly there will be something new for all of us to be nervous about together before sundown tonight. So the goal here was to come up with something utterly unlikely -- something that, in 2009, you wouldn't think would bother people -- and find out if it does. Tumbleweeds. That, just picked at random, was the test case. \"They can be a pretty big problem out here,\" said Scott McGuire, a code enforcement inspector in Greeley, Colorado. \"When the wind is right, they'll pile up right to the roofline of a house. Seriously -- people can't see out of their windows or even easily get out of their homes.\" There was something instructive, even (in an off-kilter way) comforting, about learning this: the affirmation that, in this increasingly monolithic country, there are still local vexations that override the breaking news bulletins on the national networks, that people in one pocket of America are routinely dealing with forces that people a few hundred miles away are blissfully unaware of. Just hearing about it makes life seem somehow more life-size. \"I meant what I said literally,\" McGuire said, continuing on his pinned-in-the-house-by-tumbleweeds theme. \"They are big and prickly -- they can blow for hundreds of miles, sometimes all the way from Wyoming. They go until the wind dies out or they run into something. That's when people can have piles of them pressing against their homes -- when the tumbleweeds stop there.\" Tumbleweeds, if you haven't thought about them in years, may seem like a gauzy memory from old Western movies, a nostalgic high-plains symbol of desolation and loneliness. There was that campfire song by Roy Rogers and his group, the Sons of the Pioneers; once you think of the lyrics and melody again, you can't get it out of your head: . \"See them tumbling down\/Pledging their love to the ground\/Lonely but free I'll be found\/Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.\" But in the 21st century? In our connected-by-broadband, addicted-to-cell phones, technologically tethered nation? Tumbleweeds? As something to be concerned about? \"They're ugly and nasty,\" said Charlene Hardin, the county manager of Roosevelt County, New Mexico. \"They can make our roads impassable. You can see 12-foot-high, chain-link fences with tumbleweeds piled all the way up to the top. They're very flammable -- toss a cigarette, and you have a big fire. \"Tumbleweeds are more than a nuisance out here. We'll get complaints from people who can't even get out of their own driveways because the tumbleweeds have them hemmed in.\" Tumbleweeds are mainly a plague in the West and Southwest: certainly not dire on the level of, say, a national security issue, but a perpetual pain in the neck. They're a gnarled and unpleasant-looking plant, useless as a crop or nutritionally; they dry up, separate from their roots and blow across the land, spreading seeds. They're thorny, are often painful to the touch and can grow as big as trash bags -- it's not uncommon to see tumbleweeds 4 feet in diameter rolling speedily along. As Velda Bucklen, who lives west of Kersey, Colorado, and who was concerned about people just heaving errant tumbleweeds off their property and thus onto nearby lawns, wrote in a letter to the editor of her local newspaper: \"They are prickly and strong. ... I have been guilty of tossing them into the street and sending them on their way. .... Please don't fight with your neighbors.\" The people of the United States, though, are nothing if not resourceful. Just as you may have been unaware that tumbleweeds are a contemporary problem, so you may be heartened to learn that, as always, where some people see bad news, others see opportunity. \"I thought there might be some money in tumbleweeds,\" said Linda Katz of Garden City, Kansas. She was right. She runs a company called Prairie Tumbleweed Farm (its motto is \"If they don't tumble, we don't sell them!\"), and she said she has found a steady mail-order market for tumbleweeds. \"Personally I'm not fond of them, but apparently some people are,\" she said. \"They're just big, rolling weeds. But people order them for wedding decorations. People order them for dances. Servicemen say tumbleweeds remind them of home. I've taken two orders already today.\" Finding them is not a challenge: \"They just roll by the house.\" She grabs them, puts them in boxes and mails them off. And, to answer your question before you can ask it: $25 for a large tumbleweed, $15 for a small. Before we leave this topic so we can all return to more conventional news, a word from Bob Lee, director of weed and pest control in Cheyenne, Wyoming: . \"I've seen people here who have gone away for a two-week vacation, and when they come back, there are so many tumbleweeds in front of their house that they have to chop their way to the front door.\" So, Mr. Lee, is there one stirring and inspirational parting message you'd like to convey to people? \"Just that tumbleweeds don't have any redeeming features, as far as I'm aware of.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: National issues such as economic crisis dominate news .\nGreene says that we quickly move from one crisis to the next .\nGreene: Still there are regional concerns that never get a big spotlight .\nSome parts of the U.S. are plagued by \"tumbling tumbleweeds\"","id":"1bc3e66521e42bc840a125d62b0e4a13871f7e39"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The crown of the Statue of Liberty will re-open to tourists on July 4, the Interior Department said Friday. The Statue of Liberty welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The crown was closed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for safety and security reasons. The National Park Service closed the attraction amid worries that it would be difficult for visitors to evacuate quickly in the event of an emergency. Visitors must climb a narrow 168-step double-helix spiral staircase to get to the crown. Since the closing, tourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue. iReport.com: Show us your best Statue of Liberty shots . The federal government planned to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. \"We are once again inviting the public to celebrate our great nation and the hope and opportunity it symbolizes by climbing to Lady Liberty's crown for a unique view of New York Harbor, where the forebears of millions of American families first saw the world,\" he said in a statement. Access to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a National Park Service ranger. \"We cannot eliminate all the risk of climbing to the crown, but we are taking steps to make it safer,\" Salazar said. The measures include raising the handrails on the spiral staircase and stationing rangers throughout the Statue to help visitors. The Statue of Liberty will be open for the next two years, then closed again for \"work on a long-term solution that will improve safety and security permanently,\" according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. A gift from France to the United States, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for its centennial on July 4, 1986. It stands just across New York Harbor from where the Twin Towers stood.","highlights":"The crown has been closed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 .\nTourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue .\nAccess to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a ranger .\nOfficial: Government wants to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown .","id":"30f4aeb4468687f2bb471a073b27ce9d62395cf3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nearly 27 years ago, amid a crowd of people in Central Park, Ruth Bendik's wallet was stolen. The culprit is still at large, but the wallet has been found -- in the hollow trunk of a cherry tree. Nearly 27 years ago, amid a crowd of people in Central Park, Ruth Bendik's wallet was stolen. The wallet was snatched on October 24, 1982, while Bendik, now 69, was in Central Park watching the New York marathon. She went to greet runners at the end of the race and, \"when I got out of the crush of people, I realized my purse was much lighter,\" Bendik told CNN. \"I was just so grateful not to have been harmed.\" Last week, Josh Galiley, tree-care supervisor for the Central Park Conservancy, was chopping down a hazardous black cherry tree near Rumsey Playfield when he discovered her blue leather wallet in the trunk of the tree, which he estimates is around 65 years old and 50 feet high. \"I started poking in the soft stuff and this wallet turned up. Having been that low in the tree ... the location indicated it had been there for quite some time,\" Galiley told CNN. The old wallet was a unique find, he said. \"When you're cutting a tree and it's hollow, you expect stuff inside, shreds of material, old marbles, really just knickknacks compared to this,\" he said, \"Nothing with a story. ... We peeked in and there were dates from the early '80s. We figured this was different.\" After the wallet was recovered, Galiley said, officials were careful to inform Bendik properly. \"We thought she may not want to relive it,\" he said. Bendik sang praises for the individuals who returned her wallet, including detective Frank Irizarry, who helped track her down. \"The lengths they went to find me, the extent that they went through and the fact that they were concerned about my feelings really impressed me,\" she said. The wallet still contained her old driver's license and credit cards, she said, although $20 was missing. \"Twenty dollars was a lot of money then,\" she said. After two decades, much more has changed. Referring to two of her old bank cards from Manufacturers Hanover Trust Bank and Banker's Trust, Bendik said, \"I was shocked that both banks had closed.\" But some things haven't changed. Bendik continues to have fond memories of Central Park. The Ohio native, who has lived in New York for 40 years, still describes the park as one of her favorite areas in the city. \"It's a public place in an impersonal city,\" she said, \"It brings everyone together in a pleasant way of reconnecting with nature and beauty.\" Today, Bendik smiles at the idea of her wallet buried in a cherry tree in Central Park for nearly 30 years, and she's happy to have it in her hands again. \"After all these years it's still available as a time capsule of my life.\"","highlights":"Ruth Bendik's wallet was snatched in 1982 during the New York marathon .\nWorker found wallet while chopping down a black cherry tree in Central Park .\nWallet still contained driver's license and credit cards, but $20 was missing .","id":"b8faed32e346624d76b135cb88d31512a208037f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Darren Tuck, the man who gave police a tape depicting the rape of a 3-year-old girl, turned himself in Sunday to Nye County, Nevada, authorities. Darren Tuck turned himself in to authorities Sunday. He earlier gave police the tape of the girl. Tuck had recently given police the videotape, saying he found it in the desert, Sheriff Tony De Meo said. Police said he had the tape for at least five months before turning it in. He was being sought on a parole violation for failure to pay child support, but police -- who have said they want to question him further -- had been unable to locate him. Tuck, of Nevada, allegedly showed the tape to others, and faces between 10 years to life in prison for exhibiting pornography and one to six years for possession of child pornography, said De Meo. Tuck's attorney Harry Kuehn said last week on CNN's \"Nancy Grace\" that Tuck had been \"wracked by indecision\" as to what to do with the tape once he realized what it was. \"You have to consider what kind of concerns my client had,\" the attorney said. \"He's previously dealt with the sheriff's office in Nye County; it was previously unsatisfactory.\" The four-year-old videotape shows the 3-year-old girl being raped in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last week, she was found safe. Now seven, the girl was found Friday with family in Las Vegas after thousands of tips poured in to police, thanks to an appeal by police to the news media to show the girl's picture. CNN and other news organizations did so until the child was found, and De Meo asked media to stop showing the picture. \"The mother has cooperated with us,\" De Meo said. \"We believe that the mother was not aware of anything that went on with this young girl. It was very sad for her to find this out.\" Authorities have identified Chester A. Stiles, 37, as the suspect in the tape. A resident of Pahrump, Nevada, he remains at-large, De Meo said. Pahrump is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. Stiles was a distant friend of the girl's family, De Meo said. Someone close to Stiles told investigators Stiles is a \"survivalist type\" and always carries a weapon, Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said. Todd Allen, a Las Vegas resident, told CNN he once lived with the girl from the video and her mother. He said he recognizes his old apartment from scenes in the video. He said he knows the suspect because Allen's mother dated Stiles and the couple spent time together at Allen's apartment. Watch Allen describe Stiles and the girl \u00bb . Allen said nobody realized the child had been abused. \"She's what you'd expect a little girl in elementary school to be like,\" he said. \"You would never know something like that happened. Ever.\" Allen said he never witnessed Stiles physically assault anyone. \"But I have seen him verbally and mentally assault many people,\" Allen told CNN. \"He's good with mind games. He's good at twisting people's realities and manipulating people.\" De Meo addressed Stiles directly on Saturday: \"Turn yourself in to your local law enforcement agency,\" he said. \"Understand this: Law enforcement not only has a long arm, but a long memory. You will not be forgotten by members of this agency or any other law enforcement agency.\" The FBI is also seeking Stiles on state charges of sexual assault and lewdness with a minor under the age of 14 in a separate matter, De Meo said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Darren Tuck gave police tape depicting the rape of a 3-year-old girl, police say .\nTuck said he found the tape in the desert; he showed it to others, police say .\nTuck was being sought on a parole violation for failure to pay child support .\nPolice are still seeking another suspect related to the videotape .","id":"109cd3dcac8830a219e914b2a60034379f18f094"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Mat Kearney has every right to be frustrated. Mat Kearney's music has gotten a boost through music video channels and \"Grey's Anatomy.\" As he walks to his tour bus behind Hollywood's Palladium -- where he'll play in a few hours -- he's already had to cope with logistical snafus, shortened sound checks and general confusion. And the tour is just beginning. There are more than 30 cities and 10 weeks to come. But as he approaches the bus, he is completely overtaken by an obscure flower hanging off a fence behind the venue. \"I've never seen anything like that,\" he says, looking at the blue-and-white bloom. \"I've got to take one of these.\" Kearney should be smelling the flowers. His music, such as the song \"Nothing Left to Lose,\" has received consistent airplay on music TV channels -- which earned him a headlining slot on a VH1-sponsored tour -- and repeated appearances in TV and film. Most notably, \"Grey's Anatomy\" used his song \"Breathe In, Breathe Out.\" His new album, \"City of Black & White\" (Aware\/Columbia), is out Tuesday. Watch the video for the single \"Closer to Love\" \u00bb . The Oregon-born musician, 30, sat down with CNN to talk about his songwriting journey, combining a big sound with personal observations and a certain \"weird TV show.\" The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: How important was Nashville, Tennessee, in your decision to be a songwriter? Mat Kearney: The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik and even Ryan Adams. ... That was the first place I really started playing music and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage. CNN: This whirlwind world tour you completed last year -- how did it impact this new album and you personally? Kearney: That tour was three years long. [So] this record was a return back to community in Nashville and to sing. ... So, [the tour] created this void for wanting to connect in a local way. So many things happen when you're not out there running and gunning. Falling in love with someone, getting your heart broken, being around friends -- that stuff can only happen when you stick around for a while. CNN: What's the significance of the title -- \"City of Black & White\"? Kearney: The title track I wrote in Istanbul. We stayed in this place that overlooked the Bosporus, which splits Europe from Asia. The song is about worlds colliding, being that far away from home, and also longing to be with someone you love in that distant land. ... It seemed like a good cornerstone to build the record on. CNN: You're an avid traveler, but this record is more concerned with planting roots. How do you reconcile the two? Kearney: I don't think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up. That's the fun of this whole journey for me. There are people I love in Nashville and would not want to go a day without talking to, but I want to see the world. The record is coming out of an experience of reconciling those two things. I played 275 shows for two years straight. You have to travel between those shows. So you're gone. Some of those experiences shape the record. There's a romantic side to it. This isn't a one-night stand record. It's not youthful idealism that's going after the masses. There's some ideas of, say, that prodigal son who has walked away from you and you're sitting there saying, \"I'm here for you if you need me.\" CNN: The sound is big but the lyrics are intensely personal. How did you meld those ideas together? Kearney: Yeah, it's like the biggest song is one of the most personal. \"Fire and Rain\" [not the James Taylor song] is a crazy four-on-the-floor song, but it's a song about someone who has left you. Something about the juxtaposition of those two seem so interesting to me. I didn't plan it. It just kind of happened. CNN: You're one of the last musicians I have seen actually get airplay on [music television channels], and you broke through because of it. Kearney: It's interesting how my music has gained success being accompanied by images. When I was in college I wanted to study film. My first passion was to be a cinematographer. So maybe there's something innate in my music where it partners well with images. It's worked on weird TV shows where doctors are making out and people getting logs pulled out of their stomachs [laughs]. Somehow my music seems to work with that. CNN: How did your music become such an integral part of that show [\"Grey's Anatomy\"]? Kearney: I really don't know. Somebody somewhere ... started using these songs and they seem to work. There are certain songs that lend themselves to images. No one's licensing [Katy Perry's] \"I Kissed a Girl\" and putting it in shows. That's a narrow-focused message that doesn't need much [in the way of] images.","highlights":"Mat Kearney enjoys growing success; new album is \"City of Black & White\"\nKearney has earned airplay on TV, including \"Grey's Anatomy\"\nKearney likes juxtaposition of personal lyrics, big musical sound .","id":"28f8458c162514baa8ad3142b0de3200631d4206"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 3-year-old boy who was taken at gunpoint from his California home nearly two weeks ago has been found, authorities said Saturday. Briant Rodriguez, 3, was taken during a home invasion on May 3 in San Bernardino, California, police say. Briant Rodriguez was found wandering the streets of Mexicali, Mexico, by a police officer late Thursday, said San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops. After clearing paperwork with Mexican officials, California authorities reunited the boy with his mother Saturday in the border town of Calexico, Hoops said. \"We're very happy that he's alive,\" Hoops said. \"A 3-year-old goes missing in this country for two weeks -- sometimes it has an unhappy ending. \"This one did not.\" Watch portion of sheriff's news conference \u00bb . The boy had been missing since May 3, when two men armed with handguns burst into his family's home and tied him up -- along with his mother and four siblings. The men ransacked the home before leaving with Briant, a small amount of cash and some personal property, San Bernardino sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said. Authorities had not caught the suspects as of Saturday evening. Hoops said authorities have information about at least two suspects -- who were captured on video at a home-improvement store near the Rodriguez home buying tape like the kind that was used to bind the family. He said the names of the suspects, and what authorities believe was a motive, are not being released because they could jeopardize the investigation. He also declined to say what relationship the suspects may have had with the family or whether the kidnapping is linked with drug crime that has run rampant in Mexican border towns in recent months. Members of drug cartels in the border region have been known to use kidnapping as a means of quick cash. \"If you take a look at the case, I'll let you do your own homework on it,\" Hoops told reporters. Authorities from San Bernardino flew to Mexico late Friday to get Briant. Hoops said he appears to be in good health. His hair, which is shoulder-length in photographs that authorities had released, had apparently been shaved, Hoops said. Hoops said Briant's mother is \"a Mexican citizen living here in the United States,\" but that he is unsure of her immigration status. He said Briant was born in the United States. Sgt. Doug Hubbard, who was in Calexico when Briant and his mother were reunited, called the meeting emotional. \"Tears even came to Briant's eyes,\" he said. \"It was a beautiful thing.\"","highlights":"NEW: Briant Rodriguez found wandering streets in Mexicali, police say .\nNEW: Boy's tearful reunion with mother \"a beautiful thing,\" police official says .\nBoy had been missing since May 3, when armed men burst into his family's home .\nSuspects still on the loose as of Saturday evening, according to authorities .","id":"ab80f4f26bcf9208366f68df79bdc16e91a6380a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Paul Gillmor of Ohio was found dead in his townhouse in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, leadership aides for both the Republican and Democratic parties said. Rep. Paul Gillmor was first elected to Congress in 1988. Gillmor, a Republican, was 68. The leadership aides did not say how Gillmor died. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told fellow congressmen on the floor of the House that their colleague died \"suddenly overnight.\" \"He was a good friend to all of us,\" said a somber Boehner. \"He's going to be missed by us all.\" A tribute to Gillmor will be held in the House later Wednesday afternoon, Boehner said. Watch Boehner tell colleagues of death \u00bb . Gillmor, the deputy minority whip, was in his 10th term in the House, representing the 5th Congressional District in the northwest part of the Buckeye state. He was a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, and the ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Gillmor also served on the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored-Enterprises and the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. He was elected to Congress in 1988, after serving in the Ohio State Senate for 22 years, where he was elected Republican leader five times. Gillmor was born Feb. 1, 1939, in Tiffin, Ohio. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. In 2006, Roll Call -- a Capitol Hill newspaper -- listed him as the 43rd richest member of Congress, with an estimated net worth of $6.16 million. He formerly ran a financial services company. Gillmor was also a U.S. Air Force veteran -- where he attained the rank of captain -- and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1986. He served in the Vietnam War in 1965 and 1966. He was married to Karen Gillmor, vice chairman of the State Employment Relations Board in Ohio and a former state senator. Their family includes two daughters, Linda and Julie, and three sons, Paul and twins Connor and Adam. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Rep. Paul Gillmor died suddenly during night, GOP leader says .\nNo word on cause of death .\nGillmor represented northwest area of Ohio .","id":"7f695b5dca98844401fb576df305c97b22e2e13a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo has been unveiled as Real Madrid's new number 9, in front of 80,000 passionate fans at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, after his world record $130 million move from Manchester United. Cristiano Ronaldo is paraded in front of 80,000 passionate supporters at a packed Bernabeu stadium. The event marked the culmination of a two-year pursuit of the player by the Spanish club, which defied the global downturn with exorbitant spending to capture the man voted the world's best footballer by world governing body FIFA. \"I have made my childhood dream a reality -- to play for Real Madrid,\" Ronaldo told the packed stands. \"I am just so happy to be here,\" he said to a rapturous reception from the gathered thousands. \"I really didn't expect a jam-packed stadium -- this is truly impressive.\" Watch tens of thousands greet Ronaldo \u00bb . Ronaldo is the fourth major signing of the close season by Real, as the club, fueled by the financial muscle of returning president and property magnate Florentino Perez, aims to recapture the glory that has seen them win more European Cups than any other side. The transfer of Brazil's Kaka and defender Raul Albiol was followed by the arrival of French striker Karim Benzema from Lyon on Thursday, as Perez assembles a second wave of \"galacticos,\" following his previous success with big-names such as David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane. Benzema's transfer fee is reported to be in the region of $60 million, taking Madrid's spending to an astonishing $300 million this in recent months. Perez claimed Monday's event \"might not have a precedent.\" \"We are very satisfied to know that you made the firm decision to play for Real Madrid,\" Perez said. He told Ronaldo what to expect from his new adoring fans, adding: \"They will ask of you the very best, but will also give you their all.\" The attendance at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium swamped the estimated 55,000 that watched Kaka's unveiling last Tuesday, and is believed to be the biggest turnout for a presentation since a reported 75,000 saw the arrival of Diego Maradona at Napoli from Barcelona in 1984. Watch fans line up before Ronaldo's unveiling \u00bb . Earlier, Ronaldo successfully completed his medical with Madrid after landing in the Spanish capital just after midday. Carlos Diez, Real Madrid's medical chief, told teh club's Web site: \"(Ronaldo) is in perfect condition and very eager to start the season as soon as possible.\" Ronaldo had already undergone initial medical tests with the Spanish giants while on holiday in Portugal last month, which the player claimed at the time had gone \"perfectly\". Diez added: \"He has an extraordinary cardiac and lung capacity. We have complemented everything that we already did in Portugal and done all the specific tests. \"Now we will be able to start working using an individual plan in order to improve his performance. For him (Ronaldo), it's a dream, and this dream starts to convert into reality from now.\" The number nine jersey was recently vacated by Argentine striker Javier Saviola who joined Portuguese side Benfica last month.","highlights":"Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo is unveiled as Real Madrid's new No. 9 .\nRonaldo paraded in front of thousands of supporters at the Santiago Bernabeu .\nReal Madrid have paid Manchester United world record $130 million for player .","id":"ba2f57d4769f6855170f2fbe82a873841c8488d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon's ruling party paid the price for a weak economy in midterm elections as the opposition Revolutionary Institutional Party rolled to victories in the lower legislative house as well as state and local posts. Mexican President Felipe Calderon wasn't on Sunday's ballot and has three years left in his six-year term. With more than 99 percent of the votes counted, the PRI had 36.7 percent to 28 percent for Calderon's National Action Party (PAN), the state-run Notimex news agency reported Monday. The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which nearly won the 2006 presidential election, came in a distant third with 12.2 percent of the vote. In response to the defeat, PAN president German Martinez resigned from the top party post Monday. On the ballot were seats for 500 federal legislators, six governors and about 500 mayors and local legislators in 11 states. Though Calderon has three years left in his six-year term and was not on the ballot, analysts said Monday he was held responsible for Mexico's problems amid the global economic downturn. \"He got a beating because of the economy,\" said Ana Maria Salazar, a television and radio political commentator in Mexico City. \"The government in power pays for it,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. Besides the economy, Calderon has had to face the consequences of a drug war he launched that has left more than 10,000 people dead since he came to office in December 2006. He also had to deal with the H1N1 flu pandemic that first became known in Mexico this year. The PAN has the most seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Mexico's Congress, but it does not have a majority in either. The party lost its lead in the lower house, as the PRI will hold more seats when the new delegates are seated in December. No seats were at stake in the Senate, which elects its members every six years. Calderon acknowledged the setback in a late-night address to the nation Sunday. \"The federal government recognizes the new composition of the Chamber of Deputies since it is a sovereign decision of the citizens. I congratulate who they have chosen,\" Calderon said, adding he will work with the new representatives. He will have no choice but to work with the resurgent PRI, analysts said. But since the PAN did not have control of either house of Congress, Calderon has been compromising and making deals with the PRI and other parties since coming to power. \"I don't think the job is much more difficult than it was at the outset,\" Hakim said. \"It's all a matter of degrees. Yeah, it will make it a little more difficult. But he has had to work through negotiation anyway.\" Still, analysts said, the PRI now wields considerable more power. \"They're in a position to run Congress,\" said Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. By forming temporary coalitions with the Green Party and other minor parties, the PRI can block presidential vetoes, Salazar said. \"They pretty much have control over the purse,\" she said. Much more is at stake for the PRI though. After having held the presidency from 1929 to 2000 and then losing it to the PAN in the last two elections, the party is looking for a path back to power. Sunday's results were particularly significant because the PRI finished third in the 2006 presidential election. \"The presidential campaign has started as of today, Monday,\" Salazar said. Also significant was the PRD's apparent collapse as a major party, considering it came within 1 percent of winning the presidency in 2006. That race was so close that the results were not verified until a controversial decision two months later. Losing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to accept the results and announced himself the winner. Fistfights broke out in the Chamber of Deputies. The PRI drew away votes from the PRD in Sunday's election, Hakim said, noting that may help Calderon because the PRD is Calderon's main foe in Congress. Working with a larger PRI may be easier. But Selee said Calderon is on a deadline, until the 2012 presidential race really heats up. \"His window of opportunity is for the next year and half,\" Selee said. \"The PRI wants to show that they can lead, that they're a party of ideas.\" No one knows if the PRI is up to the task. \"The big question is whether the PRI will look forward only to the presidential elections,\" Hakim said. \"The PRI has to show that they're responsible and capable of governing again.\" To do so, the PRI has to make sure that internal fighting over who will run as the presidential candidate in three years does not paralyze the party. \"Don't underestimate the ability of the PRI to cannibalize itself,\" Salazar said. PRI leader Beatriz Paredes has emerged as a major power broker. As head of the party and newly elected member of the Chamber of Deputies, she will lead the PRI's legislative efforts. That's good for Calderon, Salazar said, because it will be \"much easier to negotiate with her than with other factions of the PRI.\" But if the PAN and PRI can't agree, Selee said, \"there will be a breakdown of consensus politics.\" Mexico's leaders -- regardless of party affiliation -- also have to battle apparent disenchantment among everyday Mexicans. Voter participation Sunday was about 30 percent, officials said, but more 5 percent of those were people who \"annulled\" their ballots. They turned in a ballot but did not vote for anyone or defaced the ballot. Their intent was to show that they cared enough to vote, just not for anyone on the ballot. \"It's a repudiation of what is going on in Mexico in general,\" Salazar said. Selee sees \"a general skepticism,\" saying, \"Mexicans have tired of where things are going.\"","highlights":"NEW: German Martinez, president of PAN political party, resigns in aftermath .\nFelipe Calderon's party loses lead in Mexico's lower house .\nMexican president held responsible for economic downturn, analysts say .\nPRI has 36.8 percent of vote to 27.9 percent for Calderon's PAN, news agency says .","id":"38d4da3d3779fdefa12c34440bab10483c5496bf"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Four decades after he won over America with his scratchy, soulful voice and blues-inspired rock, British-born Joe Cocker is receiving an honor from the queen. Joe Cocker is being honored at Buckingham Palace for his services to music. Cocker, 63, was set to receive an OBE, or Order of the British Empire, at a ceremony Thursday morning at Buckingham Palace. The award officially recognizes Cocker's \"services to music.\" Prince Charles was planning to present Cocker with the honor, part of the queen's annual birthday honors list. Famous for songs including \"You Are So Beautiful\" and his cover of the Beatles' \"With a Little Help from My Friends,\" Cocker began his career by singing Ray Charles songs in pubs around his hometown of Sheffield, northern England in the early 1960s. Cocker toured with a string of bands, often playing American airbases in Europe, winning fans among the servicemen. The press hailed his first U.S. television performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969, and the following summer, Cocker played to half a million people at the historic Woodstock rock festival in New York state. The ensuing live album \"Mad Dogs and Englishmen\" remains a Cocker classic, with songs including \"Cry Me A River\" and \"Feelin' Alright.\" Rolling Stone magazine says Cocker's \"gritty, powerful voice remains one of the most distinctive in rock & roll.\" A whirlwind U.S. tour after Woodstock left Cocker \"exhausted,\" according to his own Web site, and reported drug and alcohol abuse came soon after. Cocker had a top 10 song in 1975 with \"You are So Beautiful,\" but his fortunes really turned in 1982 with his No. 1 duet with Jennifer Warnes, \"Up Where We Belong,\" the theme from the movie \"An Officer and a Gentleman.\" Cocker's most recent U.S. top 10 was \"When the Night Comes,\" written by Bryan Adams. Cocker now lives on a ranch in Colorado but still tours extensively. He has been touring Europe since June and plans shows in Sheffield and London this weekend. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"UK-born Joe Cocker receiving an Order of the British Empire .\nThe award officially recognizes Cocker's \"services to music\"\nPrince Charles scheduled to present Cocker with the honor .","id":"0315fa4112f0b4ec9e9d01cc2374cb9bceacc56a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- White supremacists, Islamic clerics, a controversial Kansas pastor and a U.S. talk show host are on a list of 22 people banned from Britain for \"stirring up hatred,\" the British government said Tuesday. Jacqui Smith said she did not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views. Britain's Home Office said it decided to exclude the 22 in the last several months. The decision follows measures introduced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last year against people \"who have engaged in spreading hate,\" the Home Office said. The Home Office named only 16 of those on the list; it said it was not in the public interest to disclose the names of the other six. A spokeswoman declined to elaborate on why the Home Office would not publicly identify six of the 22. One of the most recognized names on the list may be U.S. radio talk show host Michael Savage, who is listed under his real name, Michael Alan Wiener. The conservative's daily show can be heard nationwide in the United States. Savage is on the list for \"seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.\" Savage lashed out at Smith on his Web site, calling her a \"witch\" and asking how she knew of his show when it isn't syndicated in England. He also questioned why six names on the list weren't released and why North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez didn't make the list. In an audio clip on his Web site, Savage said he had seven attorneys working on a defamation lawsuit against Smith and encouraged his listeners to call off any travel plans to England and boycott all British products. \"She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people,\" he said. \"How could they put Michael Savage in the same league as mass murderers when I have never avowed violence?\" Outspoken Kansas Rev. Fred Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, are also listed for \"engaging in unacceptable behavior and fostering hatred.\" Phelps and his followers at Westboro Baptist Church oppose homosexuality. They picket the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, saying their deaths are God's way of punishing the United States for supporting homosexuals. They have expressed similar views about the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Katrina. The church's slogan is \"God Hates Fags.\" Phelps did not issue a response on his Web site. However, he linked to a British news story on the ban and wrote his own headline, calling Smith a \"neo-Nazi dyke\" and \"filthy God-hater.\" Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black, who has said he despises U.S. President Barack Obama, is also on the list. Black established the white supremacist Web site Stormfront, which the Home Office called one of the oldest and largest hate group sites. Eric Gliebe, chairman of the National Alliance, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States, is on the list for \"justifying terrorist violence, provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred.\" The Home Office cited Gliebe's \"Web-radio broadcasts in which he vilifies certain ethnic groups and encourages the download and distribution of provocative racist leaflets and posters.\" Several Islamic clerics are also on the list, including Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Amir Siddique, Yunis Al Astal and Safwat Hijazi. Prolific speaker and writer Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim is also listed. The list includes Mike Guzofsky, the leader of a militant Jewish group. He has ties to Kahane Chai, a group that the U.S. State Department lists as a foreign terrorist organization. Russian skinheads Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky are also on the list. The Home Office says they are \"leaders of a violent gang that beat migrants and posted films of their attacks on the Internet.\" Samir al Quntar, a Lebanese man who spent three decades in prison for killing four Israeli soldiers and a 4-year-old girl in 1979, is also on the list. In an exchange with the militant group Hezbollah, Israel freed al Quntar last year for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. Al Quntar is \"engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence\" in order to provoke terrorist acts, the Home Office said. Nasr Javed and Abdul Ali Musa round out the 16 names made public. \"Coming to the UK is a privilege, and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life,\" Smith said. \"Therefore, I do not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views, as I want them to know that they are not welcome here. \"The government opposes extremism in all its forms and I am determined to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country,\" she said. \"This is the driving force behind tighter rules on exclusions for unacceptable behavior.\"","highlights":"NEW: Talk show host calls home secretary \"witch\"; reverend calls her \"neo-Nazi\"\nUK Home Office: 22 people banned from Britain for \"stirring up hatred\"\nHome Office named only 16 of those on the list .\nEx-Ku Klux Klansman, Russian skinheads, radical Islamic clerics also on list .","id":"c529d8c275ba55e667caeca62c677a3fd62a5a46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda doesn't consider himself a hero, but passengers on a recent jumbo jet flight might beg to differ. Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda says he knew the plane he was riding in was losing fuel and videotaped the problem. One of 300 passengers on a United Airlines flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Tokyo, Japan, in April, Bachleda noticed white \"smoke\" billowing from the left side of the Boeing 747-400 jet on takeoff and then again at cruising altitude of over 30,000 feet. He said he was sure it was a leak, a big one that could lead to a potentially dangerous situation. Bachleda, 30, should know. He serves in an air refueling squadron in the U.S. Air Force. He videotaped the midair vapor from his window seat and tried to warn a flight attendant. But at first, she paid him no heed. \"When I initially hit the call button, she thought maybe I wanted something, and she said, 'Sir, I'm handing out drinks, I'll be right back with you,' \" Bachleda said. Undeterred, Bachleda called her back to his seat. \"Ma'am,\" he said. \"It's looking bad.\" He identified himself and showed the flight attendant his video. \"I decided, if the captain doesn't know about this before we go oceanic -- meaning once we fly over the ocean -- and we're leaking this massive amount of fuel, this is going to be a bad day,\" said Bachleda, on a return trip back to Kadena Air Base in Japan, where he is stationed. This time the flight attendant took him seriously, immediately stopped serving drinks and alerted the flight crew. Watch more on the plane leak \u00bb . United Airlines spokesman Jeff Kovick said the crew was already aware of the situation and was considering what action to take when Bachleda brought it to their attention. He said the captain would never have attempted a Pacific crossing. In Bachleda's estimation, the plane, which United said has a capacity of 373,000 pounds of jet fuel, was losing about 6,000 pounds an hour. Over the course of a 13-hour flight, the plane would have lost about 20 percent of its tank. But a former NTSB official said the plane still would have had to land because it lacked extra fuel to divert once it was over the Pacific or circle at its destination. The jet landed in San Francisco, California -- with all 300 passengers safe.","highlights":"Passenger notices white smoke billowing from plane's left side on flight to Japan .\nStaff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda videotapes the fumes from seat on United Airlines flight .\nBachleda, who serves in air refueling squadron in U.S. Air Force, shows tape to crew .\nJet lands in San Francisco; United spokesman says pilots already aware of situation .","id":"4bda583b237e41c2722b96b6577b6f52b0fb1319"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- AC Milan have swooped to sign Standard Liege defender Oguchi Onyewu on a three-year contract -- making him the first American to appear in Serie A since Alexi Lalas in 1996. Onyewu will become the first American since Alexi Lalas to appear in Italian Serie A after joining AC Milan. Onyewu, who has also played in the English Premier League with Newcastle United, has moved to the San Siro on a free transfer after impressing with some superb displays during the United States' run to the Confederations Cup final. The 27-year-old has played 38 times for his country, scoring five goals.Latest transfer gossip and rumors . \"This transaction shows once again the excellent friendly relationship between our club and Belgian club Standard Liege, particularly their executive vice-president Luciano D'Onofrio,\" said a statement on Milan's official Web site. The six-foot four-inch player was born in Washington DC to Nigerian parents but began his club career at Metz in France in 2002. He was loaned out to La Louviere in Belgium in 2003 and his form there earnt him a move to Liege, where he won two Belgian titles. He then joined Newcastle on loan, playing 11 league matches. However, the transfer is unlikely to appease the Milan supporters who are unhappy with the summer sale of Brazilian superstar Kaka to Real Madrid -- and the departure of coach Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea. About 300 fans protested outside the club's Milanello base on the first day of pre-season training on Monday, complaining at the lack of big name signings.","highlights":"AC Milan swoop to sign up American international defender Oguchi Onyewu .\nThe 27-year-old joins from Belgians Standard Liege on a three-year contract .\nOnyewu is the first American to appear in Serie A since Alexi Lalas in the 90s .","id":"1788a6313151db07062fa10003e40b6ac5eeb663"} -{"article":"Editor's note: On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, and her partner, Kim Catullo, talk to John King. NEW YORK (CNN) -- As she lobbies members of the New York Senate these days, the politician in Christine Quinn can understand what the gay rights activist in her sometimes cannot. \"The fear of the unknown,\" is how she describes it. \"This is a vote they've never cast before. And they don't know how people are going to react. You are in a position where people's reaction to you is the key to your success. And the unknown creates fear and fear often creates paralysis.\" Quinn is the openly gay speaker of the New York City Council, and a proponent of legalizing same sex marriage in New York state. \"It is really encouraging to see what's happening around the country in places where you really wouldn't expect it, like Iowa,\" says Quinn's longtime partner, Kim Catullo. \"To be in a place like New York and not have it just doesn't seem to make sense.\" The New York Assembly passed legislation allowing same-sex marriages earlier this month, and the question now is whether there are enough votes in the state Senate to pass the legislation before the legislature adjourns for the year. Go behind the scenes with John King as he discusses his report from New York . Quinn, who spent time in Albany this past week meeting with undecided senators, is cautiously optimistic. \"It was amazing how much openness there was,\" she said of private meetings with lawmakers who are undecided and even a few who have said they are likely to oppose the legislation. \"We just all have to create a moment for them to step forward. So I really think it is going to happen this month, before the legislative session is over.\" Maggie Gallagher sees the Senate math quite differently. \"We are now working in 24 Senate districts,\" says Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriages. \"We know we have generated thousands of phone calls to legislators. I don't think they will be passing a gay marriage bill this session.\" Watch both sides assess chances of passing same-sex marriage bill \u00bb . The New York legislation is part of a growing national debate, and one which will gain even more attention because of the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy and the nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill it. \"Not tomorrow. Not likely in the coming year unless the courts move dramatically faster than we are used to seeing them move,\" is how Columbia Law School Professor Suzanne Goldberg answers when asked when the issue of same-sex marriage is likely to make the Supreme Court docket. \"But certainly some time in the next couple of years we're likely to see the Supreme Court issue a position or two on this issue.\" Goldberg knows Sotomayer well; the judge is also a lecturer at Columbia. \"We've never spoken about the issue,\" Goldberg told us. \"I have no inside information about her views. What I would say is that she is both a wise person and a thoughtful person and being wise and thoughtful are the right ingredients for reaching what to me is the right answer on this issue, which to me is that equality applies to all people.\" The likelihood of the issue reaching the Supreme Court in the next year or two raises the stakes in the state battles. Opponents of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage vow to try again in 2010 in hopes of a different result. A new federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 was filed this week and could well be among the cases that make it to the Supreme Court eventually. Five states now allow same-sex marriage: Maine, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont, and the states with active debates include California, New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire. In an interview in their apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, Quinn and Catullo agreed the ideal solution for them would be federal recognition of the right of same-sex couples to marry. But the federal Defense of Marriage Act signed by President Clinton defines marriage as between a man and a woman. And President Obama says he supports civil unions and other benefits for same-sex couples but opposes marriage. \"He's not perfect on this issue and I want him to be perfect,\" Quinn said of Obama. \"And I'm fairly certain that pretty soon he will be perfect on this issue and what we just have to do is keep talking to him and keep educating him and keep working on him.\" \"It doesn't help,\" Catullo says of Obama's opposition. Still, like Quinn, she hopes eventually, \"he can evolve.\" Gallagher, of the National Organization for Marriage, is worried more about the high court than any pressure on Obama from gay rights activists. \"Well I don't believe David Souter was on our side on the gay marriage issue although we don't know for sure,\" Gallagher said. So in her line of speculating, swapping Sotomayor for Souter isn't likely to swing the court in any major way. Her major worry is if one of the more conservative judges decided to retire in the near future. \"I don't think this one is going to tip the balance,\" Gallagher said. \"But we're very close. We're probably only one Supreme Court justice away from a nationally imposed right to same-sex marriage whether we like it or not. That is the ultimate game plan of the gay marriage forces.\" Catullo would prefer a conversation less political. \"I really do believe that if someone lived next to us or really knew us, it wouldn't be an issue at all,\" she said. \"I mean we are good people. We're law-abiding. We're taxpayers. We're just an eight-year couple that's been together a long time and we do a lot of the things that a normal couple does. There's a lot more things in the world to worry about than the fact that we want to be married.\"","highlights":"N.Y. Assembly passed bill allowing same-sex marriages; willl state Senate pass it?\nChristine Quinn, openly gay politician, optimistic; says opponents fear the unknown .\nNational Organization for Marriage lobbying hard against it, head thinks it won't pass .\nProponents hope President Obama will change mind, support issue .","id":"271e972f07ef9e5c6b7832a2d7ed110f23a46c2e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Georgian authorities foiled an attempted army mutiny that they believe was designed to disrupt planned NATO exercises in the former Soviet republic, the country's interior ministry said Tuesday. Georgian troops take part in military exercises in January. They are to participate in NATO maneuvers this week. About 500 troops at a military base outside the capital, Tbilisi, were involved in the rebellion, said Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili. He said it was quickly brought under control, and the government reported a few hours later that the base was calm. Initial investigations suggest that Russia, Georgia's northern neighbor and former ruler, may have had a hand in the mutiny, Utiashvili said. Russia denied involvement in the incident. \"Tbilisi has pulled yet another anti-Russian prank. ... This is not the first time we are so vocally blamed for interfering. It is typical that each time the charges become more ridiculous,\" the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Utiashvili claimed that Georgia had secret recordings of the mutineers saying they had \"full Russian support.\" \"We know Russia is against the planned NATO exercises in Georgia. We know they have increased the troops at the border. We don't have 100 percent evidence right now, because the investigation is ongoing,\" he said. But, he added, until the investigation is complete, officials won't point a finger at Russia. On Tuesday afternoon, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called on Russia to stop \"provocative maneuvers\" in Georgia, according to Georgia's English-language Prime News. Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, the first time Russia sent troops abroad in anger since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. NATO is expected to launch month-long military exercises this week in Georgia. The move has angered Russia, which accused the alliance of \"muscle-flexing.\" \"All kinds of things have been said,\" the Russian Foreign Ministry said. \"But it has never before been claimed that Russia is trying to overthrow the Georgian government with the help of the Georgian armed forces. In this regard, we once again reiterate that Russia does not interfere in the internal affairs of Georgia on principle. We do not believe in scripts imposed from the outside.\" NATO said it had no comment on the incident because it did not independently confirm the event. However, a NATO spokeswoman in Brussels said Tuesday that exercises planned for Wednesday are \"still on\" and that \"nothing has changed\" after the attempted mutiny. \"The timing chosen by Tbilisi for its latest action is telling: the day before the start of NATO exercises in Georgia,\" the Russian Foreign Ministry said. \"We strongly warned our partners that the exercises were absolutely inappropriate in the current highly charged atmosphere within Georgia and the region. Our warnings were not heeded.\" Georgia's Utiashvili said the rebelling soldiers were heard saying they were \"unhappy with the political situation in the country.\" One person was arrested, and authorities are looking for another in connection with the attempted mutiny, Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs said. The person in custody, Gia Ghvaladze, served as a major in the Special Forces Department at the now-disbanded Ministry of State Security, Georgian officials said. He is being held on charges of organizing a military mutiny. In an undercover tape released by Georgian officials, a man is heard saying, \"Russians will come. About 5,000 men, two battalions. Can you imagine? Five thousand men. Do you know how big this is?\" CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the tape, but the Georgian government said it implicates Ghvaladze. Authorities said they are looking for the second man, Koba Otanadze, who is wanted for his role in organizing the mutiny. Otanadze helped lead a military mutiny at the same base in May 2001, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. A third person -- Zaza Mushkudiani, the head of the Georgian ranger battalion -- was also being investigated, the ministry said, but it was unclear whether he was in custody. NATO is expected to launch month-long military exercises this week in Georgia. The move has angered Russia, Georgia's neighbor to the north, which accused the alliance of \"muscle-flexing.\" Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov postponed his trip to Brussels, Belgium, for the ministerial meeting of the NATO-Russia Council because of the planned NATO exercises, Lavrov told the Itar-Tass news agency. In April, Saakashvili vowed to remain in office until his term ends, defying calls by anti-government protesters that he step down. Up to 60,000 demonstrators took to the streets, blaming the president for leading the country with Russia and plunging it into a political crisis. They also were angry about rising poverty in the country. CNN's Matthew Chance and Nunu Japaridze contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Georgian authorities release recording of man saying \"Russia will come\"\nRussia denies involvement, accuses Tbilisi of \"yet another anti-Russian prank\"\nAuthorities believe mutiny intended to disrupt NATO exercises this week in Georgia .\nRussia says it disagrees with NATO plans to conduct exercises .","id":"21677758b76bb2f985c74c2a49488a7a43d1470f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Hayden Henshaw was being rushed to the doctor's office after becoming ill, his father heard that his son's classmates had been struck with the deadly swine flu virus like the one sweeping through Mexico. Swine flu commonly affects pigs and occasionally infects people in contact with pigs. Patrick Henshaw called his wife immediately to have Hayden checked for it. Later, they received the bad news. Hayden had become the third confirmed case of swine flu at his Texas high school. It is a virus that has killed 68 people in Mexico and infected at least eight people in the United States. Health officials arrived at the Henshaws' house Friday and drew blood from the whole family, then told them to stay inside and away from the public, Henshaw told CNN. The whole family is quarantined indefinitely, according to CNN-affiliate KABB. Henshaw said his family was shocked when they got the news about their son. \"Stunned. My wife was having a panic attack,\" Henshaw told the affiliate. U.S. health officials have expressed concern about U.S. cases of a swine flu virus that has similar characteristics to the fatal virus in Mexico. More than 1,000 people have fallen ill in Mexico City in a short period of time, U.S. health experts said. \"This situation has been developing quickly,\" Richard Besser, acting director of the Atlanta, Georgia-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Friday. \"This is something we are worried about.\" Besser said all of the eight U.S. patients have recovered. Watch for more on the U.S. cases \u00bb . New York health officials said Friday they were testing about 75 students at a school in New York City for swine flu after the students exhibited flu-like symptoms this week. A team of state health department doctors and staff went to the St. Francis Preparatory School in the borough of Queens on Thursday after the students reported cough, fever, sore throat, aches and pains. Test results are expected as early as Saturday. The new virus has genes from North American swine influenza, avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division. Swine flu is caused by a virus similar to a type of flu virus that infects people every year but is a strain typically found only in pigs -- or in people who have direct contact with pigs. There have, however, been cases of person-to-person transmission of swine flu, the CDC said. CNN's David Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"Texas teen is one of eight in U.S. diagnosed with swine flu .\nTeen's family ordered to stay away from public .\nDozens in Mexico have died from same strain of swine flu found in U.S.\nOfficials say new strain has resisted some antiviral drugs .","id":"c8983b622cbc28c1d9aa91758c6b1fad7a828e6e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Senate subcommittee Tuesday tackled one of the most contentious issues in U.S. sports: the fairness of the Bowl Championship Series that decides the top college football team each season. Tim Tebow, right, of the Florida Gators talks to coaches at the 2009 BCS national championship game January 8. Convened by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the hearing by the Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights subcommittee provided a sounding board for his state's disappointment over the inability of the undefeated University of Utah to qualify for the BCS national championship game last January. The BCS operates under an agreement among the major college football conferences that decides which teams qualify for the biggest bowl games each season, including the national championship game. It also distributes the revenue generated by the bowl games, with the participating members taking part in more of the post-season matches and taking home more money. Every season brings heated debate over the bowl lineup and calls for a playoff system similar to the ones used for every other National Collegiate Athletic Association sport, including small-college football. President Obama has joined many Americans in expressing his preference for a playoff system to decide the nation's top college football team. Hatch complained that the BCS system denies outsiders -- such as Utah of the Mountain West Conference -- a fair chance to compete with major conferences such as the Big 12, Big 10, Pacific 10 and Southeast Conference for a spot in the lucrative bowl games. Last season, he said, Utah went undefeated and gained a BCS berth in the Sugar Bowl against perennial power Alabama, which it defeated 31-17. However, the BCS ranking system prevented Utah from any realistic chance of selection for the national championship game, which pitted two teams that each had one loss on their records, Hatch said. For schools outside what he called the \"privileged conferences,\" the BCS system has \"significant and largely insurmountable obstacles to playing for a national championship,\" Hatch said. University of Utah President Michael Young complained that the BCS system both stifles competition and guarantees the majority of revenue from bowl games to the traditional powers. \"If you can't beat them, eliminate them,\" he said of BCS policy. In response, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman said the BCS system -- while imperfect -- is the only workable formula that ensures participation by major football powers such as his institution. The BCS recognizes the strength and depth of traditional programs, Perlman said, rejecting Young's argument that Utah has no chance to improve its status. \"There realistically is something Utah could do,\" Perlman said. \"They could play the schedule Nebraska played.\" At the same time, Perlman said that uneven odds are part of every university's experience at one time or another. \"It's the same as when Nebraska walks into the NIH [National Institutes of Health] and seeks a federal grant and competes with Harvard,\" he said. \"Theoretically we have the same the chance, but do we really?\" Two anti-trust experts provided conflicting testimony on whether the BCS system violates the Sherman Antitrust Act. Barry Brett of the law firm Troutman Sanders insisted the BCS holds what amounts to an illegal monopoly and \"uses this control to exclude all but its founding members [from] fair access to the competition and control of hundreds of millions of dollars.\" In response, William Monts III of Hogan and Hartson noted the BCS members created the national championship game and therefore have the right to determine who participates. He also warned against seeking anti-trust relief in court, saying a ruling against the BCS would end its existence without creating an alternative. \"The peculiar irony of an anti-trust claim is that it is likely to sound the death knell for the playoff system proponents want,\" Monts said.","highlights":"Convened by GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah .\nUtah went undefeated and beat Alabama in Sugar Bowl last season, noted Hatch .\nBut BCS ranking system kept Utah out of national championship game, he said .\nTeams in championship game each had one loss on their records, Hatch noted .","id":"21a958b13d741d4ab54c10c4d8e89d3e87745e3f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine videotaped throwing a puppy over a cliff while on patrol in Iraq has been kicked out of the Corps, and a second Marine involved has been disciplined, according to a statement released by the Marines. YouTube.com removed the video for violating the Web site's terms of use. Lance Cpl. David Motari, based in Hawaii with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, is being \"processed for separation\" and received non-judicial punishment, officials said in the statement Wednesday night. The Marine Corps would not specify what that punishment was because of privacy regulations. The statement said Motari received the punishment for his role in the \"episode which generated international attention.\" The incident appeared on the Internet web site YouTube in March, sparking outrage from animal rights groups around the world. In the video, Motari is seen throwing the dog off a cliff as it yelps. A second Marine, San Diego-based Sgt. Crismarvin Banez Encarnacion, received non-judicial punishment as well. Janice Hagar, a spokeswoman for the Marines in San Diego, said Encarnacion shot the video. Marine officials at the Pentagon would not disclose the severity of the disciplinary action against Encarnacion, also because of privacy regulations. CNN did not receive a response from the Marine Corps in San Diego to questions about the case. The statement said the Marines conducted an investigation as soon as the YouTube video came to the attention of commanders. \"The actions seen in the Internet video are contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine and will not be tolerated,\" according to the statement. On the video, Motari smiles as he is holding the puppy and then hurls the dog over a cliff. An unknown person operating the video cameras is heard laughing and another voice saying \"that's mean, Motari.\" In a statement, the Humane Society of the United States applauded the Marine Corps' decision to punish those involved. \"The bad actors in this case have been dealt with by the Marine Corps, which rightly recognizes that harming animals is unacceptable conduct,\" said Dale Bartlett, the group's deputy manager for animal cruelty issues. \"Now, the Department of Defense and the Congress must step up protection from cruelty for all animals under the law governing military conduct.\"","highlights":"Hawaii-based Lance Cpl. David Motari is being \"processed for separation\"\nMotari was seen on video tossing a puppy off a cliff while on patrol in Iraq .\nSecond Marine, who filmed the incident, was also disciplined .","id":"29519eeb37cc5798ff1639c25eaa2e80c801d109"} -{"article":"GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN) -- The number of confirmed swine flu cases across the globe kept rising Friday, but some signs of hope emerged in the battle against the worldwide outbreak. Tourists sunbathe wearing surgical masks in the popular Mexican resort of Acapulco. The World Health Organization said Friday that the number of confirmed cases stood at 367 worldwide, including 141 in the United States and 156 in Mexico. Thirteen countries have confirmed cases, the organization said. Meanwhile, researchers worked to develop a vaccine for swine flu, which is also known as 2009 H1N1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to have a vaccine to manufacturers within a month, said Michael Shaw, lab team leader for the H1N1 response at the CDC. \"We're doing the best we can as fast as we can,\" he said. Yet it would take four to six months from the time the appropriate strain is identified before the first doses become available, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research. \"Of course we would like to have a vaccine tomorrow. We would have wanted to have it yesterday,\" she said. \"It's a long journey.\" She said there is \"no doubt\" that a vaccine can be made \"in a relatively short period of time.\" The steps involved in producing a vaccine involve isolating a strain of the virus, which has already been done, and tweaking it so manufacturers can make a vaccine, Kieny said. The tweaked virus will be shipped to manufacturers, who will fine-tune it. Then come more tests before national regulatory agencies decide whether to approve a vaccine. As researchers work, at least one politician at the epicenter of the outbreak expressed optimism Friday. Authorities in Mexico are \"beginning to see evidence that the [virus] might be letting up, and the number of people who have been hospitalized has leveled out in regards to people who are contagious, at least as of yesterday,\" Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard told reporters. Watch how Mexican authorities are dealing with the outbreak \u00bb . \"We do have a problem, but I say this so that we know where we are as a city after we have done all we have done, and in what direction we are heading and how much we have progressed. And what I can say is that we are heading in the right direction.\" The WHO said Mexico has 156 confirmed cases and nine deaths. Mexican authorities say they have confirmed 16 deaths and at least 358 cases, and they suspect more than 150 deaths may have been caused by the flu. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta demystify pandemics \u00bb . The CDC gave the following state-by-state breakdown of the 141 confirmed H1N1 cases in the United States: Arizona, 4; California, 13; Colorado, 2; Delaware, 4; Illinois, 3; Indiana, 3; Kansas, 2; Kentucky, 1; Massachusetts, 2; Michigan, 2; Minnesota, 1; Nebraska, 1; Nevada, 1; New Jersey, 5; New York, 50; Ohio, 1; South Carolina, 16; Texas, 28; and Virginia, 2. See where cases have been confirmed \u00bb . One death in the United States has been attributed to swine flu -- a toddler from Mexico whose family brought him to Texas for medical treatment. In a Cabinet meeting, President Obama on Friday praised the \"extraordinary\" government response to the virus but emphasized that \"we also need to prepare for the long term.\" \"Since we know that these kinds of threats can emerge at any moment, even if it turns out that the H1N1 is relatively mild on the front end, it could come back in a more virulent form during the actual flu season, and that's why we are investing in our public health infrastructure.\" Go behind the scenes at the CDC \u00bb . He said there are indications from Mexico that \"relatively young, healthy people\" have died rather than people whose immune systems are compromised, and \"that's why we're taking it seriously.\" \"So I just want everybody to be clear that this is why this is a cause for concern, but not alarm. We are essentially ensuring that, in the worst-case scenario, we can manage this appropriately, government working with businesses and individuals, the private sector, and containing an outbreak, and that we can, ultimately, get through this.\" In addition to the confirmed H1N1 cases in Mexico and the United States, Canada has 34; Spain has 13; United Kingdom has 8; New Zealand and Germany each have 4; Israel has 2; Austria, China, Denmark, Netherlands and Switzerland each have one, according to the WHO. Learn about the virus \u00bb . Hong Kong health officials said a patient who is being treated there arrived from Mexico on a China Eastern Airlines flight that stopped in Shanghai. Denmark did not provide further details. An additional 230 cases are being investigated in the United Kingdom, and Spain has 84 suspected cases. Australia, which has had no confirmed cases, was investigating 114. View images of responses in U.S. and worldwide \u00bb . The effects in Mexico reflect the fear and concern across the globe, including in the United States, where schools and parents are taking precautions in academics, graduations and sports because of the flu. For example, 22 students Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania who just returned from from a five-week trip to Mexico City will get their diplomas at a separate ceremony when they graduate Saturday. Texas school officials have postponed all interscholastic sports until at least May 11. And Alabama has stopped such competitions until at least Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Education said Friday that 433 public and nonpublic schools in 17 states had been closed because of the flu outbreak. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted in a news conference that the number is less than 1 percent of the nation's approximate 100,000 schools. Earlier Friday, United Flight 903 was diverted to Boston, Massachusetts, on Friday after a female passenger started complaining of \"flu-like\" symptoms on a Munich-to-Washington flight, Logan Airport spokesman Phil Orendella said. CDC officials at a news conference Friday were asked to compare the strain with the deadly 1918 virus. \"What we have found by looking very carefully at the sequences of the new H1N1 virus is that we do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus,\" said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division. However, she added, \"We know there's a great deal that we do not yet understand about the virulence of the 1918 virus or other influenza viruses that have a more severe clinical picture in humans.\" CNN's Karl Penhaul, Diana Magnay, Jake Perez, Saeed Ahmed, Umaro Djau and Nicole Saidi contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mexican government says 16 people have died from virus .\nVirus has spread to 13 countries, with hardest-hit areas in the West .\nU.S. Education Department says outbreak has closed 433 schools in 17 states .\nVaccine could be made \"in a relatively short period of time,\" official says .","id":"00377ab9d3caafb18464c47d0535ae2781aeef15"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite crushing defeats in the last two elections, Senate Republicans have new \"energy and enthusiasm\" for winning back the majority, according to their leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. A top GOP leader says George W. Bush, politically, was a \"millstone\" around the GOP's neck. \"President Bush had become extremely unpopular, and politically he was sort of a millstone around our necks in both '06 and '08,\" McConnell told reporters Friday. \"We now have the opportunity to be on offense, offer our own ideas and we will win some.\" Many of those ideas get presented as amendments to Democratic bills, and even though they're usually defeated, they can draw attention to GOP policy alternatives and force Democrats to take difficult votes. \"They become the way you chart the course for a comeback, which, in this country, always happens at some point,\" McConnell said. \"The pendulum swings.\" McConnell said many of the ideas for amendments come from conservative think tanks and other Republican thinkers off Capitol Hill. \"Newt Gingrich, for example, has an idea a minute. Many of those are quite good. Many of those become amendments,\" he said. McConnell also said he doesn't mind the \"party of no\" label Congressional Democrats and the White House give Republicans. \"I don't feel anyone should be apologetic for opposing a bad idea,\" McConnell said. \"I'm not fearful of an effort to demonize dissent.\" After being labeled by Democrats the \"party of no\" for criticizing the budget without offering solutions, House Republicans said Thursday that they have come up with a plan B -- though were later criticized for a lack of details. \"Two nights ago, the president said, 'We haven't seen a budget yet out of Republicans.' Well, it's just not true, because here it is, Mr. President,\" House Minority leader Rep. John Boehner said Wednesday as he held up a booklet that he said was a \"blueprint for where we're going.\" Watch GOP leaders unveil their 'leaner' budget \u00bb . The details of the GOP budget will be presented on the House floor next week, said Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin. \"We're going to show a leaner budget, a budget with lower taxes, lower spending and lower borrowing,\" Ryan said. The blueprint includes familiar Republican proposals to limit \"wasteful\" government spending, cut the size of government and provide incentives to private entities to expand access to health care. It also includes a major overhaul of the tax code, proposing a marginal tax rate of 10 percent for income up to $100,000 and 25 percent for any income above that level. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs laughed off the Republicans' proposal Thursday, joking that their blueprint has more pictures of windmills than charts. \"It's interesting to have a budget that doesn't contain any numbers. I think the 'party of no' has become the 'party of no new ideas,' \" he said at the daily briefing. CNN contributor Paul Begala says that Republicans are simply out of ideas -- and have no one to blame but themselves. \"The Republicans are like an arsonist who complains that the fire department is wasting water. Obama is trying to handle an immediate crisis while also laying the foundation for long-term growth. The Republicans are doing neither,\" Begala said. \"They have no plan to stop the loss of jobs or to get capital markets functioning properly -- and they certainly have no plans for health care, education or energy, which are the keys to both long-term economic growth and long-term deficit reduction.\" Begala added: \"If this were 'Sesame Street,' the announcer would be saying, 'This program brought to you by the letters G, O and P ... None of the crises the president is addressing were of his creation. All of them were created or worsened by the Republicans who ran the House of Representatives, Senate and White House for years.\" CNN's Ed Hornick and Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"Top Senate Republican says the party is plotting a \"comeback\"\nSen. Mitch McConnell says Bush was 'a millstone around our necks'\nMcConnell: No need to apologize \"for opposing a bad idea\"","id":"53260a461a39ffb8e25bd2c62817841fd1761a71"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A pathologist hired by the family of one of two women whose mysterious deaths in Thailand drew worldwide attention says her \"lungs were 100 percent congested,\" Jill St. Onge's fiancee and brother said. Jill St. Onge died while vacationing with her fiance at a Thailand resort. \"He said her lung tissue was gone,\" said her brother, Robert St. Onge. The pathologist has not determined what caused her lungs to fail, he said, and a final report on her May 2 death may still be weeks away. But members of St. Onge's family said they feel the pathologist's findings, though preliminary, are enough to contradict public statements made by Thai investigators that St. Onge was the victim of food poisoning. \"I am 99.9 percent sure she did not die of food poisoning,\" said Ryan Kells, St. Onge's fiancee, who was with her when she died. \"She suffocated to death. I am not a doctor, but I know when someone can't breathe.\" Kells and St. Onge, both artists from Seattle, were on a three-month vacation through Southeast Asia when they arrived on Thailand's Phi Phi Island. They had gotten engaged while on the trip and were keeping friends and family up to date with their adventures. \"Having a blast,\" Jill St. Onge, 27, wrote about the surroundings in a blog dedicated to the couple's travels. \"Food, drink, sun and warm waters ... what else do ya need?\" The couple's vacation ended tragically when Kells found his fiancee in their hotel room vomiting and unable to breathe. He rushed her to a hospital where she died. St. Onge was healthy and there was no obvious explanation for her sudden death, her brother said. Just hours after St. Onge fell ill, Julie Bergheim, a Norwegian tourist who was staying in a room next to St. Onge's at the Laleena Guesthouse, came down with similar symptoms. She also died. According to Thai media reports, police there are focusing on food poisoning as the cause of the women's deaths. On Monday, the Phuket Gazette quoted a police commander as saying blood samples from both women indicated possible food poisoning from seafood. Still, the commander said, those results were only preliminary. \"I don't know when the official results will be released,\" Maj. Gen. Pasin Nokasul told the newspaper. \"The lab work [is being] expedited because the embassies of the two tourists want to know the cause of death as soon as possible.\" Kells response to Nokasul's statement was harsh. \"That she died of food poisoning is a ridiculous statement to make,\" he said, adding it is unlikely they would have been \"the only ones affected.\" Dr. William Hurley, medical director for the Washington Poison Center, is also skeptical that food poisoning could have been responsible. In food poisoning cases, he said, \"usually what kills you is the dehydration, not the toxin.\" He added, \"Food poisoning is not something that typically kills someone this quickly. It takes days.\" Ingestion of a variety of chemicals could have caused Onge and Bergheim's sudden deaths, Hurley said, and could be consistent with the condition of Onge's lungs. But without further information, he said, it is impossible to say what killed the two women. Kells said he thinks something in the hotel where they were where staying made Jill sick. He remembers a \"chemical smell\" in the room and thinks he avoided becoming ill because he spent less time in the room. On Saturday, the Phuket Wan newspaper reported that investigators visited the Laleena Guesthouse, taking samples and removing filters from the air conditioning units in the rooms where both victims had stayed. Rat Chuped, the owner of the hotel, told the newspaper her property was not to blame. \"There is no problem with my guesthouse,\" she said.","highlights":"Seattle woman is one of 2 tourists who died of unknown causes .\nFamily says pathologist says her \"lungs were 100 percent congested\"\nThai officials have been focusing on food poisoning as cause of death .","id":"ad66f125340c2c1beabac48bd84bd0a8877b9c9e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A habitually violent young man was convicted Wednesday of the murder of teenage actor Rob Knox, who had starred in the latest \"Harry Potter\" film. The father, brother and mother of Rob Knox pose together after the death of the young actor. Karl Bishop, 22, attacked Knox and four friends with two kitchen knives outside a bar in Sidcup, south east London, last May. He stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the Old Bailey court in central London heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. Bystanders said Bishop's face was \"screwed up in rage\" as he lashed out with the two knives, the Press Association reported. Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court that the young actor's promising life was ended by a \"habitual knife carrier\" who believed stabbing people was an \"occupational hazard\" and had previous convictions for knife crime. Bishop is due to be sentenced on Thursday. Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"","highlights":"Man convicted of murder of teenage actor who starred in new \"Harry Potter\" film .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings .","id":"b26c5beef9f76c667d98b1e6bda355476c4b21b7"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- When Michael Jackson collapsed at his rented mansion last month, the singer's arms were riddled with marks and their veins had collapsed -- both characteristics found in intravenous drug users, sources told CNN on Tuesday. A source says Michael Jackson had \"paper white skin. As white as a white T-shirt.\" The revelations add to the speculation that prescription drugs played a part in Jackson's death on June 25. The exact cause is pending toxicology results that aren't due for at least another week. A source involved with the investigation into Jackson's death told CNN that Jackson had \"numerous track marks\" on his arms -- and that those marks \"could certainly be consistent with the regular IV use of a drug, like Diprivan.\" The sources did not want to be identified because the investigation is ongoing. The source said investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in the singer's $100,000-a-month rented mansion in Holmby Hills, but he would not confirm whether Diprivan was among them. Watch what sources say on condition of Jackson's body \u00bb . He also cautioned that it was too soon to say whether an intravenous drip of Diprivan caused the track marks. Some appeared fresh; others older, he said. The new ones could have resulted from the IVs that paramedics used when they tried to revive Jackson after he was found unconscious. Another source with knowledge of the case said Jackson's veins were collapsed in both arms, suggesting frequent intravenous drug use. The first source said Jackson's body was \"lily white from head to toe,\" perhaps the result of vitiligo -- a condition that causes the skin to lose melanin and produce slowly enlarging white patches. The second source said Jackson had \"paper white skin. As white as a white T-shirt.\" The singer also did not have any hair -- a lingering effect, possibly, of an accident in 1984 when Jackson suffered burns to his scalp while shooting a commercial for Pepsi. Also, said the second source, Jackson was emaciated -- despite the vigor he's seen displaying in a taped rehearsal clip shot two nights before his death. The drug Diprivan, known by its generic name Propofol, is administered intravenously in operating rooms as a general anesthetic. Last week, a nutritionist -- Cherilyn Lee -- said Jackson pleaded for the drug despite being told of its harmful effects, because he had difficulty falling asleep. Sources close to Jackson told CNN that the insomniac singer traveled with an anesthesiologist who would \"take him down\" at night and \"bring him back up\" during a world tour in the mid-'90s. The California state attorney general's office is helping the Los Angeles Police Department in Jackson's death investigation. The office confirmed it is investigating some doctors who treated Jackson over the years. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is also looking into the role of drugs. Los Angeles police have interviewed Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. They impounded Murray's car, saying it might contain evidence, possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Through his lawyers, Murray has released several statements, saying he would not be commenting until the toxicology results from Jackson's autopsy are released. Dr. Neil Ratner, the anesthesiologist who accompanied Jackson during the HIStory tour in the mid-'90s, also refused to comment, although he acknowledged Jackson suffered from a sleep disorder. CNN's Susan Chun contributed to this report.","highlights":"Source cites \"numerous track marks\" on Jackson's arms when medics came .\n2nd source says Jackson's veins were collapsed in both arms .\nSources also say Jackson was emaciated, didn't have any hair .\nToxicology reports are at least a week away .","id":"4dc92ca7a9acb9a0f98fb51203f5aec2b8d94c05"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's been a homicidal singing barber in \"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street\" and a drunken swashbuckler in \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.\" Depp is back as bank robber John Dillinger, revered in the Depression as a modern-day Robin Hood. Now, Hollywood shape-shifter Johnny Depp is back as another unexpectedly charismatic outlaw: Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger, a character he says he's been drawn to since he was a boy. \"I sort of had a fascination with John Dillinger when I was about 10, 11 years old, for some reason,\" Depp told CNN. \"I always kind of admired him, oddly.\" Oddly, perhaps, because for a short but intense period between September 1933 and July 1934 Dillinger and his gang rampaged through the American Midwest, staging jail breaks, robbing banks, and killing 10 men and wounding seven along the way. Dillinger's violent spree is the focus of gangster drama \"Public Enemies,\" the latest offering from director Michael Mann, and also starring Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. Mann is known for his sympathetic portrayal of criminals, and Dillinger -- whose acts on the wrong side of the law led him to become one of America's first celebrities -- is the quintessential good hood. In the 1930s, the United States was in the grips of the worst financial disaster in history -- a time when many Americans watched their life savings disappear and became jobless and hungry. Members of the public blamed banks for losing their money and politicians for failing to stop them. For many, Dillinger's exploits represented sticking it to the fat cats, and he was idolized as a modern-day Robin Hood. J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director at the time, may have made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy No. 1, but the bandit was careful not to alienate the public. There is a memorable moment where he drapes a coat over a female bank hostage during a raid to keep her warm. Also, it's said he never swore in front of women. He was always courteous even as he tried to meet his target of robbing banks in under two minutes. Crucially, he never robbed the average guy, telling him to put his money away during robberies. It is this Dillinger that Depp captures: a captivating revolutionary with the gift of gab who lit the public's imagination, causing people to flock to cinemas to watch his exploits in weekly newsreels. Review: Depp is great in 'Public Enemies' Of course, the dark, violent side of Dillinger's psyche is unavoidable. Depp plumbed the depths of his own character to come up with those murkier elements. That was something that took courage, according to Mann: \"He had Dillinger in him; that's something I sensed. Deep in the core of Johnny there's a toughness.\" Depp gained recognition throughout the 1990s for immersing himself in characters. He shook off an early reputation as a teen pin-up in movies like Tim Burton's 1991 Gothic tale \"Edward Scissorhands.\" He went on to cement his reputation for unusual film choices and quirky performances in films like \"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\" (2005) and \"Finding Neverland\" (2004). In pictures: Johnny Depp's iconic roles \u00bb . The 46-year-old actor says he felt a close affinity to Dillinger: \"I related to John Dillinger like he was a relative. I felt he was of the same blood. He reminded me of my stepdad and very much of my grandfather. \"He seemed to be one of those guys with absolutely no bull whatsoever, who lived at a time when a man was a man.\" \"Public Enemies\" was adapted by Mann from a nonfiction book of the same name by Bryan Burrough. Is it sozzled Captain. Jack Sparrow or smooth Donnie Brasco? Tell us your favorite Johnny Depp character in the SoundOff box below. The \"Last of the Mohicans\" director is known for fastidious research and attention to detail, which in this case included collaborating closely with the FBI to check facts -- although Mann subsequently chose to gloss over some elements for the sake of the story. Mann filmed in many of the locations where Dillinger's story took place almost 80 years ago, including the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, where the bandit was finally shot dead by FBI agents as he came out of a Clark Gable movie. They also shot at Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters in the far north of Wisconsin, the site of one of Dillinger's most famous showdowns with the FBI. Dillinger was hiding out there after a botched robbery. When the feds finally caught up with him, two men were killed in the vicious gunfight. \"We were able to shoot not just in the actual place where this happened, but in his actual room,\" says Mann. \"There's a certain kind of magic for Johnny Depp to be lying in the bed that John Dillinger was actually in.\" A lot of Dillinger's success was down to superior guns and getaway cars. Depp, who has experience shooting guns from previous productions, had to learn a completely different technique for the heavy guns of the time. Depp says shooting the Thompson submachine gun was one of the highlights of the production: \"When you've got a beast like that strapped to you and you're emptying magazines, a 50-round drum, it's a good feeling.\" The ride may have been thrilling for Depp but he also recognizes that the Depression-era setting has some extra significance these tight-belted times. \"You know,\" says Depp, \"We're in the middle of a recession, teetering on a depression. It's time to view the banks and grown-ups for what they are.\"","highlights":"Johnny Depp plays charismatic bank robber John Dillinger in \"Public Enemies\"\nDepression-era tale of first Public Enemy No. 1, idolized as modern-day Robin Hood .\nDillinger's gang killed 10 men, wounded seven during a spree of less than one year .\nDepp on Dillinger: \"I always kind of admired him, oddly\"","id":"48836541fd95779ecf05c5b61a89a1a606f9a424"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With their nation under high security alert, South Koreans mourned a former leader at a funeral ceremony Friday morning. The hearse carrying Roh Moo-Hyun's coffin heads for Seoul at Roh's hometown village of Bonghwa in Gimhae. Officials and dignitaries gathered in Seoul's Kyungbok Palace to honor former President Roh Moo-Hyun, who committed suicide last week. South Koreans poured into the streets to catch a glimpse of the black Cadillac making a five-and-a-half hour journey from Roh's home in the village of Bongha to the capital. Some bowed their heads or wept openly. Others, still stunned from the loss, stood quietly in black as the hearse drove by. Scores of Roh's supporters handed out yellow balloons, the color associated with Roh's political campaign. Other supporters had posters of Roh's image that read, \"President in my heart\" and \"You are my president.\" A person who walked by Roh's memorial site said, \"Roh understood the difficulties of normal people. We feel he acted like a shield for people with no power. He was the people's president.\" One woman on her way to work in Seoul said: \"He was the first president South Koreans picked with their own hands.\" She was referring to the fact that Roh didn't have a big political machine behind him. He won the election in 2002 by razor thin margin and his appeal was that he related to the common person. This week has been marred by grief and tension for South Koreans as they grappled with Roh's sudden death and renewed threats from North Korea. Following the official ceremony, Roh's body will be taken to the plaza in front of Seoul's city hall, where large crowds are expected to say goodbye to a beloved leader. He will be cremated later Friday and the remains carried back by hearse to Bongha. Roh, who served between 2003 and 2008, jumped from a hill behind his house last Saturday, government officials said. His death came amid an investigation into a bribery scandal that had tarnished his reputation. However, tens of thousands of people have visited memorial shrines for Roh, laying white chrysanthemums in a traditional show of grief and leaving cigarettes on the altars to remember a man who was reported to have taken up smoking during the investigation. In a suicide note given to the media by his lawyer, Roh wrote: \"I am in debt to too many people. Too many people have suffered because of me. And I cannot imagine the suffering they will go through in the future.\" Prosecutors were investigating the former president for allegedly receiving $6 million in bribes from a South Korean businessman while in office. Roh's wife was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors Saturday, and Roh was planning to answer a second round of questions next week. Why some South Koreans are angry about Roh's death \u00bb . The investigation has now been suspended. The debate over Roh's suicide has occupied as much column space in South Korea's press as the recent aggressive behavior shown by the North. On Tuesday, the conservative Chosun Ilbo urged South Koreans to remember the words of the former president's suicide note. \"Roh's abrupt death brings home how vain the rise and fall of power is and how futile it is to nurse hatred and conflict in pursuit of them. Roh himself said in his will, 'Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't blame anybody.' He would not have wished his own death to cause more political confusion and social conflict,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. It also criticized prosecutors who \"seem to have worried about public consensus rather than focusing on principles.\" The left-leaning Hankoryeh called Roh's death \"political murder,\" echoing the widespread feeling that the former president paid too high a price for his alleged crime. \"The case of late President Roh was the most unfortunate in South Korean history, brought about by the Lee Myung-bak administration, which despised the person more than the crime,\" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. The mood on South Korea's influential blogs and message boards was somber and split between messages of comfort, dismay at Roh's decision to end his life and angry accusations against prosecutors and the government. \"President Roh's perseverance to provide Korea with a true democracy has come to a sudden end. We saw the grief of his demise in the eyes of millions of Koreans,\" read a message posted on the popular Daum Agora Web portal. \"Prosecutors and the police! Are you the people of the Republic of Korea?,\" asked another. Just before he left the presidency, Roh became the first South Korean leader to cross the demilitarized zone and meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. He believed in the \"sunshine policy\" of his predecessor, Kim Dae-Jung, that sought to engage the north, and Roh also promised aid. CNN's Pauline Chiou and freelance journalist Nicolai Hartvig contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Motorcade accompanying Roh's body on way to the capital, Seoul .\nNEW: Grief-stricken S. Koreans pour out onto the streets to pay final respects .\nRoh Moo-Hyun took his own life amid an ongoing corruption investigation .\nRoh was in office between 2003 and 2008 .","id":"ceacf83e15188b431bc88ebe222670b031d3e5ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court says he has evidence to prove Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is guilty of genocide, even though he is not charged with the crime. Omar al-Bashir remains president and has traveled to several countries since warrant was issued. Luis Moreno-Ocampo spoke to CNN on Wednesday, two days after he appealed to the court to add genocide to the existing arrest warrant for al-Bashir. The court issued the warrant in March on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to his five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan's Darfur region. \"The evidence shows it is genocide,\" Moreno-Ocampo said. The warrant was the first one ever issued for a sitting head of state by the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, based at The Hague in the Netherlands. It includes five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. It also includes two charges of war crimes for intentionally directing attacks against civilians and for pillaging. Al-Bashir remains president and has traveled to several countries since the warrant was issued, even though any country that is party to the ICC has an obligation to hand him over to The Hague, the court says. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Sudan denies the death toll is that high. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. In his appeal to the court Monday, Moreno-Ocampo complained that the judges' standard for adding the genocide charge to the warrant is too high. The judges want him to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that al-Bashir committed genocide, but that level of proof is not required for a warrant, which only requires a reasonable inference of guilt, he said. \"They are requesting a level of evidence that is the level of evidence required at the trial stage, not at the beginning of the process,\" Moreno-Ocampo said. Part of the reason that prosecutors cannot provide more evidence at this stage is because al-Bashir is attacking witnesses who are willing to provide information to prosecutors, Moreno-Ocampo said. Presenting more evidence could endanger the victims, he said. \"It's a legal issue,\" he said. \"The judgment by itself is very important, but in addition I cannot accept this wrong legal standard.\" The judges believe the crimes that Moreno-Ocampo classifies as genocide instead fall under the category of crimes against humanity, he said. Even if Moreno-Ocampo were successful in adding genocide to the warrant, he would still face a difficult task in proving the charges at trial, said Mark Ellis, the executive director of the International Bar Association. \"Genocide is a much more complicated legal position to meet (than war crimes and crimes against humanity) because you have to show in proving genocide that there was an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a group based on -- in this case -- ethnicity or race,\" Ellis told CNN. \"Obviously the prosecutor believes he would be able to prove this intent and so he wants the opportunity to prove that in trial.\" But if Moreno-Ocampo loses the appeal, Ellis said, it would not minimize the seriousness of the case. \"The charges that have been (alleged) on war crimes and crimes against humanity are still very serious charges and they are egregious acts,\" he said. A ruling on the appeal is likely within six months, Moreno-Ocampo told CNN.","highlights":"Luis Moreno-Ocampo calls for genocide to be added to al-Bashir's charges .\nSudan leader already charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity .\nRelates to five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan's Darfur region .\nU.N. estimates 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict .","id":"75cdf25718a482aca5da1f3ad8b76c92acd08f24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's been nine years since Kim and Curtis Christiansen were married. Since then they've had their ups and downs, but they've remained close. But when Curtis began snoring about three years ago, Kim began sleeping on the couch. After his snoring drove his wife, Kim, to sleep on the couch, Curtis Christiansen saw a sleep specialist. \"His snoring was so loud. At first I would just elbow him to wake him up,\" she said, \"But then I became concerned. He would just (she gasps for breath). It would take his breath away.\" At first Curtis Christiansen figured he was tired, a little run down from his job. He thought the snoring was just a symptom of his exhaustion. But when he started nodding off while waiting at a traffic light, he knew something was wrong. \"I became more aware of this choking and waking-up feeling,\" he said. Kim Christiansen finally persuaded her husband to go to a sleep specialist. The diagnosis: obstructive sleep apnea. According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 18 million American adults have sleep apnea, and many of them don't know it. Some people think their snoring is just a side effect of a busy lifestyle. Watch more on the difference between sleep apnea and snoring \u00bb . In some cases, that's true. But the foundation says it's trying to get more people to realize how important it is to know the difference between occasional snoring and apnea. Studies have shown that sleep apnea has some serious side effects. A disorder in which breathing is briefly and repeatedly interrupted during sleep, apnea occurs when the muscles in the back of the throat fail to keep the airway open, despite efforts to breathe. That can cause broken sleep patterns and low blood oxygen levels. Doctors say these side effects can lead to hypertension, heart disease, and mood and memory problems. In a recent study at the University of Maryland Medical Center, researchers found that sleep apnea can cause a rise in depression and that sleep-related breathing disorders can also worsen nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder. And because sufferers are usually sleepy during the day, apnea can increase the risk of automobile crashes. There's no question it can be life-threatening, doctors say. So how do you know whether your snoring is something more serious? When snoring starts to affect your daily habits, you should see a doctor, said Dr. Thomas LoRusso, director of the Northern Virginia Sleep Diagnostic Centers. \"A bed partner may notice that the patient stops breathing and snores loudly, \" LoRusso said. \"And the daytime symptoms are sleepiness, poor concentration, problems waking up in the morning.\" LoRusso says a good way to check your sleep habits is to note your levels of fatigue during the day and jot down other symptoms you might be having. And if you have a bed partner, ask whether he or she has noticed any \"choking or gasping while you snore,\" he said. \"The person you sleep with, many times, knows your snoring better than you.\" Specific lifestyle changes can help you avoid sleep apnea, the sleep foundation said. LoRusso agrees. \"Cut out the alcohol,\" he said. \"It can make the upper airway muscles to relax.\" And watch your weight. Losing pounds can \"cure\" sleep apnea, especially for overweight people, LoRusso said. If you smoke, try to quit, he said. Smoking creates swelling in the upper airway, making apnea worse. These seemingly small changes can have dramatic results. \"In some cases, changing these factors can eliminate sleep apnea from some patients,\" LoRusso said. For Curtis Christiansen, it wasn't that easy. Not only was he thin and a non-smoker, he suffered from high blood pressure and high cholesterol and, because of a previous health issue, had only one kidney. He needed help immediately. His doctor recommended a device called a CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure device. It's a mask or nose piece that blows air into the airway to keep it open while a patient sleeps. Although surgery is an option for those who have problems even with the CPAP, Christiansen wasn't one of them. Since his diagnosis, Christiansen has gotten his blood pressure under control. When he started wearing the CPAP, he confesses, he'd leave it behind when he went out of town. \"But I found I wasn't getting a good night's sleep, so now I take the CPAP along,\" he said with a smile, \"and I have a restful vacation with my wife.\"","highlights":"In sleep apnea, breathing is briefly and repeatedly interrupted .\nMore than 18 million U.S. adults have sleep apnea; many don't know it .\nPotential side effects: hypertension, heart disease and mood, memory problems .\nCutting out alcohol, losing weight, quitting smoking can help .","id":"b7aa93f75367bd6cd1c43bd3e4835d8eec404f93"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held a commanding lead in national elections Wednesday, according to the latest exit polls. A woman votes at a polling station in Indonesia. An average of six exit polls showed the incumbent holding about 60 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and 12 percent for Yudhoyono's vice president, Yusuf Kalla. Official results are expected no sooner than next week. Indonesia has 175 million registered voters spread over 17,000 islands. It was the country's second direct election since the authoritarian regime of dictator Suharto fell in 1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. Analysts and polls, ahead of the vote, predicted Yudhoyono -- riding high on the country's economic strength -- would win a second term. Watch as incumbent expected to win election \u00bb . In 2004, Yudhoyono defeated then-incumbent Megawati in a runoff election. Watch more on the election \u00bb . Yudhoyono \"has positive global image; relations with the American government have been the best in all the time that I have been here, the last 30 years,\" said James Castle, who analyzes Indonesia's politics and economy. \"He's very popular in the foreign community and, to be honest, if he's not re-elected, the markets will react negatively for a month or so.\" Yudhoyono's Democratic Party was the only single party to get enough votes in April's legislative elections to nominate a candidate on its own. Kalla's Golkar Party came in second and Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, placed third. Kalla and Megawati had to form coalitions with other parties to run for president. Kalla had hoped voters would give him some of the credit for Indonesia's economic successes which occurred under his term as vice president. Kalla and Megawati had to form coalitions with other parties to run for president. See a photo slideshow of Indonesians talking about who they will vote for \u00bb . Yudhoyono is known as \"Mr. Clean\" because of his anti-corruption efforts. He has gained popularity for his handling of the 2004 tsunami recovery and the country's battle against terrorism. Indonesia has had impressive economic growth over the past five years, though how much direct credit Yudhoyono can take for that is questionable. And despite Indonesia posting an average of 5.9 percent annual growth during his presidency, little of that has trickled down to the country's poor. Yudhoyono's opponents say he is too liberal, is too skewed toward the west, and doesn't pay enough attention to the 40 million Indonesians living below the poverty line. Still, the country is exhibiting surprising resilience in the face of the global economic downturn. Growth topped 6 percent last year, and Indonesia was the fastest-growing economy in southeast Asia in the first quarter of this year. \"All off a sudden, everybody is contracting except for Indonesia,\" Castle said. \"We've had more visiting regional heads and so on in the last six months than we had in the last six years.\"","highlights":"NEW: Polls close; Official results expected no sooner than next week .\nThree familiar faces competed: current president, his deputy and an ex-president .\nAnalysts and polls have Yudhoyono (known as SBY) tipped to win a second term .\nSBY is riding high on the country's economic strength .","id":"a108ed054c675f30b69029519e8d9e38734a775d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The White House unveiled a strategy to combat rising drug crimes along the border Friday, vowing to curb the flow of narcotics and weapons that has been endangering more and more U.S. communities. Pedestrians cross the U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro gate in San Diego, California. \"The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy we introduce today provides an effective way forward that will crack down on cartels and make our country safer,\" Attorney General Eric Holder vowed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the plan \"calls for tougher inspections, more enforcement personnel and close coordination with our partners in Mexico as we work across federal, state and local governments. ... Together, we will continue to reduce the flow of illegal drugs across the Southwest border and ensure that those who ignore our laws are prosecuted.\" The plan did not appear to contain any surprises. It focuses largely on increased intelligence, cooperation among law enforcement agencies and enhanced technology. A summary released by the White House also promises \"targeted financial sanctions to disable drug trafficking organizations.\" Rising drug violence in the United States is one of the administration's top domestic concerns. Among the worst-hit cities in recent years is Phoenix, Arizona, where there's been an average of more than one reported kidnapping every day since 2007, virtually all linked to the drug trade. Home invasions have spiked as well. As drug cartels have extended their reach in the United States, the violence has also been on the rise on the other side of the border. More than 40 people, including two police officers, have been killed in shootings in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez since last weekend, authorities there said. Gil Kerlikowske, President Obama's director of national drug control policy, will oversee the policy announced Friday. \"This new plan, combined with the dedicated efforts of the government of Mexico, creates a unique opportunity to make real headway on the drug threat,\" Kerlikowske said. \"At the same time, we are renewing our commitment to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States, which will support this effort. The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy will improve the safety of communities on the border and throughout our nation.\" CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Plan involves increased intelligence and enhanced technology .\nIt aims to slow the flow of cash and illegal firearms into Mexico .\nRising drug violence is among White House's top domestic concerns .","id":"37893db7bbba52203c6c56f6efb05aa23704047c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A longtime employee and vault manager for a jewelry company in Long Island City, New York, stole millions of dollars worth of gold and gold jewelry from her employer over a six-year span, the Queens district attorney has alleged. Teresa Tambunting, 50, of Scarsdale, New York, is accused of stealing as much as $12 million from Jacmel Jewelry, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement Wednesday. At an arraignment Wednesday, she did not enter a plea to charges of first-degree grand larceny and first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, the district attorney's office said. She was released on $100,000 bail and will return to court May 19, the office said. Her attorney, David Kirby, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Tambunting, who worked for Jacmel for 28 years, has returned about $7 million worth of gold, but $4 million remains missing, according to Brown. \"The defendant is accused of establishing a virtual mining operation in Long Island City which siphoned off millions of dollars' worth of the precious metal from her employer,\" Brown said. Police say Tambunting -- whose job responsibilities involved monitoring the vault in which fine gold, finished products and raw materials were stored -- confessed that for several months last year, she hid gold in makeshift slits in her purse. An inventory in January revealed that as much as $12 million in merchandise was missing, Brown said in the written statement. After an investigation, Tambunting arrived at the jewelry company's offices wheeling a suitcase containing about 66 pounds of gold, an estimated $868,000, the district attorney's office said. In February, about 450 pounds of gold was taken from her residence, the office said. Tambunting became vault manager in 1991, the office said. The dates of the alleged thefts were not immediately clear. The value of the gold returned fluctuates because of the rise and fall of gold prices. However, the charges are based on what Jacmel claims it lost: $3 to $12 million, according to the Queens district attorney. Jewelry manufacturer owners often find themselves in precarious circumstances when protecting their companies from thievery, said Benjamin Mark, who owned a jewelry manufacturing company in New York for 20 years. \"Unless you have metal detectors where every single employee removes their shoes and belts, you can't be certain,\" said Mark, who now operates a one-man business. \"Stealing jewelry is relatively simple.\" Jacmel Jewelry is one of the country's largest manufacturers and distributors of popular price jewelry, according to its Web site. It employs more than 1,000 people worldwide, according to its president, Jack Rahmey. Rahmey said he is cooperating with authorities. Tambunting faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.","highlights":"Vault manager worked for Jacmel Jewelry for 28 years .\nAuthorities say she confessed to hiding gold in her purse .\nDistrict attorney says she's returned about $7 million in gold .\nShe could get 25 years in prison if convicted .","id":"d60d7da45005c5f90be870af45ddf523478aaea9"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's dermatologist did not rule out that he may be the biological father of Jackson's children, and Dr. Arnold Klein denied that he ever gave Jackson dangerous drugs. When asked if he were the father of Jackson's oldest children, Klein said \"not to the best of my knowledge.\" Klein, in an interview Wednesday on ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" denied that he was on the list of doctors being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department. When he saw that someone gave Jackson a dangerous drug, he was the one \"who limited everything, who stopped everything,\" Klein said. Jackson danced around Klein's Beverly Hills office just three days before his death and was \"not in terrible pain,\" Klein said. Debbie Rowe, who was briefly married to Jackson and gave birth to his two oldest children, worked for 23 years in Klein's office, he said. The doctor refused to say whether he thought Rowe should get custody of them instead of Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson. Photos: Stars come out for memorial \u00bb . \"I can't make those answers, because 'should have' and 'will' are two different things,\" he said. Klein was scheduled to talk to CNN's Larry King about Michael Jackson on Wednesday night. Klein's response when Diane Sawyer asked whether he was the biological father of Jackson's children left open the possibility that he was. Watch why Paris Jackson's comments were a surprise \u00bb . \"Not to the best of my knowledge,\" Klein said. \"All I can tell you is, best of my knowledge, I am not the father of these children. But I am telling you, if push comes to shove, I can't say anything about.\" Klein said he \"can't answer it in any other way, because, you know what, I don't want to feed any of this insanity that is going around.\" Katherine Jackson was given temporary guardianship of the children by a judge several days after her son's death. Rowe was considering whether she will seek custody or visitation of the two born to her, her lawyer said last week. The Los Angeles County coroner is waiting for toxicology test results -- not due for at least another week -- before determining what killed Jackson last month. The death certificate listed the cause of death as \"deferred.\" Watch the latest details in the Jackson probe \u00bb . Sources said Tuesday that when Jackson collapsed, his arms were riddled with marks, and their veins had collapsed, both characteristics found in intravenous drug users. The revelations add to the growing speculation that prescription drugs played a part in Jackson's death. Klein said that when Jackson came to his office the week of his death, there were no indications anything was wrong: no \"problems of slurred speech, shorten movement or anything.\" Watch Klein deny he is the father of Michael Jackson's children \u00bb . \"I saw nothing at that point that would make me worry whatsoever,\" he said. \"But I was always concerned about him, because I was always worried about other doctors.\" He said \"the problem with Michael\" was that because he was rich, \"no matter what he wanted, someone would give it to him.\" Klein said he once convinced Jackson not to take Dilaudid, a drug he said was \"10 times stronger than morphine.\" \"I said, 'You can't take that. It's poison. Throw that in the trash,' \" he said. \"And I got him to throw it in the toilet. But I can't be there every minute.\" Klein said that LAPD investigators have not contacted him and that he is \"not one of the doctors\" being questioned about Jackson's drug use. \"I have given him medication, yes,\" he said. \"He could take all the medication I have given him in a year, and nothing would happen to him.\" Klein said he has \"sedated him in the past,\" when he \"put him through very painful procedures. \"There was nothing wrong with the manner I treated Michael, because what I had to do is restructure for an individual who had lupus, who had terrible acne scarring his face,\" he said.","highlights":"Dr. Arnold Klein says singer seemed in good shape .\nIs Klein father of two oldest Jackson children? \"Not to the best of my knowledge\"\nKlein will appear on \"Larry King Live\" on Wednesday night .","id":"54cfe05a28151b405d1403e774751f5b5631ae01"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- After huffing and puffing up 354 steps to the newly reopened Lady Liberty crown, Aaron Weisinger figured it was time to pop the question to his girlfriend, Erica Breder. Aaron Weisinger proposes to Erica Breder on July Fourth inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty. \"The Fourth of July has always been a favorite holiday, so that was part of it, \" Weisinger said. The couple flew to New York from San Francisco, California, after managing to be among the first 240 people to snag the tickets to the Statue of Liberty crown for its reopening after September 11, 2001. Weisinger got down on one knee inside the narrow, 8-foot-long deck inside the Statue of Liberty's crown, asked Breder to be his wife and offered her a sizeable diamond ring. \"I believe I was silent for several minutes. I was so excited,\" Breder said. Then she said \"yes.\" Both said their families came to the United States via Ellis Island. \"My great-grandparents immigrated [from Russia and Hungary],\" Weisinger said. His fiance's relatives arrived from Hungary. \"The thoughts behind the statue and freedom and liberty allowed our parents and great-grandparents before us to have the wonderful lives that we do,\" Weisinger added. Breder said she was thrilled to make the long climb up a steep spiral staircase to stand inside Lady Liberty's crown. \"It was fantastic, much smaller than we had anticipated. The view's fantastic,\" the newly engaged Breder said. New safety measures include double handrails, glass stairwell partitions and careful crowd control, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Now, only three groups of 10 visitors per hour are guided up to the crown by a National Park Service ranger. That means only about 87,000 will be able to visit each year. In the past, it took visitors at least an hour and a half to climb from the base to the crown. Now, it takes only about 15 to 20 minutes. A new engineering study showed that there had to be changes to make it easier to exit the crowded staircase. Crown tickets can now be reserved online up to a year in advance, but the statue will close again in two years for additional renovations.","highlights":"Aaron Weisinger proposed to Erica Breder on July 4 inside the Statue of Liberty .\nCouple among first people to see statue's crown since reopening after 9\/11 .\n\"I believe I was silent for several minutes. I was so excited,\" Breder said .\nNew safety measures include double handrails, stairwell partitions, crowd control .","id":"b9a4a468b1c8b53ab1b11aece3954687876431e4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The first official indication that a family service for Michael Jackson will be held at Forest Lawn Cemetery came from a Los Angeles police official Sunday. A memorial poster for Michael Jackson is displayed outside Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday. Forest Lawn officials were working with the Jackson family on their plans, which were part of \"a package\" of events Tuesday, said Jim McDonnell, assistant chief of staff of the Los Angeles Police Department. His comments, however, did not answer questions about where or when Jackson would be buried. While there are five Forest Lawn cemeteries in the Los Angeles area, a long line of media trucks and crews have been parked at the gate of the Hollywood Hills facility for several days in anticipation of Jackson's possible interment there. The family of the singer, who died June 25, has given no public statement on the planning. However, brother Jermaine Jackson told CNN on Thursday that a private service would be held Tuesday morning. A public memorial for Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles is set to start at 10 a.m. PT Tuesday. McDonnell said police do not expect a Jackson motorcade to take place on Tuesday. An official with AEG Live, the concert promoter handling the public memorial plans, said there would be no funeral processional. About 1.6 million fans registered for a chance at fewer than 9,000 pairs of tickets to the memorial service, organizers said. Registration ended at 6 p.m. Saturday. The 8,750 registrants picked in a random drawing were to receive an e-mail Sunday after 11 a.m. PT, AEG Live said. Tickets will be handed to the winning registrants Monday outside the Staples Center, said Tim Leiweke, president of AEG Live. Ticketholders will also have wristbands to match their tickets, a precaution against people \"trying to take advantage\" of the system, he said.","highlights":"L.A. police: Cemetery officials working with singer's family for private service .\nWhen, where Michael Jackson will be buried are still not publicly known .\nOne of Jackson's brothers has said private service will be held Tuesday .\nPublic memorial to be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday .","id":"a52c4443ec84274ba84de5593b1c4dacf587ef8c"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Miami Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks was arrested early Sunday after police said he struck an officer with a slow-moving Freightliner truck, according to a police report. Miami Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks was arrested early Sunday, according to police. Starks, 25, faces a charge of aggravated battery, according to the report. The arrest took place about 12:20 a.m. in Miami's South Beach area. Officers said they saw the Freightliner truck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on South Beach's Ocean Drive with some 13 people inside, including a woman sitting on the lap of Starks, who was driving. The truck's seating capacity is four occupants, the police report said. It was not clear from the police report whether the Freightliner -- normally part of a tractor-trailer -- was connected to a trailer. In the report, the officer recalled pursuing the truck on foot for about a half-block and pounding on the rear driver's-side window, but it kept moving. The officer caught up to the truck again, and it stopped after the officer pounded on the window again, the report said. \"I slowly approached the side door and just as I reached it the vehicle accelerated and started moving forward and slightly to the left,\" the unidentified officer writes in the report. \"The vehicle's path caused the driver's side of the vehicle to strike me in the chest pushing me back and pinning me against a vehicle stopped in traffic in the northbound lane.\" Meanwhile, a second officer was pounding on the passenger's-side window, the report said. The truck stopped, and Starks was arrested. A police check showed that the truck's license plate was not assigned to that vehicle, the report said, and Starks faces a charge for that as well. Starks was released from jail later Sunday, according to a records check. The Miami Herald newspaper reported earlier he was jailed on $10,000 bond. Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene told CNN the club was \"only recently made aware of the situation. Since we are in the process of gathering information we have no comment.\" Starks is in his sixth NFL season and his second with the Dolphins.","highlights":"Miami Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks was arrested early Sunday morning .\nPolice say Starks struck an officer with a slow-moving Freightliner truck .\nMiami Herald newspaper reports he was jailed on $10,000 bond .\nStarks is in his sixth NFL season and his second with the Dolphins .","id":"a036646405f460a7f86c56e7fa4204eb07809190"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN\/In Session) -- She earned $1 million a year as a high-powered financial executive, yet she told a jury she woke up hungry in a cold house because her husband controlled everything. Sandra Boss testifies about the 12 years she spent with a man she thought was one of the Rockefellers. She said it took years to leave the man who told her he was a member of the moneyed Rockefeller clan because she didn't know the online passwords to their bank accounts. Being the breadwinner offered her no status in her marriage, Sandra Lynn Boss, 42, testified Tuesday at her former husband's kidnapping trial. \"You mistakenly confuse money and power. Money and power are not the same thing in a relationship,\" she explained under cross-examination by her former husband's defense attorney, Jeffrey Denner, who at times seemed stunned by her answers. The lawyer asked Boss why she didn't assert herself given that she was a \"dynamic, intelligent woman\" who financially supported the family. She responded, \"I did assert myself but the abuse was pretty rough. There was a lot of anger and yelling.\" Watch how she felt powerless to leave \u00bb . She said she believed the fanciful stories her husband wove around his image as Clark Rockefeller and never saw any sign of mental illness. Denner asked how a successful businesswoman who was educated at Stanford and Harvard universities could fall for an impostor who called himself Clark Rockefeller. \"There's a big difference between intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence,\" Boss explained. \"I'm not saying I made a very good choice of a husband. It's obvious I had a pretty big blind spot.\" Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, is accused of kidnapping their daughter, Reigh, for six days in July and taking the child to Baltimore, Maryland, where he'd bought a townhouse near the harbor. His trial began last week in Boston, Massachusetts. In her second day on the stand, Boss described the decline of a 12-year marriage that began with a whirlwind summer romance before her second year at Harvard business school. By the time her marriage ended, she said, \"My personal life was scary.\" She repeatedly referred to her 48-year-old ex-husband as \"the defendant.\" Defense attorney Denner referred to his client as \"Clark\" during questioning. Boss, who now lives in London, England, with Reigh, 8, publicly told her story for the first time on the witness stand. She has been excoriated in the media. One New York writer called her a \"ding-bat doormat\" who married a \"Crockefeller.\" It's more complicated than that, Boss explained under cross-examination. \"He told compelling stories. It seems stupid in hindsight, and it really was, but that is how it was. ... I lived with a person who told me a set of internally consistent things.\" And so, she never questioned why he never seemed to make any money, possess a driver's license, or bring any family around. She had no doubt he had a billion-dollar art collection, even if she was annoyed he would refuse to sell off a piece or two when money got tight. She was questioned at length about one particularly bizarre story he told. He said a fall down some stairs left him mute as a child -- until he saw a dog and spontaneously uttered \"woofness\" at age 10. She did acknowledge on the stand that she considered \"woofness\" to be a \"stupid word.\" And, she said she didn't question him when he told her that asking people to pay him for work he did was beneath the dignity of a Rockefeller. She initiated divorce proceedings after hiring a private investigator in 2006, who determined that her husband definitely was not who he said he was. He agreed to part, surrendering custody of their daughter for $800,000, two cars, her engagement ring and a dress he had given her. On July 27, during an agreed-upon custodial visit, he allegedly abducted Reigh. \"I was completely traumatized,\" Boss said. \"I was hysterical.\" Denner questioned Boss at length about his client's mental state during their marriage. She said he told her in 1999 that he thought he was having a nervous breakdown folowing the Asian market collapse. They moved from New York as a result. But, despite the defense attorney's prodding, Boss would not characterize her former husband as delusional. \"The defendant was often very unpleasant -- lack of empathy, anger, control issues, absolutely. I'm not a psychologist, but he was hard to live with ... I saw behavior that made me think that he wasn't at all well, yes,\" she testified. Again, Denner suggested that her situation did not make sense, pointing out, \"You are a consultant with one of the most prestigious companies.\" Boss replied: \"I come from a place where you don't even jaywalk. It never occurred to me that I was living with someone who was lying to me.\" She added, \"He was lying to a lot of people.\" She was followed to the stand by FBI experts and another former wife. The defense case could begin Wednesday.","highlights":"Ex-wife says she had trouble leaving Rockefeller impostor .\nSandra Boss says he was controlling, abusive .\nShe says she didn't consider him mentally ill .\nImpostor is accused of kidnapping his daughter in July .","id":"783681422297809f35755962092d6a75eb1d8e16"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday held their first face-to-face meeting since each took power, confronting a range of potentially divisive issues. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama visit at the White House on Monday. At a pivotal moment in the Middle East peace process, the two leaders met at the White House to discuss, among other things, the endorsement of a two-state Palestinian solution and relations with Iran. The issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions became an increasingly urgent one in recent months. Netanyahu wants a time limit for negotiations relating to such ambitions, with the threat of military action if no resolution is reached. Obama is seen as unlikely to provide a timetable. Both Israel and the United States believe Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program; Tehran denies the accusation. Israeli leaders have pointed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for the end of Israel as a Jewish state and argue that quick action is needed. At an Oval Office news conference, Obama again refused to commit to an \"artificial deadline\" for Iranian negotiations. But he also warned that he would not allow such talks to be used as an excuse for delay while Iran develops a nuclear arsenal. Obama said he expects to accelerate such talks after the June Iranian elections. \"I firmly believe it is in Iran's interest not to develop nuclear weapons, because it would trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and be profoundly destabilizing in all sorts of ways,\" Obama said. It \"is important ... to be mindful of the fact that we're not going to have talks forever. We're not going to create a situation in which the talks become an excuse for inaction while Iran proceeds with developing ... and deploying a nuclear weapon.\" He said the United States is not \"foreclosing a range of steps, including much stronger international sanctions, in assuring that Iran understands that we are serious.\" Netanyahu emphasized that although \"the common goal is peace ... the common threat we face are terrorist threats and organizations that seek to undermine [that] peace and threaten both our peoples.\" The prime minister called Iran the biggest threat to peace in the region. \"If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, it could give a nuclear umbrella to terrorists, or worse, could actually give [them] nuclear weapons. And that would put us all in great peril,\" he said. The divide between the two leaders -- Obama is considered to have a more conciliatory approach to the Arab world than Netanyahu -- was dramatically illustrated shortly before their meeting by Israel's decision to begin construction at the West Bank outpost of Maskiyot. A number of families evacuated from Gaza are now being resettled in Maskiyot; several are living in temporary housing. A government spokesman said the construction's start date and the timing of Netanyahu's trip are a coincidence. Obama wants such outposts dismantled, along with an immediate freeze on settlement expansion. Netanyahu wants to allow natural growth in Jewish settlements in the West Bank -- for example, allowing children who grow up in a settlement to build a home alongside that of their parents. Obama also supports the idea of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Netanyahu has not endorsed the idea, arguing that Israel needs security guarantees and a clear Palestinian partner for peace talks. \"I want to make it clear that we don't want to govern the Palestinians. ... [If] Israel's security conditions are met and there's recognition of Israel's legitimacy -- its permanent legitimacy -- then I think we can envision an arrangement where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in dignity, security and in peace,\" Netanyahu said. Pressed on the question of a two-state solution, the prime minister said he thinks \"the terminology will take care of itself if we have the substantive understanding.\" Netanyahu and his Cabinet were sworn in March 31. A day later, Israel's new hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, distanced himself from the Annapolis process, the 2007 relaunch of peace talks adopted by his predecessor, Tzipi Livni. The PLO issued a statement after the meeting criticizing Netanyahu for failing to more explicitly endorse a two-state solution. Netanyahu \"missed yet another opportunity to show himself to be a genuine partner for peace,\" chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said. \"Calling for negotiations without a clearly defined end-goal offers only the promise of more process, not progress.\" Erakat praised Obama for supporting a freeze on Israeli settlement activity. Despite their differences, Obama and Netanyahu agree on numerous key issues, such as U.S. military and financial support for Israel. Obama highlighted his stance during his presidential campaign. Obama also supports funding for Palestinian entities not controlled by Hamas, which controls Gaza and which the United States labels a terrorist organization. Before making his trip to Washington, Netanyahu met with leaders of Jordan and Egypt, viewed as potential partners in the effort to bring peace to the region. Obama will host Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on May 26 and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on May 28. He is also scheduled to deliver a long-awaited speech on relations between the United States and the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt, on June 4. Some Palestinian leaders have expressed hope that Netanyahu, under pressure from the new U.S. administration, may soon choose to accept the principle of a two-state solution. \"If, in fact, Mr. Netanyahu were to make an unequivocal statement about acceptance of this as a solution concept, then he should immediately be asked to begin, immediately, to implement Israel's other obligations under the road map,\" said Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister. The road map, put together by the Mideast Quartet -- composed of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- calls on Israel to stop settlement building and Palestinians to stop terrorism. The plan was introduced in 2003 but immediately stalled. Monday's meeting between Obama and Netanyahu was largely expected to be a chance for the two sides to discuss their positions rather than iron out differences. Aides on both sides stressed that each leader views the other as a friend in peace efforts. CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama, Israeli prime minister meet for first time as national leaders .\nObama and Benjamin Netanyahu discuss approach to Mideast peace .\nLeaders also touched on Iran's nuclear ambitions .\nIsraeli settlements illustrate divide between the two .","id":"944fe5f16ef939d8fd570e72b56e4d24d27a9859"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It started with sinus congestion for Shawna Coronado. Then the splitting migraines came. Coronado soon discovered the furry causes: Harrington and Kalamazoo. Shawna Coronado endures headaches and congestion to keep her 30-pound pug, Harrington. Her 30-pound pug and orange tabby scattered dead skin flakes around the house, triggering Coronado's allergic reactions. Her two daughters are also allergic, but their reactions are less severe. Like the 10 million American pet owners with allergies, the Coronados faced a dilemma: Can human and dog co-exist in the same house? \"We love them,\" said Coronado about her family's pets. \"They're adorable. They're really our babies. They're part of the family. We could never live without them.\" Allergies can cause itchy eyes, hives, sneezing, congestion or even asthma. To keep animals around, allergic pet owners get shots, pop antihistamines, squeeze eyedrops, squirt nasal spray, use inhalers or just deal with it. Others try to find a dog that won't trigger the symptoms. President-elect Barack Obama's family has said his family is seeking a \"hypoallergenic dog,\" because of his eldest daughter, Malia's, allergies. Unfortunately, there's no such thing. The belief that certain breeds are hypoallergenic is \"a complete misconception,\" said Dr. Robert Wood, chief of pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. \"You can't predict by type or breed, or length of hair.\" Pet allergies are not caused by dog hair, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology noted in a recent statement. \"The allergen is produced in saliva, urine, dander-- it's not just hair,\" said Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, an allergist at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. \"Even with a hairless dog, there are still allergens.\" For their next pet, the Coronados are considering a poodle. Although poodles, bichon frises and Malteses are often touted as hypoallergenic dogs, these breeds all produce allergens. There hasn't been sufficient research to determine whether certain breeds are more allergy-friendly, said Dr. Clifford Bassett, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at The Long Island College Hospital in New York. \"There is not a lot of research in this area,\" he said. \"There are differences between breeds, but we don't have research to definitively say. They all produce allergens.\" The key factors are the animal's size and the volume of hair. The fur can collect pollens, mold spore and allergens and bring them indoors, triggering reactions. Even so, reactions vary widely, because everyone's body is different, doctors say. Before committing to a pet, make an arrangement to bring the animal to the home for a trial period to see how the person with allergies fares. \"It's always going to be trial and error,\" Wood said. \"Someone might be allergic to one breed, but the main dog allergen that people are allergic to is present in all dogs.\" It is also possible for someone to develop dog allergies months or years after bringing the animal home. If symptoms arise, doctors recommend getting tested to be certain that the allergy is coming from the animal. Allergic reactions could come from other irritants, such as pollen or dust. A person's allergies can also inexplicably change over time. In the same way that some people outgrow food allergies, there is a rare possibility that pet owners could outgrow their allergies to animals, experts said. Pills and medications are available to treat the symptoms, but the best remedy, said Philatanakul, is to not have pets. \"There's nothing that can be done except for avoidance,\" she said. \"There's no cure. You're exposing yourself to high levels of allergens in your home. We generally recommend they should not have a pet. It's not recommended.\" For many families, having a loving, furry companion outweighs the runny noses, wheezing and water eyes. Coronado, who is also allergic to mold, dust and yeast, suspects it's not just the dog and cat causing her headaches. After cutting out beer, bread and cheese from her diet, she says she doesn't get as many allergic reactions. But she can't pick up the cat without getting congested. Sometimes Harrington and Kalamazoo trot into the house bringing all sorts of allergens with them and trigger her allergic reactions. Despite the discomforts, the Coronados aren't getting rid of their animals. \"Our lives are so enriched because we have dogs and cats,\" she said. \"You can live in a positive way and live well with the pets or you can suffer every day and think it's miserable. It's really how you look at it. The reason we live with pets is because we live life in a positive way and we work it out.\" Her two daughters have cat allergies, but they don't have asthma or breathing difficulties, so Kalamazoo is staying put in their Warrenville, Illinois, home. \"Pets are healing for we humans,\" Coronado said. \"They are for my children. We adore them as part of the family. On a mental health level, children gain something from pets. Children gain a lot from being in nature and being outside. Dogs and cats as pets are part of that experience.\" Pets do provide therapeutic value, said Bassett. \"Pets make people feel good,\" he said. \"Pets reduce anxiety, blood pressure. Pets are here to stay.\"","highlights":"10 million American pet owners have allergies .\nAllergies caused by protein in animal dander, saliva or urine, not by hair .\nBelief that certain breeds are hypoallergenic is \"a complete misconception\"\nMedications available to treat symptoms, but best remedy is not to have pets .","id":"eb6de733e4381cdc674b28eafc81d29e7fb7a939"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The memorial service for singer Michael Jackson cost the city of Los Angeles $1.4 million, the mayor's office said Wednesday. A donation page on the City of Los Angeles' Web site has crashed several times since its launch yesterday. Costs included putting extra police on the streets, trash pickup, sanitation, traffic control and more for the Tuesday event, spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said. Three thousand police officers -- almost one-third of the Los Angeles police force -- were on hand to ensure the Jackson events proceeded smoothly, Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell, said Tuesday. The city, which is $530 million in debt, set up a Web page asking Jackson fans to donate money to help with the expenses. On Tuesday morning, hundreds of donors contributed more than $17,000 through the Web site. But then, the high volume of traffic caused it to crash frequently and for long periods of time, the mayor's office said. The city, therefore, was unable to collect contributions for several hours on Tuesday. The site also crashed for 12 hours, beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday -- and again, periodically throughout Wednesday morning, the office said. Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich does not want taxpayers to pay a penny for the service, his spokesman said Wednesday. \"The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying [the initial costs] for a private event,\" spokesman John Franklin said. \"That's especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been furloughed or even lost jobs.\" During the Los Angeles Lakers championship parade this year, nearly 2,000 police were called in, at a cost of $2 million. The Lakers and private donors reimbursed the city for most of the expenses. Michael Roth, spokesman for AEG, which owns Staples Center and put on the event, could not be reached for comment.","highlights":"Costs included extra police, sanitation, traffic control for Tuesday's memorial service .\n3,000 police officers -- about one-third of the force -- were on hand for the event .\nCity set up Web page asking Jackson fans to donate money to help with expenses .\nSite raised $17,000 before crashing on Tuesday due to high volume .","id":"cbe1d40c91b9489699fb7e14c2c3c4bb9154ad13"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Massachusetts sued the U.S. government on Wednesday, challenging the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The state of Massachusetts says the Defense of Marriage Act denies same-sex couples essential rights. \"We're taking this action today because, first, we believe that [the Defense of Marriage Act] directly interferes with Massachusetts' long-standing sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents,\" Attorney General Martha Coakley said Wednesday afternoon. \"Massachusetts has a single category of married persons, and we view all married persons equally and identically,\" she said. \"DOMA divides that category into two distinct and unequal classes of marriage.\" The lawsuit argues that the act, which became law in 1996, denies same-sex couples essential rights and protections, including federal income tax credits, employment and retirement benefits, health insurance coverage and Social Security payments. \"In enacting DOMA, Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states' efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,\" the state wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in federal court. Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, said that about 16,000 same-sex couples have been married there since 2004, when it began issuing marriage licenses. Since that time, the lawsuit said, \"the security and stability of families has been strengthened in important ways throughout the state. \" The state is challenging Section 3 of the law, which defines marriage as \"a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife\" and a spouse as \"a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.\" Before the act, the lawsuit argues, defining marital status was the prerogative of the states. The law \"eviscerated more than 200 years of federal government deference to the states with respect to defining marriage,\" it said. The lawsuit also argues that the law forces Massachusetts to treat same-sex married couples differently from heterosexual married couples, particularly through determining who qualifies for the state's Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, and whether a same-sex spouse of a veteran can be buried in a veteran cemetery. \"But for DOMA, married individuals in same-sex relationships in the commonwealth would receive the same status, obligations, responsibilities, rights, and protections as married individuals in different-sex relationships under local, state, and federal laws,\" the lawsuit said. The defendants named in the lawsuit include the Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and the United States itself. Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the department will review the case but noted that President Obama supports the legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. In March, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders -- the same Boston-based group that successfully argued in 2003 for same-sex marriage rights in Massachusetts -- also sued the federal government over Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. Besides Massachusetts, three other states recognize same-sex marriages: Connecticut, Maine, and Iowa. Vermont and New Hampshire will join their company when same-sex marriages become legal later this year and early next year.","highlights":"Lawsuit challenges constitutionality of Defense of Marriage Act .\nMeasure defines marriage as between man and woman .\nAttorney General: Law means state can't define and regulate marriage .\nSuit says law denies same-sex married couples essential rights, protections .","id":"4c88d497bad898f7e7490c3702e13bac8bb71494"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Michael Jackson fans and the media pour into Los Angeles, California, for what could be the most widely watched memorial of all time, an obvious question remains: Where will he be laid to rest? Bette Davis is among the notables buried at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn park. Although the Jackson family hasn't made an official statement, all signs seem to point toward Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries, the organization that has buried a vast number of Hollywood's notables. On Monday, sources told CNN that Jackson's relatives will hold a private gathering at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles Tuesday morning ahead of a massive public service. The gathering is scheduled for 8 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) -- two hours before a memorial service at the Staples Center arena downtown. Cemetery officials have not commented on the matter. Sunday, Jim McDonnell, assistant chief of staff of the Los Angeles Police Department on Sunday, said Forest Lawn officials were working with the Jackson family on their plans, which were part of \"a package\" of events Tuesday. His comments, however, did not answer questions about where or when Jackson would be buried. There is speculation that the burial will be at Forest Lawn's Glendale location, but the media have been swarming around the Hollywood Hills memorial park, located right off the freeway behind Disney Studios. Tito Jackson's ex-wife, Delores \"Dee Dee\" Jackson, is believed to be buried there. Forest Lawn Memorial is the first stop tourists make in search of the crypts of Hollywood greats. Numerous books and Web sites such as findagrave.com and seeing-stars.com claim to have insider knowledge about celebrity grave locations on the properties, but Forest Lawn is unrelentingly secretive about who, exactly, is entombed in its parks. \"We hold the privacy of our client families in very high regard,\" said Bill Martin, spokesman for the Glendale location, which is considered the \"mother lode\" for celebrity grave hunters. \"There are certain areas and property types that have limited access.\" The tombs of Sammy Davis Jr., Humphrey Bogart and Jean Harlow are in locked areas not accessible to the general public, according to findagrave.com. With that kind of commitment to privacy, it's understandable why Jackson, known for being reclusive, might be buried there. Avid grave hunter Lisa Burks, who frequents both the Glendale and Hollywood Hills parks, said she wouldn't be surprised if Jackson were to be buried at either location. Burks was first drawn to Forest Lawn Glendale because of its artwork and statuary, but once she found out that celebrities were \"buried with the regular people,\" she said, she began to grave hunt. \"We leave flowers and take pictures,\" Burks said of her time at famous graves. \"It's the way of remembering someone who made a difference, who cheered me up when I was a kid or entertained me. With Michael Jackson ... if he ends up at a cemetery, I'll definitely go and take flowers. They feel like a member of the family, so you treat them like a member of the family.\" Even if you can't find a way to see your favorite celebrity's crypt, Los Angeles residents said that just stepping foot in the park is an experience in itself. \"I know for some people cemeteries can be intimidating or just where you go to mourn. But at Forest Lawn, it isn't sad; it's really a beautiful place,\" said Beth Zeigler, an Echo Park, California, professional who frequents the park's museum. But if you call any of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuaries a cemetery, you would be remiss. There are certainly graves behind the Glendale park's majestic wrought-iron gates, but that's where the similarities end. Amid its 300 acres, the park has three churches, replicas of all of Michelangelo's works and a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's \"The Last Supper\" in stained glass. Instead of above-ground tombstones, the park uses flat, engraved markers for grave sites, so from afar all you can see are grassy hills. The memorial park draws over a million visitors each year, including 70,000 who come to get married. Built in 1906 as a traditional cemetery, Forest Lawn was revamped by Dr. Hubert Eaton in 1917. Like Jackson, Eaton was \"an icon [of his] time,\" said Laura Kath, author of \"100 Years in the Life of Forest Lawn.\" \"[Eaton] is the man who first envisioned the memorial park concept, that cemeteries should not be filled with tombstones but should celebrate the life of those entombed there and celebrate the living,\" Kath said, \"and people loved the whole concept. Eaton was a visionary.\" Burks agrees whole-heartedly with Eaton's vision. \"Cemeteries are for the living,\" Burks said about her visits to celebrity tombs. \"We're remembering them. It sounds crazy, but I dare anyone to do it, and I'd bet it would make them feel good.\"","highlights":"Will Jackson be buried among other stars at a Forest Lawn location?\nThe not-for-profit group's strict regulations about privacy would match Jackson's life .\nSammy Davis Jr. and Humphrey Bogart buried there, among other stars .","id":"eea6be11ec8858a7e5f6335773d5553ee4015261"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A South Florida teenager accused of killing and mutilating 19 cats excitedly described to police how he dissected cats in class, and where to find cats for experimentation, according to police. Tyler Weinman laughed when police told him they had information he was the cat killer, an arrest document said. When Miami-Dade police told Tyler Hayes Weinman someone was killing cats in the neighborhood, the 18-year-old reacted by laughing, according to a newly released arrest affidavit made public Monday. Most of the cats were found in their owners' yards. \"One appeared to be posed with a slit down the middle of its stomach,\" the affidavit states. On Monday, Weinman pleaded not guilty to more than 40 criminal counts, including multiple charges of felony animal cruelty and burglary. He is out of jail on $249,500 bond and under house arrest wearing an electronic monitor, but is being held for 48 hours for a psychiatric evaluation. The teen's attorney David Macey said there was a \"lynch mob\" after his innocent client and accused Judge Mindy Glazer of \"prejudging\" Weinman. \"He did not kill the cats,\" Macey told reporters outside the courtroom. \"The individual who committed this crime is still running around out there.\" The arrest affidavit, which a judge gave prosecutors until Monday to make public, reads like a grisly horror movie and indicates Weinman was knowledgeable of and fascinated with dissection of cats. During questioning, according to the affidavit, a detective told the teenager that police were informed he was involved in the cat slayings. Weinman replied he heard about the cats and that he told his mother. He told police that a school he had been expelled from was the only school in Miami-Dade that taught how to dissect using cats, according to the affidavit. The teenager went on to offer several other bizarre and unsubstantiated trivia, including saying that Mexico is the only source for cats used for dissection and describing their size. Weinman \"became excited and animated\" as he told the detective about cat dissection research he had discovered on the Internet, the affidavit states. \"Weinman was asked to expound on what he meant and he repeated, with noted excitement, 'It just makes a certain sound, a tearing sound,\" says the affidavit. The detective asked Weinman what tools might be used to commit animal cruelty, and teenager replied, \"I don't know, but I'm sure they are very well hidden.\" How did he think the cats were being captured? The teen answered, \"They have to be either tranquilized or poisoned.\" Weinman came to the attention of authorities in late April, the affidavit states, as cats began to go missing in a suburban Dade County neighborhood called Whispering Pines just outside Miami, Florida. Police had a few times seen Weinman walking and skateboarding in the middle of the night in the area, at least once wearing black clothing and carrying a dark backpack. Detectives stopped the teenager and told him about the dead cats. Weinman responded by laughing, according to the arrest affidavit. He was not held at that time. In May, the teenager was pulled over for a traffic violation and police found a \"cutting instrument\" on the ground beside his car. According to the affidavit, as an officer questioned the teen, he noticed what appeared to be a cat scratch on his arm. \"I got them from a stray cat that I feed at my mom's house,\" Weinman said. The teen \"was eager to show\" the scratches and took off his shirt so that photographs could be taken, according to the questioning detective's account, which is detailed in the affidavit. The teenager's divorced parents lived in separate neighborhoods, according to police. His mother resides in Cutler Bay. His father lives in Palmetto Bay, further north of Miami. According to the arrest affidavit, shortly after the teenager talked to police about dissecting cats, he went to live with his father who restricted his son's access to a car. The killings shifted north as eight dead cats turned up in Palmetto Bay, police said. At that point, police provided the teen's profile to the Miami-Dade Police Department's Psychological Services Section. Staff doctors met and discussed the case. They determined that the cat killer was likely male and suffered from some kind of conduct disorder. If the killer was an adult, they concluded, that person would be classified as a sociopath. In late May, police then got a court order to place a tracking device on the Honda Civic driven by Weinman. The affidavit states the car was tracked to the latest feline victim which had been skinned along the abdomen from the pelvic area to the hind legs. The pelt and genitalia were missing. The cat killings became headline news across the country. Around that time, Weinman joined a Facebook page called \"Catch-The-Cat-Killer.\" The teenager is charged with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary. He's pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Kimberly Segal contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: Tyler Weinman described research he did on finding cats to dissect .\nAffidavit: 18-year-old laughed when police asked him about being the cat killer .\nWeinman is charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty and is on house arrest .","id":"f382e1ca273b84cf5041d9ea589cd6d8c4651089"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Any attempt to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- once Russia's richest man, now its most famous inmate -- must follow standard procedure, including an admission of guilt, the nation's president said Sunday. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is imprisoned in a work camp 4,000 miles from Moscow. \"Concerning the possibility of a pardon for someone, Khodorkovsky or anyone else, the procedure has to be carried out in accordance with our country's rules,\" President Dmitry Medvedev said in a transcript on his Web site. \"In other words, a person must appeal to the president, plead guilty to having committed a crime and seek the appropriate resolution.\" The president dismissed talks of a pardon, saying, \"at this point, there is nothing to discuss.\" Khodorkovsky once headed the Yukos oil company, once Russia's largest oil producer. He is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. Medvedev described corruption as a \"very serious Russian disease\" and emphasized the need to fight it. \"To this end, we have enacted a number of measures, including new legislation on corruption and special arrangements relating to government officials, their disclosures, declarations of income and so on,\" he said. \"We are determined to continue this work, because we believe it is extremely important.\" The former oil magnate is incarcerated in a work camp near the town of Krasnokamensk, 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) from his native Moscow. He has been imprisoned since his arrest in 2003. Khodorkovsky had expressed a desire to run for office at the time and funded opposition political parties. He said the trial was part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy him and take the company he built from privatization deals of the 1990s. The Kremlin denied any role in his downfall. Yukos, which has since been crushed by a $27.5 billion back-tax bill, has been the object of a lengthy campaign by prosecutors and tax authorities. The court also ordered Khodorkovsky and his partner to pay about $600 million in back taxes.","highlights":"There will be no favoritism for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian leader says .\nFormer head of Yukos oil company serving nine years for fraud, tax evasion .\nPresident says talks of a pardon are premature .","id":"61ea57fcbfe75da7c3dfb86227245a43e012804b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- If a kewpie doll sang in a band and had two kids, she'd be Gwen Stefani. Gwen Stefani was ready to get back with No Doubt after two solo albums and an active home life. The pop star and style icon turns 40 this fall, but she still uses words like \"you know\" and \"like\" at least five times a minute. That's part of Stefani's charm, and her carefree teenybopper mentality is one of the many reasons fans are excited about her first tour with No Doubt in half a decade. It's been 14 years since the quartet busted out of Orange County, California, with its signature sound of sunny, ska-influenced pop. In 2004, No Doubt went on hiatus as Stefani launched the first of two successful solo albums. In the meantime, drummer Adrian Young and guitarist Tom Dumont worked on side projects and watched their families grow. Stefani and her husband -- former Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale -- welcomed two sons, while bassist Tony Kanal is the only member to remain single and child-free. No Doubt is currently in the midst of a 53-date North American tour, for which they've dusted off such classic hits as \"Just a Girl,\" \"Spiderwebs\" and \"Bathwater.\" Each member now travels in their own individual tour bus -- a must for an entourage that includes kids, toys and nannies. Watch No Doubt in concert, at rest \u00bb . CNN: You'd hear rumors every once in a while that you guys were breaking up, or had broken up. Were those annoying, or did you kind of roll your eyes and say, \"That's part of the game?\" Adrian Young: I think we expected it. And there might even be some people that will think that we broke up, and that this is a reunion tour -- and it's just not the truth. We went 17 straight years without stopping, and we started having families, and we were burnt and we needed to do our own thing for a while. CNN: What was it like to get all four of you together in a room again? Tom Dumont: It's kind of like an old glove. It just fits. Young: Like an O.J. glove? Dumont: No, no, no. I know it's a weird analogy, but in the sense of -- you know, it fits. Tony Kanal: You know when somebody says \"glove\" now, you immediately think of O.J. Young: \"If it fits, you must acquit.\" That's our band motto now. Dumont: We're not going to quit. We're just great old friends. It's almost like we're brothers and sister, and it's great to be having fun together again. Young: I feel more like we're married. CNN: I hear it's a little bit different this time. Instead of sharing a tour bus, you'll each have your own individual buses. Kanal: This will be our first time on separate buses, only out of necessity. Everyone's bringing their family. CNN: Are you just trying to get away from the kids, is that what you're saying, Tony?! Kanal: No, no, no! I would love to be on the bus with them. Gwen Stefani: Tony's going to be making kids on his bus. Kanal: Yeah, maybe my girlfriend and I will be in the process of starting our family. Stefani, Young and CNN (in unison): Really?! Kanal (ignoring everybody's reaction): But by default, I'm putting a studio on my bus. Because I don't have a crib on my bus -- they have cribs on their buses -- I'm putting a studio on my bus so we can keep writing if the inspiration comes, and we feel like doing it. Stefani: We're just putting the studio out there so we can pretend we might go out there and write songs, but we're really just going to have fun. ... We like writing songs, as well [but] I have to tell you, it's a very tortured process. There is nothing more rewarding when you know you've written a hit, and you know this magic happened. CNN: Did you guys really go to group therapy? Kanal: No. ... We had some self-imposed therapy sessions where we were trying to write music, and we were sitting in the room together, and a lot of stuff came out, and you know, it was kind of an emotional venting. We got rid of a lot of stuff. It was good. Stefani: We spent a lot of time together in the last 12 months. Right when I came off tour (from her second solo album, \"The Sweet Escape\"), we started to write, and I was pregnant (with her second son, Zuma), and we did a lot of eating, a lot of chatting -- and then we had this magic 15 minutes from 4:45 to 5 o'clock where music would actually come out for a minute. One day, I was like, \"Argh! I'm in this room still! Let's go on tour!\" And everyone was like, \"OK!\" It was very spontaneous, and it's all kind of geared towards getting out there ... and getting inspired, and hopefully coming out of the other side and making an album. CNN: Gwen, when you were off doing the two solo albums, did you feel guilty at all? Because I know you all were trying to get back together for a couple of years. Stefani: I'm one of those people that I have to follow the inspiration when it strikes. ... These guys are just very supportive. We've been together forever -- forever, forever -- since we were kids, and this is just the one time in our lives we've had a break from each other. Everybody did their own thing. And I think all of us doing our own thing makes us even more grateful for each other, and kind of definitely not taking each other for granted -- not that we ever did before. ... But it's even more intense right now. CNN: Things have changed since the last time No Doubt was on the road, and there a lot of people who don't have that disposable income to spend on tickets for concerts. Young: One of the things we did for this tour for some of the venues is we have $10 lawn tickets for people that maybe want to come to the show, but they're strapped -- and we've never done that before as No Doubt, and it feels really good to do that. CNN: I was calling this a reunion. Was that bad? Stefani: We don't really care. We're just so happy that people want to come out and see the show, whatever they want to call it. We're just happy that people still are even talking about it. ... Even if you didn't really like our songs, or you had this kind of idea about us, come see us live, and we'll slap you around. You might have some fun, you know.","highlights":"No Doubt is back together -- but don't call it a reunion .\nBand had taken break while having families, Gwen Stefani making solo records .\nStefani plans to have fun; tour is a way of getting recharged .","id":"8129ab805809cb9dcf55f1ce3a33a1b8d6265fa5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a key architect of the U.S. war in Vietnam under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, has died at age 93, according to his family. Robert McNamara took a lead role in managing the U.S. military commitment in Vietnam. McNamara was a member of Kennedy's inner circle during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. But he became a public lightning rod for his management of the war in Vietnam, overseeing the U.S. military commitment there as it grew from fewer than 1,000 advisers to more than half a million troops. Though the increasingly unpopular conflict was sometimes dubbed \"McNamara's War,\" he later said both administrations were \"terribly wrong\" to have pursued military action beyond 1963. \"External military force cannot reconstruct a failed state, and Vietnam, during much of that period, was a failed state politically,\" he told CNN in a 1996 interview for the \"Cold War\" documentary series. \"We didn't recognize it as such.\" A native of San Francisco, McNamara studied economics at the University of California and earned a master's degree in business from Harvard. He was a staff officer in the Army Air Corps during World War II, when he studied the results of American bombing raids on Germany and Japan in search of ways to improve their accuracy and efficiency. After the war, he joined the Ford Motor Company and became its president in November 1960 -- the first person to lead the company from outside its founding family. A month later, the newly elected Kennedy asked him to become secretary of defense, making him one of the \"whiz kids\" who joined the young president's administration. In October 1962, after the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, McNamara was one of Kennedy's top advisers in the standoff that followed. The United States imposed a naval \"quarantine\" on Cuba, a Soviet ally, and prepared for possible airstrikes or an invasion. The Soviets withdrew the missiles in exchange for a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba, a step that allowed Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev to present the pullback as a success to his own people. In the 2003 documentary \"The Fog of War,\" McNamara told filmmaker Errol Morris that the experience taught American policymakers to \"put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes.\" But he added, \"In the end, we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war.\" McNamara is credited with using the management techniques he mastered as a corporate executive to streamline the Pentagon, computerizing and smoothing out much of the U.S. military's vast purchasing and personnel system. And in Vietnam, he attempted to use those techniques to measure the progress of the war. Metrics such as use of \"body counts\" and scientific solutions such as using the herbicide Agent Orange to defoliate jungles in which communist guerrillas hid became trademarks of the conflict. McNamara made several trips to South Vietnam to study the situation firsthand. He, Johnson and other U.S. officials portrayed the war as a necessary battle in the Cold War, a proxy struggle to prevent communism from taking control of all of Southeast Asia. But while they saw the conflict as another front in the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, which backed communist North Vietnam, McNamara acknowledged later that they underestimated Vietnamese nationalism and opposition to the U.S.-backed government in Saigon. \"The conflict within South Vietnam itself had all of the characteristics of a civil war, and we didn't look upon it as largely a civil war, and we weren't measuring our progress as one would have in what was largely a civil war,\" he told CNN. Casualties mounted, as did domestic opposition to the war. In 1965, a Quaker anti-war protester, Norman Morrison, set himself on fire outside McNamara's office window. In 1967, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on the Pentagon, which was ringed with troops. By November 1967, McNamara told Johnson that there was \"no reasonable way\" to end the war quickly, and that the United States needed to reduce its forces in Vietnam and turn the fighting over to the American-backed government in Saigon. By the end of that month, Johnson announced he was replacing McNamara at the Pentagon and moving him to the World Bank. But by March 1968, Johnson had reached virtually the same conclusion as McNamara. He issued a call for peace talks and announced he would not seek re-election. After leaving the Pentagon in early 1968, McNamara spent 12 years leading the World Bank. He said little publicly about Vietnam until the publication of a 1995 memoir, \"In Retrospect.\" \"You don't know what I know about how inflammatory my words can appear,\" he told Morris. \"A lot of people misunderstand the war, misunderstand me. A lot of people think I'm a son of a bitch.\"","highlights":"Robert McNamara was key architect of war in Vietnam under two presidents .\nMcNamara became lightning rod for his management of that war .\nHe was member of President Kennedy's inner circle during Cuban Missile Crisis .","id":"caea24a7ebc9488a23d9f8caf1fa9111bb500583"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- International troops in Afghanistan endured another deadly attack Tuesday, a day after 10 NATO-led troops were killed in that country. The body of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan arrives in the United States on Monday. A U.S. coalition service member \"died as a result of injuries\" on Tuesday afternoon in a roadside bombing attack on a convoy in western Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. This follows 10 NATO-led deaths on Monday, the highest single-day total in Afghanistan in nearly a year, according to NATO and U.S.-led coalition numbers. Seven Americans, two Canadians and one Briton died in four separate incidents Monday. On August 18, 2008, 10 French soldiers were killed when about 100 insurgents attacked a patrol in Kabul Province, and a British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan when insurgents attacked a patrol with a roadside bomb. A month before that, 10 American troops were killed in two separate incidents on July 13, 2008. The latest deaths came as U.S. troops cranked up their fight against the Taliban, a push that includes a major Marine-led offensive against the militants in the southern province of Helmand. Roadside bombs Monday killed four Americans in the northern province of Kunduz and two in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. A seventh American died in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, ISAF confirmed. Two Canadian air crew members and a British soldier were killed when a helicopter crashed during takeoff in Zabul province, the Canadian and British defense ministries said.","highlights":"U.S. soldier killed in roadside bombing on a convoy in western Afghanistan .\nFollows deaths of 7 Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 Briton in separate incidents .\nLatest deaths come as U.S. forces ratchet up fight against Taliban .","id":"9adfa954d540df260cb4949e08e0de2eef35cb0c"} -{"article":"ALSIP, Illinois (CNN) -- Four people face felony charges after authorities discovered that hundreds of graves were dug up and allegedly resold at a historic African-American cemetery near Chicago, Illinois, authorities said Thursday. Dozens of graves at Burr Oak Cemetery were desecrated by workers as part of a financial scheme, authorities say. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said the four would resell the plots in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, excavate the graves, dump the remains and pocket the cash. \"This was not done in a very, very delicate way, folks,\" he told reporters at a news conference Thursday. \"They would excavate a grave and would proceed to dump the remains wherever they found a place to do it in the back of the cemetery. This was not moving graves; this was not replacing graves; this was dumping of them.\" In some cases, graves were stacked on top of each other, they \"literally pounded the other one down,\" Dart said. In all about 300 graves may have been dug up in the cemetery, he said. Authorities identified those charged as Carolyn Towns, an office manager for the cemetery; and Keith Nicks, Terrance Nicks and Maurice Daley, all gravediggers. Each has been charged with dismembering a human body, a felony charge for which sentences range from 6 to 30 years, Anita Alvarez, Cook County state's attorney, said at the news conference. Steven Watkins, an attorney for Towns, said his client is innocent. \"Somebody is apparently making false accusations against my client,\" he said. \"She's maintaining her innocence.\" The Cook County state attorney's office said the other three charged were being represented by the public defender's office, and a message left at that office was not immediately returned. Bail was set at $250,000 for Towns and $200,000 for the other three, Alvarez said. None had posted bail by late afternoon Thursday, the sheriff's department said. Watch officials announce the charges \u00bb . It was not immediately known if the four had legal counsel. Authorities began investigating the cemetery -- where, among others, lynching victim Emmett Till, blues legend Dinah Washington and some Negro League baseball players are buried -- about six weeks ago after receiving a call from its owners who had concerns about possible \"financial irregularities\" regarding the business, Dart told CNN earlier this week. \"This crime, it's a whole new dimension,\" Alvarez said. Authorities also suspect that Towns pretended to set up a memorial fund for Till and pocketed the funds, Dart said. Watch sheriff discuss gruesome revelation \u00bb . He told CNN that groundskeepers, who have not been implicated in the scheme, have said that the grave of Till -- whose 1955 lynching at age 14 helped spark the civil rights movement -- has not been disturbed. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was also at the news conference, noted the high-profile names of some of those buried in the cemetery, but said, \"everybody here is special, and every family has special needs and special hurt, special grief.\" Most of the excavations occurred in back lots, where the plots were older and not frequently visited, Dart said earlier this week. However, other plots may have been disturbed, as well. The cemetery's current owners, who could not be reached by CNN for comment, have operated it for more than five years but are not believed to be involved in the alleged scam, Dart said. He said the workers may have doctored records to cover their tracks and noted that the cemetery holds all the records of who is buried and where. \"There's virtually no regulations whatsoever (for cemeteries),\" Dart said. \"Most all of the documents and everything are housed here.\" Investigators are trying to determine the scope of the alleged scheme and plan to use thermal-imaging devices to further examine other graves to see if they have been tampered with, Dart said. The FBI, forensic scientists and local funeral directors have been called in to help in the investigation, he said. \"I don't even know what to tell you about the heartbreaking stories that I've been hearing from people, crying hysterically that they're going through the burial for the second time today,\" he said. \"And they're looking for answers and we're sitting there telling them, 'This is going to be very difficult,\" he said. \"We're trying to bring closure, but it's going to take a long time to do that.\" CNN's Katherine Wojtecki and Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Cemetery office manager, three gravediggers charged .\nNEW: Rev. Jesse Jackson says there should be \"special place in hell\" for suspects .\nNEW: About 300 graves may have been dug up, sheriff says .\nEmmett Till, other prominent African-Americans buried at cemetery .","id":"97a2268d2d628d4098fe1625cda7d1f02abd1f54"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three attacks were made on Royal Dutch Shell oil facilities in Nigeria on Sunday, according to a company spokesman who said details were not immediately available. Investigating the attacks will be difficult because they happened in remote areas, Royal Dutch Shell says. The attacks were against pipelines in the eastern part of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, said the spokesman, Rainer Winzenried. \"Shell is investigating the impact on facilities, the environment and the production capabilities,\" he said. The attacks happened in remote areas, making investigations difficult, he said, adding that the company would not send in investigators until it was certain the area was secure. It was not known whether there were any casualties, he said. The pipelines are part of a Shell joint venture that provides oil to several companies, Winzenried said. Shell runs the venture, and Nigeria is the operator. Winzenried refused to speculate on who was behind the attacks, but Nigeria's main militant group -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND -- said it had attacked an offshore facility earlier Sunday and that \"the structure is ... engulfed in fire.\" Winzenried had no information about that claim. MEND, which demands a fairer distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth, claimed Friday that it destroyed a pipeline owned and operated by the Italian gas company Agip, but Agip has not confirmed that report. Earlier in the week, MEND claimed to have destroyed Royal Dutch Shell's main trunk line in Bayelsa state and a Chevron oil station in the delta region. Shell confirmed an attack on that pipeline and said it had shut it down to avoid an environmental impact. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it was investigating. Last month, the militant group declared an \"all-out war\" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. It is not the first declaration of war by MEND, which demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be invested in the region instead of enriching those whom the militants consider corrupt politicians. The militant group declared war against the government in September for what it said were unprovoked attacks. At that time, MEND destroyed several oil facilities, forcing Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as many as 1 million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent.","highlights":"Royal Dutch Shell: Pipelines attacked in eastern part of Nigeria's Niger Delta .\nFew details available; company says remote area will make investigation hard .\nCompany won't speculate on who was behind attacks .\nMilitant group MEND claimed it attacked an offshore facility earlier Sunday .","id":"d7f3e135c6834c22801a7283f6fdd98824105334"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The singer Gil Scott Heron once declared that \"the revolution will not be televised.\" Em Hall, the \"D.C. Goodwill Fashionista,\" transformed Goodwill's image with a witty blog. It is, however, going online. Social activism is being transformed by the Web. Some of the most creative forms of protest and philanthropy are taking place online. Activists are conducting demonstrations on YouTube, holding virtual fundraisers and using social network sites like Facebook to change the world -- one mouse-click at a time. These cyber-pioneers include a nonprofit group that uses animated 3-D characters to protest the global shortage of drinking water; a Web company that allows ordinary people to create their own personalized charity; and a Goodwill blogger who reshaped the thrift store's image so thoroughly she was invited to New York Fashion Week. Ted Hart, co-author of \"People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities,\" says the Web has already become a crucial source for nonprofit fundraising. Americans donated $550 million online in 2001, but that number grew to $10.4 billion in 2007, he says. \"It's a new world for a lot of nonprofit organizations,\" Hart says. \"No longer is it good enough to say give us some money. The rules have changed.\" Yet some people warn that this new world offers people an excuse to engage in \"drive-by activism,\" superficial forms of cyber-activism that require little commitment. \"The Internet makes it very easy for people to jump in and out of social activism,\" says Matthew Hale, assistant professor at Seton Hall University's Center for Public Service. \"If all the activism is online, it is easier to quit than going to meetings every week.\" Real change: online or in-person? Yet the Web makes it easier for a nonprofit group to reach more people than a meeting ever could, one nonprofit group says. WaterPartners International is a U.S.-based nonprofit group that created a global campaign to create safe drinking water. Another company may have flown a spokesperson to an impoverished village and hired a film crew to promote their campaign. But WaterPartners says it saved money and time by putting its campaign online -- through animated, virtual characters built from actual people, says Nicole Wickenhauser, a company spokesperson. Daily Web traffic doubled to WaterPartners' Web site during the campaign and the campaign attracted support from around the globe, Wickenhauser says. \"Real change is most often accomplished by committed individuals working together for a cause they feel passionately about,\" Wickenhauser says. \"Whether they work together virtually or in person is less important.\" Web-based activism not only enlarges the reach of social activists, it empowers ordinary people, its advocates say. In another time, a person had to find a charity to give their time and money to. Now they can create their own charity through Web sites like \"YourCause.com.\" YourCause.com has been described as a MySpace for do-gooders. The new site allows a person to do everything a charity traditionally does -- raise money and awareness and recruit support -- all from a Web page designed especially for their needs. Matthew Combs, the site's co-founder, says his site designs Web pages and vets charities for people who don't have the time or expertise to do it themselves. \"It's for people like the 73-year-old woman from New Jersey who created her own page to help out with a rare genetic defect she's suffering from,\" Combs says. \"There's not a lot of 73-year-olds on MySpace. How do we make it easy as possible for them, but credible?\" Social network sites like MySpace are also throwing their support behind Web activists. MySpace has an \"Impact\" page that connects users with political and charitable causes. YouTube recently launched a \"Nonprofits and Activism\" channel. 'The reaction was priceless' One of the most audacious forms of Web-based activism comes courtesy of Em Hall, also known by her blog name, the DC Goodwill Fashionista. When Goodwill of Greater Washington wanted to expand its customer base, its leaders devised a campaign to reach out to a younger, hipper crowd. The campaign's centerpiece was Hall. In her witty blog, She dispensed fashion advice, conducted an online virtual fashion show and sold Goodwill clothing on eBay (she once sold an $11.98 suit for $175 on eBay.) Hall's blog averages 1,500 readers a week and has attracted readers from at least 100 countries, says Brendan Hurley, a Goodwill spokesman. Hall's blog became so popular she was invited in September to Fashion Week, a high-octane fashion show that features the world's most popular designers. Hall still recalls how Fashion Week officials acted when she told them what clothing label -- Goodwill -- she represented. \"The reaction was priceless,\" she says. \"A look of confusion came across people's faces as they desperately tried to figure out why Goodwill was at Fashion Week.\" Despite the possibilities created by the Web, calling people to action still depends on people putting their bodies -- not just their mouse-clicks -- on the line, says Hale, the Seton Hall professor. \"All of the stuff you can do online ultimately has to show up in the real world,\" Hale says. \"I don't see the Internet as a substitute [for social activism] but as a complement to it.\" Paul Loeb, author of \"The Soul of a Citizen,'' a book that examines the psychology of social activism, also says online activism can be powerful but limited. He tells a story from his book to make his point. He says a friend took her kids to a protest against nuclear testing in front of the White House during the early 1960s. But she became dejected because only a few people joined her demonstration and then it rained. Years later, the same woman attended a major march against nuclear testing. Benjamin Spock, the best-selling author and pediatrician who opposed the Vietnam War, was a featured speaker. He told marchers that he was inspired to join the march after seeing a small group of women huddled with their kids in the rain while marching in front of the White House years earlier. \"I thought that if those women were out there,\" Spock said, \"their cause must be really important.\" \"He's seeing these ragged women in the rain and it touches his heart and he ends up getting changed by that,\" Loeb says. \"That story couldn't exist in the virtual world.\"","highlights":"The Web unleashes new wave of cyber-activism .\nActivists changing the world one mouse-click at a time .\nThe Web \"changes the rules\" for nonprofit groups, expert says .","id":"e34213be51b552349f409bc513a222e453462daa"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Donating to charity itself is a relatively new phenomenon in a society that traditionally values family units. President Lee Myung-Bak is criticized by opposition parties who say he supports policies that favor the rich. So the announcement that South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak will be donating $26 million, the bulk of his wealth, to charity, is considered highly unusual. The president's office said the money will be used to set up a new youth scholarship program. \"My fortune, which I accumulated through hard work during my life, is very precious to me,\" said Lee in a statement. \"I have long thought that it would be good if my wealth was spent for society in a valuable way.\" Lee, who came to office last February, promised to donate his personal wealth to society in late 2007 when he was accused of amassing his fortune through illegal means. He was since been cleared of all charges. But he is now facing criticism from opposition parties who say he supports policies that favor the rich. Lee is a former CEO of Hyundai Construction and the Seoul mayor. But he emphasizes his impoverished beginnings, as a poor young man who had to earn his college tuition cleaning streets. \"Looking back, I realize that all of those who helped me were poor,\" said Lee in the statement. \"I know that the best way for me to pay back such kindness is to give back to society what I earned.\" Analysts say this move will hopefully encourage many others to follow.","highlights":"President Lee Myung-Bak to donate $26 million, the bulk of his wealth, to charity .\nPresident's office says money will be used to set up youth scholarship program .\nLee promised to donate wealth in 2007 when accused of illegally amassing fortune .\nHe was since been cleared of all charges .","id":"7d64d8428bf83a985f6298c4dbed81885f0de2ac"} -{"article":"L'AQUILA, Italy (CNN) -- Leaders of both industrialized powers and emerging economies have agreed to work together on setting a goal to limit global warming to levels recommended by scientists, U.S. President Barack Obama said at the G-8 summit. G-8 leaders wait for an aide to remove toe markers as they pose for a family photo in L'Aquila, Italy, on July 8. The G-8 countries -- comprising the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- agreed to a target of reducing their carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050 to try to prevent the Earth's atmosphere from warming by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), Obama said. Thursday's meeting with emerging economies including China also secured a commitment from the developing countries to work for limiting global warming to the 2 degree Celsius threshold, Obama said. \"Developing countries among us will promptly undertake actions whose projected effects on emissions represent a meaningful deviation from business as usual in the midterm, in the context of sustainable development, supported by financing, technology, and capacity-building,\" said the declaration from Thursday's Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate. The declaration stopped short of setting targets for the developing nations. Obama said the emerging economies agreed to work toward setting specific targets. Watch report from CNN's Ed Henry \u00bb . He called the commitment of the emerging economies \"an important stride forward\" in minimizing climate change, but acknowledged that the issue he called one of the most challenging of our times would be difficult to confront. Environment groups gave the announcement a cautious welcome. Joanne Green, head of policy at Cafod, told the Press Association: \"Agreeing that average global temperatures should not rise by more than two degrees is forward movement but it is woefully inadequate compared to what was needed.\" And Oxfam spokesman Antonio Hill said: \"Today 17 countries, responsible for more than 80 percent of the world's emissions, agreed for the first time that it'd be nice to take the road which stops the planet heating up by more than 2 degrees. \"While G-8 countries continue to speed in the opposite direction, towards a cooked planet and climate catastrophe, poor people want to know whether rich coutries will now actually turn around before it's too late.\" The vast majority of climate change scientists warn that warming above the 2 degree Celsius threshold would mean potentially catastrophic impacts on Earth. U.N.-led negotiations on a new global climate change treaty are aiming to conclude with an agreement among 192 nations in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. Obama said the G-8 targets and work with developing countries are intended to support the international climate change treaty that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. In the United States, Congress is debating a new energy policy that could codify the G-8 target for emissions reductions in law. A House bill that recently passed has the same target of an 80 percent reduction by 2050, but Senate passage of a measure remains uncertain. Watch as leaders tour quake zone \u00bb . Republican opponents contend the United States would put itself at a competitive disadvantage by setting firm targets when China and other emerging economies would be free to pollute without limits. Some Democratic senators also fear harmful effects on fossil fuel industries in their states. The Major Economies Forum led by Obama included the G-8 countries along with Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and others. The Forum nations account for 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Its declaration Thursday outlined a range of actions including funding mechanisms for both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping nations and ecosystems adapt to global warming, along with more money to pursue alternative energy sources. The declaration said the world's emissions should peak as soon as possible and then start going down. It acknowledged that industrial powers have emitted most of the pollution causing climate change and therefore have a greater responsibility in responding. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the creation of an institute to study and advance so-called clean coal technology intended to reduce the harmful pollution from coal-fired energy. In addition, the declaration recognized \"that the timeframe for peaking will be longer in developing countries, bearing in mind that social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities in developing countries and that low-carbon development is indispensable to sustainable development.\" Watch what's on agenda at G-8 summit \u00bb . Todd Stern, Obama's special envoy for climate change, noted that China and other emerging economies had never previously acknowledged the 2-degree Celsius threshold or committed to reducing emissions from current levels. He called those steps \"significant,\" but conceded they fell short of binding commitments to meet specific reductions goals. However, Stern said the 2-degree threshold was the \"underpinning\" of the global goal for an overall 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, including the 80 percent cuts targeted by the G-8 countries. Obama acknowledged the United States has previously failed to meet its responsibilities regarding climate change, and he pledged a renewed commitment and leadership. In his remarks, Rudd made a point of welcoming the new leadership role by Obama and the United States. Obama will meet Friday with Pope Benedict XVI, who launched a verbal assault on global capitalism ahead of the G-8 meeting, lambasting \"grave deviations and failures\" and calling for a \"profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise.\" The pope challenged bankers to turn away from the practices blamed for bringing about the global economic crisis and instead use their power to help the world create wealth and economic development. \"Above all, the intention to do good must not be considered incompatible with the effective capacity to produce goods,\" Benedict said Wednesday. After his meeting with the pope, the first U.S. African-American president will make his first trip as chief executive to Africa, traveling to Accra, Ghana. Obama's father was a native of Kenya. CNN's Paula Newton in L'Aquila, Italy, contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. President Barack Obama: Leaders will work together on climate change .\nAt Italy summit, leaders pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions .\nLeaders pledge aim to achieve a 50 percent reduction in global emissions by 2050 .\nMeeting takes place in heart of quake zone where about 300 people died .","id":"4e7465c5ff50bf3e9bbbd22d39ea85454cfb121c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A birthday \"cake\" made of ice, beets, apples and pears? It might not sound appetizing, but it was a special treat Thursday for Tai Shan, the Smithsonian National Zoo's giant panda. Giant panda Tai Shan digs into his special birthday cake of ice, beets, apples and pears. A huge group of fans watched as the popular panda celebrated his fourth birthday with the three-tier cake. They cheered him on as he inched closer to the treat, and one woman yelled \"Atta boy Tai Shan!\" when he finally started eating the apple pieces on the cake's lowest tier. She cheered the panda on for eating his \"cake\" the same way a mom might cheer on her son at a soccer game or dad might cheer his daughter playing basketball. Zoo curator Lisa Stevens said people react that way because of how pandas resemble children. \"They share many features of infants and toddlers. They have high foreheads, big eye spots, and they can sit up straight and grip and eat their food,\" Stevens said. Pandas are also known to give hope to the downtrodden, according to one loyal Tai Shan fan who called herself \"Sandy.\" During her battle against a medical condition that caused her to be unable to walk, she said that frequent visits to the zoo to see Tai Shan gave her the strength she needed to persevere through the pain. \"I could barely stand an hour to see him, now I could stand all day to watch him. I pushed myself for him ... he's done so much for me and for people all over the world,\" she said. Tai Shan was born at the zoo and has had his entire life documented on a Web cam for the whole world to see. Fans may have little time left to enjoy Tai Shan, as the zoo's contract with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to keep him is set to expire later this year. The zoo is negotiating with the conservation association to keep Tai Shan a few months longer.","highlights":"Tai Shan was born at the Smithsonian National Zoo .\nBirthday boy gets a special cake made of ice, beets, apples and pears .\nZoo curator says pandas are popular because they resemble young children .\nThough born in U.S., Tai Shan due to be sent to China later this year .","id":"a70c25aa0866d9bfbe14252e68dbdcb0227de9ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Allendale, South Carolina, are investigating whether a funeral home fit a 6-foot, 5-inch man into his coffin by severing his legs. The wife of James Hines reportedly said the funeral home told her that her husband's coffin was long enough. A former Cave Funeral Services employee has alleged since James Hines' death from skin cancer in 2004 that Hines was too tall for his coffin and that the funeral home took extreme measures to make him fit, Allendale County Coroner Hayzen Black told CNN. Officials exhumed Hines' body Tuesday, Black said, and a fair amount of \"undesirable evidence\" was found, although he could not comment further. The coroner's office handed the case over to law enforcement officials for a criminal investigation, he said. Allendale Police Detective Donnie Hutto told CNN affiliate WJBF-TV that he could not comment on the condition of the body. A Cave Funeral Services employee had no comment when asked about the matter. But Ruth Hines, widow of the dead man, told WJBF that the allegations and exhumation of Hines' body are difficult for her. \"I'm just going through quite a bit,\" she said. \"It's like starting all over again, and it's left me with hurt and numbness.\" \"According to the measurements on the casket, and the funeral director, we asked him, 'Was this suitable for his length?' and he said, 'Yes that will be perfect,'\" Ruth Hines said. Hines told WJBF that her family has used Cave Funeral Services for a number of years, and she isn't sure what the family will do in the future if the allegations are true.","highlights":"At 6'5'', former employee says James Hines was too tall for coffin after death in 2004 .\nEmployee told authorities that funeral home took extreme measures to make him fit .\nOfficials exhume body Tuesday, find \"undesirable evidence,\" county coroner says .\nCave Funeral Services employee would not comment .","id":"ecf828688125c468450a0fcd74c45f2793aed007"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They may live on separate continents, in different countries with differing cultures, but the same message is being echoed by the world's poor, according to a new report by aid agency Oxfam. Farmers in Uganda have little choice but to attempt to cultivate crops on arid land. The report, \"Suffering the Science,\" tells the stories of people who are discovering to their detriment that long-held truths about seasons and rainfall no longer apply. \"I travel a lot and people are always saying to me, 'the seasons have changed,'\"Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking told CNN. \"I think there's a real sense of uncertainty. People have lost confidence. They have a very close relationship with the Earth, nature and climate and suddenly they're finding that it doesn't work anymore.\" People such as Florence Madamu from western Uganda. \"The sun is prolonged until the end of September,\" she told Oxfam. \"And whenever it rains it rains so heavily it destroys all our crops in the fields. You can plant a whole acre or two and come out with nothing.\" July is a particularly harsh month in large swathes of Africa. It's the peak hunger season and this year people are expected to be more vulnerable than usual following record high food prices in 2008. Laborers are planting precious seeds in fields of dirt with no guarantee they'll produce a harvest, while the conditions they're working under are becoming more extreme. \"For me the big worry is that many of them don't know why it's happening so they can't actually help themselves prepare for the changes,\" Stocking told CNN. \"We need to work with them to help them become more resilient -- whether it's cyclones and weather-related disasters or whether it's a long-term change. They need to be prepared for very different sorts of seasons now.\" And for unfamiliar diseases. Higher temperatures are encouraging the migration of malaria and other vector-borne diseases into new areas where, in some cases, health authorities are ill-equipped to cope. Oxfam found Iha at her daughter's bedside in a hospital in Indonesia. Twelve-year-old Laila was the second of her children to contract dengue fever at their home on the island of Java. \"They said that this is a new type of dengue fever,\" Iha told Oxfam. \"She has already had 30 bags of infusion water. After nine days her condition is still not stable.\" It is the stories of people such as Iha who are living with the consequences of climate change that Oxfam hopes will prompt action from leaders of developed nations who are meeting in L'Aquila, Italy this week. \"Ideally what we'd like is the G8 countries to come out very clearly as to what their targets are for carbon emissions reductions by 2020 and the amounts of money needed,\" Stocking said. \"It's unlikely they'll be as precise about that,\" she conceded, adding, \"but we really need some good strong wording in the G8 communiqu\u00e9 about the recognition that for a deal to be done [in Copenhagen], money will be needed for the poorest countries.\" Talks in Copenhagen in December are being billed as an unmissable opportunity for developed and developing nations to agree a global plan to combat climate change. Stocking commended a proposal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to establish a $100 billion annual fund to help developing nations contend with climate change, but said closer to $150 billion was needed. Oxfam points out that's about the same amount the U.S. government spent on bailing out insurance company AIG. While scientists warn that a cut of 40 percent in carbon emissions by 2020 is vital to avoid severe repercussions, developed nations have yet to commit to anything close. \"We need America to come forward much more positively,\" Stocking said. \"It's really got to stand up to the bar clearly if there's going to be any deal.\" \"We're really pressing as well for the EU to come out much more clearly about what it will do it as a whole. \"There isn't even a Council of Minister's meeting until October and that's going to be far too late. There needs to be some serious meetings including heads of state very quickly now to get an agreement to put something very direct on the table,\" she said.","highlights":"Oxfam report tells the stories of people affected by climate change .\nReport 'Suffering the Science' catalogs challenges of world's poor .\nStocking: \"People are always saying to me, 'the seasons have changed'\"\nOxfam wants greater action on climate change from developed nations .","id":"44423b7afe83a20250a748ef4a3e2cff08529707"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Generations of standup comedians never saw this coming. John Heffron is one of an increasing number of comedians joining Twitter. To succeed in the industry these days, you don't just need to be good on stage and screen. You also have to nail the art of sending out mini-messages to Twitter \"followers.\" But if your humor is based on storytelling, persona and, you know, the way you say stuff, how can you get hilarious in 140 characters or less? For the pros, it's a challenge and an opportunity. CNN's Josh Levs spoke with two successful standup comics who are diving into the Twitterverse. John Heffron is a winner of \"Last Comic Standing.\" Craig Shoemaker won the award for funniest comedy routine on XM Satellite Radio. Watch Heffron and Shoemaker mix it up \u00bb . And we want to hear from you. Send the funniest tweets you've ever seen to Levs via Twitter (@joshlevscnn) or post them on Facebook. The following is an edited version of the interview. Craig Shoemaker: I'm on the information super-cul-de-sac. I mean, I'm not so great at this; I'm learning. And I have no friends. I had more friends at my house yesterday for dinner than I have on Twitter. And (Heffron) is the king. CNN: How did you build up your fan base, John? How did you build up this number of followers on Twitter? John Heffron: I try to be funny; I try to be entertaining; I try to do stuff that hopefully gets re-twitted. Is that the word? Sure. CNN: All right, let's take a look at some of your popular tweets here. You have a section called the original last tweets. And you have one here: \"Guy who always gets killed on Star Trek. Last tweet: 'Got my uniform. The rest of the landing party wearing a different color. Weird!' \" And then my favorite one: \"Married man's last tweet: 'About to go into the champagne room, wish me luck.' \" Heffron: Those are the things that end up, people start passing around and then that's what gets people to go, \"Who is this guy?\" CNN: And Craig, is this what you're chasing? The same idea, those one-liners that get tossed out? Shoemaker: Yeah, I'm a storyteller, so it's not so great for me. I'm still working on this under-140 characters thing. CNN: I did pull out one of yours that I liked too. You wrote, \"Up late in my Pittsburgh hotel, just read a USA today article about how Twitter is no good for intimacy. No worries. I'm alone.\" Shoemaker: I don't know if anybody's laughing at the jokes. I tweeted that last night. We'll see how that goes. CNN: Is that part of what's hard about Twitter? When you're doing this, you don't have that kind of instant feedback. You know, if you're doing standup somewhere, you've got the laughter. How do you know? It's like doing this in an echo chamber. Shoemaker: It's the replies. To me, I judge by the replies. Heffron: I've had zero replies. So apparently, I got to work on my tweeting. The whole thing is, when you write, though, it's different. It doesn't have the nuance or things like that. Like I put something about my ex-wife that I got divorced and \"tonight's show is a benefit show and all proceeds go to my ex-wife.\" And people are writing back, \"Oh, I feel so sorry for you,\" and I go, \"No, it's a joke.\" Shoemaker: Yeah. Criss Angel was on my flight, so I tweeted \"Criss Angel is on our flight. We will not have to use fuel. He will use his superpowers to get us home.\" And the replies were, I spelled Criss Angel's name wrong. It's like, come on, people! How am I supposed? You know, that's not the point! CNN: The previous generations never had this problem. No one's never, until really the last few years, no one's ever dealt with the opportunities and the challenges that you guys have. Is Twitter the new standup? Shoemaker: You know, as a comedian, it's funny now it seems like you have to be funny and be this crazy Internet marketer. How can I let somebody know that I'm coming into whatever city, and Twitter and Facebook and all those things are the best way to do it. Heffron: I hate to see, though, that we're on stage at the Punchline in Atlanta actually tweeting the crowd from the stage. I'm doing my act with my thumbs on my BlackBerry. Hold on for a second; I have a new joke I'd like to try on you. Turn on your texts. Want to follow John and Craig? Heffron is @johnheffron; Shoemaker is @thelovemaster.","highlights":"A number of comedians joining Twitter, sending out jokes .\nJohn Heffron: I try to be funny and entertaining .\nHeffron, Craig Shoemaker note that nuances are lost in translation .","id":"dd16f21fae0c1559c7e317fc2fb41e25a581c398"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The way professional golf is played may have changed for good after the U.S. PGA Tour decided to go along with a new rule that amounts to a rollback of golf technology, a move that world number one Tiger Woods has endorsed. Tiger Woods supports a rule change that will make it harder to play out of the rough. The rule, implemented by the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) and Royal and Ancient Golf Club (RA), means that from the start of 2010 the U-shaped grooves on wedges will be banned in favor of V-shaped grooves, with the intention of rewarding accurate driving over distance hitting. Research by the USGA has shown that U-shaped grooves allow top players to generate much more spin when playing the ball out of the rough, making the ball come to a quick stop on the green. The USGA and RA felt this meant that landing in the rough was no longer enough of a penalty for shots that strayed from the fairway. In recent years pro golfers have begun to drive for distance rather than accuracy, knowing they can spin their way out of the rough if they miss their target -- a style of play known as \"bomb and gouge.\" Despite pressure from some players and golf equipment manufacturers, the U.S. PGA Tour has decided to go along with the rule change, meaning U.S. PGA Tour competitions, including the U.S. Open, will feature the club restriction from next year. Amateur competitions will not ditch the U-shaped grooves until 2014 and the new rule will not apply to recreational players until 2024. Gareth Taylor, Product Manager at leading golf club manufacturer Callaway, told CNN he believes the change will reward more skilful players. \"At the moment players are getting a lot of spin on the ball so I think it will make people play better,\" he said. \"They'll have to get their technique finely tuned and not rely on the club.\" He says club makers have been given ample notice to prepare for the switch. \"I don't think the change is a regression, it just means research and development will have to come up with better ideas to help the players out.\" Taylor explained that as a golfer strikes the ball the grooves on the club face catch the coating on the ball's surface, producing back spin. He said that the rule change applies to five irons and up and requires the grooves on the club face to be more spaced out, which will make it harder for the grooves to catch the ball. Tiger Woods has supported the changes, saying: \"I think it's great. We've had plenty of time to make our adjustments. All the companies have been testing and getting ready for this.\" To compensate for the loss of spin from the rough, tour players may use softer balls, which spin more but do not travel as far. That could favor players who already use the softer ball -- including Tiger Woods.","highlights":"The PGA Tour has agreed to a rule that will ban U-groove clubs for tour players .\nThe rule should reward accuracy by making it harder to play from the rough .\nGolf club designers are researching new technologies to replace the u-groove .","id":"eb38f5926aaf87b4fe38480a1c20ccb45486f1f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 4-year-old Ohio girl who vanished more than three weeks ago was found alive and in good condition, halfway across the country in Southern California, authorities said. Haylee Donathan was found with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, fugitive sex offender Robbi Potter. Haylee Donathan, her mother, Candace Watson, and Robbi Potter were discovered after hiding for the past week at The Morning Star Ranch, a retreat in Valley Center, near San Diego, said Peter Elliott, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio. Potter is a registered sex offender, officials said. He was being sought by the U.S. Marshal's Service. Late Tuesday, Haylee was in the custody of a children's protective services agency in the San Diego County area, Elliott said. She was doing well but may have chicken pox, he added. \"We understand she is healthy and happy and I believe, waiting to come back to her grandmother here,\" he said. Watch authorities announce their find \u00bb . The journey west took them more than 2,000 miles from Mansfield, the north-Central Ohio city where the girl and her mother live. \"I am very happy that my granddaughter's coming home,\" said Mary Watson, Haylee's grandmother. \"And I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.\" Watson, 24, and Potter, 27, were arrested without incident and held by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. When asked their reaction, Elliott said, \"I believe a little shocked that we were able to find them.\" Potter and Watson were still using the same vehicle, a 1980s blue Chevrolet pickup truck they drove from Ohio, Elliott said. Watson's hair was a bit darker and Potter also changed his appearance slightly. Authorities had feared Haylee was endangered. Potter, a sex offender, had escaped a halfway house on May 28, the day the girl and her mother fell out of sight. Countless tips came in while they were missing but one in particular led to the breakthrough on Tuesday, Elliott said without elaborating. But a tip from members of the ranch could have led to the raid and arrest, a ranch member told CNN. Kevin Carlin, a member of the ranch in the neighborhood of Valley Center, told CNN in a telephone interview that ranch members became suspicious when a former ranch guest saw billboards urging help in finding Haylee and the two adults. Elliott also praised intense national news coverage from programs such as HLN's \"Nancy Grace\" and \"Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell,\" as well as local media and Clear Channel, which put up missing child billboards across the country. When she is returned to Ohio, Haylee will be placed in the custody of her grandmother, Elliott said. The U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of 27-year-old Potter. Potter was wanted on a state warrant for parole violation and a federal warrant for probation violation. He is a convicted tier three sex offender, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, a unit of the Justice Department. While on the run, Potter and Watson were reportedly seen on surveillance video on May 31 at a Wal-Mart Store in Marion, Ohio, 40 miles from Mansfield. Haylee was not on that video. Adding to concerns, Watson's roommate, Samantha Covert, said last week in an interview on \"Nancy Grace\" that she saw the little girl in bed with her mother and Potter the morning they disappeared. Covert said Watson carried a basket of clothing, pillows and blankets. Watson will likely face state charges, including harboring a fugitive, according to Elliott. In addition to other charges, he said Potter may be prosecuted under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, a federal sex offender registration and self-reporting law that carries a multiyear felony sentence if violated. On its Web site, the Morning Star Ranch describes itself as \"a community of growers of organic, pesticide-free avocados, grapefruit, persimmons, nuts and other produce.\" Elliot said he believed it is a rehabilitation facility and also called it a Christian retreat.","highlights":"Ohio girl found alive near San Diego, California, authorities say .\nTip led authorities to raid communal farm .\nHaylee Donathan was with mother, boyfriend who's a fugitive sex offender .\nHaylee, mother were last seen May 28 .","id":"af56b29b2659e5f3d592a703bf90b886da382162"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- John Daly dazzled the galleries at the Italian Open with his garish clothing but stayed in contention for the title after a second successive 69 in Turin. Daly rolls a putt during his second round of 69 at the Italian Open. Sporting a lime green top with a pair of psychedelic trousers, Daly was looking to improve on his tie for 31st in the Spanish Open. The two-time major champion is playing on the European Tour after being handed a six-month ban in the United States after a series of lurid headlines. But clearly showing the benefits of losing 20kg after having a gastric band fitted, Daly has shown glimpses of his best form. \"Yesterday could have been really low, but today could have been really high,\" he told the official European Tour Web site www.europeantour.com. \"I didn't hit it that great and one-putted the first five greens.\" Daly was partnering home hope and 2007 champion Francesco Molinari and while struggled early on, the Italian packed an eagle and two birdies into his first four holes to go joint leader. But he then slipped back to five-under as he matched Daly with a 69. Daniel Vancsik of Argentina was setting the pace on the second day after carding a six-under 65 for a halfway total of nine-under 133. Daly, who had not played for four months before teeing up in Spain, will look to continue his improved form in lucrative upcoming events. It was confirmed on Friday that he is to extend his stay by playing in the European Open at the London Club from May 28-31. It will be a first appearance in the tournament by the \"Wild Thing\" who is promoting a new range of clothing to match his more slimline figure.","highlights":"John Daly cards second straight 69 in Turin to be handily-placed in Italian Open .\n43-year-old American is playing a series of events on the European Tour .\n\"Wild Thing\" has also made his mark with his colorful golf clothing .","id":"131e9e6cc872a563bb890a0125b9c6b99dd348e8"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Argentina's economy is in a perpetual state of uncertainty. As a result, Argentines have learned to live with what they've got -- and make things last. Lukas Desimone of Baumm cuts out a new bag from an old billboard advertisement. This resilience and resourcefulness has resulted in a wonderfully creative culture, where innovation and ingenuity are ever-present. In the wake of the country's 2001-2002 economic crash, many Argentines couldn't afford to travel abroad to forge new business relationships and absorb foreign ideas, so they did what they've always done -- they looked within for inspiration. In particular, Argentine fashion and designs have come to the forefront in recent years and gained worldwide accolades. These days, whenever I walk down the streets of Buenos Aires, especially in the trendy bohemian neighborhoods of Palermo and San Telmo, I see scores of boutique shops selling cool furnishings and hip clothing. Watch Brian Byrnes' report from Argentina \u00bb . These are the places that always seem to attract the most attention from tourists; I don't think they expect to find such cutting-edge goods here, and are pleasantly surprised when they do. I've lived in Argentina since 2001, and witnessed the country struggle through the bad times and enjoy the subsequent recovery; in some sectors of society you could even call it a renaissance. So it comes as no surprise to me that Argentine designers are now meshing technology and fashion in totally new, and in many cases, eco-friendly ways. Living a \"green\" lifestyle is a relatively new concept in Argentina, and the country is definitely behind in regards to education and implementation of environmentally-friendly policies, but that has started to change in recent years, and as they are prone to do, many Argentines have embraced the idea with their typical gusto. I wanted to find out more about some of these new designers, so I visited two businesses in Buenos Aires that are creating items that are both innovative and unique, especially for this region of the world. We'll be featuring these two companies on CNN International's special weeklong programming called \"Going Green\" this week. The first place I went is Indarra DTX , housed in an enormous warehouse that also serves as a storage area for a supermarket. When I knocked on the non-descript gray metal door and passed through a loading dock area, I was thinking that I may have come to the wrong place. But cameraman Eduardo Aragona and I were soon greeted by a cheerful receptionist, Agustina, who led us into the spacious workspace and then to a corner area reserved for fashion fittings and meetings. There we met Julieta Gayoso, the 37-year-old owner of Indarra DTX. She told me that Indarra is a Basque word that means \"energy\" and she named the company such because her objective is to mesh technology and fashion in a way that advances the functionality of clothing. \"We are with our clothes 24 hours a day, so I think they need to provide us with other services, and these new benefits have to do with technology,\" says Gayoso. Indarra makes sleek jackets from eco-friendly textiles, like bamboo fibers and Lyocell. One of their most intriguing products is the FV Module Jacket, which comes with a small solar panel attached to the back. The panel absorbs sunlight and in turn can power your Ipod or charge your cell phone. I tried one on, and it was comfortable, practical -- and stylish. Although I must say, I would be a bit concerned about garnering glances on the street because of the solar square. It's not that noticeable, though, and it's worth the funny looks to save a little energy. Every bit counts, right? Next, we headed across town to the workshop and studio of Baumm, a self-proclaimed \"Recycle and Design Company\" housed on the second floor of a refurbished old home in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Lukas Desimone, 29, and Rodrigo Chapero, 27, are the co-owners of the company, and when I first met them I thought they could easily be members of a skateboarding team. Baumm -- which means \"tree\" in German (they added an extra \"m\" so \"it would look cooler,\" according to Chapero) -- creates hip messenger bags and wallets from the vinyl that is used in billboards. When they first started, they would literally rip down the material from old street advertisements; now they have hired some people to bring the material to them. It's a fantastic idea, because as Chapero told me, the material is not recyclable and is toxic if burned, so essentially, once an advertising campaign is over, the vinyl is rolled up, stored away, and never used again. The Baumm guys saw the potential in this, and now make colorful, 100 percent original bags that retail for around $30 each. Every bag is hand-made, and literally one-of-a-kind. \"We are giving new life to something we take out of the trash,\" says Chapero.","highlights":"CNN's Brian Byrnes reports from Argentina on trend for eco-friendly fashion .\nEconomic crash inspired a new creativity that's all about recycling, reusing .\nIndarra DTX is creating hi-tech clothing, installing solar panels in jackets .\nBaumm uses vinyl from discarded billboard advertisements to make bags .","id":"91d072abbcd58d381b4e6c807ea967910ba39762"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Arrest warrants have been issued for another nine people associated with a fire at a day-care center in northwestern Mexico in June that killed 48 children, the state-run Notimex news agency said Saturday. Two girls lay flowers during a funeral of one of the 48 children who died in the day-care fire. The warrants are for the owners and legal representatives of the ABC day-care center in the city of Hermosillo in Sonora state, which burned down June 5, Notimex said. Officials have determined that the fire started at an air-conditioning unit at a government-owned warehouse in the same building as the day-care center. Fourteen children remain hospitalized, Notimex reported earlier. The latest arrest warrants are the third group to be issued since the fire. On Wednesday, the Mexican federal attorney general's office ordered the arrest of nine public officials from the Mexican Institute of Social Security, which owned the day-care center, as well as private individuals connected to the facility. Two weeks earlier, Mexican officials announced they had ordered the arrests of 14 people who worked at the warehouse. Parents of the dead children and others have held demonstrations in Hermosillo and Mexico City to protest what they see as foot-dragging by authorities in punishing the responsible parties.","highlights":"Arrest warrants issued for nine people in connection with Mexico day-care fire .\nForty-eight children died in fire; 14 remain hospitalized .\nFire started in air-conditioning unit in building, officials say .","id":"08fd1c20e2a56f607cd4080af2d65b965b8117af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Massachusetts sued the U.S. government on Wednesday, challenging the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The state of Massachusetts says the Defense of Marriage Act denies same-sex couples essential rights. \"We're taking this action today because, first, we believe that [the Defense of Marriage Act] directly interferes with Massachusetts' long-standing sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents,\" Attorney General Martha Coakley said Wednesday afternoon. \"Massachusetts has a single category of married persons, and we view all married persons equally and identically,\" she said. \"DOMA divides that category into two distinct and unequal classes of marriage.\" The lawsuit argues that the act, which became law in 1996, denies same-sex couples essential rights and protections, including federal income tax credits, employment and retirement benefits, health insurance coverage and Social Security payments. \"In enacting DOMA, Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states' efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,\" the state wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in federal court. Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, said that about 16,000 same-sex couples have been married there since 2004, when it began issuing marriage licenses. Since that time, the lawsuit said, \"the security and stability of families has been strengthened in important ways throughout the state. \" The state is challenging Section 3 of the law, which defines marriage as \"a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife\" and a spouse as \"a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.\" Before the act, the lawsuit argues, defining marital status was the prerogative of the states. The law \"eviscerated more than 200 years of federal government deference to the states with respect to defining marriage,\" it said. The lawsuit also argues that the law forces Massachusetts to treat same-sex married couples differently from heterosexual married couples, particularly through determining who qualifies for the state's Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, and whether a same-sex spouse of a veteran can be buried in a veteran cemetery. \"But for DOMA, married individuals in same-sex relationships in the commonwealth would receive the same status, obligations, responsibilities, rights, and protections as married individuals in different-sex relationships under local, state, and federal laws,\" the lawsuit said. The defendants named in the lawsuit include the Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and the United States itself. Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the department will review the case but noted that President Obama supports the legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. In March, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders -- the same Boston-based group that successfully argued in 2003 for same-sex marriage rights in Massachusetts -- also sued the federal government over Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. Besides Massachusetts, three other states recognize same-sex marriages: Connecticut, Maine, and Iowa. Vermont and New Hampshire will join their company when same-sex marriages become legal later this year and early next year.","highlights":"Lawsuit challenges constitutionality of Defense of Marriage Act .\nMeasure defines marriage as between man and woman .\nAttorney General: Law means state can't define and regulate marriage .\nSuit says law denies same-sex married couples essential rights, protections .","id":"d9910e56549feee0a9e511d6bb063eb1f40e1858"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government says it has banned all organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave amid concern over support for the late dictator's former party. An Iraqi poet, left, gives a recital while children carry pictures of Saddam Hussein over his grave. A Cabinet statement on Monday said it had directed authorities in Salaheddin province and the Education Ministry to \"take all necessary measures\" to prevent such outings. The former dictator, along with his two sons and other relatives, is buried in his hometown of al-Ouja near Tikrit in Salaheddin north of Baghdad. And, Hussein supporters and schoolchildren have made visits there on the late dictator's birthday and hanging date. There have been videos on sites such as YouTube of people at the site. One video shows schoolchildren at the grave in December; they carried banners at Hussein's grave that said \"We won't forget you father\" and they read pro-Hussein poetry. The government move was made after a recent visit by schoolchildren to the grave, but no reason was given for the decision. However, the move reflects the concern of Iraq's government over the presence of the Baath Party in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's political movement. The party and its symbols have been banned in Iraq. On Saturday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that while there can be government reconciliation with individual Baathists who have not committed crimes such as killing Iraqis, there can never be national reconciliation with the party itself. Salaheddin Gov. Mutasher Hussein Alaiwi, said he had not received any official directives yet, but said he would implement Cabinet orders when he receives them. The governor said that would apply to organized group visits, but they would not stop individual ones. A resident of al-Ouja told CNN the government had no right to stop visitors from going to their former president's tomb. \"Even if they put police and army outside the door, they will not stop us from visiting our president, our leader and our father,\" said Mohammed al- Nasiri. Hussein was executed in 2006 after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.","highlights":"Iraqi government bans all organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave .\nFormer dictator buried in his hometown of al-Ouja near Tikrit, north of Baghdad .\nGovernment move was made after a recent visit by schoolchildren to the grave .\nMove reflects concern of Iraq's government over presence of the Baath Party .","id":"6b1e6406b2ee4c10f740d5134ec2b43c909f98bc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova's life has been a classic rags-to-riches fairytale, taking her from poverty in provincial Russia to a cosmopolitan life of wealth and aristocracy. Supermodel Natalia Vodianova was discovered in Moscow in a classic rags-to-riches tale. Her intelligence, poise and charm (as well as stunning features and long limbs), have propelled her from anonymity to being one of the most recognizable and respected models in the fashion industry. Her success has earned her the nickname Supernova. Not content to grace the covers of glossy magazines and the catwalks of the world's glamorous fashion capitals, Vodianova has also carved a role as a philanthropist. In 2005 she founded the Naked Heart Foundation, a charity that builds playgrounds for children across Russia. \"Giving back just feels so great and I always try to open each play park with myself being present for the children because it makes it more special for them. I go to very remote parts of Russia that are far from Moscow and it gives these children an extra message of love,\" she told CNN. Vodianova was born on February 28 1982 in Nizhni Novgorod, the fourth largest city in Russia. She lived in a poor district of the city with her mother and two sisters, one of whom has cerebral palsy. Watch Natalia Vodianova take CNN on a tour of Moscow \u00bb . The young Vodianova was regularly taken to the opera and the ballet by her grandparents. They offered some respite from the troubles at home and taught her the importance of manners. When Vodianova was 11 she began to help out on the family's fruit stall, and at the age of 15 she had moved into her own apartment with her best friend. \"It was a lot of survival and a lot of struggling but overall we were a good team,\" Vodianova told CNN. \"We worked really hard, all of us, and stood up for each other. My mum was amazing -- she lived for us. I appreciate what she has done for me and the way she raised me\" In 1999 a Parisian model scout held an open casting in Nizhni Novgorod. Vodianova impressed him and he sent her to Paris to sign with Viva Models on the condition that she learn English within three months. Luckily for her she took his advice. A year later Vodianova would find herself settled in Paris and sitting at a dinner party in the Pompidou Center restaurant. It was there she met artistic, English aristocratic playboy the Honorable Justin Portman, third son of the late Viscount Edward Henry Berkeley Portman. See Natalia Vodianova's life in front of the camera. \u00bb . The Portman family is one of the wealthiest in Britain, owning over 100 acres of prime land in central London and 3000 acres in Herefordshire, as well as expansive properties in Antigua and Australia. The pair fell in love and after a quick civil wedding Vodianova gave birth to their first child, Lucas, in December 2001, when she was still only 19. Vodianova lost a huge amount of weight after the birth and just a few weeks later at the castings for Paris Fashion Week she was the clear favorite among the designers. She opened and closed the prestigious Yves Saint Laurent show, as well as 40 other runway bookings and landed a Gucci perfume campaign, shot by iconic fashion photographer Mario Testino. On September 1 2002 Vodianova and Portman were married again, this time in a ceremony at St Vladimir's Cathedral in St Petersburg, followed by a lavish reception for 110 guests at the Palace of Catherine the Great. Over the next few years two more children followed. Her daughter Neva was born in March 2006 and another son, Viktor, was born in September 2007. Vodianova still found time to walk the runway for the world's great fashion houses, including Chanel, Givenchy, Versace, Balenciaga, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Christian Lacroix, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and her good friend Diane Von Furstenberg. She \"officially\" retired from the catwalk after Valentino's emotional final show, during the Spring\/Summer 2008 season. Afterwards, Vodianova took Valentino for a well-deserved holiday to her much-loved city of Moscow. \"Moscow is the heart of my country so it gathers the best of what I love about my country - and I can find it all here in this place. I love the people, I love what I find here, I love being here and it's sad that I don't actually live here. It would be my dream\" Vodianova told CNN. Following a brief return to the catwalk for Diane Von Furstenberg and Balenciaga at the end of 2008 the supermodel is now fronting campaigns for Calvin Klein and David Yurman jewelry. At the age of 27 Natalia Vodianova has achieved more than most people could ever dream of. She's got age on her side, as well as beauty, fame and fortune, and yet she remains admirably grounded. \"The most important things to me are my children, my family and my husband. It's really about people in general -- I really love people and I try to never say no if someone needs my help.\"","highlights":"Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova grew up in a poor neighborhood .\nHer charity, the \"Naked Heart Foundation,\" builds playgrounds in Russia .\nShe is married to English aristocrat Justin Portman and has three children .\nVodianova now fronts campaigns for Calvin Klein and David Yurman jewelry .","id":"2ae28b67fde367a14c93bd05fbbdbb53e4b436f4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Profits at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's British restaurants plunged by nearly 90 percent in the last 12 months. Gordon Ramsay has become as successful on television as he has been off-screen. Run by the Scottish-born chef and his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, Gordon Ramsay Holdings reported a drop in annual turnover from \u00a341.6 million ($68 million) to \u00a335 million ($57 million) in the year to August 2008, Britain's Press Association reported Friday. Pre-tax profits plummeted by over \u00a33 million ($4.9 million) to \u00a3383,325 ($627,000), while net debt in the group, which includes London restaurants such as Claridges, Maze and the flagship Royal Hospital Road, soared to almost \u00a39.5 million ($15.5 million). With spiraling debts and crippling tax bills, the star of TV shows such as \"Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares\" and \"Hell's Kitchen\" was forced to pump huge amounts of his own money into the business, even selling his prized Ferrari to raise funds, The Guardian newspaper said. Ramsay has attributed his business problems to over-ambitious expansion plans, in addition to the closure of two of his 11 London eateries. The Michelin-starred chef opened ten restaurants between 2007 and 2008, while The Savoy Grill was forced to close as the Savoy hotel was refurbished, and the lease at the Connaught expired. The 42-year old was also forced to review his company's international operations, closing restaurants in Paris, Los Angeles and Prague, The Times newspaper reported. \"Ambition overtook me. We thought we could do anything, that we couldn't fail,\" PA quoted Ramsay as saying recently. A full review of the group's operations was instigated in December as part of a refinancing deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland and to help the business get through the troubled economic times. \"2008 brought its own challenges, not just for our group, but for the industry as a whole and the broader economy,\" Hutcheson told PA. \"Whilst the restructuring has benefited the group, the significant contribution and commitment of all 750 staff to the business has been integral to moving us to a position of strength.\" Ramsay has endured a difficult time recently. Last month he was criticized by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after reportedly comparing television star Tracy Grimshaw to a pig during a live cooking show in Melbourne. His trademark colorful language also came under fire last year by another Australian lawmaker. However Ramsay told the country's Channel Nine Network, which broadcasts Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen, that the shows emphasize the \"pressures of working in a restaurant kitchen.\"","highlights":"Turnover by Gordon Ramsay Holdings drops from $68M to $57M .\nPre-tax profits plummet by over $4.9M to $627,000 .\nOver-ambitious expansion plans, restaurant closures blamed .\nRamsay currently owns nine restaurants in London .","id":"ec2d9d544840cf48a306a9456a9df3b142c357b1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The family of Michael Jackson has been told by state officials that it may be possible to bury the singer at Neverland Ranch -- if the county gives the green light. Santa Barbara County says it hasn't yet been contacted about burying Michael Jackson at Neverland. Officials with Santa Barbara County, the site of the ranch, said Thursday that they have not yet been approached, and it was not clear whether the family had decided to pursue that option. A lawyer from the Jackson family contacted state officials recently about possibly burying Jackson at the ranch that was his home for almost two decades, said Amanda Fulkerson of California's State and Consumer Services Agency. To bury someone on private land in California is a two-step process. First, a certificate of authority is needed from the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau -- easily obtainable by filling out a two-page application and paying $400. Next, the family needs approval from the county. No one from the Jackson camp has contacted county authorities yet, said county spokesman William Boyer. \"We have had no formal application either from the Jackson family or from the property owner,\" said Boyer, the communications director for the county. \"At that point, we would review the application and make a determination.\" Boyer said Santa Barbara county has never been approached about burial on private land. California has had burials outside cemeteries, most notably that of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan at his presidential library in Ventura County's Simi Valley. Jackson's brother Jermaine said he'd like to see the singer buried at the ranch. But their father, Joe Jackson, said he opposes the site. The rest of the family has expressed no preference about Jackson's final resting place. Michael Jackson died June 25 of a cardiac arrest. The exact cause of death is pending toxicology results. Jackson purchased the Neverland Ranch -- named for the fictional world in J.M. Barrie's \"Peter Pan\" -- in 1987 and filled it with animals and amusement rides. Billionaire Tom Barrack Jr. gained control of the ranch through his company last year as part of a process to alleviate the singer's debts, believed to be in the millions. Soon after Jackson's death, Barrack said the property's future would be discussed at a later time.","highlights":"State officials say Santa Barbara County has to approve burial on private property .\nJackson family also must fill out a two-page application and pay $400 .\nNeverland Ranch was Jackson's home for almost two decades .\nBrother Jermaine wants to see him buried at ranch; father Joe opposes idea .","id":"4f0babcd4dd2ab0fd1f177dfe680cdc1a2d81865"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Egyptian court on Thursday confirmed the death sentences of a business tycoon and a former police officer convicted of killing rising Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim. Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a real estate mogul, has been found guilty of Suzanne Tamim's murder. In a case that has captivated Egypt and the region because of the fame of the victim and one of the defendants, a judge sentenced to death real estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa and former officer Muhsen el Sukkari last month. Tamim's body was found stabbed, with her throat slit, in her apartment in the United Arab Emirates in July 2008. The court's latest decision came after a review of the sentence by Egypt's grand mufti, the country's highest religious official. Because the two men were sentenced under Islamic law, it is widely expected they will be hanged. The court usually seeks to get the Mufti's \"advice only on any death sentence, according to the law,\" a legal source in Cairo told CNN. \"However, the Mufti's advice to the court is not binding at all,\" added the source, who asked not to be named. \"Even if the Mufti was against the death sentence, that will not have any effect on the judge's decision, who will have the final say,\" the source said. Since his 2003 appointment as grand mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa has received about 480 cases from the court that included death sentences. He supported the judge's decision in 478 and opposed twice, but the rule was implemented according to the court conviction. Moustafa's lawyer previously told reporters that he would appeal the conviction, saying there was \"a 1 million percent guarantee\" the sentence would be overturned. Prosecutors alleged Moustafa, a parliament member for the ruling National Democratic Party, paid el Sukkari $2 million to kill Tamim. During the trial, Moustafa's lawyer told CNN his client loved the singer but could not take Tamim as a second wife because his family objected. Polygamy is legal in Egypt, and it's not unusual for men such as Moustafa, a married father of three, to take on additional wives. Prosecutors have said Tamim's death was a \"means of taking revenge\" but have not elaborated. Moustafa and el Sukkari claim the prosecution's evidence could have been fabricated or tampered with by UAE authorities and should not be used against them. Although Tamim was killed in the UAE, the Egyptian judiciary tried the case in Cairo because the accused were arrested in Egypt. After Moustafa's arrest in September, Egyptian authorities indicted him, stripped him of his parliamentary immunity and jailed him pending trial. He also resigned as chairman of Talaat Moustafa Group -- a conglomerate with construction and real estate arms that was founded by his father, Talaat Moustafa. Moustafa's brother, Tarek Talaat Moustafa, now chairs the company. CNN.com Arabic's Mahmoud Gharib contributed to this story.","highlights":"Egyptian mogul and ex-police officer guilty of Lebanese singer Tamim's murder .\nHer body was found in apartment in United Arab Emirates .\nProsecutors alleged Moustafa paid ex-officer el Sukkari $2M to kill Tamim .\nMoustafa, el Sukkari say prosecution's evidence could have been made up .","id":"6fd838cf6161e47dd16c077f7005f3fa89be9113"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Automotive expert Tom Torbjornsen answers a question about how to diagnose an exhaust problem and what to do about it. Dear Tom, Smoke is coming out of the tailpipe of my 2002 Chrysler Sebring with 90,000 miles. Is this a big problem? I have to put a quart of oil a week in the engine. What should I do? -- Sally, New York . Sally, Generally, engines burn oil due to a few reasons: bad valve seals, worn valve guides, pressurized crankcase (oil pan) due to a clogged PCV valve or breather system, and blow-by from worn piston rings. Bad valve seals: The valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. Oil is pumped at 40 to 80 PSI (pounds\/square inch) of pressure into the top of the head, lubricating the valve-train. The valves have seals to stop the flow of oil down into the engine when the valve is open. If the seals fail then oil is allowed to flow down into the combustion chamber and is burned. Worn valve guides: A small cylindrical chamber called a valve guide does just what its name says ... it guides the valves. These guides wear out over time causing eccentricity (slop). The excess gap that forms allows oil to flow down the valve stem into the combustion chamber to be burned. Normally the valve seal stops this flow. However, in this case the gap is too great for the seal to work. AOL Autos: Should you use synthetic motor oil? Pressurized crankcase due to clogged PCV or breather system: Your car's engine is a giant air pump, consequently it must breathe. The PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) system allows the engine to exhaust the excess pressure buildup (which is a natural phenomenon of the internal combustion engine). Carbon is a by-product of an engine and can build up in the PCV system, clogging the breathing passages. This in turn pressurizes the oil pan and pushes oil up into the fuel delivery system where it is fed into the engine and burned. AOL Autos: Do I need to replace my air filter? Blow-by from worn piston rings: The pistons in your car's engine have seals around them in the form of rings. These rings have two functions: (1) they seal the combustion chamber so that the power developed from the firing of the cylinder is not lost. (2) They provide vital lubrication to the cylinder walls. When the rings wear out, the pressure from combustion reverses down into the oil pan, pressurizing it, and forcing oil into the valve covers. From there it goes through the breather system, back into the fuel delivery system, and into the engine to be burned. I have to put a quart of oil a week in the engine. Is this a big problem? It's hard to say without performing some diagnostics on the engine. A quart of oil a week is excessive. It could be due to a plugged PCV or excessive internal engine wear. Take the car into the shop for engine diagnostics. My guess is that the tech will perform a compression test along with a cylinder leak down test after he\/she determines if the PCV system is open. During these tests the tech tries to determine if there is loss of engine compression, blow-by, or excessive oil consumption due to ring wear. If excessive ring wear is discovered then further engine teardown will be necessary to determine if the engine needs to be rebuilt or replaced. AOL Autos: How often should you change your oil . What is the difference between blue and white smoke? The engine can emit different colors of smoke: . Blue smoke: Blue typically means that engine oil is being burned in the combustion chamber. In rare cases, when a vehicle is equipped with a transmission that uses a device called a vacuum modulator valve (to soften shifts between gears according to engine vacuum) the diaphragm can break inside the valve and cause transmission fluid to be sucked into the engine via the vacuum line feeding the valve and burn. AOL Autos: Fluid leaks: unsafe and expensive . White smoke: White can mean one of two things. (1) Water condensation from a blown and leaking head gasket: This gasket is the seal between the cylinder head and engine block. Water runs through channels called water jackets that line the cylinder walls and thus carry away heat. When the head gasket blows, the seal between the cylinder head and engine block breaks and water is allowed to enter the combustion chamber. This water is emitted from the engine in the form of water vapor or steam and it is white in color. (2) Excessive gas: Fuel delivery systems sometimes falter and dump excessive amounts of raw fuel into the intake plenum. When this happens, the amount of fuel is too much for the engine to process. Hence, it exits the engine and tailpipe in the form of pure white fuel vapor. It stinks like raw gas and can be dangerous if it ignites in the hot muffler and catalytic converter. I have witnessed exhaust systems literally blown off the vehicle from the explosion that ensued from ignition of a gas-filled catalytic converter. This condition must be fixed immediately to prevent internal engine damage or worse yet, a serious fire. Can I add oil or coolant and keep driving the vehicle until I can afford to fix it? Yes. However, be advised that such maladies never get better by themselves; and they always get worse with time. There is a real possibility that you will get caught on the road driving at highway speeds (thinking you added enough oil, transmission fluid or engine coolant) and the oil runs out, causing a catastrophic failure. In general, when it comes to a need for auto repair, conditions never improve on their own. You must maintain your vehicle if you want to get the maximum life out of it and, in the long run, spend the least amount of money. AOL Autos: How to avoid common car problems .","highlights":"An oil-thirsty engine and smoke coming from car's tailpipe are signs of trouble .\nBad valve seals or worn guides, clogged PCV valve, worn piston rings among causes .\nWhite smoke: Water condensation from blown head gasket, too much gas .\nBlue smoke: Engine oil is being burned in the combustion chamber .","id":"cff7b54a4a7b830030451d47cee98924d513ede8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A multiagency search is under way for the killers of two U.S. citizens in northern Mexico, according to Chihuahua state officials. A girl stands at the coffin of Mormon church leader Benjamin LeBaron in Chihuahua State. Benjamin LeBaron, 32, and his brother-in-law, Luis Widmar, in his mid-30s, were beaten and shot to death after armed men stormed into their home in Galeana on Tuesday morning. The killers have yet to be identified, but the case seems to be connected to local drug lords, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. Sandoval said a note was found on LeBaron's body, but he could not confirm the contents. Local media reported that the note indicated the slayings were in retribution for the capture of 25 drug suspects in a nearby town. LeBaron's younger brother, Eric, was kidnapped in May and returned unharmed after a week. The incident prompted LeBaron to become a nationally recognized anti-crime activist who moved the local community to take a stand. \"There are no leaders here, or we are all leaders,\" LeBaron's brother, Julian LeBaron, told CNN television affiliate KINT in El Paso, Texas. \"If they kill my brother another three will take his place, and if they kill us, another hundred will take their place. We are not giving up. No way.\" The LeBaron brothers belonged to the \"Community of LeBaron\" in the Municipality of Galeana, a township founded by ex-communicated Mormons.","highlights":"Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law are shot dead in their home .\nThe killers have yet to be identified, but the case seems tied to local drug lords .\nLocal media: Slayings retribution for capture of drug suspects in town nearby .\nLeBaron was a nationally recognized anti-crime activist .","id":"0f58dad91fb284937c5338b113594199f55ed908"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A portion of a partially built bridge for New Delhi's metro rail network collapsed Sunday, killing five people and injuring 15, authorities said. A crane clears away wreckage from a collapsed carriageway on Sunday in New Delhi, India. The crash occurred when a metal beam supporting pillars gave way, Delhi Metro Rail Corp. spokesman Anuj Dayal told CNN. Concrete slabs came crashing down, burying workers beneath, officials said. The dead included one site engineer, said Mohammad Akhlaque, police sub-inspector. The man in charge of building the Metro system offered to quit the project Sunday. \"I take full moral responsibility for this accident. And having taken this moral responsibility, I have decided to resign as the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation,\" Elattuvalapil Sreedharan told a news conference. Sreedharan, 77, however, noted that Sunday's crash would set the metro project back by three months. New Delhi launched its metro system six years ago, a project that cut through India's bureaucratic red-tape that usually holds back big infrastructure programs. Construction on new lines has been proceeding at a frenzied pace as the city gets ready to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Hailed as a relief in India's traffic-congested capital, the metro has a tarnished safety record. Part of a another bridge being built to extend the rail system collapsed last October, pinning a bus underneath and killing its driver.","highlights":"Five killed, 15 injured when partially built bridge collapses in New Delhi .\nBridge was being built for city's metro rail network .\nCollapse occurred when a metal beam supporting pillars gave way, official says .","id":"5a60f960beb26a4ba52651fabb301cbfed0ecfd8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A national poll of people who watched the vice presidential debate Thursday night suggests that Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won, but also says Republican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeded expectations. Poll respondents give Sen. Joe Biden the edge over Gov. Sarah Palin in ability to express views. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. said 51 percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job. But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54 percent to Biden's 36 percent. Seventy percent said Biden was more of a typical politician. Both candidates exceeded expectations -- 84 percent of the people polled said Palin did a better job than they expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations. How Palin would perform had been a major issue for the Alaska governor, who had some well-publicized fumbles during interviews with CBS' Katie Couric leading up to the debate. Respondents thought Biden was better at expressing his views, giving him 52 percent to Palin's 36 percent.iReport.com: Tell us who you think did best . On the question of the candidates' qualifications to assume the presidency, 87 percent of those polled said Biden is qualified and 42 percent said Palin is qualified. The candidates sparred over which team would be the better agent of change, and Biden came out on top of that debate, with 53 percent of those polled giving the nod to the Delaware senator while 42 percent said Palin was more likely to bring change. Respondents overwhelmingly said moderator Gwen Ifill was fair during the vice presidential debate, repudiating critics who said that Ifill, of PBS, would be biased because she is writing a book that includes Biden's running mate, Sen. Barack Obama. Ninety-five percent of those polled said Ifill was fair. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Obama was selected as a winner over Republican Sen. John McCain in a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll on the September 26 presidential debate.","highlights":"51 percent say Democratic Sen. Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate .\nRepublican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeds expectations, 84 percent say .\nPalin beats Biden on likability, 54-36 .\n87 percent say Biden is qualified for job, 42 percent say Palin is .","id":"f802525632b1c8fa85b43911f07d8129694621c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Italians, a Dane, a German, a Frenchman and a Brit walk into a space station... or will, in 2013, if all goes according to European Space Agency plans. Europe's six new astronauts hope to join their American counterparts on the Internation Space Station. The six new astronauts named Wednesday were chosen from more than 8,400 candidates, and are the first new ESA astronauts since 1992, the space agency said in a statement. They include two military test pilots, one fighter pilot and one commercial pilot, plus an engineer and a physicist. \"This is a very important day for human spaceflight in Europe,\" said Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of Human Spaceflight at ESA. \"These young men and women are the next generation of European space explorers. They have a fantastic career ahead, which will put them right on top of one of the ultimate challenges of our time: going back to the Moon and beyond as part of the global exploration effort.\" Humans have not walked on the moon since 1972, just over three years after the first manned mission to Earth's nearest neighbor. The six will begin space training in Germany, with an eye to being ready for future missions to the International Space Station and beyond in four years. They are: Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, a fighter pilot with degrees in engineering and aeronautical sciences; Alexander Gerst, a German researcher with degrees in physics and earth science; Andreas Mogensen, a Danish engineer with the private space firm HE Space Operations; Luca Parmitano of Italy, an Air Force pilot with a degree in aeronautical sciences; Timothy Peake, an English test pilot with the British military; and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, an Air France pilot who previously worked as an engineer at the French space agency.","highlights":"2 Italians, a Dane, a German, a Frenchman and Briton make astronaut list .\nSix new astronauts named Wednesday chosen from 8,400 candidates .\nGroup will undergo four years of training in Germany .","id":"3904ee5aaa38958bdceb6ad5e03136c2e70e0f29"} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- Come home from your next trip relaxed and smarter. Where to learn Spanish, whitewater rafting, astrophysics and more . Sedona Spirit Yoga & Hiking offers four-day retreats among the red rocks. Sedona, Arizona . Find your path in Arizona . In Sedona, the path to enlightenment involves hiking boots and yoga mats. Sedona Spirit Yoga & Hiking offers four-day retreats where you'll take guided hikes through red rock wilderness to vortex sites, places where the Earth's energy is supposedly strongest. You'll also learn meditation, experience a Native American sweat lodge and maybe even nail that eagle pose. Abbreviated three- to six-hour yoga hikes are also offered. Play hooky: In between downward dogs and trail switchbacks, check out uptown Sedona's restaurants, which include vegan and raw choices, or browse art galleries. Info: September-June; from $995, including lodging and breakfast; yoga hikes from $90; 888\/282-9901. --Nora Burba Trulsson . Oaxaca, Mexico . Mix up moles south of the border . Learn to tell your chiles from your chapulines (toasted grasshoppers) at Seasons of My Heart, a cooking school in the Oaxacan countryside of southern Mexico that kicks off with some serious market research. Guided by Mexican food maven Susana Trilling, sample and buy local delicacies, then head back to the chopping blocks and stoves of Trilling's spacious blue-tiled kitchen to create complex moles and picante bisques. Play hooky: While you're in Oaxaca, ascend the ruins of the ancient city of Monte Alb\u00e1n for spectacular vistas of Oaxaca Valley. Info: Year-round; $75 for full-day class, including transportation from Oaxaca City. -Edie Jarolim . Ensenada, Mexico . Speak Spanish in Baja . Get beyond your Mexican-restaurant-level Spanish without going back to school by spending a week at the Baja California Language College in Ensenada, Mexico, where there are no exams or grades. Thursday afternoons are set aside for excursions to a winery or a local taqueria to learn the difference between salsa verde and pico de gallo -- en espa\u00f1ol, of course. Play hooky: Afternoons and evenings, you're free to surf, explore the area's burgeoning wine region or practice your language skills at the harbor's fish market as you search for the perfect tacos de pescado. Info: Year-round; $279 for weeklong classes in which you log 30 hours; 877\/444-2252. -David Lansing . Near Steamboat Springs, Colorado . Blaze some trails in Colorado . Connect with your inner cowboy at the Vista Verde Ranch, a cluster of cabins and a main lodge on the flanks of the Continental Divide 45 minutes north of Steamboat Springs. With 80 horses, daily clinics and morning and afternoon rides, greenhorns and seasoned equestrians can develop their skills in the arena and on trails threading through the aspen forests. Plus, resident horse-whisperer Orval Bedell is on hand to teach rodeo tricks such as how to rope a calf. Play hooky: Soak in 105 degree mineral waters at the Strawberry Park Hot Springs ($10; 7 miles north of Steamboat Springs; 970\/879-0342). Info: June-September; from $3,200 per week, including meals, lodging and activities; 970\/879-3858. --Jad Davenport . Salmon River, California . Master whitewater paddling . Get command of whitewater paddling basics at Otter Bar Lodge Kayak School, a wilderness hideaway on Northern California's Salmon River, about 112 miles northeast of Eureka. You'll start by practicing stroke technique, wet exits and rolling in the lodge's flat-water pond before graduating to day trips on the warm class I-II water of the Salmon and Klamath Rivers. Don't sweat it if you can't master a roll on the first day: Otter Bar's instructors shadow your every paddle stroke, and if you go over, they're more than happy to right your boat (in kayak-speak, the \"hand of God\"). Play hooky: The wood-fired sauna and on-call massage therapist can work out your paddling kinks. Info: April-September; $2,190 per week, including meals, lodging and gear; 530\/462-4772. --Katie Arnold . Kauai, Hawaii . Rock out in Hawaii . Dig beneath the surface with geologist Chuck Blay of TEOK Investigations on hikes all over Kauai, including a kid-friendly amble along the southeast coast to wild Maha'ulepu Beach. Play hooky: See a reverential torch-lighting ceremony at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort (808\/742-1234). Info: Year-round; from $100 ($75 ages 5-12), including lunch; 888\/233-8365. --Harriot Manley . Nootka Island, British Columbia . Surf off an island . What better place to learn to surf than at a lodge set in a coastal rain forest with views of bears, eagles and whales? On Nootka Island, off British Columbia's Vancouver Island, Tatchu Surf Adventures offers instructors, beginner-friendly waves and water temps that hit the 60s. Crowds? No way. The island has only six residents. Play hooky: Sip scotch in the sauna. Info: May-October; $2,218 U.S. per week, including meals, lodging and gear; 250\/934-6600. --Steve Hawk . Denali National Park, Alaska . Unravel celestial mysteries . To understand what makes the Northern Lights so spectacular, take a crash course in astrophysics at Camp Denali, an 18-cabin retreat inside Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve. During three- and four-night programs, Neal Brown, space expert and director of the Alaska Space Grant Program, will explain the magnetic forces that create the aurora borealis and other atmospheric phenomena. By day, you can grill Brown with questions you might have; at night, he'll call your cabin if he spots the elusive lights above. Play hooky: Spend your mornings moose- and caribou-watching with 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley as a backdrop, visible on clear days from just about everywhere on Camp Denali's 67-acre plot. Info: Book now for September 2009; from $1,425, including meals and lodging; 907\/683-2290. --Matt Villano . Yosemite National Park, California . Take in terroir at the Ahwahnee . Roll out of bed at the Ahwahnee, drink in the Half Dome view, then sip some California wines at Vintners' Holidays. Winemakers host daily seminars, and a closing gala is held in the hotel's dining room. Play hooky: Hike to Mirror Lake and walk in snow-dusted valley meadows. Info: Annually in November and December; from $1,008, including two-night stay; 801\/559-4884. --Sara Schneider . Bishop, California . Snap to it in the Sierra . Paint alpine meadows with pixels in the eastern Sierra Nevada during Mountain Light's three-day photographic workshop in Bishop, California. Both amateurs and pros learn to turn landscapes into works of art using a variety of techniques, including lens selection and filters. Days begin well before dawn during field trips to secret meadows and iconic locations such as Mono Lake, followed by lectures and critiques back at the gallery. Play hooky: Time is tight, but for a pick-me-up you can always sneak next door and order an espresso forte and pecan-topped coffee cake at Black Sheep Espresso Bar. Info: Classic Workshop: September 25-28, October 2-5 and 9-12; from $1,395, including meals and lodging; 760\/873-7700. --J.D. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2009 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Seasons of My Heart offers Mexican cooking lessons in Oaxaca .\nTake a crash course in astrophysics at Camp Denali in Alaska .\nGet command of whitewater paddling basics at Otter Bar Lodge Kayak School .","id":"2d28021b0ba88f00f20fa792944d91b226bb0b43"} -{"article":"ACCRA, Ghana (CNN) -- President Obama reached out to Africa on Saturday with a wide-ranging address praising the continent's steady achievements, but he called its persistent violent conflicts \"a millstone around Africa's neck.\" President Obama speaks before Ghana's Parliament on Saturday. \"Despite the progress that has been made -- and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa -- we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled,\" Obama said in a speech to the parliament of Ghana, a western African nation seen as a model of democracy and growth for the rest of the continent. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan nation to gain independence, in 1957, and Obama continually cited the nation during his speech for its stability, political strides and painstaking economic progress. Its stability stands in contrast to other hot spots on the continent, such as Zimbabwe, where the society is in economic and political turmoil; Sudan, where fighting rages in the Darfur region; and Somalia, where a shaky transitional government is now battling an Islamic insurgency. Ghana, with a population of 24 million, was once a major slave trading center. Obama visited the Cape Coast Castle, a British outpost where slaves were held until shipped overseas, along with his daughters. Watch Obama's remark after touring Cape Coast Castle \u00bb . \"I think it was particularly important for Malia and Sasha, who are being raised in a very blessed way, that history can take some cruel turns,\" he said. \"And hopefully, one of the things that was imparted to them during this trip is their sense of obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears.\" Obama, whose father was Kenyan, compared the history to that of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany's efforts to exterminate the Jews of Europe during World War II. \"It's one of those things that you don't forget about,\" he told CNN in an interview scheduled to air Monday on \"Anderson Cooper 360.\" \"I think it's important that the way we think about it, the way it's taught, is not one in which there's simply a victim and a victimizer, and that's the end of the story,\" he said. \"I think the way it has to be thought about, the reason it's relevant, is whether it's what's happening in Darfur or what's happening in the Congo or what's happening in too many places around the world, the capacity for cruelty still exists.\" Watch how Ghana is celebrating the Obamas' visit \u00bb . But he told lawmakers that Ghana now shows \"a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity.\" While the nation-building the country exemplifies may lack \"drama of the 20th century's liberation struggles,\" he said \"it will ultimately be more significant.\" As he has in past remarks, including his Cairo address last month about U.S.-Muslim relations, Obama stressed the superiority of governments that \"respect the will of their own people,\" saying they foster more prosperity and stability than governments that don't. Watch Obama deliver speech to Ghanaian lawmakers \u00bb . \"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt,\" he said. \"No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there.\" Even Kenya, his father's homeland, continues to struggle with tribalism and corruption, he said. That eastern African nation \"had a per-capita economy larger than South Korea's when I was born\" and now, he says, it has been \"badly outpaced.\" But he said Kenya has restored stability after the violence that followed the disputed 2007 election. South Africa has had high voter turnout in recent elections, and Zimbabwe's Election Support Network has defended the right to vote. Watch report on Ghanaians' reaction to Obama's remarks \u00bb . \"Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,\" he said. He said his administration will work \"to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don't, and that is exactly what America will do.\" As for the economy and opportunity, he said African nations need to stop focusing on one particular commodity, such as oil or cocoa, and \"promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled work force, and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs.\" He cited \"our $3.5 billion food security initiative\" and said \"new methods and technologies for farmers -- not simply sending American producers or goods to Africa\" is what is needed. See where Ghana is located \u00bb . Obama also made reference to climate and energy challenges, saying the developed world should work with Africa to confront such problems. He said Africa has much potential to exploit its wind and solar power and geothermal energy and biofuels. As for disease, Obama said strides are being made in dealing with HIV\/AIDS and malaria, but \"too many still die from diseases that shouldn't kill them.\" He also indicated that there need to be ways to keep African doctors and nurses from going overseas and creating gaps in primary care. \"When children are being killed because of a mosquito bite, and mothers are dying in childbirth, then we know that more progress must be made.\" He said his administration has committed $63 billion to fight disease, praising the \"strong efforts\" of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Watch Ed Henry's report Obama's emotional visit to Africa \u00bb . Obama welcomed efforts by the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to help resolve conflict. He said the United States \"will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable\" and that the Pentagon's Africa Command will fight \"common challenges to advance the security of America, Africa and the world.\" Watch Obama's remarks as his visit to Ghana concludes \u00bb . \"We all have many identities -- of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century,\" he said. \"Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God's children,\" he said.","highlights":"Obama tells Ghana's lawmakers Africa needs \"opportunity for more people\"\n\"Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division\"\nPledges U.S. will help fight HIV\/AIDS, tropical diseases, childhood illnesses .","id":"23eac83a8d27439a958a171b960d3d572c51df70"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- American radio talk-show host Michael Savage said he wants an apology from Britain's home secretary and his name removed from a list of people banned from entering the United Kingdom. American radio talk-show host Michael Savage calls the British government's description of him \"demented.\" \"I've heard from British attorneys who are salivating to set the record straight and win quite a large settlement should she not remove my name from the list,\" Savage said in an interview broadcast Thursday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Savage was referring to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, whose office recently excluded 22 people from entering the country because the government feels they have been \"stirring up hatred.\" The British government has cited Savage -- who is on the list under his real name, Michael Alan Weiner -- for \"seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.\" Savage has made controversial statements against homosexuality, illegal immigrants from Mexico and Islam. He said that \"borders, language and culture is the real message of 'The Savage Nation,' \" his radio talk show. \"I'm a patriotic American, and if that's a crime in England, God help us all,\" he said. Watch as Savage says he wants to clear his name \u00bb . Savage's daily radio show does not air in Britain but is broadcast nationwide in the United States. Savage rejected the British government's description of him, calling it \"a demented attitude.\" \"She lumped me in with known murderers and terrorists, people who have been in prison for killing people,\" Savage said of Smith. \"I've been on the air for 15 years, three hours a day, five days a week. I have never, ever promoted violence. There has never been one violent incident attached to my show.\" Smith has said she is determined to keep those who \"spread extremism, hatred and violent messages\" out of the country. \"Coming to the UK is a privilege, and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life,\" Smith said. \"Therefore, I do not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views, as I want them to know that they are not welcome here.\" The Home Office has named 16 people on the list, saying it was not in the public interest to disclose the names of the other six. Included on the list are: .","highlights":"Radio talk-show host Michael Savage wants British home secretary to apologize .\nSavage, 20-plus others banned from entering Britain for \"stirring up hatred\"\n\"I'm a patriotic American, and if that's a crime in England, God help us all,\" he says .\nSavage known for controversial remarks on homosexuality, illegal immigrants, Islam .","id":"ba9c32fab6b8a146fa307d9232c11cc77b0275fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pilot who made a treacherous crash-landing on New York's Hudson River look like a routine maneuver got a hero's welcome Saturday in his California hometown. Chesley B. Sullenberger was honored Saturday with a celebration in his hometown of Danville, California. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger put his US Airways jetliner down on the Hudson minutes after both engines failed, then walked the length of the drifting Airbus A320 twice to make certain that all 155 people on board got off safely. He was greeted by several thousand cheering people gathered around the town square in Danville, California, for a celebration in his honor. Mayor Newell Arnerich presented Sullenberger with a ceremonial key to the city, an upscale suburb near San Francisco. Sullenberger, who has avoided public comment since the January 15 incident, made very brief remarks. He thanked the crowd for an \"incredible outpouring of support.\" \"Circumstance determined that it was this experienced crew that was scheduled to fly on that particular flight on that particular day,\" Sullenberger said. \"But I know I can speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do. Thank you.\" Watch Sullenberger address the crowd \u00bb . Sullenberger's wife, Lorrie, fought back tears as she spoke of her husband. \"I have always known him to be an exemplary pilot. I knew what the outcome would be that day, because I knew my husband,\" she said. \"Mostly for me, he's the man that makes my cup of tea every morning.\" Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board continue to piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina. The jet's left engine, which apparently tore away from the plane on landing impact, was raised from the bottom of the Hudson on Friday. Sullenberger reported to air controllers that his plane had hit birds shortly before both engines shut down. On Saturday, the NTSB said a preliminary examination of the left engine found evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\" the same kind of damage reported on the right engine. An NTSB spokesman said that there was no evidence of organic material such as a dead bird in the left engine but that was not surprising because the engine had been under water for a week. Although the NTSB has not officially confirmed reports of a bird strike, the agency's findings and statements have not done anything to discount the bird-strike reports. Both engines will be shipped to the manufacturer in Ohio, where NTSB investigators will tear them down completely for examination.","highlights":"NEW: Left engine shows evidence of \"soft body impact damage,\" NTSB says .\nThousands greet US Airways pilot in Danville, California .\n\"We were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do,\" he says .\nInvestigators continue to piece together what happened .","id":"927faca0533f8a03eb86f620e23896ec305b710d"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN\/In Session) -- The former wife of a man accused of kidnapping their daughter told a jury Monday about the unraveling of her 12-year marriage to a man she thought was a member of the moneyed Rockefeller family. Sandra Boss testifies about the 12 years she spent with a man she thought was one of the Rockefellers. Financial consultant Sandra Lynn Boss, 42, was stone-faced and repeatedly referred to her former husband as \"the defendant\" as she took the witness stand Monday at his kidnapping trial. She now lives in London, England, with the girl, Reigh, who just turned 8. Her former husband, German-born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 48, is accused of kidnapping their daughter in July, and taking the child to Baltimore, Maryland, where he'd bought a townhouse near the harbor. His trial began last week in Boston, Massachusetts. Gerhartsreiter is charged with the kidnapping of a minor by a relative, assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon and furnishing a false name to a law enforcement officer. His defense attorneys told jurors they will present evidence that Gerhartsreiter was mentally ill. As she began the narrative of their whirlwind romance and 12-year marriage, Boss described how she was charmed by a handsome stranger she knew as Clark Rockefeller, who was host of a party based on the mystery game Clue. Boss testified that she came to the party dressed as the character \"Miss Scarlet\" and fell for him immediately during the summer of 1993, when she was a student at Harvard's business school. \"I thought he was very attractive,\" she testified. \"He was very well dressed, very fit. I thought he was very polite and could talk about anything, and also very charming.\" She told jurors that the man she married in 1995 told her he grew up in a townhouse on Manhattan's prestigious Sutton Place, that he had suffered amnesia and couldn't speak after falling down a flight of stairs as a child, and that his parents had been killed in an accident when he was in college. He also said he attended Yale University under an early admissions program when he was 14 and helped foreign governments renegotiate their debt. She believed it, she said, because \"he was one of the most intelligent people\" she'd met. Boss said he proposed to her during the spring of 1994, during a trip to Maine. They were married in a Quaker ceremony on Nantucket soon after she graduated from business school. Only eight people attended -- and not a single Rockefeller. Her new husband explained that he'd had a falling out with his family. The newlyweds set up housekeeping in New York. During the early days of their marriage, she said, her husband was very supportive, but his demeanor soon changed. He became possessive and controlling, she said. Later, he \"began to show temper,\" she said. \"He wanted to walk me to and from work every day. He began to be less supportive of my seeing my friends,\" she said. His criticism of her friends left her confused and in tears, she said. By early 1996, she said, \"It became a very stressful relationship from my point of view.\" The couple moved to Nantucket, then to Woodstock, Vermont, then back to Nantucket before buying a house in Cornish, New Hampshire. The marriage did not improve. By the summer of 2000, Boss said she was considering a separation. She spent more time in New York away from her husband, but he wooed her back. In September, Boss learned she was pregnant and vowed to work at the marriage for the sake of their child. Their daughter, Reigh, was born in May 2001. After hiring two nannies, Gerhartsreiter said he could do a better job and became the primary caretaker. In September 2004, Boss transferred to her company's Boston office to cut her commute time so she could spend more time with Reigh. The marriage ultimately fell apart and the couple separated in January 2007. Boss had always been the sole income earner and said she began to doubt that her husband was really a Rockefeller. She said she hired a private investigator who came up with little information about \"Clark Rockefeller.\" Shortly after that revelation, Gerhartsreiter agreed to give Boss full custody of Reigh. He received $800,000, two cars and her engagement ring. Boss and Reigh moved to London in late December 2007. Gerhartsreiter did not respond to e-mails or calls from his daughter, Boss said, and never initiated contact with her during the first six months after she and her mother moved to London. On July 27, 2008 -- during the first of three annual supervised visits in Boston -- Gerhartsreiter allegedly abducted his daughter, nicknamed \"Snooks.\" Boss described reuniting with the child at the FBI field office in Baltimore after Gerhartsreiter's arrest a week later. She said Reigh had lost weight and \"seemed younger.\" Boss returns to the stand on Tuesday, when she will undergo cross-examination.","highlights":"Ex-wife testifies at kidnapping trial of Rockefeller impostor .\nSandra Boss says she was romanced by handsome stranger .\nLater, she says, he became controlling and short-tempered .\nImpostor is accused of kidnapping his daughter in July .","id":"a03b39e4ca40888286a0233202557d713e7748b5"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Pop singer Britney Spears must submit to random drug tests, a judge has ordered after finding she engaged in \"habitual, frequent, and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol.\" Kevin Federline and Britney Spears are in the middle of a bitter custody battle over their two sons. The ruling by Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon provided no details and did not name any specific drugs, stating only that the findings were \"based on the evidence presented.\" Spears must also spend eight hours a week working with a parenting coach who will observe her interactions with her children, according to the ruling released Tuesday. Efforts to contact the singer's lawyers, Marci Levine and Mel Goldman, were unsuccessful late Tuesday. The ruling comes during Spears' custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline. The documents underscore the bitter nature of the fight over their two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden. The two have split custody equally, but Federline is asking for the arrangements to be shifted to 70-30 in his favor. After a closed hearing Monday, Gordon ordered Spears, 25, to undergo random drug tests twice a week. He told both parents to avoid alcohol or \"other non-prescription controlled substances\" 12 hours before taking custody of the children. He also barred the exes from making \"derogatory remarks about the other party and the other party's family or significant other\" during the case, ordered them to go through \"joint co-parenting counseling\" and barred them from using corporal punishment on the boys. Spears and Federline were married for two years before their divorce was finalized in July. Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told reporters on Monday he didn't see the custody battle being resolved before scheduled hearings in November and December. Tuesday's order comes amid a career freefall for Spears, who has a new album due in stores November 13. Critics said her September 9 \"comeback\" performance on the MTV Video Music Awards was lackluster and said she appeared overweight in her sequined, two-piece costume. Her former divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, resigned as her legal representative in the past few days after defending her outside the courthouse on Friday, telling reporters the singer \"just wants to be a mom.\" And Spears' management company, the Firm, has quit after representing the singer for a little more than a month. \"It saddens us to confirm media reports that we have terminated our professional relationship with Britney Spears,\" the company announced Monday. \"We believe Britney is enormously talented and has made a terrific record, but current circumstances have prevented us from properly doing our job. We wish Britney the best.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Britney Spears must submit to random drug tests twice a week, judge orders .\nSpears is in bitter custody battle with ex-husband, Kevin Federline .\nPop singer has a new album due out in November .\nSpears, Federline were married for two years; divorce was finalized in July .","id":"6785dbc4b11b929e94480c4ecc755b53b01f4a38"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The 1992 Hollywood movie \"Lorenzo's Oil,\" depicts the true story of Lorenzo, a five-year-old boy who suffered from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare and incurable disease that slowly destroys the entire nervous system. Michaela Damin and her son, Nick, who suffers from an extremely rare disease that affects the heart. The movie showed how Lorenzo's grave physical and mental decline was finally stopped when his tireless parents found a treatment based on a mixture of oils, despite skepticism from doctors. The film illustrated perfectly the struggle faced by patients suffering from any of 6,000 known rare conditions worldwide, generally known as orphan diseases. Michaela Damin, founder of the Barth Syndrome Trust, whose son, Nick, suffers from this crippling syndrome that affects the heart and immune system and only has 130 known sufferers worldwide, told CNN: \"It can take years to get the correct diagnosis and even then there may be no expert who knows what to do next.\" The fact remains that rare diseases are still mostly overlooked by pharmaceutical companies because of the small patient population and lack of financial incentives. Drug companies tend to focus on the more lucrative \"blockbuster drugs\" for common diseases, at the expense of cures for rare conditions. The term \"orphan drug\" was originally coined because the pharmaceutical industry took little or no interest in discovery, development and marketing of drugs for rare diseases. According to the European Organization for Rare Diseases, rare diseases affect between three and five percent of the population in developed countries. In the European Union, a disease is considered rare if it affects fewer than five in 10,000 people, while in the United States the disease must affect fewer than 200,000 people. Many countries, such as the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, have therefore attempted to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in orphan diseases by giving them tax incentives, fee reductions and extensions of patent rights. The United States was the first country to develop an orphan drug law in 1983, followed by Japan and Australia. In 1997, the Australian Orphan Drugs policy was set up to help manufacturers overcome the high cost of marketing drugs which have not proved to be commercially viable. Since 1998, the EU has also devoted time and resources to rare diseases and passing laws that have led to more research and development in the field. But even when treatments are developed, they generally remain extremely expensive. See where to get help for rare diseases \u00bb . Genzyme, one of the pharmaceutical companies that focuses primarily on rare diseases, has long charged more than $300,000 a year for patients on Cerezyme, a drug used to treat Gaucher disease, an extremely rare condition that causes bone deterioration, among other symptoms. Do you know someone who has a rare disease? Tell us in the Sound off below or send us an iReport . Only about 5,000 people around the world are taking Cerezyme. Genzyme says that justifies the high price. See images of children living with rare diseases \u00bb . \"The cost of developing therapies for very rare diseases is not substantially lower than those for common diseases and can take years,\" Steve Bates of Genzyme told CNN. In their 2005 book on orphan drugs, Daniel Hagn and Oliver Schoffski wrote that on average, only one of 5,000 to 10,000 substances tested gets as far as market authorization and that it takes eight to 12 years and \u20ac895 million ($1.2 billion) to develop and market a new drug. Bates said Genzyme needs to recoup those high costs and that profits are the motive for further research: \"Our profits are then re-directed into research for new drugs.\" Genzyme's global revenue in 2008 was $4.6 billion, Bates told CNN. A spokeswoman for French drug firm Hoffmann-La Roche told CNN: \"There is a Roche Working Group on orphan diseases, but not a separate department.\" She declined to say how much the company's resources were allocated for research into the diseases. While Pfizer spokesman Oliver Stohlmann told CNN in a written statement: \"Pfizer is one of the leading companies in terms of approved orphan drugs in Europe. It currently has four marketed medicines out of 50 on the EU orphan drugs register. \"Pfizer also has a new cancer therapy that was originally developed for a very rare tumor type but is now being tested in more common forms of cancer,\" he added. Campaigners for rare disease causes say the prohibitively high costs of orphan drugs is a major concern for sufferers, who are often forced to pay for their own treatments. Peter Saltonstall, president of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), which represents nearly 30 million Americans who have rare diseases, told CNN: \"The biggest issue for us moving forward is that people are able to afford to pay for treatment. \"[In the U.S.] most rare disease therapies are expensive and patients are being forced to pay for things out of pocket because of lifetime caps on insurance.\" In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) subsidizes many of the drugs for rare diseases, but not in all cases. The drugs need to pass certain stringent rules, such as fairness of asking price and effectiveness of the drug. Dr. Ed Jessop of the UK's NHS said he believes these drugs should only be subsidized if they \"are dramatically effective, work in virtually every patient and if we believe we are paying a fair price.\" Some patients therefore still end up footing the bill for drugs that have been deemed too expensive or not effective enough. Alastair Kent, President of the UK's Genetic Interest Group (GIG) told CNN that is why the price of treatment should reflect the input gone into developing the product. But, he said, \"there are currently no mechanisms to see if the price of some treatments is fair\" Kent would therefore like to see more publicly funded research. He also believes pharmaceutical companies should share the knowledge they don't use: \"There is a lot of knowledge in the private sector that just gets filed away and we need to find ways to get that knowledge out.\" In the meantime, however, Kent is campaigning for the UK to sign a European Union resolution to be passed on June 8 and 9 that calls for member states to create national plans on rare diseases. He hopes a national plan will ease some of the burden that is currently carried by patients. It would lead to better communication between the various bodies that deal with rare diseases and enhance care, Kent said. But for the moment, Michaela Damin of Barth Trust explained, patients still need to take matters in their own hands: . \"Proper communication is really lacking and some of our conditions are so rare, that in the end, we have to become the expert on our own conditions.\"","highlights":"More than 6,000 known rare diseases worldwide .\n30 million Europeans have a rare disease at some point in their lives .\nSmall number of patients per disease means pharmaceuticals pay little notice .\nEU resolution to be passed in June calls for national plans on rare diseases .","id":"bc7e4602c57f7f0d9e6fab9788a958adac687e1a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brooke Shields is upset with a tabloid reporter over an incident involving the actress' elderly mother. Brooke Shields moved her mother to a different residence after last week's incident, Shields' lawyer says. Shields accused a reporter and photographer from the National Enquirer of taking her 75-year-old mother -- Teri Shields, who suffers from dementia -- out of a New Jersey nursing home last week, People magazine reported. It was \"reprehensible and disgusting,\" Shields told People. The reporter, \"looking for a tabloid story,\" signed her mother out of a senior living facility in Old Tappan, New Jersey, by falsely claiming to be her friend, Shields said. Watch why Shields is upset \u00bb . The National Enquirer said the reporter has known Teri Shields for a decade. \"Teri asked the reporter to take her out to lunch and run some errands,\" the tabloid said. \"The freelance reporter then got permission from the facility to do so. ... At no point did the facility, which had given its permission for the outing, contend that there had been any wrongdoing.\" Old Tappan police told People they are investigating. Brooke Shields' lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, said the actress has not filed charges, but was exploring her options. Shields moved her mother to another facility, Lefcourt said. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Reporter takes Brooke Shields' mom out of nursing home, People magazine reports .\nReporter, with National Enquirer, claims to have known Teri Shields for years .\nTeri Shields, 75, asked reporter to take her to lunch, National Enquirer says .\nPolice in New Jersey community investigating, People reports .","id":"14f0d6fdeecd117a6d00dcc01416758768902d32"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tamil Tiger rebels acknowledged the death of their leader Sunday, nearly a week after the Sri Lankan government said it had recovered the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran and declared victory in the country's 25-year civil war with the rebels. In this picture taken 27 November 2003, Velupillai Prabhakaran stands next to an LTTE flag. Prabhakaran \"attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state\" on May 17, according to Tamilnet.com, a rebel Web site, citing the group's international affairs spokesman. On Tuesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory against the Tamil Tigers. \"We are celebrating the defeat of terrorism,\" he said in a nationally televised speech before parliament. \"We have won and restored democracy in the country.\" The president declared a national holiday for the following day to celebrate the war's end and begin a new phase in the country's history. Watch the victory parade \u00bb . A short time after the presidential address, the military announced that it had recovered the body of Prabhakaran, leader and founder of the Tamil Tigers. The rebels initially denied the death of their leader, claiming on Tamilnet.com that Prabhakaran was \"alive and safe.\" The defense ministry said the bodies of Prabhakaran and 18 other senior rebel leaders were among corpses found in mop-up operations, after government troops routed the Tigers -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The leaders included Prabhakaran's eldest son, Charles Anthony, as well as Pottu Amman, the Tigers' intelligence leader, according to the ministry. Watch the U.N. chief discuss the humanitarian crisis \u00bb . Prabhakaran founded the Tamil Tigers, who have been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries. It initiated the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the explosive suicide belt. Prabhakaran is accused of masterminding the killing of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later, a Tigers suicide bomber, allegedly acting on Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. The rebels have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. An estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people have died during the quarter century of fighting.","highlights":"Tamil Tiger rebels acknowledge the death of their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran .\nSri Lankan government had said it recovered his body; rebels initially denied claim .\nSri Lankan government declares victory over Tamil Tiger rebels .\nAn estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people have died during the quarter century of fighting .","id":"080cc919d3c4b7a4ba73f9cd56c2eec48f40a84f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French Open champion Roger Federer dramatically withdrew from the Halle Open tournament on Tuesday saying he was \"overwhelmed and exhausted\" after his Paris triumph. Roger Federer quits the Halle Open saying he is \"overwhelmed and exhausted\" after his Paris triumph. Federer beat Swede Robin Soderling in Sunday's Roland Garros final to complete his Grand Slam haul and equal the record 14 'major' wins by Pete Sampras. He traditionally uses the German follow-up event as his warm-up for Wimbledon which starts on June 22. \"I sincerely apologise to the tournament organisers, my competitors, and my fans in Germany,\" Swiss world number two Federer said in a statement on his Web site. \"I only hope they will understand that I still feel emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted by the incredible events of the past few days. \"It is hard for me to admit, but I simply cannot imagine giving my best effort in another tournament right away and I don't want to risk injury if I am not 100 percent prepared. \"I need to rest and recuperate, but I look forward to returning to Halle in 2010 to go for my sixth title.\" Serb Novak Djokovic, who scored a straight sets win over Italy's Simone Bolelli 7-5 6-2 in 84 minutes earlier in the day, has now been promoted to top seed. \"For my first game here, I was pretty happy,\" said Djokovic, who faces France's Florent Serra in the second round. Djokovic is using the grass-court tournament to prepare for the next Grand Slam tournament -- and he hopes injury worry Rafael Nadal will be at Wimbledon to defend his crown. Nadal withdrew from the Queen's tournament this week with a knee injury and the Spaniard says he will travel to London next week before making a final decision. \"I hope he makes it, it would be a shame for the tournament if the defending champion and world number one doesn't play through injury,\" said Djokovic. Earlier, third-seeded Fernando Verdasco suffered a first round exit when he was beaten by Germany's Philipp Petzschner 3-6 7-6 6-4. Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt tipped Federer to set a new Grand Slam record at Wimbledon after easing into the second round at Queen's. Australian Hewitt took just 44 minutes to sink Argentine Eduardo Schwank 6-1 6-0 and then turned his thoughts to Federer whose triumph in Paris saw him draw level with Pete Sampras on 14 Grand Slam wins. \"It was an amazing achievement,\" said Hewitt. \"His record speaks for itself. From what I saw of the match, he played his best tennis in the final. \"There was a lot of pressure and expectation on him. He came out and played one of his best matches. I think coming to Wimbledon is probably his favorite tournament of the year, so he's going to be feeling pretty confident.\" He added: \"Roger's going to be the one to beat. But Andy Murray has got a good chance, no doubt about that, both here and Wimbledon. He's number three in the world at the moment and plays extremely well on this surface.\" Britain's Murray, who is the top seed in the singles, and Hewitt won their opening doubles 3-6 6-3 12-10 on a match tie-break after dropping the first set to U.S. duo Rajeev Ram and Andy Roddick. Second-seeded Roddick began his challenge for a record fifth Queen's title with a comfortable 6-1 6-4 second round victory over Kristof Vliegen.","highlights":"French Open champion Roger Federer dramatically withdraws from Halle Open .\nSwiss world No. 2 is \"overwhelmed and exhausted\" after his triumph in Paris .\nFederer traditionally uses German follow-up event as warm-up for Wimbledon .","id":"a1aefe3a93e3cc16a4a942bfb00e2dddad9c525f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The father of a New Year's Day baby pleaded guilty Thursday to killing the infant by violently shaking him. Camryn Jakeb Wilson was the first baby born in 2008 in Summit County, Ohio, arriving at 12:33 a.m. January 1. Craig Wilson's guilty plea in Akron, Ohio, to murder and child endangering charges ended a yearlong saga surrounding the death of Camryn Jakeb Wilson, the first baby born in Summit County, Ohio, in 2008. \"This type of crime is always difficult to understand, but today I do hope that Camryn's mother has some closure and that today is one step toward healing,\" Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said. Camryn's mother, Crystal Wilson, had left the 10-week-old infant in his father's care on March 12, 2008, while she attended a meeting. When she returned to their Cuyahoga Falls home she found Camryn in a baby swing, listless and breathing abnormally while her husband of 10 months sat on a couch. Doctors at Akron Children's Hospital quickly determined that Camryn had suffered traumatic brain injuries and bleeding in his eyes that could only have been caused by violent shaking. Learn about shaken baby syndrome \u00bb . Camryn died in his mother's arms, surrounded by other family members, on March 25, 2008, shortly after being removed from life support. Craig Wilson, 29, confessed to police that he was frustrated after an argument with his wife over his ex-girlfriend and a child he had with her. He shook and squeezed Camryn before laying him in the swing but hadn't intended to hurt the infant, he told police. The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome estimates that as many as 1,400 babies annually are injured or killed by shaking. Despite the confession, the case dragged on for a year after an autopsy showed Camryn had suffered broken ribs prior to the fatal shaking. The finding raised the possibility that another person had previously abused Camryn and perhaps contributed to his death, said Jonathan T. Sinn, Craig Wilson's defense attorney. See photos of the family \u00bb . Craig Wilson's trial was scheduled to begin Monday. Sinn had hoped to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors that would send Craig Wilson to prison for a flat 20-year term, but in the end, prosecutors wouldn't budge. \"From the moment my client was arrested, he took responsibility for his actions and for the killing of his child,\" Sinn said. \"From a human perspective, that's very admirable. From a defense perspective, it makes it difficult to mount a defense when somebody acknowledges completely their guilt.\" Judge Lynne Callahan sentenced Wilson to 15 years to life. He is unlikely to be paroled in less than 20 years, Sinn said.","highlights":"Ohio man pleads guilty to murder, endangering children .\nCraig Wilson confessed to shaking baby after argument with wife .\nAutopsy suggested 10-week-old infant had been abused before .","id":"fbcc838e5faa11a076df8656fc203a8afcfb7fad"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- Craigslist's managers have complied with the wishes of most of the state attorneys general who demanded they rid the site of prostitution ads. Craigslist says it has removed prostitution ads, but some issues remain. The Web's dominate classifieds publication replaced its controversial \"erotic\" section with a new \"adult\" category. And where Craigslist once relied on readers to flag dodgy advertisements, the company's employees now review every ad submitted to the adult area before they appear online. Yet, the site has been unable to block every solicitation for sex. Catherine, a self-described sex worker from San Francisco, confirmed for CNET that she successfully posted an ad for her services to the adult section late last week. She wished to remain anonymous, so neither the ad's photo nor text can be included in this story. Regardless, it isn't hard to find questionable ads in Craigslist's new adult section. The most noticeable difference between Craigslist's erotic and adult categories is the photos. In the adult section, the photos are less provocative. Less skin is showing. When it comes to the text, however, the two sections are very similar. Both are packed with ads for massage services. Ads in both areas include descriptions of the masseuse's breast size (\"I'm a natural C cup\") and they are often photographed dressed in their underwear. Even if most of these services are legitimate, and only a few are veiled offers of sex in the new adult area, plenty of others make little if any pretense about what they offer. These ads typically include words such as \"busty,\" or \"fantasy girl\" in their descriptions. Often, they feature photos of a woman or man dressed provocatively in their underwear or bathing suit. Some include hourly rates. Clearly, Craigslist faces a significant challenge as it tries to purge prostitution from its Web pages. While it can ban nude photos and overt offers of sex, how can anyone expect the site to outlaw ads featuring photos of bikini-clad women offering phone numbers? One can find racier images in department store ads. The Internet has made it easier for merchants of all kinds to conduct commerce and reach wider audiences. Should anyone be surprised that the sex trade has benefited from this as well. If Craigslist were to disappear tomorrow, does anyone really expect that would curb prostitution? A review of some competing online classifieds shows that while Craigslist has been a popular destination for sex workers, it is by no means the only one. For example, Backpages.com is an online classified publication and Craigslist competitor. The content it produces can also be found on the Web sites of some entertainment and alternative publications in major metropolitan areas, such as New York's Village Voice or San Francisco's SFWeekly. Craigslist is G-rated compared with the photos found in Backpages' adult section. Ads included nude photos while others showed people engaged in sexual intercourse. A common ad would show a bare chested woman asking men to call her at a phone number. In the area of Backpages that services Charleston, S.C., one ad found on Tuesday by CNET featured a photo of a bare-chested woman apparently engaged in masturbation. It must be noted that there was nothing as graphic on Craigslist. This is relevant because Henry McMaster, South Carolina's attorney general, last week threatened Craigslist with a criminal investigation. McMaster hasn't made any similar threats--at least none that has been publicized--against Backpages. Managers at Backpages did not respond to an interview request. In November, Craigslist and 40 state attorneys general, including McMaster, signed an agreement that called for the site to add more safeguards. The classifieds publication followed through and one of the new changes was a new requirement that anyone posting to the erotic section must provide a credit card. All the parties hoped that criminals would be unwilling to provide identification and this would be deterrent. \"Many of the classified and communication services on the Craigslist site provide the public with a valuable service,\" McMaster wrote to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster on May 5. \"However, it appears that the management...has knowingly allowed the site to be used for illegal and unlawful activity after warnings from law enforcement officials and after an agreement with forty state attorneys general.\" Since then, Craigslist did away with the erotic section and agreed to review every ad before it appeared, but McMaster was dissatisfied. He posted a note on his site that said the \"Craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.\" This is at best an empty threat, says Matt Zimmerman, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Communication Decency Act protects Web sites like Craigslist from being held criminally liable for the actions of its users, Zimmerman said, who added that Craigslist has no legal obligation to even review ads before they go online. Had Zimmerman had his way, Craigslist would have never agreed to do the monitoring. Craig Newmark, Craigslist's founder, had earlier gone on national TV and said that Craigslist would not do away with the erotic section. The company's reversal may have led McMaster to believe he could shame Craigslist managers into doing more than what the law required. \"It made life more difficult for Craigslist I think,\" Zimmerman said. \"But I was much more disappointed with (McMaster) than Craigslist,\" Zimmerman said. \"His threats were bogus to begin with and he was wrong to threaten (Craigslist's managers) with jail when the law is very clearly on their side.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Craigslist has banned sex ads, but some still remain, author says .\nA San Francisco sex worker says she still sells sex through the site .\nOn Tuesday, an ad on the site shows bare-chested woman .\nSource: law protects Craigslist from being held liable for users' actions .","id":"2377c3d3369b8d8fe4e4d0bb80fb1fa18bfd33c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No one, especially not one of Mexico's top law enforcement officials, denies that killings by drug cartels have reached record levels. Mexican police carry a body after a clash with gangs that left 21 dead in the state of Chihuahua on February 10. But Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, executive secretary for the National System for Public Safety, has an explanation. \"Mexico all of a sudden stopped being a drug-transit country and became a drug-consuming country,\" Rubido told CNN on Thursday. That means gangs that once shipped drugs into the United States are now fighting each other to sell the drugs at home, he said. Their fights center on territory -- who gets to sell what and where. \"The only way to settle their differences is through violence,\" Rubido said. \"They're fighting block by block in a very violent way.\" The result is a brutal onslaught that resulted in about 5,400 deaths last year, more than double the 2,477 tallied in 2007. Many analysts say Mexico is on track to set a record again this year. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the situation in Mexico a \"civil war\" on a national TV program a few weeks ago. Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, terms it \"a sickening vertigo into chaos and plunder.\" The violence also is a result of the Mexican government's stepped-up fight against the drug cartels. President Felipe Calderon's administration has spent more money and confiscated more drugs than any previous one, Rubido said. \"Every time the state strikes a blow against them, their reaction is more violence,\" Rubido said of the drug cartels. A United Nations report released this week notes that the \"government of Mexico faces violent opposition by drug cartels to its attempts to fight organized crime and drug trafficking,\" adding that \"drug cartels have responded with unprecedented violence.\" Much of this violence, Rubido said, is carried out in \"high-impact\" fashion, aiming to get attention and demoralize the cartels' enemies. For example, decapitations have become common. But decapitation often is not the cause of death. \"They're first killed with a shot, then decapitated for maximum visual impact,\" the law enforcement official said. \"They're trying to make the state go into reverse.\" That will not happen, Rubido vowed. \"The only way to fight this is like we're doing in Mexico.\" He listed three fronts in the conflict: a frontal assault on the gangs; prevention campaigns against drug use; and a common strategy and tactics among Mexico 1,660 police agencies. It's a tough battle, he admits, especially since the use of cocaine in Mexico has doubled in the past four years. Cocaine traffickers, Rubido said, have been looking for new markets and have targeted Europe and Mexico. Watch how the violence is affecting the United States \u00bb . The U.N. report released this week notes that \"despite concrete measures adopted by the government, drug abuse remains high in Mexico, especially among school-age children and young people.\" The war on drugs in Mexico is made even more difficult by rampant corruption, the report says. \"There is so much money involved in the drug trade, there is so much fear involved in the drug trade, that no institution can survive unaffected,\" said Birns. Says Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy center: \"This has really revealed just how corrupt Mexican officeholders are, how many people in key positions in the anti-drug war have been taking money from narcotraffickers.\" In one recent instance, Noe Ramirez Mandujano, who was the nation's top anti-drug official from 2006 until August 2008, was arrested on charges that he accepted $450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers while in office. There have been other similar arrests of high-ranking officials for taking bribes from drug traffickers. \"There's no way the public treasury can pay what the drug traffickers are paying,\" Hakim said. Rubido acknowledges the situation. \"It is a problem, and it is assumed as fact,\" he said Thursday. But he also sees the arrest of high-ranking officials as proof that anti-corruption efforts are working. Drug lords have two ways to battle anti-crime efforts, he said: bribes and intimidation. That intimidation can often take brutal forms. Last weekend, for example, a police official in Tabasco state who had arrested a trafficker a week earlier was killed. So were his mother, his wife, his children and nieces and nephews. His brother, also a state police officer, was wounded, as were two others. In all, 12 people were shot dead in three homes. Six of them were children. A few days earlier, a retired army general was abducted, tortured and shot 11 times, less than 24 hours after becoming Cancun's top anti-drug official. He, his aide and a driver were all found dead in a truck by the side of a road. Cancun's police chief was arrested a few days later in connection with the slayings. Still, Rubido and others say, most of the deaths involve just drug traffickers, not ordinary citizens. \"Ninety percent of the people who died last year in organized crime were involved in crime,\" Rubido said. \"The problem is among criminal gangs.\" Rubido sees the Mexican government prevailing. \"I have a firm conviction that it's a battle we will win,\" he said. Others are much less certain. \"The occasional anti-drug battle is being won, but the war is being lost,\" said Birns of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs public policy institute. \"And there's no prospect the war is going to be won.\" That pessimism that the current strategy is working has led to calls for a new approach. Last week, the former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil called for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change in strategy on the war on drugs. Ex-presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil made their announcement at a meeting in Brazil of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. \"The problem is that current policies are based on prejudices and fears and not on results,\" Gaviria said at a news conference in which the 17-member commission's recommendations were presented. Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for President Carter in the late 1970s, calls the problem in Mexico \"even worse than Chicago during the Prohibition era.\" He said a solution similar to what ended that violence is needed now. \"What worked in the U.S. was not Eliot Ness,\" he said, referring to the federal agent famous for fighting gangsters in 1920s and '30s. \"It was the repeal of Prohibition.\" Rubido is diplomatic, saying decriminalizing drugs is a \"terribly sensible\" approach that has received much thought. But he's not buying it. \"This has become a world of globalization,\" he said. \"Globalization has many virtues, but some errors. I can't conceive that one part of the world would decriminalize drugs because it would become a paradise for drug use. It might bring down violence, but there would be social damage.\"","highlights":"Official says drugs being used more inside Mexico, leading to turf wars .\nRubido: \"They're fighting block by block in a very violent way\"\nViolence also result of government's stepped-up fight against cartels, official says .\nOfficial says decriminalizing drugs may lessen violence but increase social damage .","id":"1e4f2990ce2ecf60be7fed1f7a37910f03518e41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian authorities detained the wife of former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti as a suspect in his killing, according to local reports. Arturo Gatti pictured during the final fight of his career, a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez in 2007. Gatti was found dead Saturday in a hotel in Brazil, where he was taking a vacation with his wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, and their young child. The 37-year-old Canadian, who was born in Italy and made his name as a fighter based in New Jersey, was staying in the northeast seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas. Rodrigues, 23, was being held in a police station in the city of Recife in connection with the killing, a police official in Porto de Galihnas told CNN. Police official Osmar Silva Santiago confirmed local reports that Gatti's body was found Saturday morning in his hotel room with strangulation marks. \"This crime is being investigated by our homicide experts and we hope to have more answers tomorrow,\" Santiago said. Police recovered a blood-stained purse strap from the scene, according to media reports. Rodrigues became a suspect because of inconsistencies during her interrogation, local reports quoted homicide task force chief Josedith Ferreira as saying. Gatti made his name in a series of three fights against \"Irish\" Micky Ward, losing the first but triumphing in the other two. He held the IBF super-featherweight and WBC light-welterweight titles, and he also won the WBC junior welterweight belt but lost it to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2005. Gatti retired in 2007 after suffering a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez in his comeback, ending with a record of 40 wins and nine losses. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec, after leaving Italy at an early age, and returned to the city following his retirement. According to Gatti's official Web site, the Italian-born pugilist won \"Fight of the Year\" for three consecutive years. CNN's Helena de Moura contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, detained at Recife police station .\nNEW: Rodrigues' answers to interrogation reportedly had inconsistencies .\nNEW: Gatti's body was found Saturday in hotel room with strangulation marks .\nThe former world boxing champion was vacationing with his 23-year-old wife .","id":"24fd17e0b2e341588b3009a9fa0e15c4120efa44"} -{"article":"During CNN's \"Going Green: Green Light for Business\" coverage, we've asked businesses to tell us how they balance the imperative for profit with environmental concerns. Jonathan Breeze, the CEO of Jet Republic, tells CNN how he's working to create a carbon neutral airline. LONDON, England -- The aviation industry is often perceived as one of the bad guys in the climate change debate. As a mode of transport, flying is regarded as being particularly polluting because of the amount of fuel used at high altitude. And, it is estimated to be responsible for around 3.5 percent of global greenhouse emissions. Jet Republic CEO Jonathan Breeze says it would be a mistake to let green initiatives in the airline industry fall by the wayside. The sector's reputation was damaged further when it was excluded from the targets outlined in the Kyoto agreement, which was interpreted by some as an example of its disregard for the climate change issue. This is unfair because the industry has taken great strides to reduce its environmental impact. For example, over the last 30 years, it has achieved a 60 percent improvement in fuel efficiency. There is a great deal of research being undertaken by manufacturers into more efficient technologies and alternative fuels, while the Single European Sky initiative aims to improve flight planning across Europe to rationalize the amount of time an aircraft is in the sky. Practically everything we do in our everyday lives has a carbon cost attached to it, but aviation is an element that we believe has come in for an undue level of criticism, when in fact it is arguably working harder than most industries to address the issue of climate change. The reaction to this criticism from governments has been taxation. But making a special case of aviation fails to address the wider issues. Aviation fuel is carbon taxed, but why is this tax not applied on other types of fuel such as electricity and gas? The additional revenue that would be generated could be ploughed back into green energy schemes and help deliver heightened efficiencies that our industry is already investigating. Punitive taxation, which is driving up the cost of air travel, will ultimately end up being absorbed by the operator or by passengers. This, coupled with the current economic downturn, represents a significant threat to progress in the aviation industry as it could lead to a stifling of innovation and development. Meeting the challenge of climate change costs money -- modernizing fleets with more efficient aircraft comes at a price. As an industry which has been hit hard by the downturn, some of these initiatives could fall by the wayside. To allow this to happen would be a grave mistake. We identified climate change as one area where we wanted to set the standard in the industry, and as a new entrant to the market we have been able to build a commitment to carbon neutrality into the heart of our business operations. It was a consideration in our choice of the Learjet 60 XR as the model of aircraft in our 110 strong fleet. The 60 XR is the most fuel-efficient midsize aircraft in the world, something it achieves by being built with light and strong modern materials, and flying higher and faster than other aircraft. It's a perfect example of a win-win solution. We burn less fuel; our customers enjoy lower pricing. Aircraft positioning is another important consideration that has an impact on the amount of fuel consumed; our fleet is based all across Europe, to reflect where our clients are. The positions of our aircraft are carefully planned and managed so that the number of \"over flights\" -- that is legs where the aircraft is empty -- are kept to an absolute minimum. We wanted to be 100 percent carbon neutral from launch so we partnered with ClimateCare, one of Europe's most experienced providers of carbon offsets, where each project is rigorously audited and monitored for quality. By comparison, under the European emissions trading scheme, which doesn't take effect until 2012, commercial airlines will only have to offset 15 percent of the carbon emissions they create. With the impact of aviation on climate change being widely reported, people are more conscious than ever about their carbon footprint when using air travel. While the overwhelming majority have not changed the amount they travel because of it, it is certainly becoming a more important consideration and people are asking more questions before traveling. We have found that our attitude towards mitigating the effect our business has on the environment has actually become a business benefit. Our competitive pricing structure includes a carbon offset charge, which is passed on, in its entirety, to ClimateCare. By acknowledging our responsibilities in the area of climate control and putting tangible measures in place, we have received considerable positive feedback from clients and business partners. We believe that Jet Republic is at the forefront of modern European business. If every company in Europe could run 100 percent carbon neutral, as Jet Republic does, the world would be a better place.","highlights":"Jet Republic has teamed up with ClimateCare to become carbon neutral .\nAirline chose fleet of Learjet 60 XR partly because of its fuel efficiency .\nAviation industry is responsible for 3.5 percent of global carbon emissions .\nBreeze: Airline industry unfairly criticized for failing to address climate change .","id":"ba0872b6fcb2e98fec0e8293a13278a0218e2aa9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police arrested 26 demonstrators at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday during a protest of federal AIDS policy, a Capitol police spokeswoman said. A man is placed in a van Thursday after being arrested on suspicion of unlawfully demonstrating in the Capitol. Police arrested the protesters on suspicion of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct at the Capitol rotunda, spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said. The protesting group, Health Global Access Project, said in a statement that 27 people were arrested. The 10 a.m. demonstration by dozens of AIDS activists for increased funding of AIDS programs coincides with this week's congressional talks over the financing of a health care reform plan. Members of Health Global Access Project entered the busy rotunda and chained themselves together with plastic chains, Schneider said. They lay on the ground holding up signs while some amused bystanders watched as police tried to persuade the protesters to disperse. Police took those who refused into custody. Group members knew they risked arrest, the group said in its statement, but they wanted to grab the attention of lawmakers and President Obama, who they accused of creating a \"flawed budget proposal\" that did not include critical HIV\/AIDS funding. \"HIV is not in recession,\" Omolola Adele-Oso of DC Fights Back said in the statement. \"So why are we bailing out the bankers with $9 trillion, but breaking promises to fund life-saving AIDS programs in the U.S. and around the world at a fraction of that cost?\" The group wants increased HIV\/AIDS funding in the health care plan and requested that the government \"fully fund\" global AIDS programs and housing programs for low-income AIDS sufferers, they said. They argue that the administration's budget proposal \"essentially flatlines global AIDS funding.\" HIV\/AIDS funding increased for 2010 under a Department of Health and Human Services budget. Obama applauded former President Bush in December for his funding of global AIDS programs and said he planned to continue the work for AIDS relief in Africa. About 33 million people worldwide have HIV, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 1.1 million people living in the United States are infected with HIV\/AIDS. More than 13 percent of those newly diagnosed in 2006 transmitted the disease through injection drug use, the CDC reported. Health Global Access Project also wants Congress to lift the federal ban on funding syringe exchange so clean needles are available to users, Jose De Marco said in the statement. De Marco, who has HIV, is a member of the AIDS activist organizations ACT UP Philadelphia and Proyecto Sol Filadelphia.","highlights":"Police: Demonstrators chained themselves together, lay on ground in rotunda .\nProtesters: Federal government needs to spend more on AIDS programs .\nGroup also wants Congress to lift the federal ban on funding syringe exchange .","id":"8a04e8a2f4b8fce2c20043664886c9b0a1319b61"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- T-shirts and other official merchandise from what were billed as Michael Jackson's last concerts are up for sale, the shows' promoter told fans by e-mail Thursday. Official merchandise from Michael Jackson's \"This Is It\" tour is for sale, according to the shows' promoter. The e-mail, which went to people with tickets to London tour dates that were to start in July, reaffirmed an earlier announcement that ticketholders will receive a full refund or, if they chose, a commemorative ticket for the tour. The concert merchandise includes Jackson belt buckles, socks, hats, wallets, music and a myriad of T-shirts. \"Early in June, Michael Jackson approved a line of official merchandise for you, his fans,\" said the e-mail from concert promoter AEG Live. \"As we mourn the loss of one of the greatest talents the world has ever seen, we are only beginning to feel the impact that Michael left upon us all. A variety of official merchandise commemorates this incredible talent and preserves the legacy that is Michael Jackson.\" Fifty sold-out Jackson concerts were scheduled for the O2 Arena in London, starting July 13. The shows were billed as the final concerts of his career and were called \"This Is It.\" Jackson was expected to earn $50 million from the London shows. The singer died with debts estimated at $500 million, and his estate will take years to unravel legally. On Wednesday, Paul McCartney refuted media accounts about the fate of the Beatles song catalog, which Jackson co-owned. \"Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will, which was completely made up and something I didn't believe for a second,\" a statement on McCartney's Web site said. \"Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn't leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report was true and, therefore, the report that I'm devastated is also totally false, so don't believe everything you read folks!\"","highlights":"Fans were told by e-mail Thursday that \"This Is It\" tour merchandise was for sale .\nJackson himself approved a line of official merchandise in early June .\nPaul McCartney refuted media accounts about the fate of the Beatles song catalog .","id":"bb5a96299c9599207136b6b2370c2013c31989a0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama will deliver a speech June 4 in Egypt on America's relationship with the Muslim world, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced Friday. President Obama will travel to Egypt next month to address U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Egypt is \"a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world,\" Gibbs said. He deflected several questions at his daily briefing about whether Egypt is a wise choice, given President Hosni Mubarak's resistance to making his government more democratic. Obama originally promised to deliver the speech during his first 100 days, but senior administration officials say the date slipped in part because of security and logistical issues. The officials stressed, however, that the Secret Service still has deep security concerns, given the continued tumult in the Mideast. Obama chose Turkey, a more secular state, as the site of his first presidential speech to a Muslim majority nation, on April 6. He told the Turkish legislature in Ankara that the \"United States is not and will never be at war with Islam.\" Obama will follow his visit to Egypt with a trip to the remains of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany on June 5. He is then scheduled to take part in ceremonies commemorating the 65th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy, France. CNN Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama travels to Egypt, Germany, France in June .\nHe gave historic speech to Turkish parliament in April .\nSpokesman: Egypt \"in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world\"","id":"08d1680f9b8c1a5da71d7628c3ac1c1f0d52395c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A South Florida teenager accused of killing and mutilating 19 cats excitedly described to police how he dissected cats in class, and where to find cats for experimentation, according to police. Tyler Weinman laughed when police told him they had information he was the cat killer, an arrest document said. When Miami-Dade police told Tyler Hayes Weinman someone was killing cats in the neighborhood, the 18-year-old reacted by laughing, according to a newly released arrest affidavit made public Monday. Most of the cats were found in their owners' yards. \"One appeared to be posed with a slit down the middle of its stomach,\" the affidavit states. On Monday, Weinman pleaded not guilty to more than 40 criminal counts, including multiple charges of felony animal cruelty and burglary. He is out of jail on $249,500 bond and under house arrest wearing an electronic monitor, but is being held for 48 hours for a psychiatric evaluation. The teen's attorney David Macey said there was a \"lynch mob\" after his innocent client and accused Judge Mindy Glazer of \"prejudging\" Weinman. \"He did not kill the cats,\" Macey told reporters outside the courtroom. \"The individual who committed this crime is still running around out there.\" The arrest affidavit, which a judge gave prosecutors until Monday to make public, reads like a grisly horror movie and indicates Weinman was knowledgeable of and fascinated with dissection of cats. During questioning, according to the affidavit, a detective told the teenager that police were informed he was involved in the cat slayings. Weinman replied he heard about the cats and that he told his mother. He told police that a school he had been expelled from was the only school in Miami-Dade that taught how to dissect using cats, according to the affidavit. The teenager went on to offer several other bizarre and unsubstantiated trivia, including saying that Mexico is the only source for cats used for dissection and describing their size. Weinman \"became excited and animated\" as he told the detective about cat dissection research he had discovered on the Internet, the affidavit states. \"Weinman was asked to expound on what he meant and he repeated, with noted excitement, 'It just makes a certain sound, a tearing sound,\" says the affidavit. The detective asked Weinman what tools might be used to commit animal cruelty, and teenager replied, \"I don't know, but I'm sure they are very well hidden.\" How did he think the cats were being captured? The teen answered, \"They have to be either tranquilized or poisoned.\" Weinman came to the attention of authorities in late April, the affidavit states, as cats began to go missing in a suburban Dade County neighborhood called Whispering Pines just outside Miami, Florida. Police had a few times seen Weinman walking and skateboarding in the middle of the night in the area, at least once wearing black clothing and carrying a dark backpack. Detectives stopped the teenager and told him about the dead cats. Weinman responded by laughing, according to the arrest affidavit. He was not held at that time. In May, the teenager was pulled over for a traffic violation and police found a \"cutting instrument\" on the ground beside his car. According to the affidavit, as an officer questioned the teen, he noticed what appeared to be a cat scratch on his arm. \"I got them from a stray cat that I feed at my mom's house,\" Weinman said. The teen \"was eager to show\" the scratches and took off his shirt so that photographs could be taken, according to the questioning detective's account, which is detailed in the affidavit. The teenager's divorced parents lived in separate neighborhoods, according to police. His mother resides in Cutler Bay. His father lives in Palmetto Bay, further north of Miami. According to the arrest affidavit, shortly after the teenager talked to police about dissecting cats, he went to live with his father who restricted his son's access to a car. The killings shifted north as eight dead cats turned up in Palmetto Bay, police said. At that point, police provided the teen's profile to the Miami-Dade Police Department's Psychological Services Section. Staff doctors met and discussed the case. They determined that the cat killer was likely male and suffered from some kind of conduct disorder. If the killer was an adult, they concluded, that person would be classified as a sociopath. In late May, police then got a court order to place a tracking device on the Honda Civic driven by Weinman. The affidavit states the car was tracked to the latest feline victim which had been skinned along the abdomen from the pelvic area to the hind legs. The pelt and genitalia were missing. The cat killings became headline news across the country. Around that time, Weinman joined a Facebook page called \"Catch-The-Cat-Killer.\" The teenager is charged with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary. He's pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Kimberly Segal contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: Tyler Weinman described research he did on finding cats to dissect .\nAffidavit: 18-year-old laughed when police asked him about being the cat killer .\nWeinman is charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty and is on house arrest .","id":"43177306d6d829ea7340a393c7f495568623e5a4"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Recently, I discovered that one of my best friends had ditched me after I logged onto Facebook and found her profile had disappeared from my page. When you break up with a best friend online, things can get murky. We'd been having problems that had culminated in a huge argument the day before, but I figured we'd get through it. I figured wrong. Still, being given the heave-ho by way of a social networking site? My first reaction was to laugh. I mean, we're adults. Unfriending me seemed tantamount to toilet-papering my locker or scribbling my phone number on the boy's locker room wall. We had been close for well over a decade. We supported each other through parental deaths, and together we'd bitched and moaned about men for untold hours. I loved her amazing daughter -- buying that little girl Christmas presents was the highlight of my holidays. Suddenly, that was all gone. Suddenly, I wasn't laughing. I was crying. We know what to do when boyfriends dump us: sob. We eat everything in the house or take to our beds and refuse all sustenance. Usually, there's yelling -- at least at my house. The Frisky: How NOT to help heal a broken heart . We purge them from our lives. We delete all their emails and erase their number from every electronic device we own. But when you break up with a girlfriend, things are murkier. For one thing, people don't feel sorry for you the way they do when a romantic relationship bites the dust. You can't blame them; it's not like you were in love or planning a future with your friend. (Even though you assumed she'd be part of it.) So, getting wound up about the loss seems somehow, I don't know, less legit. Is it? It hurts as much as any other heartbreak. Victoria Clark made a short film on the subject: \"Ruminations on You and Me.\" I asked her about the process of grieving a dead friendship. \"As a woman, I expect men to come and go because of the nature of love,\" she explained. \"But your girls are supposed to be on your side, no matter what ... That's what I wanted to believe for a long time, but now I know that that's not always reality.\" The Frisky: What are your rules for friendship on Facebook? A friend of mine was saddened when her BFF excised my friend from her life after landing a boyfriend. \"She hated being single, so if there was a man anywhere in the vicinity, you'd be kicked to the curb,\" my pal explained wistfully. Even forewarned with this knowledge, it stung when she was dismissed from her friend's life. The Frisky: Five ways to unfriend a friend . Unlike my breakup, there was no dramatic defriending. This woman utilized the passive-aggressive method of choice: the slow fade. \"I remember buying her a birthday gift, but somehow she just never had the time to come collect it.\" The Frisky: Ten songs about friendship . Like any other kind of relationship, friendships end. It's not like I've never dumped a pal. I've gotten back together with a few. Because I miss her and love her, I gave making up a shot with this one. A few weeks after I was banished from her Facebook page, I emailed her an apologetic note. I never heard back. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Author gets ditched on Facebook by good friend and doesn't know what to do .\nPeople don't feel as sorry for you with a friend breakup .\nYou can't blame your friend -- it's not like you were in love .\nLike any other kind of relationship, friendships end but you have to go on .","id":"fa289c3316fc287310b14c27351fc6b02caa284f"} -{"article":"WINNER, South Dakota (CNN) -- Neal Wanless, a down-on-his luck cowboy before winning a $232 million Powerball jackpot last month, was always known for his big heart even when he barely had a dime to his name. Neal Wanless, winner of the $232 million lottery in South Dakota, shown here in a high school yearbook. Now, with his good fortune, neighbors and former teachers worry that he might be easily separated from his new-found money, although he doesn't seem to be around to give any of it away. \"I just hope he doesn't get inundated,\" his former English teacher Deana Brodkorb told CNN. \"He's just such a nice guy and I hope he doesn't get suckered.\" Flip through the yearbook at Todd County High School and the portrait emerges of the \"good kid\" that teachers and classmates remember. Wanless ran cross-country, played in the band and graduated second in his class -- the 2004 Salutatorian. Diane Linster, his math teacher, remembers Wanless coming early to school and staying late to pump up his grades. \"Just a very humble, kind and considerate kid,\" Linster said. Watch friends and neighbors describe the lucky cowboy \u00bb . Chris Leneaugh, once an assistant cross-county coach, remembers a dedication to running that propelled Wanless from the middle of the pack to near the front of the team by his senior year. \"Neal never gave up trying,\" Leneaugh said. \"That's what I liked about him, his dedication.\" The yearbook also tells the tale of a hat-wearing rancher who was one of a few white students in a school filled with Native Americans -- Lakota Sioux from the Rosebud Indian Reservation. \"Oh man, he was always cowboyed up,\" said former classmate Mike Prue. \"We are all Natives around here and there he was with his Wrangler shirt and jeans. He really stuck out.\" Prue and his buddy Steve Plank said Wanless would help them with their homework, despite the differences. The story of the Wanless family is the story of a family doing muscle-aching work just to scratch out a living. It's the story of a family that needed a break. Wanless and his parents had recently moved into a camper on their ranch, after losing their home to foreclosure, according to neighbor Erv Figert. A sign with chipped off green lettering sits in the grass at the entrance to the Wanless property. \"There was a sign out there that said 'the ranch that God built,' \" said Joe Prue, father of Mike Prue. \"And for a while there you thought, where was God when everything was coming apart. And now, maybe God helped them.\" Neighbors say they have not seen anyone come or go from the Wanless Ranch after Neal briefly emerged at a press conference last week to accept a giant-sized check from the May 27 drawing. For now, the gate to the Wanless ranch is held tight by a new lock, linking a rusted-brown chain. Rumors travel through the green fields of South Dakota faster than the Internet. Talk is cheap with millions of dollars to loosen the tongues. Many believe the Wanless family is going to buy a place up north, maybe by Pierre, but the cowboy with the big heart isn't talking. \"That grin you saw on his face on television (when Wanless accepted the check) is always there,\" said Linster. \"He always looked like he was probably up to something.\" Now he has the money to do something about it.","highlights":"Neal Wanless from South Dakota won $232 million in lottery .\nFormer teacher: \"He's just such a nice guy and I hope he doesn't get suckered\"\nNeighbors, teachers call winner \"dedicated,\" \"humble, kind and considerate\"","id":"676c7f573f38300866746d7e4433ff071e3cafed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's been a comedian, talk-show host and feared red carpet fashion critic. Now you can add winner of \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" to Joan Rivers' lengthy resume. Donald Trump and Joan Rivers attend \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" season finale Sunday in New York. After weeks of competition, the 75-year-old dynamo beat out 15 other contestants, including Dennis Rodman, Tom Green and Brian McKnight, to take the top spot in this season's edition of the reality show hosted by Donald Trump. Rivers went up against poker champion Annie Duke in Sunday night's finale in which both women were charged with planning a VIP party and silent auction for the last and deciding task. \"They're both tough, they're both smart and they both hate each other,\" Trump observed at the beginning of the show. The apparent tension between Rivers and Duke continued in the final boardroom, part of which played out in front of a live audience, with both finalists bickering and interrupting each other repeatedly as Trump looked on. In the end, Duke raised far more money at her event, but Rivers was able to attract more celebrities and provide a better overall experience for the guests at her party, and Trump declared her the winner of the competition. \"Your level of energy has been amazing,\" he told Rivers. The victory means $250,000 for Rivers' charity: God's Love We Deliver. If the series thrives on conflict, it got plenty of mileage out of Rivers. She blew up at country singer Clint Black, referred to another contestant as a \"stupid blonde\" and smashed a champagne glass out of frustration at one point. But Rivers seemed to be especially infuriated by Duke, calling her a \"despicable human being\" -- the tamest of the insults she hurled in Duke's direction over the course of the series. Rivers even walked out in a huff after her daughter, and fellow contestant, Melissa was fired from the show. The exit, complete with bleeped obscenities, was turned into a cliffhanger of sorts when it seemed like Rivers might not come back, but she returned to the show for the next task. You might think a show that's best known for the phrase \"You're fired\" might not do so well in a bad economy when thousands of people have heard similar words for real at their workplaces, but the series averaged more than 8 million viewers a week, according to Entertainment Weekly. EW: Did the right one win? Revived formula . \"The Apprentice\" made a splash when it debuted in 2004, making a reality television star out of Trump and contestants such as Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth. For several seasons, the series took ambitious young mogul wannabes, divided them into teams and had them compete in tasks that ranged from selling lemonade to creating advertising campaigns for major corporations. The contestants vied for the chance to run one of Trump's companies for a year, and Trump fired someone from the losing team each week until he selected an apprentice. Over the years, ratings for the show gradually declined, but the formula was revived in early 2008 with the first season of \"The Celebrity Apprentice.\" The tasks, pressure-cooker atmosphere and boardroom bickering stayed the same, but the competition now featured contestants with varying degrees of fame and focused on raising money for charity. The first \"Celebrity Apprentice\" top spot went to Piers Morgan, the prickly judge on \"Britain's Got Talent\" who made news this spring when he invited singing sensation Susan Boyle to dinner after her memorable performance on the show. Morgan also made several appearances on this season's \"Apprentice,\" sitting in as Trump's \"eyes and ears\" during one episode and interviewing the final four candidates in another. Morgan's aggressive questioning seemed to annoy the celebrities, especially Jesse James, who glared icily at Morgan when he kept asking him why he did not turn to his wife, Sandra Bullock, for help in raising money during the various tasks. Perhaps Bullock might be tempted to try competing on the show herself. NBC announced last month it is bringing back \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" for another installment in the spring of 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported.","highlights":"Joan Rivers wins this season's \"Celebrity Apprentice\"\nRivers goes up against poker champion Annie Duke in finale .\nDuke raises more money at her event, but Rivers is able to attract more celebrities .\nThe victory means $250,000 for Rivers' charity .","id":"cf46015354e443e19c06c587be3c49c3897d2c9e"} -{"article":"(NEW YORK) -- Lionel Richie turns 60 this month and he can't believe it either. Singer Lionel Richie says his latest album is some of his best work. In fact, the singer -- who in the '80s found international fame with hits like \"Hello\" and \"All Night Long\" -- is upbeat. Life for him these days couldn't be sweeter, he said. Richie recently released the album \"Just Go\" on which he worked with several acclaimed producers and writers, including Stargate, Tricky Stewart & The Dream and Akon. The multi-Grammy winner and former lead singer of The Commodores said he thinks the album could be his best since 1986's hit, \"Dancing on the Ceiling.\" \"That's a very heavy statement,\" he said. \"I love when I get nervous. When I really get nervous -- and I'm nervous about this record -- it means that it's beyond what I thought it was going to be.\" Having just completed a European tour, Richie said a North American jaunt is on the drawing board in the next year. \"We are going to tour ... in fine fashion,\" he said. \"We're going to give them everything they ever wanted.\" Richie spoke to CNN about avoiding rap, keeping up with the club scene and what gives him chills. CNN: You've always been very diligent about updating your sound. So how do you describe Lionel Richie's sound in 2009? Lionel Richie: It's all in production. You have to first of all feel it. I have to feel it. If I don't feel it, then forget the song. I'm a storyteller, not so much a singer, but a storyteller. So when it comes down to production, we just updated the production. But Akon and Ne-Yo and all these guys ... what do we all have in common? Melody. As long as they don't rap and ask me to rap we have show business. CNN: Have you ever rapped before? Richie: I rapped a couple of times. And it was clear to me, it was told to me from some of the greatest rappers in the world, \"Don't even think about it.\" Flavor Flav ... years ago I went to him and I said \"You know I'm thinking about doing some rap on my album. What do you think?\" And he said \"Are you out of your mind?\" He said, \"The only reason I'm rapping is because I can't sing.\" And that's the clear channel of where I need to be going. CNN: Right. Just do what you're good at. Richie: Do what I do and don't get away from it. CNN: How much time do you spend doing research in nightclubs? Richie: Now try to explain that to your girlfriend or to your wife! Where are you tonight? I'm doing research! As much time as I can. You have to be in it to see what people are moving to and what turns them on. It's all in beats and rhythms and in lyric content. You can send somebody down to do some study for you. But the bottom line is there's nothing like going in yourself in the middle of a club in London, or in the middle of a club in Australia or a club in the middle of Germany somewhere. Just sit over in the corner and watch what people dance to. By the time I leave France, England, Germany, Italy, America, I can go home and write the most incredible album in the world because I know what the world beat is. I know where everything's going. CNN: You turn 60 very soon. Richie: I cannot believe the number, but yes I do. Watch Richie say \"hello\" to getting older \u00bb . CNN: How do you feel about that? Richie: You know, I don't feel anything except better than anything before. My life is better now than it has ever been ever. So maybe all night long may not be all night long, but it's pretty darn good. CNN: How long are you going to keep churning out records? Richie: I like doing this. I don't like fishing, so this was my hobby when I started. This is how I got into the business when I started because it was a place to go to get away from everything. So I still love doing it. CNN: Looking at all your past hits, what song gives you the most chills to perform? Richie: Wow. That's so tough. [It's] between \"Hello\" and \"Still.\" What happens is I look at people in the audience and I kind of know where they are. I know that there's so much depth in their thoughts. Those songs touch the core of whatever it is their lives were about. If there was ever a song about love, or in \"Still,\" something you lost, you could see it in their faces that they're trying to remember every detail of the experience or the person they were with.","highlights":"Lionel Richie, who shot to mega-stardom in the 1980s, has a new album .\nThe Grammy award-winning singer is turning 60 years old .\nHe worked with several heavy hitters in the industry on the new project .\nHe says music started out as a hobby for him and he continues to enjoy it .","id":"2d7242bddde7c58d9dbae6af4d78f3898bc41d70"} -{"article":"DECATUR, Georgia (CNN) -- One falling tree saved John Kiefer from another. Windstorms in Atlanta, Georgia, uprooted several trees, including this one that fell through John Kiefer's home. Kiefer was sitting on his sofa Monday morning while a brief but intense windstorm blew through the Atlanta, Georgia, area, including Decatur. He heard a tree crash in his backyard and got up to investigate. That tree knocked down a chain-link fence, and Kiefer was getting worried about several other large backyard trees that were swaying in the wind. \"And as I'm watching those move and sway, this crashed down,\" he said. \"This\" was a 50-foot red oak in the front yard that fell onto his living room, splitting his house in half and coming to rest a few inches above where he had been sitting on the couch. \"Yeah, it's a mess,\" he said as he surveyed the tangle of broken wood beams, plaster, bricks and gray insulation. Curiously, Kiefer's electricity was still on, and cable TV was still playing less then 10 feet away from the massive tree trunk in his living room. An ancient upright piano and various collectibles on it were unharmed. Kiefer had been away over the weekend, visiting a son in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his three dogs were still at the kennel where he boarded them. They'll be staying there a bit longer. Three years of drought in Georgia have weakened trees' root systems, and recent heavy rains loosened the soil around them, said Kiefer, who works at a plastics recycling company in nearby Stone Mountain. The windstorm brought down hundreds of trees in the area, including one that crushed a car, killing the person inside, and one that fell on a nursing home, where no one was hurt, CNN affiliate WGCL reported. Service was disrupted on Atlanta's MARTA rail transit system, according to WGCL. Power and traffic signals were out in many areas. Watch CNN report about dangerous storms \u00bb . Despite having a tree lying across his living room, Kiefer seemed remarkably calm, but that was a new development. \"Couple of hours ago my knees where shaking pretty good,\" he admitted. But, he said, God was looking out for him. \"Actually, he saved my life,\" Kiefer said. \"When I came outside to investigate that noise, that was my warning to get up off that couch. And then, not to go back in the house when it got real windy, but to stand right there where that tree stopped. There are no coincidences.\"","highlights":"Brief but intense windstorm blows through Atlanta, Georgia .\nWinds brought down hundreds of trees, including one that killed person inside car .\nAnother tree fell on a nursing home; no one was hurt .","id":"dd42390e35b70d2a5cf9755901f0621f14b40266"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A suburban Philadelphia swim club has invited children from a largely minority day-care center to come back after a June reversal that fueled allegations of racism against the club, a spokeswoman said Sunday. Some kids from the Creative Steps Day Care center say club members made racial remarks. The development came during a hastily called Sunday afternoon meeting of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Club members voted overwhelmingly to try to work things out with the day-care center, which accused some swim club members of making racist comments to black and Hispanic children contracted to use the pool, said Bernice Duesler, the club director's wife. Duesler said the club canceled its contract with the Creative Steps day-care because of safety, crowding and noise concerns, not racism. \"As long as we can work out safety issues, we'd like to have them back,\" she told CNN. She said the club has been subpoenaed by the state Human Rights Commission, which has begun a fact-finding investigation, \"and the legal advice was to try to get together with these camps, \" Duesler added. Alethea Wright, Creative Steps' director, said, \"They should have done that before.\" Wright has repeatedly lambasted the club for its tepid response to the charges and said the children in her care were \"emotionally damaged\" by the incident. \"These children are scarred. How can I take those children back there?\" she said. However, Wright's lawyer, Carolyn Nicholas, said the center will give the Valley Club's offer \"due consideration\" once it is received and looks forward to sitting down with the parties. \"The children are our primary concern,\" Nicholas told CNN. Swimming privileges for about 65 children from Creative Steps were revoked after their first visit June 29. Some children said white members of the club made racist comments to the children, asking why \"black children were there\" and raising concerns that \"they might steal from us.\" Days later, the day-care center's $1,950 check was returned, Wright said. Club director John Duesler told CNN that he had underestimated the amount of children who would participate, and the club was unable to supervise that many kids. He called his club \"very diverse,\" and said it had offered to let day camps in the Philadelphia area use his facility after budget cuts forced some pools in the area to close. Wright has rejected the camp's contention that the swim club's pool was overcrowded. The club had accepted a 10-to-1 ratio of children to adults and was considering adding up to three lifeguards, according to e-mails obtained by CNN. But John Duesler said last week that the Valley Club also canceled contracts with two other day-care centers because of safety and overcrowding issues. The Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission launched an investigation last week after allegations of racism at the Valley Club. The commission said that as part of any investigation, the two sides eventually could be asked to sit down face-to-face with its investigators. \"We always encourage opposing parties to communicate with one another if they feel they can resolve these issues amicably,\" Commission Chairman Stephen Glassman said. Bernice Duesler said she wasn't yet sure how the club will \"reach out\" to Creative Steps and the other two camps. And Wright said she still has concerns about the issue. \"Are the members who made those comments still there?\" she asked.","highlights":"Suburban Philadelphia club invites kids at largely minority day care to come back .\nLawyer for Creative Steps says the day care will give offer \"due consideration\"\nSome club members accused of making racist comments to black, Hispanic kids .\nValley Club said it had revoked pool privileges out of crowding, safety concerns .","id":"045adeaf8f6643694d4203074c791469ac517aed"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Former world number one, Pete Sampras, has described recently crowned French Open champion Roger Federer as the best player in history. Roger Federer after equalling Pete Sampras's record of winning 14 men's singles titles. The 37-year-old American, nicknamed 'Pistol Pete' for his bullet-like serves, won a record 14 grand slam men's singles titles over a 15-year career, though never captured the trophy at Roland Garros. In beating Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6, 6-4 to take the French title on Sunday, Federer equaled Sampras's record and became only the sixth man in history to win each of the four majors. Debate: Is Federer the greatest player ever? The feat marks the 27-year-old Swiss out as the finest player to ever grace the game according to Sampras: \"What he's done over the past five years has never, ever been done -- and probably will never, ever happen again. \"Regardless if he won there or not, he goes down as the greatest ever. This just confirms it,\" Sampras told the Guardian newspaper. \"I'm obviously happy for Roger. If there's anyone that deserves it, it's Roger. He's come so close (previously),\" Sampras said of the new champion and world number two, who lost the last three consecutive French Open finals to Spain's Rafael Nadal. Federer spoke exclusively to CNN after his win and said he was relieved to have bounced back after relinquishing the world number one slot and the Australian and Wimbledon titles to Nadal in 2008. \"It's been a fantastic day - to get the elusive French title in the end was unbelievable. I always believed I was good enough to get it - but holding the trophy, after all I've been through was just unbelievable. I'm so proud right now you can't believe it. \"For me there was never a question whether I was going to retire. I worked extremely hard in the off season. Losing semifinals and finals all of a sudden wasn't good enough for people anymore. But this victory is timely because I've proved many people wrong.\" The historic nature of the victory was also not lost on Federer: \"The records mean a lot to me especially after the last few years when I realized that I was (up there) with the greatest players of all time. Of course I like to break records - because I look up to people like Sampras, Agassi, Connors and McEnrore, it's so great to be up there with those players.\" However, in an ominous warning to his rivals, the champion already said he had eyes on his next conquest: \"I still feel like I have much more left in me - I'm only 27 years-old and I'd like to play for many more years to come and I hope I reach many more titles.\" Federer's vanquished opponent in the final, Soderling also praised his conquerer: \"For me he is the best ever and I should know as I've player him many times,\" the world-ranked number 12 told CNN. Next up for Federer is the third grand slam of 2009, Wimbledon, where he will aim to go one better than Bjorn Borg by winning the tournament six times when the event starts on June 22. Federer's historic weekend win was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge who also tagged the Swiss simply the best that tennis has seen. \"Today I wrote to Roger Federer to congratulate him on this unique success because I consider him to be the best player of all time,\" Rogge told a media briefing in Brussels on Monday. The IOC supremo revealed that in the letter he had expressed the hope that Federer would take part in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Federer added an Olympic gold to his collection of tennis accolades by winning the men's doubles with compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka in Beijing last year.","highlights":"Former world number one Pete Sampras says Federer is the 'greatest'\nBoth men share the record for winning 14 men's singles titles .\nFederer says he feels there are \"more titles to come\"\nThe Swiss eyes a new record of six tournament wins at Wimbledon .","id":"5c8924c97ce1b48d7209384f93335a85827be9d3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was the annual revving of the engines Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial as thousands of motorcyclists converged on Washington to honor those who have served the country. Members of Rolling Thunder ride into Washington on Sunday. Riders from Rolling Thunder, a group created to bring attention to soldiers listed as POW or MIA, rolled into the nation's capital, greeting crowds of supporters who lined the streets. \"It's a great tribute to people that have sacrificed everything, including their life,\" said rider Mick Smith. He and fellow Vietnam veteran Juan Cruz rode their motorcycles from Pennsylvania. \"It's a brotherhood that we have, veterans of the foreign wars,\" Cruz said. \"The camaraderie is so perfect that we don't need anything else. We forget about our problems.\" Lyn Seidler was among the spectators who lined the motorcycle route in the hot and humid weather to greet the bikers as they passed over the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Washington. \"The servicemen made a sacrifice,\" Seidler said. For her, cheering on Rolling Thunder was a way to help celebrate troops, \"and to say thank you,\" she said. After completing their rides, the bikers gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. \"I'm here today to honor our veterans, our fallen veterans, to help the living by supporting the dead,\" Cruz said. The Defense Department says there are more than 88,000 soldiers still listed as missing in action from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. -CNN's Lauren Pratapas contributed to this report .","highlights":"Rolling Thunder created to bring attention to soldiers listed as POW or MIA .\n\"It's a brotherhood that we have, veterans of the foreign wars,\" rider says .\nDefense Department: More than 88,000 soldiers listed as missing in action .","id":"7856853011f056fecaa57833c5e629fd1451f73a"} -{"article":"MARDAN, Pakistan (CNN) -- A family of 18 Pakistani men, women and children trudges down a dirt road toward a refugee camp. These children are among the thousands of refugees this week at the Jalozai camp in western Pakistan. Adolescent girls carry infants on their hips, while the men lug bundles of belongings on their backs. \"Come, stay close to me,\" said one woman wrapped in brightly colored robes, speaking to three children trailing behind her. \"This one is empty,\" a white-bearded Pakistani police officer tells the family, pointing toward a tent. The women and children scramble under the canvas flap, as Salar Khan explains what led his family to flee to Mardan. \"Mortars destroyed three houses in my village,\" he said. \"It was dangerous. A piece of shrapnel almost pierced my child's leg.\" Khan said his family left their home Wednesday morning in Sultanwas, a town in Buner district. Now, they are living in Mardan's rapidly growing tent city of more than 1,400 other displaced Pakistanis. Five days ago, it was an empty field. Watch as CNN's Ivan Watson tours a refugee camp \u00bb . Khan's family has joined tens of thousands of other Pakistanis fleeing south to escape the escalating conflict between the military and Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan. Meanwhile, columns of Pakistani troops in military trucks head in the opposite direction, hauling field guns north toward the conflict zone. Pakistani families have fled the area any way they can: on foot, by hitching rides on the back of trucks and by stowing their belongings on the roofs of cars. As fighting has spread from the districts of Buner and Lower Dir to the Taliban stronghold in the Swat Valley, camps for displaced people are cropping up across northwest Pakistan. The United Nations said the new exodus is exacerbating an already existing humanitarian crisis. Since August, the U.N. has registered more than 500,000 Pakistanis forced to flee their homes by fighting in other northwestern parts of the country. \"Last year ... 4 million people worldwide lost their homes, out of which you have half a million displaced in Pakistan,\" said Manuel Bessler, a top U.N. official in Islamabad. Bessler spoke on a rooftop, overlooking the sprawling Jalozai refugee camp in western Pakistan. Until recently, the camp housed refugees from neighboring Afghanistan. The Afghans are now gone, replaced by more then 49,000 Pakistanis. Administrators are preparing space for 35,000 others. With help from U.N. agencies, the Pakistani government and other aid organizations, residents get access to medical care, children's schools and training programs to teach them how to rebuild their damaged homes if and when they get to return. Tensions have been building in the Jalozai camp. Two months ago, Pakistani police shot and killed one demonstrator after residents protested, blocking roads, throwing stones and demanding compensation for homes damaged by the fighting. This week, a crowd of several hundred agitated men gathered at the entrance, angry about a delay of several days in the monthly distribution of food aid. Some accused camp administrators of corruption, allegations that aid workers have denied. \"The wheat we've been given is substandard, and people are getting sick instead of being fed,\" said one man named Gulzada. \"Our houses have been destroyed,\" said another man called Anwar. \"There's no tea, no sugar, no wheat, no lentils. All that we have are the clothes we are wearing.\" A fresh wave of displaced Pakistanis will only aggravate tensions, said Bessler, the U.N. official. \"This is a factor that is destabilizing not only in the camp but in the country as a whole,\" he warned. Only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Pakistanis are ending up in camps. Many more have settled with host families or have resorted to paying rent in other cities. The influx of ethnic Pashtuns from northwest Pakistan upset the delicate demographic balance last month in the port city of Karachi. That led to ethnic clashes between Pashtuns and the resident Muhajir community, resulting in the deaths of more than 30 people. Many more Pakistanis are unable to leave the conflict area, according to Sebastian Brack, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Islamabad. \"There is a serious humanitarian crisis under way,\" Brack said. \"There is serious fighting going on. There will be massive displacement. Because of the curfew, [many] have not been able to leave yet.\" In this moment of crisis, some homeless Pakistanis are turning to a higher power. \"Whenever it is God's will, we will go back to our homes,\" says Mohammed Munir, an elderly man who fled with his family from the Buner district to the new camp in Mardan three days ago. \"And we pray to Allah that he will protect us. It's up to Allah. We can't do anything.\" The man kneeled and prayed in the grass outside the entrance of a tent that his family now calls home.","highlights":"Tens of thousands flee south to escape conflict between military and Taliban .\nRefugee camps for the displaced are cropping up across northwest Pakistan .\nLatest exodus is exacerbating humanitarian crisis, U.N. says .\nTensions have been building in Jalozai camp in western Pakistan .","id":"0206b26c519affa1f48a3109be7668fed3b2451e"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from Larry King's autobiography, \"My Remarkable Journey,\" published by Weinstein Books and available at bookstores nationwide. Larry King anchors \"Larry King Live at 9 p.m. ET on CNN. Larry King recalls a much-needed win at the track during one of the lowest points of his life. I was thirty-seven years old. (In 1971). I had no job. I had a couple hundred thousand dollars in debts. And a four-year-old daughter. I'd take Chaia to our secret park on our visiting days. That's when the pain cut the deepest -- looking at my daughter and knowing I had no way to support her. Things got bleaker and bleaker. I became a recluse. By late May, I was down to forty-two dollars. My rent was paid only until the end of the month. I locked myself in my apartment wondering how bad things could possibly get. Pretty soon I wouldn't even be able to afford cigarettes. I remembered a night when I was a young man in New York, alone, cold, and without cigarettes or the money to buy them -- I had smashed open a vending machine to get a pack. A friend called up and told me to start living like a human being again. He invited me to the track. I had nothing better to do, and I figured it would be good therapy to get out and have lunch with a friend and watch the horses come down the stretch. I'll never forget that day. I put on a Pierre Cardin jeans outfit that had no pockets and drove to Calder Race Course. I can still see the horses warming up before the third race. There was a horse called Lady Forli -- a filly running against males. Normally, female horses don't beat males. We're talking cheap horses. I scanned the board and saw that she was 70-1. But my eyes really opened when I looked at the racing form. Racetrack people talk to each other. So I turned to the guy next to me and said, \"You know, this horse, three races back, won in more or less the same company. Why is she 70-1?\" \"Well,\" the guy said, \"there's a couple of new horses here.\" \"Yeah, but she should be, like, 20-1. Not 70--1.\" Screw it. I bet ten dollars on the horse to win. But I kept looking at the horse. The more I looked at this horse, the more I liked it. So I bet exactas. I bet Lady Forli on top of every other horse and below every other horse. Now I had what's called a wheel. Larry King's life in pictures \u00bb . I kept looking at the horse. Wait a minute, I told myself, I've got four dollars left. I have a pack of cigarettes. I've gotta give the valet two bucks. That still leaves me with money to bet a trifecta. My birthday is November 19. Lady Forli was number 11. So I bet 11 to win, 1 to place, and 9 to show. Now I had bets in for 11 on top, 11 on bottom, and 11 to win. And I had a trifecta -- 11-1-9. When the race began, I had two dollars left to my name -- and that was for the valet. They broke out of the gate. The 1 broke on top, the 9 ran second, and the 11 came out third. The 11 passed the 9, passed the 1, and they ran in a straight line all around the track. There was no question about it. The 11 won by five lengths. The 1 was three lengths ahead of the 9. I had every winning ticket. I had it to win. I had the exacta. I had the trifecta. I collected nearly eight thousand dollars. Eight thousand dollars! It had to be one of the happiest moments of my life -- certainly the most exciting. But I had no pockets. So I stuffed all the money in my jacket. It was bundled up. I didn't know what to do with it. I ran out of the track. The valet attendant came over and said, \"You leaving so early?\" \"Yeah.\" \"Bad day, Mr. King?\" I tipped him fifty dollars. The guy nearly fainted. I had to go somewhere, to stop and make sure it was real. I drove to a vacant lot, which is now called Dolphin Stadium. I parked among the weeds and opened up my jacket. All the money spilled out. I counted out about seventy-nine hundred dollars. I paid my child support for the next year. I paid my rent for a year. I bought twenty cartons of cigarettes and stacked them up in my apartment, and I filled the refrigerator. Up to that point, that may have been the happiest moment of my life. Now, today, if I go to the track and win $8,000, it's very nice, but it won't affect my life one iota. It's nice to win. But when you really need it ...","highlights":"At age 37, Larry King had $42 to his name, no job and a daughter to support .\nHe became reclusive but decided it would be \"good therapy\" to go out with a friend .\nThey went to the track, and Larry bet on a female horse whom the odds were against .\nLarry won a much-needed $8,000 that day .","id":"32a7f2a0a2192434ac4da05c328117d2dc55c6ee"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hundreds of Michael Jackson fans gathered in London on Monday to pay tribute to the tragic pop star on the night when he was supposed to be opening his 50-night residency in the city. Fans scrawl messages to the star on a wall outside the London venue where he would have been playing. The O2 arena in southeast London, where Jackson's \"This is It\" shows were due to be staged, had been the site of an unofficial shrine to the performer since his death last month. On Monday fans laid flowers and memorabilia, wrote messages to the star on a wall and sang Jackson songs. At 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) many of the crowd joined hands and sang the Jackson-penned \"We Are the World,\" and chanted \"Michael! King of Pop.\" Many present had bought tickets for the opening night but had decided to come anyway. \"I'm here to pay tribute to the king,\" said Morganna Bramah, a 29-year-old Web site artist, who had just returned from Los Angeles where she had hoped to attend last week's memorial for Jackson. \"It's one of the most devastating heartbreaking things that has ever happened in my life. I just felt it was my duty to pay my respects who has given so much magic and light and beauty to my life.\" Martin Russo, 28, and Enrico Ardito, 34, had travelled from Italy for the tribute. \"I grew up with his music and he is my only idol,\" said Russo. \"He had a special bond with his fans. Michael cared truly.\" Sophie Bradley, who had flown in from the Middle East, said she had come to say thank you to Jackson. \"I had to come here. He was a father figure and a role model,\" said the 25-year-old. \"It's a chance for fans to talk and share stories and just remember how much he means to us.\" Gemma White and Terry Shaw said they were still \"in denial\" about Jackson's death. \"I feel like I've lost a brother, a lover and a friend,\" said White. \"People say he was only a pop star but to us he wasn't. He was in our hearts. He was a person and the fans got to see that.\" \"We came down here for Michael,\" added Shaw. \"It was the last thing we could do for him. It had to be done.\" Jessica Prater from New York had tickets for Monday's show and had decided she would still come to London even before details of the evening's tribute were announced on Facebook. \"I didn't know so many people across the world were inspired by him,\" the 28-year-old said. \"I've met fans from Finland, Germany, France, the Congo. It's like a family reunion where you meet your long lost relatives. I'm really feeling the love and I know Michael's spirit is definitely here .\" Large whiteboards were erected at the O2 to allow fans to leave messages. After the vigil they'll be moved to opposite the box office so fans can continue to pay their respects. It's been less than one week since celebrities and die-hard Jackson fans packed the Staples Center in Los Angeles for an emotional farewell to the King of Pop. Questions still surround the circumstances of his sudden death less than three weeks before the scheduled start of his London shows. Investigators are still awaiting toxicology reports from the coroner's to determine the exact cause of death. The decision by fans to stage their own farewell to Michael Jackson at the O2 follows the absence of an official plan to commemorate the singer's life in London. Concert promoters AEG Worldwide are still unable to confirm reports that a tribute concert will be held at the O2 Arena, potentially on August 29, the date of what would have been Jackson's 51st birthday. \"There have been lots of talks going on about lots of things but nothing that I can confirm,\" Jones said. The first official Michael Jackson memorabilia is being offered by Bravado, the global merchandising division of Universal Music Group, and AEG Live which holds merchandising rights associated with the O2 concerts. Products said to have been personally approved by Jackson before the concert tour are available for pre-order on the Bandstore Web site. Late last week clothing had been shipped to retailer HMV. Play and Amazon were said to have received their consignments over the weekend. Items are being pushed out to try to beat bootleggers who are already producing Jackson mementos to cash in on demand from fans. So far only clothing is available, but the range is expected to expand to accessories over the coming weeks. \"There is a high level of demand. It's apparent that fans really want the official merchandise,\" a spokesman for Universal Music told CNN. The race to generate income following Jackson's death, from offering commemorative tickets in lieu of refunds to his concerts to the sale of T-shirts and CDs, has rankled some of his fans. Louise Costello refused a refund for her ticket to the London shows in favor of a commemorative ticket, but says the emphasis should be on the man, rather than the money. \"It's not all about money now. It's about a man whose life has gone. And he touched a lot of people as well, including myself,\" Costello told CNN. \"He was trying to save the world, and heal the world, things like that. He was a good man and I think they're taking advantage of the fact that he has a lot of people who love him.\" Costello is not intending to go to O2 vigil tonight. Instead, she'll make her own pilgrimage to the O2 Arena on July 28, the date she was to see Jackson in concert. \"It's my way of paying my tribute. I'll go there and I'll listen to his music. It's just my way of remembering him,\" she said.","highlights":"Jackson fans converge on London's O2 Arena Monday for memorial .\nFan Gemma White: \"I feel like I've lost a brother, a lover and a friend\"\nFan vigil timed to coincide with scheduled start date of Jackson's \"This Is It\" concerts .\nFans from U.S., Middle East and Europe were at Monday's tribute .","id":"9646c774f004b21fd056d86ea35b5aa3e7531f87"} -{"article":"TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced Tuesday he would not run for re-election next year and instead will seek the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Mel Martinez. Gov. Charlie Crist appeared alongside Sen. John McCain, left, during the 2008 presidential campaign. Crist, who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in 1998, was immediately endorsed by the Senate Republican campaign arm, which hopes to avoid a bruising primary fight. Former state House Speaker Marco Rubio declared his intention last week to seek the GOP Senate nomination. \"Our country is facing the most profound public policy questions in our lifetime -- questions relating to the economy, taxes, healthcare, the environment and national security,\" Crist said in a statement released by his campaign. \"The answers to these questions will have a lasting impact on the country we love and the nation we will leave to our children and grandchildren.\" He added in the statement: \"Here in Florida, we've shown that when we put people first and work together, much can be accomplished, and I intend to bring that same approach to Washington. That is why, after thoughtful consideration with my wife Carole, I have decided to run for the U.S. Senate.\" A Quinnipiac Poll released last month showed Crist with a commanding 54 percent to 8 percent lead over Rubio in the Republican primary. But the poll also found that more people overall, and Republicans specifically, would rather see Crist run for re-election as governor than seek the Senate seat. Should Crist backers persuade Rubio to abandon his bid, it would help national Republicans focus money and resources on other races in 2010. The GOP needs to win back seats they lost in 2008 to help weaken the Democratic hold on the Senate. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to change his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat and the increasing likelihood that Democrat Al Franken will eventually be named the next senator from Minnesota means that President Obama will have enough Democratic votes -- in theory -- for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Last week, the Senate GOP was dealt a setback when former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a popular Republican, decided not to challenge Specter. But news that Crist would enter a Senate race was welcomed by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. \"While I believe Marco Rubio has a very bright future within the Republican Party, Charlie Crist is the best candidate in 2010 to ensure that we maintain the checks and balances that Floridians deserve in the United States Senate,\" Cornyn said in a statement. \"Governor Crist is a dedicated public servant and a dynamic leader, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee will provide our full support to ensure that he is elected the next United States Senator from Florida.\" Rubio used a short blast on Twitter to chastise the NRSC for siding with Crist in the primary. \"Disappointed GOP senate comm endorses Crist on day 1,\" Rubio wrote. \"Remember that reform must always come from the outside. Status quo won't change itself.\" GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan, who had been considering a Senate bid, instead said he would run for another term in the House and endorsed Crist. Anticipating his entry into the Senate race, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last month aired its first television ad of the 2010 elections -- a small buy in the Tallahassee TV market -- that accused Crist of running away from the state's economic problems. Florida Democrats echoed that line of criticism Tuesday shortly after Crist declared his candidacy. \"By running for U.S. Senate, Charlie Crist has cut and run on the Sunshine State, once again taking the easy way out, avoiding responsibility and leaving the hard work of facing Florida's problems to the next governor,\" Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman said. \"At a time when Florida needs real leadership, unfortunately Charlie Crist is running from the mess he created, which is why Floridians are going to send Crist into retirement come Election Day.\" Still, Crist remains very popular in the state that he has led since he was elected governor in 2006. His approval rating is at 66 percent, according to the Quinnipiac Poll. While it had been speculated for weeks that Crist would run for the Senate, the governor told reporters Tuesday that he made his final decision this past weekend to run for Martinez's seat. With conservatives and centrists battling for control of the Republican Party, the upcoming primary contest in Florida will be closely watched nationally. Crist is considered a centrist, while Rubio is trying to appeal to conservatives in the party. When asked to talk about his primary with Rubio and the future direction of the Republican Party, Crist instead spoke about bipartisanship. \"Well, I think what's important to bear in mind is that we do things a little bit differently here in Florida, and that's another reason that I run for the United States Senate,\" Crist told reporters at a news conference. \"We work together to solve problems and do what's right for the people of our state. The people are the boss. And I think regardless of party, we have to work together to get things done. And that's what I'd like to take to Washington, D.C.\" Rep. Kendrick Meek, North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns and state Sen. Dan Gelber are all seeking the Democratic Senate nomination. CNN's Kevin Bohn and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gov. Crist says the country is \"facing the most profound public policy questions\"\nCrist, a popular governor in Florida, ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 1998 .\nCrist was immediately endorsed by the Senate Republican campaign arm .\nFormer state House Speaker Marco Rubio declared his intention to run last week .","id":"c1ea0f6c010b24caaf3ad9ac916711ca6b4be3bf"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former Army captain who was dismissed under a federal law dealing with gays and lesbians in the military lost his appeal Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the challenge to the \"don't ask\/don't tell\" law. James Pietrangelo and 11 other veterans had sued the government over the \"don't ask\/ don't tell\" law passed in 1993. Pietrangelo was the only one who appealed to the high court, but the justices without comment refused to intervene. The provision forbids those in the military from openly acknowledging or revealing their homosexuality, and prevents the government from asking individual soldiers and sailors about their sexual orientation. The Obama administration had asked the high court not to take the case, and White House officials had said they would not object to homosexuals being kicked out of the armed services. During the presidential campaign last year, President Obama said he supported throwing out the federal law but has taken no specific action on the controversy. The Justice Department said in a high court filing the law was \"rationally related to the government's legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.\" A federal appeals court in Boston, Massachusetts, had ruled against Pietrangelo, essentially ending his legal efforts. But a San Francisco, California-based federal appeals court ruled partially in favor of Maj. Margaret Witt, allowing her lawsuit against the Pentagon to move ahead. Those judges said the Air Force must prove the dismissal of the flight nurse would ensure troop readiness and cohesion. Justices say state judge should have recused himself . In a separate ruling, the high court on Monday found a state judge acted improperly when he refused to remove himself from a 2006 civil appeal despite having received financial support during his campaign from the CEO of the key defendant. Chief Justice Brent Benjamin of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals cast the deciding vote in favor of that company. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices found that a perceived conflict of interest should have led to the judge's recusal. \"On these extreme facts the probability of actual bias rises to an unconstitutional level,\" Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. The issue has become a touchstone of a growing political debate over whether judicial election races -- which have become more expensive and contentious in recent years -- erode public confidence in the legal system. The West Virginia case has attracted nationwide attention and was the basis for author John Grisham's 2008 best-seller, \"The Appeal.\" The case now goes back to the state courts, where Benjamin likely will have to pull out of a rehearing. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a narrow ruling on the specific facts of the West Virginia dispute, but the implications are likely to be felt nationwide. Thirty-nine states elect some or all of their judges. The facts of the case read like a legal thriller. Businessman Don Blankenship, chairman of A.T. Massey Coal Co., spent $3 million supporting Benjamin's 2004 run for the judicial seat -- accounting for 60 percent of the money spent in support of his campaign. Massey was involved in a decade-old business dispute with Hugh Caperton, owner of rival Harman Mining. Caperton accused Massey of unlawfully interfering with his business relations. A jury agreed, and in 2002 awarded Harman Mining $50 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Massey waited four years to appeal. It was during those four years that Benjamin won his state high court seat. In April 2006, Benjamin declined to recuse himself from Massey's appeal, which had reached his five-member court. West Virginia, like most state and federal courts, leaves to an individual judge's discretion the decision to stay out of a case because of a potential conflict of interest.","highlights":"Ex-Army Capt. James Pietrangelo sued over \"don't ask\/don't tell\" law .\nPietrangelo had appealed case to U.S. Supreme Court .\nJustices without comment refuse to intervene .\nObama administration had asked the high court not to take the case .","id":"b919150e737a41d1ede1ee562edce22fd0a14ac8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roger Federer takes on Robin Soderling, who knocked out tournament favorite Rafael Nadal in a fourth-round stunner, in the men's final of the French Open on Sunday. Roger Federer screams in joy after beating Juan Martin del Potro to reach the French Open final. A victory in Roland Garros would give Federer 14 Grand Slams, tying his career wins to American Pete Sampras. The second-seed Federer lagged at first, but beat Argentine Juan Martin del Potro on Friday to make the final. Soderling advanced over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Federer, 27, has a 9-0 record over the 24-year-old Swede going into the final. The Swiss star has suffered emotional defeats recently. At England's Wimbledon last year, he lost to Rafael Nadal after a five-year reign. The game, which ran about seven hours with a few rain breaks, was the longest-ever Wimbledon men's final. Nadal also beat Federer in the Australian Open earlier this year. Soderling stunned the top-seed Nadal by handing him a loss in the fourth round of the French Open. The 23rd-seed Soderling was a rank outsider against the world number one who had never lost a match on the clay at Roland Garros and was a short-priced favorite to win a record fifth straight title. In women's tennis, number one Dinara Safina was beaten Saturday in straight sets by fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final of the French Open at Roland Garros. Safina, who has reached the top of the world rankings despite not having a major title to her name, looked completely out-of-sorts against her compatriot, who secured a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory in just over an hour. The defeat was a crushing blow to Safina, 23, who has long had to contend with the accusations that she is not a worthy world number one -- and this third grand slam final defeat will do nothing to silence the doubters. It was the second straight year she has lost in the final here, after going down in straight sets to Ana Ivanovic of Serbia last year. It was also her second successive grand slam final defeat, having lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year.","highlights":"A French Open win would give Federer 14 Grand Slams .\nThat would tie his career wins to American Pete Sampras .\nFederer has a 9-0 record over the Swede going into the final .\nSoderling topples favorite Rafael Nadal in a fourth-round stunner .","id":"c67341c765cacc6879276b7054ed461694733077"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tamil Tiger rebels acknowledged the death of their leader Sunday, nearly a week after the Sri Lankan government said it had recovered the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran and declared victory in the country's 25-year civil war with the rebels. In this picture taken 27 November 2003, Velupillai Prabhakaran stands next to an LTTE flag. Prabhakaran \"attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state\" on May 17, according to Tamilnet.com, a rebel Web site, citing the group's international affairs spokesman. On Tuesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory against the Tamil Tigers. \"We are celebrating the defeat of terrorism,\" he said in a nationally televised speech before parliament. \"We have won and restored democracy in the country.\" The president declared a national holiday for the following day to celebrate the war's end and begin a new phase in the country's history. Watch the victory parade \u00bb . A short time after the presidential address, the military announced that it had recovered the body of Prabhakaran, leader and founder of the Tamil Tigers. The rebels initially denied the death of their leader, claiming on Tamilnet.com that Prabhakaran was \"alive and safe.\" The defense ministry said the bodies of Prabhakaran and 18 other senior rebel leaders were among corpses found in mop-up operations, after government troops routed the Tigers -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The leaders included Prabhakaran's eldest son, Charles Anthony, as well as Pottu Amman, the Tigers' intelligence leader, according to the ministry. Watch the U.N. chief discuss the humanitarian crisis \u00bb . Prabhakaran founded the Tamil Tigers, who have been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries. It initiated the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the explosive suicide belt. Prabhakaran is accused of masterminding the killing of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later, a Tigers suicide bomber, allegedly acting on Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. The rebels have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. An estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people have died during the quarter century of fighting.","highlights":"Tamil Tiger rebels acknowledge the death of their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran .\nSri Lankan government had said it recovered his body; rebels initially denied claim .\nSri Lankan government declares victory over Tamil Tiger rebels .\nAn estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people have died during the quarter century of fighting .","id":"d49db7262e321bbacf40757eb4a57f918325e7c7"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- It was supposed to be a pleasant surprise, but turned into the shock of a lifetime. A woman scours a garbage heap in Tel Aviv for her mother's missing mattress. A woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift, throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades. The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat's mother, who had stuffed her savings of nearly $1 million inside her old bed for decades, Annat told Israel Army Radio. A massive search is under way at the city dump, where security has been beefed up to keep out treasure-seekers who have heard Annat's story in Israeli media. Annat, who did not want to reveal the rest of her name, told Israel Army Radio that she woke up early Sunday to get a good deal on a new mattress as a surprise for her mother. Sound off: Which bizarre places have you hidden money? She fell asleep that night, exhausted after lugging up the new mattress and hauling down the old one to be taken out with the trash. When her mother realized the next day what her daughter had done, she told her that she had been using the mattress to stash away her life savings and had nearly $1 million padding the inside of the worn-out mattress. Watch more on the mattress search \u00bb . Annat ran downstairs, but it was too late. The garbage truck had already taken away the money-stuffed mattress. Annat alerted the two major dump sites in the Israeli city in an effort to locate the bed, but so far she has had no luck. Yitchak Burba, one of the dump site managers, told Army Radio that he and his men are working relentlessly to try to help Annat find the million-dollar mattress among the tons of garbage at the landfill. The publicity has triggered a wave of people also trying to find the mattress and its contents for themselves. Burba has increased security around the dump to keep them out. Annat told Army Radio that when her mother realized her queen-sized bank had been tossed, she told her to \"'leave it.'\" \"'The heart is crying but you know we could have been in a car accident or had a terminal disease,'\" Annat said her mother told her. Annat is also taking the situation in stride. \"It's a very, very sad story but I've been through worse,\" she told Army Radio. \"It's a matter of proportions in life ... people need to know how to accept the good and the bad in life.\"","highlights":"Israeli woman loses $1M as daughter dumps mattress containing life savings .\nSecurity increased at city dump in Tel Aviv as search under way for mattress .\nPublicity has triggered wave of people trying to find mattress and its contents .","id":"0d34ca0b3a7d9ba25d9f4e0189cf116597f94a02"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A massive fire engulfed the four-story offices of a major film company in central London on Friday, sending clouds of white smoke over the city skyline, the London fire department said. Streets in London were cordoned off while firefighters tackled the blaze. Two firefighters were taken to the hospital with minor injuries as a result of the blaze in the Future Films building on Dean Street in the city's Soho district, London ambulance services said. The London Fire Brigade dispatched 12 engines and 55 firefighters to battle the fire, which began before 2 p.m. (9 a.m. ET). As a result, an adjacent street -- the W1 -- has been closed to traffic and pedestrians. When reached by CNN, Future Films founder and managing director Stephen Margolis had no comment about the fire. Future Films has been involved in the production of more than 120 films since Margolis created the company in 2000, including \"Bend it like Beckham\" (2002), \"The Importance of Being Earnest\" (2002), and \"Transsiberian\" (2008). CNN's Per Nyberg and Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.","highlights":"Streets sealed off around London blaze .\nSmoke seen billowing over British capital .\nSoho a popular nightlife district .","id":"de634b661f1789437a8d98c819cac004aedc546c"} -{"article":"DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) -- It's a stimulus plan on sneakers. The NCAA men's Final Four at Detroit's Ford Field could generate $30 million to $50 million from visitors. The NCAA men's basketball Final Four couldn't come at a better time for the city of Detroit -- the hard-hit capital of the U.S. auto industry at the center of the state of Michigan's economic woes. The 12-percent unemployment rate here is the highest in the nation, and with the Big Three automakers all needing multibillion-dollar government bailouts in an attempt to stay afloat, the future isn't much brighter, some say. \"We need some help,\" said Detroit resident Mark Franklin, who took his 5-year-old son to Friday's Hershey's College All-Star Game at Ford Field. \"There are too many people out of work already. Even if you have a job, you know someone who doesn't.\" Enter the Final Four and a quartet of powerhouse college basketball teams -- all seeking NCAA brass. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have won a combined nine NCAA championships and reached 31 Final Fours. But more important to the city are the visitors -- and the wallets -- that college basketball's marquee weekend will bring to Detroit. City leaders expect 100,000 fans to visit -- staying in hotel rooms, renting cars and spending an anticipated $30 million to $50 million. The participation of Michigan State adds icing on the cake. The school's campus sits just 90 miles away, in East Lansing, giving the Spartans a home-floor advantage as they give locals some added pride on a special weekend. MSU helped things along mightily by advancing to the finals Saturday, defeating Connecticut 82-73. In the national championship game, the Spartans will play North Carolina, 83-69 victors over Villanova later Saturday. More than half the Michigan State players are from in-state and many have felt the impact of the region's economic woes. \"I have family that are unemployed right now,\" said sophomore guard Durrell Summers, who starred at Detroit's Redford Covenant High School. \"[For the Final Four] to bring that kind of money in, hopefully it can help open up jobs for my family and for other families because some people got laid off for no reason.\" Watch Elaine Quijano's report on a GM dealer's perspective . Detroit's first Final Four is the latest in a series of big sporting events for the city. The Pistons have hosted a pair of NBA Finals in suburban Auburn Hills, while the NHL's Red Wings have won two Stanley Cups at downtown Joe Louis Arena. Baseball's Tigers have played in a World Series and its home, Comerica Park, hosted an MLB All-Star game. This weekend's host venue, Ford Field, was the site of Super Bowl XL and Oakland Hills Country Club was home to the 2004 Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship last August in nearby Bloomfield Hills. This is the first year of a new stadium configuration for the Final Four, requiring host domes to use all permanent seating to meet a 70,000-seat minimum. \"You see people driving up just to take a picture of the Final Four sign on (Ford Field). It's something to be proud of,\" Franklin said. \"Now we need city leaders to take advantage of it.\"","highlights":"NEW: Michigan State, North Carolina to vie for national title .\nMen's Final Four couldn't come at a better time for hard-hit capital of the auto industry .\nDetroit's jobless rate is highest in nation, and auto industry bailouts bode ill for future .\nThe participation of nearby Michigan State in the event adds icing on the cake .","id":"ef95fc0296d57bc9ce20b2578c64dc53c8d5c7dd"} -{"article":"STANFORD, California (CNN) -- Students and professors at Stanford University are protesting Donald Rumsfeld's appointment to a campus think tank, saying the former defense secretary does not uphold the \"ethical values\" of the school. Donald Rumsfeld has been appointed to the Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University. Shortly after Rumsfeld's appointment was announced in September, professor Pamela Lee began an online petition from faculty members opposed to bringing him to the Hoover Institution. Since then, the petition has gained more than 3,500 signatures, including nearly 300 faculty members from such diverse disciplines as law, computer science, electrical engineering and drama. \"We view the appointment as fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested inquiry, respect for national and international laws, and care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed,\" the petition reads. \"As word of the letter got out, my inbox was flooded with messages from professors, students, staff and alumni asking to sign on,\" said Lee, a professor of art history. The petition's signers include hundreds of Stanford students in addition to the faculty. \"He's a war criminal,\" said Sam Dubal, one petitioner, who also created a Facebook group called \"Rumsfeld -- You Are Not Welcome at Stanford!\" \"He's not worthy as an established member of Stanford,\" Dubal said. Despite the protests, school officials say that it is well within the Hoover Institution's right to appoint Rumsfeld. \"There are lots of temporary appointments made around the university,\" said Jeff Wachtel, special assistant to Stanford president John Hennessy. \"Departments have the right to invite people to campus in a variety of capacities.\" Rumsfeld's one-year appointment as Distinguished Visiting Fellow places him on a task force on terrorism and ideology. He will be joined by current Hoover Fellow George Schultz, secretary of state under Ronald Reagan. Despite being housed in a tower on the center of campus, Hoover has only loose affiliation with the university. Meanwhile, supporters of Rumsfeld's appointment say that his presence on campus will help foster academic dialogue and fuel positive political discourse. The outcry against Rumsfeld follows last April's attempt by President Bush to visit campus. Bush planned to meet with Fellows at the Hoover Institution but was blocked by protesters. His meeting was later moved to Schultz's nearby house. \"Many of us believe that Donald Rumsfeld, in his role as secretary of defense, has behaved in ways that are dishonorable, disgraceful and always disingenuous,\" said Dr. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology. \"Rumsfeld authorized a list of interrogation methods that violated the Geneva Convention and the Convention against Torture used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay ... and Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison,\" said Zimbardo, whose most recent book, \"The Lucifer Effect,\" finds that given the right \"situational\" influences, anyone can be made to participate in violent and depraved acts. Lee said her position does not discourage debate or public exchange of ideas. \"Let me stress that the petition objects to Rumsfeld's appointment as Distinguished Visiting Fellow, an appointment we find without merit,\" Lee said. \"In fact, there is nothing in the language of the petition that says Mr. Rumsfeld is forbidden to air his views at Stanford or is not welcome for a public lecture or open forum.\" But not everyone disagrees with the appointment. \"Personally I disagree with his politics,\" said Brett Hammon, a political science major. \"But at the same time, I'm not sure I think it would be prudent for the university to refuse hiring him just because most students disagree with his politics. I know I would hate it if I went to school in Texas and the university refused to hire a prominent liberal politician just because most of the student body was conservative.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Stanford: Well within the Hoover Institution's right to appoint Rumsfeld .\nRumsfeld will spend a year as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow .\nOpposition: Online petition has been signed by more than 3,500 .","id":"1575b45f1e266d73d487a3811613cc517ac24a11"} -{"article":"BAYAMON, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took their campaigns to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico on Saturday in an effort to woo voters before the June 1 primary. There are 55 Democratic delegates up for grabs, though voters cannot take part in the general election in November. Obama campaigned early Saturday at the University of Puerto Rico in Bayamon, where he praised the nation's veterans before Memorial Day. \"It's fitting to be here today, not just because Memorial Day is around the corner but because Puerto Ricans are such an important part of the United States military. On this island and in Puerto Rican neighborhoods across America, you can go into almost any home and find a veteran living there or a photograph of a loved one in uniform hanging on the wall,\" he said. Obama also took aim at Republican Sen. John McCain over his opposition to an update of the GI Bill. The legislation passed the Senate on Thursday afternoon by a 75-22 vote and passed the House this month by a similar margin. It proposes to essentially provide a full scholarship to in-state public universities for members of the military who have served for at least three years. \"I don't understand why John McCain would side with George Bush and oppose our plan to make college more affordable for our veterans. ... Putting a college degree within reach for our veterans isn't being too generous; it's the least we can do for our heroes,\" Obama said. Shortly after Obama's remarks, the McCain campaign hit back. \"Barack Obama talks about helping veterans, but when the choice came between delivering for our military men and women and playing partisan politics, he decided politics was more important,\" McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Saturday. Later Saturday, Obama marched along a street in San Juan, shaking hands with supporters as he walked in front of a banner that said \"Puerto Rico Con Obama.\" This event was referred to as a \"caminata,\" a traditional parade for a candidate. Obama remarked to the crowd, \"I will never forget the support and the friendship that I've seen here in Puerto Rico. ... I am absolutely confident that if that we keep on working hard, there's no reason why we can't win here in Puerto Rico, and if we win Puerto Rico, we will win the nomination.\" Clinton hosted a \"Solutions for Puerto Rico's Families\" town hall meeting in Aguadilla on Saturday. The former first lady may not have understood the language during her first campaign stop in Puerto Rico, but she certainly understood the politics. Before a crowd of a few hundred Puerto Ricans in a muggy high school gym, Clinton pledged to make it a \"personal priority\" to resolve the statehood issue before the end of her first term. She also vowed to clean up the former Navy testing ranges on Vieques, fund the famous Arecibo radio telescope, use federal dollars to put more cops on the streets and extend tax breaks to Puerto Rican companies. Clinton made each of those promises in English, abandoning a translator early on, despite the growing din among distracted audience members who couldn't understand the full content of her stump speech. Still, enthusiastic supporters hoisted signs like \"Puertorriquenos con Hillary\" and \"Hillary Presidenta\" while chants of \"Hillary! Hillary!\" filled the room. Despite in the language barrier, Clinton seemed to be on familiar ground. She recalled a visit she made to the island in 1998 on behalf of her husband to inspect damage from Hurricane Georges. She also reminded the audience that she represents more than one million Puerto Ricans in New York; this week in Florida, she jokingly referred to herself as \"the senator from Puerto Rico.\" Clinton has done well among Hispanic voters in this year's primaries, and she is expected to have similar success in Puerto Rico. On Thursday, Clinton sent daughter Chelsea to campaign in Puerto Rico, a sign that she is refusing to give up the race despite the delegate math in favor of her rival. According to CNN's latest estimate, Obama leads Clinton in total delegates, 1,969 to 1,779. However, Obama does not have enough delegates to secure the nomination outright. He has 1,962 delegates, including superdelegates, short of the 2,026 needed to secure the nomination, according to CNN estimates. Obama was in Florida on Friday courting the Cuban vote, a bloc that has tended to vote Republican in past elections. With a 70 percent turnout rate, Cuban-Americans have been a powerful force in Florida and thus, because of Florida's role as a swing state, national politics. He told Florida's Cuban-American community Friday that his Cuba policy would be based on liberty and freedom for the island nation's people. Watch more of Obama's comments \u00bb . \"My policy toward Cuba will be guided by one word: 'libertad,' \" he said, using the Spanish word for liberty at an event celebrating Cuban Independence Day in Miami, Florida. CNN's Ed Hornick, Chris Welch, Peter Hamby and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton vows to resolve statehood issue at town hall meeting in Aguadilla .\nPuerto Rico holds Democratic primary June 1; 55 delegates at stake .\nObama praises military veterans at the University of Puerto Rico .\nObama holds march in Bayamon .","id":"64398eaebb2d2a9fc553b501277ecaf7288a0639"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spurred by the continuing political unrest in Iran, more than two dozen Iranian expatriate superstars are uniting to spread a musical message of non-violent resistance. Neda Agha-Soltan was gunned down on a Tehran street on June 20. The entertainers, poets, thinkers and actors are harmonizing on the song \"United for Neda,\" a call to action against human rights violations by the Iranian government against Iranians protesting the disputed outcome of recent presidential elections. The song was inspired by the plight of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year old Iranian woman who was fatally shot on the streets of Tehran on June 20. The ordeal was recorded on cell phone video and received international attention when it hit the Internet. \"When I saw links to Neda being shot, it was so disturbing to me,\" said Iranian-British recording artist Mams Taylor, who wrote and produced the song. \"It hurt me, angered me and touched me at the same time, to think that these people are so courageous to go and seek their freedom,\" said Taylor. While her death became a rallying point for justice, her name, \"Neda,\" in Farsi means \"the call\/calling\" or \"voice\" -- a voice many people say cannot be muted. \"The saga is still going on in Iran, and all we can do is carry on and echo their voice,\" said Shoreh Aghdashloo, the Oscar-nominated actress from \"House of Sand and Fog\" who sang in the production. The video, much like the post-election protests, was a spontaneous response. From the studio to the street rallies in Los Angeles, California, the entire music video was filmed using a cell phone. \"With the big media ban and restrictions over there, we thought to commemorate and pay homage to what the protesters are doing over there,\" said Taylor. \"So we thought it would be appropriate to develop the video in the same kind of light.\" Watch the video and hear the song \u00bb . The song was recorded in both English and Farsi to reach Western and Iranian audiences. The English version of the video has drawn thousands of viewers since its YouTube release last week. The Farsi version of the song will be released Thursday. Iranian actress Shila Vosough played a key role in bringing the artists together. \"These artists all came together despite their varying political views,\" she said. \"They united, hand-in-hand, to send the kids in Iran a message of their love and support.\" The political upheaval of the late 1970s forced many Iranian musicians, artists, actors and entertainers like Vosough into exile. Many of them left unwillingly, not knowing when or if they would ever return to Iran. \"I came to New York for a performance 32 years ago and have never been back to Iran since,\" said Iranian vocalist Sattar, who also sang in the video. Sattar, who has millions of fans around the world, wants the Iranian people to know their voices are being heard. \"As an artist, I see this as my responsibility -- to support Iranians with my songs and music,\" said Sattar, a one-time favorite of the Pahlavi royal family in Iran. In 1979, at the dawn of the Islamic Republic under much popular Western music was outlawed as \"un-Islamic.\" For years, Iranians have been forced to make music underground, buying or swapping on the black market or downloading from the Internet. \"Music is a very powerful tool. It can move people and mobilize them around a cause, and this can be very threatening for leaders who want to silence the voices of their people,\" said Iranian singer Dariush. Dariush has been singing about love, peace, freedom and justice for the Iranian people since before he left 30 years ago. \"I encourage other musicians to come join the cause against human rights violations in Iran and other places around the world,\" said Dariush. Female singers were also banned after the revolution. For decades female vocalists like Googoosh, one of the most celebrated pop divas in Iran, were silenced and forbidden to perform or record in Iran. In 2000, Googoosh left Iran. Shortly afterward, she made a comeback on the international stage, performing in front of sold-out crowds at venues around the world. Her latest release, \"Man Hamoon Iranam,\" or \"I Am the Same Iran,\" is also dedicated to the young Iranians who died in the unrest. Scores of musicians have tuned into the cause, showing support both in performance and on the Internet. Just last week in Barcelona, Spain, the band U2 dedicated the song \"Sunday Bloody Sunday\" to the Iranian people and performed under a green-lit banner as Farsi lyrics scrolled up the screen. The opposition in Iran has adopted green as its unifying color. Other Iran-related videos that went viral on YouTube are the remake of \"Stand By Me\" by Iranian singer Andy and American rockers Bon Jovi; Joan Baez's \"We Shall Overcome\" tribute; and Wyclef Jean's performance of \"Equal Rights and Justice.\" \"I hope the Iranians realize that here in the West there are people supporting and backing their movement to seek freedom, and we would like to motivate them to keep going,\" said Mams Taylor. \"The world has lost many Nedas, most of them the world will never know,\" said Dariush. \"There are many Nedas out there whose voices can't be heard, there are Nedas in prisons that are being tortured, there are Nedas screaming in the streets --walking the fine line between life and death everyday. But she has become the symbol for all of them.\"","highlights":"Mams Taylor, other artists join together to produce \"United for Neda\"\nSong is one of support for the Iranian people in wake of crackdown .\n\"House of Sand and Fog\" actress was another participant .\nOther Iran-related videos have gone viral on YouTube .","id":"fe35d5f5d14b984a9af59b256a0df017ededc335"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pregnant women in Peru are dying at scandalous rates, according to the author of an Amnesty International report into maternal mortality in the South American country. The report, \"Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru\" found that hundreds of poor, rural and indigenous pregnant women are dying because they are being denied the same health services as other women in the country. It also concluded that the government's response to tackling the problem was inadequate. Peruvian government figures state 185 in every 100,000 women die in childbirth, but the United Nations says the number is much higher, 240 per 100,000, which makes it one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas. In wealthy developed nations, only nine women die for every 100,000 births. The five main causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Peru are hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, infection, complications following abortion and obstructed birth, according to Peru's Ministry of Health figures. Amnesty's Peru researcher Nuria Garcia said, in a written statement: \"The rates of maternal mortality in Peru are scandalous. The fact that so many women are dying from preventable causes is a human rights violation. \"The Peruvian state is simply ignoring its obligation to provide adequate maternal health care to all women, regardless of who they are and where they live.\" Garcia added: \"Health services for pregnant women in Peru are like a lottery: If you are poor and indigenous, the chances are you will always lose.\" The report said pregnant women in Peru die because they lack access to emergency obstetric care, to information on maternal health, and to health staff members who can speak Indigenous languages such as Quechua -- a native Andean language spoken by some 5 million people in Peru. According to the report, 27 percent of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes occurred during pregnancy; 26 percent occurred during the birth itself; and 46 percent during the first six weeks after giving birth. A 2007 Census of Indigenous People showed that 60 percent did not have access to a health facility, said Amnesty International. The Amnesty International report notes that the Peruvian government has instituted policies aimed at reducing the rates of maternal mortality, such as increasing maternal waiting houses -- rooms where pregnant women who live far from health centers can stay. Other measures include more training for health staff members on the vertical birth method common among indigenous women and teaching the Quiche language to health professionals, Amnesty International said. But the human rights group said Peruvian women and health professionals have complained that the measures are not being implemented effectively. For example, the rights group said, even though the number of waiting houses has increased more than threefold in the past eight years, only half of them are in rural areas. The agency also contends that training for health professionals on the vertical birth method is not sufficiently widespread. According to Peru's Human Rights ombudsperson, more than 45 percent of health staff last year said they had not received appropriate training, Amnesty International said. \"Official initiatives to reduce maternal mortality are good news,\" Garcia said. \"However, lack of clear responsibilities for implementing them and the absence of effective resourcing and monitoring puts any initiative in great jeopardy.\" Though Peru's rate of maternal deaths is high, it pales in comparison to sub-Saharan Africa, which has about 900 deaths for each 100,000 births, the United Nations says. For Africa as a whole, the number is 820. The highest rates were in Sierra Leone, with 2,000, and Afghanistan, with 1,900. Latin America and the Caribbean average 130 deaths per 100,000 births, the United Nations says, with the lowest rates in Chile, Costa Rica and Cuba. Worldwide, there were an average of 400 deaths for each 100,000 births in the year 2000, the United Nations says. The lowest rates were in Iceland, with zero, and Austria, with four per 100,000 births. The United States had 11 deaths per 100,000 births in 2005, the United Nations says. CNN's Stephanie Busari contributed to this report.","highlights":"Amnesty's Peru researcher: Maternal rates in Peru for poor are \"scandalous\"\nResearcher: Services like \"lottery,\" for poor and \"chances are you will always lose\"\nMaternal mortality rate one of the highest in the Americas .\nReport: Peru has made positive changes, but more help needed in rural areas .","id":"5e37bb61bd84940334e05f1e242b826f4e9ff9a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Millions of people around the world have taken part in ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement. Scouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society. Dawn celebrations involving 28 million young people took place across the globe, from Ecuador to Bhutan. In southern England, 40,000 young people from around the globe gathered to take part in the largest ever 12-day world Scout Jamboree. The island where the movement was born, Brownsea Island off the coast of England, has been the focus of celebrations, with 300 scouts from more than 160 countries attending a commemorative camp. It was on that site that Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp for 20 boys, following his experiences in the Army during the Boer War. The movement requests its members, boys and girls from the age of six, to uphold values such as trustworthiness, loyalty and to \"do their best\". Scouts from countries including the UK, Lebanon, Nepal, Rwanda, Serbia, Libya and Argentina, displayed their flags on the island, before taking part in a sunrise ceremony. In Romania, scouts formed a human chain around the Parliament building in the capital Bucharest to express how young people will play a role in the country's future. In Namibia, Africa, around 1,000 scouts cooked breakfast over a camp fire, and groups from Malawi camped at the top of Mulanje mountain. The Taj Mahal in India, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Sydney Opera House in Australia also witnessed sunrise ceremonies. The small gathering at Brownsea Island led the rest of the globe in renewing their Scouting promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society. A speech written by Baden-Powell during the first scout camp was also read out to the group. It includes a call for peace, comradeship and cooperation over rivalry between \"classes, creeds and countries which have done so much in the past to produce wars and unrest\". Alistair, 16, from Manchester, at the Brownsea Island ceremony, said: \"It has made me think how one man has changed the world. \"It is one world, one promise. We are all here as peace ambassadors. We are the next generation. We are the ones bringing peace forward into the world,\" he told the Press Association. Ana Mejia, 14, from Honduras, added: \"It doesn't matter what our nationality, our religion, our color, we are a family and we have to support each other. Baden-Powell's book \"Scouting for Boys\" is the fourth biggest selling book in the world after the Bible, the Koran and Mao's Little Red Book. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"At least 28 million scouts across the world took part in sunrise ceremonies .\nScouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society .\nStarted by Robert Baden-Powell it upholds values such as trust and loyalty .","id":"d75bcd3efea1dd1c71cee1b39b4a6e3883a372ba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has defended the UK's involvement in the war in Afghanistan following the British Army's bloodiest day of the near eight-year conflict. Soldiers from the Welsh Guards carry the coffin of Maj Sean Birchall, killed on patrol in Afghanistan in June. Addressing lawmakers on Monday, Brown said the security of Afghanistan was crucial to preventing terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world. \"In 2009 the case for our continued involvement is the same: to prevent terrorist attacks in Britain and across the world by dealing with the terrorist threat at its source -- that crucible of terror on the border and mountain areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan,\" Brown told the House of Commons. \"I am confident that we are right to be in Afghanistan, that we have the strongest plan and the resources to do the job.\" Brown also rejected suggestions that British troops, who are fighting alongside other coalition and Afghan forces in Helmand province, are dying unnecessarily because they do not have enough helicopters -- leaving them vunerable to ambush because they have to travel by road. See a map of Helmand province \u00bb . \"It's a sad fact that helicopters would not have saved the lives of the individuals last week,\" he said, citing Lt. Col. Nick Richardson, a British military spokesman in Afghanistan. \"British armed forces are better equipped today than at any time... in the past 40 years. In the last two years we have increased helicopter numbers by 60 percent and... capacity by 84 percent.\" But opposition leader David Cameron argued that helicopter capacity in Afghanistan has not risen as fast as troop levels. \"Isn't the real point this, that the number of troops has doubled since 2006, so proportionally there hasn't really been in increase in helicopter capacity at all?\" the leader of the Conservative Party demanded. The former chief of the defense staff, Charles Guthrie, \"has said more helicopters would save lives,\" Cameron said. The United Kingdom has been shocked by the deaths of 15 troops in 10 days, including eight in a 24-hour period. Watch profiles of six British soldiers killled in Afghanistan on the same day \u00bb . The eight dead are the largest number of British troops killed in a single day since the Falklands war between the UK and Argentina in 1982. Watch a gallery of Britain mourning its fallen in Afghanistan \u00bb . \"If we cannot move our forces by air, they are more vulnerable on the ground,\" Conservative defense spokesman Liam Fox said Monday, asking if the Labour government had made a mistake by cutting the helicopter budget in 2004. Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth dismissed the criticism. British forces are \"taking on the Taliban in one of their heartland areas,\" he told lawmakers. \"That kind of \"hand-to-hand fighting... cannot be conducted from inside a highly armored vehicle and it cannot be conducted from a helicopter.\" Ainsworth said more helicopters were on the way, but that many operations \"cannot be conducted from helicopters.\" On Monday the Stop the War Coalition, which has campaigned against British involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, urged Brown to withdraw all British troops from Afghanistan, calling the conflict \"an unwinnable and unjustified war.\" \"We urge the British government to end now this futile war which, if continued, will only mean more wasted lives of British soldiers, countless deaths of Afghan civilians and further devastation of a country that has suffered from decades of war and occupation,\" the group said in a statement.","highlights":"Gordon Brown: Afghanistan campaign crucial to preventing terror attacks .\nBrown rejects charge UK troops killed because of lack of helicopters .\nUK shocked by deaths of 15 troops in 10 days including 8 in one day .\nUK forces have joined with U.S., Afghan troops in offensive in Helmand .","id":"6ecee08cedc18ee2a9b172237c340cd6526394eb"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Coordinated attacks in at least eight Mexican cities killed three federal police officers and two soldiers Saturday in what officials are calling an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs. Attacks occurred after arrest of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana. Another 18 federal officers were wounded, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing federal police official Rodolfo Cruz Lopez. The attacks were in retribution for the capture early Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacan Family), Notimex reported. Rueda is considered second in command to the group's two top leaders, Nazario \"El Chayo\" Moreno Gonz\u00e1lez and Jos\u00e9 \" El Chango\" de Jes\u00fas M\u00e9ndez Vargas, acting as a \"right arm\" to Moreno, the secretary of public security said Saturday in a statement. Among other allegations, he was arrested for his role in designing the hierarchy of the organization, the production of synthetic drugs and movement of marijuana and cocaine to the United States, said Mexico's secretary of public security. Rueda was arrested along with a 17-year-old male who worked for him. Following his arrest Saturday morning in Morelia, Michoacan, men armed with high-powered rifles and grenades attacked the police station where he was being held, the Secretary of Public Security said. After failing to win his freedom, members of the group launched attacks in the cities of Morelia, Zitacuaro, Zamora, Lazaro Cardenas, Apatzingan, La Piedad and Huetamo in Michoacan state, Notimex news said, citing federal police. The three officers were killed in Zitacuaro, police official Eduardo Moran told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol, while six police officers were reported wounded in Morelia. Two soldiers were killed in Zamora, shot by men in a passing car as they walked to their headquarters. The Secretary of Public Security told the newspaper Cambio de Michoacan that 25 spent shells from an R-15 rifle and 17 from an AK-47 were found at the scene. Michoacan is in west-central Mexico, on the Pacific coast. Another rifle and grenade attack took place near Acapulco in Guerrero state, which borders Michoacan, but no one was injured. Saturday's attacks came just days after a drug gang in Tijuana declared they were at war with police, threatening to kill five officers every week until Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns. The threat was made in a note found on the windshield of a slain officer's car, news reports said. At least three Tijuana officers have been killed since Monday, reports said. Leyzaola, a former army colonel, replaced a police chief removed from office in December after receiving numerous threats. \"Leyzaola has become the poster boy for honest police work, which has put the drug gangs on notice,\" Vicente Calderon, a reporter for the Tijuana Press news agency, told CNN affiliate KUSI. \"They believe he is serious, that he means business and is trying to re-establish the rule of law that has been affecting the city and whole state for many years since organized crime established themselves in Baja [California].\" Tijuana, the westernmost city in Mexico, is across the border from San Diego, California. Sixteen police officers have died there in 2009, and officers are now patrolling the city in groups of six, KUSI reported. CNN's Emanuella Grinberg and Monica Trevino contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gang targets police station where Arnoldo Rueda Medina was being held .\nAttacks were reprisals for capture of member of La Familia gang .\nSeries of coordinated attacks in at least eight cities kills 3 federal officers, 2 soldiers .\nOfficials call the coordinated attacks an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs .","id":"7e73a1a5ba6e63f1378ec65e004c67485fe4bc72"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq awarded a lucrative oil contract to BP and China National Petroleum Corp., government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Wednesday, while rejecting other companies' offers for other oil fields. BP and China National Petroleum Corporation have won a lucrative oil contract in Iraq. The joint BP-CNPC bid was for the al-Rumeila oil field, one of the largest in the world. The energy companies are expected to increase production at the oil field by 50 percent, to 285,000 barrels a day, for a service charge of $2 for each additional barrel produced, al-Dabbagh said in a statement. The Iraqi government rejected bids for five other oil fields and a natural gas field because the bidders did not agree to the service charge set by the Ministry of Oil, he said. The Ministry of Oil rejected the idea that the failure to award more than one contract made the much-anticipated auction a flop. Iraq did not say how much the BP-CNPC bid was worth. It runs for 20 years. Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani chaired the government-sponsored auction for the oil and natural gas field contracts Tuesday, after a day's delay due to a sandstorm. Much of the auction was broadcast live on state television, which Ministry of Oil spokesman Assem Jihad told CNN was a sign of the transparency of the process. He said the government was satisfied with the auction, even though only one contract was awarded, because the contract was for Iraq's largest oil field. Iraq plans to open bidding this year on 10 more oil fields and one natural gas field, all of which are undeveloped, Jihad said. The companies whose bids were rejected Tuesday have been given time to review their offers, he said. Iraq has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 115 billion barrels -- tying Iran for second place, behind Saudi Arabia's 264 billion barrels, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration in the United States. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraq awards lucrative oil contract to BP, China National Petroleum Corporation .\nThe joint BP-CNPC bid was for the giant al-Rumeila oil field .\nEnergy companies expected to increase production at the field by 50 percent .","id":"1bb5fdac0723b40b3106dec44e8deac3a19a7655"} -{"article":"HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The president of The Valley Swim Club on Friday strongly denied charges of racism after his club canceled the swimming privileges of a nearby day care center whose children are predominantly African-American. John Duesler said he underestimated the number of swimmers who would come to swim at the club. \"It was never our intention to offend anyone,\" said John Duesler. \"This thing has been blown out of proportion.\" Duesler said his club -- which he called \"very diverse\" -- invited camps in the Philadelphia area to use his facility because of the number of pools in the region closed due to budget cuts this summer. He said he underestimated the amount of children who would participate, and the club's capacity to take on the groups was not up to the task. \"It was a safety issue,\" he said. The Creative Steps Day Care children -- who are in kindergarten through seventh grade -- went to The Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley on June 29 after the center's director, Alethea Wright, had contracted to use the club once a week. During their first visit, some children said they heard club members asking why African-American children were there. One youngster told a Philadelphia television station a woman there said she feared the children \"might do something\" to her child. Watch Wright react to comments allegedly aimed at the children \u00bb . Days later, the day care center's $1,950 check was returned without explanation, Wright said. She was dismissive of Duesler's comments Friday. \"He knows what happened at the pool that day,\" Wright told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I was embarrassed and humiliated.\" She called it an \"unfortunate situation,\" adding, \"I know what happened; the members know what happened and a higher power knows what happened.\" Watch the club president say racism is not at play \u00bb . After news reports of the incident, the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) said Specter sent a letter to the club president asking him to reinstate the contract with Creative Steps, saying, \"I think that you would agree that there is no place for racism in America today.\" Duesler said he appreciates the senator's concern, but the club's board has yet to make a decision of how it will proceed. \"If we're going to revise our policies here, we need to make it so for all the camps,\" he said. \"I just don't think we're prepared for that.\" Duesler earlier in the week told two Philadelphia television stations the children had changed \"the complexion\" and \"atmosphere\" of the club, a comment that protesters outside the facility Thursday said showed that racism was involved. Bernice Duesler, John Duesler's wife, called the negative response her husband has faced since the incident \"unbearable.\" \"He's not one of the good guys -- he's one of the great guys,\" she said, holding back tears. \"He doesn't deserve this.\" She added, \"If there really was a racial issue that happened, my husband and I would be the first one[s] picketing.\" Jim Flynn, who said he was one of the club members who made a complaint against the children, told CNN this week it was not racially motivated. \"There were a lot of children in the pool and not enough lifeguards,\" he said. \"As general members we were not told that they were coming. If we knew, we could decide to not come when the pool was crowded or come anyway. We could have had an option.\" He also said invitations to two other day care centers, neither of which contained minority children, had previously been withdrawn. Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding school, told CNN on Thursday it would offer Creative Steps Day Care use of its facilities this summer.","highlights":"Swim club president John Duesler: \"It was never our intention to offend anyone\"\n\"He knows what happened at the pool that day,\" day care director counters .\nDuesler: Club is \"very diverse,\" and had reached out because area pools had closed .\nDuesler says club's board has yet to decide whether to reinstate center's contract .","id":"6aceacc8e5071e66bf7200e9937648f393f074a0"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican officials said they have identified two suspects in this week's slayings of two Americans in northern Mexico. Mourners carry the coffin of Benjamin LeBaron, 32, on Thursday in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. A security camera at a toll booth near the municipality of Galeana captured images of the suspects, Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez said Thursday, the state-run Notimex news agency reported. Gonzalez declined to name the suspects, other than to say they belong to a crime organization known as \"La Linea\" (The Line). The toll booth cameras show four trucks or sport utility vehicles in which 12 suspects were riding, she said. No arrests had been reported by Friday. Benjamin LeBaron, 32, and his brother-in-law, Luis Widmar, who was in his mid-30s, were beaten and shot to death after armed men stormed into their home Tuesday morning in Galeana. Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua attorney general's office, said earlier this week that a note was found on LeBaron's body but he could not confirm the contents. Local media reported the note indicated the slayings were in retribution for the capture of 25 drug suspects in a nearby town. LeBaron's younger brother, Eric, was kidnapped in May and returned unharmed a week later. The kidnapping prompted LeBaron to become a nationally recognized anti-crime activist who moved the local community to take a stand. \"There are no leaders here, or we are all leaders,\" LeBaron's brother Julian LeBaron told CNN affiliate KINT-TV in El Paso, Texas, this week. \"If they kill my brother, another three will take his place. And if they kill us, another hundred will take their place. We are not giving up. No way.\" The LeBaron brothers belonged to the \"Community of LeBaron\" in the municipality of Galeana, a township founded by ex-communicated Mormons. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gunmen killed Benjamin LeBaron and brother-in-law this week in northern Mexico .\nSecurity camera at toll booth captured images of two suspects, news agency says .\nNo arrests have been reported in the Americans' slayings .\nNote reportedly found that says killings were retribution for drug arrests .","id":"a4f7954eb2cb832e363a878ccf21599d667d705a"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board, a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular contributor to CNN.com. Read his column here. Ruben Navarrette Jr. says President Felipe Calderon's war on drugs remains a noble battle for the soul of Mexico. SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- It has nothing to do with Michael Jackson or Sarah Palin, but there's a big story brewing south of the border to which Americans should pay close attention. Like a monster that refuses to die, Mexico's once-disgraced Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, made a convincing comeback in last weekend's midterm elections. The PRI recaptured its majority in the 500-member Chamber of Deputies and won five of six governorships up for grabs. The rival National Action Party, or PAN, which had controlled the legislative branch since 2000, suffered heavy losses. German Martinez, president of the PAN, resigned this week after taking responsibility for the electoral failures. Political observers on both sides of the border are calling the elections results a no-confidence vote in the Mexican economy and a significant rebuke to President Felipe Calderon's admirable but all-consuming war against the drug cartels. Calderon -- who is in the PAN -- is halfway through a six-year term, so he wasn't on the ballot. The presidency is next on the ballot in 2012, and observers think that the fact that the PRI aced its midterms sets the party up nicely to accomplish something that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago: retake the top job that it held for much of the 20th century -- 71 years, to be precise -- through corruption and intimidation. In 2000, the PAN's Vicente Fox broke that streak and reintroduced democracy in Mexico. Calderon squeaked out a narrow victory against a third-party candidate in 2006. The Harvard-educated lawyer and economist immediately and bravely took the fight to drug lords across the country, unleashing the military in a conflict that has so far killed more than 10,000 Mexicans with no end in sight. And there are now serious issues -- as spelled out this week in The Washington Post -- involving allegations of torture, forced disappearances and other abuse by the Mexican military as it seeks to retaliate for the killing of soldiers and other terrorist acts committed by the drug cartels. The Obama administration, which has pledged to support Calderon's drug war, would no doubt like to put an end to this alleged behavior before paying out the remainder of the $1.4 billion in aid to Mexico that Congress approved in the Merida Initiative. The trouble is that President Obama has been reluctant to make human rights demands of an adversary such as Iran, which could make it hard to lean on a friend such as Mexico. And as Mexican human rights activists point out, the U.S. government is in a difficult position to preach against torture given that it is accused of using it in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Still, Calderon's war remains a noble battle for the soul of Mexico. And there's evidence that the drug cartels are feeling the pinch. Unable to move their product to customers in Canada and the United States, the cartels are growing desperate. The Calderon government is seizing so much of the product and arresting or killing so many drug traffickers, that profits are slipping. The drug lords are forced to import more guns from the United States at higher prices and channel more drug shipments to Mexican customers, who pay lower prices than the cartels could charge Americans if the drugs were making their way north. This is bad news for the traffickers. But it's great news for the Mexican people, even if they don't know it. Judging from reports in the Mexican press, many Mexicans -- while supportive of the drug war -- think it ultimately will fail, and they're tired of the violence. Many fault Calderon for, in a popular metaphor, \"stirring the hornet's nest.\" Meanwhile, although the PRI didn't explicitly campaign on a platform of being anti-drug war, the implied message was that returning the party to power could return tranquillity and security to Mexico. Good luck with that, amigos. Guess what? The hornets aren't going back in the nest. Calderon should get to the bottom of allegations of military abuse and punish any offenders. But he should also press ahead. And, if the PRI tries to get in the way by, say, limiting the resources to fight the drug war, then Calderon should paint the party as trying to appease the cartels at the expense of Mexico. The PRI was so preoccupied with gaining power as it did in the past that it forgot that what leadership is really about is taking responsibility for the future. Here's its chance.","highlights":"Mexican leader Felipe Calderon may face defeat in 2012 after PRI makes comeback .\nSome Mexicans fault Calderon for stirring up violence with war on drugs .\nCalderon should address problems and press ahead, Ruben Navarrette Jr. says .\nEvidence points to drug traffickers feeling the pinch, Navarrette says .","id":"13b77262a366cda65873a76cdd6a2946429b4456"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The investigation of the E. coli outbreak linked to Nestle Toll House cookie dough is nearly over, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The cause of the contamination has not been identified. Nestle recalled all its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products made at a Danville, Virginia, plant. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, says the samples of cookie dough his agency has tested do not contain the E. coli strain that sickened 74 people in 32 states. On June 19, Nestle recalled all its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products made at a Danville, Virginia, plant. Thirty-four people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported. The CDC reports that the majority of the patients were teenage girls who reported eating the cookie dough raw. Last month, the FDA found E. coli in a production sample of Toll House cookie dough, but after testing, investigators found that the strain in the sample did not match the outbreak strain. \"We are still in speculation mode,\" Acheson said, but the E. coli \"most likely came from raw ingredients\" such as flour. The E.coli strain that caused the outbreak, 0157:H7, is typically found in fecal contamination from animals such as cows, sheep or goats. Acheson points out that it's not unusual for those animals to be carrying more than one strain of the bacteria. But he believes that the root cause of the contamination may never be known. \"We have to conclude we're unlikely to have a definitive determination,\" he said. Most people with E. coli 0157:H7 experience diarrhea and abdominal cramps within eight days of infection. The FDA notified Nestle USA on Thursday that its investigation at the Danville plant was over. Nestle says FDA inspectors were at the plant for more than a week and found no E. coli on equipment. More than 1,000 tests have been conducted at the facility after the outbreak. \"We've dismantled the production line and done extensive testing on all equipment and not found any E. coli,\" Nestle USA spokeswoman Laurie MacDonald said. MacDonald announced that Nestle is easing back into production at the plant. The company has purchased new lots of eggs, flour and margarine and says it is thoroughly testing the new products and all raw ingredients. Consumers will have to wait to see cookie dough back in grocery stores. \"You're not going to see anything on the shelves for quite some time,\" MacDonald said. But when it does appear, the company will mark the cookie dough with a new label that clearly designates it as a new batch. It will also continue to carry a reminder to not eat the dough raw.","highlights":"FDA says Toll House samples don't contain particular strain of E. coli .\nNestle recalled all dough made at Virginia plant after outbreak .\n74 people in 32 states were sickened; there were no deaths .\nPlant resuming test production of cookie dough .","id":"b94efa51e66345ab50b36bae2510d662ecb73d7b"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A mob killed a Hindu man in the Indian state of Orissa Thursday as another group attacked a church in another part of the state's troubled Kandhamal district, authorities said Friday. Christian activists stage a peace march in Mumbai, India earlier this month. Krishan Kumar, Kandhamal's top administrative official, told CNN the Hindu man was hacked to death at Raikia. Orissa state, which is dominated by tribal people, borders the Bay of Bengal in east-central India, and Kandhamal is located in the center of the state, which has been racked by Hindu-Christian violence. Praveen Kumar, Kandhamal's superintendent of police, said an investigation is under way in both incidents, and did not say whether any suspects were being sought. Twenty-three civilians, excluding police, have died in the Hindu-Christian violence in Kandhamal this month, according to the administrator. \"Arrests are continuing,\" Praveen Kumar said when asked how many people have been held so far in connection with the violence. The latest attacks occurred on a day when India's federal government called upon the state administration to take \"effective, focused and firm measures\" to control the conflicts. On Thursday, federal Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta asked the Orissa government to ensure effective deployment of paramilitaries in the state. -- CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Orissa state in east-central India has been racked by Hindu-Christian violence .\n23 civilians have died in the state's troubled Kandhamal district this month .\nLatest attacks follow calls for state to take firm measures to control conflict .","id":"3b13a7fecb77be63cac1e9286b83f61b5784f387"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's transitional government has the right to request military help from its neighbors against armed militants, the African Union said Monday, but Kenya was quick to reject the idea of sending troops and suggested the AU should spearhead such a move. Islamist insurgents patrol part of Mogadishu during clashes with government forces. Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Madowe on Saturday called on Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen to send in their military forces to help government troops stop hardline Islamist militants from taking over. \"Militants are wrestling the power from the government and so we call for military help from neighboring countries,\" the speaker said at a news conference in Mogadishu. \"Please send your military to help in 24 hours' time.\" But Alfred Mutua, spokesman for the Kenyan government, told CNN that \"Kenya doesn't engage in military support to our neighbors.\" He said that any such support would be under the umbrella of the African Union. However, he did say that \"different types of support can be given, not just military, and Kenya's options are open.\" He said that the government should announce by Wednesday how it will move forward. Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said in a communique issued Sunday that the transitional government, as Somalia's legitimate government, \"has the right to seek support from AU Member States and the larger international community.\" Ping also said that the AU would \"continue to do its utmost to assist the Somali people and its authorities in their lasting quest for peace and reconciliation.\" Somalia's call for help came hours after a third top politician was killed in ongoing fighting in the capital. Mohamed Hussein Adow, a powerful member of parliament who was leading the fight against the Islamists, was slain Friday in the north of the city. His death came two days after Islamists killed Internal Security Minister Omar Hashi Adan in a suicide attack in central Somalia. The nation's former ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah Laqanyo, was also killed, along with at least 11 others, government officials said. Madowe said a Pakistani militant who is a high-ranking official in al Qaeda is leading the fighting in Somalia against the government. He warned that militants will spread fighting into the rest of the region if they topple the government in Somalia. Mohammed Amiin Adow contributed to this report for CNN .","highlights":"Somali parliament speaker asks Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen to send troops .\nCountry is battling hardline Islamist militants .\nKenya says African Union must lead such an effort .\nAU says it will help Somalia .","id":"cec2a909711da097ac92cab689873aae43ffec21"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two of the biggest stars in the NBA will be team-mates next season after a blockbuster trade which sees Shaquille O'Neal move from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers -- the home of league MVP LeBron James. Shaquille O'Neal is hoping his arrival will put a smile on the faces of Cleveland fans. The 37-year-old O'Neal is one of the all-time greats of basketball, winning four NBA championships, three straight with the Los Angeles Lakers and the other with Miami Heat. James is widely recognized as the sport's current superstar, but the 24-year-old has been left frustrated by Cleveland's failure to win the title. He stormed off the court after their loss to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals, not even shaking hands with 2008 Olympic teammate Dwight Howard. The trade, which sees Phoenix get center Ben Wallace and guard Sasha Pavlovic, has been talked about since February but finalized on Thursday night. \"I was elated about the trade because I get to play with one of the greatest players to ever play the game in LeBron James,\" O'Neal was quoted on the NBA's official Web site www.nba.com. O'Neal averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in 75 games for the Suns last season and believes he still has much to offer the NBA. \"My numbers are not good enough to retire. Three more years left,\" O'Neal wrote on his Twitter blog. His career averages are 24.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots, with his peak seasons coming as he led the Lakers to three straight titles from 2000-02. The Lakers traded him to Miami where he spent three seasons, helping them to the NBA Championship three years ago. He has played in Phoenix for the past two years, restricted by injuries in his first season. The Cavs, powered by James, won 66 regular season games and their first eight in the playoffs before coming unstuck against the Magic. They will be hoping that O'Neal will be the final piece in the jigsaw to land the first American sports championship for Cleveland in 45 years.","highlights":"Shaquille O'Neal is traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers .\n7 foot one inch O'Neal has been named in the NBA's All Star team 15 times .\nO'Neal, 37, will now pair up with 2009 NBA MVP LeBron James at Cleveland .","id":"b746dc983251a55ff081a5f16ab1f477a52efeba"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: This is the second in a five-part series exploring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background and life with those who know her, and revealing the experiences that might shape her views as a Supreme Court justice if confirmed. Sonia Sotomayor, here at her 8th-grade graduation, had to finish homework and chores before she could go out. BRONX, New York (CNN) -- The teenage Sonia Sotomayor was easy to spot in the halls of her New York high school. Her uniform was often askew -- a once-crisp shirt protruding out and over her skirt's waistband as she carried a pile of books. \"She was focused so much on learning that she didn't notice,\" Mary Procidano, a classmate at Cardinal Spellman High School, recalled recently. Sotomayor, now nominated for the Supreme Court by President Obama, seemed to hit her stride at Spellman, a rigorous Catholic institution and educational oasis in a crime-stricken neighborhood of the Bronx. The schoolgirl first appeared shy and reserved, friends remember. But they soon got to know her as a hard-nosed, strong-willed girl, happy to debate friends, family or teachers. \"When she opened her mouth and she spoke, she really felt whatever it was,\" said Jeanette Valdespino-Torres, a childhood friend. \"And she wasn't just talking out of the top of her head -- it was something that she read, she studied, she looked, she knew. She would get into conversations at that age that I couldn't even touch.\" Watch friends remember Sotomayor as a teenager \u00bb . In the lunchroom Sotomayor would \"hold court,\" various friends from her school years told CNN, sharing opinions on policies and social problems. She even led discussions around her home, an apartment in the sprawling 28-building Bronxdale Housing project that was so rife with drugs and crime that police often locked it down on Saturday nights, Sotomayor said in one speech. If she is confirmed by the full Senate Sotomayor, now 55, would be the first Latina Supreme Court justice. President Obama has spoken of her \"inspiring life's journey.\" Sotomayor's 1972 graduating class knew they were a generation facing \"change,\" said Jeri Faulkner, who was a freshman when Sotomayor was a senior. It was a time when the Vietnam War and social and economic strife were in the news daily. \"There was a lot of change and turmoil, and they were very involved in it -- very, very involved in social issues; very, very ready to change the world,\" Faulkner, now Cardinal Spellman's Dean of Students, said of Sotomayor's class. \"And Sonia, she was at the forefront of those discussions.\" A fixture on the debate team and in student government, Sotomayor was even a part of change inside Cardinal Spellman -- helping to write a unified constitution when male and female classes merged in 1971. Outside school, Sotomayor spent some vacations working at the United Bargains store in the Bronx, though she has admitted she was too young for a job. She also worked.with her mother at Prospect Hospital. See photos of Sotomayor throughout her life \u00bb . Hard work was a fixture of the Sotomayor household. Juan Sotomayor, Sonia's father, died when she was 9, leaving her mother, Celina, to fend for Sonia and her younger brother, also named Juan. Celina Sotomayor started at the hospital as a telephone operator and later became a registered nurse. She worked long hours to earn enough to send her children to better schools like Cardinal Spellman, which now boasts of its graduate with a banner on its pale brick facade. And she used spare money to buy the neighborhood's only encyclopedia. Sonia's mother was clear in what she expected from her daughter, said Valdespino-Torres. When she got home from work and stepped into the brick building, she always asked Sonia if she had done her homework, food shopping or laundry. \"Only then, Sonia would be allowed to go out,\" Valdespino-Torres said. Watch Valdespino-Torres take a walk around the girls' old haunts \u00bb . \"Going out\" sometimes meant reading for grade-schooler Sonia Sotomayor. She turned to books for solace after her father died -- a loss that came a year after she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She has needed daily insulin injections ever since. But sorrow and challenges were not something she shared, Valdespino-Torres said: \"That must have been very difficult at her age to deal with, and it was something that just never really came up. She took care of it and she dealt with it.\" Sotomayor swapped Nancy Drew mysteries with her friends and loved talking about them, Valdespino-Torres said. Later she would become engrossed in \"Perry Mason\" and the workings of courts. Watch Juan Sotomayor say how his sister forced him to watch 'Mason' \u00bb . In the summer, Sotomayor and Valdespino-Torres would sit on the stone steps of Blessed Sacrament -- Sotomayor's Catholic grade school. Their parents kept watch from two-story duplex houses and through the black, steel bars of public housing apartment windows as the girls listened for hours to the latest vinyl records -- The Four Tops, The Rascals, The Beatles and Frankie Valli. Sotomayor even coaxed some girlfriends to play baseball -- almost in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. (Many years later, Sotomayor would make a famous ruling that effectively ended the Major League Baseball strike.) Sotomayor also spent time with her cousins, who lived in now-dilapidated apartments marred by broken windows. Entertainment might have been their grandmother calling bingo as they marked their cards with chickpeas. It was with her cousins that Sotomayor embraced her Puerto Rican roots, she has said. The neighborhood still boasts a heavy Latino population -- with many Puerto Rican flags in windows. Sotomayor says the sights and sounds of the neighborhood have stayed with her: salsa beats and laughter from Saturday movies featuring Mexican comedian Cantinflas. The Bronx streets around Southern Boulevard were the center of young Sotomayor's world, but her curiosity was sparked by the No. 5 train creaking along tracks visible from her grandmother's window. At first she just made faces at riders, she has said, but then she began to wonder where the people were going. Sotomayor's childhood friends say now that they knew even then that she would someday be one of those people going places. See how Sotomayor is similar to the Supreme Court justices \u00bb . \"Especially because of her pure intelligence, her work ethic, her seriousness and focus,\" Procidano said. \"You kind of visualize a certain trajectory for people, and you say with Sonia, 'Well, I'm not surprised. Isn't that where she was going?'\" Faulkner, her high school classmate, added: \"I saw her as leader, for sure ... They were teenage attributes at the time, but they were there. All of those little things that make her able to do this job, or be able to handle this pressure, it was there. It was in her from the beginning.\"","highlights":"Sonia Sotomayor grew up in crime-ridden Bronx neighborhood .\nSenators holding confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nomination .\nSotomayor's dad died when she was 9; mother instilled in her the value of education .\nHigh school classmate said she saw Sotomayor \"as a leader, for sure\"","id":"b24f28b69e9aecd260d43d0d19cf7139f4371468"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scotland's Susan Boyle gives new meaning to the term \"overnight sensation.\" The \"Britain's Got Talent\" contestant was expected to be something of a joke when she first sauntered on stage, but she absolutely wowed the audience, the judges -- and then the world via the Internet -- with her stunning rendition of \"I Dreamed a Dream.\" Along with Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden is a judge on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" But like others who stumble upon sudden fame, she found the pressure and scrutiny to be overwhelming. \"Talent\" judge Amanda Holden and Dr. Drew Pinsky of VH1's \"Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew\" joined CNN's Larry King Tuesday night to discuss Boyle's hospitalization for stress and the toll the spotlight and media criticism might have taken on her mental health. They also discussed whether Boyle will develop the emotional stamina for a high-pressure singing career. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: What do we know right now? Amanda Holden: Basically, we've spoken to Susan's brother. He, in fact, spoke on [CBS' \"The Early Show\"] this morning to say that his sister was very keen to come home as soon as she possibly could and that she was resting up in a clinic in London and that she was very much looking forward to coming out and seeing what was available to her when she felt better. King: Is the show, Amanda, paying for the hospital bills and are they taking care of her? Holden: I have no idea if they're paying the hospital bills. I would imagine that they are. We're a very loyal show. We love Susan very much. In fact, all the contestants that appear on our show are extraordinarily well looked after. King: Your fellow judge, Piers Morgan, has said that there was talk of taking her off the show because of all the pressures on her. Were you involved? Were there any discussions like that? Holden: I wasn't involved in any discussions like that. And I think Piers has a slightly closer relationship with her. ... The only thing I'm worried about with Susan Boyle is that she seems to have a crush on Piers Morgan. ... I think that Piers kind of reassured her during the final that she was doing well and that she mustn't pay any kind of attention to the press and all the other stuff that was going . King: Despite all the tumult, there's no disputing that Susan sang her heart out during the finale of the competition. I know the dance troupe [Diversity] was terrific. But, frankly, why didn't she win? Holden: Honestly, I can't criticize the decision because it was the British public that voted in the end. I have no real idea, to be honest. I wonder whether it could be that Diversity was utterly fantastic on the show that night. They decimated the show. They really, really were amazing. And I just wonder whether maybe younger people voted and were quicker on the texts than the kind of people that were voting for Susan. But as I keep saying, if Susan is a loser, then surely she is the biggest and best loser that we have in the world. And coming second is no bad thing. Watch Amanda Holden discuss Susan Boyle \u00bb . King: She came in, though, [as] a small-town amateur singer, [with] learning disabilities due to suffering oxygen deprivation at birth. Some say the program exploited her and her vulnerabilities. Do you agree? Holden: I couldn't disagree more. You know, she's a grown woman who applied to come on a talent show. She enjoyed every second of every moment that I met her or saw her behind the scenes. She was very excited. She was very proud to be taking part in the show. I think the downturn in press in our country [Britain], I think, maybe stressed her out a little bit. And I think she was just quite upset about all the exaggerated stories and the kind of falsehoods that were being written about her. I think that everybody gets upset about bad press when you're in this business. And she's somebody that's gone from anonymity to [an] absolute worldwide phenomenon. King: Yes. Holden: So how is she expected to handle that? Nobody can handle that with the best will in the world. I've been in the business 15 years, and I'm still not media savvy. [Dr. Drew Pinsky joins the show] . King: What do you make of this Susan Boyle thing? Pinsky: The problem here is that here's a woman that's suddenly under the scrutiny of the spotlight who maybe has some developmental issues, who is under tremendous stress and [now] is in a psychiatric hospital. The question is, did the show harm her? King: Did it? Pinsky: It's hard to say. This is the first time these kind of experiences have really been undertaken by people. People that come out of nowhere all of a sudden are international superstars. King: Should we be, Amanda, concerned about that? Holden: First of all, I just want to say that Susan's brother said on British television this morning that, yes, Susan has experienced learning difficulties. But in actual fact, when she was at school, she did as well as any of her other siblings. But throughout her childhood, always before an exam or anything else, she always got quite anxious. [Before the show], she was feeling nervous. But she went out there and she nailed it. You know, she did the best performance that we've seen. And let's not forget, this is actually only the second or third time we've heard her sing. ... She is in a place where celebrities go when they are burnt out. Now, I am obviously not a doctor. I have no factual information to give to you. I can only say to you her brother ... has said she wants to come home within a matter of days, rather than weeks. Pinsky: That's excellent. King: Would you guess, Dr. Drew, that she still has a career in front of her? Wouldn't you bet she does? Pinsky: Oh, I bet she does, absolutely. And she will learn to become accustomed to this kind of stress, I am sure. But let's make sure she has the care she needs. And let's be sure that ... everybody that goes on shows like this has access to things that help them deal with the stress of these kinds of environments.","highlights":"Amanda Holden: Boyle is \"a grown woman who applied to come on a talent show\"\nHolden believes negative press coverage stressed out the overnight sensation .\nThough Boyle was exceedingly nervous before finale, Holden says she \"nailed it\"\nDr. Drew Pinsky: Contestants on high-pressure shows should get help with stress .","id":"28990770fe6531634d76195c2b9672a2b375020b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Newly released documents from Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's service on the board of a Puerto Rican civil rights organization show the group opposed Robert Bork's nomination to the high court more than two decades ago. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is set to face Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Sotomayor, a judge on the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, was nominated by President Obama in May to fill the vacancy of retiring Justice David Souter. Her confirmation hearings are set to begin July 13. She served as a board member of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1980-92, leaving when she became a federal judge. During her years on the PRLDEF board, the group opposed President Reagan's 1987 nomination of the conservative Bork -- then a federal appeals judge -- \"because of the threat he poses to the civil rights of the Latino community,\" according to the documents. The group's attorneys prepared press releases and \"worked on numerous efforts to build coalitions against the nominee,\" according to the documents. Bork was ultimately rejected by the Senate. The Fund also met in 1987 with staff at the New York Daily News to address what it called \"negative images of Puerto Ricans presented by the News' staff,\" including well-known columnist Jimmy Breslin. Republicans are challenging Sotomayor's record on affirmative action, and the newly released documents on her work at the Fund will likely be a centerpiece of debate at the upcoming confirmation hearings. The 350 pages of documents released Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee show the Fund filed hundreds of discrimination lawsuits over the years on behalf of Hispanics. The documents do not reveal whether Sotomayor was directly involved in them. She was a private attorney at the time, and was volunteering for the group. However, they reflect the Fund's strong push to establish a precedent of cases that would establish legal authority to uphold workplace quotas for minorities. One case dealt with promotions in the New York City Police Department. A May 1992 memo on \"litigation highlights\" noted, \"We obtained quota promotions for Latinos and African Americans to the rank of sergeant.\" A PRLDEF class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of minority applicants claimed advancement exams were \"discriminatory and not job related.\" The city settled, agreeing to promotions that reflected the percentage of Hispanic test-takers. Backpay and retroactive seniority were also provided. \"As a result,\" said the memo, \"almost 100 Hispanics were promoted, over twice the number that would have been promoted without the settlement.\" Fast forward 17 years to a case Sotomayor heard as an appeals judge. She and her colleagues rejected a lawsuit by white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, after the city threw out the results of promotional exams because too few minorities qualified for advancement. In the case, one Hispanic and 19 white firefighters who scored high on the exams and would have gained captain and lieutenant positions claimed \"reverse\" discrimination. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the so-called \"New Haven 20,\" concluding \"the city rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white.\" Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority said, \"No individual should face workplace discrimination based on race.\" The high court said municipalities would now have to establish \"a strong basis of evidence\" that promotion tests were unfairly designed or administered before nullifying them, and not simply because too many minorities did poorly. Sotomayor's views in the case have been criticized by some conservatives, saying it shows she supports racial preferences for Hispanic and other minorities. The high court dissent, however, criticized the ruling for reinterpreting what Congress intended. \"Congress endeavored to promote equal opportunity in fact, and not simply in form,\" wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. \"The damage today's decision does to that objective is untold.\" Supporters also contend the PRLDEF documents add nothing to the nomination debate. \"Documents that Judge Sotomayor did not write, or approve -- many of them more than two decades old -- are irrelevant to her nomination,\" according to a White House statement. \"The Senate should judge her on her own record -- especially her judicial record -- not on briefs that other lawyers wrote 20 years ago.\" Opponents, however, claim Sotomayor's prior work for PRLDEF, and her off-the-bench comments reveal doubts about her fairness and impartiality as a judge. In addition, some Republicans on the committee expressed concern the material was released only 12 days before the hearings begin. \"This has all the hallmarks of a deliberate delay and an attempt to frustrate a thorough review of this important information,\" said Stephen Boyd, a spokesman for Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, ranking Republican on the committee. \"If these dilatory tactics continue, it will be increasingly more difficult for the hearing to go forward on July 13.\" Sotomayor supporters point out a similar \"document dump\" by the Bush White House in the days before Chief Justice John Roberts testified before the Senate in September 2005. And the Bush administration also refused to turn over material from Justice Samuel Alito's prior service in the Reagan and Bush Justice Departments in the 1980s, arguing his subsequent judicial record was sufficient to determine his qualifications to sit on the high court.","highlights":"Sotomayor once served on the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund .\nGroup opposed the 1987 nomination of Robert Bork to the high court .\nSupporters: PRLDEF documents add nothing to the nomination debate .\nRepublicans are challenging Sotomayor's record on affirmative action .","id":"a8294f062f4d79f7a92cbb2f06968b59b2748b15"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- An unopposed former Communist leader was elected Nepal's new prime minister Saturday, ending nearly three weeks of political uncertainty. Madhav Kumar Nepal waves at his supporters at the country's parliament in Kathmandu. Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) was the only person to serve as a candidate for the post after he received backing from more than 20 of the 25 parties in parliament. Nepal, 56, is a former general secretary of the Communist Party, but had resigned after the party made a poor showing last year against another Communist movement. In that vote, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party, with 38 percent of the seats in the 601-member constituent assembly which also functions as parliament. Nepal had been general secretary since 1993 and served as the country's deputy prime minister for nine months in 1995. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chairman, resigned as prime minister May 4 after the president overturned the Cabinet's decision to sack the army chief. Nepal became a republic last year. The new government has two important tasks before it: the writing of a new constitution within a year, and integration of 19,600 Maoist combatants into the security forces. Without the support of the former Maoist rebels, these tasks cannot be achieved. The Maoists fought a 10-year insurgency aimed at abolishing the monarchy.","highlights":"Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal was only candidate .\nNepal, 56, is a former general secretary of the Communist Party .\nPushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chairman, resigned as prime minister May 4 .\nFollowed president's decision to overturn Cabinet's sacking of army chief .","id":"2faf7712e57591776302b0afd01aeed6b5602b60"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police are investigating whether or what family issues might have prompted a California man to shoot six of his family members -- killing five -- before committing suicide. His wife was critically wounded. Authorities on Tuesday said Devan Kalathat, 42, shot his family Sunday night at his Santa Clara townhouse, killing two adults and three children. Kalathat killed his 11-year-old son, Akhil Dev; his 4-year-old daughter, Negha Dev; his 35-year-old brother-in-law Ashok Appu Poothemkandi; Poothemkandi's 25-year-old wife, Suchitra Sivaraman; and the couple's 11-month-old daughter, Ahana. Kalathat's 34-year-old wife, who was not identified, sustained multiple gunshot wounds and remains in critical condition, said Lt. Phil Cooke. \"Family dynamics and personal relationships may have played a factor,\" Cooke told reporters Tuesday. He said Kalathat was employed as an engineer and nothing indicated he was facing \"layoff or financial crisis.\" Investigators believe Kalathat used two .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols, both of which he owned. Cooke said Kalathat bought one of the pistols in February and the other nearly two weeks ago -- roughly the same time his wife's brother, Poothemkandi, arrived in California from India with Suchitra Sivaraman and Ahana. Cooke noted that Poothemkandi was an \"educated professional\" with plans to stay in the Bay Area to work on a project for a high-tech firm. Police were called after a neighbor noticed Kalathat's wounded wife outside the home around 8:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. ET), Cooke said. When police arrived, other victims were found around the kitchen and dining room in what Cooke described as \"a very gruesome scene.\" The family shooting comes just two months after a Los Angeles father who, after he and his wife were fired from their jobs, killed her and their five young children before turning the gun on himself.","highlights":"Devan Kalathat, 42, shot six of his family members before turning gun on himself .\nHis wife, in critical condition, is the only survivor of the attack .\nPolice: \"Family dynamics and personal relationships may have played a factor\"\nPolice say man was not facing job loss or financial problems .","id":"08b3feac5825f766af065809e9759687273079e4"} -{"article":"QUEENS, New York (CNN) -- For Victor Guevares, winning a bid at a raucous foreclosure auction two months ago was just the first step toward achieving his dream of home ownership. And after getting through several obstacles along the way, he finally moved his family into the two-story, three-bedroom house in Queens. Victor Guevares, second from right, bought a home at a raucous foreclosure auction two months ago. The auction process isn't as easy as it looks, Guevares said. \"If you're going to an auction, do your research,\" he told CNN. CNN first met the Guevares family in March when he grabbed a home once worth $527,000 for less than half that price. Guevares had won an auction at USHomeAuction.com's foreclosure sale in New York. Banks and other lenders were unloading foreclosed houses, and many were selling at 50 percent to 60 percent below their highest values. Foreclosures skyrocketed in March and the first quarter of 2009 to their highest levels on record as banks lifted moratoria on filings. Foreclosure filings -- which include default papers, auction sale notices and repossessions -- reached 803,489 in the first quarter, according to a recent report by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. Watch Victor Guevares give a quick tour of his new home \u00bb . That is a 24 percent jump over a year earlier and a 9 percent increase compared to the previous quarter. Of those first-quarter filings, 341,180 happened in March, a 17 percent increase from February and a 46 percent jump from March 2008. Sitting with his stomach in knots on that March 8 afternoon, Guevares made the opening bid and kept pace until they passed $100,000, then $200,000. Looking shell-shocked, Guevares ended up with the winning bid: $230,000. But he soon realized there was much more to it, after plunking down $7,000 in auction fees and another $5,000 required from every bidder. And still, he couldn't immediately lock in a mortgage at the auction as he had hoped because records showed the home faced a possible code violation. \"I had a problem,\" Guevares said. An inspection cleared that hurdle, and closing day ended happily with Guevares holding the deed to his first house. But he wasn't through yet. Guevares, a married father of two, wanted to have his family moved in by the end of May -- and had his work cut out, since the home was split into two apartments. He broke down a wall, opened up a staircase, put in new floors, repainted and created a sunroom. All that work brought his cost to roughly $280,000 -- about $20,000 less than the estimated value of the home, he said. Guevares spent the past 12 years renting and trying to save for his first home, and believes he came out ahead with the auction win. \"I got a great deal on the house. My mortgage is $300 less than what I paid in rent,\" he said. The backyard is filled with garbage bags filled with debris, but the family was able to move in last week. Guevares' son, 8-year-old Devin, is reveling in his bright green room that has a window to peek out into his yard -- and the neighbor's. \"They have a dog named Rocky, just the same as the dog we have,\" he said. Another perk: no more worrying about being quiet as he did at their apartment. \"I can just scream,\" said Devin.","highlights":"Victor Guevares won bid at a raucous foreclosure auction two months ago .\nThe auction process isn't as easy as it looks, Guevares says .\nGuevares spent 12 years renting as he saved for first home .\n\"My mortgage is $300 less than what I paid in rent,\" says Guevares .","id":"328d6730e8cf1ba144cab029c422939c08ef0dec"} -{"article":"The U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for both sides in Sri Lanka's civil war to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid into the conflict zone, where tens of thousands are trapped. President Obama criticized the Tamil Tigers for using civilians as \"human shields.\" In a statement at the White House, Obama urged Sri Lankan government troops to halt the \"indiscriminate\" shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country's Tamil Tiger rebels and demanded the rebels stop using civilians as \"human shields.\" Security Council members issued a statement demanding \"that all parties respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.\" Though the rebels once controlled much of northeastern Sri Lanka, government troops have forced them from all but a small portion of the island since November. The remaining rebel force is pinned down on a narrow strip on the island's northern coast, but more than 50,000 civilians are trapped there as well, the United Nations estimates. Anna Neistat, of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, told CNN that both sides in the conflict are guilty of \"egregious violations\" of humanitarian law. \"I think the government claims that they're not using heavy weapons do not pass the laugh test any more,\" she said. \"Witnesses are telling us about the shelling. We also get photos of remnants of the shells that hit the areas.\" U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss told CNN on Monday that hundreds of civilians died during weekend fighting because the Sri Lankan army had put residents in the crossfire, and Obama and the Security Council urged the government to live up to its commitment to stop using heavy weapons. Neistat said at least 30 hospitals had been attacked in the conflict zone as well. Meanwhile, the Tigers -- who have been branded a terrorist organization by the United States, more than 30 other countries and the European Union -- are refusing to let the civilians who surround them evacuate, Neistat said. \"Witnesses are telling us that they were not allowed to leave, that those who tried to leave were shot at by the Tamil Tigers,\" she said. The group, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, have fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and nearly 200,000 people are now sheltering in camps across the country's north. Obama called on the remaining rebels \"to lay down their arms and let civilians go.\" \"Their forced recruitment of civilians and their use of civilians as human shields is deplorable. These tactics will only serve to alienate all those who carry them out,\" he said. Obama also said government troops \"should stop the indiscriminate shelling that has taken hundreds of innocent lives\" in recent days. A Red Cross worker was killed Wednesday during shelling in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka -- the third aid worker killed in six weeks -- the International Committee of the Red Cross said. The fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers has intensified in the conflict area to the point that the Red Cross cannot get food to that area or help the sick and wounded, said Sarasi Wijeratne, a Red Cross spokeswoman. \"Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe,\" Obama said. \"Now's the time, I believe, to put aside some of the political issues that are involved and to put the lives of the men and women and children who are innocently caught in the crossfire, to put them first.\"","highlights":"NEW: Security Council demands all parties respect international humanitarian law .\nObama criticizes the Tamil Tigers for using civilians as \"human shields\"\nHe also calls on government to stop using heavy weapons, allow aid in .\nTamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent state for ethnic Tamil minority .","id":"46b15987de5d46557bcf3752e3f6cf5040b293a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They were taken before Marilyn Monroe became branded as the voluptuous blonde who oozed sex appeal in dozens of Hollywood films. A 24-year-old Marilyn Monroe poses for Life magazine in August 1950. They were taken before rumors of an affair with President John F. Kennedy swirled and her mental breakdowns became public. They were taken before the beautiful actress's mysterious overdose that resulted in her death at the age of 36. In a collection discovered by Life.com last month, unpublished photographs of Monroe reveal a softer, more innocent 24-year-old budding starlet in a more peaceful time, before her fame peaked. Her flawless face bears a natural look with minimal makeup, unusual for the star, who was often glamorized in photo shoots with lipstick, designer dresses and expensive jewelry. Monday would have been Monroe's 83rd birthday. In one photo, the young Monroe lies in bliss, reading on a park bench, which editors at Life.com believe was shot at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. In another, her face is serene as she is perched over a bridge barefoot. The shoot, which dates to 1950, was conducted by Life photographer Ed Clark. It's a side of Monroe that the American public has rarely seen. \"She hasn't really exploded as a star, yet she was on the brink of something big,\" says Dawnie Walton, deputy editor at Life.com, a Web site harboring more than 7 million Life magazine photographs. The site was launched in March. \"I was amazed looking at her face. Although she looks very innocent, there is something very ... sexy.\" Last month, Walton stumbled upon the rare photographs while combing through the company's digital photo archives. Apparently, no one at Life.com even knew they were ever taken. Upon investigating the photos, Walton says, she found there were few notes left on the negatives. She says the photos were probably taken for a cover shoot that was never used. Monroe appeared on her first Life magazine cover in 1952. See some of the previously unpublished photos of Monroe \u00bb . \"It just got lost and stowed away,\" Walton said. \"It was just ... somewhere in a warehouse in New Jersey.\" At the time the photos were shot, Monroe had her first small breakout role as a mistress in \"The Asphalt Jungle.\" The star was better known as a model at the time, though she'd had a handful of cameos in films. Photographer Ed Clark told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune a friend from 20th Century Fox alerted him that the studio had just signed \"a hot tomato.\" \"She was unknown then, so I was able to spend a lot of time shooting her,\" Clark said. \"We'd go out to Griffith Park and she'd read poetry. I sent several rolls to Life in New York, but they wired back, 'Who the hell is Marilyn Monroe?' \" Photographs later in the 1950s and early 1960s would display a much more confident and sexual Monroe -- images that would become iconic in popular culture. There is the famous photograph of a busty Monroe in a white halter dress, standing with her skirt blowing up in 1955 for her role in \"The Seven Year Itch.\" In 1962, American photographer Bert Stern shot a tipsy, sometimes nude Monroe in a series of delicate shots that would be known as \"The Last Sitting.\" Monroe died about six weeks later, on August 5, 1962. Life.com staff members say there are 15 million photographs in the Life archive dating back to the late 1850s, even before Life officially began publishing in 1936. Two years ago, the publication began slowly transferring the photographs into a digital archive. From time to time, unpublished photographs will be found that the company doesn't know existed. Other times, the photographs may have been taken but never selected to be used for publication. Last March, to commemorate the 11th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's death, Life.com released a series of unpublished photographs of the singer. In April, Life.com released newly recovered, never-before-seen photographs of Martin Luther King Jr. taken by a Life photographer on the day King was assassinated at a Memphis, Tennessee, hotel in 1968.","highlights":"Unpublished photos of Monroe shot by a Life photographer surfaced in May .\nThe photos, taken in Los Angeles, California, show a more innocent Monroe .\nLife.com has over 7 million images, and lost images are occasionally recovered .\nThe Monroe pictures were \"in a warehouse in New Jersey\"","id":"2e9ee6626fe0e7e4919cd54cd98984ddaf6a7fe8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If there's a blessing in the current swine flu epidemic, it's how benign the illness seems to be outside the central disease cluster in Mexico. But history offers a dark warning to anyone ready to write off the 2009 H1N1 virus. The Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 sickened an estimated third of the world's population. In each of the four major pandemics since 1889, a spring wave of relatively mild illness was followed by a second wave, a few months later, of a much more virulent disease. This was true in 1889, 1957, 1968 and in the catastrophic flu outbreak of 1918, which sickened an estimated third of the world's population and killed, conservatively, 50 million people. Lone Simonsen, an epidemiologist at George Washington University, who has studied the course of prior pandemics in both the United States and her native Denmark, says, \"The good news from past pandemics, in several experiences, is that the majority of deaths have happened not in the first wave, but later.\" Based on this, Simonsen suggests there may be time to develop an effective vaccine before a second, more virulent strain, begins to circulate. As swine flu -- also known as the 2009 version of the H1N1 flu strain -- spreads, Simonsen and other health experts are diving into the history books for clues about how the outbreak might unfold -- and, more importantly, how it might be contained. In fact, the official Pandemic Influenza Operation Plan, or O-Plan, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is based in large part on a history lesson -- research organized by pediatrician and medical historian Dr. Howard Markel of the University of Michigan. Markel was tapped by the CDC to study what worked and what didn't during the 1918 flu disaster. Markel and colleagues examined 43 cities and found that so-called nonpharmaceutical interventions -- steps such as isolating patients and school closings -- were remarkably successful in tamping down the outbreak. \"They don't make the population immune, but they buy you time, either by preventing influenza from getting into the community or slowing down the spread,\" Markel said. Explainer: Flu facts \u00bb . Markel describes a dramatic example in the mining town of Gunnison, Colorado. In 1918, town leaders built a veritable barricade, closing down the railroad station and blocking all roads into town. Four thousand townspeople lived on stockpiled supplies and food from hunting or fishing. For 3\u00bd months, while influenza raged in nearly every city in America, Gunnison saw not a single case of flu -- not until the spring, when roads were reopened and a handful of residents fell sick. Visit LIFE.com for photographs of the lethal flu pandemic of 1918 . Nonpharmaceutical interventions, or NPIs, also proved effective in big cities such as New York, according to Markel. In fact, the sooner cities moved to limit public gatherings or isolate patients, the less severe their experience tended to be -- as much as an eight- or ninefold difference in case and death rates, he says. Based on this guidance, the CDC preparedness plan devotes dozens of pages to potential NPIs, from voluntary isolation to reorganizing company work schedules to reduce the density of people sitting next to each other in the office or while riding trains and buses. If it seems odd to base medical strategy on 90-year-old newspapers, the approach is increasingly popular. \"There's a big case for looking at history,\" says Simonsen. \"We call it archaeo-epidemiology. You go to libraries and places like that, dig around, collaborate with people like John Barry and try to quantify what really worked.\" Map: where the flu is today \u00bb . Barry is the author of \"The Great Influenza,\" perhaps the signature history of the devastating 1918 pandemic. He says the historical record shows that isolating patients worked to slow the spread of flu in 1918, but that attempted quarantines -- preventing movement in and out of cities -- was \"worthless.\" While Barry supports the CDC's general containment strategy, in the past he has publicly criticized Markel's work. After Markel's findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Barry wrote a letter in response, saying it wasn't swift action but rather an earlier wave of mild flu, acting like a vaccination, that was probably responsible for New York's relatively low caseload. In the letter, he noted, \"New York City Health Commissioner Royal Copeland did tell reporters ... that he would isolate and quarantine cases,\" but based on his own articles in the New York Medical Journal, he \"apparently never imposed those measures.\" In response, Markel and CDC officials pointed to a decision by the New York Board of Health making influenza a reportable disease, and a 1918 JAMA article describing strict quarantine efforts in New York. Barry says both those sources rely on Copeland's assertions, which he considers unreliable. It looks superficially like an academic feud, but in this field, different conclusions can suggest radically different approaches to quashing a pandemic. Nowhere is this more true than in research that builds computer models to predict the spread of outbreaks, based on previous ones. Markel, along with most analysts, says that in prior pandemics, the so-called R-naught number -- the number of new infections caused by each infected person -- has been approximately 2.0. The current U.S. pandemic control strategy is based on computer simulations that assume a flu virus with an R-naught between 1.6 and 2.4. Last year, however, Simonsen and Viggo Andreasen concluded that the true R-naught of the 1918 flu virus was probably somewhere between 3 and 4. Since an epidemic grows exponentially -- each person sickens three others, each of whom infects three more, and so on -- this is a tremendous difference. \"It says it's going to be harder than we thought\" to control a pandemic, Simonsen says. Barry agrees. \"I do think that some of these things, like isolating [sick people], will take off some of the edge. We hope they'll do more than that. But to think they'll stop a pandemic, that is just not going to happen.\" Simonsen says control measures such as the steps taken by Mexico in recent days -- closing schools and restaurants, for example -- are still worth the effort. \"It doesn't mean we should give up, because we don't know the R-naught [for swine flu]. We don't know how easily this spreads.\" But she adds, NPIs are at best a way to buy time. \"We just badly need a vaccine. That's the most important thing.\" To date, the CDC has emphasized personal protective steps such as washing hands and using hand gels, as opposed to tightening border controls or issuing formal directives to close schools or limit public gatherings. Such steps have been left to state and local officials, who have responded in a variety of ways. One reason for the delay in stronger guidelines is that swine flu caught planners off guard; they had anticipated being able to recognize a pandemic overseas, weeks or at least days before it hit the United States. At the same time, CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser said Thursday that it's important to let officials tailor their response to local conditions. \"They can take the recommendations we're providing and apply them locally. [By doing that] we hope to learn and see what are the most effective control strategies.\" Markel agrees that the best response depends on the particular situation. \"History is not predictive science. And the powers of public health officials [in 1918] were much greater. Another difference is that people's trust of doctors and government in 1918 was probably remarkably different.... But what I have found, studying epidemics, is that good planning and good relationships between local state and federal authorities, goes a long way.\"","highlights":"CDC's national pandemic strategy rooted in lessons of past epidemics .\nIn four past pandemics, mild spring outbreak was followed by virulent fall sickness .\nExpert: If its true this time, could allow time to develop effective vaccine .","id":"61eab962cbf5aceadeda0e6322b2e53dccae5320"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- Over the railroad tracks, near Agriculture Drive on the University of Georgia campus, sits a unique machine that may hold one of the solutions to big environmental problems like energy, food production and even global climate change. Biochar's high carbon content and porous nature can help soil retain water, nutrients, protect soil microbes. \"This machine right here is our baby,\" said UGA research engineer Brian Bibens, who is one of a handful of researchers around the world working on alternative ways to recycle carbon. Bibens' specialty is \"biochar,\" a highly porous charcoal made from organic waste. The raw material can be any forest, agricultural or animal waste. Some examples are woodchips, corn husks, peanut shells, even chicken manure. Bibens feeds the waste -- called \"biomass\" -- into an octagonally shaped metal barrel where it is cooked under intense heat, sometimes above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the organic matter is cooked through a thermochemical process called \"pyrolysis\". In a few hours, organic trash is transformed into charcoal-like pellets farmers can turn into fertilizer. Gasses given off during the process can be harnesed to fuel vehicles of power electric generators. Watch how biochar is made and why it's important \u00bb . Biochar is considered by many scientists to be the \"black gold\" for agriculture. Its high carbon content and porous nature can help soil retain water, nutrients, protect soil microbes and ultimately increase crop yields while acting as natural carbon sink - sequestering CO2 and locking it into the ground. Biochar helps clean the air two ways: by preventing rotting biomass from releasing harmful CO2 into the atmosphere, and by allowing plants to safely store CO2 they pull out of the air during photosynthesis. See more about how biochar works \u00bb . \"Soil acts as an enormous carbon pool, increasing this carbon pool could significantly contribute to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere,\" said Christoph Steiner, one of the leading research scientist studying biochar. \"It gives us a chance to produce carbon negative energy.\" Worldwide use of biochar could cut CO2 levels by 8 parts per million within 50 years, according to NASA scientist James Hansen. Global carbon levels in the air have been steadily increasing at an alarming rate since the 1980s, according to NOAA. Since 2000, increases of 2 parts per million of CO2 have been common, according to NOAA. During the 1980s rates increased by 1.5 ppm per year. The process of making biochar can also lead to other valuable products. Some of the gases given off during the process can be converted to electricity, others can be condensed and converted to gasoline, and there are also some pharmaceutical applications for the by-products, said Danny Day President and CEO of Eprida, a private firm in Athens, Georgia currently exploring industry applications for the biochar process. Although scientists look to biochar to improve the future, its origin lies in the past. For centuries indigenous South Americans living in the Amazon Basin used a combination of charred animal waste and wood to make \"terra preta,\" which means black earth, in Portuguese. Thousands of years later, the terra preta soil remains fertile without need for any added fertilizer, experts say. \"These terra preta soils are older than 500 years and they are still black soil and very rich in carbon,\" said Steiner, a professor at the University of Georgia. Reducing the need for deforestation to create more cropland. By using biochar concepts, terra preta soils have been proven to remain fertile for thousands of years, preventing further harmful deforestation for agricultural purposes. But still more large-scale tests need to be conducted before biochar technology can be rolled out on a global scale. Day says biomass -- that otherwise would be thrown away --could be developed into entirely new markets for biofuels, electricity, biomass extracts and pharmaceutical applications, in addition to biochar. \"We have 3 billion people out there who are at risk for climate change and they can be making money solving our global problem,\" said Day. Industries can now begin to look at farmers around the world and pay them for their agricultural wastes, said Day. \"They can become the new affluent.\"","highlights":"'Biochar' may reduce greenhouse gases, produce clean energy, help farming .\nOrganic waste can be turned into valuable, renewable resources .\nAncient farming method could improve crop yields .\nExperts: Biochar could reduce harmful global CO2 levels .","id":"00eaf1c06f1e3ecd48160b43f3b3cd196a319c8a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least six people were killed Thursday when a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Honduras, President Jose Manuel Zelaya told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol Thursday. Thursday's quake leaves part of a bridge damaged over the Ulua River in El Progreso, Honduras. Another 17 people were injured, said Jose Reyes, a spokesman for COPECO, the Honduran government agency that responds to natural disasters. Two of the victims -- a 15-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl from Morazan -- died after a wall collapsed on them, Reyes said, adding that trauma was blamed for most of the fatalities. A 9-year-old boy died, and a heart attack proved fatal to a man from Tela, Honduras, the agency said. A woman suffered cardiac arrest. The 15-year-old boy's brother suffered minor injuries, said Dilcia Fernandez, mayor of La Lima, where the boy died. La Lima is about 120 miles (200 km) north of the capital, Tegucigalpa. Eighty homes were destroyed and another 175 damaged, including 16 schools, nine churches, eight public buildings, seven factories, three bridges, two hotels, a hospital, an airport and a potable water system, Reyes said. Watch how the quake damaged a bridge \u00bb . The 7.1-magnitude quake, which struck at 3:24 a.m. and was centered about 200 miles (320 km) north of the capital, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Half an hour later, a 4.8-magnitude aftershock hit about 155 miles (250 km) north of Tegucigalpa. Zelaya said the June 2-3 meeting of the Organization of American States will be held as planned in nearby San Pedro Sula, where he said one building had been damaged by the quake. The earthquake was centered, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 27 miles (43 km) from Roatan, the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands and a popular destination for scuba diving and snorkeling. The area -- known for its white-sand beaches, clear waters and rich ocean reef -- is popular among budget-conscious travelers. \"People were startled. They started walking, running, doing everything they could to get to higher ground about two miles away,\" said Ron Cummins, who owns a resort there. \"I have been on the island for 14 years, this is the worst I have seen.\"iReport.com: Did you feel the quake? Share photos, video . Ressie Bodden Saphrey said she was sleeping when her house started shaking. \"There was dark everywhere,\" said Saphrey, who works at a hotel in Roatan. Dishes and bottles crashed to the floor, she said. She and her 19-year-old daughter packed their passports, medicine, bottled water, canned food and a flashlight in case they were told to evacuate. They stayed inside their concrete three-story house, though many people in Roatan wandered the streets in the darkness, she said. A television station in Honduras, Channel 8, reported damage to several buildings. The Honduras disaster-response agency urged people to safeguard any important documents, and store food and water they could take in a hurry, according to Channel 8. Carol Frazier, who was vacationing in Roatan, said the quake knocked out power in her condominium and spilled water from the swimming pool. \"Everything was moving. The TV fell on the ground,\" she said. \"The difficulty was we couldn't even move. \"I really thought it was a tsunami or something. That was really our first concern,\" she said. \"We ran out.\" Ron Bobbette, who manages a hotel in West End Roatan, said power had been restored in most places and panic was subsiding. \"Everything is back to normal,\" Bobbette said. \"I just finished walking around the hotel and there is no visible structural damage.\" CNN's Mark Bixler, Faith Karimi and Tom Watkins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eighty homes destroyed, another 175 damaged, official says .\nOriginal quake centered about 200 miles (320 km) north of the capital, USGS says .\nQuake centered 27 miles (43 km) from Roatan, popular scuba diving destination .","id":"9c50dcc9faf239c25f0611ddac6e2edaaf6aafc0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who landed a plane with the assistance of air traffic controllers after the pilot fell unconscious and died said Monday he was \"still in a daze of adrenaline.\" Doug White said he is certified to fly a single-engine plane, but had no idea how to fly the large turboprop. \"I'm grateful, thankful to be alive,\" Doug White of Archibald, Louisiana, told CNN affiliate WINK. \"I'm glad my family is safe, but let's don't lose sight of the fact that a man died, and I don't want people to forget that.\" White, his wife and two daughters were flying from Marco Island, Florida, to Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday after attending a funeral for White's brother. White recalled watching and listening as the pilot, Joe Cabuk, conducted his \"climb checklist\" upon takeoff from Florida. After the checklist was complete, he said, Cabuk laid his book down. About a minute later, White told WINK, he looked at Cabuk, and \"he was just sitting there. He had his chin on his chest, looking down at his lap, but there's nothing in his lap that he needed to be looking at.\" \"That's when I kind of looked at him for a minute, probably two, three seconds, and I touched him on the shoulder. I said, 'Joe! Joe!, and that's when his head rolled over to the side, and his eyes rolled back in his head, and his arm fell off the armrest ... and I knew if he wasn't gone then, he was in deep distress, but we were in trouble.\" Listen to White describe seeing the pilot's eyes roll back in his head \u00bb . The plane's autopilot was on, and the plane was at about 5,000 feet and climbing, White said. Although he was a certified single-engine pilot and had about 130 flying hours, he had no idea how to fly the much larger Super King Air two-engine turboprop plane. \"The only thing I knew how to do up there was talk on the radio,\" White told WINK. \"I've only been up there (in the cockpit) one other time. I made it a point to ask the pilot -- not Joe, but another one -- 'How do I talk on the radio?' and they showed me what button to push.\" He told his daughters, \" 'Y'all go back there, and I want you to pray hard.' The wife kind of trembled and shook the whole time, and the youngest daughter, Bailey, cried and squalled, and the oldest daughter, Maggie, vomited and threw up three or four times.\" Although White sounded fairly calm, some tension is evident on recordings released by the Federal Aviation Administration as controllers at Fort Myers, Florida, attempted to talk him through landing at the airport there. At one point, a controller asked whether the autopilot is still on or whether White is flying the aircraft himself. \"Me and the good Lord are hand-flying this,\" White replied. He described his mindset as being one of \"focused fear.\" \"I had a 10,000-pound gorilla by the hand, and it wasn't wanting to cooperate,\" White recounted to WINK. Asked about his mindset, White said, \"I lost it\" after landing. His emotion can be clearly heard on the recording as he told air traffic controllers in a shaky voice, \"We're down, buddy. Thank you.\" Air traffic controllers at Miami Center helped White at first, talking him through disengaging the autopilot, turning the plane and beginning his descent. They then handed the plane over to air traffic control at Fort Myers' Southwest Florida International Airport. Hear audiotape of emergency landing \u00bb . It was a Fort Myers controller who called Kari Sorenson of Danbury, Connecticut, for help in talking White down. A veteran pilot and flight instructor, Sorenson is intimately familiar with the plane White was flying. \"We started providing him with positions of controls, switches, how to configure the aircraft for landing,\" Sorenson told CNN affiliate WTNH in Connecticut. Sorenson said he was told that the plane was down and that the controller would call him back. But he said he spent a few tense moments because he didn't know \"if he was down in a positive or negative way.\" Sorenson credited the air traffic controllers for working as a team in helping White land. \"It was a team of people, and a good team at that,\" he said. \"The husbands and the wives of air traffic controllers have no idea what their spouses do for a living,\" White said. \"They have no idea, particularly in a busy airspace like Miami or Fort Myers ... they don't make enough money for what they do, the service they provide.\" He said, \"when something good happens, (air traffic controllers) don't get the high five and the 'attaboys.' I'm gonna give them the attaboy, and I'm going to send them all notes.\" He said he would also send them restaurant gift certificates so they can take their friends or family out to dinner. But while he is grateful, White said, he is also saddened at Cabuk's death. \"Joe Cabuk was a father, he was a husband, he was a grandpa, he was a pro at what he did, he was a Christian, he was a great guy and he loved to fly ... this is not all about me. Joe Cabuk died.\" The cause of Cabuk's death has not been released. The Federal Aviation Administration has not given any of the involved air traffic controllers permission to speak about the incident.","highlights":"Pilot Joe Cabuk went unconscious at the controls during a flight from Florida .\n\"I said, 'Joe! Joe!' and that's when his head rolled over to the side,\" Doug White says .\nWhite says, \"The only thing I knew how to do up there was talk on the radio\"\nAir traffic controllers helped White safely land plane carrying his wife and 2 daughters .","id":"cbbaf7578e9ededdc10af31f438df9e9f8b1dafe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From supermarkets to the office supply store, it's hard to miss those tiny bottles of 5-hour Energy. The makers of 5-Hour Energy call it a \"no-nonsense drink.\" \"It would be easier for me to tell you where we didn't sell them in the U.S. than list all the places we do,\" said Carl Sperber, spokesman for Living Essentials, the Detroit, Michigan-based manufacturer of 5-hour Energy shot. The small, shot-glass size bottles promise to provide energy and alertness without jitters to fatigued Americans. Unlike other popular energy drinks that market to college students, 5-Hour Energy's audience is multitasking, working professionals. The market demand has skyrocketed since the product hit store shelves in 2004. The company expects to move more than 350 million shots this year, Sperber said, up from 174 million in 2008. \"This is a no-nonsense drink,\" Sperber said. \"It is not a fashion statement. It doesn't have a cool name; it is just a simple grab-and-go product to help busy adults when they can't afford a letdown.\" Each 2-ounce bottle contains zero grams of sugar, 4 calories and about the same amount of caffeine as a small coffee. It also contains about a dozen ingredients that are broken down into B vitamins (B3, B6, B9, B12) and what the manufacturer lists as an \"energy blend.\" But don't expect superhuman results, one expert said. \"The B vitamins are given at extraordinarily high levels, and people need to know they are not some magic potion that's going to immediately raise your energy level,\" said Dr. Brent Bauer, Mayo Clinic director of complementary and integrative medicine. \"There is no data that show that.\" The overall health impact of the shots' energy blend is a little fuzzy, according to some experts, because little data has been collected about the effectiveness or safety of the natural compounds. The blend contains: citicoline, tyrosine, phenylalanine, taurine, malic acid, glucuronolactone and caffeine. Phenylalanine, taurine, tyrosine are all amino acids our bodies naturally produce. Malic acid is a natural chemical substance found in food. Glucuronolactone is a byproduct of glucose produced in the liver. Citicoline is a natural compound that produces a chemical in the brain. \"These energy shots have over a dozen ingredients all together, and consumers are ingesting them at very high doses but there is no research of how the ingredients react all together,\" Bauer said. \"It's plausible if you put these 12 things together you will get a good result but it's also possible for them to cause major interactions to medications, or have a negative impact on the liver or kidney. We just don't know at this point.\" Watch Dr. Gupta talk about the the safety of 5-hour Energy \u00bb . Consumers of 5-hour Energy probably won't ever drink enough shots to reach toxic levels of the B vitamins, experts said, but side effects can occur. The maker notes on its Web site the potential \"niacin flush reaction\" from vitamin B3. It would be noticeable but temporary, one expert said. \"If you have too much B3 it can cause tingling in your whole body. You will turn red, flush, but it would only last for about 30 minutes,\" said Jim White, spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. \"Research also shows high doses of vitamin B6 can cause nerve spasm, also temporary trouble with muscle coordination.\" 5-hour Energy's spokesman says that his company doesn't have safety data on the specific blend of ingredients in its product, but believes that side effects are \"rare.\" \"None of our ingredients are synthetic drugs,\" Sperber said. 5-hour Energy also advises consumers to check with their health care provider before taking the booster. Medical experts acknowledged that if taken modestly, the products are unlikely to have a negative impact on health. \"In moderation, it can give you energy. But the problem is people drink coffee, then take these energy shots, then down Red Bull, take Hydroxycut, and it is just too much in the body at one time,\" White said. The makers of 5-hour Energy agree. \"There is no law against stupidity and there is always that person out there that is going to push the envelope and consume too many of them or combine our product with others, but we can't really control that,\" Sperber said.","highlights":"5-Hour Energy promises energy, alertness without jitters to fatigued Americans .\nEach bottle contains caffeine, high doses of B vitamins, and \"energy blend\"\nExpert: No research of how the ingredients react together .","id":"7aaa5fa85ff38eabbdc34cefc58114ffa64e8894"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Gregg Wenzel died six years ago in Ethiopia, the obituaries said he was a U.S. Foreign Service officer killed by a drunken driver on the streets of Addis Ababa. CIA Director Leon Panetta spoke Monday at a ceremony commemorating fallen CIA officers. Monday the public learned the State Department job was a cover for his real occupation: CIA spy. At a ceremony commemorating those who died in the line of duty, CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed Wenzel's affiliation with the agency and noted Wenzel was a member of the first clandestine service class to graduate after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. \"He helped unite the class and kept its spirits high in the toughest moments,\" Panetta said. Wenzel left his job as an attorney to join the agency. He was 33 years old when the car he was riding in was hit by a drunken driver who to this day remains a fugitive. There are now 90 stars prominently displayed on the memorial wall in the spacious atrium of CIA headquarters, each commemorating an officer, like Wenzel, who died while serving the country. The 90th star was added recently, but as with most of the victims, the person's name and nature of service will remain unknown to the public so as not to compromise secret operations. At the annual memorial service attended by hundreds of employees, retirees and family members, Panetta paid homage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. \"Their patriotism and leadership, courage and decency are models for all of us,\" said the director, adding, \"their work is our work now. And their spirit abides with us.\" Panetta also announced the beginning of a new tradition. Family members of the fallen officers will receive a replica of the star from the wall. The first star was given to the brothers of Douglas Mackiernan, the first CIA operations officer killed in the line of duty, shot to death in Tibet after fleeing China in 1950.","highlights":"Gregg Wenzel died six years ago in Ethiopia .\nObituaries said he was a U.S. Foreign Service officer killed by a drunken driver .\nAt ceremony for fallen CIA officers, CIA Director revealed Wenzel was a CIA spy .","id":"3987a00e64d01ba1f406055e07a3e9c18eedd765"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- We've found 15 water parks in your own backyard. Before the dreaded \"are we there yet?\" echoes from the back seat, you'll be in the parking lot. At Splish Splash in Long Island, New York, the most popular offerings pitch you into darkness. Wilderness Territory Waterpark Resort at Wisconsin Dells Near Madison, Wisconsin (55 miles) The Wilderness Territory's most popular ride is the Hurricane: Riders experience the eye of the storm as they rapidly descend through a four-story funnel. Flashes of lightning, rumbling thunder and drifting fog convey the sense of a full-blown natural disaster. Details: 511 E. Adams St., Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, 800\/867-9453, wildernessresort.com. Kids eat free with adult purchase. Other Wilderness locations: A new, 150-acre Wilderness resort in Sevierville, Tennessee. Other water parks in Wisconsin Dells: Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park and Noah's Ark. Kalahari Resort, Sandusky, Ohio Near Toledo, Ohio (60 miles) Kalahari doubled the size of the park in December 2007. The highlight is the Swahili Swirl. In a four-person inner tube, you'll be ejected from a steep tube slide into a 60-foot-diameter bowl; it's a dizzying three times around before you're sucked down the drain and dropped into a 50-foot-long landing pool. It's like a really fun toilet bowl. To mellow out, relax under the 40,000-square-foot clear Texlon roof, which houses tropical plants and allows guests to catch sun year-round. Budget Travel: See the parks . Details: 7000 Kalahari Dr., Sandusky, 877\/525-2427, kalahariresort.com. Look for \"Beat the Clock\" lodging specials on the Web site. Other Kalahari locations: Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. And a new water-park resort is under development in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom, Geauga Lake, Ohio Near Cleveland, Ohio (25 miles) Older children and teens flock to the 60-foot-tall, 253-foot-long Liquid Lightning tornado slide. The ride launches you -- at speeds of up to 24 mph -- from a tube slide into a giant funnel, before spitting you into the calm waters of the finishing pool. Tamer settings include the Splash Landing family activity center, with waterslides, soaker hoses, bubbling geysers and a raining umbrella, and Coral Cove, an activity pool with three basketball hoops and huge climbable animals. Details: 1100 Squires Rd., Aurora, Ohio, 330\/562-8303, wildwaterfun.com. Aquatica by SeaWorld, Orlando, Florida Near Tampa, Florida (85 miles) The signature experience here is the Dolphin Plunge, 250 feet of clear underwater tubes that plunge riders into a lagoon populated by charismatic black-and-white Commerson's dolphins. For a split second, you'll feel as if you're swimming with them. Aquatica's attractions include something for everyone: 36 slides, six rivers and lagoons and more than 80,000 square feet of white-sand beaches. Details: 5800 Water Play Way, Orlando, 888\/800-5447, aquaticabyseaworld.com. Daytona Lagoon, Daytona Beach, Florida Near Orlando, Florida (55 miles) Daytona Lagoon's most hair-raising experience is Blackbeard's Revenge. After you climb the 62-foot tower and mount an inner tube, you'll take a 15 mph, six-story tumble down a twisting, pitch-black tunnel slide. Don't miss the brand-new Kraken's Conquest, either: It's a four-lane, 55-foot-long ProRacer-series speed slide. Friends and families can challenge each other to high-speed, watery showdowns. Details: 601 Earl St., Daytona Beach, 386\/254-5020, daytonalagoon.com. The park offers a different special each day; for example, every Thursday you can get unlimited use of miniature golf, the carousel, and the rock-climbing wall from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for $10. Splash Island at Cypress Gardens, Winter Haven, Florida Near St. Petersburg, Florida (74 miles) At the interactive water-play area, the towering Tikki Head -- basically a massive, dressed-up bucket -- dumps more than 300 gallons of water over bathers every few minutes. The variety in the surrounding Cypress Gardens theme park is impressive, too, with a concert venue, picturesque gardens and numerous animal exhibits. Details: 6000 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven, 863\/324-2111, cypressgardens.com\/splashIsland. Water World, Denver, Colorado Near Boulder, Colorado (30 miles) The 67-acre Water World's calling card is the Voyage to the Center of the Earth. Brave riders hop onto inner tubes and journey into the dark -- where they're confronted by large, animatronic dinosaurs, including a 15-foot T. rex. If you're scared of the dark, but not much else, the TurboRacer might be more your style: Jump headfirst onto toboggan mats and race your friends down four stories, eventually launching -- at more than 20 mph -- onto a straightaway to the finish line. Each rider's time is recorded, so you can tell if you're the fastest waterstud in Denver. Details: 1800 W. 89th Ave., Federal Heights, Colorado, 303\/427-7873, waterworldcolorado.com. Families can bring a picnic into the park; parking is free. Gulf Islands Waterpark, Gulfport, Mississippi Near New Orleans, Louisiana (77 miles) The most popular ride here is the Horn Island Blaster water roller coaster. The attraction ferries two riders at a time through more than 500 feet of twists and turns, including some thrilling uphill blasts at angles greater than 45 degrees. Families with young children might opt instead for the Ship Island Wreck, a slide for kids as young as 2. Details: 13100 16th St. Gulfport, 866\/485-3386, gulfislandswaterpark.com. Water Park of America, Bloomington, Minnesota Near Minneapolis\/St. Paul, Minnesota (13 miles) Given that it's adjacent to the gargantuan Mall of America, it's no wonder that the Water Park of America is a year-round attraction. The highlight is its mile-long indoor Whitewater Family Raft Ride, which propels riders over a river suspended 10 stories above the cars and trucks zipping along Interstate 494. Other standouts include an immense video arcade and the Trillium Spa -- the latter for those who would prefer to skip the action. Details: 1700 American Blvd. E., Bloomington, 952\/698-8888, waterparkofamerica.com. The Radisson, which connects to the park, offers packages that include tickets. Splish Splash, Long Island, New York Near New York City (73 miles) The most popular offerings pitch you into darkness to up the thrill factor: Dragon's Den, Barrier Reef, Hollywood Stunt Rider and the super popular Alien Invasion. The last ride begins by blasting your four-person raft down a steep slide before spinning it out of control and launching it into a dark pool. For raw intensity, try the Cliff Diver -- you'll drop eight stories in three seconds. 'Nuff said. Details: 2549 Splish Splash Dr., Calverton, N.Y., 631\/727-3600, splishsplashlongisland.com. Mountain Creek Waterpark, Vernon, New Jersey Near Trenton, New Jersey (89 miles) Vertigo, a fully enclosed water coaster, cannons riders around tight curves in total darkness. Passengers on the park's signature ride, High Anxiety, drop four stories in the dark before entering into a funnel at breakneck speed. Details: 200 Rte. 94, Vernon, N.J., 973\/864-8444, mountaincreekwaterpark.com. Season-pass benefits include two bring-a-friend-for-free days and free parking. Raging Waters, San Jose, California Near San Francisco, California (50 miles) The 23-acre Raging Waters includes the winding, 60-foot-long Blue Thunder\/White Lightning tunnel slide, and the newest attention-grabber, Dragon's Den, which catapults a two-person tube through darkness before a sudden, gut-wrenching drop into calmer waters. Details: 2333 S. White Rd., San Jose, 408\/238-9900, rwsplash.com. Other Raging Waters locations: San Dimas (near L.A.) and Sacramento, California, (season passes are good for all three parks). Parks nearby: Another option in nearby Irvine, California, is Wild Rivers. Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe, Greensboro, North Carolina Near Raleigh, North Carolina (78 miles) Wet 'n Wild is well-known for its speed chutes like Daredevil Drop, with a hair-raising 76-foot plunge, and Double Barrel Blast, a ride which ends abruptly in midair -- launching you from a four-foot edge before you hit the pool. Contrary to its name, Wet 'n Wild also lets you skip the water altogether: The Skycoaster combines the thrills of bungee-jumping and hang gliding, allowing up to three people at a time to experience the sensation of flying without getting even a little soggy. Details: 3910 S. Holden Rd., Greensboro, 336\/852-9721, emeraldpointe.com. Wet 'n Wild offers various promotions throughout the summer, such as Home Educator's Day (August 20). Splashtown Waterpark, San Antonio, Texas Near Austin, Texas (80 miles) The 20-acre Splashtown features more than 50 rides and attractions, from simple wave pools to true screamers, such as the five-story Hydras tube-slide tower and the aptly named Wedgie, a precipitous speed slide that tugs on your trunks like an 8th-grade bully as it fires you into the pool below. Details: 3600 N. I-35, San Antonio, 210\/227-1400, splashtownsa.com. Special events include magic shows and \"dive-in\" movie screenings. Parking is free. Parks nearby: Other area parks include Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, Texas. If you find yourself in Dallas, Bahama Beach is an option. Six Flags White Water, Atlanta, Georgia Near Athens, Georgia (73 miles) The nine-story Cliffhanger is one of the world's tallest free falls. It's so high that just peeking over the top might be thrill enough. But the signature ride is the Tornado, an intense four-person inner-tube nosedive of greater than 50 vertical feet -- all while 5,000 gallons of water swirls around you. Details: 250 Cobb Pkwy N., Marietta, Ga., 770\/948-9290, sixflags.com\/whitewater. Other Six Flags locations: Six Flags has many Hurricane Harbor water parks adjacent to existing amusement parks; locations include Gurnee\/Chicago, Illinois; Arlington, Texas; Eureka, Missouri; Jackson, New Jersey; Valencia\/Los Angeles, California; Agawam, Massachusetts; and Largo, Maryland. Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, doubled the size of the park in 2007 .\nAt Water World in Denver visitors can hop onto inner tubes and journey into the dark .\nThe Cliff Diver at Splish Splash in Long Island will drop daredevils eight stories .","id":"35d5faf70a35e01e81d5cd4e0406dbe5cb1be10a"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican police have arrested a \"highly dangerous\" U.S. citizen wanted on weapons charges, the Michoacan state attorney's office said. Robert Hamlin Wainwright, 66, was arrested in tMexico at the request of the U.S. Marshal's Office. Robert Hamlin Wainwright, 66, was arrested in the city of Zamora at the request of the U.S. Marshal's Office in Tucson, Arizona, the Mexican authorities said. He faces deportation. A January 27 notice by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wainwright, who has a prior felony conviction, was being investigated by the Indiana Environmental Task Force when firearms and ammunition were found at his home and business. He was tried and found guilty of firearms violations and was awaiting sentencing when he fled to Mexico, the EPA said. Wainwright, a convicted child molester, also faces charges of discharging a pollutant into Indiana waters. Mexican officials also announced Tuesday the arrest last month of a Canadian citizen on child pornography charges. According to the federal Secretariat of Public Security, Arthur Leland Sayler operated 36 child pornography Web sites in the United States and Mexico. Officials said they confiscated 29 DVDs that could house about 4 million photographs, 25 disc drives, two flash cards, nine floppy disks, 96 CD-ROMS, mobile telephone SIM cards and two Web servers.","highlights":"Robert Hamlin Wainwright, 66, was wanted on weapons charges .\nWainwright, a convicted child molester, also charged with polluting Indiana waters .\nArthur Leland Sayler accused of operating 36 child pornography Web sites .\nOfficials say they confiscated 29 DVDs that could hold 4 million photographs .","id":"586f5184566d52ff9f11cea8b36b419d69025395"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Entering his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter may not be able to see the finishing line, but he knows it's coming. In \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,\" the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione are on the trail of evil. In \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,\" the sixth film in the Potter series, he's like a marathon runner who senses that he's got this course beat: He's still pacing himself, but there's a definite spring in his step. Potter's confidence seems to be a product of Daniel Radcliffe's authority in the role as much as anything. He's decided he's the hero of the piece, and he's happy with that; Radcliffe plays him with such implacable conviction and such lightness, it's becoming harder to worry about the character's plight. He can be reckless and impatient, but by now he's essentially untouchable. His chums may be prey to hormonal surges -- buckets of screen time is devoted to Ron's love life and Hermione's lack of same -- but our Harry stays focused. While Ron moons over his girlfriend, every night Potter takes a textbook to bed with him. Potter 101: A guide to Harry Potter \u00bb . This battered book of potions comes with scarily insightful scribbles by a former student, the titular half-blood prince, giving Potter a distinct edge over his classmates and that increasingly conflicted bleached blond, Draco Malfoy. More important, it also gets him in good with this installment's designated dodgy faculty member, Professor Horace Slughorn. We know the drill by now: Slughorn has special knowledge that Harry must prize out of him, while the teacher's own leanings remain tantalizingly ambiguous. A special guest star in all but name, Jim Broadbent plays this mildewed academic with appropriately Dickensian panache and an undertow of sympathy (first spotted disguised as an armchair, the suspiciously solicitous Slughorn maintains at least one foot in the closet). Adapted by Steve Kloves and directed (like Potter V, \"The Order of the Phoenix\") by the efficient, self-effacing David Yates, \"Half-Blood Prince\" is as brisk and nimble as J.K. Rowling's two-steps-forward, one-step-back narrative stratagems allow. It risks annoying some fans by axing one significant character and a potential action show-stopper, but it's actually the overarching storyline that feels skimpy; the movie is replete with lovely, inventive design details and idiosyncratic effects work, while Yates' reluctance to pump up the bombast might be counted sweet relief after the latest bout of blockbusting overkill. iReport.com: \"Potter\" fans review the film . A trio of evenly spaced set-pieces do generate enough excitement to make this an iffy proposition for parents with younger kids; in particular Dumbledore and Harry's climactic cave expedition is an intense, nightmarish standout. But for all this series' constitutional doom-and-gloom, what's truly charming about the Harry Potter movies is the rare privilege of seeing Radcliffe, Rupert Grint (Ron), Emma Watson (Hermione) and the others growing up before our eyes. Video gallery: See the stars now and then \u00bb . We've now had eight formative years -- the first film came out in 2001 -- telescoped into 15 hours or so of tumultuous screen time, and anyone who's stayed the course with them will feel a connection. iReport.com: Share your \"Potter\" review . Soon it will be time to let these kids go and find their own way in the Muggle world, but what rich, strange and wonderful home movies we'll have to look back on. \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" is rated PG and runs 153 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" is sixth film in Harry Potter series .\nNew film another success, a great tribute to Daniel Radcliffe's abilities .\nFilm is rated PG, though not all of it is appropriate for young children .","id":"bdfc1fd908064da34cf55bd3282fbb033c3d2005"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- An Iranian airliner that crashed Wednesday, killing all 168 passengers and crew, plunged into the ground and disintegrated on impact, according to a security official. Debris from the plane was littered around the crash site. Images of the crash site show a smoldering crater scattered with charred pieces of the plane and tattered passports. Ten members of the country's youth judo team were aboard the Caspian Airlines plane, said several sources, including Iran's Press TV. The government-backed network said the dead included eight athletes and two coaches. The plane \"disintegrated into pieces,\" said Col. Masood Jafari Nasab, security commander of Qazvin, the city nearest to the crash site in northwestern Iran. \"The aircraft all of a sudden fell out of the sky and exploded on impact, where you see the crater,\" a witness told Press TV from the crash site. Watch images of the crash site \u00bb . The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been found, state television reported late Wednesday. The crash was at least the fifth major airline accident in the world this year, following crashes of planes flown by Colgan Air, Turkish Airlines, Air France and Yemenia Airways. A US Airways pilot managed to land his plane safely on the Hudson river in New York City in January, with no major injuries, after the plane lost power. But aviation safety expert John Wiley said there is no reason to fear air travel in general, and no single airline or aircraft is particularly dangerous. The three most recent crashes -- in which a total of 548 people died -- involved different planes, flown by different airlines, in different stages of flight, he said. Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 -- a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154M plane -- went down near the village of Jannatabad near Qazvin at 11:33 a.m. (2:03 a.m. ET) Wednesday, Press TV reported. Conversations between the pilot and the ground were normal and did not indicate any technical problems, the network's Web site reported, citing the managing director of Iran's airport authority without naming him. Some witnesses say the plane caught fire before crashing, Press TV said. The plane descended very quickly, Wiley told CNN, but it may have been circling, trying to land, rather than plummeting to the ground. Qazvin Police Chief Hossein Behzadpour and Mohammad Reza Montazer Khorasan, the head of the disaster management center in Iran's health ministry, both confirmed that all 168 people on board died, Press TV reported. The U.S. State Department, in a statement, extended its condolences to the victims. Department spokesman Ian Kelly said officials were working to determine whether any Americans were on board. Aviation analyst Kieran Daly told CNN that many aircraft operating in Iran are aging Tupolevs, some dating back to the 1970s. He described Tupolevs as \"workhorses of the old Soviet aviation system.\" But he said the Caspian Airlines fleet is based on a slightly newer design, dating to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Pictures from the scene were \"consistent with a high-speed impact,\" he said. But he added that there could be large debris not seen on television, and that could change his analysis. Watch Daly talk about the crash \u00bb . A team of investigators from the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee is flying to the crash scene to join the investigation, the agency said in a posting on its Web site. They will work alongside Iranian aviation authorities, the agency said. An agency official declined to comment further, saying the plane was operated by an Iranian company and nothing is known about it. A Tupolev representative told CNN the manufacturer will not comment until the aviation committee releases its report on the crash. The Tupolev 154 is essentially banned in the West because it does not comply with European noise and pollution regulations, but it has a safer-than-average accident record, Wiley said. Wednesday's crash is the first on record for Caspian Airlines, which was founded in 1993, he added. The Iranian newspaper Hamshahri reported that the plane was flying from Tehran and was headed to Yerevan, Armenia. The semi-official Mehr news agency listed the names of 153 passengers and 15 crew members. At least 42 of the names appeared to be Armenian, but it was not clear if they were from the former Soviet republic or if they were ethnically Armenian citizens of Iran. The plane crashed 16 minutes after takeoff, said the newspaper, quoting a spokesman from Iran's civil aviation organization. See a map of the crash location \u00bb . That would have put the flight in one of the safest stages of travel, according to International Air Transport Association data. Only about 5 percent of accidents take place during the phase called en-route climb, 16 to 20 minutes into a flight, when a plane climbs to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. About half of accidents take place during landing. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed his condolences to the victims' families, as did the European Union. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent his sympathies to the presidents of Iran and Armenia, the Kremlin said. Qazvin is the largest city in the province of Qazvin and is its capital, with an estimated population of 330,000. It is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Tehran, the capital of Iran. The last crash in Iran involving a Tupolev plane occurred in 2006, according to the Web site airdisaster.com. That crash occurred on an Iran Air Tour flight from the port city of Bandar Abbas; it crashed and caught fire during landing, the Web site reported. Twenty-nine of the 147 people on board died in that crash. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr, Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow, Russia, and Ayesha Durgahee in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"State TV reports plane's flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder found .\nAll 168 aboard believed to be dead in Iranian plane crash .\nPlane is thought to have crashed near the Iranian city of Qazvin .\nQazvin is the largest city in the province of Qazvin .","id":"16fbb11447fbce4f0900a6e32e9ebecddd378fbb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama is not shy about showing off his jump shot on the basketball court, but on Tuesday night, it was his baseball skills that were put to the test. President Obama throws out the first pitch at the 2009 All-Star Game onTuesday in St Louis, Missouri. Obama, clad in a Chicago White Sox jacket and blue jeans, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis, Missouri. His low pitch barely reached home plate and the mitt of St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols. Obama became the fifth president to throw out the first pitch at an All-Star Game, but the first in 33 years. He is following in the footsteps of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Asked about plans to practice before the game, Obama said Tuesday, \"I want to loosen up my arm a little bit.\" \"The last time I threw a pitch was at the American League championship series, and I just wanted to keep it high,\" the president said of his opening pitch at the 2005 Chicago White Sox-Anaheim Angels game. Aiming high is a good strategy, says St. Louis Cardinals scout Matt Blood, but it takes more than on-point aim to make the perfect pitch. \"Throw it with some force, don't lob it in there. Try to get a good downhill plane. Try to keep it in the strike zone,\" said Blood, who will be at the game Tuesday. HLN sports anchor Larry Smith, who has thrown out a few first pitches, says Obama has to be careful to \"not try to overpower it.\" \"There's no speed gun on this. Just make it a nice solid throw to the catcher,\" Smith said. \"The one thing he doesn't want to do is bounce it home. Mr. Obama is pretty athletic, so I think he'll ace this.\" Overpowering it shouldn't be an issue for the president, who joked Tuesday that he'd be surprised if his 2005 pitch exceeded 30 miles per hour. The president also needs to make sure he uses his whole arm, Blood said. \"You'll see a lot of people throw kind of out front. Their elbow will start out front and they'll never get their arm back behind their body, and won't get a full arm swing. It will be real short, and not very rhythmic,\" he said. Former Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Bouton said Obama's at the top of his game, and he can \"afford to take a few chances.\" \"He should toss it a little further to the left. The righties are down by 15 runs in the ninth, they've got no team leadership. They're fighting with each other in the opposing dugout,\" he joked. All kidding aside, Obama should \"just go with his instincts, like any good athlete,\" Bouton said. \"You don't want to throw the ball into the ground or behind you, that's for sure.\" Obama also doesn't want to do what Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory did in his opening pitch for the Reds 2007 season. He missed home plate by 30 feet. Video of the Democratic mayor's embarrassing throw has been viewed nearly 2 million times on YouTube. But the opening pitch isn't always a light-hearted moment. President Bush described his opening pitch at Yankees stadium during the 2001 World Series as \"the most nervous moment\" of his presidency so far. The game came less than two months after the September 11 terrorists attacks. Bush wore an FDNY jacket to pay tribute to the New York City Fire Department. He stepped onto the pitchers mound, and before a cheering crowd of nearly 60,000, he threw a strike. The crowded erupted in chants of \"U-S-A, U-S-A.\" Before the game Tuesday night, Obama and all of the living former presidents will appear in a community service video. After the video is shown, Obama will take the field at Busch Stadium and greet the six St. Louis Cardinal Hall of Fame players. He then will throw his pitch to Cardinals' all-star first baseman Albert Pujols. Major League Baseball said the president will wear a specially made glove for his appearance, with a script Obama 44 and an American flag on it. The glove will then be sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. If Obama has butterflies about his pitch, Blood says the president should use the nervous energy to his advantage. \"For Obama, I'm sure he's dealt with much more pressure than throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game, but I would -- instead of seeing it as pressure -- I would think of it as an exciting opportunity and turn the nervousness into positive adrenaline,\" he said. CNN's Steve Brusk contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama throws opening pitch at All-Stars game Tuesday .\nCincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory got lots of attention for his embarrassing throw .\nObama should \"turn the nervousness into positive adrenaline,\" scout advises .","id":"fc8cfc3c9866c593b063828c7d2f9b594a89e7e2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Janet Tavakoli is president of Chicago-based Tavakoli Structured Finance and the author of \"Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street\" (Wiley, 2009), a book about the causes of the global financial meltdown. Her company is a consulting firm for institutions and institutional investors on derivatives, the securitization of assets, and mergers and acquisitions. Her firm has done work for investment banks but not for Goldman Sachs; she worked for the company in the 1980s. Janet Tavakoli says Goldman Sachs' record profits were enabled by the taxpayer-funded bailout. CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced record earnings Tuesday of $3.44 billion for the second quarter of 2009. Goldman's stock price leapt 77 percent for the first half of 2009, and closed Tuesday at $149.66 a share. Without an ongoing series of front- and backdoor bailouts financed by U.S. taxpayers, most of Goldman's record profits would not have been possible. In April 2009, Goldman Sachs' CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, who received record salary and bonus compensation of $68.5 million in 2007, said that bonus decisions made before the credit crisis looked \"self-serving and greedy in hindsight.\" Now, they look self-serving and greedy with foresight. Goldman set aside $11.4 billion for employee compensation and benefits, up 33 percent from last year. That's enough to pay each employee more than $390,000, just for the first six months of this year. In June, Goldman bought back its preferred shares, repaying $10 billion it received from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, and setting it free of limits on executive compensation and dividends. But pay is not the key issue. U.S. taxpayers deserve a large cut of the profits, not the chump change -- less than a half-billion dollars -- they got from preferred shares in the company and the relatively small amount they could get from warrants in its stock. U.S. taxpayers should insist that a large part of Goldman's revenues and profits belong to the American public. TARP money was just part of a series of bailouts and concessions that allowed Goldman to prosper at the expense of a flawed regulatory system. In March 2008, Goldman, a primary dealer in Treasury securities, was among the beneficiaries of a massive backdoor bailout by the Federal Reserve Bank. At the time, Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, was treasury secretary. In an unprecedented move, the Fed created a Term Securities Lending Facility, or TSLF, that allowed primary dealers like Goldman to give non-government-guaranteed \"triple-A\" rated assets to the Fed in exchange for loans. The trouble was that everyone knew the triple-A assets were not the safe securities they were advertised to be. Many were backed by mortgage loans that were failing at super speed. The bailout of American International Group, or AIG, ballooned from $85 billion in September 2008 to $182.5 billion. Of that money, $90 billion was funneled as collateral payments to banks that traded with AIG. American taxpayers may never see a dime of their bailout money again, but Goldman saw plenty. Goldman may be the largest indirect beneficiary of AIG's bailout, receiving $12.9 billion in collateral, including securities lending transactions, from AIG after the government bailed out the insurance company. The key question is whether Goldman asked AIG to insure products that were as dodgy as the doomed deal from Goldman Sachs Alternative Mortgage Products exposed by Fortune's Allan Sloan in his October 16, 2007, Loeb Award-winning article: \"Junk Mortgages Under the Microscope.\" If the federal government had not intervened and if AIG had gone into bankruptcy, Goldman probably would not have received its $12.9 billion from AIG. U.S. taxpayers and the American economy are owed some of the bailout money passed directly through AIG to Goldman. Wall Street firms also reaped trading windfalls when AIG needed to close out its derivative transactions. This was the most lucrative windfall business in the history of the derivatives markets. When AIG left money on the table, it was U.S. taxpayer money. Goldman Sachs was granted bank holding company status in the fall of 2008. It already had the temporary ability to borrow from the Fed through the TSLF, which would have expired in January 2009. Now it has permanent access to lending from the Fed. Goldman can now compete with the largest U.S. banks and borrow money at interest rates pushed as close to zero as possible by the Fed. Goldman gets a further benefit: favorable accounting rule changes. In addition, Goldman issued $30 billion of debt with a valuable government guarantee that remains outstanding. Meanwhile, the American public faces a rising unemployment rate, falling housing prices, rising unemployment, higher local taxes and a dismal economic outlook. Interested men with reputations and fortunes at stake rode roughshod over public interest. The American public is owed part of the profits Goldman was able to make because of the largesse of our Congress. Wall Street's \"financial meth labs,\" including Goldman's, massively pumped out bad bonds and credit derivatives that have melted down savings accounts, pension funds, the municipal bond market and the American economy. Risky assets, leverage and fraud led to acute distress in the global financial markets. The biggest crime on the American economy may go unpunished with no consequences to the perpetrators. The biggest crime was not predatory lending, but predatory securitizations, packages of loans that did not deserve the ratings or prices at the time they were sold. They ballooned what should have been a relatively small problem into a global crisis. Wall Street owes the American public for its key role in bringing the global economy -- and in particular, the U.S. economy -- to its knees. Goldman is not alone in owing the American public. It is not the worst of all of the Wall Street firms. But among all of Wall Street's offenders, it is the most well-connected, and Goldman was the firm that cleaned up the most as the result of government bailouts. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Janet Tavakoli.","highlights":"Tavakoli: Goldman Sachs reported record second-quarter profits .\nShe says Goldman and Wall Street helped bring down the U.S. economy .\nGoldman reaped huge profit enabled by help it got in federal bailout, she says .\nTavakoli: Taxpayers deserve a large share of what Goldman made .","id":"d96168c862c1cd5061c27cbce6a80fc6a156ddfa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctor James Braude leads a group medical practice in an elegant Atlanta, Georgia, office decorated with designer furnishings. It doesn't look like a charity asking for handouts. But it is asking. Obama, pictured July 1 in Virginia, has been touring the states to promote his plan to voters. \"On some days we've counted up to 30 patients a day who've lost their jobs and their health insurance,\" Braude said. So Braude and his colleagues offer as much free care as they can afford. The doctors have also begun discreetly inviting paying patients to contribute to a fund, helping more people get care they haven't got the money for. \"We're doctors. We're addicted to helping people. And when we can't, we go through withdrawal.\" Millions of Americans have always gone without the kind of routine medical care that is seen as a basic right in many countries. The U.S. economic downturn -- meaning people lose health insurance when they lose their job -- and the election of President Barack Obama have coincided to increase both the need and the opportunity to address the plight of uninsured America. Obama's ambition is to provide insurance for the estimated 50 million Americans without coverage. Watch why many in rural U.S. have concerns \u00bb . The insurance is expected to cover doctors, hospital care and prescription drugs. But just about every detail is still being negotiated so it's not certain who would be covered, what they would be covered for or whether people who don't want insurance would be forced to have it and pay for it. The plans that emerge could become the Obama administration's most ambitious domestic program and potentially a big, early test of his presidency. American medical care needs attention . Even though nearly 50 million of its roughly 300 million people have no routine health care, the United States spends more going to the doctor than any other industrialized nation in the world. Fully one-sixth of the economy is devoted to it. Under the current hybrid system, the U.S. Government pays for health care for ex-military, the extremely poor and the elderly. But the vast majority of Americans have to pay for their own health care and most do it where they work; many employers arrange health insurance and partly subsidize the premiums. The rapidly rising cost is crushing all kinds of businesses, from car companies to family farms. At the same time, hospitals and doctors say they are falling behind because the payments they receive from insurance companies aren't keeping up with their costs. \"Within a decade we will be spending one out of every five dollars we earn on health care,\" Obama said recently. \"In 30 years, it will be one out of every three. That is untenable, that is unacceptable, and I will not allow it as president of the United States.\" The politics: Deep disagreement . There is a lot of disagreement about what to do. Congress has the job of actually turning the push for change into a functioning government program. Democratic lawmakers don't all support the president's plan or agree on how to pay for it. Republicans are split in a different way. Some lawmakers are trying to influence the Democrats' plans and others are proposing entirely different alternatives. \"If you look at their plan, it really is a big government-run plan that will take control of the delivery of health care in America,\" said Republican congressional leader John Boehner. His suggestion: \"Improve the current system so it works better.\" The most profound disagreement centers on whether Washington should create its own new health-insurance concern to compete with the private companies that provide insurance now. Obama and many Democrats favor it; Republicans are dead set against it. Part of the problem is that insurance companies fear the government will put them out of business, by favoring or subsidizing its own scheme. The other part of the problem is more basic and ideological. The U.S. government already runs enormous health-insurance programs for the poor, the elderly and military veterans -- but many Americans see potentially mandatory government health-insurance as the foreign-born offspring of socialist states. The economics: More debt . Political opposition notwithstanding, the economics are going to be a problem too. Health care is a $2 trillion-dollar-a-year industry that would have to expand to cover millions of people who are now uninsured. The president has some ideas for new efficiencies but most estimates suggest the total cost of caring for Americans would rise dramatically. Washington is already carrying record debt and would have to find a way to pay for it. One assessment by the Congressional Budget Office of the Senate Democrat plan estimated it would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and only provide coverage for about 16 million Americans. There's also the possibility that the impact of reform on many employers and virtually every wage-earner across the country will have a spillover effect on the economy as a whole, still lodged in recession. The health care industry: Undecided . Then there is the place where the politics and the economy overlap: the health care industry. Doctors alone have spent roughly two-thirds of a billion dollars lobbying lawmakers in the last 10 years, according to the independent Center for Responsive Politics. Add pharmaceutical companies and hospitals, nurses and other health care professionals and you get one of the most influential forces in U.S. politics. They successfully organized to defeat health care reform when the Clinton administration tried it 15 years ago. The industry benefits from one crucial thing: Americans like their doctors. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released July 1 found 54 percent of people worry that their health care costs would go up if the administration's proposals get passed and only one in five thinks that his or her families would be better off under the Obama plan. With all that in mind, Atlanta's Dr. Braude says he's optimistic the reform can succeed. If not, he says, \"we go back to the same system and we have 50 million people without insurance, which means you are one brain tumor away from bankruptcy.\"","highlights":"About 50 million Americans are without any health insurance .\nPeople losing jobs in the recession also lose health insurance .\nGovernment health provision care largely confined to veterans, elderly and poor .\nExtending government role is health care is politically hot potato .","id":"53cbc2c85085f47168371d98dc45d18560e5b16d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It appears that Kevin Bacon was one degree too close to Bernie Madoff. Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, had investments with Bernie Madoff, Bacon's publicist says. Bacon, the prolific actor, and his wife, fellow screen star Kyra Sedgwick, had investments with Madoff, the financial guru accused of swindling his clients out of $50 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme, Bacon's publicist told CNN Tuesday. Publicist Allen Eichhorn did not say how much the couple lost, declining to address reports that the figure was in the millions. \"Let's not speculate,\" he said. Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and a charity run by director Steven Speilberg mark some of the other Hollywood heavyweights allegedly bilked by Madoff, who remains in his Manhattan home on house arrest after posting $10 million bail. Bacon, whose credits include \"Mystic River,\" \"Footloose\" and the recent political biopic \"Frost\/Nixon,\" has appeared in 64 movies or television programs since 1978, according to the Internet Movie Database. It's a career that spawned the parlor game \"Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,\" in which players attempt to link any other actor to Bacon based on the massive number of co-stars with whom he has worked. Sedgwick stars in TNT's \"The Closer,\" and has screen credits that include \"Singles\" and \"Born on the Fourth of July.\" TNT is a unit of Time Warner, CNN's parent company. Madoff was charged earlier this month with securities fraud in a scandal that has shaken financial communities around the globe. He is accused of running the $50 billion Ponzi scheme from his investment advisory business -- a scam that could result in huge losses to financial firms, charities and individual investors worldwide.","highlights":"Bernard Madoff is accused of operating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme .\nActor Kevin Bacon and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer are among alleged victims .\nMadoff is a Wall Street adviser and former Nasdaq chairman .","id":"558b3bf3711166a91fb9a95b20cd77d4f140b46c"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- From the moment Justice David Souter announced he'd be stepping down, Washington has been gearing up for a confirmation fight. But as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Judge Sonia Sotomayor yesterday, \"Unless you have a complete meltdown, you are going to get confirmed.\" Robert Bork is not the only nominee who did not make it to the Supreme Court. Let's take a look back at eight nominees who didn't make it to the bench, at least on their first try. 1. Robert Bork . In our time, the most famous rejected nominee is Robert H. Bork, a legal scholar and U.S. Court of Appeals judge with a long paper trail of conservative opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, Bork could have tilted the Court decisively to the right. As a known quantity, he was an easy target for liberal opponents, who organized a campaign against him. He was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee after 12 days of hearings. Mental Floss: Washington's struggle to find a chief justice . 2. Alexander Wolcott . \"Oh degraded Country! How humiliating to the friends of moral virtue -- of religion and of all that is dear to the lover of his Country!\" the New-York Gazette Advertiser wailed in 1811 over President James Madison's nomination of customs inspector Alexander Wolcott. Wolcott's strong enforcement of the controversial embargoes against Great Britain and France cost him support in the Senate and in the press. The Senate turned him down by a 9-24 vote, the widest rejection in Supreme Court history. 3. Roger Taney . Roger B. Taney (pronounced tawny) is largely remembered as the chief justice who handed down the Dred Scott decision in 1857. With his sepulchral countenance, Taney is inextricably linked to the grim ruling that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. But when President Andrew Jackson nominated him in 1835 as associate justice, opposition Whigs were still smarting from Taney's removal of government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States while he was a recess-appointed Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate voted to indefinitely postpone the nomination. However, after Chief Justice John Marshall died in 1836, Jackson sent Taney's name up again. He was confirmed, this time as chief justice. 4. Ebenezer Hoar . You might think the Senate just couldn't stomach elevating to the highest court in the land a man with the name Ebenezer Hoar, but it seems the senators were offended by something other than aesthetics. As President Ulysses S. Grant's attorney general, Hoar had insisted on rewarding merit rather than political loyalty, thus blocking a well-trod route for patronage. So when Grant nominated Hoar to the Court in 1869, miffed Republican senators gave the virtuous Hoar thumbs down. Mental Floss: What was Marbury v. Madison? Who were Roe and Wade? 5 and 6. Wheeler Hazard Peckham and William B. Hornblower . A senator has the right to reject a court nomination simply because the nominee is from the senator's home state. Upon this invocation of \"senatorial courtesy\" rests the demise of Wheeler Hazard Peckham and William B. Hornblower. Both men were nominated by President Grover Cleveland. Both nominees were New Yorkers, and New York Sen. David Hill invoked senatorial courtesy to squelch their nominations in 1894. (Peckham's brother, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, became a justice in 1896.) 7. Harriet Miers . Some nominees withdrew themselves from consideration before they could be rejected. Such was the case of Harriet Miers, whom President George W. Bush nominated in 2005, but withdrew under criticism that she was unqualified. Mental Floss: Why there's a Mohammed statue at the Supreme Court? 8. Douglas Ginsburg . Another withdrawal was that of Douglas Ginsburg (not related to current justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), the conservative, former pot-smoking federal appellate judge who is a footnote in the Bork saga. After Bork was Borked, Reagan eyed the more moderate Anthony Kennedy for the seat. But Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) threatened a filibuster. So Reagan turned right again and proposed Ginsburg. But there was no getting around the revelation that Ginsburg had inhaled. Ginsburg withdrew himself from consideration, Reagan put forward Kennedy and the Senate, eager to move on, easily confirmed him. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"A total of eight Supreme Court nominees have failed to get a seat on the high bench .\nEbenezer Hoar got a thumbs down after blocking a well-trod route for patronage .\nWheeler Peckham and William B. Hornblower rejected through home state courtesy .\nNewspaper claimed Alexander Wolcott's nomination degraded the country .","id":"12c7ae9e202eeeb87153ec5d6e1a7a850a9c4384"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After 40 years of appearing on the silver screen, actor Amitabh Bachchan is the elder statesman of Indian cinema and is possibly the most recognized man in India. The Big B: The patriarch of Indian cinema has appeared in over 180 films. Born to a famous Indian poet, Bachchan made his screen debut at the age of 27 and has gone on to star in over 180 films. As such an established star he has seen Indian film making change over the years, weathered changing audience tastes and the evolution of Bollywood cinema. \"I'm actually very happy with our content. Even though we were ridiculed, and the West were very cynical about the way we made our films and the content that it contained,\" he told CNN. \"But that very aspect has now become its USP (unique selling point) almost, and people love to see that. I would not want to change that. I would expect that this is how and what our cinema is all about.\" If Indian films have gained a new found international interest, the way that Indian films are produced has also changed. From the industry's alleged connection to organized crime to better production quality, Bachchan has worked within the system and at the sharp end of making movies. \"We have our own modes of working and how does one actually decipher that the person that you're working with has some kind of an underground link? You know, 'I am mafia' doesn't come written on somebody's forehead. \"Whether he, you know, collects his money from wherever it is ... is really not our concern. We are interested the story, the concept, in our roles, the director who's going to be making it, in the creative aspect. That's it, \" he said. The role that propelled him to superstardom was of a working class hero standing up to oppression and injustice in the 1975 film \"Sholay\". \"During the 1970s there was a feeling of great dissatisfaction in the youth that the establishment of the system is not doing enough to take care of their issues and problems. When one individual stood out and challenged the system and came out victorious he suddenly became a hero,\" he told CNN. \"I fortunately happened to be the actor that they chose to represent that kind of philosophy or thinking. And therefore I became a beneficiary.\" From being the \"angry young man\" of cinema in India he is now more commonly known as \"The Big B\" to the media and his millions of fans. But being such a public figure has never been a problem; Bachchan writes a daily blog and believes that it's in an actor's make-up to thrive in public attention and that stars should be able to deal with praise as well as criticism. \"I think we all live to be recognized ... creativity would be useless if no one ever saw it or recognized it. We want our work to be known. \"I enjoy my blog greatly because I invite comment. Not all of them are complimentary, many of them are abusive, but I never moderate it because I think it's important to know what the rest of the world actually thinks about you.\" Taking the good with the bad, Bachchan was recently criticized for reportedly being less than impressed by Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning film, \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" But says Bachchan the unnecessary controversy was because of comments from readers on his blog had been mistakenly attributed to him. \"I was wrongly accused. I did get to see the film. I thought it was a very well made film, great story,\" he told CNN. If \"Slumdog Millionaire\" illustrates current interest in Indian films by the West, Indian movies have also developed in ways more familiar to Hollywood movies. \"Life has become a lot faster. We've had to move with the times and adjust. If you were to analyze an indie film of the 1970s ... there would be far, far less editing cuts of, say, a film that was released in 2009. That philosophy [from TV editing], for some peculiar reason, has now translated into the minds of the audiences and they expect the same kind of treatment when they go out to see a movie,\" he told CNN.","highlights":"Indian actor has been superstar of Bollywood cinema for 40 years .\nKnown as 'The Big B'; became icon to millions after 'Sholay' film of 1975 .\nBlogs regularly and seen great changes in attitudes to Indian film and its influence .\nCaused furore when mistakenly reported to have criticized 'Slumdog Millionaire'","id":"a9f5bd413fcb0688530099b203f123dfaf094080"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two tainted lots of a generic version of a drug reportedly taken by Michael Jackson have been recalled by the drug maker. However, no link has been established between the drug -- a powerful sedative and anesthetic called propofol -- and the singer's death. \"I have no way of knowing anything related to this specific product -- if it might have played a role or not played a role,\" said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, the chief investigator on the recall for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency is not involved in the investigation into Jackson's death, he said. The CDC issued a health advisory Monday, saying two lots of a generic version of the drug had tested positive for endotoxin, a contaminant. The drug maker, Teva Pharmaceuticals, voluntarily recalled the lots. Srinivasan said the agency received 40 reports of patients around the country developing high fevers and muscle aches after being injected with the drug. \"All of the cases had high fevers, some muscle aches, headaches, but no issues with heart problems that we were told of,\" he said. Jackson died June 25 of cardiac arrest. The exact cause of death is pending toxicology results. All of the people who had taken propofol recovered; only one was hospitalized and that patient was quickly discharged, he said. But, he added, \"at high doses, endotoxin can absolutely cause lowered blood pressure and much more serious reactions.\" \"It can cause decreases in blood pressure, which could precipitate problems with your heart.\" The manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceuticals, is working with the Food and Drug Administration to determine how the contamination occurred and is voluntarily recalling the affected lots, he said. A spokeswoman for Teva said about 57,000 vials were included in the recall of the drug, and said the company had been contacted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. \"I can say the DEA did contact us about a specific lot number, and that lot number is not from the two we are recalling,\" said spokeswoman Denise Bradley. She would not say whether the contact was related to the Jackson investigation. A DEA spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified sources, have reported that police found the drug Diprivan, a brand-name version of propofol, among Jackson's medicines. A source involved with the probe into Jackson's death told CNN that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in his $100,000-a-month rented mansion in Holmby Hills, California. ProPublica, an online news organization, first reported a possible link between Jackson's death and the drug recall on Tuesday. But an FDA spokeswoman denied there could have been a link. \"This is fever, chills,\" said Karen Riley. \"Does that sound like heart failure?\" She said at least three companies make the generic version of the drug and only one of them -- AstraZeneca -- makes Diprivan, the brand-name version. \"We don't know what was at Michael Jackson's house, but I'm guessing it was Diprivan because that's what the reporting has been,\" Riley said. \"This [the propofol recall] was endotoxin in the drug. It would not cause heart failure. ... It's unrelated.\" Authorities have said the cause of Jackson's heart failure will not be determined officially until toxicology tests are complete.","highlights":"NEW: DEA inquired about lot number not included in recall, spokesman says .\nCDC says two lots of Diprivan's generic version tested positive for contaminant .\n40 patients reported high fevers, muscle aches after taking generic version of drug .\nFDA disputes online reports that recall and Michael Jackson's death could be related .","id":"66f3204c50e2ff88779fd60283b6e6800429f12e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush told a global climate change conference Friday that the United States will do its part to improve the environment by taking on greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. President George W. Bush Friday tells a global climate change conference \"we take this issue seriously.\" \"We take this issue seriously,\" he said at the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, which the White House sponsored. In his address, Bush called on \"all the world's largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, including developed and developing nations,\" to come together and \"set a long-term goal for reducing\" greenhouse emissions. \"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem, and by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it,\" he said. Watch Bush address the climate conference \u00bb . \"By next summer, we will convene a meeting of heads of state to finalize the goal and other elements of this approach, including a strong and transparent system for measuring our progress toward meeting the goal we set. ... Only by doing the necessary work this year will it be possible to reach a global consensus at the U.N. in 2009.\" Bush said it will be up to each nation to \"design its own separate strategies for making progress toward achieving this long-term goal.\" He said new technology, such as clean coal technology and biofuels, could help reduce greenhouse gases. He also called for more use of nuclear, wind and solar power. \"It was said that we faced a choice between protecting the environment and producing enough energy. Today we know better,\" the president said. \"These challenges share a common solution: technology.\" \"We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people,\" he said. \"We know this can be done,\" Bush said. \"Last year, America grew our economy while also reducing greenhouse gases.\" If the preliminary numbers stand, it would make 2006 the first time in Bush's presidency that greenhouse emissions dropped. In prepared remarks this week, Assistant Secretary of Energy Karen Harbert said, \"Preliminary data for 2006 suggests an absolute reduction in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions of 1.3 percent for that year despite economic growth of 2.9 percent.\" In previous years, the administration also has said its policies were reducing greenhouse emissions, but Department of Energy figures through 2005 show emission figures went up each year. The administration also said during those years it was reducing \"greenhouse emissions intensity,\" a term referring to the ratio between emissions and the size of the economy. The administration said the economy was growing at a faster rate than the emissions themselves. While the White House has taken heat for its environmental policies -- including from some Republicans such as Sen. John McCain -- Bush said at the conference Friday, \"By working together, we will set wise and effective policies.\" He added, \"I want to get the job done. We have identified a problem -- let's go solve it together.\" Other nations have been critical of the Bush administration's policy on climate change after the United States withdrew from the 1997 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as the Kyoto Protocol. That protocol, which was signed by more than 150 countries, called on industrialized nations to cut greenhouse emissions in absolute terms. It did not make that demand of developing nations. The protocol expires in 2012. Representatives of 16 countries, the United Nations and the European Union are attending this week's two-day conference. The Bush administration has billed it as an initiative to develop a common approach to combat global warming following Kyoto's collapse. At a Group of Eight conference in June, Bush pushed for a new framework on global gas emissions to counter the effects of global warming. Bush said he believes every nation should set its own goals. The president expressed concern that setting strict targets would damage the U.S. economy. Instead, he said, industries should enact voluntary measures. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also told delegates to the global climate change conference that countries around the world must work together to combat climate change, much as they cooperate against terror and the spread of disease. \"No one nation, no matter how much power or political will it possesses, can succeed alone,\" she said. \"We all need partners, and we all need to work in concert.\" Rice said the United States takes climate change seriously, \"for we are both a major economy and a major emitter.\" In her address to the Major Economies Meeting, Rice said an integrated response, including \"environmental stewardship, economic growth, energy supply and security and development and the development and deployment of new clean energy technology,\" is the key to moving forward on the issue. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: \"We acknowledge there is a problem\" with gases, Bush says .\nBush calls on nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions .\n\"U.S. will do its part,\" Bush tells international meeting .\nPresident proposes more use of clean coal technology, biofuels .","id":"32fcfaa625ee6a91d163850bc1aa37f93997e0d7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to give the Treasury Department the power to ban future \"unreasonable and excessive\" compensation at companies receiving federal bailout money. The bill would give Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner greater say on executive compensation. The Pay for Performance Act of 2009, which passed by a vote of 247-171, would empower Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to define what constitutes reasonable compensation, as well as to ban bonuses not based on performance standards. Geithner's guidelines would apply to companies receiving assistance from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Democrats provided heavy support for the bill, with only eight from that party voting against the measure. Republicans, who are in the minority in the House, were mostly opposed, with only 10 crossing party lines to support it. Two weeks ago, the House passed legislation taxing individuals on any bonuses received in 2009 from companies getting $5 billion or more in money from the TARP. Bonuses for people with incomes over $250,000 would be taxed at a 90 percent rate, but the measure has failed to clear the Senate. Watch Rep. Barney Frank spar with CNN's Lou Dobbs over bonus bill \u00bb . Public outrage followed the recent revelation that insurer AIG paid $165 million in bonuses even as it received at least $170 billion of taxpayer money in federal bailouts, plus an $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve.","highlights":"NEW: House passes Pay for Performance Act by 237-171 vote .\nBill would allow Geithner to define what constitutes reasonable compensation .\nIt would apply only to companies receiving federal bailout money .","id":"6ebd2603a030e118be4107c2df366980ddf05540"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- In less than a week, Google announced an operating system to compete with Windows, while Microsoft announced that Office 10 will include free, online versions of its four most popular software programs -- a shot at Google's suite of web-based office applications. The fight between Microsoft and Google is over who'll be seen as the world's most important tech company. And not more than a month and a half ago, Microsoft unveiled its new search engine Bing, which it hopes will steal market share from Google and finally make it real money online. From the news of it, it's a full-blown tech battle, complete with behind-the-scenes machinations to sic government regulators on each other. It is, however, not a death match -- it's more of an fight to see who will be the King of Technology, since both companies pull in their billions through completely different siphons and are unlikely to severely wound one another any time soon. Google pulled in $22 billion in revenue in 2008, 97 percent of which came tiny text ads bought by the keyword and placed next to search results or on pages around the web. Google makes a negligible amount of money bundling its online apps for businesses, charging $50 a head annually -- but mostly it just gives its online text editor, email and spreadsheet programs away. By contrast, Microsoft sold $14.3 billion worth of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and other business applications over the last nine months, making a profit of $9.3 billion. It made a further $16 billion in revenue in 2008 through sales of its operating systems, which range from XP installations on netbooks, to Vista, to Windows Mobile to its server software. Google now plans its own range of operating systems, starting with Android, an open-source OS for small devices like smartphones, and Chrome OS, a browser-focused, open-source OS that will run on notebooks and desktops. Clearly top executives at each company look over at the others' pots of gold and dream of ways to steal them, or at least make it harder for the other guy to make money. In fact, they even dislike each other enough to spend money to make the other one lose revenue -- take for example, Microsoft's behind-the-scenes campaign to scuttle last year's proposed Google-Yahoo advertising deal or its ongoing attempts to derail the Google Book Search settlement. But in reality, the competition is really about creating universes or ecosystems that it hopes consumers will want to live their technology lives inside. And it's about ego -- a fight to be recognized as the world's most important technology company. Microsoft would love for everyone in the world to be using its Internet Explorer browser to search through Bing to find a story from its MSN portal to email via Hotmail or Outlook to a friend. Add in a smartphone running Windows Mobile and an Xbox in the living room for the kids, and you have a Microsoft family. And though it is much joked about, Microsoft is the dominant platform for software developers of all types, whether they are making small business software, massive online role-playing games or photo-editing utilities. Google's ecosystem looks different. It starts with a Google Chrome browser (oddly running only on Windows) with a default homepage set to Google News or a customized Google homepage. From there you might go to Gmail and then click on a Word document sent to you as an attachment which Google will quickly -- and safely -- open for you in its online word processor. But most importantly, Google wants you to search and travel around the web, hitting web pages that run Google-served ads and Google tracking cookies. You might think that Google is a really cool company to give away all this free technology, while never thinking about the persistent and silent data collection Google is undertaking to profile you in order to deliver you to advertisers for a premium. So how do the two stack up in four key areas of competition? Browsers: Internet Explorer in all its variations still retains close to 70 percent of the market (depending on who is counting and how). That dominance remains, even though Microsoft's latest offering IE8 lags behind all the other major browsers in features and advanced web capabilities. Firefox, Opera, and Apple's Safari have all driven browser innovation over the last five years, but most people have not been convinced to leave IE behind, despite other alternatives being safer and more advanced. Why does it matter? Well, IE installations come with a default home page, don't they? Google's Chrome browser, on the other hand, is a handsome, whiz-kid of a browser. It's sleek and nimble, and it revolutionizes how tabs are handled. The address bar is the search box (Google as default, naturally). Each website opened runs as its own browser instance and has very low permissions to read and write to files. The sandboxing of tabs means that if a single website hangs or crashes, the rest are unaffected. Meanwhile, lower permissions make it harder for a hacker to bust into your computer through your browser. Chrome also has less than 2 percent of the browser market share. Online Search: Google's name now means search to most users. Google's search engine means money to Google. In June, it delivered 78.5 percent of search results pages delivered to U.S. web users. In the first three months of 2009, Google pulled in $5.2 billion in revenue, a majority of which came from AdWords, an auction-based service that triggers ads based on the keywords in a search query. Microsoft recently debuted Bing, a new search engine it hoped would fare well in comparison to Google. It's got some fine innovations, and shows the company is thinking very hard about better ways to present information to users by finding ways to synthesize data, rather than just retrieving links. Still, despite these improvements, a $100 million ad campaign, and generous press coverage that treats Bing like an underdog, Bing gained only a point in June to get Microsoft 8.2 percent of all searches. Operating Systems: Microsoft has been making operating systems since 1979 and has spent 28 years perfecting MS-DOS and Windows NT, the frameworks that Windows have been built around. Microsoft is estimated to run on about 90 percent of all laptops and desktops in the world. By copying its competitors' best features, leveraging questionable licensing arrangements and using its base of accustomed users to buy it time against innovators, Microsoft has held on to its lead in the OS market for almost 30 years. That's despite challenges from Digital Research, Apple and IBM. Microsoft's newest version, Windows 7, will be available in the fall. Early reviews say the OS boots quickly and sleeps fast, and avoids much of the confusing interface decisions that have made many dislike Vista, the successor to Windows XP. Microsoft also dominates in the business world, where nearly every medium to large company standardizes around Microsoft Office. Microsoft is also at work on version 6 of its operating system for handheld devices, which it first launched in 2000. Its OS advantages are immense. It has millions of users who know nothing else and who like Windows. There are millions who are attached to games or the thousands of desktop apps that are only available on Windows. Thousands of devices just plug in and work on its hardware. And familiarity with Microsoft software is a requirement for a huge number of office jobs. By contrast, Google first stepped into the OS game in 2007 when it announced its Android operating system for small devices. Google estimates that some 18 phone models will be running its system by the end of the year. Last week, Google announced, but did not show off, a new OS to compete with Windows, dubbing it Chrome OS. That name signifies that Google's OS will be for the web and browser-based. It hopes to convince developers to write software that runs inside a browser, instead of on top of the OS as developers for Windows and Apples' OS X do. It will also let web developers extend the power of their websites by expanding the capabilities of the browser, allowing websites to lean on the browser for storage and processing help. Advertising: Google is largely powered by its innovative auction-based text ads on its own site, but then expanded into serving ads on other people's sites with the Adsense program. It bought the ad-serving and behavioral-profiling giant Doubleclick in 2007 for more than $3 billion, and has ventured into mobile, print, radio and television ads. Microsoft has struggled to replicate Google's online advertising success. Despite owning MSN.com -- a portal that is second only to Yahoo as a destination -- Microsoft has not made money on the internet. To turbocharge its ad-delivery technology, it paid more than $6 billion in cash in 2007 for aQuantive, a full-service online advertising concern. Instead, Microsoft's online ad business lost $1.2 billion in 2008, double what it lost in 2007. The company expects 2009 revenues to be higher than the $3.2 billion it took in last year, but has not said it would make a profit. Contrary to what some might have you believe, the benefits of the Google-Microsoft competition are immense. Microsoft had largely grown complacent until Google came along to shake up categories. Gmail's massive online storage capability and fancy programming made Microsoft hustle to upgrade its popular, though not user-friendly, web e-mail service. Google Maps led to Microsoft's Live Maps, which now bests Google's efforts in some ways. Google has been winning the fight for the last few years, showing that it is still nimbler than the software giant from the Northwest. But the pendulum may be slowing, or even poised to swing the other way. With the innovations in Bing and the promise that Microsoft's online Office offerings will be free and more fully featured than the Google equivalent, Microsoft is taking on Google where it matters for users: on the field of innovation. And that will make for an interesting race, no matter which horse you prefer to ride. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"The escalating Google vs. Micosoft battle is mostly over who'll be King of Tech .\nTop execs at each company dream of ways to steal the others' pots of gold .\nChrome OS will compete with Windows, while Office 10 will include free online versions .\nHere's how the two tech giants stack up in four key areas of competition .","id":"d6402f873df3c15ae64859829679832cf767c64f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A few weeks ago, Tony Hoard, a 57-year-old manufacturing worker in Indiana, boarded a flight on Midwest Airlines to Las Vegas, Nevada, with his Australian Shepherd. The flight attendant smiled at the two and said, \"Welcome aboard.\" Midwest Airlines allows some of its canine customers to be seated in the cabin. Hoard has flown with Rory, his furry 40-pound companion, in coach more than 15 times on Midwest, the Wisconsin-based airline that boasts \"The Best Care in the Air.\" Each time they fly, Rory wears a harness and sits strapped into a seat. \"Rory gets the window seat,\" said Hoard, whose dog has won a series of Frisbee competitions. \"He likes to look out the window when the plane takes off and naps the rest of the way.\" Blame America's pet obsession, but in recent years, more members of the airline industry are embracing dogs and cats on board. Midwest Airlines may be an extreme example, letting select dogs sit in the same seats as humans, but other airlines are relaxing their pet policies by letting smaller cats and dogs come into the cabin area. About a year ago, Midwest began allowing certain \"celebrity\" dogs that appear in canine competitions, shows or advertisements to sit in seats. \"They are just passengers with four legs instead of two,\" said Susan Kerwin, who oversees the pet program at Midwest Airlines. The pet travel frenzy has spurred the creation of an airline catering exclusively to pets. This month, Pet Airways, the nation's first pet-only airline, will begin flying in five major cities, including New York and Los Angeles, California. It's an alternative to shipping larger pets in the cargo area of a plane, where there have been pet injuries and even deaths. Chart: Compare some of the common airline fees . \"The owners can check a bag with them,\" explained Alyse Tognotti, a spokeswoman for Pet Airways. \"Or if they have a special blanket or toy, basically anything that will take stress out of traveling.\" On each Pet Airways flight, services include potty breaks and experienced animal handlers checking up on the animals every 15 minutes. Nervous parents can track their pets online. Southwest Airlines was the latest airline to join the pet-loving bandwagon in May, when it permitted small dogs and cats to travel in the cabin area. The pets must sit in an approved kennel that fits under the seat. \"I wasn't going to fly Southwest Airlines,\" said Katie Chapman, 37, of Louisville, Kentucky, who is mom to a friendly 18-pound Cairn Terrier that resembles Toto from \"The Wizard of Oz.\" Since the airline has changed its policy, she plans to take her puppy on a Southwest flight to California this fall. \"I'm so glad now that she will be able to go with me.\" Each year, airlines transport hundreds of thousands of pets in the cargo and cabin areas. Continental reported moving 270,000 pets last year in cabin and cargo, more than triple the number moved before the airline's pet program officially kicked off eight years ago. The Federal Aviation Administration doesn't have restrictions on whether animals can be in the cabin area, but airlines must allow service dogs for the disabled on board. Only cats and dogs are allowed in the cabin areas on most airlines. In the cargo area, other pets like rabbits, birds and lizards can be stowed. The cost of flying your furry friend ranges from $75 to nearly $300 each leg. It's a hefty price tag, but profit-bleeding airlines are happy to offer the option. Pets can even rack up frequent flier miles. After three flights with Midwest, the pet can earn a fourth flight free. Continental and JetBlue Airways' programs credit the pet's trip on the owner's frequent flier account. But one airline is catering to allergy-ridden customers who don't want pets in the cabin. Last year, Frontier Airlines banned pets from the cabin area because officials said pet allergies are common among their customers. Ann Kerns, a 63-year-old teacher in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, experienced continuous wheezing on a four-hour US Airways flight to Phoenix, Arizona. At the end of the flight, she was shocked to find that there had been a cat sitting under her seat. \"What would have happened if I went into an attack at 35,000 feet in the air?\" she asked. In 2008, the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology wrote letters to Congress expressing concern about pets riding in the cabin area after some patients became ill from their flights. The letters didn't go very far, officials said. Airlines say they have had few allergy injuries on board. The airlines limit the number of pets in the cargo area to about five. The aircraft is disinfected and cleaned routinely, so dander and hairs aren't a problem, airline officials say. But not every traveler has had smooth experiences with pets on board. Terry Trippler, a travel expert, recalls an unpleasant incident years ago when a dog had diarrhea three rows in front of him. \"You could certainly smell it,\" he wrote in an e-mail. \"The only real way to solve the problem is no pets in the cabin.\"","highlights":"Most airlines allow small pets to ride in crates in the cabin for a fee .\nPet Airlines will fly to five cities, transporting pets only .\nContinental moved 270,000 pets in 2008 as part of its pet program .\nAllergist say pets flying in cabin is dangerous for some patients .","id":"46a40693cad207e6a834c189e66ea99c452e7e7f"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: This is the third in a five-part series exploring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background and life with those who know her, and revealing the experiences that might shape her views as a Supreme Court justice if confirmed. Sotomayor won the Moses Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor given to an undergraduate at Princeton. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- Sonia Sotomayor spent her first week at Princeton University obsessing over the sound of a cricket. Growing up in New York City, her only notion of this insect was Jiminy from \"Pinocchio.\" She tore her dorm room apart looking for the critter every night. Finally, her then-boyfriend and future husband visited and explained that the cricket was outside the room, where she had been holed up most of that week in 1972. \"This was all new to me: we didn't have trees brushing up against windows in the South Bronx,\" Sotomayor recalled in a speech to the Princeton Women's Network in 2002. The freshman who was so taken aback by a cricket's chirping now has a more public challenge: Senate hearings on whether to confirm her as a Supreme Court justice, potentially the first Latina to hold such a post. At one time, being different may have been difficult -- for it wasn't just Princeton's crickets that startled Sotomayor. The academics and the students on the leafy Gothic campus, with its ivy-covered dormitories and castle-like towers, also made her feel out of place. Sotomayor, who was on a full scholarship, started \"a little more on the shy side,\" said Sergio Sotolongo, who attended high school and Princeton with Sotomayor. \"She did mention that, as a freshman, she felt sometimes intimidated by others and didn't really raise her hand very much,\" said Sotolongo, now chairman and CEO of Student Funding Group in Liberty Corner, New Jersey. Watch classmates, professor remember Sotomayor \u00bb . As a first-year student, Sotomayor felt what she's called a \"chasm\" between herself and her classmates. She really only knew the Bronx and Puerto Rico, while her classmates spoke of European vacations and skiing. She said in 1990 that she felt she was a \"product of affirmative action\" and questioned whether she would have been accepted into the Ivy League using \"traditional numbers\" from test scores alone. See how many of the Supreme Court justices went to Ivy League schools \u00bb . She would certainly have looked different to her classmates, with relatively few Latinos or minorities at Princeton during her college years. Even being a woman was different for Sotomayor's class -- the college had opened its doors to women three years earlier, but male students were still superior in numbers and (in some cases) attitudes. Judith Perlman, who lived down the hall, explained: \"I'd go to class and I would say things, and the professor would say, 'Oh, we usually express ourselves in a more gentlemanly fashion here.'\" Perlman and Sotomayor shared \"girl talk\" but about what they wanted to do with their lives, not about things like fashion, which interested neither. Academically, Sotomayor also faced a gap. She would later graduate summa cum laude and be awarded the top undergraduate honor, the Moses Taylor Pyne Prize, but she stumbled that first year. Peter Winn, who taught Sotomayor and was her thesis adviser, said her early writing reflected the fact that her first language is Spanish. \"She could be very assertive and very articulate, but not initially,\" said Winn, now a professor at Tufts University. \"Sonia was someone who entered Princeton as a young woman with enormous potential, and one of the things that happened at Princeton was, she learned how to fulfill that potential,\" he said. Nancy Weiss Malkiel, now dean of the college, agreed with Winn, writing in an e-mail that Sotomayor came to Princeton \"with high intelligence and great ability, but without a very sophisticated grounding in the study of history.\" Malkiel, who taught history, said she worked with Sotomayor to develop the student's skills in the spring of her first year. Sotomayor also worked independently, spending one summer reading classics that were new to her, including \"Alice in Wonderland,\" \"Huckleberry Finn,\" and \"Pride and Prejudice,\" to attune herself more to the cadences of English, she has said. Despite the challenges, the young woman encouraged her friend from the Bronx, Sotolongo, who is one year younger, to enroll in the fall of 1973. \"In the end, clearly she was very happy to have gone to Princeton,\" Sotolongo said. And by the time Sotolongo began his freshman year, Sotomayor was showing off a new personality. \"She certainly opened up as she got her feet under her,\" said James Resnick, who also majored in history and is now a consultant at Keystone CompControl in Butler, Pennsylvania. With Charles Hey-Maestre, who was a year behind her, Sotomayor founded the student organization Accion Puertorriquena and by 1974 she was speaking out for the group in the Daily Princetonian student paper. The group helped to file a complaint with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, alleging that Princeton showed a \"lack of commitment\" in recruiting Latino students and hiring Latino faculty and administrators. Hey-Maestre, now executive director of Puerto Rico Legal Services in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said Sotomayor \"has the ability also that if she's feeling insecure about something, she manages it, and doesn't project it.\" Latino affairs seemed to be an outlet for Sotomayor socially. Hey-Maestre said she was focused on her studies but went to some parties, especially Puerto Rican cultural celebrations. Otherwise, Hey-Maestre and Perlman remember, Sotomayor spent time with her off-campus boyfriend, Kevin Edward Noonan. They were later married, but divorced after seven years. Outside the university, Sotomayor volunteered at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital as an interpreter. She talked at length with Sotolongo, while he was working on a project at the Trenton police department, about why youth got involved in criminal activities and how the cycle of recidivism might start and stop. \"Those were issues she was very concerned about, and I think in whatever circles she could, made those feelings known and expressed them,\" Sotolongo said. See photos from Sotomayor's life \u00bb . Sotomayor's interest in Puerto Rican matters fed her as a history major. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on Luis Munoz Marin, the first governor of the island elected by popular vote. \"She was bending over backwards to be fair to points of view she didn't necessarily agree with,\" Winn said. The Sonia Sotomayor who went on to Yale Law School had matured, with classmates describing her as \"always willing to raise her hand,\" \"confident,\" \"outgoing,\" and \"one of the more outspoken people.\" Read more about her time at Yale . She may still have been the girl from the Bronx, but she did not try to use her experience of hardship as leverage, said Stephen Carter, a Yale classmate of Sotomayor and now a professor there. \"She would never sit around and say, 'Oh, well, I grew up in a housing project so I know,'\" Carter said. \"She didn't feel her background gave her some kind of special trump. She wanted the argument to work. She would tell you why she thought something, and the 'why' never had anything to do with where she came from.\"","highlights":"Sonia Sotomayor arrived at Princeton in 1972 in fourth co-ed class .\nShe read children's classics to enhance her English writing skills .\nShe launched a Puerto Rico action group and campaigned for Latinos .\nBy the time she went to Yale, she was confident and outgoing, classmate recalls .","id":"f460845e834147e2763f44954555c9c06c745d48"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's upbringing was shaped by two very different parents. An image of Michael Jackson and his parents was on the big screen during his funeral in Los Angeles. His mother, Katherine Jackson, has been portrayed by her children as the loving glue that bonded the family together, while her husband, Joe, was the harsh disciplinarian whose iron hand not only shaped one of the most successful musical families in the world, but also elicited enough fear in his superstar son that it sometimes made him ill. Now the couple of 60 years stands at the center of a custody drama surrounding their grandchildren. Michael Jackson's will, filed in 2002, designated his mother as caregiver for Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and \"Blanket,\" 7. It is the latest installment in the many trials that have tested the Jackson family, not least of which has been the unexpected loss of its most famous member. \"[Katherine's] taking it real hard,\" Joe Jackson told ABC News about his wife's coping with their son's death. \"When you start talking about Michael, she starts crying.\" By many accounts, Katherine Jackson, 79, shared a special bond with her second-youngest son. In a 1993 interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson spoke glowingly of the matriarch. \"My mother's wonderful,\" he said. \"To me, she's perfection.\" According to a biography posted by A&E Networks, Katherine Jackson was born Kattie B. Screws in 1930 in Barbour County, Alabama. Her family reportedly relocated to East Chicago, Indiana, when she was 4, and her name was changed to Katherine Esther Scruse. A childhood bout with polio left her with a permanent limp. She was a teenager when she met Joe Jackson, an aspiring musician and a boxer whose first marriage dissolved. Katherine said it was love at first sight. \"I just had a feeling that he was going to be my husband,\" Katherine Jackson said in an interview shot last year by Xonger Global Entertainment Networks for a planned reality show about the family. The video was obtained by ABC News. \"The first time I saw him, I fell in love with him.\" Together, they raised 10 children in a modest Gary, Indiana, home, while Joe worked as a crane operator, according to the A&E biography. A devout Jehovah's Witness, Katherine nurtured the children's love of music by singing with them, made her sons' costumes as their father booked local gigs, and served as the family's backbone. \"As best as I could tell from both talking to [Michael] and my observations of the family throughout the years, Katherine was the one that had really unconditional love for Michael and was always there, was always supportive and was always comforting,\" said journalist and CNN contributor Bryan Monroe, who conducted the last major interview with Michael Jackson. \"It was the epitome of a mother's love.\" Joe Jackson's relationship with his famous son was a bit more complicated. Monroe said the hard taskmaster -- who Michael said sometimes held a belt in his hand as he and his brothers rehearsed -- evoked mixed emotions from the singer. \"In my interview with him, [Michael] spoke almost in the same breath of the fear he had of Joseph's sternness ... and at the same time the respect he had for Joseph's work ethics and his teachings,\" Monroe said. \"He said [Joseph] taught him and his brothers an awful lot about discipline and performance.\" According to the biography posted by A&E Networks, Joe Jackson was born in Arkansas in 1929 and pursued fame early on, first as a Golden Gloves contender and later as a member of The Falcons, a band he started in the mid-1950s. When he noticed musical talent in his brood, he formed the Jackson Brothers with his three oldest sons and served as their manager. The group later became The Jackson 5, with young Michael serving as lead singer, and shot to superstardom. Psychotherapist Daniel Aferiat, who never treated any Jackson family members, said such an awesome responsibility for a young Michael Jackson could account for the conflicted emotions he expressed in his 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. \"I just wish I could understand my father,\" he told her. \"If as a small child Michael Jackson was involved in making business decisions and had to have the burdens in some ways of the financial responsibility for the family, then it can turn around who's the caretaker and who's being taken care of,\" Aferiat said. Aferiat said children identify with their parents and learn how to operate in the world based on how they are treated by their parents. The drive for stardom and perfection that Joe Jackson reportedly instilled in his children would have long-lasting effects, Aferiat said. \"People are complicated, and while we all would like to think in more black-and-white terms -- someone's good and someone's bad -- [Michael Jackson] had a very complicated, very difficult and, what I would unequivocally say from what I've heard in the news, a traumatic life,\" Aferiat said. \"If you are a child and you have to give up your childhood, it's not like a pair of shoes that you just get to replace at a later time. You don't get that back.\" By many accounts, Katherine Jackson tried to keep her children's lives as normal as possible given their fame, even during their adulthood. Author Richard Hack co-wrote the 1995 book \"Jackson Family Values: Memories of Madness\" with Margaret Maldonado, the mother of two of Jermaine Jackson's children. He said Katherine Jackson was \"like Mother Earth\" to her family. \"She kept everyone pretty well grounded because she didn't buy into all of the publicity and a lot of the glitz,\" said Hack, a noted biographer who has written 17 books. \"Mind you, she did drive around in a Rolls Royce, but she still knew how to make a meal. She would get into the kitchen and bring the family together.\" Back then, Hack said, most of the family lived together in the Encino compound. These days, Katherine still resides in California, while her husband reportedly has relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. \"We're not together all of the time,\" Katherine Jackson said in footage from the planned reality show. \"We stayed together for many, many years.\" \"But we see each other all the time,\" she added. \"I go to Vegas and he'll come here.\" Their living arrangement could become an issue during a custody hearing. Katherine Jackson was granted temporary guardianship of the children by a judge several days after her son's death. It is still unknown whether Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of two of the children, will seek custody. Watch opinions on who should get the kids \u00bb . While Katherine is the only parent seeking legal custody of Michael Jackson's children, his father has been quoted by ABC News as saying he believes the two of them are ideally suited to take care of and raise the children \"to be strong Jacksons.\" Hack, the co-author of \"Jackson Family Values,\" said that in the past Joe Jackson's children viewed him as the \"instigator and dictator\" who no longer managed their careers but still viewed himself as their voice. A bit of that behavior was on display last year when the elder Jackson returned to Gary, Indiana, and endorsed a planned family museum. The Post-Tribune newspaper reported that he didn't believe the city needed to gain his famous children's approval to build the project. \"I'm Joe Jackson,\" he was quoted as saying. \"I don't need them to approve anything.\" But when it comes to Michael Jackson's children, the court will have the final say.","highlights":"Joseph and Katherine Jackson had different parenting styles, observers say .\nKatherine viewed as family backbone while Joe reportedly a harsh taskmaster .\nAuthor: Katherine Jackson \"kept everyone pretty well grounded\"\nMichael Jackson's mother is seeking custody of his children .","id":"941f5127594cecfb5202c30244154286404f7c57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's been eight years since Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint first hopped on the Hogwarts Express, and the three have done little else since. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have kept each other \"level-headed,\" said Radcliffe. Now that the ride will soon come to an end, the cast is trying to fathom a life without the Harry Potter films -- an understandable difficulty, considering that they've grown up along with their characters. The other item showing its age is the storyline of the sixth installment, \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.\" Part humor and part horror with a healthy dose of hormones, \"Half-Blood Prince\" is clearly more attuned for an audience who, like the cast, are no longer in grade school. \"On the one hand, we have all this light romance and snogging, and on the other hand, people are getting killed, and bridges are being blown up,\" director David Yates said. Potter 101: A guide to Harry Potter \u00bb . Heavy stuff, certainly, but it's a challenge on par with the stars' blossoming careers. Hear, see and read how the characters have grown \u00bb . One can only imagine that by now, the Potter series feels like home to Daniel Radcliffe, who landed the title role at 11 after playing supporting roles in the BBC's \"David Copperfield\" and the 2001 film \"The Tailor of Panama.\" \"[Without it], to be honest, I don't know what I would've done,\" said Radcliffe, who turns 20 on July 23. \"I had 'Copperfield,' but at that point I wasn't even dreaming about [acting] being a career then.\" Since then, Radcliffe has grown into international stardom, reportedly earning $25 million per Potter film. Indeed, the actor has gotten raves away from the movie theater: In London and on Broadway, Radcliffe took on the role of Alan Strang, the mentally disturbed stable boy in Peter Shaffer's \"Equus,\" which required him to strip naked in the play's final scene. Radcliffe has also taken on roles in \"December Boys\" and the TV movie \"My Boy Jack,\" and he is eager to keep at it long after the Potter series wraps. So what about directing, then? Only time will tell, Radcliffe said. \"For now, I want to keep acting,\" the actor said. \"I don't think I know enough about the technical sides yet to even consider directing. It would be something that I'm interested in, but it would be a long, long way off.\" As for Watson, when she's not occupied with filming, she can be found in the pages of fashion magazines -- including the advertisements. Having landed covers for both Teen Vogue and the UK version of Elle within the past few months, it's no wonder that the 19-year-old was chosen to be the face of Burberry's autumn line. Going from tween wizard to fashion icon is quite a leap, but it's one that appears to fit Watson well; how many other Hogwarts students can count Karl Lagerfeld among their friends? Like her co-star Rupert Grint (Ron), Watson didn't have any acting experience when she auditioned for \"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone\" at age 9. She managed to beat out thousands of other girls for the role of Hermione, a part she's said was \"life or death\" for her. Now that the series is close to its end, the actress is eager to try new things. \"I would've told myself not to take it so seriously and to try to have as much fun as you can,\" Watson said she would've advised her younger self. But similar to her Potter character, Hermione, Watson is eager to hit the books after the series concludes. The actress confirmed that she plans to start college in the United States this fall. For Grint, the future is a bit more unclear. \"I don't know what I'm going to be doing, really,\" the actor told the Los Angeles Times. \"I'm going to miss it, I think, because I've been doing this my whole life.\" Despite his start as an unknown -- Grint reportedly submitted hip-hop lyrics describing his character to snag the part of Ron Weasley -- he's arguably been the most adventurous of his co-stars, having played opposite Paul Giamatti in the 2002 family comedy \"Thunderpants\" and starring in 2009's sexually charged thriller \"Cherrybomb.\" His third film outside the Potter series will be the indie \"Wild Target,\" co-starring another British sensation, Emily Blunt. iReport.com: Share your reviews of the latest \"Potter\" Whatever their plans, all three have a few years to go before they hang up their magic wands; the last installment of \"Harry Potter\" is being filmed in two parts, and the final film won't premiere until 2011. And, Radcliffe said, they've helped each other cope with fame over the years. He said that on the red carpet, \"[the fans are] cheering for a kind of person they see in newspapers and in interviews and in films, and that's a different person to you. You have to keep that -- that persona -- and the person you actually are as separate as you possibly can, and then you will avoid becoming arrogant.\" Which is why it helps to have two people who know you well, on set and off. \"I think we've all kept each other pretty level-headed over the years,\" Radcliffe said. CNN's Doug Ganley and Neil Curry contributed to this story.","highlights":"With \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,\" Potter film series almost done .\nDaniel Radcliffe plans to keep acting; he's gotten raves for stage work .\nEmma Watson is face of Burberry, planning to go to college .\nRupert Grint plans to do more films .","id":"3712a21c6bc59daeec0b1f2fa25a799f9594c24e"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Last October, more than 40 people followed signs depicting a skull and crossbones, with a knife and fork in place of the bones, to a secluded Bavarian-style hunting lodge 30 minutes north of St. Louis. An Entre dinner party was hosted in a Missouri hunting lodge. The attendees didn't have any idea where they were headed or what to expect. All they knew was that they were in for a five-course meal courtesy of John-Jack, an undercover chef who'd invited each of them via a top-secret e-mail to the latest of what he calls his Entre dinner parties. Guests arrived to a bluegrass band jamming in a room decorated with deer antlers. As a fire crackled in the massive stone fireplace, they dined on wild-elk medallions, home-cured bacon, grapefruit confit, and butternut squash ice cream -- and toasted their good fortune with pumpkin ale from nearby microbrewery Schlafly. Welcome to the world of underground supper clubs. Getting a reservation requires a little detective work, but once in, you may never go back to eating out the old-school way again. The idea behind these dinners is to let talented chefs work their whisks in an affordable, relaxed setting. And since they're often operating out of their own kitchens, without a license to serve the public, these cooks have to keep the locales, and their own identities, under wraps. Budget Travel: The utterly random dinner party . \"The trend started in food-centric cities like San Francisco, but in the last year, groups have been popping up across the country,\" says Jenn Garbee, author of \"Secret Suppers,\" which spotlights some of the more than 80 clubs now up and running in the U.S. One such is Guerrilla Cuisine, founded by an incognito cook in Charleston, South Carolina, who uses the alias Jimihatt and wears a ninja mask at his gatherings. As at many clubs, diners must submit their reservations weeks in advance on Jimihatt's Web site and then wait for an e-mail with directions to the hush-hush locale. Based on his track record, you won't be disappointed: The bearded Jimihatt and his rotating crew of sous-chefs have served secret, Southern-style suppers (andouille sausage gumbo, Cajun smoked chicken, chocolate beignets) in galleries, wineries, even a grocery store. Budget Travel: Haute diners . Jimihatt now has a little friendly competition from an Atlanta cook named Lady Rogue. Her RogueApron shindigs each have a different theme. At a recent event, a Great Depression-style repast in Lang-Carson Park, guests stood in a soup line for pancetta minestrone with porcini mushrooms, and lemongrass-spiked corn broth. Then they divided into teams for an impromptu game of Wiffle ball. \"Our goal,\" Lady Rogue says, \"is to make dining more inclusive and to have strangers connect over food. What better way to meet people?\" For those hoping to break bread with their own buddies, there's 12B in Vancouver. To keep operations simple, its mastermind, Chef Todd, hosts the six-course dinners in his own apartment, hence the name. And unlike most supper clubs, 12B cooks only for groups of friends (up to 12 at a time). Budget Travel: Pay-what-you-like restaurants . \"Even after working 16-hour days, I would sit at home and think, 'I've got to find a way to feed more people,'\" Chef Todd says. Money isn't the incentive. His minimum-donation fee of $50 just covers costs for a feast (stuffed artichoke hearts, five-mushroom ravioli, butter-poached scallops served with BBQ pulled pork) that would average twice as much in a restaurant. But as Chef Todd will attest, these clubs are less about saving and more about spending a night eating exceptionally well in the unlikeliest of places, whether a cozy lodge straight out of a fairy tale or a humble living room. Supper Clubs . Entre, St. Louis, Missouri, http:\/\/danssouslaterre.com\/, five-course meal from $45, including a wine pairing with each course . Guerrilla Cuisine, Charleston, South Carolina, http:\/\/guerrillacuisine.com\/, six-course meal from $50, BYOB . RogueApron, Atlanta, Georgia, http:\/\/rogueapron.wordpress.com\/, three-course meal $20, including wine or beer pairings with each course . 12B, Vancouver, B.C., 12breservations@gmail.com, six-course meal from $50, BYOB . Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"Underground supper clubs started in food-centric cities like San Francisco .\nNow there are more than 80 clubs up and running in the U.S.\nChefs operating out of their own kitchens without licenses to serve the public .\nThey have to keep the locales, and their own identities, under wraps .","id":"1933230701eb024b59b947a34739e22da5f000a4"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Another child has died from last week's fire at a day care center in northwestern Mexico, bringing the death toll to 45, the state-run Notimex news agency said. A crib and baby seats sit outside the scene of a deadly day care center fire in Mexico. The child died Friday in a hospital in the city of Guadalajara, Notimex said. The news agency did not provide any additional information. A fire raged through the ABC day care center on June 5 in the city of Hermosillo in Sonora state. Officials said an air-conditioning unit in a government-run warehouse in the same building as the day care center caused the blaze. In another development Friday, three officials from the Mexican Institute of Social Security were fired, Notimex reported. The social security institute oversaw the ABC day care facility. Earlier, the Institute of Social Security removed its Sonora director, Arturo Leyva Lizarraga. Leyva Lizarraga was \"separated\" from the agency Wednesday to \"facilitate the investigative process,\" according to Notimex. The same wording was used in announcing Friday's firings. Earlier in the week, two other people who ran the center resigned from the government jobs they held. Also Friday, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said officials had found safety irregularities at the day care center in 2005, Notimex said. He declined to detail those irregularities but said authorities are investigating if anything was done about them. Any negligent officials will be punished once the investigation is completed, Medina said.","highlights":"NEW: Three officials from supervisory agency dismissed .\nDeath toll in Mexico day care center fire rises to 45, officials say .\nFire tore through building in Sonora state on June 5 .\nFire started in air-conditioning unit in adjacent warehouse, officials say .","id":"1e530f3722b6ed6d80c2e2d76b57b37e3e73b62f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pig farmers threw rocks at police officers in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday as health workers gathered the farmers' herds for slaughter in what the government says is a precaution against the spread of swine flu, an interior ministry official told CNN. The Egyptian government required all pigs in the country be killed, citing a need to prevent the spread of swine flu. Brig. Gen. Hani Abdel-Latif said 50 to 60 protesters gathered in Cairo's Manshiyet Naser slum because they were upset with the health ministry's decision to slaughter all pigs in the country. But local media reported the number of farmers clashing with police on Sunday was in the hundreds. Experts have criticized the Egyptian government's move, announced last week, to slaughter all pigs regardless of whether they are infected. There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Egypt. And according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, humans cannot get the swine flu virus, known to scientists as the H1N1 virus, by eating pork. The CDC says human infection from pigs most likely occurs when people are in close proximity to sick animals, such as in pig barns. But Egyptian officials cite how avian flu still exists in the country because, they say, the government did not take sufficient protective measures when that disease was first discovered there in 2006. Most Egyptian pig farmers are Coptic Christians, a group that makes up about 10 percent of the 80 million people in the mostly Muslim nation. Coptic Christians do not observe the Muslim ban on eating pork, and historically they have coexisted peacefully with the Muslim majority in Egypt. The farmers also work in the garbage industry and use their daily collections to feed their herds, which number about 300,000 animals in the country. With the government-mandated slaughter under way, Egypt's Health Ministry declared Saturday that \"Egypt is free of the swine flu.\" Dr. Hamid Samaha, head of the country's Public Institute for Veterinary Services, said that starting Sunday the government will compensate pig farmers by paying as much as $45 for a disease-free pig and about $5 for diseased ones. The health ministry told CNN its workers are freezing all the disease-free meat and plan to give it back to its owners once the ban on pigs is lifted. But according to Egypt's state-run al-Akhbar newspaper, ministry sources said the country does not have enough facilities to store the frozen meat. Ministry spokesman Dr. Abdel-Rahman Shaheen said the government will open two new slaughterhouses in two provinces near Cairo, al-Alioubiya and al-Giza. Shaheen also announced Saturday that the ministry has enlisted 100 additional doctors and nurses to help in health quarantines at Cairo Airport, where travelers are being questioned if they have been to Mexico recently. And more are expected to be hired to help at Alexandra's main seaport, where the government declared a state of emergency last week. CNN's Housam Ahmed in Cairo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Farmers in Cairo clash with police as health officials take pigs to slaughter .\nEgypt mandated slaughter of pigs in country over news of swine flu .\nThere have been no confirmed cases of swine flu in Egypt .","id":"5c74c4aba32d2654f5e7a582372329601bc5279d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The news that one of America's TV icons is suffering from cancer brought sadness. Learning the type of cancer she had made some squeamish. Farrah Fawcett, shown here in 2004, learned she had cancer in 2006. Former \"Charlie's Angels\" actress Farrah Fawcett, 62, was hospitalized this week. She received a diagnosis of anal cancer in 2006. This type of cancer is less common than rectal and colon cancer, and the location of the tumor and risk factors make people squeamish about discussing it openly, doctors said. Colon cancer at one time also was not openly talked about, because of the body part and functions affected, but with the public awareness campaigns and celebrities advocating for screenings, it has been largely destigmatized. Anal cancer is less familiar. Fawcett has not publicly confirmed the specifics of her illness, but is working on a documentary, titled \"A Wing and a Prayer,\" about her health battle. Anal cancer affects more women and the illness is usually found in people who are in their early 60's. The American Cancer Society estimates that 5,000 new cases of anal cancer are diagnosed each year and about 680 people die from it annually. Meanwhile, colorectal cancer has 148,000 new cases and about 50,000 deaths each year. The numbers of anal cancer cases are rising, although experts haven't been able to pinpoint why. Cultural squeamishness about certain body areas could prevent early diagnosis and treatment of anal cancer, said Dr. Petr F. Hausner, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. \"Patients in the United States hate to be examined in these areas,\" said Hausner, who trained in Czechoslovakia. \"They like to keep their private parts more private than in Europe. In the U.S., the patients hate those exams and physicians hate to do them. The examination is incomplete.\" The cultural discomfort might be a minor factor, though. \"The bigger role is the virus,\" he said referring to the human papilloma virus, a key risk factor for anal cancer that also can cause cervical cancer. Getting vaccinated against HPV is a step in prevention, Hausner said. More than half of anal cancer patients experience bleeding as a symptom. Others have no symptoms or report common conditions, such as hemorrhoids, fissures, or warts. Symptoms also include itching or pain in that area, changes in the diameter of stool, abnormal discharge, swollen lymph nodes in the anal or groin areas, according to the American Cancer Society. \"The most common thing is people think it's a hemorrhoid,\" said Dr. Cathy Eng, associate professor in the department of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Patients should consult with their physicians, she said. Anal pap smears are routine only for HIV-positive patients, who are at higher risk for this cancer. There are no anal cancer screening recommendations for non-HIV individuals, because it remains a rare disease, Hausner said. People whose immune system are suppressed, from HIV or drugs taken after organ transplants are at risk for anal cancer. Other risk factors include a sexual history with many partners, a medical history of human papilloma virus (HPV), sexually transmitted diseases or gynecological cancers. People tend to view anal cancer negatively, because they associate the cancer with a few of its risk factors -- such as sexually transmitted diseases or anal sex, Eng said. \"It's one of the risk factors, not the only risk factor,\" Eng said. \"It's fair to say people are stigmatized, she said, primarily because of the disease's association with that type of sex. When anal cancer is caught early, chemotherapy and radiation are highly effective. But if the cancer doesn't respond to treatment and spreads to other areas of the body, the five-year survival rate plummets to 20 percent, Eng said. \"Anal cancer is unique,\" she said. \"The majority of time you can cure the patient, but if you have recurrent or residual disease, you could end up losing your sphincter.\" The sphincter are muscles that holds in urine and feces. If the sphincter is removed, the patient must have a special bag, called an ostomy pouch, that collects the waste. Anal cancer is \"much rarer than colon cancer,\" Hausner said. \"For 50 colon cancer patients, we see one anal cancer... It's a rare disease. It is becoming a little bit more frequent. I would say that people are not aware.\"","highlights":"Risk factors for anal cancer include suppressed immune system, HPV, STDs .\nNew cases of anal cancer number about 5,000 a year, with 680 deaths per year .\nAnal cancer it treatable, but becomes more difficult to treat if tumor spreads .","id":"60970ab8db4a0731d30ab69b226f703f783e680e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sonia Sotomayor strongly asserted her adherence to the law while dodging questions about her personal beliefs on the third day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sonia Sotomayor answers questions from senators on Wednesday, the third day of her confirmation hearings. Asked repeatedly Wednesday by Republicans about her controversial statement that a \"wise Latina\" could reach a better decision than a white man, Sotomayor called it a poorly expressed but valid point about the value of differing perspectives in applying the law. Senators from both parties pressed her on her personal views on issues such as abortion, gun control and executive powers. But Sotomayor consistently answered she needed to know the specifics of a particular case, such as applicable state statutes and other facts. Sensing frustration over her responses, the federal appellate judge offered an explanation about how judges approach the law. \"What we do is different than the conversations citizens have about what they want the law to do,\" Sotomayor said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, who sought her views on the legality of some kinds of abortions and whether there was a fundamental right to possess firearms and self-defense. Judges look at the facts of a case and apply the law based on those facts, she said. \"It's not that we make a broad policy choice and say this is what we want,\" Sotomayor continued. Watch Face Off: Should Sotomayor be confirmed? \u00bb . Her performance rankled Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the former Republican committee chairman who changed parties last April. Specter repeatedly cut off Sotomayor's responses Wednesday, saying she was not answering his questions. Later, in praising Sotomayor's record as a judge, Specter said: \"I'm not commenting about your answers, but your record is exemplary.\" \"You'll be judged on your record more than your answers,\" he said. If approved by the committee and confirmed by the full Senate, the 55-year-old Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, the third female justice and the 111th person to sit on the nation's highest court. Watch Sotomayor being questioned \u00bb . Her dispassionate answers on a range of issues displayed a command of legal concepts that impressed even her harshest interrogators. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, appeared to rule out a filibuster attempt against the nomination by his minority party, telling Sotomayor that \"you will get that up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.\" Watch Cornyn quiz Sotomayor on abortion \u00bb . Democrats predicted she would be confirmed with support from members of both parties. Cornyn and other Republicans raised the \"wise Latina\" statement for a second straight day, asking whether it meant she had a gender, ethnic or racial bias. Sotomayor said the remark she made in several speeches was never intended to mean that one gender, ethnic or racial group was better than another. \"It is clear from the attention that my words have gotten and the manner in which it has been understood by some people that my words failed,\" Sotomayor said. \"They didn't work.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the Sotomayor hearings . However, she defended the point she was trying to make, and said other Supreme Court justices including Sandra Day O'Connor and Samuel Alito had expressed similar thoughts. \"The message that the entire speech attempted to deliver, however, remains the message that I think Justice O'Connor meant, the message that higher nominees, including Justice Alito, meant when he said that he considers his Italian ancestry when deciding discrimination cases,\" said Sotomayor. See how Sotomayor compares with justices on the court \u00bb . O'Connor, the first woman Supreme Court justice, had said she believed a wise female judge and a wise male judge could reach the same conclusion. \"I don't think Justice O'Connor meant that personal experiences compel results in any way,\" Sotomayor said. \"I think life experiences generally, whether it's that I'm a Latina or was a state prosecutor or have been a commercial litigator or been a trial judge and an appellate judge, that the mixture of all of those things, the amalgam of them help me to listen and understand.\" She repeated her statement from Tuesday that poor wording caused misunderstanding of what she meant to say, explaining that judges \"rely on the law to command the results in the case.\" \"So when one talks about life experiences, and even in the context of my speech, my message was different than I understand my words have been understood by some,\" Sotomayor continued. Cornyn pressed Sotomayor if she stood by her words from Tuesday's testimony that her \"wise Latina\" statement was a failed rhetorical flourish using \"words that don't make sense and that they're a bad idea?\" \"I stand by the words. It fell flat,\" Sotomayor responded. \"And I understand that some people have understood them in a way that I never intended. And I would hope that, in the text of the speech, that they would be understood.\" In one of Wednesday's few sharp exchanges, Sotomayor rejected Alabama Sen. Jeff Session's contention that she had pre-judged the issue of gun control. Learn more about Sotomayor's past rulings \u00bb . Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, asked whether she would recuse herself from gun control cases because she ruled in the past that the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment does not apply to state gun control laws. \"I have not made up my mind. I didn't say that I didn't believe it was fundamental,\" Sotomayor shot back. She explained that the word \"fundamental\" in legal terms refers to whether a federal statute applies to the states. The ruling cited by Sessions referred to a prior case that made the determination, Sotomayor said, so she was following the precedent. Sotomayor previously said she recognizes an individual right to bear arms as recently identified by the Supreme Court in the ruling District of Columbia v. Heller. Also Wednesday, Sotomayor told how an episode of the television show \"Perry Mason\" influenced her to become a prosecutor. She cited an episode in which Perry Mason, after winning yet another case, consoles beleaguered prosecutor Hamilton Burger by noting it must be hard to expend such effort only to have charges dismissed. \"No, my job as a prosecutor is to do justice, and justice is served when a guilty man is convicted and an innocent man is not,\" she quoted the prosecutor as saying. \"That TV character said something that motivated my choices in life,\" Sotomayor said.","highlights":"NEW: Sotomayor asserts adherence to law, dodges questions about personal views .\nGOP senator calls Sonia Sotomayor's answers \"muddled, confusing\"\nSupreme Court nominee says \"wise Latina\" remark didn't mean one group is better .\nSotomayor questioned by senators on third day of confirmation hearings .","id":"99626c8c6da47d076535ef034503df203c81b7e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Robert Swan's life reads like a boy's own adventure tale with a modern eco-twist. Robert Swan was the first man to walk to both the North and South Poles. Inspired by the daring age of Antarctic exploration, Swan followed in the footsteps of his heroes; the men who risked, and lost, their lives to reach the South Pole. At the age of 29 he embarked on an expedition to the South Pole that was unsupported -- a trek that required him to pull his own sleigh and that lacked medical support crews. By the time he was 33 he had become the first man to walk to both the North and South poles unsupported. But for Swan, the epic journeys to the Poles, and the sailing and overland adventures that have followed, unearthed more than just a spirit for adventure. He experienced firsthand the impact of humanity on the environment when under the hole in the ozone layer at the South Pole, the harsh ultraviolet rays from the sun burned his skin and permanently changed the color of his eyes. It firmed a desire to preserve the fragile natural world and to educate and inspire others, particularly the next generation of decision-makers to do the same. \"As the last unspoiled wilderness on Earth, Antarctica is currently protected by the treaty prohibiting drilling and mining until 2041. Decisions made by today's youth will impact our entire planet's ecosystem and the future of life on earth,\" he says on 2041.com. His polar icewalks gained international attention and in 1992 he was asked to speak at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, later gaining an OBE and being appointed Special Envoy to the Director General of UNESCO in recognition of his work. At the Earth Summit in Rio he committed to a \"global mission\" to remove 1,500 tons of waste from Antarctica. Swan and a team of young people from across the world were successful in cleaning up the Russian Antarctic base of Bellinghausen by 2000, making it inhabitable for wildlife again. Foresight, planning and determination then are not alien to a man who spent five years sourcing the funding for his first Antarctic expedition, and Swan's latest project is taking an even longer-term view. Swan founded his organization \"2041\" in 2003 in order to further his mission of action and education. Named after the year in which Antarctica's protection against mineral exploitation ends, Swan regularly takes business people, teachers and students on expeditions to Antarctica to impress on those with the capacity to enact change that preservation of the environment is essential and achievable. Continuing the green mission on the continent by minimizing the human footprint in the region, his international teams have helped design and build the world's first education station in Antarctica that is run solely on renewable energy. Add to the expeditions, ocean voyages on a boat with sails made from recycled plastic bottles, and it's clear that the veteran polar explorer is a man who is doing all he can to protect and preserve the Antarctic.","highlights":"Explorer Robert Swan runs expeditions to Antarctica to promote eco-awareness .\nWas the first man to walk to the North and South Poles .\nWorks with people from business and education to create new generation of leaders .","id":"c30cd83e952db004a1774abd0b2b5d7cff3bcba9"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Jaime Andrade had just gotten out of the shower when the men came to snatch him. Jaime Andrade was kept in this closet for three days without food or water, police say. His wife, Araceli Valencia, was mopping the kitchen in their family home on a typical warm spring morning in Phoenix, Arizona, \"when she suddenly felt a hard object pointed to the back of her head and a voice in Spanish tell her not to move,\" according to a Phoenix, Arizona, police investigative report. \"I told you not to look at me!\" Valencia heard one of the kidnappers bark as he struck Andrade across the head. Her four children bawling, Valencia was hustled into a bedroom where an armed man fondled her and threatened to rape her if she didn't tell him where Andrade hid his money, according to the report. After beating and binding Andrade, one of the kidnappers put a gun to Valencia's head. His message: We're taking your husband and SUV. We'll be watching your house. If you call the cops, he's a dead man. Andrade, his wife would later tell police, was a mechanic and freelance human smuggler, or coyote. Police say his 2006 kidnapping was evidence of a growing trend in Phoenix: drug and human traffickers abducting each other for ransoms or retribution. Watch why Phoenix is the hotspot \u00bb . The trend continues, as police investigated roughly a kidnapping a day in 2007 and 2008 and are on track to shatter those numbers this year. Police are stingy with details of fresh cases navigating the court system, but recently allowed CNN to review the files from Andrade's kidnapping. For two and a half days after Andrade's abduction, the kidnappers -- including a man whom Andrade later said had been a friend -- deprived their victim of food and water. Through the door of the closet where he was held, Andrade could hear the cries of other victims being tortured in the house, the report said. Meanwhile, Valencia had defied the kidnappers and called police, who listened to Andrade \"scream and howl in pain\" over the phone as the kidnappers tried to cut off his ear and a finger. The torture would continue until Valencia came up with the ransom, the kidnappers told her. Hear Andrade's wife plead with the kidnappers \u00bb . They were true to their word. Andrade was pistol-whipped and beaten with a baseball bat and the butt of a rifle. The kidnappers tried to gouge out his eye and slashed open his left eyebrow. They burned his back as well -- presumably, police said, with a blowtorch found at the scene. Read how the next door neighbors knew nothing of this . The blindfolded Andrade \"could feel his pants and underwear being cut open by an unknown person,\" he told police. He was told to bend over and was beaten when he refused. \"Jaime felt his legs being forced apart and heard Aldo say he was going to get his money,\" the report said. The kidnappers then sodomized him with a broomstick, a pair of scissors and a wooden dowel used to hang clothes in a closet. Kidnappers creative with coercion . Ferocity is often a hallmark of the abductions taking place in this south Arizona city of 1.5 million that serves as a prime transshipment point for drugs and human cargo. Watch how the kidnappers choose their targets \u00bb . Phoenix police say they have yet to witness the level of violence -- the beheadings, the bodies shoved in drums -- that their counterparts are seeing in Mexico City or the border town of Juarez. \"It gets close sometimes,\" said Lt. Lauri Burgett, who heads the Home Invasion and Kidnapping Enforcement squad. Kidnappers will smash their victims' fingers with bricks, snip their backs open with wire cutters, carve them up with knives or simply shoot them. \"We've had them electrocuted. They set them in a tub with water and use kind of barbaric means and zap the tub. I think it was a battery hooked up,\" Burgett said. Two kidnappings last year resulted in murders, she added, but it's not the norm. Phoenix police formed the HIKE squad in October after two years of unprecedented kidnapping numbers -- 357 in 2007 and 368 in 2008 -- gave the city the dubious distinction of being the nation's kidnapping capital. Home invasions were not far behind: 317 in 2007 and 337 in 2008. See kidnapping numbers since 1999 \u00bb . \"It's all about the money. And there's so much money to be made in this that you can't stop it, but you can try to reveal it, and then you can try to do something about it,\" Burgett said. The task force has made dozens of arrests, but as of March 31, the city had 101 reported kidnappings. If the trend continues, Phoenix will record an increase in kidnapping for a fourth straight year. More frustrating is that the numbers represent only a third, maybe less, of the city's kidnappings, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman with 16 years of drug enforcement experience. Most kidnappings aren't reported, he said, because the victims are generally smugglers, drug dealers or illegal immigrants -- or some combination of the three. Other criminals targeted . The most common cases are criminal-on-criminal -- drug smugglers or coyotes snatching rivals or their loved ones. In some cases, a drug dealer may have lost a load or failed to make a payment, but there are also cases when kidnappers do it solely for the ransom, which can be between $30,000 and $250,000, Thompson said. \"[The victims are] wearing the doper bling-bling, and they target them,\" he said. \"We've had several cases where the ransom amount has been $1 million that the person has asked for. In addition to that, they often ask for drugs -- 100 pounds of marijuana, perhaps a pound or two of speed, a pound or two of cocaine or several ounces of heroin.\" Phoenix police have even arrested victims after rescuing them, Burgett said. Less frequent but still accounting for 78 kidnappings last year are cases in which coyotes hold their human cargo captive or steal another coyote's patrons, known as pollos (Spanish for chickens), Burgett said. Burgett said human trafficking is often linked to the drug trade because both industries require the same routes and subterfuge to ferry their wares into the country. See what other cities have a cartel presence . There are rarely \"true victims\" in Phoenix's kidnappings, the lieutenant said. However, one criminal attorney who has represented at least 10 kidnappers in the last decade insists that the coyote business is \"uglier than the drug trade\" and that pollos are often killed or forced to do coyotes' bidding when they can't come up with the ransoms. \"In the drug business, the people getting killed are in the business. They are not end users, not consumers,\" said Antonio Bustamente. \"In the coyote business, the people killed are really innocent. [First-time] illegal entry is a petty offense.\" Though many might debate the innocence of victims entangled in Phoenix's border-related violence, police say there have been instances when the kidnappers snatched the wrong mark. Girl mistakenly snatched . On the evening of March 17, 2008, a 13-year-old girl and her friend were walking out of a home in the suburb of Avondale. They were planning to play basketball. The friend, according to a police investigative report, was the niece of a man named \"Chucky.\" Chucky and his cohorts, witnesses told police, had earlier stolen 55 pounds of marijuana and left several men tied up in a vacant house. Hours later, the investigative report said, armed men arrived at Chucky's sister's house in three vehicles, one a white Chevrolet Tahoe with blue-and-red strobes like the police use. The men wanted Chucky, their drugs or $24,000. The 13-year-old said she didn't know Chucky. When she tried to walk away, \"one of them grabbed her by the neck, pointed a gun at her and forced her in the vehicle,\" the report said. Eventually, the men called the girl's mother to demand ransom. A police officer took the phone and informed the men they had the wrong girl. She was released relatively unharmed in the suburb of Surprise. The case serves as a reminder that as police scramble to tamp the bloodshed before it reaches the levels proliferating south of the border, collateral damage is a reality. Watch how the kidnapping often occur in quiet neighborhoods \u00bb . The origins of the kidnappers -- 90 percent of whom hail from the Mexican state from which the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel takes its name -- also remind law enforcement that 150 miles south lies a country racked with a more extreme brand of violence. The tortured Andrade was fortunate that police were able to find him. On Andrade's third day in captivity, an undercover officer posing as a loan shark convinced the kidnappers to lower their ransom from $50,000 to $10,000 and the title to the Ford Expedition they had stolen. When the kidnappers arrived at the drop point, a Safeway supermarket parking lot, police swarmed on their green Chevrolet Tahoe, the report said. One of the men, Luis Alberto Castro-Vega, then 23, disclosed Andrade's whereabouts after police promised not to charge him with kidnapping. Only Castro-Vega has been convicted of crimes associated with Andrade's kidnapping: first-degree burglary, theft by extortion, armed robbery and three counts of aggravated assault. In September 2006, a judge sentenced Castro-Vega to 54 years in prison. Thompson said he hopes the stiff sentence sends a message that Phoenix police expect the kidnappings and violence to end, regardless of the targets and the perpetrators. \"The problems that occur when it's criminal versus criminal, that's still violence on the streets of America,\" he said. \"If those people get in a gunbattle, those bullets have to go somewhere, and that could be a playground where kids are playing. That could be a neighbor's house where a neighbor is inside sleeping that has nothing to do whatsoever with the illegal activity, but yet they become senseless victims of the violence.\"","highlights":"Phoenix police investigated 368 kidnappings in 2008, 357 in 2007 .\nHuman smuggler was tortured for days because kidnappers suspected he had cash .\nPolice say kidnappers cut, beat, shoot and electrocute victims to get their money .\nMen kidnapped innocent 13-year-old girl after neighbor stole marijuana, police say .","id":"859b6b384310b6b3961ab2ccc707877289675f8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A double amputee sprinter has won the right to be eligible to compete at this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing after sport's highest court backed his appeal against a ban imposed by athletics authorities. Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorious competed in two able-bodied athletics meetings in 2007. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that South African Oscar Pistorius, who runs on prosthetic blades, is eligible to compete against able-bodied athletes. Pistorius, 21, who lost both legs below the knees when he was a baby, runs on shock-absorbing carbon-fiber prosthetics that resemble bent skis -- earning him the nickname \"Blade Runner.\" Pistorius, a Paralympic Games champion and world record holder, had lobbied the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to allow him to compete at the Olympics this August, but after extensive tests the IAAF ruled in January that his J-shaped prosthetics qualify as technical aids, which are banned in IAAF-governed sports. The IAAF does allow athletes with prosthetics to compete in able-bodied sports, as long as the IAAF believes they do not give the athlete an unfair edge. But Friday's ruling by the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, overturned that verdict. In a statement, it said that its panel had \"not been persuaded that there was sufficient evidence of any metabolic advantage in favor of a double-amputee\" using Pistorius' blades. Appeals of court decisions are allowed, but on very limited grounds. But the CAS said it did not exclude the possibility that future scientific tests could be developed which might enable the IAAF to prove that the blades provided Pistorius with an advantage over able-bodied athletes. The South African won gold in the 200 meters, and bronze in the 100 meters at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. He holds the Paralympic world records in the 100, 200, and 400 meters. Since Athens, he has competed in two able-bodied races in which he finished second and last, respectively. Pistorius will have emphasized to the court the disadvantages he feels he has by running with prosthetics, CNN World Sport's Don Riddell said. \"There are disadvantages when it's windy, when it's raining, (and) it takes him longer to get up to speed at the start,\" Riddell said. \"He will be hoping that they take everything into consideration and not just rule on how much spring his prosthetic limbs give him.\" In November, the IAAF carried out tests on Pistorius over two days at the German Sport University in Cologne to determine if his prosthetics, known as Cheetah limbs, could be considered a technical aid. A team of more than 10 scientists used high-speed cameras, special equipment to measure ground-reaction forces, and a three-dimensional scanner to record body mass. The scientists concluded Pistorius was able to run with his prosthetic blades at the same speed as able-bodied sprinters with about 25 percent less energy expenditure. Pistorius' blades gave him an energy return nearly three times higher than the human ankle joint offers in maximum sprinting, they said. Riddell described Friday's ruling in Pistorius' favor as \"groundbreaking,\" and said it raised questions about the future of paralympic sports. \"What does this do to the future of the Paralympics if he's allowed to run in the able-bodied Olympics? Is he actually doing a disservice to other Paralympic athletes? Does it cheapen the Paralympic Games?\" Riddell asked.","highlights":"Court of Arbitration for Sport backs double amputee sprinter in Olympic bid .\nIAAF had ruled that Oscar Pistorius' prosthetic blades give him unfair advantage .\nSouth African, 21, hopes to compete at this summer's Beijing Olympics .\nPistorius holds paralympic world records at 100, 200, and 400 meters .","id":"ac1030bc950ba2ed7d4801c2fa9e653086b438a8"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe slashed 12 zeros from its currency as hyperinflation continued to erode its value, the country's central bank announced Monday. Patrick Chinamasa, Zimbabwe's acting finance minister, arrives last week at Parliament to present the '09 budget. \"Even in the face of current economic and political challenges confronting the economy, the Zimbabwe dollar ought to and must remain the nation's currency, so as to safeguard our national identity and sovereignty. ... Our national currency is a fundamental economic pillar of our sovereignty,\" said Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. \"Accordingly, therefore, this monetary policy statement unveils yet another necessary program of revaluing our local currency, through the removal of 12 zeros with immediate effect.\" The move means that 1 trillion in Zimbabwe dollars now will be equivalent to one Zimbabwe dollar. The old notes -- with the highest being 100 trillion dollars -- not enough to buy a loaf of bread -- will remain valid until June 30, after which they will cease to be legal tender. One U.S. dollar is trading above 300 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. This third attempt to lop off zeros comes barely six months after the Zimbabwe government last adjusted its currency as it continues to lose value. World-record inflation estimated to be in the billions of percent -- but officially at 231 million percent as of July last year -- has quickly eroded the currency's value again and again. The highest note on the new set is 500 Zimbabwe dollars. Many Zimbabwean traders have stopped accepting the local currency, preferring foreign currency due to the hyperinflationary environment. Last week, the country's acting finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, allowed the use of foreign currency by everyone else. Despite the use of foreign currency, the Zimbabwe dollars are in acute shortage, resulting in many people sleeping outside their banks hoping to get money the following day. Regarding the cash shortages, Gono blamed Germany for dropping a contract that helped the country print money. \"The country has suffered bouts of cash shortages, which have disadvantaged both the corporate and household sectors,\" he said. \"As a country, we have come to terms with this stubborn reality that we were put under economic sanctions by Germany, which unilaterally cut a 50-year-old contract to supply us with currency printing paper, machinery, spare parts and inks without notice in July last year.\"","highlights":"One trillion in Zimbabwe dollars now will be equivalent to one Zimbabwe dollar .\nZimbabwe's inflation rate officially at 231 million percent as of last July .\nMany Zimbabwean traders have stopped accepting local currency .\nActing finance minister recently allowed all Zimbabweans to use foreign currency .","id":"72e85063b2a69682de4a714379640e635a919caf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials said a British Airways jet had to be evacuated Friday at a Phoenix, Arizona, airport after smoke was reported in the cabin. British Airways Flight 288, headed to London's Heathrow Airport, had departed the gate for the runway, but returned after passengers detected odors strong enough to cause alarm, said Capt. Shelly Jamison, spokeswoman of the Phoenix Fire Department. The Boeing 747-400 was next to the terminal when emergency chutes flew open for the 298 passengers to evacuate, officials said. About 100 firefighters and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport about 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET), she said. Jamison said about 15 people suffered injuries, mainly cuts and bruises. She also said a person experiencing shoulder pain was taken to a local hospital. Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera, but could not determine a source of a fire, Jamison said. Jamison said the smoke may have been caused by electrical problems. The airlines' engineering staff was examining the aircraft and the staff in Phoenix was assisting stranded passengers with hotel rooms, British Airways spokesman Richard Goodfellow said.","highlights":"London-bound plane was evacuated Friday after smoke reported in cabin .\nPassengers, crew used emergency chutes to leave plane .\nOfficials still trying to determine what caused smoke on plane .","id":"bd8d0cf2bfaeffdae2820cf615d57240783bdc7c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Democrats unveiled their revised version of health care reform Tuesday, offering a proposal that includes a government-funded health insurance option, requires both individuals and employers to participate, and taxes the wealthy to help cover costs. President Obama has urged Congress to work quickly on creating a health care reform bill. Democratic House leaders said the measure, titled \"America's Affordable Health Choices Act,\" met the requirements set by President Obama for health care reform by lowering costs to consumers and businesses, letting people keep their current plan if desired, and preventing denial of coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions. \"The House proposal will begin the process of fixing what's broken about our health care system, reducing costs for all, building on what works, and covering an estimated 97 percent of all Americans,\" Obama said in a written statement. \"And by emphasizing prevention and wellness, it will also help improve the quality of health care for every American.\" Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said the bill is intended to repair a \"dysfunctional\" health care system that is draining the U.S. economy while leaving 46 million Americans without health insurance. \"We are going to accomplish what many people felt wouldn't happen in our lifetime,\" he said. But House Republicans slammed the Democrats' bill and pledged to try to amend it as three House committees begin considering the legislation later this week. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said the bill \"without any question will kill jobs, will limit access to health care, will raise taxes and will lead to a government takeover of health care.\" Blunt said he will offer an amendment requiring all elected federal officials, including Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, to enroll in the new public insurance option. Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats also question the cost of health care reform. An earlier draft of the House Democrats' bill carried a price tag of $1 trillion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office said the revised house bill also would cost $1 trillion. However, a senior Democratic House committee staffer said the CBO analysis only covered costs without factoring in cost-saving measures worth $500 billion over 10 years or the revenue from tax surcharges on wealthy Americans, estimated to raise more than $500 billion over a decade. According to the CBO, the bill would cover 97 percent of Americans by 2015. The bill includes tax surcharges on Americans in the top 1.2 percent of income. It proposes a 5.4 percent surtax on couples earning more than $1 million, a 1.5 percent surtax on couples with income between $500,000 and $1 million, and a 1 percent surtax on joint incomes over $350,000 or individual income over $280,000. Anticipating Republican complaints that the tax surcharges would harm small business owners who report their income as personal, Democratic sponsors said the measure would affect less than 5 percent of all small business owners. Specific provisions of the bill include: . -- A Health Insurance Exchange providing individuals and small business with choices for coverage, including a government-funded public option. -- No more coverage exclusion for pre-existing conditions. -- Affordability credits for low- and moderate-income individuals and families, available to those with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $43,000 for individuals and $88,000 for a family of four. -- Limits on annual out-of-pocket spending. -- Expanded Medicaid coverage to individuals and families with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. -- Required participation by individuals, with a penalty of 2.5 percent of adjusted gross income for non-compliance. -- Requirement that businesses with payrolls exceeding $250,000 provide their employees with health coverage or contribute up to 8 percent of their payroll on their behalf. -- A series of measures intended to reduce costs of Medicaid, Medicare and other existing systems. A statement Tuesday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups opposed some of the bill's proposals, calling for market forces and employer autonomy instead of mandated participation by businesses. \"Exempting some micro-businesses will not prevent this provision from killing many jobs,\" the statement said. The House bill now goes to three committees for debate and revision before consideration by the full chamber. The Senate also is considering health reform measures that contain some of the House bill provisions. Obama has said he wants both chambers to pass their respective proposals before Congress goes on its August recess as part of a timetable to get a final bill to his desk by the end of the year. House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia argued that the current economic conditions mean Congress should take its time on a major overhaul of the health care system. \"There's no need for us to be rushing into passing legislation before the end of this month at the potential cost of, really, millions of jobs,\" Cantor said Tuesday. A CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey released July 1 found that a slim majority -- 51 percent -- support Obama's health care plans, but most worry that their costs would go up, and only one in five think their families would be better off. CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this story .","highlights":"It offers government-funded health insurance option and taxes wealthy .\nLeaders say it meets Obama's requirements on health care reform .\nGOP, some fiscally conservative Democrats oppose components .","id":"88468454038e62d86a3e27f25524d8cf17312f45"} -{"article":"People with a gene variant that sharply increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease in old age may show memory impairment earlier than thought -- sometimes well before their 60th birthday, according to new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. A variant of the APOE gene indicates whether a person has a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Between 20 and 35 percent of Americans have one or two copies of this gene variant, inherited from one or both parents. People with one copy of the variant, called apolipoprotein E-e4 (APOE e4), have a 29 percent lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, while people who don't have it have a 9 percent risk. People with two copies of APOE e4 have an even higher Alzheimer's risk, but it's hard to define the exact percentage as only 2 percent of the population falls into this category. Despite the gene-related health problems, another study in the same issue of the journal suggests that people who learn they do have APOE e4 seem to handle the information pretty well. But the researchers excluded people with anxiety or depression, and they followed people for just a year. Therefore, the results don't tell the whole story about what it would be like for most people to find out whether they carried the APOE e4 gene. Nevertheless, the findings are an important first step, said Dr. Kenneth Kosik, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California Santa Barbara and the codirector of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute. \"I think it opens the door to ask the deeper questions,\" said Kosik, referring to the possible consequences for individuals and society if widespread APOE testing were introduced. (Kosik was not involved with either study.) If people do find out they have the APOE e4 gene, Kosik added, the new memory study could make the news harder to bear. Dr. Richard J. Caselli, of the Mayo Clinic Arizona, in Scottsdale, and his colleagues followed 815 people ages 21 to 97 with normal mental function, including 317 who had at least one copy of the APOE e4 gene. On one test of a person's ability to learn and remember (the Auditory-Verbal Learning Test) gene carriers showed declines in their scores beginning in their 50s. For people without the APOE e4 gene, this decline started in their 70s. \"We're not talking anymore about a retired population; we're talking about people who will be in the midst of their career,\" Caselli said. He added that many would be in positions of responsibility in which they need to have all their wits about them -- and they may not. Health.com: Eat smarter in your 30s, 40s, and 50s . \"[The study] forces us to really think about the brave new world of genetics,\" and how this information might be used, Kosik said. Although there had been a \"clear line\" between having the APOE e4 gene but being dementia-free and having Alzheimer's disease, that distinction isn't as clear anymore, he explained. For someone who discovers he or she has the APOE e4 gene, Caselli said, \"The only advice I have is, 'Don't panic.'\" Right now, APOE gene testing is only recommended for people with mild problems with mental function or dementia; for people with no symptoms, it should only be done in a research setting, experts said. Nevertheless, labs have sprung up that will offer the \"worried well\" an APOE gene test for a fee. Having APOE testing without adequate medical, psychological, or genetic counseling is \"inappropriate,\" said Dr. Hyman Schipper, a professor of neurology and medicine at McGill University, and the director of the Centre for Neurotranslational Research at SMBD--Jewish General Hospital, both in Montreal. In these situations, Schipper explained people may not interpret the results correctly, and could run the risk of psychological harm. For example, people who find out they carry the gene for Huntington's disease -- which means they have a 100 percent chance of developing a devastating neurodegenerative condition if they live long enough -- do indeed experience anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts, Schipper noted. Health.com: Fight aging -- the real secrets to staying young . In the second study, Dr. Robert C. Green of the Boston University School of Medicine, and his colleagues in the REVEAL Study Group set out to look at whether something similar would happen to people who found out they carried the Alzheimer's gene. They assigned 162 symptom-free people at random to a group who would receive their APOE genotyping results and a group who would not be told their results, and then checked their level of anxiety and depression -- as well as stress related to the gene test -- six weeks, six months, and one year after they got the news (or didn't). All of the study participants had a parent with Alzheimer's disease, but none of them had any signs of mental impairment or dementia. People who found out they didn't carry the gene variant were less stressed about the test than those who found out they did carry the gene. Green and his team also found that the higher a person scored on initial tests of anxiety and depression symptoms, the more likely he or she was to be anxious or depressed after finding out about the gene, although the researchers had excluded people with severe anxiety or depression from the study. However, there were no differences between the groups that were told the news and those who were not. The fact that people in the study agreed to be randomly assigned to get their APOE results suggests they \"are not representative of those who have a strong perceived need to know or need not to know,\" Rosalie A. Kane and Dr. Robert L. Kane of the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, wrote in an editorial published with the studies. The study also considered only the psychological impact of the news, they say. Some people might make major life decisions based on the news, such as deciding to hoard their money or spend it all. In addition, employers and health insurers are banned from discriminating against someone based on their genes, but companies offering long-term-care insurance, disability insurance, and life insurance are allowed to take this information into account. Health.com: How to get your way with body language . One major reason why learning APOE e4 status could be so stressful is that there's no clear way to reduce Alzheimer's risk. But there could be soon, some experts say. \"We don't know yet how by doing interventions whether or not we can beat the APOE gene or at least diminish its effects,\" said Kosik. \"We do know that the likelihood of getting Alzheimer's disease is very much affected by people's exercise level, their blood pressure, their cholesterol levels, perhaps their diet, and the degree to which they engage in cognitive challenges. All of those things have data, some stronger than others, that you can have some effect on your likelihood of getting Alzheimer's.\" But, Caselli points out that trying to encourage people to exercise in order to prevent heart disease, for example, has been far from successful, and getting people to be active to ward off Alzheimer's may be equally difficult. Health.com: Heartburn or heart attack? How to tell the difference . Maybe, however, the thought of losing our minds is a bit more motivating than the idea of heart disease. \"There is some recent evidence to suggest, in fact, that personal knowledge of APOE status and general AD risk profile may spur healthy midlife adults to adopt or modify behaviors that might protect against the disease,\" Schipper said. Health.com: 10 Risk factors for heart disease . Apolipoprotein is a cholesterol-carrying molecule, and the gene that makes the protein comes in three slightly different versions -- e2, e3, and e4 (there's no e1). In addition to increasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease, APOE e4 is also associated with a greater risk of heart disease. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Having one copy of gene variant, APOE e4, means 29 percent risk of Alzheimer's .\nPeople with APOE e4 gene variant showed declines beginning in their 50s .\nAPOE gene testing is only recommended for people with mild mental functions .","id":"e65d12e0b27ff7427764f4324b00919b3548a84f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kids dig in the sand at the beach all the time, but the fun nearly turned fatal for an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy this week. The 11-year-old was given CPR and revived before being taken to a local hospital. The boy was digging a tunnel with friends on a beach in Ocean City, Maryland, on Tuesday when part of it collapsed on top of him, authorities said. Lifeguards rushed to pull him out, but it first appeared that they were too late. The boy was not breathing, and he had no pulse, Beach Patrol Capt. Butch Arbin told CNN on Wednesday. But rescue crews revived the boy by performing CPR, said Arbin, who was at the scene. There was a lot of emotion on the beach when the boy's pulse came back, he said. \"He basically went from dead to life,\" Arbin said, adding that the boy's mother called the rescue a \"miracle.\" As he was being rolled into an ambulance on a stretcher, the boy -- perhaps not realizing the trauma he had just survived -- complained to his mother that he had sand in his eyes, Arbin said. The child, whose family did not want to be identified, was initially taken to Atlantic General Hospital and later flown to the A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, he said. He's recovering there and probably will be released later Wednesday, Arbin said.","highlights":"Boy, 11, was digging a tunnel with friends on a beach in Ocean City, Maryland .\nLifeguards rushed to help; boy had no pulse and wasn't breathing .\nBeach Patrol captain: \"He basically went from dead to life\"\nBoy recovering in hospital, expected to be released later Wednesday .","id":"b78441ca48dbd1a7c4cc08d47446e7bd73176426"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mauricio Funes, a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago, claimed the presidency of El Salvador on Sunday night. FMLN's Mauricio Funes shows his ballot before voting Sunday in Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. \"This is the happiest night of my life,\" Funes told a jubilant crowd at his election headquarters. \"It's also the night of greatest hope for El Salvador.\" With 90.68 percent of the votes counted, the FMLN party's Funes had 51.27 percent, while the ARENA party's Rodrigo Avila had 48.73 percent, the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. The final tally will be certified within 48 hours, the electoral council's Walter Araujo said in a nationally televised news conference. Funes' victory ended a 20-year hold on the presidency by the right-leaning ARENA. \"Now the ARENA party passes into opposition,\" Funes said. \"ARENA ... can be assured that it will be listened to and respected.\" Although polls had indicated the race had tightened considerably in the past few weeks, most analysts had predicted that Funes would win. \"It's a sign that there's democracy in that country, which is something the United States tried to foster,\" said Bernard Aronson, who as President George H.W. Bush's assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs from 1989-93 was heavily involved in ending El Salvador's 12-year civil war. The FMLN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, was formed in late 1980 as an umbrella group for five leftist guerilla organizations fighting a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The guerrillas and the government signed a peace pact in 1992 and the FMLN became a legitimate political party. By some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the war. The new president will find \"a country that still retains a lot of bitterness, a lot of division,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. \"This country is completely divided,\" ARENA party official Adolfo Torres said on CNN affiliate TCS TV station Sunday night. The election, Hakim said, was \"an important test of how far El Salvador has come.\" The result also will be an important test of how far El Salvador will go. With an economy in deep trouble and neither party having enough seats to control the national Legislative Assembly, much will depend on the party that lost. \"Conflict occurs when one person wants to force a conflict,\" Hakim said. \"Compromise requires both sides.\" No one is certain how ARENA will handle the loss. \"That's a big unknown,\" said Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the consulting firm Eurasia Group. \"I still think they'll play ball. They have an incentive to get along with the new administration. They certainly don't want to be shut out of the process.\" Otto Reich, who served in high-level Latin American posts for Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, sees the possibility of a spirited fight from ARENA. \"If I had to guess, I'd say ARENA will try to put democratic obstacles in the way of an FMLN consolidation of power,\" Reich said. Although ARENA, which are the Spanish initials for the Nationalist Republican Alliance, has come back from a 14-point deficit in some polls two months ago, Reich said winning a fifth consecutive term was \"swimming against the tide.\" \"People in El Salvador are weighing risks and opportunities,\" Reich said. \"They have an opportunity to replace a party with which they have gotten tired.\" Hakim also saw voter fatigue with ARENA, saying, \"One party has managed the country forever and ever.\" Many of the 2.4 million Salvadorans who voted weighed competing doubts. \"The uncertainty is that the FMLN has never been in power,\" Berkman said. But voters also asked themselves, she said, whether they were \"better off than they were five years ago, 10 years ago.\" Avila, she said, could not run on a message of change. Funes' message of change and putting new people in power was more effective. Since the war ended, Salvadorans have mostly supported ARENA because of concerns over the FMLN's left-wing agenda and the group's guerrilla background. There also have been outside influences. \"The country has been afraid to vote for the left because of fears from Washington,\" Larry Birns, director of the nonprofit Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said recently. With the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, Salvadorans may expect a different attitude from Washington. El Salvador, Colombia and Peru have been the United States' closest allies in Latin America. Birns calls the three nations \"Washington's street-corner guys.\" With an FMLN victory, El Salvador joins other Latin American countries that have elected leftist leaders in recent years -- Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. But Berkman and others warn that the United States must not lump everyone together. \"People tend to look at the left in Latin America and oversimplify it,\" Berkman said. \"There's the good left and the bad left.\" Or as Aronson put it, \"There's leftists, and there's leftists.\" Aronson sees two types of leftist governments in Latin America: \"institutional\" governments like Brazil's that \"have made peace with the free market\" while still championing social programs, and populist, more-radical governments like Venezuela's. Analysts are not sure what to make of Funes, a former freelance journalist for CNN en Espa\u00f1ol who is projecting a moderate image. \"The FMLN did something very clever,\" Reich said. \"They put somebody at the head of the party who is not a guerrilla, not a terrorist.\" Even the FMLN may not know what to expect from Funes. Berkman calls it \"an issue of uncertainty\" between the former journalist and the former guerrilla group. \"There's a lot of unknowns about how the relationship between Funes and the FMLN will proceed,\" she said, adding that she will watch his Cabinet picks and whether he brings in people from other parties. Funes' victory was a defining moment for the FMLN. \"It's an important transformation,\" Hakim said. \"The ex-guerrillas have to make a decision: Are they going to try to bring about revolutionary, radical change or manage the whole country and have step-by-step reform?\" Aronson sees it as \"a test of whether they will be pragmatic or ideological.\" The FMLN may not have a choice but to be pragmatic. The party holds 35 seats in the 84-member National Assembly. ARENA has 32 seats. Forty-three votes are needed to pass most legislation and some measures require \"supermajority\" approval of 56 votes. That means that, if ARENA and the FMLN cannot agree on a measure, they have to look to one of the minor parties for support. The PCN, which is the National Conciliation Party, has 11 seats and could emerge as a power broker. Two others parties hold six seats. \"It is in the PCN's interest to play ball as well,\" Berkman said. \"The PCN will act as a moderating force.\" Berkman also said the FMLN will likely take a moderate approach because the nation relies too much on outside investments and remittances from Salvadorans living abroad for the former guerrillas to adopt too much of a radical approach. But Hakim worries about something else. \"I think ARENA may be prepared for this [loss],\" he said. \"I'm concerned that the FMLN may not be prepared to govern.\"","highlights":"NEW: FMLN's Funes had 51.27 percent of the vote, with 84 percent of ballots counted .\nA Funes victory would end 20-year hold by the right-leaning ARENA .\nBy some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the civil war .","id":"87510f0936856f47ca31dc6db86cf586b5c0ca81"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cause of a deadly Washington Metro subway crash last month remains a mystery, with one problem identified by investigators persisting even after engineers replaced a key part that was believed to be faulty, a top Metro official said Tuesday . Investigators are shown at the crash scene in Washington. Nine people were killed in the June 22 accident. At a congressional hearing, Jim Graham said Metro replaced a device that was \"fluttering,\" signaling the presence of a train one moment and not the next. \"You'd think that that would remedy the issue, that ... we would have solved the problem,\" said Graham, chairman of Metro's board of directors. \"In fact, the new device ... continued the same fluttering as the former device.\" \"We're left with a very compelling mystery as to what is going on here,\" he said. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, acknowledged that Metro's system of detecting trains continues to have unexplained, intermittent failures. \"Sometimes it's working; sometimes it's not, even with those changes,\" NTSB member Deborah Hersman told a House committee. \"We've walked back the cable to see if there might be some cabling issues. There's a lot of challenges here and we're changing out some components and trying to identify what the problem is,\" she said. Metro has said it will operate the subway trains on manual control until officials have identified and fixed the problem with the automatic train system. Nine people were killed and scores were injured during the June 22 crash just north of the Red Line's Fort Totten station. At Tuesday's hearing, a passenger on one of the trains gave a dramatic description of the accident. Patrick Tuite of Kensington, Maryland, said he had just put down his newspaper and closed his eyes to relax when he heard a screeching sound, someone yelling and \"one of the loudest bangs I've ever heard in my life.\" Tuite said in the impact, he hit the seat in front of him. When Tuite peered into the forward-most car, he saw extensive damage. The floor of the car had collapsed \"accordion-like,\" he said. \"We could hear the people at this point in the first car,\" he said. \"And it was pretty chaotic. They were screaming; they were upset,\" he said. But the collision had jammed the doors between the cars, making it impossible to reach victims in the front car. It wasn't until he got off the train that he realized the first car was thrust into the air, he said. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's Congressional delegate, chided the NTSB for making prohibitively costly safety recommendations while ignoring cheaper, common sense solutions, such as putting the newer, more robust rail cars at the front and back of trains. \"Over and over again, you said, 'Do the impossible,' \" Norton, a Democrat, said, referring to NTSB recommendations that Metro replace older cars with sturdier new ones. \"Why didn't the transportation board at least recommend this rather low-tech, low-cost step?\" Hersman said the NTSB's role is to push for safety improvements. \"We do make recommendations, Ms. Norton, and we don't have to pay for them, so we recognize that frustration,\" she said. \"But our charge is not to [consider costs]. Our charge is to recommend what we think is in the best interest of the safety community. We are the conscience and the compass of the transportation industry, and they [transportation providers and regulators] get to decide if and how they implement it,\" Hersman said.","highlights":"Unexplained, intermittent failures persist despite repairs, Metro official says .\nPassenger recalls loud bang, \"accordion-like\" collapse of floor, screams .\nDelegate chides NTSB for making high-cost, \"impossible\" recommendations .\n9 people killed, scores injured in June 22 crash near Red Line's Fort Totten station .","id":"0edf83de164102a1a84528841e711d331b39036e"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- There is a shiny addition among the Ottoman mosques and palaces that make up Istanbul's stunning skyline: the metallic, mirrored dome of the new Sakirin Mosque, a Muslim place of worship built with a woman's touch. When sun reflects off Sakirin Mosque's dome, light can be seen across the Bosphorus Strait. For what may be the first time in history, women have been at the forefront of the construction of a mosque in Turkey. One of the project's leaders is Zeynep Fadillioglu, an interior decorator who has designed restaurants, hotels and luxury homes from New Delhi, India, to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and London, England. She helped organize a team of traditional mosque artists specializing in Islamic calligraphy, along with craftsmen in glassworks, metal-casting and lighting who, like Fadillioglu, have built careers working in exclusively secular architecture and design. \"I want people to feel peaceful and be left with themselves as much as possible and yet have beautiful art and artistic symbolism around them,\" she said. Istanbul has a venerable tradition of mosque architecture, dating back centuries to when Ottoman sultans declared themselves caliph, or spiritual leader of the Muslim world. Watch Zeynep Fadilioglu show off her work and inspirations \u00bb . The shores of the Bosporus Strait are studded with 16th century masterpieces such as the Suleymaniye Mosque, built by the Ottoman Empire's most famous architect, Mimar Sinan, and ornate, neo-Baroque jewels designed by the Armenian Balyan family in the 19th century. But Istanbul's most senior Muslim cleric laments that mosque design suffered a decline after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I. \"In the last 70, 80 years, we have built mosques that are copies of Ottoman architecture,\" said Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti of Istanbul. \"This wasn't a good development, because the copy can never be as good as the original.\" Fadillioglu and her team of artists are hoping to change that. Look at photos of the mosque \u00bb . The Sakirin Mosque was commissioned by a wealthy Turkish Arab family and built in one of Istanbul's oldest cemeteries. The designers put a number of contemporary touches on the structure, giving it plate glass walls etched with gold-leaf verses from the Quran, framed by giant cast-iron grids. The mihrab -- the alcove that points worshippers in the direction of Mecca -- is made of asymmetrical ovals, similar to a design used by Fadillioglu to decorate a restaurant in London. And the chandelier is a multi-layered series of metal and plexiglass rings, carrying Quranic inscriptions and dripping with scores of delicate glass teardrops. \"The glass chandelier brings the high dome down to the people,\" Fadillioglu explained. \"So when they pray and kneel they don't feel lost with the light and it shelters them.\" Many of the artists here never worked on a mosque before. \"It's special that a woman's hand is involved in this,\" said one of them, a male carpenter named Metin Cekeroglu. \"If you think about it, a home is made by woman. And if we think about this place as a home of God, we can also say women will make this place much better.\" Fadillioglu said one of her goals was to bring extra attention into the design of the women's section of the mosque, an area that she says is often neglected by architects. According to Islamic tradition, worshippers are segregated by gender at mosques. \"I have seen mosques where women have been pushed to the worst part of stairs, cramped area. Sort of as if (they are) unwanted in the mosque,\" she said. \"That is not what Islam is about. ... Women are equal in Islam to men\" Five minutes' drive from the Sakirin Mosque stands the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, a 16th century structure built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in honor of his favorite daughter. Unfortunately, female worshippers do not get to enjoy its stunning stained glass windows the way the men do. They have to pray in a small women's section, hidden behind a bank of chest-high shelves that store shoes. At the Sakirin Mosque, Fadillioglu said, she gave women praying on the balcony an unobstructed view of the dome, the ornate chandelier, and the area on the floor where the imam will lead prayers. \"I would like to come here to pray,\" said Elif Demir, an 18-year old art student with a funky, orange-dyed haircut who was working on the chandelier. \"This mosque is completely different because of the light that's coming through the walls, through the glass.\" Fadillioglu's role in the Sakirin Mosque is all the more surprising because she comes from a jet-set side of Turkish society not normally associated with Islam. \"It is unusual,\" she conceded, \"because first of all not many modern people have been commissioned to design a mosque.\" She spoke in a recent interview at Ulus 29, the expensive Istanbul hilltop restaurant and bar that is owned by her husband. Amid the Ottoman- and Selcuk-inspired flourishes she has sprinkled around the restaurant are echoes of designs seen at the Sakirin Mosque. A glass chandelier made of hundreds of crystal tear drops hangs above the bar, similar in style to the mosque's chandelier. Fadillioglu said being a night club owner does not prevent her from also being a Muslim. \"You might be surprised in Turkey to find some very modern-looking people being very religious at the same time,\" she said. Religion is a hot-button political issue in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country with a strict secular system of government. For the past eight years a fierce power struggle has been under way between an urban secular elite and a rising new class of religiously conservative Turks from the Anatolian heartlands. Unlike the wives of Turkey's Islamic-rooted president and prime minister, Fadillioglu does not wear the Islamic headscarf that is often seen as the symbol of this new class of Turks. Fadillioglu said politics have polarized society. \"In my childhood ... you didn't differentiate between who was religious,\" she explained. \"Whoever wants to worship or visit this mosque, its open, its ready for them.\" On May 8, Turkey's prime minister attended an inauguration ceremony for the Sakirin Mosque. Afterward, in an interview with CNN, the mufti of Istanbul called it the start of a new era of mosque design in Turkey. \"It is in Islamic tradition for women to commission mosques ... and now we have women who are building mosques as well,\" Cagrici said. \"God willing, I hope the world will see more of these beautiful mosques, touched by women's hands.\"","highlights":"For possibly first time in history, women take lead in building mosque in Turkey .\nOne of leaders of project to build Sakirin Mosque is decorator Zeynep Fadillioglu .\nSakirin Mosque was commissioned by wealthy Turkish Arab family .","id":"2db9c0d8d4c2272993951b26ebd69dc0605bcf93"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Kathleen Sebelius is secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration. Kathleen Sebelius says health care costs are a huge and growing burden on the economy. (CNN) -- Today in Washington, some politicians like to suggest that the many challenges we face as a nation mean we shouldn't tackle health care reform. Nothing could be further from the truth. With more and more of America's families, businesses, and local, state and federal governments struggling with the crushing costs of health care, health care reform has never been more important. As President Obama has often said, you can't fix the economy without fixing health care. Unless we fix what is broken in our current system, everyone's health care will be in jeopardy. Health care reform is not a luxury. It is a necessity. It's important to look at the size of the problem we face and where we stand. Today, we have by far the most expensive health system in the world. We spend 50 percent more per person on health care than the average developed country, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. We spend more on health care than housing or food, the McKinsey Global Institute reported. Nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, millions more are underinsured, and they aren't the only ones who are suffering. The high cost of care is hurting all of us. A recent study by Families USA estimates that insured families pay a hidden health tax of more than $1,000 every year. The hidden tax is the amount businesses and families with insurance have to pay in insurance premiums, taxes and donations to help cover the cost of treating uninsured Americans. Health insurance premiums for families that are covered through a job at a small business have increased 85 percent since 2000, and more small businesses are thinking about dropping health insurance benefits. Nationwide, health care costs consume 18 percent of our gross domestic product. If we continue on our current path, health care costs will consume 34 percent of our GDP by 2040, and the number of uninsured Americans will rise to 72 million, according to the Council of Economic Advisers. Even though we spend more than any other nation on health care, we aren't healthier. Only three developed countries have higher infant mortality rates. Our nation ranks 24th in life expectancy among developed countries. More than one-third of Americans are obese. These statistics are the signs of a system that is both unacceptable and unsustainable. They also show us the high cost of doing nothing. If we choose the status quo, more Americans will be uninsured, costs will continue to rise, and every American's health care will be at risk. Inaction is not an option, and reform is long overdue. The Obama administration is working to enact reform that will reduce costs for families, businesses and government; protect people's choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assure affordable, quality health care for all Americans. We are guided by a simple principle: Protect what works about health care and fix what's broken, and do it in a way that does not add to the deficit. The president has already introduced proposals that will provide $950 billion over 10 years in savings to finance health care reform. Much of these resources come from wringing waste out of the current system and aggressively prosecuting fraud and abuse. We will continue to work with Congress as it explores other financing options, and the president is open to ideas about how we finance health care reform. But we are not open to deficit spending. Health care reform will be paid for, and it will be deficit-neutral over 10 years. Working together, we can pass real health care reform that gives Americans the choices they deserve and the affordable, quality coverage they need. And we know they do not want us to wait. Too many people have suffered without basic medical care or paid too much for it. For years, the American people have called on Washington to meet this challenge. They have waited long enough. The time for reform is now. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Kathleen Sebelius.","highlights":"Kathleen Sebelius: Health care represents growing burden on economy .\nShe says that because of rising cost, existing system is unsustainable .\nShe says U.S. pays more, but citizens aren't healthier than in other countries .","id":"1da444901cffe9d67d65a6e61a5763c22ea66363"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The body of a woman was found near her car Wednesday, the apparent victim of an ammonia leak from a nearby plant in Swansea, South Carolina, police said. The leak occurred at the Tanner Industries plant as a hose had been connected from a delivery trailer containing anhydrous ammonia (purified ammonia) to a storage tank in the facility, said David Binder, director of quality safety and regulatory affairs for Tanner Industries. \"During that operation, a hole burst in the hose,\" he said. \"That released ammonia gas.\" The leak from the plant, located about 24 miles south of Columbia, was reported to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department shortly before 8 a.m., said Maj. John Allard, a public information officer for the department. Firefighters arrived within 10 minutes at the plant, where they saw a large, light-colored, dense plume, and closed area roads to traffic, he said. The ammonia hovered first over U.S. 321, then moved into a wooded area, blackening its foliage, Allard said. Public safety personnel searched the vicinity for any people or animals affected by the leak, and -- at 9:30 a.m. -- found the woman's body next to her vehicle, which was parked on the side of U.S. 321, he said. Officials were speculating that the woman had been driving north when she encountered the plume and tried to turn around, but her car stalled. She apparently got out of the vehicle and was overcome by the fumes, Allard said. An autopsy has been ordered. The woman's name was not released pending notification of her family. Seven people were taken to Lexington County Medical Center in stable condition with respiratory problems, none of which was life-threatening, Allard said. Five were plant workers; the other two were nearby residents. The road was reopened at 2 p.m., after the plume had dissipated, he said. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board -- an independent agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents -- announced it is deploying an investigation team to the site of the ammonia release. Tanner's Binder described the occurrence as \"tragic,\" adding that nothing similar had occurred in the plant's more than 13 years of existence. \"This is just heart-wrenching,\" he said, adding that there were no immediate plans to reopen the plant. Ammonia, a strong irritant that affects the respiratory system, is used in a variety of industries, including the manufacture of fertilizers and in commercial refrigeration systems. CNN's Anna Rhett Cobb contributed to this story .","highlights":"Ammonia leak reported at Tanner Industries plant in Swansea, South Carolina .\nPublic safety officials searching area found woman's body by car .\nOfficials speculate woman turned car around when she encountered plume .\nShe may have gotten out of car, inhaled fumes, officials say .","id":"2b79ea6ebd2848965f44c37cec18b635d9c8152c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He immortalized the \"smell of napalm in the morning\" in \"Apocalypse Now,\" but Robert Duvall's first meeting with director Francis Ford Coppola was no indication of the fruitful relationship to come. Duvall starred in Francis Ford Coppola's \"The Godfather,\" \"The Godfather: Part II\" and \"Apocalypse Now.\" It was 1969 and Coppola had parted ways with a lead character in indie film \"The Rain People.\" He was stuck and 38-year-old Duvall was drafted in at the last minute on the suggestion of a friend. Despite slapdash beginnings, their work together has produced some of Duvall's greatest roles and many of Coppola's most critically-acclaimed films. Duvall started working in theater in the 1950s before moving into film in the early 1960s with roles like Boo Radley in \"To Kill a Mockingbird.\" Things took off for him in 1970s when he starred in Coppola's multiple award-winning movies \"The Godfather\" and \"The Godfather: Part II,\" But, it is his Oscar-nominated turn as indestructible, napalm-loving Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Coppola's Vietnam war opus \"Apocalypse Now\" that remains one of Duvall's most enduring roles. Duvall sits down with CNN's Revealed and talks about, \"Apocalypse Now\" and his relationship with the master movie-maker. Revealed: Can you sum up the impact Coppola had on your life, your career? RD: I would have had another career. He helped all our careers with \"The Godfather.\" It was a kind of catalyst for all the actors in one and two. It helped me. I kinda designed my own career. Revealed: What's Coppola's approach to directing? RD: I think sometimes Francis works best amidst confusion and I mean that in a good way. He'll come in and say, 'Let's try something,' and then you rehearse. Like any good director he sees what you bring. He realizes it's gotta come from the actor. He's open enough ... of course, he'll give his opinion but he wants to see what you bring. Revealed: The problems Coppola encountered while shooting \"Apocalypse Now\" are legendary. What was it like working on that film? RD: There are things I won't go into! But it was pretty crazy. Sometimes we'd get one shot in a day, if that. Everything was in disarray. The hurricane came in and ruined the sets, s**t! Then they had to build them again, and we were there nine or 10 months. Dennis Hopper all doped up, not doing it Francis' way. Francis would do 45 takes, and then he said, 'Now, would you please do one my way,\" he'd say to Dennis. Martin Sheen got the heart attack, and they didn't know what they would do if they lost Martin. Francis said it was like warfare. Watch Coppola and others talk about the making of \"Apocalypse Now\" \u00bb . Revealed: You say that people constantly come up to you in the street and say the line, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning.' RD: It is a pretty famous line. Everybody relates to that line. Scenes like that we had to get quickly because all that fire at the back of me was supposed to be the napalm. Sometimes when you work fast and under duress ... sometimes that's the best stuff you can get. Revealed: How did your life change after \"Apocalypse Now,\" and the \"Godfather\" films came out? RD: It was kind of a landmark. I said we're in something pretty important here, as far as film goes and it was true, and I gained a lot of respect for Francis because I didn't know him that well on \"The Rain People.\" It's Coppola's vision. It could have been made by Disney as long as he was directing it. Which one of Coppola's films would you put in a time capsule for future generations? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . Revealed: What is it about Coppola that makes him such a great director? RD: A guy like Coppola, you know, as a director, he wants to see what you bring, without dictating. He's not a dictator. He has a definite vision, but he's not going to get in there and say it has to be my way or the highway. He really wants to see what you bring. He'll say, 'Come on guys quit fooling around we gotta make a movie!' You branch off into laughing and making jokes, but that's good for the set and he knows that too. It's his own gift and it's his own way of working. Revealed: Coppola says now he wants to make small, intimate movies he has written himself. What's your take on that? RD: He's a big spender. Now he's making all the wine and everything else, he can go back to independent film. Why not? He said \"The Conversation\" was his favorite film. It was certainly one of his best, I think. Why not go back to what he started out as? In the 1970s it was as if the independent filmmaking community was within the establishment. Now it's back outside the establishment starting to make the kind of films he started out doing. Revealed: Can you describe Francis in a few words? RD: A talented maniac. No, no, not a maniac, but he's a talented, driven guy. He's a heavy hitter.","highlights":"Actor Robert Duvall first worked with Francis Ford Coppola 40 years ago .\nHe starred in Oscar-winners \"The Godfather,\" and \"The Godfather: Part II\"\nImmortalized \"I love the smell of napalm in the morning in \"Apocalypse Now\"\nDuvall on Coppola: \"A talented maniac. No, not a maniac, a talented, driven guy\"","id":"a77a7a74654086df0504e3ef17ee02bc5a30016b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The death of a Canadian soldier in battle-scarred Afghanistan on Thursday brings this month's toll of international military fatalities in the war to 47, the highest monthly tally so far, a CNN count of official statistics shows. Lt. Col Thorneloe was one of 15 British troops killed in action in Afghanistan this month. The Canadian soldier was killed while he was conducting operations in the Panjwayi District in Kandahar province, the Canadian military said. The previous monthly record was 46, a mark reached twice last year, in June and August. The growing death toll, which only accounts for the first half of July, comes amid an uptick in fighting across Afghanistan, where international forces and Afghan troops have been battling the Taliban. The push, called Operation Khanjar, targets militants in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and poppy-growing region. The forces are trying to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of national elections this August. Some of the deaths resulted from nonhostile incidents such as accidents, but most have occurred during hostilities. According to a CNN count of figures from various governments, the U.S.-led coalition and NATO's International Security Assistance Force, the deaths in July have included 23 Americans, 15 Britons, five Canadians, two Turks, an Italian and a NATO-led soldier whose nationality has not yet been disclosed. The news coincides with another grim milestone for the British military, which has seen the number of troops killed in Afghanistan surpass the death toll in the Iraq War. An especially bloody 10 days in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the staging ground for several major recent offensives, claimed the lives of 15 British soldiers in July, putting the number of the country's dead in Afghanistan at 184, the Defense Ministry said. The British military has lost 179 soldiers in Iraq. The 15 deaths in July also put the British military on track to be the deadliest month yet for British troops supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Britain's deadliest month in Afghanistan so far has been September 2006, when 19 died -- 14 in a single incident, the crash of a Royal Air Force plane near Kandahar. Since the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001, 652 U.S. troops have died in hostile and nonhostile activities throughout the country.","highlights":"Soldier's death in Kandahar operations brings monthly international death toll to 47 .\nPrevious monthly record for coalition forces was 46 in June and August 2008 .\nNews comes as British death toll in Afghanistan surpasses number of dead in Iraq .\nDeath toll grows amid intense fighting in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold .","id":"35c4efd6bfdf6a7aabf1be66c19f6988105b933f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctor James Braude leads a group medical practice in an elegant Atlanta, Georgia, office decorated with designer furnishings. It doesn't look like a charity asking for handouts. But it is asking. Obama, pictured July 1 in Virginia, has been touring the states to promote his plan to voters. \"On some days we've counted up to 30 patients a day who've lost their jobs and their health insurance,\" Braude said. So Braude and his colleagues offer as much free care as they can afford. The doctors have also begun discreetly inviting paying patients to contribute to a fund, helping more people get care they haven't got the money for. \"We're doctors. We're addicted to helping people. And when we can't, we go through withdrawal.\" Millions of Americans have always gone without the kind of routine medical care that is seen as a basic right in many countries. The U.S. economic downturn -- meaning people lose health insurance when they lose their job -- and the election of President Barack Obama have coincided to increase both the need and the opportunity to address the plight of uninsured America. Obama's ambition is to provide insurance for the estimated 50 million Americans without coverage. Watch why many in rural U.S. have concerns \u00bb . The insurance is expected to cover doctors, hospital care and prescription drugs. But just about every detail is still being negotiated so it's not certain who would be covered, what they would be covered for or whether people who don't want insurance would be forced to have it and pay for it. The plans that emerge could become the Obama administration's most ambitious domestic program and potentially a big, early test of his presidency. American medical care needs attention . Even though nearly 50 million of its roughly 300 million people have no routine health care, the United States spends more going to the doctor than any other industrialized nation in the world. Fully one-sixth of the economy is devoted to it. Under the current hybrid system, the U.S. Government pays for health care for ex-military, the extremely poor and the elderly. But the vast majority of Americans have to pay for their own health care and most do it where they work; many employers arrange health insurance and partly subsidize the premiums. The rapidly rising cost is crushing all kinds of businesses, from car companies to family farms. At the same time, hospitals and doctors say they are falling behind because the payments they receive from insurance companies aren't keeping up with their costs. \"Within a decade we will be spending one out of every five dollars we earn on health care,\" Obama said recently. \"In 30 years, it will be one out of every three. That is untenable, that is unacceptable, and I will not allow it as president of the United States.\" The politics: Deep disagreement . There is a lot of disagreement about what to do. Congress has the job of actually turning the push for change into a functioning government program. Democratic lawmakers don't all support the president's plan or agree on how to pay for it. Republicans are split in a different way. Some lawmakers are trying to influence the Democrats' plans and others are proposing entirely different alternatives. \"If you look at their plan, it really is a big government-run plan that will take control of the delivery of health care in America,\" said Republican congressional leader John Boehner. His suggestion: \"Improve the current system so it works better.\" The most profound disagreement centers on whether Washington should create its own new health-insurance concern to compete with the private companies that provide insurance now. Obama and many Democrats favor it; Republicans are dead set against it. Part of the problem is that insurance companies fear the government will put them out of business, by favoring or subsidizing its own scheme. The other part of the problem is more basic and ideological. The U.S. government already runs enormous health-insurance programs for the poor, the elderly and military veterans -- but many Americans see potentially mandatory government health-insurance as the foreign-born offspring of socialist states. The economics: More debt . Political opposition notwithstanding, the economics are going to be a problem too. Health care is a $2 trillion-dollar-a-year industry that would have to expand to cover millions of people who are now uninsured. The president has some ideas for new efficiencies but most estimates suggest the total cost of caring for Americans would rise dramatically. Washington is already carrying record debt and would have to find a way to pay for it. One assessment by the Congressional Budget Office of the Senate Democrat plan estimated it would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and only provide coverage for about 16 million Americans. There's also the possibility that the impact of reform on many employers and virtually every wage-earner across the country will have a spillover effect on the economy as a whole, still lodged in recession. The health care industry: Undecided . Then there is the place where the politics and the economy overlap: the health care industry. Doctors alone have spent roughly two-thirds of a billion dollars lobbying lawmakers in the last 10 years, according to the independent Center for Responsive Politics. Add pharmaceutical companies and hospitals, nurses and other health care professionals and you get one of the most influential forces in U.S. politics. They successfully organized to defeat health care reform when the Clinton administration tried it 15 years ago. The industry benefits from one crucial thing: Americans like their doctors. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released July 1 found 54 percent of people worry that their health care costs would go up if the administration's proposals get passed and only one in five thinks that his or her families would be better off under the Obama plan. With all that in mind, Atlanta's Dr. Braude says he's optimistic the reform can succeed. If not, he says, \"we go back to the same system and we have 50 million people without insurance, which means you are one brain tumor away from bankruptcy.\"","highlights":"About 50 million Americans are without any health insurance .\nPeople losing jobs in the recession also lose health insurance .\nGovernment health provision care largely confined to veterans, elderly and poor .\nExtending government role is health care is politically hot potato .","id":"7a5ab0fc99cb038f7d1c00520a70cf3b803dae4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It turns out going to the moon is a tough act to follow. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. For all their Buck Rogers, \"Right Stuff,\" history-making achievements, the question for many of the 12 astronauts who walked on the lunar surface starting four decades ago ultimately became \"one giant leap to where, exactly?\" \"You have your peak experience at 38 or 39,\" says space historian Andrew Chaiken, summing up their collective experience, \"and [they] have a hard time coming up with something to do for an encore.\" Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 16, 1969. Four days later, the first two humans walked on the lunar surface; 10 more Americans followed by the end of 1972. In the 40 years since the Apollo program first took humans to the moon, the astronauts' lives have taken diverse paths. Almost all had been military test pilots before joining NASA; in later life, they found themselves ministers, politicians and conspiracy buffs. Some struggled with common issues: Many of their marriages fell apart and alcoholism affected at least one. In possibly the most extreme case of post-Apollo readjustment, Buzz Aldrin -- the second human being to set foot on the moon -- became a car salesman in Texas. \"Not very successfully,\" the 79-year old Aldrin quickly acknowledges. The Apollo 11 lunar module pilot's post-flight battles against depression and alcoholism have been well-documented, most recently in his own memoir, \"Magnificent Desolation.\" As for a brief stint hawking Cadillacs in the late 1970s, Aldrin told CNN Radio, \"Most people who have received a degree of public recognition find themselves financially pretty well off. Doesn't happen to be the case with astronauts.\" Others took more existential, even spiritual, approaches to dealing with their lunar experiences. Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin left NASA and became a Baptist minister. Apollo 14 crewman Edgar Mitchell spent years investigating possible extraterrestrial life; in April, he went public with claims of a government cover-up. Apollo 12 moonwalker Alan Bean, now 77, has spent the intervening decades since his 1969 landing putting his impressions of the lunar experience on canvas. \"That's How It Felt To Walk on the Moon\" is the title of one his paintings, which now fetch starting-prices of $20,000. \"These paintings are the only paintings in history from anywhere else but this Earth,\" Bean told CNN. Not all the Apollo astronauts' post-flight journeys have been so ethereal. America's first man in space, Alan Shepard, who later walked on the moon in 1971's Apollo 14 mission, became a millionaire businessman. Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt -- a geologist at the time, and the only scientist to make the lunar journey -- served a term as U.S. senator from New Mexico, but was defeated in a run for re-election in 1982. Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins served as a top official at the Smithsonian Institution and its National Air and Space Museum. And the first man to leave footprints in the lunar dust, Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong -- aside from geologist Schmitt, the only other civilian in the collection of moonwalkers -- later sat on several corporate boards and the presidential commission that investigated the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. Armstrong is also known for a series of disputes over autographs, which he long ago stopped signing because he discovered his signature was being sold for profit. He also sued Hallmark in 1994 for featuring his famous \"One small step\" quote in a space-themed Christmas ornament. News reports say the suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Armstrong's haircuts also became famous. In 2005, he threatened legal action after learning his longtime barber had sold a lock of his hair for $3,000. All part of the territory, says Chaiken. His book \"Voices From the Moon\" is based upon interviews with the surviving Apollo astronauts, and he concludes there's no \"lunar syndrome\" that's sent the moonwalkers down paths odder than any dozen former colleagues in other lines of work. \"I think the whole subject of the effects of going to the moon is something that gets overstated,\" Chaiken says. If there is a common emotion among the astronauts, four decades after the Apollo achievement, it may be simple disappointment over space exploration -- or the lack of it. \"It's all fallen apart,\" Aldrin says, talking about what may prove a half-century gap between American lunar landings. \"We have just taken the wrong pathway.\" Chaiken agrees this is a near-universal astronaut refrain. \"They really have never expected that it would be this long. That here we would be -- 40 years after the first moon landing -- still wondering when humans will return to the moon. I think they're all frustrated by that.\" CNN's John Zarrella contributed to this report.","highlights":"A dozen men walked on the moon, and each later followed a different path .\nHistorian says they have a \"hard time coming up with something to do for an encore\"\nBuzz Aldrin briefly worked as a car salesman in Texas .\nNeil Armstrong sued Hallmark over its use of his \"one small step\" quote .","id":"4e2243f38b5b08c177d8ecf29a3fc36b851b0f22"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- An Indonesian military transport plane crashed into a residential area in East Java early Wednesday, killing 98 people, military officials said. Soldiers search for victims at the plane's crash site in East Java Wednesday. The death toll might rise, because the Air Force said 112 people were thought to be aboard when the Hercules transport plane crashed about 6:30 a.m. The crash destroyed four homes and killed two people who lived in at least one of the homes, said Suwardi, the village leader of Karas in East Java. The plane had a crew of 14 people and was carrying an additional 98 passengers, Major Gen. Suwarno said. Watch the latest on the crash \u00bb . At least 15 people from the flight had been rescued, according to Bambang Sulistyo, an Indonesian air force spokesman. Wahyu Nuryanto, a staff member at the Iswahyudi hospital in nearby Madiun, told local media that 19 people were brought to the hospital -- several with serious injuries, including multiple fractures. The 19 included air force personnel, family members of air force personnel, and civilians, Nuryanto said. Rescue crews Wednesday were evacuating the crash area where local media showed plumes of smoke billowing from a rice field and rescuers scrambling to move victims on makeshift stretchers. The crash comes a day after another Indonesian Hercules transport plane crashed on a runway after touching down early. No one was killed in that crash in Papua province.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll climbs .\nAt least 15 people from the flight rescued, says major general .\nThe crash destroys four homes and kills two residents, says Karas village leader .\nIndonesian military transport plane crashed into residential area in East Java .","id":"3edd0ad6dedca28697f5d5a66c08a88759da25ad"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- First lady Michelle Obama's father is not buried in the Chicago-area cemetery where investigators say hundreds of graves have been dug up in a scheme to resell the burial plots, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. First lady Michelle Obama's father is not buried in the Chicago-area cemetery where graves were disturbed. The announcement followed an earlier, mistaken statement by the first lady's communications director, Camille Johnston. Johnston later said that Obama's father, Fraser Robinson III, was buried in Lincoln Cemetery in suburban Alsip, Illinois, not the Burr Oak graveyard now at the center of a criminal investigation. \"There has been some confusion that has been cleared up,\" Johnston said. Robinson, who worked as a pump operator for the Chicago water department, died in 1991 after a long struggle with multiple sclerosis. Lincoln Cemetery is about 2 miles from Burr Oak. Four people face felony charges in the investigation surrounding Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Authorities said last week that about 300 graves had been disturbed as part of the scheme, but that number is expected to rise. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said his office has received more than 55,000 requests for information from families with loved ones buried in Burr Oak. But he said many of the cemetery's records are in rusted cabinets filled with decaying file cards. \"Most of the file cards have rotted together,\" he said. \"They're covered in mold, and they've rotted together.\" In addition, some of the cemetery's books are missing pages, and others are known to have been altered, \"So this has made it incredibly difficult for us to give accurate information,\" Dart said. His office asked a court Tuesday to appoint a receiver to manage the graveyard, which he said has been run by his office since last week. Among others buried in the 150-acre graveyard are civil rights martyr Emmett Till, blues pioneer Willie Dixon, jazz and blues singer Dinah Washington and several Negro League baseball players. Cemetery groundskeepers told investigators that Till's grave was not among those disturbed, but the identities of other remains dug up have not been disclosed. Carolyn Towns, an office manager for the cemetery, and gravediggers Keith Nicks, Terrance Nicks and Maurice Daley have each been charged with dismembering a human body. The felony charge carries a sentence ranging from six to 30 years, authorities said. Authorities began investigating the cemetery about six weeks ago after receiving a call from its owners, who said they suspected \"financial irregularities\" regarding the business, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart told CNN last week. He said the owners are not believed to be involved in the alleged scam. CNN correspondents Dan Lothian and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Official corrects confusion, says Michelle Obama's dad not buried at cemetery .\nFraser Robinson III buried at Lincoln Cemetery, about two miles from Burr Oak .\nFour people face felony charges in an investigation regarding cemetery scheme .\nAuthorities said last week about 300 graves had been disturbed .","id":"2abbb7c214bfc47d2d0fdcac02ed3207d8ac3b2d"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Chrysler and General Motors announced this week that they would shrink their dealer base in the U.S. Chrysler will close 789 dealers. General Motors announced the closing of 1,100 dealers. Chrysler will close 789 dealers, leaving them with approximately 2400 stores in the U.S. General Motors announced the closing of 1,100 dealers and hopes to be at a size of 3,600 dealers at the end of 2010. While Chrysler dealers will be \"forced out\" by June 9, GM is positioning for a smoother closing of its stores, with each shutting down when it runs out of inventory. Unlike Chrysler's announcement, GM's list of closing dealers will not be made public, leaving that decision to each dealer. What happens to my GM or Chrysler vehicle warranty? Your warranty is valid through its term, regardless of where you bought your vehicle. In March, President Obama announced that the U.S. government would provide the backing for Chrysler and GM vehicle warranties under the \"Warrantee Commitment Program.\" Can I take my vehicle for service and warranty work to another (surviving) dealer? Yes, but make sure it's a certified dealer. If you're going to take your Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicle in for warranty work, you can do so at a closing dealership until June 9. After that time, Chrysler will no longer pay those dealers for warranty work. GM vehicles will receive service and warranty work at closing dealers until they shut down. Will there be good deals on these vehicles? The Chrysler dealerships to close will have about 44,000 units on hand, or roughly what Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge sell across the country every 2-3 weeks (using April's sales numbers as a guide). There will be deals, but be warned that if those 44,000 aren't sold before June 9, Chrysler will work to redistribute them to other dealers. Whether the best deals will be had before or after June 9 is likely negligible; if you're interested in a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge product, you will save a lot of money on a new purchase right now. One important factor to keep in mind is that approximately 10% of those remaining units are 2008 vehicles. Be careful the car you're looking at hasn't been sitting on the lot inactive for too long; cars actually do \"rot.\" GM's dealer announcement is a different story, since the company isn't releasing the names of the closing dealers. Dealers who chose to disclose their shutdown may provide better deals. AOL Autos: Why do cars rot on the lot? How many people and jobs are affected by closing dealers? The impact on communities will be significant. Since dealers typically employ about 50 people and contract with a handful of suppliers (consider the business that sells paper or office furniture to each dealer), there will be impact within the community. Some economists, however, believe that the impact will be less than expected, since dealers typically have a high turnover rate and technician jobs were in a short supply already. But, the related aspects of dealer closings are certain: think of the little league baseball teams and charities that receive funding from do-gooding dealers. Even real estate is affected; car dealerships usually set the market for commercial real estate in smaller communities. When those go empty, the entire city feels the pain. AOL Autos: Pressure to buy American . Why were these dealers chosen? Both Chrysler and GM have expressed interest to shrink their dealer base. Company officials cite various data points related to choosing these dealers, but the main one is performance. GM said that the average dealer of the 1,100 affected only sold 35 cars in all of 2008. Chrysler cites similar numbers, with half their closing dealerships selling less than 100. But, even after these reductions by Chrysler and GM, they still have more dealers than other manufacturers. Using April 2009's sales data as a proxy, Toyota has approximately 95 dealers per 1 point of market share in the U.S., while Chrysler has 256 and GM will have 172 (at the end of 2010). This means that, effectively, Toyota is able to sell more vehicles per dealership. AOL Autos: Fate of the GM brands . Can dealers do anything about this? Typically, dealers would have protection under state franchise laws against such events. However, in Chrysler's case, those franchise laws are not applicable since the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chrysler dealers can (and likely will) protest the process by which they were chosen (sales volume, number of brands in the store, the area in which the dealership operated). But after June 9, the selected Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers will have to take down their signs. GM dealers will likely organize their own group, but details of that are unclear at this time. AOL Autos: Are extended warranties worth it? Even after cuts, do the big three still have too many U.S. dealers? Some companies need fewer dealers to sell the same amount of cars: . Chrysler LLC Number of dealers: 2411 Market share: 9.4 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 256 . Ford Motor Co. Number of dealers: 3723 Market share: 15.7 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 237 . General Motors Number of dealers: 3600 Market share: 20.9 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 172 AOL Autos: Six cars to save the big three . Honda Motor Co. Number of dealers: 1304 Market share: 12.4 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 105 . Toyota Motor Corp. Number of dealers: 1470 Market share: 15.4 Dealers per 1 pt. market share: 95 . Market data shown reflective of April 2009, courtesy of Autodata. Chrysler dealer total is effective June 9; GM dealer total is estimate for end of 2010.","highlights":"Chrysler and General Motors announce they will shrink dealer base in U.S.\nChrysler dealers will be \"forced out\" by June 9 .\nYour warranty is valid through its term, no matter where you bought your car .\nYou will save a lot of money on a new vehicle purchase right now .","id":"1310e8364c0751cb691d367f671c367994fb2b8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The average American woman can live long enough to celebrate her 80th birthday, so if a woman is able to become pregnant using in vitro fertilization with a donor egg at 56, she could still watch her child grow into an adult. But just because it's possible, does that mean she should? Some feel that having children after 45 is unfair because the parents might not live to see the kids become adults. The death of 69-year-old Maria del Carmen Bousada of Spain, who used in vitro fertilization with a donor egg to have twin boys at 66, has the fertility treatment community bracing for a backlash. It could rival the fallout from octuplet mom Nadya Suleman -- and it seems to have already started. In a national online survey about fertility conducted in May by Johnson & Johnson's Babycenter.com, 7 out of 10 moms who responded wanted tougher regulation laws for IVF treatments, and half of the 1,095 respondents thought it was bad for the children if a parent conceived past 45. Fertility specialists understand those concerns, but they say it's not that simple. Although it's rare for anyone older than 55 to get the go-ahead for IVF, that guideline is peer-enforced rather than mandated, and decisions typically are made on a case-by-case basis. Georgia Dardick, an advertising executive in Boynton Beach, Florida, was one of those cases. Dardick tried to conceive via IVF six times and seriously considered adoption, but at 51, she wasn't ready to let go of her desire to have a baby. \"Fifty was the cutoff for my doctor, but they agreed to give us one more try,\" she said. She had her daughter in January. Dardick said she never planned to have a baby at 51, but feels that she made the right decision, despite the judgments others may have. \"The word selfish has come into my mind. But for any parent, having a child is selfish. No matter what your age is, once you have that child, you owe that child everything. I live the best, healthiest life I can.\" Doctors say society's views of aging needs to change. \"The 40 and 45-year-old of today is not the 40-year-old of the past; the 50-year-old [today] is not the same of the past,\" said Dr. John Jain, a physician at the Santa Monica (California) Fertility Clinic who has treated age-related infertility for 15 years. \"They're eating healthy. A woman who is 45 is barely halfway through [her] life.\" Healthy or not, having a child at that age can cause tremendous stress on the body. Candidates for IVF after 45 use either an egg donor or their own frozen embryos from a prior cycle and are screened for underlying medical problems, such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension or lung disease, said Dr. Charles Coddington of the Mayo Clinic's reproductive endocrinology department in Rochester, Minnesota. Still, \"if somebody were in good health, it would be hard to say, 'you shouldn't have a baby,' \" he said. \"One has to judge where they are, health-wise and financially.\" But if a woman who claims to be 55 is actually in her mid-60s -- as Bousada reportedly did -- what's a doctor to do? Not much, physicians say. Watch report on death of 69-year-old mother \u00bb . \"The truth may get dimmed to fit into the realm of a patient that may be acceptable. I don't sit there and say, 'Go get your birth certificate.' If someone's coming in and they're saying they're 52 or 55, I take it at face value,\" Coddington said, who does refer questionable cases to the fertility center's ethics board. Even for those who choose to use it, the availability of this technology can be a double-edged sword. Dardick said she wouldn't change anything, but if she did have to do it all over again, she said she may have considered adoption earlier. \"In a way, there's this hope always out there for you, and once you get into it, it's harder to break away,\" she said. It's the intense desire to have a biological child that Manhattan-based psychotherapist Joan Wingroad, who specializes in fertility issues for women 40 and older, has been treating for 20 years. \"I work with women who've been very successful. They went to the right schools, got married and they feel that everything comes to you if you work hard. But then they realize pregnancy doesn't happen that way,\" said Wingroad. She helps her clients find balance -- and limits -- by creating a plan: How long should they try IVF? How long until they consider adoption or child-free living? \"They need that.\" Wingroad said, \"because many times a doctor will say, 'Look, this is your money, this is your dream; who am I to say that you can't do it anymore.'\" While doctors do help women try to reach their dream, Jain said he isn't afraid to tell a patient \"no\" if they simply aren't healthy enough -- or are just too old. But, Jain said, it's all based on his judgment as a trained physician. \"Ninety-five percent of us do a great job about regulating ourselves. I personally don't want to see more regulation, because it becomes problematic, and it can be more costly. Someone who's failed three cycles and [has already spent] $50,000 -- with the next cycle, will I be more aggressive? Certainly,\" Jain said. \"But maybe there's a middle ground, if the rule is that donor IVF will not be offered for women over 55 years of age. Regulations at the extremes might be useful.\" Even though Dardick plans on living her life as a new mom for quite some time, she said having a baby at her age isn't ideal. She and her husband are taking careful precautions by adjusting their financial planning to make sure their daughter will be financially secure. They're also tightening bonds with extended family and friends, should anything happen to her or her husband -- a decision Bousada may have made as well, as her twin boys are now in the custody of a relative. Those, Dardick said, are the decisions one has to make when having a child later in life. \"\"People feel that it's not fair to the child because you may not live long enough,\" Dardick said. But as someone who lost a father as a teenager, she knows \"there are no guarantees in life.\"","highlights":"If a woman is in good health, she can conceive and give birth into her 50s .\nMost fertility centers stop treating after 55, but there aren't any laws to enforce this .\nDoctors say tougher regulations would hinder their ability to treat patients .\nFlorida woman was able to have her miracle baby at 51 .","id":"89bdf6b1bcfe271c70c3600634a6954c713c3b58"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and the oldest surviving British veteran from World War I, has died at the age of 113, his care home said Saturday. Henry Allingham was a founding member of the modern Royal Air Force. Allingham died in his sleep at St. Dunstan's care home in Ovingdean, England, the home said in a statement. Born on June 6, 1896, Allingham was active until his final days, having celebrated his 113th birthday last month on the HMS President with his family, the care home said. The Guinness Book of World Records Certified Allingham as the world's oldest man last month, St. Dunstan's said. Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Gordon Brown both paid their respects to Allingham on Saturday. \"The queen was saddened to hear of the death of Henry Allingham. He was one of the unique generation who sacrificed so much for us all. Our thoughts are with his family at this time,\" Buckingham Palace said in a statement. \"I had the privilege of meeting Henry many times,\" said Brown. \"He was a tremendous character, one of the last representatives of a generation of tremendous characters. My thoughts are with his family as they mourn his passing but celebrate his life.\" Born in the East End of London during the reign of Queen Victoria, Allingham was brought up by his mother and grandparents. His father died when he was a baby. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an aircraft mechanic in 1915 after his mother died. Allingham was the last known survivor of the Battle of Jutland, considered the greatest battle of World War I. He was serving aboard the armed trawler HMT Kingfisher, which was sent to meet up with the British fleet as it fought the Germans off what is now mainland Denmark. The battle still holds the record for the most gun-armed battleships and battlecruisers engaged in a fight, according to Britain's Ministry of Defence. In 1917 Allingham was sent to France to support the Royal Flying Corps. His job as a mechanic was to service the aircraft and recover parts from downed planes, but pilots would often ask their mechanics to fly with them, so Allingham would sit behind the pilot and drop bombs or operate the machine gun. Allingham served in Flanders until that November, when he moved to the aircraft depot at Dunkirk, France. He stayed there until the end of the war. Allingham was a founding member of today's Royal Air Force, which was formed in 1918 when the Royal Naval Air Service merged with the Royal Flying Corps. He married his wife, Dorothy, in late 1918 and left the RAF a few months later, in April 1919. But Allingham remained a reservist, and during World War II he was called on to find a solution to the German magnetic mines that were bottling up the English harbor of Harwich, on the Essex coast. Allingham and his team devised an effective system to neutralize the mines, after which every ship was fitted with a neutralizing device using the system. His dedication to the military and the memory of fallen troops never wavered. In his later years especially, Allingham was often seen at memorial events, even though he could no longer walk and had to be transported in a wheelchair. \"Henry was always determined to ensure that today's generation does not forget the sacrifice of those who died on the Western Front,\" St. Dunstan's said in a statement after his death. \"Until recently, he regularly visited schools and attended war-based events as an ambassador for his generation.\" Asked once at a memorial ceremony how he would like to be remembered, Allingham brushed off any thought of it, saying people should instead remember those who died in the wars. \"Remember them, not me,\" he said. He was made a chevalier in France's Legion of Honor in 2003 and was promoted to officer earlier this year. In awarding him the honor this year, the French ambassador to Britain thanked Allingham on behalf of French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his part in protecting France during both World Wars. The Royal Navy celebrated Allingham's birthday last month by throwing him a party aboard the HMS President. A birthday cake and card signed by the First Sea Lord was delivered by fast raiding craft of the Royal Marines, and he was given a decanter of Pussers Rum, his \"favorite tipple,\" on behalf of the Fleet Air Arm. Allingham's wife, Dorothy, died in 1970. Their two daughters both died in their 80s. He is survived by six grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, 21 great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great grandchild, all of whom live in the United States, the care home said. Since 2006, Allingham had lived at St. Dunstan's, a care home for blind ex-servicemen and -women on the southern English coast. He had lost his sight as a result of age-related macular degeneration. \"Everybody at St. Dunstan's is saddened by Henry's loss and our sympathy goes out to his family,\" said Robert Leader, chief executive at the care home. \"As well as possessing a great spirit of fun, he represented the last of a generation who gave a very great deal for us. Henry made many friends among the residents and staff at St Dunstan's. He was a great character and will be missed.\"","highlights":"Henry Allingham died in his sleep at a care home in Ovingdean, England .\nQueen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pay respects to Allingham .\nBorn in 1896, Allingham was active until his final days .\nGuinness Book of World Records says Allingham was world's oldest man .","id":"f01de0eac3b3a69e40768f922c09fd1e6a57d29d"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Consumer advocate Clark Howard revealed to listeners of his radio show on Wednesday that he has prostate cancer. Radio show host Clark Howard says doctors diagnosed him with prostate cancer in its early stages. Howard is one of the best-known consumer experts in the country. He has a nationally syndicated radio show and a new weekend show on CNN sister network HLN. He also has written several books on consumer issues, including two that made The New York Times best-sellers list. \"I just wanted to give it to you right form the horse's mouth, what's going on with me,\" Howard, 53, told listeners Wednesday during this radio show. The cancer was detected recently in its early stages, he said. His doctors had monitored his health for about 2\u00bd years after a routine test came came back with unusual results. The test was a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test to measure antigen, substances that stimulate an immune response in the body. If PSA levels are up, the chances of prostate cancer rise, and Howard's levels were such that his doctor gave him PSA tests every 90 days to monitor antigen levels. He also had biopsies to test for cancer. The fourth and most recent biopsy found a \"very, very small isolated pocket of cancer,\" Howard said. \"Prostate cancer caught early is not a walk in the park, but is not really that big a deal,\" Howard said. \"I just wanted to clear the air because rumors take on a life of their own.\" According to the American Cancer Society, one in six men will get prostate cancer in their lifetimes, and one in 35 will die of the disease. Although its numbers are not yet complete for 2008, the organization estimated that during that year, there were about 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the United States and about 28,660 men died from the disease. Among famous men who have been treated for prostate cancer are former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and actor Robert De Niro. There are various options for treating prostate cancer, all with different approaches. The American Cancer Society recommends considering things such as age, other serious health problems, stage of the cancer and side effects of treatment when selecting a method of treatment. Howard said his main point in talking about his diagnosis was to increase awareness among men. \"Guys put themselves in danger by not going to the doctor,\" he said. He spoke to female listeners as well as the men. \"Be a nag. Get your guy in to see the doctor, especially if you're 40 and up,\" he said.","highlights":"The Atlanta-based consumer advocate makes announcement on radio show .\n\"I just wanted to give it to you right form the horse's mouth,\" Howard says .\nBiopsy reveals \"small, isolated pocket of cancer\" in early stages, he says .\nThe radio show host, best-selling author tells women to urge men to get check-ups .","id":"0d388d29ee365f1ab40a20016602a1c4db8f1a16"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- When emergency crews scramble to a celebrity's home and it turns out to be a false alarm, journalists don't usually write about it. Cher made the most of a false alarm, offering admiration for emergency personnel who came to her house. When the celebrity is Cher and her publicist issues an entertaining response to a reporter's call, some entertainment writers can't resist. The electronic call for help sounded at Cher's Malibu, California, home at 11:16 a.m. Thursday, spurring a flurry of activity. Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the singer's residence, sending journalists to their address books for Cher's contact information. Her publicist, Liz Rosenberg, quickly responded to CNN's questions with this e-mailed explanation: . \"Just spoke to Cher who confirmed it was a false alarm but said she never saw so many cute firemen and paramedics in her life,\" said Rosenberg's response. \"She added there was an especially gorgeous black-haired ambulance driver that she is really sorry she didn't get to meet. Maybe there'll be another false alarm ...\" We will keep you updated.","highlights":"Security crews at Cher's house set off false alarm .\nEmergency vehicles zoomed over, though for naught .\nCheeky comment from Cher's publicist: \"Many cute firemen and paramedics\"","id":"ca7f03c0e4357baf5847d7f6e49aa40fe3f4a7ab"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Fight police misconduct with a cell phone, the NAACP says. The century-old civil rights organization has launched an online reporting system that lets users upload cell phone images of alleged police abuses. The Rapid Report System also lets users send text messages and e-mails about alleged misconduct. \"We know that most of police officers around the nation are excellent public servants. But the few who violate people's rights are often not held accountable,\" said Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. \"Research has shown that there are many barriers to reporting incidents of police misconduct, including intimidation at police departments and a lack of trust in the integrity of the system, among other reasons. This breakdown leads to an absence of public safety and a deterioration of the quality of life in many communities of color.\" The NAACP unveiled the online system Monday at its national convention in New York City. Users can post images from their cell phones or online. Cell phone footage has repeatedly helped spotlight alleged police misconduct in recent years. The fatal shooting of an unarmed man in Oakland, California, on New Year's Day made headlines and spread across the Internet partly because of cell phone video. The killing sparked large protests in Oakland and led to a murder charge against the transit officer.","highlights":"NAACP unveils new program to allow people to report alleged police misconduct .\nTexts, e-mails can also be sent to document alleged police misdeeds .\nUnarmed California man's shooting captured on phone garnered national attention .","id":"c29a8054bf8eab528dd35cf828cb4e8fd1fed1f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is sinking billions of dollars into a new wind farm in Texas. It is likely to become the biggest in the world, producing enough power for the equivalent of 1.3 million homes. CNN's Ali Velshi asked the oil legend why he thinks wind could be the answer to this country's energy problems: . T. Boone Pickens explains his investment in a 4,000-megawatt wind farm to CNN's Ali Velshi. Ali Velshi: Tell me about the wind. Now, you are buying, for a start, more than 600 wind turbines from General Electric. You're going to put them on this big tract of land in Texas, and you're going to generate a lot of electricity. What happens to that electricity? Tell me where you think you're going to make your money and how this is going to help the situation in America. T. Boone Pickens: Well, that's the first step to a 4,000-megawatt wind farm. This is 1,000 megawatts. We start receiving those turbines in mid 2010. We will have the total 4,000 megawatts finished by the end of 2015. That power will go into a transmission line that will tie into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas system in the state of Texas, and it will be transmitted downstate. Watch why Pickens is willing to spend billions on wind \u00bb . Velshi: What's your view of wind power? It's one of several things that we should be looking at in terms of powering our homes, electrical power? We get most of it from coal and natural gas, and some from nuclear. Are you thinking it's one of the formats of power we should be thinking about, or is this going to be bigger than we all thought? Pickens: The Department of Energy came out with a study in April of '07 that said we could generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind. And the wind power is -- you know, it's clean, it's renewable. It's -- you know, it's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy. It will be located in [the] central part of the United States, which will be the best from a safety standpoint to be located. You have a wind corridor that goes from Pampa, Texas, to the Canadian border. And it has -- the wind, it's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind. Look at Germany and Spain. They have developed their wind way beyond what we have, and they don't have as much wind as we do. It's not unlike the French have done with their nuclear. They're 80 percent power generated off of nuclear, we're 20 percent. Velshi: I'm fascinated by wind power. I love going by a field of these turbines. And I think they're fascinating. You don't happen to think they're attractive, and you're not really putting them on your land. You're going to be using other people's land to put these things on. Pickens: That's right. And it's very clear, these are my neighbors. And they want them. It generates income for them. A turbine will generate somewhere around 20,000 [dollars] a year in royalty income. And on a 640-acre tract, you can put five to 10 of these on the tract. And you don't have to have them if you don't want them. Velshi: And it's quite common that people who maybe have a piece of land, they might be farmers or something like that, this is extra income to them by making a deal with somebody like you who is going put these things up, if they don't mind having them on the land. Do they get the electricity from it or do they just get a royalty check? Pickens: A royalty check. But look at Sweetwater, Texas. That town was 12,000 people, then went down below 10,000. The wind came in, it's above 12,000 in population now. The local economy is booming. That can be repeated over and over and over again all the way to the Canadian border. Then you have a solar corridor that goes from Sweetwater, Texas, west to the West coast, and that solar corridor can also be developed. But we are going to have to do something different in America. You can't keep paying out $600 billion a year for oil.","highlights":"Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens planning 4,000-megawatt wind farm .\nPower will tie to Electric Reliability Council of Texas transmission lines, says Pickens .\nHe will put the turbines on other people's land .\nA turbine will generate around $20,000 a year in royalties, says Pickens .","id":"e27228b1508fb289e34691a74430174297c9bf15"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" hit thousands of theater screens across the country at midnight Wednesday. Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter develop a romance in \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.\" Since then, fans have been buzzing about some of the film's most impressive scenes -- including one called \"I killed Sirius Black.\" In the scene, Potter is confronted by Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, who is creating mischief for both the boy wizard and his latest crush, Ginny Weasley. (Death Eaters are followers of the series villain, Voldemort.) Exhilarating for some, but frustrating for others, this particular scene from the franchise's sixth installment is a cinematic creation, as it never occurs in the J.K. Rowling novel. Watch the excitement of \"Potter's\" scene \u00bb . That aside, it includes pyrotechnic explosions, blazing fires, a massive chase sequence and the use of dark arts -- the Harry Potter version of black magic. In this week's \"The Scene,\" actors Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter; Bonnie Wright, who stars as Ginny Weasley; and director David Yates comment on the action.","highlights":"\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" came out Wednesday .\nFilm has key scene involving Harry and Bellatrix Lestrange .\nScene is not in J.K. Rowling's book, but a cinematic creation .","id":"fb882127dcfbac4bf5e19ecdf5e3110bfeeba3ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The economic downturn may take its toll at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, which opens Wednesday night. But as always, the show will go on. Eli Roth and Brad Pitt are men on a mission in Quentin Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds.\" Studios are cutting back on parties and all the glitz that goes with them, according to news reports. Moreover, there will be fewer people around to cover Cannes, as news organizations around the world trim costs. (Several, in fact, have tightened up by eliminating their movie reviewers.) Nevertheless, those who attend may see a bumper crop of good and intriguing films, Variety's Jay Weissberg told Reuters. \"We've all been hoping Cannes would pull something out of the bag to make us feel good again. On paper, they have.\" Leah Rozen, film critic for People magazine, said there are several promising contenders for the Palme d'Or, Cannes' top prize, as well as a number of notable movies premiering out of competition. \"What Cannes really is, is an international festival, and you really see world cinema,\" she said. \"This year, there are 52 films that are going to be represented, of which 20 are in competition.\" See Rozen talk about some of this year's promising works \u00bb . Two of the films in competition are American: Quentin Tarantino's World War II movie, \"Inglourious Basterds,\" and Ang Lee's \"Taking Woodstock,\" a tale about the 1969 music festival. Tarantino told The New York Times that he's been hoping to do a war movie for years. \"You've got to make a movie about something, and I'm a film guy, so I think in terms of genres,\" he said. However, the maker of \"Pulp Fiction\" and \"Jackie Brown\" added, that doesn't mean what he ends up with resembles what he started with: \"It's simply the spark that starts the fire.\" \"Inglourious Basterds\" was inspired by a 1978 Italian film that starred Bo Svenson (\"Walking Tall, Part 2\") and football player-turned-actor Fred Williamson (\"Black Caesar\"). Tarantino's film, which he characterized to the Times as \"not a remake,\" stars Brad Pitt and Mike Myers. Cannes has been good to Tarantino; he won the Palme d'Or for \"Pulp Fiction\" 15 years ago. Buzz has been high on \"Basterds\" since Tarantino announced the project several years ago. \"Taking Woodstock,\" the new film by \"Brokeback Mountain\" director Lee, is based on the book by Elliot Tiber, whose hotelier parents owned a musical festival permit in Bethel, New York, where Woodstock was held. The cast includes Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur, on whose farm the festival was finally held. Other films in competition include Lars von Trier's \"Antichrist,\" Jane Campion's \"Bright Star\" and Pedro Almodovar's \"Broken Embraces.\" Gallery: Some of Cannes' recent winners \u00bb . But this year's Cannes festival is attracting plenty of attention for its out-of-competition films as well. The festival is opening with \"Up,\" the latest animated work from Pixar. \"That sort of breaks convention to open with what is, basically, a fancy cartoon,\" Rozen said. Also at Cannes will be Heath Ledger's last film, \"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.\" The Oscar-winning \"Dark Knight\" actor died during the making of the Terry Gilliam film; Gilliam managed to complete it by doing some rewriting and casting other actors -- including Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp -- to play Ledger's part. Despite the interest in seeing Ledger, the film is still struggling to find a buyer, though Entertainment Weekly recently reported that a Los Angeles screening went over well. Cannes, which also functions as a huge film marketplace, may widen the net in attracting distributors. But much of the fun from Cannes comes from the films that emerge from nowhere. Recent winners of the Palme d'Or include 2000's \"Dancer in the Dark,\" which established singer Bjork as an actress, and \"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,\" a Romanian film that ended up topping many critics' lists in 2007. \"One thing that always surprises me is that some of the films you have the lowest expectations for turn out to be terrific, and sometimes the bigger films turn out to be disappointments,\" Rozen said.","highlights":"Quentin Tarantino's new film, \"Inglourious Basterds,\" playing Cannes .\nHeath Ledger's last film, \"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,\" also to be shown .\nPixar's \"Up\" to open famed French festival, which begins Wednesday .","id":"13af8a3b8f4518d92cf1ef12c89dcdfa7f6c752f"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Her name was Margaret. She had an answer for everything, even questions I didn't ask her. She dominated team meetings, nearly jumping out of her chair with \"Look at me!\"--type comments aimed directly at the boss. There are some tactics to help you survive team destroyers. The rest of us sitting there, jaws slack with amazement and disgust -- we were merely a load she had to carry on her back. His name was Mike, and he hadn't done a full day's work in years, but he sure knew how to draw us into his life of woe. One night at 10 p.m., I found myself finishing his report on deadline. He couldn't be there, he said, because his father was sick. By that point, I wasn't even sure he had a father. But there I was, alone, frustrated, and exhausted, in a state of loathing for work so intense I wished I could ditch it all. Oprah.com: The truth about saying no at work . And that is exactly where a dysfunctional co-worker --or as I call them, an \"un-teammate\" -- can put you. It's a crying shame, because working alongside a good team player is one of life's most fulfilling experiences. She makes work enjoyable; she makes it feel like something bigger than a paycheck. Working with team destroyers, well, destroys all that. They slow work down; they sap its fun, trust, and creativity. And in the process, they invariably undermine the candid and energized debate that characterizes any successful group. So why aren't they all sent packing? In good organizations, most are --eventually. But many team destroyers are like workplace Houdinis, escaping damage to their own careers while making everyone else look bad. These are the people you must survive. But how? The answer depends on the type of un-teammate you're dealing with. Generally speaking, there are five: Boss Haters, Stars, Sliders, Pity Parties, and Self-Promoters. Each species has its own way of poisoning the environment and its own antidote. The first thing you can do is start with the assumption that virtually every team destroyer is an unhappy person. No one tries to damage co-workers, a team, or an entire organization without being a bit emotionally damaged themselves. Oprah.com: 6 signs you're in the wrong job . Boss haters, stars and sliders . Let's start with the boss haters -- you know the type. Harry will tell you his disdain for authority is a reasonable reaction to the tyranny of incompetent bosses. Elizabeth will tell you she refuses to be oppressed by corporate lackeys. Other Boss Haters have personal issues behind their nitpicking resistance to every directive from above. I once met a manager who told me, \"For a long time, I hated all my bosses because my father was a cruel authoritarian --I almost ruined my own career. Thank God I came to my senses.\" Such conversion experiences are rare, however. Most Boss Haters persist, using every kind of subterfuge from eye-rolling to outright belligerence, until management loses patience and ousts them. Some Boss Haters are hard to extricate because of union rules or special skills. If that's your situation, your best approach as the peer of a Boss Hater is a freeze-out. Don't belabor Harry's resistance or try reasoning with Elizabeth. Simply isolate; refuse to listen to their ongoing complaints. Once they're cut off from the group, Boss Haters tend to lose their energy. Now for Stars. Make no mistake -- organizations could not survive without their results. Fortunately, many key players are Stars largely because they are the best kind of employee, inclusive and inspiring, but some Stars can develop into real bullies. My team at a consulting firm had to endure Chad, an articulate (and, yes, brilliant) economics major from M.I.T. whom our clients adored. (Like other people in this piece, his name has been changed.) Sensing he was untouchable, Chad would bulldoze his ideas through the team process and ridicule anyone who dared to disagree. Another group I worked with suffered through Gwen, a marketing \"guru\" who'd been stolen away from another firm to bestow her genius on us. She passively disrupted our discussions by not participating, her silence sending the message \"This nonsense is beneath me.\" We didn't have much recourse. Few bosses want to hear nattering about a goose that's laying golden eggs. Your best option in terms of self-preservation is to accept Stars for the good they do and ignore the bad. I've seen only one other approach work, but it's hard to recommend. This technique involves playing to a Star's weakness -- the need for constant praise. As strange as it may seem, many Stars are deeply insecure and cannot receive enough ego stroking from bosses. Co-workers can play the same game, thereby drawing a Star back into the team process. But don't try this unless you really feel the love for your own Chad or Gwen; a phony intervention won't work. Sliders are former Stars, resting on their laurels and undermining their teams with apathy. Their unspoken excuse is \"I've proven my worth around here; I don't need to scramble anymore.\" Take John Smith, a crusty old newsman who had won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in Vietnam. I met him when we were both assigned to the same investigative team 20 years ago. The young reporters, myself included, fairly trembled in John's exalted presence, but within weeks, it became obvious to us that he had no interest in interviewing sources or late-night stakeouts. He preferred to sit around the office drinking coffee and telling war stories to his in-house fan club. Fast-forward to the end of the project: a front-page article under the byline -- you guessed it -- John Smith and the newspaper team. The editors knew John had done minimal work, but in the newspaper business, one way of keeping score is by the number of Pulitzer Prize winners on staff. My solution at the time was to moan and groan with my teammates about the injustice of it all. What a waste. Sliders will always live inside a protective bubble that no peer can pierce, because they deliver tangible value to an institution. Don't bother griping; instead, buck up and join the Slider's fan club, respecting him for contributions you can only imagine making. With that mind-set, you might even be able to turn your Slider into a mentor. To this day, I remember what John Smith taught me about reporting -- when I finally dumped my pointless indignation and asked him. Oprah.com: 10 ways to love your job right now . Pity parties and self-promoters . Pity Parties are those un-teammates who have an excuse for every act of inaction. Their computer melted down. Their elderly aunt came to visit or, like Mike, their father is sick. The most expert Pity Parties concoct long-running sympathy stories: bad backs, bad marriages, bad childcare, and so on. I don't want to sound harsh. Sometimes people really do need time off or special accommodations, but Pity Parties make an art form of wriggling out of responsibility, and you're left wondering if you're a heel for resenting them -- or a dupe for helping them. Your best strategy is to steer clear of Pity Parties and their appeals for help. You'll need to steel yourself to say no as often as humanly possible, even if they promise you, \"This is the very last time.\" The line I ended up using with Mike was \"I'm in a bind too. Did you ask Rory for help?\" (Rory was our boss.) That response did not put an immediate end to Mike's ways; he went looking for other enablers. Still, it sent the signal -- both to Mike and my co-workers -- that I would not cut side deals. When enough of us started saying no, he left us alone. The final form of dysfunctional coworker is the Self-Promoter, like \"Look at Me\" Margaret, who saw every team assignment as an opportunity for personal advancement. In their pursuit of fame and glory, Self-Promoters occasionally sabotage peers. I once had a co-worker who used staff meetings, with the boss in attendance, to vociferously attack every other writer's work as \"hackneyed\" or, her favorite word, \"superficial.\" If we pushed back against her critiques, she accused us of being competitive with her. There was no way to win. Usually, that's the case with Self-Promoters. They can drub you with their narcissistic \"logic\" -- they're right; you're just defensive -- and wear you down with their egocentric career campaign. But they can't smite everyone forever. After a few promotions, the moment comes for every Self-Promoter when they need a favor or help, and there is no one left to ask. So keep your head down and wait. And most important, keep overdelivering, even if your local weasel tries to steal all the credit. Self-Promoters might get more praise than they deserve, but in any good organization, real team players ultimately get what they deserve: respect and admiration. If you have any doubt about that, you might ask Margaret. I stopped working with her years ago, but I recently heard that the company asked her to move on -- just when she thought she had achieved the position of vice president, the goal she'd been gunning for. Colleagues tell me she interviewed for jobs for a year afterward, but with less than enthusiastic references, she couldn't land one. She ended up going out on her own as a consultant, and I just learned she's a tireless and admired mentor for young women in a leadership program in Boston. I don't know what she tells them, but I can venture a guess: Do everything you can at work to be a great team player, and learn to survive (and thrive) around those who are not. By Suzy Welch from O, The Oprah Magazine \u00a9 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"There are five common dysfunctional co-workers you may encounter .\nTypes: Boss Haters, Stars, Sliders, Pity Parties, and Self-Promoters .\nRefuse to listen to a Boss Hater; steer clear of Pity Parties; turn Slider into a mentor .\nPraise will draw Star back to team but only if you can say it conviction .","id":"5bf540c3df15a780eb231af6c1b6263eec08139f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Financial crisis-stricken Iceland formally applied for European Union membership on Friday, a day after lawmakers narrowly backed a government plan to take the island nation into the economic and political bloc. Icelandic PM Johanna Sigurdardottir pledged to take Iceland into the EU during April's election campaign. A copy of the application was submitted to the Swedish government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, Iceland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs confirmed in a statement. Iceland's economy was devastated by the collapse of the island's banking system last year, leading to the resignation of the country's government. In elections in April, center left leader Johanna Sigurdardottir was elected prime minister after pledging to take Iceland into the EU. On Thursday, Iceland's parliament, the Althing, voted in favor of the government plan by 33 votes to 28 with two abstentions. \"This is a historic day for Iceland,\" Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson said in a statement. \"As a European nation already deeply integrated into European structures... we now look forward to taking the next logical step, in close cooperation with our European partners.\" Welcoming Iceland's application, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: \"The decision of the Icelandic Parliament is a sign of the vitality of the European project and indicative of the hope that the European Union represents. Iceland is a European country with long and deep democratic roots.\" Iceland already benefits from a free trade arrangement with European Union member states, latterly as a participating member of the European Economic Area, which was established in 1994, and formerly through a bilateral free trade agreement with the EEC, the EU's predecessor. But Icelanders have traditionally been skeptical of the benefits of full EU membership, fearing that they would lose some of their independence as a small state within a larger political entity. At present three other states in southeastern Europe -- Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Turkey -- are candidate countries for EU membership. \"I am pleased that the EU's enlargement agenda may soon extend to Europe's north-western corner as well, with Iceland, a country with deep democratic traditions, in addition to our continued commitment to South East Europe,\" said Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.","highlights":"Iceland applies for EU membership after lawmakers back government plan .\nIsland's economy was devastated by collapse of banking system last year .\nIceland already enjoys free trade deal with EU member states .\nEuropean Commission President hails Iceland's \"long, deep democratic roots\"","id":"4fb8c4db09c025e517923b9c1777ffa40d56cb25"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A hearing to consider who will raise Michael Jackson's three children has been delayed another week, while lawyers work to avoid a court battle over custody. Debbie Rowe said she married Michael Jackson to avoid the taboo of having childrien out of wedlock. The delay -- the third one this month -- was announced Friday afternoon by a Los Angeles County Superior Court spokesman. Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and mother of his two oldest children, has not publicly revealed whether she will challenge Katherine Jackson, his 79-year-old mother, for custody or visitation rights. Katherine Jackson gained temporary guardianship of her son's children soon after his death last month. The two women have been working to \"privately and amicably resolve\" the matter since Jackson's death, a Jackson family lawyer said. Rowe's lawyer said this week that she was not asking the Jackson family for more money in exchange for dropping a possible custody challenge. A close friend of Rowe said she has been grieving Jackson's death -- grief made more painful by paparazzi hounding her and media reports vilifying Rowe by depicting her as a heartless woman who would trade her kids for cash. \"Debbie's a very caring, wonderful, warm person,\" said Marc Schaffel, who met first met Rowe when he worked for Jackson. \"She's a very humble person. People, you know, don't give her credit that she was a friend of Michael's for over 30 years.\" Jackson and Rowe met when she was working as a nursing assistant in the Beverly Hills office of Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein. Rowe said in a 2003 interview, later obtained by ABC News, that she became closer to Jackson in 1996 when she consoled him after his brief marriage to Lisa Marie Presley ended. \"He was upset because he really wanted to be a dad,\" Rowe said. \"I said, 'So, be a dad.' He looked at me puzzled. That is when I looked at him and said. 'Let me do this. I want to do this. You have been so good to me. You are such a great friend. Please let me do this. You need to be a dad, and I want you to be.'\" She told the interviewer they married in 1996 only to \"prevent some of the taboo of a child out of wedlock.\" While Schaffel would not say if their relationship was sexual, he said Rowe had \"a true, true love there for Michael.\" Their first child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., was born in February 1997. A daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, was born the next year. Details of how the children were conceived and who was the biological father have been closely guarded amid much public speculation. The couple divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving Jackson full custody while she got a $8.5 million settlement, according to court documents. Jackson later agreed to additional support. Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door to a possible custody battle. Rowe claimed in the 2003 interview that she still had \"some influence\" over how Jackson raised the children, citing his practice of covering their faces in public as her idea. \"That was my request, not his,\" she said. \"I am the one who's terrified. I am the one who's seen the notes that someone's going to take his children,\" she said. She said the children don't call her \"mom\" because she did not want them to. \"It's not that they're not my children, but I had them because I wanted him to be a father,\" she said. Rowe, 50, lives on a farm in Palmdale, California, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, where she breeds horses and dogs. \"She spends time with all of her horses and her dogs,\" Schaffel said. \"If one of her horses is sick, Debbie will stay up all night long caring for them. She'll sleep on the floor in the barn with a horse if he's not well. \"Debbie doesn't run out to all of the social events,\" he said. \"You don't see her shopping on Rodeo Drive. She's not hitting the hot spots. She's not trying to be in the limelight. Debbie is just as happy at home in her very modest, humble, horse ranch.\" When Hollywood's paparazzi surrounded her outside a restaurant near her ranch earlier this month, she showed flashes of anger and frustration. \"Are you ready to fight for your kids?\" a photographer repeatedly shouted. \"Are you ready to get your butt kicked?\" she replied, as she walked through the swarm. Schaffel said Rowe wants privacy and she's \"just trying to go on with her life.\" \"She doesn't react well with the paparazzi,\" he said. Rowe's lawyers have stepped up their efforts to bolster her public image by firing off warning letters and demanding retractions when they see reports they think are wrong. One letter sent Tuesday demanded the New York Post retract its report that Rowe had agreed to drop her custody claims for $4 million. \"Ms. Rowe has not accepted -- and will not accept -- any additional financial consideration beyond the spousal support she and Michael Jackson personally agreed to several years ago,\" Eric George said in the letter. \"Among the several contenders for overzealous and inaccurate sensationalism, the New York Post has now seized top honors,\" George wrote to the paper. \"It would be easier to identify those few background facts that are accurate than to catalog the number of blatant falsehoods in your story.\" \"The Post stands by its story,\" New York Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan told CNN. Rowe also filed a lawsuit this week against a woman who claimed in a TV interview to have e-mails from Rowe saying she didn't really want to raise the children. The suit asked that Rowe be given any money paid to the woman for the interview. CNN's Kay Jones contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lawyers for Katherine Jackson and Debbie Rowe working to avoid court battle .\nRowe's friend says vilification in the press exacerbating grief over Jackson's death .\nJackson and Rowe met when she was a nursing assistant for his dermatologist .\nShe told ABC in 2003 that she wanted to help Jackson become a dad .","id":"060a3ac3ed2f8ab619d393e46ec916da6f420113"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An air-supported roof over the Dallas Cowboys' practice field collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm Saturday afternoon, leaving 12 people injured, authorities said. An aerial view of the scene shows the Dallas Cowboys logo amid the ruins of the indoor practice facility. About 70 people, including more than two dozen of the team's rookies, were in the facility when it was blown down shortly before 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET), team officials said. Two or three suffered serious injuries, but none were believed to be in life-threatening condition Saturday night, said Dr. Paul Pepe, Dallas County's emergency medical services chief. CNN affiliate WFAA reported Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, the son-in-law of former NFL head coach Dan Reeves, suffered a broken back. DeCamillis was seen on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. A line of heavy thunderstorms was moving through the Dallas area at the time, he said, but no other damage to buildings was reported, said Mike Adams, a dispatcher for the Irving, Texas, fire department. Watch the roof collapse on players, coaches \u00bb . Arnold Payne, a photographer for WFAA, was shooting the Cowboys' practice session when rain began falling \"tremendously hard.\" \"I noticed the walls started to waver ... and then I noticed that the lights that were hanging from the ceiling started to sway, and it wouldn't stop,\" Payne told CNN. Shortly after that, he said, \"It was as if someone took a stick pin and hit a balloon.\" Watch Payne describe being inside when structure collpased \u00bb . Payne said Cowboys staff photographers were up in the metal framework beneath the canopy to film the practice session and \"actually rode the building down with the storm.\" At least one was in surgery Saturday night, he said. \"There was nowhere for them to go, and it fell so fast -- it just collapsed as if it was being imploded,\" Payne said. Video from CNN affiliate WFAA showed the roof caving in during a heavy storm, sending players, coaches and a handful of reporters and photographers scrambling to escape. Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones told NBC that about 27 rookies from the NFL team and members of the team's coaching staff were inside the suburban Dallas facility at the time. \"They did not get good warning there, and the structure did collapse,\" Jones said, speaking from the Kentucky Derby in Louisville. \"We're assessing who's injured at this particular time.\" CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Witness: Team photographers were up in framework of structure, rode it down .\nDallas Cowboys' practice facility collapses during thunderstorm, injuring 12 .\nNone of the injuries appears to be life-threatening, says county EMS chief .\nAbout 70 people were inside the facility when it fell, fire official says .","id":"6a6e99daa07e2fc1aafa682a1d05a6d81b4b8723"} -{"article":"PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CNN) -- Twenty well-behaved boys sit on the floor in two rows, quietly eating a humble lunch of flat bread, water and beans. The \"lost boys\" of Swat enjoy a humble lunch of flat bread, water and beans. Their hair is neatly combed and they are dressed in spotless Pakistani shalwar kamiz long shirts and baggy trousers. These boys are orphans, and they are lucky to be alive. \"Sir, it was very dangerous,\" explained 15-year-old Mohammad Nawaz. Last Friday, Nawaz and his friends escaped from Pakistan's Swat Valley after their orphanage ended up on the front-line of the government's war with the Taliban. When hostilities resumed in Swat two weeks ago, Pakistani soldiers from nearby barracks commandeered the roof of the four-story orphanage in Swat's district capital, Mingora, to use it as a lookout. They built sandbag bunkers on the roof, and buried landmines in the orphanage's playground. Then, Taliban militants laid siege to the building. Nawaz said \"many\" insurgents armed with rocket launchers and Kalashnikov assault rifles surrounded the orphanage. Watch more on the boys' ordeal \u00bb . About 50 terrified orphans, accompanied by adult support staff, cowered in a back room on the ground floor. Shaken by the explosions and small-arms fire around their building, the older boys, some aged 16 and 17, tried to console the youngest children, some of whom are as young as seven. They were all crying. It wasn't until last Friday that the first batch of orphans were able to escape. \"We had to ride on the roof of a bus,\" said 16-year old Mohammad Yusuf, a soft-spoken teenager with the beginnings of a beard appearing on his chin. After a creeping, traffic-choked, three-hour drive from Mingora, the boys and their teachers begged for a ride from a passing vegetable truck. Yusuf said the boys rode the rest of the way to Peshawar sitting in the back of a truck on bags of peas, stopping only when the truckers had to remove the cargo to have it washed. Watch more on the situation in the Swat Valley \u00bb . \"When the peas were washed and loaded again, we all got wet,\" said Yusuf, laughing. Now the boys are relatively safe and receiving some counseling from therapists at a shelter in Peshawar provided by another Pakistani charity organization, the Dost Foundation. The children have seen more then their share of violence during two years of intermittent fighting around the Swat Valley. When asked about the worst moment two boys immediately responded \"suicide bombers,\" making explosive gestures with their hands from their chests. Due to the orphanage's close proximity to a Pakistani army base in Mingora, the boys were often witnesses to the aftermath of Taliban attacks. In one incident a suicide bomber blew out all of the glass windows of the orphanage. Opinions were split among the boys about the Taliban. \"They want Islam,\" said Nawaz, referring to the Taliban's demand for the imposition of Islamic sharia law across Pakistan. The proposal resonates with many Pakistanis, who are frustrated with corruption in the country's judicial system. \"The Taliban dropped the price of public transport,\" Nawaz said, adding, \"Plus they used to help sort out traffic jams.\" Watch more on the refugee situation \u00bb . \"We are angry with the Taliban,\" argued Yusuf, the 16-year-old. \"There is no rule in Islam that allows you to behead someone.\" Since the arrival of the boys in Pakistan's western city of Peshawar, social workers have been trying to help them relax. They spent the weekend playing cricket in the small yard of their half-way house, watching movies and on Sunday getting a tour of the city. Several boys said they were looking forward to seeing an airport for the first time in their lives. But orphanage director Muhammad Ali was wracked with worry about their future. Out of sight of the children, he broke down weeping. \"I am the father of these children,\" Ali said. \"This is not an orphanage, this is our home... now finished.\" Ali spent the afternoon on Sunday desperately trying to call a final group of 24 boys who were trying to escape from Mingora. They left on foot, because the road out of Mingora was mined and there was a shortage of vehicles for the evacuation of refugees. Ali said the orphans, accompanied by adult administrators, had split into groups of five, with three older boys equipped with a cell phone and cash leading two younger boys. By nightfall, the orphans had walked for hours. They spent the night on the floor of a religious school outside Mingora, after authorities re-imposed a curfew in the Swat Valley. On Monday evening the children arrived exhausted and dirty in Peshawar after traveling more than 24 hours. One of their adult chaperones estimated they had to travel on foot for more then 20 miles before eventually finding vehicle transport to complete the journey. Administrators said one of the boys, named Ubaid, somehow became separated from the rest of the group, and ended up staying behind. They say he is back at the orphanage in Mingora, being cared for by the Pakistani soldiers stationed there. \"It was a long, chaotic journey and experience that I will never forget,\" said Imran Khan, one of the orphanage's wardens. He said he had spent part of the journey carrying on his back a boy with a spinal problem. \"Swat used to be known as paradise on earth,\" Khan said. \"Now it has become hell on earth.\" More than 360,000 people have fled the conflict zone since May 2.","highlights":"Boys flee their Swat Valley orphanage after Taliban attack their home .\nArmy had set-up position in their building, mining the playground .\nThe boys cowered in a back room, as the fighting raged outside .\nThey eventually rode to safety on top of a bus and back of a vegetable truck .","id":"2654d94df8c1520a18244562c5cc91d3c80d6c5c"} -{"article":"(MENTAL FLOSS) -- When we think of economic crises in America, two periods come to mind -- the Great Depression and whatever it is we're in the middle of right now. But the U.S. stock market has crashed more times than we'd like to admit. Historically, our economy has been brought to its knees by everything from greedy bankers to horse illnesses. Horses, cows, whales and a failed copper scheme caused economic panics earlier in U.S. history. So let's take a deep breath and remember that panics are just part of the American way of life. 1. The Panic of 1873: America stops horsing around . During the late 19th century, the American economy relied on horses the way it depends on gas today. Horses unloaded cargo from ports, transported goods from city to city, worked the farms, supported the army, and served as the emergency vehicles of choice. Without them, the American workforce would have ground to a halt. And that's exactly what happened in 1872, when an estimated 99 percent of all horses in America contracted equine influenza. The highly contagious strain started in Canada and spread through New England to the South in a matter of months, leaving horses across the country too weak to stand and coughing uncontrollably. Street buggies stopped running, paralyzing commerce in the cities. Railroads were stymied because trains run on coal -- coal that was hauled out of mines by horses. And as the horse flu spread, U.S. military troops had to go into battle on foot (they were fighting Apache Indians at the time). More tragically, a fire in Boston raged for three days because there were no horses to carry water. The flames destroyed more than 700 buildings, causing an estimated $73.5 million in damages and killing at least 20 people. The \"Great Epizootic,\" as it was called, spiraled out of control in less than a year. At the height of the panic, as many as 20,000 businesses failed, a third of all railroads went bankrupt, and unemployment spiked to almost 15 percent. The economy took nearly a decade to recover. Ironically, nearly all of the horses recuperated by the following spring. 2. The Winter of 1886: When the cows don't come home . During the second half of the 19th century, cattle ranches in the American West were thriving. From the Montana grasslands to the Texas prairie, ranches were attracting investors back East and across the pond in Europe. But by 1886, things were getting dicey. Overgrazing, coupled with a hot and dry summer, had left the plains almost bare. Then came the snow. Known as the \"Winter of Death,\" the following season saw one of the worst cold spells in recorded history. More than half the cattle in the West froze to death, unable to move in the thick snow. Ghoulish firsthand accounts describe the bodies of dead cows stretching for miles across the horizon. When the spring thaw and floods came, thousands of bloated corpses floated into the streams and rivers. Some ranchers quit the business entirely and didn't even bother to round up their surviving cattle. Mental Floss: Bold business scams that failed miserably . By the end of 1887, the disaster had wiped out more than half of the United States' western cattle and debilitated the national economy. Most cattle investors went bankrupt, and thousands of cowboys were left unemployed. But more than anything, the winter of 1886 put an end to all those turn-of-the-century, idyllic fantasies of open-range ranching in the Wild West. 3. The Panic of 1907: Captains of industry to the rescue! The Panic of 1907 started the way many panics do, with a greedy capitalist. Multimillionaire Augustus Heinze, who had made his fortune mining in Montana, believed he had enough control over the copper industry to corner the market. With the help of several major banks, he concocted a scheme to buy up all the shares of United Copper. But Heinze had overestimated his prowess, and the scheme failed, bringing down Heinze, United Copper, the banks, and many, many stockholders. Mental Floss: Who is Ponzi and what was his scheme? The debacle sent ripples of anxiety throughout the market, and investors started pulling their money out of banks altogether. After one of New York City's biggest trusts went under, panic ensued, and the stock market collapsed. At the time, there were no central banks in place, so the federal government had no means of bailing out businesses or injecting cash into the economy. It just stood by, idly waiting for a hero to save the day. Amazingly, one did. James Pierpont Morgan, banker extraordinaire, rescued the American economy. He propped up many of the failing banks in New York by twisting the arms of other financiers, and he assuaged investors' fears by backing up the market with his own vast cash reserves. Before long, Wall Street was on the mend. The government also learned its lesson. With the panic resolved, it created the Federal Reserve, ensuring that it could buttress the economy during hard times. Since then, the government has taken a more active role in financial matters and relied less on the kindness of robber barons. 4. Whale of a Crisis: The collapse of America's first oil industry . During the early 19th century, America was one of the top oil-producing countries in the world. But it wasn't petroleum the nation was exporting; it was whale oil. By the mid-1800s, the high-risk, high-profit business was the fifth-largest industry in the United States. Mental Floss: 6 things you probably don't know about oil . At its height, the American whaling industry produced more than 10 million gallons of oil a year and sold it for $1.77 a gallon (about $35 per gallon today). Better still, an American fleet of 1,000 ships had exclusive access to the North Atlantic territories, which ensured profits. What could have stopped such a juggernaut of an industry? For one thing, other sources of oil. In 1846, Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner developed a technique for distilling kerosene from petroleum, and within a few decades, kerosene had replaced whale oil as the most popular fuel for lamps. Another reason for the decline was that the whales were dying off. The enthusiastic slaughter throughout the 1800s drove some whale species to extinction and put others on the brink. With so few left to hunt, the cost of whaling became prohibitively expensive. The final blow to whalers came during the harsh winter of 1871, when the North Atlantic ice trapped and crushed the bulk of the American fleet. Although American consumers didn't suffer as the country switched from whale oil to petroleum, coastal towns in New England and the Mid-Atlantic languished, and shipbuilders and fishermen found themselves out of work. By the time of the Civil War, whaling ships had become so worthless that Union soldiers loaded a fleet of them with stones and sank them into Charleston harbor. The hope was to blockade the South from the port, but when the plan didn't work, the ships were no great loss. America's first oil industry had been tapped out. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Odd things caused U.S. economy to tank four other times .\nDisease kills 99 percent of horses in 1872, causing business failures, bankruptcies .\nDry summer, record cold winter in 1886 wipes out half the cattle in West .\n1907 copper scheme causes run on banks, banker uses own money to stop it .","id":"1fccf7ef503b3f40c6b67050846b35d2793e721d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- July is on track to be the deadliest month yet for British troops supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup says the sacrifices of British forces are worth it. So far, 15 British servicemen have died in Afghanistan this month, mostly in connection with Operation Panther's Claw, the British-led offensive in Helmand province that is mirroring a similar operation by U.S. Marines in the same area. Britain's deadliest month in Afghanistan so far has been September 2006, when 19 died -- 14 in a single incident, the crash of a Royal Air Force plane near Kandahar. The sudden spike in British deaths has triggered an outcry in the United Kingdom over the mission there and whether it will be successful. \"Every casualty is sad, every casualty is deeply felt by us in the military. I mean, they are part of our military family. The losses, of course, are felt most by the real families of those involved and the bereavement is terrible,\" Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup, the chief of defense staff for Great Britain, told CNN in an exclusive interview. But earlier, he pointed out, at the same time the 15 British troops had been killed, at least 197 Taliban forces had been confirmed killed in fighting. Watch questions being asked about the sacrifices \u00bb . \"These casualties are pretty one-sided. Sad though our losses are, they are very small compared to the losses that the enemy is taking,\" he said in an interview at the British Embassy. Stirrup, whose position is equivalent to Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the government wants people to know that the sacrifices are worth it. \"This is a military operation and on military operations, you engage in fighting. That's why we have militaries and, sadly, you take casualties. The real issue is, first of all, are we getting something of sufficient strategic benefit to justify the price that our people are paying?\" he said. \"Secondly, are we doing everything we can to ensure that we achieve that strategic benefit with the minimum possible number of casualties? And those, I think, are the key arguments in which we have to engage.\" The British military has been criticized for using vehicles that cannot withstand the blast of a roadside bomb. Stirrup told CNN that the British troops are conducting missions that forces them out of protective vehicles. \"You can't engage with the population of Helmand from inside several inches of steel. You have actually to get out on the ground,\" Stirrup said. \"Our people have to get out there, they have to engage with the population and close with the enemy and that, alas, exposes them to risks and sometimes those risks materialize. Have we got the right equipment? Well, we have excellent equipment on the ground and our troops will tell you that.\" But Stirrup admits that while the United Kingdom is constantly updating the equipment sent to Afghanistan, the results are delayed. \"It takes time for industry to produce the new equipment. It's ordered, it's being delivered, but it's delivered over time, so it's always that gap, if you like, between identifying that change requirement and being able to deliver it on the ground,\" Stirrup said. He said there is one British serviceman who won't have to worry about the dangers of Afghanistan: Prince William. \"Prince William is second in line to the throne. That produces certain difficulties to his employment in a combat environment,\" he said. \"I'm not going to say one way or the other what we will do for the future. What I will say is that he is training at the moment to be a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, which is a tremendously demanding occupation. It's professionally demanding. It also is at times pretty hazardous, and I think he is going to find that challenge enough and reward enough in the short term.\" The prince's younger brother, Prince Harry, served in Afghanistan for about 10 weeks until news of his deployment was leaked by a U.S. Web site. He was then pulled out to keep his unit from being targeted specifically aimed at him.","highlights":"15 servicemen have died this month, compared with 19 in September 2006 .\nMost deaths attributed to Operation Panther's Claw in Helmand province .\nAir Chief Marshall says numbers pale in comparison to 197 Taliban deaths .\nSudden spike triggers outcry in UK, criticism of vehicles used in operations .","id":"67a4501582012bee3a11044d756f6478ad37a76e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer-actress Mandy Moore and rocker Ryan Adams were married this week in Savannah, Georgia, Moore's publicist told CNN on Wednesday. Mandy Moore first found recording success in 1999 with her single \"Candy\" and is now a well-known actress. The wedding took place Tuesday, said Jillian Fowkes, who gave no further details about the nuptials. Rumors first surfaced almost a year ago that Moore, 24, and Adams, 34, were dating, as paparazzi photos surfaced of the couple out together in Los Angeles, California. Moore's first success as a recording artist came in 1999 with her debut album, \"So Real,\" which went platinum with the help of her top-10 single \"Candy.\" Adams is known for producing rock music with a country influence. He is best known for his song \"New York, New York\", which appeared on his 2001 release \"Gold.\" Adams is also an author and has produced music for Jesse Malin and Willie Nelson. He recently announced that he was leaving his band, The Cardinals, because of inner ear troubles affecting his balance and hearing. Adams has fronted The Cardinals since 2004.","highlights":"Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams married quietly in Savannah, Georgia .\nCouple was first spotted together by paparazzi almost a year ago .\nHe recently announced he is leaving The Cardinals .","id":"27b2ec3810439a6bd727ea18d22d814c37954087"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A second person has died during construction for Madonna's upcoming concerts in Marseilles, France, authorities said Friday. Firefighters leave the Stade Velodrome stadium in Marseille after the accident on Thursday. The second fatality was a 32-year-old British citizen, the British Foreign Office and a high-ranking police official said. It was not clear whether the person was a man or woman, but the next of kin had been informed, the Foreign Office said. A 53-year-old French man was killed Thursday when a crane collapsed at the venue, a fire department spokesman in the southern French city said. A third person was in critical condition, said Alexandre Lanzalavi, a spokesman for Marseille Hospital. Two other people were in hospital and required surgery, and seven others were treated and released, Lanzalavi said. Madonna said Thursday that she was \"devastated\" to hear about the death. \"My prayers go out to those who were injured and their families, along with my deepest sympathy to all those affected by this heartbreaking news,\" Madonna said in a statement issued by her representative, Liz Rosenberg. At least one Madonna show had been canceled, Rosenberg told CNN. The accident happened when a crane collapsed while lifting a large metallic truss -- a structure from which lights hang -- into place, Lt. Thierry Delorme of the French Navy told CNN. In Marseille, the fire department is a part of the Navy. An investigation has been launched into the cause of the collapse, he said. Some 27 fire engines and 80 firefighters responded to the emergency when the accident occurred about 5:15 p.m. (11:15 a.m. ET). Madonna was to play the first of five concerts for her \"Sticky and Sweet\" tour at the 60,000-seat Stade Velodrome on Sunday. The singer was in Udine, Italy, when she heard the news, Rosenberg said. Flora Genoux in Paris, France, contributed to this story for CNN.","highlights":"Two people killed when stage being built for Madonna concert collapses .\nAccident happened Thursday afternoon in southern French city of Marseille .\nMadonna was due to play first of five concerts in city Sunday .","id":"669cf89d67439991a7d8edc48eb838b0a0da448a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in a rare television interview Tuesday, shed some light on who might eventually take over leadership of the country. Kim Jong Nam, 35, in southern China's casino haven of Macau on January 30, 2007 . Kim Jong Nam told TV Asahi in Macau that he does not care about politics or succeeding his father. \"Personally, I am not interested in this issue (succession),\" he said in an interview with the Japanese television network. \"Sorry, I am not interested in the politics.\" The rules governing transfer of power in the secretive communist nation are unclear. Kim Jong Il rules without challenge and has built a cult of personality around himself and his family. He is widely reported to have suffered a stroke in August and has been absent from many public functions in recent months. In April, he named his son Kim Jong Un and brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, to the country's powerful National Defense Commission, suggesting his third son may be his heir. \"I hear that news in the media,\" Kim Jong Nam said. \"I think it's true ... however, it is my father's decision. So once he decides, we have to support him.\" iReport.com: How should the U.S. approach North Korea? There has been speculation that Kim Jong Nam would defect from North Korea and that a purge of his supporters was under way. He told Asahi he saw no reason for leaving his homeland.","highlights":"Kim Jong Nam tells TV Asahi he has no interest in leading North Korea .\nKim Jong Nam is eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il .\nRules of succession in secretive communist state unclear .\nKim Jong Il widely reported to have suffered stroke last year .","id":"9c51ce9446a9964b1e3ca6909bd1fd2b79558bc5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For most people in the world, freedom of religion is of such paramount importance and warrants all the legal and constitutional respect and protection. It is fair to say that this concept has been imbedded in numerous people's mind such that any accusation of its violation almost automatically triggers waves of condemnation. A woman reads a state media newspaper Saturday in Beijing with coverage of Tibet. That may explain why so many people, especially in the West, are so agitated if they conclude that the Tibetan question boils down to freedom of religion, or, even worse, to its violation. However, their agitation will be significantly muted if they are reminded that, while freedom of religion is of paramount importance, it is equally important to keep church and state separate, lest disasters and tragedies ensue. In this light, it is important to be reminded that what those Tibetan diaspora outside of China want to restore is a unique and anachronistic system which mixed church and state into such a lethal institution: clergy and nobles accounting for barely 5 percent of the population ruled over millions of serfs who were dealt with as chattels and animals, with no single iota of human rights. That was not ancient history, that was Tibet barely 50 years ago. Watch a recent history of Tibet \u00bb . Anyone in a major Western country advocating freedom of religion to the disregard of separation of church and state will be either marginalized or held with ultra suspicion. If a clergy does so in the United States, his church will lose tax exemption and all the other privileges of a religious institution. Mankind knows too well that mixing church and state together can be a recipe for disasters, especially in a diverse and heterogeneous society. Watch Victor Gao discuss Tibet with CNN \u00bb . Therefore, what looks as a matter of freedom of religion to many people in the West is viewed by China more importantly as a matter of separation of church and state. But why such sharp contrasts? Many people in the West eagerly embrace the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader. China would wish His Holiness were indeed nothing but a spiritual leader, otherwise many problems would have been much simpler to resolve. What looks like a spiritual leader to many in the West is viewed by China as less a spiritual leader than a political activist with dangerous political motivations. Watch an online address by the Dalai Lama \u00bb . But why such sharp contrasts? It goes without saying that religious differences need to be handled with extra care and sensitivity. Human history has been plagued with wars and conflicts either in the name of religion or in the excuse of religion with ulterior motives. Therefore, whenever religion is touched upon, normally \"your religion for you and my religion for me\" is a good guidance for avoiding calamities. If anyone in the West wants to convert to Tibetan Buddhism and revere the Dalai Lama, or the 14th Dalai Lama to be more accurate, as not only a spiritual leader, but as the reincarnation of all the previous 13 Dalai Lamas and, more amazingly, as the reincarnation of the great God Avalokite Svara, China, rather than having any grudges against him, probably would treat him with all the due respect as a true believer. But China views many Western sympathizers of the Dalai Lama, especially those Western politicians, as having ulterior political motives aimed at infringing upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. But why such sharp contrasts? The Tibetan issue has become a major divider and sensationalizer in the world today. But if reason prevails over passion, the following simple truths may be shocking to learn for those much agitated people: . Therefore, let's avoid mixing apples with oranges, or oranges with apples. Let's avoid any double talk. If one is using \"Free Tibet\" as an expedient alternative for \"Independent Tibet,\" then don't complain about China's wrath at his real motivation. If one is advocating freedom of religion to the disregard of the separation of church and state, then don't complain about being accused by China as a hypocrite. If one is mesmerized by the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader or even the reincarnation of God, he should not accuse China for being cool-headed enough to see through the religious veil which covers major political agendas. For those who warn China that, being in his mid-70s, Dalai Lama's earthly years may be numbered and his eventual passing away may turn Tibetan diaspora and some Tibetans in China into violence and terror, the word of caution is that, now that the whole world is caught in deteriorating financial and economic crisis, any attempt to use violence and terror to further damage global stability and security will be condemned as a public enemy and dealt with as such. It is ludicrous to fancy that any threat of violence or terror will bent the will of China. On the other hand, China needs to continue the dialogue with the Dalai Lama and his followers both at home and abroad, and seek a mutually convenient solution. From China's perspective, the bottom line is loud and clear: if the Dalai Lama is indeed nothing but a spiritual leader, then the solution can be quick and easy; if the Dalai Lama is wearing the spiritual hat for political purposes, then nothing will be easy. As for me, ever since my first trip to Tibet, I have been telling everyone I know that you need to visit Tibet, at least once in your lifetime, because Tibet is so unique, so extraordinary, so magnificent, so holy, that not visiting Tibet may be an eternal loss and regret.","highlights":"Victor Gao: Important to consider church-state separation on Tibet debate .\nBeijing accuses Dalai Lama of causing conflict, seeking independent Tibet .\nDalai says he seeks autonomy for region, not independence .\nTuesday marks 50th anniversary of failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule .","id":"40e645d42ebed175304aba481ec870ae423d3db8"} -{"article":"SARGODA, Pakistan (CNN) -- Mohammed Iqbal said he has been told by his landlord to pay up on debts and is left with a choice facing others in this impoverished corner of Pakistan: Sell your children or a kidney. This man's landlord forced him to pay off money he borrowed for his children's medical bills. For the 50-year-old Iqbal, there is only one option. Despite a law passed in late 2007 banning transplants for money, he has decided to sell his kidney and has already been for pre-operation tests. The sale will net him between $1,100 and $1,600. \"What's incredible here is the law that bans the operation he's going to go through came into place in 2007,\" said CNN's Nic Robertson. \"He's still able to go to a doctor, the doctors given him advice, that's what he has to do under law... He's going to make money out of it 100,000-150,000 rupees, and that is absolutely illegal. Yet, in just a few days, he's expecting to sell his kidney.\" Iqbal was not alone in facing this difficult decision. Others in Pakistan's rural heartland have opted to sell their kidneys. One of them was Rab Nawas, who was deep in debt about a year ago to his landlord after borrowing money to pay for his wedding and to cover medical bills for his wife and six children. He, too, faced the choice: sell his children, his wife or a kidney. See photos of Pakistan's impoverished kidney donors \u00bb . \"I am helpless. Should I sell my children? Should I go sell my children? So, it's better I sell my kidney. I had to return the money,\" said Nawas, who now bears a foot-long scar that wraps around from his back to his belly and is too weak to work the same hours he could before. Watch Nawas show his operation scar \u00bb . People bearing the tell-tale scar of an organ removal in the villages around the farm where Nawas works are not hard to find. At one point, there were about 2,000 transplants a year -- with 1,500 of them going to what the government said were so-called \"transplant tourists.\" The 2007 law was aimed at ending Pakistan's dubious status as one of the world's leading organ bazaars. Nawas sold his kidney after the law was passed and said the procedure was performed at the Rawalpindi Kidney Center in the northern city of Rawalpindi. When he went to the Rawalpindi center, after CNN asked him to show where the procedure was done, he said a doctor told him they did not have a record of his operation because they destroy such records when a patient leaves. The Rawalpindi clinic -- which prior to the law was a leading user of purchased kidneys -- told CNN that it abides by the law and does not get involved in deals between kidney donors and recipients. \"Standing there it's hard for me to fully understand the courage it took for him to make the journey. In this country, he has few rights, and even less security,\" said CNN's Robertson.","highlights":"A law passed in late 2007 bans selling organs for money .\nStill, many poor Pakistanis have no choice but to sell their kidneys .\nAt one time, there were about 2,000 transplants a years .\nLaw aims to end Pakistan's status as one of the world's leading organ bazaars .","id":"da3ad535b9ca75767cfea4a06645eda0d4741826"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI had surgery on his right wrist Friday after he broke it in a fall, the Vatican said. Pope Benedict XVI arrives at a resort in northern Italy's Val d'Aosta region Monday. He broke his wrist Thursday. The pope left the hospital Friday afternoon and was returning to his summer home in Italy's Val d'Aosta region, spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told CNN. Doctors administered local anesthesia and put the pope's wrist in a cast, Lombardi said, adding the procedure was minor. \"There is no particular reason to cause alarm,\" Lombardi said. The pope, 82, fell Thursday night in his room in Val d'Aosta, a mountainous region of northwestern Italy, the Vatican said. The pope arrived there Monday. The pope \"tripped or slipped in his room,\" Lombardi said. \"It was dark, in the middle of the night. It was not due to dizziness. The fact that the Holy Father waited to go to the hospital shows that it was not serious.\" He was taken to the hospital in the region's central town of Aosta on Friday morning after celebrating his daily private Mass, the Vatican said. Benedict's schedule for the coming days must still be confirmed, but Lombardi said he believed the pope will be able to hold his weekly Sunday Angelus from his summer home this weekend. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pope Benedict XVI briefly hospitalized after breaking wrist in fall .\nThe pope, 82, fell Thursday night in his room at mountain retreat .\nHe went to hospital Friday after celebrating his daily private Mass .","id":"099f1392707490abf4a70222199484ba13f37dd3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military is distributing pamphlets in eastern Afghanistan in an effort to find a soldier who has been missing for more than two weeks, the military said Thursday. A soldier mans a weapon at the rear of a U.S. Army helicopter over Afghanistan in May. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for kidnapping the soldier, who has not been identified, along with three Afghan soldiers. All went missing on June 30 in southeastern Afghanistan. The military believes the soldier may have been moved to various locations, including across the border into Pakistan, U.S. military officials said. There are two versions of the pamphlets, which are in the Pashto language and were made available to CNN by U.S. Forces Afghanistan. One shows the image of an American soldier shaking hands in a group of kids with the message, \"One of our American guests is missing. Return the guest to his home. Call us at ...\" and lists a phone number. The other shows a U.S. soldier kicking down a door, and then an outstretched hand with the superimposed image of a soldier, his head and arms drooping, and the words, \"If you do not release the U.S. soldier then ... you will be hunted,\" Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said Thursday. Soldiers have posted and handed out the pamphlets across Ghazni and Paktia provinces over the past 24 hours, Mathias said. Days after the soldier went missing, a senior U.S. military official said, he and the three missing Afghan soldiers were captured by low-level militants and then quickly \"sold\" to the clan and network led by warlord Siraj Haqqani, who is believed to be deeply involved in the action. The Haqqani clan operates on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border and is well known to the U.S. military. The soldier apparently left his small outpost on his own on June 30 with no apparent means of defending himself, the official said. Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said the U.S. soldier visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district in Paktika province, got drunk, and was ambushed while returning to his car. Sangeen said the soldier was taken to a safe place. Paktika and Paktia provinces are adjacent. CNN could not independently verify Sangeen's claims. A source with the U.S. military denied the claim that the soldier was drunk. \"The Taliban are known for lying, and what they are claiming [is] not true,\" the source said.","highlights":"Taliban says it kidnapped U.S. soldier, who has not been identified .\nSoldier, with 3 Afghan soldiers, went missing June 30 in southeastern Afghanistan .\nPamphlets come in two versions: One has an appeal, the other has a warning .\nSoldier apparently left outpost on his own with no means of defending himself .","id":"de46f307e8d0dc91336ffac4db46fa1802defe53"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Fight police misconduct with a cell phone, the NAACP says. The century-old civil rights organization has launched an online reporting system that lets users upload cell phone images of alleged police abuses. The Rapid Report System also lets users send text messages and e-mails about alleged misconduct. \"We know that most of police officers around the nation are excellent public servants. But the few who violate people's rights are often not held accountable,\" said Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. \"Research has shown that there are many barriers to reporting incidents of police misconduct, including intimidation at police departments and a lack of trust in the integrity of the system, among other reasons. This breakdown leads to an absence of public safety and a deterioration of the quality of life in many communities of color.\" The NAACP unveiled the online system Monday at its national convention in New York City. Users can post images from their cell phones or online. Cell phone footage has repeatedly helped spotlight alleged police misconduct in recent years. The fatal shooting of an unarmed man in Oakland, California, on New Year's Day made headlines and spread across the Internet partly because of cell phone video. The killing sparked large protests in Oakland and led to a murder charge against the transit officer.","highlights":"NAACP unveils new program to allow people to report alleged police misconduct .\nTexts, e-mails can also be sent to document alleged police misdeeds .\nUnarmed California man's shooting captured on phone garnered national attention .","id":"c0f184f4b1043f2b734a0d43ddaaa68f97edf755"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedian Joan Rivers and real estate mogul Donald Trump -- that's a twosome never known for mincing their words. Joan Rivers appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Monday night and explained her explosive confrontations. Trump selected Rivers as this season's winner of \"The Celebrity Apprentice,\" and they appeared on \"Larry King Live\" Monday night, full of their classic candor. Among the topics covered: Rivers' long-running war of words with runner-up Annie Duke, her dust-up and make-up with Clint Black and the \"reason\" she is against same-sex marriage. And the Donald explains why Rivers had what it took to emerge the winner. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: Donald, was it a tough decision? Donald Trump: Well, it was. Joan fully understands it was a very, very tight race. And Annie [Duke] was terrific and Joan was terrific. In the end, I decided to go with Joan. She displayed tremendous courage. She really took a lot of abuse over the course of 14 weeks. King: Joan, in last night's finale, you beat poker champion Annie Duke. You and Annie were still at each other up until the final moments. Let's take a look. [King shows a video clip from \"The Celebrity Apprentice\"] . Annie Duke: I do not know a boardroom in this country where someone would be allowed to say that someone would spit on the ground and drown their mother in it, where someone would be allowed to call their friends Mafia, where someone would be allowed to say that someone is worse than Hitler. If that happened in a real office... Joan Rivers: You're not worse than Hitler ... Duke: ...in a real boardroom. Rivers: Hitler never had PMS. Duke: This is what I'm saying. If it happened in a real boardroom, she would have to be fired or that would be actionable. Rivers: ... I have run a business for 20 years honorably. I have never fired anybody. I am the Number One jewelry business on television, with honor. [End of video clip] . King: Oh, boy. Rivers: Yes, oh boy. Trump: And, Larry, that was the nice part. Watch Larry King's interview with Rivers and Trump \u00bb . King: Joanny, where did you come up with that 'worse than Hitler' crack? Rivers: Oh, I don't know. You know, you're always saying things. Hitler is the worst villain in the world. So when you really get furious at someone, you say, 'Oh, you're a female Hitler' or something, you know? It's just an expression. But I stand behind it. King: What did she do to you? Rivers: She was very duplicitous ... there was so much mud-slinging, which I'm not going to go into. I was told she said she wished I would die; she said I was a cancer. King: What did you make of that squabble, Donald? Trump: Well, I liked it very much. ... Especially this morning, when the ratings came in, because it was a ratings bonanza last night for NBC. King: What does Joanny get now? Trump: She got $250,000 plus she raised hundreds of thousands more during the course of the 14 weeks. But she gets $250,000. That goes to God's Love We Deliver, which is a great charity in New York. King: What surprised you about this contest? Trump: Well, I was just impressed with the intelligence, with the energy and verve that Joan had. I mean, Joan's energy was beyond everybody else's. And she wasn't necessarily the youngest person on the panel. King: Joan, what surprised you about this experience? Rivers: How it became so much more than a television game or a show. It became absolutely something I wanted to do. It was like I was going to win for my charity. King: What got you so emotionally involved, not just with Annie, other contestants? Rivers: Larry, I play totally full-out. And you get very worn down. It's all these weeks and weeks of getting up at 5:30 in the morning, working until 11:00 at night, no assistants to help you. You're out there on the firing line. And, you know, the differences arise and show very quickly. You know who's good, you know who's bad, you know who's a liar, you know who's lazy, you know who's brilliant, you know who's a good worker. And after a while, you just play -- it becomes \"Lord of the Flies.\" King: Joan, by the way, written a Web exclusive for us about her \"Celebrity Apprentice\" win. Click here for Joan Rivers' blog, exclusively on CNN.com . King: Do you think you'll ever make up with Annie? Rivers: Well, I went over afterward; I went over to congratulate her, and I made her stand up. ... Nobody lost last night, for God's sake. No one heard of Annie Duke before this show. Now everyone's heard of her. Her charity made $700,000. ... And what did upset me was on the way out, her whole group gave us the finger and booed. And I thought that was .. not good. Not good. King: Why does this get so dramatic? Rivers: Because it's \"Lord of the Flies.\" You have no sleep. King: Weren't you and Clint Black kind of mad at each other for a while and now it's OK? Rivers: Oh, yes. Clint is a chauvinist. My joke is now he wouldn't even let his wife have Equal in her coffee. You know, that's Clint. But Clint is Clint. You get very angry at him, but at least you know that's Clint. You know what's going to be dealt to you. King: What did you learn from doing this? Rivers: So many people in this country are counted out from the age of 60. When I walked in, I looked them all over, I thought: 'I can take you all with one behind my back at 75.' King: Did you expect to win? Rivers: Truly, no. Donald plays it so close and so intelligently. I did not know until they called out her name. I really thought they were going to say, Joan you're wonderful, but you're too emotional and blah, blah, blah. And Annie raised so much money -- which, indeed, she did. I was in shock and thrilled. Rivers: Can I say one thing quickly? King: Quick. Rivers: Gay marriage, I am so against it because all my gay friends are out. And if they get married, it will cost me a fortune in gifts.","highlights":"Joan Rivers infuriated \"Apprentice\" rival Annie Duke over comparison to Hitler .\nDonald Trump says he loved the confrontations -- and the ratings that followed .\nRivers says experience of being on \"Apprentice\" is like \"Lord of the Flies\"\nShe jokes Clint Black is so chauvinist he wouldn't let his wife have Equal in her coffee .","id":"ecaf8fba2cd6d626025f4b58ecfe7848942841c7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The defense secretary will not ban smoking by troops in war zones despite a recommendation to do so by a Pentagon-commissioned study. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he does not want to compound stress in combat zones by banning smoking. Secretary Robert Gates' decision stems from concern about the stress troops face, said his spokesman. \"We are fighting two wars right now, using a force that we are demanding more of than we ever have before. They are under enormous stress and strain, and the secretary does not want to compound that stress by taking away from them one of the few outlets they have to relieve that stress,\" Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday. A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform -- including combat troops in the thick of battle. According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer. Morrell said that Gates has not seen the report and will consider the recommendations to move towards a goal of a smoke-free military. \"There may be things we can do to try to move towards that goal. But he has been very clear to me, up front, that one of the things he is not prepared to do is to restrict the use of tobacco products in combat zones,\" Morrell said. Anti-smoking activist Richard Daynard said Gates' decision was logical. But he predicted that, as smoking is banned on military bases outside combat zones, \"then the problem over time will resolve itself, even in combat zones.\" The founder of the Tobacco Products Liability Project likened the situation to that which prevailed during the 1980s, when smoking aboard U.S. commercial airlines was banned. \"There was an exception for the cockpit, at least on some airlines, on the theory that you probably don't want your pilot, if he's hooked on nicotine, to be cold-turkey while he's trying to navigate your plane.\" But, he said, the exception has been phased out. CNN's Adam Levine and Tom Watkins contributed to this story.","highlights":"No ban despite recommendation to do so in Pentagon-commissioned study .\nSpokesman: Secretary does not want to take away outlet to relieve stress .\nStudy recommend banning tobacco sales on bases, prohibit smoking in uniform .","id":"2614fc51ccb25a3e0962115e4e8ff22083b24de6"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In the enchantingly original and romantic (500) Days of Summer, Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is a girl -- capricious, alluring, and not entirely knowable -- and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the greeting-card writer who convinces himself that she's \"better than the girl of my dreams.\" Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel fall in love -- for a time -- in \"(500) Days of Summer.\" Five hundred days is the duration of their relationship, but the movie presents those days out of order, as an impish romantic flipbook, so that we keep skipping forward and back -- from, say, day 8 to day 154. Most romantic comedies have half a dozen situations at best: Meet Cute, Infatuation, Pop Song Montage, Contrived Mix-Up, Angry Breakup, and Final Clinch. \"(500) Days of Summer\" is about the many unclassifiable moments in between. Director Marc Webb, working from Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's witty script, stages each scene as a vivid snapshot memory, and his sense of play is boundless. The film leaps in a heartbeat from the furtive glances (and shared fixation on the Smiths) that ignite an office love affair to a rooftop-party reconciliation that plays out, via split screen, in two simultaneous versions (how the hero wants it to be and how it happens) to a morning-after-the-first-sex saunter that evolves, with joyful hilarity, into a musical number scored to \"You Make My Dreams.\" This has to be the first movie ever to give equal props to Morrissey and Hall & Oates. \"(500) Days\" is like a mood ring cued to the ups, downs, and confusions of modern love. It's a Gen-Y \"Annie Hall\" made by a new-style Wes Anderson who uses his cleverness for humanity instead of postmodern superiority. None of it would work, though, without such lived-in performances. Deschanel makes the lovely, sensuous Summer just precocious enough to know what she wants without coming out and saying it, and Gordon-Levitt, with his junior Springsteenian chin jut, lets you read every glimmer of hope, pain, lust, and befuddlement beneath his nervy facade. It's a feat of star acting, and it helps make \"(500) Days\" not just bitter or sweet but everything in between. EW Grade: A . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"(500) Days of Summer\" is absolutely wonderful, says EW .\nFilm is about an 18-month relationship, but avoids pitfalls of formula .\nJoseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are outstanding .","id":"92bbef4b3b470d7d6adfd4ac2d2fd383c485397e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Ramin Ostadhosseini needed to vent, and this gathering seemed the place to do it. Teens at Camp Ayandeh learn how to blend their parents' history and culture with their contemporary lifestyles. \"I get Raymond, Roman and sometimes Ramen noodles,\" he told the circle, describing how non-Iranians butcher his name. This group felt his pain. Here, sprawled out on a manicured lawn at Emory University were dozens of youths attending a weeklong summer camp designed to generate discussion on what it means to be Iranian-American. Like many attending Camp Ayandeh -- or \"future\" in Farsi -- Ramin has parents who were born in Tehran and immigrated to the United States after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, six years after the revolution, Ramin grew up with two distinct and, at times conflicting, influences: the American side that met him at school and the Iranian one that greeted him at home. It's a first-generation story as old as the United States. It's so common that Ayandeh counselors said the camp was created three years ago to address both Iranian and American parts of a new generation of Iranian-American youth -- a community they define as being \"hyphenated.\" Watch campers learn how to accept their backgrounds \u00bb . \"We're really becoming mindful of how we define things,\" said Natasha Sallahi, a first-time counselor and aspiring filmmaker. \"We realize that sometimes one word doesn't cover it all. So we're trying to create better definitions ... by putting two things [Iranian-American] together.\" Camp Ayandeh is sponsored annually by Iranian Alliances Across Borders, a largely volunteer organization funded by individual donors and PARSA, a California-based philanthropic organization. First established on Thompson Island off eastern Massachusetts, Ayandeh began its gradual migration south the second year -- setting up at a campgrounds near Fairfax, Virginia. Iranian-American teens from high schools across the nation now flock to the new Georgia address to learn about their heritage and ask questions that range from relationships and college admissions to sexual orientation and discrimination -- issues that can come with distinctly different social parameters than their parents were once accustomed to in Iran. Camp counselor Siavash Samei remembers such angst all too well. \"There was not a single person that I could look at and say, 'He is me,' \" Samei said, describing an absence of elder Iranian-American role models. \" 'He is what I can do. He can snap and he can dance. And at the same time, he can talk English without an accent.' \" After two years as a camper, Samei returned this summer as counselor to help answer many of the same questions that plagued him a few years earlier. The typical adolescent anxieties and struggles were mixed with another layer of cultural confusion. \"As a high school student, I had a horrible time,\" he said. \"One day I would come into school very dressed up thinking, 'I'm looking Iranian.' One day I would be wearing the baggy pants and dressed completely American. And I had no clue which one was right.\" According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 400,000 Iranian-Americans live in the United States. The largest wave of Iranian immigrants came to the U.S. immediately following the ouster of the Shah of Iran and the Islamic-led revolution in 1979. Nearly three decades later, a new generation of Iranian-American youths are struggling to define themselves in these \"hyphenated\" communities. Bobak Moazami, a 17-year-old kid from Manhattan's Upper West Side, said he likes to think of himself equally as part of both communities. \"I eat American food for lunch,\" he said. \"Every day at school I have a grilled chicken sandwich. Then I come home and have chelo kabob or qormeh-sabzi.\" For many of these students, traditional Iranian dishes such as qormeh-sabzi -- a stew of herbs and beef or lamb -- are a part of a heritage that at one time could only be preserved by their families. But with campers rediscovering pride in their cultural heritage, these teens are learning how to blend their parents' history and culture with their contemporary lifestyles. Put simply, why not appreciate the old-world beats of the tonbak alongside the edgy lyrics of Kanye West? At Camp Ayandeh, games of \"vasati,\" or Iranian dodgeball, and Iranian dancing sessions are scheduled next to public speaking and college prep workshops. And the campers bring their bicultural experiences back home. \"I read about American literature in the morning [at school],\" Moazami said. \"We talk about great English poets like Shakespeare and Lord Byron, and then I come home and experience another set of great [Iranian] poets such as Hafez and Saadi.\" Nava Behnam, a 17-year-old who's attended the camp twice, has a story that started out slightly different from most of those at Ayandeh. Unlike many of the American-born campers, Behnam immigrated to the United States at 5 after being born in Tehran. She has experienced little in the way of Iranian culture and tradition outside her home in Rockville, Maryland. \"I was never really surrounded by it too much,\" she said. \"Or if I was, it was Persian gatherings with my parents where I'd sit in the back and be bored and have nothing to do.\" Twelve years after arriving in the U.S., Behnam is part of a loyal following that returns to Camp Ayandeh each year. \"I come here to find my roots and to come to terms with where I belong and where I come from,\" she said. After going to Camp Ayandeh, Behnam said she now has \"an appreciation for Persian culture and our customs,\" even though she still describes herself as \"just another teenage girl going to high school in America.\"","highlights":"Camp Ayandeh helps Iranian-American youth come to terms with both cultures .\nIranian Alliances Across Borders sponsors summer camp .\nNearly 400,000 Iranian-Americans live in the U.S., Census Bureau says .\nTeen at camp says she has learned \"an appreciation for Persian culture\"","id":"117dbddeb212ad2b593e7ab0b821d0dfed01864c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's interim prime minister said Thursday that he has spoken to one of two French hostages seized earlier this week by gunmen who stormed their hotel in Mogadishu. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said the government will hold Hizbul Islam responsible for the safety of both men. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told a news conference at the presidential palace in the Somali capital that the hostage said he was in good health and is being treated well. Sharmarke said three low-level security officials have been arrested for their involvement in the kidnapping. The Somali government is negotiating the release of the hostages, who are being held by Islamist militants, he added. The two French nationals -- who have not been identified -- were abducted Tuesday when a group of about 10 armed men raided the hotel where they were staying. The French Foreign Ministry said the two were on an official mission to help the Somali government with security. The ministry has not divulged any details of its efforts to release the hostages, saying only that it is \"mobilized.\" The two advisers had apparently told the hotel they were journalists, something that the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders has criticized. \"We hope these two advisers are freed quickly, but we are shocked that they were passing themselves off as journalists,\" Reporters Without Borders said. \"They were on an official mission and had no need of cover. Their behavior endangers journalists in a region where media personnel are already in danger.\" Sharmarke said the two hostages were kidnapped by the militant group Hizbul Islam but later were transferred to Al-Shabaab. Both Islamic insurgencies are trying to topple the current Somali government. Eyewitnesses said a group of gunmen stormed into the Sahafi hotel, which is frequented by foreigners, and took the two blindfolded and bound hostages on foot toward Mogadishu's Bakara market, a stronghold for Islamist insurgents fighting against the Somali government. The Somali prime minister said that the government will hold Hizbul Islam responsible for the safety of both men. He did not say if any demands had been made for the hostages' release. Hizbul Islam is led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a bitter rival of Somalia's transitional president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. The two men once shared leadership of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, which opposed the presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia. The alliance split because the two leaders disagreed over whether to use force to oust the Ethiopian forces. Hizbul Islam and Al-Shabaab have continued their fight in Somalia despite the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces earlier this year. The United Nations had hoped that the withdrawal of the Ethiopians and the election of Ahmed -- an Islamist -- to the post of transitional president would help quell the insurgency in Somalia. The Islamist insurgency is led by Al-Shabaab -- an al Qaeda-linked group that is on the United States' terror list. It wants to overthrow Somalia's weak, transitional government and implement a radical version of sharia, or Islamic law. Fighting in Somalia's capital city has displaced 200,000 Mogadishu residents since early May, according to the United Nations. Journalist Mohamed Amin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke reported hostage said he was in good health .\nTwo French nationals abducted Tuesday by gunmen from their hotel .\nSharmarke said they were kidnapped by militant group Hizbul Islam .\nThe two advisers had apparently told the hotel they were journalists .","id":"8671f36711192f1044026cbb7e1f232d4637a4d2"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A former engineer for Rockwell International and Boeing was convicted Thursday of economic espionage and acting as an agent of China, authorities said. A Delta IV rocket launches on March 10, 2003 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Dongfan \"Greg\" Chung, 73, was accused of stealing restricted technology and Boeing trade secrets, including information related to the space shuttle program and the Delta IV rocket. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney convicted him on charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage; six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country; one count of acting as an agent of the People's Republic of China; and one count of making false statements to the FBI, according to a statement from federal prosecutors. Carney presided over Chung's three-week bench trial last month. In a bench trial, there is no jury and the judge decides whether to convict a defendant after hearing testimony. Chung was free on bond after his arrest by FBI agents and NASA investigators in February 2008. He was taken into custody after Carney's ruling was read. Chung, a native of China who is a naturalized United States citizen, was employed by Rockwell International from 1973 until Boeing acquired its defense and space unit in 1996, and by Boeing thereafter. He retired from Boeing in 2002, but returned as a contractor, a position he held until September 2006, prosecutors said. Chung held a \"secret\" security clearance, authorities said. \"For years, Mr. Chung stole critical trade secrets from Boeing relating to the space shuttle and the Delta IV rocket -- all for the benefit of the government of China,\" said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, in the prosecutors' statement. \"Today's verdict should serve as a warning to others willing to compromise America's economic and national security to assist foreign governments.\" The case against Chung resulted from an investigation into another engineer who obtained information for China. That engineer, Chi Mak, and several of his relatives were convicted of providing defense articles to the PRC, authorities said. Mak was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison last year. According to evidence presented at trial, individuals in the Chinese aviation industry began sending tasks to Chung via letter as early as 1979, federal prosecutors said. Over the years, the letters directed Chung to collect data related to the space shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft. In his letters back to China, Chung referenced materials he had already sent, including 24 manuals relating to the B-1 bomber, which Rockwell had forbidden for distribution outside the company and federal agencies. In addition, between 1985 and 2003, Chung traveled to China several times and met with government officials. His contacts in China discussed these trips in letters and recommended methods of passing information, authorities said. In a 2006 search of Chung's home, FBI and NASA agents found more than 250,000 pages of documents from Boeing, Rockwell and other defense contractors in the house and in its crawl space, prosecutors said. They included \"scores of binders containing decades' worth of stress analysis reports, test results and design information for the space shuttle.\" Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, authorities said. The charge of acting as an agent for a foreign government carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and making false statements to federal investigators each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Chung is set for sentencing November 9.","highlights":"Dongfan Chung, 73, convicted of economic espionage; acting as agent of china .\nAccused of stealing restricted technology, Boeing trade secrets .\nTechnology included information on space shuttle; Delta IV rocket .\nChung is a native of China who is a naturalized United States citizen .","id":"5bc7f171df4f42cdb0bc8bd958bfc031c517407d"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A federal judge ordered 10 municipal police officers arrested Saturday in connection with the slayings of 12 off-duty federal agents in southwestern Mexico, the attorney general's office said. The recent spate of violence was sparked by the arrest of high-ranking drug cartel member Arnoldo Rueda Medina. The federal officers' bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state, where at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since July 11 due to drug-related violence. Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, or narcomessages, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: \"So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here.\" The officers arrested Saturday are on the police force in the city of Arteaga. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, responded to the violence by dispatching 1,000 federal police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling Michoacan, angered Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy Rangel. He called it an occupation and said he had not been consulted. Authorities said Wednesday they were searching for the governor's half-brother, who they say is a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. The cartel is blamed for most of the recent violence in the state. The governor's brother, Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, was elected July 5 to the lower house of Congress. The governor has publicly urged his brother to surrender. There were no reports of his apprehension as of late Saturday. The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest July 11 of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, described as a high-ranking member of La Familia. La Familia members attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda shortly after his arrest, authorities said. When that failed, cartel members attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities. Under Mexican law, the officers arrested Saturday will be held for 40 days while officials determine whether to formally charge them.","highlights":"Officers arrested Saturday are on the police force in the city of Arteaga .\nSlain agents were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state .\nGovernor calls infusion of federal agents in Michoacan an occupation .\nGovernor's half-brother, said to be key figure in drug cartel, still at large .","id":"71cb719d5f47330d97a5ccb8acdc94db8a81084d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Alternative treatments are as varied as the regions of the world they come from. And while they attract skepticism from some Western medical practitioners, they are an undeniable part of global health. Shark cartilage is a popular dish in Japan where it is regarded as having health benefits. In parts of Asia and Africa, 80 percent of the population depend on these treatments as their primary form of healthcare. Shark fin has long been used in traditional Asian medicine. Shark fin soup is regarded as a tonic that promotes general well-being, and shark fin has even been claimed to have anti-cancer properties. Shark fins are mainly composed of cartilage, a type of connective tissue found in the skeletal systems of many animals. In Japan, they are sold by herbalists as a powder, in tablet form or as whole fins. While shark fin has been used for centuries in Asia, in recent years it has become more popular in the West. A book called \"Sharks Don't Get Cancer,\" published in 1992, popularized the idea of shark fin as an alternative cancer treatment in the West, and powdered shark fin is now sold as dietary supplement. But scientific evidence doesn't support the idea. A 2000 report by researchers at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington D.C. said more than 40 tumors had been documented in sharks, skates and rays. Clinical studies on cancer patients, including a 1998 study by the Independent Cancer Treatment Research Foundation in Illinois, haven't shown cartilage powders to have any anti-cancer benefits. Cancer Research UK, an independent cancer-research organization, states \"We don't recommend alternative therapies such as shark cartilage, as there is no scientific or medical evidence to back up the claims made for these 'treatments'.\" The use of shark fins has also been criticized by environmentalists who say the practice is threatening shark populations. In addition, environmental groups say that fins are often cut off live sharks at sea, with the bodies thrown back in the sea to drown, a controversial practiced know as \"finning.\" The ancient art of herbal healing also remains highly popular in Africa. In South Africa, the name given to the practice is muti. In Johannesburg's Faraday market muti practitioners sell wares that are popular with locals and tourists alike. Illnesses are diagnosed by \"sangomas,\" who employ techniques including communicating with the spirits of ancestors. \"Sangomas\" then refer their patients to \"inyangas,\" who supply muti treatments. \"Inyangas\" make use of South Africa's diverse flora and fauna, selling treatments made from herbs and animal parts. Roots, bark and leaves are all used to prepare infusions that are said to cure ailments ranging from headaches to skin rashes. Other muti medicines deal with psychological conditions, curing nightmares, bringing good luck and warding off evil spells. Acupuncture is one of the most widespread of all traditional treatments. An ancient Chinese healing technique thought to date back at least 2,000 years, acupuncture is now widely practiced alongside modern medicine in the East and West alike. Traditional acupuncture works on the idea that energy, known as \"qi,\" flows along pathways in the body, called meridians. According to acupuncture theory, if these meridians become blocked, \"qi\" cannot flow freely and illness can result. Diagnosis of ailments is carried out by, among other things, feeling a patient's pulse and inspecting their tongue. Marian Rose of the British Acupuncture Council told CNN that an important part of the diagnosis process involves asking patients a range of questions about their well-being, including their digestion, sleep patterns, and health history. Treatment involves inserting fine acupuncture needles at critical points in the body in order to stimulate the flow of \"qi,\" described by Rose as \"the body's motivating energy.\" Traditionally, acupuncture can be used to treat headaches, chronic pain, asthma, depression, addiction, and problems with the digestive system. Acupuncture has been the subject of extensive research and in the West the practice has been studied in terms of modern medical knowledge. Dr Mike Cummings is the medical director of the British Medical Acupuncture Association, which promotes Western medical acupuncture. He told CNN that research has shown acupuncture to be effective at treating pain in particular. Cummings says that it is believed that when an acupuncture needle is inserted into a muscle, it stimulates nerves. That affects the spinal gate, where sensory input is modulated, reducing activity in pain pathways. Whether backed by medical science or simply by years of use, traditional treatments remain popular and as more research is carried out, some may even come to complement modern medicine.","highlights":"Even in the era of modern medicine, traditional treatments are still widespread .\nIn Japan, shark fin is sold by herbalists, and is believed to promote well-being .\nMuti practitioners sell their wares in Johannesburg's Faraday market .\nAcupuncture has spread all over the world from its roots in ancient China .","id":"4b7265f18b9e7b532c8c650fbca25920ed839cf5"} -{"article":"Editor's note: LZ Granderson is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and has contributed to ESPN's Sports Center, Outside the Lines and First Take. He is the 2009 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) award winner for online journalism and the 2008 National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) winner for column writing. LZ Granderson says criticism of President Obama by the gay community has gone too far. (CNN) -- Far from flowing rainbow flags, the sound of Lady Gaga and, quite honestly, white people, stands a nightclub just outside of Wicker Park in Chicago, Illinois, by the name of The Prop House. The line to get in usually stretches down the block, and unlike many of the clubs in Boystown and Andersonville, this one plays hip-hop and caters to men who may or may not openly identify as gay, but without question are black and proud. And a good number of them are tired of hearing how the gay community is disappointed in President Obama, because they are not. In recent weeks, one would have thought the nation's first black president was also the nation's biggest homophobe. Everyone from Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black and radio personality Rachel Maddow to Joe Solmonese, the president of Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay advocacy group, seem to be blasting Obama for everything from \"don't ask don't tell\" to Adam Lambert not winning American Idol. In their minds, Obama is not moving fast enough on behalf of the GLBT community. The outcry is not completely without merit -- the Justice Department's unnerving brief on the Defense of Marriage Act immediately comes to mind. I was upset by some of the statements, but not surprised. (After the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, President Ronald Reagan's initial handling of AIDS and, more recently, Katrina, there is little that surprises me when it comes to the government and the treatment of its people.) Still, rarely has criticism regarding Obama and the GLBT community come from the kind of person you would find standing in line at a spot like The Prop House, and there's a reason for that. Despite the catchiness of the slogan, gay is not the new black. Black is still black. And if any group should know this, it's the gay community. Bars such as The Prop House, or Bulldogs in Atlanta, Georgia, exist because a large number of gay blacks -- particularly those who date other blacks, and live in the black community -- do not feel a part of the larger gay movement. There are Gay Pride celebrations, and then there are Black Gay Prides. There's a popular bar in the heart of the nation's capital that might as well rename itself Antebellum, because all of the white patrons tend to stay upstairs and the black patrons are on the first floor. Last year at the annual Human Rights Campaign national fundraiser in Washington, D.C. -- an event that lasted more than three hours -- the only black person to make it on stage was the entertainment. When Proposition 8 passed in California, white gays were quick to blame the black community despite blacks making up less than 10 percent of total voters and whites being close to 60 percent. At protest rallies that followed, some gay blacks reported they were even hit with racial epithets by angry white participants. Not to split hairs, but for most blacks, the n-word trumps the f-word. So while the white mouthpiece of the gay community shakes an angry finger at intolerance and bigotry in their blogs and on television, blacks and other minorities see the dirty laundry. They see the hypocrisy of publicly rallying in the name of unity but then privately living in segregated pockets. And then there is the history. The 40th anniversary of Stonewall dominated Gay Pride celebrations around the country, and while that is certainly a significant moment that should be recognized, 40 years is nothing compared with the 400 blood-soaked years black people have been through in this country. There are stories some blacks lived through, stories others were told by their parents and stories that never had a chance to be told. While those who were at Stonewall talk about the fear of being arrested by police, 40 years ago, blacks talked about the fear of dying at the hands of police and not having their bodies found or murder investigated. The 13th Amendment was signed in 1865, and it wasn't until 1948 that President Harry S Truman desegregated the military. That's more than an 80-year gap. Not to be flip, but Miley Cyrus is older than Bill Clinton's \"don't ask, don't tell.\" That doesn't mean that the safety of gay people should be trivialized or that Obama should not be held accountable for the promises he made on the campaign trail. But to call this month's first-ever White House reception for GLBT leaders \"too little too late\" is akin to a petulant child throwing a tantrum because he wants to eat his dessert before dinner. This is one of the main reasons why so many blacks bristle at the comparison of the two movements -- everybody wants to sing the blues, nobody wants to live them. This lack of perspective is only going to alienate a black community that is still very proud of Obama and is hypersensitive about any criticism of him, especially given he's been in office barely six months. If blacks are less accepting of gays than other racial groups -- and that is certainly debatable -- then the parade of gay people calling Obama a \"disappointment\" on television is counterproductive in gaining acceptance, to say the least. And the fact that the loudest critics are mostly white doesn't help matters either. Hearing that race matters in the gay community may not be comforting to hear, but that doesn't make it any less true. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.","highlights":"LZ Granderson: Blacks tired of hearing about gays' disappointment in Obama .\nHe says black gays strongly support first African-American president .\nHe says gay rights movement is not comparable to the civil rights struggle .\nGranderson: Gay movement has to overcome its own racial issues .","id":"8fbb90165c06e353905dd96c9465e9b5f65d8088"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Once he roamed the streets, moving from shelter to shelter. Now, Oliver Gomes rubs shoulders with Washington's elite. Oliver Gomes says working in the halls of Congress gave him the motivation and money to get off the streets. Squatting next to a white wall outside a Senate hearing room recently with a cell phone glued to his ear, Gomes is being paid to hold a place in line for a lobbyist at a hearing on the climate-change bill. Gomes -- 6 feet tall, with long curly hair pulled back, wearing a polo shirt and shorts -- is one of the contracted men and women holding places in line for this hearing. Many have been waiting since midnight to ensure their clients a seat. By 9 a.m., more than 100 people are lined up for the hearing. Only 10 seats are available to the public, and the first 10 spots are held by line-standers. The rest are shut out. Though the practice is controversial, Gomes said it has lifted him from life on the street. \"Sitting in the halls of Congress made me feel a little better,\" he said. \"It elevated me and made me feel like, well, you know, maybe I do belong here, maybe I can contribute even at that little minute level.\" Watch Gomes tell his story \u00bb . As the need for couriers on Capitol Hill declined with e-mail and fax, courier services like Quick Messenger Service of DC, Inc. have added the service of contracting men and women to hold places in line for lobbyists at hearings. The seats are valuable to lobbyists because the hearing is often their only face time with legislators. For big hearings with limited availability, line-standers may wait 20 to 30 hours. They're paid anywhere from $11 to $35 an hour. Gomes was living in a shelter when he started line-standing. He said working in the halls of Congress gave him the motivation and money he needed to get off the streets. He now makes extra money by recruiting men for the line-standing services from the homeless shelters where he used to stay. \"When I was down and out and I was on the Hill and I had that little bit of hope that while I was actually here, it gave me the incentive to dress a little better, more professional,\" Gomes said. Many of the contracted line-standers are homeless or formerly homeless like Gomes. Williams Howard Johnson Jr., one of Gomes' recruits, found his bright yellow button-down shirt, green patterned tie, and slacks at a donation center because he wanted to dress well for his job. \"That comes from being a part of something that's really meaningful to not only me but to society,\" Johnson said. Johnson was among those who had been in line since midnight for the 10 a.m. climate-change bill hearing, but he said he was happy to be there. \"I'm a part of something today and I'm very happy about that,\" Johnson said. Although Johnson and Gomes are glad to have a job and a feeling of importance on Capitol Hill, many people are opposed to the practice of hiring line-standers. Kalen Pruss, a fellow at the Internet environmental group avaaz.org, and her group of cheering green T-shirted environmentalists were shut out of the hearing. \"It's very unfortunate that the people who come here to line-stand always beat us here cause they can stand here all night,\" Pruss said. John Winslow, director of linestanding.com, said the committees might be creating the lines by limiting the number of seats for the public in the hearing rooms. At this hearing, some of his clients that paid for line-standers to wait at midnight were not able to get into the hearing. \"It's really a question of logistics, how many people does the committee want to service,\" Winslow said. \"And it seems like overwhelmingly they try to limit the number of people who attend these hearings and that just drives up demand artificially.\" Critics see the practice as just another way lobbyists are buying influence on Capitol Hill. In 2007, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri introduced legislation to ban the practice of line-standing. \"I have no problem with lobbyists being in hearings, but they shouldn't be able to buy a seat,\" McCaskill said. \"It seems to me that if we are going to make sure lobbyists aren't buying meals for senators, and we are going to make sure lobbyists aren't buying elected officials gifts, then we ought to make sure they aren't buying seating at a public hearing.\" Maria Foscarinis, an advocate for the homeless, thinks it's ironic that some of the most powerful people in the country are using some of the most vulnerable to hold a place in line for them. \"They're likely to be standing in line for people who well may be opposed to universal health care that would be a benefit for poor and homeless people,\" Foscarinis said. \"And yet they may be standing there for the purpose of access for the interests that are opposed to their own.\"","highlights":"Contracted line-holders stand for hours to ensure their clients get seats .\nSeats at hearings often only chance for lobbyists to get face time with legislators .\nLine-standers, some homeless, are paid anywhere from $11 to $35 an hour .\nCritics see practice as another way lobbyists are buying influence on Capitol Hill .","id":"77285e19b61fc9fac958d9ac98d9d8b6245367f1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A hearing to consider who will raise Michael Jackson's three children has been delayed another week, while lawyers work to avoid a court battle over custody. Debbie Rowe said she married Michael Jackson to avoid the taboo of having childrien out of wedlock. The delay -- the third one this month -- was announced Friday afternoon by a Los Angeles County Superior Court spokesman. Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and mother of his two oldest children, has not publicly revealed whether she will challenge Katherine Jackson, his 79-year-old mother, for custody or visitation rights. Katherine Jackson gained temporary guardianship of her son's children soon after his death last month. The two women have been working to \"privately and amicably resolve\" the matter since Jackson's death, a Jackson family lawyer said. Rowe's lawyer said this week that she was not asking the Jackson family for more money in exchange for dropping a possible custody challenge. A close friend of Rowe said she has been grieving Jackson's death -- grief made more painful by paparazzi hounding her and media reports vilifying Rowe by depicting her as a heartless woman who would trade her kids for cash. \"Debbie's a very caring, wonderful, warm person,\" said Marc Schaffel, who met first met Rowe when he worked for Jackson. \"She's a very humble person. People, you know, don't give her credit that she was a friend of Michael's for over 30 years.\" Jackson and Rowe met when she was working as a nursing assistant in the Beverly Hills office of Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein. Rowe said in a 2003 interview, later obtained by ABC News, that she became closer to Jackson in 1996 when she consoled him after his brief marriage to Lisa Marie Presley ended. \"He was upset because he really wanted to be a dad,\" Rowe said. \"I said, 'So, be a dad.' He looked at me puzzled. That is when I looked at him and said. 'Let me do this. I want to do this. You have been so good to me. You are such a great friend. Please let me do this. You need to be a dad, and I want you to be.'\" She told the interviewer they married in 1996 only to \"prevent some of the taboo of a child out of wedlock.\" While Schaffel would not say if their relationship was sexual, he said Rowe had \"a true, true love there for Michael.\" Their first child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., was born in February 1997. A daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, was born the next year. Details of how the children were conceived and who was the biological father have been closely guarded amid much public speculation. The couple divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving Jackson full custody while she got a $8.5 million settlement, according to court documents. Jackson later agreed to additional support. Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door to a possible custody battle. Rowe claimed in the 2003 interview that she still had \"some influence\" over how Jackson raised the children, citing his practice of covering their faces in public as her idea. \"That was my request, not his,\" she said. \"I am the one who's terrified. I am the one who's seen the notes that someone's going to take his children,\" she said. She said the children don't call her \"mom\" because she did not want them to. \"It's not that they're not my children, but I had them because I wanted him to be a father,\" she said. Rowe, 50, lives on a farm in Palmdale, California, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, where she breeds horses and dogs. \"She spends time with all of her horses and her dogs,\" Schaffel said. \"If one of her horses is sick, Debbie will stay up all night long caring for them. She'll sleep on the floor in the barn with a horse if he's not well. \"Debbie doesn't run out to all of the social events,\" he said. \"You don't see her shopping on Rodeo Drive. She's not hitting the hot spots. She's not trying to be in the limelight. Debbie is just as happy at home in her very modest, humble, horse ranch.\" When Hollywood's paparazzi surrounded her outside a restaurant near her ranch earlier this month, she showed flashes of anger and frustration. \"Are you ready to fight for your kids?\" a photographer repeatedly shouted. \"Are you ready to get your butt kicked?\" she replied, as she walked through the swarm. Schaffel said Rowe wants privacy and she's \"just trying to go on with her life.\" \"She doesn't react well with the paparazzi,\" he said. Rowe's lawyers have stepped up their efforts to bolster her public image by firing off warning letters and demanding retractions when they see reports they think are wrong. One letter sent Tuesday demanded the New York Post retract its report that Rowe had agreed to drop her custody claims for $4 million. \"Ms. Rowe has not accepted -- and will not accept -- any additional financial consideration beyond the spousal support she and Michael Jackson personally agreed to several years ago,\" Eric George said in the letter. \"Among the several contenders for overzealous and inaccurate sensationalism, the New York Post has now seized top honors,\" George wrote to the paper. \"It would be easier to identify those few background facts that are accurate than to catalog the number of blatant falsehoods in your story.\" \"The Post stands by its story,\" New York Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan told CNN. Rowe also filed a lawsuit this week against a woman who claimed in a TV interview to have e-mails from Rowe saying she didn't really want to raise the children. The suit asked that Rowe be given any money paid to the woman for the interview. CNN's Kay Jones contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lawyers for Katherine Jackson and Debbie Rowe working to avoid court battle .\nRowe's friend says vilification in the press exacerbating grief over Jackson's death .\nJackson and Rowe met when she was a nursing assistant for his dermatologist .\nShe told ABC in 2003 that she wanted to help Jackson become a dad .","id":"3182006b7e4fda33fda96504b96beff48f0e90df"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- New Haven, Connecticut, firefighter Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in perhaps the most controversial case involving Judge Sonia Sotomayor, said Thursday that Sotomayor's rejection of his reverse discrimination claim had undermined the concept of a merit-based civil service system. New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci sued after the city threw out results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam. Ricci was one of a group of 20 mostly white firefighters who sued the city of New Haven after it threw out the results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, including Sotomayor, backed the city in the 2008 case Ricci v. DeStefano. The ruling of the Circuit Court was overturned in June by a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The \"belief that citizens should be reduced to racial statistics is flawed,\" Ricci told the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. \"It only divides people who don't wish to be divided along racial lines. The very reason we have civil service rules is to root out politics, discrimination and nepotism. Our case demonstrates that these ills will exist if the rules of merit and the law are not followed.\" Watch firefighters testify \u00bb . Ricci also criticized Sotomayor's 2nd Circuit for disposing of the case in an \"unsigned, unpublished summary order that consisted of a single paragraph.\" Sotomayor was not present when Ricci spoke. She left the session after concluding her remarks earlier Thursday. Sotomayor argued before committee members Tuesday that her ruling in the Ricci case was decided on the basis of \"a very thorough, 78-page decision by the district court\" and followed an established precedent. \"This was not a quota case or (an) affirmative action case,\" she said. The case was a challenge to a firefighter test that had a wide range of difference between the pass and failure rate of different groups. The city of New Haven, she noted, was at risk of being sued by employees who could show they were \"disparately impacted\" by the test. New Haven city officials, after a number of days of hearings, decided they wouldn't certify the test but would instead attempt to develop a test of equal value in measuring a candidate's qualifications without having a disparate impact, she said. The question before the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor said, was whether the city's decision was based on race or its understanding of what the law required it to do. The Circuit Court ruled that it was based on the latter. Based on established legal precedent, the 2nd Circuit decided that the city's decision was proper under established law. The Supreme Court, however, applied a new standard, she said, based on a different area of law. If she were ruling on that case today, she said, she would be bound by the new standards set by the Supreme Court. Ricci was one of several witnesses who testified both for and against Sotomayor. Linda Chavez, head of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, which opposes affirmative action, argued that \"it is clear\" from Sotomayor's record \"that she has drunk deep from the well of identity politics.\" It is impossible for Sotomayor to be a fair judge when she has \"shown a willingness to let her policy preferences guide her,\" Chavez said. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel testified on Sotomayor's behalf, arguing that her opinion in the Ricci case was, in fact, an example of judicial restraint. It followed a string of legal precedents dating back almost three decades, he said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also testified in favor of Sotomayor, telling committee members that she is an \"independent jurist\" with a \"sharp and agile mind\" who would bring \"a wealth of unique experience\" to the high court.","highlights":"Frank Ricci one of 20 firefighters who claimed reverse discrimination in promotions .\nPlaintiff: Decision undermined concept of a merit-based civil service system .\nSotomayor: Ruling was based on \"a very thorough\" decision by the district court .\nNew York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, others spoke in favor of judge's confirmation .","id":"6935e09175390c03b40d06280fe7c01d2f1629c0"} -{"article":"OXFORD, England (CNN) -- You might expect Oxford and Cambridge universities to ask prospective students to compare the works of Chaucer to Boccaccio or to explain the theory of relativity. Cambridge students may have to field questions in the application process that would baffle some observers. Instead, Oxford wants to know: \"Would you rather be a novel or a poem?\" Cambridge asks applicants: \"What would you do if you were a magpie?\" The idea, say administrators at the two ultra-prestigious schools in England, is to see how well prospective students can think, not just how much they know. \"What we're trying to do is move students out of their comfort zone,\" said Mike Nicholson, Oxford University admissions director. \"Many students will have a body of knowledge, and they may be expected to be trusted on that in the interview. What we want to do is take them beyond that point and get them to start thinking for themselves.\" See examples of the application questions \u00bb . In the United Kingdom, 90 percent of students are educated at state schools. But 53 percent of Oxford University's students come from state schools. That seems to indicate that wealthier students who can afford private schools have an advantage. Tutoring company Oxbridge Applications -- founded by Oxford graduates in 1999 -- says 68 percent of the 35,000 clients it has helped are state-funded students. It costs $300 for a day of mock interviews or $1,500 for a full weekend course. Oxbridge says 47 percent of its clients get into one of the elite colleges. The overall success rate for all applicants to the two schools -- commonly referred to as Oxbridge -- is 24 percent, the tutoring company says. \"At Oxbridge Applications, we have a network of 500 former tutors and former admissions tutors as well,\" said company founder James Uffindell. \"And we take the people that have been there and done it and help supply that information back to the people that want to go there.\" Still, some of the questions seem a bit odd to the casual observer. Watch people on the street react to some brainteasers \u00bb . \"It's totally out there really,\" said one passer-by interviewed on the street. \"Are they on drugs, these people in Cambridge?\" Some of the questions seem downright sinister: \"How would you poison someone without the police finding out?\" Cambridge asks. Others are perhaps downright practical: \"Instead of politicians, why don't we let the managers of Ikea run the country?\"","highlights":"Oxford asks prospective students: \"Would you rather be a novel or a poem?\"\nCambridge asks applicants: \"What would you do if you were a magpie?\"\nAdministrators at prestigious schools say object is to get students to think .\nObserver on the street describes questions as \"totally out there really\"","id":"9c08ff331b89770810191f9b596d38f525c41c3e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Maryland man believed to have shot and stabbed his wife and three young children to death before killing himself with a shotgun was having money problems and left a note saying he suffered from \"psychological issues,\" authorities said. Five people, including three young children, were found dead in this house in Middletown, Maryland. Christopher Wood, 34, may have slashed at least some of his family members in the killings and used a small-caliber handgun on others, Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins said. He was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun wound at the foot of the bed where the bodies of his wife and 2-year-old daughter lay, the sheriff said. Wood's sons were 5 and 4 years old, authorities said. His wife, Francie Billotti Wood, was 33. The boys were found in their beds in a single bedroom, the sheriff said. Authorities did not release the names of the children. \"These are horrific incidents,\" said Jenkins, who said he couldn't remember another homicide in the past 20 years in Middletown, a one-stoplight town northwest of Baltimore. \"No one should ever have to be exposed to this.\" Jenkins told CNN that at least five notes apparently handwritten by Wood were found inside the home. While the notes didn't immediately tell investigators what prompted the killings, they did provide some insight into possible problems. \"There is some indication in at least one of the notes that there might have been some psychological issues with Mr. Wood,\" Jenkins said. There was \"a mention of some medication\" in that note, according to the sheriff. Jenkins said the sheriff's office had no record of domestic violence or other family disputes at the Wood's home. He said investigators also have learned of money problems for Wood, a salesman for CSX Railroad. \"We are aware there were some, maybe, debt problems -- some financial problems,\" Jenkins said. Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies went to the home shortly after 9 a.m. after Mrs. Wood's father called. Her family had not seen the Woods for about a day and her father forced his way into the locked home, finding the bodies, according to Jenkins. Authorities said a shotgun was found next to Christopher Wood's body and a .25-caliber handgun was found in a \"container\" in the kitchen. The sheriff said other weapons that could have been used to stab and cut the victims were found, but he did not say what those weapons were. Watch sheriff's department's statement \u00bb . Francie Wood's family were longtime residents of the Middletown area. Her brother had recently retired from a career as a sheriff's deputy, Jenkins said. The family had moved to town from Florida about four months ago. \"We're all in shock,\" said the Rev. Kevin Farmer, the family's minister at Holy Family Catholic Church. \"This was a family, though they hadn't been with us very long, they are an integral part of our community.\" Watch views from the crime scene \u00bb . He said the road the Woods lived on is a shortcut to the church and he would often see the children while riding a scooter he uses when the weather is good. \"They would always stop and wave and get big eyes as the scooter came by,\" he said. \"They were very happy kids.\" Jenkins said autopsies will be performed on the bodies over the next few days and that it could be weeks before the results are ready to be released. Jenkins told CNN that at least five notes apparently handwritten by Wood were found inside the home. While the notes didn't immediately tell investigators what prompted the killings, they did provide some insight into possible problems, the sheriff said. \"There is some indication in at least one of the notes that there might have been some psychological issues with Mr. Wood,\" Jenkins said. Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies went to the home shortly after 9 a.m. after Mrs. Wood's father called. The family had not been seen for several days, Bailey said. Authorities said several weapons, including a shotgun, were found inside the home. Christopher Wood had been an employee of CSX Railroad, Jenkins said. He said the sheriff's office had no record of domestic violence or other family disputes at the Woods' home. \"In my entire career, just about 20 years, this is probably the worst tragedy I've ever been a part of or ever seen in Frederick County,\" Jenkins said.","highlights":"NEW: Note indicated father was having \"psychological issues,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Investigators say they've learned Christopher Wood also had money problems .\nSheriff: Man apparently killed his wife and three young children, then shot himself .\nSlain mother's family were longtime residents of the Middletown, Maryland, area .","id":"9fbceda5884f5d044a80979e45f6835f1224282c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It doesn't matter that they can be feverishly hot. Or that crowds make for long food lines or the tickets may be hard to come by. Bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding performed at this year's New Orleans Jazz Fest. Music festivals worldwide attract thousands of fans wanting to hear their favorite artists live or discover under-the-radar musicians. Each major festival has its own special twist, specific to the event and city that hosts it. From the notorious mud baths at Glastonbury, England, to the breath-taking mountains surrounding Fuji Rock in Naeba, Japan, these are events that festival-goers wait for all year. Experience the New Orleans Jazz Fest \u00bb . Our guide prepares music fans worldwide for the best festivals this summer and later in the year. GLASTONBURY, Somerset, England June 24-28 ($255) Glastonbury has been around since dairy farmer Michael Eavis first held a free two-day festival on his farm in 1970, and it's long been the festival in England for seeing the biggest and best bands in the world. It also may be the muddiest -- heavy rain in several years, most notably 1997, turned Glastonbury into a muddy bog. Everyone from Radiohead to Jay-Z has headlined the festival, and with more than 700 acts each year, there is something for everybody. Some of the proceeds from the festival go to Oxfam and Greenpeace. This year's headliners include Franz Ferdinand, Blur, and Bruce Springsteen. ROCK AL PARQUE, Bogota, Colombia June 27-29 (free) The Rock al Parque festival, launched in 1995, has become South America's biggest rockfest in recent years -- some 320,000 people traveled to Simon Bolivar Park in 2006 for a weekend of Colombia's top rock bands and renowned international headliners. Funded by Colombia's culture secretary, the free festival has included some of rock's biggest names, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Manu Chao, and Bloc Party. In the days leading up to Rock al Parque, the festival organizers host a series of panel discussions on music production, management, and the recording industry. ROSKILDE, Denmark July 2-5 ($220) Since 1971, the rock festival in Roskilde has hosted the top names in music, from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan. It is the biggest summer festival in northern Europe, and the \"Arena\" stage boasts a 17,000-capacity tent, the largest in Europe. The festival has a daily newspaper and a 24-hour live radio station and is also home to the annual \"Naked Run,\" where the first naked person to cross the finish line receives a free ticket for next year's festival. Some 80,000 will travel to Roskilde to see headliners including Coldplay, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails. EXIT, Novi Sad, Serbia July 9-12 ($105) Created in 2000 by three university students as a protest against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, the electro-focused festival in the heart of Serbia was named Europe's best festival in 2007 by fans voting in the UK Festival Awards. Over 200,000 people attended Exit last year, dancing at all-night raves in the gorgeous surroundings of Petrovaradin Fortress, an 18th-century castle near the Danube River. Some of techno's biggest names will be on hand to celebrate Exit's 10-year anniversary, including Moby, Kraftwerk, and The Prodigy. THISDAY, Abuja\/Lagos, Nigeria Dates tba . The THISDAY festival in Nigeria -- launched in 2006 by the editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery -- is the biggest music and fashion festival in Africa. According to Obaigbena, the festival is meant to highlight the positive progress being made in Africa, and find sustainable solutions for the continent's problems. The theme of last year's festival was \"Africa Rising,\" and it showcased some of the world's best-known artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Usher. Stay tuned for this year's lineup. FUJI ROCK, Naeba, Japan July 24-26 ($410) Japan's biggest outdoor festival takes its name from Mt. Fuji, the site of the first festival in 1997. Fuji Rock has been set amongst the cool forested mountains of the Naeba ski resort for the past ten years -- gondolas and hilly trails transport people from stage to stage, and the streams and forests between them are the reason why Fuji Rock has been called the most beautiful festival in the world. It's not just about the scenery, though -- over 100,000 people will trek through the mountains to see headliners Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Weezer. LOLLAPALOOZA, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. August 7-9 ($190) Rocker Perry Farrell began Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for his band, Jane's Addiction. The biggest grunge rock festival during the '90s disappeared for awhile around the turn of the century, but it was revived in 2005 as a more traditional \"big weekend\" destination festival in Chicago. The past few years at Grant Park have been marked by hot summers, huge crowds, and even bigger bands. The anticipated crowd of nearly 200,000 is staggering, as are this year's headliners: Kings of Leon, Tool, Depeche Mode, and Beastie Boys, just to name a few. BESTIVAL, Isle of Wight, England September 11-13 ($205) The trendy Bestival, the original boutique weekend festival on the Isle of Wight, is the best way to end the summer festival season in Europe. Bestival boasts a yearly fancy dress competition -- last year's was \"30,000 freaks under the sea,\" and 2009 is the year of \"Outer Space,\" so make sure to dress accordingly. Thousands of Bestival-goers will witness an eclectic lineup including Lily Allen, Massive Attack, and MGMT in the picturesque surroundings of Robin Hill Park. For family fun, look no further than Camp Bestival, a three-day family festival at a castle by the sea in July. PARKLIFE, Australia Late September-Early October . The Parklife series of one-day music festivals kicks off the summer festival season across Australia. The dance-focused fests have featured heavyweights Justice, MIA, and Muscles over the past two years. The day-long festivals are followed by an official \"After Life\" party that runs until the early hours of the morning, so be prepared for a long one if you're one of the estimated 100,000 people attending a Parklife gig in one of several cities across Australia at the end of September. WOODSTOCK, Johannesburg, South Africa November 27-30 When people think of Woodstock, South Africa isn't necessarily what comes to mind. But for the past decade, the festival has been the biggest youth music event in that country, hosting a variety of both well-known and upcoming mainstream and hip-hop acts -- not to mention a variety of extreme sports stunt acts, paintballing, and flea-market stalls. Woodstock may not have the star power of the legendary American festival -- but with the wide range of music and outdoor activities it presents, its promoters aren't lying when they say that boredom simply isn't an option. SUNBURN, Goa, India December . Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as South Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John 00 Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in \"Goa Trance,\" a type of pulsing, transcendental electro music that became popular in the early 1990s. Sunburn again treated more than 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. The festival's founder has said Sunburn will always be free to attend, and it is not to be missed if you happen to be in India in December.","highlights":"CNN has put together a list of some of the best upcoming music festivals .\nYou can dress to kill at England's Bestival's fancy dress competition .\nEnjoy the music, comedians and silent disco at Bonnaroo in Tennessee .\nDance all weekend in the shadows of a 300-year-old Serbian castle .","id":"c85e121efbd1e7c251283bfadf101f6178edf5c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chinese authorities were explicit: Tear down the nation's first sex-themed amusement park before it gets going full steam. Visitors catch a glimpse of Love Land, billed as China's first-ever sex theme park, in southwest China. Love Land had not opened its doors yet, but authorities in the city of Chongqing -- a sprawling metropolis on the banks of the Yangtze River -- got all hot and bothered over the park's plans to display naked human sculptures, giant replica genitals and a photo gallery on the history of sex, the state-run China Daily reported. Lu Xiaoqing, park manager, told the newspaper he got the idea for building Love Land after a visit to a sex park in Jeju, a popular destination in South Korea. Love Land would include sex-technique workshops and sex education to help adults \"enjoy a harmonious sex life,\" Lu said. \"Sex is a taboo subject in China, but people really need to have more access to information about it,\" he told the newspaper. \"We are building the park for the good of the public.\" Whatever Lu's intentions, the newspaper said Chinese officials saw it another way: \"vulgar, ill-minded and misleading.\" The park was to open in October but was demolished over the weekend -- thongs, replicas of derrieres and all. Reactions posted on the Internet were varied, according to the China Daily. Some thought sex was best left behind closed doors, while others argued that a real need for sex education existed in China. \"Sex is a matter of privacy. It is not for publicity,\" said Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor at Beijing University. The officials in Chongquing apparently agreed.","highlights":"Love Land was to display giant replica genitals and photo gallery on history of sex .\nThe park was to include sex-technique workshops and sex education .\nReactions posted on the Internet were varied, according to the China Daily .","id":"313f91b1703ba30a3a207c892091028385722322"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Questions surrounding Judge Sonia Sotomayor's past speeches generated more controversy in the final day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings Thursday, as Democrats again called her a mainstream jurist and Republicans portrayed her as a liberal activist likely to legislate from the bench. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor greets Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, Thursday. One GOP senator said Sotomayor's most controversial speeches \"bug the hell out of me,\" an expression of frustration as Republicans tried -- with little success -- to get Sotomayor to reveal more about her personal views in her fourth and final day of questioning. GOP critics also summoned New Haven, Connecticut, firefighter Frank Ricci, who was the lead plaintiff in perhaps the most controversial case in Sotomayor's appellate career. Ricci testified that her 2008 rejection of his reverse discrimination claim had undermined the concept of a merit-based civil service system. In a potential sign of Sotomayor's strong political momentum, however, Senate Republicans indicated they do not intend to filibuster her nomination on the Senate floor. They also indicated their belief that the full Senate would vote on her nomination before breaking for its August recess. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said he plans to put a confirmation vote for Sotomayor on the committee's calendar for next Tuesday. The committee's questions once again touched on a range of hot-button issues, including gun control, abortion, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and the role of international law in American jurisprudence. \"I think you're a walking, talking example of the best part of the United States of America,\" Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, told Sotomayor. \"It is my belief that you are going to be a great Supreme Court justice.\" South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham was less complimentary, telling Sotomayor that she has \"said some things that have bugged the hell out of me,\" but he quickly conceded that her judicial record has \"been generally in the mainstream.\" \"Your speeches are disturbing, particularly to conservatives,\" Graham said. \"Those speeches to me suggested gender and racial affiliations in a way that a lot of us wonder, will you take that line of thinking to the Supreme Court in these cases of first precedent.\" But, Graham conceded, \"to be honest with you, your record as a judge has not been radical by any means. ... You have, I think, consistently, as an advocate, took a point of view that was left of center.\" Graham defended the importance of probing Sotomayor's political beliefs by highlighting the high court's 1955 landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which mandated the desegregation of schools. The ruling was \"instructive in the sense that the court pushed the country to do something politicians were not brave enough to do,\" he said. Watch Graham talk about Sotomayor's record \u00bb . The personal views of Supreme Court justices matter, he argued, because \"you're not going to find a law book that tells you\" how to rule on contentious social issues such as same-sex marriage or whether there is a \"fundamental\" right to bear arms. Sotomayor later fired back at the Republican line of questioning, asking Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, if he wanted a judge who pre-decided cases before hearing the evidence and facts. Watch Sotomayor's record on discrimination \u00bb . \"Would you want a judge or nominee who came in here and said, 'I agree with you, this is unconstitutional,' before I had a case before me?\" Sotomayor said, adding: \"I don't think that's a justice I can be.\" She noted that the Supreme Court spends considerable time on cases, including Second Amendment cases involving gun control -- an issue Republicans have repeatedly emphasized during her confirmation hearings. The National Rifle Association, unswayed by Sotomayor's assertion earlier in the week that she recognizes an individual right to bear arms, announced Thursday that it is opposed to her nomination. \"We believe any individual who does not agree that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right and who does not respect our God-given right of self-defense should not serve on any court, much less the highest court in the land,\" said a joint statement by Wayne LaPierre, the NRA executive vice president, and Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Reform. Sotomayor repeatedly said she recognizes an individual right to firearms in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in the 2007 case District of Columbia v. Heller. The high court in that instance ruled that a sweeping handgun ban in the nation's capital violated the constitutional right to \"keep and bear arms.\" Sotomayor refused to say, however, whether she believed the right is \"fundamental,\" which in legal terms refers to whether a federal statute applies to the states. On gun control, as in other issues, Sotomayor repeated that the Constitution and facts of the case would be the basis of her rulings. The highly charged issue of affirmative action surfaced most prominently later in the day, when Frank Ricci testified before the committee. Ricci was one of a group of 20 mostly white firefighters who sued the city of New Haven after the city threw out the results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals -- including Sotomayor -- backed the city in the 2008 case Ricci v. DeStefano. The ruling of the Circuit Court was overturned in June by a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The \"belief that citizens should be reduced to racial statistics is flawed,\" Ricci told the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. \"It only divides people who don't wish to be divided along racial lines. The very reason we have civil service rules is to root out politics, discrimination, and nepotism. Our case demonstrates that these ills will exist if the rules of merit and the law are not followed.\" Ricci also criticized the 2nd Circuit for disposing \"of our case in an unsigned, unpublished summary order that consisted of a single paragraph.\" Sotomayor was not present when Ricci spoke. She told committee members earlier in the week, however, that her ruling in the Ricci case was decided on the basis of \"a very thorough, 78-page decision by the district court\" and followed a firmly established precedent. Watch Ricci testify at hearings \u00bb . The Supreme Court applied a new standard, she claimed, based on a different area of law. If she were ruling on that case today, she said, she would be bound by the new standards set by the Supreme Court. Ricci was one of a long list of witnesses who testified both for and against Sotomayor. Linda Chavez, head of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, which opposes affirmative action, argued that \"it is clear\" from Sotomayor's record \"that she has drunk deep from the well of identity politics.\" It is impossible for Sotomayor to be a fair judge, Chavez claimed, when she has \"shown a willingness to let her policy preferences guide her.\" Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel testified on Sotomayor's behalf, arguing that her opinion in the Ricci was case, in fact, an example of judicial restraint. It followed a string of legal precedents, he claimed, dating back almost three decades. FBI Director Louis Freeh and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also testified in favor of Sotomayor. Bloomberg told committee members that she is an \"independent jurist\" with \"sharp and agile mind\" who would bring \"a wealth of unique experience\" to the high court. Committee Republicans, unswayed by such assertions, once again examined Sotomayor's controversial statement that a \"wise Latina\" could reach a better decision than a white man. Asked what she would say to people offended by her remarks, Sotomayor said that she regrets that she has \"offended some people. I believe that my life demonstrates that that was not my intent to leave the impression that some have taken from my words.\" Sotomayor was also asked to explain her remarks from a 2001 speech in which she said she agreed that \"there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives -- no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging.\" She told the committee that, in every case, the two opposing parties view the facts from vastly different perspectives. \"You can't just throw up your hands and say I'm not going to rule,\" she said. There is a choice in judging, which means \"you have to rule.\" CNN's Dana Bash and Peter Hamby contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Senate wraps up Sotomayor's confirmation hearings .\nChief plaintiff in Ricci case testifies during final day of confirmation hearings .\nRepublicans fail to get nominee to reveal more about her personal views .\nGOP Sen. Lindsey Graham says Sonia Sotomayor's judicial record \"mainstream\"","id":"d68720b4dcdf00ebdf6e099409b03aec1e332bf0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chairman of Tennessee's Democratic Party wants a Republican legislative aide fired for sending out a \"reprehensible\" e-mail depicting President Obama as two cartoonish white eyes peering from a black background. Sherri Goforth, a Tennessee state senator's aide, said she mistakenly sent the image \"to the wrong list of people.\" Obama's image is in the last square of a collage containing portraits of the previous 43 U.S. presidents. The e-mail, which was sent to other GOP staff members, was posted on the Internet Monday. Sherri Goforth, an administrative assistant to state Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, has admitted she sent the e-mail May 28 with the title \"Historical Keepsake Photo.\" She said, without elaborating, that she mistakenly sent it \"to the wrong list of people.\" According to the Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper, a note on the e-mail said it was paid for by the Tennessee Republican Party, but GOP officials denied they produced it. Black leads the Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus. There was no comment from the White House as of Tuesday afternoon. Black rebuked Goforth but didn't dismiss her. \"I want to be sure that everyone understands that the communication was sent without my knowledge,\" Black said Tuesday afternoon. \"It absolutely does not represent the beliefs or opinions of my office. I want to be very clear about that.\" The senator said as soon as she found out about the e-mail, she consulted the Legislature's human resources office, then followed their advice. \"Ms. Goforth did get a verbal reprimand as well as a very strongly worded reprimand, written, that was put in her file that if this should ever occur again, that she would be terminated,\" Black said. Watch Sen. Black discuss her response \u00bb . \"This is an employee who has had a stellar record,\" Black said. She added that Goforth has worked in state government for more than 20 years, and has had a clean record. \"We followed policy. And that's what you do when someone breaks the rules, you follow policy,\" she said. A phone message left for Goforth by CNN was not answered. \"Is this indicative of what Senate Republicans think about our commander-in-chief?\" asked state Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester in a statement posted on the party's Web site. \"I am calling on Sen. Black to reject this racist smear and fire this staffer who, on state government time, on state government computers, using a state government e-mail account, launched this bigoted attack on our president,\" Forrester said. \"Keeping her on the staff would send the message that this type of behavior is condoned by the Senate Republican Caucus.\" \"This e-mail is reprehensible, insults the office of the president, and is embarrassing to all Tennesseans regardless of political party,\" Forrester said. Goforth told Christian Grantham of the Web site Nashville Is Talking that she had received a letter of reprimand from her superiors but will remain on the job. Grantham said Goforth told him she felt \"very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list\" of people. \"I inadvertently hit the wrong button,\" Grantham quoted Goforth as saying. \"I'm very sick about it, and it's one of those things I can't change or take back.\" Forrester, in his Web posting, said, \"Ms. Goforth does not seem to understand what she did wrong. She has apologized for 'sending [the e-mail] to the wrong list of people.' I believe that any list of people would have recognized this e-mail as offensive and hateful.\" State Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, a member of the black and Democratic caucuses, said Goforth should be dismissed. \"I don't think a reprimand is enough. I think this lady needs to go. I don't think she should be a part of the people who represent the state of Tennessee,\" Shaw said. He said Goforth and Black, as well as Republican Lt. Gov. and Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, should make public apologies for the incident. \"I am appalled. It's despicable. It's disgusting. It should not have happened, but it does happen,\" Shaw said. \"It is the president of our country that we're talking about.\" Several other black Democratic lawmakers agreed Goforth should quit. \"The last thing we need in the state of Tennessee is to send out the impression and the image that we are still stuck in some backwater mentality and culture that feels it's OK to depict the president of the United States in that fashion,\" state Rep. John Deberry Jr., D-Memphis, told CNN Radio. Forrester added: \"Unfortunately, Sherri Goforth's e-mail joins the list of shameful episodes by Tennessee Republicans, from the infamous 'Birds of a Feather' direct-mail piece that featured black crows with the heads of Barack Obama and [African-American] Rep. Nathan Vaughn, to the \"Barack the Magic Negro\" song that former Tennessee GOP Party Chairman Chip Saltsman sent to RNC members during his failed campaign for RNC chair.\"","highlights":"E-mail shows U.S. presidents; Obama depicted as white eyes on black background .\nIt was sent by aide to Diane Black, head of Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus .\nAide says she sent it to \"the wrong list of people;\" Black says she won't be fired .\nTennessee Democrats call the e-mail \"racist smear,\" call for aide to be fired .","id":"19beb3290004d7cbf03c7af7d0617c46e4d986d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"A gruesome scene\" is how one investigator described the aftermath of five killings in Tennessee. A sixth body was found in Alabama. Police gather outside one of the scenes of mutliple slayings in Fayetteville, Tennessee, on Saturday. Kristin Helm of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation told CNN on Saturday that authorities have Jacob Shafer in custody in connection with the deaths. She added that authorities are not looking for additional suspects. Huntsville, Alabama, Police Sgt. Mickey Allen said Tennessee authorities told him a man confessed to a slaying in Huntsville, Alabama, and to five other killings in Fayetteville, Tennessee. Allen didn't identify the man. Shafer has been questioned by the TBI and is expected to face murder charges, Helm said. Sheriff Murray Blackwelder, who held an afternoon news conference, called the slayings \"one of the worst crimes Lincoln County has ever seen.\" He didn't describe how the Lincoln County, Tennessee, victims died. Dr. Bruce Levy, medical examiner for Tennessee, was working to identify the bodies found in that state, Helm said. Fayetteville police responded to a call to South Lincoln Road about 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET), Blackwelder said. Police found three crime scenes and five bodies on that street, he said. The five victims, some of whom were related, were found in two homes, Helm said. Investigators think the killings occurred either Friday night or early Saturday, she said. The sixth body was found at a business in Huntsville, Sheriff Allen said. He said he is unsure of the connection between the crime scenes in Tennessee and Alabama. Huntsville is about 30 miles from Fayetteville. \"We have no clue yet as to what unfolded there and how it relates to here,\" Allen said. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Man taken in custody by Tennessee authorities in six slayings .\nNEW: Suspect identified as Jacob Lee Shafer, who faces murder charges, TBI says .\nNEW: Authorities say an undientified man has confessed to the killings .\nFive bodies were found at two homes in Tennessee; one victim in Alabama .","id":"875c270b79da779d1dfbcf0820062b4541feda10"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- \"Guiding Light\" will go dark in September after 72 years and 16,000 episodes, CBS announced Wednesday. Gina Tognoni is one of many performers who have appeared on \"Guiding Light\" over the years. The daytime soap opera's declining viewership led to the decision, according to a CBS spokeswoman. The show, which the Guinness Book of World Records lists as the longest-running television drama, first aired on NBC radio in 1937 as a 15-minute serial, the spokeswoman said. It moved to television on the CBS network in 1952. The last episode is set to air on September 18, she said. The show is produced in New York.","highlights":"\"Guiding Light\" originally was radio serial on NBC, debuted in 1937 .\nShow moved to CBS, which put it on TV in 1952 .\nLast episode of show to air September 18 .","id":"ea4bfceb8602c2bc30c8ccb7a75b55047a2c0e37"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- London commuters crammed onto buses, scrambled for taxis, cycled or simply walked on Wednesday as a strike by Tube workers shut down most of the subway network. Commuters queue for packed buses in London on Wednesday morning. The strike began Tuesday at 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) but the first full effects were felt during Wednesday's morning commute. The strike was set to last for 48 hours with a normal service resuming Friday morning, according to Transport for London (TfL), which runs the city's transportation network. The RMT trade union called the strike after talks with management over pay, job cuts, and disciplinary issues broke down. \"RMT doesn't resort to industrial action lightly,\" General Secretary Bob Crow said in a statement. \"The fact is that Tube workers have been driven into walking out today.\" Transport Commissioner Peter Hardy said the talks had been making progress on all issues and he urged the RMT to return to the table. \"The RMT leadership says we were close to a deal,\" Hardy said in a statement. \"If that is the case, then they should call off the strike, return to talks ... and resolve this issue without any more disruption to Londoners.\" TfL was running extra buses and free shuttle services across the River Thames during the strike. Electronic travel cards used for the TfL network were temporarily being allowed on all train lines in greater London, it said. While most services on the Tube were shut because of the strike, one line -- the Northern line -- was running normally and five others were running on a reduced schedule, TfL said. \"It's been really good,\" a girl on Oxford Street told CNN about her commute. \"The Northern line is running perfectly.\" Still, some bus services were packed with commuters who normally ride the underground trains or who failed to find a taxi. \"I think we'd all like to strike for more money, but unfortunately we can't,\" said one woman at Oxford Circus, where the Tube is closed. Others hit the pavement and walked. \"It's OK -- quite refreshing,\" said a man on Regent Street. He said he had just walked from Liverpool Street Station, a train station as well as a Tube stop that is more than 2.5 miles away. The RMT represents about half of the 20,000 employees on the Tube, a TfL spokeswoman said. Other unions including Unite and TSSA represent the rest, she said, and were not on strike.","highlights":"London transport system crippled as Tube workers go on strike .\nNormal service not due to resume until Friday morning .\nBuses crammed with commuters; many chose to cycle, walk to work .\nRMT trade union called strike in dispute over pay, job cuts, disciplinary issues .","id":"e7d4bf0fb8682a2b28a2b3071b20fe05aaac3a7c"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- June 1, 2009 . Quick Guide . A Look Back - Take a drive back in time as another American icon's wheels come off. Cybersecurity Concerns - Plug into the reasons why President Obama has cybersecurity concerns. Reusable Lessons - Step onto the campus of a school that's a model of sustainability. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz and this is CNN Student News! It is the first day of June and our last week before summer break. Thank you very much for joining us. First Up: A Look Back . AZUZ: First up, a major move for the country's largest automaker as General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy today. This comes one month after Chrysler, another of the so-called \"Big Three\" U.S. car companies, did the very same thing. Under the terms of General Motors' bankruptcy, the company will be reorganized and essentially taken over by the government. Thirty years ago, GM made up more than 40 percent of U.S. auto sales. Today, that number is 19 percent. The company's reported more than $90 billion in losses since 2005. As the bankruptcy process begins, Christine Romans looks back at the history of GM and the American car. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Henry Ford started at the beginning of the last century with four wheels and a running board; 1908 was the birth of American car culture. That same year, General Motors was formed in Flint, Michigan. It wasn't until 1925 when the \"Big Three\" was complete with the formation of Chrysler Corporation. JOHN DAVIS, HOST, MOTORWEEK: When the Big Three emerged, they not only emerged as rivals that really gave Americans much better automobiles at the time, but they also cemented the American automobile as a world standard. ROMANS: \"As goes General Motors, so goes the nation.\" That phrase defined America's economic power for much of the last century. PETER MORICI, ECONOMIST, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: So many folks were either employed at General Motors or the other two major car makers, making steel and all the other components that go into cars. It just meant that if the automobile companies were prospering, the country was prospering, too. ROMANS: Today, there are 74,000 rank-and-file GM workers in the U.S. But in its heyday, GM was the largest industrial company in the world; a technology leader. By 1979, 600,000 people worked for GM. Those good jobs helped build America's middle class. DAVIS: It also allowed us to migrate out from the cities to have the quarter lot in a suburb, to basically get away from a lot of the congestion of the metropolitan areas. ROMANS: General Moters was the company that revolutionized what we drove, how we thought about our cars, and how we paid for them. GM invented auto loans and the model year. It was the first to hire designers instead of engineers to create new car concepts; think big fins and chrome of the 1950s and 60s. And everything changed. Ford adopted flashy fins with the Ford Fairlane, as did Chrysler with the popular Desoto. Automobiles from the Big Three put their stamp on popular culture, from music to movies to television. What's considered to be the first rock and roll song ever recorded was \"Rocket 88\" by Ike Turner, about a GM product. The Pontiac GTO, considered by many to be the first true muscle car, was showcased in a song by Ronnie and the Daytonas. RONNIE AND THE DAYTONAS, \"LITTLE GTO\": Little GTO, you really.... ROMANS: The Corvette on Route 66. The 1948 Ford in the iconic movie \"Grease.\" FROM \"GREASE\": Go grease lighting, go grease lighting... ROMANS: The TransAm in Smokey and the Bandit, and Archie Bunker's Old La Salle. CARROLL O'CONNOR AND JEAN STAPLETON, \"ALL IN THE FAMILY\": Gee, our Old La Salle ran great. Those were the days... (END VIDEO CLIP) Shoutout . GEORGE RAMSAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mr. Schultz's civics classes at David Brearley Middle School in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Where did the word \"cyberspace\" first appear? Was it in a: A)Movie, B) Book, C) Scientific paper or D) Magazine article? You've got three seconds -- GO! Author William Gibson is credited with creating the word in a science fiction novel. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Cybersecurity Concerns . AZUZ: It may have started as science fiction, but these days, practically all of us, including the government, spend time in cyberspace. But President Obama says we're not as prepared as we should be, as a government or a country, for cyber-attacks. That's why he's planning to create a new position: cybersecurity coordinator. Jeanne Meserve explains the new job. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hackers cut power to a skyscraper and then reprogram it to play Space Invaders in a spoof video on YouTube. But cybersecurity is not a laughing matter. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's now clear this cyberthreat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation. MESERVE: Americans use the Internet to bank and shop and talk to one another. Electricity, water, transportation all depend on it. But every day, there are attacks. The White House estimates in the past two years cybercrime has cost Americans more than $8 billion. And last year alone, hackers stole one trillion dollars worth of business secrets. Military and intelligence networks have been penetrated, and tests have shown a cyberattack can destroy critical infrastructure, like this generator. President Obama says the country is not prepared. OBAMA: From now on, our digital infrastructure, the networks and computers we depend on every day, will be treated as they should be: as a strategic national asset. Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security priority. MESERVE: The president will hand pick a cybersecurity coordinator to integrate policies across government, work closely with the private sector, and coordinate the federal response to attacks. Still unknown: who will get the job. JAMES LEWIS, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: If you get the wrong person, or you put them in an office that doesn't have very much power, you can have the best plan in the world and it still won't work. MESERVE: The plan is short on specifics, though the president says government will not dictate security standards to private industry, and will not monitor private networks or Internet traffic. Security experts say they generally like the steps the administration is taking, but warn there are many more steps to take on the long road to securing the nation's cyber-infrastructure. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO CLIP) Big Ben's Birthday! AZUZ: Heading across the Atlantic now to celebrate a big British birthday. Big Ben, one of the world's most famous clocks, turned 150 years old yesterday. Recently voted as Britain's favorite monument, it's actually just the 14-ton bell that's named \"Big Ben,\" although most people use it describe the tower and clock, too. Despite a couple disruptions over the years, Big Ben has helped keep London on time since 1859. Extra, Extra Innings . AZUZ: This college baseball game didn't last quite 150 years, but it did go into extra innings; 16 of them! Texas and Boston College took the field at 7 p.m. and left it at 2 a.m. after playing the longest game in NCAA history: 25 innings, almost 3 full games. At one point, a relief pitcher threw 13 scoreless innings. In the end, an RBI single helped Texas triumph, 3-2. Word to the Wise . RAMSAY: A Word to the Wise... sustainable (adjective) capable of being maintained with minimal long-term effects on the environment . source: www.dictionary.com . Reusable Lessons . AZUZ: Sustainability projects can be as simple as recycling paper and plastic and using recycled materials, or they can be as complex as altering the viscosity of waste oil to convert it into biodiesel fuel. There's one place in Atlanta, Georgia that's doing all of this: a school! Jacqui Jeras takes us on a tour of the campus's environmentally-friendly efforts. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACQUI JERAS, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: The botany classroom is the great outdoors for students at the Lovett School in Atlanta. ELLIOT MCCARTHY, THE LOVETT SCHOOL: This is something that we'll actually use later in life. JERAS: They're digging in the dirt, getting lessons in environmental sustainability. MCCARTHY: It's much healthier for you, it's less chemicals, it's completely natural and it costs less. JERAS: The school's organic garden is just the beginning. ALEX REYNOLDS, SCIENCE TEACHER: The idea that your labor can then nourish you is a life lesson, you know, and the fact that you take responsibility. If you do something wrong, you have to fix it. JERAS: Food from the garden goes to the cafeteria. Menus change depending on what's fresh. The dining hall is also trayless, saving thousands of gallons of water used to wash them. The cafeteria does more than just cook with sustainability in mind. For example, all of the oil that is used for fried foods is ultimately turned into biodiesel. That biofuel is used to fill up the school's maintenance vehicles for half the cost of gas. There is even a wind turbine on campus creating electricity. But the key is keeping the students involved. BILL DUNKEL, PRINCIPAL, THE LOVETT SCHOOL: It's really important for us to educate young people to be good citizens for the 21st century. THOMAS MACDONALD, THE LOVETT SCHOOL: It's my earth and my water and my air, too, so I dont want anybody trashing it. JERAS: Jacqui Jeras, CNN, Atlanta. (END VIDEO CLIP) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go: the answer to one of life's great mysteries. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get a donut! At least that's this bird brain's excuse. Alright, he's actually a rooster, but you get it. Every morning, he'd hear the opening bell at Scrumdiddilyumptious Donuts and dash across the street to get his complementary breakfast. Did heavy traffic ever scare him away from his risky run? Goodbye . AZUZ: We already told you, this guy's no chicken. Well, we will be back tomorrow. You guys have a great one.","highlights":"Take a drive back in time as another American icon's wheels come off .\nPlug into the reasons why President Obama has cybersecurity concerns .\nStep onto the campus of a school that's a model of sustainability .","id":"3a8f6e9611f0feb2e3dea21ad374bb77ab2d4c7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some Iranian-Americans, watching the post-election unrest in Iran, say the tug-of-war between the people and their hardline government has come to a head after three decades. Crowds demonstrated in Los Angeles, California on Monday, June 15 over the Iran election results. \"I am absolutely convinced that what we are witnessing is a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic,\" said Dr. Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City. \"Even if the Islamic Republic survives this crisis, it will no longer be as it used to be,\" added Dabashi. The contentious election results between conservative incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reformist challenger Mir Hossein Moussavi sent many Iranians protesting in the streets, while others celebrated Ahmadinejad's apparent victory. Kaveh Afrasiabi, who has taught at Tehran University and Boston University and identifies himself as an independent, told CNN that Ahmadinejad's widespread support in rural areas and small towns was the reason for his win. In results announced hours after the polls closed, Ahmadinejad received more than 62 percent of the vote, a figure hotly disputed by Moussavi's supporters. With the credibility of Friday's election under scrutiny, how the Islamic Republic of Iran overcomes it and reclaims its legitimacy in the eyes of some of its own citizens and the international community remains to be seen. \"There is good reason to believe that many if not most of the pro-Moussavi demonstrators are gladly taking an opportunity to safely protest something bigger: their enormous discontent with the entire system as it stands,\" said Shirin Sadeghi, a Middle East analyst for the Huffington Post. The unstable political, social and economic climate has some scholars questioning the future of the Islamic Republic. \"They are either going to crack down severely or they are going to cave in -- it could go either way,\" Dabashi said of the conservatives who now dominate Iran's government. Many Iranian-Americans say they see this as their opportunity for change. \"This is the best chance Iranians have to evolve to a better situation,\" said Dr. Ali Nayeri, a professor at the University of California at Irvine. That chance has sparked an unprecedented wave of spontaneous demonstrations not only within Iran but also thousands of miles away from Tehran --- scenes unparalleled since the 1979 revolution. \"Thirty years ago we had the war with Iraq. Now we have an internal war with our president and the fundamentalists,\" said Reza Goharzad, a political analyst who worked with Moussavi when he was prime minister of Iran. Goharzad, of Southern California, was among thousands of voters to cast an absentee ballot. \"This was the first time I voted in 30 years,\" said Goharzad. The enthusiasm that drove record numbers of Iranian-Americans to the voting booths was overshadowed by disappointment when a shortage of ballots prevented hundreds from voting. In addition, the election results were announced before many of the voting booths in the U.S. had closed. Alex Vatanka, senior Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, a provider of defense and security information, said Iran's supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may have miscalculated the mood of the country when he endorsed Ahmadinejad's victory before the country's election authority made the final call. Khamenei has since asked the authority, the Guardian Council, to recount some of the votes. But Moussavi is asking for fresh elections. Goharzad, like many other voters, questions the legitimacy of the election. He wants to know where his vote went. A student activist in Dallas, Texas, echoed that sentiment. \"The election volunteer at my voting location said that they had 500 ballots, which was not enough for the thousand or so people that turned out to vote,\" said the activist, who wanted to remain anonymous because he plans to visit Iran soon. For the first time, Iranian-Americans say, the post-revolution generation has seen the power of their unity unfold in masses. They say this has given Iranians at home and abroad hope that reform could be within their reach, if the ruling mullahs are willing to allow it. \"We are seeing a rise of a new generation of Iranians who are not taking it anymore,\" said Dabashi. \"This is no longer just about this election, this is full-fledged civil disobedience,\" he added. The divide within the Islamic Republic has pitted the reformists against the conservatives. \"The big difference between these protests and the student riots of 1999 and 2001 is that we are seeing senior caliber officials like Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohammad Khatami and Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani supporting the demonstrations,\" said Vatanka. Karrubi is a former Parliament speaker. Khatami and Rafsanjani are former presidents. Some experts say where Iran is headed actually has a lot to do with its past. \"Rafsanjani made no secret of his disdain for Ahmadinejad ahead of the election, and even back in 2005 when he lost the second round runoff to Ahmadinejad,\" said Sadeghi. Rafsanjani is chairman of the Assembly of Experts and oversees the 86-member body, which is responsible for appointing the supreme leader and monitoring his performance. Behind closed doors, Iran's political parties are caught in the middle of a power struggle between Supreme Leader Khamenei and Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani's role as chairman of the assembly gives him the ability to influence that body's attitudes toward Khamenei, Vatanka said. That could only add more fuel to the political fire and social unrest in the streets, analysts say. Politics aside, at the end of the day, Iranian expatriates such as Mitra Gholami, who participated in the historic 1979 protests, feel a sense of deja vu. Gholami, now an Atlanta resident, fled Iran with her three children 15 years ago. \"I want people to have a normal life,\" said Gholami. \"I want them to have freedom.\"","highlights":"Some Iranians-Americans believe the Islamic Republic possibly is eroding .\nProtests in Iran continue after disputed presidential election .\nTensions between Iran's clergy could be a reason for the unrest, analyst says .\nIranian-Americans say they hope more freedom is result of unrest .","id":"7aa096f7374fb1d1448524fb48f17f4b27aac542"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The recent hacking of a Twitter employee's personal e-mail account is raising questions about the security of storing personal information and business data on the Internet. A Twitter co-founder says password toughness is important to online security. The Web has been buzzing since a hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account about a month ago and used that information to access the employee's Google Apps account. That account housed some of Twitter's private financial documents and notes, according to Twitter's official blog. Some of those documents circulated the blogosphere on Wednesday, and TechCrunch, a technology blog, published a Twitter financial forecast. The hacker sent 310 documents to the tech site, according to a post by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch's founder and co-editor. In what appears to be a separate incident, a hacker broke into Twitter chief executive Evan Williams' wife's e-mail account and then accessed Williams' PayPal and Amazon accounts, Twitter says. It's unclear what if any impact the incidents will have on the future of cloud computing, the idea that documents and computing power can be stored \"in the cloud\" of the Internet rather than on desktops or laptops. Many tech blogs are weighing in on the hacking's impact. Some see the incident as an indication of serious security flaws at Twitter. Others say it's a sign Twitter has gotten big, and any rising company makes a good target for a cyberattack. People outside the Silicon Valley micro-blogging company, such as Twitter account holders, reportedly were not affected in the incident. \"This was not a hack on the Twitter service, it was a personal attack followed by the theft of private company documents,\" Twitter co-founder Biz Stone writes on the company's official blog. Google's suite of online applications, which allows users to share and store calendars, spreadsheets and text documents, is not to blame for the hacking, Stone said in the post, adding that Twitter continues to use Google Apps. \"This isn't about any flaw in Web apps,\" Stone writes. \"It speaks to the importance of following good personal security guidelines such as choosing strong passwords.\" Security experts say it's best for users to create new passwords for each of their online accounts. The passwords generally should be complicated, combining letters, numbers and symbols. And they should be changed often. CNET, a tech site that partners with CNN, says the hack highlights how interconnected information is online -- and how vulnerable that setup is to attack. \"Although it seems that Twitter has been thrust into this situation a bit unfairly, a hack along these lines could have happened to the executives of more Web companies than anybody would like to admit,\" Josh Lowensohn and Caroline McCarthy write on the news site. \"What it really highlights is the extreme interconnectedness of the social Web: with the likes of e-mail contact importing and data-portability services like Facebook Connect now commonplace, a savvy hacker can have access to multiple accounts simply by accessing one.\" Ken Colburn, a computer security expert, recently told CNN.com\/Live that Google Docs are \"as secure as anything you're going to do on the Internet. It's not any more or less secure than Microsoft Office.\" Writing for Mashable, a blog that covers online social media, Stan Schroeder says the latest Twitter breach proves the micro-blogging site needs to address nagging security flaws. \"There have been so many problems [at Twitter] over the past couple of months that it's getting hard to keep track of them,\" he writes. \"It's time to fix it once and for all, because these security issues are a dark shadow looming over the otherwise bright future of this company.\" Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief at Mashable, says the hacking is \"another embarrassing moment in Twitter's torrid growth, but nothing that's likely to bring the house down.\" Peter Kafka, senior editor at AllThingsD.com, offers another analogy. \"This looks roughly akin to having your underwear drawer rifled: Embarrassing, but no one's really going to be surprised about what's in there,\" he writes. Another debate happening online concerns TechCrunch's decision to publish some of the information stolen from Twitter. Arrington, of TechCrunch, writes that \"a few of the documents have so much news value that we think it's appropriate to publish them.\" Still, \"there is clearly an ethical line here that we don't want to cross, and the vast majority of these documents aren't going to be published, at least by us,\" he writes. Some, including TechCrunch readers, have criticized the blog's decision to publish any of the information. Twitter has said it is seeking legal counsel on the matter. \"We are in touch with our legal counsel about what this theft means for Twitter, the hacker, and anyone who accepts and subsequently shares or publishes these stolen documents,\" Stone writes on the site's blog. Ostrow, of Mashable, writes that there's nothing \"really juicy\" in the Twitter documents. \"The bottom line seems to be this: your Twitter accounts are safe, but there are a number of documents that Twitter would rather not have published publicly in other people's hands,\" he says. \"But if you're expecting something really juicy (like, how Twitter plans to make money), you should probably prepare to be disappointed.\" What do you think of the news? Are you worried about security and cloud computing? Do you use Google Docs and will you continue to? What about TechCrunch's decision to publish the info stolen from Twitter? Feel free to chime in with comments below.","highlights":"A hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator's personal e-mail account .\nThe hacker stole Twitter financial documents and leaked them to several blogs .\nWeb is abuzz with opinions on the hacking's impact and the ethics of posting the info .\nTwitter says it is seeking legal counsel on the matter .","id":"fb54b6caafd9d1fbe70cb96fc7f447d05dcddc85"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ralph J. Begleiter teaches communication, journalism and political science at the University of Delaware. During two decades as CNN's \"world affairs correspondent,\" Begleiter was the network's most widely traveled reporter. Ralph J. Begleiter says the Pentagon's new policy on media access to coffins of war dead is a milestone. NEWARK, Delaware (CNN) -- The reversal of two decades of policy on images of returning war casualties is an important and welcome milestone for the American people. The Pentagon's decision announced Thursday allowing media coverage of coffins of war victims returning to Dover Air Force Base -- if families agree -- restores to its rightful, honorable place the immense value of the sacrifice American troops make on behalf of their nation. It allows the American people to honor the dignified and respectful return of war casualties to home soil for the last time. Although no one should have a veto over the nation's ability to pay respects to its fallen troops, I believe most families will decide that their sons and daughters deserve to be recognized publicly for their sacrifice. These men and women enlisted in the military for their nation. They fought for their nation. They died for their nation. Their return should be respectfully and publicly acknowledged by their nation. The ban on images of returning casualties started accidentally, and without any reference to the \"privacy\" of the families of those who gave their lives in service to the nation. The accident of media history occurred in December 1989 when poor White House scheduling placed President George H.W. Bush before live television cameras just as the first American casualties were arriving at Dover Air Force Base from the U.S. invasion of Panama. CNN and two other major TV networks fired up their split-screen technology, showing on one side the president joking with White House reporters just before the Christmas holiday -- and on the other the sober images of flag-draped military caskets being carried ceremoniously by honor guards across the tarmac at Dover. After the holidays, the president appealed publicly to reporters to \"help me\" overcome a public impression that he had been insensitive on TV about the returning casualties. News media had been covering the return of war casualties since World War II. Some military personnel believe the showing of those images -- and others from the jungles of Vietnam -- contributed to a gradual growth of anti-war sentiment during the 1960s. Just days before the Gulf War began in January 1991, the new media policy was formalized in a cable sent by the Defense Department to its posts: There would be no media coverage of returning casualties at Dover or other stops along the way home. The directive made no mention of anyone's privacy but portrayed the ban on coverage of returning casualties as an effort to ease pressure on stressed families, who might feel obliged to travel to Dover to witness the return of their loved one with news media watching. Over the next decade, several exceptions were made to the ban on media coverage at Dover, including for the return of Navy personnel killed in the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen's coast, just weeks before the election that brought the second President Bush into office. Ironically, throughout the ban on media coverage of returning casualties, the Pentagon continued documenting this important part of any war by assigning military and government contract photographers to take pictures of the flag-draped caskets. Those images, among the most poignant, respectful and dignified tributes to troops who died in service of their nation, were carefully maintained by the Defense Department. They were used for training of honor guards and for commemorating the significance of war casualties. Although taken by the government, those images were withheld from public view. From the aftermath of September 11, 2001, through the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Pentagon kept taking those pictures even as it expanded its ban on media coverage of returning casualties -- now arguing that such war images would somehow invade the privacy of families of the deceased troops. It was those images that a series of Freedom of Information Act requests pried loose in 2005 after months of legal skirmishing. (Those requests were initiated by Russ Kick, editor of a Web site called \"The Memory Hole.\" When the Pentagon refused to respond substantively to my own series of Freedom of Information Act requests, the National Security Archive at George Washington University and I took the government to court with a lawsuit over the images.) Just weeks before a federal judge was expected to rule in the case, the Pentagon pre-empted a precedent-setting order by releasing voluntarily more than 700 images of returning casualties. They remain to this day available to the public on the National Security Archive Web site. At the time Kick and I were seeking to make the Pentagon's pictures public, major U.S. news organizations were busy suiting up to cover the invasion of Iraq; they did not engage their lawyers to ask for access to Dover to witness the return of those who sacrificed their lives in the war and they have declined to do so since then. The Pentagon policy, which had come into being over the embarrassment of a president, evolved after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, into a complete ban preventing the American people from seeing the most important single measure of the cost of war. So desperate, apparently, was the White House desire to block public view of such images that military photographers at Dover were ordered to stop documenting the returns. To my knowledge, since 2005, no further photos have been taken showing those emotional moments when a casualty touches home soil for the last time. The Obama administration's reversal of two decades of policy on the visibility of returning casualties should have two immediate effects: . Public opinion -- consistently supportive of making the war casualty images public -- has reached a new high. Most recently, a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday reported that 67 percent of those questioned said they think the government should allow the public to see photos of caskets of U.S. troops at an Air Force base. I have had the privilege of speaking with a number of family members who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan or Iraq. Most think the pictures should be public, but only after families authorize it. This dramatic change in government policy should once again allow all Americans to see the full human cost of war, while paying respect to those who served their nation as well as to their families. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ralph J. Begleiter.","highlights":"Ralph J. Begleiter: U.S. policy on photographing war dead was result of coincidence .\nHe says it was due to split-screen image of president joking while coffins returning .\nBegleiter: New policy allows the nation to pay proper respect to war dead .\nHe urges government to resume using its photographers to document the toll .","id":"83f123386fbae351ed78c71fc49664e2bc7a9190"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- In an unprecedented move in Iranian politics, a reformist presidential candidate accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of tainting the country's image by questioning the Holocaust and by wielding a reckless leadership style. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came to power in 2005, is seeking a second term in office. The frontrunners in Iran's presidential race clashed during a fiery debate broadcast to a national television audience on Wednesday evening. The verbal jousting between Ahmadinejad and opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi -- a former prime minister and reformist candidate who poses a threat to the firebrand Iranian president -- lasted an hour and half. Mousavi said Ahmadinejad's dictatorial ways have hurt Iran's image across the globe and could be a prelude to a dictatorship. \"There are two ways of confronting the country's problems,\" Mousavi said. \"One is through a management style based on adventurism, instability, play-acting, exaggerations, wrongdoing, being secretive, self-importance, superficiality and ignoring the law. The second way is based on realism, respect, openness, collective wisdom and avoiding extremism.\" He said Ahmadinejad's denials of the Holocaust had repulsed Iran's allies. \"This has greatly damaged us,\" Mousavi said. The Iranian president called the Holocaust, in which six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis, \"a big deception.\" Ahmadinejad also has lashed out at the United States and Israel, calling at various times for the end of Israel's existence as a Jewish state. In addition to Mousavi, two other challengers -- former parliament speaker Mahdi Karoudi, another reformist, and hard-liner Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council -- hope to unseat Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election. Neither took part in Wednesday's debate. The outcome of the election will set the tone for Iran's policies on crucial issues, including its nuclear ambitions and the possibility of bilateral talks with Washington. Wednesday night's event was the first of four debates that will pair two of the candidates against each other ahead of next week's presidential elections. Ahmadinejad, known for his attacks against his foes, accused Mousavi of colluding with Iran's former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ahmadinejad, seeking a second term in office, accused the two Iranian figures of mismanagement, corruption and the masterminding of a plot to force him from power. \"I have tolerated all the personal insults and lies for four years and I forgive those responsible for them,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"But I do not have the authority to turn a blind eye when the people and the people's choice and their interests are insulted.\" Ahmadinejad accused Mousavi and the two former leaders of standing against the Iranian nation and conspiring against him. Ahmadinejad said that, in the early days of his presidency, Rafsanjani sent a message to the king of a Persian Gulf state that said: \"Do not worry. This government will fall within six months.\" Hours after the debate, Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani met at a ceremony commemorating the death of Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution that overthew the ruling monarchy in 1979 and established Iran as an Islamic republic. The meeting was cordial, with Rafsanjani holding on to Ahmadinejad's arm throughout their talk, the semi-official Fars news agency said. Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric who heads the Expediency Council and Assembly of Experts, remains an influential figure in Iran. He was president from 1989 to 1997 and then attempted to position himself in the political center in the 2005 elections, when he publicly favored a policy that would relax tensions with the United States. The two nations have had no diplomatic ties since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rafsanjani lost to the ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad, who was then Tehran's mayor. Ahmadinejad's accusations against the former Iranian presidents mark a change in traditional politics, in that he named them. Normally, charges are made via innuendo. Though the targets are clear, they go unnamed. The change could indicate that he has the backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Analysts say that, without at least a nod from Khamenei, Ahmadinejad would not dare implicate members of Iran's powerful inner circle. Outside the TV station, supporters of both candidates stayed well after the debate had ended, chanting slogans and not fully dispersing until 4 a.m., according to the semi-official Fars news agency. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran contributed to this story.","highlights":"In a first for Iran, nation holds debates televised live ahead of presidential elections .\nMir Hossein Mousavi accuses Ahmadinejad of behaving like a dictator .\nMousavi: Ahmadinejad's denials of the Holocaust had repulsed Iran's allies.\nAhmadinejad accused Iran's former presidents of corruption, mismanagement .","id":"32c10308ffa88e7c036252a93411c61b0c05ecfb"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of Pakistani residents have taken up arms and are battling local Taliban militants in the wake of a deadly mosque attack last week. A Pakistani police stands guard at a checkpoint in Peshawar, Pakistan on June 8. It is the first major battle between the residents of northwest Pakistan and Taliban militants near the Afghanistan border. The residents are outraged over a suicide attack on a local mosque during Friday prayers that killed at least 40 people and wounded some 80 others. Starting on Saturday morning, some 400 villagers in the Upper Dir district formed a \"lashkar\" -- or militia -- to fight the Taliban, killing 14 of the militants as of Sunday evening, according to local administrator Atiq Ur Rehman. Four of the villagers have been injured in the battle, Rehman said. The militia have burned a number of houses thought to be sheltering the militants, according to Upper Dir police chief Ijaz Kahn. Both the residents and Taliban fighters are using heavy weapons, including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft weapons, Rehman said. There is a long history of Taliban presence in the area, including foreign fighters in leadership roles, local officials said. Authorities said Taliban fighters were driven out of Shot Ghas and Ghazigay -- two villages where the Taliban have support. The villagers took up arms against the Taliban after Friday's suicide attack at a mosque in Hayagay Sharqi -- a village in Upper Dir located about 35 km (22 miles) from the Afghan border and known for being against the Taliban. Upper Dir is a part of the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani military has waged a month-long operation against Taliban militants, but the district has not been part of the ongoing military offensive. The United Nations has said an estimated 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced by fighting between the Pakistani military and Taliban militants. The militants threatened to continue attacking cities in Pakistan until the military ends its operations against Taliban militants. As a result, Pakistani authorities have increased security in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city. CNN's Ingrid Formanek and journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report .","highlights":"Upper Dir, part of Swat Valley, is where Pakistan army are fighting Taliban militants .\nU.N. says an estimated 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced by fighting .\nBacklash follows suspected Taliban suicide attack Friday at a mosque .\nOfficial: Both sides using heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft weapons .","id":"83a95fec0dd47ab82cf01b441727eb8dba32e0b3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite a bleak economic environment featuring wide-ranging layoffs and rising unemployment, the nation's premier law enforcement agency is touting \"one of the largest hiring blitzes in our 100-year history.\" The FBI is about to embark on its biggest hiring spree since immediately after the September 11, 2001. The FBI posted openings for 850 special agents and more than 2,100 professional support personnel. Officials say it's the largest FBI job posting since immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The FBI's unexpectedly large number of job openings results more from attrition and a wave of retirements than from growing government appropriations, Bureau officials told CNN. The FBI routinely advertises openings for individuals with critical skills in computer science and language fluency. But John Raucci, assistant director of the FBI's Human Resources Division, says current needs are much more wide-ranging. \"We're also looking for professionals in a wide variety of fields who have a deep desire to help protect our nation from terrorists, spies and others who wish us harm,\" Raucci said. The lengthy list of openings includes positions in finance and accounting, security, intelligence analysis, training and education, nursing and counseling, physical surveillance, electrical engineering, physical and social sciences, and auto mechanics. Procedures for applying and a full listing of available positions are posted on the Web site fbijobs.gov. \"This is a great time to apply for a great job in the FBI,\" said the bureau's chief spokesman, Richard Kolko. Officials note at least a few jobs are currently available in every one of the FBI's 56 field offices across the nation. The FBI lists openings throughout the year, but seldom has anything close to the current number of available positions. The present job postings expire on January 16, but a new, possibly smaller set of openings will be posted shortly thereafter, the agency said.","highlights":"FBI goes on biggest hiring blitz since 9\/11 .\nPostings on www.fbijobs.gov seek 850 agents, 2,100 support staffers .\nRetirements, attrition responsible for openings, FBI says .","id":"bb4ed9691f00444548c12ba3f79f4b3fbcb01102"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Latin American nations overwhelmingly rejected nearly 50 years of U.S. policy toward Cuba on Wednesday, voting at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Honduras to revoke the communist nation's 1962 suspension from the multinational group. Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales says farewell to Hillary Clinton at Wednesday's OAS meeting. Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales said at the end of the two-day meeting in the city of San Pedro Sula that the OAS had rectified a serious error. The United States led the push to suspend Cuba from the OAS at the height of the Cold War, also breaking diplomatic relations with the island nation in 1961 and establishing an economic embargo the next year. \"This is an important message to the whole world, not just our continent,\" Zelaya said, later adding, \"The Cold War ended today in San Pedro Sula.\" The United States sought to obtain concessions from Cuba this year in exchange for readmission to the 35-nation group. In particular, the United States wants greater political and personal freedoms for the island's 11 million citizens. Cuba rejected any preconditions, with former President Fidel Castro saying this week Cuba had no interest in rejoining the OAS. Although the OAS lifted Cuba's suspension, Latin leaders did not automatically welcome the nation back. Instead, the OAS set up a mechanism by which Cuba could rejoin. Much of that dialogue will center on human rights. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was \"pleased\" with the outcome, which came on a voice vote with no opposition. \"The member nations of the OAS showed flexibility and openness today, and as a result we reached a consensus that focuses on the future instead of the past: Cuba can come back into the OAS in the future if the OAS decides that its participation meets the purposes and principles of the organization, including democracy and human rights,\" Clinton said in a statement. She attended the two-day meeting but left before the vote to travel to Egypt, where President Obama was to make a major address to the Muslim world Thursday. Some analysts agreed with Clinton's assessment. \"The OAS emerged from a heated debate with a constructive compromise that revokes an obsolete Cold War resolution suspending Cuba,\" said Robert Pastor, who was a Latin America national security adviser for President Carter in the late 1970s. \"But rather than invite Cuba to join the OAS, which Cuba said it would not do, it invited Cuba to initiate a dialogue on the purposes and principles of the OAS.\" Others saw the vote as an outright rebuke for an outdated U.S. policy. \"I wouldn't say it was inevitable, but it was almost so,\" said Wayne Smith, who worked as a top level official at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba from 1958 to 1961 during the Cuban Revolution that brought Castro to power. \"The U.S. was totally isolated on this,\" said Smith, who also was the chief of mission at the U.S. interests section in Havana from 1979-82. \"The United States had some legitimate points on readmitting Cuba,\" Smith said, but went about it wrong. Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs policy institute, saw the vote as a personal defeat for Clinton. \"This will be presented in Latin America as a big defeat for Hillary Clinton because people are not ready to take a swat at Obama yet,\" Birns said. \"It was hers to win, but she managed to lose it.\" The United States is being \"hypercautious,\" he said, rather than taking imaginative and bold steps toward normalizing relations. Analysts said many people in Latin America expected more from the newly elected Obama, who ran on a mantra of \"change.\" Said Smith: \"The Obama policy has reflected so little change that the other countries are just fed up.\" And many Latins gauge the United States -- long considered with suspicion, if not outright hostility -- by its stance toward Cuba. \"The road to rehabilitating relations with Latin America is through Havana,\" Birns said. \"That's something that the Latin Americans are very responsive to.\" Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm, saw the vote as \"a largely symbolic gesture that will have little impact in the short term either on improving democracy and human rights on the island, or on increasing the likelihood that the U.S. will lift the embargo of the island.\" And the vote could have a backlash, she said. \"There will be a strong reaction among certain members of U.S. Congress who are passionately opposed to improving U.S.-Cuba relations while the Castros remain in power,\" Berkman said. That reaction was quick to come Wednesday. \"Today we witnessed an example of the Obama administration's absolute diplomatic incompetence and its unrestricted appeasement of the enemies of the United States,\" Cuban-American U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, said in a joint statement. \"The OAS is a putrid embarrassment.\" Other Cuban-American members of Congress also released statements criticizing the vote. The United States provides about 60 percent of OAS funding, Berkman said, and some members of Congress have threatened to withhold the money if Cuba is allowed back into the organization. Some old Latin America hands agree that the OAS may have hurt itself. \"I never cease to be amazed at how destructive some of these Latin American leaders can be,\" said Otto Reich, who served in high-level Latin American posts for Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. \"They chose to revive something out of the Cold War.\" The Latin leaders, Reich said, misread Washington. \"Some of these countries have further isolated themselves from the Obama administration,\" Reich said. \"It will be a long time before they regain the trust of the American government.\" Reich, a strong anti-communist, also opposed the vote on ideological grounds. \"The problem is that the conditions that suspended Cuba still exist,\" he said. \"Cuba hasn't changed.\"","highlights":"OAS revokes a 1962 decision suspending Cuba's membership .\nThe 35-member Organization of American States met this week in Honduras .\nU.S. had led push toward the 1962 suspension during Cold War's height .\nU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she's \"pleased\" with the outcome .","id":"7320818c863a5ec176fb95e0d1e072041a2c1529"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.N. special investigator called for the resignation of top Kenyan officials and sweeping changes in the country's security forces to end reported widespread killings by police across the African nation. The report urged President Mwai Kibaki to publicly acknowledge his commitment to ending the killings. \"The special rapporteur concluded that police in Kenya frequently execute individuals and that a climate of impunity prevails,\" Philip Alston said in a report a recently submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. \"Most troubling is the existence of police death squads operating on the orders of senior police officials and charged with eliminating suspected leaders and members of criminal organizations.\" The report calls for the resignation of Kenya's attorney general and the immediate replacement of the police commissioner. It also says Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki should publicly acknowledge his commitment to ending unlawful killings by the police. The Kenyan government expressed its \"deep displeasure\" with the report, questioning the special investigator's \"approach, conduct and method of work.\" \"The government expresses grave concern regarding the allegations contained in the report by the special rapporteur,\" said Alfred Mutua, a spokesman for the Kenyan government. \"His questioning of the very basis of the Kenyan state and, in particular, its institutions is totally unacceptable and impinges on Kenya's sovereignty.\" Alston also accused government security forces of torturing and killing hundreds of men in a March 2008 crackdown on a militia in the Mt. Elgon district, in western Kenya. And he said there was compelling evidence that what he called police death squads were operating in Nairobi and Central Province with a mandate to \"exterminate\" suspected Mungiki gang members. \"These are not \"rogue\" squads, but police who are acting on the explicit orders of their superiors,\" he said. The Mungiki militia, which is loyal to Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, began as a religious sect, but over the years has morphed into a gang that runs protection rackets -- particularly in the slums. The U.N. investigator suggested Kibaki acknowledge the alleged police killings and commit to stop them. He also advocated creating an independent civilian police oversight body, and said the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court should investigate violence after the 2007 election. He urged the government to create a witness protection program as well. Alston, who investigates human-rights problems around the world for the United Nations, traveled to Kenya at the government's invitation. He stayed for 10 days in mid-February while 100 interviews were conducted in the U.N. member nation. There is hope for Kenya despite his criticism, Alston said. \"While the existing situation is bad, it is far from intractable,\" the report says. \"If it so chooses, Kenya can significantly reduce the prevalence of unlawful killings.\"","highlights":"Report: Police death squads operate on the orders of senior officials .\nCalls for resignation of attorney general, replacement of police commissioner .\nPhilip Alston accuses security forces of killing hundreds of men in 2008 crackdown .\nKenya questions investigator's \"approach, conduct and method of work\"","id":"69cf0935e78e4c222092877e745c1e27139d80a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sir Edmund Hillary has been laid to rest in New Zealand after thousands paid tribute to a mountaineer whose conquest of Mt Everest in 1953 was one of the 20th century's defining moments. A last farewell to Sir Edmund Hillary. Guests filled Auckland's Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral and an overflow area next door for a service. Among the guests were politicians, mountaineers and friends. Lady Hillary sat with family and Prime Minister Helen Clark. In the congregation were members of Nepal's Sherpa community and Buddhist monks. In front of them, Hillary's coffin was draped in a New Zealand flag and covered in wreaths. See photos of the funeral service \u00bb . As the service began, Sherpas laid Tibetan prayer scarves on the coffin. In Nepal, schools were due to ring bells as the service started. Hillary's son, Peter, told the congregation: \"Adventure was compulsory growing up in the Hillary household. He took us to the most extraordinary places.\" His daughter, Sarah spoke of a childhood where Sir Edmund was planning expeditions, and coming home to a family eager to see him again. \"When asked at primary school what my father did, I was unable to find an answer.\" Clark said: \"He was a role model for a generation of New Zealanders... We mourn as a nation because we know we are saying goodbye to a friend.\" On Monday, New Zealanders filed past Hillary's casket as they paid final respects in Auckland's Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral. Four soldiers, rifles at rest, stood guard as ordinary New Zealanders said goodbye to a national hero, whose achievements are known around the world. Hillary's widow attended the tribute, which featured Maori song and dance. Clark, called it a celebration of a \"very great\" life. Hillary, who was 88, died at Auckland City Hospital on January 11. On May 29, 1953, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa guide, became the first men to climb the 29,035 feet to the top of Everest and safely return. Hillary, who served during World War II in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, began climbing while in high school and traveled to the central Himalayas to join a British party exploring the southern face of Everest in 1951. He returned in 1953, when he and Norgay made their ascent -- spending 15-30 minutes at the summit. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on his return to England, but continued exploring -- reaching the South Pole by tractor in 1958, joining the first group to climb Antarctica's Mount Herschel in 1967 and boating east Himalayan rivers and the Ganges. His Himalayan Trust has helped build schools, hospitals and airstrips in Nepal since 1961. He was also a strong supporter of environmental causes and worked to improve the lives of Nepal's Sherpas. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New Zealand says final goodbye to national hero Sir Edmund Hillary .\nIn the congregation is family, Nepalese Sherpas, politicians and friends .\nHillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to climb Mount Everest .","id":"46ac551cfbdb242bd7e5283bbe679559185f543b"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Bombs in Baghdad and Baquba killed four people, two police officers among them, and wounded seven others Sunday morning, an Interior Ministry official said. A wounded Iraqi woman cries at a Baquba hospital after being caught in a blast Sunday at a police building. One death came about 9 a.m. when a parked car bomb detonated near the Buratha Shiite mosque in northwestern Baghdad. The blast apparently targeted a convoy belonging to an endowment that manages Shiite mosques in the war-ravaged nation. Three people were wounded in the explosion. A roadside bomb attack an hour earlier struck a police patrol in western Baghdad's Mansour district, the Interior Ministry official said. Two police officers were killed and four others were wounded, he said. In another attack targeting authorities, a suicide car bomber slammed into the emergency police headquarters in central Baquba about 9:30 a.m., a Baquba police official said. Twelve people were hurt in the blast, including three police officers. The blast also damaged the police headquarters and three civilian automobiles, the police official said. The suicide bomber was the only person killed in the blast. The U.S. military told CNN it has no evidence of a reported attack by al Qaeda in Iraq militants on an Iraqi village near Baquba on Saturday. A Baquba police official said at least 10 people were killed when the AQI insurgents raided the village of Adwaila -- home to both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis -- who have opposed al Qaeda, making the village a target. \"CF [coalition forces] and IA [Iraqi army] searched the area by air and by ground for several hours and found no evidence of this attack,\" Task Force Iron spokeswoman Maj. Peggy Kageleiry told CNN in an e-mail sent on Sunday. \"An IA team that was called to investigate the alleged incident was attacked by small arms fire and not anywhere on the scale described in the original report from the media.\" The police official said al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents launched mortars into the village north of Baquba and then sent in dozens of fighters with small arms to storm the village. The police officials aid at least five homes were burned and destroyed. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"A parked car bomb explodes outside an organization that manages mosques .\nTwo police officers killed in roadside bomb attack in Baghdad's Mansour district .\nSuicide car bomber dies after slamming into Baquba police building, injuring 12 .","id":"cb58564cf4782a5736d4e411b206b801be6a48f9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Director of National Intelligence is replacing the agency's inspector general just days after the public release of a blistering report critical of the DNI's office. DNI head Dennis Blair announced Friday Justice Department official Roslyn Mazer will replace Inspector General Edward McGuire as the DNI's internal watchdog. The inspector general's role is to examine the operations of the office and investigate any allegations of waste, fraud or misconduct. Earlier this week, Maguire testified before Congress about his report on the state of the DNI's office, outlining rampant communication problems, continuing turf battles within the intelligence community and financial mismanagement. All of those problems were supposed to be addressed when the position of DNI was created by Congress in 2004 to look at the intelligence failures associated with the 9\/11 terrorism attacks and the claims of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. The classified inspector general report was completed in November 2008, but was not made public until this week. DNI spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Maguire's departure has nothing to do with his report. She claimed Blair, who assumed his position two months ago, wanted to bring his own leadership team. \"The director appreciates the efforts and work of the previous inspector general and will continue to build on some of the suggested reforms,\" Morigi said.","highlights":"Inspector General Edward McGuire is being replaced as DNI's internal watchdog .\nMaguire's departure comes after blistering report critical of DNI .\nReport details turf battles within intelligence community, financial mismanagement .","id":"39285c74cd2c1b9fbf3566236c43f9cdfc7d3cb7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stumped on a tough decision? New Web sites are there to help. Hunch, a site open to the public Monday, asks questions and helps people make decisions. Hunch, a site that launches for the public Monday, will consider your quandary by getting to know you, asking you a series of questions and then spitting out three decisions. Another site, Let Simon Decide, makes a similar attempt. Caterina Fake, co-founder of the photo-sharing community Flickr, says she created Hunch not because people need help with emotional decisions but because it's too tough to find smart information online. You often have to replicate someone else's research, which is a waste, she said. Tech bloggers seem to be pleased with the effort. \"For the most part, I was impressed, though it quickly became clear that Hunch isn't capable of magically making up your mind for you,\" wrote Jason Kincaid, a reporter at TechCrunch, a technology blog. He called the site \"very clean and unintimidating.\" Fake spoke with CNN about decision making, her nerdy past and the power of collective knowledge. The following is an edited transcript: . CNN: Where did you get the idea for Hunch? Fake: It's a user-generated content site similar to Flickr, but the unit is not a photograph but a decision. And so it's sort of a similar thing in that way. We kind of built the system so people can contribute to it. They can ask questions on there and suggest questions. And then you sort of codify it into a decision tree. CNN: So you're answering questions about yourself? Fake: Well, there are two components. So you answer questions about yourself, and there's a little module that says things like, \"Alien abductions: real or fake?\" And what [Hunch] does is, it then puts together a profile of you, a taste profile. And then you can go into the system and ask it any question that's in the system. So it's things like, \"What HD-TV should I buy?\" or \"Where should I go to college?\" or, you know, \"Where should I eat in San Diego on a Saturday night?\" It could be just about anything. Once it kind of gets to know you, you can ask it questions, and then it gives an answer to you that it doesn't give to anyone else. CNN: What are the downsides? Fake: It depends on what the decision is. There is kind of an array of decisions that are too taste-oriented. Like, no matter how well we know you, we're not going to know that your backyard is like 25 feet by 10 feet, versus 10 feet by 10 feet [for a person looking to buy a backyard grill]. You know what I'm saying? There's no system that can get to know that. So what we try to do is narrow it down. So we ask you questions about your aesthetics or your beliefs or your politics or your demographic. CNN: What kind of decision-maker are you? Fake: It's really funny, because I think there's a mistake that's generally made with people asking about Hunch, and it's that it's solving people's emotional problems. And it's not. It's solving people's informational problems. I don't have any problems making any decisions. I've never had any problem making decisions, but when I go to Google and I'm looking for information, say, about trademarks. I have to do all this research, and somebody has already done this research. CNN: So you see Hunch as a kind of search engine, almost? Fake: No, it's not a search engine. The feel of it is nothing like a search engine. It's something new. CNN: How do you think collective knowledge online will change the way people live, or the way we interact with each other? Fake: It's like it's an amazing period in the history of the Internet just in that way. ... We know more in the collective than we do in the individual. It becomes even more amazing when you extend that out to people outside your social network. Like, I don't know anyone that has taken a yoga class in Romania. But I'm sure that if I ended up in Romania, and I wanted to sign up for a yoga class that somebody in the world would know three places to recommend me. The information is out there in a sort of disorganized fashion. ... These systems that are kind of growing up now -- and Hunch hopefully is among them -- are able to take this sort of collective knowledge and make it easy for people to use and easy for people to access. CNN: Is there anything in your background that influences your belief in this collective knowledge idea? Fake: I was a nerdy little girl. I played Dungeons and Dragons, and I had a little TRS-80 computer. It was really early on, I think it was, gosh, like 1994 when I first saw the Web, right? So I went online, and I saw these people uploading pictures of, like, their cats. And I remember there was a video cam of ... the famous coffee pot at the IBM research center that uploaded every 5 minutes to show that the coffee pot was full or empty or whatever. And so the Internet struck me as this incredible thing where anybody -- like anybody -- could publish anything, and then anybody anywhere else in the world could read it. And I never got over that. There was kind of this wonder, this sense of wonder that I had about this incredible culture of generosity on the Web -- of all these people sharing stuff with each other. I've always been so amazed by that. I love that. Like, I love that aspect of the Internet. That's the thing that always seemed like it was magic to me. CNN: What are some cool Web sites that are flying under the radar right now? Fake: Have you heard of Etsy? CNN: Yeah, is that where people buy and sell art? Fake: Yeah, it's great. I think it's gonna be like the next eBay. And I met those guys when they were really small. I've been helping those guys since it was three kids in a dorm room. I love those guys. It's one of my favorite companies. It has that same kind of ethic [as Hunch]: the power of the individual. There are like these housewives in the Midwest who had no idea they could make a living making Christmas ornaments or whatever. It's just kind of an amazing thing that can only happen on the Internet.","highlights":"CNN talks with Caterina Fake, founder of a Web site that makes decisions .\nHunch.com asks you questions and then suggests answers .\nFake says Hunch works best for informational problems, not emotional dilemmas .\nFake's philosophy: \"We know more in the collective than we do in the individual\"","id":"81928d49a00e77bd4db21b378f85c2353af1a780"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Henry Joseph Madden was a good student and track team member in high school, but he had a secret: He sometimes wore his mother's pantyhose and underwear under his clothes. Dr. Jennifer Madden, a family physician, began her transition to being female at age 48. \"I really wanted to be a girl so bad, and that was one way for me to satisfy those feelings,\" Madden said. \"I always felt like someone was looking over my shoulder.\" The desire to be female never went away. At age 48, Madden confessed these feelings to a doctor, and started seeing a gender therapist who suggested Madden was transgendered. Through reconstructive surgeries, electrolysis, laser procedures and voice lessons, Henry Joseph became Jennifer Elizabeth, known as Jenny. She is a practicing family physician in Nashua, New Hampshire. Watch Jenny's story \u00bb . Chastity Bono, child of performer Cher and the late entertainer and politician Sonny Bono, announced Thursday the beginning of a transition from female to a male. While still relatively rare -- one advocate estimates that 0.25 to 0.5 percent of the American population is transgendered -- the idea of changing gender identity has become more widespread in recent years. The term \"LGBT\" (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) is more commonly recognized, and transgendered people have been portrayed in the 1999 film \"Boys Don't Cry\" as well as the 2002 book \"Middlesex\" by Jeffrey Eugenides. Many people who have transitioned, including Madden, say they knew they had been born into the wrong gender from childhood. As early as age 3, Dr. Julie Praus, born male, didn't understand why her father wanted to play catch. As a boy, Praus learned how to fish and hunt, but enjoyed collecting Depression-era glassware vases. Praus, 48, a psychiatrist in Brattleboro, Vermont, started living as a woman in March 2008. \"I get up every morning and say, 'Wow, I can actually look at myself in the mirror,' because I've never been able to do that in my life, because what would stare back at me was not me,\" Praus said. iReport.com: Share your story of gender change . Doctors speculate that there is a biological foundation to gender identity, but no one has determined what in the biological makeup determines that gender. The interactions between personality and culture also contribute to identity, said Chris Kraft, clinical director at the Johns Hopkins Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit. The process of changing genders . For people who want a gender change on a biological level, the first step is therapy, experts say. Dr. Gary Alter, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, said patients don't come to him until they've been in therapy, a process that can take as much as a year. A therapist then gives a physician approval to start the patient on hormone treatment. At that point, the patient may or may not start living as the chosen sex, Alter said. Females seeking to transition into males may elect to have their breasts removed via surgery. With testosterone, they will grow hair on their face and chest after about two years. Read one man's female-to-male advice to Chaz Bono . A higher percentage of males transitioning to females will go forward with genital surgery than females going to males, Alter said. Surgical methods for creating a penis -- which range from making one out of the clitoris to using the skin from the forearms -- are \"not perfect,\" and many patients are happy with just chest surgery, he said. Genital surgeries for creating female genitalia are better, he said. Alter's method is to make a clitoris out of the head of the penis, and make space for a vagina. Facing the rest of the world . It is rare for people to undergo a gender transition and then want to reverse it, especially when surgery is involved, experts say. Some say changing genders is one of the best things they've done, like Jamison Green, 60, author of \"Becoming a Visible Man,\" who went through chest reconstruction and genital surgery. \"I don't have too hard of a time telling people about it,\" Green said. \"I worried about that a lot in the beginning, before there was any kind of community and support about this condition, but one of the things I learned early on was that living in fear and shame is not very healthy.\" Green, who started his transition at age 40, is now happily married to a woman whom he did not know before his change. Praus is also married to a woman, who knew her before her transition. Madden has a boyfriend. \"For the longest time, I really felt like I had a mental illness, and I don't feel that way anymore,\" Madden said. But all three have experienced shock and dismay from others around them. Green said his mother took five years to adjust. One of Praus' sons doesn't speak to her. Madden's marriage to a woman ended in divorce during her transition, and her children have struggled. Yet these three transgendered individuals say they feel better in many ways in their chosen gender roles. \"My patients say I'm a better doctor,\" Praus said. \"Some of it is that I'm not exerting so much energy hiding myself.\" Psychologists recommend that people who change genders adopt a \"transgendered identity,\" and not keep their history of transition a secret. But some who \"pass\" as their new genders don't want to risk stigma, and tell only people closest to them, Kraft said. Often, males who transition to females face more problems than females who become males, Kraft said. Transgendered individuals who start as men tend to face more stigma, particularly if they are more noticeably transgendered. Transgendered individuals do face some legal quandaries. Some states require people to show proof of a medical procedure before changing gender on documents such as driver's licenses, while others require that the person has taken hormones, Kraft said. People may also elect to change their birth certificates to reflect chosen gender. Chastity Bono, who now goes by \"Chaz,\" has been a prominent gay-rights activist. \"You could speculate that that could make it more complicated -- when you're a public figure -- to take on something stigmatizing\" such as a gender transition, Kraft said.","highlights":"Estimate: 0.25 to 0.5 percent of the American population is transgendered .\nDoctors speculate that there is a biological foundation to gender identity .\nPeople rarely undergo gender-reassignment surgery and then want to reverse it .","id":"a6c9a501c538703604cb63e628df294ee303982b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rich Roll, one of Men's Fitness magazine's \"25 Fittest Guys in the World\" in 2009, was the first athlete to compete in the Ultraman World Championships on an entirely plant-based diet. He's sharing insights today as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's \"Four Months to Fitness\" effort. Before: At 40 years old, Rich Roll called himself \"fat, unhappy and fed up.\" (CNN) -- I can still remember it, vivid as yesterday. It was the eve of my 40th birthday, and I walked upstairs to take a shower. And I was winded. I mean very winded. As I was trying to catch my breath, I took off my shirt, looked in the mirror and tried to convince myself that I was still that fit guy I had always thought I was. Somehow, I had been able to skate by on this delusion for all too many years. But the denial had finally caught up to me. I saw my true reflection, and I couldn't lie to myself anymore. I was in the worst shape of my life. I was fat, unhappy and fed up. It's the typical story. First it's the career. Then comes marriage, followed by kids. Your time is no longer your own, and you resign yourself to \"maturity,\" \"filling out\" or whatever euphemism for middle age that soothes that idea that you are simply overweight, unfit and unhealthy. I'm here to say that it doesn't have to be that way. I don't care how busy you are. I don't care how old you are, how many kids you have or how little time you think you have. The power rests within yourself to enact any change in your life you desire. And I can say this because I have seen it happen in myself and countless others. After that fateful day of clarity, I made a decision to change my life. Not a vague, wishy-washy notion that I should \"get in shape,\" maybe \"eat better\" or possibly \"go on a diet,\" but rather a specific long-term plan to enhance my wellness in a way that would not only stick, but fit within the parameters of my busy life as a full-time lawyer, husband and father of four small children. In my case, it began with a well-researched and supervised seven-day fruit and vegetable juice cleanse (during which time I weaned myself off caffeine), followed by an entirely plant-based nutrition program -- an animal-product-free regimen I have adhered to ever since. The immediate result was a rather surprising and unexpected increase in my energy levels, leading to a very gradual return to exercise, building up slowly over an extended period of time. The results were hardly overnight. But two years later, I had lost well over 30 pounds. And not only did I keep the weight off, I was the most fit I had ever been in my life. At 42 years old, I competed in the Ultraman World Championships, a grueling three-day uber-endurance triathlon circumnavigating the Big Island of Hawaii that involves 6.2 miles of swimming, 260 miles of cycling and culminates with a 52.4-mile double marathon run. I placed 11th overall and was the third-fastest American. To top it off, Men's Fitness magazine recently named me one of the \"25 Fittest Guys in the World.\" (Not that I actually believe I deserve such an honor!) Quite an extreme contrast from that day I looked in the mirror. I'm not advocating that everyone should test himself or herself so severely. But my point is that change starts with a decision followed by baby steps along a new, consistent trajectory that, over time, can lead to dramatic results. I'm nothing special. I'm not a professional athlete. I'm just a normal family guy. But if I could experience such a vast transformation in my own life, I know with certainty that everybody has within himself the power to enact his own well-balanced transformation. Change is never easy. And despite what you may see advertised, I'm sorry to say there is no secret diet, mystery pill or overnight miracle that will do it for you. But there is a solution. Here are some helpful tools I employed along the way that can help you get started: . Set a goal: Vague, nonspecific notions of \"getting fit,\" \"going to the gym,\" or \"eating better\" are all fine, but they are not true \"goals\" and all too typically devolve, paving the way for relapse to old habits. Instead, establish something very concrete you would like to achieve on a future date. The more specific, the better. Then create a solid plan with reasonable interim \"steppingstone\" milestones along the way to achieving the larger goal. Chart your progress, as meeting interim milestones will boost your confidence and invest you more deeply in the ultimate goal. Create community and accountability: If you go public with your quest, then you are on the hook. A good support network is a key to success. But beware of the negative dream crushers. Be selective, surrounding yourself with people who encourage your success. Do what you love: When it comes to exercise, it shouldn't be too painful. Ideally, it should be fun. If you absolutely hate running, find something else you enjoy. Otherwise, you set yourself up to fail. And don't be too rigid -- mix it up with a variety of activities you like to keep it interesting and fresh. Don't diet: Instead, get honest about your habits and embark on implementing healthy, lasting changes in your nutrition. I feel quite strongly that a nutrition program built entirely around plant-based foods and completely devoid of animal products is optimal. Conventional wisdom would say that an athlete cannot perform on plants alone. But I am living proof that this is false, and I have ample research to support this position. Personally, I cannot overemphasize the difference this has made in my own life, a secret weapon for enhanced athletic performance and overall long-term wellness. (In the last two years, I have not gotten sick or even suffered a cold.) I realize, of course, that not everyone is ready to go 100 percent vegan, but a program built on a strong foundation of fresh organic vegetables, fruits and grains should be the focus. Don't skip meals, but reduce your portions slightly. Read the labels and educate yourself. Avoid saturated fats, processed foods and soft drinks, all of which are entirely devoid of nutritional value. Eating whole fresh foods high in nutritional content will also stave off those unhealthy urges to binge. One day at a time: Large goals can seem insurmountable. The idea that you can never eat a cupcake or sleep in again is daunting at best. Instead, just focus on what is happening today, even if it's hour to hour, and don't worry about tomorrow. \"Today, I'm not going to eat that cupcake. Maybe I'll eat it tomorrow, just not today.\" And if you miss a beat, don't flog yourself; it only leads to discouragement and quitting altogether. The important thing is to make sure you get right back on it the next day -- don't let another day go by. Prioritize: Take an honest look at your average week, identify your inefficient uses of time and eliminate the things that don't serve your goals. No matter how busy you are, if you are truly honest about this inquiry, I guarantee you can make some cuts and carve out some time. Remember: Nothing changes if nothing changes. Be consistent: It's not about how much you do in a given workout or how hard it is. Ten minutes of core exercises four to five times per week is far better than one long run a week. Establishing a consistent rhythm of repetition is key, and another reason that your choice of exercise should be something you truly enjoy. Let's join together to shift the world's perspective on long-term health and wellness. No matter how old, overweight or out of shape you are, you have the power to make a decision, set a goal and create a plan. Positive change is always within your grasp, and today still remains the first day of the rest of your life. Make it count! The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Rich Roll.","highlights":"Rich Roll: Approaching 40, \"I was in the worst shape of my life\"\nTwo years later, he was the most fit he'd ever been .\nThis year, Men's Fitness named Roll one of the \"25 Fittest Guys in the World\"\nTo become fit, set a specific goal, be consistent and take it one day at a time, he says .","id":"f42d05545d8b1840f495c14fd7a43fcb48ab389f"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Ah, that new car smell, that eau de car-logne; it does an ego good while it does a wallet bad. And now it turns out, it can do bad things to your health, too. Air freshners can contain aldehydes, esters and ketones, industry spokesman says. All these years, while we were being offered safety first, last and front, side and rear ways, hardly anyone in the vehicle industry had given much thought to what actually was in that perfume de profit, the new car smell that car buyers sought and bought. As everyone knew, pollution related to vehicles originated from the exhaust pipe, not the shifter knob. It was spewed out the back of the rear, not the back of the rear view mirror. Well, what everyone thought they knew was wrong. It turns out -- take a deep breath -- that most of that new car smell is not some carefully-compounded, luxury, feel-good incense to the Mammon gods. But the new car smell comes from toxic gases. Not only that, but like a two dollar cologne, the effects can linger and linger for years, stinking up not only your shiny new car, but the reputation of the entire vehicle industry itself. AOL Autos: Best new small cars . Who says so? Just about everyone in the vehicle business these days. But the initiator was The Ecology Center (EC), a membership-based, nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. AOL Autos: 10 most fuel-efficient new cars . In a 2006 industry-awakening report entitled \"Toxic At Any Speed: Chemicals in Cars and the Need for Safe Alternatives\", this independent green organization declared that much of the material in most car interiors that produce that new car smell is made with toxic chemicals known to pose major public health risks. The report went on to say that not only are vehicle drivers and passengers breathing toxic air, but are also in constant physical contact with dangerous chemicals leaching from just about every interior surface of a new vehicle. The report says these chemicals give off gases that not only contaminate the air, but also coat interior surfaces with toxic \"fog,\" generally seen as that new car film common to new car interior windshields and windows. These are the same type of chemicals that are, \"linked to birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, premature births and early puberty in laboratory animals amongst other serious health problems,\" according to EC. Fake is probably as bad as real. The companies that market those \"new car smell\" products that are sold at car washes and auto accessories stores generally will not reveal product contents. One fragrance industry spokesman indicated they can contain artificial leather odor, plus aldehydes, esters and ketones, which are all organic or chemical compounds. AOL Autos: Safest cars under $30,000 . Back to real. We are not speaking of plastic doodads here. There is an average of 250 pounds of plastic in new cars, the largest portion used for interior seat cushions, arm rests, door panels, steering wheels, dashboards, wire insulation and the plethora of aircraft-type knobs and switch controls throughout a car's cockpit. AOL Autos: 10 least expensive new cars . In addition to acettonitrile, decanol, formaldehyde, naphthalene and carbon disulfide used in foams, adhesives and fabrics, the two major problem chemicals in most new vehicles are (a) the PBDEs, which are used as fire retardants throughout the industry and (b) phthalates, which are widely employed to soften PVC plastics. AOL Autos: Best financing deals of the month . Extended research by the Ecology Center covered samples from model years 2000 to 2005 made by 11 manufacturers. Part of the research showed significantly higher levels of PBDEs in those vehicles as compared to those levels in homes and offices that had been measured in previous studies, making in-car pollution a major source of indoor air pollution and health danger. In the resultant table of contamination levels, Hyundai rated lowest and Mercedes highest in PBDEs. Volvo rated lowest and Hyundai highest in phthalates. Not only are these toxic elements dangerous in any situation, but the combination of higher temperatures caused by the surrounding glass of windshields and windows and UV exposure from the sun can cause PBDE flame retardants to become even more dangerous with solar exposure, up to five times higher than in homes and offices. Imagine the gas chamber you're creating by also smoking in the car, Jack. Report coauthor and EC's Clean Car Campaign Director Jeff Gearhart wrote, \"We can no longer rely just on seatbelt and airbags to keep us safe in cars. Our research shows that autos are chemical reactors, releasing toxins before we even turn on the ignition. There are safer alternatives to these chemicals ... \" The Ecology Center called for these actions: . Manufacturers: Should phase out PBDEs and phthalates in auto material parts. Government: Should provide phase-out guidelines and provide technical assistance and research to vehicle manufacturers for development of alternatives. At a most recent count, nine states have passed laws banning two forms of PBDEs with at least six more coming aboard. Vehicle occupants: Should minimize health risks by using solar reflectors, ventilating car interiors with open windows and non-recirculating air conditioning and parking out of direct sunlight whenever possible. In other words, get rid of that new car smell. Although the automotive industry took notice of the report, there was no instant fire drill to rectify the status quo. Reaction to the report was slow-growing, but due to things green busting out all over, just about every vehicle manufacturer began to initiate research and development to reduce or eliminate built-in passenger compartment pollution. Actually, research on toxic chemical reduction and elimination had been underway for some time in the electronic and electrical industries. As far back as 2003, the European Union had passed legislation requiring the phase-out of PBDEs. Companies like Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Panasonic and Sony have already eliminated PBDEs from their products. Addressing progress or lack of same in its recent Second Annual Report, the Ecology Center graded the country's eight leading car manufacturers on their plastics policies and practices. The report said that Ford and Honda had made the most significant improvements since the original findings and had joined Toyota as the three leaders in using \"safe\" plastics for indoor auto parts by (a) use of bio-based materials, (b) improving interior air quality and (c) reducing the use of PVC. Bio-based materials . Toyota led the group with a 'B' grade by developing an eco-plastic made from sugar cane or corn and building a pilot plant to produce it. DaimlerChrysler came in second through increased use of renewable materials, and Ford came in third for developing a soy-based foam and a bio-fabric for seating. Interior air quality . Ford headed this group with a B for having four vehicles certified to an independent allergy-free standard. Toyota got a C+ in this group for its goal to reduce in-cabin VOC (volatile organic compound) levels in all vehicles globally by 2010, but it's noted that Toyota didn't say to what levels they would be reduced. PVC reduction . Honda was tops with a B for removing PVC from most applications in its products. Also cited were Hyundai, Toyota and DaimlerChrysler for replacing PVC parts in some lines. But not all is mountain fresh air in vehicleland. While these studies show progress, vehicle manufacturers still have miles to go before the interiors of their offerings are safe from \"new car smell.\" When grading the manufacturers that account for 94% of total vehicles in sales in the US, it resulted in the highest overall grade of a C+ for Toyota and a C for Ford, while the lowest score in this group overall was a D- for Volkswagen. Much of Ford's good grading came from its Volvo component. Volvo, which had the Ecology Center's lowest emissions of phthalates and a lower incidence of the flame retardant PBDE than in most other cars, actually led the Ecology Center to encourage other car manufacturers to follow Volvo's example. \"Safety is more than crumple zones and air bags,\" said a Volvo spokesman. \"All of our interiors comply with Oeko-tex 100, probably the toughest cabin standard being used today.\" Oeko-tex 100 is an international environmental standard for textiles which demands that seat belts, carpets, thread and fabrics contain no harmful substances, that leather upholstery undergoes chromium-free tanning with natural plant substances and even smaller parts, such as handbrake buttons and steering wheel emblems, be tested as possible contact allergy sources. Finally, the greenies also found their share of doubting Thomases, or in this particular case, Hermanns or maybe Hanses. A group of German scientists decided to conduct their own tests of indoor vehicle pollution. They ran tests of volatile organic compounds originating from the interiors of vehicles and concluded that there was no evidence of toxic effects when they exposed human lab cell cultures to cabin pollutants. Although they declared their research showed no evidence of any health harm, the scientists didn't explain why so many people derive such pleasure from inhaling new car smell, which comes from alky benzenes, alkanes, formaldehyde and acetone. Or could it be that inhaling those fumes could lead the mind to such wondrous suggestions? Either way, now that you have the facts about that once-desirable, now-controversial new car smell, you can breathe easier. Well, maybe not.","highlights":"Ecology Center study shows \"new car smell\" comes from toxic gases .\nEffects of gases can linger for years .\nToyota, Honda and Ford lead in using \"safe\" plastics for indoor auto parts .\nGerman scientists run alternate tests -- say no evidence of toxic effects .","id":"2a6454e52077dfede0469e98deefee0f2ad8c264"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly two decades after the first Gulf war and six years after Saddam Hussein was removed from power, Iraq still is subject to 73 United Nations resolutions. A March 1991 photo shows burning oil wells in Kuwait damaged by Iraq military forces. Now Iraq's foreign minister says his country \"will not regain full sovereignty and independence without getting rid of these resolutions.\" Speaking to reporters in Washington, Hoshyar Zebari said Monday that Iraq has paid \"billions\" of dollars under Chapter 7 of the U.N. sanctions placed on Iraq as a result of the 1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait and subsequent war. The U.N. Security Council is reviewing the sanctions, and Zebari said he had \"intensive discussions\" in New York with members of the Security Council. He said \"I think the outcome is positive.\" \"We felt a great deal of good will that, really, time has come for Iraq to get rid of all these restrictions and to regain its international standing and position as a normal country.\" The Iraqi foreign minister said bringing Iraq out of Chapter 7 is an \"American commitment also\" since Iraq signed the status of forces agreement with the United States, which governs the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, based on its understanding that the U.S. would help Iraq to come out of Chapter 7. Foreign Minister Zebari said the sanctions impose a heavy burden on Iraq -- it continues to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues to Kuwait, down from the initial 30 percent. Iraq's security forces, he told reporters, have \"proven they are capable of defending themselves and the country.\" In the next six months, however, he said, the country faces some risks. \"What can be seen as problems could become crises unless this administration keeps its focus and support to push the situation forward; otherwise this overall strategy of responsible redeployment could be undermined.\" If that happens, Zebari said, it \"will impact what the U.S. is doing in the Middle East, in the Arab peace process, with Iran, even in Afghanistan because Iraq is such a crucial player in the region.\"","highlights":"Iraq's FM says his country won't be fully independent until U.N. sanctions end .\nIraq has paid \"billions of dollars\" under U.N.'s Chapter 7, foreign minister says .\n\"Intensive discussions\" held with Security Council members, minister says .","id":"1857dc6545e62b5cab23258f85c14f555b296afb"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI preached and greeted well-wishers Sunday, three days after breaking his wrist in a fall. The pope celebrates mass with his broken wrist in plaster. He held the text of his speech in his uninjured left hand, then circulated among the crowd who came to hear him in Romano Canavese, pictures from the northern Italian town showed. The 82-year-old pope had surgery on his right wrist after he fell Thursday night, spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told CNN on Friday. The pope is \"learning\" to live with his cast, Lombardi told Vatican Radio. The most painful aspect of the incident for Benedict is having to give up writing by hand, which he had intended to do frequently during his annual vacation Italy's Val d'Aosta region, Lombardi told the official Vatican station. \"I know that here, too, in the Ivera region, many families are facing economic hard times due to a lack of work,\" he said, referring to the now-defunct Olivetti typewriter manufacturer in the region. \"Dear friend, do not be discouraged,\" he added, according to Agence-France Presse. \"Providence always helps those who do the right thing and seek justice; it also helps those who think not only of themselves, but also think of those in worse situations than their own.\"","highlights":"Pope preaches and greeted well-wishers, three days after breaking his wrist .\nBenedict XVI had surgery on his right wrist after he fell Thursday night .\nMost painful aspect for pope is having to stop writing by hand, spokesman says .","id":"71cc922689b0611e7f4176197fb7bb7836ef323c"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Seventh graders at Ron Clark Academy became an overnight sensation during the presidential election when their YouTube performance of \"You Can Vote However You Like\" catapulted them to online stardom. \"The higher the expectations, the higher the results,\" says Ron Clark, seen here with his students. Now, their creative and scholastic talents have proved the students to be more than just \"one hit wonders.\" Academy students showcased their poetry and writings for CNN's documentary \"Black in America 2,\" hosted by Soledad O'Brien. Cultivating student creativity is just one of the goals of academy founder Ron Clark, an enigmatic educator known for his unconventional teaching methods. Under his strict tutelage, students at Ron Clark -- who are predominantly African-American -- are expected to excel in all subjects and maintain a high standard of respect for their peers and teachers. \"I'm teaching an eighth-grade curriculum to fifth-graders,\" says Clark. \"Some people say my expectations of the kids, academically, is too high, but the higher the expectations, the higher the results.\" But with high academic expectations come an equally high quotient for fun. It's become one of Clark's trademarks: singing and dancing to popular rap and R&B songs during class to get the kids engaged. \"My first day at Ron Clark Academy, I thought all the teachers were psychopaths,\" says seventh-grader Jai Springs. \"I thought Ron Clark was going crazy. He was up in front of the kids on desks, he was dancing. ... I never saw a teacher get up on a desk and dance. But now I'm used to it, so I get up on the desk and dance too,\" says Jai. Clark, formerly a schoolteacher from South Carolina, founded the academy with money he earned from his book titled The Essential 55, which detail Clark's 55 golden rules for success -- in and out of the classroom. Clark was invited to be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show after winning Disney Teacher of the Year Award in 2001. Oprah believed so much in the well-mannered Southern school teacher from South Carolina that she encouraged him to write the book. Later she promoted The Essential 55 on her show, prompting it's ascension to New York Times bestseller list. Together with co-founder Kim Bearden, Clark transformed a decaying factory in a rough part of Atlanta, Georgia, into a state-of-the-art educational model for middle schools across the country. Soon after the school opened its doors in 2008, a Christmas package from Winfrey arrived for Clark in the form of a $365,000 grant, or \"a thousand dollars for each day of the year,\" as Oprah referred to it in the letter. Then came the elections, with a tight presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona. Inspired by rapper T.I.'s hit song \"Whatever You Like,\" Clark's seventh grade class penned their own lyrics and dance moves. The students' performance carried a message: Cast your ballot because you support a candidate's policies rather than just his skin color. When they perform the song, half the seventh grade class touts the virtues of GOP's McCain while the other half root for Democrat Obama: \"Obama on the left. McCain on the right. We can talk politics all night. And you can vote however you like.\" The students \"can talk politics with the best of them,\" says Clark. Video clips of the kids performing have garnered over 15 million hits on YouTube. \"We got lots of media attention. But when the media arrived to the school they realized the song is not the story, it's the kids,\" says Clark. One of Clark's credos is teaching a \"global curriculum\" with a heavy emphasis on current events. Himself an avid world traveler, Clark believes it's essential for his students to travel to other countries to develop an understanding and appreciation of the world in which they live. Through Delta's corporate sponsorship of the school, administrators have been able to send all 100 of their fifth to eighth grade students abroad before they graduate. \"I'm not nearly as shy as I used to be,\" says seventh-grader Chi Chi Kasarachi after her first year at the academy. \"My knowledge of the world has improved, I know more about what's going on in other countries and I'm more curious about things. ... I'm just hungry for knowledge,\" says Chi Chi. In fact, the students at Ron Clark Academy are better versed in current events and politics than many adults. \"I never thought I'd be interested in watching the news,\" says seventh-grader Osei Avril. \"Now I find it interesting because I have learned the stories behind the news,\" he says. Osei -- who pronounces Iranian President Ahmadinajad's name perfectly -- says he's interested in learning about world issues such as the Iranian elections, the Taliban in Pakistan, and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. \"At the beginning,\" says Clark, \"the kids will say something like 'I've been to East Point [a suburb of South Atlanta]. After a few years they've been to Kenya, Japan, or South Africa, or England. ... They've become very comfortable with understanding the country and understanding themselves.\" But it's not just the travel or even the singing and dancing to rap music that make the school so special, say the students. It's the academy teachers' creative ways of instilling education, solid values, and a passion for learning. \"They want you to pass the people at the top,\" says Jai. \"To be at the top nonstop, be at your fullest, to be creative, to think out of the box.\" But school isn't all fun and games, she says. Clark is a strict disciplinarian that expects -- and enforces -- model behavior from all of the students. \"I love Mr. Clark with all my heart, he's like a father to me,\" says Chi Chi. \"He might fuss a lot, but I know he's doing it for our own good.\"","highlights":"Ron Clark Academy students' '08 YouTube rap performance got millions of hits .\nClark teaches \"global curriculum\" with heavy emphasis on current events .\n\"I'm teaching an eigthth-grade curriculum to fifth graders,\" says Clark .\nStudent: \"My knowledge of the world has improved. ... I'm hungry for knowledge\"","id":"58d4d46dc78e14bb7cfb323b352a5a97a116c068"} -{"article":"SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (CNN) -- Honduras' interim government on Sunday rejected a proposal to reinstate ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya, ending a round of negotiations aimed at resolving the country's political crisis. Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted from the Honduran presidency on June 28. The proposal had been presented by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who was mediating the talks between the two Honduran sides at his home over the weekend. \"I'm very sorry, but the proposal you presented [is] unacceptable by the government of Honduras that I represent,\" Carlos Lopez, who was representing interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti at the weekend negotiations, said of the proposal advanced by Arias. Representatives of Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup, said this marked the end of talks with Honduras' interim government. The weekend's talks were the second attempt by Arias to negotiate a resolution. He vowed Sunday to continue his mediation efforts. \"I want to take 72 hours to continue working, even more arduously this time, to see if we can really reach an agreement between the parties in this conflict,\" Arias said. Arias expressed concern that violence could ignite in Honduras if the sides stop talking, and that a civil war could result. Shortly after announcing the end of the negotiations, Lopez indicated in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that Micheletti's delegation would be open to further talks in the future. At a news conference later Sunday, the head of the Organization of American States said he had been enthusiastic about the proposal advanced by Arias. \"We regret deeply the attitude of Micheletti,\" said OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. \"I think [the proposal] was a good one.\" The proposal, presented by Arias to both sides on Saturday, would have returned Zelaya to the Honduran presidency. It would also have compelled Zelaya to abandon efforts to modify the country's presidential term limits. In remarks to reporters before starting Sunday's talks, representatives of Zelaya said he accepted the seven-point proposal. Micheletti has said he would not accept Zelaya's return as president, and remarks by Zelaya printed in a Brazilian newspaper contradicted Zelaya's acceptance of the proposal, Micheletti negotiator Arturo Corrales said. In Sunday's editions of the Folha newspaper, Zelaya was quoted in support of continuing with his push for a reform to term limits. \"We cannot betray the people and abandon the process,\" the paper quoted Zelaya as saying. \"Yesterday they said one thing, and today another,\" Micheletti negotiator Corrales said, adding that Zelaya's remarks broke the good faith behind the talks. The newspaper, however, noted that Zelaya was interviewed one day before he agreed to Arias' seven-point proposal. Zelaya was removed from office June 28 in a military-led coup that has drawn international condemnation. Congressional leader Micheletti was sworn in hours later as provisional president. Micheletti and his supporters, including the Honduran supreme court, congress and the military, argue that the action was not a coup, but a constitutional transfer of power. Other steps proposed by Arias included moving up elections scheduled for late November, establishing a national unity government, providing amnesty for all political crimes and setting up an international commission to oversee implementation of the accord. Under Arias' proposal, oversight of the Honduran military would have switched from the executive branch of government to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal one month before the elections. Delegations representing Zelaya and Micheletti also met at Arias' home in Costa Rica last week but did not reach an accord. Zelaya, a leftist who took office in 2006 on a narrow victory, had been at odds with Honduran lawmakers, the country's supreme court and the military over his attempts for a referendum. He sought the referendum, which he planned to hold last month, to see if voters wanted a measure on November's ballot to establish a constitutional assembly to study whether a president could run for re-election. Under the current charter, a president can serve only one four-year term. Congress had forbidden the referendum and the supreme court ruled it illegal. The military declined to participate in its usual role of safeguarding the vote, saying it could not take part in an illegal act. Zelaya vowed to hold the vote anyway, but was toppled before the voting started.","highlights":"Talks between Honduras' interim government, ousted president end without deal .\nInterim government's representative: Proposal to reinstate Zelaya \"unacceptable\"\nZelaya had OK'd proposal presented by Costa Rican president, who was mediating .\nZelaya was removed from office June 28 after he pushed for term-limit reform .","id":"aa4e23390a00e4d4117be13142256146eb918636"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- While many now recognize the scientific explanation for a solar eclipse, the phenomenon is still marked with tradition and sometimes suspicion in Hindu-majority India. People test the \"sky watching telescope\" at the Gujarat Council of Science City in India. The \"exceptionally long\" eclipse that will cross half the planet Wednesday will be able to be seen by virtually all of the population of China and India. For beggars in India, the occasion means an extra day of receiving alms and food. The panhandler in Sandeep Jaggi's neighborhood normally visits the block every week on Tuesdays and Saturdays, as well as the days of a new and full moon. And because his patrons mark an eclipse with alms-giving, prayers and bathing, he rarely misses the chance to meet them on this day as well. \"It's a family tradition and I follow it,\" says 34-year-old Jaggi. He will fill the beggar's small steel pail with mustard oil and coins and his disheveled sash with lentils. For others in the country, the eclipse is not a reason to celebrate, but a more ominous phenomenon. Send us your photos of the eclipse . Most pregnant women hope to avoid giving birth during an eclipse. \"None of the expectant mothers under my treatment are willing to have deliveries on Wednesday,\" Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynecologist at New Delhi's Fortis La Femme hospital, told CNN. In fact, there are critically ill patients who do not want to be in the hospital on the day of the eclipse, she said. Indian astrologers even advise expectant mothers to stay indoors when this celestial event occurs. \"It may not cause any physical harm to the baby, but it may affect the child's overall personality,\" said R.K. Sharma, who describes himself as a \"remedial astrologer.\" A solar eclipse, he says, weakens the sun god temporarily because of an encounter with dragon Rahu and leaves some cascading results everywhere. \"Bathing in holy rivers and ponds during this time thus helps protect health and develop positivism and greater will power,\" he explained. About 1.5 million people are expected at one such pond -- the Brahmsarovar, or the pool of Hindu god Brahma -- in northern India on Wednesday. \"They offer prayers to the sun god and take holy dips during an eclipse,\" said Ashok Kumar Bansal, the sub-divisional magistrate of Kurukshetra, an ancient Hindu city. But the century's longest total solar eclipse is not just about the dragon-sun combat, it also means business for some. Travel firms in India have plans in place to cash in on the phenomenon. Cox and Kings India has a planeload of eclipse watchers heading for the eastern state of Bihar, one of the most preferred locations for sighting the event. The plane will hover over Gaya in Bihar and return to New Delhi the same day, company spokesman Thomas C. Thottathil told CNN. Passengers were given two options: to book a \"sunside\" seat facing the eclipse for about $1,640, or reserve an \"earthside\" seat for about $610, Thottathil added. \"And it's a sold out flight now!\" he said.","highlights":"Solar eclipse marked with tradition and often suspicion in Hindu-majority India .\nMost pregnant women in India hope to avoid giving birth during eclipse .\nSome critically ill patients do not want to be in hospital on day of eclipse .\nAstrologer: Eclipse weakens sun god because of encounter with dragon Rahu .","id":"72e76697ff9088aacebfcaa412194c0461d8b05d"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A federal judge ordered 10 municipal police officers arrested Saturday in connection with the slayings of 12 off-duty federal agents in southwestern Mexico, the attorney general's office said. The recent spate of violence was sparked by the arrest of high-ranking drug cartel member Arnoldo Rueda Medina. The federal officers' bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state, where at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since July 11 due to drug-related violence. Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, or narcomessages, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: \"So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here.\" The officers arrested Saturday are on the police force in the city of Arteaga. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, responded to the violence by dispatching 1,000 federal police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling Michoacan, angered Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy Rangel. He called it an occupation and said he had not been consulted. Authorities said Wednesday they were searching for the governor's half-brother, who they say is a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. The cartel is blamed for most of the recent violence in the state. The governor's brother, Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, was elected July 5 to the lower house of Congress. The governor has publicly urged his brother to surrender. There were no reports of his apprehension as of late Saturday. The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest July 11 of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, described as a high-ranking member of La Familia. La Familia members attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda shortly after his arrest, authorities said. When that failed, cartel members attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities. Under Mexican law, the officers arrested Saturday will be held for 40 days while officials determine whether to formally charge them.","highlights":"Officers arrested Saturday are on the police force in the city of Arteaga .\nSlain agents were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state .\nGovernor calls infusion of federal agents in Michoacan an occupation .\nGovernor's half-brother, said to be key figure in drug cartel, still at large .","id":"bf709e239a1262f44f8f76df674f1186f68a89d8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Video showing Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, is just another example of how captors use the medium for psychological warfare. U.S. Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, who was held by insurgents in Iraq, prepares to enter a plane to safety. The latest video shows Bergdahl, of Ketchum, Idaho, looking comfortable and eating food. While he expresses concern about not seeing his family and girlfriend again, he does appear to speak calmly and has no visible signs of abuse. \"I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America, and I miss them every day that I'm gone,\" he says in a 28-minute video released by his captors. \"I miss them, and I'm afraid I might never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them I love them again. I'll never be able to hug them.\" But that is in stark contrast to the well-publicized captures of U.S. servicemen and women in conflicts past. Vietnam . Sen. John McCain, whose plane was shot down during a combat mission over Vietnam in 1967, is considered one of the most famous prisoners of war. He was captured by the Communist Viet Cong and spent nearly six years in a prisoner of war camp, where he was often tortured. A grainy black-and-white film released by his captors showed a severely injured McCain talking on camera in the so-called \"Hanoi Hilton.\" McCain later refused to be released before other prisoners. He eventually returned to the United States in 1973. \"During the years, we were kept in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell because they didn't want us to see each other. We'd spend all our time tapping on the walls to each other and encouraging each other and organizing, organizing, organizing with our chain of command. The days and hours go by,\" McCain told CNN's John King last year. Iraq . And most recently, in 2003, video from Iraq painted a picture of an unruly and chaotic terror organization holding U.S. soldiers captured in the Iraq military theater. Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson was shown on videotape being interrogated -- with five other soldiers including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was badly wounded and was held prisoner at a separate location. Nine of their fellow soldiers were killed when their convoy was ambushed. Johnson appeared frightened, with her eyes darting quickly left and right. \"I was terrified. I didn't know what was going to happen to me,\" Johnson said in a past CNN interview. \"And I was in a lot of pain.\" Lynch's videotaped rescue made her a celebrity, and she was used by the Pentagon to put a face on the men and women who were fighting the war against the regime of Saddam Hussein. Johnson and the other POWs spent 22 days as prisoners until Marines rescued them. Chris Voss, a former lead international kidnapping coordinator for the FBI, says that as a lesson from the Johnson video, the Taliban may have learned to try to appear more political than radical. \"They're hoping that ... this gets to other media outlets that will make them appear so that they are a reasonable political force,\" he says. \"There is very much a lack of overthreat in the [Bergdahl] video, and they clearly thought this through ... specifically strategic for these purposes.\" Somalia . Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Durant, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, was shot down in 1993 during a combat mission in Mogadishu, Somalia. The body of one of his fellow pilots being dragged through the streets was captured on video. After the crash, he was captured by a mob and held for 11 days. Durant suffered several serious injuries, including a broken back and face and leg wounds. He was later released. His bloodied and bruised face was splashed on the covers of several national magazines, including Time and Newsweek, and on TV networks. His story later inspired Mark Bowden's bestseller \"Black Hawk Down\" and a movie by director Ridley Scott. Voss says his image was depicted in a different way than others had been. \"The media picked that up and ran in a way that was very accusatory towards the United States,\" he says. \"There were pictures of Mike Durant in a clearly beaten-up condition, and the captions in the various national magazines were, 'What in the world are we doing?' \" Voss says that from that incident, the United States may have learned to apply the mostly mum stance it's using during the Bergdahl capture. \"The U.S. government gave a knee-jerk reaction to that, which I think they've learned from,\" he says. \"So how this plays out in the media, the Taliban is being very cautious to appear to be reasonable ... because they don't want to make themselves look like they're fanatical. They are trying to be very reasonable.\"","highlights":"Army Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl was captured nearly three weeks ago in Afghanistan .\nSen. John McCain is considered one of the most famous prisoners of war .\nVideo of captured soldiers in Iraq painted a picture of rogue captors .","id":"0833be29aff91c30336e1048d59d471d24bc4804"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Alicia A.S. Duque knew she had some pounds to lose, but she had no idea how much being overweight affected her until the television cameras started rolling. Alicia Duque performs with her partner on Oxygen's new hit \"Dance Your Ass Off.\" \"Going into it, I knew it was a TV show, I knew it was a weight-loss show and I knew it was a dance show, but I didn't think I was going to learn so much about myself through the process,\" said the 23-year-old Duque, a contestant on the new show \"Dance Your Ass Off.\" \"I didn't know how many issues and problems I had with my weight until I faced it on the show.\" Duque's struggle with weight loss is one of many on television that is resonating with those tuning into programming aimed at and featuring the plus-sized. Style Network's \"Ruby,\" NBC's \"The Biggest Loser,\" Lifetime's \"Drop Dead Diva\" and Fox's forthcoming dating show \"More to Love\" all center on the overweight and are tapping into an audience that can relate to the desire to shed a few pounds. Obesity has risen dramatically in the United States during the past 20 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this year television has seen an increase in shows featuring participants and stars who look more like the viewing public. Oxygen Channel's \"Dance Your Ass Off\" combines elements of ABC's \"Dancing With The Stars\" and NBC's \"The Biggest Loser.\" Contestants learn dance routines for which they are judged before weighing in to determine how much they have lost. Amy Introcaso-Davis, senior vice president of original programming and development at Oxygen, said dance and diet are two areas of interest for younger viewers of the channel, so combining the two made sense. The 12 contestants, from the smallest to the largest, have struck a chord with viewers, she said. \"People find the contestants so relatable,\" she said. \"We cast very purposely across the board in terms of how many pounds people needed to lose -- we had anywhere from people who needed to lose 40 [pounds] to over 150.\" The premier of \"Dance\" rated highly for Oxygen, with more than 1 million viewers tuning in. Oxygen also found success earlier with \"Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance,\" a plus-size pageant where women of substance strutted their stuff to be crowned \"Miss Fabulous And Thick.\" For a nation grappling with obesity, Introcaso-Davis said, there is a hunger for such shows. \"If you have five pounds to lose or you have 150 pounds to lose, it's something you think about all day long,\" she said. \"You take a bite of cheesecake and you think 'Should I be doing this?' \" Esther Rothblum, a professor of women's studies at San Diego State University and co-editor of the forthcoming anthology \"The Fat Studies Reader,\" said she wonders if part of the appeal of plus-sized shows stems from the overweight being held up for public ridicule. The subject of her book is an emerging field that has been defined as \"confronting and critiquing cultural constraints\" against notions of \"fatness\" and \"the fat body.\" \"Most people feel too fat in this country and are made to feel very unhappy with their bodies,\" she said. \"So by portraying somebody who weighs so much more than they do, it's almost a way to make the audience feel like 'I could look worse' or 'At least I'm not them.' \" Ruby Gettinger said she supports any show that does not mock the overweight. Her hit show \"Ruby\" started out as a documentary and has transformed Gettinger into a reality star who has lost more than 100 pounds and appeared on \"Oprah.\" \"We are really all on this journey together, and I tell [viewers] that all of the time,\" said Gettinger, who at her heaviest weighed 716 pounds. \"There are a lot of shows out there and I think people are trying to find a way to beat it and lose weight.\" Gettinger, who is traveling around the country walking in various cities to inspire fans to become more active, said shows featuring the obese can really touch the audience if they are authentic. \"[My show] is the truth, not to say that the others aren't,\" she said. \"When I started out on this journey and met with Style [Network, which airs the show] I said 'I have to keep my truth because this is about my journey and addiction and I want to deal with that because too many people are struggling.' \" Her show portrays her grappling with everything from temptation to embarrassment at having to visit the gynecologist, but Gettinger said it's all worth it if it inspires others. Actress Marissa Jaret Winokur, who starred in the Broadway musical \"Hairspray,\" said she agreed to host \"Dance Your Ass Off\" because she saw the potential for inspiration in viewers witnessing overweight people being active and feeling confident and sexy -- even in skimpy dance outfits. Reality television has become so popular because viewers are attracted to watching real people, and there is a craving for viewers to see folks like themselves, she said. \"It became that so many people on reality shows were only beautiful skinny people, and I think a lot of people got sick of that,\" said Winokur, who has been blogging about her own struggles with weight for People magazine. \"Really, who's home watching TV is the everyday person who is not a TV model. I think there is much more interest in watching people like yourself.\"","highlights":"Shows about and featuring the overweight are flourishing .\n\"Dance Your Ass Off\" drew more than a million viewers for its premier .\nStar of show says programs resonate because of truth .\nProfessor wonders if shows inspire ridicule of the overweight .","id":"fd0f55d5c1e436465b8e46007140b1db11eb0cb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A North Carolina man is accused of arranging to have his wife raped through personal ads on the Web site Craigslist, police said Wednesday. The 25-year-old man, of Kannapolis, North Carolina, was arrested in connection with the incident that occurred at his home early Sunday, police said in a statement. Police responded to the home at about 2:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call indicating a male armed with a knife appeared in the couple's bedroom and sexually assaulted the man's wife, authorities said. The man was present at the time of the assault, and two young children were in the home, but were unharmed and unaware of the incident, the police statement said. \"During the investigation, investigators interviewed the victim and her husband,\" the statement said. \"Investigators became suspicious when they noticed there was no sign of forced entry to the home. Investigators also developed information that led them to note specific inconsistencies in the initial statement provided by [the man].\" But on Tuesday, police found that the man \"had responded to at least two personal ads on Craigslist.com in an effort to arrange for someone to come to his home and have sex with his wife using some type of scare tactic.\" \"Investigators believe [he] arranged this incident without the knowledge or consent of the victim,\" the police statement said. The woman was taken to a hospital after the assault, where she underwent a forensic examination and was interviewed, police said. She suffered no serious physical injuries and was released shortly afterward. Police did not release the identity of the victim. CNN is not naming the victim's husband in an effort to avoid identifying her. The incident remains under investigation, police said. The man faces charges including first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual offense and one count of attempted first-degree sexual offense, according to the police statement. Kannapolis is about 26 miles northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina.","highlights":"Police: Man arranged wife's rape through ads on Craigslist.com .\nMale appeared in bedroom and sexually assaulted man's wife Sunday, police say .\nAttacker was armed; husband was in bedroom at the time, police say .\nHusband charged with rape, sexual offense .","id":"53624c6339239b35a7581c14e0d129764541e04e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two federal agencies warned consumers Friday not to eat raw Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough. Consumers are advised to throw out all prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products. The company said it is recalling an estimated 300,000 cases of the dough as a precaution after reports of food-borne illness in 28 states. There are concerns that the premade dough may be contaminated with the bacterium E. coli 0157:H7, which causes abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Young children and the elderly can suffer more serious symptoms. Nestle issued a statement saying, \"While the E. coli strain implicated in this investigation has not been detected in our product, the health and safety of our consumers is paramount, so we are initiating this voluntary recall.\" According to Nestle spokeswoman Laurie MacDonald, raw dough was one of the things the sick people reported eating. \"The health and safety of our consumers is our No. 1 priority,\" she said. \"We felt the best thing to do is a voluntary recall.\" She said the company was informed by the FDA Wednesday night \"and immediately took action.\" \"We really want to remind consumers that raw cookie dough should not be eaten,\" she said. Since March, the CDC says, 66 people have become sick in 28 states after eating raw cookie dough. Twenty-five people were hospitalized. No one has died. The FDA and the CDC say people who have become sick after eating refrigerated Toll House cookie dough should contact their doctors. They advise consumers to throw out all prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products. Retailers and restaurateurs should not sell or serve any Toll House cookie dough products, the agencies said. The company said the market share for Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough for the most recent 52-week period was 41 percent. The recall does not include already-baked Toll House cookies, varieties of Toll House morsels, chocolate baking bars or cocoa or Dreyer's and Edy's ice cream products with Nestle Toll House cookie dough ingredients.","highlights":"300,000 cases of Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough being recalled .\n66 cases of food-borne illness reported in 28 states; dough is one common link .\nDough may be contaminated with E. coli, which causes gastric symptoms .\nNestle: E. coli not detected in product; recall is safety precaution .","id":"6e3ec517ec468e94291f1e763a0562605063b674"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Neil Armstrong took one small step onto the moon in 1969, it seemed only a matter of time before the advent of thriving space colonies and summer vacations on distant planets. But after an initial flurry of moon landings, manned lunar expeditions dwindled: the last time an astronaut left his footprints on the moon was in 1972. Plants such as lettuce, peppers and tomatoes will be on the menu at Moon Base One. Then, in January 2004, President Bush announced NASA's intention to return humans to the moon by 2020, and in 2006, NASA announced plans to set up a manned lunar outpost by 2024, with the European and Russian Space Agencies now planning bases of their own. After years in limbo, the dream of living in space is alive once more. Sustaining long-term space habitation presents space agencies with a whole new set of technological and logistical challenges. Currently, the International Space Station supports three astronauts in a low Earth orbit, with food supplied periodically by space shuttle. But, just as home cooking is cheaper than getting takeout, when it comes to more permanent settlements, this kind of supply voyages would be prohibitively expensive: we will need to grow our own food in space. Raymond Wheeler, a plant physiologist at Kennedy Space Center, explained to CNN, \"In the near term it's not needed, for example on the space station and initial short sorties to the moon, but as you go further and stay longer, regenerative systems become much more cost effective.\" Wheeler sees this development of space farming as a gradual process in which space outposts become increasingly self-sufficient. \"It would probably be evolutionary,\" he said. \"The first human missions to Mars might set out with everything stowed, but they might set up the beginnings of an in-situ production system -- maybe a plant chamber -- that you could use to grow perishable foods. You wouldn't be providing everything, but in subsequent missions if you returned there you could expand the infrastructure.\" Of course, this means growing plants in conditions very different from those on Earth. Yet research has shown that plants are surprisingly adaptable. For example, while plants normally use gravity to direct the growth of their stems and roots, in low gravity conditions they can use light to orient themselves. And research suggests that plants can grow well even at very low atmospheric pressures. That reduces the leakage of oxygen and carbon dioxide from their growth chamber out into space, but crucially, it also reduces the structural requirements of a \"space greenhouse,\" meaning less construction material needs to be shipped into orbit. Nor is the absence of soil a problem. Many supermarket vegetables are already grown hydroponically in nutrient-enriched water, and research indicates this technique could work well in space. Some have even suggested the loose rock regolith on the surface of the moon or Mars as a growing medium, although additional minerals would need to be brought from Earth. So what's on the menu at Moon Base One? Well, initial crops would need to be small in stature and grow well in controlled environments with artificial light. Plants such as peppers and tomatoes are already extensively grown hydroponically, while lettuce, with its short lifecycle, would yield fast returns for pioneering space colonists. But again, Wheeler sees the choice of crops as part of an evolutionary process. He tells CNN, \"The first things you might grow would be perishable foods -- maybe vegetables or fruits -- things that don't keep very well if you're on a journey to Mars. Even though you're not providing a lot of calories, these things could have a strong impact in terms of adding color, flavor and texture to the diet.\" \"The other reason for considering freshly consumed foods on early missions is that they don't require any processing,\" he continued. \"If you were to grow grains, like wheat, you'd have to thresh the seed out of the head, then clean it and mill it to make flour. Staple crops like wheat, soy bean, rice and potato -- things that would provide carbohydrates, protein and fat -- they're the final end point.\" Crops need a sheltered environment, protected from the extreme temperatures and frightening levels of radiation found on the moon's surface, with water, carbon dioxide and light. Researchers at the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC), in collaboration with Sadler Machine Company (SMC), have come up with one solution: to house plants and astronauts in an inflatable habitat. They are working on a full-scale prototype Mars Inflatable Greenhouse. Space-worthy inflatable structures have been around since the 1960s and are lightweight, compact in transit and easy to assemble on landing. But what's novel about the CEAC design is that it incorporates a bio-regenerative life-support system -- the kind of technology that could one day not only feed an outpost on the moon or Mars, but also provide it with oxygen and recycle its water. Gene Giacomelli, Director of CEAC, told CNN, \"If people get to Mars we want to be able to feed them, but maybe even more importantly revitalize the atmosphere -- allow the plants to consume the carbon dioxide as they do so well here on Earth, and provide oxygen.\" In the prototype designed by Phil Sadler (SMC) and evaluated by Giacomelli and graduate student Lane Patterson, plants are grown hydroponically. As water evaporates from their leaves, air moisture is condensed and re-used for irrigation. The inedible bits of plants, the stems and leaves, are fed into a composter that breaks down the biomass, releasing carbon dioxide that can be re-used by growing plants. In a working moon base, waste water from the astronauts' showers and laundry could also go into the composter, where it would be cleaned by microbes and then used in the plants' hydroponic system, before being condensed and re-used by the astronauts once again. The CEAC team intends to test the finished prototype in Antarctica, a harsh and remote environment that provides a realistic analog of conditions on the moon. The team has already provided a food growth chamber for the Amundsen-Scott South-Pole Station and the time Sadler and Patterson have spent there has provided a unique insight into some of the other benefits that bio-regenerative life support might provide for inhabitants of a space base. \"It's not just oxygen, fresh water and food that it provides, but it's also the green, living plants that psychologically become so important to people living and working in a confined, harsh, black and white space at the South Pole or in a moon or Mars base,\" says Giacomelli. Patterson adds, \"Bright lights, high humidity, green plants and the fragrance as well -- these are things that are missing in that environment. Those things shouldn't be underestimated.\" The CEAC project offers a tantalizing glimpse of the kind of habitat that may house settlers in the space colonies of the future. And perhaps one day, as you relax in your inflatable villa by the Sea of Tranquility, plants will provide much more than just your dinner. ................................................................................................................... Do you think farming on the moon will be a reality by 2024? Should man be developing stations on the moon? Send us your thoughts by using the \"Sound Off\" below.","highlights":"NASA plans lunar outpost by 2024 .\nLong-term space habitation will require space farming .\nCEAC and SMC working on prototype Mars Inflatable Greenhouse .\nGreenhouse could provide food, oxygen and recycle water .","id":"351e9013df9d2d72734c808a473213844ad1f125"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No drawn butter will ever touch Fiona's tail. She's an extremely rare, seven-year-old \"yellow\" lobster. Fiona's colorful hue makes her a one-in-30 million rarity. Fiona belongs to Nathan Nickerson, the owner of Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, Massachusetts, who has been in the restaurant business for 32 years. The special lobster was caught off the coast of eastern Canada last week by a friend of Nickerson. \"In 57 years in Cape Cod, I have never seen a yellow lobster and I doubt that I will ever see one again,\" he said Thursday. Experts say Fiona's colorful appearance makes her one in 30 million. Fiona's not really yellow, but more of a bright orange, She's not quite the red color your typical lobster looks after it's been cooked. Nickerson has plans for his new ocean-dwelling friend, but it has nothing to do with the boiling pot. He said he'll keep the 1.75-pound crustacean in a viewing tank at his restaurant, hoping to draw in a few extra customers. CNN's Samuel Gardner contributed to this story.","highlights":"Rare \"yellow\" lobster making waves at Massachusetts restaurant .\nFiona was caught off coast of eastern Canada, given to restaurant owner .\nHer colorful appearance makes her 1 in 30 million rarity .\nOwner has no cooking plans for Fiona .","id":"8e5ecf486ba013cf72459b38df79f189ba4033c3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- We all know what happens when urban sprawl gets out of control: Commutes back up, smog thickens, and concrete suburbs gobble up green spaces. The oceans are growing crowded, and governments are increasingly trying to plan their use. But what about \"ocean sprawl\"? Until recently, no one gave that idea much thought. But the oceans, like the land, have gotten crowded, and now scientists and policy makers are looking for ways to plan ocean development -- with the aim of preventing our public-owned seas from turning into sprawling, watery versions of Houston, Texas, or Atlanta, Georgia. \"The oceans are kind of the last frontier for use and development,\" said Amanda Leland, ocean policy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group. \"Even in the 1970s we thought that the oceans were limitless resources of fish. We know today now that fisheries are collapsing all around the world.\" In an attempt to address this and other crowding problems, governments are for the first time devising comprehensive plans for their marine waters. The Obama administration on June 12 announced a task force devoted to federal ocean planning. By September, the group must recommend a national policy on the subject that's designed to protect ocean ecology, address climate change and promote sustainable ocean economies. A handful of states, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island, are charting similar courses. Massachusetts on June 30 published a draft plan for its coastal waters, which is scheduled to be finalized by the end of the year. One of the state's main aims is to make space for two ocean wind farms -- taking up 2 percent of the state's waters -- without angering fishing industries, killing whales or harming ecosystems. Internationally, several European countries, including Denmark, Belgium, the United Kingdom and France, are pioneering the new field, said Fanny Douvere, a co-principal investigator at UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Ocean advocates say these planning processes are urgently needed and have been a long time in coming. One reason it's taken so long is that people can't see that the oceans are filling up, said Sandra Whitehouse, a marine biologist and senior adviser at the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group. \"The majority of the ecosystem is under the water,\" Whitehouse said. \"So it's out of sight, out of mind. We're only looking at the surface.\" Beneath the water, though, overfishing has caused some fish stocks to collapse. By one report, wild fish could disappear by mid-century. The energy sector threatens to take up large chunks of water. Shipping lanes cross the paths of endangered whales. Fish farms are growing in some countries. Climate change is altering ocean chemistry. And power lines, reefs, lobster traps and sunken ships compete for seafloor space. In Europe's North Sea, expanding industries have tried to claim three times the amount of ocean space than is available, said Douvere, of UNESCO. What happens on land also affects the oceans. A 2003 report by the Pew Oceans Commission says that each year, coastal development destroys 20,000 acres of estuaries and near-coast fish habitat. Furthermore, pavement on land creates \"expressways\" for oil and other pollutants to run into the ocean. \"Every eight months, nearly 11 million gallons of oil run off our streets and driveways into our waters -- the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill,\" the report says. When the renewable energy sector started trying to move into the sea, the situation went from crowded to unmanageable and without a clear plan, said Whitehouse, of the Ocean Conservancy. \"There's a lot of pressure to be able to harness this energy,\" she said, \"but it's very important that this be done in a proactive and comprehensive way, because we also have so many important economic aspects of our oceans.\" Since there are new uses but not new space, planning is necessary, said Charles Ehler, another co-principal investigator at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. He added, \"There's not enough space for everything, and there are going to have to be trade-offs that are made.\" Current efforts focus on broad public interest rather than specific conflicts, Ehler said. Until now, the ocean primarily was divvied up in a sort of \"free-for-all\" in which \"whoever gets there first gets the access,\" he said. Leland, of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the patchwork of federal agencies managing the oceans in the United States contributes to the problem. More than 140 federal laws govern the ocean's use; and six federal departments, along with dozens of agencies, are in charge of implementing those laws, according to the Pew Oceans Commission report. Charles M. Wahle, a marine ecologist and senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Obama's ocean-planning efforts are a complete shift in thinking. \"We're acknowledging that we want and need to use the ocean in a lot of different ways,\" he said. \"They all have standing, and we need to figure out a way to allocate them fairly and sustainably.\" He added, \"Fifty years from now, you should be able to go to a place [in the ocean] and know what will be happening there.\" There are skeptics of the shift. Commercial fisheries are hampered by current regulations and could be further harmed if the ocean is divided up among too many groups, said Jim Ruhle, president of Commercial Fishermen of America, an industry group. \"We make our livelihoods from that ocean, and we want to make sure that we have reasonable plans in effect to allow that to take place,\" he said. Some other fishing groups oppose new ocean uses, like offshore wind energy, entirely. Despite this new emphasis on planning, there's still a chance that ocean waters could go the way of haphazard cities. \"The proof will be in the pudding,\" said Wahle, of NOAA. But he said it's exciting that so many groups are on board for a new way of thinking. \"If we do our jobs right, overall, the oceans will be healthier, ecosystems will be more productive, people will derive more services and benefits and value from those ecosystems,\" he said, \"and industry will be able to plan and commit and invest in ways that actually work.\"","highlights":"The oceans are growing crowded, and some scientists worry about \"ocean sprawl\"\nFor the first time, governments plan ocean use in a comprehensive way .\nAdvocate says oceans are the \"last frontier for use and development\"\nPresident Obama creates task force to map out the future of the oceans .","id":"c200567020c1f00ac9b79901146119a2aa9a8789"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- With rates as low as $36, these flashy new European hotels take the convenience of the pod concept and expand it with style. Qbic hotels have a clever lighting concept -- Deep Purple Love, anyone? You can pick the color you like, or turn them off altogether. YOTEL . Where: Inside terminals at London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports (in Terminal 4), and Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The concept: Catering to those with a long layover, these glossy, no-nonsense capsule hotels are small but convenient for business travelers -- or someone just looking for a nap and a shower. What you get: A windowless room (about 75 square feet) that looks like a cruise ship cabin -- there's a shower, a TV, a fold-out work desk and an overhead storage rack; Wi-Fi is free. Bonus: a 24-hour room-service menu of snacks and drinks delivered within 15 minutes. What it'll cost: There's a four-hour minimum, which costs about $36 for a standard cabin in the London locations. After that, pay by the hour (about $10). Premium cabins are probably better for shares -- those start at $57 for four hours. yotel.com. QBIC . Where: Antwerp, Belgium; Maastricht and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The concept: A completely self-service hotel. You check yourself in at the kiosk and buy everything with your hotel key card. What you get: In the center of each room is a Cubi, a 75-square-foot enclosed platform for the bed, a bar-like work-and-dine space and the bathroom. The lighting is at your discretion -- Mellow Yellow, Deep Purple Love -- it's all pretty club-like. There's a vending machine in the lobby filled with drinks, locally made snacks such as organic bread and things you may have forgotten -- like neckties. What it'll cost: From $91. qbichotels.com. CITIZENM . Where: Near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and in central Amsterdam's posh Zuid neighborhood, which started taking guests this April. The concept: Keeping prices down by using prefabricated everything -- the 150-square-foot rooms are built in a factory, stacked up and then shot through with plumbing and electrical wiring. Budget Travel wrote about citizenM in a February 2009 story on boutique hostels. Budget Travel: See photos of the boutique hostels . What you get: Only single-bed rooms are offered, each with an ultramodern cylindrical shower. Use a control panel (called a moodpad) to manage the room temperature, blinds, alarm clock, stereo and lighting -- there are clever choices like \"I'm here to party,\" with intense colored lighting and dance music. There's also a 24-hour self-service cafeteria; if you're craving a martini, a bartender is on duty in the evenings. What it'll cost: From $109. citizenm.com. EXPANSION PLANS . All three of these mini chains have plans to expand -- some more than others. CitizenM will open a third hotel in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2009, and plans to expand into London and New York City in the next five years. Yotel will open in London and then at all major airport hubs in Europe and the U.S., but there are no fixed dates. Qbic hopes to pursue a franchise model -- if you (really) like what you see, apply to be a franchise-owner on the Web site. Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"Pay just $36 for four hours in one of Yotel's London locations .\nAt Qbic hotels, colorful lighting schemes give the rooms a club-like feel .\nCitizenM rooms feature an ultramodern cylindrical shower .","id":"7f862ba8a890af70bd2ecaf89551ad4c4b550469"} -{"article":"TYRE, Lebanon (CNN) -- Diab Diab lost an eye and part of a leg trying to clear unexploded bombs from the fields of southern Lebanon. But now he is going to lose his job, too. Despite the dangers of clearing mines, Diab Diab wants to continue his work. For though there are possibly thousands of unexploded bombs and shells littering the landscape, the money for cleanup operations has disappeared in the global recession. Diab knows the dangers all too well, but said he wants to continue working for British specialist clearance company BACTEC. \"It's hard to lose one's job -- despite the risks and the dangers you run, you get used to it,\" he said. Countries such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates all pledged to help Lebanon clear the landmines, cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance left by Israeli forces as they withdrew from their conflict with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. More than $43 million in international donations has been spent so far on clearing the region. Britain and the Netherlands have been the largest single donors, each giving more than $5 million. The United States gave $2 million soon after the conflict and Saudi Arabia's contributions are now at $1.5 million, a report by the United Nations Mine Action Service shows. But with the economic crisis sweeping around the globe, some of the donor cash has dried up, and BACTEC, which had been responsible for a quarter of the clearing work, has to shut down its operations in Lebanon. There are some areas that BACTEC operations manager Johan Hann can mark as \"cleared\" on a map in his office. Elsewhere, the map shows areas that have not been touched and a vast swath of land where no one knows what lies in the ground. Watch mom cry for her daughter, maimed by a bomb \u00bb . Cluster bombs leave huge craters but also spread bomblets over a wide area. Not all the bomblets will necessarily detonate on impact, and those that do not explode are left, like ticking time bombs in the ground. The United Nations Mine Action Service says Israel has provided no information as to where bombs were dropped. Nor has Israel contributed to the funding for the U.N.-led mine clearance effort. Land has to be cleared field by field, section by section and yard by yard. A piece of red and white tape fluttering across a piece of land shows how far Hann's team got before they had to stop. Mohammed Cheaito looks to the other side of the tape, to the land that he should be farming but that could be full of hidden danger. \"If they are going to stop now, it means we will stop planting and working, too; we can't get to our land anymore,\" he said. \"Of course, I am upset. They're supposed to finish their work so we can walk freely and cultivate our land in order to make a living.\" But the risks of straying onto uncleared land are all too obvious. At least 328 people have been killed or wounded by bombs left in the soil of the region that borders Israel. One of them is Naimah Ghazi, who stepped on a cluster bomb in her garden in 2007 and lost half a leg. She used to provide for her family by farming tobacco, but now she spends most of her day sitting in the very garden that hid the weapon that injured her. Her mother, Khadija, finds it almost unbearable to look at her. \"I cry so much I can barely see with my eyes. I cry when I look at the state my daughter is in,\" the 86-year-old wails. Phone calls asking for jobs are still coming in to BACTEC's offices, Hann said, even as the mine clearers pack up their tents and climb into their trucks for the last time. They leave behind thousands of acres of land around the villages that they haven't been able to check and an untold number of bombs, perhaps still waiting for a victim.","highlights":"Bomb disposal teams leave Lebanon as funding dries up in economic crisis .\nThousands of unexploded bombs litter landscape around Lebanese villages .\nHundreds have been killed, hurt by deadly remnants of 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict .","id":"897728b176c8f29a9b67548bda9934447d0b3be6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Queen of the Blues is dead. Koko Taylor performs in Spain in 2005. Her last performance was in May of this year. Koko Taylor, a West Tennessee sharecropper's daughter who went to Chicago, Illinois, with \"35 cents and a box of Ritz Crackers\" at 24 and wound up an award-winning blues legend, died Wednesday at her Chicago home at 80. She died of complications from a May 19 surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding, her Web site reported. Just days before the surgery, Taylor won her 29th Blues Music Award, picking up the trophy for Traditional Female Blues Artist Of the Year. She performed her signature song, \"Wang Dang Doodle,\" at the ceremony. Known for her powerful vocals, Taylor was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1997, won the Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Ward in 1999 and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 2004. She also won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1985 for her album \"Queen of the Blues.\" Taylor was born Cora Walton and picked up the nickname \"Koko\" because of her love of chocolate as a child. She also displayed a love of singing from an early age. She and her future husband, the late Robert \"Pops\" Taylor, traveled to Chicago in 1952, where Pops Taylor worked for a packing company while Koko Taylor cleaned houses. By night, the two roamed Chicago's blues clubs, where Koko Taylor sat in with top bands and was soon a popular guest artist. But it took 10 years for Koko Taylor to record on her own, after Willie Dixon got her signed to Chess Records and produced several singles, including \"Wang Dang Doodle.\" Taylor landed a permanent home with Alligator Records when Chess was sold in 1975. Her final performance was the May 7 blues award show, but earlier in the year she performed at the Kennedy Center Honors program honoring actor Morgan Freeman. Throughout her lengthy career, she shared the stage with nearly every blues performer imaginable, from Junior Wells and B.B. King to Taj Mahal and Muddy Waters. She was a strong influence to later performers, including Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin. Survivors include Taylor's husband, Hays Harris, daughter Joyce Threatt, son-in-law Lee Threatt, grandchildren Lee Jr. and Wendy, and three great-grandchildren.","highlights":"Taylor dies at Chicago home of complications from May 19 surgery .\nHer final performance was a May 7 blues award show .\nShe sang her signature song, \"Wang Dang Doodle,\" at the ceremony .\nTaylor won Grammy in 1985 for her album \"Queen of the Blues\"","id":"20c201bc61daa042c8291166251a1058141f1df6"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- One man was gored in the abdomen and another suffered facial injuries on the third day of the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, a hospital doctor told Spanish state television Wednesday. A fighting bull leaps over a fallen runner at the Mercaderes curve during the running of the bulls. A 22-year-old Californian, who was gored, was taken to a hospital and was \"stable and conscious,\" said the doctor, Ignacio Yurss, medical director of Hospital de Navarra. The patient's name was not released. The man who suffered facial injuries comes from Greece and was injured in the nose, Yurss added. The latest injuries bring to 20 the number of runners who have been hurt in the first three days of the running. Watch the running of the bulls in Pamplona \u00bb . Two of those were due to bull gorings -- the Californian gored Wednesday and a Spaniard gored Tuesday. The other 18 injuries resulted from falls or collisions, the regional government of Navarra reported. Ten of the injured are Spanish. The other 10 include three Americans and one each from England, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, South Africa, South Korea, and Romania, the Navarra government said. Many of the 20 have already been released from the hospital. The running of the bulls in Pamplona started 400 years ago and became popular worldwide after Ernest Hemingway wrote about it in the 1920s. The running is held for eight consecutive days, July 7 to 14, as six bulls and a pack of tame steers run from the corrals through Pamplona's old town to the bull ring, where the bulls will die later in the day in a bullfight. A total of 13 people have been killed in the runs since 1924, when record-keeping began. The last was a 22-year-old American gored to death in 1995. The runs begin off at 8 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) each day, with a few thousand runners participating daily, although crowds swell at the weekend.","highlights":"One man gored in the abdomen, another facially injured at Pamplona bull run .\nCalifornian and Greek hospitalized following event, now more than 400 years old .\nLatest injuries happened on the third of eight scheduled runs in the Spanish city .\nNEW: Twenty people injured so far this year; last fatality was an American in 1995 .","id":"725b1bb5314683c72abb27a390b3cadaf7f5b8ef"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former death row inmate in Tennessee has been cleared of murder, three years after the Supreme Court raised repeated questions about his conviction. After 22 years on death row, Paul House was released on bail and has now been cleared of murder charges. State prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to drop all charges against Paul House, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in 1986. Special Judge Jon Blackwood accepted the request. House had been scheduled to be retried next month for the 1985 murder of Carolyn Muncey. He had been on death row for 22 years but was released on bail last year. He has multiple sclerosis and must use a wheelchair. The high court ruled in June 2006 that House was entitled to a new hearing. \"Although the issue is closed, we conclude that this is the rare case where -- had the jury heard all the conflicting testimony -- it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror viewing the record as a whole would lack reasonable doubt,\" wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the 5-3 majority. House's appeal was championed by the Innocence Project, affiliated with the Cardozo School of Law in New York. \"In the three years since the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into this case and sent it back to the trial court, substantial additional DNA testing and further investigation have shown that he is innocent,\" said Peter Neufeld, the group's co-director. \"Each time a layer of this case was peeled away, it revealed more evidence of Paul House's innocence.\" Muncey disappeared from her rural Luttrell, Tennessee, home on July 13, 1985. Her body was found a day later, badly beaten and showing signs of a struggle. She had been raped. House, who was on parole at the time as a sex offender, was questioned by police. He denied any involvement in the crime. He was a friend of Muncey's husband, but claimed he was in his own house several miles away the evening of the murder. But prosecutors found a hole in his alibi, discovering that he had left his home the night of the murder and returned about an hour later with unexplained cuts and bruises. Forensic evidence found Muncey's blood on House's jeans, but questions were later raised whether the samples were contaminated en route to an FBI lab for analysis. Subsequent state-of-the art DNA testing conducted after the conviction showed that semen on the victim belonged to her husband, not House. Blood under her fingernails and cigarette butts discovered near the wooded crime scene also did not match the accused. But prosecutors maintain that other evidence points to his guilt. Muncey's family has also continued to believe that House was involved in the crime. In 2005, House told CNN he did not rape or kill Muncey, and he wondered why he was still on death row. \"I guess that's the million-dollar question,\" he said. While maintaining his innocence, he said that lying to police about his whereabouts that night was a big mistake. Kennedy, in his 2006 high court ruling, offered an extensive summary of the facts of the investigation, especially the DNA evidence, which he said might point to \"a different suspect.\" Kennedy said jurors might conclude that Muncey's blood found on House's pants may have inadvertently spilled there during the autopsy or through mishandling by police at the crime scene. District Attorney Paul Phillips wrote in his petition this week that he still believes House could have been convicted again in a new trial, \"but the new evidence (including the forensic examinations) raises a reasonable doubt that he acted alone and the possibility that others were involved in the crime.\" But Phillips noted the \"substantial sentence\" House has served as another reason for the charges being dropped now.","highlights":"New evidence prompts judge to drop murder charges against Paul House .\nHouse, of Tennessee, spent 22 years on death row for murder of Carolyn Muncey .\nHouse, who uses a wheelchair, was released on bail in 2007 .\nNew DNA testing helped raise doubts .","id":"fc96539941b7b6fb3d7a920f9cc5e1b08220b809"} -{"article":"If home is where the heart is, a new survey suggests that most people aren't sure exactly where they live. More than half of people cannot pinpoint the exact location of the human heart on a diagram, and nearly 70 percent can't correctly identify the shape of the lungs, according to the survey. This lack of knowledge isn't just embarrassing -- it could lead to a poorer quality of health care, some experts say. In the study, published in the journal BMC Family Practice, a research team surveyed 722 Britons -- 589 hospital outpatients and 133 people in the general population. They gave the volunteers four diagrams of human figures and asked them to choose the one that showed the correct size and location of a specific organ. (For example, the heart diagrams showed various size organs on the far left side of the chest, directly in the center, anchored on the center\/left chest, and on the right side of the chest.) Overall, people knew less basic anatomy than the researchers expected -- even those patients being treated for a specific condition involving that organ. Participants generally answered half the questions correctly, including 46.5 percent who knew which drawing represented their heart. In all, 31.4 percent correctly identified the lungs, 38.4 percent the stomach, 41.8 percent the thyroid, and 42.5 percent the kidneys. The intestines and bladder were the most easily identified, with 85.9 percent and 80.7 percent, respectively, answering the question correctly. Health.com: Are you cholesterol smart? Take this quiz . There was little to no improvement compared with a similar study conducted in 1970, says lead author John Weinman, Ph.D., of King's College London. In that study, subjects correctly identified eight major body parts about half of the time. (The researchers used the same body parts from the 1970 study and added three more: the pancreas, gallbladder, and ovaries.) Given the accessibility of the Internet and the prominence of health stories in the news media today, Weinman's team expected that people would now know more about their body. Weinman says he wouldn't be surprised if a study based in the United States produced similar results -- or worse. \"I imagine they would be similar, but there could well be regional variation, depending on which part of the U.S. the participants were from,\" he says. \"Actually, I asked one of my colleagues, who is from the U.S., and she felt that Americans might be worse because, to quote her, 'Very many Americans don't even know where New Jersey is, so how would they know where their pancreas is?'\" Health.com: Eat Smarter in your 30s, 40s, and 50s . That may sound harsh, but time and again, U.S. studies have shown that doctors overestimate how much their patients understand about their conditions and treatment. Adam Kelly, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas, conducted a 2007 study, that showed that doctors overestimate patient literacy and that a lack of patient knowledge leads to poorer care. Kelly believes the problem could be \"even more profound\" in the United States, although a similar study has not been conducted in America. Still, anatomy may not be the best measure of health literacy, says Sandeep Jauhar, M.D., the director of the heart failure program at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and the author of \"Intern: A Doctor's Initiation.\" Health.com: Computer games that boost your memory . \"They would like us to draw the conclusion that because the patients can't identify these organs anatomically that that is an indication of low health-care literacy -- and that may or may not be true,\" he says. \"I work with heart failure patients, and whether they can identify where their heart is is not so important to me as long as they know which medicines to take and when.\" Many patients with heart failure, unfortunately, don't know which medicines to take, can't identify their symptoms, and don't follow up with their doctors, Jauhar says. \"So health illiteracy is definitely a big problem,\" he adds. \"I just don't know that this is the best study to show that Americans or Europeans are illiterate when it comes to their health care.\" The study suggests that patients with liver disease and diabetes may be the most health-literate: They were the only two groups to do better than the general population when identifying their affected organ. Overall, 75.3 percent of those with liver disease could find the liver (versus 45.9 percent in the general population) and 53.7 percent of diabetics could locate the pancreas (versus 30.8 percent). Health.com: How I survived a heart attack at 43 . \"It is possible that patient-education material for people with diabetes may help to increase their knowledge [of the pancreas], but it is still only at the 50 percent level,\" Weinman says. \"The same explanation may also be true for liver disease, but it may be a chance finding due to the sampling of patients for this study, and it really needs replicating in other larger studies to be certain it is a robust finding and to search for possible reasons for it.\" Weinman says there's a mountain of evidence to prove that effective communication from doctors increases patient satisfaction and understanding, leading to better clinical outcomes and improved adherence to treatment. Health.com: I lost my insurance, stopped my diabetes medication, and had a heart attack . Jauhar agrees that health literacy improves not only the quality of health care, but also life expectancy. \"Health literacy is clearly very important, and how well patients are versed in their own health care is probably just as important a factor in determining longevity as genes or socioeconomic status,\" he says. \"These are important factors in how long someone lives.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"More than half in British survey couldn't identify heart's location .\nU.S. results could be similar or worse, some experts speculate .\nHealth literacy contributes to better care received, better patient outcomes .","id":"82392a45e79b43b78f8ab091a631e6a9ba20aba3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four teenage boys in Tampa, Florida, were charged as adults Wednesday on allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy. Lee Louis Myers, 14, from Tampa, Florida, is one of the defendants in the case. Charged with four counts each of sexual battery were Randall John Moye, 14; Raymond A. Price-Murray, 14; Lee Louis Myers, 14; and Diamante J. Roberts, 15. CNN is naming the defendants because they were charged as adults. Hillsborough County prosecutors allege the four boys raped the 13-year-old victim multiple times over two months with a broomstick and hockey stick. At a bond and arraignment hearing, the defendants appeared before Hillsborough County Judge Wayne Timmerman to hear the counts against them read in court. Prosecutor Kimberly Hindman described to the court how two defendants held down the victim while the other two defendants violently sodomized him with the sticks. \"The victim screamed and cried, telling them to stop,\" Hindman said. The prosecutor said the victim's screams could be heard outside the boys' locker room at Walker Middle School, in southern Tampa, where the alleged assaults took place. Multiple people witnessed the attacks, but no one reported the incidents, including the victim, Hindman said. The school began an investigation after a fight that began on the football field and continued until a coach broke it up in the locker room, said the prosecutor. During the fight, the victim said, \"I'm tired of them getting on me,\" Hindman said. When school officials questioned the defendants, all four admitted in a written statement that they had sexually assaulted the victim. The defendants \"all implicated themselves in a sexual-battery incident,\" Hindman said. The victim did not acknowledge the attacks until questioned. School officials contacted authorities, who initially charged the four as minors with sexual assault and false imprisonment. Several students witnessed the incidents over the two months, said the prosecutor, who added that she could not understand why no one reported the attacks. The victim made a statement in court, telling the judge how his father was angry and his mother couldn't stop crying when they heard about the attacks. Defense attorneys told the judge their clients were good students and had never been in trouble before. Attorney Tim Taylor, representing Randall Moye, said his client's family is among the finest in the community. Taylor presented six character witnesses, including his client's mother, Jeanne Myers, who said her son wants to attend college. The prosecutor asked her about her son's written statement about the attacks. Myers said her son described clowning around in the locker room with a hockey stick. She added that he told her about holding down the victim for a few seconds. The victim finished the academic year at home instead of returning to school, authorities said. The judge set bond for each defendant at $15,000, with ankle monitors for all but one, who has left the area. The four boys were taken into custody in court and booked into the adult jail. The judge warned the four to have no contact with one another, the victim or any witnesses in the case. The defendants could spend up to 120 years in prison if convicted on all four counts.","highlights":"Prosecutors: Victim, 13, raped over 2-month period with broomstick, hockey stick .\nMultiple people witnessed attacks, but no one reported incidents, prosecutor says .\nThe 4 teens gave written admission of assaults to school officials in Florida .\nDefense attorney for one teen says client's family is among the finest in Tampa .","id":"3fdef54e297914e07828c5e0df7956bfcc100389"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A close aide to Pakistan's Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud said he is breaking ties with him and confirmed reports that Mehsud was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 at a campaign rally. Qari Turkestan Bhitaini, a self-proclaimed right-hand man of Mehsud, said Mehsud was behind the December 27, 2007, assassination of Bhutto, Pakistan's Express TV reported. Bhitaini said he is breaking ties with Mehsud because he blames the Taliban chief for killing scores of innocent Muslims in recent attacks in Lahore. The Pakistani government and CIA officials have said in the past that Mehsud was responsible for Bhutto's death. Bhutto, 54, was heading the opposition to then-President Pervez Musharraf when she was assassinated during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi ahead of parliamentary elections. The Pakistani government, who has struggled to control terrorism, is waging a military offensive against the Taliban in the country's North West Frontier Province.","highlights":"Report: Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud responsible for Benazir Bhutto's slaying .\nMehsud's former aide makes allegations, blames him for killing Muslims .\nBhutto was assassinated in December 2007 at campaign rally .","id":"16646db7d51a0863351f9151f428750ffdb9b9cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Man-made climate change threatens to stress water resources, challenge crops and livestock, raise sea levels and adversely affect human health, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Tuesday. Farmers and workers in central California are suffering through the third year of a worsening drought. The nearly 200-page document on global climate change -- released by the White House science adviser and mandated by Congress -- does not include new research, but encompasses several recent studies on the effects of global warming over the last half century. Among the report's key findings are an \"unequivocal and primarily human-induced\" rise in the Earth's temperature of 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 50 years, and a projection of more rapidly changing temperatures over the next several decades. \"It's not just a problem for the future,\" said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. \"We're beginning to see the impact on our daily lives.\" The continuing temperature rise is likely to spur a series of negative consequences for the Earth's energy supply, water, transportation, ecosystems and health, the study said. \"[The report] tells us why remedial action is needed sooner rather than later, as well as showing why that action must include both global emissions reductions to reduce the extent of climate change and local adaptation measures to reduce the damage from the changes that are no longer avoidable,\" said John P. Holdren, the White House science adviser. Among the study's specific predictions: Longer and more intense heat waves; increased heavy downpours likely to cause widespread complications such as flooding and waterborne diseases; reduced summer runoff, creating greater competition for water, especially in the West; rising ocean water temperatures that will threaten coral reefs; an increase in wildfires and insect infestations; and more frequent coastal flooding caused by rising seas. The report is the first in almost a decade to break down impacts of climate change on regions and economic sectors of the United States. For example, warming trends in coming decades are expected to reduce the lobster catch in the waters of the Northeast, increase the intensity of hurricanes in the Southeast and accelerate drought in the Southwest, it said. Authors of the comprehensive report said they hope it can serve as a valuable tool for policymakers and other Americans, such as farmers making crop decisions or local governments passing zoning restrictions in coastal areas. The report comes as Congress debates a White House-backed climate change bill that seeks to reduce the United State's greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a so-called \"cap and trade\" program. The bill cleared a key House committee vote in May and could be considered by the entire chamber within the next two weeks, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. The bill's future remains unclear in the Senate, where leaders are holding off advancing their own version of the legislation until it clears the lower chamber.","highlights":"Man-made climate change is adversely affecting the U.S., says a federal report .\nReport: Changes will stress water resources, challenge crops and raise sea levels .\nDocument is released by White House science adviser and mandated by Congress .\nReport's predictions: Hotter heat waves, more flooding and an increase in wildfires .","id":"2a329b311714cac4b13031dcbea7bba2fe37391a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In keeping with President Obama's pledge of an administration that is \"transparent and accountable,\" the White House has launched a site that promises to show taxpayers where their stimulus-package dollars are being spent. Visitors to Recovery.gov are greeted with a video message from President Obama. The site, Recovery.gov, allows visitors to track efforts to jump-start a teetering economy in the midst of a slumping housing market and massive job losses. It breaks down the $787 billion package by category: $288 billion for tax relief, $59 billion for health care, and so on. The site promises that more detailed spending information will be posted once federal agencies decide how they are going to allocate the money. Learn more about where the money is going \u00bb . Using graphs, charts and layman's terminology, the online portal is an example of how the tech-savvy Obama administration is taking its message to the American people. While running for president, Obama harnessed the Web's fundraising and social-networking capabilities to energize his grass-roots campaign. And the moment he was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, administration officials unveiled a sleek interactive version of Whitehouse.gov, the official White House Web site. Recovery.gov, launched within hours of Obama's signing of the stimulus bill Tuesday, continues the theme of offering information in a user-friendly format. Visitors are greeted by a brief video address from Obama. \"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan represents a strategic and significant investment in our country's future,\" the president explains. \"The size and scale of this plan demand unprecedented efforts to root out waste, inefficiency and unnecessary spending. Recovery.gov will be the online portal for these efforts.\" The site will publish information on how the stimulus funds will be spent in a \"timely, targeted and transparent manner,\" Obama said. Edward Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, said transparency has \"been a watch word for good government types for years.\" \"There is sense that taxpayers will feel a lot better about this if they actually know where their money is going,\" Glaeser said. \"Better transparency makes evaluation much easier.\" Glaeser pointed out that the idea behind Recovery.gov is not entirely new. He noted that the Office of Management and Budget has for years had a site where citizens can learn the available cost-benefit information of several government programs. Clicking on \"Where is Your Money Going\" on the new site brings up a chart displaying key areas where the $787 billion will be distributed, including tax relief, energy, health care and infrastructure and science. Under \"Accountability and Transparency,\" there is a statement that reads, \"This is your money. You have a right to know where it's going and how it's being spent. Learn what steps we're taking to ensure you can track our progress every step of the way.\" Like other Obama online portals, the site encourages user interaction. The public is invited to share stories on how the Recovery Act is affecting them. Scrolling over a map of the United States reveals data on the number of jobs created and saved in each state. Those with some time on their hands can also read, in its entirety, the full text of the legislation.","highlights":"New White House Web site explains economic stimulus spending .\nObama administration continues promise to be \"transparent and accountable\"\nRecovery.gov is similar to other Obama-backed sites .\nHarvard professor: \"Better transparency makes evaluation much easier\"","id":"7d8ef5de31902513b5706ecc41c7951e76308f4b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that another stimulus package might be needed to help the ailing economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with economists and other Democrats on Tuesday to discuss the stimulus. Pelosi, whose comments followed a meeting with several economists, said the measures already taken by the Obama administration are helping to restore confidence in the shaky financial markets. But \"we have to keep the door open and see how this goes,\" the California Democrat added. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey of Wisconsin said on Tuesday night he's already instructed his staff to start drafting a second stimulus proposal. Obey said his staff is preparing the outline of a stimulus bill but he cautioned there is no timeline to move on it. One of the economists in the meeting with Pelosi and other Democrats, Mark Zandi with Moody's Economy.com, said more taxpayer money would likely be needed to bolster the economy. Another economist, Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics Inc., urged patience. But he questioned President Obama's prediction that the $800 billion stimulus package enacted last month would create or save as many as 3 million to 4 million jobs. \"Initially ... the jobs created may be a little disappointing,\" Sinai said. Sinai said his analysis showed that about 2.5 million jobs would be saved or created over the next two years and he said it is more realistic to project 3 million jobs over a longer period of three years. The most recent prediction from the Congressional Budget Office, released last week, estimates the recovery package will create or save from 1.2 million jobs to 3.6 million jobs.","highlights":"\"We have to keep the door open and see how this goes,\" the House Speaker says .\nHouse Appropriations Committee chairman's staff is preparing second proposal .\nMore taxpayer money will likely be needed to bolster economy, economist says .\nEconomist questions whether current stimulus will save or create 4 million jobs .","id":"b35ad199ff2b92e73c9b8ea9a0fe10c1e53c1b49"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Deep-sea explorers say they have solved \"one of the greatest mysteries in naval history\" with the discovery of what was \"the world's mightiest and most technically advanced warship\" when it sank in 1744. The HMS Victory sank in 1744. The HMS Victory -- the predecessor to a historic British flagship of the same name -- was found \"far from where history says it was lost,\" Odyssey Marine Exploration said in a news release Monday. The find in the English Channel exonerates Adm. Sir John Balchin, one of \"the greatest admirals in English history,\" because it shows that the ship went down in a violent storm, not due to any mistakes he made, Odyssey said. It did not specify the ship's exact location. Maritime lore said the ship went down in the northern part of the Channel Islands, south of England near the coast of France. Stories about treasures -- including gold -- that may have been on the ship have existed ever since its disappearance. This HMS Victory was a predecessor to the historic British ship that took the same name and which served as Admiral Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In court papers seeking exclusive salvage rights, Odyssey says the wreck site \"consists of cannons and other unidentified objects. Odyssey believes that potentially valuable cargo may be located at or near the site.\" The papers were filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, where Odyssey is based, seeking exclusive salvage rights. There were nearly 1,000 people aboard -- \"900 sailors, plus a complement of marines and 50 volunteers drawn from the noblest families of England,\" Odyssey said in information about the ship released together with the Discovery Channel, which chronicled the find. Based on reports from the time, there may be as much as four tons of gold on the ship, Odyssey and the Discovery Channel said. \"Additional research indicates that there were large quantities of both silver and gold coins aboard. ... Research suggests that this prize money will also likely be located at the wreck site. \"... However, no coins have been located at the site to date, and no accurate assessment as to their value can be made prior to location, recovery and analysis.\" The potential treasure also comes in another form -- bronze weaponry. \"The site's anticipated ordnance collection\" includes \"the single largest collection of bronze cannon in the world\" and \"the largest consignment of bronze guns ever manufactured and preserved today,\" Odyssey said. Two cannons have been recovered -- \"a 12-pounder featuring the royal arms of George II\" and a \"42-pounder bearing the crest of George I,\" it said. \"The huge 42-pounder recovered is the only known example of a gun of this type and size currently in existence on dry land. The only other artifacts recovered to date were two small brick fragments that were brought into U.S. federal court in order to file an admiralty arrest of the site.\" Admiralty arrest is a step mandated under international maritime law. The discovery could set up a legal battle with the British government. If it really is the HMS Victory, \"her remains are sovereign immune,\" the British Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in a statement on its blog Monday. \"The wreck remains the property of the Crown. We have not waived our rights to it. This means that no intrusive action may be taken without the express consent of the United Kingdom.\" In its statement, Odyssey said it \"has been cooperating closely\" with the ministry, and \"all activities at the site have been conducted in accordance with protocols agreed with MOD and Royal Navy officials.\" The ship has deteriorated to the point that recovering it is impossible, Odyssey said. \"A plan is being developed for an archaeological excavation of the site, and artifacts will be recovered in accordance with a scientific project plan, which will be submitted to the UK MOD for review and approval.\" The company has proposed that it be paid \"with either ... a percentage of the value of the collection that has been recovered, conserved and presented to the UK government, or a percentage of the coins or other artifacts that the government decides to (sell).\" The ship was found nearly 100 km (62 miles) \"from where the ship was historically believed to have been wrecked on a reef near the Channel Islands,\" Odyssey's statement said. \"Having discovered it in deep water far from where history says it was lost has served to exonerate Admiral Balchin and his officers from the accusation of having let the ship run aground on the Casquets due to faulty navigation,\" said Greg Stemm, Odyssey's chief executive officer, in the statement. Odyssey said the \"prevailing belief\" about the ship's fate was that it had \"smashed into the Casquets, a group of rocky islets\" north of Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Islands. But the evidence, Odyssey's statement said, suggests \"the ship sank as the result of a violent storm and suggests that the design and construction of the ship contributed to her loss.\" Odyssey released press materials about the ship in cooperation with the Discovery Channel, which chronicled the find and will be showing it in a program this week called Treasure Quest. \"The English Channel is a treacherous place to navigate,\" Discovery Channel President John Ford told CNN Radio. \"The ship was returning from Portugal and got caught up in a storm. And despite being judged unsinkable at the time, sort of like the Titanic was, this very, very large ship went down in a storm and vanished without a trace.\" CNN Radio's April Williams contributed to this report .","highlights":"Team says it has discovered the wreck site of HMS Victory .\nVictory sank in 1744 between England and France .\nIf find is confirmed, it could set up a legal battle with the British government .\nReplacement HMS Victory served as Nelson flagship for Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 .","id":"eb5a960f5370e3fcb34d7c2c3bf7ecd7f255cc3d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi who was captured on videotape torturing an Afghan grain dealer has reportedly been detained, a senior U.S. State Department official told CNN Saturday. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, pictured here, allegedly tortured a business associate on videotape. The official said the government of the United Arab Emirates, which includes Abu Dhabi as one of its seven emirates, told the State Department that Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan is under house arrest pending an investigation, but that the United States has not independently confirmed the development. The videotape emerged last month in a federal civil lawsuit filed in Houston, Texas, by Bassam Nabulsi, a U.S. citizen, against the sheikh. Former business partners, the men had a falling out, in part over the tape. In a statement to CNN, the sheikh's U.S. attorney said Nabulsi is using the videotape to influence the court over a business dispute. The tape of the heinous torture session is delaying the ratification of a civil nuclear deal between the United Arab Emirates and the United States, senior U.S. officials familiar with the case have said. The senior U.S. officials said the administration has held off on the ratification process because it believes sensitivities over the story can hurt its passage. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch called the sheikh's reported detention \"a significant development\" but said the UAE government needs to do more to restore confidence in its judicial system. \"The videotape of this episode shocked the world,\" said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. \"The report of the arrest was reassuring, but now the government needs to make the details public. Secretive prosecutions will not deter further abuses and torture.\" On the tape, Sheikh Issa appears to burn with rage. Apparently believing he was cheated in a business deal, the sheikh was trying to extract a confession from the Afghan grain dealer. With a private security officer assisting, Sheikh Issa is seen stuffing sand in the Afghan's mouth. As the grain dealer pleads and whimpers, he is beaten with a nailed board, burned in the genitals with a cigarette lighter, shocked with a cattle prod and led to believe he would be shot. Salt is literally poured on his wounds. The 45 minutes of torture appears on a nearly three-hour-long videotape shot in late 2004 in the desert outside Abu Dhabi. It was made at the direction of the sheikh himself. The tape has been viewed by CNN. Watch portions of the tape and Nabulsi tell his story \u00bb . After international concerns over the tape mounted in late April, Abu Dhabi's government issued a statement saying it deplored the contents of the video and planned an immediate and comprehensive review of it. The sheikh, who holds no official government position, is the half-brother of the UAE's ruler, President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Human Rights Watch sent a April 28 letter to the president imploring him to form \"an independent body\" to probe both the torture and and the \"failure\" of the UAE's Interior Ministry \"to bring those involved to justice.\" The group reiterated that call Saturday. As for the grain dealer, UAE officials say he survived the ordeal, and said the sheikh and the grain dealer settled the matter privately by agreeing not to bring formal charges against each other. However, Nabulsi's attorney, Anthony Buzbee, said the grain dealer can't be located and it is not known whether he is alive.","highlights":"State Department official says member of Abu Dhabi royal family reportedly detained .\nInvestigation continuing after videotape shows sheikh torturing grain merchant .\nVideotape emerged last month in federal civil lawsuit filed in the United States .\nU.S. senior officials say case is holding up a U.S. nuclear deal with the UAE .","id":"14ad25b8836536c9a83a610182972b7aefaf8ae0"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian newspaper and magazine published excerpts of what they said were audio recordings of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi talking with an escort at the center of a corruption probe. Veronica Lario, the wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, pictured, filed for divorce in May. The daily La Repubblica and its sister magazine L'Espresso said the recordings posted on their Web sites Monday were of Berlusconi and Patrizia D'Addario. She has said that an Italian businessman hired her and other women to attend parties at Berlusconi's homes. In June, D'Addario told CNN that she had turned the tapes over to a prosecutor in Bari, southern Italy. Through her attorney, she refused to comment on the authenticity of the excerpts released Monday. But in a statement carried by the Italian news agency ANSA, Berlusconi lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said the prime minister is challenging the \"truthfulness and legality\" of the recordings. \"We can only regard the material as worthless, completely false and the result of invention,\" Ghedini said. \"In any case, the act of its publication is an illegal act in itself, which will need to be pursued, and all legal actions will be taken against any body who publishes such material.\" Berlusconi, the 72-year-old media mogul-turned-prime minister, has denied the allegations. According to La Repubblica, the conversation between D'Addario and Berlusconi took place in October and November at the prime minister's house in Rome. It also published an excerpt of what it said was a conversation between D'Addario and Gianpaulo Tarantini, the businessman accused of hiring D'Addario and other escorts. Prosecutors in Bari, in southern Italy, are investigating allegations that Tarantini bribed health officials to buy prosthetics and other medical supplies from a company he and his brother own. Tarantini has denied any wrongdoing and says he brought women to the parties to make a \"beautiful impression.\" \"I have never paid money to those who accompanied me except for refunding their trip expenses,\" he said in a statement issued last month. \"I exclude that the premier could have been aware of these reimbursements and I want to ask forgiveness for having involuntarily damaged him.\" Berlusconi's private life has been in the spotlight since his wife of 19 years, Veronica Lario, filed for divorce in May. The split followed reports that Berlusconi went to the birthday party in Naples of an 18-year-old girl, with whom Berlusconi has denied having an inappropriate relationship. And the Spanish newspaper El Pais has published what it said were photos of racy parties at Berlusconi's villa on the island of Sardinia, including one picture that showed scantily clad women. But despite the swirl of scandal, Berlusconi remains popular, consistently scoring approval ratings well over 50 percent. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"D'Addario refuses to comment on authenticity of excerpts released Thursday .\nBerlusconi attorney calls act of publication \"an illegal act\"\nLa Repubblica: Conversation between D'Addario, Berlusconi took place at his home .\nLa Repubblica publishes alleged conversation between D'Addario, businessman .","id":"4eda00e304ec2c4271e59ab5ea9030f178c565d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It is possible more U.S. troops could be added in Afghanistan if the new U.S. commander there needs them, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he does not expect a significant increase. U.S. Marines sweep for bombs in Afghanistan this week. During a visit to troops at Fort Drum, New York, on Thursday, Gates said he is waiting to hear what Gen. Stanley McChrystal recommends after he completes a review of operations in Afghanistan. McChrystal is expected to complete a classified report for Gates by the end of this month, assessing where the war stands, and what needs to be done. He will tell Gates whether he needs more U.S. troops to fight the escalating conflict, according to a senior U.S. military official. Gates asked McChrystal to \"state his requirements for resources,\" said the official -- who did not want to be identified because the report is not completed. The review is also expected to recommend that the number of Afghan troops be increased beyond the goal of 134,000, other military sources said. During a speech and question-and-answer session with troops at Fort Drum, Gates acknowledged he would consider a recommendation to boost U.S. troops beyond the level of 68,000 already approved. \"We'll see what Gen. McChrystal recommends,\" he said. \"But I think there will not be a significant increase in troop levels in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000, at least probably through the end of the year. Maybe some increase, but not a lot.\" Gates has made clear in the past he is reluctant to approve additional major increases in troop levels, preferring to keep the U.S. at a lower profile in the nation. About 57,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, with the other 11,000 to arrive by the end of this year. Gates has said he wants to see if that level of troops would be sufficient. Gates' press secretary, Geoff Morrell, told CNN the Fort Drum comments \"are not necessarily a foreshadowing of what's to come.\" He said Gates \"doesn't want to impose an artificial troop cap on the commander,\" but does want to see if the strategy can be carried out with the approved troop levels.","highlights":"Defense secretary would consider it if U.S. commander says he needs more .\nGen. Stanley McChrystal preparing review of operation for Gates .\nStill, Secretary Gates said, any amount over 68,000 approved would not be much .\nWants low U.S. profile in Afghanistan, chance to see if 68,000 is enough .","id":"dfd01235f7d2f00d5b7051059374c6e2968bea64"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Reclusive author J.D. Salinger has emerged, at least in the pages of court documents, to try to stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen hero of his classic \"The Catcher in the Rye,\" as an old man. J.D. Salinger has stayed out of the public eye for most of the past half century. Lawyers for Salinger filed suit in federal court this week to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of \"60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye,\" a novel written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company that advertises joke books and a \"sexual dictionary\" on its Web site. \"The Sequel infringes Salinger's copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield, who is the narrator and essence of that novel,\" said the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New York. Published in 1951, \"The Catcher in the Rye\" is an iconic take on teen alienation that is consistently listed among the greatest English-language novels ever written. Salinger, 90, who has famously lived the life of a recluse in New Hampshire for most of the past half-century, last published in 1965. With the exception of a 1949 movie based on one of his early short stories, he has never authorized adaptations of any of his work, even turning down an overture from director Steven Spielberg to make \"Catcher\" into a movie. \"There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there,\" the court filing quotes Salinger as saying in 1980. \"Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.\" The filing refers to the new book's author as \"John Doe,\" saying that the name John David California probably is made up. The first-time novelist's biography on Amazon.com says California is the son of a Swedish mother and American father who was named after the state where he was born. It claims he is a former gravedigger and triathlete who found a copy of Salinger's novel \"in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia\" and that it helped him survive \"the most maniacal of tropical fevers and chronic isolation.\" The Web site's description of the book is written in the same choppy, first-person stream of consciousness that Salinger employs as Holden wanders the streets of New York. It describes a character, \"Mr. C,\" who flees his nursing home and \"embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York.\" The lawsuit names Swedish publisher Nicotext; its offshoot, Windupbird Publishing Ltd.; and California-based SCB Distributors as defendants. The Web site for Nicotext advertises such books as \"The Macho Man's (Bad) Joke Book\" and \"Give It To Me Baby,\" which it describes as an erotic \"flick book.\" Marcia Paul, Salinger's New York-based attorney, declined to speak on the record, citing her client's private nature. E-mail messages to Nicotext were not returned Wednesday. Aaron Silverman, president of SCB Distributors, said the people behind the new book plan to defend it against the lawsuit. \"We believe we have the right to distribute this book and the publishers believe they have the right to publish it,\" he said. Silverman, whose company distributes books by about 150 publishers, called \"60 Years Later\" a work of \"social science fiction,\" saying that California doesn't plagiarize, but sets a well-known character in an alternate place and time -- as literature has done for centuries. \"It's amazing,\" he said of the book. \"If it was something else, or it felt like a knock-off or whatever, I would have told the publisher we wouldn't do it. But it's really just amazing.\" Despite his cloistered lifestyle, Salinger nods to the contemporary marketplace in the lawsuit, noting that, as of last week, \" 'The Catcher in the Rye' currently sells more copies on Amazon.com than 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,' 'The DaVinci Code,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or 'Of Mice and Men.' \" A hearing in the case is expected Monday. Salinger's lawyers will ask a judge to freeze publication of the book until a final ruling is made. The book is already available in Europe and the United Kingdom, and is scheduled to be released in the United States in September. The lawsuit asks that sales be halted and that books already distributed be recalled and destroyed. The argument is reminiscent of the legal tussle over the 2001 novel \"The Wind Done Gone,\" a parody of Margaret Mitchell's \"Gone With the Wind\" told from the perspective of a slave. Mitchell's estate argued that the book, by novelist Alice Randall, infringed upon her copyright. But the 11th District U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Randall's favor, saying the book was protected as a parody of a well-known work. Salinger's lawyers say \"60 Years Later\" deserves no such protection. \"The sequel is not a parody and it does not comment upon or criticize the original,\" the lawsuit argues. \"It is a rip-off pure and simple.\"","highlights":"Lawsuit seeks halt to \"60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye\"\nJ.D. Salinger says \"sequel\" infringes on copyright of his classic novel .\nNew author says he's former gravedigger, discovered \"Catcher\" in Cambodia .\nCourt hearing scheduled for Monday in New York .","id":"0996fe7bf95f73600f2d119df6ad7e63e8b63c66"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted Friday to impeach a federal judge convicted of obstruction of justice while in office. Judge Samuel Kent was the first federal judge to be charged with sexual crimes while in office. U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent of Texas pleaded guilty in February, admitting he lied to investigators about nonconsensual sexual contact with two employees in his courthouse. As part of a plea agreement, other counts alleging sexual misconduct were dropped. Kent was the first federal judge to be charged with sexual crimes while in office. He has submitted his resignation, but made it effective June 1, 2010, meaning he would be paid for a year while in prison. That drew a heated response among some members of Congress, and a House Judiciary Committee task force unanimously approved four articles of impeachment against Kent on the grounds of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and providing false statements to federal investigators. Before the House vote, Judiciary Committee member Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, said to House members that Kent collecting a salary of about $174,000 while in prison constituted \"an attempt to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from the American people.\" There were no dissenting votes. The decision on whether to convict Kent will be made by the Senate. A conviction would mean he would lose his seat on the federal bench and his pension. Kent, who turns 60 this month, was sentenced in May to 33 months in prison and began serving the sentence Monday. He was ordered to undergo treatment for alcoholism while in prison. An attempt to reach Kent's attorney for comment was unsuccessful Friday afternoon. President George H.W. Bush nominated Kent, who took his seat on the bench of the Southern District of Texas on October 1, 1990. Kent is the 14th federal judge to be impeached by the House. The last impeachment -- on charges of lying to a federal grand jury -- was of Mississippi Judge Walter Nixon in 1989.","highlights":"Samuel Kent says he lied about nonconsensual sexual contact with 2 employees .\nKent submits resignation effective June 2010, which allowed him to collect salary .\nTo keep Kent from being paid while in jail, House panel votes to impeach .\nDecision on whether he'll lose his seat on the bench and pension rests with Senate .","id":"a3e3db3c166349573b58278c5bcef423fbab2afd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Commuters on the New York-New Jersey Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) rail system will have added security screening Wednesday as part of a month-long pilot program, according to a news release from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Riders of the New York-New Jersey PATH trains will see a new security system in place on Wednesday. The screening system is called the Passive Millimeter Wave. It can detect threats, including explosive devices, hidden under clothing, the Port Authority explained in the news release. The Transportation Security Administration and the Port Authority stress that there is no current threat to the mass transit system, nor do they anticipate delays for commuters from the new technology, which has already been tested at several other transit locations. The Passive Millimeter Wave \"detects threats by analyzing the energy generated by the human body,\" according to TSA spokesperson Lara Uselding. The camera-like device displays an image for operators, and \"an indicator produces a strength bar from green to red that indicates the presence\/absence of anomalies that could have security implications, including the possible presence of explosives,\" according to the TSA Web site. The TSA and the Port Authority emphasize that the device is non-invasive and completely safe. The Port Authority's news release explains that all PATH passengers are subject to the pilot security screening, and passengers who do not want take part must leave the station. The TSA has partnered with agencies in various cities in the past to test out the same security screening system, including in 2007 at Washington's Union Station and on New York's Staten Island Ferry. The TSA has also tested the system at several U.S. airports including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Denver, Colorado; and Boston, Massachusetts.","highlights":"PATH riders to have new security starting Wednesday; part of a month-long program .\nSystem called Passive Millimeter Wave; it detects hidden explosives under clothing .\nDon't want to be screened? Then leave station, says Port Authority .\nSystem previously tested at Staten Island Ferry, several U.S. airports .","id":"af5ebcdff4cdf1257c84d72c3df07546b77d6236"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to U.S. cycling legend Lance Armstrong was stolen from a team truck in California just hours after he rode it Saturday on the first day of a nine-day race. Lance Armstrong's bike was stolen after he competed in the first day of the Amgen Tour of California. Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong is racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week as he attempts another comeback after retiring from the sport in 2005. Armstrong's first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. Armstrong announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. \"There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered,\" he wrote. The bicycle that was stolen is not the one Armstrong rides every day during the race. The stolen bike is used only for time trials, a race in which cyclists ride individually at staggered intervals over a set distance and try to get the best time. The thieves took four bicycles from a truck Armstrong's Astana team had parked behind a hotel in Sacramento. The other three bicycles belonged to team members Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych, Astana said. Armstrong, 37, won the Tour de France, considered the premier bicycle race in the world, a record seven times from 1999-2005. The 750-mile Amgen Tour of California ends Sunday. It is the second major race in which Armstrong has participated since announcing his comeback in September. He raced last month in the Tour Down Under in Australia, finishing 29th. Armstrong said he is aiming for another Tour de France victory this summer and was not expected to contend in the Australian race, which he used to gauge his fitness level after more than three years out of the saddle.","highlights":"One-of-a-kind bicycle taken from team truck in California .\nArmstrong posted announcement of theft on Twitter account .\nChampion cyclist aiming for comeback with participation in Amgen Tour .","id":"ad22986cdaac5d60c501f35dda91731faef877f0"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- If you think being a secret agent is all just one giant adrenaline rush, think again. Cracking the safe at the International Spy Museum . Our mission on the other side of the world: Retrieve a missing nuclear trigger before it falls into enemy hands. We don't know whom to trust in Kandahar. We can't speak the language. We've got to conduct video surveillance on an always-moving target, decrypt a secret audio conversation when we can barely hear through the static, crack a safe and then escape from a heavily guarded compound. Phew. We kept the terrorists from getting the trigger. Everyone heaves a giant sigh of relief. The three middle-schoolers in the group performed admirably. Welcome to Operation Spy at the International Spy Museum (www.spymuseum.org) in Washington, D.C. \"Today intelligence is the first line of defense against ideology-driven terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and other threats to our country,\" explains Peter Earnest, executive director of the International Spy Museum, who spent 36 years at the CIA. The idea, he explains, is to put civilians like us in a situation that mirrors a real mission. But I've got a bigger mission ahead this weekend: Can I make a visit to the nation's capital, museums and historic sites at every turn, fun? I've brought along two sixth-graders from Stamford, Connecticut -- my cousin's son, Max Weinberg, and his friend, Miles Singer -- to see if I'm up to the challenge. So far so good. The kids loved Operation Spy and the spy tools in the museum's permanent exhibits -- a Soviet listening device hidden inside the heel of a target's shoe, a lipstick pistol and poison gas gun nearly as much as they loved the gift shop, which offered every spy toy imaginable. New lasers in hand, we adjourn next door to the upscale Zola restaurant (www.zoladc.com), which has a sophisticated ambience and menu to please the grown-ups, as well as a welcoming attitude toward kids ... not to mention terrific fries. (Memo to parents: If you take kids to a restaurant like this and they've outgrown the kids' menu, suggest they share a meal -- assuming they want the same thing.) Over dinner, the boys confess that learning about intelligence gathering was a lot more fun than learning how Congress works, and taking the Amtrak train (www.amtrak.com) was a lot more fun than driving or flying, because they could stay \"plugged in\" the entire trip, playing video games, watching movies and buying pizza and hot dogs. (Kids ride Amtrak for half price.) The Palomar Hotel, a Kimpton Hotel, (www.hotelpalomar-dc.com), just a short walk from DuPont Circle and Rock Creek Park) proved an ideal choice for my \"mission\" too. The theme of this hotel is \"art in motion\" and when we get to our room, the kids find personalized cartoons drawn by a local cartoonist and an iHome to plug in their iPods. \"This makes me feel like a king,\" Miles declares, jumping on the bed. That's exactly what General Manager Brett Orlando, himself the father of young twins, wants to hear. \"Our job is to create an experience for kids as well as parents,\" he explains. There is a treasure chest of toys for younger kids to borrow, a lending library of DVD movies and welcome swag that includes a card for free cookies from room service. (Check the hotel Website for the Link in Luxury package that allows you to book one room at a going rate -- weekend rates start at $229 and a second adjoining room for the kids for $50. Fall and winter weekends are a great time to visit D.C. with bargain hotel rates. Visit www.washington.org). The boys, of course, would have preferred to never leave the hotel but I promise we can skip all the \"boring stuff\"\" -- like the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, all art museums and even the White House. But even without these stops, we had plenty to fill up our weekend. At Jaleo, (www.jaleo.com), they sampled tapas for the first time -- but passed on the octopus and squid and reveled at being treated like grown-ups at the trendy D.C. Coast (www.dccoast.com). They declared \"Shear Madness,\" which has been running in the Kennedy Center's Theater Lab (http:\/\/www.kennedy-center.org\/) for almost 20 years, a high point -- with campy humor and the opportunity for the audience to help solve the scissor-stabbing murder of a concert pianist who lives above the hairstyling salon. They also liked the view from the top of the Washington Monument, though they were disappointed when they learned they had to take a 70-second elevator ride rather than climb the 800-plus steps. (TIP: Even in the fall, the entire day's tickets had been given out before 10 a.m. Arrive before 9 a.m. at the kiosk at 15th Street and Madison Drive to get one.) The kids also gave a thumbs-up to The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (www.bep.treas.gov) where they watched from an overhead glass window, as money was made and sorted. NOTE: Though (free) tickets aren't required September through February, tours still fill up. Be prepared. You may need to wait. At the National Air and Space Museum (www.nasm.si.edu) where a new exhibit, America by Air, will open next month, the boys were most interested in the gift shop -- until they discovered the Simulator Rides ($8 each) that allowed them to try their skills as a pilot and gunner aboard an F-4 Phantom II Jet Fighter. \"I wish we could do it again and again,\" Max said. I insisted they see the original 1903 Wright Flyer but after a cursory look, they were done. Sure I could have forced them to spend more time at the museum -- maybe I should have -- but that would have just made them cranky. Me too. Instead, we all left happy. The Smithsonian museums and the capital will be here next trip. E-mail to a friend . (For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.) Copyright 2009 EILEEN OGINTZ, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"The International Spy Museum is popular with kids .\nFall and winter weekends in D.C. are a great time for bargain hotel rates .\nArrive before 9 a.m. for tickets to climb up the Washington Monument .","id":"1352e8dc82edcf0d65789ad4100876bf0de05659"} -{"article":"SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- Debbie Brown used to process medical and dental forms for a living before a debilitating illness forced her into early disability retirement and left her in a simple, no-frills wheelchair -- a rented wheelchair that has cost taxpayers about $1,200. CNN found a wheelchair similar to Debbie Brown's taxpayer-funded Medicare wheelchair for a fourth of the price. Brown says the public should be outraged about her wheelchair. Why? She says she could buy a comparable wheelchair on the Internet for $440 if she had the money. It sounded hard to believe that her rented, $1,200 taxpayer-funded wheelchair could be bought for $440, so CNN decided to check -- and instead found an even better deal. CNN went to the same company that charges Medicare for Brown's chair, Apria Healthcare, and bought it for $349 -- about a fourth of what taxpayers' have paid for Brown's rented wheelchair. That's why this slightly built woman, who lives modestly with her husband in Sacramento, California, believes her story and her wheelchair underscore the bigger problem of reforming health care in America. \"Now you multiply that by how many people have a manual wheelchair, especially the baby boomers, it multiplies and multiplies and that money could be spent, even a hundred dollars out of that ... could give someone else the options that they need,\" Brown said. Reforming health care is at the top of the agenda in Washington. Everyone seems to agree this nation's health care costs and care availability are out of whack. Fixing it is another problem altogether. The Clintons failed. President Bush tried and got push-back as well. Now President Obama says he will do it because America can't put it off any longer. But he, too, is finding the way forward is not an easy path. Terms like \"affordability,\" \"single payer,\" \"universal coverage,\" and an entire lexicon have become part of the health care buzz lingo. It is a complex issue with so many facets, so many lobbyists and so many special interests that one proposal seems to result in a competing proposal or proposals, or competing parties with concerns of their own. To illustrate how difficult it will be to overhaul America's health care, CNN decided to focus on one item in the nation's health care bill: a basic wheelchair. The wheelchair, in its own small way, CNN discovered, gives a glimpse of the contentious and complex debate swirling around health care reform. CNN interviewed Brown and her husband, Dennis Brown, at a community center in Sacramento. It is a place the couple visits frequently; it is free, offers programs, books, entertainment and features a park to stroll in. Debbie Brown sent an e-mail to CNN months ago, outraged over the continuing Medicare payments for a wheelchair that after four years of use is not in the best shape. It squeaks and is hard to navigate. Her ride in it is made more difficult because her husband, retired from the armed services, is also on disability and has trouble getting the wheelchair in and out of the car. On days he is not well, he sometimes has trouble pushing her. She showed CNN her bills and documented the fact that Medicare is still paying for the wheelchair after all these years. Medicare, with Brown's permission, confirmed the payments. Brown referred us to the Internet sites where comparable chairs -- and better ones than hers -- are listed for a fraction of the cost Medicare pays over time. The Browns have a limited income and say they cannot afford to buy one. That's when CNN decided to check Brown's story by buying one directly from Apria, based in Lake Forest, California. CNN paid cash for the chair after calling one of Apria's offices in an Atlanta, Georgia, suburb. Apria representatives told the CNN buyer that the chair Brown had is no longer made but offered the model that is being rented and sold as the replacement model for the one Brown still uses. When CNN asked Apria why it rented wheelchairs to the government for $1,200, but sold it to us for $349, the company said it was an \"honest, unfortunate mistake.\" Lisa M. Getson, Apria executive vice president for government relations, said in a letter that CNN \"should have been charged $949, in accordance with Apria's retail price....\" \"Since there's no comparable sale option in the Medicare system for such a wheelchair, our employee was confused by the sale request and charged the incorrect amount,\" Getson said. But the amount CNN paid is comparable to many other companies' prices on the Web. A quick check found two firms selling the Invacare Tracer SX5 for $289.00 and $249.00, including delivery. The manufacturer's suggested retail price is nearly $300 less than the corrected Apria price. Apria Healthcare said its costs are higher because of the stringent paperwork required by the government and because it provides 24-hour on-call service. Apria also points out that the cost of the wheelchair over the past four years has been less than 78 cents per day, a bargain because it allows the patient to remain at home. Wheelchairs are classified as durable medical equipment, along with such items as oxygen tanks and home infusion therapies. Apria is the nation's leading provider of home health care products and services, according to its Web site. The nation's $1 billion annual durable medical cost is only a fraction of Medicare's $444 billion budget last year, but one government officials believe it is time to rein in. That's where this story of the rented wheelchair gets caught between all the interests involved. Congress sets the rates Medicare pays and Congress determined that wheelchairs should be billed on a monthly rate for 13 months -- the renter has to pay 20 percent of the costs. After 13 months, a user can opt to own it -- if the user knows about the rule. Brown, who worked in claims processing for years, said no one ever told her the wheelchair that barely works for her now is hers if she wants it. Instead, now that her rental term has ended, she gets billed by Apria every six months for service. Medicare pays $63 and she pays $16. Jonathan Blum, one of Obama's picks to reform the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said it is simply wrong that a wheelchair an individual can buy for $349 has cost the government $1,200. He said the government has a plan to fix it: competitive bidding. \"The good news is we have new authority right now to use competitive bidding to give the program much more flexibility,\" Blum said. But that's where the rubber -- or in this case, a wheelchair -- meets the road. Medicare has tried for years to get a bidding project off the ground. Last year, a bidding project was stopped after two weeks. The industry is flat-out against the government's proposed bidding project, contending it isn't competitive bidding at all. Opposing a bidding project is a well-funded lobbying industry, small- and durable-equipment businesses and special-interest groups who worry their ill clients won't be served if a bidding process as proposed by Medicare is put in place. So CNN loaded its wheelchair onto a Delta 757 to Washington and rolled it through the halls of Congress to find out why any representative -- not to mention 84 of them (the number who signed an April letter asking that competitive bidding be put on hold once again) would object to a plan that Medicare maintains will save taxpayer money. From Republican and Democrat alike, the answer was nearly identical as they sat for interviews next to CNN's $349 wheelchair. \"Well, you know what? I am a big believer in competitive bidding,\" said Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat from Ohio, where Invacare, one of the biggest manufacturers of durable equipment, is based. \"So at the outset I absolutely concur. But this program as it has unfolded, as it's been developed it really is a competitive bidding process that isn't competitive bidding.\" Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, agreed. \"My hope is that as we look at health care reform that some of those that are working off of theory, if you will, and the federal system will slow down and we look at where the lessons learned should be and we will think long and hard before they move aboard a single-payer or mandated to restrict choice and restrict options for individuals,\" said Blackburn. The American Association for Homecare, which represents many in the durable-equipment industry, said the bidding program is anti-competitive. In a statement, the association said the bidding program would \"sacrifice care for seniors and people with disabilities\" as it \"reduces patient access to and choice for medical equipment.\" The association said competitive bidding will \"increase Medicare costs because it will lead to longer, more expensive hospital stays.\" But John Rother, the head of policy and strategy for the retiree advocacy group AARP, said what's really happening is business trying to protect profits -- in this case profits four times the cost of Brown's wheelchair rental. \"It's an outrage,\" Rother said. \"It's a ripping off of the taxpayer. It doesn't make any sense to have those kinds of expenses for products that could be bought for so much less.\" Medicare again plans to try to get its competitive bidding program started later this year in at least nine markets, although Blum said it is unlikely to go into effect until next year. As for Brown, her four-year-old wheelchair needs replacing. She's reluctantly applied through her doctor for a new one. CNN's Marcus Hooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman: Rented, $1,200 taxpayer-funded wheelchair can be bought for $440 .\nCNN found chair that could be bought for a fourth of the price .\nDebbie Brown believes her story, wheelchair underscore problem health care reform .\nLegislators, companies debate competitive bidding to fix problem .","id":"5c761544e3f9130dbc7f5d2018babeaf8cd7a3f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New IBO light-welterweight world champion, Manny Pacquiao, is planning a career in politics, the 30-year-old told CNN on his return to his native Phillipines. Philippine boxing champ Manny Pacquiao sits with Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Lito Atienza (L) and former governor Chavit Singson (R) in Manila. Though \"Pacman\" will concentrate on boxing until next year, the man dubbed the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world suggested he could retire the following year to run for congress. \"I want to be a Congressman so I can help the people,\" Pacquiao told CNN's Andrew Stevens. But when asked if becoming the Filipino president was his ultimate aim he added: \"I wouldn't think about that because my ambition is only to run for congress. Pacquiao previously ran in the 2007 congressional elections for President Arroyo's party but was beaten by the Nationalist People's Coalition candidate Darlene Antonino-Custodio, who received 139,061 votes to Pacquiao's 75,908, Britain's Daily Telegraph said. Pacquiao is a national hero in the Phillipines but has seen his popularity grow around the world since his comprehensive victory over British fighter Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas. \"I'm happy to be back (in Manila) because there's a lot of people supporting me here. I expected it in the Phillipines but I had many supporting me in America too.\" The man dubbed the \"National Fist\" will be a busy man over the next few months as he plans to make his second film and record a TV programme. This is a long way from his humble origins growing up in General Santos City, southern Philippines, a reality that Pacquiao says he struggles to believe sometimes. \"I never dreamed I would reach the levels of success I have reached, he said. \"But I have faith in God and discipline in myself to make the sacrifices (needed) and to train hard.\" In 14 years as a professional, Pacquiao has won world titles in four weight divisions -- from 7st 8lb to 9st 9lb, at flyweight, super bantamweight, super featherweight and lightweight. In his last contest, in December, in what many felt would be a step too far, he dismantled America's most popular boxer, Oscar De La Hoya, at the 10st 7lb limit, in eight one-sided rounds. Pacquiao is currently rated by The Ring, the sport's most respected trade magazine, as the best boxer in the world. His career earnings stand at an estimated \u00a330 million, with major paydays coming relatively late in his career. However he remains modest despite the success. \"It's a big honour to me and my family to be looked up to by so many people. \"My inspiration comes from my family -- the people who are always there behind me supporting me and love me.\"","highlights":"Manny Pacquiao plans career in politics .\nWants to run for Philliphines congress .\nWorld's best pound-for-pound fighter coulf retire in 2010 .","id":"59c2dc3cb6aa2da4ffac6ccfbefdf4188c7af048"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch expects News Corporation-owned newspaper Web sites to start charging users for access within a year in a move which analysts say could radically shake-up the culture of freely available content. Murdoch said the existing Internet business model was \"malfunctioning.\" Speaking on a conference call as News Corporation announced a 47 percent slide in quarterly profits to $755 million, Murdoch said the current free access business model favored by most content providers was flawed. \"We are now in the midst of an epochal debate over the value of content and it is clear to many newspapers that the current model is malfunctioning,\" the News Corp. Chairman and CEO said. \"We have been at the forefront of that debate and you can confidently presume that we are leading the way in finding a model that maximizes revenues in return for our shareholders... The current days of the Internet will soon be over.\" Murdoch said the experience of the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal had proved that charging for content could be made to work. Would you pay to use news Web sites? Sound Off below . He said 360,000 people had downloaded an iPhone WSJ application in three weeks. Users would soon be made to pay \"handsomely\" for accessing WSJ content, he added. Murdoch said he envisaged other News Corp. titles introducing charges within 12 months. Murdoch's international newspaper empire includes the New York Post, the News International stable of UK titles including the Sun and the Times, and a cluster of Australian papers including the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun. His comments come with the U.S. newspaper industry in a state of crisis amid plunging advertising revenues and falling circulations with several historic titles already going out of business. Joshua Benton, Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, said Murdoch was not the only executive looking to generate new income streams from online content. \"News executives are starting to recognize that online advertising revenues are not enough on their own,\" Benton told CNN. But he said the challenge for media organizations was finding a balance between advertising and subscription revenues and figuring out how to charge for content without alienating existing users -- which could lead to Web sites offering tiered levels of free and paid-for material. \"I suspect within any readership there is a small slice -- maybe three percent -- that is willing to pay. News organizations are going to have to find a way of getting money from that slice without driving away everybody else,\" Benton said. \"I don't think you can afford to put a lock and chain on the front page. Benton said the U.S. newspaper industry was in a \"horrible state\" which was likely to get worse. \"We're starting to see holes where newspapers were. The question is, will new Web sites fill the holes, will traditional names come in -- or will they just not get filled?\" Earlier this week, the 137-year-old Boston Globe said it would be forced to shut down unless it reached an agreement with unions over a $10 million program of cost-cutting measures. Watch media chief discuss charging for online content \u00bb . The paper's owners, The New York Times Co., postponed plans to close the paper after reaching a deal with six of seven employees' unions but said the Globe was expected to lose $85 million in 2009 if it did not make major cuts. The developments followed the demise of print editions of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado; The Seattle Post-Intelligencer; and The Christian Science Monitor. The Rocky Mountain News shut down completely; both the Seattle paper and the Christian Science Monitor remain in online editions. At least 120 newspapers in the U.S. have shut down since January 2008, according to Paper Cuts, a Web site tracking the newspaper industry. More than 21,000 jobs at 67 newspapers have vaporized in that time, according to the site. Despite the general mood of gloom over the state of the economy, Murdoch said he believed the worst of the financial crisis had passed. \"I'm not an economist and we all know economists were created to make weather forecasters look good,\" he said. \"But it is increasingly clear the worst is over.\"","highlights":"Rupert Murdoch says News Corp. Web sites will charge for content within year .\nMurdoch's newspapers include New York Post, UK's Sun, Times .\nWall Street Journal proves users can be charged for content, Murdoch says .\nMurdoch: \"The current days of the Internet will soon be over\"","id":"9d94e0ccc73fb6cf1f3696b86498e4d0529a9c5b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cycling legend Lance Armstrong -- a survivor of testicular cancer -- and girlfriend Anna Hansen are expecting a baby, CNN learned on Tuesday through his charitable organization. Cyclist Lance Armstrong has announced he will come out of retirement and race once again in the Tour de France. The baby is due in June. Armstrong was diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain, lungs and abdomen. He underwent treatment for the disease and was able to return to cycling, eventually winning seven consecutive Tour de France's. The harsh chemotherapy left him unable to have children, although he and then-wife Kristin Richards had three children using sperm the cyclist had donated before the treatment. Armstrong and Hansen, however, are expecting without the use of any artificial fertilization process. \"This is a hopeful thing for testicular cancer survivors,\" CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said. \"It means his body healed from the chemotherapy and surgery.\" Armstrong retired from cycling after his seventh Tour de France win in 2005, and focused his energy on the Lance Armstrong Foundation (livestrong.org), which supports people affected by cancer. Armstrong founded the organization in 1997. The 37-year-old Texan announced in September that he was launching a comeback with the goal of winning the Tour de France in 2009. \"After talking with my children, my family and my closest friends, I have decided to return to professional cycling in order to raise awareness of the global cancer burden,\" he wrote on LiveStrong's Web site. He is training for several races leading up to the Tour de France, including Australia's Tour Down Under and the Giro d'Italia.","highlights":"Seven-times Tour de France winner Armstrong is a survivor of testicular cancer .\nThe 37-year-old Texan already has three children from his marriage .\n\"This is a hopeful thing for all testicular cancer survivors,\" says Sanjay Gupta .","id":"8c4c31f80c012df12f86f9d848885914f7f3c5e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An international peace conference in Johannesburg has been cancelled after South Africa refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the event. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Monday he would boycott the conference. Announcing the postponement at a news conference Tuesday, Irvin Khosa, chairman of the South African football league, did not offer an explanation. A presidential spokesman, Thabo Masebe, said little. \"South Africa has made this decision,\" he said. \"We stand by the decision.\" The peace conference had been scheduled to start Friday. Officials said they would like to have a conference in the future, but they did not offer a specific date. The conference had been organized by South African soccer officials, led by Khosa, and was billed as an opportunity to showcase South Africa's role as a human-rights champion ahead of the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship the nation will host next year. The presidential spokesman had said earlier that the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader and a Nobel Laureate -- did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend. Masebe said South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the World Cup. \"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet,\" he said. He added that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China. Khosa made the announcement at a news conference also attended by Chief Mandla Mandela, grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mandla Mandela said it was a sad day for the country's democracy and the African continent that the South African government had denied the Dalai Lama a visa. South Africa should not succumb to international pressure, Mandela said. A representative of the Dalai Lama said he was not surprised by the visa refusal. The Tibetan government in exile thinks that China has pressured many countries to refuse a visit by the Dalai Lama, according to Chhime Chhoekyapa, an aide in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. The peace conference was to bring together Nobel laureates and top soccer officials. Archbishop Desmond Tutu; former President F.W. De Klerk; laureates Nelson Mandela and Martti Ahtisaar; Seff Blatter, president of soccer's international governing body; and actress Charlize Theron were among those invited. The event had the blessing of the Nobel Committee. A presidential spokesman had said earlier that the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader and a Nobel Laureate -- did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend.","highlights":"South Africa refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the event .\nSpokesman: Not in South Africa's interest for him to attend .\nGrandson of Nelson Mandela said it was a sad day for country's democracy .","id":"c57b59563c8200773261416c3485ea435bc17b0e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five years from now, there's an excellent chance you won't have the same health insurance you have (or don't have) right now. That's because members of Congress are gearing up to reform the U.S. health care system, and unlike in 1993 when then-first lady Hillary Clinton tried her hand at changing the medical system, this time the important players -- doctors, insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers -- seem to be on board. You heard a lot about health care reform this week, and you'll be hearing even more in the months to come. It's an incredibly confusing, complex issue, so in this week's Empowered Patient, we break it down for you with 10 frequently asked questions about health care reform. Overhauling health care is key to U.S. economic stability, President Obama tells doctors Monday. 1. Why is health care reform such a hot issue right now? Fewer and fewer Americans have health insurance, and therefore cannot afford good medical care. Nearly 46 million Americans have no insurance, and 25 million more are underinsured. One major reason for this crisis is that many employers have stopped offering insurance to employees because of the high cost. In the United States, total health care spending was $2.4 trillion in 2007 -- or $7,900 per person -- according to an analysis published in the journal Health Affairs. The United States spends 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation, Norway, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. There's little debate that health care reform is necessary -- President Obama, Republican and Democratic members of Congress, the American Medical Association and America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents the insurance industry, all have agreed the system needs to be changed, although they disagree on how to do it. 2. So let's start with Obama. What are his plans for revamping the system? A central point of the president's plan is to create a government-sponsored health insurance program that would be an option for all Americans, similar to how Medicare is now an option for Americans over age 65. He has also said he'd \"like to see\" prohibitions against insurers discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, and incentives for people to use preventive services and wellness plans. Obama outlined this plan last week at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and on his Web site. 3. How does the president plan to pay for this? Obama said he's already identified \"hundreds of billions of dollars\" worth of savings in the federal budget that could help finance health care reform, such as rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. He's also proposed reducing tax deductions for high-income Americans. 4. What do the Republicans think of Obama's plan? In particular, they don't like the idea of having a government-sponsored health insurance program for all Americans. They fear employers would opt for the government-run insurance over private insurance because the government option would most likely be less expensive, but Republicans say it would also be lower quality. For information, see House Minority Leader John Boehner's Web site. 5. Since they don't like Obama's ideas, how would Republicans like to reform health care? Republicans think Obama's plan is costly and will make health insurance more expensive, not less. In a plan outlined this week, House Republicans proposed individual tax breaks for buying health insurance and \"pools\" of states and small business to get lower-cost health care plans. They also proposed increasing incentives for people to build health savings accounts, allowing dependent children to stay on parents' policies until age 25 and encouraging employers to reward employees for improved health. 6. I'm happy with the insurance I receive from my employer. What would health care reform mean for me? If you receive high-quality health insurance from your employer, Obama said, his plan won't change that, and you can still keep your insurance and your doctors. Republicans, however, said that if Obama gets his way, there's a good chance your employer will stop buying the private insurance you have now and instead opt for the less-expensive government plan. 7. I have a pre-existing condition and can't get health insurance. Will health care reform help me? You have a terrible problem and you're in good company. Millions of people who don't get insurance through their employer try to get insurance on their own and are turned down because they have a pre-existing condition. Obama said at the Green Bay town hall meeting that under his reforms, no insurance plan \"would be able to deny coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions,\" but he didn't explain how he would force insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing health problems. Similarly, Boehner wrote on his blog that \"quality health coverage must exist for every American, regardless of pre-existing health conditions,\" but did not explain how he would pay to insure people with pre-existing conditions. 8. How do doctors feel about health care reform? The American Medical Association said while it believes in health care reform, \"the AMA does not believe that creating a public health insurance option ... is the best way to expand health insurance coverage.\" The AMA has told members of Congress that doctors fear a new government-sponsored health insurance program would reimburse them at Medicare rates. \"Medicare reimbursement rates have not kept pace with the cost of practice,\" AMA President Dr. Nancy Nielsen told CNN earlier this week. \"Our Medicare rates are back at 2001 rates, and the reality is, that's not where our rent is, that's not where the electricity is. The system for paying doctors is a broken system, and everybody acknowledges it.\" Other doctors' groups, however, support the idea. The American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Physicians Alliance and other groups put out a statement of support this week for Obama's plan. \"Having the choice of a public health insurance plan will help make health care more affordable for patients, foster greater competition in the insurance market and guarantee that quality, affordable coverage will be there for our patients no matter what happens,\" they wrote in a joint statement.. 9. Obama has mentioned high health care costs in McAllen, Texas, several times. What's up with that? According to research conducted at the Dartmouth Institute, the average per person health costs for McAllen are sky-high compared with costs in other cities. In McAllen, the average Medicare beneficiary spends $15,758 per year, while the average Medicare patient in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, spends $6,412 per year. Another comparison: The cost in Miami, Florida, is $18,170, compared with $7,478 in Portland, Oregon. Dartmouth researchers believe doctors in high-priced cities tend to refer to specialists more and are more likely to put patients in the hospital rather than handling their problems on an outpatient basis. 10. How do health care costs in the U.S. compare with costs in other countries? In the United States, every person spends on average $6,714 for health care. That's significantly higher than in the United Kingdom, where $2,760 per person is spent; or in France, where the cost is $3,449 per person; or in Canada, where medical costs are $3,678 per person, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. While some would argue that medical care is better in the United States than in these other countries, others would say the opposite is true. For example, the United States ranks 50th in life expectancy, and 180th infant mortality (meaning 179 countries have higher infant mortality rates such as Angola and Turkey and 43 countries have lower infant mortality rates such as France and Sweden) according to the CIA World Factbook. For more on international price comparisons, see this segment \u00bb on CNN Newsroom. CNN's Jennifer Pifer Bixler, Marcy Heard and Sabriya Rice contributed to this report .","highlights":"President Obama says health care reform is a priority; other stakeholders on board .\nU.S. spends 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation .\nObama wants government-sponsored health insurance program .\nRepublicans think plan is costly, will make health insurance more expensive .","id":"c398f7844f6876a87fb27dde8568d19c41e2d42e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man accused of killing eight people in a shooting spree at a North Carolina nursing home is the husband of a woman who worked there, police said Monday. Robert Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the nursing home shootings. The two may have been separated, said Carthage, North Carolina, Police Chief Chris McKenzie. He did not say if the wife was in the building at the time. The alleged gunman, Robert Stewart, was carrying several weapons, authorities said. Seven patients and a nurse were killed, and three people were wounded, including a visitor and a police officer. All the wounded are expected to survive, McKenzie said. Officer Justin Garner was shot in the leg, McKenzie said. \"As I understand, there were three pellets in his shin, leg and foot,\" he said. Garner entered the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center alone with no backup and brought the shooting spree to an end with a single shot, hitting Stewart in the \"chest, upper torso area,\" McKenzie said. \"If that's not heroism, I don't know what is,\" he said. Garner is \"in very good spirits, resting at home,\" he added. McKenzie said he did not know the latest on Stewart's condition. The alleged gunman's motive remained a mystery. Stewart has not made a public statement nor has an attorney on his behalf. His wife has not issued a statement either. Meanwhile, his ex-wife, Sue Griffin, told CNN affiliate WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, \"He did have some violent tendencies from time to time.\" She added that when she heard the news of Sunday's shooting, \"I couldn't believe it -- then I stopped, thought about it and thought, 'It is possible. It's possible.' \" At a news conference Monday, McKenzie described the shooting spree as \"unimaginable\" and \"horrific.\" \"Everything that you can possibly imagine that is bad in the world,\" he said. \"This doesn't happen, but it did.\" He described the small town as \"strong, faith-based -- and that faith will get this community through this.\" The tragedy draws attention to what McKenzie called the toughest part of training police officers. Officers are told not to wait for backup when there are many lives on the line, he said. \"That's the hardest thing -- to try to convince them you can't wait, you have to go.\" If Garner had waited for backup, \"there would have been a lot more people [killed],\" McKenzie said. The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said. A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham that Stewart was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and other weapons. Jerry Avant Sr. told WRAL that his son, Jerry Avant, a 39-year-old registered nurse, was the employee who was killed in the shooting. He said a doctor told him that his son had been shot more than two dozen times. The elder Avant said the doctor told him his son \"undoubtedly saved a lot of lives.\" Watch dad praise his son's bravery \u00bb . Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a police officer, and other charges are pending, Krueger said. Carthage is about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh. See map showing Carthage and Raleigh \u00bb .","highlights":"NEW: Alleged gunman may have been separated from wife .\nNEW: Lone police officer took down shooter, chief says .\nNEW: Police say they don't have motive in slayings .\nEight people shot and killed Sunday at North Carolina nursing home .","id":"c999df74248832224b6fa7e816b677461c755a13"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In 1994, universal health care was a key policy plan for then-President Bill Clinton. It eventually failed. In 1993, President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton listen to a man's story about health care problems. Now, 15 years later, another Democratic president is taking on the challenge, but facing an uphill battle from not only from Republicans, but from members of his own party. Will failing to reform health care have the same consequences for Obama's administration as it did for Clinton's? Like Obama, Clinton came into office with reforming the nation's health care system as one of his top priorities. Then-first lady Hillary Clinton, who headed the administration's task force on reforming the system, delivered a 1,000-page plan that was dubbed \"Hillary Care,\" which required Americans and permanent resident aliens to enroll in a health plan. Other provisions included Americans below a certain income level paying nothing for care. Republicans decried the plan as overcomplicated and used it to tag the administration as big government-loving, tax-and-spend liberals. The plan's failure emboldened Republicans and led to huge Democratic losses in the 1994 midterm elections, allowing the GOP to take control of Congress and stymie other Clinton initiatives. Now, 15 years later, Obama potentially faces a similar fate. Obama seeks the overhaul to ensure that health insurance is available to the 46 million Americans currently without coverage while preventing costs to both the government and individuals from continuing to climb. Watch more on the health care debate \u00bb . The president had set a deadline for passage of a bill before the August congressional recess, but in an interview Monday with PBS's Jim Lehrer, the president said that if Congress tells him it's \"going to spill over by a few days or a week,\" that's fine. iReport.com: Weigh in on the health care debate . A senior White House official adds that while there is a \"long way to go\" in coming up with legislation, there is a true effort being made to devise a bipartisan plan. See how the plans compare \u00bb . \"[The Senate] is working in a bipartisan way and despite all of the cacophony of attacks you've heard from some Republicans, I think you've got to give some credit to the Republicans on the finance committee who are making right now a good faith effort, despite pressure, probably from their own party, to work with Democrats to try to come up with something that people can get behind,\" said White House Communications Director Anita Dunn on Wednesday. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, says in order for health care reform to get passed, it will take a well-coordinated bipartisan effort. \"I think the president is right. He really does want a bipartisan effort. And that's what it's going to take for it to be for the American people. But the approach to it is kind of like a doctor practicing bad medicine where you fix only symptoms and don't treat the disease. ... the disease is only going to get worse.\" But the battle over health care reform is weighed down by complex problems, competing interests, a $1 trillion price tag, conservative Democrats in sticker shock and Republicans sensing an opportunity to regain some of the power they lost in the 2006 congressional elections. Conservative Bill Kristol wrote in his blog that there is an opportunity to inflict political damage to the president and that opponents shouldn't compromise: . \"My advice, for what it's worth: Resist the temptation,\" Kristol wrote. \"This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill.\" The White House has so far resisted another idea for raising revenue -- creating a tax on the medical benefits provided by employers. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said he likes the idea, but Obama said it could be too disruptive to a system in which 180 million Americans have health coverage provided by their employers. But while Obama has remained mostly popular in national polls so far, support for his health care plan has begun to wane. A CNN Poll of Polls released Wednesday indicates that less than half the country approves of how he's handling the issue. Forty-seven percent in the poll approve of how the president is dealing with health care reform, with 44 percent disapproving. The poll averaged the three most recent national surveys that asked about Obama's performance on health care: USA Today\/Gallup (July 17-19); ABC\/Washington Post (July 15-18) and CBS News (July 9-12). Meanwhile, Coburn -- a fierce opponent of the current plans being worked up in Congress -- says that Congress needs to slow down. \"Getting this right is better than meeting a political deadline ... I want him to back off the timeline,\" he said. \"Let's start over ... let's fix it all and do it in a way that the American people won't charge it to their grandkids.\" CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, who has worked under several administrations, including Clinton's, says there's is concern that Obama may be trying to ram health care legislation through Congress as he did with the economic stimulus plan. \"And they [Americans] don't have a lot of confidence in the past effort in the stimulus plan to put together something comprehensive and -- 'here we go again' ... something that looks like it's being thrown together to many people in the public. So they're not confident that they want it. And Coburn's argument -- along with nearly all congressional Republicans' -- could pose a risk to Obama's political capital with Americans. Gergen agrees. \"I think he's got two other problems: One is that he doesn't have a firm plan to sell. ... Second thing is, from his point of view, there are many in the public that'd like to hear from him and also like to see just how he's negotiating the plan,\" he said. \"What they look for is a leadership that says, 'Here's where we're going to go,' not a leadership that says, 'I'm urging Congress to make more progress' \" Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who Obama had tapped to be Health and Human Services director and the point person on health care reform before tax problems derailed his nomination, said getting health care reform passed now will be a major factor in defining Obama's presidency. \"Because he's made it such an issue, and because he has invested so much personal time and effort, this will, more than stimulus and more than anything he has done so far, be a measure of his clout and of his success early on,\" Daschle was quoted in the New York Times. \"And because it is early on, it will define his subsequent years.\" CNN's Dana Bash, Paul Steinhauser and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama is urging Congress to come up with a health care reform plan .\nCNN analyst sees similarities between Obama's push and Clinton's in 1994 .\nObama and top Democrats are seeking coverage for 46 million Americans .","id":"adaf540176b22e1c73d21ec01113d1951742908e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Arkansas man suspected in a shooting that killed one soldier and wounded another at a Little Rock military recruiting center was angry over the treatment of Muslims, authorities said Tuesday. Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, was killed in Monday's attack. Abdulhakim Bledsoe, 23, of Little Rock, also told police he recently watched a video \"pertaining to subversive activities which spurred him to commit this act,\" according to court documents. Bledsoe pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. He faces one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act, said Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas. The terrorist counts stem from the shots fired at an occupied building. Watch scenes from Tuesday in court \u00bb . Before the not guilty plea, authorities said Bledsoe waived his Miranda rights after the shooting Monday and gave a video statement indicating that \"political and religious\" motives were involved. He \"stated that he was a practicing Muslim ... that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,\" homicide detective Tommy Hudson said in a police report. Bledsoe told police \"he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them,\" according to Hudson's report. The suspect is a Muslim convert who has also gone by the names Carlos Bledsoe and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. He changed his name from the latter April 23, citing religious reasons, court records show. A leader of the Muslim community in Little Rock said he did not know Bledsoe. The suspect had been under investigation after visiting Yemen, a federal law enforcement official said. The official declined to provide further information. Police believe the shooter acted alone \"with the specific purpose of targeting military personnel,\" Thomas said. Kent Krause, Bledsoe's public defender, said a formal hearing would be held for his client, but no date has been set. Residents left flowers and miniature American flags outside the recruiting center after the shooting. A lone candle burned on the sidewalk next to bouquets of white and red roses. A note that said \"Thank you for your service\" was attached to the flowers. The shooting Monday killed Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, who were outside the military recruiting center. Bledsoe told police he was driving around and saw Long and Ezeagwula smoking outside the building, according to Hudson's report. He said he pulled into the parking lot and shot the two soldiers and added that \"he would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot,\" according to the report. Ezeagwula was in stable condition Tuesday, the police chief said. The soldiers were part of a recruiting program called \"hometown recruiting assistance,\" said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis, commander of the Oklahoma recruiting battalion that oversees the Little Rock Army-Navy recruiting center. Under the program, soldiers tell their stories to potential recruits. It's a volunteer position taken while soldiers are visiting or based back in their home region, Artis said. \"I'm relieved there's a suspect in custody,\" said Capt. Matthew Feehan, commander of the recruiting center. He said several people were in the building at the time of the shooting, but nobody else was injured. Bledsoe was arrested after officers on Interstate 630 pulled over his car, which matched witnesses' description of a black Ford sport utility vehicle seen leaving the scene of the shooting. Police recovered three guns from the suspect's vehicle -- an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a .380-caliber automatic pistol, Thomas said. The victims were shot with an SKS rifle, according to the police report. Police also seized from Bledsoe's vehicle and apartment several rounds of ammunition, two homemade silencers, handwritten notes in Arabic, CDs with handwritten Arabic labels, a computer and cell phones, according to court documents. Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tennessee, was listed on the police report as Bledsoe's father. He declined to comment, referring questions to Little Rock police.","highlights":"Police say \"political and religious motives\" were indicated .\nConvert said he was angry over military's treatment of Muslims, police say .\nOne soldier killed, one wounded in Monday's shootings .","id":"762b1a25e465360f62cbe7cb6480e8845c3917ff"} -{"article":"WASHAKIE COUNTY, Wyoming (CNN) -- Federal agents have apprehended accused child molester Edward Eugene Harper, who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, an FBI official said Thursday. Edward Eugene Harper is believed to have lived a nomadic lifestyle since fleeing Mississippi. Harper, 63, is accused of molesting two girls, ages 3 and 8, in his neighborhood in Hernando, Mississippi, more than a decade ago, the FBI said. The FBI said it received a telephone tip in June at the Denver office regarding Harper, and brought a SWAT team and a hostage negotiation team to apprehend him in rural Wyoming on Thursday. He surrendered without incident, the FBI said, and later admitted his identity to agents. Harper was living in a 1979 truck with a camper top in the southern portion of Washakie County's Big Horn Mountains, the FBI said. He is believed to have lived a nomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place and earning a living by doing odd jobs and herding sheep, the FBI said in a statement. He was indicted in April 1994 with conspiracy to commit sexual battery, fondling a child and sexual battery. He failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing and a state warrant was issued for his arrest in October 1994. He was later charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, a federal offense. The FBI added him to its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list last year. Before living in Mississippi, Harper had been a ranch hand, working with cattle and sheep in Montana and Wyoming, the FBI said in its release on Harper last year. He has also worked as a truck driver, the agency said. According to the FBI, Harper subscribed to \"sovereign citizen\" ideology and claimed to be a member of the Montana Freemen, a group that rejected the authority of the U.S. government. The group became famous for an 81-day standoff with federal agents in Montana in 1996. But after the arrest and conviction of many of its members, the group essentially disintegrated, according to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. \"As far as I know,\" they don't exist, he said. \"Most of them went to prison and there was nothing left.\"","highlights":"Edward Eugene Harper accused of molesting two girls ages 3 and 8 a decade ago .\nHarper surrendered without incident after telephone tip in June led FBI to him .\nFBI says he was working as sheep herder, living in camper in rural Wyoming .\nHarper was indicted in Mississippi on charges of sexual battery, fondling a child .","id":"bf7b4cc1e2da99996f40270d32a8664338c4a150"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dallas Cowboys scouting assistant suffered a broken back and has been permanently paralyzed after the collapse of the team's practice canopy during a heavy thunderstorm, the Cowboys announced Sunday. An aerial view of the scene shows the Dallas Cowboys logo amid the ruins of the indoor practice facility. Rich Behm, 33, was one of three Cowboys staffers seriously hurt when the storm struck their practice facility Saturday afternoon. Behm's spinal cord was severed by a fractured vertebrae, paralyzing him from the waist down, the team said in a written statement. \"To the Behm family, we extend our love, comfort and the full support of every person and resource within the organization,\" Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. \"Rich is a courageous member of our family and someone for whom we care deeply. We ask for all friends and fans of the Dallas Cowboys to join us in embracing him and his family with their thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time,\" Jones said. A total of 12 people were hurt when a severe thunderstorm knocked down the air-supported, metal frame structure that covered the team's practice field. About 70 people, including more than two dozen of the team's rookies, were in the facility when it was blown down. Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis had a fractured cervical vertebra, while assistant trainer Greg Gaither had two broken bones in his leg, the team said. Watch CNN's Don Lemon with update on conditions of those injured in collapse \u00bb . A line of heavy thunderstorms was moving through the Dallas area at the time, but no other damage to buildings was reported, said Mike Adams, a dispatcher for the Irving, Texas, Fire Department. Watch the roof collapse on players, coaches \u00bb . Arnold Payne, a photographer for WFAA, was shooting the Cowboys' practice session Saturday when rain began falling \"tremendously hard.\" \"I noticed the walls started to waver ... and then I noticed that the lights that were hanging from the ceiling started to sway, and it wouldn't stop,\" Payne told CNN. Shortly after that, he said, \"It was as if someone took a stick pin and hit a balloon.\" Watch Payne describe being inside when structure collapsed \u00bb . Payne said Cowboys staff photographers were up in the metal framework beneath the canopy to film the practice session and \"actually rode the building down with the storm.\" \"There was nowhere for them to go, and it fell so fast -- it just collapsed as if it was being imploded,\" Payne said. CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rich Behm one of three Cowboys staffers seriously hurt Saturday .\nBehm's spinal cord severed by a fractured vertebrae, paralyzing him from waist down .\nCanopy over Dallas Cowboys' practice facility collapsed during thunderstorm .\nTeam photographers were up in framework of structure, rode it down, witness says .","id":"5d9325b6c370a0f24eccdcc7cd077f2212d436bd"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- A crowd in southern Lebanon threw rocks at U.N. peacekeepers over the weekend, wounding 14 of them in an effort to prevent the investigation of an explosion in the area, the United Nations said. U.N. peacekeepers were investigating reports of an explosion in a Hezbollah stronghold. The troops with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were lightly wounded, and some vehicles were damaged including a UNIFIL ambulance, officials said. The explosion took place Tuesday in Khirbet Salim, in what Lebanese authorities said was an uninhabited house. Ammunition stored there caused the blast due to the high temperature and humidity, Lebanese officials said. The region is a stronghold for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party that fought a war with Israel in 2006. Hezbollah has carried out attacks against civilians, and the United States and Israel list the group as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah officials had no comment Monday. UNIFIL called last week's explosion \"a serious violation of Security Council resolution 1701,\" which was aimed at ending the 2006 conflict, \"notably the provision that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of operation between the Litani River and the Blue Line.\" Israel said the blast indicated that Hezbollah continued to store weapons near the Israeli border. Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev argued that the Lebanese Army had assisted Hezbollah in preventing U.N. personnel from investigating the scene. UNIFIL, in a statement Monday, said it was conducting a joint investigation with the Lebanese military. When troops Saturday night arrived \"at a location 1 km from the site in order to verify elements related to the explosion, approximately 100 persons gathered and attempted to hamper the activity. \"The amassed population threw stones and confronted the UNIFIL personnel on the ground. As the gathering grew both UNIFIL and LAF deployed additional personnel on the ground in order to contain the situation and prevent any further escalation. \"As UNIFIL troops were leaving the area, one patrol, surrounded by a group of persons, fired warning shots in the air to clear its exit path.\" During the incident, the 14 peacekeepers were injured and the vehicles were damaged, the UNIFIL statement said. CNN's Cal Perry and Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"Crowd in southern Lebanon throw rocks at U.N. peacekeepers injuring 14 .\nPeacekeepers were trying to check an explosion in the area .\nAmmunition stored in house caused blast due to temperature and humidity .","id":"22fb7e29d9f9f4304f45dac5ee54c39ca8972cca"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When man first walked on the moon 40 years ago, it was not only a \"giant leap for mankind\" but also a boon for everyday items. A NASA-inspired tracking system is helping monitor endangered whale sharks. Sports shoes, for example, took a huge leap forward in the late 1980s when AVIA Group International, then a subsidiary of Reebok, turned to space technology to make them more flexible and durable. Freeze-dried food, artificial limbs, cordless vacuum cleaners and edible toothpaste were also developed using research that can be linked to NASA's forays into space. They are listed in detail in \"Spinoff,\" a NASA magazine first compiled in 1976 as a definitive guide to the commercialized products whose development can be tied to space technology. \"We are fairly liberal with our application of the term spinoff,\" said editor Daniel Lockney. \"The product has to contain a component that was developed for NASA, some aspect of it or it could just be NASA's know-how that helped the commercialization of the product,\" he said. More than 1,660 articles on space-related products have been published since the magazine's first edition. Watch some of the spin-offs developed from space technology \u00bb . What you won't find on the list is the bright orange powered drink, Tang, or Teflon, or Velcro -- all products that have over time been erroneously linked to NASA's space mission. \"Tang was developed by General Foods before NASA was even made a federal agency, but it was popularized during astronaut tasting experiments,\" Lockney said. \"Velcro was invented by a Swiss engineer in the 1940s,\" he said, adding \"Teflon was created by Dupont. It has many applications within NASA but is not a NASA technology.\" Infant formula makes the grade due to an ingredient discovered during NASA research into algae as a source of food supplements. \"Different experiments led to the discovery of a nutrient substance that has previously only been found in breast milk. [This is] believed to be important in the development in the eyes and the brain.\" It's now in 95 percent of infant formula sold in the U.S. and in 65 countries around the world, Lockney said. It may have been 40 years since NASA put the first man on the moon, but the number of products that use space technology doesn't seem to be diminishing. \"Spinoff\" publishes articles on 40 to 50 new space-related products every year but receives many more submissions for inclusion. The next edition due out in October will feature a new tracking system for endangered animals, including polar bears and whale sharks, which was derived from an algorithm developed for tracking star patterns. \"Tracing theses animals is something that previously a small core group of scientists would go out and do. We're now able to have ordinary citizens upload their pictures of these animals that have been spotted through Flickr and Facebook. Logging times and dates will significantly increase the level of monitoring of these endangered species,\" Lockney said. For more space-related products see NASA's \"Spinoff\" Web site.","highlights":"Many common products can be traced back to research conducted by NASA .\nFreeze-dried food, artificial limbs, edible toothpaste are among NASA spin-offs .\nContrary to rumors, Tang, Velcro and Teflon not developed for space travel .\nIt has been 40 years since NASA's Apollo 11 mission took man to the moon .","id":"c06198c4d87cf930cd57053c61a6b88dc6c41033"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English football star Steven Gerrard has admitted punching a man in a bar, but the Liverpool captain insisted in his court testimony that it was in self-defense. England international Steven Gerrard is in court defending his actions after a bar brawl late last year. The 29-year-old is facing a charge of affray after an incident in the early hours of December 29, when he attacked businessman Marcus McGee following a dispute about the music that was being played. If found guilty, Gerrard faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine of $7,200. Gerrard, who denies the charge, told a judge on Thursday that he was sorry about his actions in Southport's Lounge Inn, but at the time he thought McGee was going to attack him. They had been involved in an argument after Gerrard tried to change the music on the bar's sound system, but McGee would not let him, the UK Press Association reported. \"I thought he was going to hit me,\" Gerrard said. \"He was on his way forward to me and his behavior had changed from when I was having a discussion with him. I didn't know why.\" Gerrard said he was unaware that his friend John Doran had already punched McGee when he himself started to hit the 34-year-old. \"I am certainly mistaken in thinking he was coming towards me to throw punches at me,\" the midfielder said. \"Now I know, obviously, he had been struck, reacted and thought the strike was by me and he came into me and that's when I reacted. I am sorry about the whole incident. \"I grabbed the back of his jumper as he moved forward to me. When I had hold of Marcus, I remember swinging my right hand two or three times. \"I was trying to stop still and I felt I had arms all over me. I could see a melee around Marcus McGee. When I was getting pulled away I realized people were patting me, some of whom were my friends. \"I wanted to help control the situation. I was worried the fight I had with Marcus was going to get worse because people were going past me in that direction.\" Gerrard said that his friends had earlier told him to \"forget\" the argument, but he felt he needed to confront McGee. \"I couldn't understand why the guy had such a problem with me, why he was so aggressive,\" he said. \"I was also concerned that if I did leave it I would not have been able to enjoy my night, he may have come over to me. \"I wanted to see why he had such a problem with it, why a total stranger had such a problem with me putting my favorite songs on. I asked why I couldn't have an input in the music and tried to explain that I had permission from the manageress.\" \"I asked Marcus what was the problem with the music machine and why he treated me like that. Very quickly he came off the bar stool and was in my face right by me.\" Gerrard had been celebrating after scoring two goals as Liverpool thrashed Newcastle 5-1 to remain top of the Premier League, and admitted that he had been drinking alcohol. \"I certainly knew I had had a drink. I was certainly in control of how I felt in my surroundings,\" he said. The father of two said he had not been in trouble with the police since the age of 19, when he was banned from driving for nine months for drink-driving.","highlights":"English football star Steven Gerrard has admitted punching a man in a bar .\nBut the Liverpool captain says in court testimony that it was in self-defense .\nGerrard, 29, denies charge of affray for attacking businessman Marcus McGee .\nIf found guilty, he faces maximum penalty of six months in jail and $7,200 fine .","id":"7cff5ec89dbaf7b4bc1fe56080962842b8d46897"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Texas authorities released court documents Thursday detailing the items seized from the medical office and storage unit of Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist who was with Michael Jackson when he fell ill and died on June 25. Dr. Conrad Murray's office was searched Wednesday for \"evidence of the offense of manslaughter.\" Detectives searched both sites in Houston on Wednesday for \"evidence of the offense of manslaughter,\" according to court documents. Murray's attorney confirmed the search Wednesday. Among the items removed from Murray's office were a computer; 27 tablets of Phentermine, a prescription-strength appetite suppressant; 1 tablet of clonazepam, an anti-anxiety medication; and some Rolodex cards. From Murray's storage unit, authorities removed two computer hard drives; an \"important contact list\"; a suspension notice from Houston's Doctors Hospital; notices from the Internal Revenue Service; and a list of medical and hospital documents. Jackson's former nurse, Cherilyn Lee, was also approached on Wednesday by investigators who wanted copies of medical files she had on the singer, Lee told CNN's Nancy Grace. Lee said she handed over the files to officials with the coroner's office. Ed Chernoff, a Houston lawyer hired by Murray soon after Jackson's death, confirmed that Los Angeles Police detectives and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents used a search warrant to enter Murray's office in northeast Houston on Wednesday morning. \"The search warrant authorized law enforcement to search for and seize items, including documents, they believed constituted evidence of the offense of manslaughter,\" Chernoff said in a written statement Wednesday. Chernoff said members of Murray's legal team were at the medical office during the search, which he said \"was conducted by members of the DEA, two robbery-homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department and Houston Police officers.\" \"Law enforcement concluded their search around 12:30 p.m. and left with a forensic image of a business computer hard drive and 21 documents. None of the documents taken had previously been requested by law enforcement or the L.A. coroner's office,\" Chernoff said. Tammy Kidd, a spokeswoman at Chernoff's office, said the search \"was absolutely a surprise to us, because we've had open lines of communication this whole time.\" \"Based on Dr. Murray's minute-by-minute and item-by-item description of Michael Jackson's last days, he should not be a target of criminal charges,\" Chernoff said Tuesday. \"Dr. Murray was the last doctor standing when Michael Jackson died and it seems all the fury is directed toward him.\" Los Angeles investigators have interviewed Murray twice, Chernoff said. A third interview has not been scheduled, he said. Police impounded his car, which had been parked at Jackson's Holmby Hills home, the night after Jackson's death. It was released to Murray several days later. \"Dr. Murray is frustrated by negative and often erroneous media reports. He has to walk around 24-7 with a bodyguard,\" Chernoff said. \"He can't operate his practice. He can't go to work because he is harassed no matter where he goes.\" At least two investigations are under way into Jackson's death. The Los Angeles County coroner is waiting for toxicology results to determine a cause of death, while the city Police Department, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration, is looking at the possibility of criminal charges. A coroner's office spokesman said the autopsy findings could be released in the next week or more. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton told CNN he would wait for the coroner to determine the exact cause of Jackson's death. \"And based on those, we will have an idea of what it is we are dealing (with): Are we dealing with a homicide, or are we dealing with an accidental overdose?\" he said. CNN's Alan Duke, Ted Rowlands and Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Texas office and storage unit of Dr. Conrad Murray searched .\nAmong items seized are pills, computer hard drives, contact lists, officials say .\nJackson's former nurse says she has been asked for copies of records .\nMurray's lawyer says his client \"should not be a target of criminal charges\"","id":"ecb30291c93a32b3436a625fec7188bd0d04dab2"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A 23-year-old medical student pleaded not guilty Monday to an indictment alleging first-degree murder charge in a killing tied to Craigslist. Philip Markoff is charged with killing a woman and robbing another in Boston hotels in April. Philip Markoff is accused in the the fatal shooting of one woman and the robbery another in Boston hotels earlier this year. A Massachusetts grand jury late last week indicted him on seven counts, including first-degree murder. Markoff is charged with the April 14 fatal shooting and attempted robbery of Julissa Brisman, 25, and the armed robbery of a 29-year-old Las Vegas woman on April 10. Investigators have linked both crimes to ads on the popular Web site Craigslist. He is also charged with \"the armed and forcible confinement\" of the two women, as well as two counts of unlawful firearm possession, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said. Watch Markoff in court \u00bb . The grand jury returned the indictment late Thursday, and it moves the case from Boston Municipal Court to Suffolk Superior Court, where Markoff entered his not guilty plea on Monday. He previously had pleaded not guilty in the city court and is being held without bail. Markoff's attorney, John Salzberg, had no comment on the new indictment. Prosecutors said Brisman, a model from New York who advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, was shot three times at close range and suffered blunt head trauma at the Marriott Copley Place hotel. The Las Vegas woman was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards at the Westin Copley Place hotel, police reports said. Markoff, a second-year medical student at Boston University's School of Medicine, also has been charged in a nonfatal hotel assault in Rhode Island. He has been charged with assault with the intent to rob, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a handgun and use of a firearm while committing a crime of violence, stemming from an April 16 robbery attempt at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect pleads not guilty to slaying of woman, robbery of another .\nPhilip Markoff charged in seven-count indictment .\nPolice: Both April incidents linked to ads on Craigslist.com .\nSlain woman was masseuse who advertised on Craigslist, prosecutors say .","id":"d0cda0c70cdf24868eccba232bed8c86594ff6ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper was suspended Wednesday for five days without pay following a highly publicized scuffle with a paramedic in Okfuskee County in May, according to the Highway Patrol. This is an image from a video that captured an Oklahoma trooper's scuffle with a paramedic in May. The incident, which was caught on dash-camera and cell-phone video, showed Trooper Daniel Martin pulling over a Creek Nation ambulance for a traffic-stop violation. During the incident, Martin is heard repeatedly using profanity and twice getting into a scuffle with one of the paramedics. Both paramedics and family members of the patient in the ambulance informed Martin several times by there was a patient inside, but he did not allow the paramedics to continue to the hospital while the video continued. In a news conference Wednesday, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Captain Chris West said Martin \"failed to recognize that it would have been more reasonable and appropriate to immediately allow the ambulance to continue to the hospital once he understood there was a patient onboard the ambulance.\" Watch the confrontation \u00bb . West also said Martin had \"probable cause to make the traffic stop and justification to arrest the paramedic for obstructing a police officer\" but that the incident \"resulted in conduct unbecoming an officer.\" Martin's attorney, Gary James of Oklahoma City, did not immediately return a phone call from CNN. In a disciplinary letter sent to Martin, Oklahoma Public Safety Department Commissioner Kevin Ward, concluded that the \"disregard for the welfare of the patient [justified] severe discipline.\" Martin will also be required to take an anger assessment, West said. The trooper had no previous discipline action in his record, according to West. On Tuesday, the paramedic involved in the scuffle, Maurice White, filed a lawsuit against Martin in federal court claiming his civil rights were violated. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario contributed to this report.","highlights":"May incident was caught on dash-camera and cell-phone video .\nTrooper Daniel Martin shown pulling over a Creek Nation ambulance .\nDuring incident, Martin heard using profanity and getting physical with paramedic .\nMartin continued to hold up ambulance despite being informed of patient inside .","id":"a5cfe63308a718d13967f2fc430d0bcdc799357a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Finnish prosecutors will file genocide charges against a Rwandan man in the killings of 15 people during Rwanda's ethnic cleansing bloodbath in 1994, authorities said Monday. The case is the first genocide trial in Finland's history. Accused of complicity in the killings, the unidentified man would face life imprisonment if convicted. \"It is obvious, according to the pre-trial investigation, that the man has committed a crime of genocide in the municipality of Nyakizu in April and May 1994 with intent to destroy the Rwandan Tutsis partly or totally,\" Finland's prosecutor-general said in a statement. The man, a 58-year-old Hutu, has denied the charges. Stoked by the assassination of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, extremist militias made up of ethnic Hutus slaughtered ethnic Tutsis across Rwanda, beginning in April 1994. Within 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed. The genocide ended when Tutsi-led militias backing Rwandan President Paul Kagame ousted the Hutu government supporting the massacre. The Rwandan man was living in Porvoo, about 50 km (31 miles) east of the Finnish capital of Helsinki, when he was arrested. Prosecutors said they interviewed nearly 100 witnesses abroad before proceeding with charges against the man.","highlights":"The case is the first genocide trial in Finland's history .\nThe 58-year-old Hutu man living in Finland when he was arrested .\nEstimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis slaughtered in 1994 by Hutu-led militias .","id":"83ce967597adfdf7a54d432bcfc825f0650881bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Last August, then-Republican presidential nominee John McCain introduced to the nation his surprise pick for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a strong base of supporters, as well as a steady supply of vocal critics. At the time, little was known about the fresh-faced, first-term governor, but within days, Palin's face was on newspapers, magazines and tabloids. Since then, Palin has become a polarizing figure in the Republican Party. Her passionate supporters are countered with equally fervent critics. And even though it's been nearly a year since she ventured onto the national stage and more than eight months since the Republican ticket lost the election, as Palin prepares to leave office, the public's interest in her has yet to wane. Palin explains why she's stepping down . \"She's kind of a shooting star that caught fire and kept burning,\" said Lorenzo Benet, an assistant editor for People magazine and author of \"Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin.\" \"When she walks into a room, she definitely commands attention and she gets more than most. She's definitely a star,\" said Benet, who was the only national journalist to have spent much time with Palin in the weeks before she was announced as McCain's running mate. Palin, a mother of five, \"caught the imagination\" of the public because there is no one else like her, Benet said. \"Particularly for conservative America, there hasn't been a rallying figure of this type,\" he noted. In the days leading up to Palin's debut speech at the Republican National Convention last September, Palin revealed that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant. The announcement followed Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby was actually Bristol's. The instant fascination with Palin and her family was just a glimpse of what was to come. The public wanted to know everything it could about the Alaska governor, whose resume also included beauty queen, high school basketball star, TV sportcaster and mayor of the small Alaska town of Wasilla. Amid all the rumors and negative press, Palin showed herself to be a fierce attack dog and came out throwing punches in her speech at the RNC. The self-described \"hockey mom\" tore into then-candidate Barack Obama as two-faced, inexperienced and intoxicated by the sound of his own voice. Even her critics recognized the spirit she brought to the GOP. Palin continued to throw flames on the campaign trail, energizing her supporters and outraging her adversaries. \"She yelled fire in a crowded theater. She really did, in some of her speeches --'palling around' with terrorists and some of the other slurs she was hurling in the way of Obama and the Democrats,\" said Larry Persily, a former Palin staffer and Alaskan journalist. \"That turned off an equally big chunk of the American public that found it distasteful, destructive, divisive, mean and ignorant. Whereas others said, 'Way to go girl. You stick it to them,\" he said. But Palin hasn't always been such a divisive figure. Before entering the national scene, Palin, who knocked out incumbent Republican Frank Murkowski in the gubernatorial primary, was touted as one of the most popular governors in the country, with approval ratings nearing 90 percent. She was seen as a champion of ethics, determined to root out corruption and challenge the status quo. For those in Alaska, Palin's Reaganesque appeal was nothing new. She secured her role as a local hero back in 1982 when she led Wasilla High School's basketball team to a state championship. And in a small community like Wasilla, that was a big deal. Alaskans liked her \"combativeness and feistiness,\" Benet said, and resurrected her nickname of \"Barracuda\" during her successful 1996 campaign to be Wasilla's mayor. But when Palin's \"Barracuda\" side hit the national stage, it was met with mixed reactions. Evangelia Souris, the president of Optimum International Center for Image Management, says Palin's potential is the driving force behind the public's love-hate relationship with her. \"That's what people are drawn to, and that's what actually threatens others. She definitely has the power to shake up a lot of old-school institutions.\" said Souris, who has advised politicians. Furthermore, Souris said, \"I just don't think people were ready for somebody so attractive and so fashionable and so hip to actually be campaigning. She falls out of the norm,\" Souris added. But despite grumblings from some that they're sick of hearing about her, stories about her continue to get a lot of attention. Benet said People magazine follows two politicians: \"One is Obama, and one is Sarah Palin -- and then there's everybody else.\" From being dogged by ethics complaints, to her public fight with Levi Johnston (the father of her grandson and ex-fiance of her daughter), to her recent announcement that she's resigning this week as governor, Palin has maintained a steady presence in the public eye since stepping off the campaign trail. Michael Carey, a columnist with the Anchorage Daily News, says Palin stirs excitement -- and hostility -- because \"people want to see her even if they don't like her.\" He likens the public's interest with her to \"drinking on the sly.\" People say, \"I don't want to do this, I know I shouldn't, but I do it anyway,\" he said. Some people love Palin, Persily said, because they can relate to her. \"I think much of America said, 'Oh gee look at her, she's just like us. Kind of dumb on some things, kind of smart on others. Imperfect. And not at all embarrassed to show all of her imperfections.'\" But others saw her imperfections as inadequacies. \"She's simplistic. Some people love the simplistic approach to problems. Others shake their heads and say, 'My God, you don't get it.'\" Persily added. Opponents have been quick to question Palin's intellectual chops, pointing to her spotty college career. Palin attended five colleges, graduating from the University of Idaho with a communications degree in 1987. A series of botched national interviews didn't do much to disprove their point. But even Palin's critics admire her ability to connect with the people, Benet said. \"I don't think I've ever really met anyone like that, except maybe Bill Clinton, that will have that interpersonal eye contact with you and will remember your name and your kids' names, and make small talk with you and be really sincere about it,\" he said. Benet predicted that while Palin might take a short break to recoup once she hands off power on Sunday, \"she'll be back in the public eye.\" \"I do see her turning this to her advantage,\" he said, noting that she's made a similar move before. In 2004, Palin stepped down as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after less than a year on the job, amid controversy over ethics allegations against another committee member. She turned that move around and used it as a launchpad to run for governor, because she went after the corruption going on in Alaska at the time. \"For me, I think she's just catching her breath. She's just too young to retire,\" he added. \"She did say 10 years ago she wanted to be president some day. She hasn't backed off from that.\" In Carey's opinion, Palin's career as an elected official is over, but he doesn't expect Palin to be leaving the headlines anytime soon. \"She's gone from being our governor or a public figure in Alaska to being a national celebrity,\" he said. \"It's clear that her days of governor -- there are just a few of them left, but she's really only at the beginning of her career as a celebrity.\"","highlights":"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stepping down from office on Sunday .\nIn the year since her national debut, she's become a polarizing figure in the GOP .\nPeople are drawn to -- and threatened by -- her potential, image consultant says .\nPalin is beginning her career as a national celebrity, columnist Michael Carey says .","id":"302e5c8d47851263ca27291a760836b25de2c0dd"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A man at a Fort Lewis army post on Wednesday fatally shot a woman before turning the gun on himself, military authorities said. The shootings on Wednesday occurred outside the main post exchange at Fort Lewis in Washington state. The man, who was hospitalized earlier in the day, was pronounced dead late Wednesday, Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Kubistek said. The man shot the woman and then shot himself in the head, said Maj. Mike Garcia. He said the shootings occurred outside the main post exchange, as retail stores at military installations are called. Garcia said the 59-year-old shooter was a retired soldier. The woman he shot, Garcia said, was a civilian who worked as a vendor in the store. Neither was identified. Kathy Johnson had taken her elderly mother to shop at the store when shots rang out. \"I heard five to six shots and hit the floor,\" Johnson said, \"I was hiding under a clothing rack and people were yelling that we were being taken hostage.\" Eventually, Johnson said, customers were told over the store intercom that it was safe to leave the store. Outside military police had surrounded the store and were posted on nearby rooftops, she said, . It was not immediately clear what the relationship between the man and woman was, Garcia said. He said since the shooting took place on a federal installation, the FBI would lead the investigation into the shootings. CNN's Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged shooter is a 59-year-old retired soldier, Fort Lewis spokesman says .\nSlain woman was a civilian who worked as a vendor at the post, spokesman says .\n\"I heard five to six shots and hit the floor,\" witness says .\nFBI will lead probe into shootings on the federal facility, spokesman says .","id":"44163b5800d1f555fd83349ad0310e54e7d50092"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Groucho Marx once famously quipped \"I don't care to belong to a club that would have me as a member.\" I sort of feel the same way about online dating sites. There has got to be a better way to meet people. Sadly, mental telepathy does not work. Unless you know what I was just thinking, in which case, e-mail me. We flock to digital artifices that both feed and coddle our egos, says writer of online dating sites. I've recently begun... researching popular dating sites. Not because I need a date. No! I don't need a date. I'm up to my ears in hot lady action. No, this research is for you, for all of you. It's a testament to my generosity of spirit I waded through these interweb love sewers in order to impart some sort of wisdom. Here's the wisdom: dating sites are terrible. Possibly, if I was in prison, an Alaskan crab fisherman or a morbidly obese shut-in so humongous I had to wash myself with a ShamWow stapled to a broom handle, I could see the value in such sites. But I'm not isolated, nor confined to a forklift. I don't need a middleman brokering a get together between the potential woman of my dreams and my own abilities to self-sabotage and humiliate myself. I can do this without an intermediary. The Frisky: Have to go online to get a date? This might or might not be a totally uninformed opinion. The extent of my research began and ended with me signing up for OK Cupid, and failing to finish my profile. I couldn't even bring myself to pick a pseudonym, which just seemed like the first of many lies required to meet anyone. Do I call myself OptimusGandalf and admit from the get-go that I'm an alpha nerd? Do I overshare a little too much and pick EdgarAllanEeyore? Or do I just admit to being a snarky, pretentious creep and go for HumbertHumbert? The Frisky: Online dating dos and don'ts . I tried to fill out the profile, but instead, it just filled me with a quiet rage. The self-summary section was baffling. It pushed me into an existential identity crisis. Who am I? Or more importantly, who am I when it comes to who I want someone else to think I am, so they will contact me, go out with me, and eventually kiss me? Am I a sensitive guy, or a romantic, or sarcastic? Maybe I'm all three. I love long walks, going to see live indie bands, and whatever. I made sure to pepper everything with winking non-sequiturs and casual attempts at pop profundity. Then there was the section where I define myself by the books, movies, and music I listen to. My music list was a near impenetrable list of overly eclectic bands that reflect my excellent taste, punctuated by \"and Genesis.\" My movies were all '80s flicks, foreign films, and David Lynch. By the time I got to books, and wrote \"Pynchon,\" I was in a full-fledged state of self-loathing. The Frisky: Five online dating types to avoid . Let me get this straight: I'm going to spend a ton of time crafting a persona that is a borderline dishonest amplification of the personality traits I think other people will find attractive so I can find someone who's done the same thing, and we can both go out and discover that we're equally compatible idiots fakers. It's like a masquerade party in the Twilight Zone: I take off my Brad Pitt mask just so I can reveal Sloth from \"The Goonies.\" The Frisky: Downside of online dating . There are, no doubt, many of you who have met the love of your life via online dating sites. Good for you. Congratulations on basically winning the lottery. I firmly believe I have a better chance of getting a girlfriend dressed like Zeus, stopping women on the street, and bellowing, \"Rut with me, mortal beauty, and feel thine mighty, fleshy thunder!\" Not that I want a girlfriend. I just broke up with six the other day. I can deal with the risks of love. The threat of heartbreak is what makes finding that one person who sparks your fuse so precious. But I have to be honest, the online dating thing freaked me out. It touched a nerve, and I'm flummoxed as to why. The only conclusion I could come up with was that, maybe, we deserved them. Perhaps online dating sites accurately reflect a generation of singles so entitled to instant happiness and acceptance, we flock to digital artifices that both feed and coddle our egos. Virtual environments where we can indiscriminately reject dishonest projections of identity, while simultaneously being insulated from the very rejection we dole out. A play land of false romantic promises and deferred risk. A huge solipsistic waste of time. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Writer has trouble filling out his profile for an online dating service .\nHe figures if he is borderline dishonest about his traits, his date will be too .\nThinks he would be better off dressing like Zeus, bellowing on the street at women .\nSays online dating sites draw singles who feel entitled to instant happiness .","id":"9882b8ec9a51f58b35f78454ce9b1371ca3bcf29"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, accused of sexually assaulting a woman last summer, said Thursday that he is innocent. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says there is no merit to the accusation. \"Saturday was the first that I learned of her accusations,\" the Pittsburgh Steeler said, calling the accusation reckless, false and an attack on his family. The woman filed a civil complaint against Roethlisberger last week. \"I would never, ever force myself on a woman,\" he said. The complaint, filed Friday in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Washoe County, Nevada, alleges that Roethlisberger sexually assaulted the woman -- an executive casino host at Harrah's Lake Tahoe -- while he was staying at the resort for a celebrity golf tournament in July 2008. Teresa Duffy of the Douglas County, Nevada, Sheriff's Department, said the department does not intend to open an investigation unless the alleged victim comes forward and tells authorities she wants them to. Roethlisberger said that he would not discuss the \"civil case in the media,\" but that he would fight to protect his family and his reputation. Roethlisberger and eight Harrah's employees are named in the suit, which seeks at least $390,000, plus unspecified punitive damages, from the defendants. Harrah's itself is not named as a defendant. The woman said that the employees contributed to her emotional distress and that some defamed her and tried to cover up the incident. According to the complaint, on July 11, 2008, the woman was working on the 17th floor -- the same floor as Roethlisberger's room -- when Roethlisberger told her that his television and sound system were not working. He asked her to try to fix it, the complaint said. When she entered his room and deemed that the television was working, she tried to leave, but Roethlisberger blocked her way, the complaint states. He then, against her will, kissed her, groped her and sexually assaulted her, the complaint states. The woman says that in the months following the incident, she incurred emotional distress that resulted in hospitalizations that included treatment for anxiety and depression, the complaint said. Calvin Dunlap, the woman's attorney, said earlier this week that his client did not pursue criminal charges after the alleged assault because she felt discouraged when the resort's chief of security did not investigate the matter. According to the complaint, the chief told her she was \"overreacting.\" Dunlap said the chief has \"close ties to law enforcement.\" Of the eight employees, all but two are still employed by Harrah's, according to a spokeswoman for Harrah's Entertainment. Marybel Batjer of Harrah's declined to comment on the suit, other than to say that the alleged victim still works at Harrah's Lake Tahoe as an executive casino host. Another Harrah's Entertainment spokesman, Gary Thompson, said the company was \"confident that a much different story will emerge and that the Harrah's employees will be dismissed from the lawsuit.\" Roethlisberger's attorney, David Cornwell, released a statement saying the charges were false. \"The timing of a lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct,\" he said. CNN's Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"I would never, ever force myself on a woman,\" Ben Roethlisberger says .\nWoman filed complaint saying quarterback raped her in Lake Tahoe last summer .\nRoethlisberger, 8 Harrah's employees named in $390,000 lawsuit .\nSheriff's department says it won't investigate unless alleged victim calls for it .","id":"ed1df9b7c58f0da7d3d7cb2d585481a516b8a998"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Humiliation and comedy have always been natural bedfellows, but the one doesn't guarantee the other, as poor Katherine Heigl discovers in this crude, sub-par stab at a modern screwball comedy. Katherine Heigl plays the sophisticated female boss of Gerard Butler in \"The Ugly Truth.\" The \"Grey's Anatomy\" and \"Knocked Up\" star plays Abby, a supposedly intelligent producer on a local Sacramento TV news show. We're repeatedly assured that she's good at her job, though there's little or no evidence for that in what we see, and apparently the ratings are in the toilet. That's why her boss drafts controversial cable clown Mike (Gerard Butler), whose bargain basement show \"The Ugly Truth\" gives viewers the real dope on the opposite sex. Mike's straight talk isn't exactly edifying -- or original. It boils down to this: men are only interested in one thing, and it's not your IQ score. His advice to women: swallow your pride -- and anything else that might come up. Abby is understandably skeptical, both professionally and personally, but the sweeps prove her wrong. Mike may be outrageous, but Sacramento loves him for it. A smarter comedy might make mischief from these base ingredients, the sophisticated female boss and her rude, reactionary star employee. But this movie, which is credited to three female screenwriters, bends over backward to accommodate Mike's tired old sexist world view and fails to be funny in the process. Abby really is a neurotic control freak, living alone with her cat and a checklist about what constitutes the perfect guy. And when a close approximation of the type moves in right next door (Eric Winton as a handsome young doctor), she only lands him by putting herself in Mike's hands: accentuating her cleavage, losing the ponytail and trading in dinner and an art show for a hot dog and a baseball game. Directed by Robert Luketic (\"Monster in Law\"), \"The Ugly Truth\" barely attempts to disguise its own lifts and tucks. The most craven of these gambits involves Abby going into multiple orgasm at a business dinner, a variation on Meg Ryan's famous scene in \"When Harry Met Sally,\" except that in Ryan's case, she was in full control, demonstrating her mastery of the fake-out. Abby, though, is sent into inadvertent paroxysms when the remote control of the vibrating panties she's wearing -- don't ask -- falls into the hands of a curious kid. Watch the stars describe the scene \u00bb . In other scenes, Heigl is caught hanging upside down from a tree in her nightgown, hiding in her office closet and furiously rubbing a stain out of the doctor's crotch in front of a stadium of ball fans. Presumably this is what picking up Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock's cast-offs entails these days. Katharine Hepburn would weep. But what about Mike? Surely he has lessons to learn and comic indignities to endure? Not so much. In contrast to Abby's makeover, he's allowed to be comfortable in his own rather corpulent skin. Gerard Butler evidently hasn't worked out since Sparta; heck, he hasn't even bothered to shave. You won't be surprised that the avowed bachelor boy falls in love with dear Abby. Of course he's a nice guy underneath. We know that from the way he looks out for his fatherless nephew. So what if he's a sexist pig? He's a sexy sexist pig, and obviously father material. What more could any woman want? \"The Ugly Truth\" is rated R and runs 97 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"The Ugly Truth\" is a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler .\nMovie bends over backward to accommodate a tired old sexist world view .\nFilm fails to be funny in the process .","id":"9a581fde5f136d02602abee1eb4c0c52924b7a99"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When shots rang out at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last week, security officers Harry Weeks and Jason McCuiston were stunned. Harry Weeks, left, and Jason McCuiston fired on James von Brunn at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. \"I would say it was surreal, both of us couldn't believe what was happening,\" Weeks told CNN in his first national televised interview since the June 10 shooting. \"I know myself I just, I heard 'pop, pop' and it was surreal.\" McCuiston added: \"It wasn't normal. You knew something was wrong and you knew it was very bad.\" What went terribly wrong is that white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly walked into the museum and started firing his rifle, shooting security officer Stephen Johns in the chest. Despite their initial shock, Weeks and McCuiston kept their composure enough to draw their weapons and start shooting at von Brunn, 88. Weeks had fired his gun in the line of duty 25 years earlier as a Washington, D.C., police officer. But he said nothing compared to this bloody confrontation. \"This was terrible,\" Weeks said softly. \"This was worse. ... We lost Officer Johns.\" Johns died shortly after the shooting, leaving behind a family that includes a teenage son who told CNN affiliate WUSA-TV the day after the tragedy that his dad was \"my hero.\" Watching a video clip of those comments, McCuiston started crying. \"First thing I thought about, I have an 11-year-old,\" the officer said before breaking down. Watch the officers tell their story \u00bb . Just moments before their joint interview with CNN on Thursday, McCuiston and Weeks attended a grief counseling session together, and both men say they are still struggling with their emotions. The security officers said they believe von Brunn will survive his wounds and eventually face trial. So they would not discuss details of the shootout out of a fear of jeopardizing the criminal investigation, but they were willing to discuss their memories of Johns so that the public knows more about him. McCuiston said the 6-foot-6-inch, 300-pound Johns was a \"gentle giant\" who was always friendly to colleagues and museum visitors. \"Just an awesome guy,\" he recalled. \"Grin from ear to ear. You'd never know that man probably ever had a bad day in his life.\" Weeks said he wanted the world to see \"what a man of hate did to this family, and the grief he caused. Let's all remember Officer Johns, and his family, because he took the ultimate -- he did his job and he was where he was supposed to be -- and the family suffered. That could have been anyone.\" McCuiston and Weeks, however, deflected suggestions that they may be heroes as well because if they had not stopped von Brunn, there's no telling how many of the more than 2,000 people visiting the museum at the time could have been injured or killed. \"A lot of people are going to be saying what they have been saying, 'You are a hero, you're this, you're that,' \" McCuiston said. \"It's like we tell everybody, 'We chose this job, it's a job. It's the same as a firefighter who would walk into a building, that is his job, he chose to do it.' \" Johns' funeral on Friday has been moved to a larger church in the Washington area to accommodate all of the people who want to attend, and the museum will be closed most of the day so that his colleagues can attend. \"Everyone knows when you lose someone, death is one of the worst things, even though it is reality,\" McCuiston said. \"Time will hopefully heal all, and hopefully there will be a little bit of closure with us and the family and we can all just move forward but never forget what a wonderful man he was.\"","highlights":"Security officers Harry Weeks and Jason McCuiston recall shooting, fellow officer .\nWhen they heard shots at museum, they knew something had gone terribly wrong .\nThey call slain officer a \"gentle giant\" who was always friendly to colleagues, visitors .\nMen, who shot shooting suspect, say they're not heroes, were just doing their jobs .","id":"050ffe34f77f152ddfd0ab61edfbdc5946e77bfc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After meeting a number black couples in crisis, Nisa Muhammad and Dr. Rozario Slack were inspired to create Basic Training for Couples. Nisa Muhammad, who founded National Black Marriage Day, co-created the Basic Training for Couples program. The eight-week program educates dating, engaged or married couples about the value of commitment, responsibility to the black community, psychological differences between the sexes, sexual intimacy and conflict resolution. Slack created the male-friendly portion while Muhammad, who founded National Black Marriage Day and the Wedded Bliss Foundation, created the female-friendly portion. In the program, couples also learn about the history of the African-American marriage and many for the first time plot their own family tree to trace marriage and divorces. The following is rundown of the eight-week course: Class No. 1: Why marriage? This class teaches the benefits of marriage for men, women, children and the community. It gives the history of marriage in the black community from slavery when marriage was illegal to today's trends. Icebreaker: Q & A: How couples met? Homework: . 1. Choose songs to reflect their love for each other . 2. Marriage family tree . Class No. 2: From I to we; the sweetness of surrender . This class helps couples transition from \"I thinking\" to \"we thinking.\" It helps them understand the value of making their marriage a priority in their lives. Class No. 3: Communication; getting your message understood . This class helps couples take responsibility for their communication and teaches skills to improve their communication techniques. Main lessons: . \u2022 Respecting differences between men and women . \u2022 Learning to talk to each other and not at each other . \u2022 Format: Teaching session with dialogue. \u2022 Activity: The talking stick, during conversation only the individual holding the stick can speak. Class No. 4: Conflict management . This class helps couples understand that conflict needs to be managed, or it will manage you. It helps to normalize some conflict that couples experience with the understanding that some conflict cannot be resolved and can only be managed. Lessons: . \u2022 This class targets biases. When there's a difference of opinions, generally the stronger spouse wants his or her way. \u2022 How to bring closure to old issues instead of combining them into new issues\/conflict. \u2022 Agree to disagree and not degrade your spouse for having a difference of opinion. Activity: Break up into gender groups to discuss current conflicts. The group works out ways to solve the issue . Class No. 5: Let's make love . When the sex is good in a marriage, it's only about 20 percent of what's going on. When it's bad, it's a significant problem. This class helps to solve some of those problems. The approach was from a physiological and biological perspective of the differences between the male's and female's body. Discussion included chemical bonding effect in women and men. Class No. 6: From yours and mine to ours . Many couples in the black community bring children from other relationships to their marriage. This class helps to blend the family into one cohesive unit. It also talks about preventing in-laws from becoming outlaws. Class No. 7: Keeping the FIRE burning . FIRE is an acronym for Faithful, Intimacy, Responsibility and Excitement. This class helps couples maintain the FIRE in their relationship. Class No. 8: From this day forward . This class helps couples understand the value of commitment in their marriage and never to make divorce an option. They create their own place for success. Recap of all the lessons together: . \u2022 Remembering people gravitate to the applause \u2022 Ways to appreciate and affirm your spouse \u2022 Setting time for just the two of you \u2022 Learning to communicate, getting your message heard and understood . Bonus class: Hot monogamy . Gets couples comfortable to discuss sex with their spouse. Graduation . A ceremony of new beginnings, couples testify what the class brought to their marriage over the eight-week period. Lots of emotions and bonding during this time between husbands and wives. Graduating couples are encouraged to bring a couple from their community or family who needs help.","highlights":"Nisa Muhammad and Rozario Slack created a Basic Training for Couples .\nThe eight-week program helps dating, engaged and married couples stay on track .\nUnhealthy relationships give kids inaccurate views of marriage, says Muhammad .","id":"7018e29f808ad4f2a83ece085cb831e6f1cb1be8"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year, Human Rights Watch alleged Monday. Anti-riot policemen patrol the streets in Jos, Nigeria, following riots between Christians and Muslims. Most of the victims of violence by security forces were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report. More than 700 people died in the violence last November, the group said, citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide. A 26-year-old mechanic described seeing anti-riot police known as MOPOLs hunting down people near where he worked. \"I saw them enter one house just across the street from us,\" the unnamed witness said. \"We heard shots and later we saw five bodies there. Anyone they found hiding in the garage, they shot them. They combed the garage hunting for people. This went on for about 10 minutes or so. Then they returned to their truck and left.\" Another witness described police units going from house to house, summarily executing unarmed men and boys. A third said he saw an unarmed shopkeeper plead for his life. Police ordered him to lie down on the ground, the witness said. \"He kept saying, 'Please God, allow me to live.'... One of them said, 'Today you go die,' and then he shot him in the side. Then the same MOPOL shot him again. As he was going to shoot him a third time, the other MOPOL said ... 'Leave it, he's already dead.'\" The shopkeeper managed to drag himself to a neighbor's house, where the neighbor tried to stop the bleeding from wounds to the back and abdomen. Police then returned and shot tear gas into the neighbor's house, he testified. The shopkeeper \"died a short time later,\" the neighbor said. In the report, released Monday, Human Rights Watch says it \"documented 133 of these killings but believes that the actual number of arbitrary killings by security forces may be substantially higher than these figures.\" James Manook, a spokesman for Plateau State where the violence occurred, said the Human Rights Watch claims are \"one of the issues that the commission has under inquiry, and given that - I do not want to comment while it's under investigation.\" However, he added, \" I assure you that we remain respectful of the rule of law.\" The clashes followed a dispute over an election that pitted a Christian candidate against a Muslim one in late November 2008. Police and soldiers responded to the riots with deadly force, on the same day the governor of the state issued a \"shoot-on-sight\" order, Human Rights Watch said. The group based its allegations on 151 interviews in the city of Jos in Nigeria's Plateau State, it says in the report. It withheld the names of many of the people it interviewed over the course of 18 days in December 2008 and February 2009. The report includes photographs of burned-out mosques, Christian boarding schools, and homes and businesses. The rights group said the state commission examining the riots should investigate and call for the prosecution of security forces involved. \"At least 130 men were killed by members of the very institutions charged with protecting them,\" said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. \"These investigative bodies owe it to the victims and their families to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into these extremely serious allegations.\" Eric Guttschuss, a Human Rights Watch researcher, testified before the commission Monday. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001. Local religious leaders in Jos have been trying to bridge the differences, including setting up a soccer league with teams on which Christians and Muslims play side-by-side. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nigerian police, soldiers accused of killing 133 during riots in November 2008 .\nU.S.-based Human Rights Watch says main victims were young Muslim men .\nWitnesses say police units summarily executed unarmed men and boys .\nHRW says death toll could be \"substantially higher\" than documented cases suggest .","id":"568239199d0ad8578ff16ee5df0b4ab6f36e395b"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- With car companies going in into bankruptcy and shedding famous names left and right, it's important to remember that today's automotive titans started out as tiny startups, not unlike Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. General Motors was almost called International Motors Co. Names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Porsche call to mind the huge corporate successes of the past and the great automotive families that survive today. But behind every brand name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. Most of the time, they gave their name to the companies. And that fame was often about all they ended up with. David Buick, who invented the overhead valve engine, founded the Buick Motor Car Co. in 1903. William C. Durant, the industrialist who would eventually found GM, took over the company in 1904, when it ran into financial trouble. Buick stayed on as a director, but left in 1908, never making much money from the enterprise. He reportedly died in 1929, unable to afford one of his cars. Durant kept the name for one of his company divisions and for the car, even though he worried that people might pronounce it \"Boo-ick,\" according to one author. Strangely enough, the man who practically created General Motors single-handedly never really liked the idea of a 'Durant' car. In another example, Robert Hupp invented the Hupmobile,'a two-seat runabout, in 1908. But he sold his stock in his Hupp Motor Car Company in 1911. He turned around and founded the Hupp Corp. that same year. Investors in his first firm took him to court to make him drop the \"Hupp\" from his new company's name and they won. His own automotive glory quickly faded, although the Hupmobile survived until the 1940s. Swiss-born Louis Chevrolet's experience was similar. Durant brought him into a new car-building venture in 1911, hoping to trade on his fame as an absolutely fearless race car driver. Chevrolet left the company in 1913, apparently unable to make the adjustment from racing to building production vehicles. But its name stuck to the new Chevrolet vehicles; Durant reportedly liked its musical lilt. It could also work the other way around. In 1925, Walter P. Chrysler got the naming rights to the Maxwell Motor Co. after he and another industrialist steadily bought up shares in the firm over a two-year period. Things turned out a little differently for Henry Ford. He suffered the ignominy of being booted from an early auto company that bore his own name. But his revenge was sweet. The Henry Ford Company, which traded freely on Ford's early fame as an inventor, fired him in 1902 \"because he was spending all his time developing a race car, not a passenger car,\" according to the Encyclopedia of American Business and Biography. AOL Autos: Ford's 'Wonder Woman' engineers most important new car . After Ford was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac, after Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the French nobleman who founded Detroit in 1703; his heraldry became the model's badge and the company became a part of General Motors in 1909. After his firing, Ford quickly found investors to help him found his own firm, the Ford Motor Co., in 1903. He introduced the company's first new vehicle, the Model and followed it up with other low-cost vehicles, including his greatest achievement, the Model T, in 1908. Its price tag started at $850 and fell steadily as Ford introduced more production innovations. The young firm became phenomenally successful. AOL Autos: 10 classic American rides . In the 1920s, he got the chance to buy the five-year-old Lincoln Motor Co. out of bankruptcy. It was then owned by one of the very people, Henry Leland, who fired him in 1902. Then he used the former aircraft company to launch his own line of luxury cars bearing the Lincoln name. For its part, General Motors almost didn't get the name it bears today. Durant actually incorporated his company under the name \"International Motors Co.\", in New Jersey in 1908. But his attorney advised him that it would be easier to raise capital under a new name. \"We might use 'United Motors Company' were it not for the fact that there is already a United Motor Car Company in that state,\" the attorney wrote. \"We suggest the name General Motors Company, as we have ascertained it can be used.\" A newly coined French word, auto-mobile, inspired many vehicle names of the early years. Inventor Ransom E. Olds filed a patent for an \"auto-mobile\" during the mid-1890s. Names like Bugmobile, Locomobile, Hupmobile, and of course, the Oldsmobile, could not have come along without it. The origins of some names can be tricky to trace. The first use of Jeep, for instance. is shrouded in mist. Jim Allen, the author of a book called \"Jeep,\" concludes that it's based on early World War II slang for \"a new, unproven recruit or a new unproven vehicle.\" It wasn't until 1950 that Toledo-based Willys-Overland, Inc., one of the producers of the early four-wheel-drive vehicle, trademarked the term. Many of the names were not originally associated with the auto industry. The Toyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan; When it turned to car production, the Toyoda family changed the 'd' to a 't' to make it simpler and more elegant in Japanese script. AOL Autos: Top 10 best car names . There's little doubt about other brand names. Pontiac was an offshoot of the Pontiac Buggy Co., a horseless carriage manufacturer named after a renowned Indian chief. Mechanic Soichiro Honda started producing motorized bicycles after the devastation of World War II and eventually graduated to cars. AOL Autos: Pontiacs we'll never forget . Volkswagen, a response to Adolf Hitler's call for a car for the common folk, means 'people's car' in German, evidently beating out the prototype's name, 'Strength through Joy,' for the honors. In 1917, the Rapp Engine Works became known as the Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH, or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) as the four-year-old airplane engine firm diversified into motorcycle engines, with a stylized white propeller against a blue sky as its logo, according to some authorities. The first BMW cars were produced 11 years later. The legendary Jaguar name is considered one of the best sports car names of all time. It beat out a long list of lackluster animal names compiled by a British ad agency in 1935. In 1939, Ford struck gold with Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. It tapped into Greek and Roman mythology for the name, just as it did for the similarly styled Lincoln Zephyr, the god of the wind, three years earlier. Some other storied automotive brands are based on acronyms. Fiat stands for Fabbrica Italiani Automobili Torino, or Italian Automotive Works Turin. Similarly, Saab stands for Svenska Aeroplanaktiebolaget, or Swedish Aeroplane Ltd., hearkening back to the automaker's origins as an aircraft company. Ford might have done better with an acronym in 1958. The Edsel was conceived as a new, distinct Ford Motor Co. brand, with its own models, badge and division. The mission was to take on GM's Oldsmobile. After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943. The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales. AOL Autos: Best and worst automotive designs of all time . Its name wasn't the sole reason for its failure. It didn't help that the country was in recession or that the new car seemed based on Ford and Mercury models. But all that didn't stop Edsel from entering the vocabulary as an idea or project fated to failure.","highlights":"David Buick invented the overhead valve engine, founded Buick Motor Car Co.\nFearless race car driver Louis Chevrolet's name stuck for its musical lilt .\nThe Henry Ford Company fired its namesake who later started Ford Motor Co.\nToyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan .","id":"d410d413e7a71ca6e1046641eb9c8c3b816c174f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A top executive for the company which built the flight data recorder aboard Air France Flight 447 says he hopes his firm's 100 percent recovery record from air accidents will be maintained despite concerns the device may be lost at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 spotted Wednesday. Although some debris has been retrieved, air crash investigators remain in the dark about what caused the airliner to plunge into the sea off the coast of Brazil with 228 people onboard earlier this month. The wreckage is believed to be about 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) deep, amid underwater mountains and mixed in with tons of sea trash. A French nuclear submarine and other vessels are searching for the flight data recorder by attempting to trace its locator beacon, which sends acoustic pulses, or \"pings,\" to searchers. The U.S. Navy has contributed two high-tech acoustic devices -- known as towed pinger locators -- which have been attached to French tug boats and can search to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet. Honeywell Aerospace's Paolo Carmassi -- the firm's president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India -- told CNN that retrieving the flight data could help solve the mystery of the plane's fate and said his company had never lost a black box involved in an accident. \"We believe that our technology is well-positioned to, in this case, contribute to solve the big question around this particular accident,\" Carmassi said. \"We have a 100 percent recovery rate of all the black boxes that we have installed that unfortunately may have been involved in accidents, so we hope that we will be able to maintain our record and be able to shed some light on what happened.\" Watch what clues investigators are looking at \u00bb . But Carmassi acknowledged it was hard to estimate how much battery life the locator beacon had left. \"There is a certain duration which depends on the particular environmental conditions, whether it's underwater or on land, whether it's at 10 meters or 4,000 meters. So, it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly the duration,\" he said. Yann Cochennec, an aviation expert with Air et Cosmos magazine, told CNN that a recorder had been retrieved from the seabed in 2004 after an Egyptian charter flight crashed into the Red Sea shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh. But he said the depth of the Atlantic, strong currents and bad weather would make retrieving the recorder from the Air France wreckage far more difficult. The flight data recorder -- sometimes called a \"black box\" -- is actually an orange, metal cylinder weighing about 13 pounds. Inside is a stack of memory chips designed to survive high temperatures, strong impact and tons of pressure. The devices record virtually every detail about how an aircraft is working, including cabin pressure, speed and altitude, remaining fuel and whether that fuel is flowing properly. They have played a crucial part in air crash investigations since they were first fitted to commercial aircraft in the 1940s.","highlights":"Maker of flight data recorder aboard AF447 has \"100 percent\" recovery rate .\nTop executive says finding flight data recorder could reveal cause of air crash .\nPlane wreckage believed to be on Atlantic seabed, around 4,500 meters deep .\nDevice's underwater locator beacon has limited battery life .","id":"a2026c351a8894eb92e168fbf4769afeb3057169"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Researchers in the United States are buoyed by the results of a study which has determined that a giant grass could help the country to meet its steep biofuel targets. Stephen Long amid Miscanthus stalks found to outperform other biofuel sources. After successful long-term trials in Europe, a three-year field study of Miscanthus x giganteus by the University of Illinois has revealed that it outperforms traditional biofuel sources, producing more than twice the ethanol per acre than corn or switchgrass, using a quarter of the space. Crop sciences professor and study leader Dr. Stephen Long told CNN that while there probably isn't one magic bullet to fix our climate woes, Miscanthus -- also known as elephant grass -- promises to be one of five or six options that could help the U.S. to reach its target of replacing 30 percent of gasoline use with biofuels by 2030. \"I think it's important in the biofuels debate that we don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The idea we use the sun's energy to grow plants and then make fuels from those plants is essentially a good one,\" Dr. Long said. \"It's been tainted by the fact that the easy way to do it is to just use food crops, but society needs to realize there are big opportunities beyond food crops and beyond the use of crop land.\" Miscanthus, for instance, is able to grow on land too marginal for crop production, so it doesn't have to compete with land for food crops. It also doesn't require major input or fertilization after planting and once established will yield for around 15 years. Yet even with the success of these trials in the U.S. and the earlier European ones, it could be years before the full potential of Miscanthus is realized. This is due in part to the fact that it's much more complex to make cellulosic ethanol -- ethanol made from non-food plants -- than it is to turn simple food starches found in corn or wheat into ethanol. In the United Kingdom, Miscanthus is recognized by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as an energy crop and it's currently being used to co-fire the Drax power station in England's Yorkshire. Even still, Dr. Geraint Evans from the UK's National Non-Food Crops Centre said rather than plants like Miscanthus, wheat grain will be used to meet the UK target of replacing five percent of fuel with renewable sources by 2010. \"Miscanthus has the potential to be more efficient, producing between 4,000 and 7,000 liters of fuel per hectare, whereas ethanol made from wheat grain makes about 1900 liters per hectare.\" \"Wheat grain-derived ethanol is what we can do today with the technology we have available today. The technology to use Miscanthus is not yet commercially available,\" Dr. Evans told CNN. In addition to the technical hitch, Dr. Evans said a further downside is that even though Miscanthus is a low maintenance crop, it can be costly to plant compared to wheat or rapeseed canola and the first yield wouldn't occur for at least three years. In an effort to overcome some of the challenges, Dr. Long now intends to turn his attention to experimenting with the wild Miscanthus used in the U.S. trial. And if the sort of improvements made to corn in the last 50 years are any indication, Miscanthus could be well be used to fuel the future in a matter of years. Is Miscanthus the next big thing in biofuels? Sound off below.","highlights":"A U.S. study has revealed a giant grass outperforms other biofuel sources .\nMiscanthus produces more than double the ethanol of corn per acre .\nIt's already used to co-fire the Drax power station in north England .\nThe full potential of Miscanthus as a biofuel may take years to realize .","id":"5e3a32eb857a164340ea5b2a5cd612ccd85aa237"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Got a few grand to spare for a $3,000 phone? Yeah, we didn't think so. Nobody does -- and that's a problem for the makers of luxury phones, such as Motorola, Bang & Olufson, LG and Vertu. Vertu makes phones starting at $6,000 and going up in price. After years of chasing the ultra-wealthy with exclusive devices that carry designer logos and promise craftsmanship from materials such as sapphire and stainless steel, luxury phone makers are now pulling back. \"The culture has shifted away from conspicuous consumption, so if you are going to have a super expensive product this may not be the time for it,\" says Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis. Motorola has already gotten the memo. Earlier this week, the company reportedly canceled the Ivory E18, a device tentatively priced around $3,000. The phone had met with lack of interest from telecom carriers. Motorola declined to comment. If that sounds like an obvious outcome, perhaps it shouldn't. In the last few years, luxury phones had turned into an attractive new business, as designer houses rushed to get a foothold in the tech sector. Prada collaborated with LG to launch two LG Prada phones in Europe and Asia. Last September, Samsung launched the M75500 Night Effect phone, which carried the Emporio Armani insignia. A month later, Motorola offered a $2,000 phone, called the Aura, which was fashioned out of stainless steel and sported a 62-carat sapphire crystal lens. And then there's Vertu, a company that makes true luxury phones, the cheapest of which costs about $6,000. The recession put a spoke in those plans. And it's not just the 401Ks of middle-class Americans that have been in peril. In Russia, many newly-minted billionaires saw their fortunes slip away with falling oil prices. By the first quarter this year, the U.S. economy had shrunk 5.5 percent. Even 50 Cent has complained about losing more than a few Benjamins on the stock market. And just like that, the crystal dominoes started to fall. Last October, Bang & Olufsen, whose phones retailed in Europe for more than $1,500, shuttered its cellphone business as it decided to trim its costs and get out of non-profitable ventures. Motorola is the latest to pull back its luxury line. Luxury phones have never been a big phenomenon in North America, says Greengart. Their manufacturers have had better luck in emerging markets. But now even in those countries, where once 8 percent GDP growth seemed conservative, wealthy consumers are feeling the pinch. \"Super expensive, bling bling phones are big in markets where conspicuous consumption is a way to tell your countrymen you have arrived,\" says Greengart. \"But now, it's a very different economy for everyone.\" Many of the troubles that the uber-expensive phones face are because they are created by companies whose main expertise is in targeting a mass market, says Frank Nuovo, former chief of design for Nokia and current head of Vertu. \"I didn't start this business to soak the phones in diamonds and jewels,\" says Nuovo. \"The concept is same as a fine watch or a fabulous car. To be a true luxury product, you have to look at making something that doesn't have an 18-month shelf life.\" True luxury, as Nuovo defines it, doesn't apply to a mere $2,000 phone: A Vertu device, soaked in platinum, can run up to $70,000. The company's one-off phones, designed in collaboration with luxury jewels house Boucheron, cost even more. Nuovo may have inadvertently hit on the real problem with luxury phones: Phones are still a very feature-driven products. They are products where the rapid advances in technology can rend older models obsolete very quickly. \"Phones aren't like a handbag where the fundamental utility remains the same and the design changes all the time,\" says Greengart. But Nuovo isn't convinced. \"Take watches and cars,\" he says. \"They all run the same but everyone has a unique way of delivering them stylistically. We can do the same with phones.\" Despite the bumps on the road now, Nuovo says the luxury phones will bounce back and find an audience. \"It is no different than a fine watch or a car,\" he says. \"If you take people who value something that is made extraordinarily well there will always be a group interested in it.\" Vertu is determined to prove that. It will launch its latest handset the Carbon Fibre Ascent Ti in August. The phone is made of high-gloss carbon fiber and has a sandblasted titanium surface. The price tag? $9,800. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"The luxury phone market is in decline because of the recession .\nUber-high-end phones are more popular outside the U.S.\nVertu makes luxury phones that start at $6,000 and go up in price .\nSome phones pair with designer brands or are made from rare materials .","id":"c4f7fc84443c9211b06df213f30a6946f8d4b811"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A 100-inch, high definition screen projects an intense college basketball game. Massage therapists rub the nervous tensions of men and women away. Scissors skillfully cut men's hair. Two chandeliers adorn the main room, complimented by brick walls and a glass bar that doubles as a retail counter. Sean Heywood, right, and Kumi Walker own MR., a barbershop and wine bar in San Francisco, California. This is not your typical barbershop. And that has always been the vision of owners Kumi Walker and Sean Heywood. \"We are literally trying to create a new version of the country club golf experience. But we're replacing golf with haircuts, and we're putting it in urban environments,\" says Heywood. MR. (for mister) is their first business venture. It's an upscale barbershop, wine bar and lounge in the financial district of San Francisco where memberships cost $65 to $250 a month. In addition to the basic services, those who become members benefit from exclusive services like golf putting clinics and human resource workshops. \"We're trying to thrive, not just survive,\" Heywood said. MR. takes the cultural aspect of the black barbershop experience and modernizes it, making it a place where businesspeople of all races can network. \"We looked at our social lives, and we had black friends, Asian friends, Latino friends, white friends. We would do a lot of things socially together, but when it came to getting our hair cut, we would all split up,\" Walker says. Watch Walker talk about the difficulty of starting and running a business \u00bb . The two entrepreneurs are bridging a cultural divide, and also giving back to the community. They offer free lifetime memberships to MR. to those in good standing with a re-entry program called Back on Track. Among other things, Back on Track offers first-time, low-level criminal offenders GED preparation, tutoring, money-management instruction and job training and placement. And that's where MR. steps in. The membership provides them with one free haircut, trim, and shoeshine monthly. \"We'll take care of their grooming so that they don't have to. And they're ready for all the different jobs that they pursue going forward,\" Walker says. Giving back is paramount for the entrepreneurs. And the story of one black business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, inspires them. It was known as Black Wall Street, and it was destroyed in a race riot and fire 88 years ago. \"All of the businesses that we wanted to create, we wanted to encompass the culture of, if that community still existed today, what it would look like,\" says Walker, who says he read about the riot six years ago. Imagine a credit union, a barbershop, a library, and men in freshly pressed suits with top hats sauntering on sidewalks. The melodic sounds of jazz flow into the streets from several nightclubs. A thriving community of black-owned businesses serve their clientele across a 42-block area. That was the community that existed in the segregated neighborhood of Greenwood from 1830 to 1921. But on the evening of May 31, 1921, white mobs entered Greenwood with torches and guns. Black residents gathered to protect a young man accused of assaulting a white woman. When the smoke from fires cleared on June 1, more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other institutions were burned or destroyed, according to the report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. \"People came and said, 'Run, they are shooting people,' \" says Wess Young, who was 4 then. \"We evacuated. They were destroying everything.\" The death toll has been debated for years, because many victims were dumped in mass graves. An American Red Cross estimate puts the total at 300, much higher than the 36 reported by local officials. The riot devastated the social underpinnings of the Greenwood community and leveled a black economic force. Greenwood was rebuilt, but it never recovered. \"It was a really tragic end to thriving businesses. I think we'd be a lot further ahead had that area been able to continue to thrive,\" says Walker. Wess Young and his family rebuilt their lives in Tulsa. When asked what he thought America would be like if the Tulsa race riot had not happened, he answers without hesitation, \"We would have had a black president before now. ... He has done a good job, but we [blacks are] still in a box.\" His advice to people is to let go of the past once they've learned from it. \"Hate will destroy your whole universe -- got to learn how to forgive, but never forget,\" Young says. Walker says these stories of black struggle and survival motivate him. \"I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors,\" he says. \"I just want to be as successful as possible so I can turn around and be mentors and sponsors to other people who come after me.\"","highlights":"Entrepreneur read about famed Black Wall Street that was destroyed in 1921 .\nHe and partner created modern barbershop to honor memory of district .\nBlack Wall Street burned to ground during massive race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma .\nTulsa race riot survivor: \"Learn how to forgive, but never forget\"","id":"92fca0ec17eb913e665a549856b42e62a3d6b729"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British airlines have put into effect measures to stop people with swine flu boarding flights in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading further. Medical screening for the swine flu virus has been introduced at many airports. British Airways said there had been a \"very small number of cases\" where people who had checked in with symptoms of H1N1 had been advised not to travel after having medical checks. Virgin Atlantic also said victims would not be allowed to board one of its planes without a fit-to-fly certificate from their doctor or a hospital, though there had been no cases yet. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic June 11. More than 120 countries have reported cases of human infection. About 98,000 cases have been documented worldwide, with 440 deaths, according to the WHO. Watch as airlines ban sufferers \u00bb . With 29 deaths and a huge rise in the number of cases, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe. Eight British schoolchildren remained in hospital in China on Monday after contracting swine flu on a trip to the country, the Foreign Office said. The teenagers were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus in Beijing. More than 50 of their classmates and teachers are also quarantined in a hotel. Watch as students are quarantined \u00bb . Medical screening for the swine flu virus has been introduced at many airports around the world for passengers arriving on international flights but there are concerns that many people may not be aware they are infected. Those who do have symptoms have been advised by Britain's health authorities to delay their journeys until the signs have cleared up. \"We have a medical team within the airline as well as a contingency planning group which has met for the past few years to look at the issue of a flu pandemic,\" A British Airways spokeswoman said. \"We have a wide range of contingency plans in place which we can use depending on how the situation may evolve. \"If we have concerns about a customer or the customer is concerned, then we have a 24-hour medical service we can call to give advice to staff. \"They will speak to the customer and an assessment will be made about their fitness to fly. \"There have been a number of cases where we have advised customers not to fly on the basis of their diagnosis or symptoms of H1N1.\" Watch as a CNN reporter is quarantined \u00bb . BA told CNN Monday though that it was \"business as usual\" and all flights were operating normally. Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles said: \"If there are signs of something being wrong, be it excessive sneezing or coughing, not looking well, high temperature, then the airport staff can call in a medical team for extra advice. \"If the medical team believe there are reasons not to fly, the passenger will be asked to produce a fit to fly certificate from their doctor or a hospital, and they will be put at our cost on to the next available flight.\" Swine flu has spread so rapidly and extensively around the globe that the World Health Organization is changing tactics against the H1N1 virus, including stopping a tally of cases and focusing on unusual patterns. \"At this point, further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable,\" the WHO said. The counting of all cases is no longer essential because it is exhausting countries' resources, the organization said. \"In some countries, this strategy is absorbing most national laboratory and response capacity, leaving little capacity for the monitoring and investigation of severe cases, and other exceptional events.\" Monitoring is still required, the organization urged, but should focus on exceptional patterns. \"Because the numbers of cases have increased in so many countries, it is very hard to keep up,\" Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general, said earlier this month. Laboratories have been inundated with testing requests and the virus is showing up in most lab tests in countries with major outbreaks, he said. The organization said it will not issue global tables showing confirmed cases for countries that have reported cases, according to the release. However, it will still report on nations that have not had cases so that its presence can be confirmed. \"WHO will continue to request that these countries report the first confirmed cases and, as far as feasible, provide weekly aggregated case numbers and descriptive epidemiology of the early cases.\" Meanwhile, governments should should be on the lookout for unusual patterns, the organization said. While most patients have reported mild symptoms, a rise in severe symptoms or respiratory ailments that require hospitalization should be cause for concern, it said. Governments should also pay attention to unusual patterns linked to fatal cases, the WHO said. Any changes in prevailing patterns should be flagged, including a rise in school and job absenteeism, and an increase in visits to the emergency room. An overwhelmed health system may mean there is a rise in severe cases, the organization said.","highlights":"British airlines stop people with swine flu boarding flights .\nAround the world there have been 98,000 cases of swine flu in 120 countries .\nWith 29 deaths, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe .\nMedical screening for virus has been introduced at many airports .","id":"9f1c1f1654809f9bc469b490aa4e2564604ca27d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the midst of the ongoing culture wars, can it be a good idea to put out a comedy about two Stone Age men who wander into the Bible? In \"Year One,\" Jack Black stars as an inquisitive Stone Age man, with Michael Cera as his sidekick. Harold Ramis thinks so. \"Year One,\" which he directed, concerns two men -- played by Jack Black and Michael Cera -- who leave their home and, in their travels, meet biblical characters such as Cain, Abel, Abraham and Isaac. Among the locales: ancient Sodom, which \"didn't seem worse than Las Vegas to me,\" Ramis told CNN. \"Year One\" comes out Friday. Ramis, whose writing and directing credits include \"Groundhog Day\" and \"Analyze This,\" said it was time for a new biblical epic -- of sorts. \"No one had done this film for our generation,\" he told CNN. It's like, you know, when 'Animal House' [which Ramis co-wrote] came out, there were college films. Every generation had college films, but our generation didn't have one yet, and I don't know that our generation - this young, new generation of kids has a, you know, a sandal epic yet, and this is the one. This is for them.\" Ramis rounded up a cast of comedians familiar to any watcher of Judd Apatow-produced movies -- no surprise, since Apatow is a producer of \"Year One.\" Christopher Mintz-Plasse (\"Superbad\"), Horatio Sanz (\"Saturday Night Live,\" \"Step Brothers\") and Bill Hader (\"Tropic Thunder\") all have parts. \"A lot of them were new to me,\" said Ramis. \"[But] Jack knew them, Michael knew them, they were connected -- all connected through Judd Apatow, through 'Saturday Night Live' ... the comedy world is a club.\" Black joked that everyone's a member of a secret society, requiring retinal scans, that meets \"inside the O of the Hollywood sign -- the first O,\" he noted.. \"All the projects are laid out on a table,\" he said. \"And we talk generally about how we're gonna take over the planet, take over the comedy and keep a vise grip on it.\" Black said he revels in the chance to find the humor in the Bible. \"That was the fun of this thing,\" he said. \"It's like, we are going to have some fun with the Bible; you don't see it very often. It hasn't really been done since Monty Python days. 'Life of Brian.' \" However, the film could get more than it asked for. Films poking fun at the Bible -- or, indeed, treating the Bible with anything less than reverence -- have been the subject of protests and criticism. \"Life of Brian,\" the Python troupe's 1979 comedy about an assumed messiah that parodied the story of Jesus, was protested by clergy in the U.S. and banned outright in Ireland. French protesters threw Molotov cocktails into a Paris theater showing \"The Last Temptation of Christ,\" Martin Scorsese's 1988 film version of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel. More recently, Mel Gibson's \"The Passion of the Christ,\" though a huge financial success, was criticized by some observers for alleged anti-Semitism, as well as its violence. Ramis, who observed that a number of biblical films focus on the New Testament, said he deliberately chose to make the Old Testament his subject. \"I told people that I wanted to do for the Old Testament what Monty Python did for the Gospels,\" he said. \"Which is just to kind of take a funny look and project a contemporary sensibility back to these treasured myths of Western civilization. \"It wasn't so much to attack any particular religion,\" he added. \"I figure all religions are good. They all make sense on paper; it's just the exploitation of religion that's been a problem, by ... people using religion to justify war, or to justify government or, you know, 'God made me do it.' \" Ramis said one of his intentions with \"Year One,\" which he co-wrote with \"Office\" writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, was to focus on people, not God. Paraphrasing the liberal clergyman and activist William Sloane Coffin, he said, God's not the event itself, but \"God's in our reaction to the event.\" \"I wanted to do a film that kind of addressed these fundamental beliefs and urged people to take personal responsibility, no matter what they believe God is or isn't,\" Ramis said. \"It's still up to us in the final analysis.\" Which is not to say that the film skimps on its comedy -- and with Ramis, Black, Cera, Hank Azaria, David Cross and producer Judd Apatow (\"The 40-Year-Old Virgin,\" \"Superbad\") around, there's no shortage of jokes. \"It's really just a good, dumb, broad comedy,\" Ramis told Entertainment Weekly. Improvisation often played a role, said Cera and Black. \"We weren't locked to anything,\" Cera said. \"It was a very honest set. If something wasn't working then we would address it.\" \"We got a lot of different options [from observers], and they were able to play with different options in the editing room. I thought it was a cool way to do it,\" said Black. \"I've never done a movie like that -- and now I wanna do that on all my movies.\" iReport.com: Seen \"Year One\"? Share your review . The handful of early reviews have been positive, and Ramis is pleased with the result. He's particularly happy the film was received warmly in the Sodom shooting location -- Sibley, located in northwest Louisiana, in the heart of the Bible Belt. \"It's funny, because Southern people living in the heart of the Bible belt, there's a Baptist church every 150 feet in that area, and here we are in Sodom, in the city of Sodom,\" he said. \"And they just got into it, they enjoyed it so much.\"","highlights":"\"Year One\" stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as Stone Age men in Bible .\nDirector and co-writer Harold Ramis says the film uses comedy to make points .\nBiblical films are sometimes met with protest; will \"Year One\" qualify?","id":"222380fd4a930689f634cddbbe679315333dd17e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Oguchi Onyewu, who made his AC Milan debut in a 2-1 friendly defeat to Mexico's Club America, is the first player from the United States to be signed by the Serie A giants and is a rising talent in world football. Oguchi Onyewu has cut a commanding figure at the center of defense for the U.S. national team. The \"Rossoneri\" have put their faith in a 27-year-old defender, who has become a lynchpin of his national team in recent times -- but how did the stopper climb the ladder of success? The imposing Onweyu, who stands 1.93 meters tall and tips the scales at 95 kilograms, was born in Washington D.C., one of a family of five to Nigerian-born parents. While at high school in Maryland, he showed immediate promise and was selected for a soccer academy run by International Management Group (IMG). After graduation, Onyewu spent two years in collegiate soccer at Clemson University before taking his chance in Europe. CNN's Patrick Snell interviews Onyewu. \u00bb . He was originally at Metz in France before being loaned out to La Louviere in the Belgium league and finally to Standard Liege where he has spent the majority of his professional career. Because of his strong performances with Standard, Onyewu was constantly linked with a number of leading European clubs, but finally had his chance when sent out on loan to Newcastle United in the English Premier League. Joining for the back end of the 2006-07 season, he formed an uncertain partnership with Titus Bramble in the center of defense, which, combined with the arrival of new manager Sam Allardyce, was to cost him his place. Newcastle decided not to make his loan move permanent and Onyewu returned to Standard to help them win successive Belgian league titles. He was involved in a controversial incident at the end of the current season during the championship playoff against Anderlecht. Onyewu claimed Anderlecht defender Jelle Van Damme called him a \"dirty ape\" and persisted despite being reported to the referee. The Times of London reported on June 2 that Onyewu had taken legal action in a Brussels court over the alleged slur, hoping it will help eradicate such incidents in the future. His lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont said Onyewu felt compelled to take it further. \"He was convinced it was his duty to lodge the complaint,\" Dupont said. \"It is not a question whether Van Damme is racist. The issue is that these slurs are still used on the pitch, and are being used because they know it hurts.\" Onyewu made his debut for the U.S. national team in 2004 and played all three games for the side before their exit from the 2006 World Cup. But it was his performances in the recent Confederations Cup in South Africa which showed his qualities to the full. After the U.S. beat Egypt 3-0 to reach the semifinals, Onyewu was outstanding again in the shock 2-0 defeat of world number one-rated Spain to reach the final. The U.S. went on to lose the final 3-2 to Brazil, but Onyewu had again sparked renewed interest, including Milan, who had tracked him since 2004. He signed a three-year deal earlier this month with the seven-time European champions, who are in a rebuilding process after the retirement of club legend Paulo Maldini and departure of Kaka to Real Madrid. Onyewu is the second U.S. international to play in Serie A. Former national captain Alexi Lalas played for Padova in the 1990s.","highlights":"Oguchi Onyewu is the first U.S.-born player to be signed by AC Milan .\nOnweyu was a star performer for the U.S. team in 2009 Confederations Cup .\nThe 27-year-old has Nigerian parents and went to Clemson University .","id":"9bed81769c11032dbeb1e1192eb41bce8d87b09f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Carrie Prejean's lawyer gave Miss California USA executive director Keith Lewis what he said was a final warning to retract statements made about the former beauty queen or face a defamation lawsuit. The lawyer for former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, says the ousted beauty queen's good name is \"tarnished.\" Prejean, stripped of the Miss California USA title last week, \"suffered severe emotional distress\" and her reputation was harmed by Lewis, Charles LiMandri said in a letter sent Thursday to Lewis' lawyer. LiMandri's letter also accused Lewis, whom he referred to as a \"gay activist,\" of setting Prejean up to be fired because of her statements opposing same-sex marriage. When Prejean, 22, was dethroned, Lewis said it was for \"contract violations,\" including missed public appearances. He told CNN's Larry King last week that it wasn't one thing Prejean did, but \"many, many, many things.\" \"She came to us and said I'm not interested in your input; I'll make my own decision what I'm going to do,\" Lewis said. \"You know, when you have a contract, when you're working for someone, you have a responsibility to follow through on what that requirement is.\" Lewis told King it was clear \"she was not interested in upholding the title or the responsibilities.\" \"Carrie Prejean's good name has been tarnished by your client's false and defamatory accusations,\" the letter from her lawyer to Lewis' said. \"Please view this letter as a last opportunity for Mr. Lewis to retract the defamatory statements made against my client and to seek to restore her good name,\" LiMandri said. \"If he does not comply, I will have no alternative but to recommend that Ms. Prejean proceed to do so through litigation.\" In response to the letter, Lewis issued a statement that said: \"Mr. LiMandri obviously has never watched 'The Apprentice' if he believes that Mr. Trump could be so easily fooled. Facts are facts, and we stand by them.\" LiMandri denied any contract violations, saying it was a \"complete and utter pretext\" for her firing. The list Lewis gave to reporters of Prejean's missed appearances was \"an outright fraud,\" he said. Prejean \"did not refuse reasonable appearance requests\" that could \"be expected to promote and further the intended purposes of Miss California USA,\" he said. The beauty queen expected to be asked to attend \"Rotary conventions and avocado festivals,\" not events Lewis suggested, LiMandri said. \"She did not think it was appropriate for her to accept Mr. Lewis' invitation to attend a gay documentary in Hollywood promoting same-sex marriage,\" he said. \"It was not my client's job, as Miss California, simply to help your client promote his personal or business interests as a Hollywood agent and producer, or gay activist.\" He accused Lewis of trying to make commissions off Prejean's appearances. \"Your client was trying to wrongfully profit off of my client's participation as Miss California, in violation of her contract, by taking 20 percent of any appearance fee she would earn, such as at the Las Vegas jewelers convention she attended at his request,\" LiMandri's letter said. LiMandri cited a statement he said Lewis made during a May 15 conference call that \"clearly shows that your client was trying to 'set-up' our client for termination\" by relaying an offer to appear semi-nude in Playboy. Three people who worked for a public relations agency representing Prejean at the time heard it, he said. \"All three of those people distinctly remember Keith Lewis talking about sending Ms. Prejean an offer to do a Playboy photo shoot 'so when they take her title away, she doesn't sue me,' \" he said. LiMandri said Lewis -- and former co-executive director Shanna Moakler -- were \"bound and determined to get her fired, and they have now finally gotten their way.\" Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump announced last month that Prejean could keep her title despite a controversy over topless photos, missed appearances and her statements against same-sex marriage. Trump reversed himself last week. \"I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA organization, and I gave her the opportunity to do so,\" Trump said. \"Unfortunately, it just doesn't look like it is going to happen, and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision.\"","highlights":"NEW: Pagaent director responds, \"Facts are facts, and we stand by them\"\nAttorney Charles LiMandri pens ultimatum to Miss California USA director's lawyer .\nCarrie Prejean's lawyer says dethronement caused \"severe emotional distress\"\n\"Please view this letter as a last opportunity\" to retract statements, LiMandri writes .","id":"66fe82e02a5e0ec26f5826a4fb088f123bcf7aef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They scream germs: Used gum. A flock of pigeons. A tomb covered with kisses. The Blarney Stone in Ireland received more than 400,000 visitors in 2008, many who kissed the lucky stone. These bacteria-infested attractions have topped an unusual list compiled by editors at TripAdvisor.com, a travel advice Web site. This summer, editors at the site named the five \"germiest\" tourist spots in the world. Despite the H1N1 scare that went global this spring, tourists haven't stopped spitting out their gum and sticking it onto a wall already saturated with millions of gooey pieces, editors say. Nor do germ fears stop travelers from journeying to the pigeon-infested St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, where the birds often bestow droppings. \"These places are great attractions regardless of the fact that they are 'germy',\" said Brooke Ferencsik, a travel expert at TripAdvisor. \"Venice is lovely, and it's a great spot, but with all the pigeons, I'd bring an umbrella just in case the birds drop some gifts from above.\" Though it is unlikely to get sick from visiting one of these places, health experts say germs are always a gamble. The more people who touch and visit a spot, the more germs there are in the mix, they say. Their traveling advice? Travelers should load up on hand sanitizers and wash their hands often on their trips. Blarney Stone in Blarney, Ireland . Where the Blarney Stone came from and how it got to Ireland is a matter of debate. One old tale goes: Once upon a time, the king of Ireland saved a woman drowning in Blarney Lake. The woman told the king that if he kissed the stone, he would receive the gift of eloquence. Thus, the tradition of kissing the Blarney stone was born. Watch where you can find germ hotspots \u00bb . Last year, about 400,000 people kissed the stone, says a spokesman for Blarney Castle & Gardens. To do so, the person must be hung upside down to kiss the rock. Some people prefer watching to smooching. Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, visited the Blarney Stone in Ireland last year and refused to kiss the same spot where millions of tourists had put their lips. \"My wife did it,\" he added. \"And I wiped her lips before I kissed her.\" Market Theater Gum Wall in Seattle, Washington . There is a distinct fruity aroma that welcomes visitors when they pass the giant wall of gum housing millions of chewed pieces in Seattle. The gum -- pink, blue, yellow and green -- is piled several inches thick, spanning an area 15 feet high and 50 feet wide. Watch the wall of gum \u00bb . The Gum Wall, also dubbed the Wall of Gum, is one of the strangest attractions in Pike Place Market, where visitors can go to watch fish throwers and see the original Starbucks. \"People will do artwork with the gum,\" said Jay Hitt, the marketing director of the Market Theater. \"They write words on the wall, stick posters and business cards.\" The gum-sticking tradition began by accident in 1993 when patrons, mostly college students waiting in line for a show, would stick gum to the wall. Theater company workers say they scraped the gum routinely, but eventually gave up. Slowly the gum amassed. Today, there aren't any rules at the Gum Wall. Visitors from all over the world snap photos next to it and leave as many pieces of their own gum as they want. St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy . In the heart of Venice, Italy, lies St. Mark's Square, also known as Piazza San Marco, where both tourists and pigeons flock. Each year, more than 2 million visitors venture to St. Mark's Square to see the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica. Thousands of the dirty birds crowd the square sometimes leaving their droppings or attacking visitors. Some fearless visitors who aren't worried about germs snap pictures with the birds. But health experts warn that birds are notorious for carrying dangerous germs and viruses. If you want to see the famous pigeons, go soon. In 2007, city officials have worked hard to remove the pigeons from the square. They have banned people from feeding them and have even started trapping the birds in nets, significantly reducing the pigeon population. Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California . What do George Clooney, Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe have in common? All three of them are celebrated stars with their hand prints molded into the concrete of the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre for millions of people to touch. The sidewalk is littered with 246 celebrity hand and footprints that draw in 4.5 million visitors a year, many of whom put their own hands and feet on them. The site began as an accident in 1927 when Norma Talmadge, a famous actress in the 1920s, stepped into wet cement. Creator and owner of the theater, Sid Grauman, decided to make the hand and footprints a tradition. \"The stars are selected based on the longevity of their career,\" said Levi Tinker, a tour guide at the Grauman Theatre. \"Stars who will be around 10 to 20 years from now are picked so people know who they are.\" For germ-conscious travelers, Tinker says the concrete is mopped daily and pressure washed once a week. Oscar Wilde's Tomb in Paris, France . It's an unusual site in the P\u00e8re Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Author and playwright Oscar Wilde's body rests in a tomb speckled with lipstick marks from visitors from all over the world showing their literary appreciation. Wilde, who died in 1900 from cerebral meningitis, continues to be a celebrated literary figure today famous for his tabooed sexuality at the time and his novels such as \"The Picture of Dorian Gray.\" The kisses display a rainbow of colors -- so much so that travel experts say Oscar Wilde's name on the tomb can be hard to discern sometimes. One TripAdvisor traveler wrote after visiting the grave, \"The tombstone of Oscar Wilde is ... well, wild, excuse the pun.\"","highlights":"More than 400,000 visitors kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland in 2008 .\nTourists will try to make artwork with their chewed gum on Seattle's Gum Wall .\nOscar Wilde's tomb in Paris, France is covered with an array of lipstick kisses .\nThe Grauman Chinese Theatre that houses celebrity hand prints is washed daily .","id":"9dd43ceb9aaaabf1227f066cc2e8593f9c96a151"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- England international footballer Steven Gerrard was found not guilty of affray by a court in his home city on Friday. England international Steven Gerrard was cleared by a court in Liverpool of affray. The jury at Liverpool Crown Court took a little over an hour to clear Gerrard of charges relating to a fracas in a nightclub bar in the north-western of England city on December 29 of last year. They accepted the Liverpool captain's version that he acted in self defense in punching businessman Marcus McGhee. The 29-year-old was the only one of the seven defendants in the case to be cleared after an incident which was described by judge Henry Globe as an \"explosion of violence.\" Gerrard spoke of his relief outside the court. \"Can I just say how pleased I am with today's verdict,\" he said. \"I'm glad to put this case behind me and I am really looking forward to the season ahead and concentrating on my football now. \"I would just like to say a big thank you to my legal team and to my friends and family and everyone at Liverpool football club for supporting me.\" His comments were met with a round of applause from a large group of fans of the Premier League club who had gathered outside the court, before he was ushered away. Gerrard was celebrating in the Lounge Inn in Southport, a suburb of Liverpool, after scoring twice his team's 5-1 win at Newcastle which took them to the top of the Premier League. Video footage, which was available to the court, showed the moment around 2.am in the morning when trouble flared. Gerrard apparently wanted to change the music on the CD player and the 34-year-old McGee said the football star had acted aggressively in trying to grab the device. In the fracas which followed, Gerrard admitted throwing three punches but said only one connected. He claimed, and his version was accepted by the jury, that he believed he was about to be attacked himself. \"You did not start the violence, it was started by the violent elbowing of Marcus McGee in the face by one of your friends, John Doran,\" Globe said. \"The victim's consequential actions of reeling backwards and then forwards and your actions in response to that movement forward has to be seen against that background,\" he added. Five other men have already pleaded guilty to affray and another admitted a lesser charge of threatening behavior. They will be sentenced at a later date.","highlights":"England football star Steven Gerrard cleared of affray charge by Liverpool court .\nGerrard admitted punching 34-year-old businessman Marcus McGhee .\nJury accepted his version that he acted in self defense in nightclub brawl .","id":"11a45eba5f4e0e1548c31f8340e0bbd7f257723e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A California man convicted of the 2006 arson murders of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters was sentenced to death Friday. Raymond Lee Oyler was sentenced Friday to die for the arson murders of five firefighters. Raymond Lee Oyler, 38, of Beaumont was convicted in March of five counts of first-degree murder. The convictions included two special circumstances: that the murders were committed during an arson and that multiple murders were committed. Oyler also was convicted of 11 counts of arson and 10 counts of use of an incendiary device in those arsons. The imposition of the death penalty by a judge was a formality. A jury earlier recommended capital punishment for Oyler. Watch as Oyler's sentence is read \u00bb . Firefighters Mark Loutzenhiser, 44; Jess McLean, 27; Jason McKay, 27; and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, died October 26, 2006, during the Esperanza fire outside Los Angeles. Fueled by Santa Ana winds, the wildfire enveloped their engine. The fifth firefighter, Pablo Cerda, 23, died October 31, 2006, at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, where he had been taken after suffering burns over 90 percent of his body. Days before being charged in Esperanza fire, Oyler had been arrested and charged with two counts of arson in a June 2006 fire in the Banning Pass area. The 41,173-acre Esperanza fire destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings, mainly in the Twin Pines and Poppet Flats areas, which had been under mandatory evacuations. The firefighters died trying to protect a partially built house in Twin Pines, a rural mountain community. CNN's Lynn Lamanivong contributed to this report.","highlights":"Raymond Oyler formally handed death sentence for five firefighter deaths .\nJury convicted Oyler of five counts of first-degree murder, 11 counts of arson .\n2006 fire outside Los Angeles, California, killed the five firefighters .\nEsperanza fire destroyed 34 homes in Twin Pines area outside Los Angeles .","id":"2fbab4b93ecd8b42a50719715b5b93ce27113b6f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from last weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne after presenting \"misleading\" evidence to stewards. Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP after presenting \"misleading\" evidence to stewards. The McLaren driver and Toyota's Jarno Trulli were called to an FIA hearing in Malaysia -- the site of this weekend's grand prix -- on Thursday to discuss an incident during Sunday's race. Trulli finished third at Melbourne's Albert Park, only to later be handed a 25-second penalty by race stewards which relegated him to 12th position and saw Hamilton lifted into third. However, following Thursday's hearing, Trulli has been reinstated in third position. McLaren had complained that veteran Italian Trulli had illegally passed Hamilton under yellow flags following an accident late on involving Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber -- who were running second and third at the time. Trulli had decided not to appeal the original decision but the FIA, the sport's governing body, said it had received new information and pressed ahead with a second hearing. \"The stewards, having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, consider that Lewis Hamilton, and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009,\" the FIA said in a statement. It said Hamilton and McLaren had violated its rules and retrospectively disqualified him from the race. Meanwhile, Trulli believes justice has been served after Thursday's decision. \"I am happy because I wanted some justice and I got it,\" he told PA Sport. \"I am happy for myself and the team and I have to thank the FIA because it does not happen very often they reconsider something. \"It must have been really hard for them, but they had common sense to really try and understand what was going on. I have always been honest and it has paid off.\"","highlights":"World champion Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian GP .\nStewards say Hamilton and McLaren team presented \"misleading\" evidence .\nHamilton was involved in incident with Toyota driver Jarno Trulli in Melbourne .","id":"95926019ca7856f3670931b1f3f201c49c9eeaa5"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Samuel Fahrer and Sidney Lipson shake hands and smile. It's the first time the men have seen each other in 64 years. They were U.S. soldiers back on a forced death march in Nazi Germany in April 1945. Sidney Lispson, left, and Samuel Fahrer meet for the first time in 64 years. They were in a Nazi slave labor camp. \"How you doing?\" Fahrer says. It's a subdued moment for the two men. There are no tears, no pats on the back. The men have endured years of contained emotions from what happened six decades ago when they were prisoners of war and held as slaves inside Germany. They have come to a hotel in Orlando to be honored by the Army this weekend for the first time. Watch slave camp survivors reunite \u00bb . Fahrer and Lipson were among 350 soldiers held at the slave labor camp called Berga an der Elster, a largely forgotten legacy of the war and a subcamp of Buchenwald where soldiers were beaten, starved and forced to work in tunnels to hide German equipment. More than 100 soldiers died at the camp and on the death march. Buchenwald was one of the largest and first concentration camps on German soil. See photos inside Berga \u00bb . The Berga soldiers are being honored thanks in part to CNN.com users, who demanded the Army recognize the men, all in their 80s, after a series of reports late last year. The Army then conducted a months-long review of Berga at the urgings of Rep. Joe Baca, D-California, and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Alabama. \"These soldiers endured extreme hardships of forced labor, beatings, poor living conditions, and ultimately a forced march of over 250 kilometers [about 155 miles] prior to liberation by advancing U.S. Armed Forces,\" Army Secretary Peter Geren said at the conclusion of the review. \"The survivors of Berga certainly deserve both our thanks and recognition for their service and sacrifice.\" Geren is sending Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles to honor the survivors on Saturday. Six of the 22 Berga survivors will be at the event; most of those still living could not make it because of declining health. Those here look forward to what the general has to say. They want desperately to know why the U.S. government commuted the death sentences of the two Berga commanders, Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz. Both were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging until their commutations in 1948. \"I'm very happy the Army is sending a general to see us,\" Fahrer says. \"But they should've sent the general to see us a long time ago when some of the fellas were still alive. We're only 20 fellas left.\" Fahrer was one of the primary survivors after the war who fought to get the government to carry out the death sentences for Metz and Merz. In a letter to survivors in January 1949, he wrote, \"Things are beginning to break our way. A little enthusiasm, a little more cooperation, a little more action, will accomplish a great, great deal now.\" Now, 60 years later, he may finally get some answers. \"Let's see what the general has to say when he gets here,\" Fahrer says. His comrade, Morton Brooks, says, \"I never wanted revenge, but I did think retribution would be proper. And I think they should've suffered a little bit longer for what they did. ... They wouldn't kick a dog, but they did that to us.\" Watch Morton Brooks describe the Germans' \"work to death\" program \u00bb . The two men finally hugged. \"I'm glad to see you,\" Fahrer says. Some of the Berga soldiers were killed in cold blood, such as Morton Goldstein, shot through the head and then machine-gunned. His bullet-riddled body was placed in front of the barracks for all to see. Bernard Vogel and Izzy Cohen were forced to stand without food and water for days, pushed to their deaths. Cohen was a 32-year-old father of two young children. When he left for war, he kissed his family goodbye at a train station in California. He looked at his wife, Florence, and said, \"Whatever happens happens.\" It was the last words he ever spoke to her. Vogel's last words at Berga were: \"I want to die! I want to die!\" Hear Martin Vogel finally learn about his brother's final minutes \u00bb . \"They killed us slowly,\" Fahrer says. \"They didn't feed us, they didn't give us anything, they didn't do anything.\" The memories are so terrible, so horrific that Sid Lipson doesn't remember much of anything about his captivity. \"I don't remember a damn thing from the march,\" he says. Brooks says, \"I think it's best.\" Brooks weighed 75 pounds when he was finally freed; Fahrer weighed 90. \"The United States government did not acknowledge the fact that we were put in this slave labor camp,\" Fahrer says, shaking his head. \"We went through all these things and nobody wants to give us any help. And finally, now ...\" Brooks went on to become a psychologist. He says his time in captivity was a \"$1 million experience that I wouldn't want to repeat for $2 million.\" His message to the world about the whole ordeal: . \"We have to learn to talk to one another and live together. It's not necessary to go kill people for no reason.\" One of the survivors who won't be at this weekend's ceremony is Tony Acevedo, the U.S. medic who kept a diary inside Berga cataloguing the deaths and atrocities. It was Acevedo who CNN profiled in November, prompting a series of events culminating with the Pentagon deciding to honor the soldiers. See Acevedo's diary \u00bb . Acevedo's wife, Loline, is too ill. He doesn't want to leave her side. \"The love of my life,\" he says.","highlights":"Samuel Fahrer, Sidney Lipson reunite six decades after surviving Nazi camp .\nThey join with other survivors in Florida to be honored for the first time by the Army .\nThey were held at a camp called Berga an der Elster, part of infamous Buchenwald .\nPrisoners endured forced labor, beatings and terrible living conditions .","id":"d126e364bafbee8fd8013eac7826bf0bf923522b"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy became faint while jogging late Sunday morning and was taken to a hospital, the presidential office said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is often seen jogging with bodyguards. He did not lose consciousness, and initial tests showed nothing abnormal, said a statement released by the president's office. His heart will be monitored until Monday morning, which is standard procedure in such cases, the statement said. In the meantime, according to the statement, he is resting and keeping in touch with his advisers. Sarkozy, 54, had been jogging with bodyguards for about 45 minutes near the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the president, when he fell ill, the statement said. After being seen by the Elysee doctor, Sarkozy was taken by helicopter to the military hospital Val-de-Grace. Watch more on Sarkozy's trip to hospital \u00bb . No further announcement was expected until morning, the statement said. Sarkozy exercises regularly and is an avid jogger. Earlier this month, he was photographed jogging through Central Park in New York during his trip to the United States. CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sarkozy resting, talking with advisers at hospital, president's office says .\nNEW: Initial tests show nothing abnormal, according to president's office .\nFrench President taken to hospital after becoming faint while jogging .\nSarkozy is an avid jogger .","id":"7174f61ac65aa98e36027be9435e40ac4a41ebf0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- England international footballer Steven Gerrard was found not guilty of affray by a court in his home city on Friday. England international Steven Gerrard was cleared by a court in Liverpool of affray. The jury at Liverpool Crown Court took a little over an hour to clear Gerrard of charges relating to a fracas in a nightclub bar in the north-western of England city on December 29 of last year. They accepted the Liverpool captain's version that he acted in self defense in punching businessman Marcus McGhee. The 29-year-old was the only one of the seven defendants in the case to be cleared after an incident which was described by judge Henry Globe as an \"explosion of violence.\" Gerrard spoke of his relief outside the court. \"Can I just say how pleased I am with today's verdict,\" he said. \"I'm glad to put this case behind me and I am really looking forward to the season ahead and concentrating on my football now. \"I would just like to say a big thank you to my legal team and to my friends and family and everyone at Liverpool football club for supporting me.\" His comments were met with a round of applause from a large group of fans of the Premier League club who had gathered outside the court, before he was ushered away. Gerrard was celebrating in the Lounge Inn in Southport, a suburb of Liverpool, after scoring twice his team's 5-1 win at Newcastle which took them to the top of the Premier League. Video footage, which was available to the court, showed the moment around 2.am in the morning when trouble flared. Gerrard apparently wanted to change the music on the CD player and the 34-year-old McGee said the football star had acted aggressively in trying to grab the device. In the fracas which followed, Gerrard admitted throwing three punches but said only one connected. He claimed, and his version was accepted by the jury, that he believed he was about to be attacked himself. \"You did not start the violence, it was started by the violent elbowing of Marcus McGee in the face by one of your friends, John Doran,\" Globe said. \"The victim's consequential actions of reeling backwards and then forwards and your actions in response to that movement forward has to be seen against that background,\" he added. Five other men have already pleaded guilty to affray and another admitted a lesser charge of threatening behavior. They will be sentenced at a later date.","highlights":"England football star Steven Gerrard cleared of affray charge by Liverpool court .\nGerrard admitted punching 34-year-old businessman Marcus McGhee .\nJury accepted his version that he acted in self defense in nightclub brawl .","id":"0cf66b646e9b32076513c050edf32a799200c3c2"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Tyler Perry is known today as the first African-American to own a major film and TV studio. He's a pioneer whose own life story is a rags-to-riches tale that reads like a screenplay. Tyler Perry is the first African-American to own a major film and TV studio. Now a writer, actor, director and producer -- Perry's success grew out of a troubled home in a poor neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. Strong on faith, Perry named his first play \"I Know I've Been Changed,\" after an old Negro spiritual. It was a gospel musical about two adult survivors of child abuse. In 1991, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked as a bill collector and eventually scraped together enough money to rent a small theatre and stage the play. With only 30 people in the audience, the play was a flop. For the next several years, he struggled and was often broke and sometimes lived in his car. But Perry refused to give up. He finally got a second chance in 1998, when a promoter booked the show in the Tabernacle, a former church turned concert hall in downtown Atlanta. It was a sold out hit and the little boy from inner-city New Orleans was well on his way. Perry then took his plays on the road and traveled the so-called \"chitlin' circuit\" to theaters in Memphis, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan, and Baltimore, Maryland -- where black entertainers historically performed for predominantly black audiences. He began making a name for himself with African-Americans. In 2004, he started looking for backers for his first movie project \"Diary of Mad Black Woman,\" a story about a devoted wife in a bad marriage. He said he faced a wall of ignorance when he pitched white executives in Hollywood. One told him the project was doomed to fail at the box office because the core audience for Perry's stage plays -- black churchgoers -- wouldn't go to the movies. Another said the dialogue for his characters was unrealistic. Though he was largely unknown to white audiences, Perry refused to play by Hollywood's rules and demanded creative control of his projects. Tour of Tyler Perry's back lot \u00bb . He was resigned to bankrolling the project himself and selling it as a DVD when he got a call from the independent studio Lionsgate. They struck a deal and he made \"Diary\" for about $5 million. The movie earned 10 times that at the box office. Since then, Perry's movies have grossed nearly $400 million and he's developed a loyal following. He now demands not only creative control but also ownership of the finished product. Still, it's just the beginning, he said. \"I don't necessarily feel like I've arrived.\" Even so, Perry has a prolific output of stories, including his movies \"Why Did I Get Married,\" \"Meet the Browns,\" \"The Family that Preys,\" and \"Madea's Family Reunion.\" He signed a $200 million deal with TBS (owned by Time Warner, the same company that owns CNN) for 100 episodes of \"House of Payne,\" one of television's most popular shows among black adults. The sitcom is now in syndication, making even more money for Perry. Perry said ownership of the finished product is key to building wealth, a principle he hopes other African-Americans will embrace. How are entertainment heavyweights changing black stereotypes? \"If you want to think about longevity,\" he said, \"if you want to think about your family and generations down the line, then you have to own it.\" And own it he does. Tyler Perry Studios, on 30 acres in Atlanta, is his black Hollywood. But he is quick to acknowledge his debt to the legendary black actors from an earlier generation by naming two of his soundstages after Sidney Poitier and Cicely Tyson. He has also helped introduce them to a new generation by casting Tyson, 76, an Oscar-nominated actress, in two of his films. Tyson opens up about life, career \u00bb . A study by the NAACP found that African-Americans are \"underrepresented in almost every aspect of the television and film industry,\" but Perry is able to hire on both sides of the camera. On his production crews, black employees are getting unprecedented career opportunities, and black actors are portraying characters beyond the predictable drug dealers and thugs. \"What makes me feel great is to be able to pull up to this place and to be able to have 300 people working and running around, trying to get things done,\" he said. \"That makes me feel great.\" His greatest accomplishment, he said, has nothing to do with business. \"It's more personal than that for me,\" he said. \"My biggest success is getting over the things that have tried to destroy and take me out of this life. Those are my biggest successes. It has nothing to do with work.\" The NAACP has honored Perry with its Image Award, but there are some who believe his characters don't portray African-Americans positively. \"He's made a lot of money, but the quality of work is sorely lacking,\" said Todd Boyd, a University of Southern California film professor and culture\/media critic. Some of Perry's characters rely heavily on exaggerated personalities and slapstick comedy. Boyd is particularly critical of Perry's recurring character, Madea, an over-the-top grandmother who smokes marijuana and brandishes loaded guns she keeps in her purse. Perry himself plays the tough, buxom matriarch, who runs at full throttle fueled by country wisdom and ghetto strength. \"It seems a bit ironic that at the moment of the first African-American president, the most popular African-American figure in the media is a man in drag engaging some of the most stereotypical images of African-Americans ever created,\" Boyd said. Perry said his critics are missing the point. \"They miss the messages of empowerment,\" he said. \"Sure, the silliness of 'Madea,' the silliness of 'Brown,' it's broad, it's over the top. Great. Fine. I get it. But how can you miss the message of forgiveness? How can you miss the messages of empowerment? \"I would love to share with them the letters that I've gotten from people. 'This helped me get through a tough time.' 'I was gonna commit suicide.' 'My husband and I weren't speaking until we saw \"Why Did I Get Married?\" It saved our marriage.' \" For Perry, his work will always be about writing from his experiences, old and new. \"Whatever I'm experiencing in life is what I'll write about,\" he said. \"I'm telling you, just to think this little boy from Louisiana can do it, anybody can do it.\"","highlights":"Tyler Perry is the first African-American to own a major film and TV studio .\nThe director, writer and playwright grew up poor in New Orleans, Louisiana .\nPerry's movies have grossed nearly $400 million; he's developed loyal following .\n\"[If] this little boy from Louisiana can do it, anybody can do it,\" says Perry .","id":"b7127ee2e459c7d99d29dcc76d25bc34eb3463e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World champions South Africa held off a second-half rally from New Zealand to win their Tri-Nations opener 28-19 in Bloemfontein on Saturday. Morne Steyn goes on a run for the Springboks in their Tri Nations win. The All Blacks were trailing 17-3 early in the second half and got within four points before the Springboks sealed victory when Jaque Fourie went over eight minutes from time. All Blacks took the lead through Stephen Donald's early penalty, but South Africa hit back with 17 points without answer. Frans Steyn and Ruan Pienaar kicked penalties before the latter went over for the first try. Pienaar missed the conversion and carrying a slight injury passed the kicking duties back to Steyn who made a penalty to put them 14-3 up. Morne Steyn took over the kicking in the second half and he was successful with his first attempt to make it 17-3. The All Blacks then burst into action as Conrad Smith ran through for a superb try which was converted by Donald who then landed a penalty. Steyne and Donald shared penalties before Piri Weepu's wayward pass was recovered by the Springboks and Fourie went over to punish the error. The conversion was missed to complete a day of wayward kicking by the home side, but after a penalty by Donald, Steyn made no mistake the next time, with his kick three minutes from time finally ending the All Black challenge. South Africa go into the Tri-Nations off the back of a thrilling 2-1 series victory over the British and Irish Lions.","highlights":"South Africa beat New Zealand 28-19 in Tri-Nations opener in Bloemfontein .\nJaque Fourie and Ruan Pienaar crossed for tries for the Springboks .\nAll Blacks hit back from 17-3 down to set up thrilling finale .","id":"fd32589b6eec37be799b1e103b1cd01d7969ce0f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea says it will attack the Japanese military and \"major targets,\" if Japan shoots down a rocket Pyongyang plans to launch in the coming days, North Korea's state-run news service, KCNA, reported Thursday. Japan recently deployed its missile defense system in anticipation of North Korea's planned rocket launch. \"If Japan recklessly 'intercepts' [North Korea's] satellite for peaceful purposes, the [Korean People's Army] will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets,\" KCNA reported. Japan recently mobilized its missile defense system in response to the planned North Korean launch, Japanese officials said. The move, noteworthy for a country with a pacifist constitution, is aimed at shooting down any debris from the launch that might fall into Japanese territory. U.S. Navy ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles have also been moved to the Sea of Japan, a Navy spokesman said. The threat of retaliation comes as North Korea has begun fueling its long-range rocket, according to a senior U.S. military official familiar with the latest U.S. intelligence on the matter. The fueling signals that the country could be in the final stages of what North Korea has said will be the launch of a satellite into space as early as this weekend, the senior U.S. military official said Wednesday. Other U.S. military officials said the top portion of the rocket was put on very recently, but satellite imagery shows a shroud over the stage preventing a direct view of what the stage looks like. The officials said the satellite payload appears to have a \"bulbous\" cover, which could indicate there is a satellite loaded on it. Such a cover protects a satellite from damage in flight. While the sources did not know for sure what the payload is, they did say there is no reason to doubt it is a satellite as indicated by North Korea. Pyongyang has said it will conduct the launch sometime between April 4 and April 8. It's a launch that may violate a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution. Resolution 1718 \"[d]emands\" that North Korea \"not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile.\" \"It raises questions about their compliance with the Security Council Resolution 1718,\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week. \"And if they persist and go forward, we will take it up in appropriate channels.\" Pentagon officials worry less about the payload and more about the launch itself, saying any kind of launch will give the North Koreans valuable information about improving their ballistic missile program. \"I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile,\" U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday. Defense analysts say the same rocket could be used to push a satellite into space or deliver a nuclear warhead. Gates noted that while the United States believes it is North Korea's \"long-term intent\" to add a nuclear warhead to any such rocket, he \"personally would be skeptical that they have the ability right now to do that.\" Gates said that the U.S. military could shoot down \"an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii ... or something like that, we might consider it, but I don't think we have any plans to (do) anything like that at this point.\" He does not believe North Korea currently has the technology to reach Alaska or Pacific coast. CNN Senior Pentagon Producer Mike Mount contributed to this story.","highlights":"N. Korea says it will attack Japanese military, \"major targets,\" if it shoots down rocket .\nJapan recently mobilized its missile defense system in response to planned launch .\nN. Korea said it would conduct launch between April 4 and April 8 .\nSources say \"bulbous\" shroud atop rocket could indicate satellite aboard .","id":"3f23de9169ad136df594040b7c6faad9c07a23e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Summer offers lots of things to do outdoors, which is good for the many television viewers who complain about the quality of programming then. Showtime's \"Nurse Jackie\" is one of the cable series providing a lift for summertime television viewing. It's not that there aren't things to watch. On network television, there are plenty of repeats, reality shows and final episodes of series that have been canceled. But summertime viewing on network television can be a wasteland, especially for bloggers and critics whose gig it is to write and report on TV, said Kath Skerry, founder and editor of the Give Me My Remote blog. \"It's borderline depressing,\" Skerry said. \"Between the onslaught of reality television and what I call filler TV -- shows that the networks may have under contract but they just feel the need to get out regardless of the quality -- it almost feels like [the networks] have given up.\" Variety, for many the bible of the entertainment industry, reported on the first four weeks of summer. It said viewership of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox was down 9 percent, according to Nielsen. Even more distressing for advertisers, viewership was down 15 percent in the 18-49 demographic and 18 percent in the coveted 18-34 demographic. Skerry isn't surprised. The most quality she said she felt she has gotten out of network television this summer has been ABC burning off the final episodes of the canceled series \"Pushing Daisies,\" \"Eli Stone\" and \"Dirty Sexy Money.\" Otherwise, Skerry said, the great shows are happening on the cable networks. Joe Bua blogs at IAmATVJunkie.com and counts among some of his favorite summer shows HBO's \"True Blood,\" \"Torchwood Children of Earth\" on BBC America and Showtime's \"Nurse Jackie.\" \"Nurse Jackie\" and other shows such as \"Mad Men\" are luring viewers who want original quality programs. Fans are even showing up in big numbers for cable reality shows such as \"Jon & Kate Plus 8\" (currently on a break), and the \"Real Housewives\" franchise. Bill Gorman, editor of the TV rating and analysis site TvByTheNumbers.com, said the shift to cable has been a long time coming. \"It's the continuation of a trend that's been going on since the early '80s,\" Gorman told AfterElton.com. \"Viewers continue making the 30-year shift from watching broadcast to watching cable.\" Jonathan Storm, a TV critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, said the apparent ceding of summer to cable by broadcast networks is rooted in tradition and the history of how television started. \"The car manufacturers came out with their new models in September, and the TV people said, 'We will give you new shows to advertise your cars on,' \" Storm. \"That was part of it and that started in the 1950s.\" Storm said there is also a type of \"circadian rhythm\" to television in that viewers are more inclined to tune in when the days are shorter and colder. Broadcast networks once were able to afford 39 episodes a year, he said. Now economics often dictate a 22-episode season. Storm said networks now trot out cheaper-to-produce reality shows -- something CBS hit the jackpot with several years ago after the runaway success of the summer-debuted \"Survivor.\" \"The networks just couldn't afford to make shows all summer long,\" said Storm, who will soon join his colleagues for one of their summer highlights -- The Television Critics Association's summer tour in Pasadena, California. \"Now they've found the answer,\" Storm said. \"They make all of these ridiculous Japanese game shows -- crash yourself into the red balls, 'Wipeout' show -- and several shows that come on and vanish before most TV critics and the general public even know they are there.\" Ronnie Karam, senior editor at TVgasm.com, said he has been doing what a lot of viewers do during summertime -- checking out television shows on DVD that he hadn't watched during the fall season. \"I think that putting television shows on DVD has changed the way a lot of people are watching,\" he said. \"During the summer, you feel like you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.\" Karam said it's a chance to check out critically acclaimed shows that viewers either didn't have the time for or the inclination to watch. Broadcast networks really haven't figured out what their strategy should be for summer programming, said Jace Lacob, the writer\/editor of Televisionary. \"Years ago, you had Fox launching scripted shows early in the summer and you had shows like 'The O.C.',\" Lacob said. \"You used to have 'American Idol' during the summer as well, which was huge for Fox. But [networks] really haven't gotten a grasp on their summer programming, so they are offering really random shows that nobody is really particularly interested in.\" Lacob said some of the offerings have been a mixed bag, such as \"The Listener,\" which didn't exactly catch fire, and \"I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here,\" which he believes wasn't as popular with viewers as NBC had hoped. Blogger Kath Skerry said that even the publicity push around some of the shows such as \"The Listener\" and \"The Philanthropist,\" which broadcast networks have premiered during the summer, has not at all rivaled the fall season. \"The promotion around them, I feel like the lack of enthusiasm with how the networks have communicated with bloggers feels very different,\" she said. \"Whether it's true or not, from my standpoint it feels like the networks are not very enthusiastic about the shows.\"","highlights":"Summer seen as wasteland on broadcast TV for some critics and bloggers .\nNetworks often run repeats and launch reality shows during summertime .\nCable stations offer destination viewing for new, hot shows .\nBlogger says \"you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel\" for shows .","id":"0f7c9c5482aa0760c6f3200e89ecd9b4134c16fc"} -{"article":"KUALA LAMPUR, Malaysia (CNN) -- Malaysia will swear in a new prime minister Friday -- one tasked with reuniting a multi-racial nation and shoring up an economy in dire straits. Outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, facing, hugs his successor, Najib Razak last week. Until now, Najib Razak had served as the Southeast Asian country's deputy prime minister. He succeeds Abdullah Badawi who turned in his resignation after five years as leader. Both are part of Malaysia's ruling party, the National Front Coalition, which has ruled the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1957. But last year, a loose coalition of opposition parties won 82 of 222 parliamentary seats in elections. It was only the second time in the country's history that the ruling party failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. The election upset led to calls for Abdullah to step down. Various challenges await Najib: . In recent months, the country has seen riots with the country's ethnic Chinese and Indian communities who accuse the government of passing laws that favor the Malay majority. Najib has said he will do more to address their concerns. The country, like other nations around the world, has been severely affected by the global economic downturn. Critics are demanding Malaysia diversify its technology-heavy economy. Last month, Najib unveiled a multi-billion dollar stimulus plan for new spending, according to published reports. Najib also brings with him a whiff of controversy. Two former bodyguards are facing charges in connection the murder of a Mongolian model. He has denied all links to the killing.","highlights":"Najib Razak to become new prime minister for Malaysia on Friday .\nAbdullah Badawi to step down from PM post .\nRuling party has failed to secure majority needed to amend constitution .","id":"61452a89a28428a071640d700c595be0a2e3cf82"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Skywatchers are gathering from parking lots in western India to music festivals on remote Japanese islands to witness what NASA describes as an \"exceptionally long\" total solar eclipse that will cross half the planet on Wednesday. People try out \"solar view goggles\" ahead of the eclipse on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India. \"This eclipse has the potential to be observed by more people than any eclipse in all of history,\" said MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, who will be in Shanghai leading an expedition of observers and a group of eclipse chasers. \"Essentially, every inhabitant of all of India and China will be able to see at least part of the sun covered throughout the day,\" he said. The path of the total eclipse will stretch across the heart of Asia -- from India's Bay of Cambay, over the Himalayas and across China and the southern islands of Japan. The eclipse is expected to reach its peak over India at around 12:40 a.m. GMT Wednesday (8:40 p.m. ET Tuesday). Though the duration of greatest eclipse will occur over the Pacific Ocean at six minutes, 39 seconds, people in some areas of China and Japan will experience up to more than six minutes of darkness, according to predictions by Fred Espenak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and J. Anderson of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Watch as eclipse-watchers head to China \u00bb . The 15,150-kilometer (9,415-mile) journey of the moon's shadow across the Earth will last nearly three-and-a-half hours and be \"one of the longest eclipses, if not the longest eclipse, in this century,\" Binzel said. Forecasters predict stormy weather for Wednesday morning in Shanghai, but this prognosis has not deterred astronomers and tourists from flooding the city. Send us your photos of the eclipse . Professor Zhao Junliang of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory said the weather could be unpredictable but staying away from such an historic event would be a mistake. \"In 1987, I chased a total solar eclipse in (the western region of) Xinjiang. At the time, the sun was entirely blocked by stormy clouds. Two minutes before the eclipse began, the clouds suddenly cleared,\" Zhao said. \"You just never know, so you have to go.\" Read blog on how eclipse-chasers are gambling on weather . Rick Gille and his wife flew in from Atlanta, Georgia, to catch the eclipse in Shanghai. They were heading to what is known as the \"centerline\" -- where the eclipse will last nearly six minutes. They are armed with high resolution digital cameras and telescopes. \"You'll know us when you see us,\" said Gille, who travels the world chasing solar eclipses. \"We're all wearing beige t-shirts which read 'Eclipse 2009.'\" Total eclipses happen about once a year or a little less often somewhere on the Earth's surface and are visible in a narrow band, Benzil said. \"This band starts at sunrise in India and ends at sunset over the Pacific, just east of Hawaii about four hours later. The shadow path of the moon is sweeping across the surface of the Earth at about 3,000 kilometers per hour,\" he said. \"The partial eclipse is also visible throughout Thailand and Vietnam, as far south at the top tip of Australia and as far north as Siberia.\" In some cultures, legends and folklore surrounds eclipses. In India, an eclipse is considered inauspicious. Women forbid pregnant daughters-in-law from going outside out of the belief that their children could be born with marks. Some temples won't offer any prayers on the day of an eclipse -- such as the one next to the planetarium in Mumbai, which said it won't even light a stick of incense. In Chinese tradition, there is a story about a heavenly dog eating the sun. As the story goes, people would make noise to scare off the dog and rescue the sun, said Bill Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society. \"In ancient China, we shared the same impression with our Indian friends that a solar eclipse was not a good thing,\" he told CNN. Some of the more unusual ways to see Wednesday's eclipse include a cruise ship that will travel along the centerline off Japan and from aboard a 737-700 chartered plane in India. \"The aircraft will be intercepting the middle of the eclipse shadow at 0626 IST (Indian Standard Time) at a height of 41,000 feet,\" travel company Cox and Kings India Ltd, which is organizing the flight in association with Space technology and education Ltd, said in a statement. \"Eclipse chasers sitting along the Sun Side seats of the aircraft will be able to photograph the eclipse; while the chasers sitting along the Earth Side seats will be able to photograph the Lunar Shadow moving over the Earth cloud top,\" the company said. More conventional viewing parties in Shanghai have been planned along the beach, in a park and in skyscrapers. A music festival has been organized in Japan's Amami island, with more than 6,000 people expected, and Japanese television has shown rows of tents set up on Akusekijima island. The witnesses of the eclipse will range \"from the farmer who only knows legends of eclipses and may not know this is happening at all to the world's experts who have come specifically to the Shanghai region to make the most detailed scientific analysis possible,\" added Binzel, the MIT astronomer. For James and Kathy Scheffler of Kokomo, Indiana, solar eclipses are not to be missed. They have seen six eclipses, including in Aruba, the Black Sea, Madagascar and the Egyptian-Libyan border, and are now making their way to Shanghai. \"When it happens, there is this dissonance that is set up between what your body knows is supposed to be light and what your eyes are seeing -- it's suddenly gotten dark. It's a very, very strange feeling that some people have likened to a religious experience, and you get kind of addicted to that,\" said James Scheffler, a cardiologist. \"It's a very interesting emotional experience as well as the beauty of the event.\" Kathy Scheffler added: \"It's an experience that, first of all very few people in the world will see it, and second of all, it's a once in a lifetime -- ever -- experience that you can't ever duplicate because they are all so different.\" CNN's John Vause, Nishi Kumar, Yoko Wakatsuki, Stephanie Akiko Haschke and Mallika Kapur contributed to this report.","highlights":"NASA says it will be \"exceptionally long\" total solar eclipse; will cross half the planet .\nMIT astronomer says it could be seen by more people than any other eclipse .\nThe path of the total eclipse will stretch across the heart of Asia .\nSome watching events include a cruise, plane trip and a music festival .","id":"92b5227f413c438e0f2c4a28236c7b677b578515"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama announced key members of his energy team on Monday, naming physicist Steven Chu as secretary of energy, and former EPA administrator Carol Browner to a new post in the White House to coordinate energy and climate policy. Carol Browner was one of four key environmental nominees named by Obama. Obama also named Lisa Jackson, former head of New Jersey's environmental agency, to serve as his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and Nancy Sutley, the Los Angeles deputy mayor for energy and environment, to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Sutley, a prominent supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, is the first high-ranking gay appointee to the Obama administration. \"In the 21st century, we know that the future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked with one challenge: energy,\" Obama said at a news conference to introduce his energy team. \"We've seen Washington launch policy after policy, yet our dependence on foreign oil has only grown, even as the world's resources are disappearing,\" he said. \"This time has to be different. This time we cannot fail, nor can we be lulled into complacency simply because the price at the pump has for now gone down from $4 a gallon.\" Obama called Chu \"uniquely suited to be our next secretary of energy\" for his work on new and cleaner forms of energy. Chu, who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics and is highly respected in energy circles. Browner, who was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration, was named to be the nation's first \"climate czar,\" working inside the White House on policy issues. \"Carol understands that our efforts to create jobs, achieve energy security, and combat climate change demand integration among different agencies, cooperation between federal, state, and local governments and partnership with the private sector,\" Obama said. He said that Jackson, as commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, helped make that state a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing new sources of energy. \"Lisa also shares my commitment to restoring the EPA's robust role in protecting our air, our water, and abundant natural resources so that our environment is cleaner and our communities are safer,\" Obama said. Sutley has been \"at the cutting edge\" of environmental work on the municipal and regional level, Obama said. She will be \"a key player in helping to make our government more efficient in coordinating our efforts to protect our environment at home and around the globe,\" he added. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised the appointment of his deputy mayor to a national post. \"With Nancy on my team, we have made tremendous progress -- from quadrupling our renewable energy portfolio to exceeding the targets set out by the Kyoto Protocol four years ahead of schedule,\" he said in a written statement. Energy is one aspect of the president-elect's goal to create 2.5 million jobs by 2011. The plan aims to put Americans to work updating the country's infrastructure, making public buildings more energy-efficient and implementing environmentally friendly technologies, including alternative energy sources. During his campaign, Obama said he would invest $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy. He proposed increasing fuel economy standards and requiring that 10 percent of electricity in the United States comes from renewable sources by 2012.","highlights":"Nobel-prize physicist Steven Chu named secretary of energy in Obama's cabinet .\nNew post created in White House for energy and climate policy coordinator .\nObama said he would invest $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy .","id":"6dfd27a15c730f9618a6789105316cc4e1f3b6da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He has been at the center of Asia's biggest sex scandal, but now actor Edison Chen has broken his silence on the public episode that has ended careers and caused him to face at least one reported death threat. Internet sex photos of Edison Chen and starlets caused a huge media storm and fall from grace for many. Talking exclusively to CNN on his return to Hong Kong, where he had been forging a career in the movies, Chen reveals his side of the scandal that broke in early last year when hundreds of sexually explicit photos of Chen with other celebrities turned up on the Internet. \"There's been a lot of talk through the past year and a half about this or that and a lot of rumors, a lot of hearsay, and I feel, you know, I've kept quiet just to kind of respect everyone and respect the law,\" Chen told CNN. A Hong Kong computer technician was sentenced to more than eight-and-a-half months in jail for dishonestly obtaining access to the intimate photos when Chen sent his computer in for repairs. But it is still unclear exactly how the images made their way to the web. Watch the full exclusive TV interview with Edison Chen online \u00bb . The photographs caused shock in Hong Kong and across Asia, with around 1,300 salacious images fueling front page news for tabloids for weeks. There was also a huge public backlash against the 28-year-old who has been one of the rising young stars of Asia cinema. After the scandal broke, Chen, who admitted taking the photos, announced his retirement from Hong Kong's entertainment business and fled to his native Canada. Added to the media attention, Chen says he faced death threats. A bullet was sent to a TV station in Hong Kong earlier this year warning the entertainer to stay out of the limelight. While Chen issued his own apology for any hurt or embarrassment caused soon after the photos surfaced, he maintains he suffered as well. \"I believed I was a victim. I believed that I was hurt by this a lot. I believed that...I knew that I had nothing to do with the spreading of these photos,\" he told CNN in the exclusive interview. \"I can't say I didn't do anything wrong. I've admitted that I was wrong, and I wouldn't say sorry if I wasn't wrong. But I also believe that at the same time that I wasn't the perpetrator, and I had suffered a lot from this as well.\" Chen has suffered a spectacular fall from grace and some of the starlets in the photos have endured public disgrace in this culturally conservative region. For some, careers have been left in ruins. Chen says he has not spoken to any of the women identified in the photos since the scandal broke. \"Initially it was because I couldn't find them. Secondly, it was because I didn't really know how to approach and really what to say to be honest with you,\" Chen told CNN. Cecilia Cheung was one of the actresses identified in the photos and in a recent interview, she had strong criticism for Chen. \"I wasn't allowed to talk to her in the initial because of the police request and they were investigating me...I had so much things on my mind,\" said Chen. \"I'm not trying to say that that justifies any wrongdoing that she thinks I've done to her. But I hope that she can understand, and I hope that she can forgive me either today or one day, and she'll understand that I had my difficulties, and I really, really never wished this to happen upon anyone, and I still respect her.\" Watch the full exclusive TV interview with Edison Chen online. \u00bb Chen talks at length to CNN's Anjali Rao about the women involved in the photographs, why he took the images, the effect the scandal had on his health, his family and others.","highlights":"Actor gives exclusive interview with CNN on the sex scandal that rocked Asia .\nChen faced death threats; careers of some girls in explicit photos ruined .\nReturns to Hong Kong to explain his side of scandal and its effects .\nWatch even more from the interview in exclusive online only footage .","id":"80121af2f70d19a4e92a740b82c07522ffb5d8ba"} -{"article":"MATURA, Trinidad (CNN) -- With its white sand and clear, blue water, Trinidad's Matura Beach looks like a postcard. It's a far cry from its recent past, when leatherback sea turtle carcasses littered the ground and kept tourists away. Suzan Lakhan Baptiste's efforts have turned a beach from a leatherback turtle graveyard to a nesting colony. \"Twenty years ago, this was a graveyard,\" Suzan Lakhan Baptiste said of the six-mile stretch of beach near her home. \"The stench was horrendous. You could smell it for miles,\" she said. Saddened and frustrated, Baptiste launched a crusade to help end the slaughter of the gentle giants. Today, she and her group are succeeding: What was once a turtle graveyard is now a maternity ward -- one of the largest leatherback nesting colonies in the world. It hasn't been an easy fight for Baptiste or the turtles. For 100 million years, the creatures have traveled the world's oceans, outliving the dinosaurs. Over the last 30 years, they have become critically endangered worldwide because of fishing, pollution and hunting. For centuries, they've been hunted throughout the Caribbean for their meat and fins, and also for their eggs, which some people prize as aphrodisiacs. \"Turtles are in serious trouble,\" Baptiste said. Every year, female leatherbacks make their way onto the beach, laying their eggs deep in the sand. It is a long, complicated ritual during which the enormous, slow-moving animals are easy prey for poachers. \"Leatherbacks [are] very vulnerable,\" Baptiste said. \"They cannot pull their head and flippers back into the shell. They have no sense of defense to actually protect themselves.\" By the 1980s, nearly one in three turtles that nested on Matura Beach were killed. When the government asked for volunteers to help protect the endangered creatures, Baptiste and several others answered the call. In 1990, they started Nature Seekers, one of Trinidad's first environmental groups. 'Crazy Turtle Woman' For years, Baptiste and her group patrolled the beaches every night of turtle nesting season. She often walked alone until sunrise. Locals mocked her efforts, calling her the \"Turtle Police\" or \"Crazy Turtle Woman,\" yet her dedication to the unpaid work was fierce; when it conflicted with her day job, she quit and found a new job. Leatherbacks were a vital source of income for some members of her village, and the poachers who prowled the beaches with machetes could be threatening. When Baptiste's then-husband was injured during a patrol, she became more determined to stand her ground. \"I was very vigilant,\" she said, adding that at times, she even got into physical fights. But Baptiste persisted, and a prestigious award from the United Nations Environment Program helped validate her efforts. She and her group also worked hard to convince the villagers that using the turtles for eco-tourism could create a more sustainable income. \"I wanted to show that a turtle is [worth] so much more to us alive than dead,\" Baptiste said. Gradually, her message of conservation turned the tide of public opinion, and after nearly two decades under Baptiste's leadership, Nature Seekers has largely won its battle. Today, the leatherbacks' survival rate on Matura Beach is virtually 100 percent. \"Here, turtle slaughter is a thing of the past,\" Baptiste proclaimed. Even \"Papa George,\" a village elder who used to hunt leatherbacks with his father, can attest to the cultural shift. \"Suzan brought around the change,\" he said. \"They don't kill the turtles anymore ... because of the visitors.\" Nearly 10,000 tourists a year, most of whom are Trinidadian, now visit Matura Beach, and many locals make a living by providing them with accommodations, food and souvenirs. Since the beach is a prohibited area during the nesting season, Nature Seekers' members act as guides, explaining the turtles' ancient rituals to visitors. In addition, Baptiste and her colleagues gather data on the enormous creatures, tagging and weighing as many leatherbacks as they can. Watch Baptiste and her group weigh a leatherback turtle at night \u00bb . During peak season, they might see between 250 or 300 turtles a night. More than 5,000 leatherbacks nest in the area each year. The group's work is often cited as one of the most successful eco-tourism efforts in the Caribbean. Still, turtle slaughter persists throughout the region, and Baptiste is working to help other groups learn from her success, most recently on the island of Dominica. She finds joy in sharing her hard-earned knowledge. \"The passion that I feel, it burns me up,\" she said. \"I have seen the fruits of our labor, and it can happen in every community.\" Watch how Baptiste helped end the slaughter of turtles in her community \u00bb . Her efforts -- and those of many others around the region -- are making a difference. While leatherbacks are still critically endangered worldwide, the Caribbean population has begun to rebound. \"When I got started, a lot of people thought I was crazy,\" Baptiste said, and she admits that she sometimes wondered if they were right. Reflecting on what she and her team have accomplished, she now believes it was worth it. \"I love being crazy, you know?\" she said, laughing. \"Crazy with a passion, crazy with a dream -- totally environmentally crazy.\" Want to get involved? Check out Nature Seekers and see how to help.","highlights":"Suzan Lakhan Baptiste helped end leatherback turtle slaughter in her community .\nHer nonprofit Nature Seekers promotes turtle conservation throughout the Caribbean .\nThe group's efforts contribute to eco-tourism in the area .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"1bc39a84009d5020ffbb67ec405fedd87e1bafe9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A single-engine plane crashed Saturday outside a bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, seriously injuring the five people on board, authorities said. A damaged airplane lies on the ground Saturday next to a busy road in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The pilot reported engine problems shortly after leaving the city's Wiley Post Airport, about a mile away from the crash site, at midmorning, said Lynn Lunsford, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane hit two trees as it came down, and video showed the damaged Beechcraft Bonanza resting on the grass near a busy thoroughfare in the northwest section of the city. Fire Department Deputy Chief Cecil Clay said the two men and three women on the plane were taken to hospitals. Lunsford said they suffered multiple injuries. Watch footage of the plane at the crash site \u00bb . The plane was headed to Enid, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north of Oklahoma City. The pilot tried to return to Wiley Post Airport after he recognized the engine trouble, Lunsford said. \"I heard what I thought was a Dumpster being unloaded in the complex,\" said Shaddy Ahmad, who manages the U-Haul business across the street from the bank. He said emergency responders used special equipment to extricate the people from the plane, the top of which was peeled back. \"They were very lucky because this is a high-traffic area,\" Ahmad said. \"You have the expressway, the bank and stores in the area. They were blessed to land how they did.\"","highlights":"Single-engine Beechcraft makes hard landing near busy road .\nPlane developed engine problems shortly after takeoff, FAA official says .\nFliers were headed for Enid, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north .","id":"0cf2db4ce96f8aeb91bf08ba9f9cadf6c44936fd"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- If there's anything Oprah Winfrey knows for sure, it's what the love of a dog can do for your life. \"There is nothing in the world like puppy love,\" Oprah says. Inmates at the Fishkill Correctional Facility work with the dogs to prepare them to help wounded troops. Still, dogs are more than just companions. They can be the eyes for those who can't see, lead those who can't walk and calm people suffering from conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. Where do these service dogs get their start? For some, it all begins behind prison walls... At the Fishkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York, more than 1,600 men convicted of abuse, robbery and murder are serving their time. \"I've been incarcerated for robbery in the first degree,\" an inmate named Michael says. \"I really had no regards for other people. It was always me, me, me, me.\" Now, a groundbreaking program called Puppies Behind Bars is transforming these offenders. Inmates are given 8-week-old puppies and taught to train them to become service dogs for the disabled, including wounded soldiers. The puppies and prisoners are together 24 hours a day. The puppies sleep in crates in the inmates' cells. In return, the puppies give the prisoners something many of them have never experienced before -- unconditional love. \"I'm going to make my family and those around me proud of me again. Joining this program, it helped me to give myself a sense of pride again. To know that by nurturing and raising these dogs to their fullest potential, that I could give back.\" Oprah.com: Amazing animal friendships you have to see . Animal lover and five-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close first learned about Puppies Behind Bars when she volunteered to help inmates at the women's prison in her town. She was so moved by the impact of the program that she called \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" herself to share this story. \"We know the bond that can be created between humans and animals. And there is common knowledge that it's a healing quality,\" she says. \"The bond that's created between inmates -- who never knew love, never knew responsibility, have only been told that they're worthless -- and the bond that they then train their dogs to establish with these wounded returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan is changing their lives.\" Oprah.com: 10 inspiring pets . Roberto is an inmate whose life has been changed by the program. Convicted of second-degree murder, Roberto has been in prison since he was 17. \"I am now 33 years old. I wish I could turn back the hands of time for the hurt and pain that I've caused so many people, especially my victim's family,\" he says. Roberto was chosen for Puppies Behind Bars and immediately bonded with his yellow lab, Frankie. \"From the moment I got her, it was amazing,\" he says. \"There was some beautiful moments in here that I shared with my puppy.\" Eventually, Frankie had to move on -- and Roberto had to say goodbye. \"The first night I was without Frankie, I have to say it was a long night,\" he says. \"It was hard for me to realize that the next morning I was going to wake up and not actually feed her that morning.\" Since leaving Roberto, Frankie has become a lifeline for Sgt. Allen Hill, who suffers from traumatic brain injury and severe combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder after he was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Frankie helps Sgt. Hill overcome his paralyzing, violent flashbacks by kissing his face. After a few months together, Sgt. Hill and Frankie return to Fishkill to meet Roberto. When Frankie sees Roberto, she takes off running. \"She looks beautiful,\" Roberto says. Sgt. Hill thanks Roberto for all that he's done. \"Frankie has been there for me. She's been my rock when I've needed her to help me out with a flashback or a nightmare. I can do things that for a year and a half I couldn't do,\" Sgt. Hill says. Roberto is moved. \"This is an overwhelming feeling, and to see you is breathtaking,\" he says. \"And to see what Frankie had done in your life.\" Oprah.com: Animals that are working hard every day . Now paroled, Roberto is expected to be released from prison this summer, but what he learned from Puppies Behind Bars will stay with him forever. \"Being able to be involved in the puppy program has taught me to be a responsible person,\" he says. \"It has taught me patience.\" Sgt. Hill, his wife, Gina, say Frankie has changed their lives. \"The biggest difference that Frankie has made in my life was, one, she allowed me the opportunity to go back to church,\" he says. \"And, two, she's helping me gain my independence back so I'm not so reliant on Gina and other family members.\" Gina says she's starting to see her husband's playful, energetic side come through once again. \"We're starting to see that side of him again that we haven't seen in the year and a half he's been home from Iraq,\" she says. \"Frankie has brought my sons their daddy home. She has lit the light back in him that had been so dark.\" Perhaps the greatest legacy of Puppies Behind Bars is the lesson of love each inmate learns. Jesse, another prisoner at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, is currently training Joy, his third dog. \"She brought forth in me the ability to love again. It had been so dormant in me for so long because of the cold place that I'm in,\" he says. \"I didn't know that I could love again, and we all get to see how greatly these dogs affect the lives of the people that they touch.\" From The Oprah Winfrey Show 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Inmates at Fishkill Correctional Facility train puppies behind bars .\nThe pups will become service dogs for U.S. troops injured in Iraq, Afghanistan .\nDog Frankie helps Sgt. Allen Hill overcome paralyzing, violent flashbacks .\nTrainer Roberto says Frankie taught him patience, responsibility .","id":"43d9ed2f64de8ae43bd8095d5ad7dfd4f60e3e45"} -{"article":"MINGORA, Pakistan (CNN) -- Gen. Nadeem Ahmad swirls the helicopter over Pakistan's ground zero. Below is the Swat Valley of North West Frontier Province. A Pakistani soldier patrols a ruined street in Mingora. From the air, the valley in the foothills of the Hindu Kush looks undisturbed. Green fields amid clusters of drab houses. A closer look at Swat reveals how well the Pakistani Army fared in its military campaign to wipe out the militants. The cost of success: massive destruction that is sure to hamper the lives of already suffering residents just starting to trickle back to the homes they fled. A few months ago, ferocious battles between Pakistan's Army and Taliban fighters erupted here -- in Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts. War's remnants serve as a constant reminder. A destroyed bridge. Pockmarked houses. Hotels that look like they've been abandoned for years. Nadeem maneuvers the chopper to circle Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley. From the hilltop Army sentry posts that come into view, soldiers survey the ground below, hard won from Taliban fighters. The militants, Nadeem says, have fled to nearby mountains. On the ground, he shows off a cache of weapons seized in the fighting. The soldiers are keen to boast their victory. Mingora remains on high alert. A curfew has been lifted for morning hours, although soldiers keep close watch on those who venture out. The city's pain is plainly evident on its scarred, deserted streets. Many shops are shuttered or destroyed. Watch Stan Grant tour the shattered streets of Mingora \u00bb . The United Nations estimates that 375,000 Swat Valley residents fled their homes during the fighting. In all, 2.5 million Pakistanis were displaced in what was said to be one of the largest human migrations in recent history. About 260,000 people have been living in 21 refugee camps in neighboring Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Peshawar and Charssada districts, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees say the \"vast majority\" of internally displaced Pakistanis have been staying with host families, rented houses or in schools. The government plans to return people first from the camps and then focus on those living elsewhere. But this week, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that as many as 1 million people could remain displaced until December because of the widespread destruction in their home towns, such as Mingora. Relief agencies have reported dire humanitarian conditions in Mingora: hospitals without electricity that are inundated with patients, an erratic supply of water and natural gas. One resident, who identified himself only as Abdullah, told CNN that returning people are facing shortages in food, water and basic supplies for survival. Some displaced families also expressed concerns about schooling for their children, reported the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), the U.N. news agency focusing on humanitarian issues. Louis-Georges Arsenault, emergency office director for UNICEF, said 1 million children were at risk of not starting school by September, mainly due to the Taliban's widespread destruction of schools and that 4,000 existing schools continue to shelter displaced people. Businessman Muhammad Khan, 40, who recently returned to Mingora, voiced the despair of returning residents. He told IRIN that \"everything is in ruins.\" \"Everything is in ruins,\" IRIN quoted Khan as saying. \"It will take months for life to return to normality.\" But that normality will no longer include the Taliban, Pakistani soldiers say. The fight was hard, but it was victorious, they say. They point to an area in the city where they say the Taliban displayed the bodies of their victims, some beheaded. It became known as \"Slaughter Square.\" Slaughter Square's name may be outdated for the time being, but residents like Abdullah say it will be a long time before life in Mingora returns to what it once was. \"I don't like army. I don't like Taliban,\" Abdullah says, standing among the ruins of what used to be a thriving market. \"I only want peace.\"","highlights":"Pakistani forces in Swat Valley claim victory in fight against Taliban militants .\nRefugees trickling back to the region find towns, bridges destroyed .\nUp to 2.5 million Pakistanis estimated to have been displaced by conflict .\nLocal businessman: \"Everything is in ruins. It will take months to return to normality\"","id":"e072998eaae61116d194b0b0b3d924ebe300eff5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An unusual exhibition is confusing and amusing tourists and locals in central Copenhagen this month. Strange signs from around the world can be seen in Copenhagen, Denmark. \"Signspotting\" is a collection of more than 100 signs found by travelers around the world and recreated by travel writer Doug Lansky. \"I wanted it to look as if we'd stolen the sign or someone with a professional camera had taken a really good picture of it,\" he told CNN. See pictures from Signspotting in Copenhagen. \u00bb . Lansky started his collection almost 17 years ago, encouraged by friends who found his photos of strange signs more compelling than his treasured holiday snaps. As a travel columnist for the Chicago Tribune, he set about collecting photos of as many bizarre signs as he could. Interest in the project became so big that he eventually used them to replace the column itself. Signspotting Weekly was taken up by six papers, and before he knew it people began to send him pictures of signs they'd seen, eventually enough to fill a floor-to-ceiling cabinet. The photos filled two volumes of Signspotting books for Lonely Planet. Lansky chose the best for the first exhibition in Stockholm last year. \"I felt bad I hadn't seen them. I knew I wasn't going to go around the world to track it down so I thought I'd do it this way,\" he said. Creating the exhibition took hours of painstaking work to digitally enlarge the photos so they looked like the real thing. \"When most of these people sent these signs in they were on a postcard-sized photo and the actual sign was about the size of a postage stamp. To blow them up to this size was tricky,\" he said. The photos were then mounted onto real signs on metal poles standing in concrete bases. The free exhibition opened in Copenhagen, Denmark last week and will move to Arhus, Denmark on July 1st. Lansky is currently building a second exhibition for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.","highlights":"Doug Lansky has been collecting photos of amusing signs for 17 years .\nThe \"Signspotting\" street exhibition opened in Copenhagen last week .\nReproducing the life-sized signs from tiny photographs is a painstaking task .\nEach sign was digitally enlarged and mounted on metal poles .","id":"c3859dedf96d455d70cb1338372fcc99b1f9c082"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama will invoke God when he takes the oath of office January 20, despite a lawsuit filed by atheist and non-religious groups, according to an attorney for Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath. President-elect Barack Obama has asked to invoke the phrase \"so help me God\" at the end of his oath. The groups have sued in federal court to block any mention of God during the inaugural ceremonies. Roberts was among those named in the suit. However, Obama wishes to conclude the oath with the phrase \"so help me God,\" Jeffrey Minear, an attorney and administrative assistant for Roberts, told a federal court in documents Friday. The Constitution mandates the exact language to be used in the 35-word oath of office: \"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.\" Some chief executives have embellished the oath with \"so help me God.\" It is not constitutionally required, unlike in other federal oaths. Historians have been at odds over whether George Washington established precedent by invoking the phrase on his own at the first inaugural in 1789. The Library of Congress Web site says he did. Most presidents have used the phrase. iReport.com: Your photos from the inauguration . Inaugural officials and presidents or presidents-elect usually coordinate behind the scenes on whether the judge or government official administering the phrase will invoke it. Michael Newdow, supported by several groups including the American Humanist Association, claims in his lawsuit that \"so help me God\" violates the constitutional ban on government \"endorsement\" of religion. He asked a federal judge to intervene and block references of God or religion in the formal ceremonies. The lawsuit also opposes the traditional invocation and benediction to be delivered by pastors invited by Obama. \"There can be no purpose for placing 'so help me God' in an oath or sponsoring prayers to God, other than promoting the particular point of view that God exists,\" according to the lawsuit. The federal government revealed in its response that Obama wants to use the phrase. The declaration was apparently aimed at blunting Newdow's concession that Obama could add the phrase on his own but that Roberts or any government official should not force or prompt him to say it. Among those named in the lawsuit besides the 53-year-old chief justice are the Presidential Inauguration Committee; the Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies and its chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California); and the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee and its commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Rowe Jr. Newdow said December 31 that he did not name Obama in his suit because in addition to participating as a government official in the ceremony, Obama possesses rights as an individual that allow him to express religious beliefs. \"If he chooses to ask for God's help, I'm not going to challenge him,\" Newdow said. \"I think it's unwise.\" A decision from the federal judge is expected in the next few days. The high court ruled against Newdow in 2004 after he tried to block the Pledge of Allegiance from being recited at his daughter's Sacramento, California-area public school because it contains the phrase \"under God.\" He argued the case himself before the justices, making an impassioned plea that the teacher-led pledge forces religion on impressionable youngsters and carries the stamp of government approval.","highlights":"Court documents say President-elect Barack Obama asked to invoke God .\nGroups are suing to block any mention of God during the inaugural ceremonies .\nMany presidents have added the phrase \"so help me God\" at end of oath .","id":"edcffba03a9c46267d5b7b5c59c104e24b0dcc8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For Morris Murenzi, a visit to his native Rwanda always includes attending a gacaca court -- a local tribunal of villagers set up to try suspects in a 1994 genocide that killed 800,000. The gacaca courts, as seen here in 2003, are inspired by old village tribunals used to settle disputes. At the proceedings, he sits with his countrymen. Some tearfully confront their attackers and testify against them, their scars from the genocide still visible. Others -- like him -- quietly listen, their emotional scars invisible. They wait and hope for answers about how their relatives died as a nine-member panel questions suspects. \"Some of the witnesses who ask questions are disfigured, others are disabled,\" said the Dallas, Texas, resident whose last gacaca trial was in Kigali two years ago. \"The attackers have no place to hide. They are forced to address what they have done to the victims.\" Murenzi is one of thousands of people who attend gacaca courts all across Rwanda on any given day. Hearings are held in open fields in neighborhoods where the attacks occurred. There are no lawyers and no judges in robes. A panel of local villagers with no legal experience conducts the proceedings. \"For me, gacacas help me find closure and healing,\" Murenzi said. \"I am able to see up close how remorseful the attackers are. ... You never see that in real court.\" Gacaca courts were introduced in the central African nation after the April 1994 genocide, which raged for 100 days. The victims were mostly from the Tutsi ethnic minority, who were targeted by Hutus over a rivalry that dates to colonial days. Some moderates from the Hutu majority who support Tutsis were also killed. Murenzi, a Tutsi from the capital, Kigali, lost most of his extended family in the genocide. During the attacks, he was in neighboring Uganda with his parents, where he attended school at the time, the 37-year-old said. \"My mom's sisters, brothers, my uncles, they were all killed and buried in mass graves,\" he said. The gacacas were originally formed to resolve minor disputes among villagers but were reinvented to hand out justice to the perpetrators of the genocide and help fast-track reconciliation efforts in the broken nation. \"You had about 130,000 people in jail. And there were many more outside,\" Rwandan President Paul Kagame said recently on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS.\" The nation's justice system and the International Criminal Tribunal set up to try genocide suspects were overwhelmed, and handling all the cases in those courts would have taken hundreds of years, according to the president. Watch Kagame justify gacacas \u00bb . \"If you went technically to try each one of them, as the law may suggest, then you would lose out on rebuilding a nation, on bringing people back together,\" he said. \"That's why we had to say, let's categorize responsibilities.\" The leaders and masterminds of the genocide are tried in ordinary courts, and civilians who contributed to attacks or loss of life directly or indirectly go to gacacas, Kagame said. The tribunals are lacking and fraught with problems, critics say. \"We've had serious concerns about the gacaca process and whether it meets international fair trial standards,\" said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch, which has offices in Rwanda. Some witnesses have been targeted for revenge after testifying, and due process falls short, Gagnon said, adding that the organization has suggested changes to the system to ensure basic human rights are met, but they have not been enforced. \"It is time for the process to end. And there needs to be a frank announcement on whether it has led to reconciliation,\" she said. Paul Rusesabagina, whose effort to save hundreds of Tutsis was featured in the 2004 movie \"Hotel Rwanda,\" calls gacacas \"the worst idea ever.\" \"Gacaca traditionally means justice on the grass. Elders sitting on the grass, handing justice to someone who stole a neighbor's goat,\" Rusesabagina said. \"Judges are people who never went to school ... who do not know anything about law.\" Today, this justice is dealing with people who have committed a genocide, which is a much bigger issue, he said. There have been calls to abolish the tribunals, which have tried about 1.5 million cases since they started in 2001, according to the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a U.N. agency. The government in June postponed plans to close gacacas. Some analysts say the system has its advantages, by reducing congestion in prisons and allowing survivors to hear first-hand what happened to their loved ones. Murenzi said he does not have all the answers about his relatives' deaths, and he plans to attend more gacacas -- including during a trip to Rwanda at the end of the year. Despite the lack of information, he said, watching suspects struggle to come to terms with the attacks has brought an unusual form of comfort. \"They will never know peace. They have to live with the fact that they killed their neighbors for the rest of their lives,\" Murenzi said. \"While the survivors can move on, they (attackers) probably never will.\"","highlights":"Hearings held in open fields in neighborhoods where the attacks occurred.\nHearings have tried about 1.5 million cases since they started .\nVictims of 1994 genocide were mostly from the Tutsi ethnic minority .\nGacacas originally formed to resolve minor disputes among villagers .","id":"68c20a4c484017c1d48bbee2edc0f246c4792781"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A surrogate mother gave birth to twin girls for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, a publicist for the couple said. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are the new parents of twin daughters. \"The babies are doing beautifully, and the entire family is over the moon,\" the publicist said, adding that the girls were born Monday afternoon. The couple, married for 12 years, revealed in April that they were expecting twins \"with the generous help of a surrogate.\" It was not said whether the surrogate was the genetic mother of the twins or whether embryos from Parker, 44, had been transferred to her. \"Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick weighed five pounds, 11 ounces and Tabitha Hodge Broderick weighed six pounds,\" the publicist said. \"Both Hodge and Elwell are family names on Parker's side.\" Parker is best known for the popular television series and movie \"Sex and the City,\" while Broderick gained fame as the main character in the movie \"Ferris Bueller's Day Off.\" They have a son, James Wilkie, 6. He was named after Broderick's father, actor James Broderick.","highlights":"Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have twin daughters .\nThe babies were born via a surrogate .\nMarried for 12 years, the couple are also the parents of a 6-year-old boy .","id":"d339ea639ac5b4dd007fe5afa64943132c54a754"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn't power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could. A prototype of a high-altitude wind turbine made by Magenn Power. The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over. The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome. Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America's Eastern Seaboard and China's coastline. \"The resource is really, really phenomenal,\" said Christine Archer of Cal State University-Chico, who co-authored a paper on the work published in the open-access journal Energies.\"There is a lot of energy up there, but it's not as steady as we thought. It's not going to be the silver bullet that will solve all of our energy problems, but it will have a role.\" For centuries, we've been using high-density fossil fuels, but peaking oil supplies and climate concerns have given new life to green technologies. Unfortunately, renewable energy is generally diffuse, meaning you need to cover a lot of area to get the energy you want. So engineers look for renewable resources that are as dense as possible. On that score, high-altitude wind looks very promising. Wind's power -- energy which can be used to do work like spinning magnets to generate electricity -- varies with the cube of its speed. So, a small increase in wind speed can lead to a big increase in the amount of mechanical energy you can harvest. High-altitude wind blows fast, is spread nicely across the globe, and is easier to predict than terrestrial wind. These properties have led inventors and scientists to cast their hopes upward, where strong winds have long been known to blow, as Etzler's dreamy quote shows. During the energy shocks of the 1970s, when new energy ideas of all kinds were bursting forth, engineers and schemers patented several designs for harnessing wind thousands of feet in the air. The two main design frameworks they came up with are still with us today. The first is essentially a power plant in the sky, generating electricity aloft and sending it down to Earth via a conductive tether. The second is more like a kite, transmitting mechanical energy to the ground, where generators turn it into electricity. Theoretically, both approaches could work, but nothing approaching a rigorous evaluation of the technologies has been conducted. The Department of Energy had a very small high-altitude wind program, which produced some of the first good data about the qualities of the wind up there, but it got axed as energy prices dropped in the 1980s and Reagan-era DOE officials directed funds elsewhere. The program hasn't been restarted, despite growing attention to renewables, but that's not because it's considered a bad idea. Rather, it is seen as just a little too far out on the horizon. \"We're very much aimed these days at things that we can fairly quickly commercialize, like in the next 10 years or so,\" said National Renewable Energy Laboratory spokesperson George Douglas. Startups like KiteGen, Sky Windpower, Magenn, and Makani (Google's secretive fundee) have come into the space over the last several years, and they seem to be working on much shorter timelines. \"We are not that far from working prototypes,\" Archer said, though she noted that the companies are all incredibly secretive about the data from their testing. Magenn CFO Barry Monette said he expects \"first revenue\" next year when they sell \"two to four\" working prototypes of their blimpy machine, which will operate at much lower altitudes. \"We do think that we're going to be first [to market], unless something happens,\" Monette said. In the long term, trying to power entire cities with machines like this would be difficult, largely because even in the best locations, the wind will fail at least 5 percent of the time. \"This means that you either need backup power, massive amounts of energy storage, or a continental- or even global-scale electricity grid to assure power availability,\" said co-author Ken Caldeira, an ecologist at Stanford University. \"So, while high-altitude wind may ultimately prove to be a major energy source, it requires substantial infrastructure.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Study: Wind machines placed thousands of feet above New York could power the city .\nEnough wind energy exists at high altitudes to meet global demand 100 times over .\nA kite-like device could transmit energy to generators that turn it into electricity .\nStartups are developing turbines, although they are still in the prototype stage .","id":"525da17c220d76f8e1e239c3c2524a4f9e6568fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The family of a Somali-American man who died in Somalia have said they want to know who is responsible for recruiting him to join an al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency. Militia soldiers hold weapons as they train to prepare an attack in Mogadishu earlier this month. Jamal Bana is the third Somali-American from the city of Minneapolis to head to Somalia and die there. He is one of more than a dozen missing Somali-American men whose families believe have gone back to fight. \"Someone must have put something in his mind,\" Omar Jamal of Minneapolis' Somali Justice Advocacy Center said at a Sunday news conference with Bana's family. \"He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated because he didn't have any clue about Somalia at all. So someone somewhere must be responsible for his disappearance.\" Watch as Bana's family seeks answers \u00bb . The same day as the family's news conference, Somalia's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country. \"I call on the Somali-American community not to send their youth to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabaab,\" President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said on Sunday. \"I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to ferment violence against your people.'\" Al-Shabaab, a group that is on the U.S. government's terror watch list, remains entrenched in the northeast and sections of the south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. It has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government. The U.S. government announced last month that it is providing weapons to Ahmed's government as it tries to quell the insurgency. Fighting has uprooted more than 200,000 people in Mogadishu since early May, according to the United Nations. Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground. The presence of these foreign forces was an outrage to most Somalis, and became a rallying cry of al-Shabaab. But the Ethiopians have now withdrawn. Bana, who was one of those who heeded the call to return to fight, was only 1 when his parents left Somalia and eventually brought him to the United States. The oldest of seven children, Bana was a top student at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was studying engineering at two area colleges before he went missing in November. On Saturday, his family learned of his fate: a photo of his body appeared on a Web site, a casualty of the ongoing conflict in Somalia. Jamal spoke for the family with one arm around Bana's distraught mother, who quietly wept, covering her face with her headscarf. The father was too upset to attend the news conference, Jamal said. The family is asking the United States government to help them bring his body back home. In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab, traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. The incident -- the first-ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen -- raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Burhan Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis, went missing eight months ago around the same time as Bana. Last month, his family learned that he was killed in Somalia. Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States -- where they came as young boys -- or who is responsible for their deaths. Bana's family believes he was being held against his will. \"Only one time he placed a phone call (in mid-November), he didn't say much,\" Omar Jamal said. \"He spoke as if he was being held hostage. He couldn't be speak freely. They asked him to cut the conversation short. \"The mother was asking him, 'Where are you? Why did you (leave)?' He said, 'I cannot talk to you, I just called to tell you I'm here. I cannot tell you anything. I'll call you some other time. I'm sorry I cannot talk to you.'\" E.K. Wilson, an FBI special agent and spokesman for the Minneapolis field office, could not confirm the exact number of missing Somali-American men or confirm the recent deaths, citing the agency's ongoing investigation. But he said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is \"in the 10s.\" He said the possible recruitment of these men to fight alongside an al Qaeda-linked group is \"a significant concern.\" \"Counterterrorism is our number one priority in the FBI and in this particular field division, and our efforts since 9\/11 have been geared in that direction and with the goal of preventing future terrorist attacks,\" he told CNN in a recent interview. \"So it is a significant concern and one that we're giving our highest priority.\" Since Shirwa Ahmed's death in October, Wilson said the FBI has further expanded its outreach program to the Somali-American community around the United States. So far, there is no indication that al-Shabaab is recruiting young men from Somali-American communities outside Minneapolis. Asha Ali and her husband Ali Yusuf Omar help resettle Somali refugees in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. They spoke to CNN on Sunday shortly after news surfaced of Jamal Bana's death, and said they are baffled by what is going on in Minneapolis. \"Of course I'm scared,\" Asha Ali said. \"If that happened in Minneapolis, it could happen anywhere.\" Asha Ali works for Refugee Family Services and Ali Yusuf works for Georgia Somali Community, Inc. They have five children, a 14-year-old daughter and four sons ages 10, 12, 20 and 22. \"I have seen mothers talking,\" Asha said, referring to what's going on in Minneapolis. \"I open my eyes now more. I watch my kids more closely.\" The couple came to the United States in their 20s in 1982, and all five of their children were born in America. She said there have been no reports of any missing Somali-Americans among the tight-knit community which are centered in the towns of Stone Mountain and Clarkston, near Atlanta. Asha and Ali Yusuf attend various mosques, or masjids, in the Atlanta area -- which are the centers of the Somali-American community -- and say they all preach tolerance and demand that young people stay out of trouble. Asha said she cannot figure out what led the young men in Minneapolis to want to return to Somalia. \"What is this 'al-Shabaab'? What does this word mean?\" she said. Their fight against fellow Somalis, she said, does not make sense to many members of the expatriate community. Either way, Somali-Americans want to know why these young men and boys are going to the country that their parents struggled so hard to leave behind to provide a better life for their children. \"It's a question mark who's behind it,\" Asha Ali said. \"I'd love more than you to find out.\" CNN's David McKenzie and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jamal Bana is third Somali-American to head to Somalia and die there .\nBana's family want to know who recruited him to join Islamist insurgency .\nPresident Sheik Sharif Ahmed says U.S.-Somalis joining Islamist rebels .\nMany Somalis went to U.S. after 1992 American intervention in Somalia .","id":"9ff7d549803bb92662f6b968522ecefd2a99f344"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A girl who was shown on a videotape being sexually assaulted in Las Vegas has been found and is safe, officials in Nye County, Nevada, said Friday. Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, is being sought as a suspect, police say. \"We have found the child, Madison. She's safe. The detectives say she is in good condition,\" Nye County Sheriff Tony De Meo said. The girl, now 7, was shown in a sex video made four years ago, Detective David Boruchowitz said at a news conference Friday night. She was found Friday with family in Las Vegas after thousands of tips poured in, thanks to an appeal by police to the news media to show the girl's picture. CNN and other news organizations did so until the child was found, when De Meo asked them to stop showing the picture. \"The mother has cooperated with us,\" De Meo said. \"We believe that the mother was not aware of anything that went on with this young girl,\" he said. \"It was very sad for her to find this out.\" A former Las Vegas animal trainer, Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, has been identified as a suspect and is being sought in the case, De Meo said. Pahrump is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. Watch what's known about Stiles \u00bb . Stiles was a distant friend of the girl's family, De Meo said. Someone close to Stiles has told investigators that Stiles is a \"survivalist type\" and always carries a weapon, Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said. De Meo addressed Stiles directly: \"Turn yourself in to your local law enforcement agency,\" he said. \"Understand this: Law enforcement not only has a long arm, but a long memory. You will not be forgotten by members of this agency or any other law enforcement agency.\" The FBI is also seeking Stiles on state charges of sexual assault and lewdness with a minor under the age of 14 in a separate matter, De Meo said. Police, who had called Stiles a person of interest, began calling him a suspect late Friday. There appeared to be physical similarities between Stiles and the man in the videotape, De Meo said. \"Nothing that I have seen in my career comes close to what this girl has gone through. Whoever this person is is a predator that, as far as I'm concerned, belongs in custody and, if successfully prosecuted, in jail for as long as the law allows,\" De Meo said earlier. Detectives said the child showed little emotion during the rapes, indicating she may have been brutalized before. Nevadan Darren Tuck recently gave police the videotape, saying he found it in the desert, De Meo said. Police said the tape was in his possession at least since May before he handed it over to authorities. He is being sought on a parole violation for failure to pay child support, but police -- who want to question him further -- have been unable to locate him. Tuck, who also allegedly showed the tape to others before giving it to police, faces a possible 10-years-to-life sentence for exhibiting pornography and another one to six years for possession of child pornography, De Meo said. Harry Kuehn, Tuck's attorney, said this week on CNN's \"Nancy Grace\" that Tuck was \"racked by indecision\" about what to do with the tape once he realized what it was. Asked why, Kuehn said, \"He's explained that to us, and at this point, we're not going to share that, because it goes to the defense of the matter.\" \"You have to consider what kind of concerns my client had; He's previously dealt with the sheriff's office in Nye County; it was previously unsatisfactory,\" the attorney said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Stiles described as \"survivalist type\" who carries a weapon .\nMother has cooperated with police, sheriff says .\nGirl on tape, now 7, found safe with family .\nTape shows man sexually abusing the girl 4 years ago .","id":"a54d94cea83c9c345e21a626428ec7f99f951669"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For Brad Cohen, the barking and squealing noises he could not control began in the fifth grade. Fifty kids came to Camp Twitch and Shout's first session. Director Brad Cohen says he hopes to double that figure. \"I remember eating lunch at school all by myself and the mean kids would parade around me and mock my noises. My teacher made me get up in front of the class and apologize to everybody for the noises I was making,\" Cohen recalls. More than 20 years later, Cohen is a camp director, celebrating the first year of Camp Twitch and Shout, a place for youngsters, who like Cohen, have Tourette syndrome. \"Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder which causes people to make noises and tics that they can't control,\" Cohen says. Fifty campers, between the ages of 7 and 18, came from all over the country to spend a week in Winder, Georgia, about 45 miles east of Atlanta. They have plenty to do, from swimming and fishing to music and arts and crafts. Most have been teased or harassed in school, and the camp is a place just to have fun. \"It's very nice to be able to let it all out and just not have to worry and not have people stare at you and think that you're weird and think -- what's wrong with that person?\" says 16-year-old camper and black belt Tinsley Birchfield of Atlanta. Watch more from Camp Twist and Shout \u00bb . For other campers, such as Jacob McGee of Savannah, Georgia, just being outdoors is magical. \"My favorite part was when we climbed the tree. That was pretty awesome. I went as high as I could go. It was really fun,\" says the 11-year-old. According to experts, Twitch and Shout is one of only five weeklong camps in the country for children with Tourette syndrome. Atlanta-based child neurologist Howard Schub says such camps help children better cope with their condition. Some campers have never met another kid with Tourette syndrome. \"A child goes to camp, they see that they're not the worst. ... There are others that are functioning pretty well with worse tics than they,\" Schub says. Cohen adds, \"They see that wow, 'There are other kids that are like me.' They laugh, they tell the same jokes, they have the same interests. And what we hope is that their self-esteem goes up.\" Twitch and Shout campers display motor tics common to most kids with Tourette syndrome such as eye blinking, facial grimacing, shoulder shrugging, head jerking, and -- in a few rare cases -- cursing. Camp activities are filled with the sounds of typical vocal tics: sniffing, throat clearing, hooting, barking, hissing and squealing. But campers such as teenager Kevin Kardon of Athens, Georgia, say they've just gotten used to it. \"It's just kind of like you're listening to music, and you hear something in the background and you don't really hear it,\" Kevin says. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three out of every 1,000 school-age children are believed to have Tourette syndrome. The cause is unknown, but genetics appear to play a role. Most children develop the condition between 7 and 10, and if their tics are mild to moderate, they usually require no medicine to control them. Symptoms usually peak during the late teens or early 20s. \"Many children, as they get older, the tics become either much less prominent or certainly reduced to a single or just a few tics that are not as disabling,\" Schub says. That was certainly the case with Cohen. Barking is still his dominant tic, but when he was the age of his campers, he wrestled to control several others, including eye blinking, teeth chomping and arm twitching. In middle school, when his tics were at the height of their intensity, the principal approached him and asked if he'd like to educate the student body about his condition. Cohen says this move changed his life. \"They gave me a standing ovation, and it was on that day that I realized the power of education. I wanted to be that teacher that I never had. And that was my dream. I wanted to be the teacher that focused on kids' strengths, not weaknesses,\" he says. And that's what he's been trying to do in the classroom for more than 13 years. At 35, Cohen is an elementary school teacher, the author of a book on Tourette syndrome and now a camp director. He says he hopes his campers find strength in knowing they are not alone and will carry this new confidence home with them to face the challenges of the upcoming school year. \"When they have tough times and they think they can't find success, it's our goal that they will think back to their experience at Camp Twitch and Shout and say, 'You know what? I can do it; I can be successful because I did it at camp,' \" Cohen says. Next summer, Cohen says he plans to recruit twice as many campers and hopes the experience will be as worthwhile for them as it was this year for 15-year-old Chris Wall of Athens. \"This camp was awesome because it had people just like me,\" says Chris, beaming.","highlights":"Camp Twitch and Shout is a weeklong camp for kids with Tourette syndrome .\nFifty campers, between 7 and 18, came from all over the country to Georgia camp .\nThree out of every 1,000 school-age children have disorder, according to CDC .\nCamper: \"It's very nice to be able to let it all out and just not have to worry\"","id":"eebcdceb83f05d282230a8c449df13f8469a6508"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ventures lead guitarist Bob Bogle, whose fretwork on such instrumental hits such as \"Walk -- Don't Run\" and \"Hawaii Five-O\" influenced countless bands, died Sunday in Vancouver, Washington. Bob Bogle (second from left) co-founded the Ventures, the highly influential instrumental band. He was 75. The cause was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to Don Wilson, who co-founded the Ventures with Bogle in the 1950s. \"He had a special sound that nobody could ever re-create. He was totally unique as a guitar player,\" Wilson told CNNRadio. Wilson and Bogle learned how to play guitar while working as construction workers in the 1950s in their native Tacoma, Washington. The pair formed the Ventures in 1958. \"We had a lot of time on our hands after work, so we'd get together and play,\" Wilson recalled. \"A year and a half later, we had a number two hit called 'Walk -- Don't Run.' \" The group first heard the song on a Chet Atkins record. Several other hits followed, including \"Perfidia,\" \"Walk Don't Run '64\" and \"Diamond Head.\" The group took the theme of the TV show \"Hawaii Five-O\" into the Top Ten in 1969 and later supplied background music for the series. But the band, which played almost solely instrumentals, was perhaps more influential for its albums. Thirty-eight of the band's long-players hit Billboard's Top 200 chart, including albums that covered country songs, dance tunes and Christmas melodies. One of the band's albums was titled \"Play Guitar with the Ventures,\" and countless did. \"I can't think of a better contribution for instrumental music on his style than 'Walk -- Don't Run,' \" Wilson said. \"A lot of good would-be guitar players and garage bands would go out and buy guitars just to learn that song.\" The Ventures were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. At the induction ceremony, Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty praised the group: \"It's enough to say, the Ventures are the most popular instrumental band of all time,\" he said. Bogle fought his illness with dignity, Wilson said. \"His doctors gave him 10 years to live, and he lived 12. The last two years were really tough. At least he lived to know the Ventures had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\" Bogle is survived by his wife, Yumi. CNNRadio's Ninette Sosa and Matt Cherry contributed to this story.","highlights":"Bob Bogle, Ventures' lead guitarist, dead at 75 .\nVentures and Bogle influenced countless bands with guitar sound .\nHits included \"Walk -- Don't Run,\" \"Hawaii Five-O\"","id":"6a40ac709280b97c6e0968d3a567adeb3c7a9bb3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescuers have saved more than 50 whales and five dolphins that stranded themselves on a beach in Tasmania, officials said Monday. More than 190 whales washed ashore on King island. The 54 pilot whales were among a group of 192 that beached themselves a day earlier on King island, which lies between Tasmania and the southeastern tip of Australia. Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service said the whales had been put back to sea at high tide. The rest perished. \"This means all the surviving whales have now been refloated,\" it said in a statement. Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman Chris Arthur said it was not unusual for whales and dolphins to strand together. Watch rescuers haul creatures back out to sea \u00bb . In November 2004, a group of 97 long-finned whales and bottle nosed dolphins beached at Sea Elephant Bay in King Island. All the animals died. Over 90 percent of Australia's mass whale strandings occur in Tasmania, according to the Parks and Wildlife Service. \"This last summer has been a particularly demanding one, not only for the specialist Parks and Wildlife Service officers... but also the volunteers and local communities who have worked together at four major strandings this summer,\" Arthur said.","highlights":"54 pilot whales among a group of 192 that beached themselves .\nKing Island off Tasmania is a hotspot for whale beachings .\nExperts say it is not uncommon for whales and dolphins to beach together .","id":"0c06737a0ad74400b74c4e3219183c7302f48a09"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama should reach out to Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi as tensions in Iran over the disputed presidential elections continue to heighten, a former Bush administration official told CNN Sunday. Paul Wolfowitz was the deputy defense secretary in the Bush administration. \"I would certainly find out if he (Moussavi) wants a conversation,\" former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. \"If he doesn't, I certainly wouldn't push it. But I would make it clear that the phone is an open line.\" Obama on Saturday issued a written statement on the bloodshed across the streets of Tehran as demonstrators protest the election outcome, saying, \"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. \"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.\" However, Obama has been criticized by some lawmakers and analysts who say he should vocalize a stronger stance on the clashes. Watch the latest videos being leaked out of Iran \u00bb . \"I understand the concern about meddling in a way that seems to label the opposition as American tools, but the opposition made it very clear they want support from the world,\" said Wolfowitz, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen added that, \"It would be useful for the president to show more forceful leadership internationally on this issue.\" He noted the graphic images emerging from Iran, including the fatal shooting of a young female protester identified as Neda, saying the violence calls for \"some kind of humanity from the West.\" Gergen and Wolfowitz said the United States should rally with other Western nations and even countries in the region -- including Afghanistan and Turkey, which have recognized incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the June 12 election -- to support the Iranian people. Ahmadinejad's victory was declared by Iran's election authority, the Guardian Council, spurring massive protests last week, with many demonstrators proclaiming their support for Moussavi. Moussavi and candidate Mehdi Karrubi have rejected the election as fraudulent and demanded a new one. Wolfowitz called Moussavi a \"very brave man,\" saying, \"He is resisting. He is putting his life at risk.\"","highlights":"\"Opposition made it very clear they want support,\" Paul Wolfowitz tells CNN .\nFormer deputy defense secretary also says he wouldn't push unwanted relationship .\nCNN analyst David Gergen says Obama should show more forceful leadership .\nWolfowitz calls opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi \"a very brave man\"","id":"db9009c6a38447701ed43c93f2d06e61dd669c91"} -{"article":"LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- It's hot and sweaty in a rat-infested room in Lahore's historic red light district, a neighborhood of narrow alleyways lined with brothels. A dancer does the \"mujra,\" a traditional dance banned by a judge for being \"vulgar,\" in Lahore, Pakistan. A barefoot, long-haired woman is gyrating and twirling on the carpet, to the beat of a four-man band whose drummer sweats profusely as he pounds out a furious rhythm. The dancer, who only gives her first name, Beenish, is performing a kind of Pakistani belly-dance called the mujra. Her harmonium player, a skinny bald man who squints through coke-bottle glasses, has been performing like this for the past 50 years. But he says the art form is dying out. \"That spark, the way it was in the past, is no more,\" said Ghulam Sarwar. Last fall, a judge in Lahore's high court declared the mujra dance \"vulgar\" and banned it from being performed on stage. Some here say the government is cracking down on easy, \"immoral\" targets in an attempt to appease religious hard-liners like the Taliban. Islamist militants are believed to be responsible for a recent wave of bomb attacks in Lahore, targeting cinemas, theaters and cafes where young men and women fraternize together. \"It is a gesture of good will to pacify the mullahs and the Taliban,\" said Samia Amjad, a lawmaker in the provincial assembly. Though she is a member of an opposition political party, she said she supported the crackdown on vulgarity. \"I see it as an essential part of Islam.\" Dancers aren't the only targets of the court censors. In late March, the Lahore high court banned two female singers from recording new albums after ruling that they sang sexually explicit lyrics. \"If the current circumstances persist in Pakistan,\" said Noora Lal, one of the banned singers, \"then singing will die out in this country.\" Pakistan is a deeply conservative Muslim nation, where the punishment for blasphemy is the death sentence. But there is one person in Lahore who openly mocks the conservative establishment: painter and restaurant owner Iqbal Hussain. Though he said he has received multiple death threats from Islamist fundamentalists, Hussain continues to be Pakistan's most vocal defender of prostitutes. All of the models portrayed in his paintings are sex workers. \"I portray them on canvas, portray them as human beings,\" Hussain said, \"They feel pain. They want their children to be educated.\" Hussain knows the industry intimately. He was born to a family of sex workers. His mother, a former prostitute, passed away last month at the age of 98. The small, soft-spoken painter has turned the house he grew up in, an old four-story building with ornate wooden balconies, into a popular restaurant for tourists and wealthy Pakistanis. On one side of the house there is a brothel, on the other side, the 17th century Badshahi Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world. In his subversive paintings, which Hussain said sell for more than $10,000 each, he highlights the overlap between Lahore's sex industry and its religious community. In one canvas, hundreds of worshippers are depicted prostrating themselves around the mosque, while in the foreground, two women apply lipstick and makeup on a balcony. Hussain explained that the prostitutes in the painting were preparing to receive new customers as soon as the prayers in the mosque were over. Watch the dance being called \"immoral\" in Pakistan \u00bb . The painter claimed that on religious festivals, the brothels and dance halls in his neighborhood overflow with customers. \"They come from the northern areas with their turbans,\" Iqbal said, laughing. \"All coming to this area. They're not going to the mosque ... but to the brothels!\" Nevertheless, the rising tide of the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan has some residents of Lahore's red light district worried. \"May Allah keep us safe from them,\" said Beenish, the mujra dancer. \"We are poor, humble people. They should not target this place.\" Photography by CNN's Farhad Shadravan.","highlights":"In Lahore's red light district, Iqbal Hussain mocks Pakistan's religious establishment .\n\"I portray [sex workers] on canvas, portray them as human beings,\" Hussain said.\nPainter has turned home into popular restaurant for tourists and wealthy Pakistanis .\nRising tide of Taliban and threat of violence has some residents worried .","id":"d3b2ba2480be8c5b4e3dee6fdfd77d6188e68f76"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Prejudice is a funny thing. I was prepared not to like BMW's M6. Not that I thought it would be a bad car -- BMW, as a rule, isn't prone to making duff automobiles -- it's just I wasn't entirely sure what it was supposed to be. An executive coupe with a 5-liter V10 engine and 500 bhp? With a price tag that could buy you a Porsche 911 or most of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage? What fresh nonsense was this? But prejudice is there to be challenged. The aggressive front air intakes, 19\" alloy wheels and carbon fiber roof mean that this isn't any ordinary 6-Series . Taking delivery of the M6 at my home in Brighton, southern England, I felt the car looked ever so slightly out of place. After all I live in an electoral ward which elected three Green representatives to the City council and is predicted to deliver the first Green Party member to the national government at the next general election. Muscular sports cars aren't common sights on my street (someone once parked a Porsche Cayenne Turbo here but he got a dirty look for it). An acquaintance, Kevin, strolled past. \"Hello,\" I said, \"it's not mine\". Second-guessing his likely prejudices I added, \"It's rather ostentatious, I know.\" \"I don't know,\" replied Kevin, \"I think it's quite understated, quite elegant.\" One prejudice quashed. My wife and I then filled the surprisingly roomy trunk with our luggage and various gifts (the weekend being the occasion of my father-in-law's 70th birthday) and prepared for our journey to the Staffordshire moorlands in central England. You can spend a lot of time preparing for a journey in an M6. You can choose a location for the sat-nav to direct you to and whether the directions are displayed as a map or as a perspective diagram. You can choose to listen to CD, radio or an external audio source and then modify the acoustic properties with a graphic equalizer and various surround sound settings. You can program the \"M\" button on the steering wheel so that the various suspension, gearing and power settings can be switched between sedate motorway driving and utter lunacy. You can adjust the seat's height and rake; inflate, deflate and position the lumbar support so the small of your back is just so and adjust the seat wings to hold you as tight as a doting grandmother, should you wish. The car is started with a start\/stop button. This is best done with the window open because the M6 is front-engined and the general cabin ambience is too refined to be invaded with the brutish noises of the 5-liter V10. Even so, the hood's sound insulation means that you never get the eviscerating snarl that juvenile men -- such as myself -- expect from a supercar. The automatic gearbox can be put in a fully-automatic mode, or gears can be selected by nudging the sequential gear lever, or flipping the paddle-shifts behind the steering wheel. The car is surprisingly civilized at low speeds. It doesn't feel like you're taming a monster. If anything there's a slight lag between pushing the throttle and the forwards crawl. Navigational and speedometer readings are projected onto the windscreen by the head-up display, creating the impression of a floating screen a few feet in front of the car. This omnipresent reminder of speed is good news for my (unblemished) driving licence as it is horribly easily to drive way too fast in the M6. It is so stable that 30 mph feels like a walking pace and I wouldn't want to incriminate myself by stating the speed I found myself doing on the public highway while thinking I was driving at just about the speed limit. Naturally the head-up display can also be customized and, in \"M\" mode displays speed and a graphic display of rev ranges, in favor of navigational instructions. Put simply the M6 is perfect on the highways, which would make up the majority of my journey (much of it, coincidentally, on a highway called the \"M6\"). You are under no compulsion to drive like a hooligan. With the power button off (meaning you have only 400 not 500 horses at your disposal), and at its least-sporty setting, the M6 drives like a perfectly ordinary BMW -- composed, sturdy but able to accelerate out of trouble when necessary. On country roads it handles diligently, holding corners reassuringly but without the physical sensation you get driving smaller, lower sports cars. I'm assured that you can drive the M6 like a hooligan if you wish, taking advantage of the M-Diff system -- a torque-sensing differential that can provide between zero and 100 per cent of the drive forces to either driven wheel -- and the MDynamic mode which allows the car to perform on the edge for as long as possible before kicking in the dynamic stability control to keep the car in line. Sadly time, conditions, and my wife's insistence that we arrived in one piece, prevented me from testing these attributes. The point of the M6, then, is that it's both a refined, four-seater grand tourer and a sports car. It has, as the car wash attendant in a supermarket parking lot in Cheadle suggested \"too much electronics\" but those electronics are necessary for performing the car's dual roles. The car's not without niggles: the indicator stalk is too short (and would it hurt to put an indicator display on the head-up?). It's very thirsty (officially 19 mpg, but we managed rather less) and the 70-liter tank is insufficient for long journeys. The lag between gear changes at low speed is rather annoying. And the compromise between sports car thrills and autobahn civility means that it doesn't sound, or look, like a schoolboy's fantasy. But perhaps that's the point. Far from being ostentatious, the M6 is the devil dressed as middle-management: it does bad things very respectably. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"500 bhp V10-engined variant of the BMW 6-Series .\nSeats four adults in comfort, while providing sports car thrills .\nSurprisingly practical, but offers disappointing fuel economy and range .","id":"a84d2dd445c634c4456a38a579f6b77bc01a8d73"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama signed an executive order granting some benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees Wednesday, calling it \"a historic step\" but promising more action to come. President Obama has been criticized by gay rights activists for not doing more since taking office. \"We've got more work to do to ensure that government treats all its citizens equally, to fight injustice and intolerance in all its forms and to bring about that more perfect union,\" Obama said. The signing followed sharp criticism of the president over a Justice Department motion filed last week in support of the Defense of Marriage Act -- which effectively bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions. Obama said he still wants to repeal the act. \"I believe it's discriminatory. I think it interferes with state's rights, and we will work with Congress to overturn it,\" he said. The memorandum he signed Wednesday means same-sex partners of civil service employees can be added to the long-term care program, employees can use their sick leave to take care of domestic partners and children and same-sex partners of Foreign Service employees will be included in medical evacuations and housing allocations, according to the White House. But it does not grant full health-care coverage, which would require an act of Congress, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. As details of the impending memorandum began to filter out Wednesday, the reaction of some gay rights activists was not enthusiastic. \"I have to say, as a federal employee, I'm really disappointed,\" Lisa Polyak, 48, of Baltimore, Maryland, said of Obama's expected memorandum. Polyak, who has worked for the federal government for more than two decades, is with the Army Medical Department. She was among the two dozen authors of the Dallas Principles, a set of eight statements that seek to guide the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community toward \"full civil equality,\" according to the document's preamble. Watch CNN's Paul Steinhauser discuss Obama's intent on benefits to same-sex partners \u00bb . \"The benefits that the president might be announcing are already available,\" said Polyak, who has a partner and two children. \"This isn't new. This isn't different.\" She said federal employees are able to take sick leave for \"anyone that was the close approximation of family\" and said the long-term-care option has been available for people under the same category. Polyak said not having health insurance from the federal government for her partner of 27 years costs her family $4,000 to $5,000 a year, not including co-pays or deductibles. Asked in a conference call with reporters whether these benefits were already available to same-sex partners of federal employees, Berry said such benefits are \"subject to the whim of a supervisor.\" \"If you have an enlightened supervisor, yes, that is a possibility (that they have been available),\" he said. \"What the president is doing today is making this no longer optional. He is making it mandatory. And he's making it clear that this is now the policy of the federal government.\" Polyak disagreed, saying, \"The idea that this was a fly-by-night [is] ... not true. I used it routinely.\" She added, \"It was guidance that everyone took advantage of and continues to take advantage at this moment.\" Gay and lesbian advocates have also faulted the Obama administration for not moving to repeal the military's \"Don't Ask, Don't Tell\" policy that bars officials from asking about a service member's sexual orientation but also bars the service member from revealing it, and allows the dismissal of a service member if a same-sax orientation is discovered. \"There's so little we can say until we know what it is,\" said Carisa Cunningham, a spokeswoman for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, a legal advocacy group that is challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court in Massachusetts. Section 3 prevents the federal government from giving Social Security and other protections to same-sex married couples. \"Laws have to change ... and in particular, the Defense of Marriage Act needs to change, so whatever the few benefits that the president as an employer can grant, there won't be a lot of them,\" Cunningham said. President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996. Obama rankled gay advocates in January when he selected mega-church pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Warren, in an interview with Beliefnet, likened homosexuality to bestiality and incest. He also supported California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in that state. During the Warren controversy, Obama -- who frequently spoke out in favor of gay and lesbian rights during the campaign but has said he opposes same-sex marriage -- declared himself \"a fierce advocate for gay and lesbian Americans.\"","highlights":"NEW: Executive order doesn't grant full health coverage, White House says .\nMove comes after criticism over Defense of Marriage Act .\nObama frequently spoke in favor of gay and lesbian rights during campaign .","id":"edf3704a0b59c4fd33afc8ba7c79d63e0c9151b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in the Northern California town of Tracy are pursuing hundreds of possible leads in the disappearance of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared on Friday, according to police in Tracy, California. Police have received 477 tips since she disappeared Friday, 100 of them on Tuesday alone, Lt. Jeremy Watney of the Tracy Police Department told reporters. \"We're following up on all of them,\" he said. \"It's extremely frustrating. We want her back safe. That's the bottom line. \"At this point, everything is still open.\" Authorities Tuesday afternoon impounded and searched a car -- the fourth one to be seized -- that was parked near the mobile home park where Sandra lives and was last seen. On Monday night, Tracy police and FBI agents searched six locations, some in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park and some in Tracy. All of the places were connected to two men who live in the mobile home park, officials said. Watch CNN report on Sandra's disappearance \u00bb . Authorities have not called the men suspects and have not named them publicly. They did not say how or if they might be related to the case. On Friday afternoon, Sandra came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives a couple of homes away. A short time later she left that home to go to another friend's home, a spokeswoman for her family said Tuesday. The girl, who was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, has not been seen since, said the spokeswoman, Lisa Encarnacion. Her parents reported her missing about 8 p.m. Friday. Officials said surveillance camera footage recorded the girl playing in the park. A dozen agencies are involved in the search. The number of searchers swelled over the weekend, and a similar effort is likely Saturday and Sunday, Watney said. Police have said they doubt she ran away. The mobile home park has fewer than 100 units. There are about 80 registered sex offenders living in a five-mile radius around it. Tracy is about 60 miles east of San Francisco, California.","highlights":"NEW: Police say they've received 477 tips -- 100 on Tuesday .\nA fourth car near mobile home park is searched for clues .\nSandra Cantu played with one friend on Friday, left for a second friend's house .\nIt's not clear whether she ever got to the second house, family says .","id":"643867af16b16dc5560f5eda7d760394a7b060a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Real Madrid and Monaco striker Fernando Morientes has returned to French football after joining Marseille on a free transfer . Morientes has joined Marseille after enduring a disappointing spell with Primera Liga side Valencia. The 33-year-old, who was released by cash-strapped Primera Liga side Valencia at the end of last season, links-up again with Marseille coach Didier Deschamp, who brought the forward to Monaco in a loan spell in 2003\/04. During that time, Morientes built up a great relationship with Deschamps as the principality club reached the final of the Champions League, losing 3-0 to Porto. Top 20 summer transfer targets . Morientes has also played for Albacete, Real Zaragoza and Liverpool. He left Liverpool in 2006 to join Valencia but made only 19 league appearances for Los Che last season, scoring one goal. Deschamps has been busy in the summer transfer market as he prepares his side for life in the Champions League following their second-placed Ligue One finish to Bordeaux last season. Moreintes is Deschamps' eighth summer recruit after Lucho Gonzalez, Stephane Mbia, Souleymane Diawara, Edouard Cisse, Cyril Rool, Elinton Andrade and Charley Fomen. Morientes has not trained since being released by Valencia but the former Spanish international striker believes he will be fully fit in time for the new season. \"I have stopped for two months but I hope to be good in two weeks, fit in quickly and bring my qualities,\" Morientes told a news conference. \"At 33-years-old I have a lot of experience, I can bring a lot on the pitch and in the dressing room.\"","highlights":"Striker Fernando Morientes has completed his free transfer move to Marseille .\nFormer Spanish international was released by Valencia at end of last season .\nMorientes links-up again with Didier Deschamps, who was his Monaco coach .","id":"b004f0404556284d0437cc5c1ea3bbdcbb0a2cff"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN executive producer Suzanne Simons is the author of \"Master of War: Blackwater's Erik Prince and the Global Business of War.\" Private contractor Xe flies military personnel in Afghanistan and helps train Afghan border police. The company formerly known as Blackwater, now called Xe much to its chagrin, has been at the center of the contractor debate for years. From the time four of its men were ambushed and murdered in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, to a shooting involving a team of its men in a Baghdad neighborhood in which at least 14 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2007, the company has drawn unwanted headlines. Blackwater owner Erik Prince downsized the company earlier this year when business failed to keep pace with investment. He changed the company's name after the Iraqi government banned it from doing business there. But those who thought contractors were going away under President Obama's administration couldn't be more wrong. According to the Department of Defense, there are some 68,000 contractors in Afghanistan today and more than 132,000 in Iraq. But those numbers aren't an accurate reflection of the total number of contractors because they don't include those working for other government agencies such as the Department of State. Many of those tens of thousands are third-country nationals, meaning they were hired from a third country to go to Iraq. Many earn between $400 and $700 a month; while Americans, particularly those performing dangerous security duties, can earn as much in a day. Despite being kicked out of Iraq, Xe still does a healthy business in Afghanistan, flying military personnel from one location to another and helping train Afghan border police charged with making the country's massive, porous borders more secure. It's one of the many jobs that the U.S. military just isn't staffed to tackle on its own. In fact, the U.S. military today is beefed up by a force of nearly a quarter million private contractors. There are even cases where contractors oversee the contractors. And that's the problem. The U.S. has come to rely on them so heavily, in such a short period of time, that the government has come under fire for not managing them adequately. Even among the eight-member team that makes up the Wartime Contracting Commission, a congressionally mandated effort to review the contracting process in Iraq and Afghanistan, the question of whether the United States needs the contractors isn't even an issue. The issue, rather, is how well the government is managing this massive support force called up in the immediate aftermath of the war in Iraq. In its interim report released this month, the Commission found that \"neither the military nor the federal civilian acquisition workforces have expanded to keep pace with recent years' enormous growth in the number and value of contingency contracts.\" The report also said, \"the government still lacks clear standards and policy on inherently governmental functions. The decision has immediate salience given the decisions to use contractors in armed-security and life-support tasks for military units.\" One of the biggest nightmares for legislators is that the force that has grown into such a critical modern-day military support structure was for a long time operating in a legal gray zone with no clear avenue of justice should something unsavory occur. That has led to some tough work for both prosecutors and the FBI, as they take on the task of investigating allegations of wrongdoing by contractors overseas. Doug Brooks, head of the IPOA, an industry-friendly voluntary organization made up of 62 companies, spends much of his time doing outreach and making sure member companies measure up to the internal standards. \"We have the power to kick people out of the association,\" Brooks said, but that's about where it ends. They can't prosecute anyone. But to say that there has been no progress on the legal front wouldn't be fair. Legislation has been passed that essentially holds contractors accountable for their actions under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, but with everything in this business, there was a hang-up with that, too. The legislation was written to cover contractors working in support of the Department of Defense, but there are even more contractors working in support of the State Department and other U.S. agencies. The Special Inspector General for Iraq, Stuart W. Bowen Jr. produced a report in February titled Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. He then testified before Congress that \"the United States government was unprepared and ill-equipped to mount a major contingency relief and reconstruction program in Iraq in 2003. For the last six years we have been on a steep learning curve.\" He also told members of Congress that the United States relies too heavily on the hired help, testifying that \"outsourcing management to contractors should be limited because it complicates lines of authority in contingency reconstruction operations.\" Something that retired Lt. Gen. Richard Sanchez would undoubtedly agree with. Sanchez, who led the U.S. military operation in the early days of the Iraq war, has launched an information campaign aimed at bringing more accountability to the debate. He's even called for a truth commission to investigate policies regarding the interrogation of detainees. Guess what. Contractors were involved in that scandal, too. As for Blackwater, scandal, or the suspicion of it, played a significant role in its downturn. Plagued by lawsuits and federal investigations, the company now called Xe is a shell of what Blackwater was five years ago. Most of Prince's top executives are gone, budgets have been dramatically curtailed and the company has largely returned to its roots, as a training facility for law enforcement and special forces. Is Blackwater's fate a sign that things are sour in the industry? Hardly. As IPOA's Brooks puts it, they're here to stay, its about time we made it work. \"I think the other conclusion that companies have come to is that we're going to be working with the private sector. Nobody wants soldiers to go back to flipping eggs, guarding gates, that kind of thing.\"","highlights":"Blackwater, now Xe, has garnered unwanted attention over the past few years .\nThough kicked out of Iraq, Xe does a great deal of business in Afghanistan .\nBottom line: U.S. relies heavily on private military contractors .\nThe issue is how well U.S. government manages this support force .","id":"cba6b70826696545c63e9dd0bd1cc8366e70fc7a"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy research foundation, and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was special assistant\/adviser to the Multi-National Force-Iraq and practiced law at Patton Boggs LLP and Cleary Gottlieb LLP. Earlier, Shapiro clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ilya Shapiro says the Sotomayor appointment is a case of identity politics rather than a choice on the merits. (CNN) -- In picking Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit. While Judge Sotomayor exemplifies the American Dream, she would not have even been on the short list if she were not Hispanic. She is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary, and far less qualified for a seat on the Supreme Court than Judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland or Solicitor General Elena Kagan. To be sure, Sotomayor has a compelling story: a daughter of working-class Puerto Ricans raised in Bronx public housing projects, diagnosed with diabetes at 8, losing her father at 9, accolades at Princeton and Yale Law, ending up on the federal bench. Still, in over 10 years on the Second Circuit, she has not issued any important decisions or made a name for herself as a legal scholar or particularly respected jurist. In picking a case to highlight during his introduction of the nominee, President Obama had to go back to her days as a trial judge and a technical ruling that ended the 1994-95 baseball strike. Moreover, Sotomayor has a mixed reputation among lawyers who have practiced before her, some questioning her abilities as a judicial craftsman, others her erratic temperament, according to a piece by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic, which itself has come in for criticism. Such anecdotal criticism is to be taken with a grain of salt -- while Justice Antonin Scalia's bench-side manner is more vinegar than honey, even his detractors recognize his brilliance -- but it does need to be investigated. So, too, do certain statements she made in presentations at Berkeley and Duke, respectively, the former arguing that a Latina necessarily sees the law differently than a white man, the latter suggesting that, at least to some degree, judges make rather than interpret law. Again, this does not mean that Sotomayor is unqualified to be a judge -- or less qualified to be a Supreme Court justice than, say, Harriet Miers. It also does not detract from the history she would make as the first Hispanic Supreme Court nominee -- if you don't count Benjamin Cardozo, a descendant of Portuguese Jews. But a Supreme Court nomination is not a lifetime achievement award, and should not be treated as an opportunity to practice affirmative action. Ironically, it is race-based employment practices of another kind that will likely get this nomination in hottest water. Sotomayor was on a panel that summarily affirmed the dismissal of claims brought by firefighters, including one Hispanic, whose promotions were denied because they would be based on a (race-neutral) exam whose results didn't yield the \"right\" racial mix. Curiously, the Ricci v. DeStefano appellate panel issued a cursory \"unpublished\" opinion that failed to grapple with the complex legal issues presented in the case. Sotomayor's colleague Jos\u00e9 Cabranes, a liberal Democrat, excoriated the panel, without expressing a view on the merits of the case. Cabranes' dissent from the Second Circuit's decision not to rehear the case caught the Supreme Court's attention and, based on the oral argument, the court will probably reverse Sotomayor's panel when it rules on the case next month. iReport.com: Sotomayor 'the new face of America' We are thus likely to have the unusual scenario of a Supreme Court decision having a direct personal effect on a nominee's confirmation process, which will not only force Sotomayor onto the defensive but cost the president significant political capital. It will also show that Obama's calls for \"empathy,\" echoed by Sotomayor's citing her personal experiences as a Latina, ring hollow. If Frank Ricci, a dyslexic fireman who sacrificed significant time and money and was denied promotion solely for his skin color, is not an empathetic figure, I'm not sure who is. And that is the larger point: A jurisprudence of empathy is the antithesis of the rule of law. As then-Judge John Roberts said at his confirmation hearing: \"If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, then the little guy's going to win in the court before me. But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well then the big guy's going to win, because my obligation is to the Constitution.\" In any event, Senate Republicans will now have to decide what posture to take: combative or deferential, political or analytical. With the president still at the height of his popularity and solid Democratic control of the Senate (even without Arlen Specter and Al Franken), the GOP is unlikely to sustain a filibuster or even, unless outrage over the Ricci case grows, vote Sotomayor down. iReport.com: Sotomayor pick a 'gimmick' What they should do instead is force a full public debate about constitutional interpretation, probing Sotomayor's judicial philosophy and refusing to accept nonresponsive answers that mouth platitudes or avoid taking firm legal positions. Now is the time to show the American people the stark differences between the two parties on one of the few issues on which the stated Republican view continues to command strong and steady support. If the party is serious about constitutionalism and the rule of law, it should use this opportunity for education, not grandstanding. And if Democrats insist on playing identity politics, I suggest a two-word response: Miguel Estrada, the Honduran immigrant with his own rags-to-riches story whose nomination to the D.C. Circuit Democrats successfully filibustered, effectively preventing George W. Bush from naming the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ilya Shapiro.","highlights":"Ilya Shapiro: Choice of Sotomayor is based on identity politics, not merit .\nHe says her life story is compelling but she should be thoroughly vetted .\nShapiro: Sotomayor may suffer from failure to deal with issues in New Haven case .\nHe says Republicans should educate public about differences over the law .","id":"cc54a42ae756fa5bddda37e91948149793bd072b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Judges in Texas and Florida have dropped military contractor KBR from lawsuits brought by the family of a soldier who was electrocuted in Iraq, the company announced Tuesday. Sgt. Christopher Everett was electrocuted in 2005 at an American base outside Ramadi, in western Iraq. Sgt. Christopher Everett died while using a power washer at an American base outside Ramadi, in western Iraq. His was one of nine electrocution deaths in Iraq blamed on \"improper grounding or faulty equipment,\" according to a Pentagon inspector-general's report released Monday. KBR was one of the contractors Everett's family has sued in connection with his death. But federal courts in Louisiana and Texas have thrown out the family's claims against the Houston, Texas-based company, KBR announced Tuesday. \"The dismissal orders affirm that despite repeated criticism and statements made by several public officials on Capitol Hill and related media reports, KBR had no involvement in the factors that led to the tragic death of Sergeant Everett,\" Andrew D. Farley, the company's senior vice president and general counsel, said in a written statement. KBR's work in Iraq and Afghanistan has come under extensive criticism from members of Congress. The company has defended its performance and argued that it was not to blame for any fatalities. Monday's report from the Pentagon's inspector-general criticized the company in the death of another soldier, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted in his shower in his Baghdad quarters. The report found that \"multiple systems and organizations failed,\" leaving Maseth \"exposed to unacceptable risk.\" It concluded that a water pump installed by KBR was not grounded, leading to Maseth's electrocution when it short-circuited, and the company did not report improperly grounded equipment during routine maintenance. But it also found that Maseth's commanders failed to ensure renovations to the palace had been properly done and the Army did not set electrical standards for jobs or contractors. Maseth's family also has sued KBR. The company has had no comment on the inspector-general's findings, but company spokeswoman Heather Browne says it was not responsible for Maseth's death. The building where Maseth was quartered was one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces, and Browne said the building \"had not been grounded or bonded by the contractors who built the structure.\" In addition, she said, KBR had warned the military about the hazard nine months before Maseth's January 2008 death. \"Prior to that incident, the military never directed KBR to repair, upgrade or improve the grounding system in the building in which Maseth resided, nor was KBR directed to perform any preventative maintenance at this facility,\" she said in a statement issued to CNN. But Maseth's mother said she was \"pleased\" by the finding that KBR installed the water pump blamed for her son's death. \"The results are revealing and contrary to what KBR and its president have continuously stated over the past year,\" Cheryl Harris told CNN.","highlights":"Sgt. Christopher Everett died using a power washer at U.S. base in western Iraq .\nJudges in Texas, Florida drop military contractor KBR from family's lawsuits .\nKBR's electrical work in Iraq, Afghanistan has come under criticism from Congress .\nPentagon report criticizes Houston-based contractor in death of another soldier .","id":"e29d8139427c00c67cb32992e750dc2a187ba4b8"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and the author of 16 books, including the New York Times bestseller, \"April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Death and How it Changed America\". Michael Eric Dyson says the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows that the U.S. is not \"a post-racial paradise.\" (CNN) -- Last Thursday, President Obama, in his fiery speech before the NAACP Convention, admitted that \"an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a prison.\" But he surely couldn't have imagined that only a couple of hours before his oration, one of America's most prominent scholars -- and a distinguished professor at Obama's alma mater, Harvard University -- would breathe cruel and ironic life into that sad statistic. Henry Louis \"Skip\" Gates Jr. is simply the most powerful and influential black scholar in our nation's history. He received a doctorate at Cambridge University long before the culture wars became au courant; he was among the first group of figures to receive a MacArthur \"Genius Award\" Fellowship; he wrote the finest work of literary criticism in a generation with \"Signifying Monkey\"; he was named by Time magazine as one of the \"25 Most Influential Americans\"; he has a boatload of honorary degrees; and he has been a ubiquitous media presence and thoughtful interpreter of race and culture for a quarter-century. But none of that made a bit of difference when Gates returned from a research trip to China to find the front door to his Harvard-owned house jammed and enlisted the assistance of his driver to muscle the door loose. By the time Gates was on the phone with his leasing company, a white policeman had arrived, summoned by a neighbor who spotted two black men looking as if they were unlawfully breaking into the house. Their stories diverge from here; the policeman says he asked Gates to step outside, Gates refused, the officer entered the home and requested Gates' ID, which he didn't initially produce, and finally had Gates arrested when he followed the officer outside, as Gates was \"exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior.\" Gates allegedly shouted, \"Is this how you treat a black man in America?\" and \"You don't know who you're messing with.\" Gates says he showed the officer his ID, demanded that the officer identify himself, which he didn't, and then the professor followed the officer outside to get the policeman's name and badge number when he was arrested by the gaggle of police who had gathered. Several features of the story scream the presence of lingering bias and racism. A black man in a tony neighborhood simply seems out of place, even to his neighbors. Had Gates been a white professor trying to get inside his home, and called on his driver to help him jar his door open, he probably wouldn't have as readily aroused the suspicion of neighbors. And when police arrived to check out the premises, they probably wouldn't have been nearly as ready to believe the worst about the occupant of a home who clearly wasn't engaged in a criminal act. Whatever one believes about what happened, Gates clearly wasn't the beneficiary of the benefit of the doubt, a reasonable expectation since he posed no visible threat. It is also striking that Gates seems to be the victim of a police mentality that chafes at a challenge of its implicit authority. While that may be true for folk of all races, it seems especially galling to cops to be questioned by a person of color. How dare black folk believe that, regardless of their station or privilege, they have permission to speak back -- or speak black -- to state-enforced authority, one that, not a decade ago, routinely ravaged black communities in blatant displays of wanton aggression. It is for good reason that police brutality is a constant concern for black folk; the stakes are often high and harmful. The link between black vulnerability and racial profiling -- of setting in one's collective imagination an image of black men as bad people who are liable to commit mayhem at any moment, and who must therefore always be suspected of wrong and subject to arbitrary forms of control and surveillance -- is evident in the pileup of black bodies, from Amadou Diallo to Sean Bell, that testify to the force of police to impose lethal limits on black survival. Gates rubbed up against the unspoken code that enforces black silence and often violently compels black compliance. In the end, Gates' unjust treatment speaks volumes about the cynical assertion that we now live in a post-racial paradise. Gates' crime appears to be a new one in the litany of crimes that black folk commit by virtue of their very existence -- in this case, HWB, or housing while black. If a famous and affluent black man in his own home can be accosted, arrested and humiliated, then all black folk can reasonably expect the same treatment. To Gates' credit, he realizes that racial profiling happens regularly to poor black folk, and he has pledged to do something about it. But another famous black figure associated with Harvard must renew his pledge to get rid of racial profiling and spare the nation the illusion that his success represents a post-racial America. While it's not likely he'll be unjustly arrested in his House, he's got to make sure that the same privilege extends to millions of other black folk who don't live on Pennsylvania Avenue. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Eric Dyson.","highlights":"Michael Eric Dyson: Gates is an eminent intellectual and Harvard professor .\nHe says Gates' arrest in Cambridge shows that U.S. still grapples with racism .\nHe says police are particularly sensitive to questioning from people of color .\nDyson: Obama must renew his pledge to eliminate racial profiling .","id":"46c6fd093c4bc80b9df5462530c6fde009670804"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A group claiming to be the Indonesian arm of the al Qaeda terrorist network is purportedly taking responsibility for a pair of deadly bombs that exploded within minutes of each other at two luxury hotels in Jakarta. The JW Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was bombed July 17, is guarded Wednesday. The July 17 blasts at Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people, including at least two presumed suicide bombers, and wounded more than 50. On Wednesday, Noordin M. Top -- the suspected leader of a small splinter group of the militant Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to al Qaeda -- purportedly issued statements claiming responsibility for the attacks on behalf of \"al Qaeda in Indonesia.\" Top purportedly signed the statements posted on radical Islamist Web sites as the head of al Qaeda in Indonesia. CNN could not independently authenticate the statements. One of the statements says the Ritz-Carlton attack was carried out by \"one of our mujahedeen warriors against the American lackeys and stooges visiting the hotel.\" \"God has given us a blessing for us to find a way to attack the biggest hotel that America owns in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta -- the Ritz-Carlton, where security was very tight making it very difficult to initiate the attack that we did,\" the statement says. The statement mentions members of Britain's Manchester United soccer team, which had been scheduled to check into the Ritz-Carlton on July 19 but canceled its trip after the bombing. \"Those players are Christians and therefore do not deserve Muslims' money and respect,\" the statement says. The other statement addressed the Marriott attack. It claims that the target in that bombing was Americans with ties to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, known as Kadin. Police say a third bomb had been planted in an 18th floor room of the Marriott two days before the other two bombs exploded. The unexploded bomb -- which was timed to detonate on the upper floor before the first blast tore through the Marriott's lobby area at 7:47 a.m. -- was found and defused, police said.","highlights":"Group claiming to be \"al Qaeda in Indonesia\" purportedly claims responsibility .\nBombs at two Jakarta hotels killed nine people, including two presumed bombers .\n\"American lackeys and stooges\" were targets, statement says .","id":"c2bebc1f68dbb1736f9c76268ab125a912b4081b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Mandy Moore stepped onto the small stage at Amoeba Records in Hollywood with a quick wave. Mandy Moore, now 25, is following her bliss with her new album, \"Amanda Leigh.\" \"Hi, shoppers,\" she giggled somewhat self-consciously. The audience of several hundred, stuffed between the music racks at the landmark store, giggled back. \"This is so weird to be playing here. I live in the neighborhood, and this is where I get my CDs and my DVDs!\" she said. Then she launched into selections from her sixth studio album, \"Amanda Leigh.\" Somewhere out of sight was her new husband, Ryan Adams -- the alt-country hero she married in March, after a one-month engagement. It's been 10 years since Moore burst onto the pop scene as a lanky, blonde 15-year-old singing and dancing her way through a sweetly suggestive tune called \"Candy.\" Her musical fare now is more eclectic and stripped down -- even featuring vintage instruments such as the clavinet and melodica. Watch Moore talk candidly about her new direction \u00bb . Unlike such early contemporaries as Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, Moore has gone for cred over commercial success in both her music and movie careers, and it suits her well. There's an authenticity there, as well as a genuine warmth and charm. Moore spoke about her artistic growth, a musical funk, and working with her new husband. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: A friend of mine made an interesting analogy, saying these last two albums of yours (including 2007's folk-leaning \"Wild Hope\") are to your music career what \"Saved!\" was to your movie career, in terms of establishing yourself critically. Mandy Moore: I take that as a compliment. I mean, I sort of feel lucky to have the opportunity to do film stuff and music at the same time, because I love doing both. But ... if you make a move one way with one side of your career, you sort of have to balance it out on the other side. I feel like with the last two records, I have been in control creatively. They are probably more like some of the cooler indie movies that I have been lucky enough to get to do. CNN: You could have continued in the mainstream pop world, like some of the singers you came up with. Moore: I sort of started around the same time as a lot of my contemporaries, like the Britney Spearses and the Christina Aguileras of the world, and they are amazing and everybody is still around and doing their thing. I just never truly felt comfortable with the music that I was singing -- even back then. I mean, I was happy to have the opportunity, but I was still scratching my head, \"Well, there has got to be something else, there has got to be something more.\" ... It's just about doing what you are truly passionate about and fighting for that. I could have stayed on the same path that I started on, and who knows what would have happened if I would have found success with that -- or none at all -- but I knew I would not have been happy if I had made that decision. And I'm doing what I love now, and I think that's more important than anything. CNN: The new album is called \"Amanda Leigh,\" which is your real name. So is this kind of a reintroduction to people about who you really are -- a grown-up Mandy Moore? Moore: To be quite honest, even though the record is called \"Amanda Leigh,\" and that is my given name, there wasn't a tremendous amount of thought behind the idea of \"This is the real me. Forget the Mandy Moore stuff. That's kid stuff.\" No, it was kind of a simple, almost frivolous decision. My friend Mike Viola [of the Candy Butchers], who I wrote the whole record with, called me Amanda Leigh when we were in the studio all the time. Like \"Amanda Leigh, come on, we've got to get to work!\" And I don't know, it just sort of became synonymous with making the record to me. I had never really owned my name. It was just synonymous with my parents being mad at me. So I was like, \"All right, I'm 25, I'm a woman, I'm an adult. I think I can probably take ownership with that name now and be OK with it.\" But I'm still happy to be Mandy at the end of the day. CNN: Well, you can actually change your name even further. You can go by Amanda Adams [her married name] these days. Moore: I'm going to really throw people off and completely change my name. That will be the next record. You know, just to throw a real wrench into the situation. CNN: I'm probably blowing it for you when you check into hotels under names that nobody would expect you to use. Moore: (Glancing over at her husband) Should I give my name? I'll have to change it, but it's time for a new one. I was Cornish Gamehen for a while, which was bizarre. But for the last couple years, I have been Meryl Inch -- however, there is too much of a debacle going on there these days to continue that. So I have to come up with something creative. CNN: What's it like to not be on a major label these days? There must be some freedom attached to it, but then you don't have the big bucks behind you, as well as the whole machinery. Moore: I don't think you need the whole machine, the whole middleman behind you nowadays, like in terms of a big record label giving you a push. ... I think it has allowed me the creative freedom to truly make the kind of music that I want to by being on an indie label. ... I'm much happier with this road. CNN: Was there a period of depression you went through that had you reworking things in your head, and trying to find out who you were? Moore: I think the writing process for the last record, for \"Wild Hope,\" I found myself in a bit of a funk. I don't know if I would necessarily classify it as a depression, but I was definitely in a very deeply, darkly place for me, and I had never really been there before. And there was a lot of investigation and questions bouncing around in my head that I found I could answer by kind of investing myself in music and writing. CNN: I would love to be a fly on the wall in your house, just to see the music that you and Ryan come up with. Moore: There is a lot of music in the house, whether someone is playing it, or there's a record on or something. I've been introduced to a lot of metal in my relationship, which is pretty cool, because my guy is a big metal fan, and it isn't something I would necessarily investigate on my own -- but I do like it. It's just nice to have that truly built-in support system that someone is unbelievably understanding of what you do. CNN: Like a lot of people, I was shocked when I read you and Ryan had gotten married. Moore: Yeah, we sort of snuck it by a lot of people. Pretty handy. That's how we roll. Life is good, and I'm a really lucky girl, and I'm very happy. It's a very exciting time to be 25 years old and truly fulfilled in so many aspects.","highlights":"Mandy Moore's new album is \"Amanda Leigh,\" her given name .\nMoore has gone indie route with new album, happy to be on that path .\nFreshly married to Ryan Adams, singer looks forward to new things -- like metal?","id":"59eb9074bbde6a9aeb8ecd985bc684ccdca38ee8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British airlines have put into effect measures to stop people with swine flu boarding flights in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading further. Medical screening for the swine flu virus has been introduced at many airports. British Airways said there had been a \"very small number of cases\" where people who had checked in with symptoms of H1N1 had been advised not to travel after having medical checks. Virgin Atlantic also said victims would not be allowed to board one of its planes without a fit-to-fly certificate from their doctor or a hospital, though there had been no cases yet. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic June 11. More than 120 countries have reported cases of human infection. About 98,000 cases have been documented worldwide, with 440 deaths, according to the WHO. Watch as airlines ban sufferers \u00bb . With 29 deaths and a huge rise in the number of cases, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe. Eight British schoolchildren remained in hospital in China on Monday after contracting swine flu on a trip to the country, the Foreign Office said. The teenagers were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus in Beijing. More than 50 of their classmates and teachers are also quarantined in a hotel. Watch as students are quarantined \u00bb . Medical screening for the swine flu virus has been introduced at many airports around the world for passengers arriving on international flights but there are concerns that many people may not be aware they are infected. Those who do have symptoms have been advised by Britain's health authorities to delay their journeys until the signs have cleared up. \"We have a medical team within the airline as well as a contingency planning group which has met for the past few years to look at the issue of a flu pandemic,\" A British Airways spokeswoman said. \"We have a wide range of contingency plans in place which we can use depending on how the situation may evolve. \"If we have concerns about a customer or the customer is concerned, then we have a 24-hour medical service we can call to give advice to staff. \"They will speak to the customer and an assessment will be made about their fitness to fly. \"There have been a number of cases where we have advised customers not to fly on the basis of their diagnosis or symptoms of H1N1.\" Watch as a CNN reporter is quarantined \u00bb . BA told CNN Monday though that it was \"business as usual\" and all flights were operating normally. Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles said: \"If there are signs of something being wrong, be it excessive sneezing or coughing, not looking well, high temperature, then the airport staff can call in a medical team for extra advice. \"If the medical team believe there are reasons not to fly, the passenger will be asked to produce a fit to fly certificate from their doctor or a hospital, and they will be put at our cost on to the next available flight.\" Swine flu has spread so rapidly and extensively around the globe that the World Health Organization is changing tactics against the H1N1 virus, including stopping a tally of cases and focusing on unusual patterns. \"At this point, further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable,\" the WHO said. The counting of all cases is no longer essential because it is exhausting countries' resources, the organization said. \"In some countries, this strategy is absorbing most national laboratory and response capacity, leaving little capacity for the monitoring and investigation of severe cases, and other exceptional events.\" Monitoring is still required, the organization urged, but should focus on exceptional patterns. \"Because the numbers of cases have increased in so many countries, it is very hard to keep up,\" Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general, said earlier this month. Laboratories have been inundated with testing requests and the virus is showing up in most lab tests in countries with major outbreaks, he said. The organization said it will not issue global tables showing confirmed cases for countries that have reported cases, according to the release. However, it will still report on nations that have not had cases so that its presence can be confirmed. \"WHO will continue to request that these countries report the first confirmed cases and, as far as feasible, provide weekly aggregated case numbers and descriptive epidemiology of the early cases.\" Meanwhile, governments should should be on the lookout for unusual patterns, the organization said. While most patients have reported mild symptoms, a rise in severe symptoms or respiratory ailments that require hospitalization should be cause for concern, it said. Governments should also pay attention to unusual patterns linked to fatal cases, the WHO said. Any changes in prevailing patterns should be flagged, including a rise in school and job absenteeism, and an increase in visits to the emergency room. An overwhelmed health system may mean there is a rise in severe cases, the organization said.","highlights":"British airlines stop people with swine flu boarding flights .\nAround the world there have been 98,000 cases of swine flu in 120 countries .\nWith 29 deaths, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe .\nMedical screening for virus has been introduced at many airports .","id":"896e2fbc8a93c2331a5782235ac40cc3b7547dfa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A pair of Georgia men faced more than a half-hour of skeptical questions from reporters Friday as they defended their claim that they stumbled upon the body of Bigfoot while hiking in a remote North Georgia forest. The thawed body of a creature reputed to be Bigfoot reportedly weighs more than 500 pounds. Introduced by a publicist and beside a man who promoted what turned out to be a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer repeatedly said that their claim is not a hoax and that scientific analysis will prove it. \"We were not looking for Bigfoot. ... We wouldn't know what we were doing if we did,\" said Whitton, a police officer on leave after being shot in the hand while making an arrest. \"I didn't believe in Bigfoot at the time. ... But you've got to come to terms with it and realize you've got something special. And that's what it was.\" The men say they were hiking in early June when they discovered the body of a 7-foot-7, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature near a stream. They also claim to have spotted about three similar living creatures -- and showed reporters video stills of what they say is one of those creatures shadowing them through the woods. Watch report of scientist skeptical of Bigfoot claim \u00bb . The announcement, which the men first made on the Internet radio show \"Squatch Detective\" several weeks ago, has been greeted with healthy skepticism, even among some Bigfoot enthusiasts. Scientists, including the head of North Georgia College and State University's biology department, have said it's unlikely a tribe of 7-foot-tall creatures would have avoided discovery in a region popular among hikers, hunters and vacationers. Several Web sites have popped up questioning the claim and comparing a photo that the men say is the creature's body inside a freezer to a widely available Bigfoot costume. On Friday, Whitton acknowledged creating a pair of videos posted on the Internet video site YouTube, one in which his brother poses as a scientist and another in which Whitton briefly seems to admit that the body is a fake. \"It seems that the stalkers have busted us in a hoax,\" he says in the video. But then adds, \"we still have a corpse. We just wanted to give you something to do for the weekend.\" At Friday's news conference, Whitton first said that no video existed in which he calls the discovery a hoax. But after speaking to Tom Biscardi, the self-described \"Real Bigfoot Hunter\" who has been searching for the creature of legend since 1971, he said the video was made \"to have a little fun with it\" and was originally intended to throw off the \"psychos\" who had stalked him and his family since the men first made their claim. iReport.com: Have you seen 'Bigfoot'? The two also promoted a Web site registered to Whitton on June 16 and said they plan to write a book about their experience. Friday's news conference was held in Palo Alto, California, near the home of Biscardi. About 100 reporters and onlookers attended the event, in a hotel banquet room, including a man who shouted questions while wearing a gorilla suit. Dyer and Whitton said they were carrying a video camera during their hike to film wildlife. They said they handed the body over to Biscardi, who is keeping it at an undisclosed location until a team of scientists can examine it. One of the two photographs the men gave to reporters Friday showed what appears to be the creature's mouth, an effort to disprove allegations that what's in the photo is a costume. \"I want to get to the bottom of it,\" Biscardi said. \"I'll tell you what I've seen and what I've touched and what I've felt, what I've prodded was not a mask sewed onto a bear hide, OK?\" Biscardi acknowledged that he promoted a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, saying the woman who claimed to have the body convinced his staff members before he visited her and discovered that she was mentally ill. Alleged Bigfoot sightings have surfaced from time to time for years, dating to at least the 1800s. The most famous was the so-called Patterson film from 1967, which is purported to show a tall, furry, apelike creature walking along, at one point looking over its shoulder at the videographer. Most scientists who have studied the film say there's no way to authenticate it, and many say the creature appears to be a man in a costume. CNN's Doug Gross and Chuck Afflerback contributed to this report.","highlights":"North Georgia men say they stumbled upon body while hiking in forest .\nThey also claim to have spotted three similar living creatures .\nThe body of the furry half man-half ape is 7 feet, 7 inches tall, they say .\nMen won't reveal Bigfoot den's location because they don't want others disturbed .","id":"82584abdd64c4552fd816e63d0031f7d06cd9d40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sometimes, the effects of fame can ripple like a stone dropped in a pond. A YouTube video shows a Minnesota wedding party dancing down the aisle. Take the case of Minnesota residents Kevin Heinz and Jill Peterson. The couple had a fun idea for their wedding party to do a nontraditional procession to a catchy tune, \"Forever\" by Chris Brown. The joyous video of the group busting their loosely choreographed moves down the aisle went viral after the newlyweds posted it on YouTube. Soon they were being deluged by the media and flown to New York to appear on national television. Since then, millions have watched the funky wedding march and helped transform Heinz and Peterson into instant celebrities. Amy Carlson Gustafson, a pop culture reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, reported on the story that she said has not only stirred up the hometown folks, but also showed a different side of Minnesota. \"I think people are loving it,\" she said. \"It's really fun and it's especially fun in Minnesota where a lot of people think we are a bunch of uptight Scandinavians who sit around and say 'You betcha.' This video helps to debunk that a little bit.\" That sense of fun and whimsy has enchanted many and led to Heinz and Peterson being sought for interviews by everyone from their local publications to the major networks. Watch guests at the wedding discuss the experience \u00bb . But they have apparently also learned quickly about the downside of fame. The New York Post reported the pair was caught in the crossfire of the battle of the morning shows. According to the newspaper, ABC flew Heinz and Peterson to the Big Apple after booking them to appear on \"Good Morning America.\" Things soured, the paper's Page Six column reported, after ABC learned the couple had also taped a segment for the rival \"Today\" show, which aired before the couple's appearance on \"Good Morning America.\" Adding fuel to the fire was a planned live re-creation of the dance by the wedding party scheduled for Saturday morning on \"Today.\" When it appeared that Heinz and Peterson weren't adhering to the age-old \"dance with who brung ya\" rule, their ABC-sponsored hotel and flight home were canceled, the paper said. \"We've been kicked out of our room,\" Heinz told the Post after the incident. \"New York is cutthroat. That's what we've learned.\" \"Today\" reportedly stepped in and secured a new room and flight for Heinz and Peterson. Reporter Gustafson said she spoke with mother-of-the-bride Marge Peterson, who said her daughter and new son-in-law were done talking to the media. \"They are not used to this type of publicity,\" Gustafson said. Shane Mercado can relate. The 27-year-old from New York posted a video last year of himself mimicking step-for-step Beyonce's dance moves from her \"Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)\" music video. Mercado said he did it at the suggestion of a friend and before he knew it, he was a YouTube sensation. \"Once I did it I thought 'What did I just do?' \" he recalled. \"The response was overwhelming.\" Soon, Mercado was a minor celebrity being asked for autographs and dancing his routine on the \"Bonnie Hunt Show.\" \"Extra\" even arranged for him to surprise Beyonce on the red carpet during the premier of her film \"Cadillac Records\" Not only did the superstar singer know who he was, Mercado said, but so did other celebs. \"The actress Gabrielle Union knew who I was,\" Mercado said. \"That just blew me away.' Mercado said he doesn't consider himself famous and finds the notoriety humbling. The loss of anonymity is challenging, he said. Suddenly, the number of people \"in your business\" dramatically increases. He said he can imagine how Heinz and Peterson are feeling: overwhelmed. \"That was their [wedding] and it was probably very private to them,\" Mercado said. \"It can be a bit much to handle and if they were not ready to handle it, then it's not a good thing.\" Being sucked into a vortex of whirlwind publicity can be a heady experience, said Atlanta, Georgia-based photographer Ross Oscar Knight. Two years ago, Knight photographed an elaborately staged engagement planned by Robert Gray Jr. to surprise his girlfriend, Keisha Williams. Gray rented 10 rooms at the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, and filled them with rose petals, candles, and music. As Gray led Williams to each room, friends and family were waiting with well wishes and prayers, all leading up to his proposal. A slide show of Knight's pictures of the moving event scored millions of hits and crashed several sites linking to it, the photographer said. \"I immediately started getting calls from all over the world,\" Knight said. \"We got an extra phone line because so many calls were coming in.\" Not only were people touched, but many also wanted to have their engagements documented, Knight said, so there are sure to be dancing-down-the-aisle videos to come. Knight said Gray and Williams, whose fairy-tale engagement attracted the attention of national publications like Essence Magazine, have married but decided to do so quietly after shutting down a Web site they had started to keep fans updated. \"They did a private ceremony because they didn't want any of that released to the media,\" Knight said. \"I think they got to see stardom and what can happen when there is so much of a focus put on you.\" Someone else who has also been thrust into the spotlight, albeit again, is singer Chris Brown, whose song the Heinz-Peterson wedding party danced to. Despite increased demand on iTunes for the single \"Forever\" and speculation by media outlets like Gawker.com that the wedding video could help rehabilitate Brown's image, US Weekly staff editor Lindsay Powers said she doesn't believe all will be forgiven. Brown, who has publicly apologized for assaulting his girlfriend, the singer Rihanna, has a long way to go before the tide of public opinion can be swayed, Powers said. \"I think that Chris Brown has had considerable career damage over these past couple of months,\" she said. \"I think that people are going to say that's a catchy song, they'll go to iTunes and download it to their iPods, but I don't think that because people like the song they are going to like Chris Brown.\"","highlights":"Minnesota couple instant stars after YouTube wedding video goes viral .\nDancing wedding party garners fans, draws media attention .\nFellow YouTube star says attention \"can be a bit much to handle\"\nPopularity of video has also sparked interest in the Chris Brown tune featured .","id":"a88ba4d405466e943361b3d53849469fe904cd5f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama often talks about all of the forces lining up against his health care plan. But there's one critic who has remained relatively mum in the debate. Dr. David Scheiner was President Obama's personal physician for 22 years. David Scheiner, a Chicago, Illinois-based doctor, has taken a hard look at the president's prescription for health care reform and sees bad medicine. \"This isn't that kind of health care program that I think is going to work,\" he said. So what makes Scheiner so special? He was Obama's personal physician for 22 years, and voted for the former Illinois senator in the 2008 presidential election. Scheiner thinks the president's plan doesn't go far enough. In his mind, the worst part of the proposal is that \"private insurers continue to be a part of the health scheme.\" Watch Scheiner talk about his objections \u00bb . \"Everybody keeps saying we don't want the government involved in health care,\" Scheiner said in an interview. \"But the government is involved in Medicare, and it works.\" Scheiner would rather see the nation adopt a single-payer system like the ones in Canada and Europe. The financing system relies on one \"payer\" -- which could be a government-run agency -- to fund all health care costs billed by doctors, hospitals and other health professionals. The benefits, advocates say, is that pricey administrative costs are cut, resulting in large savings to patients. It's something that an up-and-coming coming state Sen. Obama talked about six years ago. \"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan. ... But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately, because first we've got to take back the White House, and we've got take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House,\" Obama said in 2003. But that position evolved during the campaign. \"If I were designing a system from scratch, then I'd probably set up a single-payer system. But the problem is we're not starting from scratch,\" Obama said in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in August 2008. Now, the president favors giving Americans the option of joining a government-run plan that would compete with private insurers. Watch more on the health care debate \u00bb . \"Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care. I'm tired of hearing that,\" Obama said in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday. But Scheiner says that nobody has seen the details of that option, making it a hard sell for the president. \"We don't even fully know what the public option is going to be. If the public option is too good, patients who are sick will flock to it, and I'm not sure it will be able to support itself.\" Scheiner almost had a chance to confront the president with his concerns. He was invited to a recent televised town hall meeting with Obama, but he says he was dropped from the program. \"I just hope that the Congress, the American public and the president will hear some of my words,\" he said. \"We've got to do something better.\" Scheiner finally had a chance to have his say Thursday. He and other doctors who support a single-payer system gathered in Washington to meet with lawmakers and rally supporters. He may not be the president's doctor anymore, but Scheiner says he's trying to save the patient before it's too late. CNN's Ed Hornick and Brittany Cummings contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dr. David Scheiner says president's health care plan doesn't go far enough .\nHe's worried that \"private insurers continue to be a part of the health scheme\"\nHe'd rather see the U.S. have a single-payer system like those in Canada, Europe .\nHe says he was supposed to speak at Obama town hall but was dropped from it .","id":"db2e3c274e3dbfe7ed120e6d2fec8fa06a19e9e6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An eco-friendly French boat is hoping to successfully cross the perilous Arctic sea passage that links the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific. The old tug-boat, Le Manguier, has been converted into an eco-friendly vessel with three sails and solar panels. \"Le Manguier\" is attempting to navigate the icy, unpredictable Northern Sea Route, a 6,000 mile passage that skims the northern coast of Siberia. It is a trip that only a handful of leisure boats in history have successfully completed. Not only that, the modified tug boat is also attempting to do it ecologically. The boat's crew is relying partly on wind-power to complete the route, parts of which are only free of ice for two short months during the Arctic summer. Three sails have been added to the tug boat, which normally runs on gas-guzzling motors. \"'Le Manguier' was the opposite of the ecological vessel,\" Philippe Hercher, captain and part-owner of the boat told CNN. \"What we wanted to do was create a symbol and show that even this type of boat can diversify its energy sources -- even in the most extreme conditions.\" Conditions on the route are treacherous: Vessels that enter its waters at the wrong time can get trapped in thick ice for months in temperatures that go as low as -50C. Ironically for the eco-expedition, it is receding ice levels, thought to be caused by global warming, that has crossing the passage a possibility once again in the last few years. The voyage, which is projected to take about six months, started in the South of France in April and, if they make it through the route successfully, will end in Japan. The crew's other ecological concessions include relying on solar panels for electricity and warm water, using only long-lasting LED light bulbs and eating only organic products during their journey. On-board are seven adults and two children, including a painter, two writers, a scientist and a historian. Currently, the team's primary concern is not the fear of being trapped in ice and being forced to \"hibernate\" in Siberia's frigid temperatures, but getting the required paperwork in time before the approaching colder months, which cause ice to harden in the passage. \"Le Manguier\" is in Tromso, Norway waiting for the green light from the Russian government, which rarely allows non-Russian vessels to enter the passage. Russian reluctance may stem from the time of the Russian revolution in 1917, after which the Soviet Union was isolated from the West. The Northern Sea Route, which is the shortest passage between the West and the Far East, was also the only water the Russians could navigate without possible foreign interference. Luckily, the crew have help from veteran sailors in their race against the clock: Scientist Eric Brossier and sailor and France Pinczon Du Del who successfully sailed the Northern Sea Route during the first ever circumnavigation of the glacial Arctic Ocean in 2002. In the meantime, \"Le Mangier\" is gaining increasing popularity with every port-of-call. The group is publicizing the cause; inviting school children, academics and other tug boat sailors for workshops and tours of the boat. \"The most difficult challenge seems to be convincing hardened tug boat captains to partially switch to wind power,\" said Judith Puzzuoli, who is in charge of communication and press for \"Le Manguier.\" \"But change doesn't happen in a day.\" Like Puzzuoli, each member of the team is responsible for delivering the message in a different way. Two books, written in the style of travel journals are in the works and a documentary is currently being filmed. Even the children have an important role -- reminding the adults why their mission is important. \"I get the feeling that the two girls are really discovering life on this boat. They are learning to live simply, but beautifully.\"","highlights":"An eco-friendly French boat is attempting to cross the Northern Sea Route .\nSix-month voyage hoping to travel Arctic waters above Siberia to get to Japan .\nBoats can be trapped in ice for months in temperatures that go as low as -50C .\nThe tug boat has been modified with three sails and solar panels .","id":"b57bc61ba258a0bb7220ec2fa28b6b8476046725"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Security forces in Iran on Thursday confronted thousands of protesting Iranians across the city, first at a cemetery and later at a prayer venue and near a government building, witnesses and news reports said. Mourners gather around the grave of Neda Agh-Soltan in Beheshte Zahra Cemetery. Clashes erupted at the cemetery as two of Iran's main opposition leaders tried to join the several thousand people at a memorial for the slain woman who became the symbol of Iran's post-election violence, witnesses said. The gathering was banned, but participants ignored the government strictures. However, security forces barred opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi from the gravesite of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old woman shot in election protests on June 20, witnesses and news reports said. More than 3,000 people were gathered at Agha-Soltan's grave, a witness said. Mourners arrived on the religiously significant 40th day after the fatal shooting in Tehran. For Iranians, a predominantly Shiite Muslim population, the 40th day after a death marks the last official day of mourning. At the cemetery, security forces used tear gas to clear the area of demonstrators and mourners. A witness said riot police and Basij militia were at the scene, but the confrontations with people in the crowd involved the militia. Watch a report on the memorial clashes \u00bb . The witness spotted instances of the baton-wielding militia charging the gathering, and said as many as nine beatings were seen. Other people appeared to have been beaten as they ran from police, the witness said. One of the mourners had a bloody head and one woman said she was struck on the back of the neck. One security force member sustained some sort of injury to the head and was bloodied. It is unclear exactly how that person was injured. A confrontation between women protesters and police also was seen. The women shouted, \"Don't beat up our young people. You, our Muslim brothers. It is a shame to beat up our young people.\" The crowd chanted \"Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein,\" the first a reference to the revered Shiite imam and the second a reference to Moussavi. Then there were more chants of \"Allah wa Akbar,\" or God is great. iReport.com: Share your photos, video, stories . Despite reports of arrests, none were seen on the mourning day. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said using force to \"break up a group of people who were trying to exercise an important ritual in Islam, the mourning after 40 days,\" was \"particularly disturbing.\" \"We stand by the Iranian people who are exercising their universal right to self-expression and demonstrating peacefully,\" Kelly said. Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, reported that the mourners \"disrupted the order\" in the city and damaged public and private property and that security forces were merely trying to control the \"illegal activity\" of the group. IRNA also reported that Tehran residents in the area were angry with the constant protests and wanted a stronger response from the security forces. Another witness told CNN that police directing traffic at the cemetery were helpful and friendly, in stark contrast to the riot police and Revolutionary Guard members who were at the gravesites. From the cemetery, the mourners arrived at the Mossalla, a building under construction that is expected to be the main venue of Tehran's Friday prayers, witnesses said. A couple thousand people demonstrated and police worked to disperse the crowd -- which also was defying a ban on such a gathering. \"The police tried to discourage drivers from driving the main highway that would lead to central Tehran, but very few listened,\" one witness said. \"Soldiers standing along the streets flashed the peace sign back at the honking cars with large smiles on their faces. It was obvious the soldiers and police forces were with the people.\" Thousands also marched and chanted along a prominent thoroughfare called Vali Asr Street, chanting slogans such as \"Death to the dictator\" amid the honking of car horns, a witness said. Amateur video posted Thursday on several Web sites and submitted to CNN's iReport showed a security officer swinging a baton at a demonstrator. CNN cannot confirm the circumstances of the images. Protesters gathered near the Interior Ministry building and trash cans were set ablaze, another witness said. Police on motorcycles attempted to break up the gathering, and one security officer was seen wielding a gun. Moussavi was the chief challenger of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June presidential elections, which the government said Ahmadinejad won in a landslide but many Iranians think was rigged. Moussavi had said on his Web site that he and fellow reform candidate Karrubi would commemorate Agha-Soltan's death with her mother at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery. At the cemetery, a witness said a car identical to a vehicle belonging to Moussavi drove through the area. It was not clear if Moussavi was in the vehicle, but people were sitting atop and around the car as if to protect it. The car left the scene. In the days after the June vote, thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the results. The government cracked down. Hundreds were detained in prison, among them 50 \"political figures\" accused of playing key roles in the street demonstrations that turned violent, Iranian media reported Wednesday. Among those still reportedly detained is Shahpour Kazemi, Moussavi's brother-in-law, according to Moussavi's wife. Others include Behzad Nabavi, a Moussavi ally, and Mostafa Tajzadeh, who served under Iranian President Mohammad Khatami -- a Moussavi supporter -- the Iranian Labor News Agency reported Tuesday.","highlights":"Security forces confront protesters across Tehran .\nSome 3,000 mourners gather at the grave site of Neda Agha-Soltan .\nAgha-Soltan, 26, was shot in street protests after election on June 20 .\nSecurity forces rough up, beat some mourners, witnesses say .","id":"3c00ed335258b714f86f4e5de07890feac213e88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lucia Whalen strolled down a sidewalk near Harvard University, enjoying a lunchtime ritual she'd repeated many times in her 15 years working in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But on this day, July 16, her outing would become something else altogether -- the first steps in a national drama. President Obama has invited police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates for beer. An older woman approached Whalen, worried that she'd just witnessed two men breaking into a home. That's when Whalen, a first-generation Portuguese-American, called 911 from her cell phone -- alerting police to 17 Ware St. -- the home, as it turns out, of renowned Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Whalen's call -- now clearly the well-intentioned act of a passerby -- ignited a firestorm over race and police relations, a national debate that went all the way to the White House. It was a call she says she never expected to be \"analyzed by an entire nation.\" Gates was arrested by Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley for disorderly conduct, a charge that was later dropped. Exactly what happened inside Gates' home may never be known, but it seems clear that the key players in this saga brought their own personal history with race to the moment. That was true of Gates and Crowley, as well as the nation's first African-American president. All three will meet for a beer today at the White House to help chill the furor over Gates' arrest and, in Obama's words, try to turn the events of the past two weeks into a \"teachable moment.\" \"White woman\" targeted . It's a bit ironic, said Whalen's attorney Wendy Murphy, that the three people who \"reacted badly\" will sit down together while the \"one person who did not overreact\" will be at work Thursday. \"Maybe it's a guy thing,\" Murphy said, adding of Whalen: \"She doesn't like beer anyway.\" Watch Whalen describe \"painful\" criticism \u00bb . Gates' arrest sparked heated rhetoric on TV, radio and the Internet. Initially, it seemed to break down along racial lines: African-Americans saw it as racial profiling by a white officer. Whites asked why the acclaimed scholar on black history didn't just show his ID to Crowley at the outset. Wasn't the officer just doing his job? Even Whalen, the Good Samaritan, got smeared in the initial response. The police report identifying her as a \"white woman\" resulted in a torrent of accusations that she racially profiled Gates and his driver when she first called 911. But a review of the call showed she never identified the suspects as \"black\" -- and even told a police dispatcher she wasn't sure it was a break-in. \"The criticism at first was so painful for me. ... I was frankly afraid to say anything,\" Whalen said Wednesday, fighting back tears. \"People called me racist and said I caused all the turmoil that followed, and some even said threatening things that made me fear for my safety.\" Whalen is sensitive to the issue of racial profiling, because of her own olive-skinned complexion, her attorney said. Two men; two views . Inside 17 Ware St., Gates and Crowley exchanged words as the officer sought to determine whether Gates belonged in the home. Each blamed the other for a situation that escalated; each felt the other brought prejudices to the moment. Both had personal experience with racial profiling. iReport: Racial profiling, from both sides . Long before his acclaim as a scholar of black history, Gates had faced the prejudice of a white man. Gates was just 14, and had suffered a hairline fracture in his hip. \"The white doctor who examined Gates shortly afterward questioned the boy about his injury as well as his career plans. When the young Gates replied that he wanted to be a doctor and then correctly answered many questions about science, the doctor made his diagnosis,\" according to a biography of Gates posted on Gale, an online research tool. \"He told Gates to stand and walk, and the young boy fell to the floor in intense pain. The doctor then turned to Gates's mother and explained that her son's problem was psychosomatic -- a black boy from Appalachia who wanted to be a doctor in the mid-1960s was an overachiever.\" Gates, now 58, walks with a cane as a result. \"The most subtle and pernicious form of racism against blacks [is] doubt about our intellectual capacities,\" he once said. The typically soft-spoken Harvard professor is revered worldwide for being at the fore of African-American issues. His award-winning PBS documentaries have made him one of the most powerful forces of academia, admired by colleagues of all races. At the time of his arrest, Gates had just returned from China, where he had filmed the ancestral cemetery of Grammy-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma as part of an upcoming series on immigration in America. Gates told CNN's Soledad O'Brien that his arrest was a wake-up call. \"What it made me realize was how vulnerable all black men are -- how vulnerable all people of color are and all poor people to capricious forces like a rogue policeman,\" he said. \"It was the fault of a policeman who couldn't stand a black man standing up for his rights right in his face.\" Watch Gates describe arrest \u00bb . But those who know Crowley, including African-American colleagues, say not so fast. For years, Crowley taught a racial profiling class at a Massachusetts police academy -- hand-picked by an African-American police commissioner. He also tried to save the life of Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis in 1993 when the black athlete died during an off-season practice. \"I wasn't working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn't working on a black man. I was working on another human being,\" he told the Boston Herald. Two black officers on the Cambridge force have stood solidly by their comrade. Sgt. Leon Lashley was outside Gates' house when the professor was arrested. He has no problems with the way Crowley handled the situation. \"It happened to be a white officer on a black man, and the common call a lot of times is to call it a racist situation,\" said Lashley. \"This situation right here was not a racial-motivated situation. ... There's nothing rogue about him. He was doing his job.\" Lashley acknowledged that if he, as a black officer, had entered the home first, it likely would've been a different outcome. Kelly King, another African-American Cambridge officer, said she has known Crowley for more than a decade and that he's \"a good police officer, a good man with character.\" Watch black cops stand by Crowley \u00bb . \"I think Professor Gates has done a very good job of throwing up a very effective smokescreen, calling race into this. It had nothing to do with it,\" she told CNN's Don Lemon with Crowley at her side. She said people who have turned against Crowley need to \"keep their minds open and realize that we would not support someone that we felt wronged someone else. ... We would not support anyone in blue doing the wrong thing.\" When she finished speaking, she and Crowley embraced. \"You've got to be touched by that,\" CNN's Lemon said. The officer at the center of the controversy nodded his head, fighting off tears. Obama steps in . A third player ratcheted up the controversy and he, too, brought history to the moment. President Obama entered the fray when he said police \"acted stupidly.\" His comments outraged many in law enforcement, and he soon did a mea culpa, saying he could've \"calibrated\" his words differently. Watch Obama say he helped ratchet up debate \u00bb . Obama is a friend of Gates. A graduate of Harvard Law School, the president also once studied under Charles Ogletree, the law professor who represents Gates. As state senator in Illinois, Obama pushed for a racial profiling bill in 2003. According to the Chicago Tribune, the bill created a means for police to track the race of drivers stopped for traffic infractions over a period of years. In his 2006 book \"The Audacity of Hope,\" Obama said his status insulated him from the \"bumps and bruises\" of the typical black man in America. But, he said, \"I can recite the usual litany of petty slights that during my 45 years have been directed my way: security guards tailing me as I shop in department stores, white couples who toss me their car keys as I stand outside a restaurant waiting for the valet, police cars pulling me over for no apparent reason.\" \"I know what it's like to have people tell me I can't do something because of my color, and I know the bitter swill of swallowed-back anger.\" As the three men sit down together at the White House, there are many lessons to be drawn from this most teachable moment. Not the least of which might be that race is still a major factor in perceptions, and misperceptions. As for Whalen, she says she would still make that 911 call if she had it to do over again. \"I would hope people would learn not to judge others,\" she said. She added, \"I was just trying to get lunch.\"","highlights":"Harvard professor, Cambridge cop, Obama to sit down for beer at White House .\nAttorney for 911 caller notes irony in meeting of the three people who \"reacted badly\"\nProf walks with cane as a result of white doctor's misdiagnosis when he was 14 .\nTwo black cops stand by Sgt. James Crowley, say race had nothing to do with arrest .","id":"714782b8df2d0a8cde710805a44d819888771f88"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Ten members of an international smuggling ring have been arrested and charged with paying more than $500,000 in bribes to smuggle millions of dollars in fake designer goods from China to the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Authorities say a sting targeted a smuggling ring pushing counterfeit goods through a New Jersey port. The defendants were expected to appear Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas. The counterfeit goods included designer jeans, Nike shoes, Burberry and Chanel handbags, and Polo and Baby Phat clothing, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. The estimated value of the genuine versions of the goods would be more than $200 million, prompting U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia to describe the case as \"one of the largest counterfeit smuggling cases ever brought in United States history.\" The suspects arrested Wednesday are accused of smuggling or attempting to smuggle scores of 40-foot-long shipping containers through the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey, since June 2006. The Chinese-made knockoffs were placed in containers with false bills of lading, which are the shipping documents used to determine a cargo's point of origin and destination. \"One bill of lading claimed a container held 'noodles,' when in fact it contained counterfeit Nike sneakers,\" the news release said. After the bogus goods cleared inspection at the New Jersey port, they were transported to New York-area warehouses, where they awaited distribution to retail customers. According to the news release, the bribes were paid directly to an undercover agent whose \"near-daily\" conversations with the suspects were secretly recorded or monitored. The undercover agent posed as a \"corrupt longshoreman's union official, stationed at Port Newark, who had the ability to clear imported cargo through the United States customs and border security measures without detection or seizure,\" the news release said. The 10 suspects are charged with conspiring to smuggle goods into the U.S., smuggling goods into the U.S. and trafficking in counterfeit goods, the news release states. If convicted, they face up to 35 years in prison, at least $2.5 million in fines and an obligation to pay restitution to the manufacturers of the genuine versions of the goods. Among those arrested in the sting were Robin Huff, 46, of New York, a federally licensed customs broker who is accused of using a Customs and Border Patrol database to help push goods through the port. Also arrested were Chi On Wong, 36, and Man Wai Cheng, 34, both of New York, who operated a Brooklyn-based trucking company, KT Express Inc. Authorities allege Wong and Cheng charged smugglers a premium to transport goods around the New York area. On Wednesday, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents raided a house in Brooklyn used as KT Express' base of operations and three other locations. Federal agents seized $80,000 in cash and two KT Express trucks allegedly used in the operation, the news release said. Also arrested Wednesday were: . \u2022 Grace Quezon, 38, of Jersey City, New Jersey, who is alleged to have paid at least $400,000 to the undercover agent. She also is accused of smuggling or attempting to smuggle more than 25 containers of counterfeit goods. \u2022 Michael Chu, 70, of New York, who is accused of paying more than $100,000 to the undercover agent and smuggling more than 20 containers through the port. \u2022 Hsi Feng Li, 61, of New York, aka \"the General,\" who is accused of telling the federal agent he could send the agent 50 containers of bogus goods a month. \u2022 Yee Khiong Ting, 44, of New York, who is accused of coordinating shipments, paying bribes to the federal agent and selling the goods once they cleared customs. \u2022 Troy King, 37, of New York, who allegedly worked with Chu and Quezon, and whom authorities accuse of arranging payments and overseeing operations. \u2022 Wing Ki Lee, 36, of Jersey City, who is accused of working with King to smuggle containers into the U.S. on behalf of a Chinese manufacturer who was a primary supplier of the counterfeit merchandise. \u2022 Dick Ong, 57, of Bergenfield, New Jersey, who is accused of tracking containers, arranging pickups and monitoring the status of containers that moved through the New Jersey port. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Officials say the original versions of the goods are worth more than $200 million .\nNews release: One container said it was carrying \"noodles\" instead of fake Nikes .\nFeds: An undercover agent posed as a \"corrupt longshoreman's union official\"\nSuspects include New York customs broker and trucking company operators .","id":"45f64cde22659eb69d0f03716ec31e05378d2ce0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actor and producer Anil Kapoor has long been a Bollywood luminary, but after his award-winning performance in global hit \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" he is set to become an international star. Bollywood superstar Anil Kapoor. Kapoor says that \"Slumdog,\" a love story about a boy from a Mumbai slum who wins a fortune on quiz show \"Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?,\" resembles his own life story. \"I also started from scratch, went from rags to riches,\" he told CNN. Anil is part of the Kapoor family that is a veritable Bollywood dynasty. His father Surinder and elder brother Boney are film producers, his daughter Sonam, sister-in-law Sridevi and his younger brother Sanjay are actors, while son-in-law Sandeep Marwah is a movie magnate and Anil's son Harshvardhan is currently learning to direct movies in Los Angeles. But things weren't always so glamorous. Anil Kapoor was born on Christmas Eve 1959 and grew up in a tenement in the Mumbai suburb of Chembur, with eight people living together in a single room. His father Surinder had yet to make his name in the film industry, but young Anil clearly had movies in his blood. \"In my childhood I was surrounded by films, actors, film makers, directors and film talk. I would bunk school to watch movies,\" he said. He was cast in his first movie aged just seven. Although the film was never released, the experience was enough to convince Kapoor that his future lay in the movies. After finishing school he went to St Xavier's College, where he acted in plays and won the Best Actor trophy at an inter-collegiate competition, before being expelled for non-attendance. Kapoor responded by enrolling in acting classes and taking singing and dance lessons. He made his Bollywood debut in 1979's \"Hamare Tumhare,\" before moving on to Telugu-language movie \"Vamsa Vriksham\" in 1980, and landing his first Bollywood starring role in 1983's \"Woh 7 Din.\" Watch Anil Kapoor take CNN on a tour of Mumbai. \u00bb . Kapoor first met future wife Sunita Bhambhani in 1979, when she was a successful model and he was still a struggling actor. He decided that he would propose marriage as soon as he got his big break and 1984's \"Mashaal\" was the opportunity he'd been waiting for. Kapoor's performance won him Best Supporting Actor at India's prestigious FilmFare awards and he married Sunita in May of that year. Kapoor cemented his status a Bollywood idol after starring in the hugely successful \"Mr India,\" which promptly became his nickname among a growing legion of fans. He has gone on to become one of the biggest names in Indian cinema, picking up a total of five FilmFare awards and a National Film Institute Best Actor award for his role in 2000's \"Pukar.\" Following in his father's footsteps, Kapoor made his debut as a producer in 2002, with the comedy \"Badhaai Ho Badhaai,\" and he went on to produce \"Gandhi, My Father,\" which portrayed the fractious relationship between Mohandas Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal. For years now, in his home town of Mumbai Kapoor has been mobbed by fans wherever he goes, instantly recognizable by his trademark mustache, which he has proudly sported in all but three of his hundred-plus movies. But like most Bollywood stars, he received little acclaim outside India. That changed abruptly and unexpectedly with the release of low-budget British movie \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" The film has become an international sensation, winning four Golden Globe awards and receiving an astonishing 10 Oscar nominations. See Anil Kapoor's \"Slumdog Millionaire\" success in photos. \u00bb . Kapoor's role as the creepy quiz show host earned him a share in the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Cast. In typically modest fashion, Kapoor dedicated the award to the film's child actors. \"They deserve this award\" he said during his acceptance speech. \"It's the children who've done it, not us.\" Kapoor remains proud of his roots, visiting his childhood neighborhood every year, and he is grounded enough to be aware of the social problems in Mumbai. He is a goodwill ambassador for Plan India, an organization that helps street children, and he donated his entire \"Slumdog\" fee to the cause. As he prepares to travel to Britain for the Bafta awards and to Los Angeles for the Oscars, Mr India remains characteristically self-effacing. \"I feel so humble and grateful. I never expected the film to be so huge and successful,\" he said. Whether he's accepting awards in Hollywood or making movies for Bollywood, Kapoor seems sure to keep his feet on the ground.","highlights":"Bollywood star Anil Kapoor played the quiz show host in \"Slumdog Millionaire\"\nHe grew up in a tenement in a Mumbai suburb, sharing a room with 7 others .\nAs an actor he is a Bollywood legend, and he is also a successful producer .\n\"I feel so humble and grateful\" says Kapoor of Slumdog's global success .","id":"d2bd01b09978961509b614542365e2b6f4c9f9da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian champions Inter Milan have unveiled new signing Samuel Eto'o, with the Cameroon striker immediately being forced to deny suggestions from the Italian media that he has ever had a problem with new coach Jose Mourinho. Samuel Eto'o parades his new Inter Milan jersey after completing his move from Barcelona. Eto'o, who completed his switch from Barcelona on Monda, denied he has issues with Portuguese coach Mourinho and insists he never insulted his team's style of play after a Champions League match between Barca and Chelsea. \"I never said those words that were attributed to me,\" he told a press conference. \"There is also a tape which proves it and, in any case, that was after an intense game. Top 20 summer transfer targets . \"Now I am happy to be here, for me it is a great honor to play for a coach like Jose. It has been years that I have been trying to play under Mourinho and I have never managed it.\" Mourinho also laughed off suggestions the pair do not see eye to eye, insisting they have very similar personalities. \"I have met Samuel six times in three years, and I never cared to know if he really said something not very nice about me,\" said the Nerazzurri coach. \"Why? Because he is like me: after losing an important match he doesn't go home happy. The year after this game I wanted to take him to Chelsea, but I wasn't allowed to. I am very happy to have him with us and I'm not talking only as Jose Mourinho but on behalf of the whole squad. Eto'o has signed a five-year contract with Inter as part of a swap deal that saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic move the other way. Inter will also receive 45 million euros ($64m) but the 28-year-old, who only had a season left on his contract with Barca, has shrugged off suggestions this proves Ibrahimovic is the more highly rated of the two. \"Ibra is a great player but I am Samuel Eto'o and my past and my victories talk for me,\" said Eto'o. \"I don't like parallels being drawn. \"I believe the victories I have earned until now can contribute to giving my name the right value.\" Eto'o scored 125 goals in 144 games for Barcelona, firing them to a string of titles, including three leagues, two Champions Leagues and a Copa del Rey success, in his five seasons with the club. Eto'o has spent his entire career in Spain since leaving Cameroon in 1997, playing for Real Madrid, Leganes, Espanyol, Mallorca and Barcelona. However, he expects he will adapt easily to the Serie A style. \"It's true I have always played in Spain but I have great experience of international matches,\" continued Eto'o. \"Here in Serie A there are big players because great players are in teams where they know they will be able to win things. I am here because it is a very competitive league. \"It's true Ibra and Kaka have left Italy, but there are lots of great players in Italy and I am convinced I have made the best choice.\"","highlights":"Inter Milan unveil Samuel Eto'o after he completes his transfer from Barcelona .\nEto'o has signed five-year deal and moves in a swap deal for Zlatan Ibrahimovic .\nCameroon striker denies any past dispute with his new coach Jose Mourinho .","id":"119db2d0acb4aed5c4e91783b70c79b24ac67649"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans of Usher Raymond IV view him as a singing, dancing and acting superstar. Superstar performer Usher Raymond IV at the closing ceremony for Usher's Camp New Look. But to a special group of young people, he is a mentor and a friend. \"He leads by example,\" said Arnold \"Supa\" LaFrance, a \"Mogul in Training\" at Usher's Camp New Look. \"Usher's all about peace and love and giving back to the community, and it's genuine. He does it when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off.\" Now in its fifth year, the camp is a passion for the Grammy Award-winning artist, who each year gives more than a hundred teens from underserved communities across the country the opportunity to learn about the entertainment and sports industries. Thomas Springer, a 17-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, resident, has participated in the camp for four years and said he wants to use his talent in filmmaking and what he has learned at Camp New Look to help his community. \"Before I came to camp, I didn't think I had a voice in my community and that I could do anything based on my age,\" Springer said. \"The camp let me know that no matter what your age, no matter what you do, you can make an impact on your community.\" Usher came to fame as a teen and has sold millions of records, including the hit singles \"Yeah\" and \"Confessions II.\" His success has allowed him to become part owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and to launch his own line of fragrances for men and women. The camp, the singer said, teaches participants the business aspects of the entertainment and sports industries and imparts the importance of being service-oriented. A selection committee selects campers that are nominated by partner organizations in various cities across the country. Now the father of two young boys, Usher said he is also enriched by the camp's experience. \"It makes me a better man. It makes me a better individual,\" he said. \"There's a difference between hard work and heart work, and this would represent heart work.\" Watch Usher talk about his camp \u00bb . As a youngster, Usher participated in the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and he said it helped shape his ideas about mentoring. \"I think that the Boys & Girls Club is a very positive environment for kids,\" he said. \"It's another place that allows you to be a product of your experience. I encountered a lot of people who became mentors for me there.\" At this year's closing ceremony for Usher's Camp New Look, held at the Alliance Theater at Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, the energy level was high as campers and their family members walked a red carpet alongside some of Usher's celebrity friends, including NBA star Alonzo Mourning and San Francisco 49er Allen Rossum. The free, residential camp held for two weeks every summer in Atlanta is an outgrowth of Usher's New Look Foundation, which he established to empower at-risk youth by giving them the skills necessary to enter careers in the sports and entertainment industries and working with them to provide employment opportunities. Mourning said Usher is one who understands that \"to whom much is given, much is required.\" \"The service that Usher is providing for these kids with these educational opportunities and expanding their lives to a whole new level, it's important that we all rally around these particular causes and support these initiatives,\" Mourning said. Gabrielle Brou, 16, a first-year camper from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who aspires to be an actress, said there were countless opportunities at camp to network with successful people who are living the lives she hopes to achieve. \"Once I found out that there were ways I could better myself in acting, learn the business and also give back ... I decided that this camp would be really great for me,\" she said. \"I would love to do it again next year.\" Having a day set aside for the campers and their families to revel in all that they have achieved and their future possibilities left Usher with a huge smile on his face. \"It's really good to see them be able to live out their dreams,\" he said.","highlights":"Usher's Camp New Look helps kids from underserved communities .\nCampers learn business behind entertainment and sports industries .\nSinger serves as mentor to more than 100 participants .\nUsher, who was mentored, said camp represents his \"heart work\"","id":"ad4c0d90b48ad29cda953acf92ca3b20118e299f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anne and Michael Harris were an \"extraordinary\" couple with a zest for life, their niece said. Anne and Michael Harris' niece says the couple \"loved life, loved everyone.\" \"We truly hope that they are remembered for the way they lived their lives and not this tragic end,\" Charlstie Laytin said in a telephone interview Wednesday. \"We're all just devastated and going to miss them both so much.\" The Harrises were two of three Americans on board Air France Flight 447 when it crashed Monday. The plane was carrying 228 passengers and crew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France, when it crashed four hours into the journey. Investigators have not determined the cause of the accident. An official list with the victims' names was not available Wednesday afternoon. The Harrises lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Anne Harris' sister, Mary Miley, said. Michael Harris, 60, was a geologist in Rio de Janeiro. He worked for Devon Energy, a U.S.-based independent natural gas and oil producer, a company spokesman said. The couple were traveling to Paris for a training seminar and vacation, Miley said. The two \"loved everyone, they loved life,\" Laytin said. \"Definitely glass-half-full kind of people,\" she added, recalling her uncle as a \"ham,\" who could always offer a laugh on a bad day. She remembered a moment a few summers ago when her family was in Vermont, and had just seen a classical performance of Mozart. They were \"just sitting around and having a glass of wine, and laughing and talking about family and life and what was going on in our lives ... [the Harrises] could never get enough information about what all their nieces and nephews and family members were doing,\" she said. \"It's really the last time I can remember us all sitting around as a family and I'm so glad that I have that memory.\" She said her family was hopeful the investigation would soon determine what had gone wrong. \"I think the initial shock of it all has really started to wear off, and the reality that they're gone is starting to set in,\" she said. \"The grief and the grieving process is beginning and we're just really focused on helping each other heal.\" The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. The remaining victims were from 29 other countries. Ten were employees of French electrical equipment supplier CGED, according to Agence France-Presse. Nine of those employees had won the trip to Rio from CGED because of their strong work performance, AFP said. \"There was a competition for the best sales reps ... and nine of them won and went to Brazil for four days,\" Laurent Bouveresse, CGED chief executive, told AFP. The nine were allowed to take a friend or partner, and an executive also went along, Bouveresse said, according to the news agency. CNN tried repeatedly to reach representatives of CGED. Two others believed to have been on the flight were an engaged couple, Julia Schmidt of Brazil and Alex Crolow of Germany, the couple's friend, Brian Buzby of Houston, Texas, told CNN affiliate KTRK. Watch Buzby talk about friends on Flight 447 \u00bb . Buzby said he met the two while they were all students at Bucerius Law School in Germany. They finished studies last August, KTRK reported. \"This was Alex taking her back to tell her mom they were going to get married,\" Buzby told KTRK. \"I just hope that they were not suffering, and at least they were together, because I would have hated for one of them to go through it alone,\" Buzby said. \"They were my two best friends. I just hope she knows I loved her,\" Buzby said.","highlights":"NEW: 9 French victims won trip to Brazil for job performance, AFP reports .\nNEW: German victim was taking Brazilian fiancee home to announce engagement .\nAnne and Michael Harris were two of three Americans on Air France flight 447 .\nThe Harrises lived in Brazil and were going to France for vacation, training seminar .","id":"b0d3007f5d23ce4d5e534e1baad3d4152f622137"} -{"article":"RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- The office of Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas has a bank of six flat-screen televisions covering most of one wall, showing all the main international English-language news channels, and several local ones besides. Major General Athar Abbas addresses a news conference in Rawalpindi on April 28, 2009. This is one of the rooms where Pakistan's media war is being fought, and Abbas, the Pakistan army's main spokesman, is a key part of the battle. I kid with him that CNN isn't among the channels on his screens, and he seems slightly hurt, insisting it is. He's right and I'm wrong -- CNN was on a commercial break. In fact, I rather get the impression Abbas, who has become the face of the army's operation against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, watches our coverage closely. One of his subordinates complains about one of our reports -- not the accuracy, but something in the general tone. Perhaps CNN has been just a little too questioning of the army's daily press releases, which claim hundreds of enemy fighters killed, and tightly controlled media trips. Whatever Abbas thinks of CNN, he is more than willing to explain how the Pakistan army sees the broad picture as it fights in the Swat Valley. The current conflict there is intricately linked to the situation in Afghanistan, in his view. He sees Swat as a political problem, which can only be partially solved by military intervention. He claims many of the Taliban's arms are coming across the border from Afghanistan. I ask if that includes NATO weapons, as suggested in recent reports, and he agrees. He says Washington is too focused on the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. The United States should \"stop worrying about the nukes and start worrying about the weapons lost in Afghanistan,\" he says. A U.S. government report last month warned that the Pentagon did not have \"complete records\" for about one-third of the 242,000 weapons the United States had provided to the Afghan army, or for a further 135,000 weapons other countries sent. The Afghan army \"cannot fully safeguard and account for weapons,\" the Government Accountability Office found. I ask how well armed the Taliban are, and he says they are \"very well equipped from the border area.\" He also conspiratorially suggests they also are getting weapons and support from \"foreign intelligence agencies.\" When I ask what that means, he smiles and says he can't elaborate -- declining to repeat the speculation in the press here that India, Pakistan's traditional rival, may be somehow involved in stirring up trouble on Pakistan's northwestern border. India denies that. But the very suggestion plays to a military strategist's nightmare scenario -- the Pakistan army bogged down in the northwest, unable to focus on the disputed province of Kashmir, a key element of its conflict with India. The military wants to get done in Swat as soon as possible, but the general acknowledges its troops will be there for some time. He estimates that 10 to 15 percent of the Taliban there are foreign fighters: \"Well-trained Arabs, Afghans, with a sprinkling of central Asians and North Africans.\" He also says there are Yemenis, Saudis and Uzbeks fighting, as Pakistan has become the destination du jour of the international jihadist, with Arabs in commanding positions and the other foreign fighters bringing in expertise. He thinks that perhaps Mingora, the main town at the gateway to the Swat Valley, may be secured in 48 hours, but it may be much, much longer before the area is totally pacified. \"First you have to disarm the Taliban and then re-establish the writ of government,\" he says. He admits that Swat and neighboring Bajur Districts \"were lost to the state\" and that now \"we are paying in blood for areas we had already occupied.\" Now, he says, the army is set for a long fight. \"We are prepared for that -- we are mentally prepared.\" But they are also prepared for the conflict to be taken to other parts of Pakistan. A building belonging to the country's powerful intelligence agency, the ISI, was bombed in Lahore this week. The Taliban claimed they carried out the attack and Abbas says the security services expect more attacks. Just hours after I left him, his fears were confirmed, as details came in of more bombings in Peshawar. And then there is also the risk of the Taliban using the mass exodus of civilians from the Swat Valley as cover to penetrate other towns and cities. Already almost 3 million people have flooded out of what was once a tranquil tourist destination, and the military fears that among the mass movement of humanity there will be those plotting to strike at the heart of Pakistan's cities. \"It's a very big issue -- a serious concern,\" Abbas says. He describes the conflict in Swat as \"an existential threat\" -- a fight for the very existence of Pakistan in its current form. And he seems acutely aware that the portrayal of that conflict to the West will be critical.","highlights":"Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas says Taliban's arms coming across border from Afghanistan .\nHe says Washington is too focused on the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal .\nHe considers conflict in Swat a fight for the existence of Pakistan in its current form .\nHe seems acutely aware that the portrayal of that conflict to the West will be critical .","id":"02a3ebc55777174ee7db6c5bcd0a5b2fb993444b"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- There is no easy cure for teenage traffic deaths and injuries, but Susan Kessler believes she has at least come up with a way to help limit the carnage: When a new driver gets behind the wheel, just slap a temporary warning sign on the car. The Caution and Courtesy Driver Alliance volunteers hand out the magnets during 2008 publicity campaign. Kessler has developed signs for teens with learner permits and first-year licenses. They are attached magnetically to the car's sheet metal and display the words \"Caution Newly Licensed.\" It's not hard to imagine the signs being a nightmare to teens obsessed with what their peers think. But, Kessler, a Kennesaw, Georgia, mother of six, says the real horror is out on the highway: thousands of young people are killed and injured in traffics every year. More than 15,000 of people have ordered the signs since Kessler and a group of other moms introduced them four years ago. Parents can mount one on the trunk when a teenager takes off in the family car and remove it when he or she returns home. Once other drivers see it, they presumably exercise extra caution and create a \"protective bubble\" around the new driver, or so the thinking runs. AOL Autos: Rules for safe driving . Kessler would even like to see states require the use of the signs for new drivers, as some European countries do, and she has found some support for this in the Georgia legislature. Her goal is straightforward: limit teenagers' capacity to do damage to themselves and others. Drivers 16 to 19 years old are four times as likely as older drivers to end up in a collision, all other things being equal, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). All U.S. states have adopted tougher licensing systems since the mid-1990s, generally requiring more supervised hours of driving and imposing more restrictions on new licensees. But they have all stopped short of setting the minimum driving age at 18, as most European countries do. The latest research has confirmed that putting restrictions on young drivers does pay off in lower accident, injury and fatality rates. One IIHS study over 10 years found that states with strong licensing laws had 30 percent fewer fatalities among 15 to 17 year olds than states with weak laws (those lacking restrictions on cell phone use, for example, or having only minimal restrictions on nighttime driving during the first year of driving). AOL Autos: Most common car related injuries . Armed with a decade of data, activists like Kessler now see a chance to save more lives with further reform. \"My first fear for each of my sons is, 'Please don't let anybody hit them,'\" she said. \"My second fear is that they might hit anyone else.\" \"Do you have any idea what it is like to be the parent of a 16-year-old who has killed someone?\" she asked. \"Parents have called me and said it's like living in a black hole.\" Her campaign started four years ago when she started to worry about her son Donnie, even though his turn at driver training was still a few years down the road. The fact that nearby Atlanta ranked as one of the most congested cities in the country naturally fed her fears. She and a group of friends began to think about ways to give young drivers an edge. They didn't want to force teenagers to wait until they were 21 to drive. But they did want to help them stay safe while they were learning. AOL Autos: Teen driving tips . The moms came up the idea for magnetic signs, only later discovering that a similar approach is a requirement for new drivers in parts of Europe, Kessler said. Once, when she proposed the idea to a Georgia state official, he asked her if there was anyone who didn't like it. She laughed and said, \"Yes, my son. But we can work on him.\" But she is happy the other people can readily identify new drivers and give them plenty of room. \"And whenever you are being watched, your behavior tends to be a little better.\" Since they can easily spot teenagers right out of driver's education, police can enforce restrictions on the number of passengers allowed in their cars, she said. Many states restrict the number of occupants for six months or a year in the second phase of their graduated license programs. \"When you are learning how to drive, you need all your concentration and you can't be cool for all your friends,\" Kessler said. Skeptics argue that teenage drivers will pull the signs off as soon as they are out of their parents' sight. But Kessler has an answer for the skeptics: If parents ever found out a son or daughter did that, it should be the last time they ever drove the family car. One early success for the \"newly licensed\" signs was a pilot program in Cobb County, Georgia, in 2007; Kessler and her friends distributed more than 3,000 magnets. She now sells them nationally at cost, for $7.99, through a Web site, newlylicensed.com, and is looking for a national retail outlet to handle them. She has also been a guest on television programs to promote the magnets. Kessler also advocates longer periods of supervised driving for new drivers, contending they should be at least 400 hours. Accidents only start to decline after drivers get that amount of driving experience under their belts, she said. AOL Autos: Teen drivers need better training . Many experts agree the quickest way to save lives would be to raise the driving age from 16 to 17 or higher. \"But it's a tough sell,\" said Russ Rader, a spokesman for Arlington, Virginia-based IIHS. The states could withhold a provisional license until 17. But so far, only New Jersey does that, offering new drivers a full license at 18. \"But New Jersey has had a very positive experience with it,\" Rader said. There are other options, too. More states could impose tougher restrictions: less nighttime driving, a ban on cell phones (if they haven't already prohibited them), and fewer passengers allowed in the car. Right now, states are all over the map on these issues. For example, Illinois has a cell phone restriction for the first year, while Montana and Idaho do not. Montana only allows one passenger unrelated to the driver the first six months of the provisional period but allows three for the second. During the entire probationary year, New Jersey allows only one person who isn't part of the driver's household in the car. AOL Autos: Risky teen driving habits . North Carolina enforces a fairly tough nighttime restriction, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while Florida prohibits driving between 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. The rule is more lenient in Texas: Driving is permitted anytime except midnight to 5 a.m. Other countries aren't squeamish about placing nationalized limitations on young drivers. For example, the United Kingdom requires drivers to be at least 17. The age is 18 in most other European countries. A movement is underway in Australia to more than quadruple the period of supervised driving to 120 hours. New Swiss drivers have to post a warning sign on the vehicles they drive, as do young drivers in New Zealand. Some countries requiring the warnings have even put teeth into their signage laws: Drivers who collide with a car displaying the new-driver signs face heavy fines or even jail time, Kessler said. That's an indication that the signs are important tools to reduce accidents. \"We aren't going to save every kid,\" Kessler said. \"We are rational about this. But if we save at least some of them, it's worth it.\"","highlights":"Research finds putting restrictions on young drivers lowers accident rates .\nSome countries require new drivers to post warning signs on their cars .\nMother of teen invents magnets for cars that warn, Caution Newly Licensed .\nIdentifying teens lets police enforce restrictions such as number of passengers .","id":"40ee5a6cf8337fe8f28ca8e27917280a422bef44"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- There are two good ways to buy your new car or truck at a reasonable low price and avoid all of the negotiating games and hassles: . 1. Buy through the Internet . Buying your new or used car or truck through the Internet is the easiest and most hassle-free way to make the purchase. All you have to do is choose the vehicle brand and model you wish to purchase as well as provide some basic contact information such as your name and e-mail address. In return, you'll receive - via e-mail - low bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area for the exact vehicle you want to buy. Compare the various selling prices and find the lowest one. Then, simply go direct to that dealership's Internet Department, sign the papers and drive your new car home - no negotiating, no hassles. To begin the process, get your free price quotes from AOL Autos. It only takes a few minutes. This service is totally free and you are under no obligation or pressure to buy. AOL, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner. Within 24 hours, you'll receive your bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area. Once you've compared the various prices and found the lowest one, you then have four good options: . \u2022 You can go to the dealership that gave you the lowest price, sign the papers and drive your new car home -- no hassles, no negotiating. AOL Autos: Best deals of the month . \u2022 You can try to negotiate the lowest price with the dealership in order to get the price even lower. There's nothing that says you can't. AOL Autos: Aggressive car buying tactics . \u2022 You can shop the lowest price around to other dealerships to see if any of them are willing to beat it. AOL Autos: Which dealers treat you best? \u2022 You can do nothing. If you feel unsure or uncertain, then set it aside for a while. You are not obligated to buy anything you don't want. By getting these low bottom-line selling prices via the Internet, you're avoiding the car salesman's entire negotiating game altogether. And you're buying your car at about the same price you would expect after lengthy negotiations. It's certainly the fastest and easiest way to beat the car salesman. AOL Autos: New rules to car buying . 2. Buy through the dealership's Fleet Department . Almost every dealership has a division called the \"Fleet Department.\" It usually consists of only a handful of salespeople who specialize in selling fleets of cars -- large orders of several vehicles direct to businesses. This department is authorized by the dealership to sell their cars at bottom-line non-negotiable prices. The prices they offer are about the same as you would expect from an online price quote or after lengthy negotiations. A secret of the car business is that many dealerships' Fleet Departments also sell direct to the public. By the rules of the game, however, they can't advertise to the public since they don't want to compete with the dealership's retail sales team. So to buy from the Fleet Department, you have to specifically ask. To buy your vehicle direct from the dealership's Fleet Department, simply call the dealership and ask to speak with the Fleet Manager. When you get him on the line, explain to him that you're ready to buy a car and you'd like to buy it from him. If he asks you what business you are associated with, tell him where you work. He'll probably be happy to set up an appointment with you. When you arrive at the dealership, the Fleet Manager will show you the vehicle, allow you to test drive it, and then bring you to the office to discuss price. With absolutely no negotiations, he'll offer you a reasonable bottom-line non-negotiable selling price for the vehicle. If the price he gives you falls within the pre-set limits of your buying goal and you're satisfied with the deal, then you can buy the car. No pressure, no games, no hassles. If for some reason, you don't want to buy the vehicle, you are under no obligation. Simply thank the salesman for his time and leave on good terms. Then, if you'd like, you can visit (or call) the Fleet Departments of other dealerships to compare prices. The selling prices offered by the various Fleet Departments can vary depending upon their inventories. AOL Autos: Have a car shopping game plan . Michael Royce is a consumer advocate and former car salesman. For more car-buying tips and advice, visit his Beat the Car Salesman Web site.","highlights":"You can solicit best price quotes from car dealers over the Internet .\nYou can shop the lowest price to other dealers to see if they will match or beat it .\nIndividuals can also buy car from dealer's Fleet Department .","id":"02026017768c50470773370d985cf38d2bc2c427"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia has had its first death from swine flu, its Ministry of Health said Monday, bracing for more. The patient -- a 30-year-old man who lived in the country's Eastern Province -- was admitted to a hospital in the city of Dammam on Wednesday with a high fever, cough and shortness of breath. He died Saturday. Saudi Arabia has diagnosed more than 230 cases of the H1N1 virus this year. In the past few weeks, a debate about the virus has erupted in the Middle East. Of particular concern is how to keep it from spreading among the millions of visitors expected in Saudi Arabia during this year's Hajj -- a pilgrimage required of Muslims at least once in their lives. On Wednesday, Arab health ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss the issue. Guidelines were issued, banning various groups from participating in this year's Hajj -- children under 12, adults over 65 and people with chronic diseases. Saudi Arabia recommended that pregnant women stay home as well. At the close of the meeting, Saudi Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah told CNN that, in all, Saudi Arabia had issued 15 recommendations to help ensure the safety and health of pilgrims participating in the Hajj. \"The most important of those is, first of all, that they should take the seasonal flu vaccine two weeks prior to Hajj,\" Al-Rabeeah said. Even with the guidelines in place, World Health Organization spokesman Dr. Ebrahim el Khordany acknowledged that it won't be easy keeping potential pilgrims away. El Khordany told CNN, \"It was discussed in detail how it's going to be worked out between the country and Saudi Arabia to find out the best way to do it and, of course, to make sure that people don't try to use their connections to get their visas or to get to go to Saudi, because people are really very keen to go to the pilgrimage.\" The Saudi government has also said it will set up quarantine centers at airports as another preventative measure.","highlights":"30-year-old man dies in hospital after suffering high fever, cough, shortness of breath .\nSaudi Arabia has diagnosed more than 230 cases of the H1N1 virus this year .\nConcern in Saudi over possible impact of virus on Hajj later this year .\nSaudi government says it will set up quarantine centers at airports .","id":"688c42abc935b07577f367137932e7a13f459c42"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The search continued Tuesday for as many as 67 people missing after a boat carrying about 200 Haitians capsized, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted this crowded boat last week and repatriated its occupants to Haiti. The boat overturned Monday off Turks and Caicos, a British territory about 550 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. Searchers aboard boats and aircraft have rescued 118 passengers and found 15 bodies, said Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, on Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard described the boat's occupants as migrants from Haiti. The overcrowded vessel was believed to have set sail from the Haitian port of Cap Haitien, the Turks and Caicos Sun newspaper reported. The search resumed at dawn Tuesday after being suspended because of darkness Monday night, Johnson said. The Coast Guard is contributing one boat, the 210-foot cutter Valiant, and three aircraft to the search, Johnson said. The aircraft are a Falcon jet out of Miami, an HH-60 helicopter and a slow-flying C-130 cargo plane out of Clearwater, Florida. Watch Coast Guard rescue Haitians after boat capsizes \u00bb . \"If the weather and conditions are right, [the C-130] can fly really low,\" Johnson said. \"It makes a fantastic search aircraft.\" Turks and Caicos authorities are using small boats in the search, she said. About 70 people were plucked Monday from a reef near the island group, authorities said. Four other bodies were found, though it was unclear which authorities located them. A nurse at Myrtle Rigby Hospital in the Turks and Caicos said that about 70 people were brought there, including four who had died. Five people were admitted to the hospital, and the others had minor injuries, the nurse said. The Coast Guard said it intercepted another \"grossly overloaded\" boat, with 124 Haitians aboard, late last week in the same region. Those migrants were returned to Cap Haitien on Monday. Overloaded vessels can quickly lose stability and capsize, sending migrants into the water, a Coast Guard release said. CNN's Jim Kavanagh and Lateef Mungin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 15 confirmed dead after boat capsizes; as many as 67 missing .\nBoat with about 200 Haitians capsized Monday near Turks and Caicos Islands .\nCoast Guard intercepted another boat overloaded with Haitians late last week .","id":"02dc7a9bde3b74ec83ef685f9b1c6a58ef6c56a0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A rarely seen portrait of Michael Jackson is on display inside a Harlem luxury car dealership. Macky Dancy, a partner at Dancy-Power Automotive, said the oil painting titled \"The Book\" is believed to be the only portrait for which Jackson sat. The oil painting titled \"The Book\" is on display at Dancy-Power Automotive in Harlem, New York. A different portrait of the entertainer was among items auctioned from his Neverland Ranch in April. It is not clear whether Jackson sat for that painting. The painting on display in Harlem belongs to Marty Abrams, a friend and customer of the owners of the high-profile dealership. The 40-inch by 50-inch portrait, by Australian painter Brett Livingstone-Strong, sold for $2.1 million in 1990. Abrams acquired it as part of an unrelated business deal in 1992 and had it stored. The painting shows Jackson sitting in Renaissance-era clothes and holding a book. Jackson sat for the portrait because he was a friend of Livingstone-Strong's. The painting was unveiled at the Dancy-Power Automotive Group showroom on Thursday but was removed Friday because of crowd concerns. It returned to the showroom floor Monday morning. Dancy said the painting's owner chose the showroom because it's near the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where the Jackson 5 won their first taste of fame by winning Amateur Night in 1967. He said Abrams hopes the painting in some way can raise money for charities in the Harlem neighborhood. Dancy said Abrams is not necessarily interested in selling the portrait. When news broke about the resurfacing of the painting, Dancy said, he received a phone call from representatives of Livingstone-Strong, the artist. Now, Dancy said, \"We are in the middle of possibly putting together the artist with the painting again. Maybe for some auctions or charitable shows or something of the sort.\" The showroom features Rolls-Royces, Ferraris and other pricey cars and is famous for its celebrity clientele.","highlights":"Oil painting said to be the only portrait for which Michael Jackson sat .\nPainting is displayed at Harlem-based automotive showroom .\nIt shows Jackson in Renaissance-era clothes, holding a book .\nPartner: Painting's owner chose showroom because it's near Apollo Theater .","id":"76d77f9dda99b2ea635e27d8ea28041ccc385a74"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials recommended that more than 70,000 residents of the East Texas town of Bryan evacuate Thursday after a fertilizer warehouse caught fire, sending thick clouds of orange, toxic smoke into the air. City officials say they are worried the burning fertilizer could irritate skin and lungs. Another 10,000 residents of surrounding Brazos County were also included in the evacuation recommendation, officials said. City Manager David Watkins said 10 people were taken to a hospital with respiratory problems. Residue from the burning fertilizer ammonium nitrate can irritate skin and lungs. Smoke from the smoldering El Dorado Chemical Co. warehouse could be seen for miles. Watkins said he expected the fire to burn well into the evening, and that firefighters were not trying to extinguish the blaze, but were simply trying to keep it from spreading. Classes at nearby Texas A&M University were canceled, and the school opened Reed Arena, which can hold 12,000 people, for use as a shelter. \"We are prepared to do what it takes. We are bracing to possibly keep guests overnight,\" spokeswoman Sherylon Carroll said.","highlights":"NEW: 10 taken to hospital with respiratory problems, city manager says .\nFertilizer warehouse catches fire in Bryan, Texas .\nAuthorities recommend evacuation for tens of thousands .\nTexas A&M cancels classes, opens arena for shelter .","id":"3e6ccffaa40ce048c91a9adfb298cffb7124b5e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fifteen years ago this month, Rwanda declared a cease-fire in a genocide that left more than 800,000 dead. In the attacks that started in April 1994, Hutu militias and members of the general population sought out Tutsis and moderate Hutus -- and went on a 100-day killing rampage. In June of 1994, Rwanda was still in the grip of a 100-day killing rampage. Civilians and children got incentives to take part in the atrocities, including promises of land belonging to their Tutsi neighbors. It was one of the most brutal genocides in modern history. Some figures put the number of dead at 1 million, 10 percent of the population of the central African nation. Millions more were raped and disfigured. A whole generation of children lost their parents. What started the Tutsi and Hutu rivalry . The Tutsi ethnic minority and the Hutu majority had been at odds even before 1994. The rivalry started during colonial times, when the Belgians considered Tutsis the privileged ethnicity, thus giving them better opportunities. The Hutus were considered inferior, prompting resentment that was passed on through the generations. The first major assault on Tutsis occurred in 1959, killing thousands and prompting more attacks over the years. The animosity caused the Tutsis to flee to neighboring countries, including Burundi and Uganda. The Hutus took over the government when Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium in 1962, but the resentment remained. Hours before the genocide . In early April, a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down near the capital, Kigali. The president, his Burundian counterpart and their aides were killed. A few hours later, Rwanda erupted into chaos. Some have accused current President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, of masterminding the killing. Kagame, who led a Tutsi militia group at the time, has denied any ties. He has accused Hutu rebels of instigating the assassinations to incite fury and attacks on Tutsis. Differences between Hutus and Tutsis . They speak the same language and practice the same customs. However, most Tutsis are considered tall and lanky, which has led to speculation that they have Ethiopian heritage. During the genocide, the bodies of Tutsis were thrown into rivers by the Hutus, who said they were sending them back to Ethiopia. The aftermath of the genocide . After 100 days of death and destruction, the Tutsi militia led by Kagame defeated the Hutu rebels and took control of the government. Scores of Hutus fled to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where they have been accused of inciting more violence. Rwanda has invaded Congo various times to launch an offensive against Hutus allegedly linked to the genocide. After the cease-fire, a multiethnic government made up of Hutu President Pasteur Bizimungu and Vice President Kagame came into power. Bizimungu was later accused of ethnic discord and jailed. Kagame became president in 2000. Trials for genocide suspects . Top officials such as army generals and politicians who allegedly took part in the genocide are tried in the Rwandan justice system and the International Criminal Tribunal, which is based in Tanzania. Civilians who allegedly contributed either directly or indirectly are tried in gacaca courts. The latter are community courts conducted by a panel of nine civilians in an open field. The courts allow survivors to point out and confront their attackers. Gacaca means \"open grass\" in the local language. Human rights organizations say the gacacas fall short on delivering justice. State of the nation 15 years later . Rwanda is now considered one of Africa's most stable nations. Education, health care, tourism and trade -- which were destroyed in the genocide -- have improved dramatically. Kagame has made big strides against corruption, a major problem in Africa. However, critics have accused him of being an autocratic leader who has stifled the country's media. Others have said the growth in economy is limited to urban areas and has not trickled into rural areas.","highlights":"Simmering hatreds between Tutsi and Hutu erupted in genocide in 1994 .\n100-day killing rampage left 800,000 dead -- mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus .\nRwanda is now considered one of Africa's most stable nations .","id":"56a0cb79418ad36604c3fe4aec52b4933ebab619"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iranian protesters have found a new outlet to mobilize and take action. The presidential election has proved how much opposition supporters can demand change without necessarily taking to the streets. Just give them a computer and an Internet connection and watch what they can do. Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi protest in Tehran on June 13, 2009. At the height of the protests and disorder in Tehran on Saturday and Sunday, Twitter was used to give graphic accounts to a worldwide audience - even if they were a maximum of 140 characters. Tweets from \"Change for Iran\" were among several that offered real time updates: \"...my friend saying more than 100 students arrested, I can't confirm this but the numbers are high. bastards just attacked us for no reason, I lost count of how much tear gas they launched at us! ...we have now some students with urgent need of medical attention I'm calling out to all ppl who can come here don't leave us.\" Some Iranians are already veterans on social networking sites with loyal followings. They offer the world a unique voice: free, unfiltered and very different from what the Islamic Republic of Iran's media propaganda offers viewers and readers. Internet service is available in Iran but it is still in its infancy. Available in homes, on hand-held devices and in select cafes, the Internet is slow and unreliable at times, says blogger and aspiring journalist Ali from Tehran, a supporter of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mossavi. This makes services such as Skype almost impossible to operate. Watch the role technology has had in the election \u00bb . Still, it provides users with an outlet to the outside world as the country waits for broadband and wider wireless coverage. With the absence of text messaging and mobile services -- both were cut off across the country on and around election day and were still blocked on Sunday -- Twitter proved to be the most reliable communication technique between people inside Iran and millions of others on the outside thirsty for any update. Twitter has enabled people to express to the world their hopes for the elections, excitement at the chance of exercising their right to vote, jubilation in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's camp and shock and disappointment among Mossavi's supporters. Now they're keeping the Twitterverse ablaze with information about Moussavi, his challenge to the election results and his intent to request their annulment. Moussavi's supporters comfortably outnumber Ahmadinejad's on Twitter but both are represented. Facebook is also very popular in Iran, says Ali. He wholeheartedly believes that Facebook was the reason behind what he describes as a successful campaign by President Ahmadinejad's main rival. Ali says Moussavi campaign managers organized supporters, planned gatherings and garnered support through Facebook pages dedicated to the Reformist candidate. \"His Facebook page got huge amount of fans on it, pictures spread extremely fast,\" says Ali. It was used on Saturday and Sunday to organize and announce street protests, to send out warnings about police activity, but especially to keep followers abreast of his whereabouts. They were the first to talk about his forced house arrest. President Ahmadinejad also jumped on the social networking bandwagon ahead of the race. However, his popularity there pales in comparison to that of Moussavi. Both candidates' pages remain a main source of information for updates and breaking news. In fact we've seen many cases of news breaking on Facebook first while confirmation came later, including Moussavi's house arrest and Ahmadinejad's planned addresses. According to Iranian bloggers, website filtering falls under the oversight of the Intelligence Ministry in conjunction with the Ministry of Information and Iran's judiciary. Bloggers complain that at times the ministry filters words like \"violence,\" \"unrest\" and \"democracy.\" Recently, Ali believes the censors were filtering content based on a candidate's name. Moussavi supporters claim filtering particularly targeted their candidate after his popularity soared and authorities feared he would pose a serious challenge to Ahmadinejad. Another challenge for Iranians comes from the U.S. Because of its sanctions against Iran, some services like video conversations are not allowed. So, it's a tap dance sometimes to figure out the best way to talk to someone in Iran. People don't like to use landlines or mobile phones for fear of their calls being traced. They don't like e-mails as they can leave a trace. They do however feel comfortable with services like Google Talk. They find it safe, as no one can see what they look like and with common Iranian first names like \"Ali\" and \"Shahrzad\", as my main contacts are named, they find a way to communicate with the world as few Iranians have done before.","highlights":"Iranians protesting presidential election use Internet to mobilize and take action .\nTwitter used to give graphic accounts of protests to a worldwide audience .\nSocial networking sites offer the world a unique voice: free and unfiltered .\nPeople don't like to use landlines or mobile phones for fear of their calls being traced .","id":"72c3c984821f68fd5b49db5326c1402735a69fad"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Thirty-eight years ago, Joseph McGinty Nichol was a boy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, playing with toy robots. Many of the robots in \"Terminator Salvation\" are real machines, which increased realism, the cast says. Today \"McG,\" as he is better known, builds and blows up real robots. The prominent filmmaker is the driving force behind one of the season's summer blockbusters, \"Terminator Salvation,\" which is filled with very expensive and very explosive robots. The choice to use real robots when possible, instead of CGI (computer generated images), was deliberate, McG said. According to the director and the film's stars, the decision to use real machines was a testament to the growing sophistication of the moviegoing public, whom they believe can \"feel\" the difference between actors standing in front of a green screen versus actors interacting with the real thing. It was also done in honor of the legendary special effects supervisor, four-time Oscar winner Stan Winston (\"Jurassic Park,\" the other \"Terminator\" films), who passed away during filming last year. Watch the robots in action \u00bb . The director and three of his cast members -- Christian Bale, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anton Yelchin -- took a time out with CNN to explain why gravity and singed eyebrows both played a role in \"Terminator Salvation.\" Bryce Dallas Howard: That was something that was really important to McG ... when an audience member sees this film, that they can actually feel what's occurring. I think that audiences are very savvy now. We can feel when something is CGI and that's no disrespect to CGI -- we couldn't do this movie without it -- but, whenever possible, in the tradition of Sam Winston, he wanted to build the robots. So a lot of what you see is real. McG: And if you drop something, we've spent our whole lives watching physics in play, and if you say, just have the CGI do that, people can tell something's off, and it releases you from being involved in the picture. So, we built all the robots, we built all the sets, we blew them up for real, a great many of us lost our eyebrows! Christian Bale: It was kind of comical at times because something that's meant to be so intimidating was actually surrounded by five guys with these kind of puppet rods I had to blank out or I would start laughing. But, the end result is something really formidable and you know, really iconic in movie history. Anton Yelchin: Now I'm obsessed with the robots! I'm so [annoyed] that this guy or whoever it is that's in charge of it wouldn't let me have one!","highlights":"\"Terminator Salvation\" filmmakers decide to use many real robots .\nIdea to avoid CGI was partly in tribute to special effects master Stan Winston .\nFilm is the fourth in the \"Terminator\" series .","id":"18eec6dc26ddadc9b154119bea32017b3b14a6b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of Africa's brightest young writers, 31-year-old Chimamanda Adichie has already been recognised for her talent; her debut novel was shortlisted for the Orange Fiction Prize in 2004. The Nigerian novelist talks to CNN about her craft, her country and identity.","highlights":"31-year-old novelist grew up in Nigeria and studied in U.S.\nFirst novel was shortlisted for Orange Fiction prize; has won other literary awards .\nLatest work is collection of short stories about the Nigerian immigrant experience .","id":"7bfc9c5e97a8093b650805f5dba97502a6904393"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- John Spieker stood on the back porch of his newly rented Bailey, Colorado, home, thankful for his Good Samaritan landlord and worried that his previous home, parked in the driveway, wouldn't get him to work the next day. John and Katie Spieker stand next to their camper with baby son, Jacob. His 1977 Toyota Dolphin camper, which Spieker rescued from a salvage yard, had carried him, his wife, Katie, and 4-month-old son, Jacob, from Florida to Colorado earlier this summer, a cross-country sojourn in search of work. He was uncertain it could handle the 14-mile commute the next morning, but he'd make do. \"I'm gonna get up extra early every morning like I have been, and if it [the camper] doesn't get to work, I'm gonna hitchhike,\" Spieker said last week. \"I have a wife and a son to support.\" Spieker had been making $12 an hour plus commission at his information technology job in Trenton, Florida. Katie was working part-time in a candle shop, and between them they pulled in a little more than $2,500 a month. But Katie, 21, quit to have the baby, and they moved into a bigger, more expensive house to accommodate their larger family. As June approached, Spieker, 36, was told his hours and commission were being cut as Florida's economy sank. \"It got to the point where $6.50 an hour with a house just ain't gonna happen. I was trying to do good for my family, but what can I do?\" he asked. His last day of work in Florida was June 30. With Florida's unemployment rate at 10.6 percent in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, he investigated where prospects might be better, settling on Colorado (7.6 unemployment), and if things didn't work out there, North Dakota (the nation's lowest unemployment at 4.2 percent). The Spieker family prepared for the trip by holding a yard sale a few days before they were set to leave Trenton, a town of 1,800 near Gainesville. They dutifully cleaned up the home they rented but could no longer afford. \"You're not going to pay the rent, you get out of the house, you know?\" Spieker said. They hit the road with $1,000 in cash, a cell phone, some food and what clothing they could fit. The rickety old camper required some minor repairs along the way: a new battery strap after being bounced around on a rough Alabama highway, some brake work after one stuck near St. Charles, Missouri. Spieker said he sold wire art in taverns during the journey to earn extra money. He was teased by opportunities that didn't pan out. \"I never actually saw this before, but some towns are actually putting billboards up that say 'This town has jobs,' \" he said of his travels through the nation's heartland. \"I actually went to check it out,\" he said. \"They've got a couple jobs, but nothing really great. They've got some jobs I'm not qualified for, in the medical field,\" he said. Still without work after arriving in Colorado, the Spiekers lived \"out in the woods\" for a few weeks. They didn't consider themselves homeless, John Spieker said, \"just camping.\" Using computers at a local office supply store and the library, Spieker and his family have been able to tap private and public assistance to care for themselves. A local church has taken care of some day-to-day needs. \"I went down and talked to them and said, 'Hey this is what the situation is, if there's any help available.' They said they could probably help us out with food, baby needs,\" Spieker said. \"And we're actually going to apply for medical assistance.\" As for food stamps, Spieker said he'd rather the program be used on the infirm than someone like himself who could provide -- no matter how meager the fixings -- for his family. \"I'm sure there's other people out there that don't have the motivation or the ability [to work] that can use the food stamps,\" he said. Katie doesn't fret about the family's circumstances either. She said she leaves \"all the financial details up to John.\" \"My main job is to take care of Jacob,\" she said. Life got a bit easier on July 20, when Spieker landed work at an auto parts store. A person he connected with through an online forum offered the Bailey house for $350 a month rent, a $400 discount off the normal price. The home's owner is working a temporary contract construction job on the other side of Colorado, Spieker said, enabling the deal. But the \"For Sale\" sign out front and real estate agent's lockbox on the front door remind Spieker about how temporary his lodgings may be. While he's grateful for the auto parts job, nothing is certain there either. A national chain is trying to take over the independent retailer, he said. \"It's a struggling company,\" Spieker said. \"At the same time, he's busy enough to where he needs three people behind the counter.\" He's making $10 an hour. But he knows that won't keep his family housed when the cheap rent goes away. \"At this point we have a place to stay for two or three months. He said 'maybe three, probably two,' \" Spieker said, recounting his landlord's words. \"I like it here. I just need something better-paying,\" he said. If he didn't find something soon, he said, \"At this point, I'll be right back into the same scenario.\" But for the moment, the Spiekers are enjoying what they have. \"The house is great. It's a one-bedroom, it kind of looks like somebody decided to build an A-frame. It has a really, really nice view,\" Katie said. Drinking in the surroundings on the back porch, John Spieker agrees. \"I have the most awesome view,\" Spieker said, looking at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. \"I can't bring myself to walk off the back porch.\"","highlights":"Florida man's pay is reduced until he can't support his family .\nHe fixes up rickety camper and with wife, baby and $1,000, sets off for Colorado .\nThey camp in woods until someone offers a reduced-rent house .\nHe finds a job at an auto parts store, but still fears for future .","id":"75f9009074040c8aa76e2a99875604abd9eb6aaa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt is the first to admit that she likes nice things. Stylist Philip Pelusi has offered his clients bargains and hosted two designers' shows to help them save money. But these days when she passes the new upscale shopping area en route to her Chevy Chase, Maryland, office, she refuses to even glance at the lavish goodies. \"There's a Ralph Lauren store, a Louis Vuitton store, Tiffany's,\" said the attorney and principal of The Ghatt Law Group. \"I drive by and I don't even look in that direction.\" With the economy in shambles and so many people losing their jobs and homes, it is no longer considered cool to brag about possessions and purchases. For many during a deepening recession, conspicuous consumption is out and frugality is the new black. \"People have long used the way they shop and what they buy as a way to communicate with other people about their values, their tastes and their interests,\" said Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. \"A year ago, what was considered the ultimate status symbol would have been the chicest bag or the most luxurious outfit,\" Yarrow added. \"Now what's chic is being the most knowledgeable and efficient at saving money.\" Yarrow said that despite the tough economic times, there are many Americans who still have disposable income. Those people are choosing not to spend, she said, or making more thoughtful purchases. \"What I am saying is that we have moved from an era of conspicuous consumption to an era of considered consumption,\" Yarrow said. \"People at one time wanted to showcase all of the things they are buying and now they are stopping and really thinking about it.\" Brett Wright, co-founder and chief creative officer of Uptown Magazine, is also seeing evidence of that attitude shift. iReport.com: What adjustments are you making to your budget? His publication is targeted at what he terms the \"triple A's\" -- affluent African-Americans and those who want to be. Wright said he is seeing consumption of big ticket items being put on hold or done more discreetly. \"Buying the new red Ferrari is certainly not in favor,\" Wright said. \"Everybody is trying to do things sort of under the radar screen. No one is looking to be as ostentatious as they may have been in the past.\" Consumers are looking for value for their spending, Wright said, and focusing on \"How do you live like a king without having to spend a king's ransom?\" To that end, Wright and his staff are brainstorming ways to address the change in spending habits in their publication. \"We don't believe that luxury lifestyle has gone away,\" Wright said. \"We're looking at maybe not having the $250,000 watch, but a great watch you can get for perhaps $7,500.\" Renowned hairstylist and salon owner Philip Pelusi said he, too, has seen the focus shift to more bang for the buck during the economic downturn. Pelusi said clients are opting for money-saving tactics like extending time between visits, partial highlights or getting services on \"training nights\" for the salon, which can trim their bill up to 60 percent. \"We are doing everything we can to accommodate the clients,\" said Pelusi, whose Tela Design Studio in Manhattan has only seen a slight decrease in business. Pelusi is also reaching out to others in the industry who are looking to economize. Two designers, Susan Cianciolo and \"Project Runway\" finalist Jillian Lewis, opted to forgo staging more expensive shows and used Pelusi's design studio during Fashion Week for their presentations. Marilani Huling is a Washington-based jewelry designer who said she has reduced prices on her creations to cater to her clientele. Huling said that during the recent \"Crystal Couture\" event in Virginia, one of the most popular presenters during the two-week fashion festival was Goodwill Industries. \"Goodwill had stylists put together things off their racks and put them on the runway models,\" Huling said. \"I was surprised, because everything really looked good.\" HLN consumer advocate Clark Howard said a new term is \"in-sourcing\" instead of \"out-sourcing.\" \"People had their collection of 'Mys,' \" Howard said. \"My massage therapist, my yard person, my hairdresser. Now people are really stepping back from that and saying 'If I cut my own lawn, I'm going to have that $60 in my pocket.' \" Howard said he has noticed from listeners to his popular call-in radio show that even those who really don't need to cut back are still choosing to do so. That didn't happen, he said, during the last deep recession from 1979 to 1982. Howard said he attributes the rush to downsize in part to the 24-hour news cycle, which continues to pepper the public with bad news. \"People didn't have access to the constant drumbeat of news that they have now,\" he said. With so much personal spending being tied to emotion, Howard said consumers are being much more cautious while they ride out the economic turmoil and are taking comfort in being able to score good deals. Ghatt posted unabashedly on Twitter when she spotted a pair of Cole Hahn shoes originally priced at $180 going for $20 at Marshalls. When a friend expressed his surprise that she would go public with shopping at a discount store, she had a quick comeback. \"I tweeted and said 'Don't you know that bargain divas are in style now?' \" Ghatt said, laughing.","highlights":"Conspicuous consumption is out and frugality is in during recession .\nMany who have money are being discreet with purchases .\nConsumers want more bang for the buck in a tough economy .\nClark Howard: \"If I cut my own lawn, I'm going to have that $60 in my pocket\"","id":"1ab442d118a3a176d7102f5729e683bdd795f96a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actress Patricia Clarkson has a giggle whenever she thinks about the handwritten letter she received from the great Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Patricia Clarkson, Evan Rachel Wood and Larry David worked together on \"Whatever Works.\" The actress, who first worked with the famed director on the 2008 film \"Vicky Cristina Barcelona,\" was tickled by a letter on Allen's personal stationery in which he said he had written a part for her, \"but if you have something better to do, I'll understand.\" \"You know, he had me at the letter,\" Clarkson said. \"It's Woody Allen! 'If you have something better to do'? Woody, come on!\" Clarkson definitely made time to perform in Allen's latest film, \"Whatever Works.\" The movie centers on a quirky, grouchy New Yorker -- played by the aptly cast Larry David -- who abandons his privileged life to become more Bohemian and hooks up with a younger woman played by Evan Rachel Wood. David, the \"Seinfeld\" co-creator known for his curmudgeonly ways and his hit HBO series \"Curb Your Enthusiasm,\" had appeared briefly in two earlier Allen films, \"Radio Days\" and \"New York Stories.\" EW ranks every single Allen film . David said he was slightly hesitant about embracing a role as large as that of Boris Yellnikoff in \"Whatever Works.\" \"I read the script and I looked at the first page and there's Boris all over the first page, then I turned to page 50, and there's Boris on page 50, then I went to the last page, and there's a big monologue by this character Boris, and I thought, 'Oh, wow, this is something,' \" David said. \"So I called [Allen] up on the phone, and I said, 'I don't know if I can do this, you're making a big mistake!' \" Watch David talk about Allen encouraging him to \"stretch\" \u00bb . David said Allen convinced him that he could pull it off. He said he enjoyed his time acting for the iconic director who, he said, was great to work with and allowed his actors freedom. \"If you're not comfortable with something, he doesn't want you to do it,\" David said. \"He doesn't mind if you change his words -- he's very easy. It was very easy to work with him.\" It wasn't as easy to work with Clarkson, David said, because she is such an amazing talent. \"You forget that you're in the movie because you're just enjoying what she's doing,\" David said. \"Then all of a sudden it dawns on you, 'Oh, hey, I've got a line coming up, I better get back to this movie.' \" Clarkson, who recently garnered buzz for her appearance in the Justin Timberlake-Andy Samberg \"Motherlover\" SNL skit, plays Marietta, the mother of Yellnikoff's young paramour. She echoed David's admiration and said working with the comedian in an Allen-helmed film was incredible. \"You have a part written by Woody, you're being directed by Woody, and then you're acting with Larry David,\" she said. \"It's just genius, genius, genius, and then you have Evan Rachel Wood, who's this beautiful, amazing emerging star. I was in heaven every single day on that set.\" The movie marks Wood's debut in a comedy, and like David, she found the experience a bit daunting at first. \"Not only am I doing Woody Allen dialogue, but opposite Larry,\" she said. \"Thank God he was just as nervous as I was, because he does 'Curb,' but that's mainly improv, so he never had to really memorize lines before.\" Her character Melody, Wood said, isn't exactly dumb, but she is earnest. \"She is incredibly na\u00efve and just a very sweet Southern girl who sees the good in everything and everybody and is determined to have a happy life, while Boris is determined to have a miserable one,\" she said. \"I think that's why they end up together. Opposites attract.\" And even though Wood grew up in North Carolina, she said Allen encouraged her to tap even further into her roots for the role. \"Woody always told me, 'More Southern, more Southern,' \" she said. \"I was so worried about going over the top, and he really pushed me. I'm glad he did.\" Although some of the characters hail from below the Mason-Dixon line, \"Whatever Works\" was shot in the mainstay setting of most of Allen's films, New York City. Clarkson, who was born in New Orleans but lives in New York, said she marvels at how the director is able to attack similar themes like love, romance and the life of New York intellectuals while still keeping his films fresh. \"And yet, I don't know how he does it,\" Clarkson said. \"And for me, this character, he takes this kind of archetypal Southern character, and he's such a Yankee, yet he figures out this beautiful way to come at this character fresh, which is almost impossible, and he did it.\"","highlights":"Woody Allen's new film is \"Whatever Works\"\nMovie stars Larry David, Rachel Evan Wood and Patricia Clarkson .\nDavid plays a grouchy New Yorker who takes up with the younger Wood .\nClarkson says Allen manages to always keep it \"fresh\"","id":"156be0d78de30d12647111f998b1fadcf2c489e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The man suspected of trying to attack the Dutch royal family by crashing his car near their bus has died, Dutch police said Friday. A car is pictured after crashing into the crowd waiting for the visit of the royal family in Apeldoorn. The man, whose name was not released, had been seriously injured in the crash Thursday in the town of Apeldoorn, about 45 miles east of Amsterdam, police said. He died early Friday, police said. He had been charged with trying to attack the royal family, authorities said. Were you there? Send us your video, images . Police searched the man's house but found no weapons, explosives, \"or any other clues that could lead to the involvement of other people,\" police said. Five people, as well as the driver, were killed and 12 were wounded in the incident, which happened during the country's annual Queen's Day celebration, police said. Crowds had lined the streets to see Queen Beatrix and her family ride by in an open-top bus during the Netherlands' annual holiday. See who the Dutch royal family are \u00bb . As the bus moved along, a black hatchback zoomed past it. The crowds were behind barriers off the road, but security officials and journalists, including many cameramen, were in the road as the car went by. The car crashed into the low metal railing around a column on the side of the road. The vehicle appeared heavily damaged even before the crash, but the reason for that was unclear. There was no one other than the driver in the car at the time, police spokeswoman Esther Naber said. Members of the royal family saw the crash and gasped, then quickly sat down as the bus continued driving. The attack caused outrage in the Netherlands, newspapers Friday widely expressing disbelief and suggesting the monarchy would have to change. \"Queens Day will never be the same,\" the Trouw newspaper said. \"The Netherlands always has been proud of their no nonsense royal family. With this comes a Queen who not only cycles a bike, but also mixes with people without obvious security measurements. Is that still possible now the royal family has been the target of an attack?\" The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper agreed. \"\"What is going to happen on the 30th of April next year? And will we continue to see the members of the royal family cycling through the canals of Amsterdam or hunting for bargains in the Bijenkorf in The Hague?\" Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. The tradition started in 1885 and celebrates the birthday of the queen. Although Queen Beatrix's birthday is January 31, she officially celebrates her birthday April 30, according to the Dutch government. Queen's Day is known for its free market all over the country, where anybody is allowed to sell things in the streets. Other activities include children's games and musical performances. The day is marked with the color orange all over the country as a reference to the colors of the royal family, who come from the House of Orange-Nassau. Emmy Dexel contributed to this report.","highlights":"Incident happened during the Netherlands annual Queen's Day celebration .\nCar hit crowd near open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix of Netherlands .\nPolice: No other clues that could lead to the involvement of other people .\nPolice: There was no one other than the driver in the car at the time .","id":"0a0f56ebc5a0a67ed18de79d99b40a42d8058d04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the black market of prison life, cell phones have become perhaps the hottest commodity. Now, Texas is among a growing number of state governments going after them. Hundreds of contraband cell phones were found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008. Tiny, easy to hide and an unmonitored link for convicts to the outside world, cell phones are valuable contraband, fetching a greater asking price from convicts than some shipments of illegal drugs. John Moriarty, inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that one phone can fetch as much as $2,000. \"It takes one crooked prison worker to populate a whole prison unit with them,\" he said. More than 1,200 wireless phones sit in law enforcement evidence rooms, all found behind bars or in transit to Texas inmates in 2008. Moriarty is the investigator and bloodhound the state of Texas uses to trail the illegal traffic. \"These are not stupid people,\" he said of the coordinated efforts to slip phones into the prison and hide them. \"There are a lot of hands in between and they all want a piece of the action.\" Accomplices on the outside vary from family members, to friends to fellow criminals who buy or steal the phones and charge them with minutes. The contraband is then moved through an elaborate series of drop points and usually ferried into the walls of a prison by a guard or trustee -- an escape engineered in reverse. Finding the dirty prison employee is often the key. \"Some of these guys make next to nothing, so you can see how easy it could be to corrupt them,\" Moriarty said. State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and the chair of the state senate's Criminal Justice Committee, became an ally of Moriarty's after one phone call in October. He picked up a phone slip from his secretary and called the number on it -- only to realize he had returned a call to a death row inmate's cell phone. The inmate, he said, was Richard Tabler -- a convicted double murderer who was sharing a wireless phone with nine other inmates. \"At first I thought it was a hoax,\" said Whitmire, who said he called the state justice board and \"read them the riot act.\" Whitmire is one of the sponsors of a bill in the Texas Legislature that would crack down on convicts caught with phones and allow prison systems to monitor and detect cell signals. It's en route to Gov. Rick Perry's desk after clearing both houses of the legislature this week. Other efforts are under way at both the state and federal level. In January, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, introduced legislation that would let prisons jam cell-phone signals within their walls. Last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked the federal government for permission to do so in his state. Prison officials in Arizona are training dogs to sniff out cell phones.","highlights":"Texas is among a growing number of states going after contraband cell phones .\nSavvy inmates, outside accomplices, corrupt guards make problem a thorny one .\nBill cracking down on contraband phones clears Texas Legislature .\nOther states training dogs to sniff out phones, seeking feds' help in jamming signals .","id":"5e4ac4c534051c6cf72d58389d9e6aca52403472"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you sell it, they will come. Prices are expected to grow for Michael Jackson autographs like the one he gave this young fan in 2002. That's the hope at least for many offering Michael Jackson related merchandise and memorabilia, including autographed items and domain names, in the wake of his surprising death. Almost 20,000 items were up for sale after his death on the popular auction site eBay, where collectors could snap up everything from the rare to the ridiculous. Among the many T-shirts, record albums, DVDs and posters, there were also magazines about Jackson, dolls and copies of newspapers announcing his death. There were Michael Jackson gloves (sparkly, of course), masks, wigs, sunglasses and fedora hats. Anyone in the mood for some senior soda could try and win an auction for an unopened six-pack of Pepsi from the 1984 Jacksons world tour. For those seeking to establish Web sites, domain names were available including \"ILoveYouMichael.com,\" which was selling for the \"buy it now\" price of $5,000. Officials at eBay said that compared with the daily average of the week prior, Thursday's gross merchandise volume for Jackson memorabilia increased by 275 percent and sold items increased by 210 percent. New listings were up 61 percent, while the average selling price of items had increased by 31 percent. Online merchant CafePress also offered a variety of items, including mugs, \"R.I.P. Michael Jackson\" magnets and dozens of T-shirt designs, including one screened with a drawing of tennis legend Billie Jean King and the words \"not my lover.\" Some of the hottest items may turn out to be the ones bearing Jackson's signature. On eBay, bids for what the buyer claimed was a signed Michael Jackson guitar had reached almost $1,300 by Friday afternoon. Jerry Ohlinger, owner of Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Material Store in New York, predicted that although Jackson was generous in giving autographs, the price for a legitimate autograph probably will at least double from the $150 to $300 range it was prior to his death. \"He would sign autographs whenever he appeared in person,\" Ohlinger said. \"For instance, he visited our store at least three times, and he signed autographs for all of the employees.\" As a comparison, Ohlinger said, an autograph for the late actress Marilyn Monroe, who also was known to sign a great deal during her lifetime, sells for about $5,000 because of great demand. As of Friday, items purported to be autographed photos of Jackson were ranging in price from just over $5 to several thousand dollars. There is no way to predict whether there will be a sudden influx in demand for Michael Jackson memorabilia and merchandise, Ohlinger said. All of the hoopla would probably tickle the pop icon, who Ohlinger said was himself a fan of star items. Whenever Jackson would visit Ohlinger's Manhattan store, he would shop for vintage photos of some of the legendary ladies of cinema, including his very dear friend Elizabeth Taylor, Ohlinger recalled.","highlights":"NEW: Sold Jackson items on eBay increase 210 percent compared to last week .\nPlenty of Michael Jackson merchandise goes on sale .\nOnline auction site ebay boasts thousands of items from T-shirts to soda .\nMemorabilia expert predicts Jackson autograph to at least double in price .","id":"a8edbe6f71d1a1dc10e662c45afa32e05ae42609"} -{"article":"DANVILLE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- When Joseph Homicz's doctor found what could be dangerous blockages of the arteries, he ordered catheterization, a common procedure in which tubes are inserted into the body to check the blood flow. Dr. Peter Berger, far right, has a 40-item checklist covering steps before, during and after a procedure. But Homicz's treatment was not quite ordinary because he was sent to a cardiologist working at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania. Geisinger, which operates hospitals, community clinics and its own insurance company, is enacting what some consider radical ideas to improve patient care and lower costs. It's a system that President Obama has billed as one of the nation's \"islands of excellence.\" Homicz's procedure was part of the Proven Care program, in which all of a patient's medical professionals work together to ensure no mistakes are made. It is everyone's job to make sure any errors are caught, and doctors are graded on the entire treatment a patient receives from the time of diagnosis through an operation to the care received weeks or even months later. \"We want to make it harder to make a mistake,\" Dr. Peter Berger, Homicz's cardiologist, said after the procedure. Watch more on Geisinger's approach to health care \u00bb . Berger has a 40-item checklist covering steps before, during and after the procedure, including checking whether the catheterization is really needed to ensuring he has the right patient on the table. Berger, who is also the system's director of clinical research, says patients and doctors both benefit from this type of medicine. \"Every study that has been done has shown that doctors and health care systems aren't as good at administering all of the things a patient needs as we ought to be,\" Berger says. \"There are so many watchful eyes on the patient. All members of the team have an assigned responsibility, and we are all making sure we all do our job. I absolutely think that the patients benefit from that kind of approach.\" Leading up to Homicz's catheterization and during the procedure, nurses and doctors checked off specific items and were encouraged to check in on what Berger was doing. Geisinger says this approach encourages teamwork, which leads to better results, less mistakes and increased profits. \"We got a lot of buzz out of the fact that we re-engineered all our care from beginning to end,\" Dr. Glenn Steele, president and CEO of Geisinger said. He said company employees went out and studied how medical professionals around the country were conducting specific procedures and incorporated the best of what was found. Watch more of Steele's take \u00bb . \"When you're having heart surgery how tightly should you control the level of your blood sugar? Should you do that with a continuous drip of a medicine called insulin? What should your temperature be exactly when you come out of the operating room and go to recovery room? All of those things are thought or have been proven to be related to the probability of you having a perfect outcome, but none of those things has been formally engineered into a process until we did it,\" Steele said. Geisinger says its procedures and operations cost patients less than others. Some patients who have Geisinger insurance are able to pay a set price. In return, if within 90 days after a procedure they develop any related complications -- for example an infection, pneumonia, a bleed in the area -- they get free treatment. Geisinger estimates about a third of those using Proven Care are eligible for this guarantee. \"We've found huge decreases in hospitalization and rehospitalization for those patients because they're better cared for,\" Steele says. The company also helps keep patients with chronic problems from getting worse by assigning case managers to consult and check in with patients as often as necessary. For example, James Connelly, a 78-year-old patient with a history of congestive heart failure, kidney disease and artery disease, was admitted to the hospital in May of last year after gaining 14 pounds. After doctors stabilized him and sent him home, Connelly enrolled in the partnering initiative. Each day he enters his weight on a Web site, which is monitored by his case worker. A year later he has lost 14 pounds and is much healthier. Through technology and its use of electronic medical records, the company says it has shaved costs by preventing unnecessary tests. Also, patient data can be accessed at any of the hospitals or 40 clinics Geisinger operates. So can the Geisinger system be replicated nationwide? Geisinger executives say not all of what they have put in place will work elsewhere, however, they say a good portion -- more reliance on electronic records and a greater emphasis on collaboration -- will help dramatically improve health care. \"I think what we can do over the next few years is rather than to try to come on the right formula, the right template for all of the reform, I think what we can do is scale this thing up,\" Steele said. \"I don't think we have to push the entire system off the cliff because...there is a lot that is designed out there that couldn't do what we are doing.\" CNN national political correspondent Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Geisinger operates hospitals, community clinics, its own insurance company .\nCompany says its procedures, operations cost patients less .\n\"We re-engineered all our care from beginning to end,\" CEO says .","id":"f2eeb4e026fd65fa1524ae839cb14f31acc3b294"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When it came to second bananas, Ed McMahon was second to none. Ed McMahon turned being a sidekick into art. McMahon, known to generations of Americans through \"Tonight,\" \"Star Search,\" \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\" and as a commercial pitchman, died Tuesday. He was 86. For 30 years on the \"Tonight Show\" -- and several years more beforehand -- he was Johnny Carson's trusty sidekick, introducing him, feeding him straight lines, making the guests comfortable on the couch. It was a job that generally aimed the spotlight at Carson, the host. But it made McMahon a star nonetheless. \"He was a star in his own right. Being a sidekick didn't mean he was any less,\" Doc Severinsen, the longtime \"Tonight\" bandleader, told CNNRadio. \"Johnny defined what the host should be and Ed defined what the sidekick was.\" David Letterman, whose \"Late Night\" followed Carson's show on NBC from 1982 to 1993, said in a statement: \"Ed McMahon's voice at 11:30 was a signal that something great was about to happen. Ed's introduction of Johnny was a classic broadcasting ritual -- reassuring and exciting. Ed was a true broadcaster, and an integral part of Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show.' We will miss him.\" Gallery: Ed McMahon through the years \u00bb . McMahon, known to generations of Americans through \"Tonight,\" \"Star Search,\" \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\" and as a commercial pitchman, died Tuesday. He was 86. While Carson could be insular and shy off camera, McMahon was always possessed of an outsized, hail-fellow-well-met attitude, comedian Joan Rivers -- a frequent \"Tonight\" guest and guest host -- told CNN. \"I remember him with great affection, and I remember him [as] very solid whenever I hosted the show. ... When you needed him, he was a rock. A real rock,\" recalled Rivers. \"He went beyond the 'Tonight Show' and had his own identity and America liked him very much. He was a good guy. He was the neighbor.\" Watch Rivers' memories of McMahon \u00bb . Dick Clark -- who really was McMahon's neighbor in 1950s Philadelphia, when Clark hosted \"American Bandstand\" and McMahon was a local TV star -- remembered his \"Bloopers\" co-host as a man with \"a really big heart.\" \"Fifty years ago, Ed and I were next-door neighbors. Over the years, our friendship grew while he became one of America's favorite television personalities,\" he said in a statement. \"We were together for years. Ed was a big man, had big talent and a really big heart. We'll all miss him.\" Rivers remembers McMahon as someone who was always willing to reach out. After she left the Carson show -- which she had hosted frequently in Johnny's absence -- for her own late-night show, she remembered becoming persona non grata with many in Hollywood. But not McMahon. \"Ed McMahon always, whenever he would come in a restaurant or see me anywhere, would make it his business to come over and say hello,\" Rivers said. \"And that was going against, quote-unquote, 'boss' orders.' \" Watch McMahon recall the invention of \"Carnac the Magnificent\" \u00bb . The boss, however, knew his sidekick's value. In vaudeville vernacular, a \"second banana\" was the guy who played off the star comedian (the \"top banana\"). He was the straight man, the set-up guy, the performer who smoothed the way and occasionally got in his own line, all in the service of the lead. And few were better than McMahon. \"Ed was the best at what he did and will never be replaced,\" said Don Rickles, a longtime friend, in a statement. \"Another giant is gone.\"","highlights":"Ed McMahon, who died Tuesday, was known as a sidekick -- but also a \"star\"\nHis outgoing public persona was in contrast to that of his boss, Johnny Carson .\n\"Tonight\" bandleader Doc Severinsen: \"Ed defined what the sidekick was\"\nJoan Rivers: \"When you needed him, he was a rock\"","id":"6f95c511726b3532a88a164b616cb78acc69a311"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 2,500 Nigerians caught in the fighting between Islamic militants and government forces have fled their homes in the northern part of the country, a Red Cross spokeswoman said Wednesday. Mothers and their children take refuge this week at a police office in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. More than 400 people have been killed, and 150 bodies were lying in the general hospital at Maiduguri, according to Aliyu Maikanu, a Red Cross disaster officer in the northeast. Most of the violence has been on the outskirts of the city, officials said. \"It's a terrible situation for me. It's a very serious battle -- something I have not seen in my life,\" Maikanu said. She said only security personnel were free to move around due to the risks. Up to 1,000 militants are holed up at their base of operations in Maiduguri, and police have cordoned off the area, she said. National police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said Wednesday that police were able to free 187 women and children whom they claim were being held in the compound of the Islamic militants' leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Under the sect's strict form of sharia law, the group that was released was shielded from public view, Ojukwu said. He said 100 arrests have been made across the north. Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organization based in northern Nigeria, said people were seeking refuge in police and military barracks and in hospitals. The militants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam in the region, maintaining that the government allows itself to be influenced by Western values. They have been targeting high-profile government institutions, police and Islamic clergy, Ojukwu said. The operation to defeat the militants is ongoing, he said, and police have been deployed in all northeast and northwestern states. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim North Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed there in riots in 2001. Last week the human rights organization alleged that police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots last year between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. Most of the victims were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group said in testimony before a state commission. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: More than 180 women, kids freed from militants' compound, official says .\nMore than 2,500 flee fighting between militants, government in northern Nigeria .\nMore 400 people killed in Nigerian violence, Red Cross official says .\nMilitants holed up at base of operations in Maiduguri, Nigeria .","id":"e91707187da16a640a2aaff81f069d1fbe63afac"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States and Britain said Wednesday they are committed to remaining in Afghanistan, despite increased military casualties and declining public support for the war effort. U.S. Marines partrol part of the Gharmsir district in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Wednesday. \"We went into this together, and we will work it through together because we are stronger together,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after a half day of talks at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton praised Miliband's approach on Afghanistan, including the call for the government to reconcile with moderate elements of the Taliban. \"His analysis of the way forward is very much consistent with ours, and we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder in pursuit of our common objectives,\" Clinton said of her counterpart. In a speech at NATO headquarters on Monday, Miliband called for rank-and-file Taliban to be given the chance to reconcile with the Afghan government, even as the campaign continues against Taliban commanders who are waging jihad. He also urged greater burden sharing not only among NATO allies in Afghanistan but by the Afghan government. \"There is a lot of talk, rightly, about burden sharing within the coalition, but the greatest burden sharing must be between the international community and the government of Afghanistan, which increasingly needs to take the lead -- the security lead, as well as the political lead -- in shaping the future of that country,\" he said. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters that boosting the training of Afghan forces would be a big focus after the country's August 20 election. When asked whether the election would be fair, Holbrooke, who just returned from the region, said he had heard complaints from all sides but was not \"unduly upset.\" \"It's an extraordinary thing to hold an election in the middle of a war, and this is the first contested election in Afghanistan in history,\" Holbrooke said, adding the United States has no favorite candidate but only wants \"an election whose outcome is accepted as legitimate by the Afghan people and the world, which reflects the desires of those who vote.\" July has been the deadliest month for U.S. and British forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, with 39 U.S. troops and 22 British troops killed. Miliband said the effort was going through a \"tough phase,\" but added that the British people understood the \"vital nature\" of the mission to stabilize Afghanistan. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been under under enormous pressure from his opposition, which charges that British troops don't have proper resources to fight the war, including helicopters. But he was sanguine. \"I think the British people will stay with this mission, because there is a clear strategy and a clear determination on behalf of the United States and other coalition members to see this through,\" he said, adding that the British people understood the mission's \"vital nature.\" Americans, too, have questioned whether the war in Afghanistan is winnable and worth the effort. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and members of Congress, including Democrats, have predicted that President Obama has a year to show progress in Afghanistan before public support for the war further erodes. Clinton said Britain and the United States \"have made significant gains in the recent operations\" against the Taliban, but \"there remains much work to be done.\" \"We know that this is a challenge that is not going to be easily resolved in a short period of time,\" she said, adding \"both of our countries are still threatened by the same enemy, an enemy that has attacked London, New York and Washington.\" \"We know they've attacked us in the past, and, unfortunately, we know that they plot against us even today,\" she said.","highlights":"July deadliest month for U.S., British forces in Afghanistan since '01 invasion .\n\"We will work it through together,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says .\nMiliband calls for Afghan government to reconcile with moderate Taliban elements .\nU.S. official: Boosting the training of Afghan forces will be a big focus .","id":"eda395f25d68d5f65aa523cf98690665e4dc6304"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scotland's Susan Boyle gives new meaning to the term \"overnight sensation.\" The \"Britain's Got Talent\" contestant was expected to be something of a joke when she first sauntered on stage, but she absolutely wowed the audience, the judges -- and then the world via the Internet -- with her stunning rendition of \"I Dreamed a Dream.\" Along with Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden is a judge on \"Britain's Got Talent.\" But like others who stumble upon sudden fame, she found the pressure and scrutiny to be overwhelming. \"Talent\" judge Amanda Holden and Dr. Drew Pinsky of VH1's \"Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew\" joined CNN's Larry King Tuesday night to discuss Boyle's hospitalization for stress and the toll the spotlight and media criticism might have taken on her mental health. They also discussed whether Boyle will develop the emotional stamina for a high-pressure singing career. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: What do we know right now? Amanda Holden: Basically, we've spoken to Susan's brother. He, in fact, spoke on [CBS' \"The Early Show\"] this morning to say that his sister was very keen to come home as soon as she possibly could and that she was resting up in a clinic in London and that she was very much looking forward to coming out and seeing what was available to her when she felt better. King: Is the show, Amanda, paying for the hospital bills and are they taking care of her? Holden: I have no idea if they're paying the hospital bills. I would imagine that they are. We're a very loyal show. We love Susan very much. In fact, all the contestants that appear on our show are extraordinarily well looked after. King: Your fellow judge, Piers Morgan, has said that there was talk of taking her off the show because of all the pressures on her. Were you involved? Were there any discussions like that? Holden: I wasn't involved in any discussions like that. And I think Piers has a slightly closer relationship with her. ... The only thing I'm worried about with Susan Boyle is that she seems to have a crush on Piers Morgan. ... I think that Piers kind of reassured her during the final that she was doing well and that she mustn't pay any kind of attention to the press and all the other stuff that was going . King: Despite all the tumult, there's no disputing that Susan sang her heart out during the finale of the competition. I know the dance troupe [Diversity] was terrific. But, frankly, why didn't she win? Holden: Honestly, I can't criticize the decision because it was the British public that voted in the end. I have no real idea, to be honest. I wonder whether it could be that Diversity was utterly fantastic on the show that night. They decimated the show. They really, really were amazing. And I just wonder whether maybe younger people voted and were quicker on the texts than the kind of people that were voting for Susan. But as I keep saying, if Susan is a loser, then surely she is the biggest and best loser that we have in the world. And coming second is no bad thing. Watch Amanda Holden discuss Susan Boyle \u00bb . King: She came in, though, [as] a small-town amateur singer, [with] learning disabilities due to suffering oxygen deprivation at birth. Some say the program exploited her and her vulnerabilities. Do you agree? Holden: I couldn't disagree more. You know, she's a grown woman who applied to come on a talent show. She enjoyed every second of every moment that I met her or saw her behind the scenes. She was very excited. She was very proud to be taking part in the show. I think the downturn in press in our country [Britain], I think, maybe stressed her out a little bit. And I think she was just quite upset about all the exaggerated stories and the kind of falsehoods that were being written about her. I think that everybody gets upset about bad press when you're in this business. And she's somebody that's gone from anonymity to [an] absolute worldwide phenomenon. King: Yes. Holden: So how is she expected to handle that? Nobody can handle that with the best will in the world. I've been in the business 15 years, and I'm still not media savvy. [Dr. Drew Pinsky joins the show] . King: What do you make of this Susan Boyle thing? Pinsky: The problem here is that here's a woman that's suddenly under the scrutiny of the spotlight who maybe has some developmental issues, who is under tremendous stress and [now] is in a psychiatric hospital. The question is, did the show harm her? King: Did it? Pinsky: It's hard to say. This is the first time these kind of experiences have really been undertaken by people. People that come out of nowhere all of a sudden are international superstars. King: Should we be, Amanda, concerned about that? Holden: First of all, I just want to say that Susan's brother said on British television this morning that, yes, Susan has experienced learning difficulties. But in actual fact, when she was at school, she did as well as any of her other siblings. But throughout her childhood, always before an exam or anything else, she always got quite anxious. [Before the show], she was feeling nervous. But she went out there and she nailed it. You know, she did the best performance that we've seen. And let's not forget, this is actually only the second or third time we've heard her sing. ... She is in a place where celebrities go when they are burnt out. Now, I am obviously not a doctor. I have no factual information to give to you. I can only say to you her brother ... has said she wants to come home within a matter of days, rather than weeks. Pinsky: That's excellent. King: Would you guess, Dr. Drew, that she still has a career in front of her? Wouldn't you bet she does? Pinsky: Oh, I bet she does, absolutely. And she will learn to become accustomed to this kind of stress, I am sure. But let's make sure she has the care she needs. And let's be sure that ... everybody that goes on shows like this has access to things that help them deal with the stress of these kinds of environments.","highlights":"Amanda Holden: Boyle is \"a grown woman who applied to come on a talent show\"\nHolden believes negative press coverage stressed out the overnight sensation .\nThough Boyle was exceedingly nervous before finale, Holden says she \"nailed it\"\nDr. Drew Pinsky: Contestants on high-pressure shows should get help with stress .","id":"88b6e35e3982d9399cbb1c67f27a07fa138371ff"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Relatives and friends of a judge and court reporter killed in a 2005 shooting at Atlanta's Fulton County Courthouse took the stand Thursday in the penalty phase of the gunman's trial. Some wept as they spoke of how the deaths have affected their lives and of their continued struggles with sadness, fear and anger. Claudia Barnes, widow of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, recalled asking permission to hold her husband's hand one last time before his body was cremated. \"He and I held hands constantly for 13 years,\" she said. She remembered running her hands over the judge's face -- over the temple, where the bullet fired by escaped prisoner Brian Gene Nichols entered his head -- and over the judge's beard, which she always kept trimmed. \"I hope the love of my life did not suffer,\" Claudia Barnes said softly, reading from prepared notes. \"My faith in God has allowed me to remain sane. ... At times, it almost seems too much for me, but I try to do the best that I can.\" She said her life with the judge \"was not long enough.\" Nichols, 36, was convicted this month of 54 counts including capital murder. He overpowered Fulton County Deputy Cynthia Hall on March 11, 2005, as he was being led into Barnes' courtroom to face a second trial on rape charges. Nichols then took Hall's gun from a lockbox and fatally shot three people at the courthouse: Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and Fulton County Deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley, who attempted to apprehend him outside the building. Nichols was also convicted of killing David Wilhelm, a federal customs agent, hours later at Wilhelm's home in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. Jurors heard victim impact statements Thursday as part of Nichols' penalty phase, in which they will decide whether he will receive the death penalty sought by prosecutors. As relatives of his victims spoke, Nichols appeared somber, with his eyes downcast, but showed no further emotion. \"Nothing anybody does will bring my daddy back,\" said an emotional Kiley Barnes, the judge's daughter. She said her father raised her from age 2 and \"made it his life's work to conquer becoming a single parent.\" She recalled her father asking her to bring him her Barbie doll and show him how to create pigtails on either side of her head, and said the judge once literally gave the shirt off his back to a man at a Christmas party after the man complimented him on it. She said her father shared his passion for the law with her, and she remembered how proud he was at her college graduation, as she was one step closer to becoming a lawyer. Kiley Barnes said she was hoping that after Nichols' conviction, she would feel better because justice had been done. \"Instead, I feel as heartbroken and as lonely as I did on March 11, 2005,\" she said. Brandau's daughter, Christina Scholte Greenway, was an 18-year-old college freshman at the time of the shootings. She told jurors her mother could not attend her graduation from college or nursing school or her wedding last month. \"My husband never got a chance to meet my mother,\" she said. \"I know in my heart that she would have loved him. ... I walked down the aisle wearing her veil.\" Brandau's sister, Trudy Brandau, said she lost the only remaining member of her immediate family. The two sisters had grown close after the deaths of another sister and both parents, she said. \"Julie's death changed everything in my life.\" Candee Wilhelm told jurors about her husband's death and how she was \"ripped in two\" when he was killed. \"David was simply the most wonderful person I will ever know,\" she said. Both she and sister-in-law Allison Wilhelm spoke of Russell, Wilhelm's mentally challenged brother, who was especially close to him. David Wilhelm planned to become his guardian when his parents grew too old to care for him, Allison Wilhelm said. Candee Wilhelm said she was adopted, and her husband helped her through the difficult process of locating her birth mother. The woman died in 2006, she said, but \"in a way, she was a gift from David.\" She remembered looking at her husband's body in the funeral home. \"As I stood there looking at this handsome man, bruised and battered from his murder, I remember thinking, 'This isn't my husband.' I touched his hand, his arm, his leg. David wasn't there anymore. I touched his hair. It was the only thing that really seemed familiar and real to me.\" Teasley's widow, Deborah, told jurors she had thought of the courthouse as a \"safe haven\" for her husband. \"I hate to think that he was dying outside on the street,\" she said of her husband. \"But the truth is, he was.\" She said her husband \"was and still is our hero. He was the love of my life, my husband and my friend.\" Deona Teasley said she was in the third grade when her father died. \"Why did someone do this to such a good person?\" she asked. \"He didn't deserve to die. He did not do anything wrong. ... We meant the world to him, and he meant the world to us.\"","highlights":"NEW: Officer's daughter: \"He didn't deserve to die. He did not do anything wrong\"\n\"I hope the love of my life did not suffer,\" judge's wife says .\nJudge's daughter feels as \"heartbroken and as lonely\" as day father was shot .\nNichols could be sentenced to the death penalty .","id":"2c3308d3c06f6bbf7c7d9014fdb0b58ebd5155bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of Portland, Oregon, publicly apologized Tuesday for lying about a sexual relationship he had with an 18-year-old male in 2005, and for asking the teen to lie about it. \"This was a serious error that happened about four years ago,\" Portland Mayor Sam Adams tells reporters. \"I want to apologize to the people of Portland for my dishonesty and for embarrassing them,\" Mayor Sam Adams, a Democrat, said at an afternoon news conference. But the mayor -- who is openly gay and whose election last year possibly made Portland the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor -- said he has no plans to resign. \"This was a serious error that happened about four years ago,\" Adams said. \"My job now is to come clean -- I mucked it up -- and to press forward.\" Adams returned to Portland from Washington, where he had planned to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama, to hold the news conference. A day earlier, Adams issued a statement saying: \"In the past, I have characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely nonsexual. That is not true. Beau Breedlove and I had a sexual relationship for a few months in the summer of 2005 after he turned 18 years of age.\" Adams issued the statement Monday after a local newspaper, the Willamette Week, published a story about the relationship between Adams, who was a city commissioner in 2005, and Breedlove, then a legislative intern. During the mayoral campaign, questions had emerged about whether Adams and Breedlove had a sexual relationship. Adams said he had lied about the relationship during the campaign, and had asked Breedlove to lie, because of \"untrue rumors being circulated saying that I had broken the law regarding sex relations with a minor.\" \"The allegation coming at me was 'sex with a minor,' \" Adams said. \"But still, I should have told the truth at the time and taken the consequences.\" The relationship was consensual and \"although inappropriate, was legal,\" Adams said. \"I'm the one that should be held accountable. I'm the older adult,\" he said. Adams was 42 and Breedlove was 17 when the two met, according to the Willamette newspaper. Adams emphasized that what he called a \"romantic\" relationship with Breedlove did not begin until after Breedlove was 18. Adams said the two had \"maybe three or four dates\" over two or three months in 2005 before the relationship ended. The mayor apologized to Breedlove for asking him to lie, and to Portland's gay community \"for embarrassing them.\" It was not clear whether Breedlove was in attendance at Tuesday's news conference. Adams said that \"this is fundamentally an issue of a public official lying.\" \"I don't think this fundamentally is an issue about sexual orientation,\" he said. \"Other people can debate that but, for me, it's about an error in judgment and then seeking to make amends for that and being very up-front about the mistake and then carrying on,\" he said. Asked by a reporter if he lied to get elected, Adams said: \"I definitely lied to avoid what I thought was another lie that I couldn't overcome. So, in a way, yes.\" Asked if he had thought he could get away with lying, Adams responded: \"I think that's going to be up to my colleagues and the people of Portland.\"","highlights":"NEW: Portland Mayor Sam Adams says he has no plans to resign .\n\"I want to apologize\" for mistake, Adams says at news conference .\nAdams had affair with 18-year-old intern in 2005, then asked him to lie about it .\nAdams makes admission after newspaper reports relationship .","id":"323d54784ea9391634d3ed7fe1cc8c0dc5c0f36d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For pro-surfers like nine-time world champion Kelly Slater, flying from continent to continent looking for the perfect wave seems like a freewheeling lifestyle, but for amateurs, it requires careful planning. Surfing champ Kelly Slater gains altitude at Hossegor, France, in 2002. Surfers checking out unique vibes at sites in Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and France are driven by the buzz that comes from exhilarating swells, breaking waves and amazing barrel tubes created by truly awesome forces of nature. Unlike other travelers, surfers are interested in surfer-friendly places to crash, snagging the best airline rates for surfboards and where to hang out. Here's Slater's list of five great surfing meccas along with some hints about how to fully enjoy your search for the proverbial endless summer. See photos of Slater surfing his five great sites \u00bb . BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu, Hawaii . Event: Billabong Pipeline Masters, December 8 to December 20, 2009 . \"I grew up mesmerized by it, and it never lets you down,\" Slater said. \"It's just an amazing place to be and a wave that always challenges you.\" The vibe: Surfers compare this event to professional golf's Master's tournament. Since the 1950s and '60s, mobs of fans have traveled to view one of the sport's great venues to watch competing surfers. How to get there: To find this quarter-mile long treasure trove of breaking waves, drive southwest of Ehukai Beach Park along the Kamehameha Highway, about seven miles northeast of Haleiwa. During competition season -- in November and December -- visitors can soak up a lot of action on the beach, said Scott Bass, editor at Surfer Magazine. \"It's a unique spot because a large, crazy death-defying surf breaks only 100 yards from shore. It's very accessible as a viewer,\" said Bass. See map and more photos of Slater's surfing spots \u00bb . Where to stay: Keiki Beach Bungalows offers tourists the best of both worlds: proximity to the Pipeline and a break from the crowds. Located on the beach about a mile away from Pipeline, the quiet bungalows also provide convenient access to a shopping complex with food and coffee shops about a quarter mile away. One and two-bedroom cottages range from $145 to $220 per night, depending on length of stay. Searching for more elegant digs? Turtle Bay Resort offers hundreds of luxurious guest rooms, suites and cottages not far from Pipeline. On a budget? Less than an hour's drive away, campers can pitch near the Pacific at Barbers Point Beach Park. Where to hang out: Got something sweeter in mind? Matsumoto Shave Ice has become a Hawaiian institution during its 60 years, serving the namesake snow cones, candy and crack seed, an island snack of dried fruits. Where to get lunch: Locals will tell you that hanging out on the North Shore must include a stop at some of the island's tried and true mom and pop shops. Macky's Sweet Shrimp Truck is literally just that -- a brightly painted RV parked in a private lot. Macky's specializes in serving succulent shrimp, rice, fruit and veggies. CLOUDBREAK, Tavarua, Fiji . Best waves: April to October . \"One of the great surf discoveries ever,\" said Slater about Cloudbreak, the name given to a surfing reef about two miles off Fiji's island of Tavarua. The South Pacific waters off Fiji offer the perfect temperature and a \"really good swell window\" for timing waves, Slater said. \"The wave has so many different faces to it. It's challenging and perfect.\" The vibe: Exclusive. The Tavarua Resort on the island controls access to the reef. How to get there: Surfing Cloudbreak can cost you, both physically and monetarily because of its distance off the island and the expense of traveling to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Surfers get to the reef on local boats or jet-skis -- or by paddling on their boards, which will take a lot out of you. Where to stay\/hang out: Options are very limited. Surfer tourists can expect to spend at least $200 per night at the island resort. SNAPPER ROCKS, Kirra, Australia . Event: Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast February 28 to March 11, 2009 . It's no secret that surfing is a national pastime in Australia, especially during pro-surfing competitions in February and March, when the weather is toasty warm and the water is aqua blue. How to get there: Arrive at the Gold Coast airport at Coolangatta or at the airport in Brisbane, which is about 68 miles (109 kilometers) to the north on the Pacific Motorway. The stretch of breaking waves between Snapper Rocks and Kirra is called the Superbank. The waves are \"perfect, hollow, fast,\" said Slater. Superbank's sandy-bottom, barrel point break makes it worthy of his list. \"On its day, it's the wave you would draw on your school books,\" he said. The vibe: The Gold Coast during competition season is similar to Spring Break in the United States, said Bass, a globetrotting surfer who has produced a documentary about the Vietnam War's surfing soldiers. Gold Coast spectators tend to be young, hip trendy, college-age surf fans. For tourists with wider interests, the scene includes a music festival and skateboard competition. Where to stay: Take your pick. There are plenty of hotels along the Gold Coast, ranging from upscale three or four-star destinations to modest beach motels. For $20 (Australian) you can grab a bunk bed in a backpacker hostel. At the posh Palazzo Versace, you can spend thousands of dollars for one night's lodging. Apartments near the shore run from $80 to $250 Australian per night. Book early if possible. TEAHUPOO, Tahiti . Event: Billabong Pro Teahupoo May 9 to May 20, 2009 . Cloudbreak's remoteness is matched by Tahiti's Teahupoo, which is described by Slater as \"one of the most challenging waves and confronting waves in the world.\" When negotiating Teahupoo's South Pacific monster waves, said Slater, \"Just make a decision and follow it. No second guessing.\" The vibe: Teahupoo is very exclusive and expensive, according to Bass. \"It's a grand spectacle along the same lines as the Pipeline, just not as accessible.\" How to get there: You might have to pay a boater for transportation to the wave, which is about a quarter mile off shore, said Bass. Where to stay\/hang out: Small pensions,homes that island residents rent to tourists, are the way to go in Tahiti, said Bass. Hiti Moana Villa offers bungalows for $110 to $160 per night. HOSSEGOR, France . Event: Quiksilver Pro France September 23 to October 4, 2009 . For nonsurfers, Hossegor is a big secret. \"People don't realize how good the surf is there but it's incredible very often,\" said Slater. The elbow-shaped Bay of Biscay near the French-Spanish border offers \"lots of swell and good weather that Ireland and England don't get.\" The vibe: More waves, more surfing, less competition. The Hossegor area offers many fine beach breaks that result in abundant waves. These \"peaky\" beach breaks democratize the surfing experience. With more good waves, there's less jockeying among surfers for position. During most of the year, surfers will need to wear a wet suit. The Bay of Biscay is really cold. Where to hang out: The area has great food, according to Slater, and, \"Spain is just right next door for something different.\" Across the Spanish border, surfers can discover crashing waves along the shore of San Sebastian, the town made famous in Hemingway's \"The Sun Also Rises.\" Continue down the coast to experience amazing waves off the Spanish towns of Zarautz and Mendexa. There, surfers will discover a pure point break, with waves breaking off cobblestone rocks on the ocean floor. Where to stay: All along the coast are dozens of beach hostels offering low-cost lodging. Also, there's camping in the area, if you feel like really roughing it. The Hortensias du Lac hotel offers rooms from \u20ac170 to \u20ac220 per night. How to get there: From Paris, drive about 6 hours southwest to Bordeaux and then drive about 2 hours south to Hossegor. By train from Paris takes about 6 hours and costs about $130. TOTING YOUR BOARD . The relationship between surfers and their boards is close. Sometimes very close. Many surfers feel their boards are like a physical part of them. As a result, they accept no substitutes -- or rentals. They bring their boards. Traveling with a 9-foot, 70-pound piece of sporting equipment can be expensive. Several airlines hit surfboard-toting travelers with stiff fees, sometimes hundreds of dollars. But a few carriers will allow surfboards to be checked as baggage free, within certain guidelines. Here's a quick list of policies among major airlines for travel with surfboards as checked baggage: . American Airlines charges a special handling fee. British Airways bans surfboards as checked baggage. Delta Airlines charges a special handling fee. Singapore Airlines offers free baggage check for surfboards within certain guidelines. Otherwise, travelers are charged a handling fee. United Airlines charges a special handling fee. Virgin Atlantic offers free baggage checking within certain guidelines. CNN's David Banks, a lifelong surfer, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pro-surfing champ Kelly Slater likes Australia, Tahiti, Fiji, Hawaii and France .\nFiji's Cloudbreak wave is \"one of the great surf discoveries ever,\" said Slater .\nThe vibe at primo spots varies from Spring Break-like to exclusive .\nAirline surfboard baggage policies range from free to pricey .","id":"5b84008065eadb5e5307a5682cdc7ee64097a11e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- And now, the rejects. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft . Three months after the White House released a single photograph taken during a photo op of \"Air Force One\" flying over New York -- a flight that caused panic on the streets below -- the U.S. Air Force on Friday released the remaining 145 photos taken during the flight. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 -- a military version of a 747 -- making three passes by the Statue of Liberty, at one point accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet and at another point making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft. That latter move may have contributed to the chaos below. The photographs and several lengthy government e-mail chains were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by CNN and other news organizations. The e-mail chains show that the flight's government organizers were aware of many New Yorkers' fears of low-flying aircraft before the April 27 flight, and show a flurry of second-guessing, finger-pointing, damage control and occasional expressions of regret in the hours immediately after the flight. Watch a compilation of still images of the flyover \u00bb . \"Thanks for the heads up on sensitivities in the New York area,\" an Air Force colonel wrote in an e-mail two days before the flight. \"This is an issue that PAG [the Presidential Airlift Group] has also been concerned with. As a result, their coordination has been substantial.\" But while the White House, the military and numerous federal and local government agencies coordinated the flight, the federal government demanded secrecy, preparing a news release that was to be distributed only if there were media inquiries. Those inquiries came during the morning flight, triggering a quick chain of e-mails among government officials. \"We...need to construct some sort of timeline on when folks became aware of it if that is possible,\" one Air Force official wrote, responding to the public interest. \"I agree we... need to accomplish damage control, but we aren't the POC [point of contact],\" the response reads. \"Nor do I want to become a belly button for NORAD to push on this one.\" Wrote one top Pentagon spokeswoman: \"Nothing like having everyone point the finger at someone else so we ALL look like a big bunch of buffoons... can you say Moe, Larry & Curly!??!?!\" In addition to the informal e-mail banter, the documents show the regimented system the Pentagon uses to monitor and respond to breaking news stories. A U.S. Northern Command document offers this \"assessment\" of the story: \"Last 4 hours: Story reported quickly. Covered by AP, CNN, FOX major news outlets. Local reporting very critical, highlighting 'scare' factor. Local populace very critical of event, due to 9-11 sensitivities.\" It continues: \"Web site blog comments 'furious' at best. Twitter search reveals 'tweets' regarding two F-16's chasing commercial airliner. Rate of 1 tweet per minute and growing.\" \"No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake,\" it concludes. In another e-mail, USAF Col. Scott M. Turner, commander of the Presidential Airlift Group, was doing just that. \"Again, my apologies sir. Real intent here was to honor NYC, not cause mass chaos,\" it reads. The next day, the Northern Command's internal memo included depictions of New York's three major tabloids featuring the headlines, \"Scare Force One,\" \"Just Plane Stupid!\" and \"How Dumb Was This!\" The photographs released Friday, meanwhile, show the presidential aircraft making a steep bank, seemingly well beyond the 30-degree maximum for Boeing 747s carrying passengers, according to one airline pilot consulted by CNN. That may have contributed to the anxiety on the ground. The Pentagon estimated the cost of the flight at $328,835, which includes the Boeing aircraft and the two fighter jets that accompanied it. But, they said, \"the hours would have been flown regardless, and the expenses would have been accrued on a different mission.\" The VC-25 aircraft is designated \"Air Force One\" only when the president is aboard. President Obama was not on the plane during the photo op. After the incident, Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office responsible for the flyover, resigned. \"I have concluded that the controversy surrounding the Presidential Airlift Group's aerial photo shoot over New York City has made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office,\" Caldera said in a letter to Obama. \"Moreover, it has become a distraction to the important work you are doing as president. After much reflection, I believe it is incumbent on me to tender my resignation and step down as director of the White House Military Office.\"","highlights":"Presidential plane's flight over New York led to panic on ground .\nAir Force releases 145 new photos of flight; 1 had been released previously .\nGovernment e-mail chains from day of flight also released .\n\"No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake,\" says one .","id":"0a3fff5779a8f7cfdde5d284a429ab89fd5e85df"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A man accused of entering New York's LaGuardia Airport with a bag containing wires and batteries, sparking suspicion and leading to a large-scale evacuation, was ordered Saturday to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, a prosecutor said. LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal is being treated as a crime scene. Scott McGann, 32, appeared in court after authorities said he walked into LaGuardia's Central Terminal Saturday morning with what was determined to be a fake bomb. The terminal was reopened after several hours. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said McGann was charged with placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in the first degree; placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in a transportation facility; and making terrorist threats. McGann appeared in court Saturday, but his arraignment was postponed, Brown said. McGann is being held without bail. \"The defendant is clearly a very troubled young man,\" Brown said. \"As a result, the Court has directed that he be examined to determine whether he has the capacity to understand the proceedings against him and assist in his defense.\" Earlier, officials said McGann wouldn't speak to his lawyer or anyone else. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday. McGann allegedly arrived at a checkpoint in the terminal at about 4:50 a.m., carrying a backpack and refusing to answer security questions. Authorities said the officer at the checkpoint was informed that a suspicious package was attached to the bottom of McGann's backpack, and that McGann allegedly grabbed what appeared to be a trigger device with a red button connected to the backpack. McGann allegedly pressed the button several times before a Port Authority officer grabbed the trigger and the package away from him. The package turned out to be a device consisting of batteries, cylinders and electronic components that could have been used to make a bomb, Brown said, but the bomb squad found that it didn't not contain any explosives. McGann had a ticket on a United Airlines flight to Chicago and a seat on two other connecting flights with his final destination Oakland, California, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation. Watch passengers talk about the confusion \u00bb . McGann has three prior arrests in the New York area, the source told CNN. The most recent involved June charges of tampering with evidence and resisting arrest. He was also arrested twice in 2008, the source said. Port Authority spokesman John Kelly said McGann \"was just acting crazy.\" The arresting officers described McGann to Kelly as \"extremely disheveled and dirty,\" in a \"near catatonic state\" and \"staring off into space,\" Kelly said. McGann had been homeless for at least a year. Authorities evacuated the terminal after 5:20 a.m., and allowed passengers back in to all areas except Concourse C by midmorning, Kelly said. The concourse was reopened shortly before 11 a.m., according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker. Watch the chaotic evacuation scene \u00bb . Authorities had stopped flights from taking off or landing at the airport, but by a little after 9 a.m., flights resumed, Baker said. Central Terminal is one of four terminals in the airport, which is in the borough of Queens. It is about eight miles from Manhattan. The incident disrupted travel plans for many passengers, and caused American Airlines to cancel 16 flights, said an airline spokesperson. American Eagle, Continental Airlines and Southwest also reported delays. iReport: Watch crowds start moving back into the terminal . CNN i-Reporter Jose Ojeda, 24, had been sitting on the tarmac on a plane headed to Chicago, Illinois, when the evacuation was ordered. \"We were all ready to go,\" Ojeda, of Bronx, New York, said of his flight, which he said had been scheduled to leave at 6:10 a.m. \"They didn't make any announcement other than, 'You need to evacuate,'\" he said. \"I thought it was standard procedure, but then once we got out of the plane, they kept pushing us back and back, out of the terminal out of the actual airport.\" CNN's Chuck Johnston, Aspen Steib, Ross Levitt, Laurie Segall and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspect must undergo psychiatric evaluation before court appearance .\nScott McGann, 32, of New York, faces 3 charges, including making terrorist threats .\nMan had bag stuffed with wires and batteries, appeared intoxicated, official says .\nFlights resume at busy LaGuardia Airport after evacuation ends .","id":"41a237926e6d0f45b70d64f696047e6efd1e31e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III -- one of dozens of politicians and rabbis arrested last week in a corruption scandal -- has resigned, the city attorney said Friday. Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III is accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes. Steve Kleinman said City Council President Dawn Zimmer will be sworn in immediately as acting mayor. He said Cammarano's letter of resignation, delivered to the city clerk at 9:15 a.m., said his resignation would be effective at noon Friday. The Democratic Hoboken mayor was one of 44 people arrested in last week's federal corruption probe. In his letter to the city clerk, Cammarano, 32, denied all criminal wrongdoing, but said the charges have disrupted the city government and his ability to perform mayoral duties. \"It had been my hope and expectation that I could remain in office and perform my official duties until I had the opportunity to resolve the legal charges against me in court,\" he wrote. \"Regrettably, it has turned out that the controversy surrounding the charges against me has become a distraction to me and an impediment to functioning of Hoboken government.\" He apologized to Hoboken residents for the \"disruption and disappointment\" the case has caused, but said, \"I am innocent of any criminal charges and I intend to fight the allegations against me.\" Authorities said that 29 public officials and associates took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, and that 15 people -- including five rabbis -- engaged in money laundering. Read about some linked to investigation \u00bb . One of the federal complaints alleges that Cammarano took about $25,000 in bribes from a government witness posing as a real estate developer. Dennis Elwell, 64, the Democratic mayor of Secaucus, in northern New Jersey, resigned Tuesday after being charged with accepting $10,000 from a confidential informant. Elwell's attorney, Thomas Cammarata, said the mayor had decided that resigning was in the best interest of his family and the people of Secaucus, but was not an admission of guilt. \"Dennis pleaded not guilty to the charges, is presumed innocent and will vigorously defend the unproven allegations made against him,\" the attorney said. Other city leaders arrested include Anthony Suarez, 42, the Democratic mayor of Ridgefield, New Jersey, and Leona Beldini, 74, the Democratic deputy mayor of Jersey City, prosecutors said. Earlier this week, Democrats L. Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt -- two members of the New Jersey State Assembly who were among the officials arrested in the probe -- were stripped of their legislative pay and benefits, Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. announced. When the arrests were announced July 23, prosecutors said investigators had searched about 20 locations in New Jersey and New York to recover \"large sums of cash and other evidence of criminal conduct,\" and executed 28 seizure warrants against bank accounts that they believe were involved in laundering money.","highlights":"Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III steps down in wake of scandal .\nCammarano, one of 44 arrested in corruption probe, accused of taking bribes .\nSecaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell resigned earlier after being linked to investigation .\nBoth maintain their innocence, saying stepping down is not admission of guilt .","id":"506a3a349a436636a8ac7c3eddb29b1b3e776d34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For most people, Post-it Notes are disposable, ordinary office papers used for note-taking and reminders. But for 19-year-old David Alvarez of Leavenworth, Washington, they were the perfect medium for a 10-foot-tall mosaic depicting Ray Charles. David Alvarez, right, made this 10-foot-tall mosaic of Ray Charles using Post-it Notes. Using more than 2,000 of those ubiquitous brightly-colored sticky scraps, Alvarez composed a three-dimensional representation of the famous musician. The piece has just gone on display at Wenatchee Valley College in Wenatchee, Washington, where Alvarez is in his second year of studies. \"It's something so simple. You can still see the flaps sticking out on some of them,\" he said. \"Naturally the Post-it Note just sort of flaps out.\" While learning new techniques in Adobe Photoshop in a class, he experimented with taking a photograph of Ray Charles and making it look like a mosaic on the computer screen. He then translated this idea into the Post-it work. He spent three months constructing the mosaic, sometimes sacrificing schoolwork for his art. At least one of his papers for his summer English courses suffered, but he persevered so that he could participate in an art show July 28 at the Stanley Civic Center in Wenatchee. Originally, the Post-it Notes stayed in this unique format only by virtue of their manufactured stickiness, which does not hold up as well as glue, Alvarez found. When he displayed his work at the show, he monitored the project for 14 hours, continuously replacing notes that were falling off. The aspiring art teacher now uses glue to hold the notes in place. For his next project, he is considering a mosaic using 4-inch x 4-inch notes, up from the 3-inch x 3-inch size used in the Ray Charles piece. \"Part of me wants to, part of me doesn't,\" he said. \"It was so hard to align. It took a lot of time and patience.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"David Alvarez makes mosaic with more than 2,000 Post-it Notes .\nMosaic on display at Wenatchee Valley College, Washington .\nArtist wants to teach art .","id":"b8c7028d9c3540e48a84f00df29da2b0018363e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Piracy is expected to pick up in the high seas off Somalia after a lull caused by monsoon season, maritime officials warned Monday. Suspected Somali pirates sit behind bars during the first hearing in their trial at Aden port court on July 15. The Combined Maritime Forces urged crews to take up safety measures, including using recognized transit corridors in the Gulf of Aden and reporting to the European Union's security center before transit. \"The prior preparation and vigilance of merchant mariners at all times of day and night is more important now than ever,\" said Rear Admiral Caner Bener of the Combined Task Force. International forces made up of more than 30 ships and aircraft from 16 nations will continue patrolling the waters to help fight pirates, according to officials. \"While our ability to deter and disrupt attacks has improved over time, we are constantly adapting the way we do our business as the pirates adapt and modify their tactics,\" Bener said. The waters off Somalia are rife with pirate activity, despite increased measures by military forces and shipping companies to ward off attacks. Heavily armed pirates have struck the busy Indian Ocean shipping lanes and the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. They have captured dozens of vessels and hundreds of hostages, making off with millions of dollars in ransom. It was unclear whether a ransom was paid. The Gulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world.","highlights":"Earlier this month Somali pirates release German ship held since May .\nIts crew was unharmed, NATO says .\nGulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world .","id":"5373c809966512e169014dd375ca344cfe6a57c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One man's trash is another man's mystery. Nick DiMola holds what he believes are about 60 artifacts and pieces of artifacts from Mexico. Five years ago, Nick DiMola's rubbish removal company was hired to clean out a Manhattan apartment following the death of the owner, abstract artist Clinton Hill. The contents of a barrel that DiMola salvaged from the trash then has today raised a series of questions. What DiMola holds are about 60 artifacts and pieces of artifacts that he thinks are from Mexico, dating to between 300 B.C. and 500 A.D. The mystery, which the Mexican Consulate in New York is trying to solve, is twofold: How much are the artifacts worth? And, if authentic, whom do they belong to? DiMola first saw the collection of pottery and figurines while cleaning Hill's apartment in 2004. He stored the barrel in his warehouse instead of disposing of it, then promptly forgot about it. Last week, DiMola rediscovered the pieces, only this time he told the New York Daily News about what he had found, announcing that he would sell them. That caught the attention of the Mexican government, which is studying the origins of the items and has claimed them. Now, DiMola wants to donate his find, but not necessarily to Mexico, he told CNN. The Queens native was excited about his discovery when he allowed representatives from the Mexican Cultural Institute to examine and photograph nearly all the pieces, DiMola said. His curiosity about them was growing, and he was expecting an appraisal from the government officials. What he got instead was a heads-up about a possible petition to return the entire collection to Mexico. \"My reaction is that that is not very diplomatic,\" DiMola said. \"It's a blow to the jaw.\" Ruben Beltran, Mexico's consul general in New York, was not available for comment Tuesday. However in an interview with the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo, he said that if the pieces are part of Mexican culture, the government will try to get them back. But as of now, no one is certain what the pieces are. Howard Nowes, an ancient art dealer who does appraisals, examined a handful of the pieces that DiMola holds. Nowes told CNN he saw a mix of authentic and non-authentic pre-Columbian pieces, which he valued at $3,000. The pieces were broken and weren't very artistic, he said, adding \"from what I can see, it was mostly junk.\" Unfazed, DiMola thinks all the pieces probably are worth more than $16,000 total, he said. \"Something like this, you can't put a price on, because I may have a figure that no one has seen before,\" DiMola said. \"There's a big value in these pieces.\" The Mexican government isn't taking any chances, and is conducting its own research into the authenticity and significance of the pieces. Museums in Houston, Texas; San Francisco, California and Washington, D.C., have expressed interest in the pieces as well, DiMola said. He said he'd like to donate the artifacts to museums across the country, and some to the Mexican Cultural Institute at the Mexican Consulate in New York City, but that could change if Mexico uses international law to claim the items. The foundation that hired DiMola to clean the house is unlikely to try to reclaim the pieces, said John Koegel, the attorney who handled Hill's estate. When Hill died, he left all his possessions to his lifelong partner, Allen Tran, Koegel told CNN. In turn, Tran bequeathed all of Hill's possessions to a foundation \"to carry out his artistic legacy,\" he said. Hill had some pieces from Mexico in his apartment that were cataloged, but the artist had no strong connection to the country, Koegel said. For DiMola, all the fuss stems from a simple truth. \"Sometimes you find things that are good and salvageable in the trash,\" he said.","highlights":"Nick DiMola finds Mexican artifacts worth thousands in trash barrel .\nBarrel belonged to deceased abstract artist Clinton Hill .\nMexican government claims it owns artifacts, seeks their return .\nDiMola says he wants to donate artifacts to museums across U.S.","id":"8b558e3e4136d0c7a53153a9baa73be0dc89dc1a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two of Turkey's main political parties are pushing for a constitutional amendment to lift bans on headscarves at public universities, a move that has caused concern among Turkey's secular population. The lifting of the ban on headscarves has caused concern among Turkey's secular population. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan initiated the move, saying it would create equality in Turkey's higher education. The constitutional commission will discuss the proposal -- submitted by the AKP and MHP parties -- in the coming days before sending it to the floor for a vote. If approved, it would need President Abdullah Gul's approval, which is expected. Under the proposal, veils, burqas or chaddors -- all of which cover a woman's face -- would not be allowed. Bans on headcoverings were imposed in the early 1980s by Turkey's universities because they were seen as political symbols and conflicted with Turkey's secular governing system. The proposal to change Turkey's constitution sent chills through Turkey's secular population. Women's groups went to parliament Tuesday to voice their rejection. \"This is a direct threat to the republic and its foundations,\" said Deniz Baykal, leader of Turkey's main secular party, CHP. Another CHP lawmaker said she fears that if the proposal is enacted, parents will feel pressure to have their daughters wear headscarves, even in elementary school. Mustafa Akaydin, head of Turkey's Higher Education Commission, is against the proposal. He said that allowing headscarves would be a rejection of Turkey's secular system of government. \"It is an attempt to create a counterrevolution,\" Akaydin said. \"It will be a breaking point.\" He said a majority of female high school students at one school were wearing headscarves during last weekend's entry exams -- a rarity in Turkish schools. The Higher Education Commission will meet Friday in Ankara to discuss the proposed changes. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Turkey's ruling party agrees to lift ban on head scarves in universities .\nBan introduced after military coup in 1980 as seen as a sign of religion .\nTurkey is a secular nation but its population is mainly Muslim .\nProposal has brought protests among the secular population .","id":"00a570272e671a8fad94ffe0927a04c1bfc4110e"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Jaden Smith is getting a small taste of what it's like to walk in dad Will's action-blockbuster shoes. Keanu Reeves stars in the remake of the 1951 sci-fi flick \"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\" As expected, the remake of the 1951 sci-fi flick starring Keanu Reeves easily replaced \"Four Christmases\" atop the box office leader board with an opening weekend gross of $31 million, according to Sunday's estimates. Despite mediocre reviews, the film held fairly steady throughout the weekend, falling slightly shy of our $36 million estimate. The Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon yuletide comedy came in second with $13.3 million, bringing its three-week total to just under $88 million, while \"Twilight\" faded to the third spot during its fourth week with just over $8 million. The teen vampire romance managed to reach one milestone, however, grossing a total of $150 million -- the amount director Catherine Hardwicke surmised the movie would have to suck in for sequel \"New Moon\" to get the go ahead. Obviously, Summit executives saw the writing on the wall weeks ago and have hired Chris Weitz (\"About a Boy,\" \"American Pie\") to direct next fall's follow-up. Rounding out the top five are Disney's doggie flick \"Bolt\" with $7.5 million and Baz Luhrmann's underperforming \"Australia\" with $4.3 million. The weekend's other new major release -- \"Nothing Like the Holidays,\" starring John Leguizamo and Debra Messing -- got coal in its stocking with a measly $3.5 million during its first weekend. Also of note is the Clint Eastwood-starring \"Gran Torino\" (rumored to be the actor-director's last turn in front of the camera). Although it opened in only six theaters (three in New York, three in L.A.), the film scored the best per screen average, $47,333, with a gross of only $284,000. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" debuted with a weekend gross of $31 million .\nThe yuletide comedy \"Four Christmases\" slipped to second with $13.3 million .\nTeen vampire romance \"Twilight\" reached a gross total of $150 million .","id":"893090f30d644fbdf481a361dea73997cb4a3785"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's personal chef Kai Chase says June 25 was shaping up as another typical day in the superstar's usually peaceful and orderly home until an urgent plea from Jackson's personal doctor sent panic sweeping through the household. Michael Jackson's personal chef Kai Chase appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Thursday night. In an interview with CNN's Larry King that aired Thursday night, Chase described the chaotic events that fateful day and what life was like inside the Jackson family before the singer's shocking death. Chase said she was downstairs preparing lunch for Jackson -- being sure to wrap it in Saran wrap because the singer liked his meals served room-service style -- when Dr. Conrad Murray called out for her. Murray is the central focus of a federal investigation into the singer's death, a law enforcement official told CNN on Wednesday. Around noon or a little after, Chase said, \"Dr. Murray comes down the stairs. There was a stairwell that leads into the kitchen. And he's screaming: Hurry! Go get Prince. Call security. Get Prince.\" Chase said she quickly got Jackson's oldest son. \"Within minutes, the paramedics are there. And the security is running upstairs, skipping stairs and all of a sudden we're all, you know, panicked,\" Chase told King. \"So the energy in the house had just kind of changed from that happy kind of day that we were having and preparing lunch and having a good time to just kind of eerie.\" Watch Chase's interview with Larry King \u00bb . Chase said Jackson's daughter, Paris, started crying and calling out for her father as people in the home came to realize how serious the medical situation was. \"We started crying and we all come together in unity in a circle and we started holding hands. And we started praying,\" Chase said. The chef said she was not allowed into the upstairs quarters of the home, but she had seen Michael Jackson downstairs on Wednesday, June 24. Nothing she saw the day before cause her alarm. \"He ate lunch with his children at the dinner table. And then I packed ... his dinner for him to go to his rehearsal. He seemed like he was just, you know, tired,\" Chase said. She attributed the way he felt to his long rehearsals. Chase said Jackson did complain once about his demanding schedule. \"The third day I was there, when I came back, he had told me, 'You know, they're killing me. They're killing me because I'm working too much. I'm rehearsing too much.' \" Between 1 and 1:30 p.m. June 25, Chase said security asked her to leave the home, and she never saw Michael Jackson being transported to the hospital. She didn't learn of Jackson's death until later that day on the radio. Chase said that Murray was in the house often in June and she attributed the doctor's frequent presence to Jackson's rigorous rehearsal schedule for an upcoming series of concerts in London, England. Search warrants filed Thursday in court in Clark County, Nevada, and carried out at Murray's offices imply that investigators looking into his death believe the singer was a drug addict. In his interview with Chase, King pressed for details of evidence of drug use by Jackson: . King: Did you notice oxygen tanks, because if it was Diprivan and they have to measure ... your blood pressure? They also need oxygen tanks if you're giving that drug. Did you notice them? Chase: I saw the oxygen tanks, yes. King: Where were they? Chase: I would see Dr. Murray carrying the oxygen tanks down in the mornings. King: On that morning or other mornings? Chase: No. I didn't see him that morning. I saw him in the afternoon, but other mornings. King: He would carry them down? Chase: Carry them down. King: They were portable oxygen tanks? Chase: Yes. Chase said she just recently learned the warrants to search Murray's offices cited her name as a suspected alias for Michael Jackson. \"I was just made aware of that from my publicist. I think that is ... appalling. I have no clue what that is about,\" Chase said. She said detectives came to her home right after the death but did not ask her about her name being on any prescriptions. \"I don't know what make of it,\" Chase told King. Chase, who said she's been a professional chef for about 14 years, said she's seen the Jackson children since June 25. \"They're doing great. And I saw them a couple of weeks ago,\" she said. \"And they look great and they're playing with their cousins and having a good time.\" Chase said she was first employed by Jackson in March but was let go. She said Jackson asked her to come back to their California residence in June and that the children were happy about her return. She said the children gave her a \"box of happiness\" on return that contained little gifts and letters. One of them read in part: . \"Dear Kai, thank you for the gifts and the gumbo. I hope you enjoy the gift. I think you'll like it. Love, Prince Jackson.\" Chase said she said no evidence that Michael Jackson was a poor eater. In fact, she said just the opposite was true from her observations. \"He ate very well,\" she said. \"He ate organic and fresh. He [was] into the health foods and juices and things of that nature.\" Chase briefly addressed other subjects: . \u2022 On Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother: \"I saw the interaction with them when I went to the home. ... They love their grandma, you know. It's a beautiful bond that they have together.\" \u2022 On Jackson's ex-wife having visitation rights to her children: \"I think Debbie Rowe should see and raise her children.\" \u2022 On Jackson's planned London shows: \"We started talking about bringing, you know, video games and stuff to the private jet. And it was just, you know, he was very excited about going on this -- doing this tour. This is his comeback.\" Life in the Jackson household -- from Chase's account -- was a loving and cheerful one and that he loved his three children. \"You know, I would bring ... the lunches and set them on the table and they'd all come in and sit, close the door and they'd dine privately. And you would just hear laughter and story-telling and just beautiful things. Those were his babies.\"","highlights":"Kai Chase served as Michael Jackson's personal chef, said he ate well .\nShe says she and Jackson children held hands, cried, prayed during health crisis .\nChase says she saw Dr. Conrad Murray bring oxygen tanks into Jackson household .\nLife in the Jackson household was orderly and loving, the chef observes .","id":"b13635f455436f24a6e3fe886e59eba857de8ae9"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Prohibition-style bars and speakeasies have been popping up all over, but these lounges go beyond the gimmicks in their near obsessive devotion to the art of old-time cocktails and decor. The perpetually packed Beehive in Boston is known for its Beehive julep and champagne cocktails. The Edison, Los Angeles, California . The 1920s scene at legendary watering holes like the Cocoanut Grove and Ciro's of Hollywood inspired this cavernous lounge, where current industry players mingle in their best vintage cocktail dresses and blazers. The Edison is in the basement of a former power plant; leather furniture surrounds preserved industrial elements like furnaces and power generators. Silent movies play on brick walls, and a circus troupe performs weekly. On Soup Kitchen Fridays, drinks mixed from house-made Bath Tub Gin are 35 cents from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and come with free grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. edisondowntown.com. The Violet Hour, Chicago, Illinois . Luxurious floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains create intimate spaces inside the Violet Hour, discreetly hidden behind an unmarked, wood-paneled door. Circles of high-backed leather chairs and the warm glow from crystal chandeliers and working fireplaces encourage conversation. So does a strict no-cell-phones policy. Eight kinds of ice -- shards, crushed and cubes of varying shapes -- are tailored to specific drinks, which gives an idea of how seriously this bar takes its cocktails. A favorite is the Juliet and Romeo, Beefeater gin with mint, cucumber and rosewater ($12). theviolethour.com. Budget Travel gallery: See the bars . APO Bar + Lounge, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Look for the pharmacy cross marking the entrance to APO, short for apothecary -- a place where ingredients like gin and bitters were put to medicinal use way before the cocktail was born. Inside the sleek, green-hued lounge, barkeeps sporting '30s-style suits serve cocktails spruced up with creative, unusual ingredients. The Booty Collins, for instance, is green-tea-infused gin with brandied cherries, passion fruit and homemade seltzer, finished with agave nectar, cayenne pepper and fresh valerian root ($10). The bar recently introduced a simpler recession-proof menu of $6 drinks that lose the exotic accents and just mix fine spirits with fresh fruit juices. apothecarylounge.com. Flatiron Lounge, New York City . In a landmark 1900 building in Manhattan's Flatiron District, this lounge evokes jazz-age glamour with velvet bar stools, red circular booths and an entire wall covered in blue vintage mirrored-glass tiles. The anchor is the 1927 mahogany bar salvaged from The Ballroom, where Frank Sinatra partied. Painstakingly crafted drinks range from fresh-fruit-infused cocktails ($13) to daily martini flights -- three mini cocktails with a common theme, such as the Flight Back in Time, featuring a Sazerac, a Sidecar and an Aviation martini ($22). flatironlounge.com. The Beehive, Boston, Massachusetts . Named for a Paris caf\u00e9 des artistes that once hosted artists Marc Chagall and Amadeo Modigliani, this Moulin Rouge-esque supper club presents jazz, cabaret and burlesque performances on a shimmering stage draped with theatrical red-velvet curtains. At round stage-side tables, diners feast on stick-to-your-ribs comfort food like gravy-smothered poutine. Chandeliers hang among exposed pipes over the perpetually packed bar, known for champagne cocktails and Beehive juleps ($10.50). beehiveboston.com. Velvet Tango Room, Cleveland, Ohio . This funky 1800s brick house was a speakeasy during the '20s, and it feels like not much has changed since then, as evidenced by the well-used jazz piano and the secret room hidden behind a two-way mirror. Bartenders measure ingredients on scales to ensure exact proportions go into cocktails ($15) made with throwback mixers like frothy egg whites, fresh-brewed bitters and homemade ginger soda. velvettangoroom.com. Illusions Magic Bar, Baltimore, Maryland . With custom-made chandeliers above the cherry wood bar and jazz and swing played on the piano, Illusions gives the impression of being like any other roaring '20s-themed jazz club. Not so on Friday and Saturday evenings, when the stage -- cut into the middle of the bar -- hosts a one-hour vaudeville-style magic show ($5 cover). House magician Spencer Horsman escapes from a straitjacket while hanging upside down from the ceiling, a feat best appreciated while sipping a multilayered \"magic\" martini of Hpnotiq liqueur, Stoli raspberry vodka, pineapple juice and Chambord ($12). The low-key second-floor lounge has leather sofas and retro magician posters that go nicely with Magic Hat beers ($3). illusionsmagicbar.com. Shanghai 1930, San Francisco, California . China's largest metropolis was known as the Paris of the Orient during the pre-WWII era, when diplomats, artists and expats mingled at over-the-top Chinese dining palaces. That decadent ambience is re-created at this supper club, which has dark wood booths, art deco red-velvet chairs and ornate Chinese rugs. After feasting on opulent dishes like minced roast duck in lettuce petals ($13) guests retire to the backlit Blue Bar for live jazz and absinthe-spiked cocktails ($9-$14). shanghai1930.com. Sazerac Bar, New Orleans, Louisiana . The fabled bar that first popularized the Ramos Gin Fizz and its namesake Sazerac reopened on July 1 in the revamped Roosevelt Hotel. Paul Nina's original art deco murals adorn the walls of the bar, which has been closed since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Also inside the hotel, the legendary Blue Room supper club -- where Louis Armstrong and Jimmy Durante cut their chops -- will once again host periodic evenings of Dixieland jazz and big band music. therooseveltneworleans.com. Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"The Velvet Tango Room in Cleveland was a speakeasy during the '20s .\nThe Violet Hour in Chicago mixes cocktails with eight kinds of ice .\nIn Boston, The Beehive presents jazz, cabaret and burlesque performances .","id":"f6544469c9e2c38ac20aa66cd5afff90910d99b3"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's former trade minister, who resigned this month amid accusations of corruption, was arrested by security forces as he was trying to leave the country, officials confirmed to CNN. Abdul Falah al-Sudani resigned as Iraq's trade minister under allegations of corruption. Abdul Falah al-Sudani was aboard a flight to Dubai from Baghdad International Airport when police contacted the pilot and told him to fly back to the airport, Sabah al-Saedi, chairman of Iraq's parliamentary integrity committee told CNN. Al-Sudani -- arrested on a warrant issued in Samawa on Saturday -- was seized after the plane landed, al-Saedi said. Lawmakers and government officials have raised questions with al-Sudani about Trade Ministry issues: the importation of goods intended for distribution in government food rations but rejected as unsuitable for human consumption; missing shipments of food; a missing $39 million; and obstruction of justice. Al-Sudani acknowledged that his ministry has had problems with corruption but denied he was personally involved. Al-Saedi said al-Sudani didn't know that a warrant would be issued, but he was well-aware of the corruption accusations against him and had been told by lawmakers and officials not to leave Iraq.","highlights":"Ex-trade minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani resigned in corruption scandal .\nAl-Sudani arrested after authorities tell pilot to return plane to Baghdad .\nFormer official denies involvement in ministry's corruption problems .","id":"71b755a0b11bdfb556c908ea2709890b680d233f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's life has ended, but the legal battles over his possessions, his debts and his children are likely just beginning. Michael Jackson, seen here with two of his three children, died suddenly on Thursday. Perhaps the biggest and saddest question is what will happen to the late singer's two sons and his daughter: 12-year-old Prince Michael I, 11-year-old Paris and 7-year-old Prince Michael II. Normally in such cases, care of the children would be taken over by the surviving parent or a close relative. But as with many other aspects of Jackson's life, his family situation was complex, unusual and far from normal. Born to two mothers -- Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe and an unidentified woman who reportedly served as a surrogate -- the children lived and traveled the world with Jackson, their faces often covered by veils and masks when appearing in public. Rowe gave up her parental rights to her two kids with the singer, but later battled to have them restored. She may be considered to take over custody for Prince Michael I and Paris, said CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who has followed Jackson's legal woes for years. \"Certainly any court that is looking at that sort of question will say, if the father dies who is the mother and would we consider giving the children to the mother?\" Toobin said. \"As I understand it, in later years after a substantial amount of time when Debbie Rowe didn't see those children at all, she started to have a relationship with them again. So she'd certainly be an obvious candidate for custody of those two children.\" Watch Toobin talk about Jackson's legal issues \u00bb . The question of custody for the third child would be even more up in the air since his mother was likely never involved in his life, Toobin added. The three kids are staying with their paternal grandmother, Katherine Jackson, People magazine reported. She may just wind up keeping them, observers said. \"Katherine is the logical choice -- she has all the grandkids and nieces around her but it will be up to the courts,\" said Brian Oxman, a former Jackson family attorney, according to People. \"I wouldn't be surprised if there are more proceedings regarding the children.\" Complications may already be looming on the horizon. Katherine Jackson may wish to keep the children, but Michael Jackson wanted them to be taken care of by their nanny if anything happened to him, ABC News reported, quoting Stacey Brown, co- author of \"Michael Jackson Behind the Mask.\" Meanwhile, Rowe's former attorney tells People that a judge returned parental rights to Rowe in 2005, so she is the legal parent of her two children with Jackson and can gain custody of them. Chaotic legal life . Instructions specifying who should care for children after a parent's death are often left in a will, but it's not known whether Jackson had one prepared before his untimely passing. \"Michael Jackson led an extremely chaotic financial and legal life. ... Given how chaotic his life was, did he even have a will?\" Toobin said. Beyond the question of Jackson's children, a will may also be key to answering questions about what's left of his estate. The pop star's financial ups and downs have been as well-chronicled as his personal problems, including a near-bankruptcy and the threatened foreclosure of his Neverland ranch. Jackson accumulated almost $500 million in debt by living large over the years, but he also had considerable assets when he died, including his own music royalties and a 25 percent stake in a music publishing library that contained many Beatles songs, Fortune reported. Those assets might prompt new legal battles and it may be a long time before the dust settles. \"[Jackson] was surrounded by some of the sleaziest, most unethical advisers who came in and came out and he has had a tremendous amount of litigation in his life,\" Toobin said. \"His death will be followed by a great deal of further litigation. ... The sad thing about that is that if it does, it will be part of a pattern that those of us who followed Michael's life saw, which is that ... lots of people with no talent, with none of his charisma, with none of his spirit, lawyers, publicists, hangers on who made money off of his earnings continuing after his death.\"","highlights":"Michael Jackson had three children with two women .\nEx-wife gave up her parental rights, but later fought to have them restored .\nShe may be considered to take over custody for her two kids with Jackson .\nIt's not known whether Jackson left a will .","id":"2e4b4d982bf49a6ad7bd42e99612799f238c718d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billy Mays always let you know who you were talking to. OxiClean pitchman Billy Mays, king of the \"yell and sell\" technique died Sunday morning at his home in Tampa. \"Billy Mays, here.\" The 50-year-old became famous for hawking products like OxiClean (\"Powered by the air you breathe!\") and Mighty Mendit (\"Before you throw it away, let Mighty Mendit save the day!\"). You needed more space in your closet, Mays had a special hanger for that. You wanted to hang a picture without putting a hole in your wall, he had some supernatural putty you needed to know about. You had a spill? One word. Zorbeez. \"I'm a pitchman, my business comes from the pitch, nothing else,\" Mays said recently in an interview with Portfolio. \"My voice, my likeness is my livelihood. That's it. I keep it simple. I pick good products.\" Mays died Sunday at his home near Tampa, Florida. The Hillsborough County medical examiner Dr. Vernard Adams said Monday that Mays had heart disease. Listen to the 911 call \u00bb . Mays' wife, Deborah Mays, released this statement Monday: \"While it provides some closure to learn that heart disease took Billy from us, it certainly doesn't ease the enormous void that his death has created in our lives.\" Handsome in a Brawny Towel Guy sort of way, Mays seemed to be as boisterous off camera as he was on, at least in interviews. He once compared his hands to \"weapons\" for the way they would whip around a product like a fast-dancing showgirl. And even when he didn't feel like cracking a smile, he dug deep. \"When I'm up against a wall, that's when Billy Mays performs best,\" he told a Fortune magazine writer earlier this year while driving his Bentley near his home. At the time, Mays' bum hip was hurting him. He had his hip replaced last year and recently talked about using a special gel insole to help him with the pain -- another product he planned to push. How well does that work? Mays had demonstrated it informally in interviews by wrapping his hand in the insole and whacking it with a hammer. That was just Mays: A sunshiny attitude and an \"I've tried it\" believability. Even on Saturday, less than a day before his wife found him dead in their home, Mays was cheerful as he described being conked on the head by falling luggage when his US Airways flight had a rough landing at Tampa International. \"I gotta hard head,\" he said, shrugging. Watch Billy Mays smile and sell \u00bb . Mays' success in the $300 billion infomercial industry was his ability to come off sincere, a magical feat for what is, essentially, huckstering, said Marian Salzman, partner at advertising PR giant Porter Novelli. \"He was the everyday Burt Reynolds; Burt in a next-door neighbor format,\" she said. \"Burt Reynolds was not approachable, but Billy appealed to the 'Mrs. I Push My Cart in Wal-mart.' Friend: \"No better pitchman on Earth\" \u00bb . \"He was that good looking guy at the end of the cul de sac that you could talk to, and even though you know he was going to talk a lot of nonsense, there was going to be an integrity in there.\" Mays often told interviewers of being raised in Pennsylvania, where he played high school football. He left college and began pushing products on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, a vibrant scene a few decades ago. \"There'd be one here, one there, you know, it's just the knife, the slicer, the Vitamix, you know, the Washamatic,\" Mays told ABC's \"Nightline\" in April. \"And there would be tons of people coming in and you just had to, you know, attack these people, stop them, you know, where they're shopping and tell them the story and sell the product.\" Perfecting what has been called the \"yell 'n sell,\" Mays traveled around the country, selling various doohickeys and thingamabobs. He met another salesman, Max Appel, a guru of cleaning products, and the two forged a friendship. In 1996, Appel scored a chance to go on the Home Shopping Network and wanted Mays to appear as the pitchman, according to Fortune. That was the day the wood cleaner Orange Glo was born, a golden road that ended in a $325 million pay day when Appel sold the company to Church & Dwight, the maker of OxiClean. Celebrity was on the horizon. In the late 1980s cable TV was taking off as a marketplace as segments of late night airtime were relatively cheap. There was a science to what would evolve as a cottage industry. Keep the pitches short and bright. Demonstrate, don't describe. Noting the commercials air globally, Mays joked with Portfolio magazine that he speaks 57 languages. Affordability is an international language. \"I feel that the magic number on the infomercial, the two-minute spots, it's kind of hard to get past $20,\" Mays told Portfolio. \"That seems to be the magic number. Or $19.95. The best things in life are free and $19.95.\" Mays also knew how to make fun of himself, including in a series of promos for ESPN. \"Billy Mays here for ESPN360.com, the revolutionary tool for watching sports,\" he shouts, crouching under a desk and pointing to a cable. \"The secret is in the Internet connection live sports travel on this wire to the back of your desktop!\" Mays had recently starred in a Discovery channel reality show with fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan, a Briton who has made many think, perhaps at 3 a.m., that purchasing a Smart Chopper is the best move they've made in months. Sullivan and Mays appeared together in a TV Guide television interview to talk about the show. \"America will realize that Billy doesn't shout all the time,\" Sullivan said. \"He has another volume.\"","highlights":"Billy Mays was \"Burt Reynolds in next-door format,\" advertising expert says .\nMays started his career on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, New Jersey .\n\"I'm a pitchman, my business comes from the pitch, nothing else,\" he said.\nMays was found dead in his Tampa, Florida, home on Sunday .","id":"483cc6f0354a40ec2c70717706b470dc585988db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Drew Peterson, the former police sergeant who authorities call the prime suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, has been indicted on murder charges related to his third wife, Kathleen Savio, the Illinois state attorney's office said. Drew Peterson was arrested Thursday on murder charges relating to his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Illinois State Police said Peterson was taken into custody about 5:30 p.m. Thursday after a traffic stop near his home. Police had staked out his home all day, said police Capt. Carl Dobrich, but waited for Peterson to leave to arrest him out of concern for his three children, who were inside the house. Peterson, through his attorney, denied any wrongdoing in either case. Wills County State's Attorney James Glasgow said he believes the case is strong and said Peterson is being held on $20 million bond. \"This is an extremely grave and serious matter and it is reflected in the bond,\" Glasgow said. Peterson's attorney Joel Brodsky told CNN's Larry King he believed the bond was excessive and would seek a more \"reasonable\" bond, noting it was the most expensive bond he'd seen in 10 years. Watch Peterson's attorney address his client's arrest \u00bb . Charles B. Pelkie, spokesman for the state's attorney in Will County, Illinois, said a grand jury indicted Peterson in the murder of Savio, whose death had been ruled an accidental drowning. Brodsky said in a written statement that prosecutors won't be able to prove their case because \"he didn't do it.\" \"There is no evidence that links Drew Peterson to the death of Kathleen Savio or anyone else for that matter,\" Brodsky said. \"Drew did not harm Kathleen; he has said so from Day One. We're obviously disappointed a grand jury indicted him. But an indictment does not mean guilt.\" Pelkie said the grand jury continues to meet and is studying the possibility of charges in Stacy Peterson's disappearance. Watch family members react to the arrest \u00bb . After Stacy Peterson went missing in October 2007, media frenzy and police scrutiny on Peterson revealed Savio had died mysteriously a few years earlier during a nasty divorce. Savio died just before the division of the marital assets was finalized, making Drew Peterson the sole beneficiary. Savio was found in the dry bathtub of her home. At the time, the death was ruled an accidental drowning. But her family continued to insist that Savio died as a result of foul play. The investigation into Stacy Peterson's disappearance brought renewed interest in Savio's death. Authorities exhumed Savio's body, further tests were conducted, and her death has now been ruled a \"homicide staged to look like an accident.\" Brodsky told King he believes the case has always been about circumstantial evidence and that he will bring a pathologist to trial who will say Savio died from an accidental drowning. \"I think the jury's going to see that, in fact, this always has been an accidental death and still is an accidental death,\" Brodsky told King. Kathleen Savio's brother, Nick, told CNN affiliate WLS-TV he received a call from his sister saying Peterson had been arrested. Watch police arrest Peterson \u00bb . \"The state police had been telling us the day was coming,\" he told WLS-TV. \"We kept hearing it for about eight months. I'm almost in tears here. It's been so hard for our family.\" \"Hopefully, we'll get the justice we've always been waiting for.\" Martin Glink, attorney for the Savio family, said they were hopeful the grand jury felt there was enough evidence to charge Peterson. \"We're very happy that the wheels of justice have continued to move and they are pointing in his direction,\" Glink told WLS-TV. The news was also bittersweet for Stacy Peterson's family, who continue to wait for news about her disappearance. \"We have anticipated this coming. We have dreamed about it. We have been patient over it,\" Pam Bosco, spokesperson for Stacy Peterson's family told WLS-TV. \"Now that it's here, it's almost a little bit calm. We're waiting for the storm to calm now. The calm before the storm.\" Bosco said while she had not heard about any charges relating to Stacy Peterson's death, she was hopeful those charges would follow. \"We always said from the very beginning that Kathleen and Stacy had one thing in common -- and that was Drew Peterson,\" she said. \"So, hopefully, we'll have news soon about Stacy, too.\" Ernie Raines is also relieved about the arrest. His daughter, Christina Raines, is dating Peterson and was living with him before his arrest. Ernie Raines told CNN's Anderson Cooper he was with his daughter and Peterson as recently as last week, when they talked about going to Las Vegas, Nevada, and getting married. Thursday night he spoke with his daughter after the arrest. \"My daughter was terrified, very emotional, upset,\" Ernie Raines said. \"And I tried to tell her from the beginning that this was going to happen, be prepared.\" Ernie Raines said more than anything, when he heard about the arrest, he was relieved. \"I'm glad justice finally came -- before he hurt my daughter,\" he said. Police put Peterson's three minor children in the custody of the state's children and family service department. His adult son was contacted, at Peterson's request, to take them, according to Capt. Dobrich. Dobrich said Peterson cooperated with police during his arrest. CNN's Susan Roesgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dad of girlfriend: I'm glad justice finally came -- before he hurt my daughter\"\nDrew Peterson arrested in the slaying of his third wife, Kathleen Savio .\nRenewed interest in Savio's death came after Peterson's fourth wife disappeared .\nPeterson, through his attorney, denies any wrongdoing in either case .","id":"d5fb1adde9377063d9bfaf20b343d7374ab36825"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal authorities indicted 24 people Wednesday on charges of selling, buying or exchanging archaeological artifacts stolen from Native American lands -- part of what Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar called a crackdown on smugglers of such relics. The artifacts include burial and ceremonial masks, decorated pottery and a buffalo-hide headdress, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. \"Let this case serve notice to anyone who is considering breaking these laws and trampling our nation's cultural heritage that the BLM [Bureau of Land Management], the Department of Justice and the federal government will track you down and bring you to justice,\" said Salazar, who was in Salt Lake City, Utah, to announce the crackdown. President Obama is \"committed to a new relationship with America's first Americans,\" Salazar said, adding that Wednesday's announcements of indictments was a show of that commitment. Officials said the artifacts -- some stolen from grave sites -- were taken from the Four Corners area, so called because it is the intersection of four states: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The area also has a rich history of Native American culture. The Navajo Parks and Recreation Department manages the Four Corners Monument, which attracts tourists as the only point in the United States where four states come together at one point. Authorities recovered 256 artifacts worth about $335,685, said Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. About 150 agents assisted in an undercover investigation that tracked the suspects for more than two years, Ogden said. They had the help of an individual who knew about the smuggling ring, officials said. The investigation is ongoing, said Ogden. The recovered artifacts are evidence, but at some point after the investigation those that are privately owned will be returned to their owners, said Craig Leff, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management. The suspects face charges carrying sentences ranging from one to 10 years in prison for violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation, Ogden said.","highlights":"24 indicted for selling, buying, exchanging archaeological artifacts .\nArtifacts stolen from Native American lands .\nAuthorities recovered 256 artifacts worth about $335,685 .\nUndercover investigation tracked suspects for more than two years .","id":"d52ff22b73dc7d72b99402eadb9d633361d0e83b"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The woman whose death has come to symbolize Iranian resistance to the government's official election results did not die the way the opposition claims, government-backed Press TV said Sunday. A boy lights a candle beside a photo of Neda during a protest against Iranian elections in Frankfurt, Germany. Two people told Press TV there were no security forces in the area when Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was killed on June 20. Neda's death was captured on amateur video -- most likely by a cell phone -- and posted online. Within hours, she had become the iconic victim of the Iranian government crackdown. Eyewitnesses say Neda was shot by pro-government Basij militiamen perched on a rooftop. But Press TV said the type of bullet that killed her is not used by Iranian security forces. A man who told the state-funded network he had helped take her to a hospital said, \"There were no security forces or any member of the Basij\" government-backed paramilitary present when she was killed. Press TV did not name the man, who spoke Farsi and was subtitled in English on the broadcast. CNN has not identified him and cannot confirm his account. Watch more about Neda's death \u00bb . \"I didn't see who shot who,\" he said. \"The whole scene looked suspicious to me.\" A second man, whom Press TV identified as Neda's music teacher who was with her when she died, told the station there was \"no security forces in this street\" when she was shot. Press TV did not name the man, who had a gray mustache and ponytail. He spoke Farsi and was subtitled in English as he walked and pointed at what Press TV said was the scene of the shooting. She was with a family friend who is a music teacher when she was killed. He appears to be the man who spoke to the Iranian broadcaster. \"There was no sign of a protest,\" he said. \"We crossed the street to the other side to get a cab... When we reached this spot, a gunshot was heard. There was no shooting here... There were no security forces in this street. There were around 20, 30 people in this street. One shot was heard and that bullet hit Neda.\" \"The bullet was apparently fired from a small caliber pistol that's not used by Iranian security forces,\" the Press TV anchor said. Iran has strict gun-control laws that bar private citizens from carrying firearms. U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he had seen the video of Neda's death and called it \"heartbreaking. \"And I think anyone who sees it knows there's something fundamentally unjust about it,\" he said. The shaky video of her death shows her walking with a man, a teacher of music and philosophy, near an anti-government demonstration. After being stuck in traffic for more than an hour inside a Peugeot 206 -- a subcompact with a poorly working air conditioner -- Neda and the friend decided to get out of the car for some fresh air, a friend of Neda's told CNN after her death. The two were near where protesters were chanting in opposition to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose calls for an end to anti-government demonstrations have sparked defiance across the nation. Neda, wearing a baseball cap over a black scarf, a black shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes, does not appear to be chanting and seems to be observing the demonstration. Suddenly, Neda is on the ground -- felled by a single gunshot wound to the chest. Several men kneel at her side and place pressure on her chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. \"She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!\" shouts one man. By now, Neda's eyes have rolled to her right; her body is limp. Blood streams from her mouth, then from her nose. For a second, her face is hidden from view as the camera goes behind one of the men. When Neda's face comes back into view, it is covered with blood. Iran's ambassador to Mexico -- one of few Iranian officials who has spoken to CNN since the disputed June 12 presidential election -- suggested American intelligence services could be responsible for her death. \"This death of Neda is very suspicious,\" Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri said. \"My question is, how is it that this Miss Neda is shot from behind, got shot in front of several cameras, and is shot in an area where no significant demonstration was behind held? \"Well, if the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the government elements, then choosing women is an appropriate choice, because the death of a woman draws more sympathy,\" Ghadiri said. CIA spokesman George Little responded, \"Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd and offensive.\"","highlights":"Press TV: No security forces in area when Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was killed .\nHer death was captured on amateur video and posted online June 20 .\nEyewitnesses say Neda was shot by pro-government Basij militiamen .\nPress TV say type of bullet that killed her not used by Iranian security forces .","id":"5ccfb3cc510eb9f472307a4654a5f06c531c61ed"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Search warrants filed Thursday in court in Clark County, Nevada, and carried out at properties of Michael Jackson's doctor imply that investigators looking into his death believe the singer was a drug addict. Dr. Conrad Murray was with Michael Jackson on the day that he died. The warrants, signed by District Judge Timothy Williams and given to CNN by Las Vegas affiliate KTNV, say \"there is probable cause to believe\" that searches would uncover evidence at the Las Vegas home and office of Dr. Conrad Murray of excessive prescribing, prescribing to an addict, excess treatment or prescribing, unprofessional conduct, prescribing to or treating an addict and manslaughter. They cite \"probable cause to believe\" that the premises contained \"records, shipping orders, distribution lists, use records relating to the purchase, transfer ordering, delivery and storage of propofol (Diprivan).\" A source told CNN on Monday that the Texas-based cardiologist allegedly gave Jackson the anesthetic propofol -- commonly known by the brand name Diprivan -- in the 24 hours before he died. A source involved in the investigation into Jackson's death has told CNN that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in his $100,000-a-month rented mansion in Holmby Hills, California. Watch report on the warrants \u00bb . The items taken from Murray's home included copies of his computer and cell phone hard drives. They were to be turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department, which is leading the investigation into Jackson's death last month at age 50. Murray is the central focus of a federal investigation into the singer's death, a law enforcement official told CNN on Wednesday. Authorities have subpoenaed the records of various doctors who have treated Jackson over the years, but \"Dr. [Conrad] Murray is the only one we're looking at,\" the federal law enforcement official said. The disclosures were among several developments Wednesday in a story that continues to gather steam more than a month after the death of the pop icon on June 25. Other recent developments: . \u2022 Jackson's father, Joe, acknowledged that a 25-year-old Norwegian performer is Jackson's son -- even as the man himself denied the relationship in various news reports. \u2022 Jackson's estate is worth at least $200 million, a source with knowledge of the estate's dealings told CNN. Murray and the drug investigation . Despite the comment from the federal law enforcement official, Murray's lawyer does not think an arrest is imminent because autopsy results into Jackson's death are pending. Police have interviewed Murray twice since Jackson's death. Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said his client is ready to talk to investigators again, but a meeting has not been scheduled. Murray has consistently denied he prescribed or administered anything that could have killed Jackson. Watch a profile of Murray \u00bb . On Tuesday, investigators searched Murray's home and office in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chernoff said he won't comment on \"rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources.\" Watch CNN's Ted Rowlands report on drug allegation \u00bb . Meanwhile, Murray failed to make a payment of $15,000 on his $1.65 million home in January and has racked up debt since. If he does not make a payment by mid-August, he will lose his home to foreclosure, a spokeswoman confirmed. \"He was to be paid $150,000 a month by Michael Jackson,\" the spokeswoman said. \"He was not [paid] by AEG, the tour promoter, or Jackson, for the two months he worked for them. So he's low on money.\" Murray has been beset by financial difficulties since graduating from medical school. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 1992 and accumulated $44,663 in state tax liens in Arizona and California from 1993 until 2003, according to court documents. He has also has been hit with several judgments related to unpaid bills, child support payments and defaults on education loans. On Wednesday, CNN learned Murray was arrested on a charge of domestic violence disorderly conduct in Tucson, Arizona, in 1994. Murray's then-girlfriend accused him of having an affair and threw something at him, Tucson law enforcement officials said. Murray allegedly pushed the woman down. The doctor was acquitted five months after the incident. Joe Jackson: Jackson had another son . In an interview with the Web site NewsOne, Jackson's father, Joe, said the singer had another son, a 25-year-old Norwegian performer, Omer Bhatti. \"Yes, I knew he had another son. Yes, I did,\" Joe Jackson said. \"He looks like a Jackson, he acts like a Jackson, he can dance like a Jackson. This boy is a fantastic dancer. As a matter of fact, he teaches dancing.\" At Jackson's memorial service this month, Bhatti was seated in the front row between the pop star's father and sister. CNN has been unable to confirm the relationship. And Bhatti has told various media outlets that he and Jackson were close friends. Battle brews over Jackson's will . Jackson's estate is worth at least $200 million and could amount to much more, an informed source told CNN on Wednesday. Earlier this month, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted control of Jackson's assets to the executors of his will: John Branca, Jackson's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend. A third executor, accountant Barry Siegel, recused himself. Jackson's mother, Katherine, now wants the judge to install her in the open slot. The judge has scheduled a hearing on Monday. \"The question is, will all this get resolved on Monday, when there is a hearing?\" said CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom. \"Or will this blow up into a huge dispute between Katherine and the executors?\" CNN's Randi Kaye and Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Search warrants say there is probable evidence of prescribing to an addict .\nNEW: Source says numerous prescription drugs found in Michael Jackson's home .\n\"Dr. [Conrad] Murray is the only one we're looking at,\" law enforcement official says .\nSinger's father confirms Michael had another child, says \"he looks like a Jackson\"","id":"8088c6a324e3f9e2af72a5bfdced0c3887301cdb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Verified Identity Pass Inc.'s Clear security system -- the program that expedited airport security line waits for paying customers -- ended operation Monday night because the company couldn't reach a consensus with its senior creditors, according to its Web site. Clear promised to help passengers avoid security lines like this one at San Francisco International Airport. The New York-based company founded by entrepreneur Stephen Brill targeted business flyers, promising passengers that they would whisk through tedious airport security lanes more rapidly by being placed in private lines. Verified Identity Pass officials couldn't be reached for comment. Clear's fast-lane program began at Orlando (Florida) International Airport in 2005. By the time the company shut down, it was operating in more than 18 locations, including major airports in Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; and Washington. USA Today reported that the company had about 250,000 members. With nearly 700 million passengers traveling domestically in 2006, Clear company officials touted their program as a way to help avoid bottlenecks and, in some instances, reduce the wait time in security lines to as little as five minutes. Passengers using the Clear program doled out more than $200 a year. After announcing the shutdown, the company released no information on whether customers would receive refunds. John Harrington, a freelance photographer in Washington, renewed his Clear membership for the next two years about a month ago. He said he was disappointed to receive an e-mail from Clear officials saying the program had been terminated. Harrington relied on the quicker lanes when he traveled for assignments out of Reagan National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. \"With Clear, I could get into my gate in less than 15 to 20 minutes,\" said Harrington, who is flying to San Francisco next week and will now have to arrive at the airport an hour earlier. \"Try that with regular airport security. It's going to cost me time.\" The Clear program required applicants like Harrington to provide information such as a Social Security number and previous address for a background check. The applicant's fingerprints and iris were scanned. The information was placed into a credit-card-size pass and for scanning at an airport Clear booth. After checking in at the Clear booth, customers were shuttled into a separate line overseen by the Transportation Security Administration. In some airports, Clear members were taken to security lanes reserved for them. In other airports, they used employee security lanes. Clear members went through the same security procedures; they had to take off their shoes and take out laptops. Clear arrived at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the United States, last fall, officials said. At the same time, the airport added 12 security lanes, cutting the average security wait time to 10 minutes, airport spokeswoman Katena Carvajales said. \"Clear shutting down is not impacting our passengers at this airport,\" Carvajales said, adding that customer service officials are stationed near the Clear booths to instruct members on where to go. Some critics argued that the Clear lines were no faster than regular security lines. The Air Transport Association, the industry representing the major U.S. airlines, said the program didn't enhance security. Spokesman David A. Castelveter said airlines already offered frequent travelers and elite members separate lines with no charge. In 2008, the TSA also began expanding its free Black Diamond Self-Select Lanes program to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, Orlando and Spokane (Washington) International Airport. The program features a series of lanes broken down into categories for expert business travelers who fly frequently, casual travelers who don't fly as often, and skiers or families with strollers who need special assistance. The program has helped decrease wait times at pilot locations in Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to a TSA statement. \"Clear was a personal decision by travelers,\" Castelveter said. \"If they could afford it, then they could buy it, but it didn't offer anything that wasn't already there.\" Seven years ago, Congress approved the creation of a speedier airport clearance system that would make the skies safer after September 11 rattled the travel industry. Government officials wanted to vet passengers and put those with a clean history into a separate, quicker line. But government officials worried that potential terrorists could sneak onto the approved list. The government program was handed off to private companies, like Verified Identity Pass, that saw the convenience factor as something they could sell.","highlights":"Clear security system allowed passengers to use different security lines .\nClear was operating in 18 airports and served 250,000 passengers .\nAir Transport Association said the program offered few benefits to travelers .\n\"It's going to cost me time,\" says one traveler who relied on the Clear program .","id":"3575dd0eea276d7381a342432699f81c4d6e53e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates hijacked a British-owned bulk carrier Saturday in the Indian Ocean, but NATO forces stopped an attack on another vessel in the Gulf of Aden hours earlier, NATO maritime authorities said. 11 pirates are arrested by Yemeni security forces in an operation last month. The UK cargo ship, the MV Ariana, was carrying 35,000 tons of soya about 250 nautical miles (287 miles) northwest of the Seychelles when it was seized around dawn. The crew members are Ukrainians and they are not believed to harmed, NATO said. It is unclear how many crew members were aboard the vessel and how it came to be attacked. NATO said it was unaware of ransom demands or any threats against those aboard. NATO said a European Union Protection Aircraft has been deployed to monitor and track the MV Ariana, which is making its way toward Somalia -- the epicenter of the pirate industry. The Seychelles is a republic consisting of a group of islands off East Africa. On Friday evening, a NATO operation conducted by a Portuguese warship disrupted a pirate attack on a Bahamas oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The tanker, the MV Kition, broadcast an emergency alert when a pirate-filled skiff approached. NRP Corte-Real, the closest NATO ship, and its helicopter responded and intercepted the pirates. Portuguese Navy special forces boarded a pirate mother-ship. They found and destroyed four AK-47s, a rocket-propelled grenade and four explosives. They seized 19 suspected Somali pirates but released them after consulting with Portuguese national authorities. Piracy has been soaring off the coast of eastern Africa -- particularly Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991. Somali pirates have defied foreign navies patrolling the waters and have collected large ransoms from shipping companies. Ransoms started out in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. Journalist Ashleigh Nghiem contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pirates hijack British-owned bulk carrier in Indian Ocean .\nNATO forces stop attack on another vessel in Gulf of Aden hours earlier .\nPiracy is a major problem in the waters off Somalia .\nSomalia has not had a stable government in place since 1991 .","id":"22d8690a757fc98076992d0bcfde07b1784d7dce"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Letting someone else deal with the day to day expenses of maintaining an automobile (and just paying for what you use) seems to be a novel idea. Joining a \"car share,\" such as the popular Zipcar car sharing service, is gaining in popularity as consumers look to other ways to save money. Car-sharing services let you avoid paying for gas and insurance, but there are fees and rules. By using a car share, you're not only shedding monthly car payments, taxes, insurance and upkeep, but you can let someone else worry about whether the old rattle trap will make it another year. You simply pay a fee and drive the car when you need it. By maximizing the utilization of a single automobile among many users, car sharing services claim they are helping to reduce pollution, too. Every single Zipcar removes about 15 personal cars from the road, the company says. Unclogging traffic and dialing back the amount of single-occupant vehicles burning fuel has a greening effect. Reducing expenses and saving the polar ice caps aren't the only reasons; there's as much justification for joining a car share as you can dream up, from impressing the client at a business meeting with a fancy car to going over the river and through the woods for family gatherings, all without actually owning a car (or paying for its gas or insurance). But is a car share for you? The concept seems best suited to metro areas, where car insurance rates and parking costs can be high. On the other hand, if you work out of your car, use it on a daily basis or live in a more rural or expansive suburban region, you might be better off keeping your current car. AOL Autos: Top 11 distracting things people do in their cars . \"The ideal candidates for car sharing are consumers and businesses in cities where owning a car is costly, where there is good public transit, and where most amenities are within walking distance,\" Zipcar President and COO Mark Norman said. \"In other words, where you don't really need to own a car. In addition, students are ideal car sharing members, given the high cost of ownership as well as the increasing limits on parking on campus.\" AOL Autos: Cheapest cars to own . Automobiles can be a huge hassle and expense if you only drive occasionally, so we've set out to look at what car sharing involves. AOL Autos: Pay as you drive insurance . How does it work? The biggest North American car share, Zipcar, aims to be convenient, easy, and technologically savvy. Far more streamlined than an old-school rental car, Zipcar makes getting the use of an automobile about as easy as making a withdrawal from an ATM. The concept of car sharing had its genesis in Europe and has spread to the North American market as interest in frugality and environmental consciousness has increased. AOL Autos: Twenty cars of the future . The first step to using Zipcar is signing up. As a member, you'll get a \"Zipcard,\" which allows you to reserve a vehicle near you via the company's Web site or from a new iPhone application. Once you've reserved a car (or truck -- the beauty of car sharing services is that you can get a big car when you need it, not when you don't), a pretty neat technology unlocks the doors when you walk near your vehicle (we won't bore you with the details, but if you're wondering, it's called radio frequency identification). When it senses the card on you, the doors unlock, at which point, you're on your way. Cars are located all over metro areas (Zipcar gives you a map to the location of the car you've booked). While application approval is usually quick, it takes a few days to get the Zipcard mailed to you. If your city has a Zipcard office, you can pick up your card there. Where can you find car sharing? Car shares are springing up across the U.S., but you're likely to find them in major cities with a traffic problem. Zipcar is the largest service of its kind in the United States, maintaining a fleet of 6,500 automobiles that service 300,000-plus users. Twenty-eight states have at least one Zipcar outpost, and Zipcar has expanded its user base by 100 percent per year since 2004, so new service areas will spring up where demand supports it. Zipcar also operates in Canada, as well as London in the UK. The service is strongest on the coasts, with the Northeast being particularly thick with coverage, but even Des Moines, Iowa has Zipcars available. Zipcar claims that as consumers are moving toward more \"access\" models (such as buying music by the song for your MP3 player), cars could also move in this direction. \"Car sharing has always represented great value for consumers by giving them the freedom of car ownership without the cost and hassles,\" Zipcar's Norman said. \"Now more than ever, in an economic recession and with gas prices on the rise, people and businesses are turning to car sharing. In addition, in an era where people buy music by the song, driving a car by the hour makes a lot of sense.\" Municipalities often tout car sharing if a service is available. Check with your city to see if there are any plans to bring car sharing to your city. What are the costs? Since Zipcar is the most popular, we'll take a look at their fee structure for a sample of what car sharing might cost you. Rates vary by city, but on average a Zipcar account costs $75 to startup and there's an annual fee of $50 for an occasional driving plan. Additional drivers from the same household can be added to an account for $25 each. Insurance and fuel are covered -- each Zipcar has a gas card for fillup time. Overstay your reservation, and you'll get whacked for at least $50; late fees are $50 per hour with a $50 minimum. Reminders can be set up so users aren't caught off guard by poor time-management. Extra value plans wipe away the annual fee for a monthly commitment of at least $50. Ideal for heavy users, the rates are lower across the board. Businesses and Universities are also in Zipcar's crosshairs, and the Zipcar fleet could save many businesses money on company cars. AOL Autos: Rental car prices can change in a heartbeat . Zipcar touts its fleet as the most diverse of its kind with everything from Priuses to pickup trucks. There are premium nameplates in Zipcar's fleet that command higher prices -- the cars for the image-conscious versus plain-jane driver. Full-day rentals are $65, and a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. business day runs $56. Cars come with a full tank of fuel, and you get 180 miles per day before you start paying by the mile. Other car sharing services . Zipcar isn't the only game in town, of course. Traditional car rental services offer one-way rentals, which Zipcar does not; this is something to consider depending on your travel plans. Hertz has jumped into the breech with its \"Connect by Hertz\" product, a veritable clone of Zipcar. Hertz only offers its service in five locations so far: New York City; Park Ridge, New Jersey; Ohio State University; Pepperdine University in California; and Washington D.C. UHaul has also tossed its hat into the ring with its UCarShare service, mostly based around specific college campuses in a small number of locations. UCarShare's rates are higher and terms more restrictive than Zipcar's. Regional players also abound, most based around a particular region. Bay area residents can use City Carshare, Chicago has I-GO, and there are small car sharing services in places like Denver, Philly, St. Louis, or Cleveland. Rates for these competitors vary from on par to more expensive. Terms of service may be different, some offering included miles, some charging for each mile -- it runs the gamut.","highlights":"It is possible to drive a car when you want without owning it .\nMany big cities, some colleges have companies offering car-share services .\nZipcar has U.S. fleet of 6,500 automobiles that service 300,000-plus users .\nYou pay membership fee, monthly fee -- but don't pay for gas or insurance .","id":"95f10ce802d3670dde1d50d3cda7a2eaf614bced"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson had a level of hero worship on a par with Elvis Presley or the Beatles but he was the first black star to inspire such a massive following around the world. Michael Jackson, the ultimate showman, craved attention and was rarely disappointed. Total worldwide sales of more than 350 million records over his 40-year career give just a hint of the adoration there was for the \"King of Pop.\" The fact that his death came on the eve of a comeback tour in London will leave his devotees feeling even more bereft. While his career -- and wealth -- had waned greatly in recent years, there was still enough support for the concerts to sell out at a rate of nearly 40,000 an hour. Fans from as far afield as Japan, Germany and Dubai queued to buy their tickets. Steve Greenberg, founder and CEO of S-Curve Records, was a disc jockey in Tel Aviv, Israel, when \"Thriller\" first dropped and witnessed first-hand how Jackson became an international icon. His was a global appeal, Greenberg said, among fans and artists worldwide. \"He was as big in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as he was in America and Europe,\" Greenberg said. \"He had that universality that not many people had. The Beatles had it, Muhammad Ali had it, but not many other people have had it.\" Jackson was known for far more than his music though. Speaking after his death in Los Angeles was announced, U.S. civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton paid tribute to the work of a \"trailblazer\" in helping people around the world through his charities. How will you remember Michael Jackson? Sharpton added that the song Jackson co-wrote with Lionel Richie, \"We Are the World,\" a 1985 charity single that raised an estimated $50 million for famine relief in Africa, ushered in Live Aid and the era of celebrity philanthropy. Jackson was the supreme showman who had an unrivalled knack of grabbing headlines. From his precocious abilities as the 11-year-old singer in the Jackson 5 to his legendary \"moon-walk\" dance, the star craved attention, and was rarely disappointed. Jackson \"as big as it gets\" \u00bb . But in the years after his colossal 1982 hit album \"Thriller\" and its 1987 follow-up \"Bad,\" much of the focus did not cast him in a good light. In 1996 the lead singer of Pulp, Jarvis Cocker, caused a furor at the Brit Awards in London when he invaded the stage during Jackson's performance of \"Earth Song\" in protest \"at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing.\" Jackson failed to see the humor in Cocker's mockery, responding that he was \"sickened, saddened, shocked, upset, cheated, angry\" by the protest. He also alleged that Cocker had attacked children on stage, something that the Pulp singer denied. But many in the music industry backed Cocker, who was arrested but later released without charge. The theme of children was one that continued to haunt Jackson. In 2002 he caused a public outcry by dangling his baby son Prince Michael II from a third-floor hotel balcony in Germany before the world's press. He later said he regretted the incident. Watch video of the incident \u00bb . And in a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir that was supposed to repair his image around the world, the singer revived allegations of child abuse when he said of sharing a bed with a young boy: \"It's a beautiful thing. It's very right, it's very loving. Because what's wrong with sharing a love?\" A warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of sexually molesting 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo. Jackson surrendered himself to police amid a media furor. In the 2005 trial conducted in the glare of the world's media spotlight, Jackson was cleared of child molestation charges. Following the trial, Jackson's finances took a hit and he was forced to sell his Neverland ranch in California. He later kept a low profile in the United States and spent time in Britain, where his friends included psychic spoonbender Uri Geller and Harrod's owner Mohamed Al Fayed, and also in Bahrain. But in November last year, Jackson was sued by an Arab sheikh at the High Court in London for $7.7 million. They parted \"amicably\" after agreeing a settlement. Jackson had been invited with his children and entourage to Bahrain by the king's son, Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who lavished money on Jackson and built a recording studio, which he believed would be used to record albums by Jackson using material the sheikh had helped to write. But Jackson insisted there was no valid agreement and that the sheikh's case was based on \"mistake, misrepresentation and undue influence.\" He said sums of money paid out by the sheikh were \"gifts.\" As fans around the world mourn it is likely Michael Jackson will be remembered as a musical hero -- but also a man with human flaws.","highlights":"Michael Jackson was adored by fans around the world .\nTotal sales exceeding 700 million records over his 40-year career .\nU.S. civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton paid tribute to his charity work .","id":"c65e2a7890bda9320a1ae8fc604d7fb1c2a18c6b"} -{"article":"After years of rising cholesterol levels from fatty diets and pudgy waistlines, there's finally good news, experts say. More people who are trying to lower their cholesterol are actually succeeding in getting their low-density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol, down to healthy levels. Research suggests that decreasing LDL -- via drugs, exercise and\/or diet -- can ward off heart attacks and strokes. However, there's still room for improvement, according to research from nine countries, including the United States and Canada. And there's good reason to stay focused on lowering your cholesterol: Research suggests that decreasing LDL can ward off heart attacks, strokes, and other health problems. In the new study, which was funded by Pfizer and published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, an international group of researchers led by David D. Waters, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, looked at 9,955 people with an average age of 62 to see whether cholesterol-lowering efforts -- including taking medication or trying diet and exercise alone -- were having the intended effect. For healthy people, the current target for LDL cholesterol is less than 160 mg\/dL, and for those with two or more heart disease risk factors, it's less than 130 mg\/dL. For people with heart disease, LDL should be less than 100 mg\/dL and possibly even less than 70 mg\/dL for those at super-high risk. The survey, known as the Lipid Treatment Assessment Project 2, is an update of a similar survey done in the United States in 1996 and 1997. At that time, just 38 percent of Americans in general and 18 percent of people with heart disease who were trying to lower cholesterol actually had their LDL cholesterol under control. Health.com: 4 tips for healthy drinking while dieting . Things have definitely gotten better. Waters and his colleagues found that in 2006--2007, 73 percent of people had their LDL cholesterol in an acceptable range. This included 86 percent of people at relatively low risk of heart problems, 74 percent at moderate risk, and 67 percent at high risk. But just one in three people, or 30 percent, who already had heart disease and at least two other risk factors (such as obesity and smoking) had their LDL cholesterol in the healthy range. About 75 percent of the patients in the survey were taking statins, 16 percent were treated with only diet and exercise, and the remainder took a cholesterol-lowering medication that was not a statin. Statins include brand-name drugs like Lipitor, Zocor, and Crestor, among others. The findings \"should be a wake-up call\" to people who already have or are at risk of heart attack and strokes, says Gregg Fonarow, M.D., the codirector of the UCLA Preventative Cardiology Program, who was not involved with the research. People with cardiovascular disease should not \"assume that just because they're under medical care that they've optimized their cardiovascular health,\" he says. Health.com: Ultimate guide to fresh fruits and veggies . However, Dan Hackam, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Western Ontario and the Stroke Prevention and Atherosclerosis Research Centre in London, Ontario, says the survey may not be a fair representation of people with high cholesterol. The survey included only people who had been using the same cholesterol-lowering approach for at least three months. \"There's lots of people in the general population who should be on these drugs who aren't on them,\" Hackam says. \"I see a lot of patients who've had heart attacks and strokes who aren't on these medications.\" Nevertheless, according to Hackam, the findings are \"very good news.\" When the original survey was done, he says, there were just a couple of major clinical trials showing the health benefits of cholesterol reduction with statins. Since then, there have been around 50 such trials, he adds, including some with women, minorities, and seniors. \"There's just so much more awareness now among physicians of the clinical evidence,\" he says. Health.com: 10 celebrity couples: Who's healthy, who's not? Fonarow says there are still plenty of doctors out there who don't treat cholesterol as aggressively as they should. \"The threat to the patient is something that plays out over many years or decades; it's not an immediate threat,\" he notes. This time lag can make it difficult for some people to see the benefits of treating high cholesterol just as aggressively as they would a heart attack, says Fonarow. Hackam says he measures his patients' heart disease and stroke risk by giving them a 12-hour fasting cholesterol test and a scan of the walls of the arteries in their neck. If the scan shows fatty plaques, he recommends cholesterol-lowering therapy even if the patient's cholesterol levels are normal. Health.com: New iPhone apps for healthier, more earth-friendly shopping . Other steps people can take, aside from seeing their doctor, include quitting smoking and exercising more, Hackam says. There's even a home cholesterol test -- just like the home glucose tests used by people with diabetes -- that patients could use. \"People can be very proactive,\" he explains. To find out if your cholesterol levels are where they should be, and what to do if they aren't, Fonarow recommends checking out the interactive Web sites run by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. Why are more people hitting cholesterol targets? It probably isn't because more patients are taking their medication properly or sticking with their diet, according to an editorial published with the study. It's more likely that the newer cholesterol-lowering drugs do a better job of curbing LDL, writes Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., M.D., D.Phil, of Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City. About half of the study participants were taking one of these newer drugs, he notes. Health.com: The medical tests every woman must have . Gotto is a consultant for Merck and other companies and is on the advisory board of DuPont and Novartis. Waters and other study coauthors have received consulting fees from Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Study: More heart patients are succeeding in getting cholesterol to healthy levels .\nIn 2006-07, 73 percent of people had LDL in healthy range vs. 38 percent in 1996-97 .\nLikely that the newer cholesterol-lowering drugs do a better job of curbing LDL .\nThere's still room for improvement, says one expert .","id":"7108388ab82572b18f2d26d173b1d44e008beac7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States will provide $73 million in aid to Zimbabwe, President Obama announced Friday after meeting with Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House. President Obama (right) praised Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House on Friday. \"I obviously have extraordinary admiration for the courage and tenacity that the prime minister has shown in navigating through some very difficult political times in Zimbabwe,\" Obama said. \"There was a time when Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa, and [it] continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult time politically.\" Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe \"has not acted oftentimes in the best interest of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the democratic changes that need to take place,\" Obama said. \"We now have a power-sharing agreement that shows promise, and we want to do everything we can to encourage the kinds of improvement not only on human rights and rule of law, freedom of the press and democracy that is so necessary, but also on the economic front.\" The U.S. aid will not be going to the government directly \"because we continue to be concerned about consolidating democracy, human rights and rule of law,\" Obama said. \"But it will be going directly to the people in Zimbabwe.\" In a CNN interview following his meeting with Obama, Tsvangirai said he is grateful for the generosity. \"Whether it is humanitarian aid or transitional support, it adds up to the relief that Zimbabwe is seeking,\" he said. Watch Tsvangirai discuss importance of aid to Zimbabwe \u00bb . Tsvangirai said he told Obama he would like the United States to use its global influence to assist Zimbabwe in dealing with the challenges it faces. Tsvangirai said he understood other nations' reluctance to support the Zimbabwean government, given Mugabe's controversial history. \"I think it's fair,\" he said. \"I understand it, given our history, and I'm not going to defend President Mugabe.\" But, he noted, the two have agreed to work together and help Zimbabwe progress as a nation. In remarks with Obama, Tsvangirai said progress has been made by the transitional government, but much remains to be done. \"It is the problems of implementation,\" he said. \"... even by the standard of our own benchmarks, there are gaps that still exist.\" He said he would continue to strive to meet those benchmarks, not for the international community, but because \"it gives [the] people of Zimbabwe freedom and opportunity to grow.\" The power-sharing arrangement between Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and Mugabe came after contested elections last year. \"Of course we cannot brush away that history, that sad history,\" Tsvangirai told CNN. But he said he is hoping the country will heal and move forward, and wants even those skeptical of Mugabe to appreciate the transition process. Asked whether he believes Mugabe should retire, Tsvangirai said \"at the age of 85, I think one needs to retire.\" But, he said, for his own legacy, it's important for him to be thinking about a \"dignified exit.\" \"I think that [the power-sharing government] provides him with this opportunity,\" Tsvangirai said. Asked about his relationship with Mugabe, he said, \"We don't have to fall in love to work together. But we have accepted that we have made an agreement to have a workable relationship between the two political parties.\" He said there had been acrimony between the two, but they realized it was not helping the Zimbabwean people. \"We are inspired by people like Nelson Mandela, who had to go for 27 years in jail but still come out and say, 'Let's forget about the past' ...\" he said. He and Mugabe have chosen the process of dialogue rather than violence, Tsvangirai said. \"Let history judge whether this historic experiment was the right course of action.\" CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama praises Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai, offers $73 million in aid .\nTsvangirai in power-sharing agreement with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe .\nTsvangirai on Mugabe relationship: \"We don't have to fall in love to work together\"","id":"fc06961adeeb3f5062fb4e2d79daf48e3e285173"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- As many of the world's industries struggle in the face of global economic hardship, the inaugural Abu Dhabi Yacht Show went ahead earlier this month. On show: The recent Abu Dhabi Yacht Show attracted some of the world's biggest super-yachts. Showcasing some of the top super-yachts in existence, the show symbolizes a luxury industry which is still thriving in the area. At the show, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, said the United Arab Emirates is becoming one of the world's greatest super-yacht hubs. \"This show demonstrates Abu Dhabi's commitment to be recognized as a global super-yacht player at the same level as leading centers in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean,\" he said. Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority chairman, Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, hailed the event as proof that the region was still growing and performing well economically. \"It is a clear indication of continuing international confidence in this emirate's robust and resilient economy.\" Evidence of positive developments in the region's luxury yacht industry is written all over the emirate. In addition to the yachting infrastructure already complete in Abu Dhabi, a marina is planned on Saadiyat Island, in the historic marine district of Al Bateen. Another marina is planned on Yas Island, where there will be a dedicated mega-yacht marina. In total, 16 new marinas are planned in Abu Dhabi in the next decade. The inaugural Abu Dhabi show also attracted 20 of the world's top super-yachts with a combined value of more than $500 million. Most of the globe's top brokers were also in attendance. Senior yacht broker at Burgess Yachts, Rupert Nelson, told CNN that Abu Dhabi is committing to the industry -- a move which should help the emirate stay one step ahead of other destinations. \"Across the globe this year there has been a huge slow down, but in the Gulf they don't seem to be too worried about it.\" Burgess Yachts recently sold a Dubai-built super-yacht called Al Hanem for just under $20 million, he added. Although the industry faces a number of challenges in the Gulf region, Nelson said the growth of marinas, yacht-builders, brokers and other related business should help to create jobs. \"The size of boats there is growing, the number of yachts there is growing ... and it seems they want to continue,\" he told CNN. The question on many lips is whether this growing industry could help the United Arab Emirates, and the wider Gulf region, survive the worst of the wider economic downturn. Probably not, is the answer from regional business experts. But it may ease some of the pain . Middle East business expert and author of \"Dubai & Co: Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States,\" Aamir A. Rehman, told CNN there are reasons for both optimism and pessimism in the Gulf luxury sector. Earlier this year Rolls Royce reported Abu Dhabi and Dubai had become the biggest and second-biggest markets for their cars after a 48 percent jump in sales during 2008 compared with 2007. Rehman said Rolls Royce's results of were promising for the wider luxury industry -- and could also indicate potential growth for the super-yacht industry. \"Transportation and the entire infrastructure around transport are important to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). There's significant investment being made in transportation, suggesting potential for growth in related industries.\" However, despite the high-profile nature of the luxury yacht industry, Rehman feels there are still limitations. \"The Gulf is a relatively small market overall and the number of high-end buyers, while substantial, may be limited compared to regions with larger population bases.\" Liz Martins, head of Middle East and North Africa in the Country Risk department at Business Monitor International, told CNN the current economic climate would have a lasting impact on the luxury sector. \"I think it's an area where people will cut back. There's still a lot of wealth out there but some of these people have lost a lot of money.\" Martins said the boom period of the last decade had reached unsustainable levels of growth and, although the Gulf region doesn't have a \"saving culture\" she predicted some changes. \"We're not forecasting recession for many Gulf states ... but the last few years have been debt-fueled boom and I just don't see things getting back to what they have been.\" Subscribe to SuperYachtWorld . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2009 IPC MEDIA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"The inaugural Abu Dhabi Yacht Show was held this month .\nSuper-yachts are growing in popularity in the Gulf region .\nAbu Dhabi wants to become world's top super yacht destination .\nExperts say it is unlikely luxury yacht industry will have big impact on the economy .","id":"c036c53612e033b4c0ef5a5ff1b420d8bbd15e82"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Angered by what he perceived as the systemic discrimination of the minority Tamils by successive Sri Lankan governments, 18-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran, armed with just a revolver, set out in 1972 to right the perceived wrongs by forming a militant group. Sri Lanka's defense ministry says this handout photo shows troops with a captured Tamil Tiger craft. That group eventually morphed into the Tamil Tigers, who have engaged in a brutal 25-year insurgency for an independent Tamil state that has left more than 70,000 dead. Along the way, the group has been declared a terrorist organization in 32 countries, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the suicide belt. It was also behind the assassination of two world leaders -- the only terrorist organization to do so. Over the weekend, the militants offered to \"silence\" their guns after an intense military offensive decimated their ranks, usurping them from their stronghold in the north and east of the country, and cornered the remaining rebels on a small stretch of land. Watch more on the possible end to the conflict \u00bb . On Monday afternoon, the Sri Lankan government said it had killed Prabhakaran. If the rebels now follow through on their announcement, the action will potentially mark the end of the longest-running civil war in Asia. Who are the Tamils? The Tamils are an ethnic group that makes up about 12 percent of Sri Lanka's population of about 20 million. They mostly dominate the northern and eastern part of the country. Tamils are mostly Hindu and speak Tamil. That sets them apart from Sri Lanka's majority group, the Sinhalese, who make up 74 percent of the population. They are Buddhists and speak Sinhala. The tension between the two ethnic groups date to the British colonization of the country -- an island in the Indian Ocean, south of India. At the time, the country was known as Ceylon. Many Sri Lankans regarded the Tamils as British collaborators and resented the preferential treatment they received. The tables turned when the country achieved independence in 1948 and the Sinhalese majority dominated government. It was the Tamils then who claimed they were being discriminated against in politics, employment and education. By the 1970s Tamil politicians were demanding a separate Tamil state. It would be called Tamil Eelam. In this climate Prabhakaran emerged with his militant group, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Who is Prabhakaran? Prabhakaran operated from a secret jungle base in the northeastern part of the country, granting few media interviews and remaining an elusive figure to even many Tigers. He was reputed to wear a cyanide capsule around his neck -- to swallow rather than risk capture. And he reportedly expected the same dedication from his troops. As a result, few Tigers have been captured alive. To Prabhakaran's supporters he was a hero fighting for the rights of his people. The Sri Lankan government deemed him a war criminal with disregard for civilian casualties. He was wanted by Interpol on charges including terrorism and organized crime. In 1975, three years after forming his group, Prabhakaran was accused of fatally shooting the mayor of Jaffna, his birthplace. Prabhakaran was also accused of masterminding the killing of then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later, a Tigers' suicide bomber, allegedly acting under Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . Who are the Tamil Tigers? The Tigers reportedly number about 10,000, recruited from villagers in Tamil-dominated areas and unemployed Tamil youths who think they were passed over for jobs because of their ethnicity. Their armed struggle began in July 1983 when the Tigers killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers. It led to, what was until then, the largest outburst of violence in the island's history. Hundreds of Tamils were killed, thousands left homeless and more than 100,000 fled to south India. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Tigers have -- until now -- shown no signs of being overpowered by the Sri Lankan military. The Tigers are infamous for suicide bombings, with men and women strapping on suicide vests for more than 200 attacks against Sri Lankan citizens and dozens of high-profile political leaders. In addition to perpetrating the attacks that killed Gandhi and Premadasa, the rebels have carried out the assassinations of two lawmakers and four ministers. A suicide bomber targeted Sri Lankan then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999 while she was campaigning for re-election. She was wounded but survived. The Tigers, however, have refrained from targeting Western tourists out of fear that foreign governments would crack down on Tamil expatriates who raise money for them abroad, the U.S. State Department said. Have there been peace talks? Periodically fighting has briefly halted because of a handful of peace agreements. By February 2002 the Tigers had dropped their demands for a separate homeland in exchange for a power-sharing deal with the government. Norway and some other countries agreed to monitor the ceasefire. A year later the rebels dropped out of the negotiations, saying they were being marginalized. They launched a suicide bombing campaign soon after. What led to renewed fighting? In January 2008 the Sri Lankan government announced it was annulling the nearly six-year-old truce with the rebels, declaring that it would crush the rebels. The fighting intensified with security forces driving the rebels from their strongholds in the east and north of the country. The government asked the rebels to lay down arms; the rebels vowed to continue. Caught in the crossfire were civilians, thousands of whom were displaced and hundreds killed. International aid groups expressed concern that both the government and the rebels disregarded civilian safety even in no-fire zones and hospitals. Both sides blamed the other for civilian casualties and exaggerated accounts of their victories. With journalists not allowed into the battle zones, their claims could not be independently confirmed. On Sunday, the Tigers posted an \"urgent statement\" on a pro-rebel Web site, saying the battle had reached \"its bitter end.\" \"We have decided to silence our guns,\" the statement said. Euphoria gripped the war-wracked nation. And Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa readied to announce to Tuesday that military operations had ended. But one last order of business awaited: The capture, dead or alive, of Prabhakaran. In the past, the Tigers have emerged from near-defeat. But if Prabhakaran's death is confirmed, the government is optimistic that it can write off the Tigers. CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report, which includes information from various sources. They include the U.S. State Department, the FBI, Interpol, Human Rights Watch, the Council on Foreign Relations, the CIA Factbook, and previous CNN reports.","highlights":"25-year long insurgency has killed more than 70,000 people .\nTamil leader reportedly wore a cyanide capsule around his neck .\nFBI says group pioneered use of suicide belts for bomb attacks .","id":"1ef30906affb789b4bb4ab44969ee4afaeec071f"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader on Friday rejected opposition claims that last week's presidential elections were rigged, describing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's win as \"definitive\" and demanding an end to days of protests. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first address since the June 12 presidential elections. In his first speech since the June 12 election outcome sparked the country's worst unrest in 30 years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the vote accurately reflected the will of the people and accused \"enemies of Islam\" of stoking anger. He warned opposition leaders, who are planning a new rally on Saturday, against staging further demonstrations, saying they would be held accountable for any violence. The \"Islamic establishment would never manipulate votes and commit treason. The legal structure in this country does not allow vote-rigging,\" Khamenei said, in his first address since the elections. He told a large crowd at Tehran University that the \"historic\" 85 percent turnout of more than 40 million people was a \"political earthquake\" and was too large to have been manipulated. \"There is a difference of 11 million votes. How can vote-rigging happen?\" he added. Watch Khamenei dismiss claims of fraud \u00bb . Ahmadinejad, whose hardline policies have antagonized Western nations, claimed victory with more than 62 percent of the votes, surprising many experts who had predicted a stronger showing from main opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi. The Ayatollah's speech was likely to come under heavy scrutiny in Iran, amid expectations that, despite conciliatory comments, his strong endorsement of Ahmadinejad will do little to appease Moussavi's emboldened supporters. Read about Iran's power structure \u00bb . Moussavi's allegations of ballot fraud and calls for a fresh vote have rallied thousands on the streets of Tehran and other cities, in scenes not witnesses in country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 toppled its monarchy. The unrest prompted Iran to place restrictions on foreign media, limiting their reports on six days of street protests, police arrests and some outbreaks of violence that have left at least eight people dead. Watch militia crackdown \u00bb . Khamenei described the dispute over the election outcome as a disagreement within Iran's establishment, accusing \"foreign enemies\" and \"Zionists\" -- including the United States, Britain and Israel -- of fomenting violence, and criticizing international media coverage of the unrest. Britain's Foreign Office confirmed shortly after the speech that it was summoning Iran's London ambassador in response to Khamenei's comments. His speech was punctuated with exhortations from the crowd, including: \"Allah is Great,\" \"Death to Israel,\" \"Death to America,\" and \"Death to Britain.\" Expressing support for Ahmadinejad, Khamenei accused rival election candidates of insulting the president in the run-up to the vote. \"They swore and called the president superstitious and called him names, which is embarrassing. They forgot about morality and law,\" he said. Khamenei, who has authorized a partial vote recount, said proper legal channels should be used for any challenge to the election outcome. He called for an end to street protests, warning that perpetrators of violence would face punishment. On Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Iran's capital for the sixth day in a row. Some estimates put the total number of participants in the hundreds of thousands. See where protests have taken place \u00bb . Moussavi spoke through a bullhorn from atop a building to the throngs of marchers who snaked through the city, in what was described as a peaceful protest. He spoke hours after the Iranian government agreed to meet with candidates for crisis talks to discuss complaints stemming from the election. With restrictions on reporting the unrest, much of the news, video and images emerging from Iran have come via social networking sites, often bypassing authorities' attempts to block applications such as Facebook and Twitter. CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour described Khamenei's address as a heartfelt defense of Iran's establishment but said it was uncertain the opposition would heed his call to end demonstrations. Watch Amanpour discuss speech. \u00bb . \"That's the all important question. Whether or not the leaders of the opposition -- Mir Hossein Moussavi -- will call on these people to stop their protests is unclear,\" she said. \"Whether they will end and whether the people on the the streets will listen -- because the protests have been spontaneous. It will be intersting to see after this call from the supreme leader, from whom all power in Iran flows.\" Moussavi, who called for a boycott of Khamenei's prayer sermon, was absent from the audience, which included Ahmadinejad and, next to him, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, who has previously had a tense relationship with the president. Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has been in a power struggle with Khamenei, was not visible on the TV broadcast of the event. Rafsanjani is chairman and overseer of the Assembly of Experts -- which is responsible for appointing or removing the supreme leader. iReport.com: Share images from Iran . In his speech, Khamenei defended Rafsanjani from charges of corruption made by Amhadinejad during a pre-election debate. However, he opened the door to corruption charges against Rafsanjani's relatives. In discussing Iran's support of human rights, Khamenei slammed U.S. policies in Afghanistan and Iraq . He even made an apparent reference to the deaths of people -- what he called the \"burning alive\" of 80 men, women and children -- during the federal siege of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas in 1993. \"We have raised the flag of human rights through Islam,\" Khamenei said. There have been arrests and casualties in civil unrest, with human rights group Amnesty International saying reports suggest that up to 15 people have died. The government maintains seven people have died. Iranian TV Thursday night aired confessions from people who authorities say were paid to destabilize Iran. It aired remarks from some \"terrorists\" who said the United States paid them to enter from Iraq to committing terrorist acts against the Iranian leadership. CNN's Badi Badiozamani contributed to this report .","highlights":"Iran's supreme leader rejects claims of ballot rigging in presidential vote .\nAyatollah Khamenei delivers first speech since election outcome sparked unrest .\nHe criticizes protests, says those who caused violence would be held accountable .\nHe also criticizes international media for how they have portrayed the election .","id":"184ffd19ddbc103f5a9a454770c9ffce4bd86219"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barcelona midfielder Alexander Hleb has turned down a move to Inter Milan in favor of returning to Bundesliga club Stuttgart on loan for the season. Alexander Hleb is presented to the media after completing his loan move to former club Stuttgart. Hleb had been expected to be part of the swap deal that saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto'o switch clubs earlier this week. But the 28-year-old Belarus international has opted against joining Cameroon striker Eto'o at the San Siro due to the limited prospects of regular football under Jose Mourinho, and instead decided to return to Germany. Hleb left Stuttgart four years ago to move to English Premier League side Arsenal, where he spent three seasons -- including reaching the Champions League final in 2006, which the Gunners lost to Barcelona. Top 20 summer transfer targets . Hleb eventually ended up moving to the Nou Camp last summer, but struggled to claim a place in the side and was omitted from the 18-man squad that beat Manchester United in this year's Champions League final. Hleb told Stuttgart's official Web site he had moved to Markus Babbel's side because of their prospects for the coming season. \"I have opted for Stuttgart because the team has great potential and I am convinced that we can achieve a lot together,\" the 28-year-old said. Stuttgart general manager Horst Heldt added: \"We have signed a world class player with Alexander Hleb. He will increase the quality of our squad even further.\" Stuttgart had seen moves for both Real Madrid's Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Vagner Love of CSKA Moscow break down in recent weeks.","highlights":"Barcelona midfielder Alexander Hleb has turned down a switch to Inter Milan .\nHleb had been expected to be part of the Ibrahimovic and Eto'o swap transfer .\nHowever, he has chosen to rejoin former club Stuttgart in a one-year loan deal .","id":"8b07277cdd376a8dad972b41b70bdeaaad3cd00e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 4-year-old Ohio girl who vanished more than three weeks ago was found alive and in good condition, halfway across the country in southern California, authorities said. Haylee Donathan was found with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, fugitive sex offender Robbie Potter. Haylee Donathan, her mother Candace Watson and Robbie Potter were discovered hiding for the past week at The Morning Star Ranch, a retreat in Valley Center, near San Diego, said Peter Elliott, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio. Potter is a registered sex offender, officials said. He was being sought by the U.S. Marshal's Service. Late Tuesday Haylee was in the custody of a children's protective services agency in the San Diego County area, Elliott said. She was doing well but may have chicken pox, he added. \"We understand she is healthy and happy and I believe, waiting to come back to her grandmother here,\" he said. Watch authorities announce their find \u00bb . The journey west took them more than two thousand miles from Mansfield, the north-Central Ohio city where the girl and her mother live. \"I am very happy that my granddaughter's coming home,\" said Mary Watson, Haylee's grandmother. \"And I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.\" Watson, 24, and Potter, 27, were arrested without incident and held by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. When asked their reaction, Elliott said, \"I believe a little shocked that we were able to find them.\" Potter and Watson were still using the same vehicle, a 1980s blue Chevrolet pickup truck they drove from Ohio, Elliott said. Watson's hair was a bit darker and Potter also changed his appearance slightly. Authorities had feared Haylee was endangered. Potter, a sex offender, had escaped a half-way house on May 28, the day the girl and her mother fell out of sight. Countless tips came in while they were missing but one in particular led to the breakthrough on Tuesday, Elliott said without elaborating. But a tip from members of the ranch could have lead to the raid and arrest, a ranchmember told CNN. Kevin Carlin, a member of the ranch in the neighborhood of Valley Center, told CNN in a telephone interview that ranch members became suspicious when a former ranch guest saw billboards urging help in finding Haylee and the two adults. Elliott also praised intense national news coverage from programs such as HLN's Nancy Grace and Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, as well as local media and Clear Channel, which put up missing child billboards across the country. When she is returned to Ohio, Haylee will be placed in the custody of her grandmother, Elliott said. The U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of 27-year-old Potter. Potter was wanted on a state warrant for parole violation and a federal warrant for probation violation. He is a convicted tier three sex offender, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, a unit of the Justice Department. While on the run, Potter and Watson were reportedly seen on surveillance video on May 31 at a Wal-Mart Store in Marion, Ohio, 40 miles from Mansfield. Haylee was not on that video. Adding to concerns, Watson's roommate, Samantha Covert, said last week in an interview on Nancy Grace that she saw the little girl in bed with her mother and Potter the morning they disappeared. Covert said Watson carried a basket of clothing, pillows and blankets. Watson will likely face state charges, including harboring a fugitive, according to Elliott. In addition to other charges, he said Potter may be prosecuted under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, a federal sex offender registration and self-reporting law that carries a multi-year felony sentence if violated. On its Web site, the Morning Star Ranch describes itself as \"a community of growers of organic, pesticide-free avocados, grapefruit, persimmons, nuts, and other produce.\" Elliot said he believed it is a rehab facility and also called it a Christian retreat.","highlights":"Missing Ohio girl found alive near San Diego, California, authorities say .\nTip led authorities to raid communal farm .\nHaylee Donathan was with mother, boyfriend who's a fugitive sex offender .\nHaylee, mother were last seen May 28 .","id":"0a8d5fc5bac3b5b71523921a80427571e7157658"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Somewhere, it's engraved in stone: \"Thou shalt remove thy laptop from thy bag.\" Beginning Saturday, travelers will be able to leave laptops in bags that meet TSA screening requirements. But savvy travelers can begin ignoring that commandment of air travel beginning Saturday, when the Transportation Security Administration begins recognizing the latest innovation in aviation security -- checkpoint-friendly computer bags. The TSA said it has worked with bag manufacturers to address one of the biggest frustrations of air travelers, the need to remove computers from carry-on bags and place them in bins. It asked manufacturers to design bags that give X-ray machines a clear, unobstructed view of the laptops. Some 60 manufacturers responded to the TSA's solicitation, with 40 of them submitting prototypes for testing. About a dozen manufacturers are currently advertising checkpoint-friendly bags. Many of the bags are deceptively simple. One common design resembles a clam shell. The case unzips into two, with one side holding the computer and the other holding computer peripherals, keys and other personal items. All of the bags are devoid of metal zippers, clips and buckles on the side of the bag that holds the computer. Learn about the TSA's laptop bag requirements \u00bb . Travelers at Reagan National Airport near Washington had different opinions on the hassles of carrying computers but were uniformly supportive of having checkpoint-friendly bags. \"Sign me up,\" said traveler Seth Robertson, who was carrying a computer bag and a large, stuffed pony, a present for a friend in Nicaragua. Getting the computer through the checkpoint was more difficult than the stuffed animal, he said. \"The laptop, I have to take out of the bag and put it separately,\" Robertson said, whereas the pony, he could \"just stuff right through.\" Screeners didn't even look the gift horse in the mouth. The TSA says about one-third of all air travelers carry laptops. And the current screening procedures are cumbersome for travelers who sometimes leave laptops at the checkpoints in their haste. Watch a screening demonstration with a new laptop bag \u00bb . In fact, about 4,800 laptops are lost at airport checkpoints every day, according to a study conducted this year by the Ponemon Institute for the Dell computer company. It is not known how may are quickly recovered, an institute official said. But a checkpoint-friendly carrying case could potentially alleviate problems caused when folks grab the wrong computer by mistake, or grab the bag and forget the computer, he said. TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said the bags may even improve speed at checkpoints. \"Less time (is) spent putting things in the bin and putting things back in at the other end, so it may help the process along,\" she said. For a bag to meet TSA requirements, it must meet the following five standards: . The TSA says it is not approving or endorsing any bag design, but it says manufacturers have stepped up to the plate, providing a number of bags that qualify.","highlights":"Checkpoint-friendly computer bags will be eligible for TSA screening Saturday .\nTravelers must use bags with a designated laptop-only section .\nThere must be no metal snaps, zippers or buckles obstructing the view .","id":"43d9e5e5fbdbeed0912ac933111809361c0b4401"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This story is based on interrogation reports that form part of the prosecution case in the forthcoming trial of six Belgian citizens charged with participation in a terrorist group. Versions of those documents were obtained by CNN from the defense attorney of one of those suspects. The statement by Bryant Vinas was compiled from an interview he gave Belgian prosecutors in March 2009 in New York and was confirmed by U.S. prosecutors as authentic. The statement by Walid Othmani was given to French investigators and was authenticated by Belgian prosecutors. Al Qaeda recruits say they received training in how to handle rockets, explosives and bombs. (CNN) -- The interrogations of two accused Westerners who say they trained and fought with al Qaeda in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region provide an inside view of the terror group's organizational structures. Arguably, they shed more light on the state of al Qaeda than any material previously released into the public domain. The documents reveal training programs and the protective measures the terrorist organization has taken against increasingly effective U.S. missile strikes. Bryant Vinas -- a U.S. citizen who says he traveled to Pakistan in September 2007 to fight against Americans in Afghanistan -- stated that between March and July 2008 he attended three al Qaeda training courses, which focused on weapons, explosives, and rocket-based or -propelled weaponry. During these classes, attended by 10-20 recruits, Vinas was taught how to handle a large variety of weapons and explosives, some of them of military grade sophistication, according to his account. Read how al Qaeda is now operating . Vinas stated he became familiar with seeing, smelling and touching different explosives such as TNT, as well as plastic explosives such as RDX, Semtex, C3 and C4 -- the explosive U.S. authorities have stated was used in al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Vinas also learned how to make vests for suicide bombers. Vinas stated he was also instructed how to prepare and place fuses, how to test batteries, how to use voltmeters and how to build circuitry for a bomb. Read how Vinas met with al Qaeda leaders . According to his account, al Qaeda also offered a wide variety of other courses including electronics, sniper, and poisons training. Instruction in the actual construction of bombs, he stated, was offered to al Qaeda recruits who had become more advanced in their training. Vinas' training during this period was very similar to the training described by members of a French-Belgian group who also spent time in the tribal areas of Pakistan in 2008. Walid Othmani, a French recruit, stated the group were given explosives training and taught how to fire rocket launchers and RPGs. Othmani provided French interrogators with an account of his time in Pakistan after being arrested on his return to Europe. Three other members of his group are now in Belgian custody awaiting trial for \"participation in a terrorist group.\" Belgian prosecutors told CNN Othmani has been charged in France with participation in a criminal conspiracy with the aim of preparing a terrorist act. A Belgian legal document detailing his interrogation report was obtained by CNN. Like Vinas, Othmani said the group had been required to sign forms before their training. Othmani stated his group was required to pledge absolute obedience to their handlers and indicate whether they wanted to become suicide bombers. Othmani provided interesting new details about the training facilities being used by al Qaeda in the tribal areas. His group trained in a small mountain shack, a far cry from the large camps al Qaeda had run in Taliban-era Afghanistan, when it had been able to operate with little danger of being targeted by military strikes. Othmani's account made clear that al Qaeda has had to decentralize its operations in Pakistan in response to the growing effectiveness of U.S. Predator strikes. However the wide number of training courses described by both Vinas and Othmani suggest that al Qaeda has been able to adapt well to the new security environment. By operating a larger number of smaller facilities, al Qaeda would also appear to have increased its resilience to attack. Read how al Qaeda is looking for Western targets . While the classrooms are safer from drone attacks than the pre-9\/11 sessions on the mountainsides the content seems to have changed to match new targeting plans. Suicide vest and IED construction show how the curriculum is being modified for today's combat with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Making and handling explosives, as well as fuse construction, show the sessions may also be geared for killing in Europe and the United States. These are the very skills the July 7, 2005 London bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Siddique Khan came to Pakistan to learn. Al Qaeda, it would seem, may still want to pull off the spectacular attack in Europe or the United States. Vinas says he took a course in propelled weaponry with Hicham Bouhali Zrioul, a former taxi driver in Brussels, Belgium, whom he first met in March 2008 and formed a friendship with. Vinas stated that when they completed their training, Al Qaeda instructors did a written evaluation of their performance. Vinas had been judged qualified to participate in missile attacks against U.S. and NATO bases in Afghanistan, according to his account. That suggests al Qaeda has maintained its capacity for administration and paperwork even in a harsher security environment. When their training finished in the summer of 2008, Vinas and Zrioul lived in the same house in the mountains of Waziristan. Zrioul managed to acquire a computer which he rigged up to watch jihadist videos. During a mountain walk with Zrioul one day, Vinas says he was told about a new course being taught by al Qaeda called \"international operations\" set up by al Qaeda's head of international operations whom Vinas later identified as Abu Hafith. Hafith, he stated, was responsible for recruitment and direction of terrorist cells, and attacks outside Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hafith was identified by his initials in the legal document but CNN obtained his name from a source briefed on the case. He is believed to be still at large in the Pakistan-Afghan border area. Vinas was told that the training course that Hafith set up focused on kidnapping and assassination, including instruction on the use of silencers and how to break into and enter a property. The revelations raise the possibility that al Qaeda was developing a program of targeted assassinations. Though al Qaeda has carried out some assassinations in the past, most of its attacks in the West have not targeted any particular individuals but crowded areas, such as mass transport. According to Othmani, al Qaeda fighters totaled between 300-500 in Pakistan's Tribal Areas -- spread out in groups of 10. Such decentralization was a function of the growing deadliness of U.S. Predator strikes. Hicham Beyayo, a Belgian jihadist volunteer, said the group moved around a lot because such strikes were known to be \"very effective,\" his lawyer Christophe Marchand, told CNN. The loss of an increasing number of operatives, stated Othmani, prompted an order from al Qaeda's top command for fighters to remain inside as much as possible. In order to keep in touch, jihadists operated a courier service across the region, according to the Frenchman's testimony. The decentralization of al Qaeda's structures appears to have created some costs for recruits. Two members of the Belgian-French group now in custody describe feeling increasingly cut off, bored, and fed up with the primitive living conditions in their mountain shacks, according to documents obtained by CNN and the defense lawyer of one of those charged. They often did not seem to know what their next orders would be or where their handlers would take them. They also described being deeply frustrated at being repeatedly given false promises that they would be able to fight in Afghanistan. Othmani also described the group's frustration at having to pay for their own weapons and training -- at a cost of 1,300 euros each (about $1,800) -- which if true might lend credence to reports that al Qaeda has come under financial strain. Vinas, for his part, made no mention of having to make payments to his handlers. Vinas and Othmani's accounts also suggest that al Qaeda may be having leadership problems. While able to find fresh recruits to replace those killed and arrested, the group seems to have more difficulty replacing senior military trainers and other key operational figures. A former U.S. government official, specializing in counter-terrorism, commented that the insider accounts suggest the same people are leading training as a decade ago. The only difference, there are fewer of them.","highlights":"Al Qaeda recruit tells of weapons and explosives training courses .\nGroup trained in a small mountain shack -- a far cry from large Afghan camps .\nAl Qaeda also offered electronics, sniper, and poisons training courses .\nSome sessions could be geared for killing in Europe and United States .","id":"28b628786a5a82f46a2ed77db4bafa3f4b956719"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Fans of Michael Jackson lined the streets outside Harlem's Apollo Theater on Tuesday for a chance to pay their respects to the late \"King of Pop\" at the hall that helped launch his career. A hat and glittery glove represent Michael Jackson at the Apollo Theater tribute. The crowd stood eight to 10 abreast in the sun and 80-degree weather for 10 blocks, waiting for hours for a chance to enter the theater. Fans were allowed in 600 at a time, where they lay flowers and other mementos at the foot of the stage and danced to Jackson's music as it played over the sound system. \"We left our house at 4 o'clock in the morning and got here at 9, and we were lucky to get here,\" said Angela Staples, who came to New York from Pennsylvania with her daughter Jasmine. \"I'm so happy about the outpouring of love and the crowd and the people. It's so respectful to Michael.\" Those in the hall observed a moment of silence at 5:26 p.m. -- the time Jackson was pronounced dead Thursday in Los Angeles, California. The cause of the 50-year-old singer's death has not yet been determined. An autopsy on the 50-year-old singer was was inconclusive, leaving authorities waiting on the results of toxicology tests to determine what killed him. Fans have been gathering outside the theater since last week to remember Jackson, who at age 9 won a 1967 Apollo amateur night showcase with his brothers in the group the Jackson 5. \"While he went on from the Apollo stage to achieve international fame on an unprecedented level, to us and all of you, he's family because he started out here,\" said Jonelle Procope, the legendary venue's CEO. Jackson became an idol of both black and white fans and was among the first African-American artists to get widespread play on the music-video channel MTV. But in later years, he was known more for a roller-coaster personal life, including extensive plastic surgery, financial woes and a 1995 trial and acquittal on child-molestation charges. The Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York civil rights activist who became a friend of the Jackson family, urged Jackson's fans not to let critics \"scandalize\" a groundbreaking performer. \"Michael wasn't no freak,\" Sharpton said. \"Michael was a genius. Michael was an innovator. You can't take someone with extraordinary skills, extraordinary talent, and make him an ordinary person. He was extraordinary. He lived extraordinarily, and we love him with an extraordinary passion.\" The Apollo had been one of the top venues for jazz, gospel and soul artists for decades before the Jacksons' breakthrough. Sharpton said the theater was home to \"the best and the baddest.\" \"You've got to come from the stage of the Apollo and go all over the world to understand Michael,\" Sharpton said. \"We understand his journey, because we were with him every step of the way.\" The Jackson brothers' amateur night win led to a $1,000 deal for 31 shows at the Apollo, said Bobby Schiffman, whose family owned the theater. \"Shortly after their appearance, Diana Ross took them on an NBC special that she did, and there was no looking back after that. They just skyrocketed,\" Schiffman said. Jackson at the time \"was a sweet little boy,\" he said. \"He was extremely talented, extremely easy to get along with,\" Schiffman said. \"He always had a smile on his face, and it was a pleasure to see him working in the theater.\" CNN's Aspen Steib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fans line streets for blocks to pay tribute to Michael Jackson at Apollo Theater .\nFans lay flowers, mementos at the foot of the stage, dance to Jackson's music .\nJackson 5 won amateur night contest at Apollo in 1967 .","id":"bc3c0cc0c8100ce9a2d635d729b10bda26987f49"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two snowmobilers died Wednesday in an avalanche on Logan Peak north of Salt Lake City, Utah, a sheriff's department official said. Two people died after being trapped on Utah's Logan Peak during an avalanche. Lt. Matt Bilodeau of the Cache County Sheriff's Office told CNN that someone using a satellite phone called at 10:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) and told authorities about the incident. \"Two people were trapped,\" he said. \"They have both been recovered.\" The body of only one of them, a male, had been taken down the mountain, he said. Logan Peak's summit is at an altitude of 9,710 feet. Though the area is not off limits to snowmobilers, they had been warned of the danger after a recent snowstorm. \"The media's been putting that in the paper, on the radio and on TV,\" Bilodeau said. \"We are still in extreme avalanche danger,\" he said, and he urged snowmobilers to \"take into account they need to stay in probably the areas that have less of a slope to them.\" CNN's Scott Spoerry, who grew up in the area, said a recent avalanche knocked out the water supply for the city of Logan's 47,000 residents. \"Every year, there's a few avalanches,\" he said. The area is also popular during the summer, when hang gliders launch themselves from the peak.","highlights":"Sheriff's Office says two people had been trapped in avalanche .\nCall about avalanche came in at 12:30 p.m. ET .\nSheriff's Office says people had been warned of danger after recent storm .\nBody of one victim has been brought down from Logan Peak .","id":"96a0303ff244fc13a9915a36d243cbed5aa58635"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For years, Alfonso Torress-Cook followed the rules in his quest to eliminate hospital-acquired infections. Patients at his hospital received large doses of antibiotics and were scrubbed down with alcohol-based soaps, as he and his colleagues aimed to kill every bacterium possible. Search and destroy was the mantra. By upending conventional wisdom, Alfonso Torress-Cook was able to slash hospital-acquired infection rates. Still, patients became sick with bacterial infections after checking in. Some died. \"I never saw anything change. I saw things getting worse,\" Torress-Cook said. Torress-Cook eventually joined Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, in California, where as director of epidemiology and patient safety, he changed the rules and slashed the number of patients who become infected. Torress-Cook is part of a growing movement in medicine that no longer accepts hospital-acquired infections as inevitable complications. Every year, such infections sicken 1.7 million and kill 99,000 people in the United States. At Pacific Hospital, Torress-Cook doesn't go after all bacteria, just the dangerous ones. The staff members at the 184-bed hospital use antibiotics sparingly, feed patients yogurt to replenish healthy bacteria in the gut and bathe patients daily, using a soap that maintains the natural pH of the patient's skin, killing only bacteria that don't belong there. Meet some of the people fighting hospital-acquired infections \u00bb . Torress-Cook is also obsessive about hygiene: Nurses clean under patients' fingernails and brush their teeth daily. He also enlisted the hospital's cleaning crew as part of the infection-fighting team. Rooms receive a thorough cleaning every day -- more than simply emptying the trash and mopping the floor, he says. Under Torress-Cook, Pacific Hospital's infection rate for the so-called superbug MRSA is down to 0.01 per 1,000 discharges, 430 times better than the national average. Approximately one out of every 22 patients who checks into a U.S. hospital acquires a bacterial infection, adding more than $28 billion to health care costs, according to a 2009 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there are signs of improvement. Pennsylvania, which requires the most extensive reporting of hospital-acquired infections, saw the annual rate for all infections drop 8 percent, according to the most recent figures available from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. And there are other signs of progress. The development and use of a simple checklist for a common procedure that threads a so-called central line to supply medicine directly to the bloodstream has been extraordinarily effective. The checklist made central line infections almost nonexistent at the 108 intensive care units in Michigan that adopted it. More than 1,700 lives -- and $246 million -- were saved in the first three years the checklist was adopted, according to the state hospital association. The checklist is now being adopted in all 50 states and three countries: the United Kingdom, Spain and Peru, says checklist designer Dr. Peter Pronovost, from Johns Hopkins University and Hospitals. At hospitals large and small, raising the head of the bed for patients on ventilators, brushing patients' teeth and taking other precautions have dramatically reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia, another common and costly infection. Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, has used these techniques to cut its ventilator-associated pneumonia rate by more than half, to 2.7 cases per 1,000 ventilator days. \"Our goal is zero,\" says Michelle Farber, a registered nurse who is Mercy's senior infection preventionist. Simply requiring hospitals to report their infections has forced them to be more accountable to their patients, says Lisa McGiffert, who heads Consumers Union's Stop Hospital Infections campaign, which among other things has pushed for more transparency. Twenty-six states now have laws requiring hospitals to report rates for urinary tract and other infections. Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, is a big fan of publishing infection rates. He puts the hospital's rates on its Web site and on his blog. Simply putting the spotlight on hospital-acquired infections keeps the staff focused, he says. Hospitals also have a new financial incentive to cut infections. As of October 1, 2008, Medicare no longer pays hospitals for the added costs incurred by patients who develop catheter-related urinary tract infections and other catheter- or surgery-related infections. McGiffert says there's been a cultural shift in the past five years. \"I think it's moving us toward eradication of infection or at least where infections are rare and will not be accepted,\" she says.","highlights":"Every year, hospital-acquired infections sicken 1.7 million, kill 99,000 in U.S.\nThey add more than $28 billion to health care costs annually .\nSmall changes -- using a checklist and brushing patients' teeth -- can lower rates .\nExpert: Attitude is slowly shifting away from accepting infections as inevitable .","id":"0b6bb4b4dafd81a7634b41c67bd13d57c7aa3cdc"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson knew \"exactly how his fate would be played out\" and feared his death would echo that of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley wrote in an online blog posted Friday morning. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley in 1994. Presley says, \"I loved him very much\" and believes he loved her. Presley -- the daughter of Elvis, the \"King of Rock,\" and the ex-wife of Jackson, the \"King of Pop\" -- wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted \"to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.\" Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog. She said her short marriage to Jackson -- from May 1994 until January 1996 -- \"was not 'a sham' as is being reported in the press,\" but she divorced him because she was \"in over my head in trying\" to save Jackson \"from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" Jackson talked with her about his death during \"a deep conversation\" 14 years ago about \"the circumstances of my father's death.\" Watch more from Presley on Jackson \u00bb . \"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,' \" Presley wrote. \"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.\" That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson's death Thursday, she said. \"I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,\" she wrote. \"A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.\" Elvis Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem. \"As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977, happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted,\" she wrote. \"I wanted to 'save him',\" she wrote. \"I wanted to save him from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" \"The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow,\" Presley wrote. Their marriage, which some suggested was only to help Jackson's image, was real, she said. \"It was an unusual relationship, yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a 'normal life' found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part,\" she wrote. \"Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.\" Presley called Jackson \"an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.\" \"When he used it for something good, it was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad,\" she wrote. Presley's blog entry ended with a thank you to those who would read it. \"I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.\" Presley's blog can be found online at http:\/\/bit.ly\/5wR7p .","highlights":"Lisa-Marie Presley, Jackson were married from 1994 to 1996 .\nShe says Jackson feared he would die like her father, Elvis Presley .\nPresley says their marriage was not \"a sham\" as press has said .\n\"I wanted to save him from the inevitable,\" she says .","id":"b6c38e66283f89b55c792b424d8c11a4ead25a57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Houston Rockets team physician Tom Clanton has said the foot injury currently sidelining Chinese center Yao Ming could threaten the seven-foot-six-inch player's career. Yao Ming's entire basketball future could be in danger due to his persistent foot injury. \"At this point, the injury has the potential for him missing this next season and could be career-threatening,\" Clanton told the Houston Chronicle regional newspaper. \"One of the things we are trying to get is a consensus opinion on that, to make certain there is no option we are overlooking that would provide an earlier return or would be an option for treatment that he would prefer rather than doing additional surgery,\" he added. Yao fractured his left foot last month during a semifinal match against the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Western Conference semifinals and has been visiting specialists ahead of treatment since then. Clanton continued: \"At this stage, he is having no symptoms or physical signs, he has no tenderness, no swelling, no redness. When he came back in, he was feeling like everything was perfect, and he would start rehabilitation and get ready to play. \"The findings on the CT were shocking for him and for us. You don't treat a CT scan; you treat a patient. We are looking for every reason to treat this on clinical findings but don't want to put him at risk for a greater fracture,\" he added. The diagnosis raises doubt over the playing future of one of the biggest stars in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and one of the most famous celebrities to hail from China. Yao is a national hero in his homeland, and the news has prompted a frenzy of postings on the internet, arguing about the why's and wherefore's of his injury. \"He is really tired,\" says one Netizen posting on Sina.com. \"He needs to rest, we cannot let the giant fall!\" \"I wish everything will work out well for Yao Ming,\" says another teenage basketball fan. \"There is always a way to deal with injuries. We should not give up.\" Some Yao supporters think he should take a long break -- even for the whole season -- and make a comeback later. \"I think his injury is very bad,\" opines Ma Jian, a TV commentator who played for the Chinese national team. \"With all the weight training the team have put him through in the past seven years, Yao has gained about 20 kilos in his upper body. But his lower body, especially his feet, did not gain much strength to hold his large frame.\" The 28-year-old Yao has been a perennial pick for the NBA All-Star teams since moving from the Shanghai Sharks to the Rockets in 2002. Yao also captained the Chinese team as hosts at the 2008 Beijing Games, as well as taking the role of flag-bearer in the opening ceremony. Yao was awarded the honor of \"model worker\" in 2005 by China's ruling Communist Party. However, despite his popularity, Yao still has his share of detractors. Known as \"Yao hei\" -- they are people who are out to smear the player. \"He is a man made of glass,\" says one posting on Sina.com. \"Should we call him Yao the glass or Yao the porcelain?\" asks one rhetorically. Yao is now a multi-millionaire, earning millions of dollars yearly, not just from his NBA team but from lucrative commercial endorsements. Admirers say Yao has done more for improving China's image overseas than any modern-day politician or diplomat. Next to the giant panda, Yao is perhaps China's best known and much loved, icon, in part because exudes a wholesome, feel-good image. \"He is such an affable, likeable guy,\" recalls Colin Pine, who used to serve as his personal translator during his years as an NBA rookie in Houston. His demeanor on and off the court has endeared him to the media and multitude of basketball fans overseas, who admire his modesty and maturity. His loyal fans hope Yao will get an extension of his already long and successful career.","highlights":"Houston Rockets physician says Yao Ming injury could \"threaten his career\"\nYao fractured his left foot playing for Houston against the L.A. Lakers in May .\nThe 28-year-old was flag-bearer for China at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games .\nYao has been perennial All-Star selection since he moved to the U.S. in 2002 .","id":"fc55d34559f1a128145e6cee20396b5bebabd0c6"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Two U.S. filmmakers were injured Saturday when their small plane crashed into a three-story residential building in downtown Nairobi. People gather around the wreckage of a plane that struck a building in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Saturday. Dan Parris, 25, and Rob Lehr, 26, both from St. Louis, Missouri, were shooting an independent documentary on poverty in Africa. Both men were hospitalized and expected to survive, according to David Peterka, who was part of the film crew, but was not aboard the plane. He said that all four aboard the plane were Americans. A flight engineer, whose name was not released, was critically injured and was in a coma, Peterka said. The pilot, whose name has not yet been released, was killed in the crash. The crew had been in the east African nation for four days and was shooting video of Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. The plane was headed to nearby Wilson Airport, where most light aircraft land in the Kenyan capital. \"The pilot had warned that he was going to hover and go slow,\" Peterka said. \"They were surprised when they went to about 50 feet off the ground --- and then they hit electrical lines and the plane flipped into the building.\" Just before the plane crashed, the listening devices went off and they could not communicate with the pilot, Peterka said. Peterka said Lehr, who was ejected because the doors were open for filming, ran back in to rescue the others. Parris crawled out and Lehr, with the help of bystanders, pulled the pilot and the engineer out as the plane burst into flames, Peterka said. \"Local residents were using water, dirt to put the fire out\" before the fire department arrived, Peterka said. \"Before the plane crashed, witnesses said it was flying unusually low,\" said Francis Mwaka, a Kenyan federal communications official. The four-seater plane was owned by African Inland Missions company. No one on the ground was injured, Mwaka said. The crash is under investigation. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pilot killed, three passengers injured when plane crashes into building .\nTwo victims were U.S. filmmakers shooting documentary on African poverty .\nDan Parris, Rob Lehr were taken to hospital, expected to survive .\nWitnesses say plane was \"flying unusually low\" before crash .","id":"3c7d0a92ddee8b94defe70b58be7479230109756"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manny Pacquiao's two-round demolition of Ricky Hatton has set up the prospect of the biggest money-spinning fight in the history of boxing. Pacquiao lands a solid right to Hatton on his way to a comprehensive victory. The Filipino knocked out the plucky but outclassed Briton in Las Vegas on Saturday night -- earning him by a conservative estimate at least $2 million dollars per minute. Hatton, who could well now hang up his gloves, will pocket more than $8 million as a consolation. Pacquiao's all-action style is popular with boxing followers and in his native Philippines the theaters which screened his fight live with Hatton were sold out well in advance with a ferocious demand for tickets. But the really big money lies in the Pay Per View (PPV) revenues generated by the U.S. Home Box Office (HBO) network. USA Today reported Monday that early indications from cable companies were that the scheduled 12-round light-welterweight bout could get as many as two million buys. Co-promoter Bob Arum was delighted with the figures especially as initial estimates were suggesting about one million boxing fans would shell out their cash. \"We know based on those early numbers and based on experience the event will perform extremely well. If I had to guess, anywhere between 1.6 million and two million homes, which is a home run,\" he said. The record for a PPV event is the 2.4 million buys for 'Golden Boy' Oscar De La Hoya's May 2007 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., which generated a staggering $134 million in revenue. Mayweather, who also beat Hatton in another 'superfight' at the back end of 2007, astutely chose Saturday night in Vegas to announce he was coming out of retirement. Mayweather, nicknamed 'money' because of the enormous revenues he generates, will face Mexico's Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18 in his return to the ring. But the talk of the boxing world is an eventual match up against Pacquiao with the notional pound for pound title at stake as well as a massive pay day. \"If Mayweather wants a piece of the 'little Filipino', just be my guest,\" Arum said before the dust had barely settled on the Hatton fight. With the flamboyant De La Hoya retired after being handed a painful beating by Pacquiao at the back end of 2008, the mantle of PPV king is set to fall to one of the two men who ended his ring career. Despite the global recession, the appetite for top prize fighting remains strong, but it is the more flamboyant characters who draw the biggest audiences. Last November's HBO clash between former pound for pound champion Roy Jones Jr. and the brilliant undefeated Welsh world champion Joe Calzaghe drew less than 250,000 buys. The only potential obstacle to a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout, the dangerous Marquez aside, is the relative sizes of the two men. Mayweather is a natural welterweight and would want a fight at 147 pounds, with Pacquiao, who started his remarkable career at light-flyweight, wanting the match at a lower weight. But big business and money is set to talk and many predict the showdown will come late this year, almost certainly in Las Vegas.","highlights":"Manny Pacquiao set to make a fortune after beating Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas .\nFilipino boxer proves a massive draw among Pay Per View fans in U.S.\nShowdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. looms as American comes out of retirement .","id":"ed3c809ec9c6d78b510fa341396f29dd2adb72bd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Baz Luhrmann is the type of director for whom the word innovative was invented. Luhrmann and his costume designer wife Catherine Martin, who is a long time collaborator. With a filmography comprising of just three full-length feature films, (and one currently in post-production) Luhrmann has produced a stunning and highly visual body of work that is loved and loathed in equal measures. His films have a tendency to suck the viewer up into a swirling vortex of lush imagery and a lavish production style, often with a frenetic pace that one critic described as being like \"a madman on Benzedrine\". But there is a method to Luhrmann's madness. The trio of films, \"Strictly Ballroom,\" an adaptation of William Shakespeare's \"Romeo and Juliet\" and \"Moulin Rouge!\" all form part of a specific filmmaking technique described by Luhrmann as \"The Red Curtain\" cinema. Luhrmann incorporates traditional theatrical conventions into his films and morphs them to create visual treats in stories set in heightened otherworlds. Simple devices like song and dance are then used to drive the action. He always surrounds himself with the same creative team for all of his projects. His wife, production and costume designer Catherine Martin, who is known as CM, is intrinsic to his striking visual style. In his directorial debut \"Strictly Ballroom,\" Luhrmann injected dazzling colors and energetic dance moves into the stuffy world of ballroom dancing and was credited with making the genre hip again. Luhrmann himself was a ballroom dancer from the age of six, and the film reflects his affection for and intimate knowledge of that world. An intensely personal director who always draws on his own experiences, Luhrmann told CNN's The Screening Room: \"Art and life cannot be separated, they feed each other and creative decisions are based on what will make life rich and what will enrich the story telling. What I make comes from a personal level.\" It paid off for \"Strictly Ballroom,\" which became a global hit, winning eight Australian Film Institute Awards, three BAFTAs, and the Cannes Film Festival's Prix de Jeunesse in 1992. In 1996, Luhrmann worked his magic again in \"William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet,\" an MTV-style version of the classic love story set in latter-day Miami Beach, complete with warring gangs wielding automatic weapons. But it was in \"Moulin Rouge!\" that the Red Curtain's opulent and extravagant theatrical style would explode in, spectacular, some would say violent, fashion. Starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, it explored a young writer's foray into the bohemian underworld of Montmartre, Paris. Following the film's box-office success Luhrmann landed a highly lucrative Chanel contract, making a Red Curtain-inspired 2004 film for Chanel No. 5, starring Nicole Kidman. At $36m, it is reputedly one of the most expensive adverts of all time. The maverick movie-maker began his film career as an actor, training at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, but it wasn't long before he was employing his flamboyant and creative talent behind the scenes. What seems to drive Luhrmann is his huge passion and appetite for all art forms. He is a veritable Jack-of-all trades: a writer-director who has produced theatre and opera pieces, worked as a guest editor for Australian Vogue and in 1999, Luhrmann scored a surprise-hit single with \"Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen).\" Following his Red Curtain trilogy, Luhrmann planned to move onto epic storytelling. He started work on a retelling of Alexander the Great, set to star Leonardo DiCaprio. But the film was set aside when Oliver Stone's version was released -- and flopped -- in 2004. \"\"My next great passion after musicals is the epic-- telling a recognizable universal story using a vast canvas of a far away place and historical events,\" he tells CNN. \"I embarked on that in my exploration of doing Alexander the Great. At one stage, I was collaborating with DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg. \"We were looking at sets around the world and studios were built in Northern Africa and Thailand. It got a long way down the road but for various reasons, not just because of the competing project, we walked away from it,\" he explains. \"For where we were in our life particularly because we were embarking on a very personal part of our story to have children, it wasn't right. \"It's all about the timing and what is right for your life in that moment in time. We walked away from that and I never regret that for a second.\" After a seven-year hiatus, during which he and CM have had two \"magical, incredible children,\" Luhrmann has finally made his epic film, simply titled \"Australia,\" with a budget of $130m, making it the expensive movie ever made in the country. \"Australia\" is a love letter to his home country. In it Nicole Kidman plays an English aristocrat who travels to 1930s Australia to sell a cattle ranch. A grueling journey across country with a rough drover (Hugh Jackman) ends with the pair witnessing the Japanese bombardment of Darwin at the start of the Second World War. \"It's been a long time since we've had those huge banquet like motion pictures, when I was a kid, if a big epic was coming it was a big event and the whole family went,\" Luhrmann says. \"It's big drama, comedy, landscape -- a huge banquet and I would like to invite the audience to this cinematic table.\" Luhrmann is unsure if the departure from his normal style is a good career move but is adamant \"it's a good life move.\" \"We found our inner spirit enlivened again,\" he says. Luhrmann, (unlike CM), has been thus far overlooked for an Oscar award, but \"Australia,\" a big, bold movie with a vast emotional landscape is just the sort of film the Academy loves. Come 2009, it seems they will no longer be able to ignore Luhrmann's considerable -- and -- inimitable talents. What do you think of Luhrmann's cinematic style? Do you love it or loathe it? Tell us your views in our Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Baz Luhrmann's early cinema style is known as \"The Red Curtain\"\nA striking and highly visual and theatrical style exemplified in \"Moulin Rouge!\"\nHis new epic film \"Australia\" is a departure from this cinema style .","id":"9bfba255f8098169a80ced4380701b19e563c2ab"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Questions swirled Friday about the possible role prescription medications may have played in the death Thursday of pop idol Michael Jackson, people close to him said. The cause of pop star Michael Jackson's death has not been determined after Friday's autopsy. His autopsy was completed, but further tests must be carried out before the cause of death can be determined, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner said. Craig Harvey said the tests would take four to six weeks, after which \"we anticipate being able to close the case and issuing a final cause of death.\" Among the tests to be carried out, he said, are neuropathology (brain) and pulmonary (lung) tests. Harvey added, \"We know that he was taking some prescription medications,\" but said he was not able to divulge what. The possibility that Jackson may have been taking medication that could have contributed to his death at the age of 50 weighed heavily Friday on a number of people close to the star. Watch coroner's office discuss Jackson's death. \u00bb . In 2005, after he was cleared on charges of child molestation, Jackson spent a week at a center run by Dr. Deepak Chopra, a physician who focuses on spirituality and the mind-body connection. During that week, Jackson asked Chopra for a prescription for a narcotic, the doctor told CNN. \"I said, 'What the heck do you want a narcotic prescription for?' And it suddenly dawned on me that he was probably taking these and that he had probably a number of doctors who were giving him these prescriptions, so I confronted him with that. At first, he denied it. Then, he said he was in a lot of pain.\" Chopra said he responded to Jackson that there were plenty of other ways for him to handle his pain, but that the arguments were not persuasive. Watch CNN's Sanjay Gupta discuss Jackson's death \u00bb . \"For a while, I lost him,\" he said. \"I have had that happen with me with other celebrities in Hollywood. There's a plethora of doctors in Hollywood, they're drug peddlers, they're drug pushers, they just happen to be having a medical license and I hope that this episode today, this tragic death of a great human being, will bring to light the huge problem we have in Hollywood with some of the medical establishment, the celebrity doctors, who not only initiate people into the drug experience, but then they perpetuate it so that people become dependent on them.\" Chopra said Jackson had recently gone on a diet to prepare for his planned comeback tour, which was to have begun next month in England, and was excited about his planned resumption of his performing career. \"He was practicing, he was fasting, and yet he wasn't physically in the condition to do this, and he was not confronting his drug addiction, which is the big problem,\" Chopra said. He blamed Jackson's death on drug abuse, though he offered no direct evidence. \"When you have enough drugs in your system, your heart goes into an arrhythmia and your respiration stops,\" he said. \"I think the drugs killed him.\" Chopra said he had known Jackson to take the opium-derived painkiller OxyContin at one time, as well as injections of the narcotic pain reliever Demerol \"and other narcotics, and I was really desperate to try to help him, but you know you can't help somebody who would go into denial.\" Watch crowds gather at the hospital. \u00bb . Jackson typically would refuse to call Chopra for several weeks at a time, the doctor said. \"Then he would call me two or three weeks later and say he was sorry, that he had been busy and it wasn't the drugs -- but it was the drugs.\" Chopra, who said he knew Jackson for more than two decades, described him as \"my little brother -- I feel very bad for him.\" Brian Oxman, a former attorney for the Jackson family who was with the family in the hospital emergency room on Thursday, also expressed concern about medications the pop star was taking. \"I talked to his family about it, I warned them -- I said that Michael is overmedicating and that I did not want to see this kind of a case develop,\" Oxman told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday. He referred to Anna Nicole Smith, the former model and reality TV show star who died of an overdose in 2007. \"I said, 'If that's what's going to happen to Michael, it's all going to break our hearts.' And my worst fears are here.\" Oxman emphasized that he did not know what killed Jackson, and was not making accusations against any individual. Jackson's ex-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, said in an online blog posted Friday that she was not surprised by Thursday's news. She said she divorced him in January 1996, after less than two years of marriage, because she was \"in over my head in trying\" to save Jackson \"from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.\" Jackson talked with her about his death during \"a deep conversation\" 14 years ago about \"the circumstances of my father's death,\" she wrote, referring to Elvis Presley. The singer collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem. The similarity to the \"King of Rock\" apparently resonated with the \"King of Pop.\" \"At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,' \" Presley said. Watch crowds gather at the hospital. \u00bb . \"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.\" That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson's death Thursday, she said. \"I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,\" she wrote. \"A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.\" Her blog can be found online at http:\/\/blogs.myspace.com\/lisamariepresley . CNN is seeking response from the family. Meanwhile, police -- who had spoken Thursday with Dr. Conrad Murray, who was with Jackson when he died -- were trying to reach him again Friday. A car that Murray had parked at Jackson's home was impounded and may contain medications pertinent to the investigation, said Detective Agustin Villanueva of the Los Angeles Police Department. Public records show the impounded car was registered to a Texas woman who is an associate of the cardiologist, who is licensed in California and Texas and also has an office in Las Vegas, Nevada. CNN's calls to Murray's office were not returned Friday. AEG Live, the promoter of Jackson's planned tour, said their deal with the singer included a dedicated private physician of his choosing and that Jackson chose Murray, his physician of three years. A source close to the family said Murray spent much of the last two months with Jackson, as he prepared for his upcoming concert series. The doctor is said to be cooperating with officials. Jackson was in cardiac arrest when paramedics took him Thursday from his home to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where the music idol was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. ET). Listen to the 911 call \u00bb . He had been preparing for a comeback tour -- aimed at extending his legendary career and helping him to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Jackson began his professional work at age 5, singing with his brothers, before shooting to superstardom as a solo singer. He had numerous No. 1 hits -- the best known being \"Thriller,\" the best-selling album of all time, at an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. After dominating the popular music scene for years, Jackson became reclusive and mired in scandals that included child molestation charges. He reached a settlement with one accuser and was acquitted in another case after a highly publicized trial in Santa Maria, California, in June 2005. Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II. Condolences and appreciations continued to pour in Thursday from around the world. President Obama said he considered Jackson a \"spectacular performer\" and expressed his condolences to the Jackson family, the White House said Friday. At a briefing with reporters, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he spoke with the president Friday morning about the death of the pop superstar. \"He said to me that, obviously, Michael Jackson was a spectacular performer, a music icon. I think everybody remembers hearing his songs, watching him moonwalk on television during Motown's 25th anniversary.\" But Gibbs said the president also noted that \"aspects of his life were sad and tragic. His condolences went out to the Jackson family and to fans that mourned his loss.\" In a written statement, Jackson's second ex-wife, Debbie Rowe Jackson, said, \"Though Michael is now at peace, the world has lost a beautiful and loving soul. I appreciate the outpouring of support and prayer for Michael, all of his family, me and our children, and hope our privacy can be respected at this difficult time.\" CNN's Alan Duke and Drew Griffin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Deepak Chopra believes prescription drugs killed \"King of Pop\"\nCause of Michael Jackson's death deferred; no trauma or foul play found .\nSpokesman: Jackson was taking prescription medications .\nPhysician's car may contain \"medications pertinent to the investigation\"","id":"e29e772470903931c9cc53e0c19fd11e11efeb33"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Health Organization cautioned that the swine flu outbreak could gain momentum in the months ahead, despite claims by the health secretary of Mexico -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- that the virus \"is in its declining phase.\" The number of confimed cases of the H1N1 virus continue to multiply. The outbreak is only about 10 days old, and even if the illness is declining, it could return, said Gregory Hartl, the WHO spokesman for epidemic and pandemic diseases, at a briefing Sunday. \"I ... would like to remind people that in 1918 the Spanish flu showed a surge in the spring, and then disappeared in the summer months, only to return in the autumn of 1918 with a vengeance,\" Hartl said. \"And we know that that eventually killed 40 million to 50 million people.\" Mexican authorities believe the virus's most active period in Mexico was between April 23 and April 28, and Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova described the outbreak as being in decline in his country. As of late Sunday, Mexican health officials reported 568 cases and 22 fatalities linked to the flu. WHO says it has confirmed 506 cases and 19 deaths in Mexico. The world has 898 confirmed cases of the virus, known to scientists H1N1 virus, in a total of 18 countries, WHO said Sunday. The United States has reported 226 confirmed cases in 30 states. The U.S. cases include one death -- a Mexican toddler visiting relatives in the United States. According to WHO, Canada has 70 confirmed cases; the United Kingdom has 15; Spain has 13; Germany has 6; New Zealand has 4; Israel has 3; France has 2; and Austria, China, South Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Ireland each have one. In China, officials have quarantined 68 people, including 13 crew members, who were passengers of a Mexico City to Shanghai flight, which carried a passenger who tested positive for the virus, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. None of the other passengers has exhibited any flu-like symptoms, one health official said. About another 110 people who were on the Aeromexico plane went on to other destinations, and may face quarantines elsewhere, the news agency said. Fifteen have been quarantined at a Beijing hotel. Shanghai's airport is now barring other Aeromexico planes from landing there, a representative of the airline told CNN. Aeromexico is suspending flights to Shanghai until May 15, the representative said. The airline does not fly to Hong Kong or Beijing. In the United States, New York has the most confirmed cases, with 63, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texas has 40; California has 26; Arizona 18; South Carolina 15; Delaware 10; Massachusetts and New Jersey each have seven; Colorado has four; Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin each have three; Connecticut, Kansas and Michigan each have two; Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah each have one. California officials suspended visitation and other \"nonessential activities\" at Centinela State Prison in Imperial County after an inmate was suspected of having swine flu. The case has yet to be confirmed with lab testing. On Sunday, health officials in North Carolina and Pennsylvania announced the first confirmed cases in those states, and Louisiana's governor said his state had seven confirmed cases. The cases from those three states were not immediately included in the CDC tally. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius, appearing on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" warned that even if the flu outbreak wanes, \"it could come back with greater force in the winter and fall, when we get into flu season.\" \"So, this is no time for complacency,\" she said. \"We want to stay out ahead of this.\" Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for public health, told reporters Sunday that she was \"heartened\" by Mexican authorities' reports but still is \"very cautious.\" \"I know that influenza can be surprising, and the time course here in the United States is later. We believe we're just on the upswing here, and in several parts of Mexico, cases began quite a while ago,\" Schuchat said. \"From what I know about influenza, I do expect more cases, more severe cases and I do expect more deaths,\" she added. \"And I'm particularly concerned about what will happen in the fall.\" Acting CDC Director Richard Besser, also speaking on \"State of the Union,\" said U.S. health officials are examining whether people who received flu shots for the swine flu in 1976 may have some level of protection from the current swine flu. \"That's going to play in very, very big as we move forward with our plans around vaccines, because that may help guide some of the issues around who is most at risk at getting this in the future,\" Besser said. Offering a general picture of the state of U.S. efforts to combat the virus, Besser said \"there are encouraging signs.\" \"We're not out of the woods yet,\" he said. \"But what we've learned about the virus itself -- it doesn't contain the factors that we know are seen in much more severe flu strains.\" While the new virus strain in the recent outbreak has affected humans, Canadian officials said it has shown up at a pig farm in Alberta, Canada. Officials said the pigs may have been infected by a Canadian farmer who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak. The pigs have since been quarantined. \"We have determined that the virus H1N1, found in these pigs, is the virus which is being tracked in the human population,\" said Dr. Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. iReport.com: How should H1N1 be handled? Evans and other officials said it is not uncommon for flu viruses to jump from humans to animals, and that it does not pose a risk for consuming pork. The number of pigs infected was not disclosed. The infected farmer had flu-like symptoms, but he is recovering, Evans said. Learn about the virus \u00bb .","highlights":"WHO has confirmed 898 cases of H1N1 virus worldwide .\nMexico says illness declining there; WHO warns it could return .\nMexico has largest number of confirmed cases, followed by U.S., WHO says .\nCanadian officials claim pigs at farm have been affected by virus .","id":"936314199bd2f3808da38b614df2aecf4196d492"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- \"Slumdog Millionaire\" leaves audiences uplifted. But that is hardly how one of its child stars felt on Thursday. Indian authorities demolished the home of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" child actor Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail. Despite the hit movie's mega-millions in box-office receipts, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail's life changed little after he returned home to Mumbai, India's, Garib Nagar, or city of the poor. On Thursday, even the roof over the real-life slum dweller's head was taken away as Indian authorities tore down the shanty where Ismail's family lived. Authorities said the home and about 20 others around it were illegally built. Senior Inspector Rahim Sheikh told CNN that the shanties were brought down as part of a municipal drive to clear encroachments on public land. Bulldozers leveled the slum built on a municipal garden, said Sheikh, who is in charge of the locality in Mumbai where Ismail lived. The little boy sat among twisted corrugated metal and other debris, surrounded by filth and squalor. Memories of Hollywood's glitz and glitter were distant as tears streamed down his face. He said his family was given no notice of the demolition and did not have time to remove their belongings. But, they said, they plan to return and rebuild. Watch 'Slumdog' actor's home razed. \u00bb . \"Slumdog Millionaire\" is the story of Jamal, an impoverished, uneducated teen who competes on an Indian game show. Ismail, who played a young Jamal's brother, Salim, traveled to Los Angeles, California, in February for this year's Academy Awards, where the movie won eight Oscars, including best picture. CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this story.","highlights":"Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail's home is in Garib Nagar, or city of the poor .\nIndian authorities say the home, 20 others, were illegally built .\nFamily says they got no notice, plan to rebuild .","id":"d7d1146b8bb56a930aab20a81e02d20f745d42a5"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- French Internet users who download files illegally could have their service cut off under a new law enacted by the French government. French filmmaker Luc Besson attended the vote passing the new law into action. The \"three strikes and you're out\" law will see violators getting up to two warnings before their Internet service providers could be allowed to cut service for as long as a year. The tough new legislation sailed through the French Senate this week, even as opponents promised to continue to fight it in the courts. The law sets up a special government anti-piracy agency to monitor \"internauts,\" as French Internet users are called. It will ensure users are paying for movies and music that they download. While there are countries with stricter penalties such as jail time, in France opponents of the law are angry that the new government agency will be outside the judicial process. That means it can disconnect Internet service without oversight. Opponents of the law worry the government agency could be packed with over zealous enforcers who will side with filmmakers and the recording industry, or even invade the privacy of Internet users. The legislation has split France's political opposition, which protested against the new law. The political left -- traditionally supported by performers and artists -- found that on this issue the creative types were on the government's side, seeing the legislation as a way to protect the intellectual rights that are the foundation of their livelihood. Though the new law still faces a court test and may not be compatible with European legislation, the government plans to have the agency up and running by next year.","highlights":"French Internet users downloading files illegally could have their service cut off .\nNew law enacted by French government could see users banned for year .\nSpecial government anti-piracy agency to monitor violations .","id":"72d941349c7d559cd47db9c4cdad4c30e7d363d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Maybe marriage to Kate Winslet isn't all that bad. Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski star as a couple on the road in the comedy \"Away We Go.\" After cruelly dissecting marital malaise in \"American Beauty\" and again, just six months ago, in \"Revolutionary Road,\" Winslet's husband Sam Mendes takes a slightly more optimistic view of family life in the edgy comedy \"Away We Go.\" Not that he's offering a whole-hearted endorsement of the institution. Burt and Verona (John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) aren't legally bound -- she staunchly resists his repeated proposals -- but nevertheless they're a couple about to go nuclear: She's six months pregnant. He sells insurance to insurance companies. She's an illustrator with a lucrative line in anatomical drawings. Nevertheless, they're struggling to make ends meet. \"Are we losers?\" wonders Verona (only she uses a more colorful expression). \"We have cardboard windows... I think we must be.\" Insomuch as they have a plan at all, it hinges on the support they're expecting from Burt's doting parents. So it's a nasty wake-up call when Jerry and Gloria (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara) announce they're taking off for a new life in Belgium -- yes, even before the baby's out. There is a silver lining: Realizing they no longer have any reason to stay, Burt and Verona decide to widen their horizons. They could move to Arizona where Verona's sister lives. Burt has a job prospect in Madison, Wisconsin. Or they have college friends in Montreal. Their destiny awaits them, all they have to do is go out and find it. And away they go. Although the couple racks up a good few miles in their search for home, the movie doesn't betray much interest in location. Arizona is hot and arid. In Montreal they pour gravy on French fries. Don't expect cultural insights. It's never explained how these stragglers can afford such speculative wandering, and when they do find their dream home it's mystifying that it hasn't occurred to them before. Still, the movie's loose-limbed, spontaneous quality is a good part of its appeal, and a refreshing change of pace from other movies by Mendes, whose artfully designed compositions often seem self-conscious and painfully detached. In keeping with Indie-wood's vogue for shuffling snide satire and sentimentality (see \"Juno\" and \"Little Miss Sunshine\"), \"Away We Go\" presents its trepidatious travelers with half a dozen starkly contrasted parental figures, including Allison Janney's monstrously vulgar alcoholic, Maggie Gyllenhaal's radical earth-mother (who has shortened her name to \"LN\"), and Paul Schneider as Burt's rawly dumped brother, who wonders aloud if it would be wrong to tell his daughter her mom has been murdered. There's a level of bile here that some audiences may find alienating -- I can't see it being a big hit in Phoenix -- but Dave Eggers' and Vendela Vida's writing is a cut above the average, and it's performed with gusto. They may not be the most dynamic duo to hit the road, but the relationship between Burt and Verona feels touchingly true. Burt is a boy still trying on manhood for size (with a beard for extra emphasis), and though we've seen Krasinski do this before, he seems to have fine-tuned the performance to the point where he could very happily play it for the next two decades. Unlike his character, he's an actor who has found himself. Maya Rudolph is the joy of this picture. Give or take her role in Altman's \"Prairie Home Companion,\" the \"Saturday Night Live\" star hasn't made much impact in movies before now. With her frazzled, freckled face, she's not the glamour girl who would normally be shoe-horned into the romantic lead, but she seizes her chance and runs with it. Mendes brings out a more thoughtful and nuanced presence than the brittle comedienne, and Rudolph makes you consider how rarely we see a real woman at the center of things. Even her occasional tentativeness works for the part. Verona is so fresh and alert, she can't help but doubt herself as they trail from one family disaster to the next and wonder what kind of parents they are going to make. It's an uneven picture about the bumps in the road, and not immune to the odd dramatic shortcut or jocular cheap shot. But it does catch an anxiety that will be acutely familiar to anyone contemplating imminent parenthood, and -- in a beautifully judged cameo by Melanie Lynskey -- the deep anguish of someone who has had that prospect snatched away. More often than not, and where it really counts, \"Away We Go\" hits home. \"Away We Go\" is rated R and runs 98 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph star as a couple expecting a baby .\nTheir onscreen relationship feels touchingly true .\nDirector Sam Mendes brings out a great performance from Rudolph .\nMovie's loose-limbed, spontaneous quality is a good part of its appeal .","id":"7c3e5fd78edc60fdd9b5e83e062ecb5058aab21c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Chris Brown song called \"Not My Fault\" was recorded three years ago and is not about Rihanna, its producers said. Chris Brown pleaded guilty in an assault case regarding his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. The music appeared online Tuesday, a day after the singer admitted guilt to assaulting Rihanna, his former girlfriend. Brown's record label also said the music was not \"new.\" Although Brown accepted a plea deal in which he could avoid jail time, any appearance that he is not remorseful could be damaging, since the judge is not bound by those terms when she sentences him in August. The song, which appeared on YouTube, includes the line \"It's not my fault, right?\" The publicist for the Neptunes, a music producing duo that has worked in the studio with Brown, said the music was a demo recorded three years ago. She said they do not know how the song made its way onto YouTube. Jive Records, which distributes Brown's music, said \"there are no 'new' songs from Chris Brown currently being promoted by Chris or his record label.\" \"There are several old demos circulating that are being falsely promoted as new material from Chris,\" a Jive Records statement said. In the song, Brown sings: . \"I picked up the paper and the headline reads, it says 'singer brokenhearted in some satin sheets.' And I'm like, why? We had a hell of a time.\" \"When I first met you, I told ya that you'll be safe. In the midst of arguing something, falls to the floor and breaks. You look down and see what you dropped, oh, it's your heart.\" \"Shortie's caught up from a long night. She's ready to fall but she's all right. That's just something that can happen when you put it down. She's caught up, it's not my fault, right.\" \"You see, her mama called me, really steamed. She said 'My daughter won't eat and she don't sleep. She just cries.' \" Brown was arrested in connection with an altercation that began with an argument with Rihanna inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street in February. Prosecutors agreed to recommend five years of probation and 180 days of community service for Brown in exchange for his guilty plea on one count of assault with the intent of doing great bodily injury.","highlights":"Chris Brown song \"Not My Fault\" appeared online Tuesday .\nSong was recorded three years ago, has nothing to do with Rihanna, say producers .\nBrown agreed to a plea deal Monday in case involving ex-girlfriend Rihanna .","id":"1ece6fa24ffaf44553ab6b510bbe3b9c16776d24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With record low approval ratings and intense criticism for his handling of the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina and the economy, the word most used to label George W. Bush's presidency will be \"incompetent,\" historians say. President Bush makes remarks on the presidential transition November 6. \"Right now there is not a lot of good will among historians. Most see him as a combination of many negative factors,\" said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. \"He is seen as incompetent in terms of how he handled domestic and foreign policy. He is seen as pushing for an agenda to the right of the nation and doing so through executive power that ignored the popular will,\" he added. But like so many presidents before him, Bush's reputation could change with time. Harvard University political history scholar Barbara Kellerman said when President-elect Barack Obama takes over in January, people may view Bush in a new light. Watch Bush address staff about transition of power \u00bb . \"I think it's possible when people have stopped being as angry at the Bush administration as they are now ... that they will realize that some of this is just ... the luck of the draw.\" Kellerman, author of the book \"Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters,\" noted that Bush has not had luck on his side for the past eight years. \"He [Bush] has been a quite unlucky president. Certain things happened on his watch that most people don't have to deal with -- a 9\/11, a [Hurricane] Katrina, the financial crisis, being three obvious examples,\" she said. \"And yet they happened on his watch. He is being blamed,\" she said. And that fact -- coupled with approval ratings around 27 percent, according to CNN's poll released October 21 -- is in large part why Obama and Democrats won big on November 4. Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and professor at Rice University, said the country is dealing with a \"lame duck president\" who will most likely face an uphill battle in getting anything passed through Congress before he leaves office. \"We're dealing with an economic meltdown ... We're dealing with two wars. So everything Obama does now is going to be seen as he is the de facto president,\" Brinkley said Thursday. Read Zelizer's take on what Obama should avoid . Historians, beginning to examine Bush's legacy, note that the 43rd president could end up with a better reputation down the road -- something that happened to Harry Truman. At different points in his presidency, Truman earned some of the highest and the lowest public approval ratings in history: 87 percent approval in June 1945 vs. 23 percent approval in January 1952, according to a CNN analysis of polling at the time. Truman, who is often noted for his upset victory over Thomas Dewey in 1948, faced several domestic and foreign policy problems throughout his term in office, which lasted from 1945-1953. Most notably: The Korean War, World War II and later, Cold War relations with an aggressive Soviet Union. \"One of the things that has been conventionally done is to compare George W. Bush to Harry Truman, both of whom had upon leaving office dismal approval ratings and of course as it is well known by now, Harry Truman's reputation has, by virtually every account, not only improved, but I would say escalated nearly to the top of the list of greater American presidents,\" Kellerman added. Another president Bush may be compared to down the road? Ronald Reagan. Prior to leaving office, Reagan faced strong backlash from Republicans and Democrats on opening negotiations with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev during the Cold War era as well as the handling of the Iran-Contra Affair. \"He was seen as bumbling; he was seen as unintelligent; he was seen as a guy driven by his advisers,\" Zelizer added. \"And now he's being talked about like FDR, one of the great presidents in American history and we have a new look at who he was.\" Reagan is often invoked by Republicans in presidential races -- most recently with the campaign of Sen. John McCain -- looking to shore up the conservative base. Bush, meanwhile, who has long defended his decision to invade Iraq as a way to spread democracy, could also see criticism dissipate over time if Iraq becomes a thriving, stable country. \"If you imagine that an Iraq in 10,15 years is actually a vibrant, stable democracy and other countries neighboring it move in that direction ... I think you'd have a strong Bush revisionism,\" Zelizer said. \"How things unfold in coming decades can help repair a battered presidency,\" he added. Kellerman said that while many will credit Bush for taking charge of democracy-spreading, his \"incompetence\" will still be noted. \"The level of incompetence after the initial 'mission accomplished' was so acute that my guess is, even if the decision to invade might be historically justified, the incompetence that succeeded it ... I think that's going to be very difficult to ever alter our negative perception of that.\"","highlights":"Presidential historians weigh in on how history will perceive President Bush .\nZelizer: \"There is not a lot of good will among historians\" for Bush .\nBush is often compared to Harry Truman, whose reputation improved over history .\nKellerman: Bush will be remembered for his \"incompetence\"","id":"1cd5472fc4defd9212bbee4a5eba4db271295a41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka said Sunday they have \"decided to silence our guns\" as government forces closed in on their last stronghold. Sri Lanka's defense ministry says this handout photo shows troops with a captured Tamil Tiger craft Thursday. It is not the first time the rebels have called for an end to fighting when backed into a corner by the Sri Lankan military. But should they follow through on their announcement, the decision would potentially end a bloody 25-year civil war in the country. \"This battle has reached its bitter end,\" Selvarasa Pathmanathan, a spokesman for the rebels said in an \"urgent statement\" posted Sunday on Tamilnet.com, a pro-rebel Web site. \"It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice -- to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns,\" he said. Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to announce that \"military operations\" against the Tiger rebels have ended in an address to the nation from Parliament on Tuesday, the government said Sunday. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (LTTE) -- have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began. Government forces have trapped the remaining rebels in a small stretch of land in the north of the country -- and possibly thousands of civilians with them, an international aid worker in the country told CNN. The civilians are \"under intense fire\" and \"essentially on their own\" in the area, which the government says contains only rebels, the aid worker said. The Tigers themselves claim 25,000 civilians are dead or dying, a rebel identified as Col. Soosai said in a statement on Tamilnet.com. Independent confirmation was not possible since media are not allowed into the area. Reports indicated fighting had intensified as troops scrambled to clear a remaining 1.2 square kilometers before the government could announce that military operations had ended. The army destroyed six Tamil Tiger boats and killed 70 rebels in a lagoon on the western edge of a no-fire zone early Sunday, Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security said. Sri Lanka's prime minister warned Saturday that his country \"stands on the brink,\" as its soldiers cornered Tamil Tiger fighters in an assault which the United Nations fears is trapping more than 50,000 civilians on a small plot of coastal land. Government troops seized the last remaining coastal stretch under the control of Tamil Tiger rebels, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday. The seizure marks the total capture of coastline territory previously controlled by the rebels, it said, after army divisions advanced from the north and south to link up. An international aid worker said the United Nations was expecting about 20,000 of them to arrive in refugee camps Sunday. There were no medical services in the no-fire zone, the aid worker said. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . The Media Center for National Security claims 50,097 have come out of battle zones. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned from Amman, Jordan, on Sunday. Rajapaksa was attending a summit of developing nations and the World Economic Forum. In an address to the summit in Amman on Saturday, Rajapaksa said the Sri Lankan armed forces had defeated the rebels. \"I will be going back to my country Sri Lanka that has been totally freed from the barbaric acts of terrorism of the LTTE. This freedom comes after 30 long years,\" Rajapaksa said. Journalist Iqbal Athas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Soldiers have cornered rebels in assault that has trapped 50,000-plus civilians .\nTamil fighters have called for an end to fighting before when backed into a corner .\nRebels have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils since 1983 .\nAs many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began 25 years ago .","id":"0eaace0faa560fb5e3039bd8e9d5062c3ee53a4c"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For someone who claims to be incredibly laid back, Jason Mraz is certainly piling up the accomplishments. Jason Mraz was recently honored with a songwriting award for his work, which includes the hit \"I'm Yours.\" The singer-songwriter was the recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award at last week's Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee ceremony in New York. The honor typically goes to newcomers striking a chord in the music industry. Or, as Mraz puts it, \"I hope it has something to do with their savvy freshness.\" Mraz, who turned 32 this week and took his parents to the celebratory dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square June 18, says he feels great about the honor. \"I never thought my songs would escape my bedroom,\" he said. \"To have the music shared all around the world, and to be acknowledged by communities like this ... it's inspiring.\" Mraz's 2008 album \"We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things\" has been a runaway success, with more than 2.5 million copies sold worldwide. It also led to three Grammy nominations, including song of the year and best male pop vocal performance for the reggae-inflected hit \"I'm Yours.\" Mraz (whose name reflects his family's Czech heritage) hits the festival circuit overseas before kicking off his stateside \"Gratitude Caf\u00e9 Tour\" July 25. The tour's quirky title was inspired by a wholesome San Francisco, California, restaurant Mraz loves. A fan of maintaining a diet of predominantly raw foods, Mraz is also a farmer of sorts: He owns an avocado farm in his home city of San Diego, California. He's also a juggler, a skill Mraz taught himself during the downtime that comes with touring. Watch the multitalented Mraz perform \u00bb . Mraz shared tales of his avocado farm, as well as what it's like to get the cold shoulder from Simon Cowell, when he sat down with CNN recently. CNN: So, you live on an avocado farm. What's that like? Jason Mraz: It's fantastic. Anytime you're harvesting something in your yard -- whether you have a small herb garden or I've got avocados, and now we have a solar system so we're also harvesting sun energy, which is great -- for me that's when I became an environmentalist. I was like, \"Wait a second. This is my environment. This is my piece of the Earth that I'm responsible for.\" Yes, the trees give me avocado and fruit that we sell and we eat tons of, but I feel like I have a role to play back to that, too. So it's cool. CNN: So if you're at home, daily how many avocados would you eat? Mraz: At least two. Sometimes three or four. CNN: So you must have very nice oily skin. Mraz: I do, thank you. It's the avocado. I just lather it on. CNN: Do you really? Mraz: I do. Yeah, why not? I've got tons of them! CNN: Do you cook? Mraz: I prepare. There's not much cooking in our household. We do a lot of raw food so it's more about putting the right ingredients together to create something scrumptious. See Mraz's chocomole recipe . CNN: When eating healthy is so important to you, how difficult is that to maintain when you're traveling around the world so much? Mraz: Well, I bring tons of backup supplies with me. CNN: How did you like performing on the \"American Idol\" final? (Mraz performed \"I'm Yours\" with contestants Anoop Desai and Alexis Grace.) Mraz: I loved it. It was such a great event. And I have compassion for every one of those kids that dares audition. I wasn't a contestant. I was just there to sing, and when I saw Simon at the end of that panel I freaked out. I was like, \"What does he think?\" And then I had to stop myself and say \"Dude, you're not a contestant.\" He's aloof. But I watched during the rest of the night and he did it to all the acts. That's just his way. CNN: Do you think you could hack it as an \"American Idol\" contestant? Mraz: It is really tough. I watch what those guys do backstage between songs and their weekly schedule is super intense -- to learn new songs, to shoot videos, to learn dance moves and all this. They actually go through a pretty amazing transformation during the course of that show. I just don't know that I could commit myself to something like that. I'm a little more laid back. And some days if I can't show up to work, I don't show up to work. And I love that (laughs). CNN: Were you surprised by the success of \"I'm Yours\"? Mraz: Very surprised. There's something simple about it ... like a nursery rhyme. I thought it was so playful. I never expected the world to really grab it and run with it the way they have. CNN: Can you talk me through how you went about writing that song? Where were you? What were you doing? Mraz: I was at home. It was a sunny afternoon. And just as any afternoon where I play music, I was playing on an electric guitar, just chugging around, feeling a little reggae in me you know, and the melody and the words just started to pop out rather quickly and so I recorded it rather quickly. And the whole process only took about a half an hour. CNN: You're about to go overseas to play various festivals. Is there anywhere you'll be going for the first time? Mraz: This year we're going to explore South America, which I've visited as a tourist, but I've never taken my music down there. I hear the crowds turn up in masses, so I really want to see what that's like. I love getting to bounce around and explore so much. I love Scandinavia. I love Spain. It's so mystical and romantic, yet it's gritty. CNN: Do you speak Spanish? Mraz: No, but I have the Rosetta Stone. I have begun my level one training.","highlights":"Jason Mraz recently honored with songwriters award .\n\"I'm Yours\" artist amazed at where music has brought him .\nMraz intimidated by appearance on \"American Idol\"","id":"05f6e674921d19622a045c9f8c8e7917c54c1b96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cleanup efforts unfolded Monday in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, after torrential monsoon rain over the weekend killed dozens, cut power to 15 million and broke a 32-year record. Pakistanis push a stranded auto-rickshaw along a flooded street in Karachi on Sunday. Officials combed the city looking for bodies. The health department confirmed 32 deaths and said it received reports of more. \"Most of them are either from drowning or they were deaths when the walls or roofs of their houses collapses,\" said Dr. A.D. Sajnani of the health department. \"The entire city is disrupted,\" said Muhammad Aly Balagamwala, a Karachi businessman. \"Most places lost power for 28 to 30 hours, and some are still without power. The rain flooded offices. We lost water. Everything is shut down.\" Many residents took to the streets to protest the massive power outage in the southern city. They threw rocks at the offices of the power company and burned tires. \"I guess there comes a point you just snap and you can't take it anymore,\" Balagamwala said. \"To the credit of the government, a lot of cleanup work has been done since last night.\" The rain began Friday night, and by Sunday the city had received almost 9 inches (22.9 cm), the most since 1977, said Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal. Storm drains overflowed, water-logging streets and alleyways. Monsoon rains sweep across the subcontinent from June to September. While they bring much-needed relief to often-parched farmlands, they also leave a trail of landslides, home collapses and floods that sometimes claim dozens of lives.","highlights":"By Sunday, Karachi had received almost 9 inches (22.9 cm) of rain, mayor says .\nLast time city received as much rainfall was in 1977, mayor adds .\nDeaths mostly from drowning, wall or roof collapses, health department official says .","id":"5026be591c312ee350f57726793cc9ccb983372a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, whose \"People Power\" movement pushed out longtime strongman Ferdinand Marcos less than three years after her husband's assassination, has died at age 76, her family announced Saturday. \"She was the agent of change in Philippine democracy,\" said Ray Donato, the nation's consul-general in Atlanta. Aquino, the first woman to lead the Philippines, had been battling colon cancer since March 2008 and died of cardio-respiratory arrest at 3:18 a.m. Saturday (3:18 p.m. Friday ET), said Mai Mislang, a spokeswoman for her son, Philippine Sen. Benigno Aquino III. Funeral arrangements were being set up, Mislang said. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has also announced a 10-day mourning period for the former president, said Ray Donato, the country's consul-general in Atlanta. \"She was the agent of change in Philippine democracy, and almost all the Filipinos I know revered her during her presidency,\" Donato said. Aquino had been born into a wealthy family and was educated in the United States. She had not been involved in politics before her husband, opposition leader Benigno \"Ninoy\" Aquino Jr., was gunned down at Manila's airport in August 1983 as he returned from exile. The political novice took over the leadership of her husband's movement after his death and challenged Marcos in a 1986 election, making a yellow dress her trademark and bolstered by the support of the country's Roman Catholic churches. Marcos had been backed by the United States, the former colonial power in the Philippines, for two decades as a stalwart anti-communist. He and his wife Imelda were friends of then-President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy. But widespread allegations of electoral fraud and a mutiny by the country's military led the Reagan administration to withdraw its support, and Marcos went into exile in Hawaii. Aquino took office in a country with a $28 billion debt, widespread poverty and a persistent Marxist insurgency. She put in place a U.S.-style constitution that limited presidents to a single six-year term and survived seven coup attempts -- including one that was supressed with American help. She also oversaw the closure of the major U.S. military bases in the country before leaving office in 1992. The bases had been a bulwark of American power in the Pacific since the early 1900s and employed nearly 80,000 Filipinos, but Aquino's opponents argued the country was too dependent on the United States. Aquino announced in 1990 that it was time to begin negotiating the \"orderly withdrawal\" of U.S. forces.","highlights":"NEW: Funeral arrangements are being set up, spokeswoman says .\nPresident Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announces 10-day mourning period .\nAquino had been battling colon cancer since March 2008 .\nShe took up opposition to Marcos regime after her husband's 1983 assassination .","id":"f594a19dfcffbcdde8d8d6b7b270b05dcf186b0b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons purchased by Venezuela have ended up in the hands of guerrillas, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro talks on the phone with President Hugo Chavez in Caracas Monday. In an interview with Caracol Radio Monday, Santos addressed local reports of anti-tank weapons manufactured in Sweden being seized from members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and traced to Venezuela. \"This is not the first time that this happens,\" Santos said. \"In several operations in which we have recovered weapons from the FARC, we have found powerful munitions and powerful equipment, including anti-tank weapons, from a European country that sold them to Venezuela and that turned up in the hands of the FARC.\" The weapons have been identified as AT4 shoulder-fired rockets manufactured by Saab Bofors Dynamics in Sweden, according to Jane's Defence Weekly. They were seized in 2008 from a guerrilla base, the Colombian magazine Semana reported. Jan-Erik Lovgren, the Swedish official who oversees weapon exports, told Radio Sweden on Monday that his country stopped selling weapons to Venezuela in 2006. Venezuela on Monday denied allegations that they gave the weapons to the guerrilla group. \"To me it seems that this is a new attack against our government based on lies,\" Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and Justice Tareck El Aissami said at a news conference Monday. \"We absolutely deny that our government or our institutions are providing assistance to criminal and terrorist organizations,\" El Aissami told reporters. \"It's laughable, it sounds like a cheap film made by the American government.\" Previous instances of Venezuela's government being accused of aiding the FARC include one last year, when the U.S. Treasury Department accused two senior Venezuelan intelligence officials and one former official of assisting the guerrillas with drug trafficking. The department froze any assets the three men may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibited Americans from conducting business with them.","highlights":"Saab Bofors Dynamics in Sweden made the arms, Jane's Defence Weekly says .\nWeapons seized in 2008 from a guerrilla base, Colombian magazine Semana says .\nVenezuela denies the allegations .","id":"efac73b8b4144f8f756dbdb624633d3b04fa6273"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A fan of English football club Arsenal has been injured after the bus he and other supporters were traveling in was ambushed before the sides' Champions League clash in Rome, Wednesday night. Winners: Arsenal beat Roma 7-6 on penalties after one of their fans was injured before the game. A spokesman from the British Embassy in Rome told CNN the fan was understood to have suffered wounds to the leg -- but it was unsure if he had been stabbed or injured by broken glass. The spokesman said the mini bus, which was not an official tour bus, became lost near the stadium and \"ended up at the wrong part of the ground\". Roma fans nearby set about attacking the bus, the spokesman said. \"They smashed the windows and then one of them managed to get on the bus. This appears to be where the injury occurred,\" he said. Police were quick to arrive and the bus managed to move on to safety, where the fan was treated for the wound, he said. The visiting side went on to win the tie 7-6 on penalties after Roma won the game 1-0, leaving the two-match tie level 1-1 on aggregate. Arsenal had distributed a booklet to its estimated 3,500 traveling fans warning that they were \"at risk\" if they traveled alone to the Stadio Olimpico. The booklet warned supporters to stay clear of areas that were known gathering points of Roma's \"Ultra\" fans -- a group known for creating conflict with rival supporters. Last month ten football fans were shot dead in the south of Nigeria on the way to support their team. The victims were traveling supporters of the Ocean Boys Football Club in Nigeria. Also in February, one fan was killed and at least 40 more injured when violence broke out at football matches across Brazil. In 2007, Manchester United fans were injured after violence in two separate incidents with Roma fans when the teams met in Rome. In 2003 five England fans suffered gunshot wounds during a violent incident in Zurich, Switzerland, before the side played a Euro 2004 qualifier with Liechtenstein.","highlights":"Fan injured during ambush on bus before Champions League game in Rome .\nArsenal bus attacked when it arrives at wrong part of Stadio Olimpico .\nWindows on bus smashed by Roma fans and one fan enters bus .\nArsenal go on to win match 7-6 on penalties after it finishes 1-1 on aggregate .","id":"08cd51d47d5d4a9db211089c4d1fd370e30d81bd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Olga A. Mendez, a ground-breaking Puerto Rican politician from New York City, has died after a long battle with cancer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced. Mendez, widely reported to be the first Puerto Rican woman elected to a state legislature in the mainland United States, was 84. \"Olga's election to the state Senate as its first Puerto Rican woman was a tremendous symbol of hope for a community that now had a seat at the table,\" Bloomberg said in a release Wednesday. \"But Olga's life was an inspiration to countless others, because the doors she bravely pushed opened stayed open for everyone else.\" Mendez served in the New York state Senate 13 consecutive terms, from 1978 until being defeated in 2004. A long-time Democrat, she had switched to the Republican Party in 2002 and failed to win re-election to her heavily Democratic 28th district, which included East Harlem and parts of the Bronx. \"Mendez was brash, bold and aggressive because she had to be,\" New York's El Diario newspaper said Thursday. \"She cut her teeth in the Senate and became a battle-ready politician. And she balanced what few politicians were able to do well -- an on-the-ground constituency services with the ability to achieve critical legislative negotiations. This, in a Senate that was controlled by Republicans during the entire 26 years she served.\" Bloomberg noted Mendez's bipartisanship. \"When I first entered public service eight years ago, Olga sat me down and impressed upon me -- in her inimitable way -- the importance of reaching across partisan lines to do what's right for your constituents,\" the mayor said. \"That's a lesson I carry with me every day.\" El Diario noted that \"Mendez successfully fought for an increase in the state's minimum wage, ushered in legislation that provided basic rights to migrant farm workers and secured funding for senior citizen centers. She also fought for resources for early childhood development and gained bipartisan support for affordable housing and economic development initiatives in her district.\" Born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Mendez moved to the Mainland U.S. after receiving a bachelor's degree from the Universidad de Puerto Rico in 1950. She received a master's degree in psychology from the Teacher's College at Columbia University in 1960 and a doctorate's in educational psychology from Yeshiva University in 1975. An early widow, she had no children. Mendez underwent surgery for breast cancer in 1993. \"Olga didn't recoil from public life or attempt to hide her condition,\" Bloomberg said. \"Instead, she shared her story and her struggle with others.\"","highlights":"Mendez said to be first Puerto Rican woman elected to a state legislature in U.S.\nShe died after a long battle with cancer, Mayor Bloomberg says .\nMendez served in the New York state Senate 13 consecutive terms .\nA long-time Democrat, she had switched to the Republican Party in 2002 .","id":"27f9fd9d0777fbd7845969dbf44322d62dc1d547"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- An Al Qaeda-linked militant group waging war against Somalia's fragile government is becoming an increasing threat to Western ally Kenya and could potentially destabilize the region with dire consequences for global security, officials and analysts warn. Al-Shabab fighters count their bullets in neighborhood of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab, one of the strongest Islamic militias battling for control of Mogadishu, has gained ground in recent weeks, according to officials, and has started to flex its muscles beyond Somalia's border with terror strikes, kidnappings and recruitment drives. They warn that unless the world takes action the group, which wants to impose an extreme type of Islamic sharia law, could extend its grip across parts of East Africa to gain control of a region that flanks busy shipping routes already plagued by Somali pirates . Appeals by Somalia's government for international help to unpick its long-running civil conflict have escalated Al-Shabaad's threats with the group behind warnings of an attack on the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. And, say experts, the group is being backed by foreign fighters -- some said to have links to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network -- a situation that draws direct comparisons with the group's influence in pre-9\/11 Afghanistan. \"Al-Shabaab is a threat to the whole world,\" Somali Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamoud told CNN. \"First to Somalia, to the neighborhood, and to everywhere they have disagreed with.\" Watch more on Somalian threat \u00bb . Mohamoud, whose transitional government has largely failed in its long-term goal of reconciling Somalia's militias, concedes Al-Shabaab is making major gains on his administration and says the global community must act to prevent their threat escalating. \"Somalia's problems are not for Somalia alone to solve. Not only for the African Union to solve. It is a global and regional issue. We are very appreciative that the international community understands that, but they need to act now, rather than later.\" \"The issue is not Somalis taking over from other Somalis. But the issue is foreign jihadists imposing their ideas into the region. So Somalia can be a launching pad for a greater and wider jihadist issue.\" Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua told CNN his country did not yet fear direct attacks from Al-Shabaab but said it was becoming increasingly alarmed about its activities and its links to foreign networks. Despite the concerns, Mutua said the problem was nothing new and while his country struggled to exert control over its porous border with Somalia, it was taking steps to limit the danger. But he warned the threat was not limited to Kenya and could have global reach. \"We do believe that Al-Shabaab poses a threat, not only to Kenya, but to all neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea,\" he said. \"It is not just a problem that we foresee in Kenya, just because we are neighbors to them, it is a problem that we foresee that may occur to a lot of countries and also poses a threat to outside even this region,\" he added. \"Our concern is not limited to Al-Shabaab. We know that Al-Shabaab are not able to do it without foreign intervention in terms of money and weapons that they are getting from other countries.\" Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told CNN that while Al-Shabaab had whipped up concerns with headline grabbing acts such as the recent kidnap of two French citizens in Mogadishu and three aid workers on the Kenyan side of the border, countries such as Kenya should pay heed. \"I think that Kenya could do a much better job. There is always the possibility that someone could sneak across the border and launch an attack against a soft target. Obviously Kenya has been the target of attacks in the past that are very, very challenging to prevent.\" But, says Hogendoorn, with an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia proving largely ineffective, and Ethiopian military presence withdrawn in January ahead of an Al-Shabaab push, Kenyan military involvement was unlikely to offer any quick fix. \"The problem is once [Kenyan troops] are on the ground they open themselves up to guerrilla style attacks and suicide attacks that could lead to significant loss in life.\"","highlights":"Experts, officials warn of growing threat from Somali militant group .\nAl-Shabaab is one of strongest Islamic militias battling for Mogadishu .\nKenya says danger is to region and world despite threats on Nairobi .","id":"3250d0277dafbc4d5d30df03084dadca27c9c535"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- International troops in Afghanistan endured another deadly attack Tuesday, a day after 10 NATO-led troops were killed in that country. The body of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan arrives in the United States on Monday. A U.S. coalition service member \"died as a result of injuries\" on Tuesday afternoon in a roadside bombing attack on a convoy in western Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. This follows 10 NATO-led deaths on Monday, the highest single-day total in Afghanistan in nearly a year, according to NATO and U.S.-led coalition numbers. Seven Americans, two Canadians and one Briton died in four separate incidents Monday. On August 18, 2008, 10 French soldiers were killed when about 100 insurgents attacked a patrol in Kabul Province, and a British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan when insurgents attacked a patrol with a roadside bomb. A month before that, 10 American troops were killed in two separate incidents on July 13, 2008. The latest deaths came as U.S. troops cranked up their fight against the Taliban, a push that includes a major Marine-led offensive against the militants in the southern province of Helmand. Roadside bombs Monday killed four Americans in the northern province of Kunduz and two in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. A seventh American died in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, ISAF confirmed. Two Canadian air crew members and a British soldier were killed when a helicopter crashed during takeoff in Zabul province, the Canadian and British defense ministries said.","highlights":"U.S. soldier killed in roadside bombing on a convoy in western Afghanistan .\nFollows deaths of 7 Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 Briton in separate incidents .\nLatest deaths come as U.S. forces ratchet up fight against Taliban .","id":"2444b8316611d91a220aa8ca835c54882949be58"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor was found strangled Thursday in his Upper East Side apartment, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner said Friday. Felix Brinkmann dances at a 2008 party marking his 90th birthday. Felix Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, escaped death for a year while he was in the Nazis' Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz concentration camps. Five times he had been slated for the gas chambers, but each time he used his fluency in German to talk his way out. After the war ended, he was stunned to discover that his wife, who had also been shipped to Auschwitz, was alive and well in Poland. The Brinkmanns immigrated to America, where Felix spent years in the bar and nightclub business, co-founding in 1971 Adam's Apple disco in Manhattan. In recent years, he had served as the real estate manager of a mixed-use building in the Bronx, working \"seven days a week, without fail,\" said his son Rick Brinkman, who spells his last name differently than his father. On Thursday, the building's superintendent grew concerned when Brinkmann did not show up to work. He notified Brinkmann's son and received permission to enter the father's apartment, where he had lived alone since his wife died last year. Brinkmann's body was found lying face down in his bedroom, his hands bound, his body showing blunt-force trauma wounds, police said. Brinkmann's blue 2009 Honda Civic may have been stolen and a safe in his apartment tampered with, police said. A police spokesman said authorities were looking for \"a man and a woman\" in connection with the homicide. Rick Brinkman speculated that the killing was random in nature. \"Anybody who knew him really liked him,\" the son said. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies.\"","highlights":"Felix Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, was a survivor of three concentration camps .\nBrinkmann spent years in the nightclub business after he and his wife immigrated .\nHe had lived alone in an Upper East Side apartment since his wife died last year .\nPolice: \"Man and a woman\" being sought in connection with the homicide .","id":"b4309f8ebbfb939fbb5b4e8828185a05e5e50c00"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Severe turbulence shook a Continental Airlines flight Monday, injuring dozens of passengers and forcing the aircraft to divert to Miami, Florida, according to the airline and a fire official. Oxygen masks hang from a damaged part of the plane Monday, in a photo by passenger Camila Machado. There were 168 passengers and 11 crew members on Flight 128, which was heading from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Houston, Texas, according to a statement from Continental Airlines. \"I've never seen turbulence like that, so I really thought we wouldn't make it,\" passenger Giovani Loss told CNN affiliate WSVN-TV. Loss, who is originally from Brazil, said he is a lawyer in the United States and frequently travels between the two countries. He said passengers were afraid the turbulence may have been the result of mechanical problems with the plane. \"People [were] screaming, then there was a huge silence for like 30 minutes,\" Loss said. Ambulances and other vehicles were lined up on the runway to treat and transport the injured passengers when the plane landed at Miami International Airport at 5:35 a.m. Watch passengers describe what happened \u00bb . \"People that weren't seat belted in flew up and hit the ceilings,\" passenger John Norwood told WSVN. \"So their faces, their heads hit the plastics and broke all the plastics up top.\" Continental said seven passengers were transported to nearby hospitals, and approximately 28 other passengers were treated at the scene. Lt. Elkin Sierra of the Miami-Dade Fire Department said 26 passengers were injured, including four seriously. The Boeing 767-200 hit turbulence about 50 miles north of the Dominican Republic at about 38,000 feet, according to an official with the Federal Aviation Administration. It landed in Miami an hour later with its seat belt signs illuminated, the airline said. Many of the passengers said they did not hear any warning before the turbulence hit. Injuries received included bumps, bruises, neck pain and back pain, Sierra said. Passengers said they saw several people bleeding from their heads, including one woman who sustained a serious gash to her head. The flight is scheduled to depart Miami for Houston later in the morning, according to Continental's Web site. It had been scheduled to arrive in Houston at 6 a.m. local time.","highlights":"Airliner hits turbulence, is forced to divert to Miami, Florida .\nAt least 26 people hurt, four of them seriously .\nJet had been en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Houston, Texas .","id":"ab90e379df8b9f91ec29fb5038dfbb2a494a8958"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Army staff sergeant will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor after he sacrificed his own life in an effort to save another soldier in Afghanistan, the White House said Friday. By acts of \"immeasurable courage,\" Staff Sgt. Jared Monti earned the Medal of Honor, the White House said. Staff Sgt. Jared Monti will receive the medal, the nation's highest military honor, on September 17 for his actions in combat, the White House said in a statement. His parents, Paul and Janet Monti, \"will join the president at the White House to commemorate their son's example of selfless service and sacrifice.\" Monti, of Raynham, Massachusetts, died June 21, 2006, while deployed with the 10th Mountain Division, according to a Web site set up by family and friends to announce a scholarship in his honor. He was 31 when he died. Monti's reconnaissance team occupied a surveillance position when they were attacked near Gowardesh, Afghanistan, and he was killed by enemy fire, the Web site says. The White House statement said Monti \"displayed immeasurable courage and uncommon valor -- eventually sacrificing his own life in an effort to save his comrade,\" but did not provide details of his actions. Monti's military decorations already included the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, five Army Commendation Medals, four Army Achievement Medals, three Good Conduct Medals and three National Defense Service Medals, the White House statement said. He is survived by his parents, his sister and brother and a niece. Monti was posthumously promoted to sergeant first class. The Medal of Honor is awarded to U.S. soldiers who distinguish themselves with \"gallantry above and beyond the call of duty,\" the White House said. \"The meritorious conduct must involve great personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his or her comrades and must have involved risk of life.\"","highlights":"White House: President will present medal to soldier's parents in September .\nStaff Sgt. Jared Monti showed \"immeasurable courage\" in Afghanistan .\nWhite House says Monti gave his life for comrade in combat, but no other details .\nMuch-decorated soldier was posthumously promoted to sergeant first class.","id":"f87dd1b837c7352043eddc205f63e595891a57ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three members of a U.S. Navy helicopter crew were killed after their helicopter went down in the waters off San Diego, California, a Navy spokeswoman said Wednesday. Rescuers are still searching for the two remaining crew members from the helicopter, which went down late Tuesday night, U.S. Navy spokeswoman Karin Burzynski said. No further details concerning the deaths were immediately available. Burzynski said the helicopter was operating from the USS Nimitz. The Navy received word that the helicopter went down around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, she said. It crashed about 20 miles off the Mexican coast, the Navy said. Coast Guard spokesman Henry Dunphy told CNN earlier that Coast Guard helicopters and boats, as well as vessels from other agencies, were helping in the search.","highlights":"NEW: Rescuers still searching for two people missing from Tuesday night crash .\nCoast Guard using helicopters and boats to search ocean for crew .\nCopter was doing training off coast of Mexico, near San Diego, when it crashed .","id":"4390d330abd56b7e025171899f5b731888fb4ac2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The murder of rapper Dolla reverberated throughout the music industry on Tuesday as police sought a motive for the brazen killing. Rap artist Dolla was known as a nice guy who survived a rough childhood. The aspiring Southern hip-hop artist, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was gunned down in the busy parking lot of the upscale Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, California, on Monday afternoon. Police later arrested Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, at Los Angeles International Airport, a Los Angeles Police statement said. No other details were given about Berry. The 21-year-old rapper was based in Atlanta, Georgia. He was in Los Angeles to work on his debut album. Those who knew him said that despite coming from a rough background, Burton was extremely gracious and polite. \"Everything with Dolla was 'please' and 'thank you,' \" said Ant Rich, manager of A&R for Jive Records, who discovered the rapper for the label when Burton was 17 and helped sign him a year later. \"The streets did not define him at all. He was bigger than that.\" Dolla was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of singer Akon, who collaborated with him on his first single, \"Who the F--- is That?\" which also featured another high-profile artist, T-Pain. Another Dolla song, \"Feelin' Myself,\" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie \"Step Up.\" According to his official MySpace page, Dolla was born in Chicago, Illinois, and his family relocated to Los Angeles soon after. He was 5 years old when he and his older sister, Divinity, witnessed their father committing suicide. After that incident, their mother moved the family to Atlanta, according to his biography. The Burton family released the following statement on Tuesday: . \"First and foremost we, the family, would like to thank everyone for all their kind thoughts and prayers. Furthermore, the family would like to note that rumored details of the shooting on popular Web\/blog sites are false. \"Due to the circumstances of the situation, no other information will be released at this time. We are grateful for your continuous support and would be very appreciative if we could mourn this loss in private. \"Additionally, information released before and after this official statement are not confirmed nor should they be considered accurate.\" Rich said Dolla, who also did some modeling for P. Diddy's Sean John label, loved his family deeply. He was the guy with the great smile who would do things like offer to pick up the bill after a meeting with music executives, Rich said. \"You would tell him 'Look Dolla, you don't have to do that because we get reimbursed for this' and he would say 'No, no you got it last time, let me,' \" Rich said. \"The world lost a really good kid and he had the biggest heart.\" DeAngelo Jones books talent for BET and got to know Dolla after he performed at the network's \"Spring Bling\" event last year. He said the artist was humbled and grateful for the success he was starting to find in the industry. \"That energy was what drew me to him,\" said Jones, who stayed in touch with Dolla after the show and often ran into him at other events. \"A lot of times there are negative associations that go along with being a rapper, but he was not at all what the image of a rapper is portrayed to be.\" Jones said he was at the Beverly Center only a short time before the shooting occurred. Jones said it was unfortunate that Dolla's slaying is yet another incident that will link hip-hop with violence. \"Hip-hop gets such a bad rap, ever since the deaths of Biggie and Tupac,\" Jones said. \"[Dolla] just wanted to be successful, help other people and do the right thing. What's so hard for me is to see where his life was heading, because he was definitely on the right course.\" Jerry Barrow, senior editor for The Urban Daily, a publication devoted to African-Americans in pop culture, noted that it was unfortunate that Dolla is finding mainstream recognition posthumously. \"With his modeling and his music, he did more before the age of 20 than many people do,\" Barrow said. \"It's a shame that this is how many people are now discovering him and his music.\" Rashan Ali, a disc jockey with Atlanta's Hot 107.9 radio station, said the city has a thriving hip-hop community. Her station, which plays hip-hop, often has its lobby filled with aspiring artists trying to get their music heard. With the success of Atlanta-based artists like rappers T.I., Outkast, and Young Jeezy, more and more young people are drawn to the area to try and make the connections that will find them fame, Ali said. That Dolla was killed while pursuing his craft is especially sad, she said. \"[Dolla] was minding his business, in Los Angeles trying to record his music and this happens,\" Ali said. \"It's horrific and now a mother has to bury her child. It's senseless.\"","highlights":"Those who knew rapper Dolla mourn his loss .\nThe Atlanta-based rapper was killed at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles .\nFamily releases a statement asking for privacy to mourn .\nDolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was 21 .","id":"a70c3279d592b152dd516be393e70d349b7553f9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The United States almost provided one of football's biggest upsets when they were narrowly beaten by Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup in South Africa. The U.S. players cut dejected figures after their Confederations Cup final defeat to Brazil . Goals from Clint Dempsey and captain Landon Donovan had given the U.S. a 2-0 lead at half-time, before Luis Fabiano struck twice after the break and Lucio headed home the winner six minutes before the final whistle to give Brazil the title. While the presence of the U.S. in the final reflects the significant progress made since the country hosted the World Cup in 1994, it will undoubtedly raise expectation levels for the 2010 World Cup. Central to this is whether the current crop of players in coach Bob Bradley's squad possess the credentials to make the next step and become serious challengers to the European and South American elite. World Soccer magazine columnist and U.S. Soccer expert Paul Gardner felt that while the exploits of the national team were impressive, the country is still some way short of fulfilling their potential on the world stage. \"The way the tournament went it really opened up for the U.S. and certainly the progress made is there for all to see, particularly in the victory over Spain who had been on an good run up until that point,\" Gardner told CNN. \"Undoubtedly things have moved on a great deal since the World Cup was staged here in 1994, but if you look at the bigger picture there is perhaps a slight sense of underachievement because of the huge resources available. \"In terms of organization, facilities and sheer participation numbers the U.S. has massive potential which has not quite yet been matched by what has happened at national level.\" Does the Hispanic community hold the key for the future of U.S. football? Sound Off here. Crucially Gardner believes that for the U.S. to shake the tag of nearly men there must be a stronger emphasis placed on tapping into the abundance of talent provided within the country's Hispanic population. \"The experience that players have gained from playing in Europe has improved the players and Bob Bradley has molded a side which can hold it's own against some of the bigger nations,\" Gardner explained. \"But for the U.S. to become a real force then it must begin to tap into the quality of talent available in the Hispanic community which can be nurtured to take the game to the next level. \"The Major Soccer League has yet to really embrace this idea and I think that needs to change in the first instance to enable the development of players capable of winning matches at the very top. \"MLS side Houston Dynamo is a case in point. Something like 50 percent of their support is Hispanic, 90 percent of their youth talent is Hispanic but have only have a few Hispanic players in the team. \"And that extends to the national team. The composition of the side at the moment is very much the team that Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena built and they -- like a number of MLS coaches -- have gone for players they can trust and rely on. \"The Hispanic players have the game in their blood and their skill and technical levels need to be embraced rather than maybe having a dependence on players who fit a specific system.\" For Gardner, at least, it seems that development of the Hispanic talent must therefore become a keystone policy for the U.S. Soccer Federation to put them into the bracket of serious World Cup contenders in years to come. But what of their chances at next year's World Cup in South Africa? He added: \"The U.S. should not get carried way with their performance at the Confederations Cup and the players should not look beyond getting past the group stages in South Africa. \"A good run in Japan and South Korea in 2002 was followed by elimination before the knockout phase in Germany 2006 so they need to be cautious. \"Winning the World Cup will probably be beyond the U.S. next year. Bradley will make them a difficult team to beat, and I don't think anyone will get an easy game against them so it will be interesting to see how they do.\"","highlights":"U.S. national team have made progress since hosting the World Cup in 1994 .\nResources to develop the game in the U.S. are among the world's best .\nExpert Paul Gardner believes the country needs to tap into Hispanic talent .","id":"511d5c3597f3b049ba4fcafcfc580ec76febe4e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Strandlof said he survived the 9\/11 attacks on the Pentagon. He said he survived again when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq killing four fellow Marines. He'd point to his head and tell people he had a metal plate, collateral damage from the explosion. Richard Strandlof says he didn't mean to cause harm when he lied about being a military veteran. Crowds ate up his story. He canvassed Colorado appearing at the sides of politicians. Inspiring and seemingly authentic, he spoke on behalf of veterans at the state Capitol. It turns out the whole thing was a lie. He wasn't at the Pentagon. He was never a Marine. He never served his country. He never graduated from the Naval Academy. He claimed his name was Rick Duncan. He formed a group called the Colorado Veterans Alliance, and the FBI is now investigating whether he embezzled money as a result. Watch Strandlof defend himself \u00bb . Where was he on 9\/11, the day he said he witnessed heroism firsthand? \"I was in San Jose, California, watching it in horror on TV with a few other people,\" Strandlof told CNN's Anderson Cooper. He was at a homeless shelter at the time. Strandlof denies being a pathological liar. He says he suffered from \"some severely underdiagnosed mental illness\" and that he got caught up in the moment around \"people who are passionate and loved what they did.\" He told CNN he had put on a \"production, which I'm sorry for.\" \"Hopefully the people that I hurt can in some way gain closure from that, and I myself don't know what I can do short of leaving them alone and not being in their lives, to make that happen,\" Strandlof said. He said he's not sure exactly how he's hurt people. \"It's not for me to say, and time will tell,\" he said. Hal Bidlack, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, is one of those people. He ran for Congress as a Democrat and had Strandlof appear with him. Bidlack isn't too happy. \"Once one lie fell apart, the whole series of things ... just cascaded into an ocean of lies,\" he said. Bidlack was at the Pentagon when it came under attack on September 11, 2001. He now realizes that Strandlof stole portions of his own story. \"Now that we know he's a lying fraud,\" Bidlack said, \"I think he was just parroting my own story back to me.\" \"There are an awful lot of things that he kept straight to try to fool an awful lot of people for an awful long time.\" Doug Sterner has catalogued hundreds of people claiming to be military veterans who never served in the military. He says it's typical for those perpetuating the hoaxes to claim mental illness. \"I don't buy that,\" Sterner said. \"What he was doing was looking for a cause to promote himself. I see this repeatedly. I've had a hundred cases just this year like Rick Strandlof's. ... What they're doing is building a kingdom of self and feeding their own ego.\" Sterner has pushed for a federal database listing the names and citations of all decorated military veterans to help put an end to such cases. He said Strandlof has robbed true veterans of their veracity. \"Doing good does not take away from the bad that he did,\" he said. \"Because of Rick Strandlof, the next global war on terrorism veteran that speaks in a school or talks to the media or gets involved in politics is going to be questioned.\" According to the Denver Post, Strandlof came to authorities' attention first in 1997, when he was sentenced to five years on forgery and bad-check charges. With the FBI now investigating him for fraud, he told CNN he's innocent. \"We did not take money to use on non-veterans projects. I did not enrich myself on this. I did not gain any money from this,\" he said. That's not the point, said Sterner. \"The one thing he robbed from every veteran that comes out now is credibility.\" CNN's Joe Johns contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI investigating man who posed as military veteran for fraud .\nMan said he survived 9\/11 Pentagon attack; he was actually at homeless shelter .\nRichard Strandlof formed veterans group in Colorado .\nFormer friend: \"He was just parroting my own story\"","id":"cacee8e720910d00224a866c7c7c7a4c045eb7d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Navy snipers rescued an American cargo-ship captain last month from Somali pirates, it sounded like something from a movie. This shooting game by Games2Win.com lets players try to rescue a ship captain from Somali pirates. But in today's instant-gratification culture, there's no need to wait for Hollywood to re-enact that dramatic high-seas story. Video game developers are already on the case. Online gaming site Games2Win launched \"Saving Captain Phillips,\" a simple, two-dimensional shooting game, within nine days of the actual rescue. Not to be outdone, Kuma Games followed soon afterwards with \"Somali Showdown: Pirates on the High Seas,\" a PC multiplayer action game that puts players in the middle of a pirate attack on a cargo ship -- and even lets them become one of the pirates. These are just several of many online and cell-phone games based on recent news events. \"Hero on the Hudson,\" a primitive Flash game, lets people pretend they're pilot Chesley Sullenberger and navigate a plummeting airliner to a safe water landing. A successful attempt brings applause, while a botched landing results in a sinking plane, accompanied by ominous gurgling sounds. \"Baseball Juiced,\" launched last month with a social message and already played 1.4 million times online, forces batters to pick between using steroids or working out in a gym. In \"Swinefighter,\" gamers seek to save the world from the spread of swine flu. And \"Trillion Dollar Bailout\" lets players try to boost the economy by awarding government cash to shady corporate fat-cats or struggling homeowners (well, duh). Such topical, and satirical, games speak to our need for a light-hearted break from serious news, said DigitalTrends.com publisher Scott Steinberg. \"So many events in the news are devastating,\" he said. \"These games are a fun escape. They're good for a laugh, and nobody gets hurt -- unlike in the real world.\" The idea to publish games based on news events was inspired in part by the success of viral videos such as JibJab's \"This Land,\" an animated online parody that became an instant sensation during the 2004 presidential election season, said David Williams, who heads up the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group. \"It went around the world like wildfire,\" said Williams, whose group runs Addicting Games, a teen gaming site that he said had 11.7 million unique users last month. The success of \"This Land\" signaled that people who got a kick from watching a topical video spoof online might just as easily spend a few minutes playing a similar game. Some early examples included \"Cheney's Fury,\" inspired by the former U.S. vice president's 2006 hunting mishap, and the \"Zidane Head Butt Game,\" which invited players to relive the startling 2006 World Cup moment in which French soccer player Zinedine Zidane went after an Italian player head first. As several global leaders have discovered, almost any embarrassing episode can be turned into a video game. Last December's incident at a Baghdad news conference, at which an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush, inspired several games. Out of the United Kingdom came one hastily-published version, \"Sock and Awe,\" which encouraged players to throw shoes at Bush. As of this week, sockandawe.com reports that more than 94 million virtual size-10 shoes have walloped the former leader of the free world. And as if viral videos of his dozing off at a Group of Seven news conference in February weren't embarrassing enough, former Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa soon had a game to remind him of his slumber blunder. Translated by a spokesman for the Japanese developer LiveWare Inc. as \"Doze off while answering question!,\" the Flash game for mobile phones challenges players to keep the minister awake long enough to answer reporters. Gamers win points by having Nakagawa answer journalists' questions on time, but the game ends if the minister falls asleep while being asked a question. More recently, Cellufun, a New York-based company that fosters mobile communities, launched \"Made Off,\" a game that invites online players to outscam businessman Bernard Madoff, who pleaded guilty to defrauding thousands of investors. \"Think you've got what it takes to build a better Ponzi scheme than Bernie?\" the site asks. \"Always wanted to rob, cheat and steal from innocent investors? Well now's your chance! ... Play as a slimy Fund Manager, a savvy investor, or both.\" Some reality-based games hit too close to home, however. Late last month, publisher Konami killed one controversial game before it was even released. \"Six Days in Fallujah\" was billed as a documentary-like experience in which players could feel like they were part of the 2004 U.S. campaign against insurgents in the Iraqi city. Although Iraq War veterans were enlisted as consultants in the game's development, critics accused the publisher of trivializing one of the bloodiest battles of an ongoing war. A Konami spokesperson told CNN he couldn't comment on the matter. A few ambitious game developers such as NewsGaming.com publish challenging, event-inspired online simulations. \"September 12\" lets players explore the U.S. response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, while \"Madrid\" takes a similar approach to the March 11, 2004, attacks in Spain. \"Traditionally, videogames have focused on fantasy rather than reality, but we believe that they can be a great tool for better understanding our world,\" explains the site. \"We prefer games that encourage critical thinking, even if the player disagrees with our games' ideas.\" But most news-related games are simple Flash games that are churned out quickly to capitalize on current events. While amusing at first, they lack the complexity to hold gamers' attention for long, experts say. \"They're not very sophisticated. They're pretty much like home brew ... made by two or three people in their basement for a laugh,\" said DigitalTrends' Steinberg. \"They're flashes in the pan. They can rack up millions of plays, but three years from now, will anybody still be trying to get the high score on 'Swinefighter?' \"","highlights":"Developers are creating online and cell phone games inspired by real news events .\nGamers can land a plane on the Hudson or build a Madoff-like investment scheme .\nMany are primitive, two-dimensional Flash games that don't hold long-term interest .\nOne controversial game, \"Six Days in Fallujah,\" was yanked by its publisher .","id":"d3401c6a790051ef82d3ce1e8f41d01dff061ab4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Whether you're into baseball or backgammon, Harry Potter or heavy metal, Ning has an online network for you. Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, says her site brings together people with common interest and passions. A fast-growing, free Web site launched two years ago, Ning lets members custom build their own social-networking platforms based around their passions and pastimes. As Facebook and MySpace connect people to friends and family, Ning gathers users around common interests. The site hosts networks for hip-hop music lovers, video gaming moms and teens obsessed with the Twilight book and movie franchise. Other popular Ning networks bring people together online for political and social causes such as \"Pickens' Plan,\" which advocates wind energy. Ning had 4.7 million unique visitors as of January and surpassed 1 million social networks -- about one-fifth of them considered active -- last month. Ning also enhanced its site in March with new features such as a real-time activity feed so users can get up-to-the-minute reports -- not unlike Twitter's tweets -- about what others are doing. CNN spoke recently to Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, a Silicon Valley native and former Goldman Sachs analyst, about the company and the future of social networking. Watch Bianchini chat about Ning \u00bb . CNN: Where did this idea for Ning come from? Bianchini: We really started with a very simple premise. What if you gave people the opportunity to create their own social experiences for their own unique passions\/topics\/interest? We started on the ground floor to build it in such a way that it can be customized and programmed and made truly unique for each individual. I believe the most powerful ideas are the most simple. CNN: What is the mission of Ning? Bianchini: It's a way to get people to organize and get people to meet around their passions. CNN: Did any specific Web sites or companies inspire you to create Ning? Bianchini: We were really inspired by the first wave of Internet companies truly native to the Web like Craigslist and eBay. They were really around people connecting to other people. They were really about the Internet connecting people to each other. It's completely unique to the Internet -- you can't do it via television or newspapers. CNN: Did you expect the idea of connecting people though common interests to be so successful? Bianchini: Social behavior is really what people want to do online. It was clear for the rapid adoption of social networking in general that it is very much the case. CNN: What are some of the interesting social networks on Ning? Bianchini: There are 200,000 social networks are active right now, and they are across tens of thousands of unique passions. There is a network called 'This is 50.' It's like a hip hop TMZ. Another is the 'Pickens' Plan.' It's a way they are organizing more than 200,000 people around wind-energy policy. There is another one for cricket, specifically Indian cricket, which has added half a million people in the last two and a half weeks. There is another about the Twilight saga for teens. So it ranges from 50 Cent to teens talking about Twilight to serious adults looking at how to make changes in government policy. That's the power of the Internet and the power of connecting people. CNN: What do you attribute to the growth of Ning? Bianchini: What's fundamental in the adoption of Ning is that people are unique. They have unique interest and passion and they like having a contact for that experience and for their identity. CNN: What makes Ning different from other social-networking sites? Bianchini: It's focused on providing the [means for] people to create new social networks around their interests and passions and connect new people around those passions. We think that's a very critical element of organization. The Facebook phenomenon connects you to people you already know and Twitter is amazing for news and real-time events. What we see with people who gravitate to Ning is meeting new people with similar interests. CNN: How can Ning be useful to organizations or corporations? Bianchini: When you can bring people together around a common cause there is incredible potential to do fundraising and to organize volunteers. CNN: How does your site make money? Bianchini: If you want to add a feature like making your own domain, you can pay a la carte for options. On the free service there are ads contextual to what the network is. CNN: What are your thoughts on the future of social networking? Bianchini: Niche social networking sites are absolutely something people want to do. People clearly want to do this. . .[and] as people get more comfortable with social networking via Facebook, Twitter, they will look around and say, 'I want a social network for this particular group.' CNN: What are some of your company's goals in the future? Bianchini: We are really focused on making our service perfect for people who come to meet new people. We're growing really rapidly and we're seeing a lot of interest and new people joining social networks.","highlights":"CNN talks to Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, a fast-growing Web site .\nNing lets people with common interests gather around niche social networks .\nThe site boasts more than 1 million social networks -- some 200,000 of them active .\nIn March, the site added a real-time activity feed to help users stay updated .","id":"21d2b5b06332d6b057972b0fffecd2064c94178e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Search crews have recovered the bodies of the flight captain and a steward from the Air France flight that crashed off the coast of Brazil. A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 earlier this month. The search for more debris continues. The two flight members are among the victims that have been identified, Air France said in a statement Thursday. About a dozen victims have been identified among roughly 50 bodies recovered from the crash of Flight 447, which killed 228 people on June 1, authorities in Brazil said this week. Crews continue to search for bodies, wreckage and flight-data recorders that apparently rest deep on the ocean floor. Data from the recorders may be crucial in helping investigators determine what caused the plane to crash. Watch more wreckage recovered from crash \u00bb . Autopsies conducted on some of the 50 bodies found so far show they suffered broken bones, including arms, legs and hips, Brazilian authorities have told French investigators, according to Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French accident investigation board. Such injuries suggest that the plane broke apart in midair, experts have said. Asked about that theory, Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told France's RTL radio this week that he would not go that far. \"What I know is that the investigators would like to know the causes of death,\" Gourgeon said. \"That knowledge of causes of death will better clarify what exactly happened. Were the victims killed before the impact, or during impact?\" Searchers have found dozens of pieces of debris in the water and think they know the general location of the wreck, but Arslanian said this week that there is a chance the entire aircraft may never be found. Air France plans to pay relatives of the victims an initial compensation equivalent to about $24,500, or 17,500 euros, for each victim, Gourgeon has said. The airliner said this week that it has been in touch with about 1,800 relatives of the people who died when the Airbus A330 crashed, but that it has been difficult tracing the relatives of all 228 victims. \"The modern world is different and we often have only a cell phone, and as you can imagine, this cell phone is unfortunately in the aircraft,\" Gourgeon said. \"So we probably (will put in) more hours to access all the relatives.\" The company is also providing families with counseling, he said. The were 32 different nationalities present on Flight 447.","highlights":"Search crews recover bodies of flight captain and steward from crash .\nAll 228 people onboard flight 447 from Brazil to France were killed .\nNone of names of bodies recovered have been released at request of families .","id":"67008022e991bceef99aa7f065d0bc86fe1ee3e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States successfully tested a sea-based component of its missile defense shield Thursday evening, intercepting a ballistic missile with a dummy warhead over the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said. A dummy missile is launched from a ship during a 2008 test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The exercise was the 19th successful test in 23 attempts of the system -- known as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program -- since 2002. A target missile was fired from Hawaii about 5:40 p.m. (11:40 p.m. ET) and was tracked by Navy ships hundreds of miles away. The USS Hopper, one of three Navy ships tracking the launch, fired an interceptor missile, which struck the target about 100 miles above the Earth. The process -- from launch to shoot-down -- took less than five minutes, according to the U.S. military. The United States plans to use the sea-based system on Navy Aegis-class ships to protect against incoming short- to medium-range missiles fired from hostile countries. Eighty-six of the ships eventually will have the capability. Another part of the missile defense protection -- ground-based midcourse defense -- is designed to strike at long-range missiles. Both the sea-based and ground-based systems are part of the Pentagon's \"layered\" missile defense plan. Much of the missile defense program is still under development, including lasers fired from a plane that the military hopes would destroy an enemy missile during launch. Other parts of the missile defense would fire short-range missiles at incoming warheads that are close to hitting their targets. Over the past seven years, the U.S. military has spent billions of dollars on the missile defense program. Pentagon officials have said that each missile defense test costs about $85 million.","highlights":"Ship-based system shoots down dummy missile from hundreds of miles away .\nAegis Ballistic Missile Defense has 19 successful tests in 23 tries, agency says .\nMore than 80 U.S. Navy ships eventually will be equipped with system .","id":"1d59184d2ce9d66fa6ab8b3a5f3f3c5fdd41b668"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- It was a glass half-full, glass half-empty kind of weekend at the box office for \"Funny People,\" writer-director Judd Apatow's comedic meditation on fame, humor, life, and death. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star in \"Funny People,\" which took the No. 1 slot at the box office this weekend. According to figures from Hollywood.com Box Office, it opened at the top spot with an estimated $23.4 million, better than Apatow's The 40 Year-Old Virgin ($21.4 million) -- hence, the glass is half full. But that figure is far lower than the debut for Apatow's \"Knocked Up\" ($30.7 million), and it's the worst opening for a comedy for star Adam Sander since his 2000 turkey \"Little Nicky\" -- hence, the glass is half empty. Of course, \"Funny People\" was billed more as a thoughtful dramedy than a balls-out Sandler laugh-fest, and when matched against the opening frames for Sandler's serious efforts \"Reign Over Me,\" \"Spanglish,\" and \"Punch-Drunk Love,\" Funny People is far and away the winner -- and the glass is half full again. But whether it's a comedy, drama, or dramedy, \"Funny People's\" $75 million budget is quite the handful of pretty pennies, and with a shaky \"B-\" Cinemascore, the film is going to have a hard time overcoming tepid word-of-mouth -- and we're back to the half-empty glass. So let's just move on, shall we? The cup of a certain adolescent wizard, meanwhile, definitely runneth over. Thanks to its debut on IMAX (and the premium ticket prices that come with it), \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" came in second with $17.7 million, a soft 40 percent drop from last weekend for $255.5 million total. At this rate, the film is well on its way to the upper ranks of the 'Potter' franchise. The guinea pigs of \"G-Force\" were right on its heels at third place, nibbling up $17.1 million, a decent 46 percent drop for a two-week cume of $66.5 million. And Katherine Heigl's romcom \"The Ugly Truth\" took in an additional $13 million, a 53 percent drop for fourth place and $54.5 million total. Of the two other wide releases this weekend, at least the sci-fi family comedy \"Aliens in the Attic\" -- which grossed a meager $7.8 million for fifth place -- broke into the top 10. The torture porn flick \"The Collector\" collected a grisly $3.6 million and plopped dead at 11th place. Box office on a whole was down a massive 22 percent from last year, when The \"Dark Knight\" and \"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor\" both took in over $40 million, but the specialty market showed some vibrant signs of life. Bone fide indie hit \"(500) Days of Summer\" expanded to 266 theaters for $2.7 million, a $10,338 per theater average. And three widely disparate films opened in four theaters each to healthy per theater averages: The quirky romantic comedy \"Adam\" ($16,566 per theater), the stylish vampire film \"Thirst\" ($13,793 per theater), and the eco-thriller-cum-documentary \"The Cove\" ($13,600 per theater). Finally, a true milestone was reached this weekend by \"The Hangover.\" With $5.1 million this weekend for a running total of $255.8 million, the summer's biggest die hard blockbuster has passed \"Star Trek\" and (for a brief moment) \"Harry Potter 6\" as the third highest grossing movie of the year. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Funny People\" is No. 1 at box office with an estimated $23.4 million .\n\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" came in second with $17.7 million .\nThe guinea pigs of \"G-Force\" were right on Potter's heels at third place .\nSee what other flicks made this week's top 10 box office chart .","id":"409219bdaa972782d3f640aec7dfa0eeaaba7507"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four years ago, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei kissed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the cheek before he was sworn in as Iran's new leader. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be in for a rocky second term as Iranian president, analysts say. Song and prayer heralded a new start for Iran with the hard-line Tehran mayor, virtually unknown to the outside world in 2005. He promised to stamp out corruption and fight for justice. With time, the world came to know the Iranian leader with his signature beige jacket and combative -- often anti-Israeli -- rhetoric. Monday, Iran's supreme leader endorsed Ahmadinejad for a second term in office, but there was no hug or kiss this time around. Video from the event shows Ahmadinejad leaning toward Khamenei before the supreme leader raises his left hand to block him, leaving Ahmadinejad to gingerly kiss the cleric's robe. The awkward scene seemed to only bolster the tensions that have emerged in the once strong relationship. Under Iran's constitution, the incoming president must receive the supreme leader's approval before being sworn into office. Khamenei's endorsement is the first step in that process. On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad will take the oath of office before Parliament. But he will begin his second term in a deeply fractured Iran, one in which the conservative leader finds himself under assault from the legions of pro-democracy supporters and the nation's powerful clerical establishment. Given the unprecedented fissures in Iranian society, some longtime scholars and observers now doubt whether Ahmadinejad will finish his second term in office. Some question whether the clerical establishment will sacrifice him in order to save the Islamic republic. Ahmadinejad's main political problem is \"legitimacy,\" said Alex Vatanka, senior Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, a provider of defense and security information. \"Can you operate for four years with huge questions over whether you are the rightful president?\" Vatanka said. \"I think that would undermine everything he does.\" Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's June 12 election, but thousands took to the streets in the aftermath to protest what they believed was a rigged vote. They chanted the name of Ahmadinejad's chief rival, reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi, the crowds a sea of green, the color of the opposition candidate's campaign. Since then, widespread demonstrations have plagued Iran's leaders, who have ordered security forces to crack down swiftly and violently. Iranians have been arrested and jailed, their treatment condemned by global human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. Khamenei stood by his president, but strains in the relationship have surfaced in recent days after Ahmadinejad refused at first to heed the supreme leader's orders to change a controversial vice-presidential pick. Iran's clerics have made it known they would like Ahmadinejad \"to remain a powerful and popular president\" and reminded Iran that the supreme leader's word is the last one in the Islamic Republic. On the eve of his inauguration, Ahmadinejad sought to downplay any rift. In a public address, he compared his relationship with Khamenei to that of a father and son. But Kazem Alamdari, lecturer in sociology at California State University, Northridge, said Ahmadinejad has alienated the clerics just as he has the reformists. Alamdari said Ahmadinejad risks losing conservative supporters who may feel that Iran's system has been placed in danger and that the situation has \"created an atmosphere for external forces to attack Iran.\" If convinced the system is truly threatened, Khamenei could use his power to dismiss Ahmadinejad, Alamdari said. It wouldn't be the first time a supreme leader has made such a move. The Islamic Society of Engineers, a conservative group and ally of Ahmadinejad, in a statement warned that he could suffer the same fate as Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. He lost the support of the clerics, consequently the people, and eventually was deposed in a 1953 CIA-backed coup. Iran's first president after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, was forced to flee the country after he stood against the clerics, including then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Islamic Society of Engineers statement asked Ahmadinejad for \"absolute obedience of the supreme leader.\" Adding to Ahmadinejad's political worries is a faltering economy. The world may have viewed Iran's June 12 vote through the prism of individual freedoms and nuclear weapons, but most Iranians paid close attention to a staggering inflation rate, double-digit unemployment and the expenditure of oil revenue. With oil prices plummeting to below $40 a barrel, the Iranian government may be facing unsustainable budget deficits. Some analysts said the president's first-term economic mismanagement had already earned him the ire of the establishment, long before any controversy erupted over his political legitimacy. One scholar, who is currently in Iran and did not want be identified for safety reasons, said it is increasingly clear the regime has not chalked out a perfect path to the future -- and how long Ahmadinejad will be along for the ride. Vatanka said Ahmadinejad lacks the political mindset for consensus and collaboration. But what empowers him may be his belief in himself. And one other weapon: he thinks God is on his side.","highlights":"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slated to be sworn in for second term as Iran president .\nSupporters of opposition candidates have protested election result .\nAhmadinejad must have support of clerics to stay in office, analyst says .\nFaltering economy has added to Ahmadinejad's troubles .","id":"e3393a38890b1e1b280d8d4b4359b572fe8fd8fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He was not able to fulfill his childhood dream of being a pilot, but Ghanaian scientist Dr. Ave Kludze has arguably gone one better: developing and flying spacecrafts for NASA. The moon, Mars and beyond: All are in the sights of Dr. Ave Kludze. The 43-year-old didn't enter orbit when controlling a NASA rocket to launch the Calipso environmental satellite in 2006, instead piloting it from the control center on the ground. Nevertheless from growing up in Ghana to being an astronautical engineer and strategist for NASA, he has had a similarly stratospheric rise to the top. Growing up in Accra, Kludze was fascinated by science and how things worked. \"I was a very curious kid and I always questioned lots of things, and most of my friends I grew up with, they knew that. And my parents, they were a little bit concerned because sometimes I would take apart a lot of things they would not want me to touch,\" he told CNN. When he realized he could not become a pilot because of his eyesight he channeled his energies into studying engineering, moving to the U.S. to complete a course in electrical engineering at Rutgers University. On graduating Kludze initially planned to return to Ghana to develop solar technologies, but then NASA came calling in 1995. \"I never did dream of working for NASA. I admired what they did, but it never did cross my mind. I did not see how a kid like me could work for NASA,\" he said. He commanded his first spacecraft from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and has gone on to develop an extra-vehicular infra-red camera as well as other projects for the space agency. While he didn't return to Ghana as he originally planned, he still believes that his work -- and NASA's -- has had some benefits to his native country and more down-to-earth lives. \"Well, NASA has done a lot for Africans. Maybe Africans they no know that. They have cell phones, glasses, anti-scratch and all those things. We have portable water system that NASA has developed for Africa. They're using it,\" he said. \"And one thing people often forget, NASA doesn't only develop space technology, we also develop aeronautical technology. So when the planes they fly and other flying objects, NASA's technology has been involved in that.\" Kludze is also keen to pass on the message that for young Africans, the sky is the limit in terms of what they do with their lives. \"I've learned that being given the freedom to think and think openly helps bring in new ideas. So in community, like in an African communities, I think younger generations and both the old and the young should freely share ideas and break those old barriers. \"So I believe that with some determination and some hard work most of the younger generation can get whatever they want to. They can even go into space, they can do anything.\"","highlights":"American-Ghanaian engineer is one of NASA's top strategists .\nGrew up in Accra before studying in U.S.; joined NASA in 1995 .\nHas remotely piloted space craft; believes other Africans can follow in his footsteps .","id":"610b141aa58b49471623d9ce7d2de1b05889d40b"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Why would an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer and single mother want to tack reality TV star onto her long list of accomplishments? Kandi Burruss says she is happy to join the \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\" cast. For Kandi Burruss, the newest member of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, the answer is simple: \"I was a fan last year. I love the show.\" The second season of Bravo's hit show is set to premier on Thursday with Burruss replacing cast member DeShawn Snow. Burruss is well-known in the music industry as a former member of the platinum-selling R&B girl group Xscape and co-writer of such hits as Destiny's Child's \"Bills, Bills, Bills\" and TLC's \"No Scrubs,\" for which she won a Grammy. The Atlanta native almost ended up on another reality show with former group mate and writing partner Tameka \"Tiny\" Cottle, who is the fianc\u00e9e of rapper T.I. and now stars on BET's \"Tiny & Toya\" alongside Antonia \"Toya\" Carter, the ex-wife of Lil' Wayne. The deal for that show didn't work out and Burruss said she was more than happy to sign on with Bravo's wildly successful southern edition of the \"Housewives\" franchise, which chronicles the lives of a group of affluent African-American women in the ATL. Burruss was already friendly with cast mate Lisa Wu Hartwell, whom she met through their mutual friend Cottle. Having watched the show -- which last season enraptured viewers with a mix of constant infighting, lavish lifestyles and a healthy dose of drama -- Burruss said she was more concerned with being thrust into the public eye than she was with getting along with the cast. \"The only thing that made me hesitant about wanting to be a part of the show is the fact that people are so critical of the show,\" she said. \"Just dealing with people on the outside judging you. That part is going to be something that I am going to have to get used to.\" The artist has already had to get acclimated to people smearing her personal life on the Internet. Watch Burruss discuss her time on the show \u00bb . Newly engaged to a father of six children, Burruss has watched him get attacked in blogs and is protective of the man who she said even her mother isn't thrilled about her marrying. \"[The show] has been very, very stressful on the relationship,\" she said. \"I guess [people] couldn't find anything bad [to say] about me, so they wanted to go in on my fianc\u00e9.\" Her caring nature and laid-back personality make Burruss special in the industry, said rapper Rick Ross. \"She's a very humble person, maybe one of the most humble people among the biggest songwriters in the industry,\" said Ross, who collaborated with Burruss on a track for a new solo album she has in the works. \"It's good to be around the greats and she most definitely is one of the greatest in the industry.\" Her home music studio attests to that. The walls are covered with gold and platinum records for her work with several high-profile artists including Alicia Keys, *NSYNC, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Being part of a girl group helped prepare her for the drama of dealing with the other housewives' personalities, Burruss said, though she admitted clashing with outspoken cast mate NeNe Leakes during filming. \"I was a fan of hers last year,\" Burruss said. \"All that wild and crazy stuff she says to people, when you're watching it, it's funny, it's hilarious... but when it's directed at you, it's not funny anymore.\" Burruss got along better with aspiring singer Kim Zolciak, who Burruss will assist in achieving her dream of breaking into the industry. Last season, fans of the show -- and some of the other housewives -- slammed Zolciak for her less-than-stellar voice. \"Everybody loves to hate on Kim. But what I have to say is that Kim is actually cooler in person than she came off on the show,\" said Burruss, who in 1999 won top songwriter of the year from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. \"I wanted to help her out because I love helping the underdog.\" The busy artist said she has no idea if she will be invited back for another season. Appearing on the show, which Burruss said is not scripted, was fun, but she is busy with an upcoming album and with caring for her daughter, Riley, she said. She doubts she will be addicted to appearing on reality TV like she is addicted to music, Burruss said. \"It's just another way for people to get to know you and hopefully they see me in a good light,\" she said. \"You always hope that it doesn't backfire.\"","highlights":"Kandi Burruss is the newest member of Bravo's \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\"\nAn accomplished singer\/songwriter\/producer, she was a fan last season .\nBurruss confirms she and cast mate NeNe Leakes didn't get along .\nThe single mother hopes fans will see her in \"a good light\"","id":"72b7d4199a97301102290e0218bb9f9246fe9c4d"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- It couldn't top its predecessors, but \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\" still brought in quite a haul, grossing an estimated $87 million for the opening weekend of the summer movie season. Hugh Jackman stars as the title character in \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine.\" The Hugh Jackman pic brought in a strong $21,225 per-theater average in 4,099 movie houses, despite generating mixed reviews. The film fell $15 million short of 2006's \"X-Men: The Last Stand\" but it is still an enormous success for Jackman and director Gavin Hood. Matthew McConaughey's \"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past\" generated an estimated $15.3 million for a second place bow. It's not a shabby opening but it is far less than McConaughey's previous romantic outings including last year's \"Fool's Gold\" ($21.6 million) or 2006's \"Failure to Launch\" ($24.2 million). (Perhaps women were too busy checking out all those hunky mutants this weekend?) The two new openers did help the industry maintain its year-over-year increase of 16 percent. Also aiding that statistic was Beyonce Knowles' \"Obsessed.\" Dropping a not-surprising 57 percent for its second weekend in theaters, the thriller earned another $12.2 million to put its ten-day gross at a shockingly strong $47 million. And Zac Efron's \"17 Again\" showed surprising stamina, too, grossing an additional $6.3 million its third weekend for a total take of $48.4 million. The other new wide release for the weekend was the anemic 3-D animated sci-fi film \"Battle for Terra.\" Opening on 1162 theaters, the Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood-voiced feature proved to be little competition for the other 3-D movie in the marketplace. Dreamworks Animation's juggernaut \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" grossed another $5.8 million its sixth weekend for the fifth slot in the rankings, while newcomer \"Terra\" couldn't muster more than $1 million for a twelfth place in the box office derby. Summer has officially begun -- at least in Hollywood -- so expect a giant event film every weekend. Wolverine may have bowed mightily but with \"Star Trek\" hot on its heels next weekend, the Marvel superhero is going to need more than adamantium to maintain its box office lead. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Wolverine\" takes the top slot at the box office, earning an estimated $87 million .\n\"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past\" took in an estimated $15.3 million for second place .\nDreamworks Animation's \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" grossed another $5.8 million .\nCheck out the rest of the top 10 movies at the box office this weekend .","id":"774f7adb2e8c4501d02ef8388d752c87c9d958ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's bizarre private life and change in appearance ended up eclipsing his musical achievements, according to the world's media. A Los Angeles fire official told CNN that paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson's home after a 911 call. Jackson's death from cardiac arrest Thursday has sparked an outpouring of grief from fans, and his life has been given a more measured summing up by news media. Britain's Guardian newspaper said \"his bizarre life-style and personal notoriety eclipsed his talent and his numerous achievements.\" The Guardian said his fame, from the age of 11, \"had such a damaging effect that his life was permanently affected.\" Watch why Jackson is \"as big as it gets\" \u00bb . \"A combination of dysfunctional family and invasive fame ate away at the essentially private singer, whose initially minor eccentricities escalated into grotesque changes to his appearance and lifestyle. \"If ever there was an illustration of the adage that celebrity destroys what it touches, Jackson was it,\" the Guardian said. Daily Mail agreed, saying Jackson \"courted controversy and acclaim in equal measure.\" Watch Jesse Jackson share memories \u00bb . \"It was the tales of oxygen chambers, chimp chums, shopping sprees and physical transformation that have brought intrigue and amusement and earned the singer the nickname Wacko Jacko.\" The Mail said star's behavior drew increasing alarm following a \"documentary in which he pronounced sharing a bedroom with a child to be 'charming' and an incident in Germany in which he dangled his baby son Prince Michael II over a balcony.\" The country's Times newspaper said only a \"handful of performers -- (Elvis) Presley, (Frank) Sinatra, the Beatles -- could outrank Michael Jackson as the most successful popular music entertainer of all time.\" However, \"as he approached middle-age, it was Jackson's abiding interest in children which was his undoing.\" iReport.com: Your Michael Jackson tributes . Australia's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper also compared Jackson to Presley. \"Just as Presley was the iconic voice and presence of the 1950s so Jackson enjoyed a similar status during 1980s and 1990s. And just as Presley, driven by the strange demons that seem to haunt the super-famous, died before his time so Jackson has died, aged 50, in Los Angeles after suffering cardiac arrest.\" France's Liberation newspaper described Jackson as the \"total artist,\" but said his physical transformation and way of life brought controversy. Le Monde said Jackson was one of the most famous singers of the 20th century but his image was tarnished by his private life. Kingston: Jackson \"a legend\" \u00bb . Germany's Bild tabloid agreed, saying Jackson's private antics had seem him \"dethroned\" as the King of Pop. China's People's Daily newspaper said Jackson had \"set the world dancing to exuberant rhythms for decades.\" \"Jackson's dramatic stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world. Sharpton: Jackson \"was a trailblazer\" \u00bb . \"His one-gloved eccentric style also earned him plenty of critics and another nickname, \"Wacko Jacko.\" Thailand's Bangkok Post newspaper said: \"While Jackson ruled the charts and dazzled audiences with electric dance moves like the backwards \"moonwalk\" in the 1980s, his once-stellar career was overshadowed by his colorful public behavior, his startling physical transformation and multiple allegations of child abuse.\"","highlights":"Jackson pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. PT on Thursday after cardiac arrest .\nEarly fame had very damaging affect on Jackson's life, says newspaper .\nJackson compared to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra .","id":"fe8982663e71fa9941f8a07f1a1a517cae52b099"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil have returned to the top of the FIFA world rankings after a two-year absence, following their Confederations Cup final victory over the United States in South Africa on Sunday -- FIFA.com have reported. The Brazilian national side top the FIFA world rankings again after an absence of two years. Dunga's side came from behind to defeat the United States 3-2, a result which sees them replace Spain after the European champions were beaten in the semifinals to finish third in the Confederations Cup. Other changes in the top 10 see the Netherlands slip down a place into third while world champions Italy remain in fourth despite failing to make it past the first round in South Africa. Of the other countries that took part in the Confederations Cup, the United States are up two places to 12th, Egypt are up two to 38th and hosts South Africa are also up two to 70th. Meanwhile, disappointing performances from Iraq (94th, down 17) and New Zealand (100th, down 18) caused them to lose ground. In other news, Algeria (47th, up 19) and Tunisia (49th, up two) have climbed into the top 50 at the expense of Burkina Faso (51st, down one) and Finland (52nd, down three). Latest FIFA world rankings: . 1. Brazil 1672 points (+4 places) 2. Spain 1590 (-1) 3. The Netherlands 1379 (-1) 4. Italy 1229 (0) 5. Germany 1207 (-2) 6. Russia 1161 (+3) 7. England 1135 (-1) 8. Argentina 1091 (-1) 9. France 1082 (+1) 10. Croatia 1031 (-2)","highlights":"Brazil are back at the top of the FIFA world rankings after a two-year absence .\nDunga's side return to head of the list after winning recent Confederations Cup .\nEuropean champions Spain drop to second position after their semifinal defeat .","id":"3af752acadf360a4241e3ee54dfa0ebf0327aea7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil's economic powerhouse was once thought of as the ugly sister to Rio de Janiero's beach-fronted glamour. S\u00e3o Paulo, the world's fifth largest city, is the fashion capital of Brazil. But, over the past few years, S\u00e3o Paulo' fashion, music and design scenes have gained such momentum that it's tipped by some as cooler destination than more touristy Rio. True, S\u00e3o Paulo doesn't have a beach, nor does it go out of its way to cater to foreign visitors, but hidden in the sprawl is a trove of hip hotels and restaurants, modernist architecture and some of the best shopping south of the Equator. It would take a lot longer than a day to discover everything S\u00e3o Paulo has to offer, but our guide should help visitors short on time to navigate the city's immense grid of skyscrapers and traffic jams to find an entirely different Brazilian experience. Watch the sun come up over the world's fifth largest urban area like many of its mega-wealthy inhabitants -- with a helicopter ride over the city. Tourist rides normally leave from Campo de Marte Airport and take in aerial views of city landmarks like Ibirapuera Park and Avenida Paulista. You may have worked up an appetite by now so head back into town for breakfast on Rua Oscar Freire, S\u00e3o Paulo's answer to Rodeo Drive. Eat delicious cheese bread known as p\u00e3o de queijo, fruit, yoghurt and granola and wash it down with a freshly squeezed juice or coffee at Oscar Cafe. The prosperous, tree-lined avenues of the surrounding area, known as Jardins, are perfect for a bit of shopping. Look out for Clube Chocolate where you can buy upscale designerwear in divine surroundings ( Rua Oscar Freire 913) and Endossa, a collaborative shop filled with cubes of shelving where entrepreneurs can rent a cubby-hole to sell their wares. It's possible to walk to Avenida Paulista, S\u00e3o Paulo's financial district from here, and there you can mill past some of the most expensive real estate in South America with the Paulistano business folk on your way to take in some culture at MASP, also known as S\u00e3o Paulo Museum of Art. Once you've had your fill of high culture, take in some of S\u00e3o Paulo's famous street art on Beco de Batman, which translates as \"Batman Alley.\" Every inch of this street in the super hip Vila Madalena area is covered in graffiti, much of it by well-known local artists. Recharge your batteries with a beer and snack on empadas, delicious miniature pies with a variety of fillings like palm hearts, Portuguese salted fish and cheese at Empanadas (Rua Wisard 489, Vila Madalena). Otherwise, why not hop in a cab and head over to Liberdade and check out the home of the biggest Japanese community anywhere in the world outside Japan. Check out the Buddhist temple (Rua S\u00e3o Joaquim), the karaoke bars and sushi restaurants -- one of the best of which is Tak\u00f4 (Rua da Gl\u00f3ria 746, Liberdade). With a shimmering green-copper facade, the Unique Hotel is just one example of S\u00e3o Paulo's stunning modern architecture. The highlight of this area, if you happen to be lucky enough to be there at the right time, is the anything goes weekend market Feira da Liberdade (Pra\u00e7a da Liberdade) and if you're even luckier you might catch one of the sumo competitions held there from time to time. After all these hours in the concrete jungle you may be longing for a bit of green, which you can find in ample supply in the enormous Ibirapuera Park. As you wander the tree-lined walkways, dodging throngs of body-conscious Paulistanos exercising along the way, you will encounter one masterpiece of modernist architecture after another -- mostly designed by the father of Brazilian modernism Oscar Niemeyer. Look out for the beautiful sci-fi dome, Oca and the Grande Marquise an extraordinary white pavilion which houses MAM (Museu de Arte Moderna) and features expanses of covered concrete which attract many of the city's skateboarders. No visit to S\u00e3o Paulo, or indeed any part of Brazil, is complete without a trying a caipirinha -- a winning combination of the local firewater, cachaca, smashed limes, sugar and ice. If spirits are a bit much for you, try a divine -- and very Paulistano -- twist on the original with squished kiwi fruit and sake. You could combine a few cocktails with catching the final rays of the day on the rooftop of of another of S\u00e3o Paulo's modernist masterpieces, Edif\u00edcio It\u00e1lia (Terraza Italia Restaurant, Avenida Ipiranga 344). Here you can enjoy a breathtaking panorama, with another Niemeyer masterpiece -- the wavy-facaded Edif\u00edcio Copan -- in full view. It's got to be dinner time by now. In S\u00e3o Paulo your options are almost unlimited. With huge populations of Japanese, Italians and, even Lebanese, the problem is not where to eat but how to choose. A highlight of the Sao Paulo's dining scene has to be Restaurante Figueira Rubaiyat where you can eat awesome steaks and very good seafood in a dining room that has been built around an enormous fig tree. If you're still raring to go after that little lot, S\u00e3o Paulo's nightlife options are almost endless. You can shake your moneymaker with the best of them at one of the city's clubland stalwarts Love Story, or if you are looking for something a little more low key then why not round off the day on the rooftop terrace of the Skye Bar at Hotel Unique. The hotel's space-age green copper facade is indeed unique, and it is also a good bet for a bed for the night in really special surroundings.","highlights":"S\u00e3o Paulo's art, fashion and music scene means it's no longer second to Rio .\nAmong the grid of skyscrapers is iconic modernist architecture by Oscar Niemeyer .\nUniquely Brazilian, the city also has a twist of other cultures .\nDo what the Paulistanos do and sample street side delicacies and top cocktails .","id":"b6bebb2aa1a0dc8de5878bb83938f3793f5d00b7"} -{"article":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- Hours after the sitting president was deposed by a military-led coup, a new president of Honduras was sworn in Sunday. Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya was detained and sent to Costa Rica, the government said. But the former president was not ready to give up his powers. The political developments that swept Honduras over the past weeks and led up to Sunday's coup had the makings of a crisis, but the situation in the Central American nation of 8 million people was calm. Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as provisional president to the applause of members of Congress, who chanted, \"Honduras! Honduras!\" Outside the building, supporters of ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya protested, but their numbers were limited, and the streets remained mostly peaceful. Micheletti told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol Sunday evening that he has imposed an \"indefinite\" curfew. Micheletti, the head of Congress, became president after lawmakers voted by a show of hands to strip Zelaya of his powers, with a resolution stating that Zelaya \"provoked confrontations and divisions\" within the country. A letter of resignation purported to be from Zelaya was read to members before the vote. But the deposed president, Zelaya, emphatically denied in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that he wrote the letter. Speaking from Costa Rica, where he was taken after the coup, he said he plans to continue exercising his presidential duties with a trip to Managua, Nicaragua, to attend a summit of Central American heads-of-state. Zelaya awoke to the sound of gunfire in his residence and was still in his pajamas when the military forced him to leave the country Sunday morning, he told reporters. He was flown to Costa Rica, where he has not requested political asylum. \"This was a brutal kidnapping of me with no justification,\" Zelaya said. He called the coup an attack on Honduran democracy. \"There are ways to protest without arms,\" Zelaya said. The coup came on the same day that he had vowed to follow through with a nonbinding referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal. Watch details on \"curious situation\" in Honduras \u00bb . The coup was widely criticized in the region, in strongest terms by Zelaya's leftist allies, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. A statement from Venezuela's foreign ministry said Zelaya was \"violently expelled from his country by a group of unpatriotic, coup-mongering soldiers.\" The Bolivian government also condemned the coup, accusing Honduran troops of kidnapping Zelaya and violently expelling him from his country. Elsewhere, Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, strongly condemned the coup in a statement. And in Washington, President Obama said in a statement that he was \"deeply concerned\" by the news. \"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,\" Obama said. \"Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.\" The president of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, called the Honduran military's intervention a \"criminal action.\" But in Honduras, the Supreme Court said in an official statement that the military was acting in accordance with a court order to put an end to Sunday's scheduled vote, which the court's justices had found illegal. Micheletti addressed the issue directly in his first remarks as provisional president. \"I did not reach this position because of a coup,\" Micheletti said. \"I am here because of an absolutely legal transition process.\" No other countries immediately recognized Micheletti as president. Zelaya, a leftist elected in 2005, had found himself pitted against the other branches of government and military leaders over the issue of Sunday's planned referendum. It would have asked voters to place a measure on November's ballot allowing the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the nation's charter to allow the president to run for another term. In various interviews Sunday, Zelaya characterized the vote not as a referendum, but as a survey to gauge receptiveness toward a constitutional assembly. He denied that he would have been the beneficiary of any future constitutional changes. Zelaya, whose four-year term ends in January 2010, cannot run for re-election under current law. The Honduran Supreme Court had ruled the poll illegal, and Congress and the top military brass agreed, but Zelaya had remained steadfast. In the end, it appeared the opposition to Zelaya was too great. The military confiscated the ballots from the presidential residence, in effect canceling the disputed vote. In separate appearances Sunday, Zelaya, Venezuela's Chavez and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that the military had also detained Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, further raising regional tensions. Speaking in Havana, Rodriguez said that the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras had tried but were unable to protect Rodas from a group of masked soldiers who forcibly took her from their grasp. Further details regarding that incident were unclear. \"If they attack our ambassadors, they will be declaring a state of war,\" Chavez said. \"If they have weapons, then we have weapons, too.\"","highlights":"Honduran Congress strips president of powers, names provisional president .\nObama statement: \"I call on all ... to respect democratic norms\"\nMilitary detains President Jose Manuel Zelaya, flies him to Costa Rica .\nZelaya says he plans to continue exercising presidential duties .","id":"ed51901ec69b30ceda0e4de171d02556ef549412"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In Paul Syverson's photo album, there is only one family picture, taken right after his little sister was born. Paul, then 7, and his father beam with an identical grin. Amy Syverson visits the Iwo Jima memorial with mentor Kohn Fisher as part of a camp for kids of fallen soldiers. Two months later, his father, Army Maj. Paul Syverson III, was killed in action in Balad, Iraq. Five years after his loss, the pain still reverberates with sickening suddenness. To help cope, Paul headed out to spend the Memorial Day weekend with a young military volunteer mentor instead of his dad. \"I try not to think about the bad stuff,\" Paul said. \"I just try to remember him as an awesome guy and what a great dad he was.\" Paul, 12, and his sister, Amy, now a cheeky and rambunctious 5-year-old in pigtails, joined 350 other grieving children at a camp for military families in Washington this Memorial Day. For many, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, camp is a yearly tradition, a time for kids to play together and pay homage to their loved ones' sacrifices. Watch as the children share losses and joy \u00bb . \"It's just a great way to come and be together and acknowledge the loss, and learn coping mechanisms and ways to get through the loss,\" said Paul's mother, Jackie. \"The kids, they love it. It's just a great way they can talk about their dads but still have a great time and still just be together.\" TAPS is a nonprofit funded by private donations that has helped military families for 15 years. Families pay for their hotel rooms and a small registration fee for the camp. Donations usually cover the airfare. Military families often learn about the survivor camps in the casualty packet they receive when they are notified of a parent's death. Each child at the camp gets assigned a military mentor who is at his or her side throughout the weekend. The mentors -- many of whom are in their early 20s -- seem to form instant and deep connections with their charges. Some play touch football in the workshop rooms, the young children wildly tackling their muscular military escorts. Others color together or play board games. And sometimes they talk about pain and loss. \"They even ask me questions. They go, 'I don't know what a landmine is. What is a landmine?' \" said Matt Thibodeau, an active-duty soldier who was assigned to mentor Paul for the weekend. \"There were a couple children who didn't understand how their parents had passed away, and we try to just help to be there to support them if they need it, kind of a shoulder to cry on.\" Thibodeau said volunteering for TAPS seemed almost like a duty, an extension of the brotherhood of the military. \"I thought, if I were to have children and I were to go and pass away, that I would want somebody to do the same for me,\" he said. \"A lot of people don't realize what their parents have done for the country, and we're to try to support that and give them a little of what they're missing.\" During the weekend, the children take in the sights of the nation's capital. The mentors accompany them to the Fort Myer military base in Virginia to visit the horses that pull the caisson wagons during military funerals. At the Iwo Jima and Washington monuments, the groups pause to contemplate the sacrifices that generations of service members have made for the country. The groups also planned to attend President Obama's speech and wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. \"This is their chance to reconnect with the military culture, learn coping strategies, learn how, on Memorial Day, America honors those who have served and died, and that their family is part of this national legacy,\" said Bonnie Carroll, founder of the TAPS program. For some campers, the circumstances of their loss make their feelings more complicated. Joey Ruocco, 15, lost his father in 2005. Marine Maj. John Ruocco committed suicide before he was to ship out for his second tour in Iraq. \"Dealing with something like your dad dying is one thing, and then having to think about all this stuff about suicide, about why, and is there something I could have done? Could have said?\" said Joey, who was 10 when his father died. \"But you can't think about that stuff. You have to think about the happy stuff, what he did with you.\" The first time Joey came to camp, he said he worried he might be dogged by the stigma of his dad's suicide. But Joey said he was accepted without comment, and he's learned to be proud of his father's service and sacrifice -- and of his life -- all the same. \"Everything that you take for granted, all sorts of silly things, like being able to ride your bike down to the corner store to get a slushie or something, wouldn't be possible if it weren't for men like our friends out there, our dads,\" Joey said. \"They're keeping our country free and being able to do stuff like that.\"","highlights":"Camp offers refuge to military families, kids adjusting to loss of loved ones .\nArmy Maj. Paul Syverson III killed in action in Balad, Iraq, in 2004 .\n\"I just try to remember him as an awesome guy,\" his son says .","id":"d82fb3ec04801a6bf59c7d8cefef721785ea8dfa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, whose public battle with anal cancer has brought new attention to a rarely discussed disease, has not been given a timetable from her doctor about how much time she has left, according to her friend Alana Stewart. Farrah Fawcett, seen here in 2006, has waged a very public battle with anal cancer. \"No one has said to her you have two months to live,\" Stewart said Monday. \"So I'm looking at that as a really good sign.\" Stewart talked with Lara Spencer, host of \"The Insider,\" who discussed her interview with Fawcett's close friend on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Monday night. Spencer said Fawcett, her family and friends are clinging to hope for a recovery. \"She [Alana Stewart] doesn't want to throw out a number. And neither does Farrah. ... They're still hoping for that miracle,\" Spencer said. \"Farrah's Story,\" a documentary-style program that has followed the course of her illness and showed her grueling treatment in graphic detail, aired on NBC Friday and was viewed by almost 9 million people. Fawcett and partner Ryan O'Neal watched the show together, Spencer confirmed. \"Alana said it was the ultimate in bittersweet,\" Spencer said. \"You know, they're reliving two years of hell that they've endured together.\" King asked Spencer whether Fawcett, who made her name a household word on the hit '70s TV series \"Charlie's Angels,\" and O'Neal might marry. \"He said you never know. He was cagey about it,\" Spencer said. \"And, you know, I think he would in a second. He's so madly in love with her.\" King also had a panel of medical experts on his show to discuss Fawcett's cancer. Dr. Thomas Vogl, who at one time treated the actress in Germany, called her medical condition \"very, very serious.\" Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist in New York, said only about 5,000 cases of anal cancer are diagnosed in the United States yearly. Unlike Fawcett's case, it usually doesn't spread, and only about 10 to 15 percent of cases are advanced, Ocean said. Fawcett's cancer, however, is in Stage 4 and has spread to her liver. Ocean said there are various causes of anal cancer. \"One of the causes is a virus called the human papilloma virus, which is a sexually transmitted virus. It seems to be more common in women, in general, outside of any viral infections. Smoking is actually a risk factor,\" she said. King asked Dr. Paul Song, a radiation oncologist, if he had seen Stage 4 cancer cured. \"Not with anal cancer. I have seen it with other GI malignancies such as rectal cancer,\" Song said. \"But anal cancer is a little bit more difficult to treat.\" Despite the bleak outlook, Song had praise for Fawcett and her documentary. \"I think one of the most powerful things that Miss Fawcett did in this documentary was give patients a sense of hope and to just show how she's handled this with such courage and dignity,\" Song said. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta told King that doctors have to strike a delicate balance when they are caring for patients such as Fawcett. \"You have to be absolutely honest with patients, but, you know, you don't want to strip away their hope and optimism, either. There are people, Larry, as you know, who beat the odds,\" Gupta said. Vogl told King he developed a close relationship with Fawcett during the time he treated her in Germany and expressed admiration for his one-time patient. \"From a lot of treatments and contact and communication, I think she is extremely special, an extremely brave person,\" he said.","highlights":"\"Insider\" host Lara Spencer says friends, family holding out for a miracle .\nFarrah Fawcett has been fighting Stage 4 anal cancer, which has spread .\nDoctor who once treated her calls condition \"very, very serious\"\nAnother doctor said actress has handled illness with \"courage and dignity\"","id":"24b0e66932dde42772a138078f3af793188aa04d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Colorado company's recall last week of beef products possibly contaminated with E. coli has been expanded, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week. The recall came as a result of \"an ongoing investigation into 24 illnesses in multiple states,\" the USDA said. The initial recall of 41,280 pounds announced last Wednesday was voluntarily expanded Sunday to include an additional 380,000 pounds of products made by the JBS Swift Beef Company, of Greeley, Colorado, the USDA said. The recall came as a result of \"an ongoing investigation into 24 illnesses in multiple states, of which at least 18 appear to be associated,\" the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a written statement. USDA spokesman Brian Mabry said no fatalities had been reported. On its Web site, the company said the suspect beef was produced at its Greeley plant on April 21 and distributed nationally and internationally. \"Each of our customers will be personally informed of this recall by phone,\" the wholesaler said. A spokesman would not identify those customers to CNN. \"That's ridiculous!\" said Sarah Klein, a staff attorney for the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. \"JBS should be able to say who they sold meat to, and those companies should be able to say, 'These are the products we created from them.' \" She expressed concern that nearly seven months into the Obama administration, a key undersecretary position at the USDA has not been filled, which may be slowing the government's ability to respond to such health threats. \"That person in that position would have significant public health experience and understand how these processes work, how meat enters the chain of commerce,\" Klein said. The recall underscores the need for \"a comprehensive animal identification system\" that would allow meat suppliers to trace their products to an individual ranch, she said. Klein urged supermarkets that use customer loyalty cards to track shoppers' purchases to determine those who have bought the recalled meat. Boxes of the recalled product bear the establishment number \"EST. 969\" inside the USDA mark of inspection, the identifying package date of \"042109\" and a time stamp ranging from \"0618\" to \"1130,\" the statement said. It added that some of the beef products might have undergone further processing and might not have the \"EST. 969\" marking on products for sale directly to consumers. The USDA urged any customers with concerns to contact the store where they bought the meat. JBS spokesman Chandler Keys said his company's products may have had nothing to do with the outbreak. \"It is important for consumers to note that the recalled product from the date in question was sold by JBS as whole muscle cuts, not as ground beef,\" Keys said on the company's Web site. \"The ground beef that might have been associated with illness was produced by other companies who often do not use the antimicrobial intervention steps we employ in our facility to reduce the risk of the beef products.\" He said JBS agreed to expand its recall \"out of an abundance of caution for consumers.\" Symptoms of infection with E. coli bacteria can include severe or bloody diarrhea, vomiting and severe abdominal cramping. The USDA urged consumers to cook all ground beef or ground beef patties to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any bacteria. CNN's Sabriya Rice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Recall includes more than 420,000 pounds of meat from JBS Swift Beef Co.\nUSDA spokesman Brian Mabry said no fatalities had been reported .\nJBS agreed to expand its recall \"out of an abundance of caution,\" spokesman says .","id":"3ac7f16b3dc00d676e513c9fb0b5be73371874d4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday approved an agreement granting Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, permanent custody of his children. Katherine Jackson has accused the executors of her son Michael's estate of \"keeping her in the dark.\" A hearing is scheduled for October to look at some remaining issues. An agreement between Katherine Jackson, 79, and Debbie Rowe, mother of Jackson's two eldest children, cleared the way for an uncontested custody hearing. Rowe, who was briefly married to Michael Jackson, agreed not to fight for custody in exchange for visits with the children. Katherine Jackson was in the courtroom along with her daughters LaToya and Rebbie and a son, Randy. Rowe did not attend Monday's hearing, but her attorney, Eric George, spoke briefly outside the courthouse. \"She's faced difficulties and pressures none of us know, and today's agreement shows that she responded with heart, integrity and selflessness,\" George said of Rowe. He also praised Katherine Jackson's attorneys for their part in bringing about the agreement. Michael Jackson's two oldest children -- Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 11 -- signed consents to the agreement. He also has a 7-year-old son, Michael Joseph Jackson II, known as Blanket, with an unidentified surrogate. The custody agreement does not involve any financial payments to Rowe \"apart from the continuation of spousal support payments\" that Michael Jackson personally agreed to make to Rowe after the divorce, their lawyers said in a joint statement. Watch Rowe's attorney talk about the decision \u00bb . Jackson's children have been living with their paternal grandmother at her Encino, California, home since their father's death June 25. Also at the hearing Monday, attorneys for Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, said he sought a role in the children's lives and wanted \"in some way to be involved\" in respect to their education and medical care, although he was not objecting to the custody agreement. But Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff denied Klein's request to be a party to the hearing. Details of how the children were conceived and who was the biological father have been closely guarded amid much public speculation. In an interview last month on ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" Klein did not rule out being the biological father of the children. \"Not to the best of my knowledge,\" he said when asked by Diane Sawyer whether he was the father. \"All I can tell you is, best of my knowledge, I am not the father of these children. But I am telling you, if push comes to shove, I can't say anything.\" Asked about Klein's attorneys saying he wants a role in the children's lives, George declined comment. Klein was not in the hearing Monday. Rowe and Jackson divorced in 1999, with Rowe giving him full custody while she got an $8.5 million settlement, according to court documents. Jackson later agreed to additional support. Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court ruled that her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door for a possible custody battle. On Monday, Beckloff awarded Katherine Jackson all of the family allowance funds she requested but gave only 83.5 percent of what she requested in support of the children. He said he disallowed money for one item, which he described as \"quite a large amount\" that he was not sure was necessary. The allowance order is sealed. Beckloff set a hearing to revisit the allowance matter in January. Also Monday, Beckloff ordered Katherine Jackson be given copies of her son's contracts in connection with a series of concerts that had been scheduled for this summer. She sought the contracts between Michael Jackson and AEG, the company that was organizing and promoting the concerts, along with others involved in the tour. She has agreed to keep the contract provisions confidential. Sharing of the contracts was a major point of contention between Katherine Jackson and the two men who control her son's estate: John Branca, Michael Jackson's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend. Branca's attorney argued in a court filing that his client had no choice but to request confidentiality from Katherine Jackson, since the contracts have a provision keeping them confidential. Katherine Jackson has also challenged the two men named as executors of her son's will. However, Beckloff did not rule on that matter Monday, saying he would like attorneys for the two sides to attempt to reach a resolution on their own. The attorneys conferred on the estate dispute during a morning recess that stretched to more than 90 minutes without reaching an agreement. Lawyers for Branca and McClain suggested Beckloff appoint them as executors of the will, but Beckloff instead extended their appointment as special administrators of Jackson's estate for another 60 days while he considers Katherine Jackson's objections. \"We believe the judge did the right thing,\" Branca's attorney, Howard Weitzman, told reporters after the hearing. \"We're quite pleased that the judge did what was appropriate.\" He took no questions. During Monday's hearing, Beckloff asked one of her attorneys, Burt Levitch, if there was any objection to admitting the will for probate -- without deciding who its executors will be. Beckloff noted that no one has come forward to object to the terms of the will itself. Levitch agreed, and Beckloff officially admitted the will for probate. The action starts a 120-day clock running for the will to be probated. The will, written in 2002, places all of Michael Jackson's assets into a family trust benefiting his mother, his three children and unnamed charities. Katherine Jackson's attorneys filed a petition last week accusing the men who now control the estate of being \"intent on keeping her in the dark\" about deals they've made or are negotiating. Londell McMillan, Jackson's lead attorney, raised questions about \"a suspicious circle of relationships\" involving Branca and McClain. Katherine Jackson is asking the judge to order Branca, McClain and others to answer questions under oath about their business agreements to determine if they are \"fit and able\" to administer the estate. The men also were served with a 19-page demand for documents, including the AEG contracts. Branca's lawyers argued that Katherine Jackson's demand for documents is too broad and burdensome. But, McMillan said, \"such measures will not be necessary if Mrs. Jackson is appointed a co-executor of the estate.\" Beckloff expressed concern, however, about delaying the appointment of executors for too long, since they must deal with any creditors to the estate that come forward. McMillan, in an interview with CBS Thursday, estimated the Jackson estate was worth $2 billion, while the executors have estimated in court that its value is around $500 million. The next hearings in the matter are scheduled for August 10 and August 28 to deal with safe harbor motions. Katherine Jackson wants Beckloff to set aside a provision in her son's will that anyone who challenges its terms can be dropped from the will.","highlights":"Katherine Jackson named permanent guardian of Michael Jackson's kids .\nShe will be given copies of Michael Jackson AEG contracts .\nLawyers' petition accuses executors of keeping singer's mother \"in the dark\"","id":"dc20dee3e0d1d7a80c48fc8176b44e95eda716bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's impact on pop culture is indelible. But perhaps his biggest legacy will be how he changed the music industry. Jackson's impact on the music business still reverberates today. \"As a performer he changed history ... his singing, his songwriting, his choreography, his dancing, his business acumen,\" said Howard Bragman, a public relations expert who worked with Jackson to launch the singer's shoe line with L.A. Gear. \"He rewrote the history of the entertainment industry in his time,\" Bragman said. Jackson crossed color lines and broke down barriers between musical genres. He followed in the footsteps of Elvis and the Beatles to create a transnational fan base that prefigured the era of globalization. And Jackson became a canny power broker who helped lead artists from stage performers into major boardroom players. \"That gets lost in the last five and 10 years, with all the litigation battles -- what he did the first 30 years to set the landscape for these other artists,\" said James Walker, an entertainment attorney. \"Michael transcended race before Michael Jordan, before Oprah, before Tiger Woods, before Barack Obama. \"You can't underestimate what his did for black artists -- and artists as a whole -- as a business man,\" Walker added. His 1982 album \"Thriller\" has sold more than 50 million records worldwide -- a record that, considering the decline of record sales in the wake of new media, is likely to stand for some years to come. \"Records just don't sell that much anymore. The industry has changed. ... Now it's in shambles because of technology,\" said Gideon Yago, head of the IFC Media Project and a former correspondent for MTV News. Videos that accompanied the album became landmarks that set the industry standard, as MTV and cable television began to proliferate, creating ready outlets for a growing marketing tool. At the time, Jackson's label had to fight to get onto MTV, which then featured only rock artists. \"Walter Yetnikoff (former president of CBS records) drew a line in the sand and said, 'We believe in this guy and you're going to play his videos or we're going to pull all our videos,'\" Walker said. \"What he did was so cutting-edge regarding videos; he defined the video age as we know it,\" said Tommy Mottola, who succeeded Yetnikoff as head of CBS. Though his personal finances were in disarray at the end of his life, Jackson made some canny business decisions at the height of his power -- most notably buying half the Beatles music catalog in 1985 for $47.5 million. \"When you look at his royalties and his copyrights, he's probably got a half a billion to a billion (dollar) catalogue,\" Walker added. The current value of his estate is unclear. His debts stood at about $500 million, according to a Wall Street Journal story earlier this month. As the music industry model moved more toward live events in the face of dwindling album sales, two billionaire businessmen stepped in to bank on Jackson's comeback with a series of concerts scheduled in London. Tom Barrack, head of hedge fund Colony Capital, teamed with Philip Anschutz, owner of AEG Live, to plan a third-act comeback for Jackson, with a sold-out 50-date stand at AEG Live's O2 arena scheduled to begin next month. Future business plans included a world tour, a Broadway musical and even a \"Thriller\" casino. \"You are talking about a guy who could make $500 million a year if he puts his mind to it,\" Barrack told The Los Angeles Times in an article last month. \"There are very few individual artists who are multibillion-dollar businesses. And he is one.\" Billboard magazine estimates $85 million in ticket sales from the sold-out concert series. Additional packages, merchandise and secondary market sales could have raised the total to $115 million. AEG Live declined to comment. \"There will be a process put in place for ticketing (refunds). I don't know what it is at the moment,\" said Lucy Ellison, spokeswoman for O2 stadium. \"We'll leave it for his family to say what they want to say before we discuss ticketing information.\" Jackson was expected to earn $50 million from the London shows. CNN's Pauline Chiou contributed to this report .","highlights":"Jackson transformed the role of artists as power brokers .\nEstate includes ownership of half the Beatles catalogue .\nBragman: \"He rewrote the history of the entertainment industry in his time\"\nReport: Debts estimated at $500 million at the time of his death .","id":"e59ab1b3ef6fc343b14765cbd6be88fb73ae0ffa"} -{"article":"ON PUGET SOUND, Washington (CNN) -- When commercial diver Kenny Woodside takes to the depths, he enters a world of murky low light and dangerous currents. Diver Kenny Woodside descends to the murky depths to retrieve an abandoned net. Until recently Woodside and about 100 hundred other divers searched Puget Sound for sea cucumbers and urchins to sell to buyers in Asia, where the items are considered delicacies. But demand for the fishermen's catch dried up with the worldwide economic crisis and left many of these divers without a reason to go out on the water. \"The fishing industry has slowed from a full-time job to just a couple months a year,\" said Doug Monk, the captain of the boat from which Woodside dives. \"The red sea urchin market is almost non-existent.\" But thanks to a small piece of the federal stimulus recovery plan, Monk, Woodside and about 40 other fishermen will get back to work hauling in a very different catch: lost fishing nets. While many stimulus projects have come under fire as pork barrel spending, backers of the nets program say it is a model for helping those battered by the economic downturn while completing needed public works. Thousands of the large nets stretch across the floor of Puget Sound, where they create an environmental hazard. Some of the nets were lost by fishermen to the rocky coastline decades ago but continue to catch and kill. According to the Northwest Marine Conservation Initiative, the nets are responsible for killing tens of thousands of marine life, mammals and birds every year. The nets, some of which extend larger than a football field, can also tangle the propellers of boats and pose a danger to scuba divers. After struggling to find funding, the group received $4.6 million in stimulus funds to recover most of the nets that litter the unique Puget Sound ecosystem. The only reason the nets have remained underwater for so long, said Ginny Broadhurst, director of the Northwest Marine Conservation Initiative, is because the damage they are doing to the environment is invisible from the surface. \"If you had nets strung along the streets that are catching bunny rabbits and squirrels, we wouldn't be discussing whether we should be removing them. We would be pulling them. It would be immediate,\" said Broadhurst. \"When those threats are underwater it's so much harder to know what impacts they are having.\" But pulling those nets is no easy task. Divers swim close to 100 feet down to an environment that is anything but friendly. Instead of using scuba equipment, they breathe through air hoses running from the boat above. When the divers find the fields of nets, they begin the labor of cutting them free piece by piece and all by hand. Removing one net can take days. Watch the divers at work \u00bb . The nets are then pulled to the boat waiting on the surface. In just a few hours on the water, the divers can pull free about 1,000 pounds of nets. Inside are the bones of countless fish and birds, along with several species of protected sharks and crabs. Anything still alive is cut free and thrown back in the water. Then, biologist Jeff June notes what they have brought up. So far, he says, the group has identified 112 distinct species trapped in the nets. The fishing nets themselves are considered toxic after the years of catching so much sea life. The divers seal them in heavy duty plastic bags and, once on shore, take the nets to a landfill. But biologist June said the group is working on a plan that would have the nets burned, creating energy from lost fishing nets. Over the next 18 months the group expects to pull some 3,000 nets from Puget Sound. And in that time the fishing industry could bounce back from its slump, allowing Doug Monk and his crew to return to catching urchins and sea cucumbers. But, the boat captain said, recovering the fishing nets has greater meaning than just riding out a rough economy. \"We feel we are doing a good thing,\" he said. \"[With] harvest diving we are taking from the resources; here we are giving them back.\"","highlights":"Worldwide economic downturn has hit fishing industry hard .\nStimulus money is paying fishermen to haul up lost nets in Puget Sound .\nNets kill thousands of marine life, birds, mammals each year .\nSome of the nets are longer than a football field .","id":"1488fe212a6b727a7538928b6518b35c02e1d0dd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Bronx woman has been charged with murder and robbery in the death of an 89-year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor, and police said a man is still being sought in connection with the death. Felix Brinkmann dances at a 2008 birthday party. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies,\" his son says. Angela Murray, 30, was arrested Saturday, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office, and is accused of strangling Guido Felix Brinkmann on Thursday in his Upper East Side apartment. Murray was arraigned Sunday and charged with one count of murder in the second degree and three counts of robbery. Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, was a Holocaust survivor who escaped death for a year while he was in the Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz camps. He had been slated for the gas chambers five times, but each time, he used his fluency in German to talk his way out, said his son, Rick Brinkman, who spells his last name differently. After the war, he was stunned to discover his wife, who had also been shipped to Auschwitz, alive and well in Poland. The Brinkmanns immigrated to America, where Brinkmann spent years in the bar and nightclub business, co-founding the Adam's Apple disco in Manhattan in 1971. In recent years, he had been the real estate manager of a mixed-use building in the Bronx, working \"seven days a week, without fail,\" Rick Brinkman said. On Thursday, the building's superintendent grew concerned when Brinkmann did not show up for work. He notified Brinkmann's son and received permission to enter the father's apartment, where he had lived alone since his wife died last year. Brinkmann was found face-down in his bedroom, his hands bound behind his back and his body showing blunt-force trauma wounds, police said. Brinkmann's blue 2009 Honda Civic had been stolen, along with one of two safes in his apartment, police said. The vehicle was later recovered in the Bronx. Rick Brinkman speculated that the killing was random. \"Anybody who knew him really liked him,\" the son said. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies.\" CNN's Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bronx woman charged with murder, robbery; police say a man is still being sought .\nGuido Felix Brinkmann, 89, was found strangled Thursday in Manhattan apartment .\nLatvia native had lived alone since wife died last year; son suspects killing is random .","id":"c7ed3ba86b0e3978955714855a42b4a7d8c67233"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese voters were heading to the polls on Sunday with their main choices to lead the next government a Hezbollah-backed alliance or a U.S.-backed coalition. Hezbollah party workers in the southern town of Nabatiyah hope for an election victory. Analysts say the race will be tight, with the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" possibly winning a majority of seats in parliament. The polls opened at 1200 GMT and will close 12 hours later. Turnout is expected to be high among the country's 3 million registered voters. About 50,000 troops were on the streets, but the run-up to the balloting had been free of violence. The vote comes at a critical time for Lebanon as it sits amid a power struggle between a weakened pro-Western government and a stronger pro-Syrian Hezbollah political bloc that has gained political momentum in recent years. The United States considers Hezbollah -- which is supported by both Syria and Iran -- to be a terrorist organization. The group grew in popularity after its militant wing claimed victory over Israel after a 34-day military conflict in 2006. Since then, it has been more widely perceived by its supporters to be the \"defenders\" of Lebanon. Though U.S. President Barack Obama didn't mention the Lebanese general election in his address on Thursday, he did call for religious tolerance in the Muslim world, noting sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites and the struggles faced by religious minorities. \"The richness of religious diversity must be upheld -- whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt,\" he said, referring to Christian groups in those countries. \"And if we are being honest, fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.\" In Lebanon's unique power-sharing government, the presidency is reserved for Maronite Christians, the speaker of parliament is always a Shia Muslim, and the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim. The law was created to balance power among Lebanon's three main religious groups. Analysts say the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" may win a parliamentary majority with the support of Christian opposition leader Gen. Michel Aoun -- the only prominent Christian politician to back the bloc. \"They keep trying to scare the Christian voters with their stories about Hezbollah's weapons, so to all of those who complain about Hezbollah, can they tell us how they will disarm the party,\" Aoun told supporters Friday. \"Hezbollah's weapons will no longer be a problem when the causes behind its existence disappear, including the borders' issues.\" A close look at Lebanon's political landscape reveals that the country's Christian voters are split on how they will cast their ballots. Some Christian voters want their representatives to step out of the shadows of Hezbollah and Saad Hariri, who leads the Sunni-dominated \"March 14 coalition.\" Christian voters are divided between supporting Aoun and other Christian leaders who want Hezbollah to disarm. \"In these elections, Christians look more divided than ever while others seem more unified than ever,\" said Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. For the Obama administration, the elections could be indicative of the president's odds of pushing stability in the region. Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jimmy Carter said the United States should work with whichever coalition wins. Carter was in Beirut as part of more than 200 international observers monitoring the election. He also oversaw balloting in Gaza during the elections in the Palestinian territory in January 2006. The Palestinian militant group Hamas won that race \"fairly and squarely\" by a huge margin, Carter said. The United States and Israel later refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Hamas win. \"And it's resulted in a split in the Palestinians and a very difficult situation there,\" Carter added. \"I think they (the United States) learned a hard lesson that they should accept the results of an election.\" Two senior Obama administration officials -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden -- have visited Lebanon in recent months, signaling concerns with a possible Hezbollah victory. During his trip to Beirut two weeks ago, Biden warned the country that while the United States supports Lebanon's democratic process, it will reconsider its assistance to the country if its next government strays from certain \"fundamental principles.\" Biden's visit followed Clinton's April trip to Beirut in which she called for an \"open and free\" election without outside interference -- a veiled reference to Iran and Syria. Such rhetoric has been dismissed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as \"meddling.\" The Hezbollah leader has been increasingly vocal in the lead-up to the election, blasting the current government as powerless. However, part of the reason Lebanon's government is crippled is that it made concessions to Hezbollah -- including giving them veto power -- in order to end a political stalemate that boiled over into violence of historic proportions last year. While some analysts are concerned Hezbollah could gain more control over Lebanon's government after Sunday's vote, a key Lebanese politician, Dori Chamoun, warned that assessment may be misleading. Chamoun, who opposes the March 8 alliance, said talk of Hezbollah's possible victory may be based on \"rumors\" and propaganda being spread by the Shiite militia and their political allies. \"They (Hezbollah) think they can scare many but no one is scared,\" Chamoun told CNN. \"They can spread all kinds of rumors on their four TV stations saying that they will win this upcoming elections.\" Chamoun, whose father, Camille Chamoun, was Lebanon's president in the 1950s, is running for a seat in parliament. Even if a Hezbollah-dominated government does move in, it could have trouble working with Christian and Sunni Muslim politicians who -- under Lebanese law -- must participate in the government. It would also be difficult to find a Sunni political figure willing to serve as prime minister in a Hezbollah-led government since the majority of Lebanon's prominent Sunni politicians are aligned with Hariri's March 14 coalition, which has declared it will not participate in any government if Hezbollah wins. Lebanon's political landscape could be shifting after a similar shift in neighboring Israel. Voters in the Jewish state overwhelmingly supported conservative parties over more moderate groups, bringing into power Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. Netanyahu is viewed in the Arab world as more hawkish than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who ordered the war against Hezbollah in 2006. A Hezbollah victory in Lebanon could further inflame tensions with Israel, particularly with an estimated 30,000 rockets pointed at Israel from southern Lebanon -- all under the control of Hezbollah. CNN's Cal Perry, Octavia Nasr and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Analysts say the race will be tight .\nSome say the Hezbollah-dominated alliance may win a parliamentary majority .\nTurnout is expected to be high among the country's 3 million registered voters .\nAbout 50,000 troops deploy to the streets .","id":"4426b267ac3a3fc62507bf0aa9e4b08fe8084c83"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican navy said Wednesday that it rescued five Ecuadorians who had been adrift without supplies in a fishing boat for more than two weeks off the coast of the southern state of Chiapas. Mexican medical personel examine two of five Ecuadorians rescued at sea. Mexican authorities initiated the rescue, which occurred Tuesday, after the U.S. Coast Guard alerted them that sailors aboard a fishing boat located 45 nautical miles (83 km) southeast of Port Chiapas had signaled to a passing plane that they needed help. The Mexican navy dispatched a helicopter, which located the 15-meter-long (49-foot-long) vessel and carried out the rescue by air, the navy said in a news release. The five aboard identified themselves as Jaime Arturo Alaba Chavez, the 35-year-old captain; V\u00edctor Hugo Alaba Chavez, the 32-year-old cook; Edison Prado Alaba, a 27-year-old sailor; Carlos Cheme Vazquez, a 37-year-old sailor; and Raul Contreras Vera, a 64-year-old machinist. The sailors were taken to the Naval Sanatorium of Puerto Chiapas, where doctors determined they were dehydrated. They said they had departed Costa Rica's on May 6 but, five days later, their motor stopped working and, unable to repair it, they had been adrift and without food since. A naval patrol boat towed the boat to Puerto Chiapas, arriving there Wednesday morning. It will be inspected to rule out the possibility that it may have been used for illicit activities, the navy said.","highlights":"The Mexican navy said Wednesday that it rescued five Ecuadorians adrift at sea .\nMen apparently without supplies in a fishing boat for more than two weeks .\nMen found off the coast of the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico .","id":"ef0f61d96fecc2f0d8ecaa6f7795c9f1e1ec4c2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Wolverine.\" \"Star Trek.\" \"Angels & Demons.\" \"Terminator: Salvation.\" The summer movies roll out, one weekend after another, like dreadnoughts leaving port to bombard a battle-scarred ocean. Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody star as \"The Brothers Bloom,\" a pair of successful con artists. So won't a little film about a pair of con-artist brothers, with nary an indestructible alloy in sight, get overrun by these blockbusters? Rian Johnson, the 35-year-old director of the charming \"The Brothers Bloom,\" doesn't see it that way. \"I actually kind of like it,\" he says of the strategy of premiering his film during summer movie season. (\"Bloom\" opens Friday in limited release and expands nationwide May 29.) \"I feel like we're scampering in between the feet of these giants.\" Make no mistake, adds Johnson: \"I love the big summer movies.\" But, he says, audiences will see the big movie of the week \"and then want something different. That's the advantage coming out in this season has.\" \"Bloom\" has already proved itself nimble. Watch the stars talk about \"Bloom\" \u00bb . The film started earning buzz at the Toronto Film Festival last September, and its distributor, Summit Entertainment, launched a shrewd marketing campaign by putting the first seven minutes on the Internet earlier this year. Johnson, who directed the critically acclaimed \"Brick\" -- a film noir set in a high school -- has been praised for another inventive mix of genres, combining the con-man film with a touch of screwball comedy, some international intrigue and more than a little whimsy. Mark Ruffalo, who stars as Stephen Bloom, the mastermind of the duo, describes \"Brothers Bloom\" as \"its own world.\" \"What I loved about it was its tonal shifts,\" he says. \"It goes from broad, almost slapstick stuff to the brother story and a love story. It's not traditional in that sense.\" The film follows Stephen Bloom and his brother, played by Adrien Brody, as they embark on one last con: an attempt to swindle a wealthy shut-in, Penelope Stamp, played by Rachel Weisz. Instead of being upset, Penelope is tickled by the new world before her and the opportunities for freedom, even as the younger Bloom (simply called \"Bloom\") wants to move on to something else. Johnson is nothing if not a student of film, and \"Bloom\" features references to other con-man works. \"Paper Moon,\" with its examination of character, was a favorite, says Johnson. There are also nods to \"The Sting,\" David Mamet's works, and even Agatha Christie. But, as Ruffalo says, \"Bloom\" exists in its own world. Though the film is set in the present day, the Blooms wear suits and hats as if they walked out of 1910. Much of the film was shot in the sunny byways of coastal Eastern Europe, with its weathered 19th-century resorts and glamorous Old World style. (The backdrop made the story \"much more real for all of us,\" says Johnson.) Add Johnson's invocations of Fellini's \"8\u00bd,\" Marcello Mastroianni and (of all things) the Band documentary \"The Last Waltz\" to his cast, and Ruffalo says it was easy to find the film's personality. \"That was the starting point -- a threadbare elegance,\" he says. \"There's an appreciation of eccentricity,\" agrees Johnson. Whimsy can be hard to maintain, he says, but \"the heightened style comes from a story-based place.\" (Johnson wrote the film's script.) That can be a lot for the moviegoing public of today -- weaned on CGI, armored rogues and thin romantic comedies -- to take in. But Johnson says he has faith \"The Brothers Bloom\" will find an audience. \"I'm pretty optimistic that with ... the ease with which media is now archived and made available to the public, I'm hoping that actually opens the doors for people to have more access to this stuff,\" he says. The director maintains a message board at rcjohnso.com, where young filmmakers \"constantly talk about older films,\" he says. In the film, Stephen Bloom says the perfect con is one in which \"everyone gets what they want.\" Johnson (and his studio) hopes for a financial success, of course, but he couldn't be happier with the way \"The Brothers Bloom\" turned out. \"I learned so much doing this film,\" he says. \"It's like I got paid to go to grad school.\"","highlights":"\"The Brothers Bloom\" about a pair of con artists and woman they snooker .\nFilm being released into teeth of summer movie season; no problem, says director .\nStar Mark Ruffalo: Film is \"its own world\"","id":"e3f04da7dd3fe610ba7b87034798bb7535a6673f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The mysterious disappearance of Flight AF 447 over the Atlantic Ocean has fueled speculation among aviation experts about what caused the state-of-the-art airliner to come down. An airliner is struck by lightning strike at Washington's Dulles airport last year. According to Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the Airbus A330-200 encountered heavy turbulence about 02:15 a.m. local time Monday (10:15 p.m. ET Sunday), three hours after the jet carrying 228 people left Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for Paris, France. At that point, the plane's automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating \"several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down.\" The jet, which was flying at 35,000 feet and at 521 mph, also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said. Its last known contact occurred at 02:33 a.m., the Brazilian air force spokesman added. The assumption is that these electrical problems led to a catastrophic failure of the aircraft's controls. What brought Flight AF 447 down? \u00bb . Some experts have said that a lightning strike was a possibility, particularly since the plane disappeared in a storm-prone area along the equator known as the Intertropical Convergence zone (ITCZ). This is where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres converge. The intense sun and warm water of the equator heats the air in the ITCZ, raising its humidity and making it buoyant. Aided by the convergence of the trade winds, the buoyant air rises, releasing the accumulated moisture in an almost constant series of thunderstorms. The airliner's route \u00bb . According to CNN's Mari Ramos, these storms can reach altitudes of 52,000 ft -- way beyond the capacity of commercial airliners to fly over. Watch more about the weather systems \u00bb . Retired airline pilot John Cox told CNN that modern aircraft receive a constant stream of real time weather data which allows them to plot a course around storms. \"Because safety is the paramount concern, airliners don't fly into storms. They fly around them,\" he said. \"The ITCZ is no different. Planes fly through it every day. \"At 8 miles per minute, modern jets can easily fly around storms. Even if they encounter turbulence, they're designed to absorb it.\" When lightning strikes a plane, the bolt typically hits a sharp part of it, such as a wing tip. Huge amounts of energy surge through the aircraft before exiting out of another sharp point, such as the tail. But sometimes high voltages can cause electrical damage if components are not well-grounded. Unlike other aircraft where the pilot's controls are manually attached to the flaps and rudders, Airbus 330 airliners are equipped with a \"fly by wire\" system that sends electronic signals from an onboard computer to move key control surfaces. Experts say that it is possible for this system and its back-up computers to be disabled by lightning. \"If you have a massive electrical problem it's possible that you could cut off all the commands out to the control surfaces,\" said aeronautics expert John Hansman. However, Kieran Daly, from the online aviation news service Air Transport Intelligence, told CNN that this scenario, while not impossible, is inconceivable. \"It's more likely that lightning would cause a fire or punch a hole through the aircraft structure,\" he said. \"It could be significant that the jet reported a loss of pressure.\" He added that the aircraft would be able to continue without the fly-by-wire system. The \"trim tab,\" which enables the pilot to manually manipulate controls such as the rudder, would allow the crew to fly the aircraft safely. \"Pilots are routinely trained for these kinds of events in a simulator,\" he said. Former Airbus pilot John Wiley said on average every airliner is hit by a strike once a year. \"They don't go down,\" he said. According to Air France, the captain of Flight AF 447 had a record of 11,000 flight hours and had already flown 1,700 hours on Airbus A330\/A340 aircraft. Of the two first officers, one had flown 3,000 flight hours (800 of which on the Airbus A330\/A340) and the other 6,600 (2,600 on the Airbus A330\/A340). The aircraft had totaled 18,870 flight hours and went into service on 18 April 2005. Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009.","highlights":"Air France Airbus A330-200 encountered heavy turbulence .\nCEO: \"Several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down\"\nSome experts have said that a lightning strike was a possible cause .\nFlight 447, traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was carrying 228 people .","id":"aff495ba855150f2bb32a0950c10a270ddc5e487"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While China is seriously cracking down on the exchange of virtual currencies for real cash, virtual economies backed by newfound legitimacy elsewhere are quickly gaining ground in the real world. There's gold in them there screens: Real-money transactions in virtual worlds are finding new legitimacy. On June 24, 2009, the role-playing game 140 Mafia launched on Twitter, following in the footsteps of highly lucrative games Mob Wars and Mafia Wars on Facebook (and now iPhone) to link virtual-currency exchanges to real-money transactions. In March 2009, MindArk -- creator of the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) Entropia, where one player famously bought an island for US$26,500 in 2004 -- saw its wholly owned subsidiary Mind Bank granted a banking license from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. The new license allows Mind Bank to be the first bank to directly incorporate real-money transactions with virtual-world activities. Selling virtual assets directly between players for real-world cash has been strictly prohibited by most game publishers, which find themselves looped out of the profits. What has been profitable in the meantime to some hardcore players of World of Warcraft and EverQuest (and other games) is \"gold farming\" -- accumulation of \"gold,\" weapons and other status symbols of a seasoned player -- followed by the online auction of such assets or user accounts. Since games publishers began policing eBay for this type of unauthorized activity, several Web sites such as PlayerAuctions have adopted a PayPal-like approach in order to broker the trading legally, acting as an open marketplace for player-to-player exchange of digital assets. Dual-currency economies . However younger games (often aimed at younger audiences) are ditching the conventional subscription-based model of the above games to adopt the \"freemium\" model, which lets users play for free, but allows them to enhance their experience by purchasing accessories or other premiums through micropayments. Frenzoo, a \"3D fashion game for girls\", is one game that has adopted this model. CEO Simon Newstead explains: \"The idea with dual currencies is that there is a paid currency [Gold Coins], which is paid for using real money and exchanged between sellers and buyers. In addition, there is a second currency -- a free or so-called 'earned' currency [Silver Coins] -- which is gained through activity and progression in the world or game.\" \"In this way,\" he continues, \"the economy can recognize different forms of contribution, and in newer economies these can also be traded between each other. For example, people earning currency and selling it to people who have less time but have real money.\" Mirrored economies . As one of the first successful virtual economies, Second Life's huge marketplace includes objects and services for sale, as well as a real estate market. In 2008, more than $100 million worth of the world's Linden dollars were bought and sold on Second Life's official LindeX exchange, according to its Web site. \"In Linden Exchange, the U.S. dollar part of the transaction is via PayPal, a well-known entity, so there's a certain amount of trust that comes with it,\" says Darrly Chang, co-founder of D&D Dogs, a two-man freelance venture that sells virtual dog pets and avatars to Second Life residents. Recently, however, business has slumped along with the real-world recession. \"We'll continue to see a proliferation of alternative currencies associated with specific platforms and communities, much as frequent-flier miles are associated with individual airlines or even networks of airlines,\" says Dan Jansen, CEO of Virtual Greats, which specializes in creating branded, copyrighted material for virtual worlds. \"In the longer term we may see a global standard for virtual currencies, but it will take some time.\" Golden e-currency? James Turk, chairman of digital-gold company GoldMoney, agrees. \"But,\" he adds, \"inevitably digital gold currency will make significant inroads in global commerce because it lowers the cost of transacting with one another. Reducing transaction costs creates more opportunities for global commerce.\" In March 2009, GoldMoney launched a dedicated iPhone application allowing its account holders to exchange gold and silver units within minutes. Putting a trendy iPhone application that allows people to manage their own digital gold on par with other popular banking applications branded by well-established banks brings e-currency a step closer to the modern mobile end-user. Furthermore, GoldMoney is firmly anchored to real-world assets and individuals, notably strictly forbidding anonymous accounts -- unlike the former incarnation of the pioneering company E-Gold, whose founder this month ends his six-month house arrest in Florida after pleading guilty to money laundering-related crimes. So how realistic is the prospect of a single, global, digital currency? \"It all comes down to trust,\" says senior economist Frederic Neumann. \"We trust the government to guarantee our 'virtual' money for real currency. [With digital gold] the gold standard is guaranteed by a private company. Governments already have several hundred years of sovereignty engrained in people's minds, so that trust is very difficult to establish.\"","highlights":"Entropia Universe's Mind Bank has been granted a real-money banking license .\nDual-currency economy allows for free trading between virtual and real money .\nSecond Life can be profitable, but also suffers from real-world recession .\nDigital gold currency may be promising, but still lacks trust of people .","id":"ed0ee314cc80bd72643d349e797a577bd9827a8d"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Stockholm has a reputation for being one of Europe's most expensive cities. T+L hits the streets of the fashionable capital and proves otherwise. Stockholm's Strommen River . 9:00 a.m. I plot my day over a complimentary breakfast of homemade yogurt and kn\u00e4ckebr\u00f6d (crispy bread) at Hotel Anno 1647 (3 Mariagr\u00e4nd; 46-8\/442-1680), housed in a former tobacco and clothing factory in the hip island neighborhood of S\u00f6dermalm. My room ($170), No. 21, is small and peaceful, with rustic pine floors, an antique crystal chandelier, and, thankfully, blackout drapes -- essential in a city that gets 18 hours of sunlight a day in the summer. 10:00 a.m. The hotel is around the corner from G\u00f6tgatan, one of Stockholm's most seductive shopping strips. Though it feels a little early to start spending, I can't resist a jar of cloudberry honey ($6) from Iris Hantverk (37 G\u00f6tgatan; 46-8\/641-9190), a store that specializes in handmade items by visually impaired artisans. I crave almost everything I see in DesignTorget (31 G\u00f6tgatan, 46-8\/462-3520), which carries an eclectic range of accessories by Swedish designers, including hand-printed dish towels and colorful kids' toys. But I force myself to move along. 12:00 p.m. For lunch, I circle back to busy Slussen square -- Stockholm's answer to Grand Central. The main attraction here (besides a major subway stop) is the humble Nystekt Str\u00f6mming (fried herring) wagon, encircled by picnic tables crowded with locals on their lunch breaks. I sidle up and order the signature dish ($6.25) topped with a dollop of cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche. From my bench, I can see the silhouette of Gamla Stan, the old section of the city just across the bridge. 1:00 p.m. Down along the harbor, a freckled blond girl at a candy cart snips off a sample of her salt licorice (free), a delicious flavor called H\u00e4xvr\u00e5l -- \"scream of the witch,\" she translates. After a short stroll past the steamboats and Baroque mansions of \u00d6stermalm, I arrive at the Vasamuseet (14 Gal\u00e4rvarvsv\u00e4gen; 46-8\/5195-4800), a maritime museum built around a meticulously reconstructed boat that was shipwrecked in the 17th century. I buy a ticket ($15) and explore the gigantic ship, feeling a little like an extra on the set of \"Pirates of the Caribbean.\" 3:30 p.m. Risking museum burnout, I head to the galleries ($12.50 admission) of the Moderna Museet (Skeppsholmen; 46-8\/5195-5200), designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, to see its collection of 20th-century European and American art. Here, I discover the contemporary Swedish painter Karin Mamma Andersson, whose lush, layered paintings look like dreamscapes. I also find one of the city's best photo ops -- the panoramic view of the port from the glass-walled museum caf\u00e9. 5:00 p.m. I forgo a pricey taxi ride across the city in favor of an infinitely more charming and scenic walk toward Gamla Stan, which is touristy but irresistible once I'm weaving through a knot of cobblestoned streets and storybook 17th-century houses. My reward is a hot chocolate ($4.70) at Kaffekoppen (18-20 Stortorget; 46-8\/203-170), a candlelit cellar with tea-stained walls and low vaulted ceilings. 7:00 p.m. While wandering the alleys of Gamla Stan, I stumble upon what may be the city's top bargain: a classical music concert ($11) at Storkyrkan, Stockholm's central cathedral (1 Trangsund, Gamla Stan; 46-8\/723-3016). I take a seat in a wooden pew as a local pianist fills the space with the music of Chopin. Dusky evening light filters in through leaded glass windows and shimmers off the golden angels on the high brick ceiling. Divine. 9:30 p.m. The lingering sunlight has affected my eating schedule, but I'm finally hungry again. On the patio of Babylon (4 Bj\u00f6rns Tr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdsgr\u00e4nd; 46-8\/640-8083), surrounded by chattering clusters of young fashion plates and artist types, I wrap myself in one of the restaurant's green fleece blankets and gobble down a late dinner of potatoes and r\u00f6ding ($25.80), a local fish. From my barstool, I watch skinny blond skateboarders dip and sail around a cement half-pipe in the adjacent park, and revel in a priceless travel high: the giddy feeling of having discovered the coolest place in town. TOTAL SPENT: . $251.25 E-mail to a friend . Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Hotel Anno is located in the hip island neighborhood of S\u00f6dermalm .\nLocals crowd around the fried herring wagon in Slussen square .\nModerna Museet features a collection of 20th-century European and American art .","id":"b2f6ccfdc77ff78f185aa2ced5f0007530dbed16"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN affiliates report on where job seekers are finding work across the country and how those looking for employment are coping with the situation. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, shown in April, once worked in a city jobs program as a youth. (CNN) -- Some of the stimulus money from the U.S. government is going to programs that help young adults find jobs. In Baltimore, Maryland, the city wants to put more than 7,000 to work, mostly in local government jobs. It will use more than $6 million from the federal government and sponsorship money, according to WBAL-TV in Baltimore. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon recalled her days as a young worker. \"I worked at a camp, and then in high school, I was able to continue to work in the program,\" she said. Read the full report on WBAL . In Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Kahtoya Wesley, 20, has had difficulty finding a job, but she has a better chance of finding work now because she has joined the Summer Youth Employment Program, according to WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach. So far 200 people have landed jobs through the program, an initiative of the Workforce Alliance of Palm Beach County, WPBF reported. The organization is using $3 million of stimulus money to fund the positions the young adults find, the station said. iReport.com: Share your job hunt story . The group also prepares the job seekers for interviews and provides seminars in how to deal with work-life situations. \"I got fired like five times. It was bad,\" John Hill told WPBF. He chose a seminar on working better with a supervisor. \"Because I usually don't,\" he told the station. Read the full report on WPBF . The state of Arkansas is using federal money to fund jobs for at-risk students in Springdale, according to KHBS-TV in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The town's youth center hired five teens to work in clerical and maintenance positions, KHBS reported. David Cook told the station he has had trouble motivating himself to go to school. The summer job was helping him with a shift on focus. \"It gives me a sense of responsibility of showing up on time, working on a schedule and with other people,\" he told KHBS. Read the full report on KHBS . West: FedEx center brings 650 jobs to Oregon . Even before a new FedEx shipping center brings hundreds of jobs to Troutdale, Oregon, it is helping with employment through road construction jobs, according to KPTV-TV in Portland. The new hub, which is expected to be completed in July 2010, will bring more than 1,000 additional cars to the area, so the Oregon Department of Transportation called for two additional lanes at a nearby major intersection, KPTV reported. FedEx is expected to employ 650 workers at the facility once it opens, according to KPTV. \"We're creating family wage jobs, because this project will take place this summer,\" Troutdale Mayor Jim Kight told the station. Oregon's unemployment rate was a record 12.4 percent in May. Read the full report on KPTV . South: No job? Create your own . He was once a senior loan officer who had been laid off and was looking every day for a job anywhere there might be an opportunity. When he couldn't find the right chance, he created his own. Kenneth Hodge is now a small business owner, the founder of SFG Records. \"If you look at your failures, if you stare at your failures too long, you'll never go anywhere,\" Hodge told WPBF. \"But if you look beyond your failures, you can move to and fulfill your dreams. You can do that. I think I can do that, and we are doing that.\" Six recording artists are featured on his Web site, and Hodge told the West Palm Beach station that he has already hired seven employees. Read the full report on WPBF . Midwest: Iowa town sees trickle-down effect from stimulus . Federal stimulus money indirectly helped an air conditioning company bring 110 workers back to its plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, according to KCCI-TV in Des Moines. The town's economic development director told KCCI that Lennox was able to hire back the workers because of increased demand. \"There's money from the federal level from tax rebates, and there's usually always money on the other side from the electric company helping out with tax rebates and most people are saying 'Yes, I want to do that,' \" Joel Akason told the station. Lennox is being cautious in its hiring, Akason told KCCI. Most of the positions are temporary, but 45 are permanent, the station reported. Read the full report on KCCI . Around the nation .","highlights":"Baltimore, Maryland will hire 7,000-plus teens to work city jobs .\nFedEx center in Oregon bringing jobs now and in future .\nMan starts record label after losing position as loan officer .\nLennox plant needs more workers due to pickup in air conditioning business .","id":"d845d4c12b8b9cf42e31da2a905439d0dcdcca3b"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- A 16-year-old Hong Kong boy makes two phone calls for delivery: One for pizza, the other for the drug ketamine. Two teenage girls are found semi-conscious in a car park after overdosing on ketamine. A 13-year-old boy joins a gang and is given free ketamine. Glass capsules containing ketamine, which has become the drug of choice for Hong Kong's youth. These are anecdotes told to CNN by police, a family doctor and a former gang member. Ketamine has become the drug of choice among young people, as the number of people under 21 taking drugs has surged 57 percent in the last four years in Hong Kong, said Commissioner for Narcotics, Sally Wong. \"We started off with a very small number of young people taking drugs. We are now more worried about the trend,\" Wong said. \"We don't want a runaway trend; that's why we are stepping up action.\" Ketamine, an animal tranquilizer, can put users in a dazed stupor for about two hours, doctors said. Long-term use of ketamine can impair cognitive function and damage internal organs. Watch Pauline Chiou's report on ketamine sweeping Hong Kong \u00bb . An oversupply of the drug in Hong Kong and the fact that it is cheaper than other narcotics makes ketamine popular with young people, said Superintendent Wilson Fok of the Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau. One gram of ketamine sells on the street here for $13 and is enough to be shared with two other people, while cocaine, for example, sells for $103 a gram, Fok said. The drug is legal for medical use, but it is trafficked into Hong Kong from other parts of Asia, such as India and mainland China, and sold on the streets illegally, Fok said. Police have recently stepped up their efforts to crack down on drug use at clubs and bars in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, a city in mainland China just across the border. Nearly 120 alleged drug users from Hong Kong, mostly under the age of 30, were arrested at entertainment venues in Shenzhen in July and held for 15 days in sweeps that made headlines for days here. However, narcotics police said entertainment venues are not the only places they find drug abuse. \"Forty percent of young people abuse drugs in public toilets and playgrounds. That's what our recent data from last year shows,\" Fok said. \"They want to find some other places to take drugs.\" The problem has gotten so bad that authorities have decided to do something never done here before: random school drug tests. Beginning in September, some two dozen schools will conduct tests, as part of a trial program. Officials say the drug screening will most likely be in the form of urine tests, though they are still working out the details. Ketamine can be detected in urine for at least three days, doctors said. Watch a doctor explain how the test works \u00bb . Dr. Cheng Chi Man, a family practice doctor, runs a seminar that trains doctors to detect the signs of drug abuse in young patients: drowsiness, skin problems, frequent urination (ketamine can affect bladder function) and frequent sick leave. \"When we were 10 years old, we were still in primary school watching TV and eating candy. But they are now taking drugs.\" Alman Chan, principal of Hong Kong's only drug rehab school for youth, the privately-run Christian Zheng Sheng School, said he has watched as drug use has grown. See photos of the rehab school in remote Hong Kong \u00bb . \"Just look at our school development. I was here 14 years ago. At that time, I was the only teacher. I had 18 kids. I only had one student who was 15,\" he said. \"But now, I have one third -- about 40 of them -- who are 15 years old or younger. That shows you the number of students getting into drugs is bigger and also getting younger and younger.\" There were a few reasons why children were getting involved with drugs, such as troubled homes and difficulties at school, he said. \"People are more concerned about material things and they are getting lost,\" he added. Hong Kong Police have arrested children as young as age 13 for drug offenses, according to Commissioner for Narcotics, Sally Wong. Police last week reportedly busted a network that allegedly recruited teenagers to sell illegal drugs-- mainly to students. One of those arrested -- a 14-year-old school dropout -- was found with 28 grams of ketamine, according to the South China Morning Post. But ketamine abuse is not limited to young people. It is the second-most popular drug among all age groups in Hong Kong, Superintendent Wilson Fok of the Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau said. Many young drug abusers end up in Alman Chan's drug rehab school for youth, which is located in a remote part of Lantau Island west of Hong Kong. CNN visited the campus, which is home to 99 boys and 24 girls. The closest road is a three-hour hike through the woods. Chan calls the school \"the last stop before jail\" for drug abusers. That was the case for Tai Ming Hung's son Keith, a former gang member. She learned he was using ketamine when he ended up in the hospital after taking the drug a few years ago. \"I was in denial. I just didn't believe it was true. When I first heard about it, we all didn't know how to react, because we hadn't heard of those drugs before,\" she said. \"I didn't really understand why we have these harmful drugs in the world. And I was so afraid that it would kill my son.\" 18-year-old Keith, who said he began using ketamine at the age of 13 when he joined a gang, has recovered and is now living at Chan's school. \"I have a feeling that he's really growing up, he keeps improving,\" his mother said. The school's curriculum involves regular school subjects and chores. The goal is for each student to finish their court probation and either sit for the university exam or continue on to a vocational school. Many of the students have become interested in video editing and photography. There is a video lab on campus and the students showed CNN some video projects they have done. Other students run a pizza parlor and tea shop on a neighboring island. The average stay at the school is three years and students are encouraged to plan for life after rehab. \"We have vocational training. We help them get some marketable skills; therefore, they may get a job or continue training afterward,\" Chan said. \"I believe everyone deserves a second chance.\"","highlights":"Police: Ketamine is the top drug of choice among young people in Hong Kong .\nDrug use among those under 21 has jumped 57 percent in the last four years .\nPolice stepping up crackdowns, say parks and public toilets hot spots for drug use .\nHong Kong has one drug rehab center for youth, located on a remote former pig farm .","id":"2e645549ea1c2a217abf0ecd40124fdc14ee239b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- While the coroner's report on what killed Michael Jackson has been delayed indefinitely, new evidence emerged that the singer shopped for a doctor who would give him the drug investigators suspect led to his death. A doctor of Michael Jackson says he prescribed drugs to the alias Omar Arnold. Dr. Allan Metzger, whose name appeared on a search warrant served this week, refused Jackson's request in April for the anesthetic propofol -- commonly known by the brand name Diprivan, Metzger's attorney said. Investigators suspect another physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, gave the drug to Jackson in the 24 hours before he died, according to a source, who asked not to be named because the individual was not authorized to speak to the news media. Metzger, who practices in West Hollywood, California, told Jackson during a visit to his Holmby Hills home that the drug was \"dangerous and potentially life-threatening and could not be used outside of a hospital,\" attorney Harland Braun said. Metzger's medical records for Jackson, whom he treated until 2003, have been given to the coroner, Braun said. He said Metzger prescribed drugs for Jackson under the alias Omar Arnold and Michael Jackson, which was not illegal since he used both names together. The doctor did that because he thought it was \"his duty to protect the privacy\" of his patient, Braun said. Omar Arnold is one of 19 aliases listed in the warrant used by Los Angeles police and federal drug agents Tuesday to search the Las Vegas, Nevada, office and home of Murray, a Texas-based cardiologist. The warrant also mentioned Cherilyn Lee, a nurse practitioner who treated Jackson earlier this year. Lee said Jackson begged her for propofol to help him get a good night's sleep. She said she refused, telling the pop star that if he took the medicine, he might never wake up. The same warrant, signed by a Las Vegas judge, implied that investigators suspected Jackson was a drug addict. Dr. Deepak Chopra said in a recent interview that when Jackson asked him for a narcotic, he told him absolutely no. \"I said to him, 'Michael, you're going to die one day from this,' \" Chopra said. During a world tour in the mid-'90s, sources close to Jackson told CNN, the pop star suffered from insomnia and traveled with an anesthesiologist who would \"take him down\" at night and then \"bring him back up.\" According to a report on a 2004 Santa Barbara, California, police investigation, security guards in Jackson's inner circle said he traveled the country getting prescriptions from doctors. The Los Angeles County coroner, who must rule on the cause of Jackson's June 25 death, met Thursday with the Los Angeles District Attorney, who must decide if anyone will be prosecuted for his death. During the meeting, it was decided that an announcement of the coroner's findings would be delayed indefinitely, according to a source close to the investigation. An official in the coroner's office had previously indicated to reporters that the findings would be made public within days. Katherine Jackson goes to court Monday . Katherine Jackson's legal battle for some control of her son's estate returns to court Monday in front of the same judge who is expected to award her permanent guardianship of his children. Jackson's lawyers filed a petition Tuesday accusing the men who now control the estate of being \"intent on keeping her in the dark\" about deals they've made or are negotiating. Jackson lawyer Londell McMillan raised questions about \"a suspicious circle of relationships\" involving John Branca, the singer's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend -- who were named executors in Jackson's will. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff gave Branca and McClain temporary control of the estate until Monday's hearing. In the Jackson lawyers' petition, they asked the judge to order Branca, McClain and others to answer questions under oath about their business agreements to determine if they are \"fit and able\" to administer the estate. They also served the men with a 19-page demand for documents. Branca has refused to let Katherine Jackson see Michael Jackson's contracts with AEG, the company that was organizing and promoting his planned concerts, unless she agrees to keep them confidential. Branca's lawyer argued in a court filing that he has no choice since the contracts have a provision requiring confidentiality. Branca's lawyers also argued that Jackson's demand for documents was too broad and burdensome. \"Such measures will not be necessary if Mrs. Jackson is appointed a co-executor of the estate,\" McMillan said. McMillan, in an interview with CBS on Thursday, estimated the Jackson estate was worth $2 billion, while the executors have estimated in court that its value is around $500 million. The will written in 2002 places all of Jackson's assets into a family trust benefiting his mother, his three children and unnamed charities. The judge is also expected Monday to finalize Katherine Jackson's guardianship of her son's three children. An agreement between Jackson and Debbie Rowe, the mother of the two eldest children, cleared the way for an uncontested custody hearing. Rowe, who was briefly married to Michael Jackson, agreed not to fight for custody in exchange for visits with the children as recommended by a psychologist. The agreement does not involve any financial payments to Rowe \"apart from the continuation of spousal support payments\" that Michael Jackson personally agreed to make to Rowe after their divorce, their lawyers said in a joint statement. Jackson's children have been living with their paternal grandmother at her Encino, California, home since their father's death. The eldest child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., was born in February 1997. A daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, was born the next year. Details of how the children were conceived -- and who was the biological father -- have been closely guarded amid much public speculation. The couple divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving Jackson full custody while she got an $8.5 million settlement, according to court documents. Jackson later agreed to additional support. Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door to a possible custody battle. CNN's Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Coroner's report on what killed Michael Jackson has been delayed indefinitely .\nDoctor's attorney says Jackson sought Diprivan, drug suspected in his death .\nCoroner, district attorney decide not to release coroner's findings .\nHearing Monday on control of estate, custody of children .","id":"5f08d4ea9978512d80c08977e78de995f991d719"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Katherine Jackson's legal battle for some control of her son's estate returns to court Monday in front of the same judge who is expected to award her permanent guardianship of Michael Jackson's children. Katherine Jackson has accused the executors of her son's estate of \"keeping her in the dark.\" Dozens of lawyers are expected to pack a Los Angeles courtroom where a judge will consider the Jackson family matriarch's challenge of the lawyer and former music executive who were named as executors in Michael Jackson's will. Katherine Jackson's lawyers filed a petition last week accusing the men who now control the estate of being \"intent on keeping her in the dark\" about deals they've made or are negotiating. Londell McMillan, Jackson's lead attorney, raised questions about \"a suspicious circle of relationships\" involving John Branca, the singer's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff gave Branca and McClain temporary control of the estate until Monday's hearing. Katherine Jackson is asking the judge to order Branca, McClain and others to answer questions under oath about their business agreements to determine if they are \"fit and able\" to administer the estate. The men also were served with a 19-page demand for documents. Branca has refused to let Katherine Jackson see Michael Jackson's contracts with AEG -- the company that was organizing and promoting his planned concerts -- unless she agrees to keep them confidential. Branca's lawyer argued in a court filing that he has no choice, since the contracts have a provision requiring confidentiality. Branca's lawyers also argued that Jackson's demand for documents was too broad and burdensome. \"Such measures will not be necessary if Mrs. Jackson is appointed a co-executor of the estate,\" McMillan said. McMillan, in an interview with CBS Thursday, estimated the Jackson estate was worth $2 billion, while the executors have estimated in court that its value is around $500 million. The will written in 2002 places all of Michael Jackson's assets into a family trust benefiting his mother, his three children and unnamed charities. Judge Beckloff will consider at Monday's hearing who will have permanent control of the estate. The judge is also expected Monday to finalize Katherine Jackson's guardianship of her son's three children. An agreement between Jackson and Debbie Rowe, the mother of the two oldest children, cleared the way for an uncontested custody hearing. Rowe, who was briefly married to Michael Jackson, agreed not to fight for custody in exchange for visits with the children as recommended by a psychologist. The agreement does not involve any financial payments to Rowe \"apart from the continuation of spousal support payments\" that Michael Jackson personally agreed to make to Rowe after their divorce, their lawyers said in a joint statement. Jackson's children have been living with their paternal grandmother at her Encino, California, home since their father's death. The oldest child -- Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. -- was born in February 1997. A daughter -- Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson -- was born the next year. Details of how the children were conceived -- and who was the biological father -- have been closely guarded amid much public speculation. The couple divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving Jackson full custody while she got an $8.5 million settlement, according to court documents. Jackson later agreed to additional support. Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door to a possible custody battle. While the coroner's report on what killed Michael Jackson has been delayed indefinitely, new evidence emerged that the singer shopped for a doctor who would give him the drug investigators suspect led to his death. Dr. Allan Metzger, whose name appeared on a search warrant served this week, refused Jackson's request in April for the anesthetic propofol -- commonly known by the brand name Diprivan -- Metzger's attorney said. Investigators suspect another physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, gave the drug to Jackson in the 24 hours before he died, according to a source, who asked not to be named because the individual was not authorized to speak to the news media. Metzger, who practices in West Hollywood, California, told Jackson during a visit to his Holmby Hills home that the drug was \"dangerous and potentially life-threatening and could not be used outside of a hospital,\" attorney Harland Braun said. Metzger's medical records for Jackson, whom he treated until 2003, have been given to the coroner, Braun said. He said Metzger prescribed drugs for Jackson under the alias Omar Arnold and Michael Jackson, which was not illegal since he used both names together. The doctor did that because he thought it was \"his duty to protect the privacy\" of his patient, Braun said. Omar Arnold is one of 19 aliases listed in the warrant used by Los Angeles police and federal drug agents Tuesday to search the Las Vegas office and home of Murray, a Texas-based cardiologist. The warrant also mentioned Cherilyn Lee, a nurse practitioner who treated Jackson earlier this year. Lee told CNN Jackson begged her for the propofol to help him get a good night's sleep. She said she refused, telling the pop star that if he took the medicine, he might never wake up. The same warrant, signed by a Las Vegas judge, implied that investigators suspected Jackson was a drug addict. Dr. Deepak Chopra told CNN in a recent interview that when Jackson asked him for a narcotic, he told him absolutely no. \"I said to him, 'Michael, you're going to die one day from this,'\" Chopra said. During a world tour in the mid-'90s, sources close to Jackson told CNN, the pop star suffered from insomnia and traveled with an anesthesiologist who would \"take him down\" at night and then \"bring him back up.\" According to a report on a 2004 Santa Barbara police investigation, security guards in Jackson's inner circle said he traveled the country getting prescriptions from doctors. The Los Angeles County coroner, who must rule on the cause of Jackson's June 25 death, met Thursday with the Los Angeles District Attorney, who must decide if anyone will be prosecuted for his death. During the meeting, it was decided that an announcement of the coroner's findings would be delayed indefinitely, according to a source close to the investigation. An official in the coroner's office had previously indicated to reporters that the findings would be made public within days. CNN's Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Katherine Jackson looking for some control of her son's estate.\nLawyers' petition accuses executors of keeping Katherine Jackson \"in the dark\"\nJackson wants executors to answer questions about business arrangements .","id":"08209c2f2e35b49d267b89d771066bd02e3fb7db"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Are you looking for an easy way to reduce your monthly budget? Look no further than your cell phone bill. Clark Howard says consider switching to a less known cell provider to save money and avoid signing contracts . If you're with one of the four big providers -- AT&T, Sprint, Verizon or T-Mobile -- you're almost certainly overpaying for service. In addition, all four have a business model that's based on cowardice. They've developed lousy, stinking, rotten two-year contracts because they're afraid to compete in the marketplace. Thankfully, there are a variety of smaller players in the market who offer nationwide coverage for less money with no contracts. Before considering any adjustment to your cell phone plan, you'll need to start by assessing how much you talk, text and surf the Web on your phone. Watch Clark discuss the pros and cons of bundling services . If you use less than 300 minutes per month, you'd probably do much better with a prepaid plan where you buy minutes as you need them. Net10.com is one service I usually recommend -- no roaming charges, no long distance charges, no monthly fees and a flat 10 cents per minute for calls. If you use more than 300 minutes per month and you travel from time to time, you might want to consider either Metro PCS or Cricket. Both have plans ranging from $25 to $50 and offer unlimited calling. The difference in price points is based on how many other features you want -- texting, Web surfing and so on. But there are never any contracts or overages. For heavy cell phone users, there are Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Both are engaged in an all-out price war that can directly benefit you. Virgin Mobile is offering $49.99 per month unlimited calling -- no roaming charges and no contract. If you want texting, you'll pay an additional $10 per month for unlimited service. If you want high-speed Internet, you'll pay another $10 per month on top of that for a 50MB plan. Boost Mobile's $50 per month plan already includes unlimited calling, texting and Web access. And that $50 even includes junk fees! One caveat here: Remember, my definition of \"cheap\" means that I'm willing to accept lower quality for a lower price. So consider this caveat carefully and do your own research before making any final decisions about your cell provider. Speaking of cheap, a new competitor in the marketplace may have both Boost and Virgin beat. Straight Talk offers a cellular plan for $30 per month. You get 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text messages and 30MB of data for that price. It's important to remember that very few people use more than 1,000 minutes per month. The typical person clocks in at 790 minutes and pays an average monthly contract bill of $67, according to Nielsen Mobile studies of U.S. adults on individual cell phone contract plans. So, what are you waiting for? Consider firing your \"Big 4\" cell provider and going with one of the smaller guys. The savings are there for the taking. Finally, CellTradeUSA.com can help you get out of your existing contract by trading it away to someone else. This tends to work particularly well if you have a hot phone that everybody wants.","highlights":"Smaller players in cellular market can offer nationwide coverage for less .\nNielsen Mobile says typical customer uses 790 minutes, pays average $67 a month .\nHoward says do your research before making decisions about your cell provider .","id":"b96d0c2e060cc7a679329a70ba1b725bb769e4fa"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The case of Janet Jackson's \"wardrobe malfunction\" on national television -- and subsequent fines against CBS -- will be re-examined at the order of the Supreme Court. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson perform at the Super Bowl just before the infamous \"wardrobe malfunction.\" The justices Monday sent the case back to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia that had thrown out a $550,000 government fine against the broadcast network and its affiliates for airing the incident during halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl. The pop singer's breast was briefly exposed during a performance with singer Justin Timberlake. After viewer complaints and national media attention, the Federal Communications Commission said the Jackson incident was obscene. In addition to CBS Inc., 20 of its affiliates also were fined. Congress quickly reacted at the time to the visual shocker by increasing the limit on indecency fines tenfold, up to $325,000 per violation per network. And it said each local affiliate that aired such incidents also could be punished by the same amount. But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the communications commission had acted \"arbitrarily and capriciously.\" The Supreme Court's action marks the second time in recent days that it has dealt with cases involving broadcast standards. Last week, the justices narrowly upheld the authority of the Federal Communications Commission to punish networks for airing profanity. The government clampdown on obscene images and words began in 2003. Enforcement of the law, as well as fines and sanctions for the incidents, have been put on hold while the cases are being argued. The television networks say their scripted shows no longer air nudity, racy images or expletives, even after 10 p.m., when some potentially vulgar words are permitted. They worry, however, about unplanned, often spontaneous indecent or profane incident at live events, such as awards shows and sporting events. Company officials say such programs are often on a five-second delay, and censors are on hand to bleep any offensive language. But some indecent words can slip through, they admit, and they want to be protected from heavy government fines. Critics call that laughable. \"This past summer, CBS edited into a show that had to go through multiple reviews, by multiple people in the organization, the F-word,\" said Tim Winter, who heads the Parents Television Council, and is supporting the FCC's efforts. His group advocates \"responsible\" programming, and warns parents about questionable program content. The show in question was \"Big Brother 10,\" a taped series. The Jackson incident was not on a five-second delay. CBS issued a statement Monday afternoon it is confident that the appeals court \"will again recognize that the Super Bowl incident, while inappropriate and regrettable, was not and could not have been anticipated by CBS.\" The issue is an important one \"for the entire broadcasting industry,\" it said, \"because it recognizes that there are rare instances, particularly during live programming, when despite best efforts it may not be possible to block unfortunate fleeting material.\" In the case involving profane language, the high court concluded 5-4 that the communications commission has the authority to sanction broadcast TV networks that air isolated incidents of profanity, known as \"fleeting expletives.\" But the justices in that case refused to decide whether the commission's policy violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. It ruled only on their enforcement power. The justices ordered the free-speech aspect to be reviewed again by a federal appeals court. The \"wardrobe malfunction\" case is FCC v. CBS Corp. (08-653).","highlights":"U.S. Supreme Court has asked that \"wardrobe malfunction\" case be re-examined .\nJanet Jackson inadvertently flashed breast during Super Bowl halftime show in 2004 .\nCBS and several affiliates were fined; appeals court disagreed with decision .\nNetworks have clamped down on nudity, language; still worry some slips through .","id":"e5b45f656ff2d6c97bd0c50c7b97d6edc260e96c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday that says it supports \"all Iranians who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law.\" Throngs in Tehran cheer Thursday for defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, center. The resolution was approved by 405 lawmakers, while one -- Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas -- voted against it. Two others, Reps. Brad Ellsworth, D-Indiana, and Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, voted \"present.\" In a statement on his Web site, Paul said he voted against the measure because he is \"always very cautious about 'condemning' the actions of governments overseas.\" \"I have always hesitated when my colleagues rush to pronounce final judgment on events thousands of miles away about which we know very little,\" said Paul, who attracted attention last year during his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination. \"And we know very little beyond limited press reports about what is happening in Iran.\" The resolution, which also \"condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators,\" was sponsored by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-California, and two Republicans, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. Speaking shortly after the resolution passed, Pence called it a message from Americans to the Iranian people. \"As Americans have done throughout our history, this Congress today, on behalf of the American people, has spoken a word of heartfelt support to all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law,\" he said. He urged U.S. senators to support the identical resolution that Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, introduced Friday. Both Pence and McCain have been outspoken in their criticism of President Obama's response to massive rallies in Iran against the results of last week's presidential election. Watch as Obama walks a fine line \u00bb . Supporters of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi have taken to the streets this week calling for a new election after the results of the June 12 vote showed an overwhelming victory for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The rallies also have denounced the Iranian government's crackdown on the protests in which at least eight people have died. Obama has said he is \"deeply troubled\" by the violence, but he has avoided siding with Ahmadinejad's opponents, telling reporters, \"It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be.\" \"It's not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling, the U.S. president meddling in Iranian elections,\" Obama said this week. But several Republicans, particularly McCain -- Obama's opponent in last year's presidential race -- have criticized the administration's position. McCain introduced a resolution on the Senate floor Friday morning that he said would be \"an expression of support by the government and the people of the United States of America\" for those protesting the election results. \"It is unfortunate in a way that this resolution is required since the administration does not want to 'meddle' and has refused, the president has refused to speak out in support of these brave Iranian citizens, most of them young, who are risking their very lives to protest what was clearly an unfair and corrupt election,\" McCain told his fellow senators. Watch what else McCain said about Obama \u00bb . The resolution passed Friday states that the House: . On Thursday, Cantor joined the critics of the White House, saying the United States has a \"moral responsibility\" to condemn attacks on protesters. \"The administration's position that what's going on in Iran is a 'vigorous debate' is absurd,\" he said. \"People are being brutalized and murdered by the regime in Tehran. We have no idea exactly how many have died or have been seriously injured since the regime has restricted journalists. In no way do these actions constitute a 'vigorous debate.' \" Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, added, \"America has a moral responsibility to stand up for these brave people, to defend human rights and to condemn the violence and abuses by the regime in Tehran.\" Watch amateur video of protesters under attack \u00bb . Pence has called on the United States \"to take a half-step back from this administration's olive branch and the apology approach to enemies and countries that have been hostile to the United States of America and our allies, particularly with the road to Iran.\" But Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Washington would be making an \"enormous mistake\" by taking sides in the Iranian protests. \"There is no need for the United States of America to step into the middle of it and make this about America,\" Kerry told CNN's \"The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer.\" \"It is an Iranian moment, spurred on by Iranians, thoroughly supported by Iranians to the degree that the supreme ayatollah has now backed off his own support for the elections [and] called for an investigation,\" he said. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended the administration's approach this week, saying that Obama \"believes that he's struck the right tone.\" \"I know some people agree with what Sen. McCain said. Some people agree with what other Republicans have said that's very much like the president's position,\" Gibbs said Thursday. \"The president strongly believes that we should -- and have -- spoken out to ensure the demonstrators have the universal right and principle to demonstrate without fear of harm. But at the same time, we have to respect their sovereignty.\" Moorhead Kennedy, a former diplomat who was among those taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, said he supports the Obama administration's position. \"I think if I had any conclusion to draw, we would have been much better off not interfering in Iran now,\" Kennedy told CNN's \"American Morning.\" Because the United States backed a 1953 coup that put Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in charge, and supported him until the 1979 revolution that created today's Islamic republic, Kennedy said, \"There are a great many resentments there.\" CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Deirdre Walsh, Peter Hamby and Dan Lothian contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Lone dissenter: \"We know very little ... about what is happening in Iran\"\nHouse votes 405-1 for resolution supporting democracy in Iran .\nRepublican Sen. John McCain offers similar resolution in Senate .\nMcCain, other Republicans criticize President Obama's warning against \"meddling\"","id":"2be92fa24852b8e908fa6b113cb56542e2f91ac6"} -{"article":"CLOVIS, California (CNN) -- Jeff Hubbard fought back tears as he talked about his boy -- a \"great, great young man\" who was killed last week in Iraq in a helicopter crash. It's the second time he's had to bury a son killed in the Iraq war. Jeff and Peggy Hubbard with sons Army Spc. Jason Hubbard, left, and Cpl. Nathan Hubbard. This time, it was made even more tragic. His third son, also a soldier in Iraq, was immediately on the scene of last week's helicopter crash and watched as soldiers carried the remains of his brother, 21-year-old Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard, from the crash site. Nathan's flag-draped coffin arrived in Fresno earlier this week and eventually to his hometown of Clovis. Watch \"We love you Nate\" \u00bb . Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday to remember Nathan at St. Anthony of Padua, the same church where his oldest brother's funeral was held in 2004. Nathan will be laid to rest at Clovis Cemetery, beside his brother, Jared. Nathan and his other brother entered the military shortly after Jared was killed -- to honor his sacrifice. \"Their decision to join the military was motivated by a love for their brother and a desire to serve their country,\" the priest told mourners Friday. \"The death of Jared touched him deeply. Losing a brother and a friend made a profound impact on him, and brought to his attention the seasons of war and grief and loss.\" Jeff Hubbard spoke to reporters Thursday ahead of the funeral, struggling to find words to describe how much his youngest son meant to him and his family. \"I want everybody to remember and celebrate Nate in their own way, the way they want,\" he said. \"We want him honored, remembered and celebrated -- he was a great, great young man. Wonderful young man.\" Tragically, the Hubbards have gone through this anguish before. In 2004 their son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, was on patrol in Iraq with his best friend and fellow Marine, Jeremiah Baro -- also from Clovis -- when a roadside bomb exploded, killing both. Jeff Hubbard says there's no way for a parent to prepare for the agony a second time. \"They're each absolutely individual terrible instances that you deal with the best you can as you go forward,\" he said. Six months after Jared was killed, Nathan and Jason Hubbard decided to enlist and serve together -- to follow in their brother's footsteps. On August 22 after returning from a scouting mission south of Kirkuk, Iraq, the Blackhawk helicopter carrying Nathan and 13 other soldiers crashed. Jason, who served in the same Army platoon, was in a separate helicopter when his brother went down and was ordered to secure the crash site. When he and his men reached the downed Blackhawk, Jason says he realized it was his brother's unit. \"We also had to remove as many of the men as we could out of that helicopter,\" Jason remembered. \"And I couldn't participate in that. I knew my -- I knew Nathan was in there. I tried several times to kind of gather myself, but I just -- I couldn't.\" Jason says as the men carried bodies out of the wreckage, he spotted his younger brother. \"At one point they did carry Nathan by me. And that's when the reality, the complete reality, and complete understanding of the situation came to me and I began dealing with it.\" Under the Department of Defense sole survivor policy, Jason says he was told he will not be allowed to return to war. His wife and young son will join him at his base in Hawaii. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Funeral held Friday for Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard .\nMarine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard was killed by a roadside bomb in 2004 .\nJared's brothers Nathan and Jason Hubbard were inspired to enlist .\nNathan was killed August 22; Jason was ordered to return home for good .","id":"f78fd8c85ee468ae201dd57dbc40650a345f3295"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Scientific tests prove bones housed in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome are those of the apostle St. Paul himself, according to Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict XVI looks at the tomb of St. Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome in 2007. \"Tiny fragments of bone\" in the sarcophagus were subjected to carbon dating, showing they \"belong to someone who lived in the first or second century,\" the pope said in a homily carried on Italian television. \"This seems to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle St. Paul,\" Benedict said in Sunday's announcement. The tomb also holds \"traces of a precious linen cloth, purple in color and laminated with pure gold, and a blue colored textile with linen filaments,\" the pope said. The tests were carried out by inserting a probe into a small opening in the sarcophagus, \"which had not been opened for many centuries,\" the pontiff said. The probe \"also revealed the presence of grains of red incense and traces of protein and limestone.\" Separately, archaeologists have uncovered an image of St. Paul which \"could be considered the oldest icon of the apostle known to date,\" the Vatican's official newspaper reported Sunday. The painting, in the St. Tecla Catacomb, is \"among the oldest and best-defined figures from ancient Christianity,\" according to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, L'Osservatore Romano reported. St. Paul is one of the most significant figures in Christianity. Originally a persecutor of early Christians, he became a follower of Jesus after seeing a vision on the road to Damascus, according to Christian tradition. \"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?\" the vision of Jesus asks Paul, using the apostle's birth name, in the Acts of the Apostles. Saul then took the name Paul and became a missionary. His letters, or epistles, to early Christian communities around the Mediterranean form a significant portion of the New Testament. Paul was beheaded by Roman authorities sometime between 65 and 67 A.D., according to the Catholic Church. He was buried a few miles away, and when the Roman Empire stopped persecuting Christians some 250 years later, the Emperor Constantine had a basilica built over his grave. It currently lies under a marble tombstone bearing the Latin inscription PAULO APOSTOLO MART (Apostle Paul, martyr), according to the Web site of the basilica. A papal altar stands over the tombstone, which is visible through a window-like opening, the Web site says. Monday marks the end of a year of celebration in honor of the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth. It also happens to be the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientific tests prove bones are those of the apostle St. Paul, pope says .\nVatican tomb also holds \"traces of a precious linen cloth\"\nTests were carried out by inserting probe into small opening in sarcophagus .","id":"da86316898f7cdb3435333b553a87c2e2c219189"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The U.S. Open has a reputation for testing the world's best golfers with the most demanding courses. The 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black featured punishing rough and heavy rain. The competition is designed to challenge, traditionally favoring courses that feature brutal rough and narrow fairways. This year's U.S. Open is no exception, taking place at Bethpage Black in Long Island, New York, widely regarded as one of the toughest courses in the game. The U.S. Open was first staged at Bethpage in 2002, when it became the first municipal course to host the competition and, at 7,214 yards, the longest course in the competition's history. Those who played at Bethpage 2002 still have the scars to prove it. Heavy rain and swirling wind turned the event into an endurance contest. It was survival of the fittest, with Tiger Woods the only competitor to finish under par, ending the tournament three under. Those brave enough to return to Bethpage on Thursday will find there have been a few changes. For starters, the course has been lengthened by 200 yards, which will make the grueling course even more exhausting. More welcome will be the introduction of \"graduated\" primary rough. That means there will be a strip of intermediate rough next to the fairway, and beyond that there a strip of primary rough approximately two-and-a-half to three inches deep, followed by a second cut of rough, which will be about four to six inches deep and stretch to the gallery rope lines. The idea is to penalize narrow misses less severely than big misses: a player who hits his shot slightly off target will land in the shorter cut of rough, an easier shot than the longer second cut. See our choice of 10 golfers to watch at the U.S. Open. \u00bb . Mike Davis, senior director of rules and competitions for the United States Golf Association, has said the course will be structurally very similar to 2002, but there will be more \"risk and reward\" opportunities. That means there are more holes where golfers can choose to gamble from the tee. A well-executed drive will save strokes and a misplaced drive could cost them dear. The sheer length of the course is likely to favor the game's big hitters. That includes the likes of Tiger Woods, the golfer who most successfully tamed Bethpage in 2002. Woods also showed his big-course credentials by winning last year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which topped Bethpage with its 7,643-yard course. The distance the golfers have to cover will probably favor those in good physical condition. But the size of Bethpage is not the only thing that will decide the contest. Graduated or not, the rough will be a real problem, making accurate driving a necessity. Phil Mickelson will go into the tournament as one of the favorites, but he will need to be precise from the tee, not one of his strong points. Patience will be a virtue. The fact that it is such a tough course means competitors will have to accept that they will not be able to get under par on many of the holes. On the other hand those new \"risk and reward\" holes will give gamblers the opportunity to throw caution to the wind if they are falling off the pace. The golfers and spectators will no doubt be hoping for better weather than in 2002, but even in glorious sunshine, it will still be the kind of tournament that separates the men from the boys. U.S. golfer John Daly failed to qualify for the U.S. Open last week, but he was full of praise for the course, saying \"I love Bethpage. It's the ultimate major course. It's fair. It's so hard they really can't make it any harder.\"","highlights":"The U.S. Open is known for testing golfers with the most demanding courses .\nThis year's U.S. Open will be take place at Bethpage Black in New York State .\nBethpage Black is known for being a long course with punishing rough .","id":"3c215abfeef505fcc99875ac4ba1fe8dd5972f5d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A distraught, sobbing Afghan Taliban member begged the court for mercy, but got none as an unmoved federal judge here Monday handed down maximum life sentences for convictions on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. A guard watches over a pile of burning drugs in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 25, 2008. Khan Mohammed, 38, of Nangarhar Province became the first person convicted and sentenced in the United States under a 2006 law that increased the penalty for a defendant found to be involved with terrorism and distributing illegal drugs. Mohammed, who had been extradited from Afghanistan, was convicted by a jury in May of plotting a rocket attack on U.S. military forces and Afghan civilians at Jalalabad Airfield. He also was found guilty of distributing between $1 million and $3 million worth of heroin into the United States \"to kill Americans as part of a jihad.\" Mohammed's court-appointed lawyer, conceding that \"what he did was wrong,\" urged U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to be lenient and sentence his client to only 20 years in prison. Then the full-bearded Mohammed, dressed in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit, addressed the judge. With tears streaming down his face, and choking back his words, he begged for only one or two years. \"I have little children and a woman. They depend on me,\" Mohammed began. \"I'm so worried about them.\" His lengthy emotional appeal went on to include his reason for selling opium. \"In my village that's how you have to make a living. There is no house there without opium,\" he said. Justice Department prosecutor Matthew Stiglitz, however, urged the court to \"send a message of deterrence,\" and warned against \"the confluence of drug trafficking and terrorism.\" \"No, he's not the Osama bin Laden of terrorism. No, he's not the Pablo Escobar of the drug world,\" Stiglitz told the judge. \"But this is where the rubber meets the road.\" Bin Laden is the head of al Qaeda, while Escobar, who died in 1993, was the most powerful of Colombian drug lords. \"Afghanistan is ground zero for opium, and an almost limitless source of funds to the Taliban,\" he argued. Kollar-Kotelly agreed fully with the prosecutors, and strongly admonished the Taliban defendant. \"You were convicted 99 percent by your own words,\" the judge declared, as she recalled how a \"courageous\" Afghan police chief wore an undercover wire to record Mohammed's plotting. \"The fact that no one died is only because you didn't get the missiles you wanted,\" she said. \"In 2006, you celebrated the Americans' use of the opium. It was a jihad. You knew the damage it could cause,\" the judge continued. \"Because of your undiluted hatred for the United States, you might well have launched other attacks had you not been arrested.\" She added, \"Terrorists stand unique among criminals. Deterrence is very important here.\" Then, concluding dramatically, the judge turned directly to the defendant. \"I heard your concerns for your family but no acceptance of responsibility for your action,\" the judge said. \"Defendants often express worry for their families, but if they considered the consequences of their actions beforehand, maybe they would have acted differently.\"","highlights":"Khan Mohammed convicted of plotting rocket attack, selling heroin .\nMohammed the first convicted under law increasing penalties for \"narco-terrorists\"\nCiting his family, Mohammed cries and pleads with judge to have mercy .\nJudge says Mohammed had \"undiluted hatred for the United States\"","id":"589d86e3c38ce73de86525181be2b9fc95bbddab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The space shuttle Atlantis crew completed its first spacewalk to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, a daylong act of grueling labor that featured the replacement and installation of key instruments. Spacewalkers remove a camera from the Hubble on Thursday. Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel removed the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and swapped it out with an updated model, a device that \"will allow the telescope to take large-scale, clear and detailed photos over a wide range of colors,\" NASA said. But they had a tough time removing a bolt in that task, an issue that caused some concern for colleagues on the ground. They eventually released it. \"OK, here we go. I think I got it. It turned. It turned. And it's turning easily now,\" Feustel said. \"Very nice.\" In all, the repair mission took seven hours and 20 minutes, a hard day's work that ended at 4:12 p.m. EDT. \"It turned out very well,\" lead flight director Tony Ceccacci said during a NASA briefing. The team also replaced a Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit, a computer that \"sends commands to Hubble's science instruments and formats science data for transmission to the ground,\" NASA said. The team \"installed a soft capture mechanism, a device that will allow future vehicles to attach to the telescope,\" NASA said. And they installed \"a combination of locks and latches that will allow for faster opening and closing of the telescope doors during the third spacewalk.\" \"This is a huge accomplishment,\" Preston Burch, Hubble Space Telescope program manager, said during a briefing. \"Our first EVA day in more than seven years.\" EVA is the acronym for \"extravehicular activity,\" the phrase for spacewalking. It was the first of five spacewalks scheduled during the 11-day mission in which the crew will work in the shuttle's cargo bay to upgrade and repair Hubble. Astronauts Michael Good and Mike Massimino will perform the next spacewalk on Friday. They will be installing gyroscopes and batteries. Learn more about the Hubble repairs \u00bb . The mission is one of the most ambitious space repair efforts ever attempted. Atlantis launched Monday afternoon for NASA's fifth and final repair visit to the telescope. Watch Atlantis lift off on Hubble mission \u00bb . After a two-day chase, the shuttle captured the telescope Wednesday with its robotic arm some 350 miles above Earth and pulled it into Atlantis' cargo bay for service. Watch Atlantis snag the Hubble \u00bb . It's been seven years since the last space shuttle crew worked on the telescope, which has been latched to a rotating, \"lazy Susan\"-type device for five days of repairs and remodeling. A camera mounted on the shuttle's robotic arm, 200 feet from the telescope, is taking pictures of it -- the first time the telescope has been seen since March 2002. An umbilical line was connected to provide electricity from Atlantis to the telescope, according to NASA. Mission commander Scott Altman also will position the shuttle to allow Hubble's solar arrays to gather energy from the sun and recharge the telescope's batteries. The timeline for the spacewalks is so tight, there's a chance the astronauts won't get everything done, especially if they hit any snags. And that's a real possibility because some of the repairs they are attempting have never been tried before. NASA canceled an Atlantis mission to extend Hubble's operational life in January 2004 because the trip was considered too risky in the wake of the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster, which killed seven astronauts. That accident was blamed on a hole punched in the front of the wing by debris during liftoff. But public pressure and steps taken to increase shuttle safety led the space agency to reconsider. Hubble's \"greatest discoveries,\" NASA says, include determining the age of the universe -- 13.7 billion years, discovering that \"virtually all major galaxies have black holes at their center,\" and \"providing evidence that the speed at which the universe is expanding is accelerating -- caused by an unknown force that makes up for more than 75 percent of the universe.\" CNN's John Zarrella and Kim Segal contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Astronauts complete 7-hour-plus spacewalk to repair Hubble telescope .\nNEW: Two-man team successfully replaced a Hubble camera and computer .\nAtlantis launched Monday on 11-day mission to orbiting Hubble observatory .\nFlight director deems \"dings\" on shuttle wing \"very minor\"","id":"0913ce02863fda50f62d18a17f5e9237374db8e1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Humza Ismail hasn't spent much time in Raleigh, North Carolina, since he started graduate school two years ago. But when he heard two former acquaintances were arrested on terrorism charges this week, he says, \"Honestly, I wasn't surprised.\" Omar Aly Hassan, left, and Ziyad Yaghi were clear on where they stood on terrorism, an acquaintance said. Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and five others are charged with conspiring to commit violent jihad overseas. An eighth suspect is still being sought, authorities have said. When he lived in Raleigh, Ismail worshipped at the same mosque as Hassan and Yaghi. When groups of young men talked there, Ismail says, the conversation often turned to religion and politics, and Hassan and Yaghi made it clear where they stood. \"When it came to something like suicide bombing, they would say, 'If it's a benefit for the Muslims then something like that can be permissible,' \" Ismail says. \"I could tell it was something they wanted to do.\" But, he adds, \"They never indicated or said 'we are going to make jihad overseas.'\" Ismail says the duo spoke in glowing terms about Osama bin Laden, calling him a scholar and a mujahedeen. \"You could tell they were being influenced by somebody,\" Ismail says. He does not know by whom. He feels they were susceptible to a message of violence \"because it sounded cool and exciting.\" Ismail says he strenuously disagreed with Yaghi and Hassan's views on terrorism even, he says, getting into a public shouting match with them at a restaurant. He says he told them, \"You can't do this, man. You can't say it is OK. \"That is corruption and terrorism and that is not permissible in Islam.\" Ismail says he and others raised concerns about Hassan and Yaghi to officials at the Islamic Center of Raleigh, but were \"overlooked.\" \"I did my part,\" Ismail says. Imran Aukhil, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Raleigh, told CNN on Thursday that he had no information about complaints concerning Hassan and Yaghi. On Saturday, however, he informed CNN that he had researched the matter and learned there was a complaint several years ago against an individual at the mosque. Aukhil said he did not have the name of that person. \"It was reported to the FBI,\" said Aukhil. \"The FBI did take note of it in their investigation.\" Efforts to reach attorneys representing Hassan and Yaghi were unsuccessful.","highlights":"NEW: Spokesman says complaint lodged against person at mosque a few years ago .\nHumza Ismail attended the same mosque as two of seven men arrested this week .\nIsmail: When it came to violence, \"I could tell it was something they wanted to do\"\nIsmail says the two spoke in glowing terms about Osama bin Laden .","id":"ebf746064c48ae3736aa30ac10113eb8dc0d9ef3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cell phone technology is helping developing nations prepare for disease threats such as a new strain of swine flu, an outbreak of measles or the increased spread of HIV. Workers in Kenya use EpiSurveyor for the first time nationwide during this year's children's health week. Kenya proved it in 2007, when the East African nation suffered its first case of the polio virus in more than 20 years, said Yusuf Ajack Ibrahim, a health care worker at the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. As thousands of Somalis fled to Kenya to avoid violence in their homeland, the exodus sparked a serious health crisis, Ibrahim said. \"One case of confirmed wild polio virus put at risk the lives of 100,000 children,\" he said. Kenyan health officials determined that they needed a way to quickly survey and assess the situation and initiate a massive immunization campaign. The solution was on the Internet, where they found a free, open-source application designed for personal digital assistants, called EpiSurveyor. Open-source software is posted online for anyone to use and alter to suit their needs. Downloading the software to cell phones enabled officials to gather data directly from the site of the outbreak and send it electronically back to headquarters for faster analysis. This cuts down on the time officials have to spend collecting paper surveys and analyzing them individually before they can begin treating people. \"The information gave us useful feedback not only on the affected area but on the neighboring ones as well and helped us put plans and measures in place to stop the spread of the virus,\" Ibrahim added. Physician and epidemiologist Dr. Joel Selanikio predicts that within a year, health officials will be using the technology to track other threats in developing nations, such as the recent Mexican swine flu outbreak. Selanikio invented EpiSurveyor in 2003, after he and American Red Cross technologist Rose Donna began searching for a more efficient way to gather data on immerging diseases. They started a nonprofit organization, DataDyne, aiming to use mobile devices to efficiently and immediately gather public health information. \"Collecting data on paper and then taking two years to enter the data is a tremendous drain and barrier to good public health,\" said Selanikio, who teaches pediatrics at Washington's Georgetown University Hospital. Mobile devices such as PDAs or handheld computers have been used for field studies since the late 1990s, but electronic survey methods have traditionally been expensive, labor-intensive and challenging to implement on a global scale. Many global health institutions are now encouraging the use of advanced methodologies such as smart phones and open-source software as the next generation of data transmission, said Dr. Ramesh Krishnamurthy, an informatics scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. EpiSurveyor frees health care workers from hiring programmers to create electronic surveys. Data gatherers can customize their questionnaires online, download the questionnaires onto a cell phone that has Internet capability, poll patients and do direct analysis, all through a touch pad on a cell phone. Ibrahim credits the technology with saving Zambians who were threatened by a frightening outbreak of measles in 2007. The government didn't know that vaccine supplies were low, he said. Using EpiSurveyor, health care workers discovered that 60 percent of their vaccine stockpiles in remote areas were missing. They mobilized a response within three weeks, he said. \"Imagine if we have an outbreak of measles and the information is relayed to us three months after the outbreak. By the time we respond, lives would have been lost, but if we can get the information in a day or half a day, we an mount a quick response,\" Ibrahim said. \"By being able to relay the information at an appropriate time, that -- in and of itself -- is life-saving,\" he added. Fans point out that EpiSurveyor's success hinges on ready access to technology already in place. \"There are 4 billion mobile phones in the world; 2.2 billion of those are in the developing world,\" said Claire Thwaites, who heads a partnership between the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, which funded EpiSurveyor. Sixty-four percent of all mobile phone users live in the developing world, according to a U.N. estimate. By 2012, the U.N. believes, half of all residents in remote areas of the world will have mobile phones. Compare mobile ubiquity to the 305 million PCs or 11 million hospital beds in the developing world, Thwaites said. The potential for mobile technology to help manage health care is huge, she said. With the help of the U.N.'s World Health Organization and government health officials in more than 20 African countries, more than 800 health care workers are now trained to use this cell phone software, revolutionizing the way health care data can be collected, monitored and assessed.","highlights":"Disease-control software in cell phones is touted as boon to global public health .\nMore than half of world's cell phones are in developing countries .\nHealth workers in Kenya stopped spread of polio in '07 using EpiSurveyor .\nKenyan health care worker: Relaying information at appropriate time is life-saving .","id":"9ffde29925aba8535739bfdc05dbb510531332e7"} -{"article":"WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- Kansas prosecutors have brought murder and assault charges against the man suspected of killing Wichita physician George Tiller, whose women's clinic was a frequent target of protests against abortion. Scott Roeder, 51, is being held on a first-degree murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault. Scott Roeder, 51, is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from Tiller's shooting death Sunday morning, Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess said. Burgess set a preliminary hearing in the case for June 16. Police have not disclosed a possible motive in Tiller's killing, but associates said Roeder was a regular among the anti-abortion protesters who routinely gathered at his Wichita clinic, Women's Health Care Services. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions, and he had survived one attempt on his life before being gunned down in his church Sunday morning. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty \"under the facts and circumstances that are known at this time,\" District Attorney Nola Foulston said. Watch the district attorney explain the charges \u00bb . Kansas state law allows the death penalty only in certain circumstances, such as multiple killings, contract killings, the deaths of police officers or jailers, or a slaying that takes place during a sexual assault. Roeder was in the county jail during his brief initial court appearance and appeared in court via video. He requested a court-appointed lawyer during the hearing, during which he was dressed in maroon jail coveralls and appeared to fidget. Watch scenes from court Tuesday \u00bb . Burgess ordered Roeder to have no contact with witnesses or Tiller's family. Since Tiller's death, supporters have left a few bouquets of flowers outside his clinic. The architecture of the low-slung, windowless concrete building -- which is fenced off, monitored by cameras and separated from buildings behind it by a moat-like ditch -- reflected the threats he faced for nearly two decades. In a statement issued Tuesday, Tiller's family said they hope his \"valuable work\" will go on, \"but there have been no final decisions made about the long-term plans for the medical practice.\" \"There is currently no plan to immediately reopen the clinic and no patients are being scheduled at this time. The Tiller family's focus, of course, is to determine what is in the best interests of the employees and the patients,\" the statement read. Dr. Leroy Carhart, a Nebraska physician who also practices at Tiller's clinic, said at his suburban Omaha office that he left a Monday meeting in Wichita with the belief that the practice would reopen \"in the very near future.\" But he said, \"At the present time, there's no known future.\" Carhart was the plaintiff who challenged a federal ban on a type of late-term procedure that opponents labeled \"partial-birth\" abortion. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2006. Tiller practiced medicine for nearly 40 years. Most of his patients were grappling with pregnancies that were \"fatally or catastrophically complicated by medical problems,\" Dr. Warren Hern, a Colorado physician and a friend, said on CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360.\" \"The many women who come for late abortions, in fact, have desperate circumstances with a desired pregnancy,\" he said. \"They want to have a baby, not an abortion.\" But Tiller's practice made Wichita a flashpoint in the controversy over abortion, which opponents routinely decry as the killing of unborn children. Most anti-abortion leaders quickly condemned Tiller's killing and disavowed Roeder. The National Right to Life Committee, the largest anti-abortion organization in the United States, said it \"unequivocally condemns\" violence. And Wichita-based Operation Rescue said Roeder never was \"a member, contributor, or volunteer.\" \"Operation Rescue has diligently and successfully worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see to it that abortionists around the nation are brought to justice. Without due process, there can be no justice,\" it said. But Hern called those disavowals \"hypocritical nonsense.\" \"This is the result of 35 years of anti-abortion harassment and terrorism and hate speech and rhetoric and harsh names and exploitation of the abortion issue as a political issue to get power,\" said Hern, who runs an abortion clinic in Boulder, outside Denver. \"And this is the inevitable result of this kind of hateful behavior by the anti-abortion movement.\" Carhart blasted abortion opponents who resort to violence \"and those who support and incite these violent acts.\" He declined to name names but urged the estimated 46 million women who have received abortions and their supporters to demand that government officials \"enforce the laws on the books that protect us from hate crimes.\" \"And if these officials don't openly respect your right to choose abortion, you have the power to vote them out of office,\" he said. CNN's Ed Lavandera, Gary Tuchman and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Physician says future of slain doctor's clinic is unknown .\nScott Roeder, 51, charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault .\nHe is accused of killing Wichita doctor George Tiller on Sunday .\nPreliminary hearing is set for June 16 .","id":"db4949d06f2446641b335ce78adbd5ffbc5fe37a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Wednesday signed a measure awarding the 300 surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots from World War II the Congressional Gold Medal. Jane Tedeschi when she was in the Women Airforce Service Pilots program. The WASPs were formed in 1942. The bill passed by both chambers of Congress bestows one of the nation's highest civilian honors on the group known as WASPs more than 60 years after they were the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft. \"The Women Airforce Service Pilots courageously answered their country's call in a time of need while blazing a trail for the brave women who have given and continue to give so much in service to this nation since,\" Obama said in a statement. \"Every American should be grateful for their service, and I am honored to sign this bill to finally give them some of the hard-earned recognition they deserve.\" The Women Airforce Service Pilots was formed in 1942 to create a corps of female pilots able to fill all types of flying jobs at home, freeing male military pilots to travel to the war front. The 1,100 members had to pay their own way to Texas for months of rigorous training. Once assigned to military bases, they did everything from participating in ground-to-air anti-aircraft practice; to towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice with live ammunition; to flying drones; to conducting night exercises; to testing repaired aircraft before they were used in cadet training; to serving as instructors and transporting cargo and male pilots to embarkation points. Overall, they flew more than 60 million miles in every type of aircraft -- from the PT-17 and AT-6 trainers, to fast attack planes like the A-24 and A-25 and heavy bombers such as B-17 and B-29s. Paid $250 a month, the women were not officially part of the military -- receiving no benefits, no honors. Jane Tedeschi, who graduated in May 1944, was sent to a Selma, Alabama, base that did engineering work. \"We did whatever they asked us,\" she recalled in a CNN interview. \"You knew enough about flying you could adapt. ... Sometimes it was a little tougher.\" While the work was technically noncombat, it could be dangerous. Thirty-eight of the women pilots were killed. As the war was winding down in December 1944, the program was closed with no recognition from the government and not much help for the women who served. They went off to restart their prewar lives, but without getting any of the help received by male veterans. Several of the women, however, have said they were not bitter since the only reason they had signed up was to do their part for the country. They noted they were just like the thousands of other women who also learned new skills and went to work in the factories to replace male workers sent off to war. \"We were proud of what we did, and the war was over. It was time to get on,\" Tedeschi said. Watch Tedeschi recall WWII \u00bb . But many Americans were not aware of their efforts. The WASP records were sealed for more than 30 years. In 1977, Congress voted to make the WASPs eligible for veterans benefits.","highlights":"\"Women Airforce Service Pilots courageously answered country's call,\" Obama said .\nHonor comes 60 years after WASPs were first women to fly U.S. military aircraft .\nIn 1977, Congress voted to make the WASPs eligible for veterans benefits .","id":"79e55302e25d655021943f37cc32afc832b0f054"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A family friend of a U.S. soldier captured by the Taliban said his friends and family want Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl to \"stand tall, stand firm.\" Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl in a video made by his captors, members of the Taliban. \"Bowe, if you see this, know that we love you and we are praying fervently for you and prayers are going up for you from all over the world,\" Tim Baker told CNN affiliate KTVB-TV in the soldier's hometown of Ketchum, Idaho. \"To all of our valiant men and women, know that the American people believe in you, support you and are 100 percent behind you, and we thank God every day that you have our back.\" In a video released Sunday, apparently made by his captors, Bergdahl spoke of being \"scared I won't be able to go home.\" \"It breaks our heart,\" Baker said. \"It's like having one of our own kids in this situation.\" Watch friend's comments about Taliban captive \u00bb . The Bergdahl family is not speaking with media, but Baker said prayer is helping. \"Prayer means that we are extremely powerful because God is not limited by where we are when we pray. He is there with Bowe, and so we know that he is protecting him and is with him, so we don't feel powerless against these people,\" Baker said. \"We feel very empowered.\" Bergdahl, 23, was captured June 30 from Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense. The Taliban has threatened to kill Bergdahl if foreign troops continue targeting civilians in the name of search operations in Ghazni and Paktika provinces, Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said by telephone Friday after being contacted by CNN at an undisclosed location. NATO-led forces in Afghanistan and the U.S. military have repeatedly denied targeting civilians. U.S. forces in Afghanistan are doing everything possible to free Bergdahl, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference they were disgusted at the video that Bergdahl's captors released. \"My personal reaction was one of disgust at the exploitation of this young soldier,\" Gates said. In the 28-minute video, Bergdahl becomes emotional when he speaks of his family -- his parents, siblings, nieces and nephew -- and the girlfriend he hopes to marry. \"I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America, and I miss them every day that I'm gone,\" he says. \"I miss them, and I'm afraid I might never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them I love them again. I'll never be able to hug them. \"I'm scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner,\" he said. However, his captors are treating him \"like a guest,\" he said. Asked by his captors if he had any message for Americans, the soldier said, \"To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home. Please, please bring us home so we can be back where we belong and not over here.\" It was not clear whether some or all of Bergdahl's remarks were scripted by his captors. Watch excerpt from the video \u00bb . The last few minutes of the video show him eating a meal. The Bergdahl family expressed how they are feeling to Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling. \"We've been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and concern towards Bowe and our family. As you know, the situation is extremely difficult for everyone involved. We'd like to remind all of you our sole focus is seeing our beloved son Bowe safely home. \"Please continue to keep Bowe in your thoughts and prayers, and we ask for your continued acceptance of our need for privacy in this difficult situation. Thank you.\" A reporter asked Femling if the military has restricted anything he has said and he answered that it has not. The Taliban earlier claimed responsibility for Bergdahl's kidnapping, the military said. Last week, the U.S. military distributed pamphlets in eastern Afghanistan in an effort to locate him. \"As you can see, the American soldier is in good shape and good health, and he is being treated well based on the guidelines of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan regarding war prisoners,\" said a statement on Islamist Web sites accompanying the video. \"Any decision regarding the American soldier will be the specialty of the high order of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, may God protect him.\" The U.S. military said it believed Bergdahl may have been moved to various locations. In the video, Bergdahl's captor makes reference to his being moved from Paktika to Khandahar, saying the move was accomplished \"very easily.\" The claim could not be independently verified. Asked the date by his captor, Bergdahl says it is July 14. Two versions of the pamphlets were distributed in Afghanistan, written in the Pashto language. They were made available to CNN by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. One shows the image of an American soldier shaking hands with a group of kids with the message, \"One of our American guests is missing. Return the guest to his home. Call us at\" -- and lists a phone number. The other shows a U.S. soldier kicking down a door, and then an outstretched hand with the superimposed image of a soldier, his head and arms drooping, and the words, \"If you do not release the U.S. soldier then ... you will be hunted.\" The goal of the pamphlets was to balance the effort to get Bergdahl back with how U.S. forces interact with the local population, Gates and Mullen said Monday. Mullen said the message of the second pamphlet was \"not threatening, but to express that we will do what we have to do to find this individual.\" Days after Bergdahl went missing, a senior U.S. military official said Bergdahl was captured by low-level militants and then quickly \"sold\" to the clan and network led by warlord Siraj Haqqani, who is believed to be deeply involved in the action. The Haqqani clan operates on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border and is well known to the U.S. military. Bergdahl apparently left his small outpost on his own on June 30 with no apparent means of defending himself, the official said. Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said he visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district in the Paktika province, got drunk and was ambushed while returning to his car. Sangeen said the soldier was taken to a safe place. CNN could not independently verify Sangeen's claims. A source with the U.S. military denied the claim that Bergdahl was drunk. \"The Taliban are known for lying and what they are claiming [is] not true,\" the source said. In the video, Bergdahl says he was captured as he was lagging behind a patrol. Bergdahl is not a National Guardsman, according to the Idaho National Guard statement, but the organization said it was coordinating with the Department of Defense to provide public affairs duties and other assistance to the Bergdahl family. The family has requested privacy, the statement said. On Monday, four U.S. troops with the International Security Assistance Force were killed in eastern Afghanistan, according to a senior U.S. official there. The deaths would raise the total of U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan to 30 in July, the highest monthly toll since the war began in October 2001. According to the security force, the four were killed in a roadside bombing. CNN's Barbara Starr and journalist Janullah Hashimzada contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. Defense Secretary Gates: U.S. forces doing everything to find Bergdahl .\nFriend to soldier: \"Know that we love you and we are praying\"\nSoldier from Idaho says he's frightened he won't be able to see family again .\nU.S. military: Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, was captured June 30 in Afghanistan .","id":"c7ed7ca41335c11b53e3919b64306031a3d3480c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Veteran actor Karl Malden, who won an Academy Award for his role in \"A Streetcar Named Desire,\" has died at age 97, his manager said Wednesday. Karl Malden in \"The Streets of San Francisco\" in 1974. Malden was nominated for four Emmys for the series. Malden died in his sleep about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, said his manager, Bud Ross. Malden appeared alongside Marlon Brando in two of director Elia Kazan's classic films of the 1950s -- \"A Streetcar Named Desire\" and \"On the Waterfront.\" He won the best supporting actor Oscar for \"Streetcar,\" which was released in 1951, in 1952 and was nominated for his role as a priest crusading against crooked union bosses in \"On the Waterfront.\" Ross said he did not know the cause of death. \"It could be a combination of things,\" Ross said. \"He was 97 years old.\" Born Mladen George Sekulovich in Gary, Indiana, the bulb-nosed actor made his New York stage debut in 1938 and first appeared in films in the 1940 melodrama \"They Knew What They Wanted.\" After serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II, he made his mark in the New York production of \"Streetcar,\" by Tennessee Williams. Watch Malden talk about why he got into acting \u00bb . Malden also did extensive work in television, starring with Michael Douglas in the police drama \"The Streets of San Francisco\" from 1972-77. He was nominated four times for Emmys for the show, and won a supporting-actor Emmy for his part in the miniseries adaptation of the true-crime bestseller \"Fatal Vision\" in 1985. His other well-known screen roles include his performances in \"Patton,\" in which he played World War II Gen. Omar Bradley alongside George C. Scott's title character; the steamy \"Baby Doll,\" another Elia Kazan-Tennessee Williams collaboration; and \"Gypsy.\" Malden was also famous for a series of television ads for the American Express card, in which he advised viewers, \"Don't leave home without it.\" Watch Malden talk why he took such diverse roles \u00bb . A memorial service is expected to be held within the next three to four weeks, Ross said. Malden was the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1992. The Academy is best known for its annual awards, the Oscars. Malden's \"Streetcar\" Oscar had its own mini-drama. In 1985, he sent it to the manufacturer in Chicago for replating. But he discovered the award sent back to him was a fake in 2006, when the original appeared for sale on eBay. The Academy sued the sellers, Randy and Matt Mariani, who eventually returned the award. In 2004, he received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. Malden was born on March 22, 1912, and grew up in Gary. He broke his nose twice playing football in high school, where his athleticism won him a scholarship to Arkansas State Teacher's College in Conway. After being forbidden by his basketball coach to appear in a school play, Malden left college and began playing semi-pro basketball. He later worked in the steel mills of Gary to save money for drama school. When his acting career began, Malden took his grandfather's first name and rearranged the spelling of his own first name to make his professional last name. He said he changed his name, \"to fit theater marquees.\" One of Malden's last acting roles was in 2000, according to IMDB.com. He played a priest in an episode of \"The West Wing.\"","highlights":"Malden won Oscar for role in \"A Streetcar Named Desire\"\nHe also starred with Marlon Brando in \"On the Waterfront\"\nOn TV, he co-starred with Michael Douglas in \"The Streets of San Francisco\"","id":"7b4859d26a7b56dea38a88a6500ed143d616bd54"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Given a cast of Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, and the guiding hand of director and writer Judd Apatow (\"Knocked Up\" and \"The 40-Year-Old Virgin\"), perhaps there is no more appropriate title than simply \"Funny People.\" Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow get together at the \"Funny People\" premiere in Hollywood. Which is saying something, since \"Funny People\" frequently treads into the darker realms of comedy. Sandler leads the cast as George Simmons, an A-list Hollywood comedian whose fame and fortune has brought him a beautiful mansion on the beach, lots of luck with the ladies and, as the audience soon discovers, a life of loneliness. Sandler is quick to point out that he and his character have little in common. \"I can't really say this guy is me; he's not living my life,\" says Sandler, who is married with two children. \"The movie star thing we have in common; we have a few mood swings in common. ... But the lifestyle and the attitude is not really me.\" George's biggest problem isn't his desolation, however. He's been diagnosed with a leukemia-like terminal disease, prompting him to get back to his roots and do more stand-up comedy. Along the way, he hires struggling comedian Ira Wright, played by Rogen, to pen jokes for him and act as his personal assistant. Despite hurling an occasional insult at Ira, George learns to trust his new, eager-to-please sidekick. The feeling isn't always mutual. Ira is forced to adapt to his boss' constant mood swings, erratic behavior as he deals with the fear of dying and deep regret at losing Laura (Leslie Mann), the only woman he ever loved. However, Ira does earn a steady paycheck -- and gets a taste of show business. Rogen, who says he wouldn't be in comedy if he never saw Sandler's movies while he was growing up, says \"Funny People\" paints an accurate picture of the ups and downs of comedians who are just starting out. \"It's an incredibly realistic representation,\" Rogen says. \"Those scenes where you're backstage at the comedy club and you're all sitting around pitching jokes to each other. It's exactly like that.\" Apatow, who performed stand-up comedy earlier in his career, says, \"It is an ode to stand-up. I've always been a crazy fan of stand-up comedians. Jonathan Winters ... Don Rickles, things like that.\" Apatow, who knows he's taking a risk with \"Funny People's\" mix of light and darkness, made a wisecrack about his hopes for the film at the Los Angeles premiere. \"Well, I think there's 10 movies that are going to be up for best picture this year, and we definitely are shooting for No. 16,\" he says. The cast also took some risks, performing stand-up in front of live audiences for the film -- and, occasionally, watching their jokes fall flat. Hill says he had never done stand-up before and calls the experience \"terrifying.\" \"It can be brutal out there,\" Rogen adds. Sandler, the most seasoned comedian by far, remembers his first days onstage and can relate. \"It's all about your last set,\" he recalls. \"If I did good Wednesday ... all day Thursday, I was in a good mood. \"Then Thursday night comes around and I go onstage and if I did bad, Friday was a miserable time for everyone.\"","highlights":"Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star in Judd Apatow's \"Funny People\"\nFilm presents \"realistic representation\" of comedians' lives, Rogen says .\nSandler plays lonely movie star; he says he's not much like character in real life .","id":"484a01852ae480a434e7457901d1c246048c8471"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Houston, Texas, had a record high temperature Wednesday as a heat wave continues to grip the nation's midsection, the National Weather Service said Thursday. A woman tries to beat Houston's record heat by lying on a bench in the shade. The city sweltered with a high temperature of 104 degrees Wednesday, a record high for June 24, forecasters said. The previous record high for the date was 99 degrees, set in 1980. The previous record high measured for the month of June in Houston was 103 degrees, set on June 30, 1980, and June 18, 1934. Heat indices, a combination of temperature and humidity, are breaking the 110-degree mark in many cities. Forecasters predicted a high near 100 for Houston on Thursday, but the temperature could rise into the triple digits in outlying areas, said CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. The weather service posted heat advisories for Houston; Dallas, Texas; and New Orleans, Louisiana, indicating that temperatures in those cities will feel like 100 to 105 degrees because of high humidity. In the Houston community of Bayland Park, the elderly were taking advantage of the air-conditioned Community Center. \"I don't like hot weather. I never have and never will,\" Teet Charloton told CNN affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston. \"But we have to have it. I go from the car to the house or come in here and go back the same way. I don't do much shopping, that's for sure.\" Betty Dante added, \"It is very hot outside. ... I think as you get older, you feel the heat more.\" In southwest Houston, Leticia Alvarado is profiting from the heat. The unemployed Houstonian has been running along the median on Hillcroft Street at Bellaire Boulevard for seven weeks. She is selling water for $1 a bottle. \"It's hot, too hot,\" she told the station. Other cities also were sweltering. New Iberia, Louisiana, had a temperature Wednesday of 102, which broke the record of 97 in 2005. An excessive heat warning was issued for St. Louis, Missouri, on Thursday through 7 p.m. CT Saturday. Forecasters predicted a high near 96. Cloud cover was expected to make temperatures there a little cooler Thursday, but the weather service warned, \"A hot and humid air mass remains over the area which will continue to control weather over the region through Saturday.\" Afternoon and early evening heat index readings of 100 to 110 were expected in the Missouri city every day through Saturday. Young children, the elderly and people with chronic sicknesses were advised to stay inside if possible. The heat wave that began last week was being fed by a high pressure system north of Texas . Air quality alerts were posted for several cities, indicating pollutants exceed accepted standards. A red alert was issued for Houston, the third most severe alert that indicates unhealthy air quality.","highlights":"NEW: Heat advisories for Houston, Dallas and New Orleans .\nHouston swelters at 104 degrees Wednesday .\nTemperature surpasses record high for that date set in 1980 .\nForecasters expect no end in sight to scorching weather in U.S. midsection .","id":"8e4454ac5e6cb980861ff3152da8438b58927d4e"} -{"article":"WASHAKIE COUNTY, Wyoming (CNN) -- In the predawn darkness the agents switch the federal plates on their vehicles to local Wyoming tags and check they have no other signs showing they are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Edward Eugene Harper is believed to have lived a nomadic lifestyle since fleeing Mississippi. They want to give the impression that they are fish and wildlife officers, certainly not what they really are -- an elite squad in search of one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives. Their target lives eight miles up a dirt road in the Big Horn mountains of Washakie County -- and he is also not what he seems. For the past few years Edward Eugene Harper has been tending a flock of sheep in the semi-wilderness of the region. But 15 years ago he failed to turn up for a court appearance in Mississippi on charges he had molested two girls, aged 3 and 8. He'd been on the lam ever since. Recently the FBI had received a tip on his whereabouts. Watch how FBI planned hunt for fugitive \u00bb . Snipers spent the night watching the truck with a camper top where Harper, 63, has been sleeping for the past few weeks. Michael Rankin, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI's Denver, Colorado, field office and leader of the operation to capture Harper, said he wanted to use a ruse to get close to Harper. \"We don't want to alert him or anybody who might be a supporter of his, and we want to get as close to him without somehow raising his antenna that we may be law enforcement and we may be wanting to take him into custody,\" Rankin said. \"It's an individual that has been a fugitive for almost 15 years, so he certainly doesn't want to go to jail or be put into the system after being on the lam for this length of time.\" The locals are used to seeing officers from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and it's one of their men who will make the first contact and perhaps lead Harper to think the accompanying agents are also wildlife officials. The sun is up now and it is dusty and hot. At the end of the dirt road the FBI has officers working the command and control element, a team of crisis negotiators and investigators who will confirm Harper's identity, and a tactical unit aiming to make the arrest. FBI sources say they are concerned about another \"Ruby Ridge incident.\" In August 1992, more than 400 members of federal and local law enforcement and the military converged on the Idaho hillside where a white separatist, Randy Weaver, lived in a cabin with his family. By the end of the operation, there had been a 12-day siege and a U.S. marshal, Weaver's wife and his 14-year-old son were dead. Ruby Ridge became a rallying cry for right-wing militias, and agents do not want this arrest mission spiraling out of control. Harper subscribes to \"sovereign citizen\" ideology and once claimed to be a member of the Montana Freemen, a group that rejected the authority of the U.S. government, the FBI said. In the end, the arrest of Harper is nothing like Ruby Ridge. He puts up no resistance, no shots are fired and there is no standoff. Harper, now with a heavy beard, shaggy hair and wearing a black patch on his left eye, sits calmly in a government SUV heading back into the system and a county jail in Casper, Wyoming, as authorities begin the process of extraditing him to Mississippi. He has requested a public defender. \"It feels very good that everybody's safe,\" Rankin said as the teams leave the wilderness to head back to base where they can strike a name off their most wanted list.","highlights":"Accused child-molester Edward Eugene Harper detained in Wyoming .\nFBI snipers, investigators headed into wilderness before dawn to catch him .\nHarper skipped court date in 1994 and had been on the lam since .","id":"d1a53c484234ebf52e186880a152ec13b296290b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Don't tell Brad Pitt who or how to love. Brad Pitt talks about \"soul mate\" Angelina Jolie, life, and fatherhood in Parade magazine. The actor and star of the new film \"Inglourious Basterds\" opened up to Parade magazine about his thoughts on love, marriage and fatherhood. During the candid interview, Pitt showed off a secret area in one of his homes which he said \"is a great place for sex\" and reflected on his early days in Hollywood, which included superstardom and some marijuana. \"I liked to smoke a bit of grass at the time, and I became very sheltered,\" Pitt told Parade. \"Then I got bored. I was turning into a damn doughnut, really.\" These days, Pitt said he's happy with his decision to become a parent with partner Angelina Jolie. The two have six children, all younger than 10: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and twins Vivienne Marcheline and Knox, the latter born last year. \"This family is full of life,\" Pitt said. \"There are laughs, aggravations, irritations, but at the end of the day, it's fun. When life is really good, it's messy.\" Pitt said his life is very different now that he is a dad. \"When I go down a path, I take it to the end,\" he said. \"Then I take another one. I took the path of not having kids, now it's time for family. Children are a dominant value in my life now, and they weren't before.\" He's found a \"soul mate\" in Jolie, Pitt said, but he insisted he meant what he has said in the past about not marrying her. \"When someone asked me why Angie and I don't get married, I replied, 'Maybe we'll get married when it's legal for everyone else,' \" he said. \"I stand by that, although I took a lot of flak for saying it, hate mail from religious groups. I believe everyone should have the same rights.\" Pitt told Parade he takes exception to anyone trying to dictate how someone should live and who they should love. \"Just the other night, I heard this TV reverend say that Angie and I were setting a bad example because we were living out of wedlock, and people should not be duped by us,\" Pitt told the magazine. \"It made me laugh. \"What damn right does anyone have to tell someone else how to live if they're not hurting anyone? How many times do you think real love comes to someone in a lifetime? If you're lucky, maybe two or three.\" People should be able to be happy, Pitt said, and that includes his children. \"Would it bother me if a child of mine turns out to be gay? No, not one bit,\" he said. \"Listen, I want my kids to live the lives they want to live. I want them to be fulfilled. I hope I teach my kids to be who they really are.\"","highlights":"Brad Pitt gave a candid interview to Parade magazine .\nSays he stands by not marrying Angelina Jolie until it's \"legal for everyone else\"\nActor says he loves being a father to six children .","id":"c9844131b82ffac8e6400911af21cc721843ad26"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The husband of a woman who authorities say was impaired by marijuana and alcohol when she caused a head-on collision that killed eight people, including herself, has rejected claims of substance abuse by his wife. Daniel Schuler, left, and his attorney, Dominic Barbara, speak at Thursday's news conference. \"I've never seen her drunk since the day I met her,\" Daniel Schuler, referring to his wife, Diane, said Thursday. \"I'm not angry at her. I'd marry her again tomorrow.\" Accompanied by his attorney, Schuler held a news conference to counter claims by authorities, who said Tuesday that Diane Schuler, 36, had a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent -- more than twice the legal limit for drivers -- and had marijuana in her system when she drove a minivan the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and ran head-on into an SUV. Three adults in the SUV were killed in the July 26 collision, as were Schuler and four children -- her daughter and three nieces -- who were in the minivan. A fifth child in the minivan, Schuler's son, survived. On Thursday, Dominic Barbara, Daniel Schuler's lawyer, cited a list of medical aliments inflicting Diane Schuler before the crash. She apparently had a tooth abscess for two months, diabetes at \"various levels\" and a mysterious lump on her leg that seemed to move, he said. Watch Daniel Schuler defend his wife \u00bb . \"I think she had a stroke,\" said Barbara, who admitted he had no evidence to support his claim. \"And I think from the stroke came all the other issues of what happened.\" The crash happened about 30 miles north of New York after Schuler and the children left a campground where her family had stayed. Barbara said nobody at the camp saw Diane Schuler with alcohol. He said investigators interviewed nine people who spoke with Diane Schuler before she embarked, and those people did not smell marijuana or alcohol on her breath. \"Actually, it was the opposite,\" Barbara said. \"She was happy. She was talking to people.\" Authorities said Tuesday that a broken vodka bottle was found in the minivan after the crash. Barbara said he couldn't explain the bottle, but he said, \"Something had to have happened.\" Daniel Schuler and his lawyer said they have yet to decide on whether they want another autopsy. Jay Schuler, Daniel Schuler's sister, said Thursday that Diane Schuler was reliable and loved children. \"There's no way she'd do this,\" Jay Schuler said. \"She was responsible.\" The statements by Schuler and his attorney differed from the toxicology report released Tuesday by the Westchester County District Attorney's Office. Besides the 0.19 percent blood alcohol level and marijuana, tests showed Diane Schuler had 6 grams of alcohol in her stomach that had yet to be metabolized, according to Maj. William Carey of the New York State Police. Meanwhile, an attorney representing families of two SUV occupants who died in the wreck said a lawsuit is likely. \"If I could prognosticate, it appears that there will be a civil suit,\" said Marshall Nemark, an attorney representing the families of Michael Bastardi and his son, Guy Bastardi, who were killed in the crash along with a friend.","highlights":"Diane Schuler's husband says she didn't abuse alcohol, drugs .\nAuthorities: Schuler was intoxicated when she caused fatal crash in New York .\nWreck killed eight people, including Schuler, her daughter and three nieces .\nAttorney: No one saw Schuler with alcohol before she began drive .","id":"75c3cdc8fe394a489e5483d93e6fdc19d87e7751"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Taliban militants, who implemented Islamic law in Pakistan's violence-plagued Swat Valley last week, have now taken control of a neighboring district. Protests in Karachi against the creation of sharia courts in Swat Valley. Here are some answers about the Swat Valley, its history and what's taking place there. What is Swat Valley? Swat Valley is located in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, near the border with Afghanistan and about 185 miles (300 kilometers) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The alpine region once was one of Pakistan's premier tourist destinations, boasting the nation's only ski resort until it was shut down after Taliban militants overran the area. It also was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts and those wishing to visit the ancient Buddhist ruins in the area. What's happening in Swat Valley? In recent years Taliban militants unleashed a wave of violence that claimed hundreds of lives in the province. The militants wanted sharia law -- or Islamic law -- imposed in the region. They took over the valley in 2008. The central government of Pakistan, which long exerted little control in the area, launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out the militants. In retaliation, the Taliban carried out a series of deadly attacks and began gaining ground, setting up checkpoints in the area. Has the government intervened? The militants and the Pakistani government reached a peace deal earlier this year, which was recently signed into law by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Under the deal, sharia law was imposed in the region. While the peace deal drew criticism for the Pakistani government, some analysts and political observers say the government had little choice but to capitulate, as militants have terrorized the region with beheadings, kidnappings and the destruction of schools. What's happening now? This week, the Taliban moved to seize control of the neighboring Buner district, bringing it closer to Islamabad than it has been since Taliban insurgency began. What is sharia law? Sharia law is Islamic law. While there are different interpretations of it, the Taliban's strict interpretation forbids women from being seen in public without their husbands and fathers, requires veils for women and beards for men, and bans music and television. Consequences are severe; during the Taliban struggle to impose sharia law, anyone found disobeying was pinned to the ground and lashed. Others were beheaded and hung from poles, with notices attached to their bodies that anyone daring to remove the corpse before 48 hours had passed would also be beheaded and hanged.","highlights":"Taliban militants in Pakistan's Swat Valley take control of neighboring Buner district .\nSwat Valley was once one of Pakistan's top tourist attractions .\nMilitants are now closer to Islamabad than any point since start of insurgency .","id":"bfef9b514b6b413a7502fb2e796a75fe51923961"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The father of a Florida girl who has been missing for nearly six months was charged Thursday with burglary with assault, police told CNN. Ronald Cummings was arrested on felony charges of burglary with assault, officials said. Ronald Cummings is being held on $12,500 bond for the felony charges, the Florida Putnam County Sheriff's Office said. There were no other details on his arrest available. Cummings' daughter, Haleigh Cummings, went missing from his home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9. Cummings has made several public pleas for information about his daughter's disappearance, even begging whoever might be holding her to just return her home. Police have said they think Haleigh was abducted but have provided few details. In March, Cummings married his then-girlfriend Misty Croslin, who was the last person known to have seen the 5-year-old child alive, saying it was what Haleigh would have wanted. Croslin, 17, said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. the night Haleigh disappeared. Croslin said she went to sleep herself at about 10 p.m. but awoke at 3 a.m. to find Haleigh missing and a back door propped open by bricks. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. CNN's Maria White and John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ronald Cummings is being held on $12,500 bond .\nHe was charged Thursday with burglary with assault .\nDaughter Haleigh Cummings went missing from his home on February 9 .","id":"65b14f70d9afddfa4040ebcfc10576e35a4815fb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. troops routinely face the threat of roadside bombs while fighting insurgencies in Afghanistan. They need the most protective clothing the market can bear, and they're getting it -- for now. North Carolina State University College of Textiles tests the flammability of different materials at this facility. Back home, a battle is brewing in Congress over the next lucrative contract for military uniforms. The issue boils down to the raw fiber used in their construction. Current uniforms are made in the United States, in Georgia, using a fabric called Defender M made by the TenCate company. It is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties. But the fabric is made with a type of rayon imported from Austria, which normally would violate the military's buy-American requirement. This specific rayon cannot be produced in the United States for environmental reasons, so Congress passed an amendment allowing it to be temporarily imported. The extension expires, or \"sunsets,\" in 2013, but that year's defense budget is being determined now. The idea of the sunset is to give U.S. manufacturers time to come up with a comparable product. At stake: a defense contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. American competitors have submitted alternatives, but after independent testing at North Carolina State University College of Textiles, the Defense Department concluded that TenCate's Defender M -- with its foreign-made fibers -- is the most flame-resistant. Dr. Roger Barker, who specializes in clothing flammability at the College of Textiles, conducted a demonstration for CNN. Based on his testing, the Army says Defender M resists fire the longest of other fabrics. \"What the new heat-resistant materials are able to do is add seconds of protection, so that seconds of protection can be the difference between a severe burn or a survival burn,\" Barker said. \"Life and death,\" echoes Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, regarding those extra seconds of fire protection. He asked the Senate to extend the waiver. \"So long as it's the best available in the world to protect our soldiers, we absolutely ought to maximize the use,\" Isakson told CNN. \"There is no American competitor that can meet or exceed it,\" Isakson said on the Senate floor. \"Obviously if there were, then that waiver would go away.\" The U.S. Army's uniform procurer says soldiers prefer TenCate's product. \"They have consistently exceeded our expectations. This has proven to be a valuable fabric and well-received by our soldiers,\" Jeff Myhre told CNN. In a letter to CNN, a top military official said the ability to procure the foreign rayon \"a valuable authority.\" \"Our periodic review of rayon requirements within the Military Services and testing of alternative items that are available domestically continue to support the determination that satisfactory quality and sufficient quantity of rayon yarn conforming to the domestic source requirements cannot be procured as needed,\" wrote Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology & logistics. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, opposed Isakson's amendment, debating on the Senate floor that it \"permanently extends this waiver and will end all efforts to produce a domestic material to make military uniforms.\" Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, agrees with Graham that U.S. companies won't have an incentive to invest in research and development. He says the exception was supposed to be temporary, and \"favors foreign suppliers of rayon over our own American companies.\" He argued on the Senate floor that in due time, U.S. companies would be able to demonstrate an ability to manufacture materials that meet Army requirements. He's also worried about jobs. \"Some companies, like DuPont, for example, have already lost hundreds of jobs owing to their inability to compete for Army contracts,\" he said. The Senate voted, and the nays had it. No extension, no more imports of this fabric as of 2013. What next? The House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill when members return from the August recess. Isakson is confident his argument will prevail. \"Facts are stubborn things. I think when the facts get out they'll understand it's the right thing to do. Our armed forces want it and it's the best thing for our soldiers,\" he said. Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"Uniforms made in Georgia by TenCate company, using a fabric called Defender M .\nIt is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties .\nFabric uses rayon from Austria, which normally violates buy-American requirement .\nAmendment at issue would continue to allow special rayon to be imported .","id":"9ef5de790ef14c8855a0feaa99c544984e79015a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich have confirmed Mark van Bommel as their captain for the new season, with Philipp Lahm named as vice-captain. Bayern Munich captain Van Bommel will be hoping to lift more trophies for the Bavarian giants this season. The Dutch midfielder was given the captain's armband by Jurgen Klinsmann last season after Oliver Kahn retired. However, the arrival of Anatoliy Tymoschuk from Zenit St Petersburg seemed to suggest that Van Bommel's place in the Bayern team was no longer guaranteed, but new coach Louis Van Gaal has decided that his compatriot will indeed be one of the first names on his team sheet next season. \"We have been observing his behavior on and off the field over the last four weeks and the influence he has on the club and on the squad,\" explained Van Gaal's assistant Andries Jonker on Bayern's official Web site. Tymoschuk must now fear for his place in the Bayern team after being told he is only second-choice behind Van Bommel. And, since Van Gaal has made it clear that he wanted to choose a captain who will play every week, Tymoschuk may have to spend much of his first season in Bavaria sitting on the substitutes' bench. \"He cannot play in his best position in our system,\" admitted Van Gaal. \"That is where Van Bommel plays. He could play on the right, but I have chosen Hamit Altintop for there. Every player is compared to his rivals and the coach makes the decisions.\" Meanwhile, Bayern's French midfielder Franck Ribery has been declared fit to resume training after a summer spent battling tendonitis in his knee. Ribery missed the pre-season Audi Cup tournament involving Manchester United, AC Milan and Boca Juniors and is not likely to make Saturday's opening Bundesliga home match against Hoffenheim. But the France international, who was Monday called into his country's squad for the World Cup qualifier with the Faroe Isles in Torshavn on August 12, will be ready to train on Wednesday, .","highlights":"Bayern Munich confirm Mark van Bommel as their captain for the new season .\nThe Dutchman was given armband by Jurgen Klinsmann after Oliver Kahn quit .\nFranck Ribery declared fit to stary training after battling tendonitis in his knee .","id":"d06768501f196b43d8c1a96e94b5c67ae9592744"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Illinois will become the 17th state on Thursday to ban texting while driving, a safety worry that has caught the attention of the federal government. Texting poses a greater risk than talking or dialing while driving, a study says. Gov. Pat Quinn will sign an amendment to the Illinois Vehicle Code that prohibits writing, sending or receiving text messages while driving, said the governor's spokeswoman, Marlena Jentz. The bill does make texting exceptions for drivers who pull over to text or shift their car into park or neutral to message while stopped in traffic. Illinois will join a growing list of states looking to curb accidents linked to texting. Oregon and New Hampshire banned texting drivers in July, and Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia already have laws in place. Four U.S. senators announced their plan to push for a federal ban on July 29. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the Obama administration will convene a summit to discuss how it can end accidents caused by distracted drivers. Despite the ongoing efforts to address the dangers of texting while driving, studies have not shown whether the laws affect accident rates, said Jonathan Adkins, communications director at the Governor's Highway Safety Association. The nonprofit association comprised of appointees from each state's governor's office has closely followed the texting while driving saga. But Adkins said that because of several factors that potentially play a role in an accident, to know whether texting caused an accident would require a subpoena or an admission by the driver. In New York and New Jersey, the impact has been measured by an increase in driving tickets, but too few states track that data, Adkins said. \"With drunk driving it was important to pass tough laws, but the laws won't really have any effect unless they're enforced and the public knows about it and it's properly adjudicated,\" said Barbara Harsha the association executive director. \"So passing a law isn't the solution, it's only part of it.\" Studies have shown that those who text while driving have an exponentially greater risk of an accident or near accident. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found that truck drivers who texted while driving were 23 times more likely to crash or nearly get into wrecks than undistracted drivers. Compared with dialing, talking, listening or reaching for an electronic device, texting posed the greatest accident risk, the study found -- most likely due to the almost five seconds researchers found the drivers' eyes were off the roadway while texting, said Rich Hanowski, the director of the Center for Truck and Bus Safety at the transportation institute. The focus on texting while driving comes after a some high-profile accidents. In September, a California commuter train engineer missed a stop signal while trading text messages with a friend, leading to a collision with a freight train that killed 25 people, according to federal investigators. A mass-transit accident in Boston, Massachusetts, injured 62 people in May. The operator of a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trolley was later charged with gross negligence after he admitted he had been texting seconds before the collision with another trolley, according to the Suffolk County district attorney and a National Transportation Safety Board official.","highlights":"16 other states, District of Columbia ban texting while driving .\nStudies say texting while driving increases risk of an accident or near accident .\nIt is difficult to measure success of no-texting laws, experts say .\nSenators say they want federal ban on texting while driving .","id":"2353c6ef156821038df30be13895ccd9f1fd349e"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- An undersea cable plugging east Africa into high speed Internet access went live Thursday, providing an alternative to expensive satellite connections. The cable links southern Africa to Europe and Asia. SEACOM, the cable provider company, opened its 17,000 kilometer submarine cable, capable of 1.28 terabytes per second, allowing the region true connectivity. Most Africans rely on expensive and slow satellite connections, which make the use of applications such as YouTube and Facebook extremely trying. \"This is going to reduce the cost of doing business in Africa, within Africa and with international parties\" said Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM spokesman in South Africa. \"The cable is as thin as a hair strand, and in one second it can download the same amount of data that 160 people use in a month.\" SEACOM, privately funded and 75 percent African owned, will provide retail carriers with open source access to inexpensive bandwidth. It has taken less than three years to complete the mammoth project, providing landing stations at South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar and other points along the east coast of Africa. But telecoms analyst James Hodge said that some of the more ambitious hopes for the system -- such as impacting the continent's socioeconomic problems -- will be long-term, and that initially it will be those already connected who will see the benefits. The launch was delayed by a month because of increased activity by pirates along parts of the African coast. Security teams were beefed up to protect the slow moving cable layers. Neotel, a South African communications network operator, is the largest SEACOM customer in South Africa and is the country's landing partner, providing both the coastal landing station and Johannesburg data center for the submarine cable. Neotel managing director Ajay Pandey is excited about the opportunities for growth presented by the SEACOM cable. \"With this cable coming in, the pipe size opens up, so more and more people are able to get faster and better connectivity, hopefully at a lower price. It can't be more expensive than what it is today.\" SEACOM Chief Executive Officer Brian Herlihy added: \"Turning the switch 'on' creates a huge anticipation, but ultimately, SEACOM will be judged on the changes that take place on the continent over the coming years.\" South Africa has been hobbled by high costs and extremely slow bandwidth, effectively keeping the country on an information back road rather then the superhighway. There is much anticipation and hope that the cable will ensure Africa keeps up with the developed world in Internet connectivity, providing greater speed, flexibility and, potentially, a complete socioeconomic transformation. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said in his opening address: \"It's the ultimate embodiment of modernity.\" His speech was beamed via SEACOM from a launch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to the simultaneous launch in Johannesburg, South Africa.","highlights":"Undersea SEACOM cable links southern and east Africa to Europe, Asia .\nSystem provides cheaper alternative to satellite connections .\n17,000 km cable capable of 1.28 terabytes per second .\nSEACOM spokesman: This is going to reduce the cost of doing business .","id":"b3e6214ead749864886d613b20c6e78033f9aab0"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Jeremy Piven is the kind of guy who can make you laugh just by lifting an eyebrow. Jeremy Piven stars as a used car salesman in \"The Goods.\" He says \"Entourage\" would make a great film. Of course, the popular actor can do much more than that to captivate audiences. From drama to comedy, Piven has starred in more than 40 films on the big screen and has won critical acclaim for his role as super agent Ari Gold on HBO's \"Entourage.\" (HBO, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.) Piven stopped by the CNN.com newsroom to talk with CNN's Nicole Lapin about his new film, \"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,\" in which he plays a used car salesman. The following is an edited version of the interview: . CNN: [The movie] was hysterical, and my producer and I were sitting next to each other and we were trying to figure out -- is this like lowbrow, but it's smart, so it's medium-brow? Highbrow comedy? Jeremy Piven: It's a hybrid-brow, or a unibrow. It's from the people who brought you \"Talladega Nights\" and \"Step Brothers\" and \"Anchorman,\" so from the kings of guys who make really smart, low-brow comedies, and I'm just insanely honored to be a part of it. It's like a dream because my fear was that by the time Will [Ferrell] hit the screen that, worst-case scenario, the movie wouldn't be funny enough. So that when Will jumps out of the plane, he takes us to a whole other level -- it's like, \"Oh my God, Will Ferrell is so brilliant.\" But the reality is, the movie was so funny up until that moment that it was really, it was kind of organic, and it sustained it and it was really fantastic. Watch why part of Piven's interview had to be bleeped out \u00bb . James Brolin would go home to his wife, Barbra Streisand, at night, and I would say, \"James, is she OK with all this?\" Because he has one of the most twisted roles you've ever seen, as you know -- and I don't want to give it away. He was like, \"Well, the wife is on the fence about this whole thing,\" and she came to a screening and I swear to God, Babs laughed the loudest. CNN: I think that's a tease in itself. That would probably get people to see it. Piven: Yes, I think you're right. The movie is OK'd by Barbra Streisand; she vetted the whole thing. If you would have told me, I would be doing a lead in a movie, and Will Ferrell would have a smaller role in it, I never would have believed you, but I'm here to tell you anything is possible. CNN: Anything is possible, even in some 40 some movies in your career, but this is the first lead in a while, I mean did it take you a while to get into the used car salesman character? Piven: There's a great documentary called \"Slasher\" about car salesmen that I took a look at, and I went to a bunch of lots, and I've also been sold a lot of cars, and I'm what's known as a sucker. As soon as they see me coming in, they know they're going to take my money. So I kind of took that, and I reversed it and I'm no longer a sucker. CNN: Are you going to stick with \"Entourage\"? Piven: Well, I think \"Entourage\" ... this season is the sixth season, and it's I think the most interesting of all of them, and I kind of have the best arc this year. The backstage life of Hollywood is such fertile stuff for our show that I think we could continue on for as long as it stays fresh. CNN: What about a movie? Piven: I think a movie would be really, really fun of \"Entourage.\" I'd love to open it up. I have a bunch of ideas, all that will be turned down, but I have some great ideas.","highlights":"Jeremy Piven plays a used car salesman in movie \"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard\"\nPiven says he went to a lot of used car lots to research his role .\nHBO series \"Entourage\" will continue on for as long as it stays fresh, Piven says .\n\"I have some great ideas\" for an \"Entourage\" movie, actor says .","id":"55a73732ee579bfe39a20ad66d190c4bf6ebfe9c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton landed in North Korea early Tuesday on a mission to negotiate the release of two American journalists imprisoned there since March, according to the country's state news agency and a CNN source. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is shown at an environmental summit in Seoul, South Korea, in May. The North Korean news agency KCNA did not disclose the purpose of the visit in its three-line dispatch. But a source with detailed knowledge of the former president's movements told CNN late Monday that Clinton was going to seek the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, both reporters for California-based Current TV -- media venture launched by Clinton's former vice president, Al Gore. Meeting Clinton were the vice president of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, Yang Hyong Sop, and Kim Kye Gwan, the vice foreign minister, KCNA reported, adding that \"a little girl presented a bouquet to Bill Clinton.\" The women were arrested while reporting on the border between North Korea and China and sentenced in June to 12 years in prison on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign. Since the United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, efforts to resolve the issue so far have been handled through Sweden, which represents U.S. interests in the reclusive communist state. Watch what may lie behind the pick of Bill Clinton \u00bb . Last month, Clinton's wife -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- said the Obama administration had dropped its request for Ling and Lee to be released on humanitarian grounds and instead was seeking amnesty, which implies forgiveness for an offense. This change in language is an important distinction that could move North Korea to release the women without feeling that its legal system has been slighted, according to analyst Mike Chinoy. \"I suspect that it was made pretty clear in advance that Bill Clinton would be able to return with these two women otherwise it would be a terrible loss of face for him,\" said Chinoy, an Edgerton Senior Fellow on Asia at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles. \"The bigger, broader and more important question is what else could be on the agenda. Will Clinton be carrying a letter from Barack Obama for the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il? Will he meet Kim Jong Il?\" Clinton's mission comes as the United States and its allies in the region are trying to push North Korea back into stalled nuclear disarmament talks. North Korea conducted a nuclear bomb test, its second, in May, and has conducted several missile tests since then. The United Nations responded by tightening and expanding sanctions on the North. The two nations were on opposite sides in the 1950-1953 Korean War and had no regular contacts before a 1994 crisis over North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea agreed at that time to halt the development of nuclear weapons, but abandoned that accord and withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003. Clinton had considered visiting North Korea in 2000 near the end of his second term as president. His secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, had gone to Pyongyang in early 2000 to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il -- now widely reported to be ill. CNN's Charlie Moore contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Signs point to Clinton being able to win amnesty for reporters, Chinoy says .\nReporters Ling and Lee work for Gore's Current TV .\nThe United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea .\nBill Clinton visit comes amid North Korean impasse over its nuclear program .","id":"19798cb9c82c6f51b81842b6e1da89408493413c"} -{"article":"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lanka's government said Monday its forces had killed Tamil rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran as he attempted to flee, according to the country's state-run news agency. The Sri Lankan government says Tamil chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead. The Tamil rebel group, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is aware of the government's report but has yet to confirm Prabhakaran's death or the deaths of its other leaders, according to a posting on the pro-rebel Web site, Tamilnet.com. It said \"initial reports indicate a determined massacre by the Sri Lanka Army.\" Prabhakaran was one of 19 senior LTTE leaders that the government has identified among the bodies found as its troops completed mop-up operations after routing the Tigers, the defense ministry said. The leaders include Prabhakaran's eldest son, Charles Anthony, as well as Pottu Amman, LTTE's intelligence leader, according to the ministry. Prabhakaran founded the rebel group, which has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries. It pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks and, according to the FBI, invented the explosive suicide belt. It was also behind the assassination of two world leaders -- the only terrorist organization to do so. Watch more on the possible end of fighting \u00bb . Prabhakaran is accused of masterminding the killing of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in the Tamil-dominated Indian state of Tami Nadu as he campaigned for a second term. Sri Lankan authorities allege that Prabhakaran was avenging Gandhi's decision to send Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka. Two years later a Tigers suicide bomber, allegedly acting under Prabhakaran's orders, detonated explosives that killed Sri Lanka's then-president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, during a rally. Over the weekend, the militants offered to \"silence\" their guns after an intense military offensive decimated their ranks, pushed them from their stronghold in the north and east of the country, and cornered the remaining rebels on a small stretch of land. If the rebels honor their pledge, it would potentially mark the end of the longest-running civil war in Asia. Prabhakaran's supporters considered him a hero with a single-minded focus -- to fight for the rights of his people. The Sri Lankan government deemed him a war criminal with a disregard for civilian casualties. He was wanted by Interpol on charges including terrorism and organized crime. In the past it has been reported he wore a cyanide capsule around his neck -- to swallow and kill himself rather than risk capture. And he reportedly expected the same dedication from his troops. As a result, few Tigers have been captured alive. Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to announce that \"military operations\" against the Tiger rebels have ended in an address to parliament and country on Tuesday. Watch aid agencies fear for Sri Lanka \u00bb . The rebels have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. Journalist Iqbal Athas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sri Lankan government says Tamil chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead .\nThe offensive against the rebel group is in its last stages, the government says .\nRebels have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils since 1983 .","id":"03a41fed43538ba4ff986195267e7ca86ebf97c5"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- With hundreds of protesters gathering and riot police out in force on the streets of Tehran, hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the oath of office Wednesday, beginning a second term in a bitterly divided Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in Wednesday as Iran's president. He begins his second term. Ahmadinejad, 52, was formally sworn in before Iran's parliament, known as the Majlis, as security forces guarded the building and nearby streets in anticipation of protests. Witnesses reported a heavy police presence -- including members of the pro-government Basij militia -- and several choppers hovering overhead. Some reported protesters, many of them women, sitting in front of the parliament building's entrance. As discontent surfaced yet again, Ahmadinejad vowed to take Iran forward and flung sharp words at those who questioned the validity of the June 12 elections, in which he was declared the winner with almost two-thirds of the vote. He took particular aim at the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Germany, which have not sent formal letters of congratulations to Ahmadinejad. \"They said they would recognize the election, but will not congratulate,\" Ahmadinejad said in his inaugural speech. \"This means they only want democracy at the service of their interests and don't respect the people's vote and rights. \"Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations,\" he said. What's next for Iran? \u00bb . Asked Tuesday whether the White House recognizes Ahmadinejad as the rightful leader of Iran, press secretary Robert Gibbs said, \"He's the elected leader.\" Gibbs expanded on that comment Wednesday, telling reporters \"It's not for me or for us to denote his legitimacy, except to acknowledge the fact.\" \"Whether any election was fair, obviously the Iranian people still have questions about that, and we'll let them decide that,\" Gibbs said. \"But I would simply say he's been inaugurated, and we know that is simply a fact.\" The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since 1980. Britain has maintained ties, but has criticized the Iranian crackdown on protests that followed the disputed election and has not issued a statement of congratulation to Ahmadinejad. However, the British ambassador to Tehran did attend the ceremony, and the Foreign Office in London said the international community still needs to engage Iran on \"serious issues,\" such as its nuclear program. \"While we need to engage with Iran's government, today's ceremony does not change our position on Iran's elections,\" the Foreign Office said. Among others attending Wednesday's ceremony were Iran's top lawmakers, the heads of the three branches of government, the secretary of the Guardian Council and foreign diplomats. But as the camera of the semi-official Press TV panned the hall, an unprecedented number of empty seats were visible. It was unclear whether opposition leaders were boycotting the inauguration. Ahmadinejad struck a note of unity in his attempt to move Iran forward, saying \"Who has voted for whom -- this is not the question. Today we need a national resolve. Today we need to join forces.\" He vowed to promote religion and morality, and support righteousness and spread justice. \"I will guard the power that the people have entrusted in me as the sacred trust,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"I will safeguard it like an honest and faithful trustee.\" Ahmadinejad, however, starts another four years in office with many Iranians questioning his legitimacy. The results of the June 12 election were widely disputed; Ahmadinejad's chief rival, reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi called the elections a \"fraud.\" Since the vote, Iran has seen turmoil not witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution as thousands have taken to the streets to protest and security forces have brutally cracked down. Analyst Amir Taheri told CNN Wednesday that Ahmadinejad's second term will be closely watched around the world. Taheri said the freshly inaugurated president faces myriad challenges in his second term, among them a faltering economy and a burgeoning popular movement favoring reform. \"He has to worry a lot about the opposition,\" Taheri said. Iran says about 30 people have been killed in the post-election violence. Among those who were arrested, 110 are facing trial, according to Iranian media reports. Under Iran's constitution, the incoming president must receive the supreme leader's approval before being sworn into office. On Monday, after Ayatollah Ali Khameini gave that endorsement to Ahmadinejad, hundreds of Iranians again demonstrated in the Iranian capital. Witnesses and sources said the crowds marched on the sidewalks around Vannak Square and Vali Asr Avenue, under the watchful eye of hundreds of Iranian security forces. Some chanted \"Death to the dictator,\" while others said \"God is great.\" International media outlets, including CNN, have been restricted in their coverage of Iran in the aftermath of the elections.","highlights":"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins a second term as Iran's president .\nThe results of the June 12 election were widely disputed, sparking violent protests .\nSince the vote, Iran has seen turmoil not witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution .","id":"90aa53349401856571e1e749155772af132a8ff6"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Lets face it: All the information around cholesterol makes it something of a confusing topic. Not only do we make our own cholesterol, but we also must have it to produce other important body assets, such as cell membranes and certain types of hormones. \"Good\" cholesterol vs. \"bad\" cholesterol and all the associated numbers can be confusing. So it's a bodily must-have. But we also augment that inner cholesterol machine by eating foods high in saturated fats such as whole dairy products and red meats and probably half the offerings at any fast-food spot. Add to that the fact many people simply overproduce or underproduce cholesterol because of their genes -- and that is just the beginning of the conundrum over cholesterol. But while many can't quite wrap their brain around it, the reality is many of us are affected by it, and not in a good way. According to the American Heart Association, almost half the adult female population in the United States suffers from high cholesterol. Add in the good vs. bad cholesterol and all the different numbers for the different levels and it starts making my head spin. Fortunately I was able to speak with two very smart cardiologists for guidance. Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist in New York, set me straight. She explains it's all about the balance. \"Cholesterol is an important substance and has many benefits for our bodies, but only a set amount keeps your body in a nice situation.\" Our bodies make the good and the bad kind of cholesterol, and according to Goldberg, who is also a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association's \"Go Red for Women\" campaign, they are pretty efficient machines. \"The system is set up so that the HDL high density lipoproteins, or artery-cleaning or 'good' cholesterol, cleans out the LDL low density lipoproteins, or 'bad' cholesterol,\" she explains. So, basically the good ushers out the bad by dragging it to the liver, and the liver gets rid of it. But when the bad outweighs the good, that's when the trouble begins. Dr. Nanette Wenger, chief cardiologist at Atlanta's Grady hospital, paints a cheery picture for us. \"Cholesterol is this fatty gruelly substance that builds up in the arteries, and when those obstructions have high levels of fat they are much more likely to burst.\" OK, got it: Buildup bad, burst worse! According to the American Heart Association, the bad cholesterol, with a little help from some other substances in your body, join together and form a united front (that is, a hard deposit inside your arteries) that could block the flow of blood to the heart, causing a heart attack. Or it could block the flow to the brain, causing a stroke. So, it seems that bully bad cholesterol really needs to be shut down. Health for Her: Watch to learn more about cholesterol in women \u00bb . But how do you do that? First you have to be informed. Wenger says, \"I've always said that women should know three numbers and there are so many numbers tossed around I think all of us can get confused. But I want my women patients to remember three numbers: 50, 100 and 150. Fifty is the good cholesterol, the HDL -- that should be above 50. One hundred is the LDL, the bad cholesterol. And 150 is the triglycerides, another blood fat, and your triglycerides should be below 150. So be sure that your physician tells you your numbers. If they are fine, do what you do to keep them fine, and if they are abnormal, work with your doctor to change them.\" The first two steps, says Goldberg, are about changing your lifestyle. \"You have to adopt a healthy diet and you have to exercise,\" she says. \"People with mild cholesterol problems can usually bring their numbers down just by doing those two things. Exercise is one of the most effective measures for raising good cholesterol.\" A low-fat diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids -- found in foods Including salmon, walnuts and flax seeds -- is also a good bet for boosting the good stuff. However, sometimes that is not enough. Wenger says, \"Some people have genetic predispositions and have very abnormal cholesterol. Some just make more cholesterol than others, so if your cholesterol is high, it is not that you are a failure. It's that your lifestyle interventions have not been adequate to get cholesterol to the levels we want.\" Sometimes, if warranted, those lifestyle changes need to be helped with medicine. But, cautions Goldberg, \"I've said to my patients, medications alone can't do everything. They need to help themselves by modifying their lifestyles with a low-fat diet and exercise, less stress, more sleep,\" all things that we know will keep us healthier longer. So, while in the beginning the cholesterol issue was a conundrum, in the end it's really a simple story about equipping the good to fight the bad (on a molecular level) and making the right choices so my blood won't get held back on its travels through my veins. OK, that I get! E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Heart association: Almost half U.S. adult females suffer from high cholesterol .\nMild cholesterol problems can usually be controlled through diet and exercise .\nPeople who have genetic predispositions to higher cholesterol may also need meds .","id":"dba45f939932914ae372765dcbd76608034fa9ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A human rights group urged Burundi to reverse a law that makes homosexuality illegal, saying it risks worsening the harsh treatment of gays in the eastern Africa nation. In March, people in Burundi demonstrate in favor of a measure banning homosexuality. It became law in April. The new law makes \"sexual relations with persons of the same sex\" illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison, Human Rights Watch said in a recently released report. It was enacted just as the gay, lesbian and transgender community had started to mobilize and call for equal treatment, according to the organization. \"The government needs to listen to these voices to understand the harm it is doing to Burundians with its state-sanctioned discrimination,\" said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. \"The government should rescind this law and instead work to promote equality and understanding.\" Before the law, which was passed in April, some gays and lesbians already faced significant discrimination in Burundi, according to the organization. Some had lost their jobs, others were beaten by parents and local youths, and others were evicted, according to the Human Rights Watch report, which cited accounts by the victims. Numerous attempts to reach government officials were unsuccessful. Homosexuality is illegal in most countries in the region, including in nearby Kenya and Uganda, where sodomy laws were introduced during colonialism. Most African nations have revised those laws to include consensual sex among gay and lesbian couples and made the punishments tougher, according to Human Rights Watch. \"Half the world's countries that criminalize homosexual conduct do so because they cling to Victorian morality and colonial laws,\" said Scott Long, director of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights program for Human Rights Watch. \"Getting rid of these unjust remnants of the British empire is long overdue.\" The role religion plays in Africa has a lot to do with the ban, others say. \"It is wrong from a biblical standpoint, and most African countries are governed based on religious beliefs,\" said Olatunde Ogunyemi, a professor in Grambling, Louisiana. \"Christianity and Islam are the dominant religions in the continent, and in some cases, constitutions are based on religion, which justifies making it illegal.\" South Africa's post-apartheid constitution bans discrimination against gays -- the first in Africa to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Homosexuality is also illegal in other countries, including Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, according to Human Rights Watch.","highlights":"Human Rights Watch fears new law risks worsening harsh treatment of gays .\nIn eastern African nation, jail time for homosexual acts could be up to two years .\nHomosexuality is illegal in most countries in region, including Kenya and Uganda .\nSouth Africa's constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation .","id":"5c160e9cc2a0ac7b990cd0005a38ef36b807ae87"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- At least 441 people have died in floods in India from this season's monsoon rains, federal authorities said in their latest report. An Indian child plays in a flooded street in Mumbai earlier this month. Flooding has affected more than 1.5 million people in parts of India, said the disaster management division of the federal home ministry. The country's main weather office has warned of more heavy rain in western and central parts of India. Monsoon rains sweep across the subcontinent from June till September. Though they bring much-needed relief to often-parched farmlands, they also leave a trail of landslides, home collapses and floods that can kill. In neighboring Pakistan, torrential monsoon rains left more than three dozen people dead and broke a 32-year record over the weekend. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"7 die as bus carrying 40 passengers sinks in overflowing canal in eastern India .\n7-year-old girl and her mother among the dead .\nBus driver ignored warnings from his passengers about flooding in canal .","id":"67f879da7d4c4ffe3c2765aef7f20406889225fd"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal, state and municipal agencies staged an elaborate drill in the waters off New York City on Tuesday to prepare for the possibility of a nuclear or dirty-bomb attack from the water. A U.S. Coast Guard vessel passes a container ship in New York Harbor as part of Tuesday's terror drill. \"We're a big city, and there are vulnerabilities,\" said Ray Kelly, commissioner of the New York Police Department. Agencies involved in Tuesday's test emphasized they did not undertake it because of a specific threat against the city. However, Kelly said the city was taking no chances after a proclamation years ago by Osama bin Laden. \"We do know that Osama bin Laden several years ago obtained a fatwah to use nuclear weapons, and our goal is to make certain that that fatwah does not come to fruition,\" he said. In addition to increasing various agencies' preparedness for a seaborne radiological attack, Kelly said Tuesday's well-publicized drill was meant to deter those who would perpetrate such an attack. \"It pays to advertise to a certain extent. We want anyone who would do us harm to know that we're out there, that we have the capability to detect,\" Kelly said. Eight government agencies participated in the drill, ranging from the NYPD to the U.S. Coast Guard. The exercise took place at the entrance of New York Harbor, just south of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge linking Staten Island to Brooklyn. Per the drill's plan, eight boats were to cross a checkpoint set up by authorities. They were on the lookout for abnormally high concentrations of radioactivity -- a telltale sign of an improvised nuclear device or a radiological dispersal device, more familiarly known as a dirty bomb. Some of the boats were decoys with no radioactive substances aboard, while others had actual radioactive isotopes planted in them. A radioactivity detector in the hull of the authorities' boats was to identify which vessels had radioactive substances in them. The devices are highly sensitive -- so much so that people who have recently had certain medical treatments can set them off. It was up to the authorities participating in the drill to sort the good boats from the bad -- and to intercept the bad. Only minutes into the six-hour exercise, equipment aboard a police boat detected radioactivity within a small white pleasure craft passing through the checkpoint. Two patrol vessels then converged on the pleasure craft, while officials began to question the driver and his two passengers. Soon after, authorities boarded the boat and used a radiation detector, officially known as a radiological isotope identification detector, to produce a \"spectrum\" of the radiological material. They then transmitted the spectrum to the Department of Homeland Security's Joint Analysis Center (JAC) in Washington to determine precisely what radiological material was aboard the boat. Within moments, the JAC radioed back with a positive identification: Caesium-137, an industrial radioactive isotope that if used in large enough quantities could power a devastating dirty bomb. Sure enough, when a separate boat containing press and police officers sidled up to the apprehended craft soon afterward, the portable radioactivity detectors of officers onboard began to sound excitedly. NYPD Sgt. Art Mogil said that, in part, the agencies chose to practice on leisure craft to illustrate that radiological weapons could be transported in deceptively benign-looking boats. \"It doesn't require a large vessel. A device can be just a few pounds and still be a major threat,\" Mogil said. James Waters, counterterrorism chief for the NYPD, said exercises like Tuesday's were vital because the stakes involved are so high. \"Someone bringing in a radiological or nuclear device would be very serious if not catastrophic,\" he said. On an average day, not all incoming maritime traffic in New York City is subjected to the radioactivity tests performed at Tuesday's drill. An NYPD official declined to specify what percentage of boats normally undergo such screening.","highlights":"NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly: \"We're a big city, and there are vulnerabilities\"\nParticipating agencies stressed that the drill was not in response to a specific threat .\nAuthorities were to decipher sinister intent from any of eight boats in waterway .\nThey were on lookout for abnormally high concentrations of radioactivity .","id":"1bcf8d168aa44e4a2b261b575d82d8ee164cd994"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The music isn't new, but the discovery that a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart \"almost certainly\" composed it is a stunning revelation. A researcher in Austria says the works were probably transcribed by Mozart's father, as young Mozart played. The two compositions -- a concerto in G and a prelude in G -- have long been in the files at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, as anonymous works and were even published in the book \"New Mozart Edition\" in 1982. Now Ulrich Leisinger, director of the foundation's research department, believes the works actually were composed by Mozart before he was old enough to write music, and that Mozart's father, Leopold, transcribed them. The foundation said in a statement that Leisinger analyzed the handwriting and other \"stylistic criteria\" to determine the music was \"almost certainly unknown compositions by\" the young Mozart. The compositions were found in a book, compiled by Mozart's father, that was used for practice and the musical education of both Mozart and his sister, according to the statement. Leisinger's analyses \"support the claim that they were actually composed by the young Mozart, who was not yet versed in musical notation, and transcribed by his father as the boy played the works at the keyboard,\" the statement said. Jeffrey Kimpton, president of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, called the works \"a remarkable historical find.\" He said Leopold Mozart transcribed his son's early works as a way of preserving them. \"When parents go to a piano recital of an early student, a young student, who's playing for the first time, they get a video tape, they get a DVD, that's a way of recording it,\" Kimpton said. \"I think what's exciting is that Mozart's father wanted to preserve this incredible genius. The young boy at this time didn't know how to write music, but he sure could play it. It's like a family photo or video album.\" Finding such historical treasures is like detective work, Kimpton said. \"You're kind of putting together a DNA picture,\" he said. \"This particular museum has hundreds of manuscripts. Over time as you learn more and more by various scholars working on this, you might turn the page and you may have looked at it a hundred times before but suddenly begin to see some things or understand some things that make some sense.\" Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and started composing when he was 5 years old. By the time of his death in 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces of music.","highlights":"Researcher: Two pieces likely composed by Mozart before he could write music .\nMozart's father probably transcribed the music, researcher says .\nCompositions have long been known but as anonymous works .\nPieces were in book compiled by Mozart's father .","id":"bb422d4d6c1a640812417744a709ff088de2f67c"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- For years, doctors and patients have been using DNA analysis to diagnose anything from paternity to predisposition to inherited disease. Now, Chinese scientists say genetic testing can identify inherent \"talents\" as well. The results can reveal athletic or musical talents but cannot necessarily identify the next Yao Ming. By examining the DNA from a simple cheek swab, scientists at Shanghai Biochip Co., one of China's largest biotechnology companies, say they can uncover a person's natural strengths and weaknesses with 99 percent accuracy. They test eleven genes that they say correspond to memory, swiftness, thinking, comprehension, emotion, adventure, braveness, focus ability, perseverance, vigor and physical strength. According to the company, specific combinations of the genes can reveal whether someone is genetically predisposed to being highly intelligent, athletic, musical and more. In the case of memory, the scientists examine the gene known as BDNF, the Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor gene. Research by America's National Institute of Health suggests that different variants of the BDNF gene correspond to different competences in episodic memory (the ability to recall recent events) as well as different activity-levels in the hippocampus (the area of the brain that mediates memory). See photos of the children's summer camp in China where such testing occurs \u00bb . Each person has one of three possible BDNF variants: AA, AG and GG. Each variant or base pair refers to the two gene components that make up each gene on the DNA's double helix. Most people have the GG variant, which indicates \"normal\" memory. Fewer people have the AG base pair, which corresponds to \"above average\" memory. AA is the rarest and strongest type of memory gene variant. \"The AA genotype is the best in memory. (Someone with an AA pairing) will learn something easy and remember the result longer than others can,\" said Yang Yanqing, the lab's technical director. Once lab technicians determine the base pairs for each of the eleven talent genes, specialists draw conclusions about a person's broader characteristics and even make career recommendations based a person's talent level in each of the eleven categories. \"This child is very thoughtful and focused,\" Shanghai Biochip's Healthcare Director Huang Xinhua explained while looking over a girl's test results. \"I suggest she go into management.\" Although the results can also reveal athletic or musical talents, genetic testing will not necessarily be able to identify the next Yao Ming or Yo-Yo Ma. DNA analysis only provides an indication of someone's talent potential, not their realized skill-level, the scientists say. \"It's not like genes decide everything. Genes just decide 30 to 60 percent. The rest is post-natal. A child's upbringing, nutrition, and education are all very much related,\" said Huang. Still for many Chinese parents, it is worth knowing that extra 30 to 60 percent more about their child. The lab, which conducts many other types of DNA tests, has seen a surge in the demand for genetic talent tests, most of the requests come from parents on behalf of their children. In a country where, by law, most couples can only have one child, parents seem to be turning to biotechnology to ensure their only child reaches his or her full potential.","highlights":"Scientists at Shanghai Biochip Co. say they can uncover a person's natural strengths .\nThey do so by examining the DNA from a simple cheek swab .\nThey test eleven genes that they say correspond to certain traits .\nSpecific combinations of the genes can reveal predispositions for certain skills .","id":"79f41434bd169b7b234854b9474aa7b6f64d2c60"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, \"Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism,\" will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events. Julian Zelizer says Medicare is a case of government playing a positive role in health care. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- Health care reform has gotten off track. The president's news conference fell flat. Polls show growing unease with the proposals currently in play. And Congress will not meet the deadline that President Obama imposed. The status quo, as the president correctly explained to reporters, is not sustainable. Our health care system is not working. Millions of people lack insurance, costs are out of control, businesses and workers are struggling to keep up with premiums, and there are tremendous inefficiencies plaguing many parts of the system. Conditions will only become worse in coming years. Our health care system brings to mind the economist Herbert Stein's famous maxim: \"When something can't go on forever, it will stop.\" When Congress returns in September, Obama will only be able to revitalize the prospects for health care reform if he offers Americans a stronger argument about what government can do to improve this situation. After years of being in the opposition, Democrats are still scared about defending the value of government. Their political nerves have been exacerbated by polls showing the public is growing increasingly concerned about the size of government spending. This reticence about government, in the aftermath of the Democrats' dramatic 2008 election victory, has been one of the most striking aspects of the administration's rhetoric in the past few months. Before the 1970s, Democrats were full of confidence when pushing for federal programs. Indeed, 44 years ago this week, on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid. The event took place at Harry Truman's presidential library in Independence, Missouri. Sitting beside the 81-year-old former president, Johnson announced: \"No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years.\" The program succeeded. Government worked. Before Medicare started, only about 50 percent of Americans who were 65 or older possessed hospital coverage. Within five years of the program's creation, 97 percent of the elderly had hospital coverage. The same changes occurred with physician's coverage. Today, more than 40 million elderly Americans rely on the program -- as do their families who don't have to take responsibility for these costs. Besides expanding coverage, Medicare has become instrumental to the health care industry. For all the complaints that we hear about Medicare, the reality is that most hospitals and doctors have come to depend on these federal payments into their system. Those who want to keep government \"out\" of the industry rarely acknowledge that government is already \"in.\" While doctors were at the forefront of the campaign against Medicare, they turned out to be among the program's biggest beneficiaries. As political scientist Jonathan Oberlander told Slate about the industry, \"If they'd known how well they were going to do, they wouldn't have spent all those years opposing it. They would have said, 'Please pass this.' \" Medicare has also been able to accomplish the impossible: compel hospitals to change the way in which they charge for care. While policymakers had originally allowed hospitals to charge \"reasonable costs\" to the program, reforms in 1983 created the Prospective Payment System. Rather than paying hospitals for each patient they took care of, Medicare paid hospitals a fixed amount of money. The change resulted in significant cost reductions. Most recently, in Massachusetts, state policymakers have observed that the existence of a strong government program has created an opportunity to achieve such cost measures at the state level. And finally, Medicare has proven to be more popular than private insurance programs. So, for all the talk about hating big government, the big government seems to be doing something right, according to numerous polls. According to a Kaiser poll, 68 percent of respondents said they believed the Medicare program would put \"your interests above their own\" compared to 48 percent for private insurance. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that more than 70 percent of Medicare fee-for-service recipients were satisfied with their access to care, in contrast to those on private insurance, where only 51 percent felt they could always obtain what they needed. Certainly, Medicare has been far from perfect. The program has not been good at innovation. When Congress added catastrophic medical coverage to Medicare in 1988, legislators were forced to retreat and repeal the plan in 1989 after encountering a political backlash. Congress added prescription drug benefits to Medicare, but not until 2003. Medicare has also become an enormously expensive part of the federal budget, requiring significant increases in payroll taxes while squeezing discretionary spending for other policies. All in all, however, Medicare has done pretty well for this country. It remains the best argument President Obama can make in response to his critics. Of course, arguments were not all that LBJ relied on. Johnson was willing to make key compromises on the legislation, such as originally allowing hospitals to determine charges and sitting back as Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills -- who had opposed the proposal for several years -- redrafted the measure in the final weeks and then publicly claimed credit for the outcome. Johnson was also willing to strong-arm members of his own party who were on the fence about the bill. But in the end, the key to Medicare was not politicking but a compelling belief that government could play a positive role in this country and in our health care system. As policymakers enter into the final rounds of this debate, they would do well to look carefully at the program that Lyndon Johnson signed into law in July 1965 and see just what Washington, despite all the knocks it takes, can provide. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Zelizer: Democrats nervous about expanding government role in health care .\nHe says Medicare is a strong case of government positively affecting health care .\nHe says recipients rate Medicare more highly than private insurance .\nZelizer: Today 40 million Americans rely on the program, along with their families .","id":"92e05969b338f1829eb2f5e31c7d1c408db509a1"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of excited music fans wait in line, on the lookout for their favorite singers on a hit television show. Elaha Sorur was the lone female finalist on this season's \"Afghan Star.\" Just a few years ago, television and some music was banned in Afghanistan. Instead of spending the time outside a New York venue or Hollywood soundstage, though, these fans braved barbed wire and gun-toting guards in Kabul to attend Afghanistan's premier pop music event: the finals of \"Afghan Star,\" the embattled country's answer to \"American Idol.\" In line, bright mod outfits have replaced Kabul's normally conservative dress code. Onstage, men sport the latest styles. And on TV screens, a country's new battle between traditional and pop culture plays out. \"For the young generation,\" says one fan in line, \"it's very important to be cool, with a cool mind.\" Inside the concert hall, Jahid Mohseni, a 38-year-old Afghan-Australian media mogul, tries to manage the chaos he's created. Singers, child acrobats and TV technicians all compete to get his attention before the start of Afghanistan's biggest night of television. Mohseni, who started the country's top television network, Tolo TV, says he's just trying to revive Afghan culture after the fallow Taliban era, when music and television were banned. Watch performances on \"Afghan Star\" \u00bb . \"Yes, we are promoting social change, but we cannot push Afghan society where it doesn't want to go. This is a commercial enterprise, and it's reflecting what people want,\" Mohseni said. In Afghanistan, more than 60 percent of the population is younger than 25, and judging by the popularity of \"Afghan Star,\" \"they're like people everywhere. They're not from Mars,\" Mohseni said. At the fourth-season finals this year, the audience included those who sat quietly as well as those who loudly cheered for contestants including Naweed Forugh (who would be named the \"Afghan Star\" winner), Naweed Sabirpur, Mehran Gulzar and Elaha Sorur, the lone female finalist. \"Art is in the blood of Afghans and has been for centuries, and it is still,\" Sorur said. \"During the years of fighting, the people haven't been able to use their artistry, but with time, it will get better and better. Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan are ready for a change.\" But not everyone is happy with Mohseni's programming choices. Afghanistan's guardians of Islamic values, the Ulema Council, protested that \"Afghan Star\" and Tolo TV's popular Indian soap operas were not part of Afghan culture. Afghanistan's minister for information and culture even tried to stop the soap operas in court, claiming that it was a question of national security. Mohseni pointed out that Afghanistan is sandwiched between two powerful neighbors: India, with a population of 1.1 billion, and Iran, with almost 70 million people (compared with Afghanistan's estimated 34 million). \"You just have to sit down with your critics and explain that if we don't have Afghan music and entertainment, Bollywood will take over,\" he said. \"We're just trying to hold our own in the middle of what is effectively a cultural war.\" That culture war can be seen on Tolo TV. After meeting with the Ulema Council, Mohseni dreamed up another reality show called \"Tartil,\" or \"Koran Star.\" The three finalists were quizzed by religious authorities and judged on how well they've memorized passages from the Quran, Islam's holy book. There were no wild ovations when the winner was announced, but the finale still produced a bombshell: The winner was a shy 16-year-old schoolgirl named Uzra Mohamedi, who accepted the oversized $3,500 check without cracking a smile and while dressed in a traditional black veil. Other TV programming in Afghanistan includes state-run news and lifestyle shows, a popular local-produced drama about an extended Afghan family, a sketch comedy show -- and the hit Kiefer Sutherland show \"24.\" Mohseni says that \"Afghan Star\" pushes his country forward in subtle ways, for instance teaching a few valuable lessons in democracy. Winners are picked by fans who can vote on their mobile phones -- one Sim card, one vote. In previous elimination rounds, losers sometimes stormed off the set, refusing to accept defeat. But now they thank their supporters and graciously congratulate the winners. \"This is the educational component of our show, and hopefully it'll rub off on our politicians,\" Mohseni said. To coincide with Afghanistan's presidential elections in August, Mohseni created a reality show called \"The Candidate\" as a way to encourage a more robust political debate. Six young Afghans face off in mock presidential debates and compete in American-style election campaigns. In the future, Mohseni hopes the direction of Afghan culture will be decided democratically, without traditionalists imposing values by force or government edicts. Either way, Tolo TV has an avid audience: According to Mohseni, the finals of both \"Afghan Star\" and \"Koran Star\" won their nights' ratings races, easily beating the competition.","highlights":"\"Afghan Star\" is Afghanistan's version of \"American Idol\"\nThe show, one of Afghanistan's most popular, has completed its fourth season .\n\"Koran Star\" judges contestants' knowledge of Islam's holy book .\nMany see TV programming as a culture war inside the country .","id":"ef3db4629c594e91900187c2ee7e570dead8ddc9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee told Ling's sister they were treated humanely in North Korea, and they believe they weren't sent to hard-labor camps because they have medical conditions, Lisa Ling said Friday. Lisa Ling, left, and her sister, Laura, center, speak to their father Wednesday after Laura arrived in California. The sister, speaking on CNN's \"American Morning,\" did not elaborate on the medical conditions, but said her sister will soon tell her story. \"Laura is eager to tell the story about what happened. I want to let her do so, but right now, she's really getting reacclimated. The processes are slow. She's very, very weak,\" Lisa Ling said, adding that the stories she's heard so far are \"jaw-dropping.\" Laura Ling and Lee were working for California-based Current TV, a media venture of former Vice President Al Gore, when they were arrested in March for crossing the border between China and North Korea. Watch Lisa Ling share her sister's story \u00bb . Lisa Ling said that before they left the United States, the pair never intended to cross into North Korea. They have acknowledged that they briefly did, however, and they were convicted of entering the country illegally to conduct a \"smear campaign\" against the reclusive Communist state. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, pardoned the women Tuesday after meeting with former President Bill Clinton. They arrived home the following day. Lisa Ling said her sister was allowed to call the family on four occasions during her five months in captivity. On the last call, Laura Ling specifically requested that Clinton intervene. \"She said that in her opinion -- quote, unquote -- it would have to be President Clinton. It could only be President Clinton to secure the release of herself and Euna. We immediately jumped into action and alerted Vice President Gore,\" Lisa Ling said. When their release was secured, they promptly boarded a plane home. Clinton wanted them to rest because they were clearly tired, \"but the two of them were chatting away and comparing their experiences,\" Lisa Ling said. Laura Ling and Lee went to see doctors Thursday, the sister added. Laura Ling is \"doing well,\" and Lee is \"skinny,\" Lisa Ling said, joking that her mother tried to force-feed Lee on Thursday \"because she's just become so diminutive.\" The women also are slowly working to assimilate to their freedom. They were kept at opposite ends of the same North Korean detention facility, and though Laura Ling had two guards in her room at all times, she would sometimes go weeks without talking to anyone. Watch as Lisa Ling describes the pair's condition \u00bb . \"So even communicating is a challenge because she sometimes yesterday was even having a hard time getting full sentences out, so it's a slow adjustment,\" Lisa Ling said. On Thursday, Lisa Ling told CNN that her sister was \"incredibly emotional\" and didn't want to be left alone after months of \"relative isolation.\" \"Yesterday, she was so exhausted and she wanted to take a quick nap. She kept asking me: 'Are you going to be here when I come back?' \" the sister said Thursday. Emotions have run high in Lee's home as well, Lisa Ling said. Watch the journalists' family reunions \u00bb . \"I hear from Euna's husband, Michael, that Hana, their 4-year-old daughter, has not wanted her mother to leave her sight,\" she said. \"She just keeps following her around from room to room because she doesn't want her mom to leave.\" Lee and her husband went to Laura Ling's house Thursday night for their first pizza since being released, Lisa Ling said Friday. \"The thing that was so wonderful to see was little Hana,\" she said. \"I have never seen her so happy, and we all sort of remarked that it was just a beautiful thing.\" Lisa Ling said her sibling will soon share her \"powerful\" story, perhaps in an op-ed piece, but she needs space right now. Lisa Ling, meanwhile, is elated that her sister and Lee are safe. She said she always knew they would come home. \"I believe in the fundamental goodness,\" she said. \"I knew in my heart that at some point, Laura and Euna would be returned back to us. I didn't know when it would happen, but I never lost that hope.\"","highlights":"NEW: Sister: Euna Lee \"skinny,\" Laura Ling struggling to talk because of isolation .\nNEW: Laura Ling told family, \"It would have to be President Clinton,\" Lisa Ling says .\nLaura Ling plans to detail what transpired, sister says .\nEuna Lee's daughter keeps following her, Lisa Ling says .","id":"1ab6f28ac527b422e53c3a9383b30cf78964356f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" is exactly what it purports to be, no more, no less: a two-hour version of a \"Hannah Montana\" TV episode. Miley Cyrus stars as Hannah Montana -- and Miley Stewart -- in \"Hannah Montana: The Movie.\" Hannah's popularity becomes too much for Miley Stewart (Cyrus). Miley retreats to Tennessee, learns what really matters, performs some songs and kisses a boy, and everything turns out all right in the end. Peter Chelsom -- whose checkered career includes the terrific \"Funny Bones\" and \"Hear My Song\" as well as the bomb \"Town & Country\" -- handled the direction. It's a sunny movie for Easter weekend. There are no Blofelds threatening the world, no sexual intercourse with pies, no bodies shot into pieces by machine guns smuggled in cocaine. Just sweet Miley Cyrus, her soul-patched dad and the huge Disney movie machine humming along. Watch Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus talk about \"Hannah\" \u00bb . Which means that perfect counterprogramming is \"Observe and Report,\" which walks a fine line between brilliant and revolting. CNN.com's Tom Charity thinks it's great; the New York Press' Armond White calls it \"the ugliest, most hate-filled comedy since 'Borat.' \" (Which, for many, could make \"Observe\" a must-see; if White wanted to discourage people, he should have said \"the ugliest, most hate-filled comedy since 'Waiting.' \") Also opening this weekend is \"Dragonball: Evolution,\" and, for a handful of markets, there's \"Anvil!: The Story of Anvil,\" about an '80s metal band that never grasped the brass ring but whose history certainly makes for entertaining watching. That film is earning a 98 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes and 83 percent at Metacritic, some of the highest marks of the year. Watch a preview of \"Dragonball\" \u00bb . On the DVD front, more 2008 holiday movies have found their way on to video, including \"Yes Man,\" \"Bedtime Stories,\" \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" and \"Doubt,\" the latter of which was nominated for five Oscars. That's five more than \"Yes Man,\" \"Bedtime Stories\" or \"The Day the Earth Stood Still,\" for what it's worth. Bob Mould, Neil Young and the Doves released albums last week; among the acts putting out albums Tuesday are Fastball and Silversun Pickups. (And now \"The Way\" is running through my mind.) Watch an interview with country star Jason Aldean \u00bb . So, not a bad Easter weekend -- and it will conclude (more or less) with the final round of the Masters golf tournament. Miley Cyrus will probably not be there. She's got some wholesome singing to do.","highlights":"\"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" opens this weekend, starring Miley Cyrus .\n\"Observe and Report\" is \"Hannah's\" opposite: crude and cutting .\nMasters golf tournament ends Sunday .","id":"6153086ceea417c154de1a5a880225fc788b35e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal will face Celtic in a mouthwatering all-British tie later this month to decide who reaches the Champions League group stages. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will see his side face an early-season test against Celtic. Scottish side Celtic went into the final qualifying round with a superb 2-0 away win over Dinamo Moscow earlier this week, overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg. Arsenal, who reached the semifinals of the Champions League last season where they lost to Manchester United, will be favorites to go through, but according to their former striker Charlie Nicholas, who also played for the Celtic, they will not be relishing the task. \"They would have wanted to avoid each other,\" he told Sky Sports News. \"For Arsenal, the concern is the lack of players they've brought in and injuries. I think it will be very tight.\" The first leg matches will be played on August 18 and 19, the same week as the start of the English Premier League season, the return matches are on August 25 or 26. A total of 10 pairings were drawn with the prize for the winners a place in the lucrative group stages of the world's most prestigious club competition. The losers will drop down to play in the Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup. Five of the pairings feature match-ups between the champions of lower-rated leagues such as Latvia and Cyprus. European governing body UEFA effectively ring fenced five places in the group stages for these sides by separating them in the draw from teams from stronger leagues such as England, Italy and Spain. It has led to a series of intriguing clashes with Panathinaikos of Greece facing Spanish side Atletico Madrid. Portugal's Sporting Lisbon take on Fiorentina of Italy, deposed French champions Lyon play Anderlecht of Belgium and Romainian side Timisoara face Stuttgart of Germany. Timisoara surprisingly beat Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine in the previous qualifying round. Shakhtar won the UEFA Cup last season and will now be able to defend their title under the guise of the revamped Europa League. They were paired against Turkish side Sivasspor when the draw for the competition was also made at UEFA's headquaters in Nyon on Friday. Champions League play-off draw: . Champions group: . Sheriff (Mol) v Olympiakos (Gre) Salzburg (Aut) v Maccabi Haifa (Isr) Ventspils (Lat) v Zurich (Swi) Copenhagen (Den) v Apoel Nicosia (Cyp) Levski Sofia (Bul) v Debrecen (Hun) Non-champions group: . Lyon (Fr) v Anderlecht (Bel) Celtic (Sco) v Arsenal (Eng) Timisoara (Rom) v VfB Stuttgart (Ger) Sporting Lisbon (Por) v Fiorentina (Ita) Panathinaikos (Gre) v Atletico Madrid (Sp)","highlights":"Arsenal draw Celtic in all-British tie in final Champions League qualifying round .\nOther ties see Lyon face Anderlecht and Sporting Lisbon taking on Fiorentina .\nHolders Shakhtar Donetsk to take on Turkish side Sivasspor in Europa League .","id":"0d49e3bab38ea64603fe66545c448a7970a5c570"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Joseph Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, a nonprofit organization that makes grants to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and the author of \"Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons.\" He formerly was a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that describes itself as \"progressive,\" and was on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee. Joseph Cirincione says Clinton's trip was the culmination of diplomacy his adminstration began 15 years ago. (CNN) -- President Clinton did more than free two unjustly jailed journalists. He jump-started the successful diplomacy he had begun 15 years earlier. In October 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang. During Bill Clinton's presidency, the administration had locked down North Korea's plutonium production program, which had created enough deadly material for two bombs during the Reagan years. They had stopped all missile tests. They were a few details away from concluding a deal to end these programs completely. But Clinton ran out of time. Enmeshed in Middle East peace talks, Clinton could not get assurances that a presidential visit to North Korea would seal the deal. He passed off the almost completed process to the incoming George W. Bush administration. On March 6, 2001, new Secretary of State Colin Powell said, \"We do plan to engage with North Korea to pick up where President Clinton and his administration left off.\" But Bush had different ideas. On March 7, Bush kneecapped Powell. With South Korean President Kim Dae-jung sitting next to him in embarrassed silence, Bush said, \"We look forward to, at some point in the future, having a dialogue with the North Koreans, but any negotiation would require complete verification of the terms of a potential agreement.\" The conservative ideologues in the administration froze all discussions with North Korea for an 18-month review. Clinton's hard-earned diplomatic wins were replaced by the Bush Doctrine, summed up by Vice President Dick Cheney: \"We don't negotiate with evil; we defeat it.\" The United States would instead overthrow difficult regimes. Serious options for diplomacy with North Korea were set aside. Negotiations were appeasement, the new administration believed, not a tool to advance American security. Then-Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in 2002 and repeats to this day, \"We're not going to reward their bad behavior.\" The strategy backfired. North Korea expanded plutonium production, exploded nuclear bombs, tested new missiles and traded nuclear technology to Syria and possibly Burma. North Korea's nuclear and missile programs advanced more in the George W. Bush administration then they had in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations combined. Whether by accident or design, the Obama administration reset the diplomatic stage. Administration officials largely ignored North Korea for their first eight months in office. Kim Jong Il responded with provocative statements and actions. It almost spiraled out of control. But the Obama administration's patience -- or just policy drift, we may never know -- paid off. Kim Jong Il's regime got weaker and more isolated. North Korea's main partners, China and Russia, turned against it, the U.N. Security Council imposed tough new sanctions, and Kim's own health deteriorated. Now in a weaker position than at any time in his regime, Kim Jong Il has been on his best behavior for the past few months. This was the time for a power play, and Obama executed perfectly. He chose as his special envoy the most prestigious political figure in America outside the administration. It is a move that was sure to please the North Koreans, showing them the respect they crave, without costing America anything. To capitalize on this breakthrough, the Obama administration must now continue to play large. It should show North Korea what good relations with the United States can lead to. Clinton's 20 hours in Pyongyang could pave the way for renewed diplomatic efforts, including direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea, the re-freezing of North Korea's nuclear program and even North Korea's return to the six-party talks. However, in dealing with the North, actions are more important than words. The Obama administration must seize this moment as an opportunity not only to articulate a plan for North Korean nuclear disarmament but to take concrete steps towards a secure and stable Korean Peninsula. The president should use the momentum Clinton's trip has generated to unfold a comprehensive, consistent regional security strategy. With this success, Bill Clinton has demonstrated what effective diplomacy looks like. He has shown the former Bush officials what they should have done years ago. He may have convinced senior White House strategists that diplomacy is a political winner, paying dividends across issue areas. Two power players, Obama and Clinton, have together taken a giant step forward, advancing the agenda Clinton began 15 years ago. America is the better for it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joseph Cirincione.","highlights":"Joseph Cirincione: Clinton administration started outreach to North Korea .\nHe says Bush administration cut it off, saying U.S. doesn't negotiate with 'evil'\nHe says Clinton's successful trip shows effectiveness of diplomacy .\nCirincione: Obama administration must seize moment for further progress .","id":"de031f676ca5fc3ef367cbbee4aa7ef2a2e22425"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's lower house of parliament elected a woman as its speaker Wednesday, a first in the male-dominated chamber's history. Meira Kumar was nominated by the ruling Congress party. Meira Kumar is also a member of the \"untouchable\" Dalit class, the lowest rung in the centuries-old caste system in the country. The speaker conducts the proceedings of the house. She will preside over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women. Kumar, 64, was elected to the position unopposed. She was nominated by the ruling Congress party but also had the backing of the alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Women play a prominent role in the politics of India, the world's largest democracy. The South Asian country of 1.1 billion people has a female president, Pratibha Devisingh Patil. And four of the country's political parties, including the Congress Party, are led by women. Hindus believe there are five main groups of people. The last group is the Dalits. They're considered impure and are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells and use different entry ways to come and go from buildings. Dalits number about 250 million in India, about 25 percent of the population, according to the Colorado, U.S.-based Dalit Freedom Network. India's constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination, and barriers have broken down in large cities. Prejudice, however, persists in some rural areas of the country. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Meira Kumar a member of the Dalit class -- lowest rung in centuries-old caste system .\nShe will preside over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women .\nKumar, 64, was elected to the position unopposed .","id":"eadcd5766bd5641bf333d58b2a7b52c53d6346d1"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The Air France plane that crashed a month ago off the coast of Brazil \"did not break up or become destroyed in flight,\" but bellyflopped intact into the Atlantic Ocean, the French air investigation agency announced Thursday. Relatives and friends of an Air France steward follow his coffin during his funeral last week in Rio de Janeiro. \"The plane went straight down, almost vertically... towards the surface of the water, very very fast,\" air accident investigator Alain Bouillard said. Based on visual study of the physical remains of the Airbus A330 that have been recovered, \"we were able to see that the plane hit the surface of the water flat. Therefore everything was pushed upwards -- everything was pushed from the bottom to the top\" of the plane, he said. The 228 people killed in the crash \"had no time to prepare,\" he said. Watch more about Flight 447's descent \u00bb . But Bouillard said he did not have autopsy results from the bodies recovered, and did not know why no one lived through the crash. \"I don't know why nobody survived,\" he said. \"I don't know the intensity of the impact. Perhaps we will find out from the autopsies. Perhaps we will never know.\" Bouillard said it was still unclear what caused the crash, the deadliest in Air France's 75-year history. \"Today we are very far from establishing the causes of the accident,\" he said. But there is no reason to ground Airbus A330 airplanes, he said. \"There is no problem with flying these airplanes.\" Pressed by a reporter on why he was not ordering the model to stop flying, he said the fleet has flown millions of miles and there are currently 660 of them flying. \"Statistically, this would answer the question,\" he said. Air France 447 was unable to fly on autopilot at the time of the crash, the investigator said. That was because the autopilot was not receiving speed, wind or direction information, he said. \"These tell us that the plane has to be, in this case, directed by the pilot,\" he said. He did not immediately say if the pilots were in control of Air France 447. The last contact with the plane was at 2:10 a.m. local time on June 1. \"Right after that 24 automated messages came through\" about the status of the plane, he said. Those messages were what enabled investigators to determine that the autopilot would not have had enough information to fly the plane, he said. No air-traffic controllers seem to have been monitoring the flight when it went down, investigations have found. It would normally have been \"handed over\" from controllers in South America to others in Africa while flying over the Atlantic, but that did not happen, Bouillard said. \"We want to know why there was no concern in Dakar (in Senegal, west Africa) when this plane was not handed over,\" he said. The plane was flying through severe storms when it went down. Three other flights on similar routes changed course within an hour after Air France 447 flew into the bad weather. A Spanish, French and German flight all experienced turbulence in the same region and diverted as much as 100 km (62 miles) off course to avoid bad weather, Bouillard said. All three flights had problems communicating with air traffic control. Investigators will continue searching for the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- commonly known as \"black boxes\" -- until July 10, said Bouillard, of the French air accident investigation agency known as the BEA. \"They normally give a signal for 30 days. We will keep listening another 10 days,\" he said. Air France said Thursday it was of \"capital importance\" to find the recorders, \"which would enable the investigators to analyze the causes of the accident, whatever these may be. No effort must be spared in achieving this end.\" Bouillard said investigators would continue to search even after the beacons on the recorders stop signaling, in what he called a \"second phase\" of the search. \"If we could find a part of the plane that we know was near the black boxes, that will give us a clue about where to search,\" he said. The mountainous ocean floor in the search area ranges from 3,280 to 15,091 feet, BEA officials have said in the past, making the search for the recorders -- and the rest of the plane's debris -- difficult. \"It is as if it fell in the Andes,\" Olivier Ferrante, chief of the BEA search mission said last month. French submarines and sensitive U.S. military listening devices are being used in the search. Flight 447 went down in stormy weather while flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Brazil called off the search for bodies on June 27, having found 51 of the 228 people who died when the plunged into the sea, according to the military. Investigators have also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the plane, along with luggage, Bouillard said. They have not found any clothing, he said, but was unable to say why.","highlights":"Air France plane that crashed in June \"did not break up in flight,\" officials say .\nAirbus A330 was unable to fly on autopilot at the time of the crash .\nInvestigators will search for data recorders until July 10, investigator says .\nPlane wreckage believed to be on Atlantic seabed, around 4,500 meters deep .","id":"54ef2eb9b513e2efade5aad35349db34d308bef0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Christina Cimino was logging onto Twitter on Thursday morning when something happened that she found deeply unsettling. iReporter David Seaman says Twitter needs a competitor so users don't panic when it goes down. \"I got some weird error message, and I'm like, 'What's going on!?\" the 24-year-old said. That error message was the scourge of online social networkers worldwide on Thursday as cyber-attacks shut down Twitter and caused sustained glitches in other social-media sites like Facebook and the blogging site LiveJournal. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote the sites were the victims of what \"appears to be a single, massively coordinated attack.\" And a pro-Georgian blogger, whose accounts on Facebook and Twitter reportedly were the targets of the denial-of-service attack, told CNN the online strike was timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict. What may prove more lasting about the day social networking suffered its first major blackout is the degree to which people cared. Near-panic erupted in some corners of the Internet as people lost cherished links to their online friends, family members and news feeds. Watch CNN iReporters talk about the attack . Part of the panic relates to the sheer popularity of the sites. Twitter saw a more than 1,300 percent jump in unique visitors between February 2008 and February 2009, according to Nielsen NetView. The site, which lets users post messages of 140 characters or less, had more than 44 million worldwide users in June, according to comScore. More than 120 million users log onto Facebook at least one time each day, the site says. To be sure, not all Facebook and Twitter users freaked out because of the attacks. Some people even reveled in the mayhem. Blog: Could the attacks be our fault? But for people like Cimino, who said she \"felt naked\" without access to Twitter, the attacks were a serious reality check -- a chance to evaluate just how dependent they'd become. \"You know how you pat your pockets for your cell phone and your keys? Well it's that same kind of phantom [limb] with Twitter,\" she said. \"It's like, 'I can't update! I can't update!' It's just one of those bugs that gets in you.\" She added: \"I was pretty upset, actually. It feels like a lifeline for me ... Pretty much everyone knows almost every detail of my life by what I'm doing on Twitter.\" It's not worth analyzing whether these online connections are good or bad because the reality is that Twitter and Facebook are now an important part of our lives, said Marc Cooper, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. \"For many people, and not just young people, the Web is not just media, it's actually a place where they conduct their lives or a portion of their lives,\" he said. \"So the panic [Thursday] morning is only reflective of that. This is not just a hobby or an amusement or another accoutrement, it's actually deeply woven into their lives and is integral to their social interaction. So when it's cut off, it's a problem.\" Others saw Twitter's existence as the problem and relished the chance to make fun of a Web site that has become so omnipresent in news cycles. \"Horrors!!! People will have to communicate face to face!\" one user commented on CNN's SciTech blog. Another commenter said, \"Turn off your computers and read a book or get outside and discover there is more to life than cyberspace. The Internet has become nothing more than the new cocaine.\" Now that Twitter is back online, the No. 1 conversation thread on the site is called \"whentwitterwasdown,\" where users discuss what they did without their real-time Twitter updates. Some people are mocking the blackout. A user named PaulWilks, for instance, wrote, \"I took up juggling.\" Others seem concerned. \"I did absolutely nothing. It's like my heart was gone,\" wrote a user named HarajukuxBarbie. \"I felt so empty inside,\" wrote another Twitter user called freinhar. Some business people on Thursday realized just how much they depend on Facebook and Twitter to do their work. Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief at Mashable, a blog that covers social media, said the outage made it difficult for his organization to cover the news and to promote its stories. \"For someone like myself who spends all day on Twitter, it's incredibly frustrating,\" he told CNN.com Live . Justin Stauffer, a 31-year-old who works in Web strategy at a marketing company near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said Thursday's attack made him realize just how dependent on Twitter he had become. \"When something that's so central to how you do your business or how you gather information goes down, yeah, you get a little jittery -- like, when's it going to be back,\" he said. \"I didn't break out in hives or anything like that,\" he said, jokingly. David Seaman, an iReporter in New York, said he thinks Twitter needs a competitor so users will have an alternative if the site is down. Watch Seaman's talk about the issue on CNN's iReport . And Amy Gahran, who writes about social media on a blog called Contentious, said all technologies can break down, so people need to make contingency plans. \"Hell, when you get down to it, you can lose your voice or break your writing hand or have a stroke and be unable to communicate. We are fundamentally social creatures, and when we lack our usual communication channels it's scary,\" she writes. \"Don't panic. Have a backup plan, and be prepared.\" Cooper, the USC professor, said the fuss surrounding Thursday's attack is a sign that instant, online communication is here to stay. Fighting the trend would be like trying to stop the ocean's tides, he said, but it's unclear where the technology will take our society. \"The bottom line is that we don't know. All of this is too new,\" he said. \"It's like sitting around in the year 1500 and trying to figure out where the printing press was going to take us.\"","highlights":"Some Twitter and Facebook users panicked as the sites went down Thursday .\nSeveral online social networks were the victims of cyber-attacks .\nOne Twitter user says she felt \"naked\" without her micro-blog .\nAnother says he felt \"jittery\" during the time Twitter was down .","id":"03e202ec0f7d468af4434715ddaa67ca3fafef40"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The regional airline involved in a fatal February plane crash outside Buffalo, New York, contested a report Monday alleging the pilot did not have the training to handle the emergency that brought the plane down, and that he might have been fatigued on the night of the crash. Debris is cleared from the scene of Flight 3407's crash near Buffalo, New York, in February. Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by regional carrier Colgan Air, plunged into a house in Clarence Center, New York, on the night of February 12, killing all 49 on board as well as one man in the house. In a story Monday, The Wall Street Journal cited investigators as saying the crash resulted from pilot Marvin Renslow's incorrect response to the plane's precarious drop in speed: He overrode an emergency system known as a \"stick pusher,\" which sends the plane into a dive so it can regain speed and avoid a stall. The Journal's report said Colgan had not provided Renslow with hands-on flight-simulator training for a stick-pusher emergency. Colgan, in rebuttal, issued a statement saying Renslow had received classroom instruction for such an emergency. Watch a Colgan official respond to questions \u00bb . The company also emphasized that the Federal Aviation Administration does not require pilots to receive a stick-pusher demonstration in a flight simulator. \"The FAA generally trains to standards of routine line operations. They don't focus on the edges of the envelope,\" stall recovery expert Doug Moss told CNN. Colgan further admitted that during his career, Renslow failed five \"check rides\" -- occasional tests of pilot proficiency -- including two that Colgan said he did not disclose on his application with the airline. His most recent failed check ride occurred 16 months before the crash. \"In the cases while with Colgan, he received additional training and successfully passed the check rides,\" the airline said. Colgan stressed that despite his performance on check rides, Renslow nonetheless ultimately passed his pilot exams and had \"all the training and experience to safely operate the Q400,\" the airplane involved in the crash. Colgan further insisted that pilot fatigue was not a factor in the crash, noting that Renslow had \"nearly 22 consecutive hours of time off before he reported for duty on the day of the accident.\" In its statement, Colgan did not specifically address potential illness-related fatigue in 24-year-old co-pilot Rebecca Shaw, who, according to The Wall Street Journal report, said before takeoff that she probably should have called in sick. The National Transportation Safety Board begins a three-day hearing on the crash on Tuesday. Renslow's history as well as pilot training broadly will be examined.","highlights":"Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo in February; 50 people died .\nWall Street Journal report says pilot didn't have hands-on flight-simulator training .\nColgan Air says Marvin Renslow got FAA-required classroom instruction .\nColgan, operator of flight, also insists pilot fatigue wasn't a factor in crash .","id":"fb0fce005f5483be9800d26b31866f090287b329"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine. Danielle Brecker found this 1989 photo of friends on their Macs at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text. The Apple Inc. watershed product entered American consciousness amid fanfare, with a $1.5 million commercial, made by Ridley Scott, wowing audiences during Super Bowl XVIII. The piece's title, \"1984,\" invoked author George Orwell's message and stood as a warning against conformity. Two days after the ad ran, the Macintosh became available and life, as people knew it, changed. No longer were computers viewed as toys with which to play primitive games or as untouchable tools reserved for degreed engineers. We began to think different. \"The Macintosh demonstrated that it was possible and profitable to create a machine to be used by millions and millions of people,\" said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, research director for the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, California, think tank, and chief force behind \"Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley,\" an online historical exhibit. \"The gold standard now for personal electronics is, 'Is it easy enough for my grandmother to use it?' People on the Macintosh project were the first people to talk about a product in that way.\" Pang, 44, remembered being \"mesmerized\" by the computer when he first saw it up close in his college bookstore. He wasn't alone. Read about how iReporters are preserving Mac history . For graphic designers like Zo\u00eb Korstvedt, now a Los Angeles creative director, the evolving Mac, with each added feature, was ripe with ah-ha moments. To tinker with a piece, play with the text, \"to visualize on your computer was just insane,\" she said. \"My colleagues and I wonder how we did it [their jobs] before.\" No wonder, then, that when Korstvedt, 44, married her first husband in 1989, she used half of their wedding money to buy her first home computer: a Mac SE\/30, for which she forked over extra bucks for an upgrade to a whopping 8 megabytes of RAM. Nothing compared to the 12 gigs she now has. \"I was styling,\" she said with a laugh. Jeremy Mehrle, 30, of the St. Louis, Missouri, area is too young to know a world without Macs. This MacAddict began hoarding and tinkering with tossed-out computers, and then he discovered eBay. Today, the motion graphics designer's 1,400 square-foot basement is a museum to Apple computers, all-white and in gallery-style with about 80 fully-functioning machines on display. \"Some people think it's really cool. ... Others say 'It's Jeremy's thing, it's a little weird, whatever,'\" he said. \"I think if I had stacks everywhere, and you couldn't move in my house, people would be worried.\" What's Mehrle's hobby, however, became a career for Dan Foust, 38, of Bloomington, Illinois. \"Danapplemacman,\" as he's known on eBay, makes a living out of buying, and when necessary resuscitating, these computers before hawking them online to customers\/collectors in places as far-flung as Italy and Australia. So what would people pay for an original Macintosh? \"A complete boxed system?,\" he said. \"I can't put a price on that.\" The extremes to which people have gone in their love and loyalty for Apple (and specifically Macs) knows no bounds. Perhaps no one knows this better than Leander Kahney, news editor at Wired.com and author of Cult of Mac, as well as the more recently published Inside Steve's Brain. That would be Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' brain, of course. From his phone in a San Francisco coffee shop, Kahney told tales of people allotting their limited vacation time to Macworld conferences, a man who has traveled to 40 Apple store openings and those who shaved Apple logos into their heads. As for the Apple tattoos, those, at first, really bothered him. \"I'm a bit of a leftie,\" he said. The idea of \"corporate worship\" didn't initially sit well with him -- although he's not afraid to admit his own obsession. \"It's a very deep relationship people have with their computers. ... If the computer's not working, it's more important than the car breaking down.\" Speaking of worship, Israeli filmmakers Ron and Kobi Shely created \"MacHEADS: The Movie,\" a 50-minute documentary that'll be available next week on Amazon's video on demand service and, soon after, on iTunes. The film includes footage from The Church of Mac in Los Angeles, where a preacher and congregants gathered to glorify the computer at a service that ended with, \"Praise Steve.\" \"Although we read a lot about the [Mac] phenomenon,\" Ron Shely said by phone from Tel Aviv of the two-year film project, \"we didn't realize how big this social movement really is.\" And that, beyond the products, is what has been so powerful about the Mac brand, said Peter Friess, president of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. iReport.com: Got your own Mac Museum? Show us! Steve Jobs \"really has changed the world,\" Friess said. \"You hardly find people who changed cultures. He changed culture.\" Decades before Jobs' health became a topic of discussion, Friess was lucky enough to meet the man. At the time, German-born Friess was a lowly watchmaker, repairing clocks in the basement of Munich's Deutsches Museum, the largest science and technology museum in the world. The year was 1984, and Friess thought a Macintosh might come in handy, so he called Apple Germany to see if he might be able to get one. The answer, as he recalled it, \"'You're very lucky. Steve Jobs is in town. We'll come over and give you one.'\" Ever since, he's been amazed and exceedingly intrigued by every new computer. \"My wife goes crazy,\" Friess, 49, admitted. \"Every Apple computer I buy, the first thing I do is take it apart, just to see what's inside.\" For Gary Allen, 61, of Berkeley, California, his interest is less inside than it is outside the company's stores. He runs ifoAppleStore.com, the first three letters taken from his police dispatch days, meaning \"in front of.\" The site's genesis dates back to 2001 when Apple store No. 9 opened, in Palo Alto, and he and his son went early. Way early -- as in the night before. The crowds, and natural community, grew on Allen, who began seeing new-found friends at other openings. They were like groupies chasing a band. So he started a Web site, to help fans keep in touch, and soon other Apple enthusiasts began writing from across the globe, sharing tips about new stores, as well as testimonies and photos. The site, he said, averages about 4 million visitors a month. Allen, who guessed he's been to 22 store openings so far, once stood in the rain for days in Tokyo so he could snag the first spot in line. He's seen old friends at openings in Germany and Italy. Last summer, he and his now 21-year-old son experienced what he called \"the perfect storm,\" hitting Boston, Beijing and Sydney. Next stop: Paris. He may not speak the same language as the thousands who surround him in these various cities, but that doesn't much matter when people speak the same language of computer love. \"Apple enthusiasts, it turns out,\" Allen said, \"are the same wherever you go.\"","highlights":"Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the first Macintosh computer .\nApple launched the Mac in 1984 with Ridley Scott's landmark Super Bowl XVIII ad .\nSteve Jobs is credited for cult-like worship seen in tattoos, collections, Macquariums .\nFans flock to Macworld expos, Apple store openings and hoard eBay purchases .","id":"009e2c2f7a557cd6c431255707cf863f617076d6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former professional football player and his ex-girlfriend have been charged in the killing of her wealthy boyfriend for money, a breakthrough in a cold case dating to 1994. Eric Naposki, a former football player, has been charged in the killing of an ex-lover's boyfriend. Eric Naposki and Nanette Packard McNeal face the possibility of life sentences over the shooting of Bill McLaughlin, according to the Orange County, California, district attorney. Authorities said Packard McNeal persuaded her ex-boyfriend to kill McLaughlin so she could claim a $1 million life insurance policy, inherit $150,000 and get the right to live in his beach house for a year. She gave Naposki a key to McLaughlin's house and information about when he would be home, officials said Wednesday. Naposki shot the victim six times, then went to work at a nearby nightclub where he was a bouncer, according to authorities. Packard McNeal met McLaughlin after she ran a personal ad that said, \"I know how to take care of my man if he knows how to take care of me,\" the district attorney said in a statement. He supported her financially when they were dating and bought her a beach house, authorities said. Packard McNeal has been jailed once for writing checks to herself from McLaughlin's account without his knowledge, including a $250,000 check on the day he was killed. She pleaded guilty to that crime in 1996 and was jailed for a year. The Orange County officials said new evidence prompted the arrests of the two suspects, who were charged with special circumstances murder for financial gain. Packard McNeal is due to appear in court Friday. Naposki was arrested in Connecticut, where he lives. Orange County authorities have asked that he be sent to California to face trial. Naposki, 42, played in the NFL for the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.","highlights":"Former player Eric Naposki and Nanette Packard McNeal could face life sentences .\nDA says Packard McNeal persuaded Naposki to kill her wealthy boyfriend .\nMotive was money, authorities say: $1 million insurance policy and $150,000 in will .\nShe's due in court Friday; Naposki may be sent to California from Connecticut .","id":"b44c12c8ac6a1fb88f6022222357d7e472012d7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- George Sodini, the man who killed three women and wounded nine others before killing himself Tuesday at a Pennsylvania fitness center, showed in his writings typical characteristics of a mass murderer, experts say. George Sodini failed at every relationship but couldn't blame himself, experts say. \"What distinguishes the mass murderer who takes his own life afterwards from the person who just commits suicide is the externalization of blame,\" said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor of criminal justice and author of six books on mass murder. \"If you blame yourself for your problems, then maybe you direct your violence inwardly. If you blame other people for your failures, like Sodini did, you go after those people.\" Sodini's blog vents his frustration and rage at the lack of relationships and sex in his life, and he blames all women for letting him down. Although Sodini expressed intense hatred for his brother and father, \"it also didn't surprise me in this case that he made some derogatory comments about his mother,\" said Dr. J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. \"A lot of times, when there's this level of hatred against women, there's also a very antagonistic relationship with the mother, but it gets shifted onto other women.\" Watch what Sodini reveals about himself on video \u00bb . Sodini did not target specific women who had hurt him but all women, Fox said. \"He had an issue with women who were not giving him the time of day -- all these young, beautiful, attractive, healthy, fit women at the health club,\" Fox said. \"And so he specifically chose the health club, not just some random spot, to go after the people he blamed.\" Mass killers feel that they have been victimized and that their actions are justified, Fox and Meloy said. \"They've been victimized by someone at work, by someone in the family, by the world in general; they've been dealt a bad hand,\" Fox said. \"And ... they feel at the very end they can stand up -- with a gun -- and restore that power imbalance. They often see the gun as the great equalizer. \"This act, this final act of murder, is a way to leave this world feeling some degree of satisfaction of, in the end, being the last one to have the best and last laugh,\" Fox said. See a timeline of mass shootings since 2005 \u00bb . \"The concept here is really, really hard for most people to grasp, and that is the sense of entitlement, that 'I have a right to murder all of these women because of my personal frustration,' \" Meloy said. \"It's absolutely astonishing that a person can come to that mind-set.\" Neither expert treated Sodini, but both noted that Sodini's act, like most mass murders, was anything but spontaneous. \"His blog is a striking example of how mass murders are planned, relatively carefully planned, over the course of days, weeks or, in this case, months,\" Meloy said. \"There's this myth that mass killers just snap and go berserk and suddenly, without warning, shoot indiscriminately,\" Fox said. \"Well, he had been thinking about this for some time. He had originally planned to commit the mass murder in January [but] 'chickened out,' as he said. But this shows a lot of methodical planning, thinking.\" That hesitation, as well as his possible hesitation on the day of the killings, is unusual, Meloy said. \"Typically, as these guys are doing it, they have no ambivalence,\" he said. \"The have made the decision to maximize casualties and to also kill themselves, as he did.\" Often some humiliating event \"starts the clock\" and sets long-laid plans in motion, Meloy said, but he didn't see evidence of such an incident in the hours or days before Sodini's rampage. \"These guys are very narcissistically sensitive, meaning that the kind of insult or slight that you or I would just fluff off, these guys will ruminate and think about it and do that for long periods of time,\" Meloy said. Sodini was not a bad-looking man; he was intelligent and had a good job, so his failure to attract women must have had something to do with his behavior, Meloy said. But Sodini couldn't see that. \"He had difficult and unhappy and unsuccessful relationships with everybody,\" Fox said. \"What he was never able to do was to see that perhaps the problem was him. Maybe there's a reason why everybody rejects him, no one wants to be close to him. Maybe it's something about his own personality. \"But mass murderers don't look at things that way. If they saw themselves as being the culprit, perhaps they would just commit suicide. But no. Everyone else is to blame.\"","highlights":"George Sodini's writings reveal typical characteristics of mass killers, experts say .\nShooter shifted blame for self-induced problems onto others .\nMass murderers feel violence is appropriate response, psychologist says .\nAttack was result of meticulous planning, not a spontaneous outburst .","id":"7468612e0791fbfa3f0cc957c3c44546475d1f15"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The news editor of the Zambian newspaper The Post has gone on trial for allegedly circulating obscene material to politicians, the newspaper states on its Web site. Zambia President Rupiah Banda has branded the childbirth photos pornographic. In early June, Chansa Kabwela wrote to the country's vice president, health minister and several non-governmental organizations to highlight problems in the country's health-care system -- especially the problems pregnant women faced during a strike by health-care workers. In her letter, Kabwela included several photos of a woman giving birth in a parking lot outside a hospital from which she had been turned away, according to Reporters Without Borders. The country's president, Rupiah Banda, branded the photos pornographic and called for Kabwela's arrest and prosecution, according to the press freedom organization. \"Kabwela's arrest is shocking and the grounds are ridiculous,\" the organization said in a statement on its Web site after the arrest. Now the trial into the alleged obscene photos has begun in the Lusaka magistrate's court, the newspaper Web site says. One of the first witnesses, Kenneth Ngosa, a senior private secretary to the vice president, told the court he was immediately disturbed by the pictures he found inside the letter, according to the paper. The Post described the courtroom as \"packed to capacity\" and said \"people from all works of life including musicians and opposition political party members\" had come to support Kabwela. Defense lawyer George Chisanga has asked the court to look into whether the president's order to arrest and prosecute Kabwela could influence the course of justice. A joint statement from several Zambian media organizations, published on The Post's Web site, calls for the government to amend the law on obscenity to clarify what constitutes obscenity and material that can corrupt morals. The statement concedes that the pictures were in bad taste, but notes that they were sent on behalf of a good cause: to end the strike. CNN efforts to obtain comment from both The Post and the Zambian government have been unsuccessful. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, in 2004 the mortality rate of children under 5 years old in Zambia was 182 per 1,000 live births. In the United States, under-5 mortality rate was 8 per 1,000 live births in 2006. Skilled health personnel attended only 43 percent of childbirths in Zambia in 2002, according to the health organization.","highlights":"News editor of Zambian newspaper on trial for circulating obscene material .\nChansa Kabwela sent pictures of a woman giving birth in a parking lot to President .\nShe says she wanted to highlight problems in country's healthcare system .\nPresident Banda branded the images pornographic and had Kabwela arrested .","id":"25cb3272bfd75a0a7c3d908bfae5f1f122eefa37"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mysterious deaths of 21 prized polo horses Sunday at a club in Florida provides a peek inside the private world of a sport that generally is off limits to all but the very wealthy. The Lechuza Caracas polo team may not recover from the loss of 21 ponies for years, a polo executive says. The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville and the state-run Kissimmee Diagnostic Laboratories near Orlando are conducting necropsies on the animals. Initial tests failed to reveal a cause, said Liz Compton, a representative of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Tissues, organ samples and blood are now being screened for toxic agents, she said. Scientists have ruled out any contagious disease because the animals died so quickly, said state Agriculture Department spokesman Mark Fagan. Authorities initially requested necropsies for only the eight horses that were insured, according to Sarah Carey, a representative of the veterinary school, which got the bodies of 15 horses. Later, the order was expanded to all 15 horses, she said. The U.S. Polo Association is among the parties cooperating in the investigation. \"In the meantime, we all mourn the loss of these horses,\" U.S. Polo Association Executive Director Peter Rizzo said in a news release. \"There are no words to describe the grief and sadness shared by everyone -- particularly the devastated owners of those magnificent horses.\" Watch what investigators are studying \u00bb . Players form strong emotional bonds with the horses they ride, said John Wash, operations president of the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, where the horses fell ill. \"I've heard a couple of polo players who were affected with this loss the other day, a couple of them I don't think have left their house since Sunday night,\" Wash said. \"There were a lot of tears there -- these big, tough guys just on their hands and knees, crying over what happened.\" The U.S. Open Polo Championship that was interrupted by the tragedy will resume Wednesday with semifinal matches, Wash said. Lechuza Caracas, the team whose horses died, was offered spare mounts from other competitors so they could remain in the competition, but the devastated team chose to withdraw, Wash said. The Wellington tournament is one of the sport's three major championships, on a par with the U.S. Open in tennis or golf. Authorities say they believe that the competition facility is safe for the other horses and that whatever killed the 21 horses entered their bodies away from the site. Fifteen of the animals fell ill shortly before they were to compete Sunday; some died immediately and others lingered for almost an hour. Six others died overnight Sunday to Monday as they were kept in the same trailer in Wellington. Animals are not kept overnight at the competition site, so no special precautions are in place regarding food, water or bedding, Wash said. Organizers are planning a short memorial and laying of wreaths in honor of the horses, he said. Grief counselors are on hand at the facility to help employees deal with the trauma, Wash said. \"The scene can be described as almost like an airplane crash that involved not human life, but horses,\" he said. \"It was horrific.\" Polo ponies in the United States are not drug-tested, but the U.S. Polo Association has been considering taking up the practice for several years, Wash said. \"People are calling for reform, and maybe that needs to happen, but until toxicology reports come back, and autopsy reports, we don't even know if [Sunday's incident is] anything related to that.\" The Humane Society of the United States has no record of abuse of polo ponies, but that may be a function of the sport's exclusive nature, society spokeswoman Holly Hazard said. \"We are learning about this, as is everyone else,\" she said. \"It may be that perhaps because it's not televised or not as popular as other sports, it's not something that either our constituents or our program is particularly focused on. \"But if there are either performance-enhancing drugs or some problem that is associated with this, we will investigate and we will offer a reward to bring whoever is responsible to justice.\" Keith Dane, director of the Humane Society's equine protection program, was en route to Florida on Tuesday to interview people involved in the incident and keep an eye on the investigation, Hazard said. No evidence has been brought forth suggesting someone deliberately poisoned the animals. \"I guess everything's possible,\" Wash said. \"I've heard all different rumors. I don't know if I even want to go there and think about that.\" Compton, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services representative, said authorities have seen no evidence of criminal activity in the case. \"Clearly, law enforcement has gotten involved, given the complexity and the scope of the deaths, and they are fact-finding and gathering information, and once we have a specific cause of death, then they can determine where their investigation will go,\" she said. The devastated team, Lechuza Caracas, is one of the top teams in the world. The loss could set it back for years, Wash said. \"It's just like baseball or basketball or football,\" he said. \"You're taking years of grooming, training, nurturing to create, really, a first string of horses. And for four polo players, it takes anywhere from six to eight horses per polo player to play a game of polo. So if you're taking 21 horses, they're probably 21 of your first-string horses ... and you've just lost every one of your best players. \"It's not like you could just go out and buy 21 new horses and start at that point.\" Polo ponies are thoroughbreds, many of them former racehorses retrained for the game, but they cover a wide range of ages, Wash said. When they get too old to play, they are retired to pasture or stud, he said. \"A polo horse is treated quite well,\" Wash said. \"In fact, when you're a polo horse, you might play three months here in Palm Beach, you might take three months off, you might play another three months, say, in Argentina or England, you take three months off. They're not pushed 12 months out of the year.\" CNN's Kim Segal and John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Investigators try to determine what killed 21 polo ponies in Florida .\nContagious disease ruled out; tissue samples sent for further study .\nPlayers form close bonds with horses, club executive says .\nHumane Society of the United States sends official to watch investigation .","id":"521c1996ad9a3e45a579cbc72e795448efd57dd4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Is there a filmmaker in the world with worse luck than Terry Gilliam? He was directing Heath Ledger in \"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,\" when the actor died -- and it's not the first time he has lost a leading man. Is there a filmmaker in the world with worse luck than Terry Gilliam? Jean Rochefort didn't die eight years ago, but Gilliam had to abandon \"The Man Who Killed Don Quixote\" after a few days when 70-year-old star Rochefort became seriously ill and a flash flood washed away the entire set. The whole fiasco is captured in the documentary \"Lost in La Mancha.\" But the animator-turned-director who made his name with the surreal opening sequences of \"Monty Python\" is also known for never giving up. He saved \"Parnassus\" by enlisting the help of Ledger's friends, among them Johnny Depp. He has even resurrected \"Don Quixote,\" which will start shooting next year. The Screening Room talks to \"The Fisher King\" and \"Brazil\" director about Heath Ledger, the Ibiza Film Festival and why he'll never shake off the Monty Python label. The Screening Room: Heath Ledger's death during \"Parnassus\" was tragic, but how did you deal with losing your star in the middle of production? Terry Gilliam: I was just, it's like, now you've got to use your imagination because reality has bitten very hard. And, so, you call your friend Johnny [Depp] and say, \"Heath just died. Can you help me?\" And he says, \"Fine, whatever. Whatever you need. I'll do it.\" That's how it started. Then I got Jude [Law] and Colin [Farrell], they came ... the point is that they were all friends of Heath, too. It had to be people that were close to him in order to do what we did. TSR: How do you feel about it now you've had some time to reflect? TG: The experience was awful. That's why we can laugh now. Making films is really hard, and this one was particularly hard. TSR: What is the most rewarding part of making films? TG: I don't know, I mean, you know, writing and coming up with the ideas -- that's the exciting bit. Then it's the slog of just getting through the shoot because there is never enough time . TSR: You are a patron of the Ibiza Film Festival, which is only three years old. How did that come about? TG: The festival of Ibiza approached me a couple of years ago. John Hurt was already a patron, and I know John and I thought that it would be nice. I like being a patron of things, I like patronizing things. And if it's not going to be people, I'll patronize a festival. TSR: Why do you think film festivals are important? TG: The most important thing about them is you get to see films you would never get to see because the distribution system is so dominated by Hollywood. In every country, you get Hollywood movies plus local movies. Beyond that it's very hard. TSR: Tell us about how directing \"Monty Python and the Holy Grail,\" your big feature directing break, came about? TG: With the success of \"Python,\" we decided to make \"Monty Python and the Holy Grail\" and Terry Jones [fellow Monty Python member] and I said, \"Anybody named Terry gets to direct the film,\" and the others foolishly agreed. We directed the film and our names went up as \"directed by,\" and we were film directors. Bingo! Just like that. TSR: \"Monty Python\" was hugely successful, but is the downside that you'll never shake off the label of being an ex-Python? TG: Python is going to be stuck with me 'til I'm dead and probably afterwards. That's what's gonna be on the grave, as well. I know exactly what I'd like put on my gravestone: \"Terry Gilliam. RIP and all that. He giggled in awe.\" TSR: What is your film philosophy? TG: All films are learning processes. I am still trying to work out how you make a movie. I didn't study at film school or any of those things. I didn't bother with film theory. Mine is the Mary Poppins theory of film -- a bit of sugar helps the medicine go down. And I have always got medicine I want to give to people. TSR: Which film are you most proud of? TG: \"Brazil\" is the one that will probably be stamped on my grave because that one seemed to have made a big effect on a lot of people. And that's all I'm trying to do is affect people. TSR: What have you learned over the 30-plus years you have been making films? TG: There is no one thing -- it's just going through life. I don't think you ever learn just one thing. At some point you start unlearning things. I have been working hard to unlearn everything I know. TSR: Where are you with \"Don Quixote?\" TG: \"Quixote...\" It's been almost eight years since it fell on its little face. We had been trying to get the script back from the legal entanglement it was in ... and finally pulled that off. I had in those intervening years never read the script because I knew it was the best thing I had ever written. It was perfect -- I finally did it. I got it back and re-read it and have now been busy rewriting it. TSR: What advice would you offer to aspiring filmmakers? TG: Talent is less important in filmmaking than patience. If you really want your films to say something that you hope is unique, then patience and stamina, thick skin and a kind of stupidity, a mule-like stupidity, is what you really need.","highlights":"Ledger died while shooting Gilliam's \"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus\"\nGilliam enlisted the help of Ledger's friends, including Johnny Depp .\nGilliam on Ledger, Monty Python and why filmmakers need \"mule-like stupidity\"","id":"f5a99497f678544f6005599191171afce44fe4f2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mohammed Ismail was released from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in early 2004 and sent back to Afghanistan to be set free. A guard talks with a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this year. Within four months, the U.S. military said, he was recaptured in Afghanistan attacking U.S. troops there, with paperwork on him that said he was a Taliban in good standing. He is just one of 74 former Guantanamo Bay detainees who the military says were active in, or were suspected of being active in, fighting against the United States or committing terrorist acts after being released. Another is Abdullah Gulam Rasoul, who was released from Guantanamo in December 2007 and set free in Afghanistan. Rasoul has become a powerful Taliban military commander in southern Afghanistan, the military said, and the United States suspects he is responsible for several attacks on U.S. forces there. A senior U.S. military official said he believes Rasoul is using his former Guantanamo experience to build on his \"rock star status\" among the Taliban. Abd al Hadi Abdallah Ibrahim al Shaikh of Saudi Arabia, who was released in 2007, was arrested in 2008 by Saudi authorities on suspicion of supporting terrorism inside that country, the military said. On Tuesday, the Pentagon released information that showed 14 percent of former detainees have turned to, or are suspected of having turned to, terrorism activity since being released from Guantanamo. The data represent the most recent statistics of former detainees tracked by military and other U.S. government intelligence agencies. The report shows that of the more than 530 detainees released from the prison, 27 have been confirmed to have engaged in terrorist activities and 47 are suspected of participating in some kind of terrorist act. The statistics indicate that there has been a slight increase since the end of 2008, and the number of released detainees turning to or suspected of turning to the insurgency is almost doubled from the 7 percent in that category a few years ago, according to Pentagon officials familiar with the information. The report said that between December 2008 and March 2009, nine former detainees were added to the confirmed list, six of whom were moved over from the suspected list. The Pentagon's definition for \"suspected\" is significant reporting indicating a person is involved in terrorist activities and an analysis showing a match to an identity of a former detainee. The report defines \"confirmed\" as a preponderance of evidence, including fingerprints, DNA, photo match or reliable or well-corroborated intelligence that can identify a former detainee at Guantanamo. In January, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 62 former Guantanamo detainees may have gone on to participate in terrorism or military activity. That number included 18 who had been directly tied to an attack or attacks and 43 who were suspected of such action, Pentagon officials said at the time. \"What's clear is we are not seeing recidivism on the decline,\" according to a defense official who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to say what officials think is the reason for the numbers having gone up, but said the United States does monitor as best as it can detainees who have been released from Guantanamo. The Pentagon released the names of almost 30 former detainees confirmed or suspected to have gone on to fight, with examples of what these men had done after their release. Abdullah Saleh Ali al-Ajmi, for example, was released in 2005 to Kuwait. In April 2008 he blew himself up in Mosul, Iraq, killing a number of Iraqis, the Pentagon said. Yousef Muhammed Yaaqoub was released from Guantanamo and sent back to Afghanistan to be freed in 2003. The Pentagon documents show that he rejoined the Taliban as a commander in southern Afghanistan, and planned a jailbreak in Kandahar and a \"nearly successful capture of the town of Spin Boldak, Afghanistan.\" Yaaqoub was killed fighting U.S. troops on May 7, 2004, according to the Pentagon data, and his memorial service in Pakistan drew a number of wanted Taliban leaders. Other examples released by the Pentagon show men sent home to Morocco who were later captured and accused of recruiting people to train with and fight for al Qaeda in Iraq, two men freed in Saudi Arabia who became leaders in a new al Qaeda organization there, and a Russian sent home who later was arrested for playing a role in a gas line bombing. As a comparison, among prisoners in the United States, about 62 percent of violent offenders examined in a 1994 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics were rearrested within three years of being released.","highlights":"Pentagon: 14 percent turn to, or are suspected of turning to, terrorism activities .\nRate has doubled from that of a few years ago, Pentagon officials say .\nNames of almost 30 ex-detainees believed to have gone on to fight released .","id":"81a311f800c471e9f95974f26b189ba3cd3085ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An autopsy report issued Friday by Hillsborough County, Florida, cites cocaine as a contributing factor in the death of TV pitchman Billy Mays, who died in June at age 50. The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office said cocaine use contributed to Billy Mays' heart disease. \"Mays died from a lethal arrhythmia of the heart caused by hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease,\" the county said in a statement attributed to Dr. Leszek Chrostowski, the associate medical examiner who conducted the autopsy. \"He further concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and therefore contributed to his death,\" it added. The fact that toxicology tests detected only breakdown products of cocaine, not the drug itself, led Chrostowski to conclude that Mays had used cocaine \"in the few days prior to death but not immediately prior to death.\" Cocaine is a stimulant that can raise blood pressure and thicken the wall of the left ventricle of the heart, one of the organ's four main pumping chambers. The autopsy also found low concentrations of ethyl alcohol \"consistent with social consumption of a few beverages\" as well as the narcotic drugs hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol. Mays had prescriptions for the drugs -- which were found in therapeutic or subtherapeutic concentrations -- to ease hip pain. In addition, the tests found evidence of two tranquilizers -- alprazolam (Xanax) and diazepam (Valium) -- which are commonly prescribed for a variety of ailments, including anxiety and insomnia. Both drugs were determined to be in therapeutic or subtherapeutic concentrations. Mays was found dead at his home near Tampa on June 28. Mays, with his booming voice, was famous for fronting products such as OxiClean and Orange Glo in TV commercials.","highlights":"Cocaine contributed to Billy Mays' death, says autopsy report .\nMays died from heart disease; cocaine use played role in illness, report said .\nMays died June 28 .","id":"d9b00bf87eb5c79dc1a70587fbb0dae84a8d1517"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The last British soldier to serve in World War I was buried Thursday, marking \"the passing of a generation,\" the British veterans minister said. The coffin draped in a Union Jack flag is taken away from Well Cathedral. Harry Patch died July 25 at the age of 111, a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113. A party of pallbearers escorting his coffin was made up of two Belgian, two French, and two German infantrymen, while his coffin was carried by six soldiers from a unit that incorporated the one he served in during World War I. Patch was buried in the cathedral in the city of Wells, southwest England, where he lived. He joined the army at the age of 18 and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres, Belgium, in 1917. He was seriously wounded in the battle, in which more than 70,000 of his fellow soldiers died -- including three of his close friends. \"Today marks the passing of a generation, and of a man who dedicated his final years to spreading the message of peace and reconciliation,\" Veterans Minister Kevan Jones said. \"Active participation in the Great War is now no longer part of living memory in this country, but Harry Patch will continue to be a symbol of the bravery and sacrifice shown by him and those he served with,\" he said. \"In his passing we have lost our last living link to the fighting in the trenches of the Western Front and a member of a generation that stood firm in the face of extraordinary adversity and unimaginable suffering,\" said Gen. Richard Dannatt, the head of the British army. \"But today above all else we give thanks for the life of a brave and inspirational man whose message of reconciliation and peace has reached and touched so many,\" he said. The funeral was attended by the acting head of the British government and the wife of Prince Charles, among thousands of others, the Ministry of Defence said. Patch was the last British man living in the United Kingdom to have served in the trenches on the Western Front, the Ministry of Defence said. Born in 1898, Patch became a plumber before being conscripted to the army in 1916. His unit, The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, was rushed to the front-line trenches of Ypres, where soldiers were urgently needed to replace those who were wounded and dying by the thousands. He fought in the trenches between June and September of 1917 and was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. In late September he was wounded when a light shell exploded above his head, bringing an end to his military service. He received battlefield treatment without anesthetic. After the war ended in 1918, Patch returned to his work as a plumber and later became a sanitary engineer. He married Ada Billington, a young woman he met while convalescing after the battle. They married in 1919 and had two sons. In World War II, Patch joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and helped tackle the fires caused by heavy German raids on the English cities of Bath and Bristol. At one point he was sent to organize sanitary arrangements for soldiers at a camp near Yeovil, in southwest England, where he became friendly with some of the men. Patch remembered the shock of finding the camp deserted, with coffee still hot and meals half-eaten, on the morning that the soldiers had gone off for the invasion of France, the Ministry of Defence said. His wife, Ada, died in 1976, and their two sons also later died. Patch remarried in 1980, but he became a widower for the second time four years later. Patch didn't speak about the war until he turned 100, the Ministry of Defence said. \"He tried to suppress the memories and to live as normal a life as possible; the culture of his time said that he was fortunate to have survived and that he should get on with his life,\" a Ministry of Defence biography says. \"That suited Harry; he could 'forget' his demons, the memories of what happened to him and to his close friends.\" In 1998, a television producer with an interest in the war talked to Patch, who then made the decision to speak of his memories, the ministry said. He took part in a documentary on the war and began gradually to open up. It wasn't long before Patch became a spokesman for his generation, speaking about the horrors of the war as well as his own emotions and reactions, the ministry said. \"In speaking about his experiences, Harry began at last to come to terms with his war, and was at peace with himself and his memories,\" the ministry said. \"His thoughts then turned to reconciliation, to the long-term effects of suffering and coming to terms with that suffering.\" Patch returned to Belgium in 2002, something he had said he would never do, and laid a wreath in honor of his battalion, the Defence Ministry said. Two years later, he met and shook hands with a German artilleryman from the Western Front, Charles Kuentz. Patch later laid a wreath at Langemark Cemetery for the German war dead. In his last years, Patch was honored at Buckingham Palace and the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. On his 101st birthday France awarded him the Knighthood of the Legion of Honor, and this year President Nicolas Sarkozy upgraded that to the rank of officer. Last year, King Albert II of Belgium made Patch a Knight of the Order of Leopold. \"Harry was delighted to receive these awards and wore the medals with great pride, but he always made it clear that he wore these medals as a representative of the selfless generation he had come to represent,\" the Ministry of Defence said. In 2007, Patch wrote a book detailing his life, called \"The Last Fighting Tommy.\" The name referred to the slang term for British privates. \"While the country may remember Harry as a soldier, we will remember him as a dear friend,\" said Jim Ross, a close friend. \"He was a man of peace who used his great age and fame as the last survivor of the trenches to communicate two simple messages: Remember with gratitude and respect those who served on all sides, (and) settle disputes by discussion, not war.\"","highlights":"Funeral service held for WWI veteran Harry Patch .\nPatch fought in Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 .\nSoldiers from Germany, Belgium, France and Britain attended funeral service .\nFriend said Patch's message was \"settle disputes by discussion, not war\"","id":"ad54b056f8af6fb0f04d01560b1d201653210c9b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Holly Williams is one of the only artists in country music male or female who doesn't have a stylist. But then again, she might be the only entertainer in Nashville who owns a clothing boutique. Holly Williams is daughter of musician Hank Williams Jr. and granddaughter of musician Hank Williams Sr. The chic women's store is named H. Audrey after her maternal grandmother, who was the first wife of the late country music icon Hank Williams. Holly's father is Bocephus -- the legendary hellraiser and three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year otherwise known as Hank Williams Jr. She got her height from him. With heels on, she's about 6-foot-3 -- all tanned legs and long, blonde hair. She looks like a star. And at 28, she wants to earn the right to be one. Williams just released her sophomore album, \"Here With Me\" (Mercury Nashville). Most of the 11 tracks are self-penned, and she sings them with emotional honesty in a smoky, soulful voice. The characters in her lyrics are friends, family and lovers from the past. She also has a man in her present: On July 24, she became engaged to Chris Coleman, the drummer in her band. Watch Williams show off her talents \u00bb . Williams spoke with CNN about her new album and her family's legacy. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Your new album was released the same day as your dad's new album. Was that planned? Holly Williams: It wasn't planned at all. About three weeks before my release, I was looking over to see who else was coming out that day, and it said, \"Hank Jr.\" -- and I'm going, \"Is this something my manager planned?\" And it's just so random, because out of the 52 weeks of the year, it just happened. CNN: What did he think about the album? Williams: Well, this is embarrassing, but I haven't sent him a copy yet! I need to. He's heard two of the singles. He's always been a huge supporter of the songwriting, and just been a great encourager with me. CNN: What was it like when you were growing up? Williams: Well, my mom raised my sister and me. [My parents] split when we were 3 and 5, and he was touring 300 nights a year. We'd see him every few months when he was off the road, and we'd go up there and hunt and fish and be on the farm. But my mom did all the rules and curfews and all that. CNN: Your mother doesn't seem jaded by the music industry at all. Williams: Oh, she doesn't at all. They split in '83, so when they first got married in '77, he was still a struggling artist and doing small theater shows. My single out right now is called \"Mama\" that I wrote ... is kind of a thank-you song, because she was always the most positive influence -- had so much light. My dad always talks about what a great mom she was, and they're still close friends. CNN: What was it like for you going into the music industry? Was there a lot of pressure? Williams: The songwriting hit me at a very young age. Eight, 9, 10 is when I started writing. Went away from it for a few years, and at 17 picked up a guitar and it was just on from there. I'm 28 now, and I've been doing it for 10 years nonstop. I put out an EP myself when I was 20, and paid 200 bucks for my Web site, and traveled over in the U.K. alone with a backpack. And in the U.S., I just took my mom's Suburban and followed everyone from Train, John Mellencamp, Billy Bob Thornton -- everyone's bus -- and just did any show I could, whether they paid or not. Just played, played, played. CNN: Do you remember the first song you wrote when you were 8? Williams: I do. The first song I wrote was called \"Who Am I,\" and it's funny because it was very serious. I had a very happy childhood, but it was very introspective about this broken marriage, and I wanted Tiffany or Debbie Gibson to cut it. I remember just telling my mom, \"Just please call the publishing company. ... \"I was so ambitious. I remember making cassette tapes and mailing them to Music Row. CNN: What was the reaction from those tapes? Williams: I'm sure there was never any response. I'm sure people just laughed. I was not as talented as Taylor Swift when I was 15, 16. I could write a decent song, but I couldn't sing that well at that age. CNN: You have a love for rock 'n' roll. Why did you go into country with this album? Williams: Growing up in my house, you would assume I was growing up around country music with my dad being Hank Williams Jr. But he did not bring music home. He always said, \"I'm not Bocephus to you. I'm Daddy.\" So I was really left to my own devices to find music on my own. And I really fell in love with the singer-songwriters of the '70s -- Tom Waits, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Carole King -- that whole era really struck me. And when I heard Hank Williams Sr.'s name mentioned from those people -- from Leonard Cohen to Bruce Springsteen -- that's what really brought me back around to learning more about my grandfather. My music is still based in that singer-songwriter tradition. Adding a fiddle and steel guitar makes it more country, and adding blazing electric guitars makes it more rock. I'm on a country label now. CNN: You also own a clothing boutique in Nashville called H. Audrey. Williams: Everything I have on, except my shoes, is from there. ... It's a struggle in this economy, but we make enough to pay our payroll and buy the clothes. And it's nice to fold jeans every now and again, and get my mind out of myself. CNN: When you're writing down your goals on your wish list, what is it you really want? Williams: I would love to sell a million records. I would love to play in arenas -- but what I really want to build is a core fanbase, and just hopefully build a place in the Williams family.","highlights":"Country music scion Holly Williams has new album out, \"Here With Me\"\nWilliams is daughter of Hank Jr., granddaughter of Hank Sr.\nWilliams sings country, but influenced by '70s singer-songwriters .","id":"1851eb85f70e2ba90e4d74d14e00e77e2377470c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Andrew Sable wasn't in the market for new wheels, but he says the federal \"cash for clunkers\" program helped him get an offer he couldn't refuse. \"I'd have been foolish not to take it,\" said Andrew Sable, who got $9,000 for his 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The gas-guzzling 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee his college-student son drives went bad last weekend. Ordinarily Sable would have fixed it, even though the vehicle was worth perhaps $2,000 at best. But, aware of the program that started this month, Sable took a $4,500 federal credit this week to trade in the Jeep and buy a new, more fuel-efficient Chrysler PT Cruiser. And Chrysler, eager to sell vehicles, threw in its own $4,500 incentive. The $9,000 in savings knocked the price to $8,900 before taxes and fees. \"I'll never get $9,000 for this old vehicle [any other way]. I'd have been foolish not to take it,\" the 43-year-old Sable, an insurance underwriter living in North Bellmore, New York, told CNN after filing a report with iReport.com. He'll drive the PT Cruiser and let the son drive his Nissan. iReport.com: Read Sable's account of the purchase . Under the $1 billion program, people will be given credits of $3,500 to $4,500 to replace gas guzzlers -- generally vehicles with a combined city\/highway fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon or less -- with new vehicles that are more fuel efficient. The old vehicles are crushed or shredded. Watch CNN's Gerri Willis explain the \"cash for clunkers\" program \u00bb . The exact credit offered through the program --- officially called the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009, or CARS -- depends on how many more miles per gallon the new vehicle gets. Fuel economy thresholds for new vehicles vary according to type. New cars must have a combined city\/highway fuel economy of at least 22 mpg. New SUVs and small or medium pickup trucks or vans must get at least 18 mpg. New large vans and pickups must get at least 15 mpg. The government put Sable's old Jeep at 15 mpg. His new PT Cruiser, which the program classifies as an SUV, gets a combined 21 mpg. Part of the program's intent is to get vehicles with low fuel efficiency off the road. Caroline Radtke, a 31-year-old who wrote about her purchase on iReport.com, was happy to oblige. Radtke and her husband this month got a $4,500 CARS credit for trading in their 2000 Isuzu Trooper (15 mpg) to buy a new Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, a diesel-powered car that the program lists as getting 33 mpg. After the credit, they paid just under $26,000. \"What was going out of my [old] vehicle was bad for the planet, and you're putting so much financially into the stupid thing to fill it up because it runs out so fast,\" Radtke, a freelance graphic designer living in San Antonio, Texas, told CNN after filing her iReport. \"After driving it for eight and a half years, I wanted something more productive financially and more friendly to the Earth.\" The couple would have bought a new car without CARS, but the credit probably allowed them to get a nicer car than they otherwise would have, Radtke said. If they had sold the Trooper themselves, they might have gotten $3,000 if they were lucky, she said. iReport.com: Radtke's purchase . The CARS program isn't for everyone. The credit won't go toward used-car purchases. Also, people looking to get rid of their under-18-mpg vehicle might find they can get about the same or more than a CARS credit by selling it. But the program worked just fine for iReporter Julie Callahan, a Salt Lake City, Utah, woman who was looking to replace her 1990 Chevy C1500 pickup truck, which had more than 350,000 miles and is rated at 15 mpg. She and her husband already had a newer vehicle, but she used the truck to go to work and for other in-town purposes. But lately it started having shifting problems, and it was occasionally slipping going uphill. Like Sable, Callahan, 39, got $4,500 this week to turn in the old vehicle and buy a new PT Cruiser. And, like Sable, she also received a separate $4,500 credit from Chrysler. She'll be paying about $10,000 for her new vehicle after taxes and fees. The $9,000 she saved with the credits from CARS and Chrysler isn't too shabby, considering she figures her old pickup was nearly worthless because it had so many miles. iReport.com: How Callahan got $9,000 for her truck . \"Without the incentives, I probably wouldn't have purchased a brand new vehicle,\" Callahan, who runs a science outreach program at the University of Utah, told CNN after filing her iReport. Unless it is renewed, the program will end November 1 or when funds allotted by Congress run out, whichever happens first. Trade-ins must be less than 25 years old, and their titles must be free of any liens. Consumers can go to a Web site, cars.gov, to learn the program's rules. FuelEconomy.gov: See if your vehicle qualifies for CARS .","highlights":"N.Y. man wasn't looking for new vehicle, but credits, circumstances changed plans .\nProgram gives credits of $3,500 to $4,500 to people who trade in gas guzzlers .\nRecipients must buy new vehicles that are more fuel efficient .\nTexas woman glad program helped her buy more fuel-efficient vehicle .","id":"750cdcbb7edf272463cd046678adae56ccc009e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sonia Sotomayor, who rose from humble roots in a Bronx, New York, housing project to a high-powered legal career, was sworn in Saturday as the 111th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Sonia Sotomayor takes the judicial oath Saturday as her mother, Celina, holds the Bible. With friends and family looking on, the 55-year-old jurist took the judicial oath in the court's wood-paneled East Conference Room, pledging to \"faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me.\" It was the first time such a ceremony was televised. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the 62-word oath required of all federal judges. In a private ceremony just moments before, Sotomayor took a separate, constitutional oath across the hall. Both oaths are necessary for her to assume her new duties. As her mother, Celina, held a ceremonial Bible, Sotomayor beamed as she waved to relatives and guests when she entered the room for the public ceremony. Among those in the room was her brother, Juan Sotomayor. Watch Sotomayor take the oath \u00bb . Roberts made brief preliminary remarks, telling the audience of about 60 that after the swearing-in, Sotomayor can \"begin her duties as an associate justice without delay.\" \"Congratulations and welcome to the court,\" he said afterward. Sotomayor made no statements and did not answer questions. She hugged her mother and several people in the front row. The newest justice can begin moving into her chambers and preparing for the upcoming fall term. The other justices plan to return early from their three-month recess to hear a case September 9 on free speech and campaign finance laws. Sources close to Sotomayor say she has already begun reading up on the caseload, and will soon formally hire four law clerks. She also will have two secretaries and a messenger to assist her. Justice Anthony Kennedy was the only current Supreme Court member on hand for the swearing-in ceremony. David Souter, whom Sotomayor replaces on the bench, was not there. He has retired to New Hampshire. The Senate confirmed Sotomayor on Thursday in a 68-31 vote. President Obama, who did not attend the swearing-in, will welcome his first high court appointee to the White House for a reception Wednesday. Watch Senate vote \u00bb . Obama, who selected Sotomayor on May 26, said Thursday he was \"deeply gratified\" by the Senate vote. \"This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America,\" he said in brief remarks. Sotomayor, who watched Thursday's final vote surrounded by friends and family at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, was confirmed after senators spent a final day of debate rehashing the main arguments for and against her. Democrats continued to praise Sotomayor as a fair and impartial jurist with an extraordinary life story. Many Republicans portrayed her as a judicial activist intent on reinterpreting the law to conform with her own liberal political beliefs. See how Sotomayor measures up to other justices \u00bb . Sotomayor's confirmation capped an inspiring personal and professional journey. Her parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during World War II. Her father worked in a factory and did not speak English well. She was born in the Bronx and grew up in a public housing project, not too far from the stadium of her favorite team, the New York Yankees. Her father died when she was 9. Her mother, whom Sotomayor has described as her biggest inspiration, worked six days a week as a nurse to care for her and her younger brother. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and attended Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. She worked at nearly every level of the judicial system over a three-decade career before being tapped by Obama. Her supporters touted her as someone with bipartisan favor and historic appeal. President George H.W. Bush named her a district judge in 1992. She had served as a judge on the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since President Bill Clinton appointed her in 1998. Prior to her judicial appointments, Sotomayor was a partner at a private law firm and spent time as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes.","highlights":"NEW: Sonia Sotomayor's mother, Celina, holds Bible for ceremony .\nNEW: Sotomayor makes no remarks, shares hugs with loved ones .\nNew justice becomes first Hispanic to serve on Supreme Court, third woman .\nSotomayor will start work in September to hear challenge to campaign finance bill .","id":"055353988c91a4de23ffbae21dba3e2648c9cc48"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A three-day manhunt ended when officials caught a murder suspect who escaped from a southeastern Louisiana jail with three other inmates, a police news release said. Timothy Murray, 29, who is charged with murder, has been recaptured, authorities in Louisiana say. Police found Timothy Murray at about 1 a.m. Sunday in a wooded stretch in the Folsom area of St. Tammany Parish, the release said. Police returned Murray to the St. Tammany Parish Jail in Covington, north of New Orleans, Louisiana. Murray, 29, is charged with murder, said Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. Three other escapees were rearrested Friday, Bonnett said. Thursday night's escape by Murray and the three others prompted a massive search using dogs, three helicopters and more than 100 officers, Bonnett said. Bonnett said he could not speak to how long it took to plan the escape, but that \"it clearly was a situation where there appeared to be a great amount of planning and forethought.\" The inmates captured Friday were Gary Slaydon, 27; Eric Buras, 30; and Jason Gainey, 27. Slaydon is charged with attempted murder, and Buras is a murder suspect. Gainey has been convicted of murder. They were found in a wooded area about a mile from the jail, Bonnett said. The men escaped about 9 p.m. Thursday, Bonnett said, and the escape was not discovered until a resident and Covington police reported seeing what appeared to be inmates in jail uniforms walking down a street. About the time those calls came in, jailers were doing a routine head count and found the four men missing, Bonnett said.","highlights":"Escaped inmate captured in Louisiana after three-day manhunt, police say .\nMan, 29, is charged with murder, police say .\nFour men escaped from jail in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, last week .\nThree found earlier in area near jail north of New Orleans, official says .","id":"e51c426389595d4b58d0bf695634dcafa8094dc5"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday he did not call for a ban on Facebook during the country's presidential election. President Ahmadinejad's challengers are using new technology to spread their message. \"I should make an inquiry and ask about this,\" he said when asked about reports that his government blocked access to the online social networking site. He added, \"I believe in maximum freedom of expression.\" The hardline Iranian president made the comment in response to a question from CNN at a news conference. Asked whether he would order that access to Facebook be reinstated, Ahmadinejad responded that he would \"see if there is a complaint\" that may be presented to the judiciary. The semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency reported over the weekend that the Iranian government had blocked Facebook amid political jockeying for the June 12 presidential election. Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi -- a former prime minister considered a threat to Ahmadinejad -- has created a Facebook page for his campaign and has more than 5,000 supporters on the site. Those attempting to visit Facebook were receiving a message in Farsi saying, \"Access to this site is not possible,\" according to CNN personnel in Tehran. The news agency reported the Masadiq Committee, made up of representatives from Iran's intelligence ministry, judiciary and others, had ordered the action. After a few hours, the block was lifted, but then reinstated later, the agency said. No reason was given. \"We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions,\" a Facebook spokesperson said in a written statement. \"We are investigating these reports. \"We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers. It is always a shame when a countries' cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet provides.\" Ahmadinejad's challengers are increasingly turning to new technology to spread their message, according to a May 13 article in the Financial Times newspaper. Iran's population -- estimated at more than 66 million by July 2009, according to the CIA World Factbook -- has a median age of 27. The Financial Times, which put the country's population at 70 million, said 47 million Iranians have cell phones and 21 million have Internet access. \"We are using new technologies because they have the capacity to be multiplied by people themselves who can forward Bluetooth, e-mails and text messages and invite more supporters on Facebook,\" Behzad Mortazavi, head of Mousavi's campaign committee, told the Financial Times. At a Mousavi rally at a stadium Saturday, the Facebook blockage was a topic of conversation among reporters. Many said they had accessed Facebook on Friday night and believe the site was blocked Saturday morning. CNN's Reza Sayah and Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he did not call for a ban on Facebook .\nAhmadinejad: \"I believe in maximum freedom of expression\"\nAhmadinejad's opponents are using new technology to spread message .\nReformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi created Facebook page for campaign .","id":"ccafafb689c387f8da6df2f3785b16a59aa69045"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The backdrop to countless movies and television shows, Los Angeles has been reproduced on film more times than any other city on the planet. The L.A. metropolis spreads over nearly 500 square miles. But just like the movie sets that went up in flames last year at Universal Studios, the Tinseltown glamour is often no more than a flimsy facade. Behind the myth of Hollywood lies a swirling melting pot of a place where nearly half of people speak Spanish and where, for every rising star, there's at least a hundred wannabes waiting tables or entertaining tourists on Venice Beach. At once a Lalaland filled with dreamers, Los Angeles has also been scene to some of the worst race riots in American history: a paradoxical place that spawned both Charlie Chaplin and Gangsta Rap. These days, aside from the smog -- an ever present in a city plagued with so many cars and so little rainfall -- the atmosphere is less toxic than two decades ago when the city was awash with crack cocaine and guns. Watch Wolfgang Puck take CNN on a tour of L.A. \u00bb . Schemes to gentrify the downtown and other areas, such as the construction of the Hollywood and Highland complex that includes the Kodak Theater -- home to the Oscars since 2002 -- have gone some way to revitalizing the inner city. In any case, in a city with an estimated population of 3.8 million sprawling over a metropolis nearly 500 square miles in size, it's easy to avoid the sharper edges if you want to. Not that that's so surprising. After all, where better to detune from reality than in a town whose success is entirely founded on our appetite for escapism. And from its world class art galleries to the unashamed schmaltz of Disneyland and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it offers escapism for all tastes. The Los Angeles story started in the late nineteenth century when Midwesterners attracted by the promise of a warm, dry climate followed the railroad west. The boom times risked coming to a premature halt at the turn of the century due to water shortages, but the smart engineering and dark maneuverings of the city water department (maneuverings that helped inspire the classic film noir, Chinatown) resulted in the construction of water aqueducts that ensured the city's continued growth. See pictures of Wolfgang Puck's Los Angeles . In the end though, light was the natural resource that mattered most. From the 1920s onwards, the motion picture industry grew into a worldwide phenomenon thanks to the abundance of clear, blue skies to help light the movie moguls sets. By the time the Golden Age of Hollywood came to an end, the boom town had morphed into a sprawling urban center and the lure of the limelight had earned the city the tag it retains to this day, that of \"entertainment capital of the world.\" In the early nineties, the story lost its luster somewhat when years of marginalization suffered by African Americans found a rallying point in the Rodney King beating. Despite a video that appeared to show police violently attacking King, the accused officers were acquitted. The verdict led to rioting in which 53 people died and large areas went up in flames. The city is certainly no angel, it's true. Even so, whether it's tattooed bodybuilders rollerblading Santa Monica Boulevard, a Marilyn Monroe look alike blowing kisses outside Grauman's Chinese Theater or a blood red sunset dropping into the Pacific, Los Angeles is a place with a rare ability to beguile and bemuse in equal measure.","highlights":"Los Angeles is known as \"the entertainment capital of the world\"\nSince the railroad came west it has grown to a metropolis of 3.8 million .\nThe city has seen racial tensions, notably race riots in the early 90s .","id":"c38f5262e61de385388d2dd7771d24c6d9c747fd"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The French National Assembly announced Tuesday the creation of an inquiry into whether women in France should be allowed to wear the burka, one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers that the traditional Muslim garment was \"not welcome\" in France. A woman wears traditionnal Muslim dress n Venissieux, near Lyon. A cross-party panel of 32 lawmakers will investigate whether the traditional Muslim garment poses a threat to the secular nature of the French constitution. They are due to report back with their recommendations in six months. Last week 57 lawmakers -- led by communist legislator Andre Gerin -- signed a petition calling for a study into the feasibility of legislation to ban the burka in public places. On Monday Sarkozy declared in a keynote parliamentary address that the burka, which covers women from head to toe, is \"not welcome\" in France. Watch why burkas are such a controversial issue in France \u00bb . \"The problem of the burka is not a religious problem. This is an issue of a woman's freedom and dignity. This is not a religious symbol. It is a sign of subservience; it is a sign of lowering. I want to say solemnly, the burka is not welcome in France,\" Sarkozy told lawmakers. The right of Muslim women to cover themselves is fiercely debated in France, which has a large Muslim minority but also a staunchly secular constitution. Should Muslim women in France be banned from wearing the burka? Sound Off below . In 2004, the French parliament passed legislation banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in state schools, prompting widespread Muslim protests. The law also banned other conspicuous religious symbols including Sikh turbans, large Christian crucifixes and Jewish skull caps. Last year, France's top court denied a Moroccan woman's naturalization request on the grounds that she wore a burka. Some lawmakers have called for burkas to be banned completely, claiming they are degrading to women. They also include housing minister Fadela Amara, a Muslim-born women's rights campaigner, who has called the garment \"a kind of tomb for women.\" \"We cannot accept in our country women trapped behind a fence, cut off from social life, deprived of any identity. This is not the idea that we have of a woman's dignity,\" Sarkozy said Monday. But French Muslim leaders say that only a small minority of women wear the full veil and had previously criticized calls for the issue to be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. \"To raise the subject like this, via a parliamentary committee, is a way of stigmatizing Islam and the Muslims of France,\" Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, told AFP last week. \"We are shocked by the idea parliament should be put to work on such a marginal issue.\" According to CIA estimates, between 5 and 10 percent of France's 64 million population are Muslim. The country does not collect its own statistics on religion in accordance with laws enshrining France's status as a secular state. France is not the only European Union country to have considered banning the burka. Dutch lawmakers voted in favor of a ban in 2005, although the government of the time was defeated in elections before it could pass legislation to outlaw the garment.","highlights":"French lawmakers to consider whether burka threatens French secularism .\nPanel set up after President Sarkozy says burka not welcome in France .\nDebate is raging in France about Muslim women wearing the traditional garment .","id":"3bc2029798be658bc77398f621e63884c30c666e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After her crowning in January, Katie Stam, Miss America 2009, went from beauty queen to traveling machine -- within minutes. \"The moment they put that crown on my head I started work...literally,\" she told CNN. Miss America Katie Stam is constantly on the road. The Indiana native will spend a year crisscrossing the country promoting her platform of community service. \"I change locations every two or three days, and that's exactly how it's going to be all year,\" Stam says. From visiting children in hospitals in Pennsylvania to flipping pancakes for charity in California, Miss America lives a life on the road. And with such a hectic schedule, she has picked up a few tips on how to stay sane while traveling. \"The most important tip I could offer anybody who does a lot of traveling is to stay as organized as possible,\" Stam says. To keep from losing items on the road, Stam keeps everything in the same place in her suitcase, including her crown. \"It's really funny, but it helps me kind of keep a clear mind,\" she explains. She also unpacks a little as soon as she arrives in her hotel room. \"You realize when you get on the road, and that's your life, your hotel becomes your home,\" Stam says. \"And so you really need to feel that you're coming home to your room, to your place where all of your things are.\" Stam also stresses the importance of a good night's sleep. \"It's absolutely essential to get a full night's rest or at least quality rest,\" she says. However she also acknowledges the difficulties of sleeping a full eight hours while traveling. But the ever chipper Miss America has a trick for getting around the wonky work hours: \"If you know you only have 10 minutes, you take a quick 10 minute nap.\" With airplanes being her primary mode of transportation, the beauty queen also has advice for the frequent flyer on how to stay fresh while on the go. \"It's tricky,\" she says. \"A lot of people lose their luggage and stuff. So I always keep my makeup with me, put on a little powder before I go somewhere.\" And when you're Miss America, somewhere could be anywhere.","highlights":"Miss America Katie Stam is spending a year on the road .\nShe likes to unpack a little as soon as she arrives at her hotel .\nKeeping things in the same place helps her stay organized on the road .","id":"44368936b6c7d50f1347f363eefd742ed68f1244"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The sponsor of a proposal to rein in aggressive celebrity photographers is meeting resistance from Los Angeles' top cop, who says the law is not needed when celebrities just behave. Photographers swarm a car carrying Britney Spears after a Los Angeles court appearance in October 2007. City Councilman Dennis Zine wants to require photographers to stay a safe distance from celebrities. His proposed ordinance is nicknamed the \"Britney Law\" for the hordes of paparazzi that swarm around pop star Britney Spears, sometimes costing the city thousands of dollars for escorts and other enforcement. \"They act like a pack of wolves stalking their prey, creating havoc in the streets, and are nuisances to innocent bystanders,\" Zine said at a task force hearing he convened Thursday. Watch how paparazzi spy on Hollywood stars \u00bb . The proposal gained exposure last month when officials from around Southern California asked former independent counsel Kenneth Starr -- whose investigation of former President Clinton spawned its own share of tabloid headlines -- to help craft a law that would protect celebrities without infringing on freedom of the press. iReport.com: Share your celeb stories and photos . Critics of the plan include Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, who argues that it would be difficult to enforce. He also says existing laws can keep unruly packs of photographers in check. The chief said the city's tabloid darlings could help by providing photographers less to work with. \"If celebrities behave themselves, that solves about 90 percent of the problem,\" Bratton said. \"Britney, the last couple of days, has started wearing clothes again. The paparazzi are leaving town because she's not as interesting when she's not running around without her underwear on.\" He said actress Lindsay Lohan \"evidently found a new love life, so she's probably in New York hanging out\" and that \"God knows\" where billionaire heiress Paris Hilton had been. \"She's thankfully disappeared from the scene,\" Bratton said. At the hearing, members of the paparazzi also said the law would be impossible to enforce. \"Unless every celebrity has a chaperone of a police officer with a 6-foot tape measure, how are you going to enforce it?\" said photographer Nick Stern. Those attending included musician John Mayer, actor Eric Roberts, sheriff's officials, representatives of the Screen Actors Guild and officials from West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu. CNN's Kareen Wynter contributed to this report.","highlights":"Councilman wants to require photographers to keep distance from celebrities .\nCritics say 'Britney Law' would be difficult to enforce .\nPolice chief says law would be unnecessary if celebs behaved themselves .","id":"562e106f1e332659f41eedce3a841d417144940f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- We hear that a lot of young people don't care or worry about the economy and finances. But take it from a 23-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter: They do and should care. Kelly Evans, 23, is an economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Kelly Evans started as an economics reporter at the paper as the economy started getting bad a year and a half ago. She has since seen the resilience of the people in her generation as they adapt to a changing job market. CNN's Nicole Lapin talked to Evans about what young people should be doing to deal with the tough times. The following is an edited transcript of the interview: . Nicole Lapin: What do you tell young people to make economic news relevant to them? Watch the entire interview with Kelly Evans \u00bb . Kelly Evans: We really, really do try to explain to people, past some of the language and the jargon, to say that economics is really about what's happening: your job, your income, demographics, poverty rates, and what it looks like across the country. There are some terms that may seem unfamiliar, but I think if you sit down and read through our coverage, you'll see that a lot of it makes sense. I feel very proud of the fact that over the last year, year and a half, a lot of the articles that I've written and a lot of the articles that we've written as an economics team have done a lot to point out the risks out there so that this didn't just come out of nowhere. Lapin: So what are some of the things that young people should really focus on? Is it a 401(k)? Is it savings? Is it a combination of the two, perhaps? Evans: Well, I think for most young people, the big thing right now is a career or a job path. Whether you're in high school or you're in college, you're thinking, \"What am I going to do when I get out? Do I want to be a doctor, or a lawyer?\" I think less people want to be in banking than did a few years ago, and so I'm curious as a reporter what is perceived to be the golden ticket nowadays. Certainly health care, education are some of the more reliable places to go right now. So what I would say mostly is make sure you're in a good financial position. Do whatever you can for yourself. But really make sure you're investing in your education or skills, maybe the language skills in particular, that will be really important down the road. I think that ends up paying off in human capital. It's really important. Lapin: What kind of tips do you give to youngsters who are about to get out of school? Evans: I would encourage people who are looking at colleges to ignore the brand name and really go with what is going to be the best value to you.","highlights":"Kelly Evans is an economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal .\nShe says in this economy, young people should focus on education, job path .\nShe strives to provide common-sense information about complicated economy .\nWhen looking for college, Evans says, don't focus on \"brand name\"","id":"2292a325925d96c95a27ac30dc7d3e545189eaba"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The crown of the Statue of Liberty will reopen to tourists on July 4. The Statue of Liberty welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The crown was closed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for safety and security reasons. The National Park Service closed the attraction amid worries that it would be difficult for visitors to evacuate quickly in the event of an emergency. Visitors must climb a narrow 168-step double-helix spiral staircase to get to the crown. Since the closing, tourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue. iReport.com: Show us your best Statue of Liberty shots . The federal government planned to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in May. \"We are once again inviting the public to celebrate our great nation and the hope and opportunity it symbolizes by climbing to Lady Liberty's crown for a unique view of New York Harbor, where the forebears of millions of American families first saw the world,\" he said in a statement. Access to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a National Park Service ranger. \"We cannot eliminate all the risk of climbing to the crown, but we are taking steps to make it safer,\" Salazar said. The measures include raising the handrails on the spiral staircase and stationing rangers throughout the Statue to help visitors. The Statue of Liberty will be open for the next two years, then closed again for \"work on a long-term solution that will improve safety and security permanently,\" according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. A gift from France to the United States, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for its centennial on July 4, 1986. It stands just across New York Harbor from where the Twin Towers stood.","highlights":"The Statue of Liberty's crown will reopen to the public on July 4 .\nThe crown has been closed since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks .\niReporters shared photos of the statue, which CNN combined in a mosaic .\niReport.com: See, share your photos of Lady Liberty .","id":"f7969bb45ceef4ac282276d602e32cef363e5a3b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A drunk passenger tried to hijack a Turkish Airlines flight to Russia on Wednesday before he was brought under control, the head of Turkey's civil aviation authority said. The Turkish Airlines passenger jet was en route from Turkey to Russia when the incident took place. The plane landed safely and on time Wednesday afternoon in St. Petersburg. Russian authorities promptly arrested a \"slightly intoxicated\" passenger from Uzbekistan, Russia's Interfax News Agency reported, citing a national police spokesman. The suspect, in his early 50s, was arrested on suspicion of trying to hijack the plane, Interfax reported. Turkish media initially reported that the plane had been hijacked. When asked about those reports, a Turkish Airlines spokesman said the flight experienced an \"urgent situation\" as it headed to St. Petersburg, without offering further details. Interfax said the flight was carrying 164 Russian nationals. There have been several attempts to hijack Turkish airlines in recent years. In August 2007, two men hijacked an Istanbul-bound Atlasjet Airlines flight with 136 passengers and crew on board from Cyprus, claiming to have a bomb on board the flight. They forced the crew to make an emergency landing in Antalya. Both hijackers eventually surrendered to Turkish authorities. In April 2007, Turkish authorities detained a man they believed tried to hijack a Turkish airliner, possibly to Iran. The suspect, Mehmed Goksin Gol, was not armed and all 178 passengers and crew aboard the Pegasus Airlines flight were unharmed. The flight was heading from southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir to Istanbul, but landed at Ankara's airport, where the suspect was detained. In October 2006, a Turkish man hijacked a Turkish jetliner with 113 people aboard en route from the Albanian capital Tirana for Istanbul. He forced it to fly to a military airfield in Brindisi, Italy, where the passengers and crew were released unharmed. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow and Nicky Robertson in Atlanta contributed to this report .","highlights":"Incident on flight between Antalya, Turkey and St Petersburg, Russia .\nTurkish Airlines: Drunk man tried to hijack passenger plane .\nOfficials: Man brought under control, airline experienced \"urgent situation\"\nNEW: Interfax: Flight arrives at St. Petersburg, police arrest Uzbek man in his 50s .","id":"242a79e95c93576fc1364aa7e034f4399af00feb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Robert J. Shiller is a professor of economics at Yale University. This op-ed is based on his book with George Akerlof, \"Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism.\" Akerlof is a 2001 Nobel laureate in economics and professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Robert Shiller says basic psychogical factors led to excesses which have devastated the economy. (CNN) -- President Obama's National Economic Council head Lawrence Summers noted in his speech March 13 that the economic crisis has led to an \"excess of fear\" that must be reversed. To understand the role fear plays in the current crisis, we must understand the role of human psychology. John Maynard Keynes thought psychology was the major cause of economic booms as well as busts, though this aspect of his work is now largely forgotten. He said people's economic decisions, in both good times and bad times, are largely, ultimately, if indirectly, driven by animal spirits, primitive psychological tendencies. In a recently published book, George Akerlof and I identified three animal spirits that played critical roles in the current economic meltdown. They are confidence, bad faith and storytelling. Let's first consider confidence and its dictionary meaning. Confidence means complete and secure trust. But trust goes beyond the rational use of information that is usually considered in economic theory. Trust is largely an emotion. Indeed we saw the role of vivid emotions in the stock and housing market booms that brought on our current problems. Trust is a state of mind that is the opposite of vigilance. People were purchasing and selling complex financial instruments without looking carefully at them. This trust is broken. The second animal spirit that came into play was bad faith. With so many trusting people, an uglier side of human nature became prominent. The temptation for smart promoters was overwhelming. Questionable practices boomed, and regulators failed to step in, because of the view, taken from economists, that private markets would be self-policing. Investors would only put their money at increased risk if they were duly compensated by higher expected returns. Thus, there was little worry about laxity of regulation in securities and real estate markets. But, this self-policing view did not consider that these investors might be overconfident. There is a myth that capitalism produces what people really want, as long as firms can make a profit. But, instead, more generally, it produces what people think they want, as long as firms can make a profit. True, unregulated capitalism will produce good medicines that cure our ills. But unregulated capitalism will also produce snake oil that people think they want, but does not cure our ills. (To guard against the production of such things, the federal government established the Food and Drug Administration in 1906.) The problem of snake oil has special relevance for financial assets, which are only pieces of paper. Most investors can surmise their value only from what others, such as accountants and rating agencies, tell them. These accounting and rating agencies also have their own incentives. And those incentives have not been fully aligned with the public's interest. And so when people are overconfident, financial markets produce assets that take advantage of that overconfidence. If unprotected by effective regulation, people will be sold snake oil assets. Just recently an industry arose, in Wall Street and beyond, to produce them. A third animal spirit bolstered the previous two. People act and think and live according to stories, especially human interest stories, not usually abstract calculation. That goes for their personal decisions. But there is also always a story, usually with some grain of truth and human interest, about the economy. These stories are often overly exuberant, on the one side, or overly pessimistic on the other. Ten years ago we had the story of the dot-com millionaires. Most recently we believed alchemists of financial engineering were packaging risky financial assets to make them safe. People were overconfident. And markets took advantage of their beliefs to sell them what later proved to be snake oil assets. These three animal spirits then explain how factors in human psychology play a key role in why the economy fluctuates as much as it does. The confidence comes and goes. The stories come and go. The snake oil comes and goes. This explanation for economic fluctuations has implications for the role of government. The first role of government is, before the fact -- as with the Food and Drug Administration -- to protect the public from negative consequences of their animal spirits (and to let them prevail and even to encourage the positive consequences). If, as now, the snake oil has been swallowed, it is the role of the government to restore our health. The government must aim to achieve full employment of the population by added spending to boost the economy and policies to make credit widely available. It should fulfill the full-employment goals of the Employment Act of 1946. That means that producers who produce good products at a profit should have buyers who want to buy them; workers who have trained for productive jobs should be able to get them. It also means that producers who can produce such products can get the credit to finance their production; and buyers who want to purchase these products can obtain the credit to purchase them. Why are such targets useful and necessary? History tells us. In the Great Depression, both Hoover and Roosevelt had many pragmatic schemes to put people back to work and keep credit markets from falling apart. But for lack of a correct theory of the economy, and targets corresponding to that theory, their measures fell far short. Unemployment in the United States only fell below 10 percent after the start of World War II, in 1941. Such targets are necessary for political reasons as well. Any effective plan to resolve our crisis will involve massive sticker shock. The two targets are necessary to justify and explain the tough and expensive measures that need to be taken. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Robert Shiller.","highlights":"Robert Shiller: Economic boom gave rise to schemes that relied on trust .\nHe says basic psychological factors are key to restoring confidence .\nGovernment has a role in preventing fraud from being sold to the public, he says .\nShiller: Government must aim for full employment and widely available credit .","id":"56a5605dca837c27e906e4d9699d04ac6a6697cd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican, announced Friday that he will resign his seat as soon as a replacement can be named by the governor. Sen. Mel Martinez is the only Hispanic Republican in the U.S. Senate. \"My priorities have always been my faith, my family and my country, and, at this stage of my life and after nearly 12 years of public service in Florida and in Washington, it is time to return to Florida and my family,\" the 62-year-old said in Orlando, Florida. \"So today I am announcing my decision to step down from public office.\" Martinez said he is resigning \"of my own free will. There is no impending reason; it's only my desire to move on and to get on with the rest of my life.\" He added that he is in good health and that he expects the next phase of his life will take place in the private sector. \"However, I do hope that I can have a voice to speak out on issues I think are important,\" he said. Martinez added that he has no plans to run for any other public office. At a news conference at McDill Air Force Base in Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist said he will \"undertake a very thorough, comprehensive, thoughtful process\" to find a replacement for Martinez. He vowed not to appoint himself to complete Martinez's six-year term, which ends in about 17 months, and predicted that he would reach a decision before the Senate returns from recess September 8. Crist, a Republican, had announced in May that he would not seek a second term as governor and instead would run for Martinez's seat in the 2010 election. Martinez was elected in 2004. He announced in December his intention to retire at the end of his term. Martinez is the only Hispanic Republican in the Senate. He joined eight other Republicans on Thursday in voting to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Democrats hold a tenuous filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, with 60 votes. Martinez is one of six Republicans who have stated they would not seek re-election in 2010. But the Florida senator is the second Republican who has decided to leave before the curtain drops on the 111th Congress next fall. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, recently announced her intention to quit the Senate three years before her term expires, in order to run for governor next year. The five other Republicans who are retiring are Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning and Ohio Sen. George Voinovich. Two Democrats will not run in 2010: Illinois Sen. Roland Burris and Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman. Republicans must defend 19 seats next year, and Democrats must protect 18. CNN's Rick DiBella, Mark Preston and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Florida senator says there is no \"impending reason\" behind decision .\nNEW: He has no plans to run for another office, he says .\nHe announced in December that he would not seek re-election .\nFlorida governor has said he will seek the seat .","id":"f13bca9c84ea2b7c9bd91cd760f6d6751732ade6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ed McMahon, the longtime pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick whose \"Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!\" became a part of the vernacular, has died. Ed McMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years. McMahon passed away peacefully shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan\/UCLA Medical Center, his publicist, Howard Bragman, said Tuesday . McMahon, 86, was hospitalized in February with pneumonia and other medical problems. He had suffered a number of health problems in recent years, including a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. In 2002, he sued various insurance companies and contractors over mold in his house and later collected a $7 million settlement. Though he later hosted a variety of shows -- including \"Star Search\" and \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes,\" McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Carson on \"The Tonight Show,\" which Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. The two met not long after Carson began hosting the game show \"Who Do You Trust?\" in 1957. iReport.com: Share your memories of Ed McMahon . \"Johnny didn't look as if he was dying to see me,\" McMahon, who was hosting a show on a Philadelphia TV station, told People magazine in 1980 about the pair's first meeting. \"He was standing with his back to the door, staring at a couple of workmen putting letters on a theater marquee. I walked over and stood beside him. Finally the two guys finished, and Johnny asked, 'What have you been doing?' I told him. He said, 'Good to meet you, Ed,' shook my hand, and I was out of the office. The whole meeting was about as exciting as watching a traffic light change.\" Watch McMahon discuss meeting Johnny Carson \u00bb . Though McMahon was surprised to be offered the job as Carson's sidekick, the two soon proved to have a strong chemistry. Carson was, by nature, introverted and dry-witted; McMahon was the boisterous and outgoing second banana, content to give Carson straight lines or laugh uproariously at his jokes (a characteristic much-parodied by comedians). Watch Comedian Joan Rivers recall McMahon \u00bb . Carson made cracks about McMahon's weight, his drinking and the men's trouble with divorce. McMahon was married three times; Carson, who died in 2005, had four wives. McMahon was also the show's designated pitchman, a talent he honed to perfection during \"Tonight's\" 30-year run with Carson, even if sometimes the in-show commercial spots fell flat. For one of the show's regular sponsors, Alpo dog food, McMahon usually extolled the virtues of the product while a dog eagerly gobbled down a bowl. But one day the show's regular dog wasn't available, and the substitute pooch wasn't very hungry. McMahon recalled the incident in his 1998 memoir, \"For Laughing Out Loud.\" \"Then I saw Johnny come into my little commercial area. He got down on his hands and knees and came over to me. ... I started to pet Johnny. Nice boss, I was thinking as I pet him on the head, nice boss. By this point the audience was hysterical. ... I just kept going. I was going to get my commercial done. \" 'The next time you're looking at the canned dog food ...' -- he rubbed his cheek against my leg -- ... reach for the can that contains real beef.' Johnny got up on his knees and started begging for more. I started petting him again ... and then he licked my hand.\" McMahon also promoted Budweiser, American Family Insurance and -- during the most recent Super Bowl -- Cash4Gold.com. Entertainment Weekly named him No. 1 on its list of TV's greatest sidekicks. Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 6, 1923. His father was a promoter, and McMahon remembered moving a lot during his childhood. \"I changed towns more often than a pickpocket,\" McMahon told People. He later joined the Marines and served in World War II and Korea. Though McMahon was well-rewarded by NBC -- the 1980 People article listed his salary between $600,000 and $1 million -- his divorces and some poor investments took their toll. In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, told CNN's Larry King that McMahon had gotten caught in a spate of financial problems. \"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that,\" said McMahon, who added that he hadn't worked much since the neck injury. McMahon later struck a deal that allowed him to stay in the house. He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and five children. A sixth child, McMahon's son Michael, died in 1995.","highlights":"McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Johnny Carson on \"The Tonight Show\"\nMcMahon hosted \"Star Search\" and \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\"\nMcMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years .","id":"9eda99aa5272914882bf76a0633d9006657788d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Norman Ollestad remembers the tree limb. The book's jacket features a picture of a 1-year-old Norman clinging to his father's back on a surfboard. He was 11 years old, riding in a Cessna in a blizzard through California's San Gabriel Mountains in 1979, on his way to pick up a trophy he won in a skiing competition. \"The gray clouds were just pressing against the windows; it didn't even seem like we were moving,\" he recalls. \"Then, there's a limb reaching out of that fog and disappearing. Then another one and another one. \"Then realizing we were in the trees.\" The plane crash that followed killed his father and the pilot and badly wounded his father's girlfriend, who with young Norman was tossed violently onto the top of an 8,600-foot mountain in the freezing, February chill. \"I felt three thuds. The third one must have knocked me cold,\" says Ollestad, now 41. \"I remember feeling those thuds in my spine -- a clear memory of that. Then I woke up who knows how long after.\" The ensuing nine-hour, life-or-death descent -- in the end, he was the only survivor -- is the topic of \"Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival.\" Watch the press conference that followed his survival \u00bb . But the book is about more than a plane crash, namely his relationship with an adrenaline-junkie father who basked in the wild life of Malibu in the 1970s and relentlessly pushed his \"Boy Wonder\" to excel from the ski slopes of northern California to the crashing surf off the Mexican coast. \"It's actually 100 percent about my relationship with my father,\" Ollestad said. \"That relationship was present on the mountain with me, even though he was dead.\" Released this month, the book already has been picked up by Warner Bros. [a sister company of CNN] for a feature film and has earned critical acclaim, including comparisons to John Krakauer's 1997 nonfiction best-seller \"Into Thin Air.\" \"An engrossing story of adventure, survival and psychological exploration,\" wrote the journal Kirkus Reviews. In the book, Ollestad cuts back and forth between the crash and journey down the mountain and the years leading up to that moment. Included are memories of life in Malibu, where he grew up the son of divorced parents in a cottage on the beach. There are surfers and skate rats, musicians and nudists and memories of smoking weed and spying on his neighbors' most intimate moments. But mostly there's his father, Norman Ollestad Sr., an athlete, actor, lawyer, musician and former FBI agent. From the age of 3, Norman was groomed for competitive \"extreme sports\" by his father and pushed to be the best. The book's jacket features a picture of a 1-year-old Norman clinging to his father's back as he steers a surfboard atop the waves of California's Topanga State Beach. He acknowledges that many times, when his father was cooking up a new adventure for the two of them, he would rather have been \"riding my bike or eating chocolate cake.\" \"[At first] a lot of people are, 'Wow .. I had a lot of trouble with some of the stuff your dad was doing,' \" says Ollestad, who studied creative writing at UCLA and attended UCLA's film school. \"But then it turned out that a lot of that stuff was really beautiful.\" And he believes it saved his life. The skiing made him aware of how steep the mountain's slope was and what it would take to get down it without falling. The skiing and surfing gave him control of his body and awareness of the exact movements required to work his way out of the descent's most treacherous spots. \"Some of it was sort of eerily, specifically perfect for the situation,\" he says. \"Forty-five degree pitch, blizzard with ice, well, I've been here for eight years doing this. It was familiar to me.\" The book has had another, unexpected result for Ollestad, who now lives in Venice, California. He says he's been shocked at the e-mail from readers. \"Nobody's even written about the plane crash,\" he says. \"[They say] 'it reminds me of some of the things I did with my dad or some of the things I didn't get to do.' \"In every e-mail, whether it's a woman or a man, they talk about ...their relationship with their father or mother. It touches something in there where they want to talk about it.\" Now, for Ollestad, the story has followed him all the way around. He's the father of an 8-year-old, Noah, and seeks to walk the line between responsible parenting and teaching his child the lessons he says saved his life. \"Those were different times,\" he tells the boy in the book's epilogue. \"My dad made me do lots of things that I'd get arrested for making you do.\"","highlights":"Norman Ollestad was 11 years old when the plane he was in crashed .\nOllestad's father died and Ollestad climbed down the mountain for nine hours .\nExperience is present in book \"Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival\"\nBook also chronicles Ollestad's relationship with his father .","id":"814df3bddb56f0f436c4d52e2c1e75b423415c52"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two additional suspects in the strangulation of an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor were arrested Friday, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. Felix Brinkmann dances at a 2008 birthday party. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies,\" his son says. Aljulah Cutts, 27, and his brother Hasib, 30, were taken into custody in Manhattan in connection with the death last week of Guido Felix Brinkmann, the district attorney's office said. A spokeswoman declined to specify what, if any, connection the men are suspected to have had to the victim or to a woman previously arrested in the case. Police also would not say what charges the two might face. The woman, Angela Murray, 30, of the Bronx, was arraigned Sunday on one count of murder in the second degree and three counts of robbery in the case. Brinkmann was found dead in the bedroom of his apartment July 30, his hands tied behind his back, police said. A safe was missing from the apartment, and his car had been stolen. Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, was held in the Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz camps during World War II. After the war, he and his wife, who also survived Auschwitz, came to America. In 1971, Brinkmann co-founded Adam's Apple disco in Manhattan, and later was the real estate manager of a mixed-use building in the Bronx, according to his son, Rick Brinkman, who uses a different spelling for his last name. Brinkmann's wife died last year. CNN's Jason Kessler and Chris Kokenes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man, brother taken into custody in connection with Guido Felix Brinkmann's death .\nWoman previously arrested in the case was arraigned Sunday .\nBrinkmann, 89, was found strangled last week in his Manhattan apartment .\nA safe was missing from the apartment, and Brinkmann's car had been stolen .","id":"9673ebffc25c91b65cf9e1651ef3486845e3d795"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-administered Kashmir (CNN) -- The chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir tendered his resignation Tuesday after he was accused of being involved in a 2006 sex scandal, his adviser said. Omar Abdullah denies any link to a prostitution ring, saying he has stepped down to clear his name. Omar Abdullah, 38, delivered his resignation to the state governor after opposition member Muzaffar Hussain Beigh accused Omar of a connection to the prostitution scandal during a session of the state legislative assembly. Muzaffar served as the deputy chief minister in the previous government, when several top pro-India officials were arrested on charges they misused their authority to force girls and women into a prostitution ring in Kashmir. Omar denied being involved in the scandal, but said he could not \"continue in the office following the allegation\" and would not serve again until he is cleared of the charges. \"This is not an ordinary allegation, but a highly serious one. I cannot continue in office until I am cleared,\" Omar said in the state assembly. He then drove to Raj Bhawan, the official residence of New Delhi-appointed governor N. N. Vohra, to deliver his resignation, according to Devender Rana, Omar's political adviser. The governor is consulting constitutional and legal experts before deciding on the resignation. The chief minister refused to talk to journalists outside the governor's residence. The Times of India newspaper Tuesday quoted highly placed sources in India's Central Bureau of Investigation as saying that Omar's name never came up in the prostitution probe. Omar came into office in January following elections in late 2008 that saw the highest voter turnout in the region in nearly 20 years, since the eruption of a secessionist insurgency. Voters went to the polls in large numbers, despite a separatist call for a boycott of the voting. Most recently, the chief minister has been working to defuse tensions that are still running high following the arrest of four police officers in the probe of the alleged rape and murder of two young Muslim women in May. Two people have died and many have been injured in more than 300 violent clashes between Muslim protesters and Indian security forces stemming from the case. The arrests included the former police chief of south Kashmir's Shopian district and three of his subordinates, who are accused of \"destruction of evidence\" and \"dereliction of duty\" in connection with the deaths, which occurred in the town of Shopian. Kashmir has been in the throes of a bloody secessionist campaign for nearly two decades in which, according to official figures, 43,000 people have been killed. Various rights groups and non-governmental organizations here, however, dispute the official statistics -- claiming that the number killed during the last two decades is twice the official figure.","highlights":"Chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir tenders his resignation .\nOmar Abdullah accused of being involved in a 2006 sex scandal .\nHe denies allegation he was involved in a prostitution ring .","id":"abe83f5825e7b616e29fa9790df8850ee5e9af38"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Investigators have raised the wreckage of the helicopter involved in Saturday's deadly mid-air collision over the Hudson River, but they were still looking for the small plane involved in the crash, authorities said Sunday. Divers unload a body from their raft onto a police boat Sunday. Nine people are believed dead in the crash. New York police said they believed side-scan sonar pointed them to the wreckage of the Piper Saratoga PA-32 just north of where the helicopter went down, but Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said swift current and low visibility were hindering divers. The search stopped as a storm approached Sunday evening and will resume Monday morning, police said. Nine people, including five Italian tourists, were aboard the two aircraft when they collided over the river shortly before noon Saturday. Seven bodies had been pulled out of the river by Sunday afternoon, Hersman said. Authorities believe none of the nine people aboard the two aircraft survived the crash. Neither aircraft was required to carry electronic \"black boxes\" that record cockpit voices and flight data on larger planes, but electronic navigational devices on board might retain some information that could help the probe, Hersman said. Investigators are trying to establish the facts of the crash but won't determine the probable cause for some time, Hersman said. See where the collision occurred \u00bb . \"We are looking at everything. Nothing has been ruled out at this point in time,\" she said. Most of the Eurocopter AS350 had been lifted out of the Hudson on Sunday and taken to a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, for examination, Hersman said. The helicopter was taking the five Italians on a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York and had taken off from a heliport in midtown Manhattan shortly before the crash, she said. Watch crews search for victims \u00bb . New York police identified the pilot of the helicopter as Jeremy Clark, 32. He had worked for the operator, Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, for about a year and a half and had 2,700 helicopter flight hours, Hersman said. iReport.com: Were you there? Send images . His passengers were Michele Norelli, 51; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; Filippo Norelli, 16; Giacomo Gallazzi, 15; and Tiziana Pedroni, 44, all of Bologna, Italy. The plane took off from a Philadelphia-area airfield Saturday morning, landed at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was bound for Ocean City, New Jersey, with three people aboard -- the owner and pilot, Steven Altman, 60, of Ambler, Pennsylvania; his brother, Daniel Altman, 49, of Dresher, Pennsylvania; and Daniel Altman's son Douglas, 16. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m., when it was at an altitude of about 1,100 feet, Hersman said. View images from the scene \u00bb . Hersman said the NTSB has recorded eight accidents and one \"incident\" involving Liberty, but Saturday's crash was the first to involve fatalities. Previous accidents included a 2007 case in which a helicopter crash-landed in the Hudson from a height of 500 feet, but without injuring passengers; a 2008 incident in which one helicopter taking off clipped another on the ground; a 2008 incident in which a pilot caused \"substantial damage\" to a helicopter while landing during an instructional session. In 2001, a Liberty pilot made an \"improper decision\" to continue flying in poor weather at night, causing the helicopter to hit trees, according to the NTSB. Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the tour operator, said Liberty executives \"are cooperating fully\" with investigators. \"Right now, the company is focusing its efforts on cooperating with the NTSB and giving as much information as it can,\" Horowitz said. \"At this time, their priority is to help with the family of their pilot, and of course the families that were involved in the accident.\" Investigators will focus on radio communications along the congested air corridor at the time of the crash and examine any pictures or video contributed by the public, Hersman told CNN earlier. Witness accounts and still photographs already provided \"good information\" to investigators, she said. A witness told investigators he saw the airplane approach the helicopter from behind, and the plane's right wing make \"contact with the helicopter,\" Hersman said. The witness, another Liberty pilot who was refueling at a nearby heliport, said he tried to warn the helicopter pilot but got no response. Other witnesses reported seeing debris flying from the helicopter as it slammed into the water. Arnold Stevens, who saw the collision from the W Hotel in Hoboken, said the helicopter \"dropped like a rock,\" while one of the plane's wings was sheared off and it began \"corkscrewing\" into the water, he said. The busy airspace surrounding Manhattan has been the site of several recent aeronautical accidents. Earlier this year, a US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into the Hudson after apparently striking birds upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, officials said. Capt. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger's landing, which resulted in no deaths or serious injuries, was captured on closed circuit television. In 2006, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, 34, and his flight instructor were killed when the ballplayer's plane crashed into a high-rise apartment building near the East River, city officials said. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seven bodies pulled from water; two others believed dead .\nSearch stops Sunday evening because of weather, will resume Monday .\nAuthorities investigating Saturday's collision of helicopter, plane over Hudson River .\nPilot on ground says he tried to warn helicopter before accident .","id":"cdcf73e3e1938abfc83766af496a57aedfda6840"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Blind women are being trained to use their sensitive touch to help detect breast cancer earlier and more precisely than doctors. The blind assistants use tape strips with braille coordinates to accurately locate cancerous lumps . The program, called \"Discovering Hands,\" is the brainchild of German gynecologist Dr. Frank Hoffmann. Two years ago, he created Braille strips as a system of orientation, allowing the blind to carry out breast examinations. Using these strips blind women are trained to become Medical Tactile Examiners (MTUs) because they are more able to detect smaller lumps than sighted doctors. Hoffman argues that because of their disability, the blind can possess a more acutely developed sense of touch, which has proved to be a valuable asset in breast examinations. Once the strips are placed along specific areas of the breast, they are then used to report a precise location to the doctor as the MTU reads their Braille coordinates. \"We are turning a disability into a gift,\" Dr. Hoffmann told CNN. \"It's like the game Battleship,\" he added. \"You have the exact location.\" A study at the Essen University's women's clinic, Germany, concluded that MTUs found more and smaller tumors than doctors in 450 cases. The identification of smaller lumps allows earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment. Another advantage of having MTUs is that they are able to dedicate more time to examining a patient. Dr. Hoffman said he had previously been able to spend only a few minutes on each examination due to his other commitments, whereas MTUs can commit half an hour. Training takes place at the BFW occupational school in D\u00fcren, west Germany, a center for those who are no longer able to continue their profession because of visual impairment or blindness. So far, ten blind women have qualified as MTUs. One of the women, Marie-Luise Voll, 57, told CNN: \" The work brings me a lot of joy.\" Voll had previously practiced as a nurse before losing her sight in 2007, but used the experience when training at D\u00fcren for her new role. The highly personal nature of the procedure means that only women will be trained. The MTUs report to the doctor - for whom they act as an assistant not a replacement - who then uses this information as part of their ultimate diagnosis. If an abnormality is located the doctor will decide how to proceed, with ultrasounds and mammography being the most frequent course of action. The testing phase of the project between 2006 and 2008 has now been completed in Germany. The hope is that twenty trained MTUs will qualify every year after 2010. The program has been acclaimed as a success by both patients and practitioners in Germany. Health services in Europe including Ireland, France, Denmark and Austria have also registered interest in starting an equivalent of their own, Hoffman said.","highlights":"Blind women being trained to use their sensitive touch to detect breast cancer lumps .\nCalled Medical Tactile Examiners, they can spend more time on patients .\nThe 'Discovering Hands' program takes place at a school in D\u00fcren, west Germany .","id":"4fb2181d250a2c8092a374d430b23eac48de78d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Golf was considered a sport of the capitalist elite and banned in Eastern Europe under the rule of communist regimes -- but in the 20 years since the Berlin Wall has fallen there has been a renaissance of the game in the region. Gary Player has overseen the development of two courses on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria. With rising disposable income and an increasing interest in leisure pursuits, a growing number of courses, more television coverage and availability of EU funds, the future of the industry in Eastern Europe is bright. Bulgaria is one country where the sport is on the up. Eight years ago there were no golf courses but --to fulfil the increasing domestic demand and as a means to attract tourists to the region -- the country could be set for a boom in golf development. Kancho Stoychev, vice president of Bulgarian Golf, believes that despite there being only 200 registered players in a country whose population is eight million there is set to be an explosion of interest in the sport. See CNN's Justin Armsden's report on the development of golf in Eastern Europe. \u00bb . \"It is an absurdly low figure, but now I believe that there'll be a switch because we have six nice golf courses,\" Stoychev told CNN. \"We can already see there is a high increase in interest and it'll evolve quite quickly. \"We have some advantages in Bulgaria. We have an excellent coastlines, we are a small country but very diverse, so the country is geographically and naturally perfect for golf.\" The potential in Eastern Europe has also been recognized by golf legend Gary Player, whose course design company has been working on projects in the region. Having just opened a course in Poland, Player's design company is building two more in Bulgaria - BlackSeaRama which is already open, and Thracian Cliffs which is scheduled to be finished by July 2010. Player told CNN: \"You want to take golf to new areas, like Poland, you want to bring it to Bulgaria, where people never thought that they could play golf where people associated golf with just rich people. \"You can play down here along the ocean and ten minutes up the mountain you have a links course, which is the complete opposite, people who love golf will be in for a golfing treat.\" The knock-on effect of the presence of a high-profile name such as Player in the region ensures it has caught the eye of influential figures within the industry. Ryan Lauder, director of marketing at TaylorMade added: \"Eastern Europe is coming along, although there is still not the number of golfers or golf courses that we have in Western Europe, looking to the future it is a great opportunity for us.\"","highlights":"Golf has made progress in Eastern Europe since the collapse of communism .\nDevelopments in Bulgaria have seen six courses open in the past eight years .\nGary Player has designed courses in several Eastern European countries .\nThe region has a great potential for development of golf in the future .","id":"8cdd1569ce060ef0b72894ce40fd76f8955d4be1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Bedouin who was just a boy when a U.S. Navy pilot's plane crashed in the Iraqi desert in 1991 was the key to finding his remains more than 18 years after he was killed, the Pentagon says. Marines conduct recovery efforts at the crash site of U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, shot down in 1991. The new details of the final hunt for U.S. Navy pilot Scott Speicher, who was lost over Iraq on the opening night of the Gulf War in January 1991, were released by the Pentagon Friday. Two sites were searched by U.S. troops who dug west of Baghdad, Iraq, in Anbar province, one at the plane crash site and another 2 kilometers away. The remains of Capt. Speicher were found at the second location. The U.S. military has long said Speicher had ejected out of his jet after it was hit by an Iraqi missile. After years of searching, it was just last month that the military got the crucial information that led them to the burial site. A Bedouin who was just 11 years old at the time of the crash came forward and connected the military with other locals who had knowledge of generally where the crash and burial locations were. The tipster did not know exactly where Speicher was buried but he knew others who had the knowledge, the military statement explained. \"He willingly provided his information during general discussion with MNF-W [Multi-National Force-West]personnel and stated he was unaware of the U.S. government's interest in this case until queried by U.S. investigators in July 2009,\" according to the statement. Bedouin are desert-dwelling nomadic Arabs. One hundred and fifty U.S. military troops were dispatched to dig for the remains at the crash site and did not find any sign of the pilot. At the second site the troops discovered skeletal fragments, according to the statement. Dental records initially identified the bones as Speicher's and, on August 2, DNA results came back positive. Speicher's remains will be taken to Jacksonville, Florida, for burial, according to a family spokeswoman. Speicher was a lieutenant commander when shot down, but because his status remained uncertain, he received promotions during the past 18 years, reaching the rank of captain.","highlights":"U.S. Navy pilot Scott Speicher lost over Iraq opening night of Gulf War in 1991 .\nTwo sites searched by U.S. troops, west of Baghdad, Iraq, in Anbar province .\nA Bedouin, 11 at time of crash, connected military with locals who knew of crash .\nSpeicher's remains will be taken to Jacksonville, Florida, for burial .","id":"5b611f84c2c899f4904712768524567eb6597dee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the \"biggest prize ever\" -- the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world's major religions. The TV show offers converts to Islam the chance to visit Mecca. The show, called \"Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor,\" or \"Penitents Compete,\" features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk. If they succeed, the contestants are rewarded with a pilgrimage to one of their chosen faith's most sacred sites -- Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for converts to Judaism, a trip to Tibet for Buddhists and the chance to visit Ephesus and the Vatican for Christians. Ahmet Ozdemir, deputy director of Turkish channel Kanal T, which will air the show from September, said the program aimed to \"turn disbelievers on to God.\" \"People are free to believe anything they want. Our program does not have a say,\" he said, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. Contestants will be judged by a panel of eight theologians and religious experts prior to going on the show to make sure their lack of faith is genuine. But the show has been condemned by Turkish religious leaders. The head of the country's supreme council of religious affairs, Hamza Aktan, told CNN Turk that it was \"disrespectful\" to place different faiths in competition with each other and accused Kanal T of using religion to boost ratings. \"To do such a thing for the sake of ratings, not only with Islam but with all religions is disrespectful,\" said Aktan. \"Religion should not be the subject of this type of program.\" Although Turkey has a predominantly Muslim population and culture, religion is a sensitive subject because of the country's staunchly secular constitution which outlaws most displays of faith in public life. Last year the Islamist-influenced government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with the country's constitutional court when judges overturned the efforts of Erdogan's AK Party to lift a ban on female students wearing headscarves at public universities. Aylin Yazan at CNN Turk contributed to this story.","highlights":"Turkish TV show features imam, Catholic priest, Jewish rabbi, Buddhist monk .\nReligious leaders attempt to persuade atheists to \"convert\" to their faith .\nShow has prompted criticism from religious groups who say it is \"disrespectful\"","id":"d8000a032fc27675e743f0a7136844e53ead2668"} -{"article":"(Parenting.com) -- A dad looks at how long it really takes a kid to sleep alone: . Getting the baby to sleep is a challenge for many parents. 1:28 a.m. Every couple of hours, Jack (2 weeks) cries. My wife feeds him, then hands him to me to change his diaper. It's an equitable division of labor, but I wish I could sleep. 2:15 a.m. Jack (1 month) is sleeping between me and my wife because this way she can nurse while she dozes. I'm happy, but so tired. He's on his back, and there are no pillows or blankets around him, but I'm wide-awake, thinking about SIDS. He's like a little hot-water bottle. His breath is sweet and milky against my face. 10 p.m. I'm lying on a tiny crib mattress on the floor next to the crib. We're trying to get Jack (9 months) to sleep through the night. His mother and I take turns lying next to him on the floor and holding his hand through the slats. I miss my wife. 1:36 a.m. Jack (12 months) is sleeping in between us, again. Lying next to his crib didn't work -- Jack kept crying, waking both of us. This way, we all get some sleep. Parenting.com: Dad's in charge? Uh oh. 4:27 a.m. I'm wide-awake because Jack (15 months) kicked me in the groin. I have to get up to drive my wife to New York, then turn around and drive back home with Jack, all on about three hours of sleep. I decide that while his mother is gone, I will Ferberize him. Parenting.com: Ferberizing is not what you think it is . 9:13 p.m. Jack (15 months and a day) is in his crib, crying, crying, crying. 10:11 p.m. Jack (15 months and a week) is in his crib, alone and asleep. Ferberizing worked. Suddenly I have a great idea -- let's have another baby! But this would require that my wife and I stay awake for longer than ten seconds once our heads hit the pillows. 12:02 a.m. In bed with my wife, I'm feeling romantic, but then Jack (18 months) cries out. He has a fever. We give him kids' Motrin and bring him back into bed with us. He's burning up. 11:21 p.m. Jack (18 months and a week) is no longer sick, but now he's back in our bed, every night. It's once again the only way he'll go down. 7 a.m. I realize that for the first time, Jack (22 months) has finally slept through the night. Now we have to get him out of diapers and back in his own room. 11:41 p.m. We are lying in an H formation. Jack (2 years) is nestled into his mother's chest, perpendicular to us, with his feet lodged against my throat, trying to push me off the bed. Freud was right about Oedipus. Parenting.com: Why good dads make moms jealous . 4:25 a.m. Jack (3 years) has kicked the covers off me again and I wake up, shivering. I pull the covers up. He kicks them off. I pull them up. He kicks them off. I go downstairs, turn on the TV, and fall asleep on the couch. 2:15 p.m. I'm sound asleep, dreaming. Unfortunately, I'm at work. Tomorrow is Jack's fourth birthday. Last night in bed, he said, \"Hey, why do I have to sleep in the middle?\" 7:30 p.m. I am lying in the new twin bed we bought Jack (4 1\/4 years), to show him how it works. We made a big deal of it, his very own Big Boy Bed, and we let him pick out the dinosaur sheets and the dinosaur comforter. All is ready. 12:05 a.m. I'm in this big empty bed, alone. We told Jack that on his fifth birthday he'd have to sleep in his own bed, because that's what big boys do, and he agreed. He wants very much to be a big boy. On his birthday, my wife lay down with him at 8:30 and fell sound asleep. 5:02 a.m. I get up and peek in on Jack (5 1\/2). He's been sleeping alone in his room for almost a month now. I get back into bed with my wife and snuggle up next to her. At least I think it's her -- it's been a while. She feels good against my skin, but now I miss Jack. I miss getting kicked in the throat. I miss getting the covers pulled off of me. Where's my little boy? How did he grow up so fast? 9:42 p.m. Hearing a noise, my wife and I go upstairs to check on Jack (6). He says he was having a bad dream. We lie down with him, three of us in a twin bed. It's crowded, but if we brought him into our bed again, we'd never get him out. His breath is still sweet and milky on my cheek. How could this not be okay? This is my family. Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"Dad recalls stages of son's sleep -- and his own not sleeping .\nInfant son's crying or dad's fear of smothering kept him awake .\nChild has fever, parents put him in their bed. Child refuses to sleep in crib .\nDad misses boy who now sleeps alone in his big boy bed .","id":"e06e0c525bc4def37efd60f271a1780856db839a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- After a six-year hiatus in which many bands have emerged, such as the Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs, copying their blend of melodic, intelligent songs and cheeky blokeishness, Blur return to show them who is best. Blur frontman Damon Albarn still exudes the matey bonhomie that made him one of the best-known British pop stars of the 90s. Much has changed since the mid-1990s when the Essex boys fought Oasis in the hyped Battle of Britpop. Singer Damon Albarn has pursued successful side projects such as Gorillaz and the Chinese opera Monkey, guitarist Graham Coxon went solo after being axed acrimoniously during the troubled recording of the \"Think Tank\" album, bassist Alex James makes cheese on his farm while drummer Dave Rowntree plans to stand for the UK parliament at the next election. Happily for fans, the band's two dominant personalities in Albarn and Coxon are now reconciled and, in the year's most anticipated reunion along with The Specials' comeback gigs, Blur on Thursday played the first of two outdoor concerts in London's Hyde Park. Before a massive crowd and a setting sun, Blur kick off with their first single, a feedback-drenched \"She's So High\" before going straight into \"Girls and Boys,\" the disco-inspired anthem to hedonism that propelled them into the big time in 1994. Albarn exudes matey bonhomie, asking, \"Was that adequate?\" The crowd roars its reply in the affirmative. The good-natured banter continues throughout the concert; he pays tribute to Hyde Park's \"lakes, Speaker's Corner ... other stuff\" and more thoughtfully, reminds the crowd that a million people marched there in 2003 in an unsuccessfully effort to prevent the Iraq war. Coxon seems happy just to be back in the band, doing the job he does best. There is a poignant moment when he takes the lead vocals in \"Coffee and TV\" while Albarn watches his songwriting partner admiringly. And as with all the greatest concerts, the hits the crowd has paid to hear keep coming: \"There's No Other Way,\" a raucous and bouncy \"Country House\" and \"Parklife\" on which actor Phil Daniels takes the jokey vocals. The audience responds to all the songs perfectly, even forcing the band into an extended singalong version of \"Tender.\" The only disappointment on that song is that the gospel backing singers are drowned out in the mix. As the light fades, a superb light show suits the mood of the songs perfectly. And despite this being a huge concert, there is room for more subtle songs like \"Out of Time,\" a nostalgic \"End of the Century\" and \"This is a Low.\" Blur finish with \"For Tomorrow\" and \"The Universal,\" ending what, for this reporter, will be remembered as one of the most amazing concerts. What Blur fans hope for now is some new material to match the classics they are evidently so proud of.","highlights":"Iconic 'Britpop' band Blur play comeback gig in London after six-year hiatus .\nGuitarist Graham Coxon returns to band after he was axed .\nGig is most anticipated comeback of year along with The Specials' reunion .","id":"fc49bfc4c04392b6faa5647c53a9628cdc39a034"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Five Italian tourists visiting New York from Bologna are among the nine victims believed killed Saturday in a midair collision of a sightseeing helicopter and a single-engine plane over the Hudson River, a law enforcement source said. First responders gather on a pier after a plane and helicopter collided Saturday over the Hudson River. The tourists, who apparently died with the chopper's pilot, were part of a group of 12 visiting the United States, the source said. The helicopter was operated by Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours. The bodies of two adults and one child were recovered after the collision, which occurred around noon over the Hudson between New York and Hoboken, New Jersey, authorities said. The child is believed to be one of the three people on the plane, a single-engine Piper PA-32 Saratoga that took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, authorities said. A source involved in the investigation identified the pilot and owner of the plane as Steven Altman, whose brother Daniel and nephew Douglas also were among the victims. The two adult bodies, discovered underwater, are believed to be two of the Italian tourists aboard the helicopter, the law enforcement source said. The Italian Foreign Ministry said consulate officials were working with New York authorities to identify the victims. Helicopter wreckage was found in about 30 feet of water, while the plane is believed to be near the midchannel point of the Hudson in deeper water, the source said. A side-scanning sonar is being used to pinpoint the plane and has identified a possible third debris field, the source said. The search is scheduled to resume Sunday morning, Debbie Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a riverside news conference late Saturday. Underwater visibility of about two feet hampered Saturday's search effort, she said. All nine people in both aircrafts are thought to have been killed in the collision, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. See where the collision occurred \u00bb . \"There was an accident which we do not believe was survivable,\" said Bloomberg, noting that the search for survivors had become a recovery mission. A temporary flight restriction over the rescue area -- about three nautical miles around and 2,000 feet up -- was put in place, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said. A witness told investigators he saw the airplane approach the helicopter from behind, Hersman said. The witness said the plane's right wing made contact with the helicopter, an American Eurocopter AS350 operated by Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, Hersman said. View images from the scene \u00bb . Another Liberty pilot who was refueling at a nearby heliport told NTSB investigators that he saw the plane approach the helicopter and tried to warn the helicopter pilot, but got no response, Hersman said. \"This is a VFR corridor -- that means Visual Flight Rules prevail,\" Hersman told reporters late Saturday. \"You are supposed to be alert and see and avoid other aircraft in the vicinity.\" iReport.com: Police search for debris . Witnesses reported seeing debris flying from the helicopter as it crashed. The helicopter wreckage has been found, but the search for the plane, single-engine Piper Saratoga PA-32, will continue Sunday morning, Hersman said at a riverside news conference. Witness Arnold Stevens said after the plane had a wing sheared off, it began \"corkscrewing\" into the water. The helicopter \"dropped like a rock\" after the collision, which happened about noon. See a series of photos from the scene \u00bb . Radar contact was lost with a small plane this morning believed to be the aircraft in the crash, FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said. Ben Berman, a former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said if the helicopter fell straight down, it's likely there was a rotor failure. Scott Schuman was with his grandparents on the Hoboken side of the river when they heard a loud bang. \"The plane was kind of whirlybirding its way down, brown smoke coming out the back of it, and it crashed into the water. Then a few seconds later the helicopter with debris falling off of it also hit as well,\" Schuman said. \"It was a scary sight,\" he added. iReport.com: Were you there? Send images . He said some of the debris fell in Hoboken, and \"we covered our heads.\" Asked if he had seen anyone in the water, Schuman replied, \"I have not seen anything, but judging by the impact when the plane and the helicopter hit, it would be very unlikely for a positive outcome.\" Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer called on witnesses who filmed or photographed the incident to come forward. \"It would be extremely helpful to have that footage,\" she said. The busy airspace surrounding New York's Manhattan island has been the site of several aeronautical mishaps in recent history. Earlier this year, a US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into the Hudson, apparently after striking at least one bird upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, officials said. Capt. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger's landing, which resulted in no deaths or serious injuries, was captured on closed circuit television. In 2006, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed when the 34-year-old ballplayer's plane crashed into a high-rise apartment building near the East River, city officials said. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Five Italian tourists from Bologna, pilot on sightseeing copter believed dead .\nBodies of two adults from helicopter found below water, authorities say .\nAuthorities find body of child who was one of three on small plane in collision .\nPilot on ground tried to warn helicopter that plane was coming up from behind .","id":"f35b1063bfbbe4208afcf657c1131bdcbde0016a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sixteen people were wounded and a guru was shot to death in an outbreak of violence between rival Sikhs at an Indian temple in Vienna, Austria, police said. Austrian police secure the area outside a Sikh temple in Vienna where a shooting occured Sunday. Six people were arrested in connection with the incident, which occurred about 1:20 p.m. local time (7:20 a.m. ET) Sunday in Vienna's 15th district, police spokesman Schwaig Hofar told CNN. One armed suspect fired at two gurus, and five other knife-wielding suspects attacked congregants during prayer, Hofar said. One of the gurus, a 57-year-old Sikh preacher, was killed. The number of wounded includes four of the suspects, two of them in serious condition, he said. About 150 people were in the room when the violence took place, he said. Authorities are investigating what triggered the attacks. CNN's David Ariosto contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: One suspect fired at two gurus, while five suspects attacked with knives .\nOne of the gurus, a 57-year-old Sikh preacher, was killed .\nPolice: About 150 people were in the room when the violence took place .","id":"4e49776d0bcaddfb79c67d58856d6c838679932e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An 18-year-old Guatemalan man who doctors say faces almost certain death unless he receives a transplanted heart is surrounded by family as he waits, thanks to the kindness of strangers. Juan Gonzalez was earning $250 a week as a dishwasher when his heart trouble began. Juan Gonzalez, now lying in a hospital in Atlanta, hopes to learn Friday whether he will be added to the list of people eligible to receive transplants. Doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital said Gonzalez appears to be a good candidate. Without a transplant, they said, he could die in six months. The teen traveled alone to Rome, Georgia, to earn enough money to help support his family back home. The undocumented worker took a job as a dishwasher for $250 a week. That's when heart trouble stepped in. Dr. Frank Stegall, a cardiologist at Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome, told Gonzalez he had a chronically weak heart, or dilated cardiomyopathy. The organ pumps only 20 percent of the blood a healthy heart would, Stegall said. As his heart failed, Gonzalez's plight moved the hospital staff to try to reunite him with his parents. They contacted U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey -- himself a doctor. Gingrey persuaded the State Department to expedite travel visas for Pascual and Maria Gonzalez, and Delta Air Lines provided a free ride. Last month, CNN aired a story on Juan Gonzalez. Afterward, the Larry King Cardiac Foundation -- founded by the CNN talk show host 21 years ago to pay for life-saving cardiac care for patients without insurance who don't qualify for state or federal assistance -- helped get Gonzalez transferred to St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta for evaluation. Many of the people who saw the story on CNN were moved to offer help. It was then that the possibility of a heart transplant became real, thanks to a large donation from one of those people. The donor has asked that details of the gift not be revealed, other than his name, Sam Shapiro. Gonzalez and his parents say they are grateful for the overwhelming support. St. Joseph's has provided housing for the parents at a nearby hotel. Although it is not clear where Gonzalez will go once the evaluation at St. Joseph is completed, staff members at Redmond in Rome, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta, indicated they might provide a place for the parents to say. The parents' visas will run out in about two and a half months. CNN's Anna Armas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Juan Gonzalez hopes to learn Friday if he will be added to heart transplant list .\nWithout a transplant, doctors said, he could die in six months.\nHeart transplant a possibility now thanks to donations from strangers .\nTeen traveled alone to Georgia to earn money to support his family back home .","id":"7af9aecd7b78b3b7f628ddb7355db7bb7ea002df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA's Kepler space telescope has already made a discovery, and its science operations aren't even officially under way yet. The planet used in the test is a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter that orbits a star called HAT P-7. NASA scientists who put the telescope through a 10-day test after its March 6 launch said this week that Kepler is working well. Its ability to detect minute changes in light has enabled scientists to determine that a planet orbiting a distant star has an atmosphere, shows only one side to its sun and is so hot it glows. Kepler's ability to take measurements that precise at such a great distance \"proves we can find Earth-size planets,\" William Borucki, Kepler's principal science investigator told reporters at a recent briefing. The powerful scope is looking at thousands of stars in its vision field in the Milky Way on a 3\u00bd-year mission to find planets the size of Earth and to determine how common these planets are. The planet used in the test, a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter, orbits a star called HAT P-7 in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun, according to NASA. It is called an exoplanet because it orbits a star outside the solar system. Kepler detected the planet's atmosphere, demonstrating the telescope's capabilities and giving astronomers what NASA says is \"only a taste of things to come.\" \"It learned that this planet is like 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is so hot. And it's 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit just on one side only. The other side would be closer to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, \" said Sara Seager, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Kepler science team member. \"This particular planet showed an unusual change in brightness,\" she said. \"As the planet is orbiting the star, it goes through phases just as the moon goes through phases as seen from Earth.\" \"Kepler learned something new about an old planet,\" she said. \"The new discovery was that planet is extremely hot, very, very hot. And it's very, very hot on one side, compared to the other.\" Borucki compared it to \"an element in your toaster or stove.\"","highlights":"Kepler orbiting observatory beginning mission to find planets the size of Earth .\nIt has found that a planet orbiting a distant star shows only one side to the star .\n\"Kepler learned something new about an old planet,\" says team member .","id":"94229cc77de9502370d916da8981af818dab15c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For actress Kyra Sedgwick, it's the public's approval that makes it worth being away from her family for six months to tape her critically acclaimed series \"The Closer.\" Kyra Sedgwick and her husband, Kevin Bacon, at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards this month. But she may be getting more approval from her peers, too. Sedgwick will walk the red carpet again Sunday night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she is nominated for a fourth consecutive year for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series for her role as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson. She's also won a Golden Globe for her performance, in 2007. The TNT series resumes Monday night where it left off in September with what Sedgwick called \"a fantastic five episodes.\" (TNT is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN.) \"I said to the writers, 'I really want a lot of personal stuff for Brenda,' \" Sedgwick said. \"I feel like there's some of those personal quiet moments with her alone, is something that I've been missing as an actor, and I feel like the audience has been missing, too. \"She is such a complicated, fascinating character, and watching her growth and lack of growth is something that is really interesting,\" she said. When CNN asked whether the new episodes might include a wedding for her character, Sedgwick laughed. \"That might very well happen,\" she said. \"That's pretty insightful of you. I'm just going to just say that.\" A marriage for Brenda Johnson would be \"a complicated, difficult situation,\" she said, because \"she's basically married to her work.\" Sedgwick's job also complicates her real-life marriage to Bacon, since the show is produced in Los Angeles and the couple lives in Connecticut with their two children. That's where the approval -- whether on the street from fans or at award shows -- has \"been a wonderful phenomenon for me,\" she said. \"On a personal level, that's really good for me, because I really miss my family when I'm working on the show six months in L.A.,\" she said. \"As much as I try to get my kids to move to L.A. and my husband, they just wouldn't have it. \"It's challenging, and I'm glad that people are watching, because otherwise it would be kind of hard to go to work,\" Sedgwick said. Sedgwick has moved into an executive producer's role on the show, which she said she expects to continue for at least two more years. \"I love being with a group where there's not a power struggle,\" she said. \"I have a lot of say, and I always have. And that feels really good.\" CNN Radio's Jackie Howard contributed to this report .","highlights":"TNT resumes Sedgwick's series \"Closer\" where it left off in September .\nSedgwick is also up for two SAG awards Sunday .\nSedgwick expects to be in the executive producer's role for at least two more years .","id":"3c741865fdb101856eac174a3a813502e1309ac2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After deliberating for more than four hours, a jury convicted a Nevada man of 22 counts Tuesday for videotaping himself sexually assaulting a toddler, CNN affiliates report. Chester Arthur Stiles has been convicted of videtaping a sexual assault on a child. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was convicted of lewdness with a child, sexual assault with a minor, attempted sexual assault with a minor and other related charges. He showed no reaction as the verdict was read after more than four hours of jury deliberations, according to KLAS. Sentencing was set for May 8. The crime triggered a national manhunt and search for the girl when the tape surfaced in 2007. Jurors in Stiles' trial viewed the videotape, but the judge would not allow members sitting in the gallery to view it, and a screen was put up to block the jury box, said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for Clark County, Nevada, courts. Some members of the media were allowed to view the tape as well, but the judge did not want the reactions of reporters or the public to influence jurors, he said. The charges also related to another girl who Stiles was accused of sexually assaulting on videotape. The tape was given to authorities in September 2007 by a man who said he had found it in the desert five months before. On it, police found images of the small girl being sexually assaulted. After attempting unsuccessfully to find out the girl's identity, authorities turned to the media for help and released a picture of the girl, and the case drew nationwide attention. She was found in October 2007. An attorney for her mother said she was 7 years old and safe and healthy. The rape occurred before the girl's third birthday, while she was in the care of a baby-sitter her mother had hired, he said. The mother did not know the girl had been victimized. After the girl was found, authorities asked CNN and other news organizations to stop showing her picture. In an appearance on \"The Dr. Phil Show,\" the girl's mother said the girl has no recollection of the assault. Stiles, a resident of Pahrump, Nevada, was arrested in a traffic stop in October 2007. Police said at the time they pulled Stiles' car over because it had no license plate, and became suspicious when the driver displayed an expired California license with a photo that did not match his appearance. Stiles eventually admitted who he was and that he was being sought, authorities said. The man who turned the tape over to authorities, Darrin Tuck, faced criminal charges because of the delay in turning it over, during which authorities alleged he showed it to others. A judge gave Tuck a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation in April after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a public officer, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He initially had faced a felony count of possession of child pornography.","highlights":"NEW: Chester Arthur Stiles guilty of all counts in child sex video case .\nNEW: Sentencing for Stiles scheduled for May 8 .\nStiles could be sent to prison for the rest of his life .\nTape surfaced in 2007, years after alleged assault .","id":"25587188e3ee7f3b61ba43aaa1dcb29d51df820f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Meat is murder? Well, perhaps not for much longer. Artist Banksy has satirized modern farming and meat production; could in-vitro meat be a better option? A pioneering group of scientists are working to grow real animal protein in the laboratory, which they not only claim is better for animal welfare, but actually healthier, both for people and the planet. It may sound like science fiction, but this technology to create in-vitro meat could be changing global diets within ten years. \"Cultured meat would have a lot of advantages,\" said Jason Matheny of research group New Harvest. \"We could precisely control the amount of fat in meat. We could make ground beef with an ideal fatty acid ratio -- a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them.\" But it isn't just the possibility of creating designer ground beef with the fat profile of salmon that drives Matheny's work. Meat and livestock farming is also the source of many human diseases, which he claims would be far less common when the product is raised in laboratory conditions. \"We could reduce the risks of diseases like swine flu, avian flu, 'mad cow disease', or contamination from Salmonella,\" he told CNN. \"We could produce meat in sterile conditions that are impossible in conventional animal farms and slaughterhouses. And when we grow only the meat we can eat, it's more efficient. There's no need to grow the whole animal and lose 75 to 95 percent of what we feed it.\" Conventional meat production is also hard on the environment. The contribution of livestock to climate change was recently highlighted by the United Nations' report, \"Livestock's Long Shadow\", while groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have demonstrated how soy farming for animal feed contributes to the destruction of the Amazon. In this context Matheny believes his project could significantly cut the environmental impact of meat production -- using much less water and producing far fewer greenhouse gases. \"We could reduce the environmental footprint of meat, which currently contributes more to global warming than the entire transportation sector,\" says Matheny. Preliminary results from a study by Hanna Tuomisto, at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, suggest that cultured meat would reduce the carbon emissions of meat production by more than 80 percent. Making cultured meat . In-vitro meat is made from samples of animals conventionally slaughtered. For example, \"pork\" is made from pig ovaries retrieved from slaughterhouses, which are fertilized with pig semen, transforming them into embryos. They are then placed in a nutrient solution, where they grow and develop. It's a long way from the popular image of animals wandering round the farmyard in the sunshine, but then so is modern intensive farming. The factor that could take the research from the lab to the store and into refrigerators around the world is its remarkable commercial potential. According to New Harvest, meat is already estimated to be a $1 trillion global market, and demand is expected to double by 2050. With concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment growing the appeal of in vitro meat is obvious. Matheny told CNN that venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have shown an interest in his technology, while Stegman, a sausage subsidiary of food giant Sara Lee, is a partner. The Netherlands' Government has also invested around $4 million in Dutch research into in-vitro meat production. But it isn't just the suits who are circling with their checkbooks out -- campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have announced a $1 million prize for the first commercially viable in vitro chicken product. The Humane Society of the United States has also been supportive. \"We think that a technology to produce cultured ground meats -- burgers, sausages, nuggets, and so forth -- could be commercialized within ten years,\" said Matheny. \"As with most technologies, successive generations should improve in price, quality, and acceptance. We don't think that matching the taste and texture of ground meats will be very difficult. Both conventional and cultured meat is made of muscle tissue. And conventional ground meat is typically highly processed. Chicken nuggets for instance, are made of something called 'meat slurry' -- it would be hard not to do better!\" Public attitude . But the public doesn't always blindly buy what companies believe they should, and acceptance of what is a very radical proposition certainly isn't a foregone conclusion. There are bound to be claims of \"Frankenfoods,\" and reaction against the work. \"Social acceptance isn't guaranteed, but we all want meat that's safer and healthier,\" he said. \"If cultured meat looks, tastes, and costs the same as regular meat, then I think acceptance will be high. The more we learn about the health and environmental impact of conventional meat, the more cultured meat looks like a good alternative.\" One obvious touchstone for how in-vitro-meat will be received by the public is perhaps the way GM crops were -- or were not - accepted around the world, something that Matheny draws encouragement from. \"What's interesting about the GM issue is that it has been controversial in some places, but is a non-issue for most consumers,\" he said. \"Most Americans are regularly eating GM foods. In any case, it's not necessarily the case that cultured meat would involve GM foods. \"We all want meat that's safer and healthier. If cultured meat looks, tastes, and costs the same as regular meat, then do we care that it's produced in a steel tank, rather than in an animal farm? \"Take hydroponic vegetables. We like the idea that they're produced in sterile water instead of dirt and manure. It's true that in-vitro meat isn't natural. Nor for that matter are hydroponic vegetables, or bread, or cheese, or wine. Raising 10,000 chickens indoors and pumping them full of drugs isn't natural, either, and it isn't healthy or safe. The more we learn about how meat is produced now, the more in-vitro meat looks like a better alternative.\" Lab-produced meat also raises some ethical considerations. Kate McMahon, Friends of the Earth Energy and Transport campaigner, believes more attention should be paid to improving livestock conditions rather than developing in-vitro meat. \"At a time when hundreds of small-scale, sustainable farming operations are filing for bankruptcy every day, it is unethical to consider purchasing petri dish meat. Rather, we should be making it easier and more affordable to raise livestock in a safe, humane and ecologically sensitive manner,\" she told CNN. Gillian Madill, Genetics Technologies spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, thinks that clear parameters for in-vitro development need to put in place: \"If we can successfully develop these products, what is the defining line between lab-grown meat and natural animals?\" she told CNN. \"That is an especially important question since a high level of differentiation and tissue complexity is required to replicate muscle tissue that we use as meat. We need to draw clear lines in order to prevent the commodification of all life.\" Ultimately the success of in-vitro meat may be less about consumer sensibilities and more about the hard realities of feeding a growing global population in a finite world. \"With India and China doubling their meat consumption every decade, there's no sustainable way to satisfy the growing global appetite for meat without a significant improvement in technology,\" said Matheny. \"Cultured meat offers one solution. Improved plant-based meat substitutes offer another. I expect both will be needed.\" Test tube burgers? It seems you could be eating them sooner than you might expect. What do you think of in-vitro meat? Do you think it could be a solution to the problems connected to meat production and climate change? Let us know in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Ongoing research into in-vitro meat; grown in a lab using animal samples .\nAdvocates say in-vitro meat is better for health of humans and environment .\nLab-made meat could be served in a decade, says research scientist Jason Matheny .","id":"0d03c47d1c61ee585da8cbdf7d7e6f384007d530"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From Woodstock and a man on the moon to the Manson murders and the Stonewall riots, the summer of 1969 was a tumultuous and eventful time. Listed below are a few of the historic and memorable moments from that summer. April 23 | Sirhan Sirhan sentenced Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of murdering New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy during the 1968 presidential campaign, is sentenced to death a week after being found guilty. Three years later, his sentence is commuted to life in prison after California abolishes the death penalty. May 18 | Apollo 10 The Apollo 10 mission is a dress rehearsal for the lunar landing module. This mission tested \"all aspects of the lunar landing mission exactly as it would be performed, except for the actual landing,\" according to NASA. It also transmitted the first color pictures of Earth from space. May 23 | The Who releases \"Tommy\" The Who, a key band of the 1960s British Invasion, releases the rock opera \"Tommy.\" The double album features songs like \"Pinball Wizard\" and \"Tommy, Can You Hear Me?\" May 24 | Beatles' \"Get Back\" is No. 1 \"Get Back\" by the Beatles becomes the top song on Billboard's list and stays there for five weeks. Released as a single, the song later appeared on the \"Let it be\" album. \"Aquarius\/Let the Sunshine in\" by the Fifth Dimension was the second song on the list for that week. May 25 | \"Midnight Cowboy\" released John Schlesinger's \"Midnight Cowboy,\" starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, is released with an X rating, the first ever in wide release. The film received seven Academy Award nominations and won three, including best picture. Other notable movies released during that year include \"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,\" \"Easy Rider\" and \"True Grit.\" June 3 | Last episode of 'Star Trek' airs The last episode of the original \"Star Trek\" airs on NBC. During the episode, titled \"Turnabout Intruder,\" one of Captain Kirk's former lovers steals his body. June 6 | Joe Namath briefly retires Joe Namath, the star New York Jets quarterback who famously guaranteed a Super Bowl victory, briefly retires from the National Football League over a conflict with league Commissioner Pete Rozelle. June 8 | Nixon and Vietnam President Nixon, after being elected on a campaign pledge to pull troops out of Southeast Asia, announces the withdrawal of 25,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam. June 9 \/ June 23 | Burger becomes chief justice Appointed by President Nixon, Warren Burger is confirmed as the chief justice of the Supreme Court on June 9, succeeding Earl Warren. Two weeks later, he is sworn in. In 1973, Burger votes with the majority in the landmark Roe v. Wade case, establishing a woman's right to an abortion. June 28 | Stonewall riots A confrontation between gay rights activists and police outside the Stonewall Inn -- a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York City -- escalates into a riot. Over the next four decades, the riots act as a symbolic force for the burgeoning gay rights movement. July 25 | Sen. Kennedy and Chappaquiddick Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy receives a two-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Mary Jo Kopechne, once a campaign worker for Sen. Robert Kennedy, drowned in the July 18 accident in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts. July 20 | Moon landing Apollo 11, carrying three U.S. astronauts, lands on the moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon; crewmate Buzz Aldrin also walked on the moon. The third man on the mission was Michael Collins. Six lunar landings followed. July 24 | Muhammad Ali convicted Boxing champion Muhammad Ali is convicted of evading the draft after he refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army. Two years earlier, Ali applied for an exemption as a conscientious objector but was denied. He was stripped of his fighting license and title. He returned to the ring in 1970, and his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. August 9-10 | The Manson murders During a two-night rampage, pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven others are killed by Charles Manson and his \"Family.\" Manson and four others -- Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Charles \"Tex\" Watson and Leslie Van Houten -- were later convicted of murder and other charges. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in 1972. August 14 | British troops sent to Northern Ireland More than 300 British troops are ordered into a Londonderry neighborhood in Northern Ireland after three nights of clashes between police and Catholic residents. The troops were supposed to stay for days, but the conflict lasted decades. The number of British troops stationed in Northern Ireland peaked at 30,000 in the early 1970s. August 14 | The Miracle Mets The New York Mets fall nine games behind the Chicago Cubs in the National League race but, led by future Hall of Fame pitchers Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver, stage a comeback in the months that followed to capture the pennant. They went on to defeat the Baltimore Orioles for the Word Series title. August 15-18 | Woodstock Nearly 400,000 people show up at a farm in Bethel, New York, for a music festival that features legendary acts Jimi Hendrix, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Sly and the Family Stone. The event would help define an era. August 17 | Hurricane Camille More than 250 people are killed in Mississippi and Louisiana when Hurricane Camille strikes the United States mainland. At its peak, Camille was a Category 5 storm, packing winds stronger than 200 mph and leaving tides measuring higher than 20 feet in its wake. September 1 | Gadhafi assumes power Moammar Gadhafi, a military captain at the time, deposes King Idris and assumes control of Libya. He remains in power to this day. September 24 | The \"Chicago 8\" trial begins A trial gets under way for eight people -- known as the \"Chicago 8\" -- who were indicted on charges connected with protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. After a long, raucous trial, two were acquitted, and the others were convicted on various charges. Eight police officers were also indicted in connection with the disorder in Chicago.","highlights":"Man lands on the moon on July 20 with Apollo 11 mission .\nA new Supreme Court justice and withdrawal of troops in Vietnam grab headlines .\nIn the world of sports, The Mets, Muhammad Ali and Joe Nameth make news .\nFor more, go to In Depth: Summer of 1969 .","id":"65acd546716201bd11b4034705cdcb13b07a26e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tsunami watch issued for five nations after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean was canceled about two hours later. A tsunami watch in effect after an earthquake in the Indian Ocean has been called off. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued the watch for India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh after the quake, which struck at 1:55 a.m. Tuesday (3:55 p.m. Monday ET). Its epicenter was about 163 miles (262 km) north of Port Blair in India's Andaman Islands, and 225 miles south-southwest of Pathein, Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake's focus was about 20 miles below the Earth's surface. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth's surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground. Watch where the earthquakes hit \u00bb . \"Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,\" the warning center said in a bulletin. \"Therefore, the tsunami watch issued by this center is now canceled.\" According to the geological survey, a 6.4-magnitude quake struck near the south coast of Honshu, Japan, 12 minutes after the Indian Ocean quake. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory following that quake, but said that the expected wave would be under 2 feet. CNN's Augie Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Watch covered India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh .\nIt was issued after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean .\nQuake with 6.4-magnitude occurred near Japan 12 minutes later .","id":"95c6c0f9ab6ec155763b1c9519debb52aa00832f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Substitute Victor Obinna came off the bench to score twice as Nigeria beat Kenya 3-0 in Abuja, to claim their first victory in African World Cup qualifying Group B. Obinna scored a late second-half double to help Nigeria cruise to a 3-0 home victory over Kenya. The Inter Milan striker scored twice in the last 17 minutes, including one from the penalty spot, after Getafe's Ikechukwu Uche had given the Super Eagles as early lead. The result sees Nigeria move up to second place in the table with four points from their two games, two points behind leaders Tunisia who beat Mozambique 2-0 on Saturday to have maximum points from their two matches. Kenya are bottom of the table, without a point, and it already looks like Tunisia and Nigeria will battle it out for top spot in the group and automatic qualification for the World Cup finals. Elsewhere in Africa, Cameroon are surprisingly bottom of Group A after a 0-0 home draw with Morocco in Yaounde. The two group favorites cancelled each other out, meaning they both have a point apiece from their two matches. Gabon are the shock group leaders -- and they followed up their opening victory in Morocco by thumping an Emmanuel Adebayor-led Togo 3-0 in Libreville on Saturday. That result means Gabon are on six points, with Togo second on three points. Meanwhile, in Group E, Ivory Coast made it two wins from two matches to go top of the group with a 2-1 victory in Guinea. Sevilla midfielder Christian Koffi Ndri scored the winning goal with 13 minutes remaining as Ivory Coast joined Burkina Faso on a maximum six points. The two teams already look to have the group between them, as Guinea and Malawi are both point-less from their two matches. Malawi lost 1-0 at home to Burkina Faso on Saturday. African champions Egypt prop up Group C after crashing 3-1 in Algeria where Karim Matmour (60), Abdelkader Ghezzal (64) and Rafik Djebbour (77) were on target for the hosts. Algeria top their section on goal difference from Zambia after their weekend success in front of a sell-out crowd. Ghana, who reached their first World Cup finals in Germany three years ago, won 2-0 at Mali and lead Group D by three points from Benin. Kwadwo Asamoah and Matthew Amoah were on target.","highlights":"Victor Obinna scores twice as Nigeria defeat Kenya 3-0 in African Group B .\nThe result sees Nigeria move up to second place in the table with four points .\nCameroon and Morocco draw 0-0 in Group A and trail surprise leaders Gabon .","id":"c008cb35d9d91f2dfa081d2ebaf25c0c4cb4a9af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After 20 years of mega-success together, country duo Brooks & Dunn say they are done. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn have decided to call it quits as a country singing duo. In a statement on their Web site, the pair said they will tour one last time next year as a goodbye to fans -- and then call it a day. The decision to part was mutual, the duo said. \"If you hear rumors, don't believe them, it's just time,\" the Web statement said. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn were successful singer-songwriters in their own right when they joined forces and scored their first hit as a duo with their 1991 debut CD, \"Brand New Man.\" Since then, they have released more than a dozen albums, had 20 No. 1 hits and won the Country Music Association's Vocal Duo of the Year award every year from 1992 until 2006 -- with their streak broken just once in 2000. The duo will release a compilation, \".1's . . . And Then Some,\" on September 8. \"The Last Rodeo\" tour will begin in 2010, but dates have not been announced.","highlights":"The pair said they will tour one last time next year as a goodbye to fans .\nBrooks & Dunn have released more than a dozen albums and had 20 No. 1 hits .\nThe duo will release a compilation on September 8 .","id":"cfcf67a2b66dfedcbaddbead68c7fba15a397bc8"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Divers found an eighth body Monday from the weekend collision of two aircraft over the Hudson River, leaving only one victim unaccounted for. Silvia Rigamonti, wife of one of the victims, walks with her son Davide Norelli in Bologna, Italy, on Monday. The man's body was found inside the submerged Piper Saratoga PA-32 fixed-wing plane that was carrying three people when it collided Saturday with a tourist helicopter carrying six people, police said. It was not immediately possible to remove the body, police said. The plane wreckage and the body were found on a day in which police divers worked in water made treacherous by poor visibility and strong currents. All six bodies of the people who were aboard the helicopter were pulled from water up to 50 feet deep over the weekend. Another body from among the three people who were aboard the private plane was found Saturday floating near Pier 40. Recovery operations were suspended late Monday afternoon and were to resume Tuesday morning, when the Army Corps of Engineers plans to lift the plane, police spokesman Paul Browne said. The victims aboard the helicopter included five tourists from Bologna, Italy, part of a group of 10 Bologna-area residents who were in New York to help a couple celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, said Giovanni Castellaneta, Italy's ambassador to the United States. See where the collision occurred \u00bb . The celebrating husband and one of the couple's sons were killed in the crash, but the wife skipped the sightseeing flight to go shopping, another son told Italian news media. The victims from Bologna were Michele Norelli, 51; Norelli's son Filippo Norelli, 16; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; Gallazzi's wife, Tiziana Pedroni, 44; and Gallazzi's son, Giacomo Gallazzi, 15. Michele Norelli's wife, Silvia Rigamonti, decided to visit New York stores instead of seeing its sights from above, the couple's eldest son, Davide Norelli, told Italian media. The Norellis were ecstatic to be spending their anniversary in New York, Davide Norelli told Stampa newspaper in Turin, Italy. \"They used to talk about their trip at dinner with enthusiasm, of their silver anniversary and how they were going to celebrate it together. My aunt gave them the trip as a gift,\" the paper quotes Davide Norelli saying. Davide Norelli, 23, also told Italian media that when he saw news of the crash on Saturday, he called his mother and was relieved at first because she answered. Then came the news that his father and brother died, which he had to relay to his 92-year-old paternal grandmother. The pilot of the helicopter -- a Eurocopter AS350 -- was Jeremy Clarke, 32. He had worked for Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours for about 1\u00bd years and had logged 2,700 helicopter flight hours, Hersman said. Killed aboard the plane were the owner and pilot, Steven Altman, 60, of Ambler, Pennsylvania; his brother, Daniel Altman, 49, of Dresher, Pennsylvania; and Daniel Altman's 16-year-old son, Douglas. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun to reconstruct what happened. The Piper took off from a Philadelphia-area airfield Saturday morning and landed at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport before taking off again, this time bound for Ocean City, New Jersey. Watch why investigators are looking at the airspace \u00bb . The Piper pilot spoke after takeoff with the Teterboro tower, which handed him off electronically to the Newark tower, NTSB Chairman Debbie Hersman told reporters. But the pilot never contacted the Newark tower, she said. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m., when it was at an altitude of about 1,100 feet, Hersman said. Watch why investigators are looking at the airspace \u00bb . The helicopter was taking the five Italians on a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York and had taken off from a heliport in midtown Manhattan shortly before the crash, Hersman said. Hersman called the area \"very complex airspace\" near three major airports and a variety of other general aviation facilities. In an effort to determine just how complex, the Federal Aviation Administration found that, in each of the eight days prior to the crash, an average of 225 aircraft operated at or below 1,100 feet within a 3-mile radius of the accident site, she said. Below that altitude, aircraft can operate under visual flight regulations. The wreckage of the helicopter was pulled up Sunday, nearly intact, Hersman said on CNN's \"American Morning\" on Monday. Watch the NTSB official discuss the accident \u00bb . Castellaneta said he had asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help speed the inquiry into what happened. Bloomberg, who is a pilot, likened the crowded air corridor where the accident happened to a highway. \"Nobody is ever going to make every road perfectly safe or every trip in your automobile, and the same thing is true when you fly,\" he said. He added, \"Nothing we can say will bring them back, but our prayers are with them.\" Investigators will focus on radio communications along the air corridor at the time of the crash and will examine any images contributed by the public. Neither aircraft was required to carry electronic data recorders -- often referred to as \"black boxes\" -- that record cockpit voices and flight information on larger planes. But electronic navigational devices on board might retain information that could help investigators, Hersman said. Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, since 1995, has had eight accidents and one \"incident,\" after which the NTSB made a number of safety recommendations, Hersman said. \"I think the fact that we are here today shows there is a lot of work that still needs to be done,\" she said. Saturday's crash was the company's first involving fatalities. Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the tour operator, said Liberty executives were working with investigators. \"The company is focusing its efforts on cooperating with the NTSB and giving as much information as it can,\" Horowitz said. \"At this time, their priority is to help with the family of their pilot and, of course, the families that were involved in the accident.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti, Mary Snow and Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Body found Monday in submerged wreckage of plane .\nEight bodies now located after weekend plane-helicopter collision; one missing .\nWife of Italian victim skipped helicopter flight to go shopping, son tells Italian media .\nHelicopter wreckage recovered Sunday .","id":"228c3a32b1ffb39079bdb219a1c2ad9c53c595f9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- If climate change were a small house fire, current policy in the European Union and the United Kingdom would ensure that it would destroy not just the house but the entire suburb. Author of \"Carbon Scenarios\" compares global warming to a house fire that the world is currently failing to contain. That's the grim analogy offered by Paul Domjan, author of a new report, \"Carbon Scenarios: Blue sky thinking for a green future\", by the Stockholm Network, a London-based pan-European think tank. The report explores three scenarios on climate change, none of which leads to what's defined by the EU and UK as a 'successful outcome'; a greater than 90 percent chance of temperatures rising by no more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels. \"We have failed,\" Domjan says, adding, \"We will not prevent two degrees of warming.\" Continuing the house fire analogy he says, \"The less than two degree scenario is a fire you can put out. With less than three degrees it spreads to other rooms but you can still put it out.\" He says global policy of the past ten years looks more like the third -- and worst -- scenario explored by the Carbon Scenarios report -- the one dubbed \"Agree and Ignore.\" In that case, \"your house is unrecognizably destroyed. The positive feedback cycle isn't contained. Your house catches fire, your neighbor's catches fire...\" And so on. Domjan blames the failure of the current climate change policy on the constant stream of compromises by world leaders designed to keep the Kyoto agreement intact. \"This dynamic of making lots of small compromises in order to keep the agreement in place has led to a situation where the agreement has lost a lot of its teeth.\" He points to Canada as an example, a signatory to the Kyoto agreement which has \"done nothing\" to implement it. \"During the time it's been a signatory it's been developing massive coal sands projects which are the most polluting way of producing gas and oil in the world,\" he says. \"There's a great international censure against the U.S. for not ratifying Kyoto but nothing has been said about Canada.\" \"The coal sands are using so much natural gas and electricity they could have an entire nuclear facility just for themselves.\" The three alternative futures explored in the Carbon Scenarios report include \"Kyoto Plus,\" \"Agree and Ignore\" and \"Step Change.\" \"Kyoto Plus\" envisages a gradual transition to a global cap on carbon emissions by 2012. Domjan calls it a \"largely successful scenario\" where there's a greater than 90 percent chance of global average temperatures rising more than 3.31 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100. \"That's not a disaster. It's still a world that's recognizable,\" he says. The second scenario -- \"Agree and Ignore\" -- predicts efforts to reduce carbon emissions will \"stall and backslide\" leading to \"competitive regionalism.\" There would be a greater than 90 percent chance of global average temperatures rising no more than 4.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100. From that point, temperatures would continue to rise into the next century. The third scenario -- \"Step Change\" -- imagines a radical shift in global policy direction. World leaders would introduce a system of global carbon caps, giving them greater than 90 percent chance of limiting the rise in global average temperatures to 2.85 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Of the three scenarios, \"Step Change\" is the one Domjan personally prefers but the one he concedes is unlikely to happen. \"Our proposal [for a global upstream cap] is similar to but not identical to the proposal from the Kyoto 2 project,\" he says. \"It's a line of thinking that's been around for a while that will provide a healthy alternative to emissions trading.\" Under the scheme, the United Nations would impose an annual cap on the amount of carbon that could be produced from fossil fuels. Natural resource companies would have to apply and pay for permits to produce carbon. Compliance would be determined at key points, for example, coal washing stations. \"The problem is how do you get the political impetus to have a big international change like that and for people to accept that this is genuinely going to be dealt with at an international level,\" Domjan asks. The \"Step Change\" scenario supposes that the impetus comes through a threat to U.S. and Chinese economic security. Under the scenario, climate change threatens Sino-U.S.. trade relations so the two combine to lead and enforce global change. \"Our current approach to climate change is moving at the pace of the slowest country,\" Domjan says, adding, \"Here they say we're going to move as quickly as possible and then force others to catch up.\" Under that scenario, the need to purchase carbon production permits would push record oil prices even higher as energy companies pass on the cost to consumers. Domjan is confident the global economy could cope -- it's adapted to higher energy prices so far and is likely to prove equally resilient in the future. And the extra cost of fuel, rather going to producers, would be held in a fund controlled by the United Nations. It would be used to help developing nations to use fewer fossil fuels, to support new research and development, to compensate oil producers for the carbon they're not producing, and to establish an emergency fund to deal with the consequences of climate change. Domjan acknowledges that world leaders are unlikely to use the report as the basis for a new global policy, but he hopes they at least take away two key points: \"Whenever possible regulate at the point where there are fewest participants [and] we need to make sure there's a clear price signal so the market can distribute energy efficiently.\"","highlights":"Carbon Scenarios report says EU, UK global warming targets \"unrealistic\"\nReport's author: \"We have failed. We will not prevent two degrees of warming\"\nDocument explores three scenarios for global warming under different policies .\nProposes radical shift in policy to introduce global carbon caps and permits .","id":"d5a425220e95a3b59af0cf910056bf6b2e416248"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of the final two of nine victims of Saturday's collision between a helicopter and small plane over the Hudson River, police said. The wreckage of a PA-32 that collided Saturday with a helicopter is lifted Tuesday from the bed of the Hudson River. \"They were inside the wreckage when we pulled it up,\" said New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne. Earlier Tuesday, police divers had attached chains and straps to the plane's fuselage and used a crane to lift it from the riverbed 60 feet below the surface. On Saturday, the Piper PA-32 Saratoga carrying three people collided with a helicopter carrying six people, five of them Italian tourists, killing all nine people aboard both aircraft. The wreckage of the helicopter, operated by Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, was lifted Sunday nearly intact from the Hudson. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision, which occurred shortly after the helicopter took off from a heliport in Midtown Manhattan on what was to have been a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York. The Piper took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was bound for Ocean City, New Jersey. It began its flight Saturday morning at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-area airfield. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Bodies of 8th and 9th victims recovered from plane wreckage .\nSingle-engine plane, tour helicopter collided Saturday over Hudson River .\nDivers attached chains, straps to lift submerged wreckage of plane .\nHelicopter's wreckage was pulled from the river Sunday .","id":"ede76765d99a416d0a353c858267e0be3ce44f53"} -{"article":"WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- Scott Roeder's ex-wife said she believes her former spouse was capable of murder. Scott Roeder, 51, is being held on a first-degree murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault. Roeder, 51, is sitting in a Kansas jail, charged with murdering George Tiller, one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortion. \"He was determined that if the abortion doctor killed the baby, then he didn't have any right to live either,\" Roeder's ex-wife Lindsey Roeder told reporters on Monday, refusing to show her face to cameras. Lindsey Roeder said their 10-year marriage ended 13 years ago in part because he had a fanatical preoccupation with certain views, including those on abortion. She said her ex-husband believed killing an abortion provider \"is justifiable,\" and described him as self-righteous and someone who may be capable of murder. Scott Roeder was charged Tuesday with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from Tiller's shooting death at Tiller's Wichita church Sunday morning. Watch panel discuss ramifications of slaying \u00bb . During a brief initial court appearance, in which he appeared via video from the county jail, Roeder requested a court-appointed lawyer. He has made no plea, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 16. Police have not disclosed a possible motive in Tiller's killing. But associates have told CNN that Roeder was a regular among the anti-abortion protesters who routinely gathered at Tiller's Wichita clinic, Women's Health Care Services. And records and interviews with family and fellow abortion protesters suggest Roeder had a fanatical preoccupation with abortion and used Christianity to support his beliefs. In 1996, he was arrested in Topeka, Kansas, with explosives, a military rifle, ammunition and a gas mask in his car, according to records. His ex-wife said that at that time he intended to blow up an abortion clinic. A Shawnee County judge called Roeder a \"substantial threat to public safety\" telling him that one must follow the law as established, not the law as one might wish it to be. Roeder pleaded not guilty, spent 16 months in prison and eight on probation. But his lawyer argued on appeal that his car had been illegally searched, and Roeder's conviction was vacated. He became known as a regular at protests outside abortion clinics, say those who rallied alongside him. Anti-abortion activists Anthony Leake and Regina Dinwiddie told CNN that Tiller had strong beliefs. \"He was a confessing Christian,\" Leake continued. \"He always had his Bible, which wasn't uncommon. He professed faith in Jesus Christ.\" A man named Scott Roeder signed a message on the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue's Web site in 2007, calling for prayers to shut down Tiller's \"death camp.\" \"Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the pastor, deacons, elders and members while there? Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller,\" the message reads. National anti-abortion organizations, including Operation Rescue, condemned Tiller's slaying. \"[The alleged killer] is not one of us, and if he thinks he is, then he is deluded,\" said the Rev. Gary Cass, the director of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. Dinwiddie, a 54-year-old grandmother, said Roeder once told her that he confronted a doctor at a Planned Parenthood center, telling the physician, \"Now I know what you look like.\" \"We all said, 'Scott, you better leave or they are gonna get after you,' \" Dinwiddie said. \"Next thing, all these people come rushing out of the place, all worried. Scott was standing up for what he believed in.\" In the mid-1990s, police said he was also possibly linked to the Freemen, an anti-government group based in Montana. Eugene Frye, who says he has known Roeder for years as an anti-tax campaigner, said just Roeder showed up at a recent abortion protest talking about this year's trial of Tiller, whom Frye called the \"killer.\" Tiller was acquitted in March of 19 misdemeanor counts of performing unlawful procedures at his clinic, and Frye said Roeder told him he had attended the trial. See what people are saying about Tiller's slaying \u00bb . \"He just said he'd been down there, and that the trial was a sham,\" Frye said. But he said he was surprised that Roeder was a suspect in Tiller's death, saying he never spoke of any kind of violence. Tiller describes the philosophy of his clinic in 1999 \u00bb . CNN's Ed Lavandera, Randi Kaye, Paul Vercammen and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-wife: Scott Roeder was self-righteous, potentially dangerous .\nScott Roeder, 51, of the Kansas City, Kansas, area charged with murder .\nRoeder suspected of killing abortion provider Dr. George Tiller on Sunday .\nTiller was one few remaining doctors in the U.S. offering late-term abortions .","id":"c40efe85a2b9c6ef58f7bba7a6a474819467ae8a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tributes have been flooding in following the sudden death of Spanish Primera Liga side Espanyol's captain Daniel Jarque at the age of 26 on Saturday night. Espanyol fans have begun a memorial for captain Daniel Jarque following his sudden death on Saturday. Jarque passed away around 8pm local time when his heart stopped following a training session in Coverciano, Italy, where the squad are on a pre-season camp. Reports suggest Jarque was on the phone to his fiancee -- who is eight months pregnant -- at the time and she alerted two of his team-mates, who raced to his hotel room. Club doctors and Italian paramedics tried to revive Jarque, a product of the Espanyol youth system, but without success. Most Spanish clubs immediately expressed their condolences and leading footballing personalities have now done the same. Speaking on the official Real Madrid Web site, club captain Raul said: \"As captain, and on behalf of the whole Real Madrid team, I want to express our sincere condolences. \"We will support the player's family and the Espanyol family in any way possible during this very difficult time for everybody. \"He was a great professional and sportsman and this has left us all very hurt. We offer our most sincere sympathies,\" added Raul. Jarque's death comes two years after that of Sevilla and Spain defender Antonio Puerta, who suffered multiple organ failure in hospital, three days after a cardiac arrest during a league match against Getafe. Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini added: \"It is news that you wish wasn't true. It's terrible, it already happened a couple of years ago to Sevilla and the truth is these things have an impact.\" Joan Laporta, president of European champions Barcelona -- Espanyol's city rivals -- said on their official Web site: \"\"We are very shocked by this tragic event. \"We are all in mourning and I wish to express in the name of FC Barcelona our heartfelt condolences to Espanyol on the painful loss of their captain Dani Jarque, and also to his family\". Jarque joined Espanyol at the age of 12, making his debut in 2002, and was handed the captaincy this summer. Fans have been flocking to Espanyol's stadium since the news broke and have been in mourning outside gate 21 -- Jarque's squad number. Former Espanyol coach Ramon Moya, who handed Jarque his debut against Rayo Vallecano, was deeply shocked. \"I feel like I have lost a son,\" he told reporters. \"Jarque was a footballer, but he was also my friend. This situation is very difficult for a person. It was as if he was family. I knew him for many years. I gave him his debut and I shared many moments with him. It's very difficult to explain how I feel at the moment.\" Another former coach, Ernesto Valverde, insisted Jarque had never had any medical problems previously. \"After hearing the news I still haven't taken it in,\" said the current Villarreal coach. \"He was a player who was super strong, super healthy and very important in the dressing room. We got goosebumps when we heard the news. He was a very strong person but life is like that and it gives you terrible surprises. \" Espanyol, who had been due to play Bologna in a friendly match on Sunday, suspended their pre-season tour of Italy and have flown back to Barcelona.","highlights":"Tributes are flooding in following the sudden death of Espanyol's Daniel Jarque .\nJarque suffered a heart attack while in his hotel room during a club tour of Italy .\n26-year-old made his debut in 2002 and was given the captaincy this summer .","id":"5e3a9ffbf305e15d822cbca3b88dd7bfc05981fb"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A rare and original manuscript of one of America's most patriotic songs has been discovered in a flea market bargain. The manuscript of the song could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. A shopper browsing through the market in New York bought a framed picture of a flower for $10 and found handwritten manuscript of \"America\" (My Country 'tis of Thee) tucked behind the picture, the manuscript's owner said Thursday. The manuscript of the song whose lyrics were written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 could be worth tens of thousands of dollars, said the owner, art collector Keya Morgan. He said he bought it from the flea market shopper, who has asked not to be identified. The song was intended to be played in schools to inspire and teach children and was first played in public on July 4, 1831, in the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, Morgan said. The song is written to the tune of \"God Save the Queen,\" the national anthem of the United Kingdom. Take a look at the manuscript \u00bb . The authenticity of the document was confirmed by Morgan, a handwriting expert who has been authenticating historical documents for nearly a decade, and Diana Yount, an archival specialist at Andover Newton Theological School. Yount reached her conclusion after comparing the handwriting with that in a hymn written by Smith. Morgan, whose collection includes artifacts from Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant, was ecstatic. \"It's the biggest high I could get,\" said Morgan. \"It shaped the nation and reminds us that this nation is just a baby.\"","highlights":"\"America\" (My Country 'tis of Thee) found tucked behind a picture .\nPicture sells for $10 at flea market; manuscript reportedly worth thousands .\n\"America\" first played in public on July 4, 1831 .","id":"9a3e0fa5c2ee8116c2117c8b572981f060e0e5d4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The view will be one unlike any other. Climbing up through the clouds at a rate faster than the speed of sound, the sky will darken to a deep blue and then to black. Below, entire mountain ranges, coastlines and cities will shift into focus as the horizon bends around the curvature of the Earth - the thin veil of its atmosphere shimmering against a backdrop of stars. An emerging space tourism industry may give thousands of travelers a new view of Earth. And then, of course, there will be the feeling of weightlessness. \"It is just life changing,\" said Col. Richard Searfoss, a retired NASA shuttle commander.\"To be outside the atmosphere and see the curvature of the Earth and see so much land area at once, it gives you a sense of separateness but connectedness.\" The view of Earth from outer space is a sight that in the history of mankind only a few hundred people have ever seen. But that could soon change as what was once an almost nonexistent space tourism industry slowly matures into what some analysts predict could be a billion dollar enterprise with thousands of passengers by the end of the next decade. \"This is just the beginning of the golden age of space flight,\" said Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation, which awarded the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for the first privately funded human flight to the edge of space.\"Looking back a thousand years from now, this will be the period of time when the human race irrevocably moved off the planet.\" Look back roughly ten years, though, and the idea of sending tourists into space seemed more like science fiction than a viable business plan, said John Gedmark, executive director of the Personal Spaceflight Federation, a trade association representing the space travel industry. \"No one ever thought this was real at all,\" said Gedmark.\"It was just completely unthinkable.\" But that perception began to change in 2001 when American multimillionaire Dennis Tito became the world's first so-called space tourist, traveling aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station for a price of around $20 million. Four more tourists have since made the trip. Another major milestone for the industry has been a growing interest and investment from entrepreneurs like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who financed the development of SpaceShipOne, winner of the Ansari X Prize, and British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the space tourism company, Virgin Galactic. \"Since then the activity has been more evenly spread and steadier and more consistent and more determined,\" said Gedmark. \"Now you have a number of companies working on multiple fronts to get people into space.\" There are now at least a dozen space tourism endeavors worldwide, offering experiences that range from a flight to the fringe of space to astronaut training on a tropical island. While the companies make up a varied landscape of technological know-how, financial wherewithal and enterprising ideas, they all share one common goal: The desire to conquer what is widely considered to be the final frontier of mankind -- the universe. \"The human species is about evolution and is about moving forward,\" said Eric Anderson, president of Space Adventures Ltd., the Virginia-based company responsible for arranging civilian trips to the space station on the Soyuz. \"Space is filled with infinite resources that can make our lives better.\" This October, Richard Garriott, a computer-game developer and son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, is scheduled to become Space Adventures' sixth client to leave the planet followed by a seventh yet-to-be identified passenger next April. Space Adventures is also planning to build commercial spaceports near Dubai and in Singapore. But Anderson said the next big step involves something slightly further afield - a trip to the Moon. With a price tag of $100 million per seat, two tourists and a pilot would spend around two weeks board a modified Russian spacecraft with the chance to see an Earth rise from lunar orbit and cruise around the far side of the Moon. The excursion will launch when contracts are finalized with travelers, Space Adventures said. Suborbital space tourism is also set to take off soon. For $200,000, Virgin Galactic passengers will undergo several days of training before taking a two-hour flight to the fringe of space - 70 miles above sea level. From there, the company says, passengers will experience the feeling of weightlessness and see a view of the Earth that spans a 1,000 miles in any direction. Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said the company has collected $35 million in deposits from 250 would-be space tourists. Another 80,000 have registered interest with the company, he said. \"That figure has been growing month by month the past year, especially as we get finished building the technology,\" said Whitehorn. Virgin will begin testing WhiteKnightTwo this summer, said Whitehorn. The carrier vehicle will ferry suborbital craft SpaceShipTwo, modeled after Ansari X Prize winner SpaceShipOne, 50,000 feet in the sky before releasing it. \"Once we have tested that sufficiently, we will put the spaceship underneath it,\" said Whitehorn. Other companies are also jumping in the suborbital space race. In March, California-based XCOR Aerospace announced plans to build the Lynx, a two-seater rocketship that will carry passengers up into the atmosphere for about $100,000. The vehicle will be the size of a small business jet, capable of making several flights a day, the company said. And last year, European aerospace giant EADS announced plans for its Astrium space division to develop a line of suborbital jets to satisfy a space tourism market that it predicts could grow to as many as 15,000 passengers a year by 2020. \"The market is there,\" said Robert Laine, chief technical officer of EADS Astrium.\"The question is how to build the planes that can satisfy that market and to understand what profits at the end we can make out of it.\" ....................... Would you want to take a holiday in space? Is it worth the cost? Leave your views and comments in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Space tourism projected to be billion dollar industry by end of next decade .\nMore than a dozen commercial space ventures operating worldwide .\nEuropean aerospace company EADS projects 15,000 space travelers by 2021 .","id":"9c6ba06ca0c7229e0db7ba80d9b0beae43338cb0"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Police executed a search warrant at a Las Vegas pharmacy Tuesday morning in connection with the investigation into Michael Jackson's death, a federal drug agent said. A Las Vegas pharmacy was searched Tuesday in connection with Michael Jackson's death. Applied Pharmacy on Flamingo Road in Las Vegas sold the anesthetic propofol to Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's doctor, a source familiar with the investigation said. Another source close to the investigation said last month that Murray, a Texas-based cardiologist, is said to have given Jackson propofol, commonly known by the brand name Diprivan, in the 24 hours before he died. The search of Applied Pharmacy came two weeks after searches of Murray's home and clinic in Las Vegas. The search warrant served Tuesday authorized investigators to seize documents -- both on computers and paper -- related to the Jackson investigation, DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Mike Flanagan said. The warrants used for those earlier searches, which were filed in a Clark County, Nevada, court, imply that investigators looking into Jackson's death believe that the singer was a drug addict. The warrants, signed by District Judge Timothy Williams and given to CNN by Las Vegas affiliate KTNV, say that \"there is probable cause to believe\" that the searches would uncover evidence at Murray's home and office of excessive prescribing, prescribing to an addict, prescribing to or treating an addict and manslaughter. They cite \"probable cause to believe\" that the premises contained \"records, shipping orders, distribution lists, use records relating to the purchase, transfer ordering, delivery and storage of propofol (Diprivan).\" Murray was with Jackson on June 25 when he was rushed to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and when he was pronounced dead, according to Murray's lawyer. A source involved with the inquiry into Jackson's death has said that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in his $100,000-a-month rented mansion in Holmby Hills, California. The items taken from Murray's home included copies of his computer and cell phone hard drives. They were to be turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department, which is leading the investigation into Jackson's death at age 50. A \"thorough and comprehensive\" report into the death of Michael Jackson is complete, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Monday, but police have requested that the report not be released because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office said it would abide by the request that \"the cause and manner of death remain confidential\" and referred all questions to the Los Angeles Police Department. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"Applied Pharmacy sold propofol to Dr. Conrad Murray, source says .\nWarrant part of follow-up to searches of home, clinic of Jackson doctor .\nAutopsy results held because of investigation, coroner says .","id":"3a03ee08a4747ced7ff137661d19caedb4b3f526"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Walter Thomas knows, it's hard to look for a job when your stomach is rumbling. Samirah, 2, asked her mom to take this photo to show that hungry people \"are like everyone else.\" The 52-year-old from Washington, D.C., started skipping meals in early January when his savings account was running dry and his kitchen cabinets were almost empty. Thomas at first didn't want to turn to the United States' food safety net, the food stamp program, for help. But after being laid off in July from what seemed like a steady job in sales at a furniture store, Thomas swallowed his pride and applied for the monthly food aid. \"It lets me think, 'OK, well, tomorrow I'll be able to eat. If nothing else, I'll be able to eat,' \" he said. With the national economy in meltdown, more Americans than ever are relying on the federal aid program to keep from going hungry. In October, more than one in 10 people -- about 31 million -- were using the food stamp program to get by, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More recent numbers are not available, but advocates for the poor say the number of those in need of aid probably has increased since then. Stereotypes associated with food stamps abound, and recipients are often seen as prone to taking handouts, sometimes when they may not be needed. But the profile of hunger in America is multifaceted, as diverse as the nation itself, especially in these times of economic hardship. To get a better idea of what it's like to live on a food stamp budget, CNN correspondent Sean Callebs has decided to eat for a month on $176 and blog about the experience on CNN.com. Watch reporter's struggle to buy food with food stamps \u00bb . That's a situation many people, Thomas included, can relate to. Thomas, who said he had been working steadily since he was 13 years old, now receives $175 per month for food. That's about $5.83 per day -- less than $2 per meal. See what people on food stamps can buy \u00bb . Not that Thomas is complaining. After getting his first payment, which is added to an inconspicuous debit card to reduce the stigma associated with the program, Thomas went straight to the grocery store. He was hungry and grateful. \"It's definitely been a blessing to me,\" he said of the food stamp program, which, since October, has gone by the name Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Advocates for the poor, as well as those on federal assistance, hope President Obama's economic stimulus plan will increase food stamp payments. The average family on food stamps would receive $79 more per month if the stimulus bill passes in the U.S. Senate this week, according to The New York Times. iReport.com: How are you doing in this tough economy? There is some debate about whether giving people money to spend on groceries is a valid form of economic stimulus. Few are more hopeful the measure will pass than Crystal Sears, a 30-year-old mother in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who said she has been on food stamps for more than three years. Sears said she sometimes skips meals so her three children can eat. Even with federal assistance, she said, she sometimes has to make a meal for herself out of crackers or food scraps. She said she has been out of work for several years because all three of her children have medical conditions: Her 8-year-old son has a seizure disorder that requires frequent hospital visits and constant attention; her 2-year-old daughter was born with heart problems; and her 12-year-old daughter has scoliosis, a back condition that recently required two surgeries, she said. Without much money, she's forced to make tough choices. \"If the kids needed sneakers and their sneakers are getting too small, or if my water bill is past due, I'd opt not to pay it and risk them sending me a shut-off notice just so my children can eat,\" she said. Sometimes she chooses to buy more food instead of paying her gas bill to heat her home. When she does, the family sleeps huddled around their stove or an electric heater, she said. Her monthly food stamp payment is $489, she said. That's sometimes sufficient. But some months, she said, she doesn't receive full payments because of mix-ups with paperwork. Until recently, she said, she received about $250 per month, which she said was far from enough to feed her family of four. The SNAP program is meant to supplement a person's food budget, not cover all food expenses, said Jean Daniel, a spokesperson for the USDA, which administers the program. Taking on part-time work would further complicate the application process, she said. Sears said she worked for seven years at a Salvation Army shelter before becoming unemployed. \"For me, I've always been a helper. And my thing is I don't like to help people to enable them. I like to help people so they can help themselves in the long run,\" she said. Sears stretches her food budget by buying cheap and sometimes fatty meals. She said she doesn't like doing that but can't avoid it. With food prices high, she said, grocery shopping is stressful. \"We get like the mac and cheese, which is dehydrated cheese -- basically food that's no good for you health wise,\" she said. \"Everything is high in sodium and trans fats ... and that's all we basically can afford. There's not enough assistance to eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight.\" Advocates for the hungry say many people on the food stamp program opt to buy less-healthy foods because they can't afford fresh fruits and vegetables on such a tight budget. Food stamp \"benefits aren't really enough for a healthy diet,\" said Jim Weill, president of the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center. Sears said she is grateful for the help she does get. Maribel Diaz, a 36-year-old mother of three boys in Los Angeles, California, said her $319-per-month payment isn't always enough. But she said she would starve herself before letting her boys go hungry. \"You're bringing home less bags [of food] now, because the milk is almost $5 a gallon and the bread is $3 a loaf. ... A chicken is, like, now $8,\" Diaz said. \"If you're really breaking it down, you're not bringing a lot of groceries home.\" All SNAP recipients are eligible for free nutritional counseling to help people stretch their food budgets, said Daniel, of the USDA. Advocates for the hungry find flaws in the way the program is set up, but they praise it for being a safety net the government can't take away during tough times. Unlike aid to soup kitchens, the food stamp program receives federal funding in times thick and thin, and has a $6 billion backup fund, Daniel said. \"The money will be found so people are not turned away,\" Daniel said. All of the benefits paid to participants come from the federal government. States split the program's administrative costs. Advocates see some flaws in SNAP but generally give it praise. \"I say about food stamps what Winston Churchill said about democracy: 'It's the worst possible system except all the others,' \" said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger. Berg said the program's benefits are too small and too difficult for people to obtain. But the food stamp program is somewhat successful, he said. \"The main purpose of the program is to wipe out Third World starvation in America, and it's worked,\" he said, adding that he's optimistic about improvements that could come as part of the economic stimulus plan. Thomas, the laid-off furniture worker in Washington, said he doesn't want people to feel sorry for him. After being let go from his store, he stopped at an employment center before going anywhere else. He said he faxed about 20 r\u00e9sum\u00e9s to similar companies on that very day. None has resulted in a job yet, but Thomas said he has been to interviews for other types of work and hopes employment will come soon. For now, he's just happy to continue the job search without the pain of hunger nagging at his stomach.","highlights":"More than 1 in 10 Americans are part of the federal food assistance program .\nSome people say it is hard or impossible to make ends meet, even with help .\nPresident Obama's economic stimulus plan could increase food-stamp funding .\nCNN's Sean Callebs will live on $176 this month to learn about life on food stamps .","id":"0c30f8b99da29f37d4151b54e279d9eec2fb2a8d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Late-night talker David Letterman married his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko, last week, according to a transcript of the taping of his Monday night show. Late-night host David Letterman says he \"avoided getting married for ... 23 years.\" The wedding was at the courthouse in Choteau, Montana, on Thursday, he said, according to quotes from CBS' \"Late Show with David Letterman\" provided to CNN by Letterman's publicist, Tom Keaney. \"Regina and I began dating in February of 1986, and I said, 'Well, things are going pretty good, let's just see what happens in about 10 years ... ,\" he joked during the taping. Watch Letterman spill the beans \u00bb . \"I had avoided getting married pretty good [sic] for, like, 23 years, and ... honestly, whether this happened or not, I secretly felt that men who were married admired me -- like I was the last of the real gunslingers.\" Lasko is a former \"Late Show\" staffer. The couple have a son, Harry. Letterman told his audience that the wedding almost didn't happen after the couple, son in tow, got their pickup truck stuck in the mud on the way to the ceremony. \"So I get out of the truck and I walk two miles back to the house into a 50 mph wind. It's not Beverly Hills, it's Montana, for God's sakes,' \" he said. \"And the whole way, I'm thinking, 'See, smartass? See? See? You try to get married, this is what happens.' \" When he returned with a car, he said -- presumably joking -- that his son was disappointed, \"because mom had told him if I wasn't back in an hour, the deal was off.\"","highlights":"Talk-show host marries Regina Lasko, who he began dating in 1986 .\nLetterman talks of last week's wedding on his show Monday night .\nLetterman and Lasko have a son; were married in Montana .","id":"60f3b8e3bd57a9021c4fe2d50ad59c54dd29e04e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A British football fan has been shot and wounded in Kyrgyzstan after a local became upset with a group of supporters chanting in a bar. England fans celebrate following victory against Ecuador at the 2006 World Cup finals. The incident took place ahead of England's World Cup qualifying match away to neighboring Kazakhstan on Saturday. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said the attack took place in a bar in Bishek on Tuesday. \"The British honorary consul is liaising with those involved and with the local authorities,\" she said. Britain's Sun newspaper reported on Thursday that the local in the bar told the England fan and his friends to stop chanting, and shot him in the thigh with a pistol when they continued. The wounded man is aged in his 30s and is from Rochdale in the north-western county of Lancashire, the paper said. Kyrgyzstan, with a population of more than five million people, is a landlocked nation bordered to the north by Kazakhstan. England will be seeking to maintain a 100 per cent record in the European Group Six qualifier in Almaty, having won all five games so far to be five points ahead of second-placed Croatia.","highlights":"England supporter shot in the leg in a bar in Kyrgyzstan by an angry local .\nThe local was upset by the chanting of the man and his fellow supporters .\nThe British Foreign Office says the attack took place in Bishek on Tuesday .\nEngland will play neighboring Kazakhstan in World Cup qualifier on Saturday .","id":"036ff69f7fdc5f850bed5fdae0316282fd39de91"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- To understand how close Kanye West and his mother, Donda, were, one only needs to listen to his music. Donda and Kanye West, here during her book tour, were very close. He regularly made reference to her in his lyrics, discussing everything from her insistence that he receive a college degree to her unshakeable support of him when he ultimately decided to pursue a rap career. Donda West, who died at 58 over the weekend, appeared to be as tough as she was loving. On \"Can't Tell Me Nothing,\" a track from his latest album, \"Graduation,\" he rhymes about his mother's attempt to discourage him from spending money on jewelry and \"Louis V.\" On \"Touch the Sky,\" from his 2005 album, \"Late Registration,\" he recalls how his mother drove him from Chicago, Illinois, to New York in a U-Haul van. (Read the obituary of Donda West.) She was also the inspiration for the song \"Hey Mama,\" from the same album. \"I want to scream so loud for you\/ because I'm so proud of you,\" he rhymes. \"I know I act a fool\/ but I promise you I'm going back to school\/ I appreciate what you allowed for me and I just want you to be proud of me.\" Watch how Kanye West is mourning his mother \u00bb . Donda West was indeed proud. She regularly attended her son's concerts and often could be found dancing and rapping his more radio-friendly lyrics. Watch Donda West talk about \"Raising Kanye\" \u00bb . At the MTV Video Music Awards in September, she and a gaggle of girlfriends were perched in the VIP section at a party for Rolling Stone magazine. As Kanye West whipped the crowd into a frenzy with hits such as \"Gold Digger\" and \"Through the Wire,\" his mom waved her hands in the air side to side and bobbed to the beats. When asked if her son would sell more records than 50 Cent (both rappers released their albums on September 11), she answered coyly. \"Good music will win out,\" she said with a smile and a wink. (Her son's label is named Good Music.) Gallery: Donda and Kanye \u00bb . \"Graduation\" would go on to trounce 50 Cent's \"Curtis,\" debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and selling more than 950,000 copies in its first week of release. Long before her son became an international superstar, Donda West was an English professor at Chicago State University. She stepped down as chairwoman of the university's English department in 2004 to manage her son's burgeoning career full time. The two collaborated on a book, \"Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip Hop Star,\" which was released in May. And most recently, she became the CEO of Super Good, the parent company of Kanye West Enterprises. She also was the chairwoman of the Kanye West Foundation, which, interestingly enough, is focused on keeping students from dropping out of school. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Hip-hop star Kanye West often paid tribute to his mother in his songs .\nDonda West was supportive of her son's career, would dance to his beats .\nMom was former English professor, later managed son's career .","id":"a9243285f4b956ca99bd6d94143d2a5c2d80a379"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British mother of a child who died after being brutally abused has been jailed indefinitely. A police computer image of some of the facial injuries suffered by baby Peter. The child's -- originally known as Baby P --horrifying death caused a furor in Britain, with the media, public and politicians united in demanding to know how his terrible injuries were missed by social workers, police and medical staff. Judge Stephen Kramer also Friday jailed the 27-year-old mum's boyfriend for life with a minimum of 12 years and their lodger, Jason Owen, 37, indefinitely but with a minimum of three years, the British Press Association reported. The boyfriend, 32, was also convicted of raping a two-year-old girl. Baby P's mum has to serve a minimum of five years. She and her boyfriend cannot be named. Baby P -- he could not be known by his first name, Peter, until the recent lifting of a court order -- was only 17 months old when he was found dead in his blood-spattered cot in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including a broken back and fractured ribs, despite being on London's Haringey council's at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over eight months. The resulting public outrage saw the government's child secretary, Ed Balls, step in to demand the removal of the council's head of children's services, Sharon Shoesmith, with two other leading officials also stepping down. Shoesmith had to be placed under police guard after death threats were made. Judge Kramer told Peter's mother that she was \"a manipulative and self-centered person, with a calculating side as well as a temper.\" Watch more on the case \u00bb . \"Your conduct over the months prevented Peter from being seen by social services. You actively deceived the authorities... you acted selfishly because your priority was your relationship,\" he told the court, PA reported. Judge Kramer's comments echoed the country's response to the case. \"Any decent person who heard the catalogue of medical conditions and non-accidental injuries suffered by Peter cannot fail to have been appalled.\" A second serious review of the case commissioned by Balls and released Friday, also reiterated that Peter's death \"could and should have been prevented.\" Graham Badman, the chairman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, which conducted the review said: \"I believe the most important lesson arising from this case is that professionals charged with ensuring child safety must be deeply skeptical of any explanations, justifications or excuses they may hear in connection with the apparent maltreatment of children. \"If they have any doubt about the cause of physical injuries or what appears to be maltreatment, they should act swiftly and decisively. Badman said the review found that if \"doctors, lawyers, police officers and social workers had adopted a more urgent, thorough and challenging approach, the case would have been stopped in its tracks at the first serious incident.\" \"Baby Peter deserved better from the services that were supposed to protect him,\" Badman said.","highlights":"British mother of child who died after brutal abuse has been jailed indefinitely .\nHer boyfriend and lodger are also sent to jail over Baby P's horrific injuries .\nCase caused an outrage in Britain after raft of people missed chance to stop abuse .","id":"ff1c70f1a9214d9e3a594433f8fada3de6c7103b"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- \"Easy money, fast and effective.\" Investors protest outside the headquarters of DMG, one of many companies accused of defrauding the public. That was the name of one of the businesses in which millions of Colombians deposited their life savings after being promised short-term returns of as much as 150 percent. But government officials say the businesses were pyramid schemes that raked in at least $200 million from 3 million people. The government has said it knows who most of those responsible are, but they have escaped. The government is tracking them down. Sergio Munoz is among those who lost their savings. \"That was for my children,\" he said. \"Now, it comes to light that they have robbed us. It was with complicity of the authorities who permit this -- knowing that it is illegal for it to be permitted.\" The government says the businesses defrauded the public by offering false promises of a sure investment. Wilson Rodriguez handed over the equivalent of $80,000 to a money man who offered him what he thought were assets in hotels and property in exchange. Now, he doesn't know whom to approach. \"I don't even have enough to care for my family,\" he said. \"I lent money and what I make from my salary goes to pay off debts. I have nothing. I lost everything.\" Infuriated investors have demonstrated outside the headquarters of several companies in question across the nation. Worried that the situation has already led to physical altercations and riots, President Alvaro Uribe asked that authorities act immediately to bring those responsible to justice. \"We are asking the public prosecutor to speed up the resolution of the cases,\" he said. \"The national police has handed to the prosecution the power to intervene in pyramids.\" Treasury Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga said the government is not to blame. \"The government had advertised all this time about the illegality of this operation, warning Colombians not to let themselves be defrauded, not to take their money to these illegal activities,\" he said. Meanwhile, some observers complain that, though the investors may shoulder some blame, the government could have mitigated their losses by moving more quickly. And, they note, some of the alleged pyramid schemes continue to stay in business.","highlights":"Pyramid schemes robbed 3 million Colombians of at least $200 million, officials say .\nMany businesses promised returns as high as 150 percent .\nTreasury Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga says government warned against schemes .\nAuthorities tracking down people behind businesses, many of whom have escaped .","id":"f0b25ff7bef02574014d4e159f53bd3d8711cc63"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 26-year-old man was arraigned Tuesday on murder charges in the January strangling deaths of his girlfriend and her four small children in an Oklahoma apartment. Joshua Durcho told a friend he choked Summer Rust but said her children were elsewhere, an affidavit says. Joshua Steven Durcho is charged with five counts of first degree murder in the January deaths of Summer Rust, 25; her son Teagin, 4; and daughters Evynn, 3, and Autumn and Kirsten, both 7. All five bodies were found January 12 in Rust's apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. Authorities believe Durcho killed Rust because she threatened to call the police on him, prosecutors said in court documents released Tuesday. He knew that likely would bring about his arrest, the documents said, because two outstanding bench warrants had been issued on him after he failed to appear in court in two criminal cases -- one on charges of driving under the influence and the second on charges of unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Durcho had previously served time in prison after being convicted of unlawful possession of marijuana and \"vowed he would never go back to prison,\" the court documents said. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against Durcho, according to the documents, which note each victim suffered \"severe pain and anguish\" as they fought for their lives while being strangled with a ligature, which could include a string, cord or wire. In addition, the documents said, evidence indicates Durcho sexually abused both the 7-year-old girls at or near the time they died. In Tuesday's arraignment, Canadian County District Judge Edward Cunningham entered not guilty pleas on Durcho's behalf, according to The Oklahoman newspaper. An affidavit filed in the case, written by an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent, said Durcho went to the home of an acquaintance January 12 and said he had \"choked\" Summer Rust -- identified in court papers as Summer Garas -- to death and was leaving Oklahoma. When the acquaintance, a women, asked Durcho about Rust's children, he \"told her that the children were at their grandmother's residence ... while he and Summer worked out their relationship problems,\" according to the affidavit. The acquaintance then called Durcho's mother, who drove to the apartment but received no answer at the door, the affidavit said. She asked her nephew, Durcho's cousin, to accompany her, leading to the discovery of Rust's body. The cousin notified police, and responding officers found the children's bodies in the apartment. According to the court documents released Tuesday, Durcho also told the female acquaintance that he killed Rust because she threatened to call the police on him. Durcho was arrested in Hamilton County, Texas, the day after the bodies were found. He has been appointed public defenders, according to Canadian County, Oklahoma, court records, and earlier waived his right to a preliminary hearing in the case. CNN's Ashley Broughton contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Court papers say woman, four kids suffered \"severe pain and anguish\"\nNEW: Two 7-year-old girls sexually assaulted before they died, documents say .\nNEW: Threat of returning to prison motivated slayings, prosecutors say .\nBodies found January 12 in apartment in El Reno, Oklahoma .","id":"a2260e042ed6b2e166f7bf0dd7a9c361481282a9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Mexican man who was allegedly killed on orders from his own cartel believed they were hunting for him after he began working as an informant and was fearful for his life, according to court documents. Police say soldier Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, acted as the gunman. Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana began to worry after he began working as an informant for immigration officials in the United States. \"The victim was concerned for his own well-being and the safety of his family,\" the documents said, referencing statements the victim made to a witness. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials gave Gonzalez a visa so he could live in El Paso, Texas, his fellow Juarez cartel members began to get suspicious, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a press conference. Allen said Gonzalez's exit from Mexico, combined with a raid on a cartel warehouse and the arrest of cartel lieutenant Pedro \"El Tigre\" Aranas Sanchez led cartel members to believe he might be working as an informant, Allen said. Then, a Mexican newspaper named Gonzalez as an informant in the arrest of the high-ranking cartel member, according to court documents. Police say Gonzales quickly became the target of his own cartel. Police said Gonzalez knew if his fellow cartel members found him, he would likely be killed, police said. On May 15, the cartel found him. He was shot eight times outside his home in El Paso, Texas, police said. Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, Ruben Rodriguez Dorado, 30, and Christopher Andrew Duran, 17, were each named as suspects Monday and each are facing one count of capital murder. The three men are being held on $1 million bond. Police said Apodaca was the shooter, Duran was the getaway car driver, and Rodriguez was the one who coordinated the murder. On Wednesday, police also arrested a 16-year-old who they said was involved in the surveillance and reconnaissance of the victim. The juvenile also faces one count of capital murder. Rodriguez and the victim were in the Juarez cartel, based across the border from El Paso, police spokesman Chris Mears said. He said police believe Apodaca and Duran were not cartel members. Apodaca joined the Army a year ago and worked as a crew member on a Patriot missile launcher, officials at Fort Bliss in El Paso said. \"He was in the top of his class,\" said Dave Jackson, his grandfather. \"You talk to all his sergeants. He's a good soldier. Now, before he went in [and joined the Army], he was in, he was in with a bad crowd.\" Investigators said at the press conference they think the three suspects met through a relative of Rodriguez. \"He [Rodriguez] was the older guy, he provided the alcohol, the party locations,\" police Lt. Alfred Lowe said. \"And he recruited these people to do his bidding.\" Once the three men were allegedly hired, they were \"told to find the victim in the United States,\" Allen said. Rodriguez paid the victim's cell phone bill hoping he would be able to learn where he lived, federal officials learned, according to court documents. Federal law enforcement was apparently concerned enough about the incident that officers told local law enforcement to signal Gonzalez's home could be at risk. Hours before the slaying, police said Rodriguez called a tactical supply store that exclusively sells the same brand of ammunition found at the scene. The suspects found Gonzalez at a relative's home in Canutillo, Texas, and followed him back to his home before shooting him, police said. The three arrested men's phone records showed their approximate locations on the night of the killing and corroborated that the suspects were tracking the victim, according to court documents. During an interrogation, Rodriguez told investigators he ordered Gonzalez's execution, police said. But Allen also said during the press conference that Rodriguez planned the killing and hired the other suspects after he was given the order by cartel lieutenant Jesus Aguayo Salas. Police said there was also a warrant out for his arrest. Rodriguez told police he paid the participants for their role in the killing, the affidavit said. It said he also noted that he was a midlevel member of the cartel, which he called the \"Compania,\" and said he was in charge of coordinating surveillance for the cartel, \"following intended victims up until their execution.\" Duran and Rodriguez told police that Apodaca was paid to be the shooter and Duran to drive the getaway car, according to the affidavit. Allen said both men were each paid \"quite a robust amount of money ... under $10,000, in that area.\" Police said more arrests could still come in the case. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Tracy Sabo, Mallory Simon and Melanie Whitley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police say victim believed if cartel found him, he would be killed .\nDocuments: Suspect tried to find victim by paying his phone bill .\nSoldier Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, was one of three men arrested Monday .\nOther suspects include Ruben Rodriguez Dorado and Christopher Andrew Duran .","id":"e427f882d65967ed99f67dccf6da38b80e795ef3"} -{"article":"'SINDH KALAY', England (CNN) -- The aroma of freshly baking flatbread wafts through the air as a unit of British soldiers position themselves for a quick patrol around the village of Sindh Kalay. A British soldier on patrol in the mock Afghan village of Sindh Kalay. Market vendors hawk grapes and melons, as a group of village elders sit smoking water pipes and suspicious-looking men lurk beside battered motorcycles. What should the soldiers do? Conduct a weapons search? Approach the village elders first? In the complex political and cultural terrain of Afghanistan, what is the best course of action? Except this is not Afghanistan. It's Norfolk, England. Instead of the Hindu Kush mountains, it is the green ladscape and tidy farmhouses of the English countryside that stretch out behind them. Welcome to the British Army's state-of-the art training ground. It cost more than $20 million to build and every British soldier serving in Afghanistan will do his or her training here. \"I think it's the closest thing you are going to get short of being in Afghanistan itself,\" says Col. David Colthup of the 2nd Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. His troops have already served one tour of duty in Afghanistan's Helmand province and are training for another. British troops serving in Helmand province are tasked with mentoring and training Afghan security forces. Not an easy job in a Taliban stronghold and Afghanistan's center of opium production. \"Ultimately, a soldier joins the army and trains to fight. That's what a soldier trains to do. But today, it's a much, much more complex environment,\" explains Colthup. \"The business of being able to interact either through an interpreter or through Afghan security forces, whether they are police or army. And to understand how the people operate and how we can interact better with them. Because ultimately, that's what it's about,\" he says. The most distinctive features of Sindh Kalay are the high three-meter walls that make up the village compound, creating narrow alleyways difficult for troops to patrol. The village is staffed with Afghan asylum-seekers, many of whom have fled the Taliban. They play the roles of market vendors, village elders and sometimes Afghan security forces. Several Afghan women are also on hand, useful for training British soldiers on the religious and cultural sensitivities of entering an Afghan home. Watch British troops training in mock Afghan village \u00bb . The Taliban insurgents are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers authorized to handle weapons. They play their roles silently, unable to partake in the Pashtun banter among the Afghans. Fazel Beria is also an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan. He is responsible for recruiting and for creating the sights and smells of Sindh Kalay and is easily identifiable as the only Afghan in the market in Western clothes. He beams with pride walking down the bazaar and clearly relishes his role in training the British Army. \"Everything with the culture comes up with the issue of hearts and minds,\" he explains. \"If you want to win that, you need to know about their culture. You need to respect their culture, their religion and their way of life.\" He gives high marks to the soldiers training so far. After each exercise, the Afghan actors talk directly to the soldiers about what went wrong and what went right. Sometimes, it's the little things that count. \"Yes, there have been quite a lot of surprises,\" Beria says. Like Afghan will sit cross legged for hours. \"The British soldier cannot do that,\" he laughs. \"The Afghan will be sitting very comfortable and the British soldier is not. So, they have to get used to it.\" See photos of British troops on patrol in Sindh Kalay -- and for real in Afghanistan \u00bb . Previously, the army trained on farmhouses and in urban neighborhoods that resembled Northern Ireland more than Afghanistan. But Sindh Kalay does more than mimic the physical reality of Afghanistan. It also mirrors the changing tactics on the ground. Troops are grilled in IED training by amputees that act out the violence with latex wounds and fake blood. When a new IED tactic is discovered by troops in Afghanistan it is communicated to Sindh Kalay and put into practice immediately. \"Before we had this, it wasn't realistic enough,\" says Col. Richard Westley, head of training here. \"I think if you're going to be asking young men and women to go and risk their lives in someone else's country, then you have a moral obligation to prepare them for that environment. And that's what this village does. It gives them the isolation and complexity of an Afghan village. Which we can't do with farmhouses which represent Western Europe.\" Some of the details in the Afghan village don't quite ring true. The slabs of lamb and beef hanging from the market stalls are plastic, as are the grapes and melons the vendors try and sell to the British soldiers. Still, Sindh Kalay is eerily effective. When soldiers sit down for a \"shura\" or meeting with village elders, helicopters buzz overhead and the soldiers seem surprised to be served a homemade yogurt and cucumber drink. But the unit commander can't help laughing when one of the Afghan village heads pulls out a \"list of damages\" by British troops. It turns out to be a receipt for the local supermarket.","highlights":"British soldiers train in mock Afghan village before deployment to Afghanistan .\nVillage features Afghan asylum-seekers as vendors, elders, Afghan forces .\nTaliban militants are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers .\nVillage trains soldiers to understand Afghan customs, respect Afghan culture .","id":"f281c0a3017e406907d9d4cf5a150bee90239306"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez continues to shuffle his top military commanders as he tries to make good on his recent promise to cleanse the government of corruption. Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez has faced political pressure to act on government corruption. After firing 700 police officers and forcing the retirement of 31 military and police generals Sunday, Fernandez on Monday removed more generals and reassigned others. The government also has announced that more than 535 members of the nation's 24,000-strong military have been forced out in the past six months due to their suspected involvement in the drug trade. Among the generals forced to retire was the former head of the nation's top anti-drug agency, the Dominican National Drug Control, known by its Spanish acronym DNCD. In his state-of-the-nation speech Friday, Fernandez said, \"In the Dominican Republic -- listen well -- narcotrafficking will not pass.\" Despite the president's strong words, many Dominican citizens and outside analysts said narcotrafficking already has taken hold. \"The situation in the Dominican Republic is that organizations that are supposedly involved in fighting corruption and narcotrafficking are involved in it,\" said Tomas Castro Monegro, an anti-corruption attorney for 25 years in Santo Domingo, the capital. Tobias Friedl, a regional manager for Latin America at Washington-based iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, which helps companies assess and deal with dangers abroad, said, \"The security forces -- the army and the police -- have been corrupted.\" The Dominican government generally carries out military promotions and retirements on February 27, the day in which the nation celebrates its 1844 declaration of independence from Haiti. But this year's numbers are unprecedented, Castro said. In 1978, he said, 48 generals were let go -- some for perceived corruption, others for political reasons. But Castro said he never has seen 700 police officers fired or more than 500 military personnel relieved of their duties. \"In the majority of cases,\" he said, \"there has to be something linking that person to narcotrafficking or corruption in general.\" National police chief Rafael Guzman addressed his force Monday, admonishing them not to cave in to the many temptations they face. \"Today, more than ever, harassed by increasingly demanding challenges that jump out from all sides, just when drug trafficking persists in crippling society, it's time for all police agents and officers, the men and women of our dear institution ... to raise our chest, since this is the moment to define ourselves. We're with the nation or we're against it,\" he was quoted as saying in the Dominican Today and Listin Diario newspaper Web sites. Castro and others said police and the military have been involved in organized crime \"for a long time.\" The evidence lies in the lavish lifestyles many of these officials are able to sustain on a public salary, they said. \"They live in contradiction with their salaries,\" Castro said. \"They live in houses that cost millions of pesos and drive big vehicles.\" Corrupt officials prefer to work in customs, at the airport and the border and in anti-drug units, the lawyer said. They receive bribes from traffickers, Castro said, and also profit by arresting people involved in the drug trade and taking their possessions. Castro, a well-known attorney in a nation of less than 10 million, has represented drug suspects and has argued cases before the Dominican Supreme Court. In 2000, a published report said, he filed a suit against Fernandez alleging padded road-construction contracts. Friedl, the risk analyst, notes that Caribbean routes for drug shipments have diminished due to strong interdiction efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard. The majority of shipments now travel through Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, he said. However, Friedl and others said, the drug trade still flourishes in the Dominican Republic. \"The Dominican Republic is not a major drug-producing country, but it acts as a transit point for cocaine, heroin, marijuana and ecstasy bound for the United States and Europe,\" said Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment, a publication that offers country-by-country risk analysis. \"The main trafficking routes are by sea from South America, and the drugs are then transferred by go-fast boats to islands such as Puerto Rico and St. Martin, on the way to the U.S.\" The indexmundi Web site, which offers analyses on nations worldwide, said the Dominican Republic has become \"a trans-shipment point for ecstasy from the Netherlands and Belgium destined for the U.S. and Canada.\" Jane's and indexmundi point out that substantial money-laundering also takes place in the Dominican Republic. Deteriorating conditions in Haiti, with which the Dominican Republic shares a 193-mile border, have led traffickers to go next door. \"Haiti was the place where drugs used to come through,\" Friedl said. \"Some of this now has shifted to the Dominican Republic.\" Drug use in the Dominican Republic also has shifted. Ramon Cruz Benzan, a reporter for the Listin Diario newspaper who has been covering corruption cases, relates what many Dominicans say: \"Before, it used to come in and it would go. Now, it's not like that. It comes in and it stays.\" Friedl points out that tourism creates a demand for drugs. \"Tourism is a huge thing in the Dominican Republic. Local consumption has definitely gone up.\" And large Dominican communities in the United States and Puerto Rico \"create a natural connection\" for drug smuggling into those countries, Friedl said. Federal officials in New York have been battling -- and indicting -- Dominican natives on drug charges for years. Some observers see Fernandez's crackdown as a sign that he is getting serious. \"Fernandez is trying to weed out corruption,\" said Chris Kimble, a Latin America analyst also with iJET Intelligent Risk Systems. Others, such as the lawyer Castro, said Fernandez was forced to act after public outcry concerning the shootings deaths in August of seven Colombians in a drug-related case. A high-level commission appointed by Fernandez concluded that low- and midlevel officials from the national police were involved. But many Dominicans said they believe higher-ranking officers were responsible and the political pressure has been mounting on Fernandez to act. And many observers don't expect this will be the last of it.","highlights":"President Leonel Fernandez fires 700 police officers in Dominican Republic .\nHe shuffles more commanders after forcing retirement of 31 military, police generals .\nFernandez vows in a state-of-the-nation speech to rid the government of corruption .\nFernandez says, \"Listen well -- narcotrafficking will not pass\"","id":"edcdf320852d15db1b8e42b32b685903cbb3e970"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Marine was killed in action and several others wounded Thursday in a major U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, the Marines said. U.S. Marines prepare for Operation Khanjar at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, on Thursday. The push, called Operation Khanjar, is targeting militants in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and poppy-growing region. The forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of national elections in August. Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors, along with several hundred Afghan security forces and British troops, worked to clear Taliban militants from population centers in the Helmand River valley. They have been operating in the districts of Nawa and Garmsir in central Helmand province and \"as far south as the vicinity of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district in the region of the Helmand River valley known as 'The Fishhook.' \" The Marines stressed the mission \"is to provide security for population centers\" and \"connect local citizens with their legitimate government while establishing stable and secure conditions for national elections.\" Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, said he believes the operation will work and has assured the populace that it will provide security for them. His spokesman also confirmed that resistance had been minimal. The Marines said about 80 percent of the American troops are in direct combat, with the rest working in support. Taliban resistance has been light and sporadic, consisting of intermittent small arms fire, the Marines said on Thursday. The troops have encountered only relatively small groups of militants. \"Indications are the militants break away shortly after they make contact,\" Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Abe Sipe said, referring to what is regarded as the Taliban's habit of running and hiding after troops confront them. A Taliban spokesman said the group's fighters had killed 33 soldiers and destroyed several vehicles. CNN could not independently verify the Taliban claims because of safety and access issues. There has been an outcry in Afghanistan over civilian deaths in the Afghan war's crossfire, with much ire directed toward coalition air operations. But the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan emphasized in a news release that the Marines have not \"received any confirmed reports of civilian casualties or damage to property.\" They said they have not utilized \"artillery or other indirect fire weapons, and no bombs have been dropped from aircraft.\" The brigade operates under NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The assault has prompted Pakistani authorities to redeploy troops along the Afghan border to stop Taliban from escaping the push in Helmand. More than 30 U.S., British and Danish troops have been killed there since January, with the latest being the Marine on Thursday and a pair of British soldiers slain in Helmand on Wednesday. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it comes after a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said. When President Obama announced his strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said American soldiers and Marines \"will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east, and give us a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces and to go after insurgents along the border.\" He also said the bolstered deployment \"will also help provide security\" ahead of August presidential elections in Afghanistan. The Obama administration has moved about 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the war launched after the September 11 attacks. It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official said the size and scope of the new operation are \"very significant.\" \"It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level,\" the official said. \"In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan.\" The defense official said the operation is a \"tangible indication\" of the new approach that McChrystal -- a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command -- is bringing to the nearly eight-year war. \"They're not just doing an offensive push to get bad guys; they're going in to hold the area and stay there,\" the official said. \"This approach is indicative of McChrystal's philosophy: measuring success by the number of Afghans protected, not bad guys killed.\" During his confirmation hearing in June, McChrystal told senators that the conflict requires a new focus on counterinsurgency to reduce violence and build support for the U.S.-led NATO alliance among Afghans. \"Although I expect stiff fighting ahead, the measure of success will not be enemy killed. It will be shielding the Afghan population from violence,\" he said. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan before its allies in al Qaeda attacked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Though quickly toppled after the attacks, its leaders escaped, and the movement regrouped in the Afghan countryside and across the border in Pakistan. Helmand was once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan, but the fertile land is now used for growing poppies. Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, with most of that coming from the poppies in Helmand. The drug trade is an import source of income for the Taliban and major supply routes run through the province. CNN's Atia Abawi in Afghanistan, Nic Robertson in Pakistan and Chris Lawrence and Barbara Starr at the Pentagon contributed to this report.","highlights":"One Marine killed, others wounded; Taliban says 33 soldiers killed .\n4,000 American troops, hundreds of Afghans involved in Operation Khanjar .\nIt focuses on Helmand River valley, hotbed of Taliban violence .\nOperation's size and scope are \"very significant,\" official says .","id":"960dd16cd295a5d015b8b056671c5dc466760a5f"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- A 12-mile oil slick near where an Air France jet crashed Monday into the Atlantic Ocean indicates the plane likely didn't break up until it hit the water, Brazil's defense minister said Wednesday. Image released by the Brazilian Air Force shows oil slicks in the water near a debris site. If true, that would argue against an in-flight explosion as the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters. But Robert Francis, former vice chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said the question of determining where a plane broke up \"is a very difficult one to deal with.\" He told CNN's \"Anderson Cooper 360\" that \"there are lots of things that cause a plane to go out of control.\" He added that extremely strong winds are not unusual near Brazil. Pilots who fly over that part of the world keep track of radar and \"are very, very wary about the weather as they go back and forth down in that area.\" Jobim said currents had strewn the debris widely and that the search area had been expanded to 300 square miles. The Airbus A330, carrying 228 people, went down about three hours after beginning what was to have been an 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. No survivors have been found. Map of Flight AF 447's flight path \u00bb . Investigators have not determined what caused the plane to crash. The flight data recorders have not been recovered, and the plane's crew did not send any messages indicating problems before the plane disappeared. Watch as high seas hamper recovery \u00bb . The Brazilian Air Force said it found the oil slick and four debris fields Wednesday, but rain and rough seas kept searchers from plucking any of the debris from the water. Among Wednesday's finds were objects in a circular 5-kilometer (3-mile) area, including one object with a diameter of 7 meters (23 feet) and 10 other objects, some of which were metallic, Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral said. Searchers had found two debris fields Tuesday and identified the wreckage as coming from Flight 447. The debris was found about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha Islands, an archipelago 355 kilometers (220 miles) off the northeast coast of Brazil. It included an airplane seat and an orange float. Wednesday's debris find was about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Tuesday's discoveries, Amaral said. Eleven aircraft and five ships are engaged in the search, including airplanes from France and the United States. Watch as experts question whether recovery is possible \u00bb . The NTSB said Wednesday it has accepted an invitation from the French aviation accident investigation authority, the Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses, to aid in the investigation. NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated senior air safety investigator Bill English as the U.S. accredited representative. The U.S. team will include technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration; General Electric, which made the plane's engines; and Honeywell, which made the plane's data recorders. The aircraft's computer system did send about four minutes of automated messages indicating a loss of cabin pressure and an electrical failure, officials have said. Some investigators have noted that the plane flew through a severe lightning storm. Foul play has not been ruled out. Air France had received a bomb threat May 27 for a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Paris, sources in the Argentine military and police told CNN on Wednesday. According to the officials, who had been briefed on the incident and declined to be identified because of the ongoing investigation, the Air France office in Buenos Aires received the threat from a man speaking Spanish. Authorities checked the Boeing 777 and did not find anything. Security was tightened during check-in for Flight 415, which left on time and without incident, the officials said. Although officials have said the likelihood of finding survivors of Flight 447's crash is small, authorities have not closed the door on the possibility. \"Until the aircraft is identified, and the remains indicate that survival is technically impossible, we will maintain the possibility that there could be survivors,\" Amaral said. The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. The remaining victims were from 29 other countries, including three passengers from the United States. French officials said Wednesday they may never find the jet's flight data recorders. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the ocean depth in the area at 3,000 meters (about 9,840 feet) to 7,500 meters (24,600 feet). Brazilian officials have said the sea depth in the area is around 2,000 to 3,000 meters (6,562 to 9,842 feet). \"We need time to reach the recorders,\" said Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France's accident investigation bureau. The recorders are built to emit locator signals for up to 30 days. The French government has sent a research vessel carrying a deep-diving submersible to where the debris was found. \"Recorders from time to time were found after the 30 days, but I'm not so optimistic,\" Arslanian said. \"It's not only deep, it's also very mountainous at that place of the ocean.\" But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed optimism that the flight data recorders would be found. \"I think that a country with the ability to retrieve oil from 6,000 meters (3.7 miles) underwater can retrieve a plane from 2,000 meters (1.2 miles). The truth is, we are going to see -- I'm not a specialist and don't want to give predictions of what will happen,\" Lula said, according to the Brazilian state news agency. A memorial for the victims of Flight AF 447, which included 61 people from France, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans and people from 29 other countries, took place Wednesday at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Brazil has declared three days of mourning. CNN correspondent John Zarrella in Rio de Janeiro and journalist Brian Byrnes from Buenos Aires contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Oil slick may argue against an in-flight explosion, Brazilian official says .\nNEW: Determining where plane broke up will be difficult, U.S. aviation expert says .\nAir France flight disappeared over Atlantic Ocean after taking off from Brazil .\nMemorial for the victims of Flight AF 447 takes place in Paris at Notre Dame .","id":"d9b7c34c3c4aa7e82ab5f25fca7b9693bec4bae3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A rash of bank robberies in New York has the city's police commissioner worried that criminals have turned banks into \"virtual cash machines\" and some wondering whether tough economic times are fueling the trend. A surveillance camera captures a bank robbery suspect in New York on December 2. On Monday alone, robbers targeted five banks in the Big Apple, some striking in broad daylight and near famous landmarks. Police called the incidents unrelated, but they're just the latest examples of the growing tally of hold-ups. Bank robberies in New York have risen 54 percent compared with last year, with criminals committing more than 430 in the past 12 months, according to the New York police department. \"As it stands now, they've turned [banks] into virtual cash machines,\" New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Bank robberies are also up in many areas across the country, including San Diego, California, and Houston, Texas, federal law enforcement experts told CNN. It's enough for some to link the trend to the rash of layoffs, the plummeting stock market and the bust in the real estate values, all of which have left many Americans in dire financial straits. \"It makes me think that the recession is making people go to extreme measures,\" a woman who frequents one of the banks robbed Monday told The New York Times. Watch where the robbers struck \u00bb . But Kelly said it's not clear whether the bad economic times are fueling the unusual spike. \"People want to say... it's because of the economy. I think it's too early to make that statement,\" he said. CNN security analyst Mike Brooks agreed, adding that although there are typically many bank robberies during the holidays, there are no data to suggest that any recent spike was caused by the economy. Another expert said it's possible that the difficulty of finding a job right now may be a factor, but he doubted that law-abiding citizens are turning to crime to make ends meet. \"It's hard to attribute the bank robberies to people who were let go from Lehman Brothers or other organizations that are in trouble,\" said Alfred Blumstein, who has researched criminal justice for 20 years and is a professor of operations research at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College. \"I would anticipate that people who rob banks have been involved with crime before because that's not where one is likely to start,\" Blumstein said. A person who might turn to robbing banks is someone in their late teens or early 20s who has already broken the law and has decided to move on to a bigger target, he added. \"Bank robbery is a very high-risk activity, because most banks have various surveillance equipment in place, and it requires a degree of aggressiveness that otherwise law-abiding folks are not likely to take on,\" Blumstein said. Some officials say the modern, customer-friendly design of banks -- with easy access to tellers and cash -- is too tempting for robbers. \"We don't like the business plan that makes a bank look like a living room,\" Kelly said \"We [advise] just some common sense provisions, such as so-called bandit barriers, so that tellers have some option to act when somebody puts a note in front of them.\" In fact, bank robbers have simply handed tellers a note in a vast majority of hold-ups in New York. Kelly put the figure at 80 percent and added that although the rest of the robbers claimed to have a gun, many didn't actually show it. Mike Smith, president and CEO of the New York Bankers Association, is meeting with the NYPD to see what more can be done to discourage robbers. He said banks have a significant amount of security, some of which may not be visible to the public. \"Are there enhancements? Obviously. Criminals talk to each other, they know what's going on, but typically they are apprehended,\" Mike Smith said. CNN's A. Pawlowski contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bank robberies in New York have risen 54 percent compared with last year .\nOn Monday alone, robbers targeted five banks, some striking in broad daylight .\nNYPD: Not clear whether the bad economic times are fueling the spike .\nExpert doubts law-abiding citizens are turning to crime to make ends meet .","id":"09bd4859dbd0a28b29a63ad5e74b678c1774fdba"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fans wishing to attend singer Michael Jackson's memorial service next week will have to register for the 11,000 free tickets, organizers said Thursday. Michael Jackson is shown rehearsing at the Staples Center on June 23, two days before his death. Details on how to register for the 10 a.m. (1 p.m. ET) service at the 20,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Tuesday are to be announced Friday. Jackson's family will hold a private ceremony before the public memorial service, his brother said Thursday. Speaking to CNN's Larry King, Jermaine Jackson said the ceremony will be held Tuesday morning, but he did not say where. Jackson rehearsed at Staples Center two nights before he died, and he appeared healthy in a video clip of the rehearsal obtained by CNN. Jackson died June 25 after collapsing at his rented home in Los Angeles. AEG, promoter of Jackson's planned London, England, shows, released the short video of Jackson rehearsing in the arena on June 23. Jackson sang \"They Don't Care About Us,\" a song from his \"HIStory\" album, as he danced along with eight male dancers. Watch Jackson rehearse \u00bb . Jackson did not specify where he wished to be buried in a 2002 will, which was filed in court Wednesday. Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper talk about his interview with AEG \u00bb . More information emerged Thursday about how Jackson's estate will be shared, which his will estimated in 2002 as being worth $500 million. The family trust created by Jackson to receive all of his assets includes his mother, his children and a list of charities, according to a person with direct knowledge of the contents of the trust. Mother Katherine Jackson's 40 percent share would go to Michael Jackson's three children after her death, the source said. The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- also will share 40 percent of the estate's assets, and the remaining 20 percent will benefit charities designated by the executors of the will, the source said. A judge has delayed for a week, until July 13, a hearing to decide whether Katherine Jackson will remain the temporary guardian of Jackson's children. At a brief talk with reporters Thursday, an attorney for Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe said she \"has not reached a final decision\" on whether she will challenge Jackson's mother for custody of Jackson's two oldest children, according to her lawyer. A Los Angeles TV station quoted Rowe on Thursday morning saying, \"I want my children.\" Except for the statement to the radio station, she has not publicly indicated whether she would seek custody now that Jackson is dead. Rowe was left out of the will. \"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my former wife, Deborah Rowe Jackson,\" the will said. The will nominated Katherine Jackson, now 79, as the guardian of his children. If Katherine Jackson were to die, \"I nominate Diana Ross as guardian,\" Jackson said in the will, written July 7, 2002. Singer Ross, 65, was a lifelong friend of Jackson's. Watch how the two had a close relationship \u00bb . There's also a question on when the will's executors should take over control of the late entertainer's assets, which Judge Mitchell Beckloff temporarily placed under Katherine Jackson's control. One man named as executor is John Branca, who represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. The other is music industry executive John McClain, a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. DEA reportedly joins investigation . The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into Jackson's death, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday night. And the California State Attorney General's office said Thursday that it is helping the Los Angeles Police Department in its investigation. The attorney general's office said it will assist police in sifting through information in a state database that monitors controlled medication. Two law enforcement officials separately confirmed the DEA inquiry, saying agents would look at doctors involved with Jackson, their practices and their possible sources of medicine supply. Neither official wanted to be identified because they could not comment publicly on the matter. Officially, a DEA spokeswoman referred questions to the Los Angeles Police Department, which would not confirm the involvement. \"We routinely offer assistance to any agency regarding the Federal Controlled Substance Act,\" said Sarah Pullen of the DEA. \"However, at this time, we have nothing further to comment about the death of Michael Jackson.\" Speculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died June 25 at his rented estate in Holmby Hills. The cause of his death, at age 50, was pending toxicology results. On Wednesday, police released a car belonging to Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. They had impounded the vehicle Friday, saying it might contain evidence -- possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Murray's attorneys issued a statement, asking the public to reserve judgment about the cause of death until the coroner's tests are complete. \"Based on our agreement with Los Angeles investigators, we are waiting on real information to come from viable sources like the Los Angeles medical examiner's office about the death of Michael Jackson,\" the statement said. \"We will not be responding to rumors and innuendo.\" No public showing planned for Neverland . Logistical and financial challenges derailed earlier plans for a public viewing and private memorial at Neverland Ranch. Planning had been under way for a motorcade to carry Jackson's body from Los Angeles to the Santa Barbara County ranch, which state and local officials suggested would be difficult and costly. Law enforcement sources had said a public viewing at the ranch was under consideration for Friday, but a spokesman for the family said that it would not happen. \"Plans are under way regarding a public memorial for Michael Jackson, and we will announce those plans shortly,\" said Ken Sunshine, whose public relations firm had been hired by the Jackson family. Despite the announcement, more than two dozen TV satellite trucks lined the narrow two-lane road leading to the ranch. For a time, the California Highway Patrol closed the road to clear up a small bottleneck of cars created by Jackson fans and the media. CNN's Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston, Michael Carey, Paul Vercammen, Carol Cratty and Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 11,000 memorial service tickets will be made available .\nSource: Jackson memorial to be Tuesday at Los Angeles' Staples Center .\nJackson appears healthy in video clip of rehearsal two days before death .\nDrug Enforcement Administration reportedly joins inquiry into Jackson's death .","id":"512e80a87a428d2ee0ff32b00c98c1f4abdac48f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The British are coming, the British are coming -- to Brooklyn? By subway? Barclays has paid $300 million for the naming rights to the New Jersey Nets arena. New York's struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sold the naming rights to the second-busiest subway stop in Brooklyn. The Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station will now have the name of a British bank, Barclays, added to it. Several subway riders are outraged that Barclays has purchased the naming rights to this subway stop, which sees about 10 million people go through it each day. One straphanger said, \"A London Bank shouldn't be the name of this train station; it's something that belongs to the public domain.\" Another said, \"It's just everywhere we go, everything we do, it's just branding, branding, branding. It's America now.\" Renaming the Atlantic-Pacific Station is tied to the construction of Barclays Center, the new sports arena for the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets. Barclays is paying developer Forest City Ratner $300 million for naming rights to this arena. Ratner, in a separate deal, will be paying the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $200,000 a year for the next 20 years to rename this commuter hub. Authority Press Secretary Jeremy Soffin said, \"Like transit systems all over the U.S. and around the world, we are facing budget deficits.\" In an effort to bridge the authority's $1 billion deficit, the transit giant that oversees the operation of the city's subways, buses and rail lines wants to follow the Barclays example with stations throughout the system. Though the Atlantic-Pacific subway station is the first in New York for which naming rights have been sold, across the country, there have been several cases of public transportation systems using naming rights to increase revenue. In 2003, the Las Vegas monorail system signed a 12-year, $50 million deal with Nextel to put its name on the station in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Cleveland Bus System sold station names to two hospitals for $1.1 million a year. Internationally, Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority has been selling the naming rights of 23 metro stations. However, not all naming rights deals are successful. In 2001, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority tried to raise $22 million by auctioning the naming rights to four historic \"T\" stations. It received no bids. Reassuring the public that there are certain lines they won't cross when it comes to renaming stations of historical value, Soffin said, \"It's a very clear line there, and we want to be as open as possible, but we're not sort of selling the shop here.\"","highlights":"Basketball arena developer pays $200,000 a year for 20 years for rights .\nAtlantic Avenue-Pacific Street station is second busiest in Brooklyn .\nRiders express disappointment at \"branding\" of subway stop .","id":"c7f406294c745891d637dab306a6797dfbedbd7e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Insurgents' use of roadside bombs has increased dramatically in Afghanistan this year, according to Pentagon statistics, and the United States' top military official is calling them the \"No. 1 threat\" to troops there. An IED is exploded by U.S. Marines near the remote village of Baqwa, Afghanistan, in March. In June there were 736 incidents in Afghanistan involving roadside bombs, called improvised explosive devices or IEDs, and 82 \"effective attacks,\" ones that caused casualties among coalition forces, the figures show. That was up from 263 incidents and 25 effective attacks in February, with the numbers increasing each month, said the Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, an agency dedicated to thwarting roadside bombs. The number of coalition forces killed and wounded by such bombs has climbed, though not steadily, from 18 killed and 33 wounded in February to 23 killed and 166 wounded in June, the agency said. No numbers were provided for July, but such attacks have continued this month. In the latest, roadside bombs killed two NATO-led troops on Thursday, one in eastern Afghanistan and the other in southern Afghanistan. The military has called IEDs the weapon of choice for insurgents in that country. And at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response to a reporter's question that the biggest threat to coalition troops in Afghanistan is improvised explosive devices. Watch Adm. Mullen address efforts in Afghanistan \u00bb . He noted that they \"have become more and more sophisticated over time\" and that they are being combined with \"more and more sophisticated attacks from the Taliban, where they use IEDs as well as other tactics to inflict or to fight our troops.\"","highlights":"Pentagon agency: 82 incidents in June caused casualties among coalition troops .\nMilitary has called IEDs the weapon of choice for insurgents in Afghanistan .\nNo numbers were provided for July, but such attacks have continued this month .","id":"a3eced3f04c459f5bf87d5dc7bd7cb3d45ab6bb4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Letterman has been taking some heat and issuing some apologies for the off-color joke he made last week about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, but he found a sympathetic critic in comedian Jeff Foxworthy on Monday. Jeff Foxworthy, the father of two teenage daughters, says David Letterman's joke was flawed. The best-selling comedy recording artist in history paid a visit to CNN's \"Larry King Live\" to talk about Letterman's gaffe. \"As a father of two teenage daughters, it was a flawed joke,\" Foxworthy said. Letterman joked last Tuesday that Palin's \"daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez\" at a recent Yankees game, stirring up an angry reaction from the Palin family. Letterman has since apologized twice for what he called \"inappropriate\" humor. And Foxworthy agreed: \"I don't think any kind of joke about someone having sex with a teenage girl is funny.\" Watch Foxworthy comment on joke \u00bb . But Foxworthy's rebuke of the joke was gentle in tone, and he showed empathy for Letterman as well as the Palin family. \"As a comedian, you look at what Dave does,\" Foxworthy said. \"You're trying to do this night after night, year after year, decade after decade -- at some point in the road, are you going to throw one out there you shouldn't have? Yeah.\" Foxworthy said it's probably time to forgive and forget. \"It's about forgiveness,\" Foxworthy said. \"He came back and apologized and said: 'Hey, the joke is flawed.' And to me you move on.\" King asked what advice he'd give Sarah Palin if she received an invitation to appear on Letterman's \"Late Show.\" Foxworthy said he'd encourage the Alaska governor to accept it. \"Life is about forgiveness. I think that makes her bigger to go on there and say 'I accept your apology'.\" Letterman has insisted he was referring to Palin's 18-year-old, Bristol, who gave birth to a boy in December, and not her 14-year-old, Willow, in the joke. Palin has called that a \"weak, convenient excuse\" for a joke that was\"inappropriate\" no matter which daughter was the target. Foxworthy, the author of \"How to Really Stink at Work,\" also made some \"confessions\" about his pre-comedy career in corporate America. \"I was at IBM for five years; I don't know how much work I did,\" Foxworthy said. The comedian, who said he used to make prank phone calls to his boss at work to lure him back and forth from his desk, had this tongue-in-cheek advice for people about how far to take things on the job: . \"You don't really want to get fired; you want to have a job. But you don't want to do it well, because you're going to be promoted, and that's a lot of pressure. Who can have any fun with that kind of anvil hanging over your head?\" Foxworthy is also the host of \"Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader\" and talked about the appeal of a game show that spotlights how much people tend to forget after all those years of cramming in facts at school. \"It's a strange thing why the brain keeps some things,\" Foxworthy said. \"Like I don't know why my brain has all the words to 'The Brady Bunch' theme song, but it deleted everything about triangles.\"","highlights":"David Letterman made off-color joke about Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter last week .\nFoxworthy: \"As a father of two teenage daughters, it was a flawed joke\"\nFoxworthy also says he thinks Palins should accept Letterman's apologies, move on .\nThe comedian also has \"advice\" about having fun on the job .","id":"473bbf1be7fb53122a568e827abf3fdfd36f50b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Big Ben, arguably the world's most famous clock, celebrates on Sunday 150 years of keeping London on time. The British landmark has lived through war, bad weather and disasters. Big Ben's distinctive bongs have been a part of the London scene for 150 years. Big Ben is the 14-ton bell inside the world's largest four-faced chiming clock, although most people use the name to describe the tower that houses it. The clock is perched on a 96-meter (310-foot) elegant tower at the Westminster Bridge end of the Palace of Westminster. The Victorian masterpiece, which provides distinctive chimes known as bongs, was voted Britain's favorite monument in 2008. It has been featured in films such as \"101 Dalmatians\" and \"Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.\" Big Ben has been disrupted a few times over the years for various reasons, including weather and breakages. Its bongs went silent for about two months in August 2007 to allow a crew to repair its mechanism system. During that time, the rest of the clock was running on an electric system. It was fully restarted again October 1. The clock pays tribute to Britain's royal history: It has a Latin inscription of the phrase: \"O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First.\" The ornate masterpiece has some quirky features. The hour hand, which weighs 300 kilograms (661 pounds), is made of gun metal while the minute hands are made of copper sheet. The minute hands would not work when they were first made of cast iron because they were too heavy. The clock started working on May 31, 1859, after the lighter copper hands were installed. The origins of the landmark's name are obscure. Some say it was named after the 1850s heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt while others suggest it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a former member of parliament. Hall, the commissioner of works in 1859, was responsible for ordering the bell. Alan Hughes, the director of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made the bell, prefers the latter. \"I suppose I like it chiefly because it was a nickname of a man who was big and loud and pompous, and never used one word if 27 would do,\" he said in a 2008 interview. Hughes' company also made America's Liberty Bell and a number of others for cathedrals and churches around the world.","highlights":"London's Big Ben turns 150 years old on Sunday .\nLast year, Victorian masterpiece was voted Britain's favorite monument .\nNo one is quite sure where the clock's moniker came from .","id":"868b7837e73553da1b749a5d9a846710a05c1fbd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The emergence of a purported statement from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden about U.S. policy in Pakistan as the U.S. president embarks on a major trip to Muslim countries is no coincidence, the White House spokesman and a counterterrorism official say. Osama bin Laden is seen in an image taken from a videotape that aired on Al-Jazeera in September 2003. \"I think the reports we've seen are consistent with messages we've seen in the past from al Qaeda threatening the U.S. and other countries that are involved in counter-terrorism efforts,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday. \"But I don't think it's surprising that al Qaeda would want to shift attention away from the president's historic efforts and continued efforts to reach out and have an open dialogue with the Muslim world.\" A U.S. counterterrorism official, asked about the statement, said bin Laden \"has timed the release of tapes to major events so it is not surprising that he picked this particular week.\" Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language TV network that aired the message on Wednesday, said the statement was \"a voice recording by bin Laden.\" As for the tape's authenticity, a CNN analysis said the voice does indeed sound like the leader of the terrorist network that attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. The counterterrorism official said \"there has never been a fake Bin Laden tape.\" The message comes as Obama begins his trip to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and, in Egypt on Thursday, making a major speech to the Muslim world. Zeroing in on the conflict in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where Pakistan's troops are taking on Taliban militants, the message asserts that Obama is proving that he is \"walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims and increasing the number of fighters, and establishing more lasting wars.\" The message said U.S. policy in Pakistan has generated \"new seeds of hatred and revenge against America.\" The remarks -- which would be bin Laden's first assessment of Obama's policy -- were believed to have been recorded several weeks ago at the start of a mass civilian exodus because of fighting in northwestern Pakistan. The speaker cites strikes, destruction, and Obama's \"order\" to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari \"to prevent the people of Swat from implementing sharia law.\" \"All this led to the displacement of about a million Muslim elders, women and children from their villages and homes. They became refugees in tents after they were honored in their own homes,\" the message says. \"This basically means that Obama and his administration put new seeds of hatred and revenge against America. The number of these seeds is the same as the number of those victims and refugees in Swat and the tribal area in northern and southern Waziristan.\" And, the message says, \"the American people need to prepare to only gain what those seeds bring up.\" Watch what the speaker says on the tape \u00bb . The speaker also says Zardari and Pakistan's military chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, continue to divert the army's main role from protecting the nation to fighting Islam and its followers. He says the war is also hurting Pakistan's economy, endangering the country's religion and security and \"fulfilling an American, Jewish and Indian plot.\" \"Most of the Pakistani people reject this unjust war. Zardari did this in response to the ones paying him in the White House -- not 10 percent but multiple folds of that,\" the message says. The message points to India's aspirations, saying it is \"easy for India to subject the disassembled territories of Pakistan, one after another, for its own benefit, like the case of eastern Pakistan before, or even worse.\" \"This way, America eases its worry towards Pakistan's nuclear weapons,\" the message says. Eastern Pakistan is a reference to Bangladesh, which had been part of Pakistan until it became an independent country in 1971. Pakistan and India have also been at odds over the disputed territory of Kashmir, and pro-bin Laden jihadis have opposed Indian rule there. Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy to Pakistan and India, said he hadn't listened to the message but commented on what he had heard about it. \"The idea that anyone is responsible for the refugee crisis other than al Qaeda and the Taliban and the other people who have caused such tragedy in western Pakistan is ludicrous,\" he said. \"This entire problem begins with al Qaeda and its associates, and everybody in the world knows that, and it's silly to even respond to such a ludicrous charge.\" Al Jazeera aired three separate segments totaling just over four minutes long from what it said is a new bin Laden audiotape aired over an old still picture of the terrorist leader. The network's anchors took part in describing each of the segments before they ran them. Since the message was not posted on the radical Islamist Web sites that usually carry statements from al Qaeda, it is believed that this latest message was hand-delivered to the TV network, based in Doha, Qatar. In other purported bin Laden messages issued in March, he called for Somalia's new president to be overthrown and called Israel's recent offensive in Gaza a \"holocaust.\" Bin Laden has delivered many messages over the years, but the last video message from him was in early September 2007. In that video message, he criticized U.S. Democrats for failing to stop the war in Iraq; spoke of the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II; the troop surge in Iraq; and world leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. On that tape, bin Laden's appearance was artificially changed for the first time. He dyed his beard from grayish white to black, leading analysts to believe that he has switched to sending only audio messages because he is altering his looks and doesn't want people to know what he looks like. Analysts also believe that bin Laden hasn't made videos lately because they are more labor-intensive to produce. There have been gaps between videos from bin Laden, with many audio messages in between, each time prompting analysts to theorize he might be dead. The last two videos of bin Laden himself delivering an address were the 2007 tape and another in 2004. See a timeline of bin Laden messages \u00bb . The U.S. counterterrorism official said of the latest purported bin Laden tape that \"while the words are different\" from other messages, this statement \"recycles the broad themes of messages past.\" \"While we are still looking at the message closely, there is no reason to believe any specific or credible threat is contained in it,\" the official said. Al Qaeda's second in command issued an audio statement Tuesday saying Obama is not welcome in Egypt. Ayman al-Zawahiri said relations with the United States cannot be mended so long as the administration maintains its alliance with Israel. In a message called \"Tyrants of Egypt and America's agents welcome Obama\" that was posted on Islamist Web sites, al-Zawahiri once again lashed out at the United States. Obama's message to the Muslim world, he said, has already been delivered with his support for \"Zionist aggression.\" In the 10-minute audio message, al-Zawahiri said Obama had already made himself an enemy of Muslims by sending more soldiers to Afghanistan, ordering bombings in the tribal areas of Pakistan and administering a \"bloody campaign against Muslims\" in Pakistan's Swat Valley. CNN's Octavia Nasr and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: White House says timing of tape is not a coincidence .\nAnalysis of tape indicates that voice sounds like Osama bin Laden's .\nPurported tape from terror leader surfaces as President Obama visits Mideast .\nMessage says U.S. policy on Pakistan has generated \"seeds of hatred\"","id":"850b46951213431ec980dce67ded0b9c5c01854e"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last month led to massive protests, on Tuesday called the balloting \"the most free election anywhere in the world.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected last month, setting off days of protests. \"It was a great event,\" he said in a nationally televised address. The election, which opponents charge was rigged, was followed by street demonstrations and civil unrest that led to the deaths of at least 20 protesters and the arrest of more than 1,000, according to Iranian state-run media. The numbers of casualties and arrests could not be independently verified by CNN because the Iranian government banned coverage by international journalists. The president, who said voter turnout was 85 percent, said opponents \"did not provide even one piece of document regarding irregularities or vote fraud.\" Without specifically mentioning the post-election violence, Ahmadinejad said criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation.\" Everyone has criticisms, he said. \"I have my own.\" But he accused the \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in his country's affairs, including the post-election situation. Some Iranians collaborated with enemies, the president said. Ahmadinejad also said Tuesday he believes the government should be \"substantially\" reorganized. Although he didn't elaborate, he said the areas of employment, housing, development and civil rights were high on the agenda. \"[We] need to create newer capacities and prepare ourselves for this new period,\" he said, apparently referring to his upcoming second term in office. \"With this election, we have entered a new era ... in domestic spheres and on an international level,\" he added. He called it \"an era of solidarity.\" \"The government is at the service of the entire people,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"Things will be done in a better way, more effective way, so we can reach higher aspirations.\" He said experts have been invited to help the government achieve progress.","highlights":"Iranian president calls recent vote \"most free election anywhere in the world\"\nIn address, he says criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation\"\nHe accuses \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in country's affairs .\nWidespread protests rocked Iran in days after Ahmadinejad's re-election .","id":"ea371bd62a8809d980a7e268f955611b1c772757"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- While most first-time visitors to Europe choo-choose to travel by train, consider the convenience of driving. Behind the wheel you're totally free, going where you want, when you want. When drivers come off a ferry in Great Britain or Ireland, they usually see a sign warning them to drive on the left. Driving in the British Isles is wonderful -- once you remember to stay on the left and after you've mastered the roundabouts. But be warned: Every year I get some emails from traveling readers advising me that, for them, trying to drive in Great Britain and Ireland was a nerve-wracking and regrettable mistake. Here's a tip: If you want to get a little slack on the roads, drop by a gas station or auto shop and buy a green \"P\" (probationary driver with license) sign to put in your car window. Of course, in Britain and Ireland you'll be driving on the left-hand side of the road. Why that side? Originally, it was in order for you to drive defensively ... with your \"sword hand\" on the inside to protect you against oncoming traffic. Many Yankee drivers find the hardest part isn't driving on the left, but steering from the right. Your instinct is to put yourself on the left side of your lane, which means you may spend your first day or two constantly drifting off the road to the left. It can help to remember that the driver always stays close to the center line. Not only will you be driving on the left, but you'll also be using roundabouts, where traffic continually flows in a circle around a center island. These work well if you follow the golden rule: Traffic in roundabouts always has the right-of-way, while entering vehicles yield. For some drivers, roundabouts are high-pressure traffic circles that require a snap decision about something you don't completely understand: your exit. To replace the stress with giggles, make it standard operating procedure to take a 360-degree, case-out-your-options exploratory circuit. Discuss the exits with your navigator, go around again if necessary, and then confidently wing off on the exit of your choice. Whenever possible, avoid driving in cities. London even assesses a congestion charge -- about $13 per day -- to drive in the city center (see www.cclondon.com). It's best and less stressful to begin your driving experience away from big cities, so try renting your car in a smaller town. A pleasant scenario for a Britain itinerary would be to start your trip in a small town such as Bath, rent a car when leaving Bath, explore Britain at your leisure by car, then drop off the car in York, and take the train into London, where you can rely on the excellent public transportation system. Outside of the big cities and the motorways (freeways), British and Irish roads tend to be narrow. Adjust your perceptions of personal space. It's not \"my side of the road\" or \"your side of the road.\" It's just \"the road\" -- and it's shared as a cooperative adventure. In towns, you may have to cross over the center line just to get past parked cars. Sometimes both directions of traffic can pass parked cars simultaneously, but frequently you'll have to take turns -- follow the locals' lead and drive defensively. On rural roads, locals are usually courteous, pulling over against a hedgerow and blinking their headlights for you to pass while they wait. Return the favor when you are closer to a wide spot in the road than they are. Do some homework before getting behind the wheel; buy good maps and check various mapping Web sites, including Michelin's site and Google Maps. A GPS device can also be helpful. You'll notice some differences between driving in the Republic of Ireland versus the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). In the Republic of Ireland, the speed limit is in kilometers per hour, road signs are usually bilingual (but not always -- \"geill sli\" means yield), and roads are more likely to be bumpy and poorly maintained. In the United Kingdom, the speed limit is in miles per hour, signs are in English (except in Wales, where they are bilingual), and roads are generally in better condition. Even if you don't drive, as a pedestrian you'll have to remember that among our British and Irish cousins' many unusual habits, traffic comes from the opposite direction -- look both ways before crossing any street. Horror stories about British and Irish traffic abound. They're fun to tell, but driving here is really only a problem for those who make it one. The most dangerous creature on the road is the panicked American. Drive defensively, observe, fit in, avoid big-city driving when you can and wear your seat belt. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c\/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nHis TV series, \"Rick Steves' Europe,\" airs on PBS stations .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours .","id":"b05fa0c526417e1c8cdcc977edf011429887d94f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A University of Memphis football player was shot and killed on campus Sunday night, prompting administration officials to cancel classes and plead for anyone with information to come forward. Police said defensive lineman Taylor Bradford, 21, apparently was shot around 9:45 p.m. (10:45 ET) Sunday. The 5-foot-11-inch, 300-pound junior apparently then got into his car, drove a short distance and hit a tree near the campus residence hall area. Bradford, of Nashville, Tennessee, was pronounced dead at Regional Medical Center. The university locked down the residence halls and canceled classes for Monday as an \"early precaution\" against the possibility there was an armed attacker on campus, university President Shirley Raines said. Raines said the school did not activate its newly installed emergency public address system because university police determined the campus was not in imminent danger. Witnesses told police they saw people they suspect were the assailants fleeing the scene, Raines said. University police said the Memphis Police Department's homicide bureau is assisting in the investigation. Officials said they hope that surveillance cameras in the area will yield clues. Memphis Director of Police Services Larry Godwin said that because such crimes are rare on the university campus Bradford \"may very well have been targeted.\" \"We're looking at everything,\" he said. \"We're hoping that someone will step forward with some information to point us in the right direction.\" Residence halls reopened early Monday, and classes are expected to resume Tuesday. On Monday, offices at the university were open so students could have access to counseling and talk with faculty and staff, said university spokesman Curt Guenther. Raines said she and head football coach Tommy West met with Bradford's parents and other family members to express their condolences. West said Bradford was \"very popular within our team, very popular on our campus. Very upbeat, very up-tempo personality. Always smiling, always talking. Very well-liked on this campus.\" Bradford, a marketing major, transferred to the University of Memphis from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, according to the Univeristy of Memphis football team's Web site. The University of Memphis had 20,562 students last fall and about 2,500 employees, according to the school's Web site. On September 21 two students at Delaware State University were wounded in shootings. There will be a moment of silence at Tuesday night's scheduled football game against Marshall University to honor Bradford. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Coach says the 21-year old was a popular student .\nUniversity of Memphis football player Taylor Bradford, shot dead .\nInitial investigation suggests attack was not random, police say .\nClasses canceled Monday but are expected to resume Tuesday .","id":"795e157c149ffe01b24c23a6df675cd93f2ada07"} -{"article":"BUCHENWALD, Germany (CNN) -- President Barack Obama made an emotional visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, Friday, saying that the camp should serve as a reminder of humanity's duty to fight the spread of evil. President Obama visits Buchenwald with Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and survivor and activist Elie Wiesel. The visit had personal significance for the president, whose great-uncle helped liberate prisoners from the camp during World War II. \"I will not forget what I've seen here today,\" Obama said after touring the camp with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and survivor Bertrand Herz. \"These sites have not lose their horror with the passage of time,\" Obama said. \"This place teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our times. ... We have to guard against cruelty in ourselves ....\" Watch Obama honor Holocaust victims \u00bb . Wiesel, whose father died at Buchenwald, was imprisoned at the camp during the final months of the war in 1945. \"Every war is absurd and meaningless,\" Wiesel said. \"The world hasn't learned. ... Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.\" Like Obama, Wiesel stressed that the lessons of Buchenwald are that humanity must unite to keep such atrocities from happening again and work toward making the 21st century \"filled with promise and infinite hope.\" \"Memory must bring people together, rather than set them apart. Memories here not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary, a sense of solidarity with all those who need us,\" Wiesel said. Obama told reporters earlier in the day that his great-uncle, Charles Payne, had a \"very difficult time re-adjusting to civilian life\" after helping his Army division liberate the Ohrdruf forced labor camp, a subdivision of Buchenwald . \"And it is now up to us, the living, in our work, wherever we are, to resist injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take and ensure that those who were lost here did not go in vain.\" Later Friday, the president traveled in Germany to Ramstein Air Base and visited with wounded American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. He then moved on to Paris, France, ahead of D-Day commemoration services on Saturday. Obama began his tour of the Middle East and Europe in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, before moving on to Egypt, where on Thursday he delivered a key speech on American and Muslim relations. In the 55-minute address -- billed as a fence-mending effort between the United States and Islam -- the president urged those in the Cairo audience and the people across the globe viewing the speech on television to enter a new, productive and peaceful chapter of relations. CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Obama recalls great-uncle's role in liberation of Buchenwald as reason for tour .\nHolocaust survivor, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel speaks of father dying at Buchenwald .\nObama met Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel .\nGermany visit comes day after key speech in Egypt on U.S. relations with Islam .","id":"7d00fe1a731956fd902dee5cacc9e3de804ddcec"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rob Thomas is a busy guy -- so busy, he apparently hasn't had much time to check in with his Matchbox Twenty bandmates. Rob Thomas prefers to focus on the \"musician\" side of his career, rather than \"celebrity.\" We only know this because we ran into guitarist Paul Doucette at the BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills several weeks ago, where he was picking up a plaque for songwriter of the year. \"We're interviewing Rob about his solo album,\" I told him. \"Hey,\" Doucette exclaimed. \"Tell that guy to call me, would you? I didn't even know he was in L.A.!\" By the time we met up with Thomas the next day, he and Doucette had already connected over drinks somewhere between midnight and the morning -- musician's hours. Thomas recently released \"Cradlesong,\" his second solo CD. Even though he's clearly excited about it, he spends as much time talking about Matchbox Twenty as he does the solo album he's in town to promote. For the 37-year-old singer-songwriter, it's all interconnected. One has fed into the other since he gained household name status a decade ago, after scoring a massive, Grammy-winning hit with Carlos Santana on \"Smooth.\" Watch Thomas describe the difference between being a celebrity and a musician \u00bb . The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Who has given you the best piece of advice? Rob Thomas: Carlos [Santana] will constantly send you messages out of nowhere. Carlos will call me at 10 at night and be like, \"Listen, I had a dream about you, and so much good is happening, but there's dark forces at work, and when you get out of here, I have this woman who wants to cleanse you.\" I think Carlos' most important piece of advice ever was that he taught me the difference between being a celebrity and being a famous musician. CNN: But some artists don't have that kind of success, and they try for celebrity instead. Thomas: Sure, and sometimes that works -- but none of my favorites have done that. I remember when Matchbox Twenty started years ago, and we had a lot of success, but nobody knew who we were. The first time we did an interview with MTV, it was about how no one knew who we were. We had sold 8 million records. I don't know if we were being naive at the time, but we thought we'd won because our songs were more famous than we were. I'm much more known for the music that I make than what I do with my life. It's never, \"Oh yeah, I've been seeing you in [the New York Post gossip column] Page Six at these clubs that you go to\" or \"I know who you're sleeping with.\" CNN: When you became famous for being Rob Thomas the solo artist, did that cause problems within the band? Thomas: No. I think the guys would rather it be me than them. None of them want the job, and they realize that it's working now. They have a singer. I can go out and do it [publicity] for them, and they're fine with it. They can stay home. I think there's nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity. If I'm not out supporting my work, I really don't want people to see me. I go to movie premieres -- my wife and I -- all the time, and nine out of 10 of those movie premieres, much to my publicist's dismay, I get there, but I sneak around the pictures and get into the party [using the back entrance]. If I have a record coming out, I'll go in front of the cameras, and I'll say, \"Hi! Hey, I'm at this movie premiere.\" I liken it to being a switch that I can move on and off. CNN: What has doing a solo project enabled you to do that you can't do with a band? Thomas: I get to pick my own schedule, and that's nice. Matchbox Twenty -- it's four lead singers, there's four front men, and everybody's tastes, everybody's schedule, everybody's personal life comes into account when you're doing something like that. We all live [in four different cities] ... so we literally have to pull ourselves up from all over the country and go somewhere, just to get us into a room to write. And you have to not think you're so great so you don't get upset when somebody doesn't like your stuff. Like \"Her Diamonds\" -- one of the singles on this solo album -- is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written, and the guys loved the song, but didn't want to play it. [They said,] \"When you do a new solo record, you should put it on there. It doesn't sound like a song we would do right now.\" And they were right. When we put together the last Matchbox record, it was much more of a rock record. CNN: What's the most surprising thing on your iPod? Thomas: Britney Spears. Come on! \"Toxic,\" man, is just one of the baddest tracks ever! I remember the first time we listened to \"... Baby One More Time.\" ... We were like, \"Oh, let's go play Britney Spears on the piano!\" And we all come over drinking, and after a couple of minutes, we're like, \"This Britney Spears is a lot harder than we thought!\" CNN: Whose career would you like to emulate? Thomas: Tom Petty is a famous musician. He's not a music celebrity. When Tom Petty walks down the street, you know that it's Tom Petty, but it would be like, \"Oh my gosh, it's Tom Petty! I love Tom Petty, right on!\" It would never be like, \"Aaaaaaaah!\" -- and 3 million teenage girls follow him down the street.","highlights":"Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty has new album out, \"Cradlesong\"\nThomas says Matchbox Twenty is still very much together .\nSinger: \"Nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity\"","id":"a95b0567c325a50f4e45289b0a5be4df80a7e80d"} -{"article":"WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- An anti-abortion activist suspected in the death of Kansas doctor George Tiller told CNN on Tuesday the closing of Tiller's women's clinic is \"a victory for all the unborn children.\" Scott Roeder, charged in the death of Dr. George Tiller, spoke to CNN on Tuesday. Scott Roeder, 51, would not admit to CNN's Ted Rowlands that he killed Tiller, who was gunned down at his church May 31. But he said if he is convicted in Tiller's slaying, \"the entire motive was the defense of the unborn.\" Tiller's family said Tuesday the clinic he headed will permanently close, effective immediately, and they would issue no more statements. At the time Roeder was interviewed Tuesday, word of the permanent closure had not come out -- but when told the clinic had been shuttered since Tiller's death, he said, \"Good.\" Roeder said the closure would mean \"no more slicing and dicing of the unborn child in the mother's womb and no more needles of poison into the baby's heart to stop the heart from beating, and no more partial-birth abortions.\" Watch Rowlands describe Roeder's mood during interview \u00bb . Dan Monnat, Tiller's attorney, declined to respond to Roeder's comments on the family's behalf. But in an e-mail, he added, \"Speaking for myself ... I am reluctant to in any way legitimize Mr. Roeder, or anything he stands for, by directly responding to his statements. \"I am content to let law enforcement determine whether anything he says merits attention. I do not encourage anyone else to give Mr. Roeder or his extremist views any additional attention as he awaits trial,\" Monnat wrote. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. He had already survived one attempt on his life before he was slain, and the announcement by Tiller's family dismayed supporters of abortion rights. Nancy Keenan, the president of Washington-based NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Tiller's killing \"part of an ongoing pattern of extreme anti-choice violence and intimidation\" aimed at depriving women of a legal medical option. \"It is a sad day for our country when family members who stood by their husband and father as he endured countless anti-choice attacks are forced as a result of his murder to make a decision like this one,\" Keenan said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, expressed hope that other doctors \"will be brave enough to come forward and continue Dr. Tiller's critical work of providing services to women.\" \"It is unacceptable that anti-abortion intimidation and violence has led to the closing of Dr. Tiller's clinic. It illustrates the ongoing harassment endured by abortion providers and the resulting disservice to women across this country,\" Northup said. Roeder is jailed on first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in Tiller's death. A Kansas judge earlier this month set his bail at $5 million. Tiller's family said Tuesday it is \"proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father,\" and that it would honor his memory \"through private charitable activities.\" The statement promised his patients \"that the privacy of their medical histories and patient records will remain as fiercely protected now and in the future as they were during Dr. Tiller's lifetime.\" Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said he and his staff \"fully respect and understand\" the family's decision. \"Their loss is immense -- they have lost a husband, father, grandfather and hero,\" Brownlie said in a statement. But the closure of Tiller's clinic \"creates a significant gap in access for women and families in Kansas,\" he continued. \"No one is providing that service between Kansas City and Denver.\" Most of the leading U.S. anti-abortion groups have condemned Tiller's killing and disavowed Roeder, saying they wanted Tiller's clinic shut down, but through peaceful means. Troy Newman, the president of one of those organizations, Operation Rescue, said in a statement on the group's Web site Tuesday that his group is \"thankful that Tiller's clinic will not reopen and thankful that Wichita is now abortion-free.\" But he added, \"This is a bittersweet moment for us at Operation Rescue. We have worked very hard for this day, but we wish it would have come through the peaceful, legal channels we were pursuing.\" Operation Rescue and other Kansas anti-abortion activists had supported a criminal investigation by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, a petition drive to empanel a special grand jury to investigate the practice and efforts to get his medical license revoked. On its Web site, the group referred to Tiller as a \"monster\" who had \"been able to get away with murder.\" But in a New York Times interview last week, Newman said closing the clinic because of the shooting would be cause for concern. \"Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason,\" he said. \"Every kook in the world will get some notion.\" Roeder met with Rowlands for a half-hour Tuesday, talking on a phone through security glass at the Sedgwick County jail where he is being held. He initially was reluctant to talk, as he said he had been misquoted in another interview. But he gradually opened up, noting that he was giving the interview against the advice of his defense attorney. Roeder told CNN he is \"feeling good,\" and getting encouraging letters from people around the country, many of whom he does not know. But he complained about conditions in the jail, saying he doesn't like being in solitary confinement and that the jail is \"freezing.\" Associates have told CNN that Roeder was a regular among the protesters who routinely gathered at Tiller's clinic. Roeder's former roommate, Eddie Ebecher, has told CNN Roeder was \"obsessed\" with Tiller and in the past had debated whether to kill him. Relatives said Roeder had suffered from mental illness over the years and had refused treatment at times. He served prison time in Kansas in the late 1990s after being arrested with explosives in his car, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. But Roeder said Tuesday that reports he has mental illness or schizophrenia are \"totally wrong.\" He acknowledged having a drug problem at one point, but said he has been off drugs since he was 28 years old and has no mental illness. Rowlands said he attempted to discuss Tiller's death with Roeder, pointing out that there were witnesses to the shooting and its aftermath who claim they saw Roeder leaving the scene and got a license plate from the car. Roeder nodded, Rowlands said, but still would not admit any culpability. But \"He didn't say, 'I didn't do it,' \" Rowlands said. \"He didn't say, 'Get me out of here, I'm the wrong guy.' \" Federal civil rights prosecutors have launched an investigation into Tiller's slaying, the Justice Department has said. The inquiry will focus on violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and other applicable federal laws. Roeder was concerned about the possibility of federal charges, saying his lawyer has warned him that he will be facing them if he doesn't stop talking. CNN's Michael Cary contributed to this report.","highlights":"In jail interview with CNN, suspect Scott Roeder admits no guilt in Tiller slaying .\nBut Roeder says if he's convicted, \"motive was the defense of the unborn\"\nRoeder is charged in death of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions .\nFamily is shutting Tiller's clinic permanently, lawyer says .","id":"6d380da8d106e55244b62443ca9dc7c962458e69"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Nancy Grace is the host of \"Nancy Grace\" on HLN nightly at 8 and 10 p.m. ET. Read an excerpt from her new novel \"The Eleventh Victim\" published by Hyperion. Nancy Grace found it challenging to complete her first novel, \"The Eleventh Victim.\" (CNN) -- Readers of Nancy Grace's debut novel, \"The Eleventh Victim,\" would be forgiven if they assumed the main character is based on Grace. After all, the heroine of the novel becomes an Atlanta, Georgia, district attorney after her fianc\u00e9 is murdered and later relocates to New York for a fresh start. But Grace said there are some differences between her and her protagonist. \"Hailey is a much better person than I am,\" Grace said. The tough-as-nails anchor of the HLN show that bears her name was driven to complete her first book of fiction, which she said has been in the works for almost a decade. The novel centers on the character of Hailey Dean, a psychology student who becomes a prosecutor after the tragic murder of her fianc\u00e9 just weeks before their wedding. The mystery takes flight when Dean, having relocated to Manhattan and trained as a therapist, discovers that her patients are being murdered in a copycat style of an Atlanta serial killer from her past. Grace -- who is also the author of the nonfiction book \"Objection!\" -- recently spoke to CNN about the challenges of giving birth to both twins and a thriller, who might die in her next novel and what she thinks about television shows like \"Saturday Night Live\" parodying her. CNN: You are a working mother of two year-old twins. How in the world did you find time to write a book? Nancy Grace: It was hard work. I had done \"Objection\" and I had an idea for a second nonfiction. I went back to my editor and I said \"Here's an idea for another nonfiction.\" She said \"Yeah, it's OK, you got anything else?\" I said \"No, but I do have an old manuscript I've been working on for a long time, a murder mystery.\" I told her it's not finished yet, I have about 300 pages. I took it over that day and the next day they told me they wanted a two-book series on Hailey Dean. Then I thought \"Oh Lord, now I've got to finish it.\" That happened around the time I got pregnant. Watch Nancy discuss her new book \u00bb . I had a difficult pregnancy. I was in a wheelchair, I threw up every day, I broke my foot during the pregnancy, so a lot of crazy things happened. Finally, after the twins came, the deadline came. I literally had to sit in the bed with the computer and force myself to finish it. I knew what was going to happen in each of the four storylines, but I had to get there. I would be up sometimes until 3 or 4 in the morning. The twins, one would wake up, by the time I would get that one fed and down, the other one would wake up and then it was time to get up at 5:30. CNN: You said you knew who did it in terms of the mystery early on in the writing. So how did the book change during its development? Grace: The characters really developed. It's like getting to know a person. Read an excerpt from the novel . There are certain things Hailey simply would not do. You get to know your characters and they become richer and more intricate because you get to know the character. I would not do anything that was out of character for them. CNN: The plot and the settings sound very familiar to your own life. How much of you is in Hailey? Grace: Hailey is a much better person than I am, I can tell you that much. She's very brave. She thinks her way out of difficult and almost impossible situations, she's courageous and she's witty. I would say it's loosely based, but she's a much better heroine than I could ever be. CNN: What is more difficult, writing nonfiction or fiction? Grace: It is definitely harder to write fiction. With nonfiction you deal with facts already in existence, but with fiction you have to create everything. Details like what color somebody's hair was to how hot it was that day. A lot of ideas for the book would come to me in the middle of the night and I forgot some of them so often that I now sleep with my two BlackBerrys near the bed. I've learned my lesson the hard way, so I will now write myself my book notes in the middle of the night. CNN: Is there anything that didn't make it into this book that you wished had? Grace: Yes, but don't worry because I saved it for the next book, which will be set in the television industry. There's going to be a lot of dead TV executives (laughing). CNN: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so what are your thoughts on having been parodied? Grace: It's funny to me. Everything from YouTube to \"Boston Legal\" and \"Saturday Night Live.\" It's very flattering that they would think enough to make fun of me. I want [rapper] Eminem to make fun of me, but I don't think it would be very nice (laughing).","highlights":"Nancy Grace's debut novel, \"The Eleventh Victim\" has a story similar to hers .\nGrace says main character \"is a much better person than I am\"\nThe thriller was almost a decade in the making .\nBook first of two planned about prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean .","id":"89e405670c316a0246ea5606dd0384bb6d0552de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Britons, Germans and other tourists on the Spanish island of Mallorca \"can feel safe because they aren't targets of the ETA terrorist band,\" which recently bombed the popular resort, Spain's interior minister said Tuesday. Police cordon off the route leading to the location of the blasts in Palma de Mallorca. \"People should feel safe because security forces are on top of this,\" Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a nationally-televised news conference in Madrid. Rubalcaba's comments followed the Sunday explosions on Mallorca of what he said were four small ETA bombs that caused no injuries, and two weeks after an ETA car bomb killed two Civil Guard officers on the same Mediterranean island. But Rubalcaba said police aren't sure if the ETA militants behind the bombings remain in hiding on the island or have left, and he warned repeatedly that the Basque separatist group could attack again. \"We are on maximum alert in Mallorca and the rest of Spain,\" Rubalcaba said. \"ETA, when it can, attacks, so you can't rule out that they won't attack again. We try to prevent them from doing so.\" Watch background behind ETA's decades-long struggle \u00bb . The island's regional government told CNN on Monday that since the bombings, there have been no \"significant\" tourist cancellations. Tens of thousands of Britons and Germans are vacationing on Mallorca, as is Spain's King Juan Carlos and the royal family. ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence. Police initially attributed three small bombs on Sunday to ETA, which is listed as a terrorist group by Spain, the United States and the European Union. But Tuesday, Rubalcaba confirmed that police believe a fourth bomb also was ETA's work. Some local authorities initially thought it might have been just an accidental gas explosion. Three of the bombs exploded in the restrooms of restaurants and a bar in the main city, Palma de Mallorca, and the other was placed in the restroom of an underground commercial area beneath a main square. Rubalcaba revealed that at least one of the bombs was in a male lavatory; previously it was reported they were all in women's restrooms. Rubalcaba said one of the three warning calls on Sunday preceding the attacks came from near Bordeaux, France --- ETA's traditional rear-guard base. The warning calls, he added, provided only scant details about the bombs' locations to police. The four small bombs were activated by timers, and one of them was hidden in a bar that had been closed since Friday. Rubalcaba reiterated the government's position that \"these attacks don't do anything but strengthen our determination. Those who placed the bombs will spend long years in jail and recent experience says they will.\" ETA has been battered over the past 16 months by arrests of four suspected top ETA military chiefs and dozens of militants. Hours before Sunday's bombs, ETA claimed responsibility for a series of bombings across Spain in June and July: the one that killed two Civil Guard officers, another that killed a police officer, and another that heavily damaged a Civil Guard barracks, slightly wounded dozens, including children. In a statement released to the Basque newspaper Gara, ETA said those attacks were in retaliation for the Socialist government's crackdown on its ranks. The group said, \"What ETA has been looking for during long decades is a negotiated political solution.\" But Rubalcaba recently ruled out a resumption of negotiations that his government tried without success in 2006 during an ETA cease-fire. Spanish media last week cited numerous politicians and analysts who suggested that ETA's recent spate of violence might be trying to force the government back to the negotiating table.","highlights":"Spanish officials say ETA not targeting tourists on island of Mallorca .\nFour bombs detonated on Sunday with no injuries .\nTwo Civil Guard officers killed on Mallorca two weeks earlier .","id":"e70ac3f3698e2cad931d06c4e32fead13ba22abe"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last month led to massive protests, on Tuesday called the balloting \"the most free election anywhere in the world.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected last month, setting off days of protests. \"It was a great event,\" he said in a nationally televised address. The election, which opponents charge was rigged, was followed by street demonstrations and civil unrest that led to the deaths of at least 20 protesters and the arrest of more than 1,000, according to Iranian state-run media. The numbers of casualties and arrests could not be independently verified by CNN because the Iranian government banned coverage by international journalists. The president, who said voter turnout was 85 percent, said opponents \"did not provide even one piece of document regarding irregularities or vote fraud.\" Without specifically mentioning the post-election violence, Ahmadinejad said criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation.\" Everyone has criticisms, he said. \"I have my own.\" But he accused the \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in his country's affairs, including the post-election situation. Some Iranians collaborated with enemies, the president said. Ahmadinejad also said Tuesday he believes the government should be \"substantially\" reorganized. Although he didn't elaborate, he said the areas of employment, housing, development and civil rights were high on the agenda. \"[We] need to create newer capacities and prepare ourselves for this new period,\" he said, apparently referring to his upcoming second term in office. \"With this election, we have entered a new era ... in domestic spheres and on an international level,\" he added. He called it \"an era of solidarity.\" \"The government is at the service of the entire people,\" Ahmadinejad said. \"Things will be done in a better way, more effective way, so we can reach higher aspirations.\" He said experts have been invited to help the government achieve progress.","highlights":"Iranian president calls recent vote \"most free election anywhere in the world\"\nIn address, he says criticism of government \"is the key to the success of a nation\"\nHe accuses \"arrogant powers\" and \"enemies\" of Iran of interfering in country's affairs .\nWidespread protests rocked Iran in days after Ahmadinejad's re-election .","id":"034be992869166c0b70adcb7b171f779fc3d02d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tsunami watch issued for five nations after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean was canceled about two hours later. A tsunami watch in effect after an earthquake in the Indian Ocean has been called off. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued the watch for India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh after the quake, which struck at 1:55 a.m. Tuesday (3:55 p.m. Monday ET). Its epicenter was about 163 miles (262 km) north of Port Blair in India's Andaman Islands, and 225 miles south-southwest of Pathein, Myanmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake's focus was about 20 miles below the Earth's surface. In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth's surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground. Watch where the earthquakes hit \u00bb . \"Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,\" the warning center said in a bulletin. \"Therefore, the tsunami watch issued by this center is now canceled.\" According to the geological survey, a 6.4-magnitude quake struck near the south coast of Honshu, Japan, 12 minutes after the Indian Ocean quake. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory following that quake, but said that the expected wave would be under 2 feet. CNN's Augie Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Watch covered India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh .\nIt was issued after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean .\nQuake with 6.4-magnitude occurred near Japan 12 minutes later .","id":"55c919c437a87d0c4e11869f08d62acd660b2901"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jack D. Hidary co-founded a technology company, Earth Web\/Dice, and a financial research company, Vista Research. He works currently in the fields of clean energy technology and policy and is chairman of SmartTransportation.org which successfully pushed for the use of hybrid cars as taxis in New York City. Jack Hidary says the Cash for Clunkers program promotes fuel economy and safety while boosting the economy. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Our country is facing a daunting economic challenge this year and we must take steps to pull ourselves out of this ditch. One such program that has hit the ground running is Cash for Clunkers. It's helping consumers move beyond these hard times and has reignited a whole industry. Cash for Clunkers is now working in more than 10 countries around the world. In Germany, consumers have junked more than 1.2 million guzzlers in the last five months and significantly boosted the economy there. So we know that Clunkers programs get the job done. How many other government programs can you say that about? The Senate has joined the House in passing an additional $2 billion for Cash for Clunkers, allowing the program to move forward. This will bring additional buyers to the showroom. One key feature of the Clunkers program is that it is not just $3 billion of new money into the economy. It is injecting $21 billion -- since consumers must bring the rest of the money to pay for the new car. That is a lot of stimulus for the dollar. Cash for Clunkers is saving jobs up and down the auto supply chain: from dealers to assembly workers and parts markers. Dealerships alone lost 50,000 jobs in the last 18 months and would continue to shed jobs without this program. If you look at the new cars consumers are buying with the program, 45 percent are from Detroit's Big Three automakers. That is a lot of new sales for Ford, GM and Chrysler. Cash for Clunkers also helps autoworkers across the country. Let's remember that lots of the Toyotas and Hondas sold in the program are made by American workers right here in this country. They are in states such as Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. This program helps all American autoworkers, not just those up North. Some people ask why we should help the auto industry and not other industries in this same way. Cash for Clunkers actually helps all of us -- even those of us who do not participate in the program or work in the auto industry. First, the auto industry has so many connected jobs in real estate, finance, manufacturing and other industries, that is hard to separate it out. Second, one of the biggest drags on our economy is our trade imbalance. We import about $700 billion more than we export. That hurts our capital flows, credit and other key indicators. Guess what amounts to 50 percent of that trade imbalance? Oil. We use 21 million barrels of oil every day in the United States and import 62 percent of that -- mainly from countries that really don't like us. We use that oil mainly for transportation -- cars, SUVs, and other vehicles. Unless we scrap guzzlers at a faster rate, we will never reduce our oil consumption. Cash for Clunkers is a step in the right direction. It educates the consumer on how much they are paying for having a low-MPG car and encourages them to get into a more efficient vehicle. A family can save $750-$1,000 a year by jumping just 10 mpg in efficiency. Those savings will increase as gas prices go back up. Gas has already shot up from $1.50 a gallon to $2.60. Do you want to be stuck with a 10 mile-per-gallon guzzler when gas jumps back to $4 a gallon? Third, Cash for Clunkers saves lives. When you bring in a clunker that has no airbags, anti-lock brakes or other modern safety features and get a new car that does, you are protecting your family. Forty thousand people die every year on American highways and many more get serious injuries. You can reduce your chances of becoming a statistic by getting the most safety for your dollar -- and with the Clunkers program you can now do that more affordably. As a co-architect of the federal Cash for Clunkers program with the Center for American Progress and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and adviser to various congressional offices on the issue, it is gratifying to see how quickly it has been adopted by the American people. It achieves multiple goals -- it stimulates auto sales, increases the efficiency of the U.S. fleet and makes us safer. Let's support this program by encouraging our friends and neighbors to finally retire that guzzler and help the country with the purchase of a cleaner, lower maintenance car for the future. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack D. Hidary.","highlights":"Jack Hidary: Cash for Clunkers program boosting economy and auto industry .\nHe says getting clunkers off the road will help decrease dependence on foreign oil .\nHe says switching to a more efficient car can improve safety and save cash .\nHidary: Cash for Clunkers is saving jobs up and down the auto supply chain .","id":"bda407201fe88e798ac88bc105d26c3469f177ac"} -{"article":"LEBANON, Tennessee (CNN) -- A tumultuous home life forced country music star Gretchen Wilson to grow up quickly. Bernadine Nelson, left, and Gretchen Wilson want to raise awareness about the importance of adult education. \"I was one of those kids that was brought up in kind of a crazy environment in the home, and I just thought I'd be better off if I could get out there and start doing it my way,\" said Wilson, 35. So at 15, she quit school and became a bartender in her Illinois hometown. From that point on, Wilson focused her attention solely on surviving and making music. In 1996, she moved to Nashville to pursue her dream of being a country music singer. Despite setbacks along the way, she found success in 2004 with the release of her first single, \"Redneck Woman.\" \"I had big dreams like most local musicians do, but the chances of this having happened for me were slim to none,\" said the Grammy Award winner. \"Without [an] education, I'd have been pouring drinks for the rest of my life.\" Until earlier this year, Wilson was one of the millions of Americans who haven't finished their high school education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 43 million people have dropped out of high school, and one in five Americans are functionally illiterate. Though she was a successful musician, Wilson said she became more determined than ever to finish her education. So, at age 34, she decided to get her GED -- and it was educator Bernadine Nelson who helped her. \"I didn't have to go back and get my GED, but it was something I really needed to complete me as a person,\" Wilson said. Wilson reached out to the local adult education center in Lebanon, Tennessee, where she met Nelson, the center's director. \"[She] greeted me with a huge smile on her face and welcome arms,\" Wilson said. \"She promised me above all that I'd be able to stand in that line and be proud of myself. She became an instant hero in my eyes.\" Nelson held true to her word. A year later, Wilson received her GED, crediting the achievement to Nelson's support and encouragement. Together, they're now raising awareness about the importance of an education and encouraging people to say, \"I can do that too.\" Though she had been a teacher for decades, Nelson, 62, didn't realize the scope of under-education in America until she began working in adult education roughly six years ago. \"It was an emotional thing to me because I kept thinking, 'What can I do? How can my little job help?' \" Nelson said. \"But I know it does, because every single person I've helped helps the big problem.\" Watch Wilson describe why Nelson is her hero \u00bb . In addition to overseeing the center, Nelson has become an outspoken advocate for adult education in Tennessee, speaking to community groups and holding a weekly guest spot on a local radio show. She believes the benefits of an education are priceless. \"Having a GED or high school diploma gives you more self-esteem and a better opportunity for a better job,\" Nelson said. Since 2002, Nelson has helped more than 1,050 students receive their GEDs. And she said she knows that many others will follow in Wilson's footsteps. \"Gretchen came to the program because she wanted to fulfill this void that had been missing for all these years for her,\" Nelson said. \"I don't think she realized how much this would speak to other people. Her fans are legion. If their role model, the Redneck Woman, could get her GED, then ... maybe they could too.\" Since Wilson received her GED in May 2008, Nelson said, several people have already called her, citing the singer's achievement as inspiration for obtaining theirs. For Wilson, Nelson's dedication to bringing the importance of education to the forefront of people's lives is making a difference. \"She's bound and determined to put that sense of pride back into these people who felt that they've lost it,\" Wilson said. \"That's not only respectable, it's admirable.\"","highlights":"Country singer Gretchen Wilson earned her GED 20 years after quitting school .\nEducator Bernadine Nelson helped Wilson along the way .\nWilson and Nelson promote the importance of adult education .\nWilson's achievement has inspired others to get their GED, Nelson said .","id":"7723cad01582f0e0900297dca4968fd3f9eb3fbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Irish government ordered a recall Saturday of all pork products linked to pigs slaughtered in Ireland, after laboratory tests found the presence of dioxins in animal feed and pork fat samples. Preliminary evidence gathered by Ireland's Food Safety Authority indicated that the contamination likely started in September, the government said in a statement. The Food Safety Authority advised consumers not to consume Irish pork and bacon products for the time being. The government is now trying to determine the scope of the contamination. Dioxins are environmental contaminants, often present in industrial waste. Most dioxin exposure occurs through diet, with more than 95 percent coming from the consumption of animal fats, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dioxin levels in food are regulated. Dr Tony Holohan, Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, said that the dioxin usually impacts the nervous system and liver in comments reported by the UK Press Association. Holohan added that the dioxin would only be perilous through prolonged exposure. The agency reported that an animal feed ingredient supplied by one business to 40-plus farms is regarded as the likely cause of the dioxin by experts, and that tests revealed the dioxin polychlorinated biphenyls to be 80 to 200 times above the acceptable safety level.","highlights":"Food scare in Ireland after dioxins found in animal feed and pork fat samples .\nGovernment evaluating extent of contamination, risk only via prolonged exposure .\nMedia: Government says level of dioxins were 80 to 200 times above acceptable level .","id":"408d980a9264ae40340f8480bf00c092acd487b5"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Bishop Earl Paulk, a charismatic preacher brought down by a series of sex scandals, has died. He was 81. Bishop Earl Paulk died this weekend at 81. Paulk died near midnight Saturday at the Atlanta Medical Center, a nursing supervisor confirmed to CNN. The bishop had been at the hospital for several days, she said. Paulk's death came after an \"extended and horrible battle with cancer,\" Paulk's nephew, Bishop Jim Swilley, wrote in a blog post. Paulk founded the Chapel Hill Harvester Church in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta. It quickly grew to become one of the first megachurches in the country. Paulk also had his own television show. But his success as a preacher was overshadowed time and again by allegations of sexual impropriety. One allegation ended in a civil suit that was settled out of court in 2003. The accuser said Paulk molested her when she was a child. A second woman claimed the bishop forced her into a 14-year affair. She filed, withdrew and refiled a suit. Dennis Brewer, an attorney for Paulk, admitted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Paulk had a brief adulterous relationship with the woman, but said she was the initiator. During a deposition in the case, the bishop said under oath the woman was the only one he slept with outside of marriage. But a court-ordered paternity test showed that he also fathered a child with his sister-in-law. Other allegations -- some true, some unfounded -- cost the church membership, as worshippers dwindled from 10,000 to about 1,000. \"As most of you know, my family has been walking through a very long nightmare season in connection with things concerning him,\" Swilley wrote in his blog post. \"Please pray for some much needed healing and closure for us all.\"","highlights":"Bishop Earl Paulk died near midnight Saturday at the Atlanta Medical Center .\nPaulk was accused several times of molesting various church members .\nPaulk was battling cancer, according to a blog posting by his nephew .","id":"aef5e7166826f00d496c2af7f4c9bf59a4a59be6"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Say hello to your latest personal navigation device: a netbook. Dell plans to introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be integrated into the company's netbooks to turn them into gizmos that can offer turn-by-turn direction as well as any Garmin or TomTom. Dell will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be added to its netbooks to offer turn-by-turn direction. \"Smartphones already have GPS capabilities,\" says Alan Sicher, senior wireless product manager at Dell. \"We are now bringing it to netbooks so the devices know where you are and can help you where you want to go.\" Customers will have the option to buy the $69 card called the Wireless 700 when ordering their Dell Mini 10 netbook. Dell's move comes at a time when navigation devices makers are looking beyond the traditional standalone GPS gadget and are offering their software on other devices. Last month, TomTom announced that its turn-by-turn directions app would be available on the iPhone. TomTom will also offer accessories such as a car mounting dock and power charger. Meanwhile, Dell is hoping to capitalize on the explosive sales of netbooks. Dell netbooks with the integrated GPS cards will allow consumers to pop open a netbook and get directions and also also make their netbook location aware. For instance, buyers can geo-tag photos on Flickr or check weather information customized to their current location. The Wireless 700 card combines Broadcom's GPS technology and Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi positioning solutions. As for the navigation software, it offers 2D and 3D map views, save addresses for a trip and route optimization-- pretty much all the things that a standard GPS devices does. Netbooks are petite devices. Still, it is difficult to imagine consumers carrying it around as a GPS navigation device or using it their car to find their way around--especially when smaller-sized cellphones could do the job. Sicher says Dell's GPS-capable netbooks will come in handy for international travelers. \"If you are traveling to Europe roaming costs can be pretty pricey for your cellphone,\" he says. The GPS netbooks could also be handy in areas where cellphone coverage is weak, says Sicher. But there's fine print to the turn-by-turn directions navigation software on the netbook. Though it will be free for buyers of the card and the netbook, the maps will be updated yearly and customers could be charged for the updates. Dell plans to offer accessories such as car charger and a dock for the netbooks, but they won't be available until later this month. The GPS cards will be available starting July 7. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Dell will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be added to its netbooks .\nThe company's netbooks will be able to offer turn-by-turn directions .\nMakers are looking beyond traditional GPS gadgets to offer software on other devices .\nUsers will be able to geo-tag photos on Flickr or check customized weather info .","id":"6acbd938324c3411b91e7186fd67a2be344c3b12"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The text messages address various issues and come from all over the African continent. President Obama greets people Saturday during breakfast at Osu Castle in Accra, Ghana. From the personal: \"Obama, as a young lady I dream of being the president. U r a huge encouragement.\" To cries for help: \"Dear president, Darfur firing again...waiting for peace through the change u promised.\" To calls for intervention: \"Encourage African leaders to improve the quality and access to education for citizens.\" The messages, from Ghana, Sudan and South Africa respectively, were among more than 5,000 sent to Barack Obama during his first visit as president to sub-Saharan Africa. Obama, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters arrived in Ghana on Friday night, sparking excitement in the west African nation. Watch how Ghana is celebrating Obama's visit \u00bb . Despite being home to some of the world's poorest nations, Africa has a vibrant cell phone market, considered by industry analysts as among the fastest-growing worldwide. Administration officials said they set up different numbers across the continent for citizens to communicate with Obama, whose father was from the east African nation of Kenya. \"Over the past week, we have been collecting questions, comments and words of welcome for President Obama via SMS, Twitter, Facebook and from newspapers across Africa,\" the White House said on its Web site. Three journalists from South Africa, Senegal and Kenya will vet the questions and provide a few to Obama, who will address them on African radio stations and via a Web video Monday, the White House said. Peter Kimani, a senior associate editor for a Kenyan daily, The Standard, is one of the three. \"The U.S. Embassy picked and vetted the journalists, and we are getting the questions, then it is up to us to determine what questions we will forward to the president,\" Kimani said. \"It is our judgment call on what to pick.\" Most of the text messages were coming from South Africa, according to a log on the White House Web site. Obama's one-nation visit has generated envy among Ghana's neighbors, who considered it a message from the White House to governments that have poor records of stability. Citizens of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nations, and Kenya were the most vocal in their concerns over the choice of Ghana. \"We r disappointed that you have not chosen Nigeria as your first African point of call,\" one text said.","highlights":"More than 5,000 messages sent to Obama during his visit to Ghana .\nDespite widespread poverty, Africa has a vibrant cell phone market .\nThree African journalists from South Africa, Senegal, Kenya will vet questions .\nObama will address the questions on African radio stations and via Web video .","id":"6db6de5bb9119269c160353cb0e3cc0239112491"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A massive fire engulfed the four-story offices of a major film company in central London on Friday, sending clouds of white smoke over the city skyline, the London fire department said. Streets in London were cordoned off while firefighters tackled the blaze. Two firefighters were taken to the hospital with minor injuries as a result of the blaze in the Future Films building on Dean Street in the city's Soho district, London ambulance services said. The London Fire Brigade dispatched 12 engines and 55 firefighters to battle the fire, which began before 2 p.m. (9 a.m. ET). As a result, an adjacent street -- the W1 -- has been closed to traffic and pedestrians. When reached by CNN, Future Films founder and managing director Stephen Margolis had no comment about the fire. Future Films has been involved in the production of more than 120 films since Margolis created the company in 2000, including \"Bend it like Beckham\" (2002), \"The Importance of Being Earnest\" (2002), and \"Transsiberian\" (2008). CNN's Per Nyberg and Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.","highlights":"Streets sealed off around London blaze .\nSmoke seen billowing over British capital .\nSoho a popular nightlife district .","id":"b1fd05b4684cff7f02df8a953e1abf6df83339bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuela has promised to give Nicaragua $50 million to replace money that the United States said this week it would withhold from the Central American country, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra said Saturday. Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega expressed disappointment in U.S. President Barack Obama's decision. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised the aid after Ortega learned that the United States was canceling $62 million of aid that was to have come from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S.-government-funded anti-poverty fund set up by former President George W. Bush. Ortega expressed disappointment in President Barack Obama for the decision. \"He expresses good will, but in practice, he has the same policies as President Reagan,\" Ortega told a crowd of supporters in Managua's Plaza of the Revolution. In 1982, then-President Reagan supported funding the contras, the forces opposed to Ortega and his socialist Sandinista Party, which had come to power after overthrowing the U.S.-backed Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Ortega called this week's decision not to follow through on the payment \"disrespectful.\" \"The United States had given its word to the people of Nicaragua and in particular to the people of the cities involved in the program,\" he said. Wednesday's decision to cut the funds altogether came after the United States announced last November that it was suspending aid to Managua in the wake of what it said were fraudulent municipal elections. Ortega, whose party members won most of the mayoralties, disputed that. And he warned his U.S. counterpart that the world has changed since the United States funded the contras. \"He is the first to know that the United States of today is not the United States of 20, 30, 40 years ago,\" Ortega said. \"Today, the United States cannot do whatever it wants in the world. It doesn't have the moral force, even though it may have the material force to do it. They have even lost the support of the U.S. people.\" Still chafing over his loss to Violeta Chamorro, who replaced him as president in 1990, Ortega said those were the elections that were fraudulent. He said President George H. W. Bush affected the outcome by telling the Nicaraguans, \"If you vote for the [Sandinista] front, the war is going to continue; if you vote for the enemies of the front, go in peace.' That was the promise that Bush made.\" He described that pact as \"a big lie, since the peace was already coming. We, the Nicaraguans, were making peace.\" What Bush then wanted, Ortega said, was war throughout Central America. \"He fed the war in Guatemala, he fed the war in El Salvador, he fed the war in Nicaragua,\" Ortega said. Ortega described the three U.S.-backed governments that ruled Nicaragua from 1990 until 2007 -- when he reclaimed power -- as anti-democratic. \"They robbed the people of the right to health, the right to education, the right to decent housing,\" he said. \"They privatized energy industry, the telecommunications industry, the businesses of the workers -- those were nothing more than acts of corruption.\" And he said that the $62 million would have been used to build 12 highways, not to support his government. But work that has begun on two of the roads will be completed, said Rodney Bent, deputy CEO for the Millennium Challenge Corporation in an interview Friday with CNN en Espanol. He denied any suggestion that the money was being used for political ends rather than simply to alleviate poverty. \"That's totally false,\" Bent said, adding that his corporation's funds are doled out regardless of a government's leftist, centrist or conservative policies. \"We want a clean government,\" he said, adding that because the elections were not clean, \"we had to act.\"","highlights":"U.S. cancels $62 million of aid from the Millennium Challenge Corporation .\nOrtega: 'Obama expresses good will, but ... has same policies as Reagan'\nOrtega called the decision not to follow through on the payment 'disrespectful'","id":"fc3c4641abd0587e9b75f615fc12de9c6350bf45"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rep. Charles Rangel said he is satisfied with the steps New York police are taking in response to the death of Officer Omar Edwards, but renewed his call for a federal investigation into instances of police friendly fire. Officer Omar Edwards was shot to death by another officer on May 28. Edwards, 25, a black officer, was shot to death May 28 by a fellow officer, Andrew Dunton, who is white. Edwards was off duty at the time. Edwards was in plainclothes and carrying a handgun as he chased a suspect past a police car, authorities said. Dunton shot him after Edwards failed to drop his weapon when ordered to, they said. Officials said Dunton said he didn't realize Edwards was an officer. \"Every white cop that shot down a black cop, I would believe it was a mistake and not because of racism, but it takes special training for them to know,\" Rangel , D-New York, told CNN's Don Lemon on Saturday. In the wake of Edwards' death, the New York Police Department has implemented sensitivity training and provided guidance to officers on identifying themselves. In a statement, Rangel asked the Department of Justice to look into \"police department practices, training of police officers and whether and to what extent race was an issue in the tragedy.\" The shooting prompted New York Gov. David Paterson to commission a task force to investigate shootings between police officers statewide, spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein told CNN on Saturday. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne pledged Saturday to assist Paterson's investigation. Also Saturday, the NYPD released a list of 10 New York City officers killed in cases of mistaken identity since 1930. Five of the officers were African-American or Hispanic; five were white. The list does not include officers who were injured by friendly fire, and does not specify whether the officers killed were on or off duty. The formation of the New York task force came after Paterson met with state officials, clergy members and civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in a closed-door meeting Friday. The group called for an independent investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the NYPD incident. \"We are handling this sensitively,\" Paterson told reporters after the meeting. \"There may be issues that involve race, [but] we are not discussing any institutional or direct racism.\" The governor spoke of what he described as a \"high percentage of African-American and Hispanic police officers who were shot either on or off duty by friendly fire.\" However, the commission will examine friendly fire incidents between all officers regardless of race, according to Shorenstein. The task force will ask NYPD and police departments across the state to provide any data related to shootings where officers were either killed or injured by other officers. The governor said the task force will look at the statistics to \"determine if there's any disproportionate sense that any particular group has been victimized more than any other.\" Paterson said that he would \"not close the door\" on an independent investigation or special prosecutor to look into the death of Edwards, but would rely for now on the investigation by the New York City district attorney and the NYPD. The focus of the task force, the governor said, would be to prevent friendly fire among all police officers, regardless of race, and to instill confidence in the state and community that such incidents are investigated properly . CNN's Alona Rivord contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officer Omar Edwards of NYPD killed in friendly fire incident last month .\nEdwards, who is black, was shot by white officer who didn't realize he was fellow cop .\nRep. Charles Rangel asks Justice Department to look into police training, practices .\nNew York Gov. David Paterson has set up task force to look at issue statewide .","id":"9bdaee87d077314d14a2345fbe7ebb3d9e561366"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- After arguing with her husband, Liza Murphy walked out of their home in Emerson, New Jersey, leaving behind her purse, her cigarettes, her cell phone and her three children, her husband told police. There has been no sign of her since August 19, 2007. Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007. Murphy's friends and family reported her missing the next day. \"In my heart, I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone,\" said her mother, Sophia Stellatos. Police searched extensively for Murphy, especially around a reservoir not far from her home, but they found nothing. Cadaver dogs caught her scent near the George Washington Bridge, but the trail went cold, police told the family. Deepening the mystery, her husband, Joe Murphy, tried to take his own life a few days after his wife disappeared by walking into oncoming traffic and throwing himself in front of a fire truck, police say. He was hospitalized and recovered from his injuries, but police say he hired a lawyer and is no longer cooperating with investigators. His lawyer said Murphy, an Irish immigrant, has nothing to hide from the authorities. He said his client has no criminal record and no history of violence. Attorney Joseph Rem added that there was no physical violence in the marriage. According to her family, Liza Murphy, 42, was not the type of person to take off on her own without letting her family know. Watch an update \u00bb . \"She would never leave her three children behind voluntarily,\" her mother insisted. \"What doesn't make sense is Liza leaving her house without her purse, cell phone, wallet, keys or cigarettes,\" she added. \"She was a heavy smoker, and if she took off after a fight for a walk to cool off, she definitely wouldn't leave without her cigarettes!\" Liza Murphy and her husband were having marital problems, her family said. Stellatos described Joe Murphy as possessive of his wife, never allowing her to go out with her friends. She said he was even jealous if she spent time with her parents. Rem pointed out that his client has not been named as a suspect or a person of interest in the case. He said police have not asked to speak to his client recently. Liza Murphy's children are 15, 13 and 10 years old now. Joe Murphy has full custody of them, and the Stellatoses have not seen their grandchildren since shortly before their daughter disappeared. Murphy and her children had spent the week before her disappearance visiting with her parents, who live about 125 miles away. They returned the Friday before Murphy's disappearance. Police say both the Murphy home and their vehicles have been processed for forensics, but they found no evidence of foul play or struggle. Liza Murphy had been suffering from depression and was on medication for fibromyalgia, a painful condition that affects the muscles and soft tissues. Police say she may have been accosted after she left home, still stewing over the argument. The police seek the public's help in this case. Anyone with information leading to the whereabouts of Liza Murphy or the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance is asked to call the Emerson Police Department's tip line at 201-262-2800.","highlights":"Woman disappeared after argument with husband .\nHusband tried to kill himself after disappearance, denies involvement .\nCadaver dogs detected Liza Murphy's scent near George Washington Bridge .\nKnow something? Call 201-262-2800 .","id":"7e154d44a02f75d9321f48fc1c58e116c260df02"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A stolen Statue of Liberty replica has resurfaced in a disturbing video posted on YouTube that shows someone decapitating the blindfolded lady and smashing her head into pieces. The YouTube video shows a gloved hand sawing off Lady Liberty's head before smashing it. The 200-pound replica was stolen less than a month ago from Vox Pop, a coffee shop in Brooklyn. \"It's very disturbing,\" shop operator Debi Ryan told CNN, adding the video struck a chord similar to that of terrorist assassination videos. \"I don't know what it means. ... I don't know who would do this.\" The YouTube video begins with a waving American flag, and then shows a gloved hand sawing off the head of the statue before crushing it. The slogans \"We don't want your freedom\" and \"Death to America\" flash across the screen during the one-minute video, which is dated July Fourth. It was anonymously e-mailed to the Daily News and Ryan earlier this week. Ryan said she's sure the statue in the video is the one stolen from her cafe. \"She's unique. I know my girl,\" she said of the statue. \"We just had her completely refurbished, outfitted with a solar torch and painted.\" Authorities told CNN they are handling the case as a larceny rather than separately investigating the YouTube video. \"We want to verify who sent the e-mail with the video and see if they're responsible,\" police said. A sign on the store, located in Ditmas Park, reads, \"Books, Coffee, Democracy,\" near where the 8-foot replica of Lady Liberty used to stand outside. The self-described community coffee shop is also a bookstore and a spot for artists and performers. \"We've created a space here that's owned by the community,\" Ryan said. \"We're all about freedom of speech and freedom to be who you are and say whatever you think.\" But Ryan doesn't consider the YouTube video featuring her stolen statue appropriate free speech. \"Vox Pop stands for freedom of speech. You don't get to steal somebody else's property to send that message. We have to respect each other,\" she said. Although the coffee shop recently faced economic problems and neighborhood tension, the motive behind the statue's theft remains unknown. As for whether there will be a replacement statue, Ryan said, \"I'm hoping. I think she belongs here. But she added, \"Whether we have a physical statue or not, what she stands for remains here.\"","highlights":"Video shows Statue of Liberty replica blindfolded before it's decapitated, smashed .\n200-pound replica was stolen less than a month ago from Vox Pop coffee shop .\nSlogans \"We don't want your freedom,\" \"Death to America\" flash across screen .\nCops say they are handling case as larceny .","id":"130ec3d4fc3e6e0a673d3577c5b75cee011fa87c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Beckham is planning showdown talks with L.A. Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan, who questioned the English football star's commitment to the MLS team earlier this month. Landon Donovan, left, is unhappy with David Beckham's contribution at LA Galaxy. Beckham said the U.S. national captain was \"unprofessional\" for publicly voicing his opinions, which were reported worldwide from the soon-to-be-published book \"The Beckham Experiment\" by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl. \"In every football player's eyes throughout the world, it would be unprofessional to speak out about a team-mate, especially in the press and not to your face,\" Beckham said before watching the Galaxy's 1-0 win over Chivas USA on Saturday night. What do you think? Was Donovan right? \"In 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players, and not once have I been criticized for my professionalism. \"It's important to get this cleared up, and I will be speaking to Landon either this evening or over the next couple of days. Me and Landon will talk, but that will be a private conversation.\" Donovan, who led the United States to the Confederations Cup final last month, said in the book that Beckham had been a negative influence since his high-profile move to the Major League Soccer outfit two years ago. He said Beckham, who brokered a loan move to AC Milan last season, had shown little interest in the Galaxy since coach Ruud Gullit resigned in August last year. Donovan, who leads the Galaxy in Beckham's absence, also cast doubt on the 34-year-old midfielder's leadership abilities. But last week he admitted that he should have brought up his grievances with Beckham earlier. \"I don't apologize for what I said,\" Donovan told MLSnet.com on Thursday. \"I just apologize for the way I did. I should have told him to his face. I've long told David since he's been gone and I've been gone that I want to sit down and talk with him about everything. \"It's fresh in everyone's minds now, and it appears like everything has gone on in a short period of time, but this has been a long time coming. The timing of it makes it a little awkward and seemingly uncomfortable, but we'll be fine. We'll get through it. \"I like David as a person and I think he's a very good player. The frustrating part was at some point something happened and he seemingly turned off at the end of the year. \"Nobody knows what it was, and my fault is I should have asked him and approached him and I didn't. Instead I vented to a reporter, and I regret it.\"","highlights":"David Beckham plans to meet with L.A. Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan .\nU.S. captain accused Beckham of not been committed to the MLS team .\nEngland star Beckham says Donovan's comments were \"unprofessional\"\nThe midfielder has returned to the Galaxy after loan spell with Italy's AC Milan .","id":"be2c6db6c956d16109c3fe537f642a8c4f0073d2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Woody Harrelson defended his clash with a photographer at a New York airport Wednesday night as a case of mistaken identity -- he says he mistook the cameraman for a zombie. Woody Harrelson says he got into a clash with a photographer because he mistook him for a zombie. The TMZ photographer filed a complaint with police claiming the actor damaged his camera and pushed him in the face at La Guardia Airport, according to an airport spokesman. \"We're looking into this allegation and if it's warranted, we'll turn it over to the proper authorities,\" said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Ron Marsico. The photographer, who was not identified, captured the encounter on a small camera after his larger one was broken. Harrelson, who is being sued by another TMZ photographer for an alleged assault in 2006, did not deny his involvement. \"I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland,' in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character,\" Harrelson said in a statement issued Friday by his publicist. \"With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie,\" he said. TMZ.com posted two videos of the incident, including one recorded by the larger camera before it was damaged. The first video shows the photographer following Harrelson and his daughter down an escalator and out of the terminal. It ends with Harrelson apparently reaching for the lens. The second video begins with the photographer accusing Harrelson of breaking his camera. After Harrelson returns the camera to him, a scuffle appears to ensue. \"Woody, this is assault. Woody, this is assault,\" the photographer is heard saying. \"Woody, chill out. Would you please chill out?\" The photographer continues to follow Harrelson for another four minutes as the actor and his daughter walk to the airport parking lot. At one point, Harrelson again turns toward the cameraman. \"I'm being chased by Woody Harrelson while I'm talking to you,\" the photographer says as he talks to an unidentified person on a cell phone. \"He hit me in my face, he broke my friggin' camera, he broke the camera in pieces,\" he said. Harrelson, his daughter and a driver get inside an SUV and the encounter ends. In the movie \"Zombieland,\" Harrelson plays \"the most frightened person on Earth\" looking for refuge from zombies, according to the Internet Movie Database . Filming on the movie wrapped in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, according to director Ruben Fleischer's Web site. TMZ photographer Josh Levine filed a lawsuit against Harrelson last year for an alleged attack outside a Hollywood nightclub in 2006. Video of that incident, which is also posted on TMZ.com, also appeared to show Harrelson grabbing a camera and clashing with the photographer. Los Angeles prosecutors declined to press charges against the actor, but Levine filed a suit last summer asking for $2.5 million in damages. \"Woody Harrelson has a history of anger management issues with people and we intend to put a stop to this,\" Cyrus Nownejad, Levine's lawyer, said Friday. TMZ is partly owned by AOL, part of CNN's parent company, Time Warner. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woody Harrelson defends his clash with a photographer at a New York airport .\nStatement through publicist says he was still in character from zombie movie .\nHarrelson: \"I quite understandably mistook [the photographer] for a zombie\"\nHarrelson is being sued by another TMZ photographer for an alleged assault .","id":"aacfbfd450253593db1a5c38d93888dd45ee45a0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The pilot of a doomed plane that crashed, killing 50 people, said \"Jesus Christ\" and \"We're down,\" seconds before the plane hurtled from the night sky into a house outside Buffalo, New York, in February. An investigator walks past the wreckage from a plane crash in Clarence Center, New York, in February. The last sounds heard in the cockpit were First Officer Rebecca Shaw saying \"We're\" and then screaming at 10:16 p.m. on February 12, according to a transcript of the cockpit recording. Seconds earlier, the pilot, Capt. Marvin Renslow, said, \"Jesus Christ,\" as a sound \"similar to stick shaker\" was heard, the transcript said. Renslow said, \"We're down,\" and a thump was heard before Shaw said, \"We're\" and screamed. The National Transportation Safety Board released the transcript of the cockpit recording on Tuesday as it began a three-day hearing in Washington on the crash. See how crash of Flight 3407 unfolded \u00bb . Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by regional carrier Colgan Air, plunged into a house in Clarence Center, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one man in the house. About five minutes before the crash, Shaw had shared with Renslow her fear of flying in icy conditions, according to the transcript. \"I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know I'dve freaked out. I'dve [sic] had like seen this much ice and thought, 'oh my gosh, we were going to crash,\" Shaw told Renslow. The NTSB's preliminary investigation determined there was some ice accumulation on the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 aircraft, but that \"icing had a minimal impact on the stall speed of the airplane.\" Watch more on the NTSB investigation \u00bb . In a story Monday, the Wall Street Journal cited investigators as saying the crash resulted from pilot Marvin Renslow's incorrect response to the plane's precarious drop in speed: He overrode an emergency system known as a \"stick pusher,\" which sends the plane into a dive so it can regain speed and avoid a stall. Colgan Air, the operator of Continental Connection flights, said Monday that Renslow had never trained in a flight simulator with the safety system that activated just before the plane went down. Colgan said there is no regulatory requirement that it provide hands-on training with the \"stick pusher.\" \"A stick pusher demonstrated in an aircraft simulator is not required by the FAA,\" the airline said in a statement. \"And thus was not included in Colgan's Q400 training program.\" The Federal Aviation Administration said its standards do not require hands-on practice with the safety system. \"That's a significant problem,\" veteran pilot Douglas Moss told CNN. Moss, an expert in stall recovery, believes flight simulator practice with a stick pusher should be mandatory for aspiring pilots. \"It's similar to picking up and throwing a groundball in baseball. You can study it academically all you want to but you really need to develop the proficiency, the skill, the muscle memory required to do that,\" said Moss. Renslow had failed five pilot tests, known as \"check rides,\" three of which occurred before he joined the airline, Colgan Air said. Renslow had revealed only one of those failures to the airline, according to Colgan. NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said Tuesday that the board's hearing will not address who is to blame for the accident. \"Over the course of this hearing, we will continue to collect information that will assist the safety board in its examination of safety issues arising from this accident,\" he said. He said those issues are: airplane performance, cold weather operations, a sterile cockpit, flight crew training and performance, and fatigue management. CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: First officer talked to pilot about fear of crashing, transcript shows .\nSafety board releases transcript from cockpit of plane's final moments .\nFebruary crash near Buffalo, New York, killed all 49 on plane and one on ground .\nMonday report cited pilot's training; airline says training met FAA requirements .","id":"4f3671f58df0cf56eb9f20838aa36649050a0231"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Since the dawn of time, people have found nifty ways to clean up after the bathroom act. The most common solution was simply to grab what was at hand: coconuts, shells, snow, moss, hay, leaves, grass, corncobs, sheep's wool -- and, later, thanks to the printing press -- newspapers, magazines, and pages of books. The average American uses 57 squares a day and 50 pounds of toilet paper per year. The ancient Greeks used clay and stone; the Romans, sponges and salt water. But the idea of a commercial product designed solely to wipe one's bum? That started about 150 years ago, right here in the U.S.A. In less than a century, Uncle Sam's marketing genius turned something disposable into something indispensable. Toilet paper gets on a roll . The first products designed specifically to wipe one's nethers were aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp dispensed from Kleenex-like boxes. They were invented in 1857 by a New York entrepreneur named Joseph Gayetty, who claimed his sheets prevented hemorrhoids. Gayetty was so proud of his therapeutic bathroom paper that he had his name printed on each sheet. But his success was limited. Americans soon grew accustomed to wiping with the Sears Roebuck catalog, and they saw no need to spend money on something that came in the mail for free. Toilet paper took its next leap forward in 1890, when two brothers named Clarence and E. Irvin Scott popularized the concept of toilet paper on a roll. The Scotts' brand became more successful than Gayetty's medicated wipes, in part because they built a steady trade selling toilet paper to hotels and drugstores. But it was still an uphill battle to get the public to openly buy the product, largely because Americans remained embarrassed by bodily functions. In fact, the Scott brothers were so ashamed of the nature of their work that they didn't take proper credit for their innovation until 1902. \"No one wanted to ask for it by name,\" says Dave Praeger, author of \"Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product.\" \"It was so taboo that you couldn't even talk about the product.\" By 1930, the German paper company Hakle began using the tag line, \"Ask for a roll of Hakle and you won't have to say toilet paper!\" As time passed, toilet tissues slowly became an American staple. But widespread acceptance of the product didn't officially occur until a new technology demanded it. At the end of the 19th century, more and more homes were being built with sit-down flush toilets tied to indoor plumbing systems. And because people required a product that could be flushed away with minimal damage to the pipes, corncobs and moss no longer cut it. In no time, toilet paper ads boasted that the product was recommended by both doctors and plumbers. Mental Floss: 5 times drug companies promised too much . Strength of going soft . In the early 1900s, toilet paper was still being marketed as a medicinal item. But in 1928, the Hoberg Paper Company tried a different tack. On the advice of its ad men, the company introduced a brand called Charmin and fitted the product with a feminine logo that depicted a beautiful woman. The genius of the campaign was that by evincing softness and femininity, the company could avoid talking about toilet paper's actual purpose. Charmin was enormously successful, and the tactic helped the brand survive the Great Depression. (It also helped that, in 1932, Charmin began marketing economy-size packs of four rolls.) Decades later, the dainty ladies were replaced with babies and bear cubs -- advertising vehicles that still stock the aisles today. By the 1970s, America could no longer conceive of life without toilet paper. Case in point: In December 1973, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson joked about a toilet paper shortage during his opening monologue. But America didn't laugh. Instead, TV watchers across the country ran out to their local grocery stores and bought up as much of the stuff as they could. Also telling was that, in 1978, a TV Guide poll named Mr. Whipple --the affable grocer who implored customers, \"Please don't squeeze the Charmin\" -- the third best-known man in America, behind former President Richard Nixon and the Rev. Billy Graham. Mental Floss: Cheetos Lip Balm and other bizarre brand extensions . Rolling the world . Currently, the United States spends more than $6 billion a year on toilet tissue -- more than any other nation in the world. Americans, on average, use 57 squares a day and 50 pounds a year. Even still, the toilet paper market in the United States has largely plateaued. The real growth in the industry is happening in developing countries. There, it's booming. Toilet paper revenues in Brazil alone have more than doubled since 2004. The radical upswing in sales is believed to be driven by a combination of changing demographics, social expectations, and disposable income. \"The spread of globalization can kind of be measured by the spread of Western bathroom practices,\" says Praeger. When average citizens in a country start buying toilet paper, wealth and consumerism have arrived. It signifies that people not only have extra cash to spend, but they've also come under the influence of Western marketing. America without toilet paper? Even as the markets boom in developing nations, toilet paper manufacturers find themselves needing to charge more per roll to make a profit. That's because production costs are rising. During the past few years, pulp has become more expensive, energy costs are rising, and even water is becoming scarce. As the climate continues to change, toilet paper companies may need to keep hiking up their prices. The question is, if toilet paper becomes a luxury item, can Americans live without it? Mental Floss: Why does bottled water have an expiration date? The truth is that we did live without it, for a very long time. And even now, a lot of people do. In Japan, the Washlet -- a toilet that comes equipped with a bidet and an air-blower -- is growing increasingly popular. And all over the world, water remains one of the most common methods of self-cleaning. Many places in India, the Middle East, and Asia, for instance, still depend on a bucket and a spigot. But as our economy continues to circle the drain, will Americans part with their beloved toilet paper in order to adopt more money-saving measures? Or will we keep flushing our cash away? Praeger, for one, believes a toilet-paper apocalypse is hardly likely. After all, the American marketing machine is a powerful thing. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Ancient Greeks used clay,stone; Romans, sponges and salt water as toilet paper .\nU.S. man designs aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp in 1857 .\nJohnny Carson joked about toilet paper shortage, people bought out stores .\nU.S. buys $6 billion of toilet tissue annually -- more than any other nation .","id":"85377c03deaf52237a09d7b49c63bbd14d360646"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 42 people were killed and 154 were wounded in five attacks on a religious holiday Friday, an Interior Ministry official said. Shiite Muslim women light candles early Friday at a shrine in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq. The first four attacks, which together killed 36 and wounded 124, targeted Shiites; the fifth attack was against a Sunni target. In the latest attack, a parked motorcycle bomb exploded in the marketplace of al-Khadra in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. Six people died, and 30 were wounded, the official said. The attack appeared to have targeted a police patrol; three of the fatalities were police, the official said. But most of the carnage was directed at Shiite targets, with the highest single toll exacted in the northern city of Mosul, where a suicide car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque as a funeral was taking place, killing 30 people and wounding 100, the official said. In another attack, a roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying pilgrims in the Sadr City neighborhood, killing three and wounding eight, the official said. Also in Sadr City, a roadside bomb exploded near a car, killing one person and wounding seven. And in eastern Baghdad, a car carrying pilgrims was targeted, killing two people and wounding nine. Friday was the end of a Shiite Muslim celebration in Karbala celebrating the birthday of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi, the last of 12 historic imams revered by Shiites. Pilgrims participating in such celebrations have been the target of similar attacks by Sunni Muslims. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi \"is expected to return at the end of time as the messianic imam who will restore justice and equity on Earth.\" Last Friday, bombs detonated after prayers near five Shiite mosques nearly simultaneously, killing 29 people as they were leaving the mosques. The attacks fueled fears that sectarian violence could be reigniting in the country and called into question the ability of security forces to safeguard the population as U.S. troops have taken a back seat to their Iraqi counterparts. Though the number of casualties has dropped over the past year, Friday's attacks show that an insurgency capable of wreaking havoc remains. CNN's Arwa Damon and Yousif Bassil contributed to this story from Baghdad.","highlights":"NEW: Motorcycle bomb kills six in Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad .\nBlast near Shiite mosque kills at least 30 in Mosul .\nThree attacks target Shiite pilgrims traveling through Iraqi capital .\nFriday was end of Shiite celebration of historic imam's birth .","id":"9d6b0752ab5e23ed118c32cee6622a594dfd457f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- All the news that's fit to print -- the motto of The New York Times -- does not necessarily apply to photos. The newspaper published an editor's note Thursday stating that pictures used in a photo essay in its most recent Sunday Magazine were digitally manipulated without the paper's knowledge. The Times commissioned Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins to shoot a Sunday magazine color photo essay titled \"Ruins of the Second Gilded Age\" to capture physical evidence of the real estate bust that took place across the United States. In the text that preceded the six photos that were published, the magazine stated that while the photographer \"creates images with long exposures,\" he does so without digital manipulation. \"A reader ... discovered upon close examination that one of the pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons,\" the Times editors wrote. \"Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show. Had the editors known that the photographs had been digitally manipulated, they would not have published the picture essay, which has been removed from the NYTimes.com,\" the note concluded. Numerous attempts by CNN to reach Edgar Martins by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful. The newspaper's decision to withdraw the photos left a publisher of Martins' book \"Topologies\" released in 2008, intrigued and surprised. \"I think he's a great artist and we're very proud to have published his prior works,\" said Lesley Martin, publisher of Aperture books. She said that Martins' prior works frequently verge on abstract landscapes, including forests ravaged by fire and nighttime beaches. \"His work has a certain visual effect. A distinct look and feel to it.\" However, Martin said she understands the newspaper's decision. Aperture books, which publishes a variety of photographic styles, including photojournalism, \"would not have published this work in a strict journalistic context had we known there would be manipulation used,\" she said.","highlights":"New York Times admits pictures in recent photo essay were digitally manipulated .\nEditors say photos in Sunday Magazine were changed \"for aesthetic reasons\"\nPhotographer Edgar Martins' photo essay showcased real estate bust .","id":"2fb9c6086c771e1070e39be3de48db9babf7a705"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Joey \"Jaws\" Chestnut unseated the six-time defending champion in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest on Wednesday, eating 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. Chestnut -- veins throbbing in his forehead -- wolfs down a dog on his way to the title and a world record Wednesday. Six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, nursing a sore jaw after wisdom tooth surgery, scarfed down 63 hot dogs. Last year, he edged out Chestnut by nearly two dogs, eating a then-record 53 and three-quarters to Chestnut's 52. Chestnut, who hails from San Jose, California, set a record with Wednesday's feat of eating 66 hot dogs, the event's organizers said. Not since Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in the 1971 bout coined the \"Fight of the Century\" have two contestants battled so hard. Perhaps. At one point, Kobayashi expelled some of his half-mashed hot dogs from his mouth; those did not count in his total. Chestnut toiled beside him, a vein throbbing in his forehead and his face bright red. Watch how the wiener-off went down \u00bb . \"My body worked for me,\" Chestnut said in an interview after the contest. Kobayashi, 29 years old and weighing in at 154 pounds, was listed as questionable prior to the event. He was receiving acupuncture treatment Wednesday morning to relieve pain in his jaw after wisdom tooth surgery. Video from Tuesday's weigh-in showed that he could open his mouth only half way. Chestnut, 23, weighing 215 pounds, had broken Kobayashi's 2006 record by downing 59\u00bd hot dogs at a qualifying contest in Phoenix last month. Chestnut claims the \"Coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt\" and wins a one-year supply of hot dogs from Nathan's, the sponsor of the annual event, which has been held on the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn since 1916. Organizers said 50,000 people attended Wednesday's contest. Chestnut is a civil engineering student at San Jose University. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Joey \"Jaws\" Chestnut unseats six-time defending champion, sets record .\nReigning champ possibly was slowed down by wisdom tooth woes .\n\"My body worked for me,\" winner says after hard-fought swallowing scrap .","id":"ae7092205b7dd45ff9cd46ed1e5615b94b10581a"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Marines on Friday kept up a major push against entrenched militants in southern Afghanistan in an attempt to rout the Taliban from their stronghold in Helmand province, Marine Capt. William Pelletier said. A U.S. Marine patrols Garmser district in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Friday. A Marine source described Thursday evening's fighting in the Helmand River Valley as \"our most significant encounter.\" Sporadic fighting that began earlier Thursday stretched over several hours in the southeastern sector of Garmser district, said Pelletier, spokesman for the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan. Helmand province, a poppy-growing region, is the focus of the U.S.-led Operation Khanjar. Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's opium, which is used in the production of heroin. The forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of Afghan national elections in August. Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors from the expeditionary brigade, along with more than 600 Afghan national security forces, are operating in key population centers along the valley, Pelletier said. Their targets are Garmser and Nawa districts in central Helmand, and stretch to Rig district in the south, Pelletier said. Marines and Afghan forces have taken over the key town of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district, which had been under Taliban control, the Marine source said. The goal is to protect residents from the threat of Taliban and other insurgent intimidation and violence, Pelletier said. \"Our focus is now and will remain the Afghan people. We have worked closely with local Helmand government officials and many tribal and local leaders in the detailed planning of this major offensive,\" said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of Task Force Leatherneck. Once security is established, civil affairs personnel and other nongovernmental groups and agencies can come in and establish programs. However, Taliban control of the countryside is so extensive in provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar to the east that security forces face a tough job, according to a report this week in The New York Times. The government has no involvement in five of Helmand's 13 districts, the report said. In the fighting that began Thursday, Marines fired 20 mm cannons from their Cobra helicopter gunships -- but dropped no bombs -- to avoid the higher risk of civilian casualties, the Marine source said. The source called resistance \"heavy\" and \"persistent\" but intermittent. Militants responded using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. \"Last night, Marines bedded down in compounds within cities ... with permission from the people\" rather than sleep in a restricted area away from the local population, Pelletier said. He said military leaders also were holding talks with village leaders. In other developments . CNN's Atia Abawi, Barbara Starr and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Marine source describes fighting as \"our most significant encounter\"\nMarines trying to rout Taliban from stronghold in Afghanistan's Helmand province .\nMarines and Afghan forces in control of key town of Khan Neshin, source says .\nMarine killed in the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan .","id":"cbd09d1b33b3b16e91e6d39118f7f8daa90fd760"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say. A hospital worker has admitted to secretly injecting herself and using unclean syringes for patients. Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators said. She had hepatitis C, which she believes she contracted through using heroin and sharing dirty needles while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities said. She was a surgical technician at Rose from October 2008 to April 2009. Nine patients who had surgery there during that time have tested positive for hepatitis C. Investigators are looking into whether they contracted the virus from Parker. According to an affidavit filed by an investigator with the Food and Drug Administration, Rose Medical Center knew Parker tested positive for hepatitis C. She was counseled on how to limit her exposure to patients. Parker quit after she was found to be in an operating room where she was not allowed to be. She subsequently tested positive for fentanyl. Hospital officials then contacted the DEA. Parker is in federal custody facing three drug-related charges. If she is found to have done serious harm to a patient, she could face up to 20 years in prison. If a patient dies because of her actions, she could face life in prison. In a statement to police, Parker said, \"I can't take back what I did, but I will have to live with it for the rest of my life, and so does everyone else.\" Her attorney could not be reached Friday. Rose Medical Center is contacting 4,700 patients who had surgery at Rose during the time Parker was employed there. However, hospital officials do not believe that many patients were exposed. \"We are taking a very conservative and cautious approach by contacting everyone who had surgery during this broad time period,\" a statement on the hospital's Web site said, adding, \"It is likely that most of the patients who receive letters will not have been exposed to hepatitis C.\" An additional 1,200 patients may have been infected between May 4, 2009, and July 1, 2009, when Parker worked at Audubon Ambulatory Surgical Center in Colorado Springs. Audubon is also contacting patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control, hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.","highlights":"Kristen Diane Parker believes she contracted hepatitis C from sharing dirty needles .\nShe was a surgical technician in Denver from October 2008 to April 2009 .\nHepatitis C is a contagious liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer .","id":"08bfc479193016c16b601ab1a7a6cfbc7e75e968"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government is buying 10,000 Taser stun guns for police officers across England and Wales, Britain's Home Office said Monday. British police officers use a Taser gun to tackle a mock suspect in a training exercise. The move will expand the ranks of officers carrying the weapons from \"select firearms squads\" to \"thousands of trained frontline officers,\" according to the Home Office, which is responsible for domestic policing. Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Jacqui Smith said police \"deserve our support, so I want to give the police the tools they tell me they need to confront dangerous people. That is why I am giving the police 10,000 Tasers.\" The guns fire barbed darts charged with enough electricity to stun a person, the Home Office said. But Amnesty International UK described them as \"potentially lethal electrical weapons\" that deliver \"50,000 volts of electricity into a person's body. The result is excruciatingly painful, causing a person to fall to the ground and, at times, lose control of their bodily functions.\" The human rights group, however, expressed qualified support for the British government move, urging that the weapons be given only to officers specially trained to use them. \"We don't actually oppose the use of Tasers as long as it's by a limited number of highly trained specialist officers, responding to genuinely life-threatening or very dangerous situations,\" said Oliver Sprague, the organization's arms program director. But, he added: \"Tasers are potentially lethal weapons which are already linked to numerous deaths in North America and that's why wide deployment without adequate training is a dangerous step too far for British policing.\" \"The home secretary should urgently review this decision and ensure that Tasers only end up in the hands of a small number of fully trained officers capable of making the potentially fatal decision over whether to fire 50,000 volts into a person's body.\" Amnesty says more than 300 people have died after being shot with Tasers since 2001. The decision to introduce Tasers across England and Wales follows what the government called a successful pilot program with officers from 10 police forces, including London's Metropolitan Police and forces responsible for Liverpool and Bristol. The test ran for 12 months from September 2007 with constables who had not previously carried firearms, a Home Office spokesman said. Before the pilot program, approximately 6,000 specially trained firearms officers across the country had access to Tasers starting in 2004. Most British police officers do not carry any kind of firearm, Home Secretary Smith emphasized in her statement, a fact she said she was proud of.","highlights":"Police officers across England and Wales to armed with Taser stun guns .\nGuns fire barbed darts charged with enough electricity to stun a person .\nDecision to roll out Tasers across England and Wales follows pilot program .\nHuman rights group criticizes plan to use \"potentially lethal electrical weapons\"","id":"b8c965c48037f52f69e61602bd2ee14e155992f0"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One day while driving with her father, Hannah Salwen noticed a Mercedes stopped next to a homeless man sitting on the curb. The Salwen family of Atlanta, Georgia, has decided to sell this house and give half the proceeds to charity. \"I said to my dad, 'If that guy didn't have such a nice car, then that guy could have a nice meal,' \" the 15-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, recalled. And so began the tale of what the Salwen family calls \"Hannah's Lunchbox.\" Watch why family wants to give away $800K \u00bb . It started as family discussions about what they needed versus what was enough. Hannah's father Kevin, an entrepreneur, is on the board of the Atlanta Habitat for Humanity and is no stranger to community work, but he said this family conversation was life-changing. \"We stopped and paused and thought about what are the things in the world that could really make a difference, a little bit of difference in the world,\" he said. They talked about selling their cars or other things, but it was Hannah's mother, Joan, who came up with selling their 6,500-square-foot house, donating half the proceeds and then moving into a house half the size. For nine years, the family lived in a historic 1912 mansion near downtown Atlanta. It boasts five bedrooms, eight fireplaces, a kitchen that would make any cook jealous and even an elevator. See the new and old houses, side by side \u00bb . When Hannah would bring friends over, she said, often their jaws would drop and they'd gasp, \"Wow, you live here?\" Like most teens, Hannah loves to shop, and she jammed every space of her massive walk-in closet full of clothes. But she also knows many people are less fortunate; she volunteers at a local community food bank and other relief agencies. Joan Salwen, a teacher, said the mansion was her dream home. \"It was a challenge,\" she said of giving up that house. \"It was a test, almost, to see: How committed are we? I mean, how serious are these kids about what we should do? And they all nodded and there we were.\" So the Salwens put the house up for sale in May 2007 and started figuring out what they would do with half the proceeds, which would amount to more than $800,000. They spent six months researching charity organizations before deciding on the Hunger Project, an organization dedicated to helping end world hunger through people helping themselves. Hunger Project Vice President John Coonrod said the family met with organizers in New York and notified them months later that the charity was the winner. When the Salwen house sells, the money will be channeled through The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta over a six-year period and end up in Ghana, Coonrod said. \"This will underwrite a process in more than 30 villages to enable people to meet all of their basic needs on a sustainable basis,\" he said. \"They will be able to grow enough food, to build clinics and schools, and the villagers will be doing the lion's share of the work.\" Coonrod said he'd never heard of a family donating in this way. \"Hannah's awakening to social injustice, and her family's ability to make a difference in that issue will make a profound difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people,\" he said, estimating the money could affect more than 20,000 people in Ghana. Hannah's 13-year-old brother, Joseph, was so impressed with his big sister's ideas that he made a three-minute video of the family's project. Watch Joseph's video . The video won the grand prize in the 2008 \"My Home: The American Dream\" contest, sponsored by Coldwell Banker and Scholastic Publishing. In the video, Joseph tells viewers, \"We're showing you can redefine the American dream.\" But the Salwens' house has sat on the market for more than a year. It's a tough time to sell any house, let alone one with an asking price of nearly $1.8 million. Real estate agent Sally George said she's shown the house 40 or 50 times, and there have been nibbles but no buyers. See the house's real estate listing . Many people are interested in the house's rich history but often don't know anything about the philanthropic aspects of the family's project. \"I've never handled a house selling for this reason,\" George said. \"I didn't learn about what the family was doing until early this year.\" Hannah and Joseph said most of their friends at school don't know about it. \"We didn't do it for the fame or the glory,\" said Joan Salwen. \"This was something Hannah sort of yanked us into.\" Even though it was Joan Salwen's idea to sell the house, it has been tough for her to give it up. \"I have to admit,\" she said, \"I loved living in this house. Does that make me an evil person? I hope not because it's a beautiful place.\" The family recently moved to a house less than half the size of their mansion four blocks away. While Hannah's friends called her old home the \"wow house,\" this one is more ordinary and that's fine with her. Lately the family has spent a lot of time around the kitchen table talking about an upcoming two-week trip to Ghana. The Salwens will spend six or seven hours a day visiting the villages where their money will be put to work. Kevin Salwen said the new house is great, it's just smaller. \"We as Americans have so much,\" said Salwen, a former Wall Street Journal writer. \"We love the concept of half. We are going from a house that's 6,000 square feet to a house that's half the size, and we're giving away half the money. \"And we do think everyone can do something if they think through half.\"","highlights":"Family tries to sell $1.8 million mansion and give half the proceeds to charity .\nDecision comes after discussions about how much wealth is needed .\nFamily voluntarily downsizes to more ordinary house .\nAfter sale, money will go to villages in Ghana via the Hunger Project .","id":"7d5bd0413ddf9efde7f0aa7069f2dfa9fefe9fcc"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The rehearsals ended on a high note that night. Jackson, here at a June 23 rehearsal, \"was full of jokes, full of life,\" band vocal coach Dorian Holley said. Michael Jackson was energetic and excited. He popped his signature moonwalk and dance spins that gave chills to some of those watching. As he walked to his car, he put his arm around concert promoter Randy Phillips and -- as Phillips later recounted -- in his soft voice, whispered: \"Thank you, I know we're going to get it there together. I know I can do this.\" That was late Wednesday night, June 24. A few hours later, Jackson was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead. \"All I know is that the Michael Jackson that hugged me and said 'goodnight' was a healthy, vibrant human being about to undertake the greatest undertaking of his life,\" Phillips said Thursday. \"And something happened between 12:30 when he left us and the morning when I had to rush to the hospital when I got the first call.\" Watch Jackson rehearse for London shows \u00bb . The death of the pop icon shocked the music world, not only because many fans were looking forward to his 50 sold-out shows in London, England, beginning in mid-July, but also because the 50-year-old singer -- while a step slower than in his prime -- was apparently healthy and up to the task of what has been described as a grueling show. \"He was just like a kid in the candy store because he was seeing his vision come alive,\" said Dorian Holley, the vocal coach for Jackson's band, about the last rehearsal. \"He was just full of jokes, full of life,\" Holley said. He added that Jackson was due to be back at rehearsals again at 4:30 p.m. on the day of his death. On Thursday, Phillips' promotion company, AEG Live, released a 1\u00bd-minute rehearsal clip that was shot two nights before Jackson's death. In that clip, Jackson barreled through the song \"They Don't Care About Us.\" As a guitarist played a riff, he danced next to her and then led eight backup dancers in a choreographed march, reminiscent of his breakthrough music video \"Thriller.\" The clip -- shot at the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, California, on June 23 -- ends with a voice off stage saying, \"Hold for applause, hold for applause ... fade out.\" Two days later, Jackson was dead. Phillips said a doctor, hired by the tour's insurance carrier, examined Jackson before AEG proceeded with the rehearsals -- and gave the singer the green light to continue. \"He examined Michael for about five hours at his house and I think they went somewhere for some other tests,\" Phillips said. \"We are obviously not privy to the patient-doctor relationship with that information, but the insurance broker told us that he passed with flying colors.\" The production pace in those final weeks was ferocious, some of the attendees said. Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, told a radio interviewer that he discussed tweaking the strenuous two-hour format of the shows. \"We were going to do one of two things,\" DiLeo told KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last week. \"We were either going to do so much in the beginning, take a half-hour break, then come back and do the second half of the shows. Or we were going to cut it down to 90 minutes.\" The exacting rehearsals may have been taking a toll on Jackson, his doctor's lawyer has said. \"Michael Jackson didn't eat very much,\" said Edward Chernoff, the lawyer for Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. \"He really didn't drink very much. He didn't hydrate very well. When he rehearsed, it was very strenuous exercise.\" As authorities await toxicology reports to determine how Jackson died, fans around the world lamented the loss of a great performer whose ability to dazzle seemed intact, if inhibited, in the short video clip. \"He still moves better at 50 than I could at 15,\" said Stephanie Siek, a graduate student in Frankfurt, Germany. \"But he also seems to be holding back in a way he never did in his older videos or other footage I've seen. I think it would have been a great show, but I think that a lot of people would have been disappointed, because he was so iconic in his prime. That's a very, very hard standard to live up to.\" This report incorporates information from CNN broadcasts and interviews conducted Thursday for the shows \"AC 360\" and \"The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.\"","highlights":"Jackson rehearsed at Staples Center on night before he died .\nHe was preparing for 50 sold-out shows in London, England .\n\"He was just full of jokes, full of life,\" vocal coach says .\nVideo clip shows Jackson singing, dancing 2 days before he died .","id":"bc792b40fab68e81230bed2db3fdf749ab18ea5c"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox will testify Friday in an Italian courtroom to defend herself against charges that she took part in the killing of her roommate two years ago, her lawyer said. American college student Amanda Knox, 21, is expected to take the witness stand Friday at her Italian murder trial. Knox, 21, an American college student from Seattle, Washington, will be questioned by her attorneys first and her testimony could continue Saturday, said Luciano Ghriga, one of her lawyers. The trial against Knox and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, began January 16 in Perugia, a university town about 185 kilometers (115 miles) north of Rome. They are charged with murder and sexual assault in the November 2007 slaying of Knox's roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, who died in what prosecutors called a \"drug-fueled sex game\" with the couple. A third person, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted of murder in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Kercher was found dead in her bed, half-naked, with a knife wound to her neck. In court papers, prosecutors stated that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors say they have physical evidence placing the defendants at the scene, and that they gave investigators confusing and contradictory statements about their whereabouts the night Kercher died. Knox first said she was at the house she shared with Kercher, then changed her story, according to court records. Sollecito, meanwhile, said he was never at the house, but was at his apartment, watching a movie on his computer with Knox. Later, he told investigators he did not remember whether Knox was with him the entire night. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that the physical evidence was tainted by sloppy police work. The case is being heard by a panel of eight judges. The trial has drawn more than 140 journalists from 86 news outlets to the courthouse in Perugia, Italy. The presiding judge in the case, Giancarlo Massei, has barred cameras from the courtroom and said he could completely close portions of the trial dealing with the most graphic sexual assault allegations.","highlights":"Murder trial makes American student Amanda Knox well-known in Italy .\nBritish student Meredith Kercher found dead in house shared with Knox .\nProsecutors say they have evidence placing Knox, other defendants at scene .\nKnox's former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, also faces murder charges .","id":"cb4d9e9f65ed7525659625cd908476bb4a0f175d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With Congress on its August recess, lawmakers are back in their home districts to meet with their constituents. Voters are confronting lawmakers with tough questions on health care at town hall meetings across the country. Across the country, members of Congress are holding town hall meetings where voters are encouraged to voice any questions or concerns about what's happening on Capitol Hill. Health care reform has dominated the conversation at the meetings. President Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation this year, but lawmakers are hearing from their constituents that they want more specifics on what reform will mean for them. In addition to taking questions, lawmakers are trying to set the record straight and put an end to the spread of misinformation. Many town hall meetings are open to anyone. If you're interested in attending one, you're not alone. More than 70 percent of people say they are either very likely or somewhat likely to attend a town hall on health care, according to a recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey. To find a meeting near you, determine who your senators and representatives are. You can find this information on the House and Senate Web sites. Some lawmakers have information about their town hall meetings clearly listed on their Web sites. Democratic Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, for example, has an \"events\" section detailing the time and location of his upcoming meetings. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has a section called \"listening sessions.\" It links to a map that shows where the meetings are by county. Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa lists his August meetings under the \"latest headlines\" section of his Web site. Not all of the lawmakers keep their Web sites up to date, and some don't have their town hall meetings listed online. If that's the case, you also can call your senator or representative's office to get more information on upcoming events. It's a good idea to call their office to confirm the time and location, even if the details are online. Meetings are often rescheduled or relocated, and it never hurts to double-check. Find out what time the doors open, and ask whether registration is required. You can also keep track of your senators and representatives on Twitter. Some lawmakers send messages about their upcoming events. Tweetcongress.org has a list of members of Congress who use Twitter.","highlights":"Congress is on its August recess, and lawmakers are hearing from constituents .\nVoters are encouraged to attend meetings to voice questions and concerns .\nCall your senator or representative's office to confirm the time and location .","id":"d47dd9e725ca6734c1caf4e5538f2ee23faf16d6"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama's plans for a similar system in the United States were branded \"evil\" by Republicans. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a heartfelt message of support for the NHS via Twitter. Tens of thousands of people have joined a Twitter group expressing pride in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), which offers free taxpayer-funded medical care to all British residents, while leading politicians have spoken out in support. Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this week condemned Obama's plans to introduce a public heath insurance scheme as an \"evil\" move that would result in \"death panels\" deciding who would live or die. Her criticism has been echoed by fellow Republicans in direct attacks on Britain's NHS. In an article, Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said British healthcare was run by \"Orwellian\" bureaucrats who put a price tag on life. Sound off: What do you think of the British healthcare model? The comments caused a storm of protest in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister Brown wading into the argument via micro-blogging site Twitter, where a conversation chain, \"#welovetheNHS\", is generating huge online traffic. Britons react to the U.S. healthcare debate \u00bb . A posting on the 10 Downing Street Twitter site on Wednesday read: \"PM: NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.\" The message was followed by another, from Brown's wife Sarah, adding: \"#welovetheNHS -- more than words can say.\" Professor Stephen Hawking, author of \"A Brief History of Time\", also spoke out in favor of the British system, telling the Guardian newspaper that he owes his life to NHS treatment for the neuro-muscular dystrophy he has suffered from for 40 years. \"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,\" he said. \"I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.\" Despite the support, the 51-year-old NHS is regularly the target of criticism at home, with opposition politicians accusing Brown's government of mismanagement resulting in long waiting lists and a \"lottery\" in deciding who gets life-saving drugs and surgery. Nevertheless, opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron also added his voice to the defense campaign with a posting on his party's Web site. \" Millions of people are grateful for the care they have received from the NHS -- including my own family. \"One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill -- no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got -- you know that the NHS will look after you.\" His statement followed comments from one of his own party members backing the Republican criticism of the NHS. Dan Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament reportedly said in an interview that \"he wouldn't wish it on anyone.\"","highlights":"Britons leap to defend National Health Service after U.S. criticism .\nPrime Minister Gordon Brown among those expressing pride in system .\nNHS offers free health care to all UK residents .","id":"cd7ee2c93cc86dce57ba635d8515831c1138ebb9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You might think childbirth would be a topic too personal, too beautiful or way too graphic to write about on Twitter. Sara, the wife of Twitter's CEO, posted online from a hospital while she was in labor. But, as Sara Williams showed on Tuesday when she posted Twitter updates about giving birth to her child, online social networking has pushed its way into the delivery room. It's now a trend for expectant moms to post to sites such as Twitter from the time they conceive to the moment they deliver a baby into the world. Williams, wife of Twitter CEO Evan Williams, posted to her 14,000-plus Twitter followers when her water broke, when she arrived at the hospital, during contractions and when she decided to get an epidural. Her husband broke the news on his Twitter feed that their \"perfect baby boy\" was delivered on Tuesday afternoon. As if the real-time drama of her labor wasn't enough, Sara Williams managed to spice up her Twitter feed with humor along the way. \"Dear Twitter, My water broke. It wasn't like Charlotte in Sex and the City,\" she wrote at about midnight ET on Tuesday. \"Now, timing contractions on an iPhone app.\" After noting later that contractions are painful, she wrote, \"Epidural, yes please.\" Her childbirth drew widespread attention online, where people who have never met Williams eagerly awaited the birth of her baby. Some moms and dads cheered her on, saying that by posting through labor she lifted the veil on a period that can be terrifying for pregnant women who don't know what to expect when their baby is ready to leave the womb. Others cringed at the idea, saying childbirth posts are too much information. Williams' childbirth is among the first to be publicized though Twitter, but she's far from the only woman to have published thoughts about the birth of her child while the process was happening. Terra Carmichael, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said she tweeted through her third childbirth in February to keep her loved ones up to date. \"At the moment nothing went through my head. It was just like, 'This is how I'm feeling and so this is going out there, and if you don't like it you don't have to read it,' \" said the 36-year-old. \"Afterwards, I was like 'I hope I wasn't too gross or graphic.'\" She said posting to Twitter helped relieve some of the pain. \"I would literally be coming down from a really painful contraction and I'd be saying, 'Give me my iPhone,' and [my husband] would be saying, 'You are weird. Why are you doing this,'\" she said. \"Some of it was for me. It just felt kinda good to get that out there, put that out to the universe so it wasn't just my pain, so other people could feel it for me and feel it with me a little bit.\" Kyle Monson, a new dad in New York City, did the tweeting for his wife. While she was in labor, he was busy sending text messages. \"We were on our iPhone and Blackberry right up until the point when my wife started pushing, and then we had to put those phones down,\" he said. Monson posted updates about his wife's labor to Twitter by using code words only his friends could understand. Instead of posting \"my wife just gave birth,\" for instance, he wrote, \"Operation Bumblebee complete! Ada Elizabeth is 7lbs, 2oz, and is very happy to be here.\" Ada, who is the couple's first child, was born on August 5. Monson has nearly 800 Twitter followers and didn't want everyone in the world to know about the \"blood and gore\" of the birthing process. Most of the couple's friends and family live further West, he said, so the online networks helped them keep their loved ones updated. The senior editor at PCMag.com said his wife was sending text messages to people throughout her 10-hour labor. \"She had an epidural so it was actually pretty easy for her,\" he said. Debora Robertson, group manager of the Expectant Mother's Guide, said she wouldn't feel comfortable sharing so many details on Twitter, but making such information public could be helpful for pregnant women who are anxious about childbirth. \"I think it's great that she [Sara Williams] can do that with family and friends, and I would imagine a lot of first time moms have curiosity,\" she said. \"They're peeking into the delivery rooms.\" Monson also said Twitter posts from the delivery room can be informative. \"Going into it I had a lot of questions because no one really writes about this stuff\" online, he said. Many new sites are promoting \"mom-to-mom wisdom\" as a way for expecting parents to become educated about childbirth, said Dina Freeman, spokeswoman for the Baby Center, an online resource for moms. Freeman said one of her friends tweeted through childbirth. She had mixed feelings about the posts. \"Although I was happy for the updates, I was like, 'Are you sure you want that on Twitter?'\" New moms also are joining mom-specific social networks to get important questions answered, said Freeman, who manages the Baby Center's Facebook page. She said the wisdom of the crowd is useful, but sometimes she recommends pregnant women and new moms see physicians for potentially serious health issues. Moms are finding other ways to share their pregnancies online, too. A quick search on YouTube found more than 3,600 videos matching \"childbirth.\" And a product called the Kickbee is a belt that wraps around a pregnant woman's stomach and automatically posts to a Twitter feed when the baby kicks. Some people say too much technology in the delivery room is a bad thing. \"I think it's terrible,\" Dr. Renana Brooks, a psychologist, told the Baltimore Sun in reference to people who post on Twitter during childbirth. \"One of the few rituals we have, in terms of giving each other undivided attention, is that time in a delivery room. To be spending time writing to someone else destroys the whole ritual. \"That's like Twittering on your wedding night. You can blog about it afterward.\" The Twittering parents, however, said they're just trying to include as many friends and family members in their special moment as possible. \"I've got a lot of people in my life that I love,\" Carmichael said, \"and I want to keep up on their lives. This is one of the biggest events of my life, and so [writing on Twitter] was my way of keeping people posted on what was happening.\" After his wife gave birth on Tuesday, Evan Williams beamed on his Twitter feed. \"Yes! @sara gave birth to a perfect baby boy,\" he wrote. \"Both are well. 8 pounds, 21 inches! Smiles all around.\" Moments later, friends responded with encouragement. \"Yay! @ev and @sara just had their first baby and it's a boy -- can't wait to meet the mini CEO,\" Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote.","highlights":"NEW: The wife of Twitter's CEO posted messages on Twitter during her labor .\nNEW: Sara Williams delivered a \"perfect baby boy\" Tuesday afternoon .\nOne of her last posts from the hospital said, \"Epidural, yes please\"\nSome say it's a trend for moms to post online about labor and pregnancy .","id":"e33ef6f8384b14aa3364910c665c70ec28ee4665"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I have vivid memories of childhood. The 5-year-old girl with endless questions; she wanted to discover the secrets of the entire world within minutes. She dreamed of being a doctor once, an engineer another time, and a mother of lovely kids. A dreamer, this is how I would describe the little girl Reem. Reem is a 22-year-old student living in Gaza City. Days passed fast. Reem couldn't remember a lot of them, but she had some moments left in her memory -- usually the happy moments of her life -- and those memories were the basis for today's Reem, the 22-year-old girl who is ME. I remember how happy I was when my teacher announced to the school that I was first in my class. I remember my mother's voice singing to me before I fell asleep; I remember my father running behind my kite when I lost it in the air, and I remember me asking my parents for a real monkey as a pet. I can't forget the day I finished high school; I felt so grown up. I remember the day when the school announced the exam results and the tears of happiness my mother shed when I received a grade of excellent, and then I decided to enroll in the college of Business Administration. I can call Gaza City the city of qualifications, where a lot of youth are qualified for good jobs. I am one of those youth who is volunteering in organizations, participating in community service activities, getting trained in various skills and getting more qualified day by day. But many young people like me cannot find jobs. See perspectives from Palestinian youth \u00bb . Sometimes, I feel disconnected from Gaza, but whenever I see the photos of Jaffa, I realize that it's where I and a thousand refugees belong. I find myself crying, missing a place I have never been to, but it's where my parents and my grandparents lived. I remember all those bedtime stories my grandmother used to tell me about the land, the fence of roses they had, and her climbing trees and cutting fruits. How I miss that place. But life must go on. My day starts with the smile of optimism and the plan of my day. Waking up early to go to my university; I have to attend all of my lectures even though some are boring. My friends are a big part of my day. We start with our updates and then go to courses where we can develop our skills. When I arrive home, I feel so exhausted, but still I continue working and studying hard. I am always looking for chances for personal development, whether through volunteer work or at school. I was offered a great opportunity to volunteer with the aid organization Mercy Corps as a founding member of the Why Not? youth program, and then I had the pleasure of seeing this program blossom into the Global Citizen Corps, or GCC, a cultural exchange between Palestinian and American students. I believe this program is deeply important because it changes the negative impression of Palestinian youth that is too often spread by media. All my friends and 1,000 others are engaged in this program, which develops our personalities, our skills and serves the community. We use digital media as a tool to express what we feel and what we do. We make changes in ourselves, in our community, and we pave the way for global change. We are thinking globally and acting locally. My ambition is to be a researcher in business studies all over the world. I finished my B.A. and a diploma of business studies, and I hope to obtain a scholarship to do graduate work in media and development. I am also interested in the field of project management and human interaction management. I know it is a good ambition to be Ph.D. holder and a worldwide researcher, but as Palestinian girl, I have fewer opportunities, not because I am not qualified or hard-working enough but because I am Palestinian. Usually Palestinian students have fewer opportunities than others to get scholarships, because it's hard for them to leave the Gaza Strip, as all of the borders are closed. But I have not lost hope, and I will not. I will keep trying to pursue my dream of being the researcher I want to be. It's true that I am a girl, and girls face some challenges in our society. For example, I can't stay a late hour at work. But I am so happy and honored to be a Muslim; putting the scarf on my head is something that I love. To many foreigners, it might seem to be against women's freedom, but I can tell that when a lady is convinced of it, it becomes part of her self-esteem, her self-confidence and her protection each day. I feel sad when the world gets angry at Muslim girls while they are peaceful and happy, enjoying their choices and freedom. I found that I'm not that different from Catherine, who lives in the United States and whom I contact through the Global Citizen Corps. I have realized how similar Palestinian youth are to youth all over the world. Catherine likes some of the food I like, and she loves swimming just like I do. There are also lovely differences between us: I tried to cook what she taught me once, and she is learning Arabic now. Maybe our lifestyle is different. I focus on my own development; I spend most of my time working to become a more qualified person with more knowledge and skills. I do not work hard because I am super girl or I aspire to be one but because I always want to be ready for the worst situation. In Palestine where I live, surprises can happen at any time, and I don't want to be caught off guard. I want to make my future secure by being a really good person. I deserve to live. I enjoy my life as it is now, but I hope that when I find a scholarship and live in the West, I will not be obliged to take off my scarf and won't hear negative comments about me because I am Muslim. I consider religion a personal freedom that is related to your beliefs and what you feel in your heart. I love letting others live in peace. ... Why can't we enjoy peace, too? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.","highlights":"Reem calls Gaza City the city of qualifications, but many can't find jobs .\nShe describes her day filled with school work, friends, studying and volunteering .\nShe says she realizes Palestinian youth are similiar to youth all over the world .\nFor more, go to In Depth: Generation Islam .","id":"368e40bd56ce83077ed7f5c2fb6897af1692ec60"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The much-maligned symbol of motoring in Communist East Germany, the Trabant, is set to make an unlikely comeback as a concept car at this year's International Motor Show in Frankfurt. The old-style Trabi is a common sight in Germany where tourist operators use the car for local tours. Designers have replaced the car's smoke-belching two-stroke engine with electric fuel cells and solar-powered air-conditioning. This, they promise, is not the four-wheeled object of ridicule that rolled off production lines in East Germany from 1957 until 1991. This is the new Trabant, or Trabi as they're known, an energy-efficient city car for modern drivers. \"I think the market will be people who say the old Trabant was a cool car, and people who want to have a stylish car, and want to have a green car,\" Daniel Stiegler, of Herpa Miniaturemodelle, told CNN. Herpa is not a carmaker, at least not in the traditional sense. It makes model cars and airplanes, of the type that sit in display cabinets, not garages. Two years ago, a member of its management team, Klaus Schindler, decided it was time to make a miniature model of the Trabant. Herpa took it to the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 2007 and were stunned by the response. \"We had a special folder where people at the fair could fill out and give it back to use. We had about 14,000 reactions on that, and most of them, 90 percent, said 'Yes, the Trabant is a really cool car, let's bring it back,'\" Stiegler said. Herpa teamed up with German auto parts maker IndiKar, which has designed a prototype to be unveiled at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in September. They hope to attract enough interest to put the car back into production. The early response of Trabi enthusiasts to an electric version of their much-loved cars has been encouraging. \"This will be an ideal vehicle to try it on,\" Geoff Armitage, who had been the president or chairman of the Wartburg Trabant IFA Club UK on and off for some 18 years. \"If they go for the same type of cladding of duroplast, or western-style glass fibre, you have a light body which obviously will be an advantage for an electric car.\" The original exterior of the cars was made from duroplast, a blend of cast-off cotton fibers from Russia mixed with glue. Armitage bought his first Trabant in the Netherlands in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Over the years, he's owned around 20 of the German cars, adding \"we have several restoration projects in the yard at the moment.\" Like many admirers, he appreciates the Trabi's simplicity. \"They are basic technology. There is absolutely nothing that we can't repair ourselves. If we can't get the parts we can usually make them,\" he laughed. \"If they can do the electrical conversion, for want of a better term, in a relatively low-tech way so they keep it simple I think it could be a success,\" he said. German filmmaker Maximilian Spohr spent four years making a documentary about the Trabant. He became fascinated about the car's origins as a child growing up in the East where residents faced up to a fourteen-year wait for delivery of their vehicles. \"There was only a certain contingent, a certain amount, allowed every year, because they didn't have enough screws, they didn't have enough parts,\" he said. For his documentary, \"A Car For A Dollar,\" he interviewed former Trabant engineers and owners and found an abundance of nostalgia for the old-style vehicles, despite their association with Communist repression. \"People remember it as their only partner in crime,\" Spohr said. \"It was the one and only thing that brought them around the country. They weren't allowed to go far. This was the only vehicle they could use and it was always reliable, most times.\" Many of the cars were dumped by their owners as soon as they'd driven them to freedom over the border from East to West. Spohr said it didn't take long for nostalgia to kick in and the first Trabi appreciation meeting was held in 1990, just one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of plans for a new, eco-friendly Trabi, Spohr says, \"\"I think it's great. People would probably love it, I think it will sell. Big time.\" If the modern Trabant fails to materialize, there's always the option to step back in time in the original version. Trabis can still be seen slowly weaving through traffic, particularly in Berlin and Dresden, where Trabi-Safari leads tourists in a procession of up to six cars to local points of interest.","highlights":"Relic of Communist East Germany to be revived as eco-friendly city car .\nNew electric Trabant to be unveiled at International Motor Show in Frankfurt .\nCar was once the only vehicle available in East before fall of Berlin Wall .\nTrabi enthusiasts admire the car's simplicity, ability to make running repairs .","id":"fe86344bdef6d9452f8b67be4c241c7eaec300e6"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An illegal immigrant dishwasher who lost $49,000 to the U.S. government as he tried to take it home to Guatemala will get some of the money back, his attorney said Wednesday. Pedro Zapeta, an illegal immigrant, managed to save $59,000 while working as a dishwasher for 11 years. Pedro Zapeta was \"very, very happy\" when he learned about a federal appeals court ruling that says he is entitled to recover some of the money, said attorney Robert Gershman, who handled the financial end of Zapeta's case. Zapeta was carrying $59,000 in cash when he was stopped at a security checkpoint at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2005. He told authorities he was returning home to Guatemala with the money he had saved working illegally as a dishwasher over 11 years. But federal law requires that anyone leaving or entering the country with $10,000 or more must declare it. Because Zapeta had not done so, he was detained, and his money was seized. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the judge who fined Zapeta applied an incorrect standard in determining the amount to be forfeited. The appeals court ordered a hearing to set a new fine. \"I am extremely happy,\" Gershman said. \"Even though he is not a citizen, it shows he has equal rights.\" Gershman has said Zapeta, who does not speak English, was not trying to conceal the money but did not know the law. Zapeta had paid taxes on the earnings, he said, and under legal guidelines should be fined at most $5,000 for failing to report that he was traveling with the cash. Circuit Court Judge James Cohn instead fined Zapeta $49,000, all the money he was carrying over the $10,000 limit. \"The government always acted as if the money was their own,\" Gershman said. \"They acted almost entitled to it. But it's not their money. It was Pedro's, and the [appeals] court affirmed that.\" Zapeta said last year that he had saved the money to build a house for himself and his family in his home village in the Guatemalan mountains. He returned to Guatemala this year under the threat of deportation, but his lawyers continued to argue that his fine was excessive. Federal prosecutors in Miami did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision or on whether they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Zapeta's case was publicized, U.S. residents donated money to him, and Gershman set up a trust. It has received about $15,000 in donations, he said.","highlights":"Pedro Zapeta was stopped in 2005 trying to take $59,000 home to Guatemala .\nZapeta had paid taxes on the money, didn't know he had to declare it, attorney says .\nHe was fined $49,000 and left U.S. under threat of deportation .\nNew ruling says judge applied wrong standard and Zapeta should get some back .","id":"1707b801f033829fda5a34f98e62696e8e6ef96f"} -{"article":"FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father's very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable. Khidir, now 8, was kidnapped and held hostage for two years by operatives with al Qaeda in Iraq. Khidir was just 6 years old when he was savagely ripped away from his family, kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives in Iraq. \"They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it,\" said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands. \"And they would make me work on the farm gathering carrots.\" What followed was even more horrific, an ordeal that would last for two years in captivity. Khidir and his father spoke to CNN recently, more than half a year after his rescue by Iraqi police. Watch boy describe torture \u00bb . \"This is where they hammered a nail into my leg and then they pulled it out,\" he says, lifting up his pant leg to show a tiny wound. He says his captors also pulled out each of his tiny fingernails, broke both his arms, and beat him repeatedly on the side of the head with a shovel. He still suffers chronic headaches. He remembers them laughing as they inflicted the pain. \"I would think about my mommy and daddy,\" he replies, when asked how he managed to get through the agony. His father, Abdul Qader, struggles for words. \"When he tells me about how they would torture him, I can't tolerate it. I start crying,\" he says. \"What hurts me the most is when they hammered a nail into his leg.\" The father, a police officer, was sleeping at the police station in Falluja when his son was kidnapped. It was too dangerous to go home regularly. Although Falluja was no longer controlled by insurgents, assassinations against police were common. \"I woke up to the sound of a huge explosion ... and then I heard my name on the radio. I ran outside and they came to me saying your house was blown up,\" he says. \"When the police patrol came back, they all started kissing and comforting me,\" he continues. \"I was asking, 'What's going on? Where is my family?' They told me that they took my son. This was a disaster. I went mad that day, I wasn't normal, I was hysterical.\" Khidir's grandmother was at home with the family at the time. \"The kidnappers climbed the fence and kicked in the door,\" she says.\"They were screaming for Abdul Qader. I told them he's not here. They called me a liar and said we want his son. His son was hiding behind me, clutching my clothes. I said this is not his son. They hit me on the back with a rifle and ripped him out of my arms.\" The last thing she remembers were his screams of \"Granny, Granny!\" The attackers rigged the house with explosives and demolished it before taking off with the 6-year-old. The boy's grandmother and seven other family members rushed out of the home before it exploded. \"The kidnappers called me on the phone and demanded that some prisoners that we had be released or they would slit his throat,\" Khidir's father says. \"But I said no to the release. I would not put killers back out on the street that would hurt other Muslims. So I thought to myself, 'Let my son be a martyr.' \" He even held a secret funeral for his little boy. He didn't want to tell the rest of the family that he had refused the kidnappers' ultimatum, allowing them to hope that he was still alive. Last December, nearly two years later, police in Taji, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) away, received a tip that terrorists were holding kidnapped children. \"We thought that it was just a tip to ambush us, but we considered the mission as a sacrifice,\" said Iraqi police Capt. Khalib Ali. \"Either we find the children and free them or face the danger and take the risk.\" The tip led the Iraqi police to a rundown farm and a series of mud huts. Khidir's tiny body was twisted abnormally. And in another hut, they found another child. Two children are still believed to be with the kidnappers. Al Qaeda in Iraq has historically kidnapped children for money, to pressure officials, and even to use in terrorist attacks. For Khidir's father, it was as if his son had come back from the dead. \"He didn't recognize his mother or his grandmother,\" Abdul Qader says. \"But then he saw me in uniform and ran to me. I went flying toward him to hug him. People said be careful; both his arms are broken. So I held him from his waist, and he hugged me, kissed me, smelled me, and then broke into a smile.\" The father flips through old family photos -- all they were able to salvage from their destroyed home -- and notes some of the kidnappers are still at large. He still fears for his son's safety, but says he won't quit the police force. \"Never, never,\" he says. \"If I leave the police force, if others leave the force, who will protect us from the terrorists? We are the only ones.\" CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqi boy survives two-year hostage ordeal by al Qaeda in Iraq operatives .\nTerrorists took the boy to blackmail his father, who was a police officer in Iraq .\n\"They pulled my teeth out with pliers,\" the boy tells CNN .\nDad says he won't leave police force despite intimidation, threats .","id":"212372bd52b7fadca6bc7d3ae4069db1739cf456"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj arrived home in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum early Friday after nearly six years in the U.S. Navy prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj at a hospital in Khartoum after his release from Guantanamo Bay. \"I was so happy that I cried,\" al-Hajj told the Qatar-based Arabic news network by phone from his hospital room, where he was taken after arriving at the airport. \"It is our right to be happy and to rejoice, but we also miss our brothers that we left behind and who live in very difficult conditions.\" An official with the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said the transfer brought to an end a matter that the United States and Sudan considered to be \"of great mutual concern.\" Al-Hajj, a Sudanese citizen in his late 30s, was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 by Pakistani intelligence officers and handed over to the United States, which accused him of being an \"enemy combatant.\" A senior Pentagon official confirmed the journalist's release. Al-Hajj was held without being charged or given a trial, Al-Jazeera reported. The cameraman was on a legitimate assignment and carried a work visa at the time of his capture, the network said. It also reported that the U.S. plane that carried al-Hajj had about 20 other former detainees aboard who also had been released from Guantanamo Bay. The plane dropped off a Moroccan national, identified as Al-Saeed Bou Jaadiya, the network said. Al-Jazeera aired video showing a bearded al-Hajj being carried from the plane in Khartoum by U.S. military personnel and laid on a stretcher. He was transported to Al-Amal Hospital. \"He was brought in here by ambulance and entered to the intensive care unit on a stretcher,\" said Al-Jazeera Director General Wadah Khanfar from the hospital. \"He was exhausted and very sick, and he's receiving the necessary care in the hospital.\" Khanfar said he was awaiting word from doctors on his medical condition. In a statement, U.S. Charge D'Affaires Alberto Fernandez of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said the transfer \"is a result of many factors and the work of many hands. An important one was the cooperation between the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Intelligence and Security Service.\" Al-Hajj had been on a hunger strike for more than a year and was being force-fed, said Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer who has worked on al-Hajj's case since August 2005 and last visited him three weeks ago. \"Al-Hajj is remarkably thin,\" Katznelson said. \"He looks like an ill man.\" The journalist was conscious, but did not appear to speak to anyone as paramedics rolled his stretcher inside. Family members stooped to kiss him as the gurney passed. \"I would have hoped they were here with me now. I look forward to the moment,\" al-Hajj said told Al-Jazeera before being reunited with his family. Earlier, al-Hajj's wife spoke to the network about his release. \"Now I can think differently,\" Asma Ismailov said. \"Now I can plan my life differently. Everything will be all right, God willing.\" Al-Hajj's young son, Mohammed, said he would \"kiss his head\" when he sees his father. \"I'll tell him that I love him and I need him.\" The Sudanese government told Al-Jazeera that al-Hajj faced no charges in Sudan and is a free man. The network also said the United States placed some conditions on al-Hajj's release, including one that prevents him from any political activity. Reporters Without Borders, which campaigned for al-Hajj's release, said in a statement that the cameraman \"never should have been held so long.\" \"U.S. authorities never proved that he had been involved in any kind of criminal activity,\" the worldwide press freedom group said. The organization said al-Hajj was accused of gun-smuggling for al Qaeda and running an Islamist Web site, although no evidence supporting those charges was produced. \"We are delighted that Sami al-Hajj can finally be reunited with his family and friends,\" said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. \"But his detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sami al-Hajj arrives home in Sudan and is taken to hospital, network says .\nPakistani intelligence officers captured him in Afghanistan in December 2001 .\nAl-Hajj was transferred to U.S. custody and held without charges or trial .\nAl-Jazeera said he was on an assignment when he was apprehended .","id":"1b6a04e1f4351a3b3edeb7e9fa7bd897c3f02a94"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Driving over a pothole may not be a big deal for most people, but for Jeff Bell, it was a source of endless frustration. Jeff Bell found treatment for OCD very difficult, but says it helped him turn his life around. Afraid that he had injured a person, he would drive back to each pothole again and again to check, and he lost a lot of time in the process. \"I knew that my behaviors made no sense. I knew that my thoughts that were triggering these behaviors made no sense, and yet I felt so helpless to do anything about it,\" he said. Bell, a news anchor with KCBS Radio in San Francisco, California, now knows that his condition has a name: obsessive-compulsive disorder. He frequently speaks out about it and has written a memoir called \"Rewind, Replay, Repeat.\" Psychologists are debating where OCD belongs in relation to other psychiatric disorders, and whether certain symptoms are actually part of other conditions. The condition affects as many as 4 million Americans, according to the International OCD Foundation, for which Bell is a spokesman. In a class of its own? Currently, OCD sits with anxiety disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association to help diagnose mental illness. The next edition will be released in 2012, according to the APA. Many experts, such as Jonathan Abramowitz, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, believe OCD should stay with anxiety disorders. That's because people with the disorder tend to engage in repetitive behaviors to reduce anxiety. Watch CNN's Elizabeth Landau talk more about OCD \u00bb . There is mixed evidence based on brain scans that OCD has a separate biological mechanism, leading some psychiatrists to favor classifying it separately, Abramowitz said. \"We haven't exactly pinned down what might be the problem,\" he said. Categorizing related symptoms . Checking for evidence of harm done, as in Bell's case, is one of many manifestations of OCD. Some people are overly afraid of germs, while others are overwhelmed by thoughts of violence or sex, or fear that they have \"sinned,\" and still others spend countless hours arranging objects, said Jeff Szymanski, executive director of the International OCD Foundation. There are also people with OCD who repeat behaviors a fixed number of times because \"it will undo the thought or image that came to mind that you didn't want,\" he said. Behaviors such as compulsive gambling are in a different category, Abramowitz said. A key difference is that those people enjoy gambling, while a person with OCD does not get pleasure from the behaviors he or she repeats. There is also controversy over whether trichotillomania -- compulsive hair pulling -- falls under OCD, because it is characterized by a repetitive behavior, but not necessarily obsessive thoughts, Szymanski said. Tics and Tourette syndrome also are OCD-related. Most people with OCD realize that their compulsions are irrational, but about 4 percent do not, Abramowitz said. Hoarders, who compulsively acquire objects without throwing anything away, tend to have less \"insight into the senselessness of their symptoms\" than others with OCD, he said. This is one of the reasons that hoarding may be distinct from OCD altogether, he said. Hoarders also do not respond as well to traditional treatments. Randy Frost, psychologist at Smith College, said only 5 percent of hoarders have an OCD basis for it; the rest may have other OCD-related problems or none at all. Treating OCD and hoarding . Doctors may prescribe drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for OCD symptoms. But for some people this is only part of the solution, Szymanski said. The other first-line treatment is called exposure and response prevention, which forces people with the condition to confront their fears. This helps some people to stop engaging in behaviors, such as checking potholes, which would normally be their means of escaping those fears. Bell found this treatment so difficult that he initially lied to his therapist about doing the homework she assigned. But once he became serious about the therapy, he felt as if he was turning his life around. He also learned to externalize the force behind intrusive thoughts -- he calls it the \"doubt bully.\" \"The key is to find those things in life that motivate us to sit with the discomfort of our anxiety through this treatment process to get better,\" he said. Researchers at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, and Smith College and Boston University in Massachusetts, are collaborating on a new treatment for hoarders. They've just finished collecting data from 46 participants, Frost said. The treatment targets acquisition, discarding, and disorganization, Frost said. That's because people who compulsively hoard tend to buy or pick up too many things, keep things rather than throw anything out, and create clutter. To help with \"acquisition,\" therapists try to help people understand their attachment to their possessions. For example, the therapist will ask the patient how upset he or she will be if a piece of paper is thrown away, and then test that prediction by throwing it away. Researchers have found that participants who hoard do not get as upset as they anticipated when they dispose of the paper, Frost said. OCD is sometimes as hard on loved ones as on the patients themselves, Bell said. Family members may even become enablers, unintentionally fueling the cycle, he said. \"Often times, it involves family members meeting with a trained therapist who can help give them guidelines as to what is helpful and what's counterproductive,\" he said. For more information, visit the International OCD Foundation or Jeff Bell's outreach site Beyond the Doubt.","highlights":"As many as 4 million Americans suffer from obsessive- compulsive disorder .\nThere is some debate about whether it is an anxiety disorder or something else .\nCompulsive gambling is not a symptom of OCD .\nHoarding may be separate from OCD, and there is a new treatment for it .","id":"eb36fc1a10215db3b049a6b1de5ca225cda64992"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New details have emerged about a Jewish immigrant who fled Austria as World War II was brewing, lived frugally in New York and left an estate whose size -- $300,000 -- astounded some. Ida Blumin fled Austria in 1938 for the U.S. and married Walter Fischer, who earned money performing odd jobs. In a story published Monday, CNN and other news organizations reported neither the woman's name nor much else about her, except for the fact that she had donated half of her estate to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a school with which she had had no known contact. Since then, CNN has contacted two of her friends and a relative, who have identified her as Ida Fischer, who was born Ida Blumin in 1911 in Vienna. They said she was neither a concentration camp survivor nor had she ever been homeless, as the school originally reported. Her life story, however, was still remarkable. In 1938, she, her mother, her sister and her sister's husband fled Austria, said Peter Last, a Jewish collectible coin and banknote wholesaler who lived on East 32nd Street and befriended Fischer 20 years ago, when she lived a block away. The Blumins made their home in New York, where they had relatives. The 5-foot-2-inch immigrant married Walter Fischer, another Austrian, who earned money performing odd jobs. The couple lived with Fischer's mother; Ida Fischer earned money from a variety of office jobs. Fischer, who was in her mid-70s when Last met her in the late 1980s, gave the impression that she was just scraping by, he said. \"She hung around on the street and talked to everybody and people gave her food and clothes,\" he said. \"She was very thrifty.\" She once traveled with her mother to Israel, but did not appear particularly religious, Last said. Gabor Szanto, who met Fischer nearly 40 years ago upon his arrival in the United States from Hungary by way of Italy, disagreed, saying his friend observed all the high holidays. \"I used to take her to the synagogue,\" said the hair colorist who has a shop on the Upper West Side and cut Fischer's hair for free. He received 25 percent of her estate. \"She was a great believer in God.\" He described her as \"a free spirit.\" \"She would say she liked weak men and strong coffee,\" he said. \"She was always being taken out to eat by one person or another; people bought her things, bought her food, bought her newspapers. But she wasn't a down-and-out bag lady with a pushcart like the people in the movie. She was very neat, clean and she was a decent person.\" He said her penny pinching was understandable \"because she lived through the Depression.\" Last said that, throughout the years he knew Fischer, she lived on East 31st Street in a 10th-floor, sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment in a building for senior citizens. Her rent -- about $145 per month -- was even lower than it would have been because she reported housing code violations in her apartment to authorities, who then declined to approve rent hikes, Last said. But Fischer spent much of her time outside the building, where she sat on a bench dressed in old clothes and carried on a busy social life. \"Everyone knew her,\" he said. \"Everybody in the diner on the corner knew her.\" Among her coterie was Rue McClanahan, who played Blanche Devereaux on \"The Golden Girls\" and lived on the block, he said. Neighbors would sometimes give her items they no longer wanted. Fischer's frugality was legend: She recycled greeting cards, crossing off the name of the original recipient and replacing it with the new one. \"She'd write on the top of it: 'From Ida,'\" Last said. Instead of paying extra to get an unlisted telephone number, she simply listed it under someone else's name, he said. Occasionally, Last, now 74, would treat his neighbor to a meal at the diner or a nearby delicatessen, where her favorite dishes included lox. Though she was not thin, she would rarely finish what was on her plate. \"A lot of it, she would take home,\" he said. \"She'd take all the sugar and all the napkins; she'd bring extra jars to take coffee home in.\" He always picked up the tab. \"There was never any question,\" he said. \"I don't think she ever bought anything.\" Last, who was also born in Austria, helped Fischer increase her monthly pension from the Austrian government. He also helped her augment her income, giving Fischer $5 to sit in his Peugeot on days when the street sweeper went by so that he would not get a parking ticket. One day, Fischer asked Last about a flier she had received offering to help residents write their will for free. \"I looked into it and I found that this was the Brooklyn Law School; they would send a lawyer who would take two students to people's houses and do their wills, so I said, 'It's OK.'\" Fischer asked Last to serve as executor and he agreed. She also told him that she would leave him money, but Last was unimpressed. \"I never thought she had any real money,\" he said. \"She was enough of a pest that I told her, 'No, I don't want it.'\" She took him at his word. Instead, she left a quarter of her $300,000 estate to Last's wife, Silvia, a quarter to Szanto and half to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where a spokesman said the school was grateful for the donation, but had no idea what inspired it. Though Fischer remained alert until the end, she faltered physically during her final months, when she \"very reluctantly\" hired a woman to take care of her. \"She didn't want to pay for it,\" Last said. Fischer died in 2007 of heart failure, he said. Last said Fischer had told him she had no relatives, but he discovered after her death that she had not been truthful. \"It turned out there was a sister and a nephew that she wasn't on speaking terms with,\" he said. Even after Fischer died, Last continued to learn about his friend's penurious ways. When he went to a bank to carry out his duties as executor of the will, a vice president told him Fischer had taken advantage years before of a promotional offer of a year's free access to a safe deposit box, Last said. But after the year elapsed, she refused to pay the $100 annual fee, he said. So the banker told him he kept Fischer's Series E savings bonds for $60,000 in his desk drawer, Last said. Though the size of her total savings surprised him, Last said her dogged thrift could have explained it. He calculated that -- between her pension from Austria and her $800 monthly check from Social Security -- her monthly income was about $2,000, of which she spent only about $500. Fischer's sister -- from whom she had long been estranged -- died a few months ago, said Fischer's nephew, Peter Lynwander, who lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He said he last saw his aunt more than three decades ago at a family get-together. \"She was a live wire,\" quick to pound out a waltz on the piano or to dance. He was not surprised at the sum of her savings: \"She worked all her life and she didn't live high. So I don't think that's all that unusual.\" CNN's story published Monday quoted a spokesman for the school as saying Fischer had survived a concentration camp and lived homeless on the streets of New York. Her friends and her nephew said neither was true. On Friday, school spokesman Richard Dukas said the discrepancies were the result of a miscommunication. Hebrew University \"regrets misinterpreting the facts about Ida's amazing and generous story,\" he said. \"What is clear is that Ida was a remarkable woman who has made a difference by supporting research and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, something that will have an impact far beyond the borders of the state of Israel.\"","highlights":"Ida Fischer a Jewish immigrant who fled Europe before WWII .\nFischer lived in New York; her frugality was legend among friends, neighbors .\nShe re-used greeting cards, got supplies from restaurants, paid rent of $145\/month .\nShe left half her estate to Hebrew University in Jerusalem .","id":"b27c6bccb305b4f410f1531bc9f5cd174651c7ba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The sleek, dark wood has all the characteristics of endangered mahogany from Peru's Amazon rainforest. Kebony is targeting decking manufacturers and boat builders as potential clients of its modified sustainable wood. In reality, it was manufactured in Norway, in a five-day process that instills all the qualities of rare, tropical hardwood into sustainable softwood. The company that makes it, Kebony, says it comes with none of the environmental cost. \"This is a mega turn, people have to act,\" Kebony CEO Christian Jebsen told CNN. \"We have a green solution for the tropical wood market and we are there to take that market or at least be part of it.\" Christian Jebsen talks to CNN \u00bb . The global market for wood products from tropical forests is estimated to be worth some $20 billion each year, according to the International Tropical Timber Organization. Most of the wood on the world market now comes from Southeast Asia and Africa, according to the Rainforest Foundation Norway. Tighter controls on logging in Brazil have reduced the amount of hardwood being shipped out of the Amazon, once a popular source for the finest quality mahogany, teak and cedar. \"Each tree is worth maybe $25,000-$40,000 on the international market. And there are lots of trees being taken out [worldwide] -- so this is a large business, a huge business,\" said Lars L\u00f8vold, director of the Rainforest Foundation Norway. The United Nations estimates some 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide each year, equivalent to an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua. Their absence is said to contribute more carbon emissions each year than the global transport sector. Demand for luxury hardwood is by no means the main cause of deforestation. Clearing land for agriculture and the collection of wood for fuel are the main drivers, but L\u00f8vold said the lucrative market for hardwood provides a compelling incentive for loggers to move into previously untouched areas. \"Almost all deforestation starts with the logging,\" L\u00f8vold told CNN. \"The logging doesn't necessarily end up in the total clearance of an area, it just opens up the area, it takes out all the valuable trees and makes it much easier.\" Kebony's move into the global wood market follows more than a decade of research started in the late 1990s by Canadian scientist Marc Schneider of the University of New Brunswick. Rigorous testing took place before the first trial production in 2004. Strong demand for the product convinced the company to build a new plant with ten times the production capacity, which opened in January. \"What we are doing with our technology is to permanently transform the wood so it doesn't change. Our process is 100 percent environmentally friendly,\" Jebsen told CNN. The process involves injecting softwood with a patented formula which includes Furfuryl alcohol, a waste by-product of sugar cane production. The wood is then subjected to pressure, heated and dried before being cured at high temperatures to create a product that the company says is stronger, more stable than untreated softwood and weather-proof. Kebony's environmental credentials have been endorsed with the receipt of the Nordic region's eco-label, the Swan. It's also received Norway's national environmental prize, the \"Glass Bear.\" On a cost basis, the company says it can compete with the price of authentic teak on the European market. \"You can buy a cubic meter of teak in Europe for anything between 3,000 euros ($4,000) up to 10,000 euros ($14,000), depending on the quality. I would say we are competitive with that,\" Jebsen said. Kebony is \"slightly more expensive\" when compared to pressure-treated wood, but it doesn't contain any of the potentially harmful metals or pesticides that are commonly used to improve the wood's durability. Jebsen sees some of the company's best opportunities in the boat-building industry, where rare teak from Myanmar is being used at the luxury end of the market. \"We believe multiple boat manufacturers will start to use Kebony very soon -- some have already started,\" he said. The company is also planning a move into the U.S. decking market where it's scouting for clients and recruiting distributors. \"The U.S. decking market, which is using toxic impregnated, metal-based wood modification methods, together with tropical wood, is [worth] about five billion dollars, so the market is obviously enormous,\" Jebsen said.","highlights":"Norwegian company has developed eco-friendly way to simulate hardwood .\nKebony uses sustainable wood including maple, pine and beech .\nWood is treated to give it the same look, performance as tropical hardwood .\nProduct widely used in Norway, now the company is expanding internationally .","id":"46809b9fab2e981bf6d16b485e41c01cf5dd1071"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What is it about Woodstock? Jimi Hendrix closed the Woodstock festival on Monday morning, August 18, 1969. The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was arguably more influential and, like Woodstock, spawned a terrific film, D.A. Pennebaker's \"Monterey Pop.\" The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival in England, two weeks after Woodstock, included the elusive Bob Dylan. And there were several other gatherings during the late-'60s and early-'70s festival frenzy, including the ill-fated Altamont festival in 1969 and the record-setting Watkins Glen festival in 1973. But nobody talked about a \"Monterey Nation\" or a \"Wight Nation\" or, God forbid, an \"Altamont Nation.\" No other festival prompted Charles M. Schulz to name a \"Peanuts\" character after it. No other festival has maintained a viable name for four decades. And no other festival is still so present in the public and media consciousness. With Woodstock's 40th anniversary Saturday comes a plethora of releases, including CDs, DVDs, a VH1 documentary airing Friday, the new movie \"Taking Woodstock\" and several books. Watch Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang talk about the festival \u00bb . \"There's a quality to Woodstock that has to do with the ... hugeness of it,\" said festival co-founder Joel Rosenman. \"We seem to remember that it involved the whole generation.\" LIFE.com gallery: Chaos, nudity, spirit . Many members of that generation, he added, weren't aware there were so many others like themselves. \"They had ... been reading in the establishment media they were a splinter here and a fragment there,\" he said. \"And all of a sudden, they get to Woodstock ... and saw the entire world as [they] knew it was on [their] side instead of the side you thought it was on. ... It was pretty heady stuff.\" iReport: Memories of Woodstock . By now, the basics of Woodstock have passed into legend. How four men -- Rosenman, his business partner John Roberts, entrepreneur Michael Lang and record executive Artie Kornfeld -- wanted to put on a concert for the counterculture. How their site choices fell through. How Max Yasgur rented his dairy farm with a month to go. How the event drew half a million people, more than twice what had been expected. How it caused a huge traffic jam. How it became a free concert. How it rained. And how everyone -- concertgoers and security, musicians and authorities, visitors and residents -- got along and made the most of the three days with minimal violence and lots of joy. Watch why Woodstock made a difference \u00bb . As a resident of the Woodstock Nation might say, the vibes were good. But that doesn't explain how the event gave way to the myth. Elliott Landy, a photographer best known for his \"Music from Big Pink\" and \"Nashville Skyline\" portraits of The Band and Bob Dylan, respectively, believes part of Woodstock's aura came from its isolation. \"In the full Woodstock experience, you were cut off from the rest of ... everyday life,\" he said. \"It was kind of a magic land.\" Rock critic Dave Marsh, who said he was offered a ticket but didn't go, puts it succinctly: \"Woodstock was an accident. God liked that one.\" But Woodstock was also at the nexus of so many swirling currents of the '60s: the generation gap, the antiwar movement, the evolution of rock music, the growth of the youth culture. One person in Barbara Kopple's VH1 documentary said, with still-discernable anger, \"They [the establishment] were trying to kill us,\" and he wasn't kidding; the draft was ever-present, with the threat of Vietnam hanging over many heads. Music was just as divisive. Unlike today, when underground acts quickly become mainstream through word-of-Internet, the underground in 1969 was truly underground. Only the most popular rock acts appeared on prime time television, and a 1966 Harris poll reported a plurality of people over 21 disliked rock 'n' roll. \"Longhair\" and \"hippie\" weren't descriptions; they were epithets. Woodstock gave the baby boomers a rallying point. If the special editions of magazines trumpeting its success weren't enough, the movie and the soundtrack album were huge hits upon their 1970 release, bringing elements of the Woodstock experience to millions. Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, whose drum solo during the band's \"Soul Sacrifice\" became an indelible Woodstock moment, remembers how fame caught him by surprise. He was waiting in line to see \"Woodstock\" with other band members. As the previous show let out, \"We noticed that people were looking at us and pointing at us, and we didn't know what was going on.\" The band found out soon enough: On a tour of Europe, Shrieve stopped at a newsstand to pick up a magazine, and he was on the cover. \"I realized this was taking off,\" he said. Though much is made of the Woodstock spirit -- the camaraderie, the cooperation through the rain and the mud and the traffic -- not everybody bought into it. The Who's Pete Townshend has often criticized Woodstock, disparaging The Who's performance and calling the audience \"a bunch of hypocrites\"; he later plowed his Woodstock-era alienation into such songs as \"Won't Get Fooled Again.\" (Townshend has also acknowledged that the Woodstock gig was \"important.\") Marsh, who wrote a recent cover story on Woodstock for Relix magazine, admires the festival's optimism but not many of its realities: the poor sanitation, the hype, the idea that getting away from society was going to solve its problems. \"We were ambitious as people, and our ambition was to create a beautiful new society. ... And this seemed like a step on the road to a lot of people,\" he said. \"I never bought the thing that the artificial wilderness was a solution to our social problems. ... I think a lot of people thought if you got stoned and bonded together with a bunch of people to whom on Monday you didn't feel bonded at all, that that was a step on the journey.\" For all of the good will Woodstock created, it's also blamed for what it didn't do. The war didn't end. Altamont, the hope for a West Coast Woodstock, culminated in an audience member's slaying. And members of the \"Woodstock Nation\" went their separate ways. Woodstock also was the beginning of a new era in the music business -- it became a \"music industry,\" Woodstock co-founder Lang noted. Producer-engineer Eddie Kramer, a Jimi Hendrix colleague who recorded the festival, agreed the music world changed after Woodstock. \"You have to realize that, in 1969, agents and managers were in the background,\" he said. \"And the musicians weren't really competing with each other. They were friendly to each other and were eager to help.\" As much as \"getting back to the garden,\" in Joni Mitchell's words, Woodstock now also symbolizes baby boomer nostalgia. Among the related products and events are a 6-CD box set (Rhino); an \"Ultimate Collector's Edition\" DVD reissue of director Michael Wadleigh's Oscar-winning documentary (Warner Home Video); the new Ang Lee film \"Taking Woodstock\"; \"Woodstock Experience\" remastered CDs of complete live sets by such performers as Santana and Janis Joplin (Sony\/Legacy); Friday's VH1 documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple; a tour by the \"Heroes of Woodstock\"; an anniversary concert at the Woodstock site in Bethel, New York; and several books, including works by Lang and Landy. That's a lot to pile on to what was, at its heart, a music festival, and perhaps people have expected too much from Woodstock. Just a year after the event, critic J.R. Young reviewed the soundtrack in Rolling Stone and gave voice to the disappointment and cynicism. \"That's why there will never really be a Woodstock Nation,\" said a character in the review, which was written as a short story. \"You won't let anybody live on your land.\" And yet \"Woodstock\" remains a magic word -- one that, finally, refuses to reveal its secrets. Woodstock co-founder Rosenman ends up reaching for the elation of Keats' poem \"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer\" -- \"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies\/ When a new planet swims into his ken\" -- when trying to describe the festival's thrill. But he stops short of adding up the details. It was the people, he said, who made Woodstock. \"That half a million-strong audience created something -- they created a legend,\" he said. \"I actually don't think it's possible to do the making of that legend and explain it to the satisfaction of almost anybody. I think you'd still come away wondering, 'What the heck made that happen?' \" And Shrieve, who's long since come to terms with being known as \"the guy who did the drum solo at Woodstock,\" is equally philosophical about how the festival is portrayed. \"It's interesting to observe history from the viewpoint of having been there. It also gives you some insight into everything else,\" he said. \"I mean, any historical moment, there are people that are there and people who are not there. And when it grows into something that becomes more mythological, you see people telling the story of how it happened, and you go, 'Wait a minute! That's not what happened!' \"","highlights":"Woodstock festival was 40 years ago Saturday .\nFestival represents idealism, music, money, mud, depending on who you ask .\nFestival co-creator: It was the audience who \"created a legend\"","id":"517064c7afabd6c973f81455bf2c4eec5630a294"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is not often that football players are actively encouraged to play dirty -- unless of course they are taking part in a unique variant of the game called \"Swamp Soccer\" when it is virtually unavoidable. The competition is fierce in the 2009 Swamp Soccer World Championship held in Scotland . Originating from the bogs of Finland, the game was started by cross-country skiers who used the football matches in knee-deep mud to strengthen their leg muscles. The first tournament took place in 1997 with 13 teams, but now annual events take place in Sweden, Iceland, Russia and Brazil which can often feature over 200 teams. What do you think of Swamp Soccer? Do you prefer Beach Football of another form of the game? Let us know your thoughts on the 'Sound off' box below. Glasgow Rangers fan Stewart Miller imported the concept to the United Kingdom after a chance meeting with founder Jyrki Vaananen while on a business trip to Iceland. Miller launched the first UK tournament in 2005 and now teams travel from all over the globe to the Scottish village of Strachur to try and become the annual Swamp Soccer World Champions. Watch the action from the bog \u00bb. \"We had teams coming from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand to take part in the tournament this year so there is an international flavor to the event,\" Miller told CNN. \"There is a huge appetite to try out new things and I think that's why Swamp Soccer is able to capture the imagination of people. \"The basic rules of football also apply to Swamp Soccer with the exception that matches are played in thick mud with six players on an oversized five-a-side pitch. \"It's probably one of the only sports in the world where the worse the conditions are the better the sporting spectacle!\" There is no offside in Swamp Soccer while kick-offs, throw-ins, corner kicks, free kicks and penalties are taken by using the hands to drop the ball onto a chosen foot. Teams are also allowed to make unlimited substitutions although no shoe changing is allowed for the match duration. Miller believes that the oft-used quote that the state of a pitch can bridge the gap between two unevenly match teams is even more applicable with Swamp Soccer. \"You could put the Brazilian national side up against an amateur team and you wouldn't know who would come out on top -- the pitch really does prove to be a leveler in this instance,\" he said. \"Although professional footballers are precious commodities these days -- I'm not sure we'll see any stars getting caked in mud too soon, most of them are far to pampered for that. \"Nobody's ever been injured seriously playing in the swamp, sometimes somebody's got a cut or two but nothing big -- so maybe when they retire from the game they might be prepared to give it a go.\" The imaginatively titled Real Mudrid, Mudchesthair United and Cowdungbeath were unable to make it past the group stages in the 44-team event which was won by FC Full Gunge from Poole in England who retained their title with a 1-0 victory over The Chocolate Men. This year's Swamp Soccer tournament was held in a village in the Scottish countryside but Miller revealed that he intends to bring the mud game to metropolitan areas. He added: \"The future for Swamp Soccer is in the city and of course I'm certain we'll bring all the mud with us. It will certainly make a great spectacle if set up a swamp in the middle of Glasgow or Edinburgh, so watch this space.\" If you are interested in taking part in the 2010 Swamp Soccer World Championships visit the official Web site of the tournament.","highlights":"Swamp Soccer was started by cross-country skiers on the bogs of Finland .\nThe 2009 World Championships have just been held in Strachur, Scotland .\nCompetitors came from all over the world to take part in the tournament .","id":"38f03f48a3cb786cdc5e49a9eedeb56ac8ec695c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cheryl Morse was 19 years old when she hitchhiked more than 700 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to Bethel, New York. She was determined to make it to the Woodstock music festival. An estimated 400,000 people attended the Woodstock music festival in Bethel, New York, in August 1969. Although Morse, now 59, no longer recalls details such as how long it took to get there or what food, if any, she ate, she still vividly remembers the music. When Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young opened their set with \"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,\" she said the energy in the crowd was intoxicating. And she can still picture folk musicians Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez performing in the rain Friday night. \"It was like being totally shut off from the rest of the world for three days, with nonstop music by world-class musicians playing their hearts out ... for our party,\" she said. Forty years later, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair remains a major cultural touchstone. Held in Bethel on August 15, 16 and 17, 1969, the music festival welcomed some of the biggest musicians of the era and legions of fans from across the United States. Despite the concert's size -- an estimated 400,000 people attended the festival -- it seems the idea of Woodstock is bigger than the actual event was. It is remembered as a peace- and love-filled celebration, an out-of-this-world experience fueled by rock 'n' roll music and copious drugs. See Woodstock 40 years ago, and what the site looks like today \u00bb . Like many others, it wasn't until Morse left the festival grounds and re-entered the outside world that she began to realize Woodstock's impact. She stopped at a local market on her way out of town and saw news coverage of the festival on television. \"Until [then], I had not thought about the outside world at all,\" Morse said. \"That was when I slowly began to comprehend the impact the gathering was having on the country.\" Woodstock, Morse explained, \"came at a pivotal point in history,\" when the Vietnam War and subsequent anti-war movement were in full swing. The festival, a massive event that was largely peaceful and free of riots, was considered exceptional for the time. Years later, Morse realized that Woodstock \"would never be forgotten,\" she said. \"It took you 10 years to realize you were part of history,\" said Lenny Eisenberg, who made the journey to Bethel to see Jimi Hendrix perform. \"At the time, it was just another great show.\" Part of the concert's lasting power was fueled by the Oscar-winning documentary \"Woodstock,\" which also led to a blurred perception of the festival, Eisenberg said. \"I have some distorted ideas of what happened,\" he said. Still, Eisenberg recalls Hendrix's performance that famously closed the festival on Monday morning. The aspiring photographer saved one of the three rolls of film he brought with him to document the guitarist's set. The wait was worth it, he said. Eisenberg captured several shots of Hendrix, including one of the guitarist with his middle finger in the air, seconds after he flashed a peace sign to the audience. iReport.com: See Eisenberg's photos . \"It's really hard to pin down a best memory,\" said Thomas Burke, who was 19 years old when he went to Woodstock. \"The whole place was a memory.\" Burke still has his Woodstock tickets along with the check his mother wrote for them. His memories from the event are fond, but fuzzy. \"I remember some of the acts, but not the order or where I was when they played,\" he said. He recalls seeing Richie Havens and Jefferson Airplane, and can't forget Hendrix's legendary performance of \"The Star-Spangled Banner.\" \"Woodstock marked a big turning point in my life,\" said Burke, who was drafted into the Army soon after returning home from the festival. \"It was a fitting end to the '60s.\" \"It was the experience of a lifetime. I've always been proud of the fact that I was there,\" said Ralph Chin. He remembers the rain and mud, nonstop music, free-flowing drugs and conversations with strangers. For Chin, nothing can recapture Woodstock. \"I went to a couple other festivals after Woodstock, but they fell short on the overall feeling,\" he said. iReport.com: 'The experience of a lifetime' \"Woodstock was like a big party with all your friends there, whereas the festivals afterward felt more like you were an independent entity and had no connections to anyone else.\" \"I think it was the ultimate spontaneous thing. It just happened,\" said John Laferlita, a photographer who attended Woodstock at 23. Laferlita heard about the festival on the radio and thought, \"Why not?\" He hopped on a bus from Manhattan, New York, on Saturday, with little more than his camera and tickets. Like many others, he slept on the ground that night. \"There hasn't been anything like it,\" added Laferlita. \"Everything else is planned to the minute, but this was spontaneous. That's what made it so special.\"","highlights":"As Woodstock celebrates 40 years, the music festival still looms large .\nMemories of the event are distorted by media coverage, movies, some say .\n\"It took 10 years to realize you were part of history,\" said Lenny Eisenberg .\niReport.com: Were you at Woodstock? Share your memories, photos .","id":"8cfd85bcca39e490b8bbd7042827a5c3e80387c7"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Officials in Mexico's Chiapas state postponed classes Friday for more than 1 million students in an effort to avoid a resurgence of H1N1 flu, which has sickened thousands throughout Mexico this year. After the first confirmed swine flu reports in April, Mexico shut down all of its schools and many public venues. Chiapas Education Secretary Javier Alvarez Ramos and state Health Secretary James Gomez Montes said classes will start August 31 for middle and high school students and September 7 for elementary pupils, the state-run Notimex news agency said. About 1.55 million students will be affected, 850,000 of them in elementary school, Notimex said. This is not the first instance of officials in Mexico altering schedules to combat the disease. The first cases of H1N1, also called swine flu, were confirmed in Mexico in April. Within days, the government closed all schools and most public venues. In Mexico City, officials shut down all bars, theaters and public gathering places and limited restaurants to take-out orders. About 35,000 businesses were affected. All non-essential federal government offices also were closed nationwide for several days. The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in early June. As of August 6, the WHO reported more than 177,450 confirmed cases in 170 nations. The Western Hemisphere has the most cases, with nearly 103,000 confirmed instances of the disease and almost 1,300 deaths. The WHO is no longer providing a country-by-country breakdown, but the United States, Argentina and Mexico have had the most cases and fatalities. In the United States, federal officials released new guidelines this month for containing the spread of the virus across the nation's school system. Government officials have warned of a possible resurgence in the H1N1 virus this fall. Among other things, health officials urged local administrators to exercise caution and restraint when deciding whether to close a school in response to an outbreak, noting that the costs of shutting down institutions often outweigh the benefits. Officials also confirmed that a new vaccine to combat the virus is likely to be ready by October. The revised federal guidelines advise parents to keep children infected with the H1N1 virus out of school for 24 hours after the fever has gone away. Parents were previously advised to keep their children out of school for seven days after the end of a fever caused by H1N1. The virus has spread around the world with unprecedented speed, according to the WHO. Past influenza viruses have needed more than six months to spread as widely as the current H1N1 virus spread in less than six weeks, the WHO said.","highlights":"Officials in Chiapas delay school in effort to avoid flu resurgence .\n1.55 million students affected, 850,000 of them in elementary school .\nU.S. officials urge restraint when shutting schools, because of cost .","id":"1aa6b45d341824cbaa82219ee4692d65aa5ba54d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Preakness Stakes favorite Rachel Alexandra lived up to her billing Saturday, thundering past an all-male field of competitors and becoming the first filly to win the Triple-Crown's second jewel since 1924. Saturday's victory for Rachel Alexandra, who raced from the 13th and furthest stall, was the filly's fifth straight win. \"She's the greatest horse I've ever been on in my life,\" jockey Calvin Borel said after the race. \"She did not handle the track 110 percent and still won.\" Long-shot Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird fell short in his improbable bid to compete for horse-racing's Triple Crown, but showed his Derby victory was no fluke -- charging hard to finish second. Musket Man finished third. Rachel Alexandra's win was historic for multiple reasons and capped a run of five straight victories that included a blowout of the field in the all-filly Kentucky Oaks. She became the first horse to win from the race's 13th stall -- the furthest from the inside of the track. Borel became the first jockey to ride a winner in the Kentucky Derby -- he steered 50-1 underdog Mine That Bird to the win -- and then choose to ride another horse in the Preakness. Watch why Preakness was viewed as battle of sexes \u00bb . She ran at the front of the mile-and-one-sixteenth race for almost the entire time. Mike Smith, Mine That Bird's jockey on Saturday, said Borel gave him advice on how to run the undersized champion on Saturday. The two chatted after a finish in which less than a single horse-length separated the two. \"I said if I'd had that rail trip, it might have been a different outcome,\" said Smith, who'd hoped to take Mine That Bird to the inside of the track just as Borel did in the May 2 Derby. \"They knew I was going to do it so everybody was just sticking on it.\"","highlights":"Rachel Alexandra is first filly to win the Triple-Crown's second jewel since 1924 .\n\"She's the greatest horse I've ever been on in my life,\" jockey Calvin Borel said .\nBorel first jockey to ride separate horses to victory in Kentucky Derby, Preakness .","id":"97899f4bf7a3518824b2001b2eb784dfaea7bcae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three women who were seized along with six other foreign workers in Yemen have been killed, Yemeni government officials said Monday. South Korean officials discuss the kidnappings Monday. A South Korean woman reportedly was killed. \"It is with profound sorrow that the Yemeni government reports finding three bodies,\" according to a statement from Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen's Embassy in the United States. The statement said the dead were identified as a South Korean teacher and two German nurses in training, all in their 20s. They were found in the Noshour Valley in Safrah district in the province of Saada. The women were abducted Sunday along with five other Germans, including three children, and a Briton, according to Yemen's state-run SABA news agency. Earlier, the Yemen Post said seven of the nine hostages were killed, citing the country's interior ministry. But SABA reported later Monday the remaining six were believed to be alive, and security forces were searching for them . Albasha said the nine foreigners left the city of Saada without police escorts that are required due to the \"heightened security situation\" in the area. \"This event was a heinous crime and constitutes not only a violation against the peaceful principles of Islam, but also the precepts of humanity,\" the embassy spokesman said. \"Moreover, it does not reflect the good traditions and culture of Yemen.\" The Germany Foreign Ministry said it is in close contact with the German Embassy in Yemen but couldn't confirm any details at this stage. Initial official statements said the group was apparently seized by Houthi rebels, Shiite militants who have been fighting the government for years, according to SABA. The militants are hoping to derail the peace and reconstruction process in Saada, which has been rocked by war in the past year, according to SABA. However, the news agency later reported Houthi rebels accused drug cartels of abducting the group and killing the three. In addition, SABA said a spokesman for the rebels accused regional tribes of being behind the kidnappings and slayings. Sunday's abduction was the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreign workers in Yemen this year. All the previous hostages had been released unharmed, including 24 medical workers whom armed tribesman seized last week in Yemen's Amran province. CNN's Caroline Faraj, Diana Magnay and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Korean teacher, two German nurses in training found dead, Yemen says .\nInitial reports cited Shiite militants in abductions .\nBut Houthi rebels blame drug cartels and regional tribes, news agency says .","id":"8093db1c44918dd03de6e26c7766738a97ad2bd6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was absent again Tuesday from his Senate impeachment trial, but state senators who will decide whether to remove him from office heard him loud and clear on FBI recordings of his phone calls. Gov. Rod Blagojevich talks to CNN's Campbell Brown Tuesday night about his impeachment trial. Only four snippets of conversations were played for senators in the second day of the impeachment trial, and all pertained to horse-racing legislation. Prosecutors said the brief recordings focused on the governor's efforts to apparently raise campaign contributions in exchange for signing a horse-racing bill. In one recording from December 3, a lobbyist assures the governor that a race-track owner has pledged his \"commitment.\" \"He goes, 'I hope I'm gonna have it next week, but you have my commitment. I've always been there. I'm gonna be there,' \" the lobbyist told Blagojevich of the race track owner. None of the recordings mentions money specifically. Meanwhile, Blagojevich continued an ambitious media blitz, appearing in interviews with CBS, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press. A day earlier, he appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America\" and \"The View.\" Watch Blagojevich on \"Larry King Live\" \u00bb . \"I hate all of this,\" Blagojevich told CNN's Campbell Brown in an interview Tuesday. \"This is a life-changing thing. I am about to be thrown out of office for accusations that are false and not true.\" Watch Brown interview Blagojevich \u00bb . He added, \"But there's principles involved. And that is I did nothing wrong and I'd like an opportunity to prove it.\" The governor has railed against state Senate rules that restrict the calling of some witnesses and the presentation of some evidence. State Sen. Matt Murphy, part of the nine-member committee that put the Senate trial rules together, has said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked both sides to \"defer to the criminal prosecution\" of Blagojevich and \"limit witnesses.\" The House prosecution in the Senate trial is operating under the same restrictions, he said. Senators also heard testimony Tuesday from FBI Special Agent Daniel Cain, author of a 76-page affidavit released in December, when the governor was arrested on federal corruption charges. Watch proceedings from Tuesday's trial \u00bb . Among other allegations, federal prosecutors said the governor tried to trade or sell the Senate seat that would become vacant after Barack Obama became president. Cain testified about transcripts of federal tapes in the affidavit, mostly replying in the affirmative when House prosecutor David Ellis asked whether the portions of the affidavit were accurate. \"In the end, we were very confident that it was the governor's voice in those conversations,\" Cain told House prosecutor David Ellis. Cain said FBI agents repeatedly listened to the governor's recorded conversations to make sure they were accurate. \"Agents would listen to the recordings repeatedly as many times as necessary to verify the accuracy and quote,\" he said. Later, as senators tried to ask Cain about the recordings, a representative from the U.S. attorney's office was on hand to block some answers. After Blagojevich's arrest, the state House impeached the two-term Democratic governor in two votes, with only one dissenting vote each time. The second vote was needed because of the seating of a new House. Blagojevich has said the House impeachment vote was politically motivated.","highlights":"State senators heard recorded phone calls about horse-racing legislation .\nGovernor absent from trial, holding interviews with media outlets .\nSenators also heard testimony from FBI agent who wrote affidavit .\nU.S. attorney has asked both sides to \"defer to criminal prosecution\"","id":"93a2c00e0bff456b48e713244da3ea98dd8c6a3f"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Defying many predictions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a commanding lead in the presidential vote count early Saturday, election officials with Iran's Interior Ministry said. Men choose their candidates before voting Friday at a mosque in Tehran, Iran. With 72 percent of ballot boxes counted, Ahmedinejad had 65.7 percent of the vote while his chief rival Mir Hossein Moussavi had 31.4 percent, election officials said. Moussavi, widely regarded as a reformist, had been expected to do well as his campaign caught fire in recent days, triggering massive street rallies in Tehran. An \"unprecedented\" voter turnout at the polls Friday was also expected to boost Moussavi's chances of winning the presidency. Iran's Interior Minister Seyed Sadeq Mahsouli said 70 percent of 46 million eligible voters had gone to the polls Friday, according to Fars, another semi-official news agency. Both candidates claimed victory. Moussavi's camp accused the Iranian establishment of manipulating the vote. Watch why each side is claiming victory \u00bb . Voting was supposed to end after 10 hours, but because of the massive turnout, officials initially said polling stations would remain open until everyone in line had a chance to vote. However, Moussavi alleged that doors were being closed with people still waiting outside. Some private news agencies reported many Iranians were milling about on the streets late into the night. Mehr reported that the chief of police declared public gatherings of candidate supporters illegal. Earlier in the day, voters crowded the steps of one polling place in Tehran, some waiting more than three hours underneath the hot sun to cast their ballots. Some were lining up even before the polls opened at 8 a.m. Moussavi is the main challenger among three candidates vying to replace Ahmadinejad. The other candidates are former parliament speaker and reformist Mehdi Karrubi, and Mohsen Rezaie, the former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Mehr reported Rezaie had 1.72 percent of the vote and Karrubi had 0.87 percent. If no single candidate reaches a simple majority -- 50 percent plus one vote -- a runoff election will be held on Friday, June 19. It was unclear where the ballots that had been counted so far had been cast. Ahmadinejad still has staunch support in Iran's rural areas, but has been blamed for much of Iran's economic turmoil over the last four years. If he loses, it would be the first time a sitting Iranian president has not won re-election to a second term in office. Fawaz Gerges, an academic and author who studies the region, said Friday's vote is really \"a referendum on Ahmadinejad,\" who has been in office since 2005. \"The unemployment rate is 30 percent ... the largest in the third world, inflation is [in the] double digits in Iran,\" Gerges told CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"We focus in the United States a great deal on his inflammatory rhetoric on the Holocaust, on nuclear weapons. We tend to forget that Ahmadinejad has basically done a great deal of damage to the Iranian economy, on social policy.\" While Moussavi's campaign has energized key segments of Iranian voters -- particularly women -- Gerges noted that \"Iranians have surprised us many times.\" Moussavi's supporters crowded the streets of Tehran this week, wearing the candidate's trademark color green. His campaign has also energized Iran's youth, many of whom did not take part in the 2005 election. Yasmin, a 21-year-old university student, said she cast her ballot on Friday for Moussavi. CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports emotions on the street \u00bb . \"I've never even been interested in the politics of my country until today. It was my first time voting, and I am so excited about it,\" she said. \"We are all yearning for change, and I believe Moussavi will bring much more freedom to Iran and our lives. That is why I cast my ballot for him. There is so much anticipation in the air.\" Moussavi's supporters hope that he follows in the same footsteps as Mohammed Khatami, a reformist candidate who overwhelmingly won the presidency in 1997, raising hopes that the reformist movement would bring religious and democratic freedoms to the Islamic republic. But the real power in Iran rests in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. By the time Khatami left office in 2005, he was unable to make major changes because of the opposition of hard-line elements in Iran's clerical establishment. \"The elected president is not the commander in chief, he does not make decisions of war and peace,\" Gerges noted. \"The major decision maker [in Iran] is the unelected supreme leader, that is Ali Khamenei, along with a National Security Council.\" But Gerges noted that the \"the style of the president\" and his \"posture\" have a great deal of influence on Iran's relations with other countries, particularly the United States. Watch CNN review the unprecedented online presence of candidates \u00bb . No matter who wins Friday's vote, analysts say it is unlikely any of the candidates would change Iran's position on its nuclear program, which the Islamic republic insists is for civilian purposes but the United States and other Western powers believe may be a cover for a weapons program. Iranian-American analyst and scholar Reza Aslan said that while Moussavi is \"a little bit more of a moderate when it comes to the nuclear issue ... all four candidates agreement with Iran's right to develop nuclear.\" Nevertheless, Aslan said that all four candidates also \"recognize it's time to open up to America and to the international community because there's no other option with regard to the economy.\" CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Samson Desta and Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials: 72 percent of votes in, incumbent president has 65.7 percent .\nLarge turnout was expected to benefit Ahmadinejad's main rival, Moussavi .\nMoussavi camp accuses Iranian establishment of manipulating the vote .\nNone of candidates expected to change Iran's position on its nuclear program .","id":"d4f3cacd9cbf62a5040e4e1bba8eb0ec652af1f1"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When powerlifting coach Nicola Vaughan-Ellis wanted to create a winning formula for her athletes, she didn't head to the weight room. Instead, she found herself in the classroom. Coach Nicola Vaughan-Ellis with athletes from Great Britain's powerlifting team. Head coach of Great Britain's powerlifting squad, Vaughan-Ellis participated in a course that's designed to boost the leadership and management skills of coaches. Vaughan-Ellis's responsibilities run the gamut from identifying up-and-coming talent to developing training programs. She had friends who were corporate performance directors, and realizing the skills they had were applicable to her own line of work, she decided to pursue a professional development course designed for coaches. \"We expect athletes to be the best they can be. Our responsibility as coaches is to be the best we can be,\" Vaughan-Ellis told CNN. In pursuit of becoming better managers and leaders, players in the business world have long turned to executive education programs. Elite coaches are taking a cue from business and turning to tailored programs too. In the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the desire to develop high caliber coaches is ramping up in the UK, said John Neal of Ashridge Business School, where Vaughan-Ellis took the coaching course. \"A lot of coach development work [in the UK] is ad hoc. It's becoming more clearly defined, but our vision is to establish a more development pathway for coaches,\" he told CNN. Vaughan-Ellis trains about 20 powerlifters as part of a program that was established to prepare athletes in Great Britain for major competitive events like the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Nutritionists, psychologists, fitness coaches and sports scientists are all focused on a goal of helping athletes achieve a performance edge, she says. But coaches also need to make sure they make the best decisions for their athletes. That requires a broad range of skills, from understanding the athlete experience and identifying particular challenges they may encounter as well as having a firm understanding of where funding comes from and making sure it's spent wisely . \"We prepare our athletes to be the best in the world. But we also have to make sure that we are making the best choices for them,\" she said. Ashridge, which specializes in customized education programs, has been running sport coaching courses since 2001. Its core World Class Sport Coach Development program is endorsed by the British Olympic Association. The course is made up of 10 one-day master classes that are spread out over a period of about 10 months. In a typical meeting, coaches are given scenarios, break up into groups for discussion and then present their responses to the class. The program is flexible so coaches can focus on the skills they want to improve. A wide range of topics are covered, from communication, negotiation and team building skills to body language, motivation and development of young players. Neal estimates that about 160 coaches have completed the coaching program since it was launched. Most participants are UK-based, but coaches come from around the world and represent a long list of sports that includes diving, swimming, rugby, hockey, shooting and cricket. Coaches have few opportunities to share their knowledge. According to Neal, that's one reason why the course has been popular. One measure of its success: Many coaches, like Vaughan-Ellis, participate more than once. Due to a lack of funding, however, coaches oftentimes end up paying for the course themselves. Ashridge heavily subsidizes the program and charges \u00a32,000, just about a quarter of what it actually costs to run it. But in return, the business school gets a unique perspective on decision making that is fed back into its executive education programs, Neal said. Elite coaches have a lot to offer companies, especially in the current economic downturn, Neal said. More businesses are under pressure to maximize efficiency, and many want to learn from the sport experience, since coaches are required to achieve results quickly. With 2012 less than three years away, Vaughan-Ellis is planning to return to Ashridge for a refresher. She says one of the advantages of the program is that it helps coaches deal with pressure by teaching them how to cope with and embrace change. That's an invaluable skill in athletics. \"Sport is change,\" she said. \"You're only as good as your last competition or as strong as your weakest link. You have to move forward and constantly evolve.\"","highlights":"With 2012 Games approaching, focus on coach development on the rise in UK .\nElite coaches turn to program run by Ashridge Business School to build skills .\nCourse designed to transfer lessons from business world to sport .","id":"088bdae623f9f8bc71c59ebae6465c961532e077"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted sanctions placed on the Navy over its underwater sonar testing, a setback for environmental groups that claimed the warfare technology was harming whales and other marine mammals. An endangered blue whale surfaces off the coast of Southern California in July. At issue in the 5-4 ruling was whether the Navy's need to conduct exercises to protect the country from enemy submarines outweighed concerns raised by environmental groups. The case focused on whether the president had the power to issue executive waivers allowing such tests and whether federal judges can issue preliminary injunctions blocking them. The high court ultimately sided with claims of national security over environmental concerns. Those environmental interests, said Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority, \"are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines.\" Roberts said a lower federal court \"abused its discretion\" by imposing a 2,200-yard perimeter for testing and ordering a shutdown of sonar use during surfacing exercises. But in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned that the ecological damage was significant. \"This likely harm cannot be lightly dismissed,\" she said, \"even in the face of an alleged risk to the effectiveness of the Navy's 14 training exercises.\" Justices David Souter, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens also questioned the Navy's arguments. The exercises have continued while the case was under appeal. Environmentalists had sued the Pentagon over the practice, and a federal judge ordered major changes to the Navy's annual offshore training exercises in March. President Bush had issued an emergency waiver to allow the exercises to go on without the filing of an environmental impact study, but the lower court ruling blocked the use of sonar. That federal judge, in ruling against the government last March, said it was \"constitutionally suspect\" for Bush to issue the national security exemption to allow skipping the impact study. Military officials argued that the restrictions could hamper readiness in time of war, because new sonar technology is needed to detect increasingly sophisticated enemy submarines. \"This case was vital to our Navy and nation's security, and we are pleased with the Supreme Court's decision in this matter,\" Navy Secretary Donald Winter said. \"We can now continue to train our sailors effectively, under realistic combat conditions.\" One of the environmental organizations that sued the Defense Department told the justices that the exercises had been planned in advance and that the Navy was required under law to conduct more extensive environmental tests than it had. The waters of southern California are home to dozens of species of whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, nine of them federally listed as endangered or threatened. Federal courts have cited scientific studies and the Navy's own conclusions that high levels of sonar can cause hearing loss and disorientation in the animals. In February, the U.S. Navy demonstrated for CNN its onboard procedures for turning down mid-frequency sonar when whales come within 1,000 meters and shutting it off completely when they approach 200 meters. The sonar sounds like a \"ping, ping\" noise, and it can be reduced as necessary, officers said. But environmentalists say that the sonar can hurt whales much farther than 1,000 meters away and that the noise created by the sonar \"was like having a jet engine in the Supreme Court multiplied 2,000 times, compensating for water,\" attorney Richard Kendall told the justices. Reacting to the ruling, Kendall said, \"It is gratifying that the court did not accept the Navy's expansive claims of executive power and that two-thirds of the injunction remain in place.\" In 2000, 16 whales beached themselves in the Bahamas, and the Navy concluded that too many sonar ships had been operating in a narrow underwater channel. The service says it is funding $16 million in independent research to minimize sonar's effect on marine mammals.","highlights":"NEW: Navy secretary says ruling allows sailors to train under \"realistic\" conditions .\nBy 5-4 vote, Supreme Court allows Navy exercises in whale habitat .\nSound waves can permanently harm sea mammals, environmentalists argue .\nFleet's safety and need to train trump concern for whales, chief justice writes .","id":"626d6d9bb3a2a35d134e2c8ec8a713ba4f2f0753"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a new medal Wednesday to honor the families of British service personnel killed while serving their country. The Elizabeth Cross may be given to family members of service personnel who have died since 1948. The Elizabeth Cross will be given to the next of kin of armed forces personnel killed on operations or as a result of terrorism \"as a mark of national recognition for their loss,\" the Defense Ministry said. It is the first time the name of a reigning monarch has been given to a new award since the queen's father, King George VI, instituted the George Cross in 1940. That medal recognizes acts of bravery of both civilians and military personnel. The most prestigious medal, the Victoria Cross, was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 for acts of gallantry by the armed forces. \"This seems to me a right and proper way of showing our enduring debt to those who are killed while actively protecting what is most dear to us all,\" the queen said in a message to the armed forces. \"The solemn dignity which we attach to the names of those who have fallen is deeply ingrained in our national character. As a people, we accord this ultimate sacrifice the highest honor and respect.\" The Elizabeth Cross is a sterling silver emblem in the shape of a cross over a wreath. In the center is the queen's monogram, EIIR, which stands for Elizabeth II Regina, or Queen Elizabeth II. At each of the four tips of the cross are floral symbols: a rose for England, a thistle for Scotland, a shamrock for Northern Ireland, and a daffodil for Wales. The reverse of the cross will be engraved with the name of the person who died. The name will also be written on a scroll signed by the queen, to be given to family members along with the medal, the Defense Ministry said. The award may be given to family members of all service personnel who have died since 1948. Charles Mosely, the former editor in chief of Debrett's, an authority on etiquette, said the Elizabeth Cross is a good way to recognize the sacrifice made by members of the military and their families. \"It seems very praiseworthy and very overdue,\" he said. It makes sense for the medal to be named after the reigning monarch, he said, because she is head of the armed forces. \"They have personal allegiance to the sovereign, a personal loyalty,\" he said.","highlights":"Elizabeth Cross for next of kin of armed forces personnel killed on operations .\nMedal is a sterling silver emblem in the shape of a cross over a wreath .\nFirst time name of a reigning monarch has been given to an award since 1940 .\nMost prestigious medal, Victoria Cross, introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 .","id":"ba2b5516a0ba13772bda6b3cb97b4d9b9db12d1c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Achtung, baby! Sacha Baron Cohen stars as a flamboyant Austrian fashionista in \"Bruno.\" There's a British theory that everything sounds funnier delivered with a Teutonic accent. That's tested to the limit in Sacha Baron Cohen's newest provocation, \"Bruno,\" but it's not what comes out of his mouth that makes the Austrian fashionista such a handful. The man in the tight yellow lederhosen knows that in our visually overstimulated culture, a picture is vorth a thousand vords. More if there's significant skin involved -- and he's happy to show us his wurst. Cohen seems to believe that prudery is the enemy. Certainly, bad taste is his Trojan horse. An early montage of romantic coupling, Bruno-style, is enough to get tongues wagging -- or clucking in disapproval. It's the closest thing to gay porn most heterosexuals will see this side of \"300.\" Either way, Cohen's laughing: Properly managed, outrage is a useful marketing tool, as \"Borat\" showed. Apparently permanently airbrushed right down to his backside, Bruno looks nothing like his hirsute Kazakh cousin, but the men share an ego; they're equally insensitive to other people and oblivious to notions of social decorum and the politically correct. And they both invest heavily in the American Dream. Bruno hungers after fame as hungrily as Borat lusted for Pamela Anderson. After a brief prologue in Europe -- and the distressing revelation of the vacuity of the fashion scene -- he sets out for Los Angeles, determined to become Austria's \"biggest superstar since Hitler.\" Perhaps inspired by another Cohen creation, Ali G, he sets out to make a celebrity interview show -- but sadly, the only dupes ignorant enough to participate are \"American Idol\" judges (Paula Abdul chats about her philanthropic pursuits while perched on the back of an immigrant laborer) and presidential candidates (take a bow, Ron Paul). It's not just about the scarcity of the guests, though. Bruno doesn't draw them out the way Borat did. Quite the opposite: Mostly they're wary and guarded, or downright hostile -- and understandably so, often enough, given Bruno's shock tactics. Yes, it's funny seeing him fire up a predominantly African-American TV studio audience by announcing that his \"adopted\" black baby is named O.J., but still, the scene tells us more about Cohen's need to provoke than about the crowd's supposed homophobia. The same goes for his brief stint in a U.S. Army training facility. The actor's quick wit and virtuoso physical comedy skills carry the day, but just as Bruno is forced to abandon one dead-end celebrity scheme after another, the movie too seems to be casting about haphazardly for some real comic traction. Evidently it's not easy testing taboos in 2009. Wherever Bruno turns, he seems to be following in someone else's footsteps. Peace talks in Israel (what Bruno calls \"Middle Earth\")? Morgan Spurlock has been there, done that. Camping out with the gun lobby? Michael Moore, \"Bowling for Columbine.\" Gay conversion? Didn't director Larry Charles go there with Bill Maher just last year in \"Religulous\"? Meanwhile, Bruno's love-hate relationship with his assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), only highlights how similar the new film's few narrative pegs are to \"Borat.\" Some sketches do hit much closer to home. A series of interviews with stage moms and dads who eagerly sign up their infants to work with hornets, wasps, dead or dying animals, antiquated heavy machinery and sundry toxic substances is a real jaw-dropper, though the kicker is tempered by Bruno's behavior. And, to its credit, the film saves the best for last. In a show-stopping climax (which I don't propose to spoil here) Cohen puts it all on the line and definitively nails gay-bashers where it hurts: right between the eyes. iReport.com: \"Bruno\" vs. Borat\": Preview audience weighs in . It's an elaborate -- and brave -- stunt by which Bruno ultimately achieves the fame he craves. And it does more than enough to validate the film's fast and loose play with stereotypes and questionable undercover tactics. \"Bruno\" has its problems, but the finale makes it a winner. \"Bruno\" is rated R and runs 83 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"Bruno\" is Sacha Baron Cohen's new film; he plays gay fashionista .\nFilm attempts to show homophobia but in some cases pushes too hard .\nStill, last scene makes it worth it, says reviewer Tom Charity .","id":"70ed24dc33c1f04fb875819efbccbe3202dd2e1a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The killer of \"Harry Potter\" actor Rob Knox has been given four life sentences and told he will be behind bars for at least 20 years. The parents of Robert Knox read a statement outside the Old Bailey after Karl Bishop was found guilty of his murder. A judge at the Old Bailey court in central London sentenced 22-year-old Karl Bishop on Thursday, the day after he was convicted of the attack on Rob Knox and four of his friends in southeast London last May. Bishop stabbed them 10 times in less than two minutes, the court heard. Knox, 18, had rushed out of the bar after he heard that Bishop had threatened his younger brother Jamie but he ended up being stabbed five times, once in a main artery. He died in hospital later that night. The judge, Mr Justice Bean, told Bishop: \"You are at present a highly dangerous man,\" the Press Association reported. \"There is plainly a very significant risk to the public of serious harm caused by your committing further offences of violence. \"Because you had threatened his younger brother, Rob Knox was among those who tried to disarm you. He paid for his bravery with his life. \"The truth is that you simply could not care less whether you killed him or not. When you learned that you had killed Rob your only response was to say 'Yeah, sweet.'\" Days before the attack, the actor had finished filming on \"Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,\" due for international release in July, in which he played the role of Marcus Belby. He was set to reprise the part in future \"Harry Potter\" films. Knox's father Colin told mourners at his funeral, including co-star Rupert Grint, that his son had been \"living the dream,\" PA said. The Knox family left the court without commenting, but earlier Rob's mother Sally said of Bishop: \"Once he's got his sentence and he's gone, I will not waste my time thinking about him. \"I just think maybe somebody like him may have some kind of disturbed mind, which may not be due to the life he's had, it just may be something in him.\" Knife crime in Britain is a political hot topic due to a spate of recent killings of mainly young people in major cities. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. He told the Daily Telegraph last month: \"By carrying a knife you are not only endangering the lives of others, but you are more likely to be killed, or end up in jail. \"We need to change the way young people think about knives, we need families and communities working together ... to get this message across and help stamp out knife crime and get weapons off our streets.\"","highlights":"The killer of \"Harry Potter\" actor jailed for life, must serve at least 20 years .\nKarl Bishop, 22, attacked Rob Knox with 2 knives in southeast London last May .\nKnife crime in Britain is political hot topic due to spate of recent killings .","id":"d3a394fb1ecefe3ae360d9097aaf50406a805086"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Les Paul never stopped tinkering, said Henry Juszkiewicz. Les Paul was constantly making recommendations on how to improve guitars, says the CEO of Gibson. Juszkiewicz, the chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitars, remembers getting calls from his company's partner (and famed client), offering recommendations on how to change or market his eponymous Gibson guitars. Sometimes, Juszkiewicz recalls, the two would go out for Chinese food. Paul was very particular, desiring a dish called Chicken Subgum. The two would have to search Chinatown for a restaurant that knew how to cook it, he says with a chuckle. Les Paul died Thursday of pneumonia. He was 94. Juszkiewicz talked about his friend and colleague Thursday afternoon. The following is an edited version of the interview. Watch how Les Paul helped invent modern music \u00bb . CNN: Tell me about working with Les Paul. Henry Juszkiewicz: I've been with Gibson about 25 years and known Les pretty much through that entire period. ... Les was a very kind person. He was a visionary. In the early days, Gibson was doing very poorly as a company, and I got involved essentially to turn the company around. ... We had many, many conversations about the guitar business and what to do. ... A lot of the things we talked about and implemented were very successful. CNN: What was distinctive about the Gibson Les Paul when it came out, and what remains distinctive about it? Gallery: Guitarists pay tribute to Les Paul \u00bb . Juszkiewicz: When it first came out, it was extremely controversial, and it was not really successful. It took years for Gibson to actually come to terms with Les. He had been pitching the head of what was Gibson's parent company, CMI, for three or four years until they finally decided to give it a try -- and only then when he became very famous and a television personality. And they were right, actually, because a solid-body guitar was considered silly. ... It really wasn't until 1965, '66 that the guitar took off and became popular. In fact, in the early '60s, the guitar was discontinued for several years. One of the [prized] Les Pauls was the 1959 Les Paul -- that's sort of the holy grail of Les Pauls -- and one of the reasons is there were only 300 units made in 1959. And 300 units was not really that successful for Gibson; it was a powerhouse guitar builder in 1959. So Les was always ahead of his time. He was someone who could see what was going to happen 50 years in advance, and very often, he was able to bring his vision to reality and share it with the entire musical community. ... The [Les Paul] guitar shines in modern music. ... In the '50s and before the '50s, the [standard] guitar was amplified, but it was just louder. In other words, it still sounded just like an acoustic guitar, but you could turn it up. What Les did was turn it into a whole new instrument. When he was playing ... you will hear this rich context that's kind of normal today. ... CNN: Les Paul being Les Paul, I assumed he continue to play with things over the years. Juszkiewicz: Yeah, he would call me all the time and give me suggestions. It's really hard to answer your original question, what makes it [distinctive]. ... As a guitar player, when I pick it up, I know it's a Les Paul. I can feel the sustain. It's got a certain feeling. ... There's a lot of things in it. But it's the package that's kind of magic. In the modern world, working with modern equipment, it's incomparable. CNN: How many Les Pauls do you sell nowadays? Juszkiewicz: A lot. Many, many thousands. I'll share with you: We had a big debate when we first got involved in the business. When I was a young guitar player, Les Pauls were always very expensive ... and they're very expensive today. [Paul] said, \"You know, Henry, you really have to make a less expensive Les Paul.\" ... We argued about it for a year and a half, and finally I gave in. I said, \"OK, Les, it's your guitar.\" ... And it was an instant success. And all of a sudden, people that couldn't touch that magic got a shot at it, and he was pleased as punch, and we were as well. He was a renaissance man. ... What a life. And what a wonderful, warm gentleman.","highlights":"Gibson CEO: Les Paul made frequent recommendations on how to improve guitars .\nLes Pauls weren't particularly popular when introduced .\nPaul, legendary guitarist and inventor, died Thursday at 94 .","id":"7843646a31a1ca87834dc4c72a092bf6c693baff"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British lawmakers demanded answers Thursday after a newspaper reported that a UK tabloid illegally hacked the phones of thousands of public figures including Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson. Britain's News of the World tabloid is at the center of the phone-hacking allegations. Prosecutors said they would look again at claims of alleged phone hacking by the News of the World. However police said they would not conduct a new investigation into the claims by the Guardian newspaper. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates said officers had seen no additional evidence since its last investigation. Earlier Thursday the Guardian reported the cell phones of \"several thousand public figures\" were hacked into by reporters and staff of the News of the World tabloid during one month in 2006. The public figures named by the Guardian as victims of the phone hackings include lawmaker John Prescott, who was then the deputy prime minister; Tessa Jowell, who was the secretary of state for culture, responsible for the media; and London Mayor Boris Johnson, who at the time was the Conservative Party spokesman on higher education. The Guardian said actress Gwyneth Paltrow, model Elle MacPherson, actor Jude Law, singer George Michael, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, celebrity PR agent Max Clifford, and actors union Equity were also victims of the hacking. \"The allegations -- the enormity of it -- is just unbelievable,\" Prescott told the BBC on Thursday morning. \"I think it is outrageous,\" former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who was not named among the alleged victims, told the BBC. \"I think we do need action immediately.\" Thursday's revelations in the Guardian come from a case last year in which Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers' Association, was suing the News of the World for illegally intercepting messages on his cell phone. The tabloid paid Taylor more than \u00a3400,000 ($800,000 at the time) to settle the case, the Guardian said. The case file was sealed, but the newspaper said it obtained the suppressed evidence. That evidence, the Guardian said, shows that journalists working for the News of the World paid private investigators to illegally hack the cell phones of several thousand public figures. The staff then paid for the information the investigators obtained, the Guardian said. News International, the parent company of the News of the World defended its journalists and said it would not \"shirk from vigorously defending our right and proper role to expose wrongdoing.\" In a statement News International, the UK subsidiary of News Corporation, said it was prevented by \"confidentiality obligations from discussing certain allegations made in the Guardian newspaper today.\" But the statement stressed its staff have been told they must operate within the law and the industry's code of conduct. Police and prosecutors also came under scrutiny in the Guardian's report. It said the Metropolitan Police were aware of the hackings and raided the offices of some of the private investigators but did not inform those whose phones allegedly were targeted. The paper also said prosecutors decided not to take any legal action over the claims. Prescott demanded to know why -- if those allegations are true -- he wasn't told that his phone had been allegedly been hacked. \"I am writing to the chief of police to ask him and the Met authorities, did you know that many of our phones were being tapped? Did you tell the public prosecutor? Did the prosecutor then say 'no further action'?\" Prescott told the BBC. \"I can't believe that such legal authorities -- on such serious charges, if these allegations are right -- did nothing, and I want to know from them.\" A spokeswoman for Jude Law said the actor was not commenting on the Guardian's report. Other celebrities contacted by CNN had no immediate comment. A spokesman for Equity said the union was writing to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to ask for evidence accompanying the claims. The Guardian reported that Equity was targeted as a way to get actors' addresses. \"We have no evidence to support the claims in today's Guardian story that Equity was conned into giving out information and we have received no complaints from any of our members that the details we hold on their behalf have been improperly accessed,\" Equity's letter states. \"We do, however, take the claims very seriously. We will be investigating the alleged breach in our security.\"","highlights":"Guardian newspaper: Cell phones of \"several thousand public figures\" hacked .\nCelebrities include Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson .\nAllegations against News of the World staff during one month in 2006 .\nLondon's Metropolitan police rule out a new investigation .","id":"71fd56cdcd0adfe6f621f05771a891b3326671b4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dry conditions and strong winds in California left much of the state vulnerable to massive fires, with blaze-starters ranging from a cooking fire at a drug trafficking operation to a bird flying into a power line. Drop in humidity, high temperatures could hamper efforts to contain the Lockheed Fire in Santa Cruz County. \"It really goes to show you that it doesn't take much with these dry conditions to start a fire,\" CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant told CNN Sunday. The fire sparked by a bird hitting a power line ignited a series of blazes in Yuba County, forcing some 1,300 firefighters to the scene and officials to declare evacuations in the town of Dobbins, he said. Authorities have battled the Yuba fire since Friday and expect containment by Thursday. In Southern California's Santa Barbara County, a weeklong blaze has charred more than 84,000 acres, investigators said. The fire originated at an illegal marijuana camp believed to be run by a Mexican drug organization, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit said in a news release Saturday night. \"I haven't heard of any other fire starting that way,\" said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Carol Underhill, referring to the so-called La Brea Fire. More than 2,000 firefighters are fighting the blaze, which is 35 percent contained, authorities said. Some homes around the Los Padres National Forest have been evacuated. Narcotics investigators have secured the area after working for the past month to eradicate marijuana operations in the remote and steep terrain, the release said. \"It is also believed that the suspects are still within the San Rafael wilderness trying to leave the area on foot,\" officials said. Twenty firefighters sustained minor injuries while trying to contain a complex of smaller fires in Northern California's Shasta County that have burned nearly at least 17,623 acres, authorities said. Watch fire in Santa Cruz Mountains \u00bb . CalFire spokesman Brent Saulsbury said 37 of the 40 fires -- known as the Shasta Lightning Complex -- are under control. The area is dense with timber, giving the fires serious fuel. Rugged terrain, limited access to fire trucks and the length of time it takes to reach wildfires have hindered firefighters in recent days, he said. CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Blaze-starters include cooking fire at drug trafficking camp, bird flying into power line .\nCalFire spokesman: \"It doesn't take much with these dry conditions to start a fire\"\nThousand of firefighters battle blazes in steep terrain across the state .","id":"518869103154ecaa5dc0189e2a89db3960da0dbf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- West Indies cricket coach John Dyson has been dismissed from his job with immediate effect. Australian John Dyson had been in charge of the West Indies cricket side since 2007. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said they were terminating the contract of the Australian, according to a statement on the cricket board's Web site. The decision comes after recent Test and one-day series losses to Bangladesh, although in both defeats the West Indies were forced to put out weakened sides because of a dispute between players and the cricket board over contracts. Dyson, a former opening batsman who played 30 Tests for Australia, took charge of the West Indies in 2007. He enjoyed early Test series wins over South Africa and England but was heavily criticized for misreading the rain regulations in a one-day event with England in Guyana in March, an error that ultimately handed England the series. Earlier in his career he was appointed Sri Lanka coach in 2003 despite having only limited coaching experience at higher levels. The 55-year-old was due to lead the West Indies into next month's International Cricket Council Champions Trophy. The WICB offered no reason for Dyson's sacking but in a statement on their Web site confirmed that the assistant coach David Williams would take over as coach on a temporary basis for the upcoming tournament, which gets started in South Africa on September 22. The contract dispute means the West Indies will be forced to take a second-string side to South Africa. The statement added that \"in view of the special circumstances pertaining to this tour\" the former West Indies vice-captain and off-spin bowler Lance Gibbs had been appointed team manager.","highlights":"Former Australian batsman John Dyson sacked as coach of the West Indies .\nDyson, the former Sri Lankan coach, took charge of the West Indies in 2007 .\nHe was due to take them to next month's Champions Trophy in South Africa .\nThe West Indies Cricket Board offered no reason for Dyson's sudden dismissal .","id":"bef60d267144b1cf095646124cae26533daa978b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 20-year-old Wisconsin man accused of attacking the mayor of Milwaukee with a metal pipe has been arrested, police said Sunday. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, seen in a file photo, was attacked Saturday night, police say. Mayor Tom Barrett was in stable condition Sunday at a Milwaukee-area hospital after he was attacked the night before at the Wisconsin State Fair in nearby West Allis, police said. Barrett was leaving the event with his family when he heard a woman crying for help, police said. When Barrett began calling 911, the man who had been attacking the woman charged at him and began battering him with a metal pipe, police said. \"He not only risked serious injury but endured serious injury in order to defend somebody who was weaker than their assailant,\" Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn told CNN Radio. Police arrested Anthony Peters in connection with the attack. Watch the mayor's brother talk about what happened \u00bb . West Allis Police Chief Michael Jungbluth said the attack on the woman stemmed from a domestic situation, when an intoxicated Peters wanted to see his 1-year-old daughter, and had threatened to shoot himself and others. CNN's Chuck Johnston and CNN Radio's Shelby Erdman and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police arrested Anthony Peters, 20, in connection with the attack .\nPolice: Man beat Mayor Tom Barrett with metal pipe at state fair on Saturday .\nBarrett heard a woman screaming and tried to help her, dialing 911 .\nMan who had been beating the woman then started hitting Barrett, police say .","id":"a79d1b44835a933e4f4045fddb481076d021b12f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- They poured in to Los Angeles from places far-flung, an army of Michael Jackson fans hoping to collectively mourn their idol in a massive ceremony at the Staples Center downtown Tuesday. A fan leaves a note on a Michael Jackson memorial outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The singer's memorial service Tuesday will be a star-studded affair, with singers Mariah Carey, Usher and Stevie Wonder among the participants, according to an announcement released on behalf of the Jackson family. Also participating in the event will be basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson, and singers Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Smokey Robinson, the family said. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III will be among others taking part. Ken Ehrlich, known for producing the Grammy Awards, is producing the memorial show, his company said. Kenny Ortega, who was to have co-directed Jackson's series of concerts in London, England, this summer, will direct it. Mayer posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon saying \"I'm going not to 'perform' but to contribute.\" \"I'm honored to have been asked to play at MJ's memorial service. I will be representing all of us who can't be there,\" Mayer tweeted. \"Going to say goodbye from all us kids.\" One notable who won't be attending: longtime Jackson friend Elizabeth Taylor, who put out a message on Twitter that she \"cannot be part of the public whoopla.\" \"I just don't believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others,\" Taylor tweeted. \"How I feel is between us. Not a public event.\" \"I love him too much,\" she added, \"and I cannot guarantee that I would be coherent to say a word.\" Debbie Rowe, Jackson's former wife and the mother of his two oldest children, will not attend the memorial service, her lawyer Marta Almli said Monday. \"Although Debbie had originally planned to attend tomorrow's Staples Center memorial service, we have concluded with Debbie that she will not be attending,\" a statement from Almli said. \"The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy. Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately.\" Fans without tickets to the memorial are being asked to stay away from downtown Los Angeles and watch the service on television. Details: See who will be there, map of area \u00bb . The family decided to provide a free live video feed to networks so it would be televised everywhere. \"Everything about the memorial has to do with accommodating as many fans as possible,\" Ken Sunshine, the Jackson family spokesman, said. While Jackson's family remains tight-lipped about the singer's burial arrangements, sources told CNN that relatives will hold a private gathering at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles Tuesday morning ahead of the public service. The California Highway Patrol will escort their motorcade, the sources said. The gathering is scheduled for 8 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) -- two hours before the service at the Staples Center arena. Cemetery officials have not commented on the matter. While there are five Forest Lawn cemeteries in the Los Angeles area, media trucks and crews have been parked at the gate of the Hollywood Hills facility for several days in anticipation of Jackson's possible interment there. Fans claim tickets . On Monday, fans chosen by random lottery for Jackson's memorial began arriving at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to pick up their tickets. Full story . Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Murphy said the distribution process was going smoothly. One person tried to pass off a photocopied voucher; he was ejected, Murphy said. The 8,750 fans have until 6 p.m. PT to claim their tickets. iReport.com: \"Surreal journey\" to get Jackson tickets . Each winner gets two tickets, bringing the number awarded in the lottery to 17,500. Just 11,000 of those are for seats inside the Staples Center. The other 6,500 would be for viewing the memorial telecast at the adjacent Nokia Theater. AEG Live, the promoter of Michael Jackson's London shows, owns and operates both venues. Deka Motanya, 27, who works in a doctor's office in San Francisco, scrambled Sunday night to line up plane tickets so she and her boyfriend could fly to Los Angeles on Monday. \"Oh, yeah, I'm going,\" she said. \"I'm e-mailing my boss saying I've got to leave early because I'm going to L.A.\" Executors control Jackson's assets . A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted control of Jackson's assets to the executors of his will Monday. The executors -- John Branca, Jackson's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend -- had sought immediate control of the entertainer's assets at a hearing before Judge Mitchell Beckloff. The judge appointed the men as special administrators until another hearing August 3. He said they will be responsible for protecting the estate from immediate losses. The men can enter into new ventures only with court approval, Beckloff said. Jackson died June 25. Since the next day, his mother, Katherine, has been administering the assets. Lawyers for Jackson's mother objected to Beckloff's decision, saying that \"irreparable damage\" could be done to the estate if Branca is allowed to take control. \"To award unfettered control to the other side would not serve justice,\" said attorney Burt Levitch. Katherine Jackson's lawyers argued that Branca was removed from several critical roles by Jackson after the signing of the will. They argued that the removal from those business roles should also exclude Branca as executor. \"Quite frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom,\" Levitch said. But Branca's lawyer, Paul Hoffman, said Branca had represented Jackson off and on since he was 21, that he was his lawyer at the time the will was written and that he was rehired in mid-June. Branca represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. McClain is a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. The judge ruled that Michael Jackson felt strongly enough about these executors to name them in his will. He required the two men to acquire a $1 million bond to insure their work as executors. The judge said he hopes the two sides can come to an agreement -- a \"free flow of information\" -- by August 3. Hoffman said the two sides met for four hours over the weekend but were unable to reach \"an acceptable accommodation.\" In their filing for control of the estate, the men said it would allow them to tend to Jackson's numerous outstanding debts, legal cases and business obligations. At a hearing Wednesday, Beckloff had appointed Katherine Jackson the temporary administrator. Levitch said Monday that a second will has surfaced and that it was written in 1997. The lawyer said that he hasn't looked at it and that it was given to the court for safekeeping. However, the 1997 document will have no bearing unless the later one is discredited, which the lawyers don't expect. CNN's Linda Hall, Nicole Saidi and Henry Hanks contributed to this report.","highlights":"Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Rowe, Jackson's former wife, not attending memorial .\nMusicians, famed athletes slated for Michael Jackson memorial .\nPrivate gathering expected to be held at 8 a.m. PT Tuesday .","id":"51e320e811aba8703146063d88c62b33a9e61a5a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After a town hall meeting on health-care reform in Belgrade, Montana, President Obama will escape to Big Sky country on Friday evening where he'll spend time with family and go fly-fishing for the first time. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel carries fly-fishing tackle to Marine One on Friday. Fly-fishing requires a singular focus, much like golf. Having newly discovered the sport myself, it occurred to me as I watched Marine One lift off the South Lawn on Friday that there are probably some lessons on the river that could apply to Obama's presidency. Thinking like a producer, I called an expert -- fly-fishing instructor Tony Derosier, who described the evolution most fishermen go through. \"Usually, when you first go fishing, all you want to do is catch a fish, and then all you want to do is catch a lot of fish, and then you just want to catch the larger fish. After you've caught a lot of large fish, you kind of go back to square one and catch just one fish,\" said Derosier, manager at Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Aspen, Colorado. \"You basically just want to go fishing -- the numbers, the size, it doesn't matter any more.\" Obama is in the \"big fish\" stage of his presidency: He's trying to get health-care reform legislation passed hook, line, and sinker. If he's successful, anything else he gets passed will be icing on the cake. Learning the fundamentals of fly-fishing can serve as a metaphor for health care reform. Obama just needs to look at hooking and landing Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans like he would trout. The first step -- learn how to cast. \"Fly-casting is all about maximizing the energy you put in your rod and you lose energy if you wait too long,\" Derosier said. \"And conversely, if you don't wait long enough, your line will crack like a whip.\" Obama has to strike the right balance between rushing things through and losing momentum; and maintaining support while bringing others over to his side. The second step -- reading the water: \"Instead of blindly casting anywhere in the river you want to understand where you might find fish,\" Derosier explained. Obama zeroed in on a fairly conservative state, Montana, where he faces a land full of skeptics about his health care reform plan. Third -- hook and land the fish: Derosier said once you hook the fish you have to know how to play the fish, which is a delicate balance between applying pressure but not so much that the line breaks -- much like the delicate balance of Obama's courting members of Congress. \"The ultimate goal is to gain an advantage over the fish so that you can land him,\" he said. \"It's the hardest thing to teach when it comes to fly-fishing,\" he said. Out in Montana, the game is catch-and-release trout. But in Washington, Obama is trying to hook Congress and take home health care reform, or risk it being the big one that got away.","highlights":"CNN White House producer: Fly-fishing is a metaphor that fits Obama's presidency .\nBeginning anglers desire to catch bigger and bigger fish, expert says .\nObama is in the \"big fish\" stage of his presidency, Shawna Shepherd writes .\nDelicate processes of political success are like casting, reading the water, etc.","id":"e304d29c9c9050ddd7231c50f581d5588e7572c9"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Financing for DreamWorks Studios' partnership with one of India's richest men was finalized Monday, giving Steven Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider money to resume making movies. From left to right, Steven Spielberg, Anil Ambani, Stacey Snider and Amitahb Jhunjhunwala. The deal with Anil Ambani, chairman of India's Reliance BIG Entertainment, provides Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios with $875 million, coming from Ambani, the Walt Disney Co. and loans made by a syndicate of banks. Disney will distribute and market about six DreamWorks Studios films around the world each year, with the exception of India, where Reliance will have those rights. Spielberg and Snider found themselves in need of financial partners last year when he cut ties with Paramount Pictures and began rebuilding DreamWorks into an independent studio. Although the deal, which was announced last year, has been characterized in some reports as \"Hollywood meets Bollywood,\" Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider will have creative control over productions. \"This will allow us to move ahead quickly into production with our first group of films,\" Snider and Spielberg said in a joint statement. Reliance BIG Entertainment is part of the Reliance group controlled by billionaire Ambani. \"Our partnership with Stacey and Steven is the cornerstone of our Hollywood strategy as we grow our film interests across the globe,\" Ambani said. \"Given our faith in the business plan that they presented to us and despite the current economic climate, we were always confident that this day would come. Now Stacey and Steven can focus on producing more of the great films for which they are renowned.\" Ambani, whose company owns hundreds of theater screens across South Asia, has also invested development money this year with other Hollywood production companies, including those owned by actors Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Jim Carrey. A DreamWorks announcement said that J.P. Morgan brought together the syndicate of banks to provide about $325 million in funding. The banks include Bank of America, City National Bank, Wells Fargo, Comerica, Union Bank of California, SunTrust, California Bank & Trust, and Israel Discount Bank. One of the first movies to go into production will be \"Harvey,\" an adaptation of the play that won a Pulitzer for playwright Mary Chase. The tale about a man and his invisible bunny friend was first made into a movie, starring Jimmy Stewart, in 1950. Spielberg's long career as a screenwriter, director and producer has included classic blockbusters \"E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,\" the \"Indiana Jones\" series and \"Saving Private Ryan.\"","highlights":"Steven Spielberg finalizes partnership with Indian tycoon, gets cash infusion .\nPartnership with Anil Ambani provides $875 million for DreamWorks .\nSpielberg's first film planned: remake of classic \"Harvey\"","id":"c2968a1f89c38f2f8ba825f06bd890ef3b3e9fec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In recent seasons, \"Dancing With the Stars\" has given exposure to such unlikely dancers as \"Cheers\" and Pixar favorite John Ratzenberger, magician Penn Jillette and Oscar-winning octogenarian actress Cloris Leachman. Kathy Ireland is among the contestants who will take part in the \"Dancing With the Stars'\" ninth season. But this year, the show is adding an even more unusual guest: A Hammer. Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- known as \"the Hammer\" for his tough-minded tactics -- is among the contestants for the show's ninth edition, ABC announced Monday. Host Tom Bergeron and contestant Donny Osmond appeared on the network's \"Good Morning America\" to make the announcement. \"This is the season where we have a cast that is as big as some of your family reunions,\" Bergeron joked to Osmond, a member of the Osmond family of entertainers. Blog: Are these really 'Stars'? Joining Osmond and DeLay will be Kelly Osbourne; former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin; models Kathy Ireland and Joanna Krupa; singers Macy Gray, Mya and Aaron Carter; actresses Melissa Joan Hart and Debi Mazar; Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin; ex-UFC fighter Chuck Liddell; snowboarder Louie Vito; and actors Mark Dacascos and Ashley Hamilton. Bergeron said this season will be a bit different as the show will have double elimination in the middle of the season. \"It will be a ballroom bloodbath,\" Bergeron said. The new season of \"Dancing With the Stars\" begins September 21. Last season's winner was gymnast Shawn Johnson.","highlights":"Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay among \"DWTS\" contestants .\nAlso scheduled for the ninth season: Melissa Joan Hart, snowboarder Louie Vito .\nShow adding a double-elimination period: \"It will be a ballroom bloodbath,\" host says .","id":"62f09825f59b6870d70db8f78dd5c07278e4ce08"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran has released a French academic from prison, though it's not clear when Clotilde Reiss can return home, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office announced Sunday. French national Clotilde Reiss, right, and British embassy worker Hossein Rassam, far left, in court. Reiss, 24, is the second French woman facing charges as part of mass trials in Iran who was released on bond. French authorities are now demanding that Iran drop all charges against Reiss and Nazak Afshar -- an employee of the French embassy in Tehran who was released August 8, the statement from Sarkozy's office said. They were arrested in connection with protests after the June 12 presidential election. Reiss will stay at the French embassy in Tehran while she awaits her return to France, the statement said. She has spoken with her father and is good health and spirits, it said. Iranian media reported Reiss admitted to crimes in court Saturday in connection with protests after the presidential election, and asked for clemency. \"I shouldn't have participated in the illegal demonstration and shouldn't have sent the pictures, I am regretful,\" the semi-official Fars news agency has quoted her as saying. \"I apologize to the Iranian people and court and I hope the people and the court forgive me.\" Human rights groups and Iran's opposition leaders have accused the government of forcing people to make such confessions. Iranian authorities arrested about 4,000 people amid protests against the controversial election, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi has said, according to the Iran Labor News Agency. He said 3,700 were released in the first week. But 100 defendants, including Afshar, Reiss, and an Iranian employee of the British embassy, appeared this month in Tehran's Revolutionary Court at a mass trial on charges related to recent post-election violence. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the official result of the vote -- the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The government said he won by a landslide, but his opponents accused officials of rigging the results. A crackdown by security forces followed, and at least 30 people died in the violence.","highlights":"Not clear when Clotilde Reiss can return home, French officials said .\nReiss, 24, is second French woman facing charges released on bond .\nReiss and Nazak Afshar arrested in connection with protests after June 12 election .","id":"98f25edd05432889bac05283bb4787f9baf77c32"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inside a freezer in a research laboratory at the University of Washington are blood and blood plasma samples from 92 people who suffer from mysterious illnesses, including tremors, memory loss and severe migraine headaches. Terry Williams hugs her two boys -- Jake, left, and Zack -- in 2006, before she says toxic cabin air made her sick. They are mostly pilots and flight attendants who suspect they've been poisoned in their workplace -- on board the aircraft they fly. Clement Furlong, University of Washington professor of medicine and genome sciences, leads a team of scientists who have been collecting the samples for 2 \u00bd years. Furlong said his team is a few months away from finalizing a blood analysis test that will be able to definitely confirm whether the study participants were indeed poisoned by toxic fumes. Results of Furlong's research could expand recognition of what a select group of researchers believes is a largely unrecognized risk of flying: the chance that poisonous fumes enter the cabin. \"There's a danger of inhaling compounds that are coming out of the engine,\" said Furlong in his laboratory. See a diagram of how the air is circulated \u00bb . The air we breathe on board a plane is a 50-50 mix of filtered, recirculated air and so-called \"bleed air\" -- which bleeds off the engines, and then is pressurized and cooled before being sent into the cabin through vents. If an engine oil seal leaks, aviation engineers and scientists say, the bleed air can become contaminated with toxins. In 2002 the National Academies of Sciences' National Research Council reported \"contaminant exposures result from the intake of chemical contaminants (e.g., engine lubricating oils, hydraulic fluids, deicing fluids and their degradation products) into the Environmental Control System and then into the cabin.\" Of particular concern are toxic anti-wear agents in the oil, designed to prolong an engine's life, called tricresyl phosphates. \"The engine seals fail and there's very potent toxins that can come on board,\" said Furlong. Neuropsychologist Sarah Mackenzie Ross of University College London studied 27 British pilots who claimed they had inhaled contaminated air and subsequently had difficulty processing information and slowed reaction times. Her testing confirmed their symptoms. \"They did appear to underperform on tasks that required attention, processing speed, reaction time, and what we call executive functioning, which is high-level decision making,\" said Ross. Former flight attendant Terry Williams believes she is a victim of such a \"fume event.\" She complains of debilitating migraine headaches, tremors, and blind spots in her field of vision. \"It's been so constant and just continues to worsen so it's extremely frustrating,\" said Williams, who is suing Boeing, the owner of McDonnell Douglas, which made the MD-82 aircraft on which she worked. \"I'm frustrated that I don't feel any better and it's over two years after the exposure.\" Boeing told CNN, \"It is our belief that air quality on airplanes is healthy and safe.\" In its response to Williams' suit, the company said: \"The potential for bleed air contamination has been known through the aviation industry for many years.\" But Boeing denies any responsibility for Terry Williams' illness. While Williams' symptoms appear to be quite rare, it appears that fume events occur with regularity. A British study for the House of Lords found fume events in 1 of every 2,000 flights. In the U.S., airlines are required to report \"fume events\" to the Federal Aviation Administration. There were 108 such reports last year. So why wouldn't more flight attendants, pilots and passengers suffer symptoms? Furlong said a small percentage of people (how small is not known) appear to be highly sensitive to the most toxic chemicals. They may be genetically disposed to a strong reaction, possessing multiple genes of metabolizing proteins in their livers, or temporarily have high enzyme levels (which can be triggered by prescription drugs) that will act on the inhaled chemicals to magnify their toxicity. \"If you happen to be taking a medication that turns on the protein that converts pre-toxin to very potent toxin, you've got an issue,\" said Furlong. As a result, someone sitting next to a victim may have inhaled the same contaminated fumes, but not suffer the same reaction. How might you know that you may have been exposed to a \"fume event\" while flying? Experts say the telltale sign is a \"dirty sock\" smell. That's butyric acid from engine oil, which itself is not highly toxic. But along with it comes the deadly nonodorous compounds tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate and mono-ortho-cresyl phosphate. Boeing's new plane, the 787 Dreamliner, has been designed so that air entering the cabin from outside will not \"bleed\" off the engines. The company says that's only for fuel efficiency purposes, not because of any concern about the quality of bleed air in its current fleet of aircraft. Indeed, Boeing and the FAA say the air quality on airplanes is as good or better than that of the average office building or home. CNN's Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Results of scientist's research could expand recognition of \"bleed air\"\nBleed air is air that passes through the engines of a plane, then into cabin .\nBoeing and FAA say air quality on airplanes is as good as in office or home .\nFlight attendant Terry Williams believes she is a victim of fumes in cabin air .","id":"f11129fcf90c62f2d68954fef1729607f1306228"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anita Davenport's curiosity about her family's past began with the photographs that surrounded her. She said she wanted to know the stories behind the images of her parents and uncles. Anita Davenport's grandfather, Walter, was stationed in Battle Creek, Michigan, during World War I. The stories she found -- and shared during several phone conversations from her home in Culver City, California -- parallel the African-American journey during the past century. The search took her to 1894, when her grandfather, Walter, was born in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Walter Davenport moved to Wedowee, Alabama. During World War I, Davenport was stationed at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan, Anita said. Thousands of other African-Americans were also on the move, mainly to the Northeast and the Midwest, eager for opportunities related to the war and industrialization, according to Howard Dodson, a historian and the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Walter Davenport later returned to Alabama, married and had nine children, one of whom was Anita's father, Frank. Walter was fond of Battle Creek and regaled his family with stories, Anita said. The stories must have been convincing. The eldest of his nine children, also named Walter, moved north to Battle Creek in 1951. Frank Davenport, Anita's father, later joined his older brother in Michigan. Anita was born in Battle Creek. Between 1940 and 1970, more than 5 million African-Americans left the South, migrating to cities like Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan, and New York. \"You have this incredible movement of black people across the width and breadth of this land and [they] establish themselves as a national presence, rather than a regional one [based] in the South,\" Dodson said. Interactive: Explore the African-American journey . That movement of African-Americans -- called \"the Great Migration\" -- had a clear and direct impact on the country. \"It made race a national issue,\" said Nicholas Lemann, author of \"The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America.\" \"You could say it was always a national issue and have a very powerful case ... but it was possible to say, 'It's a Southern issue,'\" he said. \"After the Great Migration, it was no longer possible.\" African-American culture was interacting with other cultures across the whole of American society, Lemann said, \"affecting everything from government policy and music to sports and everything in between.\" The return South . Civil rights legislation passed during the 1960s helped set the stage for the next era of African-American migration: A return to the South. Around 1970, many African-Americans began moving back to the South, historians and demographers say. The trend accelerated during the 1990s and this decade, according to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank. From 1965 through 1970, the South experienced a net migration loss -- the number of people who moved into the region compared to the number of people who moved out -- of more than 287,000 African-Americans. Thirty years later, the numbers were nearly the opposite. From 1995 through 2000, the South saw a gain of nearly 350,000 African-Americans. iReport.com: Share your family's story . The statistics come from an analysis of census data conducted by Frey in 2004. The numbers of African-Americans returning to the South are not as large as those seen during the Great Migration, but the trend has resonance because of the place the region occupies in black history and mythology. The ascendance of the South's economy was a key factor behind the return migration, Frey said. \"I think there's a push and a pull involved with the movement,\" he said. \"A lot of it had to do with the decline of heavy industry, which employed a lot of blacks and blue-collar whites, in a whole set of Rust Belt states,\" he said. Meanwhile, states like Georgia, Florida, Texas, and increasingly the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee were booming, Frey said. Civil rights legislation and a more educated society made the South more tolerant and hospitable. The booming economy provided jobs and opportunity. But there is also an emotional element for many African-Americans when it comes to the region. \"I think a big part, aside from the economy, is the kind of historic roots that blacks have had there,\" Frey said. \"There is something culturally attractive about the South to the African-American population even though they spent many decades surviving brutal treatment during the Jim Crow period and a lot of the racial discrimination that occurred.\" Dodson, the historian, said many people, especially retirees, made decisions to return out of a desire to connect with ancestral homes, churches and communities. Anita's parents still live in Battle Creek, though they spend the winters in the South. Her uncle, Walter Davenport, moved to Stone Mountain, the place of his father's birth, in 1998. When asked for the reasons behind her uncle's move, Anita said it was a love of the land, the slower pace and something almost \"mysterious.\" \"They wanted to get out of the South, but it still calls them,\" she said of her family's journey during the past few decades. There's \"something about the land and it just calls them back like a song.\" CNN's Christina Zdanowicz contributed to this report.","highlights":"For much of the 20th century, many African-Americans left the South .\nCensus statistics suggest many are returning to the region .\nAn economic boom in the Sun Belt states was a key factor, experts say .\nInteractive: Explore the different African-American migrations through history .","id":"b743c66d9b2c3d94bce7d357b774ef3ce75a0d04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former high school cheerleader who sued over injuries caused when a teammate failed to catch her during a routine, lost her appeal before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday a cheerleader couldn't sue her teammate. The seven state justices unanimously concluded cheerleading is a \"contact\" sport, and therefore neither the male student cited nor the school district was liable for damages. The opinion also said the stunt in question did not create a \"compelling danger\" to students. It is the first legal decision of its kind, according to the National Cheer Safety Foundation, a group founded by parents. The case was closely watched by school districts and parents around the country concerned about whether they would have immunity from lawsuits involving unintentional injuries from certain extracurricular activities. Brittany Noffke was a varsity cheerleader at Holmen High School, about 14 miles from La Crosse, in western Wisconsin. Her team was practicing a \"post to hands\" stunt before a basketball game in 2004, and after being lifted up to stand on the shoulders of a fellow student, Noffke fell backward, striking her head on the floor. The 16-year-old male cheerleader who lifted her, and then was supposed to be a spotter, failed to catch her. The girl's family sued the boy and the school district, claiming the coach was negligent by not having a second spotter and not providing safety mats. State law does not specifically spell out which high school activities involve \"contact,\" but they typically involve sports such as football or lacrosse in which opposing teams compete against each other. But the Wisconsin high court concluded that \"cheerleading involves a significant amount of physical contact between cheerleaders that at times results in a forceful interaction between the participants.\" Justice Annette Ziegler cited the \"spirit rules\" of the National Federation of State High School Association's handbook, which contained pictures illustrating various cheerleading stunts. She said all but one photo showed at least two cheerleaders in contact with one another. Because the male cheerleader just made a mistake by being out of place when Noffke fell, the court found he did not act \"recklessly,\" the only legal standard that would have permitted a lawsuit to proceed. Although it is not considered a sport at many high schools and colleges, cheerleading has grown increasingly popular over the years, and the stunts have become more complex and dangerous, sports injury experts say. A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill study found cheerleading accounted for about two-thirds of some 93 \"catastrophic\" sports injuries -- including head and neck damage -- among high school girls in the past 26 years. But the study noted that other sports such as football produce far more devastating injuries, though fewer in number. Cheerleading advocates say the activity has become much safer in the past 15 years, following greater awareness of the risks and better coordination among state and national groups. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators estimates about 4 million people are involved in the activity.","highlights":"Justices rule cheerleading is \"contact\" sport, therefore teammates, school not liable .\nBrittany Noffke sued claiming negligence after she fell during a stunt .\nOpinion said stunt in question did not create a \"compelling danger\"\nCheerleading group calls ruling the first legal decision of its kind .","id":"9a3824d8f9e5367aa0b9102e1d871753fa7b5581"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two monorail trains at Walt Disney World collided early Sunday, killing a 21-year-old driver. A 2 a.m. ET monorail crash at Disney World killed one person, a park spokesman said. A witness said one of the trains rammed into the back of a stationary train about 2 a.m. at the resort's Ticket and Transport Center. There were eight people on board at the time, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. A second employee was taken to a hospital to be checked; the six guests -- members of a single family -- were evaluated by paramedics at the scene and released. Disney World officials said none of the seven was injured. Authorities identified the driver as Austin Wuennenberg, a senior at Stetson University studying computer science. \"It's a terrible day for us,\" said Mike Griffin, Disney's vice president for public affairs. \"Our hearts go out to Austin and his family.\" A statement from Wuennenberg's family said, \"He always enjoyed his work at Disney, and especially enoyed his work as a monorail pilot. He has many great friends who he has positively influenced; everyone will truly miss this dynamic young man.\" The theme park is working with county authorities and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the investigation. \"The safety of our cast and our guests is legendary and it's our top priority,\" Griffin said. Disney World calls its employees \"cast members.\" The monorail was shut after the accident, Griffin said. Images from the scene showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit the other train at a station.","highlights":"Driver identified as Austin Wuennenberg, 21 .\nEight people were aboard, including family of six .\nCrash occurred about 2 a.m. at Ticket and Transport Center .\nWitness says one monorail train rammed into a stationary train .","id":"ea40f68db436ccbec0b565379d441a84f44e749f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When pro quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in 2007, there was a spike in reports of dogfighting in the United States. One of six dogs recovered from a Sumter County, South Carolina, dogfight waits in a kennel last week. But when the headlines faded, the blood sport grew stronger and went even more underground, with thugs taking inventive precautions to keep police at bay, animal cruelty experts say. \"They know it's just not smart to have large crowds anymore, so we've seen fights where you've got the two handlers, a referee and Web cams everywhere broadcasting the fight on the Internet,\" said Mark Kumpf, an investigator based in Ohio who directs the National Animal Control Association. Fights are also being staged on the move -- in 18-wheelers. \"These guys are very sophisticated,\" Kumpf said. \"If you're driving down the road, there could be dogs in that truck driving next to you that are dying.\" Dozens more dogfighting cases have been investigated and prosecuted since the Vick case, said Alison Gianotto, who runs the database PetAbuse.com. The computer programmer, horrified when a neighbor's cat was set on fire eight years ago, created the California-based organization to track animal cruelty cases and animal abusers. The database, which logs media stories, has also become a popular place for law enforcement to send reports. \"There's not a central body keeping track of what's happening nationally, which is unfortunate when you consider that a lot of these cases cross state lines,\" she said. Still, detectives, animal welfare professionals and prosecutors agree that the attention the Vick case has brought to dogfighting has been positive because more people are inclined to report their suspicions. Dogfighting is illegal in all states; penalties vary but usually include heavy jail time or steep fines. The National Football League suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. Vick, 29, was freed from federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to Virginia to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. \"At the height of attention on the Vick case, things quieted down across the country with some of these dogfighters getting out of the business,\" veteran animal abuse investigator Tim Rickey said. \"But then, the headlines went away, and people thought the attention was off. It just started right back up, almost stronger than before.\" \"Every Saturday night in every county in Missouri, there is a dogfight going on,\" Rickey said. While the Vick case was making its way through the court system, Rickey, who directs the animal cruelty task force at the Humane Society of Missouri, was initiating what would become an 18-month investigation linking dogfighting rings in eight states. That probe led to the July 8 arrest of 28 people from eight states. As many as 400 dogs were confiscated in raids coordinated by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, Rickey said. He said it was the largest such case involving dogfighting in the U.S. While those involved with the national case declined Monday to give details about that investigation, CNN spoke with several detectives across America who have worked other dogfighting cases. Among the abuses they've uncovered: . \u2022 Dogs with missing ears and patches of skin . \u2022 Animals with teeth shaved down to the bone . \u2022 \"Vets\" who have used leg splints that are to tight to \"treat\" animals in dogfighting rings . \u2022 Contraptions, usually fashioned out of wood, much like a treadmill, that force chained dogs to run or be choked. Detective Keith Coberly of the police vice squad in Dayton, Ohio, described a case he recently investigated that resulted in the convictions of three men. A neighbor called police when she saw a mangled dog that had apparently escaped from a home where investigators found 60 chained pit bull terriers, many being starved and wallowing in their own waste. There were thousands of hypodermic needles scattered across the ground. \"They were using steroids on the animals,\" he said. \"There was one dog -- in such bad shape, man -- tethered to a logging chain, and another was kept in a two-foot shed without ventilation or food.\" The suffering is incalculable, and the cost of caring for the animals is steep. Because the national investigation originated in Missouri, the state is harboring about 400 of the rescued dogs, some that have had puppies recently. \"These dogs are bred to attack each other, so just caring for them is a tremendous job. You have to keep them separate, and you have to protect volunteers who are devoting 12, 14 hours of their day,\" Rickey said. \"And we're doing all of that in this economy.\" Investigating dogfighting is dangerous -- and hugely popular in Russian mafia circles and with drug traffickers in Mexico, experts say. Dogfighting is reliant on word of mouth, and on what one undercover officer described as \"bad character\" references. \"If you can get someone to vouch for you, a match is set up,\" Kumpf said. \"They'll have everyone go to a hotel and come pick you up and drive you around in an unmarked van.\" Driving around town helps shake any police tail, he said. Those betting on fights aren't likely to get paid on site any more. Money is often kept at another location, making it more difficult to make arrests. In late July, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell conditionally reinstated Vick, who said on \"60 Minutes\" on Sunday night that he cried in prison because of the guilt he felt about dogfighting. Vick's agent announced Thursday that the former Atlanta Falcon signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, which reportedly could be worth more than $6 million. \"I hope people realize [dogfighting] is not just about Michael Vick,\" Rickey said. \"It's a lot bigger than him.\"","highlights":"Dogfighters are using Web cams, staging fights in 18-wheelers to avoid police .\nVick case brought attention to dogfighting, but cases have not decreased .\nDetective: Anyone who wants to get into dogfighting needs \"bad character\" reference .","id":"f649d6d2f0bfb431c4e772b2e65e6e67066c540f"} -{"article":"Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book \"Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought\" and writes a daily blog titled The Kitchen Table. Melissa Harris-Lacewell says African-Americans remain skeptical about racial progress in the U.S. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- America was proud of itself for electing Barack Obama. The pride was not just partisan and ideological; it was also specifically and clearly racial. The morning after Obama's win, The New York Times declared \"Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory.\" The Los Angeles Times asserted that \"for the first time in human history, a largely white nation has elected a black man to be its paramount leader.\" Some black commentators openly wept on election night, thrilled with witnessing the election of our first black president. Even Sen. John McCain, conceding defeat, pointed to the greatness of the American promise fulfilled in the election of his opponent. Obama's victory offered the possibility that the scars of America's racial legacy were healed or, at least, that they were less raw. For many African-American citizens, the election of the first black U.S. president was cause for celebration and open-mouthed wonder about an outcome that seemed so unlikely just two years earlier, when Obama announced his bid. Despite this joy, many black citizens were dubious that his victory represented the destruction of any particular racial barrier. African-Americans were both proud of and excited about Obama, but in the 45 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, black Americans had seen doors to power, influence and wealth open just enough to admit just a few without fundamentally altering opportunities for the majority. Indeed, responses to a recent CNN\/Essence Magazine\/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicate that black enthusiasm about Obama exists side-by-by side with deep skepticism about America's racial progress. This atmosphere of both enthusiasm and doubt has sparked discussion about whether we have entered a post-racial era in American politics. It is a difficult debate, because the term \"post-racial\" is not clearly defined. Race itself is a slippery idea. Typically, we treat race like a fixed, unchanging, biological category. But race is none of these things. Race is a social construct. Though it is based in physical traits, race is a category developed through social practice, law and history. As a nation, we made blackness through our politics, developing a category of people who could be enslaved and later segregated. So when we talk of a post-racial America, we are not pointing to the massive demographic shifts that are unalterably changing the racial, ethnic and linguistic landscape of America. Instead, \"post-racial\" is an expression of social and political longing. For most, this means an America free of racism and discrimination, but others seem to hint at a society entirely free of racial identity or recognition. The idea of a post-racial America has been upheld as an achievable ideal where people would receive equal treatment and fair outcomes regardless of their race. It has been critiqued as an impossible dream unlikely to exist in a nation with a history of slavery and legal discrimination. It has been denounced as an unworthy goal that would require black Americans to reject their cultural specificity and unique social and political concerns. Undoubtedly, the 2008 election broke formerly entrenched racial trends. Obama was elected just as the depth and breadth of the American economic crisis was becoming clear. Some suggested that his victory could be explained by the nation's fiscal difficulties because he was the candidate of the out-party, which often wins when times are hard. But this analysis forgets the cross-cutting history of race. When the economic pie shrinks, Americans rarely form multiracial political coalitions led by minority candidates. Obama's victory countered the trend toward racial balkanization more typical in tough economic times. The changing dynamics of racial politics were further evidenced when Obama won both Virginia and North Carolina. In these Southern states and in many blue states throughout the country, Obama shattered the \"Bradley Effect,\" often getting a higher percentage of the white vote than polls predicted. There was little evidence that white voters rejected Obama based on his race, and few white Democrats crossed party lines to vote for McCain. For these reasons, Obama's win offers evidence of a post-racial American electoral politics. And if not post-racial, these data at least point to a much less racist American voting public than what existed 40 years ago. Still, the election of a black president has not changed the material realities of racial inequality. African-Americans are significantly more distressed than their white counterparts on every meaningful economic indicator: income, unemployment, wealth, education, home ownership and home foreclosures. African-American social realities are equally grim. Blacks are far more likely to be arrested and more harshly sentenced than whites. African-Americans are less likely to marry, more likely to divorce and more likely to live in single- parent households. Compared with whites, blacks are more likely to suffer infant mortality, cancer, diabetes and premature death. Substantial evidence shows that the economic, social and even political gains made by African-Americans in the 1960s and 1970s have leveled off or reversed in the past decade in areas such as urban education, the number of black elected officials and the racial wealth gap. The murder of a security guard at the national Holocaust museum by a racist anti-Semite reminded the nation that old-fashioned, violent bigotry still has life in America. These sobering realities indicate that race still vastly over-determines the life chances of Americans. These differences cannot be explained away by class alone, because most of these inequalities persist even when controlling for income. To be born black in America is still a tremendous disadvantage compared with being born white in this country. Herein lies the challenge facing Americans in this new racial era. For much of the 20th century, the battle for civil rights rested on a belief that political equality would translate into social and economic justice. There can be little doubt that many of the substantive battles for political power and representation have been won. In that sense, Obama's election is the fulfillment of a post-racial political promise. It is equally clear that this political arrival has not ushered in the other substantive racial changes that the civil rights movement hoped to achieve. In many ways, political equality is just the beginning of the process. The work of politics is to collectively craft the nation we want to have. The election of Obama does not indicate the realization of post-racial America, but it does allow us the opportunity to engage in renewed, collective questioning of what a racially just nation is like. Having achieved so much politically, there is still real debate about how to end overt racism, structural discrimination and persistent inequality. Some want a country where the black kids don't sit together in the cafeteria, while others hope black kids being together will provoke neither comment nor anxiety. Some want a nation where no one notices race, while others hope that their racial identity can be both recognized and appreciated. Some worry that eliminating racial barriers will only solidify economic differences, while others suspect that economic justice cannot be achieved without grappling with race. Some want the end of all inequality, while others simply hope disparities will be based on \"merit\" rather than race. As citizens in a democracy, we can choose the future of our racial politics. Not all at once and not without struggle, but we can make new choices . And this time, African-Americans participate in the process of remaking America's racial story from a very different position than we have occupied in the past. Rather than being solely on the margins of national power, black Americans, through the person of Obama, have achieved a new kind of citizenship more empowered to recreate American race. This does not mean black people have equal political or economic power, but it does mean that the election of Obama encourages black Americans to even more loudly and clearly articulate our varied aspirations for our country. In November, we did a marvelous thing. Now, the work begins. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Melissa Harris-Lacewell.","highlights":"Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Barack Obama's election celebrated as racial triumph .\nShe says it represented real progress in the arena of politics .\nHarris-Lacewell: In many other areas, issues of race remain significant .","id":"8154b09ae15bef8f3a9092e1b020f1a86a57dc28"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A leading human rights activist was abducted and killed in Russia Wednesday, the organization she worked for told CNN. Estemirova, pictured in 2007, had been openly critical of Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov. Natalya Estemirova, of the Russian human rights group Memorial, was kidnapped outside her home in Grozny, Chechnya, Oleg Orlov said, citing eyewitness reports. She was later found dead in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia, said Orlov, the head of the organization's Moscow office. Estemirova, 50, was a leading human rights activist in the North Caucasus area who had been openly criticizing Chechnya's authoritarian president, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his methods. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed indignation at the murder and said her killers should be punished to the full extent of the law, his office said. He expressed his condolences to her family, press secretary Natalya Timakova said. Estemirova shouted that she was being kidnapped as she was forced into a white Lada automobile that had stopped on the road in front of her house at 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. ET), Orlov said. An unidentified man grabbed her and shoved her into the car, he told CNN. \"This is a kidnapping,\" she yelled, he said. Estemirova studied history at Grozny University, then taught history before turning to journalism and human rights in 1998, Memorial said. She joined the organization in March 2000. In a written statement, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States is \"deeply saddened\" by the report of Estemirova's death. \"We call upon the Russian government to bring those responsible to justice,\" he said. He described Estemirova as \"uncompromising in her willingness to reveal the truth regardless of where that might lead. She was devoted to shining a light on human rights abuses, particularly in Chechnya.\" The Committee to Protect Journalists, in a written statement, demanded that the killing be thoroughly investigated immediately. \"As she uncovered massive, ongoing human rights violations in Chechnya by the federal and regional authorities, Estemirova was often at odds with Chechen authorities, according to her colleagues,\" the advocacy group said. She won three international awards for human rights activities -- including the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya Award, named for the Russian investigative journalist who was herself murdered almost three years ago. Estemirova was Politkovskaya's \"most frequent companion during travel and investigations in Chechnya,\" the organization Reach All Women in War said in announcing the prize for Estemirova. \"They investigated a number of cases together -- about which Anna wrote for (the newspaper) Novaya Gazeta and Natalya wrote for Memorial's Web site and for local newspapers.\" \"President Medvedev must make good on his promise to investigate this shocking killing by ensuring that the inquiry is thorough and transparent,\" said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. \"The killers of this courageous reporter, one of the few left in Chechnya, must not be allowed to walk free like so many before them.\" CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow, Russia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Natalya Estemirova abducted outside her home in Grozny, Chechnya .\nEstemirova later found dead in neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia .\nEstemirova openly critical of Chechnya's authoritarian president, Ramzan Kadyrov .","id":"3a30154f0fbd22a878499fa0411ffe31574d58b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The City of Brotherly Love isn't exactly embracing the news that one-time quarterback phenom and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick is joining their Philadelphia Eagles. Former Atlanta Falcon Michael Vick, right, was known more for his elusiveness than his throwing prowess. Vick's agent announced Thursday that the former Atlanta Falcon signed a two-year deal with the Eagles, which reportedly could be worth more than $6 million. He won't be able to play a regular season game until week six in October, and then, only if the National Football League fully reinstates him. \"Too bad they don't have him for the whole year,\" Eagles fan Charles James told CNN affiliate philly.com. The NFL indefinitely suspended Vick in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia. Vick, 29, left a Kansas prison in May to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. Some Eagles fans don't think Vick's punishment was sufficient and were trying to unload their game and season tickets on craigslist.com, making it clear they were less than eager to see Vick in Philly green. iReport.com: What do you think of Vick's return? A post from one irked fan looking to peddle two lower-level season tickets said: \"The last thing my son and I want to see is Michael Vick in an Eagles jersey. We made up our mind to sell the tickets ... $3000 cash gets the tickets. Any info feel free to ask, serious buyers only, I want the deal done fast.\" Lower-level season tickets were selling on an unrelated auction site for as much as $10,000 a pair. Bob Jenkins of northeast Philadelphia predicted most Eagles fans -- known to be some of the nation's most demanding -- won't be badmouthing the decision. \"The only people who won't be quiet are the people who don't like the Eagles,\" Jenkins told philly.com. \"Of course, they're going to be talking because he's going to be throwing some touchdowns.\" Despite Jenkins' assumption, it's unclear what role Vick will play on the team. A gifted athlete known more for his dazzling runs than his pinpoint throws, Vick's last season in 2006 was a bit of a disappointment to Atlanta fans. The Falcons finished 7-9, and Vick had a completion percentage of 52.6. He also threw for 2,474 yards, more than 1,000 fewer yards than the Patriots' Tom Brady, who completed 62 percent of his passes, and almost 2,000 yards behind the Colts' Peyton Manning, who completed 65 percent of his tosses. However, Vick also ran for 1,039 yards, the most ever by a quarterback. Mike Giunta of Tabernacle, New Jersey, told CNN affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that signing Vick would spawn \"dissension\" among the Eagles, who made it to their conference championship last season, losing to the Arizona Cardinals. Giunta predicted the move would create consternation between Vick and five-time Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb. \"McNabb's going to be looking over his shoulder constantly now,\" Giunta said. McNabb said in a Thursday news conference that he welcomed the addition of Vick and he \"pretty much lobbied to get him here because everybody deserves a second chance.\" Several Eagles fans concur. One of them, Leroy Emerson of north Philadelphia, told philly.com, \"That was the best move the Eagles ever made, one of the best.\" Some fans, however, were licking their wounds and pointing to the most severe dogfighting allegations leveled against Vick: that he hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted and drowned them. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have both skewered Vick. The latter alluded to Vick being a \"psychopath\" earlier this year and released a statement Friday saying, \"Millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed\" in the Eagles. \"PETA certainly hopes that Vick has learned his lesson and feels truly remorseful for his crimes -- but since he's given no public indication that that's the case, only time will tell,\" the statement said. Upon being conditionally reinstated to the NFL last month, Vick acknowledged making \"terrible mistakes\" and said he had used the past two years to re-evaluate his life. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick also offered to work with the organization on its anti-dogfighting campaign. To some Eagles fans, though, the nature of Vick's crimes is too much to forgive. \"I'm just a little upset with it because I'm such an animal lover,\" Susan Wilson of Pitman, New Jersey, told WPVI. Kelley Williams of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, told the station that she, too, had trouble accepting Vick's signing. \"I think he should be out of the NFL altogether,\" she said. Sports talk shows already are predicting that Vick can redeem himself only by making big plays, and at least some of the Philadelphia faithful concur he can shut up his critics on the field. \"If they keep him,\" fan James told philly.com, \"he'll be the man.\"","highlights":"Michael Vick signs deal with Philadelphia Eagles, could play in October .\nCraigslist ticket seller says he, son don't want to see \"Vick in an Eagles jersey\"\nSeveral Eagles fans tell CNN affiliates they are excited by prospect of Vick's arrival .\nAnimal lovers still reluctant to give Vick a chance after almost two years in prison .","id":"cbbc3fc4617ce9d1923bda797ea69513ed8cd22a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He burst on the music scene in the 1970s with the Commodores and then went on to a major solo career with hits such as \"All Night Long\" and \"Hello.\" Lionel Richie and his daughter, Nicole, gave their first joint TV interview in six years to CNN's Larry King. She made a name for herself on the TV series \"The Simple Life,\" which followed the exploits of her and fellow socialite Paris Hilton, and in the tabloids. Father-and-daughter Lionel and Nicole Richie have been making news for decades, but rarely together. In their first TV interview together in six years, they talked with CNN's Larry King about their relationship; her time in rehab; Lionel's first grandchild, Harlow; their growing family; and more. The following interview, scheduled to air Thursday night, has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: You did \"American Idol.\" A European tour. A new CD. You ever give thoughts of just cooling it? Lionel Richie: My answer to that is very simple. I don't like fishing. I'm pretty much like you. This is my hobby. King: What's the new album [\"Just Go\"] about? Lionel Richie: You know what I decided to do on this album? Something different. Instead of controlling, which is what I love to do -- I'm the writer, I'm the arranger, I'm the producer, I'm the singer -- I decided [to] start another way. I just gave up the power completely. There is only one song on this album that I actually wrote, called \"Eternity.\" King: The \"American Idol\" thing. Was that fun? Why did you do it? Lionel Richie: It's the best fun in the world. Danny [Gokey] was so wonderful. He kept saying, \"Suppose I mess up or suppose I sing your line instead of my line,\" and I said, \"You can't mess this one up. And if you feel like you want to sing my part, sing it loud and strong.\" And of course he nailed it. It was so much fun to watch everybody backstage. The tension of what goes through that show, I don't think I [could] do it. [Nicole Richie joins the interview] . King: What is it like to be with her in this setting? Lionel Richie: I'm so proud of her right now. There is such a pride that she has turned this corner. She is an amazing mother. I want the world to know where she is. King: Now you're pregnant with a second child, right? Nicole Richie: Yes, yes I am. King: And the father [Joel Madden] is the same? Nicole Richie: Yes. King: You going to get married? Nicole Richie: Eventually, yes. King: But that's not important or paramount? Nicole Richie: I think for both of us, we are going to do it because we want to, not because that's what you do. King: What kind of grandfather is he? Nicole Richie: Well, he's very animated. He smiles like this all the time, and so he's nothing but fun for Harlow. She absolutely loves him. Watch Nicole Richie talk about her daughter \u00bb . King: Nicole, you've been through some turbulent times. You've had drug abuse, wild-child behavior. Entered rehab in 2003. How have you come through all of that? Nicole Richie: With the support of my family, really. I've always stayed really close with my mother [Brenda] and my father. I have really great friends. And I just have a really great circle around me who support me no matter what, don't judge me no matter how low I've ever gotten. King: How did you deal with it, Lionel? Lionel Richie: It gave me an amazing opportunity to step up to the plate. I said to her one day: I have some good news and I have some bad news. I said the bad news is that Nicole is going to die. The good news is, she doesn't have to. I remember that look on her face of sheer panic. And I said the only person who is going to be able to save Nicole is Nicole. And she went away and about three weeks later I got a phone saying, 'Dad, I want to go into rehab.' And when she checked into rehab, her mother and I checked into rehab with her. King: What was the toughest part about rehab? Nicole Richie: It was right before \"The Simple Life\" came out. Just the fact that I couldn't do it in private really was unfortunate. But we didn't watch TV there or [had no] connection to the outside world, which I thought was really great. So I just focused on being positive there and focused on myself. And my parents were there with me. They came for family week. And so I just focused on that and everything just kind of fell in place. Watch Nicole Richie talk about rehab \u00bb . King: When all of those troubles were going on, didn't it affect [your] performance? Lionel Richie: Thank God for the stage. What the stage was for me was an outlet. It gave me a chance to kind of get away from it for a moment. King: You said that you were not a good dad to Nicole growing up ... wasn't there for her. Do you regret that? Lionel Richie: I was trying to be Lionel Richie. There is a part of [me] that's guilty because I wish I could have been there more for her, but I was trying to make it as the solo guy at that time. King: What kind of dad was he? Nicole Richie: I really hate when he says that. I hate when he says that he wasn't a good dad because my memory of my childhood was nothing but good memories. I remember him coming down in the kitchen in the morning and singing songs and us playing. Was he gone a lot? Yeah. But he also toured a lot. Even when he and my mom divorced, it was kind of like he was on tour, so I was kind of OK with it. And he's not perfect, he's a human and we went through phases of not speaking. I could sit here and I could say that I was a terrible daughter, too, but I am not going to say that. King: How do you like her boyfriend [Joel Madden]? Lionel Richie: Love him. Love him. King: Don't you want them to get married? Lionel Richie: I want them to take their time. I'm more interested in whether they like each other and whether they're best friends. Because that means they'll be great parents forever. King [to Nicole]: You were adopted. Nicole Richie: Yes. Lionel Richie: When we adopted, [she] was 8, yes. When we first met her, she was 3 1\/2. King: Took five years? Lionel Richie: She stayed with us for two years before we even thought about legal guardianship. King: Was there a doubt about doing it? Lionel Richie: It was a tremendous responsibility, but I fell in love. Brenda fell in love. And once you fall in love, you don't know anything else.","highlights":"Lionel Richie likes father of his grandchild; says Nicole shouldn't rush marriage .\nNicole Richie says parents' love and support helped her make it through drug rehab .\nNicole on Lionel: \"I hate when he says that he wasn't a good dad\"\nHow was his \"American Idol\" appearance? \"It's the best fun in the world\"","id":"416485b87170e05b84a88e72f957b9efa3f8573f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Launched in 1995, the Airbus A330-200 is the newest member of the European aircraft manufacturer's twinjet family. The incident involves an Air France Airbus A330-200. With a range of 12,500 km (6,750 nautical miles) and the capacity to carry 253 passengers, the A330-200 is extremely well-regarded as a medium to long-range airliner. There are 600 currently in service with 82 airlines, including Air France, worldwide. Airbus has a further 300 orders for the aircraft. According to aviation expert Kieran Daly, the A330-200 is a \"reliable, ultra-modern, state-of-the-art airplane,\" with an impeccable safety record. He told CNN that there has only been one reported incident when an aircraft of this type has crashed. \"The incident took place in 1994 before the aircraft came into service,\" he said. \"It was being flown in test-mode by pilots who were putting it through some extreme maneuvers before it came down. \"Therefore the crash was not caused by the plane itself. \"It is very well-designed and well-equipped, with equally modern and reliable General Electric CF-6 engines.\" Air France has said that Flight AF 447 sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence early in its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Why it took so long to report the aircraft missing \u00bb . However, Daly said that it would take extremely violent weather conditions to cause the catastrophic failure of an aircraft of this size. \"These planes are extremely robust and widely used on transatlantic routes and across Asia,\" he said. \"They are equipped with an array of sophisticated communication equipment, so it must have been something extremely sudden to cause the loss of contact.\" There has also been speculation that the Paris-bound flight was struck by lightning, but that should not bring down a modern airliner, former Airbus pilot John Wiley told CNN. According to Air France, the captain of Flight AF 447 had a record of 11,000 flight hours and had already flown 1,700 hours on Airbus A330\/A340 aircraft. Of the two first officers, one had flown 3,000 flight hours (800 of which on the Airbus A330\/A340) and the other 6,600 (2,600 on the Airbus A330\/A340). The aircraft had totaled 18,870 flight hours and went into service on 18 April 2005. Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009. The larger A330-300 aircraft from Airbus entered service in 1993 and has a capacity of up to 335 passengers. It too has an impressive safety record, despite a couple of incidents in the last 10 years. In August 2001, a Canadian airliner operated by Air Transat experienced double engine failure while traveling to Portugal. Miraculously the captain was able to perform an emergency landing in the Azores by gliding the powerless plane for almost 18 minutes. Last year, an A330-303 was forced to make an emergency landing in Australia after a sudden change in altitude injured 74 passengers. Qantas Flight 72 was flying from Singapore to the western Australian city of Perth when a sudden change of altitude caused abrasions, contusions, fractures and other injuries. The cause of the sudden drop remains under investigation.","highlights":"The Airbus A330-200 was launched in 1995 .\nThere are 600 currently in service with 82 airlines, including Air France .\nExpert: A330-200 is reliable, ultra-modern, state-of-the-art airplane .\nAir France said Flight AF 447 reported electrical problems .","id":"453562e1d797aa8d002cd2ca3e77de680ecac651"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Abigail Thernstrom is the author of \"Voting Rights -- and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections,\" published last month by AEI Press. She is the vice-chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Her writing can be found at http:\/\/www.thernstrom.com\/. Abigail Thernstrom says an impressive biography isn't a qualification for the Supreme Court. (CNN) -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor is all but certain to be confirmed as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. It is close to unimaginable that the Republicans will peel off enough Democratic votes to stop Senate confirmation. She's a first: a Latina. And she has an impressive life history: Raised in a housing project by a single mother, she went to Princeton and then to Yale Law School. It's a classic American overcoming-the-odds story, but, while admirable, it is not a qualification for the highest court in the land. Democrats themselves have often implicitly made the same point -- about other minority appointees, in fact. They never saw the much humbler origins of Justice Clarence Thomas as an argument for his elevation to the Court. And they used a filibuster to stop Bush appointee Miguel Estrada from getting a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which they feared would be a springboard to the Supreme Court. Estrada is a Honduran who arrived in America at age 17 with only limited command of English; he was also raised by a single mother and made it to Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the law review. Supporters of Sotomayor argue that she will add needed \"diversity\" to the Court. Yet, with her confirmation, there will be six Catholics, two Jews and one Protestant. For many Americans, religious affiliation is more important in defining an individual than race or ethnicity. But no one is complaining about \"too many\" Catholics or Jews -- thankfully. America is supposed to be a land in which individuals are seen as ... individuals. Too many, too few: that is the language of un-American quotas. Sotomayor has suggested that race and ethnicity, to a substantial degree, define individuals. \"Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences ... our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging,\" she said in a 2001 speech. At her confirmation hearings, she will undoubtedly dance away from such ethnic determinism. But it would appear to be what she believes, since she has reiterated the point several times in different venues. Her supporters also emphasize the \"empathy\" she would bring to the court. It is a quality the president promised he would look for in making court appointments. In a July 2007 campaign speech, he said, \"We need somebody who's got the heart -- the empathy -- to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old, and that's the criteria by which I'll be selecting my judges.\" Evidently, however, not all impoverished backgrounds leave you empathetic. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding appears to be party membership. By definition, conservatives are assumed to lack empathy. As Berkeley professor George Lakoff has argued, \"Empathy is at the heart of progressive thought. ... Progressives care about others as well as themselves.\" And, by implication, conservatives don't. Empathy has thus become a code word for progressive politics -- the likelihood that, as a justice, the nominee will take politically liberal positions. Public policy preferences driving Supreme Court decisions? What a shock. Some justices have much more respect for the law than others, but if the opinions were not often judgments driven by political values as well, they would be less predictable. Most court-watchers thought (correctly, as it turned out) that the recent New Haven firefighters' case would come down four-four, with only Justice Anthony Kennedy's vote hard to call. The results of an exam for promotion within the New Haven fire department had been thrown out because, with one exception, all of the successful candidates were white -- the \"wrong\" color, according to the reasoning of the city and Sotomayor. One can argue that race discrimination decisions do not involve ideology and are based on strictly legal grounds, but if so, it is passing strange that in busing, affirmative action and other race-related cases, even before the oral argument is heard we almost always know which justices will take what positions. Liberals still support busing, for instance; conservatives oppose it. Sotomayor will replace another reliable liberal, Justice David Souter, and so the ideological balance on the court will not change. And yet, perhaps as a consequence of her implicit embrace of quotas and identity politics, she has come to the Senate hearings with public support that is unusually low; only 47 percent of Americans say they want her confirmed, a recent CNN poll found. Nevertheless, Republicans are likely to tread softly in the hearings. Race-related issues make them nervous, and Latinos are a fast-growing group with increasing political clout, especially in such swing states as Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Virginia. Barring the totally unexpected, Sotomayor's confirmation will thus be a cakewalk. Let us hope that the public's pessimism proves to be misguided and she turns out to be a lawyer's lawyer and not an ethnic activist who tends to let the usual political definition of \"empathy\" drive her opinions. There is reason to worry: She will have lifetime tenure on an institution with enormous power. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Abigail Thernstrom.","highlights":"Abigail Thernstrom: Sonia Sotomayor's life story is a compelling one .\nShe says Democrats haven't honored such humble beginnings in GOP nominees .\nShe says Sotomayor's \"empathy\" may be code word for one brand of politics .\nThernstrom: I'm concerned that judge may have more fidelity to activism than to law .","id":"2e2413c9e4619ee4e00ff7d70e8e17bf788d1254"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- AC Milan have swooped to sign Standard Liege defender Oguchi Onyewu on a three-year contract -- making him the first American to appear in Serie A since Alexi Lalas in 1996. Onyewu will become the first American since Alexi Lalas to appear in Italian Serie A after joining AC Milan. Onyewu, who has also played in the English Premier League with Newcastle United, has moved to the San Siro on a free transfer after impressing with some superb displays during the United States' run to the Confederations Cup final. The 27-year-old has played 38 times for his country, scoring five goals.Latest transfer gossip and rumors . \"This transaction shows once again the excellent friendly relationship between our club and Belgian club Standard Liege, particularly their executive vice-president Luciano D'Onofrio,\" said a statement on Milan's official Web site. The six-foot four-inch player was born in Washington DC to Nigerian parents but began his club career at Metz in France in 2002. He was loaned out to La Louviere in Belgium in 2003 and his form there earnt him a move to Liege, where he won two Belgian titles. He then joined Newcastle on loan, playing 11 league matches. However, the transfer is unlikely to appease the Milan supporters who are unhappy with the summer sale of Brazilian superstar Kaka to Real Madrid -- and the departure of coach Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea. About 300 fans protested outside the club's Milanello base on the first day of pre-season training on Monday, complaining at the lack of big name signings.","highlights":"AC Milan swoop to sign up American international defender Oguchi Onyewu .\nThe 27-year-old joins from Belgians Standard Liege on a three-year contract .\nOnyewu is the first American to appear in Serie A since Alexi Lalas in the 90s .","id":"a662c4baef06b05cccb9b8cf4bc29aa38dc1827b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Renee Pernice, a 35-year-old mother of two young children, vanished from her home in Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after New Year's this year. She hasn't been heard from since. Renee Pernice is pictured here with her two sons and husband, Shon. Police believe foul play is involved, yet they have not found her body. No one has been arrested in the case. Police have not named her husband, Shon Pernice, as a person of interest or a suspect in the case. However, \"he's the last known person to see her alive,\" said Doug Niemeier, a sergeant with the Kansas City Police Department. Six months after Renee Pernice disappeared, police say they still have questions about her husband in the days after her disappearance, including why he allegedly accessed a local fire department's hazardous materials building around 4:30 a.m. January 3. \"It should be noted that multiple types of cleaners, solvents and cleaning supplies are stored at Station #5,\" a police affidavit says. Attorneys for Shon Pernice declined to comment for this story. Police and family say Renee was pursuing a divorce around the time she disappeared. A local firefighter, Shon Pernice has said he was not involved in her disappearance. He told a local activist in March that \"I didn't harm my wife one bit. Not at all.\" In that interview, one of the few in which he's referenced his wife's disappearance, he added, \"It's gut-wrenching thinking that either she's got a rich-ass doctor boyfriend somewhere and she's happy, or she's dead.\" Since his wife disappeared, Shon Pernice has been arrested twice on unrelated charges: once for allegedly stealing a neighbor's gun and another time for disturbing the peace in an incident with that same neighbor this past July Fourth weekend. \"As everybody knows, my wife has been missing since January 2,\" he told CNN affiliate KCTV5. \"This is what it stems from. Basically what the media ... has portrayed of me -- of the whole situation. There's a lot of people that don't like me.\" The couple's two sons, ages 6 and 9, remain in the care of the father, although Renee Pernice's mother has sought custody of them. \"There is a lot that just isn't right,\" said Rick Pretz, the missing woman's father. \"It's not a stable environment for the children.\" Renee Pernice was known for being a caring mother, a talented nurse at St. Luke's Hospital and a gentle animal lover always surrounded by dogs. Neighbors say they last saw her in her backyard with her dogs the morning of Friday, January 2, 2009. When police searched the home, they say they found her purse, coat and other items still in the house. Her car was in the garage. Police say her cell phone was missing from the house. A homeless man found the phone in grass about 15 miles from her home, in an area Renee Pernice was not known to frequent, police say. It was found around midnight January 3, the affidavit says. Since then, police and volunteer teams have searched the area extensively, but they have found nothing. \"Family members and common friends of both Shon and Renee told police that Renee was not the kind of mother who would separate herself from her children for any reason,\" the affidavit says. \"Family members advised that finding Renee's purse at the residence was highly unusual as she never went anywhere without her purse.\" According to the affidavit, investigators watched Shon Pernice drive away from the home with his wife's dog and drop it off at a park a few days after he reported his wife missing. The affidavit also alleges that a drop of blood was found in the garage. However, authorities have not released whether it matched Renee Pernice or her husband. According to Renee Pernice's family, she was not the kind of person to take off on her own without letting her family know where she was. \"I spoke to her just the night before at 7 p.m. on the phone,\" her father told CNN. \"She would never leave her two sons like this.\" The family is offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the whereabouts of Renee Pernice. A white truck that could be related to her disappearance was captured on a surveillance tape in the area where her cell phone was found, and police have released a photo of it. Anyone who may have lent such a truck at the time the surveillance image was taken is being asked to come forward. Renee Pernice is white, stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall, and has brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information is urged to call the Kansas City Police Department at 1-816-474-TIPS. CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Renee Pernice disappeared from her home shortly after New Year's this year .\nPolice believe foul play is involved, although they have not found a body .\nPolice say her husband accessed a HazMat building shortly after she disappeared .\nAttorneys for husband, Shon Pernice, declined comment for this report .","id":"fab72a264ff5f983c6557100d882c7938d38918c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman and three children were killed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when a suspected robber fleeing in a car jumped a curb and struck them, police said Thursday. Four people were killed after a car fleeing police struck a home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. \"He literally cut a tree in half,\" Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said, \"then hit the 1-year-old, [who] was in a stroller. The other individuals were on the front porch of their own home. He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose.\" Latoya Smith, 22, died Thursday from injuries in the crash, which occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Fentonville area of north Philadelphia, police Capt. James Clark said. Smith's daughter, Remedy Smith -- who would have turned 1 on Friday -- died at the scene, as did Alicia Griffin, 6, and Gina Rosario, 7, Clark said. Video of the scene showed a crumpled silver Pontiac on the sidewalk, pushed up against the front steps of a house and wedged against a tree. Watch police commissioner describe carnage \u00bb . Donta Cradock, 18, the alleged driver of the gray Pontiac, faces charges for theft of a motorcycle, the crime that allegedly triggered his flight, police said. Other charges are pending approval from the district attorney's office, police said. \"We're hopeful that it will be four counts of murder,\" Clark said. Cradock and an alleged accomplice, Ivan Rodriguez, 20, stole a motorcycle at gunpoint around 7:30 p.m., he said. Rodriguez fled the scene on the motorcycle, while Cradock drove away in the Pontiac, Clark said. An unidentified person told a traffic police officer in the area about the alleged robbery and pointed out the Pontiac, he said. The police officer followed the car and tried to stop it at a traffic light, Clark said. \"At that point the Pontiac fled at a high rate of speed,\" he said. The officer followed the vehicle, but lost sight of it, Clark said. The officer was not close enough to chase the car, police said, but eventually came across what Clark called a \"horrific accident.\" Cradock was thrown from the Pontiac and is in the hospital, Clark said. He said a gun was recovered on the suspect. Rodriguez was arrested at his home, Clark said, and faces a theft charge. Both men have \"very extensive criminal histories,\" Ramsey said. Bench warrants were out on them at the time of their arrest, Clark said. It was not immediately clear if the two had retained attorneys. CNN's Mark Norman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Donta Cradock, 18, allegedly fled scene of motorcycle robbery in silver Pontiac .\nPolice chase ends when car hits home, killing Latoya Smith, 3 kids .\n\"He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose,\" police say .\nCradock and accomplice face motorcycle theft charges; others pending .","id":"27ca146e29c643beab690e0451229078e88c75ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Agents arrested 20 out of 42 people accused in a California Medicaid fraud ring that allegedly bilked the state out of nearly $4.6 million and put the lives of disabled children at risk, a prosecutor said. The defendants are accused of either posing as licensed nurses or organizing a scheme to send unlicensed nurses to provide home- or school-based care to disabled patients, many of them children with cerebral palsy or other developmental disabilities, the office of the U.S. attorney for central California said in a written statement. The long defendant's list makes the case the largest of Medicaid fraud in California, U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said in the statement. Each defendant has been charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and at least one count of health care fraud, according to the statement. Some parents and patients became suspicious of the nurses when they noticed their lack of skills. \"In one case, a 'nurse' was unable to replace a tracheotomy tube that had fallen out of a young patient's neck. In another case, an impostor nurse simply fled a medical situation when she apparently was unable to provide assistance,\" according to the statement. Some of the unlicensed nurses had foreign training, but never passed a U.S. qualifying nursing exam, the attorney's office said, while others had no medical training at all. Two defendants -- Susan Bendigo and Priscilla Villabroza, the accused ringleaders -- were charged separately. Bendigo and Villabroza instructed the workers to lie about their status and used the names of licensed nurses on documents, the indictment says. Villabroza operated a home health agency -- the Santa Fe Springs company Medicare Plus Home Health Providers -- the indictment said. Villabroza, a registered nurse, knowingly hired unlicensed nurses and billed Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, for the work of licensed vocational nurses from August 2004 through 2007, the indictment alleges. Villabroza pleaded guilty last year to five federal counts of health care fraud, the attorney's office said. Bendigo, a registered nurse, was also director of Santa Fe Springs' Excel Plus Home Health Services, which provided nurses to home health agencies, according to the indictment. Bendigo also was charged last year but fled the country, the statement said. Officials think she is hiding in the Philippines, said U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek. Villabroza is awaiting sentencing, and could be sent to prison for up to 50 years, Mrozek said. Each of the 42 new defendants faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for each charge if convicted, according to the statement.","highlights":"Prosecutor: Long defendants list makes case the largest Medicaid fraud in California .\n\"Nurses\" cared for disabled patients, many of them children, in homes, schools .\nPatients became suspicious of nurses when they noticed their lack of skills .\nRingleaders accused of telling workers to lie about status, using real nurses' names .","id":"b678cb15beaad0c22292b2dd790163315024a36d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hope was 14 years old when her uncle raped her. Betty Makoni founded the Girl Child Network to help Zimbabwe's young sexual abuse victims. \"He trapped me to the ground and covered my mouth with his hand,\" said the 18-year-old from Zimbabwe. \"He threatened to kill me if I ever told anybody.\" So, she kept quiet. \"After a while people around the villages started saying that I looked pregnant,\" she said. Hope was not only pregnant, but her uncle had infected her with HIV. Like many young girls in Zimbabwe, Hope was the victim of a widely held belief that if a man with HIV or AIDS rapes a virgin he will be cured of his disease. This so-called virgin myth, perpetuated by Zimbabwe's traditional healers, has led to the rape of hundreds of girls, according to UNICEF. Some of those victims are too young to walk, much less protect themselves. Betty Makoni has fought for nearly a decade to protect her country's young girls from sexual abuse. And she's witnessed some of the worst cases of the myth in action. \"The youngest girl I ever came across was a day-old baby who was raped,\" said Makoni, 37. Through her Girl Child Network (GCN), Makoni has helped rescue 35,000 girls from abuse -- including Hope; thousands more have found an empowering community and a public forum in which to speak out. \"Ten girls per day report rape cases,\" she said. \"It means if we keep quiet, at least 3,600 girls per year may just be contracting HIV and AIDS.\" Makoni's own tragic experiences fuel her fierce determination. \"I was raped when I was 6 years old,\" she recalled. Her attacker was a local shopkeeper. Makoni said her mother would not allow her to report the abuse. \"She said, 'Shh, we don't say that in public,' \" Makoni remembered. \"I had no shoulder to cry on.\" Three years later, she witnessed her father murder her mother. In that moment, Makoni said she realized the potentially deadly consequence of a woman's silence. \"I told myself that no girl or woman will suffer the same again,\" she said. Believing an education would provide her the best opportunity and means to speak out, Makoni earned two university degrees and became a teacher. While teaching, she noticed that girls were dropping out of school at an alarming rate. She approached her students with an idea. \"I [said] to girls, 'Let's have our own space where we talk and find solutions,' \" Makoni said. Girl Child Network was born. Watch Makoni help young girls find safety and empowerment in Zimbabwe \u00bb . By the end of the first year, there were 100 GCN clubs throughout Zimbabwe where girls could find support. Makoni said she was not surprised: \"Every woman and girl identified with the issues that we were raising,\" she said. In 2000, she quit her teaching job to volunteer with GCN full time. \"I decided to become an advocate because I walked my own journey to survival,\" she said. The following year Makoni successfully procured a piece of land and opened the organization's first empowerment village, designed to provide a haven for girls who have been abused. Girls are either rescued or referred to the village by social services, the police and the community. The healing begins as soon as a girl arrives. \"In the first 72 hours, a girl is provided with emergency medication, reinstatement in school, as well as counseling,\" said Makoni. It is important to her that the girls are in charge of their own healing. \"It gives them the confidence to transform from victims to leaders,\" she explained. The process helped Hope work through the times when she said \"I thought my life had come to end.\" \"They offered all they could ... as I was in a traumatized state,\" she said. \"I really appreciate what [Betty Makoni] has done and is doing in my life.\" Today, GCN has grown to 700 girls' clubs and three empowerment villages across Zimbabwe. An estimated 300,000 girls have received assistance. For those who were at greatest risk, Makoni believes that help was especially critical. \"If my organization didn't exist, the 35,000 girls I've saved from rape and abuse could have died by now,\" she said. But for Makoni, speaking out came with a high personal cost. In 2008, she was forced to flee her native country. \"I left Zimbabwe because my life was in danger as a result of my project being interpreted politically.\" Watch Makoni describe her reasons for leaving her homeland \u00bb . Today, she lives with her family in the United Kingdom. She still serves as executive director of her organization and shows no signs of slowing down. GCN has partnered with the DOVE project, a group based in Essex, England, that deals with domestic violence. \"We are now bringing the girls from a local community to the international scene,\" she said. Her efforts in Zimbabwe will also be highlighted in an upcoming documentary, Tapestries of Hope. Makoni says nothing will end her fight for the rights of women and girls. \"This is the job I have always wanted to do, because it gives me fulfillment. And in girls I see myself every day.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Girl Child Network and see how to help.","highlights":"Many in Zimbabwe believe a man raping a virgin can cure him of HIV or AIDS .\nBetty Makoni's Girl Child Network cares for Zimbabwe's young sex abuse victims .\nThe organization has rescued more than 35,000 girls .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"44d60b47378fe72d6ac24184e73fed09d390a4de"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held a commanding lead in national elections Wednesday, according to the latest exit polls. A woman votes at a polling station in Indonesia. An average of six exit polls showed the incumbent holding about 60 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and 12 percent for Yudhoyono's vice president, Yusuf Kalla. Official results are expected no sooner than next week. Indonesia has 175 million registered voters spread over 17,000 islands. It was the country's second direct election since the authoritarian regime of dictator Suharto fell in 1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. Analysts and polls, ahead of the vote, predicted Yudhoyono -- riding high on the country's economic strength -- would win a second term. Watch as incumbent expected to win election \u00bb . In 2004, Yudhoyono defeated then-incumbent Megawati in a runoff election. Watch more on the election \u00bb . Yudhoyono \"has positive global image; relations with the American government have been the best in all the time that I have been here, the last 30 years,\" said James Castle, who analyzes Indonesia's politics and economy. \"He's very popular in the foreign community and, to be honest, if he's not re-elected, the markets will react negatively for a month or so.\" Yudhoyono's Democratic Party was the only single party to get enough votes in April's legislative elections to nominate a candidate on its own. Kalla's Golkar Party came in second and Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, placed third. Kalla and Megawati had to form coalitions with other parties to run for president. Kalla had hoped voters would give him some of the credit for Indonesia's economic successes which occurred under his term as vice president. Kalla and Megawati had to form coalitions with other parties to run for president. See a photo slideshow of Indonesians talking about who they will vote for \u00bb . Yudhoyono is known as \"Mr. Clean\" because of his anti-corruption efforts. He has gained popularity for his handling of the 2004 tsunami recovery and the country's battle against terrorism. Indonesia has had impressive economic growth over the past five years, though how much direct credit Yudhoyono can take for that is questionable. And despite Indonesia posting an average of 5.9 percent annual growth during his presidency, little of that has trickled down to the country's poor. Yudhoyono's opponents say he is too liberal, is too skewed toward the west, and doesn't pay enough attention to the 40 million Indonesians living below the poverty line. Still, the country is exhibiting surprising resilience in the face of the global economic downturn. Growth topped 6 percent last year, and Indonesia was the fastest-growing economy in southeast Asia in the first quarter of this year. \"All off a sudden, everybody is contracting except for Indonesia,\" Castle said. \"We've had more visiting regional heads and so on in the last six months than we had in the last six years.\"","highlights":"NEW: Polls close; Official results expected no sooner than next week .\nThree familiar faces competed: current president, his deputy and an ex-president .\nAnalysts and polls have Yudhoyono (known as SBY) tipped to win a second term .\nSBY is riding high on the country's economic strength .","id":"65e180d16638338f6b372736be4c8541e6cf3ba5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A leader of the conservative \"Blue Dog\" Democrats told CNN Wednesday he and other group members may vote to block House Democrats' health care bill from passing a key committee if they don't get some of the changes they want. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Arkansas, is a leading negotiator for the Blue Dog Democrats on health care. \"We remain opposed to the current bill, and we continue to meet several times a day to decide how we're going to proceed and what amendments we will be offering as Blue Dogs on the committees,\" said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Arkansas. Ross said the bill unveiled Tuesday by House Democratic leaders did not address concerns he and other conservative Democrats outlined in a letter late last week to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The conservative Democrats don't believe the legislation contains sufficient reforms to control costs in the health care system and believe additional savings can be found. Their letter to leaders raised concerns about new mandates on small businesses. Blue Dogs also say the bill fails to fix the inequities in the current system for health care costs for rural doctors and hospitals. The Energy and Commerce committee, along with two other House committees, is scheduled to take up the bill Thursday. Democrats outnumber Republicans 36-23 on the Energy and Commerce committee, which contains eight Blue Dogs, including Ross. If seven Democrats vote with Republicans against the bill, it would fail to advance to the House floor. Asked whether the Blue Dogs on Energy and Commerce are considering voting as a group against the bill if it remains unchanged, Ross replied, \"absolutely.\" He didn't give details on changes the Blue Dogs want. But he did say he wasn't satisfied with the penalty exemption for small businesses that don't provide health insurance for employees. An earlier draft of the Democrats' bill exempted businesses from paying a penalty if their payrolls were less than $100,000. Democratic leaders raised that payroll amount to $250,000.","highlights":"Rep. Mike Ross: House Democrats' bill doesn't address group's concerns .\nBlue Dog Democrats: Bill doesn't control costs in the health care system .\nIf committee's Blue Dogs and Republicans vote against it, bill won't advance .","id":"72a65955bce14f96d8d58329d9cfdad50c85b7a3"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months, some by the nation's security forces, Human Rights Watch said Monday. Iraqi clerics say homosexuality must be eradicated but warn against anti-gay violence. Interviews with doctors indicate hundreds of men had been killed, but the exact number was unclear because of the stigma associated with homosexuality in Iraq, the New York-based watchdog group said in its report. \"Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,\" said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. \"Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.\" Four victims who spoke to CNN gave accounts of the attacks, which they say have intensified in the past few months. \"In 2004, militias and unknown groups started to go after the gays ... but the peak was six months ago,\" said Qaisar, who uses a pseudonym for fear of reprisal. \"It has become wide scale war against gays in Iraq.\" Iraqi officials acknowledged that the nation's culture stigmatizes homosexuality, but said the government does not condone such attacks. Authorities are unable to provide homosexuals with special protection, said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. According to Human Rights Watch, which is urging a government crackdown, attackers target people on the streets or storm homes, where they conduct interrogations and demand names of suspected gay men. Many end up in hospitals and morgues, the organization said, basing its conclusion on reports from doctors. Men have been threatened with \"honor killings\" by relatives worried that their \"unmanly behavior\" will ruin the family's reputation, Human Rights Watch said. Watch Iraqi men discuss attacks \u00bb . Killings, kidnappings and torture of those suspected of homosexual conduct have intensified in areas such as the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, the watchdog said. \"The Shiite people started this war and especially what happened in Sadr City,\" Qaisar said, adding that his sister-in-law had warned him against going to the area. Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which is active in Sadr City, has joined in the attacks and defends its actions as a way to stop the \"feminization\" of Iraqi men, the report said. \"We have testimony that indicates that the nation's security forces are taking part in the attacks,\" Long said. The group interviewed more than 50 people who gave accounts of abuses, beatings and stops at security checkpoints, he said. \"When the gay killings started and when they started go(ing) after them at checkpoints ... we started to change our look,\" said Basim, who also used a pseudonym. \"These killings point to the continuing and lethal failure of Iraq's post-occupation authorities to establish the rule of law and protect their citizens,\" said Rasha Moumneh, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch. A provision from the Saddam Hussein era endorses crimes committed \"with honorable motives,\" according to the organization. The government spokesman said the provision was popular during the Saddam era, but is not used today. He added that there is a push to educate police about human rights. Attacks against civilians, including homosexuals, are not allowed, al-Dabbagh said.","highlights":"Human Rights Watch says people are targeted on the streets and interrogated .\nGroup: Killings, kidnappings and torture of suspected homosexuals are escalating .\nAttacks against civilians, including homosexuals, not allowed, Iraq spokesman says .","id":"433a96131c9ccb99d76adba495e201d1448b9496"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Members of the international community have reacted to the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran and the oppostion protests which have accompanied the result. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pictured at a rally held in Tehran Sunday to celebrate his re-election as Iranian president. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement Saturday: \"We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide. \"The United States has refrained from commenting on the election in Iran. We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people.\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Saturday the administration was \"impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians.\" U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, commenting on NBC's \"Meet the Press\" Sunday, said: \"I have doubts, but withhold comment.\" He added that the Iranian government had suppressed crowds and limited free speech, which raised questions. He also said that the strong showing by Ahmadinejad was \"unlikely,\" based on pre-election analysis. Gallery: Emotions run high after election \u00bb . Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman said in a statement that \"the problem which Iran poses for the international community is not personal in nature, but derives from its policy. \"In any case, in light of Tehran's ongoing policy, and even more so after Ahmadinejad's re-election, the international community must continue to act uncompromisingly to prevent the nuclearization of Iran, and to halt its activity in support of terror organizations and undermining stability in the Middle East. In a statement Saturday the EU Presidency said it was \"concerned about alleged irregularities during the election process and post-electional violence that broke out immediately after the release of the official election results on 13 June 2009. \"The Presidency hopes that outcome of the Presidential elections will bring the opportunity to resume the dialogue on nuclear issue and clear up Iranian position in this regard. The Presidency expects the new Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take its responsibility towards international community and respect its international obligations.\" UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Saturday that the UK government had \"followed carefully, and admired, the passion and debate during the Iranian election campaign. \"We have also heard the concerns about the counting of ballots expressed by two of the candidates. This is a matter for the Iranian authorities to address. We will continue to follow developments. Our priority is that Iran engages with the concerns of the world community, above all on the issue of nuclear proliferation.\" Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement backed by Iran, welcomed the results. He urged the world to respect Iranian democracy and accept the results of the elections. The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement Sunday that he had congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory. It added that Karzai believed \"relations between the two Muslim nations of Afghanistan and Iran expanded during Mr. Ahmadinejad's first term and hoped that these relations get stronger during his second term.\" German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told ARD Sunday that the Iranian ambassador in Berlin would be summoned to explain the treatment of protesters against the result. \"I have already prompted Iran, together with European colleagues today, to quickly shed light on what has happened there -- if one can take the announced election results there seriously or not,\" he added. Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have offered their congratulations to Ahmadinejad, the official Anatolian Agency reported Monday. It said that they \"called Ahmadinejad on the phone and congratulated him for his success in the election.\" Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, that Canada was \"deeply concerned\" about allegations of voting irregularities. \"We're troubled by reports of intimidation of opposition candidates' offices by security forces. We've asked our embassy officials in Tehran to closely monitor the situation, and Canada is calling on Iranian authorities to conduct fair and transparent counting of all ballots.\" CNN's Shira Medding in Jerusalem and Greg Clary in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. Vice President Joe Biden: Questions need to be asked about vote .\nUK: We admire passion of the election, Iran needs to address fears about fairness .\nEU Presidency: Hopes outcome sees opportunity for dialogue on nuclear issue .\nTurkish media: President, prime minister have offered congratulations .","id":"e8844e902570490ef943d29bc728df70c4e5f63c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A drunk passenger who tried to set the curtains of a Boeing 767 on fire during a trans-Atlantic flight is in custody in Vienna, Austria, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday. A drunk Delta passenger was placed in custody after he tried to light curtains on fire during a flight. There was no apparent connection to terrorism, officials said. Zoltan Lensky, 25, a Slovakian citizen, was on Delta Flight 40 from Atlanta, Georgia, to Vienna Wednesday night when flight attendants refused his request for more liquor. According to TSA spokesman Christopher White, Lensky slapped a flight attendant on the hand, moved forward in the cabin, pulled out a lighter and tried to ignite the curtains around the flight attendants' rest area. A federal air marshal on the flight arrested Lensky and put him in handcuffs, White said. Lensky was handed over to authorities in Vienna when the flight landed. It is policy for air marshals never to fly alone. According to White, the other air marshal, or marshals, on the Delta flight remained undercover in case Lensky was being used as a diversion. However, \"he was nothing but an intoxicated passenger,\" said White.","highlights":"A drunk passenger tried to set the curtains of a Boeing 767 on fire .\nZoltan Lensky, 25, a Slovakian citizen, was on Delta flight from Atlanta to Vienna .\nHe slapped a flight attendant's hand when she refused to provide more booze .\nLensky was handed over to authorities in Vienna when the flight landed .","id":"2c8cc0d9afe07f8001c194751157cdf341c08636"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Paul McCartney has come to New York and he wants to shout it from the rooftops. Paul McCartney performs Wednesday on the roof above the marquee of New York's Ed Sullivan Theater. To promote his concert at Citi Field this Friday, the former Beatle performed Wednesday afternoon on the roof above the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee before his appearance on \"Late Night with David Letterman,\" which is taped in the theater. Wednesday's performance began at 5:30 p.m. ET and included a set of classics including \"Get Back,\" \"Band on the Run,\" \"Helter Skelter\" and \"Back in the USSR.\" Sporting a pink button-up shirt and suspenders, McCartney played to a huge crowd that blocked off traffic near the intersection of 53rd Street and Broadway. McCartney occasionally waved to occupants of nearby buildings as they gathered at their windows to listen to the concert. McCartney will be the first music act to play at Citi Field, and that concert will kick off his summer U.S. tour. The Ed Sullivan Theater, named for the late variety-show host, has special meaning for McCartney as it was the site of the Beatles' historic televised performance in 1964.","highlights":"McCartney performs songs before appearance on \"Late Night with David Letterman\"\nFormer Beatle promoting his Friday concert at New York's Citi Field .\nEd Sullivan Theater was site of Beatles' historic 1964 TV performance .","id":"cd1117db1f0bea282973cef4032e2de11c2809a4"} -{"article":"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- Just after midnight on July 16, 1969, Jack King kissed his wife goodbye at their Cocoa Beach, Florida home, jumped in his car, and drove to Dunkin' Donuts for a doughnut and a cup of coffee. Jack King became the voice of the Apollo 11 launch. \"It was quite a thrilling time,\" he says. It was the start of a big day: the launch of a Saturn V rocket, lifting man from the face of the Earth to the face of the moon. King, the chief of public information at Kennedy Space Center, would become known that day as the voice of Apollo 11. In the wee hours of the morning, he followed his launch-day routine. But as he headed across the causeway to the space center, King lost sight of the lagoon he normally passed -- the view obstructed by RVs and trailers that had secured their spots for a view of the moon launch. \"The town was very much alive; the vibrancy was entirely different. Three-quarters of a million people had come into the area to view the launch, so it was quite a thrilling time,\" says King, now 78. \"When I'd cross the bridge over the Banana River heading to the Space Center, I'd pull off onto the side of the road, get out of the car, and there was the Saturn V, bathed in the floodlights, just glowing.\" Hear the voice of King, watch as Apollo took off for moon \u00bb . \"It was a just a very impressive, majestic rocket.\" Launch manager Paul Donnelly recalls, \"We launched at 9:32 that morning.\" He reported for work the night before to oversee the hazardous and delicate operation of fueling the three-stage rocket. \"Everything on Apollo 11 went just beautiful, no real problems.\" He says he always told the astronauts, \"The launch crew wishes you good luck and Godspeed.\" As the hatch closed that day, he says he was thinking, \"Go! Go! Go! Let's do it.\" See the men who've walked the moon \u00bb . Forty years after America's launch of Apollo 11, the U.S. space program is at a different crossroads, challenged in recent years to return to the moon and to recapture the ambition that launched the space race in 1961. Back then, a dazzled nation heard the big dreams of a youthful Ivy League-educated, senator-turned president. \"I believe,\" President John F. Kennedy told Congress, \"that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.\" That was the same year Barack Obama was born. Forty-eight years later, Obama, a similarly youthful Ivy League-educated former senator, is now in charge, and the nation wonders what his vision is for the U.S. space program. Watch Buzz Aldrin: U.S. should go to Mars \u00bb . Donnelly, now 86, says he recalls the launch of Apollo 11 as if it were yesterday. He also says he believes President Obama could re-energize the space program. Donnelly believed the moon mission would ultimately come to pass, even after Kennedy had been assassinated. \"It didn't distract me or the people here,\" Donnelly said referring to the launch team. The pressure was on for the United States to get to that fateful launch day, especially given the intense competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. \"It was a missile race before it was a space race,\" said King, a former reporter for The Associated Press. By the time Alan Shepard became the first American in space in 1961, the Russians had already flown two cosmonauts. The Russians, backed by Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev, were also working with a much more powerful rocket. \"The challenges were tremendous. Khruschev appeared at the U.N., slammed his shoe and said -- 'We're going to bury you,' \" King recalls. \"Looking back it was a critical decade, the '60s.\" John Logsdon, who holds the Charles A. Lindbergh chair in aerospace history at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, says for the Kennedy administration, the moon mission was about more than the space race itself. It was also an exercise in soft power -- \"an attempt to show the world the technological strength of the United States in a very visible but peaceful way.\" In striking out for the moon, the United States started on fairly equal footing with the Soviets because at that time, neither had a rocket large enough for a moon mission. One advantage for the United States was the expertise of rocket scientist Werner Von Braun. In 1945, Von Braun and his team of engineers were brought from Nazi Germany, where during World War II they advanced the science of rocket propulsion for military applications. \"Von Braun and his rocket team had plans for space exploration for a long time, and they had designed increasingly larger rockets,\" Logsdon says. \"Their first thought was to build a really large rocket called 'Nova' that would be 50 percent bigger than the Saturn V that we used to go to the moon. It would have been a gigantic rocket.\" In the launch control center at what was then known as Cape Kennedy, on July 16, 1969, there were about 400 engineers and technicians who had worked together to this point, for years. \"We were close,\" says Donnelly. Were there nerves and emotions inside Mission Control? Donnelly says there was a sense of confidence, but beyond that, the team worked methodically through the hundreds of steps involved in the moon launch. Once the astronauts were in the space capsule and the hatch closed, Donnelly says, emotions picked up. Jack King recalls that day as \"one of the smoothest Saturn V countdowns that I ever went through. For most of the count, we were probably 10 or 15 minutes ahead.\" Then, with the launch seconds away, \"We'd go, 'Guidance is internal 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9; ignition sequence start, 6, 5,4,3, 2; all engines running, commit, liftoff.'\" King recalls looking over his shoulder and seeing the 365-foot rocket glowing in the morning sun. \"I see this magnificent thing is sitting in a bed of flames there on the launch pad,\" he says. Unlike the jackrabbit-launch of a space shuttle, King says the moon rocket lumbered away. \"The Saturn V took close to seven seconds just to clear the tower.\" Forty years later, \"the future is under review,\" says Logsdon. A blue-ribbon panel, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, is taking stock of the nation's human space flight program, with a report to President Obama due by the end of this summer. \"There is a high degree of uncertainty right now,\" says Logsdon. Among the biggest questions: Will the United States return to the moon by 2020, as envisioned by former President George W. Bush, or will they lead a coalition of countries into space in the same way the international space station has operated? For Donnelly, it only makes sense for the United States to push on toward Mars. \"Oh yes,\" says Donnelly. \"Great things can happen.\" CNN's Louise Schiavone contributed to this report.","highlights":"Apollo 11 took off for the moon 40 years ago today .\nJack King, voice of Mission Control, says, \"It was quite a thrilling time\"\n\"Everything on Apollo 11 went just beautiful,\" says launch manager Paul Donnelly .\nDonnelly says man should now head for Mars .","id":"dbf585c22ffe5f10c5cc8c301b72f5c3ff4e5487"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series exploring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background and life with those who know her, revealing the experiences that might shape her views as a Supreme Court justice. Sonia Sotomayor is flanked by her supervisor, Warren Murray, and D.A. Robert Morgenthau, right, in 1983. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor graduated with honors from Ivy League schools. But she may have learned some of her most memorable lessons as a young prosecutor, following police into abandoned tenements and tracking down witnesses on the grimy streets of New York. Sotomayor joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office in 1979 during an epic crime wave. Muggings, burglaries and assaults were rampant; homicides topped 1,800 a year. She was recruited from Yale Law School by Robert M. Morgenthau, Manhattan's district attorney. She was 25, and her starting salary was $17,000. The cases in Trial Bureau 50 seasoned the idealistic young lawyer and honed her trial skills. She could shred a witness on cross-examination and move a jury to tears, former colleagues recalled. New York City was awash in heroin, street crime and gun violence. To prepare for trials, she followed police into tenement shooting galleries, scaled rickety staircases in dilapidated buildings and fought off the stench of squalor to talk to reluctant witnesses. Sotomayor's former colleagues and her legal foes describe her as intense, driven and politically astute. As a prosecutor, she had a commanding presence and put in long hours, chugging several cans a day of the diet soft drink Tab and chain-smoking cigarettes. (She no longer smokes.) Watch how she made an impression on fellow prosecutors \u00bb . Trial Bureau 50, with its crowded cubicles and walls painted the color of putty, has sent many lawyers onto distinguished careers in public service, including the late Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and John Kennedy Jr. Sotomayor's five years there, say Manhattan prosecutors past and present, make her uniquely qualified for the nation's highest court. If confirmed, she would be the only justice who prosecuted criminal cases, presided over them and handled criminal appeals. See what would set Sotomayor apart on the court \u00bb . \"If you can handle a felony case load in New York County, you can run a small country,\" said Warren Murray, who ran the bureau when Sotomayor worked there, and still does. \"I think Sonia's most interesting days were in the district attorney's office,\" said Hugh H. Mo, a former homicide prosecutor who supervised Sotomayor and tried cases with her. \"You can grow up in the projects and still be very sheltered. She got her education on the streets of Harlem.\" Like most rookies, Sotomayor started with misdemeanors, juggling 60 to 80 cases at a time, working 12-hour days in the 1930s-era building on the tip of Manhattan, and pulling an occasional shift in night court. \"Some of the judges liked to use the new assistants to clear their calendars,\" Morgenthau recalled. \"She quickly established herself as somebody the judges couldn't push around.\" On her second trial, Sotomayor met Dawn Cardi, a rookie Legal Aid lawyer who was trying her first case. They became best friends. \"We were both baby attorneys,\" Cardi said. \"She's really, really smart and very well-prepared. She was an excellent trial attorney. She had a talent for it.\" Another defense attorney, Gerald Lefcourt, recalled Sotomayor as \"a very zealous prosecutor,\" adding, \"She didn't see gray. She only saw black and white.\" Sotomayor moved up quickly in the D.A.'s office. It wasn't long before she was prosecuting murder cases. To prepare for trials, she hit the streets, working junkies and street characters for information and comforting grieving families. The work was sometimes unnerving, but it could also provide an adrenalin rush. \"You could feel the violence. It was palpable,\" said Mo, who with Sotomayor accompanied detectives of Harlem's 28th precinct into top-floor apartments in six-story tenements to prepare for what became known as the \"Tarzan Burglar\" case. \"Normal people do not walk into these buildings,\" he recalled. \"They were hangouts for drug addicts.\" Robert M. Morgenthau remembers Sotomayor for her role in both the Tarzan Burglar case and in winning the office's first conviction under a rewritten child pornography law. Sotomayor mentioned the lessons of the Tarzan case during her confirmation hearings. She said the case taught her \"the tragic consequences of needless deaths.\" A family was destroyed after one of the siblings was killed by a bullet in the head, she said. \"They scattered to the four winds, and only one brother remained in New York who could testify,\" she said Tuesday. The Tarzan case was Sotomayor's rite of passage as a prosecutor. She sat second chair, meaning she assisted Mo, the lead prosecutor, at the murder trial of Richard Maddicks. Read the complaint (pdf) Maddicks earned his nickname by swinging from building to building with rope and cables, Mo said. Along his route, he burglarized top-floor apartments, robbed residents and shot people who got in his way. Sotomayor convinced Maddicks' girlfriend, Mabel Ivey, to testify, pointing out that she could shave years off her sentence in another case if she cooperated. They linked the murder weapon to Maddicks through a neighbor who sold liquor after-hours through a hole cut in the door of his basement apartment. Sotomayor questioned the man, Charles \"Wirdell\" Brown, in court, Mo recalled. It was a high point in the colorful trial. She had the jury in tears as she questioned the girlfriend of a man fatally shot by the Tarzan Burglar. Sotomayor impressed Mo with her organizational skills and ability to boil a complicated case into the essential elements that resonate with jurors. She helped write his opening statement for the five-week trial and -- long before computers and PowerPoint -- crafted People's Exhibit One, a large poster-board chart illustrating the pattern linking the Tarzan Burglar to his crimes. The chart somehow survived nearly three decades in Mo's basement laundry room. During the trial, Sotomayor handled the questioning of half the 40 witnesses. Maddicks was convicted of murder, robbery and related crimes and sentenced to 62\u00bd years to life in prison. He's still serving time \"upstate,\" as Manhattan's prosecutors say. Even 30 years ago, it was obvious Sotomayor was going places. See her life story told in pictures \u00bb . \"Did anybody think she was going to the Supreme Court? Of course not,\" said Cardi. \"But when you look back, you see she always stood out. She was always really a cut above.\" \"She was very focused, very ambitious, very competent, very hardworking,\" Mo recalled. What struck him most, he said, was her confidence. \"She wanted to reach the highest pinnacle of the profession and didn't think that was far-fetched. You could see it. She wanted to make history,\" Mo said.","highlights":"Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor began her legal career as a prosecutor .\nShe worked in the Manhattan DA's office from 1979 to 1984 .\nHer former colleagues remember Sotomayor as driven and focused .\nManhattan DA Robert M. Morgenthau on Thursday's Senate witness schedule .","id":"e9614090663892b7e5d2f5fdb9c222adb3bb12be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will decide this week whether to allow gays and lesbians who are not celibate to serve as clergy members and lay leaders, a spokesman said Tuesday. Current Evangelical Lutheran Church policy allows gay and lesbian clergy, lay people to serve only if celibate. Spokesman John Brooks said the church's 1,045 voting members, who are at a weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will vote Friday on whether to change its policy regarding gay clergy members. The policy allows gays and lesbians to serve as clergy members and lay leaders if they are celibate, Brooks said. Heterosexual clergy are allowed to have sex within marriage. The new policy would allow gays and lesbians in \"publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships,\" to serve as clergy and lay leaders, according to the proposal. Lay leaders are people other than clergy members who are on the professional rosters of the church. A simple majority will decide the vote, Brooks said. He said there is a \"wide range of opinions\" on changing the policy. The body is also scheduled to vote Wednesday on a social statement on sexuality that has been eight years in the making, he said. \"It's important for us because it informs the basis for policy,\" he said. According to its Web site, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has 4.6 million members. The church is not the only denomination that has dealt with the issue of gay clergy. Last month, the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops voted by a wide margin to allow gays and lesbians to become bishops, Episcopal Life reported. In April, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted against allowing openly gay pastors to serve, according to the Presbyterian News Service.","highlights":"Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meeting in Minneapolis this week .\nPolicy allows gays, lesbians to serve as clergy, lay leaders if they are celibate .\nIf approved, new policy would allow them to serve if in monogamous relationships .\nSpokesman says simply majority vote of 1,045 members to decide issue .","id":"8e2e2cea9880fae4abcd7231177422ccff9d100c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Undercover officers rescued a baby gorilla from suspected animal traffickers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a national park in the country announced Tuesday. This baby gorilla was rescued from a suspected trafficker in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorilla, thought to be about two years old, was hidden at the bottom of a bag and covered with clothes when Congolese Wildlife Authority officers arrested the suspected trafficker on Sunday, Virunga National Park said. The gorilla, a female, was overheated and dehydrated after six hours in transit. She also had a puncture wound on her right leg, among other injuries, and is malnourished, but is responding to treatment, the park said in a statement. It is not clear if the young gorilla's mother is alive or dead, park spokeswoman Samantha Newport said. \"You can assume that a gorilla family was attacked in order for the traffickers to obtain a baby -- but it is impossible to know if a whole family was wiped out, just a few individuals, or none at all,\" she said. \"In most cases gorillas have to die to get a baby -- but we cannot know specifically for this case.\" The animal is now being looked after by specially trained carers, Newport said. \"This is of course not an ideal replacement for a mother -- but the best option we have,\" she told CNN via e-mail. Carers often have some veterinary training, but are not fully fledged vets, she added. But gorillas do not do well in situations like this, she warned. \"Gorillas, it is worth noting, are notoriously difficult to keep alive,\" she said. \"Chimps are fighters, as are bonobos. But gorillas -- when the going gets tough -- tend to just shut down. So it really is a critical time right now to ensure she gets the veterinary attention and human warmth that she needs to get through this.\" The suspect was getting off a plane from the interior of the country, near the gorillas' habitat, the park said. One person has been charged under the country's law forbidding the destruction of flora and fauna, Newport told CNN. The park did not name the suspect. Gorillas can fetch up to $20,000 on the black market, the head of Virunga National Park said. \"Investigations have yet to reveal where these animals are being sent and who is buying them, but on the ground sources tell us that a baby gorilla can fetch up to $20,000,\" said Emmanuel de Merode, the director. \"We must remember that for each trafficked baby gorilla, several gorillas have probably been killed in the wild.\" He led the three-month undercover operation that netted the suspect and the gorilla, the park said. The gorilla is a lowland eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), also known as the Grauer's Gorilla, a subspecies of Eastern Gorilla only found in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the park. Virunga National Park calls itself the oldest national park in Africa, established in 1925. It lies in a region that has been badly affected by the long-running war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorilla section is in a strategically important area near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda. A ranger was killed earlier this year, and rangers lost control of a large part of the park to rebels for over a year. But a census earlier this year suggests mountain gorillas are surviving despite poaching and war. Officials have long said that the 250-square kilometer gorilla reserve in the southern part of Virunga National Park is where around 200 of the world's 700 mountain gorillas live.","highlights":"Undercover officers rescue a baby gorilla from suspected animal traffickers .\nCongolese Wildlife Authority officers find gorilla hidden in bag .\nFemale gorilla was overheated and dehydrated after six hours in transit .","id":"205a623e83327bf0e1b57a756975e0f98fb7d74b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Disney stunt performer died Monday night after suffering an injury during a rehearsal, company and local officials said. A performer was injured during rehearsal for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Hollywood Studios. Walt Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said the performer was injured while performing a tumbling roll for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney's Hollywood Studios, part of the Orlando, Florida, theme park. It was the third fatal incident at the park in less than two months. Earlier this month, a performer was injured in a pirate show and later died. In July, two monorail trains collided, killing a driver. \"'We feel a sense of loss for these valued cast members,\" Suarez said. She said a review would be conducted on each incident. Performers receive extensive training, she said. The Orange County Sheriff's Department identified the performer in the latest incident as Anislav Varbanov, 30, and said he had been pronounced dead at a hospital. Watch a report on the incident \u00bb . Security personnel at Hollywood Studios called 911 Monday evening to say a cast member had suffered a head injury during the rehearsal, the sheriff's department said. No other details were given. The sheriff's department said the incident is under investigation. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Man hurt while rehearsing for Indiana Jones stunt show at Hollywood Studios .\nTwo people died after incidents at Orlando, Florida, theme park this summer .\nSheriff's department is investigating death of Anislav Varbanov .","id":"4df9bfc6950fa1eac293fc656d932c4800cc01ea"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician under investigation in the death of singer Michael Jackson, said in a video posted online Tuesday that he has \"faith the truth will prevail.\" In Dr. Conrad Murray's video, posted on YouTube, he tells supporters he has been receiving their messages. Murray, who was with Jackson when he died, recorded the one-minute video in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday and it posted on YouTube Tuesday, the spokeswoman for his lawyer said. \"I have done all I could do,\" Murray said. \"I told the truth, and I have faith the truth will prevail.\" The video is the first public comment by Murray since Jackson's June 25 death. \"I want to thank all of my patients and friends who have sent such kind e-mails, letters and messages to let me know of your support and prayers for me and my family,\" Murray said. Watch the statement from Jackson's doctor \u00bb . \"Because of all that is going on, I am afraid to return phone calls or use my e-mail. Therefore, I recorded this video to let all of you know that I have been receiving your messages,\" he said. Murray, a cardiologist, owned and operated two medical clinics -- in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in Houston -- but he took a full-time job as Jackson's personal doctor in May as the pop singer prepared for his comeback concerts scheduled to start in July. He was at Jackson's Los Angeles home when the entertainer was found unconscious and rushed to a hospital. Investigators have searched Murray's home and clinics for evidence related to the anesthetic propofol, according to documents filed in court. A source close to the investigation told CNN that Murray is believed to have administered the drug -- also known by the brand name Diprivan -- to Jackson within 24 hours of his death. Murray has been \"under siege\" by the media and targeted by death threats in recent weeks, according to the spokeswoman. \"I have not been able to thank you personally, which, as you know, is not normal for me,\" Murray said in the video. \"Your messages give me strength and courage and keep me going. They mean the world to me. Please, don't worry. As long as I keep God in my heart and you in my life, I will be fine.\"","highlights":"Dr. Conrad Murray was Michael Jackson's doctor; he's under investigation .\nMurray made video, posted to YouTube, in which he thanks supporters .\nSpokesperson: Murray has been \"under siege\" in recent weeks .","id":"25291a0e388dd6047576d7ba1f751f277e5f1397"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ancient man may have started global warming through massive deforestation and burning that could have permanently altered the Earth's climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Primitive slash-and-burn agriculture permanently changed Earth's climate, according to a new study. The study, published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews and reported on the University of Virginia's Web site, says over thousands of years, farmers burned down so many forests on such a large scale that huge amounts of carbon dioxide were pumped into the atmosphere. That possibly caused the Earth to warm up and forever changed the climate. Lead study author William Ruddiman is a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a climate scientist. \"It seems like a common-sense idea that there weren't enough people around 5, 6, 7,000 years ago to have any significant impact on climate. But if you allow for the fact that those people, person by person, had something like 10 times as much of an effect or cleared 10 times as much land as people do today on average, that bumps up the effect of those earlier farmers considerably, and it does make them a factor in contributing to the rise of greenhouse gasses,\" Ruddiman said. Ruddiman said that starting thousands of years ago, people would burn down a forest, poke a hole in the soil between the stumps, drop seeds in the holes and grow a crop on that land until the nutrients were tapped out of the soil. Then they would move on. \"And they'd burn down another patch of forest and another and another. They might do that five times in a 20-year period,\" he said. That slashing and burning on such a large scale spewed enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and warmed the planet, the study says. Ruddiman has studied and researched the idea of ancient man contributing to climate change for years now. And he's endured plenty of criticism over his theories. Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, California, is among those who disagree with Ruddiman. He said Ruddiman is \"exaggerating the importance of early man.\" Caldeira told CNN that while ancient farmers may have played a tiny role in climate change, \"it just wasn't a significant factor.\" He added, \"There are actually studies showing if you cut down forests for farmland, you actually cool the planet, because of the glare from the cleared land.\" Ruddiman and study co-author Erle Ellis, an ecologist with UMBC, acknowledge that some models of past land use show it's only been in the past 150 years -- with a huge population explosion, the onset of the Industrial Age and the rise of fossil-fuel burning -- that global warming has accelerated. But Ruddiman said, \"My argument is that even at the beginning, they just used much more land per person, so even though there weren't that many people, they used enough to start to push these greenhouse gas concentrations up.\" Ruddiman's research also argues that the Earth was on its way to another ice age 10,000 years ago and that ice sheets were already forming in northern latitudes when ancient man started his slashing and burning method of farming.","highlights":"Study: Ancient people were fewer in number, but burned 10 times as much land .\nWilliam Ruddiman: People would slash, burn \"five times in a 20 year period\"\nKen Caldeira, a climate scientist, says study exaggerating impact of early man .","id":"44e367253ff7d90e980debb45f75e1ac8b95ee6e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The largest mass transit project in the country got under way Monday with the help of federal stimulus dollars, as public officials broke ground on a second passenger rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River. Work on the country's largest mass transit project began Monday. The new tunnel will link New Jersey with New York and eventually will double capacity on the nation's busiest rail corridor, running from Washington to Boston, Massachusetts, officials said. Officials participated in the groundbreaking for the $8.7 billion project as commuter trains passed behind them in North Bergen, New Jersey, before entering the existing train tunnel, which went into operation in 1908. \"As we start digging this tunnel, I think that what really it means, we are digging our way out of an economic crisis,\" said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey. \"As we're getting under way, we're seeing the dividends of the Recovery Act being paid right now.\" The Department of Transportation announced Monday that it will commit $3 billion to the project over its lifespan. Of that, $130 million is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the department said.. It is the largest commitment to any transportation project anywhere in the United States in the history of the Department of Transportation, according to administrator Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transportation Administration. \"This is what President Obama means by recovery. It means putting people back to work now to improve the lives of so many others for years to come,\" Rogoff said. The project -- known as ARC, for Access to the Region's Core -- is expected to create 6,000 design and construction jobs. \"This is going to promote mobility, reduce commuter congestion, staunch carbon emissions, enhance regional competitiveness and lay a foundation for an extraordinary expansion of mass transit in the most densely populate state in the nation, New Jersey,\" New Jersey Gov. John Corzine said. New Jersey Transit says 170,000 passengers now travel through the existing train tunnel beneath the Hudson River to New York each day. When completed, the second tunnel will enable that figure to increase to 255,000 passenger trips. The additional passengers will disembark at a new concourse to be built at Penn Station in New York, 150 feet below street level.","highlights":"Tunnel will link New Jersey with New York, doubles commuter rail capacity .\nPart of project financed by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act .\nARC, Access to the Region's Core, expected to create 6,000 jobs .","id":"63e5a0955bf77b99ef3256b4eace1e6188f01d33"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Samina Rajput speaks in hushed tones about her husband, Asif, who was killed alongside former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the December 27 attack that convulsed the nation. Suicide bombings have killed 400 people and wounded nearly 1,000 others in the last three months. \"He always used to say ... 'I am ready to sacrifice my life for the party and my country,'\" Rajput says. She clings to a weathered book with newspaper clippings of her husband, a 28-year-old Bhutto supporter who had great political ambitions. He wanted a brighter and freer Pakistan, Rajput says, as she turns the delicate pages of the scrapbook. The clippings on the faded pages offer little comfort. But a picture of their wedding day less than two years ago, buried among the pages, makes her face light up somewhat. \"As the widow of a martyr, one has to keep dignity, and I will do this up to my last breath,\" Rajput says, clasping her hands and rubbing them together. Suicide bombings like the attack that killed Bhutto and more than 20 of her supporters, including Asif, have intensified in recent months in Pakistan. Watch the devastating effects of bombings \u00bb . On Thursday, a suicide bomber killed at least 23 people and injured more than 58 others outside a court in Lahore, police said. The attack brought to 20 the number of suicide attacks in Pakistan in the last three months, including a failed attack on Bhutto's life in October. The bombings have killed close to 400 people and wounded nearly 1,000 others in the last three months, according to government officials. Pro-Taliban militants with ties to al Qaeda are carrying out the attacks, according to analysts and government officials. CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen says the number of suicide bombings in Pakistan has \"reached unprecedented levels in the past year.\" Previously, Bergen says, such attacks were rare. \"The reason for this rise is because al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban have morphed together ideologically and tactically, and both see themselves at war with the Pakistani state,\" Bergen says. \"Many of the suicide attacks have been aimed at Pakistani politicians, officials and soldiers.\" Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to fight militancy and religious extremism, going after Taliban and al Qaeda within the country. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, recently told CNN that the Pakistani military is \"totally focused on destroying al Qaeda and the Taliban network and not just one person.\" Still, the suicide bombers are succeeding, targeting political parties, rallies, military installations and anyone seen as a threat. Meanwhile, civilians are caught in the crossfire. \"They would like to destabilize our country,\" Azhar Hamdani, who survived a July attack, says of suicide bombers. Clutching a walker, Hamdani recalls the blast that changed his life. On July 17, 2007, a suicide bomber targeted a rally for Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who was stripped of power by Musharraf. The explosion killed at least 12 people and wounded 35 others in the capital, Islamabad. Hamdani remembers a strong blast throwing him several yards. When he regained consciousness, he was missing his left eye and his right leg was severely injured. \"My leg was totally damaged,\" he says. \"My one left eye was damaged and I have several other injuries on my body.\" But at the time of the blast, Hamdani was not focused on his own pain, he says, because he was surrounded by the bodies of his dead friends lying in pools of blood. The bombings, he says, must be stopped. \"I hope that we will succeed and, God willing, we will try to stop these bloody cowards,\" he says. \"I don't think they are Muslim.\" \"Innocent people are suffering.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"19 suicide bombings have rocked Pakistan over the last three months .\nTerror analyst: Number of attacks \"unprecedented\" as Taliban, al Qaeda join forces .\nMan wounded in attack says \"bloody cowards\" must be stopped .","id":"590152e482d7ac828e40056f88d1319d0db23374"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Texas agency is installing videocameras and hiring security officers at a state school for mentally handicapped adults after allegations emerged that workers there staged \"fight club\" battles among residents. Admissions to the Corpus Christi State School in Corpus Christi, Texas have been suspended. The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services also announced Tuesday that it is suspending admissions to the Corpus Christi State School in Corpus Christi. A cell phone containing videos of the alleged abuse at the school was turned over to police last week, and authorities are expecting to file arrest warrants this week, Corpus Christi Police Capt. Tim Wilson said Tuesday. The incidents are believed to have taken place in a school dormitory, Wilson said, adding, \"this has been going on for some time.\" Watch how the 'fight club' scandal unfolded \u00bb . The school's workers \"are charged with the care and custody of these clients, and they are exploiting [them],\" he said. In addition to the videocameras, the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services said it is increasing supervision of night shifts at the school. It also said state school representatives would be making random, unannounced inspections during evening and overnight shifts. Seven school employees have been placed on paid leave by the agency, according to department spokeswoman Cecilia Fedorov. Those employees are barred from coming onto the campus but must sign in at the gate every day they are on leave, she said. State officials are awaiting the outcome of the investigation to determine whether they should take further action, she said. Some former workers also will be interviewed, authorities said. Fedorov said the Department of Aging and Disability Services was told Friday by the state Department of Family and Protective Services that it was opening an investigation into possible abuse or neglect after being alerted to the situation by police. Wilson said those involved are likely to face charges of injury of a disabled person, which can range up to a third-class felony, depending on the extent of a person's involvement. The actual charges, however, will be left up to the Nueces County district attorney, who is participating in the investigation along with the Texas Inspector General's Office, he said. Corpus Christi police received the cell phone a week ago, Wilson said, after someone found it and gave it to an officer working security at a hospital. The officer looked at several of the videos and then gave the phone to the police's forensic unit for analysis. More videos were found in the phone's memory. \"It appears it was some sort of a fight club,\" Wilson said. Twenty videos were found on the phone, with dates going back about a year. All the videos featured the school's \"clients,\" who are severely mentally handicapped, he said. On the videos, the clients \"are not upset like they are being forced,\" Wilson said. \"They are being more goaded into it. There's a lot of voices on there from workers ... saying, 'Look at that, ha ha' ... laughing, stuff like that.\" No clients are seen crying, upset or injured on the videos, he said, but none of the workers is seen stopping the fighting. \"The fighting entails pushing, wrestling and some shoving,\" Wilson said. The Department of Aging and Disability Services said Tuesday that the residents in the images had been assessed and were found to be free of injuries. They are receiving additional counseling, the agency said. Wilson said that four or five clients had been identified, as well as at least five workers, possibly as many as 10. The clients are all adult males, ranging in age from their late teens into their 30s, he said, and as part of the investigation, the inspector general's office has interviewed some of them. Police believe, based on the videos, that the \"fight club\" was confined to one dormitory, Wilson said. CNN's Tracy Sabo and John Murgatroyd contributed to this report.","highlights":"Texas authorities install cameras in school for mentally disabled .\nAdmissions also suspended in wake of \"fight club\" scandal .\nSeven school employees placed on leave; arrest warrants are pending .","id":"1de7cf7088fac2edac5943dfd4da9f8997a5cf5d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A collision involving two big-rigs and a car Wednesday caused an explosion that sent flames and clouds of smoke billowing and collapsed a highway overpass just north of Detroit, Michigan. Fire rages at the site of a tanker crash and overpass collapse on I-75 north of Detroit, Michigan, Wednesday. One of the tankers was traveling on the Interstate 75 about 8:30 p.m. in Hazel Park, near the Nine-Mile overpass, when the collision caused an explosion, said Lt. Shannon Simms of the Michigan State Police. It was headed northbound, said Bill Shreck of the Department of Transportation. Hazel Park is about 10 miles north of downtown Detroit. The explosion erupted upward, causing the overpass, carrying two lanes in each direction, to collapse, Simms said. Watch footage of fire \u00bb . Firefighters put out the blaze late Wednesday and were able to locate all three drivers of the vehicles involved in the crash. The three suffered minor injuries. One of the tankers was filled with thousands of gallons of fuel, Simms said. \"I just saw a huge ball of flame go up when I was at the red light, just went up in flame,\" said witness Mary Greib. \"I took off running.\" Said another witness, who did not want to be identified: \"We had a woman in a light-colored, midsized vehicle of some sort that was hesitant to pass the tanker. A number of vehicles were attempting to go around her in different directions.\" He said he was one of them, and passed her on the right, after which the explosion occurred. \"We are not sure what happened,\" he said. Vince Brennan said he was on the eighth floor of a nearby building when he heard the explosion coming from where \"a vicious curve\" exists on the highway. \"I heard a whole bunch of boom, boom, boom,\" he said. He ran to the window and looked down on a McDonald's restaurant. \"You couldn't even see it, it was so black with smoke,\" he said. \"The flames had to be 30, 40 feet in the air.\"","highlights":"Collision involving two big-rigs and a car erupts in a fiery explosion .\nForce of explosion causes overpass to collapse onto I-75, police say .\nThree drivers involved in crash escape with minor injuries .\nWitness who saw huge ball of flame \"took off running\"","id":"4c0197e451daef8daa5bc44cd6d6ded4de99ab53"} -{"article":"LOCKERBIE, Scotland (CNN) -- Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's fate hangs in the balance. The Libyan man convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombings has terminal prostate cancer and, according to his lawyers, just weeks to live. Mourners at the 20th anniversary memorial service for the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. Scotland's Justice Minister Frank MacAskill is weighing up whether to release him on compassionate grounds so he can die at home; to transfer him to a Libyan jail under a prisoner transfer agreement drawn up between Libya and the UK; or whether to keep him in a Scottish jail for the rest of his days. That is certainly the preferred option of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who last week wrote to Mr MacAskill urging him not to send Al Megrahi home. In Lockerbie itself, matters of politics seem far removed. George Stobbs was one of the first policemen on the scene when the Boeing 747 crashed into Sherwood Crescent. \"I've never talked about the politics of the thing because I had no interest,\" he says. \"People here aren't interested in the politics, they just want to carry on with their lives.\" Stobbs has vivid memories of the night of December 21, 1988 -- the \"shortest and darkest night of the year,\" he says. \"The houses were just slowly burning and more houses were catching fire. The windows were popping, the gutters were burning, everything was burning. It was like hell. I remember seeing a wrought iron gate in the distance and I remember it was dripping like molten butter, drip drip dripping away.\" At first Stobbs thought it was a military aircraft which had crashed into the town. Then he heard that the nose cone of a 747 had landed in a field three miles from Lockerbie and he knew that he was dealing with far greater numbers of dead. \"We were told about the 747,\" he says, \"and we realized we weren't looking for twenty people but for 300. But where were they?\" There is a small memorial room beside the little church of Tundergarth, across the road from where the nose cone landed. Inside are inscriptions from visitors commemorating the huge loss of life and photographs of each of the 270 people who died in the Lockerbie bombing. \"Gentle Lockerbie\" reads one of the inscriptions from a family member who lost a loved one. \"Some say the land there is now tainted, I say it is blessed.\" In the field itself there are no marks to suggest where the nose cone landed. The local farmer points to the horizon across the rolling Scottish hills. \"Between here and the top of the hill, here on my father's farm, we found 120 bodies,\" he says. The force of the explosion and the wind that night blew bits of the plane, personal possessions and body parts across a vast area. Stobbs, and hundreds of policemen and other volunteers combed 845 square meters of land looking for clues as to what brought the plane down. Documents from the plane were even discovered in the North Sea, 60 miles away. The crucial piece of evidence that implicated Al Megrahi was a scrap of clothing wrapped around a part of the device used to detonate the suitcase bomb. It was traced back to a Maltese boutique whose shop-owner recognized Al Megrahi. Lockerbie local John Gair said he was never entirely convinced of Al Megrahi's guilt. \"I did feel that some of the evidence was circumstantial,\" he says. \"I think partly out of compassion and partly out of a possible element of doubt, he should be allowed out.\" As he looks down Sherwood Crescent at the neat rows of houses, not yet twenty years old, he says: \"Life goes on and once a tragedy like this is over people pick up the threads of their lives. And they don't forget but they don't dwell on it. Because there's no earthly point in dwelling on any of this.\" 270 people from 21 nations lost their lives in the beautiful hills around Lockerbie. Some of them had been so badly incinerated no trace of them was ever found, just their personal belongings and the Pan Am passenger list which proved they'd been on board. Twenty years later in the town of Lockerbie, the streets have been rebuilt, the past buried, but not forgotten.","highlights":"CNN's Diana Magnay travels to Lockerbie, Scotland 20 years on from the air tragedy .\nRetired police inspector George Stobbs recalls the scene of devastation .\nHundreds of policemen and other volunteers combed 845 square meters of land .\nLockerbie local John Gair said he was never entirely convinced of Al Megrahi's guilt .","id":"29d049037a5c16a23a2e31d0b82bee323ce78e86"} -{"article":"LEXINGTON, Georgia (CNN) -- A pack of dogs brought down and killed an animal-loving couple last weekend in rural northeastern Georgia, and a similar tragedy could occur anywhere dogs roam freely, authorities say. Two dogs from the pack that killed two people await euthanasia Tuesday at a shelter in northeast Georgia. Sheriff's deputies, code enforcement officers and other officials spent most of Monday and Tuesday rounding up 11 adult dogs and five puppies, Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Capt. Shalon Huff said. One more was trapped Wednesday morning, leaving one still to be captured, she said. \"We're just lucky this hasn't happened before,\" said Susan Fornash, director of the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter in Danielsville, where the captured dogs were held before being euthanized Tuesday under orders from a local judge. \"We've had people bring in a dog because it killed a goat or chased their horses or something like that. And to me, that was just the forerunner of something like this.\" Investigators say they believe that University of Georgia librarian Sherry Schweder, 65, went for her usual morning walk Saturday down Howard Thaxton Road, the narrow dirt lane that runs alongside the couple's property. The dogs were familiar in the area, investigators say, having been left behind when the person who had been caring for some of them moved out of a home at the end of the lane. Authorities theorize that halfway down the lane, about a quarter-mile from her home, Sherry Schweder was confronted by the dogs, which knocked her down and killed her. Her husband, retired UGA language professor Lothar Schweder, became concerned when she didn't return and went out in their Honda CRX to look for her. When he found her lying in the lane and got out to shoo away the dogs, they attacked and killed him too, investigators believe. Although no blood was seen on the dogs, other evidence and autopsy results convince authorities that the pack killed the Schweders, said Jim Fullington, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's office in nearby Athens. Watch what investigators learned \u00bb . Black bears occasionally pass through the area, but none have been reported recently, said Sgt. Doyte Chaffin, a wildlife officer with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Investigators found no prints other than those of dogs and humans, Fullington added. Humans can appear threatening to dogs that run in packs, said Bonnie Beaver, a professor in the department of small animal clinical sciences at Texas A&M University and an expert in pack behavior. \"From their perspective, a person is an alien, if you will,\" Beaver said. \"It would be the same as we would relate to a grizzly bear.\" Dogs kill an average of 10 to 20 people each year in the United States, Beaver said. The vast majority of those cases involve a single dog attacking a small child, she said. As few as two or three dogs, whether urban, suburban or rural, can behave like a pack, Beaver said. And when pack mentality takes over, \"they do insane things that they would not do\" under normal circumstances, she said. \"My bet is there was one ringleader who kind of started it\" in the Georgia case, Beaver said. Something as simple as making eye contact may have made one dog in the group feel threatened, and its body language put the other dogs on edge, triggering an \"escalation,\" she said. Even though none of the dogs weighed more than about 40 pounds, their numbers would have overwhelmed the victims. Screaming, flailing or trying to run would only make things worse, Beaver said. \"To be slight people, as I'm told they both were, and the ages that they were, I don't know what they could have done. I don't know what I would do,\" Fornash said. Jehovah's Witnesses walking up the lane to visit the lone house found the Schweders' mutilated bodies lying next to the car and called 911, Fullington said. He added that a sheriff's deputy had to fire a shot in the air to scare the dogs away. The house the evangelists had intended to visit was unoccupied, but it was home to at least some of the dogs, Fullington said. The owner, Howard Thaxton, had moved out some months earlier because of health and financial problems but had someone drive him every other day to leave food for the dogs, said GBI Special Agent Christopher Bish. Several empty 40-pound bags of Ol' Roy dog food were strewn about the property Tuesday. Thaxton, an amputee who Bish said was recently released from a hospital, has been cooperating with authorities. Thaxton doesn't believe that those animals were capable of killing people, law enforcement officials said. He has not been charged. \"We are still in discussions with the district attorney about culpability and what have you, but no decisions have been reached yet,\" Bish said. Bish said it took 14 visits to Thaxton's house to make initial contact with him. CNN's efforts to find Thaxton for comment were unsuccessful. Stopping the dogs from reproducing might have prevented the tragedy, Fornash said. Just a few dogs can multiply rapidly into a menace, she added. Watch how dog bites might be prevented \u00bb . \"In the blink of an eye, we have a pack of 50 dogs because people don't spay and neuter,\" she said. It took about 90 minutes to euthanize all 16 dogs, several of which were maggot-infested, Fornash said. No one asked that they be checked for rabies, and the sheriff directed that the carcasses be cremated immediately, she said. \"I'm heartbroken for the family,\" Fornash said. \"I can't even imagine how they must feel. And I'm also very sad for those animals, because if they had been cared for the way they should have been, this wouldn't have happened. It's not their fault.\" The Schweders' seven dogs and four of their cats were to be brought to the shelter Wednesday and eventually adopted out, she said. Thaxton's wood frame house that served as the dogs' home sits at the edge of a forest dotted with hunting campers and abandoned 1950s vehicles. Empty 5-gallon water bottles fill a ravine behind the house, and a derelict 1980s Chevy Caprice crouches next to a rusting John Deere tractor under a shade tree. After all the sheriff's deputies and trappers had left Tuesday afternoon, a scruffy red dog appeared, ears up, next to the tractor. The animal, alone, scampered off into the woods.","highlights":"Dogs attacked woman, husband who tried to help her, Georgia authorities say .\nSixteen animals euthanized; couple's pets to be adopted at same shelter .\nPack instincts make untamed dogs dangerous, expert says .\nSpaying and neutering of pets might have prevented tragedy, shelter director says .","id":"7e34b0fa7bebc8f9943a1d052b1357d8488cc328"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The newly named lawyer for Michael Jackson's children makes her first court appearance Monday as a judge decides if he'll approve a contract between Jackson's estate and concert promoter AEG Live. Michael Jackson's estate will be the subject of a court hearing today. Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, who has custody of the three children, objected to provisions of the deal that would give AEG Live a share of rights to video of her son's final rehearsals. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff appointed estate law expert Margaret Lodise last week to represent the children after he decided their interests might sometimes conflict with their grandmother's. Despite warnings by estate lawyers that a delay could cost millions of dollars, Beckloff delayed his decision on the AEG Live contract one week to give the children's new lawyer time to weigh in on the deal. The contract would provide for an exhibition of Jackson memorabilia that would travel to at least three cities, according to Kathy Jorrie, a lawyer for concert promoter AEG Live. \"The longer we wait, the more time passes, frankly, the less interest there will be on the part of the public to come see it,\" Jorrie said. The judge has already approved a contract to allow Columbia Pictures to use video that AEG Live shot of Jackson's last rehearsals for a documentary due out this fall. Columbia is a division of Sony Pictures. Sony Pictures said it would deliver the movie -- \"This Is It\" -- to theaters starting October 30 \"with the full support of the estate of Michael Jackson.\" Court papers filed last week revealed that Columbia Pictures would pay a minimum of $60 million for the rights to make the Jackson movie. Katherine Jackson's lawyers, while endorsing the movie deal, have objected to terms given to AEG, saying they are too generous to the company. Jackson's lawyers objected to the estate's agreement to let AEG recover all its expenses from that money, then take 10 percent of the remainder. It also gives the company a perpetual share of the profits from the video rights. AEG Live's lawyer said the company had made many concessions to the estate and could not make more. The judge previously has said he might approve the contracts even over Katherine Jackson's objection. Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson's older brother, told CNN's Larry King recently that he likes the deals, which he said could bring in nearly $100 million into the estate. Katherine Jackson and Michael Jackson's three children are the main beneficiaries of the estate, which is controlled by Jackson's former lawyer, John Branca, and longtime Jackson friend and music executive John McClain. Branca and McClain were named in Jackson's will as executors. Katherine Jackson is considering a challenge of their control of the estate.","highlights":"Judge appointed attorney for interests of Michael Jackson's children .\nDiscussion between estate, AEG Live is ongoing .\nExecutors have deal in mind, Katherine Jackson has expressed objections .","id":"555b36a491c4056dfe8117f8c2ccbd35547b15b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The gunman who opened fire at Washington's U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum this week is no better than a suicide bomber, a survivor of the Holocaust said. Sel Hubert, seen here with his wife, says education is the best weapon against bigotry. Sel Hubert, 83, of Rye Brook, New York, said he also fears that through the shooter's \"ultimate act of Holocaust denial,\" he has invigorated others who embrace hate and who might wish to exact violence against others. \"By doing this, he gives worldwide notoriety to himself and his ideals of hatred,\" said Hubert, who at 13 escaped Germany on a transport to England just weeks before World War II erupted. \"He chooses martyrdom to glorify his hatred similar to a suicide bomber.\" Authorities have charged James von Brunn with murdering Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39, a security officer who opened a museum door Wednesday for the 88-year-old reputed white supremacist. Watch more on who von Brunn is \u00bb . Authorities say von Brunn acted alone, but Hubert says he represents all those who share his views. \"This empowers these people to think that this is how you get to be famous, gain notoriety, and they hope other people will mimic him -- and that's scary,\" he said. Eva Rich Blumberg, 85, of Rockville, Maryland, also worries that the shooting may have emboldened others to attack Jews and symbols of Jewish culture, she said. Blumberg, whose father was killed by Nazis and who spent about a year at Majdanek concentration camp in Poland in 1942, was scheduled to speak Sunday at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, but is now having second thoughts. Watch author discuss importance of combating Holocaust denial \u00bb . \"I lost everyone in the Holocaust. This incident just shook me up so that I don't know what to say,\" she said. Anytime a group asks Blumberg to speak about the Holocaust, she obliges, she said, out of a sense of duty to educate people so that the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany are never repeated. However, she said Thursday, the shooting at the museum leaves her wrestling with the decision on whether to deliver her speech this weekend. \"I'm frightened. I don't know what to do,\" she said. \"I couldn't sleep all night because things keep coming back.\" Regina Spiegel, 83, also of Rockville, believes education is one of the best weapons against bigotry. She volunteers at the museum on Wednesdays and was there when von Brunn allegedly opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle. See photos from the museum \u00bb . Fortunately, Spiegel was downstairs and didn't hear the shots, but that did not dampen her anger and disgust over the incident. Spiegel, who met her husband of more than 60 years, Samuel, at a slave labor camp in Auschwitz, teaches children to shun hate in hopes they will blossom into productive adults unfettered by ignorance and prejudices -- \"just the opposite of what he is,\" she said, referring to the museum shooter. \"We don't teach hate,\" she said firmly. \"This guy, every time I think about it, it makes me sick that there are such people around.\" Hubert, who is a board member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, said the Holocaust museum stands as an important educational tool, particularly to young Americans, for providing lessons on the follies of hatred and genocide. Map of museum \u00bb . \"It's an ultimate act of Holocaust denial and I and all Jews -- especially survivors -- feel violated all over again,\" he said. \"To attack that symbol is striking at the very heart of what the museum is trying to do, what America stands for -- the fight against bigotry and hatred.\" The Southern Poverty Law Center has described von Brunn as a \"hardcore neo-Nazi\" and Internet postings attributed to von Brunn allege that the Holocaust and Christianity are hoaxes. The postings further state that President Obama is a tool of \"Jew owners\" and that Adolf Hitler's worst mistake was \"he didn't gas the Jews.\" Watch debate on free speech, hate crimes \u00bb . Hubert and Blumberg both expressed concern that von Brunn was able to express his hateful views on Jews and minorities via the Internet. Neither is impressed with the freedom-of-speech defense. \"Hitler's Germany, they had freedom of speech and look what happened,\" Blumberg said. \"Freedom of speech has to be controlled.\" Added Hubert, \"It's the uncontrolled Internet which provides the tools and means for this scourge to spread, and it's a very dangerous thing that's happening.\" While Hubert believes the United States should strengthen its laws to prevent these types of incidents from occurring again, he also concurs with Blumberg and Spiegel that the best way to counter bigotry is \"by placing greater emphasis on prejudice and hatred for next generation,\" he said. \"The lesson is we need to be vigilant and proactive in combating hatred,\" Hubert said.","highlights":"Holocaust survivors fear museum shooting emboldens others who embrace hatred .\nShooting leaves Eva Rich Blumberg pondering whether to deliver speech Sunday .\nBlumberg: \"I couldn't sleep all night because things keep coming back\"\nShooting highlights importance of \"placing greater emphasis on prejudice, hatred\"","id":"9e5bb3e48e3e09bc2659258c16567c7f98bd5acd"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Welcome to democracy, Afghan-style. An Afghan woman in a burqa veil holds up a photograph of President Hamid Karzai. An incumbent president and 38 challengers, including two women, are vying for the votes of 17 million registered Afghans against a backdrop of war, graft, poverty and illiteracy. More than 3,000 donkeys, 3,000 cars and three helicopters will traverse harsh terrain to carry voting materials to remote polling stations. And 30 observer groups, domestic and international, will be on hand to help guard against fraud. This Thursday, Afghanistan holds its second-ever popular election, the results of which will put into office a new president and 420 provincial council winners. Preliminary results are scheduled September 3, with final results expected two weeks later. At the heart of every vote will be the two biggest impediments to progress for one of the poorest nations in the world: stifling corruption and an increasingly bloody Taliban resurgence. The number of Afghan civilians killed increased 24 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to the United Nations. NATO and U.S. forces have suffered record losses this summer, with 75 troops killed in the month of July alone. Amid the violence, the candidates continued their last-minute campaigning, with the hope that the elections can showcase Afghanistan's fledgling democracy. \"We hope that this election will go ahead in accordance with the constitution of this country and the rightful freedoms of our people, in the best manner possible, so that the Afghan nation can determine its future,\" said historian Omar Khan Massoudi, director of the National Museum in Kabul. Watch young Afghans talk about their hopes \u00bb . International donors are helping pay for the $223 million undertaking, and hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have moved into southern Afghanistan to protect voters against possible Taliban attacks. The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, expressed optimism that Thursday's vote would be Afghanistan's moment to shine. It's tough to organize elections during a war, he said, but the reality is that violence during elections is common place in many parts of the world. \"Afghanistan has never had a contested election,\" Holbrooke said. \"So this is a remarkable experiment in democracy and something that Afghanistan needs to give legitimacy to the new government.\" That legitimacy has become a key issue in the campaign. Frontrunner President Hamid Karzai's chief challengers -- former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah -- have both lashed out at the incumbent for failing to rein in corruption. In its annual global corruption perception index in 2008, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan 176 out of 180 countries and said graft was \"a major factor impeding the country's stability and future growth.\" Ghani told CNN the most significant challenge Afghanistan's next president faces is earning back the trust of the people. \"This government has lost it,\" he said in a recent interview. \"There is no sense of trust, not only in the current leadership, but in the political class as such. And in the capacity of the state or the international community to improve the lot of our people.\" Ghani characterized Karzai as a \"very poor manager\" who failed to deal with pressing issues and create any sense of momentum for the nation moving forward. As a guest on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS earlier this month, Ghani said Afghanistan's corruption had become a cancer that was \"eating through the society.\" Babrak Babarkhale, a former journalist and Mujahadeen fighter in the war to end Soviet occupation in the 1980s, said he planned to vote for Abdullah because he was fed up with corruption. \"We want to support Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to be our future president, to take all Afghans out of this corruption, away from this weak government,\" he said. Abdullah argued that people's dissatisfaction with the Karzai government has helped strengthen the insurgency. \"There is no doubt there is a hardcore element in it,\" he told CNN. \"But there are thousands of people under the same brand, Taliban, [who] have joined the insurgency because of other reasons.\" The insurgents are filling a vacuum left by Afghanistan's Western-backed government, which foreign diplomats and military commanders concede now suffers from nepotism, corruption and predatory practices. During a political debate Sunday, Karzai admitted that corruption was a problem but offered no specific cures. He also has been blamed for what has become the bloodiest summer since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Abdullah said last week that Karzai's government had failed to capitalize on the opportunities presented by international aid and troops. The government, Abdullah said, had failed to \"stabilize Afghanistan to the extent that eight years down the road, we would have been able to say less troops rather than more.\" Most polls, however, show Karzai with a commanding lead. Latifa, a Kabul housewife, said she was pleased with Karzai's stewardship and would vote for him. \"Like raising a child for seven years, in seven years he has helped our Kabul, our Afghanistan, stand on its own two feet,\" she said. \"We didn't know an election before, we hadn't seen a parliament.\" But can a nation as troubled as Afghanistan carry out fair and free elections? Some observers of Afghanistan and human rights activists have voiced their doubts. Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, said Thursday's election will be the most difficult he has encountered in his life. Besides the violence and corruption, weak infrastructure and a high illiteracy rate will add to election woes, he said. A new Gallup Poll found that fewer than one in four voting-age Afghans are confident the election will be fair and transparent. Voting in Afghanistan, Eide said, is not yet the kind of democratic expression understood in the West. \"If you look at the well-established democracies in the West, for instance, that's not possible under these circumstances,\" he said. \"But ... my objective is that we have credible, inclusive elections where the result will be accepted by the people. That is our level of ambition, and I think we will achieve that.\" Eide said a significant number of polling stations in strife-torn Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni and Wardak provinces will not be able to open due to security reasons. He said ballots ought to be counted at the polling center itself instead of transporting them elsewhere and increasing the possibility of fraud, encountered in the last election in 2004. Eide said 3,000 donkeys were \"mobilized\" to carry ballots to remote mountainous regions. Of the 4.6 million new registered voters, 39 percent are women. So thousands of women had to be employed to search burqa-clad female voters. Human Rights Watch, however, said Tuesday that the recruitment drive for women began too late, and as a result, not enough women will be available for security checks. \"Women voters have been badly let down by their government and its international backers,\" said Brad Adams, the organization's Asia director. Women's votes are key in Afghanistan, where the Taliban stripped women of equal rights and education. Human Rights Watch also said Tuesday that election-related violence was a serious impediment. Between April 25 and August 1, the rights group documented at least 13 political killings and at least 10 abductions of electoral commission officials, candidates and campaign workers. It said provincial council candidates had withdrawn after receiving death threats. The overall security situation is \"considerably worse than during the last elections,\" Human Rights Watch concluded. But despite the violence, despite the threats from the Taliban to disrupt the voting, enthusiasm filled the air Monday as the presidential candidates wrapped up their campaigns. A campaign rally resembled more a rock concert than a political event in Afghanistan, as Kabul stadium transformed into a sea of blue, Abdullah's campaign color. Supporters hoisted banners and sported T-shirts emblazoned with Abdullah's face. \"I believe there is a dire need for a change of course in Afghanistan, irrespective of who becomes the president,\" said Rauf Roashan of the Institute for Afghan Studies, a scholarly center founded by Afghans living abroad. Not yet old enough to vote, Ferishta, 15, a beauty school student, echoed Roashan's sentiments. If she could, she'd cast a ballot for Ghani. \"We want a president who is peaceful and caring,\" she said. \"We don't want any more bombs. In these bombs, so many Afghans have died, one person's son, one person's child.\" No one can say with any certainty whether abounding energy will translate into high turnout. Not in a war-ravaged nation. As though to serve reminder of the high stakes, Kabul came under attack again on Tuesday -- just two days before the polls open. CNN's Ivan Watson, Kevin Flower and Moni Basu contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 17 million Afghans are registered to vote .\nElections are scheduled amid increasing violence .\nA key issue for voters is government corruption .\nSome observers concerned elections will be neither fair nor free .","id":"d5a8cff95f73738ba66b31e5c718d096f0f327d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From Yellowstone National Park to the Everglades, America's 391 national parks are in need of repair -- and thanks to the economic stimulus signed into law, help is now underway. President Obama and his family visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona, a national park. President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed in February and designated $750 million dollars to the national parks. But not all of the stimulus money is being used -- and the parks are facing a $9 billion backlog in maintenance projects. So far, nearly 10 percent is in the pipeline. \"We are picking away at it as much as we can and we've been fortunate to have the recovery act money,\" said Jeffrey Olson of the National Park Service. Olson said half of the $9 billion is slated to go for road repairs. \"Half of that [$9 billion] is roads and about $2 billion of that are the most pressing needs -- those we get some help from the stimulus. The president's budget proposal is calling for more maintenance and construction money,\" Olsen said. Dan Wenk, the acting director of the National Park Service says most of those pressing needs include, \"camp grounds, camp sites, it's amphitheaters for evening programs. It's the bathrooms. It's literally everything we have to make our visits enjoyable.\" And those needs, Ranger Rocky Schroeder hopes, will be fulfilled soon. Watch more on the national parks facelift \u00bb . Schroeder patrols Prince William Park, about 35 miles outside the nation's capital. It has more than a dozen historic cabins slated for repair and is just one of the 250 national parks getting a face lift because of the stimulus package. \"The stimulus will help keep our visitors here, keep them happy and keep them coming back,\" Schroeder added. And the numbers are good for national parks. As of the end of July, attendance at the parks is up roughly 3 percent from the same time last year, according to the parks service. In 2008, nearly 275 million people visited the national parks compared to 272 million in 2006. At Prince William Forest park, officials are hoping to start putting the money to use next month -- and said they've had overwhelming interest. For these stimulus projects, they need to hire six additional people. So far, they've received nearly 200 applications. The Interior Department estimates the stimulus allocation will create around 8,000 jobs over two years -- though many will be temporary. \"It's stimulus because we are putting people to work ... but it's also stimulus because we're creating a better place ... increasing the visitor experience,\" Wenk said. Some Republicans, however, are skeptical. \"Clearly we need to improve our national parks ... but nobody should confuse that with economic stimulus. I mean frankly that's just false advertising,\" Rep. Jeb Hensarlin, R-Texas, says. For Ron Tipton of the National Parks Conservation Association, the funding is vital. \"We must ensure our national parks are well funded to address the parks' crumbling historic buildings and trails, enhance the Park Service's ability to protect wildlife, and provide needed public education and services,\" he said on the association's Web site. Olson believes that when economic times are tough -- especially during the current recession -- parks are an economically friendly alternative to more expensive getaways. \"We rise above other things like theme parks,\" he says. \"When times are tough economically, people turn inward and ask some really basic questions and there is nothing like being in a national park to ask those questions.\" Olson adds that 147 parks in the United States and in the nation's territories have an entry fee, which ranges from $5 to $25; 244 do not have an entry fee. But when it comes to this money, the key question being asked: How is the stimulus money being used? Nearly $56 million is for Washington landmarks, which some say are in dire need of repair. More than $14.5 million is going to Mesa Verde National Park and nearly $11 million has been allocated for the Grand Canyon. Schroeder said he is confident the infusion of stimulus dollars is a worthwhile investment. \"The national parks are our past, our history.\"","highlights":"Obama plan designated $750M stimulus dollars to the national parks .\nThere are 391 national parks across the country and in U.S. territories .\nPark Service is dealing with a $9 billion backlog of maintenance needs .\nAn official says the popularity of parks is high because of hard economic times .","id":"f9e78195080fb1cb3715b968fa85d62e2d89e63c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For many graduate students seeking an advanced education degree, obstacles abound. Issues of finance, time management and family logistics often get in the way of students furthering their education and their dreams. Palestinian Sawsan Salameh is attending an Israeli university after years of negotiations and court proceedings. For Sawsan Salameh, the obstacles also involved politics. Several years ago, Salameh, a 31-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Anata, was granted a scholarship to study at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although her town is only a few miles from the university, access to the school was out of reach because of an Israeli military ban that limited Palestinian students' access to Israeli universities, on security grounds. But she was far from giving up on her goal of pursuing her education. \"When I was in high school, it was a dream that I should finish my Ph.D.,\" Salameh said. After obtaining a master's degree at Al Quds University, a Palestinian school in the West Bank, Salameh was granted full scholarships at several international schools, including Hebrew University. With the military ban in place, Salameh considered studying at a university abroad. \"I started to think I should get up and take this offer to leave, but it's not easy to go abroad, and the only chance is for me to study in Israel, because it's important for me to stay close to my family,\" Salameh said. Salameh sought the support of the Israeli human rights organization Gisha, which submitted a petition to Israel's Supreme Court on her behalf in 2006. The Supreme Court responded by asking the military to lift the ban and allow Salameh to study at Hebrew University, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in pharmacology. \"We argued Sawsan's case for 2\u00bd years, and at the end of the day, the military agreed to let Sawsan study,\" said Sari Bashi, director of Gisha. \"It was impossible to deny her incredible talents and the example she set for women and girls throughout the West Bank,\" Bashi says. The Israeli military agreed to review all future requests for Palestinians in the West Bank wishing to pursue a degree at an Israeli university on a case-by-case basis, based on specific criteria. The criteria include that the potential student clear all necessary internal security checks, that the student pursue a degree in a discipline that would encourage regional cooperation and develop area coexistence, and that the area of study not have the potential to cause damage to Israel, says Maj. Guy Inbar, spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. The area of study must be supported by an international organization (such as the U.N. or the Red Cross) and approved by the Ministry of Education and must also be a degree unique to an Israeli university (not offered at a Palestinian university). The request must come with a recommendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Inbar. After Salameh's victory, Gisha, with the support of a number of Israeli academics, further appealed to the court to push the military to ease these limitations. The Israeli military's heightened security concerns reflect heightened tensions in the region due to the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In July 2002, a bomb exploded in the student cafeteria of Hebrew University, killing seven people. The Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the explosion, according to Palestinian sources. Still, some academics at Hebrew University believe qualified students like Salameh pose no security risk, and their acceptance to Israeli universities could even foster better relations in the region. Professor Alon Harel, a law professor at Hebrew University, pushed for the appeal to lift the military's criteria on Palestinian students. He believes that the admission of Palestinian students from the West Bank would enrich the academic environment at the university, particularly in the study of law. \"It's particularly important for classes to be diverse, for people to have familiarity with Arabic studies and Islamic law,\" he said. Other academics agree that qualified students such as Salameh can only add to the diversity of the campus, where thousands of Israeli Arab students are enrolled. \"My personal feeling is that we should do everything we can to allow Palestinian students to study at Hebrew University,\" said Yaacov Schul, vice rector at Hebrew University. Salameh is a devout Muslim with a traditional background yet shirks pressure from family members to focus on marriage and motherhood. \"Everyday I have to hear something about [not being married] from relatives and aunts,\" she says. \"It's become [the] usual.\" Salameh, who also provides valuable resources for young women at a women's center she opened in her community, says she hopes her pursuit of higher education will open even more doors for young women also wishing to pursue a higher education and achieve their academic goals. \"I get lots of phone calls every day from girls in the West Bank who ask me how to apply to universities in Israel,\" Salameh said. \"Maybe they can become more than just a wife and mother and at least finish their first degree,\" she said. Salameh says she enjoys the collegial atmosphere at Hebrew University, where she studies among Israeli Arab, international and Israeli students. She is considering pursuing another degree after completing her Ph.D. in two years. \"I would like to help other people, and I hope the political situation will become better and things will become easier,\" she said.","highlights":"Palestinian Sawsan Salameh faced many obstacles before attending Israeli school .\nShe hopes she can open doors for other students to study where they want .\nShe also has become a role model for girls in the West Bank to pursue education .","id":"db1e75e1ac5fb574310cd562d8541dc06bc93b57"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. He was a co-host of \"Crossfire\" on CNN with Robert Novak from 2002 to 2005. Paul Begala says he admired Robert Novak for his skepticism about authority, work ethic and faith in his beliefs. (CNN) -- In our innumerable debates, I delighted in calling Bob Novak \"the finest mind of the 12th century.\" One time, though, he scowled and growled, \"I prefer the 15th century. Spanish Inquisition. Those were the days.\" Novak left this world on Tuesday, but he also left his mark. Needless to say I disagreed with Bob about virtually every political issue, and sometimes our on-air debates continued as profanity-laced shouting matches after the show ended. Despite our profound differences, though, we were friends. Here's why: . Bob was an iconoclast. He loved poking conventional wisdom in the eye. If all the media elite were perched on the same wire, Bob would land on the opposite wire and gleefully squawk at them. Bob was an ideologue more than a partisan. One of the many sources of tension between us was the fact that I am a partisan Democrat who believes that, from time to time, my personal ideological agenda must take a backseat to advancing a broader progressive agenda carried by my party. Not Bob. He was a conservative first, last and always, and when he felt the Republican Party had strayed from his hard-core anti-tax, anti-government ideology he would hammer the GOP with the same withering ridicule he usually dispensed to Democrats. Bob was deeply skeptical of authority. He was a lowly lieutenant in the United States Army, and he instinctively distrusted big shots -- a rarity in a town that is often dazzled by rank. For a guy who said he preferred business to government, he was not afraid to show his contempt for network executives with whom he disagreed. Bob had a remarkable work ethic. In the predawn hours after the 2004 presidential debate in Miami, Bob slipped in the shower, breaking his hip. The injury was terribly painful, and Bob was rushed to the hospital. Within 24 hours he was propped up in bed, working the phones and banging out a column on his laptop. Bob was an old-school reporter. Most pundits (your humble author included) devour the reporting of others and regurgitate our opinions. While strongly opinionated, Bob also reported. His sources, especially in the GOP, were wide and deep. When I was a White House official, one of my most dreaded responsibilities was dealing with Bob. He didn't support much of anything we were trying to do, but he never lied to me, never broke his word, and tried his hardest to get things right. Accuracy mattered enormously. Bob could be civil. This will astonish some, because Bob could also be rude. But he taught me at least one lesson in civility. On \"Crossfire,\" I carried a debate over into the commercial break. I badgered and hectored and attacked the guest who was on the right. I was angry and I let him have it. \"Wait just a #*& $@#^ minute,\" Bob screamed at me. \"You're out of line. You're being rude. Get off his back. He's come here on our show to make his case and you're abusing him. We call them 'guests' for a reason, Paul.\" He was right. Bob loved sports. One tiny island of common ground Bob and I could share was a love of sports. When James Carville and I joined \"Crossfire\" in 2002, CNN had a much-hyped debut planned for April 1. Bob didn't care. Maryland was playing for the NCAA basketball championship and he was going to be there. Producers pleaded, but Bob was unmoved. He did the show via satellite from Atlanta, Georgia, and when Coach Gary Williams cut down the net for the Terps, Bob was courtside. Bob became a Catholic. My brand of Catholicism and Bob's were as different as our brands of politics, but as a cradle Catholic I admire anyone who, at age 67, is still seeking the divine, still questioning, still open to a new faith. We spoke about faith often, and I'm sure his Catholic faith gave him great comfort as he battled the disease that claimed his life. Requiem in pace, friend. Or, as Bob might prefer: Goodnight, sweet Prince of Darkness. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Begala.","highlights":"Paul Begala: Bob Novak was a friend even though we differed on many issues .\nHe says Novak was true to his conservative beliefs even when GOP strayed .\nHe says Novak worked very hard at being a reporter as well as an advocate .","id":"cf2bf57d390eb07734f0ad7b00c9fc56d16969ad"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A newspaper aligned with Iranian reformist Mehdi Karrubi, who recently made headlines for claims that post-election detainees in Iran were raped behind bars, was shut down for running \"unlawful\" material, state-run media reported Monday. Mehdi Karrubi says an \"impartial committee\" is needed to investigate alleged mistreatment of detainees. An investigating judge said the popular newspaper, Etemad-e Melli, was ordered closed for what has been described as \"publishing unlawful and criminal material,\" state-run Press TV reported. Protesters outside the newspaper offices clashed with police Monday, the network also reported. On Sunday Masih Alinejad, a reporter and columnist with the paper, told CNN that officers from Iran's judiciary confronted employees of Etemad-e Melli after hours as they were getting the Monday's edition to print. She and Karrubi's son, Hossein, said the newspaper had planned to run a firm response from Karrubi to his opponents, who have dismissed the allegations of detainee rapes. The officials told the employees that they \"were not allowed to come to the newspaper tomorrow,\" Alinejad, who is temporarily in the United States for a reporting assignment, told CNN. In a statement on Saham News, the official Web site of his father's party, Etemad-e Melli, or the National Trust party, Hossein Karrubi said that the paper was forced to temporarily shut down. He cited the pending publication of his father's response to \"the insults\" recently hurled at him for the shutdown. Early Monday, Etemad-e Melli's Web site was still up with a report about a ban on the newspaper. It was not printed, and its offices were closed, Alinejad said. Hardliners have criticized Karrubi for openly describing the mistreatment of detainees arrested in the aftermath of the Islamic republic's disputed June 12 election and calling for an investigation into prison conditions. Karrubi and fellow reformist candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was declared the overwhelming winner and was recently sworn in for his second term. The treatment of detainees at Iran's prisons has increasingly become a high-profile issue, with human-rights groups accusing guards of conducting harsh interrogations, beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats of torture to coerce false confessions. In an August 8 posting on the Etemad-e Melli party's Web site, Karrubi said he had heard descriptions of torture and violence that made his \"body shake.\" \"Some of the former detainees have told of such brutal and violent, repeated rapes of the young women [in detention] that have caused irreparable damage to their reproductive systems,\" Karrubi said. \"Others have raped our detained young men with such brutality that they [the victims] have been afflicted by depression and are no longer speaking with anyone and refuse to leave the dark corners of their houses.\" He added that an investigation would \"teach a lesson to the thugs and criminals in the future and prevent the smearing of the reputation of the Islamic Republic.\" Iran's influential parliament speaker dismissed the allegations, calling them \"sheer lies,\" state-run media reported last week. Ali Larijani said a special panel of Iran's parliament, or Majlis, conducted a \"precise and comprehensive inquiry\" into the treatment at Tehran's Evin and Kahrizak prisons, and found \"no cases of rape or sexual abuse,\" Press TV reported. He challenged Karrubi to \"present evidence of such outrages\" for the Majlis to investigate, according to Press TV. Earlier Sunday, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Karrubi had backed off the statements, quoting him as saying, \"I did not say that such things have certainly occurred, rather I said that there are rumors of such ugliness having taken place and I reiterated that God willing it is a lie and nothing but rumors.\" Alinejad questioned the legitimacy of the report, saying Karrubi's real response would have been in Monday's edition of Etemad-e Melli.","highlights":"Karrubi was to run response to opponents in Monday edition, son and reporter say .\nProtesters outside newspaper offices clash with police, state-run Press TV reports .\nHardliners criticize Karrubi for openly describing mistreatment of detainees .\nHuman-rights groups accuse guards of conducting harsh interrogations .","id":"e4c6b072f8aa1840f757ba5a6b90fa592175329e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson will be buried Saturday, August 29, on what would have been the singer's 51st birthday, according to a statement from publicist Ken Sunshine. Katherine Jackson has proposed she or one of her children be added as an executor to Michael's will. The private ceremony will take place at Holly Terrace in The Great Mausoleum at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, and \"will be limited to family and close friends,\" the statement said. Jackson died June 25 of cardiac arrest. The famed entertainer was 50. Other Jackson plans have moved sluggishly. Monday, a judge delayed his approval of the exhibition agreement between concert promoter AEG Live and the Jackson estate until Friday, when he will hear testimony about why Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, thinks it should be renegotiated. The three-city exhibition of Jackson memorabilia could be derailed, as relations between Jackson's mother, the men Jackson named as executors of his will and the promoter of his planned comeback concerts have been challenging. Questions surrounding Michael Jackson's death and AEG Live's role in his last days are an \"obvious source of tension\" as Katherine Jackson objects to the agreement, Jackson attorney Burt Levitch said. Michael Jackson's family has \"floated\" the possibility of filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against AEG Live because of its \"very, very active role in Michael's life during the last six months,\" Levitch said Monday. Levitch said AEG Live \"apparently paid for the services of Dr. Conrad Murray, who we're told is under criminal investigation in connection with the decedent's death.\" Warrants used to search Murray's home and clinics indicated police were investigating his role in Jackson's June 25 death. A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that Murray gave the anesthetic propofol to Jackson in the 24 hours before he died. \"There's an obvious link between AEG and concerns that we have about the decedent's demise,\" Levitch said. \"So, that's one obvious source of tension right now.\" Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff set a November trial date to hear Katherine Jackson's potential challenge of John Branca and John McClain, who were named as executors in Michael Jackson's 2002 will. Katherine Jackson has proposed that she or one of her children be added as an executor. \"We think it's important for the family to have a seat at the table,\" Levitch said. \"It's not just a matter of making a quick buck here.\" A Jackson family member would be in the best position to guide Michael Jackson's legacy, he said. Beckloff delayed a decision until Friday on Katherine Jackson's objection to the agreement made by Branca and McClain, who are serving for now as special administrators of the estate, to allow AEG Live to produce a Michael Jackson exhibition. Jackson lawyers argued in Monday's hearing that the 50-50 split of profits for the exhibition was too generous to AEG Live, but estate lawyers said they negotiated the best terms possible. AEG Live lawyer Kathy Jorrie said any further delay in approval would cause the company to abandon the deal and the company would not renegotiate. AEG Live would hold the exhibition just as a documentary about Jackson's last months hits theaters at the end of October. \"It's important to the world that we present them with the memorabilia at the time the movie is released,\" Jorrie said. The judge has approved a merchandising agreement and the movie deal, both of which were adjustments to the contract Jackson signed with AEG Live earlier this year for a string of 50 comeback concerts that were to start last month in London, England. Estate lawyer Howard Weitzman said canceling the exhibition deal could cost the Jackson estate $5 million.","highlights":"NEW: Michael Jackson to be buried Saturday, August 29 .\nJudge delays approval of agreement between AEG Live, Jackson estate until Friday .\nJackson family hints at possibility of filing wrongful-death lawsuit against AEG Live .\nAEG lawyer: Further delay in would cause company to abandon the deal .","id":"1a1c645bd4f5a07013295baf5d85027c58f17da6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South African teenager Caster Semenya won the women's 800 meters gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, just hours after the sport's governing body asked for the 18-year-old's gender to be verified. Semenya celebrates her gold, which came just hours after the IAAF called for a gender test on the athlete. Semenya crushed her rivals by streaking away to secure victory in a time of one minute 55.45 seconds -- the best time in the world this year. Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya took the silver with Briton Jennifer Meadows claiming bronze. However, the race was run amid controversy following the announcement by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF). Watch outrage over allegations \u00bb . \"The gender verification test is an extremely complex procedure,\" said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies -- who revealed the question of Semenya's gender was first raised after her astonishing African junior championship displays. \"In the case of this athlete, following her breakthrough in the African junior championships, the rumors, the gossip were starting to build-up,\" Davies added to reporters. There have been precedents in such cases, the most famous being that of Polish athletics great Stella Walsh, who won Olympic gold in the 100 yards at the 1932 Olympics and silver in the same event in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. However, after she was shot dead during an armed robbery in 1980, the subsequent autopsy revealed she possessed male genitalia, although she also had female characteristics as well. Meanwhile, Yusuf Saad Kamel secured Bahrain's first-ever medal with a superb late surge to claim gold in the men's 1,500 meters. Kamel, who until 2003 competed for Kenya as Gregory Konchellah and is the son of former two-time world 800m champion Billy, won in a time of three minutes 35.93 seconds. Ethiopia's world indoor champion Deresse Mekonnen claimed a surprise silver with defending champion Bernard Lagat, also Kenyan-born but now competing for the United States, in bronze. \"\"It's amazing to win a world title just like my father. The only thing left for me to do is to beat his times and win more medals and get to the front of my family,\" Kamel told reporters. Olympic silver medallist Asbel Kiprop of Kenya could only finish fourth after leaving himself too much to do down the home straight. Elsewhere, sprint king Usain Bolt produced an effortless run to coast into the men's 200m final and remain on course to claim a world sprint double to add to his Olympic sprint double from Beijing. The 22-year-old Jamaican, who set a new world record of 9.58 seconds in winning the 100m on Sunday eased home to win his semifinal in 20.08 seconds and only injury looks like depriving him of gold. \"I just try and get through and make it as easy as possible,\" Bolt told reporters. \"I've been training for this for a long time now. I know what I have to do.\" There was more sprint joy for Jamaica when Bolt's compatriot Brigitte Foster-Hylton ran a season's best time of 12.51 seconds to finally claim gold in the women's 100m hurdles. The 34-year-old, who won world bronze in Helsinki in 2005 and silver in Paris in 2003, secured her first global title by edging out Canada's Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. Another Jamaican, Delloreen Ennis-London, took the bronze medal. However, the biggest cheer of the night at an electric Olympic Stadium was reserved for Germany's Robert Harting, who dramatically won the men's discus gold with his sixth and final throw of 69.43 meters. Poland's long-time leader Piotr Malachowski won silver with a throw of 69.15m with defending world and Olympic champion Gerd Kanter of Estonia claiming the bronze with 66.88m. The victory was host nations Germany's second of the championships after Steffi Nerius claimed gold in the women's javelin on Tuesday.","highlights":"Caster Semenya wins women's 800m gold at World Athletics Championships .\nSouth African secures victory after IAAF asked for gender test on the teenager .\nYusuf Saad Kamel claims Bahrain's first-ever medal with gold in men's 1,500m .","id":"7dd1f3d98e36c21777e6cfe41225b342cbc23882"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Travelers don't always have to fight the masses and schlep overseas to find exotic vacation thrills. Safari West near Sonoma, California, offers a taste of Africa in North America. If you know where to look, you can find destinations closer to home that offer relief from crowds and pricey travel arrangements. The right location can generate the makings of an African or European vacation -- without leaving North America. Along the same lines, wine-lovers yearning for a taste of the Napa Valley don't necessarily have to travel to California. Watch more about getaways with an exotic vibe \u00bb . Africa-like safari . If you've always wanted to take an African safari but don't have the time or money, Sarah Kantrowitz of Travel + Leisure recommends traveling to Sonoma, California, for a host of wild adventures. In the heart of wine country, Safari West offers a slice of Serengeti life with 400 acres of preserve. \"You'll be able to visit almost 500 animals including cheetahs, zebra and wildebeest,\" says Kantrowitz. Climb aboard their Classic Safari Truck tour to observe over 80 species of wild animals in a natural habitat. Safari West's director of communications Aphrodite Caserta calls the tour a \"don't miss experience.\" \"Simply,\" she says, \"it's a rare opportunity to experience an authentic African adventure without a passport and without the jet lag. And, without spending thousands of dollars.\" Safari West also offers private truck tours, educational animal presentations and overnight tent accommodations. They even offer many seasonal specials to make your stay more affordable. Check out http:\/\/www.safariwest.com\/ for information on their Full Moon Madness package. You can save 50 percent off room rates on or around the full moon each month. Napa Valley-esque wine tastings . If it's wine you want, find an alternative to Napa Valley in Michigan's Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas. Here you'll discover more than 850 acres of land and more than 20 wineries for your choosing. The area offers tastings and gourmet meals, and Kantrowitz says, \"The region is particularly known for its great pinot blancs.\" It also boasts plenty of opportunities for outdoor activities like scenic bike tours of the wine trails and camping on the lakeshore. Andrew MacFarlane, spokesperson for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintner's Association, considers Michigan wine country unique because the effects of the Great Lakes perfect the wine and the atmosphere. He says, \"It's blue skies, no humidity. It's an absolutely beautiful place to come in any season.\" Check out Leelanau's and Old Mission's Web sites for winery lists, wine trail maps, special events and more. Pseudo-European getaways . With the Euro still dominating the American dollar, try looking in your own backyard for European flair with a considerably smaller price tag. You can get a taste of France without breaking the bank in Quebec. Quebec City, the province's capital, offers an experience rich in cultural heritage. Settled about 400 years ago by French fur traders, the city hosts many examples of 18th and 19th century architecture and the distinction of being the only fortified city north of Mexico. \"Consider walking the streets and exploring the wonderful shops that sell wine, cheese and delicious baguettes,\" says Kantrowitz. Visit http:\/\/www.quebecregion.com\/e\/ for Quebec City's calendar of events and recommendations for dining, shopping and lodging in the area. Here you can also find information on different tours and package deals. If it's Spanish culture that interests you, look no further than St. Augustine, Florida. The nation's oldest city was founded more than 400 years ago, and its Colonial Spanish Quarter Museum gives visitors the opportunity to see what life was like in the city when it was still an outpost of the Spanish empire. Through the state's preservation effort, many of the colonial buildings in St. Augustine have been restored to their original appearance. Kantrowitz suggests taking a pedestrian route through the city. She says, \"Try a walking tour to see a lot of architecture that is very reminiscent of Spain itself.\" Head over to http:\/\/www.visitflorida.com\/ for St. Augustine photos, up-to-date deals and user-generated activity suggestions.","highlights":"St. Augustine, Florida, offers Old World Spain without leaving North America .\n400-year-old Quebec City is the only fortified city north of Mexico .\nCalifornia has a slice of Africa's Serengeti: cheetahs, zebra and wildebeest .\nMichigan's Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas offer excellent wine tourism .","id":"0912aa177e8fc26f06330e94f3fcb77a3f95d8f0"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat, represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District and is appearing in CNN.com's \"Freshman Year\" series along with Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah. Jared Polis says America's immigration system is broken and urgently needs reform. (CNN) -- Twelve-year-old Josh Garcia courageously took the stage. Fighting back tears, he told how he came home from school one day to find that his father had been taken into an immigration detention facility. His father, an entrepreneur who had created dozens of jobs, was \"exactly the kind of person we want in this country.\" And there wasn't a dry eye in the place as this young American boy told the audience how the next time he saw his father, he was traumatized to find him \"in a prison\" surrounded by men with guns. On June 13, I sponsored an immigration town hall in my home state of Colorado to discuss the harm our broken immigration system is causing American families and the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform. More than 1,600 attendees, including representatives from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths, filled the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Center in Northglenn and spilled outside onto the lawn in the hot June sun. Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput -- despite our many differences -- joined me onstage to urge people of faith to stand up for immigration reform. The audience listened with rapt attention as Josh and several other Americans directly impacted by our broken immigration laws recounted their haunting tales. Our current immigration system is broken and greatly in need of reform. In order to create real, long-lasting reform, we must create a pathway to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants who have made lives for themselves and their families in the United States. It is essential for our national security to know who resides within our borders. And this phenomenon is not unique to Colorado; throughout the country, Americans agree that it is time to reform our broken immigration system. According to a recent poll of 1,000 voters by the Benenson Strategy Group, more than eight in 10 Democratic, Republican and independent voters support Congress passing comprehensive reform, as do 86 percent of voters who are undecided on the 2010 congressional race. Only 14 percent oppose the reform. Americans agree that comprehensive immigration reform is fair to both taxpayers (81 percent agree) and illegal immigrants (79 percent agree), and 91 percent agree that the comprehensive proposal would help taxpayers by making illegal immigrants pay taxes. If we secure our borders and crack down on employers who illegally hire, and deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, nearly seven in 10 (68 percent) voters argue that the remaining 12 million illegal immigrants should be required to register, meet conditions and eventually be allowed to apply for citizenship. A whopping 62 percent of self-identified Republicans say they should be allowed to stay and apply for citizenship. Clearly, Americans agree that the economic and national security burdens placed on state and local governments -- not to mention the incredible hardships placed on immigrant families -- because of the failures of federal immigration policy are unfair and that we desperately need meaningful reform. It is rare to find this kind of across-the-board consensus, and it indicates that rather than demagoguery, the American people want action. Our town hall's other special guest, my colleague Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, formed the United Families movement. It works to bring diverse groups to the table from faith-based organizations, civil rights groups, unions and businesses to demand comprehensive immigration reform. Thanks to their leadership, progressives and conservatives in Colorado and across the country are working to urge President Obama and Congress to take it up this year. Amnesty alone is not the solution. We need real reform. We tried amnesty in the late 1980s, and because we never took serious steps at enforcement, we wound up in precisely the same predicament 20 years later. If all we do is pass amnesty, we will likely be having the same debate again a few years. Likewise, the \"enforcement-only\" policies of the past few years have failed and have resulted only in even more illegal immigration and the separation of American families. Trying to enforce our out-of-touch laws is as foolish and impossible as trying to enforce a law requiring that water flow uphill. The good news is that we can solve this issue. We can pass practical comprehensive immigration reform. Crafting a solution to this complex problem will require a debate, which should begin without delay. Citizens and elected leaders of this great nation must realize our common goal of putting an end to illegal immigration and demand immigration reform now. We are a nation of immigrants. Our diversity has always been our strength. We should be thankful that we have even have this problem to consider, thankful that America continues to be a beacon of hope and liberty, and thankful that the best and brightest from across the globe are fighting to start a better life in our country and take part in the American dream. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jared Polis.","highlights":"Jared Polis: America urgently needs to reform broken immigration system .\nHe says the public supports comprehensive immigration reform .\nAmerica's strength comes from being a nation of immigrants, Polis says .","id":"822adbee10be18ad24d319bb6980478c5c0bfeea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A United Nations court convicted a former governor of Rwanda to life in prison for his role in a 1994 genocide that left about 800,000 dead in the central African country. An estimated 800,000 people -- mainly Tutsis -- were killed in Rwanda in 1994. Tharcisse Renzaho was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The verdict, delivered Tuesday, is the third judgment on charges of genocide delivered this year by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The U.N. court is holding hearings in Arusha, Tanzania, where it is based. Renzaho was governor of the capital, Kigali, and a colonel in the Rwandan Armed Forces in 1994 during the country's genocide, when extremist militias made up of ethnic Hutus slaughtered ethnic Tutsis across Rwanda. It began in April of that year and within 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed. The court found that Renzaho ordered soldiers, police and militias to set up roadblocks to identify Tutsi civilians to be executed. It found he ordered the distribution of weapons to people who then killed Tutsis. Renzaho also supervised a selection process at a refugee site where about 40 Tutsis were abducted and killed, the court found. Renzaho participated in an attack at the Sainte Famille church in which more than 100 Tutsis were killed. People across Rwanda sought refuge in churches all over the country as the genocide unfolded. He also made remarks encouraging the sexual abuse of women, according to the court, and was found criminally liable for the rapes that followed. The genocide ended when Tutsi-led militias backing Rwandan President Paul Kagame ousted the Hutu government supporting the massacre. Renzaho was arrested in September 2002 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His trial began in January 2007 and closed in September that year after hearing from 53 witnesses, including Renzaho. Throughout the trial, Renzaho maintained his innocence and said he had no association with the militia. Renzaho's lawyer blamed the case on political interference by the Rwandan government. Renzaho has the right to appeal the verdict. The decision is the third judgment on charges of genocide delivered this year by the tribunal. Emmanuel Rukundo, a former military chaplain, was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The court found Rukundo had a history of contempt for Tutsis and his fellow clergymen, and that he ordered the killings of Tutsi civilians. Callixte Kalimanzira was sentenced to 30 years in prison for genocide and incitement to commit genocide. The court found that Kalimanzira, a senior civil servant who at one point worked with the Interior Ministry, participated in various massacres of Tutsi civilians and actively encouraged other crimes against them. Prosecutors at his trial said he beat some Tutsis to death and called for the elimination of all Tutsis, including pregnant women and their babies.","highlights":"Tharcisse Renzaho guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes .\n3rd genocide judgment this year by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda .\nRenzaho governor of Kigali in 1994 during the country's genocide .\nCourt: Renzaho ordered roadblocks to identify Tutsi civilians to be executed .","id":"c5dc6f167833bf177a9b65bd8e5e4c0c585b8dc0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A United Nations court convicted a former governor of Rwanda to life in prison for his role in a 1994 genocide that left about 800,000 dead in the central African country. An estimated 800,000 people -- mainly Tutsis -- were killed in Rwanda in 1994. Tharcisse Renzaho was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The verdict, delivered Tuesday, is the third judgment on charges of genocide delivered this year by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The U.N. court is holding hearings in Arusha, Tanzania, where it is based. Renzaho was governor of the capital, Kigali, and a colonel in the Rwandan Armed Forces in 1994 during the country's genocide, when extremist militias made up of ethnic Hutus slaughtered ethnic Tutsis across Rwanda. It began in April of that year and within 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed. The court found that Renzaho ordered soldiers, police and militias to set up roadblocks to identify Tutsi civilians to be executed. It found he ordered the distribution of weapons to people who then killed Tutsis. Renzaho also supervised a selection process at a refugee site where about 40 Tutsis were abducted and killed, the court found. Renzaho participated in an attack at the Sainte Famille church in which more than 100 Tutsis were killed. People across Rwanda sought refuge in churches all over the country as the genocide unfolded. He also made remarks encouraging the sexual abuse of women, according to the court, and was found criminally liable for the rapes that followed. The genocide ended when Tutsi-led militias backing Rwandan President Paul Kagame ousted the Hutu government supporting the massacre. Renzaho was arrested in September 2002 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His trial began in January 2007 and closed in September that year after hearing from 53 witnesses, including Renzaho. Throughout the trial, Renzaho maintained his innocence and said he had no association with the militia. Renzaho's lawyer blamed the case on political interference by the Rwandan government. Renzaho has the right to appeal the verdict. The decision is the third judgment on charges of genocide delivered this year by the tribunal. Emmanuel Rukundo, a former military chaplain, was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The court found Rukundo had a history of contempt for Tutsis and his fellow clergymen, and that he ordered the killings of Tutsi civilians. Callixte Kalimanzira was sentenced to 30 years in prison for genocide and incitement to commit genocide. The court found that Kalimanzira, a senior civil servant who at one point worked with the Interior Ministry, participated in various massacres of Tutsi civilians and actively encouraged other crimes against them. Prosecutors at his trial said he beat some Tutsis to death and called for the elimination of all Tutsis, including pregnant women and their babies.","highlights":"Tharcisse Renzaho guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes .\n3rd genocide judgment this year by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda .\nRenzaho governor of Kigali in 1994 during the country's genocide .\nCourt: Renzaho ordered roadblocks to identify Tutsi civilians to be executed .","id":"b93a9c0c3fb853747e1389142033e95b997bb85c"} -{"article":"SOWETO, South Africa (CNN) -- It's late Sunday morning inside a cavernous Salvation Army Church in Soweto, South Africa. Services, complete with African and traditional music, have just finished and a catchy drum beat with a distinctly American hip-hop sound is coming from the stage. Laura DiFilippi, 12, gets ready to board the bus in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to go to the airport. The group of teenagers dancing around the drums is 8,000 miles and an 18-hour plane ride from their New York home. They are mostly from Bushwick, Brooklyn -- a community of about 109,000 people only five miles from Manhattan. For some of these kids, it's their first time away from home. Unfamiliar with Bushwick? It's mostly a working class neighborhood where families have often struggled. For years it was a community with a thriving drug trade, severely under-achieving schools, extreme poverty and a staggering rate of teenage pregnancy. It was ravaged by fires and looting during the summer of 1977 and hit hard by the crack epidemic in the 1980s. Bushwick is recovering now, but half of the children under age 18 still live below the poverty line. A quarter of the adults never make it past the ninth grade and more than half never graduate from high school. The children on this trip to South Africa are what educators and social workers call \"at-risk\" -- at risk of having babies as teenagers; at risk of never finishing high school or achieving their dreams; at risk of never knowing the world beyond their neighborhood. Thirty of these children, between the ages of 12 to 16, have been paired up with college-aged mentors and brought to South Africa by Malaak Compton-Rock, the wife of comedian Chris Rock. She brought them to volunteer -- to serve the impoverished and the AIDS orphans in this country with the highest HIV-infected population in the world. Watch the kids' video diaries from South Africa \u00bb . Compton-Rock has carved her own niche in espousing service -- giving back. She often quotes her mentor Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund: \"Service is the rent we pay for living.\" The South Africa trip is Compton-Rock's brainchild -- to broaden the horizons of young teens and give them perspective on their own lives. Watch: The kids witness devastating effect of AIDS in South Africa \u00bb . \"I believe by traveling you open up your life,\" Compton-Rock tells a crowd gathered for a press conference the morning after the group has arrived. \"You don't think locally, you start to think globally and internationally and I think it gives you a sense of confidence.\" She also wants the children to know, \"that in the United States of America, even in Bushwick, we have certain services that I want the children to understand that they need to take advantage of.\" Compton-Rock is talking about access to free public education, food, knowledge and social mobility -- elusive things for South Africa's impoverished and particularly so for 1.4 million AIDS orphans there. One of the mentors on this trip is 20-year-old Alicia Gerald. \"I know that in my own experience,\" Alicia says. \"Just having someone put their hand out and say 'I believe that you can be great,' has really helped me rise to those expectations.\" Photos: Meet some of the kids \u00bb . Alicia is from Bedford-Stuyvesant, a troubled community just blocks away from Bushwick. It's also where Compton-Rock's husband grew up. Compton-Rock has required all of the children selected for the trip to sign one-year contracts to become \"global ambassadors.\" As ambassadors they are required to tell their friends and neighbors about their experiences -- through writing, blogging, photographs and speeches. The idea, Compton-Rock explains, is that if a child is given a unique opportunity, she or he, is \"obligated to bore a hole and take someone through with you.\" Among the children on Compton-Rock's \"Journey for Change\" mission is Laura DiFilippi, a quiet girl who's overcome a lot of challenges in her 12 years. Constant moving and instability in her family life meant it was tough to find the documents needed for travel. For a while, it seemed as thought she wouldn't be able to get her U.S. passport. With the help of Compton-Rock's assistant, Cece Falls, Laura got the paperwork done and her passport was issued just 24 hours before the kids piled onto the bus for the airport. There is also 15-year-old Jeremy Baker, with a broad smile and slight frame. He is growing up in the projects with four siblings and hits the basketball courts every morning before breakfast during the summer. His dream? \"Senior year I'd get a scholarship to Connecticut, UConn, play there,\" says Jeremy. \"Then, like after my sophomore year in college, go to the NBA, get drafted by Detroit.\" It's a dream of many young black men, but a recent study suggests only .03 percent of the youngsters playing ball as seniors in high school actually make it to the NBA. Another young man, who makes magic with the drums and also smiles broadly, is 14-year-old Jonathan Severe. Compton-Rock snaps pictures while dancing to the beat and tapping on a nearby African drum. She is shaking her head in both joy and disbelief, clearly thrilled by what she sees. It's been less than 48 hours since the group has arrived; they haven't even begun their service yet, and already the young man is opening up in a way she had never expected. Jonathan said maybe six words during his interview for entry to the program, and despite Compton-Rock's best mothering skills he never lifted his eyes from the floor. His grandmother came with him to the interview and kicked his leg under the table to get him to speak. It didn't work. He barely spoke and when he did, you could hardly hear him. It wasn't easy for Compton-Rock to decide to take him to Africa. Her selection committee feared he didn't have the communication skills needed to be an ambassador. Two days into the trip and Jonathan is effusive. I literally have to cut him off in interviews to get a word in. To see that, so early on, has been one of the thrills of this trip for me. Two days in and I can already tell this experience will be life-changing for all of us. What will they learn and discover about themselves, and the world? I'll let them tell you. All the kids have been asked to blog about the joys and the challenges, the things they're learning and the disappointments. We're taking photos and documenting every step they take in South Africa. The Bushwick kids came to make a difference in the lives of these vulnerable kids in South Africa. It will be equally interesting to see how South Africa's children make a difference in the lives of these children from Bushwick.","highlights":"Thirty kids from Bushwick, Brooklyn, took part in \"Journey for Change\"\nMalaak Compton-Rock spearheaded the mission to empower \"at-risk\" youth .\nKids, ages 12 to 15, volunteered to serve the impoverished, AIDS orphans .\nKids were required to sign one-year contracts to become \"global ambassadors\"","id":"da7a86ca01347ff018923045a6a542f42af556da"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A Web designer in London was amazed to discover that Iranian election protesters are attacking the Iranian president's Web site using software he developed in his spare time, he told CNN Wednesday. Ryan Kelly: \"I suppose I am taking sides but I have no problems with it being used in this way.\" With anti-government activists in Iran sidestepping official attempts to silence them on the Internet by posting photos, videos and blogs on sites like Facebook and Twitter, others are using a site that automatically refreshes a Web page every few seconds, potentially overloading the host server. The page reboot software means that dissidents can \"attack\" sites with a barrage of hits -- known as a denial of service attack -- causing them to appear to users as \"unobtainable.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Web sites was one of those displaying this message on Monday, according to Britain's Channel 4 News, although on Tuesday it was loading correctly. The freely available page refresh site was partly developed by Ryan Kelly for use with sports results sites and eBay. He said he was unaware it was being used by Iranian protesters to stop the government from getting out its message until Tuesday when he received an email from an unknown source asking him to take the site down. \"Can you please shout (sic) down the website for few weeks. Currently they are using that website to attack other websites,\" stated the anonymous e-mail seen by CNN. Kelly, who works for contract publisher Wardour, then discovered that hits on his own site had risen from 700 on a normal day to 41,000 on Monday. \"I was shocked when I heard my site was being used in this way,\" the 25-year-old told CNN. \"This exemplifies the power of the Internet that something happening in London can affect events thousands of miles away in Tehran. It's great it's being used in this way.\" The heavy traffic forced Kelly to temporarily suspend his site, but only because it was exceeding the volume of traffic on his server. He said he later received dozens of e-mails requesting him to restore the site, and he did so. One message seen by CNN said: \"Please bring your site back up as fast as you can. We need your help in Iran against Ahmadinejad.\" Kelly said he supported the protesters in their battle to have the results of the disputed presidential election overturned. \"I suppose I am taking sides because I've put the site back up, but I have no problems with it being used in this way.\"","highlights":"Iranian protesters use site that refreshes Web page to hack official sites .\nPage reboot software means dissidents can \"attack\" sites with barrage of hits .\nHeavy traffic forced Ryan Kelly to temporarily suspend it, but he later restored it .","id":"cc7ea968fcb1a81b949c5e93b93147ff828eb6cf"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn't power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could. A prototype of a high-altitude wind turbine made by Magenn Power. The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over. The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome. Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America's Eastern Seaboard and China's coastline. \"The resource is really, really phenomenal,\" said Christine Archer of Cal State University-Chico, who co-authored a paper on the work published in the open-access journal Energies.\"There is a lot of energy up there, but it's not as steady as we thought. It's not going to be the silver bullet that will solve all of our energy problems, but it will have a role.\" For centuries, we've been using high-density fossil fuels, but peaking oil supplies and climate concerns have given new life to green technologies. Unfortunately, renewable energy is generally diffuse, meaning you need to cover a lot of area to get the energy you want. So engineers look for renewable resources that are as dense as possible. On that score, high-altitude wind looks very promising. Wind's power -- energy which can be used to do work like spinning magnets to generate electricity -- varies with the cube of its speed. So, a small increase in wind speed can lead to a big increase in the amount of mechanical energy you can harvest. High-altitude wind blows fast, is spread nicely across the globe, and is easier to predict than terrestrial wind. These properties have led inventors and scientists to cast their hopes upward, where strong winds have long been known to blow, as Etzler's dreamy quote shows. During the energy shocks of the 1970s, when new energy ideas of all kinds were bursting forth, engineers and schemers patented several designs for harnessing wind thousands of feet in the air. The two main design frameworks they came up with are still with us today. The first is essentially a power plant in the sky, generating electricity aloft and sending it down to Earth via a conductive tether. The second is more like a kite, transmitting mechanical energy to the ground, where generators turn it into electricity. Theoretically, both approaches could work, but nothing approaching a rigorous evaluation of the technologies has been conducted. The Department of Energy had a very small high-altitude wind program, which produced some of the first good data about the qualities of the wind up there, but it got axed as energy prices dropped in the 1980s and Reagan-era DOE officials directed funds elsewhere. The program hasn't been restarted, despite growing attention to renewables, but that's not because it's considered a bad idea. Rather, it is seen as just a little too far out on the horizon. \"We're very much aimed these days at things that we can fairly quickly commercialize, like in the next 10 years or so,\" said National Renewable Energy Laboratory spokesperson George Douglas. Startups like KiteGen, Sky Windpower, Magenn, and Makani (Google's secretive fundee) have come into the space over the last several years, and they seem to be working on much shorter timelines. \"We are not that far from working prototypes,\" Archer said, though she noted that the companies are all incredibly secretive about the data from their testing. Magenn CFO Barry Monette said he expects \"first revenue\" next year when they sell \"two to four\" working prototypes of their blimpy machine, which will operate at much lower altitudes. \"We do think that we're going to be first [to market], unless something happens,\" Monette said. In the long term, trying to power entire cities with machines like this would be difficult, largely because even in the best locations, the wind will fail at least 5 percent of the time. \"This means that you either need backup power, massive amounts of energy storage, or a continental- or even global-scale electricity grid to assure power availability,\" said co-author Ken Caldeira, an ecologist at Stanford University. \"So, while high-altitude wind may ultimately prove to be a major energy source, it requires substantial infrastructure.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Study: Wind machines placed thousands of feet above New York could power the city .\nEnough wind energy exists at high altitudes to meet global demand 100 times over .\nA kite-like device could transmit energy to generators that turn it into electricity .\nStartups are developing turbines, although they are still in the prototype stage .","id":"a29c4f82aabdf70c4fc096ad340fc1b7dab7822c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A former motor-racing engineer has unveiled a prototype of a new hydrogen-powered city car which claims to emit less than one third of the carbon emissions produced by its nearest rival. The Riversimple Urban Car has been nine years in the making and needs further funding for city trials. The creators of the 'Urban Car,' UK-based company Riversimple, say the vehicle emits less than 30 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide, less than one third of the carbon produced by the Polo Bluemotion. Riversimple founder Hugo Spowers has spent nine years researching and developing the prototype car. \"I think that the auto industry is focusing a lot of money on research and development at a basic science level on hydrogen storage and fuel cell technology. We don't think it's necessary to do that,\" Spowers told CNN. \"We can use existing technology and integrate it into a whole system design approach -- that is where the breakthrough has come.\" Spowers is searching for extra funding to put the 'Urban Car' on the streets, but he says at this stage they won't be for sale. Riversimple plans to lease the car to customers for a monthly fee of \u00a3200 ($330). Hydrogen fuel for the cars will cost just 15 pence (25 cents) per mile. It's a long way from the fuel-guzzling world Spowers used to inhabit as a designer and developer of high-powered racing cars. It was the industry's appalling environmental record that encouraged him to leave to try to find a way to make driving greener. \"Certainly the first five or six years were hard work because I did have an awful lot of people telling me I was mad,\" Spowers told CNN, at the launch of the Riversimple Urban Car in London. \"Gradually it all sort of gathered steam,\" he said, adding \"I'm absolutely convinced that we're offering a better solution for a segment of the transport problem and we'd be crazy not to pursue it.\" The Urban Car's power comes from hydrogen fuel cells which are linked to four electric motors situated over each of the car's wheels. Almost all of the braking is done by the electric motors, which then capture the energy of the car in motion and store it in a bank of ultracapacitors. In conventional cars, the energy generated through braking is lost as heat. The energy stored in the Urban Car's electric motors is enough to power 80 percent of the car's acceleration. That reduces the energy demands on the hydrogen fuel cell, meaning it can be one fifth of the size of one used in a normal car. The lighter fuel cell also makes it more energy efficient. A large part of the funding for the car's development came from the family of Ernst Pi\u00ebch, the eldest grandson of Ferdinand Porsche who founded the motor company of the same name in 1931. Ferdinand Porsche's great-grandson Sebastien Pi\u00ebch is a partner in Riversimple. He says the company's nimble size has given it an advantage over larger car manufacturers whose future he says concerns him. \"It concerns me massively, because I don't see that the model they have now is very relevant to where consumers are going. Consumers are looking for a different solution. I'm not sure if what they're producing is working,\" he said. Riversimple plans to share the designs for its car through open-source licence agreements, a system more commonly used in the software industry. Designers and manufacturers will be invited to make improvements so the car evolves into the most efficient vehicle it can be. \"We don't believe that making money on IP (intellectual property) is really what's actually happening even now. We believe that service and providing the solution for customers will be where we make money,\" Pi\u00ebch told CNN. The next step now is to find further financing, another \u00a320 million ($33 million), to build and test ten cars. Fifty prototypes will then be built for a pilot project in a small city. The location is still to be confirmed, but Riversimple has narrowed down its options to small towns in the United Kingdom, perhaps Oxford or Peterborough. \"I'm very confident we'll get it to market,\" Spowers said. \"I couldn't say hand on heart that I'm confident that we'll achieve what I think technically can be done. That's a bit in the lap of the gods and it's all to do with people, politics and business -- all a bit more unpredictable.\"","highlights":"Riversimple launches car prototype with lowest level of carbon emissions .\nCar is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and four electric motors over the wheels .\nCompany's looking for $33 million dollars to build ten cars for trials .\nDesigner Spowers used expertise he gained in motor racing to build prototype .","id":"f4639c1c465bb8a7750db02371c8655fc3e2556b"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Marching in dramatic silence, many with tape over their mouths, hundreds of thousands of Iranians kept alive public support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi Wednesday even as the government stepped up efforts to thwart daily protests calling for a new presidential election. Supporters of defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi line the streets of Tehran Wednesday. Large crowds gathered in Haft-e-Tir Square in central Tehran Wednesday evening for a fifth day of protests, according to witnesses. The demonstrators are demanding that officials throw out the results of the balloting Friday that kept hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. More protests are expected Thursday after Moussavi, in a message on his Web site, called for an afternoon \"ceremony of mourning,\" which he planned to attend. Referring to those who have died or been wounded \"as a result of illegal and violent clashes\" with his opponents, Moussavi urged people to gather in mosques and holy sites and wear \"mourning symbols\" in a show of sympathy and support for the families. The protests have claimed at least eight lives, according to Iran's government-funded Press TV. The eighth death was included in a report the Intelligence Ministry provided to parliament Wednesday, the network said. View a map of major rallies in Tehran \u00bb . The National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Majlis briefed lawmakers \"about the current situation in the country,\" Press TV reported. No details of the report have been made public. Iran is also investigating reports of violence at a Tehran University dormitory in the wake of rallies sparked by last week's disputed election. Moussavi and former President Mohammad Khatami sent a joint letter asking Iran's courts to quell post-election violence and release protesters who have been arrested. The letter, posted on Moussavi's Web site, said, \"the use of violence against ordinary people, raiding people's residences just because they chant the sacred phrase of Allh-o-akbar (Allah is great), beating up women and men, destroying buildings\" is not in line with the standards of the Islamic Republic. For a second day Wednesday, pro-Moussavi marchers urged their peers to march silently -- perhaps as a way of keeping a low profile in the face of riot police, witnesses told CNN. Protesters held placards and posters reading, \"Where is my vote?\" and \"Freedom,\" the witnesses said. Some held signs that said \"Silence\" and put their finger to their lips. Several business owners reported that they closed up shop early so their employees could attend Wednesday's rally. The government cracked down by banning international media from covering the protests and blocking access to Web sites. Watch Christiane Amanpour on media restrictions \u00bb . A CNN iReporter who is not being identified said Wednesday's rally ended without incident. \"The people of Iran are finally fed up with the lies, the temperament, the foolish actions of Ahmadinejad,\" a 20-year-old Iranian man told CNN. Authorities in Tehran transported dozens of protesters to jail Tuesday and blocked access to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The government accused international reporters of being the \"mouthpiece\" of \"hooligans\" who have created unrest, and said it could not guarantee the safety of those reporters. (Full story) \"I do believe them because the militia, they don't care who you are. If they see a camera, you will be a target,\" said a CNN producer who is not being identified for his safety. He was referring to the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force that takes its orders from the Revolutionary Guard and is suspected of being behind most of the violent acts. Citizens were barred from using typical means of getting Iran's stories to the outside world, but amateur videos and photos blossomed on sites such as YouTube and CNN's iReport. The content was impossible to verify in most cases, and much of it was posted anonymously or through third parties, some with little information. iReport.com: On the ground in Iran . Iran's Revolutionary Guard corps said it will pursue legal action against Web sites that it said were inciting people to riot. The Guard, a military unit that enforces the government's Islamic codes and morality, blamed U.S., British and Canadian companies, including American intelligence agencies, for financially and technically supporting the Web sites. Despite the Guard's threats, defiant Moussavi backers stood firm. \"We are fighting with our lives and the world is just watching,\" said Ali, a Tehran University student who requested his last name not be used. \"They see how the government is trying to silence us, how they are beating us -- but they don't come to our help. It's OK. We will succeed, even if we have to fight alone.\" Though the focus of demonstrations has been in Tehran, reports of protests and violence sprouted in all corners of Iran. Human rights group Amnesty International, which is monitoring the situation through media reports and a network of local correspondents, said people had protested in Tabriz and Bobol in the north, Shiraz in the south and Mashad and Zahedan in the east. It reported several deaths in Oroumiye and Shiraz as well as beatings by police, use of tear gas and the detention of hundreds of protesters. A video on CNN's iReport site by a third party showed several people who apparently had been shot, purportedly in the city of Esfahan, about 200 miles south of Tehran, and others attempting to treat them without medical supplies. In Shiraz, 28-year-old Najmeh said she has taken to the streets every day since Saturday -- much to the chagrin of her worried parents. But Wednesday, the hospital nurse said no more. \"The police are everywhere you look,\" she said. \"They hurt and arrested so many people last night that no one wants to go out.\" Thousands of miles away, members of Iran's national soccer team sported green arm and wrist bands Wednesday during their World Cup qualifying match against South Korea. The team does not normally wear bands of green, the venerated color of Islam that has been adopted by Moussavi supporters, and many Iranians viewed the gesture as a sign of support, although that has not been confirmed. (Full story) Meanwhile, the Swiss ambassador to Iran -- the protecting power of the U.S. in Iran -- was called into the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to hear Iranian complaints regarding U.S. interference in Iran's election process, P.J. Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs, told reporters in Washington. U.S. President Barack Obama has voiced \"deep concerns\" about the elections, as has the European Union. But neither has dismissed the election results outright. Counter-demonstrations by Ahmadinejad backers have also drawn thousands, reflecting a deep fissure in the country. Iran's all-powerful leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appealed to the citizenry to stand behind the Islamic republic. He is to deliver a sermon Friday that will be closely watched for a sign of how the government plans to resolve the stalemate. On Tuesday, Khamenei -- who has given his blessing to the election results -- asked the country's election authority, the Guardian Council, to recount some of the votes. But Moussavi is asking for fresh elections. CNN's Samson Desta and Reza Sayah in Tehran, and Mitra Mobasherat and Saeed Ahmed in Atlanta, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands protest in Tehran in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi .\nIranian elite military warns of legal action against social networking Web sites .\nSupreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei urges Iranians to stand behind republic .","id":"87d816909086c9c2f1c76d45a99a638cbeb34b67"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has indicted two Minnesota men in connection with the recruitment of Somali immigrants to fight with Islamic insurgents in their home country. Jamal Bana is one of several missing Somali-Americans believed to have fought with an Islamist insurgency. Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse are charged with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, the indictment states. The recruiting effort took place between September 2007 and December 2008, according to the charges. Ahmed also is charged with two counts of making false statements to investigators. According to the indictment, he told FBI agents that he had traveled alone on a flight to Somalia when, in fact, he and another person were going together \"so that they could fight jihad in Somalia.\" Ahmed was arrested Saturday, FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson told CNN. Isse had been in custody for some time, said Omar Jamal, the head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. Both were from Minnesota and in their 20s, Jamal said. Jamal said Ahmed and Isse were \"foot soldiers\" carrying out the work of others, and that he expected more indictments \"in a week or two.\" The FBI has been investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by the al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months, and at least three have been killed in Somalia, community leaders have said. The latest, Jamal Bana, was confirmed dead over the weekend, his family said Sunday. The same day, Somalia's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country. \"I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to foment violence against your people,' \" President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said. Al-Shabaab has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government, U.S. officials said. It remains entrenched in the northeast and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. Wilson said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is \"in the 10s,\" but their recruitment is \"a significant concern and one that we're giving our highest priority.\" In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab, traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. It was the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen, and it raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Burhan Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis, went missing eight months ago, around the same time as Bana. Last month, his family learned that he was killed in Somalia. Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States, where they came as young boys, and Bana's family believes he was being held against his will, said Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. \"Only one time he placed a phone call [in mid-November], he didn't say much,\" Jamal said. \"He spoke as if he was being held hostage. He couldn't be speak freely. They asked him to cut the conversation short.\" Hassan's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, said a fourth man -- 30-year-old Zakariya Maruf -- was killed Friday, but Jamal said Maruf may only be injured. Maruf was the first of the missing Somalis to head overseas, said Bihi, who has become a spokesman for the families of the missing men. Bihi called him a \"leader\" whom the others consulted on travel plans. Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground. Ethiopia invaded Somalia to push the Islamists out of Mogadishu in December 2006, but their presence in the country was an outrage to most Somalis and became a rallying cry for al-Shabaab. Ethiopian troops left Somalia this year, leaving Ahmed's weak transitional government to battle the insurgents. CNN's David McKenzie and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two defendants were mere \"foot soldiers,\" their legal advocate says .\nTwo charged with conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists .\nFBI investigating Somali militants' recruiting effort in immigrant communities in U.S.\nThe militant group in Africa has ties to al Qaeda .","id":"cd71525f1b6f58b9cf72a19a1f71d34b273e093f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pet owners know that their furry friends can add a little something extra to the spring cleaning chores. CNN spoke with \"the Queen of Clean,\" Linda Cobb, a New York Times best-selling author and television personality. Cobb, who owns three cats, knows a thing or two about getting the best of pet messes. CNN: What can pet owners do about pet hair? Cobb: You can use what's called a soot and dirt removal sponge. You simply run it over a lampshade [or the] upholstery on your furniture, and it actually pulls the hair right off. You can also use a damp sponge. Another good thing to use is rubber gloves. Dip them into water -- keep a bucket of water near you -- shake off the excess water and rub that over the upholstery, and the hair will collect on the rubber gloves. It does a great, great job. The other thing you need is a really good vacuum cleaner. I have found that I prefer one that has a bag in it. I use an Oreck XL. If you're using a canister vacuum, you have to take it out and then shake it into the trash, which puts all of that dust and that dander and that cat hair and everything else back up into the air. Another good vacuum that is newer to the market is the Halo [UXV Ultraviolet Vacuum Cleaner]. That's the one with the ultraviolet light that kills germs and bacteria as you vacuum. Now, you have to vacuum correctly and go back over the area of the carpet enough times, but that's a very good vacuum too. If you have someone in the house that is sensitive to cats, has an allergy from them or something like that, there is a product called Allerpet that you can actually just spray on to your pet, and it neutralizes the enzymes in the saliva, which is what people are usually allergic to. This is something that even if the cat licks itself, it won't hurt it. CNN: What about pet accidents? Cobb: If you've got a hairball, or spaghetti didn't agree with the dog, accident on the carpet, the first thing you do is scream and run to get the paper towels and start trying to pick it up, which drives it down into the carpet fibers. Instead, reach for your baking soda. Sprinkle on a really heavy coat, and I mean heavy, so that it's completely covering it totally. Walk away. The baking soda will pull the liquid, the bile, the acids from the accident up into it away from the carpet. Once it's dry, you take the suction hose from your vacuum and simply vacuum that up, and many times you can't even tell there was an accident there. For pet urine, the first thing you want to do is put a very heavy, heavy pile of paper towels on it, stand on it, draw all the urine you can away from the carpet. Then pour on club soda and do the same thing. Then you can go in to neutralize it with about a half a cup of water quarter cup of white vinegar. [Then] blot that dry. If you have any odor, you want to use an odor eliminator to remove that. Now, that's not a spray that smells like lavender or oranges or flowers. An odor eliminator has no odor. A really, really fine one is Odorzout. It's all-natural, so it can't hurt the pet. The man who invented it powdered his grandson's little butt with it when he changed his diaper, that's how natural it is. If there's a larger accident and you have a bowel movement on the floor, as long as it's not diarrhea-like, you can pick that up with a paper towel. I recommend that you immediately treat that with Odorzout, because if your pets can smell what they've done, they'll go back to that area because they think it's OK. CNN: What about the litter box? Cobb: Cats like to be very, very clean, so to avoid having accidents in other areas because their litter's dirty, you want to clean every day. If you're using a regular litter box, there is a product called a Litter Locker; it's a little sanitary container for the [waste] removal. It's a fantastic product. I use it for my cats, and I just love it. Now, if you're using [an automatic cleaner], every few days, you need to make sure that the catch basin is cleaned out. If it overfills and the cat smells that, they don't want to go in, and then they're going to start using corners of your house. And you know what? That's not their fault. That's our fault if we don't keep their litter clean. CNN: How do you keep your pets safe when you're doing a big spring cleaning? Cobb: Well, you look for natural products. Don't use harsh chemicals; it's not necessary. Disinfectants have to stay wet on the surfaces for five to 10 minutes to work; then they have to be rinsed off. They're not safe for food surfaces. You know what that says? They're not safe for your pets to walk on, either. Read when you go to the grocery store. If there's a natural seal or if they have a green cross on it, they're a natural, safe, organic product. I recommend so highly the ACT Natural microfiber products from Sweden, the cloths and the mops. Because with nothing but water, they remove 99.9 percent of germs and bacteria and soiling from surfaces. You're not getting any residue on surfaces, and you're not spending any money on chemicals, and you're saving the environment and your health too.","highlights":"Use rubber gloves to attack pet hair on furniture .\nReach for the baking soda in case of wet pet messes .\nAllergic to cats? Spray the cat down with Allerpet .\nUse natural cleaning products to protect your pets .","id":"8aec1c515cfc090dcf8c92e9e2694f38bae16501"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Wendell Potter has served since May 2009 as senior fellow on health care at the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that says it seeks to expose \"corporate spin and government propaganda.\" After a 20-year career as a corporate public relations executive, Potter left his job last year as head of communications for one of the nation's largest health insurers, CIGNA Corporation. Ex-insurance company spokesman Wendell Potter says the industry seeks to drive the health care debate. (CNN) -- Having grown up in one of the most conservative and Republican places in the country -- East Tennessee -- I understand why many of the people who are showing up at town hall meetings this month are reacting, sometimes violently, when members of Congress try to explain the need for an expanded government role in our health care system. I also have a lot of conservative friends, including one former co-worker who was laid off by CIGNA several years ago but who nonetheless worries about a \"government takeover\" of health care. The most vocal folks at the town hall meetings seem to share the same ideology as my kinfolks in East Tennessee and my former CIGNA buddy: the less government involvement in our lives, the better. That point couldn't have been made clearer than by the man standing in line to get free care at Remote Area Medical's recent health care \"expedition\" at the Wise County, Virginia, fairgrounds, who told a reporter he was dead set against President Obama's reform proposal. Even though he didn't have health insurance, and could see the desperation in the faces of thousands of others all around him who were in similar straits, he was more worried about the possibility of having to pay more taxes than he was eager to make sure he and his neighbors wouldn't have to wait in line to get care provided by volunteer doctors in animal stalls. Watch Potter interview with Sanjay Gupta \u00bb . Friday morning my former CIGNA buddy sent me an e-mail challenging something he said his wife heard me say in a radio report about my press conference in the Capitol on Wednesday with Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-New York, chairwoman of the House Rules Committee. \"She heard you say that these protestors are funded by the insurance companies. Frankly, nothing would surprise me, but certainly not each and every person,\" he wrote. \"If there was a meeting near me, I certainly would tell my local representative how I feel about this entire subject (and it wouldn't be pretty), and I certainly am not funded by anyone. So I am ultimately wondering what proof there is that seemingly ordinary Americans are finally protesting what is going in Washington and there are all of these suggestions of a greater conspiracy.\" If the radio report had carried more of my remarks, he might have a better understanding of how the health insurance and its army of PR people are influencing his opinions and actions without his even knowing it. Until I quit my job last year, I was one of the leaders of that army. I had a very successful career and was my company's voice to the media and the public for several years. It was my job to \"promote and defend\" the company's reputation and to try to persuade reporters to write positive stories about the industry's ideas on reform. During the last couple of years of my career, however, I became increasingly worried that the high-deductible plans insurers were beginning to push Americans into would force more and more of us into bankruptcy. The higher I rose in the company, the more I learned about the tactics insurers use to dump policyholders when they get sick, in order to increase profits and to reward their Wall Street investors. I could not in good conscience continue serving as an industry mouthpiece. And I did not want to be part of yet another industry effort to kill meaningful reform. I explained during the press conference with Rep. Slaughter how the industry funnels millions of its policyholders' premiums to big public relations firms that provide talking points to conservative talk show hosts, business groups and politicians. I also described how the PR firms set up front groups, again using your premium dollars and mine, to scare people away from reform. What I'm trying to do as I write and speak out against the insurance industry I was a part of for nearly two decades is to inform Americans that when they hear isolated stories of long waiting times to see doctors in Canada and allegations that care in other systems is rationed by \"government bureaucrats,\" someone associated with the insurance industry wrote the original script. The industry has been engaging in these kinds of tactics for many years, going back to its successful behind-the-scenes campaign to kill the Clinton reform plan. A story in Friday's New York Times about the origin of the absurdly false rumor that President Obama's health care proposal would create government-sponsored \"death panels\" bears out what I have been saying. The story notes that the rumor emanated \"from many of the same pundits and conservative media outlets that were central in defeating Bill Clinton's health care proposal 16 years ago, including the editorial board of The Washington Times, the American Spectator magazine and Betsy McCaughey, whose 1994 health care critique made her a star of the conservative movement (and ultimately, the lieutenant governor of New York).\" The big PR firms that work for the industry have close connections with those media outlets and stars in the conservative movement. One of their PR firms, which created and staffed a front group in the late '90s to kill the proposed \"Patients' Bill of Rights,\" launched a PR and advertising campaign in conservative media outlets to drum up opposition to the bill. The message: President Clinton \"owed a debt to the liberal base of the Democrat Party and would try to pay back that debt by advancing the type of big government agenda on health care that he failed to get in 1994.\" The industry goes to great lengths to keep its involvement in these campaigns hidden from public view. I know from having served on numerous trade group committees and industry-funded front groups, however, that industry leaders are always full partners in developing strategies to derail any reform that might interfere with insurers' ability to increase profits. So the next time you hear someone warning against a \"government takeover\" of our health care system, or that the creation of a public health insurance option would send us down the \"slippery slope toward socialism,\" know that someone like I used to be wrote those terms, knowing it might turn many of the very people who would benefit most from meaningful reform into unwitting spokespeople for the industry. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Wendell Potter.","highlights":"Wendell Potter: In my former job, I helped shape public opinion on health care .\nHe says insurance companies quietly seek to counter reform measures .\nPotter: Industry worked to kill the Clinton health reform plan .\nHe says he didn't want to be part of another effort to kill a health care plan .","id":"87fd2fd13729ba13920591bcc96a83ddf61625e0"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning Thursday for the Atlantic island of Bermuda as Category 3 Hurricane Bill neared. Hurricane Bill's projected path shows it moving north toward New England and then Canada. The warning from the National Hurricane Center means tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph (63 kph), are expected on the island within 24 hours. A hurricane watch was also in effect, meaning hurricane conditions, including winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph), are possible within 36 hours. As of 11 p.m. ET Thursday, Bill's center was about 510 miles (825 kilometers) south of Bermuda, and about 975 miles (1,570 kilometers) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the hurricane center said. The storm was moving northwest at near 18 mph (30 kph), and is expected to continue that motion overnight, with a gradual turn to the north-northwest on Friday followed by a turn toward the north on Saturday. \"The core of the hurricane is expected to pass between Bermuda and the east coast of the United States on Saturday,\" forecasters said. See Bill's projected path \u00bb . However, Bill is considered a large hurricane, with hurricane-force winds extending out 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the center and tropical storm-force winds extending out 260 miles (418 kilometers), so Bermuda is likely to feel its effects as it brushes by. Bill's maximum sustained winds had increased slightly to 125 mph (205 kph), with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. It was downgraded to a Category 3 storm from Category 4 status early Thursday, after its top sustained winds slipped below 131 mph (211 kph). Fluctuations in intensity are likely over the next 12 to 24 hours, however, and Bill could regain Category 4 strength Friday, forecasters said. Large swells generated by Bill were affecting the northern Leeward Islands on Thursday, along with Puerto Rico and the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The East Coast of the United States should start seeing large swells during the next few days, along with the Bahamas, Bermuda and the eastern coast of Canada, the hurricane center said. \"These swells will cause extremely dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents.\" Bill is forecast to diminish into a Category 1 hurricane by Sunday evening, when it could make landfall near Nova Scotia or Newfoundland, Canada.","highlights":"Bermuda on alert as Hurricane Bill gets closer .\nHurricane Bill downgraded to Category 3 storm .\nU.S. East Coast expected to have large swells during the next few days .\nBill expected to make landfall near Nova Scotia or Newfoundland, Canada on Sunday .","id":"c44a6373583f8cc849b1de1d6524265960b6f88c"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan officials said 26 people across the country were killed in election day violence, although they hailed Thursday's vote as a success. A woman dips her finger in ink to show she voted in Bamiyan, one of Afghanistan's more peaceful provinces. Nearly 95 percent of the more than 6,000 polling stations across Afghanistan opened on Thursday, according to government and electoral officials. Counting is under way but initial results are not expected for another 36 to 48 hours, while final results will not be certified until mid-September. Officials extended voting until everyone waiting in line had a chance to cast their ballots. \"At some [polling stations] there is a very large line,\" said Azizullah Ludin of Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission. \"We have to complete all these people that are coming here.\" It is the nation's second presidential election since the 2001 fall of the Taliban. Ludin said the decision to add more time to vote was because of a large turnout at some stations and technical issues that delayed voting for others. There were no official details on voter turnout and it has been difficult to get an accurate count of how many Afghans voted in defiance of threats of violence from the Taliban. CNN's Atia Abawi said election officials at one polling station in Kabul had already begun counting ballots after a low turnout when the order to extend voting reached them. Afghan voter turnout low as presidential election nears end \u00bb . When asked how many ballots had been counted, an election official said 1,000 -- which seemed high to the CNN crew that had been at the polling station all day. \"We were there all day and we did not see 1,000 people,\" CNN's Kevin Flower said. Election workers in central Bamiyan province immediately began reopening the polls after the order to extend voting. \"Election workers had put up security tape barriers and even tied down the flaps to their voting tents shortly after 4 p.m. local time,\" CNN's Ivan Watson reported from the province. \"The security tape has been removed and voters are straggling in again.\" Election observers from 30 groups -- both domestic and international -- said voting in Kabul province was fairly smooth, though a few reports surfaced of irregularities at various polling stations. Afghans were electing a president from 40 hopefuls and 420 members of the provincial council in what was seen in the international community as a high-stakes test for the fledgling South Asian democracy. The Taliban had vowed to disrupt the voting and the risk factor in some areas may have been too high for some Afghans to venture out to vote. Watch an election monitor in Kabul discuss what's being examined \u00bb . The government ordered a ban on media coverage of incidents of violence in an effort to \"ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people\" as 300,000 NATO and Afghan soldiers were out in force to safeguard voters. The independent Pajhwok Afghan News, which had announced it would not heed the media ban, posted online reports of deadly attacks across Afghanistan. CNN has not confirmed those incidents. Afghan security officials said voting day violence claimed the lives of 17 Afghan policemen and soldiers, and another nine civilians. An American service member was killed in a mortar strike in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. It did not say where the attack took place. Major fighting continued for a second day in the city of Baghlan, north of Kabul, security sources said. Rockets were fired at the town throughout the day, a day after heavy fighting that claimed the life of the city's police chief, the sources said. Afghans in Baghlan are afraid to leave their homes to cast their ballots, Afghan security officials said. In the eastern city of Gardez, four rockets pounded the outskirts of the city, while a roadside bomb struck in another area, the local security chief said. There were no casualties from either incident. But other parts of Afghanistan have been largely spared the daily drumbeat of car bombs, assassinations and whizzing rockets. Enthusiasm filled the air as voters lined up to have their say. Pajhwok reported brisk turnout in western Herat province, which borders Iran. Khwaja Mahboob told Pajhwok that he voted for a woman for a provincial council seat because he believed women should have a stronger say in Afghanistan. Watch what ranks high among Afghan concerns \u00bb . In central Bamiyan province, where predominantly ethnic Hazaras suffered under Taliban rule, thousands of voters cast their ballots behind cardboard screens inside dust-caked tents. Police struggled to hold back and search the crowd and at one point, people pushed through, breaking off one of the gates to the polling center. After voting, one elderly man admitted he wasn't sure who he voted for. \"Whoever God wants will be king,\" he said. Many Afghans are illiterate and rely on symbols like light bulbs and books to identify their candidates on the ballot paper. Organizers from Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission said 11 polling centers in Daikundi province were closed because of security concerns. Some polling stations in eastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces did not open and others, including 100 in Ghor, opened without a security presence, according to Pajhwok. Afghanistan observers and experts said a high turnout would help marginalize the Taliban which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai, dressed in his traditional purple and green striped robe, cast his vote shortly after the polls opened and had his finger stained with ink that is supposed to last for two weeks, a measure intended to thwart fraud by preventing people from voting multiple times. \"I'm sure this will be for peace, for progress and for the well-being of the Afghan people,\" Karzai said. But at some Kabul polling stations, the ink apparently was not potent enough, according to Damaso Magbual, an observer from the Asian Network for Free Elections. At another station, a boy who successfully voted with a fraudulent registration card, admitted to being only 13, Magbual said. Karzai's top rival was his former finance minister Abdullah Abdullah, who once served as a confidante of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the charismatic leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance killed by al Qaeda. Who are the candidates? How does the voting work? Read here \u00bb . The other candidate who gathered steam in the campaign was former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, a Western-educated man who served as a World Bank analyst. Karzai was named interim leader after the fall of the Taliban regime and won the 2004 election by a significant margin. His popularity, however, has waned in recent months as Afghanistan has been crippled by corruption and increasing bloodshed. Both Abdullah and Ghani hailed anti-corruption measures and government transparency as centerpieces of their campaign platforms. Women's votes were seen as crucial after an especially repressive period for women under the Taliban when they were stripped of rights. But in some polling stations Thursday, women voters were greatly outnumbered by men. What do Afghans want? See in photos here \u00bb . Habiba Surobi, the female governor of Bamiyan, said women who live in remote Afghan villages are still not aware of their rights. \"This is something to be concerned about,\" she said, adding that it was the responsibility of Afghanistan's women leaders to ensure better awareness and education. About 15 million of Afghanistan's 33 million people are registered to vote. Earlier, officials had estimated that number as 17 million. CNN's Atia Abawi and Ivan Watson contributed to this report.","highlights":"26 people killed in election day violence, Afghan officials say .\nVote hailed a success by officials as the count begins .\nThe Taliban had vowed to disrupt the voting .\nMore than 3,000 candidates vie for 420 provincial seats; 40 standing for president .","id":"4bc1bf16a3364ff70a41bb4d4d19a6c33e0937cd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ten climbers have died on two mountains in northern Japan, police said Friday. Hokkaido's mountains and scenery are a big drawcard for climbers and tourists. Eight of the climbers who died on Mount Tomuraushi were in a group organized by a tourist company, according to Yuji Kikuchi, a spokesman for Hokkaido police. A ninth man was climbing alone. One more climber died on Mount Biei, Kikuchi said. Another 10 people survived on both mountains in Hokkaido, according to Kikuchi. Except for a 32-year-old survivor, all the climbers were in their late 60s, the spokesman said. The cause of their deaths was not available. The area has experienced heavy rain and gusty winds in the past two weeks due to a persistent area of low pressure, CNN's meteorologist Jennifer Delgado said. The storm system has also brought flooding to North and South Korea, she added. CNN's Junko Ogura and Elizabeth Yuan contributed to this report.","highlights":"10 climbers have died on two mountains in northern Japan, police said Friday .\nEight climbers who died on Mount Tomuraushi were in tourist group .\nExcept for a 32-year-old survivor, all the climbers were in their late 60s .","id":"28717158f348f514fc107f80b8434020a070f980"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kids dig in the sand at the beach all the time, but the fun nearly turned fatal for an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy this week. The 11-year-old was given CPR and revived before being taken to a local hospital. The boy was digging a tunnel with friends on a beach in Ocean City, Maryland, on Tuesday when part of it collapsed on top of him, authorities said. Lifeguards rushed to pull him out, but it first appeared that they were too late. The boy was not breathing, and he had no pulse, Beach Patrol Capt. Butch Arbin told CNN on Wednesday. But rescue crews revived the boy by performing CPR, said Arbin, who was at the scene. There was a lot of emotion on the beach when the boy's pulse came back, he said. \"He basically went from dead to life,\" Arbin said, adding that the boy's mother called the rescue a \"miracle.\" As he was being rolled into an ambulance on a stretcher, the boy -- perhaps not realizing the trauma he had just survived -- complained to his mother that he had sand in his eyes, Arbin said. The child, whose family did not want to be identified, was initially taken to Atlantic General Hospital and later flown to the A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, he said. He's recovering there and probably will be released later Wednesday, Arbin said.","highlights":"Boy, 11, was digging a tunnel with friends on a beach in Ocean City, Maryland .\nLifeguards rushed to help; boy had no pulse and wasn't breathing .\nBeach Patrol captain: \"He basically went from dead to life\"\nBoy recovering in hospital, expected to be released later Wednesday .","id":"f89ad628856f337b9faa1b4d7fd1c759e4051cb4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eight-time gold medal winner at the Beijing Olympics and multiple world-record holder Michael Phelps warmed up for the Swimming World Championships in Rome by setting a new men's world record in the 100 meters butterfly. Michael Phelps attacks the pool in Indianapolis to set a new world mark in the 100m fly. The 24-year-old American shaved 18-hundredths of a second from the previous mark set by compatriot Ian Crocker in 2005, with a time of 50.22 on the third day of competition at the U.S. National Championships in the Indianapolis. \"I was pretty happy with my swim. I really wanted to break 50 seconds, but that is something to shoot for,\" Phelps told the event's official Web site. \"Ian Crocker texted me after prelims. He wished me all the luck. That really meant a lot to me as a competitor and as a friend,\" he added. The new time takes Phelps's personal tally of individual world records to five, to add to the three he can claim from relay events, and means he has qualified for three events at the upcoming World Championships in Rome thus far. Places were booked with wins in the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly on Wednesday while a further slot could be confirmed via the 100m freestyle. Phelps, who was banned for three months when he was pictured smoking drugs at a party after returning from Beijing, has been eager to regain his Olympic form after his enforced exile from the pool. \"This is something that I really, really wanted to accomplish,\" Phelps told the LA Times. \"Crock and I had a lot of great history, a lot of great races with one another. I've wanted that record ever since he took it in '03 worlds. . . . After the race, you could tell I was pretty fired up and excited.\" Elsewhere, twelve-time Olympic medallist Dara Torres qualified for the World Championships team in the 50m freestyle. The American told the LA Times there was still work to do despite the result: \"My coach was telling me I probably lost four or five tenths [of a second] on the start,\" said Torres. \"The adrenaline kind of took over so I didn't really feel (my knee injury). It's a great feeling to be able to be out there and still race [at age 42], but that time won't medal at the world championships,\" Torres added. The men's 50m freestyle saw four Olympians battled for the gold, with Nathan Adrian beating his 2008 Olympic teammates Cullen Jones and Garrett Weber-Gale by 0.3 seconds.","highlights":"Michael Phelps sets new men's 100m fly world record time of 50.22 .\nThe American has now qualified for three events at the World Championships .\nPhelps, 24, now holds five personal world records in the pool .\nNew time went better than the mark set by compatriot Ian Crocker in 2005 .","id":"0afb9b34cab3e3e5b01c23daa2d922ecf1ee2b3a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Tennessee man accused of selling the gun used to kill former NFL quarterback Steve McNair is in custody facing a federal charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, authorities said Friday. Police say Adrian Gilliam admitted he sold Sahel Kazemi the gun she used to kill NFL quarterback Steve McNair. \"This is another example of what can happen with a gun when a felon is selling it on the street with little to no interest other than just selling it for 100 bucks,\" said Nashville, Tennessee, Police Chief Ronal Serpas. Authorities said federal agents traced the gun used in the Fourth of July murder-suicide to Household Pawn in Nashville, which sold it in January 2002. \"Further investigation revealed the 9 mm pistol was later sold for approximately $100 to Adrian Gilliam approximately one to one and a half years ago,\" Nashville police said in a news release. Gilliam, 33, of LaVergne, Tennessee, told detectives that on July 2 he sold the gun for about the same price to Sahel Kazemi outside a shopping mall. Police said Kazemi, McNair's 20-year-old girlfriend, used the gun two days later to fatally shoot McNair -- a former Tennessee Titans quarterback and married father of four -- and herself in McNair's condominium in downtown Nashville. Gilliam had been convicted of second-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in Florida in 1993, according to the new release, and those felony convictions meant that he could not legally be in possession of a firearm. Along with Serpas, the announcement of the arrest was made by Edward M. Yarbrough, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee; James M. Cavanaugh, the Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives' Nashville Division; and Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. CNN's Shelby Lin Erdman contributed to this report .","highlights":"Police say Adrian Gilliam told them he sold gun to McNair's girlfriend on July 2 .\nOn July 4, Sahel Kazemi shot the quarterback to death, then killed herself .\nGilliam had felony convictions in Florida from 1993, police say .","id":"680ac9c70c2922f7a70566c45633a1fa08857b6e"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Debris from Air France 447, which crashed en route from Brazil to France last month, killing 228 people, has arrived in France, the French air accident investigation agency BEA said Wednesday. Searchers have discovered hundreds of pieces of wreckage from Air France Flight 447. \"The debris ... will be sent to Toulouse where they will be examined at the Center of Aeronautics Tests of Toulouse (a branch of the Defense Ministry) under the control of the police and the BEA investigators,\" said the French air accident investigation agency BEA. The wreckage was transported to France from Brazil by the ship \"La Ville de Bordeaux,\" according to the plane's manufacturer Airbus. It will be taken overland to Toulouse by truck. Flight 447 went down in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather as if flew from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France on June 1. Only 51 bodies were recovered, and the search is ongoing for the cause of the crash. The search for the data and voice recorders from the plane entered a second phase last week, according to France's accident investigation agency. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- commonly known as \"black boxes\" -- stop giving out acoustic broadcasts after 30 days. But investigators decided to continue listening for the \"pings\" for another 10 days after that. On July 10, two U.S. naval vessels and the French Navy submarine called off their search for the recorders, which investigators hope will shed light on exactly how and why the plane crashed. The second phase of the search will involve France's oceanographic ship \"Pourquoi Pas?\" which carries specialized exploration and intervention vehicles, according to the BEA. The French vessel will conduct new searches using diving equipment and towed sonar, the BEA said. Finding the recorders is of \"capital importance\" and \"no effort must be spared in achieving this end,\" Air France has said. \"We want to stress that for the sake of the families, we hope that the search for the black boxes will be successful,\" an Air France representative told CNN. The crash was the worst in Air France's 75-year history. Earlier this month, investigators revealed that the plane bellyflopped intact into the Atlantic Ocean. Investigator Alain Bouillard said it was still not clear what caused the crash. The mountainous ocean floor in the search area ranges from 3,280 to 15,091 feet, BEA officials have said in the past, making the search for the recorders -- and the rest of the plane's debris -- difficult. \"It is as if it fell in the Andes (mountains),\" Olivier Ferrante, chief of the BEA search mission said. Brazil called off the search for bodies on June 27, having found 51 of the 228 people who died, according to the military. Investigators have also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the plane, along with luggage, Bouillard said.","highlights":"Debris from Air France 447, which crashed last month, has arrived in France .\nPlane went down off Brazil on June 1, killing all 228 aboard .\nFrench oceanographic ship will conduct new searches for data recorders .","id":"56e15a5383a725ce5942df55d6e877f7afdd47c5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House did not intend to show any disrespect toward Nancy Reagan when it failed to invite the former first lady -- a vigorous supporter of stem-cell research -- to a bill-signing ceremony on the subject, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. Nancy Reagan watches President Obama sign the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act Tuesday. \"I think she speaks in real personal terms about the issue,\" Gibbs told reporters. \"And I think her candor and her courage have been heartening, and we certainly meant no slight to her whatsoever.\" On Monday, Vanity Fair published an interview with Nancy Reagan on its Web site in which she suggested the Obama administration missed an opportunity by not inviting her to witness President Obama signing a measure in March expanding federal support for stem-cell research. The former first lady has long promoted such steps despite objections from many in the GOP. She has argued that expanded stem-cell research could have helped her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. \"I would have gone, and you know I don't like to travel,\" she told the magazine. Watch more on Gibbs' reaction to the controversy \u00bb . \"Politically, it would have been a good thing for (Obama) to do. Oh well, nobody's perfect. He called and thanked me for working on it. But he could have gotten more mileage out of it,\" she said. Gibbs' comments also come the same day Mrs. Reagan attended a White House ceremony marking Obama's signing of legislation authorizing a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission. The 11-member commission will plan activities marking Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday on February 6, 2011. Watch Obama laud Reagan's optimism \u00bb . Mrs. Reagan is slated to attend the unveiling of a new statue of President Reagan on Wednesday morning at the Capitol and then share a private White House lunch with first lady Michelle Obama. Obama issued an apology to Mrs. Reagan earlier this year after joking in a news conference that she held seances during her years in the White House -- an apparent reference to reports she consulted with astrologists during her husband's presidency.","highlights":"Former first lady Nancy Reagan is a strong supporter of stem-cell research .\nMrs. Reagan tells magazine: Obama should have invited me to stem-cell bill signing .\nShe's slated to attend the unveiling of a new statue of President Reagan Wednesday .\nShe witnesses signing of Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission legislation .","id":"8c8ea6d6d46ed1bf3e77ffb104efcfea32cd9bf3"} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- Great things to do and see, and memories (you can still make) of summer at the lake. With clear blue water and picturesque boulders, Sand Harbor is the place to swim in Lake Tahoe. The scene . Families dot the beaches, and boaters dominate the lake; traffic slows on State 89, and the Truckee River overflows with inner-tubers. Still, from North Lake to Emerald Bay, and South Lake to Incline Village, you'll find plenty of peace, quiet, and to-die-for beauty. Cruise the lake . Skip the stern-wheeler paddleboats packed with tourists for a wine-and-cheese sunset sail on the Tahoe Cruz. Departs daily from Tahoe City Marina in Tahoe City, California; $60; reservations required; tahoesail.com or 530\/583-6200. Walk on water . Stand-up paddleboarding is the latest craze. Give it a shot, or go for a sit-on-top kayak from Tahoe Paddle & Oar (paddleboard or kayak rental from $20 per hour; 8299 N. Lake Blvd.\/State 28, Kings Beach, California; tahoepaddle.com or 530\/581-3029). Sunset.com: Lake Tahoe landmarks . Jump in . Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park's Sand Harbor area is popular for its gentle turquoise coves and fine white sand. Get there before 10 a.m. to avoid the crowds. $8 per vehicle; on State 28, 3 miles south of Incline Village, NV; parks.nv.gov or 775\/831-0494. Skinny-dip . For a quiet swim, hike 0.5 mile to Secret Cove and Chimney Beach, where those who hate tan lines like to hang out. Trailhead is off State 28, 2 1\/2 miles south of Sand Harbor; 530\/543-2600. Wine and dine . Christy Hill serves a killer chile relleno with an equally killer lake view. (Closed Mon; 115 Grove St., Tahoe City, California; average entr\u00e9e price around $30; 530\/583-8551). The deck at Sunnyside Resort has a party scene and the best Hula Pie this side of Hawaii. (Most entr\u00e9es between $20 and $30; 1850 W. Lake Blvd.\/State 89, 2 miles south of Tahoe City, California; 530\/583-7200). Sunset.com: Make your own lake dinner menu . Hang with the locals . Built in 1859, Chambers Landing Bar and Restaurant is set at the end of a pier. Arrive by boat or car, but if you're the designated driver, steer clear of the Chambers Punch. Most entr\u00e9es $12 or less; 6400 W. Lake Blvd.\/State 89, Homewood, California; 530\/525-9190. Stay in a cabin . Carved wooden bears are everywhere at the woodsy Cottage Inn. From $158, including breakfast; just south of Tahoe City, California; 800\/581-4073. Sunset.com: The West's best national parks . Splurge on a room . Book a suite at the West Shore Cafe & Inn, then wait for a bald eagle to fly past your window. Rooms from $350; Homewood, California; 530\/525-5200. Pitch a tent . Easy swimming access and hot showers make for blissful family camping at D.L. Bliss State Park (from $25; reserveamerica.com or 800\/444-7275). For views, the best sites are 148, 149, 151, 153, and 156. If Bliss is full, try Nevada Beach Campground, on the east side (from $28; recreation.gov or 877\/444-6777). Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2009 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Consider a wine-and-cheese sunset sail on the Tahoe Cruz .\nTake a dip at Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park's Sand Harbor .\nTry the best Hula Pie this side of Hawaii at Sunnyside Resort .","id":"bb8b87aa32a3677e743d52bead12e79265c196dd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Events commemorating the bombing of an American airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie were taking place Sunday in both the UK and the U.S. to mark the 20th anniversary of the attack which killed 270 people. Mourners gathered at a wreath-laying ceremony Sunday to mark the Lockerbie bombing. All 259 people on board Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York were killed when the plane exploded in midair on December 21, 1988. A further 11 people died on the ground as debris rained down on Lockerbie. In Scotland, mourners watched as a commemorative wreath was laid at Dryfesdale Cemetery, the site of a permanent memorial and remembrance garden to the victims of the attack. Canon Michael Bands, who led the service, said that the disaster had \"long ceased to be a Lockerbie event and become a world event.\" \"It is awful that we should gather today on this stormy sort of day to feel the sadness again of the tragedy that took place here 20 years ago,\" Bands said, according to the UK's Press Association. Services marking the exact time of the attack at 1903 GMT were also due to take place later in local churches. A private service for relatives of victims and former Pan Am employees will also take place at London's Heathrow airport, where the airliner began its final flight. In the U.S., remembrance services were scheduled to take place at Arlington National Cemetery and at New York's Syracuse University, which lost 35 students in the bombing. Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said the anniversary marked an opportunity to reflect on \"the lasting links that have been established with those in other nations who were touched by the disaster.\" \"I know that through the events being organised in Lockerbie, at Syracuse University, and at other locations in the UK and the U.S., that fitting tribute will be paid to those who so tragically lost their lives and those, in the south of Scotland and beyond, whose lives have been affected by the atrocity.\" A former Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was convicted of the bombing in 2001. Al Megrahi, who is serving a life sentence in Scotland's Greenock Prison, last month lost an appeal to be released because he is suffering from advanced prostate cancer. Al Megrahi has always denied any involvement in the bombing. He was convicted after prosecutors argued he had placed the bomb, hidden in a suitcase, on a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany. There, prosecutors said, the bomb was transferred onto the Pan Am jet that went first to London's Heathrow Airport and then was to continue to New York. The prosecution maintained that Megrahi, who worked at Malta's Luqa Airport, was an agent for the Libyan intelligence services and had been seen buying clothes that were in the suitcase that contained the bomb. In 2007 Scottish judges granted Megrahi the right to make a second appeal against his conviction on grounds that he may have suffered a miscarriage of justice. That process is ongoing. Another man -- Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima -- was also tried in the bombing but was acquitted. Libya has formally accepted responsibility for the bombing, though Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi later denied any culpability. The north African country has paid out more than $500 million to the families of victims of the attack as part of a wider $1.5 billion settlement to end its legal liability in U.S. terrorism cases and restore diplomatic full relations with Washington.","highlights":"Events marking 20th anniversary of Lockerbie airliner bombing to be held Sunday .\n270 killed when Pan Am flight from London to New York exploded in midair .\nServices to be held in Scotland, at Heathrow Airport and in U.S.\nLibyan intelligence officer convicted of attack in 2001 currently serving life sentence .","id":"c07a2d85223c9f53205cf3a8e5e811dbbe915ef8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States on Tuesday imposed financial sanctions on an Iran-based company that it said is a cover for North Korea's missile proliferation network, the Department of the Treasury announced. Hong Kong Electronics in Kish Island, Iran, was added to the list of \"designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters\" for working with two others already on the list: North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank and the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. (KOMID), according to a Treasury news release. The designation under Executive Order 13382 freezes any U.S. assets of Hong Kong Electronics and prohibits any transactions with the company by U.S. individuals, companies or financial institutions, the statement said. \"North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions,\" said Stuart Levey, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury. \"Today's action is a part of our overall effort to prevent North Korea from misusing the international financial system to advance its nuclear and missile programs and to sell dangerous technology around the world.\" The Treasury statement alleged that Hong Kong Electronics has transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds on behalf of Tanchon and KOMID since 2007. It also accused Hong Kong Electronics of facilitating the movement of money from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID. Tanchon, a commercial bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea, is the financial arm for KOMID, which the Treasury statement described as North Korea's premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. Both Tanchon and KOMID were previously subjected to sanctions under Executive Order 13382 and sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, according to the Treasury statement. It said both also had ties with other sanctioned entities, including Iran's Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which it called the Iranian organization responsible for developing liquid-fueled missiles.","highlights":"Hong Kong Electronics called a cover for North Korea's missile proliferation network .\nU.S. Treasury says company's U.S. assets frozen, transactions in U.S. prohibited .\nIt says company worked with bank, arms dealer tied to other sanctioned entities .\nGoal is to stop misuse of financial system to advance arms programs, Treasury says .","id":"b0c597cd7dd9356d497a534775923b562c3433ad"} -{"article":"Men who are circumcised are less likely to get sexually transmitted infections such as genital herpes and human papillomavirus (HPV), but not syphilis, according to a study of adult African men published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. Circumcision rates have traditionally been higher in the U.S. than in Europe, but they've been on the decline. The finding adds to the evidence that there are health benefits to circumcision. It was already known that circumcision can reduce the risk of penile cancer, a relatively rare disease. In a previous study, the same research team found that adult circumcision could reduce the risk of HIV infection. Efforts to increase the practice of male circumcision in areas with high rates of sexually transmitted infections, including Africa, could have a tremendous benefit, say the study's authors. Genital herpes has been associated with an increased risk of HIV, and HPV can cause genital warts as well as a higher risk of anal, cervical (in women), and penile cancers. Health.com: Is your partner cheating? How to protect yourself . In the United States, infant circumcision is declining. About 64 percent of American male infants were circumcised in 1995, down from more than 90 percent in the 1970s. Rates tend to be higher in whites (81percent) than in blacks (65 percent) or Hispanics (54 percent). Some opponents say the removal of the foreskin is an unnecessary surgical procedure that may reduce sexual sensitivity in adulthood. In Jewish and Muslim cultures, young or infant boys are routinely circumcised for religious reasons. Circumcision rates have traditionally been higher in the U.S. than in Europe, but the American Academy of Pediatrics currently says that the medical benefits are insufficient to recommend circumcision for all baby boys. In the new study, a research team at the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda -- in collaboration with researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and Makerere University in Uganda -- conducted two clinical trials involving 3,393 uncircumcised men ages 15 to 49. All the men were negative for HIV and genital herpes (also known as herpes simplex virus type 2); a subgroup of men also tested negative for HPV. Roughly half of the men underwent medically supervised circumcision at the start of the trial, while the other half were circumcised two years later. Overall, circumcision reduced the men's risk of genital herpes by 28 percent (10.3 percent of uncircumcised men developed genital herpes compared with 7.8 percent of circumcised men) and HPV infection by 35 percent (27.8 percent of uncircumcised men were infected with HPV compared with 18 percent of circumcised men). Circumcision did not, however, protect against syphilis. (About 2 percent of men in both groups contracted syphilis.) Health.com: A sexual risk taker comes to terms with drinking, depression, and STDs . Study coauthor Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., professor of global health at Johns Hopkins University, says that choosing circumcision, whether it's the parents of an infant or an adult male for himself, is and should remain an individual decision. \"But the critics need to really look at the benefits versus the risks,\" he adds. \"By now a large body of evidence has shown that the health benefits clearly outweigh the minor risk associated with the surgery. In our study, we didn't see any adverse effects or mutilation. We're recommending supervised, safe, sterile environments -- not circumcision out in an open field with rusty instruments.\" Increasing circumcision rates in Africa may not only help men, but would likely protect women too, possibly lowering the rates of female cervical cancer, the authors say. Ronald H. Gray, M.D., professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University and study coauthor, says that the researchers plan to look at whether male circumcision reduces the transmission of HPV to female sexual partners. Health.com: 10 questions to ask a new partner before having sex . Even in the United States, this study has relevance, says Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (which funded one of the trials). \"In this country, circumcision for infant boys remains a personal decision for the parents,\" he says. \"This makes us rethink whether doctors should be more aggressive in recommending that it at least be considered. If parents say no just because generations before them have said no, they should learn more about the significant health benefits before making that choice.\" Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults have had at least one HPV infection, according to an editorial by Matthew R. Golden, M.D., and Judith N. Wasserheit, M.D., both of the University of Washington. Although vaccines against some of the most dangerous HPV strains have been approved for girls ages 13 to 26, the vaccines are expensive and routine Pap tests are still necessary to pick up cervical cancers. Health.com: How to tell your ex you have an STD . Golden and Wasserheit note that \"rates of circumcision are declining and are lowest among black and Hispanic patients, groups in whom rates of HIV, herpes, and cervical cancer are disproportionately high.\" Medicaid, which insures many low-income patients in these populations, does not pay for routine infant circumcision in 16 states. The study authors hope that this growing evidence in favor of circumcision will persuade policy-making bodies, both in the United States and in other countries, to officially recommend the procedure -- which could make patient education and insurance coverage more likely. It's not clear why circumcision may affect infection rates. But the study authors suggest that penile foreskin may provide a moist, favorable environment for herpes and HPV to survive and enter cells on the skin's surface. Once the foreskin is surgically removed, the risk of infection may be reduced. Health.com: Men can lose their sex drives too . They also note, however, that male circumcision is not completely effective in preventing sexually transmitted infections. Safe sex practices, including consistent condom use, are still necessary to provide the best protection. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Study: Circumcision reduces risk of HPV infection and herpes, but not syphilis .\nCircumcision known to reduce risk of HIV infection and penile cancer .\n64 percent of American baby boys circumcised in '95, down from 90 percent in 70s .","id":"5619cb4eb06709d10613f010fb88ec550b5626c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anger is growing in Mexico over a fire at a government-run day care center that claimed its 46th child this weekend. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns for her 2-year-old daughter, who died in the Hermosillo fire. Parents of the dead children and their supporters have held two noisy rallies in Hermosillo, the city in northwestern Mexico where the fire broke out June 5. They blame the government for laxity in enforcing safety regulations, for conducting a weak investigation and for failing to punish anyone in the 10 days since the fatal blaze. \"It is my fault for trusting them,\" parent Roberto Zavala said at a rally Saturday in front of the Sonora governor's office. \"I am responsible for the death of my child. Mr. Governor: Here is one of those responsible you are looking for. Come get me. I am waiting for you.\" The rally was televised nationwide by CNN affiliate TV Azteca. \"If there is no justice from the authorities, there will be vengeance from the people,\" Zavala shouted to great cheers. The crowd chanted \"renuncia, renuncia\" (\"resign, resign\") toward the office of Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours Castelo. He did not appear at the rally. Bours told CNN on Monday that he understands parents' anguish but has not heard any calls for his resignation. \"What we are seeing is natural,\" he said. \"There are destroyed families. It's natural that people express their sadness and, in some cases, anger. And there are those who are using this for political purposes.\" The investigation, he said, is \"complex and advancing.\" Mexican President Felipe Calderon has promised a full investigation. Officials have said an air-conditioning unit in a government-run warehouse in the same building as the ABC day care center caused the fire. The privately owned day care was leased by the government to provide low-cost service to parents. Many prominent Mexicans have joined the parents in saying the government is not doing enough to find out what happened and to punish the responsible parties. \"There are 46 children, and nothing is happening,\" said radio and TV commentator Eduardo J. Ruiz-Healy. \"Nobody is responsible. Federal authorities say nothing major happened. There are 46 dead children, and no one will go to jail for it.\" Ana Maria Salazar, another TV and radio commentator, also has voiced her anger -- in newspaper columns, on Facebook and on her blogs. Salazar, who lives in Mexico City, grew up in Sonora state and traveled to Hermosillo last week. \"I just returned from Hermosillo, Sonora,\" she wrote Wednesday on her blog. \"Sorrow for the death of the [then] 44 children is now transforming into outrage. The death of these children has impacted Hermosillo, the state of Sonora and Mexico.\" She's still angry, she told CNN on Monday. \"My concern is that there are 46 children who died in what appears to be negligence and that nobody's going to be punished,\" Salazar said. In addition, she said, the government has not conducted any investigations to see if other day care centers are safe. \"What is unacceptable,\" Salazar said, \"is that nothing has been done to make sure this doesn't happen again.\" The United Nations Children's Fund's representative in Mexico, Susana Sottoli, said all day care centers in the nation should be investigated, the state-run Notimex news agency reported Monday. Last week, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said officials had found safety irregularities at the ABC day care center in 2005. He declined to detail those irregularities but said authorities are investigating if anything was done about them. ABC day care officials denied Monday ever being told of safety problems. Critics point to cozy business relationships between the owners of the ABC day care and government officials. News reports have said one of the co-owners is a cousin of Calderon's wife. Two state government officials whose wives also are ABC co-owners resigned last week. In all, six officials have resigned or been fired since the blaze. The well-regarded El Universal newspaper published a column and a story Monday taking the government to task. The article says a Universal investigation revealed that family members and political allies of the governor own at least 13 day care centers in Sonora state. The ABC day care is not one of them. Bours, who was elected governor in 2003, called the article \"malintentioned.\" \"Some of my relatives had those [day care centers] since before I was governor,\" he said. \"This is a low blow by people who want to link one thing with another.\" But Ruiz-Healy calls the day care industry in Mexico \"a business run by politicians and politicians' wives.\" And he rails at what he sees as arrogance by government officials, whose actions, he said, have led to \"a total crisis of credibility.\" \"There have been a series of events that insult our intelligence,\" Ruiz-Healy said. \"The political class is divorced from reality and from the rest of the country.\"","highlights":"Parents, their supporters have rallied in Hermosillo, where fire broke out June 5 .\nThey say government didn't enforce safety rules, is conducting weak investigation .\nSonora governor says investigation is \"complex and advancing\"\nUN representative says all day care centers in Mexico should be investigated .","id":"f31b2b103c9a2c39bc1304a65aa54ccd866eef18"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A technical snafu left some Visa prepaid cardholders stunned and horrified Monday to see a $23,148,855,308,184,500 charge on their statements. Josh Muszynski noticed the 17-digit charge while making a routine balance inquiry. That's about 2,007 times the size of the national debt. Josh Muszynski, 22, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was one Visa customer aghast to find the 17-digit charge on his bill. Adding insult to injury, he had also been hit with a $15 overdraft fee. He noticed that his debt exceeded the world GDP while making a routine balance inquiry on his online Bank of America account. According to his statement, he had spent the profound sum in one pop at a nearby Mobil gas station -- his regular stop for Camel cigarettes. \"Very, very panicked,\" he jumped in his car and sped to the station. Had they perhaps noticed any \"outrageous\" charges come across their books recently, he inquired of the cashier there. She checked the records. They had not. Watch the story of an astounded customer in Memphis, Tennessee \u00bb . Muszynski wondered aloud what he might possibly have asked to purchase for such an astronomical price. \"Can I buy Europe on pump 4?\" He next called Bank of America, the issuer of his Visa prepaid debit card. The bank kept him on hold for two hours, during which time he contemplated the impossibly bleak financial future that might await him. He also felt a stab of fear that he had saddled all his unborn grandchildren -- and their grandchildren -- with a lifetime of debt. \"Down the generational line, nobody would have any money.\" Finally, a bank representative told him that the $23 quadrillion charge -- and the $15 overdraft fee -- would be stricken from his account. Muszynski compared the giant debt reprieve to receiving \"an amazing Monopoly card that says, 'Bank error in your favor.' \" In a statement, Visa said the rogue charges affected \"fewer than 13,000 prepaid transactions\" and resulted from a \"temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services ... [which] caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts.\" The company assured customers that the problem has been fixed and that all falsely issued fees have been voided. \"Erroneous postings have been removed ... this incident had no financial impact on Visa prepaid cardholders.\"","highlights":"$23,148,855,308,184,500 charge is about 2,007 times the size of the national debt .\nVisa customer in New Hampshire, also hit with $15 overdraft fee, finds out online .\nStatement said he'd spent the big sum at gas station where he buys cigarettes .\nCard issuer strikes charge and fee, blames \"temporary programming error\"","id":"3fa05565b140369b50b1b77c96da16d7dd9539e6"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- The multi-talented star Mandy Moore shares her stylish secrets. Mandy Moore spins in a Chaiken cashmere dress and Ibisco belt. 1. Start defining your style . \"It all goes back to wanting to be an individual. I have my days of not feeling super-great, but that's universal. My style has evolved as I've become more aware of myself as well as what looks good on me -- and what doesn't.\" 2. Find labels that work for you . \"It's always nice to have a running tally of designers that fit your body well and that you feel comfortable in for any number of events. It makes you feel less limited.\" 3. Identify shapes that flatter . \"I'm not super-picky about color. I'm more picky about the cut of a garment. I look terrible in anything bias-cut for instance, and I prefer Empire waists.\" Mandy explains other fashion choices \u00bb . 4. Dresses are secret weapons . \"I love dresses! If it's flowy and loose, you don't have to worry about what shape you're in, frankly. Plus there's something romantic and ethereal about vintage dresses that I adore.\" 5. When in doubt, bring a belt . \"I'm looking at my dress today, and I wish I had brought a belt with me because it looks like a gigantic tent. Having a belt to define your waist is always better than hiding behind something.\" 6. What really makes you look good . \"If you're confident and you feel good, people pick up on that. And it doesn't really matter what's happening from the neck down. I'd rather be comfortable than anything else.\" InStyle.com: Witness Mandy's amazing style transformation . 7. Some trends won't flatter you -- avoid them. \"I tried footless leggings and then I realized, this is not a trend for me. When something stops at your midcalf, it can be somewhat shortening. But I feel like long tights make any look ladylike and classy.\" 8. Find a great tailor . \"I've been having trouble finding jeans lately. So I've been buying vintage high-waist trouser jeans and having them tailored. My tailor understands my body. She's always encouraging me to wear stuff tighter.\" 9. Hoop earrings work on everyone . \"My friend Raina's always telling me to wear hoops. She's like, 'Even if you're in jeans, a T-shirt and flats, hoops are sexy, cool, and everyone looks good in them.' \" 10. Give yourself a break . \"You have to take a break and treat yourself. I treat myself by getting massages, manicures or pedicures. I treat myself by having a cookie or frozen yogurt, or whatever it may be, because I know I work hard and I deserve it.\" E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Mandy Moore offers style tips: Avoid unflattering trends .\nDon't worry about your shape with flowy, loose dresses .\nFind a great tailor .","id":"242c438bd51eb045a9aee95e5762150c49edce0e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Music fans who buy concert tickets during Live Nation's \"No Service Fee Wednesday\" may be surprised when they check their receipt and see some service fees were charged. Concertgoers expecting service-free tickets during a Live Nation promotion may still find fees. Live Nation's announcement for the promotion -- and stories based on their news release -- did not mention the concert promoter's narrow definition of a \"service fee.\" \"Fans will still be asked to pay parking fees (usually $6) as well as in some cases facility fees and\/or charity fees,\" Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin wrote in a reply to CNN's request for clarification. Still, the promotion will save consumers several dollars on amphitheater lawn seats bought from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Vlautin did not respond to CNN's question about why the promotion was called \"No Service Fee Wednesday\" if there were still fees added to the base cost of each ticket -- or why it was not disclosed in the announcement. Service fees tacked on to ticket purchases -- averaging a third of the base price -- have long been a source of grumbling from concertgoers. \"People get a little ticked off when they think they're paying $20 for a ticket and as they progress along the various pages of the electronic transaction they see more fees added along the way,\" said Ray Waddell, who writes about live music tours for Billboard magazine. When buying tickets online using a credit card, the buyer does not see the total charged -- with the added fees -- until after they've submitted the order. Live Nation discloses this in its \"terms and conditions\" statement: . \"Live Nation Ticketing may assess a convenience charge on each ticket purchased and\/or ordered for certain events.\" The parking fee, which does not actually pay for a parking space, is on each ticket -- even if the fan doesn't drive to the show. \"We have always charged it this way to alleviate traffic issues that occur when the fee is taken at the lot entrance,\" Vlautin said. A facility fee is \"charged at some venues and goes to defray the cost of venue maintenance,\" he said. Vlautin did not respond to CNN's request for a detailed list of service fees that will be waived during \"No Service Fee Wednesday.\" Live Nation only began selling tickets to its own concerts last year, just months before announcing plans to merge with Ticketmaster -- the world's largest ticket-seller. Before that, Live Nation promoted shows but had no infrastructure to sell tickets, and it contracted out to Ticketmaster or others to sell them. The Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger plan has drawn criticism. The Justice Department launched an investigation of the proposed merger in February. Neither Live Nation nor Ticketmaster executives would respond to questions about the merger. However, Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff did talk about it before a U.S. Senate subcommittee earlier this year. \"[The merger] will give us greater flexibility in how we promote, market and sell tickets to events. It will give us a pathway to alternative pricing and fee structures. And we will be better able to develop new and innovative products and services that enhance the fan experience and make all forms of entertainment more accessible to everyone.\"","highlights":"Live Nation promotion doesn't mention narrow definition of a \"service fee\"\nCompany says no service fees charged from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday .\nSpokesman tells CNN: Fans will still pay parking, facility or charity fees .\nBillboard writer says \"people get a little ticked off\" when they see the charges .","id":"c44a7b2d4994df5e32a392492f0d18f814073d06"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Los Angeles-area man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife while on a cruise along the Mexican coast, an FBI spokesman told CNN sister network HLN. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead on Tuesday in her cabin on the Carnival Elation. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said. Robert McGill, who is in his mid-50s, is charged with murder on the high seas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter told HLN. The FBI and the Carnival cruise line said that a domestic dispute Tuesday night resulted in the woman's death, but did not elaborate on how she was killed. The FBI said the cause of death would be determined through autopsy. Another passenger became suspicious that foul play had taken place \"for a variety of possible reasons,\" Slotter said, and notified ship security. When security checked the couple's room, Shirley McGill was found dead inside, he said. Authorities believe she had been dead for no more than a couple of hours. Watch Slotter describe how the body was found \u00bb . Robert McGill was arrested on board the ship and was kept in its brig for the remainder of the cruise, the FBI said. After the ship docked, he was taken into federal custody, as crimes on the high seas fall under federal jurisdiction. FBI agents boarded the ship to start the investigation as the vessel neared San Diego, with the Coast Guard transporting the agents about 10 miles offshore. Agents were completing their work on the ship Thursday, having interviewed about 50 passengers and processed the crime scene, Slotter said. He would not elaborate on the domestic dispute, saying authorities are still trying to piece together what happened. The 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation had departed on the cruise July 11. CNN's Scott Thompson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday .\nHusband Robert McGill, in mid-50s, charged with murder on the high seas, FBI says .\nFBI and Carnival cruise line said domestic dispute Tuesday night led to death .","id":"f930e776ede6968a45b7ad9e308b65f7487fc01e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police say they are investigating the disappearance of more than $400,000 worth of jewelry from a photo shoot involving Lindsay Lohan in London on June 6. Jewels are missing from an Elle magazine photo shoot of Lindsay Lohan. \"Items of jewelry went missing from an Elle photoshoot ... and the matter is now being investigated by the police,\" the fashion magazine said in a statement to CNN. \"Elle has no reason to believe that Lindsay Lohan was in any way responsible and has no further comment to make.\" Lohan's representative told CNN the actress was \"happy to cooperate,\" and that \"No one has contacted Lindsay\" about the investigation. The magazine would not say whether the 22-year-old actress wore the jewelry in the photo shoot, and could not say when the photos would be published. \"The theft was reported to a central London police station on 8 June 2009 after earrings and a necklace, believed to be diamond and estimated to be worth in the region of \u00a3250,000 [$410,000], were found to be missing approximately two days earlier,\" London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement. No arrests have been made, the police said. Big Sky Studios in London, where the shoot took place, refused to comment. CNN's Nicola Goulding, Max Foster, Laura Perez Maestro and Jonathan Wald contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police are investigating disappearance of jewelry from Lindsay Lohan photo shoot .\nLohan was doing photo spread for Elle magazine .\nMagazine: \"No reason to believe that Lindsay Lohan was in any way responsible\"\nLohan's representative told CNN the actress was \"happy to cooperate\"","id":"9383901be802a15f788c541aabc320b12e35b8a9"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian authorities are investigating the recent killing of a model-turned-bodyguard. Anna Loginova in a photo shoot for the Russian edition of Maxim magazine. Anna Loginova, a 29-year-old former successful model, ran a private security firm of female bodyguards, highly trained in martial arts, demanding high prices to protect Russian billionaires. One notable client was Russian boxer Kostya Tszyu. A carjacker pulled Loginova out of her Porsche Cayenne Sunday in Moscow. Loginova grabbed onto the door handle as the car picked up speed and she was dragged along the street before letting go as the car sped away. \"An intruder just threw her out of the car\" Russian police stated, \"She grabbed the door handle, but when the car picked up speed, she let go.\" Her fearlessness proved fatal. Loginova died on the scene from serious cranial injuries. The vehicle was later found abandoned in southern Moscow. Luxury car theft is common in Moscow. Loginova told Maxim magazine in a recently taped interview that she fought off a car thief just four months ago. \"I stepped out of my car and closed the door when I suddenly saw a young man near me. He grabbed me by the arm in which I was holding the car keys,\" she was quoted as saying. \"By reflex, I used a jiu-jitsu technique. I twisted his arm and hit him on the face with my elbow. The guy obviously was not expecting such a reaction. He fell down on the rear windshield, which gave me enough time to grab my gun. He immediately jumped into his Honda and drove away,\" Those who knew her said she was never deterred by danger. For many Russians she was a feminine icon, bridging the glamorous world of modeling and the rough underbelly of Russian crime. \"I think she was kind and sweet, not like a terminator, not like Sigourney Weaver in 'Aliens'\" said Igor Cherski from Maxim magazine \"but I feel that she was not afraid of anything, there was no fear in her eyes.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Russian model-turned-bodyguard Anna Loginova killed in Moscow during carjacking .\nLoginova recently told a magazine that she fought off a car thief four months ago .\nFor many Russians she was a feminine icon, bridging glamorous and crime world .","id":"02a7dafda52e2cf23e727a32bfb9752894858388"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dionne Warwick was one of the thousands of guests to attend Michael Jackson's memorial service Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Dionne Warwick said Michael Jackson brought a new insight to things people should be paying attention to. Warwick talks with CNN's Larry King about the moving tributes during the service and the legacy left behind by the \"King of Pop.\" King also talks with Warwick's son, Damon Elliott, who has been a friend of Jackson's since childhood and was writing a song with Michael just before his death. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: What did you think of the event, Dionne? Dionne Warwick: Well, it was probably one of the most emotional mornings and afternoons that I've spent in a very long time. It was done with a great deal of style and class. King: He would've liked it? Warwick: He would've loved it. He would've loved it. King: How did you and Michael hook up, Damon? Damon Elliott: From Mom. We shared moms. When I was very little, I used to beg her probably at least once a week, \"Mom, you have to take me out to the house, you have to take me out to the house.\" She'd always say, \"I'm on tour right now, baby. But when we I get home, we'll go see Michael.\" And one day we did, and he showed up, I think, in my living room or somewhere. King: You were writing a song at his death? Elliott: Yes. Actually, I was working on some music for the new record that I was going to get over to Jermaine. And the night before he passed away, it's crazy we were writing a song. King: How great a singer was Michael Jackson? Warwick: Michael was... King: A singer -- a pure singer? Warwick: And he could sing. Yes. Yes. It was more than the magic of everything else that he did. He was a brilliant singer. King: What was he like to work with, if you were working on a song together? What was that experience like? Elliott: Well, from a distance, I got to work with Michael. I mostly worked through Jermaine, who was another amazing talent. But just all the brothers, you know, they have so much conviction and so much feeling in their delivery. Watch Jackson family address crowd \u00bb . And Michael was like the greatest teacher to all of us -- producers, dancers, singers, songwriters. He just had it all. He would come in and beat box a melody and you'd try to emulate it on a drum machine and it just was impossible. So you'd just keep what he did. King: What's Michael Jackson's legacy? Warwick: The wonderful things that he did for this entire world. I think he brought a new insight as to the things that we really should be paying attention to. He did it brilliantly, and I think that's his legacy.","highlights":"Singer Dionne Warwick: Jackson's memorial service was done with style, class .\nWarwick's son was writing a song with Jackson days before his death .\nDamon Elliott: \"Michael was like the greatest teacher to all of us\"","id":"ca25c88d20ba26630a77354f47e7b04c6a7f7dca"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- You don't have to be Jennifer Aniston to think that the four women who Krazy-Glued a cheater's penis to his stomach were way harsh and beyond psycho. If your ex's loved ones ask why you broke up, it's OK to admit he cheated on you, writer says. But in our less scrupulous\/mature moments, many of us want to punish a particularly nasty ex, especially if he was a cheater. Ladies, let's keep it legal (and Krazy Glue-free), OK? Here are 10 ideas: . 1. Email his crappiest crap e-mail to Jezebel.com's Crap E-mail From A Dude and when they publish it, discreetly post the link as your GChat away message. 2. Call up your hottest platonic male friend, grab your digital camera and go do something adorable together. Now it's time to create a Facebook photo album full of pics of you looking smiley. (Bonus points if your ex was slightly paranoid that this guy had a thing for you). The Frisky: Possible to remain friends with an ex? 3. Permanently adopt that comfy sweatshirt he left at your place. Especially if he's the one who caused the breakup, he probably doesn't have the cojones to ask for it back now. 4. Gain that extra 10 lbs that fills you out nicely, like Joan Holloway on \"Mad Men\"... 5. ...or lose that extra 10 lbs so you can fit into your sexy jeans again. Either way, this also requires a Facebook photo album. The Frisky: How Joan Holloway gives me confidence . 6. You might hear from his mom, sisters, or other family members you were close to after the breakup, especially if you dated for a long time. Airing too much of your dirty laundry to them will make you look like a psycho. But if he did cheat on you (and you didn't cheat back), it couldn't hurt to mention how his bad behavior led to the split. The Frisky: 10 rules on way men and women eat . Dude sure as hell didn't tell them the truth about why you broke up! And any mom or sister worth her salt will tear your ex a new one when they learn that's why he lost a great girl like you. The Frisky: Continue relationships with an ex's loved ones? 7. Ignore every single text, Tweet, Facebook poke and email from here on out. But kept posting stuff on your social networking sites on the regular. 8. If you're a songwriter or a poet, well, you know what to do. The creep who caused Ani Di Franco's song \"Untouchable Face\" probably hasn't forgotten what he did. 9. Penning aggressive-aggressive emails (as opposed to passive-aggressive ones) is always therapeutic. The Frisky: Passive aggressive notes Web site . 10. Spend a few months feeling down. Indulge in some therapy. Do some fun things single women do. Work extra-hard at your job and get a promotion. Go take a trip or buy some new clothes. Whenever you're ready, go meet a new guy. Fall in love. Have tons of great sex. Laugh a lot. Talk about baby names and where you want your honeymoon to be. The next time you run into your ex, mention all the great things that have happened in your life since you broke up ... or just smile. The Frisky: Happy to be single . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"If your ex cheated on you, there are legal ways to get even .\nDo whatever it takes to look your best, post pix on Facebook with male friend .\nIf his mom or sister ask about breakup, tell them he cheated on you .\nIgnore all social media contact from him. But post a song about his cheating ways .","id":"0b6e69829d6288f63f06e3886b7d2bb537c4e991"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean wants to set the record straight. Carrie Prejean says pageant officials wanted her to make appearances for Playboy and a gay movie premiere. Prejean garnered widespread criticism when she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question posed to her during the Miss USA pageant. Prejean was allowed to keep her Miss California USA crown in May, despite a controversy over topless photos and missed appearances. However, state pageant Executive Director Keith Lewis took her crown on Wednesday, saying it was a business decision based solely on \"contract violations.\" Prejean offered her side of the story when she spoke with CNN's Larry King on Friday. She also discussed whether she would sue to reclaim her title and her future plans. The following is an edited version of the interview. Larry King: You've had a couple of days now, Carrie, to think it all over and it's sunk in. What are your feelings today? Carrie Prejean: I'm definitely a little bit surprised just by the way that I found out about this. You know, I was called by the media to inform me that I was fired. King: Are you saying the pageant didn't call you? Prejean: No. I haven't received any phone calls. In fact, my lawyer found out from the media, as well, before we received any contact. I still have not, to this day, received any contact from Mr. Lewis. King: Now, since they were so supportive of you at the time and after the Trump announcement, what do you make of the fact that they didn't call you? Prejean: Well, I think Mr. Trump was definitely in the middle. And I think that, you know, he has only heard one side. Ultimately, at the end of the day, you have to think about, Are you going to release Mr. Keith Lewis or are you going to release Carrie Prejean? I think that they had to release the beauty queen at the end of the day. King: How do you respond to (charges from Lewis)? Prejean: Well, Larry, all I can tell you was this basically comes down to the answer that I gave the night of the pageant. As you can see, Mr. Lewis does not agree with the stance that I took. I think he's very angry. I think he's hurt. He said in a previous statement that he's deeply saddened and hurt that -- what Carrie Prejean believes in -- a marriage is between a man and a woman. Politics and religion have no play in the Miss California family. My question is, then why was the question asked at the pageant in the first place? If politics has no role in the pageant, why was I given this question? It was a hidden personal agenda that judge No. 8 asked, and I think that they were not ready for my answer that I gave. King: Let's say they were upset by your remarks. They didn't like your answer. Why didn't they just tell Donald Trump, we're unhappy and let's pick the runner-up or whatever? Prejean: He absolutely did. I mean Keith Lewis held a press conference in Los Angeles and didn't invite me to the press conference and, you know, awarded the first runner up as the new ambassador of California. That is just undermining me and undermining his own titleholder from day one. Watch how e-mails between Prejean, Lewis may have contributed to firing \u00bb . As far as the other appearances, I've had some inappropriate appearances that Keith Lewis has asked me to do. And I'm sure you're aware of them already -- one of them being Playboy; another one being a reality show which is being filmed in Costa Rica. So had I said yes to these, I mean, I would have been out of the country. Again, Playboy, I couldn't believe. I was completely shocked that he would even pass this along to me. Another one was a gay movie premiere that he wanted me to attend incognito. He actually said he wanted me to wear a hat and go in disguise and attend this movie premiere promoting gay marriage and then come out with a statement the next day saying that Carrie Prejean attended a gay movie premiere. It just doesn't seem right, Larry, does it? King: Are you now sorry you even entered. Or, in retrospect, has this been a boom for you publicity-wise? Prejean: You know, this isn't something that I signed up for, Larry. I simply entered in a pageant, the Miss California USA contest, and I gave an answer that a lot of people weren't expecting. The bottom line, I took a stand, and I think I am now being punished for the answer that I gave. This isn't about contracts. This isn't about me missing out on appearances. If you want to ask Keith Lewis any appearances that I have made prior to the Miss California U.S. pageant, I will guarantee you, Larry, he will not even -- he can't even tell you an appearance that he -- he scheduled for me. This isn't about appearances. This isn't about a breach of contract. This is about Keith Lewis not agreeing with the stance that I took on saving traditional marriage. And from day one, he wanted me out. King: Well, are you going to sue, Carrie? Prejean: That's -- you know, that's something that is not something that I want to -- I want to do. I think that what's going on is wrong. And I think that there is definitely some information that is missing. And I know that sooner or later, the truth will come out and people will recognize here who's right and who's wrong. King: What are your lawyers telling you to do or advising you to do? Prejean: You know, that's up to my lawyers to determine whether or not they think that there will be a lawsuit involved. But that's not up to me, at this point. King: What are you going to do right now, career-wise? Prejean: Well, first of all, I want to thank the millions of viewers. I know you have so many viewers on your show, Larry. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you to all the Californians who have supported me, who backed me, who sent me thousands of letters and e-mails. I just want to thank you so much for your prayers, for your support. And I know that when God is for you, no one can be against you. So thank you. King: Can you tell us what you're going to do, though? Prejean: I'm not sure. Definitely some -- a lot of offers -- opportunities have come my way, a lot of offers. I'm just really excited. I feel relieved. I feel just so blessed and so honored to have represented the state of California. And I'm ready to move on with my life and just be where God leads me.","highlights":"Carrie Prejean says she learned she lost Miss California USA crown from media .\nPrejean: Pageant director asked me to make \"inappropriate appearances\"\nPageant officials say Prejean's firing due to \"contract violations\"\nPrejean's response to question on same-sex marriage raised eyebrows .","id":"41e50856fab87ec749fe10144c42640540de0283"} -{"article":"ALSIP, Illinois (CNN) -- A Cook County cemetery where hundreds of graves were dug up and allegedly resold has been declared a crime scene, meaning that relatives of people believed buried there will not be allowed to visit for several days, an official said Friday. Family members and police gather outside the Burr Oak Cemetery office in Alsip, Illinois, on Wednesday. \"It would be the height of irresponsibility for me to invite people in, to raise expectations and then crash them,\" Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart told reporters in a news conference held at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. He pleaded for patience, saying he hoped to reopen the 150-acre cemetery to the public in five to seven days. Dart said the scope of the investigation has broadened to include \"Babyland,\" a section of the cemetery intended for children. \"A lot of women came up to me and asked for help with Babyland,\" he said. \"To a person, every one I talked to could not find any of their children in Babyland.\" Watch sheriff discuss gruesome revelation \u00bb . A large number of grave sites \"are completely missing,\" he said, adding that he had received more than 5,000 telephone inquiries and 1,700 e-mails about the matter since the investigation began. As many as half of the complaints were about missing headstones, 25 to 30 percent were about loved ones who had been relocated, he said. He cited the experience of one family looking for 10 relatives buried there. \"They couldn't find anybody,\" he said. In addition, in some cases there are no records of burials having taken place, despite relatives' insistence that they did, he said. In other cases, records have been altered, destroyed or found in people's houses, he said. \"Our office has to investigate over 5,000 grave sites due to the vast amounts of inquiries from grieving family members,\" he said. Dart said he himself walked through the cemetery on Friday and what he saw was disturbing. \"I found bones out there,\" he said. \"I found individuals wandering aimlessly looking for their loved ones who can't find them.\" Some people told him that an entire area that used to have gravestones facing in one direction now has them facing in another direction, he said. \"This is getting bigger,\" he said. \"We don't have an end in sight ... more people have not found relatives than have found them.\" More than 2,000 families have descended on the cemetery since authorities uncovered what they say was a scheme to resell the plots, excavate the graves, dump the remains and pocket the cash. Four people face felony charges for their alleged involvement. He had said earlier this week that the number of disturbed graves was around 300, but said Friday that number was sure to rise. One family arrived on Thursday to bury a woman in a plot they had purchased and found the plot was already occupied, he said. Authorities also discovered Emmett Till's original casket in a dilapidated garage on the cemetery grounds. The casket had been replaced by a new one after Till's body was exhumed in 2005. \"There was wildlife living inside of it,\" Dart said of the old casket, found in the corner of a garage filled with lawn care equipment and other \"piles of things.\" Till was killed in August 1955 in Mississippi after the 14-year-old reportedly whistled at a white woman. His body was exhumed 50 years later as part of a renewed investigation into his death. The Chicago Tribune reported that he was reburied in a different casket. Thousands of people had viewed Till's body in the original casket in Chicago shortly after he was killed, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said at the news conference. \"His mother had the gut and grit to say that 'I want America to see what they did to my baby's body,'\" Jackson said about Till, whose body was mutilated. \"More than 100,000 saw his body lying at the church. It is said that those who saw his body were never the same again,\" he said. \"Emmett Till's lynching redefined emotions in our culture in very fundamental ways. So to see his casket in this state of desecration and neglect is very painful.\" Cemetery groundskeepers told investigators that Till's grave was not among those disturbed in the alleged resale scheme, Dart said earlier this week. Carolyn Towns, an office manager for the cemetery; and Keith Nicks, Terrance Nicks and Maurice Daley, all gravediggers, have each been charged with dismembering a human body, a felony charge for which sentences range from six to 30 years, authorities said. Steven Watkins, an attorney for Towns, said his client is innocent. The public defender's office in Cook County said it had represented the three others at the bond hearing but could not provide a statement for them. Authorities began investigating the cemetery -- where, along with Till, blues legend Dinah Washington and some Negro League baseball players are buried -- about six weeks ago after receiving a call from its owners, who said they suspected \"financial irregularities\" regarding the business, Dart said earlier this week. He said the owners are not believed to be involved in the alleged scam.","highlights":"Officials say there was scheme to resell plots, excavate the graves, dump remains .\nFour people face felony charges for their alleged involvement .\nEmmett Till's original casket found in dilapidated garage on cemetery grounds .\nCemetery closed temporarily so officials can investigate .","id":"64f045b300264bd889286d3fc1145ab3251f462b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Once-missing Virginia Tech mental health records regarding a student who killed 32 people and himself in a campus rampage were released Wednesday. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members on April 16, 2007, then killed himself. The records cover all the interactions between Cho Seung-Hui, 23, and Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center during November and December 2005 -- the only times the center saw Cho, the university said, and nearly two years before his April 16, 2007, shooting spree. They were found recently at the home of Dr. Robert Miller, the center's former director. According to the university, Miller's attorney has said the records were inadvertently taken from the center when Miller left his job there more than a year before the shootings. The records detail a phone evaluation by the counseling center on November 30, 2005, and on December 12, 2005. Cho was evaluated in person following his release from a mental health facility on December 14, 2005. He was sent to the facility on a temporary detention order, the records indicate, after a female student filed a complaint with university police that Cho had been instant-messaging her and left a message on her dry erase board. The records from the facility, Carilion St. Albans, note that Cho told his suitemate he might as well kill himself because \"everybody just hates me.\" The records said Cho stayed overnight at the facility. \"Essentially, it does not appear that he had any serious intent when he made the suicidal statement,\" the records said. \"He was counseled about the need to act responsibly.\" In each of the three evaluations at the Cook Counseling Center, Cho \"explicitly denied any intent to hurt himself or others and there was no evidence to the contrary,\" Virginia Tech said in its statement. \"At the time of his last appointment, Cho was completing his fall 2005 semester exams and was scheduled to spend the holiday break with his family. He was provided with emergency contact information. \"As we know, Cho never called or returned to the Cook Counseling Center, and more than a year elapsed between the time he was evaluated by counseling center professionals and the tragic events of April 2007.\" The records also contain a December 14, 2005, e-mail to the center from a university housing official, documenting Cho's \"history of erratic behavior and counseling-based issues at the time of his referral to Carilion St. Albans.\" Cho's suitemate had notified police because he had made suicidal statements and had \"blades\" in his room, said the e-mail. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said last month the files were discovered at Miller's home in connection with a civil lawsuit, but did not elaborate. The records' absence was a mystery and a concern during the investigation, he said. The governor said his office was asking the Cho family for permission to make the records public. Cho's family agreed earlier Wednesday to the records' release. \"The family has consistently favored and urged disclosure of their son's and brother's records in the interest of advancing the investigation into the tragic events of April 16, 2007, as well as ensuring that the families of the victims have as much information as possible,\" said family attorney Bernard DiMuro in a letter to Mike Melis, Virginia assistant attorney general. \"The unavailability of pertinent counseling center records during more than two years of investigation and review has created needless uncertainty and understandable speculation that has compounded the suffering of the survivors, families and the Virginia Tech community as a whole,\" the university said in a statement. The records confirm facts already established by the panel that reviewed the incident, the university said. But \"Virginia Tech remains deeply dismayed by the prolonged unavailability of the records and looks forward to the completion of the Virginia State Police investigation into their unauthorized removal from the Cook Counseling Center.\" CNN's Eric Fiegel contributed to this report.","highlights":"Files show dialogue between Cho Seung-Hui and VT's Cook Counseling Center .\nReport: Cho talked to suitemate about suicide because \"everybody just hates me\"\nUniversity says it was \"deeply dismayed by the prolonged unavailability\" of the files .","id":"aa4ee992523b55ab03a9e6971f6c979c66d39dc2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cars have Global Positioning System devices to pinpoint where drivers are when they get lost, so why can't GPS be used to locate the exact position of planes when the worst happens? There is currently no way to constantly track planes as they fly over oceans. It took search and rescue teams over 30 hours to locate the wreckage of the Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic on Monday. It appears that the aircraft's onboard GPS system was little help to rescuers in the mission. Although details of Air France flight 447's fate remain uncertain, in some air accidents, this critical time could mean the difference between life and death for any survivors. Michel Roelandt, aviation expert for Eurocontrol, a European air navigation safety organization, told CNN that nearly all modern planes are fitted with GPS navigation systems. How sophisticated those the communications and navigation systems are is down to individual airlines when they fit out their planes, an Airbus spokesperson told CNN. On board GPS systems are primarily navigation tools for the crew, and do not currently enable a constant tracking of a jet by a ground crew at all times. Planes receive a position signal, but don't transmit that back. This is not a problem when a jet is flying over land or in coastal areas, as it is tracked by radar. Over oceans radar does not work as it relies on line-of-sight tracking from a ground station. On oceanic flights a flight crew will know its exact position via GPS, but it is not able to be tracked by air traffic control. It is left to someone in the cockpit to relay information via satellite communication to air traffic control or a ground station. \"Airlines often have a contract with a private operator to provide their satellite communications. Some companies pay for it, some have free contracts,\" Roelandt said. Modern jets equipped with an Aircraft Communication, Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), like the A330-200, are also able to send automatic digital signals. These are not instigated by the crew but report automatically on the plane's systems and relay information to a receiving station. In AF447's case that was Air France's head-quarters in France. According to an Airbus spokesperson, it is up to an airline to determine how much information is sent in a data signal; it may or may not include location details. Shortly before the AF447 disappeared, its automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to Air France's maintenance computers, indicating that \"several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down,\" Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said on Monday. When the Air France Airbus A330-200's systems failed these messages would no longer have been able to be transmitted. They did relay the plane's location, but the plane continued flying for an unknown period of time, so the precise location where it went down could not be known. Once a plane loses its electronic system, the automatic data messages can no longer be sent, and in those circumstances no one on the flight deck would be able to transmit a message either. Aviation experts have stated that the idea of GPS tracking has not been part of any safety review within the aviation industry. The general consensus has been that a trained flight crew is on hand that always has the capability to be in contact with someone on the ground should an emergency arise. In the case of Air France Flight 447, it appears that the crew had no time to relay an emergency message. As well as searching for wreckage, a crashed plane can be found by pin-pointing the location of the in-flight black box recorder. Black box flight recorder devices contain flight deck data and crew voice recordings. When a plane has crashed black box recorders automatically emit a honing signal, located via radar. Emitting a regular ping for 30 days it can be picked up via radio waves, meaning there is a limit to the distance from the device search and rescue teams can be before they can pick up the signal. According to Airbus the capabilities of tracking a black box is down to the airline; satellite tracking of black box recorders is not a standard requirement. The Air France jet was equipped with a satellite-tracked black box recorder, but it is thought that depths of the ocean in the crash area are too deep for it to be located It's also possible, although unlikely, that the location of a troubled aircraft could be pinpointed by military defense satellites, experts said. Some U.S. military satellites employ heat-sensitive cameras that scan the skies for missiles and could possibly detect a plane if it were not obscured by clouds, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a public policy organization whose Web site provides news on weapons systems and the defense industry. Upgrading from radar to satelitte . The aviation industry is moving toward replacing its traditional radar-based tracking system with a satellite one that would allow air traffic control to know where a plane is at all times. However the new systems would still not enable air traffic control to track planes over remote ocean areas. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has begun implementing a system, nicknamed NextGen, in which GPS signals would transmit an aircraft's precise location to air traffic controllers via ground receivers. The system would allow planes to fly more direct routes instead of zig-zagging between radio beacons. The FAA is testing the system in pockets of the U.S. and plans to be using it by the end of the year in the Gulf of Mexico, much of which is out of radar range. The agency hopes NextGen will cover the entire country by 2013. Roelandt says a similar system will be implemented in Europe by 2015. \"It means planes will automatically transmit the GPS position to the ground and surrounding aircraft within about 150 miles,\" he said. \"In the far future the idea is to be in a free flight condition,\" where pilots have more flexibility in their routes while GPS keeps planes safely separated. In a trial last year using an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system, two Airbus planes were able to change altitude safely while cruising over oceanic airspace. At present, airliners flying over oceans are usually not permitted to change altitude, because oceanic airspace beyond a certain distance from land cannot be controlled by radar. Controllers and pilots keep the planes on vectors, or defined highways in the sky, to maintain safe distances between aircraft. The ADS-B system is being developed internationally. But the expense of outfitting planes with GPS is dwarfed by the cost to upgrade from radar to satellite tracking of planes. According to a 2006 FAA report, it would cost $4.6 billion to change to a satellite-based system in the U.S. \"It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation,\" Roelandt said. \"If you don't put an implementing rule on this equipment, airlines won't install it as it's a costly operation for them. It is ongoing, and will be installed on European commercial airliners, but it takes time as always.\" CNN's Brandon Griggs and Emanuella Grinberg contributed to this story.","highlights":"GPS on airliners can't help locate planes, as they receive but don't send signals .\nPilots know their position over an ocean but don't automatically share that data .\nBoth the U.S. and Europe are implementing GPS-based air traffic control systems .","id":"425dd33f479507a6d9c34d5c84e0b7e088d3cfe5"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesian authorities believe two suicide bombers checked into the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and carried out coordinated bombings Friday morning, killing themselves and at least six victims and wounding more than 50 others. A body is removed following the blasts at the Ritz-Carlton and the nearby J.W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta on Friday. It is unclear what group is behind the attacks on the Marriott and the adjacent Ritz-Carlton hotel, Indonesia's National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso said at a news conference. He warned that the death toll could rise. Four of the six victims in Jakarta's hotel bombings were foreigners, the Indonesian Healthy Ministry said Saturday. The ministry identified two of the dead as Australian, one from New Zealand and one from Singapore. Another victim was Indonesian and the sixth remained unidentified. Eight American nationals were among the wounded, according to the U.S. State Department. Investigators are also analyzing closed-circuit television footage from the Marriott that shows a man, sporting a baseball cap and pulling a wheeled suitcase, heading toward the JW Marriott Hotel's lobby-level restaurant seconds before the deadly blast. Five victims and one suicide bomber were killed at the Marriott, according to police spokesman Inspector General Nanan Soekarna. Minutes later, another suicide bomber struck the adjacent Ritz-Carlton, killing one person and the bomber. Indonesian national police confirmed that the man seen in the CCTV video, distributed by Indonesian television, is being investigated in connection with the blast. \"We are suspecting the man in the footage because the time frame matches with the time of the bombing,\" national police spokesman Nanan Soekarma said. \"It is obviously premature to confirm it right now as we will have to wait for the lab results and the investigation to conclude.\" Indonesian authorities have detained several witnesses and others for questioning, and have sent forensic evidence from the scene for testing, a spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. \"It's all being studied now,\" Dino Patti Djalal told CNN. Yudhoyono warned that it is still too early to determine who was behind the attacks. \"This terrorist action is thought to be the work of a terrorist group, even though it is not certain whether this is the terrorism which we are familiar with up until now,\" the recently reelected president said. See images of the aftermath \u00bb . The bombings at the two luxury hotels -- which are connected by an underground tunnel -- happened shortly before 8 a.m. (9 p.m. Thursday ET), first at the Marriott and then 10 minutes later at the Ritz-Carlton, police officials said. Both blasts struck the hotels' restaurants and several prominent international business leaders were among the casualties. Watch footage of the scene of the blasts \u00bb . An unexploded bomb was found on the Marriott Hotel's 18th floor where several suspects believed to be linked to the bombings were staying, Hendarso said. Indonesian investigators believe the bombers checked into the Marriott on Wednesday and were scheduled to check out on Friday, he added. It is unclear how they got around the \"robust security\" at the hotels, according to Alan Orlob, security chief for Marriott Hotels. Ritz-Carlton is a subsidiary of Marriott. Orlob said there had been no indication of any \"immediate threat in Jakarta.\" Watch Orlob describe security measures \u00bb . Security has been extremely high at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta since it was struck by a car bombing in August 2003 that killed 12 people. Suspicion immediately fell on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Islamist terrorist network with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network that was tied to the 2003 Marriott attack and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists. Hendarso said the type of explosives found were similar to those found in a recent raid on a home in West Java that was linked to Noordin Top, a suspected leader of a small JI splinter group that espouses the use of large-scale terror attacks to push for the establishment of Islamic states in the region. So far, there has been no claim of responsibility for the latest attack. Al Jazeera English reported that it was in touch with a JI member who denied any involvement in Friday's hotel bombings. Watch analysts discuss potential suspects \u00bb . The fatalities include New Zealand national Timothy David McKay, 60, according to Indonesia's state-run Antara New Agency. McKay -- the CEO of Holcim Indonesia, a cement company -- was at the hotel for a breakfast meeting with fellow prominent business leaders, the Jakarta Post reported. Indonesian media also reported that two directors of Freeport Indonesia, the largest copper and gold mining company in Indonesia, were wounded in the attacks on the two hotels. English soccer team Manchester United canceled its trip to Indonesia after the bombing. It had been scheduled to check into the Ritz-Carlton on Sunday. Hotel guests said the first blast at the Marriott shook the building. The second blast at the Ritz-Carlton apparently struck the hotel restaurant on the second floor, according to witnesses. The force of the blast blew out the windows on the Ritz-Carlton's second floor. \"The shocking part was entering the lobby, where the glass at the front of the hotel was all blown out and blood was spattered across the floor, but most people were leaving calmly,\" hotel guest Don Hammer said. Greg Woolstencroft said he had just walked past the hotels to his nearby apartment when he heard an explosion. \"I looked out my window and I saw a huge cloud of brownish smoke go up,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I grabbed my iPhone to go downstairs ... and then the second bomb went off at the Ritz-Carlton, so I then ran around to the Ritz-Carlton and I was able to find that there had been a massive bomb that went off in this ... restaurant area and the explosion had blown out both sides of the hotel.\" Woolstencroft said he saw a body that \"looked like someone who had been a suicide bomber or someone who had been very, very close to the explosion.\" The chief technology officer for a television station said he had lived at the Ritz for a year before moving to his nearby apartment, and had been impressed by the facility's security. \"I just don't know how someone could get in there with a bomb, given the level of security and screening that people have to go through,\" he said, citing armed guards at checkpoints and thorough searches of people, bags and vehicles. CNN's Kathy Quiano and Andy Saputra in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police say bombers had earlier checked into Marriott hotel .\nDeath toll in bomb attacks now six with at least 50 injured .\nPolice defuse bomb found on 18th floor of JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta .\nIndonesian president: Too early to determine who was behind the attacks .","id":"1f898c3dea0afefba901c0065c97796cb7f775ba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A high-pitched device used to combat anti-social behavior among young people has been called \"unfair\" by children's campaigners in England. \"The Mosquito\" has been used to combat anti-social behavior among young people across England . The Children's Commissioner for England, who oversees children's rights, has called for a ban on the ultra-sonic gadget, known as \"The Mosquito,\" which disperses young people by emitting sharp, piercing sounds. The device causes discomfort to younger ears by exploiting their ability to hear very high frequencies -- a power which declines once they reach their 20s. But human rights groups say the machine infringes civil rights and creates a divide between young and old. Launching the \"Buzz Off\" campaign, England's Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green said: \"I have spoken to many children and young people from all over England who have been deeply affected by ultra-sonic teenage deterrents.\" Aynsley-Green said about 3,500 of the devices are in use across England to split up gatherings of youth in areas such as parks and shops. \"These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving,\" he added. Youth leaders backed the campaign, adding that The Mosquito fails to address the root problems of anti-social behavior among youths -- and may even push teenagers to congregate in unsafe areas. \"Police, local authorities, and business instead should work collectively with young people and their communities to address the underlying causes of anti-social behavior in areas that cause concern,\" said Fiona Blacke, chief executive of the National Youth Agency, a government-funded group that works with young people on social development. The Mosquito was invented by Howard Stapleton, from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, and is manufactured by Compound Security Systems. The company describes The Mosquito as an \"ultrasonic teenage deterrent\" and \"the most effective tool in our fight against anti social behavior.\" It says the device has a range of 15 to 20 meters and teenagers are \"acutely aware of The Mosquito and usually move away from an area within an average of 8 to 10 minutes.\" The company says The Mosquito has proved popular with shop keepers who buy it to move along gatherings of teenagers and anti-social youths. It could not be contacted for a response to criticism of the deterrent. Railway companies have also placed the device to discourage youths from spraying graffiti on trains and station walls, Compound Security said. The controversial gadget was first used by shopkeeper Robert Gough, from South Wales. He told The Times newspaper: \"Either someone has come along and wiped them off the face of the earth, or it's working.\" However, Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: \"What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children? Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids. \"The Mosquito has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Campaigners want to ban ultra-sonic device used against young people .\n\"The Mosquito\" emits sharp sounds that can only be heard by under 20s .\nAbout 3,500 of the devices are used in England to disperse young people .\nHuman rights groups say they create divide between young and old .","id":"435cf9f6c1b7db8bc041f691e7a1f327a83ca92f"} -{"article":"BRYCEVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- Michael Ratley was known as a hero. Michael Ratley will spend the rest of his life in jail, without parole, for killing his wife with a hammer. In December 2006, Ratley carried his 2-week-old son, Aiden, and his wife, Effie Ratley, 29, from the flames as fire engulfed their Bryceville, Florida, trailer. Days after the fire, a teary-eyed Ratley told local media that love drove him to save their lives. \"I might have lost everything physical, but I've still got my two most precious things,\" Michael Ratley told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV at the time. A month later, Effie Ratley was dead, bludgeoned with a hammer in a bedroom of her in-laws' home, not far from the trailer's ashes on a dirt road marked only with a black arrow on a wooden sign. The man who was hailed as a hero for saving his wife was convicted in July of murdering her. On Tuesday, a Nassau County Court jury in Yulee, Florida, said he should spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime. Circuit Judge Robert Foster sentenced the 25-year-old to life without possibility of parole. What changed a heroic husband into a hammer-wielding wife killer? Hero gets life for murder \u00bb . During the trial, no motive was offered. On January 27, 2007, with his parents downstairs watching TV with the door shut and his infant son in the other room, prosecutors said, Ratley put on a pair of thick black gloves, grabbed a heavy-duty hammer and went into the bedroom where his wife was lying down after taking some medication. He lifted the hammer and \"savagely and brutally beat her on the head over and over\" -- at least seven times, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda. During the trial, Ratley said he had nothing to do with the slaying. His defense lawyers argued that an intruder, who Ratley alleged attacked him in the barn the night before, was the culprit. But prosecutors said that was part of Ratley's plan, setting up for a scenario in which an intruder killed his wife by cutting the wire on their window. Testifying on Tuesday, his friends and family spoke of him as a church-going, gentle man who always went out of his way to help others -- the elderly at a nursing home, a neighbor whose husband was slain and sick family members. \"He has always been a caring, nonviolent person,\" said his mother, Cindy Ratley. \"He'd give you the shirt off his back.\" Cindy Ratley said it had been her dream to have her close-knit family living together on her secluded 20 acres. Witnesses for Ratley tried in court to give a picture of the son, grandson, and friend they said he had always been, with the defense calling the murder a \"single, horrible snapshot\" in Ratley's overwhelmingly positive life. They urged the jury to give Ratley's son a chance to know his father, one who cares and loves deeply for him, they said. As his mother and others left the witness stand in the packed and divided courtroom, they each told Ratley they stood behind him and loved him. As they walked back to sit down, many mouthed, \"I love you.\" The prosecutors argued Ratley's character couldn't be clearer, based on his actions. \"Unfortunately, the best example we have of his character is in what he did. This shows his best character,\" de la Rionda said, showing the jurors gruesome photos of Effie Ratley's injuries. De la Rionda disputed the description of Ratley as a wonderful father. \"This loving father had no problem whatsoever -- a short distance from his son -- exterminating the life of his son's mother,\" he said. Michael Ratley met Effie Williams when she was having car trouble. He offered to buy a new tire for her and change it. Effie Ratley, who enjoyed listening to '50s music and watching black-and-white movies, was thrilled when she and her husband had their baby, her family told the court Tuesday. \"Her son was her pride and joy,\" said her stepmother, Joy Williams, wearing a purple and pink \"Justice for Effie\" bracelet. \"But she never knew more than six weeks of her motherhood dreams.\" By all accounts, the Ratleys' relationship had its rocky points. They were married, separated and remarried. Michael Ratley's family said that the first time the couple got married, they were worried he wasn't mature enough, that he needed to grow up, and they said the couple definitely had growing pains. \"He didn't know if he could love her enough, because he only wanted the best for her,\" Donna Stanley said, talking about her nephew. Effie Ratley's father, Duane Williams, cried on the stand Tuesday as he talked about his only daughter. His voice quivered as he tried to explain how he feels her loss each day. \"She's the first thing I think about in the morning when I wake up,\" he said, his voice wavering. \"And the last thing before I go to bed.\" Neither Effie or Michael Ratley's families wanted to speak about the sentencing after the hearing, but de la Rionda said Effie's family was pleased with the result. \"They were always hoping for [the] death [penalty], but they're happy he's going to get life and he's not going to be able to get out,\" de le Rionda said. \"He's going to die in prison.\" While the announcement of the sentence, which spared him from death, was greeted with a pronounced \"Yes!\" from Michael Ratley's family inside court, the gravity of the situation seemed to hit during a short recess. His grandmother began sobbing. Family members comforted her until Cindy Ratley sat down next to her. The two cried and embraced for a couple of minutes. Michael Ratley looked over, saw his grandmother upset, and he, too, began to cry.","highlights":"Michael Ratley, 25, sentenced to life without parole for murdering wife .\nProsecutors: Ratley beat wife with hammer four weeks after rescuing her from fire .\nFamily says Ratley was gentle man; attorneys call murder \"single, horrible snapshot\"\nEffie Ratley's family recall her spirit, love for newborn son .","id":"155983efb097fafd35af36fd6e42c19f907b24c1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Republicans on Wednesday presented what they called a \"sorely needed\" alternative to Democrats' proposals to overhaul health care. Rep. Eric Cantor says Republicans are drafting a plan to ensure all Americans have access to affordable coverage. Republicans want to make sure all Americans have access to affordable coverage, Rep. Eric Cantor, the House minority whip, said Wednesday. \"We do so by making sure we keep down costs and incorporate the ability for folks to pool together to access lower costs, to bring private sector into the game and keep government out,\" Cantor said. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have detailed how they would pay for their proposals. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said his party's plan will cost \"far less\" than that of the Democrats and \"provide better results for the American people.\" Rep. Dave Camp, R-Michigan, who co-authored the GOP plan, said it's important to make sure the bill is one with a \"common-sense approach.\" \"We are not going to have a bill that is larger than the GDP [gross domestic product] of most countries, which is what we are beginning to see roll out,\" said Camp, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. \"Clearly, if we move forward and this bill is on the floor, we are going to have to have a bill that is paid for and that's going to depend on what the scores come back.\" A score is a preliminary estimate of the cost of proposed legislation. A preliminary review by the Congressional Budget Office of a plan being drawn up in the Senate found it would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years to extend health insurance to 16 million people who otherwise would not be covered, about a third of the roughly 45 million now uninsured. Camp said that the House Republican proposal calls for refundable tax credits for lower-income Americans. But Camp and Republicans have not determined key details for their proposal, including the amount of those tax credits or who precisely could be eligible. House Republicans on Wednesday planned to release a two-page summary of Camp's proposal, which CNN Radio obtained. Some highlights include: . This Republican alternative bill also contains several health care ideas that are increasingly championed by both parties. This House Republican plan comes a day after fellow Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois and other moderates in the so-called Tuesday Group released their proposal, which spelled out many of the same ideas as the Camp bill. Kirk contends his plan is less partisan but said he supports Camp's effort. CNN's Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Rep. Eric Cantor says plan keeps \"government out\" of health care market .\nHouse Republicans plan to release two-page summary of health care bill .\nPlan's author says it's important bill have \"common-sense approach\"\nNeither Democrats nor Republicans have detailed how they would pay for proposals .","id":"fd57a5632477745ea55ab12bc185d4f33c9e390a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's a high-tech, high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. Ryan Kelly, a Web designer from London, England, says his software was used to attack an Iranian Web site. As the Iranian government seeks to crack down on the online networks being used by protesters who question the nation's election results, a community of Net-savvy users -- both inside and outside the country -- are working to try to stay one step ahead. \"To the Iranian government hackers who keep attacking the places they see as a threat, you are wasting your time,\" wrote one anonymous poster to a message board loaded with eyewitness accounts of violence, plans for protests and notices about people reported missing or dead. \"You are completely outnumbered. There are thousands of Iranians who want to be free and people who support them for every one of you there is.\" That site, with a server in California, was unable to be accessed for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon. The error could have been caused by too many people trying to access the site at the same time. The same error would be caused by a so-called \"denial of service\" attack -- using a program to flood a site with thousands of hits in a short time. Access to networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and photography site Flickr have been blocked in Iran, where the government also has been accused of blocking text-messaging, launching denial of service attacks and spreading misinformation to protest communities online. Watch CNN's Octavia Nasr explain how voices of dissent are getting out \u00bb . But Web users have been able to get around those roadblocks by the thousands, thanks to Internet proxies -- Web servers set up in other countries that allow Iranians to hide their computer's Internet Protocol address from censors within the country. \"I think the filters and the restrictions have been going on for so long in Iran that the experienced people are already prepared for this,\" said Jon Pincus, a former Microsoft project manager and digital activist who works on projects promoting online freedom. The networking sites have been crucial in sharing information among protesters. Equally important, they've helped spread word to news organizations now barred from covering massive anti-government demonstrations and the violence that reportedly has led to the deaths of an untold number of demonstrators. Many blogs, message boards and Web pages sharing information from inside Iran are urging users to log on through programs such as Tor, a free Web page designed to allow users to surf the Web and communicate with each other anonymously. The Web page bounces a user's information through relays -- other networks provided by volunteers all over the world -- preventing someone monitoring an Internet connection from seeing what sites are visited on that connection. The measures haven't always been successful. In Twitter posts and on various Web sites, protesters in Iran on Wednesday described having their online access shut down. Pincus compared it to Chinese dissidents trying to crack their country's stringent rules for Internet use. iReport: Share your photos, video and stories from Iran . \"Word continues to get through, but basically it's very, very difficult,\" Pincus said \"Many people who try are caught.\" In Iran, \"there's been a noticeable decline already in the amount of photos and video that's coming down,\" he said. \"That says that, thus far, the government is succeeding.\" Early Thursday morning, a Twitter user with a new account and who was not following anyone else on the site was posting false information -- including a report that opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi had conceded the election and that a demonstration had been canceled because government tanks were in the street. The Twitter user posted the phone number of a \"safe house\" and urged other demonstrators to call it. Other users quickly began spreading word that they think the user is a government agent. But the fight is ever-changing and moving on, proponents said. On Twitter, users all over the world were changing their personal information and time-zone settings to make it appear they live in Iran. It's an effort, they said, to provide cover for people really posting in the country. \"Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches,\" read a message on a Web page titled \"Cyber War Guide for Beginners.\" \"If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.\" Kevin Arth, 40, of Reno, Nevada, is one of the Twitter users who took up the call. \"I don't know how it started,\" said Arth, who is pursuing a degree in computer science. \"I was monitoring things that were going on at Twitter and at some point somebody said, 'Here's what we're doing.' \" Arth said he's not sure how effective the technique is -- there are other ways for Iran's government to track Internet users -- but for him it's a show of support as much as anything. \"It's easier to fight a battle when you know you've got support behind you,\" he said. And at least some members of the community are taking the fight to Iran's government and its supporters -- using some of the same online scrambling techniques they believe are being used against them. Ryan Kelly, a Web designer from London, England, said his free software meant to refresh pages on sports and auction Web sites automatically appears to have been used to attack Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Web site. Watch how Kelly's software works \u00bb . He received an anonymous e-mail asking him to take his site down Tuesday, he said. He then discovered traffic at his site had risen from a typical 700 visits a day to 41,000 on Monday. \"I suppose I am taking sides because I've put the site back up,\" he told CNN. \"But I have no problems with it being used in this way.\" CNN's Peter Wilkinson in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iranian government trying to stop Internet communication from protesters .\nCommunity of Net-savvy users are working to try to stay online .\nIranians getting help from people around the world with foreign servers .\nTwitter users change settings to appear they're in Iran to give Iranians cover .","id":"ae48f991efa24a61e4ee25c5e5fc743ae77b4022"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Need some social etiquette advice for the digital age? Brad Pitt's got your back in this month's cover story from Wired Magazine. In Wired's new cover story, Brad Pitt offers etiquette for the digital age. So Brad, should people talk on the phone while they're using the restroom? \"No, you can't talk on the phone!\" Pitt tells the magazine. \"Do you want the guy next to you to hear your entire conversation? \"That's why you should only text in the bathroom. Just be sure you don't hit the wrong button and end up putting a photo of your junk on Twitter. Trust me, you don't want those followers.\" Watch a CNN video about cell phone etiquette \u00bb . Humor covers for Pitt's lack of tech credentials as the Hollywood hunk and star of Quentin Tarantino's new film, \"Inglourious Basterds\" offers up a range of tongue-in-cheek advice for Wired readers. He touches on subjects ranging from managing your online persona to looking at porn on your work computer. Wired says Pitt approached the magazine with ideas for the story. The magazine, which is owned by Conde Nast and is a CNN.com content partner, collaborated with Pitt and contributing photographer Dan Winters to create the article. \"How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans\" hits newsstands July 21. Wired said in an e-mail that the piece is a re-think of the celebrity magazine profile. On the cover, a photo shows Pitt wearing a Bluetooth device in his ear. \"Rule No. 52: Ditch the headset. He can barely pull it off -- and you are not him,\" a blurb on the magazine front says. Most of the article is delivered in a spoof question-answer format. Pitt contributes several answers, as do regular Wired writers. One question asks if a person who exaggerated his or her salary on an online dating profile should confess. \"Hell no,\" Pitt writes. \"Everyone lies online. In fact, readers expect you to lie. If you don't, they'll think you make less than you actually do. So the only way to tell the truth is to lie.\" A question about viewing pornography at work is paired with a photo of Pitt scanning a copy of Hustler magazine at an office desk. A half-eaten doughnut sits on the table in front of him. \"Don't just look at it at work, bring in your old porn mags and scan them there!\" Pitt writes in the magazine. \"It's like converting your vinyl to MP3s. Fill up your hard drive, and when you need a break from spreadsheets, just open a favorite pictorial.\" Pitt's OK with porn, but he's less understanding of people who want to answer urgent cell phone calls during movies. \"It may be a brief interruption -- just a few seconds -- but what if someone sitting near you is trying to make a decent bootleg? Did you ever think of that? Now all those street-corner copies are permanently defiled by your so-called 'emergency,' \" he writes. \"Don't be so damn selfish.\"","highlights":"Wired Magazine's cover story features spoof tech advice from Brad Pitt .\nThe Hollywood hunk is promoting his new movie, \"Inglourious Basterds\"\nPitt says talking on the phone at the urinal is rude; you should text instead .\nPitt: Online communication is based on lies: \"The only way to tell the truth is to lie\"","id":"41a59634b170f8e82b7c488a1be885f915c3485f"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Security remains a top concern, as Afghanistan holds its second-ever presidential election Thursday, prompting the government to ask for a ban on media coverage of violence. An Afghan police officer walks near a bank in Kabul where an armed robbery ended in a gunbattle. Afghanistan's government has ordered the media to refrain from covering possible attacks on election day in an effort to \"ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people.\" \"If anybody broadcasts or gives news about any movements or activities of terrorists, domestic media offices will be closed, and foreigners will be kicked out of the country,\" according to a statement from Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Zahir Faqiri. He said the order is in line with Afghanistan's constitution, which allows for such mandates \"in exceptional situations\" to protect \"national interest and national security.\" Escalating violence in the capital, Kabul, this week has made some Afghans think twice about whether to venture out to vote. \"If we are not at peace, why should we vote, who should we vote for?\" asked Ferishta, 21, who last weekend lay in a blood-soaked shirt and was connected to an intravenous drip after a suicide bombing. But at least one independent news agency refused to heed a blackout on reports of violence. Restricting media freedoms has no basis in the Afghan constitution, said the Kabul-based Pajhwok News Agency. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul insisted that press freedoms are necessary to ensure credible elections. \"While we recognize the sovereign rights of the Afghan government and note their intention to encourage Afghans to turn out and vote, we believe that free media reporting is directly linked to the credibility of the elections and continue to support the freedom of the press and responsible reporting,\" spokeswoman Fleur Cowan said in an e-mail. On the eve of the election, roadside bombs killed three Afghan election workers in the southern province of Kandahar, and four others were killed Tuesday in the northern province of Badakshan, Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said. Amid the violence, the candidates wrapped up last-minute campaigning with the hope that the elections can showcase their country's fledgling democracy. \"We're at a moment of truth,\" said Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, an independent advisory and analysis organization. An incumbent president and about 40 challengers, including two women, are on the ballot, vying for the votes of what the election commission says are an estimated 17 million registered Afghans against a backdrop of war, graft, poverty and illiteracy. More than 3,000 donkeys, 3,000 cars and three helicopters will traverse harsh terrain to carry voting materials to remote polling stations, the election commission says. And 30 observer groups, domestic and international, will be on hand to help guard against fraud, it says. At the heart of every vote will be the two biggest impediments to progress in one of the poorest nations in the world: stifling corruption and an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency. International donors are helping pay for the $223 million electoral undertaking, and hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have moved into strife-torn southern Afghanistan to protect voters against possible Taliban attacks. The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, expressed optimism that Thursday's vote would be Afghanistan's moment to shine. It's tough to organize elections during a war, he said, but the reality is that violence during elections is commonplace in many parts of the world. \"Afghanistan has never had a contested election,\" Holbrooke said. \"So this is a remarkable experiment in democracy and something that Afghanistan needs to give legitimacy to the new government.\" That legitimacy has become a key issue in the campaign. Frontrunner President Hamid Karzai's chief challengers -- former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah -- have both lashed out at the incumbent for failing to rein in corruption. In its annual global corruption perception index in 2008, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan 176 out of 180 countries and said graft is \"a major factor impeding the country's stability and future growth.\" Ghani said the most significant challenge Afghanistan's next president will face is earning back the trust of the people. \"This government has lost it,\" he said in a recent interview. \"There is no sense of trust, not only in the current leadership but in the political class as such. And in the capacity of the state or the international community to improve the lot of our people.\" Ghani characterized Karzai as a \"very poor manager\" who failed to deal with pressing issues and create any sense of momentum for the nation moving forward. As a guest on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS\" this month, Ghani said Afghanistan's corruption had metastasized into a cancer that was \"eating through the society.\" Abdullah argued that people's dissatisfaction with the Karzai government has helped strengthen the insurgency. \"There is no doubt there is a hard-core element in it,\" he said. \"But there are thousands of people under the same brand, Taliban, [who] have joined the insurgency because of other reasons.\" The insurgents are filling a vacuum left by Afghanistan's Western-backed government, which foreign diplomats and military commanders concede suffers from nepotism, corruption and predatory practices. During a recent political debate, Karzai admitted that corruption was a problem but offered no specific cures. He also has been blamed for what has become the bloodiest summer since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Most polls, however, show Karzai with a commanding lead. Latifa, a Kabul housewife, said she was pleased with Karzai's stewardship and would vote for him. \"Like raising a child for seven years, in seven years he has helped our Kabul, our Afghanistan, stand on its own two feet,\" she said. \"We didn't know an election before; we hadn't seen a parliament.\" But can a nation as troubled as Afghanistan carry out fair and free elections? Some observers of Afghanistan and human rights activists have voiced their doubts. Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, said Thursday's election will be the most difficult he has encountered in his life. Besides the violence and corruption, a weak infrastructure and a high illiteracy rate will add to election woes, he said. The problems were reflected in a new Gallup Poll that found fewer than one in four voting-age Afghans are confident the election will be fair and transparent. Voting in Afghanistan, Eide said, is not yet the kind of democratic expression understood in the West. \"If you look at the well-established democracies in the West, for instance, that's not possible under these circumstances,\" he said. \"But what my objective is that we have credible, inclusive elections where the result will be accepted by the people. That is our level of ambition, and I think we will achieve that.\" Eide said that a significant number of polling stations in Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni and Wardak provinces will not be able to open for security reasons. He said ballots ought to be counted at the polling center itself instead of transporting them elsewhere and increasing the possibility of fraud, encountered in the last election in 2004. Of the 4.6 million new registered voters, 39 percent are women. So thousands of women had to be employed to search burqa-clad female voters at polling places. Human Rights Watch, however, said this week that the recruitment drive for women began too late and as a result, not enough women will be available for security checks. \"Women voters have been badly let down by their government and its international backers,\" said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. Women's votes will be closely watched in Afghanistan, where the Taliban regime stripped women of equal rights and education, essentially hurtling them back to the Stone Age. But despite the violence, despite the threats from the Taliban to disrupt the voting, enthusiasm filled the air this week. A campaign rally resembled more a rock concert than a political event in Afghanistan, as Kabul stadium transformed into a sea of blue, Abdullah's campaign color. Supporters hoisted banners and sported T-shirts emblazoned with Abdullah's face. Not old enough to vote, another young woman named Ferishta -- this one 15 years old and a beauty school student -- attended a rally for Ghani with many of her classmates. \"We want a president who is peaceful and caring,\" she said. \"We don't want any more bombs. In these bombs, so many Afghans have died, one person's son, one person's child.\" But no one can predict whether abounding energy will translate into high turnout. Not in a war-ravaged nation. Not when bombs were still exploding just hours before balloting was to begin. CNN's Atia Abawi, Ivan Watson, Kevin Flower and Moni Basu contributed to this report.","highlights":"Afghan media blackout called amid fresh violence in Kabul .\nSeven Afghan election workers killed by roadside bombs .\nCorruption, insurgency expected to be voters' top issues .\nPresident faces major challenges from two of his former ministers .","id":"8a0d6572d6d1b31400d0004e2ef3fa546be5fbe1"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- You don't have to tell the Reverend J. Peyton that these are hard times in Indiana. He's been seeing it for years. The Reverend J. Peyton leads the Big Damn Band in playing the blues. Even down south in rural Brown County, which the country-blues guitarist and his Big Damn Band call home, the struggles on \"Main Street\" are more than just a political catchphrase. They're a reality. The Rev, as he likes to be called, is well aware of the hardships elsewhere in his state, too. In the northern Indiana county of Elkhart, where President Obama held a highly publicized town hall meeting to discuss the economy and his stimulus package, the unemployment rate has more than tripled over the past year to almost 19 percent -- more than double the national average. \"The writing's been on the wall for a long time,\" says The Rev. \"To me, this isn't anything new. It's new that people are covering it -- it's new that it's on the news.\" The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, made up of The Rev, his wife Breezy on washboard and his brother Jayme on drums, has been touring the country almost nonstop for several years, and they've had a chance to see the harsh realities of the American dream up close. They've made their personal struggles, their family's setbacks and stories from people they meet into lyrical fodder -- and despite the grim subject matter, put on an enthusiastically upbeat, memorable performance in each town they play. Watch the Big Damn Band perform \"Worn Out Shoe\" \u00bb . \"We don't take it lightly,\" The Rev says. \"I just hope that when people come to the show, we're able to make them feel a lot of different things -- make 'em laugh with us and make 'em hurt with us.\" It's a tradition as old as the blues. The Rev says on the band's Web site, \"I feel like I got to directly be involved in a song. Maybe if I played a different genre of music I'd feel like I could get away with [making stuff up], but this style of music is too honest; you can't lie to people, because they'll see right through it.\" For The Rev, part of being brutally honest also means keeping it simple, allowing listeners to be engaged with the music without having to search for hidden meaning. Among the songs from the band's latest album, \"The Whole Fam Damnily,\" are \"Can't Pay the Bill,\" \"The Creek's Are All Bad\" and \"Walmart Killed the Country Store.\" The band gets its ideas from personal experience, says The Rev. \"I ain't got cable where I live,\" he says. \"I stay up on current events as well as I can, but I don't really draw from newspapers. I draw from my family and friends.\" Reviewers have praised the work. \"The band bring to their retro-fabricated rootsy Americana an utterly gripping compulsion,\" wrote the (UK) Independent's Andy Gill, giving \"The Whole Fam Damnily\" four out of five stars. The Big Damn Band is also the cover story in the April\/May issue of Blues Review magazine. What the songs purposefully lack in lyrical flair is made up in sparkling musicianship. The Rev picks his way across old standard-tuned National resonators and acoustic guitars, adding a little slide here and there; Breezy rattles away with metal-tipped baseball batting gloves and washboard, while Jayme keeps rhythm on a rather modest drum set, highlighted by a 5-gallon pickle bucket. It's simple, heartfelt country blues at its best, played by a family that revels in its blood ties. And that's good enough for The Rev. \"You get by through things that don't cost much, like music, like laughter, like food. You know, those are the things that I think get you by.\"","highlights":"The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band is an Indiana-based blues group .\nSong titles include \"Walmart Killed the Country Store\"\nThe Rev: Band wants to \"make 'em laugh with us and make 'em hurt with us\"","id":"1af7169c8e464e69b0ec196f8c46d762a1e0dee8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elvis Presley. Marilyn Monroe. Jim Morrison. Officials won't say where Michael Jackson was buried, but family gathered at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Their graves are public shrines for fans and followers. Countless people from all over the world make pilgrimages to their burial sites, hoping to draw close to those they adored from afar. Now Michael Jackson's gravesite will become the next holy grail. A private gathering for the pop icon was held Tuesday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California. Afterward, his casket was taken to the public memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But it remains unclear whether his body has been interred -- or where. Officials at Forest Lawn won't disclose where Jackson's body is being buried. If his final resting place is at Forest Lawn, fans who wish to visit will have to overcome the funeral company's stringent security patrols. A Los Angeles Police Department official told CNN that the force hoped Jackson would be buried outside of its jurisdiction for fear officers might be assigned to protect the grave for months. There has been some speculation that Jackson's body will eventually be moved to Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County, California. But that would require the family to obtain zoning exemptions and settle legal disputes, which could take years. Jackson retained only a small share of ownership in the ranch. If a public memorial were created at Neverland -- or anywhere -- it might easily surpass the tombs of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley as the most-visited gravesite. \"If it gets moved somewhere more public, I think a lot of people will come visit,\" said Steve Goldstein, author of L.A.'s Gravesite Companion: Where the VIP's RIP. \"He'll probably take over as the most visited grave site over Marilyn.\" Fame follows celebrities in life and in death. \"There's always a fascination with celebrities, but it's rude to stalk people and sit outside their houses,\" says Jim Tipton, founder of findagrave.com, a site that lists the grave records of more than 34 million celebrities and ordinary citizens. \"But once they are interred into the ground, anyone who wants to go can go.\" Tipton's fascination with locating earthly remains began 15 years ago, when he saw mobster Al Capone's grave in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. He and many others who are avid about visiting celebrity and historical graves dub themselves \"grave hunters.\" They seek the dead for various reasons. Some go out of simple curiosity. Others are history lovers. Many are fans who deeply admired the stars. Some say they feel a connection to the celebrities by standing beside their graves. At Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, guests visiting the grave can stay at the retro Heartbreak Hotel and visit the museum to learn more about the King of Rock and Roll. Westwood Memorial Park and Cemetery in Los Angeles houses Hollywood notables including sex symbol Marilyn Monroe and comic Rodney Dangerfield. The most recent celebrity to be buried there is actress Farrah Fawcett, who died of cancer last month. Visitors can access the cemetery easily, and even tour buses drop by. \"I'm a product of that era, of Charlie's Angels,\" said Jayne Osborne, a self-proclaimed grave hunter who visited Fawcett's grave a week ago. The 48-year-old education administrator began searching for celebrity graves in the early 1970s. Since then, she's visited hundreds of celebrity resting places in Southern California. \"I wanted to pay my respect.\" At Westwood, the most popular grave site remains Monroe's. Fans often decorate her grave with flowers and cards. Her headstone is slightly darker than the others from so many fans touching it, grave hunters say. In P\u00e8re-Lachaise, the largest cemetery in Paris, France, American singer Jim Morrison's grave is tattooed with graffiti and artwork. Morrison fans like to leave candles, poems and gifts as tokens of appreciation. At one point, fans were so rowdy that a stone block was put in place in an attempt to seal the grave from fans trying to unearth it. After unsuccessful attempts by French authorities to move the tomb to another site, security officers were placed at the grave. Similar trouble plagued Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, where members of the Allman Brothers Band were buried in the early 1970s. Thousands of fans journeyed to visit the graves and party there, leaving behind cigarette butts and empty alcohol bottles. Relatives fought to have an iron fence erected around the graves. Some celebrity graves prove tempting to visitors, like that of heartthrob actor James Dean. His headstone in a public cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana, has been stolen twice. Forest Lawn Memorial Park remains one of the most exclusive Hollywood burial sites. The staff is tight lipped, refusing to release the whereabouts of anyone buried there, except to family members. Security cars constantly patrol the grounds. \"We don't advocate or promote any visitation out of respect for the privacy of the family,\" said William Martin, a spokesman for company. Company officials wouldn't say whether Jackson's body was, or could be, tucked into one of the cemetery's locked gardens where celebrities like Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow and Sammy Davis Jr. are laid to rest. If Jackson is buried in Forest Lawn, that won't stop fans and grave hunters from trying to sneak in, says Karen Fogarty, a paralegal from the San Fernando Valley area in California and an occasional celebrity grave hunter. \"It's going to keep Forest Lawn on their toes,\" she said.","highlights":"Celebrities' graves become public shrines for fans and followers .\nGrave hunters say people will try visit Michael Jackson's burial site .\nForest Lawn Memorial Park employees won't say whether Jackson's body is there .\nFuneral company has stringent security patrols.","id":"7698645195928779109adb0842a8014bc85dd453"} -{"article":"BUNNELL, Florida (CNN) -- Faith Coleman had no health insurance when she learned she had cancer, but she describes her battle with the illness as \"one of the absolute greatest blessings\" of her life. Faith Coleman's ordeal as an uninsured cancer patient drove her to help others without health insurance. \"Having kidney cancer was one of the best things that ever happened to me ... because I can truly empathize with patients,\" said Coleman, 54. That compassion inspired Coleman to open a free clinic in her Florida community to help other uninsured people in need of medical care. In July 2003, Coleman, a nurse practitioner, learned she had a malignant tumor growing on her right kidney. But as a contract worker for several doctors, she did not receive health insurance. Coleman's treatment totaled about $35,000, and she was forced to take out a mortgage on her house to help pay for it. \"I [fell] through the crack ... and I [had] a great job and a good education,\" said Coleman, a mother of six. Realizing that her financial and health woes were not unique, Coleman -- now in remission -- became determined to help those in similar situations access medical treatment. \"I have been given another chance, and I felt that it was important for me to make a difference and to help other people,\" she said. So after her recovery in 2004, Coleman approached Dr. John Canakaris. The local physician with 60 years of experience had been treating the indigent population for years. Canakaris was eager to reach more patients in need. The two worked together to establish the Flagler County Free Clinic in Bunnell, Florida, which provides medical care for the uninsured. It has treated more than 6,700 patients. The clinic opened its doors in February 2005, with eight volunteers treating eight patients. Since then, it has expanded to 120 volunteers who see about 80 patients every other weekend. Coleman said she's seen an increase in the number of patients at the clinic, which serves people who meet federal poverty guidelines. \"If you see 100 cars in the parking lot, that's us!\" Coleman said, describing how she tells people the way to find the clinic. \"We have what I call 'controlled chaos.' It's just busy, busy, busy, go, go, go.\" Watch the \"controlled chaos\" at the clinic \u00bb . Health insurance: 'Nebulous, fairy-like thing' Flagler County has a 15.5 percent unemployment rate -- the highest in Florida -- according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Living without medical insurance often is the only way for some local struggling families to make ends meet, Coleman said. \"When your health insurance [premium] is the same or more than your mortgage payment on your home, which one do you think they're going to choose?\" Coleman asked. \"They have to live. They have to eat. Insurance becomes the nebulous fairy-like thing that's flying around out here. It would be nice to have because it's silver and shiny and pretty, but it's too expensive to hold on to. So it has to go,\" she said. The clinic, which operates out of a building donated by Canakaris and other doctors for use on the weekends, is not affiliated with any hospitals, Coleman said. The local Rotary Club, churches and private contributions help fund the operation. In addition, physicians volunteer to see patients recommended by the clinic, and an imaging center donates two X-rays and two CAT scans per month. Coleman says she and her team generally treat common illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases, but adds \"we've also found a lot of cancers.\" Many diagnoses have led to life-saving treatments. Watch Coleman interact with patients at her clinic \u00bb . \"I had this lump growing in my throat on the right side and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I didn't have any insurance,\" said Franklin Dias, a cancer survivor. \"Ms. Coleman called in one of her buddies who said this is an emergency ... [then] I was in the hospital.\" Today, Dias is cancer-free. And to show his appreciation of the clinic, he bakes. \"I paid them in banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread,\" Dias said. Emilio Viera, a Cuban immigrant, also credits Coleman with saving his life. \"She was perfect, she was precise, she was accurate,\" said Viera. \"I'll be very grateful all my life to Ms. Coleman. She's 'Faith,' and when you have five minutes with her she makes you have faith.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Flagler County Free Clinic and see how to help.","highlights":"Faith Coleman was uninsured when she found out she had kidney cancer .\nHer experience inspired her to help others with similar financial, health issues .\nShe co-founded a free clinic in Florida to help the uninsured access health care .","id":"cf2af3dfb373d97d37fb2c83659e9f7a016ac830"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security will investigate a Halloween costume party hosted by a top immigration official and attended by a man dressed in a striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and darkened skin make-up, a costume some say is offensive, the department's secretary said. Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the man's costume \"offensive.\" Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and host of the fundraising party, was on a three-judge panel that originally praised the prisoner costume for \"originality.\" Myers later apologized for \"a few of the costumes,\" calling them \"inappropriate and offensive.\" She said she and other senior managers \"deeply regret that this happened.\" A department photographer photographed Myers with the man, but the images were deleted after the costume were deemed offensive, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. Between 50 and 75 people attended the party, which was a fundraiser for the Combined Federal Campaign, a federal government collection of charities. Nantel said one employee, whom she declined to identify, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and a skin \"bronzer\" intended \"to make him look African-American.\" But, she said, it was not immediately apparent that he was wearing the make-up. \"Most people in the room didn't realize he was wearing make-up at all,\" she said. \"It was unintentioned. The employee did not mean to offend although there were some employees that were rightfully offended by it,\" Nantel said. Myers and the other judges \"noted his costume for originality.\" \"There were a couple of people who were offended,\" Nantel said. \"When it was confirmed through a conversation with the employee that he was wearing make-up,\" Nantel said, the employee was counseled and Myers sent out a note to employees apologizing. In a November 2 email to ICE employees, Myers wrote, \"It is now clear that, however unintended, a few of the costumes were inappropriate and offensive. While we were all thrilled to be a part of the CFC fundraising effort, I and the senior management at ICE deeply regret that this happened.\" She reminded all employees to be compliant with the department's diversity training requirement. Myers has served as head of ICE since January of 2006 but is still awaiting Senate confirmation. An ICE congressional liaison said ICE officials briefed congressional staffers about the costume party this week as a courtesy. But at least one congressional staffer said they approached ICE after receiving an anonymous fax about the incident. Myers called House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, about the incident and is expected to meet with him before the end of the week, a Thompson spokeswoman told CNN. Myers also contacted the National Association of African-Americans in the Department of Homeland Security. In a letter to NAADHS members, the group's vice president, Sjon Shavers, said the group \"appreciates (Myers) reaching out to us so quickly in order to keep us apprised of the matter and we commend her on moving so swiftly toward appropriate corrective action.\" As head of ICE, Myers heads the law enforcement agency charged with enforcing immigration law inside the United States. It is the second largest investigative agency in the federal government, with more than 15,000 employees, including 6,000 investigators. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff \"supports the actions that Assistant Secretary Myers has taken,\" DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. \"We do not tolerate inappropriate behavior at DHS.\" \"The Secretary has asked for an inquiry into the facts surrounding the incident. Once the facts have been determined, we will take all necessary and appropriate actions,\" Keehner said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Man in prison outfit, dreadlocks and darkened skin make-up came to party .\nParty host was Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement .\nShe and other judges at first gave man praise for costume's \"originality\"\nBut some were offended and Myers later apologized in an email to employees .","id":"bcbea0e41143174dd17a4b5285ab8efa32e9a12b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Charging chesty women more for their bras doesn't win a lot of support, British retailer Marks & Spencer acknowledged Friday as it announced an end to the surcharge on its larger lingerie. Marks & Spencer have apologised for charging chesty women more for bras. \"We boobed,\" screamed a full-page Marks & Spencer ad, which appeared in British newspapers Friday. Marks & Spencer gave in to campaigners who argued that the higher prices of the bigger bras was unfair. The retailer charged as much as \u00a32 ($3) more for all sizes DD and up. \"It's true that our fantastic quality larger bras cost more money to make, and we felt it was right to reflect this in the prices we charged,\" the ad said. \"Well, we were wrong.\" It follows a nearly year-long campaign by members of the Facebook group Busts 4 Justice. The women behind the site argued other chain retailers didn't charge extra for bigger sizes, so Marks & Spencer shouldn't, either. And it pointed out that the store doesn't charge extra for larger sizes of clothing, so it shouldn't charge more for larger undergarments. What's your view? \"We would like to thank everyone who has supported us on this issue; especially the thousands of brilliant, busty women that have joined forces with us. We couldn't have done this without you,\" the two administrators of the group, Becky Mount and Beckie Williams, posted Friday on Facebook. \"Busts 4 Justice remain committed to making things better for busty women on the high street, but for now we're happy just to be able to encourage all ladies to reward themselves and their boobs with some properly fitted, fairly priced lingerie.\" Marks & Spencer is a stalwart British chain, known for classic wardrobe staples and low prices. Its underwear department is the first stop for many British shoppers and is especially famous for reliable basics. And to give customers an added lift, Marks & Spencer also announced it is cutting the prices of all of its bras by 25 percent for the rest of May. \"I think even though we all obviously held a bit of a grudge against buying our bras from M&S we should really be grateful they got rid of the surcharge and have given us the super generous 25 percent off,\" Mount wrote on the group's site Friday. \"They may get cleared out by the time the weekend is over!\"","highlights":"Marks & Spencer is ending its surcharge on larger lingerie .\nRetailer takes out adverts admitting \"we boobed\"\nCampaigners argued that the higher prices of the bigger bras was unfair .","id":"674e56e37dbacd0b5871ae383b8a7481eff3b9c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- -- A poor decision by a regional airline was being blamed Friday for Continental Airlines passengers getting stranded overnight as their plane sat on a tarmac in Minnesota, federal transportation officials said Friday. Passengers on a Continental flight operated by ExpressJet sat on the tarmac for nearly six hours on August 8. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a representative of Mesaba Airlines improperly refused requests by the plane's captain and crew to let passengers off the plane. They were stuck on the tarmac in Rochester on August 8 from 12:38 a.m. to about 6 a.m. with nothing but pretzels to eat, LaHood said. \"There was a complete lack of common sense here,\" LaHood said in a written statement. \"It's no wonder the flying public is so angry and frustrated.\" Mesaba, based in Eagan, Minnesota and owned by Delta Air Lines, was the only carrier able to assist Continental Flight 2816, which was on its way from Houston, Texas, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, when it was diverted because of strong thunderstorms, LaHood said. Watch how pilot tried to get passengers off plane \u00bb . The flight's 47 passengers described crying babies, overflowing toilets and cramped conditions. According to a Department of Transportation preliminary report, Mesaba's representative refused to help passengers off of the plane, incorrectly saying the airport was closed to passengers for security reasons. In audiotapes released by the Transportation Department, the unnamed captain of the aircraft can be heard pleading with an airline dispatcher to find a way to get the passengers off the plane. \"We're stuck here with no lavs, no nothing -- no food,\" he says. \"And they won't let them get off because the terminal is closed.\" Later, the dispatcher tells the captain that he has spoken to the commuter airline's representative and that \"she says there is nothing she can do to help us out. She's not going to let them off the plane.\" \"That's ridiculous,\" the captain responds. LaHood, who called the incident a \"nightmare,\" said federal regulations allow passengers to get off of a plane, enter an airport and reboard without being screened by safety personnel as long as they remain in a secure part of the terminal. Mesaba said Friday that its employees tried to help. \"Mesaba respectfully disagrees with the DOT's preliminary findings as they are incongruent with our initial internal review of the incident,\" CEO John Spanjers said in a written statement. \"Because Continental Express Flight 2816 diverted to an airport where they have no ground handling service, Mesaba offered assistance as a courtesy during this delay. \"While the investigation is ongoing, Mesaba is fully cooperating with the Department of Transportation and looks forward to the final report.\" Mesaba is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. Delta CEO Richard Anderson said the airline is working with Mesaba, Continental and the Department of Transportation to help determine exactly what happened. In the department's statement, LaHood said that the Continental crew was not at fault for the passengers being stuck. \"In fact, the flight crew repeatedly tried to get permission to deplane the passengers at the airport or obtain a bus for them,\" he said. Department of Transportation investigators have interviewed passengers, the flight crew, airport workers and others during an investigation expected to be completed in the next few weeks. The department \"is considering the appropriate action to take against Mesaba,\" according to the statement. The investigation did show that while the crew of the flight, operated by carrier ExpressJet, did all it could, higher-level officials should have become involved in the effort. The Aviation Enforcement Office has proposed regulations requiring airlines to have plans for how to handle lengthy tarmac delays.","highlights":"Continental passengers were stuck on airplane nearly six hours .\nSecretary LaHood calls incident a \"nightmare,\" says crew did all it could .\nRegional airline Mesaba was only one that could have helped, feds say .\nMesaba says it disagrees with feds' findings, offered to help .","id":"dfe8a04ac131f5bf1aaae7796cc83499d33b0a7e"} -{"article":"HERMOSILLO, Mexico (CNN) -- Parents in northern Mexico on Sunday began to bury the children who died in a horrific day care fire as Mexican authorities raised the death toll from the blaze to 41. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns her 2-year-old daughter, Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla on Sunday. A large crowd of mourners attended a funeral for six of the victims Sunday afternoon in Hermosillo, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the U.S. border. The cause of Friday's fire at ABC Day Care wasn't known, but investigators concluded that the fire didn't start inside the building, said Eduardo Bours, the governor of Sonora state. Neighbors described parents arriving at the day care center completely desperate on Friday, seeing it engulfed in flames and knowing there was no way to get the children out. The building had two doors, one of which was padlocked shut, and windows were too high for the children to reach, officials said. Some parents rammed their vehicles into the building to try to free the trapped children, witnesses told CNN. Watch parents gather at site of fire \u00bb . \"When we went out and ran towards the nursery, teachers already had many children outside, those who could walk properly,\" said one man at the scene, who did not give his name. \"A pickup truck broke down the walls. The dad of one of the kids broke down one of the walls with his car driving in reverse, and that helped us a bit.\" Others said they waited for hours for news of their children. Watch a town in deep shock \u00bb . \"They didn't tell us anything, nothing, until like 6 p.m.,\" said Ofelia Vasquez, whose 4-year-old son Herman was in the building. She said she eventually was told he was at Chavez Hospital. \"We went there and we saw that he was badly burned, 75 percent of his body was burned,\" she said. Herman Vasquez died after surgery, his mother said. As of Sunday afternoon, 26 children remained hospitalized, 12 of them in critical condition, Sonoran authorities said. Another 10 children had been transported to other hospitals: eight to Guadalajara, one to Ciudad, Obregon, and two to Sacramento, California. A team of 29 medical experts in Hermosillo was deciding if any more victims would be moved to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, or elsewhere. In addition, six adults were injured, Sonora spokesman Daniel Duran said. \"Without a doubt this is the worst disaster we've had,\" Bours told CNN. President Felipe Calderon traveled to Hermosillo on Saturday. He arrived with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont and Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova to get firsthand updates from doctors and investigators, the state news agency Notimex reported. Calderon ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate the blaze. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation and not burns, Bours said. But the fire was serious enough for the roof to collapse, he added. At the time of the blaze, 142 children were inside the ABC Day Care. The day care is for children ages 2 to 4, but Bours confirmed that children even younger were among the victims. All the children at the center had been accounted for by Saturday evening, Bours said. A severely burned 3-year-old girl arrived Saturday at the Sacramento hospital -- where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty -- and was in critical condition, according to Dr. Tina Palmieri, assistant chief of the burn unit. The child was burned over 80 percent of her body, the doctor told reporters. She said the hospital normally can save just over half of the children with burns that severe. In Hermosillo, a large crowd gathered outside of the emergency entrance of the city's general hospital and many people consoled each other, video from the scene showed. \"They told me that this happened in a matter of five minutes,\" Hermosillo Mayor Ernesto Gandara told reporters after surveying the scene.","highlights":"NEW: Funerals for children killed in Mexican day care center fire begin .\nNeighbors describe panic, horror as parents try to rescue kids from burning building .\nOne door was padlocked shut and children couldn't get to high windows, officials say .\nAt least 41 children die in fire; dozens more in hospitals in Mexico and U.S.","id":"b2782dc3afddcc5fa88534e538eee97f2e6a3f3b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A small plane crashed Friday near an Ohio-area high school during a football scrimmage. Spectators at a high school football scrimmage watch as a plane goes down Friday in Ohio. Spectators at a practice game at Harrison High School watched from the bleachers as the plane went down at 8:08 p.m. ET, said police officer Jennifer Coyle, who witnessed the incident. Two people on the plane died at the crash scene, authorities said. According to CNN affiliate WLWT, witnesses said the plane was heading toward the football field when it suddenly dropped, crashing in a gravel pit near the school. \"It looked like he was going straight for the boys on the field, but then just did a straight nosedive,\" Mindy Brinson told WLWT. It is not yet known what caused the plane to crash. Harrison is in the southwest corner of Ohio. CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"Plane crashes near football scrimmage at Ohio high school .\nWitness says plane was headed toward field when it did a sudden nosedive .\nTwo people on board died in the crash, authorities say .","id":"16ba247491e2da5d760f36f8f8e6f54dc15514aa"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Automated messages sent from Air France Flight 447 just before it crashed Monday indicate the plane's systems were providing contradictory information about its airspeed, the jet's manufacturer said on Friday. Friends and relatives of the 228 people aboard Air France Flight 447 attend a memorial service Thursday in Brazil. That suggests the pilots may have been flying too fast or too slow through the violent weather they encountered before the crash, officials said. In addition, investigators have said the plane's autopilot disengaged, cabin pressure was lost and there was an electrical failure before the disaster. Airbus confirmed on Friday that in the wake of the crash it sent a Telex to operators of all Airbus models reminding them what to do when speed indicators give conflicting readings. The spokesman said the notice does not mean there is any major flaw in the aircraft, but is simply a reminder to pilots about what to do in the cockpit if they get conflicting information about air speed. Message transmissions from the aircraft in the final moments before it crashed Monday into the Atlantic Ocean show there was an \"indicated inconsistency in measured air speeds,\" Airbus said. The company did not elaborate. Experts said that could mean the pilot's and co-pilots' sensors were showing different speeds. \"If they're malfunctioning, it can give a false read that can be misinterpreted in the cockpit, and a disaster can follow,\" said Peter Goeltz, the former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. While the pilots themselves sent no distress calls, the aircraft's computer system relayed about four minutes of automated messages indicating a loss of cabin pressure and an electrical failure, according to investigators. Airbus said it sent the Telex Thursday night after the action was recommended by the French investigating agency, which plans to hold a news conference Saturday morning in Paris, France. Watch as experts question whether recovery is possible \u00bb . Meanwhile, the hunt for debris continued Friday, a day after a Brazilian air force official said debris plucked from the ocean was not from the Air France jet. A U.S Navy P-3 temporarily based in Brazil has flown three missions -- on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday -- in assisting the Brazilian government search for debris, but found nothing connected to the disaster, U.S. Southern Command spokesman Maj. Darryl Wright said. Earlier Friday, Goeltz said the search for Flight 447's voice and data recorders is becoming more difficult as ocean currents disperse debris from the crash site. \"The clock's ticking\" in the search for the plane's recorders, he said. \"The batteries on these locator devices attached to the black boxes have a limited life span -- just 30 days,\" he said. \"The longer time goes on, the further away from the actual crash site the debris floats.\" All 228 passengers and crew aboard the Airbus 330 are presumed to have died when the plane disappeared northeast of the Fernando de Noronha Islands, an archipelago 355 kilometers (220 miles) off the northeast coast of Brazil. The flight originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was en route to Paris. Map of Flight 447's flight path \u00bb . While the ocean depth in the area where the plane is thought to have crashed presents a challenge, the challenge may not be insurmountable, Goeltz said. \"We've recovered boxes as deep as 6- or 7,000 feet,\" he said. \"We've recovered debris from as much as 10,000 feet.\" Authorities have said the depth of the water in the area ranges from 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) to 7,500 meters (24,600 feet). Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck of the French Ministry of Defense said Friday that a French research vessel was expected to arrive this weekend in the search area carrying a deep-diving submersible. The submersible would try to pinpoint the recorders, but must rely on another vessel to retrieve them, he said. The submarine helped recover artifacts from the Titanic disaster. Meanwhile, France's transportation minister warned that \"extreme prudence\" should be used in releasing information about why the plane crashed. It is possible the plane experienced a total electrical failure, officials have said. Goeltz said it is possible the jet's speed indicator was faulty. \"That could really be disastrous and it's happened before,\" he said, speaking generally. If it malfunctions, \"it can give a false read into the cockpit that can be misinterpreted,\" he said. Investigators also said the autopilot system may have failed. A Spanish pilot reported seeing an \"intense flash\" near where the plane is believed to have crashed, the Spanish carrier Air Comet said on Thursday. The co-pilot and a passenger on the flight from Lima, Peru, to Lisbon, Portugal, also said they saw a light. Air Comet said the pilot's report has been sent to Air France, Airbus and the Spanish civil aviation authority. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this story.","highlights":"French officials: Sub could find recorders; other vessel needed for their retrieval .\nAirbus: Automated messages indicate contradictory info provided on airspeeds .\nSuch a problem \"could really be disastrous,\" ex-U.S. aviation safety official says .\nExpert: Finding where recorders lie on seabed harder as debris scattered .","id":"c5da7c73dd41dfd392d72d58ae3e8462e2b2c252"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Some lucky Michael Jackson fans got the e-mails they were hoping for Sunday, saying they've won two free tickets to Tuesday's memorial service. Some memorial tickets went out to \"friends and family\" on Sunday. \"OMG OMG OMG OMG i got tickets to the michael jackson memorial service!!!\" Deka Motanya wrote Sunday afternoon in a Twitter message. The 8,750 fans chosen were summoned to Dodger Stadium Monday to pick up their tickets and have a wristband placed on their arms to prevent them from reselling them. The Michael Jackson memorial, set for 10 a.m. (1 p.m. ET) Tuesday in the Staples Center arena, is expected to be a star-studded and emotional tribute to the entertainer, who died June 25. Twitter.com served as a seismograph Sunday as fans anxiously watched their inboxes for an e-mail from AEG Live, the memorial organizer and Staples Center owner. More than five hours after the notifications were to be sent, none had been received. \"Come on and let me know, Staples ... did I win tickets to Michael Jackson's memorial?\" read one tweet posted at 3 p.m., four hours after the e-mails were supposed to start flowing. One woman wrote she \"is checking her e-mail anxiously to see if she got tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial at the Staples Center.\" Just before 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET), Twitter erupted with messages of excitement: . \"I won the Michael Jackson tickets for Tuesday!!!! Heading to LA tmrw!!!!\" read one tweet that linked to a photo of an iPhone screen with the e-mail. Watch reporters prepare for Tuesday's service \u00bb . \"Apparently my dad's friend who hates Michael Jackson, may have won tickets tu the memorial service... Step-mom's freaking out..!\" Other messages came from disappointed fans who did not get the e-mails: . \"I guess i didnt make the drawing to win tickets to Michael Jackson Memorial!!! go figure, I'm sadden and hurt :-(\" The odds of winning the tickets were long -- just one of every 182 were chosen. Organizers used a computer to choose 8,750 names from 1.6 million who registered online since Friday. Motanya, 27, works in a doctor's office in San Francisco, California. She scrambled Sunday night to line up plane tickets so she and her boyfriend could fly to Los Angeles Monday to claim her tickets. \"Oh yeah, I'm going,\" she told CNN. \"I'm e-mailing my boss saying I've got to leave early because I'm going to L.A.\" Each winner gets two tickets, bringing the number awarded in the lottery to 17,500. Just 11,000 of those are for seats inside the Staples Center, while the other 6,500 are for viewing the memorial telecast across the street at the Nokia Theater. iReport.com: \"Surreal journey\" to get tickets . Winner must meet other requirements \"in order to avoid the reselling of tickets,\" according to a news release from the Jackson family. The notification gives them a secret code and instructions to appear at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to claim their tickets. Along with their tickets, they will get the wristbands \"one of which will be placed on their wrist at that time,\" the family statement said. \"Fans attending the memorial service must have both a valid ticket AND a wristband,\" the Jackson family statement said. \"Wristbands that have been ripped, taped or otherwise mutilated will be void.\" The Jackson family set aside 9,000 Staples Center seats to give out to people they choose, according to organizers. Some people were seen picking up those \"friends and family\" tickets at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Two wristbands, one blue and one gold, were given out with each ticket. Ticketholders were instructed that they must wear the wristbands to validate their tickets. Police have said no one will be allowed near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles without tickets or media credentials.","highlights":"Just before 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET), Twitter erupted with messages of excitement .\nEach winner gets two tickets, bringing the number awarded in the lottery to 17,500 .\nThe odds of winning the tickets were long -- just one of every 182 were chosen .\nPolice: No one will be allowed near memorial without tickets or media credentials .","id":"274c01c028f6cb65485d26982ebc3716d4424c2f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Vietnam veteran and Bronze Star recipient who volunteered to return to the Army and serve in Afghanistan became the oldest U.S. service member to die in combat there, the U.S. military announced Friday. First Sgt. Jose San Nicolas Crisostomo was killed by a roadside bomb in Kabul on Tuesday while riding in an armored Humvee. His body was flown to the United States early Thursday morning. Crisostomo of Spanaway, Washington, was 59. He would have turned 60 later this month, according to KING television in Seattle, Washington. He was one of a very few service members who served in Vietnam and in current U.S. military operations, his record shows. He twice received the Bronze Star, which is awarded to U.S. troops for combat valor. Crisostomo also received the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat, according to his records. It was not clear from his official records if he received the medals for combat in Vietnam or Afghanistan. His records also indicate he received numerous other commendations. He also served during the first Gulf War in 1991 and received the Kuwait Liberation Medal. He jointed the Army in 1969 and retired in 1993, then volunteered to serve again in 2008. According to his records, his position in the Army was automated logistical specialist, but it was unclear in what capacity he was serving while in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, a 60-year-old soldier was killed in Iraq, becoming the oldest U.S. service member killed in either the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan.","highlights":"First Sgt. Jose San Nicolas Crisostomo killed by a roadside bomb in Kabul .\nHe served in Vietnam, retired, rejoined Army in '08 to serve in Afghanistan .\nCrisostomo of Spanaway, Washington, was Bronze Star, Purple Heart recipient .","id":"66a1a28161dfdb066be6d2ddd319c6f42b0bdc29"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some of the strongest support for health care cooperatives' place in the national effort to reform the nation's health care system comes from those who experience a co-op's care every day: doctors and patients. Co-op patient Norman Nistler says he didn't even realize he was a part of a health care co-op. Co-ops are non-profit organizations, so any money that is earned goes back to be used on patients and other costs. Patients also elect a governing board, which is in stark contrast to operations under private health insurance plan. Proponents point to two co-ops as evidence they are an alternative in the health care reform debate: HealthPartners in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington. HealthPartners has been in business for half a century and served more than a million people in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some decades-long members said they didn't know they were with a co-op. \"I watch a lot of it on television now. There's a lot of talking about co-ops, but I didn't realize this was a co-op,\" said patient Norman Nistler. The co-op was able to save millions, officials note, by switching to generic drugs and cutting tobacco use among its members by double the Minnesota state average because doctors help patients to quit. Darla Andrews, a patient at the co-op, said she and her doctor have easy access to her records. \"It's all digital, so it works out good for me. It's more convenient.\" Dr. Eric Seaver, who works at Group Health. \"We can communicate with patients through secure e-mail for routine questions or concerns that in the private world physicians often aren't able or won't do because there's just no motivation to do that. There's no reimbursement. ... Here with Group Health's model, it's all about providing patients the care that they need when they need it in a form that works best for them.\" Group Health lists Microsoft and Starbucks as organizations that use its system. \"I have great contact with the doctors,\" said Group Health member Dave Jacobs. \"I'm treated like a person, not a number.\" \"My care has been absolutely exceptional. And that's because I believe I'm going to a private medical facility, dealing with doctors one-on-one and not a bureaucrat,\" he said. \"Part of the great value in that structure is that our patients are actively engaged, not just in the organization and governance but actively engaged in finding ways to engage themselves in their care itself,\" said Scott Armstrong, president and CEO of Group Health Cooperative. \"We all know that an engaged patient leads to a better health outcome. So much of health care is actually the responsibility of us as individuals.\" Aaron Katz, of the University of Washington Health Services, says the group health model could be viable nationally, but only if there are tougher restrictions on insurance companies. The reason co-ops are successful, he says, is because they employ their own doctors, specialists, pharmacies and can reduce the amount of tests and procedures that drive up costs. Seaver says his co-op emphasizes evidence-based medicine and making decisions in patient care based upon \"the best evidence that we have available for what's effective and what is ineffective.\" \"I think what we're finding in this model is doing the right thing for the patient is the best thing not just for the patient but also for the system as a whole,\" he said. \"I feel like I'm able to practice medicine the way I had envisioned back in medical school.\" Working at Group Health \"has been a breath of fresh air for my career,\" he said. CNN's Dana Bash, Ed Hornick, Lesa Jansen, Chris Welch and Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.","highlights":"Co-ops are non-profit organizations where patients elect a governing board .\nHealthPartners and Group Health Cooperative are often cited as successful plans .\nPatient: \"I'm treated like a person, not a number\"\nDoctor says co-ops let him connect with patients using e-mail .","id":"3f9e51745ee76baa3a1f0dbfe261b301e88e7764"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Described as \"an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane,\" Hurricane Bill was churning closer to the Atlantic island of Bermuda on Wednesday, forecasters said. Most forecast maps show Hurricane Bill passing to the west of Bermuda. Although Bill is not expected to make a direct hit on the island, forecasters cautioned that the storm is large and will generate large swells on Bermuda as well as the islands of the northeast Caribbean Sea over the next day or two. Swells may also affect the eastern United States on Friday and Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said. CNN meteorologists said Bill could cause cause dangerous rip tides and some coastal flooding in the northeast United States and could move very close to or make landfall in Newfoundland, Canada, early next week. In addition, Bill may strengthen further over the next couple of days, forecasters said. As of 5 p.m. ET, Bill's center was about 335 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands and about 970 miles south-southeast of Bermuda, the hurricane center said. \"It's a little too early to evaluate what kind of direct impact Bill may have,\" said Jack Bevin, a senior hurricane specialist. \"Most of the computer guidance has the storm passing between Bermuda and the U.S. coastline, then turning northeastward.\" Other models show Bill turning more sharply out to sea and not affecting any areas, he said. Bill's maximum sustained winds were at 135 mph Wednesday afternoon. It was moving northwest at near 20 mph and was expected to continue that motion over the next day or so, turning north-northwest by late Friday. Five-day forecast maps show Bill passing to the west of Bermuda before turning to the northwest. \"Bill is a large tropical cyclone,\" the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 85 miles from its center, with tropical storm-force winds extending up to 230 miles out. CNN Radio's Andrew Spencer and Lee Garen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Storm is not expected to make a direct hit on Bermuda .\nBut island, eastern United States could see large swells .\nCategory 4 hurricane's maximum sustained winds are at 135 mph .","id":"d9c341f12c524a0803582bc2948cd9b3fed2f98a"} -{"article":"Hamid Dabashi is the author of \"Iran: A People Interrupted.\" He is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. His Web site is http:\/\/www.hamiddabashi.com\/. Hamid Dabashi says allegations of rape and torture are testing Iran's Islamic Republic as never before. (CNN) -- Troubling news of kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder is flooding out of Iran. Neda Aqa Soltan was murdered point-blank in the streets of Tehran for the whole world to see; while Sohrab Arabi was killed far from any global attention and his body given to his mother quietly to bury, as was the tortured body of Mohsen Ruholamini. These names have assumed symbolic significance for many more innocent young men and women murdered by the custodians of the Islamic Republic with a wanton disregard for the lives and liberties of its own citizens. Not just murder, but the rape of young men and women also is on the shameless roster of the Islamic Republic. After years of sporadic charges and troubling rumors, finally a courageous cleric has put a stamp of public recognition on atrocious practices in the theocratic state. Mehdi Karrubi -- one of the revolutionary founders of the Islamic Republic, a high-ranking cleric, a presidential candidate, a former speaker of the house and now a widely popular political activist -- has published a letter, addressing it to the former president and current head of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He accuses the security officers of the Islamic Republic of repeatedly and violently raping young women and men while they are in custody. Since the publication of this letter, a massive outpouring of testimony and reports has come out, corroborating Karrubi's charges that rapes of young women and men are a widespread, common practice in the Islamic Republic. These are not light charges for any state, for any republic, let alone for an Islamic Republic. These charges are no longer brought by expatriate, and at times discredited, opposition. It is the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic, with impeccable revolutionary credentials, who are bringing these charges, as others are coming out and corroborating them in excruciating detail. The Islamic Republic has never faced such a deep crisis of legitimacy in its turbulent 30-year history. As widely evident, it is not just the regime's claim to a \"republic\" that is in question and in jeopardy, but, perhaps far more seriously, it is its claim to Islam that has troubling consequences for more than 1.3 billion Muslims around the world. People in the streets of Tehran are chanting, paraphrasing a famous slogan of the 1979 revolution, \"Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic,\" pointedly replacing \"Iranian\" for \"Islamic.\" Though this a perfectly legitimate demand, given the criminal record of the Islamic Republic, by no means is this sentiment a common denominator of the growing opposition to the regime. To the degree that, at least in part, he represents this uprising, Mir Hossein Moussavi, as a pious and practicing Muslim, continues to insist that he wishes to restore the ideals and aspirations of the Islamic revolution within the constitution of the state. Never have the two opposing ideas of an \"Islamic Republic,\" and Muslims living in a democratic republic seemed so at odds with each other. The 30-year experience of the Islamic Republic shows fundamental flaws in defining a state apparatus in the exclusive terms of a militantly legalistic Islam, while at the same time Iranians, the overwhelming majority of them Shiite Muslims, have repeatedly demonstrated, under this regime, they are perfectly capable of democratic behavior. Not just as immigrants in the E.U. nations and the U.S., but as citizens in Iran, millions of Muslims have shown they are integral to the democratic institutions embedded in the notion of a nation-state. What is in question is the viability of an Islamic republic -- or for that matter, a Jewish state, a Christian empire, a Hindu fundamentalist government -- or any state or movement that is defined not by the democratic apparatus of citizenry, but by exclusionary membership in a world religion. As in the rest of the Muslim world, Islam is integral to Iranian society. But not exclusively so. Over the last 30 years, a radically legalistic interpretation of a cosmopolitan faith has been force-fed into a multifaceted political culture -- and today all the world can see the violent convulsion of the system. There has been much talk of the need for an Islamic \"reformation\" over the last few years. But what Islam needs is not a Christian-style Reformation. What Islam needs is a restoration of its historically cosmopolitan character in which Muslims and non-Muslims live in peace and prosperity, and which they now need to retrieve in order to live in peace and prosperity in a world that is not entirely Muslim. By virtue of living in a democracy, and having endured indignities of rampant Islamophobia in their own country, American Muslims have a historic role to play, by way of sending a delegation to Iran, connecting to this grassroots democratic movement in a Muslim nation, and helping it restore its cosmopolitan character in pursuit of enduring democratic institutions. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hamid Dabashi.","highlights":"Hamid Dabashi: Rape and torture allegations being made in Iran .\nHe says a prominent cleric and activist has accused security forces of wrongdoing .\nThe charges threaten the Islamic Republic's standing within the faith, he says .\nDabashi: Iran needs to restore notion of Muslims and non-Muslims living in peace .","id":"ff24e493515846fd82982cc18e8c4a0c7802a842"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Uwe Reinhardt is James Madison professor of political economy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. From 1986 to 1995 he served as a commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Committee, established in 1986 by Congress to advise it on issues related to the payment of physicians. Uwe Reinhardt says health costs are rising at unsustainable pace, gobbling up middle-class incomes. (CNN) -- Watching the angry outbursts at town hall meetings on health reform and the continuing public ambivalence about current efforts to reform our health system almost makes me wish that the reform effort fails. Perhaps Americans need to be taught a basic lesson on the economics of employment-based health insurance before they will feel as smugly secure with it as they do now and before they will stop nitpicking health-reform efforts to death over this or that detail. And America's currently insured middle class will be increasingly desperate if health reform fails. Millions more such families will see their take-home pay shrink. Millions will lose their employment-based insurance, especially in medium and small-sized firms. And millions will find themselves inexorably priced out of health care as we know it. Milliman Inc., an employee benefits consulting firm, publishes annually its Milliman Medical Index on the total health spending by or for a typical American family of four with private health insurance. The index totals the family's out-of-pocket spending for health care plus the contribution employers and employees make to that family's job-related health insurance coverage. The Milliman Medical Index stood at $8,414 in 2001. It had risen to $16,700 by 2009. It is likely to rise to $18,000 by next year. That is more than a doubling of costs in the span of a decade! Since 2005, the index has grown at an average annual compound rate of 8.4 percent. Suppose we make it 8 percent for the coming decade. Then today's $16,700 will have grown to slightly over $36,000 by 2019. Economists are convinced that this $36,000 would come virtually all out of the financial hides of employees, even if the employer pretended to be paying, say, 80 percent of the employment-based health insurance premiums. In the succinct words of the late United Automobile Worker Union leader Douglas Fraser: . \"Before you start weeping for the auto companies and all they pay for medical insurance, let me tell you how the system works. All company bargainers worth their salt keep their eye on the total labor unit cost, and when they pay an admittedly horrendous amount for health care, that's money that can't be spent for higher [cash] wages or higher pensions or other fringe benefits. So we directly, the union and its members, feel the costs of the health care system.\" (\"A National Health Policy Debate,\" Dartmouth Medical School Alumni Magazine, Summer 1989: 30) Unfortunately, very few rank-and-file workers appreciate this fact. Aside from their still modest out-of-pocket payments and contributions to employment-based insurance premiums, most employees seem sincerely to believe that the bulk of their family's health care is basically paid for by \"the company,\" which is why so few members of the middle class have ever been much interested in controlling health spending in this country. The price for that indifference will be high. If efforts at better cost containment fail once again, and health care costs rise to $36,000 on average for a typical American family of four under age 65 -- as almost surely it would -- that $36,000 will be borne entirely by the family. That family's disposable income would be much higher if the growth of future health spending was better controlled. And, as noted, many smaller firms will stop altogether providing job-based health insurance. It would be a major problem for families with an income of less than $100,000 a year. In 2007, only about 25 percent of American families had a money income of $100,000 or more. Close to 60 percent had family incomes of less than $75,000. Here it must be remembered that the wages and salaries of the solid American middle class have been relatively stagnant in recent years and are likely to remain so for the next decade. Unemployment is not likely to fall significantly soon, regardless of what stock prices do on Wall Street. Indeed, often stock prices rise as firms lay off workers to drive up profits through leaner payrolls. This prospect -- relatively stagnant family incomes combined with family health-care costs that double every decade -- is what America's middle class should contemplate as it thinks about the imperative of health reform. It is a pity that this central issue seems to have been shoved aside by mendacious distortions from Sarah Palin, Betsy McCaughey, Rush Limbaugh and other extremist commentators seeking to frighten Americans with their prattle about \"death panels\" and \"pulling plugs on granny\" that no bill before Congress even remotely envisions. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Uwe Reinhardt.","highlights":"Uwe Reinhardt: Consider what will happen if health reform fails .\nHe says health costs have already doubled in a decade .\nReinhardt says dollars spent on health care come out of wages for middle class .","id":"b99c72f06cfb421de69c6d69c4b2b8edc6710dd1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One person died and six were injured when a cargo train derailed, causing an explosion and massive fire in Illinois, a fire chief said Saturday. A train carrying chemicals derailed and burned for hours, forcing the evacuation of about 600 homes . Crews were still fighting the blaze at midday, but expected to have it fully contained in the afternoon, said Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten. \"It's under control and we're taking every precaution not to harm firefighters or residents,\" Bergsten said, adding that federal and state environmental officials were on scene monitoring air and soil samples. The fatality was a woman, said Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia. The cause of death had not been determined because Fiduccia was unable to get close enough to examine the body. Bergsten said six people were injured, and all train workers were accounted for. The train was carrying chemicals that burned for hours, forcing the evacuation of about 600 homes in the town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, authorities said. Officers were called to the scene near Rockford about 8:30 p.m. Friday, a city police spokeswoman said. The derailment involved automobiles, but it was unclear whether they were on the tracks, she said. Three motorists who were stopped at a train crossing were burned, one severely, Bergsten said. One of the victims, who tried to run from the blaze, suffered second-degree burns on his hand while trying to shield his neck from flames, according to Bergsten. At least 14 cars of the 114-car train caught fire after the derailment, officials said. The rest of the Canadian National Railway train -- including 70 cars carrying ethanol, a colorless, highly flammable liquid -- was disconnected and moved away from the blaze, Bergsten said. CNN's Greg Morrison and Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Woman dead after train derails, erupts into flames in Rockford, Illinois .\nSeveral cars of the train were carrying ethanol, authorities say .\nExplosion forced evacuation of nearly 600 homes .","id":"1a413ac9d0bbb5e1ae178f6c8df0588a5c75c961"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They were taken before Marilyn Monroe became branded as the voluptuous blonde who oozed sex appeal in dozens of Hollywood films. A 24-year-old Marilyn Monroe poses for Life magazine in August 1950. They were taken before rumors of an affair with President John F. Kennedy swirled and her mental breakdowns became public. They were taken before the beautiful actress's mysterious overdose that resulted in her death at the age of 36. In a collection discovered by Life.com last month, unpublished photographs of Monroe reveal a softer, more innocent 24-year-old budding starlet in a more peaceful time, before her fame peaked. Her flawless face bears a natural look with minimal makeup, unusual for the star, who was often glamorized in photo shoots with lipstick, designer dresses and expensive jewelry. Monday would have been Monroe's 83rd birthday. In one photo, the young Monroe lies in bliss, reading on a park bench, which editors at Life.com believe was shot at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. In another, her face is serene as she is perched over a bridge barefoot. The shoot, which dates to 1950, was conducted by Life photographer Ed Clark. It's a side of Monroe that the American public has rarely seen. \"She hasn't really exploded as a star, yet she was on the brink of something big,\" says Dawnie Walton, deputy editor at Life.com, a Web site harboring more than 7 million Life magazine photographs. The site was launched in March. \"I was amazed looking at her face. Although she looks very innocent, there is something very ... sexy.\" Last month, Walton stumbled upon the rare photographs while combing through the company's digital photo archives. Apparently, no one at Life.com even knew they were ever taken. Upon investigating the photos, Walton says, she found there were few notes left on the negatives. She says the photos were probably taken for a cover shoot that was never used. Monroe appeared on her first Life magazine cover in 1952. See some of the previously unpublished photos of Monroe \u00bb . \"It just got lost and stowed away,\" Walton said. \"It was just ... somewhere in a warehouse in New Jersey.\" At the time the photos were shot, Monroe had her first small breakout role as a mistress in \"The Asphalt Jungle.\" The star was better known as a model at the time, though she'd had a handful of cameos in films. Photographer Ed Clark told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune a friend from 20th Century Fox alerted him that the studio had just signed \"a hot tomato.\" \"She was unknown then, so I was able to spend a lot of time shooting her,\" Clark said. \"We'd go out to Griffith Park and she'd read poetry. I sent several rolls to Life in New York, but they wired back, 'Who the hell is Marilyn Monroe?' \" Photographs later in the 1950s and early 1960s would display a much more confident and sexual Monroe -- images that would become iconic in popular culture. There is the famous photograph of a busty Monroe in a white halter dress, standing with her skirt blowing up in 1955 for her role in \"The Seven Year Itch.\" In 1962, American photographer Bert Stern shot a tipsy, sometimes nude Monroe in a series of delicate shots that would be known as \"The Last Sitting.\" Monroe died about six weeks later, on August 5, 1962. Life.com staff members say there are 15 million photographs in the Life archive dating back to the late 1850s, even before Life officially began publishing in 1936. Two years ago, the publication began slowly transferring the photographs into a digital archive. From time to time, unpublished photographs will be found that the company doesn't know existed. Other times, the photographs may have been taken but never selected to be used for publication. Last March, to commemorate the 11th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's death, Life.com released a series of unpublished photographs of the singer. In April, Life.com released newly recovered, never-before-seen photographs of Martin Luther King Jr. taken by a Life photographer on the day King was assassinated at a Memphis, Tennessee, hotel in 1968.","highlights":"Unpublished photos of Monroe shot by a Life photographer surfaced in May .\nThe photos, taken in Los Angeles, California, show a more innocent Monroe .\nLife.com has over 7 million images, and lost images are occasionally recovered .\nThe Monroe pictures were \"in a warehouse in New Jersey\"","id":"1f6bf6ab0877db21ce8d5bae97becb9d9a5b5371"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If an e-mail popped up in your inbox promising a house for $100, you'd expect to see it sent from a guy in Nigeria asking you to wire him several thousand dollars first. Zeb Smith lies on his front lawn and spends a quiet afternoon with his neighbors. But this depressed housing market dream is real. And Detroit, Michigan, artist Jon Brumit and his wife, Sarah, are living it. The couple never counted on owning a home. \"It's not that we have a little money,\" Jon Brumit said, laughing. \"I'm saying we have no money.\" But the couple began entertaining the idea of a permanent nest when their friends Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert, also artists, started taking advantage of foreclosures in the city, where the average home price dipped to $11,533 in April, according to the Detroit Association of Realtors. Dragging down the average are homes that are long abandoned or foreclosed on that are selling for pennies on the dollar. Detroit already had the lowest market value houses in Michigan before the latest rounds of job losses at GM and other huge employers, market analysts say. \"Those artists are doing a good thing; they are at least helping to stabilize neighborhoods that would be all but lost,\" said Mike Shedlock, an investment adviser who blogs frequently about Detroit's economy. For less than a few thousand dollars, Cope and Reichert snapped up a dilapidated bungalow in a north Detroit neighborhood called \"BanglaTown,\" for its unexpected mix of Bangladeshis, African-Americans, Polish and Ukrainians and the occasional shady character. Scrappers had cleaned the house to the bone. The copper had been stolen; the electrical wiring was stripped. But no matter. Here was a chance for Cope and Reichert, who run a popular Detroit art store, to rehabilitate the 1920s brick house into a bastion of energy savings, with solar panels, LED lights, recycled wood and high-end insulated windows. They're installing a security system that exemplifies elegant efficiency with hurricane-proof windows and steel doors replacing burglar bars. They are also experimenting with running their air-conditioning on a car battery. The project became known as the Power House. Cope and Reichert wanted to create a central place to power homes nearby and, in turn, revive a neighborhood's sense of community. The trick was getting their friends not only to cheer the concept but invest in it by moving next door. \"It was much easier than we thought it might be,\" Cope said. \"We told everyone that Detroit is an interesting city to work in as an artist, and the neighborhood is diverse. But, really, it came down to money.\" \"I kept telling Mitch, 'Wow those are an awesome, ridiculously good deals but if you find anything that's less, let me know,\" Brumit said. \"Like, if something comes along for next to nothing, cool.\" A few weeks later, Cope e-mailed Brumit a photo of an abandoned home on his block. Its windows were boarded up and plywood was nailed across the front door. The huge hole in the roof was courtesy of the fire department. A neighbor said the house had been set on fire -- twice. Pricetag: $100. Brumit called a real estate agent with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who confirmed that bids on the foreclosed property started at $95 for the property, $5 for the house. There were no back taxes -- no one seemed to be sure who once owned the house, it had been empty for so long, Brumit said. Cope, also a designer and builder, and an inspector did a walk-through. \"Inspection was fine and Mitch told me the foundation was good,\" Brumit said. \"He just said, 'If you didn't mind scraping some peeling paint, doing some surface treatments, putting in new utilities, windows and repairing the roof ... this could be pretty interesting.'\" Now, when he's not hauling loads of rubble away or knocking out walls to create a single, open studio space, Brumit's searching Craigslist for a furnace. In exchange for designing the business Web site of a local barn recycler, he's getting materials to turn that hole in his roof into a skylight. \"I saw it as a project,\" the artist said. \"I'm a builder. I've been building skateboards since I was 12.\" Skateboards are one thing. Rebuilding homes where the plumbing has been ripped out or the cabinets destroyed in a fit by an upset foreclosed homeowner is another. Michigan housing authorities acknowledge that there's little incentive for people who aren't quite as handy as Brumit. In two weeks, the state will begin offering $25,000 to anyone who buys a home, as long as they pay 1 percent of the total cost and live in it. Landlords or speculators aren't eligible. Part of a $263 million grant given to Michigan and other states under 2008's Housing and Economic Recovery Act, the funds are intended to help buyers bring trashed properties up to code, according to Mary Townley, a director with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. She and other housing officials CNN spoke with said Michigan's economy has some extremely frustrating woes. A report from the nonprofit think tank Brookings Institution said Detroit had the lowest performing economy out of 100 U.S. cities it analyzed -- scoring the worst in unemployment and average wages, the highest foreclosure rates and the lowest market value homes. The artists in BanglaTown are careful to say they are not looking to change a city. Their goal is simply to improve a neighborhood, one house at a time. New neighbors, freelance photographer Corine Vermeulen-Smith and her husband Zeb Smith, a designer, are always checking out www.freecycle.com, where a stainless steel kitchen sink can be bought for $65. The Smiths bought their 660-square-foot home for $549.99 from Cope and Reichert, who originally purchased the foreclosed home for $500. \"We knew the property, we knew it had been sitting there empty for at least a year, and it had been trashed,\" Vermeulen-Smith said. \"But we wanted to own a home.\" All the copper in their \"micro-home\" had been ripped out, as well as every electrical outlet, Vermeulen-Smith said. Trash had to be hauled out in several loads. \"You have to get over that fear that the house had that history, that you're going to be a victim of a crime or something,\" she said. \"Crime is everywhere. My husband and I have lived in the city for a long time; we know that people look out for each other here. We don't have that kind of fear.\" Careful not to entice thieves again, the Smiths replaced the copper with plastic. They are considering taking the home completely off the grid by installing a mini-wind turbine, but for now they are happy to put in the basics. A bathtub from Habitat for Humanity cost them $100. And Zeb Smith, who works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, brings home wood the museum would otherwise toss when installations close. \"This is, for us, very exciting to believe that we could totally reinvent a space,\" she said, \"and prove that having a home isn't about having money.\"","highlights":"Detroit artists buy a trashed, abandoned house for $100, fix it up .\nOther artists have bought cheap houses in the same neighborhood .\nThe Power House was the first home, meant to power the other houses nearby .","id":"101a7743432a007242b6d19ef52ff89eb02950e2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pop star Michael Jackson will avoid foreclosure on his Neverland Ranch property with a new loan, a Jackson insider told CNN Wednesday. Michael Jackson owes millions of dollars on his sprawling property in the Santa Ynez Valley in California. Documents show that Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California, is scheduled for a public auction on March 19 at Santa Barbara's downtown courthouse. But the Jackson source said that won't happen. \"Michael Jackson's ranch is not going to be auctioned off at the courthouse,\" the Jackson insider said. \"The financing is all being worked out.\" \"There are plenty of lenders willing to work with him. The real estate market is very bad right now and Jackson is being affected just like many other Americans,\" the source said. The Santa Barbara County Recorder's Web site lists a \"notice of trustees sale\" by Jackson and his property lenders, Financial Title Company, filed Monday. In California, title companies typically represent lenders in foreclosure cases. A notice of trustees sale cannot be posted earlier than 90 days after a notice of default is filed. That notice is not filed unless a loan is in substantial default, sometimes six months or more past due. A real estate source inside Santa Barbara County said the trustees filing is only the first step in a long process that could drag on for months. The real estate source said other options are available to Jackson, including selling the ranch directly to another party or making a payment on his $24.5 million Neverland debt that would satisfy the trustee. The recorder's Web site also reveals there was a release of lien on Jackson on February 4, showing he paid off all or part of delinquent taxes to the state of California. \"It seems unlikely that someone would pay off back taxes, only to let the ranch go up for auction a few weeks later,\" said the real estate source. Jackson has not lived at Neverland since June 2005, after a Santa Barbara County jury found him not guilty of child molestation charges. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"A public auction has been set for March 19, according to court documents .\nJackson owes $24.5 million on the property .\nJackson insider: \"The financing is all being worked out\"\nThe singer has not lived at Neverland Ranch since June 2005 .","id":"7412739b61589df82374c4f78d48190f1f2b4a75"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Watch more from Talk Asia's interview with Edison Chen in these online exclusive clips. From how his family reacted to the scandal, to what he feels he learnt from the whole experience, Chen gives his thoughts and opinions to CNN's Anjali Rao in Hong Kong.","highlights":"Exclusive online only extra footage from Talk Asia's Edison Chen interview .\nChen talks about how the scandal affected his family .\nGives his thoughts on what he thinks he has learnt from the experience .\nWatch the full Talk Asia interview with Edison Chen .","id":"bf7daa590b87b58da1722f0629daf41e2b9316bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A bit of music history was lost Friday morning when flames gutted the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia. The Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia, smolders after firefighters put out a morning blaze. The 19th-century building was a cornerstone in the alternative rock music scene that gave the world the B-52s, R.E.M. and the Indigo Girls, said Doc Eldridge, president of the local Chamber of Commerce. The theater, in downtown Athens near the University of Georgia campus, suffered heavy damage from the fire, which was discovered at 7 a.m., according to Athens-Clarke County government spokeswoman Sandy Turner. \"The facade is still there, but it's very bad,\" she said. \"From the big names to the no names, countless of musicians and groups have left their mark on the Athens music scene from the stage of the Georgia Theatre,\" Eldridge said. iReport: Photos of theater burning . Sheffy McArthur was a University of Georgia student when he and two friends converted the movie theater into a music venue in 1978. \"The B-52s paid us to play there, imagine that,\" McArthur said. Sea Level, a blues-jazz-rock group that grew from the remnants of the Allman Brothers Band, played the first show in the theater in January 1978, McArthur said. It became the place \"for alternative music, instead of cover-type stuff for real artists to play,\" he said. Wilmont Greene took over the theater five years ago and began renovations. R.E.M., which formed in Athens in 1980 and became one of the first popular alternative bands, played in the 600-seat theater in the group's early days. In recent years, the theater served as host for album release parties and benefit shows by R.E.M., which is based in a building just down the street. \"All of us here certainly wish Wilmont Greene and his staff the best of luck and Godspeed in their efforts to rebuild the Athens landmark,\" an R.E.M. statement said.","highlights":"Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia, gutted by fire Friday morning .\nHistoric theater known for playing host to notable bands, including R.E.M.\nTheater was the place \"for alternative music,\" said first owner .","id":"9f9b83bab1041c9a4c90a197fdba99721ec46131"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine based on Okinawa has been arrested in connection with the reported rape of a 14-year-old Japanese girl, the island's police force said Monday. Police said the assault was reported Sunday night in the Chanton entertainment district on Okinawa, a major hub for U.S. forces in the Pacific. The 38-year-old American was arrested shortly after the report, police said. The Marine was not identified, and there was no immediate comment from the service on the allegation. Previous criminal cases against American troops have triggered widespread protests by Okinawans since 1995, when three American servicemen were found guilty of raping an Okinawan schoolgirl. Under U.S.-Japanese military agreements, the U.S. government has custody over service members suspected of crimes while on duty. In addition, the U.S. military is not required to turn over those accused of crimes until an indictment is issued. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Marine, 38, arrested after report of the rape .\nPrevious cases against U.S. troops have triggered protests by Okinawans .\nIn 1995, three servicemen were found guilty of raping an Okinawan schoolgirl .","id":"a2d484b982cee067aa8a63caa2d3cf3de05d6040"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You pay for checking your baggage, for snacks and for extra legroom. Word is one airline has even toyed with charging you to use the toilet. So it makes perfect sense to some fliers that heavier passengers should pay for spilling over into the next seat. Earlier this year, United Airlines formalized a policy that charges some larger passengers for a second seat. Frequent flier Ross Murphy, 54, has been sandwiched between larger fliers in coach, and he believes they should have to shell out for a second seat. \"They have a right to sit in the seat next to me,\" said Murphy, who travels cross-country at least 15 times a year to watch his sons' sporting matches. \"But they don't have a right to sit in my lap.\" A growing number of airlines are forcing bigger passengers to pay more as they cope with the costly and uncomfortable quandary that arises when obese passengers cannot squeeze into a single coach seat. With airlines trimming flight schedules -- meaning fuller passenger loads this summer -- the issue is bound to spur some awkward encounters. Chart: Compare some of the common airline fees . \"It's a growing problem, no pun intended,\" said George Hobica, president of AirfareWatchdog.com, a site that is part of Smarter Travel Media LLC, which provides airfare deals and advice. \"Everyone suffers. The obese people suffer and the people who are skinny and get spilled over on suffer as well.\" U.S. obesity rates have mushroomed during the last 25 years, but the width of a coach airplane seat has changed little, remaining between 17 and 18 inches in most commercial planes. More than one-third of Americans fall into the obese category, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This makes traveling in tight spaces vexing for airlines trying to bolster profits by selling the maximum number of seats. The Federal Aviation Administration does not regulate seat width, but it does require passengers be able to sit belted and with both arm rests down to comply with safety standards. In April, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines formalized a policy that says passengers who are unable to safely fit into one seat must pay full price for a second seat. They may receive it free if the plane has vacant seats. Flight attendants on the airlines are responsible for making sure passengers are fitting in their seats and may ask a heavier passengers requiring two seats to pay extra. Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United, said the company received 700 complaints in 2008 from passengers who were upset because a larger passenger encroached on his or her seat. \"This new policy was created for the comfort and well-being of all our guests on board,\" Urbanski said. A survey conducted this year by Europe's low-fare airline Ryanair found a third of the 100,000 passengers polled believed a \"fat tax\" should be instituted, requiring heavier passengers to pay more. Most U.S. airlines have a policy or plan for dealing with heavier passengers, though some are not formalized like United's. Officials worry heavier passengers squished into one seat may pose a safety hazard when a plane must be evacuated during an emergency. Southwest Airlines has had a \"customer of size policy\" for more than 20 years, requiring passengers to buy a second seat on a full plane if their body crosses the armrest boundary. The company will issue refunds if unoccupied seats are available, which they say is the case 97 percent of the time. Airlines with open seating policies such as Southwest find it easier to relocate passengers in need of an extra seat. On all airlines, passengers can buy first-class or business-class seats, which are wider. But those tickets cost more than a coach seat. Experts at Boeing Company, an aircraft manufacturer, say 17-inch seats can accommodate 95 percent of the traveling public. They say studies have found most seat space invasions happen because of wider shoulders and not derrieres. Still, some larger passengers who need more than one seat believe being charged extra is discriminatory and the airlines are not accommodating the growing American waistline. \"The airlines need to be making bigger seats,\" said Peggy Howell, a spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a group based in San Francisco, California. \"It's not safe to be cramming us into two seats.\" Lawsuits have been filed by heavier passengers and by those who complain about large passengers encroaching on their space. The courts have ruled the airline policies are within their rights. In the United States, there aren't any discrimination laws to protect obese people, attorneys say. (In some employment discrimination cases, attorneys have been able to win by proving obesity was a genetic disease beyond the person's control.) In 2003, the issue of passenger weight surfaced when a commuter plane crashed on takeoff from Charlotte, North Carolina, because of excess weight and a maintenance error. The accident prompted the FAA to increase the estimated weight per passenger by 10 pounds, including 20 pounds of carry-on luggage. For example, the average weight for a passenger traveling in the summer (including carry-on luggage) went from 180 pounds in 1995 to 190 pounds in 2003. \"We realized after that accident that the weights we were using probably didn't reflect the current state of the American traveling public,\" said Les Dorr, a spokesman with aviation safety at the FAA. In 2004, a CDC scientist studied the effects of obesity on the airline industry. The scientist calculated his findings based on data revealing the average weight of an American had increased by 10 pounds in the 1990s. He estimated the extra weight cost airlines $275 million extra for fuel in 2000. The figures are likely higher today, with fuel costs rising. Scott Cluthe, 57, who works in the radio industry in Houston, Texas, a city known for its obesity epidemic, said average-sized passengers should not have to incur the higher fuel cost caused by the airline's heavier customers. \"A small child needs to pay for a flight, so why wouldn't an obese person?\" said Cluthe, who flies several times a year, mostly in coach, for personal trips. \"I'm not a discriminatory person, but we have to look at the reality of the situation. It's getting a little crowded in here.\" Some larger passengers don't mind paying for the second seat. Other heavier fliers argue while tall passengers pay a fee for legroom, the fees are only a fraction of the price of a entire seat. Air France offers obese passengers booking a second seat up to 33 percent off the ticket price, depending on the type of seat and availability. Mike Vasey of Cheyenne, Wyoming says even some normal-sized people can't fly comfortably when they are packed in the cabin like sardines. Vasey, 45, who considers himself a large guy at 400 pounds and over six feet tall, usually pays for two seats. \"I'd rather be comfortable first ,\" he said, \"and worry about discrimination later.\"","highlights":"Obesity rates have grown in the last 25 years but plane seat sizes remain the same .\nA growing number of airlines are creating polices to deal with heavier passengers .\nHeavier passengers cost more fuel and space, say some passengers .\nNational Association of Fat Acceptance says it's unsafe to cram passengers .","id":"a186eabaaafa744b8cfd2ecb610aad111cb9264d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 23-year-old beauty queen and seven men arrested in vehicles loaded with weapons and cash near the central Mexico city of Guadalajara have been transferred to Mexico City, the state news agency said Wednesday. Laura Zuniga and seven men were found in vehicles with guns and $50,000, Mexican police say. Laura Zuniga and the men were traveling Monday night in two vehicles that contained AR-15 assault rifles, 38-caliber specials, 9 mm handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash, said Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez de Velazco, secretary of public security for the state of Jalisco. Police, who had received a tip that armed men were in a home, detected the vehicles in the city of Zapopan as authorities were en route to investigate the call, Najera said Tuesday. Inside one of the vehicles, authorities found Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, 29, who is Zuniga's boyfriend and the brother of \"one of the greatest capos [bosses] of narcotraffic,\" Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, a member of the Juarez cartel already in police custody, Najera said. All eight were filed before the news media Tuesday. Zuniga, wearing blue jeans and a gray sweater, raised her handcuffed wrists to cover her face in a police picture. Watch footage of the eight arrested and weapons seized \u00bb . They were transported in a heavily armed 30-vehicle convoy late Tuesday to Guadalajara International Airport and flown to Mexico City, the official Notimex news agency reported. The federal organized crime team in Mexico City will investigate, and the suspects will face arms charges, Najera said. Zuniga is from Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, a center of drug activity. In July, she won the title Our Sinaloa Beauty. That gave her the right to compete two months later in the national Our Mexico Beauty in Monterrey, where she won \"The Election of the Queens,\" one of five special recognitions, and came in third overall. In October, she won the title \"Hispanoamerican Queen 2008\" in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Mexican newscasts referred to her Wednesday as \"Miss Pistols\" and likened her situation to \"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.\" According to the Nuestra Belleza Mexico Web site, she is to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest. A statement issued Wednesday by Lupita Jones, director of Our Mexico Beauty, said the organization will wait to see what happens in the legal system. \"In order to determine the situation with Miss Laura Zuniga, Our Mexico Beauty will be watching the case and will take appropriate action once the results of the authorities' investigation are known,\" said the statement, published on the Web site for CNN affiliate Televisa Mexico.","highlights":"NEW: Mexican newcasts refer to arrested beauty queen as \"Miss Pistols\"\nMexican police: Laura Zuniga, seven men face arms charges, federal probe .\nZuniga, men found in vehicles with weapons, $50,000, police say .\nZuniga set to represent Mexico in next year's Miss International contest .","id":"5354cafc22fa5afe2ea3b9c557047eb995b92cbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One year ago, a sheriff's dispatcher in Orange County, near Orlando, Florida, received a strange 911 call. A small child was missing -- and had been for a month. Casey Anthony didn't tell anyone for 30 days that her daughter, Caylee, was missing. The child's grandmother was frantic, talking a mile a minute. But her mother seemed unemotional, disconnected from the drama around her. So began the Caylee Anthony case, a mystery that became a nightly fixture on cable television and captivated true-crime buffs across the country. Today, the tot's 23-year-old mother, Casey Anthony, is in jail, charged with first-degree murder, and faces the death penalty if convicted. She denies harming her daughter or having anything to do with her disappearance. Her attorney, Jose Baez, has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear that his client is innocent. While reports of missing children are not unusual -- a Haleigh and a Haylee are two recent examples -- several elements came together in the Caylee case to make it a high-profile news story, said Robert Thompson, who heads the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. \"The fact that it's a toddler had that really dramatic, 'this is our worst nightmare' thing. It doesn't get any more dramatic than that,\" he said. \"Then, of course, there's Casey herself.\" The 30-day delay in reporting Caylee's disappearance, along with the frequent release of police documents containing the personal details of the family's life, whetted the public's appetite. See how the case unfolded \u00bb . \"By that time, it becomes self-fulfilling,\" Thompson said. \"Once the story gets into the inbox of places that cover this thing -- Dateline, America's Most Wanted, Greta van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Geraldo -- it becomes a packaged drama. We want to know how it turns out.\" Caylee's body was found December 11, six months after she disappeared and just a few blocks from her grandparents' house. The remains were bagged and partially buried in a swampy, vacant lot. Duct tape covered the child's mouth. But the cause of Caylee's death is just one of many questions that remain unanswered a year later. And the answers are not likely to come soon, if at all. Casey Anthony's trial, originally scheduled to begin October 12, has been pushed back until some time next year. Thousands of pages of court files have been made public. Police questioned Anthony's friends and boyfriends, pored through her cell phone records, went through her computer, and seized her digital photo albums. They even analyzed her sleep patterns. But the picture that emerges is far from clear. The story begins at about 9:40 p.m. on the evening of July 15, 2008, with Cindy Anthony's call to 911. The call capped a day in which she and her husband, George, a retired police officer from Ohio, received an impound notice and tracked down their daughter's abandoned white 1998 Pontiac Sunbird -- and then their daughter, Caylee's mother, who was staying with a boyfriend. \"I found out my granddaughter has been taken,\" Cindy Anthony told the 911 dispatcher. \"She has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted that she's been missing. ... We're talking about a 3-year-old little girl!\" \"I need to find her,\" Cindy Anthony continued. \"I told you my daughter was missing for a month. I just found her today, but I can't find my granddaughter. She just admitted to me that she's been trying to find her herself. There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today, and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car.\" George Anthony told police later that the car gave him \"a bad vibe.\" \"I got within three feet of it. I could smell something. You look up and you say, please don't let this be. Please don't let this be,\" he said in a July 24 police interview. A cadaver dog confirmed for police the scent of human decomposition in the car trunk. Casey Anthony's friends told police she said she hit an animal with the car. But many of her stories did not check out, investigators said. Although Casey Anthony has frequently fallen out with her parents, they have always insisted that she is innocent. They haven't visited her in jail for months, in part because authorities record the visits and release them to the public. During the search for Caylee, some say Casey Anthony didn't behave the way one would expect of a worried mother. She went to nightclubs and sent hundreds of text messages to friends, according to cell phone and text transcripts and investigative reports released by police. Those phone and text records also showed that she hardly mentioned her missing daughter. At one point, police analyzed her sleep patterns, finding that the cell phone calls and text messaging ceased for only three or four hours a night at about the time Caylee disappeared. For weeks, curiosity seekers camped out in lawn chairs outside the Anthony home, where the family had posted large flyers asking, \"Where is Caylee?\" When the crowd grew unruly, Cindy Anthony waved a hammer and George Anthony shouted back at the hecklers. Authorities say they also found traces of chloroform, a knock-out drug, in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car. And they said that on her computer, they found Internet searches of missing children and chloroform Web sites. Investigators first labeled Casey Anthony a person of interest, and later, a suspect. She was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder on October 14. But Thompson, the pop culture professor at Syracuse, cautions that the final curtain hasn't fallen on this drama. \"It isn't necessarily a slam dunk,\" he said. \"We have the JonBenet Ramsey case to show that we may think one thing, and it isn't so.\" Early in that investigation, authorities said John and Patsy Ramsey were \"under an umbrella of suspicion\" in their daughter's death, but they later were cleared. \"These things are capable of twisting around,\" Thompson said. \"But that's another element that makes them interesting.\"","highlights":"Cindy Anthony called 911, reported Caylee missing a year ago .\nChild already had been missing for a month .\nCasey Anthony was arrested several times, charged with murder in October .\nCaylee's skeleton was found in December in vacant lot near family's home .","id":"2e80881b0821fa34b7ea2a72714d9c56abe9e458"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's only 23, but Deepika Padukone is already living a life millions would envy. From calendar model to Bollywood big-time: Deepika Padukone. The model-turned-actress was spotted in a music video and then cast in one of the biggest grossing films in Bollywood history. She still only has three movies under her belt, but star status has already been bestowed upon her. With no family connections to the film industry and not being from Mumbai, Padukone traveled a route to movie stardom millions could only dream of. After deciding to become a model at the age of 16, she was picked out of a music video by acclaimed director Farah Khan and cast in her next film opposite Shahrukh Khan. \"Om Shanti Om\" went on to become not only a hit in India, but also gained wider acclaim among western audiences. \"I completely didn't expect it. When I met Farah I thought she was joking. And at that point it seemed too good to be true. Shahrukh is someone who I've grown up watching, and I didn't think that I deserve being a part of such a huge film. It's only later, when I met Shahrukh and when things actually started happening, when I realized that this is for real,\" she told CNN. Despite her meteoric rise to fame and work on some big budget films she believes she's learning the job of being an A-list Bollywood actress. \"I had great debut, a successful film, but after that...I would think it's quite difficult to choose the right film. You never know what's right and what's wrong,\" she said. \"Things for me changed quite overnight, actually. I remember a couple of months before the film release, not too many people knew me. In November 2007 when my film released and immediately after that I had to travel to New York, to Dubai and to London, and suddenly everyone on the streets started recognizing me, especially the Indians. That's when I realized that things have changed.\" With the public attention has come the inevitable media spotlight on her private life. She says she never experienced the \"casting couch\" but is consistently romantically linked with other Bollywood stars, and there were rumors about a relationship with Indian cricketer MS Dhoni. \"As someone who didn't know how to deal with it, yes it was really difficult for me initially to read about myself or to read about things that are untrue. But I think slowly you start learning to deal with these things.\" Padukone's father was a professional badminton player, and she played too as a teenager, traveling across the country to compete in tournaments. But by her late teens she decided she wanted to be a model and got the full support of her parents. \"I trained, I lost some weight. I then got a portfolio done. I sent it to Bombay to a couple of agencies and waited for awhile. I think that period is really the most challenging. Because that's really the time that one can really go wrong. The waiting period. You can really make some wrong decisions and go completely wrong,\" she told CNN. \"I had the support of my family. I didn't get carried away. I think I was patient enough to wait for the right assignment to come my way.\" As a model she appeared in commercials and music videos. Since her move into the movie business more commercial endorsements have come her way, but in an industry notorious for its high turnover of starlets she is aware that for actresses there is often a limited shelf-life. \"For me my life now is my work. But I know that at some point I will have to have a life beyond my work. And I know that today there's me, tomorrow there will be someone else. Maybe I'll be here for 5 years, maybe I'll be here for many, many years. \"I'm definitely going to work hard and make sure that I can be here for as long as I can, but I'll also make sure that people don't get bored of me. And...yes, let's see how it goes.\"","highlights":"Padukone was picked out from a music video to star in \"Om Shanti Om\"\n23-year-old began career as a model and has appeared in three movies so far .\nShe has no family connections to movie industry .","id":"7144dd9636d8f02f99df1cee7df4b66d5014ad78"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brad Pitt gets top billing in Quentin Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds,\" but Austrian actor Christoph Waltz may have turned in the most memorable performance as a Nazi \"Jew Hunter.\" Christoph Waltz attends a special screening of \"Inglourious Basterds\" in New York. Waltz, a 52-year-old veteran of German television, was hardly known outside of Europe, until now. Tarantino, insisting on actors with geographic origins similar to their characters, chose Waltz to play a complex and unforgettable villain: Nazi Col. Hans Landa. Landa mixes charm, humor and intelligence with great cruelty and opportunism as he travels through Tarantino's unpredictable screenplay. Waltz calls Landa \"one of the great villains in dramatic literature.\" His performance earned Waltz the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, but the actor credits the writer for creating a \"multifaceted and layered\" character. \"It's what Quentin [Tarantino] has written, and let me tell you, that's plenty,\" Waltz said. \"Because I could still be sitting there trying to figure out what else is in there. And it's bottomless.\" The opening scene of \"Inglourious Basterds\" is itself a short film in the style of a spaghetti western, starring Waltz as \"The Jew Hunter.\" Watch the stars of the movie discuss the film \u00bb . \"It was pure Tarantino to me in that it blended so many different elements perfectly, of tension and comedy, dialogue and excitement,\" actor B.J. Novak said of the scene. Waltz's character uses three languages in his encounter with a French dairy farmer who was hiding a Jewish family under his farmhouse floor. \"The feature that makes me such an effective hunter of the Jews is, as opposed to most German soldiers, I can think like a Jew, where they can only think like a German or, more precisely, a German soldier,\" Landa tells the farmer. Landa's motivation is more complex than the typical Nazi depicted in a past movies. A literature scholar could build a career around studying the character, Waltz said. \"Landa is one of the great villains in dramatic literature from the very beginning, for specific reasons, and it's a real job to find out the reasons,\" he said. \"You sit there and you study and you study.\" The role provided him \"ample opportunity to show other sides,\" Waltz said. \"That's the fantastic thing with Landa, is it's so multifaceted and layered.\" But Waltz said he will be careful about repeating a similar role. \"This is the best villain there is, and now it has to be significantly different for me to consider,\" he said. His three-decades-long acting r\u00e9sum\u00e9 shows the diversity of his talent. His 1996 portrayal of Roy Black, one of Germany's most beloved pop stars, earned him one of Germany's highest acting honors. Waltz, now with a Hollywood agent, hints that scripts are coming his way because of the \"Inglourious Basterds\" exposure. One disadvantage of playing the villain in a Tarantino film is that the director insisted that Waltz not pal around with cast mates while away from the set. \"It might be a good idea not to establish this buddy-buddy situation, to keep everybody on their toes a little bit,\" he said. \"That awkward distance that they kept from me made it easier.\" Pitt, however, did approach him early in the filming, he said. \"The fact that he is one of the biggest stars didn't come into that equation after he eliminated it,\" Waltz said. \"He approached me literally with open arms, and that was that.\" \"Inglourious Basterds\"-- rated R -- hits theaters Friday, August 21.","highlights":"Christoph Waltz plays Nazi Col. Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's new movie .\nPerformance earned Waltz the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival .\nHis three-decades-long acting r\u00e9sum\u00e9 shows the diversity of his talent .\nThe German television veteran was hardly known outside of Europe, until now .","id":"5572b125c50540538ffeb19292f5689d47eae01c"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Hurricane Bill spun northward toward the New England coast Saturday with wind and rain as officials warned beach lovers to head indoors for the night. Signs at Lighthouse Beach at Chatham, Massachusetts, warn beach-goers Saturday of rough waters. At 11 p.m., the center of the Category 1 storm was about 195 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, the National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters said the island can expect 1 to 2 inches of rain, and Outer Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard may receive only an inch. Swells as high as 19 feet are expected Monday night, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jordan Berryman told CNN in Chatham, Massachusetts. \"It's been generally calm but tonight we recommend that everybody stay off the beach,\" he said. The storm continued its northerly pace of nearly 25 mph. A gradual change to the north-northeast is predicted for Sunday. Bill's sustained winds remained at 100 mph, with higher gusts. \"The surf is definitely big,\" Emily Chibaro of Nantucket told CNN Radio Saturday. \"The south shore part of the island is closed off to all people on the island.\" iReport.com: Are you bracing for Hurricane Bill? A gradual weakening is expected Saturday night and Sunday as the hurricane moves north of the Gulf Stream, a swift, warm Atlantic Ocean current. The core of the storm should pass New England offshore Saturday night, and approach Nova Scotia on Sunday. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said tropical-force winds from the outer bands of the storm were forecast to hit his state at 9 p.m. ET, earlier than expected. The speed of tropical-force winds range from 39 mph to 73 mph. Watch the waves crash on Massachusetts beach \u00bb . A tropical storm warning was issued for the coast of Massachusetts from Woods Hole to Sagamore Beach, including the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The hurricane itself is predicted to stay offshore, the hurricane center said. The most intense period of the storm should be between midnight and the predawn hours of Sunday, the governor told reporters in a conference call. Patrick cautioned boaters to expect high seas and to avoid the area around Cape Cod. Forecasters have warned of dangerous riptides, or undertows, along the New England coast and points north. \"Waters will be unsafe even for strong swimmers,\" the governor warned. Rip currents, or riptides, are strong seaward flows of water that occur where there's a break in the shoreline. They are difficult to detect. Watch CNN's Bonnie Schneider talk about rip currents \u00bb . Patrick said advisories will be posted, and beaches on the cape were closed. He urged residents to stay home. President Obama and his family are scheduled to arrive Sunday for a vacation at Martha's Vineyard. \"We look forward to welcoming him to Massachusetts as soon as he can safely get here,\" Patrick said. Hurricane Bill skirted Bermuda, leaving rain in its wake. The tropical storm warning for Bermuda was discontinued. Canada's weather service, Environment Canada, issued a tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches for parts of Nova Scotia. Watch how Nova Scotians are preparing for Bill \u00bb . A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 24 hours. A watch means conditions are expected to change within 36 hours. Total rain accumulations of 3 to 5 inches with isolated amounts of 7 inches are expected near the track of Bill across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. CNN's Susan Candiotti and CNN Radio's Brendan Gage contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: In Massachusetts, Coast Guard recommends \"everybody stay off the beach\"\nPresident Obama and family scheduled to arrive Sunday at Martha's Vineyard .\nMassachusetts governor: Intense weather expected overnight to Sunday morn .\nForecasters warn of dangerous riptides along New England coast and north .","id":"06199509057cb7e9756248b30b6c585a3c771a17"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billy Joel and his wife, Katie Lee Joel, are separating. Billy Joel married Katie Lee in 2004. \"After nearly five years of marriage, Billy Joel and Katie Lee Joel have decided to separate,\" a joint statement on behalf of the pair said. \"This decision is a result of much thoughtful consideration. Billy and Katie remain caring friends with admiration and respect for each other.\" Billy Joel, 60, and Katie Lee Joel, 27, were married in 2004. Billy Joel is the multimillion-selling musician behind such albums as \"The Stranger,\" \"52nd Street\" and \"Storm Front.\" Katie Lee is a food critic and chef. The marriage was the third for Billy Joel. His marriage to Elizabeth Weber ended in divorce in 1982 after nine years. He married his second wife, model Christie Brinkley, in 1985; they divorced in 1994. Both Joels have retained attorneys, according to a report in the New York Daily News. Billy Joel's publicist, Claire Mercuri, told the Daily News the singer was bearing up well. \"Billy's doing fine,\" Mercuri said. \"He's looking forward to resuming his Face2Face Tour with Elton John.\"","highlights":"Billy Joel separating from wife of almost five years, Katie Lee Joel .\n\"This decision is a result of much thoughtful consideration,\" said joint statement .\nMarriage was Billy Joel's third .","id":"63c7fa44399945eae71bb4fcf320de52dc4f3ecb"} -{"article":"FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (CNN) -- Forty-one bodies have been recovered from the crash of Air France Flight 447, the Brazilian Navy Command and Aeronautical Command said Tuesday. Brazilian military personnel on Tuesday carry the remains of one of the passengers of the Air France crash. Sixteen bodies pulled from the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday were taken to Fernando de Noronha for transportation Wednesday afternoon by helicopter to the air base in Recife, Brazil. The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate. Searches for the remaining bodies will continue overnight, the navy and aeronautical command said in a written statement. The Airbus A330 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean June 1 en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, carrying 228 passengers and crew. The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air. Watch bodies being returned to land \u00bb . Meanwhile, the French, who are leading the investigation, were increasing their naval efforts. The nuclear submarine Emeraude was expected to reach the search area Wednesday to search for wreckage, including the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. And the French sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations. The United States is also sending equipment to help with the search. Watch challenges faced by search crews \u00bb . Brazilian authorities said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife. The cause of the crash is not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors. Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday. The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month. Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents. Watch an explanation of what could have caused the crash \u00bb . The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident. Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused \"a loss of airspeed data,\" according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed. Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. That is the program the pilots say the airline has promised to complete within days. The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris. Map of Flight 447's flight path \u00bb . The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire\/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), nearly the size of Romania, Brazilian officials said. Brazilian officials emphasized Monday that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders. Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- were participating, along with five Brazilian ships and one French frigate. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders. The \"towed pinger locators,\" which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet -- will be placed aboard two French tugs that are part of the search efforts, the official said. CNN's Karl Penhaul, Ayesha Durgahee, Niki Cook, Jim Bittermann and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"First bodies recovered from the crash of Air France 447 returned to land .\nAir France agrees to replace within days speed sensors, pilots' union says .\nAir France said it began replacing parts in April .\nThe location of the crash has not been determined .","id":"522468f81d1134e48be312cb2ea4fe1a17e0a0fc"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- A hit TV show. An Emmy. A summer blockbuster. A new company. A wedding! Katherine Heigl has every reason to smile for our camera. A star -- and a trio of gorgeous looks -- is born. The Ing\u00e9nue: \"This is my favorite look of the three just because it's sexy but not overtly so,\" Heigl says. \"I like simple hair and makeup.\" There has been a self-tanning mishap . As Katherine Heigl crosses the parking lot of the sandwich shop at the Roosevelt Golf Course at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, she walks stiffly, holding her arms away from her like a paper doll and apologizing profusely for running 10 minutes late. Earlier, she'd sprayed her entire body with self-tanner, which refused to dry. She resorted to having her fianc\u00e9, musician Josh Kelley, take a blow-dryer to her (didn't work). So here she is, in a strapless, ankle-length Juicy Couture sundress (donned to accommodate the residual stickiness), fanning herself and wondering how mottled the tan will be when (or if) the lotion ever sets. Not that one bum experience could turn her off beauty products. \"I love everything new,\" says Heigl, 28, who, in addition to being nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actress on \"Grey's Anatomy,\" just started a production company at Fox. \"When I was in Rhode Island filming this summer, I went to Sephora for the first time. It was like my holy mecca.\" She recently had her bathroom vanity renovated with a high counter to make more room for the large drawers below that hold her well-organized loot. Then there's her deal with Coty to be the face of Nautica's new women's fragrance in January. Considering this fondness for all things beauty -- as well as Heigl's impressive acting range -- she plays TV dramedy as deftly as cinematic romantic comedy, as in the mega-hit \"Knocked Up\" and next year's 27 Dresses -- it seems natural for her to be In Style's first ever triple-cover girl. These three looks take her from girl-next-door to red-carpet knockout to pixie-coiffed vamp. The star, whom pals call Katie (and Hollywood calls the Next Big Thing), popped out her retainer to talk about makeup, breakouts and what boys like. KATHERINE HEIGL: I'm so sorry, I have to take out my Invisalign before I eat. IN STYLE: Who knew you wore them? I guess that's the point of Invisalign. KH: I got them because of this wonky tooth. I was like, OK, I can't take it. It's awesome because every two weeks you switch to a new retainer. Pretty much the perfect way to describe Invisalign is Netflix for your teeth. IS: Right -- the things we do for beauty. So, how did you like being transformed into three such different looks? KH: It was fun. I was working with such great hair and makeup people. And to have these professionals turning you into someone else is pretty neat. IS: Do you ever go without makeup? KH: There was a time when I would. Now that I get followed by photographers, I'm really paranoid about it. I do not want to be the \"Look What This Celebrity Looks Like Without Makeup\" picture. I'm clearly vain, and I don't need that. Plus, I like products. IS: How often do you go through your drawers and purge? KH: Often, because people send me a lot of stuff now, which is exciting. I love getting those boxes. [Into the tape recorder:] Send me a box of makeup, Stila! When that happens, I feel like I have to clean out and give stuff to my sister, mom and friends because there comes a point of gluttony that I can't accept. IS: How do you think you express your personality through style? KH: I'm a big hair-up person. Last night at work they put my hair in two French braids to keep it flat under the scrub cap. I thought it looked cute and that I could pull it off after I'd slept on it. And ... no. So I thought I could recreate it myself ... no again. As far as clothing style goes, I fluctuate almost as much as I do with beauty products. I like to shop for sweaters -- maybe it's the New Englander in me. I'm building a house in the mountains in Utah, so I tell myself I'm \"preparing\" for that. I like sweaters -- they're like scrubs -- you don't have to suck it in or worry about the bloat. IS: Do you know how you want your hair and makeup at your wedding? KH: I have an idea, but it's so dependent on the dress, and I haven't gotten there yet. My sister is getting married too, so we looked for dresses together. After about five stores I was like, \"I'm done.\" Everyone says, \"You just know when you put that dress on.\" My sister found the right dress just like that. So I know it can happen. But it's grueling. IS: Wait, so your mom has two daughters getting married within months? KH: My poor mother is probably like, \"Why, God? Why?\" But I hired a planner. I want the day to be spectacular, but mostly I want it to be fun. And I don't want to freak out or stress. IS: Does your fianc\u00e9 have any particular opinions about your look? KH: Josh wouldn't mind if my hair was brown, if it was still long -- that's such a boy thing. IS: Would you ever wear a wig out? KH: I'd contemplate it, but I don't know if I actually have the courage to pull it off. I once wore a long hair-extension ponytail, and someone asked me if it was real, like I was one of those dolls when we were little, and the hair just cranks out. IS: How would you describe your skin? KH: My skin is sensitive, so everything bothers it. And I'm the jerk who keeps switching products and making it worse. IS: How do you treat a breakout? KH: I got a great product at Ona Spa called Sebuspot. I've tried so many that were disappointments, but maybe I stand too close to the mirror examining my pores. If I backed up, things might look fine. IS: What do you always carry in your bag? KH: Powder, because I get shiny. And lip balm, either the Smith's Rosebud Salve or C.O. Bigelow's Mentha Lip Shine in Black Cherry Soda from Bath & Body Works. It's shiny with a little shimmer and tastes so good. IS: An In Style.com reader wants to know how you maintain a healthy body image in Hollywood. KH: I train with Harley Pasternak. I love him with my whole soul and follow his 5-Factor diet. I first said, \"I'm never going to be -- nor do I want to be -- an uber-athletic girl.\" It's just not me and I don't have that kind of discipline. He said, \"I just want you to be healthy.\" A lot of what we focus on is posture. I slump into myself when I get stressed. If I were going to play an action hero, I'd have to get that look. But I'd never maintain it. For me it's never about achieving a look that's impossible. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Grey's Anatomy\" actress Katherine Heigl has own production company .\nStar of hit movie Knocked Up\" is getting married .\nDoesn't go without makeup for fear of ugly photographs .\nSays shopping for wedding dress is \"grueling\"","id":"d4864e86b818a25c6e841fcddd823ef05d3ef6ad"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian authorities Tuesday filed a police complaint against Continental Airlines for frisking a former president of the country as he was to travel to New York in April. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials said. Civil aviation officials in New Delhi accused Continental of gross violation of Indian security rules that prohibit pre-embarkation body checks on certain dignitaries like a former president. The police complaint followed a probe that had established that APJ Abdul Kalam was subject to frisking before he boarded a flight from New Delhi to New York on April 21, the Indian civil aviation ministry said in a statement. The ministry also alleged the airline did not respond to its show-cause notice in connection with Kalam's body checks. In its police complaint, Indian civil aviation authorities accused the airline staff of \"willful violation\" of their directions on exemptions from pre-embarkation frisking. Continental, however, insisted it followed standard American air-safety procedures. \"TSA (Transportation Security Administration) requirements impose a final security check in the aerobridge just before boarding the aircraft. \"This procedure is followed by all carriers flying to the U.S. from most of the countries in the world and there is no exemption to this rule,\" it said in a statement.","highlights":"Indian authorities file complaint against Continental for frisking former president .\nFormer president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials say .\nContinental, however, insists it followed standard U.S. air-safety procedures .","id":"16f64b7f792c3a59641a7b0d4eb062df2de73be1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities regained control of a Kentucky prison early Saturday after inmates torched buildings, shattered windows and threw rocks at guards. Inmates set fire to a Kentucky prison on Friday after the warden said he would ease restrictions on a lockdown. Inmates at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in Burgin started an uprising shortly after the warden announced he'd ease restrictions on a lockdown, Northpoint Public Information Officer Mendalyn Cochran told CNN. Two inmates were transported to hospitals with chest pains, she said, and there were no reports of hostages taken. The lockdown was instituted Tuesday, after about 10 to 15 inmates assaulted two others in a fight over stolen property, Cochran said. Warden Steve Haney told prisoners about 6 p.m. Friday of his plan to ease the lockdown, but 30 minutes later, fires began to spread through the dorm-styled institution, she said. Inmates were evacuated to the prison yard and authorities threw tear gas over the fence to subdue the prisoners, Cochran said. The damage to the facility was so severe that all the prison's 1,200 inmates had to be kept outside in a prison yard. \"There are several buildings in the front that will be a total loss,\" said Lt. David Jude of Kentucky State Police. An investigation will determine whether criminal charges will be levied against some of the inmates. Burgin is about 40 miles southwest of Lexington. CNN's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report.","highlights":"Guards regained control of Kentucky prison early Saturday after inmate uprising .\nPrison was placed on lockdown Tuesday after fight among inmates .\nWarden planned to ease lockdown when fires broke out in prison .","id":"697fc03b78a4fcb0cd53e045c51efc5df6629b49"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first bodies to be recovered from the crash of Air France 447 arrived at a Brazilian Air Force base in Recife, Brazil, Wednesday, the air force announced. Brazilian pilots and a medical team bring one of the first bodies ashore at Fernando de Noronha island. The 16 bodies were taken to the Legal Medical Institute in Recife for identification, the statement said. Police will perform DNA tests at their lab in the capital, Brasilia, if necessary, they said. Another 25 bodies have been found and will go through the same procedure starting Thursday, the air force said. Official identification of the bodies will be made only by the Legal Medicine Institute, even if any of the bodies could have been identified while on Fernando de Noronha, the islands where they were first brought after being recovered. A French nuclear submarine joined the hunt Wednesday for the flight data recorders and other wreckage from Air France Flight 447 as Brazilian air force and navy crews continued to pull bodies from the Atlantic. Bad weather and poor visibility are expected in the search area, Brazilian Air Force spokesmen said. France is leading the investigation into what caused last week's accident when the Paris-bound flight from Rio de Janeiro plunged into the sea off the Brazilian coast with 228 passengers and crew on board. The French nuclear submarine Emeraude began patrolling the area Wednesday morning, the French defense ministry said. Around 400 French military personnel are involved in the salvage effort. France has also sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations. Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- are participating, along with five Brazilian ships. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders. The \"towed pinger locators,\" which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) -- will be placed aboard the French tugs. Watch challenges faced by search crews \u00bb . Brazilian officials emphasized earlier this week that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders. The 16 bodies retrieved Tuesday from the Atlantic were taken to the island of Fernando de Noronha for transport by helicopter to Recife. The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate. Watch bodies being returned to land \u00bb . The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. See photos of bodies arriving at Fernando de Noronha \u00bb . It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air. The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), Brazilian officials said. Map of Flight 447's flight path \u00bb . The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire\/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. Brazilian officials said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife. The cause of the crash is still not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors. Did plane's tail fin snap off? \u00bb . Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday. The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month. Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents. The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident. Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused \"a loss of airspeed data,\" according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed. Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. CNN's Karl Penhaul, Ayesha Durgahee, Niki Cook, Jim Bittermann and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"16 bodies retrieved from crashed airliner arrive in mainland Brazil .\nBodies taken to police laboratory in Brasilia for DNA testing .\nFrench nuclear submarine joins hunt for wreckage from Air France Flight 447 .\nLocation, cause of crash off Brazilian coast have not been determined .","id":"cdaa77a96e1d96a672548b6dc0bd83bffe6f1619"} -{"article":"There's always something happening in the city that never sleeps, but if you're in New York at the right time you'll get to see New Yorkers coming together for one of the city's big annual events. Giant inflatables are the highlight of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. St Patrick's Day Parade (17 March) St Patrick's Day is when New York's sizeable Irish-American community celebrates its long association with the city, with thousands joining a flag-waving parade of traditional marching pipe bands. Dating back to 1762, it's far more traditional than New York's other parades. There are no floats or corporate sponsors involved -- just vast numbers of green-clad revelers. Indeed, it's the one day of the year when shamrock-adorned hats and stick on ginger beards are considered appropriate attire. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. at 44th Street, making its way past St. Patrick's Cathedral at 50th Street and the American Irish Historical Society at 83rd, finishing at 86th Street at around 5:00 p.m. Needless to say, New York's Irish bars get pretty crowded in the evening. Watch Candace Bushnell take CNN on a tour of New York. \u00bb . Met in the Parks (June) An al fresco treat for opera lovers, every summer New York's Metropolitan Opera Company lays on free outdoor performances in the city's parks. The 2009 program will feature performances in each of the five boroughs, at Staten Island's Tappan Park, Crotona Park in The Bronx, Queensbridge Park in Queens; Coffey Park in Brooklyn, East River Park in Manhattan and at SummerStage in Central Park. If that's whet your appetite for evenings of outdoor classical music, \"New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks\" takes place in July at parks around the city. Take a blanket and a well-stocked picnic hamper for maximum enjoyment. What do you think are New York's seasonal highlights? Sound Off below. Independence Day (July 4) The day America declared its independence from Britain in 1776 is a national holiday celebrated in style throughout the country. But, naturally, New York is where the celebrations become a full-blown extravaganza. The highlight of New York's Independence Day celebrations is the Macy's fireworks display. Usually, fireworks are launched from the East River, but the 2009 fireworks will be launched from barges positioned between 24th and 50th Streets on the Hudson River. That means Manhattan's West Side and New Jersey will provide prime viewing spots and will consequently be packed to the gills with tens of thousands of rubbernecking New Yorkers. See photos of Candace Bushnell in New York. \u00bb . Village Halloween Parade (31 October) Halloween is a big deal in America and the nation's biggest and best Halloween parade takes place along New York's Sixth Avenue. Greenwich Village's \"anything goes\" attitude is what makes this event special, translating into eye-popping costumes, heaps of audience interaction and dazzling giant puppets, brought to life by showboating puppeteers. The parade begins at 6.30 p.m., starting on Spring Street and making its way to 23rd Street. You'll need to stake your roadside spot early if you want to see more than the backs of other spectators. Better still, wear a costume and you're entitled to join in the parade -- nothing is too outrageous. Even if you're cheering from the sidelines, you should get into the spirit of things by donning a ghoulish mask at the very least, thousands of which suddenly appear in local shops in the days leading up to the parade. http:\/\/www.halloween-nyc.com . Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (fourth Thursday in November) A New York institution, the inaugural parade in 1924 included live animals on loan from from Central Park Zoo. The zoo animals have long been retired, replaced by floats that act as moving anchors for enormous helium balloons of various colorful cartoon characters. These floating colossi are the highlight of the event and attract annual crowds of around three million New Yorkers. The parade runs from 9 a.m. to midday and follows a two-and-a-half mile route through Central Park West to Herald Square. A new route for the 2009 parade has yet to be confirmed -- check the web site for details. To enjoy the giant balloons without battling the crowds, wrap up warm and see them inflated the night before the parade on West 77th and 81st streets between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.","highlights":"New York turns green for the city's traditional St Patrick's Day Parade .\nWearing a costume lets you join in the the Village Halloween celebrations .\nInflatable cartoon characters are the highlight of Macy's Thanksgiving Parade .","id":"cbd1ffc9deadf236173e87b9bd5f84cadde3e023"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rep. Charles Boustany is a Republican who represents southwest Louisiana. Before being elected to Congress, Boustany practiced medicine as a cardiothoracic surgeon for 14 years. Rep. Charles Boustany says Democrats' health care plans don't focus on quality. (CNN) -- Americans deserve the best health care system in the world -- one that emphasizes quality, but reduces cost, so all Americans can participate. As a doctor, I saw firsthand the problems many patients face finding a doctor, navigating the system, and paying their health care bills. Unfortunately, Democrats' plans in Congress fail to focus on quality. House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, recently stated that the Democrats were proposing \"a government-run nightmare operated by federal bureaucrats.\" If enacted, their plans would complicate the system and take more money from American pockets -- a nightmare, indeed. One report estimates more than 100 million people could drop their current health care coverage if the plans were open to all employers. One reason cited for the drop in current coverage -- businesses no longer offering private coverage -- would contradict the president's promise to allow Americans to keep their current coverage, if they like it. Imposed employer mandates could cost 4.7 million people their jobs. All of this means that many people who like their current health insurance might not be able to keep it and be forced into a new system, including a government option with lower reimbursement rates that might discourage their current doctor from continuing to treat them. Just as a doctor has the obligation to be honest and straightforward with their patients, Democrats in Washington must inform the public of the impact their plans will have on current insurance and the exact costs. As the economy struggles to recover, Americans are rightfully concerned about the potential cost of health reform, as shown by a recent CNN survey. Before we know how much it will cost and how it will affect those currently with insurance, we cannot have an open and honest debate on the merits of any proposal. While the House bill remains unscored by the Congressional Budget Office, health overhaul plans being crafted by Senate Democrats will likely cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and could fail to cover millions of Americans. As a doctor, I know there is a better way to help all Americans achieve meaningful health care access. The president's proposed cuts in health care spending will result in limited treatment options for patients, and by shifting the burden of debt to the next generation of Americans, our children will be the ones helping to defer the outrageous costs. With our government's inability to maintain the Medicare and Medicaid programs that we currently fund, how much deeper can the hole get? The Government Accountability Office refers to Congress' failure to face Medicare's monetary difficulties as a \"leadership deficit.\" Even some Blue Dog Democrats are asking if funding a new plan is even possible if the government cannot solve the funding problems of the current plans. Patients in these programs continue to be denied access to a doctor in many communities. A few months ago, I received an e-mail from a Medicaid patient diagnosed with a brain tumor. Doctors told her that she would likely be put on a six-month waiting list for brain surgeons currently serving Medicaid patients. For timely care, she had to borrow a neighbor's car, secure child care for her autistic child and drive four hours to a hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. Patients in government-run plans obviously deserve better than this, so is this new government-run plan going to be any better? Republicans will give all Americans the liberty to select the plan that works best for them and let those who like their health care coverage keep it. We pledge to make quality health care coverage more available and less expensive, including those with pre-existing health conditions. We want to protect Americans from losing their current health coverage because an employer drops private coverage for a government-run program. This plan should also improve American lives through effective wellness, prevention and disease management programs, while finding innovative treatments for life-threatening diseases. We will ensure that medical decisions are made by patients and their doctors. By lowering costs and building more personalized plans, we can help more Americans develop a meaningful doctor-patient relationship. President Obama stated that \"if you like what you're getting, keep it. Nobody is forcing you to shift. No one will take it away, no matter what.\" This rhetoric sounds comforting, but fellow Democrats don't seem to share his view -- as evidenced by their proposed bill. Some Democrats are completely unwilling to reach across the aisle. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, said, \"My goal is to write a good bill; my goal is not bipartisanship.\" Other Congressional Democrat members were told \"explicitly not to work with Republicans.\" Moderate House Democrats even recently complained in a letter to several committee chairmen about being left out of any meaningful discussions on health-policy changes. Health reform should be open and transparent. No matter what party weighs in on the issue, Americans must fully comprehend the complicated decisions we face, and also understand how these new decisions will affect them. Leaders need to compromise, negotiate with members of both parties and ideologies, and reform health care the right way -- by developing a strong plan that encompasses the needs of all Americans. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Charles Boustany.","highlights":"Rep. Boustany: Many Americans could lose current health plans .\nHe says they could wind up in government system without current doctors .\nBoustany: Plans could burden next generation with enormous cost .","id":"f6bb73c519f64557928da7837a8101cad767662a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's publicist wants you to know that, despite a tabloid report to the contrary, the 50-year-old singer \"is in fine health.\" Michael Jackson's spokesman says reports of the singer's ill health \"are a total fabrication.\" The United Kingdom's Sun newspaper started a stir Monday morning when it quoted the author of an upcoming book about Jackson saying he was battling a potentially fatal disease that required a life-saving lung transplant. Other papers echoed the Sun's thinly-sourced story and the rumor spread quickly through Internet message boards. By Monday afternoon, Jackson's spokesman issued a response that said \"The writer's wild allegations concerning Mr. Jackson's health are a total fabrication.\" \"Mr. Jackson is in fine health, and finalizing negotiations with a major entertainment company & television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances,\" said Dr. Tohme Tohme, identified as Jackson's \"official and sole spokesperson.\" The original report quoted writer Ian Halperin saying Jackson's illness had robbed him of 95-percent of the vision in one eye and that he needed a lung transplant \"but may be too weak to go through with it.\" Jackson's reclusive lifestyle -- and a photo earlier this year of him being pushed in a wheelchair -- created a fertile ground for the planting of the rumor. Tohme suggested Halperin's motive was to get attention for his book about Jackson. \"Concerning this author's allegations, we would hope in the future that legitimate media will not continue to be exploited by such an obvious attempt to promote this unauthorized 'biography,'\" Tohme said. The Sun's report attempted to bolster its source's credibility by calling Halperin \"an award-winning investigative journalist\" who has \"written for respected Rolling Stone magazine.\" Halperin's biography on his publisher's Web site claimed he was the winner of the \"Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism.\" Rolling Stone magazine responded Monday afternoon by denying Halperin ever won that honor, but did note he was on a school newspaper staff in 1985 that collectively received the \"College Journalism Award\" from the magazine. Halperin has made a career writing about Hollywood scandals and the trouble lives of various celebrities, often claiming to have gone undercover to penetrate their inner-circles. The Jackson story was off the Sun's online front page by Monday evening. Instead, the paper featured a shirtless photo of President-elect Barack Obama on a Hawaii beach with the headline: \"As President Elect Goes Topless, How Do World Leaders Shape Up?\"","highlights":"UK's Sun newspaper ran report saying Jackson battles a potentially fatal disease .\nReport quoted writer Ian Halperin saying Jackson needed lung transplant .\nJackson story was off the Sun's online front page by Monday evening .","id":"48813ba66e2c29824829c0cb4100d1464cf9068a"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Ukrainian general has been arrested in connection with the murder of a journalist nearly nine years ago, the country's president said Wednesday. Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko has labeled Georhiy Gongadze's killing the country's most important case. Gen. Alexei Pukach was detained Tuesday in connection with the killing of Georhiy Gongadze, who was abducted in September 2000 and later found decapitated. The Gongadze killing is the country's most important criminal case, President Viktor Yushchenko said in a statement on his Web site. \"To me, it's a question of honor to resolve the murder of Georhiy Gongadze. It's a question of whether or not good or evil prevails,\" Yushchenko said. Organizations ranging from the European Union to the Committee to Protect Journalists have demanded that Ukraine bring the journalist's killers to justice. Pukach had been on the run for years before he was seized Tuesday in a joint operation by the Security Service and the prosecutor general's office, Yushchenko said. He has already been interrogated once and is cooperating with the investigation, the president added. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the arrest, it said in a statement to CNN. \"As the suspected organizer of the killing, Pukach could point the investigation to those who ordered the crime nine years ago,\" said Nina Ognianova, the organization's Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator. \"Only with the masterminds behind bars would Ukrainian authorities be able to reverse the impunity in Gongadze's assassination,\" her statement said. Three former police officers were convicted last year of killing Gongadze and given jail sentences of 12 to 13 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at the time. There has long been suspicion that top Ukrainian government officials were involved in the murder. \"Gongadze, the pioneer editor of critical Internet newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth), had long angered authorities with his highly critical reports detailing corruption in (former President Leonid) Kuchma's administration,\" CPJ said last year, when the three men were sentenced. Kuchma has long denied involvement in the killing. Pukach was a high-ranking interior ministry official at the time Gongadze disappeared. His former boss, Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, was found dead at his country house in March 2005, days before he was to be questioned by prosecutors over the killing of the journalist. The Ukrainian security service, the SBU, suggested Kravchenko killed himself, and the dead man's successor quoted a suicide note, according to Russian media. \"Please forgive me, I've become a victim of political intrigues of President Kuchma and his people. I'm leaving you without a twinge of conscience. Farewell,\" then-Interior Minister Yuli Luzenko quoted the note as saying. But Myroslava Gongadze, the slain journalist's widow, noted Kravchenko had two bullets in his head. \"I think it has to be investigated,\" she said of the death. \"He was the main player of my husband's murder ... he was the person who [took] the order and who gave the order,\" she told CNN at the time of Kravchenko's death. Kuchma had been implicated in the murder by critics who cited secretly recorded audio tapes in which the president allegedly ordered his staff to get rid of the journalist. Kuchma vehemently denied those charges.","highlights":"Ukrainian general arrested in connection with murder of journalist .\nGeorhiy Gongadze abducted in September 2000 and later found decapitated .\nGen. Alexei Pukach, who has been on the run for years, was captured Tuesday .","id":"149e136d4972083fd60ebab4c15b0174956161e9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered its inspectors to make sure regional airlines' training programs are in line with federal regulations, authorities announced Tuesday. Regional airline Colgan Air's Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, on February 12. \"It's clear to us in looking at the February Colgan Air crash in Buffalo that there are things we should be doing now,\" FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said. \"My goal is to make sure that the entire industry -- from large commercial carriers to smaller, regional operators -- is meeting our safety standard.\" Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, on February 12, killing all 49 passengers and crew members aboard. One person on the ground was also killed. Federal investigators held hearings on Capitol Hill last month on the cause of the crash but have not concluded their inquiry. Several shortcomings of the crew came to light during the National Transportation and Safety Board hearings when it was revealed that Colgan Air Capt. Marvin Renslow failed to reveal two pilot exam failures in his job application. Testimony at the hearings also revealed that fatigue apparently contributed to the failure of Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw to save the plane as it approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport. USA Today newspaper reviewed the safety board's accident reports over the past 10 years and found that in nearly every serious accident involving a regional airline during that time, at least one of the pilots had failed multiple skill tests. \"In eight of the nine accidents during that time, which killed 137 people, pilots had a history of failing two or more 'check rides,' tests by federal or airline inspectors of pilots' ability to fly and respond to emergencies,\" USA Today reported Sunday. \"In the lone case in which pilots didn't have multiple failures since becoming licensed, the co-pilot was fired after the nonfatal crash for falsifying his job application.\" In addition to reviewing regional airlines' training programs, Babbitt and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood have called on representatives from major air carriers, their regional partners, aviation industry groups and labor to participate in a \"call to action\" in Washington on Monday, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation news release. The review will address pilot training, cockpit discipline and other flight safety issues, the release said.","highlights":"FAA to examine training at regional airlines to make sure it meets federal standards .\nNTSB investigation into fatal crash in Buffalo revealed pilot exam failures .\nUSA Today inquiry found pilot test failures in eight of nine regional airline crashes .","id":"7e61cae4f8a69f1c0a20ffca280dbb6d721cadeb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.N. tribunal convicted two Serb cousins Monday of having burned alive more than 100 Muslims in what the presiding judge called a part of the \"wretched history of man's inhumanity to man.\" Serb Milan Lukic has been found guilty of burning alive more than 100 Muslims. Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic were convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s, during the bitter ethnic conflict that ravaged the former Yugoslavia. Milan Lukic organized a group of local paramilitaries with ties to police and the military, sometimes referred to as the \"White Eagles\" or \"Avengers,\" according to an indictment. Before and during the war, his cousin Sredoje Lukic worked as a policeman before joining the group. The crimes include two incidents in which Muslim men, women and children were forced into homes that were then set on fire -- and some who tried to escape were shot. Milan Lukic was found \"guilty of persecutions, murder, extermination, cruel treatment and inhumane acts, as crimes against humanity and war crimes, in relation to six discrete incidents,\" the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Hague said. He was sentenced to life in prison. Sredoje Lukic was found guilty of \"aiding and abetting the commission of the crime of persecutions inhumane acts, murder and cruel treatment.\" He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Their crimes were committed during the 1990s. Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992 and Radovan Karadzic declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic. The Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces, quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo, the capital. During the conflict that followed, the Serb forces launched what they called the \"ethnic cleansing\" of the territories under their control -- the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats. The cousins' cases are a small part of the caseload the Tribunal has dealt with regarding violations of humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Since its creation the Tribunal has indicted 161 people on charges of serious violations of humanitarian law. The court found Milan Lukic responsible for the murder of 59 Muslim women, children and elderly men in a house in the town of Visegrad. \"On 14 June 1992, the victims were locked into one room of the house which was then set on fire,\" the tribunal wrote. \"Milan Lukic was found to have placed the explosive device into the room, which set the house ablaze. Milan Lukic shot at people trying to escape from the burning house.\" Sredoje Lukic \"knew what would happen to the victims that he helped herd\" into the home, the court wrote in its judgment. Milan Lukic was also found guilty of the murder of at least 60 Muslim civilians in another house in Visegrad later that same month. The court found that he and others \"forced the civilians inside the house, blocked all exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol, setting the house on fire.\" In all, the court found that Milan Lukic \"personally killed at least 132 Muslim people.\" The defense for both men denied the accusations against them, but the evidence demonstrated their guilt, the court said in its judgment. \"The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life,\" presiding judge Patrick Robinson said. \"In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man's inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high. \"At the close of the twentieth century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding, trapping and locking the victims in the two houses, thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno, and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive.\"","highlights":"U.N. tribunal convicts Serb cousins of burning alive more than 100 Muslims .\nMilan Lukic, Sredoje Lukic convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s .\nMuslim men, women and children forced into homes that were then set on fire .","id":"f0ff9f2d76f0a3a1a95d89b3521e41b57d1a3c4b"} -{"article":"EDGEWATER, New Jersey (CNN) -- People steadily file into movie theater No. 4, but they're not carrying buckets of popcorn or soda -- instead, it's Bibles and coffee. Worshippers sing at Joy Christian Fellowship, which meets at Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in New Jersey. The sign above the double door announces \"The Proposal,\" the latest Sandra Bullock movie, but there's no romantic comedy playing on the screen -- instead, the lyrics to a Christian song fade in and out to the beat of the music: \"We are here because of you, because of you.\" On this Sunday morning, the approximately 200 people on hand aren't here to watch a movie but to worship God. Some stand stoically as they sing, others sway back and forth with eyes closed, a few have their hands raised toward the ceiling. At the front of the theater below the screen is a six-piece rock band that continues to sing, \"Oh, beautiful sound. The joy of heaven here.\" And it's here -- at Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas -- where Joy Christian Fellowship has been meeting for the past two years. \"It's not a traditional church setting,\" said Danny Han, Joy Christian's senior pastor, \"but we turn this theater auditorium into a worship place.\" Reclining cushioned seats take the place of pews; the movie screen stands in for stained glass windows. An entertainment venue has turned out to be an unconventional yet conveniently popular religious venue, attracting a new crowd of worshippers deterred by the traditional church setting. About 200 churches are renting theater space under a one-year contract with National CineMedia, a nationwide multiplex cinema chain. That's an increase from three churches six years ago. \"The economy has had clearly a positive impact,\" said Kurt Hall, the CEO of National CineMedia, about the trend of Sunday theater rentals, \"as churches have found it more difficult to raise money to build their own buildings.\" It's an alternative not only for small start-up churches that cannot afford space but also for large churches seeking to set up multiple locations. The movie theater offers a perfect setting: comfortable seats, state-of-the-art audio-visual technology, central air, ample parking, and prime locations. Joy Christian Fellowship leases two theaters from National Amusements, another multiplex cinemas chain, at $1,000 for 3 1\/2 hours each Sunday. National CineMedia has \"Worship Solutions\" packages with negotiable rates. But what may have started as a practical and economical solution has surprisingly become a spiritual solution for boosting church attendance. Only about four in 10 Americans say they attend religious services at least once a week, according to surveys conducted in recent years by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In Indianapolis, Indiana, the Rev. Ethan Maple decided that since people weren't filling the church pews, he would go to them. In March he started The Movie Theater Church. \"We're reaching out to those who have no religious background and also people who have been hurt by the traditional church setting,\" Maple said. His vision is not to build a physical church but to build a church community in a comfortable and unintimidating place. \"Everyone's gone to see a movie, and going to a theater to see worship is not a huge jump.\" Courtney Gonzales said he had been in and out of churches all his life before he came to The Movie Theater Church. \"I really hadn't had a permanent church home and was always feeling sort of disconnected,\" he said, adding he was raised in a Catholic family but did not relate to the rituals. \"I never really felt anything was getting through to me.\" As soon as he walked into the movie theater, Gonzales said, he immediately connected. \"I just felt comfortable, unlike when I had been at other churches.\" Congregation members eat popcorn and drink soda while worshipping. The offering is collected in popcorn buckets. \"Sunday best\" is often sneakers, jeans and an untucked T-shirt. Song lyrics and movie clips that illustrate sermon points flash across the large screen. (And during normal theater hours, church ads are included in the movie previews.) \"Lots of pastors give us feedback that they've seen an increase in church attendance because they're in the movie theater,\" said Hall from National CineMedia, which has created a team of nine people exclusively focused on church-theater relations. At The Movie Theater Church, attendance for this year's Easter service was 268 people, up from 91 last year, Maple said. \"The numbers show that the congregation accepts this new church style.\" It's a style these churches want to keep. According to National CineMedia, 67 percent of their church clients consider the movie theater to be a permanent facility. \"We wouldn't go any other way,\" said Chris Jarrell, a pastor National Community Church in the District of Columbia area. \"We see this as a long-term strategy.\" Four of National Community Church's five locations are movie theaters near subway stops, including the Phoenix Movie Theater on the lower level of Union Station. Watch congregants talk about having services in a cinema \u00bb . However, Pastor Steve Kelly of Wave Church in Virginia said staying in a movie theater sends a certain message to the community. \"The moment you define yourself as 'We're just going to rent this facility,' you're saying that you're not necessarily here to stay,\" he said. His congregation has been leasing theater space for five years while they wait for more members and money to build a facility on 31 acres of already-purchased land. Being a tenant comes with other drawbacks, such as the task of transforming the theater into a sanctuary every Sunday. Kuen Doo, a member of Joy Christian Fellowship, is in charge of setting up for the 9:30 a.m. service. His morning begins at 7:30 a.m. at a storage location, which houses 14 large black boxes on wheels that contain everything from music stands to speakers, church signs to drum set. \"It takes about an hour to load everything, come to this movie theater, unload, and help set up,\" Doo said. At least 17 congregation members are devoted to setting up and breaking down each Sunday. Joy Christian Fellowship has to clear out before noon, when the matinees begin, and theater No. 4 -- along with other movie theaters nationwide -- no longer belongs to the church.","highlights":"Idea appeals to small start-ups, big churches seeking to set up multiple locations .\nAt one cinema-based church, Easter attendance was up threefold from year before .\nPastor: Staying in a movie theater risks sending message that you won't stick around .\nOne big drawback: Setting up and breaking down sanctuary weekly is a lot of work .","id":"c6385063dd5b9207ff90f9ddc8cddf163c392b9e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Since the moment Barack Obama took office, he has made a concerted effort to speak directly to the Muslim world. Election posters hang on the exterior of many buildings in Tripoli, Lebanon, last week. Even his inauguration address sent a new and different message from the United States: . \"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,\" he said on January 20, standing in front of a changed nation. \"To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.\" Next month, Obama will deliver a long-awaited speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt. He will speak at a critical time for Lebanon, days before an election that could bring powerful Shia militia group Hezbollah to power. This possibility could shake the foundation of Obama's attempts to bring stability and peace to the Middle East. With one of the most powerful armies in the Middle East, Hezbollah is poised to lead Lebanon's government with the help of Lebanese Christian opposition leader, Gen. Michel Aoun. Aoun signed a memo of understanding with Hezbollah in February 2006 and joined the March 8 bloc, led by Hezbollah. That could give the bloc the numbers it needs to control parliament after the June 7 elections. There have been sporadic incidents of violence ahead of the vote: Billboards have been defaced and just last week, a Hezbollah-aligned political office was burned to the ground. While these acts of violence are small by Lebanese standards, a friend who lives near the burned office told me it was a \"terrifying reminder of last May.\" That is when Hezbollah militants, in a blatant show of force, seized control of the streets of Beirut, marking the worst violence to hit Lebanon since the end of its civil war in 1991. Many saw it as an embarrassment to Saad Hariri's ruling March 14 bloc, which had to grant major political concessions to Hezbollah to restore order to Beirut. Hezbollah's leader has painted May 7, 2008, as a \"glorious day that prevented civil war,\" but journalists like myself remember the day slightly differently: pinned down behind a building by raging gunfire. At the time, I could not believe that Hezbollah gunmen were about to occupy half of the Lebanese capital. They did so until the government gave in; then they withdrew back to Beirut's southern suburbs, allowing the city's wealthy neighborhoods to return to normal for the summer. Regardless, it was a show of force that people in Lebanon have not forgotten. The lead-up to next month's vote has seen the same, typical -- and at times stereotypical -- Beirut antics. Hezbollah has accused Hariri's political bloc of bringing Lebanese expatriates into the country in droves to try to swing the vote in its favor. Anyone who drives out to Beirut's airport can see these expats arriving from countries like Brazil, Canada and the United States. Hariri swept to power in the wake of the 2005 assassination of his father, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many Lebanese blamed Syria, which had dominated Lebanon politically and militarily since the civil war, for the killing. The assassination sparked widespread protests that led to the election of the younger Hariri's anti-Syrian bloc in parliament and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Damascus has denied any role in Hariri's killing, but a U.N. investigation has found indications of Syrian involvement. Now, it appears the tide is turning once again in Lebanon, this time in Hezbollah's favor. Three years ago, Hezbollah -- which is supported by both Syria and Iran -- fought a war against the Israeli military, which failed to weaken the militia. Since that perceived victory over Israel, Hezbollah has been considered by its supporters to be the \"defender of Lebanon.\" So what happens on June 8 when the world wakes up to a Lebanon that sees Hezbollah aligned with Aoun as the majority and Hariri's March 14 bloc as the opposition party? When Hamas won the elections in Gaza in January 2006, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the elections \"free and fair.\" But that made no difference as Israel tightened its grip, and the two rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, killed each other in the streets of Gaza. Is the situation any different now for Lebanon, or is it perhaps even worse? Lebanon's political landscape is shifting months after a similar shift in Israel. Voters in the Jewish state overwhelmingly supported conservative parties over more moderate groups, bringing into power Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. Netanyahu is viewed in the Arab world as more hawkish than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who ordered the war against Hezbollah in 2006. With an estimated 30,000 rockets pointed at Israel from southern Lebanon -- all under the control of Hezbollah -- how can Netanyahu sell the idea to the people of northern Israel that they are safe from a country ruled by Hezbollah-aligned politicians? The situation means that the Arab world will be listening even more closely to Obama's June 4 address in Cairo to hear whether the U.S. president will champion democracy -- even if it means an inevitable standoff between Israel, a historically staunch ally, and Lebanon, as it struggles to find an identity both within itself and in the outside world.","highlights":"Lebanon elections on June 7 could bring Hezbollah to power, says CNN's Cal Perry .\nThat would shake President Obama's efforts toward Mideast peace, Perry says .\nObama plans to give major speech to Muslim world on June 4 in Egypt .\nWill Obama champion democracy, given the situation in Lebanon, Perry asks .","id":"86db8169a8c9a16e4a2eb24c37bd226a4c5b6176"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN\/IN Session) -- A German man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and passed himself off for years as a member of the moneyed clan was sentenced Friday to four to five years in prison for kidnapping his daughter. The man who said he was Clark Rockefeller actually is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Earlier in the day, a jury of eight women and four men found Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter, 48, guilty of the kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Judge Frank M. Gaziano noted that Gerhartsreiter showed little regard for the impact his actions had on his former wife and daughter. He said he also considered the defendant's long history of deceptive and manipulative behavior, including the use of multiple aliases. Gerhartsreiter already has spent a year in jail, meaning that with credit for good behavior he could spend just another year or two in prison. Gerhartstreiter, who was born in Germany and is in the U.S. illegally, faces removal by immigration authorities when he completes his sentence. In addition, his lawyer said, authorities in Los Angeles, California, have convened a grand jury to investigate his possible role in the 1985 deaths of a couple who rented a carriage house to him. The defendant stared straight ahead as the judge announced the sentence. He was equally impassive when the jury returned its verdicts. Watch the verdict \u00bb . The jury rejected Gerhartsreiter's insanity defense, but found him not guilty of two lesser charges after deliberating for 26\u00bd hours over five days. He faces up to 15 years in prison. A sentencing hearing was set to begin at 2 p.m. ET. \"Today the victims in this case have some sense of justice, I hope,\" said Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley \"We are very happy with today's verdict. We're very happy with the jury.\" After announcing the verdict, all 12 jurors returned to the courtroom and delivered a prepared statement. \"This was a complicated case, and not as clear-cut as it might have seemed to those who followed it in the media,\" the jurors' statement said . \"We are confident that our verdict is fair and just, and based only on the information we were legally allowed to consider,\" it continued. \"Our verdict is a unanimous one, as the law requires, and all of us stand by the verdict completely. \" The jurors said the terse statement was their final word on the case. They did not take questions. The case has attracted international attention because of the defendant's bogus claim to be related to the Rockefellers, one of America's wealthiest families. He fooled even his wife of 12 years, who said on the witness stand that she had \"a blind spot\" for a man who charmed her, then controlled her and bullied her. Prosecutors said Gerhartsreiter came to the United States from Germany in 1978 as a student. They said he is a con man who has been telling fanciful tales and misrepresenting himself ever since. The defense said he has long suffered from mental illness that boiled over into insanity when he abducted his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, last summer. The jury heard closing arguments and legal instructions before retiring for deliberation Monday. \"This is not a man playing with a full deck,\" said Jeffrey Denner, one of two lawyers who gave closing arguments for the defense. According to testimony from defense experts, Gerhartsreiter believed his daughter was in danger. He also believed they could communicate telepathically and shared a secret language. \"You see him descending into madness,\" Denner said. \"You see completely irrational action that other people are buying because of the name Rockefeller and the appearance, the veneer, of respectability with a powerful wife.\" The defense called two experts who, he said, spent 28 hours with the defendant before diagnosing him as having a narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions. Prosecutor David Deakin called the insanity diagnosis \"preposterous.\" He argued, \"This is not a case about madness. It's a case about manipulation.\" He described Gerhartsreiter as a controlling man who was angry that his former wife, Sandra Boss, had moved with their daughter to London in December 2007. According to testimony, Boss, a Harvard business school graduate and senior partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting company, took full custody of the child, giving her ex-husband $800,000, two cars, her engagement ring and a dress he had bought her. She said she believed the fanciful stories her husband wove around his image as Clark Rockefeller and never saw any sign of mental illness. Denner asked how a successful businesswoman who was educated at Stanford and Harvard universities and made $1 million a year could fall for an impostor. \"There's a big difference between intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence,\" Boss explained. \"I'm not saying I made a very good choice of a husband. It's obvious I had a pretty big blind spot.\" \"He told compelling stories,\" she said. \"It seems stupid in hindsight, and it really was, but that is how it was. ... I lived with a person who told me a set of internally consistent things.\" \"I was completely traumatized,\" Boss said of the abduction. \"I was hysterical.\"","highlights":"Jury deliberated for 26\u00bd hours over five days returning guilty verdicts .\nEight women, four men on jury reject insanity defense .\nMan who said he was a Rockefeller faces 15 years in prison .\nEx-wife, Sandra Boss, testified for the prosecution .","id":"a67ba80cb9c8c320025ba5d37515a3f133bc11c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite efforts to keep people from profiting from Tuesday's public memorial service for Michael Jackson, scalpers online Monday were asking as much as $9,000 per ticket to the free event. Free tickets to Tuesday's memorial service for Michael Jackson have appeared for sale online. Dozens of listings selling vouchers for Jackson tickets appeared Monday on auction site eBay and Craigslist, the classified ads site, prompting complaints from Jackson fans and others who felt the sales were inappropriate. \"You people trying to sell these tickets should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves,\" said a Craigslist user in a post Monday morning. \"Please flag all of these money-grabbing opportunists...if you're a true MJ fan you won't give money to these parasites.\" Organizers of the public memorial service, scheduled for Tuesday morning at the Staples Center arena in downtown Los Angeles, made 8,750 pairs of tickets available through an online lottery. But demand far outstripped supply, as about 1.6 million fans registered for a chance at the tickets. Winners received an e-mail Sunday directing them to print vouchers and bring them Monday to Dodgers Stadium, where they were to receive tickets and have a nonremovable wristband placed on their arms. Those entering the Staples Center on Tuesday must have wristbands to match their tickets. But that didn't stop some people from trying to sell their vouchers to anyone who could make it to Dodgers Stadium by 7 p.m. Monday. One pair of tickets attracted a bid of $275,000 on eBay before the listing was removed. It was difficult to tell whether the offer was serious. Both eBay and Craigslist took steps Monday to thwart the ticket sellers. \"eBay will not allow Michael Jackson memorial service tickets to be listed on the site,\" the company said in a statement. \"If found, eBay will remove them from the site immediately.\" By Monday afternoon the number of listings for \"Michael Jackson memorial tickets\" on eBay had dropped to a handful, and the site was removing them shortly after they appeared. Learn more about plans for the memorial \u00bb . Craigslist allows its users to flag ads they find inappropriate, and ads receiving enough negative flags are automatically removed from the site. Many ads proffering Jackson memorial tickets were removed shortly after they were posted Monday. Among those was a listing posted by a man who identified himself only as Peetey, 29, of Venice Beach, California. He was asking $8,000 for a single ticket; the winning bidder would accompany his girlfriend to the service, he said. The ad was removed within 15 minutes, he said, but that was enough time for five people to call with interest. When contacted by CNN, Peetey said he sees nothing wrong with selling a free ticket to a memorial service. \"We live in a capitalist society where money is what really speaks,\" he said. \"I'm not trying to make a huge profit. I'm not trying to take advantage of anybody.\" Peetey, who did not want his last name used for fear of backlash from Jackson fans, said he would go to the memorial service if he can't get at least $5,000 for the ticket. His girlfriend won the lottery-issued tickets, he said, and will attend the event. \"I want to go, and I have a large desire to go, but if I can get a lot of money, especially in this economic climate, it doesn't seem wise for me to sit there for two hours if I can get $10,000 for the ticket,\" he said. Daniel Moreno, 33, of Murrieta, California, said people trying to sell the tickets are disgracing Jackson by trying to capitalize on his death. \"That kind of sucks, you know. The guy's dead,\" said Moreno, who posted a statement on Craigslist vowing to flag any listings selling Jackson memorial tickets. Moreno said those with tickets should give them away if they don't want to attend the service. \"I don't have $1,000 to spend on this ticket and wouldn't want to spend $1,000 on this ticket,\" he told CNN. \"And I wouldn't want to be in the presence of someone who's trying to sell the ticket because I'd be arrested for battery.\" By 2 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), organizers had handed out more than 6,400 pairs of tickets. Los Angeles police Capt. Bill Murphy said the distribution process was going smoothly as of early Monday afternoon. One person tried to pass off a photocopied voucher and was ejected, Murphy said. CNN.com's John D. Sutter contributed to this story.","highlights":"Tickets for Tuesday's memorial for Michael Jackson have appeared for sale online .\nBoth eBay and Craigslist took steps Monday to thwart ticket sellers .\nCraigslist user: Ticket sellers \"should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves\"\nSeller: \"We live in a capitalist society where money is what really speaks\"","id":"c9b59fbabaf3405d71f7fcfeff484cfcbc322db7"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal court has ordered a Kuwait-based contractor to pay nearly $5 million in damages to the family of a U.S. military officer killed in Iraq -- a rare court decision holding a contracting company accountable for its actions in the war. Lt. Col. Dominic Baragona was the highest-ranking soldier to die in Iraq when he was killed May 19, 2003. Army Lt. Col. Dominic \"Rocky\" Baragona was just an hour away from a U.S. base in Kuwait -- ultimately headed home to the United States -- when a tractor-trailer operated by Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company slammed into his Humvee on May 19, 2003, killing him instantly. Baragona, a West Point graduate, was 42 years old and the highest-ranking soldier to have died in the war at the time. His family filed a wrongful death suit against KGL. Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia sided with the family, holding the Kuwait company negligent in Baragona's death for failing to provide safe passage on the three-lane road where the accident occurred. A key issue in the judge's decision was whether a U.S. court had jurisdiction over a foreign contractor and whether there was a legal basis to find it negligent. Ultimately, Judge William Duffey found that there was. \"The court enters judgment in the amount of $4,907,048 to be paid by KGL in a single lump payment,\" the judge wrote in his 12-page decision issued on November 5. Baragona's father, Dominic Baragona, a former U.S. Marine, told CNN he is embarrassed his family was forced into a lawsuit to learn details surrounding his son's death. He also said the court decision is bittersweet: No amount of money will ever bring his son back, but it feels good that a court of law sided with his family. Watch family describe Rocky's hugs, his Mustang and his character \u00bb . \"You feel good for the Rock,\" he said of his boy. \"We're going to make KGL sweat it a little bit. I mean they're going to remember Rocky's name.\" Baragona's sister, Pam, added, \"Even in his death, he's still handing out more messages -- very quietly, in Rocky's way.\" CNN sought comment from KGL for this story, but got no response. The law firm Crowell & Moring, which has represented KGL in the past, declined comment. KGL has received millions of dollars in U.S.-government contracts. On its Web site, the company says it \"performs multiple operations such as providing of vehicles and equipments to customers,\" including the U.S. Army and coalition forces. It also boasts of having more than $1 billion in market capitalization. CNN legal analyst Jeffery Toobin said the court decision theoretically \"does open the door to more lawsuits\" against contractors, but that the Baragona family is a long way from ever seeing the money. \"It is always very hard to collect judgments against foreign companies and, when you overlay the chaos of Iraq, it makes it extremely difficult -- if not impossible,\" Toobin said. The court decision comes at a time when Congress has been closely scrutinizing contractors and seeking ways to hold the companies accountable for their actions in war zones. The Baragonas say their suit was never about money. They would like to see changes made in the contracting business, most importantly to have third-party investigations carried out when something goes wrong and to keep everyone abreast during that reporting process. \"[Rocky] was about improving and changing systems so that we had a better Army. And that's what he believed in and that's what he dedicated his life to. If in his death, he adds more on to that -- that's what I'm fighting for,\" said Pam Baragona. If the family ever gets paid, they say they want to set up a foundation to honor their son and brother to help pay for college educations of deserving students. \"Rock's the little guy. We have to vindicate for him. We have to take care of the little guy,\" his sister said. \"Creating a legacy for him is a huge responsibility.\" Born on Flag Day on June 14, 1960, Rocky Baragona dedicated his life to the military, entering West Point after high school and graduating among the top of his class in 1982. His motto was: \"More than expected.\" He was one of seven children, five boys and two girls. One brother, Christopher, died of leukemia just before he would have turned 9. The family says it was a young, energetic and super smart Rocky who \"held our family together through that dark time.\" \"Rocky was my heart,\" his mother, Vilma, said. So sharp was Rocky that he attended a computer camp in the mid-1970s and then taught a computer class in high school for two years because nobody else at school knew much about computers, his mom said. Rocky loved the military. He also loved gadgets, the Cleveland Indians, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cleveland Browns. His father, Dominic, said he spoke with his son just two hours before he was killed in Iraq. As the commander of the 19th Maintenance Battalion based out of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, his son was helping his soldiers get out of Iraq en route to Camp Victory in Kuwait. Once at the Kuwait base, they were scheduled to head home to Fort Sill. \"I remember asking him: 'Well, Rock, is there anything I have to worry about?' \" the father said. \"He said, 'The only thing you have to worry about, Dad, is something stupid happening.' \" According to the lawsuit, Baragona was traveling south through Iraq as part of a three-vehicle convoy when the crash happened. The suit claims the KGL tractor-trailer struck a pile of dried concrete that had spilled on the road, jack-knifing the big rig and then slamming into Baragona's Humvee. The soldier driving Baragona's vehicle survived the accident. The Baragona family never expected more than four years later to be talking to a reporter about their son over the Thanksgiving holiday, a court decision and the grief they've endured -- grief over losing a young child to leukemia and then a grown son three decades later to an accident in war. \"It just never goes away,\" his mother said of her pain. The father says he and Rocky loved to talk politics. Rocky would always take the opposite position just to rile up his old man. \"I didn't win too many arguments off him because he was so damn sharp,\" he said. \"To me, he was the guy I couldn't wait to talk to.\" The dad then paused and said, \"What a great relationship.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Federal court orders Kuwaiti contractor to pay $5 million to soldier's family .\nLt. Col. Dominic \"Rocky\" Baragona died in Iraq accident on May 19, 2003 .\nDad: \"They're going to remember Rocky's name\"\nRuling comes at a time when Congress is weighing contractor accountability .","id":"7c6d16768e4ff6f2efe783e02390de8cf6820246"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Church of England is offering unmarried parents who want to tie the knot the option of having baptisms for their children at the same time. Statistics show an increasing number of couples live together before their wedding day, the church says. The offer is a response to demand after church-sponsored research showed that 20 percent of couples getting married in a church already had children, whether together or from a previous relationship, the church said. It is also a way to make the church more welcoming for unmarried parents and their families, a church spokesman said. The church is issuing new guidelines to priests that encourage them to offer parents the option of having a baptism or thanksgiving service for their child's birth at the same time as their wedding. The guidelines also advise priests on how to perform the dual ceremonies, the spokesman said. \"Patterns of relationship and marriage within society are presenting new opportunities for the church,\" said Bishop of Wakefield, Stephen Platten, who chairs the Church of England's Liturgical Commission. \"We are therefore offering guidance on how thanksgiving for the gift of a child, or indeed baptism, might be incorporated within a marriage service so that the church can respond pastorally to our changing world if a priest feels it would be advisable to offer this option.\" What do you think of the offer? Have your say . It has always been possible to hold both ceremonies at the same time, but priests didn't always know how to go about it, spokesman Howard Dobson said. The guidelines make it easier for priests to know how to offer and perform the dual ceremonies, he said. Research from Britain's Office of National Statistics shows that for many couples, having children is now the first major milestone of adult life, ahead of marriage -- in contrast to their parents' generation, the church said. Statistics also show an increasing number of couples now live together before their wedding day, the church said. The Church of England said it hopes the ideas \"will help churches show their welcome for couples with children, and give the whole family a special occasion and a new beginning.\"","highlights":"Church of England looking to be more welcoming to unmarried parents .\nChurch research: 20 percent of couples getting married already had children .\nParents offered baptism for their child at the same time as their wedding .","id":"e0f82752f6bdb9b42317a69a25c4aa12add23f1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Philadelphia Eagles welcomed Michael Vick back into the National Football League on Friday after the quarterback spent almost two years in federal prison on a felony dogfighting conviction. Michael Vick speaks at a Philadelphia Eagles news conference on Friday. Vick, formerly with the Atlanta Falcons, has signed a two-year deal with the Eagles. \"I think everybody deserves a second chance,\" Vick said at a news conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Friday. \"Now I want to be part of the solution and not the problem.\" The league suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. Vick, 29, was freed from federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to his Virginia home to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. iReport.com: Is this a good move? \"Everything that happened at that point in my life was wrong,\" Vick said of his involvement with the dogfighting ring. Watch bloggers discuss Vick's return to the NFL \u00bb . \"I had to reach a turning point. Prison definitely did it for me,\" he said. Flanked by Eagles coach Andy Reid and former NFL coach Tony Dungy, who acted as a mentor to Vick after he was imprisoned, the newest Eagle vowed \"to do all the right things.\" \"I want to be an ambassador to the NFL and the community,\" he said. \"I'm glad I got ... a second chance. I won't disappoint.\" Dungy said that he thinks Vick can revive his career and turn his life around in Philadelphia but that the quarterback will be tested by fickle Eagles fans. \"He is gonna have a lot of people who do not think he should be playing. He's got to prove them wrong on the field and off the field,\" Dungy said. Watch why Dungy thinks Vick will be a positive force \u00bb . Earlier reaction to Vick's signing was mixed. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Thursday night in a statement that it was \"incredibly disappointed\" at the news. \"Philadelphia is a city of dog lovers and, most particularly, pit bull lovers,\" said Susan Cosby, the organization's chief executive officer. \"To root for someone who participated in the hanging, drowning, electrocution and shooting of dogs will be impossible for many, no matter how much we would all like to see the Eagles go all the way.\" However, Ed Sayres, president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said in a statement that \"[NFL] Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Philadelphia Eagles have granted Michael Vick a second chance, and the ASPCA expects Mr. Vick to express remorse for his actions, as well as display more compassion and sound judgment this time around than he did during his previous tenure with the NFL. \"We hope that Mr. Vick uses his stature for the betterment of the community and the advancement of the issue of animal cruelty,\" Sayres said. Reid said he knows that there are some fans who will not accept Vick. \"I understand how that works,\" he said. \"But there's enough of them that will, and then it's up to Michael to prove that that change has taken place. I think he's there. That's what he wants to do.\" He said Vick \"seems very focused, and he wants to get his career back on track.\" It is unclear what role Vick will play in the Eagles' offense. But it was clear that the move had the blessing of Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb. \"I pretty much lobbied to get him here,\" McNabb said. \"Because everybody deserves a second chance.\" The NFL reinstated Vick on a conditional basis last month. Vick \"will be considered for full reinstatement and to play in regular-season games by Week 6 based on the progress he makes in his transition plan,\" the league said in a statement last month. Week 6 of the NFL season is in October. Vick may participate in practices, workouts and meetings and may play in his club's final two preseason games under the conditions of his reinstatement, the league said last month. \"I fully understand that playing football in the NFL is a privilege, not a right, and I am truly thankful for [the] opportunity I have been given,\" Vick said in a statement last month upon his reinstatement. Goodell said last month that Vick underwent tests, including a psychiatric evaluation, after requests from animal rights groups. Vick has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At a hearing in that case, he told the judge he earned 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor while in prison. Court documents released in Vick's case showed that two of his co-defendants, who also pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal, said that Vick helped kill dogs that didn't fight well and that all three men \"executed approximately eight dogs\" in ways that included hanging and drowning. The dogs were killed because they fared poorly in \"testing\" sessions held at Vick's property. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick offered to work with the organization on anti-dogfighting campaigns. Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president, has said Vick was to work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting and on programs to assist youths who have been involved. In November, Vick pleaded guilty to a state dogfighting charge and received a three-year suspended sentence. The Eagles are scheduled to play Vick's former team, the Falcons, in Atlanta on December 6.","highlights":"Philadelphia Eagles introduce Michael Vick at news conference .\nEagles head coach Andy Reid: I know some fans won't accept Vick .\nNFL suspended Vick in 2007 after he pleaded guilty in dogfighting case .\nVick won't be able to play in regular season games until October .","id":"db34d1c9591bbab693eae7bdcf9054d9bd50907a"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa's police chief said Monday that violence directed at foreign nationals had killed 22 people over the past week. Police carry an unidentified Malawi national on an improvised stretcher after he was badly beaten in Reiger Park township. The attacks have been concentrated in Johannesburg's poorest areas, and many of the victims were Zimbabweans who have fled repression and dire economic circumstances. The Nelson Mandela Foundation issued a statement condemning the \"senseless violence\" that police say was sparked a week ago in Johannesburg's Alexandra Township. \"We join the rest of South Africa in deploring this violence,\" said Achmat Dangor, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, according to a statement released on Monday. \"Whatever the underlying causes they have to be addressed, but this senseless violence is not a solution.\" Police said those behind the attacks accused the foreigners of stealing jobs, carrying out criminal activities and benefiting from social services -- such as free housing -- meant to benefit South Africans. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . Police arrested more than 200 people during the violence for offenses including rape, murder, robbery and theft. Police said at least one foreigner was burned alive over the weekend, while others had their houses torched, their shops looted and their possessions stolen. Many have sought refuge at police stations. Some women have told police they were raped as part of an effort to drive the immigrants out. South Africa's police director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said 22 people had been killed in the past week. The Red Cross estimates some 3,000 more were displaced. The attacks were concentrated in some of the poorest parts of South Africa where locals are jobless, hungry and in need of basic services such as clean water, sanitation and housing. South African President Thabo Mbeki called for an investigation into the violence. He has been reluctant to describe it as xenophobic because many South Africans have criticized his government for not doing enough to deal with the crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic collapse, with nearly 80 percent unemployment and inflation estimated to be at 160,000 percent. In addition, it is also in a state of political limbo. A presidential runoff between long-time leader President Robert Mugabe and his opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai is scheduled for June 27 -- three months after the initial vote. Opposition leaders have accused the government of carrying out a campaign of political intimidation ahead of the runoff. The economic and political situation has seen an influx of Zimbabweans to South Africa, seeking a better life. Archbishop Desmond Tutu also condemned the violence and urged South Africans to remember the help that he and other anti-apartheid leaders received from neighboring countries. \"Although they were poor, they welcomed us South Africans as refugees, and allowed our liberation movements to have bases in their territory even if it meant those countries were going to be attacked by the SADF (South African Defense Forces),\" Tutu said. \"Please stop the violence now. This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop.\" A South African military veterans' group plans to mobilize soldiers who fought against the country's former system of legalized racial separation \"to help educate the people ... about the role played by other African countries in securing South Africa's freedom.\" \"Many brave comrades paid the ultimate price on African soil, but never at the hands of the people of those countries,\" according to a statement from the Military Veterans' Association in the Western Cape province. \"In the light of these facts, the xenophobic attacks witnessed in Gauteng (Province) over the past week -- and previously, against refugee traders in Cape Town -- are totally repugnant.\"","highlights":"At least 22 people killed by mobs targeting foreigners in Johannesburg .\nPolice arrest more than 200 people for offenses including rape and murder .\nZimbabweans who have fled their own country are driven from squatter camps .\nSouth Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu condemns the attacks .","id":"997357d3a4fc2c6d5d04536af40e7eb8c62af2d2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Reza Sayah is one of the few Western journalists reporting from Tehran after the Iranian government placed restrictions on coverage. A man in the crowd holds up a photo of Ahmadinejad during Khamenei's address at Friday prayers. TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- People in the crowd sang songs of tribute as they waited. When he arrived, they stood and welcomed him in unison: \"Praise be to God and to his prophet, Mohammed.\" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader for two decades, took the stage during Friday prayers at Tehran University with a few notes on small pieces of paper in his left hand. He leaned on the lectern with his right arm, crippled in an 1981 assassination attempt. He was ready to put an end to a week of unrest. First, a sermon about the dangers of division and disunity, using the language of Islam. Then came secular sentences, decidedly direct. He praised the huge turnout at the polls as a victory for Iran but criticized post-election turmoil as the work of Iran's enemies -- the United States, Israel and Britain. \"The enemies want to destroy our confidence. They want to create doubt about the election,\" Khamenei said. A full hour passed before he delivered a verdict that supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi did not want to hear. \"Eleven million votes difference?\" he asked. \"Sometimes there's a margin of one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, or one million, maximum. Then one can doubt, be concerned that there has been some rigging or manipulation. \"But there's a difference of 11 million votes. How can vote rigging happen?\" To be clear, he reminded the crowd of the victor at the polls. It was the man sitting in the front row: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was the \"the absolute victor,\" Khamenei said. \"If political elites want to ignore or break the law and willy-nilly take wrong measures which are harmful, they will be held accountable for all violence and blood and rioting.\" Few in the crowd were disappointed with the cleric's words. \"Death to America!\" the people chanted repeatedly, interrupting Khamenei's speech. \"Death to Israel.\" Noticeably absent Friday was Moussavi, the man who had sparked Iran's unrest by calling for a recount of the votes. Absent, too, were Moussavi's supporters, who did not take to the streets to protest as they had done in previous days. There were no signs and placards on the streets. Or people clamoring for change. The tens of thousands who showed up for Friday prayer were a stark contrast to the demonstrators. They were mostly religious conservatives, supporters of Ahmadinejad. And they had a message for the president's opponent, though it was not always consistent. Some were conciliatory. \"The nation should come together,\" one said. \"We are all one.\" Others took a hard line: \"They must stop with the demonstrations, otherwise there will be consequences.\" Just what those consequences might be may become apparent Saturday afternoon, when the demonstrators are expected again on the streets of Tehran. But for now, Iran's supreme leader had issued his warning clearly: Enough is enough.","highlights":"Supreme leader sermonizes about dangers of division and disunity .\nKhamenei: Post-election turmoil the work of the United States, Israel, Britain .\nAyatollah endorses official results showing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected .\nCrowd repeatedly interrupts him to chant \"Death to Israel\" and \"Death to America\"","id":"2452c3cc724c242094f6e7ac9b413098c47ef335"} -{"article":"Although it may have been Jon and Kate Gosselin's unusual family that landed them a reality show, it is their marital problems-- to which much of their audience can likely relate-- that have made them a household name in recent weeks. Jon and Kate Gosselin's marital problems have give their TLC show record-breaking ratings. During the previous four seasons of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus Eight, the couple has bickered, eye-rolled, and jabbed its way through adventures in rearing now 9-year-old twins and now 5-year-old sextuplets. In this past Monday's record-breaking fifth-season premiere (9.8 million viewers), Jon and Kate finally addressed the very topic that has kept them on tabloid covers for weeks: Their marriage is on the rocks. Even without the stress of eight children, rolling cameras, and public scrutiny, all couples encounter tension in their relationships. Below, five trigger points that have tested Jon and Kate in their reality-TV run -- and how to make sure the same stressors don't take a toll on your relationship. Stress trigger No. 1: A growing family . Whether you're bringing home one new baby or six, expanding your brood requires adjustment. Sleep deprivation can trigger depression and anxiety, said Dr. Ken Robbins, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. New moms are also at risk for postpartum depression, and both parents will likely feel stretched for time. Health.com: 4 Myths about healthy sex . Then there's the issue of intimacy, which will undoubtedly be affected with children in the house. \"Sex lives of people who have children are worse -- there's data to prove it,\" said Dr. Andrew Goldstein, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the author of Reclaiming Desire. \"But a relationship is not like a job where you just have to accomplish what is necessary; you can't just put it on autopilot.\" Smart solutions: Couples need to work together to find creative ways to support and appreciate each other through this transition. \u2022 Adjust sleep schedules so that one partner sleeps while the other is awake with the baby. \u2022 When possible, get a friend or relative to occasionally help out at night so mom and dad have some time to cultivate their relationship one-on-one. Especially as kids get older, make sure they understand that mom and dad need time to themselves. \u2022 Be aware of the signs of postpartum depression like appetite changes, trouble concentrating, loss of energy, and hopelessness. Health.com: 6 Rules for a healthy postpartum slim-down . \u2022 Make activities that promote mental health -- such as exercise and social time -- a top priority. Stress trigger No. 2: Career changes . Before Jon & Kate Plus Eight, the Gosselins worked like the rest of us-- she as a nurse, he as an IT consultant. But things have changed since their family morphed into reality-show fodder, with Kate parlaying her notoriety into a career that includes two books, television appearances, and publicity tours. \"Kate's career has taken off and I'm a bit lost,\" Jon told People magazine in April. Any couple going through a similar change -- whether one partner loses a job or takes on a new one-- can experience tension in the relationship. Smart solutions: Couples should speak honestly and listen carefully to each other to see if a career change has affected their relationship. \u2022 The partner who is earning less money may struggle with a diminished self-esteem and feel extra sensitive, while the other may feel resentful about being the primary breadwinner. But both partners need to respect the other's role and recognize their situation as shared. In the case of Jon and Kate, \"the only reason she can do what she does is because he probably takes care of the kids while she's giving a lecture,\" Goldstein pointed out. \u2022 Find family and friends dealing with this same issue. Talking about shared struggles can help couples gain perspective and give them a chance to feel good about using their experience to help others. \u2022 If one partner is out of work, he or she should be encouraged to pursue a new skill set and stay intellectually and physically active. This will improve his or her role within the family and may open new doors in the future. Health.com: Help! My spouse has ADHD . Stress trigger No. 3: Intrusive in-laws . Although most couples don't have extended family announcing their disapproval on national television, it is certainly not uncommon for couples to elicit criticism from relatives over how they're raising their children. When people come together as a couple, they bring their own family's rules and ways of doing things with them, said Robbins. Smart solutions: Family members may have their own ideas about everything from how often you should go out to eat to what religion to observe to whether or not it is appropriate for children to appear on national television. And in all likelihood, both sets of grandparents may disagree. But you do not have to end up in a war over whose rules, if any, you will adopt. \u2022 First, listen to your in-laws. But in the end, decide as a couple which rules and guidelines are in your (and your children's) best interest. \u2022 Talk to each other. If one partner is under more scrutiny, it's important that the other listen carefully and that both talk about how they may be affected. \u2022 Present a united front to your extended family. It is crucial that they know you stand together. Stress trigger No. 4: You pick on each other . Kate has famously criticized Jon for breathing too loudly. He continually seems irritated by her neat streak. \"When couples begin to argue over small things, it usually means they have not resolved a more important problem,\" said. Robbins. Smart solutions: Since the partner who is doing the picking may not even be aware of his or her behavior, the onus in this situation is on the person who feels disrespected. \u2022 In a calm moment, sit your partner down and ask him or her if there is something you have done that is troubling them. Be clear about why you feel mistreated and be specific in your examples. \u2022 If you're the one doing the criticizing, first consider how much actual damage your partner's annoying habit can do, said Goldstein. \"If your spouse is text messaging while driving, that's worth talking about. If someone slurps when they drink -- well, you have to weigh the cost of the criticism versus the change that you're going to get.\" Health.com: How to care for and cope with a bipolar spouse . \u2022 Don't give up. It may take some discussion to figure out what is really going on, but in the end it can prevent unnecessary and unproductive conflict. Stress trigger No. 5: Infidelity . The tabloids have been buzzing with reports of Jon's and Kate's alleged indiscretions, which they have both denied. But it raises a common question for many couples -- what constitutes an inappropriate relationship? Smart solutions: Don't put yourself in situations that you're not comfortable discussing openly with your partner-- even if they don't technically involve cheating. Every couple has to develop its own definition of what is appropriate and what is not. \u2022 Sit down and talk about what relationships were like in your family when you were growing up. Maybe you're comfortable with your partner going out for lunch at work with a member of the opposite sex, but not for happy hour. Be open about what feels \"normal\" to you. \u2022 Don't be constrained by other people's ideas of what is right and wrong. This is a private matter for the couple to agree on. \u2022 If a line has been crossed, you need to decide together if the marriage is salvageable. If both members feel that there is a possibility of working things out, seeing a professional can help you sort out the feelings you are left with and move past them. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Jon and Kate Gosselin's marital problems are what audience likely can relate to .\nEven without eight children, all couples encounter tension in relationships .\nFive trigger points have tested Jon and Kate; tips on preventing the stressors .","id":"9dd76f4a8a3e0315edeabb72ae722030891f61cb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier convicted of rape and murder two decades ago will be executed December 10 in the nation's first military execution since 1961, the Army said Thursday. Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. A court-martial panel sitting at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unanimously convicted him of committing two murders and other crimes in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, and sentenced him to death. Gray's execution by injection will be carried out by Fort Leavenworth soldiers at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Army said in a news release. Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg. He was also convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at the post. Both military and civilian courts found Gray responsible for the crimes, which were committed between April 1986 and January 1987. Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes in a civilian court and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms. The general court-martial at Fort Bragg then tried him and in April 1988 convicted him of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. In July, President George W. Bush approved the Army's request to execute Gray. \"The president took action following completion of a full appellate process, which upheld the conviction and sentence to death,\" the Army said in the news release. \"Two petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied during the appellate processing of Pvt. Gray's case.\" Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed with presidential approval since 1951 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal system. The Army also sought Bush's authorization to execute another condemned soldier, Pvt. Dwight Loving, who was convicted of robbing and killing two cab drivers in 1988. The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was sentenced in 1955. The U.S. military hasn't actively pursued an execution for a military prisoner since President John F. Kennedy commuted a death sentence in 1962. Nine men are on military death row. CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pvt. Ronald Gray convicted of raping, murdering fellow soldiers, civilian .\nGray will be executed December 10 by soldiers in Terre Haute, Indiana .\nArmy Pvt. John Bennett was last man executed by military in 1961 .","id":"20929bbbf7416c1c9997f2c1cefa7ff84efe1fb8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Madame Tussauds unveiled a wax figure of Michael Jackson on Thursday, showing the late entertainer in a pose from the concerts he had planned to hold this month. The new waxwork of Michael Jackson -- only Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more times by Madame Tussauds. Sculptors at the wax museum started working on the figure four months ago. They had intended to display it this month, to coincide with the start of Jackson's \"This is It\" comeback tour in London. The new figure is modeled on a Jackson pose from the concert poster, the museum said. It shows him \"arms outstretched, pelvis thrusting and tip-toed, with his trademark trilby angled forward,\" the museum said. It is the 13th Jackson waxwork by Madame Tussauds, the museum said. Only Britain's Queen Elizabeth II -- who has been on the throne for almost 60 years -- has been portrayed more often. \"It is extremely unusual for a personality to have been portrayed so many times,\" said Madame Tussauds spokeswoman Liz Edwards. \"But Michael Jackson was totally unique and his iconic status made him one of the most popular stars here.\" The London museum has two other Jackson waxworks -- one in a pose from \"Thriller\" and another from his \"Dangerous\" album. The other 10 Jackson waxworks are in other Madame Tussauds museums around the world. The museum said it decided to proceed with the figure after Jackson's death last month \"as a tribute to one of the greatest musicians of all time and to celebrate his amazing 40-year career.\"","highlights":"Waxwork is the 13th of Jackson unveiled by the London tourist attraction .\nModel had been commissioned before singer's death to coincide with London concerts .\nOnly Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more often by the museum .","id":"685d0eceb0b7bae58fe13d94f8bdff394e724ba0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Adam Walsh, Etan Patz and Madeleine McCann, before the first Amber Alert, before a young face stared back from the side of a milk carton, there was Danny. Danny Barter was 4 when he vanished in 1959 while on a family camping trip. Danny Barter vanished in 1959. He was on a family camping trip to Alabama's Perdido Bay. He was playing with his dad one minute, gone the next. \"Just like that,\" recalled his brother Mike Barter. Danny was 4 years old. Last weekend, his loved ones returned to the campsite and to the scene of the presumed stranger abduction. They came to remember Danny and to rededicate a half-century mission to find him. Even with the passage of time, their faith has not wavered. \"We've never doubted that he's ... out there,\" Mike Barter said. \"Until they prove otherwise, we hope one day we will be reunited.\" Their hope has been bolstered by investigators with the FBI and the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, which reopened the case last year after hearing of a recent conversation. \"A lead was sparked when someone was sitting in a public area talking about what happened,\" FBI spokeswoman Joyce Riggs wrote in an e-mail to the media. As cold case cops know, a wisp of a lead can turn into a big break, a fact FBI Special Agent Angela Tobon believes can solve the Daniel Barter mystery. \"Even if [people] think it's insignificant, it's probably not,\" Tobon said. \"Each little piece of the puzzle may not mean something, but when you put it all together, you get the big picture.\" Danny was the third youngest of Paul and Maxine Barter's seven children. He had brown hair and big brown eyes. \"He's such a very pretty and sweet child,\" his mom told the Mobile Register in an article published June 21, 1959. \"I can understand why someone would want to take him, because he's such a pretty child.\" Three days earlier, Danny, his parents and his siblings were enjoying a family outing near the Gulf shore. Danny and his dad had just returned from getting some drinks at a store. Tents were pitched. Fishing poles were prepared. And then someone noticed that Danny was gone. \"I had first believed that despite Danny's fear of water, he had wandered into the water and drowned,\" Maxine Barter told the Mobile Register. \"But not now. I believe he probably walked up the road, and someone picked him up.\" The search was extensive and immediate. Hundreds combed the land and the waters, looking for Danny. Bloodhounds were given his scent and dispatched to follow it. Alligators were killed and cut open. But there was no trace of Danny, then or now. For his parents and the police, the sickening conclusion was quickly reached: He was stolen by a human predator. Danny's mom could not fathom that the kidnapper would bring harm to her boy. \"I hope now that someone did take Danny, because I know if anyone wanted him bad enough to kidnap him, they would take good care of him,\" she said. Fifty years later, the family longs for closure. Paul and Maxine Barter are both deceased, but their children carry on the decades-long pursuit to know the truth. On dannybarter.com, a Web site dedicated to finding answers, the family posted this plea to the public: . \"We strongly believe that someone out there knows what happened to Danny and possibly knows him as another identity. We hope to find him safe and sound.\" The FBI is also seeking information on Danny Barter. It has published two photographs of him on its Web site. One shows the smiling child, taken in the months before Danny was abducted. The other picture is age-progressed, depicting what Danny would look like today at 54. If you have any information on the Danny Barter case, go to dannybarter.com or contact the FBI, your local police or the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office in Alabama.","highlights":"FBI says it has a new lead in a 50-year-old cold case .\nDanny Barter, 4, is believed to have been taken by a stranger .\nBoy went missing during a family camping trip in Perdido Bay, Alabama .\nFBI says someone was overheard talking about the boy's abduction .","id":"efc11319354d61b007aa58ebe1422f10f8d6f513"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Formula One's new Team U.S. F1 will have the financial backing of YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley -- and the video sharing Web site's chief executive expects to make a big impact in motorsport. Chad Hurley is hoping his start-up experience can help the US F1 team become a major player. The American, who along with co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim sold YouTube to internet giant Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, has faith in the team's prospects for the 2010 season. It is fronted by engineer Ken Anderson, formerly involved with NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing, and Peter Windsor, a journalist who has worked with F1's Ferrari and Williams. \"I believe in Ken and Peter and the team that they have put together, and I believe that we have a chance to hopefully start from a clean slate and try to build a team in a different way,\" Hurley told Web site Autosport.com. Hurley started YouTube from scratch, and sees parallels with his involvement with US F1. \"The business aspect of what attracted me to US F1 is just that, that it is a start-up,\" he said. \"And it's a very similar situation to one that would be in Silicon Valley. \"It's a small team of talented, smart individuals trying to break the mould, trying to accomplish something that others think is impossible.\" However, Hurley does not expect instant success for the new franchise, which will be the only F1 outfit based outside of Europe and comes into the sport in difficult economic times when sponsors are dropping out. \"Obviously we want to be competitive,\" he told Autosport.com. \"I know there is going to be a lot of competition -- it's going to take quite a few years to ramp up this team and get the cars into a position where we are competing for the world championship, but ultimately that's our goal. \"We're not necessarily going to get involved and be satisfied with just getting a car onto the track. Our aspirations and goals go much farther than that.\" While major manufacturers have been reviewing their participation in motorsport's premium category -- Honda withdrew at the end of last year and BMW will end its association with Sauber at the end of this season -- Hurley is confident that he can find other investors to back the American team. \"I hope so, and I hope it goes beyond Silicon Valley,\" he said. \"I am definitely going to be involved in helping the team with sponsors, helping the team with business relationships, and helping the team with integrating technology -- ways that they can leverage and benefit from social media and the Internet broadly. \"So in many ways, I hope to add benefit to the team and what they are trying to accomplish.\"","highlights":"Formula One's new Team U.S. F1 backed by YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley .\nHurley primary investor in American outfit ahead of its debut season in 2010 .\nHe sold video sharing Web site to Google in 2006 but is still its chief executive .\nHurley hopes new American team will make a big impact in elite motorsport .","id":"8f2c08712c2e528c97b9a6b21beb61a528c41d02"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Couples in the African kingdom of Swaziland are being urged to get tested together as part of a HIV \"love test\" campaign. A couple discusses the love test with a PSI member. Before the campaign, only 2 percent of couples got tested. The nationwide initiative -- funded by the United States government and implemented by global charity 'Population Services International' (PSI) -- is aimed at couples because tests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others' HIV status. \"If partners get tested separately, they may not disclose the results and not get the support they need,\" Dominic McNeill, spokesman for PSI Swaziland, told CNN. Only one in four people -- mostly female -- know their HIV status despite the fact that approximately 26 percent of the population in Swaziland is HIV positive. The charity says it also wanted to move away from the traditional HIV campaigning methods. \"We wanted to turn HIV on its head and move away from the fear-inducing campaigns we've seen in the past, which don't work. Instead, we focus on love, saying that it is love that should be contagious and couples should get tested together,\" McNeill explained. Would you get tested with your partner? Tell us in the Soundoff below . But in a country where a macho culture still prevails, getting couples tested together has proved challenging. McNeill said: \"In Swaziland it is difficult to convince men to get tested as it makes them feel inferior.\" PSI said it found that one of the most successful campaigning tools has been to directly target men in areas where they are often concentrated. \"We go to the places where men have their cattle disinfected and also work extensively in churches. We even have a testing facility in one of the countries' prisons\" said Iulian Circo, PSI's country director. Watch PSI in action in Swaziland . \"Men are the head of the family and we try to get them to own up to that responsibility.\" PSI Swaziland received $3 million this year from the United States' President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and has so far spent $35,000 on radio, TV and print advertisements. Since the launch of the campaign in April, PSI -- which partnered with UNICEF and UNAIDS -- told CNN it has already seen a 25 percent increase in couple testing and a 400 percent in general testing year-on-year. And neighboring countries such as Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia have already shown interest in the 'love test.' The tests are also quick and free. Offered in facilities in the four regions of the country, they take only 45 minutes, including a 30-minute counseling session and on-the-spot results. If results show one or both partners are HIV positive, PSI offers longer-term free counseling. The HIV campaign is expected to last until the end of the year and the charity is also partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- which has donated $50 million to fight aids in the region -- to promote male circumcision, medically proven to lower the risk of getting the HIV virus.","highlights":"Couples in Swaziland are being urged to get the HIV 'love test' together .\nTests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others' HIV status .\nOnly one in four know their HIV status and 26 percent in Swaziland are HIV positive .\nThe charity wanted to avoid the traditional fear mongering that surrounds HIV testing .","id":"378317331976df0287e0d46c528e1a87b3085e0a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The much-maligned symbol of motoring in Communist East Germany, the Trabant, is set to make an unlikely comeback as a concept car at this year's International Motor Show in Frankfurt. The old-style Trabi is a common sight in Germany where tourist operators use the car for local tours. Designers have replaced the car's smoke-belching two-stroke engine with electric fuel cells and solar-powered air-conditioning. This, they promise, is not the four-wheeled object of ridicule that rolled off production lines in East Germany from 1957 until 1991. This is the new Trabant, or Trabi as they're known, an energy-efficient city car for modern drivers. \"I think the market will be people who say the old Trabant was a cool car, and people who want to have a stylish car, and want to have a green car,\" Daniel Stiegler, of Herpa Miniaturemodelle, told CNN. Herpa is not a carmaker, at least not in the traditional sense. It makes model cars and airplanes, of the type that sit in display cabinets, not garages. Two years ago, a member of its management team, Klaus Schindler, decided it was time to make a miniature model of the Trabant. Herpa took it to the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 2007 and were stunned by the response. \"We had a special folder where people at the fair could fill out and give it back to use. We had about 14,000 reactions on that, and most of them, 90 percent, said 'Yes, the Trabant is a really cool car, let's bring it back,'\" Stiegler said. Herpa teamed up with German auto parts maker IndiKar, which has designed a prototype to be unveiled at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in September. They hope to attract enough interest to put the car back into production. The early response of Trabi enthusiasts to an electric version of their much-loved cars has been encouraging. \"This will be an ideal vehicle to try it on,\" Geoff Armitage, who had been the president or chairman of the Wartburg Trabant IFA Club UK on and off for some 18 years. \"If they go for the same type of cladding of duroplast, or western-style glass fibre, you have a light body which obviously will be an advantage for an electric car.\" The original exterior of the cars was made from duroplast, a blend of cast-off cotton fibers from Russia mixed with glue. Armitage bought his first Trabant in the Netherlands in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Over the years, he's owned around 20 of the German cars, adding \"we have several restoration projects in the yard at the moment.\" Like many admirers, he appreciates the Trabi's simplicity. \"They are basic technology. There is absolutely nothing that we can't repair ourselves. If we can't get the parts we can usually make them,\" he laughed. \"If they can do the electrical conversion, for want of a better term, in a relatively low-tech way so they keep it simple I think it could be a success,\" he said. German filmmaker Maximilian Spohr spent four years making a documentary about the Trabant. He became fascinated about the car's origins as a child growing up in the East where residents faced up to a fourteen-year wait for delivery of their vehicles. \"There was only a certain contingent, a certain amount, allowed every year, because they didn't have enough screws, they didn't have enough parts,\" he said. For his documentary, \"A Car For A Dollar,\" he interviewed former Trabant engineers and owners and found an abundance of nostalgia for the old-style vehicles, despite their association with Communist repression. \"People remember it as their only partner in crime,\" Spohr said. \"It was the one and only thing that brought them around the country. They weren't allowed to go far. This was the only vehicle they could use and it was always reliable, most times.\" Many of the cars were dumped by their owners as soon as they'd driven them to freedom over the border from East to West. Spohr said it didn't take long for nostalgia to kick in and the first Trabi appreciation meeting was held in 1990, just one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of plans for a new, eco-friendly Trabi, Spohr says, \"\"I think it's great. People would probably love it, I think it will sell. Big time.\" If the modern Trabant fails to materialize, there's always the option to step back in time in the original version. Trabis can still be seen slowly weaving through traffic, particularly in Berlin and Dresden, where Trabi-Safari leads tourists in a procession of up to six cars to local points of interest.","highlights":"Relic of Communist East Germany to be revived as eco-friendly city car .\nNew electric Trabant to be unveiled at International Motor Show in Frankfurt .\nCar was once the only vehicle available in East before fall of Berlin Wall .\nTrabi enthusiasts admire the car's simplicity, ability to make running repairs .","id":"48c63c3b3afb4d6a9ec374c23539b72052103a8c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Animal rights campaigners were holding a meeting Tuesday with Britain's Ministry of Defence to argue against the use of bearskin in the iconic furry headgear worn by royal guards at Buckingham Palace. A PETA activist in Sofia, Bulgaria earlier this year protests against UK troops wearing bearskin hats. Robbie LeBlanc, European director for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), was meeting with Ann Taylor, the minister for defense equipment and support, the defense ministry said. \"We are hoping that they will switch to a humane synthetic alternative,\" a PETA spokeswoman said. PETA has been campaigning for years against the use of bearskin in the headgear, a familiar symbol of London worn by the guards who keep watch over royal buildings like Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The hats are part of the footguards' ceremonial dress, along with the bright red jackets. PETA says the bears used to produce the fur hats are killed cruelly and unnecessarily. \"It's an absolute moral disgrace,\" said Mike Hancock, a British lawmaker who has joined PETA's campaign against the bearskins. \"I don't think the British public or tourists will mind if it's synthetic fur, and I'm absolutely amazed in this day and age that we see beautiful animals skinned and killed\" to produce the hats. A spokesman for the National Army Museum in London, Julian Farrance, said the fur comes only from Canadian bears that have died naturally, and that no bears are killed for the hats. Campaigners say they still want the defense ministry to use a different material. \"It still promotes the usage of animal fur in areas where it's totally unnecessary, in my view, for fur to be used,\" said Glenda Jackson, another British lawmaker opposed to the use of the fur. The British Army's use of the bearskin hats dates back to the Battle of Waterloo on in 1815, when Wellington's army defeated the French Imperial Guard in a victory that marked Napoleon's downfall. The British soldiers captured the headgear from the defeated Imperial Guardsmen and have worn them ever since, although today the hats are only worn for ceremonial duties. Those British soldiers were renamed the Grenadier Guards to honor their defeat of the Grenadiers of the French Imperial Guards. The Grenadiers are now among five bearskin-wearing regiments that guard British royal buildings. But each bearskin hat is heavy and can prove very hot for the wearer. \"There have been occasions where soldiers have suffered from heatstroke, because obviously wearing that much fur on your head ... can get quite warm,\" Farrance said.","highlights":"Animal rights campaigners oppose UK royal guards wearing furry headgear .\nScheduled to stage meeting with defense ministry in London Tuesday .\nIconic headgear has been worn since the battle of Waterloo in 1815 .\nArmy expert: Fur comes only from Canadian bears that have died naturally .","id":"46a67d2b7bcbe6bffb981ce8669c05a53f7ce5db"} -{"article":"Florence's best buys tend to be leather goods, designer wear and food. Roberto Cavalli's Florence store, just one of the city's many high-end boutiques . If money is no object, head to Via Tornabuoni, Florence's answer to 5th Avenue, and snap up Prada, Gucci, and local-born designers Cavalli, Ferragamo and Pucci. If your budget doesn't stretch that far, head south to the city outskirts by car or taxi to the designer outlets where you can pick up luxury goods from Dolce and Gabbana and more at bargain prices (www.outlet-firenze.com.) For hand-made cashmere or silk-lined leather gloves, try Madora ( Via Guicciardini 1\/R; +39 055 239 6526). Some people travel all the way to Florence just to shop here. If you have ever admired Sting's suits, you can buy one of your own from Piero and Franco Cisternino (Via del Purgatorio 22\/R; +39 055 280 118) who make men's suits to measure. One of the most beautiful shops in Florence is an ancient herbal pharmacy or apothecary, Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella (Via della Scala 16; +39 055 216 276), set in a 13th-century frescoed chapel. Its world renowned products include pomegranate perfume, orange blossom water and carnation milk soap. Italians have typically been late adopters of vintage fashion but Elio Ferraro (Via del Parione 47\/R; +39 055 290 425; www.elioferraro.com) was ahead of the game. A visit to his gallery\/shop will unearth vintage Yves Saint Laurent, Dior and Chanel from the 1930s onwards. ...................... Florence City Guide: . Where to stay | What to see | Where to be seen | Where to eat | Where to shop . ...................... Do you agree with our Florence picks? Send us your comments and suggestions in the \"Sound Off\" box below and we'll print the best.","highlights":"Florence's shopping isn't cheap: think high-end luxury goods .\nItalian designers can be found on Via Tornabuoni -- and also at the outlet mall .\nFlorence is famous for its quality leather goods, like silk-lined gloves .\nMade-to-measure suits and vintage fashions can also be found .","id":"22c7527d94aa08923cd5dff12effea245d2bf8ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 7-year-old girl died after a large ocean wave kicked up by Hurricane Bill knocked her and two other people into the Atlantic off Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday, a park official said. An ocean wave knocked three people into the Atlantic off Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday. Coast Guard rescuers plucked the three from the ocean after a wave swept them from a rocky ledge at the park, according to Sheridan Steele, the park's superintendent. The conditions of the two survivors -- a 12-year-old girl and a man -- were not immediately available. No names were released. Ocean waves also injured a few other people at the park, knocking them to the ground or into rocks and crevices, Steele said. Some were taken to a hospital with broken bones or other injuries, Steele said. The victims were among several thousand people who were at the park late Sunday morning to watch the high waves that Hurricane Bill -- a Category 1 storm -- was producing offshore. \"Even though we try to warn people and try to get people to watch from a safe distance, we weren't able to contact everybody in time,\" Steele said Sunday evening. The hurricane's center passed New England without making landfall and got very close to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday afternoon. It was expected to pass near or over southeastern Nova Scotia, Canada, on Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center said. Watch how Canada is bracing for Bill \u00bb . At 11 p.m., Hurricane Bill was about 115 miles west-northwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, according to the hurricane center. The storm had maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, and was moving to the east-northeast near 40 mph the center reported. Bill would become a tropical storm if its winds fall below 74 mph. \"Weakening is forecast during the next 24 hours and Bill is expected to become extratropical on Monday,\" the center's 11 p.m. advisory said. \"Large and dangerous swells generated by Hurricane Bill will continue to impact the Atlantic Maritimes of Canada overnight.\" Though tropical storm warnings were lifted in the United States, tropical storm warnings were in effect for parts of Canada's Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and and Newfoundland. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 24 hours. \"Large and dangerous swells generated by Hurricane Bill\" were possible along those provinces Sunday night, and 2 to 6 inches of rain were possible in Newfoundland, the advisory said. Earlier, the weather service warned that dangerous surf and \"life-threatening rip currents\" remained concerns along the U.S. East Coast. Rip currents are strong seaward flows of water that occur where there's a break in the shoreline. They are difficult to detect. Watch a primer on rip currents \u00bb . The water is unsafe even for \"strong swimmers,\" Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick warned Saturday. Though beaches along the Massachusetts coast remained closed, the National Weather Service lifted its tropical storm warnings there Sunday morning. Stuart Smith, the harbormaster in Chatham, Massachusetts, said there were reports of \"insignificant\" storm-related damage, but Bill did not cause much concern. \"I think we really dodged a bullet,\" he said. \"It stayed just enough offshore to give us a break.\" Watch how Canada is bracing for Bill \u00bb . It's good news for President Obama and his family, who planned to arrive for vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on Sunday. \"We look forward to welcoming him to Massachusetts as soon as he can safely get here,\" Patrick said. Rain was scant in Chatham on Sunday morning as residents went about their normal business. Doug Ricciardi, a cook at the Chatham Pier Fish Market, was making 5-gallon buckets of chowder, as he does every morning. He said he was expecting a typically busy day at the restaurant. Watch how surf warnings persist in North Carolina \u00bb . Smith said the only problems reported were a few small boats washed ashore or coming loose from their moorings. Patrick O'Connell of Chatham said he has a house on nearby North Beach Island, and neither his nor his neighbor's house suffered any damage. Smith said the beaches should reopen Monday at 2 p.m. after the heavy surf and rip currents pass. The Coast Guard reported swells reached 18 feet about 15 miles off the Massachusetts coast early Sunday. The swells began diminishing around 3 a.m., and swells off the coast of Chatham on Sunday morning were 11 feet. Watch the waves crash on Massachusetts beach \u00bb . Hurricane Bill skirted Bermuda, leaving rain in its wake. A tropical storm warning for Bermuda was discontinued. iReport.com: Are you bracing for Hurricane Bill? The weather service reported that swells from Bill continued to affect Bermuda early Sunday, but should gradually diminish over the course of the day. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: One of three people in Maine swept into Atlantic Ocean by wave dies .\nVictims were among people at state park to watch high waves from Hurricane Bill .\nStorm skirts East Coast; Massachusetts residents carry on with daily lives .\nChatham, Massachusetts, harbormaster: \"I think we really dodged a bullet\"","id":"84d9d3fc0520128163ac0e186606e9df1ecd75b8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A glimpse of something shiny on the ocean floor nine years ago led a Welsh diver to uncover a piece of local history that had been forgotten for more than a century. The silver pocket watch was found off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. Diver Rich Hughes was exploring a shallow shipwreck off the Pembrokeshire coast in April 2000 when he noticed the object embedded in sediment. He thought at first that he had found a coin, but he found it was actually an intact silver pocket watch, still bearing the inscription of its owner. Hughes said he was determined to trace the history of the watch, believing such a prized object deserved to belong to family members or a local museum. But that led Hughes on a nine-year search with lots of dead ends and few leads. Now, months after enlisting the help of a local researcher, Hughes has finally tracked down a family member and will be presenting the watch to him next week. \"I'm very happy and satisfied that we found out who he was,\" Hughes told CNN by phone Wednesday. \"It sort of brings the story to a close. It's quite rewarding that it hasn't just sat in the back of somebody's garage.\" The watch inscription reads \"Richard Prichard, Abersoch, North Wales, 1866.\" That was the only information Hughes had to go on for most of the past nine years; even the name of Prichard's ship was a mystery at the time. Over the years, Hughes searched records in person and online, contacting everyone from county records offices to Lloyd's of London. Nothing turned up any information about Richard Prichard. \"It becomes a bit of a bug, really,\" Hughes said. \"It's hard to describe. If you find something like that -- it's a very personal item, and one of my biggest bugbears is if somebody pulls something off a shipwreck and it just sits in the back of their garage. \"It's just a lost opportunity and it's tragic when that happens, that history is just put in a corner,\" Hughes said. \"You're obligated to find something out about it. It's your duty to do it.\" Earlier this year, out of frustration, Hughes said he turned his attention again to the place name inscribed on the pocket watch, Abersoch, a coastal town in north Wales. \"I just kept doing searches on Google to find out whether any historical societies at all had any information on it,\" he said. That led Hughes to a couple that runs the Web site for a nearby village, Rhiw, and they put Hughes in touch with researcher and historian David Roberts. Roberts searched the graveyards of local churches and found two references to Richard Prichard. He also found a reference to Prichard on the Welsh Mariners' Web site, showing that Prichard was captain of an iron-clad barque called the Barbara. The pocket watch was probably a gift to Prichard when he was promoted to mate in 1866, from his fellow sailors or his parents. Prichard became captain of the ship and died in 1881 while the Barbara was en route to Rangoon, which is modern-day Yangon, in Myanmar. He was buried at sea. The watch was lost on the Barbara's return trip to Wales with a cargo of rice later that year. Roberts believes the man who took over from Prichard, Captain Jones, was probably bringing the watch home in order to present it to Prichard's widow. Jones probably intended to sail through St. George's Channel, between Ireland and Wales, on his way to Liverpool, Hughes said. But on a dark November night, in driving rain and gale-force winds, Jones took a wrong turn and found himself stuck in the Bristol Channel, along Wales' south coast. \"These ships couldn't turn around -- they could only go 90 degrees to the winds,\" Hughes said. \"He wouldn't have known where he was.\" Hughes said the captain would probably have been filled with fear to see the cliffs of the Pembrokeshire coastline in front of him, where waves that night were probably at heights of 30 to 40 feet. With no way to turn around, the Barbara crashed into the cliffs and sank. Everyone on board the ship was saved, with the exception of Captain Jones, who went down along with Prichard's pocket watch. While that solved the mystery of the unidentified shipwreck, tracing Prichard's descendants proved a tougher task. Though Prichard had a son, he died with no heirs, and Roberts found no descendants from Prichard's three sisters. Prichard's only surviving relative is Owen Cowell, a retired dentist living in Pwllheli, North Wales -- incidentally, not far from Abersoch. Cowell's grandmother was Prichard's cousin. Hughes now plans to present the pocket watch next week to Cowell, who in turn plans to present it to the Abersoch village hall for display in an annual exhibition. This year's display will open a week from Saturday, he said.","highlights":"Diver finds watch on sea floor off Welsh coast, spends years tracing its history .\nDiver discovers watch originally belonged to Richard Prichard, captain of the Barbara .\nPrichard died at sea in 1881; watch was probably being returned to his widow .\nWatch was lost when Barbara was shipwrecked in driving rain, gale-force winds .","id":"460025dc9a216c40059c2a25afed2accb7c56dc5"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Sandra Bullock will surely be popping open the champagne as her new romantic comedy, \"The Proposal,\" accepted the top spot at the box office this weekend by grossing $34.1 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock have reason to celebrate after \"The Proposal\" takes top box office spot. Not only did \"The Proposal\" win the weekend, but it was by far the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling the opening of her previous best, \"Premonition,\" which debuted to $17.6 million in 2007. While \"The Proposal's\" success was fueled mostly by women (73 percent of the audience was female), both women and men gave it a healthy \"A-\" CinemaScore rating, so expect the movie to hold up fairly well during the next few weeks. The weekend's other big release, the prehistoric buddy comedy \"Year One,\" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million -- an okay debut for the $60 million movie. However, all indicators point to a quick descent for the Jack Black\/Michael Cera flick. \"Year One\" dropped 24 percent from Friday to Saturday (never a reassuring sign), and the movie received an unimpressive \"B-\" rating from CinemaScore. \"Year One\" is all but certain to join \"Land of the Lost\" as another box-office disappointment for high-concept comedies. On the other hand, \"The Hangover\" (No. 2 with $26.9 million) and \"Up\" (No. 3 with $21.3 million) continued to show off their box-office stamina, dropping only 18 percent and 31 percent, respectively, from the prior weekend. \"Up\" now stands at $224 million, and may levitate past \"Star Trek\" (currently at $239 million) to become the year's highest-grossing film. Finishing off the top five was \"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,\" which fell an alarming 52 percent for an $11.3 million weekend stash. Also opening this weekend was Woody Allen's \"Whatever Works,\" starring Larry David. The New York-based comedy laughed up $281,000 from just nine theaters for a weekend-leading $31,000 gross per theater. The film will expand to more than 300 theaters on July 3. Overall, the box office was up 3 percent compared to last year's Father's Day weekend, when \"Get Smart\" debuted to a surprisingly sharp $38.7 million. Hope you all are having a splendid Father's Day! I know I will -- I'm taking my pop to see \"Up.\" CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"The Proposal,\" accepted the top spot at box office by grossing $34.1 million .\nThis is the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling her previous best .\nJack Black's comedy \"Year One\" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million .\nCheck out the rest of the top 10 movies at this weekend's box office .","id":"dc8519a0135dc67c307a61e1a5a8364b6769b0d1"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince William went hiking Friday with a group of homeless teenagers on a picturesque peak in northern England to raise awareness for two charities he patrons, spokespeople for the prince and one of the charities said. Prince William, right, joined a group of homeless teams on a mountain climb in the UK. William, 27, was joined by six teenagers from Centrepoint, a charity for homeless young people, as they walked up Helvellyn, a mountain in the Cumbria region of northeastern England. Leading the group were members of Mountain Rescue, a volunteer-run charity. Prince William is the patron of both charities. The aim of the walk was to provide some of Centrepoint's homeless teens with a memorable and challenging day, and also to have an event that both charities could participate in together. Each teenager was paired with a Mountain Rescue volunteer as they climbed the mountain, said Andy Simpson, a spokesman for the charity who was on the walk. After days of spotty storms, the group got lucky with the weather and had sunshine and big, billowy clouds for much of the two-hour climb, Simpson said. He described Helvellyn as a moderate mountain that requires a certain level of fitness. The prince, however, did very well -- not surprising, given his military training. \"He's a very fit bloke,\" Simpson said. \"I had trouble keeping up with him.\" The location of Friday's hike was kept a secret until the last minute. That meant other climbers on Helvellyn had no idea they would encounter royalty on an otherwise-normal day out. \"One or two of the people were quite surprised, to say the least, to see the future king of England coming the other way,\" Simpson said. William stopped to chat to the people he met, he said. \"It was nice to see him engaging with so many members of the public. They just happened to be out for a walk and it's just made their day,\" he said. Partway up the mountain, by a lake called Red Tarn, the prince flew a flag for the London 2012 Olympics, Simpson said. Monday marks three years until the Opening Ceremony of the Games.","highlights":"Prince William joins homeless teens on hike to help charities .\nWilliam, 27, was joined by six teenagers from the charity Centrepoint .\n\"Fit\" prince leads the way up mountain .","id":"5d34696f0e99065d000978a124e5122a3f82bdb2"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- President Obama took a brief hiatus from his health care push on Monday, promising increased help for America's war veterans in dealing with life after combat. More money will be spent to treat and screen war veterans for post-traumatic stress and brain injuries, Obama says. Obama, speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix, said his government will always honor military service and never abandon what he called true American heroes. Obama promised increased spending to help war veterans cope with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, calling those \"the defining injuries of today's wars.\" \"So, caring for those affected by them is a defining purpose of my budget -- billions of dollars more for treatment and mental-health screening to reach our troops on the front lines and more mobile and rural clinics to reach veterans back home,\" Obama said. \"We are not going to abandon these American heroes. We are going to do right by them.\" The president also repeated he intends to have all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq by the end of August 2010, and all other U.S. troops out of that country by the end of 2011. The VFW and ladies auxiliary delegates applauded when he promised to eliminate wasteful Pentagon practices that he said squander billions of dollars that would better be used for supporting U.S. troops and veterans. \"This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,\" Obama said. \"It's about giving our troops the support that they need. And that's something that all Americans should be able to agree to.\" The crowd laughed when Obama cited one example of needless spending -- for a presidential helicopter that he said would enable him to cook a meal when the nation was under nuclear attack. \"Now let me tell you something -- if the United States of America is under nuclear attack, the last thing on my mind will be whipping up a snack,\" he said. Overall, Obama was intent on cementing his support from a key voting demographic that generally tends to back conservative candidates. In a thinly veiled dig at the previous administration, he complained that U.S. forces were being used for far more tasks than fighting wars. While pledging to never hesitate \"to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests,\" Obama also said any decision to deploy U.S. forces would be based on strategic necessity and \"good intelligence.\" \"And I will give you a clear mission, defined goals and the equipment and support you need to get the job done,\" he said to applause. The Obama administration has committed more resources and troops to Afghanistan to battle the insurgency and train Afghan security forces, while also sending additional diplomats and civilian aid workers to focus on reconstruction and development. Obama noted the mission includes providing security for this week's presidential election there. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told The Wall Street Journal that he is still considering a request to send 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan in addition to the planned 68,000 troops who are expected to be in place by the end of the year. Obama made no mention of any troop levels for Afghanistan in his speech. His appearance before the VFW wrapped up his four-day swing through the West. The president has spent the past few days traveling through Montana and Colorado, where he held a series of town hall meetings to promote health care reform, his top domestic priority. He raised the health care issue in his speech to war veterans, pledging that their medical benefits would be untouched in any overhaul of the nation's health care system. \"No one is going to take away your benefits. That is the plain and simple truth,\" Obama said in reference to what he called misinformation on the issue. CNN's Ivan Watson and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President promises more money to help veterans cope with postwar life .\nNEW: Money would help with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury .\nObama speaks to Veterans of Foreign Wars convention .","id":"ef362fe7e7ce769b1ff766de04e8b0127320b4a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo on Friday of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex, according to the court in the Western District in Arkansas. Evangelist Tony Alamo was convicted of all 10 counts against him and will be sentenced later. Authorities in September charged Alamo, the 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas. Jurors reached the verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Between March 1994 and October 2005, Alamo transported five girls younger than 18 across state lines for sex, according to the indictment. The criminal complaint included accounts from three of the girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was filed last year and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them. Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, had denied all wrongdoing. In a phone interview last year with CNN, he called the accusations a hoax. \"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will.\" Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ. \"Why were they after Jesus,\" he asked. \"It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me.\" Alamo also has compounds in Oklahoma and New Jersey. The Southern Poverty Law Center says Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is anti-Catholic and a cult.","highlights":"Jury convicts Tony Alamo of all 10 counts against him .\nHe was accused of transporting minors across state lines for sex .\nAlamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, heads Tony Alamo Ministries .","id":"844293ff335aa19831f7337d55d0f5244f455c64"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tensions mounted in Paris, Texas, on Tuesday when about 100 mostly black protesters clashed with white supremacist groups in a verbal confrontation over a black man's death. White supremacists taunt black protesters who marched Tuesday in Paris, Texas. The confrontation stems from the 2008 death of 24-year-old African-American Brandon McClelland. After his body was found mangled on the side of a rural road, investigators concluded he was run over, dragged, and killed. Two white men were initially charged with murder, but the charges were dismissed last month because of a lack of evidence. Black protesters marched through the town Tuesday, hoisting a flag of red, green and black, the colors associated with African liberation movements. They chanted, \"No justice, no peace.\" White demonstrators waved a flag emblazoned with a Nazi swastika and taunted the black marchers, shouting through a megaphone: \"White power, white power.\" Watch the confrontation \u00bb . Paris, in northeast Texas, has 25,000 people, 70 percent white and 20 percent black. No violence or injuries were reported but two white men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for trying to incite the protesters, Lt. Danny Huff of the Paris Police Department said. McClelland's mother, Jacqueline McClelland, told CNN the demonstration was not about race but was aimed at achieving justice for her only child. \"We come seeking justice, not only for myself, but [for] other people who have been done wrong,\" she said. \"I want for everyone to get equal justice. \"I don't know the whole story,\" she said. \"I can't be at peace until I know what happened to my child.\" CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"People in Paris, Texas, march to protest dismissal of charges in black man's death .\nSupremacists wave a flag with a Nazi swastika, shouting \"White power\"\nTwo white men charged with disorderly conduct after taunting marchers, police say .\nBattered body of Brandon McClelland, 24, was found next to rural road .","id":"db1e00ada5f9e809071fc64aa364c9c5330ee0b4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They are domestic relics of a bygone era when space travel was new and exciting and the world was buzzing with optimism about what could be. This Coney Island playground climbing frame is one of the larger items clogging the Kleeman family's barn. NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing 40 years ago reinvigorated demand for space-inspired mementoes that was stirring well before the start of the Space Age in the 1950s. Shops offered everything from rocket-shaped lamps, to skateboards, biscuit tins and toys emblazoned with stars and futuristic astronauts. Such was the excitement surrounding the momentous moon landing in 1969 that some were moved to create their own memorabilia in needlepoint and tin. See memorabilia of 1969 moon landing \u00bb . Many early examples of space-inspired design, both professional and homemade, can now be found in a 100ft hay barn at the Kleeman family home in the U.S. state of Connecticut. They're not on display -- yet -- but the family hopes to soon show the world what they call the \"Space Age Museum,\" a collection of as many as 10,000 pieces inspired by humanity's adventures in space. \"Everything started with a toy ray gun Peter and I bought at a flea market in Brimfield, Massachusetts 20 years ago for $10,\" John Kleeman said. \"We have never lost the excitement of that first find and since then we have continued our quest for cultural artifacts which tell the back story of the Space Age -- how ordinary folk like us experienced the magic, adventure and meaning of human space exploration.\" Weekend trips to markets and auctions became more frequent and over time the collection grew to include more cumbersome items including a 40-foot promotional trailer based on the design of \"Terra IV,\" a battle cruiser in the 1950s U.S. television series, \"Space Patrol.\" \"They had a movie theatre inside so 40 people could sit inside it and watch a rocket launch,\" John's son Peter explained. \"We had to adjust the doors to the barn to fit it, but it's in our barn now.\" As the barn became more crowded, references to their \"collection\" morphed into \"the museum\" and their father-son hobby transformed into a potential business. \"It was kind of a 'some day' kind of thing,\" Peter said. \"My dad had a day job as an attorney and I was in college and we said some day we'll create a museum so people can visit.\" \"Then three or four years ago I was at a point where I'd been working in the outdoors leading trips for youth at risk and thinking, \"Do I want to do this forever? How am I going to fit this space museum into the picture some day?' I realized that I'd like to do it now.\" Since then, they've been carefully peeling back layers of packaging and photographing their second-hand treasures for a digital catalogue. \"My mum is surprisingly and wonderfully supportive of all this,\" Peter said. \"Because it's a family business she always gets consulted, especially on large acquisitions. I think there have been some vetoes but there's nothing that she's vetoed that we wish that we'd gotten.\" Now 29, Peter Kleeman travels back and forth from his parents' house and his new home in New York to build the business. \"For now we'd like to contract out our exhibits to other museums and then if funding and the right sponsorship came in we'd be open to doing a permanent location so people could visit,\" he said. For Peter, the Space Age Museum is not simply about nostalgia; it's an important reminder of the enthusiasm that once gripped the world about future frontiers that has slowly deflated with time. \"One of the questions I ask myself is, 'what would it take to turn that around and for us to have a more creative and adventurous optimism for the future, and get that pioneering spirit back in our culture?'\" A mission to Mars might be one, he suggested, along with a long-term plan for future exploration. This museum curator is not in the camp that argues that money for space programs is better spent at home. \"A lot of people feel that because of our environment and different social and economic struggles that are going on in the planet that we should just focus all of our resources on fixing things here,\" he said. \"I agree -- there's a lot that's not working on our planet. We should be taking care of each other but that shouldn't stop us from also exploring -- there's a got to be a way to balance it. \"I think that knowing our place in the solar system and beyond helps give us perspective on who we are and where we are. I think it can be humbling and it also helps us remember how precious and rare our planet is and that we really need to protect it and manage its resources better.\"","highlights":"For more than 20 years the Kleeman family has collected space-inspired items .\nCollection includes rocket-shaped lamps, old space toys, climbing frames .\nFamily preparing to launch the \"Space Age Museum\" to display exhibits .\nKleeman: \"Knowing our place in the solar system helps give us perspective\"","id":"b6bdb78f034f388c1561bd6bab06efc9578705a8"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The French Senate began debate Tuesday on a law that would mark a significant cultural shift -- allowing many more shops across the country to open on Sundays. The law would permit shops, department stores, and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones. The bill passed the lower house, the National Assembly, last Tuesday by a vote of 282 to 238, a partial victory for President Nicolas Sarkozy, who backs it. What seems routine in much of the Western world has been fiercely resisted in France, where Sundays have officially been set aside as a day of rest for more than a century and where a 35-hour workweek remains the norm. The new legislation, if approved by the Senate, would overturn a 1906 law that forbids Sunday trading in all but the largest cities. It is part of a raft of reforms Sarkozy has pushed for since becoming president. While the change is significant, it is not as much as the government originally hoped because Sarkozy had to deal with opposition from both the left and the right. Socialists filed thousands of amendments to the president's original version of the law. Leftists and unions said it would effectively introduce a seven-day working week and allow bosses to force employees to work Sundays. Members of the president's own ruling conservative party opposed the law despite assurances it would boost economic activity, saying it would instead deprive families and church groups of their dedicated day. The law would permit shops, department stores and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones of what are called \"exceptional commercial\" centers near three of the country's largest cities: Paris, Marseilles, and Lille. Additionally, 29 areas involving about 500 cities and towns would be added to the list of tourist areas, which already allow some economic activity on Sundays. The new law will, among other things, straighten out a somewhat chaotic situation in which some stores managed to obtain exceptions from the old law and others didn't, and where some stores found it made more sense financially to accept fines for breaking the old law because the income from Sunday sales more than made up for the penalties. Opinion polls in France show that slightly more than half the population want shops to have the freedom to open on Sundays, according to Time magazine. The Senate debate is scheduled to last three days, with a vote expected late on Thursday. CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report.","highlights":"French Senate debates new law allowing more shops to open on Sundays .\nIf approved new law would overturn 1906 law forbidding Sunday trading .\nSarkozy has had to deal with opposition from both left and right .","id":"576b55a77e3b54e00795354b022b4ddc968b70a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, the government said in a televised statement on Tuesday. Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica, has contracted the H1N1 virus. Arias fell ill on Sunday, complaining of a sore throat and temperature, Presidential Minister Rodrigo Arias said. A doctor's visit on Tuesday revealed that the president had the H1N1 virus, cases of which had been reported earlier in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. The president's overall health was good, but following his doctor's advice, he will rest at his home until Sunday, Rodrigo Arias said. The president is expected to return to work on Monday, the minister said. As of Friday, there were 718 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus in Costa Rica, and the virus has been blamed for 27 deaths, according to a report by the country's ministry of health. A majority of the confirmed cases -- 480 -- were in San Jose. Arias, 67, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping bring an end to Central America's civil wars. More recently, he acted as mediator between two feuding sides claiming the leadership of Honduras.","highlights":"President Oscar Arias has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, government says .\nArias fell ill Sunday, complaining of a sore throat and a temperature .\nArias is expected to return to work on Monday, presidential minister says .\nAs of last Friday, there were 718 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus in Costa Rica .","id":"74ce9a57f2f56403adeb487e70a103d6260a2427"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With four Phoenix, Arizona, boys ages 9 to 14 charged with sexual assault on an 8-year-old girl, a prosecutor vowed Thursday his office will \"seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation.\" Police say a girl was lured to a storage shed at an apartment complex where she was sexually assaulted. \"This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community,\" said Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas. According to Phoenix police, the girl was lured to a storage shed at an apartment complex on July 16. The four boys, who had offered the girl chewing gum, allegedly restrained and sexually assaulted her. At a news conference about the case Wednesday, police did not release any information on the girl's condition, but officers called the case one of the worst they have investigated in many years. The 14-year-old was charged as an adult and will face two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping, Thomas said Thursday. The other three boys were charged in juvenile court with sexual assault, and two of them also were charged with kidnapping, Thomas said. All the suspects except for the 14-year-old live in the same apartment complex, according to Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill. The victim and the boys charged are all from refugee families that have come to the United States from the war-torn West African nation of Liberia, police said. Detectives said the girl was placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services after the attack because of her parents' attitude toward her. \"The parents felt that they had been shamed or embarrassed by their child,\" Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill said. The Phoenix Police Department has a community response unit that assists with such sensitive cases. \"They made some initial contacts with the refugee community. They acted as liaison and were present when the child protective services agency took the victim,\" Hill said. Protective services officers \"will determine what's going to happen in the days ahead and they'll look at the past history with that family, if there is one,\" he said. CNN affiliate KTVK said it interviewed the girl's 23-year-old sister, who said she was baby-sitting the girl at the time of the alleged attack. The sister, who was not identified by name by the station, expressed mixed feelings about her sister's attack. \"I came to her and said it's not good for you to be following guys because you are still little,\" the sister told KTVK. She also said that she wanted the suspects to be released from jail because \"we are the same people.\" \"When she comes back I'm going to tell her don't ever do that again because all of us, we are the same family, we are from the same place. Now she is just bringing confusion among us. Now the other people, they don't want to see her,\" the sister told KTVK. Tony Weedor, a Liberian who fled civil war with his family and now lives in the Denver, Colorado, area, told CNN that cultural aspects are deep in the case. In Liberia rape was not against the law until 2006, he said. \"The family [believes they] have been shamed by her, not a crime, but the name of the family has been degraded and news will get back to Liberia. And they're more concerned about that than the crime,\" said Weedor, who is co-founder of the CenterPoint International Foundation, which aids Liberian refugees in the United States and provides aid for those still in Liberia. Edwin Sele, the deputy ambassador of Liberia to the United States, also responded to the incident. \"Having heard the story myself, I'm outraged,\" he said. \"In Liberia, the family and law enforcement officers would be embracing the victim. To hear that the family is not doing that, that should be an isolated case.\" Resettlement groups around the country help refugees settle into life in the United States. Among them is the Refugee and Immigrants Relief Center in Phoenix, where Omar Dolleh, a refugee from Sierra Leone in West Africa, is the program director. As a part of the refugee orientation program, he said, his group touches upon the laws in the United States, but the most immediate goal for refugees and organizations that help them is finding employment and places to live. CNN's Sara Pratley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prosecutor vows justice for girl who says she was sexually assaulted by young boys .\nOfficers call the case one of the worst they have investigated .\nVictim's sister wants suspects released because \"we are the same people\"\nPolice in Phoenix, Arizona, say 8-year-old girl lured to vacant shed with gum .","id":"150a47862ba63d12680b43e5072a82afd8cd6021"} -{"article":"After years of speculation and rare case reports, a study suggests that stimulant medication -- mostly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- may have played a role in a handful of cases of sudden, unexplained death in children and adolescents. Untreated ADHD can lead to poor school performance and increase adolescents' risk for harmful behavior. The study authors stress, however, that parents and doctors should not refrain from treating children with ADHD just because of these results. \"The association is significant in that it's real, but that doesn't mean it's not a very low risk,\" says lead author Madelyn S. Gould, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and public health at Columbia University, in New York. \"There probably does need to be more careful monitoring, but the bottom line is that parents should not take their children off stimulant medication they're currently on and should not be scared to have their child go on a stimulant if that's what they and their doctors decide is the best thing for their child.\" The study, published this week in the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to suggest that the stimulants may pose a risk -- albeit remote -- in children without underlying heart problems. About 2.5 million children in the United States take such medications. Stimulants linked to 1.8 percent of unexplained deaths . Gould and her colleagues compared medical records and parent interviews of children and adolescents who had died between the years of 1985 and 1996, including 564 who had died from an unexplained heart-rate abnormality or other causes, and 564 who died as passengers in motor vehicle accidents. They excluded cases with other known possible causes of death, such as asthma or congenital heart diseases. Of all the unexplained cases, the researchers found that 10 children, or 1.8 percent of the group, had had stimulant medication prescribed. This compared with only two cases of stimulant use, or 0.4 percent, among healthy children who had died in motor vehicle accidents -- a group used to represent a general population of healthy children and adolescents. Health.com: Treatment options for ADHD at any age . In all 10 cases, the children were taking methylphenidate, the active ingredient in Ritalin and Concerta. A similar drug, Adderall, is composed of mixed amphetamine salts and was not included in the study results because it was first approved in 1996. However, the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 asked the manufacturers of stimulants, including Adderall, to add a warning to their label saying the medications should not be used in children with structural heart abnormalities or other heart problems. At the time, the FDA advisory panel rejected a more stringent black-box warning about the possible risk of sudden unexplained death. Strattera, another medication approved for ADHD in children, is not a stimulant medication. A spokesperson for McNeil Pediatrics, which distributes and markets Concerta, says the company welcomes any data that add to the body of knowledge in this therapeutic area, but did not make a specific comment on the new study. Michael Billings, a spokesperson for Novartis, the manufacturer of Ritalin, notes that the drug has been used for more than 50 years and is the most studied ADHD medication. Health.com: Secrets to a stress-free home . \"For all of its products, Novartis reviews its global safety and efficacy through post-marketing surveillance and consistently reports new information to health authorities on an ongoing basis,\" says Billings. \"Review of Novartis safety data has failed to detect an increased risk in sudden cardiac death associated with methylphenidate use.\" Not a watershed moment, researchers say . Gould says it's important to report this association, but she is also concerned about the results being misinterpreted. \"We're very sensitive to not wanting this to be some watershed moment where stimulant medications start to get used less and get used inappropriately,\" she explains. In an editorial accompanying the article, Benedetto Vitiello, M.D., and Kenneth Towbin, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health, agree with Gould's concerns. Health.com: The Top 5 cholesterol myths . They write that the study findings \"should underscore that stimulant medications are not innocuous and that their therapeutic use requires careful diagnostic assessment, diligent safety screening, and ongoing monitoring. \"However, it is equally clear that sudden, unexplained death is a rare event, this is only the first such study, it relies on small numbers, and it is not possible to quantify the risk beyond estimating that it is very small.\" Indeed, since a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial isn't ethically possible in this situation, it is hard to conduct a study that's not without flaws. Although the researchers are confident that the results are not due to any underlying factors -- children with ADHD often have asthma and heart conditions also linked with sudden death, and so these cases were eliminated from the analysis --\"one can never be 100 percent sure that there aren't other unknown or undiagnosed issues,\" says Gould. Health.com: Slideshow: Celebrities with ADHD . James Perrin, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, says the study isn't surprising \"nor particularly convincing.\" He says the research is flawed because, among other problems, it may have underestimated the number of children who were taking stimulants. The rate of stimulant use, particularly in the accident-related deaths, was lower than expected, he says. \"The study adds very little to what we already know, i.e., that some children who receive stimulants experience sudden unexpected death,\" says Dr. Perrin, who was not involved in the study. \"The current study should not change the use of any medications or treatments.\" More research, careful monitoring is needed . Stimulant medications currently contain a warning targeted to specific high-risk children, including those with structural heart defects, cardiomyopathy, or heart-rhythm disturbances. The medication labels also warn that stimulants may raise blood pressure and heart rate, and have been linked with stroke and heart attack in adults. When deciding whether to put a child on stimulant medications, both clinicians and parents should weigh the seriousness of the situation, says Gould. The benefits may not outweigh the risk in cases in which attention problems may be keeping a B-student from becoming an A-student, she explains. Health.com: Yoga moves to beat ease stress, insomnia, and pain . But with more serious cases, the choice should be clearer. Untreated ADHD can be harmful in itself, leading to poor performance in school and increasing adolescents' risk for harmful behavior such as reckless driving, unsafe sexual practices, and substance abuse. \"I have two boys, now grown, so I can certainly relate to parents facing these decisions,\" Gould says. \"If my child was having problems to the extent that a neurologist or psychiatrist was recommending medication, I would want the medication -- although, even though we didn't discuss this specifically in the study, I would want my child to have an EKG.\" In 2008, the American Heart Association recommended that doctors consider routine electrocardiograms before starting children with ADHD on stimulants or other psychotropic medications, but underscored the need for future research. An EKG may help to detect cardiac abnormalities that would increase a child's vulnerability to sudden heart problems. Parents considering stimulant medication for their children should also provide their doctor with a detailed family history, including any heart problems or sudden deaths of close family members. Future research should focus on new ways to detect which children are most at risk for sudden death when taking stimulants, says Gould, since not all cases seem to be detectable with routine screenings. Until then, a thorough examination and careful monitoring is the best way to reduce a child's danger. The study was funded by a grant from the NIMH and a contract with the FDA. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Study: Stimulant meds, often used in ADHD, may have role in kids' deaths .\nAuthors warn parents not to stop treating kids with ADHD; risk is low .\nStimulant meds currently contain a warning targeted to specific high-risk children .\nAbout 2.5 million U.S. children take such medications .","id":"05c016a986f4ed9a792b83ee65fdb997630cf44c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Disney monorail workers have been placed on paid leave just days after two monorail trains crashed at the Orlando, Florida, theme park, killing one of the train's operators, according to a Disney spokeswoman. Train operator Austin Wuennenberg, 21, was killed in Sunday's monorail crash. Walt Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said the action was \"part of an investigative process, not a disciplinary action.\" The three workers were a monorail maintenance shop member, the monorail pilot of one of the trains and a transportation manager. Disney would not name the employees. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Sunday morning accident, is expected to be at the park for several days. \"To this point in the investigation, no anomalies or malfunctions have been found with the automatic train stop system or with any mechanical components of the switch or with either trains,\" the NTSB said in a statement. The crash killed operator Austin Wuennenberg, 21. The operator of the other train was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. Additionally, six passengers on Wuennenberg's train were treated at the scene for minor injuries. Wuennenberg was piloting the \"Purple\" train. The other train, known as the \"Pink\" train, was operated by one of the employees who has since been placed on leave. The Pink train was instructed to go back through a track switch that would take it from the monorail's Epcot loop to the Magic Kingdom loop. \"For undetermined reasons that are currently under investigation, the switch had not changed position needed to allow the Pink train to be routed to the Magic Kingdom loop,\" putting the Pink and Purple trains on a collision course, the NTSB statement said. NTSB investigators believe that Wuennenberg attempted to put his train into reverse before the collision, attempting to avoid the crash. The Orange County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating Wuennenberg's death, would not comment, citing the ongoing investigation.","highlights":"Action is \"part of an investigative process,\" spokeswoman says .\nWorkers are maintenance shop member, pilot and transportation manager .\nSunday morning crash of two trains killed one driver .\nNTSB is still investigating incident .","id":"e9eb720cede2bcc536bf292e31492a94ceda0684"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man was stabbed in the chest and 13 people were arrested after violence marred an English League Cup tie between Premier League side West Ham and east London neighbors Millwall. Millwall fans taunt West Ham supporters during their English League Cup tie. The 44-year-old man was stabbed in Priory Road, a few yards from West Ham's stadium as fans clashed with police before and after the match; police say he is now in a stable condition. During the match, which West Ham won 3-1, fans fought with police and stewards inside the stadium and play was temporarily suspended when numerous supporters invaded the pitch. Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Steve Wisbey, who was in charge of policing the match, confirmed his force were investigating the events and would seek to punish those responsible for the trouble. Commenting on the tie which has a tradition for trouble among rival fans Wisbey added: \"Police worked closely with West Ham Football Club, British Transport Police and the local authority to minimize disorder. \"Officers responded swiftly whilst missiles were being thrown as they tried to separate fans outside the ground after the match. \"Incidents of this nature at a match are thankfully rare, but it would appear that a small number of supporters were intent on causing a confrontation. \"A team of dedicated police officers will be reviewing all the events that took place and will be looking at CCTV both inside and outside the ground to identify evidence of offenses and offenders. \"We will proactively seek to obtain football-banning orders for those responsible so they will not be permitted in stadiums throughout the country or abroad.\" The Football Association (FA), who are currently promoting England's bid to stage the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, have denounced the violence. \"We absolutely condemn all of the disorder that has occurred at Upton Park, both inside and outside of the ground,\" an FA spokesman said. \"We will very quickly be working with all parties, including the police and clubs to establish the facts surrounding the events. We expect all culprits to be banned from football for life - they have no place in our game.\" And West Ham confirmed they are assisting with investigations and would not hesitate to issue lifetime bans to those deemed to have been intent on causing trouble. A statement on the club's Web site said: \"West Ham United will fully investigate the deplorable scenes that took place during the cup tie with Millwall on Tuesday evening. \"The club will not tolerate the unacceptable behavior witnessed inside the Boleyn Ground and will take the strongest possible action against anyone found responsible, including life bans. \"As was the case before, during and after the match, we are cooperating fully with the relevant agencies, including the police.\" The incident caps an troubled period for West Ham off the pitch following the stabbing of defender Calum Davenport and the death of the father of midfielder Jack Collison in a motorbike accident in recent weeks.","highlights":"Violence marred the English League Cup tie between West Ham and Millwall .\nA 44-year-old man was stabbed in the chest and police made 13 arrests .\nMetropolitan Police are now identifying evidence of offences and offenders .\nWest Ham, Millwall and the Football Association denounce troublemakers .","id":"b9f5156227731673a52bf875b5ef0ff0e4cafcd5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 14-year-old boy allegedly beaten at a boot camp in China for young Internet addicts was in critical condition Thursday, less than three weeks after a youth at a different camp died, Chinese state media reported. People sit at a wireless cafe in Beijing, using their laptop computers. Internet use has skyrocketed in China, especially among teens. And Chinese parents have turned to hundreds of training camps that offer to wean their children -- mostly teenagers -- from excessive Internet use. There are at least 400 private rehabilitation clinics or camps in the country, according to a recent survey by the China Youth Internet Association, adding that China has 10 million teenage Web addicts. But the Chinese Ministry of Health says none of the private rehab clinics are legally registered. The parents of Pu Liang, the injured teen, had sent him to a camp called the Anti-traditional Education Training Center on August 4 near Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Chinese media reported. Pu allegedly was beaten three times between August 4 and August 11. Police discovered the boy in solitary confinement last week and he was taken to a hospital, according to media reports. His parents accused a counselor at the camp and Pu's peers of repeatedly hitting him, Chinese media said, adding that particular camp has been closed. \"He is suffering from water on the lungs and kidney failure,\" Pu's father, Pu Shiwei, told the publication China View on Wednesday. \"All injuries were done by the people at the camp.\" The training center denied that a counselor beat the youth, contending Pu was hit by other campers because he couldn't get along with them, China View reported. Authorities in Zhongjiang county, where the camp is located, said they detained the counselor after a report of alleged abuse from the parents of another child. The man who established the military-style camp, Wu Yongjing, admitted to the BBC that youngsters were sometimes subjected to \"physical punishment.\" \"Physical punishment is an effective way to educate children -- as long as it can be controlled,\" he said in an online story Wednesday. The injured youth's mother told Chinese media that her son \"got addicted to online games and frequented Internet cafes ... at the end of last semester, my son said he didn't want to go to school.\" The mother, Li Shubing, saw an ad for the training camp and hoped her son could be helped, she told China Daily. The parents signed a contract with the center and paid 5,000 yuan (about $730), she said. In a separate incident, 15-year-old Deng Senshan died after his parents sent him to a summer training camp for his Internet addiction, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. That camp was in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Authorities detained several counselors and were investigating the incident. Injuries found on the body indicated the teen had been beaten, Xinhua reported. China is in the process of classifying Internet addiction as a mental illness, according to China Tech News. Medical experts have called for laws and regulations to govern treatment. Last month the government banned electro-shock therapy as treatment for Internet addiction after abuses were reported. Internet users claiming to have received the treatment wrote in blogs and forums about being tied down and subjected to shocks for 30 minutes at a time. \"The market of Internet addiction treatment in China is in a total mess due to lack of diagnostic standards and treatment guidelines,\" said Tao Ran, director of the country's first Internet addiction clinic at Beijing's Military General Hospital. China started to pay attention to the prevention of addiction in 1994, when his clinic opened, Tao said. Data from the Beijing Public Security Bureau indicate that about three-quarters of juvenile criminals in China say they are addicted to the Internet. The proposed Diagnostic Criterion of Internet Addiction makes clear that the Internet-addicted should be treated in medical units with psychiatric departments, Tao said. \"Internet addiction is treatable. Through about three months' treatment, 80 percent of the patients can get away from the addiction,\" Tao has said. Some youths are so immersed in chat rooms and online games that they drop out of school, he added. \"They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands,\" Tao said. One authority on Internet use in China said she has known several college students there who are wildly enthusiastic about the Internet. \"When they've come to the U.S., they've all been hooked on the social networking sites,\" said Susan Barnes, associate director of the Laboratory of Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology. \"No matter what time it is, you can always find somebody online.\" The Internet can easily become compulsive behavior for anyone with an addictive personality, Barnes said.","highlights":"Survey: China has 400 private rehab clinics or camps, 10 million teen Web addicts .\nChinese Health Ministry says none of the private rehab clinics are legally registered .\nPu was allegedly beaten three times between August 4 and August 11 .\nReport: Boy is suffering from water on the lungs and kidney failure, father says .","id":"1ce52b798c8aa9bf6b738df44f9d15df3c502bb2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somali government forces have seized control of a central town from an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia, a spokesman for Somalia's president said Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered aid to Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's president. \"Bulo Burde is now under the control of government forces after our forces overran a stiff resistance at the entrance bridge of the town by Al Shabaab fighters,\" said Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman, communication director for Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's transitional president. Despite the announcement, residents said heavy fighting continued Thursday and the town is still divided between pro-government forces and Al Shabaab fighters. The ongoing exchange of heavy-weapon fire between the two sides has trapped people in the town, residents said. \"Everyone inside this house is scared because heavy shells are raining in the town,\" said one resident, Sahra Muse. Bulo Burde is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al Shabaab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Somalia's transitional president and vowed to continue U.S. support for his government. \"The United States and the international community must serve as an active partner in helping the TFG [transitional federal government] and the people of Somalia confront and ultimately move beyond the conflict and poverty that have gripped their country,\" Clinton said at a joint news conference with Ahmed at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The United States announced in June that it is providing weapons and ammunition to help Ahmed's government fight the militants. The weapons shipments are in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, which ban some arms shipments to Somalia, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. Clinton warned that terrorist groups like Al Shabaab pose a threat to the broader international community. \"Certainly if Al Shabaab were to obtain a haven in Somalia, which could then attract al Qaeda and other terrorist actors, it would be a threat to the United States,\" she said. There are growing concerns that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said that the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. \"Our concern right now is that likely safe havens are areas in the Horn of Africa, like Somalia and Yemen, that are countries that because of their political status can be attractive to al Qaeda in order to operate there,\" Panetta said in June. Separately, the FBI is investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by Al Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area in recent months. At least three of them, including a suicide bomber, have been killed in Somalia. Also, Australia recently announced the arrests of four men with ties to Al Shabaab who were suspected of planning a suicide attack on a military base in the southern state of Victoria. President Ahmed is a former member of the Islamic Courts Union, which took part in the 2006 coup. His decision to renounce the bloody insurgency and try to establish peace in Somalia has put him at odds with Islamist hard-liners who are still battling for control of Somalia. It also paved the way for his election as president of Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government in January. Journalist Mohammed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Troops \"overran a stiff resistance\" from Islamist militia, spokesman says .\nBut residents still report heavy fighting between Al Shabaab, pro-government forces .\nU.S. backs Somalia's weak government, fears it could fall to al Qaeda-linked group .\nU.S. officials warn that Somalia could become haven for al Qaeda operatives .","id":"d12e21f65a2a9f55a86731a97d88fc9a53204d5e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For astronaut Jose Hernandez, his first space flight, scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery, marks a remarkable journey from the farm fields of California to the skies. Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico. Hernandez, an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico, is getting plenty of attention at home and abroad for his journey from working the fields to operating some of the most advanced mechanics on the space shuttle. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the 47-year-old astronaut over the weekend to congratulate him. A transcript of the entire conversation was promptly posted online by the Mexican government. Hernandez is also reaching out to fans through Twitter, where he posts updates under the name \"@Astro--Jose.\" \"I come from a very humble family and what I would call a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said in a NASA interview. As a child, Hernandez's family split their time between Mexico and California, where they worked as migrant farm workers. During the school year his parents emphasized his education, but on the weekends Hernandez would help the family, he said in the interview, posted on the NASA Web site. Growing up in Stockton, California, it was Hernandez's job as the youngest child to hold up the rabbit ear antennas on the family's television set in order to get the best reception while everyone watched the Apollo missions. \"Now I kid around with my family saying that, you know, it was through osmosis that I became an astronaut because I was closest to the whole situation,\" Hernandez told NASA. The real catalyst for his dream to become an astronaut, however, came when Franklin Chang-Diaz, became the first Latin American astronaut in 1981. \"There was a lot of parallels and that's when I challenged myself. I said, \"Hey, if Franklin can do it, why can't I do it?\" Hernandez said in the interview. Hernandez earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering, and before joining NASA worked on a number of high-tech projects, including an X-ray laser to be deployed in space, a digital mammography system and the disposal of excess nuclear material in Russia, his official biography states. According to NASA, there are nine Hispanics currently in the astronaut program, and 13 total in the program's history. Astronaut Danny Olivas, also of Mexican descent, will also fly on Discovery's upcoming 13-day mission. The scheduled launch of Discovery on Tuesday was scrubbed twice, once because of weather and then hours later because of of mechanical issues involving a drain valve. NASA did not announce a new launch schedule.","highlights":"Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of Mexican immigrants .\nJose Hernandez scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery .\n\"I come from ... a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said .\nMexican President called the 47-year-old astronaut to congratulate him .","id":"536c81cae313a19587d6afa4bb58eedf914c7691"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The name \"Vampire Weekend\" describes the band perfectly: distinctive and eccentric. Vampire Weekend has earned a following for its upbeat, surf-laden songs. Made up of four guys who attended Columbia University, the band's sound is distinguishable from other bands competing for attention in the indie pop arena with its percussive use of drums, shakers and guitars, as well as upbeat, surf-inflected melodies. The group -- Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson and Chris Baio -- earned generally favorable reviews for its first, self-titled CD release in 2008, which landed on many year-end best-of lists. Among its songs: \"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa\" and \"A-Punk.\" The band is working on a new album, scheduled out early 2010. And what about that name? It comes from a film Koenig was making in his backyard, which was in turn inspired by the 1987 film \"The Lost Boys.\" In Koenig's version, a character had to go to Cape Cod and fight vampires on the way there. Watch Koenig talk about the source of \"Vampire Weekend\" \u00bb . The band was originally going to be called simply \"Weekend,\" but opted for the slightly longer version. \"It feels right,\" Koenig said. So does their sound, though it's not likely to earn them any No. 1 singles in the current musical environment. \"Ultimately we wanted to make music we listen to, and like most people we listen to a lot of music outside of rock and roll,\" Koenig said. The members talked to CNN about the band's origins, the forthcoming album and maintaining Facebook accounts.","highlights":"Vampire Weekend working on second album .\nBand created splash with first CD in 2008 .\nAnd that name? It comes from a film one member was making .","id":"93f75790ce9404121c0bd5652e8f9d6ae36dd098"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Health care reform should mean all Americans can get coverage while allowing doctors to heal patients instead of being bureaucrats, President Obama told the American Medical Association on Monday. The AMA agrees with Obama on the need for health care reform but not how to go about it. In a speech to the 158th annual meeting of the doctors' advocacy organization, Obama called an overhaul of the ailing health care system the most important issue for the nation's long-term economic stability. He acknowledged the concerns of doctors that reforms could bring a government-heavy system that would dictate how patients get treated and how much physicians get paid. But he called such thinking wrong. Obama urged all players -- doctors, patients, insurance companies, drug companies and the government -- to contribute to a workable system that would provide coverage for the 46 million uninsured Americans while reducing costs and increasing efficiency. \"You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers,\" Obama said to a standing ovation at the conference in Chicago, Illinois. \"You entered this profession to be healers, and that's what our health care system should let you be.\" Obama has made health care reform a top priority of his young administration, and Congress will consider at least three proposals in coming weeks to address an issue that deeply divides Democrats and Republicans. Watch Sen. John McCain discuss health care reform \u00bb . The AMA represents a powerful constituency of U.S. physicians, and its support is considered important in getting a bill through Congress. Dr. J. James Rohack, president-elect of the AMA, welcomed Obama's speech for acknowledging the challenges facing doctors, including excessive bureaucracy, the threat of malpractice lawsuits and medical students' debt burdens. The president's 50-minute speech detailed the problems of the U.S. health care system and presented his plans for confronting them. He blamed some of the spiraling costs on a reimbursement system that he said pays for the number of tests and services provided, regardless of what is needed. \"It is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care; that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you can't spend much time with each; and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it's not truly necessary,\" Obama said. \"It is a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession -- a calling -- to a business.\" He also cited unnecessary tests and procedures as part of a \"defensive\" medicine culture created in part by the risk of medical malpractice lawsuits. To loud applause, he said ending unnecessary procedures could require restrictions on malpractice liability to protect doctors. \"I'm not advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I personally believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed, but I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, how to let doctors focus on practicing medicine, how to encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines,\" Obama said. Watch the Health and Human Services chief talk about the administration's plan \u00bb . Rohack called for a \"safe harbor\" for doctors to determine treatment, warning that \"unless we have protection in a courtroom for not ordering a test, we're going to order that additional test.\" Obama's speech advocated an end to health care insurance providers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, with an emotional reference to his mother's battle against cancer amid concerns of whether her treatment would be covered. \"Changing the current approach to pre-existing conditions is the least we can do -- for my mother and every other mother, father, son and daughter who has suffered under this practice, who've been paying premiums and don't get care,\" he said to another ovation. Any health care bill must include measures to modernize record-keeping with an electronic system that reduces paperwork and increases efficiency, and to emphasize preventive treatment to reduce overall illness and chronic conditions that sap the health care system, Obama said. He defended his call for a government-funded health insurance option for people who are uninsured or cannot afford full coverage. Obama repeated a promise that reforms will not require anyone to change from existing coverage but said an overhaul should include mandates for individuals to obtain coverage or employers to provide it. A proposal from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, a longtime health care reform proponent, includes a public option as one choice for consumers. Republican leaders adamantly oppose any public option, complaining it would lead to an eventual government takeover of health care similar to the cradle-to-grave coverage in Canada and England. Kennedy's health-care bill would cost $1 trillion over a decade and reduce the number of uninsured by about 16 million, according to a preliminary analysis released Monday on the the unfinished bill. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which examined the unfinished bill with the the help of the Joint Committee on Taxation, said that the health-care bill would cost about $1 trillion over fiscal years 2010 to 2019. The AMA acknowledges the need for reforms but opposes any public option plan that forces physicians to participate, expands the fiscally challenged Medicare program for senior citizens or pays Medicare rates. Obama outlined a series of steps to lower current costs and raise taxes to pay for an overhaul of the health care system. His actions would realize almost $1 billion over the next 10 years in cost reductions, new revenue and other funding, which is roughly the amount that health care reforms would cost, the president said. His plan includes reducing tax deductions for high-income Americans. Another funding idea under consideration is taxing the medical benefits of employer-provided health coverage, which the Obama administration opposes but has not ruled out entirely. Watch more about who pays for health care \u00bb . A national survey released last week by Diageo\/Hotline found that 68 percent of those questioned opposed taxing health insurance benefits to provide funding for the enormous cost of expanding health care coverage to all Americans. Possible alternatives to a public health insurance option include private cooperatives, like electricity cooperatives, owned and paid for by communities that would compete with existing insurance programs. Supporters say such a program would require initial government support, but eventually would provide the kind of competition Obama seeks without creating a new government bureaucracy. Watch Rep. Ron Paul weigh in on health care reform \u00bb . Obama said Monday that the nation is ready to overhaul the health care system after decades of debate with no substantive action. \"What makes this moment different is that this time -- for the first time -- key stakeholders are aligning not against, but in favor of reform,\" he said. \"They are coming together out of a recognition that while reform will take everyone in our health care community doing their part, ultimately, everyone will benefit.\" As Obama spoke to doctors in Chicago, Senate Republican leaders in Washington intensified their attacks on the proposals, with one predicting \"momentum will inevitably slow\" as Americans learn the details of the complicated overhaul. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, also said it's \"fairly unlikely\" Republicans will back a Finance Committee bill that has been seen as the most likely measure in Congress to gain bipartisan support. In speeches and press events on Capitol Hill, Republican leaders highlighted controversial aspects of the proposals that have drawn criticism from key doctor and hospital groups. \"Over the weekend, the administration proposed making cuts to Medicare as a way of deferring costs of a new government plan. That is exactly the wrong approach,\" Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in speech on the Senate floor. \"America's seniors expect Congress to stabilize Medicare so it continues to serve their needs, not drain its resources to pay for another even bigger government plan.\" Kyl said Obama's proposals would lead to higher taxes, rationing of health care and too much government control of a sector that needs vibrant private sector involvement to thrive. Kyl and McConnell introduced a bill Monday that would prevent the government from using comparative medical analysis to ration health care. The stepped-up criticism came days before two Senate committees begin the process of formally passing their bills. While GOP support for the Obama reforms has never been strong, Democrats have been negotiating with Republicans for months in hopes of bringing some on board. CNN's Paul Steinhauser and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: AMA official welcomes speech, calls for malpractice protection for doctors .\nPresident calls for insurers to stop denying coverage for pre-existing conditions .\nHe also wants modernized record-keeping, cut in paperwork, increased efficiency .\nAMA agrees nation needs health care reform, is unsure about public option plan .","id":"b4782086e0c76634f7f67507d8918e7289162c0f"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A dilapidated building collapsed in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people who had defied orders to vacate the structure, a police spokesman told CNN. Rescue workers clear away debris after a building collapsed Wednesday in Mumbai, India. Another 26 people were injured and hospitalized, the spokesman said. Mumbai city officials had told residents living in the old building to leave it because of structural concerns. The chief minister of Maharashtra state, Vilasrao Deshmukh, visited the building hours after the collapse to pay his respects to the victims. Last July, another building collapse in Mumbai -- formerly Bombay -- killed 26 people.","highlights":"Officials had warned people to leave building due to structural concerns .\nAt least 26 people injured as dilapidated building collapses .\nChief minister of Maharashtra state pays his respects to victims .","id":"7c3b226d5399ea7cdcc8171047d12c149d25f320"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Libya will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of terrorist attacks involving Americans in an agreement signed and finalized Thursday, the U.S. State Department said. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, left, and Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Fitouri sign the deal. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch signed the deal in Tripoli, Libya, on Thursday. If implemented, the deal will end Libya's legal liability in numerous lawsuits from families of victims of what the United States considers Libyan terrorist acts. It also paves the way for stronger ties between the two nations and increased U.S. involvement in the oil-rich nation. \"This resolves the last major historical issue that has stood in the way of a more normal relationship between our two countries,\" Welch said. The deal had hinged on congressional approval. Last month, just before leaving for summer recess, Congress unanimously adopted the Libyan Claims Resolution Act, sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey. The legislation cleared the way to end the feud with Libya over terrorist attacks and creates a fund for victim payments. \"The Libyans didn't believe that Congress would ever be helpful, and Congress didn't think Libya would ever do it,\" Welch said Thursday. \"We found a diplomatic way to accommodate both sides by turning suspicion into an asset.\" Under the new law, Congress gives the Bush administration the authority to restore sovereign immunity for Libya only when the United States receives the agreed-upon money to pay American claimants in the fund and the secretary of state certifies it. See a timeline of events following the Pan Am attack \u00bb . Once the money is received into the fund, Libya would be exempted from legislation passed this year enabling terrorism victims to be compensated from frozen assets of governments blamed for attacks. The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. The 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin, Germany, killed two American servicemen and injured 79 Americans. Libya has paid 268 families involved in the Pan Am bombing $8 million each of a $10 million settlement. It was withholding the remaining $2 million owed to each family over a dispute regarding U.S. obligations to Tripoli. Under the deal, Libya would pay more than $500 million to settle remaining claims from the Lockerbie case and more than $280 million for victims of the La Belle disco, according to Jim Kreindler, the lead attorney for the Pan Am families. It would also set aside funds to compensate victims of several other incidents blamed on Libya but for which Libya hasn't accepted responsibility. The total settlement could exceed $1 billion. The pact, supported by the victims' families, closes the book on a contentious period in U.S.-Libyan relations. Ties between the two countries began to improve in 2003, when Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction program and began compensating Lockerbie victims. But lingering lawsuits prevented the two countries from fully normalizing ties. A joint U.S.-Libya statement issued Thursday in Tripoli said \"both parties welcomed the establishment of a process to provide fair compensation for their respective nationals, and thereby turn their focus to the future of their bilateral relationship.\" This spring, Libya made a proposal to the Bush administration that held some promise in settling the dispute, Welch said. Over the next several months, he and State Department lawyers held closed-door negotiating sessions with the Libyan delegation in London, England; Paris, France; Berlin; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he finally secured a tentative agreement in late July. The afternoon he came back from Abu Dhabi, Welch met with Lautenberg and urged passage of the legislation. Welch said Libya would expect an end to the claims and put the longstanding dispute with Libya to rest, despite the lingering mistrust of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. \"This could not have worked without a great deal of honesty on everyone's part,\" Welch said. On Thursday, Lautenberg issued a statement expressing satisfaction with the agreement. \"For too many years, Libya has refused to accept responsibility for its horrific acts of terror against American victims,\" he said. \"The signing of this agreement means these victims and their families can get the long overdue justice they deserve. Today's agreement is a critical development in moving Libya forward on its path toward diplomatic respect,\" he said. The State Department said the \"agreement is being pursued on a purely humanitarian basis and does not constitute an admission of fault by either party.\" Senior State Department officials said the formula was designed to respect Libyan sensitivities about compensating victims for incidents for which it hasn't taken responsibility . But it also allows Libya to settle outstanding claims for U.S. air strikes on Tripoli in 1986, in which Libya claims more than 40 of its citizens were killed, including Gadhafi's adopted daughter. Donations to settle Libyan claims would be placed in the \"voluntary\" fund, from which each country involved in the claims draws the money to pay its citizens. Welch said no U.S. taxpayer money would be used to compensate Libya but said he was \"optimistic\" donations to settle Libyan claims would be made. Other senior U.S. officials said American companies eager to do business in Libya could possibly make a contribution. The deal is to be followed by a U.S. upgrading of relations with Libya, including the confirmation of a U.S. ambassador and possible American aid. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit Libya before the end of the year.","highlights":"Deal ends Libya's liability in lawsuits from families of victims of terrorist acts .\nLibya to pay more than $700 million to settle Lockerbie, La Belle disco cases .\nLibya will be exempt from law allowing terror victims to be paid with frozen assets .","id":"d13d712465dae91d2e8464f53eb28e34e5a830f5"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Comic book fans have been waiting for years for a film to be made of \"Watchmen,\" the famed graphic novel about a group of misfit crimefighters battling a plot to eliminate their members while the world awaits nuclear war. Malin Akerman, who plays the second Silk Spectre, says \"Watchmen\" will make fans proud. Now that the film is complete and set for release Friday, the cast of the adaptation is confident the movie will meet fans' high expectations. \"We've heard a few comments from diehard fans where they're just saying, 'Wow, we're really impressed,' \" said Malin Akerman, who plays Laurie Jupiter\/Silk Spectre II in the movie. Praising director Zack Snyder, whose resume includes the highly successful \"300\" and \"Dawn of the Dead,\" Akerman said the film will make fans proud. \"This is just sort of a huge feat for Zack to take on. But him being a true fan, he came in with the mind of these fanboys and really kept that in mind and I think that he did a great job,\" she said. \"Watchmen\" had a long road to the screen. The original comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons came out in 1986 and 1987 and was compiled into a book. Since then it has been considered both brilliant -- it made Time magazine's list of the 20th century's greatest novels -- and unfilmable. Watch \"Watchmen\" stars talk about the film at its premiere \u00bb . Rights passed from studio to studio, with any number of directors attached (including Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass), before ending up with Warner Bros. (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) and Snyder. A longtime fan himself, Snyder said he was determined to remain true to the book. \"Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source material as possible,\" said Snyder's wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. EW: A \"Watchmen\" primer . Jackie Earle Haley, who stars in the film as Rorschach, said Snyder's passion for the film will lead to its success among dedicated fans. \"I think the film does to the comic book film genre what ['Watchmen'] the comic book does to the comic book genre,\" Haley said. \"I think Zack captured it ... and it's just an in-your-face, kick-butt comic book film, but it's got that extra depth, it's a little smarter.\" Fans of the comic book have been scrutinizing the film \"every step of the way,\" said Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But, he added, \"It's going to blow people away even with these high frigging expectations that everybody has.\" Indeed, there have been any number of challenges. The comic book is set in an alternative 1985 in which the United States and Soviet Union are on the verge of nuclear war, so there were period details to attend to. There are some superhero accessories, such as a flying machine nicknamed Archie, as well as the character Dr. Manhattan, a blue, extremely powerful and often naked Superman type. Carla Gugino lost herself in the part of Sally Jupiter, an early female crimefighter who is the mother of Akerman's character. That immersion -- which included age makeup for scenes in which Sally is in her 60s -- made the film easier to watch, she said. \"I look at it and don't feel like I'm watching myself, which then liberates you, because I am my own worst, harshest critic,\" she said. \"There was something about watching Sally older and I was like, 'Oh, that seems like a different woman ...' and I can sort of see her for what she is.\" iReport.com: Are you excited for \"Watchmen\"? Billy Crudup, who plays Dr. Manhattan, said seeing himself transformed with the effects of computer-generated imaging was astonishing. \"I was totally flabbergasted by the level of detail and sophistication that went into making Dr. Manhattan real,\" he said. In some cases, the actors were as excited as they expect fans to be. Morgan enjoyed delving deep into the character of Edward Blake, or The Comedian, and said the role allowed him to live his childhood dream. \"We got to play superheroes. We got to do something that I used to do when I was 12 years old,\" he said. \"This is always the guy that I wanted to be when I was 12 and I get to do it at 40 years old.\" CNN.com's Elham Khatami contributed to this article.","highlights":"\"Watchmen\" film has been anticipated since comic books in mid-'80s .\nFilm to be released Friday; stars are proud of finished product .\nActor Jeffrey Dean Morgan: \"We got to play superheroes\"","id":"7c28bb9aa0f0813d2a841c3763515b2118992b4a"} -{"article":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- Space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning for a mission to deliver equipment to the international space station. Discovery rests on launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral on Monday evening. The seven-member crew was boarding the orbiter Monday night on Cape Canaveral's launch pad 39A. Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Kevin Ford will guide Discovery to the space station after launch, scheduled for 1:36 a.m. ET Tuesday, NASA said. Forecasters gave the Cape an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions at launch time. One of Discovery's seven astronauts, Nicole Stott, will remain on the space station as a flight engineer, replacing astronaut Timothy Kopra, who will return home aboard Discovery as a mission specialist, according to the NASA Web page for the mission. Also on board: The Leonardo logistics module, science experiments and the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT), named for Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's \"The Colbert Report.\" Earlier this year, NASA conducted an online poll to name the space station's newest compartment, asking voters to choose one of four given options or offer their own suggestion. Colbert urged his viewers to suggest \"Colbert,\" which won. But Colbert and the space agency compromised to give the moniker to the treadmill instead. The new module was given the name Tranquility. \"I'm so proud my treadmill will be going into space to help trim down those famously fat astronauts. Lay off the Tang, Chubby!\" Colbert said in a statement last week. The mission will be Discovery's 37th to space, and the 30th shuttle mission dedicated to international space station assembly and maintenance, NASA says.","highlights":"Discovery scheduled to launch at 1:36 a.m. ET Tuesday .\nCape Canaveral has 80 percent chance of acceptable weather for launch .\nShuttle to deliver equipment to international space station .\nAstronaut Nicole Stott will remain on the space station as a flight engineer .","id":"d2da47d6e39242abe037c9b78bb782be24f533fc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Worldwide tributes for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, who has died after a long battle with brain cancer, poured in Wednesday, led by politicians hailing his role in securing a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Senator Edward Kennedy, right, pictured with Northern Irish politician Gerry Adams in 1996 . Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose administration presided over the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which led to an end to decades of sectarian violence in the province and established a united ruling Assembly, praised Kennedy's commitment to the process. \"I saw his focus and determination first hand in Northern Ireland where his passionate commitment was matched with a practical understanding of what needed to be done to bring about peace and to sustain it,\" Blair said. Kennedy, of Irish Catholic ancestry, was initially an outspoken opponent of British military deployment to the province during the violence of the 1970s and 80s in which more than 3,600 people were killed, but later moderated his views to support negotiations that brought all sides to the table. The senator is credited with getting an American visa for Gerry Adams -- leader of the pro-Irish nationalism Sinn Fein party accused of links to Irish Republican Army militants -- allowing him to attend a pivotal U.S. conference on Northern Ireland's future. Sound off: Your reactions to Sen. Kennedy's death . Kennedy was awarded an honorary knighthood in March 2009, for his contribution to Northern Irish peace, which included a landmark speech in the province in 1998 urging mainly pro-British Protestants and mainly pro-Irish Catholics to work together. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen described Kennedy \"a great friend of Ireland.\" \"He has used his considerable influence in the world's most powerful parliament for the betterment of this island,\" he said. \"In good days and bad, Ted Kennedy worked valiantly for the cause of peace on this island. He played a particularly important role in the formative days of the Northern Ireland peace process in the early to mid-1990s.\" iReport.com: Share your tributes . Irish President Mary McAleese added: \"He will be remembered here in Ireland as a hugely important friend to this country during the very difficult times. \"His death will be greeted with a great sense of sadness here because of his long-standing affection for this country, not just with the peace process, but on many other issues, including emigration,\" McAleese said. \"His outstanding and remarkable personal contribution was made, despite the sacrifice and sorrow that was part of the overall contribution of the entire Kennedy family.\" Sinn Fein president Adams greeted Kennedy's death with great sadness, according to the UK Press Asscociation. \"He has served the American people with courage and commitment for nearly 50 years. His service to Ireland through his role in the peace process was exceptional and contributed significantly to its progress.\" Irish former policitician John Hume, a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Northern Irish violence, described Kennedy as a close personal friend who took the Northern Ireland issue onto the world state. \"Ted Kennedy was at the forefront of persuading the British government to talk to the Irish government,\" he told CNN. Shaun Woodward, the British government's Northern Ireland minister, said he was \"deeply saddened\" to hear of Kennedy's death. \"Ted Kennedy was a true and constant friend of the peace process in Northern Ireland whose huge influence in engaging the United States in that process cannot be over estimated,\" he said. \"In every sense he was an immense figure whose part in transforming Northern Ireland will be a lasting memorial. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to Kennedy's achievements on the wider world stage, describing him as the \"senator of senators.\" \"He led the world in championing children's education and health care, and believed that every single child should have the chance to realize their potential to the full,\" Brown said. \"Even facing illness and death he never stopped fighting for the causes which were his life's work. I am proud to have counted him as a friend and proud that the United Kingdom recognized his service earlier this year with the award of an honorary knighthood.\" In Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman hailed Kennedy as a \"great friend of Israel and the Jewish people a defender of human rights and member of a family that through the years at the Senate was always at the side of Israel, in bad times and good and contributed to the deep and special relationship between Israel and the United States.\" German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Kennedy as a \"towering figure in U.S. politics.\" \"His battle for justice and equality was defined by persistence and resoluteness. In Senator Kennedy both Germany and Europe have lost a great and dear friend,\" she said. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described Kennedy as a \"great American, a great Democrat and also a great friend of Australia.\" \"He has made an extraordinary contribution to American politics, an extraordinary contribution to America's role in the world,\" Rudd said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse.","highlights":"Sen. Edward Kennedy praised as influential in Northern Ireland peace process .\nFormer UK prime minister Tony Blair says Kennedy \"committed\" to peace .\nIrish Prime Minister Brian Cowen: Kennedy \"a great friend of Ireland\"","id":"9b69046573855c92801923357b2d5716785f558d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday it will apologize to veterans who were mistakenly told they'd been diagnosed with a fatal neurological condition. Brent Casey said went into a \"meltdown\" when he got a letter from the VA saying, erroneously, that he had ALS. Letters were sent August 13 to 1,864 veterans and survivors, the VA said in a written statement. They were supposed to be sent to veterans with ALS -- also known as Lou Gehrig's disease -- to keep them apprised of expanding benefits eligibility. \"According to the records of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), you have a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),\" said the letter, according to the National Gulf War Resource Center. \"This letter tells you about VA disability compensation benefits that may be available to you.\" But some who received the letters, like Brent Casey, do not have ALS. Casey, a disabled Army veteran from the first Gulf War, told CNN that when he received the letter, he was \"just completely beside myself. Just floored. Went into a complete and total meltdown. I couldn't speak, couldn't -- I guess I was, truthfully, speechless.\" The VA said issued a statement saying it made \"a coding error, and a number of veterans who should not have received this letter did.\" An estimated one-third of the letters -- more than 600 -- were sent erroneously, a department official familiar with the program told CNN. After hearing from veterans who received the letter but do not have ALS, the VA immediately began reviewing individual claims files for all the recipients to determine who received the letter by mistake, agency spokeswoman Katie Roberts said in the statement. \"VA employees are personally contacting these individuals to ensure they understand the letter should not be confused with a medical diagnosis of ALS, explain why they mistakenly received the letter and express VA's sincere apologies for the distress caused by this unfortunate and regrettable error.\" \"It's not right for it to happen this way,\" Casey said. \"Regardless if it was the case that I was diagnosed with ALS, that would be the worst possible way for an organization to let an individual know.\" Upon receiving the letter, some veterans sought a second opinion outside the VA, according to veterans' service organizations, paying for doctors' consultations out of their own pockets. The VA said it will reimburse those veterans for the costs. In addition, the VA said it is reviewing its notification process to make sure a similar error doesn't happen again. The AmVets service organization is \"encouraged\" by the VA's response to the situation, and pleased to see they caught the error, said spokesman Ryan Gallucci. CNN Radio's John Lorinc contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: VA says some 600 people got letters in error due to a \"coding error\"\nLetters sent last week informed 1,864 veterans and survivors of ALS diagnosis .\nVA: \"Employees are personally contacting\" those who don't have disease .\nAgency is reviewing notification process to ensure no such error is repeated .","id":"fd1ae9b5d82e2d66e23958c22519869c2b9c3cab"} -{"article":"LAS MANOS, Nicaragua (CNN) -- Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya returned to Nicaragua late Friday night after briefly entering his home country from which he was removed in a military coup nearly a month ago. Supporters cheer as deposed leader Jose Manuel Zelaya crosses into Honduras on Friday. Zelaya crossed a few yards into Honduras on Friday afternoon and then hunkered down while he carried on extensive telephone conversations and press interviews. The Honduran government said it would arrest Zelaya if he pushed further into the nation and would ask the International Red Cross to monitor his treatment. Provisional President Roberto Micheletti, who was sworn in hours after Zelaya was removed from office on June 28, said Friday night his country was willing to continue negotiations. Two previous rounds hosted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias were deadlocked over the Honduran government's refusal to allow Zelaya to return to power. Watch Zelaya cross the border \u00bb . \"I offered several days ago to give up my position if Mr. Zelaya would stop inciting his followers to violence,\" Micheletti told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol. Micheletti said Zelaya had no intention of returning to Honduras, where he faced certain arrest by the national police. Zelaya went back to Nicaragua, Micheletti said, to keep causing problems. \"We have received information that they want to continue with these type of actions that only incite the public,\" he said. Asked in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol late Friday night why he did not go farther into Honduras, as he had vowed to do, Zelaya said he did not want to cause any violence. \"You have a correspondent here who can tell you how aggressive the military has been acting,\" Zelaya said. The latest events unfolded live and in front of a multitude of TV cameras as Zelaya led a 20-vehicle convoy over two days from the Nicaraguan capital of Managua to the Honduran border. Along the way, he held news conferences and conducted numerous telephone interviews. The highlight occurred Friday afternoon when Zelaya walked under a border chain and returned to his home soil. \"I am not afraid when I work for a just and noble cause,\" Zelaya said to someone on a cell phone moments after crossing the border, surrounded by scores of reporters and cheering supporters. Honduran soldiers pulled back about 25 meters (80 feet) from the border as Zelaya stopped and continued talking on the phone. He stopped in front of a large white sign that says, \"Bienvenidos a Honduras\" (Welcome to Honduras). Zelaya remained in the area for several hours, saying he was waiting for his wife to join him. She stayed in Honduras when the military flew Zelaya out of the country during the coup. His wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that she was being kept from joining her husband. Asked what she was feeling, she said, \"Anguish. Anguish is what we feel at this moment because he is a man of peace.\" Moments before crossing the border, Zelaya talked briefly face to face with army Lt. Col. Luis Roicarte, with whom he had been previously talking on the phone, said CNN's Karl Penhaul. The army officer cut off the conversation with Zelaya because he had to take a call, likely from one of his superiors. Zelaya later recounted the conversation. \"The colonel told me, 'You can't cross the border.' I said, 'I can cross.' I crossed, shook his hand and asked for communications with his higher-ups,\" Zelaya said. In Washington, the State Department issued a travel alert for Honduras and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Zelaya's actions. \"We have consistently urged all parties to avoid any provocative action that could lead to violence,\" Clinton said. \"President Zelaya's effort to reach the border is reckless. It does not contribute to the broader efforts to restore democratic and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis.\" The State Department warning \"alerts American citizens to the current unstable political and security situation in Honduras, and recommends that American citizens defer all non-essential travel to Honduras until further notice.\" While the drama unfolded at the border, Micheletti supporters held a large and colorful rally in San Pedro Sula. Zelaya supporters amassed in the Honduran city of El Paraiso, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the border with Nicaragua. They were met there by about 1,500 police and soldiers, some of whom fired on the crowd, a correspondent for CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported from the scene. Two people were wounded, journalist Jorge Jimenez said. The police and soldiers fired tear gas at the demonstrators for about 15 to 20 minutes before letting off a barrage of 15 to 20 shots, Jimenez said. The apparent shootings happened minutes after Zelaya held a news conference on the Nicaraguan side of the border and asked police and soldiers to let him back into his country. Watch a report on Zelaya's return \u00bb . \"Allow me to return to my country,\" Zelaya said, directly addressing his nation's police and army. \"To embrace my fellow countrymen, my children, my wife, my mother.\" Honduran police and soldiers set up numerous roadblocks between Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and the border, and established an immediate curfew in the area until 4:30 a.m. The shootings came after the National Police director, Salomon Escoto Salinas, said in a televised news conference that cars and people were being searched for weapons. \"Our job is to maintain order of the people who are protesting,\" Escoto Salinas said. \"If there is any vandalism, the police will act and we will apply the laws.\" He declined to say in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol whether Zelaya would be arrested if he crossed into Honduras. The National Police have a plan, he said, and it will be carried out. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution, even though the congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court ruled it illegal. The takeover has drawn international condemnation, including demands by the United Nations General Assembly, the OAS and the European Union that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has steadfastly rejected characterization of the takeover as a coup, saying Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power. He repeated that contention Friday night. \"There has been no coup because in a coup the military remains in power,\" he told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol.","highlights":"NEW: Zelaya says he did not go further into Honduras to avoid violence .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton calls Zelaya's actions \"reckless\"\n\"I am not afraid when I work for a just and noble cause,\" Zelaya says upon return .\nDeposed leader walks under border chain Friday surrounded by supporters .","id":"8b94d8efa09ffdfaba499bdd6dc45e7906fb2607"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of people attending Comic-Con in San Diego, California, will transform into zombies on Thursday. A \"zombie walk\" at Comic-Con will promote the upcoming \"Zombieland\" movie. They'll converge in a \"zombie walk\" through the San Diego Convention Center to promote Woody Harrelson's upcoming post-apocalyptic comedy, \"Zombieland.\" Comic-Con is an annual gathering of 125,000 people whose interests include comic book and science fiction film and TV, anime, toys and video games. Major movie studios and TV networks use the convention to launch their latest productions. Zombie movies have been on the rise in recent years, and the type of zombies on the big screen has been evolving with the times. George Romero's 1968 film \"Night of the Living Dead\" -- followed by \"Dawn of the Dead\" -- popularized zombies \"based on the original Haitian voodoo kind of zombie, the supernatural being, the walking dead or the undead,\" said \"Zombieland\" director Ruben Fleischer. Zombie films made \"a seismic shift in zombies with Danny Boyle's film '28 Days Later,' where it became a more viral-based thing, a diseased population, as opposed to from the grave,\" Fleischer said. In \"Zombieland,\" living people are infected by a fast-spreading virus that turns them into \"this other being\" that is fast, ferocious and flesh-eating, he said. \"These modern zombies are reflective of some of the perils of what can happen with overpopulation and disease control and how quickly things can spread and become a problem.\" iReport.com: Going to Comic-Con? Fleischer, along with screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, consulted a disease expert \"to get to the bottom of what the modern pandemic would be,\" he said. \"When swine flu happened, it was after we finished shooting, but it just really reminded me of how these things can spread so quickly and a whole population can be devastated,\" he said. While about 500 extras were hired to be zombies in Fleischer's movie, even more Comic-Con participants could take part in Thursday's zombie walk. Sony has hired professional makeup artists to get them ready. Fleischer said those portraying a modern zombie should think like \"a rabid dog.\" Don't lumber along like Frankenstein's monster, but move with \"a real furious anger and intensity\" and \"a lot of grunting and snarling and growling,\" he said. \"Zombies don't talk.\" Hunger is a modern zombie's chief motivation, he said: \"I think that they're definitely cannibalistic. They want to eat people.\" What does a modern zombie wear? Fleischer's zombies come as they are, whether in a work uniform or dressed for the mall. \"It's as if you were at the mall and some zombies attacked and everyone there got turned into a zombie,\" he said. \"They'd be wearing the same clothes that they had before. They'd be dressed in the same way.\" Fleischer developed a list of 150 types of zombies for his film, including construction workers, moms, a punk rocker and preppie zombies. \"They're just people who got infected, like a modern pandemic,\" he said. \"Zombieland\" -- which hits theaters October 9 -- brings out the humor in killing zombies, which is Harrelson's specialty. \"They're not easy to kill, so sometimes you've got to get them more than once,\" Fleischer said. \"You've got to make sure you get them because they'll keep coming if you don't.\" Harrelson blamed post-traumatic stress from filming for his scuffle with a TMZ photographer at an airport the day after shooting wrapped in Georgia in April. \"With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie,\" Harrelson said. While Harrelson will be at Comic-Con to promote the movie, it was not known if he would be kept away from Thursday's zombie walk.","highlights":"Some Comic-Con attendees will become zombies to celebrate new film .\n\"Zombieland,\" starring Woody Harrelson, to debut in October .\nComic-Con draws more than 100,000 fans annually .","id":"5f06daae50011aff3b850b4277d9856faa5a8079"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arturo Gatti, who was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room in suspicious circumstances, is revered by boxing fans for his trilogy of thrilling and brutal fights with Micky \"Irish\" Ward. Arturo Gatti fought to the limit of his endurance in many epic bouts. The Italian-born Canadian captured world titles at super featherweight and junior welterweight during his 16-year-professional career and also fought and lost to legends Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in big money matches. But his 2002 and 2003 bouts with Ward will always be remembered, and two of them won the \"Fight of the Year\" award given out by the prestigious Ring Magazine. The first two fights were over 10 rounds, with Gatti losing the first and gaining revenge in a classic second bout. The third and deciding fight took place in June 2003, and Gatti broke his right hand in the fourth round. Almost unbelievably, he fought on and despite being floored in the sixth dominated the rest of the fight to win on a unanimous decision. Despite Gatti's winning the WBC junior welterweight crown the following year by beating Gianluca Branco of Italy to the vacant title, his storied wins over Ward proved to be the high point of Gatti's career. He made two successful defenses of the title against lightly-regarded opponents until running into Mayweather in June 2005. It proved a big fight too many, as he was slowed by body shots and cut a sorry figure as he was stopped in the sixth round. Moving up to welterweight, Gatti won a warm-up fight before losing to Carlos Baldomir in a world title bout. His comeback fight, with old rival Micky Ward by then his trainer, also ended in defeat to Alfonso Gomez in July 2007, and he promptly announced his retirement. It ended a 49-fight career with 31 knockout and nine defeats. His first world title had come with victory over Tracy Harris Patterson, the adopted son of heavyweight great Floyd Patterson, to claim the IBF super featherweight crown. As his fame spread and with countless nominations for Ring's Fight of the Year, Gatti, nicknamed \"Thunder,\" gained a large and devoted following among boxing fans. But his life outside the ring proved contentious and in March this year the Canadian Press reported that Gatti was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend Amanda Rodriguez and spent two nights in jail after failing to turn up for a court appearance. Gatti later married Rodriguez, and they have a one-year-old son. She has been arrested in connection with his death.","highlights":"Arturo Gatti was one of the most popular fighters of his generation .\nItalian-born Canadian fought epic trilogy of bouts with Micky Ward .\nGatti also won world titles at two different weights in 16-year pro career .","id":"70e6411c8e7a469fc8d53e37235aeb6b246ba57a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sean Kingston was talking about his hit song \"Fire Burning\" when his cell phone suddenly started to ring. The device blasted a familiar tune. Sean Kingston has one of the summer's hottest hits with \"Fire Burning.\" She's fire burning, fire burning on the dance floor. Wait a minute. His own song is his ringtone? \"I've got to support it, man,\" said Kingston, 19, with a cheeky smile. \"It goes right back in my pocket, but hey.\" There had better be plenty of room in those pockets. \"Fire Burning\" is shaping up to be one of the summer's hottest tracks, with more than a million downloads sold, and is the second best-selling song on iTunes this week. For mainstream radio listeners and nightclub goers, the reggae-trance track is inescapable. Even for Kingston. Watch how Kingston sets the dance floor ablaze \u00bb . \"Three days ago I was in an elevator,\" he said. \"A lady came in and she had her iPod and she was playing my song. She didn't know who she was standing next to. That was kind of funny.\" But hearing his music in public doesn't mean he's allowed to get too cocky, he said. \"It actually motivates me to make even more music, because that's kind of big. Coming from where I'm from -- coming from nothing -- it's just amazing to hear people react to my music like they do.\" The Miami-born artist, whose real name is Kisean Anderson -- he changed his name to Kingston to reflect his Jamaican heritage -- got a taste for the big time in 2007 when his debut song \"Beautiful Girls\" became a No. 1 hit in the United States. His sophomore album, called \"Tomorrow,\" comes out September 22. Kingston just wrapped filming in Los Angeles for the music video for its second single, \"Face Drop.\" Kingston dropped by CNN to share his thoughts on his abilities on the dance floor and the leading ladies of pop. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: How much time do you actually spend on the dance floor? Sean Kingston: I spend a lot of time on the dance floor, [though] ... I'm more the type of dude to sit back and pose and act cool. But I had to make a song for it because there's a lot of stuff that's going on in the world today ... people want to dance. People want to let loose and \"Fire Burning\" is a song that you can do that to. CNN: You were born in Miami. You grew up in Kingston. Then you moved to L.A. Where do you feel most at home? Sean Kingston: I feel really at home, I can't even lie, in Miami. Because it's just like I know a lot of people, my friends that are there. That's where I started doing music when I was in Miami. CNN: Why call your sophomore album \"Tomorrow\"? Kingston: Because I feel like it's so futuristic. I felt like my last album was yesterday. Nobody's going to be able to expect what Sean Kingston is bringing on this new album. CNN: The first track that came off the new album was a collaboration with Lil' Wayne. It didn't take off like your previous hits. Why do you think that is? Kingston: We never sent it to radio. That record got leaked. It got leaked from the Internet and we just kept it going. But it never really got that push from the label. But I mean it did good. I mean 4 million plays on YouTube, 3 million on MySpace. Sometimes you've got to give free music to get people to pay attention and to build a buzz. So I basically gave my fans free music. CNN: You collaborate with punk-pop band Good Charlotte on the album. Kingston: Yeah. Benji and Joel [Madden], man! Those guys are hilarious. They're talented and geniuses. ... The whole \"Tomorrow\" album ... it's ridiculous. I feel like it's going to be the album of the year. I feel like it's my best album that I ever made. It's way better than the first one. CNN: Do you feel like you've pioneered this new sound that combines reggae and hip-hop and other elements? Kingston: I definitely think that's my own style. I definitely think I came in the game and I got my own blend. I've got something that I call hip-pop, not hip-hop. And a lot of people are starting to use that now but I feel like it was my fusion. CNN: Is it fair to say that \"Beautiful Girls\" brought massive change to your life? Kingston: It did. It changed my life like that! No other song did it but that song. I'm blessed. CNN: Are you surprised that it only takes one hit song to make someone a huge star? Kingston: It didn't really quite take me one. It took me one to get in the door. And then it took having a Top Five record. But you've got to understand ... in this music business, there are so many one-hit wonders. You could have a hit, but it's like \"OK, could you follow up?\" So it's not about what your past is, it's about longevity. CNN: You've been the opening act for Gwen Stefani and Beyonce. Who are some other female musicians you admire? Kingston: Man, those two are amazing. Gwen Stefani! That's what you call a star right there. Just to be in her presence ... I learned a lot from her. She's just amazing. Beyonce too. I like Mary J. Blige. Rhianna! I met her a lot of times and she's down to earth. She's so cool. And she's an island girl. And I'm an island dude, and we gotta hold down for other people.","highlights":"Sean Kingston's \"Fire Burning\" one of top hits of summer .\nKingston melds reggae, pop, hip-hop; he calls it \"hip-pop\"\nNew album, \"Tomorrow,\" is due in September .","id":"65fa62a4e7412acdf6ace60dfbee0d5beb2d01ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A single-engine airplane made an emergency landing on a California highway Sunday morning, though no major injuries were reported, authorities said. The Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101. The Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101 just outside Santa Barbara and a few miles from the airport, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer James Richards. The plane's engine quit, and as the pilot descended, he lost control of the plane and landed in the southbound lane facing oncoming traffic. The plane struck two vehicles while landing, then spun and hit another one with its tail, Richards said. One vehicle passenger was treated for minor injuries, he said. No other injuries were reported. The landing happened at 10:36 a.m. (1:36 p.m. ET) and held up traffic for less than two hours, Richards said. He added that the plane had departed Temecula in southwestern Riverside County, California, and was destined for the airport in Santa Barbara, a flight of about 180 miles. The pilot told authorities that he attempted to switch fuel lines during the flight, but was unable to restore power to the plane. He said he alerted a tower at the airport that a landing on the highway was imminent, Richardson said.","highlights":"Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on U.S. Highway 101 .\nPlane's engine quit, pilot lost control; landed in south lane facing oncoming traffic .\nPlane struck two vehicles while landing, then spun and hit another one with its tail .","id":"089a94de6b81069cd555b5a7ec215d3e8887bb34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jesse Ray Beard said he was constantly in trouble, even when he behaved. It took being accused of the racially charged attempted murder of a white classmate in the Deep South to turn his life around. Living with attorney Alan Howard, right, has afforded Jesse Ray Beard a bevy of new experiences. Beard, 18, now interns at a New York law firm as he prepares for his senior year next month at Canterbury School, a Connecticut prep academy where Beard is highly regarded among peers and teachers. \"I didn't change the way I act. I didn't do nothing different. It was just that I was at Canterbury instead of Jena,\" he said. \"It was like Jena was out to get me -- and not just me, but other people, too.\" If not for the controversy surrounding the Jena Six and the palpable racial tension in the Louisiana town, Beard never would have met the attorney who changed the course of Beard's life by removing him from everything he knew. Watch Beard describe his reaction \u00bb . Alan Howard met Beard, the youngest of the African-American teens who made up the Jena Six, in January 2008 when he began representing him in a lawsuit filed by beating victim Justin Barker. The fight followed months of disquiet among Jena High School students, including off-campus skirmishes, a school arson and nooses hung from a campus tree. In September 2007, thousands of protesters, alleging the teens were treated harshly because they were black, converged on middle Louisiana. Protesters were particularly angered at the jailing of Mychal Bell, one of the six, who was charged as an adult. Later in September, he was reclassified as a juvenile and released. The Jena Six were lionized and vilified; donations for their defense poured in, as did threats on their lives. Howard said his first impression of Beard -- that he had \"tremendous character, tremendous resilience and tremendous potential\" -- was so strong he invited the teen to live with his family in New England. It's been a tidal shift, Beard said, moving from a Louisiana town of 3,000 to Bedford, New York, a well-to-do city of 18,000 situated an hour north of the Big Apple. The biggest shock? \"Where I'm from in Jena, I think the only time it snowed is when I was 6, and it was like 1 inch.\" Another difference, he said, is not living in a town where everyone associates him with one of the most controversial events in contemporary race relations. See history of Jena Six \u00bb . The Howards say Beard meshes seamlessly. Though he struggled with the curriculum at Canterbury -- a Catholic school in New Milford boasting a six-to-one student-teacher ratio -- he is seeing tutors and showing improvements. He spent the summer helping attorneys at Howard's firm prepare for court cases and looks forward to his senior year as a three-sport athlete. Head football coach Ken Parson said he \"can't wait to unleash\" the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Beard. Beard is a candidate for team captain, Parson said, and the coach hopes Beard's leadership and \"quiet confidence\" will draw recruiters from Division I schools. Division II schools are already snooping around, he said. \"When he gets going, he's like a freight train. He's also got the softest pair of hands you could ever imagine on a high school football player and can make moves in the field like Barry Sanders,\" Parson said, invoking the Detroit Lions' legendary running back. Though football, baseball and basketball are his preferred sports, Beard has picked up lacrosse from playing with Howard's sons -- Nick, 14, and Tommy, 11 -- and tennis from playing with Howard's daughter, Jessie, 17. She said his tennis skills are \"ridiculous.\" Other fresh experiences include snowboarding in Utah, surfing in Long Island, visiting the Hamptons and attending baseball games at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. Around the house, he's a big brother, said Howard, whose children welcomed Beard immediately. \"My kids were the ones who said, 'If it means getting out of Jena, let him stay here,' \" Howard said. \"My 14-year-old son said, 'He can share my room,' and he doesn't even let his 11-year-old brother in his room.\" Beard is prone to the same gaffes as any teenager, Jessie said, giggling as she recalled a time he replaced a box of snacks in the cabinet after finishing the last one. Her mother, Patti, left the box on his sneakers with a note: \"Would you like more of these?\" \"He's just another member of the family,\" Jessie said. \"Now, when people ask me how many brothers I have, I say three, not two.\" Beard said he could never be proud of his involvement with the Jena Six, but he believes God put him through tribulations to deliver him to a better place. \"I'm not glad it happened, but I'm glad I came to a good family,\" he said. Beard's mother, Stella, is a \"remarkable woman,\" Howard said, but Beard didn't have much supervision at home. Howard thought to himself in 2008, \"It's not just enough to keep the kid out of jail one time because the system is stacked against him.\" Five of the Jena Six had already made tracks -- to Texas, to Georgia, to other parts of Louisiana -- but Beard had nowhere to go. That he was on house arrest for another juvenile offense confounded matters. \"I promise you I will get you out of Jena, whatever it takes,\" Howard told Beard. \"You promise me that you'll hang in there, keep doing what you're doing, going to school and keep out of trouble.\" Beard's mother made \"the ultimate sacrifice,\" allowing Howard to pursue guardianship and ferry her son 1,500 miles to New England. She put aside Jena Six donations to help Howard pay Canterbury's $40,000-a-year tuition, he said. She declined to be interviewed. Beard left Jena in spring 2008. About a year later, Beard, Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery. Fines and probation were doled out and civil suits settled. The terms were undisclosed. Bell, who served as the face -- and lightning rod -- of the Jena Six, had separately pleaded guilty to a second-degree battery charge in December 2007. Weeks after completing his 18-month sentence at a juvenile facility, Bell shot himself in the chest in December after an arrest on shoplifting charges. He later said the pressure to be perfect prompted him to pull the trigger. Read Bell's remarks after the suicide try . Jena is often painted as a town of bumpkins who pursued draconian criminal charges and exorbitant bails for a school fight but turned a blind eye when three nooses dangled from a campus tree. Beard, however, bristles at the portrait and defends his hometown. \"No, sir. There's not more racists in Jena,\" he said. \"There's racism everywhere. I just can't blame it on Jena because I did get along with the white folks and they did like me.\" As he and his five cohorts pursue educational and athletic endeavors around the nation, Beard hopes they won't be dogged by racial matters but that they'll be \"superstars, not from being the Jena Six, but from whatever we go to college for.\" Howard and Parson have confidence Beard will succeed, no matter his occupation. \"Whatever he ends up doing,\" the coach said, \"he's going to be great.\"","highlights":"In spring 2008, Jesse Ray Beard went to live with his attorney's family in New York .\nOnce accused of attempted murder in Louisiana, Beard now attending prep school .\nAttorney Alan Howard's daughter, Jessie, says she considers Beard a brother .\nFootball coach says he \"can't wait to unleash\" Beard at linebacker, wide receiver .","id":"f466463169e65fe0cc2f8b0ded00face09891aa6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Famous for honest self-portraits, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo said that she painted her reality and that her paintings carried a message of pain. Her life was full of it, both physical and emotional, and she used it to fuel her art. Frida Kahlo was born in this house and lived in it with her husband, Diego Rivera. Much can be learned about both her private and public life by visiting the home she shared, first with her parents and later with her painter husband, Diego Rivera. The bold blue house with red trim stands out in the quiet residential street of the Coyoac\u00e1n section of Mexico City. It was painted that way because Kahlo and Rivera felt that the bright colors represented Mexican culture better than the original white paint. This home-turned-museum, known as La Casa Azul, is where Frida Kahlo was born, began to paint and died, making the house a witness to one of the most important artistic lives in Mexican history. The museum entrance leads to a large patio where pre-Columbian sculptures collected by Diego Rivera throughout his lifetime are scattered among the plants and fountains. The couple's love for traditional Mexican art can be seen throughout the house, from the large fireplace designed by Rivera that dominates the first room, resembling a step pyramid like the ones built by the Mayas and Aztecs, to Kahlo's paintings and the couple's collection of smaller sculptures. Some of Kahlo's most well-known works, such as \"Viva la Vida,\" a still life of watermelons, are on display in the museum, but it is the personal objects that tell the most interesting stories. An entire room is dedicated to communist paraphernalia. Kahlo was very politically active and did not hide her political leanings. In fact, she and Rivera invited exiled Russian communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his wife to live with them in the late '30s. As visitors move through the museum, it is the remnants of Kahlo and Rivera's private life that begin to tell their story. Part of the collection is a bed with a mirror attached to it, used by Kahlo in order to create many of her celebrated self-portraits. At the age of 18, she was left bedridden for a few months when her spine was broken in a serious bus and trolley accident. It was during those months that Kahlo began to paint, to help pass the time and keep her spirits up. Also on view are several corsets that Kahlo had to wear during her lifetime because of lasting injuries from the accident, several surgeries and a childhood bout of polio. It was because she began painting that Kahlo met Diego Rivera, who was at the time a famous Mexican muralist. Kahlo wanted to know whether she had talent enough to make art a career, so she sought out Rivera to get his opinion. That was the start of their famously tempestuous relationship. They were married for the first time in 1929, but after infidelities on both sides (including an affair between Kahlo and Trotsky), they divorced in 1939. They were married again a year later. She once commented on their relationship, saying that there had been two great accidents in her life, the trolley and Diego; Diego, she claimed, had been the worst of the two. The house, which was witness to the birth of Kahlo on July 6, 1907, was also witness to her death July 13, 1954. Rivera put her ashes in a pre-Columbian urn, which remains in the house to this day. He donated the house in 1957, and it opened to the public as La Casa Azul, Museo Frida Kahlo in 1958. So the blue house, which has seen so much of the history of two of Mexico's most famous artists and was witness to so much of Kahlo's personal suffering, is open to the public, ready to tell their story to all who are willing to listen.","highlights":"Frida Kahlo was born in La Casa Azul and lived there with Diego Rivera .\nThe house contains the bed where an injured Kahlo started to paint .\nAn entire room in the home is dedicated to communist paraphernalia .","id":"f7c3270485d33d8de989155586e10b7361a3ff7c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Roberto Lee Jr, 35, is the President of Fresh Bread & Company in Shanghai. He has an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business and an Executive MBA (EMBA) from INSEAD and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Roberto Lee: \"I don't think I'd be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA.\" Roberto tells CNN how his EMBA has helped his career. CNN: Tell us about your current role. Roberto Lee Jr: I'm president of Fresh Bread & Company, in Shanghai, which I started in 2004. We supply finished products like sandwiches, cakes and desserts for Starbucks, Walmart, Metro AG, Tesco, and a number of franchised restaurants. We also have a more upscale chain with bakeries, coffee shops and the biggest bread chain in the Shanghai subway system. We currently have 620 employees, 32 shops in Shanghai, and we hope to expand into Eastern China next year. CNN: You already had an MBA, what made you decide to do an EMBA? RL: We are hoping to expand Fresh internationally, at least in Asia, and it could become an international company. The Tsinghua\/INSEAD EMBA is a really global MBA. We had classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Fontainebleau (in France) so it gave a very international focus. In each city INSEAD arranged for guest speakers from very large companies to tell us about the business environment in each country. It gave me much more of an international focus. CNN: How has that global focus helped you with your business? RL: In my class I had senior people from 17 countries. We became like a family and we are still in touch. I've been in different countries the last few years and my classmates have entertained me and showed me around in each of the countries. Down the road, if we decide to go into some of these countries, I have contacts and I've learned from my classmates, from their past experiences and the experiences they're going through. CNN: What was the biggest difference between the MBA and the EMBA? RL: A key difference is seniority. The average age on the MBA was 28 and on the EMBA it was 37. On an MBA people are getting ready to move into senior management, whereas much more senior management things being discussed on the EMBA. The other difference is that for the MBA you take off two years of your life. With the EMBA you still work, so every five to six weeks you meet for a week or two and you go to classes. With the EMBA you don't get spend as much time on the books, so an MBA is more theoretical and with the EMBA you learn a lot more from your classmates. I had numerous high-level people in my class and they shared how they've done things in the past. Read more business related features . CNN: So because you're working at the same time, can you put what you've learned into practice? RL: That's what was really cool -- all my classmates did it, taking stuff from class and applying it. I was able to get help from my finance professor about international standards for how some things are done on the books. The professors all have working experience -- they're not just people with PhDs who teach -- so you can ask for advice and even now I can email them and ask their advice. CNN: Can you think of any example where you've directly applied something you learned from the EMBA to your business? RL: We learned about how one company got all its senior managers together and went out for a weekend brainstorm to set out their strategy for the next year. That's something we did this past year at Fresh, and we set out a really clear path and goals. So far we've met all our goals this year, so it was a really great way of doing it. CNN: Would you have got where you are today without the EMBA? RL: It helped me out a lot -- I don't think I'd be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA. It's given me a broader perspective for being a manager for all departments. My strong point has always been sales and when the company started that was the area I pushed the hardest, but now I'm diving more into finance, accounting, marketing and HR. After the EMBA I have a much clearer idea what's going on in my company within all the different departments -- that's where it's really been a huge help for me. CNN: What would you say to people put off by the expense of an MBA? RL: If you're going to do an EMBA program, do a good one. Tuition plus time and expense will usually run into six figures in U.S. dollars, but if you get into a good program it's very worth it.","highlights":"Roberto Lee Jr is President of Fresh Bread & Company, based in Shanghai .\nHe has an MBA from USC and EMBA from INSEAD and Tsinghua University .\n\"I've learned from my classmates and their past experiences,\" says Lee .\nHe says the EMBA course helped him become a more complete manager .","id":"705246bf298569ae5be99f9e515c4c17e7053bc7"} -{"article":"Tukwila, WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Dude was in the house. Winners of the Seattle Lebowski Fest best-costume prizes pose at a bowling alley. Actually there were 11 Dudes, all dressed in the bathrobe-paired-with-sunglasses look made famous by actor Jeff Bridges in the movie \"The Big Lebowski.\" The venue, a bowling alley outside Seattle, Washington, was the setting for the Lebowski Fest, the unofficial celebration of the Coen brothers classic. When the film -- with its story of an aging hippie bowler turned bumbling detective -- opened in 1998, \"The Big Lebowski\" fell flat at the box office and with many critics. Since then, however, the movie has developed a distinct cult following. \"These guys are not the 'Star Trek' fans, they are not the 'Star Wars' fans, they are a different class. They are not the nerds. They are the slackers,\" said attendee Scott Glancy. Dressed like a wide range of characters from the film, about 200 attendees of Seattle Lebowski Fest watched the movie yet again, bowled, drank the film's signature white Russians and quoted each other their favorite lines. Watch highlights from the Fest \u00bb . There were plenty of Jeff \"the Dude\" Lebowskis, but also a handful of people dressed like his addled Vietnam vet sidekick Walter Sobchak, and sex offender nemesis from the bowling alley, Jesus Quintana. Others dressed up as lines of dialogue or set pieces, like the tumbleweed blowing across Los Angeles in the opening of the film. Most of the attendees stay in character the entire night with a dedication that would make Russell Crowe or Robert DeNiro jealous. \"There's a certain community thing that goes on when you hang out and watch your favorite film,\" said Lebowski Fest co-founder Scott Shuffitt. \"When you are watching it with 700 people who love it just as much as you do and everyone's quoting from it, it's just a really nice community.\" Shuffitt and fellow founder Will Russell came up with the idea in 2002 while quoting lines from the movie during a slow day selling T-shirts at a tattoo expo in Louisville, Kentucky, where they live. \"People we didn't know jumped in and started quoting lines with us,\" Russell said. \"We realized we are not alone with our obsession for this movie, and we thought, 'Hey man, let's have a party in a bowling alley for \"The Big Lebowski\" ' and never thought anything would come of it, and here we are eight years later doing it all over the country.\" Since then, Lebowski Fest has been held 25 times in the United States and overseas. This year, the roving celebration of the movie will visit 15 cities, including Chicago, Illinois, New York and Washington. Rachel Life, who dressed as Maude Lebowski, the film's eccentric artist and love interest for the Dude, said the fest brings a sense of community. \"I love hanging out with freaks that are like me,\" she said. \"We are letting our freak flags fly!\" Dude look-alike Kurt Michaels came for the feeling of being in on the joke. \"It's just this cult following,\" he said. \"So many people are in on something that the general public is not aware of.\" And for Scott Glancy, it's about getting something -- anything -- out of an otherwise unfortunate natural resemblance to a character played by actor John Goodman. \"It's my destiny,\" he said. \"Where else can I come where I can be a superstar for four hours?\"","highlights":"\"The Big Lebowski\" fell flat at the box office, but has developed a cult following .\nFilm tells story of an aging hippie bowler turned bumbling detective .\nLebowski Fest attendees dress like characters from the film, bowl, quote lines .\nMost of the fans stay in character the entire night .","id":"682a06c9767ac17b857a2d7f801cb2a1bdfd247e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The crown of the Statue of Liberty will re-open to tourists on July 4, the Interior Department said Friday. The Statue of Liberty welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The crown was closed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for safety and security reasons. The National Park Service closed the attraction amid worries that it would be difficult for visitors to evacuate quickly in the event of an emergency. Visitors must climb a narrow 168-step double-helix spiral staircase to get to the crown. Since the closing, tourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue. iReport.com: Show us your best Statue of Liberty shots . The federal government planned to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. \"We are once again inviting the public to celebrate our great nation and the hope and opportunity it symbolizes by climbing to Lady Liberty's crown for a unique view of New York Harbor, where the forebears of millions of American families first saw the world,\" he said in a statement. Access to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a National Park Service ranger. \"We cannot eliminate all the risk of climbing to the crown, but we are taking steps to make it safer,\" Salazar said. The measures include raising the handrails on the spiral staircase and stationing rangers throughout the Statue to help visitors. The Statue of Liberty will be open for the next two years, then closed again for \"work on a long-term solution that will improve safety and security permanently,\" according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. A gift from France to the United States, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for its centennial on July 4, 1986. It stands just across New York Harbor from where the Twin Towers stood.","highlights":"The crown has been closed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 .\nTourists have been able to visit other parts of the statue .\nAccess to the crown will be limited to 10 people at a time, guided by a ranger .\nOfficial: Government wants to give \"America a special gift\" by re-opening the crown .","id":"0b000cddbbe730c718370be09937307d2c1d6923"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Watergate Hotel, part of a complex that became synonymous with President Richard Nixon's downfall, attracted no bids at an auction Tuesday. The Watergate Hotel will most likely have to be sold privately after not attracting bids at auction. According to Paul Cooper, vice president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers, some 10 bidders ready to provide a $1 million deposit were registered for the auction. But the hotel fell back into the hands of its lender, PB Capital, after no one advanced the $25 million opening bid, the auction company said. The auction was sponsored by PB Capital, which holds a $40 million note on the hotel after the previous owner, Monument Reality, defaulted on its loan. Monument's 30-day foreclosure note expired Thursday. Cooper said PB Capital will most likely sell the hotel privately after it takes over the title and will not try to operate the hotel itself. On the night of June 17, 1972, the hotel served as a base for an illegal break-in by operatives of the Nixon re-election campaign at the offices of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate office building next door. Some of the burglars and their handlers, whose arrests began the investigation that led, two years later, to Nixon's resignation, actually stayed at the Watergate hotel prior to the break-in. Among the hotel guests were former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy, and former CIA operative Howard Hunt, both of whom later served prison time as a result of the Watergate break-in. Developers estimate the hotel could need up to $100 million in renovations. The Watergate complex was built in the late 1960s and consists of the hotel, two office buildings, and three apartment buildings. Only the hotel building was up for auction Tuesday. It closed two years ago for renovations, and possible conversions into co-op apartments.","highlights":"Hotel falls back into the hands of its lender, PB Capital .\nPB Capital will most likely sell the hotel privately after it takes over the title .\nHotel was a base for a break-in by operatives of the Nixon re-election campaign .","id":"6adfa77247c8e84bd27e975f3ee36fea880ee48d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British solo round-the-world sailor Dee Caffari happily admits that you need to be a little bit 'mad' to take on long-distance sailing. Dee Caffari celebrates completing the solo Vendee Globe race earlier this year. And she should know: Caffari became the first woman to sail single-handedly around the world in both directions after completing the solo round-the-world race, Vendee Globe, earlier this year. \"People say you must be mad -- and there probably is an element of truth in that,\" the 36 year-old told CNN. Growing up on the south coast of England, Caffari was bitten by the sailing bug early and her passion for the sport led her to enter the Vendee Globe, considered by some to be the most punishing sporting event on the planet. Caffari spent 99 days at sea completely alone and says preparation is the key to success in long-distance voyages at sea. That, and the desire and self-belief to make it to the finish. \"You have to have this desire to see how far you can push yourself. It's having the willingness to put yourself in that uncomfortable position -- and belief that you have the strength to get through it. \"It's a perceived risk and you go out there knowing that you have done all you can to deal with all scenarios. You don't just go out there on a whim -- we are well trained,\" she said. Coping day-to-day during the journey is a whole new challenge: solo sailors must battle perilous conditions, changes to sleep patterns and, inevitably, loneliness. Would you survive a round the world voyage? Take our personality test and find out! Caffari says she found being separated from family and friends was the hardest aspect of sailing round-the-world the first time. \"The toughest thing about my first journey was not seeing people for six months. You can communicate very well now, perhaps too well, but it still doesn't allow you to have face-to-face contact with people.\" Modern-day communications allow sailors to keep in touch via satellite phones and also keep in Internet contact. Sailors are tracked by global positioning systems (GPS) and also receive regular weather information. \"Transition\" periods at the start or just after the end of voyages -- when sailors are adjusting to boat routines or getting reacquainting with daily life -- are also very challenging. Exhaustion while getting used to different sleep patterns was particularly difficult: On board, Caffari would generally sleep in short bursts of two or three hours depending on conditions. The amount of sleep could vary greatly from day-to-day. \"The transitions are difficult. Life on board is very disciplined. Your adjustment with new sleeping patterns takes about two to three weeks. If it's changeable weather when you're out there, you don't stand a hope of getting sleep. \"It's a major shock to the body when you get back too. Suddenly you are supposed to get all your sleep at once -- and you actually have a night and a day,\" she said. Food is also an issue for sailors spending a long time at sea. It needs to keep for a long time and take up minimal space, which means meals can be monotonous -- freeze-dried pasta or rice-based dishes made by adding hot water. Cravings are not unusual, according to Caffari. \"Thankfully the product has improved. I just get bored of eating the same type of food. You are aware you haven't had fresh produce in a long time and you start to crave it.\" Despite the hardships, Caffari says there are numerous benefits. \"It's an amazing environment. Every time you go out you are going to see something different -- but you can't always prepare for how hostile the environment may be. \"I'm not a gadget person, so I quite enjoy the basics of life. I really value my time now. And in a team scenario it can be particularly rewarding, as the ability to not only push one's own limits but also to push other people's limits is important,\" she said. The intrepid Caffari is ready to push her limits once again -- this time sailing around Britain and Ireland. To find out more about Dee Caffari's voyage around Britain and Ireland go to her Web site: www.deecaffari.co.uk .","highlights":"CNN's MainSail speaks with British round-the-world sailor Dee Caffari .\nCaffari is the only woman to have sailed around the globe in both directions .\nLack of sleep and loneliness are the main challenges, according to Caffari .\nDesire, preparation and self-belief are the keys to success, Caffari says .","id":"976bec379fb8c5b6220b39005d649d015dc01c53"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The Lebanese army has arrested 10 suspected members of a terrorist network who the military believes were planning to attack targets abroad, the army said. The army claims suspects planned to create cells to monitor and attack UNIFIL troops, among other things. Most of the suspects are not from Lebanon, said the army, which does not identify the network in the statement it released. Officials also don't say when or where the suspects were captured. \"As a result of intensive investigation by the Lebanese army intelligence directorate in following up on radical terrorist networks, the directorate was able to arrest ten persons of one of these networks, belonging to different Arab nationalities,\" the statement said. According to a military probe, some of those arrested had used their jobs in private companies as a cover for surveillance and monitoring operations. The army urged private employers to verify the legal status of their employees or job seekers and report any suspicious information. The army claims the terrorists in custody were planning to: . \u2022 Smuggle wanted terrorists from the Palestinian refugee camp Ein el-Hilweh, located south of Beirut, to other countries. One of the network's members was to bring them fake documents and money for their trip. \u2022 \"Harbor radical elements\" from the terrorist group Fatah al-Islam and give them fake documents to help them enter the Ein el-Hilweh camp. \u2022 Create terror cells to monitor the Lebanese army and UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, to carry out attacks against them. \u2022 Carry out surveillance of money exchange centers and jewelry stores as possible robbery targets to help finance their operations.","highlights":"Most of the suspects were not Lebanese, according to statement from the army .\nStatement doesn't identify the terror network it claims the suspects belong to .\nMilitary probe: Some had used private-sector jobs as cover for operations .\nPlots to aid \"radical elements,\" target UNIFIL troops and commit robbery alleged .","id":"d8ef4fc8414944e586d5f5aa77556a6a16b91ef0"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Travelers to China who display flu-like symptoms may be randomly quarantined over concerns of the swine flu virus, the U.S. State Department warned. A child traveling with his parents wears a face mask after they arrive at the Beijing, China, airport. There have been cases of children being separated from parents after either tested positive for the virus, also known as H1N1, a travel alert said Friday. Chinese officials may give medications to minors in such cases without consulting their parents, according to the alert. \"Although the proportion of arriving Americans being quarantined remains low, the random nature of the selection process increases the uncertainty surrounding travel to China,\" the alert said. Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs transmitted to humans and caused by type A influenza virus. Symptoms include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. There have been about 48,000 confirmed cases worldwide, including 519 in China, according to the World Health Organization. The Chinese government has taken measures to stop the spread of the virus. They include placing passengers who have fever or flu-like symptoms on a seven-day quarantine, the alert said. Others facing quarantine include those sitting close to travelers with symptoms, those with elevated temperatures and those from areas where virus outbreaks have occurred. A 15-year-old from Topeka, Kansas, told CNN on Monday that she was quarantined in Beijing for a week. \"Apparently, I was sitting too close to a man who had a fever on the 14-hour plane ride,\" Kaitlin Hannigan said, adding that she initially thought she had a fever, but her temperature was fine when officials checked it. A day after she arrived in Beijing with an educational group, government officials showed up at her hotel. \"They were wearing quarantine suits, goggles and masks and, like, full body suits and gloves, and said I had to be quarantined for seven days because I came in contact with that guy,\" Hannigan said. Earlier in June, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin was quarantined in Shanghai after possible exposure to the virus. Nagin was headed to Australia on an economic development trip when he was quarantined for four days after sitting beside a passenger who was being treated for suspected swine flu symptoms. Nagin showed no signs of illness. State officials warned Americans traveling to China that they have to follow local quarantines procedures. \"The U.S. Embassy will be unable to influence the duration of stay in quarantine for affected travelers,\" the statement said. The travel alert expires in September.","highlights":"Travelers to China with flu-like symptoms could face 7-day quarantine .\nChinese government officials try to control spread of H1N1 virus .\nNew Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin recently quarantined on China trip .","id":"26666c75842ebd578f8c6e0f798e7ccc05caa935"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Maria (Maki) Haberfeld is a professor of Police Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She has served in the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israel National Police, and worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a special consultant. From 1997 through 2001, she was a member of a research team, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, studying police integrity in three major police departments in the United States. She is the author of \"Critical Issues in Police Training\" (2002) and co-author of \"Enhancing Police Integrity\" (2006). Maria Haberfeld says police officers make decisions based on their awareness of potential danger. NEW YORK (CNN) -- We teach our children to think about what others feel before they act, but as grown-ups we frequently assume we understand what others do without ever having walked in their shoes. President Obama expressed his opinion about a police officer's interaction with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. \"The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home,\" the president said. Was it stupid behavior or was it an understandable result of police procedure -- the culture, or rather sub-culture, of this profession. People depend on police in a time of trouble but are quicker than lightning to judge harshly when things go wrong. But the most important question in this case is: Did they go wrong? One needs to understand that the interaction between a police officer and a suspect is just part of a larger context. When a neighbor calls the police to report a burglary in progress and a police officer is dispatched to respond, a decision-making process begins for the officer. Police work is about sub-cultural contexts, about war stories, about suspicion, about unpredictability, about danger and fear for one's life. Police officers make their decisions based not just on a given situation but also based on their prior experience, the experience of those they have worked with and the stories they have heard about incidents that happened in the past. A call to respond to a burglary in progress generates a series of images that prepare a police officer for an encounter -- a dangerous encounter that can possibly end with a loss of life. Not long ago one of my students, an officer in the New York Police Department, was killed trying to stop a robbery in progress. Police officers hear about these stories and unlike the members of the public who forget a story, no matter how sensational within a day or two, police officers carry these stories as their secret weapons. This is part of their armor. An officer responding to a burglary in progress arrives at a scene with a heightened sense of danger, anxious and ready to go into fighting mode. Yes, the professor identified himself as a legitimate occupant of the premises. However, he was not arrested for trespassing. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Police officers arriving at the scene of a suspected burglary in progress do not put down their armor of suspicion just because somebody proved to them that they are the legitimate occupants of the dwelling. Police encounters can become deadly when officers assume that, on the surface, everything appears to be in order. It is their sixth sense of suspicion that helps them assess the situation in a way that members of the public would not consider reasonable. It is this precise quality of suspicion that goes beyond a reasonable doubt that sets them apart from the larger public and can be understood only by the members of the force. A person usually does not break into his own house -- it is true that it can happen, and it apparently did in this case -- but this is not a standard behavior that, once explained to the officer, should mandate an automatic approach to put down your guard. The officers look at the scene of the event they were called to as their domain, their turf, their territory, where some order has been disturbed and they were called to restore it. A famous police scholar, Egon Bittner, once wrote that we call the police when \"something ought not to be happening about which something ought to be done right NOW!\" The professor may have raised his voice, and this would appear now as justifiable under the circumstances. But, when somebody challenges the authority or the domain of a police officer who was just called to restore order, the discretionary process of the officer is not the same as that of a bystander. The professor seemingly lost his temper. One might say that this is fine, given the circumstances. The police officer did not lose his temper, he just made a decision that might have been an outcome of an error of judgment, or which one might say could have been justified given the totality of the circumstances. iReport.com: \"Shame\" on Gates . There are over 19,000 different law enforcement agencies across the United States. Each agency has its own standard operating procedures and rules and regulations, including the ones that would appear relevant to this case. However, there are no national standards that can be applied when officers respond to a call for a burglary in progress. Only very general standards could be applied and even then the evolving situation would dictate how officers would proceed after confronting the suspicious person. When an individual under suspicion becomes agitated, insults the officer and becomes aggressive, the majority of police departments would allow the officer to make an arrest. I was not there. Neither was the president nor all the others who are quick to pass judgment. What went on in the officer's head is something that I can only guess but, based on over 30 years of experience in the doing, teaching and studying of the police profession, I would venture to say that race had nothing to do with the behavior displayed and that the sub-culture of police work dictated the action, more than any possible bias or prejudice. I do believe that racial profiling exists in the minds of many -- not just police officers but also regular citizens. But police departments around the country are working very hard to fight these ill-conceived notions and, in recent years their diversity recruitment and selection processes, paired with modules in sensitivity and multicultural training, have had an impact. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Maria Haberfeld.","highlights":"Maria Haberfeld: President Obama said police acted stupidly in arresting professor .\nShe says act could be viewed as result of officers' awareness of potential danger .\nShe says officers arrive at such scenes with heightened sense of danger .","id":"1668664adb23492bfd3f6283ef8c2b43c5690af9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Sales of the flu drug Relenza shot up 1,900 percent from a year ago as governments around the world stockpiled in preparation for a swine flu pandemic, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said Wednesday. Stocks of antiviral treatments are pictured at a warehouse in an undisclosed location in the UK . Relenza sales were \u00a360 million ($98.4 million) in the second quarter of this year, compared to \u00a33 million ($4.9 million) in the same quarter last year, the company said in announcing its Q2 results. Glaxo also said that by the end of the year, it expects to have an annual production capacity for Relenza of 190 million treatment courses, more than a threefold increase to its previously announced maximum capacity. The company will achieve it by increasing production of the Relenza Diskhaler inhaler and building new capacity to manufacture Relenza Rotacaps, Glaxo said. Watch as swine flu boosts drug profits \u00bb . Relenza is an antiviral medication similar to Tamiflu that treats symptoms of the flu and helps to prevent getting it. GlaxoSmithKline started production last month of a vaccine for swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, the company said. It is now on track to meet the orders placed by many governments and the World Health Organization for the vaccine, Glaxo said. \"To date we have contracts in place to supply 195 million doses of the vaccine,\" Chief Executive Andrew Witty said. \"We also have a variety of agreements in place with the U.S. government to supply pandemic products worth $250 million. Discussions with over 50 governments are ongoing, with many at advanced stages, and I therefore expect further significant orders. Shipments are expected in the second half of 2009 and early 2010.\" In an interview with CNN's Richard Quest, Witty said the new swine flu vaccine will likely be a boost to sales into 2010. \"As we go forward, I think we'll see (swine flu) become more material for the company, particularly as we move into (the fourth quarter) of this year and vaccine shipments begin,\" he said. However, he thinks any sales boost from the planned swine flu vaccine will last only as long as the threat. \"What we're doing here is responding to government needs, where they've said, `Look, we don't know how serious this is going to be but we want to be prepared',\" he said. The real challenge for pharmaceutical companies is coming up with new blockbuster drugs for chronic disease, not acute outbreaks like swine flu. \"I think what you see in our industry is relatively resistant to the economic downdrafts ... but we do need to constantly renew our portfolio -- that's the challenge we face.\" Glaxo will donate supplies of both the swine flu vaccine and Relenza to the WHO for use in developing countries, he said. Australian company CSL announced this week it planned to start the first human trials of a swine flu vaccine in Australia. Watch vaccine being tested \u00bb . Participants will receive two shots three weeks apart and will undergo blood tests to determine if they are generating an appropriate immune response to the virus, the company said. Swine flu has spread so rapidly and extensively around the globe that the WHO said Monday it was changing tactics against the virus, including stopping a tally of cases and focusing on unusual patterns. WHO declared the virus a global pandemic on June 11. More than 120 countries have reported cases of human infection, totaling more than 98,000 documented cases worldwide. More than 700 people have died of the virus, the organization said Tuesday. With 29 deaths and a huge rise in the number of cases, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe. Cases of swine flu in Britain have, however, proven to be generally mild in most people, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday. They have been severe only among a small minority, mostly where patients have had underlying health problems, he said. \"Robust plans are in place\" to deal with the pandemic, Brown said. By the end of the week, a new National Pandemic Flu Service will be operating in England to quickly diagnose people who have swine flu and allow them to get antiviral treatment directly from local providers, Brown said. Swine flu has spread so rapidly and extensively around the globe that the WHO is changing tactics against the H1N1 virus, including stopping a tally of cases and focusing on unusual patterns. \"At this point, further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable,\" the WHO said. The counting of all cases is no longer essential because it is exhausting countries' resources, the organization said. While most patients have reported mild symptoms, a rise in severe symptoms or respiratory ailments that require hospitalization should be cause for concern, it said. Governments should also pay attention to unusual patterns linked to fatal cases, the WHO said. Any changes in prevailing patterns should be flagged, including a rise in school and job absenteeism, and an increase in visits to the emergency room. An overwhelmed health system may mean there is a rise in severe cases, the organization said.","highlights":"NEW: CEO: Boost from swine flu vaccine will likely increase profits later this year .\nSales of flu drug Relenza soar as governments stockpile in case of pandemic .\nAround the world there have been 98,000 cases of swine flu in 120 countries .\nWith 29 deaths, Britain has the worst swine flu figures in Europe .","id":"5fa85f15f9a59fe51250dc800b4151690ab3dd8b"} -{"article":"MUNICH, Germany (CNN) -- Juliane Koepcke is not someone you'd expect to attract attention. Plainly dressed and wearing prescription glasses, Koepcke sits behind her desk at the Zoological Center in Munich, Germany, where she's a librarian. Juliane Koepcke fell more than 3kms after the plane in which she was traveling broke up in midair. Yet this unassuming middle aged woman has one of the most exciting and unbelievable stories of tragedy and survival to tell. It was Christmas Eve, 1971, when Koepcke, then aged 17, and her mother boarded a Lockheed Electra turboprop for a flight from Lima, Peru, to Pucallpa in the Amazonian rainforest. Her parents, both famous zoologists, ran a research station in the jungle studying wildlife. The airline, LANSA, had already lost two aircraft in previous crashes. \"We knew the airline had a bad reputation,\" Koepcke told CNN, \"but we desperately wanted to be with my father for Christmas, so we figured it would be alright.\" The flight was supposed to last for less than an hour and for the first 25 minutes everything was fine, Koepcke recalled. \"Then we flew into heavy clouds and the plane started shaking. My mother was very nervous. Then to the right we saw a bright flash and the plane went into a nose dive. My mother said, 'This is it!'\" An accident investigation later found that one of the fuel tanks of the Lockheed Electra had been hit by a bolt of lightning which had torn the right wing off. \"We were headed straight down. Christmas presents were flying around the cabin and I could hear people screaming.\" Watch Koepcke tell her dramatic survivor's story \u00bb . As the plane broke into pieces in midair, Koepcke was thrust out into the open air: . \"Suddenly there was this amazing silence. The plane was gone. I must have been unconscious and then came to in midair. I was flying, spinning through the air and I could see the forest spinning beneath me.\" Then Koepcke lost consciousness again. She fell more than three kilometers (two miles) into the jungle canopy but miraculously survived with only minor injuries. Ninety-one other people aboard Flight 508 died. Koepcke says she is not a spiritual person and has tried to find logical explanations for why she survived. \"Maybe it was the fact that I was still attached to a whole row of seats,\" she says. \"It was rotating much like the helicopter and that might have slowed the fall. Also, the place I landed had very thick foliage and that might have lessened the impact.\" In any case she survived with only minor injuries. Her collarbone was broken, her right eye swollen shut, she was suffering concussion and had large gashes on her arms and legs. \"I didn't wake up until nine o'clock the next morning. I know this because my watch was still working. So I must have been unconscious the whole afternoon and the night. When I came to I was alone, just me ... and my row of seats.\" Her ordeal was far from over. Rescue planes and search crews were unable to locate the crash site and Koepcke was stranded in the jungle alone. But she had spent years on the research station with her parents and her father had taught her how to survive in the rainforest -- she knew how to cope in that environment. \"\"He said if you find a creek, follow it because that will lead to a stream and a stream will lead to a bigger river and that's where you'll find help.\" The day after the crash she found a creek and started to wade down stream, but it was tough going. The only food she had was some candy she had found at the crash site and her wounds were quickly infested with parasites. \"I had a cut on my arm and after a few days I could feel there was something in it. I took a look and a fly had laid her eggs in the hole. It was full of maggots. I was afraid I would lose my arm. Later, after I was rescued it was treated and more than 50 maggots were found inside. I still wonder how so many maggots could have fitted into that little hole, it was no bigger than a one euro coin.\" As she travelled downstream, Koepcke discovered more wreckage from the plane -- and found some of the crash victims. \"I found another row of seats with three dead women still strapped in. They had landed head-first and the impact must have been so hard that they were buried almost two feet into the ground. \"I was horrified -- I didn't want to touch them but I wanted to make sure that my mother wasn't one of them. So I took a stick and knocked a shoe off one of the bodies. The toe nails had nail polish on them and I knew it could not have been my mother because she never used nail polish.\" Juliane continued through the rainforest, wading through jungle streams infested with crocodiles, piranhas and devil rays. \"Sometimes I would see a crocodile on the bank and it would start into the water towards me, but I was not afraid. I knew crocodiles don't tend to attack humans.\" After 10 days, starved and exhausted, Koepke finally came upon a small boat and a hut on the river. She stayed there, hoping to be rescued. The next day a group of Peruvian lumberjacks found her and brought her to the next town. She became known as the miracle girl and was hounded by Peruvian media, receiving hundreds of letters from people she had never met before. \"It was so strange,\" she says, smiling. \"Some of the letters were simply addressed 'Juliane -- Peru' but they still all found their way to me.\" The events of 1971 still haunt Koepcke and she says the memories are especially clear when she is confronted with airline disasters like last month's Air France crash off the coast of Brazil. \"It just horrifies me. I only hope it all went quickly for those on board.\"","highlights":"German girl, 17, was only survivor of 1971 plane crash in Peruvian rainforest .\nJuliane Koepcke fell more than 3km into jungle attached to a row of seats .\nKoepcke suffered minor injuries, survived for 10 days alone in rainforest .\nKoepcke haunted by ordeal; especially when confronted with other air disasters .","id":"5f2df210248461de2496bbc2c133ee0dfc580c00"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Members of the international community have reacted to the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran and the oppostion protests which have accompanied the result. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pictured at a rally held in Tehran Sunday to celebrate his re-election as Iranian president. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement Saturday: \"We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide. \"The United States has refrained from commenting on the election in Iran. We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people.\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Saturday the administration was \"impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians.\" U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, commenting on NBC's \"Meet the Press\" Sunday, said: \"I have doubts, but withhold comment.\" He added that the Iranian government had suppressed crowds and limited free speech, which raised questions. He also said that the strong showing by Ahmadinejad was \"unlikely,\" based on pre-election analysis. Gallery: Emotions run high after election \u00bb . Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman said in a statement that \"the problem which Iran poses for the international community is not personal in nature, but derives from its policy. \"In any case, in light of Tehran's ongoing policy, and even more so after Ahmadinejad's re-election, the international community must continue to act uncompromisingly to prevent the nuclearization of Iran, and to halt its activity in support of terror organizations and undermining stability in the Middle East. In a statement Saturday the EU Presidency said it was \"concerned about alleged irregularities during the election process and post-electional violence that broke out immediately after the release of the official election results on 13 June 2009. \"The Presidency hopes that outcome of the Presidential elections will bring the opportunity to resume the dialogue on nuclear issue and clear up Iranian position in this regard. The Presidency expects the new Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take its responsibility towards international community and respect its international obligations.\" UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Saturday that the UK government had \"followed carefully, and admired, the passion and debate during the Iranian election campaign. \"We have also heard the concerns about the counting of ballots expressed by two of the candidates. This is a matter for the Iranian authorities to address. We will continue to follow developments. Our priority is that Iran engages with the concerns of the world community, above all on the issue of nuclear proliferation.\" Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement backed by Iran, welcomed the results. He urged the world to respect Iranian democracy and accept the results of the elections. The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement Sunday that he had congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory. It added that Karzai believed \"relations between the two Muslim nations of Afghanistan and Iran expanded during Mr. Ahmadinejad's first term and hoped that these relations get stronger during his second term.\" German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told ARD Sunday that the Iranian ambassador in Berlin would be summoned to explain the treatment of protesters against the result. \"I have already prompted Iran, together with European colleagues today, to quickly shed light on what has happened there -- if one can take the announced election results there seriously or not,\" he added. Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have offered their congratulations to Ahmadinejad, the official Anatolian Agency reported Monday. It said that they \"called Ahmadinejad on the phone and congratulated him for his success in the election.\" Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, that Canada was \"deeply concerned\" about allegations of voting irregularities. \"We're troubled by reports of intimidation of opposition candidates' offices by security forces. We've asked our embassy officials in Tehran to closely monitor the situation, and Canada is calling on Iranian authorities to conduct fair and transparent counting of all ballots.\" CNN's Shira Medding in Jerusalem and Greg Clary in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. Vice President Joe Biden: Questions need to be asked about vote .\nUK: We admire passion of the election, Iran needs to address fears about fairness .\nEU Presidency: Hopes outcome sees opportunity for dialogue on nuclear issue .\nTurkish media: President, prime minister have offered congratulations .","id":"5fd5156c1f3d2c0109f64b437f53d067f9757165"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday in a dramatic show of force designed to break up the Taliban's connection to heroin. The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday. The air strike occurred mid-day in Helmand province and was observed by CNN's Ivan Watson, who is embedded with the U.S. Marines operating in that province. The military dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs from planes on the mounds of poppy seeds and then followed with strikes from helicopters. Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs. Watch U.S. military bomb poppy seeds \u00bb . \"There is a nexus that needs to be broken between the insurgents and the drug traffickers,\" Wayne said. \"Also, it is part of winning the hearts and minds of the population because in some cases they are intimidated into growing poppies.\" In a bid to encourage Afghan farmers to swap out their poppy plants for wheat crops the U.S. Agency for International Development has been offering them seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation. Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year. Opium cultivation in the country, which has 34 provinces, dropped by about 20 percent in a year, the U.N. reported in August. \"It's a challenge to deliver assistance in a war zone -- you can hear fighter jets flying above us right now,\" said Rory Donohoe, a USAID development officer. \"At the end of the day, what we found is successful is that we work in areas that we can work,\" he told CNN in a recent interview in Helmand province. \"We come to places like this demonstration farm where Afghans can come here to a safe environment, get training, pick up seeds and fertilizer, then go back to districts of their own.\" Watch Afghans speak about the change in their farming practices \u00bb . Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals. Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID. Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan. \"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away,\" said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah. \"The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear.\" Atia Abawi contributed to this report .","highlights":"U.S. bombs poppy seeds in bid to break up Taliban's connection to heroin .\nPoppy seeds used to produce opium and heroin .\nOpium, heroin has been a major source of revenue for the Taliban .\nUSAID offering seeds, other help to encourage Afghan farmers to grow wheat .","id":"026cf4facf827f583865ffc3c602d4adec50225c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama on Monday strongly praised a decision by the nation's pharmaceutical industry to agree to a deal cutting drug costs for elderly Americans, calling it an example of the kind of compromise required for successful national health care reform. President Obama says the pharmaceutical industry announcement \"marks a major step forward.\" The agreement discounts medications for Medicare beneficiaries facing high out-of-pocket expenses when their benefits reach a gap in coverage. \"This is a significant breakthrough on the road to health care reform, one that will make the difference in the lives of many older Americans,\" Obama said at the White House. \"Today marks a major step forward, but it will only be meaningful if we complete the journey. ... I have to repeat and revive an old saying we had from the campaign: Yes, we can. We are going to get this done.\" The nation's top drug manufacturers agreed over the weekend to at least a 50 percent discount for most beneficiaries for brand-name medicines purchased in the so-called \"doughnut hole\" gap in coverage, Obama noted. The gap involves medication costs of senior citizens between roughly $2,700 and $6,100 a year that are not covered by the Medicare part D plan. The deal will be part of an $80 billion reduction in Medicare drug costs for senior citizens over the next 10 years, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, who helped negotiate the agreement. Part of that $80 billion will go to closing the Medicare prescription drug \"doughnut hole.\" Congressional staffers did not have precise estimates, but Finance Committee spokesman Erin Shields said they expect the $80 billion commitment to both cover the Medicare drug gap and leave additional money for other, still unannounced, programs. The American Association of Retired People, the nation's largest organization of senior citizens, has praised the pharmaceutical industry agreement as a step toward health care reform. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs noted Monday that AARP was opposed to health care reform during the first term of former President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s. \"You've got the pharmaceutical industry and the largest group representing seniors in this country, who 16 years ago weren't at the table but were on the other side of the political debate,\" Gibbs said of groups expressing support Monday for health care reform. \"I think that represents progress and important steps towards real reform.\" Overhauling health care is a top priority of Obama's administration, but the initial proposals to reach Congress last week received a rocky reception. The Congressional Budget Office determined that either of two similar bills written by Senate Democrats would cost more than $1 trillion, which was higher than expected. Republican opponents immediately slammed the measures, and the Senate Finance Committee delayed scheduled hearings on one of the bills. Hearings by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the other measure began amid intense partisan bickering, with hundreds of amendments proposed by Republican opponents. At least two more bills are expected from the House of Representatives, and a bipartisan group led by former Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle, Howard Baker and Bob Dole also has offered guidelines for a proposal. At issue is how best to reduce the cost and increase the reach of the current health care system, which officials say is increasingly draining personal, corporate and government budgets while leaving 46 million Americans without health insurance. Obama has warned that a failure to act soon will bring far worse economic difficulties than the costs of plans under discussion. Both parties in Congress agree on the need to slow the increase in health care costs while ensuring that all Americans can get health insurance, but they differ sharply on how to proceed. Democrats generally favor a government-funded \"public option\" to compete with private insurers. Republicans have said such a step would lead to a government takeover of health care, which they oppose. Republicans also accuse Obama and Democrats of trying to rush through what they say is flawed legislation in 2009 before the politics of midterm elections in 2010 and the 2012 presidential race. The parties do appear to agree on several broad principles, however, including an emphasis on preventive care, cost-cutting measures in the existing Medicare and Medicaid programs, and a halt to denials of coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions. CNN's Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Deal discounts drugs for some on Medicare when benefits reach gap in coverage .\nDeal part of $80 billion reduction in Medicare drug costs for senior citizens .\nHealth care overhaul a priority for President Obama; early plans have had hang-ups .","id":"fd157c29f6cdbe43de675094bce51305c8003f36"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fashion photographer Rankin took time out from his career to take powerful pictures of people from Congo. One of Rankin's images. He visited a refugee camp with the charity Oxfam and his work is now being exhibited in London. The photos are posed like a fashion shoot and different to the regular images coming out of conflict zones. \"I wanted to make the people who saw the photos look at the people and see them as people, not see them as victims,\" Rankin told CNN. Oxfam says 10 million people have died in the last 10 years in the Democratic Republic Of Congo. In the last few weeks, a fragile cease-fire has broken down. The conflict is complicated by outside forces and a variety of armed groups fighting both the government and each other. Rankin said the people he photographed just \"wanted the thing to stop.\"","highlights":"Fashion photographer exhibits shots of refugees in DR Congo .\nRankin says \"I want people to see them as people, not victims .","id":"b14b1b5adac5f3ce4d21da4d2f82e69b47b2ee11"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Defying threats of arrest or worse, witnesses to protests in Iran are managing to leak reports of violence after the country's disputed presidential elections. Anti-riot police form a barrier against protesters in Iran Tuesday. \"Censoring is very bad here and they have reduced Internet speed,\" two Iranians said to a friend outside the country. The pair wanted to broadcast images of damage and casualties after a reported attack on a dorm at the University of Tehran. \"We managed to upload a few pictures and movies ... please give it to news agencies and ask them to air it.\" The witnesses said riot police and militia attacked the dormitory Sunday night after a student protest the day before. Up to 150 students were arrested, according to the account, and at least one was killed. Students were beaten and shot, and one of the buildings caught fire. Some university professors resigned after the incident, the witnesses said. CNN cannot independently confirm this or other reports. The images showed a heavily damaged building, the charred remains of what appeared to be a dorm room, an injured or dead person, a burned motorcycle and a bloody floor. Many Iranians feel the June 12 election was \"a sham,\" a Tehran man in his 20s told CNN in an interview. \"During [the] previous presidential election, we had a 50.9 percent turnout,\" he said. \"This time, we got 82 percent, because people wanted change and [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad out. We know that many of Ahmadinejad voters from [the] last election voted for [opposition leader Mir Hossein] Moussavi this time. \"This is one of the reasons we were certain that Moussavi would win,\" he said. \"On Saturday morning, when they released the results that Ahmadinejad got 64 percent and Moussavi got 33 percent, we were absolutely shocked. If you looked at the returns coming in, Ahmadinejad's returns never dipped -- but [conservative presidential candidate] Mohsen Rezaie's dropped from 630,000 to 570,000. How is that possible? It's just more proof that the elections were rigged ... people feel like their intelligence has been insulted and that they've been lied to.\" Watch a report on images coming out of Iran \u00bb . Reports of violence came from outside Tehran as well. One video was posted by a person who said he had received it anonymously from a Twitter feed. It showed several people wounded by apparent gunshots, and people attempting to treat them, seemingly without medical supplies. The poster said the video was shot in Esfahan, a city about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Tehran. \"We need napkins, towels!\" one person yells in the video. \"Quick, give them to me!\" \"Sit down, sit down,\" another person tells one of the injured. \"Please relax. You are very hurt.\" Another image on CNN's iReport site shows the body of a man who has suffered a huge gash to his side. The man was 25, the description said, and was martyred because of his belief in freedom. In yet another video, posted without a description, a screaming crowd surrounds a man's body. CNN is not identifying iReporters who post content from inside Iran. \"Iranian TV isn't giving the big picture,\" the Tehran man said. \"They are depicting the protesters as anarchists. They even report that students are finishing finals at the university when the place has been shut down for days.\" One iReporter noted that Moussavi supporters are still able to organize rallies through person-to-person contact. Many Internet sites are blocked, and cell phones lack service in some areas, the person said. iReport.com: Are you in Iran? Share your story with CNN . The Iranian government has blocked journalists who work for international news organizations. Witness accounts are that plainclothes police were on the streets, shooting rifles into crowds and chasing down those with cameras and cell phones attempting to communicate, fostering \"mass fear.\" One person said the injured were staying out of hospitals, as doctors are handing patients over to police. In Shiraz in southwestern Iran, 28-year-old Najmeh, a hospital nurse, said she had joined protests since Saturday, but decided on Wednesday the risk was too great. \"The police are everywhere you look,\" she said. \"They hurt and arrested so many people last night that no one wants to go out.\" Some Moussavi supporters, however, remained firm -- even as they accused those outside Iran of turning a blind eye to their plight. \"We are fighting with our lives and the world is just watching,\" said Ali, a Tehran University student who asked that his full name not be used. \"They see how the government is trying to silence us, how they are beating us -- but they don't come to our help. It's OK. We will succeed, even if we have to fight alone.\"","highlights":"Report alleges arrests, beatings, shooting, fire in attack at University of Tehran .\nTwitter feed shows people apparently shot in city about 200 miles south of Tehran .\nNurse says police in Shiraz in southwestern Iran have put a damper on protests .","id":"325bf2d5497a8443acab56837df937bc26fb22ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portuguese football coach Jose Mourinho, ever the headline creator, has caused further outcry this week after he substituted Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari from his Inter Milan side during their Italian Serie A clash with Bari. Inter midfielder Sulley Muntari was substitued Jose Mourinho for his low-energy levels as a result of fasting. Taking a tired player from the field of play was hardly breaking news, at least it wasn't until Mourinho revealed the move had been prompted because the player's perceived \"low-energy levels\" were as a result of fasting. Muntari is a practicing Muslim who, like many of the same faith around the world, is currently not eating during the hours of daylight to mark the Ramadan holy period .Should fasting footballers be dropped by their managers? Sound Off below. A discipline that clearly irked Mourinho who said in a post-match press conference: \"Muntari had some problems related to Ramadan, perhaps with this heat it's not good for him to be doing this (fasting). Ramadan has not arrived at the ideal moment for a player to play a football match.\" Muslim leaders in Italy have criticized the opinions of the coach known as the \"Special One\", but Mourinho did not rule out the possibility of dropping the player for the Milan derby between arch rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan this weekend for the same reason. Click here to see our gallery of the top 10 Muslim football stars \u00bb . Elsewhere in Italy, fellow Muslim and Siena striker Abdelkader Ghezzal added to the debate by revealing he cannot fast and play at the same time. \"I've always observed Ramadan but I have had to change my habits for health reasons from the first year that I became a professional. Before that I played at Crotone [while fasting] but after two weeks I felt ill and had to stop.\" Egypt's Under-20 football squad passed up the chance to break the Ramadan fast to help them prepare for the forthcoming World Youth Championship which they host at the end of September. The Egyptian Football Association confirmed that the Dar al-Ifta, the country's institution which clarifies religious principles and issues edicts, had given specific permission for the players to legitimately avoid fasting. It is not just Ramadan which has caused issues between Muslim players and their clubs. The beliefs of Sevilla striker Freddie Kanoute have conflicted with the demands of his professional career. Kanoute taped over the logo of the Sevilla club's shirt sponsors - internet gaming company 888.com -- in 2006 because he said Islam forbade the promotion of gambling. So is Mourinho right to take account of how religious practices may affect his players' performance? Is it wrong to drop a fasting footballer whose energy levels may be lower than his teammates? Should Mourinho contemplate that a player of faith may perform better in a period of self-enforced discipline? Were the Egyptian players right to carry on fasting even though they were given permission to break the fast? If Kanoute right to bring his religious beliefs into his place of work? And can sport and religion ever be separated in a satisfactory way?Let us know your thoughts in the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"Jose Mourinho substituted Sulley Muntari because he had been low energy .\nThe Ghanaian midfielder is a Muslim and had been fasting during Ramadan .\nEgypt's national youth team turned down the opportunity to break the fast .\nLet us know if fasting footballers should dropped in the Sound Off below .","id":"644c4f6a827414b05cbb6bdde0326bcbbfd5fc7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former world number one, Rafael Nadal, has exclusively told CNN his levels of fitness ahead of the U.S. Open are \"better than expected,\" boosting his chances of becoming only the seventh man in history to win a career grand slam with victory at Flushing Meadows. Titans of tennis, Rafael Nadal (left) and Roger Federer (right), will be both keen to capture the U.S. Open title. The Spaniard, who dropped to third-best in the world after being sidelined for over two months with a knee injury, said he was pleased with his physical preparation for the major that starts on August 31. \"I'm very happy as I arrive here feeling better than I expected I would a few weeks ago,\" the 23-year-old said, who came through two warm-up events recently for the hard-court tournament without any further reaction. Watch Nadal's interview with CNN. \u00bb . \"I had a really good time in Cincinnati and a good tournament in Montreal. \"But playing in New York is always a special feeling and it's the last major of the season so I hope to have a good event,\" Nadal said. Nadal, who was knocked out of the U.S. Open at the semifinal stage by Britain's Andy Murray last year, said he considers himself lucky in terms of injuries that have affected his career. \"If you're playing at 100 percent, always at the limit, it is normal that you get injuries. I had nearly four years of perfect fitness while playing a lot of matches. Injuries sometimes happen so you have to accept that and try and recover as quickly as possible.\" But the Majorca-born player admitted it has been difficult to cede ground to his rivals while unable to play and he is keen to prove a point in New York. \"Roger has done an unbelievable job - he deserved the 15 grand slams and I can't congratulate him enough. I miss the competition but not the challenge of playing Roger! \"The atmosphere in New York is great, the crowd is more educated than many other events, so I like this kind of energy and electricity and I have high expectations of playing well here.\" Current world number one and defending champions Roger Federer also spoke to CNN about his optimism ahead of the last major event of the calendar. \"I feel great, a lot has happened in my personal life, as I have twin babies now, and this is their first trip abroad they're only five weeks old. I won in Cincinnati so things are looking good. \"The main threats are Nadal, Murray and (Novak) Djokovic because they have done well here in the past - but we also have players like (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga and (Juan Martin) Del Potro coming through so I think it could be more wide open than normal.\" Despite the difficult opponents standing in his way the Swiss still had his eye on capturing his sixth straight title in America and extending his record of 15 grand slam wins. \"It would be a dream come true to win six in a row here. It's a dream that I always thought was impossible but I'm only a few matches away now so I'm close,\" he said.","highlights":"Rafael Nadal feels fit for U.S. Open after returning from knee injury .\nSpaniard aims to seal career grand slam with victory at Flushing Meadows .\nRoger Federer is in good form after winning key hard-court warm up event .\nSwiss confident of bid to capture sixth successive U.S. Open title .","id":"2fad68f5a44219d96743ed604e233d07edb2460e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A small plane startled shoppers but caused no injuries or damage Tuesday when it made an emergency landing in the parking lot of a New Jersey shopping mall. The plane's pilot reported a \"rough-running engine\" before landing Tuesday, an FAA spokeswoman says. The plane landed around noon at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall, according to Greg Poff, an official with Rockaway Township, about 25 miles northwest of Newark, New Jersey. Neither of the two people aboard the Cessna 172 was hurt, Poff said. Footage from the scene showed the plane resting nose down in a part of the parking lot near JCPenney. Mall employee Jennifer Nelson was relieved to hear that no one was hurt, and kept her sense of humor about the novelty of the incident. The optician at Pearle Vision did not see the landing, but heard about it when a patient came in and told her a plane was in the parking lot. At first she thought the patient was kidding. \"I did, because, who would think? It's craziness,\" she said. The unusual excitement near her store did inspire one idea. \"We'll have to have a plane crash special on eyeglasses,\" she said with a laugh. Lori Magie, who works at the JCPenney department store, said that when she heard from others that a plane had landed in the lot, her first thought was to check on her car. \"When I was told, I could not believe there would be an accident like that around here,\" she said. iReport: Watch video shot at the scene of the parking-lot landing . The pilot of the plane reported a \"rough-running engine\" before the aircraft landed in the parking lot, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac. One of the plane's wheels apparently hit a tree during the landing, said Les Morris, a spokesman for Simon Property Group, which owns the mall. FAA records indicate that the plane is registered to an aircraft charter company called Genesus One, based in Paramus, New Jersey.","highlights":"Plane carrying two people lands in parking lot of New Jersey shopping mall .\nNo one injured, Rockaway Township official says .\nPilot reported engine trouble before landing, FAA spokeswoman says .\nMall worker says she thought landing was a joke when she first heard about it .","id":"6af69cb2526a380fc250f1803f186b27c0846c99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Getting arrested for stealing cars after his 16th birthday may be the best thing that ever happened to Terrence Barkley. Serving time in Missouri's juvenile justice system set Terrence Barkley on the path to college. It got him out of gangs and headed to college. While in one of Missouri's juvenile facilities, Barkley became editor of its student newspaper, captain of the football team and made the honor roll. \"I wanted something different for myself or I'd end up in Kansas City doing nothing. I knew I could do something,\" said Barkley, who is the first in his family to go to college. Now he's a sophomore studying criminal justice at the University of Central Missouri. Barkley wasn't scared straight. He wasn't packed away in a crowded facility with steel bars and razor wire. He wasn't under the constant guard of uniformed officers with billy clubs or locked down with hundreds of other juveniles. Instead, he was sent to Waverly Regional Youth Center, one of Missouri's 32 residential facilities where he wore his jeans and T-shirts. He slept in his own bunk bed in a room that looks more like a dorm than a jail cell. He received counseling and schooling. While America's juvenile system is often criticized for corruption and abuse, Missouri state officials say its juvenile justice solution has saved billions of dollars and reduced the number of repeat offenders. In the last four decades, the state has transformed its juvenile system into one that defies the traditional prison model. Known as the Missouri model, the program focuses on therapy, comfortable living conditions and an emphasis on job training and education. Missouri's facilities are serving thousands of young offenders, and they are receiving national acclaim. Each offender is placed in a small group of 10 to 15, assigned a case worker and sent to school during the day. Offenders also put on Shakespeare stage productions and play sports. They learn about teamwork through camping and rock climbing. \"Young people are really turning their lives around and becoming productive citizens,\" said Tim Decker, director of Missouri Division of Youth Services. \"We've redefined what's possible in the juvenile justice system.\" Several states including New Mexico, Louisiana, California and Virginia are trying to emulate the Missouri model. Washington's troubled juvenile detention center, Oak Hill Youth Center, which once housed some of the most serious teen offenders, was shut down in 2009 and rebuilt to copy the Missouri model. Missouri has changed, too. The state once relied on a punitive system that warehoused offenders in harsh conditions. For nearly a century, the Missouri Training School for Boys in Boonville was a dark place known for beatings, rapes and even deaths. At one point, it was crammed with 650 offenders. Even judges hesitated sending children to Boonville. It was closed in 1983 and transformed into an adult prison. \"We had a dysfunctional system and we had to change our mindset on how to best work with these kids,\" said Mark Steward, who helped pilot the Missouri model in the 1970s. Steward heads the Missouri Youth Services Institute, a consulting agency that helps other states implement the Missouri model. Under the Missouri model, juveniles who commit minor crimes such as skipping school or trespassing are placed in low-security, renovated houses or cottages with 10 other kids. The small group size allows staffers to work more effectively with individual offenders. Delinquents who commit violent crimes are placed in gated facilities that hold a maximum of 50 offenders but offer the same small group atmosphere and focus on rehabilitation. These offenders are broken into smaller groups and also receive counseling and go to school on site. Most juveniles work on community service projects during their stay. Instead of serving sentences of weeks, months or years, a juvenile in Missouri can win release through good behavior and demonstrated progress. Missouri officials say the small group size may be the reason why there hasn't been a suicide in their residences in 25 years. The federal government has reported hundreds of suicide incidents involving juveniles in confinement. Critics argue the Missouri model's residential centers are too soft on juvenile delinquents and that some youths may never become law abiding citizens. \"There are victims who certainly feel more is needed to help the child fully understand the consequences of their actions,\" said Julie Lawson, executive director of Crime Victim Advocacy Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Lawson said some adult criminals may take advantage of a juvenile system that doesn't appear to be as punitive as the traditional juvenile model. Adult gang members may ask juveniles to take the blame if they know that the punishment won't be that harsh, she said. Missouri's Youth Services Division staff admits that a small percentage of juveniles will continue breaking the law despite going through the program. But some research on the Missouri Model has shown promising results. A recent analysis by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that about 9 percent of juveniles in Missouri get in trouble with the law again within three years of their release. By contrast, about 28 percent of Arizona's juvenile offenders were back in trouble within three years. The program has survived scrutiny from tough-on-crime conservative leaders such as former Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft, who later served as attorney general in the Bush administration. The Missouri model has saved the state billions of dollars, said George Lombardi, who heads the adult Department of Corrections. He credits the Missouri model's low recidivism rate with slowing prison population growth. As a result, the state didn't have to build three prisons. More than 370 of the juveniles who went through the Division of Youth Services graduated from high school this year compared to just 40 children when the program began in earnest in 1983, according to state officials. \"I had wanted to go to college\" said Kaitlyn Bullard, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Missouri. Bullard, a teen who abused alcohol was sent to a facility for girls in 2005 for behavioral problems.\"But I just never thought it would actually happen.\" Today, she is planning to apply to law school.","highlights":"The Missouri model uses small, therapeutic groups to treat juvenile offenders .\nJuvenile residences don't have barbed wire or require uniforms .\nA handful of other states are trying to replicate the Missouri model .\nStudies show only ten percent of Missouri's youth re-offend .","id":"5fbfd7512f8e8bcc27fb15d34e43aeb1f0b33f81"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- The Cyrus family is ready to rock and always on a roll at its new L.A. home. Kick back and chill out with Billy Ray, Miley and the entire guitar-crazy clan. Billy Ray, Tish and Miley join Braison and Noah for chips and salsa in the kitchen before a rare barbecue. After months on the road, playing concerts one city at a time, Hannah Montana deserves a little R&R when she gets home. \"I just Superman onto my bed,\" says Miley Cyrus, 15, whose Disney Channel alter ego has made her a pop sensation, with two multiplatinum sound-track albums and more than 70 sold-out concerts in the past year. \"I love to sleep. I'd sleep all day if I could.\" Her father and Hannah co-star, country music icon Billy Ray Cyrus, prefers to think of the family's Mediterranean-style villa in North Hollywood as more than a crash pad. \"I like for the house to be an escape from the insanity that is outside,\" says the 46-year-old singer and actor best known for his signature hit \"Achy Breaky Heart.\" Inside, the superstars focus simply on relaxing with Miley's mom and manager, Tish, 41, grandmother Loretta Finley (who runs Miley's fan club), 72, brothers Trace, 19, and Braison, 14, and sisters Brandi, 21, and Noah, 8. \"Our house is fun,\" says Miley. \"Parts of it are really modern, but it's mostly old Italian country.\" She opted for a \"more chill\" vibe in her two-room bedroom one for sleeping, one for hanging out and playing music with friends such as dancer Mandy Jiroux and High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale. Inspired by the ultra-cool Viceroy Hotel in nearby Santa Monica, the suite has sea blue walls, coral-filled lamps and a delicate shell chandelier that hangs over her bed. \"It feels beachy and Old Hollywood,\" says Miley. \"I love the way the room is laid out.\" Billy Ray felt the same way about the entire house the first time he saw it in 2007, when the family decided they needed more space and privacy in the after-blast of Hannah Montana's success... \"I just walked in and said, 'That's it; that's the place,'\" he says. Though Billy Ray and Miley have work to do in their native Tennessee, where the highly anticipated Hannah Montana movie is filming, right now he's eager to lead his youngest daughter on a roller-skating expedition around the house. Miley sits at the foot of the stairs, teaching her brother how to break in his guitar strings. The Cyrus clan is happy to be home, even if the comings and goings of family and friends sometimes get as crazy as life on the road. \"It feels like we're at the YMCA; there are so many people just in our family,\" Miley says with a laugh. \"Then our friends come over, and it's like, OK, this is a stinkin' country club!\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Miley Cyrus' Disney Channel alter ego is Hannah Montana, a pop sensation .\nCyrus has two bedrooms, one for sleeping and one for hanging out .\nThe family bought their new L.A. home in the wake of Cyrus' recent success .\nCyrus lives with her mom, dad, grandmother, two brothers and two sisters .","id":"cc3a754556826d5024d03c06eeab2ed648610874"} -{"article":"LEBANON, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A hostile crowd shouted questions and made angry statements Tuesday at a town hall meeting on health care in Pennsylvania led by Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter. Sen. Arlen Specter, left, answers questions Tuesday during a forum in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The meeting drew an overflow of about 250 people, with more gathered outside the hall to demonstrate for and against President Obama's push to expand health insurance for 46 million people without coverage while bringing down costs. It was the latest in a series of emotional public meetings on the health care issue that have prompted Obama and Democratic leaders to complain of a campaign by opponents to drown out the debate with unruly disruptions. At one point, Specter shouted into his microphone that demonstrators disrupting the proceedings would be thrown out. \"We're not going to tolerate any demonstrations or any booing,\" he said after one audience member shoved another making an unsolicited speech. \"So it's up to you.\" Watch the shouting and shoving \u00bb . Many in the crowd identified themselves as conservative Republicans, with one man noting they had voted for Specter before the senator switched parties this year. One woman prompted a standing ovation by telling Specter: \"I don't believe this is just health care. This is about the systematic dismantling of this country. ... I don't want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country. What are you going to do to restore this country back to what our founders created, according to the Constitution?\" See a comparison of different countries' plans \u00bb . Specter responded by noting his support for the Constitution as a past chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on issues such as warrantless wiretaps. \"When you ask me to defend the Constitution, that's what I've been doing,\" Specter said. Specter said that overhauling the health care system is about America taking care of all of its people. \"In our social contract, we have provisions that see to it that you take care of people who need some help,\" he said. Several people asked if a health care bill would mean taxpayer dollars would pay for others to get abortions. Specter responded that any measure passed by Congress would allow people to choose a plan that didn't cover abortions. The senator agreed with the crowd on some issues, saying he opposes mandatory counseling on end-of-life issues called for in a House of Representatives version of health care legislation. Specter also vowed he would never support any bill that increased the federal deficit or took away a person's right to choose their health care coverage. \"I am opposed to anybody making a decision for you or me or anybody else about what health care plan we should have,\" he said. Emotions ran high, with questioners complaining of government intrusion in their lives on health care and other issues. One man implored Specter and the government to \"leave us alone,\" while another said the message Specter should take back to Washington is that he and others \"want our country back.\" The shoving incident occurred early in the 90-minute session when a man started shouting that he had been told by Specter's staff that he could speak, but he didn't get one of the 30 cards distributed to people allowing them to ask questions. Another man stood up and shoved the protester, and Specter approached the men shouting for calm. \"You and your cronies in government do this kind of stuff all the time,\" the protester shouted before leaving the hall. \"I'm not a lobbyist with all kinds of money to stuff in your pockets. I'll leave you so you can do whatever the hell you do.\" Specter remained calm most of the time, except when a woman asked if the bill meant a 74-year-old man with cancer would be written off by an overhauled health care system. \"Nobody 74 is going to be written off because they have cancer,\" he responded angrily. \"That's a vicious, untrue rumor.\" See an overview of the issue \u00bb . One man defended the rowdy behavior of the audience. \"I don't think we have bad attitudes,\" he said. \"We're just being Americans.\" iReport.com: Attending a town hall? Specter said he would vote against all the provisions he said he opposed in the town hall meeting, but he dodged the question of whether he would vote against a final bill if it still contained those provisions. The senator also tried to inject some humor, making sure to thank the lone person among the 30 questioners who supported the health care overhaul. Obama has said an overhaul is essential for long-term economic stability. Congressional action has slowed due to strong Republican opposition. Neither the House nor the Senate met Obama's goal of passing a bill before Congress' August recess. Watch how Obama is preparing for his own town hall \u00bb . In particular, Republicans and some Democrats reject a government-funded public health insurance option, arguing it would lead to a government takeover of the health care system. Most Democrats want a public option to ensure coverage is available to virtually all Americans and provide competition to private insurers.","highlights":"Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania addresses raucous crowd's concerns .\nOne man storms out after he says he failed to obtain card allowing him to speak .\nSenator angered by \"vicious, untrue rumor\" that sick seniors will be \"written off\"","id":"e2b1011ff07b1869c2b00a7a313c39ff0b6f2387"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The first search of Michael Jackson's bedroom a day after his death found marijuana, skin-bleaching and hair-growing ointments, anti-insomnia pills and empty bottles of several anti-anxiety drugs, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. The documents reveal what investigators found in Jackson's bedroom the day after his death. A substance initially suspected to be tar heroin proved not to be a narcotic, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. An affidavit, written by Los Angeles Detective Orlando Martinez, was used to outline probable cause for a warrant to search Jackson's Holmby Hills, California, home on June 26. Martinez filed his report on what was found in the search five days later. While the documents may provide some insight into Jackson's life, they appeared to contain nothing that would lend new insight into his death. Another sworn statement written by Martinez several weeks later -- and made public earlier this week -- provided a more extensive list of drugs found by investigators at Jackson's bedside. That document also revealed that toxicology tests led the Los Angeles County coroner to a preliminary conclusion that Jackson died of an overdose of propofol, a powerful sedative he had been given to help him sleep. The latest release refers to suspicions by some members of Jackson's family in the hours after his June 25 death that heroin might have been involved. \"During the course of the investigation, family members of the decedent notified [coroner investigator] Chief [Ed] Winter that they located a quantity of tar heroin in a bag in the decedent's bedroom located on the second floor of the residence,\" Martinez wrote. He used this statement to justify a search of Jackson's home because \"there may be additional medications and\/or narcotics at the location as well as the necessity to confiscate these items for the safety of the minor children.\" A source with knowledge of the probe told CNN Thursday that a test later showed that a brown, sticky substance found in the search was not heroin. The source asked not to be named because the source was not authorized to speak about it publicly. In addition to listing two Baggies of marijuana, the detective's report of what was found in Jackson's home listed three vials of Latanoprost Plus Solution liquid. An online search found medical journal references to this glaucoma medication also used to stimulate hair growth. Jackson suffered permanent hair loss when his scalp caught fire while taping a Pepsi commercial in 1984. He was known to wear wigs in public after the mishap. Also listed on the detective's report was Benoquin ointment, a medication used to lighten skin pigmentation in people with vitiligo, a skin condition. Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, said on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" last month that he had treated Jackson for the condition, which causes irregular patches of white skin. \"His was bad because he began to get a totally speckled look over his body,\" Klein said. The coroner announced two weeks ago that the report on Jackson's death was completed, but that police asked for it to be withheld until completion of the criminal probe.","highlights":"Skin-bleaching, hair-growth ointments also found day after Jackson's death .\nPolice searched Jackson's home after family believed it found tar heroin .\nSource: That substance was not heroin .","id":"0d0c8b4b3f1b89800f65024c2274cf9dad3360ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An infant girl delivered prematurely from her mother, who has the swine flu virus, has died, hospital officials said Monday. Aubrey Opdyke was put into a medically induced coma to give the baby as much oxygen as possible. Parker Christine Opdyke was delivered 14 weeks early by doctors at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Florida's Palm Beach County. Her mother, Aubrey Opdyke, was placed into a medically induced coma June 3 to help give the baby as much oxygen as possible. But doctors delivered Parker on Saturday after her mother suffered a collapsed lung last week. Aubrey Opdyke remains comatose and in critical condition in Wellington's intensive care unit. \"Despite heroic efforts on the part of physicians and nurses, we are sad to announce that baby Parker Christine Opdyke has expired,\" said a written statement from the hospital. No other details were available Monday. Attempts by CNN to reach the family were unsuccessful. Even under the best circumstances, delivering a child at 27 weeks is a very early birth, Dr. David Feld, a Palm Beach County obstetrician and gynecologist, told CNN affiliate WPEC. \"When you have an infectious case, I don't think you're going to see that lung maturity as quickly, and I think that is the issue,\" he said. But, he said, now that Aubrey Opdyke is no longer pregnant, she will be able to fight for her own life. Palm Beach County has had 247 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, but only one death. In late June, a 25-year-old pregnant woman died, but her baby survived. Pregnant women have long been a prime concern of health care officials regarding the flu virus, but are of particular concern during this outbreak of swine flu. Pregnant women have always been advised to get a flu shot because they are at greater risk because of the weakened immune system resulting from their pregnancy. But the H1N1 epidemic has seen new complications and challenges. \"We have seen, with this virus, worse complications and severe infections in pregnant women,\" said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"We're urging women who are pregnant who develop fever or respiratory symptoms to seek care promptly.\" The CDC said it is vitally important for pregnant women to recognize the signs and symptoms, like fever and cough, to get to their doctor quickly and to begin taking antiviral medicines early on. \"I know that many pregnant women don't want to take anything while they're pregnant,\" said Schuchat. \"This is a situation where you need to be more worried about your health and the baby's health.\" The CDC also recommends that pregnant women get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, in addition to an annual flu shot. \"For people who are at high risk, like pregnant women, planning to receive both vaccines is probably the right way to go,\" Schuchat said. The CDC's advisory committee will meet later this month to make recommendations on at-risk groups who should receive the new vaccine.","highlights":"Baby delivered 14 weeks prematurely from a mom battling swine flu has died .\nThe baby's mother, who has been placed in a coma, remains in critical condition .\nCDC sees \"worse complications, severe infections in pregnant women\" with this flu .","id":"9529cd4b1ec6651bb839c083f627b9bd4c18e089"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Seventh graders at Ron Clark Academy became an overnight sensation during the presidential election when their YouTube performance of \"You Can Vote However You Like\" catapulted them to online stardom. \"The higher the expectations, the higher the results,\" says Ron Clark, seen here with his students. Now, their creative and scholastic talents have proved the students to be more than just \"one hit wonders.\" Academy students showcased their poetry and writings for CNN's documentary \"Black in America 2,\" hosted by Soledad O'Brien. Cultivating student creativity is just one of the goals of academy founder Ron Clark, an enigmatic educator known for his unconventional teaching methods. Under his strict tutelage, students at Ron Clark -- who are predominantly African-American -- are expected to excel in all subjects and maintain a high standard of respect for their peers and teachers. \"I'm teaching an eighth-grade curriculum to fifth-graders,\" says Clark. \"Some people say my expectations of the kids, academically, is too high, but the higher the expectations, the higher the results.\" Watch Clark's students perform their original poetry \u00bb . But with high academic expectations come an equally high quotient for fun. It's become one of Clark's trademarks: singing and dancing to popular rap and R&B songs during class to get the kids engaged. \"My first day at Ron Clark Academy, I thought all the teachers were psychopaths,\" says seventh-grader Jai Springs. \"I thought Ron Clark was going crazy. He was up in front of the kids on desks, he was dancing. ... I never saw a teacher get up on a desk and dance. But now I'm used to it, so I get up on the desk and dance too,\" says Jai. Clark, formerly a schoolteacher from North Carolina, founded the academy with money he earned from his book titled The Essential 55, which detail Clark's 55 golden rules for success -- in and out of the classroom. Clark was invited to be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show after winning Disney Teacher of the Year Award in 2001. Oprah believed so much in the well-mannered Southern school teacher from South Carolina that she encouraged him to write the book. Later she promoted The Essential 55 on her show, prompting it's ascension to New York Times bestseller list. Together with co-founder Kim Bearden, Clark transformed a decaying factory in a rough part of Atlanta, Georgia, into a state-of-the-art educational model for middle schools across the country. See newsmakers and iReporters on race, challenges, solutions for black America . Soon after the school opened its doors in 2008, a Christmas package from Winfrey arrived for Clark in the form of a $365,000 grant, or \"a thousand dollars for each day of the year,\" as Oprah referred to it in the letter. Then came the elections, with a tight presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona. Inspired by rapper T.I.'s hit song \"Whatever You Like,\" Clark's seventh grade class penned their own lyrics and dance moves. The students' performance carried a message: Cast your ballot because you support a candidate's policies rather than just his skin color. When they perform the song, half the seventh grade class touts the virtues of GOP's McCain while the other half root for Democrat Obama: \"Obama on the left. McCain on the right. We can talk politics all night. And you can vote however you like.\" The students \"can talk politics with the best of them,\" says Clark. Video clips of the kids performing have garnered over 15 million hits on YouTube. \"We got lots of media attention. But when the media arrived to the school they realized the song is not the story, it's the kids,\" says Clark. One of Clark's credos is teaching a \"global curriculum\" with a heavy emphasis on current events. Himself an avid world traveler, Clark believes it's essential for his students to travel to other countries to develop an understanding and appreciation of the world in which they live. Through Delta's corporate sponsorship of the school, administrators have been able to send all 100 of their fifth to eighth grade students abroad before they graduate. \"I'm not nearly as shy as I used to be,\" says seventh-grader Chi Chi Kasarachi after her first year at the academy. \"My knowledge of the world has improved, I know more about what's going on in other countries and I'm more curious about things. ... I'm just hungry for knowledge,\" says Chi Chi. In fact, the students at Ron Clark Academy are better versed in current events and politics than many adults. \"I never thought I'd be interested in watching the news,\" says seventh-grader Osei Avril. \"Now I find it interesting because I have learned the stories behind the news,\" he says. Osei -- who pronounces Iranian President Ahmadinajad's name perfectly -- says he's interested in learning about world issues such as the Iranian elections, the Taliban in Pakistan, and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. \"At the beginning,\" says Clark, \"the kids will say something like 'I've been to East Point [a suburb of South Atlanta]. After a few years they've been to Kenya, Japan, or South Africa, or England. ... They've become very comfortable with understanding the country and understanding themselves.\" But it's not just the travel or even the singing and dancing to rap music that make the school so special, say the students. It's the academy teachers' creative ways of instilling education, solid values, and a passion for learning. \"They want you to pass the people at the top,\" says Jai. \"To be at the top nonstop, be at your fullest, to be creative, to think out of the box.\" But school isn't all fun and games, she says. Clark is a strict disciplinarian that expects -- and enforces -- model behavior from all of the students. \"I love Mr. Clark with all my heart, he's like a father to me,\" says Chi Chi. \"He might fuss a lot, but I know he's doing it for our own good.\"","highlights":"Ron Clark Academy students' '08 YouTube rap performance got millions of hits .\nClark teaches \"global curriculum\" with heavy emphasis on current events .\n\"I'm teaching an eigthth-grade curriculum to fifth graders,\" says Clark .\nStudent: \"My knowledge of the world has improved. ... I'm hungry for knowledge\"","id":"b5407e6d8decae0544e72995207c053567c6d121"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has followed his country's surprise 2-0 Confederations Cup defeat to the United States by hinting he could be ready to leave English Premier League club Arsenal because of their limited success. Is Cesc Fabregas paving the way for a move away from London-based club Arsenal? The 22-year-old star told British newspaper The Sun that the loss to the USA was not the prime factor contributing to his depressed mood, instead he focused on his club's inability to win silverware. \"The absence of titles at Arsenal is what angers me the most. Cristiano Ronaldo said he's leaving Manchester United because he had nothing else to win. For me right now it is the exact opposite, seeing the impotence,\" the playmaker and club captain said. Check out the world's 20 most wanted players. Fabregas, who joined the north London club in 2003, has not won a major club trophy since Arsenal beat Manchester United in 2005 to lift the FA Cup. Arsene Wenger's team have also not been crowned champions of the Premier League since 2004, a factor that has been increasingly of concern for the diminutive footballer. \"This year we wanted [the title], we were giving everything - but we couldn't reach the level that everyone expected of Arsenal. When you win, you're well. But when you don't, everyone is in a bad mood. For four years now, we've needed a title to regain our belief in ourselves,\" he added. Fabregas signed an eight-year contract with the Gunners in 2006, a deal that should see him stay at the club until 2014, however, it seems he is already considering other destinations to ply his trade. \"My seventh season is about to start. It's a lot when you're just 22. When you stop to think, you see that time flies. In football, you have to learn fast and take the best decisions for yourself and try to be happy. \"If one day I'm not happy, I am the first who will tell the manager. I admire Arsene Wenger but each of us has his own life and looks after his own interests.\" The midfielder - who helped his national side win the European title in 2008 as well as guiding Arsenal to the semifinals of the Champions League in 2009 - hinted that the ambition shown by Real Madrid has attracted his attention despite descending from a family of Barcelona supporters. \"Of course my family would understand if I signed for Real Madrid because they love me, they want me to be happy and what is best for me. They'd support me - whichever club I joined. My family will always be there for me - whatever decision I make. They're the ones who are always by my side.\" Since the re-election of president Florentino Perez, Real Madrid have embarked on a period of extravagant spending, buying Brazil's Kaka for $92 millions dollars from AC Milan and agreeing a $130 million transfer fee with Manchester United for World Player of the Year Ronaldo. Rumors have circulated that Fabregas could be a target for Los Merengues and the man himself speculated it would be a difficult choice to make if both Barcelona and Real were to bid for him. \"At the moment it's not happened so I don't have to choose. For any player it gives great pride that those two clubs come to sign him. It would be a difficult choice,\" he added. Arsenal kick off the forthcoming season in England with an away visit to Everton on August 15.","highlights":"Cesc Fabregas has lamented Arsenal's \"impotence\" over recent years .\nThe midfielder signed an eight-year contract with the Gunners in 2006 .\n\"Family would support a move to Real\" player tells The Sun newspaper .\nArsenal have not won the English Premier League title since 2004 .","id":"d28ac30905490d9335a68023df0386629f2405d1"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A U.S. mining company has denied a report by Indonesia's state media that a convoy of its buses came under fire in the province of Papua Wednesday. Indonesian soldiers provide security near a PT Freeport-owned gold mine in Timika, Papua province, on July 18. The state-run Antara News Agency had said that two people were reportedly killed when a 12-bus convoy carrying employees of PT Freeport was attacked by unidentified gunmen in the country's eastern-most province. The company clarified that a vehicle was wrecked in the province, killing one person and wounding several others. When police and mechanics drove to the area to assist, shots were fired at them. Three people were hurt in the shooting, the company said. \"No shots were fired at the PT-FI bus convoy as earlier reported,\" the company said. Following the company's comments, Antara's Web site changed its report to reflect the new information. PT Freeport is the largest copper and gold mining company in the province. Attacks directed at the company killed an Australian mine technician and two Indonesians on July 11 and 12. And two directors of the company were wounded Friday in a twin attack at the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in the capital Jakarta. Papua residents have long resented the presence of PT Freeport in the province. They have criticized the environmental impact of the mining operations and the small share of revenues the province receives. In 2008, a separatist group claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in the area. No one died in the attacks, Antara said. In 2002, two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague who worked at the mine were shot dead in an attack, the news agency said. Meanwhile, authorities on Wednesday released sketches of two men believed to have carried out the bombings at the luxury hotels in Jakarta. One was about 40; the other 17, officials said. Analysis of their DNA matched those obtained from a homemade explosive found in a room at the Marriott where they had checked in, police said. But authorities still do not know their identities. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Antara News Agency said two people were killed when convoy was attacked .\nConvoy was transporting employees of U.S. mining company PT Freeport .\nCompany clarified a vehicle was wrecked but no shots fired at convoy .\nPapua residents resent firm's presence, criticize environmental impact, little benefit .","id":"9c9318b25a18ab5c289d57eee9989d556e18d243"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Cannes Film Festival entrusted its opening to a Pixar film, and the animation studio did not disappoint. An adventurous boy and a cranky man travel by unusual means in the new Pixar film \"Up.\" Pixar, which has produced such gems as \"Toy Story,\" \"The Incredibles\" and \"WALL-E,\" introduced its latest feature, \"Up,\" on Wednesday night at the French movie celebration. By critics' reckonings, Pixar has never released a bad film, and those who saw \"Up,\" its 10th feature, say the studio's perfect record is still intact. The film is a \"captivating odd-couple adventure that becomes funnier and more exciting as it flies along,\" wrote Variety's Todd McCarthy. \"The two leading men are 78 and 8 years old, and the age range of those who will appreciate the picture is even a bit wider than that.\" Gallery: Pixar in pictures \u00bb . \"It's a terrific family adventure,\" wrote Peter Bradshaw of Britain's The Guardian. \"The 3-D presentation gives it a real boost, but this film is airborne because of the traditional strengths: story, characterization and inventive animation with the old-fashioned values of clarity and simplicity.\" See the excitement of Cannes' opening \u00bb . \"Up\" concerns Carl Fredericksen, a balloon seller voiced by Ed Asner. Faced with eviction after his wife dies, Fredericksen decides to uproot himself -- literally -- by attaching hundreds of balloons to his house and flying it to South America. However, it turns out he's not alone. A stowaway -- a Junior Wilderness Explorer named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) -- is in the house as well, and the two of them become mutually dependent after landing a continent away. The film opens May 29 in the United States. Cannes audiences are notoriously vocal. They'll whistle if they're unhappy -- a French version of a boo -- and a movie that doesn't meet the audience's high standards will be treated to the repeated \"whop\" sounds of theater seats banging shut as patrons leave. \"Up,\" on the other hand, received little but cheers. CNN's Natasha Curry, who's at the festival, reports a morning screening concluded with applause. It's an unlikely film to be opening Cannes. Not only is it animated, it's animated by computer -- and, in some theaters, it will be shown in 3-D. Those are all firsts for a Cannes curtain raiser. But the Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan told CNN that \"Up\" fits in with Cannes' aspirations. \"Cannes likes to be seen as innovative, likes to be seen as embracing something new,\" Turan observed. \"But really the reason 'Up' is opening the festival is not because it's animated, not because it's 3-D, it's ... because it's a wonderful film. [Festival organizers] saw that, and I'm sure they liked the fact that they could do something avant-garde in terms of technique, but really it's a wonderful story, it's a terrific film and that's why it's opening.\" Turan said he sees Pixar's work, and its recognition by Cannes, as another sign that animated features are among the best films being produced right now. \"The Pixar films, the Hayao Miyazaki films from Japan, the Wallace and Gromit films from Britain -- we're really living in the golden age of animation, one of the great ages of animation in the whole history of film,\" he said. \"And Cannes is happy to be part of that. Cannes is happy to recognize that.\" CNN's Matthew Carey contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Up,\" new film from Pixar, opens Cannes Film Festival .\nCritics widely praise animated film -- the usual reaction to Pixar movies .\nWhy the opener? \"It's a wonderful story, it's a terrific film,\" critic Kenneth Turan says .","id":"b0abe5b48fa066759e0d8fcf10410c3a13848c54"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- We're in the throes of summer vacation season, but at least one American is still on the job. While it's rumored that President Obama will follow in the footsteps of President Clinton and vacation on Martha's Vineyard, he hasn't had a chance to break out his Bermuda shorts just yet. When Obama does take off, though, he'll join in the grand tradition of presidential vacations, like these notable ones: . President Bush (R) and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ride bikes in Crawford, Texas, in 2008. 1. Abe Lincoln doesn't go too far . Far-flung vacations are nice, but President Lincoln preferred to stay a bit closer to home. When Lincoln needed a getaway from the heat and political turmoil of Civil War-era Washington, D.C., he headed to...a different part of Washington, D.C. From 1862 to 1864 Lincoln spent June through November living in a cottage atop a hill at the Soldiers' Home a few miles from the White House. Lincoln apparently loved the slight change of scenery, which meant slightly cooler temperatures and a chance to ride his horse each morning. If you're considering a stay-cation this year, consider this Honest Abe's endorsement. 2. Movie cowboy does real ranching . Think George W. Bush was the first president to sneak away from the White House to spend time on his ranch? Not quite. At the end of his second term as Governor of California in 1974, Ronald Reagan paid just over half a million dollars to acquire Rancho del Cielo in California's Santa Ynez Mountains. The 688-acre ranch, complete with stables and a 1500-square-foot adobe house, was Reagan's go-to vacation destination while he was in office, and he entertained some big names there, including Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mikhail Gorbachev, who gamely wore a cowboy hat during his visit. 3. LBJ does some ranching, too . Texan Lyndon Johnson was very involved in the everyday operations of his ranch. Johnson, who had gotten into ranching in 1951, grew his LBJ Ranch into a 2,700-acre spread populated by 400 head of Hereford cattle. Johnson was no absentee owner when he was in Washington, either. Johnson frequently headed back on vacations and supposedly drove his foreman crazy by calling every day to talk about the weather on the ranch or how the pastures looked. Today, the National Park Service maintains LBJ's spread as a working ranch, complete with a herd of cattle descended from the Herefords Johnson bred. 4. George W. Bush initiates a war on brush . George W. Bush followed in LBJ's footsteps and went to his own Texas ranch when he needed a getaway. Prairie Chapel Ranch, a 1,583-acre spread Bush owns near Crawford, Texas, served as the secondary White House throughout Bush's presidency, and he was often shown clearing brush during vacations. Bush wasn't just doing farm work, though. He exhorted visitors to join the \"President's 100-Degrees Club\" by running three miles or biking 10 after the mercury hit 100 degrees. Anyone who could pull of the feat got a specialized Under Armour shirt as recognition. We can only hope one of the many foreign dignitaries Bush entertained at the ranch -- including Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, Ariel Sharon, and Saudi King Abdullah -- managed to get one of the coveted shirts into their suitcases. Mental Floss: Iraq, Afghanistan and other extreme vacation spots . 5. FDR heats up Georgia . Some presidents choose to head to their hometowns or a beach side resort for their vacations, but Franklin Roosevelt preferred to travel to western Georgia. Warm Springs, Georgia, is the home of (you guessed it!) warm springs that supposedly had therapeutic value for polio sufferers. FDR, who had contracted his own paralytic illness in 1921, started visiting Warm Springs in 1924 in the hope that exercising in the springs' warm waters would cure him. Although the springs didn't reverse his illness, FDR felt like his time at the resort alleviated his symptoms somewhat. In 1927 he bought the resort he'd been staying at, and in 1932 he ordered a six-room Georgia pine house to be built on the property. This house was FDR's retreat throughout his presidency and became known as the Little White House. FDR was sitting for a portrait at the Little White House when he died of a stroke in April 1945. Today, the house is part of Georgia's state park system and is open to visitors; it's been preserved to look almost exactly as it did the day FDR died. 6. Nixon gets the right ice cubes . When Richard Nixon wanted a break from Washington, he headed to a modest ranch home he owned on Key Biscayne off Miami. Nixon's \"Florida White House,\" which he visited 50-plus times during his tenure in office, eventually swelled to include three houses and a floating helipad, which the Department of Defense installed at a taxpayer expense of $400,000. (There was plenty of room for taxpayer outrage at the $625,000 total the government spent sprucing up the Florida White House; one itemized expense was $621 for a replacement icemaker because \"the President does not like ice with holes in it.\") Given that this house was Nixon's retreat, it's no surprise that some shady dealings transpired on the premises. Nixon allegedly discussed plans for the Watergate break-in at the house, and he holed up there when the coverup came to light. The house fell into disrepair after Nixon sold it, and in 2004 it was razed to make room for a new building. The Florida White House wasn't Nixon's only retreat, though. He bought a mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Clemente, California, shortly after taking office in 1969. Nixon dubbed his new digs \"La Casa Pacifica,\" but the press quickly started referring to the spread as \"the Western White House.\" This house wasn't cheap for taxpayers, either; the government dropped over a million dollars improving this home with temporary office quarters for staffers, helipads, and an upgraded heating system. Mental Floss: Donald Nixon and other memorable presidential siblings . 7. Teddy Roosevelt goes bear hunting . Lounging on the beach is great, but do you really think Teddy Roosevelt would miss the opportunity to do something manly? Roosevelt's vacation in 1905 took him to the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he stayed for three weeks while bear hunting. 8. FDR's successor gets his own little White House . Harry Truman may have been from Missouri, but he headed south when he needed some R&R. Truman started suffering from exhaustion in late 1946, and his physicians recommended a warm weather vacation to revitalize the President. Truman took his vacation in a converted duplex in Key West that already held some history. The house, which was originally built in 1890 for the commandant and paymaster of Key West's naval base, had already hosted William Howard Taft while he was in office in 1912. When Thomas Edison developed 41 new weapons to aid in the American efforts in World War I, he spent six months living in the house. Once Truman visited the house, though, it quickly became known as Truman's Little White House. He ended up spending 175 days in Key West over the course of his two terms in office. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy later used the house while they were in office, and it's now open as a tourist attraction. Mental Floss: Early summer jobs of Truman, LBJ and more . 9. Kennedy retreats to his compound . Starting in 1926, Joseph P. Kennedy began taking his family to Hyannisport, Massachusetts, on vacation each summer. His son John liked the area so much that in 1956 he bought a cottage of his own near his parents' digs, and the family soon purchased a third cottage in the area, giving rise to the name \"the Kennedy Compound.\" JFK used his cottage as a base of operations for his presidential campaign and later vacationed there each summer he was in office. 10. George H.W. Bush prefers not to ranch . Not to be outdone by the Kennedys, the Bush family has an even older compound of their own in Kennebunkport, Maine. In 1903 George H. Walker, the grandfather of George H.W. Bush, built a great mansion on his oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport, and the property has remained in the family ever since. George H.W. Bush used the Kennebunkport compound as his vacation home during his presidency, and George W. Bush made a few getaways to the house as well. Between father and son, they've entertained some pretty big names at their summer house, including Yitzhak Rabin, Vladimir Putin, and Nicolas Sarkozy. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"U.S. presidents leave the White House to relax on vacations .\nPresidents Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush visited their ranches .\nTaxpayers spent $625,000 sprucing up President Nixon's Florida home .\nPres. Lincoln spent four months at the slightly cooler Soldiers' Home .","id":"fa10b80d47d6d0877a97ce1f00f4e81f245a7319"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Shweta Gupta knows exactly what kind of groom she wants: he should be educated, well settled and live in a good location --- one that must be in India. Indian brides and grooms from the Adivasi tribe take part in a mass marriage ceremony. Love may be recession proof in India, but arranged marriages are not. One of the casualties of the global economic slowdown is the Non Resident Indian (NRI) groom. They were once considered premium marriage material. After all, these were the men who had typically studied hard, gotten top jobs in the West, earned big bucks and could whisk their wives away to better opportunities in the West. Not anymore. \"Yeah, I hate to say it but the NRI man seems to be out of favor with the Indian woman,\" said Gaurav Rakshit of Shaadi.com, a matrimonial search engine used by 14 million people globally. He has seen demand for NRI grooms drop by around 20 to 30 percent since the recession hit. Why? Shweta Gupta, a 23-year-old student, has an answer. \"Many Indians working abroad have come back due to recession hitting foreign countries and I don't think recession has affected India that much,\" said said. She believes there is greater job security in India, so would prefer her husband to be based here. Her mother, who is involved in finding a suitable man for her daughter, agreed. \"Suppose there is no job security, then again he would have to come to India, then again he would have to find a job for himself, so I would prefer both of them to be here. Plus, I want my daughter to be close to me,\" said Shraddha Gupta. Arranged marriages are still the norm in India and parents play an active role in choosing a life partner for their children. Traditionally, parents will let friends know that they are on the lookout for a partner for their child. Sometimes, they go to a marriage broker -- a middleman who keeps a stash of resumes and photos of eligible men and women whose families have registered with them. As Indians get more tech savvy, more people are taking their search for partners online. Matrimonial Web sites are popular since they offer a much bigger pool of potential life partners. Shweta Gupta is currently pursuing an MBA in Mumbai and is confident of getting good job offers in India --- another reason she would not want to risk that by going abroad. \"As the woman finds her voice in Indian society, a part of the trend is defined by her unwillingness to compromise on where she grew up, the kind of person she wants to be with, the value system she wants to associate with,\" Rakshit said. Women in India are comfortable with the opportunities they have at home and don't feel they need to go abroad to have a better life. As a result, NRI men are out. So, who is in? Well, government employees, who are typically thought to hold more stable jobs. Shaadi.com said demand was up around 45 percent since last year for men with these jobs. Also in favor now: working wives --- a departure from the tradition of Indian men choosing only homemakers. Anish Sapra, 27, has been looking for a bride for around ten months --- and he wants a working woman. \"It will be a help -- more than a help -- to have a working partner,\" he said. \"Not just for financial reasons,\" he added noting that he believes he would have more in common with such a wife. A wife with a job could help pay off some of the wedding bills, too. Indian marriages are typically large and flamboyant affairs, though the slowdown means they are somewhat subdued these days. That is one tradition Shweta Gupta won't give up. She is holding out for a grand wedding with lots of singing and dancing -- she just has to find Mr. Right. \"My marriage should be fun, it should be remembered by all people,\" she said.","highlights":"Arranged marriages are still the norm in India .\nTypically families sought Indians working overseas as good marriage material .\nWith recession hitting the West hard, Indians are looking inward for suitors .\nWomen in India are more comfortable today with the opportunities they have at home .","id":"0f1011c7e122f3f63ad7cc8fe0df9c21922f0276"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three of five Americans contractors detained in Baghdad have been ordered released by an Iraqi judge, because of insufficient evidence, a court spokesman said Thursday. In a CNN exclusive, video shows U.S. contractors taken into custody by Iraqi authorities. The other two other contractors remain in custody, according to Judge Abdul Sattar al-Beeraqdar, a spokesman for Iraq's Higher Judicial Council. One of the men has been released on bond, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed Thursday. The embassy did not identify the man, who was released Wednesday. However, a spokesman for his employer, Corporate Training Unlimited, said it was Donald Feeney. Judy Feeney, Donald's wife, also confirmed his release. The contracting company said the release of the others has been delayed because of a procedural issue. Judy Feeney said her son, Donald Feeney III, and Mark Bridges were to be released Thursday morning, but it may take more time to release the other two, Jason Jones and Micah Milligan. But al-Beeraqdar said, without naming names, that two contractors were being held on charges involving \"illegal substances\" found on the men when they were taken into custody. Those who have been released are not allowed to leave the country because of an ongoing investigation and the judge may want to question them again, according to al-Beeraqdar. Except for Jones, the detained contractors work for the Fayetteville, North Carolina-based CTU, a security firm headed by the elder Feeney. An Iraqi judge decided earlier on Wednesday that charges against the five contractors were not warranted and that they could be released, according to an Iraqi security source and a source close to the five. The sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, in which the contractors have been detained since last week for reasons that remain unclear. The contractors initially had been told they were being held in connection with the May death of another contractor, James Kitterman, said the source close to the five. But on Monday, according to a judicial source, the men were told they were being held on suspicion of having unregistered weapons. Still, they were asked about their activities around the time Kitterman was killed, and Iraqi government officials told CNN Monday the five were detained as suspects in connection with Kitterman's slaying. Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed in a car in Baghdad's Green Zone on May 22. The 60-year-old Houston, Texas, resident owned a construction company that operated in Iraq. The Green Zone is the high-security area in central Baghdad that contains the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government buildings. Access to the area, formally known as the International Zone, is tightly controlled. The five contractors were taken into custody on June 3 in a pre-dawn Green Zone raid by Iraqi and U.S. personnel, the security source told CNN on Sunday. During the raid, troops also confiscated weapons, the Iraqi security source said. Three of the contractors were suspected of being directly involved in Kitterman's death, the Iraqi source said. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the search was an Iraqi operation, but FBI representatives were present at the request of Iraqi authorities. The five were transferred to a prison within the Green Zone on Friday. \"After this murder inside the Green Zone, a joint investigation committee from U.S. and Iraq sides has been formed to investigate this incident,\" Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf told CNN, \"and this committee managed to collect a number of indications that those five are linked to this murder.\" Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said the men were detained based on information linking them to the Kitterman slaying. Under Iraqi law, after a person is detained, an investigative judge questions the accused and assesses the evidence. The judge then decides whether there is sufficient evidence, and either refers the case to trial or dismisses it. The Iraqi source said the five had been held in a separate holding area and not with other Iraqi detainees, but spent time in a courtyard with other Iraqi detainees. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said consular officials had visited with them and \"they appeared well.\" The source close to the suspects said Sunday that each of the five men insisted they had alibis that will clear them and they were eager to tell their stories to a judge. The Feeneys had known Kitterman for six years from their time in the Green Zone and \"respected him,\" Corporate Training Unlimited spokeswoman Sarah Smith told CNN. CNN's Alan Duke in Los Angeles and Jomana Karadsheh in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge orders three of five U.S. contractors held in Iraq to be freed .\nTwo others remain in custody on charges involving \"illegal substances\"\nContractor already released on bond; wife, employer identify him as Donald Feeney .\nMen detained in connection with slaying of another U.S. contractor, sources say .","id":"7b2b414d8cbc968f4df05bcefb2f9f0fd3052083"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson couldn't sleep. A coroner preliminarily has concluded Michael Jackson died of an overdose of propofol, court documents say. Maybe it was anxiety over his upcoming comeback concert series in London, England. Perhaps his body was trying to process too many different medications. The reason may never be known, but a sworn affidavit makes clear that the King of Pop couldn't get rest the night before he died on June 25. The affidavit, from Detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department, outlines probable cause for search warrants on the offices of doctors who are thought to have treated Jackson. Yet it also opens a window into Jackson's final hours, revealing information about the singer's treatment and the drugs given him by Dr. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, before his death. Watch a panel discuss Jackson's death \u00bb . Based on interviews, visits to Jackson's home as well as records and documents gathered during the investigation, the affidavit provides the following account of Jackson's last days: . In May, Jackson hired Murray, a cardiologist. The singer was spending long days rehearsing for concerts that he saw as crucial to reviving his career. For six weeks, Murray told police that he treated Jackson for insomnia. He said he had been giving the singer an intravenous drip with 50 milligrams of propofol, diluted with lidocaine, every night to help him sleep. Jackson was already familiar with propofol, a powerful anesthetic, Murray said. The singer even called it his \"milk\" because of its milky appearance, he said. With the concerts approaching, Jackson started to need these drugs every night, Murray said -- and the doctor said he worried that Jackson was becoming addicted to propofol. He wanted to wean Jackson off the drug. Three days before Jackson's death -- on June 22 -- Murray gave the singer a combination of drugs that he hoped gradually would move the singer off propofol. That mixture involved propofol, the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam (known by its brand name, Ativan) and midazolam (known as Versed). It succeeded in helping Jackson to sleep for that night and the next, Murray said. But by the night of June 24, Jackson again apparently was unable to sleep. Learn more about the events of Jackson's final hours \u00bb . At 1:30 a.m. on June 25, Murray decided to forgo the propofol in favor of 10 milligrams of Valium. Half an hour later, with Jackson still awake in bed, Murray injected the singer with two milligrams of lorazepam. It still wasn't working. At 3 a.m., Murray gave the singer two milligrams of midazolam, pushed slowly into his IV. And two hours later, with Jackson still awake, Murray administered another two milligrams of lorazepam through Jackson's IV. The drugs did nothing to help Jackson sleep. At 7:30 a.m., Murray gave the singer another two milligrams of midazolam in his IV. By that point, Murray wasn't even leaving Jackson's room anymore, let alone his bedside. The doctor told police he sat next to the singer in his bedroom, monitoring Jackson's pulse and oxygen levels. More than three hours later, despite a night of medication and doctor's care, Jackson remained awake. Jackson was repeatedly asking -- even demanding -- that Murray give him more propofol to help him sleep, the doctor told police. So Murray finally administered 25 milligrams of propofol diluted with lidocaine via Jackson's IV drip. The singer now had his \"milk,\" and it worked. After a restless night, Jackson was finally able to close his eyes and go to sleep. Murray told police he watched Jackson sleep for about 10 minutes before going to the bathroom. It had been a long night for both of them. The trip to the bathroom took less than two minutes, Murray told police. But when he came back, he said, he saw Jackson wasn't breathing. He started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but it didn't work. Jackson was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead later that afternoon. According to court documents released Monday, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the chief medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles County, concluded Jackson died of an overdose of propofol. Sathyavagiswaran reached that preliminary conclusion after reviewing toxicology results carried out on Jackson's blood, according to a search warrant and affidavit unsealed in Houston, Texas. The coroner's office would not comment on the statements in the affidavit. But Ed Chernoff, Murray's attorney, took issue with some of the information included in the court documents. \"Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is police theory,\" Chernoff said, specifically referring to media reports the coroner would rule Jackson's death a homicide. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said it has not yet seen a police report on the case, and no criminal charges have been filed.","highlights":"Affidavit opens a window into Michael Jackson's final hours .\nDoctor reportedly said he worried Jackson was becoming addicted to propofol .\nAffidavit: Dr. Conrad Murray gave singer several drugs on night before June 25 death .\nMurray's attorney calls some information in affidavit \"factual,\" other \"police theory\"","id":"f5ef6cca56950e00fcdb5b4ab80b1092767b6957"} -{"article":"JALOZAI REFUGEE CAMP, Pakistan (CNN) -- It's an exodus on an almost biblical scale. And it has produced a mosaic of plastic and canvas that is now home to more than 93,000 people -- with more arriving each day. These children are among the thousands of refugees this month at the Jalozai camp in western Pakistan. This is Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, suddenly almost a city in its own right as thousands flee the violence raging between the Pakistani army and Taliban fighters. The United Nations estimates that it's the biggest movement of people in Pakistan since the country was formed in 1947. Officials say up to 1.8 million people have been forced from their homes. Food is available at this camp -- fruit traders work their way through the avenues of tents. But people here can't afford to buy much. They make bread with flour handed out by the United Nations, but they say it's not enough. \"It's very difficult, there's lots of jostling,\" says Mehboob Shah, a man at the camp. When there is food, he says, \"it's very poor quality -- even the cows won't eat it.\" Sar Bari Khan arrived 15 days ago with his wife and three children. He says his family walked almost 62 miles to escape the fighting. They had to leave his father behind. Watch a report on the plight of refugees \u00bb . There are eight field hospitals in this camp. On a recent morning, 380 new patients registered for treatment -- most of them women and children, suffering from diarrhea and heat stroke. Some have signs of mental trauma. \"They are complaining of fear, phobias, palpitations and all symptoms seem to have started since they arrive in this camp,\" said Abid Farooqi, with the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik underlined the seriousness of the situation. \"I feel that this is even worse than the earthquake in Kashmir,\" he said, referring to the 2005 disaster. He noted that most of the people are from an area with relatively cold weather, and are unprepared for the heat here. Officials, he said, \"are making all possible arrangements\" to help. Water tankers provide a lifeline in the stifling heat. And on the edge of the camp, workers are clearing the ground for more tents. There is no sign of this influx ending any time soon.","highlights":"Thousands flee south to escape conflict between military and Taliban .\nJalozai refugee camp near Peshawar suddenly almost a city in its own right .\nThe U.N. says it's the biggest movement of people since Pakistan formed in 1947 .\nFood is \"very poor quality -- even the cows won't eat it,\" says man at camp .","id":"54e02e9afaee9b6cd5929946ff0c49ad7e86195c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Space shuttle Discovery launched just before midnight Friday on a mission to the international space station. Space shuttle Discovery lifts off late Friday from Kennedy Space Center in a photo from iReporter Alan Walters. The crew of seven astronauts includes one from Mexico and another from Sweden. One of those seven, Nicole Stott, will remain on the station as a flight engineer, while astronaut Timothy Kopra is to return home aboard the shuttle. Also on board: The Leonardo logistics module, science experiments and the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT), named for fake newsman Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's \"The Colbert Report.\" Colbert won an online poll conducted by NASA to name the newest space station compartment, but Colbert and the space agency compromised to give the moniker to the treadmill. The new compartment was given the name Tranquility. NASA astronaut Cady Coleman said the treadmill is an essential addition to the space station. Watch shuttle launch \u00bb . \"We have the treadmill now to keep them healthy, which is really part of being able to come home in one piece. So it is an essential part,\" Coleman said. iReport.com: Discovery lights night sky . Discovery's liftoff, originally set for Tuesday, had been postponed three times -- first for bad weather, and twice more while mission managers checked out indications of a faulty valve.","highlights":"Space shuttle Discovery launches just before midnight Friday .\nDiscovery is scheduled to fly to international space station with a crew of seven .\nLogistics module, science experiments, Stephen Colbert treadmill also aboard .","id":"002a083c3893b1fde734280b9eec28d428a02d2b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, \"Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism,\" will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events. Julian Zelizer says some of President Obama's political vulnerabilities have started to emerge. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- June has been rough for President Obama. After experiencing enormous success during his first months in office, some of his political vulnerabilities have started to emerge. As Republicans begin to think about the 2010 midterm elections and moderate Democrats decide how they should vote on Obama's most ambitious initiative, health care, the White House must prevent these weaknesses from becoming debilitating. The first vulnerability is the tension between the left and center of the Democratic Party. Since his election, President Obama has struggled to navigate the divisions that exist between the liberal base of the party, who were the core of his early support, and moderate Democrats, who were also instrumental to his victory. At first, the administration relied on good will and political capital from the election to overcome conflicts, such as when Obama agreed to reductions in the size of the economic stimulus package to placate the conservative Democrats and some Republicans despite the objection of progressives. But the tensions are becoming more pronounced and more difficult to resolve. The president has disappointed gay rights activists for not fulfilling promises they thought he had made on the issue of gay rights. Last week, they expressed their frustration with the Department of Justice's legal brief supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that prohibits same-sex partners from receiving marriage benefits and protects states that don't recognize same-sex marriages. Obama failed to calm the storm even when he extended some employment benefits to the same-sex partners of federal workers. He came under fire for having declined to provide health care and retirement benefits on the grounds that such a move would violate the Defense of Marriage Act. These kinds of left-center tensions will intensify when Congress delves into the final negotiations over health care this summer. Progressive Democrats insist that without a public insurance option health care reform will fail in the long run. Several Democratic moderates have been pushing alternatives that fall far short of that goal. The second vulnerability is the deficit. When Republicans have turned away from cultural issues and toward economics, they have been finding more success at attracting the interest of independents and moderates. Recent polls have shown that the public is concerned about the growing size of the deficit and Republicans have finally gained a bit of political traction by linking Obama's policies to the government's red ink. To be sure, this is not a home run issue for the GOP. Many commentators have pointed to the hypocrisy of Republicans making anti-deficit arguments following the tax-cutting and spending spree that took place under President Bush. Moreover, deficits have a poor track record in terms of being a winning campaign issue. There have not been any presidential candidates or major midterm elections in recent history that hinged on anti-deficit arguments. Many presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, survived while growing the deficit. Polls have shown the public is also notoriously fickle about how much weight it gives to the deficit as an issue, and is often misinformed about the actual size of the deficit. Nonetheless, warning about rising deficits has been an effective tool for weakening the political strength of an incumbent administration. Regardless of the economics of the issue, with some respected economists saying short-term deficits don't matter, many Americans perceive the budget deficit as a symbol for whether a president is keeping federal spending under control. While Republicans might not take back Congress by focusing on the deficit, they can erode Obama's political standing and make it more difficult for him to pass legislation. Finally, there is the economy. The irony for Obama is that as the economy has stabilized, it has become a greater source of political danger. Without an immediate crisis, voters are not as panicked and don't feel as desperate for federal assistance. A growing number are more comfortable criticizing the administration's economic policies. Some Republicans have picked up on this and have asked why the U.S. needs to spend the stimulus money if the recession is almost over. At the same time, Obama is in a double bind: Most experts agree that we will have a fragile economy in the foreseeable future, so voters won't be happy either. If there is any new dip in the economy, the public will blame President Obama rather than President Bush. This is exactly what happened with the recession in 1937, which FDR's opponents called the \"Roosevelt Recession,\" using the downturn to diminish the number of New Deal liberals in the House and Senate in 1938. Does this mean Obama is finished? Not at all. The same polls that reveal vulnerabilities show that Obama is still extremely popular with the public and most evidence suggests that he has good standing with congressional Democrats. But in recent weeks a candidate who was once seen as invincible is now seen as potentially vulnerable. This is when the sharks start to circle in American politics. The revelation of weakness gives Republicans, as well as unhappy Democrats, more confidence to challenge the White House. This is not what the president wanted right as he is trying to win support for his health care proposal and the rest of his budget. If the problems are not contained, they can also become the foundation for the Republican campaign for Congress in 2010. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: June has been a difficult month for President Obama .\nHe says divisions have grown among Democrats on gay rights, health care .\nZelizer says growing concern about deficit could blunt Obama's plans .\nHe says a new dip in the economy would be blamed on Obama, not Bush .","id":"a50eda6d765fc7df9404336a16291e91c4f002b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini believes his squad is now \"complete\" and ready for the challenge of a new Primera Division campaign. Manuel Pellegrini is encouraged with the performances of Cristiano Ronaldo and company in pre-season. The Bernabeu club have invested heavily in their side over the summer, bringing in the likes of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema in a bid to wrest the domestic and Champions League trophies away from rivals Barcelona. The pre-season signs have been encouraging, and they rounded off their preparations with a 4-0 rout of Norwegian side Rosenborg on Monday. Pellegrini is hopeful it will all come together again when they kick off their Spanish Liga campaign against Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday. \"The pre-season has been very positive and we've managed to prepare the squad well, allowing every man to play more or less the same time,\" he told the club's official Web site. \"The team is solid in defence and has potential in attack. We keep possession more on our opponent's half of the pitch, allowing us to showcase our technical differences. \"This squad is complete. It gives us alternatives to try out different things. We still have to polish some aspects of our game, but I'm not worried about that.\" Pellegrini has also been impressed by Ronaldo, although he believes the Portugal winger requires more time to settle in following his move from Manchester United. \"Cristiano Ronaldo needs a little time to adapt to his new team's style. Every player on the squad is working hard to be fit and play well,\" the coach added. \"Cristiano has experienced a change in style and now lives in a different country. He needs a little more time unlike those who already know La Liga.\" Ronaldo himself is looking forward to the challenges ahead, with Real desperate to improve on their showing last term. \"The team is doing well. We are working hard and preparing for the start of La Liga,\" he said. \"I feel comfortable and relaxed. I am working hard and I am waiting for the league to begin. I'm sure things will turn out as we want them to. \"We must take things slowly, get in good shape and think positively at all times.\"","highlights":"Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini says that his squad is now \"complete\"\nBernabeu giants have invested heavily in their side over the summer months .\nPellegrini reveals that Real Madrid's pre-season form has been encouraging .","id":"8452f0e09b8aedc721694c4fbe2af88ef83c57b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Greece international central defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has completed his transfer to English Premier League side Liverpool after signing a two-year contract with the club. Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has turned to Kyrgiakos because of defensive injury worries. The 30-year-old has passed a medical to finalize his switch from AEK Athens, and will go straight into the squad for Monday's home match against Aston Villa at Anfield. He is likely to partner Jamie Carragher in the heart of Liverpool's defense, taking the place of teenager Daniel Ayala who made his full debut in Wednesday's 4-0 win over Stoke. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is without two key defenders through injury. Danish center-back Daniel Agger will have an operation on his back in Germany on Tuesday, and will be out for six weeks while Martin Skrtel is still struggling with a damaged jaw, sustained at Tottenham last weekend, and is not expected to be fit to face Villa. Benitez has been searching for defensive cover for weeks, having tried to sign Stoke's Ryan Shawcross and Hull's Michael Turner. He was also linked with West Ham's England defender Matthew Upson. But Liverpool's American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks are believed to have put the block on any further major signings, meaning that Benitez has had to search for the cheaper options. He has snapped up Kyrgiakos for just $3.3 million and Benitez said of his latest signing: \"He has had experience in Scotland with Rangers and in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt as well as with the Greek national side. Benitez told Liverpool's official Web site: \"He is strong and good in the air, and we were looking for experience and he is the perfect answer.\" Kyrgiakos, who has been capped 50 times by Greece described his decision to move to England as \"the biggest challenge of my career\". The tough-tackling defender moved back to Greece in 2008 after one season at Rangers and two with Eintracht Frankfurt.","highlights":"Greece international central defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos moves to Liverpool .\nLiverpool manager Rafa Benitez swoops because of recent defensive injuries .\nKyrgiakos, 30, likely to make Liverpool debut against Aston Villa on Monday .","id":"660e2d42860520a337b59ae30404db53a34b8252"} -{"article":"ST. POELTEN, Austria (CNN) -- The daughter of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping her in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, testified against him by video at his trial Tuesday. Josef Fritzl is seen without his face covered and surrounded by security guards Tuesday. One of Elisabeth Fritzl's brothers, Harald, also testified by video, a court spokesman said. The media and public have been barred from the courtroom for sensitive parts of the trial. Fritzl has pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but denied murder and enslavement. He pleaded \"partly guilty\" -- an option in Austrian court -- to multiple charges of raping his daughter, Franz Cutka, a spokesman for the court in Landesgericht St. Poelten, said. A verdict is expected on Thursday, Cutka said. Elisabeth testified on an 11-hour videotape. Portions of the tape were played Monday, and Fritzl was asked about it. The remainder of the tape was played Tuesday, officials said. Watch his face in the courtroom \u00bb . Authorities have said Elisabeth and her children were given new identities and are in a secret location. Details of her testimony were not made clear at the daily afternoon news conference. Asked at the news conference why other family members have not testified, officials said they did not wish to do so. Watch media at Fritzl trial \u00bb . The murder charge relates to an infant named Michael Fritzl who died soon after birth, allegedly from lack of medical care, State Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek says. A neo-natal expert gave evidence Tuesday in relation to the murder charge. As he had Monday when the trial opened, Fritzl concealed his face behind a file binder as he arrived in court to shield himself from reporters, television cameras and photographers and escorted by a phalanx of police officers. Later Tuesday he dropped his guard and was pictured with the binder by his side, talking to security guards. During the trial, prosecutors have painted a chilling picture of the more than two decades Elisabeth spent in the cellar of the family home in Amstetten with three of her children. Fritzl took three other children upstairs, authorities have said, telling his wife and other relatives that the missing Elisabeth had dropped them at the house. The woman and the remaining children never saw daylight, prosecutors said, and Fritzl went away for long periods of time, causing them to go hungry when he did not bring them food. Watch Fritzl's first day in court \u00bb . To punish them, prosecutors said, Fritzl sometimes turned the power off in the cellar for up to 10 days. In addition, they alleged, Elisabeth was often sexually assaulted in front of the children. The case first came to light in April 2008 when Elisabeth's then-19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, became seriously ill with convulsions, and Elisabeth persuaded her father to allow the girl to be taken to a hospital. Hospital staff became suspicious and alerted police, who discovered the family members in the cellar. Police said Fritzl confessed to them that he had sex with his daughter, kept her and their children in captivity, and burned the body of the infant in an oven in the house. Elisabeth told police the infant was one of twins, and died a few days after birth. When Elisabeth gained her freedom, she told police her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. Seven years later, she said, he drugged, handcuffed and locked her in the cellar. To back up his story that she had run away, Fritzl forced Elisabeth to write letters, authorities have said. Defense attorney Rudolph Mayer has said his client, 73, expects to spend the rest of his life in prison. Under Austrian law, if Fritzl is convicted on several offenses, he will be given the sentence linked to the worst crime. The charges he faces are: . \u2022 Murder: The infant who died in 1996 died from a lack of medical care, the state prosecutor said. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. \u2022 Involvement in slave trade: From 1984 until 2008, prosecutors allege, Fritzl held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in a dungeon, abused her sexually and treated her as if she were his personal property -- in a situation similar to slavery. If he is convicted, the sentence could range from 10 to 20 years in prison. \u2022 Rape: Between August 30, 1984, and June 30, 1989, Fritzl \"regularly sexually abused Elisabeth,\" according to the prosecutor. The sentence could be from five to 15 years in prison. \u2022 Incest: Parallel to the rape charge. It carries a sentence of up to one year. \u2022 Withdrawal of liberty: Three of the children Fritzl had with Elisabeth were illegally held captive in a dungeon with no daylight or fresh air, according to prosecutors. That charge carries a sentence of one to 10 years. \u2022 Assault: Between August 28, 1984, and April 26, 2006, Fritzl repeatedly threatened Elisabeth and their three children with gas and booby traps as warnings in case they tried to escape, authorities allege. The sentence would range from six months to five years. CNN's Diana Magnay and Frederik Pleitgen in St. Poelten and Melissa Gray in London contributed to this report .","highlights":"Incest rapist Josef Fritzl in Austrian court for the second day of his trial .\nFritzl drops his guard, is pictured without binder obscuring his face .\nAustrian accused of keeping daughter in cellar for decades, fathering her 7 children .\nDaughter Elisabeth give pre-recorded videotaped evidence .","id":"4c7f0e6dedbb5d81381ddf236cb6e088d16ac11a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Search teams have found the flight data recorder from the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed off the Comoros Islands in June, killing 152 people, the chief investigator said Friday. Search parties continue their operation to locate the Yemenia Airbus A310 off the Comoros Islands in July. An operation to retrieve the recorder has begun, said a statement from investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed. The Airbus 310 crashed into the Indian Ocean, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands. One person, a 13-year-old French girl, survived. The recorder could contain information to help determine what caused the crash. The plane had tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said soon after the accident. A French official said that country had banned the plane after it failed an aviation inspection in 2007, but Yemenia Airways was not on the European Union's list of banned airlines. Passengers on the flight included 66 French citizens, 54 Comorians, one Palestinian and one Canadian, according to Yemeni and French officials. The crew was made up of six Yemenis, two Moroccans, one Ethiopian, one Filipino and one Indonesian. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar.","highlights":"Comoros Islands lie between east African and the island nation of Madagascar .\nRecorder could contain information to help determine what caused the crash .\nThirteen-year-old French girl was the only person to survive plane crash .","id":"45cef66252d21888df34917929e3e017c49135e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Starting Tuesday, many \"robocalls\" from telemarketers will be illegal. A new ban on automated telemarketing calls goes into effect Tuesday. Businesses that try to push products on consumers with automated and unsolicited calls will face fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the Federal Trade Commission. \"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year,\" FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news release. Calls from politicians, public service announcements and \"informational\" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says. The FTC asks people to report questionable robocalls by visiting its complaint Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP. \"If consumers think they're being harassed by robocallers, they need to let us know, and we will go after them,\" Leibowitz said. The ban on many pre-recorded calls was approved by the FTC in August of 2008 and is the last of a series of amendments to go into effect, said Lois Greisman, the FTC's associate director of marketing practices. She said the ban applies only to pre-recorded calls and encouraged consumers to sign up for the federal \"do not call\" registry for additional protections. Robocalls to mobile phones already are illegal, she said. People still will be able to receive telemarketer calls if they give companies written permission to contact them. Nate Anderson, a blogger at Ars Technica, a technology site, cheered the amendments but said many calls are illegal even without the new amendments. \"Most of the robocalls received by people in the office here are already illegal to do begin with -- pitches for time shares and bogus car warranties top the list of such calls,\" he wrote.","highlights":"An FTC ban on automated telemarketing calls starts Tuesday .\nCompanies breaking the rule face fines of $16,000 per call .\nExceptions include political calls, \"informational\" calls and bank calls .","id":"0e15579e7fe426d8041440644a622447c1c3d794"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Another child has died from last week's fire at a day care center in northwestern Mexico, bringing the death toll to 45, the state-run Notimex news agency said. A crib and baby seats sit outside the scene of a deadly day care center fire in Mexico. The child died Friday in a hospital in the city of Guadalajara, Notimex said. The news agency did not provide any additional information. A fire raged through the ABC day care center on June 5 in the city of Hermosillo in Sonora state. Officials said an air-conditioning unit in a government-run warehouse in the same building as the day care center caused the blaze. In another development Friday, three officials from the Mexican Institute of Social Security were fired, Notimex reported. The social security institute oversaw the ABC day care facility. Earlier, the Institute of Social Security removed its Sonora director, Arturo Leyva Lizarraga. Leyva Lizarraga was \"separated\" from the agency Wednesday to \"facilitate the investigative process,\" according to Notimex. The same wording was used in announcing Friday's firings. Earlier in the week, two other people who ran the center resigned from the government jobs they held. Also Friday, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said officials had found safety irregularities at the day care center in 2005, Notimex said. He declined to detail those irregularities but said authorities are investigating if anything was done about them. Any negligent officials will be punished once the investigation is completed, Medina said.","highlights":"NEW: Three officials from supervisory agency dismissed .\nDeath toll in Mexico day care center fire rises to 45, officials say .\nFire tore through building in Sonora state on June 5 .\nFire started in air-conditioning unit in adjacent warehouse, officials say .","id":"80f90e4be8eca5da8d58bf836b1d1f211eca247e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson has officially become the most popular person on Facebook, with more than 7 million fans on the social networking site. The Michael Jackson Facebook page is now the most popular on the social networking site. Previously, the most popular person on Facebook, with just over 6 million fans, was U.S. President Obama. Over the past week, Jackson's page has grown from 80,000 fans to just over 7 million, generating the largest response on a Facebook page, the social networking site says. He has continued to gain about 20 fans per second and even more during peak traffic hours, said social media commentator Nick O'Neill, founder of the Social Times Web site. By comparison, actor Ashton Kutcher recently entered a race to beat CNN's Larry King to 1 million followers on Twitter. Kutcher won and remains the most popular person on Twitter -- but still has only 2.6 million followers. During his memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, all 10 trending topics on Twitter.com were Jackson-related. Jackson's popularity and the viral nature of Facebook fan pages are the primary reasons for the huge fan base, O'Neill explained. He said, \"It's simply his popularity. Also, as users become fans, the page gets recommended to others, driving the viral growth of the page. \"Michael Jackson is simply the largest celebrity in the world. While he was a controversial figure, he clearly attracts the attention of the global media,\" he continued. The Facebook page has become an online memorial to Jackson, with thousands of comments from around the world; dozens appear every minute. Free virtual versions of Jackson's famous glove are the most popular gift on the site, with more than 800,000 sent to members. The huge following leaves the singer's heirs (and his record label) with a massive network to communicate with fans and continue the massive resurgence of interest in Jackson's music, O'Neill said. \"While Sony has not heavily engaged the fan base on Michael Jackson's page, they at least have a presence. If your fans are there, you should be there. \"This also provided an ongoing promotional channel for any future products that are released. It's simply not an option and will become a component of all marketing strategies.\" There have been 2.6 million downloads of Jackson's music since his death. He has the top two albums on iTunes, as well as three of the top 10 singles. In the United Kingdom, Jackson held 11 of the top 200 album positions and 43 of the top 200 singles, based on sales monitored by the Official Charts Co. for the week ended June 27. His \"Number Ones\" album topped the OCC album chart after selling 46,400 physical copies and 10,000 downloads. The surge for demand in Jackson's music looks likely to continue for several months: The fan page has a music player with some of Jackson's hits and an option to buy them through Amazon.","highlights":"Michael Jackson is most popular person on Facebook with nearly 7 million fans .\nPreviously, U.S. President Obama had the most fans .\nExperts say Jackson's fan base gaining more than 20 fans per second .","id":"6b44f1411c7da297a98b7ae14e4289c035432274"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Oasis front man Noel Gallagher has quit the rock group after a fallout with his bandmate brother, he announced late Friday. \"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight,\" Noel Gallagher said in a brief statement on the band's Web site. \"People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.\" Noel Gallagher is the band's lead guitarist and songwriter, and Liam Gallagher is the lead singer. The band is currently on a European tour for its album, \"Dig Out Your Soul.\" Noel Gallagher apologized to fans who had bought tickets for upcoming gigs in France, Germany and Italy. Oasis had to cancel its headlining performance at the V Festival in Britain over the weekend because Liam Gallagher said he was sick and couldn't sing. He later apologized for the cancellation and quashed rumors that it was the band's last-ever British gig. Disputes between the brothers have been in the public eye in the past, but never before has one of the brothers gone so far as to leave the band. Oasis shot to stardom with its 1994 album, \"Definitely Maybe,\" which contained the band's first major hit, \"Supersonic.\" The follow-up, \"(What's the Story) Morning Glory?\" produced one of group's most famous tracks, \"Wonderwall.\" The Manchester band was one of the pioneers of the Britpop movement of the early '90s, along with British band Blur.","highlights":"Never before has one of the brothers gone so far as to leave the band .\nOasis shot to stardom with its 1994 album, \"Definitely Maybe\"\nThe band was one of the pioneers of Britpop, along with Blur .","id":"8f7c7c6695d3df216e1d68a6bac571812add1010"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Two cable powerhouses have announced an ambitious pilot program that aims to convince their customers that, actually, TV on the web should not be free. Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, speaks at the NCTA conference in Washington. With a service called TV Everywhere, Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers access to \"premium\" television content via broadband, and later cellphone connections. To begin with, 5,000 Comcast subscribers will begin testing the system next month, giving them access to Time Warner's TBS and TNT channels on their computers, and the same channels' video-on-demand catalogs on their cable boxes. If you made peace long ago with the idea of paying a monthly cable bill, this probably sounds great. It means watching your existing subscription on new screens without paying additional fees or buying more hardware. (Of course, as consumers adopt TV Everywhere, they can probably expect price increases.) But if you prefer to watch your television for free on ad-supported sites like Hulu while paying only for the internet connection that delivers it, you could be in for a rude awakening. TV Everywhere represents an alternative -- and possible threat -- to the popular Hulu model. If the pilot program impresses the group -- and proves to other networks that its user-authentication system is secure -- Comcast and Time Warner expect the other television programmers, ISPs and mobile providers to join, giving all cable subscribers a way to watch the content they pay for on their televisions using any broadband-connected computer or authenticated cellphone. Already \"at least 92 percent of Americans qualify to watch this for free online,\" according to Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner. For these subscribers, TV Everywhere represents a potential win. The only question is whether they will keep paying for the old cable subscription model as their viewing habits shift online. There's nothing to stop television networks from putting their content on both Hulu and TV Everywhere, because TV Everywhere's contract will be non-exclusive, according to Bewkes. However, given the choice between Hulu and TV Everywhere, television programmers have an incentive to go with the latter. Only the TV Everywhere model promises to port yesterday's lucrative business model onto today's platforms. And that, according to some critics, is exactly the problem. \"[TV Everywhere] raises substantial anti-competitive issues by restricting the availability of programming to the favored distribution methods,\" said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of the public interest group Public Knowledge. \"Under the TV Everywhere plan, no other program distributors would be able to emerge, and no consumers will be able to 'cut the cord' because they find what they want online. As a result, consumers will be the losers. \"In addition, we are concerned that this program violates the open nature of the internet. By adding this additional toll lane, Comcast and Time Warner want to create their own 'managed channel' within the internet and turn the internet into their own private cable channel.\" So, what about Hulu? Will its deals fall through given this new option? \"There will be some part [of Time Warner's content] that will be out there [on Hulu], said Bewkes.\"Short-form content, I think, will continue to be available -- promotional content will continue to be available.\" However, only cable subscribers will be able to access other content online -- through officially licensed avenues, anyway. Bewkes added that some other television programmers have avoided Hulu \"for security concerns and because they didn't like the model,\" but that they will give TV Everywhere a chance. \"Consumers vote every single month with their pocketbook,\" he added. \"They don't have to subscribe to cable. They don't have to pay for these services, yet they do. The number of people paying for subscription television has gone up and up and up every single quarter that we've been in the business.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers online access to tv content .\nProgram is called TV Everywhere and will begin testing next month .\nTV Everywhere represents alternative -- and possible threat -- to popular Hulu model .\nSome of Time Warner's content will remain on Hulu.com .","id":"123ff7cde78af498b6578e8801f7f8f6cf367167"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shortly before his death, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking for the pontiff to pray for him as he struggled with an aggressive form of brain cancer, it was revealed at his graveside service Saturday evening. Members of the Kennedy family gather at the gravesite Saturday evening. Kennedy, the youngest and last-surviving brother of a heralded Kennedy generation, was laid to rest on a hillside at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his slain brothers, the late President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy -- both assassinated more than four decades ago. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick read a recent letter from Kennedy to the pope at the private burial ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. \"I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines,\" McCarrick said, quoting from Kennedy's letter. \"I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old, and preparing for the next passage of life,\" the cardinal read. Read excerpts from Kennedy's letter to pontiff . The burial service at dusk followed a eulogy by President Barack Obama in Massachusetts, a brief prayer service outside the U.S. Capitol and a procession through the crowd-lined street of Washington's streets. Among the congressional colleagues greeting the Kennedy family at the Capitol was 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, who has been out of the spotlight lately because of deteriorating health. Watch an overview of the day's events \u00bb . Many who had gathered at the Capitol were visibly emotional and wiping tears from their eyes. Some held framed photos of Kennedy, and many held American flags that they waved during a singing of \"America the Beautiful.\" The Rev. Daniel Coughlin -- chaplain of the House of Representatives -- said a prayer and addressed the family. \"Here we are to pray with you, offer sympathy and thank you,\" he said. \"Thank you for sharing the senator.\" Coughlin also noted that Kennedy's hopes were \"unquenchable, full of immortality.\" As Kennedy's widow, Vicki, went back into the car, she waved to the crowd and mouthed, \"Thank you\" as the crowd erupted into applause. The late senator's son, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, addressed those on the steps, saying how his father \"knew that he was only great because he had great people supporting him.\" \"He would be very proud to see you all out here today paying a final respect and tribute to his memory,\" he said. Earlier Saturday at the funeral in Boston, Massachusetts, Obama hailed Kennedy as \"a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate.\" \"He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow,\" the president said. \"We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights,\" Obama said, calling Kennedy \"the greatest legislator of our time.\" Watch President Obama's full eulogy \u00bb . Kennedy's son Ted Jr. delivered a tender, personal remembrance of his larger-than-life father. He said his father \"never stopped trying to right wrongs.\" Kennedy lived up to the ideals of three older brothers, all of whom died young -- Joseph in World War II, President John and Sen. Robert assassinated -- his son said. \"He answered Uncle Joe's call to patriotism, Uncle Jack's call to public service and Bobby's determination to seek a newer world. \"Unlike them, he lived to be a grandfather, and knowing what my cousins have been through, I feel grateful that I have had my father as long as I did,\" Ted Jr. said. \"My father was not perfect, but he believed in redemption,\" he said. And he said Kennedy had made light of his failure to become president, despite the weight of expectations on him as a Kennedy. \"I don't mind not being president, I just mind that someone else is,\" he quoted his father as saying, closing his remembrance with a line from Kennedy's famous 1980 concession speech that ended his presidential ambitions: \"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will never die.\" Watch as Ted Kennedy Jr. recalls his dad's help when he lost his leg as a boy \u00bb . The funeral began with a hearse bearing Kennedy's body through Boston rain from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library to Mission Church. A military honor guard carried the coffin through a sea of black umbrellas into the church. Watch as military honor guard carries Kennedy's casket \u00bb . People lined the streets of Boston cheering for Kennedy as the service began, despite the rain. Local bars and restaurants were packed with people watching the live coverage on television inside. Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter also came to honor the late legislator, known as the lion of the Senate. Vicki Kennedy accepted condolences from each of the current and former presidents before Holy Communion. The program concluded with an undated quote from Kennedy: \"For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.\" Many of Kennedy's fellow senators past and present came to say a final farewell. Other mourners included Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dan Quayle, all veterans of the Senate, where Kennedy served for 47 years. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, CIA chief Leon Panetta, and several Cabinet members also turned out to pay their respects. Watch as Mass for Kennedy begins \u00bb . Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, chatted with Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, in the pews before the ceremony began. Honorary pallbearers at the service included Dodd, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts -- his party's 2004 presidential candidate -- and long-time Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, also a Democrat. The actual pallbearers were Kennedy children, nieces and nephews. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed two pieces during the service, and was joined by the tenor Placido Domingo for one of them. At the graveside service were a number of family members, as well as Vice President Joe Biden. Kennedy's grave is 95 feet south of his brother Robert's, which is just steps away from the burial site of another brother, former President John F. Kennedy. A single white, wooden cross will be placed at the head of the grave and a marble footmarker put in place. The footmarker reads: \"Edward Moore Kennedy 1932-2009.\" The setup is identical to Robert Kennedy's grave, Arlington cemetery spokeswoman Kaitlin Horst told CNN. Kennedy, the patriarch of America's leading Democratic family for more than 40 years, died at the age of 77 on Tuesday, 15 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. CNN's Jessica Yellin, John King and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: In letter to Pope Benedict XVI, Kennedy asked for prayers .\nSen. Edward M. Kennedy laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery .\nPresident Obama hailed Kennedy as \"a champion for those who had none\"","id":"3db5b7121de8f8465d7035253815cc37c9ea0d4f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger can expect an apology from Premier League referees chief Keith Hackett following his dismissal in the closing seconds of Saturday's 2-1 English Premier League defeat to Manchester United. Arsene Wenger has to stand with Manchester United fans after being sent off at Old Trafford. League Managers Association chief executive Richard Bevan has spoken to Hackett about the Old Trafford incident which saw Wenger sent to the stands by referee Mike Dean on the advice of fourth official Lee Probert. And he has been told that Wenger will receive an apology from the Premier Game Match Officials Board which appoints officials to top-flight games in England. The Gunners manager caught Probert's attention when he kicked an empty water bottle down the touchline following a disallowed goal for Arsenal. There was then confusion as Wenger seemed unaware of where he was supposed to go -- moving first to the back of Arsenal dugout then starting to walk down the touchline as the whistle was blown. On the decision to penalize Wenger, Bevan said: \"Although correct in 'law', it was completely out of context in the game and it was followed by the nonsense which followed over where Arsene Wenger should sit to watch the game.\" He added: \"I've spoken to Keith Hackett and he fully recognizes the situation was an error and an apology will follow to Arsene Wenger. \"Lee Probert totally failed to manage the situation and created a needless pressure point taking the focus away from the pitch in a big event with only a minute to go.\" Meanwhile, Arsenal's north London rivals Tottenham have suffered a setback with a serious injury to Croatia playmaker Luka Modric. The 23-year-old broke his leg in Saturday's 2-1 victory against Birmingham, which left the club second in the English Premier League after four wins from four. \"X-rays have determined that Luka Modric sustained a fracture to his right fibula,\" said a statement on the official Spurs Web site. Tottenham did not indicate how long the midfielder would be sidelined, but he is likely to miss the home game against champions Manchester United and the trip to Chelsea which follow the upcoming international break. Croatia play England at Wembley on September 9 in a crucial World Cup qualifier.","highlights":"Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is to receive an apology from referee's chief .\nWenger sent off in the closing seconds of the 2-1 defeat to Manchester United .\nWenger kicked an empty water bottle down the touchline after disallowed goal .\nTottenham's Croatia midfielder Luka Modric suffers a broken right leg .","id":"b84b5293335b7719e25ec0249b13ebce604bad9e"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Voters in Japan will turn out for parliamentary elections Sunday in what poll after poll shows will be a historic shift in political power to oust the ruling party. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has approval ratings in the teens. The Liberal Democratic Party has been in nearly continuous control of Japan's parliament for more than five decades. But the country's worst economic crisis since World War II has led a normally sedate electorate to the polls, disgruntled with how slowly the country is emerging from the downturn. Polls show that the opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan, will snag more than 300 of the 480 seats up for grabs in the lower house of Japan's parliament. If the DPJ does win a majority, it will be the first time it will govern the world's second-largest economy. Leading the DPJ is Yukio Hatoyama, who has been mobbed at street rallies by supporters, the kind of support the opposition has never seen. Hatoyama is touting an Obama-style message of change, pledging to raise the minimum wage and discourage hiring through agencies or on temporary contracts. That message is gaining traction in a country that is witnessing historic highs in unemployment and experiencing ramifications like homelessness for the first time. Voters are looking for somebody to pay, and if the polls are right, that target is the current prime minister, Taro Aso. Aso's approval ratings dwell in the teens, and his stimulus packages, though credited for lifting the economy slightly out of recession, are not being credited with helping households feel more secure about a lasting economic recovery. The LDP, in political ads and stump speeches across Japan, says the DPJ is making empty promises and can't pay for its proposed programs. CNN's Kyung Lah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Liberal Democratic Party has been on top for almost five decades .\nVoters disgruntled with slow progress on economic recovery .\nDemocratic Party of Japan set for its first majority .\nDPJ's Yukio Hatoyama has Obama-style message of change .","id":"00916d7657c98e138640795011f4136014425977"} -{"article":"ANTIOCH, California (CNN) -- Customers of the printing company knew her as \"Allissa.\" Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped at 11 and kept hidden for 18 years in a backyard compound, authorities say. They spoke to her about graphic design, business cards and fliers, and describe her as professional, polite and responsive. \"She was always good at getting us what we wanted,\" said Ben Daughdrill, who used to own a junk hauling business. \"You got the feeling she was doing all the work.\" But \"Allissa,\" authorities say, was really Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped 18 years ago from her home in South Lake Tahoe, California. Her identity was discovered earlier this week and her alleged kidnappers -- 58-year-old Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, and his 55-year-old wife Nancy -- were arrested. Watch police officers talk about Garrido \u00bb . They face 29 felony charges, including rape and kidnapping, and both have pleaded not guilty. Authorities said the Garridos held Dugard -- and the two daughters she had by Phillip Garrido -- in sheds in their backyard. Watch aerial view of backyard compound \u00bb . Garrido's business, \"Printing for Less,\" catered to small businesses. He ran it out of his home in Antioch, east of San Francisco. His customers say he did good work and had much lower prices than competition. CNN obtained e-mails written by \"Allissa\" to Daughdrill. The e-mails came from a Yahoo account set up by Phillip Garrido and in his name, but Daughdrill said they came from \"Allissa\" because the two were either on the phone or had just finished a conversation when they arrived. In them, Dugard uses short, compact answers and lowercase letters. The e-mails also have a typo or two. Hear interview with Garrido \u00bb . \"i will take a look at the price sheet and send you over a copy of the revised brochure tomorrow,\" she wrote in an e-mail written on May 7, 2007. \"as to the pictures sorry ... but we don't have a digital camera ... hopefully you can find a way to get me those pictures you want so i can add them to them brochure. i can get the brochures to you pretty fast within the week of final approval of the brochures. How many are you going to order and do you want them on glossy or matte paper, thick or thin?\" In another e-mail, this one from January 21, 2008, Dugard wrote, \"heres the business cards in jpeg format let me know if you need anything else thank you.\" While authorities say they are still trying to sort out the conditions in which Dugard was held captive, it's clear she was an integral part of Garrido's business. Watch about recovering from captivity \u00bb . Daughdrill told CNN he met Dugard in person on two occasions. \"Nothing stood out,\" he said when \"Allissa\" emerged from the house and gave him his print orders. \"Obviously there was some brainwashing going on. That's all I can think,\" he said. \" She had access to a phone and a computer, so obviously something went on that no one knows about.\" See photos of Dugard's living conditions \u00bb . Three northern California law enforcement agencies have joined the investigation of Phillip Garrido, saying he may be responsible for other crimes.","highlights":"E-mails show girl was integral part of business owned by her alleged kidnapper .\nJaycee Dugard was known as \"Allissa\" to customers of printing business .\nBusiness was owned by Phillip Garrido, the suspect in Dugard's kidnapping .\nPrinting business catered to small businesses in San Francisco area .","id":"a521ea68bf8d1d850daba7c6097eac8a2b0be1a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities believe at least one person not in custody may have information about the deaths of eight people in a Georgia mobile home, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said Sunday. Seven people were found dead Saturday at a residence in a mobile home park in Brunswick, Georgia. \"I'm confident to say that there's somebody, at least an individual, that we would like to know about that's not at the scene,\" whether or not they were directly involved in the case, Doering said. Seven people were found dead Saturday at a residence in the New Hope mobile home park in Brunswick, Georgia. Two others were hospitalized in critical condition, and one of them died Sunday, authorities said. Police have \"no known suspects,\" Doering told reporters Sunday afternoon. \"We are not looking for any known suspects. That doesn't say that there are no suspects. They're just not known to us.\" One person, 22-year-old Guy Heinze Jr., was arrested Saturday night, Doering said. Heinze is related to one of the victims, he said, and was the one who called 911. He told police he discovered the bodies when he arrived home. Heinze was being held on suspicion of having a controlled substance and marijuana, as well as evidence tampering and making false statements to a police officer, Doering said. He told reporters Heinze has been cooperative. \"We're still looking for anybody and everybody that may be related to this,\" he said. \"That naturally includes [Heinze]. Of course we're looking at him.\" He stopped short, however, of calling Heinze a suspect in the deaths. Autopsies on the victims were taking place Sunday in Savannah, Georgia, Doering said. Police have tentative identifications for the victims, who ranged from children to adults in their mid-40s, he said. Police have been called to the home before, Doering said, but would not say why. Doering remained tight-lipped Sunday about many aspects of the case, refusing to say how the victims died or to give a breakdown of male and female victims. All nine victims lived in the mobile home, he said, and police do not believe any of them conducted the assault. He said police are making progress, and have narrowed down the timeline for when the deaths occurred. Brunswick is about 300 miles southeast of Atlanta, on the Georgia coast. Volunteers conducted an extended search of the area around the mobile home, but nothing was found, Doering said. Meanwhile, police removed additional evidence from the mobile home. Authorities are examining surveillance video from nearby areas, but are not aware of any surveillance system in the mobile home park, he said. \"There is cause for concern,\" Doering said. \"We just simply don't have a whole lot to go on, and I'm not going to sit there and tell everybody not to be cautious, because people need to be.\"","highlights":"Police: Someone not in custody may have information about the deaths .\nSeven found dead Saturday at mobile home park residence in Brunswick, Georgia .\nOne other victim died Sunday, 9th victim still in critical condition Sunday .\nPolice said they have been called to the home before, but would not say why .","id":"ca7e71c46f037fa0f45b96d2fe8aa3297b266d30"} -{"article":"NIAGARA FALLS, New York (CNN) -- Thirty years ago this summer, America learned the name Love Canal. The working-class Niagara Falls neighborhood built atop tons of chemical waste became a synonym for environmental disaster. Lois Gibbs, who runs an environmental justice group, shows a photo of children from Love Canal protesting. Troubles at the local elementary school -- and health problems among its students, such as seizure disorders -- were among the first signs of a much larger problem that made news around the world and prompted federal Superfund legislation to clean up the most polluted sites in the United States. Despite the outcry over Love Canal, little has been done to make schoolchildren safer from hazardous or toxic waste, says Lois Gibbs, who headed the Love Canal Homeowners Association and now runs the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. \"We should be farther along today than we are,\" said Gibbs, who started the nonprofit a year after her evacuation from Love Canal. The organization is dedicated to helping communities facing environmental threats. A 2005 study by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice looking at just four states -- Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Michigan -- found half a million children attending schools within half a mile of known toxic dumps. Gibbs points to New Bedford High School in Massachusetts as an example of children at risk. New Bedford High opened in 1972 on top of a former burn dump for PCBs, an industrial chemical linked to cancer and brain damage. PCB levels in the body build over time, raising health risks. \"Like a lot of teachers there now, I figured, how bad could it be? I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005,\" said former New Bedford teacher Susan Dias, who is now cancer-free. She is returning to the classroom this fall but will not go back to New Bedford High. Former teacher Maria Quann also says New Bedford High made her ill. \"I became very, very sick. My immune system shut down. I collapsed and was bedridden for several months,\" Quann said. Her health improved after she left the high school, she says, and she has now retired. Maureen Woolley, who worked in the cafeteria, says she compiled a list of 25 school employees who died of cancer. Three classrooms were closed last year because of high PCB levels, but the school has been scrubbed and a new ventilation system added. The rooms are expected to be open this fall. There have been no reports of students at the high school becoming sick as a result of the toxic waste. \"I wouldn't have kids in the school if I didn't think it was safe. I would close the school,\" said Mayor Scott Lang, whose two sons attended New Bedford High. PCB levels inside the school now fall within federal guidelines, he says. Despite results of ongoing air-quality testing, teacher David Greene remains skeptical. \"I do think there are areas of that school that continue to be dangerous,\" he said. Only seven states have laws preventing cities and towns from building schools on or near toxic waste, according to the Center for Health Environment and Justice. They are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi and Utah. \"You can go most anyplace and build [a school] on top of a Superfund site,\" Gibbs said. \"They can build a school anywhere they want, really. And that's the sad truth. I think at schools, very little has changed, and that's unfortunate.\" Even in states with laws, many are weak or poorly enforced, she says. In Massachusetts, state law prevents schools only from being built close to active waste dumps, which would not have prevented New Bedford High's construction three decades ago on a former dump site. In Niagara Falls, Gibbs' home was built three blocks from 20,000 tons of industrial waste placed in barrels and buried in a mile-long ditch by a plastics and chemical maker. The 99th Street Elementary was built on top of the dump. Gibbs, married with two young children at the time, recalls elementary school students playing with ooze bubbling up on the playground. \"The children would actually pick up these chemicals and handle them,\" Gibbs said. \"So, for example, one of these things was phosphorous rocks. Phosphorous rocks were little pieces of chemical residue that would bubble up to the surface. The children would pick up these phosphorous rocks, and when you threw them at a hard surface, they would explode like a firecracker.\" Some children were badly burned by the phosphorous, she adds. Gibbs says neighborhood children also played with the chemical Lindane, a pollutant associated with skin irritation, nausea, convulsions -- even death. \"I have a high school education. I don't have a science degree, but you don't have to be a scientist to know that 20,000 tons of chemicals and kindergartners don't mix,\" Gibbs said.","highlights":"Few states have laws preventing towns from building schools on or near toxic waste .\nEven in states with laws, many are weak or poorly enforced, group says .\nLove Canal is a Niagara Falls neighborhood built atop tons of chemical waste .","id":"ca4355d66066c6686e58668a018e270582c03065"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon's ruling party paid the price for a weak economy in midterm elections as the opposition Revolutionary Institutional Party rolled to victories in the lower legislative house as well as state and local posts. Mexican President Felipe Calderon wasn't on Sunday's ballot and has three years left in his six-year term. With more than 99 percent of the votes counted, the PRI had 36.7 percent to 28 percent for Calderon's National Action Party (PAN), the state-run Notimex news agency reported Monday. The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which nearly won the 2006 presidential election, came in a distant third with 12.2 percent of the vote. In response to the defeat, PAN president German Martinez resigned from the top party post Monday. On the ballot were seats for 500 federal legislators, six governors and about 500 mayors and local legislators in 11 states. Though Calderon has three years left in his six-year term and was not on the ballot, analysts said Monday he was held responsible for Mexico's problems amid the global economic downturn. \"He got a beating because of the economy,\" said Ana Maria Salazar, a television and radio political commentator in Mexico City. \"The government in power pays for it,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. Besides the economy, Calderon has had to face the consequences of a drug war he launched that has left more than 10,000 people dead since he came to office in December 2006. He also had to deal with the H1N1 flu pandemic that first became known in Mexico this year. The PAN has the most seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Mexico's Congress, but it does not have a majority in either. The party lost its lead in the lower house, as the PRI will hold more seats when the new delegates are seated in December. No seats were at stake in the Senate, which elects its members every six years. Calderon acknowledged the setback in a late-night address to the nation Sunday. \"The federal government recognizes the new composition of the Chamber of Deputies since it is a sovereign decision of the citizens. I congratulate who they have chosen,\" Calderon said, adding he will work with the new representatives. He will have no choice but to work with the resurgent PRI, analysts said. But since the PAN did not have control of either house of Congress, Calderon has been compromising and making deals with the PRI and other parties since coming to power. \"I don't think the job is much more difficult than it was at the outset,\" Hakim said. \"It's all a matter of degrees. Yeah, it will make it a little more difficult. But he has had to work through negotiation anyway.\" Still, analysts said, the PRI now wields considerable more power. \"They're in a position to run Congress,\" said Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. By forming temporary coalitions with the Green Party and other minor parties, the PRI can block presidential vetoes, Salazar said. \"They pretty much have control over the purse,\" she said. Much more is at stake for the PRI though. After having held the presidency from 1929 to 2000 and then losing it to the PAN in the last two elections, the party is looking for a path back to power. Sunday's results were particularly significant because the PRI finished third in the 2006 presidential election. \"The presidential campaign has started as of today, Monday,\" Salazar said. Also significant was the PRD's apparent collapse as a major party, considering it came within 1 percent of winning the presidency in 2006. That race was so close that the results were not verified until a controversial decision two months later. Losing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to accept the results and announced himself the winner. Fistfights broke out in the Chamber of Deputies. The PRI drew away votes from the PRD in Sunday's election, Hakim said, noting that may help Calderon because the PRD is Calderon's main foe in Congress. Working with a larger PRI may be easier. But Selee said Calderon is on a deadline, until the 2012 presidential race really heats up. \"His window of opportunity is for the next year and half,\" Selee said. \"The PRI wants to show that they can lead, that they're a party of ideas.\" No one knows if the PRI is up to the task. \"The big question is whether the PRI will look forward only to the presidential elections,\" Hakim said. \"The PRI has to show that they're responsible and capable of governing again.\" To do so, the PRI has to make sure that internal fighting over who will run as the presidential candidate in three years does not paralyze the party. \"Don't underestimate the ability of the PRI to cannibalize itself,\" Salazar said. PRI leader Beatriz Paredes has emerged as a major power broker. As head of the party and newly elected member of the Chamber of Deputies, she will lead the PRI's legislative efforts. That's good for Calderon, Salazar said, because it will be \"much easier to negotiate with her than with other factions of the PRI.\" But if the PAN and PRI can't agree, Selee said, \"there will be a breakdown of consensus politics.\" Mexico's leaders -- regardless of party affiliation -- also have to battle apparent disenchantment among everyday Mexicans. Voter participation Sunday was about 30 percent, officials said, but more 5 percent of those were people who \"annulled\" their ballots. They turned in a ballot but did not vote for anyone or defaced the ballot. Their intent was to show that they cared enough to vote, just not for anyone on the ballot. \"It's a repudiation of what is going on in Mexico in general,\" Salazar said. Selee sees \"a general skepticism,\" saying, \"Mexicans have tired of where things are going.\"","highlights":"NEW: German Martinez, president of PAN political party, resigns in aftermath .\nFelipe Calderon's party loses lead in Mexico's lower house .\nMexican president held responsible for economic downturn, analysts say .\nPRI has 36.8 percent of vote to 27.9 percent for Calderon's PAN, news agency says .","id":"f6b101003409fe29ca6fadc29e850c120b275f87"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Ted Kennedy would have had a \"very, very difficult\" time politically surviving the drowning death of a young woman if it happened in the era of blogs, talk radio and 24-hour news cycles, experts said. Sen. Ted Kennedy hit the airwaves to say it was \"indefensible\" he didn't immediately report the accident. Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, drowned after Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile off a bridge following a regatta party in July 1969. The incident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, helped dash the youngest Kennedy brother's chances at the Oval Office in 1972 and 1980. Massachusetts was more forgiving than the rest of the nation, however, backing Kennedy by a 3-to-2 margin in his 1970 bid to keep his Senate seat. That his brothers, John and Robert, had been assassinated in recent years may have been a factor, experts said. Watch Kennedy attend brother Robert's funeral \u00bb . \"Great expectations and great tragedy has always been the storyline of the Kennedys,\" said Christopher Arterton, dean of George Washington University's graduate school of political management. \"The people of Massachusetts were prepared to forgive a lot of transgressions.\" Kennedy vanished to the family compound for days after the incident, huddling with advisers before emerging the following week to plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. A judge suspended his two-month jail sentence. Critics saw the plea as an attempt to stifle details that would have emerged during a trial. In a display of the senator's legendary oratory, he delivered a nationally televised explanation and apology, saying it was \"indefensible\" that he hadn't called police until the day after the accident. See how Chappaquiddick fit into Kennedy's legacy \u00bb . \"If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their senator's character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duty and should not continue in office,\" Kennedy said. Jim Baughman, author of \"The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Filmmaking, and Broadcasting in America since 1941,\" said he recalls Kennedy's address being \"less an explanation to the country than to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.\" The nation's response was tepid. According to a Time-Harris poll in August 1969, about 44 percent of respondents said Kennedy failed \"to tell the real truth,\" 51 percent said his explanation was inadequate and 77 percent said he was wrong not to report the accident immediately. However, 58 percent of respondents said \"he has suffered, been punished and should be given the benefit of the doubt.\" Watch a timeline of Kennedy's tragedies, triumphs \u00bb . \"I think the national repercussions would have been more severe [today],\" Baughman said. In 1969, the national media were dominated by three TV networks and a handful of magazines and newspapers. New media and talk radio would be a \"much more ferocious force\" today, he said. Media reports from the time indicate few mysteries were solved by Kennedy's address. Then-Edgartown Police Chief Jim Arena was often lambasted for his handling of the case. He said Thursday he would handle it no differently today except that he would charge Kennedy with vehicular homicide, a charge that did not exist in 1969. \"I will always contend that what happened that night was an accident. What happened afterward has never been completely explained,\" said Arena, who is now 79. In his national address, Kennedy said he was driving Kopechne to a ferry landing because she was tired. He denied \"widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct\" and also refuted reports that he was \"driving under the influence of liquor.\" Watch Kennedy's explanation \u00bb . Kennedy said his unfamiliarity with the bridge, which had no guardrails and met the road at an awkward angle, caused him to drive off the side and into Poucha Pond. \"The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately filled with water,\" Kennedy said. \"Water entered my lungs and I actually felt the sensation of drowning, but somehow I struggled to the surface alive.\" Kopechne did not. Kennedy said he dived back into the water several times, \"but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm.\" Conceding he did not seek a telephone, Kennedy said he returned to the party and summoned a cousin and friend to the scene. They, too, failed in saving Kopechne, he said. \"All kinds of scrambled thoughts -- all of them confused, some of them irrational, many of them which I cannot recall, and some of which I would not have seriously entertained under normal circumstances -- went through my mind during this period,\" he said. He asked to be taken to the ferry slip, he said, where he jumped into the water, swam the 500-foot channel back to Edgartown, returned to his hotel room and collapsed. It wasn't until morning that he called police, and then, only after he called legal adviser Burke Marshall, he said. The media clamored with questions: Why had Kopechne left her purse and room key at the cottage and told no one she was going home? How did Kennedy get lost on a one-turn trip to the ferry? Was the ferry operating when Kennedy and Kopechne left? \"The larger anger about it was the 10-hour lag [in reporting the accident], that he was more concerned about his reputation than this young woman's life,\" Baughman said. \"He didn't take enough time to blame himself and take responsibility.\" Today, Baughman said, Kennedy could still survive a Chappaquiddick -- largely because of the Kennedys' clout and because Massachusetts is so enamored with the family -- but it would be tougher with the Slate.coms and Drudge Reports of the world hounding him. George Washington University's Arterton concurs that, like Jesse Helms' North Carolina or Strom Thurmond's South Carolina, Massachusetts would likely forgive one of its favorite sons today. If Kennedy survived his first re-election, as he did in 1970, he likely would have prevailed in later ones, though it would have been \"very, very difficult to remain in office,\" Arterton said. He also doubts Kennedy would have been able to isolate himself with advisers for days without making a statement. Watch a newsreel of Kennedy's early years \u00bb . \"In the cable news era, that would not have been possible,\" he said, explaining that blogs and other new media would have prodded the networks and newspapers. \"There would have been much more effort to dig into that story nationally.\" At the least, Baughman said, \"you'd have maybe a more diverse conversation about Kennedy's culpability and judgment.\" Then-Chief Arena remembers the intense criticism of his investigation from his own counterparts. Diver John Farrar, who pulled Kopechne from the car, told media outlets she may have lived had Kennedy called police immediately, and George Killen, a detective-lieutenant with the State Police, alleged at the time that Kennedy \"killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.\" Kennedy's explanation was a \"weak defense,\" Arena acknowledges, but he insists there was no evidence of negligence to facilitate manslaughter charges. Arena said the Kennedys never pressured him during the investigation. He also never obfuscated details to benefit Kennedy -- in part, because of a paternal adage he has always held dear. \"When you tell the truth, you don't have to worry about what you said the first time,\" he said. \"The charge I came up with was the only one I thought we could prove. ... I did what I could, and I'll stick by it.\"","highlights":"Media \"more ferocious\" today, wouldn't have left questions unanswered, expert says .\nEx-police chief says he would have charged Kennedy with vehicular homicide today .\nChappaquiddick incident credited with ending Ted Kennedy's presidential hopes .\nChief: \"What happened afterward has never been completely explained\"","id":"d00468c3100ec12ed47a8ac10c6c207b56a78ad8"} -{"article":"ANTIOCH, California (CNN) -- Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, will face 29 felony counts after being accused of kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard when she was 11 and keeping her in their backyard since 1991, the district attorney of El Dorado County, California, said Friday. Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, was arraigned in California on Friday. The Garridos are each facing charges of kidnapping someone under 14 years of age, kidnapping for sexual purposes, forcible rape and forcible lewd acts on a child. The maximum penalty for both defendants would be life imprisonment. Authorities are looking into Garrido's possible connection to other crimes. Hear interview with Garrido \u00bb . A search warrant was issued for Garrido's home in connection with killings that occurred in the 1990s, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department said Friday. Pittsburg, California, police obtained the search warrant, said the spokesman, Jimmy Lee. Earlier Friday, a California sheriff also admitted that his organization \"missed an opportunity\" nearly three years ago to find Dugard. Someone called 911 on November 30, 2006, to say that a woman and young children were living in tents in the backyard of Phillip Garrido, said Sheriff Warren E. Rupf of Contra Costa County, California, on Friday. \"This is not an acceptable outcome,\" he said. Watch Rupf talk about the 'missed opportunity' \u00bb . The responding sheriff's deputy spoke with Garrido, a registered sex offender, in the front yard of his house. \"None of us, particularly law enforcement, should believe a word that one of these animals utters,\" Rupf said when asked about the lessons learned from the missed opportunity. \"If there's a sophistication [about sex offenders] in any regard, it's in misrepresenting who they are and what motivates them. \"We took things he said obviously at face value and did not properly brand him.\" Rupf also said that \"to the best of his knowledge,\" the deputy didn't know that Garrido was a sex offender. The deputy determined that no crime had been committed even though he did not enter or ask to enter the backyard, the sheriff said. \"We should have been more inquisitive, more curious, and turned over a rock or two,\" the sheriff said. \"We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation.\" Dugard lived for 18 years in a shed and other outbuildings behind her abductor's house, where she gave birth to two girls whom he fathered; the girls are now 11 and 15, police said. CNN policy is not to publish the names of victims when there are allegations of sexual assault. In this case, Dugard has been the subject of a 20-year public search and her image and name have been widely disseminated, making protection of her identity virtually impossible. Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 as her stepfather watched, helpless, in front of her house in South Lake Tahoe, California. Learn about some missing children who have been found alive \u00bb . Investigators arrested Garrido on charges of kidnapping and abusing her after police discovered Dugard on Wednesday. \"The last 18 years have been rough, but the last two days have been pretty good,\" her stepfather, Carl Probyn, told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday. Watch Probyn describe getting the news \u00bb . Phillip Garrido, 58, and 54-year-old Nancy Garrido were arraigned Friday in Placerville Superior Court in Placerville, California. They pleaded not guilty Friday. During their time living in Garrido's backyard, Dugard and her two children apparently rarely ventured out of their compound, investigators said. Dugard \"was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll,\" El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. He described her as \"relatively cooperative, relatively forthcoming\" in discussions with detectives. She was \"in relatively good condition,\" neither obviously abused nor malnourished, he added. \"There are no known attempts by her to outreach to anybody.\" The children didn't go to school or to the doctor's office. Now they and their mother are being thrust into a strange new world. On Friday, Dugard began the long process of reuniting with her family. Watch about recovering from captivity \u00bb . Terry Probyn, who is separated from Carl, spoke with her daughter Thursday and learned that she had two daughters of her own, he said. Carl Probyn said he expects Dugard and her two children to come back to Southern California, since \"that's where we all live.\" Garrido apparently maintained a blog in which he claimed to control sound with his mind. The blog now has numerous profanity-laced responses from people outraged over his alleged actions. In a rambling telephone interview from jail, Garrido told CNN affiliate KCRA of Sacramento that he was relieved at being caught. \"I feel much better now,\" he said. \"This is a process that needed to take place.\" The investigation went years without apparent progress until Tuesday, when Garrido showed up on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley with his two daughters and tried to get permission to hand out literature and speak, Kollar said. He did not know the subject of either the literature or the planned talk. Police officers \"thought the interaction between the older male and the two young females was rather suspicious,\" so they confronted them and performed a background check on him, Kollar said. That check revealed that Garrido was on federal parole for a 1971 conviction for rape and kidnapping, for which he had served time in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. The two female police officers contacted Garrido's parole officer, who requested that he appear Wednesday at the parole office. Watch police talk about why they arrested Garrido \u00bb . Garrido did just that, accompanied by his wife \"and a female named Allissa,\" Kollar said. The presence of Allissa and the two children surprised the parole officer, who had never seen them during visits to Garrido's house, Kollar said. \"Ultimately, Allissa was identified as Dugard,\" Kollar said. Scott Kernan, undersecretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said Garrido admitted having abducted Dugard. Dugard's presence behind Garrido's home since apparently went unnoticed in the neighborhood, where homes on one-fourth to one-half-acre lots typically sell for less than $200,000, said Kathy Russo, whose father has lived two houses away from the Garridos for 33 years. Watch aerial view of backyard compound \u00bb . \"My dad said he never saw a young woman,\" Russo said, adding that her 94-year-old father considered Garrido to be a \"kind of strange, reclusive, kind of an angry kind of guy.\" She said the one-story house's backyard was obscured by trees and ringed by a wooden fence. In his jailhouse interview, Garrido told KCRA that he could not go into detail about why he chose to abduct Dugard. \"I haven't talked to a lawyer yet, so I can't do that,\" he said. But Garrido said he had \"completely turned my life around\" in the past several years. \"You're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, from the victim,\" he promised. \"If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backward, and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful, heartwarming story.\" He added, \"Wait till you hear the story of what took place at this house. You're going to be absolutely impressed. It's a disgusting thing that took place with me in the beginning, but I turned my life completely around.\" Describing his two daughters, he said, \"Those two girls slept in my arms every single night from birth; I never kissed them.\" In a later comment, he said that, from the time the youngest was born, \"everything turned around.\" CNN's Taylor Gandossy, Tom Watkins, Stan Wilson and Mallory Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sex offender, wife plead not guilty at arraignment .\nAuthorities have search warrant for Garrido home relating to 1990 killings .\nVictim reportedly kept in isolation in backyard with children fathered by captor .\nPolice: Phillip Garrido admitted abducting victim when she was 11 .","id":"9c7094cbffd60b4a550f95ef2d3cefba8c4a83d2"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Debris from Air France 447, which crashed en route from Brazil to France last month, killing 228 people, has arrived in France, the French air accident investigation agency BEA said Wednesday. Searchers have discovered hundreds of pieces of wreckage from Air France Flight 447. \"The debris ... will be sent to Toulouse where they will be examined at the Center of Aeronautics Tests of Toulouse (a branch of the Defense Ministry) under the control of the police and the BEA investigators,\" said the French air accident investigation agency BEA. The wreckage was transported to France from Brazil by the ship \"La Ville de Bordeaux,\" according to the plane's manufacturer Airbus. It will be taken overland to Toulouse by truck. Flight 447 went down in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather as if flew from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France on June 1. Only 51 bodies were recovered, and the search is ongoing for the cause of the crash. The search for the data and voice recorders from the plane entered a second phase last week, according to France's accident investigation agency. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- commonly known as \"black boxes\" -- stop giving out acoustic broadcasts after 30 days. But investigators decided to continue listening for the \"pings\" for another 10 days after that. On July 10, two U.S. naval vessels and the French Navy submarine called off their search for the recorders, which investigators hope will shed light on exactly how and why the plane crashed. The second phase of the search will involve France's oceanographic ship \"Pourquoi Pas?\" which carries specialized exploration and intervention vehicles, according to the BEA. The French vessel will conduct new searches using diving equipment and towed sonar, the BEA said. Finding the recorders is of \"capital importance\" and \"no effort must be spared in achieving this end,\" Air France has said. \"We want to stress that for the sake of the families, we hope that the search for the black boxes will be successful,\" an Air France representative told CNN. The crash was the worst in Air France's 75-year history. Earlier this month, investigators revealed that the plane bellyflopped intact into the Atlantic Ocean. Investigator Alain Bouillard said it was still not clear what caused the crash. The mountainous ocean floor in the search area ranges from 3,280 to 15,091 feet, BEA officials have said in the past, making the search for the recorders -- and the rest of the plane's debris -- difficult. \"It is as if it fell in the Andes (mountains),\" Olivier Ferrante, chief of the BEA search mission said. Brazil called off the search for bodies on June 27, having found 51 of the 228 people who died, according to the military. Investigators have also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the plane, along with luggage, Bouillard said.","highlights":"Debris from Air France 447, which crashed last month, has arrived in France .\nPlane went down off Brazil on June 1, killing all 228 aboard .\nFrench oceanographic ship will conduct new searches for data recorders .","id":"14804f15246ff3c352af785a8c800375e44d829b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cyber criminals are setting snares that move at the speed of news. Savvy cyber criminals are taking advantage of our increasing reliance on computers and the Internet. Panda Security, a Spain-based antivirus maker, has been monitoring an onslaught of links with malicious software, or \"malware,\" on Twitter that tag hot topics such as the Air France crash, the NBA finals, \"American Idol\" runner-up Adam Lambert and the new iPhone. \"Cyber criminals have been targeting Twitter users by creating thousands of messages (tweets) embedded with words involving trending topics and malicious URLs,\" Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher for Panda Labs, wrote recently on a blog for the company. The growing sophistication of malware attacks mirrors the growing threat -- and cash -- generated by online crime. Already, cyber crime is estimated to cost companies and consumers more than $100 billion worldwide. Some officials claim it has now eclipsed illegal drugs as a criminal moneymaker. \"It's very seldom reported ... if discovered by companies, they generally don't want the public to know they've been had,\" said Eugene Spafford, a computer security specialist at Purdue University who has advised two U.S. presidents and numerous companies and government agencies. Cyber crime is one of the few industries benefiting from the financial crisis. Last year, antivirus maker McAfee saw a 500 percent increase in malware types -- more than the company had seen in the previous five years combined. In the United States, the FBI reported a 33 percent increase in Internet crime last year. Companies lost an average of $4.6 million in intellectual property last year, according to a survey of 1000 firms worldwide by Purdue University and McAfee. \"As the economy has declined, we've seen the threat landscape increase,\" David DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee, recently told Richard Quest for CNN International's \"Quest Means Business.\" That increase has helped antivirus makers such as McAfee snare record returns -- the company's first quarter profits were 21 percent higher than same period last year. But companies and governments find themselves in a losing war with Web-savvy criminals, experts say. \"The fundamental fact is cyber criminals are highly organized with sophisticated corporate structures and business chains,\" said Michael Fraser, director of the Communications Law Centre at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. \"They have R&D departments, strong distribution networks and Web sites for the discerning cyber criminal,\" Fraser said. On these Web sites, would-be criminals can purchase toolkits to learn how to side step security measures or create their own \"botnet\" -- referring to software that can, unbeknownst to victims, turn their computers into spamming foot-soldiers for criminal networks. One Web site advertises software that can capture information for a popular Internet secured-payment provider for $500 -- discounted to $400 for the first 100 buyers. Skimmed credit card numbers and other personal-identity information stolen from computers also can be found for sale on Web sites, Fraser said. \"When police shut these Web sites down, they just mushroom up some other place,\" he said. Although the techniques of cyber crime have evolved, online criminals prey on human vulnerabilities like criminals throughout the ages. In the digital age, that means tempting with free downloads, money schemes and pornography. The range of tools used by cyber criminals reveals the quick evolution of the industry. Viruses -- the first generation of the computer culprits -- are used for the computer equivalent of vandalism, as the malicious programs replicate, spread and damage computers. \"When the company was set up, we were seeing two or three new viruses a week,\" said Mahendra Negi, chief financial officer of Tokyo-based antivirus maker Trend Micro. \"Now there's a new one every two-and-a-half seconds. \"With the arrival of spam in 2001 and 2002, the big difference was it was commercial malware,\" Negi said. \"Once money became involved, the level of sophistication raised a hundred-fold.\" Now the biggest threats include \"phishing\" schemes and \"botnet\" attacks. Phishing is where criminals masquerade as a legitimate business or Web site and trick victims into revealing passwords, credit card information and other personal data. Botnet attackers commandeer personal computers as part of a large network of \"zombie\" computers that, on command, target companies for spam attacks to cripple IT capabilities. Botnets -- some of which are large enough to deploy tens of billions of spam e-mails a day -- are often used in extortion schemes. \"They ring up the IT manager of a company and say, 'Pay us a million or we'll take you down',\" said Fraser, who has worked with companies victimized by botnet attacks. Companies often pay up and shut up, computer experts say, rather than report the crime and garner publicity that may hurt their corporate reputation. And unlike prankster virus-makers, these malware makers are determined to stay hidden. \"Once it became a business, then (cyber criminals) began to look at what companies like us were doing, and figure out weaknesses,\" he said. \"They are very customer friendly ... they sell updates, they will highlight what the product does and what antivirus software can't detect them. Adding to the difficulty is the legal situation that in many jurisdictions, it is not illegal to create or sell malware. \"It's like the arms industry ... it's not a crime to build and sell them,\" Negi said. And because of the transnational nature of the crime, it's extremely difficult to prosecute. A scan of 500 headlines on Internet-related arrests from newspapers around the world the past two years found about 90 percent were related to child-pornography cases. \"Child pornography is easier to prosecute because it is possible to find the evidence on the perpetrator's computer systems,\" said Spafford of Purdue University. Cyber-criminal networks are as porous as the Internet itself. \"There are multiple jurisdictions and unless it's an ongoing crime that uses the same path all the time, the trail goes cold quickly,\" Spafford said. \"I may be able to trace back to a computer system, if I'm lucky, or trace it back to a cyber cafe -- but how do I know who was behind it?\" Often criminal networks are run in countries such as Russia and China, where government officials turn a blind eye to these activities -- so long as their victims reside outside the host country, Spafford said. \"For the host countries, that's dangerous ... it's kind of like breeding tigers in the back yard and saying, 'Well, they haven't hurt anyone here yet,'\" he said. \"Mexico is a wonderful example ... they tolerated drug smugglers for years, and now it's such a major problem and incredibly painful and costly to run them out. \"I'm not saying (cyber criminals) are involved in physical violence, but it's not out of the realm of possibility,\" he said. \"What are they doing with all that money?\"","highlights":"Some officials say cyber crime has eclipsed drug trade as a money maker .\nLatest ploy is planting malicious software in intriguing Twitter topics .\nSome companies give in to extortion and remain silent, officials say .\nSkimmed credit card numbers can be found for sale on Web sites .","id":"0fb25fd491a1996146d8069ccfa50997fe7621ac"} -{"article":"ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Staff Sgt. Travis Nielsen had no idea when he joined the U.S. Army that his duty would include one of the most solemn and hallowed ceremonies in the military. John F. Kennedy's funeral in 1963 included a riderless horse with boots facing backwards in the saddle. During funeral processions at Virginia's Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, Nielsen walks the riderless horse, a powerful military symbol that stands among the highest honors for the fallen. Images of the so-called caparisoned horse, often referred to as the \"cap horse,\" remain emblazoned in the memories of millions of shocked Americans who watched President Kennedy's funeral procession shortly after his 1963 assassination. According to Army tradition, a ceremonial horse is led by a \"cap walker,\" like Nielsen, in a procession with boots set backward in the saddle's stirrups. In addition to high-ranking government officials such as the president, the cap horse honor is reserved for officers of the rank of colonel or above. The tradition dates \"to Roman times, or Genghis Khan,\" Nielsen said, \"as a high honor bestowed on high-ranking fallen warriors.\" Watch Nielsen lead a riderless horse at Arlington \u00bb . The ancient riderless horse ceremony didn't include backward boots, he said, but it did include an unusual meal. \"They were shrouding their horses or putting him in battle armor or escorting the fallen to their grave,\" Nielsen said. \"When that was done, they would eat the horse, and they would have a big feast.\" Today \"the boots facing backward symbolize [that] the fallen won't ride again and [the rider is] looking back on his family one last time,\" he said. Nielsen serves with the ceremonial Caisson Platoon of the 3rd U.S. Infantry regiment, also known as the Old Guard, based at Fort Myer, Virginia, near the cemetery. Formed in 1784, the Old Guard ranks as the oldest active duty unit in the Army. \"Memorial Day weekend is very busy around here,\" said Nielsen, who joins Old Guard comrades in the annual tradition at Arlington called \"flags in.\" \"We are responsible for going out in the cemetery and placing the American flags on all the headstones.\" Platoon soldiers rarely know any details about the troops or civilians they honor. \"Sometimes someone who served with the fallen or maybe went to [military] academy with them will come up to you and tell you what a great guy they were,\" Nielsen said. When choosing Old Guard members, commanders \"want guys who are punctual and disciplined and picky about the way they look and the way their horses look,\" he said. The focus of much of Nielsen's duties involves drilling and training horses such as Kennedy, a cap horse whose previous career involved running around harness racing tracks. Cemetery ceremonial horses are washed and brushed until their coats have a bright sheen. Saddles and brass are buffed and polished until they shine like mirrors. Ancient caissons that carry flag-draped caskets are cleaned and readied for a day of service. As for the soldiers, Old Guard members' woolen uniforms are flawless and take hours to prepare, as each inch is inspected again and again. Uniforms are pressed and ironed. Shoes and brass are polished and shined. \"In the winter, it can get pretty cold out there,\" Nielsen said. \"In the summer -- it's no joke -- the summers get extremely hot. There will be heat indexes of 100 to 115 degrees.\" Nielsen described his duty as rewarding. \"We carry America's heroes to the final resting place,\" he said. Soldiers in formation lead the procession. An Army band plays, and the unit marches to muffled drums. The caisson passes, led by six horses, either black or white. The horses' harnesses jangle and the caisson wheels rumble through the hallowed paths of Arlington. Bringing up the rear of the procession is Nielsen, leading Kennedy. They pass in formation directly behind a flag-draped casket carrying the body of a soldier or Marine; Navy and Air Force officers do not use cap horses at burial ceremonies. After a casket is carried to a burial site, the caisson and cap horse depart. Nielsen and Kennedy head back to the stables alone, to prepare for another ceremony.","highlights":"Riderless horses honor high-ranking fallen U.S. troops, government officials .\nMany recall horse with empty saddle during 1963 JFK funeral .\nArmy's ceremonial \"Old Guard\" unit prides itself on its military funerals .\nTradition of riderless horses at funerals dates to ancient Rome, soldier says .","id":"f8c589938c406b41921ad013b6d0b386e73695bf"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- You don't want to monkey around on a blind date, especially if your friends are also taking an interest in the same dark, handsome stranger. Jookie, as she is known, studies a poster of French gorilla Yeboah, who is heading for London Zoo. So when three female gorillas at London Zoo heard that they would soon be visited by a brooding French hunk -- well, they went a bit bananas. The latest development in Anglo-French relations sees Yeboah, a 20-stone 12-year-old, leave his current home at La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, Pays de la Loire, northwest France and head for the British capital by the end of the year. There he will be greeted by gorilla trio Zaire, Effie and Mjukuu, who were given posters of their prospective boyfriend for the first time Thursday. One female gorilla shrieked in delight, while another wedged the poster in a tree to stare at it. A third, clearly overcome by emotion, held the photo close to her chest -- then ate it. Their reception was somewhat unsurprising. The zoo has been without a male gorilla since the demise of Bobby, a silverback, in December. Tracey Lee, team leader at London Zoo, put in a good word for the hirsute lothario on the London Zoo Web site, saying Yeboah is \"a very charming, fun loving and intelligent gorilla.\" But whom will Yeboah choose to charm first? Zaire, at 34, is the oldest female gorilla and has been at London Zoo since 1984. The zoo says she's \"happiest when she's taking down and rebuilding her nest in various spots around the island. She loves to play with fabric and often drags it around with her all day. \" Then there's Effie, 16, who \"enjoys seeing toddlers and often makes her way over to the glass when they come to see her,\" according to the zoo Web site. Finally there's 10-year-old Mjukuu, or \"Jookie.\" Dan Simmonds, a keeper at the zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, says she \"has this 'butter wouldn't melt look' to her, and she gets away with murder.\" \"The other two females get along with her very well; she seems to have them all wrapped around her little finger.\" Bridget Fallon contributed to this story.","highlights":"London Zoo has been without a male gorilla since December .\nFrench gorilla Yeboah is being sent from La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, NW France .\nFemale gorillas at London have been shown posters of their new guest .","id":"91c551b2c001233fefc68b99e915f28c39dcfff5"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's financial capital of Mumbai was put on a high-tide alert with officials expecting a water rise of up to 197 inches (5 meters). High tides lash the coast near the Gateway of India in Mumbai on Thursday. Sea tides are expected to rise 5 meters Friday, 4.9 meters Saturday and 4.7 meters Sunday, according to a bulletin by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. \"We have installed water pumps along the coast and advise the people to avoid beaches,\" said Jagtab, an official at the disaster management control room. Floodgates may also be closed in case the threat mounts, he added. High tides are also forecast from August 19 to 23. At least 467 people have died in floods in India from this season's monsoon rains, federal authorities said in their latest report. Flooding has affected about 1.7 million people in parts of India, according to the disaster management division of the federal home ministry. The country's main weather office has warned of heavy rains in western and central parts of India.","highlights":"India's financial capital of Mumbai put on a high-tide alert .\nOfficials expect a water rise of up to 197 inches (5 meters)\nSea tides expected to rise 5 meters Friday, 4.9 meters Saturday, 4.7 meters Sunday .\nHigh tides also forecast from August 19 to 23 .","id":"a41a1acdb3733d70859eb635671e325e94c10702"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fireworks continued to erupt between Bolivia and Peru over a costume worn at this year's Miss Universe pageant. Last week, during the national costume part of the competition, Miss Peru, Karen Schwarz, wore an Andean-inspired outfit featuring a headpiece with large horns based on the costume used in the traditional Diablada, or deviled, folk dance. In wearing the outfit, Schwarz unwittingly set off a firestorm in Bolivia, whose culture minister Pablo Groux threatened to go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to claim that the Diablada belongs to Bolivia's culture and no one else. Bolivia sent a letter to the Miss Universe organizers, citing evidence that the dance has its roots in Bolivia and distinctly belongs to the country, Bolivia's state-run news agency ABI reported. Bolivia dancers showcased the Diablada at events in Washington and Panama, and Bolivia's ambassador to France summed up the country's stance, according to ABI: \"We ask that urgent, adequate, opportune and pertinent measures be taken to protect Bolivian cultural patrimony and the respect of the origin of our customs and ancient traditions.\" Peruvian officials have said that the Diablada folk dance has its roots in both countries. Bolivia has no grounds to claim the dance in the international court, countered Peru's director of its National Institute of Culture, Cecilia Bakula told the newspaper El Comercio. \"This issue should stop because we can't lose tolerance or respect between both countries over things like this,\" Schwarz said in an interview with Bolivian media. \"We have a dance that unites us because the Diablada is danced in Bolivia and Peru.\" The cultural dispute comes at a time of political disagreement between the countries relating to maritime access at the border between Chile and Peru. Peruvian President Alan Garcia has accused Chile and land-locked Bolivia of negotiating an under-the-table deal that would leave Peru out. On Monday Peru said it was taking its own case to the International Court of Justice over the maritime dispute.","highlights":"Miss Peru, Karen Schwarz, set off firestorm in Bolivia with Andean-inspired outfit .\nBolivia's cultural minister threatens to go to international court .\nReport: Peru cultural director says Bolivia has no grounds to claim dance .\nPeru also threatens to go to court: over maritime dispute with Chile and Bolivia .","id":"bedab14a1d24e2f11b27df3c543bb82b977bbe8c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Bad dubbing, angry men with extraordinary facial hair, balletic fighting and more blood than you can shake a nunchuck at: just some of the key ingredients to make a perfect kung fu flick. Tony Jaa may be the modern day Bruce Lee, and in \"Ong-bak\" he shows off his impressive skills. Whether it's a traditional tale of ancient Chinese fighting mystics, or a slickly made, modern bloodfest, kung fu has always been a rich part of cinema. We've compiled a list of 10 of the best. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Share your views by using the Sound Off box below and we'll publish the best. 1. Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973) Bruce Lee's last movie before his untimely death, this is him at his very best. A man on a revenge mission, Lee travels to a mysterious island to fight in a deadly tournament hosted by an evil billionaire. Along with being technically amazing -- the nunchucks scene is jaw-dropping -- it's the most stylish and iconic martial arts film ever made. 2. Ong-bak (Prachya Pinkaew, 2003) Tony Jaa is a modern master. He has appeared in very few major releases, but has already made a huge impact. \"Ong-bak\" is the perfect showcase for his extraordinary skills: whether he's fighting a roomful of people or taking part in the most exciting chase we have ever seen -- jumping through rings of barbed wire and sliding under moving cars while doing the splits -- he makes this film every bit the martial arts spectacle. 3. Wong Fei Hung (Once Upon a Time in China) (Hark Tsui, 1991) Part Chinese history, part gripping kung fu movie, this eastern epic has Jet Li demonstrating his talents as the eponymous hero who stands up to invading foreign forces in 19th century China. Armed with a limitless arsenal of martial arts moves, Li takes on masses of gun-toting, badly acting opponents. A visual delight and Jet Li's best work. 4. Kill Bill 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003\/2004) Quentin Tarantino is a movie geek -- specifically, a B-movie geek -- and kung fu has long held a place in his heart. \"Kill Bill,\" his tribute to the genre, ticks every box: revenge; a powerful, all-knowing nemesis; stylish fights, costumes and music; and blood, lots and lots of blood. 5. Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) (Ang Lee, 2000) Every eye-catching detail of this touching and beautiful film works. A love story with outlaws, witches and Shaolin monks is augmented by breathtaking cinematography and some fantastic performances from Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and newcomer Ziyi Zhang. This visual feast tugs at the heart strings better than any karate chop could. 6. The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen, 1984) A simple but well-executed plot sees Ralph Macchio's underdog work his way up an unconventional path to take on the mean and nasty establishment. It spawned a spate of copycat films, while thousands of children signed up to after-school karate; everyone now knows how to defend themselves by waxing on or off and that the best fighting move is obviously The Crane. Hiya! 7. Ging chaat goo si (Police Story) (Jackie Chan, 1985) Jackie Chan is probably China's biggest export to Hollywood, well-known for doing his own death-defying stunts. This is one of the films that got him noticed in the United States. When he fights, Chan is unstoppable: he uses every prop on the set and puts himself in enormous physical danger. Out and out fun. 8. Shogun Assassin (Robert Houston, 1980) Referenced several times in Tarantino's \"Kill Bill\" films, this forgotten classic must have set a record for the amount of blood spilt as our hero crosses the country on a revenge mission. Early on, Tomisaburo Wakayama says \"they will pay with rivers of blood\"; he isn't wrong. Violent and wonderful. 9. Siu lam juk kau (Shaolin Soccer) (Stephen Chow, 2001) Should this be in the best or worst list? It's definitely unique. Once described as \"the best kung fu football film of all time,\" this is one of the more ridiculous films of the genre. A group of down-and-out martial arts experts form a five-a-side football team to take on a group of evil, drug-taking clones. It's as simple, and as silly as that. And it's one of our guiltiest pleasures. 10. The Matrix (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 1999) A sci-fi spin on the genre, this modern classic has all the key elements: our hero has superhuman powers; the bad guys, led by the relentless Agent Smith, form part of a shady, all-powerful organization intent on oppressing humankind; and the fight scenes are fantastically technical. Against all the odds, it appears Keanu really does know Kung Fu. .................................... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Read others' comments and share your views by using the Sound Off box below. .................................... And the mainstream films that lacked the killer punch ... Street Fighter (Steven E. de Souza, 1994) Jean-Claude Van Damme has made some good films, really he has. \"Kickboxer\" nearly made it into our top 10. But this is, by a huge margin, his worst effort. Most depressing, though, is that this was the last major outing for Raul Julia -- not the way he should be remembered. Great game; terrible film. The Karate Kid, Part III (John G. Avildsen, 1989) The franchise came out of part two with a little credibility intact, but this last installment -- unless you include \"The Next Karate Kid\" (which no self-respecting \"Karate Kid\" fan would) -- managed to kill off our last shred of enthusiasm. Where the original might have inspired you to take up karate, this would put you off the sport, and probably kung fu movies too. Bulletproof Monk (Paul Hunter, 2003) \"I've got a great idea, let's take a well-respected Chinese actor and pair him up with an annoying teen-film actor in a mystical kung fu movie; it can't fail!\" Unsurprisingly, this film was a disaster, shoe-horning silly fight scenes into a plot that spirals from implausible to disturbingly stupid. A frightful mistake, and one of our worst-named films to boot. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (Geoff Murphy, 1995) The first \"Under Siege\" was a surprisingly good film, and Hollywood's best martial arts expert acquits himself well, but this follow up is laughable. Seagal still fights like the best, but has lost the ability to speak, and whispers his way through the dialogue. Considering the action takes place on a train, we were amazed his co-stars could hear him. Come on, Steven, you were so much better when you were just a lowly, lowly cook. Game of Death (Robert Clouse, 1978) Through no fault of his own, this is Bruce Lee's posthumous contribution to the list. This tacky movie features fight scenes shot before Lee died, interspersed with material filmed using lookalikes and a cardboard cutout of the great man. The fights are impressive, but the rest of the film smacks of a cash-in -- they even use footage from Lee's actual funeral. A desperate slur on Lee's memory. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Iconic kung fu star Bruce Lee hits the top spot with \"Enter the Dragon\"\nTarantino's genre tributes, \"Kill Bill 1&2,\" are stylish and bloody .\n\"The Matrix\" is a sci-fi kung fu movie with slickly made fight sequences .\nBut Jean-Claude Van Damme's \"Street Fighter\" lacks the killer punch .","id":"0b14fa50b76b488e131c7f572f1b41be351143fb"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A man at a Fort Lewis army post on Wednesday fatally shot a woman before turning the gun on himself, military authorities said. The shootings on Wednesday occurred outside the main post exchange at Fort Lewis in Washington state. The man, who was hospitalized earlier in the day, was pronounced dead late Wednesday, Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Kubistek said. The man shot the woman and then shot himself in the head, said Maj. Mike Garcia. He said the shootings occurred outside the main post exchange, as retail stores at military installations are called. Garcia said the 59-year-old shooter was a retired soldier. The woman he shot, Garcia said, was a civilian who worked as a vendor in the store. Neither was identified. Kathy Johnson had taken her elderly mother to shop at the store when shots rang out. \"I heard five to six shots and hit the floor,\" Johnson said, \"I was hiding under a clothing rack and people were yelling that we were being taken hostage.\" Eventually, Johnson said, customers were told over the store intercom that it was safe to leave the store. Outside military police had surrounded the store and were posted on nearby rooftops, she said, . It was not immediately clear what the relationship between the man and woman was, Garcia said. He said since the shooting took place on a federal installation, the FBI would lead the investigation into the shootings. CNN's Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alleged shooter is a 59-year-old retired soldier, Fort Lewis spokesman says .\nSlain woman was a civilian who worked as a vendor at the post, spokesman says .\n\"I heard five to six shots and hit the floor,\" witness says .\nFBI will lead probe into shootings on the federal facility, spokesman says .","id":"a9901ae6521fe66a45057e5ebd12a7f328230266"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- In Pakistan's combustible Swat Valley, some girls refuse to wear uniforms so they can make it to school without being harmed. Shiza Shahid, left, a 20-year-old Stanford University student, is helping to teach young girls in Pakistan. Other girls hide textbooks in their shawls to escape harassment. School-age girls are among the victims in the fierce fighting between government soldiers and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley. The Pakistani government said it has flushed much of the Taliban out of the area, but some fighting persists. Many girls remain banned from schools. Dozens of their schools have been bombed, and militants have burned books. A new program has taken 26 girls out of the battle-scarred region to Islamabad for a 10-day retreat, where they can learn in safer surroundings. A group of college students of Pakistani background is helping the girls. Among them are Shiza Shahid, 20, from California's Stanford University, who organized the program called Shajar-e-llm, or Tree of Knowledge. Shahid said she was moved to help after hearing about how the girls struggled to get an education. \"I think we were so angry, upset and emotional that we decided we have to do something,\" she said. Watch as Shahid says she had to act to help the girls \u00bb . Though well-intentioned, the program sometimes seems disorganized. \"We need support. We need unfortunately more organization, more of the bureaucratic nitty-gritty that you don't want to do, but you have to,\" Shahid said. \"We are young, and that does come with the burden as not being equally trusted or seen as capable.\" Nonetheless, the group has ambitions for a boys' learning retreat as well. The lessons are simple enough -- confidence-building exercises, critical-thinking lessons -- all framed in the context of Islamic values. The girls -- ages 11 to 14 -- spoke about their dreams. One wants to meet a poet; another wants to learn calligraphy. Another wants to grow up to lead Pakistan. \"I want to become president and rule this country in a good way,\" said 12-year-old Malila. One day during the retreat, the girls were taught a song about freedom of speech. As a guitarist strummed, the girls sang that God gives everyone the right to free speech and no one can take it away. Free speech seemed to end with the song, however. The girls could not risk talking about Taliban harassment, because the militants' version of Islamic law lingers. Such Islamic law, or shariah, also keeps females from going to school or going outside without their husbands. The United Nations estimates that 375,000 Swat Valley residents fled their homes during fighting that started in April. In all, 2.5 million Pakistanis were displaced in what was said to be one of the largest human migrations in recent history. Many residents have returned to their homes, but peace has not been completely restored to the region. And soon, the girls at the learning retreat will return home to the Swat Valley as well. Organizers said they hope the girls will carry a new love for education. \"There were tears and there were tough moments,\" said Madihah Akhter, a volunteer with the program. \"But the girls surprised me. They were really resilient. They were beyond their years.\"","highlights":"Schoolgirls victims of fighting between Pakistani soldiers and Taliban in Swat Valley .\nA retreat in Islamabad gives 26 girls a safe haven to learn .\nA student from Stanford University is helping lead the retreat .","id":"87d867a0b99fca009a0e59a5c173d11961d39895"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Home Office said Wednesday it is banning the military wing of Hezbollah, the Lebanese political movement, because of its support for \"terrorism\" in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Hezbollah fighters with the Shiite militia's yellow flags during ceremony for slain commander Imad Mughnieh. Parliament must approve the order for it to become law. The announcement would make it a crime to belong to or encourage support for Hezbollah's military wing. The order does not apply to Hezbollah's political or social activities. \"It sends out a clear message that we condemn Hezbollah's violence and support for terrorism,\" Home Office minister Tony McNulty said in a statement. Britain's Terrorism Act allows Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to ban any group that she believes is involved in terrorism. \"Hezbollah's military wing is providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs,\" McNulty said. \"Hezbollah's military wing also provides support to Palestinian terrorist groups in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.\" British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the ban came after \"new evidence\" of Hezbollah's involvement in terrorism in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. In the House of Commons, Brown called on Hezbollah to lay down its arms and participate in the Lebanese political process \"on the same terms as other political parties.\" Hezbollah is the largest Shiite Muslim political movement in Lebanon and maintains an armed force that fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006. The group has been linked to numerous terrorist attacks against American, Israeli, and other Western targets and the United States lists it as a terrorist organization. But many in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, particularly Shiites, view Hezbollah militants as freedom fighters.","highlights":"UK Terrorism Act allows Home Secretary to ban suspected terror groups .\nWill become a crime to belong to, encourage support for Hezbollah's military wing .\nUK PM: Ban came after \"new evidence\" of Hezbollah's involvement in terrorism .\nHezbollah is the largest Shiite Muslim political movement in Lebanon .","id":"4f1c1cf0219209d80db7cc869230994f2cd7cfc3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first bodies to be recovered from the crash of Air France 447 arrived at a Brazilian Air Force base in Recife, Brazil, Wednesday, the air force announced. Brazilian pilots and a medical team bring one of the first bodies ashore at Fernando de Noronha island. The 16 bodies were taken to the Legal Medical Institute in Recife for identification, the statement said. Police will perform DNA tests at their lab in the capital, Brasilia, if necessary, they said. Another 25 bodies have been found and will go through the same procedure starting Thursday, the air force said. Official identification of the bodies will be made only by the Legal Medicine Institute, even if any of the bodies could have been identified while on Fernando de Noronha, the islands where they were first brought after being recovered. A French nuclear submarine joined the hunt Wednesday for the flight data recorders and other wreckage from Air France Flight 447 as Brazilian air force and navy crews continued to pull bodies from the Atlantic. Bad weather and poor visibility are expected in the search area, Brazilian Air Force spokesmen said. France is leading the investigation into what caused last week's accident when the Paris-bound flight from Rio de Janeiro plunged into the sea off the Brazilian coast with 228 passengers and crew on board. The French nuclear submarine Emeraude began patrolling the area Wednesday morning, the French defense ministry said. Around 400 French military personnel are involved in the salvage effort. France has also sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations. Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- are participating, along with five Brazilian ships. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders. The \"towed pinger locators,\" which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) -- will be placed aboard the French tugs. Watch challenges faced by search crews \u00bb . Brazilian officials emphasized earlier this week that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders. The 16 bodies retrieved Tuesday from the Atlantic were taken to the island of Fernando de Noronha for transport by helicopter to Recife. The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate. Watch bodies being returned to land \u00bb . The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. See photos of bodies arriving at Fernando de Noronha \u00bb . It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air. The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), Brazilian officials said. Map of Flight 447's flight path \u00bb . The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire\/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. Brazilian officials said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife. The cause of the crash is still not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors. Did plane's tail fin snap off? \u00bb . Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday. The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month. Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents. The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident. Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused \"a loss of airspeed data,\" according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed. Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. CNN's Karl Penhaul, Ayesha Durgahee, Niki Cook, Jim Bittermann and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"16 bodies retrieved from crashed airliner arrive in mainland Brazil .\nBodies taken to police laboratory in Brasilia for DNA testing .\nFrench nuclear submarine joins hunt for wreckage from Air France Flight 447 .\nLocation, cause of crash off Brazilian coast have not been determined .","id":"37b81f42766d36cd4b0d72ed6a10d608b7f182c4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in President Obama what might be a new chapter in the 60-year relationship between Israel and the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama visit at the White House on Monday. Based on interviews with U.S., Israeli and Arab diplomats, no one expects a drastic change in the relationship -- the Obama administration won't waiver from the traditional unshakable commitment to Israel's security. But the Obama administration seems to have a different view from Israel -- and previous U.S. administrations -- on how that security is best achieved. Observers think this administration -- Obama, National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones and Middle East envoy George Mitchell in particular -- are predisposed to be tougher on Israel than the Bush administration was. Israelis are concerned the special strategic relationship between the United States and Israel could be in jeopardy. Because Obama has made clear he thinks a Palestinian state better serves Israel's and the United States' security, there were expectations of a showdown between him and Netanyahu. Netanyahu came to Washington refusing to commit to a two-state solution and instead talked of a \"Palestinian entity\" with promises of beefed-up economic development. Arab states and the United States have said that's not a substitute for a true Palestinian state. Because of the good will and enhanced credibility the election of Obama has brought the United States around the world, he can ask for more, and expect more, on this issue. The United States is working with Jordan's King Abdullah to \"sequence\" the Arab initiative, a plan proposed by then-Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in 2003 and endorsed by the Arab League. Under the plan, all Arab states would normalize relations with Israel after it returns former Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territories. The United States wants Israel and the Arab countries to take simultaneous steps toward peace. For instance, if Israel halts settlement activity or removes outposts, the Arabs could take any number of steps, such as opening trade offices in Israel or allowing telecommunications or air travel between Israel and Arab countries. There is a long list of potential moves and different Arab countries are considering steps from the list. Some are more willing to participate than others. We will probably hear more about this in the coming weeks as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visit Washington later this month. Netanyahu has also made clear one of his main priorities is dealing with the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program; he's said that if the United States can't eliminate the threat through talking, Israel will do so militarily. He also has threatened to halt progress on the Palestinian issue until the United States takes meaningful steps to curb Iran. The United States has made clear that such threats are a nonstarter. Netanyahu's position is to solve Iran first and then Israel can deal with Palestinian peace. The United States wants the Israelis to make peace with the Palestinians and it will deal with Iran at the same time. In fact, Washington believes progress on the Palestinian issue could rally Arab support for dealing with Iran. Israeli diplomats said Netanyahu is not going to provoke a confrontation with Obama and they expected him to announce some immediate steps to improve the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank, including removing illegal settlement outposts. However, Netanyahu made no such announcement during a brief photo opportunity with Obama. Netanyahu was expected to make a statement supporting the idea of a Palestinian state, but most analysts said he would stop short of a full endorsement. Again, sitting next to Obama, Netanyahu spoke of a scenario in which \"Israel and the Palestinians live side by side in dignity, security and in peace,\" but he didn't mention a Palestinian state. No breakthroughs were expected. Monday's meeting was largely expected to be a chance for the two sides to discuss their positions rather than iron out differences. Some might see this as Obama being tougher on Israel, but others say it's an evenhandedness that hasn't been seen from recent U.S. administrations. In short, it seems the Obama administration is going to use more of a tough-love approach to Israel, rather than just automatically siding with it. CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"No one expects a drastic change in U.S.-Israel relationship .\nBut Obama has different approach from past administrations .\nObservers think Obama team is predisposed to be tougher on Israel .\nWhether Palestinians or Iranians get attention first is at issue .","id":"8c925921320fd125a1c43f8d7d30ffeb5ad9cb60"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brooke Shields is upset with a tabloid reporter over an incident involving the actress' elderly mother. Brooke Shields moved her mother to a different residence after last week's incident, Shields' lawyer says. Shields accused a reporter and photographer from the National Enquirer of taking her 75-year-old mother -- Teri Shields, who suffers from dementia -- out of a New Jersey nursing home last week, People magazine reported. It was \"reprehensible and disgusting,\" Shields told People. The reporter, \"looking for a tabloid story,\" signed her mother out of a senior living facility in Old Tappan, New Jersey, by falsely claiming to be her friend, Shields said. Watch why Shields is upset \u00bb . The National Enquirer said the reporter has known Teri Shields for a decade. \"Teri asked the reporter to take her out to lunch and run some errands,\" the tabloid said. \"The freelance reporter then got permission from the facility to do so. ... At no point did the facility, which had given its permission for the outing, contend that there had been any wrongdoing.\" Old Tappan police told People they are investigating. Brooke Shields' lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, said the actress has not filed charges, but was exploring her options. Shields moved her mother to another facility, Lefcourt said. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Reporter takes Brooke Shields' mom out of nursing home, People magazine reports .\nReporter, with National Enquirer, claims to have known Teri Shields for years .\nTeri Shields, 75, asked reporter to take her to lunch, National Enquirer says .\nPolice in New Jersey community investigating, People reports .","id":"689022a9bb1c5f22c05201d47009c7e6165822f6"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Neither the magic of Harry Potter nor the combined star power of Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler was enough to keep a crew of wise-cracking guinea pigs from scurrying to the top of the box office this weekend. Disney's family comedy \"G-Force\" made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Disney's family comedy \"G-Force,\" produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Will Arnett, and Penelope Cruz as a team of world-saving rodents, made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Despite opening hot on the heels of the one-week old \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,\" the animation\/live action hybrid pic was a hit with young audiences, pulling 55 percent of its viewers from the under-18 crowd. But Potter's box office magic hasn't worn off just yet: The series' sixth installment landed in the number two spot its second weekend with $30 million, bringing its total to $221.8 million. After just 12 days in theaters, 'Half-Blood' is already the fifth biggest hit of the year domestically, not to mention overseas, where the powerhouse has raked in an additional $236 million. There was plenty for adults to enjoy at the box office, too. \"The Ugly Truth,\" a raunchy R-rated rom-com that pits Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler in a battle of the sexes, scored an impressive $27 million bow, a career best for both Heigl and director Robert Luketic (\"Legally Blonde\"). The weekend's other wide release, Warner Bros' creepy \"Orphan\" -- starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga -- pulled in $12.8 million from an audience that was 55 percent female. Lower down on the chart, Fox Searchlight's \"(500) Days of Summer\" (at number 11 with $3 million) is still building momentum. The quirky rom-com posted a hefty $19,176 per-site average and a 95 percent increase over its debut last weekend. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Disney's family comedy brought in an estimated $32.2 million over the weekend .\nThe sixth installment of the \"Potter\" series raked in another $30 million at No. 2 .\n\"The Ugly Truth,\" starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, took in $27 million .\nCheck out the other top earners on this weekend's top 10 list .","id":"6b469ce00a8eee68dfce3ff0fdbe6d59c0bad0d9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The wife of an Iranian pro-reformist activist detained as he tried to leave the country last week says she is \"deeply concerned\" for his safety. Fatemah Shams and Mohammadreza Jalaeipour are students together at the University of Oxford. Fatemeh Shams told CNN she hadn't heard from her husband Mohammadreza Jalaeipour since she watched him being escorted away after he was prevented from boarding a flight to Dubai on June 17. Both are students at the University of Oxford and had been returning to the UK from Iran after attending a family wedding, just as demonstrations escalated following presidential elections earlier this month which have plunged Iran into political chaos. Shams said she and her 27-year-old husband -- both activists for the pro-reformist Third Wave campaign -- planned to leave Iran on June 17. At first, everything appeared fine with Jalaeipour having his passport stamped as he passed through immigration. But he was then approached by a plain clothes official who told him to turn off his cellphone before ordering Jalaeipour to follow him. \"We didn't get a chance to talk to each other -- I was watching what was happening and that was the last time I saw him,\" said Shams, 26, who flew to the UK via Doha in Qatar. Watch Shams speak about her husband's detention \u00bb . Shams said she hadn't heard directly from her husband since his arrest but believed he was being held in prison. \"It's a very difficult mental situation for me to understand what is going on and I am deeply concerned about his health and safety,\" she told CNN. Both Jalaeipour and Shams were members of the organizing committee of the Third Wave campaign, a reformist youth movement formed last year to back former president Mohammad Khatami's candidacy in this year's election. Following Khatami's withdrawal from contention, the Third Wave threw its support behind Mir Hossein Moussavi, who has disputed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, claiming that voting was rigged. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal Jalaeipour said he had advised Moussavi on using social-networking Web sites, such as Facebook, to reach young voters. \"Third Wave was a totally legal campaign with reformist tendencies that was trying to get young people involved in the elections,\" said Shams. \"We believed we should take part to make our country better and to have a better future. We were encouraging young people to not be indifferent about their country.\" Shams said she thinks he may have been detained because of his political activities. \"Most of the activists who have been supporting the reformist candidate, all of them are in prison now. Why should the young people who want to do something for the sake of their country and their people, why are they in prison now?\" Shams said she planned to return to Iran herself if there was no change in her husband's situation in the next week or so. But she but admitted her own safety could not be guaranteed if she went back. Following more than a week of daily demonstrations in Tehran, Iranian security forces have been cracking down on protests and arresting activists including Ebrahim Yazdi, a former deputy prime minister who headed a group supporting increased freedom and democracy. Yazdi, who is 76 and has suffered prostate cancer, was later released. Moussavi and former president Khatami have sent a letter to Iran's courts urging them to release arrested activists and protesters.","highlights":"Iranian activist detained at airport as he tried to leave country .\nWife says she is deeply concerned for Mohammadreza Jalaeipour's safety .\nFatemeh Shams says she hasn't heard from Jalaeipour since his arrest .\nCouple are both activists for pro-Moussavi Third Wave campaign .","id":"d52f52ec44d5b3b90b8888a503208a3176e79246"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle, deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya on Thursday started his journey from Managua, Nicaragua, to the country's border with Honduras. Honduran soldiers block the road at the Honduras-Nicaragua border in Paraiso, Honduras. A caravan of Zelaya supporters and reporters headed north to the city of Esteli, close to the Honduran border. From there, Zelaya would finalize his plans to cross back into Honduras, he said at a news conference before departing. The ousted president stated his intention to return to his homeland this week, raising concerns about increased unrest. The days since the June 28 military-led coup that deposed Zelaya have been marked by mostly peaceful demonstrations by supporters and detractors of the government of interim President Roberto Micheletti. One notable exception was an attempt by Zelaya to return by plane on July 5, only to be turned away by military vehicles blocking the airport's runways. One man was killed in clashes between Zelaya supporters and police. When asked about Zelaya's stated return, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley called it \"unwise.\" \"Any step that would add to the risk of violence in Honduras or in the area, we think would be unwise,\" Crowley said. Zelaya told reporters he hopes that border guards in Honduras will recognize him as president and commander in chief, and put down their weapons when he attempts to cross as early as Friday. \"We go with a white flag, with a flag of peace,\" Zelaya said. Micheletti's government, which has vowed to arrest Zelaya on charges of violating the constitution, announced on Thursday a curfew in the border area with Nicaragua from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., the newspaper La Prensa reported. A less restrictive curfew remained in effect in other parts of the country, the paper said. The backdrop to the tensions following Zelaya's caravan is a peace agreement offered Wednesday by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who mediated two rounds of unsuccessful talks between the two sides. The document, dubbed the San Jose Accord, calls for Zelaya's return to power, the creation of a unity government, and early elections. The accord was very similar to an original plan suggested by Arias, but with more details and a creation of a truth commission to investigate the events that led to the crisis. It also included a timeline for its implementation, which placed Zelaya back in Honduras by Friday. But Zelaya seemed intent to return on his own timeline, as neither side has signed the agreement. Hopes were slim that the agreement would be signed, as the Zelaya camp publicly said it rejected the document, and Micheletti's side said it would have to seek approval from the other branches of government before proceeding. The Honduran supreme court has said it would not accept Zelaya's return under any circumstances. On Thursday, the United States and the Organization of American States expressed support for the San Jose Accord. \"A favorable response to this proposal opens a path of reconciliation,\" OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said at a news conference in Washington. \"A rejection of this proposal opens a path toward confrontation. And I want to say very frankly, we don't want a path toward conflict.\" The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have opened the door to extending term limits by changing the constitution, even though the congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court ruled it illegal. Zelaya was removed from office June 28 in a military-led coup and replaced by congressional leader Micheletti a few hours later. The coup has drawn international condemnation, including demands by the United Nations General Assembly, the OAS and the European Union that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has steadfastly rejected that a coup took place, saying Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power.","highlights":"Jose Manuel Zelaya hopes guards will recognize him as president, let him cross .\nInterim president has vowed to arrest Zelaya on charges of violating constitution .\nOusted president's attempt to return to homeland raises fears of increased unrest .\nU.S. Assistant Secretary of State Crowley calls planned return \"unwise\"","id":"6abc382fd78306df8bcf68e64191043b9dfa24ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From the mid-1980s, Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist George Soros pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into foundations in Eastern Europe dedicated to promoting the idea of the \"open society\" and challenging the region's Soviet-backed regimes. Here, writing exclusively for CNN.com, he describes how the work of his foundations ultimately contributed to the collapse of communism. A Soviet tank rolls through Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist domination. I set up my first foundation in Hungary in 1984. The idea behind it was simple. The state dogma, promoted by the ruling communists, was false and by providing an alternative we could expose its falsehood. Accordingly we supported every cultural initiative that was not an expression of the established dogma. I was guided by the concept of the \"open society,\" which I adopted from the philosopher Karl Popper. I saw the open society as a more sophisticated form of social organization than the totalitarian closed societies of the Soviet bloc. The latter were trying to implement central plans; in an open society every individual or organization was supposed to implement their own plan. To make the transition from a closed to an open society would require outside help and that was what my foundations sought to provide. In Hungary the authorities insisted on having a controlling presence on the foundation's board. We eventually agreed to appoint two chief executives, one nominated by them and one by me. The project succeeded beyond my expectations. With very small amounts of money people could engage in a wide variety of civic initiatives ranging from self-governing student colleges to zither clubs. One of our first projects was to offer photocopying machines to cultural and scientific institutions in exchange for local currency. We used the money to give out local grants and support all kinds of unofficial initiatives, but the photocopying machines also did a lot of good. Up until then, the few existing copy machines were literally held under lock and key -- as more and more became available, the Party apparatus lost control of the machines and the dissemination of information. We did not have to exercise direct control. Civil society watched over the foundation. For instance, we were warned that a blind association, to whom we gave a grant for talking books, was stealing some of the money. With a budget of $3 million, the foundation had more influence on the cultural life of Hungary than the Ministry of Culture. Carried away my success in Hungary, by 1988 I had set up foundations in Poland, China and the Soviet Union. I think that I could have influenced General Jaruzelski in Poland to change his attitude toward the opposition and to see that dissidents such as Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron were also patriots despite their criticism of the ruling party. As the Soviet empire collapsed, and eventually the Soviet Union and also Yugoslavia disintegrated, we continued to expand. By 1992 there were foundations in 22 countries and expenditure had reached $53 million. A year later we were spending nearly $184 million. Right at the beginning, I had a disagreement with the Polish board about the way the foundation should be run. But that taught me a lesson. They were right and I was wrong. I realized that the people living there understood their country better than I did and I deferred to their judgment. It did not always work. In Bulgaria, a board member who made his name as a human rights activist turned out to be a racist. A Latvian businessman sought to hijack the foundation for nationalist purposes. It was the Russian foundation that gave us the most trouble; we had to reorganize it twice. But the foundations were the first out of the gate everywhere. I remembered the lesson my father who had lived through the Russian Revolution in Siberia taught me: In revolutionary times things that are normally impossible become possible. In Ukraine, we set up the Ukrainian Renaissance Foundation before Ukraine became independent. In Tajikistan, we persevered with the foundation during the five-year civil war although we had no way of controlling its activities. Our impact was the greatest during that turbulent period. When I set up the foundations in Eastern Europe I hoped the open societies of the West would follow in my footsteps, but in that regard I was disappointed. Unwilling to burden their own budgets, they gave the job to the International Monetary Fund, which was ill suited to the task. The IMF was accustomed to signing letters of intent with governments, making the continuation of their programs conditional on the governments fulfilling their obligations. The countries of Eastern Europe fared better, but in the former Soviet states one after another, the programs largely failed. East Germany was the exception: West Germany was willing to make the sacrifices that were necessary to integrate it. Eventually, the countries of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, also made the grade when the European Union gave them accession. But the rest of the former Soviet Union in the Caucasus and Central Asia never succeeded in making the transition. This has left a bitter legacy. Rightly or wrongly, both the rulers and the people of Russia harbor a deep resentment against the West, which the West has not come to grips with. The new order in Moscow that has emerged out of the chaos of the 1990s is very far from an open society. It is an authoritarian regime that preserves the outward appearances of democracy but derives its power from its control of Russia's national resources. It uses those resources to maintain itself in power, to personally enrich the rulers, and to exercise influence over its neighborhood, both in Europe and in the former Soviet sphere. But the ideal of an open society is difficult to suppress and I have not given up hope.","highlights":"Financier George Soros funded eastern European dissident groups in 1980s .\nSoros: In revolutionary times things normally impossible become possible .\nSoros set up first foundation in Hungary in 1984; by 1992 foundations in 22 countries .\nWest failed many post-communist states; Russia again an authoritarian regime .","id":"a9c30e65cd504cf7aa65720753761ad9c10e0b04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- German car manufacturer BMW has announced it is to pull out of Formula One at the end of the current season after a \"landmark\" decision to restructure the group's motorsport activities was made by the company's board in a meeting on Tuesday. BMW Sauber have opted to pull out Formula One at the end of the 2009 season. A statement on the BMW Sauber F1 Team's official Web site stated that \"the Formula One campaign is [no longer] a key promoter for us\" and that \"current developments in motor sport\" had resulted in the decision. Dr Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the BMW board of management, said: \"Of course, this was a very difficult decision for us. But it's a resolute step in view of our company's strategic realignment.\" The team currently lie eighth in the constructors' world championship with eight points after 10 rounds and of their two drivers -- Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld -- Heidfeld sits a lowly 13th in the drivers' championship with just six points. BMW are the second manufacturer to pull out of F1 in a further blow to the sport after Honda's withdrawal before the start of the 2009 season. CNN's analysis of BMW's exit from Formula One. \u00bb . However, since Wednesday's announcement, rival German car manufacturer Mercedes have reconfirmed their commitment to the sport. \"We regret the withdrawal of BMW from Formula One. This decision will not have the slightest influence on our commitment to Formula One,\" a spokesman for the company told AFP. Motorsport's world governing body, the FIA, reiterated their belief that the move was an indication of how the global economic downturn was affecting the sport. In a statement on their official Web site, they said: \"The FIA regrets the announcement of BMW's intended withdrawal from Formula One but is not surprised by it. It has been clear for some time that motor sport cannot ignore the world economic crisis. \"Car manufacturers cannot be expected to continue to pour large sums of money into Formula One when their survival depends on redundancies, plant closures and the support of the taxpayer. This is why the FIA prepared regulations to reduce costs drastically. \"These measures were needed to alleviate the pressure on manufacturers following Honda's withdrawal but also to make it possible for new teams to enter. Had these regulations not been so strongly opposed by a number of team principals, the withdrawal of BMW and further such announcements in the future might have been avoided,\" the statement added. BMW entered Formula One with a takeover of the Sauber F1 team in 2005 and finished fifth in the constructors' championship in their debut campaign, before racing under their own name in 2006. With an aggressive aim of winning the world championship within three years, the team came close in 2007 finishing second to Ferrari, thanks largely to the exclusion of McLaren-Mercedes from the manufacturer's points standings. In 2008, the team captured third, thanks in part to a first win in the Canadian Grand Prix for Polish driver Kubica. The statement continued: \"It only took us three years to establish ourselves as a top team with the BMW Sauber F1 team. Unfortunately, the team were unable to meet expectations in the current season.\" The car-builder was also unable to \"quantify redundancies\" that may come from the move which follows the exit of Honda in December. The Japanese manufacturer -- who according to FIA president Max Mosley were spending $500m a season to compete in the sport -- cited the \"sudden contraction of the world economies\" as their reason to end racing. This led to Mosley spearheading an FIA plan to enforce controversial cost-cutting measures on the teams for the 2010 season. The Formula One furor explained. These measures, which split opinion within the sport, are expected to be adopted in a watered-down form and could eventually save $60 million from the cost of running a team, according to Mosley. However, the FIA were prompted by BMW's exit to warn again that if the measures were weakened too much the positive impact on the sport could be reduced. \"As a result of a sustained cost-cutting campaign by the FIA, new measures are in the process of being agreed which should make it easier for new teams to enter and enable existing ones to participate on much reduced budgets. \"It is no secret that these measures do not go as far as the FIA would have liked but a compromise was needed in the interests of harmony in the sport. Hopefully it will be enough to prevent further withdrawals and provide a solid foundation for Formula One,\" the statement read.","highlights":"BMW announce that they are to leave Formula One at the end of 2009 season .\nThe German motor manufacturer blame \"current developments in motor sport\"\nBMW entered the sport in 2005 with takeover of the Swiss-based Sauber team .\nThe F1 team are currently lying eighth in the constructors' world championship .","id":"4bffe44a5c1da993cf06fe40c850b99de5cbf8e0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In 2004, even after being captured by U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein told an FBI interrogator he believed Iran was a greater threat to Iraq than the United States, according to newly released FBI documents. Baghdad's Al Mutamar newspaper shows Saddam Hussein, right, with Ahmed Chalabi of Iraq's governing council in 2003. The FBI interviews took place while Hussein, then identified by the FBI as \"High Value Detainee 1\" was held captive by U.S. military forces at Baghdad International Airport between February and June of 2004. Hussein regarded the Iranian threat as so serious that it was the major factor in his decision not to allow United Nations weapons inspectors to return, he said. Citing their shared border and his belief Iran would intend to annex southern Iraq, Hussein said he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses than repercussions from the United States and the international community. He believed that the inspectors would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq. Approximately 100 pages of declassified interview summaries, previously classified as secret, were obtained by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University through a Freedom of Information Act request. The FBI declined CNN's request to interview special agent George L. Piro, the agent who interviewed Hussein. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson declined to comment on the declassified documents. \"As a general rule, the FBI does not discuss FOIA'd documents. We let the information stand on its own,\" Bresson told CNN. Piro, an FBI agent fluent in Arabic, conducted the interviews along with another agent whose name has been redacted from the documents. Although Hussein had been a prisoner for months, at one point during an interview he said, \"I am not the ex-president of Iraq. I am still the president of Iraq.\" Hussein also described al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a \"zealot\" and said he had never met or seen him. He also said the United States used the September 11 attacks as justification to attack Iraq, and that the United States had \"lost sight of the cause.\" Despite Piro citing evidence of Iraq's contacts with al Qaeda, Hussein said, \"The Iraqi government did not cooperate with bin Laden\" and that the two \"did not have the same belief or vision.\" The former regime's alleged weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al Qaeda were the Bush administration's primary justifications for invading Iraq in March of 2003. Piro and Hussein spoke extensively about Iraq's chemical weapons during the Iran war, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and in the years before the second U.S. invasion. Hussein refused to answer a question about whether Iraq would have lost the war it fought with Iran from 1980 to 1988 if it had not used chemical weapons. He also said neither he nor any other Iraqi officials discussed using chemical weapons during the first Gulf War. Hussein admitted that Iraq made a mistake by destroying some weapons without U.N. supervision. In his view, the inspectors wanted all of their expenses paid for by Iraq. Instead of waiting for the inspectors and paying the expenses, Iraq began destroying the weapons. \"We destroyed them. We told you, with documents. That's it,\" Hussein said. When asked about restrictions he placed on weapons inspectors regarding which locations they could visit, Hussein responded, \"By God, if I had such weapons, I would have used them in the fight against the United States.\" Hussein commented about the mental state of U.S. soldiers occupying Iraq. \"If you asked the American soldier -- who came to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, but none could be found, and who came to remove the leaders of the Hussein dictatorship, who are all in jail now, but are replaced with other dictators -- whether he wanted to stay or go, he would say go.\" Hussein said he alone gave the orders to fire SCUD missiles at Israel during the first Gulf War, adding, \"Everything that happened to us was because of Israel.\" He said he figured that the United States would stop the war if Israel was \"hurt,\" and he wanted to punish the country he viewed as the source of all his problems. Hussein recalled a meeting in Switzerland between his foreign minister Tariq Aziz and then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in January of 1991 shortly before Operation Desert Storm. According to Hussein, Baker offered no solutions to resolve the Kuwait situation and gave specific steps to Aziz that the United States wanted Iraq to do first, and Baker added \"otherwise, we'll take you back to the pre-industrial age.\" He also told Piro he wanted to have a relationship with the United States but was not given the opportunity because in his view the United States was not listening to anything Iraq had to say. Hussein also revealed details about his security measures and movements before and after the second U.S. invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. He says he had only used a telephone on two occasions since March of 1990. He denied ever using body doubles, claiming, \"This is movie magic, not reality.\" He also said he never saw his sons use body doubles. \"Do not think I am getting upset when you mention my sons. I still think about them and the fact that they were martyred. They will be examples to everyone throughout the world,\" he said. Hussein also states he was not in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad on March 19, 2003, when it was bombed by coalition forces in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him. He says he remained in Baghdad until April 10 or 11 of 2003, when it appeared the city was about to fall to coalition forces. Before leaving the city, he said he held one final meeting with the senior Iraqi leadership and told them, \"We will struggle in secret.\" Shortly after his departure from the capital, Hussein began to gradually disperse his bodyguards, telling them they had completed their duty, so as not to draw attention. Hussein also admitted that after participating in the failed assassination attempt against then-Iraqi president Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim in 1959, he had stayed at the same farm where he was captured by U.S. forces in December of 2003. CNN's Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Saddam Hussein calls Iran a factor in keeping U.N. inspectors out of Iraq .\nHussein described Osama bin Laden as a \"zealot,\" said he never met him .\nHe said the United States used September 11 attacks as justification to attack Iraq .","id":"3253806a748acba8c9aeaab918a5b9fca295be61"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal authorities have charged seven men in North Carolina with supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad, the Justice Department announced Monday. Daniel Patrick Boyd, left, and Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan are two of the seven men charged. Officials said one of the men, identified as North Carolina resident and U.S. native Daniel Patrick Boyd, had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he trained in terrorist camps to carry out \"violent jihad.\" Boyd, 39, who went by the name Saifullah, was charged along with two of his sons: Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as Mohammed, and Zakariya Boyd, 20. The four others also are residents of North Carolina, and all seven are accused of engaging in weapons training and military tactics in their home state, the Justice Department said. \"We consider this significant. We've been watching them for some time, and we think they were dangerous,\" said a federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified. The Boyd family and defendant Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan are identified as U.S.-born citizens. Defendant Hysen Sherifi is identified as a native of Kosovo who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, and Hiyad Yaghi and Anes Subasic are said to be naturalized U.S. citizens. Officials did not immediately identify their native countries. The indictment, made public by the Justice Department, says Daniel Boyd and others left the United States for Israel in June 2007 to \"engage in violent jihad but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts.\" The defendants, with a substantial cache of weapons, had \"practiced military tactics and use of weapons on private property in Caswell County, North Carolina, in June and July 2009,\" the indictment says. The documents make no reference to a direct threat to individuals or property in the United States. In a written statement, the Justice Department's top counterterrorism official, David Kris, said that Daniel Boyd, \"a veteran of terrorist training camps\" had conspired with others to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill.\" The U.S. attorney in Raleigh, George E. B. Holding, said, \"These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far-away land, but can grow and fester right here at home.\" The defendants made an initial appearance in federal court in North Carolina. Officials said they are expected to return to court Thursday for detention hearings.","highlights":"U.S. native and two sons are among suspects .\nMan accused of attending training camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan .\nSeven \"practiced military tactics\" in North Carolina, indictment says .\nNo mention of direct threats to individuals or property in United States .","id":"36fc0382636d8ec9398402427ad8a7e4ac847669"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say. MIT researcher Pablo Valdivia Alvarado works in his lab on a robotic fish he co-created. MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish. And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school. \"Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance,\" Alvarado said. \"Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds -- 200, 500 -- and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements.\" MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation -- modeled after bass and trout -- cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in Robotuna. At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans. \"Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside,\" said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. \"We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply.\" The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level. The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish. MIT's mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander. CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Engineers at MIT have created a new generation of robotic fish .\n'Robofish' could be used to map the ocean floor, inspect submerged boats or pipes .\nMIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994 .\nNew robofish are modeled after bass and trout and cost only a few hundred dollars .","id":"18b02f7d9b901dd03cc43d1d29867616b25a08aa"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When David Whitney traveled to Pakistan to shoot his film about a man forced to flee Afghanistan after falling foul of the Taliban he didn't expect fiction to turn into reality. A still from \"Kandahar Break.\" Production of the film was halted after the crew were fired upon by suspected Taliban militia. But that's exactly what happened three weeks into shooting political thriller \"Kandahar Break\" in late 2008. Gunmen attacked the first-time director and his crew near the Afghan border. Four Pakistani crew members were shot and wounded in the incident and the entire crew was forced to flee the region. Pakistani authorities later told Whitney that the gunmen were affiliated with the Taliban and were in fact targeting the Western members of the team. \"I was very upset. It was terrifying to know that somebody was trying to attack us, trying to shoot us,\" Whitney told CNN. With the help of local security forces the team was immediately evacuated to Islamabad and put on a flight out of the country in 24 hours. Whitney had only managed to film three-quarters of the script and the film's future lay in the balance. \"When I heard that the crew members who had been shot were going to be fine I started to think like the businessman and the producer,\" says Whitney. \"I thought, 'How are we going to finish this film? We're not just going to give up.' And to a man everybody involved agreed to finish it.\" After six months spent organizing financial backing, the original cast and crew flew to Tunisia to complete the movie and has been attracting interest from distributors. Despite the danger caused by shooting so close to the actual conflict zone, Whitney says he would shoot in the region again if he had the chance. \"Every place you point a camera there's a great shot. You don't have to go very far to find fantastic authentic Afghan architecture and beautiful landscapes. \"All the people are in the same sort of authentic costumes, so you don't have the problem of trying to find authenticity -- it's all around you.\" Whitney hopes the authenticity will help \"Kandahar Break\" enjoy the same level of success as Kathryn Bigelow's \"The Hurt Locker\" -- the first film about the Iraq war to make a profit at the U.S. box office. Bigelow's thriller tells the story of an elite army EOD bomb squad who battle insurgents and each other, as they disarm a innumerable roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad. Bigelow shot \"The Hurt Locker\" in Jordan, as close as she could get to the actual conflict zone. She also made use of local actors. The film is based on screenwriter Mark Boal's first-hand experiences gathered whilst embedded with a bomb unit in Iraq. \"Because it was based on real life, we wanted to keep it as realistic as possible and keep it accurate,\" Bigelow told CNN. \"I mean this is a conflict that's still on-going so we felt responsible to the troops still there and the situation on the ground.\" The cast faced grueling shooting conditions: Temperatures ranged between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit (46 and 49 degrees Celsius). It was even hotter in the authentic bomb suit worn by Jeremy Brenner, who plays Staff Sergeant James. The suit weighed 60 pounds. \"You really can't explain the heat and the weight of the suit,\" Brenner told CNN. \"That certainly helped the realism of it all. There were a few moments I felt like ... I've been as close as I could've come to war without actually being in the military. \"The heat was real, the dust was real, the costumes and everything was so real that the tension [was already there],\" Anthony Mackie who plays Sergeant JT Sanborn told CNN. \"Kathryn would come to us before every scene and say, 'Remember at any moment you can die.' And we kept that in mind throughout all the scenes.\" While \"The Hurt Locker,\" has made over $11 million in the U.S., previous movies dealing with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have struggled to make money. Observers have attributed this to \"war fatigue\" suffered by audiences due to an abundance of war-stories in the media. Bigelow and Whitney are confident that cinema audiences have a thirst for knowledge about volatile regions like Iraq and Afghanistan that goes beyond what is reported on the news. \"I think the conflict [in Iraq] has been somewhat abstract for the general public, certainly speaking for myself,\" Bigelow told CNN. \"The film provides kind of a window, a lens onto what this particular conflict might be like, and gives it some specificity.\" David Whitney hopes \"Kandahar Break\" can have a similar effect. \"Afghanistan is at the moment quite central to global security. I think it's good that people are looking at Afghanistan, questioning it, asking all sorts of questions. If my film can play any part in that, any small part, then I'm pleased.\"","highlights":"Four Pakistani crew members shot during filming of \"Kandahar Break\"\nDespite difficulties, director David Whitney says it was a great film location .\nStar of \"The Hurt Locker\" says filming was similar to being in the military .","id":"c09111a88eb990b365443a07314317334361a851"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez froze diplomatic relations with Colombia late Tuesday, citing verbal aggressions from the neighboring South American country. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro speaks to journalists on Monday in Caracas. The televised announcement followed declarations from the Colombian government Monday that anti-tank weapons purchased by Venezuela ended up in the hands of the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. In addition, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the guerrillas were trying to buy anti-aircraft missiles. Venezuela received a shipment of Russian SA-24 Igla shoulder-fired missiles earlier this year and showed them off at military parade in April. Chavez recalled Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia, as well as most of the embassy's staff. \"Leave only the lowest functionaries,\" he said. Chavez also threatened to take over Colombian companies operating in Venezuela if Colombia offends Venezuela one more time. Colombia's claims are \"mistaken,\" added Chavez, who called the country's leaders \"irresponsible.\" There was no immediate reaction from the Colombian government. Tuesday's developments came one day after Chavez signed a military agreement with Russia to buy enough BMP-3 armored fighting vehicles and T-72 tanks to double the nation's inventory, according to the Jane's Defense Weekly publication. Chavez said he will use the tanks in his \"Western Shield Plan\" on the border with Colombia. Tensions between the two countries have been high since March 2008, when Chavez ordered tanks to the border in response to a Colombian attack on FARC bases in Ecuador. More recently, Chavez has severely criticized Uribe for entering into negotiations to allow the United States to open military bases in Colombia. The United States says it needs the bases because Ecuador has ordered the closing of a U.S. installation there. Chavez accuses the United States of wanting the bases so it can attack Venezuela. Analysts say Chavez's actions toward Colombia are tied to his feelings toward the United States. \"Chavez hates the United States and he wants to lead a group of countries that don't pay attention to the United States,\" said Myles Frechette, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia from 1994-97. \"Uribe is a guy who is in tune with the United States.\" Frechette notes that \"Colombia and Venezuela have complementary economies\" and could sell more goods to each other under better conditions. Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center, makes the same point. \"It's a conflict between two ideologies between two countries that are mutually dependent on each other,\" she said. The latest dust-up started Monday, when Colombia accused Venezuela of selling arms to the FARC. Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said army troops had found AT-4 shoulder-fired grenades in recent raids on jungle camps used by the FARC. \"This is not the first time that this happens,\" Santos said. \"In several operations in which we have recovered weapons from the FARC, we have found powerful munitions and powerful equipment, including anti-tank weapons, from a European country that sold them to Venezuela and that turned up in the hands of the FARC.\" The guerrillas were trying to buy anti-aircraft missiles, Uribe said. Analysts say that could change the guerrilla war's dynamics. \"The AT-4 is much less of a heavy weapon, but surface-to-air missiles would give the FARC a much greater military capability,\" said Anna Gilmour, senior America's analyst for the Jane's Country Risk consultancy group. Uribe said Monday that must not be allowed to happen. \"The international community must help us,\" he said. \"These bandits have historically been able to rely on many sources for armaments. We have found out through intelligence that they are now looking to buy surface-to-air weapons to use against our airplanes.\" Venezuelan officials denied any involvement. \"To me it seems that this is a new attack against our government based on lies,\" Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and Justice Tareck El Aissami said at a news conference Monday. \"We absolutely deny that our government or our institutions are providing assistance to criminal and terrorist organizations. \"It's laughable, it sounds like a cheap film made by the American government.\" Sweden probes 'serious incident' Officials in Sweden, where the anti-tank weapons were made by Saab Bofors Dynamics, verified that the AT-4s were sold to Venezuela in the 1980s. Anders Jorle, Sweden's foreign ministry spokesman, told CNN the government \"considers this as a serious incident\" and is investigating. \"We've been in contact with Colombian and Venezuelan authorities to clarify how this happened,\" Jorle said Tuesday. \"The weapons were part of a lot sold to Venezuela 20 years ago. No weapons have been exported to Venezuela since 2006.\" The Swedish Foreign Ministry added that the Swedish Inspectorate of Strategic Products, the authority responsible for checking weapon exports, will consider not selling any more weapons to Venezuela. The FARC most likely acquired the AT-4 grenade launchers in the past 18 months, said Jane's analyst Gilmour. This is not the first time that Venezuela has been tied to the FARC, which has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 45 years. Last fall, the U.S. Treasury Department accused two senior Venezuelan intelligence officials and a former official of providing weapons to the FARC and assisting the rebels with narcotics trafficking. The U.S. identified one of the individuals as Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, director of Venezuela's Military Intelligence Directorate. Another individual was identified as Ramon Emilio Rodriguez Chacin, who was Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice until September. Rodriguez Chacin was \"the Venezuelan government's main weapons contact for the FARC,\" the Treasury Department said. \"The FARC uses its proceeds from narcotics sales to purchase weapons from the Venezuelan government. Rodriguez Chacin has held numerous meetings with senior FARC members, one of which occurred at the Venezuelan government's Miraflores Palace in late 2007. Rodriguez Chacin has also assisted the FARC by trying to facilitate a $250 million dollar loan from the Venezuelan government to the FARC in late 2007.\" Computers recovered last year in the Colombian attack on the FARC base in Ecuador showed that \"Chavez has been heavily involved with the FARC,\" said Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami. \"Chavez has been modeling himself more on what [former Cuban leader Fidel] Castro used to do in terms of helping insurgencies and destabilizing countries,\" Purcell said. Analysts point to Venezuela's increasing militarization as a threat to stability. From 2005-07, Venezuela bought $4.4 billion in weapons and military hardware, including 24 Sukhoi-24 aircraft, 50 combat helicopters and 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles, Gilmour said. Last year, Russia extended a $1 billion credit line for further acquisitions. \"Venezuela has been trying to frighten everyone in the region by buying Russian weapons,\" said former U.S. envoy Frechette. He said Chavez has become increasingly frustrated that he doesn't always get his way, such as in his relations with Colombia. So he turns to the Russians. Analysts: Chavez role in military sales in question . Chavez's involvement in the sale of the anti-tank weapons to the FARC is open to discussion, though. \"The more interesting question is how they got there and whether Chavez had anything to do with it,\" Purcell said. Frechette agrees, saying, \"Nobody can say this was done by Chavez.\" The former envoy believes there's a good chance that the sale was carried out by corrupt officers without Chavez's involvement. \"Don't underestimate the corruption in that country,\" he said, adding that some military officials might have \"discovered these things that have been sitting in a warehouse since the 1980s.\" Whether Venezuela would sell surface-to-air missiles also is open to discussion. Gilmour says Venezuela will want to safeguard its stockpile. \"Venezuela would not want any kind of seepage because the missiles were acquired so recently and Venezuela-Russia relations are pretty positive at the moment,\" she said. Purcell said Russia might not care, pointing out that \"Castro did all sorts of things that the Soviets didn't like\" but still kept supporting him for decades. \"Russia has a lot of different interests,\" she said. \"It's not clear that they would walk away from the relationship.\" CNN's Laura Perez Maestro and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Venezuela recalls ambassador to Colombia, most of embassy staff .\nColombia claims weapons purchased by Venezuela ended up in hands of guerrillas .\nVenezuela President Chavez threatens takeover of Colombian firms in his country .","id":"6a82b88de0ba92b80e6aa536ce748b0bb03fc7ba"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Honey has been used to treat wounds since ancient times, but recent years have seen a surge of medical interest in the sticky stuff. Research has shown that honey has antibacterial properties. Manuka honey has been the subject of particular interest, with the results of a study just published by Sydney University finding that it has powerful antibacterial properties, and is even effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Associate Professor Dee Carter, from Sydney University's School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences said: \"Our research is the first to clearly show that these honey-based products could in many cases replace antibiotic creams on wounds and equipment such as catheters. Using honey as an intermediate treatment could also prolong the life of antibiotics.\" \"Most bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and there is an urgent need for new ways to treat and control surface infections.\" She added: \"We don't quite know how these honeys prevent and kill infections, but a compound in them called methylglyoxal seems to interact with a number of other unknown compounds in honey to prevent infectious bacteria developing new strains that are resistant to it.\" Honey is a complex substance, containing up to 800 compounds and its complexity means it has been difficult to pinpoint exactly how it kills bacteria. Manuka is a type of honey that is made by bees pollinating the flowers of the Manuka bush, a member of the Leptospermum family that grows naturally in New Zealand. Now, an Australian company is claiming to have produced the world's most potent medical-grade antibacterial honey, made by bees pollinating the Australian jellybush, also a member of the Leptospermum family. Australia's Medi Bioactive Honey Company claims its Berringa antibacterial honey has twice the antibacterial content of normal manuka honey, and has launched the product in the UK. Dr Rose Cooper of the University of Wales Cardiff School of Health Sciences has researched honey's antibacterial action and has written a book called \"Honey in Modern Wounds Management.\" Cooper told CNN that there are many components in honey that contribute to its antibacterial nature. She says its high sugar content, low water content and low pH are all factors. Additionally, some honey produces hydrogen peroxide, which can kill bacteria. Since 2004, Britain's National Health Service has licensed the use of manuka-honey wound dressings and sterilized medical grade manuka-honey creams.","highlights":"Research has shown that honey can have powerful antibacterial properties .\nManuka honey is made only by bees that pollinate the manuka plant .\nAn Australian company claims it has produced the world's most potent honey .","id":"7855bc3dec302edd788b2350dc38354bf2ffb564"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Episcopal Church has moved decisively closer to full acceptance of gay men and lesbians, taking steps toward recognizing same-sex marriage and gay bishops. Gene Robinson is the Episcopal Church's first -- and so far only -- openly gay bishop. A key committee voted overwhelmingly Monday to start putting together blessings to be used in same-sex marriages, the church's official newspaper reported. Separately, the House of Bishops voted by a wide margin to allow gays and lesbians to become bishops, Episcopal Life reported. Both measures must be approved by the church's General Convention before taking effect, but expert Mark Silk said there is \"little reason\" to think the changes will not \"sail through.\" \"They basically decided to move forward on all fronts with regularizing the status of gays and lesbians within the church,\" said Silk, director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Connecticut. A leading campaigner for gay rights within the Episcopal Church welcomed the vote on bishops. \"There is no question that today's vote in the House of Bishops was an historic move forward and a great day for all who support the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ,\" said Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA. The vote shows the Episcopal Church \"striving to actually become the church former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning called us to be nearly 20 years ago now ... a church where there are no outcasts,\" she said in a statement on the group's Web site. The Episcopal Church created controversy in 2003 with its decision to ordain Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as a bishop. The move raised the possibility of a split within the worldwide Anglican Church, the third-largest Christian denomination, with about 70 million members around the world. The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, has not ordained another openly gay bishop since Robinson. \"The decision has been to kind of chill out on a bunch of things,\" Silk said. But Monday's vote ends what had been, in effect, a moratorium, he said. It was the Episcopal Church saying that \"this wasn't an anomaly when we elected Gene Robinson. We affirm that partnered gay people do have callings [to be clergy], and we have to recognize them.\" \"It is bringing the church's position in line with the civil society's,\" Silk said. The head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, declined Tuesday through a spokesman to comment on Monday's moves. But on Monday, he expressed \"regret\" at the vote on gay and lesbian bishops, according to Episcopal Life. \"I regret the fact that the will to observe a moratorium is not the will of such a significant part of the church in North America,\" the paper quoted him as saying. A number of Episcopal dioceses have broken with the official church structure over gay and lesbian issues, forming the breakaway Anglican Church in North America. They say the mainstream Episcopal Church and the aligned Anglican Church in Canada \"have increasingly accommodated and incorporated un-Biblical, un-Anglican practices and teaching.\"","highlights":"U.S. denomination takes steps to bless same-sex unions, accept gay clergy .\nChanges must be approved by church's General Convention .\nChurch sparked controversy in 2003 by ordaining a gay man as a bishop .\nArchbishop of Canterbury expresses regret over decision on clergy .","id":"e21ddd204d4b85686768513c5487bf7521e528f4"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to expand and tighten sanctions on North Korea after that nation's recent nuclear test. The U.N. Security Council votes for a resolution imposing sanctions against North Korea on Friday. The 15-0 vote on U.N. Resolution 1874 imposes an embargo on the shipment of arms from the communist regime and broadens a ban on the import of weapons. \"This resolution provides a strong and united international response to North Korea's test of a nuclear device,\" said U.S. Deputy Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo. The agreement comes amid rising tension surrounding North Korea, which recently conducted a nuclear test, fired test rockets and threatened U.S. and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. The nuclear test and the firing of six short-range rockets occurred in late May. Pyongyang's actions violated existing U.N. resolutions. The Security Council's five permanent members had already passed a draft resolution Wednesday that condemned North Korea's nuclear test \"in the strongest terms.\" The permanent members -- China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States -- reached the agreement in consultation with Japan and South Korea. The draft resolution reaffirmed that the \"proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security.\" That resolution provided a \"strong, very credible, very appropriate response to the provocative nuclear test that North Korea launched and its subsequent activities,\" Susan E. Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters at the time. \"And we think that the message that the council will send ... is that North Korea's behavior is unacceptable, they must pay a price, they ought to return without conditions to a process of negotiations and that the consequences they will face are significant,\" Rice said. Provisions already existing in U.N. Resolution 1718, passed in 2006, are strengthened by the new measure, but others are new, Rice said. The new resolution requires states to \"exercise vigilance\" over the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to North Korea of small arms or light weapons. Nations would be required to notify the sanctions committee at least five days prior to selling, supplying or transferring small arms or light weapons to North Korea. The resolution calls on all states to inspect vessels suspected of containing contraband. If a ship refuses, it is to proceed to the closest port for a mandatory inspection. A new regulation would prohibit nations from providing bunkering services, such as fuel, to North Korean ships believed to be carrying contraband. The draft also broadens authority to prevent the flow of funds that could benefit North Korea's missile, nuclear or proliferation activities. Late last month, two Defense Department officials said U.S. satellite imagery spotted \"vehicle activity\" at a North Korean ballistic missile facility. The officials said the images showed vehicles used to transport Taepodong-2 missiles, but no missile parts. The Taepodong-2 is a long-range missile North Korea tested in April. That test showed a significant improvement in range from North Korea's initial long-range missile test in 2006. This week, a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak on the record told CNN that Washington had \"indications\" that North Korea may be planning another test. The official would not provide any details, however. President Obama's special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, called \"simply groundless\" accusations by Pyongyang that its nuclear and rocket tests were in response to American aggression. Washington officials have said the United States' goal is for North Korea to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, known as the six-party talks.","highlights":"U.N. Resolution 1874 imposes arms embargo, broadens weapons import ban .\nN. Korea recently did nuclear test, fired rockets, threatened ships near its waters .\nResolution requires arms sales notifications, inspection of suspect vessels .\nPyongyang's actions violated existing U.N. resolutions .","id":"0643a1688fa524b0d54e63c0b40263c7b82f23c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson was the pride of Gary, Indiana, growing up, and on Friday, his hometown paid tribute to the late entertainer with a memorial and celebration in his honor. A group pays tribute to Michael Jackson by performing some of his signature moves. They remembered him as not just the King of Pop or the musician who took Hollywood by storm, but as someone with an unmatched enthusiasm and talent for entertaining even as a little boy growing up in this city of about 100,000 in northwestern Indiana, 30 miles from downtown Chicago, Illinois. Jackson's first music teacher, Anita Hill, spoke of teaching Jackson to sing \"Climb Every Mountain,\" and remembered him as a \"very energetic and wonderful student.\" The principal of his middle school remembered how, at Christmastime how Jackson, always jumped up and offered to sing to his class. Later, when he joined with family members to create the Jackson 5, he performed for kids at his school, the principal said, joking about the bargain that at the time it only cost them 10 cents to see the future pop icon. Gary Mayor Rudy Clay noted Jackson put the city on the world's map and bid farewell to the star. \"He's going to put on those golden slippers and he's going to dance all over God's heaven,\" he said. The tribute at The Steel Yard baseball park in Gary was full of children dancing and singing to Jackson's music, including a performance of \"Thriller\" complete with the cemetery scene that became so iconic. Some of the biggest applause of the night came after a video was played of Jackson in Gary talking about his love for his hometown. \"Gary, you will always have a special place in my heart,\" Jackson said in the video played on the stadium's jumbo screen. \"And Gary, you are more than good friend -- you are my family and you always will be.\" As a finale, about 700 people holding candles sang \"We Are the World,\" the 1985 song Jackson co-wrote with Lionel Richie to benefit USA for Africa. Jackson lived in Gary for 11 years before moving to the West Coast after the Jackson 5 recorded their first album in 1969. His father, Joe Jackson, made a brief appearance after being introduced by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. After being surrounded by TV crews and photographers, Joe Jackson made his way to the stage, thanked everyone for attending and said it was good to be home. \"This is a pleasure to be back to see so many people here,\" Joe Jackson said. \"It's always good to come back home, you know that.\" Fans have flocked to Jackson's boyhood home in the days following his death in Los Angeles, California, on June 25. Autopsy results are pending.","highlights":"Joe Jackson: \"It's always good to come back home\"\nTeachers, neighbors remember energetic boy full of talent .\nChildren, groups sing and dance to pay tribute to Jackson .","id":"06f6a7eb397d5ac5e3ec966b8ecf260ebca736f1"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Former boxing champion Vernon Forrest is dead after being shot multiple times in a neighborhood southwest of downtown Atlanta, officials said Sunday. Police say they have no suspects in the death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest. An Atlanta police spokeswoman said it appeared that Forrest, 38, had been robbed, which led to a confrontation in which he was shot several times in the back. Police had no suspects as of midday Sunday, said the spokeswoman, Sgt. Lisa Keyes. Mark Guilbeau, senior investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office in Atlanta, said an autopsy will be conducted Sunday, and results are expected by afternoon. Watch Forrest's manager react to his death \u00bb . Forrest was the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion in 2001, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion in 2002-2003, and the WBC light welterweight champion in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, according to the BoxRec Web site. He was named the World Boxing Hall of Fame fighter of the year in 2002, according to BoxRec.","highlights":"Forrest, 38, was robbed and then shot in the back after confrontation, police say .\nHe was shot multiple times, Atlanta, Georgia, police say .\nForrest, a welterweight, won several championships .\nHe was named the World Boxing Hall of Fame fighter of the year in 2002 .","id":"4cd45535ef7ae81db3f85148812dab40a62dd11e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Guinea-Bissau will hold a runoff presidential election Sunday, five months after the leader of the West African nation was assassinated by a group of soldiers. Supporters of former president and current candidate Malam Sanha rally in Bissau. The race is between two former heads of state, Kumba Yala and Malam Sanha. The candidates won the most votes in the first round of balloting June 28. Analysts hope the new president will usher in an era of stability to the nation of 1.5 million. The former Portuguese colony has had a history of military coups since its independence in 1974. President Joao Bernardo Vieira became president in 1980 after a military coup. He was accused of purging political rivals and suppressing dissent, but several coup attempts in the 1980s and early 1990s failed to unseat him. He was finally ousted in 1999 -- and re-elected in 2005. Vieira was killed in March to reportedly avenge the death of the country's military chief a day earlier. Yala, who took office in 2000, was unseated in a military coup after three years. Sanha served as interim president for a few months before his opponent's term. The conflicts have ravaged the nation's infrastructure and economy, leaving it among the poorest in the world. Guinea-Bissau has been battling a booming drug trade and is considered a major transit point for smuggling cocaine into Europe. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who urged voters to be peaceful, said he hoped the election would provide a clean start. \"The secretary-general hopes this election will mark a clear step forward for Guinea-Bissau in achieving political stability and security, and in fostering the social and economic conditions necessary to consolidate peace and fully realize human rights,\" Ban's representative said in a statement. A 1998 conflict led to the closure of the U.S. Embassy, which operates from neighboring Senegal.","highlights":"West African state holds elections five months after president assassinated .\nRunnoff candidates Kumba Yala, Malam Sanha are both former heads of state .\nU.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urges Bissau-Guineans to vote peacefully .\nGuinea-Bissau has suffered succession of coups since independence from Portugal .","id":"819f6f6648c1a08f6527fd8261b364bd1cae51f2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Daria Roithmayr is a law professor at the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, where she teaches on race and law. She worked for Sen. Edward Kennedy as special counsel on the Clarence Thomas and David Souter confirmation hearings. Guy-Uriel Charles is a law professor at Duke Law School where he is the founding director of the Center on Law, Race, and Politics. Daria Roithmayr says Sotomayor would add broader life experiences to the background of Supreme Court justices. No one was surprised when the subject of race dominated the public conversation during Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. What was surprising was how unwilling both sides of the aisle were to talk about race openly. Republicans tried to argue that race should be completely separated from judicial decision-making. For their part, Democrats tried to minimize the importance of her race to her decision-making by focusing on her record, to show that her race had played no role in her decisions. Judge Sotomayor herself suggested that life experiences are an important part of the process of judging, but then sought to minimize the difference that those experiences might have made to a particular result. Most people understand that life experiences and racial identity do affect the decision-making process. But is this something to be lamented or celebrated? We think the latter. In this, the not quite post-racial era of Obama, scholars are developing new understandings of the connection between race, life experience and decisions. Researchers such as Scott Page and James Surowiecki are telling us that varied life experiences and ethnicity can improve the result when a group makes decisions together. At the University of Michigan, Page uses mathematical models to show not only that people's backgrounds make a difference in how they think, but far more importantly, that these differences are essential for good collective decision-making. As Page acknowledges, the relationship between life experience and decision-making is an empirical question -- a question of fact to be determined based on research. In some domains -- making decisions about the scope of anti-discrimination law or deciding on a health care policy -- we likely will see that broader life experience makes for better decisions. Surowiecki, who wrote \"The Wisdom of Crowds,\" points out that a group will more often than not come to a better decision than the average individual, so long as the group includes a range of people with different life experiences and ways of looking at and solving problems. As Surowiecki notes, if the group has enough variation in the information that they bring to the table, their thought processes and their approach to solving problems, the group is more likely to come up with the right answer before an individual, even in some instances when the individual is an expert. The Constitution itself recognizes the importance of life experiences to legal decision-making. Defendants in the criminal process are entitled to a jury of their peers precisely because jurors bring to the process a collection of life experiences that will shape their understanding of the facts and the law. All-white juries are problematic in large part because we believe that the life experiences of jurors are an integral part of their collective judgment of innocence or guilt. We also are coming to understand that race is just one of several structural factors that affect a person's life experiences and life chances, together with economic security, gender, class and geography. These days, the best thinking on race focuses less on racial symbolism and more on understanding how race affects a person's life experiences and life chances -- her access to education, health care, economic and physical security, her experience with the criminal justice system, whether she grew up wealthy or in a public housing project. Thus, we understand that the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct after he opened his jammed front door might be a signal of existing racism in law enforcement. But the better way to understand his arrest might be to acknowledge that whether one thinks this is the symbol of continued racism in law enforcement or an officer trying to do his job, in general, Gates' race affects his life chances and life experiences. As an African-American, Gates runs a much greater chance of being arrested during his lifetime than does his white counterpart. We should also acknowledge the role that class plays in life chances -- Gates was able to summon with a simple phone call one of the best criminal lawyers in the country, an opportunity not available to most African Americans. Although we have not yet figured out the meaning of race in this supposedly post-racial era, we know that race still matters, even as we know that it does not matter in the same way that it used to. Democrats and Republicans should acknowledge that having a Latina on the bench will make a difference because it will improve the court's collective decision-making. Wise men and women with different life experiences are more likely to reach a result that is better, that is wiser and that is more just. In that vein, Sotomayor's life story -- in which a Puerto Rican girl from Bronxdale Houses grows up to attend Yale Law School and become a Supreme Court justice -- is a story that should matter to us all. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Daria Roithmayr and Guy-Uriel Charles.","highlights":"Roithmayr, Charles: Race dominated the Senate hearing on Sotomayor .\nThey say research shows groups of diverse people make better decisions .\nHaving Sotomayor on court will widen life experiences of the justices, they say .\nRoithmayr, Charles: We should strive for diversity of class, gender, geography .","id":"8f65ab4e9c4c2ad9d504a7239a5fd50129c03a30"} -{"article":"BELLEVUE, Nebraska (CNN) -- If LeRoy Carhart's abortion clinic had a terror alert scale, it would be at Code Red this weekend. Anti-abortion protesters plan demonstrations this weekend outside Dr. LeRoy Carhart's clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska. \"I feel safer on an airplane than I do in my clinic,\" Carhart said, sitting at his desk in his windowless office in Bellevue, Nebraska. \"You try to think about every way an attack could happen. You try to do all you can to prevent it, but obviously Dr. [George] Tiller thought he was safe in church.\" It's been nearly three months since Tiller, one of the world's most well-known doctors performing abortions, was shot in the head at point-blank range on May 31 as services began at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. Anti-abortion groups, led by Operation Rescue, plan to launch protests outside Carhart's clinic this weekend in Bellevue, just south of Omaha. They will be the first major anti-abortion protests since the Tiller killing. The demonstrations are set to culminate Saturday with so-called Truth Trucks -- delivery trucks with giant rolling billboards of dismembered fetuses on the sides -- parking outside Carhart's clinic and canvassing area neighborhoods. Protesters carrying anti-abortion signs also are expected. Operation Rescue President Troy Newman has vowed a peaceful demonstration and said that any hints of possible violence are ginned up by what he calls left-wing groups and the liberal media. His group scaled down plans to protest at Carhart's facility Friday when it learned women's rights groups, including the National Organization for Women, would be there. Operation Rescue will hold a rally at a church instead Friday. \"Operation Rescue has said Dr. Carhart is the next target ...,\" said Katherine Spillar, executive vice president with the Feminist Majority Foundation. \"We fear that these kinds of activities can eventually erupt in violence, and I urge the community to make sure violence doesn't happen.\" Abortion rights supporters were predominant in the 50 to 75 people gathered outside the clinic Friday morning. \"Welcome, welcome, this clinic stays open,\" some shouted when cars pulled into the clinic's driveway. Newman said earlier, \"I'm not interested in putting our folks in any situation where the other side might flare up. I'm very confident about our side. They're very peaceful moms and dads and families that will be showing up with signs.\" He said he abhorred the killing of Tiller. \"Shooting someone in the head in a church,\" he said, \"is not a pro-life act. Sorry, it doesn't qualify.\" Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old anti-abortion activist, is charged in Tiller's killing. He has pleaded not guilty. Newman said he wants Carhart shut down -- through legal means. He said he was confident his organization would have shut down Tiller this summer through a legal battle. \"I vehemently disagreed with what Mr. Tiller did, as well as all abortionists for what they do. But they're still human beings, and they deserve due process,\" Newman said. Tiller was one of about a dozen U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. In the wake of his death, his family decided to close his clinic permanently. Carhart was a close friend and understudy of Tiller's. He performed abortions at Tiller's clinic for a week every month, including late-term procedures. Carhart has vowed to open an office in Kansas and said he'll keep doing abortions as long as he's healthy. He said he's performed more than 60,000 abortions in the past two decades. About 400 of those were after 24 weeks, he said. Staring across the room at a poster of Tiller, he said, \"I don't want his death to be in vain. He spent his whole life trying to ensure better health care for women.\" Carhart was performing an abortion in his clinic when Tiller was killed that Sunday morning. He learned of the news by phone from Tiller's head nurse. \"That's when she told me that George had been shot in church and that he was dead.\" Carhart is unlike many abortion doctors. He's doesn't parse his words about his profession. The outside of his office has the name of his clinic in bold letters: Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska. He said he takes pride in the term abortionist. \"I do abortions, and that is what I do,\" he said. On Friday, Carhart teared up when talking about the abortion rights supporters outside his clinic. \"It's unbelievable,\" he said of the support. Mark Gietzen, the driver of a truck for Operation Rescue, beamed with pride ahead of the protests. He stood outside his truck in Wichita adorned with a poster showing the dismembered hand of a fetus on a quarter. Across the top of the van, it reads, \"Abortion is an ObamaNation.com.\" He said he knew Tiller \"quite well\" from the vantage point of a peaceful common enemy over the years and said the killing was a setback for \"pro-lifers.\" He's only had one encounter with Carhart -- when the doctor drove his car by protesters and \"quacked like a duck.\" Carhart acknowledges he might've done that. Gietzen's message to Carhart: \"Please respect the life of the babies. Stop the killing, stop committing such a horrible act for money.\" Newman, the head of Operation Rescue, said he'll keep praying Carhart \"turns back to the healing arts and not taking babies' lives.\" Carhart remains unmoved. \"When they're ready to accept our position, then we'll sit down. We say choice is right. If you don't want to have an abortion, don't have one.\" Here in America's heartland, a battle is being waged and both sides are entrenched. There is no middle ground.","highlights":"NEW: Abortion rights supporters dominant outside clinic on Friday .\nFirst major abortion protests set since killing of Dr. George Tiller in May .\nDr. LeRoy Carhart of Nebraska was understudy of Tiller's .\nCarhart says he takes pride in the term abortionist .","id":"1a02cfb292a198c5c22638b08f3285b6ec5c024a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shortly before his death, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking for the pontiff to pray for him as he struggled with an aggressive form of brain cancer, it was revealed at his graveside service Saturday evening. Members of the Kennedy family gather at the gravesite Saturday evening. Kennedy, the youngest and last-surviving brother of a heralded Kennedy generation, was laid to rest on a hillside at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his slain brothers, the late President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy -- both assassinated more than four decades ago. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick read a recent letter from Kennedy to the pope at the private burial ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. \"I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines,\" McCarrick said, quoting from Kennedy's letter. \"I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old, and preparing for the next passage of life,\" the cardinal read. Read excerpts from Kennedy's letter to pontiff . The burial service at dusk followed a eulogy by President Barack Obama in Massachusetts, a brief prayer service outside the U.S. Capitol and a procession through the crowd-lined street of Washington's streets. Among the congressional colleagues greeting the Kennedy family at the Capitol was 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, who has been out of the spotlight lately because of deteriorating health. Watch an overview of the day's events \u00bb . Many who had gathered at the Capitol were visibly emotional and wiping tears from their eyes. Some held framed photos of Kennedy, and many held American flags that they waved during a singing of \"America the Beautiful.\" The Rev. Daniel Coughlin -- chaplain of the House of Representatives -- said a prayer and addressed the family. \"Here we are to pray with you, offer sympathy and thank you,\" he said. \"Thank you for sharing the senator.\" Coughlin also noted that Kennedy's hopes were \"unquenchable, full of immortality.\" As Kennedy's widow, Vicki, went back into the car, she waved to the crowd and mouthed, \"Thank you\" as the crowd erupted into applause. The late senator's son, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, addressed those on the steps, saying how his father \"knew that he was only great because he had great people supporting him.\" \"He would be very proud to see you all out here today paying a final respect and tribute to his memory,\" he said. Earlier Saturday at the funeral in Boston, Massachusetts, Obama hailed Kennedy as \"a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate.\" \"He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow,\" the president said. \"We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights,\" Obama said, calling Kennedy \"the greatest legislator of our time.\" Watch President Obama's full eulogy \u00bb . Kennedy's son Ted Jr. delivered a tender, personal remembrance of his larger-than-life father. He said his father \"never stopped trying to right wrongs.\" Kennedy lived up to the ideals of three older brothers, all of whom died young -- Joseph in World War II, President John and Sen. Robert assassinated -- his son said. \"He answered Uncle Joe's call to patriotism, Uncle Jack's call to public service and Bobby's determination to seek a newer world. \"Unlike them, he lived to be a grandfather, and knowing what my cousins have been through, I feel grateful that I have had my father as long as I did,\" Ted Jr. said. \"My father was not perfect, but he believed in redemption,\" he said. And he said Kennedy had made light of his failure to become president, despite the weight of expectations on him as a Kennedy. \"I don't mind not being president, I just mind that someone else is,\" he quoted his father as saying, closing his remembrance with a line from Kennedy's famous 1980 concession speech that ended his presidential ambitions: \"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will never die.\" Watch as Ted Kennedy Jr. recalls his dad's help when he lost his leg as a boy \u00bb . The funeral began with a hearse bearing Kennedy's body through Boston rain from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library to Mission Church. A military honor guard carried the coffin through a sea of black umbrellas into the church. Watch as military honor guard carries Kennedy's casket \u00bb . People lined the streets of Boston cheering for Kennedy as the service began, despite the rain. Local bars and restaurants were packed with people watching the live coverage on television inside. Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter also came to honor the late legislator, known as the lion of the Senate. Vicki Kennedy accepted condolences from each of the current and former presidents before Holy Communion. The program concluded with an undated quote from Kennedy: \"For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.\" Many of Kennedy's fellow senators past and present came to say a final farewell. Other mourners included Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dan Quayle, all veterans of the Senate, where Kennedy served for 47 years. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, CIA chief Leon Panetta, and several Cabinet members also turned out to pay their respects. Watch as Mass for Kennedy begins \u00bb . Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, chatted with Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, in the pews before the ceremony began. Honorary pallbearers at the service included Dodd, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts -- his party's 2004 presidential candidate -- and long-time Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, also a Democrat. The actual pallbearers were Kennedy children, nieces and nephews. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed two pieces during the service, and was joined by the tenor Placido Domingo for one of them. At the graveside service were a number of family members, as well as Vice President Joe Biden. Kennedy's grave is 95 feet south of his brother Robert's, which is just steps away from the burial site of another brother, former President John F. Kennedy. A single white, wooden cross will be placed at the head of the grave and a marble footmarker put in place. The footmarker reads: \"Edward Moore Kennedy 1932-2009.\" The setup is identical to Robert Kennedy's grave, Arlington cemetery spokeswoman Kaitlin Horst told CNN. Kennedy, the patriarch of America's leading Democratic family for more than 40 years, died at the age of 77 on Tuesday, 15 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. CNN's Jessica Yellin, John King and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: In letter to Pope Benedict XVI, Kennedy asked for prayers .\nSen. Edward M. Kennedy laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery .\nPresident Obama hailed Kennedy as \"a champion for those who had none\"","id":"a83bb9713e1513d235277554245d220813784084"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NATO and Russia have agreed to restart their military relationship, nearly a year after it had been frozen over the war in Georgia, the top NATO official said on Saturday. Russia's conflict with Georgia in August 2008 strained relations between NATO and Russia. \"The NATO-Russia Council is up and running again also at the political level,\" said NATO Secretary- General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, speaking at a meeting of ministers in Corfu, Greece. Russia is not a member of NATO but is a member of the NATO-Russia Council, formed in 2002. It consults, coordinates, reaches joint decisions on and carries out joint action with NATO on areas such as terrorism, cooperation on Afghanistan and military exercises. Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August 2008 over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia -- the first time Russia sent troops abroad to fight since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Differences over that conflict and Russia's subsequent recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia strained relations between NATO and Russia. While there are differences of opinions regarding Georgia, Scheffer said member states \"share common security interests,\" including stability in Afghanistan, arms control, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and concerns over drug trafficking, piracy and terrorism. Scheffer said officials \"are in the process of examining the current institutional structure of the NATO-Russia Council and have agreed to make it a more efficient and valuable instrument for our political dialogue and practical cooperation.\" Scheffer, who is completing his term as NATO head, said it is the latest time he will chair the NATO-Russia Council as well. He said he is \"confident\" that the council \"will continue to be an important channel for dialogue and cooperation among its members in the future.\"","highlights":"Secretary-general: NATO-Russia Council \"up and running again\"\nMember states \"share common security interests,\" Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says .\nCouncil gives NATO and Russia opportunity to consult and coordinate activities .\nRussia's war with Georgia and recognition of breakaway regions strained relations .","id":"f1021dab71d523862ec6176b19291673608a12a5"} -{"article":"ROCKY MOUNT, North Carolina (CNN) -- Authorities in North Carolina have jailed a suspect in the slaying of one of five women whose bodies have been found since 2005 in remote areas outside Rocky Mount, the Edgecombe County sheriff said Tuesday. Jackie Nikelia Thorpe's body was found along Seven Bridges Road in August 2007. Sheriff James Knight said Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, whose remains were found in a wooded area on March 7. Nicholson was 29 when she was reported missing on February 22, Knight said at a news conference in Tarboro. Pittman, of Rocky Point, was being held without bond. All five of the slain women were African-American, and authorities said they were from an area frequented by prostitutes. Four of them lived in Rocky Mount, which is about 55 miles northeast of the state capital, Raleigh. Michael Teague, North Carolina's former top forensic psychologist, told CNN's David Mattingly he believes the deaths are the work of a serial killer. \"Just the fact that the bodies have been found close together would really argue for a serial killer,\" Teague said. He also said he believes the killer is someone with a lot in common with his victims. \"Their economic level, their background, the same race. So I think it's someone who would fit very easily within the environment,\" the psychologist said. The body of the first woman was discovered in May 2005. All the remains were found near the Seven Bridges Road, which snakes northeast from Rocky Mount into rural Edgecombe County. The probe into the deaths of the other four women is ongoing, said Knight, who is leading a joint investigative task force of his deputies, Rocky Mount police and the state Bureau of Investigation. Representatives from the other two groups also attended the news conference. \"The investigators with the task force have worked countless hours, days and nights in order to bring this case to the point where it is now,\" said Renee Robinson, special agent with SBI. \"We are following up on leads as they develop.\" Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley Jr. said the task force also was investigating the cases of three other missing women and a death in Rocky Mount. He has said it appears the women \"suffered a similar death,\" but authorities have not divulged further details. They did tell CNN that two of the victims were strangled, and one was stabbed and beaten. Manley identified the four women whose bodies were found as: . \u2022 Melody Wiggins, 29, whose body was found May 29, 2005. \u2022 Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, whose body was found August 17, 2007, behind a house on Seven Bridges Road. \u2022 Ernestine Battle, 50, whose remains were found in a wooded area along the road on March 13, 2008. \u2022 Jarneice Latonya Hargrove, 31, whose skeletal remains were found June 29, 2009 in woods off the road.","highlights":"Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, charged with first-degree murder .\nTaraha Shenice Nicholson, whose remains were found in a wooded area on March 7 .\nRemains of five women found since 2005 along road outside Rocky Mount .\nPolice chief says it appears women \"suffered a similar death\"\nCity, county, state agencies have formed task force .","id":"bf094a04d566f1351422ca61ed0b9005c564906a"} -{"article":"CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CNN) -- After making landfall on Mexico's Baja California peninsula, Category 1 Hurricane Jimena was weakening Wednesday night, forecasters said. After making landfall on Baja California, Hurricane Jimena started weakening Wednesday night. The storm made landfall Wednesday afternoon between Puerto San Andresito and San Juanico, Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said. As of 8 p.m. ET, the center of Jimena was located near San Buenaventura, Mexico, and about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Santa Rosalia, Mexico. It was moving north at near 12 mph (19 kph), and was expected to turn northwest and slow Wednesday night before turning west on Thursday. \"On the forecast track, the center of Jimena will move over the central Baja California peninsula tonight and Thursday, then move into the Pacific west of Baja California late Thursday or Thursday night,\" the Hurricane Center said. See the storm's projected path \u00bb . The storm's maximum sustained winds had decreased slightly, to 80 mph (129 kph) with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. Jimena is expected to weaken into a tropical storm Wednesday night, forecasters said. At its peak Tuesday, Jimena was a Category 4 storm, with winds of 145 mph (233 kph). A hurricane warning remained in effect for parts of the Baja peninsula, from Bahia Magdalena north to Punta Abreojos on the west coast, and from San Evaristo north to Mulege on the east coast, the Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions, including winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph), are expected within 24 hours. A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were in effect for the Baja California peninsula north of Punta Abreojos to Punta Eugenia on the west coast, and north of Mulege to Bahia San Juan Bautista on the east coast. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the peninsula north of Punta Eugenia to San Jose de las Palomas on the west coast, and north of Bahia San Juan Bautista to Bahia de los Angeles on the east coast. A tropical storm warning also was issued for northwestern mainland Mexico, from Huatabampito to Bahia Kino, the Hurricane Center said. A tropical storm warning means conditions including winds of at least 39 mph (63 kph) are expected within 24 hours. Jimena is expected to produce between 5 and 10 inches of rain over the southern half of the peninsula, with 15 inches possible on some areas. \"These rains could produce life-threatening floods and mudslides,\" the Hurricane Center said. In addition, \"a dangerous storm surge along with large and dangerous battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California peninsula,\" forecasters said. CNN's Betty Nguyen, Matt Cherry and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Storm hits between Puerto San Andresito and San Juanico, Mexico .\nJimena expected to weaken into a tropical storm Wednesday night .\nHurricane warning remains in effect for parts of the Baja peninsula Wednesday night .\nJimena could bring up to 10 inches of rain to Baja California, western Mexico .","id":"3a5155db8afe0a1cf4ce77460da3c0c697d41a02"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Katie Callaway Hall trembled for four hours when she heard Phillip Garrido was arrested. Katie Callaway Hall said she wanted to scream when she heard that Phillio Garrido kidnapped someone else. His name sent a flurry of emotion running through her mind. \"I screamed,\" she told CNN's Larry King on Monday night. \"I started screaming 'Oh my god, Oh my god, it's him.' \" She has thought about him every day since November 22, 1976 when he asked her for a ride at a supermarket in California, before handcuffing her, binding her and taking her to a mini-warehouse in Reno, Nevada, where he raped her. Watch victim describe her terror \u00bb . Garrido was convicted for kidnapping and raping Hall, but was released after serving just over 10 years of a 50-year sentence. He was labeled a sex offender and put on lifetime parole. \"In many ways, the capture of Phillip Garrido has closed a chapter in my life,\" Hall wrote for a Larry King blog. \"I don't have to hide anymore. I don't have to live every day of my life wondering if he is looking for me. I am finally free from the fear I have lived with since the day I learned he was paroled.\" Read what Hall wrote on the blog . Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were charged last week with crimes relating to the abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and her captivity in a hidden shed-and-tent compound in the couple's backyard in Antioch, California. \"With all the joy I should feel, I want to scream from the depths of my soul,\" she said. \"Scream because my fears turned out to be justified -- he struck again.\" While Hall has tried to suppress some of the memories of what happened to her that night, Garrido's arrest took her mind back to that night in November. \"A man tapped on my window and asked for a ride,\" she said. \"I agreed.\" When she stopped the car to drop him off, Garrido took the keys out of the ignition, according to court documents from Garrido's appeal in the case. Garrido, then 25, \"told [Hall] it wasn't intentional that he had taken her, but that it was her fault because she was attractive,\" according to the documents. \"Soon after, I was cuffed, bound, gagged, and taken to a warehouse,\" Hall told CNN. She was kept in the 6 by 12-foot storage facility, which Hall remembers was stacked with half-opened boxes with China-type dishes inside. Large, heavy carpets were hanging from the ceiling, spaced apart every few feet. \"It was like a maze,\" she said. \"And in the back of the mini warehouse where he had me, he had it set up to keep someone for awhile.\" \"Most of the details about what happened to me after I entered that warehouse have been repressed.\" She told Larry King that she feared for her life. \"I thought I was dead,\" she said. Hall was held in the small storage facility for five hours before she heard a noise. \"My recollections begin around 3 a.m. Someone banged on the door. I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, his friends are coming,' \" she said. \"Garrido said, 'Do I have to tie you up or are you going to be good.' \" She told him she would be good, but she knew if it was the police banging outside, she was going to \"have to try something.\" \"I barreled my way out of the warehouse completely naked. I could see the officer and Garrido standing there. They both looked at me like I was crazy,\" she said. \"I couldn't see the officer's car. I thought 'Oh God, he's not a real cop.' My state of mind was such that I couldn't fully embrace what I was seeing. Finally, I saw his police car.\" Garrido tried to tell the cop Hall was his girlfriend. \"I screamed, 'No I'm not -- help me, help me,' \" she said. \"The officer told me to go back in and put my clothes on. When I went inside, Garrido must have convinced the officer we were both on drugs, because he let Garrido go back into the building alone,\" Hall said. \"I had already put some of my clothes on. Garrido came back in and begged me not to turn him in.\" Half-dressed, Hall said she maneuvered past him and asked the police to keep him away. \"They asked if I was brought there against my will,\" she said. \"I told them I was, that he had handcuffed and bound me. An officer shined a light on my wrists, saw the sores from the handcuffs, and arrested Garrido.\" Though Garrido was put behind bars for what he did, Hall said that night changed her life forever. \"For years, I walked around like a zombie,\" she said. \"I had to tell everyone I met what had happened to me -- because I didn't feel like myself. It was as if I had to explain why I wasn't 'normal.' \" For her, that's the biggest pain Garrido put her though. \"I was a good person. I lived right, and treated others well,\" she said. \"He changed my life in an instant. I don't feel like I can ever be that person again. Being victimized is something that only a victim can understand. I hate that he did this to me, and I doubt I'll ever get over it.\" Though the trauma of her kidnapping has stayed with her all of these years, Hall said she couldn't even begin to imagine the pain Garrido has caused Dugard and the two children she had with him. \"The only thing I can think of worse than what happened to me, is it happening to my child,\" she said. \"I can't imagine what Jaycee is going through. He had me for 8 hours. He had her for 18 years. \"I was an adult, with instincts that helped me deal with the situation. She was a child. This is going to be with her for the rest of her life. I can only wish her the best.\"","highlights":"Phillip Garrido was convicted for kidnapping, raping Katie Callaway Hall in 1976 .\nHall: \"I want to scream from the depths of my soul\" knowing he struck again .\nHall was kept in a storage facility for eight hours when a cop came to help .\nVictim: \"I hate that he did this to me, and I doubt I'll ever get over it\"","id":"ad785cc5314b22c639ee7d4906a30e0d9c67e1ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fabian Cancellara retained his gold jersey at the Vuelta Espana despite being caught up in a huge pile-up involving the leading riders near the end of Tuesday's fourth stage from Venlo to Liege. Andre Greipel of Team Columbia celebrates as he wins the 225km fourth stage of the Tour of Spain. Andre Greipel of Team Columbia edged out Belgian Wouter Weylandt and fellow German cyclists Bert Grabsch and Marcel Sieberg in a sprint finish to the rain-hit 225km leg which saw the race move from the Netherlands into Belgium. They moved clear after the main pack endured a major spill two kilometers from the end of the stage, which featured the first real climbs of the race. Switzerland's Cancellara now has a nine-second lead over Belgian sprint specialist Tom Boonen, who moved up to second as the top 57 riders involved in the crash were given the same time as the leaders. Grabsch is third, 11 seconds off the pace, with Greipel next at the same time following his fourth-place finishes on the two previous stages. \"My goal before starting the Vuelta was to win a stage,\" Greipel told the Vuelta's official Web site. \"I accomplished that here in Liege and now we'll just take it one day at a time. However, I really want to direct my first words to my fellow racers in the peloton who were involved in the spill. \"I just hope everyone can continue the race. As for me, I received great support from my team and that made my job much easier.\" On a difficult day for riding, the temperature dropped from 25C to 17C and persistent rain led to several falls for the competitors. Ezequiel Mosquera was one to cross the finish line in an apparent pain, though no details were released as to his condition. Lars Boom of Rabobank led a breakaway from the 21km mark with Dominik Roels (Milram), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia Cajasur) and Sergei Lagutin (Vacansoleil), and they built a 14-minute lead by 55km. However, that was slowly trimmed to just 2:35 with 47km remaining, and then to less than two minutes after the third and final ranked climb. Once they were caught, Enrico Gasparotto of Lampre went 10 seconds clear with 10km left but was also reeled in just before the mass crash. The riders have a much much-needed day off on Wednesday before moving to Spain for the 174km fifth stage from the Catalan city of Tarragona to the coastal city of Vinaros in Castellon. British rider Charles Wegelius became the first entrant to quit the event, meaning that New Zealander Julian Dean of the Garmin team is now the only man with a chance of completing all three of the sport's major three-week races this season. The duo started the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta along with Cancellara, Britain's David Millar and American Tyler Farrar, with the latter trio failing to finish in Italy.","highlights":"Fabian Cancellara retains his gold jersey at Vuelta Espana despite pile-up .\nAndre Greipel of Team Columbia wins fourth stage to Liege after late mass crash .\nAll the peloton given the same time as leaders following rain-hit day of racing .\nRiders have a rest day on Wednesday before the race moves into Spain .","id":"d5cfe3f627efdebb34ec533752ddfd7cd007f0f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Packing winds of 140 mph, Hurricane Jimena was approaching Baja California on Sunday as a Category 4 storm, forecasters said. A satellite image shows Hurricane Jimena off the coast of Mexico early Sunday evening. \"There's a good chance this system could be a Category 5 in the next 24 hours,\" said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. As of Sunday afternoon, Jimena was about 270 miles (440 km) south of Cabo Correintes, Mexico, or about 480 miles (770 km) south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California, according to the center. The storm is expected to continue in a north-northwest motion and approach the southwestern tip of Baja California sometime early Tuesday. Jimena is the 10th named storm of the Pacific season. \"It started out kind of slow for the Pacific,\" said Robbie Berg, another specialist at the hurricane center. \"Now we've had seven named storms form, and that's pretty busy for August. I think it's been a couple decades since we've seen that many storms in August.\" There's no reason for people in Southern California to panic, but they should keep an eye on Jimena, Berg said. \"There's no watches or warnings in effect, but we would like residents and tourists in the area to monitor the progress of the storm,\" Berg said. \"We do expect it to maintain its major hurricane strength as it heads up into that area.\" Tropical Storm Kevin has also emerged in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. However, Berg said it is weak -- with winds at a mere 50 mph -- and is not expected to pose a serious threat. CNN Radio's John Lorinc and Brendan Gage contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Hurricane specialist says Jimena could reach Category 5 strength .\nHurricane is currently a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds .\nStorm is expected to move northwest toward Mexico's Baja California .\nResidents of Southern California advised to keep eye on storm's progress .","id":"f88dc8717439a072eb2e474423b76f5527bcf9c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite some high-profile bombings in recent days, Iraq's security forces are ready to take over for U.S. forces this week to stabilize the nation's major cities, the U.S. commander in Iraq told CNN on Sunday. Except for soldiers in advisory roles, all U.S. combat troops will leave Iraqi cities and towns by June 30. Army Gen. Ray Odierno said he's seen a \"constant improvement\" in both the security situation and governance in Iraq to prepare for the June 30 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from major cities. \"They've been working for this for a long time,\" Odierno said on CNN's \"State of the Union.\" In a separate interview on \"Fox News Sunday,\" Odierno said all U.S. troops already were out of Iraq's major cities before Tuesday's deadline. \"We have already moved out of the cities,\" Odierno said. \"We've been slowly doing it over the last eight months. And the final units have moved out of the cities over the last several weeks.\" Watch CNN's Michael Ware on the U.S. withdrawal \u00bb . The shift is part of the security agreement that former President George W. Bush's administration signed with Iraq. In the CNN interview, Odierno blamed the recent violence in Iraq on \"extremist elements using the timeframe and date to gain attention to themselves and divert attention from the success of Iraqi security forces.\" The 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still will \"maintain full coordination with Iraqi forces inside the cities\" and continue to have intelligence capacity, Odierno said. With approval from the Iraqis, they also will carry out operations in major cities as necessary, he said. Odierno said his goal is to help provide security that allows Iraq to hold planned national elections leading to the eventual removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011. He said his biggest worry is a breakdown in stability such as a \"consistent increase in violence\" or a situation that Iraqi forces can't handle. \"I don't see that\" happening, Odierno said. \"I think we're on the right path.\" Odierno also said Iran continues to \"interfere\" in Iraq, including training insurgents and paying surrogates. But he said his mission is limited to providing security within Iraq, no matter the provocation from Iran or elsewhere. \"I'm not authorized to do anything outside the borders of Iraq,\" he said. Iran's government has repeatedly denied fomenting violence inside Iraq.","highlights":"Gen. Ray Odierno sees \"constant improvement\" in security, governance in Iraq .\nIran continues to \"interfere\" in Iraq, Odierno says .\nIranian government repeatedly denies instigating violence inside Iraq .","id":"095363457b43cedaf862aa23915a9858fb6d004a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescuers on Tuesday spotted the wreckage of a Yemeni jet that crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, the country's Vice President Idi Nadhoim said. Relatives of passengers of the plane that crashed arrive at Marseille airport in southern France. The plane, carrying more than 150 people, was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital, Sanaa. A reconnaissance plane spotted traces of the jet in waters off the town of Mitsamiouli, Nadhoim said. \"There were no sign of survivors,\" he said. \"There are a few bodies floating and there is a lot of debris floating around.\" The crash occurred as the plane approached the Hahaya airport in Moroni. The plane tried to land, but couldn't, and then U-turned before it crashed, Nadhoim said. Officials did not know why the plane could not land, he said. There were 142 passengers and 11 crew members aboard, Yemenia Air officials said. Nadhoim offered another figure, saying there were 147 passengers. Flight 626 left Sanaa at 9:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. ET) for what was expected to be a four-and-a-half-hour flight. The airline has three regular flights a week to Moroni, off the east coast of Africa, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) south of Yemen. The crash occurred about 1:30 a.m., Nadhoim said. Most of the passengers aboard the Airbus A310 were Comoran, an official at Sanaa's international airport told CNN. An official at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris said there were 66 French passengers aboard. There was no indication of foul play behind the crash, the official in Yemen said. The crash was the second involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation. CNN's Saad Abedine contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: French passengers aboard; most on plane are Comoran .\nCrash occurs as plane tries to land at airport, official says .\nReconnaissance craft spots traces of plane, bodies off Comoros .\nPlane crashes in Indian Ocean near Comoros, official says .","id":"85acd0bf74bf16aaa2e916708af16e9fa7bc0fbd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal investigators at the Nestle USA plant in Danville, Virginia, have found evidence of E. coli bacteria in an unopened package of raw chocolate chip cookie dough, two sources at the Food and Drug Administration told CNN Monday. A Nestle spokeswoman says the tainted product was in a 16.5-ounce package and read \"best before 10 JUN 2009.\" Researchers were testing the bacteria to determine if it bears the same genetic fingerprint as the E. coli linked to an outbreak of illness that has affected at least 69 people in 29 states. The tainted sample was manufactured last February 10 at the Nestle Plant in Danville, said the sources, both of whom requested anonymity. All of the infected persons had been confirmed as having the outbreak strain of E. coli 0157:H7, the CDC said Monday. Those affected range in age from 2 to 65, however 64 percent are less than 19 and 73 percent are female. Thirty-four people have been hospitalized and nine developed a kidney disease called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No deaths have been linked to the outbreak. A spokeswoman for Nestle said the company's baking division was informed Monday of the finding. She said the tainted product was in a 16.5-ounce package that had a day code of 9041 and a \"best before 10 JUN 2009\" on the package. The plant where the dough was produced has been shut since June 18.","highlights":"Bacteria found at Nestle USA plant in Danville, Virginia, FDA researchers say .\nResearchers tested bacteria for link to illness outbreak in 29 states .\nNestle spokeswoman said company's baking division was informed of finding .\nAll infected persons confirmed as having strain of E. coli 0157:H7 .","id":"515bbb2d7fdc7546c89eed8b98db9f1550966049"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spongy red balls wait in a queue, separating two teams wired to smack their opponent. Within seconds, the players dip and dive like dolphins until one player stands alone, relishing in victory. An adult plays in a dodge ball league organized by the . City of Sparks Parks and Recreation in Nevada. It's the classic game of dodge ball, but these aren't fifth-graders during PE class in Sparks, Nevada. The childhood sport of dodge ball made a comeback four years ago in this bedroom community among adults in their 20s and 30s -- and even a few players who reached retirement. Now, hundreds of working professionals, doctors, lawyers and teachers congregate at the local recreation center for a dose of dodge ball on Sunday nights. \"I think a lot of it goes back to trying to stay young,\" said Tony Pehle, recreation supervisor in Sparks, who started the dodge ball program after being inspired by the 2004 Ben Stiller movie \"Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.\" \"They might be adults, but they still like to play and have fun.\" Has Peter Pan syndrome come to stay? From playing dodge ball to jumping double Dutch and competing in rock-paper-scissors, adult men and women, from urban nests to rural towns, are reveling in games and activities once thought to be child's play. The 2009 World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando, Florida, this weekend (August 13) is all grown up, attracting more than 150 adult competitors, who can showcase dizzying tricks with the flick of a finger. Later in the month, hundreds of adults outfitted in pirate and animal costumes will race their homebuilt vehicles for Oregon's annual Portland Adult Soapbox Derby, a crafty activity that began for youths in the 1930s. \"Once a year, I get to build something for the kid in me,\" says Jason Hogue, a 41-year-old carpenter, who has participated in the race for eight years. Last year, he constructed a car shaped like a hammerhead shark. \"We get to use our creativity and get excited with our friends.\" Whether they're done to seek refuge from the daily grind or to provide nostalgia for youthful days -- or they're a product of what some experts say is a generation that can't grow up -- these juvenile pastimes are getting more popular. For example, adult viewership of the Nickelodeon show \"SpongeBob SquarePants\" swelled by 51 percent from 1999 to 2009, officials say. The World Adult Kickball Association, one of the largest kickball organizations, has spread its tentacles to 33 states as well a soldier division in Iraq. WAKA Kickball began as a casual game between a few young single friends in their 20s in Washington, D.C. Now, the games appeal to tens of thousands of adults, many of them yuppies wanting a quick escape from the stresses of their first 401(k), mortgage and job. \"I played soccer growing up, and I like competition,\" says avid kickball player Marlon LeWinter, 28, of New York City. LeWinter, a public relations executive, usually plays the position of center with a bunch of producers, writers and analysts in their late 20s. They named their team Chipwich Nation after they scarfed down the cookies-and-ice cream treat at a bar after a game one night. \"Sometimes when it's [the score] two to one in a kickball came, I get the jitters,\" he says. The economic bind also creates a favorable environment for adults to latch onto simple children's games and sports. With players who are trapped in a world of layoffs and job freezes, these adult leagues, contests and tournaments are the equivalent of sandbox time for children. They can make new friends and go for a beer after the game. These activities are also budget-friendly, costing less than $100 to join for several months of play -- much less than a golf club membership. Since the recession, Duncan Toys, one of the biggest yo-yo manufacturers in the United States, has seen sales spike. A company official noticed many of the adults who purchased yo-yos tried to get the same models they owned as kids. \"Nowadays, everything is taken so seriously that people revert to something like playing with a yo-yo,\" says Mike McBride, a 34-year-old multimedia designer who picked up the activity shortly after college. McBride, who will compete in the Orlando World Yo-Yo contest, says the activity helps him relieve stress. \"There's no pressure.\" In 2006, Christopher Noxon, in his book \"Rejuvenile,\" explored why adults fancy childhood pursuits like kickball, cartoons and cupcakes. Beginning with Generation X adults in the 1990s, the group began to shift from the norms of the hierarchal corporate ladder, and the age of marriage began to steadily climb. Soon, juvenile activities that had been regarded as silly became hip. Quirky became cool, and more organized teams, groups and competitions for playground sports and childlike hobbies emerged. \"Our whole idea of adulthood has changed,\" says Noxon. \"We value flexibility and creativity, and these are things kids are good at. It's brought us back to what we had as children.\" But it isn't just the younger generations that clutch leftovers from their youth or become interested in child-like activities. Grandparents in their 70s and 80s still collect roomfuls of model train sets, romanticizing the days when the only way to travel was by choo-choo. Women in their 40s acquire American Girl dolls that stir fond memories of reading the novels during childhood. Psychology experts say it shouldn't be a surprise that the affinity for childhood hobbies and activities extends across generations. After all, Americans have long had an obsession with youth. To be young is associated with being fun, vibrant and active. In the Internet age, finding one's inner child has never been easier, with the proliferation of social networks such as Facebook or Web sites like Meetup.com, where users can create groups and meeting times for activities. On the site, groups of adults organize scavenger hunts in Atlanta, Georgia, and action figure discussions in New York City. \"This is a generation of people who are far less homogenous and more niche-oriented,\" says Judith Sills, a clinical psychologist who works with young adults. \"They can bond around their quirky differences. Ten years ago, you couldn't have easily found another kickball player, even if you wanted to play.\"","highlights":"WAKA Kickball started more than a decade ago by a few friends is now in 33 states .\nThe 2009 World Yo-Yo Contest will attract more than 150 adults this year .\nHundreds of adult soapbox racers will wear costumes to race in Portland, Oregon .\n\"Rejuvenile\" author Noxon says childhood pastimes are becoming more acceptable .","id":"309cffc5f17007a5d2541e6d0513c6c14409be99"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British police are reviewing the death of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, 40 years after the hard-living rocker was found dead in a swimming pool. An autographed photo of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones who was found dead in July 1969 . Police in Sussex, in southern England, have confirmed they are examining documents given to them by an investigative journalist who has been researching events surrounding Jones' death. Scott Jones, who is not related to the musician, has spent four years reviewing the evidence and speaking to key witnesses in the case. In an article published in the Daily Mail in November 2008, Jones wrote, \"I'm convinced Brian Jones' death was not fully investigated. The only question that remains is why?\" Brian Jones' body was found in the swimming pool after a party at his home in Cotchford Farm, East Sussex in July 1969. He was 27. An inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure, despite post mortem results showing he had not taken illegal drugs and had only consumed the alcoholic equivalent of three and a half pints of beer. One of the most popular conspiracy theories that followed was that Jones was murdered by his builder, Frank Thorogood. The theory gained credence after Thorogood allegedly confessed to the killing before his death in 1993. The storyline formed the basis of the 2005 film \"Stoned.\" Sussex police told CNN they could not say how long it would take to review the new material, nor whether it could lead to a full investigation. There have been repeated calls for closer examination of the case since Jones' death, which came just three weeks after he left the Rolling Stones. His drinking and drug-taking had taken a toll on his health and the band, and in 1969 Jones announced he was leaving. In a statement he said, \"I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting.\" Last year, Scott Jones published an article containing contents of an interview he conducted with one of the people present at Jones' home on the night of his death. In the article, published in the Daily Mail, Jones' said Janet Lawson, the girlfriend of Rolling Stones tour manager Tom Keylock, gave him a version of events that contradicted her official police statement. She is reported to have called her original statement, \"a pack of lies... total rubbish.\" Lawson's revised version of events is among the documents Jones has supplied to Sussex police. It is also believed to include previously unseen files released by the Public Records Office. Lawson died of cancer soon after telling Scott Jones her new sworn testimony.","highlights":"Sussex police confirm they are reviewing information on Brian Jones' death .\nRolling Stones founder was found dead in his swimming pool in July 1969 .\nInquest found \"death by misadventure,\" although questions remained .\nInvestigative journalist has handed documents, other material to police .","id":"1eddcd75a4f3a67897264087a2356431ba1aa3be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flash floods have inundated refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka, endangering more than 16,000 Tamil refugees who only months ago survived cross-fire in the country's two-decade civil war, the United Nations says. In this file photo Tamil civilians are seen at Menik Farm refugee camp on the outskirts of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Three days of heavy rains have damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 shelters housing the refugees in the Vavuniya District and in Menik Farm, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An internal U.N. memo obtained by CNN painted a dismal picture for the refugees, who have been caught in mud flows and the runoff from flooded latrines. \"Due to heavy showers on 14 August 09 ... many tents and toilets were submerged\/badly damaged,\" the memo said. \"Reportedly more than 300 families gathered together and marched towards the main access gate of the Zone to protest,\" the memo continued. \"Though ... not violent, they seemed disgruntled and agitated due to the sufferings and expressed their resentment by hooting and making noises.\" The camps spread across northern Sri Lanka are home to about 280,000 people, who were displaced in the final months of the nation's civil war. The flooding came ahead of Sri Lanka's monsoon season, which typically brings heavy rains to the country's northeast from October till January. \"If the rain continues, which is very likely, then the overall situation may go out of control of the management and lead to serious security threat,\" the memo warned, saying contingency plans are being \"discussed and worked out.\" Human Rights Watch has called for the immediate release of Tamil civilians living in the camps, which are surrounded by barbed wire, saying they are being confined against their will, like criminals. \"Those are not detention camps,\" Lakshman Hulugalle, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said in late July. \"They are relief villages. All the basic facilities are being given to the people.\" Hulugalle said that barbed wire is commonly used to define barriers in Sri Lanka and that military guards were being used out of security concerns. The government fears that rebels are hiding in the camps and is screening people living in them. Sri Lanka declared victory in May in its 25-year battle with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but concerns remain about how the island nation can heal its deep war wounds. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- had waged war for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. As many as 70,000 people were killed in the conflict. Last month the government said it had a 18-day plan to resettle most of the refugees, but added that a lot of work remains to be done to infrastructure and basic services destroyed in the fighting. Human rights activists say, however, that the government is not working fast enough. Human Rights Watch said Sri Lanka's goal now was to resettle only 60 percent of the refugees by year's end.","highlights":"Refugees caught in mud flows, runoff from flooded latrines, internal U.N. memo says .\nMore than 300 families protest conditions, memo says .\nFlooding comes ahead of Sri Lanka's monsoon season .\nHuman Rights Watch has called for immediate release of Tamil civilians at camps .","id":"be80b0fae336ec987792470c73963a0f8445f7e9"} -{"article":"RALEIGH, North Carolina (CNN) -- Federal authorities are searching for an eighth alleged member of a North Carolina group that authorities say plotted \"violent jihad\" overseas, prosecutors said Tuesday. Daniel Patrick Boyd, left, and Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan are two of the seven men charged. Robin Zier of the U.S. attorney's office in Raleigh told CNN that the eighth person, whose name has been redacted from court documents, is a U.S. citizen. She added that U.S. Attorney George Holding had said federal authorities hoped to have the person apprehended soon, and the public should not be worried. The U.S. attorney's office would not release further details. According to an indictment released Monday, the eighth suspect, described as a North Carolina resident, traveled to Pakistan in October 2008 to \"engage in violent jihad.\" It offered no other information. Seven other men have been arrested on charges of supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad. Officials identified three of the men as U.S. native Daniel Patrick Boyd, 39, and Boyd's sons, Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as \"Mohammed,\" and Zakariya Boyd, 20. Daniel Boyd had fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The four others are: Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, also a U.S.-born citizen; Hysen Sherifi, identified as a native of Kosovo who is a legal permanent resident of the United States; and Hiyad Yaghi and Anes Subasic, both naturalized U.S. citizens. Watch why wife says they were in Mideast \u00bb . Officials did not immediately identify the native countries of Yaghi and Subasic. All seven are accused of engaging in weapons training and military tactics in North Carolina, the Justice Department said. Sabrina Boyd, the wife of Daniel Patrick Boyd and the mother of the two younger Boyds, said the charges had not been substantiated. \"We are decent people who care about other human beings,\" Sabrina Boyd said in a statement read on her behalf by Khalilah Sabra. \"I have raised my sons to be good people and we are a good family,\" she said, according to Sabra, the North Carolina director of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, a civic and human rights group. Sabrina Boyd said in the statement that her husband had fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan with the \"full backing\" of the U.S. government. Boyd went on to say in an interview with CNN that her family had traveled to the Middle East for peaceful reasons, including praying for a son who had died in a car crash. \"We all had agreed to go the Holy Land and pray for our son,\" Boyd said. \"It would be a positive action and it would help console us and it would be in a place where we felt, Islamically, we could do the most good for our departed beloved.\" According to the indictment, Daniel Boyd and his sons left the United States for Israel in June 2007 to \"engage in violent jihad, but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts.\" It said Yaghi and Hassan had also traveled to Israel in June 2007, and that Daniel Boyd had lied to Customs and Border Protection agents at the Atlanta, Georgia, and Raleigh airports about intending to meet the two men in the Jewish state. The indictment also said Daniel Boyd had traveled to Gaza in March 2006 \"to introduce his son to individuals who also believed that violent jihad was a personal obligation on the part of every good Muslim.\" The indictment mentions mentions other trips -- by Yaghi to Jordan in October 2006; by Sherifi to Kosovo in July 2008; and by the unidentified defendant to Pakistan in October 2008. All the trips were taken to \"engage in violent jihad,\" the indictment alleges, without providing details. The documents make no reference to a direct threat to individuals or property in the United States, but said the men had practiced military tactics in a North Carolina county that borders Virginia. The defendants, with a substantial cache of weapons, had \"practiced military tactics and use of weapons on private property in Caswell County, North Carolina, in June and July 2009,\" the indictment said. Daniel Boyd, \"a veteran of terrorist training camps\" had \"conspired with others to recruit and help young men travel overseas in order to kill,\" according to a written statement from the Justice Department's top counterterrorism official, David Kris. It was unclear whether the seven had hired lawyers, and the federal public defender's office in Raleigh did not immediately return a phone call. CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seven other men have been arrested on charges of supporting terrorism .\n8th person being sought is U.S. citizen; public told not to be worried .\nWife of suspect Daniel Patrick Boyd said charges had not been substantiated .\nDaniel Boyd, a U.S. citizen, and his two sons are among the seven men arrested .","id":"23a49b4118931697daba988dfc9004989af9ef84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an anguished 911 call, a Georgia man told dispatchers that he arrived home to find \"my whole family's dead.\" Seven people were found dead Saturday at a residence in a mobile home park in Brunswick, Georgia. \"I just got home,\" a man identified as Guy Heinze Jr. told the emergency dispatcher in the Saturday call, released Monday by authorities. \"I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death.\" Seven people were found dead Saturday at a residence at the New Hope mobile home park in Brunswick, Georgia, authorities said. Two others were hospitalized in critical condition; one of them, identified by police as 19-year-old Michael Toller, died Sunday. The remaining survivor remained in critical condition on Monday, police said. A neighbor of Heinze's placed the call and put him on the phone, as well as the mobile home park's maintenance man. The park manager also called 911, sobbing as she told dispatchers, \"Please hurry.\" Listen as the 911 operator hears a family has died \u00bb . Police said Sunday that they have \"no known suspects\" in the case. \"We are not looking for any known suspects,\" Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said. \"That doesn't say that there are no suspects. They're just not known to us.\" Heinze was arrested Saturday night and faces charges of possessing a controlled substance and marijuana, as well as evidence tampering and making false statements to a police officer, Doering said. He said Heinze has been cooperative and stopped short of naming him a suspect in the deaths. \"We're still looking for anybody and everybody that may be related to this,\" he said. \"That naturally includes [Heinze]. Of course we're looking at him.\" \"I don't know what to do, man,\" an emotional Heinze told the dispatcher. \"My dad, my mom, my uncle, my cousin ... my dad, he's laying there dead. That was my dad.\" \"It's a house full of people that live there,\" the neighbor said during the call. \"I know there's a baby. I don't know if the baby was in there or not.\" At one point, while the maintenance man, identified only as Mike, talked to dispatchers, Heinze went into the mobile home and reported that his cousin, identified as Michael, was still breathing. Asked to describe Michael, the maintenance man said that Michael is a \"young man with Down's syndrome.\" Heinze reported that the youth's \"face is smashed in,\" he said. Heinze got back on the phone to talk to a supervisor, repeating that Michael was breathing, although he appeared to be having trouble breathing and needed an ambulance. The dispatcher assured him that help was on the way and tried to question him gently. \"People's beat,\" Heinze said. \"Everybody is dead.\" Asked what the mobile home looked like, he yelled, \"It looks like a [expletive] murder scene.\" At the dispatcher's suggestion, Heinze tried to question Michael, asking him, \"Where do you hurt?\" There was no response. Doering said Sunday that police think at least one person not in custody may have information in the case. Authorities have not released the identities or ages of the other victims, revealing only that they range in age from children through mid-40s. One additional victim was identified, Doering said Monday, but he did not release that person's name pending notification of relatives. Autopsies on the victims began over the weekend in Savannah, Georgia, and continued Monday, Doering said. Police had been called to the home before, Doering said, but would not say why. He was tight-lipped Sunday about many aspects of the case, refusing to say how the victims died or to give a breakdown of male and female victims. All nine victims lived in the mobile home, he said, and police do not believe that any of them conducted the assault. He said police are making progress and have narrowed down the timeline for when the deaths occurred. Brunswick is about 300 miles southeast of Atlanta, on the Georgia coast.","highlights":"Police identify one of deceased as 19-year-old Michael Toller .\nGuy Heinze Jr. heard on 911 call telling dispatcher he arrived home to find bodies .\n\"I don't know what to do, man,\" Heinze tells 911. \"My dad, he's laying there dead\"\nPolice say \"no known suspects\" in the attack; 7 dead at scene, 8th died later .","id":"6eeac9863f0d6ec5b73ad034025b507828401e1b"} -{"article":"WESTERPLATTE, Poland (CNN) -- On a sand swept stretch of Afghanistan, a high-ranking Polish general put his country's mission there into perspective. The repurcussions of World War II lasted decades for Poland. He explained to a NATO delegation that Polish troops remind Afghan locals of two things about the mission: They are not Soviets and they know how difficult it is to live under foreign occupation. It is hard to ignore the incomparable price Poland paid during World War II. It was attacked by Germany, invaded by the Soviets, and became home to the notorious Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. After six brutal years, Poles were the victors in war but losers in peace, living for four decades under Soviet repression. Many here will tell you they still have not come to terms with their fate after the war. Seven decades after the start of World War II, the conflict still defines Polish identity and history. September 1, 2009 in Westerplatte, Poland turned out to be a blue sky day even as dignitaries and notably the leaders of Poland, Russia and Germany turned out to remember the dark horrors that so changed their histories. The leaders laid wreaths to honor the 'Defenders of Westerplatte', the men who died in the battle that started it all. It was here at this strategic port on the Baltic Sea, Danzig, now Gdansk, that Nazi Germany's surprise attack on Poland triggered six years of bloodletting, a savage Holocaust and the death of more than 50 million people. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called it a war against humanity itself. Tusk also answered critics who felt his country and the world should now move on from World War II. He warned that if anniversaries are not marked and ceremonies not planned, there may be nothing to shield us from the brutality of future wars. But still today the events of the last 70 years have left their mark and fueled some modern day controversies. Send us your war stories . Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tried to appeal directly to the people of Poland in an open letter. He reminded them that at least 27 million Russians died in the conflict but also warned against equating the Soviet Union's role in World War II with the menace of Hitler's Nazism. \"..exploiting memory, anatomizing history and seeking pretexts for mutual complaints and resentment causes a lot of harm. \" wrote Putin. He backed that up with public comments saying, \"If we talk about an objective assessment of history, we should understand that it had no one color. It was varied and there were huge number of mistakes committed by many sides. All these actions, in one way or another, created conditions for the beginning of a large-scale aggression by Nazi Germany.\" Putin was at the heart of a tug-of-war over the war. Some Poles say Stalin was as evil and complicit as Hitler during the war. Russians say that callously overlooks the sacrifice of Russians in defeating Nazism and liberating Europe. In fact, it took German Chancellor Angela Merkel to put their achievement in perspective. She said that a unified, peaceful Europe was a blessing and indeed a miracle.","highlights":"Poland helped win the war but lost the peace .\nIt was invaded by Germany but put under Soviet influence after the war .\n70 years from the start of WWII, the war still defines Polish identity and history .\nPolish military says its history helps its work in Afghanistan .","id":"c3cca54ae5f44836f7a2670ad1fa2e53ae80577a"} -{"article":"GDANSK, Poland (CNN) -- At least 20 world leaders gathered Tuesday in Poland to commemorate the start of World War II 70 years ago -- a conflict in which 6 million Poles died. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (right) chats with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk in Poland on Tuesday. Germany's pre-dawn invasion began when the battleship Schleswig-Holstein fired on the Westerplatte military base in Gdansk harbor on September 1, 1939. The attack set off a chain of events that eventually embroiled all of the world's major powers in the war. Polish World War II veteran Romuald Bardzynski, said: \"I was a soldier on the front, a corporal in the cavalry. On September 16 I was injured. We were fighting against the Germans but I was shot by the Soviets. I was wounded three times. \"But the worst thing for me is the land in eastern Poland which was occupied by the Soviets ... and to this day we cannot come to terms with it. \"The Russians took half of Poland, and after the Polish fighting on all the world war fronts it turns out that after the war Poland was 77 sq km smaller! This was a great loss for us.\" Eugeniusz Cydzik, another Polish veteran, added: \"We have to talk about what happened ... to make sure it doesn't happen again. \"The young generations, like the boy scouts for example, are continuing the memory of those who perished. We take them to the sites of the battles. We even found munitions from the 1914 [war].\" WWII lasted until September 2, 1945 when Germany's ally Japan signed an unconditional surrender. Leaders from many of the warring nations were in Gdansk on Tuesday for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cemetery of Defenders at Westerplatte, with commemoration speeches to take place in front of the Westerplatte memorial. Among those attending were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- leaders of the two nations that once held power over Poland. Merkel said on Tuesday that her country unleashed \"endless suffering\" by starting the war, but also recalled the fate of ethnic Germans expelled at the end of the conflict. Watch as Poland marks start of WWII \u00bb . \"Germany attacked Poland, Germany started World War II. We caused unending suffering in the world. Sixty million dead ... was the result,\" Merkel said on German television, according to Agence-France Presse. Send us your World War II stories . \"But the expulsion of well over 12 million people from areas of the former Germany and present-day Poland is of course an injustice. This must also be recognized,\" she said. Poland first came under German influence at the start of the war, but was later dominated for about 40 years by the Russian-led Soviet Union as the Cold War between East and West settled in after World War II. A dwindling group of veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, was also due to attend. Later on Tuesday, many of the world's leading classical musicians, playing together as the World Orchestra for Peace, performed a concert in Krakow to mark the 70th anniversary. Watch highlights of the performance \u00bb .","highlights":"About 20 world leaders gathered in Poland to mark the start of World War II .\nAttack set off chain of events that embroiled all of the world's major powers .\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian PM Vladimir Putin at event .\nMerkel says her country unleashed \"endless suffering\" by starting war .","id":"f1ab367f7cbb8122b30150d15119ebb8d269ee55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rescued after spending eight days lost at sea, Tressel Hawkins was happy to be back in Texas. Three missing boaters were returned safely to Port Aransas, Texas, after their rescue on Saturday. \"Actually, it feels great to be on solid ground,\" he told CNN on Sunday. Hawkins, 43, and his fellow boaters, Curtis Hall, 28, and James Phillips, 30, set out to catch swordfish and marlin when they set sail about 100 miles south of Matagorda Bay in Texas. But one night early on during their trip in the Gulf of Mexico, Hawkins was jolted by a \"rude awakening.\" The bean bag Hawkins was sleeping on started to float beneath him, he said. There was a water extractor malfunction, causing so much water to get into the boat that the water was knee high, he said. Watch CNN's Fredricka Whitfield talk to Hawkins \u00bb . There were yells and screams and attempts to stop the flooding, but it was too late. The boat capsized. They jumped ship, wondering how it all happened so quickly. \"We're just trying to get each other calm and try to get as much stuff as we could because we knew automatically it was going to be a survival test,\" he said. Watch two other fishermen describe ordeal \u00bb . The men were missing at sea since August 22. The Coast Guard had searched a week for three men before calling off the search Friday after it said it had looked more than 86,000 square miles. A day after the Coast Guard ended its search, the crew of a private vessel found the three sitting on top of their capsized 23-foot fishing vessel about 180 miles from Port Aransas, Texas, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Hawkins said that when they saw the boat they waved it down to catch the boaters' attention. They were all \"crying\" and \"celebrating.\" \"We had been through so much of an ordeal we were already celebrating before we got on his boat.\" After the rescue, Hall went to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, but left after he waited too long in the emergency room, his mother told CNN. He returned to his home in Palacio, Texas, to rest and will see a doctor later on Sunday for what he thinks are second-degree burns on his legs from sun exposure, she said. Phillips was on his way home to reunite with his family, his wife, Shane, told CNN. He did not seek medical attention, she said. Hawkins suffered open sores on his legs after floating in the water for eight days. He plans to head to Fort Worth, Texas, to reunite with his family, he said. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo and Karen Zuker contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three fishermen missing since August 22 were found Saturday on capsized boat .\nBoater spotted fishermen about 180 miles from coast of Port Aransas, Texas .\nCoast Guard had called off search for men on Friday .","id":"2aa5eb1c71ba9ceacc8ef7bc15273c0a935b2833"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in Houston, Texas, say they have busted a prostitution ring that may involve more than 1,500 clients, including professional athletes, doctors and lawyers. Investigators were scouring computers files and credit card records on Monday, trying to verify a large client list that could ignite scandals throughout the city, CNN affiliate station KHOU reported. Police arrested alleged ringleaders Deborah Turbiville and her husband, Charlie, as part of a two-year investigation, the affiliate reported. Turbiville called herself the \"Heidi Fleiss of Houston,\" referring to a woman who was dubbed the \"Hollywood Madam\" for providing call girls to famous and wealthy clients, police said. Turbiville, who reportedly recruited prostitutes through the online site Craigslist, was in court Monday on a charge of promotion of prostitution. Investigators said the women met their clients in upscale hotels and charged about $350 an hour, the affiliate reported. Clients also met prostitutes in a luxurious three-bedroom apartment, police told the affiliate.","highlights":"Alleged ringleader dubbed \"Heidi Fleiss of Houston\"\nInvestigators say women met clients in upscale hotels, charged about $350 an hour .\nPolice scour computer files and credit card records to verify a large client list .","id":"6573f73a897ec00e2c037f959d832d04aa1a5ab3"} -{"article":"CNN's Ed Henry followed President Obama on his trip to the Middle East and Europe, ending at a commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe. You can see his reflections from Normandy, as well as the entire Obama trip, by going to his Twitter page. Row upon row of gravestones at the American Cemetery mark those killed in the invasion. NORMANDY, France (CNN) -- I knew my first visit to the American Cemetery at Normandy would be emotional, but I really had no idea I'd be tearing up literally within about eight minutes of walking the rows of bone-white gravestones. Those of us in the White House press corps traveling with President Obama to France on Saturday to celebrate the 65th anniversary of D-Day were very lucky. It was truly awesome to have a front-row seat to the celebration of the climactic battle of World War II, where Allied forces finally stopped the Nazi aggression. If there was a hint of a downside, it was that all of us had to wake up Saturday somewhere around 5 a.m. Paris time (11 p.m. ET Friday, ugh) to then board one of several buses that would take us on a 3\u00bd-hour journey to Normandy. That's right, 3\u00bd hours on a tour bus when you're already totally exhausted from a very busy trip that took us from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and then Germany and France in just a few days. Watch President Obama's speech at Normandy \u00bb . The upside? WE'RE GOING TO NORMANDY!!! Besides, do I really want to complain about a stinking bus ride when about 2,500 brave Americans lost their lives on this battlefield during the first 24 hours of vicious combat on June 6, 1944? Didn't think so. So I jump off the bus, head for the cemetery and decide I should pick just one of the dozens and dozens of rows of tombstones and keep walking until I stumble upon the first grave of a soldier from New York -- my home state -- that I can find. In less than a minute, I found it. His name was Martin J. Biringer, a private from the 4th Cavalry. I bowed my head and thanked him for his service, trying to put myself in his combat boots, thinking that when I was an 18-year-old or 19-year-old kid growing up in New York, I doubt I had the strength and courage this man had to answer his country's call. I decided to take my iPhone out and start posting reflections and photos on Twitter, starting with Biringer's grave. I decided to keep walking down the same row of graves toward Omaha Beach, where the invasion began, and this is where I really got choked up. There was a bouquet of flowers sitting under one grave with a card written out in longhand on a piece of white paper. \"From your brother Pete, I remember you,\" it said so simply and yet so elegantly. That's when I started feeling the chills on my back. The flowers were fresh, and so was the ink on the card. \"Pete\" had clearly been here in the last day or two, and I started thinking about the fact that he had not seen his \"brother\" in 65 years. Sixty-five years. And yet he made the trek all the way here to simply say, \"I remember you.\" I started tearing up thinking of my own family: imagining my son going off to war and dying, and my daughter traveling to this cemetery 65 years later, and leaving a card like that. I remember you. That's when it hit me: how easily we take for granted the emotional holes that the war left in so many lives. In this case, I looked up and saw that Pete was paying tribute to his brother Theodore Cassera of New Jersey, a staff sergeant from the 8th Infantry who died a couple of weeks after D-Day. A man who fought and died so that we could be free. Nearby, I found another grave with another card, this one with a piercing question. The card said at the top: \"To save your world, you asked this man to die. Would this man, could he see you now, ask why? WH Auden\" In other words, did he die in vain? The quick and easy answer might be yes, this particular man died to save us from the Nazis, but in our busy lives, we often seem to take his sacrifice for granted. But after a couple more minutes of walking, I got a different answer. No, he did not die in vain. And the best part was that it was a few kids, about the age of my own children, who gave me that more hopeful answer. There was now a huge crowd gathering for the ceremony where Obama would speak. I came upon a large group circled around an old veteran in a wheelchair, all decked out in his old military uniform, and beaming from ear to ear. Watch D-Day vets in Washington talk about their experiences \u00bb . The source of the joy? A group of young boys from New York were rushing around with autograph books, the kind they would normally take to Yankee Stadium to desperately try to get Derek Jeter's signature. But on this day, they were desperately trying to get the signatures of as many World War II vets as they could find. It was a sight to see the wonder on their faces. Not just the boys -- the faces of the old men, too.","highlights":"Normandy visit came at the end of President Obama's trip to Mideast and Europe .\nCNN's Ed Henry says walking the rows of gravestones brought chills, tears .\nOn one grave were flowers and a message from a \"brother\"\nA group of young boys sought out autographs from assembled veterans .","id":"8ea36c55217a61a8ce8a64c551562a8f5cbc375e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon will wake up a lame duck Monday. How lame will depend largely on nationwide midterm elections Sunday. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has three years left in his six-year term. On the ballot will be 500 federal legislators, six governors and mayors and local legislators in 11 states. Although Calderon has three years left in his six-year term and is not on Sunday's ballot, many analysts see the election as a referendum on his performance and his party's nine-year reign on the presidency. By most accounts, Calderon's party will fare well. \"He's going to get a positive vote,\" said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. \"The nation feels he is doing a better job than they imagined he would.\" Low expectations may be understandable, given the circumstances under which Calderon came to power. After a bitterly fought race that polls indicated was too close to call, the nation went to the polls July 2, 2006, to pick a successor to President Vicente Fox. The race was so close that the results were not verified until a controversial decision two months later. Calderon's margin of victory was less than 1 percent. Losing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to accept the results and announced himself the winner. Fistfights broke out in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. The first three years of Calderon's tenure have not been much smoother. Perhaps most famously, the president declared war on the drug cartels that have taken hold of Mexico, spreading corruption, fear and violence to all corners of the nation. The war's outcome remains uncertain, but there's no doubt about the human cost: About 10,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon took office in December 2006. The political fallout also has been costly. One U.S. politician said Mexico was undergoing a civil war. A Pentagon report said the nation was in danger of becoming a failed state. Calderon's job got tougher when the bottom fell out of the global economy late last year and the H1N1 flu outbreak drew the world's attention to Mexico this year. But Calderon's actions in the face of such adversity have helped his standing, some analysts say. \"Calderon has become increasingly popular in the country because he did project a certain amount of strength in the anti-drug war,\" Birns said. \"He did stand up to the United States on certain things, like swine flu.\" Calderon's aggressive management of the swine flu crisis -- in which he shut down schools, businesses and all public gatherings for more than a week to stop spread of the disease -- has given him higher credibility, said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. But Calderon's personal popularity may not help his party in the legislative elections. \"The question is whether Calderon has coattails,\" said Ana Maria Salazar, a Mexico City columnist and political talk show host. Calderon is head of the National Action Party, known as PAN. The other two main parties are the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election, and the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), which had a stranglehold on the presidency from 1929 until the 2000. PAN candidate Fox -- Calderon's predecessor -- broke that hold nine years ago. The PAN has the most seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies but does not have a majority in either. The party could lose seats after Sunday, as most polls show the PRI holding a slight lead. \"We will see the resurgence of the PRI,\" said Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for President Carter in the late 1970s. The PRD, he said, has largely discredited itself through internal division. \"And the PAN has been overseeing a government that has shunted from one crisis to another,\" Pastor said. Still, some observers say PRI inroads may not make much difference. \"It will not change the balance of power much in Mexico,\" said Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. \"Felipe Calderon will still have to negotiate with one of the two opposition parties to get legislation passed.\" Hakim said, \"It's not going to be as critical election as everyone was predicting.\" But as Calderon moves into the last half of his presidency and other politicians start jockeying to succeed him, he probably will find it increasingly difficult to get his legislative agenda accomplished. \"Felipe Calderon will have a small window of opportunity to get in additional reforms,\" Salazar said. \"And all of this is happening amidst a terrible economic crisis, a terrible security crisis.\" And then there's the issue of what many see as increasing voter distaste for the electoral process. \"There's a general disenchantment about the PAN administration for the past nine years,\" said John Mill Ackerman, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. \"They're linked to the economic crisis, the health crisis, the security crisis.\" But the PRI, he said, doesn't offer much of a choice. \"The problem here is that the PRI is not a new PRI,\" Ackerman said. \"They're not necessarily going to imply much change or difference.\" Nor is the PRI united, Salazar said. \"Everybody assumes that the PRI gets along. That's not true,\" Salazar said, noting that the party is riven with \"fractionalism.\" Most voters will just stay home. Election officials predict a 30 percent turnout. Others will annul their vote: They will turn in blank ballots, so officials will see that they voted but not for anyone. \"There's a lack of hope of making a difference with a vote,\" Ackerman said. Perhaps no one will be more interested in the results than the drug cartels. Numerous news reports have detailed how narcotraffickers fund some candidates, intimidate others to stay out of races and bribe politicians after they have been elected. \"The narcos definitely have taken this as another way in which they can expand their power,\" Ackerman said. Federal authorities have arrested more than 100 local officials in recent weeks on accusations that they have been taking money from drug cartels. The \"narco-politicians\" included mayors and a judge. Jose Vazquez, the former mayor of a town in Michoacan state, told a major newspaper two years ago how he had to go see the local drug boss when he decided to run. After he won, Vazquez said, he was constantly pressured to appoint officials the drug gangs wanted. \"If you don't do it, they kill you, and that's that,\" Vazquez was quoted as telling the Excelsior newspaper. \"All candidates have to suit them, whether they belong to the PRI, the PAN or the PRD. The drug gangs give their approval to candidates.\" Vazquez apparently fell out of favor. A group of armed men killed him in November. More recently, armed men opened fire last week in Sonora state on a PAN candidate for the lower house. He escaped, but two aides were killed. After all this, how the election and vote-counting is carried out Sunday looms as a major worry. No one wants to see a repeat of 2006. \"This is a referendum on democracy,\" Ackerman said. \"[Mexicans] may be convinced on democracy. The question is whether they're convinced that voting will lead to anything.\"","highlights":"President is not on ballot, but many see vote as comment on his performance .\nParty is expected to do well despite years of troubles .\nCalderon has stood strong in face of adversity, analysts say .\nMany see increasing voter distaste with electoral process .","id":"8ff489663804dc9590c336015fce54faf666cf46"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. When Twitter asks \"What are you doing,\" maybe you should be following tweets on job advice. When microblogging and social networking site Twitter debuted three years ago, plenty of people wrote it off as yet another pointless addition in the overcrowded networking world. Considering the site only allows people to post, or Tweet, messages of 140 characters or less, you can't blame early skeptics. But little by little, users proved the site's worth to nonbelievers. Last year, student James Karl Buck was traveling in Egypt and wound up in jail. He Tweeted \"arrested\" to notify his friends of what was going on and ultimately get out of jail. During the 2008 presidential election, candidates reached out to voters using the service. When a plane crashed into the Hudson River in January, a Twitter user posted the first photograph from the scene. Although we're in the nascent stage of Twitter's existence and therefore have no idea how long it will be around, we do know it has more growing to do. If you're not yet certain you want to start posting your own daily activities for everyone to read, you can still use the service as a resource for tips on finding a job and keeping up with industry news. Job seekers can follow people who will make your job search process easier, from the interviewing stage to the salary negotiations. I follow many people whom I think give great advice, post informative articles and know what they're talking about. Seeing as the Twitter feed refreshes constantly so that I see new posts instantly, it's like having a scrolling news ticker about only the subjects I want to read. I suggest you do the same to improve your job search. Here are the 10 job Tweeters you should be following. @adriennewaldo . About the author: Adrienne Waldo, a New York-based writer, consultant and blogger, made a name for herself when she began blogging about Generation Y. Why you should follow her: Waldo, a Generation Y-er herself, offers advice as someone who's in the same shoes as many of her equally young Twitter followers, but she also uses her experience to let followers know what employers are thinking. @AlisonDoyle . About the author: Alison Doyle regularly writes articles on job-seeking issues, ranging from interview advice to using social media appropriately. Why you should follow her: She's prolific, so you always have something to read, and she knows her stuff. @AnitaBruzzese . About the author: Anita Bruzzese is the author of \"45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy\" and also writes a workplace blog full of tips and advice for employees. Why you should follow her: She lets you know when she's updated her blog, which is full of helpful advice. She also shares quirky, sometimes off-topic links that lighten the day's mood. @CAREEREALISM . About the authors: Careerealism.com founder J.T. O'Donnell and a group of job experts let you know when they've posted new advice for job seekers. They also respond to job seekers with career questions -- in 140 characters or less, of course. Why you should follow them: As a follower, you get to read advice from several experts who know what they're talking about and give their own perspectives. @careerdiva . About the author: Eve Tahmincioglu blogs, publishes articles and Tweets on career issues. Why you should follow her: Her advice is excellent and she often brings up issues you might not have otherwise considered. @CBforJobSeekers . About the authors: CareerBuilder's team of experts writes for the job seeking blog TheWorkBuzz.com and workplace articles, such as the one you're reading right now. Why you should follow them: The team's Tweets are a mix of tips, news stories, helpful articles and blog posts to keep you informed of what's going on in the world of job seekers. @heatherhuhman . About the author: Heather Huhman is an expert on helping Generation Y job seekers and recent graduates navigate the professional world. Why you should follow her: Huhman Tweets when she writes a new article, directs followers to other helpful experts and offers her own tips from time to time. @InterviewCoach . About the author: Lewis Lin is a Seattle-based interview coach who prepares clients for the difficult questions that will come their way during a job search. Why you should follow him: Lin Tweets his own interview tips, as well as other experts' advice and news articles. @Keppie_Careers . About the author: Atlanta-based Miriam Salpeter is a career coach and r\u00e9sum\u00e9 writer for Keppie Careers. She helps job seekers spice up their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, prepare for interviews and achieve their career goals. Why you should follow her: In addition to posting links to the day's job seeker headlines and news, she also offers career advice and lets you know where she'll be giving presentations. @Writerbabe . About the author: Chicago-based Raven Moore authors The Writerbabe Series, a blog that explores professional, pop-culture and newsworthy topics. Why you should follow her: Moore directs you both to her own writings and to other writers' works, as well as interesting news items she comes across. Plus, some of her personal Tweets are entertaining enough to make you forget about the current economy. Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Twitter is becoming a good tool to use for your career .\n@heatherhuhman: Helps Gen Y, recent grads navigate professional world .\n@careerdiva: Often brings up issues you might not have otherwise considered .\n@InterviewCoach: Interview tips, also posts other experts' advice and news articles .","id":"0ae89d16ac1cb5f01f865b1751acbf21c40fe3ae"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Florence Henderson, \"The Brady Bunch\" mom, may be one of America's best-loved mothers. Florence Henderson is often asked for hugs by complete strangers. As Henderson travels the United States with her one-woman road show, \"All the Lives of Me,\" fans respond as if they grew up in her 1970s TV family. \"Every day, I'm asked 'Can I have a hug?' \" Henderson said. \"And I do. I hug a lot of people.\" And on Mother's Day every year, her mailbox fills with cards from people she doesn't know but who think of her as Mom. \"I get mail from all over the world, 122 countries,\" she said. Henderson is using her fame as the iconic TV mother to help other moms who suffer from \"lackus appreciatus,\" which she says is \"a condition caused by years of under-appreciation and neglect\" of mothers by their kids. Her role as spokeswoman for the \"Center for Lackus Appreciatus Prevention\" is part of a tongue-in-cheek campaign sponsored by Kodak to promote an online service where Mother's Day cards can be sent for free. A video posted on YouTube points to the Mom-a-thon.com Web site, which aims to close the \"appreciation deficit\" between what your mom does for you and what you do for your mom. Although just five seasons of \"The Brady Bunch\" were produced, starting in the fall of 1969, children still grow up with the Bradys in syndication. \"It's never been off the air in the United States,\" she said. Henderson said she sometimes encounters mothers who tell her \"You know, I really didn't like you when my kids were small, because they preferred you to me.\" She knows the power of her motherly voice, using it to make a reporter feel special with a scolding: \"Don't play ball in the house!\" For a moment, the interviewer feels like a Brady.","highlights":"Florence Henderson touring with one-woman show .\nHenderson most famous as mom on \"The Brady Bunch\"\nShow has kept her in public eye, made her symbol for mothers .","id":"9325ec991de0c9214a25ebcd984037637e513e4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A single-engine plane crashed Saturday outside a bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, seriously injuring the five people on board, authorities said. A damaged airplane lies on the ground Saturday next to a busy road in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The pilot reported engine problems shortly after leaving the city's Wiley Post Airport, about a mile away from the crash site, at midmorning, said Lynn Lunsford, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane hit two trees as it came down, and video showed the damaged Beechcraft Bonanza resting on the grass near a busy thoroughfare in the northwest section of the city. Fire Department Deputy Chief Cecil Clay said the two men and three women on the plane were taken to hospitals. Lunsford said they suffered multiple injuries. Watch footage of the plane at the crash site \u00bb . The plane was headed to Enid, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north of Oklahoma City. The pilot tried to return to Wiley Post Airport after he recognized the engine trouble, Lunsford said. \"I heard what I thought was a Dumpster being unloaded in the complex,\" said Shaddy Ahmad, who manages the U-Haul business across the street from the bank. He said emergency responders used special equipment to extricate the people from the plane, the top of which was peeled back. \"They were very lucky because this is a high-traffic area,\" Ahmad said. \"You have the expressway, the bank and stores in the area. They were blessed to land how they did.\"","highlights":"Single-engine Beechcraft makes hard landing near busy road .\nPlane developed engine problems shortly after takeoff, FAA official says .\nFliers were headed for Enid, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north .","id":"8c0defeaec2279d3371339ffdb245b63661948a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The co-pilot of a plane that crashed in Buffalo, New York, in February was feeling ill and had considered backing out of the flight, according to a cockpit voice recorder transcript released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board. First Officer Rebecca Shaw said before takeoff: \"You know, we'll see how it feels flying.\" \"You know, we'll see how it feels flying,\" First Officer Rebecca Shaw said as the plane prepared for takeoff. \"If the pressure's just too much, I, you know, I could always call in tomorrow.\" She added, \"I'm pretty tough.\" At a safety board hearing in May, NTSB investigators said Shaw had pulled an all-nighter before she got on the plane. After three days off, she had commuted through the night from Seattle, Washington, catching rides on FedEx flights to get to Newark, New Jersey, investigators said. Colgan Flight 3407 crashed February 12 during an instrument approach to Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. The four crew members and all 45 passengers died; there was also one fatality on the ground. The transcript indicates intermittent sneezes and sniffles during the flight. The report released Monday adds to the factual material connected to the investigation and does not provide analysis into the probable cause of the accident, the safety board said. The other pilot on the flight, Capt. Marvin Renslow had nearly a full day off beforehand, but safety board investigators found that he slept in the Newark Airport crew lounge, against Colgan Air regulations. CNN's Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.","highlights":"Transcripts show that Rebecca Shaw was feeling ill .\nShaw said that if pressure was too much, she could call out the next day .\nColgan Flight 3407 crashed February 12 during approach to Buffalo .","id":"3ae18a426e2d5f1e778b4df336140d33d4165f4b"} -{"article":"ALBANY, Georgia (CNN) -- Pamela Green-Jackson didn't learn until after her brother's funeral that doctors had warned him his weight could cost him his life. Pamela Green-Jackson encourages a student in the Youth Becoming Healthy program. Bernard Green weighed 427 pounds when he died in 2004. He was 43 years old. \"He didn't have to die,\" said Green-Jackson. \"I promised myself that I would do whatever I could to make sure another child didn't suffer like he did.\" Turning her pain into action, Green-Jackson quit her job and procured $30,000 in grants to build a fitness center in a local middle school. Today, Youth Becoming Healthy (YBH) has facilities in six middle schools and one elementary school in Albany and provides free fitness and nutrition education to about 350 students a year. Youths work one-on-one after school with personal trainers and nutritionists who help them get on the right track. To keep young people engaged and fit, YBH offers classes such as martial arts, hip-hop dance and a walking club. Green-Jackson says her group allows the children to set their own goals. \"If we instill these habits in them early, they will grow up to become healthier adults,\" said Green-Jackson, 43. \"That's what this is really all about -- saving the lives of children.\" Do you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes. Since 2004, YBH has helped about 4,000 youth lose thousands of pounds. Green-Jackson also successfully campaigned to have schools provide healthier options in their cafeterias and vending machines. Jasmine Warren has reaped the benefits of Green-Jackson's efforts. Warren said that by age 11, she had high blood pressure, a heart murmur and problems with her cholesterol. \"I felt bad about myself. People used to talk about me. ... 'Oh, she got too much weight.' \" Warren, now 15, has lost 37 pounds. She credits her brighter future to the program. \"Pamela saved me from going to an early grave,\" said Warren. Watch how Warren's life changed through Green-Jackson's program \u00bb . YBH targets children from low-income families. \"One in three children in this community is affected by childhood obesity because of poverty, lack of education and access to resources,\" said Green-Jackson, adding that dangerous neighborhoods are also a major obstacle. \"Kids don't go out and play as much anymore because of the gangs and the crime. It is unsafe.\" Georgia has the third-highest rate of obese and overweight youths in the nation, with 37.3 percent of its children falling into those categories, according to a recent report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (Mississippi and Arkansas rank one and two, respectively.) This summer, the group is offering camp for students with high-risk health issues, such as heart problems, kidney disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. \"A number of kids have [these issues]. That is unheard of,\" said Green-Jackson. \"These children are [given] prognoses that they won't live to 21 years old. That is something we are trying to correct through this program.\" At nearly 400 pounds, every day is a struggle for 13-year-old Malik Thomas. \"It's not easy carrying around all of this weight. I wanted to get healthy and fit,\" said Thomas, one of 25 children enrolled in YBH's summer program. Green-Jackson's program is giving Thomas hope for a healthier future. He's beginning to lose weight, and his endurance has improved. \"Miss Pamela is my hero, because she's helping me do things that I never thought I can do,\" he said. \"It feels great.\" Watch Green-Jackson's program in action \u00bb . Green-Jackson believes the program will help Thomas by introducing him to other young people who share his health problems. \"They motivate each other,\" she said. \"This program is encouraging him to continue beyond the summer.\" YBH is mostly funded through donations, but Green-Jackson also spends a large amount of her own savings each year to keep the program running. She says she refuses to rest until the children's healthy futures are secured. \"I want to have YBH in every school in the nation.\" Want to get involved? Check out Youth Becoming Healthy and see how to help.","highlights":"Pamela Green-Jackson began crusade for youth fitness after her obese brother died .\nYouth Becoming Healthy teaches middle schoolers about exercise and nutrition .\nThe organization has helped about 4,000 children since 2004 .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"9ab85b5855ce142e0313c558f69d759620bf9a15"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials are downplaying any imminent threat of a North Korean missile strike or confrontation between the two countries at sea. A U.S. official says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il seems to be \"testing the new administration.\" The U.S. intelligence community does not believe North Korea intends to launch a long-range missile in the near future, a U.S. intelligence official told CNN, despite reports in Japanese media citing intelligence that the North Korean regime intends to fire a missile toward Hawaii on July 4. Shortly after that report, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was deploying defensive measures around Hawaii. But a recent warning to mariners issued by North Korea suggests the country only intends short- and medium-range missile tests, according to one U.S. intelligence official. The North Korean government issued a warning to mariners to avoid an area in the Sea of Japan at certain times between June 24 and July 9 because of a \"military firing exercise,\" according to a U.S. military communication about the warning provided to CNN. The North Koreans had issued a similar warning prior to testing a long-range missile in April, but that warning indicated two potential danger areas more indicative of a long-range missile test. The official said that these shorter-range missiles can be \"rolled out on a dime,\" but the U.S. intelligence community sees no \"readily observable\" indication of an imminent long-range missile launch. Vehicular activity had been spotted around a long-range missile site in late May, U.S. Defense Department officials told CNN at the time. But the officials said the activity was very preliminary, with no missile parts seen, and any launch would take a lot more time to prepare. The U.S. intelligence official said there is always concern that a shorter-range test \"could go wrong,\" but for the most part the North Koreans have short and medium missile tests \"down pat,\" and those missiles are \"pretty accurate.\" The official added, \"It's not particularly difficult to fire off\" short- and medium-range missiles. North Korea recently threatened to \"wipe out\" the United States if provoked. Watch the Pentagon reaction to the threat \u00bb . The official said the United States \"assumes\" North Korea will \"continue its provocations.\" The official acknowledged this phase of the usual ebb and flow of North Korean behavior seems to be lasting longer. This has been a \"protracted period,\" said the official, with the change in U.S. leadership being a \"big factor.\" The North Korean leadership seems to be \"testing the new administration.\" Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell defended Gates' decision to deploy defensive measures around Hawaii. \"Previous long-range ballistic missile tests by the North have been failures. But they obviously are intent on developing that capability, and so long as they are, we need to do responsible, prudent things,\" Morrell said at a news conference Wednesday. \"And in this case [Gates] thinks the responsible, prudent thing is to deploy those assets.\" The U.S. military has positioned its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system and its X-band radar system in the event a missile were to be launched toward Hawaii. Morrell said that no additional defenses were being deployed in the region because the defenses in place are sufficient. \"I think we're perfectly comfortable with the assets that are in place,\" he said. \"This threat that is posed by North Korea is not a new one, so we have adjusted our assets that are normally in that area some time ago.\" Separately, the United States has not yet decided to seek permission to board and inspect a North Korean vessel it suspects of carrying illicit weapons or technology in violation of U.N. sanctions against that country, despite a recent promise by President Obama that North Korean violations would \"be met with significant, serious enforcement of sanctions.\" Morrell told reporters that while the United States is \"interested\" in the Kang Nam -- a North Korean-flagged vessel believed by officials to be carrying weapons or illegal technology -- no decision has been made to stop the ship and search it. The ship departed North Korea last week and is currently headed south toward Myanmar, U.S. officials believe. The decision to enact the U.N. Security Council Resolution to investigate will most likely not be made just by the United States but in coordination with other countries, Morrell told reporters on Wednesday. \"That's a decision that will have to be made at some point, and not necessarily just by us or this government,\" Morrell said. \"But that is a decision I think we will likely take collectively with our allies and partners out there, and make a determination about whether we choose to hail and query this particular ship. And if we make that decision, when and where to do so.\" Watch why U.S. officials are watching the Kang Nam \u00bb . Asked about the Myanmar connection Wednesday, Morrell would only say there is \"some notion of that\" but would not elaborate. The United States has been tracking the ship's progress with air assets including the P-3 spy plane and the USS McCampbell, which recently replaced the USS John McCain in trailing the Korean ship. The ship is suspected of carrying weapons because it is known to have carried proliferation materials previously, though U.S. officials concede they are not certain of the ship's holdings.","highlights":"U.S. does not believe North Korea intends to launch long-range missile soon .\nSea of Japan mariners warned to be clear due to \"military firing exercise\"\nJapanese media reported North Korea may fire a missile at Hawaii on July 4 .\nNorth Korea recently threatened to \"wipe out\" the U.S. if provoked .","id":"dd49c63579681266e83102e337bd8219647de971"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British police are reviewing the death of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, 40 years after the hard-living rocker was found dead in a swimming pool. An autographed photo of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones who was found dead in July 1969 . Police in Sussex, in southern England, have confirmed they are examining documents given to them by an investigative journalist who has been researching events surrounding Jones' death. Scott Jones, who is not related to the musician, has spent four years reviewing the evidence and speaking to key witnesses in the case. In an article published in the Daily Mail in November 2008, Jones wrote, \"I'm convinced Brian Jones' death was not fully investigated. The only question that remains is why?\" Brian Jones' body was found in the swimming pool after a party at his home in Cotchford Farm, East Sussex in July 1969. He was 27. An inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure, despite post mortem results showing he had not taken illegal drugs and had only consumed the alcoholic equivalent of three and a half pints of beer. One of the most popular conspiracy theories that followed was that Jones was murdered by his builder, Frank Thorogood. The theory gained credence after Thorogood allegedly confessed to the killing before his death in 1993. The storyline formed the basis of the 2005 film \"Stoned.\" Sussex police told CNN they could not say how long it would take to review the new material, nor whether it could lead to a full investigation. There have been repeated calls for closer examination of the case since Jones' death, which came just three weeks after he left the Rolling Stones. His drinking and drug-taking had taken a toll on his health and the band, and in 1969 Jones announced he was leaving. In a statement he said, \"I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting.\" Last year, Scott Jones published an article containing contents of an interview he conducted with one of the people present at Jones' home on the night of his death. In the article, published in the Daily Mail, Jones' said Janet Lawson, the girlfriend of Rolling Stones tour manager Tom Keylock, gave him a version of events that contradicted her official police statement. She is reported to have called her original statement, \"a pack of lies... total rubbish.\" Lawson's revised version of events is among the documents Jones has supplied to Sussex police. It is also believed to include previously unseen files released by the Public Records Office. Lawson died of cancer soon after telling Scott Jones her new sworn testimony.","highlights":"Sussex police confirm they are reviewing information on Brian Jones' death .\nRolling Stones founder was found dead in his swimming pool in July 1969 .\nInquest found \"death by misadventure,\" although questions remained .\nInvestigative journalist has handed documents, other material to police .","id":"970d5a05dcfca11e2aad7c762aea2de4dbe3858f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The search for the data and voice recorders from the Air France plane that crashed more than a month ago off Brazil's coast is entering a new phase, according to France's accident investigation agency. Searchers have discovered hundreds of pieces of wreckage from Air France Flight 447. All 228 people aboard the plane were killed in the June 1 crash. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, commonly known as black boxes, stop giving out acoustic broadcasts after 30 days. But investigators decided to continue listening for the \"pings\" for 10 days after that. Now, the two U.S. naval vessels and a French Navy submarine will halt their search for the recorders which investigators hope will shed light on exactly how the plane crashed. The second phase of the search will involve France's oceanographic ship \"Pourquoi Pas?\" which carries specialized exploration and intervention vehicles, according to the French air accident investigation agency known as the BEA. The French vessel will conduct new searches using diving equipment and towed sonar, the BEA said. Finding the recorders is of \"capital importance,\" and \"no effort must be spared in achieving this end,\" Air France has said. \"We want to stress that for the sake of the families, we hope that the search for the black boxes will be successful,\" an Air France representative said. This month, investigators revealed that the plane bellyflopped intact into the Atlantic Ocean. Investigator Alain Bouillard said it was still not clear what caused the crash, the deadliest in Air France's 75-year history. The mountainous ocean floor in the search area ranges from 3,280 to 15,091 feet, BEA officials have said, making the search for the recorders -- and the rest of the plane's debris -- difficult. \"It is as if it fell in the Andes,\" said Olivier Ferrante, chief of the BEA search mission. Flight 447 went down in stormy weather while flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Brazil called off the search for bodies June 27, having found 51 of the 228 people who died, according to the military. Investigators have also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the plane, along with luggage, Bouillard said.","highlights":"Plane went down off Brazil on June 1, killing all 228 aboard .\nVoice, data recorders stop broadcasting after 30 days .\nInvestigators planned to keep listening for 10 additional days .\nFrench oceanographic ship will conduct new searches .","id":"2565d0225760a2198a3b674966852d809afcf181"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including \"Off the Wall,\" \"Thriller\" and \"Bad\" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed. Michael Jackson, shown in 2008, was one of the biggest pop stars in history. He was 50. He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center. Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said an autopsy would probably be done on the singer Friday, with results expected that afternoon. Watch crowds gather at Jackson's hospital \u00bb . \"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color,\" the Rev. Al Sharpton said. \"To say an 'icon' would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was. He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by.\" Jackson's blazing rise to stardom -- and later fall from grace -- is among the most startling of show business tales. The son of a steelworker, he rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jackson 5, a band he formed with his brothers in the late 1960s. By the late '70s, as a solo artist, he was topping the charts with cuts from \"Off the Wall,\" including \"Rock With You\" and \"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough.\" Watch Jackson perform at a 1988 concert \u00bb . In 1982, he released \"Thriller,\" an album that eventually produced seven hit singles. An appearance the next year on a Motown Records 25th-anniversary special cemented his status as the biggest star in the country. Timeline: The life of Michael Jackson \u00bb . For the rest of the 1980s, they came no bigger. \"Thriller's\" follow-up, 1987's \"Bad,\" sold almost as many copies. A new Jackson album -- a new Jackson appearance -- was a pop culture event. iReport: Share your memories of Michael Jackson . The pop music landscape was changing, however, opening up for rap, hip-hop and what came to be called \"alternative\" -- and Jackson was seen as out of step. His next release, 1991's \"Dangerous,\" debuted at No. 1 but \"only\" produced one top-ranking single -- \"Black or White\" -- and that song earned criticism for its inexplicably violent ending, in which Jackson was seen smashing car windows and clutching his crotch. And then \"Dangerous\" was knocked out of its No. 1 spot on the album charts by Nirvana's \"Nevermind,\" an occurrence noted for its symbolism by rock critics. After that, more attention was paid to Jackson's private life than his music career, which faltered. A 1995 two-CD greatest hits, \"HIStory,\" sold relatively poorly, given the huge expense of Jackson's recording contract: about 7 million copies, according to Recording Industry of America certifications. A 2001 album of new material, \"Invincible,\" did even worse. In 2005, he went to trial on child-molestation charges. He was acquitted. In July 2008, after three years away from the spotlight, Jackson announced a series of concerts at London's O2 Arena as his \"curtain call.\" Some of the shows, initially scheduled to begin in July, were eventually postponed until 2010. Watch the reaction to Jackson's passing . Rise to stardom . Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958, to Joe Jackson, a Gary, Indiana, steelworker, and his wife, Katherine. By the time he was 6, he had joined his brothers in a musical group organized by his father, and by the time he was 10, the group -- the Jackson 5 -- had been signed to Motown. Watch Michael Jackson's life in video . He made his first television appearance at age 11. Jackson, a natural performer, soon became the group's front man. Music critic Langdon Winner, reviewing the group's first album, \"Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5,\" for Rolling Stone, praised Michael's versatile singing and added, \"Who is this 'Diana Ross,' anyway?\" The group's first four singles -- \"I Want You Back,\" \"ABC,\" \"The Love You Save\" and \"I'll Be There\" -- went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart, the first time any group had pulled off that feat. There was even a Jackson 5 cartoon series on ABC. Watch reaction from Motown Studios \u00bb . In 1972, he hit No. 1 as a solo artist with the song \"Ben.\" The group's popularity waned as the '70s continued, and Michael eventually went solo full time. He played the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie version of \"The Wiz,\" and released the album \"Off the Wall\" in 1979. Its success paved the way for \"Thriller,\" which eventually became the best-selling album in history, with 50 million copies sold worldwide. At that point, Michael Jackson became ubiquitous. Seven of \"Thriller's\" nine cuts were released as singles; all made the Top Ten. The then-new cable channel MTV, criticized for its almost exclusively white playlist, finally started playing Jackson's videos. They aired incessantly, including a 14-minute minimovie of the title cut. (\"Weird Al\" Yankovic cemented his own stardom by lampooning Jackson's song \"Beat It\" with a letter-perfect parody video.) On the Motown Records' 25th-anniversary special -- a May 1983 TV extravaganza with notable turns by the Temptations, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson -- it was Michael Jackson who stopped the show. Already he was the most popular musician in America, riding high with \"Thriller.\" But something about his electrifying performance of \"Billie Jean,\" complete with the patented backward dance moves, boosted his stardom to a new level. Watch Jackson perform \"Thiller\" \u00bb . People copied his Jheri-curled hair and single-gloved, zippered-jacket look. Showbiz veterans such as Fred Astaire praised his chops. He posed for photos with Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the White House. Paul McCartney teamed with him on three duets, two of which -- \"The Girl Is Mine\" and \"Say Say Say\" -- became top five hits. Jackson became a Pepsi spokesman, and when his hair caught fire while making a commercial, it was worldwide news. It all happened very fast -- within a couple years of the Motown special. But even at the time of the \"Motown 25\" moonwalk, fame was old hat to Michael Jackson. He hadn't even turned 25 himself, but he'd been a star for more than half his life. He was given the nickname the \"King of Pop\" -- a spin on Elvis Presley's status as \"the King of Rock 'n' Roll\" -- and few questioned the moniker. Relentless attention . But, as the showbiz saying has it, when you're on top of the world, there's nowhere to go but down. The relentless attention given Jackson started focusing as much on his eccentricities -- some real, some rumored -- as his music. As the Web site Allmusic.com notes, he was rumored to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber and to have purchased the bones of John Merrick, the \"Elephant Man.\" (Neither was true.) He did have a pet chimpanzee, Bubbles; underwent a series of increasingly drastic plastic surgeries; established an estate, Neverland, filled with zoo animals and amusement park rides; and managed to purchase the Beatles catalog from under Paul McCartney's nose, which displeased the ex-Beatle immensely. In 1990s and 2000s, Jackson found himself pasted across the media for his short-lived marriages, the first to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie; his 2002 claim that then Sony Records head Tommy Mottola was racist; his behavior and statements during a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir done for a documentary called \"Living With Michael Jackson;\" his changing physical appearance; and, above all, the accusations that he sexually molested young boys at Neverland. Watch report on legacy on Michael Jackson \u00bb . The first such accusation, in 1993, resulted in a settlement to the 13-year-old accuser (rumored to be as high as $20 million), though no criminal charges were filed, Allmusic.com notes. He also fell deeply in debt and was forced to sell some of his assets. Neverland was one of many holdings that went on the block. However, an auction of material from Neverland, scheduled for April, was called off and all items returned to Jackson. Interest in Jackson never faded, however, even if some of it was prurient. In 2008, when he announced 10 comeback shows in London, beginning in July 2009, the story made worldwide news. The number of concerts was later increased to 50. Seventy-five thousand tickets sold in four hours when they went on sale in March. However, when the shows were postponed until 2010, rumors swept the Internet that Jackson was not physically prepared and possibly suffering from skin cancer. Watch discussion of his tough life, brilliant career \u00bb . At the time, the president and CEO of AEG Live, Randy Phillips, said, \"He's as healthy as can be -- no health problems whatsoever.\" Jackson held open auditions for dancers in April in Los Angeles. He is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II.","highlights":"Michael Jackson suffers cardiac arrest at home in Los Angeles suburb .\nSinger was dominant in pop music for four decades with Jackson 5, solo .\nJackson had many No. 1s; his \"Thriller\" is one of the best-selling albums of all time .","id":"1ee14b83d22de97ed8354e2e943ec660ef5683df"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The organist on the seminal 1960s song \"A Whiter Shade of Pale\" has won a long-running legal battle for a share in the royalties for the tune. Matthew Fisher, shown here in a 2006 photo, has won a battle over \"Whiter Shade of Pale\" royalties. Matthew Fisher sued former Procol Harum bandmate Gary Brooker in the House of Lords, Britain's highest court. A lower court had ruled in his favor in 2006, granting him co-writing credits and a share of the royalties. Another court partly overturned the ruling in 2008, giving Fisher co-writing credit but no money. The Court of Appeal said Fisher had waited too long to bring his claim to court. The House of Lords disagreed, said there was no time limit on such claims. Fisher -- whose organ chords open the anthemic song and carry the psychedelic tune through its final swells -- says on his Web site that the song is the most-played ever on the books of Phonographic Performance Ltd. Lord David Neuberger of Abbotsbury said the organist had played a key role in the success of the song. \"Fisher's subsequent contribution was significant, and, especially the introductory eight bars, an important factor in the work's success,\" he wrote in his verdict. The ruling could be worth a lot of money to him. BBC television, for example, pays \u00a343.89 ($72.40) per minute in royalties each time it plays the four-minute song, according to PRS for Music, which collects royalties on behalf of music writers, composers and publishers . BBC Radio 2 pays \u00a319.35 ($31.92) per minute. Writers and composers receive royalties until 70 years after their death in the British system.","highlights":"Matthew Fisher sued former Procol Harum bandmate Gary Brooker .\nFisher was seeking share of royalties for \"A Whiter Shade of Pale\"\nLower court had ruled in his favor in 2006, but another partly overturned ruling in 2008 .","id":"f068cdbc715a79b2c80513f842c10e10d1d34c29"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- In response to a spate of attacks allegedly by a drug cartel, Mexico more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling the state of Michoacan, a government spokeswoman said. Drug violence is up in Michoacan state, shown by recent attacks on police in at least a half-dozen cities. The government on Thursday dispatched 1,000 federal police officers to Michoacan state in southwest Mexico, increasing its presence to 1,300 total, Public Safety spokeswoman Veronica Penunuri told CNN. At least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since the weekend in Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon. The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, whom authorities described as a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana. Cartel members first attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda, authorities said. When that failed, drug gangs attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities, according to authorities. The Michoacan cartel also is accused in the slaying of 12 federal police officers whose bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway. Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: \"So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here.\" Since Calderon went after the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in 2006, more than 10,000 people have died across Mexico, about 1,000 of them police. The state of Michoacan, on Mexico's southwest Pacific coast, is not alone in the wave of violence sweeping the country. The border city of Ciudad Juarez set a record this weekend when its toll of drug-related deaths for the year topped 1,000, a distinction the Mexican city did not reach last year until September.","highlights":"Mexican government responding to a spate of deadly attacks in Michoacan .\nThe number of federal police officers patrolling the state has more than tripled .\nSudden spike in violence follows arrest Saturday of high-ranking drug cartel member .\nLa Familia Michoacana accused in the slayings of 12 federal police officers .","id":"a0de7b33b8f7b24a36c4c4fb9a8e1460dfcd4aae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yemenia Airways is canceling all its flights between Yemen and the Comoros Islands after this week's crash on the same route, the airline said Saturday. Bahia Bakari holds her father's hand as she lies on a stretcher in a plane after landing in France. One more flight between Sanaa and Moroni is scheduled for Sunday, but all flights on the route are canceled after that, Yemenia said. A Yemenia Airways Airbus 310 went down early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Comoros' capital, Moroni. One person, 13-year-old French girl Bahia Basari, survived for hours in the Indian Ocean clinging to the debris of the downed plane. She arrived home in France on Thursday, where she was reunited with her father. Watch teen survivor from crash \u00bb . She is the only known survivor from the crash, which killed her mother. The Airbus 310 plane tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar. French and U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies. The French military has detected a rescue beacon, but rescue workers say the wreckage is difficult to reach in deep waters. The plane's data recorders have yet to be found, said Capt. Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Qadir, a spokesman for Yemen's civil aviation department.","highlights":"Teenage girl only person to survive plane crash off Comoros islands .\nFrench, U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies from the plane .\nThe plane's data recorders have yet to be found, Yemeni authorities say .","id":"8fa20a03c698974043f72686858e0bdc546c3867"} -{"article":"Saudi Arabia's Cabinet was reassured Monday about the condition of its crown prince, according to state-run media, amid mounting speculation about his health. Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud is in Morocco recovering after medical treatment. The country's second deputy prime minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, spoke to ministers about the condition of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud while leading a Cabinet session in Jeddah, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The crown prince has been convalescing at his residence in the Moroccan city of Agadir, where he arrived in May, after undergoing surgery and treatment in New York for an undisclosed illness. Speculation has mounted since he arrived in New York in February. The crown prince's age has never been officially announced but most estimates put him in his 80s. Earlier this week, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, stopped in Agadir to visit the prince and check on his health. The Saudi Press Agency issued a statement during the king's trip, saying he was \"reassured about the health of his brother the crown prince.\" Though Saudi officials have maintained publicly that Sultan's health has improved, the appointment in late March of a second deputy prime minister raised more questions. In April, King Abdullah named the interior minister, Prince Nayef -- the powerful brother of the crown prince and half-brother to the king -- to the post of second deputy prime minister. While many Saudis took the appointment to mean that Nayef is now the country's crown prince in waiting and second in line to be king, others interpreted it as a simple administrative move, ensuring leadership at home if Abdullah and Sultan are abroad at the same time.","highlights":"Crown prince recovering after treatment in New York for an undisclosed illness .\nCrown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud believed to be in his 80s .\nHas been convalescing at his residence in the Moroccan city of Agadir .\nSaudi officials have maintained publicly that Sultan's health has improved .","id":"832b02888e12a149f4236f89d42754e23754f469"} -{"article":"LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- The government of Peru on Friday declared a state of emergency in a remote northern area after a clash between police and indigenous people protesting what they say is the exploitation of their native lands left a number of people dead. Alberto Pizango, a leader of the protesters, says his followers did not kill police officers. Police and indigenous protesters said separately that at least eight police and 22 protesters died. The clash took place at dawn outside the northern province of Bagua in the Department of Amazonas as police attempted to break up a roadblock on the 59th day of protests. Foreign Minister Jose A. Garcia Belaunde told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that the state of emergency was ordered to give the government the opportunity to re-establish order and reopen talks with the protesters. Under the state of emergency, the army can be called on to maintain order. \"Look, the use of force is legitimate,\" he said. \"Today, what we have received in response were gunshots -- directed at police helicopters, killing eight or nine police.\" But Alberto Pizango, the principal leader of the indigenous group, said his followers could not have been responsible for killing any police, because they were armed only with stones and arrows. He said the demonstrators had been pursuing a peaceful protest. Authorities have not confirmed the number of civilian deaths. The director general of the police, Jose Sanchez Farfan, said government buildings in Bagua had been looted and set aflame. Though a congressional commission has recommended the repeal of the laws rejected by the native communities, President Alan Garcia supports those that allow using the lands, maintaining that the richness of the Amazon belongs to all Peruvians and that a significant percentage of natural areas are already protected. \"These people don't have crowns,\" he said about the protesters. \"These people aren't first-class citizens who can say -- 400,000 natives to 28 million Peruvians -- 'You don't have the right to be here.' No way. That is a huge error.\" Garcia called Pizango a criminal. Several days ago, Garcia announced an arrest warrant had been issued for Pizango, who is accused of inciting his followers to violence. Journalist Maria Elena Belaunde contributed to this story from Lima.","highlights":"Violence flares as police attempt to break up a roadblock .\nGovernment declares state of emergency in remote northern area .\nIndigenous people protest what they call the exploitation of their native lands .\nPeruvian president says land belongs to all the people of the country .","id":"69c9b096fea9b43c4f6ae31dbcdec6c5b7e74dbe"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Where were you on the night of July 15? You may not even remember, but for me it was an extraordinary evening, an evening of unimaginable triumph and unbearable tragedy. Andrew Kinard testifies before a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on April 29, 2009. But I would not actually know everything that happened until the night was long over. A couple of weeks before July 15, a friend who works with injured troops emailed me to say it was time for Andrew's going away party. Andrew Kinard is a young Marine I first met a few years ago at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington where he was recovering from a devastating IED attack in Iraq. He had stepped on the roadside bomb and lost his entire body below the hips. The party being arranged was Andrew's farewell to D.C. Andrew is off to the rigors of Harvard Law School. He's says he's itching to get into a courtroom. You need to remember the name Andrew Kinard. Many of his friends believe Andrew is such an amazing man that he will become president of the United States. If I had to bet, I'd say it could happen. I wouldn't have missed the party for the world. I was touched that this tight-knit community of wounded warriors had included me in this very special, very intimate evening. There was a display of photos of Andrew serving in Iraq. I suddenly realized I never knew how tall he was before the war. There were a few sniffles and wiping of eyes in the room for a Marine whose dream of service to his country ended within a few months of getting to Iraq. But sniffles didn't last long and the evening became one of hugs, laughter and good wishes (and more than a few beers) for a young Marine who had triumphed over what the war had dealt him. But my warm feelings didn't last long. The next day another source in the wounded troop community came to me in the Pentagon hallway with another tale. \"You have to do something about the story of Ray Rivas,\" he said. In the very hours we were celebrating Andrew in Washington, tragedy was unfolding in Texas. Lt. Col. Raymond Rivas, a 53-year old civil affairs officer who had dedicated his career to rebuilding war torn countries, was found dead in his car in the parking lot of Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio Texas. Colleagues of Ray's said prescription pills and notes he wrote to his family and wife, Colleen, were found. A military source told me all indications are Ray took his own life. His devastated family understandably declined to talk publicly, and the military won't discuss the case citing privacy concerns. But friends and colleagues I spoke to confirmed that Ray had suffered multiple blast injuries to his brain from bomb attacks during several deployments over the years. Watch Ray Rivas's struggle with his brain injuries \u00bb . In October 2006, Ray survived an attack in Iraq that rendered him briefly unconscious. He was transferred to Europe but somehow talked the doctors into sending him back to the war zone. A week later, ill and confused, he was sent back to the United States. A close associate tells me that at first, despite being diagnosed with traumatic brain injury in Iraq, some doctors thought Ray might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They didn't realize he had all the symptoms of traumatic brain injury. He had trouble talking, reasoning and remembering. He was sent to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio so he could be near his family, but for the first few months he just sat in his room. Fellow soldiers helped him with his bathing, dressing and eating. Finally, Ray was assigned a case manager, and things began to move rapidly. He got therapy and was able to go home. But by all accounts from his friends, Ray had become seriously debilitated by the injuries to his brain. A private email shown to CNN revealed that Ray had been diagnosed with rapidly emerging Alzheimer's disease. The cumulative impact of all those bomb blasts were destroying his brain. Colleagues say Ray knew he might have to move to an assisted living facility. Ray's doctors are not discussing his treatment because of privacy concerns. A colleague told me Ray was tired and in pain on the night of July 15. He was found in his car in the parking lot at the army hospital where he had spent so long trying to get better. But Ray will be remembered for all he did for others. Even with all his suffering, he wanted to make sure other injured troops were helped. In April he and his wife Colleen went to Capitol Hill to testify with other wounded warriors about their needs. Sitting on that panel with Ray was Andrew Kinard.","highlights":"CNN's Barbara Starr celebrated a victory and mourned a loss on July 15 .\nAn injured Marine was celebrating getting into Harvard Law School .\nOn same night, a warrior with a traumatic brain injury was found dead in his car .\nMen's stories are linked -- both pleaded with the government to aid injured soldiers .","id":"28f06a85633bb7179332cb2b73ccfcc1231fd6de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Security forces patrolled deserted streets in Gabon's capital as citizens of the west African nation awaited official presidential results amid growing fears of violence, witnesses told CNN on Thursday. Police block supporters of opposition candidate Pierre Mamboundou in Libreville, Gabon. Voters in the oil-rich nation went to the polls Sunday to elect a successor to President Omar Bongo, who died in June after more than four decades in office. Bongo, 73, was Africa's longest-serving ruler. His son, Ali Bongo, a candidate for the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party, was one of the main contenders. Local media reports indicated that the younger Bongo had won, but CNN was unable to confirm those results. \"The Gabonese have come out of 42 years of dictatorship; they don't care who will be the next president, as long as it is not Bongo,\" Andriankoto Ratozamanana told CNN by phone from the capital, Libreville. \"They want change. They don't want Bongo, because he is his dad's son.\" Libreville was deserted because residents had fled to villages for fear of post-election violence, Ratozamanana said. \"The citizens won't accept if Ali Bongo wins, because that will mean the government stole the vote,\" Ratozamanana said. The younger Bongo, a former defense minister, was one of 23 politicians originally in the ballot. Several candidates pulled out a few days before the vote to support the opposition, said Archippe Yepmou, a media activist. Bongo, main opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou and former interior minister Andre Mba Obame have all claimed victory. The elder Bongo took power in 1967, seven years after the country's independence from France. He imposed one-party rule a year after succeeding the country's first president, who died in office. He allowed multiparty elections after a new constitution in 1991, but his party retained its grip on the government despite that. The nation of about 1.5 million has a per capita income four times that of most sub-Saharan African nations, according to the CIA World Factbook. Despite its wealth, which also comes from timber exports, a large percentage of its population lives in poverty because of poor financial management and a huge gap between the rich and the poor. CNN's Umaro Djau contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tension grows in Gabon, West Africa as citizens await result of presidential election .\nCapital Libreville deserted as residents flee the city through fear of violence .\nVoters went to the polls on Sunday to elect a successor to President Omar Bongo .","id":"8ddbed192c762b9552f96d7955da3178ee528a9b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama will rack up plenty of frequent flyer miles this summer with planned trips in Africa, Russia and Italy. President Obama will travel to Ghana for two days after the G8 Summit in July. Obama, along with his wife, Michelle, will visit Accra, Ghana, on July 10 and July 11, the White House said Saturday. It will follow Obama's trip to the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, from July 8 to July 10. Obama will address various bilateral and regional issues with Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, the White House said in a news statement. \"The President and Mrs. Obama look forward to strengthening the U.S. relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and to highlighting the critical role that sound governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development,\" according to the statement. Obama announced a week ago that he will visit Egypt on June 4 to deliver a speech on America's relationship with the Muslim world. Egypt is \"a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at the time. Gibbs deflected several questions at his daily briefing about whether Egypt is a wise choice given President Hosni Mubarak's resistance to making his government more democratic. Obama originally promised to deliver the speech during his first 100 days, but senior administration officials say the date slipped in part because of security and logistical issues. Obama has visited Africa before as a senator. In 2006, he received a hero's welcome in his father's native Kenya. Before the G8 summit, the president is scheduled to travel to Moscow from July 6 to July 8 at the invitation of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev. The G8 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, England and the United States.","highlights":"Obama to visit Ghana after his trip to Italy's G8 Summit in July .\nObama also planning to visit Egypt, Russia this summer .\nObama last traveled to Africa in 2006 .","id":"fbd4476020e3745f071ea8e7fe609a18acddda94"} -{"article":"LAKE VIEW TERRACE, California (CNN) -- A massive fire that has charred more than 147,000 acres in Southern California and destroyed dozens of homes north of Los Angeles was caused by arson, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said Thursday. A wildfire burns close to blackened hills in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles on Wednesday. A homicide investigation has been initiated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department into the deaths of two firefighters as a result of the Station fire, said spokeswoman Rita Wears. The firefighters died Sunday in a vehicle crash while trying to escape fast-moving flames. The fire was at 38 percent containment Thursday. It has been burning for more than a week. Fire officials said progress has been made, particularly on the west side of the fire, but the blaze was still producing hot spots, including one that forced the evacuation of 25 residents early Thursday. Families in 11 homes were awakened at about 4 a.m. and given three hours to leave their homes near the Dillon Divide community. The fire had scorched 147,418 acres as of Thursday. Residents have fled from 10,000 homes along the edge of the Angeles Forest since the fire began on August 26. However, the majority of evacuees were allowed back into their homes by Wednesday. Watch as firefighters struggle to keep the blaze at bay \u00bb . \"We're fighting for every foot of containment we can get on this fire,\" said U.S. Forest Service Fire Chief Mike Dietrich. He said firefighters have made progress controlling the northern and western parameters of the fire, but the priority is to keep the southeastern corner of the fire away from areas along Interstate 210, including Pasadena, Arcadia and Sierra Madre. The blaze is headed toward the San Gabriel Wilderness Area of the Angeles forest. The San Gabriel represents the eastern edge of the fire, he said. Nearly all the fire was in forest land and the nearby foothill communities, including La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton. \"This is a very complicated situation, and it continues to be complicated as it moves east,\" Dietrich said. The fire has destroyed 64 homes, three commercial properties and 49 outdoor structures since it began last week, authorities said. The state has spent about $27 million so far fighting the fire in the Angeles National Forest, Dietrich said. Firefighters expect to have the blaze fully contained by September 15. Earlier, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked about the cost of the firefighting, given the state's precarious financial position. \"I've made it clear that even though we have a budget crunch and we have an economic crisis and we just solved a $23 billion deficit, we will always have the money available to fight the fires because public safety is our No. 1 priority,\" Schwarzenegger responded. That budget gap covers two years. The governor said he insisted that the state budget he signed in July have a $500 million reserve for emergencies such as fires. California has had 5,000 blazes so far this year, he said. He said 21 firefighters have been injured battling the Station fire, in addition to the two killed Sunday. While temperatures remain high, the humidity level increased on Wednesday and Thursday -- a boon to the firefighting efforts. Firefighters could get another break if temperatures cool off on Friday, as expected. CNN's Barbara Starr in Lake View Terrace, California, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Investigation treated as homicide case because two firefighters died .\nThe fire was at 38 percent containment Thursday, officials say .\nStation fire has burned more than 147,000 acres north of Los Angeles .\nBlaze still forcing some residents to evacuate .","id":"7cfe6f195438507e338d8706f6a7ec1d95e3bd13"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- It had never been done before, but as Monte Perlin gunned the engine of his Harley motorbike and prepared to land it in an open boxcar of a moving train, he was strangely calm. Stuntman Monte Perlin putting his motorcycle through its paces. Rather than fret for his own life, he was thinking about the responsibility he had for the life of the woman sitting on the saddle behind him. He laughs to tell the story now, but his moving-train stunt for Disney's 2008 Adam Sandler vehicle \"Bedtime Stories\" was perhaps the most dangerous Perlin's attempted in his 25 years in Hollywood. His career has involved many films, including \"Spider-Man,\" \"Star Trek, \"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull\" and portraying Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunt double in \"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.\" That's right: Monte Perlin is a stunt man. In fact, he said that after completing that train stunt, which involved probably more math than we'd care to compute (consider a man jumping 70 feet on a motorbike at 60 mph from a ramp into an open car of a train traveling at 45 mph, all with a woman on the seat next to him...sounds a bit like a SAT question, doesn't it?) the footage showed he missed. In actuality, he came too close -- or about 6 inches -- to one of the boxcar's doors. So, he had to do it again. \"I have to time it with a girl on my back,\" Perlin said. \"Too short, I'm dead. Too late, I'm dead. Too high, fast or powerful, I take my head off. It had to be perfect. While he didn't sleep for two nights before the stunt, he says a strange type of calm precedes any of his attempts at a difficult trick. Then, just before launch, he says, as he revs the engine of whichever \"boss hog\" he's riding that day, his adrenaline kicks into gear. \"I get that feeling, that I could wrestle 10 gorillas, I could jump 10 trains, and boom! I go for it.\" Perlin completed the stunt, this time \"hitting\" it almost exactly through the middle of the box-car's open gate and the movie's production team wrapped the scene. \"I did it again and just hit it perfect,\" he said. \"I hit the impossible stunt.\" It didn't start this way . Perlin grew up in Lake Arrowhead, not far from Hollywood, where from the age of 10 he ripped around the largely rural area on motocross bikes before he graduated onto some seriously heavy machinery -- including his own super-modified Harley Davidson that packs a 350 Chevy car engine. That gave him a perfect start in his chosen career of motorcycle stunt riding. AOL Autos: Fastest coupes under $30k . He got into Hollywood by ditching the small-town naysayers who didn't believe in him, he says, and traveling to Los Angeles. After a couple misfires, he looked into a stunt school he found in a Hollywood trade publication and he found his calling. AOL Autos: Top 10 best car commercials . Perhaps more importantly, Perlin met his wife, also a stuntwoman. \"(She) changed my life and stopped my drinking,\" he said. \"I told her, 'If we're gonna get married, I gotta have a career.'\" In addition to traveling to Africa, Israel, Russia, and all over the world, the couple raised four kids on a 10-acre ranch about 25 miles north of Hollywood in Lancaster. Perlin hasn't touched a drop of alcohol in nearly 25 years. He says he often takes his grandkids for \"wheelies\" around his neighborhood. As it turns out, stuntin' runs in the family: His 17-year-old daughter is a champion horse show-jumper and is gunning for an Olympic place, but is already a professional stuntwoman. AOL Autos: Ford's 'Wonder Woman' engineers important new car . Stunt work isn't something to be taken lightly, though. Perlin has the scars to prove it. He says he's broken \"almost everything.\" Everything, according to Perlin, includes both of his arms, legs, knees, feet, ankles, several of his ribs, his back and his pelvis. But, his background in gymnastics has left him some flexibility. AOL Autos: Most common car- related injuries . Perhaps philosophically, Perlin points out that the most important thing for any stuntman, alongside having a particular niche or forte like motorbike riding, is learning from the mistakes you'll inevitably make. Sometimes this means knowing when to say no and, simply, when to go for it. He recalls the time he was cajoled by a director into doing a motorcycle stunt he considered too dangerous. \"The worst thing (I ever did) was on a Brian Bosworth series 13 years ago in Florida. I had to jump off a pier, over the water and into a barge. Well, usually they give you a lighter bike mocked up to look like a Harley, but they wouldn't do that (for) this so I had to get a stock Kawasaki 1200 Vulcan. I could jump a 35-foot distance (on that bike) but from pier to barge was now more than 35 feet. I checked the tide and the jump was 40 feet long. \"Now (I know) I don't want to do it. But the production manager came running out and said, 'If Monte Perlin doesn't do this jump, you all are going home right now.' He was really throwing it at me. I did the jump and landed perfectly, but the bike snapped in half and crushed my ankle. In the hospital, the 'doc said they were gonna have to cut my foot off.\" Perlin's foot was saved by steel plates and screws, but not before he learned an important lesson: \"It's not the fact of making mistakes in life, it's what you learn from them.\" He describes a later stunt where he had to jump a motorbike down 2.5 stories from a roof, jumping through a window, all while wearing a rubber monster suit. He says the lights were bad, and he \"couldn't see a thing.\" \"I called down to floor, said I couldn't see the ground,\" he said. \"They said 'You wimp, my mother could do that.' But, five minutes later the lights were right, and I landed it. The end result was I had learned from my mistakes. There are ways to get around anything.\" One tough assignment . Most famously, perhaps, Perlin portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger in \"Terminator 3,\" a role that still has a special place in his memory (although he says he's back working with his old Terminator team on a \"major blockbuster\" to be filmed this summer). AOL Autos: Top 10 movie car chases . \"For Terminator 3, I got a call to double Arnold, to go in and meet him. We hung out for six months, riding together and training. Now (as a double for the) Terminator, I can't be riding and looking, or turning my head. I had to use peripheral vision for all my stunts.\" Not that he needed a reminder, but Monte's Terminator experiences proved once again that stunt work is serious business. \"In one of the sequences, Arnold's riding on a motorcycle and the lady's on a crane. She swings at him and he grabs the crane. But that transfer was not as sweet as it looked. Riding at 45 mph, following the crane, a harness was supposed to bring me closer to the crane and lock me safe to it. But, the crane made a swerve and it pulled me off the motorbike, and he's still going. Picture a fish on the end of a hook, being swung around. If that timing was off I would (have been) wrapped around a pole and torn in half.\" On the same shoot, Monte had to do battle with an object much larger than him and perhaps less forgiving than a moving crane. \"For an explosion shot in the movie, I was heading right toward a tanker,\" he said. \"I swerved around (it) and was head on with a remotely controlled ambulance, (which was) on fire. If I had fallen and it would of hit me, I would have been bone dead. \"But, it landed beside me -- a full-weight paramedic truck flipping through the air. I talked to the guy on the remote control after that. He said it would have landed on top of me, but on the last second it turned to the right and missed me. It woulda squished me.\" Unless you're Monte Perlin, do not try this at home. You might get squished.","highlights":"Stuntman Monte Perlin has broken \"almost everything\" in his 25-year career .\nHis films include \"Spider-Man,\" \"Star Trek, \"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines\"\nOne motorbike stunt involved jumping 70 feet at 60 mph into open car of moving train .\nRemotely controlled, burning ambulance flipped and barely missed him .","id":"d4d6125d08422ca249497365a0a4ce4e70c75c6f"} -{"article":"PALLAVAKAM, India (CNN) -- South India's sun beats down on a long line of trucks wending to the Bay of Bengal. In the back of these trucks, giant, brightly painted statues of the Hindu god Ganesha are waiting to be dropped in the nearby ocean. Ganesha worshippers transport their Idol for an immersion ritual. All over India, Hindus recently celebrated the birthday of the elephant god and now the idols made for this festivity are being taken to India's ocean, rivers and lakes and deposited. It's part of the Hindu religious cycle. But it's also a huge source of pollution. And in recent years, idol immersion has become a popular local event, with some statues so huge they must be lifted by cranes. The Ganeshas gleam with gold paint and glisten with reds, pinks and greens. But scientists who've studied the problem say these paints often contain toxic metals, such as lead and mercury. They contaminate plants, and poison fish and irrigation and drinking water. They end up in the human food chain. The problem is not just caused by idols of Ganesha, but by the many other Hindu god idols as well, such as Saraswati and Durga. Hundreds of thousands of god idols are immersed every year in festivals across India. A detailed study of the problem has been done by Shyam R. Asolekar of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. He estimates that, in the city of Mumbai alone, several hundred thousand idols are made annually. Watch a Hindu immersion ritual \u00bb . Decades ago, there were far fewer idols and idols were made of mud and biodegradable materials, Asolekar said. The effect also was \"minimal\" he said, because waterways weren't linked as they are now. As a result of water and irrigation projects, \"connected water systems and dams have reduced the flow of water\" and dramatically increased the effect of pollution. According to Asolekar's study, \"Forbidding the disposal of painted idols, ornaments and decoration is the only sure way of protecting our water bodies.\" Various Indian states are testing out new approaches, such as mobile immersion tanks, and encouraging mud idols. Asolekar dismissed the idea of an eco-friendly idol, saying even large amounts of mud kill waterways. \"The number of idols is so high,\" he said, \"no matter what the material, there will always be an impact. Even organic substances in large quantities cause a problem.\" He suggests a \"dry immersion,\" in which the idol is sprinkled symbolically with water and then later dried for reuse. This approach would face great hurdles in a country where religious rituals have deep social and cultural ties and change comes slowly. Another possible interim measure uses a polymer-lined tank for immersion. More than 100 such tanks have been installed in Mumbai. The linings can be rolled up after use and the materials separated into bio and nonbiodegradable materials for composting and landfill. The water is filtered. But this solution is far from ideal, Asolekar said, as tens of thousands of such tanks would be needed, and there is still plenty of contamination. \"It will take time to change people's attitudes,\" he said.","highlights":"Hindu ritual of immersing idols in oceans, rivers and lakes is causing contamination .\nPaints on idols often contain toxic metals, such as lead and mercury .\nPollutants contaminate plants, poison fish and irrigation and drinking water .\n\"Dry immersion\" suggested as a solution -- idol is sprinkled symbolically with water .","id":"d5a206f8efea09b1c0f69cd26a98c054b1841ee2"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's opium production dropped dramatically this year partly because of new aggressive drug-fighting tactics in the country, a United Nations study found. Afghan police officers use tractors to destroy poppy crops in Helmand province earlier this year. According to the report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, production dipped by 10 percent this year, while cultivation fell by 22 percent. \"At a time of pessimism about the situation in Afghanistan, these results are a welcome piece of good news and demonstrate that progress is possible,\" said Antonio Maria Costa, the office's executive director. The United Nations notes that drugs originating in Afghanistan have \"catastrophic consequences.\" \"They fund the activities of criminals, insurgents and terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Collusion with corrupt government officials is undermining public trust, security and the rule of law. \"Widespread money-laundering is harming the reputation of banks in the Gulf and farther afield,\" it said. Watch U.N. official discuss concerns about opium stockpiles \u00bb . The report, released this week, attributed the decrease to better government leadership, aggressive counter-narcotics tactics, a push for farmers to grow legal crops and pressure from NATO-led soldiers. This was the second year that the production of the opium, used to produce heroin, had dropped in Afghanistan. The study found 20 of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan were now free of opium farming. The most significant drop this year was in Helmand province, the volatile southern region where NATO-led forces are battling with militants. In that opium hotbed, cultivation dipped from 103,590 to 69,833 hectares (255,976 to 172,561 acres). But even with this seemingly good news, some fear that drug traffickers in Afghanistan are preparing to fight back. According to the report, researchers found evidence strong drug cartels, similar to ones seen in Colombia, were being formed by participants in Afghanistan's drug trade. \"A marriage of convenience between insurgents and criminal groups is spawning narco-cartels linked to the Taliban,\" Costa said. Incentive programs giving local farmers seeds and training in growing legal crops represent a key tactic in the fight against drugs. Local farmers in Helmand are being trained at a facility ran by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Farmers like Abdul Qadir said programs like this one are key to bringing peace to war-torn Afghanistan. \"These countries that are here, why are they with guns and bombs? If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away, these Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear,\" Qadir said. CNN's Atia Abawi contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N.: Drugs originating in Afghanistan have \"catastrophic consequences\"\nSuccess attributed to aggressive drug-fighting tactics in the country .\nReport: 20 of 34 provinces in Afghanistan now free of opium farming .\nLocal farmers also encouraged to grow legal crops .","id":"b23ab1b0feef5b16bc78b906a3c8b74f2900395c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators have arrested a third suspect in the killing of a prominent doctor near Houston, Texas. Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzalez was found dead at his ranch last month, police say. The Texas Rangers arrested Misael Sotollo, 18, Tuesday evening in a Houston apartment, the Austin County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Sotollo and two others -- brothers Cristobal Galvan Cerna, 23, and Moises Galvan Cerna, 18 -- are charged with murder in the death of Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzalez. Bail has been denied for all three, according to authorities. The doctor was chief of the critical care section at Houston's Methodist Hospital and \"a pulmonary medicine leader,\" according to the hospital system's Web site. Gonzalez was found dead August 22, after deputies responded to a 911 call of a burglary in progress at his weekend ranch, in a rural and isolated area outside Bellville, Texas, authorities said. Bellville is about 50 miles west of Houston. The suspects were already at the home when the Gonzalez family arrived around noon, law enforcement officials said. The doctor was able to enter his home and obtain a handgun in an attempt to defend himself and his family, authorities said. Gunshots were exchanged, and the doctor died at the scene, they said. Also wounded in the shooting was ranch hand Noel Galvan Cerna, who worked for Gonzalez and is the brother of two of the men in custody in the killing. Sotollo is their cousin. An officer responding to the Gonzalez home on the robbery report was met by vehicles leaving the location, Austin County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Paul Faircloth said, and a person in one vehicle fired on the officer. Neither the officer nor his patrol car was struck, and the officer did not return fire, Faircloth said. The officer was able to provide a detailed description of the vehicles, he said. The officer found Gonzalez' wife and toddler unharmed inside the home.","highlights":"Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzalez found shot to death at his ranch on August 22 .\nPolice say Gonzalez arrived at the rural home to find suspects already there .\nHe was able to get his gun from the house but died in ensuing gunfire, police say .\nRanch hand was injured in the attack; the suspects are his brothers and cousin .","id":"bd12b38a954c9394894bbe40fe496e199de31f69"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Lucas A. Powe Jr. is a professor of constitutional law at The University of Texas and the author of the recently published book, \"The Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2008.\" He clerked for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Lucas Powe Jr. says it's not a surprise that justices voted 5-4 in favor of the New Haven firefighters. AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Monday, in the much anticipated New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters' case, the Supreme Court reversed an opinion joined by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee. The reversal was expected and is not the first time an appointee has been reversed by the court he was about to join. Indeed, two of Chief Justice Warren Burger's opinions for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals were reversed in 1969, the year he joined the court. One was Watts v. United States, in which the defendant had been convicted for threatening the life of the president. By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that Watts' supposed threats were really nothing but hyperbole. The decision came down one month before President Nixon nominated Burger. More significantly, after Burger had been confirmed, the Court reversed him again, this time in a major case -- Powell v. McCormack. The House had refused to seat Harlem, New York, Democratic Rep. Adam Clayton Powell after he won yet another election. The reasons for the House's action were misappropriation of public funds and abuse of process in state courts to avoid paying a judgment. Burger wrote that federal courts could not decide Powell's case because the issue was nonjusticiable -- that is, not appropriate for a judicial resolution because issues of membership in Congress were exclusively committed to Congress. When the case reached the Supreme Court, a lengthy opinion by Chief Justice Earl Warren held that courts could rule in such a case and that a House of Congress could only exclude someone if that person did not meet the qualifications, age, citizenship and residence requirements set forth in the Constitution. There was but a single dissent. The reversal of Sotomayor was expected because a majority of the current court are Republicans who believe governmental decisions should be made on a color-blind basis. Beginning with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have taken aim at affirmative action, and the Republican justices have concurred. Only once in the past 15 years has the Republican majority voted in favor of minorities in an affirmative action case. That came in 2003, when the court upheld the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan Law School. That case, however, was profoundly influenced by an amicus brief signed by 45 retired admirals and generals (plus former Defense Secretary William Cohen) stating that affirmative action was essential at the Service Academies in order to create a diverse officer corps in order to ensure necessary military cohesiveness. When asked about the military brief, Solicitor General Theodore Olson stated that he had not thought about the consequences of ending affirmative action at the Service Academies. That was enough for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican, who switched from her normal skepticism of affirmative action to sustain the law school program. Nevertheless, four Republican justices -- William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas -- voted to invalidate the program. With John Roberts replacing Rehnquist and Samuel Alito replacing O'Connor, the court acquired a majority that appears more concerned about discrimination against whites than about racial equality in American society. Thus just two years ago in cases out of Seattle, Washington, and Louisville, Kentucky, the Republican majority invalidated school assignment plans that the school districts themselves had decided were appropriate to prevent resegregation. With those cases as background, the majority's sympathy for the plight of Frank Ricci, who studied so hard for the New Haven promotion examination, was easily predictable. But so was the fact that the four dissenters in the Seattle and Louisville cases -- John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and the now-retired David Souter -- would side with the city in its concern that the results of the test left no African-Americans eligible for promotion. What the New Haven case showed was that Republicans have been winning presidential elections and therefore gaining Supreme Court nominations more often than Democrats for the past generation. So when a Democratic president finally got a nomination, any person selected would dissent from the Republicans' disdain for affirmative action. It is merely a coincidence that the nominee, Sotomayor, happened to participate in the case already. Some Republican senators may try to use the New Haven majority to paint Sotomayor as out of the mainstream. But that conclusion requires painting the four dissenters as out of the mainstream, too. Only the Republican base could believe that. Sotomayor will be confirmed without a hiccup. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Lucas A. Powe Jr.","highlights":"Powe: Two Warren Burger rulings were reversed as he was about to join court .\nHe says ruling in favor of New Haven firefighters was not a surprise .\nHe says Sotomayor is not out of the mainstream since 4 justices were on her side .\nPowe: Justices named by GOP presidents generally oppose affirmative action .","id":"0db9d027b3548f6a717999134ad5be9c9261a354"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's been three years to the month since Dan Brown's book \"The Da Vinci Code\" hit theater screens, becoming a worldwide blockbuster. Tom Hanks says working in Rome, Italy, added to the production values of \"Angels & Demons.\" Now superstar Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard are back with another of Brown's best-sellers, \"Angels & Demons.\" Unlike the previous effort in which the Oscar-winning duo went on a shooting spree across several European countries, the new film takes place in just one locale, Rome. Much of the movie was shot on soundstages and sets built in Hollywood, but the cast and crew also spent months in the Italian capital, which they say provided the film with an undeniable authenticity, not easily duplicated anywhere else. Watch the excitement of shooting in Rome \u00bb . Hanks and Howard sat down with CNN to talk about the challenges -- and \"blessings,\" in Hanks' word -- of making \"Angels & Demons\" happen in one of the world's most densely trafficked, architecturally powerful cities. Tom Hanks: You're shooting in a place like Rome and quite frankly, every layer of history and every passer-by, every scooter, every truck adds to the ambience of the film, the production value that you couldn't get in a million years if we were trying to fake it during the daylight hours back home. Ron Howard: We used every device known to cinema, from the latest cutting-edge technology to certain filmic illusions that go back a hundred years, literally to the birth of the medium, to sort of low-budget street photography where you['re] just pull[ing] up in a car, getting out a van, clearing a little space and shooting a shot. And I hope that it does the thing that these kind of adventures should do, which is really transport an audience. Hanks: Every step of the way we seem to be enjoying the blessings of how complicated it is to shoot in a place of Rome. We had a lady show up who was getting married at the Pantheon, and she had to get to the altar, and we had to get our shots. She showed up right between shots when we were moving the cameras. We got her into her wedding day. We went and got our shots; she came out when she was done -- huzzahs all the way around and before the sun went down we were still able to finish up our day.","highlights":"Much of \"Angels & Demons\" footage shot in Rome, Italy .\nTom Hanks said being in Eternal City gave film feeling it couldn't get on back lot .\nBut star and director note challenges, including shooting scenes amid a wedding .","id":"f94d5097fedec25e6e706cf6872a07f9339570f5"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- \"Slumdog Millionaire\" leaves audiences uplifted. But that is hardly how one of its child stars felt on Thursday. Indian authorities demolished the home of \"Slumdog Millionaire\" child actor Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail. Despite the hit movie's mega-millions in box-office receipts, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail's life changed little after he returned home to Mumbai, India's, Garib Nagar, or city of the poor. On Thursday, even the roof over the real-life slum dweller's head was taken away as Indian authorities tore down the shanty where Ismail's family lived. Authorities said the home and about 20 others around it were illegally built. Senior Inspector Rahim Sheikh told CNN that the shanties were brought down as part of a municipal drive to clear encroachments on public land. Bulldozers leveled the slum built on a municipal garden, said Sheikh, who is in charge of the locality in Mumbai where Ismail lived. The little boy sat among twisted corrugated metal and other debris, surrounded by filth and squalor. Memories of Hollywood's glitz and glitter were distant as tears streamed down his face. He said his family was given no notice of the demolition and did not have time to remove their belongings. But, they said, they plan to return and rebuild. Watch 'Slumdog' actor's home razed. \u00bb . \"Slumdog Millionaire\" is the story of Jamal, an impoverished, uneducated teen who competes on an Indian game show. Ismail, who played a young Jamal's brother, Salim, traveled to Los Angeles, California, in February for this year's Academy Awards, where the movie won eight Oscars, including best picture. CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this story.","highlights":"Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail's home is in Garib Nagar, or city of the poor .\nIndian authorities say the home, 20 others, were illegally built .\nFamily says they got no notice, plan to rebuild .","id":"c0e223492782ec71ff23e0cf63c7b0195d75e438"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- In response to a spate of attacks allegedly by a drug cartel, Mexico more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling the state of Michoacan, a government spokeswoman said. Drug violence is up in Michoacan state, shown by recent attacks on police in at least a half-dozen cities. The government on Thursday dispatched 1,000 federal police officers to Michoacan state in southwest Mexico, increasing its presence to 1,300 total, Public Safety spokeswoman Veronica Penunuri told CNN. At least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since the weekend in Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon. The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, whom authorities described as a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana. Cartel members first attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda, authorities said. When that failed, drug gangs attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities, according to authorities. The Michoacan cartel also is accused in the slaying of 12 federal police officers whose bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway. Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: \"So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here.\" Since Calderon went after the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in 2006, more than 10,000 people have died across Mexico, about 1,000 of them police. The state of Michoacan, on Mexico's southwest Pacific coast, is not alone in the wave of violence sweeping the country. The border city of Ciudad Juarez set a record this weekend when its toll of drug-related deaths for the year topped 1,000, a distinction the Mexican city did not reach last year until September.","highlights":"Mexican government responding to a spate of deadly attacks in Michoacan .\nThe number of federal police officers patrolling the state has more than tripled .\nSudden spike in violence follows arrest Saturday of high-ranking drug cartel member .\nLa Familia Michoacana accused in the slayings of 12 federal police officers .","id":"18f966d31896594b241385d267287f503d97dfe4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Almost all British troops in Iraq are being pulled out because the agreement that allows them to be there expires on Friday, the British Ministry of Defence said Tuesday. Nearly all of Britain's troops in Iraq will have left by the week's end. The withdrawal marks the first time since the invasion of Iraq more than six years ago that there will be almost no British troops in the country. The only British troops there will be a group of about a dozen helping to train Iraqi police as part of a NATO mission, the ministry said. The United Kingdom's remaining contingent of 100 to 150 troops is leaving Iraq for neighboring Kuwait, a Ministry of Defence spokesman told CNN. He declined to be named in line with policy. \"The small handful of British military personnel operating in Iraq will be withdrawn to Kuwait after Iraq's parliament adjourned without passing a deal that would let them stay,\" the spokesman said. Iraq must give its permission for foreign troops to be on its soil. It was a group of Iraqi lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that prevented parliament from approving a new agreement on British troops. They walked out of parliament as a group on July 11, depriving the legislature of the minimum number of lawmakers necessary for votes to take place. Parliament is now on summer recess until September 8. Fawzi Akram, a lawmaker from the Sadr bloc, confirmed that the bloc reject the Iraqi-British security agreement. He said that Iraq does not need the British troops and that Iraqi security forces are ready to handle security on their own. Britain hopes the Iraqi parliament will eventually approve the security agreement. \"While this delay is unfortunate, we are continuing to seek a solution with the Iraqi Government that will provide our forces with the sound legal basis they need,\" the ministry said in a written statement. The British troops who are being pulled out include Royal Navy servicemen who have been helping the Iraqis to protect oil fields around the port town of Umm Qasr, according to the Ministry of Defence spokesman. All British combat troops have already left the country, another ministry spokesman told CNN. There were about 46,000 British troops in and around Iraq at the peak of major combat operations in March and April 2003, according to the Ministry of Defence. CNN's Jonathan Wald in London and Youssif Basil in Baghdad, Iraq, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Almost all British troops in Iraq are being pulled out .\nAgreement that allows them to be there expires on Friday .\nOnly about dozen British troops will remain to help train Iraqi police .","id":"8c4262b72e7a9d7ecf6c6de5b63892406be019b5"} -{"article":"This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Solferino which led to the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC is using the date to launch an awareness campaign of its work in conflict-affected countries, featuring photos taken by five award-winning photojournalists. This week we're bringing you stories from some of the world's most troubled countries, as told by the ICRC. MONROVIA, Liberia (ICRC) -- On a dusty pitch in the middle of the capital of Monrovia limbless young men play football as though their lives depended on it. Coach Paul Tolbert says many members of Liberia's amputee football team had lost the will to live. Football has given them hope. They are members of the Liberian National Amputee Football Team and for the most part, victims of the war. Some participated in cruel acts against civilians during the fighting and face a daily struggle to live with both their disability and the past. \"I was at church when armed men came in and killed hundreds of us,\" says 18 year old Richard Duo, who is now a star infield attacker and one of the highest goal-scorers on the team. \"I lost my mother, father and one of my brothers. My other siblings were wounded and I lost my leg. \"Now that there is peace, I have decided not to think about that anymore. I only want to look forward, to see what I can do to help myself and my family in the future. Those terrible things have already happened. I just want to focus on the future,\" he says. See photos of Richard Duo and his team mates \u00bb . Tens of thousands of people were killed or injured in Liberia's 14-year civil war. The fighting brought rape and mutilation, children were abducted and forced to become fighters and untold numbers had to flee their homes. Since 2003, peace has returned and while efforts are underway to rebuild the country the emotional and physical scars of war remain. Amputee football began in Liberia as a means of therapy and healing. It was an initiative of the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Rehabilitation, which is responsible for assisting former fighters. The team's coach, 30 year old Paul Tolbert, began recruiting members when he worked for the commission as a counseling coordinator. \"When you ask them how they felt after they were amputated, most of them wanted to kill themselves,\" says Tolbert. \"Life no longer had meaning for them. Amputee football restores their hope. Take the example of the guy who won Most Valuable Player in the recent African Cup of Nations. He was a very good player before he was amputated, but gave up hope when he lost his leg. \"When I went to recruit him, I told him 'You can make it, there is still a chance for you.' He since has regained a sense of hope.'\" In 2008, the Liberian team hosted the African Cup of Nations and won the tournament. The team has been to Russia and Turkey for international competitions and will travel to England in June for the Amputee World Cup, where they have a very good chance of making it to the final. The President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is their number one fan, ensuring support for travel and profiling the team in her speeches. Tolbert says the healing effects go well beyond the players. \"I tell my team they are bringing a sense of victory to the country. In my eyes, they are not disabled. They are men who bring pride to this nation.\" The players themselves say they are motivated by a desire to leave the war behind and to make something of themselves for their families. They're also looking for a sense of belonging and brotherhood among those who know what it's like to live with the horrors of war and to struggle just to survive. \"I love the sport because I can experience friendship again,\" says Joseph Allen, 21, who was named the best goalkeeper in the Russian tournament. \"Friendship was gone from my life for the longest time. Football brings attention to our disability and helps people better understand that we are able to contribute to society.\" For players like 32 year old Anthony Doe, amputee football has opened up a window on a world he never dreamed possible. \"I never thought that one day I would go and see Turkey or Russia but thanks to football I've been able to travel to compete,\" says the striker. For more about this topic go to the ICRC Web Site. Have you been affected by conflict? Send your photos and stories to iReport .","highlights":"Many members of Liberia's amputee football team had lost the will to live .\nThey were recruited by a counselor working to rehabilitate former fighters .\nCoach Paul Tolbert: \"They are men who bring pride to this nation\"\nPhotos were taken by war photographer Christopher Morris for the ICRC .","id":"ca1e6f2bf78db30741da9e13ee2415cb2e40b324"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Henry Joseph Madden was a good student and track team member in high school, but he had a secret: He sometimes wore his mother's pantyhose and underwear under his clothes. Dr. Jennifer Madden, a family physician, began her transition to being female at age 48. \"I really wanted to be a girl so bad, and that was one way for me to satisfy those feelings,\" Madden said. \"I always felt like someone was looking over my shoulder.\" The desire to be female never went away. At age 48, Madden confessed these feelings to a doctor, and started seeing a gender therapist who suggested Madden was transgendered. Through reconstructive surgeries, electrolysis, laser procedures and voice lessons, Henry Joseph became Jennifer Elizabeth, known as Jenny. She is a practicing family physician in Nashua, New Hampshire. Watch Jenny's story \u00bb . Chastity Bono, child of performer Cher and the late entertainer and politician Sonny Bono, announced Thursday the beginning of a transition from female to a male. While still relatively rare -- one advocate estimates that 0.25 to 0.5 percent of the American population is transgendered -- the idea of changing gender identity has become more widespread in recent years. The term \"LGBT\" (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) is more commonly recognized, and transgendered people have been portrayed in the 1999 film \"Boys Don't Cry\" as well as the 2002 book \"Middlesex\" by Jeffrey Eugenides. Many people who have transitioned, including Madden, say they knew they had been born into the wrong gender from childhood. As early as age 3, Dr. Julie Praus, born male, didn't understand why her father wanted to play catch. As a boy, Praus learned how to fish and hunt, but enjoyed collecting Depression-era glassware vases. Praus, 48, a psychiatrist in Brattleboro, Vermont, started living as a woman in March 2008. \"I get up every morning and say, 'Wow, I can actually look at myself in the mirror,' because I've never been able to do that in my life, because what would stare back at me was not me,\" Praus said. iReport.com: Share your story of gender change . Doctors speculate that there is a biological foundation to gender identity, but no one has determined what in the biological makeup determines that gender. The interactions between personality and culture also contribute to identity, said Chris Kraft, clinical director at the Johns Hopkins Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit. The process of changing genders . For people who want a gender change on a biological level, the first step is therapy, experts say. Dr. Gary Alter, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, said patients don't come to him until they've been in therapy, a process that can take as much as a year. A therapist then gives a physician approval to start the patient on hormone treatment. At that point, the patient may or may not start living as the chosen sex, Alter said. Females seeking to transition into males may elect to have their breasts removed via surgery. With testosterone, they will grow hair on their face and chest after about two years. Read one man's female-to-male advice to Chaz Bono . A higher percentage of males transitioning to females will go forward with genital surgery than females going to males, Alter said. Surgical methods for creating a penis -- which range from making one out of the clitoris to using the skin from the forearms -- are \"not perfect,\" and many patients are happy with just chest surgery, he said. Genital surgeries for creating female genitalia are better, he said. Alter's method is to make a clitoris out of the head of the penis, and make space for a vagina. Facing the rest of the world . It is rare for people to undergo a gender transition and then want to reverse it, especially when surgery is involved, experts say. Some say changing genders is one of the best things they've done, like Jamison Green, 60, author of \"Becoming a Visible Man,\" who went through chest reconstruction and genital surgery. \"I don't have too hard of a time telling people about it,\" Green said. \"I worried about that a lot in the beginning, before there was any kind of community and support about this condition, but one of the things I learned early on was that living in fear and shame is not very healthy.\" Green, who started his transition at age 40, is now happily married to a woman whom he did not know before his change. Praus is also married to a woman, who knew her before her transition. Madden has a boyfriend. \"For the longest time, I really felt like I had a mental illness, and I don't feel that way anymore,\" Madden said. But all three have experienced shock and dismay from others around them. Green said his mother took five years to adjust. One of Praus' sons doesn't speak to her. Madden's marriage to a woman ended in divorce during her transition, and her children have struggled. Yet these three transgendered individuals say they feel better in many ways in their chosen gender roles. \"My patients say I'm a better doctor,\" Praus said. \"Some of it is that I'm not exerting so much energy hiding myself.\" Psychologists recommend that people who change genders adopt a \"transgendered identity,\" and not keep their history of transition a secret. But some who \"pass\" as their new genders don't want to risk stigma, and tell only people closest to them, Kraft said. Often, males who transition to females face more problems than females who become males, Kraft said. Transgendered individuals who start as men tend to face more stigma, particularly if they are more noticeably transgendered. Transgendered individuals do face some legal quandaries. Some states require people to show proof of a medical procedure before changing gender on documents such as driver's licenses, while others require that the person has taken hormones, Kraft said. People may also elect to change their birth certificates to reflect chosen gender. Chastity Bono, who now goes by \"Chaz,\" has been a prominent gay-rights activist. \"You could speculate that that could make it more complicated -- when you're a public figure -- to take on something stigmatizing\" such as a gender transition, Kraft said.","highlights":"Estimate: 0.25 to 0.5 percent of the American population is transgendered .\nDoctors speculate that there is a biological foundation to gender identity .\nPeople rarely undergo gender-reassignment surgery and then want to reverse it .","id":"c674bd461e416bfeaea2153c36f00d7ff4a66fa2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Before the storm hit and the floodwaters took over, Kimberly Rivers Roberts pulled out her new video camera. Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband, Scott, sit outside their flood-damaged Ninth Ward home. The aspiring rapper and her husband, Scott, were among those trapped in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana, in late August 2005 as Hurricane Katrina raged toward them. The couple, who've described themselves as street hustlers, compiled amateur footage that captured the horrors experienced in their community and among their neighbors. From the middle of rising waters in attics where people waited to the struggles to find help from and for others, they documented what outsiders couldn't see. About 1,300 miles away, in Brooklyn, New York, documentary filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal sat glued to their televisions. \"After a few days of seeing people stranded on roofs, we had to do something,\" said Lessin, who with Deal had previously worked with Michael Moore. Watch Lessin and Deal talk about how the film was made \u00bb . So they set out, planning to do a film about New Orleans National Guardsmen. But when that was shut down -- \" 'Fahrenheit 9\/11' screwed it up for all you guys,\" she remembered hearing -- they found what she called \"an unexpected gift\" in Kim and Scott, whom they met 10 days after the storm. The home video material, coupled with archival news footage and film verite capturing the couple's journey, led to the documentary \"Trouble the Water,\" which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and is up for an Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. Lessin and Deal, who both directed and produced this documentary that took two-and-a-half years to make, spoke to CNN about their Ninth Ward collaborators, their own experiences and the impact the film's made. CNN: Tell me about meeting Kim and Scott. Did you know right away that you were on to something? Tia Lessin: We were in a Red Cross shelter in central Louisiana -- that's where we met the subjects, the hero[es] of our film. They'd been on this five-day journey out of the city to higher ground. ... Everyone had a story to tell, but their story really rose to the top. Carl Deal: They called themselves \"street survivors.\" Kim said the most support and help they ever got from the government were the skills to survive on their own. They were used to not getting assistance. ... It's a slap in the face for those of us who come from a more privileged place. ... And the home video, it enabled us to ground the film in this inside point of view. CNN: I can't imagine what it was like to work on this. What was this experience like for you? Lessin: Originally the film was fueled by a sense of outrage. What it became, I guess, was something a little different. It's really about hope and survival. We were inspired by Kim and Scott's journey, and their commitment to do something different in their lives. The voices on 911 calls, we think about those people all the time, and there's no way to know what happened to them. What keeps us up at night now is that people are still struggling. Levees are still vulnerable, there's a lack of affordable housing, lack of jobs. Schools are a dismal failure. Tens of thousands of people can't return home. We hope in this new administration, things will happen. CNN: What did you hope this film would inspire in terms of emotion and action? Deal: We want to challenge people, when they see it, to think about themselves and the impact they can have in the community and the world. People respond to this film in different ways. We screened at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Mayor [Ray] Nagin [of New Orleans] came to the screening and walked out after a few minutes. Sen. [Mary] Landrieu, had a completely different response and tearfully embraced Kimberly. Lessin: We get hundreds of e-mails from strangers every day, about how they're using the film in classrooms, in churches, on college campuses to organize trips [to volunteer] in New Orleans. They're inspired to act. All of America, our hearts went out [after Katrina]. There's still a real connection. People want to know what's happening. They care deeply about the story and are appalled the Bush administration did so little and hope the Obama administration does better. CNN: How much do you think politics, and issues popular to the time, influence Oscar wins? Lessin: I would hope that the best film wins. It's an extraordinary pool of nominees. [That said, \"Trouble the Water\"] does resonate. It's about people who beat the odds and survived. And that's what we're all trying to do. Kim and Scott showed us how to do it with grace and dignity. CNN: I imagine the film's success has in many ways turned Kim and Scott's lives upside down. How are they doing today? Lessin: They're rebuilding their community. They started a record label, Born Hustler Records. Kimberly is carnival royalty [at Mardi Gras]. They're hometown heroes, as well they should be. They're living where they weathered the storm, but they're in a no-flood zone. iReport.com: Who do you think will win?","highlights":"Ninth Ward couple captures on video horrors of Hurricane Katrina and flood waters .\nThe New Orleans footage is used in Oscar-nominated film, \"Trouble the Water\"\nFilmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal hope to inspire action .\nOriginally \"fueled by a sense of outrage,\" the story is about \"hope and survival\"","id":"ca5dc9f2fd0a522ef34db64f66a50aca94a55981"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Search crews have recovered the bodies of the flight captain and a steward from the Air France flight that crashed off the coast of Brazil. A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 earlier this month. The search for more debris continues. The two flight members are among the victims that have been identified, Air France said in a statement Thursday. About a dozen victims have been identified among roughly 50 bodies recovered from the crash of Flight 447, which killed 228 people on June 1, authorities in Brazil said this week. Crews continue to search for bodies, wreckage and flight-data recorders that apparently rest deep on the ocean floor. Data from the recorders may be crucial in helping investigators determine what caused the plane to crash. Watch more wreckage recovered from crash \u00bb . Autopsies conducted on some of the 50 bodies found so far show they suffered broken bones, including arms, legs and hips, Brazilian authorities have told French investigators, according to Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French accident investigation board. Such injuries suggest that the plane broke apart in midair, experts have said. Asked about that theory, Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told France's RTL radio this week that he would not go that far. \"What I know is that the investigators would like to know the causes of death,\" Gourgeon said. \"That knowledge of causes of death will better clarify what exactly happened. Were the victims killed before the impact, or during impact?\" Searchers have found dozens of pieces of debris in the water and think they know the general location of the wreck, but Arslanian said this week that there is a chance the entire aircraft may never be found. Air France plans to pay relatives of the victims an initial compensation equivalent to about $24,500, or 17,500 euros, for each victim, Gourgeon has said. The airliner said this week that it has been in touch with about 1,800 relatives of the people who died when the Airbus A330 crashed, but that it has been difficult tracing the relatives of all 228 victims. \"The modern world is different and we often have only a cell phone, and as you can imagine, this cell phone is unfortunately in the aircraft,\" Gourgeon said. \"So we probably (will put in) more hours to access all the relatives.\" The company is also providing families with counseling, he said. The were 32 different nationalities present on Flight 447.","highlights":"Search crews recover bodies of flight captain and steward from crash .\nAll 228 people onboard flight 447 from Brazil to France were killed .\nNone of names of bodies recovered have been released at request of families .","id":"0dd3de86e726c61727a0e574a3f93d835fde97d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A sailor accused of killing another sailor was found dead in his cell in a southern California military jail, officials said Friday. Seaman August Provost, shown on his MySpace page, was killed while on sentry duty at Camp Pendleton. Petty Officer Jonathan Campos was found dead in the brig at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, a military statement said. The cause of death was self-inflicted asphyxiation, according to the statement. Campos had been charged with murder in the June 30 shooting death of Seaman August Provost. Provost was killed while he was standing guard as a sentry for the Assault Craft Unit 5 compound at Camp Pendleton, officials said. Authorities also said Provost's body was set on fire at his guard post. Provost's family believed that he was killed partly because of his sexual orientation. However, a spokesman for Camp Pendleton, where the shooting took place, said there was no indication early in the investigation that the killing was a hate crime. Along with the murder charge, Campos was facing charges of drug use, larceny, burglary, theft, arson and unlawful handling of a deceased individual.","highlights":"Sailor charged in death of gay sailor found dead in brig, officials say .\nOfficials believe Jonathan Campos asphyxiated himself .\nSeaman August Provost was shot, killed during sentry duty in June .","id":"255d3ffd5f245624abcccdcd39f473b2e9b774b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's sudden death has thrown the peculiar path of his later life back into the spotlight. Michael Jackson spent 11 months living in Bahrain after his acquittal on child abuse charges in the U.S. He spent much of the past four years flitting from one part of the globe to another, failing to put down permanent roots. However, one of his longest spells in one place was spent in Bahrain. When his life was falling apart at the seams in 2005 he was offered sanctuary in the Persian Gulf kingdom. He had been just been acquitted of 10 child abuse charges at the end of a 14-week trial in the U.S., but there appeared to be no respite from the bad publicity and his spiraling debts which had forced the sale of his Neverland ranch. He suffered health problems during the trial and appeared increasingly frail. Jackson, who died owing an estimated $500 million, had been living beyond his means for years and wanted to flee the spotlight. He had not been seen in the two weeks after the trial before reports emerged from Bahrain that he and his children had landed there on a private jet as the guests of Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, the king's son, and a friend of Jackson's brother, Jermaine. It was claimed at the time that Jackson had a large fan base in the kingdom and wider Gulf region. Watch why Jackson is \"as big as it gets\" \u00bb . Indeed Bahrain, a chain of around 30 islands with a population of 766,000 and relaxed social social environment, appeared the perfect escape -- for 11 months anyway. It was made even more enticing by Sheikh Abdulla's generosity. In 2008 he sued Jackson in a Britain's High Court for \u00a34.7 million ($7.7 million), claiming the pop star had reneged on a music contract. Sheikh Abdulla said he had paid all of Jackson's living, travel and other expenses until his departure from Bahrain in May 2006, and advanced funds to retain legal and financial advisers. Watch Jesse Jackson share memories \u00bb . Sheikh Abdulla also built a recording studio, which he believed would be used to record albums using material he had helped to write. However, he claimed the singer pulled out of the deal in May 2006 after 11 months. iReport.com: Your Michael Jackson tributes . Jackson claimed the payments were gifts. In November last year the High Court in London was told the dispute had ended with an \"amicable settlement,\" the details of which remain confidential.","highlights":"Jackson was offered sanctuary in Bahrain by king's son in 2005 .\nHe spent 11 months in the Persian Gulf kingdom .\nSheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa later sued Jackson .","id":"a3203f09d4c0f840a11f04b1d4b576ffa7f0c138"} -{"article":"ROCKWOOD, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Four generations of Saylors have worked the family's dairy farm for nearly a century, but for the past three years, the cows have been doing something besides providing milk: They've been helping power the place. \"The farm used to get a lot of complaints,\" says farmer Shawn Saylor. \"It used to stink a lot.\" Growing up on the sprawling spread 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, 36-year-old farmer Shawn Saylor developed into a self-described science buff. So it was no surprise that, when faced with rising energy costs, Saylor turned to technology. He tapped into an abundant and easily accessible energy source: manure from about 600 cows. Watch how cow poo powers the farm \u00bb . \"It's a pretty simple process. There's not really a lot to it,\" Saylor said. \"Manure comes from the cows, and there's energy left in the manure.\" The process is known as anaerobic digestion, and here's how it works: . With the help of a mechanical scraper in the barn, manure drops into a 19,000-gallon tank. The slurry then moves into the digester, which is 16 feet deep and 70 feet in diameter. It's heated there for about 16 days while the bacteria break down the organic matter in order to produce methane gas. That gas is burned in two engine generators to make electricity. See an interactive explaining the process \u00bb . Heat created by the generators keeps the digester hot, heats the buildings around the farm and helps provide hot water. The electricity is used to power this farm and a dozen neighboring homes, Saylor said. And there's still some left over, which he sells back to the grid. Overall, the poo power helps Saylor's bottom line. \"In savings, there's $200,000 a year, in either extra income from sale of electricity or cost offsets,\" he said. \"So you're talking about system project costs of over a million dollars to build the system but a payback of five years or less.\" Before he installed the system, the pungent smell from the cows could linger for three to four days, Saylor said. \"The farm used to get a lot of complaints from motorists, which is understandable. It used to stink a lot.\" Now, the digesters reduce 98 percent of all odor, although he admits that if the wind blows, you still \"get a whiff.\" The farm's leftover solid waste is sold to the community. \"We use it for bedding for the animals,\" according to Saylor. \"A lot of people like to get it for their gardens ... because it doesn't smell much.\" Farm-based digesters became popular in the United States during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. But the technology didn't catch on, possibly because of the high operational costs and declining energy prices, according to the Department of Agriculture. Although Saylor had been interested in digesters for years, his dream didn't become reality until 2006. That's when he received a $600,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection. But Saylor's work isn't done. He intends to make his farm entirely self-sufficient by using waste vegetable oil to make biodiesel fuel. He said his goal is to waste nothing. \"In a biodiesel system, all the waste products can either be used or fed back into the digester to make more gas,\" he said. \"I've always looked at new technologies and believed you kind of have to work with that stuff to stay with the future.\"","highlights":"Dairy farmer says he saves money by converting cow manure to electricity .\nRemaining waste from 600 cows is used as fertilizer and mulch .\nAnaerobic digestion became popular in United States in 1970s .\nHe says process also helps cut dairy farm's odor .","id":"6e913b4178ee9d468eb290f27f3f7f242b94fdb9"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA (CNN) -- Whitney Houston swept into the room in full diva mode -- hair, makeup and entourage. She looked the part. Whitney Houston has credited mentor Clive Davis, right, for her comeback after a seven-year absence. She smiled and cooed over mentor Clive Davis, calling him \"Big Papa\" and \"Daddy\" while the music mogul patted her arm like a proud parent. The pair was in a side room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel just before the Los Angeles, California, listening session for \"I Look to You,\" Houston's first album in seven years, scheduled to be released Sept. 1. \"I just took a break, which sometimes you have to,\" said Houston, 45, looking elegant in diamonds and a black Prada dress. \"You have to know when to slow that train down and kind of just sit back and relax for a minute.\" Watch an interview with Whitney Houston \u00bb . This was definitely the old Whitney -- pre-troubled marriage to Bobby Brown and pre-comment to Diane Sawyer that \"crack is wack.\" Next door, several hundred industry folks, journalists and friends gathered in a ballroom surrounded by large screens emblazoned with the words, \"The Wait is Over.\" Jane Fonda, Halle Berry, Magic Johnson, Penny Marshall and Jackie Collins sat in the front while Barry Manilow, Brian McKnight and producer David Foster found seats in the back of the room. Davis, who has steered Houston's career for more than 25 years, introduced each of the album tracks, mostly slick, upbeat, radio-friendly tunes penned by proven hit makers such as R. Kelly, Alicia Keys, Akon and Johnta Austin. Heads bobbed while the songs thumped over the loudspeakers, with applause and cheers erupting after each cut. To the amusement of those seated in the audience, even Davis shook his shoulders behind his podium and pumped his fist to the beat from time-to-time. A ballad on the new disc, \"I Didn't Know My Own Strength,\" alludes to Houston's personal troubles in recent years. The song, written especially for Houston by Diane Warren, includes the lyrics: . I didn't know my own strength . And I crashed down and I tumbled . But I did not crumble. Houston deftly steered the focus away from herself, saying she identified with the lyrics because everyone has been through ups and downs in life. At the end of the session, Houston stepped from the wings to a standing ovation. \"I'm humbled,\" she said, her hand on her heart. \"There's so much love in the room.\" Then she joked, \"Jane Fonda's at my listening party? How cool am I?\" AEG chairman and CEO Randy Phillips also was hanging around, no doubt ready to pounce on a chance to promote her next tour. \"I think it's the biggest hit she's had,\" Barry Manilow said. \"It was really, really good,\" Stevie Wonder said. \"God takes care of his children.\"","highlights":"Whitney Houston held L.A. listening party for first album in seven years .\nJane Fonda, Barry Manilow and Halle Berry were among the stars in attendance .\nThe nine-track album contains songs written by R. Kelly, Alicia Keys and Akon .\nStevie Wonder said the album was \"really, really good.\"","id":"a97c0493bd5c0c02c83b06383ff564f6790d5bea"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that laboratory tests on popular smoking devices known as electronic cigarettes have found they contain carcinogens and other toxic chemicals dangerous to humans. E-cigarettes are battery-operated and contain cartridges filled with nicotine and other chemicals. Known as \"e-cigarettes,\" the devices are battery-operated and contain cartridges filled with nicotine and other chemicals, spiced with flavors such as chocolate, cola or bubble gum. While manufacturers tout e-cigarettes as a \"healthy way\" to smoke, federal health officials say the devices turn nicotine, which is highly addictive, and other chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user. \"The FDA is concerned about the safety of these products and how they are marketed to the public,\" said Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA. CNN contacted Florida-based Smoking Everywhere, one of the largest manufacturers of e-cigarettes, after the FDA announcement, and a spokeswoman said the company had no comment. Because e-cigarettes have not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation or approval, the agency had no way of knowing the levels of nicotine or the amounts or kinds of other chemicals that the various brands of these products deliver to the user. That is why the FDA began to test them. The FDA's Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis analyzed the ingredients in a small sample of cartridges from two leading brands of e-cigarettes. In releasing its information, the FDA did not identify the two companies, but said in one sample, diethylene glycol -- a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans -- was detected. Other samples detected carcinogens that are dangerous to those who smoke them, the FDA said. The FDA has been examining and seizing shipments of non-U.S.-made e-cigarettes at the U.S. border since summer 2008. To date, 50 shipments have been stopped. The products examined thus far meet the definition of a combination drug-device product under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. \"We know very little about these devices, said Dr. Jonathan Samet, director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California, \"but to say they are healthy -- that's highly doubtful.\" Samet and other health experts attended the FDA announcement on its findings. Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium, said parents need to be aware of e-cigarettes. \"It is very important that parents let their children know these are not safe and to make recommendations, or even enforce rules that they not be used,\" he said. \"Children who use these products may also be using other tobacco products,\" said Dr. Matthew McKenna, director of the Office of Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"It's a good idea to make sure the child is aware of the dangers of tobacco in products in general.\" The FDA has been challenged regarding its jurisdiction over certain e-cigarettes in a case pending in federal court. The FDA suggested health care professionals and consumers report serious side effects or product quality problems with the use of e-cigarettes to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting Program either online, by regular mail, fax or phone. CNN's Valerie Willingham contributed to this report.","highlights":"FDA lab tests on e-cigarettes find carcinogens and other toxic chemicals .\nE-cigarettes are battery operated, contain cartridges filled with nicotine, chemicals .\nThey turn nicotine, chemicals into a vapor that is inhaled by the user .\nProduct had not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation or approval .","id":"3b0127dfee92f6afca19f34518a3b38a648322fc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has launched a stinging attack on Astana teammate Lance Armstrong after returning as a hero to his native town of Pinto near Madrid. Lance Armstrong (right) looks on after Alberto Contador is handed the Tour de France trophy in Paris. Contador told a news conference that relations between the two riders were tense throughout the race, making the atmosphere very difficult for the team as a whole. Although not giving specific reasons why, Contador admitted the situation has affected his relationship with the American. \"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is non-existent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will,\" the 26-year-old Spaniard admitted. \"It was a delicate situation, very tense, the two riders who had most weight on the team did not have an easy relationship and that puts the rest of the technical staff and the riders in an uncomfortable position,\" he added. The Spaniard, who also won the Tour in 2007, compared the situation with that of Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton at McLaren when they were colleagues. \"That situation in some way illustrated what I have experienced. But I knew that if we kept a cool head everything would be OK,\" he added. With Armstrong and Astana team chief Johan Bruyneel both leaving the team at the end of the season, Contador's future also remains unclear. \"We will have to see what happens. I do not know where I'll go, but I am clear that it will be a team that is 100 per cent behind me.\" Contador eventually finished the race over four minutes clear of Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, with American Armstrong -- who was riding in his first Tour since completing the last of his seven wins in 2005 -- a remarkable third. It was Contador's fourth successive grand tour victory, after he also won last year's Giro d'Italia and Vuelta Espana following the Tour organizers' decision not to invite the Astana team to the race.","highlights":"Alberto Contador launches an attack on Astana teammate Lance Armstrong .\nTour de France winner admits he will never have admiration for the American .\nContador beat Andy Schleck by over four minutes to gain his second Tour win .","id":"f093cd188adc6e83602a19d67f4c811b5499b5c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday will launch three days of hearings into the circumstances surrounding the US Airways Flight 1549 emergency landing on New York's Hudson River. In January, passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 had to be rescued out of the Hudson River after a bird strike. Looking into several issues from the January 15 incident -- from migratory birds to why a rear door opened after the landing -- the NTSB panel will hear testimony from key witnesses, including Capt. Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger, the pilot; and Billy Campbell, the only passenger scheduled to testify. On Monday, the NTSB corrected remarks made by board member Robert Sumwalt, who was quoted by The Associated Press as saying Campbell was being called to contradict statements made by flight attendant Doreen Welsh, who has said a panicked passenger opened the rear door. The NTSB said Sumwalt, who will lead the three days of hearings, was mistaken and that Campbell's written statement does not suggest Welsh opened the rear door. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the board asked Campbell to testify because he had the most detailed statement of those people in the cabin at the time of the crash. \"Safety Board investigators interviewed 145 passengers, each of whom provided their own perspective on what happened,\" the NTSB said Monday night. \"Some of the passenger reports conflicted with the accounts of other passengers, including accounts of how the rear door was opened.\" \"What was consistently reported by those inside the plane was that the water entered the aft section of the cabin immediately while everyone was still seated,\" the statement said, adding that the NTSB will focus on how the water gushing \"affected the ability of the passengers and the crew to evacuate the aircraft since two of the four slide-rafts were in the rear of the plane, on each of the rear doors, and they could not be used.\" Sullenberger was the pilot in command during the flight, which lost power in both engines after hitting a flock of Canada geese. Bird detection, and standards for engines to handle bird strikes, are among subjects to be covered in the hearing. Other topics include pilot training for ditching and forced landings on water, and cabin-safety training, emergency procedures and equipment. CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hearing will cover several topics, including why rear door opened after landing .\nUS Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River on January 15 .\nPlane lost power in both engines after hitting a flock of Canada geese .","id":"1493c5508cc8bedc2c00ba4faf04e131b9362688"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Inspired by images of Iranians taking to the streets to support the opposition presidential candidate, Michelle May decided to head to Tehran. Michelle May, an American and Irish national, was detained and forced to leave Iran. \"I just felt a real need to be there with my friends, and I just wanted to be a part of what could possibly be history,\" May told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Wednesday. \"So I made arrangements at the last minute.\" May, who is an American and Irish national, used her Irish passport to travel to Tehran just days before the street demonstrations turned violent as Iranian authorities cracked down on those protesting the results of the June 12 election. \"I had been there two times before, and I feel very connected to the country and the people there,\" she said. \"I have a lot of friends.\" Her third visit took a terrifying turn Saturday shortly after she checked for the latest news at an Internet cafe in Tehran. \"This young man befriended me. I was trying to download CNN to find out -- this was the day after the ayatollah gave his prayer on Friday,\" May said. Afterward, the man helped her hail a taxi outside the cafe to meet one of her friends for lunch, she said. \"About half an hour into that ride, the next thing I know, there are two motorbikes on either side of my taxi,\" she said. \"He's on the back of one of them, and three big Basij guys are on the other, and they pull me over. I knew what was happening.\" The Basij, Iran's feared volunteer paramilitary group, has cracked down on the thousands of protesters in the bloody aftermath of the Islamic republic's disputed presidential election. \"I was terrified, and I immediately started screaming, saying no, no, no,\" May said. The young man climbed into the taxi and told her to go with him and the three other men. \"So I stood up to get out of the taxi, but then I thought I'll make a scene on the street, maybe they'll leave me alone,\" she said. \"However, that didn't work. I think because everyone's just terrified of the Basij right now.\" She was forced into a car and held for more than an hour. Her captors accused her of spying, and after much back-and-forth they drove by a police station where about 50 Iranian police were hanging out. \"I actually trust the police there so I banged on the window, and the guy next to me, the one who spoke English, said, 'OK, we'll stop.' \"They brought me into the police station where I was questioned there. And I had a pretty good idea at that time that everything was going to be OK because they really had nothing on me,\" May said. \"I'm not a terrorist; I'm not a spy. So they really had nothing to go on.\" She was told to leave the country, and she headed for Dubai where she spoke to CNN. May said she admires the bravery of the Iranians protesting in Tehran. \"I don't even know how they're doing it, because honestly everyone I know there is just scared,\" she said. \"They know that they're risking their lives, but they are so fed up that they're willing to do that.\"","highlights":"Michelle May, an American and Irish national, had been to Iran before .\nBasij picked up May after she looked at news at an Internet cafe .\nMay: 'I immediately started screaming, saying no, no, no'","id":"6017bdfccdb20417b6e59f73025d93d54f48a017"} -{"article":"WESTERPLATTE, Poland (CNN) -- On a sand swept stretch of Afghanistan, a high-ranking Polish general put his country's mission there into perspective. The repurcussions of World War II lasted decades for Poland. He explained to a NATO delegation that Polish troops remind Afghan locals of two things about the mission: They are not Soviets and they know how difficult it is to live under foreign occupation. It is hard to ignore the incomparable price Poland paid during World War II. It was attacked by Germany, invaded by the Soviets, and became home to the notorious Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. After six brutal years, Poles were the victors in war but losers in peace, living for four decades under Soviet repression. Many here will tell you they still have not come to terms with their fate after the war. Seven decades after the start of World War II, the conflict still defines Polish identity and history. September 1, 2009 in Westerplatte, Poland turned out to be a blue sky day even as dignitaries and notably the leaders of Poland, Russia and Germany turned out to remember the dark horrors that so changed their histories. The leaders laid wreaths to honor the 'Defenders of Westerplatte', the men who died in the battle that started it all. It was here at this strategic port on the Baltic Sea, Danzig, now Gdansk, that Nazi Germany's surprise attack on Poland triggered six years of bloodletting, a savage Holocaust and the death of more than 50 million people. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called it a war against humanity itself. Tusk also answered critics who felt his country and the world should now move on from World War II. He warned that if anniversaries are not marked and ceremonies not planned, there may be nothing to shield us from the brutality of future wars. But still today the events of the last 70 years have left their mark and fueled some modern day controversies. Send us your war stories . Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tried to appeal directly to the people of Poland in an open letter. He reminded them that at least 27 million Russians died in the conflict but also warned against equating the Soviet Union's role in World War II with the menace of Hitler's Nazism. \"..exploiting memory, anatomizing history and seeking pretexts for mutual complaints and resentment causes a lot of harm. \" wrote Putin. He backed that up with public comments saying, \"If we talk about an objective assessment of history, we should understand that it had no one color. It was varied and there were huge number of mistakes committed by many sides. All these actions, in one way or another, created conditions for the beginning of a large-scale aggression by Nazi Germany.\" Putin was at the heart of a tug-of-war over the war. Some Poles say Stalin was as evil and complicit as Hitler during the war. Russians say that callously overlooks the sacrifice of Russians in defeating Nazism and liberating Europe. In fact, it took German Chancellor Angela Merkel to put their achievement in perspective. She said that a unified, peaceful Europe was a blessing and indeed a miracle.","highlights":"Poland helped win the war but lost the peace .\nIt was invaded by Germany but put under Soviet influence after the war .\n70 years from the start of WWII, the war still defines Polish identity and history .\nPolish military says its history helps its work in Afghanistan .","id":"6fcdfd367f5f6d8ad93f8957acc4811b78e70917"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A north Georgia pastor was shot to death by police when he struck an officer with his car after he was seen in a vehicle with a drug suspect, authorities told CNN. Authorities say they found nothing illegal in Jonathan Ayers' car after he was slain during a drug sting. Jonathan Ayers, pastor at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Georgia, died after the incident Tuesday afternoon in the nearby town of Toccoa, Georgia, police said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is looking into the shooting. An undercover drug task force team had set up an operation at a local business, and had a woman under surveillance -- someone they had bought drugs from on two previous occasions, GBI spokesman John Bankhead told CNN Thursday. The officers saw the woman in a car with Ayers and saw what they believed was a drug transaction, Bankhead said. They followed the car as Ayers dropped the woman off at a gas station. The undercover officers wanted to question Ayers about what they had just seen, he said. \"They approached the vehicle. They were in plain clothes. They identified themselves as police officers, which civilian witnesses say happened. They also had badges around their necks.\" Ayers put the car in reverse and backed up, striking an officer, Bankhead said. According to Bankhead, Ayers then put the car into drive, and another officer fired into the car, hitting Ayers, because he thought his life was in danger. \"The subject kept going and drove off,\" Bankhead said. \"And later he ran off the road. He was taken a local hospital, went into surgery and died an hour later.\" The incident was caught on the gas station's surveillance camera. Watch surveillance video of Ayers' car hitting officer \u00bb . Police later determined what they had seen was not a drug transaction, but \"other circumstances were involved, and that's part of the investigation,\" Bankhead said. The woman who was in the car with Ayers was taken into custody and faces drug charges, Bankhead said. Stephens County sheriff Randy Shirley has placed both officers involved in the incident on paid administrative leave, he said. The officer that was struck by the car was treated and released at a local hospital. No drugs and nothing else illegal was found in Ayers' car, Bankhead said, \"even though what occurred would make any undercover officer working drugs think that was a possibility. I can't get into that, but that's what we're looking at.\" Shirley told CNN the drug task force unit comprises three Georgia counties -- Stephens, Habersham and Rabun. Ayers' sister did not return a call from CNN Thursday. Ayers maintained a blog, in which he wrote that he had three loves in life: \"Jesus Christ, my wife Abby, and the Church.\" Toccoa is about 95 miles northeast of Atlanta. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities say Jonathan Ayers was in car with drug suspect .\nWhen police approached car, they claim Ayers struck officer with vehicle .\nAnother officer shot Ayers; both officers placed on paid administrative leave .\nNothing illegal found in Ayers' vehicle, authorities say .","id":"6086c6789dbf2738ef43dbef9d321fdac85674c0"} -{"article":"GDANSK, Poland (CNN) -- At least 20 world leaders gathered Tuesday in Poland to commemorate the start of World War II 70 years ago -- a conflict in which 6 million Poles died. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (right) chats with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk in Poland on Tuesday. Germany's pre-dawn invasion began when the battleship Schleswig-Holstein fired on the Westerplatte military base in Gdansk harbor on September 1, 1939. The attack set off a chain of events that eventually embroiled all of the world's major powers in the war. Polish World War II veteran Romuald Bardzynski, said: \"I was a soldier on the front, a corporal in the cavalry. On September 16 I was injured. We were fighting against the Germans but I was shot by the Soviets. I was wounded three times. \"But the worst thing for me is the land in eastern Poland which was occupied by the Soviets ... and to this day we cannot come to terms with it. \"The Russians took half of Poland, and after the Polish fighting on all the world war fronts it turns out that after the war Poland was 77 sq km smaller! This was a great loss for us.\" Eugeniusz Cydzik, another Polish veteran, added: \"We have to talk about what happened ... to make sure it doesn't happen again. \"The young generations, like the boy scouts for example, are continuing the memory of those who perished. We take them to the sites of the battles. We even found munitions from the 1914 [war].\" WWII lasted until September 2, 1945 when Germany's ally Japan signed an unconditional surrender. Leaders from many of the warring nations were in Gdansk on Tuesday for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cemetery of Defenders at Westerplatte, with commemoration speeches to take place in front of the Westerplatte memorial. Among those attending were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- leaders of the two nations that once held power over Poland. Merkel said on Tuesday that her country unleashed \"endless suffering\" by starting the war, but also recalled the fate of ethnic Germans expelled at the end of the conflict. Watch as Poland marks start of WWII \u00bb . \"Germany attacked Poland, Germany started World War II. We caused unending suffering in the world. Sixty million dead ... was the result,\" Merkel said on German television, according to Agence-France Presse. Send us your World War II stories . \"But the expulsion of well over 12 million people from areas of the former Germany and present-day Poland is of course an injustice. This must also be recognized,\" she said. Poland first came under German influence at the start of the war, but was later dominated for about 40 years by the Russian-led Soviet Union as the Cold War between East and West settled in after World War II. A dwindling group of veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, was also due to attend. Later on Tuesday, many of the world's leading classical musicians, playing together as the World Orchestra for Peace, performed a concert in Krakow to mark the 70th anniversary. Watch highlights of the performance \u00bb .","highlights":"About 20 world leaders gathered in Poland to mark the start of World War II .\nAttack set off chain of events that embroiled all of the world's major powers .\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian PM Vladimir Putin at event .\nMerkel says her country unleashed \"endless suffering\" by starting war .","id":"916b5f054741959f2b603167a57616a18be5c4e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Phillip Garrido had a story to tell -- about how God helped him overcome the evil inside him. Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, was arraigned in California on Friday. The campus at the University of California at Berkeley was his pulpit, and he hoped his neighbors and customers of his printing business would become his flock. He wanted to share his story with anyone who would listen, including law enforcement. Just days before he was arrested and an 18-year-old kidnap mystery was solved, Garrido walked into an FBI office in San Francisco, California, with a stack of documents. The purported writings were a two-part manifesto. First he discussed the \"Origin of schizophrenia revealed.\" Some who know him say Garrido spoke of having schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder. In the second part of the documents, Garrido detailed his struggle with sexual urges, in writings he titled \"Stepping into the light.\" In the documents, obtained by CNN, Garrido confessed his past aggressive sexual impulses, but said he is no longer that man. Listen to Garrido speak of \"heartwarming\" story \u00bb . Garrido and his wife were charged last week with crimes relating to the abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and her captivity in a hidden shed-and-tent compound in the couple's backyard in Antioch, California. They pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping and false imprisonment. See photos of Dugard's living conditions \u00bb . After his arrest, Garrido said documents he gave to the FBI would be key, that they would help people understand who he really was. He told a local television reporter the documents would show a \"heartwarming story,\" one that helped him \"completely\" turn his life around. KCRA: Read transcript of Garrido's interview after his arrest . The documents provide a glimpse into the mind of a man who said he thinks he has a God-given gift. The power to control minds with sound was his salvation, he said, and would help others before they committed violence. He wrote that he wanted to share his story to provide \"solid hope for everyone who suffers from the many forms of aggressive sexual behavior as well as other problematic behaviors.\" Garrido spoke of his sexual urges during his trial in 1977, when he was convicted of abducting and raping a 25-year-old casino worker in a mini-warehouse. He spent 11 years in jail for those crimes. He testified about his sexual fantasies, which included masturbating while reading magazines, watching movies, and in restaurants or bathrooms. In his writings, he detailed how hard it was for him to control himself. Garrido wrote that he realized he couldn't control his impulses and they were plaguing the ones he loved. \"Certain behaviors cause a great deal of pain in myself and those who are victimized by those behaviors, especially our family and my wife,\" he wrote. That pain made him try to change from the predator he had become, he wrote. He said he began forcing himself to look at attractive women, but would not allow himself to act. \"See how beautiful she is to look at,\" he would tell himself. In time, Garrido wrote, he began to stop physically acting on his feelings. As time went on, Garrido wrote, he kept those sexual compulsions at bay, beginning with controlling masturbation, which he said in the past had often taken place in public. He wrote that he became free and able to experience sexual enjoyment for the first time with his wife, though it was unclear whether he was referring to Nancy, his legal wife, or to Dugard, the mother of two of his children. He claimed he realized how wrong he had been in the past. \"I realized I never needed to act or do the things I used to believe was so great and stimulating,\" Garrido wrote, referring to what he called \"one of the most powerful freedoms imaginable.\" \"I began to weep telling her 'I am so sorry for the things I did in the past,' \" Garrido wrote about his wife, adding that he experienced a feeling of remorse he never had before. That feeling of salvation was something Garrido believed was a gift. He said he thought it meant it was up to him to help other sexual predators turn their lives around. \"It will begin to open a new pathway for us all. God willing, I will be teaching this and other skills Christ is providing for me in the prisons throughout the U.S. as well as overseas,\" he wrote.","highlights":"Suspect Phillip Garrido gave FBI documents just days before he was arrested .\nSuspect says in documents he used mind control to stop predatory impulses .\nGarrido in document: \"I realized I never needed to act or do the things I used to\"\nGarrido, wife Nancy, arrested for kidnapping girl in 1991, keeping her in shed .","id":"4cc676adbe3bfbccb958eb6d19b6647a74354b55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea's state-run news agency said Thursday that the country has sent a letter to the United Nations announcing that \"reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponized.\" The Yongbyon nuclear facility, home of North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea can also now enter the final stage of uranium enrichment, it said in the letter to the president of the U.N. Security Council, according to state-run KCNA. When enriched to a high degree, uranium can be used as weapons-grade material. Plutonium can be used in atomic bombs. Despite stating in the letter that they \"totally reject\" a Security Council resolution in June that demanded that the country no longer pursue nuclear weapons, the North Koreans said they are \"prepared for both dialogue and sanctions,\" KCNA reported. The government also warned, \"If some permanent members of the UNSC wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue,\" according to KCNA. The news comes on the heels of the Obama administration's latest attempt to restart stalled nuclear negotiations with the reclusive state. In the coming days, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth and the director of the State Department's Office of Korean Affairs, Sung Kim, will meet with officials representing China, Japan, South Korea and Russia -- all countries partnering with the United States in talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea quit the talks in April after the U.N. Security Council censured Pyongyang for a long-range rocket test that month. In the letter Thursday, Pyongyang stated that it \"never objected to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and of the world itself. What we objected to is the structure of the six way talks which had been used to violate outrageously the DPRK's sovereignty and its right to peaceful development.\" Tensions had eased somewhat in recent weeks on the Korean peninsula, giving hope to the resumption of nuclear talks with the North. In August, North and South Korea agreed to resume cross-border tourism, ease border controls and facilitate cross-border family reunions, signaling a warming in relations that had been tense for most of the year. Cross-border traffic between North and South Korea returned to normal Tuesday, after eight months of restrictions by the North. Recent meetings between Korean officials are in stark contrast to the tense public statements the nations made about each other earlier this year. Tensions between the two were heightened in July when North Korea launched seven short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan. The launches came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and threatened the United States and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. The two Koreas have officially remained in conflict since the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953, which ended in a truce, but no formal peace treaty was signed.","highlights":"North's media reports N. Korea reprocessing of spent fuel rods in final phase .\nWhen enriched to a high degree, uranium can be used as weapons-grade material .\nState-run news agency reports country had informed the United Nations by letter .\nLetter says N. Korea rejects U.N. demand it stop pursuing nuclear weapons .","id":"1999add2a9c9aa2575957dc3666f8c37d45b39a4"} -{"article":"CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CNN) -- Hurricane Jimena weakened to a Category 3 storm Tuesday afternoon, but remained dangerous as it bore down on the Mexican peninsula of Baja California, with the resort town of Cabo San Lucas in its path. Jimena bears down Tuesday evening on Baja California, with the resort town of Cabo San Lucas in its path. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday, east of the northern Leeward Islands, the National Hurricane Center said. Jimena's maximum wind speed dropped from 125 mph to 120 mph (195 kph), according to the U.S. National Weather Service's 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) update. \"A gradual weakening is forecast during the next 24 to 48 hours,\" the weather service said. \"However, Jimena could be near major hurricane strength when it makes landfall.\" The storm's center is forecast to come ashore on Thursday morning, but the weather service warned that \"because it will be moving parallel to the coastline, any slight change in direction could have a huge impact in the location and timing of landfall.\" Mexico's government extended a hurricane warning for most of the southern half of the Baja peninsula -- from Punta Abreojos on the peninsula's west coast to Mulege on its east coast, according to the National Weather Service. See the storm's projected path \u00bb . A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area in the next 24 hours and people should quickly prepare \"to protect life and property.\" \"A dangerous storm surge along with battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California Peninsula,\" NWS said. On its current track, Jimena's center will approach the peninsula's southern portion later on Tuesday and central Baja California peninsula by Thursday, the weather service said. In addition to damaging winds, the storm could bring as much as 15 inches of rain, forecasters said. Jimena -- the 10th named storm of the Pacific season -- was centered about 85 miles (135 km) west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, according to the weather service. It was traveling north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph). On Tuesday, the skies in Cabo San Lucas were overcast and gusts of wind began to pick up. There were good waves for surfing, but popular beaches were devoid of tourists. Red flags warned people to stay out of the water, in case they needed any reminding. The day before, airlines offered extra flights to leave the area. Lionel Alvarez, who runs a resort hotel called \"Las Ventanas al Pariaso\" in the town of San Jose del Cabo, found a silver lining to the coming storm. \"The wind is refreshing a little bit because of the high temperatures we've gone through in the past few days,\" he said. But Alvarez, like other locals, had work to do in preparation of Jimena. \"We protect the property by dismantling all that could be dangerous, fly or can be broken,\" he said. Authorities had asked about 10,000 people to evacuate the area, but many had decided to wait out the storm. Cuauhtemoc Morgan, a local resident of Los Cabos who sent videos to to CNN's iReport, said residents had protected every home in his neighborhood, fortifying windows with masking tape. Lines at supermarkets were long with worried residents preparing for the storms, Morgan said. See iReport videos . Authorities were setting up shelters in schools and trying to devise a plan to protect the homeless, he added. The Pacific isn't the only place seeing action. As of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, tropical storm watches were issued for the Caribbean islands of St. Maarten, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy by the governments of France, the Netherlands Antilles, and Antigua and Barbuda, according to the hurricane center. A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph, are possible within 36 hours. See Erika's projected path \u00bb . Interests in the northern Leeward Islands, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico should monitor Erika's progress, forecasters advised. Erika's center was about 390 miles (625 km) east of the northern Leeward Islands, the hurricane center said. Its maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph (80 kph), with higher gusts. While Erika meandered Tuesday afternoon, it was expected to start moving west-northwest at about 9 mph during the night. \"Some slow strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days,\" forecasters said. Tropical-storm force winds extended outward up to 105 miles (170 km) from Erika's center. The storm was moving west-northwest at near 9 mph (15 kph), and was expected to continue doing so for the next couple of days, the hurricane center said. Tracking maps put the storm east of the Bahamas by Sunday. On the forecast track, Erika should remain northeast of the Leeward Islands, forecasters said. CNN's Betty Nguyen and CNN Radio's Matt Cherry and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hurricane Jimena downgraded to Category 3, hurricane center says .\nJimena's maximum winds fall to 120 mph, but storm could strengthen .\nHurricane warning covers most of the southern half of the Baja Peninsula .\nTropical Storm Erika forms in eastern Atlantic, National Hurricane Center says .","id":"1d56c6dfcab8bbe58c2a8577fc4c82d89a7ab8e2"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A NATO airstrike on a pair of hijacked fuel trucks early Friday in northern Afghanistan killed at least 90 people -- a mix of Taliban militants and civilians, NATO and provincial officials said. A victim of an ISAF airstrike on a hijacked oil tanker is carried into the Kunduz hospital on Friday. Capt. Elizabeth Mathias of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, also known as ISAF, said the military believed there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack. NATO learned afterward that was not the case. \"Based on what we know, there were civilians there,\" Mathias said. Local Afghan officials were quoted as saying in some news reports that nearly half the people killed in the airstrike were civilians who rushed the fuel trucks. Mathias declined to confirm those numbers. Investigators are trying to determine who was at the site and whether a mistake was made, Mathias said. She said a local NATO team is already in Kunduz province conducting an investigation with Afghan forces and another team from the central office is on its way. Watch more about the airstrikes \u00bb . \"Because of the prevalence of reports of civilian casualties, we don't want to be seen as ignoring the situation,\" Mathias said. \"We don't want to wait. If something happened, we want to apologize.\" Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is following the investigation, his public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, said in an e-mail. \"He takes the possible loss of any innocent life seriously, and while he will not rush to judgment on the facts, he is following the investigation very closely,\" Sholtis said. Brigadier General Eric Tremblay released a statement that said, \"ISAF will do whatever is necessary to help the community, including medical assistance and evacuation as requested. ISAF regrets any unnecessary loss of human life, and is deeply concerned for the suffering that this action may have caused to our Afghan friends.\" See images of the strike aftermath \u00bb . Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was \"deeply saddened\" by the deaths and reiterated that no civilians should be killed or injured in anti-terrorist military operations. Sholtis said McChrystal \"has been in touch with President Karzai and leadership of the major ministries on the incident.\" Karzai's office issued a statement saying he had ordered a delegation to the area to investigate the incident and report back to him as soon as possible. The delegation includes representatives of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, National Directorate of Security, and the Provincial Administrative Department, according to the statement. A spokesman for the provincial governor, Mahboobullah Sayeedi, said more than 90 people were killed. The fuel trucks were hijacked late Thursday in Kunduz province and were spotted several hours later on the banks of the Kunduz River, ISAF said. The hijacked vehicles became stuck in the Chardara area of the Ali Abaad district while trying to cross the river, according to Sayeedi. Militants had commandeered the trucks, which were carrying fuel for NATO forces, he said. People tried to empty fuel from the tankers when they couldn't go any farther. With the trucks stuck on the riverbank, the German commander of the NATO forces called in the airstrike around 2:30 a.m., the German military said. No German soldiers or planes were involved in the airstrike, but a German patrol made it to the site about 10 hours after the attack and came under small-arms fire, the German military said. The patrol continued its investigation Friday afternoon. CNN's Chris Lawrence, Ingrid Formanek and Wahid Mayar contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Top U.S. commander in country is following the investigation, an aide says .\nDeath toll from NATO airstrike on oil tankers in northern part of country exceeds 90 .\nLocal Afghan officials quoted as saying many civilians were killed in the attack .\nTarget of attack was two fuel trucks that had been hijacked by militants .","id":"66246eb945d61644a2c13d689a8fdc277f08eb2e"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The French trader accused of a multi-billion-dollar fraud at banking giant Societe Generale will go on trial next year, a lawyer for the bank said Tuesday. Kerviel faces up to five years in prison if convicted of fraud charges. Jerome Kerviel will face charges including forgery, breach of trust, and introducing fraudulent data into the bank's data system, Societe Generale lawyer Jean Veil told CNN. He faces a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to \u20ac375,000 euros ($538,000), Veil said. The bank also will ask that Kerviel reimburse them for almost 5 billion euros ($7.1 billion), \"which probably he will not pay,\" Veil said. The trial is expected to start in the first half of 2010, perhaps in May or June, Veil said. It will take place at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris, he said. Kerviel, who is now free on bail, was arrested last year after Societe Generale unveiled trading losses of more than $7.2 billion. The bank attributed the losses to fraud by Kerviel, who traded European index futures for the bank. Kerviel is the only one charged in the case. His assistant, Thomas Mougard, was cleared of charges Monday, Veil said. Societe Generale believes Kerviel alone was responsible for the losses, which the bank announced in January 2008. Kerviel maintains he was not acting alone, Veil said. \"The decision of the (court) confirms 100 percent the complaint of the bank, and that Kerviel was alone when he organized this massive fraud and that he was acting completely out of his (own accord),\" Veil told CNN.","highlights":"Jerome Kerviel faces charges including forgery, breach of trust, false data entry .\nAccused trader faces penalty of up to five years in jail, $538,000 fine .\nSociete Generale also to ask Kerviel to pay back almost 5 billion euros .","id":"f4e65d208729befa822ff7704ae68aec1d7365e4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A California woman who turned up alive 18 years after being kidnapped at age 11 is reconnecting with her family after nearly two decades apart, her aunt said Thursday. Tina Dugard speaks to the media Thursday about how her niece Jaycee is reconnecting with her family. Police said Thursday that the man charged with abducting and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard had been accused of raping a 14-year-old in 1972, but those charges were dropped for unknown reasons. \"I think there's a good chance of that, yes,\" Antioch Police Lt. Leonard Orman said when asked whether he believed that other victims would be found. Dugard is spending time in \"a secluded place, reconnecting\" with her mother and younger sister, said Jaycee's aunt, Tina Dugard, who spent time with them. The two children born to her during her captivity are \"clever, articulate, curious girls,\" she said. \"This is a joyful time for my family,\" she said. \"Jaycee remembers all of us.\" Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 from a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, and discovered last week. Authorities say a couple kidnapped her and raised her in a compound of tents and outbuildings in the backyard of their Antioch, California, home for 18 years. Nancy and Phillip Garrido have been charged with a total of 29 felonies, including the rape and kidnapping of Dugard, who police say gave birth to two daughters fathered by Garrido during her captivity. The Garridos have pleaded not guilty. Philip Garrido is a registered sex offender. Tina Dugard appeared in Los Angeles on Thursday to read a statement on behalf of her family. Watch Jaycee's aunt speak to the media \u00bb . \"Jaycee is a remarkable young woman who has raised two beautiful daughters,\" she said. \"They are clever, articulate, curious girls who have a bright future ahead of them.\" The girls are 11 and 15. \"Although they have no formal education, they are certainly educated,\" she said. \"Jaycee did a truly amazing job with the limited resources and education that she herself had, and we are so proud of her.\" Tina Dugard said Jaycee's mother's smile is \"as wide as the sea.\" \"Her oldest daughter is finally home,\" she said. Dugard, now 29, is enjoying catching up on the years missed with her family, Tina Dugard said. \"She is especially enjoying getting to know her little sister, who was just a baby when Jaycee was taken,\" she said. \"Not only have we laughed and cried together, but we've spent time sitting quietly, taking pleasure in each other's company.\" The Dugard family statement thanked the law enforcement and social agencies involved in reconnecting them. \"Their support and professionalism have been invaluable,\" it said. A trust fund has been established for donations to help Dugard, the aunt said. \"It has come to my family's attention that there may be unauthorized solicitation of funds to support Jaycee and the family,\" she said. The family released three photos of a young Dugard. One was taken at her grandmother's home when she was 3. A second showed her dressed as a punk rocker the Halloween before her abduction. Tina Dugard said she snapped the third photo at the 1991 Rose Bowl Parade when she asked her niece to \"make a face for me, and she did.\"","highlights":"NEW: Police say suspect accused of raping 14-year-old in 1972 .\nJaycee Dugard \"reconnecting\" with family, her aunt says .\nDugard has raised two \"clever, articulate, curious\" daughters .\nTrust fund has been established for Jaycee Dugard .","id":"1d8bc084e34d2f35349c773bfcde3422e25361a4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Who's the greatest driver of all-time? Michael Schumacher? Maybe Alain Prost? Ayrton Senna perhaps? In an exclusive interview with CNN, three-time Formula One world champion, Jackie Stewart had no hesitation in naming his choice for the greatest driver of all-time. Three-time F1 champion, Jackie Stewart back in his heyday. \"My hero, and the man I most respected and probably still do is Juan Manuel Fangio.\" Stewart told CNN. It's not misty-eyed nostalgia for a bygone era that persuades \"The Flying Scot,\" as Stewart became known. And it wasn't just Fangio's tally of world titles that convinced Stewart; it is the manner in which the Argentine legend saw off his rivals. Who do you think is the greatest? \"Fangio won five world championships almost in a different car every year. He had the dignity, the style and the ability,\" Stewart explained. What's more, as Stewart points out, Fangio didn't start racing in Formula One until he was 39-years-old, and whether driving a Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati or Mercedes, he kept on winning races. Though Fangio was the greatest, Stewart rated fellow countryman Jim Clark as the best driver he raced against. \"His batting average was very good and he didn't race in too many grands prix.\" Clark -- who was tragically killed racing at Hockenheim in 1968 -- won 25 of his 73 Formula One races. Stewart's record is comparable, winning 27 from 100 starts. It's this win to race ratio that really separates the good from the great Stewart believes. \"I'm on record as saying winning is not enough, it's easy to win. Most people win. To be successful, like a Fangio or a Jim Clark is more difficult.\" See our photo gallery of Formula One's greatest drivers \u00bb . As much as Stewart admires seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, he's finds it hard to put the German in the same league as Fangio or Clark. \"Not to take anything away from him [Schumacher], but his car was so dominant and his team had so much in terms of money and resources,\" Stewart said. \"Although he has won more, his batting average isn't as good -- from starts to wins -- as Fangio or Clark.\" Stewart, who retired from Formula One in 1973, is a great admirer of the current crop of drivers and he singled out Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel as potential legends of the future. But they have a long way to match Stewart's record of three Drivers' Championships, let alone Fangio or Schumacher. Do you agree with Jackie Stewart? Or do you think that Michael Schumacher is the greatest? Have we missed anyone you think deserves special mention? Use the Sound Off box to have you say.","highlights":"F1 legend Jackie Stewart tells CNN who he thinks is the sport's greatest driver .\nWin to race ratio is determining factor of greatness according to Stewart .\nSchumacher? Senna? Have your say on who you think the best F1 driver .","id":"337ee63b66d9fd5e5e1b641d020bbb192627d41f"} -{"article":"CIANJUR, Indonesia (CNN) -- More than a day after a major earthquake jolted Indonesia's Java Island, killing at least 57 people, there is still no word from remote villages along the coast, a relief worker told CNN Thursday. Soldiers try to dig out the body of a victim buried by a landslide caused by the earthquake. \"This earthquake has injured hundreds of people and (destroyed or damaged) thousands of houses,\" World Vision's Katarina Hardono said. \"We worry that the number can be easily more because in many places, actually the coastal areas, we still (haven't gotten) any news.\" Rescuers are still searching for dozens of people feared trapped in a quake-triggered landslide in Cianjur in West Java. They pulled several bodies from the rubble Thursday bringing the death toll from the quake to 57. \"The death count has been thankfully low, but we have to remember that tens of thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed and children and adults are urgently in need of relief items,\" said Hardono, who spoke to CNN from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Rainfall Thursday hampered the rescue efforts in Cianjur, where the landslide buried at least 11 homes where 32 people live, local officials said. Watch description of the evacuation after the quake hit \u00bb . Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Cianjur, and vowed to free up nearly $500,000 (5 billion rupiahs) for emergency response efforts, according to the state-run Antara news agency. He said there was no need for foreign assistance just yet. \"Until now the Indonesian government is still able to handle it by itself using existing national resources,\" he said, according to Antara. Rescuers in Cianjur used their hands and rudimentary tools to try to pry away the rocks, some that were bigger than cars. No heavy machinery could be brought in to help in the rescue effort because many roads in the area were blocked. The 7.0-magnitude temblor jolted the island on Wednesday shortly before 3 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). More than 400 people were injured. Watch how buildings swayed during quake \u00bb . The temblor rocked high-rise buildings in Jakarta, prompting a mass evacuation in the capital's central business district. iReport.com: Swimming pool shakes during quake . \"I was on the 13th floor of our office building, and you know we could feel the building (shake) from left to right,\" said CNN's Andy Saputra. \"We all ran to the fire escape and escaped from there.\" Indonesia is no stranger to major earthquakes. It is located on the \"Ring of Fire,\" an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 2004, an earthquake measuring at least 9.0 in magnitude struck off the coast of the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, triggering a major tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 countries. About three weeks ago, a series of earthquakes -- ranging in magnitude from 4.7 to 6.7 -- struck off the western coast of Sumatra. At least seven people were injured and one building collapsed. CNN Radio's Chris Chandler contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: At least 57 killed, another 400 injured, says disaster agency .\nTsunami watch quickly expires, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says .\nOlder buildings damaged in Tasikmalaya in Indonesian island of Java, witness says .\nSeries of quakes hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island three weeks ago .","id":"18af62793bf6b88ce3127a8ecf166a147d8e5999"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former \"Manson family\" member who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and is now terminally ill faces her 13th parole hearing on Wednesday. Susan Atkins, shown here after her indictment in the Manson murders, has a parole hearing Wednesday. Susan Atkins, 61, has terminal brain cancer. As of earlier this year, she was paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and could not sit up in bed or be moved into a wheelchair, according to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse. However, despite her declining health and an impressive prison record, Whitehouse wrote, \"there is still a very real chance the Parole Board will nonetheless insist her release would be a danger to society.\" The hearing will be held at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, California, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Atkins was moved to the Chowchilla facility from the California Institution for Women at Frontera last year because of her illness. Watch Linda Kasabian describe the murders \u00bb . \"Last we heard, she is expected to attend,\" Thornton said Tuesday of Atkins. The proceeding is scheduled to be held in a hearing room, but depending on Atkins' condition, it could be held at her bedside, Thornton said. The panel is expected to render its decision following the hearing after deliberating behind closed doors, she said. Atkins -- California's longest-serving female inmate -- has been denied parole 12 times previously, Thornton said. She was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead and terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. She and the others -- Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles \"Tex\" Watson -- were initially sentenced to death in the slayings of five people, including Tate, and two additional deaths the following night. Their sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down the nation's death penalty laws in 1972. By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress, who was eight months pregnant, 16 times. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate \"asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her.\" After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins scrawled the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home at the time, but three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage. If the panel decides to grant Atkins parole -- called a \"tentative suitability finding\" -- the decision is subject to a 120-day review process by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Thornton said. If it still stands, the matter then goes to the governor's office. The governor's options include allowing the decision to stand, actively approving it, modifying it or reversing it, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Web site. However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed Atkins' request for compassionate release -- a request made by terminally ill patients wishing to be released before death. The Board of Parole Hearings unanimously denied that request in July 2008. It was also opposed by Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister. If parole is not granted, another hearing will be set in three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, at the discretion of the panel, Thornton said. Atkins has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson. But Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were \"so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back.\" \"The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated,\" Debra Tate said. \"They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do.\" In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins, who was known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, wrote that \"this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day.\" \"Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'\" Atkins' brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7.","highlights":"Susan Atkins has admitted she stabbed pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death .\nShe has been denied parole on 12 previous occasions .\nAtkins has terminal brain cancer and just months to live .\nShe was denied compassionate release in July 2008 .","id":"7b8ef193a81719e0401da77d4681f498c6eab495"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- News outlets reported this week that legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite never amended his will to include Joanna Simon, who had been his girlfriend for the last four years of his life. Cronkite's daughter said the newsman never planned to leave Simon, a former opera singer and older sister of Carly Simon, any sort of inheritance, but either way, wills are back in the news. Leona Helmsley left her dog Trouble $12 million dollars in her will. What better time to look at some of the most bizarre codicils ever written? 1. Leona Helmsley . The notoriously egomaniacal hotelier famously left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble, while entirely cutting two of her grandchildren out of her will (for \"reasons which are known to them\"). Her other two grandchildren didn't get off the hook entirely; their inheritances were contingent upon their regularly making visits to their father's grave, where they would have to sign a registration book to prove they had shown up. 2. Carlotta Liebenstein . Don't think Trouble Helmsley is the richest pooch on the block. When Liebenstein, a German countess, died in 1991, she left her entire $80-million estate to her dog, Gunther. 3. Jeremy Bentham . The 18th-and-19th-century social philosopher left the world a rather odd bequest in his will: his preserved, clothed body. No one's quite sure what Bentham was getting at with this \"gift,\" but since his 1832 death his clothed skeleton -- topped with a wax model of Bentham's head -- has been preserved in a wood-and-glass cabinet known as the Auto-Icon. It now resides at University College London and is occasionally moved so Bentham can \"attend\" meetings. Bentham didn't want for the Auto-Icon to feature a wax head; he actually carried around the glass eyes he wanted used in his preserved face for years before his death. However, the preservation process distorted his face, so the wax replica had to stand in. For many years Bentham's real head sat between his feet in the Auto-Icon, but it was such a target for pranksters that it eventually had to be locked away. Mental Floss: 10 things your body can do after you die . 4. Sandra West . West, a California socialite and oil heiress, died when she was just 37 years old and requested that she be buried \"in my lace nightgown ... in my Ferrari, with the seat slanted comfortably.\" Her family buried West in her powder-blue 1964 Ferrari 330 America, then covered the car with cement to deter car thieves. Good call: nice examples of that year's 330 America can now sell for well over $300,000. 5. Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara . The Portuguese aristocrat was a childless bachelor, so he divvied up his estate by picking 70 names at random from the Lisbon phone book in 1988. When he died 13 years later, his attorneys notified the unsuspecting beneficiaries that they stood to inherit their benefactor's cash, his home, and his car. 6. Charles Millar . The Canadian attorney died a childless bachelor, but he left $568,106 to the mother who gave birth to the most children in Toronto in the 10 years following his 1928 death. This bequest prompted what Canadians called \"the Baby Derby\" as mothers raced to win the fortune. Finally, in 1938 four winners split the prize after giving birth to nine babies apiece. Mental Floss: Names you probably shouldn't give your kid . 7. Heinrich Heine . The German poet left his entire fortune to his wife, but with one catch: she had to remarry \"because then there will be at least one man to regret my death.\" 8. S. Sanborn . Sanborn, a 19th-century New England hatter, left a rather macabre bequest to a friend -- a pair of drums made from Sanborn's skin. The friend received further instructions to go to Bunker Hill each June 17th and play \"Yankee Doodle Dandy\" on the drums. 9. T.M. Zink . Zink, an Iowa lawyer who died in 1930, must have had some pretty bad experiences with women. When he died he left his daughter a measly five bucks, and his wife got nothing. He stipulated that the rest of his $100,000 estate be put in a trust for 75 years, then used to create the Zink Womanless Library. The library would have no feminine decorations, no books or magazine articles by female authors, and was required to have \"No Women Admitted\" carved into the stone over the entrance. 10. Robert Louis Stevenson . When the celebrated author died, he left his friend Annie H. Ide his birthday. Ide had previously complained to Stevenson about the inconvenience of being born on Christmas, so the writer left her November 13th as a new birthday provided she take care of it with \"moderation and humanity... the said birthday not being so young as it once was.\" 11. Henry Budd . It's not clear how he originally made 200,000 pounds, but when Henry Budd died in 1862, he left his substantial fortune to his two sons on the condition that neither sullied his lip with a mustache. 12. Mark Gruenwald . When longtime comic book writer and editor Mark Gruenwald died in 1996, fans of the Marvel Comics icon probably thought they'd seen the last of the former Captain America writer. Gruenwald had other ideas, though. He requested that his ashes be mixed into the ink used to print the first trade paperback anthology of Squadron Supreme, another one of his landmark creations. Mental Floss: 5 comic superheroes who made real-world difference . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"People have put some very bizarre stipulations in their wills .\nSocialite buried \"in lace nightgown ... in my Ferrari, with seat slanted comfortably\"\nTwo very rich women left millions to their dogs .\nComic book writer had his ashes mixed with ink for anthology .\nIowa lawyer left money for library banning all female writers and visitors .","id":"bcefccc0aa9e4abe20b1c759f20047c7c77dbb97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A judge has ordered mediation in the case of a teen girl who says her family threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rifqa Bary, 17, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July. She claims her father threatened to kill her. The 17-year-old girl, Rifqa Bary, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July and took refuge in the home of the Rev. Blake Lorenz with the Global Revolution Church in Orlando, Florida. Bary's parents want her back home. At a court hearing Thursday in Orlando, the girl's parents denied all the allegations against them. Also at the hearing, Judge Daniel Dawson of the Orange County Juvenile Court ordered the girl and her parents to seek the mediation within 30 days. The judge had previously ruled that the girl will remain in Florida foster care until the allegations are resolved. The parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, could not attend the hearing in person but listened through a telephone conference as their lawyer spoke for them. They denied they ever threatened to kill their daughter because she converted to Christianity. Mohamed Bary told CNN he believes a lot of false information has been circulated about the case. \"We wouldn't do her harm,\" the father said, adding that he knew his daughter was involved with Christian organizations. \"I have no problem with her practicing any faith,\" he said. But Bary conceded he would have preferred that his daughter practice the Muslim faith first. The teen had heard of pastor Lorenz and his church through a prayer group on Facebook. The girl's parents reported her missing to Columbus police, who found her two weeks later in Florida through cell phone records. The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to \"deal with the situation.\" In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, \"If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!\" The teenager claims her father added, \"I will kill you!\" Watch the teen talk about her fears \u00bb . Also at Thursday's hearing, the judge sealed a report on the girl from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and issued a gag order for attorneys in the case. At one point during the hearing, the girl's court-appointed guardian, Krista Bartholomew, told the court: \"This is not a holy war but a case about a broken family.\" Outside the courthouse after the hearing, a Muslim activist and several Christian activists exchanged words over the case. Watch the heated exchanges \u00bb . Another hearing is scheduled for September 29 if the family is not able to resolve the conflict through mediation.","highlights":"Teenager claims father threatened to kill her because she converted to Christianity .\nParents of teen have denied all allegations against them .\nRifqa Bary, 17, ran away from Ohio home; took refuge in home of Christian pastor .\nJudge orders teen and her family to seek mediation within 30 days .","id":"0845e239a23e627a48fee743c45b8c80c6eb56c4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ivan Watson is CNN's correspondent based in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bamiyan Valley is a visually and archaeologically stunning part of Afghanistan. The region hopes to build its tourism industry. (CNN) -- Thursday is \"Chinese night\" at the Hotel Silk Road in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province. Hungry guests sip cans of Coke and nonalcoholic beer and pick at a buffet that includes General Tsao's chicken, egg drop soup and slices of sweet green melon grown in nearby fields. When a vegetarian diner arrives, the hotel's Japanese owner, Hiromi Yasui, runs back to the kitchen to whip up a dish of spinach, garlic and steamed rice. \"This is the most clean kitchen in Bamiyan,\" she boasts in heavily accented English, as she directs her staff of Afghan assistants in fluent Dari. Yasui proudly points to an electric dishwasher, perhaps the only one of its kind in this battle-scarred Afghan province. The Hotel Silk Road has been open for less than two years. The green concrete walls of this compound jar somewhat with the brown, mud brick architecture of Bamiyan Valley. But the hotel is probably the largest foreign private investment in Bamiyan's fledgling tourism industry since the overthrow of the Taliban eight years ago. See photos of the Bamiyan Province \u00bb . Aid workers say tourism is one of the greatest economic hopes for reviving this isolated, yet visually -- and archaeologically -- stunning part of Afghanistan, a region that has seen little infrastructure development over the last eight years, even though Bamiyan is one of the safest parts of the country. Tour the Bamiyan Valley's caves \u00bb . \"The natural resources and cultural resources here are probably the single best place for economic development to happen, around revitalizing the tourism industry here,\" says Bob Thelen, the representative for the Aga Khan Development Network in Bamiyan. The nonprofit organization has been working with the government of New Zealand to distribute $1.2 million over a three-year period to develop eco-tourism as an industry in Bamiyan. Bamiyan first attracted widespread international attention in 2001, when Taliban militants spent weeks blowing up two giant statues of Buddha. For more than 1,500 years, these colossal figures -- one was 53 meters (174 feet) high, the other 35 meters (115 feet) -- stood like sentries overlooking this alpine valley. Today, the massive caves where the Buddhas once stood are huge, empty pockets carved into cliffs that dominate the countryside. Despite the loss of these archaeological treasures, the cave network of monasteries that honeycomb the cliffs, as well as Bamiyan's breathtaking mountains and alpine lakes, continue to attract a trickle of both Afghan and foreign tourists. Hotel Silk Road owner Yasui spotted Bamiyan's potential when she first traveled here as a photojournalist in 1996. \"Before the war, this was a touristic place,\" she says. \"More than 7,000 cars a day visited here.\" In the '60s and '70s, Afghanistan was a Central Asian stop on the Hippie Trail, a destination favored by hash-smoking Western visitors driving Volkswagen vans. But the Soviet invasion of 1979 plunged the country into a decades-long spiral of conflict. Bamiyan became the site of horrific massacres during the civil war of the 1990s and the subsequent rise of the Taliban. The Taliban's overthrow in 2001 seemed to open the door to new opportunity. In 2002, with the help of her Afghan husband and a Japanese investor who fronted hundreds of thousands of dollars, Yasui purchased a plot of land next to a bend in the river that runs through the valley. The couple then spent the next five years building their hotel. \"I like Afghanistan, I like Bamiyan,\" Yasui explains. \"[But in the past,] I didn't want to stay more than three days, because there was no shower, no place to sleep.\" Yasui's hotel opened in 2007. Rooms cost $100 a night, pricing them far out of the range of most Afghans. Guests must remove their shoes at the entrance and wear slippers, in accordance with Yasui's strict standards of hygiene. \"The furniture has all been imported from Pakistan,\" Yasui said. \"I bought the water glasses from the PX [American military supermarket] in Kabul.\" Yasui is not the only hotelier in Bamiyan. In 2003, an Afghan businessman named Raziq got a jump-start on the local tourism industry, when he and several partners rented a house on a plateau offering a spectacular view of the Buddha cliffs. The building had been housing American special forces soldiers. Raziq and his partners rechristened it the Roof of Bamiyan Hotel. Raziq, an ethnic Hazara who learned American-accented English catering to foreigners on Kabul's touristic Chicken Street, says he got his inspiration to open a hotel after he saw female Western backpackers paying to sleep on the floor of a grimy tea shop in Bamiyan's dusty bazaar. Over the last year, the Afghan government declared Bamiyan's Band-i-Amir lake, which sits 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) above sea level, the country's first national park. The New Zealand-funded eco-tourism project, in conjunction with the Aga Khan Foundation, also recently trained 22 young male and female Afghans to be professional tour guides. The three-month course included \"the relevant topics for this area, geology, archaeology, history, hospitality, English, communication skills,\" said Thelen, of the Aga Khan Development Network. One of these guides is former Roof of Bamiyan employee Jawad Wafa. Though only 23 years old, this ambitious young Afghan plans to launch a tourism and logistics company, complete with a fleet of rental vehicles and guides. \"The first thing we need to have more tourists in Bamiyan, we need security and peace. The second one is roads,\" Wafa says. Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban, the entire province of Bamiyan has barely 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) of paved roads. Travel here from Kabul requires at least seven hours driving on a bone-jarring dirt track. But even this isolated oasis is feeling the threat of the mounting violence spreading across the country. \"Every time there is a bomb in Kabul, visitors cancel reservations,\" says Raziq, operator of the Roof of Bamiyan Hotel. And in recent months, troops from New Zealand have documented a spike in insurgent attacks, mostly along Bamiyan's border with Baghlan province, a region where Taliban insurgents have grown increasingly active. \"As much as on the one hand you can promote Bamiyan and other pockets throughout Afghanistan as secure and peaceful, there's always the very real threat of violence,\" Thelen said. Tour operators saw a dramatic drop in foreign visitors this summer, due to the uncertainty and violence surrounding the August 20 presidential elections. In fact, the handful of people seen touring the remains of the Buddha statues last week were mostly American aid workers. They were sent by their organizations from less secure parts of Afghanistan, to take temporary shelter within the mountain walls of Bamiyan Valley.","highlights":"Bamiyan is one of the safest parts of Afghanistan .\nSince the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, hotels have opened in the region .\nColossal Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban once towered over the valley .\nStunning terrain and a cave network of monasteries draw tourists .","id":"d37d3511f9eb287b2d9734eb6d9c722bd3b5f07e"} -{"article":"BRUNSWICK, Georgia (CNN) -- Guy Heinze Jr., the son of one of the victims of last week's killings of eight people in a southeast Georgia mobile home, has been arrested on eight counts of first degree murder, police said Friday. Guy Heinze Jr. faces eight first degree murder charges related to a shooting at a Georgia mobile home. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant Friday evening for Heinze, 22, just hours after he had been freed from jail on charges of tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer, Glynn County, Georgia, Police Chief Matt Doering said. \"I can assure you that this person is responsible,\" Doering said at a news conference Friday evening. The bodies were discovered last Saturday at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Seven died in the mobile home, and the eighth died Sunday at a hospital. Doering refused to reveal how the victims were killed or the suspected motive. A 3-year-old who was injured struggles on life support at a Savannah hospital, her grandmother said. Heinze, who is unemployed, told police he was not home when the killings occurred. Watch sheriff describe attack as \"the most heinous crime we've ever had in the community\" \u00bb . According to the earlier arrest warrant, Heinze provided \"investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members.\" The arrest warrant also said he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car. A man identified as Heinze reported the slayings. He told an emergency dispatcher when he called Saturday, \"I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death.\" Listen to the 911 call \u00bb . Seven of the eight victims will be buried Saturday, as a 3-year-old who was injured struggles to survive at a Savannah hospital. The toddler's grieving grandmother, Diane Isenhower, who lost four of her children in the rampage, said the child is on life support. Police said seven of the victims died in the mobile home, and the eighth died Sunday at a hospital. The funeral for Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held at mid-month. For the other seven, viewing was scheduled for Friday night, and a funeral is to be held Saturday afternoon at Youngs Island Church in Eulonia, Georgia. West was the boyfriend of Chrissy Toler, 22, who died along with her father, Russell D. Toler Sr., 44, and three siblings: Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; and Russell D. Toler Jr., 20. Michael Toler had Down syndrome. Russell Toler Sr. and Isenhower were divorced. Also killed were Guy Heinze Sr., 45 and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, police said. Clint Rowe, whose wife is Isenhower's sister, said the family was having trouble coping with the losses and noted that police, too, were affected. \"They're the ones who walked in on that, so you know it wears on the police as well,\" he said. Referring to Isenhower, he added, \"It has been a long week for her. She's lost all of her family, so naturally it would be.\" \"They're just as nice as they could be,\" Rowe said of the victims. \"Friendly folks. Down-to-earth folks.\" Watch Rowe talk about the killings \u00bb . Russell Toler Sr., who worked at a nearby factory, was a generous man who allowed relatives facing financial and health problems to live with him. There were 10 people in the mobile home, and their combined salaries were low, Rowe said. Among them was Toler's sister, Falagan, who was in a wheelchair. Police have not said how the victims died, although autopsies were completed Monday. The bodies were discovered Saturday at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Police have released few details of the crime scene. Doering acknowledged that there is fear in the community but said that releasing details of the slayings won't allay it. \"We, too, have that same fear. We're the ones that have to get out there and try to make people feel better as best that we can,\" he said. CNN's Sean Calebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Warrant lists eight counts of first degree murder for Guy Heinze Jr.\nHeinze told police he was not home when the killings occurred .\n3-year-old injured in last week's attack at Georgia mobile home is on life support .\nFuneral for seven victims will be held about Saturday .","id":"4d63952d88ef8b61c631d92744b8b88d5900ba82"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Children with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities should be among the first to be vaccinated against H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Thursday. CDC: The H1N1 virus is spreading in the United States, particularly in the Southeast. And high-risk children under 18 years of age should be rushed to a doctor at the first sign of the virus, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director. In addition, doctors should be aware that some otherwise healthy children with bacterial infections may be more susceptible to the flu, he told reporters during a conference call. Frieden said the vaccine should be available by mid-October, and will be free at public hospitals and other sites. All schoolchildren should be vaccinated, he said. \"We also are recommending that all people with underlying conditions get vaccinated -- people who have asthma, diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, neuromuscular conditions, neurological conditions that increase their risk factors and women who are pregnant,\" Frieden added. As of August 22, there had been 556 deaths in the United States associated with the H1N1 virus, and 42 of those deaths were children under the age of 18. The figures were published August 28 on the CDC Web site. Thursday, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report focused on the pediatric cases -- 36 that were counted among the 477 flu-related deaths up to August 8. Watch more on what the CDC had to say about H1N1 influenza \u00bb . Seven of the children who died were younger than 5 years old, the report said, and 24 had underlying disabilities, such as muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy, or one or more high-risk medical conditions. Frieden said the H1N1 virus -- which he said never really went away, judging by the cases reported this summer -- is spreading in the United States, particularly in the Southeast. \"The good news is that so far, everything that we've seen, both in this country and abroad, shows that the virus has not changed to become more deadly. That means that although it may affect lots of people, most people will not be severely ill,\" he said. He noted, however, that both H1N1 and the seasonal flu are unpredictable. Because of this, health professionals have to be ready to change their protocols based on any new information. On Wednesday, the CDC said there were six suspected cases among its approximately 7,000 employees at the Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters. Frieden referenced findings by federal agencies who were asked to study the impact of H1N1 in the Southern Hemisphere. They examined data from Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand and Uruguay, since they more closely resemble U.S. demographics and economic development. \"All countries report that after mid-July, disease activity in most parts of the country decreased. This indicates that the duration of the current influenza season in the Southern Hemisphere, in which the 2009 H1N1 virus is the predominate strain, may be similar in length to an average seasonal influenza season,\" according to the Flu.gov Web site. Earlier Thursday, the Institute of Medicine released a report recommending a major step up in protection for health workers dealing with patients suspected or confirmed to have H1N1 influenza. The institute, in recommendations requested by the CDC, said loose paper masks are inadequate because workers can still breathe in the virus. Instead, health workers should switch to a specific type of mask -- N95 respirators -- that form an airtight seal around the nose and mouth. CNN's Mariam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC: Children with medical issues should be among the first to get H1N1 vaccine .\nHead of CDC predicts the vaccine should be available by mid-October .\nAs of August 22, 42 of the 556 U.S. deaths linked to H1N1 virus were in kids .","id":"450432c577b2c765341c3b75f116d9b8c9b740cd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The airline operating an Airbus A310-300 jet that crashed in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday with 153 people aboard was being monitored by EU authorities, according to France's transport minister. An Airbus 310 like the one pictured crashed while on the way to the capital of Comoros. Dominique Bussereau told French television that inspectors in his country had also noted several faults on the doomed Yemenia Airways plane, Agence France-Presse reported. \"The company was not on the blacklist (of airlines banned from European airspace) but was being subjected to closer inspection by us and was due to soon be heard by the security committee of the European Union,\" Bussereau said. The Airbus A310 was inspected in France in 2007 by the French civil aviation authority and \"a certain number of faults had been noted.\" \"The plane had not since then reappeared in our country,\" he added. However, Chris Yates, an aviation analyst for Jane's Information Group, said he suspected weather and\/or airport failings were a greater factor in the crash than a technical fault. Recent plane crashes \u00bb . \"It's more than likely to be a weather-related incident. Having said that, you cannot rule out a maintenance issue,\" Yates told CNN. Yemenia Air had used the jet since 1999, on about 17,300 flights, Airbus officials said. The company said it would assist in investigating the crash. \"We are extremely saddened and our thoughts are with the families, friends and loved ones affected by this accident,\" Airbus spokeswoman Maggie Bergsma told CNN. \"We are giving our maximum support and assistance to the authorities and the airline.\" \"This includes a team of Airbus experts that will go on site and our crisis center has been open since early this morning, where our specialists work in direct contact with the airline and the authorities,\" Bergsma added. \"The task now is to gather as much information as possible, including retrieval of the black boxes, to help us understand what happened. This will need time and patience.\" It is the second crash involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation. In the wake of the Air France crash on June 1, United States accident investigators have been probing two recent failures of airspeed and altitude indications aboard Airbus A330s. One flight was between the United States and Brazil in May and the other between Hong Kong and Japan in June. The planes landed safely and there were no injuries or damage, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. CNN's Saad Abedine and Ayesha Durgahee contributed to this report.","highlights":"EU concerned about airline operating jet that crashed in Indian Ocean .\nJet was carrying more than 150 people to island of Comoros from Yemen .\nFrench officials noted faults with Airbus A310 when they inspected it in 2007 .","id":"0a6c7cbe5aa6c6de9c9e6ab14adc105da4937e9d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A man who allegedly set off a small bomb at a Starbucks coffee shop was arrested after he made the mistake of bragging about his exploit to friends, police said Wednesday. An NYPD officer stands guard outside a Starbucks where a bomb went off on Memorial Day. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters that Kyle Shaw, 17, was arrested Tuesday night at his Manhattan apartment after a police investigation revealed that he bragged to his friends about planting the explosive outside an Upper East Side Starbucks on May 25. Shaw allegedly told his friends prior to the explosion that \"Project Mayhem\" was about to begin, Kelly said, and that they should watch the news on Memorial Day. Shaw was a fan of the movie \"Fight Club\" and imitated Brad Pitt's character from the film, the police commissioner said -- although he apparently failed to adhere to Pitt's famous line in the film: \"The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.\" The movie, released in 1999, also includes a scene in which a Starbucks is destroyed. Kelly said there is no evidence at this time to suggest that Shaw was behind other recent small explosions in the city, such as the bombings at the Times Square Army recruiting center and the Mexican consulate. Shaw made the small explosive out of a plastic bottle, firework powder, a metal cap and electrical tape, Kelly said. The blast, at 3:30 a.m. on Memorial Day, damaged a nearby bench and shattered the store's windows, the commissioner said. No one was injured in the explosion, but the bomb was powerful enough to have caused serious injuries if anyone had been nearby, Kelly said. Shaw has been charged with arson, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief, he added.","highlights":"Police: Suspect, 17, wanted to launch \"Project Mayhem\" with bomb .\nSuspect is fan of Brad Pitt film \"Fight Club'\nMemorial Day blast damaged a bench outside a Manhattan Starbucks .","id":"ab47c818c8642a3e11d0805aee3925e4596e2eb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Perhaps, now the candidates will play nice. For all their insistence on how unlike they are from one another, the three U.S. presidential candidates share some noteworthy family connections, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has found. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who has made his opposition to the Iraq war a linchpin of his campaign, is distantly related not only to President George W. Bush but also to another wartime leader -- former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Because of his shared ancestry with President Bush, Obama is also indirectly related to his rival on the Republican side, Sen. John McCain. McCain, it turns out, is a sixth cousin of First Lady Laura Bush. Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is related to beatnik author Jack Kerouac, Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England. Clinton also shares ancestors with Grammy Award-winning singers Celine Dion and Madonna. The senator won a Best Spoken Word Grammy for the audio version of her book, \"It Takes a Village.\" Rival Obama also snagged one in the same category for his book \"The Audacity of Hope.\" Conservatives who sometimes accuse Democrats of being in bed with liberal Hollywood elites may have been handed one more round of ammunition by the Society's findings. Clinton, the Society said, is related to Angelina Jolie. And Obama is related to Jolie's boyfriend Brad Pitt. Watch a report on the candidates' family trees and other news \u00bb . The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, says it is the oldest such organization in the country. Members spent three years tracing the lineage of the candidates. Among its other findings: . McCain, the Vietnam War veteran who spent five years as a prisoner of war, descends from a long line of kings: Scottish King William the Lion, English King Edward I and French King Louis VII. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, is \"related to millions of contemporary Americans - perhaps even a significant percentage of the population,\" the researchers said. He is cousins with six U.S presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. He is also linked to American artist Georgia O'Keefe, the Duchess of Windsor and two men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Most surprisingly, Obama -- the man who could become America's first African-American president -- is linked by ancestry to Robert E. Lee, who commanded the armies of the Southern slave-holding states during the American civil war. Bedfellows, it turns out, make for strange politics. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New England Historic Genealogical Society studies candidates' ancestry .\nHillary Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie, Jack Kerouac and Madonna .\nBarack Obama is related to Brad Pitt; John McCain shares a link to Laura Bush .","id":"6f9879f1b18d9dba87e1ac67377bf1260da3c2c8"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday called the U.S. president inexperienced, compared him unfavorably to President George W. Bush and suggested he apologize for \"interfering in Iran's affairs.\" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at President Obama on Thursday. \"Do you think that this kind of behavior is going to solve any of your problems? It will only make people think you are someone like Bush,\" the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. \"You are at the beginning of your way and you are gaining experience, and we do not wish the scandals of the Bush era to be repeated during your term of office,\" the Iranian leader said. President Obama, who has been in office for five months, has been treading a careful line on Iran, which has seen two weeks of street demonstrations following a disputed presidential election there. Watch how U.S.-Iran relations got to this point . Pro-government security forces have cracked down on the protests, with officials saying 17 people have died. Unofficial reports suggest the number is much higher. Official results gave Ahmadinejad a 2-to-1 victory over his nearest rival, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Moussavi. Moussavi says the results were rigged. Obama has said Iranians must be free to demonstrate peacefully, and his administration Wednesday withdrew invitations to Iranian diplomats around the world to attend U.S. embassy Fourth of July parties. The extension of invitations last month was seen as a cautious outreach to Iran, which has not had diplomatic relations with Washington for 30 years. Obama wrote secretly to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, before the election, Iranian sources confirmed Wednesday. See photos from post-election violence \u00bb . Obama said Tuesday that Iran's government must justify itself not in the eyes of the United States, but in the opinion of its own people. \"A sizable percentage of the Iranian people themselves ... consider this election illegitimate,\" he said at a White House news conference. \"It is not too late for the Iranian government to recognize that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and prosperity,\" he said. \"We hope they take it.\" Timeline of election violence \u00bb . Ahmadinejad said Thursday that even 5- and 6-year-olds would not allow insults to the Iranian nation, telling Obama: \"We hope that you will avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and somehow express your regret so that the Iranian nation can become aware of your regret. If there is real change, the Iranian nation will welcome it.\"","highlights":"Ahmadinejad: \"We do not wish the scandals of the Bush era to be repeated\"\nIran has been in gripped in post-election violence for two weeks .\nObama has said that Iranians must be permitted to demonstrate peacefully .\nU.S. president secretly wrote to Iran's supreme leader before the election .","id":"046740a7f786434305b6aabed7b1ad0ce8e1dfa7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rudy Ruiz founded RedBrownandBlue.com, a site featuring multicultural political commentary, hosts a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show; and wrote a guide to success for immigrants (\"\u00a1Adelante!\" published by Random House). He is co-founder and president of Interlex, an advocacy marketing agency based in San Antonio, Texas. Rudy Ruiz says people hold on to their views despite the evidence for fear of being labeled a flip-flopper. SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- As people shout over each other and tune out diverging views in town hall meetings, the health care debate is proving to be symptomatic of a major ailment threatening our nation: . A contagious culture of closed-mindedness threatens to suffocate our progress as a society. Why has it become so difficult to even consider changing our minds about important issues? Here's my diagnosis. Increasingly, the willingness to change one's position on political issues has been misread as a mark of weakness rather than a product of attentive listening and careful deliberation. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, the successful branding of John Kerry as a flip-flopper doomed his bid. Fear of \"flip-flopper syndrome\" is apparently catching like the flu, because today politicians are not alone in their determination to adhere to partisan positions despite the changing needs of our nation. Nearly everyone's so reluctant to appear wishy-washy that they stand firm even when the evidence is against their views. Three factors exacerbate this paralysis by lack of analysis: labels, lifestyles and listening. First, the labels ascribed to many potential policy tools render sensible options taboo, loading what could be rational, economic or social measures with moral baggage. This narrows our choices, hemming in policy makers. Any proposal including the words \"government-run\" elicits cries of \"socialism\" and \"communism.\" Any argument invoking the words \"God\" or \"moral\" sparks accusations of \"right-wing extremism,\" \"fascism,\" or \"Bible-thumping.\" Instead of listening to each other's ideas, we spot the warning label and run the other way. Second, our lifestyles favor knee-jerk reactions. The way we think, work and live in the Digital Age demands we quickly categorize information without investing time into rich interaction, research and understanding. We're hesitant to ask questions because we don't have time to listen to the long, complicated answers that might follow. And we lack the time to fact-check competing claims. In our haste, it's easier to echo our party's position than drill down, questioning whether party leaders are motivated by our best interests or the best interests of their biggest contributors. Third, we tend to listen only to like-minded opinions as media fragmentation encourages us to filter out varying perspectives. If you're a liberal, you avoid FOX News. If you're a conservative you revile MSNBC. The dynamic is even more pronounced online, where a niche media source can be found for any outlook. This silences the opportunity for meaningful dialogue and deliberation that might lead to reformulating positions, forging sustainable compromises, and developing consensus crucial to moving our nation forward on complex issues. So how can we overcome this challenge, starting with the health care debate? How do we open our minds to the possibility that we could actually learn from somebody else? Here's my prescription. For starters, we should eschew the notion that changing our minds is a character flaw. To the contrary, experts believe it's a manifestation of higher intelligence. Renowned psychologist Stuart Sutherland wrote in \"Irrationality,\" his seminal 1992 book: \"The willingness to change one's mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness.\" To further free our minds, we should aggressively treat the three Ls: . Let's lose the labels: from \"flip-flopper\" to \"commie,\" from \"fear-monger\" to \"right-wing nut job.\" Trash the diatribe; mull the ideas. Let's engage in some constructive lifestyle management, slowing down to ponder -- and make independent decisions -- as enlightened people. We cannot allow the technological evolution to rob us of the intellectual strides of the American Revolution. We must value the art of listening, reflection, comparative analysis, and civil discourse if we're to make the most of our democracy. In the process, we should signal to leaders that we're willing to expand our horizons beyond party lines. Maybe they'll get in front of our parade, collaborating for a change. Let's request a second opinion and listen to each other. Switch channels. Visit different Web sites. Read a newspaper, while we can still find one. How about stepping into a town hall with an open mind, prepared to converse with people hailing from diverse circumstances? A range of perspectives enriches our viewpoint, empowering us to craft nuanced responses to complex situations. Ultimately, we must stop thinking that the only thing to think is what we've thought all along. As we learn more about multifaceted matters, our positions should evolve accordingly. Let's accept that it's OK to change your minds. In the end, opening our minds can only enhance the prognosis for our most cherished patient: America. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz.","highlights":"Rudy Ruiz: It's become unfashionable to have an open mind about issues .\nHe says labels like \"socialism\" and \"fascism\" obscure the real choices .\nHe says it's a sign of rationality to be open to the evidence .\nRuiz: Let's listen to each other and take into consideration wider range of viewpoints .","id":"d130c8207cd0d3bb4fad1ab7b6d0f3684b4b1a7d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi Arabian man was arrested after bragging about his sex life on television, local media reported. Mazen Abdul Jawad appeared last week on a show on Lebanese channel LBC, where he went into \"graphic details about his sexual conquests,\" according to Arab News, an English daily. A segment of the show \"Red Line\" posted on YouTube shows the 32-year-old talking about sex and foreplay. He also discusses losing his virginity to a neighbor while he was 14. In deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal and unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle. A government official told the newspaper that discussing sex in public is a punishable offense that may affect anyone involved in the broadcast. \"It is wrong to host people on television to speak publicly about vice and issues against our religion,\" said Ahmad Qasim Al-Ghamdi, director of Mecca's branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also known as the religious police. \"The program presents anomalies and deviancy in society that are unacceptable and immoral, and should be punished according to Shariah.\" About 100 people have filed a complaint against Abdul Jawad, alleging among other things, that he violated a principle of Shariah law by \"publicizing his sinful behavior,\" the daily said. It is unclear what punishment, if any, Abdul Jawad faces. CNN has been unable to reach Abdul Jawad or the Saudi Ministry of Justice for comment.","highlights":"Mazen Abdul Jawad appeared last week on a show on Lebanese channel .\nHe gives \"graphic details about his sexual conquests,\" reports Arab News .\nIn deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal .\nAbout 100 people have filed a complaint against Abdul Jawad; punishment not clear .","id":"0d5361027cc4e8412f889eb86bafc80acb6ae719"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Photographer Terry O'Neill is famous for his iconic images Hollywood stars in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the 1970s hottest actresses, Faye Dunaway photographed by Terry O'Neill in 1976. He made his name capturing the era's A-listers including Audrey Hepburn, Orson Welles and Brigitte Bardot in a uniquely relaxed and natural way. Always polite and professional in his approach, his informal and spontaneous style captured the spirit of the times. Rising stars, including rock bands The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, did not want the wooden, pre-fabricated images typical of the 1950s. As a result O'Neill became much in demand and his star began to rise alongside that of his subjects. During the 1980s Terry became the photographer of choice for Hollywood, and his commissions from the time are nothing short of a catalogue of global superstardom. Terry's success continued into the 1990s and with 65 pictures held by London's National Portrait Gallery, he is today revered as one the great British photographers. Born in the east end of London in 1938, he began his photographic career working for an airline at Heathrow Airport as part of their photographic unit. Terry O'Neill's images will be on exhibition through Getty Images Gallery in a pop-up gallery at Westfield, London from 7th July until 3rd August.","highlights":"O'Neill began his career at The Daily Sketch a picture paper in the 1960s .\nPhotographed Hollywood icons such as Brigitte Bardot and Paul Newman .\nA collection of O'Neill's prints are on show at the National Portrait Gallery in London .","id":"682f669edd90a552767afb928399de387579f344"} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- TV pitchman Billy Mays' death appeared to be from heart disease, not a bump to the head, according to the Hillsborough County medical examiner. OxiClean pitchman Billy Mays apparently died from heart disease, according to the medical examiner. The final cause of death will not be known until after toxicology results are available, Dr. Vernard Adams said at a Monday news conference. Mays, 50, was pronounced dead at his home near Tampa Sunday morning, after his wife Deborah found him unresponsive, Tampa police said. The autopsy conducted Monday morning revealed Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease, Adams said. \"It's not uncommon to have a sudden death with this kind of disease,\" Adams said. Watch medical examiner discuss Mays' autopsy \u00bb . \"Billy would be overwhelmed to see that his life touched so many people in a positive way,\" Deborah Mays said in a statement Monday. \"While it provides some closure to learn that heart disease took Billy from us, it certainly doesn't ease the enormous void that his death has created in our lives,\" she said. Billy Mays had told a friend before he went to sleep Saturday he was not feeling well. \"He said he was groggy, he wasn't feeling that great. He wanted to get some sleep,\" Todd Schnitt said. Watch friends remember Billy Mays \u00bb . Mays was on a US Airways flight from Philadelphia that had a hard landing Saturday at Tampa International Airport after the front tire of the plane blew out. After the flight, Mays told a Tampa TV station, \"All of a sudden as we hit, you know, it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.\" Watch Mays talk about hard landing \u00bb . Mays, with his booming voice, was famous for fronting products such as OxiClean and Orange Glo in TV commercials. iReport.com: Mays imitator meets the real thing . No evidence of exterior or interior head trauma was found during Mays' autopsy, Adams said. The Discovery Channel -- which airs \"Pitchmen\" co-hosted by Mays -- issued a statement saying, \"It is with incredible sadness that we have to report that Billy Mays died in his sleep last night. Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend.\" CNN's John Zarrella, Vivian Kuo and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Heart disease took Billy from us,\" wife says in statement .\nSudden death not unusual in heart disease cases, coroner says .\nBilly Mays, 50, is best known for his ads in which he shouts the attributes of OxiClean .\nThe pitchman was pronounced dead Sunday morning, authorities said .","id":"a3d05902fabd11627502087046ffe5f0c584b8d8"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Congestion in Zimbabwe's prisons is set to ease a bit after President Robert Mugabe acceded to pleas by prison authorities to pardon more than 1,500 prisoners. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has agreed to pardon 1,500 prisoners because of congestion. Mugabe granted the amnesty last month, but the Zimbabwe Prison Service is still identifying 1,544 prisoners to release. Zimbabwe's prisons are congested because the crime rate has escalated due to the country's economic collapse, prison officials have said. A senior justice ministry official told journalists Wednesday that Mugabe's clemency would benefit all convicted female prisoners and juveniles, but excludes criminals facing serious charges including rape or any sexual offenses, carjacking, conspiracy, armed robbery, murder and stock theft. \"As a short-term relief option to try and contain some of these challenges seriously and negatively impacting on the effective and efficient administration of prisons, a proposal to have a general amnesty was granted to inmates,\" said David Mangota, the Justice Ministry permanent secretary, of Mugabe's decision. The country's 42 prisons have a capacity for 13,000 inmates but are currently holding 17,000. As a result, the Prison Service has not been able to supply adequate rations to inmates. In April, a documentary showed half-naked, skeletal prisoners wasting away from hunger and diseases in some facilities. Prison officials said they are also strapped for cash, causing \"challenges\" in fulfilling basic needs for inmates, which include food, clothing and bedding, toiletries and transport, among others. One of the country's largest detention facilities, Khami Prison, has had its water cut off because the Prison Service hasn't paid its water bills, lawyers complained Wednesday. Sources said those bills now total more that U.S. $230,000. \"Offenders incarcerated should be treated humanely and with dignity in matters of health care, personal hygiene, sanitary, ablution requirements and general living conditions,\" said Josphat Tshuma, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe. Khami Prison is located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare and holds more than 2,000 inmates. The water disconnection raises the possibility that diseases such as cholera could break out, the Law Society said. Last year, a number of prisoners died due to various diseases related to lack of water, hunger and inhuman and unhygienic conditions, the group charged.","highlights":"Zimbabwe President agrees to pardon over 1,500 prisoners to ease congestion .\nZimbabwe's 42 prisons have capacity for 13,000 inmates but currently hold 17,000 .\nAdequate rations not available to all prisoners and some have become emaciated .","id":"c2bed4546ef1394e8e8e8112724e2a522a6517bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Muslim teenager from Ohio says her father threatened to kill her because she converted to Christianity. Rifqa Bary claims her father wants her dead after she converted to Christianity. Rifqa Bary, 17, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July and took refuge in the central Florida home of the Rev. Blake Lorenz with the Global Revolution Church in Orlando. The teen heard of the pastor and his church through a prayer group on Facebook. The girl's parents reported her missing to Columbus police, who found her two weeks later in Florida through cell phone records. The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, Mohamed Bary, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to \"deal with the situation.\" In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, \"If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!\" The teenager claims her father added, \"I will kill you!\" Mohamed Bary told CNN a lot of false information has been given and \"we wouldn't do her harm.\" He knew his daughter was involved with Christian organizations. \"I have no problem with her practicing any faith,\" he said, but Bary admitted he would have preferred his daughter to practice the Muslim faith first. Although Mohamed Bary said he did not expect his daughter to run away, Rifqa Bary was placed in foster care by an Orlando judge in August while the Florida Department of Children and Family investigated the threat allegations against the parents. In a court filing Monday, John Stemberger, Rifqa Bary's attorney and president of the Christian advocacy organization Florida Family Policy Council, accused the parents' Ohio mosque of having ties to terrorism and radical Islam. The Noor Islamic Cultural Center has denied the allegations. Stemberger told CNN he agreed with his client that she would be killed by radical Muslims if she is returned to Ohio. \"She is a person who is ripe for apostate killing or mercy killing. I'm not going to let my client slip away in the night by going back,\" said Stemberger. Roger Weeden, the mother's attorney in Florida, said the filing had no credible evidence but instead was meant \"just to inflame the community and the court.\" Weeden said he believes the teen's attorney is trying to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. The teen's attorney said his client has endured a history of abuse from her family. Stemberger said the young girl was forced to wear the Muslim headscarf called a hijab and was punched in the face by her father for being ashamed while wearing it. Stemberger is asking the court to keep Rifqa Bary in the custody of the state of Florida until she turns 18 in a year. Mohamed Bary, who is not a United States citizen, said he can't believe all the false allegations and the bad image caused by the situation. \"We are not bad people,\" Bary said. \"We are not like that, we are normal.\" The mother's attorney said the teenager was a normal girl, a cheerleader in Ohio, and what Muslim extremist would allow his daughter be a cheerleader? At a court hearing scheduled for Thursday in Orlando, the parents will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations against them. Their attorney said the parents will deny all allegations. After the court hearing, the judge may force all the parties involved into mediation, followed by an adjudication hearing.","highlights":"Teen convert says she ran away from Muslim father after he allegedly threatened her .\nRifqa Bary's attorney says his client would be killed if she is returned to Ohio .\nMohammed Bary calls allegations false, says Rifqa can practice any faith she wants .\nHearing on case is scheduled for Thursday in Florida .","id":"4b1d055dc0c0a7246cef6bd35ff0476e4eb79e7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's a blog where people post, and make fun of, pictures of out-of-shape, poorly dressed and otherwise awkward people shopping at Wal-Mart. The \"People of Walmart\" blog features photos taken by users at the mega-chain. And, in less than a month, with no marketing to speak of, it's become the toast of the Internet. \"People of Wal-Mart,\" a gag started by two 20-something brothers and their buddy to share crazy pictures with their friends, has gone viral. Promoted largely on sites like Digg and Funny or Die -- and linked ad nauseam on Facebook and Twitter -- the site picked up enough traffic to crash its servers on Wednesday. \"I'm still baffled -- I really am,\" said Andrew Kipple, 23, one of the creators of the site, who said his team was frantically working Wednesday to add enough server space to handle the surge in traffic. Photos on the site, sent in by viewers all over the United States, frequently feature overweight people wearing tight clothes, bizarre hairstyles (with versions of the short-in-front, long-in-back \"mullet\" leading the pack) and fashion crimes ranging from furry leg warmers to miniskirts that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. There's a guy enjoying a can of beer outside a Wal-Mart, a guy dressed as Captain America and another guy with a goat. Yes, a live goat. Andrew and his brother Adam, 25, said they thought of the site after a visit to a South Carolina Wal-Mart where they saw a woman they believed to be a stripper, wearing an obscene T-shirt and leading a toddler in a harness. Around the next corner was a man with a beard reminiscent of the rock band ZZ Top. \"It's kind of like the light bulb went off,\" Andrew said. \"We get the e-mails already from people who are like, 'Why didn't I think of this?' We just happened to be fortunate enough to have the ability to actually follow through on it.\" Their site was keeping up when it was getting about 500,000 views a day, but got swamped by a new spike in traffic late last week. The brothers, along with partner Luke Wherry, 23, say response has been largely positive -- with only a handful of complaints out of every 100 e-mails they get. A post on the group's Facebook page Thursday morning said they had gotten more than 1.2 million page views on Wednesday, even though the site was down for much of the day. The site was getting two or three photo submissions a day until last week they said -- when all of a sudden hundreds of e-mails, most with pictures, started rolling in. But not everyone appreciates the humor -- saying the site goes out of its way to mock poor and rural patrons of the store, reinforcing stereotypes along the way. \"American culture likes to single out people who appear to be different,\" said Tim Marema, vice president of the Whitesburg, Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies. \"Whether it's a joke or not, all depends on which side of the camera you're on.\" Furthering stereotypes can strengthen the rifts between rural, urban and suburban residents and, in the worst-case scenario, can affect the way some people are treated by government and industry, he said. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with more than 4,200 U.S. stores and over $400 billion in annual sales, may be more prominent in rural areas, Marema said, but to use that to stereotype its shoppers doesn't make sense. \"The reality is that everybody shops at Wal-Mart,\" he said. \"If you want to find the guy in the golf shirt and khakis, he's there too.\" A spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. declined to comment for this story. The brothers say they don't mean for their site to be mean-spirited, and that they have standards for which photos they use. Andrew Kipple said they don't include pictures of people with physical disabilities or apparent mental disabilities and won't run a picture of a person simply because they are overweight. \"We're not going to go out and say we're not making fun of anybody or we're the nicest guys in the world. But I think you have to draw a line somewhere when you have a site like this,\" he said. \"If you have a mental handicap -- that's not funny. If you have lost a leg and you're on a crutch or in a wheelchair, some people may laugh at that, but we don't find it funny.\" He denied complaints that the photos -- many of which attract a string of snarky comments from readers -- single out people because they are poor or unattractive. \"If you make a bad decision on what you're going to be out in public wearing, that's what we're looking for,\" he said. \"If you're 400 pounds, you shouldn't be wearing nothing but a pink tube top. Even if you shop at Goodwill, wherever you go, the shirts they sell have sleeves and they have your size.\" Adam Kipple, who works as a Web designer for a marketing firm, said he and his brother are frequent Wal-Mart shoppers themselves and that, in a way, their site could be boon to the shopping chain. \"People [who send e-mails wanting to take pictures] say, 'I haven't been to Wal-Mart in years, but now I have a reason to go,' \" he said.","highlights":"\"People of Wal-Mart\" blog went viral last week .\nSite features photos of unusual haircuts, fashion at the stores .\nCritics say site reinforces stereotypes, misrepresents Wal-Mart shoppers .\nSite's creators say they have standards, won't mock everyone .","id":"b5e8f7dcc1c7777c18ff9c0a0e797e9545d00db5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The son of Gabon's former president was declared the winner of the country's presidential elections on Thursday, sparking violent protests in some parts of the West African nation. Two men walk by tyres set on fire by opposition supporters in Libreville, Gabon. Voters went to the polls Sunday to elect a successor to President Omar Bongo, who died in June after more than four decades in office. Bongo, 73, was Africa's longest-serving ruler. In a live announcement Thursday on Gabonese television, Interior Minister Jean Francois Ndongou said Ali Bongo received 41.73 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, with former interior minister Andre Mba Obame getting 25.88 percent and main opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou winning 25.22 percent. Opposition supporters protested the results outside the French consulate in the oil-rich city of Port-Gentil, on the country's coast. A fire broke out at the consulate during the demonstrations, a French official told CNN. The official did not want his name to be used. Some people were seriously injured in the blaze, the official said. In his first address to the nation shortly after the results were announced, Ali Bongo, 50, promised to work to improve living conditions for all Gabonese by a redistribution of the country's riches, according to Gabonese media reports. The country has multiple lucrative natural resources, including oil, timber, minerals and gems. Before the results were made public, all three candidates had previously claimed victory, with the opposition candidates denouncing what they said was fraud in the election and vote-counting. Security forces patrolled the streets in the Gabonese capital of Libreville, where violence broke out in some quarters when the results were released, according to French media reports. Libreville was deserted because residents had fled to villages for fear of post-election violence, Andriankoto Ratozamanana told CNN by phone from the capital. \"The citizens won't accept if Ali Bongo wins, because that will mean the government stole the vote,\" Ratozamanana said. \"They want change. They don't want Bongo, because he is his dad's son.\" The younger Bongo, a former defense minister, was one of 23 politicians originally in the ballot. Several candidates pulled out a few days before the vote to support the opposition, said Archippe Yepmou, a media activist. The elder Bongo took power in 1967, seven years after the country's independence from France. He imposed one-party rule a year after succeeding the country's first president, who died in office. He allowed multiparty elections after a new constitution in 1991, but his party retained its grip on the government despite that. The nation of about 1.5 million has a per capita income four times that of most sub-Saharan African nations, according to the CIA World Factbook. Despite its wealth, which also comes from timber exports, a large percentage of its population lives in poverty because of poor financial management and a huge gap between the rich and the poor. CNN's Alanne Orjoux and Umaro Djau contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ali Bongo, son of Gabon's former president declared the winner of election .\nOpposition supporters protest outside the French consulate in city of Port-Gentil .\nVoters went to the polls on Sunday to elect successor to President Omar Bongo .","id":"e651df6e8972b6c190cddc6565872f1686523023"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from Nancy Grace's new novel \"The Eleventh Victim.\" published by Hyperion. Nancy anchors \"Nancy Grace\" on HLN nightly at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. HLN's Nancy Grace makes her fiction debut with \"The Eleventh Victim.\" A little something. What was it? Something...some detail was wrong. . He couldn't just leave the body lying there like that. There was something missing. It was biting at him. He'd tried to go, walking back to his car in the dark twice now, but the nagging in his brain wouldn't let him leave until she was absolutely perfect. He looked at her lying there in the moonlight. Her dead body was absolutely stunning. Before, when she had been alive, sitting in the passenger seat of his car, talking and talking about her life and herself and her journey from Anniston, Alabama, to Atlanta to break into acting, he thought his head would blow up like a bomb. She just wouldn't shut up. What did she think it was...a date? She was a hooker. He spotted her climbing the steep steps out of the MARTA subway station downtown. She got straight into his car with a big smile when he offered her a ride. Once inside, driving, he kept looking away from the road, stealing glances at her neck. Something about it drew him. Maybe the shape, the curve -- or maybe it was the soft hollow spot at the bottom. It was the only thing about her he could stomach. Watch Nancy talk about her new novel \u00bb . He lowered the automatic windows so her conversation would fly out into the night and he wouldn't have to hear it. Her teeth and lips revolted him. The shiny pink lip gloss she was wearing had thickened in spots across her lips and some had smeared onto her front teeth. Looking over at her as she talked, Cruise thought it was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. Back to the task at hand. What was it? It was maddening...he couldn't bring himself to leave until everything was just right...perfect, in fact. Every detail mattered. Like a delicate souffl\u00e9 or performing his specialty, decorating with boiling-hot spun sugar, perfection was achieved only by acute attention to detail. There, in the dark of the clearing, it hit him. Turning, he walked to his car and reached through the open window into the glove compartment and got it. The baker's twine. It was his favorite brand --it was actually the only twine he would ever consider using -- just shipped in from France. He had posed her on her back. The four bright-red puncture marks torn into her mid-back didn't bother him at all. In fact, the dark red against the white skin created a vivid contrast that was somehow pleasing to him. Walking back to her body, which he had spread carefully on a bed of soft grass to more suitably frame her pale limbs in a night lit only by the moon, he paused again. He needed the perfect spot. He couldn't rush this or he wouldn't sleep all night. The wrist? Like a bracelet? No. She was wearing a tacky, gold-tone watch. That would ruin the whole thing for him. And he couldn't bring himself to actually touch the timepiece she wore there on her right wrist. It looked cheap; he was sure the gold-tone finish was turning dark at the edges of the band. The neck? No. It was much too close to the lip gloss. The gloss had a faint, fruity odor, foul as gasoline fumes to Cruise, and that alone made him want to retch. It would totally destroy the twine's effect. Sometime during their \"date,\" fresh, damp dirt and a little grass had smeared horizontally across her mouth and worked its way up into her nose. He left it there. That was a beautiful and poetic touch of nature, but the lip gloss...disgusting. As he stood there at the foot of her body, staring into her face, her own eyes stared away from him and straight up into the sky, her lips still slightly parted just as they had been in life...just as they had been at the zenith, that incredibly beautiful and intimate moment when she exhaled her last breath into the night. And as he relived that moment, it came to him in an epiphany. He decided...the left ring finger. Perfect. He squatted down and gently picked up her left hand. The wrist was still limp. He tied a single, perfect bow around her ring finger just before rigor set in...before the body went stiff and cold and hard. He placed the hand back gently across her stomach. Backing away a few feet to take in the whole picture, finally, he could relax. Every detail was exquisite. Finally, he could get some sleep. The bow was perfectly symmetrical, and there, in the moonlight, it was just gorgeous. Almost like a wedding band. From THE ELEVENTH VICTIM by Nancy Grace. Copyright \u00a9 2009 Toto Holdings, LLC. To be published in August 2009 by Hyperion. Available wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"\"The Eleventh Victim\" is about an Atlanta assistant DA whose fiance is murdered .\nThe novel's heroine, Hailey Dean, relocates to New York for a fresh start .\nShe becomes a therapist whose patients begin dying -- they are murdered .\nThe murders are similar to 11 Atlanta killings and Hailey must solve the case .","id":"19c09c452e8cbf233a81ab2cb82f6743f71f436f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalis forced to flee war and drought are living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at home and in neighboring countries, including in Kenya and Ethiopia, an aid agency said Thursday. Somali refugees in Kenya queue to find out about a move to a displacement camp. Somalia has seen a rise in fighting between government forces and the Islamic militant group Al-Shabab, which wants to implement a stricter form of Sharia law or Islamic religious law. The clashes have left scores dead in recent months. The country in the Horn of Africa is also going through the worst drought in 10 years, international agency Oxfam said. \"Somalis flee one of the world's most brutal conflicts and a desperate drought, only to end up in unimaginable conditions in camps that are barely fit for humans,\" said Robbert Van den Berg, a spokesman for Oxfam International in the Horn of Africa. \"Hundreds of thousands of children are affected, and the world is abandoning the next generation of Somalis when they most need our help. Why does it seem like you matter less in this world if you are from Somalia?\" The international community has failed the refugees, who have little access to basic services such as water and medicine, Oxfam said. About 8,000 Somali refugees flock into the Dadaab camp in northern Kenya every month, the aid agency said. The camp, which has facilities for about 90,000, has 280,000 refugees who have no access to basic necessities, including clean water, Oxfam said. \"The Kenyan government has repeatedly promised to provide more land to ease the overcrowding, but has so far failed to do so,\" Van den Berg said. \"More pressure from the international community is needed to make it happen.\" Kenyan officials decried the criticism. \"It is wrong to say we are not doing anything,\" said Francis Mwaka, a federal communications official. \"The Kenya government is aware of the problem and is working on a solution.\" Several government departments that deal with refugee issues are planning to meet next week, Mwaka said. \"During this meeting, they will discuss the possibility of having another camp for refugees in the country or relocating some of the ones in Dadaab to another camp,\" he said. Mwaka confirmed Oxfam's report that the Dadaab camp was built to host 90,000 refugees. In Ethiopia, the Bokolmayo camp has about 10,000 people. At least 1,000 people arrive there every month, but the facilities are not adequate enough to handle the influx, Oxfam said. Meanwhile, in Somalia, insecurity has hindered international aid agencies from reaching the 485,000 people who have fled the capital, Mogadishu, to nearby Afgooye, Oxfam said. The displaced are getting help from Somalis, who do not have enough resources, it added. \"In all three locations -- Afgooye, Dadaab and Bokolmayo -- the services being provided to vulnerable and desperate people are far below international standards,\" Van den Berg said. About 1.4 million people have been displaced in Somalia and 500,000 more have fled to countries in the region, according to Oxfam. The transitional government has been mired in chaos since 1991 when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting. Government officials have struggled to establish authority amid challenges by Islamist groups that have seized control of some cities.","highlights":"Somali refugees living in unsanitary conditions at home and in neighboring countries .\nClashes between government forces and Islamic militant group has killed hundreds .\nSomalia also suffering from worst drought in ten years, according to Oxfam .\nThe Bokolmayo camp in Ethiopia is home to about 10,000 refugees .","id":"bee8f43a81d6c6c7c470cda812eaa21534250377"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Students, we know you may not be all that ecstatic about seeing your teachers -- and the homework they assign -- as the school year starts up. Pay attention in class, though; you never know what hidden talents your teachers might have. Just look at all of these famous former teachers: . After teaching and performing music, Gene Simmons is now starring in his own reality show, \"Family Jewels.\" Gene Simmons: The tongue-flicking bassist of Kiss taught sixth grade in Harlem before he became the world's most famous bass-playing demon. Simmons later revealed in interviews that his superiors canned him for replacing the works of Shakespeare with Spiderman comics, which he thought the students were more likely to actually read. Alexander Graham Bell: The telephone pioneer got his start teaching Visible Speech at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. He developed a bond with a student named Mabel Hubbard, and when she was 19 the two married. Sting: Before he became a star with The Police, Sting taught English, music, and soccer at St. Catherine's Convent School. Sting later said of working at a convent school, \"I was the only man on the faculty. In fact, I was the only teacher not in a habit.\" Mental Floss: How 10 celebrities picked their stage names . Robert Frost: Like King, Frost worked as a teacher to supplement the income from his fledgling literary career. Frost worked as both a farmer and teacher at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire. His students called him \"the Hen Man\" because the poet was afraid of chickens, and Frost allegedly had trouble remembering to milk the school's cows on time. Lyndon Johnson: The future president got his start as a principal at the Mexican-American Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. He later finished his teaching degree and landed gigs teaching public speaking at Pearsall High School in Pearsall Texas and Sam Houston High in Houston. The debate team he coached at Sam Houston lost the Texas state championship by a single point; Johnson supposedly had to vomit backstage before he could bring himself to congratulate the winners. Art Garfunkel: We can't speak for Paul Simon, but at least half of Simon and Garfunkel was really, really good at math. Garfunkel nearly earned a doctorate in the subject and was teaching math at the Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut when \"Bridge Over Troubled Water\" soared to the top of the charts. John Adams: The second president of the United States spent a few years working as a schoolteacher in Worcester, Massachusetts. Teaching didn't suit Adams, who thought his students were nothing more than a \"large number of little runtlings, just capable of lisping A, B, C, and troubling the master.\" He eventually gave up the job to go to law school. Mr. T: It was hard for Chicago students to be fools when it came to gym class in the mid-1970s. You'd pay attention if Mr. T told you to do jumping jacks, wouldn't you? Sylvester Stallone: Did you know you were watching a matchup of tough-guy teachers when Stallone and Mr. T battled in \"Rocky III?\" When Sly was attending the American College in Switzerland during the 1960s, he worked as a gym teacher to earn extra spending money. Mental Floss: Sly Stallone pudding and other unique celebrity products . J.K. Rowling: The Harry Potter author worked as an English teacher in Portugal as she plotted out the early adventures of her young wizards. Andy Griffith: Before he was a sheriff, before he was Matlock, Andy Griffith was a teacher. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Griffith taught English at Goldsboro High School. Billy Crystal: The comedian worked as a junior high substitute teacher on Long Island while he waited for his career to take off. Among the classes he subbed for: girls' gym, which must have been a great source of material. Kris Kristofferson: The country star was a Rhodes Scholar who studied literature at Oxford before joining the Army and rising to the rank of captain. Towards the end of his tour of duty, Kristofferson took a job as an English teacher at West Point, but he decided against the professorship at the last minute. Instead of heading to New York, he resigned his commission and moved to Nashville in 1965. Stephen King: Although he initially had to work in an industrial laundry after his college graduation, the horror master eventually found a teaching job that paid a cool $6400 a year at the Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. King wrote \"Salem's Lot\" while living in a trailer and working this job during the day. Mental Floss: Mojave Desert's airplane graveyard . Sir William Golding: The author's experiences as a teacher helped inform the novel that made his career. He once allowed a class of boys to debate with complete freedom, and the classroom quickly devolved into such disorder that it inspired Golding to write \"Lord of the Flies.\" For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some people who became famous, tried their hand at teaching first .\nPresident Lyndon Johnson taught public speaking, coached debate team .\nArt Garfunkel was teaching math when \"Bridge Over Troubled Water\" became a hit .\nAuthors Stephen King and J.K. Rowling and singer Sting all taught English .","id":"5f103855f51818fa057a64cc8436aa3ce594aa1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Toyota must start again, \"from the bottom up,\" new president Akio Toyoda said Thursday. New Toyota boss Akio Toyoda says he will cut his salary by 30 percent. Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, the grandson of Toyota Motors' founder said the company will focus on tailoring its product lines to customer demand in each region. Toward that end, Toyoda named an executive vice president to head each region. The company was not wrong to expand its business earlier this decade, Toyoda said, but he acknowledged that it might have overextended. Moving forward, the company's focus will be on products, rather than profits, he said. Taking responsibility for the company's $4.4 billion net loss in the most recent fiscal year, Toyoda said he would cut his salary by 30 percent. There are no current plans to close factories, a company executive said. Analysts say Toyoda must drastically cut costs, but he offered no hints as to how or even whether that would be done at his first news conference as president. The company board formally approved Toyoda, 53, for the job on Tuesday. He has been with Toyota for 24 years. His grandfather slightly altered the family name when christening the company \"Toyota,\" which has eight brush strokes in Japanese -- a fortuitous number.","highlights":"Akio Toyoda is the grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda .\nToyoda has been with the firm 24 years, says will cut his salary by 30 percent.\nAnalysts say Toyoda must drastically cut costs -- he offers no hints as to how .","id":"6c179370c7578142e28a41da41eef63a71dd3061"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe has shown throughout her career that when it comes to voting, it's her principles and constituents that guide her, not her party. Sen. Olympia Snowe has received overwhelming support from her constituents in past elections. Those principles, analysts note, are guiding her to find a compromise on health care reform currently stalemated in Congress. Jennifer Duffy, who follows the Senate for the Cook Political Report, said Snowe's independent streak is \"not new behavior for her.\" \"I think they [Republicans] also realize that the only reason that the state of Maine has two Republican senators at all is the fact that they are very independent-minded and they vote their state,\" she said, referring to Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins. In fact, some estimates place Snowe as having voted with her party only 57 percent of the time in the current Congress. While her moderate views are at odds with GOP opposition to several of President Obama's economic plans this year, the senator's constituents seem to agree with her. In 2006, she won re-election with 74 percent of the vote, compared to her Democratic opponent's 21 percent. In 2000, Snowe received 69 percent of the vote. In an interview with National Public Radio in 2006, she said that while her views are moderate, Maine, like other New England states, has been \"naturally independent\" \"Oftentimes, I tell my leadership, don't blame me, it's just where I grew up,\" she said at the time. Snowe, 59, was elected to Congress in 1978 at age 31, and served Maine's 2nd District for 16 years. She ran for Senate in 1994 and won, \"becoming the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of the state legislature and both houses of Congress,\" her Senate Web site notes. Her political career began in 1973 after her husband, Maine Rep. Peter Snowe, was killed in a car accident and she was elected to fill his seat. After two years in the state Senate, she won the U.S. House seat held by William Cohen when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1978. Snowe was elected to the Senate with 60 percent of the vote during the Republican revolution of 1994, filling the seat of longtime Democratic Sen. George Mitchell, who retired. She married then-Maine Gov. John McKernan in 1989. In 2006, Time Magazine named her one of the top 10 U.S. senators, calling her \"the caretaker.\" \"Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington,\" the article read. \"But while Snowe is a major player on national issues, she is also known as one of the most effective advocates for her constituents.\" Duffy said that if Snowe and Collins started voting with the Republican leadership all the time, \"They would probably both lose re-election.\" Part of the so-called \"Gang of Six\" on the Senate Finance Committee, which includes three Democrats and three Republicans, she has been actively negotiating with the White House. The White House said that Sens. Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi, the other two Republicans in the Gang of Six, have backed away from negotiations, although Enzi released a statement that said he is still willing to talk. Snowe said it's important to work with the other party despite criticism. \"I think sometimes, yes, I'd find myself in that position, you know, with fewer and fewer ... people who are willing to reach across the political aisle and to create what I ... call the sensible center,\" she told NPR last week. \"I mean, that's where the majority of Americans are. And I try to sort of build those ... bridges.\" Part of that bridge building was seen with her votes for the president's $787 billion economic stimulus package in February. For the past months, Snowe has been pushing the idea of a safety net plan, or \"trigger,\" for a public health care option as part of a key compromise. A source familiar with her negotiations with Obama said that's one of the things they're talking about. Watch more on the health care debate \u00bb . The idea would give insurance companies a defined period to make changes in order to help cover more people and drive down long-term costs. But if those changes failed to occur within the defined period, a trigger would provide for creating a public option to force change on the insurance companies. \"This option would be available from day one in any state where -- after market and insurance reforms are implemented -- affordable, competitive plans still do not exist,\" she said in a press release. Her main concerns so far have been the high cost of health care proposals. \"What we have to do is develop a plan that's going to be available to people on an affordable basis, and, secondly, containing costs both for the American consumer and the American taxpayer,\" Snowe said in the NPR interview last week. Cost has been a major part of her bipartisan efforts in the Senate. \"Given the gravity of our economic circumstances, I am pleased that our bipartisan negotiations have yielded a consensus solution that will create jobs, assist the displaced and invest in our economy,\" she said at the time about the stimulus plan. She added that it is not a \"matter of labeling something as spending or as tax relief; it's finding and including in this package the vital provisions necessary for jump-starting our economy.\" CNN's Dana Bash, Ed Henry and Mark Preston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Olympia Snowe is one of two GOP senators from Maine .\nSnowe has said she is guided by principles and constituents, not her party .\nAnalyst: Snowe's independent streak is \"not new behavior for her\"\nIn 2006, Time magazine named her one of the top 10 U.S. senators .","id":"613111ac2a3831a7291656bee2def306453552d4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Seventy days after his sudden death, Michael Jackson will be interred in what may or may not be his final resting place Thursday evening. A private funeral for Michael Jackson will be held Thursday in Glendale, California, his family says. Only his family and closest friends will attend the private burial starting at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) inside the ornate Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California. They'll then drive to an Italian restaurant eight miles away in Pasadena, California for \"a time of celebration,\" the nine-page engraved invitation said. The first page inside the invitation holds a quote from \"Dancing the Dream,\" a book of essays and poems published by Jackson in 1992: . \"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.\" Gallery: Invitation for Jackson's service \u00bb . The news media -- which have closely covered every aspect of Jackson's death -- will be kept at a distance, with their cameras no closer than the cemetery's main gate. The family will provide a limited video feed that will only show mourners arriving. Little is known about the planned ceremony, though CNN has confirmed that singer Gladys Knight -- a longtime friend to Jackson -- will perform. Her song has not been disclosed. The massive mausoleum, which is normally open to tourists, was closed Wednesday as preparations were completed for the funeral. A security guard blocking its entrance said it would reopen to the public on Friday. Fans of Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and dozens of other celebrities buried on the grounds have flocked to Forest Lawn-Glendale for decades, but Jackson may outdraw them all. It is unclear how close tourists will be allowed to Jackson's resting place. Security guards -- aided by cameras -- keep a constant vigil over the graves and crypts, which are surrounded by a world-class collection of art and architecture. The Forest Lawn Web site boasts that the mausoleum, which draws its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Italy, \"has been called the \"New World's Westminster Abbey\" by Time Magazine. Visitors will see \"exact replicas of Michelangelo's greatest works such as David, Moses, and La Pieta\" and \"Leonardo da Vinci's immortal Last Supper re-created in brilliant stained glass; two of the world's largest paintings,\" the Web site says. Jackson's burial has been delayed by division among Jackson family members, though it was matriarch Katherine Jackson who would make the final decision, brother Jermaine Jackson recently told CNN. He preferred to see his youngest brother laid to rest at his former Neverland Ranch home, north of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara County, California. That idea was complicated by neighbors who vowed to oppose allowing a grave in the rural area -- and by Jackson family members who said the singer would not want to return to the home where he faced child molestation charges, of which he was ultimately acquitted. The mystery of where Michael Jackson would be buried became a media obsession in the weeks after his death. After his body was loaded onto a helicopter at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center hours following his June 25 death, it stayed in the custody of the Los Angeles County coroner for an autopsy. It was only later disclosed that Jackson's corpse was kept in a refrigerated room at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn cemetery until his casket was carried by motorcade to downtown Los Angeles for a public memorial service in the Staples Center arena. Again, speculation about Jackson's whereabouts grew when the media lost track of his casket after his brothers carried it out of sight inside the arena. Though the family has not publicly confirmed where the body was taken, most reports placed it back at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn while awaiting his family's decision. Though Thursday's interment may settle one Michael Jackson mystery, a more serious one remains. The coroner announced last week that he had ruled Jackson's death a homicide. A summary of the coroner's report said the anesthetic propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the primary drugs responsible for the singer's death. Los Angeles police detectives have not concluded their criminal investigation and no one has been charged.","highlights":"NEW: Michael Jackson burial to begin at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET)\nJackson's burial has been delayed by division among Jackson family members .\nCoroner announced last week that he had ruled Jackson's death a homicide .\nNo one has been charged in the pop singer's death .","id":"e781716eef9aa7b4dc86a7a3683b6810d7f46d24"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When David Whitney traveled to Pakistan to shoot his film about a man forced to flee Afghanistan after falling foul of the Taliban he didn't expect fiction to turn into reality. A still from \"Kandahar Break.\" Production of the film was halted after the crew were fired upon by suspected Taliban militia. But that's exactly what happened three weeks into shooting political thriller \"Kandahar Break\" in late 2008. Gunmen attacked the first-time director and his crew near the Afghan border. Four Pakistani crew members were shot and wounded in the incident and the entire crew was forced to flee the region. Pakistani authorities later told Whitney that the gunmen were affiliated with the Taliban and were in fact targeting the Western members of the team. \"I was very upset. It was terrifying to know that somebody was trying to attack us, trying to shoot us,\" Whitney told CNN. With the help of local security forces the team was immediately evacuated to Islamabad and put on a flight out of the country in 24 hours. Whitney had only managed to film three-quarters of the script and the film's future lay in the balance. \"When I heard that the crew members who had been shot were going to be fine I started to think like the businessman and the producer,\" says Whitney. \"I thought, 'How are we going to finish this film? We're not just going to give up.' And to a man everybody involved agreed to finish it.\" After six months spent organizing financial backing, the original cast and crew flew to Tunisia to complete the movie and has been attracting interest from distributors. Despite the danger caused by shooting so close to the actual conflict zone, Whitney says he would shoot in the region again if he had the chance. \"Every place you point a camera there's a great shot. You don't have to go very far to find fantastic authentic Afghan architecture and beautiful landscapes. \"All the people are in the same sort of authentic costumes, so you don't have the problem of trying to find authenticity -- it's all around you.\" Whitney hopes the authenticity will help \"Kandahar Break\" enjoy the same level of success as Kathryn Bigelow's \"The Hurt Locker\" -- the first film about the Iraq war to make a profit at the U.S. box office. Bigelow's thriller tells the story of an elite army EOD bomb squad who battle insurgents and each other, as they disarm a innumerable roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad. Bigelow shot \"The Hurt Locker\" in Jordan, as close as she could get to the actual conflict zone. She also made use of local actors. The film is based on screenwriter Mark Boal's first-hand experiences gathered whilst embedded with a bomb unit in Iraq. \"Because it was based on real life, we wanted to keep it as realistic as possible and keep it accurate,\" Bigelow told CNN. \"I mean this is a conflict that's still on-going so we felt responsible to the troops still there and the situation on the ground.\" The cast faced grueling shooting conditions: Temperatures ranged between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit (46 and 49 degrees Celsius). It was even hotter in the authentic bomb suit worn by Jeremy Brenner, who plays Staff Sergeant James. The suit weighed 60 pounds. \"You really can't explain the heat and the weight of the suit,\" Brenner told CNN. \"That certainly helped the realism of it all. There were a few moments I felt like ... I've been as close as I could've come to war without actually being in the military. \"The heat was real, the dust was real, the costumes and everything was so real that the tension [was already there],\" Anthony Mackie who plays Sergeant JT Sanborn told CNN. \"Kathryn would come to us before every scene and say, 'Remember at any moment you can die.' And we kept that in mind throughout all the scenes.\" While \"The Hurt Locker,\" has made over $11 million in the U.S., previous movies dealing with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have struggled to make money. Observers have attributed this to \"war fatigue\" suffered by audiences due to an abundance of war-stories in the media. Bigelow and Whitney are confident that cinema audiences have a thirst for knowledge about volatile regions like Iraq and Afghanistan that goes beyond what is reported on the news. \"I think the conflict [in Iraq] has been somewhat abstract for the general public, certainly speaking for myself,\" Bigelow told CNN. \"The film provides kind of a window, a lens onto what this particular conflict might be like, and gives it some specificity.\" David Whitney hopes \"Kandahar Break\" can have a similar effect. \"Afghanistan is at the moment quite central to global security. I think it's good that people are looking at Afghanistan, questioning it, asking all sorts of questions. If my film can play any part in that, any small part, then I'm pleased.\"","highlights":"Four Pakistani crew members shot during filming of \"Kandahar Break\"\nDespite difficulties, director David Whitney says it was a great film location .\nStar of \"The Hurt Locker\" says filming was similar to being in the military .","id":"b6042c373c7228959732e238920bff295813c658"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's memorial service will take place Tuesday morning in the Staples Center, the 20,000-seat coliseum in downtown Los Angeles where Jackson rehearsed his show the night before he died, according to a person who has been briefed by a representative of the family. Michael Jackson was rehearsing at Los Angeles' Staples Center. His memorial will now be there. No other details about the service, set to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, have been revealed. Thursday, CNN learned the family trust created by Jackson to receive all of his assets includes his mother, his children and a list of charities, according to a person with direct knowledge to the contents of the trust. Katherine Jackson's 40 percent share would go to Michael Jackson's three children after her death, the source said. The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- will also share 40 percent of the estate's assets and the remaining 20 percent will benefits charities designated by the executors of the will, the source said. Jackson's will did not specify where he wished to be buried. Many of his fans had hoped they'd get a chance to pay last respects at Neverland Ranch, which Jackson purchased in 1987, filled with animals and amusement rides, and named after the fictional world in J.M. Barrie's \"Peter Pan.\" Planning had been under way for a motorcade to carry Jackson's body from Los Angeles to the ranch in Santa Barbara County, California, which state and local officials suggested would be difficult and costly. A public viewing at the ranch on Friday also had been under consideration, law enforcement sources said. Gregory Son, a 31-year-old musician, was among many fans who had planned to ride to the ranch to say goodbye to Jackson. \"I think he was a modern-day prophet,\" Son said outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. \"We kind of lost our father.\" DEA joins investigation . On Wednesday night, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday night that the Drug Enforcement Administration had joined Jackson's death investigation, once again fanning speculation that drugs may have been involved in the pop icon's passing. Two law enforcement officials separately confirmed the DEA probe, saying agents would look at various doctors involved with Jackson, their practices and their possible sources of medicine supply. Neither official wanted to be identified because they could not comment publicly on the matter. Officially, a DEA spokeswoman referred questions to the Los Angeles, California, police department -- which would not confirm the involvement. \"We routinely offer assistance to any agency regarding the Federal Controlled Substance Act,\" said Sarah Pullen of the DEA. \"However, at this time, we have nothing further to comment about the death of Michael Jackson.\" Speculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died on June 25 at his rented estate in Holmby Hills. The cause of his death, at age 50, was pending toxicology results. On Wednesday, police released a car belonging to Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. They had impounded the vehicle Friday, saying it might contain evidence -- possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Murray's lawyers issued a statement, asking the public to reserve judgment about the cause of death until the coroner's tests are complete. \"Based on our agreement with Los Angeles investigators, we are waiting on real information to come from viable sources like the Los Angeles medical examiner's office about the death of Michael Jackson,\" the statement said. \"We will not be responding to rumors and innuendo.\" The comments were in reaction to a claim by a nutritionist who said Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and pleaded for the powerful sedative, Propofol, despite knowing its harmful effects. \"I told him this medication is not safe,\" said Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse. \"He said, 'I just want to get some sleep. You don't understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.' \" Will nominates Jackson's mother as kids' guardian . Meanwhile, details of Jackson's will -- written on July 7, 2002 -- showed that the singer estimated his estate to be worth at least $500 million. In it, he nominated his mother, Katherine Jackson, as the guardian of his three children. If his 79-year-old mother is not living, \"I nominate Diana Ross as guardian,\" Jackson stated. Singer Ross, 65, is a lifelong friend of Jackson's. The will said Jackson \"intentionally omitted\" his former wife and the mother of his two oldest children, Debbie Rowe. It will be up to a court to decide who gets custody of the children, ages 7, 11 and 12. Rowe has not publicly indicated whether she will challenge the Jacksons for custody. The two men whom the will named as executors immediately filed a request to take control of the estate. One is John Branca, who represented Jackson from 1980 until 2006 and was hired again before the singer's death. He helped acquire Jackson's music catalog, which is worth millions. The other is music industry executive John McClain, a longtime Jackson friend who has worked with him and his sister Janet. The men said in their filing in Los Angeles Superior Court that control of the estate would allow them to tend to Jackson's numerous outstanding debts, legal cases and business obligations. Judge Mitchell Beckloff held an emergency hearing Wednesday morning and decided there was no urgency to replace Katherine Jackson -- whom he appointed temporary administrator earlier this week. Another hearing has been set for Monday. -- CNN's Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston, Michael Carey, Paul Vercammen, Carol Cratty and Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Michael Jackson trust includes mother, children, charities .\nMichael Jackson memorial to be Tuesday at L.A.'s Staples Center .\nThe Drug Enforcement Administration has joined Jackson's death investigation .\nSpeculation about the role of drugs has been swirling since Jackson died .","id":"14815e0d6b1bb88d4c00febd455b323a00d2f1f8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is asking Mexican federal authorities not to pull military units out of the region for at least another six months. A Mexican soldier controls traffic at the Mexico-U.S. border customs post in Ciudad Juarez on August 16. A decision on whether to withdraw the troops is expected before September 15. The troops were sent to the city across from El Paso, Texas, in the spring of 2008 to help quell violence involving warring drug cartels. An additional surge of troops was sent this spring. That surge appeared to work at first, cutting the homicide rate in Juarez drastically. But murders in the city spiked over the summer. Figures provided by the city show that in August. more than 300 people were killed, the deadliest month so far this year. In July, 260 died and in June, 220. Those numbers were in stark contrast to 16 homicides in March, 42 in April and 60 in May. The mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz, attributed the summer spike in violence to wars between cartels over the control of street drug-sale points. The cartels are hiring mostly youths to handle retail drug sales, he said, and that has resulted in most of the murder victims being between the ages of 14 and 25. The mayor said Juarez is not ready for the army's full withdrawal, even though he is aware the troops' presence was meant to be a temporary solution to give the city time to get rid of corrupt police officers, hire new ones and train its new force. \"We have accomplished the part that has to do with strengthening the police, but the city is in a very difficult situation. We are asking part of the army to stay and help us,\" Reyes Ferriz said. In September, 750 newly graduated police cadets are expected to join Ciudad Juarez Police Department, and another 400 in October, bringing the force to a total of about 3,000 officers. According to figures provided by the military, more than 6,000 soldiers are serving in Joint Operation Chihuahua in Juarez, of which 3,600 have been assigned to narco-traffic operations. The rest have been assigned to traffic duties and street patrols. The operation's spokesman, Enrique Torres, said the military is \"evaluating the security situation\" in the city and will be \"implementing a gradual withdrawal.\"","highlights":"Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz would like federal army troops to stay six more months .\nTroops were sent to Ciudad Juarez to quell drug-fueled murders .\nMurders down in spring, but spike in summer; more than 300 killed in August .\nDecision on whether to withdraw the troops is expected before September 15 .","id":"9ac54d43015d5d8ee82b78f42065050ec39833a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Accusing local media in the Orlando, Florida, area of a \"barrage\" of coverage, Casey Anthony's lead defense attorney asked Monday to have her death-penalty case moved from Orlando to Miami, Florida. Casey Anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. \"The overwhelming majority of the media's coverage of this case has been negative for the defendant,\" says a defense motion filed in Orange County Circuit Court. Anthony, 23, is scheduled to go on trial on a first-degree murder charge in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. \"The effects of the inflammatory and negative aspect of the media coverage in this case is best witnessed in the violent and harassing protests which have dogged the defendant and her family for many months now,\" the motion says. Signed by Anthony's lead lawyer, Jose Baez, the motion says moving the trial far enough away from local media will \"not end the coverage,\" which Baez said has produced thousands of articles and TV news reports, but will \"have a chilling effect\" on coverage. Peter Odom, a defense attorney appearing Monday on HLN's Nancy Grace to provide analysis of the case, said, \"All the defense has to show is that there's been extensive media coverage. That's a cinch.\" \"Secondly, that it will be impossible for them to find a fair jury pool,\" he added, referring to the Orlando area. Baez cited a number of reasons in his request to the judge to move the case to south Florida, where he says it has been covered far less and there is a \"large and diverse jury pool.\" Local media in the Orlando area, he argued, have affected Anthony's chances of getting a fair trial not only in Orange County but in much of Central Florida. If the judge rejects his request to move the trial to Miami, Baez said Broward County, about a 45-minute drive north of Miami, is a second choice.","highlights":"Attorney cites negative TV, media coverage in request for venue change .\nLawyer asked for trial to be moved from Orlando, Florida, to Miami, Florida .\nLawyer says media coverage means Casey Anthony won't get a fair trial .\nCasey Anthony facing death penalty trial for daughter's murder .","id":"601583f3b2464189f4feb6c1e06f8d4c277c59d3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran's parliament on Thursday approved the Cabinet nominations of a suspected terrorist and the first woman minister in the Islamic republic's 30-year history. Iran's first woman minister Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi. She will head the health ministry. Lawmakers approved the nomination of Ahmad Vahidi for its defense minister post. He is a former leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and one of six former and current Iranian officials sought by Interpol for the bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center 15 years ago. Of those Cabinet choices approved by parliament, Vahidi won the highest number of votes. Argentina's Foreign Ministry has deplored the nomination of Vahidi, who is accused of working with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants in carrying out the 1994 attack. Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi was approved as the nation's health minister. She is the first female minister since the Islamic republic was founded. Iranian lawmakers gave their votes of confidence to 18 of the 21 nominees proposed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who entered a second term of office after a disputed presidential election. Two of those who failed to get the required majority votes enabling them to start work officially were female nominees: Sousan Keshavarz for the education ministry and Fatemeh Ajorlou for welfare and social security. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets for more than two weeks to protest the June 12 election results, calling them fraudulent after Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner. More than 1,000 people were arrested in a government crackdown, and Iran said at least 30 people were killed in post-election violence.","highlights":"Islamic Republic appoints its first ever woman minister Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi .\nLawmakers also approve nomination of Ahmad Vahidi for its defense minister post .\nVahidi, a former leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a suspected terrorist .","id":"2d400aa6b030721a004166e1520ad772a327bd24"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the \"biggest prize ever\" -- the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world's major religions. The TV show offers converts to Islam the chance to visit Mecca. The show, called \"Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor,\" or \"Penitents Compete,\" features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk. If they succeed, the contestants are rewarded with a pilgrimage to one of their chosen faith's most sacred sites -- Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for converts to Judaism, a trip to Tibet for Buddhists and the chance to visit Ephesus and the Vatican for Christians. Ahmet Ozdemir, deputy director of Turkish channel Kanal T, which will air the show from September, said the program aimed to \"turn disbelievers on to God.\" \"People are free to believe anything they want. Our program does not have a say,\" he said, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. Contestants will be judged by a panel of eight theologians and religious experts prior to going on the show to make sure their lack of faith is genuine. But the show has been condemned by Turkish religious leaders. The head of the country's supreme council of religious affairs, Hamza Aktan, told CNN Turk that it was \"disrespectful\" to place different faiths in competition with each other and accused Kanal T of using religion to boost ratings. \"To do such a thing for the sake of ratings, not only with Islam but with all religions is disrespectful,\" said Aktan. \"Religion should not be the subject of this type of program.\" Although Turkey has a predominantly Muslim population and culture, religion is a sensitive subject because of the country's staunchly secular constitution which outlaws most displays of faith in public life. Last year the Islamist-influenced government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with the country's constitutional court when judges overturned the efforts of Erdogan's AK Party to lift a ban on female students wearing headscarves at public universities. Aylin Yazan at CNN Turk contributed to this story.","highlights":"Turkish TV show features imam, Catholic priest, Jewish rabbi, Buddhist monk .\nReligious leaders attempt to persuade atheists to \"convert\" to their faith .\nShow has prompted criticism from religious groups who say it is \"disrespectful\"","id":"aa7ef1272c47edd301fc9d4376731d7ffc2cbb2a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One FAA safety inspector was killed and another injured Tuesday when a helicopter they were on crashed into an apparently unoccupied house in Jackson, Mississippi, authorities said. The Robinson R44 helicopter that crashed is similar to the one pictured here. The Robinson R44 helicopter crashed into the duplex-style house about half a mile east of Hawkins Field airport, according to Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration. The two people on the aircraft were from the agency's Flight Standards District Office in Jackson, Bergen said. Names of the two were not released. Both victims were taken to the Mississippi Medical Center where one of them died shortly after arriving, according to medical center spokesman Jack Masurak. Lee Vance, Jackson assistant police chief, said the rear roof of the house sustained most of the damage from the crash, and no one answered the door when emergency personnel arrived, leading him to believe the house was unoccupied at the time. The helicopter, which was registered to a local company and operated out of the airport, was demolished in the crash, authorities said. No further details about the crash were available.","highlights":"Both victims taken to Mississippi Medical Center where one died, say officials .\nRear of house sustained most of the damage from the crash, say police .\nHelicopter registered to a local company, demolished in crash, authorities said .","id":"97ab8691d2bb68b6cf94e2595081c1bd0ddcef91"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The attorney for a man whose wife's wrong-way accident killed eight people on New York's Taconic Parkway in July says he will ask authorities to exhume her body to prove she wasn't drinking at the time of the accident. On CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Tuesday night, Daniel Schuler said his wife, Diane, was not an alcoholic. Dominic Barbera, attorney for Daniel Schuler, told CNN's \"Larry King Live\" he believes Diane Schuler may have suffered stroke-like symptoms and that a fire after the accident could have turned blood sugar into alcohol. \"I read from the medical autopsy report that there was charring of the body because there was a fire,\" Barbera said. \"And I found -- my doctors found numerous cases where you can actually have sugar in the blood turn into alcohol.\" Barbera said Schuler may have had a Transient Ischemic Attack, which produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage. Watch why husband believes wife wasn't drunk \u00bb . The Westchester County medical examiner's office found that Schuler, 36, had a blood alcohol level of .19 percent -- more than twice the legal limit -- and had marijuana in her system when she drove a minivan the wrong way on the parkway and ran head-on into an SUV. Three adults in the SUV were killed in the July 26 crash, as were Schuler and four children she was carrying in the minivan -- her daughter and three nieces. A fifth child, Schuler's son, survived. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Donna Green, said that the office stands \"by the findings of the medical examiner's report.\" But Daniel Schuler said he believed the report was wrong. \"I know the truth, what happened, with my wife,\" he said. \"She is not an alcoholic and doesn't drink. She is an outstanding mother.\" Barbera and Schuler said they wanted to have the body exhumed for further examinations to prove that the accident was not caused by a drunken driver. Attorneys for the family of Daniel Luongo, 73, one of the victims in the SUV, rejected the Schuler family's contention. \"The scientific evidence indicates that Diane Schuler was intoxicated and under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash,\" they said in a statement. \"Any claims denying her responsibility for this tragedy are wholly unsubstantiated, and the Luongo family finds these claims appalling, offensive and hurtful. They have lost a loved one to a senseless tragedy, and these claims do nothing but add insult to injury.\"","highlights":"Husband wants to prove wife wasn't drinking at time of fatal New York collision .\nEight killed on Taconic Parkway in July as Diane Schuler drove wrong way .\nAttorney says Schuler may have had stroke-like symptoms .\nFire after accident could have turned Schuler's blood sugar into alcohol, attorney says .","id":"53a1ae0599ef9eab17dbea0d6df1b29ea0f788b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two people were killed and three others were in critical condition Saturday when a truck carrying fireworks on North Carolina's Outer Banks exploded, officials said. Smoke from the explosion of a truck carrying fireworks rises over Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, Saturday. Jamie Tunnell, Hyde County spokeswoman, said the fireworks were to be used for the annual Fourth of July show on Ocracoke Island, and the five people were members of the crew setting up the display. The truck exploded at the Ocracoke Island docks. One person was killed at the scene, while another died at a hospital from injuries sustained in the blast, Tunnell said. Emergency crews and firefighters arrived. Tunnell said two volunteer firefighters were being treated for smoke inhalation and exhaustion. Joseph Chestnut, 16, was working at the Ride the Wind kayak-rental stand in Ocracoke when he heard the explosion across the harbor. He thought a home under construction had collapsed, he told CNN's iReport. iReport.com: Smoke rises from explosion site . \"I saw all these fireworks blowing up,\" he said. \"They were low, and I knew that something was wrong.\" Watch images from the scene \u00bb . \"It was just really scary. There's never been an accident like that before that I've seen here,\" Chestnut added. The Hatteras Island ferry service was temporarily suspended, but had reopened by midday, and Highway 12 was clear, she said. The island, which is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, can be reached only by ferry, private boat or plane. The FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were going to investigate on Saturday, she said.","highlights":"Two killed, three critically injured when truck carrying fireworks exploded .\nThe five were to set up Fourth of July show on Ocracoke Island in Outer Banks .\nTruck blew up at the Ocracoke Island docks .\nHatteras Island ferry service suspended; reopened midday .","id":"12b623b3133ad3dfc60b94ab2135cc09c5153447"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A judge Wednesday approved Katherine Jackson's request that Michael Jackson's estate get the bill for the cost of this week's burial of her son. A private funeral for Michael Jackson, here in 2002, will be held Thursday in Glendale, California, his family says. More than two months after his death, the pop singer will be interred in a private ceremony Thursday evening at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, the Jackson family said. A short hearing was held Wednesday morning before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff to consider Katherine Jackson's petition. The special administrators of his estate -- in control of the purse strings until the will is probated -- did not object to the Jackson family's request. The cost of the burial is a secret -- kept under court seal by Beckloff's order -- but it is believed to include paying Glendale police to handle traffic and security around the cemetery. The ceremony, which will be closed to the public and news media, is set for 7 p.m. at the cemetery's Holly Terrace in the Great Mausoleum, a family spokesman said. On July 7, Jackson's family and friends gathered at Forest Lawn's Hollywood Hills cemetery for a short service just before a public tribute to the singer in downtown Los Angeles. There has been widespread speculation about the whereabouts of Jackson's body. It has remained a closely guarded secret. The pop star's siblings and parents have been divided over where to bury him, several family members have said. Older brother Jermaine Jackson has said he wanted the singer to be buried at his former Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County, California, while others have objected. The burial comes less than a week after the Los Angeles County coroner made public his conclusion that Jackson's June 25 death was a homicide. The coroner ruled that the anesthetic drug propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the primary drugs responsible for the death. Los Angeles police detectives have not concluded their criminal investigation into the singer's death. No one has been charged.","highlights":"Michael Jackson will be interred in private cermony Thursday night, family says .\nCost of burial in Glendale, California, cemetery kept under court seal by judge's order .\nJudge approves family's request for Jackson's estate to pay for funeral .\nPublic tribute to pop singer held July 7 in Los Angeles; he died June 25 .","id":"84c6039788c25548323d06a6190f25b753ce66cc"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Since there have been cars, people have chosen their rides based on what their cars say about them. AOL Autos put a list of cars before automotive industry experts to capture their take on several popular cars. Drivers of the dependable Camry know what's important in life, says expert. Our panel consisted of Stephanie Brinley, senior manager at Auto Pacific; James Bell, editor and publisher of IntelliChoice and Jim Markwalder, veteran automotive consultant from Detroit. Rest assured, these experts did not pull any punches. Toyota Prius: Green no matter its color . Brinley looked through the company's vast data on the Toyota Prius . \"Buying a Prius shows the world that you love the environment and hate using fuel,\" said Brinley. \"Compared to the overall industry, Prius buyers are more often women, have fewer kids and more often have college educations.\" Bell adds, \"New Prius buyers want to be part of the 'green' club.\" \"Prius drivers like the video-game challenge of continuously trying to best your own fuel economy achievements,\" said Brinley. Markwalder opines: \"There's a good chance that if you come upon a line of slow moving traffic, a Prius driver will be at the front of the line, self-righteously driving under the speed limit on his or her way to save the world.\" We're just quoting here, folks. Chevrolet Corvette: Performer for the mid-life crisis . The Chevy Corvette \"seems to be more often a reward car. Its buyers are older than the industry average, with 88 percent born before 1946, according to Auto Pacific data. Only 11 percent of Corvette owners are in Gen Y or Gen X.\" Bell adds: \"Sadly, the usual stereotype of the Corvette buyer as a 57-year old male deep in a mid-life crisis is proven.\" Better car than its image suggests . Bell sees another side to the Corvette. \"It is the absolute greatest performance bargain on the planet,\" said Bell. \"It's an affordable giant-killer.\" Markwalder adds, \"There have been 1.5 million Corvettes produced since 1953, and while plenty of old guys drive them, they are an engineering marvel that will run 180 mph or return 30+ mpg highway fuel economy.\" Toyota Camry: A major transportation appliance . \"I think the Camry gets a bad rap for being the 'microwave oven' of the car industry,\" said Bell. \"It's boring, reliable, efficient, and common. But to many drivers, these words are exactly all they are looking for, making the Camry their own personal rock star. A Toyota Camry in the driveway tells everyone that you know what is important in life, and it's not your car.\" Dodge Challenger: The transcendent pony car . The Dodge Challenger looks more like its original than the 2010 Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Camaro. According to Brinley, the Challenger appeals to Baby Boomers who like styling and power. But almost 30 percent of Challenger buyers are Gen X or Gen Y. Surprisingly, this beats out the Prius, a more forward-looking vehicle; only 18-percent of its buyers are Gen X or Y. Auto Pacific's data shows that the Dodge Challenger is winning buyers too young to remember the original 1970-74 Challenger. \"All ages stop and stare at this car,\" said Bell. \"Especially when it's in Hemi Orange, from old-skool Hot Rodders to the Import Tuner crowd.\" This wide appeal makes pegging the Challenger owner more challenging. Ford F-150: Working man's truck . According to Auto Pacific data, the driver of a Ford F-150 work truck (a plain, regular-cab model), is an employed man. Markwalder confirms with this: \"Basic Ford trucks, like the XLT, make a good tool for the guy who works hard for an honest living.\" Bell adds, \"We'll see fewer non-work trucks because using them for commuting has lost its shine.\" Mercedes-Benz R-Class: A marketing mystery . \"With 2008 sales of only 7700 vehicles, we don't have enough information about buyers to provide a strong picture of why somebody drives an R-Class,\" said Brinley. \"The more expensive GL-Class and ML-Class SUVs each sold three times as many.\" Markwalder states, \"The R-Class has always been a contradiction, looking like a minivan but not delivering on functionality.\" Bell quips, \"My experience tells me that its few buyers are attracted to its three-pointed star (badge appeal) or the large discounts because the R-Class hasn't sold well.\" The R-class, a \"tweener\" that is somewhat minivan, somewhat wagon and somewhat crossover, has few rivals. Only the Ford Flex and the new Toyota Venza seem to come close. Experts' first thoughts . Bell on Chrysler Sebring Convertible: \"I hope it's a rental.\" Brinley adds, \"It's an old person's cars, with only four-percent of its buyers from Gen Y.\" Bell on the Honda Insight: \"They're members of the Prius Alternative Club for Honda lovers.\" Markwalder on Smart ForTwo: \"Experimenters with a sense of humor who would rather sprint away from a light than hold up traffic.\"","highlights":"The model of car you drive may be telling people all about you .\nPrius drivers: College educated, want to be part of the \"green club\"\nCorvette: An \"affordable giant-killer\" for men in midlife crisis .\nSmart ForTwo: \"Experimenters with a sense of humor\" who sprint away from stops .","id":"03624e0f73b20592d74adcd8b447350b137f29d6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedy is hard; dying is easy. Any stand-up will tell you that. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen play comedians in \"Funny People.\" Let's have a hand, then, for Judd Apatow. Hollywood's most successful contemporary comedy producer isn't resting on his laurels but continues to push toward risky subject matter: male sexual insecurity in \"The 40-Year-Old Virgin,\" unwanted pregnancy in \"Knocked Up\" -- and now the big C. No, not cancer -- though Adam Sandler's superstar comedian George Simmons is stricken with an appropriately eccentric form of leukemia. No, this latest film's true subject is Celebrity and the funny things it does to people. Apatow's most personal (and also most self-indulgent) film, \"Funny People,\" shuffles between three competitive Angelino roommates scrambling to grasp a rung on the showbiz ladder (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman), Simmons' multimillion-dollar Malibu mansion and the L.A. comedy clubs that sometimes bridge the gap between anonymity and fame. Apatow and Sandler know these worlds well enough. The movie begins, in fact, with old home video footage of young Adam goofing off, making prank phone calls while his roommate Judd sniggers behind the camera. It's one of the few times we see Sandler really having fun and cutting loose. This is mostly a restrained, subdued and admirably unsentimental performance. It feels natural that Simmons -- faced with his dire prognosis -- should return to the comedy circuit to wrestle with his imminent extinction before a roomful of strangers, even as he decides to keep his condition a secret from everyone around him. It's actually not so hard in his case because he doesn't have any real friends, only \"showbiz friends.\" The exception is Ira Wright (Rogen), a struggling young comic who lucks into a job as his hero's joke writer slash personal assistant. Simmons is by turns demanding, generous, friendly and abusive, and Ira couldn't be happier. The cross-currents are intriguing: He's getting his first taste of the high life, just as George is trying to savor his last days by reliving his first steps on the circuit. True to form, Apatow negotiates the perilous terrain of existential doubt with his fall-back weapon of choice, the penis joke. Some of these are choice (Ira's real last name is \"Wiener,\" pronounced \"Whiner\"), but many, many more feel flabby and redundant. There's even an Andy Dick joke, in the form of Andy Dick himself -- one of several celebrity cameos, the oddest of which is surely Eminem, wondering aloud if George wouldn't be better off dead. We must be approaching the 80-minute mark by then, about the time many comedies start wrapping things up. But it's a question that doesn't seem to have occurred to Simmons or the filmmakers before, and it spurs Apatow on to develop another hour of additional material in which George, miraculously recovered, pursues the love of his life (Leslie Mann), Ira in tow, without much consideration for her two daughters or her husband (Eric Bana). It's as if the movie bred its own sequel. There's plenty of funny stuff here. Bana has a ball as the obtuse Aussie, but despite all the blue jokes, this is a more modulated, pensive effort than Apatow's previous hits. He's improved, a little, as a director (perhaps the credit belongs to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who ensures that for once it doesn't all look like a sitcom), but Apatow is still in dire need of a good editor. His instincts are generous. He wants to give us the six-course meal, and to go around the table, give everybody the chance to tell us a funny story. As a result \"Funny People\" is consistently entertaining but also rather grueling -- as if we're watching two or three different movies at the same time. At least one of these -- the tribulations of the young roomies -- we've seen before, and amusing as these guys are, they properly belong in the deleted scenes category. But Apatow isn't one to kill his babies, that's for sure. He's more likely to write them an additional scene or three. (Mann is Mrs. Apatow, and their two daughters also figure large.) Still, if you're not averse to too much of a good-ish thing, and can stomach another of those terminal Hollywood illnesses that leaves the patient with no discernible ill-effects, \"Funny People\" is a fairly shrewd and nonjudgmental dissection of how celebrity skews and contaminates even the most intimate relationships. The rich and famous aren't the only narcissists in this game, it seems. We're all a bit funny that way. \"Funny People\" is rated R and runs 146 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.","highlights":"\"Funny People\" has some funny -- and insightful -- stuff to say about comics .\nJudd Apatow film stars Adam Sandler as ailing comedian .\nMovie's main drawback is it's too long, but material makes up for it, says Tom Charity .","id":"2eaa751951583bf3d90c2af9131d7e291f3d6df8"} -{"article":"BRUNSWICK, Georgia (CNN) -- Seven of eight people killed last week in a southeast Georgia mobile home were laid to rest Saturday. The caskets were laid side by side for graveside ceremonies Saturday in Eulonia, Georgia. The funerals at Youngs Island Church in Eulonia, Georgia, were held for Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Guy Heinze Sr., 45; and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held at mid-month. Police have arrested Guy Heinze Jr., the son of Guy Heinze Sr., on eight counts of first-degree murder. Seven caskets for the seven victims stood side by side for the burial under sunny skies at a nearby cemetery. More than 200 mourners attended the funeral, including William Heinze, father of one of the victims and grandfather of the man accused of the killings. \"I've never seen so much love and support at a funeral,\" William Heinze told CNN affiliate WJXT. William Heinze also said he doubted that his grandson, Guy Heinze Jr., was responsible for the killings. \"We want to know what really happened,\" he said. \"The police may think they know what happened, but we want to really know the truth.\" Investigators obtained an arrest warrant Friday evening for Guy Heinze Jr., 22, just hours after he had been freed from jail on charges of tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer, Police Chief Matt Doering of Glynn County, Georgia said Friday. \"I can assure you that this person is responsible,\" Doering said at a news conference Friday evening. The bodies were discovered a week ago at New Hope Plantation mobile home park, north of the Atlantic coastal city of Brunswick. Seven died in the mobile home, and the eighth died a day later at a hospital. The chief refused to reveal how the victims were killed or the suspected motive. A 3-year-old who was injured was on life support at a Savannah hospital, her grandmother said. A man identified as Guy Heinze Jr. reported the slayings. He told an emergency dispatcher when he called last Saturday, \"I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death.\" Watch report on funerals and arrest from CNN's Sean Callebs \u00bb . According to the first arrest warrant, Heinz provided \"investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members.\" The arrest warrant also said he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car. The killings have made people in the southeastern Georgia city of more than 16,000 uneasy, a waitress at a restaurant said. \"There's still a lot of concern that that many deaths at one time can not have been done by one person,\" Lucinda Bennett, a waitress at the 4th of May Cafe, said. \"There is still a little bit of nervousness in the area over whether they have got everyone that was involved with it.\" Linda Davis, who works at a barbershop in the city, said everyone is puzzled over the slayings. \"You don't go in and kill eight people and nobody hears screams or shots or anything like that with trailers that close together,\" she said. CNN's Sean Callebs and Lee Garen contributed to this report.","highlights":"7 of 8 people killed last week in a mobile home were laid to rest Saturday .\nOther victim will be buried mid-month, and an injured 3-year-old is on life support .\nGuy Heinze Jr., the son of one of the victims, is charged with murder .\nKillings have left people in the city of 16,000 uneasy and incredulous .","id":"2161a21821ce7d93255140491907e08ac93c789c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The ocean water around Chatham, Massachusetts, is playing host to some unwelcome guests this holiday weekend: sharks. Only 41 unprovoked shark attacks have been reported in the U.S. since 2008. At least one large shark sighting was confirmed Friday by Greg Skomal, shark expert for the state's Division of Marine Fisheries. That sighting occurred off the eastern shore of Monomoy Island, a National Wildlife Refuge off the southern elbow of Cape Cod, according to Lisa Capone, Massachusetts Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs press secretary. The species, though not confirmed, was \"most likely\" a great white shark, she said. The sighting came a day after Skomal reported as many as five large sharks were seen near the island, about a mile or more away from Chatham's Lighthouse Beach, a public swimming area. Capone said Skomal was searching the area of the island Friday afternoon, though weather conditions were \"not ideal,\" with fog and wind. Meanwhile, officials were advising residents and visitors to be cautious while visiting the beaches this weekend. \"It is the eve of the last holiday weekend of summer, and we want to make sure folks on the Cape are aware,\" Capone said. Chatham's Harbor Master's office issued a public notice after the sightings Thursday, saying the waters surrounding Chatham are \"now a year-round home to a few thousand seals.\" Seals are a main source of food for large sharks, and as recently as August 28, a large shark was seen feeding on the body of a seal near Chatham's waters, the notice said. It advised people to avoid swimming near seals. A statement issued Friday by Chatham town officials said \"beaches will be closed immediately\" if a shark is sighted. Paul Zuest, general manager of the Chatham Bars Inn, said he and his staff also have been instructing their guests to be cautious. The hotel, about two miles away from where the sharks were spotted, has posted signs providing information on the sightings. George H. Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File, said that on average, sharks have killed four people annually worldwide for the past several years. \"The chances of us as individuals entering the sea and not coming back as a result of a shark attack are slim to none when you consider the millions upon millions of people that go into the sea each year,\" he said. The museum's shark attack file lists 41 unprovoked shark attacks in U.S. waters in 2008, with one fatality, in California. Most of the attacks, 32, occurred in Florida. Massachussetts has recorded only four shark attacks since 1670, two of which have been fatal. The last fatal shark attack in Massachussetts occurred in 1936.","highlights":"Shark expert confirms at least one large shark sighting Friday .\nSpecies unconfirmed, but \"most likely\" was a great white, expert says .\nAs many as five large sharks were seen on Thursday near Monomoy Island .\nExpert: On average, sharks kill about four people per year, worldwide .","id":"a7360b91481f83499c550a1f46d5bb882a6e6b28"} -{"article":"LAWRENCE, Kansas (CNN) -- It started with a sore throat. Then her chest was burning. Arielle Spiridigliozzi is one of 350 students who have contracted H1N1 at the University of Kansas. University of Kansas freshman Arielle Spiridigliozzi said she thought her symptoms were signs of allergies, or maybe even a sinus infection. It couldn't be H1N1, she thought. But it was. \"I mean, I'd never, ever guessed that coming into freshman year I would get the friggin' swine flu,\" Spiridigliozzi said. Now she accessorizes her royal blue T-shirt with a mask. A stuffy nose, body aches, fever and coughing make up the litany of symptoms, Spiridigliozzi, 18, and her roommate, Kaitlyn Perry, 18, said they have suffered. For more than a day, the girls have been stuck in their suite, on what they call \"lockdown.\" Watch more about life on \"lockdown\" \u00bb . University officials have asked the girls to stay in their dorm suite to limit exposure to other students. The school provides door-to-door delivery from the campus dining hall, giving the girls one less reason to have to leave their immediate four walls. Spiridigliozzi has abided by the the university's request, worried that she could infect another. But she doesn't understand how she ended up in this situation in the first place. \"We took all the necessary precautions. Like, we really did. It wasn't like I was licking the handlebars of the bus or anything,\" she said. \"I was hand sanitizing. I was being very careful. I don't know how this happened.\" But she only has to look to her roommates for an answer, as illness has rapidly made its way through her suite. When Perry became ill it struck her suddenly. While shopping, she came down with a fever and started feeling like she didn't have the strength to stand, she said. Perry's flu hasn't been confirmed as an H1N1 strain, but a third roommate, the first to get sick, they said, was diagnosed with H1N1. Then a fourth roommate got sick, illustrative of a spreading flu pattern the girls said is obvious from the empty seats in classes. The university estimates about 340 students, or 1 percent of the student body, have flu they suspect is H1N1, said Patricia Denning, medical chief of staff at Watkins Health Center. The number of cases could be higher if students were not seeking care from campus doctors and nurses, she added. She said she has not heard of any students being hospitalized because of the flu. Vaccines are unlikely to help much this year, because supplies are not expected until late October and require about five weeks from the first inoculation -- two are required -- before they become effective. So, to make life easier for the sick, the school's medical center has distributed what it calls a \"flu kit,\" which includes a mask and a home-care instruction sheet, Denning said. The tip sheet borrows from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's information on H1N1. It says to drink lots of fluids, eat three small meals a day and get plenty of rest, Denning said. \"And so it just goes through simple common-sense things that we all know we need to do that sometimes, when mothers and dads aren't around to remind them, this will help remind them,\" she said. Spiridigliozzi and Perry will get to wander outdoors again once their fevers have dissipated for at least 24 hours without the aid of fever-reducing medications, they said. They are eager to get back to their normal lives. Spiridigliozzi is tired of the soup and Jell-O, and Perry looks forward to playing Frisbee again. \"So boring\" is how Spiridigliozzi described their isolation. With all this free time, at least the freshmen -- on campus for only two weeks -- aren't falling too far behind in their school work. \"I got all my homework done,\" Perry said. \"Yeah, I've gotten all my homework done for the next two weeks, probably,\" added Spiridigliozzi. CNN's John Bonifield contributed to this report.","highlights":"Spread of H1N1 among roommates illustrates how quickly virus jumps around .\n\"It wasn't like I was licking the handlebars of the bus,\" freshman says .\nGirls quarantined in room, doing homework, until fever dissipates for 24 hours .\nThe University of Kansas estimates about 1 percent of student body has H1N1 .","id":"8f7e4d5eb9e0dfad78dd9a48c73f757d3e6e4185"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Expanded testing across India in the past three years shows a 2,000 percent jump in the number of HIV cases among children, the country's health minister announced Wednesday. An HIV-positive Indian child at a government treatment center. More than 14,000 children get free care. In November 2006, health authorities counted 2,253 children in India with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Ghulam Nabi Azad told parliament. The number went up to a \"cumulative total\" of 52,973 in May this year, he said. The huge increase in the number of confirmed cases may be due to the expanded testing for the virus. India, home to more than a billion people, currently has 217 facilities for HIV\/AIDS treatment and 5,155 counseling and testing centers. The minister insisted that overall, HIV prevalence had decreased in India from 0.45 percent in 2002 to 0.34 percent in 2007. At present, 758,698 HIV-positive patients are being treated under the country's AIDS control program, Azad said. More than 232,908 AIDS patients, including 14,474 children, are receiving free treatment at the designated facilities, he added. Authorities say mother-to-child transmission is a major source of infection among children. Last year, 19,986 pregnant women among more than 4 million tested were found to be HIV-positive, said Azad. Of them, 10,179 received treatment to prevent transmission to their babies.","highlights":"Expanded testing across India shows 2,000 percent jump in child HIV cases .\nIncrease in confirmed cases may be due to the expanded testing .\nNumber up from 2,253 in 2006 to 52,973, according to statistics .","id":"ac980296653ce468dd7338c89b64842165a7c030"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq awarded a lucrative oil contract to BP and China National Petroleum Corp., government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Wednesday, while rejecting other companies' offers for other oil fields. BP and China National Petroleum Corporation have won a lucrative oil contract in Iraq. The joint BP-CNPC bid was for the al-Rumeila oil field, one of the largest in the world. The energy companies are expected to increase production at the oil field by 50 percent, to 285,000 barrels a day, for a service charge of $2 for each additional barrel produced, al-Dabbagh said in a statement. The Iraqi government rejected bids for five other oil fields and a natural gas field because the bidders did not agree to the service charge set by the Ministry of Oil, he said. The Ministry of Oil rejected the idea that the failure to award more than one contract made the much-anticipated auction a flop. Iraq did not say how much the BP-CNPC bid was worth. It runs for 20 years. Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani chaired the government-sponsored auction for the oil and natural gas field contracts Tuesday, after a day's delay due to a sandstorm. Much of the auction was broadcast live on state television, which Ministry of Oil spokesman Assem Jihad told CNN was a sign of the transparency of the process. He said the government was satisfied with the auction, even though only one contract was awarded, because the contract was for Iraq's largest oil field. Iraq plans to open bidding this year on 10 more oil fields and one natural gas field, all of which are undeveloped, Jihad said. The companies whose bids were rejected Tuesday have been given time to review their offers, he said. Iraq has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 115 billion barrels -- tying Iran for second place, behind Saudi Arabia's 264 billion barrels, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration in the United States. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh in Baghdad contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraq awards lucrative oil contract to BP, China National Petroleum Corporation .\nThe joint BP-CNPC bid was for the giant al-Rumeila oil field .\nEnergy companies expected to increase production at the field by 50 percent .","id":"720098c64528fba7d868ca59d99c007a776f4b57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mr. Ravenblade, Mr. Xtreme, Dark Guardian and hundreds of others. Some with elaborate costumes, others with haphazardly stitched outfits, they are appearing on city streets worldwide watching over the populace like Superman watched over Metropolis and Batman over Gotham City. Geist patrols the Rochester, Minnesota, area, with a group of like-minded and similarly dressed colleagues. As people become disillusioned from financial woes and a downtrodden economy and look to put new purpose in their lives, everyday folks are taking on new personas to perform community service, help the homeless and even fight crime. \"The movement is growing,\" said Ben Goldman, a real-life superhero historian. Goldman, along with Chaim \"Life\" Lazaros and David \"Civitron\" Civitarese, runs the New York-based Web site Superheroes Anonymous as part of an initiative dedicated to organizing and making alliances with superhero groups. According to Goldman, who goes by the moniker Cameraman because of his prowess in documenting the movement, economic troubles are spawning real life superheroes. \"A lot of them have gone through a sort of existential crisis and have had to discover who they are,\" Goldman said. People are starting to put value in what they can do rather than what they have, he said. \"They realize that money is fleeting, it's in fact imaginary.\" Estimates from the few groups that keep tabs put the worldwide total of real-life superheroes between 250 and 300. Goldman said the numbers were around 200 just last summer. Mr. Ravenblade, laid off after a stint with a huge computer technology corporation, found inspiration for his new avocation a few years ago from an early morning incident in Walla Walla, Washington. \"I literally stepped into a woman's attempted rape\/mugging,\" Mr. Ravenblade said. While details were lost in the fog of the fight, he remembers this much: \"I did what I could,\" he said, adding that he stopped the crime and broke no laws. \"And I realized after doing what I did, that people don't really look after people.\" Public response to real-life superheroes has been mixed, according to Mr. Xtreme, who founded the Xtreme Justice League in San Diego, California. \"Sometimes it's been really positive with people saying, 'Woohoo, the superheroes are here,' and then the usual barrage, saying 'Oh, these guys are losers.' Other times people will look kind of freaked out, and then sometimes people just don't know what to think about us.\" Like Peter Parker kept his Spider-Man identity from his editor boss, Mr. Extreme and Mr. Ravenblade have asked CNN editors to keep their identities secret. The current superhero movement started a few years ago on MySpace, as people interested in comics and cool caped crusaders joined forces, Goldman said. It goes beyond the Guardian Angel citizen patrols of the early 1980s, as the real-life superheroes of today apply themselves to a broadly defined ethos of simply doing good works. Watch Crimson Fist help the homeless in Atlanta \u00bb . Chris Pollak, 24, of Brooklyn, New York, can attest to the appeal. \"A lot more people are either following it or wanting to go out and do it,\" Pollack, who goes by the name Dark Guardian, said. By \"do it,\" he means patrol the harrowing streets late at night. \"A lot of kids say they're real-life superheroes [on MySpace],\" Mr. Ravenblade said. \"But what are you doing? Being in front of a computer is not helping anybody.\" Comic book legend Stan Lee, the brain behind heroes such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, said in his comic books doing good -- and availing one's self -- was indeed the calling card for superheroes. \"If somebody is committing a crime, if somebody is hurting some innocent person, that's when the superhero has to take over.\" See a photo gallery of some real-life superheroes \u00bb . \"I think it's a good thing that people are eager enough to want to help their community. They think to do it is to emulate the superheroes,\" Lee said. \"Now if they had said they had super powers [that would be another thing].\" Without super powers, real life superheroes confess to a mere-mortal workload, including helping the homeless, handing out fliers in high-crime areas and patrolling areas known for drug-dealing. Mr. Ravenblade said he and some of his superfriends would soon be trying to organize a Walk for Babies fundraiser in Portland, Oregon. \"We work with charities that help children,\" he said. \"We think a lot of crimes happen because of people who didn't get a lot of love when they were younger. We do what we can to help that there.\" \"Homeless outreach is the main thing I like to do,\" said Chaim \"Life\" Lazaros, of Superheroes Anonymous. \"We give out food, water, vitamins, toothbrushes. A lot of homeless people in my area know me, and they tell us about what they need. One homeless guy said 'I need a couple pair of clean underwear.'\" For Christmas, Lazaros said his group raised $700 in gifts and brought them to kids at St. Mary's Children's Hospital in New York. \"They were so excited to see real-life superheroes,\" Lazaros said. iReport.com: Searching for Cincinnati's caped crusader . Many of the real-life superheroes even initiate citizen's arrests, but what's legal varies by state. And in North Carolina citizen's arrests are illegal. Real-life superheroes who grab a suspected villain may find themselves under a specter of trouble. \"Not a good idea,\" said Katy Parker, legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina. \"Seeing as how there's no citizen's arrest statute [in the state], people who do this are running a serious risk of getting arrested for kidnapping, and being liable for false imprisonment.\" \"Vigilantism is never a good thing,\" said Bernard Gonzales, public information officer for the Chula Vista, California, Police Department. He's had some interactions with real-life superheroes. \"The very best thing a private citizen can do is be a good witness.\" Mr. Ravenblade said he's just that. \"If you're a real-life superhero you follow the law. If you catch somebody you can't just tie them up and leave them for the cops, that's for the comics. You have to wait for the cops and give them a statement,\" Mr. Ravenblade said. iReport.com: Cincinnati superhero speaks . While citizens helping out in the community is encouraged, Gonzales said the costumes can go. \"Where these people are out in public, and there's children around and everything, and these people are not revealing their identities, it's not a safe thing.\" But the costumes go with the gig, right down to the do-it-yourself approach to good deeds, including, apparently, recycling. \"The costume I have is simple,\" said Mr. Xtreme. \"I made it myself. I had a graphic designer design it for me and just took it down to the swap meet and had somebody imprint it on for me.\" \"The mask,\" an old bullfighter's piece, \"I got from Tijuana.\"","highlights":"\"The movement is growing,\" said Ben Goldman, of Superheroes Anonymous .\nDisillusioned with crime and recession, more people creating super personas .\nMany say they are simply bringing attention to crime and doing good works .","id":"263250368a49df322aa08eaf60a9f5de27c8ee73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A young Iranian woman named Neda is gunned down in one of the most iconic images of the last week. Another walks down the street, defiantly showing off her hair and body in a revealing dress. And still another woman says she's not scared of paramilitary forces -- no matter how many times she gets beaten. Women have taken to the streets of Tehran. \"This shows the new face of Iran,\" one expert says. \"When they want to hit me, I say hit. I have been hit so many times and this time it doesn't matter. I just want to help my brothers and sisters,\" says the 19-year-old woman whose identity is being withheld by CNN for her safety. Amid the clashes and chaos, there has been a recurring scene on the streets of Tehran: Women, in their scarves and traditional clothing, at the heart of the struggle. Some are seen collecting rocks for ammunition against security forces, while video showed one woman trying to protect a fallen pro-government militiaman wounded in the government crackdown. At Shiraz University, riot police clubbed women dressed in black robes. \"Don't beat them, you bastards,\" one man yells. When security forces come to attack, the 19-year-old woman protester says she looks them in the eye and asks: \"Why do you kill your brother? Why do you hit your mother, your sisters?\" \"We all tell them, if you're Iranian, you shouldn't do that to your people, to your own country's people,\" she told CNN by phone. Watch woman stand up in defiance to power \u00bb . But it's the woman known as Neda who has become the symbol of women on the front line that has galvanized opponents of the Iranian regime. In a widely circulated video, Neda is seen in the middle of protests over the weekend. She is shot and drops to the ground. Blood runs from the side of her mouth as a few people, including her music professor traveling with her, press on her chest and shout her name. One pleads, \"Do not be afraid.\" The camera closes in on her face as her eyes roll back and are still. Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the image of Neda and other women at the protests showed the difference from the 1979 revolution. \"The iconic pictures from the revolution 30 years ago were bearded men. This shows the new face of Iran -- the young women who are the vanguards of Iran.\" See images of protests \u00bb . Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, agreed that Neda was becoming a symbol for all the women who have become involved in the turmoil that has followed the disputed election. \"She will become the image of this brutality and the role -- the truly significant role -- that women have played in fighting this regime. I think that women are the unsung heroes of the last few years. They are the ones who began chipping away the absolute authority of the mullahs.\" The protests haven't just been confined to Iran's everyday women. The daughter of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was arrested over the weekend while taking part in a protest. She was later released. In addition, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose apparent defeat in Iran's presidential election has sparked the unprecedented demonstrations, campaigned for her husband, an unusual step in politics in Iran. Her public support of his candidacy underscored his professed support for women's rights. Learn more about the timeline of events \u00bb . And in another act of defiance, apparently from after the election, a woman who appears to be in her 20s or 30s walks down a street in Tehran, showing off her body in a revealing dress and displaying her long, curly hair. In Iran, women are forbidden to show their hair, and they must keep their bodies covered. \"Lady, is it a revolution already?\" one female driver says as she passes by. The 19-year-old demonstrator, who spoke by phone with CNN, says women are out in the streets in much larger numbers than men. She provided CNN with images of paramilitary forces on Saturday confronting protests, just before she was beaten. She says she was beaten again during protests Monday. \"The women are all together and they say, 'We're going to stay here.' There are so more [women] than men,\" she said, referring to the number of women protesters. \"Until now, the women didn't have a chance to express themselves, to say that we are important in our country's future. But now, they can play an important role in our freedom. It's a good chance for us.\" Is she optimistic? \"I'm absolutely optimistic, because history has taught me that all the revolutions start like this,\" she said. \"Every revolution has violence and some people die, but nothing stays like this forever.\" CNN's Ivan Watson and Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Recurring theme of Iranian protests: Women defiantly standing up against authority .\n19-year-old woman says, \"When they want to hit me, I say hit.\"\nA young woman named Neda has become the rallying cry of protesters .\n\"This shows the new face of Iran -- the young women who are the vanguards of Iran\"","id":"d8a3c459ef4129264452f8450c07565aa0fe72f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 100 police officers and others were searching Friday in a southeastern Louisiana parish for a murder suspect who escaped from jail with three other inmates, a law enforcement official said. Timothy Murray, 29, who is charged with murder, remains at large, authorities in Louisiana say. Searchers are still focusing inside St. Tammany Parish, on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, 30 miles north of New Orleans, said Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. At large is Timothy Murray, 29, who is charged with murder, Bonnett said. Authorities believe Murray may have been injured during the escape, but Bonnett wouldn't elaborate. The inmates escaped about 9 p.m. Thursday from the St. Tammany Parish Jail in Covington, Bonnett said. As many as 250 sheriff's deputies, Covington police officers, Louisiana State police and corrections officials were involved in the search overnight, using dogs, two helicopters and thermal-imaging equipment loaned from Livingston Parish, Bonnett said. The other three men were found about 1:30 a.m. Friday in a wooded area about a mile from the jail, he said. Three of the inmates were awaiting trial; one already had been convicted, Bonnett said. The captured inmates were Gary Slaydon, 27; Eric Buras, 30, and Jason Gainey, 27. Slaydon is charged with attempted murder. Buras is a murder suspect and Gainey has been convicted of murder, Bonnett said. He said the escape was not discovered until a resident and Covington police reported seeing what appeared to be inmates in jail uniforms walking down a street. About the time those calls came in, jailers were doing a routine head count and found the four men missing, Bonnett said. He said the means of escape was under investigation, but it has been determined that their escape wasn't due to human error. He repeated what St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said early Friday: \"Four inmates were able to defeat the structure of the maximum security area of our jail.\" Deputies have canvassed neighborhoods, going door to door to warn residents that an inmate is still at large.","highlights":"Four inmates escape from jail in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana .\nThree found in area near jail north of New Orleans, official says .\nMan charged with murder remains at large, official says .\nDeputies canvassing neighborhoods in hunt for escapee .","id":"a91b42eb3bfaa9dd1d6fe5e07d595f0acdbf29bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Searchers have recovered the bodies of three people who were aboard a Yemenia Airways jet that crashed off the coast of Comoros in the Indian Ocean, a spokesman for Yemen's Civil Aviation department said Tuesday. A man hugs a relative of one of the victims at an airport in Marseille in southern France. Capt. Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Qadir also told reporters that a child who was reported found alive was a 5-year-old boy. He did not give further details of the child's condition. \"The French said that (Wednesday) they will send more French units to the accident location in order to retrieve the bodies and possibly that they may be able to locate people who are still alive,\" he said. The Airbus 310 went down early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members on a flight that originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Qadir said the jet took off from Sanaa shortly before 10 p.m. Monday and vanished from radar when it was about 16 miles from Comoros' capital, Moroni. Searchers have not located the plane's data recorders, Qadir said, and investigators were not speculating on the cause of the crash. \"The weather conditions were indeed very troubling and the winds were very strong, reaching 61 kilometers per hour (38 mph),\" he said. \"That's one thing. The other thing was that the sea was very rough when the plane approached landing at Moroni airport.\" But French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau noted that several years ago France banned the plane, a A310-300, because of safety concerns. \"People are talking about poor weather conditions, but for the moment, we are unsure,\" Bussereau said. \"It seems the plane may have attempted an approach, put on the gas, and attempted another approach, which then failed. For the moment, we must be careful because none of this information is verified.\" Qadir said it was too early to blame the aircraft for the crash. \"This plane is just like any other plane,\" he said. \"It can have a malfunction, but we don't know what really happened before the investigation is over. And then we can determine if there is a technical issue, bad weather or anything else that may have led to the crash.\" It was the second crash involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation. Recent plane crashes \u00bb . Former pilot and aviation analyst John Cox said there were no similarities between the two incidents. \"These are two dramatically different airplanes flown by two different airlines,\" Cox told CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"The accidents happened at two different regimes of flight. And Airbus has hundreds of millions of hours flying safely. I don't believe that ... we can draw any conclusions because the manufacturer was the same in these two very different types of accidents.\" At first, Comoros officials said there were no signs of survivors among the dead bodies floating in the choppy waters. But then rescuers found the child. Watch as airline describes child's rescue \u00bb . Cox said it reminded him of the 1987 crash of Northwest Flight 255 in Detroit, Michigan, in which only a 4-year-old girl survived while 156 others died. \"This has come up before, and it's where the toddler was seated (during the impact) that allowed them to survive,\" he said. \"It's a miracle and I'm glad ... the toddler is safe. I'm just saddened for the loss of everybody else,\" he added. The Yemeni crash occurred as the plane approached the Hahaya airport in Moroni. The plane tried to land, then U-turned before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said. Officials did not know why the plane could not land, he said. Flight 626 was expected to be a four-and-a-half-hour flight. The airline has three regular flights a week to Moroni, off the east coast of Africa, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) south of Yemen. The crash occurred about 1:30 a.m., Nadhoim said. There was no indication of foul play behind the crash, the official in Yemen said. Yemenia Air had used the jet since 1999 on about 17,300 flights, Airbus officials said. The company said it would assist in investigating the crash. \"The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident,\" the company said in a statement. In the wake of the Air France crash on June 1, United States accident investigators have been probing two recent failures of airspeed and altitude indications aboard Airbus A330s. One flight was between the United States and Brazil in May, and the other between Hong Kong and Japan in June. The planes landed safely and there were no injuries or damage, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. CNN's Saad Abedine and Ayesha Durgahee contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Three bodies found; French sending team to help search and rescue .\nA 5-year-old boy recovered alive from Yemeni jet crash in Indian Ocean .\nJet was carrying more than 150 people to island of Comoros from Yemen .\nCrash occurs as plane tries to land at airport, official says .","id":"cf3d6b0d4ad14c6920ff2105defd2feb612ec6c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the highly anticipated movie \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine\" opened Friday in theaters, many fans had already seen it. The pirating and distribution of \"Wolverine,\" starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI. The online leak of a pirated, unfinished version of the 20th Century Fox film a month ago sent federal authorities springing into action and stoked a heated conversation within the entertainment industry about digital piracy. Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of \"Wolverine\" is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line. It's rare for high-quality copies of a big-budget blockbuster to appear on the Internet more than a month before the film's release, experts say. Within a week of \"Wolverine's\" March 31 leak, more than a million people had downloaded the movie, according to TorrentFreak, a blog devoted to the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. Watch intrepid reporter look for answers \u00bb . \"Unfortunately, the recent leak of the Fox film 'Wolverine' provided a stark backdrop to the impact that digital piracy has on the large investments that producers make in creating state-of-the-art films,\" said Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who oversaw a congressional hearing on piracy after the leak. \"During our hearing in Los Angeles, director Steven Soderbergh said that in 2007, the entertainment industry generated a trade surplus of $13.6 billion,\" Berman added. \"Imagine what those numbers would be if we could rein in piracy.\" Bootleg, or illegally copied, movies have long been a thorn to the film industry. In 2003, a version of Universal's \"The Hulk\" appeared on the Internet two weeks before the film opened. A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to the theft. And in 2005, a pirated print of \"Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith\" was uploaded to the Web within hours of the movie's release. But where Hollywood's biggest headache used to be murky, muffled copies of films taken by someone who snuck a camcorder into a theater, today's pirates are getting more sophisticated and gaining access to better-quality goods. Greg Sandoval, who covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News, said that in the digital age, thieves can gain access to near-perfect advance copies of films on DVD that have greater potential to undermine a movie's box-office prospects. And even studios' attempts at safeguarding their products against piracy, such as by encoding DVDs with digital watermarks that allow authorities to trace individual copies, aren't enough, Sandoval said. He said tech-savvy thieves have figured out how to strip such watermarks from DVDs. \"When you're talking about digital content ... it's impossible to lock it down completely\" from theft, Sandoval said. \"These hackers are very creative. Sometimes, they're one step ahead of the security experts.\" 20th Century Fox issued a statement vowing to prosecute the \"Wolverine\" thief \"to the fullest extent of the law.\" The FBI is investigating, but as of Thursday, no arrests had been made. Darcy Antonellis, president of technical operations for Warner Bros. (which is owned by the parent company of CNN), said the growth of technology has aided the pirates. \"Digital piracy has continued to increase with greater access to [files] and improved broadband services,\" said Antonellis, who helps oversee Warner Bros.' anti-piracy efforts. \"As broadband services increase their capacity to support legitimate services, they also enable increased illegal file-sharing. Technologies have evolved to encumber such distribution but must compete with the strength of viral or super distribution of content.\" The bad guys aren't the only ones keeping up with the technology. Keith Bolcar, special agent in charge of the FBI's cyber division in Los Angeles, said agents and their partners as \"doing everything we can to keep up with the learning curve of technology, hopefully just as fast as our criminal subjects.\" The FBI meets routinely with studio representatives to share intelligence, to discuss strategy and to detect and fix vulnerabilities in security measures, he said. \"While I can't discuss investigative techniques, we employ a myriad of sophisticated methods to solve these crimes,\" said Bolcar, whose office is investigating the \"Wolverine\" leak. \"Our investigators receive extensive training and are technologically savvy.\" Hollywood also faces the challenge of protecting digital files that pass through so many hands while in production and post-production. Antonellis said Warner Bros. works diligently to safeguard its properties. \"Each project, for us, is unique, with its own unique set of challenges,\" she said. \"Whether there are 50 or 500 people involved in the process, we try to focus on ownership\/responsibility of our assets throughout the entire production through to distribution process.\" John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America, said digital piracy can take many forms, including peer-to-peer file sharing and streaming. Malcolm said the association is conducting a lot of outreach to universities and Internet service providers to help them address piracy that occurs over their systems. The issue is global, Malcolm said, as evidenced by pending litigation in France that would shut down Internet accounts of illegal downloaders. The association is in litigation against an Australian service provider, iiNet, to try to establish the legal parameters of its responsibility in policing its system, Malcolm said. \"In some cases, we are making great progress with ISP, and in some cases, it's a little bit tougher going,\" Malcolm said. \"After all, it's their broadband that's being eaten up, and it slows down their systems.\" Berman, D-California, said advances in technologies that enable filtering and other anti-theft tools will help curb piracy. So will creating more sites where viewers can legitimately access movies, shows and music, such as Hulu and the recently announced Vevo, a partnership between Universal Music and YouTube. \"Given how pirated materials often damage computers with viruses, spyware and other problems, consumers will continue to embrace the innovative, legitimate sites that are becoming more and more available,\" Berman said. Malcolm agrees. He said there are more than 350 sites that legitimately distribute digital content. If a person is a true movie lover, they will want to respect the art, the artists and the countless people behind the scenes who make the magic happen, Malcolm said. \"I hear periodically, 'Well, Tom Cruise has enough money' or 'Tom Hanks has enough money,' \" Malcolm said. \"I would say to movie lovers, stick around and watch all of the credits. When you see hundreds of names scrolling across the screen, those are the people whose talents contributed to making that movie, and they need to make a living.\" CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pirated version of \"Wolverine\" distributed online weeks before movie's debut .\nIndustry employs technology like digital watermarks to hinder thieves .\nPending French legislation would shut down Internet accounts of downloaders .\nMPAA exec says fans should consider the livelihood of those who make films .","id":"ed7248db94cd53119e7b5b004fa6046b37a27706"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Military hardware that can be used in nuclear devices and ground fighting can be easily purchased In the United States and shipped overseas, a government investigation revealed Thursday. This inclinometer, which can be . used in homemade bombs, was easily bought and shipped overseas. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) watchdog agency set up fake companies to obtain military and dual use items -- which have both military and commercial use -- in the United States and ship them overseas, according to a report made public at a House subcommittee hearing. The domestic purchases allow buyers to avoid U.S. restrictions on sales to foreign entities, it noted. Items purchased in the bogus transactions included parts for making nuclear devices and guiding missiles that could carry nuclear warheads, as well as night-vision devices, body armor and other hardware for ground combat, said the report provided to the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. \"There appears to be a gigantic loophole within our laws that makes it easy for our enemies to get hold of our superior military technology and use it against us,\" said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan. Gregory Kutz, a GAO managing director who led the 13-month investigation, said it found \"sensitive dual-use and military technology can be easily and legally purchased from manufacturers and distributors within the United States and illegally exported without detection.\" He stressed that no laws were broken by any of the companies that sold items to the undercover GAO operation, and that the magnitude of trying to check all overseas travelers and shipments made it impossible to halt illegal export of the items under current law. Committee members said the lack of regulation or export controls made the situation particularly troubling. \"The scandal here may be what is legal, not what is illegal,\" said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon. However, he warned against excessive regulations that could stifle necessary commerce in items used by law enforcement, medical and other industries. Kutz held up some of the items purchased by undercover investigators, including a small device that looked like a spark plug called a triggered spark gap. The item has medical applications and can also be used to detonate a nuclear weapon, he said. Kutz also displayed a small device called a gyro chip that can be used to steer guided missiles. Other items on display in the committee room included some used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that target U.S. soldiers in Iraq, as well as sophisticated body armor and night-vision devices. Undercover investigators complied with all required checks in purchasing the equipment, Kutz said, including the submission of end-user agreements that forbid exporting the equipment or using it in any nuclear, biological and missile weapons. Such documents amount to an \"honor system\" pledge, rather than any enforcement mechanism, he said. The only further checks involved are confirming the validity of credit cards and the existence of Web sites, Kutz said. Most of the transactions took place by e-mail and telephone calls. \"The kind of front company we used and the kind of scheme we used is the kind being used by terrorist organizations today,\" Kutz said. \"This was not a hypothetical situation; this is being done.\" The investigation shipped some of the dual-use items to \"a country that is a known trans-shipment point for terrorist governments and foreign governments attempting to acquire sensitive technology,\" Kutz said. He declined to name the country, but said it was in southeast Asia and that the shipments were simple packages labeled documents and sent by regular mail. \"As GAO proves, a cardboard box and the U.S. Postal Service is all it takes to move dual-use items out of the country,\" said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts. One of those duped by the investigation -- Nicholas Fitton, a technology dealer in Georgia -- told the committee he complied with all required checks in selling an F-16 engine computer to what he thought was a legitimate U.S. buyer. Asked by Stupak why anyone other than the military would need such a device, Fitton said his customers often are museums, collectors and film companies seeking authentic items. Fitton said existing regulations were counter-productive, with seemingly harmless items associated with military gear more tightly controlled than the dual-use items of the investigation. At the same time, he said, making the system too restrictive would harm the competitive ability of U.S. manufacturers. Export laws in the United States have remained virtually unchanged since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Anne-Marie Lasowski of the GAO told the committee. She called for a \"holistic\" approach involving all agencies charged with security and commerce for an issue involving billions of dollars in exports.","highlights":"Watchdog agency GAO buys military hardware, ships it overseas with ease .\nLawmaker: \"Gigantic loophole\" allows enemies to get U.S. technology .\nHardware that can be used in nuclear devices and ground fighting purchased .\n\"The scandal here may be what is legal, not what is illegal,\" representative says .","id":"496fef7e8485ce29243407ae6f696e175d10cf24"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- George Harrison's closest friends and family gathered in Hollywood on Tuesday to dedicate the late Beatle's star on the Walk of Fame. From left, musicians Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Paul McCartney join Harrison's relatives for dedication of his star. \"There's someone here from every important stage of George's life and career,\" Harrison's widow, Olivia, said. Harrison, who was 58 when he died of cancer in 2001, becomes the second Beatle with a Hollywood star. John Lennon was the first. The new star is next to the iconic Hollywood headquarters of Capitol Records, the distributor of much of Harrison's music for the past five decades. Tuesday's ceremony coincided with the Capitol\/EMI announcement that it will release Harrison's first solo greatest hits collection -- \"Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison\" -- on June 16. Actor Tom Hanks said the world changed for him in January 1964 when he heard his first Beatles song. \"That's when we escaped the doldrums and moved on to a brighter, better, more joyful future,\" Hanks said. Superstar musicians Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne attended the star's dedication, but they did not address the crowd. Scores of Harrison fans showed up for the event, with some traveling from as far as Liverpool, England. \"We all have deep feelings for George, because he was such a deep-feeling person,\" Olivia Harrison said. \"He was a beautiful, mystical man, living in a material world,\" she said. \"He was funny as the day is long and just as perplexing.\" His son, Dhani, 30, joked about his father's star. \"It's good, it's lovely and it's nice and shiny and I'm glad it's not outside of Frederick's of Hollywood,\" he said. Harrison was just 15 when schoolmate Paul McCartney asked him to join his and John Lennon's band, the Quarrymen. The band evolved into the Beatles and the rest is history. Harrison played lead guitar and sang for the Beatles. Songs penned by Harrison included \"Taxman,\" \"While My Guitar Gently Weeps,\" \"Something\" and \"Here Comes the Sun.\" Harrison was a pioneer of what has since become a tradition of rock stars supporting charitable causes with their music. In 1971, he helped organize the star-studded \"Concert for Bangladesh\" at New York's Madison Square Garden. In addition to his post-Beatles solo career, Harrison played with several groups -- most notably the Traveling Wilburys, alongside Petty, Lynne, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Harrison's star next to Hollywood headquarters of Capitol Records .\nHarrison, who died of cancer in 2001, is second Beatle with star after John Lennon .\nSome fans travel from as far as Liverpool, England for dedication of Harrison's star .\nHarrison penned many Beatles songs before launching successful solo career .","id":"e43acb75ac46367e08495d5dff14d5c17964d6f2"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An internationally known Catholic priest who was shown in photographs last week embracing a bathing-suit-clad woman on a Florida beach has admitted they had a two-year affair. The Rev. Alberto Cutie was removed from his duties after pictures showed him bare-chested with a woman. The Rev. Alberto Cutie -- sometimes called \"Father Oprah\" because of the advice he gave on Spanish-language media -- said Monday on CBS' \"Early Show\" that he is in love with the woman and is considering his options: Whether to break up with her or leave the priesthood and marry her. The woman, who has not been publicly identified, wants to get married, Cutie said. The priest was removed from his duties last week at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Florida, and on the Radio Paz and Radio Peace networks. \"I take full responsibility for what I did, and I know it's wrong,\" he said Monday. The photos of the Cuban-American priest, also known as \"Padre Alberto,\" appeared on the cover of last week's TV Notas magazine and on eight inside pages. The cover says in Spanish: \"Good God! Padre Alberto. First photos of a priest 'in flagrante' with his lover.\" Other media outlets throughout Latin America, including the official Notimex news agency in Mexico, picked up the story, and it became an Internet sensation. Cutie has millions of followers in the Spanish-speaking world. In a message posted on the Miami, Florida, archdiocese Web page last week, Archbishop John C. Favalora apologized to parishioners and radio listeners for what he called a \"scandal.\" \"Father Cutie made a promise of celibacy and all priests are expected to fulfill that promise with the help of God,\" Favalora said. \"Father Cutie's actions cannot be condoned despite the good works he has done as a priest.\" Cutie expressed his regret in an online statement last week and again Monday on the CBS program. \"I deeply apologize to the Catholic community and especially to my bishop and to my brother priests who are faithful and who are committed to celibacy,\" Cutie said. The priest said he believes in celibacy but thinks it should be optional. He said he had never had a sexual relationship with anyone other than the woman since leaving the seminary 15 years ago. Watch Father Cutie question the celibacy requirement \u00bb . \"I don't support the breaking of the celibacy promise,\" Cutie said. \"I understand fully that this is wrong. \"I don't want to be the anti-celibacy priest. I think that's unfortunate,\" he said. \"I think it's a debate that's going on in our society, and now I've become kind of a poster boy for it. But I don't want to be that. I believe that celibacy is good, and that it's a good commitment to God. This is something I've struggled with. And something that I never expected to become a public debate.\" He also talked about the woman, saying they have been friends for a long time and the attraction was there from early on, but it was not acted on until a couple of years ago. They have \"both struggled\" with the relationship, he said. \"She's also a woman of faith,\" Cutie said. \"She's also somebody who cares about the priesthood, who cares about these things. So it hasn't been easy. And those who have helped me through this process know it hasn't been easy. Obviously, you know, through the photos, it looked like a frivolous thing on the beach, you know, and that's not what it is. It's something deeper than that.\" Cutie was the first Catholic priest to host a daily talk show on a major secular television network, his information on the LinkedIn online professional network says. In addition to his TV and radio appearances, he has written newspaper advice columns and a self-help book, \"Real Life, Real Love.\" Before being removed, he was president and general director of Pax Catholic Communications, home of Radio Paz and Radio Peace in Miami.","highlights":"Catholic priest was removed from duties in Miami archdiocese .\nThe Rev. Alberto Cutie says he is in love with the woman, considering his options .\nHe and the woman \"both struggled\" with the relationship, he said.","id":"95841efd77f244db5fce3bd2a5e43e5b825923ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Philadelphia-area day care center said Thursday that members of a private swim club made racist comments about the center's children, and the club then canceled their swimming privileges. Some kids from the Creative Steps Day Care center say club members made racial remarks. The Creative Steps Day Care children -- ages kindergarten through seventh grade -- went to the Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, on June 29. The day center's director, Alethea Wright, had contracted to use the club once a week. During their first visit, some children said they heard club members asking why African-American children were there. One of the boys told the Philadelphia Inquirer that a woman at the club said she feared the children \"might do something\" to her child. Days later, the day care center's $1,950 check was returned without explanation, Wright said. The stepfather of one of the children was filing a complaint against the club with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the panel's chairman, Stephen Glassman, said Thursday. Watch one of the children say what he heard at the swim club \u00bb . The commission is investigating the allegations, spokeswoman Shannon Powers said, and will attempt to resolve the conflict out of court. \"Protests and public outcry won't do much to help these families, but the Human Relations Commission can determine the facts and hold people accountable for any illegal acts of discrimination,\" State NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire, who serves as a commission member, said in a press release. Sen. Arlen Specter's office said the Pennsylvania Democrat has sent a letter to the Valley Swim Club president asking him to reinstate the contract with Creative Steps, saying, \"I think that you would agree that there is no place for racism in America today.\" On its Web site, the Valley Club disputed the allegations of racism. \"We had originally agreed to invite the camps to use our facility, knowing full well that the children from the camps were from multi-ethnic backgrounds,\" the statement said. \"Unfortunately, we quickly learned that we underestimated the capacity of our facilities and realized that we could not accommodate the number of children from these camps. All funds were returned to the camps and we will re-evaluate the issue at a later date to determine whether it can be feasible in the future.\" CNN attempted to speak with club President John Duesler on Thursday. He said he had no comment and asked CNN to leave the club property. But Duesler told two Philadelphia television stations that the children had changed \"the complexion\" and \"atmosphere\" of the club. A small group of protesters gathered in front of the club Thursday and said they think Duesler's statements prove that the club's action was racially motivated. \"I was hoping it wouldn't be something that was so blatantly apparent. I was hoping that it was overcrowding,\" one protester said. \"When I read the statement by the club president, it made it blatant.\" Jim Flynn, who said he was one of the club members who made a complaint against the children, said it was not racially motivated. \"There were a lot of children in the pool and not enough lifeguards,\" he said. \"As general members, we were not told that they were coming. If we knew, we could decide to not come when the pool was crowded or come anyway. We could have had an option.\" He said two other day-care centers, neither of which included minority children, had previously been similarly disinvited. A private Philadelphia boarding school said Thursday that it plans to help the day care center. \"We thought it was appalling what happened,\" said Girard College Admissions Director Tamara Leclair. She is meeting with the director of Creative Steps to sign a contract allowing the children to use Girard's facilities this summer, as early as Monday. \"We've had a wonderful response. I even received an e-mail from a woman in Florida telling us we did the right thing. \"","highlights":"NEW: Club says facility could not accommodate the number of children .\nStepdad filing complaint with state Human Relations Commission .\nDay care center made deal to use private club's pool .\nKids say members made racist comments; center's check is returned .","id":"fc3e9e4990fd412a3341c2ca3b1bc802e4a7d053"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- A 16-year-old Hong Kong boy makes two phone calls for delivery: One for pizza, the other for the drug ketamine. Two teenage girls are found semi-conscious in a car park after overdosing on ketamine. A 13-year-old boy joins a gang and is given free ketamine. Glass capsules containing ketamine, which has become the drug of choice for Hong Kong's youth. These are anecdotes told to CNN by police, a family doctor and a former gang member. Ketamine has become the drug of choice among young people, as the number of people under 21 taking drugs has surged 57 percent in the last four years in Hong Kong, said Commissioner for Narcotics, Sally Wong. \"We started off with a very small number of young people taking drugs. We are now more worried about the trend,\" Wong said. \"We don't want a runaway trend; that's why we are stepping up action.\" Ketamine, an animal tranquilizer, can put users in a dazed stupor for about two hours, doctors said. Long-term use of ketamine can impair cognitive function and damage internal organs. Watch Pauline Chiou's report on ketamine sweeping Hong Kong \u00bb . An oversupply of the drug in Hong Kong and the fact that it is cheaper than other narcotics makes ketamine popular with young people, said Superintendent Wilson Fok of the Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau. One gram of ketamine sells on the street here for $13 and is enough to be shared with two other people, while cocaine, for example, sells for $103 a gram, Fok said. The drug is legal for medical use, but it is trafficked into Hong Kong from other parts of Asia, such as India and mainland China, and sold on the streets illegally, Fok said. Police have recently stepped up their efforts to crack down on drug use at clubs and bars in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, a city in mainland China just across the border. Nearly 120 alleged drug users from Hong Kong, mostly under the age of 30, were arrested at entertainment venues in Shenzhen in July and held for 15 days in sweeps that made headlines for days here. However, narcotics police said entertainment venues are not the only places they find drug abuse. \"Forty percent of young people abuse drugs in public toilets and playgrounds. That's what our recent data from last year shows,\" Fok said. \"They want to find some other places to take drugs.\" The problem has gotten so bad that authorities have decided to do something never done here before: random school drug tests. Beginning in September, some two dozen schools will conduct tests, as part of a trial program. Officials say the drug screening will most likely be in the form of urine tests, though they are still working out the details. Ketamine can be detected in urine for at least three days, doctors said. Watch a doctor explain how the test works \u00bb . Dr. Cheng Chi Man, a family practice doctor, runs a seminar that trains doctors to detect the signs of drug abuse in young patients: drowsiness, skin problems, frequent urination (ketamine can affect bladder function) and frequent sick leave. \"When we were 10 years old, we were still in primary school watching TV and eating candy. But they are now taking drugs.\" Alman Chan, principal of Hong Kong's only drug rehab school for youth, the privately-run Christian Zheng Sheng School, said he has watched as drug use has grown. See photos of the rehab school in remote Hong Kong \u00bb . \"Just look at our school development. I was here 14 years ago. At that time, I was the only teacher. I had 18 kids. I only had one student who was 15,\" he said. \"But now, I have one third -- about 40 of them -- who are 15 years old or younger. That shows you the number of students getting into drugs is bigger and also getting younger and younger.\" There were a few reasons why children were getting involved with drugs, such as troubled homes and difficulties at school, he said. \"People are more concerned about material things and they are getting lost,\" he added. Hong Kong Police have arrested children as young as age 13 for drug offenses, according to Commissioner for Narcotics, Sally Wong. Police last week reportedly busted a network that allegedly recruited teenagers to sell illegal drugs-- mainly to students. One of those arrested -- a 14-year-old school dropout -- was found with 28 grams of ketamine, according to the South China Morning Post. But ketamine abuse is not limited to young people. It is the second-most popular drug among all age groups in Hong Kong, Superintendent Wilson Fok of the Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau said. Many young drug abusers end up in Alman Chan's drug rehab school for youth, which is located in a remote part of Lantau Island west of Hong Kong. CNN visited the campus, which is home to 99 boys and 24 girls. The closest road is a three-hour hike through the woods. Chan calls the school \"the last stop before jail\" for drug abusers. That was the case for Tai Ming Hung's son Keith, a former gang member. She learned he was using ketamine when he ended up in the hospital after taking the drug a few years ago. \"I was in denial. I just didn't believe it was true. When I first heard about it, we all didn't know how to react, because we hadn't heard of those drugs before,\" she said. \"I didn't really understand why we have these harmful drugs in the world. And I was so afraid that it would kill my son.\" 18-year-old Keith, who said he began using ketamine at the age of 13 when he joined a gang, has recovered and is now living at Chan's school. \"I have a feeling that he's really growing up, he keeps improving,\" his mother said. The school's curriculum involves regular school subjects and chores. The goal is for each student to finish their court probation and either sit for the university exam or continue on to a vocational school. Many of the students have become interested in video editing and photography. There is a video lab on campus and the students showed CNN some video projects they have done. Other students run a pizza parlor and tea shop on a neighboring island. The average stay at the school is three years and students are encouraged to plan for life after rehab. \"We have vocational training. We help them get some marketable skills; therefore, they may get a job or continue training afterward,\" Chan said. \"I believe everyone deserves a second chance.\"","highlights":"Police: Ketamine is the top drug of choice among young people in Hong Kong .\nDrug use among those under 21 has jumped 57 percent in the last four years .\nPolice stepping up crackdowns, say parks and public toilets hot spots for drug use .\nHong Kong has one drug rehab center for youth, located on a remote former pig farm .","id":"7b9379204307bdf5912027e0b2ee92926cfede49"} -{"article":"STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- Bjorn Ulvaeus was one half of the songwriting genius behind Swedish pop legend ABBA. After the band split up in 1982 Ulvaeus turned his talents to writing musicals, including \"Mamma Mia,\" now a blockbuster movie. Bjorn Ulvaeus on the ABBA phenomenon: \"I'm amazed how this could happen. I'm just grateful and humble.\" He took My City_My Life on a tour of his home town of Stockholm and talked about his past and future as pop royalty. CNN: What is the secret of ABBA's success? Bjorn Ulvaeus: I think the secret behind the fact that our songs are still around and that ABBA became so big is a lot of factors together. But one of them was definitely that we put so much effort into song writing. We hardly ever toured, we just wrote and wrote and produced the records over a period of seven or eight years. So it's the songs, plus I think the two girls, the voices -- the blend was unique and very special. CNN: Where did get the inspiration for your songs? BU: Well mostly in song writing my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes. But the urge to write is something you have to have. A conviction, an ambition to write and never stop until you think, \"This is the best I can do.\" Watch Bjorn Ulvaeus take CNN on a tour of Stockholm \u00bb . CNN: What drives you? BU: In my career the push has always been to take another step, to try something new. That means that after ABBA, when we split up in 1982, we were onto writing a musical [\"Chess\"] because we hadn't done that before. CNN: How do you feel about working in the theater? BU: Every time I sit in the audience and watch a show that I have been involved with, it is such an amazing feeling to see all those people around me, knowing they are actually watching and enjoying something I have written. That is such a feeling of pure joy that never goes away and that's why I guess I'm so attracted to work in the theater. CNN: How did \"Mamma Mia! The Movie\" come about? BU: When you have a big hit on the West End and on Broadway with a musical, as we had with \"Mamma Mia,\" there is always the question, \"when are you going to do the movie?\" Some people say you shouldn't do it until the actual stage musical is on its last legs, but I don't think that matters. We had been on Broadway for seven or eight years and eight or nine in the West End and we thought now is the time to make that movie. CNN: How has Stockholm changed over the years? BU: A city like Stockholm, being so dynamic and following trends, develops all the time. It's gradually changing but you can hardly see that. It is changing in a very healthy way that cities should change. CNN: How would you describe Stockholm in a few words? BU: Stockholm is unique in the world in that it's built on, I think, 14 islands. There are so many bridges and it doesn't have any high-rise buildings to speak of. It's quite spread out and open and airy with lots of parks. See photos of Bjorn Ulvaeus in Stockholm \u00bb . CNN: Let's talk about the cultural scene in Stockholm. BU: There is a very vibrant cultural scene in Stockholm. There are lots of places where there are concerts and there are loads of museums and theaters. There is everything really, and eventually there is going to be an ABBA museum as well. CNN: When will that happen? BU: I don't know -- I like to be arm's length when it comes to a museum about oneself. Other people should do that. CNN: That's quite a Swedish trait... BU: A lot of Swedes are quite modest and unassuming. I think that's actually the closest you can get to a national trait, if there is one. CNN: How does it feel that people from different generations are still enjoying ABBA songs? BU: In a way I'm kind of a bystander looking at this phenomenon that is ABBA, which is still around, and that I thought would be finished in 1981 and forgotten. I'm amazed how this could happen and I don't know why it happened. I'm just grateful and humble. I just sit back and enjoy. CNN: What would you like your legacy to be? BU: I would like for my children to feel that what I left behind was something that I did whole heartedly and with honesty, and something that was the best I could do and hopefully that they too can enjoy.","highlights":"Bjorn Ulvaeus is half of the songwriting pair behind Swedish pop legend ABBA .\nHe lives in Stockholm, which he describes as being \"dynamic\" and trendy .\nUlvaeus thought ABBA would be forgotten and is \"amazed\" by its popularity .\nAn ABBA museum is being planned for Stockholm .","id":"6450640c5183fa459b3ada17826cec5d00bae41d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A diary reported to have come from a top Colombian guerrilla leader killed last year says key officials in Ecuador accepted money from the rebels and had connections with Mexican drug gangs. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, has been at war with the government for decades. The money was meant to finance Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's 2006 election campaign, Marxist rebel Raul Reyes is said to have written in a diary allegedly obtained after his death. Ecuador denies the allegations and has asked the Organization of American States to investigate. \"The president of the republic did not know anything about this and never sent any emissary to finance his electoral campaign,\" Interior Minister Gustavo Jalkh said at a news conference Wednesday. Ecuadorian officials released excerpts from the diary Thursday. Wednesday's revelation was the second instance in two weeks tying Correa to donations from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. Last week, Colombian media broadcast a 2008 video in which guerrilla leader Victor Julio Suarez Rojas, widely known as Mono Jojoy, said the rebels donated money to Correa's campaign. The guerrilla group also had conversations with Correa's emissaries and has reached \"some accords, according to documents that we have,\" Suarez said in the videotape. Correa denied those allegations, asking the nation's civil service commission to investigate. FARC issued a statement Tuesday denying that the rebels have \"given money to any electoral campaign of any neighboring country.\" The guerrillas accused the United States and Colombia of manipulating the Suarez video to make Correa look bad. FARC has been at war with the Colombian government for more than 45 years. In the latest allegations, Reyes, FARC's second-in-command until his death in March 2008, identifies the Ecuadorians who had contacts with the rebels as former head of security Gustavo Larrea, former under secretary for governing Ignacio Chauvin, retired Col. Jorge Brito and dentist Luis Ayala. \"Larrea, Brito and Dr. Ayala, I am sure, move among the Mexican drug cartels and, in order to have free reign, collaborate with the CIA,\" Reyes wrote, according to the state-run Notimex news agency in Mexico. \"For them, I am the true loot, and turning me over would be their major deal.\" Ecuadorian Interior Minister Jalkh and Foreign Minister Fander Falconi declined Wednesday to confirm the diary's authenticity, attributing to it \"neither truth nor falseness.\" Instead, they said they turned it over to the Organization of American States so that the hemispheric body can verify its authenticity. Ecuadorian officials also turned a copy over to the nation's attorney general. The 20-page diary goes from July 2007 to February 23, 2008, seven days before a Colombian bombing attack killed Reyes at his camp inside the Ecuadorian border. In addition to Reyes, the attack killed 24 people, including four Mexicans and an Ecuadorian. As a result, Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Colombia in March 2008. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ally of the leftist Correa, also strongly objected to the attack and sent tanks to his country's border with Colombia in March 2008. On Tuesday, Chavez froze relations with Colombia and recalled Venezuela's ambassador after Colombia revealed that the FARC had gotten hold of shoulder-launched anti-tank grenades that Sweden sold to Venezuela 20 years ago. Reyes' diary portrays a rebel leader who feels trapped and betrayed. \"No matter how much Nacho [Ignacio] Chauvin insists, as well as correspondence from Larrea, I don't see any convenience in staying at the Angostura camp that I occupied as a result of Col. Brito,\" Reyes wrote. \"I know that Larrea is behind all this.\" Writing about the Angostura camp on the border with Colombia, Reyes said, \"This place is a trap. They have me tied up here under the pretext that I should receive the international delegations. All this stuff is very false.\" He goes on to doubt the people who come to see him at the jungle base. \"The revolutionaries who visit me, save for a few people, only want money and deals. I ask myself, how many of them are infiltrators who work as double agents? I feel the presence of double agents in Correa's intimate group, without a doubt.\" Giving money to Correa was a waste, Reyes wrote. \"Trusting Correa was suicide,\" the diary said. \"All the contributions of money for Correa's campaign weren't worth a damn.\"","highlights":"FARC leader reportedly wrote about donating to Rafael Correa's 2006 campaign .\n\"Trusting Correa was suicide,\" Raul Reyes allegedly wrote before death last year .\nEcuador denies allegations, asks the Organization of American States to investigate .\nFARC denies giving money \"to any electoral campaign of any neighboring country\"","id":"d040a4886d15fbed0b14cfe481dd110123cfb4e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It takes seven minutes to execute a death row inmate, according to the state of Texas. Mike Graczyk poses outside the Texas death chamber prior to an execution in January. At that rate, Mike Graczyk has spent about 40 hours of his life watching men -- and a few women -- die. Graczyk, a correspondent for The Associated Press, is believed to hold a macabre record. He's almost certainly watched more executions than anyone else in the United States. \"I can't possibly imagine there's been someone present at more than Mike,\" said Michelle Lyons, the spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which uses lethal injection at its execution chamber in Huntsville. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, no state has executed more inmates than Texas. And no one has witnessed more of them than Graczyk. He's on the witness list for 315 of the state's 439 executions -- more than any other reporter, prison employee or chaplain -- and no records were kept for another 80. Interactive map: See how Texas compares with other states \u00bb . In his early days, he kept count. But he eventually stopped. He didn't want to know. \"In one circle, I was perceived as putting notches on my gun belt,\" the 59-year-old reporter said. \"I didn't like that.\" Prison regulations in Texas require The Associated Press to be given one of the five designated media witness passes for each execution. Graczyk works in the AP's Houston bureau -- it's closest to the state's execution chamber in Huntsville. Since the early 1980s, he's made the hourlong drive north almost every time an inmate has faced the needle. The first was March 13, 1984, for the execution of James \"Cowboy\" Autry, convicted of shooting a female store clerk between the eyes with a .38-caliber revolver while arguing over a six-pack of beer. She died, along with a former Catholic priest that Autry killed at the crime scene. \"The first time definitely leaves an impression on you,\" Graczyk said. There are others that stand out along the way. Graczyk remembers Bob Black, convicted of killing his wife and trying to collect the insurance money. \"I walked into the death house, and he was strapped to the table and he said, 'Hey Mike, how are you doing?' It threw me for a loop.\" Graczyk said it's normal for him to know the name of the condemned and not uncommon for the reverse to be true. There have been others who greeted Graczyk by name with a needle in their arm. Once, while waiting to be let into the death house, a prisoner phoned him in the media holding area. It was the inmate whose execution Graczyk was about to witness. \"He said, 'I just wanted to call and make sure you were OK.' I was flabbergasted.\" Over the years, the inmate's name has slipped from Graczyk's memory, but not the unexpected phone conversation. \"I don't think he had any family to call,\" he said. There was Ponchai Wilkerson, who once nearly escaped from death row and, years later, coughed up a handcuff key as he lay dying from his injection. There was the \"Candy Man,\" Ronald Clark O'Bryan -- convicted of poisoning his child's Halloween candy with cyanide -- and the gauntlet of college students wearing Halloween masks who showed up to cheer. And Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since the 1800s. He remembers a network correspondent crying after her death -- and another blow-drying his hair. Of the entire death chamber ritual, Graczyk said, it's the final statements that stick in his mind. Some have been confessions. Others were denials. Poetry. Prayers. Bible verses. Curses. Emotions ranging from defiance to resignation. There was Jonathan Nobles, an electrician who stabbed two people to death. He sang \"Silent Night.\" \"Ever since then, I think of him on Christmas or Christmas Eve when I'm in church,\" Graczyk said. \"That's the kind of thing that haunts you.\" The person who may come closest to Graczyk's status also felt things that haunted him. Don Reid, a writer for the AP and, before that, a Texas newspaper, witnessed 189 executions in the 1960s, when Texas still strapped inmates to \"Old Sparky,\" the nickname for the state's electric chair. The experience changed Reid, who died in 1981, from a supporter of the death penalty to an opponent. He wrote a book, \"Have a Seat, Please,\" chronicling that transformation. Graczyk said he doesn't worry about the mental toll of watching so many deaths. His bosses with the AP have offered counseling. He's declined. \"To see someone go to sleep -- not to sound insensitive -- but the carnage at the murder scene is harder than what you see in the death house in Huntsville,\" he said. Over a 25-year career, Graczyk said, the executions have only been a small portion of his work. He finds balance in those other stories. As a journalist, Graczyk never answers the question when friends ask his own views on the death penalty. \"I'm not sure I really know,\" he said. But as long as Texas keeps executing people, Graczyk said, it's important that he keep showing up. The next execution in Huntsville was scheduled for Thursday before the condemned, convicted murderer Kenneth Mosley, was granted a reprieve until September. If the execution goes ahead then, Graczyk plans to make the drive. \"I would hate for the state of Texas to take someone's life and no one be there,\" he said. CNN's Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Texas reporter has covered executions in Texas since the early 1980s .\nGraczyk stopped counting, didn't want \"notches on my gun belt\"\nInmates waiting to die have greeted him by name, called to check up on him .\nHe says he doesn't worry about the mental toll and has declined counseling .","id":"e4686a034dfcdb2a806826aa03d9e3878cb672e9"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- At a hacker conference no one is safe. Demographic of Defcon conference for hackers is older, wiser and employed. When I first went to Defcon in 1995, the halls were mobbed with teenagers and attendees seemed more concerned with freeing Kevin Mitnick and seeing strippers than hacking each others' computers. Jump forward to Defcon 17 this year, which was held over the weekend in Las Vegas, things certainly have changed. The attendees are older and wiser and employed, most of the feds aren't in stealth mode, and even the most savvy of hackers is justifiably paranoid. \"Welcome to the hacker world,\" said Defcon founder Jeff Moss. The evolving demographic of Defcon attendees shows that the hacker community, like all of us, is aging. But it's also a reflection of how the threat landscape has changed. Web site defacements have given way to much more serious risks like financial fraud and unaddressed critical infrastructure weaknesses. It's a cornucopia of phishing e-mails, cross-site scripting attacks that poke holes in trusted Web sites, and criminals harvesting credit card numbers and selling them on the underground equivalent of eBay with guarantees of service and support. Defcon and Black Hat, the pricier and more corporate sister confab held the two days preceding Defcon ($120 for Defcon registration versus $1,395 to $2,095 for phased registration at Black Hat), offer a forum for researchers to share information about vulnerabilities they find in software, hardware and systems. Targeted this year were everything from the iPhone and surveillance video feeds to e-parking meters and security underlying the Domain Name System. Vendors and users weren't the only ones who need worry. Attendees had plenty to fear and security experts themselves weren't spared. On July 27, Web sites belonging to a handful of security researchers and groups were hacked and passwords, private e-mails, IM chats, and potentially sensitive documents were exposed on the vandalized site of security golden boy Dan Kaminsky. (Mitnick, whose jailing in the '90s for computer crimes made him a cause celebre at \"Free Kevin\" benefits at Defcon at the time, was among those attacked.) There were more widespread threats at the shows, too. Anyone using the Wi-Fi networks at the events had better be careful lest they get their password sniffed and posted on the Wall of Sheep. Then there was the USB thumb drive that was passed around among attendees of Black Hat that was found to be infected with the Conficker virus. Reporters who aren't nearly as geeky as the sources they interview are always easy prey. One reporter was concerned about being hacked via the local area network in the press room after a rare Blue Screen of Death crashed his laptop. Last year, three French men were expelled for sniffing the press room LAN at Black Hat. They said they had obtained eWeek's and CNET's passwords but failed to prove the CNET allegation. This year, three South Koreans registered as press were ejected for asking questions that led organizers to believe were on an intelligence-gathering mission instead of merely reporting, according to the IDG News Service. I had a panic of my own at Defcon this year. I was connected to the Internet using an EVDO wireless card and a virtual private network and was startled a short while later when a Web page opened up out of the blue and I noticed the VPN was disconnected. Granted it looked like a legitimate page for my wireless carrier, but not wanting to take any chances I immediately logged off. (See \"Defcon: What to leave at home and other do's and don'ts\" for tips on how to best protect yourself.) Unfortunately, I had neglected to disable the Wi-Fi on the laptop. Because Windows XP event logging is lacking, it's not clear whether someone may have spoofed the name of a wireless network the laptop is configured to automatically connect to. Time to call the help desk. At least I didn't use any automatic teller machines at the hotel. Defcon organizers confirmed on Monday that a fake ATM was discovered in a lobby of the Riviera Hotel where the event was held, right near the hotel security office. The ruse was up after someone looked through the camera hole using a flashlight and saw a PC inside. Meanwhile, Chris Paget, a security expert who works at Google, reported on Twitter that he lost $200 from a compromised ATM at the Rio Hotel over the weekend. There are multiple Diebold ATMs with the skimmers inside at the Rio casino, he tweeted, later adding: \"Secret Service just called back. They're taking it seriously, reading between the lines it seem(s) like there's more going on here.\" There is no evidence that the fake Riviera ATM was planted by anyone at Defcon, and in all likelihood the hacked Rio ATM was not associated with the hacker show. Heightening the paranoia at Defcon was the report from event organizers on Saturday that there was a confirmed Trojan on the CD the conference hands out to all attendees. The report turned out to be false. Also arousing suspicion were the Defcon badges, which featured a built-in microphone, LED, digital signal processor, and custom circuit boards designed to be hacked as part of a contest. I prudently popped the battery out of my badge after discussing the microphone capability with another journalist. Some attendees chose not to wear the badges at all, even without the battery, tucking them in satchels and digging them out every time they needed to display them. As it does every year, Defcon also had its share of stupid attendee tricks--one arrest reportedly for carrying a concealed weapon and another for bungee jumping off the hotel roof. But those are par for the course when you mix booze and rebellious youth trying to out-impress each other. It was the other stuff--the hacking and viruses and sniffing--that made me and others at the show jumpy. Security guru Bruce Schneier, however, brushed it off as the mere cost of doing business. \"This is the way hackers play,\" he said. \"This is the experimental battlefield. It's not bad; it is just what it is. Defcon has an important place in computer security.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Defcon is a forum to share info on vulnerabilities in software and hardware .\nAttendees worried about using Wi-Fi for fear of passwords being stolen .\nFake ATM was spotted in hotel with a PC inside it .\nThumb drive with virus was passed around at conference .","id":"ea93346659a9ce044bb06095639089a4bbf0e11a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of choking and restraining MTV reality show star Tila Tequila, police said. Shawne Merriman is accused of restraining reality TV star Tila Tequlia as she tried to leave his home, police say. However, Merriman's attorney denied the allegations, saying more than a dozen other people were at Merriman's house in suburban San Diego, California, at the time of the incident and \"witness after witness after witness will back up his story 100 percent.\" Authorities responded to a disturbance call about 3:45 a.m. Sunday from a woman who said she had been choked and restrained by a male, the sheriff's department of San Diego County, California, said in a statement. When police arrived, \"the reporting party identified herself as Tila Nguyen, aka Tila Tequila, and her alleged assailant as Shawne Merriman,\" the statement said. \"Nguyen told deputies she had been choked and physically restrained by Merriman when she attempted to leave his residence,\" the statement said. Watch Merriman's side of the story \u00bb . Nguyen signed a citizen's arrest at the scene, and Merriman was taken into custody on suspicion of battery and false imprisonment, according to the statement. Deputies didn't see any physical injuries on Nguyen, but she asked to be transported to a local hospital, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said. Nguyen's condition was not immediately known. Merriman's attorney, Todd Macaluso, told reporters that Nguyen was \"extremely intoxicated and inebriated\" and that the player tried to make arrangements for her to leave the house. \"At no time did Mr. Merriman assault her. At no time did Mr. Merriman keep her against her will,\" Macaluso said. \"His intentions were nothing but good. ... We're very confident that this matter will be resolved without any charges being filed whatsoever.\" Caldwell said alcohol \"was involved\" on Nguyen's part. Caldwell didn't elaborate. Merriman was released from jail late Sunday morning. Caldwell said she didn't know whether Merriman was released on bail or on his own recognizance. The district attorney's office will determine whether criminal charges will be pursued, Caldwell said. As Tila Tequila, Nguyen starred on the MTV reality shows \"A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila\" in 2007 and \"A Shot at Love 2 With Tila Tequila\" in 2008. On her Twitter account, Nguyen did not mention the incident but tweeted about going to meet Merriman on Saturday. In a statement posted on the Chargers' Web site Sunday, team General Manager A.J. Smith said it is \"disappointing to hear about the issue involving Shawne Merriman.\" \"We'll continue to monitor the situation and let the legal process run its course,\" Smith said. Merriman, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, is entering his fifth year with the Chargers and the NFL. He recorded at least 10 sacks in each of his first three seasons, but he was limited to one game last season because of a knee injury that required surgery. The Chargers begin their 2009 NFL regular-season campaign on September 14 in Oakland, California, for a game against the Raiders.","highlights":"NEW: Merriman's attorney says NFL player didn't assault Tila Tequila .\nPolice: Tila \"Tequila\" Nguyen alleges NFL's Shawne Merriman choked her .\nIncident allegedly happened as she tried to leave Merriman's home, police say .\nNguyen starred in MTV's \"A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila\"","id":"335771b567d7a5570ce9b0a30c40a1bd2b66a727"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from a flash flood in Indonesia's capital grew to 98 people on Sunday as rescuers widened their search for more than 130 other people in the aftermath. Members of a search and rescue team look for bodies near Jakarta. The nation's health ministry said 62 women, 31 men and three students had been killed. Of those, 12 bodies remained unidentified, ministry spokesman Rustam Pakaya said. Another 13 people were missing. The search for the missing will be called off Sunday night, he said. The flood started Friday morning after heavy rains caused waters to smash through a dam and rush into Jakarta. The breach unleashed a torrent of water that plowed into hundreds of homes in what some survivors described as a suburban \"tsunami.\" About 1,500 volunteers -- mostly students from two flooded universities in Jakarta -- are assisting in the search and rescue effort, said Mardjito, a social affairs ministry official who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. He said rescuers started using heavy machinery to lift debris. Still, the death toll is expected to rise. At least 50 people were injured and nearly 1,500 have been displaced. Mardjito said a camp for survivors so far has adequate supplies as members of political parties continue to send food, blankets, flashlights and other items amid a major election year. Sleeping residents were taken by surprise by the powerful flash flood as it crashed through the crowded Cirendeu district near Jakarta early Friday. Watch scenes of the flood devastation \u00bb . Drenched and shivering survivors were taking refuge on the rooftops of their homes as rescuers in rubber boats were struggling to reach them, said social affairs ministry official Mardjito. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently on the campaign trail ahead of the elections later this year, has said he had ordered senior ministers to visit the scene of the disaster. \"On behalf of the government, I express my condolences to the families of the dead victims and may their souls be accepted by God almighty,\" he said, according to the official Antara news agency. The rain obliterated a 255-meter-long section of the dam, releasing a wall of water from a 20-hectare lake that some survivors said reminded them of the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004. \"They said they had heard loud rumbling sounds like during a powerful earthquake. They later found out that the sounds came from the water rushing out from the dam's lake,\" according to Antara. Floods from heavy rains are an annual occurrence in and around Jakarta, a low-lying city on the northern coast of Java island, where poor infrastructure often results in polluted canals and rivers overflowing their banks and spilling into thousands of homes. In 2007, 38 people were killed and 430,000 forced from their homes when storm water 3 meters deep in some places swamped 75 percent of the capital, which is home to about 9 million people. With poor sanitation and a hot and humid climate, the risk of water-borne diseases is usually a major concern following floods in the city, where mosquito-transmitted malaria is also a threat. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 98 dead, many more missing, from flash floods in Jakarta .\nFlood began after heavy rains caused waters to smash through a dam .\nSurvivors say rumbling of waters sounded like an earthquake .\nRescuers are having difficulties reaching people because of mud .","id":"ba80eae1f0ce43f97a72c7f9829847e43175c502"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A whistle-blower who helped shed light on misconduct among the ranks of contractors working as guards for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan is back home in England sooner than he expected after he resigned in the fallout of the scandal. \"It was just downright stupid,\" Terry Pearson says of guard misconduct in Afghanistan. Terry Pearson, who worked as an operations manager for contractor R.A. International at Camp Sullivan in Afghanistan, said he witnessed mistreatment among the guards employed by ArmorGroup North America, who were housed at the camp. \"It was just downright stupid, some of the things they were doing,\" Pearson told CNN. \"And insensitive.\" Allegations surfaced last week that contractor ArmorGroup allowed mistreatment, sexual activity and intimidation within the ranks of private guards hired to protect the embassy in Kabul. The company and U.S. officials are investigating. Wackenhut Services Inc., the corporate parent of ArmorGroup, said in an e-mail it is \"fully cooperating\" in the investigation. Fourteen guards were fired and the entire management team for ArmorGroup in Kabul was to be replaced, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said. The actions of the embassy guards went beyond pranks or laughs, he said. \"When you start encouraging people to drink alcohol running off someone's body parts,\" Pearson said, pausing for a moment, \"a bit over the top.\" Watch Pearson describe guards' \"insensitive\" conduct \u00bb . He took his grievance to his superiors as well as those of ArmorGroup. The answer he received was, \"'they're just letting off steam,' and I think that's the way they looked at some of the incidents that happened,\" Pearson said. Pearson said he was looking for a change of behavior, not for mass firings. But at Camp Sullivan, he was made to feel that he had done something wrong and he resigned. Pearson said he reconsidered the resignation almost immediately after he submitted it, but it was too late. \"Although we are now aware of the alleged events at Camp Sullivan ... the employee's resignation was not associated with this matter,\" R.A. International said in a statement. The scandal came to light last week when the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and briefed reporters on its findings, which it said were based on e-mails and interviews with more than a dozen guards who have worked at the U.S. compound in Kabul. Speaking with CNN at his hometown of Liverpool, England, Pearson said that given a chance to go back, he would have taken the same stance. \"Dignity at work and respect at work is more important than having a job yourself,\" he said. CNN's Paula Newton contributed to this report.","highlights":"Terry Pearson is back in England after allegedly witnessing guard misconduct .\nPearson resigned from R.A. International at Camp Sullivan in Afghanistan .\n14 guards were fired after allegations of abuse, sexual activity and intimidation .\nArmorGroup and U.S. officials are investigating .","id":"dde1da045f31072dd1faedf94793fe1899b929ec"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- John Travolta, still in mourning over the death of his teenage son earlier this year, issued a rare public statement urging fans to see his latest movie, \"The Taking of Pelham 123,\" which he filmed last year. John Travolta stars as a villainous ex-inmate in \"The Taking of Pelham 123,\" which opens in theaters Friday. \"I promise, you won't be disappointed,\" said Travolta, who plays a deranged ex-inmate who takes hostages on a New York subway. Travolta did not join co-star Denzel Washington in the promotional tour for the movie -- which hits theaters Friday -- because he said his family needed \"additional time to reconcile our loss.\" His son Jett, 16, was found unconscious on January 2 while on vacation with his family in the Bahamas. The teen was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, local police said. Washington, who plays a subway train dispatcher forced to face down Travolta's character, said he talked to the actor about three weeks ago. \"Needless to say, he's struggling,\" Washington said in an interview last week. Travolta's statement, which can be read on his official Web site, said Washington, director Tony Scott and the producers \"stepped up without hesitation to help promote this wonderful film, and their unselfish efforts have allowed my family the additional time to reconcile our loss.\" Making the movie was \"a labor of love,\" Travolta said. \"Tony gave me the freedom to define, and then to become, the ultimate evil mastermind,\" he said. \"This role as an actor gave me the chance to dispense with all moral and ethical limitations, and explore just how bad this character could really be. I believe you will like the result.\" Much of the movie is a dialogue between Washington and Travolta's character over a two-way radio. Many of the action shots were filmed in New York subway tunnels.","highlights":"John Travolta releases statement on his Web site about \"The Taking of Pelham 123\"\nTravolta, still mourning son's death, praised colleagues for \"unselfish efforts\"\nTravolta's son Jett died in January during family vacation .","id":"0a23128a3dc7a202747f1b5eab2fca35fb18d1e5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former State Department employee and his wife, who are accused of spying for Cuba for nearly 30 years, will remain in jail as they await trial, a judge ruled Wednesday. An artist's sketch shows Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Myers, 71, in court Wednesday. Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Myers, 71, are charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government, wire fraud and providing classified information to Havana, according to court documents. U.S. Magistrate John Facciola ordered the couple Wednesday held without bail after a prosecutor said they posed a flight risk. Investigators found a calendar showing that the couple planned to sail to the Caribbean in November, federal prosecutor Michael Harvey told the court. The two have the financial means to obtain false documents and flee to Cuba with their sailboat or through Mexico or Canada, he said. \"They are unworthy of this court's trust,\" Harvey added. The couple was quiet and expressionless during the proceedings Wednesday. Kendall Myers sat with his arms folded across his chest, while his wife sat with her arms at her side. They stared straight ahead, and did not appear to acknowledge anyone in the courtroom. A defense attorney urged the court to allow them to remain in their home, where they could visit with their children. \"You could disable the sailboat, freeze their funds and require ankle bracelets,\" Thomas Green said. The judge allowed the couple to meet briefly with their son after the court proceedings, but turned down the request to allow them to go home. He said he was concerned that the two would go to the Cuban Interests Section or the embassy of a country that has diplomatic relations with Cuba. Such a move would put them beyond the reach of federal law enforcement agencies. The State Department has not described what information the Myerses may have passed to their Cuban handlers, but said more information would come out after a full assessment. A senior State Department official said Kendall Myers was an \"upper-level civil service employee\" at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research who \"had come up in the ranks.\" U.S. officials did not discuss the Myerses' motives for their alleged work for the Cuban government. Conviction on the wire fraud charge would carry a sentence of up to 20 years; illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government would carry a sentence of up to 10 years; and the conspiracy charge would carry a sentence of up to five years. Myers retired from the State Department on October 31, 2007. He had viewed more than 200 classified reports on Cuba in his final months, even though he was an analyst on European issues at the time, court documents say. The couple has been held without bail since pleading not guilty Friday. A future trial date has not been scheduled. CNN's Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Judge rules that husband, wife will remain in jail as they await trial .\nNEW: He cites concern about pair fleeing beyond reach of U.S. law enforcement .\nThey're charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, providing classified data to Havana .\nState Department hasn't said what data the pair may have passed to Cuban handlers .","id":"1904d855170ea9a003cb18f4c4351ed1b4d29bf2"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A legislative candidate was killed, along with his wife and two children, bringing campaigns for statewide offices in the southeastern state of Tabasco to a halt, the state-run news agency Notimex reported. PRI candidate Jose Francisco Fuentes Esperon was killed, along with his wife and their two sons. The bodies of Jose Francisco Fuentes Esperon, his wife and two young sons were found inside their home in the capital of Villahermosa on Saturday. According to local reports, Fuentes' wife was shot in the head, and the boys, ages 10 and 13, had been asphyxiated. Less clear was the candidate's fate. Some reports said that his body had signs of torture and had a wound on his neck, which may have been from a gunshot. As of Sunday, authorities had not released a motive for the crime, though speculation of a drug cartel hit or a robbery circulated in Tabasco. Fuentes' party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, immediately announced a campaign moratorium for all of its candidates for the state's October 18 elections. Other political parties followed suit. \"The PRI cannot go out at this moment and ask citizens for their vote when it finds itself with a broken heart because of the homicide of its candidate,\" Tabasco PRI director Adrian Hernandez Balboa said, according to Notimex. In response, the Tabasco state government offered all political candidates protection during their campaigns if they requested it, a statement from the office of Gov. Andres Granier Melo said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called Granier to offer his condolences and show his support for the investigation, the statement said. The weekend slaying was not the first time an entire family has been killed in Tabasco. In February, a Tabasco police official who had arrested a drug trafficker a week earlier was killed together with his mother, wife, children and nieces and nephews. His brother, also a state police officer, was wounded, as were two others. The day before Fuentes and his family were killed, unknown gunmen fatally shot two state police officers in Villahermosa and injured two others.","highlights":"Bodies of Jose Francisco Fuentes Esperon, wife and 2 sons found inside their home .\nDiscovery brings campaigns for statewide offices in state of Tabasco to halt .\nFuentes' wife shot in head; their sons, 10 and 13, had been asphyxiated .\nOfficials release no motive for slayings; speculation centers on drug cartel or robbery .","id":"8f3fd7d9bd9b5fdf70311cf58ae4e818a137063d"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A Bangkok Airways plane crashed at an airport at a resort island in Thailand, killing the pilot and injuring 37 people Tuesday, aviation officials said. Rescue workers inspect the Bangkok Airways plane at Samui airport on Thailand's Ko Samui. The plane carrying 68 people and four crew members skidded and then crashed after landing at Koh Samui airport, officials with the civil aviation department said. The ATR-72 turboprop had taken off from the town of Krabi on the west coast Thailand for its trip to the resort island of Koh Samui. Air traffic control warned the pilot of volatile winds before the plane landed, aviation officials said. Seven people were seriously injured and emergency officials were working to free the plane's co-pilot who was trapped in the plane, officials said. CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials: Plane skidded and then crashed after landing at Koh Samui airport .\nBangkok Airways ATR-72 turboprop carrying 68 people, four crew members .\nAir traffic control warned the pilot of volatile winds before the plane landed .","id":"1e7d3fc6c8af6636b80eb80e1cc4b068408da1e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida man arrested with his wife on anabolic steroid possession charges claimed to have sold steroids to professional hockey and baseball players in the District of Columbia, but the National Hockey League and Washington Capitals said Wednesday they doubted the allegation. Richard Thomas and his wife, Sandra, were arrested Tuesday night at their home in Lakeland, Florida. Richard Thomas, 35, told officers he sold the steroids to unidentified players on the NHL's Capitals and the Washington Nationals of baseball's National League, said Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida. \"Richard Thomas told us that he sold steroids to ballplayers on those teams,\" Judd said after the arrests late Tuesday night. \"Now, is that one ballplayer to two ballplayers? We don't know.\" NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the league would investigate the claim, but added that the Washington Capitals \"have no knowledge of any aspect of this allegation.\" \"Capitals players were subjected to no-notice testing five separate times over the past two seasons pursuant to the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and there was no indication of any improper conduct or wrongdoing,\" Daly said in a statement issued Wednesday. A separate statement by Capitals president Dick Patrick said the team had \"no reason to believe there is any merit to this story,\" but would fully cooperate with the NHL's investigation. MLB.com, the Web site of Major League Baseball, reported Wednesday that the league would look into the allegation involving the Washington Nationals. The report posted on the Web site of the Washington Nationals quoted Nationals president Stan Kasten as saying the team knew nothing about the steroids claim, and that the league was handling it. Thomas and his wife, Sandra, 49, were arrested Tuesday night at their home in Lakeland, Florida, on 21 counts of possession of anabolic steroids, importation of anabolic steroids and maintaining a residence for drug sales, Judd said. He said the couple has been charged with 10 counts of steroid possession with intent to distribute, 10 counts of importing the drugs and one count of maintaining a residence for drug sales. According to Judd, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia received information that the Florida couple would be receiving a shipment of steroids. Judd's office then obtained a search warrant for the Lakeland home, where officers found steroids from points outside the United States, including Iran, he said. The arrest report says Richard Thomas told officers he was \"the biggest steroids dealer in central Florida.\" Bond for Richard and Sandra Thomas was set at $215,000 each, said Carrie Eleazer, spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff's Office, and Sandra Thomas was released on bail Wednesday afternoon. The two are scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday. CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Couple arrested in central Florida on anabolic steroid possession charges .\nClaim they sold steroids to professional athletes in District of Columbia, sheriff says .\nRichard Thomas says he sold steroids to pro baseball, hockey players, sheriff says .","id":"7d034c42ee52c493bc7b11d6c7b5ec5534a4627f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Bone-dry conditions in an area that has not seen a major fire in more than 60 years pushed a Southern California wildfire from 45,000 acres to more than 100,000 acres in a matter of hours Monday, fire officials said. A charred fire truck sits at the bottom of a hill Monday near Acton, California. Two firefighters died in the vehicle. The Station fire, burning in Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles, has forced thousands of evacuations and threatened thousands of structures -- including major communications installations on Mount Wilson, said Mike Dietrich, the U.S. Forest Service's incident commander. \"This is a very difficult firefight,\" Dietrich said. \"This is a very angry fire that we're fighting right now. Until we can get a change in weather conditions, I'm not overly optimist.\" Weather forecasts show little change in conditions for the next four to five days. The fire, which has sent plumes of thick smoke spiraling as much as 20,000 feet into the air, is creating its own wind patterns, making it unpredictable, officials said. See images of the wildfire \u00bb . \"This fire is headed just about anywhere it wants to right now,\" said Dietrich, who earlier said the blaze had \"a mind of its own.\" Fire officials said Monday they had issued evacuation notices for residents of the 10,000 homes under threat. Nearly 100 homes were added to the notices Monday afternoon. But six people in the evacuation area had refused repeated requests to leave, said Commander David Fender, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's incident commander. \"There's six individuals, they're up there, they've been asked to leave three times,\" Fender said. \"They refuse to leave. That's their choice.\" Earlier reports indicated the six were trapped at their Gold Canyon ranch and firefighters were unable to reach them, but Fender said he had no indication that was true. \"They've all shared that they do not want to leave,\" he said. The fire claimed the lives of two firefighters Sunday. Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, and Specialist Arnaldo Quinones, 35, were killed when their vehicle went down a steep, 700-foot embankment, Dietrich said. Hall was with the department for 26 years and Quinones for eight years. Watch a fire official give details on the \"tragic\" accident \u00bb . Dietrich said the blaze had destroyed two communications arrays in the area but had not flared up on Mount Wilson, home to 20 television and radio transmission towers, fire and police communications equipment and the Mount Wilson Observatory. That area is under a critical threat and a strike team is in position to protect the observatory. But, Dietrich stressed, \"My No. 1 priority is our firefighters' safety.\" \"If they have to abandon the position, there's no facility that is worth a human life,\" he said. Despite the difficulties, Dietrich told reporters that firefighting teams \"will not rest until it's out.\" And Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Bryant noted that \"there have been hundreds of homes saved by firefighters in this effort.\" The Station fire was the largest of eight blazes burning across the state on Monday, officials said. Watch iReporters' footage of the wildfire \u00bb . Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday his administration is \"working around the clock to ensure that our brave men and women working on the fires' front lines have the resources needed to respond and beat back these fires as quickly as possible. \"We have the toughest and best-trained firefighters in the world fighting to protect public safety and property,\" Schwarzenegger said. \"I am confident in the state's response as these fires continue to burn throughout California.\" The governor on Monday toured damage left in the wake of the 49 Fire in Placer County, in northern California. As of Monday, the fire had burned 275 acres and was 50 percent contained. On Sunday, the governor expressed his condolences for the loss of the firefighters in the Station fire. Learn more about areas under threat \u00bb . The Station fire started Wednesday and had destroyed 18 structures by Sunday. At least 10,000 homes, 500 businesses and 2,000 other structures are threatened by the fire, which exploded in size over the weekend, fueled by low humidity and high temperatures. Evacuations have been ordered for an unspecified number of residents. One of them was Elsa Aguirre, 57, who left her ranch home in Altadena, California, early Saturday. She, her husband and her cat were at a Red Cross shelter in a high school on Monday. Aguirre brought a box of mementos with her, including her mother's tea set from Argentina. \"The challenge is going to be going back to reality because I've been looking at the fire and the mountains from where I am,\" she said. \"The mountains look pretty spooky right now without any vegetation. ... I'm just taking it one day at a time.\" Watch homeowners discuss fears \u00bb . Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday as a result of the Station fire. The governor also declared a state of emergency in Monterey County, where one blaze, called the Gloria fire, has burned about 6,500 acres, and another, called the Bryson fire, has charred more than 3,000 acres, according to the Forest Service. On Sunday, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Placer County, his office said. Three people suffered burns while in the Big Tujunga Canyon recreational area, where three homes were destroyed by the Station fire, said Bruce Quintelier, fire information officer for the Forest Service. In addition, two to three dozen recreational cabins were destroyed, said Randi Jorgensen, another Forest Service information officer. The fire is also threatening communication towers on Mount Disappointment, Quintelier said. CNN's Rob Marciano, Chad Myers, John Torigoe and Stephanie Chen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Fire creates own wind patterns, making it unpredictable, officials say .\nFast-growing wildfire nearly doubles to 164-square-mile conflagration .\nTwo firefighters killed battling blaze when vehicle went down steep embankment .\nSix people refuse to evacuate their Gold Canyon ranch .","id":"873c926ad3216d574868f873753403457d21ba0e"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Valentino Rossi is one of only a handful of champions in the modern era whose popularity has transcended their sport. As the Italian maestro closes in on an eighth world title, CNN charts the rise of the charismatic king of two wheels. Valentino Rossi celebrates his 102nd victory at the Brno Grand Prix in the Czech Republic. Born in Urbano, Italy in 1979, Valentino Rossi's achievements in the sport are nothing short of extraordinary. Eight world titles, 102 wins and over 150 podium finishes have already made him the most successful rider of all time. Rossi began racing karts as a ten-year-old, before moving to two wheels in 1992. Four years later in his first Grand Prix season he won -- aged seventeen -- at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic in the 125cc World Championship. The following year he clocked up a record 321 points in winning his first 125cc World Championship title. 1998 was meant to be a learning year on the more powerful 250cc bikes, but Rossi finished second overall before going on to take the title the following season. His progress in the 500cc class in 2000 and 2001 followed an identical trajectory to that in Rossi's two seasons racing 250cc bikes. In 2002, he was crowned MotoGP champion in his first season, finishing 140 points clear of his nearest rival, one-time fight opponent and fellow countryman Max Biaggi. Click here to view Rossi's career highlights \u00bb . Three more MotoGP titles -- including two for his new team Yamaha -- followed in succession. But when it seemed as if he was going to dominate MotoGP for the rest of the decade, Rossi experienced the first real blip in his career, crashing out of the final race of the 2006 season in Valencia. In the process, Rossi handed his rival -- American Nicky Hayden -- the title. A year later Rossi finished third. A poor season by his standards was compounded by the split from his long-term girlfriend Arianna Matteuzzi, a fall out with his manager Gibo Badioli and the Italian government chasing him for eye-watering amounts of unpaid taxes -- Rossi eventually coughed up an estimated $42 million. Rossi returned to winning ways in 2008 notching up his fifth world title and is on course for a sixth this year. He is affectionately known as \"The Doctor\" by his fans on account of his clinical overtaking maneuvers out on the track, but it's his wit and easy charm off it that have also helped propel him into the super league of sport's rich list. Rossi is famous for a succession of colorful and often playful helmet motifs which he rotates almost as much as his hairstyle underneath. His post race celebrations have taken in all manner of bizarre antics including chicken costumes -- he gave a lift to a man wearing one -- blow-up dolls and porta loos -- he visited one on a victory lap at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez this year. His skills on two wheels haven't gone unnoticed by the bosses at Ferrari's Formula One team. Rossi first tested a Ferrari in 2004 and he revealed this week that he spoke with Ferrari about the possibility of him replacing Luca Badoer in the upcoming Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 13. But Rossi told Ferrari that he would prefer to concentrate on this year's MotoGP. With five rounds to go, Rossi is where he likes to be. In front. With 25 points separating him from his young rival and Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, few would back against the great man relinquishing his title come the season's end.","highlights":"Italian legend is closing in on a ninth world title in 2009 and sixth MotoGP crown .\n\"The Doctor\" is the greatest ever rider in MotoGP with 102 victories to date .\nFamed for his post-race antics, Rossi visited a portable loo on a victory lap this year .","id":"d5893876a8c79e58c55ddeb191ad2dd9ca9cc01a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a field largely still in its infancy, scientists are making headway toward using stem cells to treat heart ailments. The FDA regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials. The major focus of stem cell research in cardiology is promoting regeneration of the heart or preventing scar formation, said Jeffrey Karp, who runs a stem cell biology lab at Harvard University. One study reporting successful results in humans involves harvesting patients' own stem cells, purifying them, and injecting them directly into the heart muscle. The stem cells have a surface marker called CD34, which means they are capable of growing new blood vessels. The study, sponsored by Baxter Inc., is the largest adult stem cell study for heart disease in the U.S., said Dr. Douglas Losordo, cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, who is leading the trial. The researchers will present their one-year findings from Phase II of the trial in September, Losordo said. \"It's important to point out that this is a use of a patient's own body's repair capabilities,\" Losordo said. If everything goes well, it's conceivable this treatment could be widely available in a little over four years, he said. The target patient population, consisting of end-stage cardiac patients who have tried all other available therapies, is about 300,000 to 900,000 people, he said. So far, researchers have not found side effects from this method, Losordo said. However, because it is an invasive surgical procedure in which stem cells are delivered through a catheter, there is a risk of perforation of about 1 percent, he said. There is also a small risk of blood clotting from the drug, GCSF, which mobilizes stem cells. Injecting stem cells into the heart muscle carries the risk of arrhythmia, said Techung Lee, associate professor of biochemistry at the State University New York at Buffalo. But Losordo said this risk is theoretical in his trial, and is believed to be very low with CD34 cells in general. Lee and colleagues are working on a less-invasive technique. In a study in mice, they injected stem cells from bone marrow into skeletal muscles of limbs. They found that the stem cells produced growth factors that traveled to the heart, in addition to stimulating the muscle itself to make growth factors that also improved cardiac function. The challenge for translating this method to humans would be that, while each mouse needed only a few million stem cells, each human patient would need close to a billion stem cells for the therapy -- which would be far too expensive and logistically difficult. \"This is a problem that's been experienced by everyone in the field,\" Lee said. He estimates that his method could be available clinically in five years, after researchers find ways to reduce the required number of cells by a factor of 10 or even 100. Another therapeutic possibility is giving a patient an IV of stem cells, which would come from a stem cell bank or a company. The challenge is that the cells may not have the right homing receptors to land in the heart, Karp said. Karp's group is working on an approach to chemically modify the surface of cells to enhance their targeting to specific sites. Results from animal models have shown promising results for targeting sites of inflammation, he said. \"Essentially we know the ZIP code of vessels within a certain tissue, we can program the address on the surface of the cell,\" he said. Lee's and Karp's teams use adult mesenchymal stem cells, which may develop into connective tissue, lymphatic tissue, and blood vessels. These stem cells are largely interchangeable between patients and don't require matching, as organ transplants do. However, as more becomes known about the relatively new field of stem cell therapy, a more specific matching system may be required, said Dr. Joon Lee, cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Some stem cell therapies for the heart are being tested in human clinical trials. Osiris Therapeutics Inc. is enrolling patients in a phase II trial for Prochymal, which contains mesenchymal stem cells. The company intends to use this drug, which gets injected into the vein, to repair heart damage in patients who have just experienced their first heart attack. More than 90 percent of research on using stem cells to repair the human heart involves adult stem cells, Lee said. That means the controversy about using stem cells derived from human embryos is largely absent from this line of research. For developing treatments that involve transplanting stem cells from adults, there is no ethical concern about the use of embryos, Lee said. Embryonic stem cells are advantageous in research because they can be grown more easily than adult stem cells in a culture, and are pluripotent, meaning they can develop into any of the various cell types of the body, according to the National Institutes of Health. But it is not yet known whether tissues derived from embryonic stem cells would cause transplant rejection, whereas this does not seem to be a problem with adult stem cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials and sets the requirements for more routine use. Whether the FDA will become more or less lenient in these respects is unclear, Lee said. It's not unfathomable that within the next two to five years, some FDA-approved stem cell treatments will be available for cardiovascular disease, Lee said. Karp has a longer view -- five to 10 years before stem cell treatments become widely available for heart problems, he said. The biology of stem cell treatments for the heart is not well understood, said Dr. Ronald Crystal, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital\/Weill Cornell Medical Center. One of the challenges is that once a stem cell gets put into a person's body, no one can get it out, Crystal said. This is the opposite of other kinds of medications -- for instance, a person may get sick from taking too many aspirin, but eventually the drug leaves the system. Not so with stem cells, he said. Crystal expressed general caution about the future of stem cell research, which is still experimental, for heart patients. \"This is a good idea, but patients and families should not expect immediate results,\" he said.","highlights":"Most stem cell research targeted at the heart uses adult stem cells .\nThe FDA regulates adult stem cell techniques that are allowed to go into clinical trials .\nUnlike organ transplants, adult stem cells generally can be given to any patient .\nTherapies be available in a little over four years, although some say five to 10 .","id":"64309c647d9ed5f238360c175d4b90f409d32864"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A wicked opportunity is brewing at Wookey Hole Caves in western England. Aspiring witches audition for the job Tuesday at Wookey Hole Caves in England. Applicants are flocking to the town of Wells in Somerset Tuesday in the hopes of being selected as the caves' new resident witch. With the promise of \u00a350,000 ($82,000) per year, and a spacious cave to boot, more than 2,000 candidates are stashing their wart remover and grabbing their broomsticks to persuade a panel of judges to choose them. The winner will portray the notorious witch that is said to have haunted the caves in the Dark Ages. The witch lived in the cave with goats until an abbot threw holy water on her, turning her to stone, legend says. Locals say her frozen figure can still be seen in the caves today. Legend has it that the witch cursed crops, caused disease and soured milk in the area, audition organizers say. Today, the caves at Wookey Hole are part of a tourist attraction with rides, a circus, theme parks and restaurants. The company that runs it, Wookey Hole Ltd., pays the witch's salary on a year-long contract. The would-be witches have one minute to perform for the panel Tuesday, employing their best cackle and whatever props they can carry, organizers say. The position won't necessarily go to a woman; male and transgender witches are also invited to apply. Applicants are told they must, however, be knowledgeable in the history of witchcraft, be willing to travel, sleep overnight in caves, and cannot be allergic to cats. Organizers say they've had applications from men, women and 230 mothers-in-law.","highlights":"Wookey Hole Caves in western England looking to hire a witch .\nRole promises $82,000 per year salary and a spacious cave .\nApplicants must be knowledgeable in the history of witchcraft .","id":"54e693dcbaf8477df68fcb2ab3b8f9bc980749e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Members of the nation's oldest black sorority have accused the organization's president of using her sorority credit card for personal items and its board of directors of spending too much on her. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority President Barbara McKinzie denies the claims in the lawsuit against her. The suit alleges that the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's board of directors signed off on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on President Barbara McKinzie and commissioned an expensive wax figure of her. McKinzie denied the allegations, saying they are \"without merit.\" The most \"outlandish representation\" in the lawsuit, she said, is the allegation that the sorority spent $900,000 on a wax figure of her. Two wax figures -- one of McKinzie and one of the sorority's first president, the late Nellie Quander -- were purchased by the hostess chapters of the sorority's centennial convention last year, not the national AKA organization, for a total of $45,000, McKinzie said. The lawsuit says the sorority's board of directors approved the use of $900,000 for the wax likeness of McKinzie ahead of the centennial celebration. Edward W. Gray Jr., an attorney representing the plaintiffs, acknowledged that the sorority disputes the lawsuit's account of the statue's price tag. However, he said, \"we have no way of knowing what the actual number was. We hope that it was as little as they say.\" He added that $45,000 is still a large amount of money, although, \"certainly, it's a lot better than $900,000.\" He called the alleged conduct \"shocking and bordering on illegal.\" The wax figures are to appear in the National Great Blacks in Wax museum in Baltimore, Maryland, according to AKA. The museum said they are on a traveling exhibit. The lawsuit, filed last month in a Washington superior court, also accuses McKinzie of using her sorority credit card for \"designer clothing, lingerie, jewelry, gifts and other excessive and inappropriate expenses of a personal nature.\" It demands that the sorority fire McKinzie and the board of directors and that the alleged damages be repaid. The lawsuit says that by using her credit card for personal purchases, as well as for \"properly reimbursed expenditures,\" McKinzie amassed American Express points, which she then redeemed for a 46-inch television and gym equipment. It also says that the sorority's board of directors had agreed on compensation for McKinzie without the approval of the sorority's policy-making body. The compensation, it says, included a $4,000-a-month stipend that McKinzie is to receive for four years after she leaves office. The board of directors also voted to buy a $1 million life insurance policy for McKinzie, a purchase that was also not approved by the policy-making body, the lawsuit says. McKinzie denied the accusations. \"Allegations about personal use of AKA funds are false and unsupported by the organization's audited books,\" she said. The \"malicious allegations leveled against AKA by former leaders are based on mischaracterizations and fabrications not befitting our ideals of sisterhood, ethics and service.\" The lawsuit also blames McKinzie and Betty James, the executive director for the organization's corporate office, for financial decisions they made for the sorority. The sorority's claimed deductions on its federal tax returns in 2006 and 2007 were \"unreasonably large and inappropriate, thus exposing the sorority to potential IRS claims and obligations,\" the suit says. Furthermore, the sorority's policy-making body has not approved McKinzie's investment philosophy, which \"has caused the shifting of several million dollars of the sorority and foundation funds from cash and cash equivalents to stock and bond investments.\" McKinzie said in her statement that under her leadership, \"accounting and budgetary practices have been tightened, erasing past IRS liabilities and cost overruns.\" In addition to McKinzie, James and the sorority, the lawsuit names other members of the board of directors and the AKA Educational Advancement Foundation Inc. as defendants. AKA was founded in 1908 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Alpha Kappa Alpha members say board OK'd $900,000 for wax figure of president .\nShe is accused of using sorority credit card for \"inappropriate expenses\"\nPresident of U.S.'s oldest black sorority denies \"malicious allegations\"","id":"67e715fbb834d770864e94f18f02337ee8ccf1ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 15-year-old South Carolina girl who was shot earlier this week by a man authorities say fits the description of a serial killer has died, police said Saturday. Police say the suspect may be driving a light gray or champagne tan 1991-94 two-door Ford Explorer. Abby Tyler died at 11:25 a.m. Saturday at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, said Chief Rick Turner of the Gaffney Police Department. Her father, Stephen Tyler, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting Thursday in the family-run furniture and appliance store, Tyler Home Center, in Gaffney. On Friday, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office released a second sketch of a man believed to have fatally shot five people in less than a week. \"Let me say that under the FBI's definition of a serial killer, yes, we have a serial killer,\" Sheriff Bill Blanton said in Gaffney, a town in the county of about 54,000 residents 50 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina. He would not detail what has led investigators to conclude the shootings are linked or how they received the description of the suspect that has led to the two sketches. In addition, he said he did not know whether the shooter knew his victims or whether he may have chosen them at random. Watch locals gather to pray for victims and killer \u00bb . Police said he may be driving a light gray or champagne tan 1991-94 two-door Ford Explorer. The first shooting happened Saturday, when peach farmer Kline W. Cash, 63, was found dead by his wife in their home, said Leigh Caldwell, a victims services coordinator for the sheriff's office. Blanton said Cash's home may have been robbed. On Wednesday, the bound and shot bodies of 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, were found in the mother's home, where she lived alone. \"We're still trying to determine if anything's missing from there,\" Blanton said. Leave has been canceled for all members of the Police Department and the Sheriff's Department, said their respective chiefs, who urged residents to take precautions. Watch how fear has gripped the town \u00bb . About 100 investigators from North and South Carolina were working the case, Blanton said. \"I think our community has a right to be concerned,\" he said. \"We're concerned. We're dealing with a man that's killed four people.\" He urged residents to check on relatives, especially those who live alone. \"We're asking the people in our community to be vigilant, to report anything.\" But he cautioned against taking that too far. \"Our concern is that people are going to start shooting at shadows,\" he said.","highlights":"Man fatally shoots 5 people in less than a week near Gaffney, South Carolina .\n\"Under the FBI's definition of a serial killer, yes, we have a serial killer,\" sheriff says .\n100 investigators from North and South Carolina working the case .\nPeople urged to check on relatives, especially those who live alone .","id":"f5bda1163d25946e202edf102b77348529164dcb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on a North Korean company that the United Nations said is linked to the country's nuclear weapons program. News comes on day U.S. State Department Envoy Philip Goldberg met with U.N. sanctions committee. A U.S. Treasury Department statement said Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation is owned or controlled by Korea Ryonbong General Corporation, which has been designated by the United Nations as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction. The order freezes any U.S. assets of Hyoksin and prohibits any Americans from dealing with it, the statement said. It notes that a sanctions committee set up by the U.N. Security Council recently cited Hyoksin for involvement in development of weapons of mass destruction. The announcement came as the U.S. coordinator for implementation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea met Thursday with the Security Council sanctions committee. The envoy, Philip Goldberg, said the talks showed \"strong commitment\" by all nations to enforcing Security Council Resolution 1874, which authorized sanctions against North Korea's weapons program. \"What I found in that room and in my dealings with other governments ... is unity of view,\" Goldberg said, specifically mentioning China, which is North Korea's longtime supporter. \"Commitment to implementation is strong and unified,\" he said.","highlights":"U.S.: Hyoksin linked to corporation associated with weapons of mass destruction .\nOrder freezes Hyoksin's U.S. assets, prohibits Americans from dealing with company .\nU.N. recently cited Hyoksin for involvement in weapons of mass destruction .","id":"0f64efe190f0fe8a26b76468bee668a39bc335be"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Grammy-winning rapper Coolio was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday on suspicion of possessing illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia, according to a spokeswoman for the airport. Coolio's \"Gangsta's Paradise\" was used in the movie \"Dangerous Minds.\" Coolio, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was taken to the Van Nuys Division station for booking, the spokeswoman said. A source at the airport's public relations division confirmed the arrest but declined to be named. Coolio is best known for his 1995 hip-hop hit \"Gangsta's Paradise.\" Efforts to reach his publicist were unsuccessful.","highlights":"Grammy winner held at Los Angeles International Airport .\nHe is accused of possessing illegal drugs, paraphernalia .\nHis best-known hit is \"Gangsta's Paradise\"","id":"6161035ee87d210d509c9b7db78d15a18f7da523"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two monorail trains at Walt Disney World collided early Sunday, killing a 21-year-old driver. A 2 a.m. ET monorail crash at Disney World killed one person, a park spokesman said. A witness said one of the trains rammed into the back of a stationary train about 2 a.m. at the resort's Ticket and Transport Center. There were eight people on board at the time, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. A second employee was taken to a hospital to be checked; the six guests -- members of a single family -- were evaluated by paramedics at the scene and released. Disney World officials said none of the seven was injured. Authorities identified the driver as Austin Wuennenberg, a senior at Stetson University studying computer science. \"It's a terrible day for us,\" said Mike Griffin, Disney's vice president for public affairs. \"Our hearts go out to Austin and his family.\" A statement from Wuennenberg's family said, \"He always enjoyed his work at Disney, and especially enoyed his work as a monorail pilot. He has many great friends who he has positively influenced; everyone will truly miss this dynamic young man.\" The theme park is working with county authorities and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the investigation. \"The safety of our cast and our guests is legendary and it's our top priority,\" Griffin said. Disney World calls its employees \"cast members.\" The monorail was shut after the accident, Griffin said. Images from the scene showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit the other train at a station.","highlights":"Driver identified as Austin Wuennenberg, 21 .\nEight people were aboard, including family of six .\nCrash occurred about 2 a.m. at Ticket and Transport Center .\nWitness says one monorail train rammed into a stationary train .","id":"df61256b3ec25029fccd7802eebacf351f81589a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man who his attorney says was the youngest prisoner sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention center -- captured in Pakistan at 14 -- was ordered freed by a federal judge Wednesday. A guard keeps watch from a tower at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The judge ruled Mohammad el-Gharani was not an enemy combatant and directed the military \"to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release\" of el-Gharani from the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. El-Gharani, now 21, was among the first terrorism suspects and enemy fighters sent to the U.S. military prison camp. His arrival in 2002 came after he was seized by Pakistanis at a mosque and transferred to the U.S.-led coalition. He has been in custody since. El-Gharani's lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court, demanding the government justify its continued detention or release him. Details of his case have not been widely released, but his lawyer said he was accused of working with al Qaeda 10 years ago, at age 11. The court ruling also alleges el-Gharani, a citizen of Chad, was an al Qaeda courier and participated in the battle of Tora Bora in late 2001 in Afghanistan. But U.S. District Judge Richard Leon noted serious questions were raised about another detainee who implicated el-Gharani. Leon said that given the \"substantial and troubling uncertainties regarding petitioner's conduct and whereabouts prior to his detention by Pakistani forces, the [U.S.] government has failed to establish a preponderance of the evidence\" that el-Gharani was an al Qaeda agent. The judge gave no timetable on when the suspect -- also called Yousef -- must be freed. Under U.S. and international policy, he could not be sent to a country where he might face torture or severe physical mistreatment. The Bush administration has said it has had difficulties finding countries willing to take many Guantanamo prisoners awaiting release. El-Gharani's lawyers have alleged mistreatment by his captors, including cigarette burns and verbal abuse. Court records allege he was a native of Saudi Arabia who left that country around 2001 and moved to Pakistan. He denied that he was fleeing the fighting in Afghanistan when he was captured across the border in Pakistan. Another Guantanamo detainee, Canadian Omar Khadr, was 14 or 15 when he was captured six years ago. Military prosecutors formally charged him in April 2007 with killing Sgt. Christopher James Speer, a U.S. soldier whose reconnaissance patrol was ambushed in Afghanistan in 2002. The American died nearly two weeks later. Khadr and el-Gharani remain among the youngest of Guantanamo's approximately 250 prisoners. The civil case is el-Gharani v. Bush (05-429).","highlights":"Mohammad el-Gharani, now 21, not an enemy combatant, U.S. judge rules .\nEl-Gharani was 14 when he was captured in Pakistan, detained at U.S. base in Cuba .\nJudge notes questions raised about a detainee who implicated el-Gharani .\nEl-Gharani was accused of being al Qaeda courier, Tora Bora battle participant .","id":"8fe751a66422995ec7cd58ab72333443e8690589"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yemenia Airways is canceling all its flights between Yemen and the Comoros Islands after this week's crash on the same route, the airline said Saturday. Bahia Bakari holds her father's hand as she lies on a stretcher in a plane after landing in France. One more flight between Sanaa and Moroni is scheduled for Sunday, but all flights on the route are canceled after that, Yemenia said. A Yemenia Airways Airbus 310 went down early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Comoros' capital, Moroni. One person, 13-year-old French girl Bahia Basari, survived for hours in the Indian Ocean clinging to the debris of the downed plane. She arrived home in France on Thursday, where she was reunited with her father. Watch teen survivor from crash \u00bb . She is the only known survivor from the crash, which killed her mother. The Airbus 310 plane tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar. French and U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies. The French military has detected a rescue beacon, but rescue workers say the wreckage is difficult to reach in deep waters. The plane's data recorders have yet to be found, said Capt. Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Qadir, a spokesman for Yemen's civil aviation department.","highlights":"Teenage girl only person to survive plane crash off Comoros islands .\nFrench, U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies from the plane .\nThe plane's data recorders have yet to be found, Yemeni authorities say .","id":"cafcc4e8399c2f60b123ca6609f0e227c9576b33"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Brazilian military said late Friday it is calling off the search for bodies of passengers and crew from the Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic earlier this month. Wreckage from Flight 447 spotted by search teams in the Atlantic last week. It was unlikely that any more bodies would be found, the military said. So far, search teams have found 51 of the 228 people who died when Air France Flight 447 plunged into the sea June 1, according to the military. They have also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the plane, along with luggage, the military said. The bodies were handed to Brazilian authorities for identification while the debris and luggage were given to French aviation investigators, the military said. In the 26 days of the search operation, the Brazilian air force used 12 planes along with aircraft from France, the United States and Spain, the military said. The Brazilian navy used 11 ships. Ships remain in the search area hundreds of miles northeast of Brazil in an effort to find the flight data recorders, the Brazilian military said. Last week investigators said they were running out of time to find the recorders which could prove crucial to working out what caused the disaster. Officials remain in the dark about what caused the airliner to plunge into the sea off the coast of Brazil. The wreckage is believed to be about 15,000 feet (4,500 meters) deep, amid underwater mountains and mixed in with tons of sea trash. A French submarine and other vessels are searching for black boxes by attempting to trace their locator beacons, which send out acoustic pulses, or \"pings,\" to searchers. The U.S. Navy has contributed two high-tech acoustic devices -- known as towed pinger locators -- which have been attached to French tug boats and can search to a maximum depth of 20,000ft (6,100 meters). The firm which makes the recorders, Honeywell Aerospace, has told CNN it has a 100 percent recovery record from air accidents. Honeywell said it was hard to estimate how much battery life the locator beacon on the recorders had, as it depended on the conditions, but it is typically around 30 days. One recorder taped radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit, such as the pilot's voices and engine noises. Sounds of interest could be engine noise, stall warnings, landing gear extension and retraction, and other clicks and pops. From these sounds engine revs per minute, system failures, speed and the time at which certain events occurred could often be determined, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. CNN's Claudia Dominguez in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Brazilian military: Unlikely that any more bodies would be found .\nSearch teams have found 51 of the 228 people who died .\nPlane wreckage believed to be on Atlantic seabed, around 4,500 meters deep .\nInvestigators still trying to find flight data recorders for crucial information .","id":"81dc42979710ef28f9bd44a0e69ec4fd9df920b8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The parent company of a security contractor said Thursday it is \"fully cooperating\" in the investigation of allegations that the contractor allowed mistreatment, sexual activity and intimidation within the ranks of private guards hired to protect the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. A spokeswoman for a watchdog group says hazing at a camp for security guards went \"well beyond partying.\" The allegations came to light earlier this week when the watchdog group Project On Government Oversight sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and briefed reporters on its findings, which it said were based on e-mails and interviews with more than a dozen guards who have worked at the U.S. compound in Kabul. The company, ArmorGroup, North America, has a security contract with the State Department to provide services through July 2010. Wackenhut Services Inc., the corporate parent of ArmorGroup, e-mailed a statement on Thursday in response to questions about ArmorGroup's private guards in Kabul. \"Our contract with the Department of State requires us to refer all questions to the Department of State, director of public affairs. We are fully cooperating with the DOS in the investigation of the recent incidents referred to in the letter from\" Project On Government Oversight, said the statement, sent by Wackenhut Services spokeswoman Susan Pitcher. On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy said it was taking the allegations very seriously. \"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and security of all Embassy personnel -- Americans and Afghan -- and respect for the cultural and religious values of all Afghans,\" the embassy said. \"We have taken immediate steps to review all local guard force policies and procedures and have taken all possible measures to ensure our security is sound.\" The watchdog group said it began receiving whistleblower-style e-mails two weeks ago, some with graphic images and videos, that are said to document problems taking place at a nonmilitary camp for the guards near the U.S. diplomatic compound in Kabul. \"This is well beyond partying,\" Danielle Brian, executive director of Project On Government Oversight, told reporters earlier this week after showing a video of a man with a bare backside and another man apparently drinking a liquid that had been poured down the man's lower back. She said that ranking supervisors were \"facilitating this kind of deviant hazing and humiliation, and requiring people to do things that made them feel really disgusted.\" In the letter Project On Government Oversight sent to Clinton, Brian wrote that the problems are \"posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel.\" Among the recommendations from the group: immediate military supervision of the private security guards, a review of whether the contract should be revoked and consideration as to whether government forces should replace private security in a combat zone. CNN's Charley Keyes contributed to this report.","highlights":"ArmorGroup's private guards accused of mistreatment, sexual activity, intimidation .\nArmorGroup contracts to protect the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan .\nWatchdog group reports problems at nonmilitary camp for the embassy guards .\nWackenhut says it is \"fully cooperating\" with embassy investigation .","id":"77b01a5143c507356c6a5c8eb9aa4cd5f91aaae7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jose Mourinho has admitted he was left angered by the decision to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona, although the Inter Milan coach reveals he is delighted to welcome Samuel Eto'o to the San Siro. Jose Mourinho believes Inter Milan have done good business in selling Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona. Inter are on the verge of completing a deal which will see them receive 45 million euros ($64m) plus Eto'o for Ibrahimovic after both players agreed terms with their prospective clubs. Mourinho knows it will be a blow to lose last year's leading goalscorer in Serie A but, speaking about the deal for the first time, admitted it is a fantastic bit of business. \"I was a bit angry because no coach is happy to lose Ibrahimovic,\" the Portuguese told Sky Italia. \"But no one is not happy to have Eto'o -- we have lost a top player but we have taken another one. If I talk as a coach and a man on the pitch, I say that I don't want to lose this player. If I talk as a manager, I say that Inter have done great business,\" added Mourinho. Mourinho feels Ibrahimovic will adapt to life at the Nou Camp in no time but insists he would not make a similar move. \"He had this dream and wanted to go,\" added the Nerazzurri coach. \"He told me he would miss me and I told him exactly the same thing. He's going to a club in which I worked for four years, Barcelona are an extraordinary club and he will be happy. \"I didn't give him any advice but I spoke to him a few days before the final decision. I told him that if he wins the Champions League with Barcelona he won't be doing anything extraordinary, seeing as they have won it twice in three years. I like doing something extraordinary, not what's normal.\"","highlights":"Jose Mourinho angered by the decision to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona .\nHowever, Inter Milan coach happy to welcome Samuel Eto'o to the Italian club .\nInter Milan to receive 45 million euros ($64m) plus Eto'o for Swede Ibrahimovic .","id":"b8efdda0f58446e6472a24bffbc02686321087aa"} -{"article":"STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- Bjorn Ulvaeus was one half of the songwriting genius behind Swedish pop legend ABBA. After the band split up in 1982 Ulvaeus turned his talents to writing musicals, including \"Mamma Mia,\" now a blockbuster movie. Bjorn Ulvaeus on the ABBA phenomenon: \"I'm amazed how this could happen. I'm just grateful and humble.\" He took My City_My Life on a tour of his home town of Stockholm and talked about his past and future as pop royalty. CNN: What is the secret of ABBA's success? Bjorn Ulvaeus: I think the secret behind the fact that our songs are still around and that ABBA became so big is a lot of factors together. But one of them was definitely that we put so much effort into song writing. We hardly ever toured, we just wrote and wrote and produced the records over a period of seven or eight years. So it's the songs, plus I think the two girls, the voices -- the blend was unique and very special. CNN: Where did get the inspiration for your songs? BU: Well mostly in song writing my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes. But the urge to write is something you have to have. A conviction, an ambition to write and never stop until you think, \"This is the best I can do.\" Watch Bjorn Ulvaeus take CNN on a tour of Stockholm \u00bb . CNN: What drives you? BU: In my career the push has always been to take another step, to try something new. That means that after ABBA, when we split up in 1982, we were onto writing a musical [\"Chess\"] because we hadn't done that before. CNN: How do you feel about working in the theater? BU: Every time I sit in the audience and watch a show that I have been involved with, it is such an amazing feeling to see all those people around me, knowing they are actually watching and enjoying something I have written. That is such a feeling of pure joy that never goes away and that's why I guess I'm so attracted to work in the theater. CNN: How did \"Mamma Mia! The Movie\" come about? BU: When you have a big hit on the West End and on Broadway with a musical, as we had with \"Mamma Mia,\" there is always the question, \"when are you going to do the movie?\" Some people say you shouldn't do it until the actual stage musical is on its last legs, but I don't think that matters. We had been on Broadway for seven or eight years and eight or nine in the West End and we thought now is the time to make that movie. CNN: How has Stockholm changed over the years? BU: A city like Stockholm, being so dynamic and following trends, develops all the time. It's gradually changing but you can hardly see that. It is changing in a very healthy way that cities should change. CNN: How would you describe Stockholm in a few words? BU: Stockholm is unique in the world in that it's built on, I think, 14 islands. There are so many bridges and it doesn't have any high-rise buildings to speak of. It's quite spread out and open and airy with lots of parks. See photos of Bjorn Ulvaeus in Stockholm \u00bb . CNN: Let's talk about the cultural scene in Stockholm. BU: There is a very vibrant cultural scene in Stockholm. There are lots of places where there are concerts and there are loads of museums and theaters. There is everything really, and eventually there is going to be an ABBA museum as well. CNN: When will that happen? BU: I don't know -- I like to be arm's length when it comes to a museum about oneself. Other people should do that. CNN: That's quite a Swedish trait... BU: A lot of Swedes are quite modest and unassuming. I think that's actually the closest you can get to a national trait, if there is one. CNN: How does it feel that people from different generations are still enjoying ABBA songs? BU: In a way I'm kind of a bystander looking at this phenomenon that is ABBA, which is still around, and that I thought would be finished in 1981 and forgotten. I'm amazed how this could happen and I don't know why it happened. I'm just grateful and humble. I just sit back and enjoy. CNN: What would you like your legacy to be? BU: I would like for my children to feel that what I left behind was something that I did whole heartedly and with honesty, and something that was the best I could do and hopefully that they too can enjoy.","highlights":"Bjorn Ulvaeus is half of the songwriting pair behind Swedish pop legend ABBA .\nHe lives in Stockholm, which he describes as being \"dynamic\" and trendy .\nUlvaeus thought ABBA would be forgotten and is \"amazed\" by its popularity .\nAn ABBA museum is being planned for Stockholm .","id":"b2e8ded8d877c8bb14ead2dbe539f8f9d4aaab77"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday called on the state bar to overlook a technical error and allow a paralyzed law school graduate to take the bar exam next week. Arnold Schwarzenegger says a technical error shouldn't stop the law school graduate from taking the bar exam. \"It is outrageous that someone who has overcome so much in life is penalized by a bureaucratic error that prevents her from taking the bar exam next week,\" the governor said in a statement. \"Government should work for the people, not against them, and I'm calling on the state bar to allow Sara Granda to take next week's test. Sara is a fighter, and I am with her all the way.\" The state bar's Web site never processed Granda's application for Tuesday's test because California's Department of Rehabilitation paid her $600 fee with a check, according to the Sacramento Bee. The Web site requires a credit card number, but Granda said she was assured by a state bar representative that she was properly registered with the check, the newspaper reported. Granda, 29, a University of California-Davis Law School graduate, has petitioned the California Supreme Court to allow her to take Tuesday's test. She said she was \"surprised\" to hear about Schwarzenegger's statement in her defense. \"I'm not used to a lot of attention,\" she told CNN television affiliate KCRA. She said she went to the governor's office last week, \"but they wouldn't let me in.\" \"So I knew there was no way that the governor was going to get involved,\" she said. Granda was paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident in 1997, when she was 17. The accident happened a month before she was to attend California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, on a full scholarship, according to the Sacramento Bee. Granda, who has been studying 11 hours a day for the bar exam with the help of assistants, said she wants the state of California to resolve the matter because it spent about $100,000 for her education. \"I worked very, very hard for every cent,\" she told KCRA. \"So for everything to come together in the end and for it to just kind of fall through on such a minor, minor detail.\"","highlights":"Bar's Web site didn't process Sara Granda's payment to take bar exam .\nGranda, 29, was paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident in 1997 .\nShe was 17 at that time, and about to go to college in California .\nSchwarzenegger: \"Outrageous\" that she's being \"penalized for a bureaucratic error\"","id":"ab80b3c0497fb9ee8a1b199875953f7eaa8605ac"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of his two oldest children, Debbie Rowe, has agreed not to challenge the singer's mother for custody of the children, according to a joint statement from lawyers for Rowe and Katherine Jackson. Debbie Rowe will not pursue custody of the children she bore with Michael Jackson, a lawyer says. The agreement does not involve any financial payments to Rowe \"apart from the continuation of spousal support payments\" that Michael Jackson personally agreed to make to Rowe after their divorce, the lawyers said. Rowe will get visitation rights with the children and the \"timing, frequency and manner of visits shall be implemented according to the best interests of the children, as determined by a child psychologist selected jointly, and paid jointly,\" by Jackson and Rowe, the announcement said. Rowe never publicly said if she would fight Jackson's 79-year-old mother for custody of her son and daughter -- ages 11 and 12 -- and a court hearing concerning custody was delayed several times this month while lawyers for the two talked. Jackson's youngest child, 7, was carried by a surrogate mother, whose name has not yet been released. Katherine Jackson gained temporary guardianship of the three children soon after his death last month. Learn about other notable custody cases \u00bb . The agreement must be approved by the judge. A custody hearing is set for Monday before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff. Beckloff will also hear arguments Monday about Jackson's estate and who will control it. Katherine Jackson is asking the court for more involvement in the estate's business. Watch what may have happened in Jackson's final hours \u00bb . Jackson family lawyer Londell McMillan said the family was pleased the custody matter was \"resolved and was handled in a caring, thoughtful and courteous manner by the parties and their representatives.\" \"We were all united in our goals to do what is best for Michael's wonderful children, and both Mrs. Jackson and Debbie Rowe were on the exact same page,\" McMillan said. \"Accordingly, although important issues had to be resolved, this was no legal contest but rather simply a process (of) doing the right thing for the right reasons.\" Rowe's lawyer, Eric George, said the women and their lawyers \"engaged in a dignified discussion that resulted in a dignified outcome.\" \"The sole consideration between the parties was the best interests of the children,\" George said. \"I'm proud to have worked with such professionals who represented Ms. Jackson, and I am particularly proud of Deborah for her integrity and selflessness.\" Efforts to resolve who will control Jackson's estate have not been so amicable. Earlier this month, Beckloff granted temporary control to the executors named in his 2002 will: John Branca, Jackson's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend. McMillan, in a statement issued Wednesday, said Katherine Jackson was not disputing the will. But, he said, she wanted the judge to order the executors to disclose information about what he said was \"a suspicious circle of relationships\" involving them. He said the executors \"have either denied Mrs. Jackson access to critical information or insisted on ... onerous and unreasonable restrictions\" to information about deals they are making on behalf of the estate. McMillan, in an interview with CBS Thursday, estimated the Jackson estate was worth $2 billion, while the executors have estimated in court that its value is around $500 million. The will placed all assets into a family trust benefiting his mother, his three children and unnamed charities. Jackson's children have been living with their paternal grandmother at her Encino, California, home since their father's death on June 25. \"They read the news on the Web and the reports,\" McMillan said. \"I really tried to push the media to be responsible in how they try to handle this matter because there are three precious children involved.\" The oldest child -- Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., more commonly known as Prince Michael -- was born in February 1997. A daughter -- Paris Michael Katherine Jackson -- was born the next year. Details of how the children were conceived -- and who was the biological father -- have been closely guarded amid much public speculation. The couple divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving Jackson full custody while she got an $8.5 million settlement, according to court documents. Jackson later agreed to additional support. Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door to a possible custody battle. CNN's Randi Kaye, Kay Jones and Allison Blakely contributed to this report.","highlights":"Debbie Rowe, Katherine Jackson make custody agreement .\nRowe, Michael Jackson's ex-wife and mother of two kids, will have visitation rights .\nKatherine Jackson is the children's guardian .\nHearing is set for Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court .","id":"0a7f6926e4e554149fcf99d81b4839d99c05c2ef"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- Just a two-hour detour from Paris, the Loire was once a playground to Renaissance royals. Now its vaunted ch\u00e2teaux are attracting enterprising young couples and artists who have remade them into captivating -- and surprisingly affordable -- inns. Surrounded by 10-foot-high limestone walls, Le Clos d'Amboise offers an unexpected sanctuary in the town of Amboise. CHINON . H\u00f4tel Diderot . \"If you've never eaten a brioche with fresh Ste. Maure goat cheese, honey and walnuts for breakfast, then you haven't been to the Loire,\" says Laurent Dutheil, who is justifiably proud of the simple breakfasts he serves at his 23-room hotel in the western corner of the valley. Dutheil also produces dozens of fragrant artisanal jams such as apple-lavender and quince-cinnamon. (Sadly, they aren't for sale, but you can buy Dutheil's recipe book, \"Jam in the Cupboard.\") The traditional foods fit well with the hotel's venerable atmosphere: Diderot is housed in a sprawling 15th-century home that the Chinon-born Dutheil, along with his two sisters, Martine and Francoise, bought and renovated six years ago. Budget Travel: See the hotels . Dutheil tackled structural issues, taking care to keep the exposed oak beams and original stone walls intact, while his sisters refurbished the rooms with cheerful striped wallpaper, toile bedding, and 19th-century armoires they scavenged on trips to Paris. The largest room, which sleeps four, has double windows with views of a courtyard. In the distance lie vineyards full of the red Chinon grapes much loved by 16th-century novelist and satirist Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais. 4 rue de Buffon, 011-33\/2-47-93-18-87, hoteldiderot.com, rooms from $72. TH\u00c9S\u00c9E . Le Moulin de la Renne . A tunnel of towering fir trees leads to the entrance of this converted 19th-century mill in Th\u00e9s\u00e9e, on the banks of the Cher River. Guests are greeted by an enormous Bernese mountain dog named Alpha and his equally friendly owners, V\u00e9ronique and Christophe Villanfin. There are 13 guest rooms, decorated with items such as embroidered quilts and framed puzzles of boats assembled by jigsaw fanatic V\u00e9ronique. Jazz enthusiasts, the Villanfins host occasional concerts featuring local groups, including Les Bras'Coeurs, a quartet that performs Georges Brassens standards. The soirees are held in the restaurant, known locally for its coq au vin: rooster stewed in cabernet bottled at Le Chai des Varennes winery next door. 11 route de Vierzon, 011-33\/2-54-71-41-56, moulindelarenne.com, closed Jan. 10--Feb. 10 and 10 days in Nov., rooms from $76, entr\u00e9es from $15.75. CIVRAY-DE-TOURAINE . Ch\u00e2teau de l'Isle . The Ch\u00e2teau de l'Isle is quiet to the core -- unless you count the chorus of quacks coming from the duck pond on the 35-acre grounds. The 18th-century manor house had been abandoned for 10 years when Denis Gandon bought it in 1986 and transformed the place into a 12-room hotel. Still, the ch\u00e2teau somehow feels like a private home: A portrait of Gandon's grandfather hangs over a 100-year-old antique table in the dining area, and an amiable Jack Russell terrier entertains guests with endless rounds of fetch. The stylish bedrooms have exposed wood beams and beds draped with coverlets in shades of crimson and marigold. Budget Travel: See the hotels . In the summer, breakfast is served in an expansive glassed-in terrace overlooking the garden. A nearby potager (or kitchen garden) supplies produce for some of chef Fabrice Cherioux's breakfast treats, such as a zesty tomato confiture. 1 rue de l'Ecluse, 011-33\/2-47-23-63-60, chateau-de-lisle.com, rooms from $69, breakfast $13. CHENONCEAUX . La Roseraie . This 18-room hotel in Chenonceaux was a must-stay on the itineraries of political notables after World War II, when the Allies were trying to figure out how to piece Europe back together. Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt all, at one time or another, laid their heads at La Roseraie. (A letter from Roosevelt still hangs in the breakfast room.) In 2000, Sophie and Laurent Fiorito acquired the property and completed a top-to-bottom renovation. There is no such thing as a standard room here -- tiny singles have just enough space for a twin bed, while one suite fits a family of five. The decor is equally varied. One room has a Louis Philippe-style dresser and a crystal chandelier; another shows off a modern pink-checkered sofa. The hotel's best asset is its proximity (a five-minute walk) to Ch\u00e2teau de Chenonceau, which Henri II gave to his beloved mistress, Diane de Poitiers; the massive 16th-century building hovers over the River Cher. 7 rue du Docteur Bretonneau, 011-33\/2-47-23-90-09, hotel-chenonceau.com, closed Nov.--Jan. and Mar., rooms from $85. AMBOISE . Le Clos d'Amboise . Surrounded by 10-foot-high limestone walls, in the heart of the old market center of Amboise, this 17-room mansion inn offers an unexpected sanctuary from the town's bustling, narrow streets. The bedrooms come equipped with decorative elements such as mahogany four-poster beds and original fireplaces, while the common room features wood floors modeled after those at the Palace of Versailles. Most of the rooms overlook the hotel's private park, landscaped with 100-year-old magnolias and a pine tree that survived the French Revolution. A pool by the rose garden is perfect for a cool dip after relaxing in the wood sauna, housed in a former stable. Just a 10-minute stroll from the hotel stands the riverside castle that belonged to King Fran\u00e7ois I -- part medieval fortress, part Renaissance royal house. The king became famously enthralled by Leonardo da Vinci during a 1515 excursion to Italy, and he set up the painter in a gabled redbrick ch\u00e2teau (now a museum), just down the road from his castle. 27 rue Rabelais, 011-33\/2-47-30-10-20, leclosamboise.com, closed Dec.--Jan., rooms from $98. LIMERAY . Auberge de Launay . Between the two of them, Fran\u00e7ois and H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Th\u00e9vard have honed their hospitality skills at some of the world's most well-respected hotels, including Le Meurice in Paris and the Savoy in London. After years helping manage other people's properties, the couple -- with their two small kids, Emma and Alexandre -- packed up their Paris apartment and bought an unassuming farmhouse in the secluded hamlet of Limeray to convert to a 15-room inn. \"I grew up in the region, so when we made the decision to open our own place, I knew that I had to come back to the Loire,\" says Fran\u00e7ois. In keeping with the spare design of the house, the decor at the Auberge is simple -- bedrooms are outfitted with neutral suede sofas, blond-wood floors and minimalist photographs of daisies and landscapes. The duo oversees the daily lunch and dinner service at the on-site restaurant, which serves local specialties such as butter-poached Loire eel and chicken with mustard cream. The house dessert, a salted-caramel fruit tart, is baked with apples picked in the hotel's orchard. Le Haut Chantier, 011-33\/2-47-30-16-82, aubergedelaunay.com, closed Dec. 15--Jan. 15, rooms from $72, two-course dinner from $26. ONZAIN . Ch\u00e2teau des Tertres . This mansion in the heart of the Loire once belonged to the mother of novelist Marguerite Duras (who mentions the ch\u00e2teau in her famous work \"The Lover\"). Later, in the 1960s, its marble hallways were filled with students from a nearby engineering school, which used the building as a dorm. In 1992, another curious owner took over management of the 14-room ch\u00e2teau: Bernard Valois, an artist who kept the mansion's 19th-century detailing (high ceilings, gilded mirrors) but added contemporary design flourishes, such as a photograph of a mysterious pair of eyes in the foyer. Last year, Valois and his wife, Christine, redecorated a former gatekeeper's house as a contemporary four-room cottage with knockoff Jackson Pollock paintings and sculptures that resemble enormous eggs. \"My husband likes to turn things that seem ordinary into the extraordinary,\" Christine says. \"He designed a 'Sputnik' bidet that has Japanese robots stationed around the tank.\" Valois also tends a 12-acre garden of roses and clematises, where guests can find a shed stocked with complimentary bikes for exploring the area's 186 miles of riding paths. 11 rue de Meuves, 011-33\/2-54-20-83-88, chateau-tertres.com, closed Oct. 19-Apr. 1, rooms from $94. CHITENAY . Auberge du Centre . When Gilles Martinet's grandmother found herself widowed at the end of World War I, she started selling milk and eggs to make ends meet. One thing led to another, and her home eventually became a guesthouse and restaurant specializing in French country fare, like chicken saut\u00e9ed in fresh cider. Three generations later, Martinet is now proprietor and chef of this inn, which has 26 brightly decorated rooms in shades of sage and rose, as well as a flower-filled garden terrace out back. He has kept the breakfast area much the way his grandmother designed it, with rustic stone walls, an ample fireplace and simple country furnishings. There are bicycles available to rent ($14.50 per day) for excursions to the Ch\u00e2teau de Cheverny, about five miles away. 34 Grande Rue, 011-33\/2-54-70-42-11, auberge-du-centre.com, closed Feb., rooms from $78, entr\u00e9es from $17. Loire Basics . A two-hour drive southwest of Paris, the Loire Valley is known for its earthy cabernet franc wines and hundreds of majestic castles. It's impossible to see them all (a visit to one ch\u00e2teau can take half a day), so it's wise to focus on the worthy ones: Chenonceau, the graceful riverine palace that once belonged to Henri II (chenonceau.com, $13); Chambord, which has a double-helix staircase inspired by the designs of Leonardo da Vinci (chambord.org, $12.50); and Cheverny, renowned for its flamboyant, gilded interiors (chateau-cheverny.com, $9.75). Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"Hotel Diderot in Chinon is housed in a sprawling 15th-century home .\nThe 18-room La Roseraie is a five-minute walk from Ch\u00e2teau de Chenonceau .\nAuberge du Centre in Chitenay has 26 brightly decorated rooms .","id":"0b6d5cf34240aea1a6c8c6ff09ff5c91d0de6cfb"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's Geek Pride Week in Atlanta as thousands of fans take over four downtown hotels for Dragon*Con, an annual celebration of science fiction, fantasy, comics and gaming. Karen Lee and husband Dillan dressed like comic book characters for Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia. Where else -- OK, other than San Francisco or New Orleans -- are city streets shut down for a ragtag parade of zombies, superheroes, robots, Klingons and Middle Earth dwellers? Where else can comic book collectors rub shoulders with movie stars, vampires, alternate-history speculators and Harry Potter look-alikes, all while taking part in a lively game of Godzilla Bingo? The whole thing is a bit of a shock to college football fans in town for the season-opening game between Alabama and Virginia Tech, one of whom called it a \"freak show.\" But those aliens grow on you after a while. \"At first I thought it was really strange,\" Hokies fan Emily Nardone of Ashburn, Virginia, said. \"But now I see everybody's having so much fun. And I enjoy looking at the freaks.\" One Dragon*Con \"freak\" getting a lot of looks was Karen Lee of Cullman, Alabama. She was dressed a dramatic, cleavage-baring winged costume inspired by \"Dawn\" comic book artist Joseph Michael Linsner. Lee made the costume by hand at home. \"My living room is completely demolished,\" she said. Her husband, Dillan, made up as the Batman character Two-Face, said he could attest to the condition of the living room. Lee is entered in a Dawn look-alike contest with a top prize of $1,000. \"The theory behind the concept of Dawn is just paying homage to women of all shapes and sizes,\" she said. \"She can be blonde, brunette or redhead. So basically, it's just inviting women to get up there and do their interpretation of what they think beauty in women is.\" iReport.com: Share your pics and videos from Dragon*Con . Fashion augmented with gadgetry is what drew Pendleton, South Carolina, librarians Gypsey Teague and Marla Roberson to a Dragon*Con workshop on Steampunk costuming. Steampunk is sci-fi set in a Victorian aesthetic. Think pearl-handled, brass-barreled ray guns. The movies \"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen\" and \"Wild Wild West\" are examples of the genre. \"Anything your imagination can come up with, you can do,\" Roberson said as she marveled at a vendor's shoes that had little copper boilers and compasses on them. But it seems there's a certain element of snobbery in Steampunk. A crew of Steampunk pirates entered the room, decked out in their tricorn hats and eye patches. Teague was not impressed. \"Where's your molecular destabilizer?\" she sniffed. Out in the hallway, Steampunk time travelers Candace and Kane Bacon were just arriving. They're new to the game, but Kane had a copper staff with dials on top and a big metal backpack with dials and knobs strapped to his back. A large brass key dangled from the sash around Candace's waist, and she carried a basket of dinosaur eggs they'd found. \"Some of it we had just [lying] around the house, antique stuff,\" Candace said. \"Other parts we got from Lowe's. The backpack is made from radio parts; my dad is in the radio business, and he got some old radio parts for us. And yard sale gadgets.\" She said she was a Steampunker before she knew what Steampunking was. Watch the Dragon*Con parade \u00bb . \"I'd always liked Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, that type of stuff,\" she said. \"I decorated my living room in antiques and like, old compasses, and I didn't realize that that was Steampunk until we actually got here\" to last year's Dragon*Con, she said. The Johnson City, Tennessee, couple chose to forego the hotels and stay with a friend just outside Atlanta and ride MARTA, the public rail system, in to the convention. MARTA's central Five Points station was peopled Saturday morning with anime heroines, a wizardess with green lipstick and an incongruous ladybug who appeared to be about 8 years old -- all mingling with football fans, a few of whom were in pretty outlandish getups themselves. Watch Dragon*Con attendees in full regalia \u00bb . There were no incidents, however, as intergalactic military police were on hand everywhere to maintain order. Back at the Marriott Marquis, thousands of attendees snaked through lobbies on several levels. Among them was Melinda Ellington, an international affairs student at Georgia Tech. She carried an orange and yellow parasol and wore a green jumpsuit as the spaceship mechanic Kaylee from the short-lived Joss Whedon TV series \"Firefly.\" \"You meet anyone who likes 'Firefly,' it's weird because we immediately become like family,\" she said on the hotel's mezzanine. \"A very large, creepy, incestuous family, but family nonetheless.\" In the lobby below her, a 20-piece brass band blasted a set of Henry Mancini show tunes while thousands of attendees filed past. They needed to keep moving, lest anyone be late for the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow Recruiting Session and Bake Sale.","highlights":"Convention celebrates science fiction, fantasy, comics and games .\nCollege football fans caught unawares by Atlanta, Georgia, \"freak show\"\nSteampunk aficionado sneers at pirates' lack of molecular destabilizer .","id":"1ee03f870dc939be1b882021f824b2bfd199651e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Latino immigrants living in Suffolk County, New York, have been living in an environment of intolerance and attacks against them, a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center said. The atmosphere of intolerance is stoked in part by anti-immigrant groups, an indifferent police department, and county leaders themselves, according to the report. The law center, which researches and keeps tabs on hate groups, became interested in the Long Island county after the November 8, 2008, murder of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant in Patchogue, New York. Prosecutors allege that the killers were a group of teenagers who targeted Latinos as part of a sport they called \"beaner-hopping.\" After four months of research in Suffolk County that included interviews with more than 70 Latino immigrants, 30 local religious leaders and other community leaders, the law center said it found a pattern of ethnic intolerance going back 10 years. Low-level harassment of Latinos in Suffolk County is common, the report said. \"They are regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted with apples, full soda cans, beer bottles and other projectiles,\" the report said. Latino residents riding bikes have been run off the road and others have been beaten with baseball bats or shot at with BB guns, the report said. \"Our feeling is that what we found is really the tip of a very ugly iceberg,\" Mark Potok, who edited the report, said at a news conference Wednesday. \"We were told stories that are absolutely hair-raising.\" The findings point to a disturbing larger trend, the report said. The situation in Suffolk \"is a microcosm of a problem facing the entire United States, where FBI statistics suggest a 40 percent rise in anti-Latino hate crimes between 2003 and 2007,\" the report said. Tuesday night in Patchogue, the same city where Lucero was killed, a church frequented by Latinos was vandalized with anti-Mexican graffiti, Potok said. The climate of fear in Suffolk County was created in part by anti-immigration voices that found sympathetic ears in the area, according to the report. Anti-immigrant groups, such as the now-defunct Sachem Quality of Life, \"heavily influenced the tone for public discourse on immigration in the area,\" the report said. This stance was adopted by county leaders themselves, the law center said. In August 2001, county legislator Michael D'Andre said that if his community were \"attacked\" by Latino day laborers, \"we'll be up in arms; we'll be out with baseball bats.\" In March 2007, another county legislator, Elie Mystal, said of Latino day laborers looking for work, \"If I'm living in a neighborhood and people are gathering like that, I would load my gun and start shooting, period.\" Both men later apologized for their remarks, according to news reports. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who was also criticized in the report for employing measures seen as anti-immigrant, responded to the report Wednesday with a list of facts he says were distorted or taken out of context by the law center. For instance, a statement in the report that raids evicted day laborers from their homes in Suffolk County was distorted, Levy's office said. The action in question affected a condemned house where 60 people were living in hazardous conditions, the statement said. The law center's contention that Levy tried to downplay the significance of the Lucero murder was a misrepresentation of a comment the executive made to a reporter, the statement said. The law center report also said Latinos who had suffered harassment and crimes against them seldom reported them to police because they seemed indifferent. \"Many said police did not take their reports of attacks seriously, often blaming the victim instead,\" the report said. The law center recommended that police receive training to take hate-motivated crimes more seriously, and that area leaders avoid language that could be conducive to inciting violence against immigrants.","highlights":"New York county studied by Southern Poverty Law Center after slaying .\nEcuadorian immigrant was killed in '08 in what prosecutors call a race crime .\nLatinos \"regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted\" with objects, report says .\n\"What we found is really the tip of a very ugly iceberg,\" law center spokesman says .","id":"21740616419ecadbb033c0ffa246a65810ae9450"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A motorized parachute crashed into a crowd at a Labor Day festival in Hooper, Utah, injuring at least six people, including children, authorities said. Spectators scatter as a motorized parachute plummets Monday in Hooper, Utah. The parachute was operated by a man and his son who were on the aircraft, but neither was injured when it dropped to the ground amid spectators. Scores of people had gathered Monday for what was to have been a candy drop from the motorized parachute, according to Lt. Lonnie Eskelson of the Weber County, Utah, Sheriff's Department. Video from the incident showed the small craft in the air, approaching the crowd, when it quickly lost altitude and came down as spectators ran for safety. Spectator Damon Martin said the crowd was waiting for the scheduled candy drop when the wind picked up. Watch vehicle slam into crowd \u00bb . The motorized parachute \"gets just over the field, they start dropping the candy and all of a sudden he starts to descend real quick. He guns it to get it back up and goes straight down into the crowd,\" said Martin, who shot video of the incident. The crowd parted \"like the Red Sea, but they just couldn't move fast enough,\" he said. Six people were taken to area hospitals, including two sisters, 4 and 5 years old, authorities said. The 5-year-old was being treated Monday night at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a leg fracture, Eskelson said, while her sister was treated and released. A 3-year-old also was being treated at the center Monday night. The other injured spectators were treated and released, Eskelson said. CNN's Amanda O'Donnell contributed to this report.","highlights":"Crowd gathers at Labor Day festival in Hooper, Utah, awaiting candy drop .\nMan and his son operating motorized parachute lose control of aircraft .\nThey descend rapidly toward crowd, which parts \"like the Red Sea\"\nOperators of parachute not hurt; 6 on ground, including children, are injured .","id":"7d2215881b5399038a625726794c523be20e567a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader blamed enemies and outsiders on Monday for the turmoil that followed last month's presidential elections, according to an Iranian news agency. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the West on Monday of meddling in Iran's affairs. To a gathering in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Western governments of having \"clearly meddled in the internal affairs of Iran\" and the American and European media of depicting Iranians \"as rioters,\" according to Fars News Agency. He warned that meddling from presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers would hurt those nations' relations with Iran, according to Fars. He said Iranians would see through the \"lies\" of Western governments and \"know that your objective is to create doubt amongst them and propagate hate against the system of the Islamic Republic.\" While \"disappointment and sorrow\" from voters when their candidate lost the June 12 election was \"natural,\" Khamenei said, he condemned involvement by \"outsiders\" in the civil unrest that gripped the country after the balloting. Government results showed that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad won in a landslide over his nearest rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi. Widespread street protests followed, during which at least 20 demonstrators died and more than 1,000 were arrested, according to Iranian state-run media. The numbers of casualties and arrests could not be independently verified by CNN because the Iranian government has banned international journalists. The crackdown on the media followed widespread dissemination of video of the mass protests. Khamenei described American and European media coverage of the protests as \"disrespectful to the people of Iran.\" Despite any internal differences, Iranians would come together against their \"enemy,\" he said, referring to outsiders. \"When it comes to confronting the enemy, even with various differences and viewpoints, [Iranians] will become united and be as one punch against them,\" he said.","highlights":"Ayatollah says West \"clearly meddled in the internal affairs of Iran\"\nDisappointment in lost election \"natural,\" but outsiders stoked civil unrest, he says .\nSupreme leader referring to media coverage of protests after presidential election .\nNumber of protesters killed, injured unknown because of Iranian media crackdown .","id":"f7603018d8efc0a4e81f98535bd581a38fbc3179"} -{"article":"NORCROSS, Georgia (CNN) -- Beneath seven flat-screen TVs and one large pulldown screen, members of the Racquet Club of the South gathered Monday to watch and celebrate one of their own. Members of the Racquet Club of the South erupt when Melanie Oudin beats Nadia Petrova. Melanie Oudin, 17, of Marietta, Georgia, has taken the tennis world by storm at the U.S. Open. The 70th-ranked female has upset some of the sport's biggest female stars, including Russian aces Elena Dementieva (No. 4 seed) and Maria Sharapova (No. 29 seed, who has been ranked No. 1 worldwide in the past). And on Monday, she beat 13th seed Nadia Petrova in three sets. Her latest win makes her the youngest American to make the quarterfinals since Serena Williams in 1999. \"It's still so surreal,\" said Anne Keeton, player liaison at the club, before the match started. \"She sort of wins no matter what happens. She's there going for it and not giving up.\" At this suburban club, co-owned and co-directed by Oudin's longtime coach, Brian de Villiers, articles about the local tennis phenom dot the walls. In the Grill, on a Bud Light message board above drink specials, are the words \"Congratulations Melanie!\" And a photo of her mixed in with other young players is posted near a downstairs fitness room. Blending in with others and not retreating to \"a Melanie court\" is part of what makes her special, Keeton said. When there was a flood on some indoor courts this year, she was down there squeegeeing with everyone else. \"She so lovely and so accessible,\" Keeton said. \"It couldn't happen to a nicer kid.\" The restaurant buzzed as tables filled with more than 80 onlookers who were courtside in spirit. They feasted on a spread laid out to mark the special occasion as the match started. Watch friends, family cheer Oudin on \u00bb . When Petrova took the upper hand, and the first set, fans erupted into applause with each of Oudin's hard-earned points and offered encouragement like \"There we go!\" When she pumped her fist in celebration, they did the same. And when a play didn't go her way, they groaned in unison. Her skills were apparent from an early age, said Turhan Berne of Norcross, a coach and tournament director who's known Oudin since she was 9. He watched her rake in wins, beating older kids and snagging No. 1 junior rankings in the country and world. \"But you know when I knew she was going to be something?\" he said. \"She would play with anybody her coach had her hit with. ... She always gave back. She's very grounded. Her parents and coach did a great job not letting her fame and success change her into a different person.\" As Oudin came back for the second set, the crowd held its collective breath. With every point she earned, they hooted, hollered and exchanged high-fives. They booed when they saw Petrova losing her cool, banging her racquet against the net after losing a big point. \"C'mon, Melanie!\" people screamed as the tiebreaker began in the second set. When Oudin took that set, they rose to their feet, screamed, did happy dances and shared hugs. \"It's awesome,\" said Kathleen Brady of Norcross. \"We are so glad her opponent double-faults.\" \"Bless her heart,\" Lisa Wells chimed in with a laugh, offering the Southern tagline to downplay any insult. Earlier in the day, John Sklare joked that the young pro learned something from him. Over the winter, the Alpharetta psychologist often played on the indoor court beside her. \"I knew she was good, but I didn't know she was that good -- and that's what we're all finding out now,\" he said. He spoke about what a \"great kid\" Oudin is but then added that what he likes best about her is how quiet she is on the court. Sklare, a former writer for Atlanta Tennis magazine, said he called Sharapova \"Screamapova.\" Oudin, on the other hand, is \"like a stealth fighter,\" he said. \"She's quiet, but you know she's there.\" Her overall attitude is as inspiring as her play, said Jeannette Latimer of Decatur, Georgia, whose 11-year-old daughter, Kelsey, has been playing for five years. \"She shows the kids not to get upset on the court,\" Latimer said. \"She's always so positive. If the kids learn nothing else from her, it's her mental toughness.\" But Kelsey has been more intent on studying Oudin's moves on the court. \"I think she has a nice top-spin forehand,\" Kelsey said. \"I think it's better than mine.\" With Oudin up 5-2 in the third set, anticipation hung in the air. \"Both of them are pressing each other, but to see the 70 [ranked player] outplaying 13, that takes heart,\" Ernie Jensen of Woodstock said. Going into the match point, some rose to their feet. Together, the hordes clapped, carrying Oudin to the win. When she took the match, earning her first quarterfinal seat in a Grand Slam, the room exploded. They stood by and watched, smiling widely and some wiping away tears as Oudin gave her victory speech. \"It's like something so big happening to all of us all at once,\" said Jennifer Silverberg of Alpharetta. \"Watching her, it's like watching your own little girl. ... My heart's still going crazy.\"","highlights":"Melanie Oudin, 17, moves into quarterfinals with latest win .\nOudin caused hubbub when she beat former No. 1 Maria Sharapova on Saturday .\nOudin honed her skills at the Racquet Club of the South in Georgia .\nFellow members are as impressed by positive attitude as by her talent .","id":"a86241e0d95da0c703480a553dde93918721d559"} -{"article":"Editor's note: The following story, based on testimony in Phillip Garrido's trial for a 1976 kidnapping, contains some sexually explicit material. Phillip Garrido is show in an early mug shot taken in connection with the 1976 rape and abduction case. (CNN) -- Fifteen years before the girl was held captive in the shed, there was the woman in the warehouse -- and at least one other woman who escaped capture. Phillip Garrido, who with his wife is charged in the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, had been convicted of kidnapping before. When he stalked, kidnapped and raped Katie Callaway Hall on November 22, 1976, he fulfilled an overpowering sexual fantasy that he had methodically planned for weeks, according to court records obtained by CNN. He told police it was his second kidnapping attempt of the day. Those facts came to light in Garrido's 1977 trial, in which he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping and rape. In her testimony, Hall said Garrido asked for a ride in her car, then bound and handcuffed her before taking her to a small warehouse in Reno, Nevada, where he repeatedly raped her for 5\u00bd hours. It was not an act of impulse. \"He told me he had been renting it [the small warehouse] for a couple weeks, preparing it,\" Hall testified. Watch how Garrido prepared for and explained the kidnapping \u00bb . It is CNN policy to withhold the identity of alleged victims of sexual assault. But in this case, Hall recounted her ordeal last week in an interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" saying it changed her life forever. \"I had to tell everyone I met what had happened to me -- because I didn't feel like myself. It was as if I had to explain why I wasn't 'normal,' \" she said. Watch Hall describe her ordeal \u00bb . She was not his first victim that day. The trial transcript reveals that Garrido told authorities that one hour before Hall's kidnapping, he tried to kidnap another woman, who wrestled away and escaped. And, police in Antioch disclosed last week that Garrido was charged with raping a 14-year-old in 1972, but the charges were dropped because the victim refused to testify. Watch details of the 1972 case \u00bb . In the case involving Hall, CNN reviewed the 1977 trial documents, which include Garrido's psychiatric evaluation and the testimony of Hall and Garrido. The documents reveal a pattern of behavior that Garrido is accused of repeating in the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, who was recently found after being kept in a shed for 18 years. The 32-year-old documents also detail Garrido's self-described struggle with drugs and his efforts to control his sexual obsessions. Can sex offenders be cured? \u00bb . Garrido and his wife, Nancy, have pleaded not guilty to charges involving Dugard's abduction, but police say he admitted kidnapping her in his initial interview. Police say Garrido and his wife kidnapped Dugard outside her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, and took her to an elaborate compound hidden in the backyard of their Antioch, California, home more than 160 miles away. Tucked behind overgrown trees and a fence were tents, outbuildings and a soundproof shed where Dugard lived with the two daughters she had with her captor. Out of sight . Garrido took great pains to make sure nobody could find the camp, not even the parole officer who visited twice a month at times, police said. Hall, too, was taken directly to a carefully prepped small warehouse after her kidnapping. As they drove from South Lake Tahoe, California, where she was abducted, to Reno, she tried to persuade Garrido to rape her in the bushes. \"I asked him, couldn't we just pull over and get it over with,\" she testified. But Garrido was determined. \"You might as well get that our of your mind; you are going with me, you have got no choice,\" Hall testified Garrido told her, according to court transcripts. \"I have it all planned.\" He had set up the mini-warehouse in Reno exactly as he wanted, and worked to ensure nobody would inquire about it. He asked a man who lived in a storage unit 30 feet away to call him should any unknown vehicles show up. The mini-warehouse was meticulously furnished. On the other side of an unassuming metal, garage-style door, the walls were covered in long, heavy rugs hanging from the ceiling. Thick opaque plastic sheets were scattered throughout, creating a maze-like atmosphere that prohibited anyone from seeing all the way through, Hall testified. Staging the attacks . In the back, Garrido created a space set up like a stage. At the center was a mattress covered with an old, red satin, hole-ridden sheet and a fur blanket, Hall testified. Illuminating the bed were red, yellow and blue stage lights, with a stack of pornographic magazines and a projector alongside it. His intent, a prosecution psychologist said, couldn't have been clearer based on the methodical planning. From the moment she got to the mini-warehouse, Hall said it was clear to her Garrido was a man on a mission. \"He knew what he was doing,\" she testified. \"[He] knew exactly how he was going to do it.\" She testified that it was there that he raped her for 5\u00bd hours. As he drank wine and she smoked a small bit of hashish, Hall said she kept track of the time by listening to a radio, which regularly announced the time. Hall didn't know that she wasn't originally part of the plan, although Garrido alluded to the fact he hadn't targeted her, saying it wasn't intentional that she was taken. \"Could have been anybody,\" Hall recalled him saying, adding he told her it was her fault because she was attractive. He didn't say that his original plan had gone awry one hour earlier. Victim managed to escape . Despite his planning, there was one thing Garrido hadn't accounted for -- that one of his intended victims would fight back. One hour before Hall was kidnapped in her own vehicle, Garrido asked a different woman in South Lake Tahoe, California, for a ride. Like Hall, she obliged. But when he tried to handcuff her, he only secured one hand. \"She jumped out of the vehicle, struggling with him,\" prosecutors told the judge during a private conversation during the trial. When he unlocked the one handcuff, she escaped by jumping out of the moving car and running up the street. That kidnapping attempt came to light in a conversation between the prosecutor, defense attorney and judge in the case, according to the trial transcript. Despite prosecutors' wishes, the details of the first kidnapping attempt were kept from the jury, after a judge ruled they weren't necessary to prove Garrido's intent to kidnap. The court documents also discussed Garrido's use of marijuana, cocaine and LSD, which Garrido said was so heavy it fueled his sexual desires and sometimes pushed him to a point he could no longer control them. He said he responded to the urges by masturbating in drive-in movie theaters, restaurants, bathrooms, bars and while watching partially clothed or naked women in their homes. An interest in young girls . Though police have recently said they never expected Garrido would have kidnapped someone as young as Dugard based on his record, Garrido's own words during his trial showed young girls did grab his attention. Watch how Garrido slipped through the cracks \u00bb . He admitted masturbating in his car while watching small girls outside their school. Sometimes, he said, he would open the car door, get out and pull down his pants. His own explanation of his sexual fantasies hinted at an obsession with sexual bondage and captivity. \"There has been a type of bondage pictures,\" he said, when asked if certain images heightened his arousal. \"Women in handcuffs, chained.\" On the night he took Hall captive and bound her with a leather strap in her car, he said he took four hits of LSD, a drug that he said he used daily for at least four years, sometimes taking up to 10 hits at a time. He said when he used the drug it acted as a sexual stimulant. \"I had this fantasy that was driving me to do this inside of me,\" Garrido testified. \"Something that was making me want to do it without -- no way to stop.\" Garrido said the urges would strike and continue to build until he was \"overcome\" with sexual cravings. Hall was curious, too, even during her kidnapping, what would make Garrido do this to her. So she asked him. \"He said that he didn't get off on pain,\" Hall recalled during her testimony. \"It was just a fantasy he had to live out.\"","highlights":"Trial transcripts show Phillip Garrido tried to kidnap woman before Katie Hall in 1976 .\nGarrido methodically prepared places to bring kidnapped Hall .\nKidnap suspect spoke in trial about his drug-fueled, uncontrollable sexual urges .\n\"You are going with me, you have got no choice,\" Hall recalls Garrido saying .","id":"c012c6f4390aac68ffc913e42fdb7e5c0cb3b770"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After stints as a guard in the jails of Washington, D.C., and on the streets of post-Katrina New Orleans, Stephen Tyrone Johns had settled in to a job he liked at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, family members said. Security officer Stephen Johns reportedly opened the door for the man police say was his killer. \"It seemed to be kind of laid-back -- it didn't seem to be that dangerous,\" Leroy Carter, the stepfather who helped raise Johns since he was 3, told CNN affiliate WUSA-TV in Washington. \"He had wanted to be on the Metro Police force or places like that, but I would have rather him been where he was. \"But it just backfired.\" Johns, 39, was shot and killed while on duty Wednesday -- allegedly gunned down by an 88-year-old white supremacist who stepped into the museum with a rifle and began firing. Johns is remembered by friends and family as a \"gentle giant\" -- he stood 6 feet 6 inches, according to Carter. And he lived up to the moniker to the very end. One of his last acts was reaching out and opening the door for the man who shot him, police said. Watch museum officials pay tribute \u00bb . James von Brunn, an outspoken Holocaust denier who had served six years in prison for a 1981 kidnapping attempt, was shot and wounded by Johns' fellow officers. He remained in critical condition Thursday at George Washington University Hospital. Johns, a six-year veteran of the museum's security staff, was a resident and native of Temple Hills, Maryland. In the hours following the shooting, friends and co-workers repeatedly remembered \"Big John\" for his quiet, friendly nature. \"To look at him initially he was very intimidating,\" said Alan Burkee, a friend and former co-worker at the museum. \"But he was very shy. ... He had a great demeanor -- very pleasant, very courteous to all the visitors that came in and the staff that worked there.\" Friends said Johns was an avid Washington Redskins fan and loved to travel, but lived just 10 minutes away from where his mother and stepfather raised him. He had an 11-year-old son, Stephen Jr., and recently had remarried, according to friends. \"He was a pretty great guy,\" Stephen Johns Jr., known as \"Little Stephen\" to family, told WUSA. \"He was always there for me when I was down or sad.\" Carter had picked up Stephen after school to tell him the news of the shooting, and the two were on the way to the hospital when Johns died. Steve Maritas is organizing director with the International Union of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America -- of which Johns was a member. He said the way Johns and his fellow officers responded Wednesday saved lives -- and it flies in the face of the stereotype of the run-of-the-mill security guard. \"If that was the case, there would have been 50 people shot yesterday,\" said Maritas, whose organization represents more than 30,000 officers nationally and about 5,000 in the Washington area. \"These guys are very highly trained, highly paid officers. It's not like they're just there wearing a uniform.\" Johns had worked for Wackenhut Security Inc. since 2003. Maritas said Johns and his colleagues trained for days like Wednesday -- when years of safety and quiet give way to a sudden burst of terror. \"Hopefully, you'll never have to use your gun,\" he said. \"But you get a situation where you get a crazy guy like this -- it happens within two or three seconds.\" For Carter, there will always a clear reminder of the stepson he raised as his own. Little Stephen, he said, looks and acts just like his father did at that age. Carter said he takes comfort knowing that the roughly 2,000 people visiting the Holocaust museum at the time of the attack were able to walk away unharmed. \"That guy wouldn't have stopped until he was stopped,\" Carter said.","highlights":"Stephen Johns was prison guard, worked in New Orleans before museum .\n\"Gentle giant\" opened door for the man accused of killing him, police say .\nSecurity guard, 39, loved Washington Redskins, traveling .\nEleven-year-old son says dad was \"a pretty great guy\"","id":"8ca27bfab0c31ac19c73c03a76a7918afb4c04ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ed McMahon, the longtime pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick whose \"Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!\" became a part of the vernacular, has died. Ed McMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years. McMahon passed away peacefully shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan\/UCLA Medical Center, his publicist, Howard Bragman, said Tuesday . McMahon, 86, was hospitalized in February with pneumonia and other medical problems. He had suffered a number of health problems in recent years, including a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. In 2002, he sued various insurance companies and contractors over mold in his house and later collected a $7 million settlement. Though he later hosted a variety of shows -- including \"Star Search\" and \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes,\" McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Carson on \"The Tonight Show,\" which Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. The two met not long after Carson began hosting the game show \"Who Do You Trust?\" in 1957. iReport.com: Share your memories of Ed McMahon . \"Johnny didn't look as if he was dying to see me,\" McMahon, who was hosting a show on a Philadelphia TV station, told People magazine in 1980 about the pair's first meeting. \"He was standing with his back to the door, staring at a couple of workmen putting letters on a theater marquee. I walked over and stood beside him. Finally the two guys finished, and Johnny asked, 'What have you been doing?' I told him. He said, 'Good to meet you, Ed,' shook my hand, and I was out of the office. The whole meeting was about as exciting as watching a traffic light change.\" Watch McMahon discuss meeting Johnny Carson \u00bb . Though McMahon was surprised to be offered the job as Carson's sidekick, the two soon proved to have a strong chemistry. Carson was, by nature, introverted and dry-witted; McMahon was the boisterous and outgoing second banana, content to give Carson straight lines or laugh uproariously at his jokes (a characteristic much-parodied by comedians). Watch Comedian Joan Rivers recall McMahon \u00bb . Carson made cracks about McMahon's weight, his drinking and the men's trouble with divorce. McMahon was married three times; Carson, who died in 2005, had four wives. McMahon was also the show's designated pitchman, a talent he honed to perfection during \"Tonight's\" 30-year run with Carson, even if sometimes the in-show commercial spots fell flat. For one of the show's regular sponsors, Alpo dog food, McMahon usually extolled the virtues of the product while a dog eagerly gobbled down a bowl. But one day the show's regular dog wasn't available, and the substitute pooch wasn't very hungry. McMahon recalled the incident in his 1998 memoir, \"For Laughing Out Loud.\" \"Then I saw Johnny come into my little commercial area. He got down on his hands and knees and came over to me. ... I started to pet Johnny. Nice boss, I was thinking as I pet him on the head, nice boss. By this point the audience was hysterical. ... I just kept going. I was going to get my commercial done. \" 'The next time you're looking at the canned dog food ...' -- he rubbed his cheek against my leg -- ... reach for the can that contains real beef.' Johnny got up on his knees and started begging for more. I started petting him again ... and then he licked my hand.\" McMahon also promoted Budweiser, American Family Insurance and -- during the most recent Super Bowl -- Cash4Gold.com. Entertainment Weekly named him No. 1 on its list of TV's greatest sidekicks. Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 6, 1923. His father was a promoter, and McMahon remembered moving a lot during his childhood. \"I changed towns more often than a pickpocket,\" McMahon told People. He later joined the Marines and served in World War II and Korea. Though McMahon was well-rewarded by NBC -- the 1980 People article listed his salary between $600,000 and $1 million -- his divorces and some poor investments took their toll. In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, told CNN's Larry King that McMahon had gotten caught in a spate of financial problems. \"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that,\" said McMahon, who added that he hadn't worked much since the neck injury. McMahon later struck a deal that allowed him to stay in the house. He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and five children. A sixth child, McMahon's son Michael, died in 1995.","highlights":"McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Johnny Carson on \"The Tonight Show\"\nMcMahon hosted \"Star Search\" and \"TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes\"\nMcMahon had suffered several health problems in recent years .","id":"ba2f989ce6045ec7c5552cb95237eda9ca303582"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Clifton Green and his wife adopted an adorable little girl from Ethiopia, they knew they would eventually have to deal with the hair issue. Clifton Green learned how to care for his daughter Miriam's hair, which is very different from his own. The Atlanta, Georgia-based couple, who are white, had read books about transracial adoptions that addressed how to deal with Miriam's springy curls that grew in full, dark and strong after a toddlerhood of baldness. Green took it upon himself to learn how to care for and style his daughter's textured tresses. \"We didn't have any skills, but we had the desire,\" said Green of learning to do his now 5-year-old daughter's hair. \"It's the culture, it's important and we want to honor it and respect it.\" For many African-Americans, having a child walk around with unkempt hair is an almost unpardonable sin. That desire to be well groomed extends into adulthood and the multitudes of hairstyles are as diverse as the black community itself. There are naturals, weaves, chemically relaxed styles, braids and dreadlocks, to name just a few. Far from being superficial, black hair and its care goes well beyond the multibillion-dollar industry it has become and is deeply rooted in African-American identity and culture. \"Barbershops and beauty salons are perhaps second only to black churches as institutions in the community,\" said Ingrid Banks, an associate professor of Black Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara and author of a forthcoming book on contemporary black beauty salon culture. iReporters share their hair-stories \u00bb . \"It's not about hair per se, it's about what hair means, particularly for black women in terms of racial identity, identity based on gender and ideas about power,\" she said. \"On one level, hair matters because race matters in our society. For black people, our hair has been infused with these racial politics.\" Banks points to the ideas, which continue to linger, that if a black woman straightens her hair she is \"selling out the race\" and\/or \"embracing the white standard of beauty\" while women who wear their hair in natural styles are \"blacker than thou.\" \"When we think about that, there is no other racial or ethnic group in which those ideas come to bear on someone's politics,\" said Banks, who gathered data for her book by traveling to black hair salons across the country. \"No one is saying that about white women, Asian women or Latino women.\" Erin Aubry Kaplan, who wrote an article about Michelle Obama's hair and its implications for Salon.com, believes the first lady's straightened and perfectly coiffed style helps her image. \"She has been criticized about many things, but I think that underneath the criticism about her being radical or too outspoken about race is this uneasiness people have about her being this tall, dark-skinned woman,\" Kaplan said. \"So her hair is important, because if she is tall, dark-skinned and has an Afro then she becomes really scary.\" Sound off: Is there such a thing as 'good hair?' That unease was also evident in 2008 when The New Yorker magazine ran a cover with a drawing portraying Michelle Obama wearing an Angela Davis-style Afro while fist bumping her turban wearing husband. \"[The cover] I think was meant to poke fun at what people really fear,\" said Kaplan, who added that as a black woman who does not have kinky hair, she has had her own share of issues. \"I understood the intent, but we aren't at the point where we can laugh at black images, because every black image resonates and reflects on black people as a whole.\" Robert Morris can relate to the perceptions that black hair can evoke. The CNN iReporter recently cut the dreadlocks he had been growing for years and said that along with the physical makeover came an attitude shift in how people responded to him. Check out Morris' iReport on his change . \"I wasn't as approachable when I had the locks,\" said Morris, who now sports a shorter, cropped do that he is enjoying. \"It seemed like I had the stigma of being 'the angry black man.' \" People's possible reactions to hair caused another iReporter to lose sleep. Tamille Johnson said her decision to get kinky twists kept her up the night before her visit to the salon. Read Johnson's concerns in her iReport . \"It was really surprising to me because I was so afraid what people would think about them and I didn't think I would feel that way,\" Johnson said. \"Whenever I would get my hair done, I would get straight styles and I did not know if people would think that the kinky style was pretty.\" Johnson, an administrator at UC Berkeley, said she found the experience to be soul searching and she came to terms with the fact that as long as she thought her hair was beautiful, that was all that mattered. That attitude is one Renae Valdez-Simeon hopes to impart to her two daughters. Because her children are biracial, Valdez-Simeon said she has often heard comments about her children's \"good hair.\" Go to Valdez-Simeon's iReport . \"When a child has straight hair, they are told they have 'good hair' and while people aren't telling children with curly hair that they have 'bad hair,' in essence that is what you are saying because you are saying that straight hair is good hair,\" Valdez-Simeon said. Valdez-Simeon, whose site Mixtkids.com is billed as \"One Mom's journey to raise empowered mixed-race children,\" said she has increasingly heard the comments because her 7-year-old sports tight, curly ringlets while her 1-year-old's hair has yet to curl. \"I try to explain to people that good hair is not straight hair, it's healthy hair,\" said Valdez-Simeon, who also said all of the comments have come from African-Americans. Comedian Chris Rock saw the same attitudes in his young daughters and it helped motivate his new documentary \"Good Hair.\" The film is narrated by Rock and explores black hair from a variety of angles, including the booming $9 billion generated by the black hair industry and the science behind chemical relaxers used to straighten hair. Rock also visited the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show in Atlanta, a twice-a-year event that has been in existence since the company started in 1947. Janet Wallace, hair show manager, said as many as 50,000 attendees have come annually to each of the events to see the latest trends, services and products available. Stylists and the public alike are enthralled by the art form that is hairstyling, Wallace said. \"People want to look good from the cradle to the grave,\" Wallace said. \"Hair is fun because there are so many adornments and things you can do with it.\" Green acknowledges that he has not reached that level of artistry yet, but takes pride in styling his daughter's hair well. On weekends, the Emory University professor can be found wielding the various combs, brushes and products he has found that work for Miriam's hair (Carol's Daughter is a favorite at the moment). While he said he's still not that good with \"rows,\" the cornrow style that braids the hair close to the scalp, he can work other braided styles, twists and an occasional French braid. The ritual of doing Miriam's hair is not only a time of bonding for the pair, but also an opportunity for him to honor his daughter and her heritage. Green has kept his sense of humor about the many people who express surprise that he is so well educated about and skilled with black hair. \"I don't want people to look at her and tell she has white parents,\" he said, laughing.","highlights":"Hairstyles tied to black culture and identity .\nProfessor: \"Hair matters because race matters\"\niReporters share their experiences with their hair .\nFather of an adopted daughter honors her heritage through her hair care .","id":"578fa1a3c653a65138eaadba793a49f9645a88fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Piracy is expected to pick up in the high seas off Somalia after a lull caused by monsoon season, maritime officials warned Monday. Suspected Somali pirates sit behind bars during the first hearing in their trial at Aden port court on July 15. The Combined Maritime Forces urged crews to take up safety measures, including using recognized transit corridors in the Gulf of Aden and reporting to the European Union's security center before transit. \"The prior preparation and vigilance of merchant mariners at all times of day and night is more important now than ever,\" said Rear Admiral Caner Bener of the Combined Task Force. International forces made up of more than 30 ships and aircraft from 16 nations will continue patrolling the waters to help fight pirates, according to officials. \"While our ability to deter and disrupt attacks has improved over time, we are constantly adapting the way we do our business as the pirates adapt and modify their tactics,\" Bener said. The waters off Somalia are rife with pirate activity, despite increased measures by military forces and shipping companies to ward off attacks. Heavily armed pirates have struck the busy Indian Ocean shipping lanes and the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. They have captured dozens of vessels and hundreds of hostages, making off with millions of dollars in ransom. It was unclear whether a ransom was paid. The Gulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world.","highlights":"Earlier this month Somali pirates release German ship held since May .\nIts crew was unharmed, NATO says .\nGulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world .","id":"8bb67b0ab3c6beeb7e06f46d3bb30c7d3cf1880c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nearly a decade has passed since Bill Clinton left the White House, but despite becoming a private citizen, the former president never left the public eye. Former President Clinton receives flowers from a girl Tuesday upon landing in Pyongyang, North Korea. While much of his time has been devoted to global philanthropic interests and speeches, Clinton has never strayed too far from the campaign trail and remains one of the world's most recognizable statesmen. Clinton, 62, jumped back onto the world stage Tuesday with an unannounced trip to North Korea on a mission to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American journalists. North Korean President Kim Jong Il later pardoned and released the journalists. They were traveling back to the United States with Clinton on Tuesday night. The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea. Clinton arrived to a warm welcome in Pyongyang. Watch more on Clinton's North Korea trip \u00bb . There is a lot of nostalgia in Pyongyang for his administration, when relations between North Korea and the U.S. were stronger, said John Glionna, the Seoul, South Korea, bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. \"Well, I think most of the people that I talked to in Washington earlier today were of the opinion that Bill Clinton is a big enough personality that would not risk the loss of face of him showing up in Pyongyang and returning empty-handed,\" Glionna said. Clinton's high profile has led critics to accuse him of upstaging his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, especially when he was making headlines while campaigning for her unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. His first major verbal stumble during that campaign came in the run-up to the New Hampshire primary when he told a crowd that then-candidate Obama's claim to have been an early and consistent opponent of the Iraq war was \"the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen.\" In the ensuing media uproar, many Democratic activists -- African-Americans in particular -- came to believe that the former president had belittled Obama's entire campaign effort. And while stumping for his wife in heavily black South Carolina, he seemed to try to minimize the impact of an Obama win by noting that the Rev. Jesse Jackson also won the state in 1984 and 1988 but went on to lose both nominations by wide margins. Critics accused the former president of trying to peel off Obama's white supporters by marginalizing him as the black candidate. Clinton's hesitancy to back Obama once he locked in the Democratic nomination also fueled the storyline of the Clinton-Obama riffs. But in a high-drama moment last year at the Democratic National Convention, both Clintons announced their wholehearted support for their party's nominee. Bill Clinton's name was tossed around as a possible pick to fill his wife's vacant Senate seat after she was selected as secretary of state. His name comes up in discussions of possible Supreme Court picks that Obama might have the opportunity to make. Before his wife's presidential campaign, Clinton focused most of his efforts on the William J. Clinton Foundation. The foundation's projects include the Clinton Global Initiative, which seeks to combat poverty and climate change and promote health and education programs worldwide as well as separate initiatives directed at childhood obesity, global warming, HIV\/AIDS and malaria, inner-city entrepreneurship and economic growth in Latin America. It also funded the construction of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. The foundation boasts more than 800 staff and volunteers around the world. In his post-presidency, Clinton also has shared the stage with former President George H.W. Bush on numerous occasions. The two teamed up to establish the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund. They toured the tsunami-ravaged areas following the 2004 disaster, and they teamed up again the following year to lead relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Clinton also has taken time to author a couple of best-selling books. His 2004 memoir, \"My Life,\" sold more than 400,000 copies the first day it was available. Later that year, Clinton underwent heart bypass surgery after experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. A biting Vanity Fair article published last summer suggested that Clinton's surgery left him in an altered state of mind -- one marked by constant anger and rage. The Clinton campaign hit back, saying that theory is \"false and is flatly rejected by President Clinton's doctors who say he is in excellent shape and point to his vigorous schedule as evidence of his exceptional recovery.\" In a sharp critique of the article, Clinton spokesman also criticized Todd Purdum, national editor of Vanity Fair, for not giving enough attention to the former president's charitable works through his foundation since leaving the White House. \"Most revealing is one simple fact: President Clinton has helped save the lives of more than 1,300,000 people in his post-presidency, and Vanity Fair couldn't find the time to talk to even one of them for comment,\" spokesman Jay Carson said. While the 42nd president's image has gotten a few bruises over the years, Clinton has held on to his reputation as a master politician with a penchant for making news. CNN's Kristi Keck and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Kim Jong Il pardons two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA says .\nBill Clinton has focused on philanthropic interests in post-presidency .\nClinton has stayed involved in politics, sparking controversy in wife's 2008 campaign .\nClinton also has authored books, teamed up for charity with George H.W. Bush .","id":"25ee907e2aa03f237f6da21ed0dc5d1b5b067cb8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Albert Budacz was young, he prided himself on having good eyesight; he never wore glasses. But as he eased into his late 40s, he couldn't see as well. \"I noticed a change in my vision,\" he explained. \"Primarily in church when I would open a Bible, or something like that, I had to position myself under a light to see it.\" Ophthalmologist Dr. Sharon Solomon examined Albert Budacz and found age-related macular degeneration. Concerned that he was beginning to lose his sight, Budacz went to his ophthalmologist, Dr. Sharon Solomon with the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. He was found to have the beginnings macular degeneration, an eye condition that occurs when the central portion of the retina -- called the macula -- begins to deteriorate. Until recently, people with age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of severe vision loss in Americans older than 60, had few treatment options. But now, thanks to new research and advancing technology, there are more vision-saving choices. Early signs of macular degeneration-related vision loss include shadowy areas or fuzzy distortion in a person's central vision. \"A patient told me recently that he noticed when he was driving that the streetlights were slanted; the poles themselves were slanted,\" Solomon said. \"That's a classic sign of the beginning of this disease.\" Although obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and certain drugs can cause it, age is the primary risk factor. \"As people approach their 50s and later, they may have little yellow deposits that develop underneath the retina, and that's called drusen,\" Solomon explained. \"Those deposits are the hallmark of what we call early age-related macular degeneration.\" There are two forms of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD: the dry form, known as non-neovascular, and the wet form, called neovascular. The dry form, which Budacz has, is more common. According to the National Eye Institute, about 85 to 90 percent of patients with advanced macular degeneration have the dry form. Dry macular degeneration is caused when drusen begin to accumulate in and around the macula. Drusen, those yellowish deposits, are debris from deteriorating tissue. With dry AMD, there is usually a gradual loss of central vision. Over a period of years, dry AMD can progress to a gradual deterioration of retinal cells, which can result in severe vision loss or lead to the wet version of AMD. As of now, there is no FDA-approved treatment for dry macular degeneration, although a few drugs and devices are in clinical trials. Health Minute: Watch more on new therapies for macular degeneration \u00bb . However, studies have shown that supplements and a healthy diet can slow the progression of dry macular degeneration. A recent National Eye Institute study found that certain nutrients such as beta carotene (vitamin A) and vitamins C and E may reduce the risk of progression of early-stage AMD by 25 percent. Solomon says these antioxidants have a positive effect. \"They're known as 'preservision,' \" she said, noting that they are commonly given to certain patient groups to slow their progression to advanced macular degeneration. Other research has shown that B6, B12 and folic acid may help prevent age-related macular degeneration. In a study of more than 5,000 women, researchers noted those who took a combination of B6 and B12 vitamins along with a folic acid supplement had a 34 percent lower risk of developing AMD then those taking a placebo. Although the studies showed strong results, the American Academy of Ophthalmology cautions patients to talk to their eye doctors about which supplements are best for their condition before they start popping vitamins. In the wet version of macular degeneration, abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the retina and leak blood and fluid. This leakage causes permanent damage to light-sensitive retinal cells, which die off and create blind spots in central vision. Doctors say it's the body's misguided way of attempting to supply the retina with more nutrients and oxygen. Instead, the attempt creates scarring, leading to severe central vision loss. Up until recently, there's been very little doctors could do for the wet form of macular degeneration. But over the past decade, there have been a few treatments developed to slow its progression. Cold lasers are now used to freeze the abnormal blood vessels responsible for destroying the macula; they have a 60 percent success rate. And within the past three years, researchers pinpointed a protein in the eye, called vascular endothelial growth factor, that stimulates the development of blood vessels. Injectable drugs that inhibit VEGF are now FDA-approved and available; without VEGF, there is little to encourage the growth of blood vessels in the retina. \"They actually have a 90 percent chance of stabilizing vision and a 30 to 40 percent chance of improving vision,\" Solomon said. \"This is the first therapy that we've had that can actually [reverse] vision loss.\" Most ophthalmologists prefer an ounce of prevention to a pound of cure. They promote yearly eye exams as the easiest way to keep macular degeneration in check -- and warn against waiting for a crisis to schedule a checkup. \"We typically pick up a patient when, all of a sudden, they've had an acute, abrupt loss of vision or change in the quality of their vision,\" Solomon said. \"And sometimes it's too late.\" Albert Budacz was lucky. He caught his macular degeneration in time. He's stopped smoking and takes antioxidants to slow the progression of the disease. And although he may not have the eyesight he had as a young man, he can still see pretty well with or without glasses. And to him, that's all that matters.","highlights":"Age-related macular degeneration causes central vision loss .\nAge is primary risk factor; other factors: obesity, smoking, high blood pressure .\nTwo forms of AMD: wet and dry; until recently few treatments were available .\nInjections containing anti-growth factor can slow progress of wet AMD .","id":"cde87e15d4ff5b81700e82d0952cd887bf5e24f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What would you see if you could fly over Mars in a plane and look out the window? Victoria Crater as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater is about half a mile in diameter. It must be something like the thousands of curious, intriguing and spectacular images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera mounted on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, which operates HiRISE, has just released a new batch of these photos taken in the last several months. You can check out the full set here. They reveal an alien landscape of craters, valleys, ridges, channels, weird surface patterns and other features in incredible detail. Take the stunning image on the left, which shows the muffin-cup-like Victoria Crater, a site once explored by the Mars rover Opportunity. The camera isn't looking straight down, but is pointed 22 degrees east so we get a better view of the crater's slopes, \"comparable to a view from an airplane window,\" the university says. Looking at some of the photos, you feel like you're flying over the Grand Canyon or the Sahara. Others are distinctly extraterrestrial in nature. In all cases, the images reveal lots of details about the surface of our neighbor in the solar system. \"Each full image from HiRISE covers a strip of Martian ground 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) wide, about two to four times that long, showing details as small as 1 meter, or yard, across,\" according to NASA's Web site. It might be the closest thing to visiting Mars without leaving your chair.","highlights":"Photos were taken by a camera mounted on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter .\nThey show an alien landscape of craters, valleys, ridges in incredible detail .\nA new batch of these photos taken in the last several months has just been released .","id":"01d2bc258d5e13d1742cc75bbfa8b224c9760cd0"} -{"article":"SOUTH CHINA SEA (CNN) -- Aboard the Svend Maersk, the sound of the ship's five-story high engine permeates like a heartbeat through the four-football field length of ship. Chief Officer Christian Vium talks to CNN's Eunice Yoon as night falls on the bridge of the Svend. It's also the heartbeat of the world economy, as the Maersk takes its thousands of containers filled with shoes, computers, furniture and fireworks from China to markets in Europe. But a more telling sight is when the massive vessel nears Singapore and passes by dozens of idle ships. \"A lot of ships have been taken out of service or laid up. Instead of sailing with half empty ships, it's cheaper to lay up the ship,\" said Bo Nikolaisen, captain of the Svend. \"I feel lucky, of course, that I am on a ship that is still working.\" A 10 percent drop is expected this year in the shipping business, which one analyst called \"a $20 billion black hole.\" It's an industry that is a prime indicator of the global economy -- 90 percent of world trade is carried on ships such as the Svend Maersk to ports and onto shops around the world. CNN sailed with the crew of the Svend Maersk for four days as the ship sailed from Hong Kong to Malaysia to get a sea-level view of the industry. What stands out on these vessels is the incredible size -- the vessels stack 15 stories high -- and streamlined crew: Only 21 men are required to run the ship. The crew comes from Denmark, Germany, Romania and the Philippines. \"We've been joking that the ship was the United Nations at sea,\" said Captain Nikolaisen. \"There are many nationalities, sometimes eight, maybe more. They are professionals -- most of them -- and they know that we cannot afford to be unfriendly to one another.\" Some of the crew are over 60; among the youngest is 24-year-old recruit Joey Lamasan. Lamasan still has trouble sleeping since he left his village in the Philippines. But here, he can earn triple what he would make back home. \"The salary in the Philippines is too small compared to the salary on board the ship,\" said Lamasan, who is on a six-month contract -- typical for many young seafarers. Piracy has been making the news in recent months, exacerbating economic concerns of the financial crisis. More common than large-scale theft of multi-million dollar cargo is thieves coming on board and stealing cash, computers and personal items. But what they fear the most \"would be fire or explosion,\" said Captain Nikolaisen. \"We cannot run away.\" Life on the boat -- like the scenery -- can be repetitive. There is no mobile phone service, no booze, and limited Internet access. Many of the seamen work in two four-hour shifts... to stay alert. Meals and coffee breaks are routine. Free time is usually spent alone in the cabins, playing computer games together, or occasionally calling home on a satellite phone. \"Ten to 15 minutes just to hear how it's going and keep contact. Also it's nice for the kids too. So they can still remember what Dad sounds like,\" Captain Nikolaisen said. After two months on the high seas officers get two months' vacation. \"When I am out here I miss the family,\" Nikolaisen said. \"And when I am at home I miss a little bit being at sea.\"","highlights":"The shipping industry is expecting a 10 percent drop this year .\nCNN sailed with the Svend Maersk to get a sea-level view of the industry .\nSvend captain: \"A lot of ships have been taken out of service or laid up\"","id":"7a384cc2d619ef52de720889ccf06875dbf11796"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Reza Sayah is one of the few Western journalists reporting from Tehran after the Iranian government placed restrictions on coverage. A man in the crowd holds up a photo of Ahmadinejad during Khamenei's address at Friday prayers. TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- People in the crowd sang songs of tribute as they waited. When he arrived, they stood and welcomed him in unison: \"Praise be to God and to his prophet, Mohammed.\" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader for two decades, took the stage during Friday prayers at Tehran University with a few notes on small pieces of paper in his left hand. He leaned on the lectern with his right arm, crippled in an 1981 assassination attempt. He was ready to put an end to a week of unrest. First, a sermon about the dangers of division and disunity, using the language of Islam. Then came secular sentences, decidedly direct. He praised the huge turnout at the polls as a victory for Iran but criticized post-election turmoil as the work of Iran's enemies -- the United States, Israel and Britain. \"The enemies want to destroy our confidence. They want to create doubt about the election,\" Khamenei said. A full hour passed before he delivered a verdict that supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi did not want to hear. \"Eleven million votes difference?\" he asked. \"Sometimes there's a margin of one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, or one million, maximum. Then one can doubt, be concerned that there has been some rigging or manipulation. \"But there's a difference of 11 million votes. How can vote rigging happen?\" To be clear, he reminded the crowd of the victor at the polls. It was the man sitting in the front row: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was the \"the absolute victor,\" Khamenei said. \"If political elites want to ignore or break the law and willy-nilly take wrong measures which are harmful, they will be held accountable for all violence and blood and rioting.\" Few in the crowd were disappointed with the cleric's words. \"Death to America!\" the people chanted repeatedly, interrupting Khamenei's speech. \"Death to Israel.\" Noticeably absent Friday was Moussavi, the man who had sparked Iran's unrest by calling for a recount of the votes. Absent, too, were Moussavi's supporters, who did not take to the streets to protest as they had done in previous days. There were no signs and placards on the streets. Or people clamoring for change. The tens of thousands who showed up for Friday prayer were a stark contrast to the demonstrators. They were mostly religious conservatives, supporters of Ahmadinejad. And they had a message for the president's opponent, though it was not always consistent. Some were conciliatory. \"The nation should come together,\" one said. \"We are all one.\" Others took a hard line: \"They must stop with the demonstrations, otherwise there will be consequences.\" Just what those consequences might be may become apparent Saturday afternoon, when the demonstrators are expected again on the streets of Tehran. But for now, Iran's supreme leader had issued his warning clearly: Enough is enough.","highlights":"Supreme leader sermonizes about dangers of division and disunity .\nKhamenei: Post-election turmoil the work of the United States, Israel, Britain .\nAyatollah endorses official results showing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected .\nCrowd repeatedly interrupts him to chant \"Death to Israel\" and \"Death to America\"","id":"d13dabfde1e2751097cf51cb5dac9e107b52e010"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five-time defending champion Roger Federer is bidding to match the record of a controversial tennis legend who dominated the sport in the 1920s but died in disgrace. Tilden dominated tennis in the 1920s with his own trademark style. American Bill Tilden achieved fame and fortune through his tennis exploits and befriended Hollwyood stars such as Charle Chaplin, but he spent over a year in jail in the 1940s on a morals charge, which ruined his reputation before his untimely death in 1953. Tilden won his six straight U.S. Open titles from 1920-1925 - a record since the tournament abolished the challenge system - where the champion automatically qualified for the final - in 1911. Under that system, Richard Sears won the first seven editions of the U.S. Open (then the U.S. National Tennis Championships) in the 1880s. Tilden, who claimed his seventh U.S .Open title in 1929 as well as being twice a losing finalist, goes down in the history books as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. A relatively late starter, Tilden struggled to get into his college tennis team in Pennsylvania, but years of dedicated practice started to bear fruit after the First World War as he reached the U.S. Open finals of 1918 and 1919. He reached his peak in the 1920s, winning his first U.S. Open title and holding the world number one spot for seven straight years. Tilden also led the United States to a record seven straight Davis Cup titles as well as claiming three Wimbledon titles. His famed \"cannonball\" services worked particularly well on the fast grass surfaces on which the U.S. Open and Wimbledon were staged. Tilden never won the French Open being losing finalist in the last year it was held on grass courts, in 1927, and 1930 on clay. He won the last of his 10 grand slam titles at Wimbledon in 1930 before deserting the amateur ranks for the fledging professional circuit . Eventually joined by the likes of Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry and Don Budge, Tilden remained a star attraction until well into his 40s, filling arenas such as Madison Square Garden in big money matches. But off the court, Tilden was a controversial figure, battling with tennis officials as his amateur status was called into question and being accused of being arrogant and inconsiderate. Tilden, who never married, saw his reputation destroyed in the 1940s when he was found guilty of a morals charge in connection with a minor. He served seven-and-a-half months of a year jail term but was arrested again in 1949 after picking up a 16-year-old male hitchhiker. Tilden served a further 10 months for his probation violation and was shunned by the tennis community. His friendship with Hollywood stars such as Chaplin and a love of the theatrical world saw Tilden pour much of his riches into less than successful Broadway productions. He died a tragic figure in 1953, having a stroke in Los Angeles as he prepared for a trip to play in the U.S. Pro Championships despite his 60 years of age. Tilden was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1959 and in any polls of all-time great tennis players always features in the top order. Federer, who won a record 15th grand slam title at Wimbledon, is top seed at Flushing Meadows, the venue since 1978.","highlights":"Roger Federer seeking to match the six straight U.S. Open wins of Bill Tilden .\nTilden dominated tennis in the 1920s, winning 10 grand slam titles .\nThe American legend served two prison sentences on morals charges in the 1940s .\nTilden was shunned by the tennis comminty and died at the age of 60 .","id":"757c85427a5ccb40be19efda6d7620049d5b5a8f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Three men charged with sexually exploiting Cambodian children are being brought back to the United States to face prosecution, the Justice Department announced Monday. The men are among the first charged under an international law enforcement initiative specifically targeting Americans traveling to Cambodia for the purpose of sexually abusing children. The initiative, Operation Twisted Traveler, is an effort by the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to crack down on sex tourism. \"The men charged in this investigation apparently thought they could pursue their abhorrent desires by leaving the United States to prey on children in another country, but they were sadly mistaken,\" U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said in a statement. \"We are now working closer than ever with officials in other nations and concerned private parties to take every effort we can to identify and prosecute sex tourists, as well as to provide every protection we can to the world's children.\" Ronald Boyajian, 49, Erik Peeters, 41, and Jack Sporich, 75, are each charged with international travel and engaging in sexual contact with minors, a charge carrying a maximum prison sentence of 30 years, according to the Justice Department. They are slated to make their first appearances in federal court on Tuesday, the Justice Department indicated in a news release. The defendants are charged with international travel and engaging in sexual contact with minors, a charge carrying a maximum prison sentence of 30 years for each of their alleged victims, according to the department. They are charged under the federal Protect Act, enacted six years ago to strengthen federal laws relating to predatory crimes against children outside U.S. borders, the department added. The three defendants were apprehended, according to Immigration and Customs officials, as a result of information provided by the human rights organization International Justice Mission and the group Action Pour les Enfants, which combats child exploitation. All three men have been previously convicted of sex offenses in the United States, the Justice Department noted in its statement. \"These types of cases are disturbing not only because young, defenseless children were victimized in unspeakable ways but also because the defendants went to such lengths to engage in their dark activities overseas,\" O'Brien said at a news conference. He highlighted the case against Peeters, who was convicted on child molestation charges in 1990. \"Our case against Mr. Peeters outlines evidence of him allegedly molesting Cambodian boys, paying them small amounts of money -- $5 to $10 -- and possibly taking digital pictures of his young victims while they were naked,\" O'Brien noted. He said Peeters molested at least three boys in Cambodia over the course of several months. One of the boys was 12 years old when the abuse is said to have started. Boyajian is said to have \"engaged in sexual activity with a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl in an area outside Phnom Penh frequented by child sex tourists known as 'Kilo 11,' \" the Justice Department statement said. Sporich, according to Action Pour les Enfants investigators cited in the government's criminal complaint, repeatedly hosted three Cambodian boys at a residence outside the city of Siem Reap. The complaint states that Sporich \"was known to drive his motor bike through the neighborhoods while dropping Cambodian (money) on the street in order to meet kids.\" The new charges \"clearly demonstrate to the Cambodian people that the United States will not tolerate this type of abuse,\" said Carol Rodley, the American ambassador to Cambodia. \"These cases not only signal to the Cambodian victims our commitment to justice, but they will also act as a powerful deterrent for those individuals who are contemplating traveling to Cambodia to engage in illegal sexual activity with minors.\" The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 12.3 million adults and children are victims of forced labor, bonded labor and sex slavery each year. Cambodia is one of several countries recently added to a U.S. \"watch list\" because of what a State Department report calls a worsening human trafficking record in that country.","highlights":"Operation Twisted Traveler is crackdown on U.S. sex tourism in Cambodia .\nThree men being returned to United States, charged under Protect Act .\nSuspects convicted of previous sexual offenses in U.S., agency says .\nThey face sentences of 30 years for each alleged victim .","id":"b6e7c2de1c6a1d15ffc867877de032df0dd86ee3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- You don't want to monkey around on a blind date, especially if your friends are also taking an interest in the same dark, handsome stranger. Jookie, as she is known, studies a poster of French gorilla Yeboah, who is heading for London Zoo. So when three female gorillas at London Zoo heard that they would soon be visited by a brooding French hunk -- well, they went a bit bananas. The latest development in Anglo-French relations sees Yeboah, a 20-stone 12-year-old, leave his current home at La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, Pays de la Loire, northwest France and head for the British capital by the end of the year. There he will be greeted by gorilla trio Zaire, Effie and Mjukuu, who were given posters of their prospective boyfriend for the first time Thursday. One female gorilla shrieked in delight, while another wedged the poster in a tree to stare at it. A third, clearly overcome by emotion, held the photo close to her chest -- then ate it. Their reception was somewhat unsurprising. The zoo has been without a male gorilla since the demise of Bobby, a silverback, in December. Tracey Lee, team leader at London Zoo, put in a good word for the hirsute lothario on the London Zoo Web site, saying Yeboah is \"a very charming, fun loving and intelligent gorilla.\" But whom will Yeboah choose to charm first? Zaire, at 34, is the oldest female gorilla and has been at London Zoo since 1984. The zoo says she's \"happiest when she's taking down and rebuilding her nest in various spots around the island. She loves to play with fabric and often drags it around with her all day. \" Then there's Effie, 16, who \"enjoys seeing toddlers and often makes her way over to the glass when they come to see her,\" according to the zoo Web site. Finally there's 10-year-old Mjukuu, or \"Jookie.\" Dan Simmonds, a keeper at the zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, says she \"has this 'butter wouldn't melt look' to her, and she gets away with murder.\" \"The other two females get along with her very well; she seems to have them all wrapped around her little finger.\" Bridget Fallon contributed to this story.","highlights":"London Zoo has been without a male gorilla since December .\nFrench gorilla Yeboah is being sent from La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, NW France .\nFemale gorillas at London have been shown posters of their new guest .","id":"95972858842a1c6df4a1dd8a81599e5e87021792"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the most unexpected controversies of the Obama administration came to a head Tuesday as the president delivered a hotly debated back-to-school speech to students across the country. President Obama speaks to students Tuesday at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Many conservatives expressed fear over the past week that the president's address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. Obama, however, avoided any mention of political initiatives. He repeatedly urged students to work hard and stay in school. \"There is no excuse for not trying,\" he told students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Watch Obama speak to the students \u00bb . \"This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.\" Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf) Several Cabinet officials are slated to deliver similar messages at various schools across the country throughout the day. In the past week, news of Obama's speech had upset some parents. \"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me,\" suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH last week, before the text of the speech was released. \"I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.\" But Amy Veasley, a parent from the Dallas, Texas, area, said Monday that she was surprised by the controversy. \"The president of our country wants to call our students to action. I'm not sure why parents wouldn't want their students to hear out the leader of our country,\" she said. A Baltimore, Maryland, teacher who asked not to be identified bemoaned the fact that the country has \"become so polarized that we believe that our president is an enemy and not our leader.\" During George W. Bush's presidency, she said, \"whether I disagreed or not, I still saw him as a leader.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's speech . White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that \"it's a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an 'Animal House' food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school.\" Some school administrators had decided to show the president's speech, but others decided against it. And others were leaving the decision in the hands of individual teachers. One school district in Toronto, Ohio, decided to air the speech live for students in the third grade and up but not show it to younger children, according to CNN affiliate WTOV. Nine out of 550 students attending the Toronto schools showing the speech chose not to watch it, WTOV noted. Toronto Superintendent Fred Burns said the parents of the nine children were concerned that the speech was too political. Watch students respond to Obama's speech \u00bb . \"It's a very charismatic speech,\" Burns told WTOV. \"It's very much a speech to help kids get involved in education and finish school.\" Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Sunday that Obama's speech could disrupt an already-hectic first day of school for many students. \"I think there's concerns about the disruption,\" he said on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" calling the scheduling of the speech a \"little ham-fisted\" by the White House. Watch CNN's Ed Henry talk about school speech uproar \u00bb . Education Secretary Arne Duncan, however, noted that Obama's speech was not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students from a Washington school in fall 1991, encouraging them to say no to drugs and work hard. In November 1988, President Reagan delivered more politically charged remarks that were made available to students nationwide. Among other things, Reagan called taxes \"such a penalty on people that there's no incentive for them to prosper ... because they have to give so much to the government.\" Some of the controversy over Obama's speech involved a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing \"what they can do to help the president.\" The letters \"would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals,\" the plan stated. After pressure from conservatives, the White House distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can \"achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.\" Duncan said Sunday that the passage was poorly worded. Some politically conservative figures said they had no problem with Obama speaking to students about education. \"I think there is a place for the president ... to talk to schoolchildren and encourage\" them, former first lady Laura Bush told CNN Monday. Parents should follow Obama's example and \"encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the dream that they have,\" she added. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on \"Fox News Sunday\" that Obama's speech was a good idea if the message is a positive one about completing school. \"It is good to have the president of the United States say to young people across America, 'Stay in school, study, and do your homework,' \" Gingrich said. Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer accused Obama last week of trying to \"indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.\" \"Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything,\" he said Monday. After reading the text, he said, \"My kids will be watching the president's speech, as I hope all kids will.\"","highlights":"President Obama speaks to students about education's importance .\n\"There is no excuse for not trying,\" Obama says .\nSecretary of Education Arne Duncan says speech not unprecedented .\nSome school administrators did not show speech; others let teachers decide .","id":"f1cad71aa7f84d189dabefb4201bf83df6b2b3ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi plans to form a new political party aimed at reining in the power of the Islamic Republic's leadership, a leading reformist newspaper reported Sunday. Mir Hossein Moussavi is reportedly seeking to form a new political party in Iran. Moussavi told supporters the party will be focused on upholding \"the remaining principles of the constitution,\" according to Etemad-e Melli, a newspaper aligned with fellow opposition candidate Mehdi Karrubi. He is expected to file papers with Iran's Interior Ministry to establish the party before hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sworn in for a new term, the newspaper reported. The announcement comes after weeks of protests over Iran's disputed presidential election and an attempted clampdown by Iran's clerical leadership. The clerical leadership has declared Ahmadinejad the winner of that vote. Moussavi, a former prime minister, was the leading challenger to Ahmadinejad in the June 12 balloting. The official results showed Ahmadinejad winning with more than 62 percent of the vote. Moussavi and Karrubi have consistently rejected those results as fraudulent and demanded a new vote. Their supporters turned out in crowds estimated in the hundreds of thousands to demand the results be overturned. Iran's Guardian Council, which oversees the elections, has declared the official count will stand.","highlights":"Mir Hossein Moussavi seeks to curb power of clerics, reformist newspaper reports .\nHe's expected to file papers to form party before Ahmadinejad is sworn in .\nMoussavi's loss to President Ahmadinejad in election sparked mass protests in Iran .","id":"0474f60995cc45c135e87bde5678b53d5ca4df5c"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia -- President Obama arrived in Moscow on Monday for a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev aimed at trying to \"reset\" the U.S.-Russian relationship. But he also may have a less publicized goal: figuring out who's really in charge here. President Obama, right, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev walk by an honor guard in Moscow on Monday. When Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, engaged in his first summit with his Russian counterpart, things took an odd turn. Bush said -- now infamously -- that he looked into then-President Vladimir Putin's eyes and saw into his soul, and basically found he was a good guy that Americans could do business with. Oops. The Bush-Putin relationship ended up getting pretty chilly, which is why the new U.S. president is now trying to warm things up. Obama gets his first shot at literally looking into Putin's eyes Tuesday, when he has a sitdown with the man who is now prime minister of Russia, a post that many international analysts believe allows Putin to continue to pull the strings behind the scenes. Obama's outreach to Medvedev started sooner, their first meeting coming back in April at the G-20 summit in London, and it's been bearing some fruit for Obama. Russia recently signed on to sanctions against North Korea, and this week both sides will officially announce that Russia has agreed to let U.S. military equipment headed for Afghanistan fly over Russian territory. Watch Obamas arrive in Russia \u00bb . Both sides are also hoping to announce significant cuts in nuclear arms, though there are still major hurdles to clear, such as Russian suspicions about U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. In an interview with The Associated Press late last week, Obama seemed to be trying to work through the sticking points by driving a bit of a wedge between Medvedev and Putin. \"The old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russia relations is outdated and that it's time to move forward in a different direction,\" said Obama. \"I think Medvedev understands that. I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.\" Ouch. If he wants to accomplish some key goals in Moscow, such as winning Russian cooperation in dealing with Iran's nuclear program, why would Obama fire a rhetorical shot like that at Putin -- if, in fact, he's really in charge here? It could be that Obama is trying to flex his muscles a bit for American domestic political consumption to show he's not rolling over to Russia, amid Republican charges that he's soft on foreign policy. It's a move Putin knows well, having perfected the art of flexing his muscles at then-President Bush as a way of asserting Russian nationalism in recent years. Watch Russian students talk about Obama's visit \u00bb . Whatever the intention of Obama's words, the back and forth with Putin is a reminder of the high stakes here. Of course, the president's second stop in Italy for the G-8 summit will be important too, with a packed agenda including Iran, the financial crisis, climate change and eradicating world poverty. The first African-American president's third and final stop at the end of the week in Ghana will also get wide international attention. But it's this first stop where Obama will get a big diplomatic test as he juggles, among many issues, who's really in charge here.","highlights":"President Obama meets with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday .\nTuesday, he meets Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who some say is really in charge .\nObama seems to be driving a bit of a wedge between the two, says CNN's Ed Henry .\nMoscow meetings will be a big diplomatic test for Obama, Henry says .","id":"46faba4f781042c9b898c3d731c78d6d3b66f340"} -{"article":"URUMQI, China (CNN) -- Reports of alleged syringe stabbings in a restive western Chinese city are generating a bit of panic, but doctors say some people have incorrectly concluded they were attacked with needles. People's Armed Police units equipped with armored personnel carriers take positions in Urumqi on Saturday. \"In the patients we have seen in the last couple of days, there are many which we believe were not actually punctured with needles,\" Wang Hanbin, a Peoples' Liberation Army doctor examining people in Urumqi, told reporters on Saturday at a briefing. Wang said about 20 cases are being investigated closely and samples were being taken to laboratories in Beijing for more testing. But, he said, \"many of the patients we have seen were mainly influenced by psychological factors.\" Wang, a member of a six-person military medical panel reviewing the syringe-stabbing claims, attributes the false reports to widespread fear and lack of medical knowledge. \"Many of the patients did not actually see their attacker or the act of others attacking them with needles. Some patients who had needle puncture wounds experienced some discomfort in the area of the wound, and showed some symptoms, but couldn't give an accurate account of what they perceived to have been a needle attack.\" This is the latest crisis plaguing Xinjiang province and its capital city of Urumqi, where tensions have boiled over between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. The Han Chinese are the country's dominant ethnic group, and the Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority who consider Xinjiang their homeland. Ethnic Uyghurs have been blamed for the alleged syringe stabbings, and demonstrators clashed with police in Urumqi for two days this week over the issue. Protesters were demanding better police protection and a crackdown on the Uyghurs. The latest unrest left five people dead and 14 injured, according to Urumqi's deputy mayor, and the Communist party chief in the city has been dismissed from his job amid the crisis, according to state-run media reported. Watch report on unrest in Urumqi from CNN's John Vause \u00bb . The Urumqi Public Prosecutors Office on Saturday said four ethnic Uyghurs were arrested in connection with three syringe-wielding incidents. At the press conference held by military medical personnel, the doctors said puncture wounds could not be found \"in a large percentage of the patients.\" \"Some could have been bitten by insects such as mosquitoes, and in other cases there were moles, or skin pigmentation, and we couldn't find a needle puncture wound,\" said Wang, speaking at the news conference. \"Maybe they heard something from someone, then they discovered that they had a growth on their body. So, then they suspect that they may have been attacked with a needle and came to seek treatment. Some patients who came to seek treatment had some red marks or rash on their skin, but we didn't find any needle puncture wounds.\" Wang urged people not to panic and urged them to immediately seek medical treatment if they think they were stabbed. He also said people need to educate themselves about medical care. Rumors have abounded in Urumqi of recent syringe stabbers trying to spread AIDS and other diseases. But another doctor, Duan Qing, explained at the briefing that would be impossible for there to be any such cases of AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or syphilis because there is a lengthy incubation period. \"Even if there are cases of such illnesses, they are unrelated to incidents. This is basic medical knowledge,\" she said. The three incidents that led to the arrests occurred in late August. A man admitted stabbing a female shopper with a pin on August 28. Authorities said a man and woman on August 29 stole money from a taxi driver after threatening him with a syringe. And in the third incident, a man resisting arrest stabbed a police officer with a syringe on August 31.","highlights":"NEW: Many \"we believe were not actually punctured with needles,\" army doctor says .\nNEW: About 20 cases are being investigated closely, including testing, doctor says .\nFive killed in riots between predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese .\nCommunist Party chief for Urumqi dismissed after deadly unrest .","id":"772b33649ca21fe2cb1f47367ce7d437eb270a61"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There was a time when singer-actress LeAnn Rimes was considered as clean cut as they come. LeAnn Rimes, at the 2009 Lollapalooza Music Festival, is being spotted with Eddie Cibrian. Once hailed as a country music ing\u00e9nue, she first captivated fans as a 13-year-old with a mature-beyond-her-years voice and a poised stage presence. After selling millions of records and amassing Billboard Music Awards and Grammys, Rimes was often held up as an example of a child star who managed to avoid the pitfalls of fame and emerge with a successful career and a happy marriage. Then rumors surfaced that she was allegedly having an affair with actor Eddie Cibrian. Now the two have both separated from their respective spouses and the ensuing scandal has cast a shadow over Rimes' wholesome, good-girl image. \"I kind of feel like the public's perception is changing towards her,\" said Lindsay Powers, staff editor for Us Weekly. \"She hadn't even announced [her] divorce yet and here she was on a beach in Cabo [San Lucas], wearing a little bikini with Eddie Cibrian rubbing suntan lotion all over her. She's like flaunting their relationship while her husband is piecing together his life in New York City on his own.\" Such relationship woes among celebrities are as old as Hollywood itself. Stories of celebrity hookups on movie sets, be it Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1960s or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the 21st century, are the stuff of which tabloid dreams are made. But Rimes, who married former dancer Dean Sheremet in 2002 when she was 19 and he 21, seemed an unlikely candidate to star in such a drama. Unlike other young celebrity couples, Rimes and Sheremet were unlikely tabloid targets, choosing to live quietly and often being captured smiling and embracing on the red carpet. The pair appeared devoted to each other and seemed to take a swipe at critics of their young love when they reportedly held a \"seven year itch\" party to toast their union. In her book, \"What I Cannot Change,\" Rimes wrote glowingly of her spouse. \"My husband, Dean, has changed my heart -- and life -- in more ways than I can ever imagine,\" she wrote. \"We met in Los Angeles when I was hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards. It was almost an instant attraction.\" Rumors began swirling about the singer and \"CSI: Miami\" actor Eddie Cibrian after they co-starred in the Lifetime movie \"Northern Lights.\" During an interview with Matt Lauer in April on the \"Today\" show, Rimes sidestepped questioning about her relationship with Cibrian. \"I refuse to discuss tabloid rumors,\" Rimes said. \"I've grown up in the press my entire life. I think people are fascinated by my personal life, and I totally get it.\" Soon after, Cibrian's wife and mother of his two young sons, Brandi Glanville, was quoted as demanding Rimes leave her husband alone. Now, Glanville is being as vocal about the breakup of her and Cibrian's marriage. She told PEOPLE in August that she sensed her husband was attracted to Rimes after double-dating with the singer and Sheremet. Rimes and Cibrian have been seen publicly golfing, vacationing and attending a concert. She announced on her Web site that she and Sheremet were ending their marriage. Jonathan L. Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management Inc., said fans are often very forgiving of stars for their bad behavior. \"The public is very tolerant of a wide range of behaviors from celebrities,\" said Bernstein. \"To the extent the public truly expected her to be someone with a clean-cut image, she may lose some fans there.\" \"On the other hand, there are some people who like celebrities who lead racy, unpredictable lives, so she could gain fans at the same time.\" Bernstein, the author of \"Keeping the Wolves at Bay; A Media Training Manual,\" said, \"Everybody wants to read the juicy gossip,\" but Rimes could mitigate potential damage to her career if she is real and does \"not pretend to be one thing and then be the other.\" \"People like watching real-life soap operas,\" he said. \"Ultimately, if people love [Rimes'] singing, they are going to come to her concerts.\" Us Weekly's Powers said Rimes and Cibrian's situation mirrors that of actress Tori Spelling and her husband, Dean McDermott. Like Rimes and Cibrian, Spelling and McDermott were both married to others when they met on the set of a Lifetime movie in 2005. Spelling and McDermott divorced their spouses, married and now are the parents of two children and stars of their own reality show on Oxygen network. As was the case with fans who rallied around Jennifer Aniston because they believed she had been wronged by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Powers said she believes Rimes' estranged husband, Sheremet, will emerge the winner of public sympathy. \"Celebrity history will show that people tend to feel bad for the person who is scorned,\" Powers said. \"I think people are always going to feel bad for [Sheremet] with the fact that LeAnn not only left him after seven years of marriage, but ran off with this man she met on the set of her movie.\" Leslie Litzenberger of Santa Clara, California, has run the fan site Leannfans.com since 1995 and said the singer has a supportive fan base. All of the media surrounding Rimes has not decreased her admiration for the singer, Litzenberger said. \"The recent stories don't at all change how I feel about LeAnn,\" Litzenberger said. \"What has happened is between them. I love the person that she is and tabloid stories with quotes from supposed \"friends\" are not going to change that.\"","highlights":"LeAnn Rimes is divorcing her husband and has been spotted with co-star .\nRimes and actor Eddie Cibrian have been photographed on vacation .\nA former child star, Rimes had enjoyed an image as a happily married celeb .\nMagazine editor says Rimes' spouse gathering sympathy for being wronged .","id":"9f8cf76e3bd2aca7485194d4a5ee69b2769a08af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China has developed a vaccine for swine flu and is set to become the first country in the world to begin mass inoculations, but there are concerns over possible side effects, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. A swine flu vaccine has been approved in China and inoculations could begin in the next few weeks. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told CNN, \"We have to be ready for the fact that there might be adverse effects.\" \"No matter what vaccine you're looking at, sometimes there are extremely rare side effects. We don't even know what those are yet, but they will show up in one in every two or 10 million vaccinated.\" Inoculations could begin in the next few weeks, according to the South China Morning Post, before celebrations begin on October 1 to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The vaccine, PANFLU.1, was developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd and is suitable for people aged three to 60. Sinovac says the single-shot vaccine has been approved by China's National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products and has obtained the Certificate for the Release of Biological Products. It says more than five million doses will be ready by the end of September. The South China Morning Post reports Health Minister Chen Zhu as saying that some 200,000 people taking part in the anniversary celebrations will be the first to receive the vaccine. Others considered to be high priority are students aged five to 19, those with medical conditions, especially chronic respiratory and coronary diseases, and pregnant women. The inoculation program will also target medical staff and key workers, including police officers, soldiers and quarantine officials. Chen said on Tuesday that there have so far been 5592 recorded cases of H1N1 in China's 31 inland provinces, but no one has yet died from the illness. \"Due to the rising number of cases, especially since late August, we have indeed started seeing some serious cases,\" he said. The Post reported that there are plans to vaccinate 65 million people before the end of the year and that Chen admitted the amount of available vaccine was not nearly enough to inoculate the country's population of 1.3 billion people. The Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) last week approved two factories to produce the vaccine -- Sinovac, based in Beijing, and Hualan Biological Engineering, based in Henan -- according to the Post. But it reports the SFDA has announced that \"more qualified enterprises which could produce swine flu vaccines\" would be licensed by the end of September. Hartl said that in Europe, several drug firms are set to submit clinical trial data in the next few weeks, with GlaxoSmithKline likely to be among the first. Weidong Yin, CEO of Sinovac, said last week, \"With the support of the Ministry of Health, State SFDA, and Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Sinovac was able to successfully and rapidly complete the clinical trials and registration process for the H1N1 vaccine.\"","highlights":"China has approved a swine-flu vaccine and is set to begin inoculations .\nSinovac Biotech has developed the vaccine, suitable for those aged three to 60 .\nThere have been 5592 recorded cases of H1N1 in China's 31 inland provinces .","id":"0be5074cb8d0e0a7489a296b9b9c064a21929252"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Across the country, insurance companies, trial lawyers and legislators are closely watching a November referendum in the state of Washington that could change how insurers are required to treat their customers. Insurance companies are using the referendum process to try to strike down a new law in Washington state. Insurance giants like Allstate, State Farm, Safeco and Farmers have poured more than $8 million into the referendum battle. Their goal is to convince voters to reject a law passed earlier this year that could force insurers to pay up to triple damages and lawyer fees if they fail to pay a legitimate claim and then lose in court. A \"yes\" vote on the referendum allows the law to go into effect while a \"no\" vote strikes the law down. Supporters of the law say it forces insurance companies to pay legitimate claims in a timely and fair fashion and frees the courts from relatively minor cases that clog the system for months and even years. One supporter, the Washington Trial Lawyers Association, has raised almost $900,000 to fight the insurance industry over the referendum. \"Insurance companies have figured out that they can make more money if they don't pay your claim,'' said Washington state Rep. Steve Kirby. Kirby and his fellow Washington state lawmakers heard so many complaints from policy holders who believed insurers weren't treating them fairly that earlier this year they passed a law called \"The Fair Conduct Act.\" Hearings were held, the bill was revised -- even watered down, according to Kirby -- and both the House and Senate passed it. The governor readily signed it. But the very next day a coalition, funded primarily by insurance companies, moved in to stop the law from going into effect by filing petitions for a voter referendum on the law. Representatives of the insurance industry say the law will raise premiums and that the system is working fine as it is. The law, they said, will only make things worse, and they want voters to have the final say. \"The insurance companies stepped in and said, 'Consumers, you get to decide if you want to do this,' '' said Dana Childers, executive director of the Liability Reform Coalition, which is leading the insurance company charge to defeat the new law. Childers said the state's own insurance commissioner sees no need for the law. \"His own information that he provided to the legislature and the public says that this law simply isn't necessary,'' Childers said. But that's not what Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler told CNN in a recent interview in Seattle. Kreidler said he strongly supports the new law and that if insurance companies act responsibly they have nothing to fear. \"If companies act in good faith, [they are] not going to have a problem,\" Kreidler said. \"It's not going to cost any more money. There's not going to be any legal action. There's going to be no treble damages, because if companies deal with their customers in good faith there's no penalty.\" The campaign to woo voters has already begun. The insurance industry-backed group is already running television commercials depicting greedy lawyers planning to sue and warning consumers that the law will lead to frivolous lawsuits and higher rates. It's not a new tactic by the insurance companies. Earlier this year, CNN exposed a controversial insurance industry strategy that began in the mid-1990s. Former insiders say insurance companies began limiting or denying legitimate claims in minor injury cases and reaped billions in profits as a result. The strategy has tied up courts across the country -- over minor claims, judges told CNN -- for months and even years. How did they do it? \"It really came down to basically three elements: a position of delay, a position of denying a claim and ultimately defending that claim that you're denied,\" said Jim Mathis, a former insurance industry insider. But Robert Hartwig, with the industry-backed Insurance Institute, said the strategy was not intended to deny valid claims but to attack fraud, which, he claimed earlier this year, was rampant in minor accident cases. \"What insurers are doing is trying to monitor costs. And every insurance company is under the same pressure to do it,\" Hartwig said. Washington state resident Michelle Tribble plans to vote for the law because she says she has experienced the strategy first-hand. She says her two accidents convinced her insurance companies don't want to play fair. Tribble was working for an insurance company when she got rear-ended on the freeway. Ten weeks later she got hit again, this time by an uninsured motorist. The two accidents, she said, resulted in back injuries that required medical treatment. The first company agreed to pay but her own insurer, Allstate, refused to pay even though she had coverage. \"I just wanted my medical bills paid because I didn't want my credit being hurt,'' Tribble said, adding that the total came to about $18,000. She said Allstate dug into her medical past. \"They brought out stacks of medical records, you know, to see if I was at all deceptive.\" An arbitrator sided with Tribble, but Allstate refused to pay. The case went to court, where a jury, too, ruled for Tribble. But Allstate appealed again. Finally, four years after the accident, the company paid her claim. Allstate said it could not comment on individual claims but said cases like Tribble's prove \"that the current judicial system is working.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Referendum in Washington state aims to derail new insurance law .\nInsurance industry opposes law that could force triple damages in some cases .\nMeasure's supporters say it will ensure that customers are treated fairly .","id":"11543a012d692d5ef479108f5bd5dd91b815b1be"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Samoa will switch its driving from the right side to the left side of the road on Monday in a move opponents have called ill-conceived and said will lead to dozens of wrecks and fatalities. Proponents tout the change, which no other country has attempted since the 1970s, as making economic sense. Thousands of angry Samoans protested in the streets, and one group -- People Against Switching Sides (PASS) -- unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the change in the country's Supreme Court. Opponents have also aired nightly ads depicting roadsides littered with crosses and vandalized newly-erected signs warning drivers to \"keep left.\" Bus drivers have demanded the government compensate them to change the location of passenger door and the steering wheel. The nation has declared Monday and Tuesday holidays for people to adjust to the change and banned alcohol sales for the next three days. The government said it will strictly enforce the use of seat belts and has built speed bumps to prevent wrecks. Until now, most of the cars in the Pacific island nation have been imported from the United States, where drivers travel on the right side, and Samoa's neighbor, American Samoa. The change will allow the thousands of expatriate Samoans who live in their nation's biggest neighbors, New Zealand and Australia, to send used -- and therefore, cheaper -- cars to their families back home. In both those countries, drivers travel on the left side of the road. \"It narrows the bridge between the rich guys and people like us, the lower class people from the rural areas,\" Fa'aleaga Young Yen told CNN affiliate TVNZ in New Zealand. Watch people speak out about the switch \u00bb . \"Just the freight alone cost me US $3,500 from Hawaii,\" he said. \"To send the same kind of car from New Zealand? NZ$1,400 (US$968).\" About 70 percent of the world's population drive on the right side of the road. But many countries -- primarily those that were once British colonies -- remain to the left. Many have gradually switched over the years, including Sweden in 1967, Iceland in 1968, Nigeria in 1972 and Ghana in 1974. All have gone from driving on the left side to the right. Samoa's case seems to be unique because it is steering in the opposite direction.","highlights":"Samoa declares Monday, Tuesday holidays for people to adjust to change .\nSupreme Court rejected constitutional challenge to change .\nDrivers in Samoa's biggest neighbors, New Zealand and Australia, use the left side .\nSweden, Iceland, Nigeria and Ghana switched from driving on left side to the right .","id":"7a6617bc038160b31c4c44a132f8700c568e3b85"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House released the text Monday of a controversial back-to-school speech to students from President Obama. The uproar over President Obama's back-to-school speech led the White House to release the transcript Monday. Many conservatives have expressed a fear that the address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. In the text of the speech, however, Obama avoids any mention of controversial political initiatives. He repeatedly urges students to work hard and stay in school. \"No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it,\" he says. \"This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.\" The text of the 18-minute speech was posted on the White House Web site so people can read it before its scheduled Internet broadcast to schoolchildren Tuesday. Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf) Some of the president's critics have been adamantly opposed to the idea of an address by Obama to children. \"The president's speeches tend to be [about] what's wrong with the country and what can we do to fix it,\" said Bill Hogsett, a parent from Dallas, Texas. \"I believe this is the greatest country on Earth, and I try to teach that to my children. ... I don't want them hearing that there's a fundamental flaw with the country and the kids need to go forward to fix it.\" Hogsett, who spoke Monday shortly before Obama's remarks were released, said he wanted to read the speech before making a final judgment. Amy Veasley, another parent from the Dallas area, said she was surprised by the controversy. \"The president of our country wants to call our students to action. I'm not sure why parents wouldn't want their students to hear out the leader of our country,\" she said. A Baltimore, Maryland, teacher who asked not to be identified bemoaned the fact that the country has \"become so polarized that we believe that our president is an enemy and not our leader.\" During Bush's presidency, she said, \"whether I disagreed or not, I still saw him as a leader.\" On Sunday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that parents who are threatening to keep their children home Tuesday to avoid Obama's speech were being \"silly.\" Appearing on the CBS program \"Face the Nation,\" Duncan emphasized that it is up to school officials whether to include the speech in the day's activities and that the message of the speech is simply to encourage children to finish school. \"That's just silly,\" he said of anyone planning to have their kids stay home because of the speech. \"They can go to school. They can not watch.\" The speech is about \"the president challenging young people,\" Duncan asserted. Some school administrators have decided to show the president's speech, but others will not. Watch CNN's Ed Henry talk about school speech uproar \u00bb . Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Sunday that Obama's speech would disrupt an already-hectic first day of school for many students. \"I think there's concerns about the disruption,\" he said on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" calling the scheduling of the speech a \"little ham-fisted\" by the White House. Watch school reject Obama's speech on education \u00bb . \"There [are] also concerns about is this going to be done in an appropriate manner. I trust and hope that the White House will have a content that is not political and they're not using the public school infrastructure for that purpose.\" Duncan, however, noted Obama's speech is not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students from a Washington school in fall 1991, encouraging them to say no to drugs and work hard. Read text of Bush's speech to students (pdf) In November 1988, President Reagan delivered more politically charged remarks that were made available to students nationwide. Among other things, Reagan called taxes \"such a penalty on people that there's no incentive for them to prosper ... because they have to give so much to the government.\" Read text of Reagan's speech to students (pdf) Some of the controversy over Obama's speech involved a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing \"what they can do to help the president.\" The letters \"would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals,\" the plan stated. After pressure from conservatives, the White House distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can \"achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.\" Duncan said Sunday that the passage was poorly worded. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told \"Fox News Sunday\" that Obama's speech is a good idea if the message is a positive one about completing school. \"It is good to have the president of the United States say to young people across America, 'Stay in school, study, and do your homework,' \" Gingrich said. Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer last week accused Obama of trying to \"indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.\" \"Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything,\" he said Monday. After reading the text, he said, \"My kids will be watching the president's speech, as I hope all kids will.\" CNN's Lauren Kornreich and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this story.","highlights":"Speech posted on Web site Monday for parents, pundits to view .\nObama says, \"No matter what you want to do ... you'll need an education\"\nSecretary of Education Arne Duncan: \"Silly\" of parents to keep kids out of school .\nMinnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: Speech could cause first-day \"disruption\"","id":"7e7a97164f802738b13c26b8e0546e74a9d1d3e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Hudson's ex, Black Crowes rocker Chris Robinson, is going to be a dad again, a representative for the band confirmed in a statement Tuesday. Chris Robinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges will be having a child in early 2010. Robinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges, who have been dating for two years, are expecting their first child in early 2010, the statement said. The baby will be the 42-year-old frontman's second child --\u00ad he and Hudson have a 5 1\/2-year-old son, Ryder Russell, together. Hudson and Robinson were married for six years and their divorce was finalized in October 2006. They were granted joint custody of their son. Robinson and his brother Rich formed the band that would eventually become the Black Crowes in the 1980s. The Crowes' new album, \"Before the Frost . . . Until the Freeze,\" is in stores now.","highlights":"Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson having baby with girlfriend .\nRobinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges have been dating for two years .\nHe and ex Kate Hudson have a 5-1\/2-year-old son, Ryder Russell, together .","id":"c6eaf9d97b059f3e824a1ab4ffdfe45494e5f8a1"} -{"article":"Douglas Khayat is a psychologist for the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders\/\/Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), working in Complexo do Alemao, one of the poorest and most violent favelas in Rio de Janeiro. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- An estimated 150,000 people live in Complexo do Alemao, where armed groups fight for turf, and fighting between police forces and ruling groups leave thousands of people trapped by violence. Complexo do Alemao, a poor area of Rio de Janeiro controlled by armed drug-dealers . There are no private or public health facilities inside Alemao and not even government ambulances enter. In this extremely violent corner of the world, residents live with a great deal of psychological trauma. In recognition of this trauma, Doctors Without Borders offers psychological support, in addition to the medical services we provide to the community in the favela. The people who call Alemao home live under a vow of silence, the unspoken code of survival that dictates that no one discuss what goes on inside the community particularly the violent episodes they endure or witness. Killings, beating, threats, expulsions, regular exposure to heavy weapons, and other forms of abuse, are all carried out by the armed groups that control the drug trafficking, imposing their own set of rules. See images of life in the favelas \u00bb . Since October 2007, Doctors Without Borders psychologists have conducted 2,000 consultations for 1,000 different patients. For 85 percent of patients, suffering was directly related to violence. They have either been directly affected by combat, experienced the trauma of witnessing extreme violence, have had family members killed or tortured. The symptoms we mostly see are anxiety disorders, depression, psychosomatic conditions, and learning and behavior problems in children. When police enter the area, fighting often breaks out with armed groups. The state of fear created by these groups creates an environment in which psychological disorders multiply. Some get used to living this way, but others do not, particularly children. See a report on healthcare in Brazil \u00bb . The needs are incredible, so are the stories. Last year a middle-aged man arrived at our project asking to see a psychologist. Two years earlier he suffered a series of tragic events that resulted in persistent insomnia and anxiety that almost ruined his family. He was crossing a football field holding hands with a female friend, not his wife, when suddenly a armored police car entered the community and began shooting. Everything happened in a matter of seconds. His girlfriend told him she was wounded. The shooting became so bad that he had to leave her to find shelter. She died and he could not stop blaming himself for leaving her in the middle of the field. It made his marriage hell. It started to affect his work and he began to have terrible nightmares. He started to drink a lot. But our treatment with him went really well. We helped him reevaluate others facets of his life and things started to get better, his marriage, his work. People around him reacted to his new attitude, and his life began to improve. The population trusts us because we live the same day-to-day routine they live. Our project is the only health facility inside Complexo do Alemao. During the day, we are exposed to the same environment as the residents. This experience in the same environment helps to develop a bond with our patients. For me as a Brazilian, as a middle class carioca (from Rio de Janeiro), it is difficult to experience this aspect of my country. I've grown angrier about the conditions in my city and country after doing this work. At the same time, it has been and continues to be a life changing experience, a possibility to dive into my country's soul and play an important part of people's lives.","highlights":"Dr. Douglas Khayat describes life in one of Brazil's most violent favelas .\nPsychologists have so far given 2,000 consultations for traumatized locals .\nDoctors Without Borders provide the only medical\/psychiatric help in the region .","id":"cba185c08af507014d135dad92583e641560def0"} -{"article":"Editor's note: We asked readers to weigh in on CNN.com Live producer Jarrett Bellini's vacation destination, and you chose South Africa. Check back for updates on his trip. Giraffes are a common sight in Kruger National Park. KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa (CNN) -- I spent two nights sleeping under a full-moon sky, nestled in my trusty hammock at Kruger National Park. Our guides provided us with tents, but I figured I wouldn't have too many opportunities in my life to slumber in the open bush on the African continent. Thus, I rested more or less exposed throughout the night, hoping that a lion wouldn't figure that he wouldn't have too many opportunities in his life to maul a sleeping American tourist in the open bush on the African continent. Needless to say, I survived, and it was magnificent. Visually speaking, I wasn't sure what, exactly, to expect from a South African safari, for my complete mental database of safari images spanned a wide variety of distinct landscapes, and most were cartoonishly obstructed by rich, middle-aged tourists covered head to toe in unnecessary beige safari gear. However, Kruger National Park seemed to fit, quite perfectly, my idea of the African savannah. Arid and brown from the winter dry season, it was a forever-long expanse of low trees and dusty earth, the kind that somehow allows the early sun to reflect that perfect glow of stunning reds and oranges. Our guide was a self-proclaimed African bushman named Elson, who seemed to have an amazing one-ness with both the land and the animals. We'd be driving down one of the many nondescript dirt roads at a fairly fast pace, only to have him hit the brakes of our jeep, slam into reverse and point out a leopard 200 yards away. It would take the rest of us a fair bit of time to finally see what he noticed at a mere passing glance. He knew the land, and he knew the animals -- a talent that proved helpful for finding the less common residents in the savannah. The other creatures carelessly came into view as though the roads and cars were just a natural part of their habitat, a mild annoyance at worst. iReport.com: Share your South Africa experiences and suggestions . Kruger National Park is roughly the same size as Israel, and here, many animals roamed right along the roadside, gnawing on whatever vegetation remained until the rainy season would flourish the plants anew. Seemingly endless miles of terrain, and there they were just feet away from us. If you didn't know you were in a national park, you might think you were in a zoo. That's how close the animals came to our jeep. Only, here, they weren't in separate enclosures, wandering aimlessly within an artificial terrain. This was truly their home, and we were only passing guests. Giraffes tore away at high branches. Elephants walked fearlessly, one-by-one across the road. Rhinos ... well, the rhinos pretty much just sat there looking stupid. But the zebras frolicked. The hippos splashed in the water. And the baboons stopped at nothing to make me laugh. Of course, the rare lions and leopards pretty much just shaded themselves under distant trees, and the crocs swam silently through the bog. But they were there. And we were there. And it was beautiful. And just as soon as it began, our time in the South African bush was over. A couple of giraffes and elephants met us by the roadside to bid our group farewell as we drove out of the park. The preserve faded silently behind us, and the road ahead paved my way to Swaziland for a short stopover before continuing to the second part of this South African journey.","highlights":"CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini is traveling in South Africa .\nReaders chose his destination and can share their travel suggestions .\nBellini will provide updates from South Africa on CNN.com and CNN.com Live .","id":"ee4416e11e8238648591e437a5b304b1aeacdec3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Vehicles began streaming across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge early Tuesday -- a day ahead of schedule -- after the completion of repairs to a crack in the structure's east span. Commuters make the trek across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge after it reopened Tuesday. Commuters began driving over the bridge around 6:40 a.m. PT (9:40 a.m. ET), shortly after Randy Iwasaki, director of the California Department of Transportation, announced the reopening at a news conference. \"The bridge has been inspected, and it is safer than when we closed it on Friday,\" Iwasaki said. Over the weekend, crews began repairing a \"significant crack\" that was found on the east span of the bridge during a planned closure for another project. The target time for reopening had been early Wednesday, but crews worked nonstop overnight to repair the eyebar beam, Iwasaki said. He thanked motorists for being patient. \"I know it's been trying. I received a few e-mail notes,\" the official said. Iwasaki said some closures or detours near the bridge would remain in place a while longer, including those along northbound and southbound Interstate 880. About 280,000 vehicles cross the landmark bridge every day, according to the department. The Bay Bridge was closed last week as part of a seismic retrofitting project that required cutting out and replacing a double-deck portion of the east span. Watch as the bridge needed big repairs \u00bb . A 50-foot section of the bridge collapsed in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, prompting efforts to make it quake tolerant.","highlights":"NEW: Bridge \"is safer than when we closed it on Friday,\" official says .\nCalifornia bridge closed last week for scheduled retrofitting .\nWorkers discovered \"significant crack\" on east span of bridge .\nAbout 280,000 vehicles travel San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge daily .","id":"92257ec476bf09197a5f7d3fe4afa1fa0fa558b8"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Four U.S. service members were killed in fighting Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. An Interior Ministry official said the victims of a suicide bomb blast at Kabul airport were all civilians. The deaths took place in Kunar province in what a spokeswoman called an \"ongoing event.\" Troop deaths have mounted in Afghanistan this year as American and other international forces have stepped up their fight against the Taliban. August was the deadliest month for the U.S. military in the nearly eight-year-old war, with 52 fatalities. The four deaths on Tuesday bring the number of U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan to 13 in September. Elsewhere, a suicide bomber killed two people and wounded six others Tuesday morning in the Kabul airport's military section, Afghan officials said. U.S. and Belgian nationals were among the wounded, a Western diplomatic official told CNN. The victims were all civilians, the Interior Ministry official said. The blast occurred near a gate at Kabul International Airport, said Zamari Bashari, a representative of Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior. NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan and other government organizations use the military side of the airport. In Pakistan, eight tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces over the border in Afghanistan were attacked near Quetta, according to Quetta police. People on motorcycles fired shots at the tankers when they were parked at a rest area, but they did not catch fire, police said. CNN's Atia Abawi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four U.S. service members killed in fighting in eastern Afghanistan .\nTwo people killed in explosion at Kabul International Airport, six wounded .\nOfficial: Suicide bomber struck near gate of military section of airport .","id":"6058aac5d7ac31f17d572957e354e9795414dfe7"} -{"article":"ANTIOCH, California (CNN) -- In many respects, Jaycee Dugard and her two daughters lived an unremarkable public life -- one that belied the horrifying circumstances that have since made front-page news. Dugard's daughters attend a birthday party two weeks ago. CNN has blurred their faces to protect their privacy. Dugard, kidnapped 18 years ago in South Lake Tahoe, California, helped manage the small printing company her alleged captor, Phillip Garrido, ran from his home in Antioch, east of San Francisco. Her two daughters, fathered by 58-year-old Garrido, attended birthday parties and, like many girls their age, shared a love for the TV show \"Hannah Montana.\" The media \"made it seem like these little girls were living like wolves or jungle kids in the backyard dungeon. Perhaps that's it, but they didn't give that visual to me,\" said Cheyvonne Molino, who runs an auto wrecking yard with her husband. See photos of Dugard's living conditions \u00bb . Garrido would often bring the girls by the yard, delivering bottles of water on hot days. The 11-year-old went by the name Angel and the 15-year-old, Starlet. \"They were polite. They were well-mannered,\" Molino said. Two weeks ago, the girls attended a birthday party for Molino's daughter, who turned 16. Again, they showed no signs of lives lived in turmoil. Customers of Garrido's printing company, Printing for Less, knew the girls' mother as Allissa. Watch interview with Garrido \u00bb . They spoke to her about graphic design, business cards and fliers, and describe her as professional, polite and responsive. \"She was always having a very pretty smile on the face,\" said Deepal Karunaratne, who had real estate brochures printed. \"She comes and talks to me and was always smiling. She was a very pretty girl, a very pretty young lady.\" The children, however, sometimes stood out. \"They were not dressed like average teenage girls. They were dressed very conservatively,\" Karunaratne said. Another customer, Ben Daughdrill, sometimes corresponded with Dugard when he used the printing service for his junk-hauling business. \"Nothing stood out,\" he said. \"Obviously, there was some brainwashing going on. That's all I can think. She had access to a phone and a computer, so obviously something went on that no one knows about.\" Dugard's real identity was discovered last week and her alleged kidnappers -- Garrido, a registered sex offender, and his 55-year-old wife, Nancy -- were arrested. They face 29 felony charges, including rape and kidnapping, and both have pleaded not guilty. Authorities said the Garridos held Dugard and her daughters in a soundproof shed in the couple's overgrown, littered backyard. Garrido told Karunaratne that he had a soundproof recording studio in the backyard, said Karunaratne, who described Garrido's music as \"Christian, contemporary\" and said some songs \"were about love and romance.\" Watch aerial view of backyard compound \u00bb . Dugard and her mother and daughters have moved to an undisclosed location as they try to get reacquainted, said Carl Probyn, Dugard's stepfather. A team of psychologists and several law enforcement officers are with them, he said. In a related development, authorities in two San Francisco Bay-area cities are investigating whether disappearances dating back to the late 1980s could be connected to Garrido. Police in Hayward, about 20 miles south of Oakland, say they are investigating whether he is connected to the disappearance of Michaela Garecht, last seen in 1988 at age 9. Hayward Police Lt. Chris Orrey said there are similarities between Garecht's disappearance and Dugard's -- similar age and appearance, both were abducted in daylight, and a sketch of a suspect resembles Garrido, she said. Orrey said there were differences as well, though she would not elaborate. But she said Hayward police have been in contact with Garecht's family and witnesses since Dugard was found alive last week. And in Dublin, about 25 miles east of Oakland, police are looking into whether Garrido was connected to the 1989 disappearance of Ilene Misheloff. Ilene was 13 when she was abducted, investigators said. Investigators announced Saturday that they were looking into whether Garrido may have been behind other unsolved crimes. Contra Costa County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Simpkins said police in Antioch and neighboring Pittsburg were searching Garrido's property \"for evidence relating to open cases.\" Authorities brought cadaver dogs to search the property next door to the Garridos as they tried to determine whether Garrido was connected to a string of unsolved slayings of prostitutes in the 1990s. Several of the women's bodies were dumped near a park where Garrido worked at the time. Watch where police are searching \u00bb . \"What we also know is that Phillip Garrido had access to that property,\" said Jimmie Lee, spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department. \"He used that property, and it looks like he lived on that property in a shed.\" A bone fragment was found during the search, but investigators do not know whether it was from a human or an animal, Lee said. The fragment is being sent to a laboratory for testing. And building inspectors have declared the Garrido home unsafe, due to substandard structures and \"junkyard\" conditions, he said. CNN's Ed Lavandera, Patrick Oppman and Dan Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police check 2 other cases for connection to alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido .\nJaycee Dugard's daughters attended birthday parties, loved \"Hannah Montana\"\nThey were \"polite ... well-mannered,\" says mother of one of their friends .\nDugard was allegedly held captive for 18 years by sex offender who fathered the girls .","id":"1fdd28620ec47cf53fffce740c55bdaff7b3d80f"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- In Pakistan's combustible Swat Valley, some girls refuse to wear uniforms so they can make it to school without being harmed. Shiza Shahid, left, a 20-year-old Stanford University student, is helping to teach young girls in Pakistan. Other girls hide textbooks in their shawls to escape harassment. School-age girls are among the victims in the fierce fighting between government soldiers and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley. The Pakistani government said it has flushed much of the Taliban out of the area, but some fighting persists. Many girls remain banned from schools. Dozens of their schools have been bombed, and militants have burned books. A new program has taken 26 girls out of the battle-scarred region to Islamabad for a 10-day retreat, where they can learn in safer surroundings. A group of college students of Pakistani background is helping the girls. Among them are Shiza Shahid, 20, from California's Stanford University, who organized the program called Shajar-e-llm, or Tree of Knowledge. Shahid said she was moved to help after hearing about how the girls struggled to get an education. \"I think we were so angry, upset and emotional that we decided we have to do something,\" she said. Watch as Shahid says she had to act to help the girls \u00bb . Though well-intentioned, the program sometimes seems disorganized. \"We need support. We need unfortunately more organization, more of the bureaucratic nitty-gritty that you don't want to do, but you have to,\" Shahid said. \"We are young, and that does come with the burden as not being equally trusted or seen as capable.\" Nonetheless, the group has ambitions for a boys' learning retreat as well. The lessons are simple enough -- confidence-building exercises, critical-thinking lessons -- all framed in the context of Islamic values. The girls -- ages 11 to 14 -- spoke about their dreams. One wants to meet a poet; another wants to learn calligraphy. Another wants to grow up to lead Pakistan. \"I want to become president and rule this country in a good way,\" said 12-year-old Malila. One day during the retreat, the girls were taught a song about freedom of speech. As a guitarist strummed, the girls sang that God gives everyone the right to free speech and no one can take it away. Free speech seemed to end with the song, however. The girls could not risk talking about Taliban harassment, because the militants' version of Islamic law lingers. Such Islamic law, or shariah, also keeps females from going to school or going outside without their husbands. The United Nations estimates that 375,000 Swat Valley residents fled their homes during fighting that started in April. In all, 2.5 million Pakistanis were displaced in what was said to be one of the largest human migrations in recent history. Many residents have returned to their homes, but peace has not been completely restored to the region. And soon, the girls at the learning retreat will return home to the Swat Valley as well. Organizers said they hope the girls will carry a new love for education. \"There were tears and there were tough moments,\" said Madihah Akhter, a volunteer with the program. \"But the girls surprised me. They were really resilient. They were beyond their years.\"","highlights":"Schoolgirls victims of fighting between Pakistani soldiers and Taliban in Swat Valley .\nA retreat in Islamabad gives 26 girls a safe haven to learn .\nA student from Stanford University is helping lead the retreat .","id":"6f1551bf2129642cad7fc94a6967a7bbe9656347"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz could lose the right to her entire portfolio of world-famous photographs if she doesn't meet a Tuesday deadline to pay back a $24 million loan she is alleged to owe. Annie Leibovitz appears before her photo of Demi Moore during an exhibition of her work in June in Madrid, Spain. Leibovitz, who has photographed everyone from the Rolling Stones to Queen Elizabeth II, put her art, intellectual property and even real estate assets up for collateral last year when she consolidated her massive debts. Art Capital Group, which restructured the debts, says Leibovitz agreed \"to make Art Capital her 'irrevocable exclusive agent'\" of the assets \"in exchange for a reduced interest rate on the loan.\" Now the company is suing Leibovitz for breach of contract, saying she has \"refused to cooperate in the sale of those assets,\" according to a question-and-answer sheet on the lawsuit issued by Art Capital. It also says she has \"refused to pay to Art Capital hundreds of thousands of dollars she owed as part of the same agreement.\" Asked by CNN for comment, Leibovitz's attorney, Steven Brawer, said, \"I don't have anything I can tell you.\" They have until October 1 to respond to the lawsuit. In the question-and-answer sheet, Art Capital says Leibovitz \"acknowledged that in order to repay the loan she would sell her fine art, intellectual property and real estate assets. She authorized Art Capital to act as agent in the sale of those assets through which Art Capital could recoup its decrease in interest rate. She would have realized a significant gain from that sale.\" It says the loan agreement gave Art Capital \"the right to sell the collateral before the loan came due on September 8 and for a two-year period thereafter.\" One of Leibovitz's best known photos is of John Lennon with his wife, Yoko Ono, shortly before the Beatles star was assassinated in 1980. She is no stranger to controversy. In 1991, Leibovitz photographed a nude and extremely pregnant Demi Moore for the cover of Vanity Fair. The issue, considered scandalous at the time, was sold in many places nationwide with a sheath of white paper. Last year, Leibovitz photographed Disney star Miley Cyrus wrapped in a bedsheet, eliciting claims that the photographer pressured the teen queen into poses that were too provocative for her young age. In July, Art Capital filed a complaint with the New York Supreme Court, asking it to uphold the sales agreement it signed with Leibovitz, including its right to sell her art and real estate. If the court agrees with Art Capital, it means Leibovitz could end up owing far more than she did originally. Art Capital has asked for an unspecified amount of damages in addition to the money it says the photographer originally borrowed. Art Capital -- through its affiliate, American Photography -- provides financial and consulting services to artists, galleries and art owners, and offers loans based on their intellectual property and fine art assets.","highlights":"Photographer Annie Leibovitz faces Tuesday deadline to pay back $24 million loan .\nLeibovitz put up art, real estate as collateral in consolidating massive debt .\nArt Capital Group sues Leibovitz, alleging she hasn't repaid money .\nPhotos of Demi Moore, Miley Cyrus among Leibovitz's most controversial works .","id":"19b51a4b155b86fae01204ecd0dbbc5e28a55e25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Will Michael Jackson stop the world? Fans have set up impromptu shrines to Michael Jackson, including this one at his family's house. Thousands are expected to swamp Los Angeles, California, to mourn him Tuesday at the Staples Center, and the accompanying media crush will be enormous. The tribute to the King of Pop at Harlem's Apollo Theater earlier this week drew coverage from all over the world, along with a public turnout in the thousands. Given the feverish interest in all things Jackson, the Los Angeles memorial could be one of the most-viewed events of all time. \"This will obviously be a huge media event, and with Web streams of the funeral, it may be impossible to say for sure how many people watched once all is said and done, because there's still no comprehensive way to measure Web viewing,\" said Toni Fitzgerald, of Media Life, in an e-mail interview. A handful of events have earned the kind of worldwide coverage to put the world on pause, if only for a moment. The 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy \"had the nation locked in a trance for two or three days,\" recalled TV critic Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com. The world audience for the Apollo 11 moon landing has been estimated in the hundreds of millions. The BBC estimated 2.5 billion people watched the 1997 funeral of Princess Diana. Watch Jermaine Jackson talk about his brother's legacy \u00bb . The numbers are easily exaggerated -- nobody knows how many people are watching in groups or in public places -- and the Web has complicated matters further. But in a multichannel, satellite TV, computer-and-cell phone world, the Jackson memorial could have an audience in the hundreds of millions. It was first believed the event would take place at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. But the family announced Thursday that it will hold a private ceremony Tuesday, and then a massive public memorial service at the Staples Center. Fans had until 6 p.m. Saturday to register for free tickets to the memorial service. Organizers used a computer to choose 8,750 names from 1.6 million who registered since Friday. Watch a tour of Neverland \u00bb . \"You have to go back to the Beatles, the death of John Lennon perhaps, and the death of Elvis Presley to find a comparable figure in, not just pop music, but pop culture,\" said Entertainment Weekly critic-at-large Ken Tucker. (EW, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.) \"And Jackson so self-consciously turned himself into not just an American pop icon but a global pop icon. I think this does have worldwide implications and interest.\" See how interest in Jackson's music has skyrocketed \u00bb . The circumstances of Jackson's death have led to comparisons with Presley's in 1977, but in terms of coverage, the two can't compare. The news wasn't even the top story on CBS' \"Evening News,\" Bark recalled, and there certainly wasn't wall-to-wall nationwide live coverage of his funeral. A public viewing drew about 30,000 fans; the funeral, two days after his death, was held in Graceland's living room. But Bark said there are parallels, at least in terms of coverage, with the Kennedy assassination. \"These days it's so much harder to get a bulk audience on any given venue the way the [broadcast networks] did back then, but still the enormity [of the event] -- it's the syndicated tabloid shows ... and TMZ and all the cable networks devoting lots of attention to it, [and] the broadcast networks can't seem to do enough specials in prime time,\" said Bark. \"I do think it's comparative but in a very different way.\" Officially, the sorts of events that have attracted the largest mass audiences have been scheduled entertainment or sports programs. Sixty percent of America watched the 1983 \"M*A*S*H\" finale; more than half watched the 1980 \"Who Shot J.R.\" episode of \"Dallas\" and the 1977 \"Roots\" conclusion. The Beatles' first appearance on \"The Ed Sullivan Show\" in 1964 drew about 45 percent of the country. The Super Bowl is routinely the year's most watched program, with audiences north of 80 million -- about 40 percent of U.S. television households. Although interest in Jackson has been high, the number of viewing choices (and, perhaps, the traditional decline in summer viewing) has kept the ratings for individual Jackson-oriented shows down. \"Jackson's death came up in just about every conversation I had from Thursday to Sunday, and yet only 5 million people tuned in to some of those broadcast specials,\" Media Life magazine's Fitzgerald observed. Still, the public memorial service might be different. \"I expect you'll see very big tune-ins on the cable news networks and on BET, if they cover it; they had huge numbers for their BET Awards focused on Jackson over the weekend,\" Fitzgerald said. The BET Awards was watched by 10.7 million, the most ever for a cable awards show. \"With the celebrity factor thrown into the funeral, who'll be there, who'll talk, I would guess tens of millions in the U.S. will watch it on TV,\" she said. It is certain is that the news media will be there in force. \"I guess we're all going to wait and see what the spectacle is,\" Bark said. \"There may be no precedent for this.\"","highlights":"Public memorial Tuesday could be one of the most-viewed events of all time .\nIt could have a television and online audience in the hundreds of millions .\nJackson's death has led to comparisons with Elvis Presley's death .\nOthers see parallels, at least in terms of coverage, with the Kennedy assassination .","id":"dbcf7c6600b4ad99cb09c846225540205b31a65e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nearly a year after surviving a plane crash in South Carolina, disc jockey Adam \"DJ AM\" Goldstein was found dead in his New York apartment Friday afternoon, his publicist said. He was 36. Adam \"DJ AM\" Goldstein was one of two people who survived a 2008 plane crash in South Carolina. \"The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear,\" his publicist, Jenni Weinman, said in a statement confirming the performer's death. \"Out of respect for his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time.\" Goldstein was found unconscious and unresponsive in his lower Manhattan apartment Friday afternoon, New York police said. The cause of death would be determined by medical examiners, but \"there is no criminality suspected at this time,\" a police statement reported. Goldstein and Travis Barker, the drummer for rock band Blink-182, were the only survivors of a September plane crash in South Carolina that left both critically injured. Four others aboard the plane were killed when the Learjet skidded off a runway during takeoff from Columbia. Watch more about his career \u00bb . \"Daily I live with the guilt and grief of what happened that night, what I saw, who was lost and why I was spared,\" he wrote in a December post on his Web site. \"I have no words to express the pain that comes with knowing four people died, while I lived.\" In addition to spinning beats at clubs and festivals, Goldstein was known for dating reality-TV star Nicole Richie and singer-actress Mandy Moore. \"I am absolutely heartbroken,\" Moore said in a statement. \"For those of us lucky enough to have known him, Adam radiated a contagious exuberance for life and also personified the very definition of a true friend. To say that he will be missed beyond words is an understatement. My heart goes out to his loved ones.\" iReport.com: DJ AM \"bridged communities\" At the time of his death, he had been working on an MTV show about drug addiction that had been scheduled to debut in October. Goldstein himself had been a crack cocaine addict who said he wanted the show to help others recover. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Adam \"DJ AM\" Goldstein was found unconscious in his apartment .\nThere is no criminality suspected at this time,\" police say in statement .\n\"The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear,\" Goldstein's publicist says .\nHe was one of two survivors of a September plane crash in South Carolina .","id":"67cf3e09477158f72a826c47850c9ced80bece36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A judge has ordered mediation in the case of a teen girl who says her family threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rifqa Bary, 17, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July. She claims her father threatened to kill her. The 17-year-old girl, Rifqa Bary, ran away from her family in Columbus, Ohio, in July and took refuge in the home of the Rev. Blake Lorenz with the Global Revolution Church in Orlando, Florida. Bary's parents want her back home. At a court hearing Thursday in Orlando, the girl's parents denied all the allegations against them. Also at the hearing, Judge Daniel Dawson of the Orange County Juvenile Court ordered the girl and her parents to seek the mediation within 30 days. The judge had previously ruled that the girl will remain in Florida foster care until the allegations are resolved. The parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, could not attend the hearing in person but listened through a telephone conference as their lawyer spoke for them. They denied they ever threatened to kill their daughter because she converted to Christianity. Mohamed Bary told CNN he believes a lot of false information has been circulated about the case. \"We wouldn't do her harm,\" the father said, adding that he knew his daughter was involved with Christian organizations. \"I have no problem with her practicing any faith,\" he said. But Bary conceded he would have preferred that his daughter practice the Muslim faith first. The teen had heard of pastor Lorenz and his church through a prayer group on Facebook. The girl's parents reported her missing to Columbus police, who found her two weeks later in Florida through cell phone records. The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to \"deal with the situation.\" In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, \"If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!\" The teenager claims her father added, \"I will kill you!\" Watch the teen talk about her fears \u00bb . Also at Thursday's hearing, the judge sealed a report on the girl from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and issued a gag order for attorneys in the case. At one point during the hearing, the girl's court-appointed guardian, Krista Bartholomew, told the court: \"This is not a holy war but a case about a broken family.\" Outside the courthouse after the hearing, a Muslim activist and several Christian activists exchanged words over the case. Watch the heated exchanges \u00bb . Another hearing is scheduled for September 29 if the family is not able to resolve the conflict through mediation.","highlights":"Teenager claims father threatened to kill her because she converted to Christianity .\nParents of teen have denied all allegations against them .\nRifqa Bary, 17, ran away from Ohio home; took refuge in home of Christian pastor .\nJudge orders teen and her family to seek mediation within 30 days .","id":"7dd261359e34705884f16a17bcb5b9264257fdcb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- McDonald's probably won't be exclaiming \"I'm Lovin' It\" in this case. McCurry restaurant owners A.M.S.P Suppiah and his wife Kanageswary Suppiah. In a David-and-Goliath match-up in the world of fast food, McCurry -- a small Indian curry shop in Malaysia -- has won an eight-year legal battle against the hamburger giant. McDonald's claimed that the prefix \"Mc\" in McCurry trampled on its trademark. The country's Federal Court on Tuesday ruled that it didn't. \"We're very relieved -- much, much relieved -- that this eight-year-old saga is finally over,\" said McCurry owner P. Suppiah. \"We're a typical South Asian-Malay cuisine. No way people walking into McCurry can confuse us with McDonald's.\" The sparse 24\/7 self-service restaurant in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is popular with blue-collar workers who are drawn to its affordable fare, such as biryani rice and fishhead curry. Its logo: a chicken flashing a thumbs-up. The eatery opened in 1999. McDonald's filed suit two years later. \"We were shocked that such a big giant wants to take us to court,\" Suppiah said. \"We felt that we had nothing in common, because we were not selling any Western fast food.\" The hamburger chain, which has 185 restaurants throughout Malaysia, said McCurry was violating the prefix \"Mc\" and that McDonald's had the right to protect it. McCurry, in turn, said the prefix is common and is part of last names all across Europe. Furthermore, it said, the \"Mc\" in McCurry stands for \"Malaysian Chicken Curry.\" A lower court ruled in favor of McDonald's, and Suppiah appealed. An appeals court in 2006 overturned that ruling, prompting McDonald's to appeal this time. On Tuesday, the Federal Court -- the highest in the land -- held up the appeals court ruling. McDonald's said it accepts the judgment. \"We respect the finding of the court and beyond that have no further comment,\" said Liam Jeory of McDonald's Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region. Suppiah said the ruling means he can now add other McCurry locations, with its slogan: \"Tasty and so Gooood.\"","highlights":"David-and-Goliath match-up in fast food world sees McCurry defeat McDonald's .\nMcDonald's claimed that the \"Mc\" in McCurry trampled on its trademark .\nMcCurry owner P. Suppiah: \"We're very relieved -- much, much relieved\"","id":"50dca0738fae38e975c951b9f998055a6b6f05a8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- With irresponsible banking practices taking the blame for bringing about the global economic crisis, there has been a surge of interest in Islamic finance. Islamic finance is estimated to be worth $700 billion and has been growing by 15 to 20 percent per year. Now, a slew of academic courses are springing up to meet the demand of those wanting to break into an expanding market. According to ratings agency Moody's, the global Islamic finance sector is worth $700 billion and has the potential to be worth $4 trillion. What's more, the ethical principles underpinning Islamic finance are seen by some as offering a more sustainable alternative to profit-oriented conventional banking. The result is that academic institutions are lining up to offer formal training in the area. \"There is a huge demand for Islamic finance courses now, so large that it's difficult to cope with,\" Professor Habib Ahmed, Sharjah chair in the school of government and international affairs at Durham University, England, told CNN. Durham will launch a Masters degree in Islamic finance from October, becoming one of a number of European institutions to offer Islamic finance programs. \"Islamic finance has been growing by 15 to 20 percent per year for some time and there is a lot of interest at the moment. People are looking for alternatives after the economic crisis.\" \"Islamic economists believe that if the principles of Islamic finance were followed the crisis wouldn't have happened. We are seeing a lot of non-Muslim countries, including the UK, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore encouraging Islamic finance,\" he said. There are many differences between Islamic and conventional banking practices. One fundamental difference is that Islamic banks do not charge interest. Rather than borrowers and lenders, the system is based on buyers and sellers. \"Conventional banking is biased to the seller. Islamic finance is trying to level the ethics between the two parties,\" Aly Khorshid, an Islamic finance scholar who writes for Islamic Banking and Finance magazine, told CNN. \"People think the Islamic system is based on faith, but it's based on justice. The system is based on justice for the two parties and how you get to the justice is extracted from Islamic faith,\" he said. Khorshid said that there are similarities between \"ethical investment\" schemes and Islamic finance, in that the Islamic system does not allow investment that harms people or the environment. He credits the rapid growth of the Islamic finance sector on the success of \"sukuk\" -- Islamic bonds. In the West, banks including Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Citibank all offer Islamic finance products, catering to a niche market of Muslim borrowers. But while Islamic banks allow Muslims to take advantage of financial services that are consistent with their religious beliefs, it is the ethics underpinning Islamic finance that are attracting the interest of conventional finance institutions keen to learn lessons from the banking crisis. Although Islamic banks have suffered from the global repercussions of the economic downturn, they emerged largely unscathed from the initial banking meltdown that brought about that financial turmoil. Ahmed told CNN that is because Islamic banks are not allowed to deal in mortgage-backed securities or credit-default swaps, two of the practices accused of helping bring about the banking crisis. Khorshid said that although it's too early to say if Islamic finance has dealt with economic downturn better than conventional finance, the Islamic system has many more layers of risk assessment and management, which could help protect it from the problems afflicting conventional banks. But the growth of Islamic finance has brought its own problems. Critics say some banks use Islamic finance to package what are essentially conventional products. \"Islamic banks are also driven by the profit motive and sometimes that can dominate the ethics,\" Ahmed told CNN. While Europe is catching up with the demand for these banking products, the U.S. is lagging behind. Ahmed says that regulatory and legal changes are needed for Islamic finance to grow in the U.S., but he adds there are signs that Canada may become a North American center for Islamic finance. The lack of Islamic finance services in the U.S. is reflected in a relative lack of demand for Islamic finance courses, but in the UK there is the opposite problem. With students coming from Asia and the Middle East to get the qualifications that will help them take advantage of the Islamic finance boom, Ahmed says it is difficult for universities to find qualified teaching staff. \"Most people with PhDs in Islamic finance are working in the industry, making a lot of money,\" he told CNN. He added that Islamic finance products have the potential to appeal to the non-Muslims market, pointing out that in Malaysia the majority of customers for Islamic banks aren't Muslims. \"If people look at the principles they'll see something beneficial in terms of economics, rather than just religious reasons. It's a type of ethical finance that may be attractive to a lot of people.\"","highlights":"There is an increase in demand for academic courses in Islamic finance .\nSome believe Islamic finance principles would have avoided banking crisis .\nIslamic banks do not charge interest or deal in mortgage-backed securities .\nSome principles are similar to those used for ethical investments .","id":"5024e25de26cac56f05e1999f60e1443efc4b2ae"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A black politician campaigning in eastern Germany has become the victim of a racist campaign by a far-right party. Zeca Schall says he is not thinking of leaving Germany despite the threats. The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) says it is trying to persuade Zeca Schall, a German citizen who came from Angola 21 years ago, to leave the country. Schall is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, the party led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and has been named as a CDU expert for the integration of minorities. The NPD's Web site calls Schall the CDU's \"quota negro\" and urges him to leave the country. \"The CDU seems to be realizing that even after years of re-education, negroes cannot be accepted as permanent guests in our state,\" said the NPD, which goes by its German initials. Watch more about the campaign against Schall \u00bb . Schall told CNN he had never before been subjected to such a level of racial hatred. \"I am shocked,\" he said Thursday at a campaign event in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. \"I simply cannot believe that people would do this to fellow humans.\" Schall, who appears on a CDU election poster, said he is scared. \"I have police patrolling at my house day and night, and some officers stay in my house overnight,\" he said. But Schall said he is not thinking of leaving Germany and the CDU said he has the party's full support. Schall and the CDU said they have filed a lawsuit against the NPD. The situation escalated Wednesday when the NPD's national leadership held a rally in Schall's adopted hometown of Hildburghausen. Party Chairman Udo Voigt tried to speak with Schall \"and persuade Mr. Schall that he is needed more in Angola than in Germany,\" the NPD said in a news release. Police sent to protect Schall stopped the NPD's representatives from accessing Schall's premises. He is campaigning for the CDU for a state election in Thuringia, which is in the former communist East Germany. Right-wing extremism is generally a bigger problem in eastern Germany than in the west of the country, and citizens of Hildburghausen told CNN that, though most people support the politician, fascism is a problem in the area. \"Of course we have a base of right-wingers here,\" a passer-by said at the market in the town's center. But most of those questioned by CNN denounced the campaign against Schall and said he is a respected member of the community. \"I am not only a member of the CDU, I am also a voluntary firefighter at the local department,\" Schall said. Frank Schwerdt, the NPD's leader in Erfurt, tried to downplay the events. \"This is not a personal campaign against Mr. Schall,\" Schwerdt said. \"We simply feel that many citizens don't want foreigners to have a say in our politics.\" The NPD has been under surveillance by Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution for alleged contacts with illegal neo-Nazi groups. However, past efforts to ban the party have failed on technical grounds. The NPD denies ties to illegal groups. But members of the Christian Democratic Union told CNN that, since the racist campaign started against Schall, he has received several death threats and the party will no longer allow him to do media interviews because of the risks. At Thursday's campaign event in central Erfurt, increased police presence was noticeable and CDU members said plainclothes officers had been dispatched among the crowd.","highlights":"National Democratic Party of Germany trying to persuade Zeca Schall to leave country .\nSchall is a German citizen who came from Angola 21 years ago .\nSchall is a member of the ruling Christian Democratic Union .\nHas received death threats and his party will no longer allow him to do interviews .","id":"bab8df15905345e7d03b5e0dd4fb974c1482d738"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The struggle over health care reform intensified Thursday as President Obama sought to build on what administration officials hoped was new momentum generated by his prime-time address to Congress. In his address to Congress on Wednesday, President Obama pushed for the government to help the uninsured. Republican leaders ripped the president's Wednesday night speech, arguing that he had botched a unique opportunity to build bipartisan consensus and offer specifics on his long-awaited plan. \"Now is the time to act,\" Obama told an audience near the White House. \"We have talked this issue to death. ... The time for talk is winding down. The time for bickering is past.\" The president was joined by representatives of the American Nurses Association, which has strongly endorsed the passage of a healthcare bill incorporating the president's ideas. Obama repeated several reform principles outlined in his Wednesday night address, including the need for all Americans to have access to coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions. He again insisted that his plan will provide \"more security and stability to those who have insurance,\" extend it to those who don't and slow the rate of growth in health care costs. He reiterated his call to cap out-of-pocket costs and create a health insurance exchange in which individuals and small businesses can pool resources to help bargain for lower coverage costs. iReport.com: \"Obama's speech lacked courage\" Obama has also pushed for the federal government to provide greater financial assistance to those who can't afford insurance. The president's latest call for reform came as the Census Bureau released new data showing that the number of people without health insurance rose from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008. All Americans would be required by law to have health insurance under Obama's proposal, which the administration has projected to cost $900 billion over 10 years. The requirement, Obama noted Wednesday night, would be similar to mandatory auto insurance in most states. Businesses would also be required to either offer health care coverage to workers or contribute to covering their costs of obtaining coverage. CNN's political analysts respond to Obama's speech \u00bb . Top congressional Republicans declared Thursday that they remain staunchly opposed to Obama's plan. They also accused the president of delivering an intensely partisan speech to Congress that unfairly maligned opponents and distorted basic facts. \"I thought the speech was partisan, uninformative, disingenuous and not likely to encourage those who have honest disagreements with him to be able to work toward some kind of common solution,\" said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Arizona. Kyl complained that Obama had made it tougher to reach common ground by constantly referring to opponents' \"unyielding ideological\" arguments and \"bogus claims.\" \"Nobody can have a disagreement with him based upon a valid difference of opinion,\" Kyl said. \"It's always the other -- the motive of the other individual is a bogus motive.\" Among other things, Kyl disputed Obama's claims that the Democratic plan won't add to the federal deficit. \"He wasn't referring to either the House or Senate bill that have gone through committee, because [the Congressional Budget Office] has projected that both of them have a deficit,\" he said. \"So somehow there's going to be a different bill, which is going to solve that deficit problem, I gather, but we didn't hear any detail about that.\" Health care legislation has cleared three committees in the House of Representatives, as well as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. It is currently under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee. Kyl also took issue with Obama's claim that people will have the option of keeping their current coverage if they like it. \"It's not true under the bills. Even if you like your insurance, there's a good chance you won't be able to keep it,\" Kyl claimed. Democrats and Republicans remain deeply divided over the question of whether to allow for a government-run public health insurance option. The president continued to stress his preference for such an option Thursday, saying it would force private insurers to lower costs. But he has repeatedly referred to the provision as only one alternative for increasing competition for health insurance and signaled his openness to ideas. Republicans are unanimous in opposing a public option, calling it an unfair competitor that would drive private insurers from the market and lead to a government takeover of health insurance. Obama has rejected that claim as a false allegation intended to scare people. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a strong supporter of the public option, insisted Thursday that such a provision would save \"tens of billions of dollars\" in health-care expenses. But the speaker, who has insisted that a health care bill cannot pass the House without a public option, also indicated that she doesn't consider the provision \"non-negotiable.\" At a separate news conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, argued that if a nonprofit health care cooperative successfully expands competition and \"makes the insurance companies honest ... that would fill the bill.\" The speaker nevertheless skewered the Republican opposition for failing to provide what she claimed was a reasonable alternative. Opponent of reform \"hit us with their best shot\" during the August congressional recess, she said, and their attacks amounted to little more than \"distortion\" and \"misrepresentation.\" Pelosi also criticized Rep. Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who heckled Obama on Wednesday night by shouting \"You lie!\" when the president denied that health care legislation would provide free coverage for illegal immigrants. The \"episode was unfortunate,\" and Wilson's remarks were \"stunning to hear,\" Pelosi said. But given Wilson's subsequent apology, she said, \"it's time to move on.\" Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized Wilson for what they called a show of disrespect toward the president. Shortly after the speech ended, Wilson issued a statement that apologized for his \"inappropriate and regrettable\" comments. Obama said Thursday that he accepted Wilson's apology. \"I'm a big believer that we all make mistakes,\" the president noted during a Cabinet meeting. But it's important to have a debate \"without vitriol. ... Our goals are generally the same whether we're Democrats or Republicans.\" Wilson insisted that his outburst was \"spontaneous\" and agreed with the White House that the health care debate merits \"a civil discussion.\" One top Republican, however, also opined that Wilson's outburst reflected the strong passion being generated by the health care debate. \"We ought to have civil discourse in America, but don't underestimate the amount of emotion that people are feeling,\" House Minority Leader John Boehner said.","highlights":"NEW: Republicans say Obama missed opportunity to build consensus .\n\"The time for talk is winding down,\" president says near White House .\nHe follows up address to Congress with call for legislation this year .\nNew data show increase in number of Americans without insurance .","id":"ac44f1e2f51dd9b2556f0cad22f5eff1a3ce657c"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Even in the midst of the Civil War, there was still one thing the North and South shared -- a serious addiction to caffeine. Confederate troops were less likely to get a cup of coffee. In that respect, the Union clearly had an advantage. Not only did the North have more than two-thirds of the population and control most of the heavy industry, railroads, and financial reserves in the country, it hoarded supplies of the highly addictive little bean, leaving the Confederacy to wage its own war against java deprivation. Coffee: It's what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner . Throughout the Civil War, coffee was as prevalent on the battlefields as it is in offices today. In fact, the Union army was fueled by the stuff to the point that, if there was no time to boil water, the Boys in Blue would chew on whole beans as they marched. And at night, Union campsites were dotted with tiny fires, each boiling a pot of coffee like a million miniature Starbucks. Beyond caffeine cravings, Union troops loved their coffee because it was, literally, the best thing on the menu. Before the advent of helpful (and tasty!) artificial preservatives, a marching soldier's rations were neither varied nor particularly appetizing. Typically, they consisted of salted meat, unleavened bread (accurately christened \"hardtack\"), and a little sugar and salt. It didn't help that Union supply chains were riddled with corrupt food contractors who charged the government top dollar for rotten, stale, and insect-ridden foodstuffs. Coffee, however, was almost always fresh because it was delivered in whole-bean form -- making it difficult for even the most dishonest supplier to skimp on quality. Not that they didn't try, of course. In fact, officials began requesting coffee as whole beans after some crooked contractors tried to up their per-pound profits by slipping sand and dirt into packages of ground coffee. In 1861, hoping to cut down on the time soldiers spent roasting and grinding beans, the army switched to a concentrated proto-instant coffee. The new concoction, called \"essence of coffee,\" was made by boiling prepared coffee, milk, and sugar into a thick gloop, which soldiers then reconstituted by mixing it with water. The product reportedly tasted every bit as bad as you'd imagine, and thanks to the corrupt dairymen who sold the army spoiled milk, it also tended to cause diarrhea. Needless to say, the Union army was soon back on the bean. Southern discomfort . Noxious as essence of coffee was, Confederate soldiers would have gladly downed a cup or two. But, because of a Union naval blockade, coffee (along with weapons, machinery, medicine, and other vital materials) was in short supply in the South. Before the war, a pound of beans would have set you back around 20 cents in Yankee dough. Once pre-war stockpiles ran out, however, the same amount was running as high as $60 in Confederate money. (Despite the undervalued currency, that was still a lot.) There was some coffee that made it into the Confederacy -- usually carried by steam-powered blockade-runner ships. But, for the most part, Southerners had to rely on coffee substitutes, including various forms of roasted corn, rye, okra seeds, sweet potatoes, acorns, and peanuts. Unfortunately, all these imitations lacked potency, tasted awful, and upset the bowels. The only slightly better alternative was tea made from the leaves of the native yaupon shrub. The good news was that it contained caffeine; the bad news was that it was incredibly difficult to digest. Luckily, there was one surefire way for Southern folk to get their coffee -- by making peace with the Union. Soldiers on the front lines often called informal truces so Rebels could swap tobacco for Yankee coffee and then dash back to their camps before they were reported missing. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Coffee was a hot commodity in the Civil War .\nUnion troops had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner .\nSuppliers sometime ground dirt into beans .\nBlockade kept coffee had to get for Confederate troops .","id":"8b270ce0558371cdbb49bd8adba00f015fc6980f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than two dozen times in the past three years, authorities came to Phillip and Nancy Garrido's ramshackle home at 1554 Walnut Ave. in Antioch, California, a rural property where Jaycee Dugard is said to have been confined for 18 years. Jaycee Dugard was locked in a shed tucked under a blue tarp in her alleged captor's backyard. And each time, they left without learning of the secret shed where Dugard lived. The Garridos have pleaded not guilty to charges of abduction and forcible rape. They are being held without bail in the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez, California. After she was abducted in June 1991, at age 11, Dugard's disappearance spawned a massive search that continued, on and off, for almost two decades. Federal agents remained committed to the case, chasing thousands of leads. But they apparently never had the Garridos on their radar. The case of the missing girl evoked deep emotions that rippled across the South Lake Tahoe community. Strangers threw fundraisers and parades to raise money for search efforts. Friends and neighbors wore T-shirts bearing images of Dugard's smiling face to give the case exposure. Elementary school students toted signs that encouraged the community to stay committed to the hunt for their classmate. All they wanted was to find little Jaycee Lee Dugard. And for some of that time, authorities were visiting the home of the couple now accused of abducting her. Watch an FBI agent talk about why clues were missed \u00bb . Interviews with public officials show that parole officers, law enforcement officials and firefighters visited the Garrido household but left without realizing that the kidnapped girl had grown to adulthood and was living in a soundproof shed hidden in the backyard. Two Dozen Contacts . There were at least 16 visits from parole officers and seven by the fire department. There was also one by the sheriff's office responding to an allegation that people were living in the backyard. State and local authorities have now begun internal investigations to find out why none of these visits uncovered the existence of Dugard, now 29, and her children, Starlet, 15, and Angel, 11. Their makeshift home of tents, tarps and sheds was tucked behind a 6-foot wall at the rear of the Garrido property. \"I feel confident the sheriff will use this as an example of how to do things better,\" said Federal Glover, a district supervisor for Contra Costa County who also heads the community's public safety committee. \"From this lesson, we will not have this type of missed opportunity occur again.\" One of the first red flags authorities might have caught was in 1993, two years after the kidnapping. Garrido, who had been released from prison after serving 11 years for a 1976 kidnapping, violated his parole in April 1993. It is unclear what he did or how the violation was flagged. As a result, he was placed in federal prison for one month and then released on house arrest for three months. He returned to the Antioch home, where he lived with his wife and his elderly mother. Violation Wasn't Reported to Nevada . But the parole violation was never reported to the state of Nevada, where the first kidnapping and rape had occurred, said Gail Powell, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Public Safety. \"The state of Nevada would have taken some action,\" Powell said. \"I don't know what, but some action could have meant putting him back in prison, pulling him off parole.\" In 1999, the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections agreed to take responsibility and authority for supervising Garrido's parole because he resided in that state. Garrido's most recent parole agent visited the home at least twice a month since December, according to California corrections officials. Sometimes the visits were unannounced, said Gordon Hinkle, a department spokesman. Parole officers also checked on Garrido frequently before 2008, Hinkle said, but he did not know how often or how many parole officers visited Garrido's residence. The parole agent who most recently entered Garrido's backyard didn't notice any children's toys or items to indicate that minors were living in the house. The agent saw a shed but assumed it belonged to a neighbor. \"There was a deceptive false impression,\" Hinkle said. \"If you were to be on the property walking around, you would have seen a big fence.\" Parole Officers Carry Big Caseloads . Hinkle said the parole officer performed his duties appropriately. The parole officer was also responsible for raising suspicions when two University of California Berkeley officers notified him that Phillip Garrido came in with his \"daughters.\" The parole officer called the Garridos in for questioning. California has one of the highest parolee-to-officer ratios in the country. State budget cuts are expected to strain the department this year, which could mean reducing the number of parole officers, Hinkle said. The officer assigned to supervise Garrido was also responsible for 39 other sex offenders. As recently as June, two months before Dugard was discovered with the Garridos, Contra Costa County firefighters responded to a fire on the property. They doused a car engine that had exploded into flames at the rear of the property, said department spokeswoman Emily Hopkins. They spent two hours there and then left. They also visited Garrido's property in fall 2007, after a neighbor reported fire coming from the backyard. In addition, they responded twice in 2008 and three times in 2009 to medical emergencies involving Garrido's elderly mother, Patricia Franzen. Fire department officials weren't sure whether more visits were made to the home, because computerized records date only to 2006. Neighbors Steered Clear . Neighbors who had encounters with Garrido said they didn't take the time to get to know him. Some said they knew that he was a sex offender, so they steered away from his house. Others ignored him because they thought he was strange. Betty Unpingco invited the entire neighborhood to her son's graduation party in spring 2006. She said Garrido attended and brought speakers for the party. When Unpingco and several adults noticed him talking to the high school girls, they asked him to leave. Later that night, she said, when they saw him waiting outside his home to speak to the girls, the adults escorted them home. Feeling uneasy after the party, Unpingco checked the sex offender registry and found Garrido's picture. \"It was just so bizarre,\" said Unpingco, who has 10 children. \"I warned my children to stay away from him and to always walk in twos.\" She did not notify police. In November 2006, another neighbor did call police, saying she saw people living in tents behind the Garridos' house. Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said he didn't think the deputy who responded knew at the time that Garrido was a sex offender. The deputy spoke to Garrido in his front yard about the allegations, but Garrido convinced him otherwise.","highlights":"Officials visited Garrido home more than two dozen times in past three years .\nPhillip Garrido's parole officer checked up on him at least twice a month .\nGarrido violated parole in 1993, but offense wasn't reported to all the right agencies .","id":"2965452bdf88c3114e92dd289b5bea1177645f98"} -{"article":"BURBANK, California (CNN) -- Laura Ling on Wednesday expressed the shock she and Euna Lee felt when former President Clinton showed up in Pyongyang, North Korea, to help secure the two journalists' release. The families of Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling greet them Wednesday in California. \"We feared at any moment that we could be sent to a hard labor camp, and then suddenly we were told we were going to a meeting,\" a tearful and emotional Ling said at a news conference Wednesday morning in California shortly after arriving by plane with Lee and Clinton. She spoke minutes after the two women were reunited with their families at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank outside Los Angeles. They had been detained in North Korea since March. North Korea pardoned Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, after Clinton's brief trip Tuesday to Pyongyang. \"We were taken to a location, and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton,\" Ling said, with Lee standing beside her. Watch the emotional return at the airport \u00bb . \"We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end.\" She expressed her and Lee's \"deepest gratitude\" to Clinton and his \"wonderful, amazing\" team. Watch as Ling says, \"We could feel your love\" \u00bb . \"The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching time of our lives,\" Ling said. \"We are very grateful that we were granted amnesty by the government of North Korea, and we are so happy to be home.\" She said that she and Lee are looking forward to spending \"some quiet, private time\" with their families. iReport.com: Share reaction to the freed journalists . Former Vice President Al Gore also spoke to the throngs of journalists at the news conference. He expressed his gratitude to Clinton and President Obama and his administration who \"have been deeply involved in this humanitarian effort.\" Watch Gore pay tribute to the people involved in the effort \u00bb . Lee and Ling are employed by Gore's California-based media company, Current TV. The women were arrested in March while reporting from the border between North Korea and China. In June, they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign. On Wednesday morning, Lee bowed as she walked down the steps of the plane into a private hangar, and Ling raised her fists into the air. The women hugged their families, who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Lee's 4-year-old daughter, Hana, clung tightly to her tearful mother. Watch as the women reunite with their families \u00bb . Clinton walked off the plane minutes later but did not address the crowd. \"I am very happy that after this long ordeal, Laura Ling and Euna Lee are now home and reunited with their loved ones,\" Clinton said in a statement. \"When their families, Vice President Gore and the White House asked that I undertake this humanitarian mission, I agreed. I share a deep sense of relief with Laura and Euna and their families that they are safely home.\" Journalist Lisa Ling said she never gave up hope that she would see her sister again. \"We always maintained our hope and knew in our hearts that we would see Laura again; we just didn't know when,\" Lisa Ling said outside her home in Los Angeles, California. \"We are just thrilled beyond words that the day has finally arrived.\" She said her sister was looking forward to eating fresh fruit and food for the first time in four months, after many meals of rice that often contained rocks. \"I can tell she has gone through a lot,\" Ling said. \"My sister has an amazing, amazing spirit, and she's a little bit weak right now, so I think it's going take a little time for her to gather up her wits and be able to talk about what she experienced.\" At the White House, Obama applauded the release of the two journalists, saying, \"We are very pleased with the outcome.\" Their release is a \"source of happiness not only for the families but for the entire country,\" he said. Watch as Obama says, \"We are relieved\" \u00bb . Obama also thanked the former president and Gore for their roles in winning the women's release. \"I think that not only is this White House ... extraordinarily happy, but all Americans should be grateful to both former President Clinton and Vice President Gore for their extraordinary work,\" he said. Clinton made the trip to North Korea after the women's families asked him to travel there, a senior administration official said. Doug Ling, Ling's father, earlier reacted to the news of his daughter's release outside his home in Carmichael, California, saying it was \"one of the best days in my life.\" \"I figured, sooner or later, they'd be back,\" he said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also expressed her relief that the two women were released. She spoke from Nairobi, Kenya, where she is taking part in a multination visit to Africa. \"I spoke to my husband on the airplane, and everything went well,\" she said. \"It is just a good day to be able to see this happen.\" In July, Ling and Lee spoke to their families and told them that the North Koreans were willing to grant them amnesty if a high-level envoy, such as former President Clinton, were willing to travel to Pyongyang, the administration official said on condition of anonymity. North Korea said Clinton \"expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il\" for the journalists' actions, but the administration official said he knew nothing about an apology. He said Clinton met for three hours and 15 minutes with the North Korean leader but said he did not know what issues were discussed. But he said Clinton's views on a verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula are well-known. North Korea's state-run Korea Central News Agency said Clinton conveyed a message from Obama \"expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries.\" But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said before the announced agreement that Clinton was not carrying any message from Obama. Gibbs added the former president last spoke with Obama during a White House visit in March. He described Clinton's trip as a \"solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans.\" Clinton's mission came as the United States and its allies in the region are seeking to persuade North Korea to return to the stalled nuclear disarmament talks. North Korea conducted its second nuclear bomb test in May and has held several missile tests since then. The United Nations has responded by increasing sanctions on the nation. North Korea and the United States had no regular contacts before a 1994 crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear program. North Korea agreed then to halt the development of nuclear weapons but abandoned that accord and withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003. Clinton had considered visiting North Korea in 2000, near the end of his second term as president. His secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, had gone to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet with Kim. She was the last high-ranking American official to do so before this week. CNN's Elaine Quijano, Charlie Moore and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sister says freed journalist is looking forward to eating fresh food, resting .\nJournalist Laura Ling expresses gratitude for her and Euna Lee's release .\nClinton helps secure two journalists' release from North Korea .\nTwo journalists arrested in March near North Korea-China border .","id":"0e310c1eb77789a0453970be8328dd9adad3f07e"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Ann Holmes Redding has what could be called a crisis of faiths. Ann Holmes Redding says she sees no contradiction in being both a Christian minister and a Muslim. For nearly 30 years, Redding has been an ordained minister in the Episcopal Church. Her priesthood ended Wednesday when she was defrocked. The reason? For the past three years Redding has been both a practicing Christian and a Muslim. \"Had anyone told me in February 2006 that I would be a Muslim before April rolled around, I would have shaken my head in concern for the person's mental health,\" Redding recently told a crowd at a signing for a book she co-authored on religion. Redding said her conversion to Islam was sparked by an interfaith gathering she attended three years ago. During the meeting, an imam demonstrated Muslim chants and meditation to the group. Redding said the beauty of the moment and the imam's humbleness before God stuck with her. \"It was much more this overwhelming conviction that I needed to surrender to God and this was the form that my surrender needed to take,\" she recalled. \"It wasn't just an episode but .... was a step that I wasn't going to step back from.\" Ten days later Redding was saying the shahada -- the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Mohammad as his prophet. But Redding said she felt her new Muslim faith did not pose a contradiction to her staying a Christian and minister. \"Both religions say there's only one God,\" Redding said, \"and that God is the same God. It's very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven't shifted my allegiance.\" Watch Redding say, \"Being a Muslim makes me a better Christian\" \u00bb . The imam at the Islamic Center in Seattle, Washington, where Redding prays said she brings the best of both traditions to her beliefs. \"Coming from an example of wanting to be Christ-like and coming from the perspective of wanting to follow the best example -- the example of our prophet Mohammed -- it all makes sense then,\" Benjamin Shabazz said. There are many contradictions between the two religions. While Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, Christianity worships him as the son of God. James Wellman, who chairs the department of comparative religion at the University of Washington, said that while it is not unusual for people to \"mix and match\" beliefs, it is almost unheard of for a minister to claim two religions. \"When you take ordination as a Christian minister, you take an explicit vow of loyalty to Jesus. It's hard for me to understand how a Christian minister could have dual loyalties,\" Wellman said. Redding said she sees the theological conflicts but that the two religions, at their core, \"illuminate\" each other. \"When I took my shahada, I said there's no God but God and that Mohammed is God's prophet or messenger. Neither of those statements, neither part of that confession or profession denies anything about Christianity,\" she said. To her parishioners and family, though, Redding has turned her back on her faith and office. There was, she said, \"universal puzzlement\" at her decision to convert to Islam but still remain an Episcopal minister. \"I have people who love me very much who really don't want me to do this, and I love them very much. And I would love to be able to say, 'Because I love you I will renounce my orders' or 'I will renounce Islam' ... I hate causing pain to people who love me, that's not my intention,\" Redding said. The Episcopal Church also rejected Redding's religious choice. \"The church interprets my being a Muslim as 'abandoning the church,' \" she said. \"And that [there] comes an understanding that you have to be one or the other, and most people would say that. It simply hasn't been my experience that I have to make a choice between the two.\" The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry. A diocese statement said Bishop Geralyn Wolf found Redding to be \"a woman of utmost integrity. However, the Bishop believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.\" Even though she has been defrocked, Redding said she is not capable of turning her back on either faith. She said she wants to continue speaking about and teaching religion and perhaps even travel to the Hajj, a journey to Mecca that every Muslim is supposed to make in their lifetime. Redding said she does not want her belief in two religions to diminish the value she holds for both Christianity and Islam. Each faith by itself is enough to fulfill a person spiritually, she said. \"It's all there. I am not saying you have to go somewhere else to be complete. Some people don't need glasses, some people need single lenses. I need bifocals.\"","highlights":"Ann Holmes Redding says she saw no contradiction in Muslim being a minister .\nChristian parishioners, family saw Redding as having abandoned her faith .\nDiocese rules that priest \"cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim\"","id":"c9d6ab7bcedda283554ae1cf962d24a2ba1af73a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Jewish groups on Wednesday rejected as inadequate an apology by Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone for remarks in which he praised German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Bernie Ecclestone: \"Many people in my closest circle of friends are Jewish.\" During an interview with The Times newspaper last week the billionaire spoke of the Nazi dictator's ability to \"get things done.\" But after a storm of criticism, Ecclestone issued a statement on Tuesday in which he said: \"I unreservedly apologize for the remarks I made regarding Hitler in a recent interview. I am extremely distressed and embarrassed that these remarks have been used as suggesting that I support Hitler or Saddam Hussein. I would never support such people. \"I should never have been so foolish as to have been drawn into discussing these people but the fault was entirely mine, which I deeply regret.\" On Wednesday Jon Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, rejected the apology. \"Mr. Ecclestone's comments were crass, ignorant and insensitive,\" he said in a statement issued to CNN. \"There is no excuse for praising one of history's most evil men for being good at being bad.\" Tell us what you think of Ecclestone's comments . In his statement on Tuesday, the 78-year-old appeared to reignite the controversy by remarking: \"During the 1930s Germany was facing an economic crisis, but Hitler was able to rebuild the economy, building the autobahns and German industry. \"That was all I meant when I referred to him getting things done. \"I'm an admirer of good leadership, of politicians who stand by their convictions and tell the voters the truth. I'm not an admirer of dictators who rule by terror.\" He told The Jewish Chronicle on Tuesday he regretted offending people who took his remarks \"the wrong way.\" Ecclestone had earlier been described by the newspaper's editor, Stephen Pollard, as \"either an idiot or morally repulsive.\" Germany's Central Council of Jews had urged motor racing teams to boycott Formula One over Ecclestone's comments but cautiously welcomed the apology. However one of the group's leaders pointed out that the F1 chief's remarks about the man who presided over the deaths of six million Jews had caused great pain. \"If Ecclestone says he was an idiot, I will certainly not contradict him,\" Dieter Graumann, vice president of the council, told Handesblatt newspaper. \"Apologizing is better than not apologizing. But the glorification of a mass murderer is not a trivial offense.\" German media also reported that Guenther Oettinger, premier of the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, had canceled a meeting with the Briton at this weekend's German Grand Prix at Nurburgring because of his comments about Hitler. The F1 chief had told the German newspaper Bild: \"Many people in my closest circle of friends are Jewish. Anyone who knows me knows that I would never attack a minority.\"","highlights":"F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone apologizes for praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler .\nBillionaire had spoken of Hitler's ability to \"get things done\"\nJewish groups dismiss as inadequate Ecclestone's apology .","id":"3bf6bf0500f1ea088368ccc0a6113f0e22e23759"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration has decided to rescind invitations to Iranian diplomats for July Fourth celebrations overseas because of violent crackdowns against protesters in Iran, the White House said Wednesday. President Obama on Tuesday toughened his stance on Iran's crackdown on protesters. \"July Fourth allows us to celebrate the freedom and the liberty we enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble peacefully, freedom of the press,\" White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. \"Given the events of the past many days, those invitations will no longer be extended.\" The administration had decided to invite Iranians to the celebrations at overseas posts as part of the president's policy of engaging the Iranian regime. In late May the State Department sent a cable to its embassies and consulates worldwide informing them they \"may invite representatives from the government of Iran\" to their July Fourth celebrations. But in a fresh cable sent to all embassies and consulates Wednesday evening, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered posts \"to rescind all invitations that have been extended to Iranian diplomats for July Fourth events. \"Unfortunately the circumstances have changed and participation by Iranian diplomats would not be appropriate in light of the Iranian government's continued violent and unjust actions against its own people,\" said the cable, obtained by CNN. \"For invitations which have been extended, posts should make clear that Iranian participation is no longer appropriate in the current circumstances. For invitations which have not been extended, no further action is needed.\" A senior administration official said Clinton made the decision, and then informed President Obama. The U.S. receptions marking Independence Day usually feature symbols of Americana, such as hot dogs, red-white-and-blue decorations and remarks by U.S. officials about America's founding fathers. One senior administration official said Wednesday the reconsideration of the July Fourth invitations is consistent with Obama's comments Tuesday, in which he said he was \"shocked and appalled\" at the violence against demonstrators. \"The president said yesterday how this plays out will affect what we do,\" the official said. Obama said Tuesday, \"If Iran chooses a path that abides by international norms and principles, then we are interested in healing some of the wounds of 30 years in terms of U.S.-Iranian relations.\" Watch Obama ramp up criticism of Iran \u00bb . On Tuesday, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said an invitation to Iranian diplomats would send the wrong message to Iranians \"who are bravely standing up for the same rights and freedoms which Americans celebrate on this day.\" \"The Fourth of July is a day when we celebrate democracy and reflect on the gift of freedom which all Americans cherish,\" she said in a statement. \"The Iranian people are no less worthy of freedom and self-governance than citizens of the United States.\" Earlier this year, as part of the policy to engage Iran, Obama videotaped a message for the Iranian people on the Persian new year and U.S. officials have engaged members of the Iranian government. In March, Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, spoke briefly with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, at an Afghanistan conference in The Hague. Administration officials believe the U.S. will engage Iran at some point to address issues of U.S. national security, including the nuclear issue, but the idea of bilateral engagement is in a holding pattern while the violence continues. \"I wouldn't say engagement is off the table, but it is certainly on ice,\" a senior administration official said this week.","highlights":"Administration had planned to invite Iranians to celebrations at overseas posts .\nClinton: Participation not appropriate given \"continued violent and unjust actions\"\nViolence against election protesters in Iran has caused the change, officials say .","id":"412c2084b8938b80d05c6ad1cae2ff06d7bd67d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Although there were no signs of missing aviation adventurer Steve Fossett Tuesday evening, an official leading the rescue said she remained optimistic. Aviation record-holder Steve Fossett is missing and a search is under way. Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol said Fossett, who has been missing for a day, once walked 30 miles to get help after making a forced landing. But Ryan noted the challenge rescuers are facing as they comb the high desert region, which is covered with sagebrush and hides deep ravines. Rescuers are focusing on 600 square miles. \"It's a very large haystack,\" she said. \"And an airplane is a very small needle. No doubt about that.\" The Civil Air Patrol has 10 aircraft that will be searching until dusk for Fossett, who has been missing since Monday afternoon, she said. The search will resume Wednesday at 7 a.m. (10 a.m. ET). Fossett, 63, was in a single-engine plane when he took off at 9 a.m. (noon ET) in good flying conditions from hotel magnate Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, Ryan said. He had planned to return to the ranch, which is about 30 miles south of Yerington, Nevada, at noon (3 p.m. ET). The search for him began about six hours later, Ryan said. Fossett did not file a flight plan, which is not required on flights using visual navigation. Fossett is the first person to solo around the world in a balloon, and has broken numerous other flight records. When he left, he had four to five hours of fuel for flight, said Ryan. \"Steve took off toward the south and was going to fly southbound, looking around for some dry lake beds for some plans he had for the future,\" Ryan said. Those plans, she said, involved testing a vehicle in an attempt to set a world land speed record. Ryan said authorities are analyzing information from radar intelligence to try to track Fossett. Helicopters and planes from Naval Air Station Fallon, in Fallon, Nevada, the Nevada Air National Guard and the California Highway Patrol are helping in the search. Watch CNN's Miles O'Brien, who is a pilot, describe the search \u00bb . Fossett was flying in a single-engine, Citabria Super Decathlon -- a plane capable of aerobatics -- with tail number N240R, according to CAP. Fossett, though, had no parachute, which is required for aerobatics. See where Fossett took off \u00bb . There has been no sound detected from the plane's emergency locator radio beacon, which goes off if there is a hard impact. The aircraft, with serial number 635-80, was manufactured by Bellanca, and is registered to the Flying M Hunting Club Inc. in Yerington. \"Steve is a tough old boot. I suspect he is waiting by his plane right now for someone to pick him up,\" predicted Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, in a written statement. \"The ranch he took off from covers a huge area, and Steve has had far tougher challenges to overcome in the past. Based on his track record, I feel confident we'll get some good news soon.\" Virgin Atlantic sponsored the GlobalFlyer, which Fossett flew in 2005 during the first nonstop, solo flight around the world without refueling. A year later, he used GlobalFlyer again to break the world's flight distance record, traveling more than 26,000 miles in 76 hours, 45 minutes from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Bournemouth, on the coast of southern England. He made an emergency landing during that flight after electricity on the aircraft failed over Shannon, Ireland. His goal had been to land at Kent International Airport in Manston, England. In 2006, Fossett piloted the plane to its new home, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. In 2002, he achieved the first solo balloon flight around the world, traveling 20,626 miles in 14 days. He's credited with 115 world records or world firsts, and holds official world records in five sports, according to his Web site. CNN.com interviewed Fossett last year after he published a book about his life's passion for breaking world records, titled \"Chasing the Wind.\" Asked which of his record-breaking feats was his personal favorite, he said, \"The first solo around-the-world balloon flight. We had to really upgrade the technical capability of balloons and the flight was much more difficult than I'd ever imagined it would be. I tried six times over the course of six years before succeeding.\" \"I think I'm a risk averse person, which might sound very strange because of the sports I'm involved in,\" Fossett said, in response to a question about whether anything scares him. \"What I do is try and reduce the risk. I don't do any of this for the thrills. I'm doing them for the personal achievement.\" Asked how long he'll keep going, Fossett answered, \"I imagine that when I'm 80 years old and sitting in a wheelchair that I might do something like take a remote control airplane and try and fly it around the world. I plan to be setting and breaking records indefinitely.\" The aviator was in Sparks, Nevada, northeast of Reno, in August, preparing a jet racer to break the land speed record at Bonneville Flats in northwest Utah. Fossett was born in Jackson, Tennessee, but grew up in California, where he attended Stanford University, graduating with a degree in economics in 1966. Two years later, he earned an MBA at Washington University in St. Louis and became a successful commodities broker, eventually launching the Chicago-based securities company Lakota Trading in 1980. He married Peggy Viehland in 1968. The couple have no children. His interest in adventure started early. As a Boy Scout, he grew up climbing the mountains of California. \"When I was 12 years old I climbed my first mountain, and I just kept going, taking on more diverse and grander projects,\" he told CNN in the 2006 interview. Fossett fueled his drive for adventure with the money he made from Lakota Trading. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Fossett was scouting locales for land speed record attempt, official says .\nAircraft combing rugged terrain in western Nevada for Fossett and his plane .\nFossett made first solo, nonstop, non-refueled airplane trip around the world .\nThe 63-year-old also made first solo balloon flight around the world .","id":"bcc43e9080151895e3110ae3783e006fa08c36ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Although most Swedes would be too modest to say so themselves, Stockholm can stake a decent claim to being the capital of Scandinavia. Built on 14 islands, Stockholm seems to float on water. Built on 14 islands where Lake M\u00e4laren meets the Baltic Sea, Stockholm is a soft-hued vision of light and water, the bewitching start to an archipelago of some 24,000 islands and islets. Sweden's neutrality during World War II means Stockholm was spared the bombing inflicted on most European capitals; the result is the unspoiled old town of Gamla Stan, with its winding, cobbled streets. Despite a post-war building blitz that saw the construction of some particularly uninspiring modernist architecture, it is a city where gray concrete facades are largely eschewed in favor of a smorgasbord of pastel colors, rusty reds and glowing ochres. For a capital city it's unusually green -- not just leafy and dotted with verdant parks, but environmentally sound. Stockholm proper has a population of just 800,000, avoiding the congestion and pollution that plague larger cities -- so much so that you can fish from, and swim in, the waters surrounding the city center. Cold and sometimes bleak during its long, dark winters, Stockholm comes alive during the summer, when the Scandinavian sun barely sets. As temperatures rise the city's cafe culture blossoms, only for Stockholm to become a ghost town during July, when the locals make the most of their generous holiday entitlement and slip off to holiday cottages in the archipelago. But beyond its historic heart Stockholm is a progressive, evolving city. Its financial fortunes grew with the mid '90s IT boom and shrank when the dotcom bubble burst, but it remains a hotbed of technology and communications companies. Watch ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus take CNN on a tour of Stockholm \u00bb . Around 20 percent of the residents of greater Stockholm are of foreign descent, giving a sense of cultural diversity -- not to mention some welcome variety to the city's thriving restaurant scene. Despite Sweden's largely anti-EU stance, Stockholm is cosmopolitan and outward looking, with a keen eye for the latest international trends. Its shops are filled with the latest in functional, minimalist Swedish design and there are enough boutiques boasting hip New York brands and cool Swedish labels to indulge Stockholmers' obsession with style. It's also the city where Swedish global exports H&M and IKEA have their flagship stores. For all its picture-postcard pleasantness and progressive civic planning, Stockholm can seem a little sterile. It's not the kind of place likely to be described as \"edgy.\" Stockholmers themselves can come across as standoffish, but that's not say that they are unfriendly -- just politely reserved. Small talk is regarded with a certain suspicion meaning the locals can be hard to get to know, but it's amazing what a difference a couple of glasses of akvavit can make. Puritan legal regulations mean that high-alcohol drinks (that's anything with more than 3.5 percent alcohol) are heavily taxed and can only be bought in bars and government-run \"Systembolaget\" shops. The result is that a night on the town is expensive enough to make anyone teetotal, with Stockholmers often avoiding midweek drinking, saving their krona for weekend partying. But what Stockholm lacks in grit it more than makes up for in style. From its artfully designed coffee shops to the classic contours of its baroque and rococo buildings, this island city is endlessly pleasing to behold, especially when viewed from the water that flows like blood through its veins.","highlights":"From artfully designed cafes to baroque buildings, Stockholm exudes cool .\nThe island city has dubbed itself the capital city of Scandinavia .\nCity blossoms in the summer when temperatures rise and sun barely sets .\nInflux of immigrants has added new dimension to city's gastronomic scene .","id":"411e381be1890cd1660bc6726f23999ec734a661"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two words, delivered with index finger punctuating the air and directed at the president of the United States, made a little-known South Carolina congressman one of the most controversial men on the Internet -- at least Wednesday heading into Thursday. Many Facebook and Twitter users condemned Rep. Joe Wilson for his outburst toward President Obama. As soon as Rep. Joe Wilson was identified as the person whose angry and audible outburst disrupted President Obama's health care speech to Congress, condemnation was swift -- and brutal. Within minutes, someone had altered Wilson's entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia: . \"He is a [expletive] that called the president of the United States a liar on national television and has no respect for the office he holds.\" When the Web site scrubbed the sentence, an even more offensive entry wormed its way in. iReport.com: \"You are disrespectful, sir\" Soon, the site disabled edit options for Wilson's entry, chalking it up to \"vandalism.\" On Twitter, post after post urged users to condemn Wilson's breach of protocol, listing his Web site address and his congressional office phone number. Web surfers who visited http:\/\/www.joewilson.house.gov\/ were greeted with the message: \"This site is down for maintenance. Please check back again soon.\" Those who called his office number either could not get through because the line was busy, or could not leave a message because the phone continued to ring without activating voice mail. \"If he's the face of the GOP, we'll have public option by Columbus Day!\" wrote Andisheh Nouraee, a columnist for Creative Loafing, an alternative weekly in Atlanta, Georgia. Democrats on Capitol Hill piled on the condemnation as well. \"Biggest disappointment of evening, the total lack of respect show by one member for the president,\" wrote Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. \"Never acceptable to behave like a jerk.\" As \"Joe Wilson\" trended on Twitter as the most popular conversation topic -- and on Google among the most searched terms -- the lawmaker's supporters fought back. Many set up Twitter accounts and posted their first tweets Wednesday night and early Thursday. \"You have nothing to apologize for. You should be applauded for standing up and speaking the truth,\" said Jamie Sawyer of Madison, Wisconsin. \"Good for him! Too bad he had to apologize\" was a comment on the Lonely Conservative blog. \"At last the little man found his voice tonight and called Obama what he surely is, a liar,\" said another blog, Sunlit Uplands. By early Thursday, genuine tweets about Wilson were interspersed with ads for male erectile dysfunction: \"Joe Wilson Cialis $1.9 Viagra $1.1 (Web site address)\" Though Wilson issued an apology, saying his emotions got the best of him, few online bought it. Watch Obama react to the \"You lie!\" outburst \u00bb . On the Internet, where speculation runs rife, tweeters pointed to a comment Wilson posted on Labor Day as evidence that his outburst was planned: . \"Happy Labor Day! Wonderful parade at Chapin, many people called out to oppose Obamacare which I assured them would be relayed tomorrow to DC,\" the tweet from Wilson's account said. On Facebook, where users aren't impeded by Twitter's 140-character limitation, a prolonged and nasty war of words dominated Wilson's page. \"I have no problem being called a liberal hack by illogical, fear filled, unintelligent people. and actually, I will take it as a complement,\" wrote Janine Feczko. Name-calling was met by ad hominem attacks: \"Janine, I'm sure in the trailer park where you live they gush over your incredible intellect and witty commentary. After all that toothless grin and tripple chin screams Harvard Law,\" wrote Dan Colgan. Nine hundred and 10 comments later, the battle raged on early Thursday. Amid all this, the campaign of Democrat Rob Miller, who hopes to unseat the Republican Wilson in next year's midterm elections, raked in the dough: more than $200,000 from 5,000 individuals overnight and Thursday morning after Obama's speech, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Finally, there were those who found humor in Wilson's heckle. A hastily created Web site, JoeWilsonIsYourPreExistingCondition, hurled a new insult at the politician with every click of the refresh button. \"Joe Wilson poured salt on your lawn,\" said one. Refresh. \"Joe Wilson traded the dead batteries in walkman for the fresh ones in your TV remote.\" Refresh. \"Joe Wilson yells 'Freebird' at concerts.\" Not everyone, however, was busy assigning blame to Wilson. Los Angeles actor and comic Paul Scheer decided to shoulder it. \"I apologize 4 yelling 'liar' during Obama's speech,\" he jokingly wrote. \"Sen McCain ate my Kit Kat while I was in the bathroom & he pretended like he didn't.\"","highlights":"Little-known South Carolina congressman shouts, \"You lie!\" at President Obama .\nWikipedia disables editing for Rep. Joe Wilson's entry, citing \"vandalism\"\nName-calling rampant on Facebook and Twitter as political passions run high .","id":"2eb554b19c31bd4713a04c81d29b92313610dcd0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cairo native and jewelry designer to the stars, Azza Fahmy, reveals her favorite sights, restaurants and activities in the Egyptian capital. Designer Azza Fahmy scours Cairo's souks, mosques and streets to find inspiration for her jewels. MUST SEE PLACES: . Sultan Hassan Mosque -- Considered one of the masterpieces of Mamluk architecture. The building was commissioned by Sultan Hassan bin Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun in 1356 AD as a mosque and religious school for all four branches of Sunni Islam. The mosque is featured on the Egyptian one-hundred pound note. Address: Al-Qal'a street, Islamic Cairo . Islamic Museum -- Established in 1881, the museum displays 10,200 pieces from Egypt's different Islamic eras, including the Fatimid, Ottoman and Persian periods. Address: Bab El Khalq Square in the Egyptian library. Take Port Saed Square to reach the intersection with Muhammad Ali St. in Ahmad Maher Square. Opening Hours: Saturday through Thursday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m..; Fridays: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Coptic Museum -- Recently reopened after renovations, the museum showcases the largest collection of Egyptian Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Christianity in Egypt from its beginnings to the present day. It also includes a beautiful garden -- a wonderful place to relax. Address: Religious Compound, Precinct of the old Roman Babylon Fort, Old Cairo. Across the street from the Mar Girgis Metro station. Phone Number: +20.2.362.8766 and +20.2.363.9742 . Beit El Seheimy -- A historic Ottoman restored house. It is one of the best examples of a rich private house dating back to 17th century Egypt. Address: El Moez Street, Fatimid Area close to Khan al Khalili. Beit El Keretleya -- Another authentic Ottoman House in Old Cairo. ACTIVITIES . Felucca ride -- Feluccas are the traditional Egyptian sailboats of the Nile. Perfect for catching the breeze on a hot summer night, for brisker sails the rest of the year, and catching the sunset anytime. Feluccas are usually furnished with cushions around the circumference and a table fixed in the middle, where one can enjoy picnic-style lunches or dinners while enjoying a different view of the metropolis. Address: They are usually parked on the side of the Nile in unique spots, including along the Corniche across the street from the Four Seasons on the Nile in the Garden City area of Cairo. Horseback riding aside the pyramids -- Pick up horses at an area called \"Nazlet el seman\" close to the pyramids. Camel ride -- At the pyramids . Hantour ride -- A horse carriage that goes around certain streets of Cairo, usually by the Corniche. Walk around -- Downtown streets, particularly Wist el Balad. PLACES TO EAT: . Abu El Sid -- Famous, though pricey, restaurant featuring Egyptian cuisine. Also a night spot. The mezzes are delicious, as are the mulukheya served with chicken or pigeon. Address: 157, 26th of July street, Zamalek. Phone: +20.2.749.7326 . Felfela -- Authentic Egyptian fast food chain. The nicest outlets are in downtown Cairo or Haram\/Pyramids Street (all you need to tell a cab is felfela Wist el balad or Haram street). Best for breakfast. Felfela is a good place to taste such Egyptian staples as shorbat ads (lentil soup), tasty with a squeeze of lemon; taamiya (the local version of falafel); and ful (stewed fava beans served in a variety of ways). Address: 15 Shara Hoda Sharaawi, Downtown Cairo. Phone: +20.2.392.2833 . Abu Shakra -- Moderately priced Egyptian cuisine. Known for its grilled meats and the Egyptian delicacy, stuffed pigeon. Branches in Maadi, Heliopolis, Downtown, & Mohandeseen. Address: Heliopolis 82 Marghani Street Cairo. Phone number: +20.2.418.9888 . El Omda -- Try the local specialty -- Kushari, a base of rice, lentils, chick peas, macaroni, with a topping of Egyptian garlic, vinegar and spicy tomato sauce. Inexpensive. They also serve Egyptian dishes such as kofta, grilled chicken and a selection of salads. Address: 6 El-Gazayer St., Mohandesseen area behind the Atlas Hotel off Gameat El Dowal Street in Cairo, Egypt. Phone: +20.2.346.2701. Opening Hours: noon until 2:00 am. Andrea -- Located near the Pyramids, this large restaurant features a spacious air-conditioned dining room with a fireplace for winter and a much-lauded garden terrace for summer. Soft lighting, pleasant views and the sizzle of the outdoor grill create a relaxed ambience. Roasted chicken is the house speciality. Kebabs, kofte and quails are also prepared on patio grills. Portions are generous, local beer and wine are served. No desserts. Address: 59 Teraat el-Maryotteya St. Cairo. Phone: +20.2.383.1133 . Opening Hours: Noon-midnight daily.","highlights":"Must see the Sultan Hassan Mosque .\nTake a ride on a felucca on the Nile .\nEat on Andrea's garden terrace in the summer .\nRide a camel or a horse at the Pyramids .","id":"b7547c6437ba1c0c690dfa4aa56b38ddcaad146b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans around the world have gathered at arenas and record stores, big screens, parks and makeshift shrines, to watch the memorial service of Michael Jackson and pay homage to their idol. A Michael Jackson fan in Berlin watches footage of the memorial concert. As thousands of fans joined Jackson's family and closest friends at Los Angeles Staples Center arena, millions more followed proceedings on television and online. In Germany, at least 8,000 Jackson fans watched events in Los Angeles unfold at a Trauerfeier,\" (translated as Sadness Party) at Berlin's O2 World arena, reported CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. Fans began arriving at least three hours before the event was due to begin, Pleitgen said. \"He [Jackson] connects races, religions and ages,\" said one fan, \"his music connects the world.\" Many fans were moved to tears when Jackson's daughter Paris Katherine wept as she called the singer \"the best father you could ever imagine.\" Pleitgen added: \"A lot of people got very wet eyes.\" Watch fans gather in Berlin \u00bb . South African former president Nelson Mandela paid his respects to Jackson in a statement read to the audience at the Los Angeles memorial by singer Smokey Robinson. Watch Smokey Robinson deliver Mandela's message. \u00bb . \"Michael became close to us after he started visiting and performing in South Africa regularly. We grew fond of him and he became a close member of our family. We had great admiration for his talent and that he was able to triumph over tragedy on so many occasions in his life,\" Mandela said. \"We mourn with the millions of families worldwide.\" In the southern Chinese enclave of Hong Kong, fans carried flowers and Jackson paraphernalia, such as a doll and record, at a memorial. Watch Jackson tributes pour in from around the world \u00bb . \"I cannot accept MJ has already left us, and I think we should come here and do something for him and express our feeling to show that we really miss him,\" said one man. Hundreds of British fans in London braved torrential rain to watch a giant screen outside the city's O2 Arena, where Jackson was scheduled to play a series of 50 concerts from July 13. Many more fans are expected to converge on the venue next Monday to mark what would have been the first of his concert dates. See images of Jackson fans from around the globe \u00bb . \"I am still in denial,\" said Jenny Keme, 21. \"We're going to stay here to the end of the ceremony even though it's pouring. He had such a gentle soul, that's what I love most about him.\" Celeste Dixon, 28, added: \"He is the King of Pop, not was. No one will ever be worthy of him, he is bigger than life. Without Michael Jackson breaking barriers, Barack Obama would never have made it.\" Elsewhere in London the cast of musical \"Thriller- Live\" paid their own tribute during the evening performance at the Lyric Theatre, with cast, crew and audience observing a minute's silence. \"Many of them were in tears during it,\" reported CNN's Phil Black. The theater has become a shrine to Jackson, with devoted followers holding vigils and leaving cards and messages at the building's entrance. In Japan, meanwhile, hundreds of fans gathered at a Tower Records store -- where Jackson twice visited -- in Tokyo to watch his videos on a big screen. Followers were even offered the chance to take a photograph next to a cast of a footprint left by Jackson when he last visited. Watch fans gather in Tokyo \u00bb . In a bar in New Delhi, the Jackson memorial gathering was small -- only a dozen or so people. On the wall of the bar that usually only plays hard rock, Jackson's music was blasting, candles were lit underneath two framed pictures of Jackson and customers had written messages saying goodbye. The bar manager said: \"We all grew up with Michael Jackson. Other generations had The Beatles, or Elvis Presley. Michael is our generation.\" And on the streets of Beijing, people were greeted by a Jackson look-alike, 28-year-old Wang Jie, who performed ahead of the memorial. Though Jackson never himself performed in China, he is loved in the country. Members of the official Michael Jackson Fan Club rented a hotel room so they could watch his funeral broadcast live. Thousands of other fans worldwide following the coverage online via CNN and Facebook, with many again moved by the comments of Jackson's daughter about her father. \"Never cried so much ever since my dad passed away,\" said Facebook user Rinoa S Koh from Singapore, while user Nomar Levey in Jamaica added: \"OMG Tears are really pouring.\" Facebook user Manu Tyagi from India said: \"The first English songs I ever heard in India were MJ songs... grew up with his music... and never though we would see him die so soon. He achieved his destiny before he passed to the kingdom of god! Really hope he rests in peace. He was the best.\" As Jackson's coffin casket was carried out of the Staples Center, Facebook user Marika Papazoglou in Greece said: \"RIP Michael. We love you more.\" Anouk Lorie contributed to this story .","highlights":"\"Sadness Party\" held in Berlin, where fans follow service live from Los Angeles .\nIn London, Jackson fans brave torrential downpours and hail to pay tribute .\nIn Japan fans gathered at record store, have photo taken next to cast of footprint .\nOnline fans pay tribute to King of Pop, comment as service progresses .","id":"4ecdacaba1f3532087bf4fcb51d0c0f00021f0b0"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing a civilian bystander Thursday, a police official told CNN. Iraqis survey the damage after car bombs were detonated within minutes of each other in Mosul, July 9. It is the latest in a series of attacks across Iraq that have killed at least 64 people and wounded 167 others over the past two days. The deadliest attack happened earlier in the day when a double suicide bombing killed at least 35 people and wounded 65 others in the city of Tal Afar in Nineveh province, also in northern Iraq. Political tensions have recently increased in the region between Arabs and Kurds. The Tal Afar bombings occurred a day after attacks on mainly Shiite targets in Nineveh province, including a car bomb in a Turkmen area of the provincial capital Mosul, left at least 19 people dead and dozens wounded. U.S. forces pulled out of Iraq's urban centers June 30. The U.S. military had suggested keeping its combat troops in Mosul beyond the withdrawal deadline, but the Iraqi government insisted on making no exceptions for the date set in the security agreement. Also on Thursday morning, at least seven people were killed and 25 wounded when a bomb detonated in a busy marketplace in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. Bomb blasts from a rigged bicycle a car in two predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of southwestern Baghdad wounded six people, according to the official. In Baghdad's central Karrada district, a roadside bomb targeting a convoy of Iraq's Central Bank governor killed one civilian bystander and wounded five, another Interior Ministry official told CNN. The governor escaped unharmed. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Official: At least 35 people killed and 65 wounded in a double suicide bombing .\nBombers struck the city of Tal Afar in Nineveh province .\nTal Afar bombings occurred a day after attacks on mainly Shiite targets in Nineveh .","id":"0f4af7cce4f9cca139809f88627ce0d1df29bef6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Many fans will always remember where they were when they heard the \"King of Pop\" had died. The rapper The Game will always remember what he did afterward. The Game created a tribute to Michael Jackson -- video and all -- within a day of Jackson's death. That same day, Thursday, June 25, he rounded up some famous friends, recorded a song, shot a music video and got a Michael Jackson tattoo etched on his upper arm. Actually, he got the tattoo while he was in the studio recording the track. Some people know how to multitask. The tune, \"Better on the Other Side,\" isn't available for sale yet -- although he's hoping it will hit iTunes very soon. Because the record company was caught off guard, it is still playing catch-up. Game says all proceeds from the sale of the single will be donated to Michael Jackson's family. The companion music video is all over YouTube. In it, the 29-year-old shares the spotlight with Chris Brown, who sings the hook as a counterpoint to Game's rap. It's the first project Brown has appeared in since he pleaded guilty to assaulting his former girlfriend, Rihanna. The video, in various forms, had received more than 750,000 views as of Thursday evening -- not bad for less than a week in release. In the following interview, The Game (born Jayceon Taylor) recounts how the project came together -- with a little help from Lady Luck and the muse of Michael Jackson. CNN: You may be the first well-known artist to have a Michael Jackson tribute out there. The Game: I didn't want to wake up the next morning and have somebody spread a tribute all over the Internet, and I wasn't a part of it. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. CNN: Did you already have the beats pre-recorded? The Game: No. The first thing I did was call DJ Khalil ... and I told him, \"Yo, I need you in the studio, and by the time I get there, I need a Michael Jackson tribute song made [the music bed]. I need violinists, I need pianists, I need everyone in there for a production.\" And then I started reaching out to Diddy. He's on a set 18 hours a day, but he said he'd get it done some way, somehow. Talked to Chris Brown. He and [his manager] Tina Davis said they were on their way to the studio -- so they told me after I do my part, to bring it over and Chris will do the hook. Before I took the beat over to Chris, Boyz II Men walked into the studio randomly -- so they took it to their studio next door, laid down all the background vocals. Then I took it to Mario [Winans], then I took it to Diddy. In the meantime, me and my boy Taydoe -- we running around to the hospital, to the Jacksons' house, to the star on Hollywood, getting all this [secondary] footage [for the video]. Crazy. CNN: This was the day he died, on Thursday? The Game: It was just the day. By Friday, everything was done -- video, everything. We did it in 15 hours. Watch a report about Jackson's final days \u00bb . CNN: You made the music video for $500. The Game: All in tapes, $500 went to tapes, HD high-definition tapes. CNN: At the end of the video, you reveal a new tattoo. The Game: Yeah, I'll show you. I thought if I was going to get a Michael Jackson tattoo, I would get a more menacing one. (The tattoo shows the \"King of Pop\" with a bandanna over the lower half of his face.) CNN: Had you ever met Michael? The Game: I never met him in person, but he tried to mediate a truce between myself and Curtis Jackson [aka 50 Cent], and I wasn't having it at that time. CNN: How did that happen? Did somebody call you and say, \"Please hold the line for Michael Jackson?\" The Game: At first my managers called me and they said, \"Mike -- Michael Jackson -- is going to want to talk to you in an hour. Exactly an hour.\" So I waited an hour, and I'm like chewing on my fingers in the hotel room ... and the phone rings and a guy comes on and he's got an English accent. He's like (affects an English accent), \"Hello Game, I have Michael Jackson on hold for you.\" It was just cool. So Michael comes on, and ... he was like, \"Yo, it's Mike, and I'm a big fan of your music,\" and starts going into my songs, \"Hate it or Love It\" and \"How We Do.\" And he's like, \"I'm a big fan of 50's -- every time I get in the car, I tell my driver to play 'In Da Club.' Would you guys be willing to make a truce, and then put it on my album?\" Listen to Jackson's biggest hits \u00bb . And then I was like, \"Yo Mike, we gotta slow down, man!\" This was at the height of me and 50's little beef, or whatever people called it, but I talked to him for another 35 minutes on why I couldn't do it at that time, and at that point in my career, and he was OK with that. He said one day if we decided to do it -- myself and Curtis' camp -- we could reach out to him. We never got a chance to do it. CNN: So the video also features Chris Brown. It's the first track we've heard him on since the hearing last Monday [June 22]. The Game: They were really edgy about getting on it. I think [his managers] wanted Chris Brown's first look to be kind of strategically thought out, and I came so fast with the Michael Jackson tribute -- but we talked it over, and at the end of the day, they thought it was a good idea, so we went ahead and did it. CNN: How is Chris? I'm sure you guys talk all the time. The Game: He's like a little brother to me. I talk to him all the time, and I give him my support. You know, I'm no stranger to trials and tribulations in life, and the court system. CNN: What are your thoughts about how Michael Jackson died, and how it seems as though prescription drugs may have been involved? The Game: My thoughts on Michael Jackson are always the same. It doesn't matter, the form or fashion he died in. He's iconic to me, and his untimely demise is felt around the world. You got certain people saying, \"Oh everybody's loving Michael now,\" but that's neither here nor there. Me, myself -- I loved Michael Jackson to death. My mom sent me a host of pictures with all my \"Thriller\" shirts on, and the jacket with the zippers and glove -- me, my sisters and brothers -- so I really don't care. I just know he left an impact on the world. I think he's the most cried-for human being since Jesus Christ. It's just my opinion. CNN: Are you thinking about donating part of the proceeds from the single? The Game: Oh, all the proceeds of anything that I do that has anything to do with Michael Jackson will go to his family and his children. And that's just the bottom line.","highlights":"The Game records \"Better on the Other Side\" as tribute to Michael Jackson .\nRapper greatly admired star; Jackson tried to mediate between Game and 50 Cent .\nGame: \"He's iconic to me, and his untimely demise is felt around the world\"","id":"4e10055a8ab76f1114fd52216eb1d78c6e007278"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An employee at a New Jersey chocolate processing plant died Wednesday after falling into a vat of hot chocolate, according to a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's office. Vincent Smith II, 29, was dumping raw chocolate into the vat for melting when he fell in from a nine-foot high platform. He suffered a fatal blow to the head from the vat's agitator, a paddle-like mechanism used for stirring the chocolate. According to the Camden County prosecutor's office, three other people were on the platform at the time. One was able to shut the machinery off quickly, but it was too late to save Smith. The facility, owned by Cocoa Services Inc., is managed and operated by by Lyons and Sons. The rectangular vat, which was 8 feet deep, 14 feet long and 6 feet wide, was churning a batch of chocolate for Hershey's when the accident occurred, the prosecutor's office said. CNN's Jesse Solomon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Worker was dumping chocolate into the vat when he fell from a 9-foot high platform .\nThe vat was churning a batch of chocolate when the accident occurred .\nVincent Smith II suffered a fatal blow to the head from the vat's agitator .","id":"a8ba19610ceebec21d706a08c1f2f197b5c74cd4"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Obama spoke at the Pentagon on Friday to those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001, telling them no words would heal their pain yet calling for a renewed resolve against the ones who attacked the country eight years ago. President Obama addresses family members and friends who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. Obama laid a wreath of white flowers at the Pentagon, where 184 people lost their lives when a hijacked jet smashed into the military icon outside the nation's capital. \"No words can ease the ache of your hearts,\" Obama told a crowd of relatives and friends standing under umbrellas in a steady rain. The plane, American Airlines Flight 77, struck the Pentagon's west wall. Earlier in the day, the president and first lady Michelle Obama held a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the eighth anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that killed 2,752 people. At the Pentagon, Obama was introduced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke of the \"great pinnacle of sacrifice\" shown that day. \"Eight Septembers have come and gone,\" Obama said. \"Nearly 3,000 days have passed, almost one for each one who has been taken from us. \"We recall the beauty and meaning of their lives,\" he said. \"No passage of time, no dark skies can dull the meaning of that moment. Watch a slideshow of Obama's speech and the day's events \u00bb . \"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this violent act,\" Obama said. The nation paused at the moments when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon -- symbols of America's financial and military might -- and at a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that plane's target was either the White House or the Capitol. There was silence at the site of the former World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane struck the North Tower, followed by another at 9:03 a.m. when a jet struck the South Tower. iReport.com: 9\/11 emotions surge back in sculpted tributes, memories on video . Family members and friends of those killed read their names in solemn roll calls at each site as bells tolled. In London, England, U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman and his wife, Marjorie, laid a wreath at the September 11 Memorial Garden in Grosvenor Square. At ground zero in New York, a woman whose husband worked on the 94th floor of one of the twin towers recalled that day. \"The pain can still be so sharp. ... I realize how much my life has changed,\" she said, mentioning that her children have now grown and she has grandchildren. Her husband left many lessons, she said, including \"the courage to be kind.\" Just before the first moment of silence, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the newly established September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, designated by Obama. \"Appropriately, the city of New York has taken up that call. From this day forward we will guard the memories of those who died by rekindling the spirit of service and help keep us strong,\" Bloomberg said. At the Web site set up for that day, people were listing their charitable acts. One man who spoke to the crowd at ground zero remembered his brother, a partner at a law firm near the twin towers and a longtime volunteer firefighter. He rushed \"toward the inferno,\" to do what he could to help, the brother said. \"He was there when the tower collapsed.\" Near Shanksville, people gathered at a field where the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 died. The passengers and crew, aware of the fate of other hijacked planes, fought the men who had taken control of their aircraft, leading to its crash. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell gave the keynote address at the 2,200-acre site, where a $58 million memorial is scheduled to open in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. More than 1 million people already have visited the field, Powell said. No one could capture the terror the 40 people aboard Flight 93 must have endured, Powell said. They were strangers to each other who \"represented the very best diversity that is America,\" he said. \"In place of fear, they found the courage of attack,\" he said. \"They seized the moment, and they lost their lives in so doing. We are here to ... honor their spirits.\" Powell said he believes the United States is safer since the attacks. He pointed to improvements in the visa system, which gives officials a better idea of who is coming into the country; creation of the U.S. Homeland Security Department and beefed-up security at airports. Powell said there also have been improvements in law enforcement and intelligence-gathering. Engaging the terrorists in Afghanistan also is a solid move, he told CNN. \"But you can't rest on that. You have to keep studying the problem. You have to keep trying to get into their mind. And so it may be a long and continuous fight that may never end.\" The level of concern about terrorism in the United States is roughly half of what it was immediately after September 11 and is down 20 points since the five-year anniversary in 2006, according to a new CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll. Thirty-four percent of Americans think an act of terrorism is likely in the United States over the next few weeks. More than six in 10 have confidence in the Obama administration's ability to protect the nation.","highlights":"Obama: \"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this violent act\"\nFamily, friends of those killed in attacks read names in solemn roll calls .\nFormer Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at Pennsylvania site .\nServices take place in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania .","id":"4a7fad768953b4b812bb245947a95f41b4a697c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Writer and producer Larry Gelbart, most known for his work on the hit television series \"M*A*S*H,\" died Friday morning in his Beverly Hills, California, home, his wife said. He was 81. Larry Gelbart said, before \"M*A*S*H,\" a TV set only produced feeling \"if you touched it while you were wet.\" Gelbart died of cancer, Pat Gelbart said. The family will hold a private memorial service. Throughout his career, Gelbart developed a portfolio of more than 40 works spanning radio, television, theater and film. His fascination with radio as a child inspired him and influenced his evolving career. \"I never had any aspirations of [a] literary career, but writing for radio seemed to be a natural extension of being such a radio fan,\" Gelbart told CNN in 1999. \"So when I got my chance, that's what I did.\" Barely out of high school, Gelbart began as a comedy writer for radio in the 1940s. He wrote for various programs, including the Fanny Brice show and \"Duffy's Tavern.\" While in the Army, he wrote for Armed Forces Radio. Later, he joined the staff of Bob Hope's show and jump-started his own television career as a TV writer for the star. Gelbart went on to write skits for the live comedy \"Your Show of Shows\" in 1953, winning two Emmys for his work. \"'Your Show of Shows' was successful, was wildly successful. Not just because it got there first, but because it got there first with so much,\" Gelbart said. The 90-minute variety program was one of the first televised sketch comedy shows. Gelbart took his work to another stage, winning two 1963 Tony awards for his Broadway musical hit, \"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.\" In 1972, Gelbart helped create the Korean War comedy drama \"M*A*S*H.\" The show went on for another 11 years, although Gelbart only wrote and produced \"M*A*S*H\" for the first four seasons. \"M*A*S*H\" won 50 awards, including eight Golden Globes. \"M*A*S*H\" was so popular it lasted much longer than the Korean War itself, and was seen as a commentary on American involvement in the Vietnam War. Gelbart also was involved in the short-lived sequel, \"After MASH.\" For Gelbart, \"M*A*S*H\" mixed a bit of comedy with drama, allowing viewers to connect more with the story. \"I said once that the only way before 'M*A*S*H' you would get any feeling out of your television set is if you touched it while you were wet,\" Gelbart said. He added: \"We gave the audience permission to feel bad. Because America was feeling pretty rotten then, we were at war in Vietnam. And once the war stopped we didn't start feeling really terrific right away, if we ever will again about that situation.\" Gelbart continued steamrolling through the industry, with works including the 1982 hit film \"Tootsie,\" \"Oh, God!\" in 1977 and the 2003 film \"And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself,\" which starred Antonio Banderas. \"Tootsie\" earned Gelbart an Oscar nomination for best writing.","highlights":"Gelbart died of cancer at age 81, his wife says .\nGelbart's film-writing credits include \"Tootsie\" and \"Oh, God!\"\nGelbart started in radio, moved to TV as writer for Bob Hope .\nHe said about \"M*A*S*H:\" \"We gave the audience permission to feel bad\"","id":"16a1278ce796e29e6c3196357206b5cdecf8e346"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the Los Angeles, California, area has been accused of desecrating the remains of those buried there, according to a lawsuit. The cemetery holds the remains of celebrities such as Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce. The suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that employees at Eden Memorial Park, in Mission Hills, California, \"intentionally, willfully and secretly desecrated the remains of deceased individuals,\" often moving them to make room for new remains. Attorney Michael Avenatti, who filed the suit, told CNN that his investigation revealed that as many as 500 graves may have been torn up without the families' permission. \"We allege that Eden Memorial Park and its management for the better part of 15 years were engaging in improper burial practices, including the desecration of graves and the improper disposal of human remains,\" he said. The lawsuit is filed by F. Charles Sands, whose parents are buried at Eden Memorial Park, against the cemetery and its owner, Service Corporation International, based in Houston, Texas. The company is the largest owner of cemeteries and funeral homes in the United States. Watch what the lawsuit says workers did to remains \u00bb . This is not the first time Service Corporation International has faced allegations of digging up graves and moving bodies to make room for new remains. It reached a $100 million settlement with families of people whose remains were desecrated at Menorah Gardens in Florida. The company also reached a $14 million settlement with the Florida state attorney's office over issues related to those claims. A number of celebrities are buried at Eden Park, including comedians Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce, according to several Web sites that track burials of celebrities. Anthony Lampe, the general manager of Eden Memorial Park, said he had not seen the lawsuit and referred inquiries to Service Corporation International. Company spokeswoman Lisa Marshall said the allegations in the lawsuit were not valid. She said SCI had investigated and confirmed burial issues at Eden Memorial Park in 2007, but she could not provide specifics of that investigation. The lawsuit alleges groundskeepers were secretly instructed to break buried concrete interment vaults that contained caskets that were already buried, using backhoes. It also alleges human remains would often fall out of the broken caskets, and those body parts were either scattered or thrown away. In one case, Avenatti said, a human skull was discarded. \"We have uncovered evidence that the groundskeepers and others at Eden Memorial Park have been instructed to break off or break apart that concrete vault and, at many times, that exposes human remains,\" Avenatti said. Asked about the seriousness of the allegations, he said, \"If the allegations are proven true, this is incredibly horrific.\" The lawsuit said that under Jewish tradition, \"the deceased are typically required to be interred within 24 hours, thereby leaving little time to obtain consent to move an encroaching vault in an adjacent plot and giving defendants a motive to desecrate human remains and commit other immoral acts rather than comply with the law.\"","highlights":"Eden Memorial Park, in Mission Hills, California, is large Jewish cemetery .\nLawsuit says it breaks open vaults, discards remains to make room .\nCemetery is owned by Service Corporation International .\nSCI spokeswoman says allegations in the lawsuit are not valid .","id":"35de22cbae1cc1f19aec072363caf3e98cf15e47"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Felipe Massa has revealed that he hopes to be at his home Brazilian Grand Prix -- but he won't be behind the wheel of his Ferrari. Felipe Massa has been given the all-clear to begin training as he bids to return to the race track. The 28-year-old had aimed to be able to return to racing before the end of this Formula One season, but is resigned to getting fit for 2010 following his horrific crash in July. Massa is now able to begin his rehabilitation after having plastic surgery on Monday to repair the broken bone in his cranium that resulted when a loose spring from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn hit him in the helmet during qualifying in Hungary. The operation, at the Sao Paulo's Albert Einstein hospital, took around four and a half hours, Ferrari revealed on its official Web site. Massa told UK newspaper The Guardian that his next step was to head to Europe to use a simulator and drive go-karts as part of his fitness evaluation. He had hoped to return to action at Interlagos -- where his 2008 world championship dream was crushed by Lewis Hamilton despite winning the race -- on October 18, but said that he would only be there as a spectator. \"That was the race I wanted to come back in, but it's difficult to say if it would've been possible. It will be difficult to watch it, but I will be there,\" Massa said. He told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he still held a slim hope of driving in the final race of this season in Abu Dhabi on November 1. \"In 2010 I'll be back for sure and 100%, but it would be a dream to drive in Abu Dhabi,\" Massa said. Massa will be replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella for the final five races of 2009, with the veteran Italian having been released from his contract by Force India to take over from test driver Luca Badoer. He said he had never doubted that he would that he would get behind the wheel of a Formula One car again. \"It is my life,\" Massa, who is expecting his first child in November, told The Guardian. \"For me, the worst thing that happened was not being able to race. If you can't drive that's terrible. \"But my wife has already asked me, at least 10 times, 'Are you sure you don't feel any doubts or worries?' \"Always, I say, 'No, because this is what I like to do.' If I don't drive then I am not the same person. Ever since I was a small boy this is my life. This is what I like to do. \"So I really hope, and expect, nothing will change inside me when I go back into the car and start pushing myself to the maximum again.\"","highlights":"Formula One star Felipe Massa has had successful plastic surgery on his skull .\nThe Brazilian driver plans to attend his home grand prix in mid-October .\nMassa suffered horrific head injuries after a freak accident in Hungary in July .\nFerrari have brought in Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella to replace him .","id":"33379c5cfd2dd94c654c6e45bf27aee2605ff16e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to approve sending thousands of additional forces to Afghanistan to deal with the growing threat from roadside bombs, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Friday. Marines detonate a roadside bomb. Injuries from the bombs have increased 700 percent in two years. Over the past two weeks, Gates has concluded that there are not enough forces or equipment in Afghanistan to protect U.S. troops from the threat of roadside bombs, Morrell said. The secretary, he said, wants to send these forces \"as soon as possible.\" Morrell said the deployment would be separate from any that might be requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The plan could send nearly 3,000 troops, another U.S. military official familiar with the proposal said. He said Pentagon planners have already identified some of the units that would be sent. This official asked not to be identified because no final decision has been announced. Plans have been in place to set the U.S. troop level in Afghanistan at 68,000 since earlier this year, when President Obama approved an additional 21,000 troops. The decision comes at a sensitive time politically. In the last few days, two key Democrats have questioned sending additional troops. \"I don't think there's a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in Congress,\" Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, told reporters Thursday. On Friday, Sen. Carl Levin, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee who has recently returned from Afghanistan, said the emphasis should be on training and increasing the size of the Afghanistan army before considering more U.S. forces. \"Our primary goal should be to strengthen the Afghan army and the police, to provide the necessary training and equipment and also to see if we can't reintegrate some of the lower-level Taliban people, who are the young people who aren't the religious zealots but are being taken advantage of by the leaders,\" Levin, D-Michigan, told MSNBC. Gates himself has been a vocal opponent of expanding the U.S. presence for fear that the forces would be seen as occupiers by the Afghan population. But last week, he softened that position, saying McChrystal had made a persuasive argument that the concern should not be on the size of the forces but on their conduct. Morrell said the proposal may not raise total U.S. troop strength above 68,000, because some of the units already scheduled to go could be sent not fully staffed or others already there could be sent home. Still, \"the secretary has already determined this is a requirement that needs to be fulfilled,\" Morrell said. \"The forces there now require more IED protection.\" The troops would specialize in route clearance, explosive ordnance disposal, medical treatment and intelligence-gathering, Morrell said. \"We owe this to the troops already committed to the fight,\" he said. Since 2007, the number of roadside bombs in Afghanistan has jumped 350 percent, according to the Defense Department. Though many are found before they detonate, the number of troops killed has increased by more than 400 percent and the number wounded is up more 700 percent over the last two years. One U.S. military source told CNN that the Taliban's capacity to manufacture bombs, train attackers and target U.S. troops has grown over the past year. On September 8 near Kandahar, troops seized five tons of ammonium nitrate, more than twice the amount used in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1995. On August 27, C-4 plastic explosives were found in Herat by Afghan troops. Afghanistan's rugged terrain and dirt roads make it easy to quickly hide roadside bombs. \"You have disturbed earth all the time,\" said Gen. Montgomery Meigs, former head of the Department of Defense's IED Task Force. \"Especially close to villages and close to intersections -- that just makes the seeing and finding, even by soldiers' eyes, a lot more complicated.\" The Taliban have proven adept at adjusting their strategy as circumstances change. Seeing that troops were routinely stopping ahead of culverts to search for bombs that could be hidden under the roads, insurgents have started placing the bombs ahead of the culverts.","highlights":"Defense secretary finds not enough forces in Afghanistan to protect U.S. troops .\nPlan could send nearly 3,000 troops, source says .\nCongressional Democrats have spoken against troop increases .\nTroops killed by roadside bombs up more than 400 percent in 2 years .","id":"707f4b498868b7e119d6670ce384bed9aafb6252"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Richard Nixon Presidential Library will allow access Tuesday to about 154 hours of Nixon White House tape recordings and 30,000 pages of documents that were formerly classified. President Nixon announces the U.S. incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War in April 1970. Among the tapes and documents are conversations about the Vietnam War, Nixon's second inauguration, the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and the first Watergate trial, according to a library statement. Tuesday's release is the 13th opening of Nixon White House tapes since 1980, the statement said. The new Nixon tapes and documents will be available on the Internet and in the Richard Nixon libraries in College Park, Maryland, and Yorba Linda, California. Nixon resigned August 9, 1974, over the Watergate scandal -- the first president to resign from office. President Ford pardoned Nixon the following month, saying it was necessary for the nation to heal after Watergate.","highlights":"Richard Nixon Presidential Library to open access to 154 hours of recordings .\nTapes include conversations about Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam War .\nRelease also includes 30,000 pages of formerly classified documents .","id":"9016bbbedef1bb2ac2a441eda0f066818e65f1be"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Scofflaws could hack the smart cards that access electronic parking meters in large cities around the United States, researchers are finding. \"Cities all over the nation and all over the world are deploying these smartcard meters,\" researcher says. The smart cards pay for parking spots, and their programming could be easily changed to obtain unlimited free parking. It took researcher Joe Grand only three days to design an attack on the smart cards. The researchers examined the meters used in San Francisco, California, but the same and similar electronic meters are being installed in cities around the world. \"It wasn't technically complicated and the fact that I can do it in three days means that other people are probably already doing it and probably taking advantage of it,\" said Joe Grand, a designer and hardware hacker and one of the hosts of the Discovery Channel's \"Prototype This\" show. \"It seems like the system wasn't analyzed at all.\" Grand and fellow researcher Jake Appelbaum presented their findings Thursday afternoon at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The researchers did not contact the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency or the meter maker prior to their talk, and asked reporters not to contact those organizations ahead of their presentation, for fear of being gagged by a court order. At last year's DefCon hacker conference, MIT students were barred from talking about similar vulnerabilities in smartcards used by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority after the MBTA obtained a restraining order. They spoke with Threat Level about their findings prior to the presentation. \"We're not picking on San Francisco,\" Grand said. \"We're not even claiming to get free parking. We're trying to educate people about ... how they can take our research and apply it to their own cities if they are trying to deploy their own systems or make them more secure.... Cities all over the nation and all over the world are deploying these smartcard meters [and] there's a number of previously known problems with various parking meters in other cities.\" San Francisco launched a $35-million pilot project in 2003 to deploy smart meters around the city in an effort to thwart thieves, including parking control officers who were skimming money from the meters. The city estimated it was losing more than $3 million annually to theft. In response, it installed 23,000 meters made by a Canadian firm named J.J. MacKay, which also has meters in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Canada, Hong Kong and other locales. The machines are hybrids that allow drivers to insert either coins, or a pre-paid GemPlus smart card, which can be purchased in values of $20 or $50. The machines also have an audit log to help catch insiders who might skim proceeds. To record the communication between the card and the meter, Grand purchased a smartcard shim -- an electrical connector that duplicates a smartcard's contact points -- and used an oscilloscope to record the electrical signals as the card and meter communicated. He discovered the cards aren't digitally signed, and the only authentication between the meter and card is a password sent from the former to the latter. The card doesn't have to know the password, however, it just has to respond that the password is correct. The cards sold in San Francisco are designed to be thrown out when the customer has exhausted them. But the researchers found that the meters perform no upper-bounds check, so hackers could easily boost the transaction limit on a card beyond what could legitimately purchased. They could also program a card to simply never deduct from the transaction count. \"We're residents of San Francisco and our taxes are going towards a broken system that they could potentially be losing money on and we pay the consequences of that,\" Grand said. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Researchers find smart cards that access parking meters can be hacked .\nJoe Grand and Jake Appelbaum present findings at Black Hat conference .\nBefore smart cards, city was losing more than $3 million annually to theft .\nResearchers programmed cards to never deduct from transaction count .","id":"80d13478895fe1974f423d53b259712539c23ca4"} -{"article":"TEANECK, New Jersey (CNN) -- Actress Angela Logan has played many roles off-stage to earn a living. She's worked as a teacher, model and hairdresser and is studying to be a nurse. Angela Logan samples a bite of her Mortgage Apple Cake as Bake Me A Wish! founder Josh Kaye looks on. But when she fell into foreclosure on her Teaneck, New Jersey, home, Logan turned to baking an apple cake her family had always loved. \"It was a flash of desperation,\" Logan said. \"I thought, 'Wow. We could sell these cakes, they're so good.' \" Logan named her delicacy Mortgage Apple Cake and resolved to sell 100 in 10 days at $40 each to meet a mortgage payment, pay off bills and qualify for a federal program that could lower her monthly payments. She advertised the cake to everyone she knew, including her classmates. \"The hardest part was saying, 'Can you buy my cakes, this is my problem,' because admitting to your friends that you're in foreclosure, and that you need their help, that's a hard thing to say,\" Logan said. Two years ago, a contractor promised to renovate Logan's brick-and-stucco home. But instead, Logan says he took the money and did only a portion of the work -- leaving the entire second floor bare to the beams and plastic wrap still covering much of the exterior. Logan's financial squeeze tightened when one of the actress' talent agencies shut down without paying her for commercial work. The 55-year-old divorced mother of three fell far behind on her mortgage and other debt payments, leading her to seek help from Consumer Credit Counseling of New Jersey. Counselor Pamela Glass brainstormed with Logan to envision potential extra sources of income. \"We put our heads together to make extra money,\" Glass said. \"I said, 'Take a look at what you can do.' She said, 'I bake once in a while'. I said, 'Well, maybe you can do some baking.' \" When Logan asked, neighbors, fellow church congregants and classmates responded. Soon she was baking night and day, two cakes at a time. Al Hamdi, general manager of the Hilton in nearby Hasbrouck Heights, heard of Logan's plan and offered the hotel's four giant ovens, letting her accelerate production. \"She was going to do something out of the box to save her home and her family. That was the inspiring part for us,\" Hamdi said. Logan figures she's baked about 200 cakes -- double her goal. And since qualifying for the federal Make Home Affordable program, her monthly mortgage payment is dropping by nearly 20 percent . Other Americans in a financial bind can also find creative answers to their cash crunch, Logan said. \"Find your talent. Find something you can do that will help,\" she said. Watch as Logan describes the circumstances that led her to bake the Mortgage Apple Cake \u00bb . Many hobbies have the potential to generate extra cash: teaching a skill like playing an instrument or speaking a foreign language; home repairs for those who are handy; even dog-walking or pet-sitting for animal lovers. \"Some people have extra skills they don't use,\" Glass said. Internet retailer Bake Me A Wish! got a whiff of the Mortgage Apple Cake and is preparing to mass-produce it and share the proceeds with Logan. The company says it already has 650 Mortgage Apple Cake orders. \"We're going to be baking cakes together, develop a whole line of cakes, Angela Logan Cakes,\" said Josh Kaye, president of Bake Me A Wish! Escaping foreclosure could propel Logan to a new career in baking. But she's still studying nursing, knowing from experience never to depend upon just one role.","highlights":"New Jersey actress turned to baking apple cakes to avoid foreclosure .\nThe idea came from brainstorming with a consumer credit counselor .\nShe resolved to sell 100 cakes in 10 days at $40 each to pay mortgage, debts .\nSo far, she's sold about 200 cakes, attracting the attention of an Internet retailer .","id":"510dcdfbf602d96fa10f60b337fc9b4b6dae6bc8"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- How are the elements of the charming, traditional romantic comedy \"The Proposal\" like the checklist of a charming, traditional bride? Let me count the ways ... Ryan Reynolds wonders if marrying his boss, Sandra Bullock, is a good thing in \"The Proposal.\" Something old: The story of a haughty woman and an exasperated man who hate each other -- until they realize they love each other -- is proudly square, in the tradition of rom-coms from the 1940s and '50s. Or is it straight out of Shakespeare's 1590s? Sandra Bullock is the shrew, Margaret, a pitiless, high-powered New York book editor first seen multitasking in the midst of her aerobic workout (thus you know she needs to get ... loved). Ryan Reynolds is Andrew, her put-upon foil of an executive assistant, a younger man who accepts abuse as a media-industry hazing ritual. And there the two would remain, locked in mutual disdain, except for Margaret's fatal flaw -- she's Canadian. (So is \"X-Men's\" Wolverine; I thought our neighbors to the north were supposed to be nice.) Margaret, with her visa expired, faces deportation and makes the snap executive decision to marry Andrew in a green-card wedding. It's an offer the underling can't refuse if he wants to keep his job. (A sexual-harassment lawsuit would ruin the movie's mood.) OK, he says. But first comes a visit to the groom-to-be's family in Alaska. Amusing complications ensue. Something new: The chemical energy between Bullock and Reynolds is fresh and irresistible. In her mid-40s, Bullock has finessed her dewy America's Sweetheart comedy skills to a mature, pearly texture; she's lovable both as an uptight careerist in a pencil skirt and stilettos, and as a lonely lady in a flapping plaid bathrobe. Reynolds, meanwhile, is just refining his dry comedy thing, learning to get the most from his deceptive cute-face looks. Who knew these two would, hmmm, complete each other? Working together, both are surer and more disciplined in delivering their comedy goods. iReport.com: \"Proposal\" has \"plenty of laughs\" Something borrowed: The boisterous family dynamics. The eccentric supporting players (none more extreme than Oscar Nunez from \"The Office\"). The snappy screwball dialogue in Pete Chiarelli's script. And the way Anne Fletcher directs like a camp counselor wrangling bunkmates ... it's all been seen before. For a reason. These elements work. Something blue: As the wise and saucy matriarch of the family, the divine 87-year-old Betty White has fun as one hot grandma -- and inspires her younger stars to say \"I do,\" too. EW Grade: B+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"EW: \"The Proposal\" is a top-notch romantic comedy .\nMovie adheres to formula, but it's well done, very funny .\nCasting is perfect, script delivers .","id":"e620ed92abb263c485bab0bbd64b349e6317c938"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Bronx woman has been charged with murder and robbery in the death of an 89-year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor, and police said a man is still being sought in connection with the death. Felix Brinkmann dances at a 2008 birthday party. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies,\" his son says. Angela Murray, 30, was arrested Saturday, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office, and is accused of strangling Guido Felix Brinkmann on Thursday in his Upper East Side apartment. Murray was arraigned Sunday and charged with one count of murder in the second degree and three counts of robbery. Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, was a Holocaust survivor who escaped death for a year while he was in the Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz camps. He had been slated for the gas chambers five times, but each time, he used his fluency in German to talk his way out, said his son, Rick Brinkman, who spells his last name differently. After the war, he was stunned to discover his wife, who had also been shipped to Auschwitz, alive and well in Poland. The Brinkmanns immigrated to America, where Brinkmann spent years in the bar and nightclub business, co-founding the Adam's Apple disco in Manhattan in 1971. In recent years, he had been the real estate manager of a mixed-use building in the Bronx, working \"seven days a week, without fail,\" Rick Brinkman said. On Thursday, the building's superintendent grew concerned when Brinkmann did not show up for work. He notified Brinkmann's son and received permission to enter the father's apartment, where he had lived alone since his wife died last year. Brinkmann was found face-down in his bedroom, his hands bound behind his back and his body showing blunt-force trauma wounds, police said. Brinkmann's blue 2009 Honda Civic had been stolen, along with one of two safes in his apartment, police said. The vehicle was later recovered in the Bronx. Rick Brinkman speculated that the killing was random. \"Anybody who knew him really liked him,\" the son said. \"He was not the kind of guy who had enemies.\" CNN's Jason Kessler contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bronx woman charged with murder, robbery; police say a man is still being sought .\nGuido Felix Brinkmann, 89, was found strangled Thursday in Manhattan apartment .\nLatvia native had lived alone since wife died last year; son suspects killing is random .","id":"bd11f240287fb413e4ed2f1a244deb4e585df8fd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- For almost four months, fans of Michael Jackson were holding what were deemed by concert promoters AEG Live as the \"Hottest Tickets on the Planet.\" Queues for tickets to Michael Jackson's concert wind outside the O2 Arena in London on March 13, 2009. Now some 750,000 would-be concert-goers have been left with slips of paper that, while steeped in sentimentality, won't entitle them to see the hyped spectacular that was promised to be Jackson's farewell concerts. It's unclear whether all fans will receive a full refund. Early Friday morning, AEG Live's Web site was still promoting the concerts, announcing there were just \"17 days until show time.\" After midday, all reference to the shows had been removed. Late Friday afternoon, the O2 Arena was still saying that ticketing information would be available \"in due course.\" And callers to Ticketmaster's customer service number were still being greeted the message, \"Ticketmaster is aware of the news relating to Michael Jackson. We have no official information at this stage. As soon as we have any information we will immediately contact all customers who have booked tickets through Ticketmaster.\" Seatwave, Europe's biggest online market for fan-to-fan ticket sales, told CNN that customers who bought tickets via its Web site would receive a full refund, the cost of which would be covered by an insurance claim which could top \u00a32 million ($3.2 million). \"This is what you buy insurance for. Unfortunately it's always for these kind of terrible circumstances,\" Joe Cohen, Founder and CEO of Seatwave told CNN. The official secondary ticketing partner for the shows, Viagogo, also promised fans a full refund. Consumer rights group Which? warned fans who bought tickets from third parties, including auction Web sites such as eBay, may have more difficulty getting their money back. Michael Jackson was scheduled to play 50 shows at the O2 Arena in London, a grueling schedule for even the fittest pop star, according to celebrity media advisor, Simon Astaire. \"He needed money, there is no question about that, hence his 50 dates at the O2. It's easy to say today and I think one has to be respectful today, but it was a stretch to do 50 concerts in the way he wanted to do in that time frame. Even for the fittest, most grounded individual it's very, very difficult,\" he told CNN. According to estimates by \"Billboard,\" unconfirmed by the promoters, Jackson's concerts would have netted the singer $50 million in ticket and merchandise sales. Back in March, tickets for an initial run of ten concerts sold out at the astonishing rate of 11 tickets per second, a feat Chris Edmonds, the Managing Director of Ticketmaster UK called a \"live entertainment phenomenon.\" Demand for the tickets prompted organizers to add another 40 dates to the schedule. The London shows were to be the first step in a multi-phase package with Jackson, including plans for a 3-D live concert film and a 3-D movie based on Jackson's \"Thriller\" music video. It's not known at this stage how much of the cost of Jackson's canceled concerts will be shouldered by promoters AEG Live. The company is yet to issue a statement on the matter. It is thought only part of Jackson's 50-date London engagement was covered by insurers. One of those was Lloyds of London, whose spokesman Louise Shields told CNN \"any losses are not likely to be significant.\" Mary Craig Calkins, partner at Howrey law firm in Los Angeles told CNN it was likely Jackson was covered by essential element insurance, a common form of cover in the entertainment industry to guard against losses associated with the main act. The policy would normally cover ticket sales and production-related expenses. \"He was hiring dancers for the production, there's pyrotechnics, there's the music, there's the equipment, there's the venue, \" Calkins told CNN. \"It's a bigger than life tour so you would expect the expenses to be huge... You would expect the insurance company to conduct a very thorough investigation. It's a lot of money at stake,\" she said. AEG Live's partner in Jackson's stage comeback, Tom Barrack, Chairman of Colony Capital, posted a statement on the company's Web site, saying they were \"deeply saddened\" by Jackson's death. A spokesman for Barrack declined to comment on the financial implications, saying \"they're not even focused on that, it's a personal loss.\" Barrack was involved in a deal to save Jackson's Neverland Ranch when the singer's debts became overwhelming. Watch a report about Jackson's lavish lifestyle \u00bb . Jackson's sudden and unexpected death has sparked a surge in demand for his recordings and memorabilia. Since his death, hundreds of items including albums, posters and T-shirts have been listed on auction Web site eBay. And sales of his recordings have skyrocketed in shops and on music download sites.","highlights":"Financial impact of Jackson's death on London concerts remains unclear .\nTicket sellers are still to clarify whether fans will received a refund, and how .\nJackson was scheduled to perform 50 concerts at London's O2 Arena .\nSinger's death has sparked surge in downloads, sales of Jackson memorabilia .","id":"48e340a08cc1ce657390193453735e5ab58172dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 22-year-old man from Pakistan hopes to soon swim the English Channel with an American friend -- but first he's got to navigate the currents of bureaucracy. College teammates David Gatz (left) and Usman Javaid want to swim the English Channel for charity. Usman Javaid, an Ohio college student who has won national swimming titles in his native Pakistan, wants to swim the channel with his best friend, David Gatz, a fellow member of the swim team at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. They want to honor their international friendship by working together to accomplish a great feat: a relay across the English Channel. They also hope to raise money for charity. \"With teamwork and cooperation you can tackle even the toughest of challenges,\" Javaid told CNN in a phone interview Wednesday from Islamabad, Pakistan. Yet the British government has denied Javaid's request for the visa that would let him enter the country. British authorities say they can't grant a visa because they have questions about Javaid's student status, the young man said. \"They weren't satisfied I was going to Britain for the stated purpose,\" he said. Javaid said his passport contains a valid student visa for the United States and he sent documentation from the Channel Swimming Association with his visa application to prove he is scheduled to do the swim. The United Kingdom Border Agency told CNN in a written statement that \"all visa applications are considered on their individual merits, taking into account all the information provided.\" \"Where an applicant fails to demonstrate they meet the relevant rules, their application will be refused,\" the statement said. The agency noted that anyone who is refused can reapply with additional information. Mark Cooper, the director of marketing and communication at Ohio Wesleyan University, said British authorities have not contacted the university to ask about Javaid's student status. \"We did send ... documentation to [British authorities] to follow up\" after Javaid's application was denied, he said. Javaid has since applied to the British high commissioner in Islamabad for an emergency visa. Meanwhile, Gatz and the university's head swim coach, Dick Hawes, are waiting in Dover, England, hoping things will work out so the men can try to accomplish their goal. The Channel Swimming Association has granted them permission to try their crossing between July 29 and August 6, Javaid said. The association determines such \"swim windows\" after considering the expected tides and the schedules of pilot boats, which accompany the swimmers. The association sent a letter Thursday to the British high commissioner in Pakistan to confirm Javaid's mission, said Joan Metcalfe, the association's chairwoman. As the clock ticks, Gatz remains in Dover, where he passes the time by training in the channel. \"There is some frustration,\" he said Thursday, \"but we're also optimistic.\" Gatz is the captain of Ohio Wesleyan University's varsity swim team. He swam twice for the university at the NCAA national championship meet and holds numerous records. Javaid is a gold medalist on the Pakistani national swim team and represented his country at the South Asian Federation Games. Their coach said he's proud of the pair, no matter the outcome of their attempt. \"I think it's great. It shows so much maturity on their part -- first, to take on such a large endeavor, but it also speaks so much about their friendship,\" Hawes said. Their relationship reflects the unity of the entire swim team at the school, he said. \"This is an international family,\" the coach said of his swimmers. \"It's a phenomenal environment. This has just been such a great experience.\" As they work to accomplish their goal, Gatz and Javaid also are accepting donations for Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization also known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres. Gatz, who is double-majoring in biochemistry and pre-med, said the idea came as they followed news reports of Pakistan's campaign against the Taliban this year, which displaced thousands of civilians in the country's northwest. \"We wanted to donate to an organization that was helping people there,\" he explained. Javaid added Thursday, \"That was a big reason we chose Doctors Without Borders, because there are a lot of people suffering in that area and they are assisting them.\" Some of the donations will cover costs associated with their anticipated channel swim, he added. But even if they don't get to do their relay, Javaid said, their effort is still worthwhile. \"Even if my visa doesn't go through, we'll continue with Channeling Peace,\" he vowed, referring to the organization they set up for their effort. \"Even if I have to swim in a lake in Pakistan while David swims in the English Channel, it's still a powerful symbol,\" Javaid said. \"Symbols gather power not from the act itself but from the people who are supporting them,\" he said. \"A lot of people around the world are supporting us and our message. As long as they support it in their hearts and minds, we have been successful.\"","highlights":"College teammates want to swim English Channel for charity, international harmony .\nSwim was to happen between now and August 6, but one denied visa to Britain .\nUsman Javaid, an Ohio student from Pakistan, says U.K. questioned student status .\nJavaid reapplies for visa, waits for decision .","id":"d54aa73bd42c95e24f304d0b740729663e8f07a8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A disabled punk band has launched a campaign to fight for the rights of disabled people to be able to party late. Heavy Load are a UK-based punk band with three out of five members who are disabled. \"Heavy Load,\" describe themselves as an \"anarcho-garage-punk\" band and are made up of five musicians, one of whom has Downs Syndrome and two who have unspecified learning disabilities. Their campaign, \"Stay Up Late,\" encourages carers to support disabled people who want to stay out past 10pm. Heavy Load's manager and bass guitarist, Paul Richards, 39, told CNN: \"The Stay Up Late\" campaign is to raise awareness, and tackle the issue where disabled gig-goers end up going home at 9pm, therefore missing most of the evening, because their support workers finish their shifts at 10pm. \"We started the campaign because we'd be playing a gig and something strange happens at 9pm when people would start to go home. We were also frustrated with asking to go on earlier in the evening so that our fans would still be there. It's not very punk to go on at 8.30pm,\" he added. \"Stay up Late\" has received widespread support from disabled people and the UK government, Richards said. Even carers who may be required to work later if the campaign is successful have offered their support. \"So far, we've only had one or two support workers say that they don't think they should be required to work unsociable hours,\" Richards said. The group has also partnered with the UK's leading learning disabilities charity Mencap, who they say have really helped to relay their message to a wider audience. Mencap and Heavy Load teamed up last week where the band headlined a concert in London for people with learning disabilities, giving them an opportunity to be involved in running a club night. See images from the concert \u00bb . They concert was held in conjunction with London venue Proud Camden, and around 400 people attended the event which finished at 1am. Everyone at the event, from the door girl, to bar staff and cloakroom attendants, were people with learning disabilities, venue owner Alex Proud told CNN. \"It's the first event of its kind for people with a learning disability and there was a real buzz about how people with learning disability are an untapped source in the entertainment industry.\" He said: \"At these nights there is a lack of inhibitions. They tend to let their hair down and really know how to party; it's a hell of a lot of fun for all involved. Proud is eager to put on events that include people with a learning disability and to make the public more aware of this often overlooked group. \"Young people with learning disabilities want to go out, but they are not catered for in the entertainment industry,\" he added. Heavy Load have been together for 13 years since meeting at the Southdown housing in England, a non-profit assisted-living community for people with learning disabilities. Vocalist Jimmy Nicholls, 62, posted an advert and a week later the band including Michael White, 47 (drums) Simon barker, 37 (lead vocals) and Mick Williams, 47 (guitar and vocals) was formed. Since then the band has gained many disabled and non-disabled fans and a successful documentary, \"Heavy Load,\" has been made about their lives. Now they are looking forward to setting up the \"Stay Up Late\" campaign around the world. Richards said: \"When we visited New York last year we were surprised to find that it's an issue for people with learning disabilities to get out much at all -- so there is definitely a need there. \"We've also been asked to go to Russia, Serbia, other parts of the U.S., Scotland and Czech Republic to play and promote the campaign -- which we'd love to do, but money's tight, \" he added. However, Richards insists the campaign is not about partying late every night. \"We don't insist on people staying up late against their will -- just having the choice to do what they want to do!\"","highlights":"Disabled punk bank Heavy Load have launched the \"Stay Up Late\" campaign .\nThe band want disabled concert-goers to be able to enjoy gigs until the end .\nDisabled people often have to leave gigs early when their carers' shifts end .\nHeavy Load played last week at a London club night run by disabled people .","id":"f49bf7f34092f8dd05a68f6f13ed75f1b62aeaa5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A new standoff was brewing in Honduras as the country's recently deposed president vowed to return, while the new provisional government said it would arrest him if he set foot back in the country. Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya appears Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly. Political turmoil has swept this Central American nation of 8 million people following a military-led coup Sunday that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Troops entered the president's residence and sent him out of the country in exile. A veteran legislator, Roberto Micheletti, was sworn in that same day as provisional president with the support of congress. Roberto Micheletti, the veteran legislator who was sworn in that same day as provisional president with the support of congress, was adamant that Zelaya would not return to power. \"He already committed crimes against the constitution and the laws; he can't return to be president of the republic,\" Micheletti told reporters Tuesday. \"He can no longer return to the presidency unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him with arms.\" Micheletti added, \"If there is an invasion against our country, we have seven-and-a-half million Hondurans ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government.\" However, Zelaya still vows to defy the provisional government. \"I am going to return on Thursday because they expelled me by force, and I am going to return as always: as a citizen and as president,\" Zelaya said at a U.N. news conference shortly after the world body unanimously adopted a resolution that he should be restored to power. Zelaya, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, called the resolution historic. \"Your servant has several accusations against him in Honduras,\" Zelaya said. \"But nobody has given me a trial. Nobody has convened a tribunal.\" Meanwhile, Micheletti's provisional government said Zelaya would be arrested if he returned. \"As soon as he arrives he will be captured, as we already have the arrest warrants ready,\" new Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez Colindres told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol. Zelaya would face charges of violating the constitution, corruption and drug trafficking, among others, Ortez said. The deposed president said he would travel to Washington to attend a meeting of the Organization of American States. He also is expected to meet Tuesday evening with Tom Shannon, the top U.S. official on Latin America. Even as Zelaya spoke at the United Nations, his opponents held a large and noisy rally in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Crowd members waved blue and white Honduran flags and signs denouncing Zelaya. Roberto Micheletti, the new provisional president, briefly addressed the crowd Tuesday afternoon. He vowed that the next national elections, slated for November, will be held as planned, and that a new president will be sworn in as usual in January. Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the top Honduran military commander who had butted heads with Zelaya, also spoke at the rally. By removing Zelaya, the armed forces were only complying with their constitutional duties, he said. Before he spoke, the crowd chanted in support, \"Armed forces! Armed forces!\" Zelaya supporters also were active Tuesday, with three major public-sector labor unions launching a general strike, a union official told CNN. About 100,000 workers joined the strike, said Oscar Garcia, vice president of the Honduran water workers union SANAA. That number could not be independently verified. \"It will be an indefinite strike,\" Garcia said. \"We don't recognize this new government imposed by the oligarchy, and we will mount our campaign of resistance until President Manuel Zelaya is restored to power.\" Also on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it was reviewing its aid to Honduras as it works with regional partners on a deal to restore Zelaya to power and quell political unrest in the country. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. was reviewing whether Zelaya's ouster met the legal definition of a \"coup\" before any decision was made. \"Because of the situation and the very dramatic nature of the events there and our profound concern about what's going on there, I think we're looking at a number of aspects of our cooperation,\" Kelly said. The State Department has also issued a travel alert due \"to the current unstable political and security situation in Honduras.\" The alert \"recommends that American citizens defer all nonessential travel to Honduras until further notice.\" In another development, two U.S. military officials in Washington confirmed to CNN that U.S. helicopters will fly over southern Honduras on a humanitarian relief mission Tuesday. The officials said there is great sensitivity to any public appearance by the U.S. military in the country. The U.S. military also postponed some planned exercises with the Honduran military until the situation in the country settles down, according to the U.S. Southern Command. \"We have postponed certain activities,\" Maj. D.L. Wright, Southern Command spokesman, told CNN. Wright said this decision would be in effect for at least two to three weeks, or \"until the political situation settles.\" Zelaya was overthrown early Sunday when the Honduran military arrested him and flew him to Costa Rica. Micheletti, president of the Congress, was sworn in as provisional president later Sunday. The United Nations, OAS and most nations in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, have condemned the ouster and demanded that Zelaya be restored to power. The World Bank said Tuesday it would freeze funds to Honduras until the crisis is resolved, and the United States said it is reviewing its aid to the Central American nation. The U.S. joined many other nations in co-sponsoring Tuesday's U.N. resolution. Zelaya had been at odds with the other branches of government over a referendum he wanted to hold Sunday. The Honduran Supreme Court had ruled that the referendum was illegal, and Congress had voted not to hold it. The high court also had overturned Zelaya's dismissal of Honduras' top general, who said the military would not participate in the referendum. The court ordered that the general be reinstated immediately. Zelaya disregarded those actions and vowed to hold the vote anyway. Watch part one of interview with Zelaya (in Spanish) \u00bb | Part two (in Spanish) \u00bb . Honduran authorities on Monday clashed with Zelaya supporters, who took to the streets and threw rocks at authorities, burned tires and set up roadblocks. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your photos, videos . In a radio address Tuesday, Micheletti said Zelaya would be arrested if he came back. Watch interview with Micheletti (in Spanish) \u00bb . Micheletti also told Honduras' representatives at the United Nations and OAS to quit speaking against the new government or they immediately will be removed from their posts. They are not authorized, he said, to speak for the Honduran government. In another development, two U.S. military officials in Washington confirmed to CNN that American helicopters will fly over southern Honduras on a humanitarian relief mission Tuesday. The officials said there is great sensitivity to any public appearance by the U.S. military in the country. Three Black Hawk helicopters are scheduled to leave an air base at Soto Cano in Honduras and fly south to Nicaragua. They will be used to support the USNS Comfort, which is conducting a medical relief mission. CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Krupskaia Alis in Honduras, and CNN's Karl Penhaul, Barbara Starr and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Provisional Honduran government says president faces arrest on return .\nDeposed President Jose Manuel Zelaya says he'll return home this week .\nU.N. passes resolution saying ousted president should be returned to power .\nThree labor unions in Honduras reportedly begin general strike to back Zelaya .","id":"244da30ec12f1e291866f62bb016c570fb9a5823"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA's Kepler space telescope has already made a discovery, and its science operations aren't even officially under way yet. The planet used in the test is a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter that orbits a star called HAT P-7. NASA scientists who put the telescope through a 10-day test after its March 6 launch said this week that Kepler is working well. Its ability to detect minute changes in light has enabled scientists to determine that a planet orbiting a distant star has an atmosphere, shows only one side to its sun and is so hot it glows. Kepler's ability to take measurements that precise at such a great distance \"proves we can find Earth-size planets,\" William Borucki, Kepler's principal science investigator told reporters at a recent briefing. The powerful scope is looking at thousands of stars in its vision field in the Milky Way on a 3\u00bd-year mission to find planets the size of Earth and to determine how common these planets are. The planet used in the test, a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter, orbits a star called HAT P-7 in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun, according to NASA. It is called an exoplanet because it orbits a star outside the solar system. Kepler detected the planet's atmosphere, demonstrating the telescope's capabilities and giving astronomers what NASA says is \"only a taste of things to come.\" \"It learned that this planet is like 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is so hot. And it's 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit just on one side only. The other side would be closer to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, \" said Sara Seager, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Kepler science team member. \"This particular planet showed an unusual change in brightness,\" she said. \"As the planet is orbiting the star, it goes through phases just as the moon goes through phases as seen from Earth.\" \"Kepler learned something new about an old planet,\" she said. \"The new discovery was that planet is extremely hot, very, very hot. And it's very, very hot on one side, compared to the other.\" Borucki compared it to \"an element in your toaster or stove.\"","highlights":"Kepler orbiting observatory beginning mission to find planets the size of Earth .\nIt has found that a planet orbiting a distant star shows only one side to the star .\n\"Kepler learned something new about an old planet,\" says team member .","id":"4c246a4759818d894e4e649d69603f40335e6c9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan government should immediately release more than 280,000 displaced Tamil civilians living in detention camps, a leading human rights group said Wednesday. Tamil civilians are at Menik Farm refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern town of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. Human Rights Watch said the displaced Sri Lankans were already victims of a protracted and bloody civil war. Now they are victims again, confined against their will, like criminals, the global watchdog group said. \"Keeping several hundred thousand civilians who had been caught in the middle of a war penned in these camps is outrageous,\" said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Right Watch. \"Haven't they been through enough?\" But a Sri Lankan Defense Ministry spokesman said the Human Rights Watch report is overstated, and he defended the government's handling of the displaced. \"Those are not detention camps,\" said the spokesman, Lakshman Hulugalle. \"They are relief villages. All the basic facilities are being given to the people.\" Sri Lanka declared victory in May in its 25-year battle with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but concerns remain about how the island nation can heal visceral war wounds. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- waged war for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since July 1983. As many as 70,000 people were killed in the conflict. With the cease-fire, the question of how to resettle Tamil refugees, many of whom were living among the rebels, has wrought intense criticism of the government from international humanitarian agencies. The United Nations reported that as of July 19, Sri Lanka was detaining 281,621 people in 30 military guarded camps in the four northern districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and Trincomalee. Human Rights Watch said humanitarian workers are prohibited from discussing abuses or the final months of the ethnic conflict and that camp residents are allowed to leave only for emergency medical care, often only with military escort. In some camps, people have to register with the military twice a day, the rights group said. If they fail, they are subject to punitive measures such as being forced to stand still under the sun for extended periods of time. The group reported health problems created by inconsistent water supply and a shortage of bathroom facilities. But Hulugalle, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said barbed wire around the compounds is a common way to define barriers in Sri Lanka and that military guards were being utilized out of security concerns. The government fears that rebels are hiding in the camps and screening people living in them. \"These are people who were kept for months in LTTE clutches,\" Hulugalle said, referring to the displaced civilians. He said the government has a 180-day plan to resettle most people but that a lot of work was needed in the northern districts as far as rebuilding infrastructure and basic services destroyed in the fighting. The human rights activists say, however, that the government is not working fast enough. Human Right Watch said Sri Lanka's goal now is only to resettle 60 percent of the refugees by the end of the year. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz visited a camp this week in Vavuniya, after which he announced an additional $8 million in humanitarian aid for the northern districts. But even in handing out dollars, Schwartz was critical of Sri Lanka's handling of the displaced. In a statement, he acknowledged that providing food, shelter and medical care for the displaced people was a \"formidable task.\" But Schwartz said the United States remains \"deeply concerned\" about the confinement of people to camps and the hardships they endure within those camps. He also criticized the restrictions placed on humanitarian workers visiting the camps. \"The government of the United States believes the focus now must be on the prompt return of the displaced in safety and dignity, and we want to accelerate this process,\" Schwartz said. In addition to global humanitarian aid, the International Monetary Fund has approved a $2.6 billion loan to Sri Lanka to mend the country. Adams of Human Rights Watch said Sri Lanka, in need of global sympathy in its efforts to rebuild, could very well go the opposite way if the Tamil people, once subjugated by the rebels, keep waking up as prisoners of their own state.","highlights":"Group: More than 280,000 displaced Tamil civilians living in detention camps .\nSri Lanka says the Human Rights Watch report is overstated .\nHuman Rights Watch says aid workers are prohibited from discussing abuses .\nGroup reported health problems created by inconsistent water supply .","id":"ac83115045db934c2890a126f4e06e856589cdca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man shot his estranged wife to death, along with their son and grandson, before turning the gun on himself as police closed in, authorities in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, said Sunday. Police say Dennis Carter Sr. shot four family members, three fatally, before turning the gun on himself. Dennis Carter Sr., 50, also shot and critically injured his pregnant daughter-in-law, the parish sheriff's office said in a statement. The shootings occurred Saturday night in the town of Holden, Louisiana. Authorities were dispatched to a report of shots fired at a home about 10:40 p.m. Upon arrival, they found three people dead and the fourth -- Amber Carter, 25 -- in critical condition, the statement said. Those killed were Dennis Carter Jr., 26, Amber Carter's husband; their son Mason Carter, 2; and 49-year-old Donna Carter, mother of Dennis Carter Jr. and estranged wife of Dennis Carter Sr., police said. All had been shot to death. A 16-month-old child at the home was unharmed, authorities said. Deputies believe Amber Carter attempted to escape from the gunman by jumping from a second-story window, holding Mason in her arms, the statement said, but the boy did not survive his gunshot wounds. Amber Carter had several bullet wounds, said Perry Rushing, chief of operations for the sheriff's office, and authorities believe the gunman shot her in the back as she was attempting to get out the window while holding the child. She also may have been shot again after she got outside the home, Rushing told CNN. Amber Carter was flown to a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hospital, and later transferred to New Orleans, Rushing said. She was in critical condition as of Sunday morning. A neighbor in the area told deputies that he heard a gunshot and saw Carter Sr. walking to a car, a red El Camino, with a gun in his hand, the sheriff's statement said. At 11:30 p.m., a police officer in the adjacent town of Livingston saw the vehicle entering Interstate 12 heading eastbound, the statement said. A Livingston Parish sheriff's deputy followed the car and attempted to stop it. \"However, the suspect shot himself with a handgun, in plain view of the officers, as the vehicle veered off the shoulder of the interstate near the Holden exit,\" police said. Records from the Livingston Parish Detention Center show that Dennis Carter Sr., of Hammond, Louisiana, had been jailed \"on three separate occasions in 2009 alone, on three separate charges of violation of a protective order and one charge of aggravated assault (domestic),\" the sheriff's office said. \"At this time, there do not appear to be any other suspects or victims in this ongoing investigation,\" police said. Holden is about 35 miles east of Baton Rouge.","highlights":"Dennis Carter Sr. killed his estranged wife, their son and grandson, police say .\nPolice say he also shot his pregnant daughter-in-law, who is in critical condition .\nCarter drove away, then shot himself to death as police pursued, authorities say .\nSheriff's office says Carter had record of domestic violence .","id":"c1af49cc64d7eff73bedad1a05265b78a49b9207"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Forty seven-year-old Australian \"adrenaline junkie\" Sean Langman will attempt to break the 50-knot sailing speed barrier with his half sailboat, half plane, after a serious crash last summer. The half sailboat, half plane uses technology known as supercavitation -- sailing just above the water's edge. Langman, a shipyard owner and yachtsman, is intent on beating the French-set record within the next few weeks, with the \"Wot Rocket,\" a canoe-style pod with a nine meter-long rigid sail. The Wot Rocket is waiting for confirmation from the World Sailing Speed Record Council to attempt, once again, an unprecedented technology known as \"supercavitation\" -- sailing just above the water in a gas bubble created by the deflection of water. This is to to reduce the drag which is around 1,000 times greater in the water than in the air. \"Wot Rocket is so exciting as we push to sail up to three times the speed of the wind,\" Langman told CNN. In October last year Langman and his co-pilot crashed when they lost control of the vessel at 42 knots -- over 60 miles per hour. But after re-building and perfecting the vessel at a cost of half a million dollars, Langman is ready to try again. \"The exhilaration of sailing\/flying is so big, you don't think about danger,\" he told CNN. Langman is certain that this time around he will beat the record. \"My only concern is we won't be able to keep control of the craft.\" In case the pilots crash again, Langman says the most thing is to remain calm. \"Last time I felt a mild panic as we were underwater. I just hoped the paramedics would get there in time. \"But really I feel very safe doing anything on water as that what I've done my whole life. I feel most 'in tune' when I'm on water,\" he added. The idea for Wot Rocket was conceived four years ago by Langman after he was inspired by the story of Burt Munro, the New Zealander who set a world land speed record on his modified Indian Scout motorcycle in 1967 -- played by Antony Hopkins in the 2005 Hollywood movie \"The World's Fastest Indian.\" Do you think the wotrocket can beat the record? \"I came up with the idea in the shower. So I presented it to a group of engineers and said 'this is what I believe.' Most said I'm a lunatic but one said 'I want to work with you'.\" Langman joined forces with leading Australian designer Andy Dovell and sought input from Boeing 747 pilots for their aeronautical knowledge. He then had the \"Wot Rocket\" built using the staff and facilities at his various Shipyards. Finally, he teamed up with Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood who invested in the project because, as he explained, he \"likes leftfield ideas.\" \"My family think I'm crazy, but every time I've had an idea it's taken me somewhere. It's really about ideas versus science and trying to make it work,\" Langman explained. \"And no one remembers the second man to walk on the moon.\"","highlights":"Half sailboat, half plane will attempt to break the 50-knot sailing speed barrier .\nPilot Sean Langman crashed dangerously last year but is confident he can make it .\n\"Wot Rocket\" uses technology called \"supercavitation:\" sailing just above the water .","id":"1008fea6d8460559370f75430b2da2fe8053d311"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Off a desert highway, about 15 miles from her home in the southern tip of Nevada, the mystery of Maureen Fields' disappearance began with the discovery of her abandoned car. The body of Maureen Fields, seen here in June 2005, hasn't been found since she went missing in 2006. Investigators found the 41-year-old woman's 2004 green Hyundai just across the California border on February 16, 2006. It was one day after her husband, Paul Fields, said he last saw her. Investigators say they discovered Fields' purse and wallet, the keys in the ignition and a fully reclined driver's seat. There were slippers and eyeglasses beneath the gas pedal, religious pamphlets, a knotted pair of pantyhose as well as three bottles of prescription tranquilizers and pain killers. Watch an update on the case \u00bb . A small spot of her blood and vomit stained a blanket strewn across the ground beside the car. But Fields, who'd been working as a Wells Fargo bank teller in the small town of Pahrump, Nevada, has never been found. \"Just looking at the circumstances, it could appear staged\" by whoever was responsible for her disappearance, said Detective Dave Boruchowitz, an investigator with the Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff's Office. Reported inconsistencies in her 60-year-old husband's story, police said, paired with the fact that the couple was described as having a stormy relationship, made Paul Fields the initial suspect. A lack of physical evidence, however, has made the case unprosecutable, said Detective Joe Close, also with the Nye County Sheriff's Office. Paul Fields, who runs an auto business out of the double-wide trailer he and his wife shared, maintains his innocence. He's speculated that she faked her death before running off with another man. A message left at his home was not returned. But his attorney, Harold Kuehn, said, \"His contention is and my belief is that if she's truly dead, and the court says she is for civil purposes, then he didn't do it. ... What he told police is what he told me. Basically she left one day, never to be seen again.\" In a new twist, Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett says an unknown male's DNA was found on key items at the scene of the abandoned car. \"What we have to explore is the possibility of another suspect,\" Beckett said. \"We have to find out who this male was and whose DNA was found at the scene. It's a lot more complicated than one may think it is.\" The prosecutor said he's sure a jury would have reasonable doubt if presented a case with this question mark looming. \"We have a duty to make sure we're doing the right thing,\" he said. \"There are too many unanswered questions at this time.\" Maureen Fields has been declared dead, and the search for her body, and her killer, continues. Her father, Jim Fitzgerald, has been doing some investigating of his own. The former detective with the Newark, New Jersey, Police Department -- and now a national director with the conservative John Birch Society -- has made repeated trips from his Randolph Township, New Jersey, home to speak with his daughter's former friends and co-workers. He's also consulted with a psychic in his search for clues. No matter when her body is found, a serial numbered metal jaw implant -- which served to combat Fields' teeth grinding habit -- will stand as proof of her identity, Fitzgerald said. Since murder carries no statute of limitations, time is on the law's side. \"The case isn't dead to us,\" said Boruchowitz, one of the detectives still on the investigation. \"We're going to continue to work it until we prove who did it.\" Anyone with information about this case should call the Nye County Sheriff's Office at 775-751-7000.","highlights":"Maureen Fields of southern Nevada was 41 when she went missing in 2006 .\nHer abandoned car, with keys, purse and pill bottles, was found off a desert highway .\nPresumed dead, there's been no sign of her body and no evidence pointing to a killer .\nUnknown male's DNA, however, was recently discovered and may hold new clues .","id":"4267063df60f82271c260df42f733e44559099cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mississippi has kept its U.S. heavyweight title for a fifth straight year, among both adults and children. Adult obesity rates went up in 23 states in the past year, a survey shows. The percentage of adults classified as obese went up in 23 states, but Mississippi, with 32.5 percent, stayed atop the latest annual rankings by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America's Health. The same survey put the state's adult obesity rate at 31.7 percent in 2008. In addition, 44.4 percent of Mississippi children ages 10 to 17 are classified as overweight or obese, the study found. Doctors have linked obesity to increased risks of a variety of conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and heart disease. Wednesday's study found the current U.S. economic slump could worsen the problem by putting more nutritious food out of the reach of struggling families. See a map of obesity in the U.S. \u00bb . \"At the same time, safety-net programs and services are becoming increasingly overextended as the numbers of unemployed, uninsured and underinsured Americans continue to grow,\" the report states. \"For many people, too, worries over the recession are triggering increased depression, anxiety and stress, which often can be linked to obesity.\" Dr. Ed Thompson, Mississippi's state health officer, called the report -- which was drawn from state figures -- \"old data rehashed.\" But he said the state is taking steps to address what he called \"a multifaceted problem,\" targeting schoolchildren in particular. Thompson said teachers not only are trying to educate students about the importance of good nutrition and exercise, they are changing schedules to increase the amount of physical activity students experience in a day. In addition, lower-calorie, lower-fat foods are replacing some high-calorie, high starch lunchroom staples, he said. \"We can't tell our children to eat wise dietary choices and then provide them with little except for poor dietary choices in their school cafeterias,\" Thompson said. Rounding out the top five states among adults were West Virginia, with 31.2 percent of its population considered obese; Alabama, 31.1 percent; Tennessee, 30.2 percent; and South Carolina 29.7 percent. At the bottom of the rankings, Colorado had the lowest percentage of obese adults, with 18.9 percent. It was followed by Massachusetts, at 21.2 percent; Connecticut, 21.3; Rhode Island, 21.7; and Hawaii, 21.8. Even in those states, the obesity rate grew by fractions of a percent since 2008, according to the study. Thompson said most adults know they should eat less and exercise. \"The hard part is getting people to actually practice these things,\" he said. \"Our work lives require less physical exertion than they used to,\" he said. \"With less physical activity, we should have adjusted our dietary consumption downward.\" While deep-fried Southern cooking is legendary, Mississippi also ranks high in poverty statistics and low in education -- two factors commonly related to obesity. But Thompson said education appears to be more closely related to obesity than poverty. \"We do see obesity among people who are in lower socioeconomic levels, but we see it in higher socioeconomic levels as well,\" he said. \"Being poor does not not make you obese, and being rich does not make you thin.\" The survey used the Body Mass Index standards set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC defines someone as obese if they have a BMI -- a figure based on a ratio of height to weight -- of 30 or more, while anyone with a BMI between 25 and 30 is considered overweight. Calculate your Body Mass Index \u00bb . Adult obesity rates went up in 23 states in the past year, with 31 states now reporting rates over 25 percent. By comparison, no state topped 20 percent in 1991, the survey's authors reported.","highlights":"Survey: 44.4 percent of Mississippi children ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese .\nEconomic slump could put more nutritious food out of the reach of struggling families .\nOther top states were West Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina .\nThe survey used the Body Mass Index standards set by the CDC .","id":"53274ba3f332999d825c6898313129abe3b99060"} -{"article":"MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) -- If you listen to inventor Dean Kamen, the biggest health problem facing the world today is not AIDS, obesity or malnutrition. It's a shortage of water. Dean Kamen hopes to tackle the world's fresh water shortage with the Slingshot, a water purifying device. Water is the most abundant resource on the planet, yet less than one percent of the Earth's freshwater supply is readily available to drink, according to the World Health Organization. Lack of accessible or clean drinking water, exacerbated by drought, is crippling communities in many developing countries. \"In your lifetime, my lifetime, we will see water be a really scarce, valuable commodity,\" Kamen says. Those are scary words from the man whose creations include the Segway personal motorized scooter and the Luke (as in Skywalker) prosthetic arm. But the forward-thinking inventor and his team at DEKA Research in Manchester, New Hampshire, aren't sitting around waiting for the world's wells to dry up. They've been working on an invention they say can tap into 97 percent of the world's undrinkable water. It's called the Slingshot, and it's a portable, low energy machine that is designed to purify water in remote villages where there's not a Wal-Mart in sight. The device takes its name from a well-known story. \"We believe the world needs a slingshot to take care of its Goliath of a problem in water,\" Kamen says. \"So we decided to build a small machine and give it to the little Davids.\" Perhaps you've heard about the Slingshot, which Kamen has been working on for more than 10 years. Over that time it has turned dirty river water, ocean water and even raw sewage into pure drinking water. Kamen says it can turn anything that looks wet, or has water in it, into the \"stuff of life.\" The magic behind the Slingshot is a \"vapor compression distiller\" that stands between what looks like two empty fish tanks connected by a couple of hoses. One tank contains the contaminated liquid, the other is for the newly clean water. Watch Kamen demonstrate the Slingshot \u00bb . The Slingshot boils, distills and vaporizes the polluted source, in turn delivering nothing but clean water to the other side. And it does it all on less electricity than it takes to run a hair dryer. In summer 2006, Kamen delivered two Slingshots to the small community of Lerida in Honduras. They were used for a month and Kamen says everything ran as planned. \"The machine worked very well down there, taking virtually any water that the people from that village brought to us,\" he says. \"All the water that we got from the machine was absolutely pure water.\" But there's a problem. Kamen says each Slingshot costs his company several hundred thousand dollars to build. He's looking to partner with companies and organizations to distribute Slingshots around the world, but says a little more engineering work needs to be done in order to lower the production costs. Kamen says the company would like to get the price down to about $2,000 per machine. \"The biggest challenge right now between this being a dream and a reality is getting committed people that really care about the state of the world's health to get involved,\" Kamen says. The world's population is quickly approaching 7 billion, making access to clean water that much more important. According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, more than 3.5 million people die every year from water-related diseases and almost 900 million don't have access to a safe water supply. Kamen says people in developing regions of the world need the Slingshot as soon as possible. He also thinks the problem with polluted water will spread beyond small villages. He says one Slingshot machine can supply about 250 gallons of water a day, which is enough for 100 people. That's a lot of Davids. \"It is literally like turning lead into gold,\" he says. \"But I believe it's more important, because you can't drink lead or gold.\"","highlights":"Segway inventor Dean Kamen wants to tackle the world's fresh water shortage .\nKamen has designed a portable water purifying device called a Slingshot .\nThe machine is designed to purify water in remote villages of developing nations .\nBut assembly costs remain too high for the machine to be mass produced .","id":"9a43f4c17f9857c92e846034f8a52259a0dc63d4"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian authorities Tuesday arrested two suspects believed to be responsible for the September 18 killing of six African immigrants in Castelvolturno, a small town of 20,000 residents north of Naples. The army has been deployed in major cities aross Italy since the early summer. Police also arrested a third man wanted by authorities for belonging to the same clan, but not directly linked to the killings. The victims were gunned down in a hail of bullets as they stood outside a store selling ethnic goods. The attack sparked a riot by immigrants who complained about \"racism\" but officials suspect a dispute over drug trafficking. Those arrested, Alessandro Cirillo, Oreste Spagnuolo and Giovanni Letizia, were on the list of the 100 most dangerous men and wanted criminals in Italy. The arrests were part of a large police operation aimed at cracking down on organized crime in the Campania region and in particular the powerful Casalesi clan belonging to the Neapolitan mafia known as Camorra. The Casalesi clan and the area where the arrests took place prominently featured in the best seller \"Gomorrah,\" a book written by Roberto Saviano who now lives under constant police protection. \"This is a great day for the Italian state,\" said Carmelo Casabona, head of the police in Caserta. \"The operation was an immediate, concrete and strong answer to organized crime in this region.\" Two weeks ago, the Italian interior minister announced the deployment of 400 additional police officers in the area. And the Italian military will deploy 500 troops by Saturday as part of a large operation Italian officials say is aimed at \"reclaiming the control of the territory.\" \"Our objective is to take the water away from the sharks,\" said Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni. He explained that the additional police officers are already working, while the army's role will be defined at a key meeting Friday in Caserta. In the suspects' home, police found weapons including two AK-47s that investigators say were used to carry out the killings in Castelvolturno, as well as police overalls, one gun and one pump rifle. Authorities also arrested dozens of other people, including the wife of Francesco Schiavone, aka \"Sandokan,\" the head of the Casalesi clan who was arrested a decade ago and is serving a life-time prison sentence. As part of the same operation, Italian financial police confiscated 43 companies and 134 apartments spread throughout central and southern Italy belonging to the Casalesi clan, worth more than 100 million euros ($144 million). CNN Producer Flavia Taggiasco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two suspects arrested over killing of six African immigrants in Italy .\nVictims were gunned down in a hail of bullets in town north of Naples .\nArrests part of large police operation aimed at tackling organized crime .","id":"0591974a8589044e67d76ea3ad63b47004fb1b01"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ten years ago, Al Franken wrote a satirical book detailing his fictitious race for the White House. In \"'Why Not Me?\" Franken trounces former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to win the election, but after countless scandals, a mental breakdown and a cloning incident, President Franken is forced to resign. Comedian, author and radio host Al Franken can now add \"senator\" to his resume. Asked how he came up with the idea for the book, Franken said at the time that a number of people had been encouraging him to run for office. \"They thought it would be a good idea because I obviously know a lot about politics; I'm comfortable on camera, as you can tell; I've been married once, have two children; very, very good looking. And I told them that I'd be a terrible office-holder, so that was sort of the genesis of this idea,\" he said. As far-fetched as the plot was, Franken's political aspirations weren't fantasy, and eight months after Election Day, the Democrat will be sworn in as an office-holder, representing Minnesota in the Senate. Soon after, the outspoken comedian and former radio host will take over the desk once occupied by election rival Norm Coleman. For months, Coleman appealed the election results, in which a recount gave Franken a 312-vote lead. But Coleman's case was put to rest last week when Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled in Franken's favor. Franken on the issues \u00bb . When Franken is sworn in Tuesday, the title \"senator\" will become just the next line on a lengthy and varied r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that reflects a man who has built up an illustrious yet controversial name for himself. Franken, born in New York in 1951, moved to Minnesota when he was 4 years old. He grew up in a middle-class family and did well in school. Franken attended Harvard University, where he majored in political science. After graduation, Franken teamed up with his home-state pal Tom Davis, and the two started writing for what became known as \"Saturday Night Live.\" Franken was also a performer -- playing self-help guru Stuart Smalley and impersonating public figures like Henry Kissinger and the Rev. Pat Robertson -- and over the course of two decades, he took home five Emmys for his work on the show. Post-\"SNL,\" Franken dabbled in film and had a successful career as an author, penning several best-sellers, including \"Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.\" Watch CNN's Brianna Keiler report on Franken's plans \u00bb . In 2004, Franken made a name for himself as someone well-versed in politics through \"The Al Franken Show,\" carried by Air America Radio. During his final show on February 14, 2007, Franken announced his intentions to run for the Senate. But the man who once played Liam the Loose-Boweled Leprechaun wasn't the first unlikely politician to come from Minnesota. Voters there elected former wrestler Jesse Ventura as their governor in 1998. David Schultz, a professor of law at Hamline University in St. Paul, says Franken's win was probably not an affirmation of support for the Democratic candidate but was, for many, a \"lesser of two evils vote.\" Third-party candidate Dean Barkley was chipping into Coleman's support, and \"in addition, Coleman threw all his dirt against Franken early, and by the general election, it was old news.\" \"Coleman had little new to campaign on during the general election, and Franken became a better candidate in terms of campaigning during the last two months,\" he said. In a video posted on his campaign Web site, explaining that he wanted to run, Franken said Minnesotans had \"a right to be skeptical\" about whether he was ready to take on such a challenge. Watch more on the Franken factor \u00bb . Franken cited late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone as his political hero. Wellstone, who first won election to the Senate in 1990, died in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 election. Going into the race, Coleman was considered one of the more vulnerable Republicans seeking re-election. Although he'd started distancing himself from President Bush, he had been long seen as one of the president's allies. Franken's campaign took off, and he raked in contributions, but his foes were not going to let Coleman go down without a fight. The former comedian's past came back to attack him as anti-Franken ads focused on some of his more controversial lines. The National Republican Senatorial Committee launched a 60-second spot highlighting clips from Franken's SNL days, with an announcer saying, \"Rape jokes, poor and foul-mouthed anger do not make for good training for the United States Senate.\" The Minnesota State Republican Party also blasted their challenger for a 2000 Playboy column he wrote called \"Porn-O-Rama!\" When the votes were tallied on Election Day, Coleman held a slight edge on Franken, leading with just 206 votes. Under Minnesota law, a recount was in order because the margin of victory was less than .5 percent. The controversial recount, and subsequent court challenges, evoked comparisons to the 2000 Bush-Gore saga. But Franken came out on top in one of the most drawn-out Senate races in Senate history. A day after the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in favor of Franken -- and 239 days after the election -- the newly dubbed senator-elect thanked his supporters in an at-times emotional speech on the steps of the state Capitol. \"It is, of course, technically true that this was Paul's U.S. Senate seat. But I don't think Paul saw it that way,\" Franken said Wednesday, again paying respects to Wellstone. \"This seat belongs to the people of Minnesota, and so did Sen. Wellstone, and so will I,\" he said as he thanked his wife, Franni, supporters, volunteers, campaign staff members and the people of the state he will represent. Now, Franken takes on what could be the most influential role of his life as he joins the Senate, giving Democrats their potentially filibuster-proof 60th vote. Senate Democrats are welcoming their newest with open arms, and although the months-long contest has reached a resolution, it's likely the division over Franken will follow him to Capitol Hill. \"The arrival of the man from Minnesota will make the Democrats move even more to the left. He will not only be one more vote for the left, but one more loud voice for liberal policies,\" John Feehery wrote in a commentary for CNN.com. Feehery is a former staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. \"When Franken first started in politics, he did so as the liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh. Imagine if Rush were the 60th vote for Republicans, with George Bush as president. Now, think how Franken will act as the 60th vote for President Obama,\" he wrote.","highlights":"Al Franken defeated Norm Coleman in one of the longest Senate races in history .\nFranken was a fixture on NBC's \"Saturday Night Live\" for years .\nHe also is a best-selling author and former radio host .\nFranken gives Senate Democrats their potentially filibuster-proof 60th vote .","id":"725479da0b3206d73dc35728bb2ec7d60952bed6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Blair MacIntyre imagines a world where tiny clouds of information -- Facebook statuses, business cards, Twitter posts -- float above all of our heads. \"Augmented reality\" can combine live video with data and information from the Internet. In some ways, it's not that far from reality. Advancements in mobile phone technology have cleared the way for a coming wave of \"augmented reality\" applications that merge the physical world with information compiled about people and places on the Internet. \"When the technology gets there, this stuff could be amazingly useful and mildly terrifying in some ways,\" said MacIntyre, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who has taught classes in augmented reality for a decade. The idea of pairing digital information with our real, 3-D environments is not especially new -- think robot-human vision in the \"Terminator\" movies. MacIntyre even plodded about college campuses in the 1990s wearing a 40-pound backpack and nerdy goggles, trying to make something similar happen. But as mobile phones become better equipped with GPS systems, which use satellites to locate the phones; compasses, which tell the direction the phone faces; and accelerometers, which relay the device's tilt; the once-lofty idea of augmented reality is being put into the hands of consumers. Last July in the Netherlands, a company called SPRXmobile released a mobile browser, Layar, that lets people see pieces of this new info-reality through their phone screens. A Layar user sets his or her phone to video mode, aims it around and sees all kinds of information pop up on the screen: blinking dots on apartments that are for sale, the values of those units, pull-down reviews of the bar up on the corner or details about sales at a nearby retail store. Watch a video demo of the app . This makes information easier to find and helps people make better sense of the physical world around them, said Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, co-founder of Layar. \"I think it will actually get you out more than you would stay at home,\" he said. \"You're not at your couch anymore, you're not at your desk\" when you need to find information. Layar, which bills itself as the first mobile browser that features augmented reality, is only available in the Netherlands and only on certain phones, including Google's Android, T-Mobile's G1 and the HTC Magic. But Lens-FitzGerald said the company plans to announce a global expansion plan on August 17 and will develop an app for the iPhone if Apple changes policies that obstruct developers from creating such applications on that device. A range of other \"AR\" apps are in development or are on the market. One, called Nearest Tube, highlights subway routes in New York and London. Wikitude is an app that aims to show people encyclopedic information about nearby landmarks. Like Wikipedia, users can add information to the service. The idea could usher in an era of cell-phone tour guides. Total Immersion, a French company, developed an app that makes 3-D baseball players spring to life from baseball cards. Users can turn the card to see their favorite players, through a phone screen, from all angles. And at Georgia Tech, researchers are working on video games that may one day make it look like virtual zombies are chasing players down real-world streets. Alex Michaelis, CEO of Tweetmondo, a site that pairs Twitter posts with geographical information, said he has developed an app that will let mobile phone users see their friends' tweets through the video camera on their phones. He expects it to be available within the month. \"It adds information to your world, and this is what it's all about,\" he said. To picture how that service would work, think about walking into your living room in the evening. If a roommate had posted to Twitter from the couch, his or her Tweet would hover in that space when viewed through a mobile phone's video camera. Michaelis admits the model is a bit clunky for now. But he sees a future when the app will let people stand on a street corner, hold their phone up to their face, and see the Twitter posts of crowd members as they mill about. Phones would have to be able to communicate with satellites and computer services constantly, instead of only when someone posts a message, to make that possible, he said. \"I see this being resolved in the near future,\" he said, \"because, really, it's just a matter of really experimenting with this technology and pushing it to the limit.\" But there are doubts about augmented technology on phones. Lens-FitzGerald, of Layar, is concerned that augmented reality is being over-hyped and may create unrealistic expectations from consumers. \"It's a cool technology, but yeah, we need to see how much [funding and visibility] our companies will get,\" he said. \"It's getting a lot of press now without being proven, but do we make money, are we going to make people happy with it? We don't know. We're just starting.\" He added: \"It's like the first TV. We need to build an audience.\" MacIntyre, of Georgia Tech, said the technology behind today's augmented reality apps is crude. Mobile phone GPS isn't nearly accurate enough to make sure a Twitter post is tagged to a person, for instance, rather than the lamp post that's 50 feet away. Furthermore, the idea behind the information-reality mesh on mobile phones is off-base, he said. \"I don't see them answering a problem that needs to be solved,\" added MacIntyre, who believes two-dimensional maps can be used to display information much more easily with current technology. More functional problems exist as well. People don't necessarily want to walk around the world holding cell-phone screens in front of their faces. And the world's information has to be tagged geographically to make sense in an augmented-reality setting. But MacIntyre does see a bright future for augmented reality. Within a year, mobile phone applications will become much more functional, he said, and in the foreseeable future, augmented reality will move off of phone screens and onto futuristic sunglasses, whose wearers will see blips of information about everything around them, he said. If that happens, the \"Terminator\" vision will have truly arrived.","highlights":"\"Augmented reality,\" a merger of the digital and virtual worlds, is coming to phones .\n\"AR\" apps put info -- like Twitter posts -- on top of live video captured by phone .\nSmartphone GPS and compass systems paved the way for the advance .\nSome say AR is in its infancy; others question its usefulness .","id":"bb8554a7f815e33bef439f26d64004d66be0c572"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Pedro A. Noguera is a professor at New York University and director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. He is editor of \"Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap in Our Nation's Schools\" and author of \"The Trouble With Black Boys: And Other Reflections on Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education.\" Pedro Noguera says Obama needs to be wary of alienating teachers who can be his allies on education reform. (CNN) -- President Obama has made it clear from the earliest days of his presidency that he intended to make education a high priority for his administration. He reaffirmed that commitment Tuesday when he addressed schoolchildren on the topic. In one of his first presidential addresses, he made a special appeal to students at risk of dropping out: \"... [D]ropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country, and this country needs and values the talents of every American.\" The president's commitment to education is truly remarkable, considering the enormous array of policy challenges confronting the administration. From health care and the economic crisis, to global warming and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration is beset by controversies that will not be easily resolved. The fact that the president and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, have not allowed education to be ignored or placed on the back burner says a great deal about their recognition of its central importance to our nation. However, as the administration navigates its way into the policy debates that are swirling over the future of education, it would be wise for it to proceed with caution. The administration has already staked out positions on a number of issues -- charter schools and merit pay for teachers being two of the big ones -- which run the risk of generating additional controversy in the polarized debates over how to reform education. If these issues and the stimulus money being made available under the Race to the Top (RTT) program are not handled carefully, conflict and even paralysis are likely to ensue. The president may even inadvertently alienate an important core constituency that he will surely need in the years ahead -- public school teachers. The current policy debates over the direction of education are typically presented as battles between the reformers, led by school superintendents like Joel Klein of New York and Michelle Rhee of Washington, D.C., and the defenders of the status quo, most often presented as the powerful teacher unions and other elements of the education establishment. While anyone familiar with the current debates knows that the differences between the two sides are real and profound, a protracted battle over the direction of education reform is not a good thing either for the administration or for those who genuinely want to see improvement in public education. Instead of choosing sides, it would be wise for the administration to do all it can to find common ground between the opposing camps as it formulates new policy initiatives. For example, instead of requiring states to adopt some form of merit pay for teachers -- a measure to which both the teachers' unions, the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, have already declared their opposition -- the administration could encourage states to adopt school-based formulas that reward increases in student achievement. This is similar, though not identical, to the approach taken in New York City, one that encourages collaboration among teachers and recognizes the importance of evidence that children are learning. Similarly, rather than touting charter schools as the solution to public education, the administration should treat the best charters as models of innovation that provide educators with the flexibility to implement new strategies. This is a subtle but important distinction that has been lacking in many of the administration's pronouncements about charter schools. Unlike the public schools, many charter schools find ways to avoid serving the most disadvantaged students, and their teachers often work a longer day and longer school year without a contract. Moreover, many of the best charters are subsidized by private philanthropists and are able to spend considerably more per pupil than traditional public schools. These facts should not be used to negate the accomplishments of the excellent charter schools that have emerged in many large cities. In fact, it is far more likely that struggling public schools in these same cities would be more open to learning from the charters' accomplishments if they were not cast as competitors. Finally, the president has championed the idea of \"promise neighborhoods\" as a way to increase the availability of social services to children in high poverty communities, using as a model the Harlem Childrens Zone. If this initiative is to result in lasting benefits to children, it will need to be combined with creative approaches to reforming urban public schools that re-formulate how we think about standards and focus attention more intently on how to deliver quality instruction to children. With dropout rates at over 50 percent in several of our nation's cities, the administration must realize that tinkering at the margins with No Child Left Behind will not deliver the change we need. The president entered office promising to bring a new kind of politics to the nation, an approach that focused on finding common ground among diverse constituencies to solve the pressing problems of our time. In areas like health care, energy, the economy and foreign policy, this new approach has not yet gained traction. However, it is not too late for the president to unite the nation around a common effort to improve public education. For this to happen, he will need to keep above the fray and stay focused on a strategy that sends a clear message to all constituencies that working together to improve public education is in our national interest. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Pedro A. Noguera.","highlights":"Pedro Noguera: It's good that Obama is emphasizing education's importance .\nHe says president needs to be wary of taking sides on volatile issues .\nHe says merit pay and charter schools could alienate key allies .\nNoguera: Obama needs teachers on his side to improve schools .","id":"3aa10c5787c4b74aecdddc39303fb3075ac6257c"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A European Union delegation met Saturday with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who said the parties had established a \"good rapport.\" President Mugabe and his wife, Grace, arrive for a ZANU PF party youth conference on Friday. \"There was no animosity, it was quite friendly,\" Mugabe said. Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish minister for International Development Cooperation, said the parties \"definitely made some progress.\" \"Of course we didn't agree with everything Mr. Mugabe said, but it was a correct meeting and we exchanged views,\" Carlsson, who is heading the mission, told CNN's Rosemary Church. The delegation met with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai later on Saturday. Carlsson spokesman Peter Larsson had said earlier that \"there was no sense of any hostility from Mugabe.\" Larsson was referring to remarks the Zimbabwean president made Friday, when he condemned \"bloody whites\" for meddling in his country's affairs. Carlsson is heading the mission to Zimbabwe. \"Sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours,\" .Mugabe told his ZANU-PF party's youth conference in Harare on Friday. \"Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say, down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that,\" he said. The European Union imposed travel bans on Mugabe and his representatives in 2002. The bans were imposed after accusations of human rights violations and election fraud. In addition to travel restrictions, the European Union has frozen the assets of more than 200 Zimbabweans for allegedly violating human rights, according to Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU this year. On Saturday, Mugabe again addressed \"sanctions,\" saying he was dismayed that they were not lifted after meeting with the EU delegation. \"I have always been disappointed with sanctions on Zimbabwe,\" he said, adding that the EU delegation \"thought things were not working, yet we did all the things we were asked to do\" under a power-sharing agreement signed in September last year. Larsson said there was no discussion about the restrictions at the meeting. Under the agreement, which was to end months of turmoil and violence that followed the country's March 2008 presidential elections, Mugabe retained his office, and opposition leader Tsvangirai became prime minister. The agreement -- the Global Political Agreement-- spelled out a number of fundamental democratic reforms, but so far there has been no progress toward them, Carlsson said in a statement ahead of the meetings with Mugabe and Tsvangirai. \"There have not yet been clear positive developments in all areas. I am still concerned at the lack of democratic development,\" she said then. After meeting with Tsvangirai, Carlsson told CNN that \"Tsvangirai's government is working hard towards the implementation of the political agreement.\" She added, \"After such a long time of oppression, it is of course hard to move forward and change will take some time. But the EU is committed to follow up on this progress and encourage change.\" CNN's Per Nyberg in London, England, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Of EU meeting, Mugabe said \"there was no animosity, it was quite friendly\"\nEU officials in Zimbabwe to ease relations, push progress on political reforms .\nEuropean Union imposed travel bans on Mugabe, his representatives in 2002 .\nPresident Robert Mugabe says West tries to impose its rules on Zimbabwe .","id":"af8325804e2d84217482b5d4685aa3eb22e23fc6"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This is an excerpt from \"Zeitoun\" by Dave Eggers, a nonfiction account of a Syrian-American immigrant and his extraordinary experience during Hurricane Katrina. Eggers is the author of five other books, including \"What Is the What,\" a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney's, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco. Dave Eggers writes that Abdulrahman Zeitoun dreamed of fishing on the Syrian coast as Katrina approached. (CNN) -- FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2005 . On moonless nights the men and boys of Jableh, a dusty fishing town on the coast of Syria, would gather their lanterns and set out in their quietest boats. Five or six small craft, two or three fishermen in each. A mile out, they would arrange the boats in a circle on the black sea, drop their nets, and, holding their lanterns over the water, they would approximate the moon. The fish, sardines, would begin gathering soon after, a slow mass of silver rising from below. The fish were attracted to plankton, and the plankton were attracted to the light. They would begin to circle, a chain linked loosely, and over the next hour their numbers would grow. The black gaps between silver links would close until the fishermen could see, below, a solid mass of silver spinning. Abdulrahman Zeitoun was only thirteen when he began fishing for sardines this way, a method called lampara, borrowed from the Italians. He had waited years to join the men and teenagers on the night boats, and he'd spent those years asking questions. Why only on moonless nights? Because, his brother Ahmad said, on moon-filled nights the plankton would be visible everywhere, spread out all over the sea, and the sardines could see and eat the glowing organisms with ease. But without a moon the men could make their own, and could bring the sardines to the surface in stunning concentrations. You have to see it, Ahmad told his little brother. You've never seen anything like this. And when Abdulrahman first witnessed the sardines circling in the black he could not believe the sight, the beauty of the undulating silver orb below the white and gold lantern light. He said nothing, and the other fishermen were careful to be quiet, too, paddling without motors, lest they scare away the catch. They would whisper over the sea, telling jokes and talking about women and girls as they watched the fish rise and spin beneath them. A few hours later, once the sardines were ready, tens of thousands of them glistening in the refracted light, the fishermen would cinch the net and haul them in. They would motor back to the shore and bring the sardines to the fish broker in the market before dawn. He would pay the men and boys, and would then sell the fish all over western Syria -- Lattakia, Baniyas, Damascus. The fishermen would split the money, with Abdulrahman and Ahmad bringing their share home. Their father had passed away the year before and their mother was of fragile health and mind, so all funds they earned fishing went toward the welfare of the house they shared with ten siblings. Abdulrahman and Ahmad didn't care much about the money, though. They would have done it for free. Thirty-four years later and thousands of miles west, Abdulrahman Zeitoun was in bed on a Friday morning, slowly leaving the moonless Jableh night, a tattered memory of it caught in a morning dream. He was in his home in New Orleans and beside him he could hear his wife Kathy breathing, her exhalations not unlike the shushing of water against the hull of a wooden boat. Otherwise the house was silent. He knew it was near six o'clock, and the peace would not last. The morning light usually woke the kids once it reached their second-story windows. One of the four would open his or her eyes, and from there the movements were brisk, the house quickly growing loud. With one child awake, it was impossible to keep the other three in bed. Kathy woke to a thump upstairs, coming from one of the kids' rooms. She listened closely, praying silently for rest. Each morning there was a delicate period, between six and six-thirty, when there was a chance, however remote, that they could steal another ten or fifteen minutes of sleep. But now there was another thump, and the dog barked, and another thump followed. What was happening in this house? Kathy looked to her husband. He was staring at the ceiling. The day had roared to life. The phone began ringing, today as always, before their feet hit the floor. Kathy and Zeitoun -- most people called him by his last name because they couldn't pronounce his first -- ran a company, Zeitoun A. Painting Contractor LLC, and every day their crews, their clients, everyone with a phone and their number, seemed to think that once the clock struck six-thirty, it was appropriate to call. And they called. Usually there were so many calls at the stroke of six-thirty that the overlap would send half of them straight to voicemail. Kathy took the first one, from a client across town, while Zeitoun shuffled into the shower. Fridays were always busy, but this one promised madness, given the rough weather on the way. There had been rumblings all week about a tropical storm crossing the Florida Keys, a chance it might head north. Though this kind of possibility presented itself every August and didn't raise eyebrows for most, Kathy and Zeitoun's more cautious clients and friends often made preparations. Throughout the morning the callers would want to know if Zeitoun could board up their windows and doors, if he would be clearing his equipment off their property before the winds came. Workers would want to know if they'd be expected to come in that day or the next. \"Zeitoun Painting Contractors,\" Kathy said, trying to sound alert. It was an elderly client, a woman living alone in a Garden District mansion, asking if Zeitoun's crew could come over and board up her windows. \"Sure, of course,\" Kathy said, letting her feet drop heavily to the floor. She was up. Kathy was the business's secretary, bookkeeper, credit department, public-relations manager -- she did everything in the office, while her husband handled the building and painting. The two of them balanced each other well: Zeitoun's English had its limits, so when bills had to be negotiated, hearing Kathy's Louisiana drawl put clients at ease. This was part of the job, helping clients prepare their homes for coming winds. Kathy hadn't given much thought to the storm this client was talking about. It took a lot more than a few downed trees in south Florida to get her attention. \"We'll have a crew over this afternoon,\" Kathy told the woman. Kathy and Zeitoun had been married for eleven years. Zeitoun had come to New Orleans in 1994, by way of Houston and Baton Rouge and a half-dozen other American cities he'd explored as a young man. Kathy had grown up in Baton Rouge and was used to the hurricane routine: the litany of preparations, the waiting and watching, the power outages, the candles and flashlights and buckets catching rain. There seemed to be a half-dozen named storms every August, and they were rarely worth the trouble. This one, named Katrina, would be no different.","highlights":"Dave Eggers: Abdulrahman Zeitoun grew up in a Syrian fishing town .\nHe says Zeitoun emigrated to America and settled in New Orleans .\nZeitoun and his family thought little of Katrina as it approached the Gulf Coast .","id":"d67603f14cbba15b9b85d61aafefb91b22838fa8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 33,000 items of old denim -- jeans, hats and jackets -- were sent to Washington in a recycling effort that will benefit disaster-struck homes, officials said. Erek Hansen donated five pairs of his own outgrown jeans to the cause and collected almost 1,700 pairs. National Geographic Kids magazine encouraged readers to donate their old denim instead of throwing it away. The resulting 33,088 pieces of denim clothing set a world record, verified Wednesday by a representative from Guinness World Records, according to the magazine's blog. The thousands of pairs of jeans, which are on display at Union Station for two weeks, will be turned into housing insulation for homes affected by natural disasters. According to the magazine, there will be enough material to provide insulation for 60 houses. The jeans will be turned over to Cotton Inc., which collects used denim for natural fiber insulation made without carcinogens or chemical irritants. Paula Rosario, vice president of consumer marketing for the company, said that the new record \"certainly attests to the civic-mindedness of today's children.\" The ceremony unveiling the denim display also honored 9-year-old Erek Hansen, who collected nearly 1,700 jeans. The elementary school student from Curtice, Ohio, said that his friends and classmates \"were happy to help the environment.\" Hansen donated five pairs of his own outgrown jeans. The display also includes a pair from actor Ben Stiller.","highlights":"National Geographic Kids magazine encouraged readers to donate old denim .\nMore than 33,000 items of old denim -- jeans, hats and jackets -- sent to Washington .\nMaterial will be turned into housing insulation for homes affected by natural disasters .\nErek Hansen, 9, of Curtice, Ohio, collect almost 1,700 pairs of jeans .","id":"73c8efbba986d308ac7c2b90d5a948891cd8de6f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles firefighters and city crews worked for several hours Tuesday to rescue one of their own: a 22-ton firetruck that was nearly swallowed by a water-logged sinkhole. Two firefighters crawled out of the truck's windows after it sank Tuesday morning. No one was injured. The incident happened after four firefighters took the truck to the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Valley Village, where flooding had been reported after a water main break, just before 6 a.m. PT. After seeing running water in the road, a fire captain instructed the rig's driver to back up and had two firefighters get out of the truck to direct it. That's when the ground gave way and the front of the truck began quickly sinking. The driver and captain crawled out of the truck's windows to escape. The four firefighters were not injured. Workers had to simultaneously pull and lift the truck to get it out of the sinkhole. Watch workers pull truck from sinkhole . CNN's Carey Bodenheimer contributed to this report.","highlights":"Los Angeles firetruck nearly swallowed by sinkhole Tuesday morning .\nFirefighters in truck were responding to flooding call when incident happened .\nTwo firefighters escaped truck through windows; no injuries reported .","id":"fb44021948a62b23894b67217fdc95d4b65c7e32"} -{"article":"(MENTAL FLOSS) -- College admissions are competitive, and not just from the student's side. Sure, sometimes it's hard to get into the college of your choice, but the schools are fighting just as hard to lure in top applicants. Davidson college students don't have to visit laundromats because they enjoy the luxury of a free laundry service. While some colleges boast about class sizes, graduate fellowships, and endowment growth rates, this sort of info is likely to bore the 17-year-old students they're wooing. Instead, some schools try to come up with unique perks that appeal to students, often in the form of free services. While the cost of these \"free\" perks is undoubtedly built back into tuition bills, when a family's spending upwards of $40,000 a year for school, it can't hurt to help them feel like they're getting something for nothing. Here are a few you might be jealous of: . 1. Free laundry . Nothing's more maddening for a college student than wanting to study, party, or sleep, only to be confronted with a massive mound of laundry. Most of us know that if left unchecked, these piles of dirty clothes can grow until they're on the brink of becoming sentient beings, but students at Davidson, an elite liberal arts college in North Carolina, don't have to worry about it. Their college does the laundry for them. Since 1919, Davidson has been operating a laundry facility that allows students to drop off their laundry and pick it up once its clean and smelling of dryer sheets. At the Lula Bell Houston Laundry, students' dress shirts and blouses are even pressed and put on hangers for them. The laundry clears about six tons' worth of dirty clothes and linens a week, but if students prefer to keep their filthy T-shirts to themselves, the school also offers free self-service washers and dryers in the dorms. As if that's not enough, Davidson was even more generous when its basketball team made a miraculous run to the NCAA's Sweet 16 last March. The school shelled out the cash for free bus transport to the venue in Detroit, two nights' lodging, and a free ticket to the game for any student who wanted to go cheer on their Cinderella in person. Mental Floss: 8 tuition-free colleges . 2. Free skiing . Michigan Technological University offers a pretty standard slate of majors for its students, but it also has a real estate holding that might lure in applicants. The school owns Mont Ripley, a ski slope on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. While normal lift-ticket prices run at around $35 a day, Michigan Tech students can hit the slopes without dropping a dime. 3. Free computers . At my undergrad alma mater, Wake Forest, one of the chief perks is that when you showed up for freshman orientation, the school gives you a fully loaded IBM Thinkpad and a printer. Students keep this laptop for two years, then trade it in for a new model before their junior year. Students then take this one with them when they graduate. While there was a downside to the system (if profs know everyone has a laptop, they're not the least bit shy about making you tote it to class), it really upped the on-campus computing efficiency. Any program you needed for a class was already loaded on the laptop, and since everyone on campus was operating one of only two types of machines, tech support could diagnose problems and fix them really quickly. Mental Floss: 12 college classes we wish our schools offered . 4. Free theater tickets . Nothing irks actors and theater owners quite so much as playing to an empty house, so if tickets are moving slowly, why not fill the seats with college students? NYU's Ticket Central can wrangle Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets for up to 75 percent off their face values, but sometimes, the school can get lucky students into theaters for free to help fill otherwise thin crowds. Ticket Central also boasts that it can get students into Knicks games for as little as $12 and into Mets games for just $3. Of course, the way those teams have played in the last year or so, that offer might scare off more prospective students than it entices. 5. Personalized birthday cakes . College birthdays are often all sorts of debauched fun, but at least in my experience, they were often sorely lacking in quality cake. Sure, sometimes you'd get a pan full of Betty Crocker-ed good intentions cooked in a dorm oven, which are precisely calibrated to burn cakes' edges while leaving the center liquid, but it was rare to see a real birthday cake. Ohio University's dining services can fix that, though, by allowing students' parents to join the Birthday Club. For $18, parents can make sure their kid gets a personalize birthday cake and all of the plates, napkins, and forks they'll need to share it with their friends. 6. Cheap golf . College students who want to golf on a tight budget often have to resign themselves to finding the rattiest municipal course they can find and hoping they survive the ordeal. Students at Stanford, though, have access to the Stanford Golf Course, a legendary course that's hosted such greats as Tom Watson and Tiger Woods since it opened in 1930. Only students, alumni, faculty, and their guests can enjoy the course's picturesque views of San Francisco, and for guests the price is pretty steep, up to $110 a round. Students, though, get a great deal on greens fees; they can get in a full round for just $25. Mental Floss: 12 star-powered college roommate pairs . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some colleges have come up with unique perks to lure students .\nStudents at Davidson College can do their laundry for free .\nFree computers and theater tickets are given out at some colleges .\nOhio University offers discount personalized birthday cakes .","id":"58df09b4ed4c8d7e16e31357a5308db8aee65c99"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A high court in northern India on Friday acquitted a wealthy businessman facing the death sentence for the killing of a teen in a case dubbed \"the house of horrors.\" Moninder Singh Pandher was sentenced to death by a lower court in February. The teen was one of 19 victims -- children and young women -- in one of the most gruesome serial killings in India in recent years. The Allahabad high court has acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher, his lawyer Sikandar B. Kochar told CNN. Pandher and his domestic employee Surinder Koli were sentenced to death in February by a lower court for the rape and murder of the 14-year-old. The high court upheld Koli's death sentence, Kochar said. The two were arrested two years ago after body parts packed in plastic bags were found near their home in Noida, a New Delhi suburb. Their home was later dubbed a \"house of horrors\" by the Indian media. Pandher was not named a main suspect by investigators initially, but was summoned as co-accused during the trial, Kochar said. Kochar said his client was in Australia when the teen was raped and killed. Pandher faces trial in the remaining 18 killings and could remain in custody, the attorney said.","highlights":"Court acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher for the killing of a teen .\n14-year old was one of 19 children and young women murdered .\nPandher and a domestic employee sentenced to death in February by lower court .","id":"42d01e187213e86f5fe617fe32e716ff7fa3afc4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man authorities believe has robbed at least 10 banks in at least four states was arrested in Missouri after a retired state trooper saw him and learned he was wanted, authorities said Sunday. Schaffner is seen in a police mug shot after his arrest Saturday in Kingdom City, Missouri. Chad Schaffner, 37, was arrested in Kingdom City, Missouri, about 2:45 p.m. Saturday, said Missouri State Highway Patrol radio operator Paula Price. Sam Lakey, a retired Missouri State Highway Patrol officer said he alerted authorities to Schaffner's whereabouts after seeing him at a motel in Kingdom City, about 100 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri. Lakey didn't know who Schaffner was at first, but said he felt something wasn't right after seeing Schaffner and his car, partly because Schaffner didn't make eye contact with him. Watch how ex-cop's hunch brought arrest \u00bb . Lakey, who was staying at the motel, said he remembered seeing news reports about a man sought in a string of bank robberies, so he looked on the Web site of the television show \"America's Most Wanted\" to check a vehicle description in the case. A license plate number on the site matched that of the car outside the motel, he said. \"I felt my goosebumps raising,\" he said. Lakey told CNN that after calling his old colleagues at the Missouri State Highway Patrol, he packed up his family from their room at the motel and watched the arrest from across the street. Schaffner faces charges including bank robbery in Tennessee; burglary in Indiana; armed robbery in Illinois; and receiving stolen property in Ohio, Price said. He also faces drug charges in Missouri, she said. Schaffner is suspected of robbing banks in states including Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to the FBI. Schaffner is suspected in 14 robberies of various types in six states, FBI Special Agent Brian Truchon told CNN on Sunday. A spokeswoman for the Callaway County Jail, in Fulton, Missouri, said Schaffner was booked into the facility about 8 p.m. Saturday. No bond has been set, she said. Schaffner will appear in court Monday in Jefferson City, Missouri, according to Bridget Patton, spokeswoman for the FBI's Kansas City, Missouri, office. Schaffner was identified as a suspect last month after investigators posted surveillance photos from the robberies on electronic billboards throughout the South. In the photos, a man was seen sneering and holding a pistol sideways. The robberies began in May. While no one was harmed, the FBI said they considered the suspect dangerous. \"This guy has made no effort to hide the gun,\" said FBI agent Kevin Keithley last month. \"He has threatened the use of it in every bank robbery he has committed. He has put the gun in the faces of the tellers, threatened to use the gun against them. So we want to get this guy in custody before he harms anyone.\" A woman in Morristown, Tennessee, also told authorities Schaffner hid in her apartment in August and threatened to kill her children if she revealed his whereabouts, according to documents filed in federal court. When Schaffner was identified, the FBI said he was released from an Indiana prison last year following an armed robbery conviction. He also has several other convictions in Indiana, for crimes including burglary, resisting law enforcement, and purchase of a handgun without a license, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. The last bank robbery Schaffner is suspected of committing occurred in Caseyville, Illinois, on Wednesday, according to CNN affiliate KMOV. Two bank robberies occurred in Morristown and Jefferson City, Tennessee, on August 18, authorities said. The billboards began showing images from the robberies on August 24, and the next day, a man told the FBI that Schaffner was in the Morristown area at the time of the August 18 holdups. The man said he'd known Schaffner for about two months, according to a federal criminal complaint. FBI agents also interviewed a Morristown woman after hearing she'd had a brief relationship with Schaffner, the complaint says. During the first interview, she spoke to agents outside her apartment and denied knowing him, the complaint said. But the next day she told authorities she knew Schaffner and that he had been in her apartment with her children while she talked to police outside. He had threatened to kill the children if she told agents he was there, the woman said. CNN's Marylynn Ryan, Chuck Johnston and Justin Lear contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ex-trooper checked \"America's Most Wanted\" site after becoming suspicious .\nChad Schaffner apprehended by police Saturday in Kingdom City, Missouri .\nSchaffner named suspect in at least 10 bank robberies in at least four states .\nIdentification came after surveillance images posted on billboards in the South .","id":"1aceea48124b61523034375f54235909443ca8a1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON -- For the second time since resigning the Alaska governorship more than a month ago, Sarah Palin is adding her voice to the fiery debate over health care. Sarah Palin says in a new op-ed that big government is not the solution to health care reform. This time, Palin is hitting the pages of the Wall Street Journal to counter President Obama's latest efforts to reform the nation's health care system. \"The answers offered by Democrats in Washington all rest on one principle: that increased government involvement can solve the problem. I fundamentally disagree,\" Palin writes in the 1,110-word opinion piece in Wednesday's edition of the paper. \"Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones,\" the former Republican vice presidential candidate continues. \"Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy.\" Palin, whose initial Facebook posting on \"death panels\" last month is credited with spurring heated opposition to the House Democratic health care proposal, again raises the claim -- now widely debunked -- that a government panel could determine which senior citizens receive vital treatments. \"Is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by -- dare I say it -- death panels?\" she writes. \"Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans.\" Watch more on the health care debate \u00bb . Ultimately, Palin says, \"Congress will likely reject a wrong-headed proposal to authorize end-of-life counseling in this cost-cutting context\" because Americans made their voices heard in the contentious town halls last August. \"But the fact remains that the Democrats' proposals would still empower unelected bureaucrats to make decisions affecting life or death health-care matters. Such government overreaching is what we've come to expect from this administration,\" she says. Palin also takes issue with the president's assertion that Democrats' heath care proposals will rein in costs and eliminate waste and inefficiency in the system. Citing the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Palin says currently proposed health care legislation will do little to bring down costs, but will instead cause the federal deficit to skyrocket by more than $200 billion over the next decade. \"Only in Washington could a plan that adds hundreds of billions to the deficit be hailed as a cost-cutting measure,\" writes Palin. Instead, Palin argues the true solution to health care lies in \"market oriented, patient-centered, and result driven\" measures such as providing tax benefits for those who get health care coverage from their jobs, providing seniors on Medicare vouchers to buy their own coverage, and allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines.","highlights":"Sarah Palin blasts Democrats' health care reform proposals in newspaper op-ed .\nPalin: Public outcry led Congress not to authorize \"end-of-life counseling\"\nShe takes issue with Obama's view that Democrats' plans will rein in costs .\nPalin says the true solution is a \"market oriented, patient-centered\" approach .","id":"af9f4409d13b9c8cb6b4cd51be1db99d5c9c237c"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- At least four people have been killed in two days of rioting in Uganda's capital after radio broadcasts encouraged listeners to violently take to the streets against the government, officials said Friday. Residents of the Kasubi suburb, west of Kampala, try to flee from violence as a soldier takes photos. The rioters heard \"sectarian\" broadcasts on Thursday that \"systematically incited the listeners to cause chaos and destruction wherever they could,\" said a statement issued by Minister of Information and National Guidance Kabakumba Masiko. It described those who took part in the rioting in Kampala and its suburbs as \"marauding thugs.\" The broadcasts aired in the Buganda Kingdom, said police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba. Ethnic and political tension between the kingdom and the central government had been escalating over the past few weeks. Police and army officers were injured and police-owned property also was damaged along with other vehicles and shops, said the nation's police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura. In Natete-Ndeba, a southwest suburb, a police station was looted of its ammunition and prisoners set free before rioters burned the prison, Nabakooba said. A curfew has been declared in the suburb, and in Kampala the army is providing support to police, said Kayihura. A doctor at a Kampala hospital said more than 50 people had sought care there, most with broken bones, but others had cuts and gunshot wounds. About 60 people were arrested in Kampala, but arrest totals in the surrounding areas were not available, Nabakooba said. Four radio stations were ordered shut down, Masiko said. Many of the rioters were Baganda between the ages of 18 and 35, Nabakooba said. The Baganda are Uganda's dominant ethnic group, making up about 16.9 percent of the population, according to The CIA World Factbook. The kingdom is one of the oldest monarchies in Africa. The people live mostly in central Uganda and along the shoreline of Lake Victoria. Tension between the Buganda Kingdom, headed by King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni had been increasing recently over land laws, sovereignty and political power, issues over which the two sides have been in talks for years. The Uganda government sees Mutebi as a traditional leader only and does not allow him to participate in politics. Further estranging the two is a breakaway faction of the Buganda Kingdom, the Banyala. Some interpreted police forces' breaking up a group of Baganda amid preparations for festivities as support for the Banyala, especially after a Banyala demonstration opposing the Buganda Kingdom prompted no police action. It is unclear why the police broke up the Baganda group earlier in the week. Riots broke out after the incident, and again when radio announcers pushed Baganda to take to the streets again. Museveni said in a broadcast statement that he tried to contact Mutebi to discuss the issue as \"mature people\" but he could not reach him on the phone. The president also said that he had intelligence reports showing that the Buganda Kingdom has received foreign funding to carry out a hate campaign against the government. Asians, mostly of Indian origin, suffered severe losses when their business were attacked and looted, Nabakooba said. Although officials said the broadcasts encouraged listeners to put into action their contempt for the government, during such outbreaks of violence Asians are often targeted. Some view Asians as being most protected by the government because of special holidays or tax benefits they may get. In addition, reports of Asians mistreating natives have fueled tension between the groups. None of the four people killed were Asian or of Asian descent, Nabakooba said, but in the northern suburb of Kawembi about 30 Asians had fled to a police station for protection on Thursday and remained there Friday. Samson Ntale contributed to this report for CNN.","highlights":"Radio broadcasts encouraged violent street action against the government .\nGovernment statement describes Kampala rioters as \"marauding thugs\"?\nDozens seek care, many with broken bones, says doctor at Kampala hospital .\nTension between splintered kingdom and Uganda's president has been on rise .","id":"515839717d6825df5c9945246334951251765a13"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Mary J. Blige has sung her way to nine Grammy Awards and sold 40 million albums worldwide. \"I know I'm definitely gonna pursue this as a profession, acting,\" Mary J. Blige said. With music credentials like that, the \"Queen of Hip-Hop Soul\" needed a new challenge. So Blige decided to stretch her range to the big screen. The singer stars in the new Tyler Perry film \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\" alongside Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, Perry and Gladys Knight. Being in the film allows Blige to test her acting chops and sing as well. Her character, Tanya, is a club owner who takes the mic at least twice in the film. And whether she's in character or not, Blige's ability to communicate a song can take your breath away. CNN spoke with Blige about Tyler Perry, her acting angst and music. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: What does the title of the film \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\" mean? Mary J. Blige: Well, the title \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\" is basically saying \"I don't need anyone to help me do worse or feel worse than what I already feel.\" So if you're coming with negative energy, please keep it moving, you know? If you're coming with negative deposits, you've gotta go. That's basically what it's saying. CNN: Were you nervous about acting in this film? Blige: I was definitely nervous, because acting is not my first profession, so I had to go and get an acting coach and really figure this thing out. It helped a lot. It relaxed me to have a little more information about it. And I find that actors are highly underrated; they don't get all the credit they deserve, because this is a hard job. That's a hard job. CNN: Were you bitten by the acting bug? Blige: Well, I'm gonna be open to scripts, and I'm ready to receive more scripts from anywhere. I know I'm definitely gonna pursue this as a profession, acting. I was definitely bitten by the acting bug. CNN: Did you feel any pressure to write songs for this film, as opposed to writing for one of your albums? Blige: There's not any pressure in writing songs. Writing a song for the movie versus writing songs for my album because ... you get it all from inspiration from somewhere, you know? I got all the lyrics from the actual movie, and I got all the lyrics for my songs from my life so, and other people's lives. CNN: Do you want to hear poetry in your lyrics? Blige: I would love to hear poetry in my lyrics. CNN: Tell me about Tyler Perry. Blige: Wow, working with Tyler Perry was -- it's always a treat. He's the most kind, generous, you know, supportive professional man. He's a really good person to have in such a tough business. It's like a pillow for your head. ... You just get to lay on it after laying on rocks for so long. CNN: What is the link between spirituality and music in the film and in life? Blige: Well, I think the link with the spirituality and the music is that we all have a place where we need to go to heal, and most of the time people go to music to heal. Whether it be gospel or secular, but it all comes from some song that pulled you through your life or helped you through college or something like that. CNN: Do you think this film is about redemption? Do you think people can really change? Blige: I definitely feel this film is a lot about redemption. You saving yourself first of all, and believing you can be saved and wanting the help. I think it takes time for people to heal from whatever wounds they're healing from. But in order to get free, what I learned is that you have to release it, because you'll stay stuck for the rest of your life. What if this person is enjoying their lives and you hate them? So it's just best to release. Easier said than done, please believe it. CNN: What do you think about the music industry these days? Blige: Well, I mean, the music industry has moved with the times. You know, I mean we are in the age where technology has taken over and music is technology now, so it's not hands-on. It's a little sad that there isn't any more record stores.","highlights":"Singer Mary J. Blige stars in new Tyler Perry film \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\"\nFilm allows Blige to test acting chops and sing as well as owner of club .\n\"I was definitely nervous, because acting is not my first profession,\" Blige says .\nBlige: Movie is about redemption, saving yourself and healing from wounds .","id":"9d51f730d824d07524d40308953b56460786441d"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Fantasy football drafts are firing up, and workplace productivity will soon grind to a halt as half the office spends half the day managing their rosters in an attempt to get the next Steve Slaton off the waiver wire. Just because you're not a football fan doesn't mean you have to be left out of the fantasy mania, though. There are all sorts of alternative fantasy leagues you can join. Why not try one of these? Pick your breed of dog, then allocate your \"funds\" to help train and groom it into a champion on Showdog.com. Fantasy music league . If you spend more time listening to the radio than watching sports, the Fantasy Music League might be right up your alley. In this league your job is to compile a roster that has more real-life chart movement and album sales than other owners' \"labels.\" You shell out a certain salary to sign the acts you think have the most promise, and if they out-earn your competitors, you'll earn the fantasy world's equivalent of a Grammy. The label that's at the top of the standings for this season, Jenny Baird Records, boasts a roster that includes Fall Out Boy, Daughtry, Justin Timberlake and Fergie. Fantasy dog shows . If fantasy leagues come any more adorable than this, we don't want to see them. Showdog.com allows you to enter a virtual simulation dog show league. You pick your breed of dog, then allocate your \"funds\" to help train and groom it into a champion. Your simulated dog can take on other owners' pooches in a dog-eat-dog competition to help ascertain the best way to breed a champion show dog. All of the glory, none of the fetch! Mental Floss: America's most lavish dog spas . Fantasy water skiing . Water skiing is great fun, but it takes some practice before you can do it well. Why not skip all of those embarrassing spills and noses full of water by just joining a fantasy skiing league instead? Pick your professional skiers, then get points according to how many buoys your slalom skiers pass, how many points your tricksters pile up, and how far your jumpers soar. Never again will you and your buddies just have to argue in vain about which one of you is really the most hardcore water skiing fan! Fantasy pro wrestling . Like the violence of football but wish you had a fantasy league that stuck to a script? Try fantasy pro wrestling. Web-based E-wrestling federations allow you to draft a stable of grapplers and then receive points for their performance in the ring and appearances on broadcasts. (We're guessing the Undertaker is the fantasy wrestling equivalent of Peyton Manning: maybe not the top guy every year, but you know you're going to get consistently solid production out of him.)Mental Floss: Where are they now? WWF superstars . Fantasy bass fishing . The only thing more exciting than watching someone else fish is beating your friends at predicting who will get the nicest bass in their livewell! ESPN.com offers a Fantasy Fishing Challenge that allows angling fans to create a team of their favorite pro anglers while working under the constraint of a $100 salary cap. Each angler has a set \"salary\" that he earns, and when you sign one to your team they score you points according to their performances in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings. Fantasy Congress . Just because you prefer C-SPAN to ESPN doesn't mean you can't find a way to waste several hours on a fantasy league each week. Try out Fantasy Congress. Although the game's Web site is currently down, FantasyCongress.com launched in 2006 to allow politics junkies to draft their favorite legislators and then rack up points according to how their Congressmen's proposed legislation fared, how often they voted, and their willingness to cross party lines to up their \"Maverick Score.\" Fantasy eating . Do you watch the Nathan's hot dog eating contest each Fourth of July and find yourself feeling pangs of jealousy because you can't match the competitors' gluttony? Now you can life vicariously through them! Krystal Square Off offers fantasy eating leagues for four to seven teams that allow you to score points based on how many mini hamburgers your roster can wolf down. (Hot tip: I sat next to \"Humble\" Bob Shoudt and his adorable daughter on their flight home from Shoudt's winning performance at the Nashville Krystal Square Off in 2006. Not only did the man look like he could down some burgers -- his world record is 28 in two minutes -- but he was also maybe the most doting, sweetest father I've ever seen. Pick against this guy at your own risk.) Mental Floss: 10 foods that are aphrodisiacs . Fantasy bowling . You might not be able to pick up a 7-10 split, but that doesn't mean you can't destroy your friends at fantasy bowling. The Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour has its own fantasy league, and it sounds intriguingly easy to play. Your squad scores points based on how your bowlers finish in individual tournaments, so if you've got a guy who piles up strike after strike, you're going to be tough to beat. According to the league's Web site, the number four overall pick is a guy named Rhino Page. Do you really want to pick against a guy named Rhino? For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Showdog.com allows you to enter a virtual simulation dog show league .\nWeb-based E-wrestling federations allow you to draft a stable of grapplers .\nKrystal Square Off offers fantasy eating leagues for four to seven teams .","id":"e433a735a1826be9704a3b182cfd938fc61f9ef7"} -{"article":"TAIPEI, Taiwan (CNN) -- A Taiwan court early Tuesday ordered ex-President Chen Shui-bian, who is facing corruption charges, back to jail after deeming him a flight risk. Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian speaks to reporters on December 12 in Taipei. Chen had been free on bail, but prosecutors sought his return to state custody. After 12 hours of deliberation, a panel of three district court judges approved the request at 3 a.m. Taiwan time. Chen was immediately taken to jail. The island's first former president to ever face prosecution, Chen was freed earlier in December after spending a month in jail while prosecutors prepared his indictment on several corruption charges, including embezzlement and accepting bribes. Judges ordered Chen released after the indictment was formally presented, saying they did not believe he was a flight risk. However, Taiwan's high court was not satisfied with the decision and assigned a new judge to the case. Chen's attorney, Jen Wen Long, told reporters after the court order: \"We question the work of the Taipei district court. Changing the judge is an interference with the justice system.\" Chen, whose term ended in May, is accused of embezzling about $18 million. A trial date has not been set in the case. Prosecutors allege he also took bribes, laundered money and illegally removed classified documents from the president's office. Chen, 58, has denied any wrongdoing and insists the charges are politically motivated. His party favors independence for Taiwan, while the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou favors closer ties with mainland China -- from which the island split amid civil war in 1949. If convicted, Chen faces 25 years or more in prison, although prosecutors did not seek any specific jail time in their indictment. Thirteen others, including Chen's wife, son, daughter-in-law and brother-in-law, also were indicted. Prosecutors have alleged that Chen's son has a Swiss bank account containing $22 million in what they believe is illegal proceeds. Journalist Andrew Lee contributed to this report.","highlights":"Chen, facing trial on corruption charges, had been free on bail .\nA court freed Chen in early December, but high court disagreed with decision .\nChen, whose term ended in May, is accused of embezzling about $18 million .\nHis trial date has not been set .","id":"f776e9e96ca0b96791935cafed999dfd1473f828"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- For the past three years some of the world's most resourceful software engineers and mathematicians have worked feverishly in the spirit of friendly, Darwinian competition -- and in pursuit of a $1 million prize -- to improve the Netflix movie recommendation system by 10 percent. Netflix says it will announce the winner of its $1 million Netflix Prize at an event September 21. It's been a long journey, but it's almost over. Netflix said Tuesday it would announce the winner at an event in New York on Sept. 21 -- where details about the Netflix Prize 2 sequel would also be unveiled. As things stand now, nobody outside of Netflix knows which team will win the million-dollar prize, but the winning entry will power Netflix's upcoming movie recommendation engine. Because nothing about the contest barred entrants from licensing their technology to companies other than Netflix, both qualifying teams could find plenty of licensees -- even if they come in second. And not much separates the two top teams. Teams Bellkor (AT&T Research), Big Chaos and Pragmatic Theory combined to form Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos, the first team to qualify for the prize on June 26 with a 10.05 percent improvement over Netflix's existing algorithm. This triggered a 30-day window in which other teams were allowed to try to catch up -- and indeed, a team called The Ensemble, made up of lower-ranked contestants, submitted a higher score of 10.10 percent as time ran out -- a hair better than Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos' final score of 10.09 percent. Before Sept. 21, Netflix must decide (assuming they haven't done so already) which of the two qualifying teams has the best algorithm based on how they score on various undisclosed tests. The company must also determine whether the winning team's results are reproducible, meaning that its algorithm handles new data as well as it did the test data. When we wrote about this last month, after the window for qualifying closed, Netflix declined to say whether it will reveal details about its methodology for picking the winner (whichever team loses, they're going to want to know how, exactly, that happened -- as will curious onlookers around the world). A Netflix spokeswoman told us, \"We are definitely going to touch on the methodology in the press conference,\" and offered to let us interview Netflix executives to find out more about how they picked the winner. Netflix vice president of communications Steve Swasey told us last month that the company is pleased with the results of the contest, and apparently, it hopes there's more where that came from. At the same New York event where it will announce the Netflix Prize winner, the company plans to unveil details about Netflix Prize 2. Writing on Netflix message boards, chief product officer Neil Hunt already offered some hints: \"The next contest will be a shorter, time-limited race, with grand prizes for the best results at 6 and 18 months. While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field.\" More than 40,000 teams from 186 countries competed for the first Netflix Prize. Some contestants doubted that any team would be capable of surmounting the 10-percent-improvement barrier, but two teams managed to do so. Clearly, Netflix has stumbled onto a winning formula here, and will walk away from the contest with a measurably improved movie recommendation engine -- and recommendations are a linchpin of its business. As the field of \"prize economics\" evolves, offering organizations increasingly efficient ways to solve their problems, we expect results like this to become more commonplace. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Netflix will announce the winner of its $1 million Netflix Prize on September 21 .\nPrize goes to team that improves Netflix's movie-recommendation system .\nNobody outside of Netflix knows which team will win the million-dollar prize .\nDetails about the Netflix Prize 2 sequel will also be unveiled that day .","id":"870429dbf3339a3937322da7d6c0db4df8ad6e9a"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Melissa and Jackson Brandts knew right away that the photo from their recent trip to Canada was a good one. Melissa and Jackson Brandts were taking a photo of themselves when the squirrel popped up. However, it wasn't until the world -- and National Geographic -- took notice that they realized exactly how good. Now, after submitting it to the magazine's online \"Your Shot\" contest, the Minnesota couple's photo is set to grace the pages of the magazine's November issue. It's appeared on the Web sites of news outlets around the world, and the squirrel -- now dubbed \"Crasher Squirrel\" -- even has its own Wikipedia entry of the same moniker. Melissa Brandts and her husband Jackson were hiking in Banff National Park the last week in May when they decided to set up their camera and use their wireless remote shutter for a few shots of the two of them. They were getting situated on the rocky shore near Lake Minnewanka when the now-iconic critter stopped by for a visit. \"The little squirrel had been running around while we were getting the shot set up,\" Melissa Brandts said in a phone interview Tuesday. \"I was joking with my husband that I hoped he was friendly because he was getting awful close and kind of scampering around our feet and stuff.\" Friendly? You might say so. It was also a bit timid and perhaps even indecisive because it soon scurried away and then, just as quickly, rushed back again. \"Photogenic\" might also be a good word to describe it. \"All of a sudden he popped back up because he heard the shutter releasing, the clicking of the camera. The only thing we can figure is that he thought it was going to give him food or something,\" Brandts said. \"He popped right up and looked right into the camera, and we were laughing so hard because we were like 'get it, get it!' and we were trying to get the remote to fire. So we got a couple of pictures -- took a couple of pictures with him there, and then he ducked down and proceeded to run away.\" The resulting image exceeded all expectations. \"We didn't realize how good it was until we got back to the hotel that night and downloaded it to my husband's computer, and when we could see it on the full screen we were like, 'Whoa, are you serious?'\" \"We had no idea it was going to turn out exactly like it did with him being in perfect focus, us being out of focus, and then us just laughing in the background. We weren't sure if he'd be standing like in front of one of us or something like that.\" An international phenomenon . Brandts said she and her husband showed the photo to their friends and family and were subsequently incessantly prodded to \"do something\" with it. For months the two weren't sure what that something could be. That changed, however, when the latest issue of National Geographic arrived in the mail. \"I saw the 'Your Shot' contest, which of course I knew existed, but I had never thought of entering one of my own pictures into it,\" Brandts said. \"I thought, 'This is what I'm going to do!'\" Brandts said she submitted it on August 5 and by August 13 it was NationalGeographic.com's photo of the day. \"Things just kind of spun out of control from there.\" The photo was soon published in the pages of two national Canadian newspapers, and Brandts received calls from a friend in South Korea who'd seen it on a local South Korean news Web site. The couple has since appeared on NBC's \"Today\" show as well as the Twin Cities' local affiliate KARE. And now that it's been selected for publication in the November issue of National Geographic, the attention hasn't subsided. As of this writing, Brandts has received Facebook messages from random fans in 29 different countries. The Facebook group \"Nuts the Squirrel is a Legend\" comes complete with 5,300 fans and counting. The squirrel is also being used by Banff National Park in advertising on its Web site, and it has created a Banff squirrel Twitter account. There's even a Web site dubbed \"The Squirrelizer,\" which has apparently been created for people who feel their photos lack a certain \"squirrel charm.\" The site's tool will paste the squirrel cutout onto any picture uploaded. Other sites have pasted the squirrel onto various scenes from history, from the D-Day invasion at Normandy to the Apollo moon landing. And it hasn't stopped there. \"It keeps popping up everywhere, like at my husband's job,\" Brandts added. \"If people are giving him a presentation, all of the sudden they'll have a squirrel pop up.\" Authenticity assured . It was during their appearance on \"Today\" that host Matt Lauer raised questions about the possibility the photo could have been doctored. Brandts assured him, as she did once more for CNN, that the photo is \"completely authentic\" but said she understood the skepticism because people had originally thought the photo was taken simply with a timer -- as opposed to the remote shutter she used in actuality -- which, if it were the case, would have kept the couple in focus and blurred the squirrel. \"National Geographic looked at the full high-resolution [image, and] realized it was authentic,\" Brandts said, adding, \"You can't make this stuff up.\"","highlights":"Couple had set up camera to take their photo with mountains as backdrop .\nSquirrel pops up in front of camera, is snapped .\nPhoto appears all over the Web, will be in National Geographic .\nOn question of authenticity: \"You can't make this stuff up,\" woman says .","id":"b383f33b134c758b45f90a619290d70cf976d21d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities investigating the case of a boy who disappeared in Kansas almost a decade ago plan to search an undisclosed residence Wednesday, the Butler County sheriff said. An age-progression photo shows what Adam Herrman would like today, as a 21-year-old man. Sheriff Craig Murphy would not disclose details about the residence or why authorities want to search it. He said his department will also search on an area of the Whitewater River, in southern Kansas, on Saturday near where Adam Herrman was last seen. Adam was 11 when he went missing in 1999. He was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a town about 25 miles northeast of Wichita, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, authorities said. Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple believed Adam had run away and didn't report him missing. They \"really rue the fact that they didn't\" report him missing, he said Monday. A few weeks ago, an undisclosed person contacted the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit, expressing concern about Adam, the sheriff said. The Herrmans told Eisenbise that Adam ran away frequently, the attorney said, and they believed he was either with his biological parents or homeless. Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, \"they were very worried about him,\" Eisenbise said. In an interview published Tuesday in The Wichita Eagle, Valerie Herrman said Adam ran away in May 1999 after she spanked him with a belt. She said she was upset but doesn't remember why, The Eagle reported. The couple never reported Adam missing, Valerie Herrman told the paper, because they feared authorities would take Adam and his siblings away because of the spanking. The couple adopted his two younger siblings as well, according to The Eagle. \"We love him, and we made a terrible mistake\" by not reporting him missing, Doug Herrman told The Eagle. The couple said they searched the mobile home park and other areas for two days after Adam left. \"Then we came to the conclusion that the police probably have him, and they're coming to us, probably to get us in trouble,\" Doug Herrman told the newspaper, but the \"police never came.\" Authorities have searched an empty lot in the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park where the family lived. There, police found an \"answer\" to one of their questions, Murphy said Monday without elaborating. Eisenbise said that on December 15, authorities also searched the Herrmans' homes in Derby, outside of Wichita, and took the couple's computer, he said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released an age-progression picture that depicts Adam as he might appear now: a young man with blue eyes and light-colored hair. Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said Monday. He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed. His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported. \"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children, and evidently it wasn't,\" Irvin Groeninger, Adam's biological father, told KWCH. \"If he was still in my custody, this would have never happened.\" Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she had last seen her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party. \"He had the cutest little round face, little-bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek,\" she told the station. CNN's Taylor Gandossy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sheriff says his officers will search area near Whitewater River on Saturday .\nAttorney says parents \"rue the fact\" they didn't report him missing .\nAdam Herrman reportedly ran away when he was 11, after being spanked .\nParents tell paper they thought spanking would lead police to take other kids away .","id":"d907669595f4b3c9dd9e90c0da2303148f746a7d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The number of stray and abandoned dogs in the United Kingdom jumped by 11 percent in the past year -- the biggest surge in a decade -- possibly because of the financial crisis, a British dog charity said Wednesday. A dog looks through the door of its kennel at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in London. Dogs Trust said local authorities picked up 107,228 stray and abandoned dogs from British streets in the past year. It called on the government to make microchipping compulsory for all dogs to help reunite owners with pets, whether lost or abandoned. \"The latest stray dog survey is very disappointing,\" said Clarissa Baldwin, chief executive of Dogs Trust. \"Even more tragically is the number of dogs that are being put down, which has gone up from 7,000 to just below 10,000, a very worrying trend.\" Has recession hit your pet? Send us your thoughts . The 11 percent rise is the highest yearly increase since recordkeeping began in 1997, Dogs Trust said. The rise may be due to the financial crisis, Dogs Trust said. Some households tighten their belts by giving up the dog. Another possible reason for the jump: England and Wales last year changed the law to make local councils, not police, responsible for taking in stray dogs, Dogs Trust said. Cash-strapped councils might lack resources to pick up or temporarily shelter dogs. \"You've got a lot of latchkey dogs that are just left to wander the streets,\" said Natalie Dexter, who works at the education center at Dogs Trust. \"Their homes aren't secure, gardens aren't secure, and so they're just left to wander around.\" Local authorities handle an average of 12 dogs each hour, Dogs Trust said. Only five are reunited with their owners -- a number that could increase if more dogs were microchipped, Dogs Trust said. A microchip is an electronic device, coated in plastic, that is the size of a grain of rice. It is implanted just under a dog's skin, beneath its shoulder blades, which causes no harm to the animal and cannot be felt, veterinarians and campaigners say. The microchip carries the owner's information, which can be updated. The information can be read by a scanner that works through a radio frequency.","highlights":"Number of stray and abandoned dogs in UK jumps by 11 percent in past year .\nCharity urges government to make microchipping compulsory for all dogs .\nSome households tighten their belts by giving up the dog, charity says .","id":"24df1f06523c1477a104912fa171b27f95b20fca"} -{"article":"ACCRA, Ghana (CNN) -- President Obama reached out to Africa on Saturday with a wide-ranging address praising the continent's steady achievements, but he called its persistent violent conflicts \"a millstone around Africa's neck.\" President Obama speaks before Ghana's Parliament on Saturday. \"Despite the progress that has been made -- and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa -- we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled,\" Obama said in a speech to the parliament of Ghana, a western African nation seen as a model of democracy and growth for the rest of the continent. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan nation to gain independence, in 1957, and Obama continually cited the nation during his speech for its stability, political strides and painstaking economic progress. Its stability stands in contrast to other hot spots on the continent, such as Zimbabwe, where the society is in economic and political turmoil; Sudan, where fighting rages in the Darfur region; and Somalia, where a shaky transitional government is now battling an Islamic insurgency. Ghana, with a population of 24 million, was once a major slave trading center. Obama visited the Cape Coast Castle, a British outpost where slaves were held until shipped overseas, along with his daughters. Watch Obama's remark after touring Cape Coast Castle \u00bb . \"I think it was particularly important for Malia and Sasha, who are being raised in a very blessed way, that history can take some cruel turns,\" he said. \"And hopefully, one of the things that was imparted to them during this trip is their sense of obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears.\" Obama, whose father was Kenyan, compared the history to that of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany's efforts to exterminate the Jews of Europe during World War II. \"It's one of those things that you don't forget about,\" he told CNN in an interview scheduled to air Monday on \"Anderson Cooper 360.\" \"I think it's important that the way we think about it, the way it's taught, is not one in which there's simply a victim and a victimizer, and that's the end of the story,\" he said. \"I think the way it has to be thought about, the reason it's relevant, is whether it's what's happening in Darfur or what's happening in the Congo or what's happening in too many places around the world, the capacity for cruelty still exists.\" Watch how Ghana is celebrating the Obamas' visit \u00bb . But he told lawmakers that Ghana now shows \"a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity.\" While the nation-building the country exemplifies may lack \"drama of the 20th century's liberation struggles,\" he said \"it will ultimately be more significant.\" As he has in past remarks, including his Cairo address last month about U.S.-Muslim relations, Obama stressed the superiority of governments that \"respect the will of their own people,\" saying they foster more prosperity and stability than governments that don't. Watch Obama deliver speech to Ghanaian lawmakers \u00bb . \"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt,\" he said. \"No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there.\" Even Kenya, his father's homeland, continues to struggle with tribalism and corruption, he said. That eastern African nation \"had a per-capita economy larger than South Korea's when I was born\" and now, he says, it has been \"badly outpaced.\" But he said Kenya has restored stability after the violence that followed the disputed 2007 election. South Africa has had high voter turnout in recent elections, and Zimbabwe's Election Support Network has defended the right to vote. Watch report on Ghanaians' reaction to Obama's remarks \u00bb . \"Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,\" he said. He said his administration will work \"to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don't, and that is exactly what America will do.\" As for the economy and opportunity, he said African nations need to stop focusing on one particular commodity, such as oil or cocoa, and \"promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled work force, and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs.\" He cited \"our $3.5 billion food security initiative\" and said \"new methods and technologies for farmers -- not simply sending American producers or goods to Africa\" is what is needed. See where Ghana is located \u00bb . Obama also made reference to climate and energy challenges, saying the developed world should work with Africa to confront such problems. He said Africa has much potential to exploit its wind and solar power and geothermal energy and biofuels. As for disease, Obama said strides are being made in dealing with HIV\/AIDS and malaria, but \"too many still die from diseases that shouldn't kill them.\" He also indicated that there need to be ways to keep African doctors and nurses from going overseas and creating gaps in primary care. \"When children are being killed because of a mosquito bite, and mothers are dying in childbirth, then we know that more progress must be made.\" He said his administration has committed $63 billion to fight disease, praising the \"strong efforts\" of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Watch Ed Henry's report Obama's emotional visit to Africa \u00bb . Obama welcomed efforts by the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to help resolve conflict. He said the United States \"will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable\" and that the Pentagon's Africa Command will fight \"common challenges to advance the security of America, Africa and the world.\" Watch Obama's remarks as his visit to Ghana concludes \u00bb . \"We all have many identities -- of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century,\" he said. \"Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God's children,\" he said.","highlights":"Obama tells Ghana's lawmakers Africa needs \"opportunity for more people\"\n\"Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division\"\nPledges U.S. will help fight HIV\/AIDS, tropical diseases, childhood illnesses .","id":"af43204810e648d9f411edaf2b24464d8a310665"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Mary J. Blige has sung her way to nine Grammy Awards and sold 40 million albums worldwide. \"I know I'm definitely gonna pursue this as a profession, acting,\" Mary J. Blige said. With music credentials like that, the \"Queen of Hip-Hop Soul\" needed a new challenge. So Blige decided to stretch her range to the big screen. The singer stars in the new Tyler Perry film \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\" alongside Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, Perry and Gladys Knight. Being in the film allows Blige to test her acting chops and sing as well. Her character, Tanya, is a club owner who takes the mic at least twice in the film. And whether she's in character or not, Blige's ability to communicate a song can take your breath away. CNN spoke with Blige about Tyler Perry, her acting angst and music. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: What does the title of the film \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\" mean? Mary J. Blige: Well, the title \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\" is basically saying \"I don't need anyone to help me do worse or feel worse than what I already feel.\" So if you're coming with negative energy, please keep it moving, you know? If you're coming with negative deposits, you've gotta go. That's basically what it's saying. CNN: Were you nervous about acting in this film? Blige: I was definitely nervous, because acting is not my first profession, so I had to go and get an acting coach and really figure this thing out. It helped a lot. It relaxed me to have a little more information about it. And I find that actors are highly underrated; they don't get all the credit they deserve, because this is a hard job. That's a hard job. CNN: Were you bitten by the acting bug? Blige: Well, I'm gonna be open to scripts, and I'm ready to receive more scripts from anywhere. I know I'm definitely gonna pursue this as a profession, acting. I was definitely bitten by the acting bug. CNN: Did you feel any pressure to write songs for this film, as opposed to writing for one of your albums? Blige: There's not any pressure in writing songs. Writing a song for the movie versus writing songs for my album because ... you get it all from inspiration from somewhere, you know? I got all the lyrics from the actual movie, and I got all the lyrics for my songs from my life so, and other people's lives. CNN: Do you want to hear poetry in your lyrics? Blige: I would love to hear poetry in my lyrics. CNN: Tell me about Tyler Perry. Blige: Wow, working with Tyler Perry was -- it's always a treat. He's the most kind, generous, you know, supportive professional man. He's a really good person to have in such a tough business. It's like a pillow for your head. ... You just get to lay on it after laying on rocks for so long. CNN: What is the link between spirituality and music in the film and in life? Blige: Well, I think the link with the spirituality and the music is that we all have a place where we need to go to heal, and most of the time people go to music to heal. Whether it be gospel or secular, but it all comes from some song that pulled you through your life or helped you through college or something like that. CNN: Do you think this film is about redemption? Do you think people can really change? Blige: I definitely feel this film is a lot about redemption. You saving yourself first of all, and believing you can be saved and wanting the help. I think it takes time for people to heal from whatever wounds they're healing from. But in order to get free, what I learned is that you have to release it, because you'll stay stuck for the rest of your life. What if this person is enjoying their lives and you hate them? So it's just best to release. Easier said than done, please believe it. CNN: What do you think about the music industry these days? Blige: Well, I mean, the music industry has moved with the times. You know, I mean we are in the age where technology has taken over and music is technology now, so it's not hands-on. It's a little sad that there isn't any more record stores.","highlights":"Singer Mary J. Blige stars in new Tyler Perry film \"I Can Do Bad All By Myself\"\nFilm allows Blige to test acting chops and sing as well as owner of club .\n\"I was definitely nervous, because acting is not my first profession,\" Blige says .\nBlige: Movie is about redemption, saving yourself and healing from wounds .","id":"602e076325402bfde9ffa4edc8e9a63aad41a9a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Facing the world after an isolating and traumatic experience is often stressful, especially for those who have been away for a long time. Jaycee Dugard, here at the 1991 Rose Bowl parade, was abducted later that year. Jaycee Dugard is reuniting with her close relatives for the first time in 18 years, after having been found on August 27. Dugard was 11 years old when she was abducted in 1991 from a bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, California. She allegedly was kept in a series of backyard sheds by a convicted sex offender and gave birth to two children in captivity. A bail review hearing is scheduled for Monday in El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville, California, for Phillip and Nancy Garrido, who face charges related to Dugard's kidnapping. In Illinois, Shannon Wilfong is charged with child abduction, allegedly having forced 6-year-old Richard K. Wilfong Chekevdia to live in seclusion and be hidden, at times in crawl spaces and the attic, for nearly two years, according to court documents. In concealing the boy, Wilfong violated the terms of a court order that granted joint custody of the child to Michael Chekevdia, the documents said. The boy is staying with his father's family under child welfare supervision, according to CNN affiliate WSIL. The situations of Dugard and Chekevdia are extreme cases of people emerging from isolation and returning to the real world. The people who have been away often feel conflicted about leaving the situation they've acclimated to in order to rejoin the loved ones they've left behind, experts not connected to the cases tell CNN. Sometimes children involved in custody disputes are taught to hate their father or mother, and \"extreme tactics\" may be used, although usually not to the extent of hiding a child in crawl spaces, said Jay Lebow, psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. \"While this case is obviously the rarest of things, other children are certainly exposed to many traumas that have meaning connected to this,\" Lebow said. The case of Dugard . Dugard is spending time in \"a secluded place, reconnecting\" with her mother and younger sister, said her aunt, Tina Dugard, in a statement on behalf of her family. \"This is a joyful time for my family,\" she said. \"Jaycee remembers all of us.\" Watch for more on Dugard \u00bb . But a person in Dugard's situation would most likely have both positive and negative feelings about leaving the only environment she's known for 18 years and coming back to her family, psychologists say. \"She's going to have a lot of mixed feelings about returning to her family of origin because she's spent almost two decades with a different family,\" said Margo Napoletano, a child and family psychologist in San Diego, California. After allegedly being confined for 18 years, Dugard probably would find the outside world frightening, Lebow said. \"You get to know this world you live in -- it may be a terrible world, but it's the world you know,\" he said. Experts say Dugard may have developed what is known as Stockholm syndrome, in which kidnapping victims identify with their captors. Learning to live with and even like the perpetrator has survival value, Napoletano said, and also explains why someone like Dugard probably would feel somewhat torn about returning to her original family. Learn about other cases of missing children \u00bb . \"It's a concept that explains why a kidnapped victim would stay with a perpetrator even though they had an opportunity to leave,\" she said. \"They opt to stay because it's their comfort zone.\" But Johanna Tabin, a psychologist in Glencoe, Illinois, said Dugard's readjustment will depend on how she was treated in captivity. Police said Phillip Garrido, one of her alleged abductors, is believed to be the father of her two daughters, and his relationship to Dugard -- whether he framed their alleged sexual encounters as violent or seductive -- will influence her feelings about leaving that situation, Tabin said. It is also important to know how Dugard felt about her family before she was taken away, Tabin said. \"Did she secretly mourn them?\" Tabin asked. \"Did she feel she stepped on a different planet where she was all of a sudden a grown-up 11-year-old and wasn't being treated anymore like a child?\" Her family members may have constantly wondered what they could have done differently to prevent the kidnapping, Tabin said. At the same time, someone in Dugard's situation may have asked herself at the outset, \"Why did they let me get kidnapped?\" Lebow said. There is an infinite range of responses, but more information about Dugard's feelings growing up and in captivity would inform how she adjusts to her new life, Tabin said. The situation is likely also difficult for Dugard's two daughters, born to her in captivity, who have never met Dugard's family before, Napoletano said. \"It's basically like a wild child who may have had some contact with civilization, but basically is having to start life all over again, and that may be overwhelming to them at first,\" she said. Napoletano said she would suggest to a family like Dugard's to be accepting and supportive, and not ask a lot of questions. \"Go about your daily life as usual for the most part, and take the lead from the therapist, one small step at a time,\" she said. Lebow advises them against looking for some sudden moment of reconnection, but rather to be loving and patient. Coming back from combat . Dugard's reuniting with her family could also be likened to a soldier coming back from a \"hellacious war,\" Lebow said. A recent survey of military spouses of deployed Army soldiers with school-age children found that the return from deployment is the most stressful, according to three-quarters of respondents. Reunification brings excitement and relief, which is sometimes accompanied by emotional conflict, the surveyors said. Read more about the study . In the military, bonds of brotherhood form as people face dangers together, Tabin said. When service members come home, they may find life \"shallower,\" and feel that they are not the same people as when they left, she said. In a case where a husband has been away at war and returns to his wife, the desire to understand one another's feelings is fundamental, she said. \"She wants to be understanding, he wants to be able to shove it aside, then he has nightmares, and she says, 'you're not setting it aside,' \" Tabin said. \"Well, consciously he is -- he's not awake when he dreams.\" Don't force the person who has been away to talk about their experiences, Napoletano said. She also stressed that a family should try to normalize the life of the service member who has returned from war. Waking up in the morning, going grocery shopping, washing clothes and doing other day-to-day activities help create a stable, comforting environment, she said.","highlights":"Jaycee Dugard, found August 27, is reuniting with her family after 18 years .\nPeople who return to their families after years away often feel conflicted about it .\nExpert: Don't force the person who has been away to talk about their experiences .\nIt's important to go about day-to-day activities, such as grocery shopping .","id":"1495b58847eaaf212bab28dc3c98f6ff316cf555"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- He is iconic, there's no doubt. George Hamilton gets his life story on screen in \"My One and Only.\" With the elegant suit and tie, the impeccable grooming, the tan (Did I mention the tan?), George Hamilton is still a charmer, and he comes across like a born bon vivant. Sure, his acting may have taken a backseat to his bronzed visage years ago, but what did happen to him years ago? Well, there's a story there, one now coming to the big screen. Hamilton's formative years are loosely depicted in the film \"My One and Only,\" opening in wide release September 4. \"My One and Only\" has the style of a film produced during Hollywood's golden age, but the tale is easily relatable to today. In the film, Hamilton's mother, Anne, played by Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger, walks in on her bandleader husband and another woman. She hits the road in a brand new Cadillac Coupe de Ville with her two sons, George and Robbie, en route to find a new husband and a new life. Watch a preview of 'My One and Only' \u00bb . Hamilton, 70, spoke with CNN about the film, old Hollywood and his mother. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: There is a lot of heartache in this story. Why did you want to share it? George Hamilton: I don't know that I really did want to share it. It's a fictional story based on a real story loosely about me. And I went to the movie to hate it. And I looked at the movie and I thought, my God, [Zellweger] looks nothing like my mother, but she was able to portray the emotions just the way it was then. I couldn't speak. I was completely overwhelmed by what Renee did. That's a great actress. CNN: Do you think that your mother shaped your life more than your father? Hamilton: I think they're kind of like sand and a rock, kind of -- you keep rubbing up against them and they form you. I knew that I was the man of the family from the time I was 10, 12 -- you know, I had to be. But I knew I had to get away from it. So I signed onto military school. Then my mother said, if you're bad I'm sending you to your father, and I said, send me. I ... lived a whole year with my father -- I got to know him, I got to understand the two sides to the story. My mother didn't say bad things about him. I presumed that he was this foreign person who left and abandoned us. He didn't at all. And when I made it in Hollywood and I didn't want to be an actor, there they arrived. It was their triumph, not mine. I wanted to be a doctor. CNN: Now in hindsight, do you understand what your mom was doing? Hamilton: That's a very good question. No, I didn't, I didn't get her. What I knew was I would work -- I was ... with people who had millions of dollars, and they just accepted me, and I would go out and buy a tuxedo in the thrift shop, and go to the coming-out party of a very wealthy socialite, and they would say oh, now chic. You wore your grandfather's or your father's tuxedo. And I had bought it for $5. And I realized there was a whole reverse way of acting, and people just presumed you were old money, and I played that. That was my game. But when I looked at my mother I realized that she was born almost like a child, with the theory that we would be divinely supported. Always trust that, don't be afraid. Poverty, or [being] poor, is a mentality, it's like fog, it's all around you. My mother was broke, but that's just a temporary deal -- that's a bad hand in the poker game, if you're gonna sit through two more you can win. And that's how I looked at it. CNN: What was old Hollywood like? Hamilton: Well, it was mythological. It was a place [that] the first day, I saw Robert Mitchum sitting at a table and he looked at me and said, \"I know they say I don't know my lines. It's not true. I'm just too drunk to say them.\" And I thought, oh, that's an interesting man. Next Fred Astaire walks by, \"Hello,\" and I stopped: \"Hello, Mr. Astaire\" -- God I love that guy -- and I see Cary Grant sitting down. And he said, \"You've got a nice suntan. Do you like the sun?\" I said \"Well, yeah, I love the sun.\" ... He was so incredible. And I saw Gary Cooper, Ty Power, Clark Gable, and then they disappeared. You talk about \"Gone With the Wind,\" Hollywood disappeared! And I had envisioned this because I was the last of the contract players, and I wanted to be like them, but they were gone! And all the sudden I'm seeing Marlon Brandos, and Monty Clifts, and then a whole generation of soft young men, the Beat Generation or whatever. I couldn't relate to them then. Because I had related to what my mother and brother had seen years before. And that's all I ever wanted to be. CNN: There can never be another old Hollywood. Hamilton: No, but there can be older people in Hollywood, and that's where I am now. Just before death they turn you into an icon. And the other day I got a star on Hollywood Boulevard and I thought, God this is pretty good, and then it scared me because I thought, they give these things to you before it's all over. CNN: And did you learn to love acting? Hamilton: Acting has always been something for me that's been a romp. I just show up and I have a good time, and I hope that I get through the day and I can have lunch in the sun. I used to take the script and if it was heavy I'd give it to George Peppard and if it was nice and light, if it was a western, a few words, I'd take it. That's the way I looked at it. I wasn't a great actor, it wasn't my style. I just loved being an actor.","highlights":"George Hamilton's formative years subject of \"My One and Only\"\nPerpetually tanned Hamilton fell into acting; he wanted to be a doctor .\nHamilton remembers thrill of old Hollywood, then one day it was gone .","id":"3d897e4c0c1cad52a90c17c2a3fc3d9fe2305254"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The space shuttle Discovery was waved off from its first chance to land Friday afternoon because of unstable weather near Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said. The space shuttle's landing in Florida was delayed Thursday, shown. A first attempt Friday was called off, too. The shuttle will make another orbit of Earth, while NASA mission managers watch to see if extreme moisture and lightning threaten a safe landing. The next opportunity to land in Florida would come at 7:23 p.m. ET; however, Mission Control told the shuttle crew the forecast for that time \"looks about the same.\" Crews have been activated at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert in case NASA decides to land the shuttle there, where the weather is not considered an issue. There are two chances to land Friday evening in California. The space agency, however, usually exhausts all landing windows in Florida before sending the spacecraft to California. A landing on the West Coast adds a week to the turnaround time before the shuttle can be ready for another mission and it costs several million dollars. The landing could be delayed until Saturday when there are two more chances to land in Florida or California. Discovery initially was scheduled to return to Earth on Thursday, but poor weather in central Florida also forced a delay. The seven astronauts are wrapping up a 13-day mission to the international space station, where the crew made repairs and delivered supplies. The crew executed three spacewalks and dropped off a Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or Colbert treadmill. It was named after comedian Stephen Colbert. Weather and technical problems delayed Discovery's launch three times before blastoff.","highlights":"Landing attempt for space shuttle called off because of bad weather .\nThe shuttle may attempt a landing in Florida later Friday .\nAttempts to land on Thursday also were called off because of bad weather .\nNASA is readying crews in the California desert as a backup plan .","id":"774df589f47271757572be0f1be1cc0a670d6326"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Juan Almeida, a Cuban revolutionary who fought alongside former Communist leader Fidel Castro, died of a heart attack Friday evening, according to state media. Almeida, left, sits with President Raul Castro on January 1, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Almeida, 82, was among only a handful of surviving Cuban leaders who still bore the title \"Commander of the Revolution.\" A vice president and member of the Communist government Central Committee, Almeida was among only a few black leaders in top government posts. He died of cardiac arrest late Friday evening, according Juventud Rebelde, Cuba's state-run youth newspaper. Widely admired among Cuban nationals, Almeida fought with Fidel and Raul Castro at the start of their campesino-led revolution, participating in the failed attacks on the Moncada army barracks in 1953 and later aboard the famed yacht, \"Granma,\" that carried the small group of Cuban rebels who would later topple U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Almeida's death highlights the mortality of an aging cast of Cuba's revolutionary leaders. Widespread speculation surrounding the health of Fidel Castro grew in 2006 after the former Communist leader underwent abdominal surgery and later ceded the presidency to his younger brother, Raul. The elder Castro has recently appeared in a series of photos and video looking healthier, though he has not appeared in public since 2006. Cuban state media reported that Sunday will be a day of national mourning and that flags will be flown at half-staff.","highlights":"Cuban revolutionary Juan Almeida died of a heart attack Friday evening .\nAlmeida, 82, was a vice president and member of the Central Committee .\nHe was among only a few black leaders in top government posts .\nAlmeida fought with the Castros at the start of their campesino-led revolution .","id":"8afebdaeda11d6ffec3776b72f1f5554c88c59bb"} -{"article":"Below is an excerpt from HLN \"Morning Express\" anchor Robin Meade's new book, Morning Sunshine!: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too published by Hachette Book Group. The following takes place when Robin was working as a weekend anchor in Chicago, Illinois. Robin Meade's book \"Morning Sunshine!: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too\" hits shelves September 10. I looked down at the copy of the news story. My stomach clenched. My heart started palpitating. I think I held my breath without realizing it. The floor director gave me the cue, pointing at me as the camera came up on my face. I felt sweaty. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, the set seemed to fade into a gauzy haze. My breathing was jagged. The words came, but my voice was quivering so much it sounded like a kid singing into a big box fan on a humid summer day: \"Bray-ay-ay-ay-king new-ew-ew-ews tonigh-igh-ight.\" My hands shook uncontrollably, and I was huffing and puffing as if I were running mile twenty five of the Chicago Marathon. These were not the controlled, measured tones of someone who had been doing this for a living for years. My heart pounded in my ears, and my face flushed. I was losing it, right there with who knows how many thousands of people watching. What the hell is happening? As I delivered the facts of the story, I didn't hear a thing that came out of my mouth. All I heard were my own thoughts. Oh, no, you're screwing up! Oh, no, your bosses are probably watching! You're going to get fired! How will you pay your mortgage? What will people think of you? And then, of course, Holy crapola, where is that sound bite? Can you see how the cause-and-effect relationship of my thoughts just engulfed me in doom and gloom? I couldn't keep my mind on the story. I totally slipped into imagining the future and the horrible repercussions of my screwup. CNN's Virginia Cha talks to Robin about her on-air anxiety and her upcoming book \u00bb . Because I'm writing this today, you can tell that somehow I lived to see the sound bite that evening. The whole looking-like-I-was-hopped-up-on-six-energy-drinks episode lasted only seconds. But it seemed like an eternity. Now Josh, the I'm-going-to-be-a-reporter-someday crew member, and Michael, the I-really-want-to-be-a-rock-star prompter operator, were around me, wearing the same expression you'd have after witnessing a car wreck. \"Robin, are you okay? Do you need a glass of water?\" Josh's eyes were wide open, as if he really wanted to shout, \"Dude!\" He didn't know what to make of this. \"Yeah, please,\" I croaked. My mouth was cotton. I wished I had a trough to douse my head in instead of a tiny Dixie cup of water. \"Everything okay out there?\" the producer chimed in on my IFB, the earpiece through which the producer and director talk to anchors during the show without the folks at home hearing it. What to say, what to say? \"Oh, sorry about that. Wow, that was weird! I lost my breath or something.\" I faked a half-laugh at the end of that statement for their benefit. When Josh handed me the glass of water, I was surprised to see my hands were still trembling. I noticed how incredibly weak I felt, and I noisily gulped down the water the way my dog does at his water bowl after he's been chasing squirrels for an hour. Get it together, Robin! Miraculously, by the time we came out of the video and I had to speak again, it was as if nothing had happened. Except for feeling wiped out, I was back to sounding authoritative and in control, even tilting my head and smirking sheepishly as if to say, You'll forgive me for that little freak-out I just had. The truth was, I was morbidly embarrassed -- the kind of embarrassed where you'd rather crawl under a rock than face people. It wasn't the kind of embarrassment you can laugh off, as I could so easily when I was in high school show choir. As the student body filed in for the Christmas assembly, I started jumping rope with a holiday garland. I was standing out on the gymnasium floor, and with each leap over the garland I felt a swish! After a few times, I realized the garland was catching my knee-length choir dress in the back and flicking the skirt hem waist-high, exposing my bum for the entire eighth grade seated behind me. And laugh I did! Wouldn't you know it? The school photographer caught the moment: there I am in the 1987 yearbook laughing with my mouth wide open, my eyes as big as saucers, and my hands behind me, having just pushed my skirt back down. I have no problem laughing at myself in situations like that. My point in telling you this embarrassing story is that you can see I don't have trouble laughing off most situations. But my job? That was another matter. No, I was not going to be able to shrug off the \"breathing problem,\" as I had called it, trying to minimize its impact, even though it had completely bamboozled me on the air. It was all I thought about after the show, driving down the darkened streets of Chicago's Streeterville to our condo, still gripped with humiliation. I felt as though every tourist lugging her shopping bags from the Magnificent Mile back to her hotel, every vagrant panhandling for handouts, and every pedestrian who called the city home knew I had just made a complete fool of myself. My brain should have been full of concussions, I was beating myself up so much. How badly was I cursing myself? I didn't care to stop for my usual Cheesecake Factory late-night treat, let's put it that way. My stomach was still in knots. I didn't turn my eyes to gawk at the car pumping the thump-thitty-thump-thump bass at the stoplight, and I barely noticed anything around me on the drive home. I couldn't even feign a smile for the friendly doorman as I entered our high-rise building. The ride to the thirty-seventh floor seemed to take forever. Every time the elevator halted and the door opened I held my breath, afraid the person joining me on the ride had seen the screwup and would ply me with questions. Tim met me at the door. He had seen the \"breathing problem\" on TV for himself. I learned later it bolted him upright from his viewing perch on the couch. \"Did you watch me?\" I asked, hoping he'd say, \"Oh, I sensed a little glitch on your part.\" Instead he just nodded, and I saw the worried look on his face. He didn't say much. He was waiting for me to go first. I hesitated. Finally, in the kind of voice you'd use to soothe a colicky baby, he asked, \"Honey, what happened? Are you okay?\" I didn't know the answer. Excerpted from MORNING SUNSHINE!: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too by Robin Meade. Copyright (c) 2009 by Robin Meade. Reprinted by permission of Center Street, a Division of Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Anxiety attacks threatened to stop Robin Meade's career in its tracks .\nHer compulsion to overachieve put Meade temporarily out of touch with herself .\nMeade shares how she got her confidence, and her spontaneity, back .\nRobin Meade's new book hits shelves September 10 .","id":"d9dd82541b5ffee166f2a34be841ec0513b88165"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six men, including a police officer, are facing homicide charges in last week's killing of French filmmaker and photographer Christian Poveda in El Salvador, the attorney general's office said. Filmmaker Christian Poveda poses for a picture at a workshop in Mexico on August 29. The suspect accused of ordering the slaying, Nelson Lazo Rivera, was already in prison, according to a statement Wednesday from the agency. Officials gave no motive for the slaying and did not say why Lazo Rivera is incarcerated. El Diario de Hoy newspaper said he is in prison for several murders, including three slayings in 2003 known as the massacre of Samcap. Poveda, 53, had recently finished a documentary about a violent street gang, part of the Mara 18 criminal group in El Salvador. He was found shot to death September 2 in the town of Tonacatepeque, about 10 miles northeast of the capital, San Salvador, authorities said. Four of the suspects are members of the same Mara 18 gang that was the subject of Poveda's film, the attorney general's office said. Authorities identified them as Calixto Rigoberto Escobar (known as Toro), Jose Alejandro Melara (El Puma), Roberto Luis Romero (Tiger), and Miguel Angel Rosa (El Cholo). National Civil Police Officer Juan Napoleon Espinoza also was arrested, the attorney general's office said. Officials did not say what his involvement in the crime may have been. But El Mundo, Diario Co Latino, El Faro and El Diario de Hoy newspapers said authorities believe the officer told gang members Poveda was giving information on the group to police. According to El Diario de Hoy, police deputy director Mauricio Ramirez Landaverde said Espinoza was a Mara 18 member, who would drink with other members in his free time and also was involved in giving them weapons, ammunition and information. Authorities said the suspects will be charged with aggravated homicide, proposition and conspiracy in the homicide and illicit associations. Poveda's documentary, \"La Vida Loca,\" follows the lives of members of the Mara 18 gang. The documentary has been screened at a handful of film festivals and is slated for wider release later this month. His body was found in an area controlled by that same gang, officials said. The suspects had set up a meeting with Poveda on August 30, at which time they were supposed to kill him and bury his body, El Mundo and El Diario de Hoy reported. But Poveda did not show, heightening gang members' suspicions that he was an informant. He met with the suspects three days later and was shot by Romero, El Mundo said, but in their haste to get away the gang members forgot to bury his body. A funeral for Poveda was held Wednesday in San Salvador before his body was shipped to France. A photograph of a younger Poveda, with shoulder-length hair, and a 35 mm digital camera were placed on the altar, next to a communion chalice. \"This is a painful and brutal act. Unacceptable,\" said Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador. \"God moved Christian with his work, awoke noble ideals. He tried to film with his camera in order to open the eyes of those whose eyes needed opening.\"","highlights":"French filmmaker Christian Poveda was shot to death in El Salvador last week .\nPoveda had just finished documentary on violent street gang .\n4 of those arrested are members of the gang, another is police officer, officials say .\nSalvadoran media report the gang suspected Poveda was giving info to police .","id":"e60d54c015a20febf7309c0c24a5c31d3752794a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some $700 million in economic stimulus money intended to upgrade baggage screening systems at airports will go further than originally expected, Department of Homeland Security officials said Wednesday. The new systems can process up to 500 bags an hour, compared to the 150 to 160 bags per hour on the older machines, the TSA said. The DHS said the money will now upgrade systems at 10 additional airports. Earlier this year the DHS announced funding for baggage screening at airports in 15 cities. The money will be used to speed up construction of in-line baggage screening systems, which take advantage of the airline's existing conveyor belt systems to check bags, eliminating the need for minivan-size bomb detection systems now found in many airport lobbies. Government auditors have long complained about existing systems, which the Transportation Security Administration rushed into place to meet congressional deadlines after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At airports with in-line systems, airline workers at the ticketing counters place the bags on conveyor belts, which pass through explosive detectors on their way to the aircraft. That is more efficient than stand-alone systems, which the TSA employees must staff. In addition, in-line systems can process up to 500 bags an hour, compared to the 150 to 160 bags per hour processed by stand-alone machines, the TSA said. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement that DHS was able to \"stretch our resources\" by managing the recovery money and by negotiating with airports. In addition to the $700 million intended for checked baggage systems, $300 million is being allocated for checkpoint technology, such as new X-ray machines, \"whole body imaging\" technology and bottled liquid scanners. The new airports expected to get stimulus money for in-line explosive detection systems are: . \u2022 Washington Dulles International Airport (Chantilly, Virginia) \u2022 Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (St. Louis, Missouri) \u2022 Yellowstone Regional Airport (Cody, Wyoming) \u2022 William P. Hobby Airport (Houston, Texas) \u2022 St. Petersburg\/Clearwater International Airport (St. Petersburg, Florida) \u2022 Gallatin Field Airport (Bozeman, Montana) \u2022 Little Rock National Airport (Little Rock, Arkansas) \u2022 Tulsa International Airport (Tulsa, Oklahoma) \u2022 Charlotte Douglas International Airport (Charlotte, North Carolina) \u2022 Colorado Springs Airport (Colorado Springs, Colorado) Earlier this year, DHS announced funding for airports in the following cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Honolulu, Hawaii; Huntsville, Alabama; Jackson, Wyoming; Maui, Hawaii; New Orleans, Louisiana; Orange County, California; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Maine; and Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose, California. To learn more about the DHS Recovery Act projects, visit www.dhs.gov\/recovery.","highlights":"Department of Homeland security says stimulus money can be stretched .\nDHS identified 10 additional airports to receive in-line baggage screening systems .\nUpdated screening process is more efficient than stand-alone machines .","id":"43969645c86a01aa66a36f608c81d9989bd56461"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mourners gathered Saturday to remember two California firefighters who died last month battling the largest fire in the history of Los Angeles County. Capt. Ted Hall and firefighter Specialist Arnie Quinones died while seeking an escape route for their crew. \"We were all blessed by these two men, and we will continue to be blessed by their example and their spirit. Their deeds and their names live on,\" Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the crowd at Dodger Stadium. \"Ted Hall and Arnie Quinones, you are giants in my eyes and in the eyes of all Californians.\" Hall, a captain, and Quinones, a firefighter specialist, were killed on August 30 when their vehicle slid down a steep embankment in Angeles National Forest. Schwarzenegger said the two men were searching for an escape route for their crew, which included 55 inmates. The governor said Hall and Quinones had sheltered the crew in a cinder block dining hall. \"Everyone reached safety, except Ted and Arnie,\" he said. \"We are humbled by their courage.\" Firefighters are still fighting the blaze, which is 84 percent contained. Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Frank Garrido said officials expected 15,000 uniformed firefighters and, including members of the public, as many as 40,000 people, CNN affiliate KTLA reported. No official attendance figures were immediately available . \"Ted, trusty veteran, widely respected, hardcore firefighter; he was immersed in the fire service,\" said Dave Gillotte, of Los Angeles County Fire Fighters, Local 1014. \"Arnie, he knew no strangers,\" Gillotte said. \"What a smile, what a family.\" Vice President Joe Biden also spoke at the memorial, saying there was \"very little that we can do today that is going to bring genuine solace to the empty void that the families are feeling.\" Hall is survived by his wife, Katherine, and two sons, Randall, 21, and Steven, 20, as well as his parents. Quinones is survived by his wife, Loressa -- who is expecting the couple's first child within the next several weeks -- his mother, his brother and numerous nieces and nephews, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Biden said the men's wives \"knew every time their husbands walked out the door to report for duty, they knew every time that it was a risk. ... but they supported their husbands' doing that job they loved.\" He added, \"It's above and beyond the call of duty when two fathers seeking to save a building full of people leave their own families behind, that's real courage. \"The only thing we can do for certain, is to promise and keep the promise, we will give the Teds and the Arnies all the support they need, the equipment they need, the capacity they need, for we owe you.\"","highlights":"Capt. Ted Hall and firefighter Specialist Arnie Quinones died on August 30 .\nTheir vehicle slid down embankment while searching for an escape route for crew .\nVice President Joe Biden, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offer condolences .\nOfficials reportedly expect up to 40,000 to attend Dodger Stadium memorial .","id":"fc9e6bfdecb076619ae395956ee98747f39b8639"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A campaigner for a British grandmother on death row in Texas made a unique plea for her life Thursday -- from atop a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. Brian Capaloff uses his slot on the plinth in Trafalgar Square to campaign for clemency for Linda Carty. Linda Carty, 51, recorded her message this week from the prison in Gatesville, where she is serving her sentence, as part of an effort to win clemency. Campaigners say Carty's trial was \"catastrophically flawed\" and that her court-appointed lawyer failed to take steps that could have at least spared her the death penalty. An appeal is pending in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. \"I'm sorry if I sound like a desperate woman,\" she said on the tape. \"I am desperate. The British people may be my last hope.\" A Scottish man who has taken an interest in Carty's case played her seven-minute recording over and over for an hour while standing atop one of Trafalgar Square's large statue bases, or plinths. He held up placards with messages from Carty and stood in front of a life-size cardboard cutout of her. Do you think the campaign will have any effect? Send us your comments . \"Please listen and tell everyone you know,\" Carty said in her message. \"Please don't let me die here.\" A contest currently under way in London allows members of the public to win an hour atop the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. Winners can do anything during their hour that they like -- perform, demonstrate, speak, or simply be silent. Brian Capaloff, 46, who works for a local government homelessness service in Scotland, won a slot but couldn't think of what he would do during his hour. He said he asked Reprieve, a British charity that he supports, whether he could do anything for them, and they suggested he focus on Carty's case. \"I thought that was the most important thing of all -- to stop someone who is not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, who I believe is innocent, of being executed,\" Capaloff told CNN. It's \"just an unbelievable injustice.\" He said he hoped his demonstration would lead people to inquire about the case and ask their members of Parliament to do the same. \"Linda Carty's speech to Trafalgar Square shows that she is a terrified woman, and with good reason,\" said Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve. \"Texas plans to kill her by lethal injection, which is a painful and lonely death.\" He added: \"The British government must do everything in its power to prevent Linda's death.\" The British Foreign Office has filed two amicus briefs in Carty's case complaining that Britain was not notified of her original arrest, said a Foreign Office spokesman, who declined to be named in line with policy. The first was in 2006 with a U.S. district court in Texas and the second was in May of this year with the federal appeals court. The Foreign Office is also in close touch with Carty and her legal representatives, the spokesman said. \"We're continuing to provide her with consular assistance,\" he said. \"We've also made the U.S. aware of our stance (against) the death penalty.\" Carty was convicted of taking part in the May 2001 murder of Joana Rodriguez, a 25-year-old Texas woman, Reprieve said. Rodriguez and her 4-day-old son were abducted by men demanding drugs and cash; she later suffocated while her son survived. Prosecutors said Carty had hired the men to kidnap Rodriguez so she could steal her baby because, even though Carty had given birth to children in the past, she was no longer able to get pregnant, Reprieve said. Carty, who asserts her innocence, was sentenced to death in February 2002. Reprieve said Carty's court-appointed lawyer was incompetent. The lawyer failed to meet Carty until immediately before the trial, failed to spot flaws and inconsistencies in the prosecution's case, failed to interview witnesses and did not look at key mitigating evidence, Reprieve said. \"My lawyer told me he was too busy to work on my case,\" Carty said in her recording. Carty was born on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts to Anguillan parents and holds a British passport, Reprieve said. She worked as a primary school teacher in St. Kitts, a former British colony, until she was 23 and later moved to Texas. \"After her conviction, investigators from Reprieve visited St. Kitts and learned that Linda was still remembered as a passionate teacher who frequently held extra classes for children with special needs. She also taught at Sunday school, sang in a national youth choir and led a volunteer social-work group,\" Reprieve said. \"This information would have enabled (her lawyer) to present her to the jurors as a dedicated teacher and community leader -- factors that might well have induced them to vote to spare her life.\" Carty worked as a confidential informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency during the 1980s, befriending suspected traffickers to get information and sometimes to make test purchases of drugs, Reprieve said. Carty believes that she was framed because of her work with the agency, Reprieve said. Lawyers for Carty have lodged an appeal with the appeals court court in New Orleans, Louisiana, Reprieve said. If the court rejects her appeal, an execution date will be set, the charity said. Capaloff said he had a lump in his throat when he arrived at Trafalgar Square for his demonstration. \"This is about someone's life and there's nothing more important than that,\" he told CNN. \"It is an emotional thing.\" Only three of Trafalgar Square's four plinths have statues on top. The fourth plinth never had a statue and has stood empty for years, with specially commissioned artworks occasionally being featured on top. This year, sculptor Antony Gormley came up with the idea to have people stand atop the plinth as a sort of living monument. Thousands applied for the chance to occupy the plinth. The project runs 24 hours a day. It began in July and is set to end in October.","highlights":"Campaigner for Briton on death row in Texas pleads for her life in London .\nLinda Carty, 51, recorded a message this week from prison .\nA man stood on plinth in Trafalgar Square and played Carty's message aloud .\nCarty is accused of taking part in 2001 murder of a 25-year-old Texas woman .","id":"d2165aea65f2dad1486e42a5c8d7a87a7a82916c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Guatemalan army stole at least 333 children and sold them for adoption in other countries during the Central American nation's 36-year civil war, a government report has concluded. Around 45,000 people are believed to have disappeared during Guatemala's civil war, 5,000 of them children. Many of those children ended up in the United States, as well as Sweden, Italy and France, said the report's author and lead investigator, Marco Tulio Alvarez. In some cases, the report said, parents were killed so the children could be taken and given to government-operated agencies to be adopted abroad. In other instances, the children were abducted without physical harm to the parents. \"This was a great abuse by the state,\" Alvarez told CNN on Friday. Investigators started examining records in May 2008 for a period that spanned from 1977-89, said Alvarez, the director of the Guatemalan Peace Archive, a commission established by President Alvaro Colom. Of 672 records investigators looked at, Alvarez said, they determined that 333 children had been stolen. The children were taken for financial and political reasons, he said. Alvarez acknowledges that many more children possibly were taken. Investigators zeroed in on the 1977-89 period because peak adoptions occurred during that time frame, particularly in 1986. They will investigate through 1995 and hope to have another report ready by early next year, he said. A presidential ministry has determined that about 45,000 people disappeared during the nation's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. About 5,000 of those were children, the ministry said. Another 200,000 people died in the conflict between the leftist guerrillas and right-wing governments. The nation's public ministry and attorney general's office will determine whether anyone is prosecuted over the abductions, Alvarez said. Asked if he would like to see prosecutions, Alvarez answered, \"I hope so.\" Alvarez said he has attended several reunions of abducted children -- now adults -- and family members. \"I can't tell you how happy that makes me,\" he said. Adoption has served as a source of income in Guatemala for decades. The war just made it easier for abuses at the hands of soldiers to occur. Guatemala has the world's highest per capita rate of adoption and is one of the leading providers of adoptive children for the United States. Nearly one in 100 babies born in Guatemala end up with adoptive parents in the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. Adoptions can cost up to $30,000, providing a large financial incentive in a country where the World Bank says about 75 percent of the people live below the poverty level. Officials fear that often times mothers are paid -- or coerced -- into giving up their children. Some unscrupulous lawyers and notaries, who have greater power in Guatemala than they do in the United States, have taken advantage of the extreme poverty and limited government oversight over adoptions to enrich themselves. Alvarez said corrupt lawyers and notaries were the driving force behind many of the army abductions of children. The problem is confounded because many Guatemalan parents can't provide for their children. The United Nations' World Food Programme says Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean. Chronic undernutrition affects about half of the nation's children under the age of 5, the U.N. agency said. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom Caballeros declared a state of national calamity this week because so many citizens do not have food or proper nutrition. Despite the nation's problems, Alvarez hopes some good will come of the report, which was released Thursday. \"We have to tell the truth about what happened,\" he said. \"Guatemalan society must know what happened and must never allow it to happen again.\" CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report .","highlights":"Children stolen for adoption in the U.S., Sweden, Italy and France, report says .\nSome parents were killed, others were unharmed when soldiers came calling .\nInvestigators examined period between 1977 and 1989, 'peak' adoption period .\nReports says many more could have been taken, investigation underway .","id":"4b6b00bbc5feb76dd4f35f675eb61159ef9e3873"} -{"article":"PADUCAH, Kentucky (CNN) -- He arrives in the early morning hours, when the downtown streets here are empty and quiet. Former U.S. soldier Steven Green has been convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. An electric gate jerks to life as the black sedan with tinted windows pulls into a parking lot protected by an iron fence. It's five blocks from the local county jail to the U.S. Federal Courthouse of Western Kentucky. Not even a five-minute drive. This is the only freedom Steven Green knows. He's ushered from the car by a contingent of U.S. marshals. It's 30 feet out in the open air. A brief chance to look up at the clouds. A moment to hear sounds not reverberated against cell walls: a bird, a car engine, a breeze in nearby trees. He is a lanky 24-year-old. He looks lean, like he could grow a little more. Not really a man, but too old to be called a boy. Regardless, he is a convicted murderer, rapist, and conspirator. The orange prison coveralls make him look a bit taller. The jury never sees Green in the fluorescent jumpsuit. Inside the federal courthouse there is a change of clothes. Usually it's a button-down shirt and a pair of khakis. He keeps his cuffs buttoned. He looks nerdish, and you half expect him to start working on the courtroom computers. Not like a man who once asked FBI agents if they thought he was \"a monster.\" Evidence comes in a steady display of pictures and videos that seem oddly connected. The snapshot of a smiling woman lying in a field of bluebonnets. The image of a dead Iraqi strapped to the hood of an Army Humvee. A high school yearbook photo of a Texas football team. The diagram of a brain cell. Video of a firefight shot from an insurgent perspective. The most unusual trial exhibit sits against the wall behind the prosecutor's table: a small architectural mock-up of a home. Roughly 18 by 18 inches, it is like no home in Kentucky. A flat-topped square with a raised rectangular structure at the top providing access to the roof. It is beige in color. The tiny windows have tiny bars. It is a 3-D map of a crime scene. Earlier this month, a jury found Green guilty of a raping a 14-year-old girl who lived in the home in Iraq, then killing her and setting her body on fire to destroy evidence. Green also was found guilty of killing the girl's parents and 6-year-old sister. There is a casual manner to Steven Green's daily entrance into the courtroom. It defies the circumstances of the moment and the imagination without proper context. This is the sentencing phase of his death penalty trial and he is the defendant. Testimony resumes Monday, with the expectation of closing arguments as early as Wednesday. Green faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, or death in prison. The testimony transports the court to unusual places: across Texas following Green's dysfunctional childhood, into the sense of structure and order of Army basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and back to the chaos of horrendous combat situations four years ago in Iraq's Triangle of Death. Green is a former member of the 101st Airborne Division, inserted into a very bad section of Iraq during some of the worst fighting of the war. His memories are of a place known as Yusufiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Jurors form a mental picture of his life then as former members of his unit, Bravo Company, take the stand. Amid the military lingo, the witnesses pause occasionally, struggling to convey the contempt, confusion, exhaustion, and death they knew. They speak of being shot, of killings, booby traps and sudden bloody dismemberments. This toxic emotional mix is what former Pfc. Green knew in 2005 and 2006 almost every day, along with the very real possibility of his own death. If the jury opts for its most extreme option -- the death penalty -- unlike his daily death watch in Iraq, at least Green will see that coming. When a friend or family member enters the courtroom, Green tries to make anxious eye contact. He whispers a lot to his attorneys. His hands stay around his face and his gaze on the table when the victims' family speak through an interpreter. The Al-Janabis' relatives do not speak of details of the crime. The questions come only from the prosecution, and the defense does not cross-examine. They speak of an orchard worker, Kassem, and his wife, Fakhriya. They speak of a simple family who did not own either their home or the furniture. They speak of a funny 6-year-old girl, Hadeel, being chased through the orchard trees by siblings. They speak of a 14-year-old girl, Abeer, with dreams of living in the city and wearing nice clothes. The jury never hears the words \"rape\" or \"murder\" come from the translation. It is a testimony about loss. The defendant sits rigid the entire time. The mention of other names comes frequently in court. Spc. James Barker: The jury knows him as the soldier who concocted a plan over a card game to target the Al-Janabi family -- a mission of gang-rape and murder. Sgt. Paul Cortez: The defense counsel describes him as senior non-commissioned officer, the one who approved the mission as long as he was the first to rape Abeer. Pfc. Jesse Spielman: His name is familiar as the fourth member of the squad to leave their traffic checkpoint on March 12, 2006, after donning disguises, and enter the Al-Janabi home. Pfc. Bryan Howard is the soldier left behind to guard their post. Each is out of the Army, sentenced to prison time by a military court for his part in the crime and the failed coverup. Green, the trigger man, is the odd man out. He sits before the jury, convicted in civil court for this war atrocity. His early release from the Army two months after the crime is a possible death sentence, while three of his accomplices face the possibility of parole from an Army prison in 2016. Green still sports a military haircut. Seated at the table alongside his defense team, he often leans over and speaks with Darren Wolff, a former Marine Corps captain turned Kentucky defense lawyer. There are letters on file in the court docket from Wolff petitioning Defense Secretary Robert Gates to re-enlist Green in the Army, so the former private could face trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is not unheard of in this war. Wolff points out in conversation that the Pentagon re-activated two former Marines after word surfaced of an alleged murder in Falluja in 2004. He says Green should face a jury of his military peers. The fact that has not happened, and the former Army private sits in the U.S. District Court of Western Kentucky tried under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act for crimes committed in Iraq, may be a point of appeal. At the end of the day, Green exits the courtroom, climbs back into his prison garb and is shackled. There's another short walk to the car, then a five-block return drive to take in the world. He returns to solitary confinement. This is his human interaction for the day.","highlights":"Steven Green was convicted of murder, rape in deaths of girl and her family in Iraq .\nJury in Kentucky to decide his sentence; death penalty a possibility .\nClosing arguments could start as soon as Wednesday .\nGreen faces harsher penalty because he had left Army and was tried in civilian court .","id":"3e63ec9394c3bad46605c1c52cccee8cf256f138"} -{"article":"HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The president of The Valley Swim Club on Friday strongly denied charges of racism after his club canceled the swimming privileges of a nearby day care center whose children are predominantly African-American. John Duesler said he underestimated the number of swimmers who would come to swim at the club. \"It was never our intention to offend anyone,\" said John Duesler. \"This thing has been blown out of proportion.\" Duesler said his club -- which he called \"very diverse\" -- invited camps in the Philadelphia area to use his facility because of the number of pools in the region closed due to budget cuts this summer. He said he underestimated the amount of children who would participate, and the club's capacity to take on the groups was not up to the task. \"It was a safety issue,\" he said. The Creative Steps Day Care children -- who are in kindergarten through seventh grade -- went to The Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley on June 29 after the center's director, Alethea Wright, had contracted to use the club once a week. During their first visit, some children said they heard club members asking why African-American children were there. One youngster told a Philadelphia television station a woman there said she feared the children \"might do something\" to her child. Watch Wright react to comments allegedly aimed at the children \u00bb . Days later, the day care center's $1,950 check was returned without explanation, Wright said. She was dismissive of Duesler's comments Friday. \"He knows what happened at the pool that day,\" Wright told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I was embarrassed and humiliated.\" She called it an \"unfortunate situation,\" adding, \"I know what happened; the members know what happened and a higher power knows what happened.\" Watch the club president say racism is not at play \u00bb . After news reports of the incident, the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) said Specter sent a letter to the club president asking him to reinstate the contract with Creative Steps, saying, \"I think that you would agree that there is no place for racism in America today.\" Duesler said he appreciates the senator's concern, but the club's board has yet to make a decision of how it will proceed. \"If we're going to revise our policies here, we need to make it so for all the camps,\" he said. \"I just don't think we're prepared for that.\" Duesler earlier in the week told two Philadelphia television stations the children had changed \"the complexion\" and \"atmosphere\" of the club, a comment that protesters outside the facility Thursday said showed that racism was involved. Bernice Duesler, John Duesler's wife, called the negative response her husband has faced since the incident \"unbearable.\" \"He's not one of the good guys -- he's one of the great guys,\" she said, holding back tears. \"He doesn't deserve this.\" She added, \"If there really was a racial issue that happened, my husband and I would be the first one[s] picketing.\" Jim Flynn, who said he was one of the club members who made a complaint against the children, told CNN this week it was not racially motivated. \"There were a lot of children in the pool and not enough lifeguards,\" he said. \"As general members we were not told that they were coming. If we knew, we could decide to not come when the pool was crowded or come anyway. We could have had an option.\" He also said invitations to two other day care centers, neither of which contained minority children, had previously been withdrawn. Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding school, told CNN on Thursday it would offer Creative Steps Day Care use of its facilities this summer.","highlights":"Swim club president John Duesler: \"It was never our intention to offend anyone\"\n\"He knows what happened at the pool that day,\" day care director counters .\nDuesler: Club is \"very diverse,\" and had reached out because area pools had closed .\nDuesler says club's board has yet to decide whether to reinstate center's contract .","id":"c3bec7cbc33dc03b1c43b8927d3880aa2eec15b4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court delayed a decision on whether to accept an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate who has gained international support for his claims of innocence in the the murder of a Savannah police officer two decades ago. Troy Davis' case has earned the support of leaders including the pope and former President Jimmy Carter. The justices were scheduled to announce Monday whether they would take the case of Troy Davis, but no order was released. The court is expected to take up the matter again in September. Last fall, the Supreme Court granted Davis a stay of execution two hours before he was to be put to death. A month later, the justices reversed course and allowed the capital punishment to proceed, but a federal appeals court issued another stay. The high court's latest delay means Davis will continue to sit on death row. Watch a report on Davis' long fight \u00bb . His supporters Monday delivered about 60,000 signatures in petitions to Chatham County, Georgia, District Attorney Larry Chisolm, calling for a new trial. \"This delay is an indication that the Supreme Court is concerned by the gravity of Troy Davis' innocence claims,\" said Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. \"We will continue to call on all authorities, including the Supreme Court, to finally hear the evidence that has motivated hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to raise their voices and demand justice.\" Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. Witnesses claimed Davis, then 19, and two others were harassing a homeless man in a Burger King restaurant parking lot when the off-duty officer arrived to help the man. Witnesses testified at trial that Davis then shot MacPhail twice and fled. But since his 1991 conviction, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the police officer. The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board last year held closed-door hearings and reinterviewed Davis and the witnesses. The panel decided against clemency. MacPhail's mother, Annaliese, told CNN at the time, \"This is what we were hoping for, and I hope pretty soon that we will have some peace and start our life, especially my grandchildren -- my grandson and granddaughter. It has overshadowed their lives.\" After the justices in October refused to grant a stay of execution, Davis' sister, Martina Correia, told CNN she was \"disgusted\" by the decision. \"It doesn't make any sense,\" she said. \"We are praying for a miracle or some kind of intervention. We will regroup and fight. We will never stop fighting. We just can't be discouraged. The fight is not over 'til it's over.\" Ten days after the high court refused last October to intervene, a federal appeals court in Georgia granted a temporary stay of execution. Since then, further appeals by Davis' legal team have dragged on for eight months. Prominent figures ranging from the pope to the musical group Indigo Girls have asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial. Other supporters include celebrities Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; world leaders such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town, South Africa; and former and current U.S. lawmakers Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Braun and John Lewis.","highlights":"Supreme Court ends session without hearing Troy Davis' appeal .\nDavis is on Georgia's death row; says he's innocent .\nDavis was convicted in 1991 of murdering of off-duty Savannah police officer .\nSeven of the nine witnesses against Davis have recanted .","id":"a81b319bd3fe17411b4cded46648ad1a9ef36b23"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- And now, the rejects. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft . Three months after the White House released a single photograph taken during a photo op of \"Air Force One\" flying over New York -- a flight that caused panic on the streets below -- the U.S. Air Force on Friday released the remaining 145 photos taken during the flight. The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 -- a military version of a 747 -- making three passes by the Statue of Liberty, at one point accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet and at another point making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft. That latter move may have contributed to the chaos below. The photographs and several lengthy government e-mail chains were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by CNN and other news organizations. The e-mail chains show that the flight's government organizers were aware of many New Yorkers' fears of low-flying aircraft before the April 27 flight, and show a flurry of second-guessing, finger-pointing, damage control and occasional expressions of regret in the hours immediately after the flight. Watch a compilation of still images of the flyover \u00bb . \"Thanks for the heads up on sensitivities in the New York area,\" an Air Force colonel wrote in an e-mail two days before the flight. \"This is an issue that PAG [the Presidential Airlift Group] has also been concerned with. As a result, their coordination has been substantial.\" But while the White House, the military and numerous federal and local government agencies coordinated the flight, the federal government demanded secrecy, preparing a news release that was to be distributed only if there were media inquiries. Those inquiries came during the morning flight, triggering a quick chain of e-mails among government officials. \"We...need to construct some sort of timeline on when folks became aware of it if that is possible,\" one Air Force official wrote, responding to the public interest. \"I agree we... need to accomplish damage control, but we aren't the POC [point of contact],\" the response reads. \"Nor do I want to become a belly button for NORAD to push on this one.\" Wrote one top Pentagon spokeswoman: \"Nothing like having everyone point the finger at someone else so we ALL look like a big bunch of buffoons... can you say Moe, Larry & Curly!??!?!\" In addition to the informal e-mail banter, the documents show the regimented system the Pentagon uses to monitor and respond to breaking news stories. A U.S. Northern Command document offers this \"assessment\" of the story: \"Last 4 hours: Story reported quickly. Covered by AP, CNN, FOX major news outlets. Local reporting very critical, highlighting 'scare' factor. Local populace very critical of event, due to 9-11 sensitivities.\" It continues: \"Web site blog comments 'furious' at best. Twitter search reveals 'tweets' regarding two F-16's chasing commercial airliner. Rate of 1 tweet per minute and growing.\" \"No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake,\" it concludes. In another e-mail, USAF Col. Scott M. Turner, commander of the Presidential Airlift Group, was doing just that. \"Again, my apologies sir. Real intent here was to honor NYC, not cause mass chaos,\" it reads. The next day, the Northern Command's internal memo included depictions of New York's three major tabloids featuring the headlines, \"Scare Force One,\" \"Just Plane Stupid!\" and \"How Dumb Was This!\" The photographs released Friday, meanwhile, show the presidential aircraft making a steep bank, seemingly well beyond the 30-degree maximum for Boeing 747s carrying passengers, according to one airline pilot consulted by CNN. That may have contributed to the anxiety on the ground. The Pentagon estimated the cost of the flight at $328,835, which includes the Boeing aircraft and the two fighter jets that accompanied it. But, they said, \"the hours would have been flown regardless, and the expenses would have been accrued on a different mission.\" The VC-25 aircraft is designated \"Air Force One\" only when the president is aboard. President Obama was not on the plane during the photo op. After the incident, Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office responsible for the flyover, resigned. \"I have concluded that the controversy surrounding the Presidential Airlift Group's aerial photo shoot over New York City has made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office,\" Caldera said in a letter to Obama. \"Moreover, it has become a distraction to the important work you are doing as president. After much reflection, I believe it is incumbent on me to tender my resignation and step down as director of the White House Military Office.\"","highlights":"Presidential plane's flight over New York led to panic on ground .\nAir Force releases 145 new photos of flight; 1 had been released previously .\nGovernment e-mail chains from day of flight also released .\n\"No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake,\" says one .","id":"6d2fa8e6ca4f47ac7be9dee786017587a76dce4b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Insurgents locked in a standoff with U.S. Marines tricked them by dressing up as women to escape, a task force spokesman said Monday. U.S. Marines scan the site of a blast that hit a U.S. vehicle in southern Afghanistan. Women and children had been caught in the standoff between the armed groups, but some of the women were not what they seemed, according to task force spokesman Capt. William Pelletier. After the Marines began taking fire from insurgents in the town of Khan Neshin, in south Afghanistan near the Helmand River, the militants ran into a multiple-room compound, the U.S. military said. Unsure of whether civilians were inside the compound, the Marines had an interpreter talk to the insurgents, said an official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly. After some time, a number of women and children left the compound, the military official said. The released hostages told the Marines that there were no more civilians inside the compound, Pelletier said. But the Marines held their fire anyway, the official said. About 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. ET), in the midst of the standoff, another group of women and children emerged from the compound, the official said. The Marines continued to hold their fire and wait out the insurgents, the official said. Finally, a screaming woman emerged from the compound with a bullet wound to her hand, Pelletier said. Then, another group of women came out, covered from head to toe according to custom, he said, with a couple of children in tow. The Marines attended to the wounded woman while the others walked away. When the Marines went into the compound, they discovered that it empty, Pelletier said. That's when they realized the fighters had dressed up as women to escape, he said. \"Apparently these were tall, rather broad-shouldered women with hairy feet,\" Pelletier said. The Marines' restrained approach differs from previous hits on compounds when airstrikes were readily called in, the official said. Under a new tactical directive for forces in Afghanistan, some of which was unclassified Monday, forces must protect civilians soldiers and must be sensitive to Afghan cultural norms regarding women. Pelletier said that during the standoff, \"the Marines didn't have any female forces to do any searches, and they weren't going to violate cultural norms by patting down these women.\" The standoff in the town of Khan Neshin was especially significant because it has been a Taliban stronghold for several years, and the U.S. military reported that the Afghan government regained control of the town Monday. Coalition forces began talks with local leaders several days ago and have moved about 500 Marines into Khan Neshin, a U.S. military news release said. The government takeover of Khan Neshin marks the first time coalition forces have had a sustained presence so far south in the Helmand River valley, the release said. The mission to secure Khan Neshin coincides with \"establishing secure conditions\" for August elections in Afghanistan, according to the release. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a six U.S. soldiers were killed Monday by two roadside bombs, a representative for NATO forces said. Four were killed in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Two soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Forces said. CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. Marines faced off against insurgents in southern town of Khan Neshin .\nMarines surround compound, held fire because of civilians .\n6 U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan .\nTaliban claim responsibility for attack on U.S. military vehicle .","id":"909194043525676c0206f35f1af3e20aeed80aa7"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Fans of Michael Jackson lined the streets outside Harlem's Apollo Theater on Tuesday for a chance to pay their respects to the late \"King of Pop\" at the hall that helped launch his career. A hat and glittery glove represent Michael Jackson at the Apollo Theater tribute. The crowd stood eight to 10 abreast in the sun and 80-degree weather for 10 blocks, waiting for hours for a chance to enter the theater. Fans were allowed in 600 at a time, where they lay flowers and other mementos at the foot of the stage and danced to Jackson's music as it played over the sound system. \"We left our house at 4 o'clock in the morning and got here at 9, and we were lucky to get here,\" said Angela Staples, who came to New York from Pennsylvania with her daughter Jasmine. \"I'm so happy about the outpouring of love and the crowd and the people. It's so respectful to Michael.\" Those in the hall observed a moment of silence at 5:26 p.m. -- the time Jackson was pronounced dead Thursday in Los Angeles, California. The cause of the 50-year-old singer's death has not yet been determined. An autopsy on the 50-year-old singer was was inconclusive, leaving authorities waiting on the results of toxicology tests to determine what killed him. Fans have been gathering outside the theater since last week to remember Jackson, who at age 9 won a 1967 Apollo amateur night showcase with his brothers in the group the Jackson 5. \"While he went on from the Apollo stage to achieve international fame on an unprecedented level, to us and all of you, he's family because he started out here,\" said Jonelle Procope, the legendary venue's CEO. Jackson became an idol of both black and white fans and was among the first African-American artists to get widespread play on the music-video channel MTV. But in later years, he was known more for a roller-coaster personal life, including extensive plastic surgery, financial woes and a 1995 trial and acquittal on child-molestation charges. The Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York civil rights activist who became a friend of the Jackson family, urged Jackson's fans not to let critics \"scandalize\" a groundbreaking performer. \"Michael wasn't no freak,\" Sharpton said. \"Michael was a genius. Michael was an innovator. You can't take someone with extraordinary skills, extraordinary talent, and make him an ordinary person. He was extraordinary. He lived extraordinarily, and we love him with an extraordinary passion.\" The Apollo had been one of the top venues for jazz, gospel and soul artists for decades before the Jacksons' breakthrough. Sharpton said the theater was home to \"the best and the baddest.\" \"You've got to come from the stage of the Apollo and go all over the world to understand Michael,\" Sharpton said. \"We understand his journey, because we were with him every step of the way.\" The Jackson brothers' amateur night win led to a $1,000 deal for 31 shows at the Apollo, said Bobby Schiffman, whose family owned the theater. \"Shortly after their appearance, Diana Ross took them on an NBC special that she did, and there was no looking back after that. They just skyrocketed,\" Schiffman said. Jackson at the time \"was a sweet little boy,\" he said. \"He was extremely talented, extremely easy to get along with,\" Schiffman said. \"He always had a smile on his face, and it was a pleasure to see him working in the theater.\" CNN's Aspen Steib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fans line streets for blocks to pay tribute to Michael Jackson at Apollo Theater .\nFans lay flowers, mementos at the foot of the stage, dance to Jackson's music .\nJackson 5 won amateur night contest at Apollo in 1967 .","id":"16311131a3662af6fa796765cfe45d115805f3d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The car breaks down. The lover jilts you mid-trip. The hotel turns out to be a dump. Pericles Rellas thanks a dumpy hotel and a kind stranger for showing him Old Cairo in Egypt 20 years ago. Travel snafus can throw upside down the most thought-out of vacation plans. But what the mishaps lead to, and how people deal with them, can be blessings in globe-trotting disguise. \"When things go wrong, travel gets more interesting,\" said Jim Benning. \"If everything goes exactly as planned, the trip may be all right, but is it the trip you'll tell people about for years to come? Probably not.\" No stranger to travel trials -- he's heard about and lived plenty -- Benning is the editor of World Hum, an online travel magazine that focuses on the journey as much as the destination. In 2001, he found himself on a 20-hour-long, overstuffed train ride across China. It was so unbearable that he jumped off in Chengdu in Sichuan province, an area he never intended to explore. \"The only reason I got off is I couldn't stand another second on that train,\" he said. \"It led to the best week I had in China.\" Travelers who can stay flexible and roll with the glitches do well, even \"thrive,\" when adversity strikes, Benning said. Nancy Donohue of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, is one such person. Back in 2003, the artist joined her grown son, Jeremiah (or \"Maia\"), in volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala. Once the three-week stint was over, the two set out on a road trip to take his car back to his home in California. But only two days into the drive, the car broke down north of Acapulco, Mexico, leaving them stranded beneath the hot sun for three hours, she said. They found refuge in the town of Coyuca -- her for one week (she had to fly back to the states) and Maia for two weeks -- before the right car part arrived and he could move on. While there, they found bliss, bonding with the locals and spending their days at the beach, swimming in a lagoon and feasting on 10-cent mangoes. iReport: Read about this lucky breakdown . \"It's the story of my life,\" Donohue said. \"Anything that happens is for the good.\" Even in the worst of times, there can be blessings, Shirley Brooks-Jones learned. The Columbus, Ohio, resident was on Delta Flight 15 from Frankfurt, Germany, to Atlanta, Georgia, on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks had closed U.S. airspace, and for 24 hours, she was on one of nearly 40 airplanes on the tarmac in Gander, Newfoundland, getting bit-piece updates and trying to understand what had happened. When it became clear that they'd be going nowhere anytime soon, she and the others deplaned -- without their luggage. The people of Gander and the surrounding villages wowed Brooks-Jones, 73, and the other stuck passengers with their kindness. Locals gave them shelter, food, and access to phones and televisions so they could follow the news. They made sure prescriptions were filled, gave them clothing when needed and made sure they had every toiletry they lacked. The people of Lewisporte, the modest village where she was stranded, did all of this without allowing the passengers to pay for a thing. \"We just landed on their doorstep,\" said Brooks-Jones, who's been back to visit 16 times since that initial four-day layover. \"I fell in love with those people and the area.\" She wasn't the only one. Those on her flight who were touched by the people of Lewisporte helped fund a scholarship for students there. The Lewisporte Area Flight 15 Scholarship Fund has raised nearly $900,000, she said. For Celeste Botha, a far less warm, even icy, reception turned her travels topsy-turvy. She took a four-month leave from her life and career in Seattle, Washington, to explore -- many miles away in Colombia and Panama -- a relationship with a man she'd fallen madly in love with. A Peace Corps volunteer when she was younger, Botha had dreamed about living overseas again. Going away with Mick made sense, she thought. But what she hoped would be a romantic adventure turned into a broken-hearted disaster, said Botha, 61. Almost immediately, the man changed, turning critical and showing disinterest. \"He had just flipped the switch,\" she said of what transpired five years ago. \"When we got to Cartagena [in Colombia], it was all downhill from there.\" She could have jetted back to Seattle, defeated, but she refused to do that. \"I was not going to let this experience with Mick destroy my experience overseas,\" said Botha, who ended up meeting a British sailor, a travel companion for years to come. \"I was determined to be happy.\" Smiles were hard to come by as Pericles Rellas led his father into the rundown Cairo, Egypt, hotel he'd booked back in 1989. The dump left his dad \"horrified,\" Rellas, 45, remembered. But the next day, as they braved the overwhelming and crowded streets, they happened upon the perfect place to stay. Not only that, they met a desk manager, Nutan, who insisted on taking them around Old Cairo, showing them hidden shops and sights they surely would have missed. iReport: Read further about Nutan's gift . Nutan did this, said Rellas, of the Los Angeles, California, area, because a stranger had once helped her when she struggled to find her way in the United States. \"She was repaying a debt to someone,\" said Rellas, who now thinks about Nutan whenever he stops to help someone who appears lost or confused. \"What have you been given in your life, and what can you give back to honor what you've been given?\"","highlights":"\"When things go wrong, travel gets more interesting\" and memorable, expert says .\nCar breakdown leads mother and son to blissful town, lagoon and 10-cent mangoes .\n9\/11 stranding sparks long-standing relationships and scholarship .\nThe kindness of a stranger in Cairo, Egypt, has changed man to this day .","id":"7656e6dfd551bce81d17a8648eceaad8c8a22f97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia said a senior al Qaeda operative tied to several attacks in East Africa was killed Monday in a U.S. strike in southern Somalia. Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan, pictured on the FBI's Web site, reportedly was tied to al Qaeda's East Africa operations. Intelligence sources have confirmed to the Somali government that Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan was killed, Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said Tuesday. \"We welcome that attack because those people targeted were murderers, and they are unwanted and unwelcome in Somalia,\" Gelle said. Nabhan's death will have \"a major impact\" on al Qaeda's operations in the Horn of Africa, according to one regional analyst. U.S. special operations forces used a helicopter to fire on a car Monday in southern Somalia, killing several people, including one they believed was Nabhan, U.S. officials told CNN earlier. Nabhan, 30, was born in Kenya and had been tied to attacks that included the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, according to the sources. More than 200 were killed, and 4,000 wounded in those attacks, most of them Kenyans. The United States targeted Nabhan in an airstrike in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border in March 2008, U.S. officials said at the time. In February 2006, the FBI announced that Nabhan was wanted for questioning in connection with the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and the unsuccessful attack on an Israeli charter jet in Mombasa, Kenya. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis -- including two children -- were killed when three suicide bombers detonated a car bomb outside Mombasa's Paradise Hotel in November 2002. The bombing took place within minutes of an unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli charter jet, which was taking off with 261 passengers and 10 crew members. President Obama signed off on Monday's operation, a senior U.S. official said. The United States had been monitoring the situation for days and had intelligence that Nabhan was in the area, the U.S. officials said. The officials who talked to CNN are familiar with the latest information on Monday's strike but did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The U.S. helicopter flew from a U.S. Navy warship offshore, while the ship kept watch on the operation, one of the sources said. The warship was ready to rescue the American troops if they got into trouble. Farmers in the southeastern town of Barawe, Somalia, said they witnessed the assault. They said helicopters attacked a car and its occupants and that at least two people died. The witnesses said some helicopters landed and that some of the injured or dead were pulled into at least one helicopter. A U.S. official said the troops landed to take away the body believed to be that of Nabhan for positive identification. Nabhan is believed to be an associate of al Qaeda member Harun Fazul, who was indicted in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies. The U.S. military has long sought Nabhan because he is believed to be deeply involved in al Qaeda's East African operations, a senior U.S. official said last year. \"He was certainly one of the leading al Qaeda figures in East Africa,\" said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst for the International Crisis Group, an independent advisory and analysis organization. Nabhan \"has been living in the shadows\" in Somalia and not much is known about his recent activity, Abdi said. \"The fact that he is now out of the picture will have a bigger impact on al Qaeda than on Al-Shabaab,\" he said, referring to the Islamist militia in Somalia that has ties to al Qaeda. \"He is a man with an important organizational memory, and if a key figure like him is killed, it always has a major impact.\" Al-Shabaab is waging a bloody battle against Somalia's transitional government and is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations because of its al Qaeda ties. There are growing concerns that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. Journalist Mohammed Amiin Adow and CNN's David McKenzie, Barbara Starr and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Analyst calls operative \"one of the leading al Qaeda figures in East Africa\"\nAl Qaeda operative Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan killed, Somali official says .\nU.S. special operations forces fired on car from chopper in Somalia, U.S. officials say .\nOfficials: Man tied to 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania .","id":"deed60365bfbd7f23274346982306eb86fde457e"} -{"article":"NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) -- Slain Yale University graduate student Annie Le was intelligent, driven and destined for greatness, said those who knew her. The body of Annie Le, 24, was found in the wall of a Yale University laboratory building Sunday. \"She was also really tenacious and had a sense of humor that was never far away, and she was tougher than you'd think by just looking at her,\" Le's roommate, Natalie Powers, told a crowd of hundreds gathered on campus for the slain 24-year-old's vigil Monday. Le's body was found inside a wall at a Yale medical school building Sunday, the day she was to be married to her college sweetheart, Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student at New York's Columbia University. She disappeared five days before her wedding. Watch timeline leading up to Le's death \u00bb . Le and Widawsky attended the University of Rochester together, where Le majored in cell and developmental biology with a minor in medical anthropology. In a self-profile she wrote for the National Institutes of Health's undergraduate scholarship program, Le called her biology studies \"interesting\" but said she would like to pursue a research career in medical anthropology, \"which has highlighted the severity of health issues in societies worldwide.\" She further wrote that she would one day like to work for the NIH or become a professor. Once at Yale, she majored in pharmacology and worked long hours in the lab where she was found dead this week. Watch how Le's body was found \u00bb . Le was scheduled to finish her postgraduate program in 2013 and had recently decided the topic of her dissertation: the effects of certain proteins on metabolic diseases like diabetes, reported the Yale Daily News, the campus newspaper. \"She was probably the most brilliant person I've ever met in my life,\" her high school friend, Laurel Griffeath, told NBC's \"Today\" show, \"but what made her more amazing was that there was an intersection of intelligence and personality and ability.\" Le impressed her peers and teachers long before delving into complicated medical research. Originally from Placerville, California, Le graduated in 2003 from Union Mine High School, where she was named \"best of the best\" and \"most likely to be the next Einstein,\" according to CNN affiliate WFSB-TV in New Haven. Principal Tony DeVille told Le's hometown newspaper, the Mountain Democrat, that she was \"one of the bright spots in the school's history.\" But she didn't excel solely in academic situations. Friends and professors gush when speaking of Le's vibrant personality and her sense of humor. Le \"was as good a human being as you'd ever hope to meet,\" Powers said at the vigil. Watch why police say killing not random \u00bb . Griffeath said Le knew how to balance her social life and academic responsibilities as well. \"She cared about people and she was funny, and she didn't sacrifice one part of her life for another like a lot of people kind of seem to,\" Griffeath said on \"Today.\" Thomas Kaplan, editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News, described Le as \"very outgoing, a warm person.\" \"She was diminutive in stature, but certainly not in personality, and that's what I think just makes this so sad for everyone, regardless of whether you knew her,\" Kaplan said of the 4-foot-11 scholar. Friends describe Widawsky as the perfect match for Le. The portrayed a young couple deeply in love, constantly on the phone with each other and eager to exchange vows. Le tackled wedding planning with the same zeal she brought to her research, friends said. \"She was just so excited about this wedding and everything from, you know, her flowers to her wedding dress and just certain details about it,\" Vanessa Flores, a friend and former roommate, told CNN. \"We talked about this back in 2008. She was already thinking about the weather -- whether June, July was going to be too hot.\" Watch Flores describe Le's plans for \"her dream day\" \u00bb . Friend Jennifer Simpson told CBS' \"The Early Show\" that she was heartbroken for Widawsky. \"Jon is a wonderful person,\" Simpson said. \"He is very mild-mannered, very soft- and well-spoken, but very fun.\" Despite Le's zest for life, she was always careful and aware of her surroundings in New Haven, a city with about 124,000 people and its fair share of crime. \"She doesn't walk around at night by herself. If she had to work late, she would make sure someone could come pick her up or walk with her,\" Simpson told \"The Early Show.\" Friends say they can think of no one who would want to hurt her. She was friendly with everyone, they say, and if someone had threatened or intimidated Le, her friends and family would have known about it. Watch Natalie Powers, Le's roommate for two years, give an emotional tribute \u00bb . New Haven police spokesman Joe Avery has said Le's killing was not random, and authorities and those familiar with the campus say there are only a handful of people with access to the building where her body was found. The uncertainty surrounding Le's killing -- and the possibility that one of its own is behind the crime -- has left the Yale campus frightened, Kaplan said. \"Only Yalies had access to that basement, and that seems to point to someone in our community being involved in this,\" the editor said. Watch CNN's Mary Snow report on a shaken Yale campus \u00bb . Said Powers at the vigil, \"That this horrible tragedy happened at all is incomprehensible, but that it happened to her, I think, is infinitely more so. It seems completely senseless.\" CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Mary Snow, Susan Candiotti, Katie Ross and LaNeice Collins contributed to this report.","highlights":"Annie Le named \"most likely to be the next Einstein\" in high school .\nFriends: Le excelled in studies, including pharmacology, medical anthropology .\nGrad student's body found in Yale building the day she was to be married .\nLe planned wedding with the same zeal she brought to her research, friends say .","id":"e7c2cd8ac2fdaa4305a283cb47613ed3a23a7c7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This is the summer of Auto-Tune. The Gregory Brothers have become a viral hit with their \"Auto-Tune the News\" videos. No matter how hard some people -- notably Jay-Z --have tried to kill the trend of musicians using computers to make their voices sound like whiny robots, Auto-Tune technology continues to ride a cultural high. Now the voice-altering effects are migrating from recording studios to YouTube and mobile phones. An iPhone app called \"I Am T-Pain\" lets people manipulate their voices to sound like the popular rapper and Auto-Tune advocate. The Gregory Brothers, a sibling band out of Brooklyn, New York, has become a hit on YouTube with a series of videos that Auto-Tune cable newscasts and political speeches. The group, which also tours as a low-fi soul band, started its series of videos called \"Auto-Tune the News\" during the 2008 presidential debates and has gained millions of fans in recent months. CNN spoke with Andrew Gregory, a 27-year-old member of the band, about the popularity of Auto-Tune -- the trademarked name for the popular pitch-correction software -- and the role of technology in music and society. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation: . Why do you think your videos have taken off like they have? I think with any sort of viral video there's a little bit of luck involved. So we're counting our lucky stars that we've been lucky enough to have it take off like that. At the same time I think the novelty of seeing people like Katie Couric and Newt Gingrich sing has really captured peoples' attention. How do you make the videos? What actually goes into it? Michael likes to joke that there's a huge Auto-Tune lever that he hooks up to his computer and whenever he sees video footage he just pulls the lever, and anything that strikes his fancy is automatically Auto-Tuned. But there's a lot of technical stuff that goes into it. ... We scour a lot of footage to see what's going to work and what's not going to work. We try to find what people are going to tune well and what people won't tune well. ... Really, by the time the video gets made I'd say it's eight or 10 days of work that goes into one of these videos, between the four of us. What makes someone a good candidate for Auto-Tuning? An example of a great candidate for Auto-Tuning would be either Katie Couric or Joe Biden. Both Katie Couric and Joe Biden have just continued to astonish us with their unbelievable, almost hidden melodies in their speaking voices. A lot of it has to do with how they project their voice in terms of their soft palate. But it also has to do with how much of an oratorical fashion they speak. Joe Biden, in a lot of his speeches, is delivering them in a preacher sort of fashion that tunes really well. While someone who ended up tuning really poorly -- we thought he would tune really well! -- was Sean Hannity. We thought he'd tune really well just because Sean Hannity is always talking really loud. But it turns out that despite the fact that he was talking really loud, it was a nasal talking and it was a harsh and abrasive loud voice, so it ended up not tuning well at all. Does President Obama make for a good Auto-Tune? You know, what was great from Obama was the campaign speeches. His campaign speeches were excellent, because he was sort of using that almost gospel-preacher rhetorical style. Since he's been president, he's been so relaxed and sort of so laid back and cerebral and sort of intellectual. He's not been quite as excellent for Auto-Tuning because there's a lot more of a mumbly tone about him. A lot less of the \"Yes we can!\" and a lot more of the \"Weeeeell, as we see ...\" Has \"Auto-Tune the News\" helped your other musical efforts or do you think it's pulling you away? It's certainly making us focus a lot more on \"Auto-Tune the News.\" As the videos have sort of grown in scope and become more popular, we can't help but continue to work on them as our fans clamor for more. Do you ever use Auto-Tune in the other performances, like in your band? We've never used it live. We're no Ashlee Simpson. But I think we've used it a little bit on our record. Right now it's a huge fad to Auto-Tune the crap out of people so that they sound like robots. But on pretty much any record you listen to these days there's some level of Auto-Tune on it, even if it's a very, very small amount. If there's just one small note that's just a little bit flat, why wouldn't you Auto-Tune it to make it sound OK? Do you think it's hurting music at all that people expect a singer's pitch to be perfect? It means that people who can't sing as well are becoming famous singers. But I don't know, that's why I love going to see live music, because that really sorts out the real singers from the not-so-real singers. If you could invent any technology or pick a technology that you would like to see invented, what would it be? Oh, wow. I'd probably go for a teleportation machine myself. ... Like the one they used in \"Star Trek,\" hopefully, right? Where you can jump in the teleportation machine and get to your gigs without having to carry all your amps and drive eight hours in your van. I mean, I play music for free. It's carrying my amps and driving places in my van that I have to charge people for. That'd be the real revolution for the music industry. Do you have the T-Pain iPhone app? Yeah, we were beta testers for that app. Do you use the app in day-to-day life? We've been joking around and showing it to friends who didn't have it yet. But we're playing our first concert in a while tonight [September 11]. I'm in North Carolina. And we're going to try to hook our iPhones up to the sound system and we're going to try to T-Pain our voices live. So we'll see if it works. Do you have a favorite iPhone app just in general? I'm not much of an app guy, but when I really need to kill some time I go for PapiJump. It's like the simplest, dumbest game possible on the iPhone. Other than that, the New York Times app is nice. What have you learned about the Internet in watching your videos go viral? I think a lot of people are using the Internet for just a sort of quick laugh fix. Whether you're bored at work or looking for something fun to do at home, people sort of live serious enough lives. I think everyone loves to laugh. And if you can get five minutes of the day at work ... to get a couple yucks in, I think you'd rather do that than watch your latest YouTube conspiracy movie or something.","highlights":"CNN talks with Andrew Gregory, one of the people behind \"Auto-Tune the News\"\nThe Gregory Brothers use the technology to alter voices of news-makers .\nGregory says Katie Couric has a good Auto-Tune voice, but Sean Hannity doesn't .\nHe plans to use the \"I am T-Pain\" Auto-Tune app in a live performance .","id":"1dfd93284ac679c4fd32cf51122ae73a82d0db3f"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- You can cover a lot of territory in Scandinavia without ever checking into a hotel. Overnight luxury cruise liners stacked with saunas, smorgasbords and duty-free shopping sail nightly between Stockholm and Helsinki. Imagine enjoying a Scandinavian feast with a vista of archipelago scenery. Budget travel rarely feels this hedonistic. Boats between Stockholm and Helsinki offer the delights of a luxury cruise ship at an affordable price. Two fine and fiercely competitive lines, Viking and Silja, connect the capitals of Sweden and Finland. Each line offers state-of-the-art ships with luxurious meals, reasonable cabins, plenty of entertainment (discos, saunas, gambling), and enough duty-free goodies to sink a ship. Of the two, Viking has the reputation as the party boat. Silja is considered more elegant (but still has its share of sometimes irritating and noisy passengers). The Pepsi and Coke of the Scandinavian cruise industry vie to outdo each other with bigger and fancier boats. The ships are big -- at 56,000 tons, nearly 200 yards long, and with 2,700 beds, they're the largest (and cheapest) luxury hotels in Scandinavia. Which line is best? You could count showers and compare smorgasbords, but both lines go overboard to win the loyalty of the 9 million duty-free-crazy Swedes and Finns who make the trip each year. Viking has an older, less luxurious fleet, but caters better to low-budget travelers, offering discounts to students, seniors and railpass-holders; selling cheap \"ekonomi\" cabins (shower down the hall); and allowing passengers to pay for deck passage only and sleep for free on chairs, sofas and under the stars or stairs. Both Viking and Silja sail nightly from Stockholm and Helsinki. In both directions, the boats leave about 4:30 or 5:30 p.m. and arrive the next morning around 9:30 or 10 a.m. For exact schedules, see www.vikingline.fi or www.silja.com. During the first few hours out of Stockholm, your ship passes through the Stockholm Archipelago. The third hour features the most exotic island scenery -- tiny islets with cute red huts and happy people. Going in this direction, I'd have dinner at the first sitting (shortly after departure) and be on deck for sunset. Fares vary by season, by day of the week and by cabin class. Mid-June to mid-August is most crowded and expensive (with prices the same regardless of day). Fares drop about 25 percent off-season for departures Sunday through Wednesday. In summer, a one-way ticket per person for the cheapest bed that has a private bath (in a below-sea-level, under-the-car-deck cabin) costs about $125. Couples will pay a total of about $375 for the cheapest double room (with bath) that's above the car deck. If that sounds expensive, remember that you're getting overnight lodging, a fun scenic cruise, and substantial transportation to boot. The fares are reasonable because locals sail to shop and drink duty- and tax-free. It's a huge operation -- mostly for locals. The boats are filled with about 45 percent Finns, 45 percent Swedes and 10 percent cruisers from other countries. The average passenger spends as much on booze and duty-free items as for the boat fare. The boats now make a midnight stop in the Aland Islands, a part of Finland that's exempt from European Union membership, to preserve the international nature of the trip and maintain the duty-free status. While ships have cheap, fast cafeterias as well as classy, romantic restaurants, they are famous for their smorgasbord dinners. Board the ship hungry. Dinner is self-serve in two sittings, one at about 6 p.m., the other a couple hours later. If you pay for both the dinner buffet and breakfast buffet when you buy your ticket, you'll save 10 percent. The price includes free beer, wine, soft drinks, and coffee. Make sure to reserve your table, not just your meal; window seats are highly sought after. Smorgasbord translates to something like \"bread and butter table.\" It has evolved over the centuries to the elaborate spread seen today. The key is to take small portions and pace yourself. Begin with the herring dishes, along with boiled potatoes and knackebrod (Swedish crisp bread). Next, sample the other fish dishes (warm and cold) and more potatoes. Move on to salads, egg dishes, and various cold cuts. Don't forget more potatoes and knackebrod. Now for the meat dishes -- it's meatball time! Pour on some gravy as well as a spoonful of lingonberry sauce, and load up on more potatoes. Other roast meats and poultry may also tempt you. Still hungry? Load up on cheese, fruit, desserts, cakes, custards and coffee. Europe's most enjoyable cruise, between Stockholm and Helsinki, features dramatic archipelago scenery, a setting sun and a royal smorgasbord dinner. Dance until you drop and sauna until you drip. The next best thing to being in these Scandinavian capitals is cruising there. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c\/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nHis TV series, \"Rick Steves' Europe,\" airs on PBS stations .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours .","id":"d37769e0fe8392d66e9b54d63ac93c162b6cc693"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iggy Pop invented punk rock. That's how cool he is. His songs have been covered by the likes of Guns N' Roses, REM, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Sex Pistols. Iggy Pop: The wildest man in rock music. He is the wildest wild man of rock and his four-decade career has been marked by drug addiction, self mutilation and onstage nudity -- and at 61 years old he is showing no signs of growing old gracefully. Born on April 21, 1947, in Muskegon, Michigan, James Newell Osterberg grew up in a trailer park. When he began learning the drums as a teenager his parents gave up their bedroom to house his drum kit. It wasn't long before he took his talent out of the bedroom, playing with high-school band The Iguanas, from which he later took his stage name. After graduating from high school in 1965, Iggy formed a blues band called the Prime Movers. Following a brief stint at the University of Michigan he moved to Chicago, playing drums with local bluesmen, before returning to Michigan with his sights set on fronting a rock band. Watch Iggy Pop show CNN around Miami \u00bb . In 1967, he recruited guitarist Ron Asheton, his drummer brother Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander and formed The Psychedelic Stooges. It was after seeing the Doors in concert, and inspired by Jim Morrison's confrontational stage persona, that James Osterberg reinvented himself as Iggy Pop, a drug-fueled, crazed whirling dervish of a front man, who would strut semi-naked around the stage, roll around in broken glass and dive headlong into the audience. The band shortened its name to The Stooges and released its eponymous debut in 1969. Right from the start there was clearly something different about Iggy Pop. At the height of flower power, when The Stooges' contemporaries were singing about peace and love, Iggy was singing \"No Fun\" and \"I Wanna Be Your Dog.\" See photos of Iggy in action. \u00bb . The album was a brilliant mess of raw, blues-influenced garage rock, but it sold poorly, as did the 1970 follow up \"Fun House,\" later described by Jack White of the White Stripes as \"the definitive rock album of America.\" Watch Iggy Pop show CNN around Miami . By this time, Iggy had begun the Heroin use that would plague his career and in 1971, The Stooges split up after being dropped by their record label. That same year, Iggy met David Bowie, who took him to England, re-united The Stooges and produced 1973's \"Raw Power.\" With \"Raw Power,\" Iggy and the Stooges created the blueprint for punk rock and made an album that would one day be regarded as a landmark in rock music, an album that Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain listed as his favorite of all time. Nonetheless, it was another commercial failure and in 1974, The Stooges split again. By this time, Heroin had taken over Iggy's life and in 1975 he checked himself into a Los Angeles mental institution in an effort to kick the habit. Bowie visited him there and took Iggy along on his 1976 tour, before the pair moved to West Berlin in an effort to get away from the temptation of drugs. It was there that Bowie produced and co-wrote Iggy's 1977 solo albums, \"The Idiot\" and \"Lust for Life.\" The latter included the songs \"The Passenger\" and \"Lust for Life,\" which have since become staples of TV ads and movie soundtracks, spawning countless cover versions. More commercial than The Stooges' records, Iggy's solo albums were met with critical acclaim and better sales, but never breakthrough into the mainstream. Songs that Bowie wrote with Iggy during this period were later included on Bowie albums, with \"China Girl\" becoming a hit single for Bowie. Iggy carried on touring and releasing albums throughout the 80s, without much commercial success, although the single \"Real Wild Child\" was a hit in the U.S. and UK. But by the end of the decade, Iggy was beginning to be recognized as \"the Godfather of Punk,\" with a new generation of bands citing him as an influence. Members of Guns N' Roses and the B52s appeared on his 1990 album \"Brick by Brick,\" which sold more than 500,000 copies, and his 2003 album \"Skull Ring\" featured the likes of Green Day, Sum 41 and Peaches. But what really made \"Skull Ring\" special was that it re-united Iggy with Ron and Scott Asheton of The Stooges. After years on the periphery, Iggy was suddenly fashionable, with the reformed Stooges appearing at festivals all over the world. The band recorded the album \"The Weirdness\" in 2007, but it was their astonishingly powerful live performances that showed why they were still such a big deal 40 years after they started out. Any hopes Iggy may have had for a peaceful retirement in Miami have been dashed. At 61 years old he is still performing with the same energy and abandon as when The Stooges first formed, with only marginally less stage diving and nudity. It seems that the world has finally caught up with Iggy Pop, the most exciting, unpredictable and entertaining man in rock.","highlights":"Iggy Pop and The Stooges produced three classic albums in the 60s and 70s .\nIn 1975, Iggy checked himself into a mental institution in a bid to get off Heroin .\nDavid Bowie co-wrote and produced Iggy's The Idiot and Lust for Life albums .\nThe Stooges re-united in 2003 and have since played all over the world .","id":"b79a0f51a0833bf284a3064dc9cc2e8a1f762515"} -{"article":"Andrew L. Shapiro is founder and president of GreenOrder, a strategy and management consulting firm that specializes in energy and the environment and is a subsidiary of LRN. Brad Bate and Ted Grozier, consultants at GreenOrder, also contributed to this article. Andrew Shapiro says society should aim to transform all jobs into \"green jobs.\" NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a recent CNN commentary entitled \"Green jobs: hope or hype?\" Samuel Sherraden argues that green job creation will be insufficient to bring America out of recession. But Sherraden narrowly defines green as a \"sector,\" and fails to see its potential as a strategy for the revitalization of the entire economy. When the public debate is focused around the precise number of green jobs created in, say, a solar panel factory, we miss the opportunity as a country to think more broadly about greening the economy -- and building a foundation for real growth and competitiveness. The aspiration to create \"green jobs\" should really be seen as shorthand for two public priorities -- immediate job creation and long-term transformation of the economy for sustainability and prosperity -- and both goals can be addressed simultaneously. However, in judging our progress, a simple tally of jobs in \"green sectors\" is only a partial indicator of the impact and thus can be misleading. A lot depends here on definitions. For example, Sherraden cites a 2008 report produced by Global Insight on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which identifies a little more than 750,000 green jobs in the United States today. A report in the same year, from the American Solar Energy Society, counts more than 9 million green jobs in the United States. This is not to say that one report is better than the other, but to point out that much difference -- in this case, more than 8 million jobs -- depends on how you count. The critical point Sherraden misses is that it's not just job creation in new green industries that matter, but also new jobs in traditional industries -- or the retooling of old jobs -- to make those industries greener. A great example is the real estate industry. Energy efficiency retrofits of buildings and homes have the potential to yield significant savings in energy costs while creating work for building engineers, electricians, contractors, manufacturers and people in a whole host of other industries that would not typically be considered \"green.\" By comparison, 10 or 15 years ago anyone who used a computer was considered to have a \"tech job,\" but now nearly everyone uses a computer (and a cell phone and a PDA) and yet we don't call all jobs \"tech jobs.\" We talk about how technology has changed every industry and profession. Moreover, even investments in sectors we recognize as green can have other positive economic impacts. Investing in wind power, for example, creates jobs in wind turbine manufacturing plants as well as jobs in the industries that supply the plant with parts, jobs producing the materials that make up these parts, jobs producing the electricity used in the plant, and so on. There is solid evidence that investment in green economic activity will result in more jobs than many other comparable investments because a greater proportion of funds would go toward labor and would remain in the United States. The Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute examined the impact of comparable investments in the oil and gas industry, tax refunds to stimulate household spending, and six specific energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies. They concluded that $100 billion of investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency would create approximately 2 million jobs, compared to 1.7 million jobs from stimulating household spending and about half a million jobs from investment in oil and gas. By investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency as strategies for our economy, we will create jobs in the United States, not just green jobs. More importantly, we lay the groundwork for American economic competitiveness and moral leadership in a carbon-constrained world. If we fail to support environmental innovation through investment and public policy, the United States will find itself at a disadvantage relative to other nations. America is at a crossroads. If we see green as an engine of growth, there is an unprecedented opportunity to create jobs and revitalize the economy through smart, wide-ranging investments supported by changes in public policy. In the debate over green job creation, we must not lose sight of the larger objective -- the creation of an economy that is more sustainable, in terms of employment, competitiveness and impact on the natural world. What we need to be asking is: How can we make every industry a green industry and every job a green job? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Andrew L. Shapiro.","highlights":"Andrew Shapiro: Skeptics argue that only a small number of jobs are green .\nHe says green industries and jobs can be the key to revitalizing economy .\nShapiro: As economy goes green, jobs will be transformed .\nHe says U.S. will lose competitive edge if it doesn't invest in renewable energy .","id":"6b59d3603f49a417f82e7a94c8091ef483873d02"} -{"article":"CONYERS, Georgia (CNN) -- \"Your daughter is a walking time bomb.\" We have been told this more times than I like to remember. We have lived every day not knowing if the next breath she takes will be her last. After 22 years in the dark, Mandy Young is grateful to finally have a name for her condition. Her illnesses come so quickly. It's a daily battle of fear, worry, misery, faith and hope. She has been in the hospital more than 100 times. She has suffered one life-threatening infection after another. We share her story, our story, in hopes of helping others. We make sure that Mandy knows this is not just her illness. It's our families' life, our journey. She is not in this alone. It's extremely hard living a life so mysterious that doctors and scientists named her rare disease after her. It's our story about \"Mandy's Disease.\" Mandy was a healthy, nine pound, green-eyed beauty -- until the day she was diagnosed with Spinal Meningitis. Hours and days crept by, waiting every four hours for our ICU visit, 10 minutes of torture. \"Your daughter is very sick. Her mind is surely in a vegetated state from the seizures she continues to have. The stroke that she suffered has caused the left side of her body to be paralyzed,\" the doctors said. See photos of Mandy throughout her ordeal \u00bb . \"She is in a coma and we see no way she will wake up. We really don't think she will live through the night. It's time to tell her goodbye,\" they continued. Mind spinning, stomach churning, feeling like I've had the breath knocked out of me, I whispered, \"NO.\" \"No. We won't tell her goodbye. And you can't either. She has to fight. She has to know that we want her to fight.\" At 13 months, her left eye turned red. Allergies, Pink Eye, minor infection? All easily treated, and cured. By day five, after six trips to doctors and emergency rooms, when her eye was swollen beyond seeing and looked like a piece of raw meat, we were finally able to beg her doctor for more aggressive testing. Surgery, biopsies and a diagnosis. Nisseria Meningitides. Her eye would be replaced with a glass eye. But only if she lived. Watch Mandy talk about her illness on Vital Signs \u00bb . At 21 months. Spinal Meningitis again. The same promises of certain death. ICU. Seizures. A 106 degree temperature raged. \"There is no way that she has the strength to fight off another infection of this magnitude. It's time to let go. We're losing her by the minute.\" After the first bout of meningitis we were told, \"No one gets it twice. Live your life and enjoy your child!\" Then, bout two. Although not the same type of meningitis, it was the same family. It's rare to have it twice. But impossible to have it three times. But time three did come. \"You have to find out why this keeps happening. She can't go through this again. What can you do?\" we pleaded with the doctors. They told us it could possibly be immune deficiency. This was the first time we heard this term. Mandy was discharged and our journey for a reason began. Our lives were changed forever. Twice a week for the next two years, we handed her over for blood to be drawn. She went into isolation. Daily preventative antibiotics. But nothing stopped the madness of these infections. One fever blister on her lip turned into hundreds during a nap. She was hospitalized on oxygen as the blisters took over her lungs. Double Pneumonia. Scarlet Fever. Ear infection after ear infection. Surgically implanted tubes in her ears, infection, tubes out, surgery, tubes in. 11 times. An abscess the size of a cantaloupe in her abdomen. The grueling, sometimes gruesome, immune studies continued. The only clue continued to be her low white blood count. Everything else, normal. The turmoil in my heart was insane. Years passed. Mandy's illnesses continued. Immune studies continued. Still we had no answers. We traveled the country begging for someone to study her. \"Her body is further advanced than medicine. The test hasn't been invented yet to define her deficiency.\" This was the standard answer. But, someone had to have a new test that could give us our answers. And then the time bomb that we had only been warned about exploded. Gas Gangrene and Clostridia Septicemia. A combination not seen since WWII. \"She's fighting to stay alive. Five percent chance to live,\" the doctors said. ICU. And then, in an attempt to save her life, they began to amputate her leg. Before they stopped the spreading, her leg and hip were gone. As she lay in a coma, we prayed for help. Our search for a research specialist intensified. That's when we found Dr. John Gallin at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Mandy is 27 now. Her immune studies began when she was two in 1983. And in May 2003, we received an email that said, \"At long last we have discovered the basis of Amanda's problem.\" Mandy has a genetic defect, called IRAK-4. Her body doesn't recognize infection and doesn't produce the cells needed to fight it off. She is still studied at the NIH in hopes of finding a treatment or cure for her disease. And although finding a cure for her would be the ultimate gift, knowing that we have a name for her illness is the prize. We searched for a name for twenty years for Mandy disease. We spent weeks and months with her, in hospital after hospital, praying for her to live through her sickness. And to know that we have Dr. Gallin and his team in the background working on her behalf is incredible! Dr. Gallin did what he said he would do and stayed with Mandy until her diagnosis was made. Now the journey continues as we search for a treatment or cure. But in the meantime, Mandy is beginning a career in motivational speaking. Of her doctors at the National Institutes of Health she says: \"They are like my family too, and I get excited about seeing them. NIH, or 'the House of Hope,' is just that. \"A place for families to find hope, just like we did.\"","highlights":"For 22 years, Mandy suffered from a mystery illness, leaving doctors speechless .\nMandy's mother recalls how doctors predicted Mandy's death countless times .\nIn 2003, Mandy and her family got what they had longed for: a name for her disease .","id":"071a01bd3bf1089b4fee4d222efcf4429575b6f4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, administered a powerful drug that authorities believe killed the singer, a source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed to CNN on Monday. Dr. Conrad Murray was with Michael Jackson on the day that he died. Murray, a Texas-based cardiologist, allegedly gave Jackson the anesthetic propofol -- commonly known by the brand name Diprivan -- in the 24 hours before he died, the source said. The doctor's attorneys in a statement Monday said they wouldn't comment on \"rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources.\" In the past, they have said Murray never prescribed or administered anything that could have killed the pop star. Murray was the doctor who was at Jackson's home when the pop star died on June 25. Watch CNN's Ted Rowlands report on drug allegation \u00bb . Last week, Texas authorities searched Murray's Houston medical office and storage unit, looking for \"evidence of the offense of manslaughter,\" according to court documents. Among the items removed from Murray's office were a computer; 27 tablets of phentermine, a prescription-strength appetite suppressant; 1 tablet of clonazepam, an anti-anxiety medication; and some Rolodex cards. From Murray's storage unit, authorities removed two computer hard drives; and \"important contact list;\" a suspension notice from Houston's Doctor Hospital; notices from the Internal Revenue Service; and a laundry list of medical and hospital documents. Ed Chernoff, a Houston lawyer hired by Murray soon after Jackson's death, confirmed at the time that Los Angeles Police detectives and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents used a search warrant to enter Murray's office in northeast Houston on Wednesday morning. Chernoff said members of Murray's legal team were at the medical office during the search, which he said \"was conducted by members of the DEA, two robbery-homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department and Houston Police officers.\" Tammy Kidd, a spokeswoman at Chernoff's office, told CNN the search \"was absolutely a surprise to us, because we've had open lines of communication this whole time.\" Police have interviewed Murray twice since Jackson's death. A third interview was scheduled for July 24, but was postponed after the search warrants were executed. It's unknown when the next interview will take place. Among those who have indicated that Jackson may have been using dangerous prescription medication are nutritionist Cherilyn Lee, who said Jackson pleaded for the powerful sedative Diprivan despite being told of its harmful effects. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County coroner's office continues to investigate the cause of Jackson's death on June 25. It has been waiting on toxicology lab results, but a final autopsy report is expected as soon as this week, a coroner's spokesman has said. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"Murray allegedly gave Jackson propofol in 24 hours before death, source says .\nSource close to family says doctor administered drug believed to have killed singer .\nDr. Conrad Murray was with Michael Jackson on day that he died .\nPolice have interviewed Murray twice since Jackson's death .","id":"7daf418894d84a073687d9893aae4d2aeeb9fb8b"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In the first truly shocking box office result of the year, \"Fast & Furious\" sped away from expectations to gross a humongous $72.5 million, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers. Paul Walker stars in \"Fast & Furious,\" which exceeded expectations after taking in $72.5 million. That result is effectively double what most industry observers had predicted for the debut of the fourth feature in Vin Diesel's car franchise, and it left in the dust a number of notable records: . - Best April opening ever, beating \"Anger Management's\" $42.2 million. - Best Universal Pictures opening ever (three-day), beating \"The Lost World: Jurassic Park's\" $72.1 million. - Best F&F franchise opening ever, beating \"2 Fast 2 Furious'\" $50.5 million. - Best opening yet in 2009, easily beating the bows of the more-buzzed-about \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" ($59.3 million) and \"Watchmen\" ($55.2 million). - Best opening ever for stars Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster, as well as for director Justin Lin. Oh, and let's not forget that it was the best opening ever for a car-themed movie! (Beating \"Cars'\" $60.1 million.) This outcome is impressive, indeed, something that has caught Hollywood by surprise and has the potential to really change things up -- like when summer-esque blockbusters are released (rarely does one open so early in the year) and like, you know, what everyone thinks of Vin Diesel. The film did it all on the strength of a solid A- CinemaScore review from an audience that was 57 percent male and 59 percent over age 25. Like the jaw-dropping early-year debuts of \"The Passion of the Christ\" and \"300\" before it, this is a history-making premiere that you may well be hearing about for a long time to come. So, yeah, I almost forgot to mention: \"Fast & Furious\" was the No. 1 movie at the box office this weekend. Coming in strong at No. 2 was \"Monsters vs. Aliens,\" which dropped a respectable 44 percent to earn $33.5 million. In 10 days, the 3-D extravaganza has banked $105.7 million. \"The Haunting in Connecticut\" (No. 3 with $9.6 million), \"Knowing\" (No. 4 with $8.1 million), and \"I Love You, Man\" (No. 5 with $7.9 million) rounded out the top five. And the weekend's other big new release, \"Adventureland,\" struggled with $6 million at No. 6. Overall, the box office was up a monstrous 68 percent from the same frame a year ago, when holdover 21 outplayed a number of weak new movies, none of which had Vin Diesel ... whom you're going to start hearing a lot about, once again. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Fast & Furious\" is best April opening ever, and best opening ever for Universal .\nAlso the best Fast & Furious franchise opening ever, previously $50.5 million .\nBox office was up a monstrous 68 percent from the same frame a year ago .\nCheck out the box office top 10 chart .","id":"1a7d4a03c516689fe8835b280ca94cbca96c22d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rainstorms and flooding in southern China have killed at least 16 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, according to state-run media. Residents in Rongcheng, southwest China's Guangxi region on July 4. Authorities had sent text messages to more than 1 million people to take precautions in southern China, the Xinhua news agency said Saturday. More than 400,000 residents total were forced from their homes in Fujian, Guangxi Zhuang, Hunan and Jiangxi. At least two people were missing in southeast Fujian Province after downpours that started Wednesday, according to the news agency. The financial damage caused by the rain and flooding -- including damaged homes and crops -- was estimated at $35.4 million. Destruction included a flooded reservoir and damaged dike in Luocheng County, where fears of a dam collapse forced evacuations. The storms also disrupted traffic, triggered landslides and cut electricity in various parts of southern China.","highlights":"Storms disrupted traffic, triggered landslides, cut electricity across southern China .\nMedia: Authorities send precautionary text messages to more than 1 million people .\nFinancial damage caused by rain, flooding has been estimated at $35.4 million .","id":"fab4a6594f255b5970a1537a2a4b63f7dd11a2ba"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate voted Thursday night to extend the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program with an infusion of $2 billion. President Obama is expected to sign the OK to spend $2 billion more on the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program. White House aides said earlier that President Obama will quickly sign the bill into law to prevent any interruption to the popular incentive. The Senate voted 60-37 to approve the measure already passed by the House. \"[President Obama's] going to want to make sure the funds are in place by this weekend,\" one senior White House official noted, because of the particularly brisk weekend business the program has sparked. The program under Obama's economic stimulus package pays people up to $4,500 for trading an older-model vehicle with low fuel efficiency for new vehicles that get better miles per gallon. \" 'Cash for Clunkers' has been a proven success. The initial transactions are generating a more than 50 percent increase in fuel economy; they are generating $700 to $1,000 in annual savings for consumers in reduced gas costs alone; and they are getting the oldest, dirtiest and most air polluting trucks and SUVs off the road for good,\" Obama said in a statement Thursday night. \"I want to thank Leader Reid and the members of the Senate who moved quickly to extend a program that benefits our recovery and our auto industry while reducing our economy's dependence on oil,\" he said. The program was intended to run until autumn, but higher than expected participation caused the government to warn last week the program would run out of money without an infusion from Congress. The extension would keep the program going through Labor Day. The House voted to add $2 billion to the program before it adjourned for the summer on Friday. With the Senate vote, the additional money will become available right away. Several top Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, raised concerns about pouring more money into the program at a time when the government is deep in debt. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other top Democrats had been lining up votes for the expansion by making the case that the program is providing a boost to the economy by increasing weak auto sales, while also helping the environment by getting \"clunkers\" off the road in favor of more fuel-efficient vehicles. The program calls for the engines of the clunkers to be made inoperable so the cars cannot be returned to the road. Watch what happens to 'clunkers' \u00bb . Democratic officials said several hurdles were cleared in order to allow the Senate to pass the bill with new money on Thursday night. On Monday, two key senators who opposed more money for the program announced they had changed their minds and now supported the extension. The announcement by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, boosted Democratic efforts to secure enough votes to pass the measure this week. CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama says program stimulates economy while getting old vehicles off road .\nSenate votes 60-37 to expand program with an infusion of $2 billion .\nProgram allows drivers to turn in gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient models .\nLawmakers fear program will run out of money without extension .","id":"36037eb9d11b5dd8f8a0e7790b5f45de6e1f8bf8"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Flashback to 1984: As a child, I am glued to my family's black-and-white television set for our daily dose of evening entertainment and news on India's national broadcaster. India holds its first rocket launch from a fishing village in southern India on November 21, 1963. But this is no ordinary newscast: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is speaking via videolink with astronaut Rakesh Sharma, who is aboard a space station. Indian pride soared as Squadron Leader Sharma, an Indian Air Force pilot, became the first in the nation to explore the celestial realm, part of a joint mission with what was then the Soviet Union. I don't remember what show it was, but it etched India's \"astronomical feat\" in the minds of those who watched it, including a 10-year-old like me. But the Indian connection to space was much older than that milestone. In the country's space calendar, November 21, 1963, is a key date: It marks the first rocket launch from a fishing village in southern India. Nike-Apache, a two-stage sounding rocket imported from the United States, took off that day from Thumba, a site that eventually became a favorite location for similar experiments by international scientists. So far, there have been some 2,200 sounding-rocket launches from that facility, according to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. But the South Asian nation's space program has been far more expansive -- the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has more than 60 events that it lists as \"milestones\" since 1962-63, which includes the successful use of polar and geosynchronous satellite launch vehicles. See India's space odyssey in photos \u00bb . Fast forward to 2008: The country launches its first unmanned mission to the Moon in what is being seen as the 21st-Century, Asian version of the space race between the United States and the USSR -- but this time the two nations involved are India and China. In September of that same year, a Chinese astronaut took a spacewalk, his country's first. A month later, India sent Chandrayaan-1 -- Chandrayaan means \"moon craft\" in Sanskrit -- on a two-year mission to take high-resolution, three-dimensional images of the lunar surface, especially the permanently-shadowed polar regions. The craft, carrying payloads from the United States, the European Union and Bulgaria, will search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical composition of certain lunar rocks. Nonetheless, India maintains competition does not drive its space program. Vikram Sarabhai, seen as the father of India's space program, made this case for government funding of the program in the 1960s: . \"We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically-advanced nations in the exploration of the Moon or the planets or manned space-flight,\" Sarabhai said, according to ISRO's Website. \"But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society,\" said Sarabhai, in what the agency described as a \"vision\" for India's space endeavors. Earlier this year, the Indian government increased the federal budget for space research to around $1 billion from some $700 million, ISRO spokesman S. Satish told CNN, as scientists propose to send astronauts into space by 2015 on solely Indian missions. ISRO was also studying the feasibility of sending a manned craft to the Moon by 2020, Satish said, adding that plans for unmanned Mars missions in the coming years have not been finalized. The space agency dropped a TV-sized probe on the Moon last November that it said sent sufficient signals to the mother craft before a crash landing. But the country's space ambitions are not limited to public research endeavors, Satish said. \"We have just entered the commercial satellite launch market,\" he said, including what ISRO noted is now the world's largest constellation of remote-sensing satellites. These satellites, according to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, capture images of the Earth that are used in a range of applications -- agriculture, water resources, urban development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, drought and flood forecasting, ocean resources and disaster management. Another major system, or INSAT, is used for communication, television and meteorology. \"We have mastered the space technology in these 40 years. We have already sent an unmanned mission to the Moon and now we look forward to sending a manned one there,\" Satish said.","highlights":"India made its first rocket launch on November 21, 1963 .\nIndian space group list more than 60 events it considers \"milestones\"\nIndia launches its first unmanned mission to the moon in 2008 .\nThe South Asian nation is seen as being in an Asian space race with China .","id":"e359e174e746257c3016c1cd354703b08dc22331"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- For almost a century, the old dog has traversed landscapes across the United States, with weary, budget-conscious travelers peeking out of its windows. Greyhound bus services will run from London to cities such as Portsmouth and Southampton. Now, the iconic Greyhound is taking to the road in Britain. The company will run hourly bus services from London to select cities, starting Monday. In contrast to its U.S. services, however, the buses are glitzier and more luxurious. \"The UK service will have wireless Internet, spacious leather seats, more leg room and free newspapers,\" said Alex Warner, managing director of Greyhound UK. \"Obviously, we wanted our services to reflect the nature of UK passengers.\" For inaugural Greyhound service in Britain, the company aimed to start with the best the United States has to offer, Warner added. In North America, the same services are available from New York and Washington to select cities such as Boston and Toronto, Canada. \"There are plans to expand that. Americans should watch closely. We will introduce more of these services based on how well they are received in the UK,\" Warner said. Despite the added benefits, fares will still target the budget-conscious traveler in Britain, according to Warner. The service starts with a few cities -- from London to Portsmouth and Southampton, he said. The approximately 120-kilometer (80-mile) trip will cost \u00a31 ($1.60) if a ticket is bought in advance, Warner said. Prices will go up to \u00a34 or \u00a35, depending on time of purchase. \"We are planning to keep the prices within that range,\" Warner said. Greyhound Lines is owned by British transport company FirstGroup, which bought it from its U.S. parent in 2007. It was founded in 1914, and has services in Mexico and Canada, according to its Web site. In a nod to its cameos in American movies and songs, such as the 1969 film \"Midnight Cowboy\" and Simon and Garfunkel's 1972 hit \"America,\" Greyhound plans to keep at least one tie to its U.S. origins. Buses in Britain will be named after classic American songs. The names include \"Sweet Caroline\" and \"Good Golly Miss Molly,\" Warner said. CNN's Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Greyhound Lines to run services from London to Portsmouth and Southampton .\nBuses are glitzier and more luxurious than U.S. services .\nGreyhound Lines is owned by British transport company FirstGroup .","id":"32e4f6613c739bdf2c1b9a4d85ea75ec2d5017ad"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ali Herbert has spent the last seven months being \"a walking blood bank\" aboard one of the the world's largest hospital ships. Thousands of volunteers join the massive hospital ship \"Africa Mercy\" every year. The 50-year-old nurse and grandmother from the UK resigned from her position in a hospital to volunteer aboard a ship that provides free medical treatment to some of the world's poorest people. Like any of the 450 volunteer crew members currently aboard the Africa Mercy, Herbert can be called on at any time of the day to give blood, as the ship has no facilities for storing blood products. Instead the ship operates a system where there are usually 30 donors for each blood type. Herbert says she recently helped a young woman who needed an amputation. \"This young woman required a below-the-knee amputation, but was very weak so I was called in to give her blood as our blood groups matched,\" she told CNN. \"It was an amazing experience because two minutes after giving my blood, I saw it go straight into her arm. In the UK you have no idea what happens with your blood,\" she added. The \"Africa Mercy,\" currently docked off the coast of Benin, West Africa, also operates as a floating hospital with medical facilities including six state-of-the-art operating theaters, an ophthalmic unit, two CT scanners and 78 hospital beds onboard. The Mercy Ships charity began in 1978 and since then has been credited with providing medical services valued at $748 million, performing more than 41,000 operations and impacting approximately two million people. Mercy Ships CEO Samuel Smith says the charity has been able to help so many people through what he calls a \"unique business model.\" Thousands of volunteers join the ship every year, and they not only do it for free but also have to pay for accommodation aboard the vessels; some like Herbert, pay around $600 a month. See more images of volunteers onboard the ship \u00bb . \"This allows almost all our resources to go into state-of-the-art medical facilities,\" Smith told CNN. It costs about $1.25 million every month to maintain, has three wards and a small intensive care unit operated by top surgeons from around the world. Would you give up your holiday to volunteer on the hospital ship? Sound Off below . One of them is Dr. Joe Nasser, a Canadian surgeon and one of the short-term volunteers. Nasser is currently on board for three weeks, time he took off instead of going on holiday with his family. \"It's a wonderful thing to do, a great humanitarian gesture,\" Nasser told CNN. \"There is tremendous need here, as these countries are very poor and have very few resources of any kind.\" He described a recent surgery he performed on a 14-year-old boy with a benign but \"extremely aggressive tumor\" that had \"invaded\" almost the whole of the young man's face, leaving him completely disfigured. Following successful surgery to remove the tumor, the boy was given a more \"acceptable appearance,\" Nasser said. The charity behind \"Africa Mercy\" was founded by Texas-based Don Stephens and his wife Deyon. The couple took out a bank loan in 1978 and purchased a retired luxury ocean liner for $1 million. Their dream was to create a modern, mobile hospital that would provide free surgery and treatment to the world's poorest people. In 1982 she sailed to Africa with 350 crew and a new name, the \"Anastasis.\" She was the first of five ships that have served in more than 150 ports in developing nations around the world. Last month, the Don and Deyon Stephens were presented with the Humanitarian Award from Variety, the international children's charity for their 30-year commitment to treating the world's poor. Don Stephens said the idea came after he stayed on a tropical island, and a storm occurred. \"There was a hurricane, and I heard that one of the girls had prayed for a ship to come with everything that was needed to clear up the storm damage,\" Stephens told CNN. \"It was like a laser beam going off. I couldn't get the idea out of my mind and I knew it was what I wanted to do.\" In addition to complicated surgeries, Mercy Ships also trains local medical professionals in modern health care techniques. The charity also develops construction and agriculture projects. \"We then hope the countries' health care systems can be better off after we leave for the next country,\" Stephens said. Finding that next country takes a lot of research and coordination with local governments and diplomacy. In 2010 the ship will go to Togo, then South Africa. Mercy Ships is also planning to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo. \"We need approval from the local governments and safety is also important. Fortunately, Mercy Ships has a very good reputation, particularly in Africa,\" explained CEO Samuel Smith. \"People know that we're here to help, regardless of race, religion and political affiliation.\"","highlights":"Every year thousands of volunteers join the \"Africa Mercy\" hospital ship in Africa .\nVolunteers are also asked to become \"walking blood banks,\" donating on call .\nMercy Ships have served in 150 ports in developing nations around the world .\nThey are mobile hospitals that provide free surgery to world's poorest people .","id":"849eb1d333c0fd784208510a11c36fbff0e258d0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Virginia prosecutors are asking a state court to set a November 9 execution date for John Allen Muhammad, convicted in a series of sniper-style shootings that terrorized the Washington area in 2002. John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers. In a letter dated Wednesday, Senior Assistant Attorney General Katherine B. Burnett said the November date \"has been carefully coordinated with the governor's office to insure his availability for any clemency petition Muhammad may wish to pursue.\" Burnett enclosed a copy of a proposed execution order \"for the court's convenience.\" Muhammad's attorney said he will file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, and will ask the governor for clemency. During a three-week period in October 2002, police say, Muhammad and his young protege, Lee Boyd Malvo, shot 13 people, killing 10. The two also are suspected in other shootings and murders in Tacoma, Washington, Montgomery, Alabama, and the Washington, D.C., area. Muhammad, now 48, was convicted of murder in the death of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Virginia, filling station. Meyers was killed by a single bullet, which became the signature of the two-person sniper team. Ultimately, Muhammad was convicted of the Meyers' killing and of one Maryland murder, which prosecutors there said was \"insurance\" in case the Virginia conviction was overturned. Malvo was convicted of one Virginia shooting and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Muhammad's attorney, Jon Sheldon, released the prosecutor's letter Friday. The letter, addressed to the chief judge of the Prince William County Circuit Court, says the court must hold a hearing within 10 days of receiving the letter, and must set an execution date no later than 60 days after the hearing. Since Muhammad is not required to be at the hearing, Burnett asks that the court conduct the hearing by means of a conference call.","highlights":"Execution date proposed for convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad .\nPolice say Muhammad, Lee Boyd Malvo shot 13 people, killing 10 .\nMuhammad's lawyer says he will seek clemency .","id":"10cc62875edf1885dba9a53ca6a2410c60c544cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Vick, recently reinstated to the NFL after being freed from federal prison after a dogfighting-related conviction, has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, according to his agent, Joel Segal. Michael Vick is set to join his new team on Friday, according to his agent. The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback reports to Philadelphia on Friday, Segal told CNN. Details of the deal were not immediately available Thursday night. The league suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. Vick, 29, was freed from federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to his home to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. iReport.com: Is this a good move? The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Thursday night in a statement it was \"incredibly disappointed\" at the news of Vick's signing. \"Philadelphia is a city of dog lovers and most particularly, pit bull lovers,\" said Susan Cosby, the organization's chief executive officer. \"To root for someone who participated in the hanging, drowning, electrocution and shooting of dogs will be impossible for many, no matter how much we would all like to see the Eagles go all the way.\" However, Ed Sayres, president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said in a statement that \"Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Philadelphia Eagles have granted Michael Vick a second chance, and the ASPCA expects Mr. Vick to express remorse for his actions, as well as display more compassion and sound judgment this time around than he did during his previous tenure with the NFL.\" \"We hope that Mr. Vick uses his stature for the betterment of the community and the advancement of the issue of animal cruelty,\" Sayres said. Eagles head coach Andy Reid told reporters he knows there are some fans that will not accept Vick. \"I understand how that works,\" he said. \"But there's enough of them that will, and then it's up to Michael to prove that that change has taken place. I think he's there. That's what he wants to do.\" He said Vick \"seems very focused, and he wants to get his career back on track.\" It is unclear what role Vick will play in the Eagles' offense. But it was clear that the move had the blessing of current Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb. \"I pretty much lobbied to get him here,\" McNabb said. \"Because everybody deserves a second chance.\" The NFL reinstated Vick on a conditional basis last month. Vick \"will be considered for full reinstatement and to play in regular-season games by Week 6 based on the progress he makes in his transition plan,\" the NFL said in a statement last month. Week 6 of the NFL season is in October. Vick may participate in practices, workouts and meetings and may play in his club's final two preseason games under the conditions of his reinstatement, the league said last month. \"I fully understand that playing football in the NFL is a privilege, not a right, and I am truly thankful for [the] opportunity I have been given,\" Vick said in a statement last month upon his reinstatement. \"As you can imagine, the last two years have given me time to re-evaluate my life, mature as an individual and fully understand the terrible mistakes I made in the past and what type of life I must lead moving forward,\" he said in last month's statement. Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy has agreed to continue working with Vick as an adviser and mentor, the NFL said. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters last month that Vick underwent tests, including a psychiatric evaluation, after requests from animal rights groups. Vick has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At a hearing in that case, he told the judge he earned 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor while in prison. Court documents released in Vick's case showed that two of his co-defendants, who also pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal, said Vick helped kill dogs that didn't fight well, and that all three men \"executed approximately eight dogs\" in ways that included hanging and drowning. The dogs were killed because they fared poorly in \"testing\" sessions held at Vick's property. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick offered to work with the organization on anti-dogfighting campaigns. Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president, has said Vick was to work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting and on programs to assist youths who have already been involved. In testimony before the bankruptcy judge, Vick acknowledged committing a \"heinous\" act and said he should have acted more maturely. In November, Vick pleaded guilty to a state dogfighting charge and received a three-year suspended sentence. The Eagles are scheduled to play Vick's former team, the Falcons, in Atlanta on December 6.","highlights":"NEW: Eagles head coach Andy Reid: I know some fans won't accept Vick .\nAgent: Vick to report to Philadelphia Eagles on Friday .\nNFL suspended Vick in 2007 after pleading guilty in dogfighting case .\nAnimal advocacy group in Philadelphia says it is disappointed at signing .","id":"d852c4eefbd863cd68e8316380ad48f239c43bd6"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A new Taliban military \"code of conduct\" calls for restrictions on suicide attacks aimed at avoiding the killing of civilians, but U.S. and Afghan military officials dismissed the document as propaganda, calling it hypocritical. A Pakistani looks at a bus set on fire by Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan in June. The booklet, obtained by CNN in northwestern Pakistan, has emerged during a crucial moment in the fight between troops and militants in Afghanistan, where battles are raging in the country's Helmand province and troops work to establish stability for the upcoming presidential elections. \"Suicide attacks should be at high value and important targets because a brave son of Islam should not be used for low value and useless targets,\" the code of conduct said. \"In suicide attacks the killing of innocent people and damage to their property should be minimized.\" It also says \"all mujahideen must do their best to avoid civilian deaths and injuries and damage to civilian property.\" And it says that mujahideen \"should refrain\" from disfiguring of people, such as the severing of ears, nose and lips. \"Mujahideen must be well behaved, and treat the people properly, in order to get closer to the hearts of civilian Muslims,\" the code said. Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, saidit was notable that the document is intended to be \"prescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves.\" Watch why Taliban have brought out new code of conduct \u00bb . \"Their day to day actions contradict everything in it,\" Sidenstricker said. \"The long and the short of it is, they don't operate in accordance to their code of conduct.\" She said more than 60 percent of civilians killed have been killed by the Taliban, and since January, more than 450 innocent Afghans have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been injured. Watch why Taliban are proving hard to uproot \u00bb . Also, half the casualties resulting from roadside bombs were civilians. \"The booklet also says suicide attacks should always be done against high-ranking officials. In reality, they have killed more then 200 Afghan civilians,\" she said. Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Azimi said the code is \" propaganda\" and that the Taliban \"will never implement that.\" He cites a recent beheading of a retired Afghan soldier as a clear example of the group's real behavior. \"It was against all the laws of war,\" Azimi said. As far as the upcoming election, Azimi said, the Taliban has tried its best in the past \"to disrupt the normal process of peace and security, and they will try their best to disrupt the peace and security process in the future.\" The code of conduct is dated as coming into effect on May 9, 2009. It is similar to a previous document that emerged in 2006 and covers many topics. For example, it says \"kidnapping for ransom is strictly prohibited.\" As for prisoners, the code says \"it is strictly prohibited to exchange prisoners for money. Killing can only be decided by the Imam or his deputy. No one else has the right to do so.\" It says an imam or his deputy are on the only ones to make decisions on whether to kill, release of exchange a captured \"military infidel.\" Further, it says the practice of taking weapons from people by force \"is no longer permitted.\" \"But people may hand over their weapons voluntarily,\" it said. And it says that the \"mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate should not collect donations forcibly\" and that \"people should be free to choose who they want to give to.\" It said mujahideen shouldn't search peoples' homes. \"If there is a need to do this, they should get permission from authority and the search should be done in the presence of the imam of the local mosque and two elders.\" The code said mujahids aren't permitted to smoke and that \"a male who has not yet grown a beard may not stay in a common sleeping area with other men.\" CNN's National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said the militants \"clearly\" are aware of the need to win \"hearts and minds\" and are trying to rectify the \"mistakes\" of al Qaeda in Iraq. \"They have their own counter-insurgency strategy in winning hearts and minds,\" Bergen said. \"This is a corrective, absolutely.\" He said \"there's a window for both sides to make some progress\" and the Taliban want to exploit the moment. \"The Taliban believe they are either winning or not losing. If you are an insurgent not losing is important,\" he said. CNN's Ivan Watson, Tim Schwarz and Joe Sterling and journalist Janullah Hashimzadeh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Taliban issues a new code of conduct to show it is a disciplined force .\nCode outlines rules to limit suicide attacks and civilian casualties .\nU.S. and Afghan officials dismiss rules as propaganda and hypocritical .","id":"5934d5ebfaf0fb867e60820ac25f10521905e347"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to Luanda, Angola, on Sunday on the third leg of a journey that is taking her to seven African nations in 11 days. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses with residents of South Africa on Saturday during her 11-day trip to Africa. The State Department has described Angola as a nation with \"enormous economic potential.\" The African country is one of the largest energy producers south of the Sahara Desert and is a major supplier of petroleum and liquefied natural gas to the U.S. market. Clinton flew to Angola after a two-day stop in South Africa, where she met with the country's new leader, President Jacob Zuma, and the foreign minister. She ended the South African trip Saturday with a visit to a housing project on the outskirts of Cape Town, where she and daughter, Chelsea, laid the first bricks 12 years ago. Clinton opened her Africa trip in Kenya. She will also travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde. \"In each nation, she will emphasize Africa as a place of opportunity, built on an ethic of responsibility,\" said Ian Kelly, state department spokesman. \"She will underline America's commitment to partner with governments, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations and private citizens to build societies where each individual can realize their potential.\"","highlights":"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit Angola on Sunday .\nAfrican country is major supplier of petroleum, liquefied natural gas to U.S. market .\nClinton to visit seven African nations in 11 days .","id":"203263765c9d53db40b80d8bffd5831d46b46136"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French researchers have identified a new human immunodeficiency virus, the first derived from gorillas, a report said Monday. A new virus is difficult to detect by tests because it is not closely related to the other three HIV variants. The three previous HIV variants came from chimpanzees. The new findings indicate that gorillas, in addition to chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV, the researchers concluded in a report published in the weekly Nature Medicine journal. The new virus, called RBF 168, was detected in a 62-year-old woman who moved to Paris, France, from the western Africa nation of Cameroon, the report says. She tested positive for HIV in 2004, and researchers led by Jean-Christophe Plantier identified the virus as being closely related to a recently discovered simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The new gorilla virus \"has many of the biological properties necessary for human infection,\" the report says. \"The human case described here does not seem to be an isolated incident, as before coming to Paris the subject had lived in the semiurban area of Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, and reported no contact with apes or bush meat,\" the researchers said. That would indicate that the woman contracted the virus from another human. The significance of the latest findings is difficult to determine without more information, said Robert C. Gallo, who co-discovered HIV in 1984. \"It's yet to be known,\" Gallo said. \"It could be zero. ... Let's see a more full report on this individual and let's see wider testing.\" Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, calls the latest HIV variant \"an oddity\" but said it's not surprising that it cropped up, because the virus has been circulating in non-human primates for centuries. The three previous HIV variants are labeled M, N and O. The new one has been classified P. The N and O variants, Fauci said, are extremely rare. \"It's not significant unless it establishes itself as a predominant strain,\" he said. \"We have not seen that with N and O.\" Fauci lumps the new P variant with the rare group because it has been detected in only one patient. If it were widespread, Fauci said, \"we would already know about it. When these things happen, you see a lot of them around.\" Even if the new variant proves lethal, it's not likely to increase AIDS infections, said Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. There are so many HIV variations, he said, that one more is not likely to make a difference. The new virus is difficult to detect by conventional tests because it is not closely related to the other three HIV variants. \"This demonstrates that HIV evolution is an ongoing process,\" co-researcher David Robertson of the University of Manchester said in a release. \"The virus can jump from species to species, from primate to primate, and that includes us; pathogens have been with us for millions of years and routinely switch host species.\" HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which attacks the body's immune system, giving rise to lethal infections. Patients diagnosed with HIV can take medications to delay or stop HIV from developing into AIDS. There are 33 million confirmed cases of AIDS worldwide. The unnamed woman has no signs of AIDS and remains untreated, Nature Medicine said. The most likely explanation for the emergence of the new virus is gorilla-to-human transmission, though researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that the chimpanzee SIV gave rise to the new strain \"either indirectly by transmission to gorillas and then to humans or directly by transmission to humans and also to gorillas.\" Researchers said they don't know how widespread the virus is among humans. \"The human prevalence of this new lineage remains to be determined,\" the report says, adding that \"it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere.\" Western Central Africa bears close watching, the researchers suggest. \"In conclusion, our findings indicate that gorillas, in addition to chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV-1,\" the report states. \"The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence of new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa, the origin of all existing HIV-1 groups.\" Co-researcher Robertson noted that the new virus may not be restricted to Africa. \"It also highlights how human mobility can rapidly transfer a virus from one geographical location to another as has been dramatically evident with the recent emergence of swine flu,\" he said.","highlights":"Strain is the first known to be derived from gorillas .\n62-year-old woman who moved to Paris from Cameroon found to have RBF 168 .\nLikely explanation for emergence of new virus is gorilla-to-human transmission .","id":"f2aa6d2b57449ed938f64da8d8b030a0369b9ae2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States and Britain said Wednesday they are committed to remaining in Afghanistan, despite increased military casualties and declining public support for the war effort. U.S. Marines partrol part of the Gharmsir district in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Wednesday. \"We went into this together, and we will work it through together because we are stronger together,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after a half day of talks at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton praised Miliband's approach on Afghanistan, including the call for the government to reconcile with moderate elements of the Taliban. \"His analysis of the way forward is very much consistent with ours, and we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder in pursuit of our common objectives,\" Clinton said of her counterpart. In a speech at NATO headquarters on Monday, Miliband called for rank-and-file Taliban to be given the chance to reconcile with the Afghan government, even as the campaign continues against Taliban commanders who are waging jihad. He also urged greater burden sharing not only among NATO allies in Afghanistan but by the Afghan government. \"There is a lot of talk, rightly, about burden sharing within the coalition, but the greatest burden sharing must be between the international community and the government of Afghanistan, which increasingly needs to take the lead -- the security lead, as well as the political lead -- in shaping the future of that country,\" he said. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters that boosting the training of Afghan forces would be a big focus after the country's August 20 election. When asked whether the election would be fair, Holbrooke, who just returned from the region, said he had heard complaints from all sides but was not \"unduly upset.\" \"It's an extraordinary thing to hold an election in the middle of a war, and this is the first contested election in Afghanistan in history,\" Holbrooke said, adding the United States has no favorite candidate but only wants \"an election whose outcome is accepted as legitimate by the Afghan people and the world, which reflects the desires of those who vote.\" July has been the deadliest month for U.S. and British forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, with 39 U.S. troops and 22 British troops killed. Miliband said the effort was going through a \"tough phase,\" but added that the British people understood the \"vital nature\" of the mission to stabilize Afghanistan. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been under under enormous pressure from his opposition, which charges that British troops don't have proper resources to fight the war, including helicopters. But he was sanguine. \"I think the British people will stay with this mission, because there is a clear strategy and a clear determination on behalf of the United States and other coalition members to see this through,\" he said, adding that the British people understood the mission's \"vital nature.\" Americans, too, have questioned whether the war in Afghanistan is winnable and worth the effort. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and members of Congress, including Democrats, have predicted that President Obama has a year to show progress in Afghanistan before public support for the war further erodes. Clinton said Britain and the United States \"have made significant gains in the recent operations\" against the Taliban, but \"there remains much work to be done.\" \"We know that this is a challenge that is not going to be easily resolved in a short period of time,\" she said, adding \"both of our countries are still threatened by the same enemy, an enemy that has attacked London, New York and Washington.\" \"We know they've attacked us in the past, and, unfortunately, we know that they plot against us even today,\" she said.","highlights":"July deadliest month for U.S., British forces in Afghanistan since '01 invasion .\n\"We will work it through together,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says .\nMiliband calls for Afghan government to reconcile with moderate Taliban elements .\nU.S. official: Boosting the training of Afghan forces will be a big focus .","id":"c89bc8d70dcd57022ea4de5601b925b4176b1df3"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The Mexican Supreme Court has ordered the release of 20 people who were convicted in the massacre of 45 people in 1997. Mexican Mayan Indian massacre survivors reenact the killings of 45 people in Acteal village in this 2003 photo. The court ruled that authorities obtained evidence illegally and that the defendants were denied due process and lacked an adequate defense. The 20 were convicted for taking part in a massacre in the community of Acteal, in the southern state of Chiapas. Four of five Supreme Court justices decided Wednesday to order their immediate release, the court said in a statement. \"It's obvious that the evidence was obtained illegally,\" said Judge Jose de Jesus Gudino. Investigators say 45 men, women and children were killed in Acteal by people who suspected they had links to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a group that launched a rebellion against the Mexican state in January 1994. It was nearly four years after that rebellion, on December 22, 1997, that the 45 unarmed indigenous peasants were massacred in Acteal. Then-President Ernesto Zedillo ordered an investigation that eventually led to arrests. In addition to ordering 20 people released, the Supreme Court called for the review of cases involving six others who were convicted in the massacre. Judge Juan Silva Mesa decried the judicial process that led to the convictions. \"For me there is no greater injustice than allowing them, under and in the name of the law, to commit injustice\" and thereby \"affect someone's fundamental human rights,\" he said. CNN's Mario Gonzalez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mexican high court orders release of 20 convicted in 1997 killings of 45 people .\nCourt rules evidence obtained illegally, defendants denied due process .\nUnarmed indigenous men, women and children massacred in state of Chiapas .\nKillers thought Indian peasants had ties to Zapatista Army of National Liberation .","id":"679c28f29752b00fb0cfc40043a09a5dc3328076"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A 14-year-old who was trained to kill by radicals in the tribal regions of Pakistan now sits in a crowded classroom at a detention facility in Kabul. His only wish is to see his parents again. Shakirullah, 14, is convicted of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. \"I miss my parents, my mom and dad,\" Shakirullah says in soft tones. Like others in tribal regions, he goes by one name. Shakirullah is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says Muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming a would-be bomber. \"I have been detained for trying to commit a suicide attack,\" he says. He says his recruiters told him it was his mission as a Muslim to kill British and American soldiers because they were killing Muslims. Watch teen say recruiters \"cheated me\" \u00bb . They told him that once he blew himself up he wouldn't die because God would save him for being a true Muslim. Asked what he now thinks of Americans and Westerners, Shakirullah is calm, but quick in his response. \"I don't know. God knows what type of people they are, whether they are good or bad. I don't know them,\" he says. Shakirullah now passes his hours in a cell block at a juvenile detention facility in Kabul. He is serving at least five years in detention. He is to be transferred to an adult prison in a couple of years, authorities say. He hasn't heard from his family in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. He tried to send them a letter through the International Committee of the Red Cross but is not sure it reached them. \"I don't know what they are thinking. They have no news of me,\" he says. On this day, Shakirullah attends a rehabilitation class, easily lost in the crowd of boys with shaved heads. All of the children are convicted for various crimes, including theft, fighting and even murder. Three boys like Shakirullah are here, all guilty of planning to kill themselves and others after being recruited by terrorist groups. With the increased violence in Afghanistan, international observers say they have seen more and more children being recruited by armed groups and national forces. The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan with its strict Islamic rule from 1996 to 2001, has regrouped and launched a fierce insurgency. \"As you see in many places in the world, children are being used in armed conflict. They've been recruited as child soldiers; they've been recruited as armed groups. And the phenomena is now impacting, again, Afghanistan,\" says Catherine Mbengue, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan. Watch one boy's struggle begging for food on streets \u00bb . Inside the detention center, Shakirullah walks up to his cell, his sandals sliding across the tile floor. The cell block is empty and has metal bunk beds lined across the wall and a television set, ready for the times they have electricity. Shakirullah shares this space with 10 other boys. He sits in the center of the room with a blanket draped around him. He barely makes eye contact and looks away as soon as he does. He is shy, but forthright in his words. \"I didn't want to do it but he forced me to go,\" he says of his recruiter. Rubbing his face with his hand, he says he now spends his time dreaming of his life back home in rural Pakistan. His eyes begin to water and his voice becomes softer when he talks about missing his mother. Asked what he misses most about her, he says simply, \"A mother is a mother.\" His was a life of farming and tranquility in Pakistan, he says. It was also a life that took a drastic turn when his father decided to send Shakirullah for studies at a madrassa. He says his dad wanted him to learn more about Islam and the Quran, something he could not do himself. He says his father didn't know radicals ran the school. In the madrassa, Shakirullah learned to recite the Quran in Arabic, not his native language. He relied solely on the fanatical interpretations the mullahs were giving him. \"When I finished reciting the Quran, a mullah then came to me and told me, 'Now that you have finished the Quran, you need to go and commit a suicide attack.' That I should go to Afghanistan to commit a suicide attack,\" he says. The teenager wasn't given the chance to say goodbye to his parents or siblings when he was driven to the Pakistan-Afghan border and handed over to strangers. He says he was taken to the southeastern province of Khost, a hotbed for terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Suicide attacks have risen in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban began in late 2001, after the 9\/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Shakirullah says that before the police arrested him, he was learning how to drive a car but that he was not sure how he was supposed to carry out his attack. Khost is the province where a suicide car bomb went off near a voter registration site this past Sunday, killing 16 people, 14 of whom were children. At the juvenile detention facility, Shakirullah and the others are now being taught a different interpretation of Islam. \"The teachers educate them on Islam, and explain to them that the acts that they were doing is not right for them and for others,\" says Mir Fayaz ah-Din, who works and lives with the boys at the facility, mentoring them and helping them in their rehabilitation. \"The way you want to kill yourself and someone else -- it in itself is a big offense in Islam.\" Shakirullah now says of his recruiters, \"They cheated me.\"","highlights":"Teen is serving at least 5 years for plot to carry out suicide bombing .\nHe says Muslim radicals at school duped him into becoming a would-be bomber .\nThe thing he misses most about home is his mom and dad: \"I miss my parents\"\nDetention facility is teaching jailed children a moderate interpretation of Islam .","id":"b7371d04203ad1690be8846eebdbeb596f0c79cc"} -{"article":"PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- Detectives are questioning two people in connection with the killing of a Gulf Coast couple known for adopting special-needs children, the Escambia County sheriff said Saturday. Police were questioning two people Saturday, one of them the owner of a red van seen driving from the home. Investigators have found a red Dodge van recorded on surveillance cameras leaving the Beulah, Florida, home of Byrd and Melanie Billings, who were found dead in their home Thursday, Sheriff David Morgan said. \"Interviews with associated neighbors, friends and family\" led to a relative of the van's owner and another person, who were being questioned Saturday evening, the sheriff said. No arrests have been made, and Morgan would not discuss whether the \"persons of interest\" had any connection to the Billings family. But the sheriff said investigators can tie the pair \"to enough significant events and instances in this case that would lead a reasonable person to believe that they have an association with these murders.\" A third person sought for questioning had not been found, Morgan said. The Billingses died in what police are calling a home invasion, but investigators have not said whether the couple was robbed. Eight children found at the home after the shootings are being cared for at an undisclosed location, Morgan said. The children, ranging in age from infant to about 11 years old, were not injured, police said. Twelve of the Billingses' 16 children were adopted, some of them with special needs, the Pensacola News Journal reported. Emergency personnel and police went to the home after receiving a call just before 8 p.m. Thursday about shots being fired, said Escambia County Police spokesman Sgt. Ted Roy. An employee of the couple found their bodies, Roy said. Beulah is west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two people are being questioned and a third is being sought .\nRed van, caught on surveillance cameras leaving the home, has been found .\nByrd and Melanie Billings were found dead in their home Thursday .\nEight children found in the home are being taken care of in undisclosed location .","id":"bb8a78ad5109fa4fb7f46826b7d7a4cb6b8e3e32"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A giant panda at the San Diego Zoo gave birth to a cub the size of a stick of butter on Wednesday, her fifth cub born in the zoo since 1999. The public can view live video of the cub and its mother, Bai Yun, on the zoo's Web site. The sex of the mostly hairless, pink newborn, which was born around 5 a.m., is not known yet, said Dr. Ron Swaisgood of the zoo's Institute of Conservation Research. It will take about one month for the iconic black-and-white coloration of the giant panda to become visible, Swaisgood said. Its mother, Bai Yun, will care for the newborn by herself until she starts leaving the den regularly, at which time members of the zoo's giant panda team will step in briefly to check on the cub, he said. \"She is a very experienced mother. She raised all of her other cubs until about 1.5 years, the natural age for separation,\" Swaisgood told CNN Radio. \"She's a real pro.\" Weighing in around 300 pounds, Bai Yun is about 1,000 times the size of her cub, who weighs around 4 ounces., the typical size of a baby panda, Swaisgood said. \"Pandas give birth to what's called very 'altricial' cubs. That means they are very small and fragile. This cub would probably weigh about 4 ounces. It would be pink and hairless and completely dependent on the mother,\" he said. The birth is considered a success for the zoo's Institute for Conservation Research, which works with research and breeding centers around the world to boost the endangered panda population . Herself a model of that effort, Bai Yun was the first panda to be born and survive at the breeding center of the China Center for Research and Conservation of the Giant Panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve in 1991. She has given birth to four other cubs since arriving at the San Diego Zoo in 1996 from China. Two of them have since been returned to China, Swaisgood said. The newborn's father, Gao Gao, is a wild-born giant panda that arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 2003 from the Wolong Nature Reserve. He will not be involved in raising the cub. The cub will remain in the den with its mother for a few months and gradually start to come out as soon as it is able to walk, Swaisgood said. In four to five months, the cub will be ready for the public, Swaisgood said. Until then, the public can view live video of the cub and its mother on the zoo's Web site. \"This highly endangered species still requires a lot of attention and assistance, but there is hope for the future,\" he said.","highlights":"Giant panda Bai Yun gives birth to fifth cub at the San Diego Zoo .\nBai Yun will care for the newborn by herself with zoo staff occasionally checking in .\nWeighing around 300 pounds, Bai Yun is about 1,000 times the size of the cub .","id":"11087ed3a162e37653b9673566429004bfcebd6f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inter extended their lead at the top of Serie A to nine points after beating AC Milan 2-1 in a thrilling San Siro derby on Sunday, dealing a fatal blow to their city rivals' Serie A title hopes in the process. Dejan Stankovic celebrates scoring Inter's second goal in the superb 2-1 victory over city rivals AC Milan. Jose Mourinho's side, who were the home team in the 150th league meeeting between the two Italian giants, should have taken an 18th minute lead when a fine flowing move resulted in Esteban Cambiasso crossing from the left for Dejan Stankovic to score. However, the Serbian midfielder just delayed his shot on goal, allowing Masssimo Ambrosini to come back and produce a goal-saving challenge in the area. Inter did eventually take the lead in the 29th minute, but the goal was shrouded in controversy. Maicon's cross from the right was met by the head of fellow-Brazilian Adriano, but the effort clearly brushed off the striker's arm before finding its way into the net. Milan were struggling to cope with the pace of Inter's attacks and it was no surprise when the league leaders doubled their advantage two minutes before half-time. A long free-kick out of defense was headed down by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dejan Stankovic was on hand to crack home a superb shot on the half-volley. Inter were inches from making it 3-0 in the 47th minute when Milan again failed to deal with a long ball. Georgian defender Kakha Kaladze slipped over when trying to deal with the danger, allowing Adriano a free run on goal. However, the striker fired just wide with Ibrahimovic unmarked in the area begging for the ball. David Beckham had a quiet match for Milan and the England midfielder was eventually substituted in the 55th minute for Filippo Inzaghi, seemingly holding a hamstring injury. The chances kept coming for Inter. On the hour mark the superb Ibrahimovic was denied by a brilliant reflex save from goalkeeper Christian Abbiati. However, against the run of play, Milan gave themselves hope with a 71st minute strike. Ronaldinho produced some Brazilian magic to lay a delightful ball through for Marek Jankulovski on the left -- and the Czech layed a simple pass square for Alexander Pato to find the corner of the net. That goal brought Milan to life. Inzaghi had a shot well saved by goalkeeper Julio Cesar and the same player then headed home a Pato cross, but the linesman correctly flagged for offside. The longer the game went on, Pato began to have more influence, and the teenager nearly levelled for Milan in the 78th minute but Cesar did well to save with his feet. Then, in the final minute, Inzaghi again went desperately close, producing another fine save from Cesar as Inter held on for a classic and vital victory. Meanwhile, Juve's title hopes were dealt another blow as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Sampdoria -- meaning Claudio Ranieri's side have now won just one of their last four matches. The visitors took a 10th minute lead when Giampaolo Pazzini was left unmarked to score from a pass from Antonio Cassano. The home side dominated proceedings but could only score once when Amauri headed home a Sebastian Giovinco cross in the 62nd minute. Despite plenty of chances, the hosts could not find the winning goal, with Pavel Nedved (twice) and Alessandro Del Piero hitting the woodwork. Elsewhere, Fiorentina held on to fourth spot and the final Champions League qualifying position as they remarkably came back from 3-0 down at Genoa to snatch a 3-3 draw with Adrian Mutu's equalizer deep into injury time. Roma, who had won 10 of their previous 13 matches, drop to sixth after they were well beaten 3-0 at Atalanta, for whom Cristiano Doni scored twice.","highlights":"Inter extend their lead in Serie A to nine points after defeating AC Milan 2-1 .\nAdriano and Dejan Stankovic score the goals that settle the San Siro derby .\nJuventus' hopes take another blow as they draw 1-1 at home to Sampdoria .","id":"cc2aec3470b9391e8c447be6c69fb0e5aeafd434"} -{"article":"COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford left the Governor's Mansion on Friday to visit with his family in Florida, his office said. South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford says her husband, Mark, must rebuild trust with his family and with the state. Sanford departed the mansion, where he has spent much of the last 48 hours, in the passenger seat of a state vehicle. The Republican governor will spend the Fourth of July holiday weekend with his wife and their four boys. \"The Sanford family asks members of the media to respect their privacy while they are together this weekend,\" his spokesman said in a statement Thursday. \"The Sanfords also hope to take a longer family vacation toward the end of July.\" After disappearing for nearly a week, Sanford admitted last week that he'd been in Argentina with his mistress. His admission followed days of confusion over his whereabouts. His staff had said the governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail, and his wife had told reporters she did not know where he was. He later revealed to The Associated Press that he'd seen his mistress several times in the past year and that he'd also \"crossed lines\" with other women. Jenny Sanford released a statement Thursday calling Sanford's actions \"inexcusable,\" but she left the door open to reconciling with her husband. She said that although she is willing to forgive her husband, \"it is up to the people and elected officials of South Carolina to decide whether they will give Mark another chance as well.\" \"Actions have consequences, and he will be dealing with those consequences for a long while. Trust has been broken and will need to be rebuilt. Mark will need to earn back that trust, first and foremost with his family, and also with the people of South Carolina,\" she said in a statement. \"The real issue now is one of forgiveness. I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions. We have been deeply disappointed in and even angry at Mark.\" Her statement came shortly after it was announced that a review of the governor's travel records showed no misuse of public funds in his travels. Sanford already paid back the state for the Argentina leg of a state-funded missions trip last year because he saw the woman he had an affair with on that trip. \"Mark showed a lack of judgment in his recent actions as governor. However, his far more egregious offenses were committed against God, the institutions of marriage and family, our boys and me. Mark has stated that his intent and determination is to save our marriage and to make amends to the people of South Carolina,\" Jenny Sanford said. In the week after Mark Sanford admitted to his affair, nearly half of South Carolina's 27 Republican state senators called on him to step down. Despite the growing chorus, Sanford has no plans to step aside, his office said Thursday. \"He remains committed and determined to repair the damage he has done in his marriage and to building back the trust of the people of South Carolina,\" his office said. Republican strategist and CNN contributor Bill Bennett said that politically Sanford, once a rising star for the GOP, is \"a dead man walking.\" Bennett joins calls for Sanford's ouster . \"He is embarrassing himself. There is the old notion of indecent exposure -- usually that refers to somebody showing some skin they shouldn't -- and there's another form of indecent exposure: He is telling us way too much,\" he said. Watch Bennett discuss the political drama \u00bb . Bennett also suggested that the GOP can easily fill the gap Sanford would leave. \"We have other people,\" he said. \"We have other people who are not only fiscally interesting and sound but also can keep their lives together.\" CNN's Kristi Keck contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford leaves for trip to Florida .\nJenny Sanford says she is willing to forgive her husband and reconcile .\nMark Sanford isn't resigning, his office says .\nNearly half of South Carolina's 27 GOP state senators call on Sanford to resign .","id":"c5cefee5752dc07f05abe59c41d78526b6cc991c"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Iason Athanasiadis' ordeal began at the airport, shortly after he checked in for his flight to leave Tehran. Iason Athanasiadis said he endured hours of questioning over several weeks in sound-proofed rooms by interrogators he could not see. \"I was heading to the gate,\" the Greek-British journalist said. \"This guy materialized on my right. He said 'are you Iason Fowden?' [Athanasiadis' passport name]. I said 'yeah that's me.' He said 'please step to the side ... you're not going to be flying tonight.'\" It was an ominous introduction to Iran's security apparatus. Athanasiadis spent the next 21 harrowing days in Iranian prisons, accused of espionage, subjected to interrogations and, on several occasions, beatings. The journalist, a freelance writer and gifted photographer who had been on assignment for the Washington Times newspaper at the time of his arrest, spoke to CNN by phone from his parents' home in Athens Thursday, several days after an extraordinary international lobbying effort helped secure his release. Athanasiadis has extensive experience reporting in Iran. He also did graduate level academic work in Iran in 2004, as part of a program sponsored in part by Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The young freelance reporter realized he was in serious danger at the airport in Tehran on June 19, when a half dozen plain-clothed security officers arrived and began leading him out of the building. The reporter resisted, and began yelling to crowds of nearby passengers that he was a journalist. \"I got kind of pulled kicking and screaming and getting punched behind an escalator,\" Athanasiadis recounted. While being dragged outside to an unmarked car, the journalist said he managed to get the attention of a Western-looking woman waiting in the airport. To this day, Athanasiadis says he does not know the woman's name. But he believes she was instrumental in helping spread the word of his detention. \"She was the best thing that happened to me that day,\" Athanasiadis said. \"I just said 'I'm a Greek reporter for the Washington Times. Please contact the Greek Embassy.' And she ran after me with a note pad and pen and asked me to spell my name.\" International human rights organizations estimate thousands of Iranians have gone missing, since the Iranian government launched its crackdown on opposition activists and journalists following the disputed June 12 presidential elections. Eyewitnesses in Tehran say many families are still struggling to determine the whereabouts and official status of their detained relatives. But in Athanasiadis' case, the Greek Foreign Ministry announced it was working for the journalist's release just days after his arrest. That night, Athanasiadis says security officers forced him to ride into Tehran from the airport, with his head buried in his lap. Later, when he tried to make a phone call from a police station in Tehran, Athanasiadis said security forces tackled him, threw him to the ground, beat him with a club and pepper-sprayed him. Eventually, they transferred him to Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where he witnessed new Iranian prisoners being delivered by the busload to the prison gates. That is where the interrogation began. Dressed in a prison-issue uniform, Athanasiadis endured hours of questioning over the next several weeks in sound-proofed rooms where he was never allowed to see his interrogator. \"I just sat in one of these school desk situations, a chair with a desk extension,\" he explained. \"I was told to face the wall ... and they sat behind me and they crooned into my ear.\" On the second day of his incarceration, a prosecuting judge told Athanasiadis, a fluent Farsi speaker, that he was facing charges of espionage. Since incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the June 12 election, opposition candidates and their supporters have accused the Iranian government of falsifying election results. In response, the Iranian government has accused Western governments, particularly Britain, of organizing large protests in the streets of Tehran and other cities. \"The lesson I take from this is that the Iranians,\" Athanasiadis said, \"have decided to start arresting foreigners.\" Last May, an Iranian-American freelance journalist named Roxana Saberi, was released after being detained for four months on charges of espionage. This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded the release of 23-year old Clotilde Reiss, a French academic reportedly arrested last week on charges of spying. Meanwhile Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian who freelanced for Newsweek, is another prominent intellectual now sitting in an Iranian prison. According to the New York-based organization Committee to Protest Journalists, Iran is now the \"world's top jailer of journalists,\" with at least 30 reporters and bloggers in prison. Unfortunately, few of these prisoners enjoyed the international support that was rallied on behalf of Athanasiadis, said Michalis Kosmides, a Greek journalist and vice president of the Foreign Press Association in London. After learning of his colleague's arrest, Kosmides launched a Facebook page titled \"Free Iason.\" Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, also intervened. He sent a high-ranking cleric and a letter to the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul, to plead for Athanasiadis' release \"on humanitarian grounds,\" said Father John Chryssavgis, an adviser to the patriarch. \"Iran has separate nodes of power,\" Kosmides said. \"The patriarch's statement appealed to one node with religious sentiments.\" Athanasiadis says the lowest point came 19 days after his arrest, when it appeared he would be released. \"They took me to the airport, the Greek ambassador met me with a ticket. We started heading towards the gates, then we suddenly veered off to the escalator,\" the 30-year old journalist said. \"I promptly got re-arrested and spent this very strange night in a windowless room listening to bags thumping through the chutes and listening to departure announcements ... it was the most scary time.\" It took another 24 hours of intense diplomacy led by Greek ambassador Nikolaos Garilidis before Athanasiadis finally flew safely out of Tehran. Throughout his ordeal and the countless accusations of spying, Athanasiadis said he realized one thing about his captors: they had never bothered to read any of the articles he has published over the years about Iran. \"I was shocked that they would arrest someone who had lived in Iran and had such a record of trying to introduce Iranian society to an outside audience.\"","highlights":"Iason Athanasiadis arrested at Tehran airport on June 19 .\nJournalist had been on assignment for the Washington Times .\nSpent the next 21 harrowing days in Iranian prisons accused of espionage .\nReleased after intense diplomatic effort by Greek government .","id":"a3e22dd07e1298ad6fd1db08b59d220455c6947e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Need some social etiquette advice for the digital age? Brad Pitt's got your back in this month's cover story from Wired Magazine. In Wired's new cover story, Brad Pitt offers etiquette for the digital age. So Brad, should people talk on the phone while they're using the restroom? \"No, you can't talk on the phone!\" Pitt tells the magazine. \"Do you want the guy next to you to hear your entire conversation? \"That's why you should only text in the bathroom. Just be sure you don't hit the wrong button and end up putting a photo of your junk on Twitter. Trust me, you don't want those followers.\" Watch a CNN video about cell phone etiquette \u00bb . Humor covers for Pitt's lack of tech credentials as the Hollywood hunk and star of Quentin Tarantino's new film, \"Inglourious Basterds\" offers up a range of tongue-in-cheek advice for Wired readers. He touches on subjects ranging from managing your online persona to looking at porn on your work computer. Wired says Pitt approached the magazine with ideas for the story. The magazine, which is owned by Conde Nast and is a CNN.com content partner, collaborated with Pitt and contributing photographer Dan Winters to create the article. \"How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans\" hits newsstands July 21. Wired said in an e-mail that the piece is a re-think of the celebrity magazine profile. On the cover, a photo shows Pitt wearing a Bluetooth device in his ear. \"Rule No. 52: Ditch the headset. He can barely pull it off -- and you are not him,\" a blurb on the magazine front says. Most of the article is delivered in a spoof question-answer format. Pitt contributes several answers, as do regular Wired writers. One question asks if a person who exaggerated his or her salary on an online dating profile should confess. \"Hell no,\" Pitt writes. \"Everyone lies online. In fact, readers expect you to lie. If you don't, they'll think you make less than you actually do. So the only way to tell the truth is to lie.\" A question about viewing pornography at work is paired with a photo of Pitt scanning a copy of Hustler magazine at an office desk. A half-eaten doughnut sits on the table in front of him. \"Don't just look at it at work, bring in your old porn mags and scan them there!\" Pitt writes in the magazine. \"It's like converting your vinyl to MP3s. Fill up your hard drive, and when you need a break from spreadsheets, just open a favorite pictorial.\" Pitt's OK with porn, but he's less understanding of people who want to answer urgent cell phone calls during movies. \"It may be a brief interruption -- just a few seconds -- but what if someone sitting near you is trying to make a decent bootleg? Did you ever think of that? Now all those street-corner copies are permanently defiled by your so-called 'emergency,' \" he writes. \"Don't be so damn selfish.\"","highlights":"Wired Magazine's cover story features spoof tech advice from Brad Pitt .\nThe Hollywood hunk is promoting his new movie, \"Inglourious Basterds\"\nPitt says talking on the phone at the urinal is rude; you should text instead .\nPitt: Online communication is based on lies: \"The only way to tell the truth is to lie\"","id":"823aad6b561299b1623e6f76f65a2c0440dfd32c"} -{"article":"GUADALAJARA, Mexico (CNN) -- President Obama said Monday the United States remains Mexico's partner in the fight against drug cartels, despite some calls in the United States to delay counter-narcotics aid because of alleged human rights violations by Mexican soldiers. President Obama speaks at a news conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Monday. Mexican President Felipe Calderon reaffirmed his commitment to transparency and human rights in his offensive against the cartels, Obama said. Some $100 million in anti-drug aid, known as the Merida Initiative, could be delayed because of concerns about human rights violations, it was reported last week. \"We have been very supportive of the Merida Initiative, and we remain supportive,\" Obama said. Obama also said the United States would work to reduce demand for drugs and stop the illegal flow of weapons south to Mexico. The remarks came at a summit of North American leaders in Guadalajara, Mexico. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also expressed support for Mexico's strategy, saying that the drug cartels were a problem shared by all three countries. Turning to immigration, Obama said he is committed to \"fix the broken immigration system.\" The three North American countries depend on their borders being safe and secure, Obama said, adding that he supports \"orderly and legal\" migration, while respecting the American tradition of welcoming immigrants. He also responded to critics who say that the United States has not been forceful enough in demanding the return of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya to power, calling them hypocritical. \"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras, are the same people who say that we're always intervening and that Yankees need to get out of Latin America. You can't have it both ways,\" Obama said. \"We have been very clear in our belief that President Zelaya was removed from office illegally, that it was a coup, and that he should return,\" Obama said. The United Nations and Organization of American States, including the United States, have called for Zelaya's return, but more than one month later, the interim government of Roberto Micheletti remains firm and talks between the two sides have so far been unsuccessful. Harper agreed with Obama's stance. The United States has very clearly stated its position while letting a multilateral process take the lead, he said. \"That's precisely what we want to see from the United States,\" Harper said. Turning to trade, Obama said a \"Buy American\" provision in his economic stimulus plan had little effect so far on the multibillion-dollar trade partnership with Canada. Obama told journalists that Harper has raised the issue every time they have met. Harper has complained the \"Buy American\" provision is protectionist and could harm trade relations between the closely linked North American economies. \"This in no way this has endangered the billions of dollars of trade taking place between our two countries,\" Obama said, standing beside Harper and Calderon at a final news conference. Harper responded to the same question by saying the leaders had a good discussion on the issue, and their respective trade ministers also were talking about it. Canada is the top trade partner of the United States, with cross-border commerce worth more than $1 billion a day. The $787-billion stimulus package enacted in February included a provision that only American goods be used in stimulus projects. It also stipulated that the measure would not override existing U.S. trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. Obama also talked about comparisons between the U.S. and Canadian health care systems, saying Canada's government-run health care model won't work in the United States. \"We've got to develop a uniquely American approach to this problem,\" he said. Opponents of health care legislation in the U.S. House and Senate say it will lead to a single-payer system like the government-run program in Canada, with some warning the Canadian system means restrictions on treatments and long delays. Obama noted the U.S. system is based on employers providing health insurance for most Americans. Throwing that out would be too radical an overhaul, he said. However, he said he expects opponents of health care legislation to continue to make what he called the misleading comparison between proposed U.S. legislation and Canada's system. \"I suspect that you Canadians are going to continue to get dragged into the debate,\" he said.","highlights":"Obama: Mexico has reaffirmed commitment to human rights in drug fight .\nU.S. president says he supports \"orderly and legal\" immigration .\nObama rejects criticism of U.S. response to Honduran president's ouster .\n\"Buy American\" push hasn't hurt Canada, Obama says at three-country summit .","id":"379ed42662f9f85b8f6a04c5aa1cd4ffd22e9b22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He felt lonely, said he hadn't had a girlfriend since 1984. He said his father didn't love him. And he detailed plans to kill young women. The gunman, George Sodini, apparently left behind an online diary that detailed his loneliness. George Sodini, the 48-year-old man police blame for killing three women and wounding 10 others in a suburban Pittsburgh gym, left behind an online diary that is as shocking in places as it is profane in others. It offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a suspected killer who police say walked into an aerobics class, turned off the lights and fired more than 50 rounds from multiple handguns. \"Why do this?? To young girls? Just read below. I kept a running log that includes my thoughts and actions after I saw this project was going to drag on,\" the diary begins. Watch how Sodini may have targeted a woman \u00bb . It seems almost formatted, like a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, with Sodini's date of birth and date of death. The date of death is listed as Tuesday, the day of the shootings at an LA Fitness center outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Read an edited version of the diary (PDF) A law enforcement source who identified the shooter said Sodini was a member of the gym. The source provided a month and year of the suspect's birth that matches the month and year listed for Sodini in the online diary. The Web site where the diary appears is registered to George Sodini of Pittsburgh. It lists an address in or near Scott Township; the law enforcement source said Sodini lived in Scott Township. Throughout the log, Sodini refers to a shooting that he is planning as an \"exit plan.\" His first entry is November 5, 2008. \"Planned to do this in the summer but figure to stick around to see the election outcome,\" it says. The December 22 entry says: \"Time is moving along. Planned to have this done already. I will just keep a running log here as time passes. Many of the young girls here look so beautiful as to not be human, very edible. After joining this gym, started lifting weights and like it.\" Two days later came an entry about loneliness. \"Moving into Christmas again. No girlfriend since 1984, last Christmas with Pam was in 1983. Who knows why. I am not ugly or too weird. No sex since July 1990 either (I was 29).\" By December 26, the writer seems to have picked a date. \"I will shoot for Tuesday, January 6, 2009, at maybe 8:15. I have list of to-do items to make.\" In an entry dated January 5, he laments, \"Every evening I am alone, and then go to bed alone. ... Why should I continue another 20+ years alone? I will just work, come home, eat, maybe do something, then go to bed (alone) for the next day of the same thing. This is the Auschwitz Syndrome, to be in serious pain for so long one thinks it is normal. I cannot wait for tomorrow!\" Then he loses his nerve. \"It is 8:45PM,\" reads an entry dated January 6. \"I chickened out! [Expletive] I brought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!\" A May 5 entry outlines a technique. \"To pull the exit plan off, it popped into my mind to just use some booze,\" the entry reads. \"After the gym, I stopped at Shop N Save and got a fifth of vodka and a small bottle of Jack Daniels.\" The diary recounts a failure with women and a growing anger. \"There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one,\" a May 18 entry reads. \"Not one of them finds me attractive. These problems have gotten worse over a 30-year period. I need to expect nothing from me or other people.\" The entry from Monday recounts practice for a shooting. \"I took off today, Monday, and tomorrow to practice my routine and make sure it is well polished. I need to work out every detail, there is only one shot. Also I need to be completely immersed into something before I can be successful.\" The next day, around 8 p.m., a gunman with a gym bag strode into the LA Fitness gym, turned off the lights and started shooting without saying a word, police said. Investigators found his body lying atop one of his guns, about 7 feet from a woman he shot.","highlights":"George Sodini, 48, is accused of killing three women, himself at gym .\nOnline journal called \"a running log that includes my thoughts and actions\"\nDiary says of January attempt to pull off \"exit plan\": \"I chickened out!\"\nJack Daniels, vodka purchased in May to pull off plan, journal says .","id":"8545bd27f49ab5757a5a87ba421f53db5ffa3ebd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Treating flu-stricken children with anti-viral medication including Tamiflu and Relenza could do more harm than good, a new report has warned. Researchers say not enough study has been done into the long-term effects of anti-virals on children. Researchers from the University of Oxford found that while the anti-virals reduced the duration of illness by up to one day and a half, they had \"little or no effect\" on the likelihood of the children developing complications. The researchers conceded that they didn't know the extent to which their report applied to the current swine flu pandemic, but said, \"based on current evidence, the effects of anti-virals on reducing the course of illness or preventing complications might be limited.\" In compiling their report, published in the British Medical Journal, the Oxford University researchers searched the world for trials of Tamiflu and Relenza on children under 12. They found seven in total; four relating to flu treatment, and three to prevention. They say none offered a big enough study to determine whether anti-virals have any effect on the chances of children developing serious flu-related complications. \"We've got very little data to go on. These drugs have been used on tens of thousands, in fact millions of children worldwide, and we've found only four trials of treatments involving less than two thousand children,\" said the report's author, Dr Matthew Thompson, a senior clinical scientist at the Department of Primary Health Care, the University of Oxford. \"We didn't find any trials of children under one. And none of the trials was big enough to show if there's any effect on serious complications like pneumonia or being hospitalized,\" he said. The report found that while anti-virals reduced the duration of flu in children, they had little or no impact on the likelihood of the child developing ear infections or any other condition that may require antibiotics. A review of one study into the effect of anti-virals on asthmatic children, who are considered to have a higher risk of developing complications from the flu virus, found that they did not reduce the risk of the asthma attacks. The report said that one in 20 children who take Tamiflu suffer nausea and vomiting, as indicated in warnings from the drug's manufacturer. \"That obviously can be a particular problem in young children and infants where getting dehydrated is a complication of influenza,\" Thompson said. The three studies that focused on the use of anti-virals to prevent influenza taking hold, showed that their potential to stop the spread of flu was \"fairly small.\" \"We'd need to treat 13 children with the preventive course of one of these drugs to prevent one of them from getting flu,\" Thompson said. The report's authors suggested governments were too quick to recommend anti-virals as the first defense against the spread of swine flu. In the United Kingdom, people who suspect they have the virus are urged to phone a government helpline. If enough symptoms match the operator's list, they're given an online voucher so a \"flu friend\" can collect a course of Tamiflu. \"We're not criticizing the current Department of Health policy, but we hope they'll inform perhaps a slight shift in policy in terms of use of these drugs,\" Thompson told CNN. The British Department of Health said the report was right to suggest bed rest and over the counter remedies for people with mild cases of flu, but added that it was potentially dangerous to deter people with severe cases of flu from taking Tamiflu, including children. In a statement, a spokesman said: \"Whilst there is doubt about how swine flu affects children, we believe a safety-first approach of offering anti-virals to everyone remains a sensible and responsible way forward. However, we will keep this policy under review as we learn more about the virus and its effects.\" The British Medical Association (BMA) also adopted a cautious stance. The chairman of the BMA's general practitioner's committee, Dr Laurence Buckman, said doctors always have to balance the risk of major complications from swine flu with the potential side-effects of anti-virals. \"While we know they are safe, we do know that vomiting and diarrhea can occur in some children and adults who take them,\" he said, adding \"The more we learn about these drugs the more we will know how to treat patients with the most up-to-date clinical evidence.\"","highlights":"Researchers examined studies into effects of anti-virals on children .\nFound \"little or no effect\" when used on children suffering influenza .\nAnti-virals were found to shorten duration of flu-like symptoms .\nBritish Department of Health said it had \"a safety-first approach\"","id":"0cb2af86955fc7447789e685ee76acc24ceeba40"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- At least four people have been killed in two days of rioting in Uganda's capital after radio broadcasts encouraged listeners to violently take to the streets against the government, officials said Friday. Residents of the Kasubi suburb, west of Kampala, try to flee from violence as a soldier takes photos. The rioters heard \"sectarian\" broadcasts on Thursday that \"systematically incited the listeners to cause chaos and destruction wherever they could,\" said a statement issued by Minister of Information and National Guidance Kabakumba Masiko. It described those who took part in the rioting in Kampala and its suburbs as \"marauding thugs.\" The broadcasts aired in the Buganda Kingdom, said police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba. Ethnic and political tension between the kingdom and the central government had been escalating over the past few weeks. Police and army officers were injured and police-owned property also was damaged along with other vehicles and shops, said the nation's police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura. In Natete-Ndeba, a southwest suburb, a police station was looted of its ammunition and prisoners set free before rioters burned the prison, Nabakooba said. A curfew has been declared in the suburb, and in Kampala the army is providing support to police, said Kayihura. A doctor at a Kampala hospital said more than 50 people had sought care there, most with broken bones, but others had cuts and gunshot wounds. About 60 people were arrested in Kampala, but arrest totals in the surrounding areas were not available, Nabakooba said. Four radio stations were ordered shut down, Masiko said. Many of the rioters were Baganda between the ages of 18 and 35, Nabakooba said. The Baganda are Uganda's dominant ethnic group, making up about 16.9 percent of the population, according to The CIA World Factbook. The kingdom is one of the oldest monarchies in Africa. The people live mostly in central Uganda and along the shoreline of Lake Victoria. Tension between the Buganda Kingdom, headed by King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni had been increasing recently over land laws, sovereignty and political power, issues over which the two sides have been in talks for years. The Uganda government sees Mutebi as a traditional leader only and does not allow him to participate in politics. Further estranging the two is a breakaway faction of the Buganda Kingdom, the Banyala. Some interpreted police forces' breaking up a group of Baganda amid preparations for festivities as support for the Banyala, especially after a Banyala demonstration opposing the Buganda Kingdom prompted no police action. It is unclear why the police broke up the Baganda group earlier in the week. Riots broke out after the incident, and again when radio announcers pushed Baganda to take to the streets again. Museveni said in a broadcast statement that he tried to contact Mutebi to discuss the issue as \"mature people\" but he could not reach him on the phone. The president also said that he had intelligence reports showing that the Buganda Kingdom has received foreign funding to carry out a hate campaign against the government. Asians, mostly of Indian origin, suffered severe losses when their business were attacked and looted, Nabakooba said. Although officials said the broadcasts encouraged listeners to put into action their contempt for the government, during such outbreaks of violence Asians are often targeted. Some view Asians as being most protected by the government because of special holidays or tax benefits they may get. In addition, reports of Asians mistreating natives have fueled tension between the groups. None of the four people killed were Asian or of Asian descent, Nabakooba said, but in the northern suburb of Kawembi about 30 Asians had fled to a police station for protection on Thursday and remained there Friday. Samson Ntale contributed to this report for CNN.","highlights":"Radio broadcasts encouraged violent street action against the government .\nGovernment statement describes Kampala rioters as \"marauding thugs\"?\nDozens seek care, many with broken bones, says doctor at Kampala hospital .\nTension between splintered kingdom and Uganda's president has been on rise .","id":"b46310e11859df38749c4598f49d97d23899a59b"} -{"article":"Habib Battah is a blogger, freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker based in New York and Beirut. BEIRUT, Lebanon -- When I heard Snoop Dogg was coming to Beirut, I jumped at the opportunity to show the world a different side of the country I had grown up in. So I hit the phones, tracked down the promoter and before I knew it, I was driving to the airport to film Snoop's arrival. Beirut blogger Habib Battah with U.S. rap legend Snoop Dogg. When I first met the Dogg (as he's known by his very courteous suit-wearing bodyguards), he was seated in the VIP lounge of Beirut International Airport, surrounded by entourage while awaiting passport control. The U.S. rap legend had never been to the Middle East before, and I was wondering why he decided to perform in Beirut of all cities. Outfitted in a hooded sweater, despite the sweltering heat of the Beirut summer, Snoop leaned forward and told me in his low voice: \"There are a lot of places I could have started but I chose to start here because I felt they've been supporting me you know -- they've been down with me for long time.\" By \"starting\" in Lebanon, Snoop meant that he intended to embark on a Middle East tour in the coming months. \"Me and my man Roger had a nice conversation about putting together a Snoop Dogg Middle East tour ... so we gonna try to get that together over the next couple of months,\" Snoop, flanked by his forever-smiling local organizer, Lebanese entertainment mogul, Roger Kalaouz, told a room full of eager photographers and entertainment journalists. But the Lebanese paparazzi still wondered, why Beirut? \"This is my first chance to party with the people of Lebanon,\" Snoop said. \"They were always partying to my music but now they get a chance to actually party with Snoop Dogg. \"This is the party capital of the world,\" he added and the room filled with applause. Hours later, Snoop drove the locals wild once again during his performance in front of thousands of adoring young fans by holding up a Lebanese flag on stage and then performing an impromptu sing-along with the chorus line \"Beirut, Lebanon.\" When the show ended just before one a.m., Snoop did not leave Beirut without living up to his promise to party hard. Acting on a tip from a source close to Snoop's circle, I managed to follow Snoop's entourage to the afterparty, at a massive and highly exclusive rooftop club overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the Lebanese mountains. I entered the club through the back entrance with members of Snoop's band that I had met at the airport. When we got inside, the champagne was flowing and the club was rocking with hundreds of people. A mixture of house and trance music reverberated across all surfaces as fireworks lit up the evening sky. Snoop's band and crew were ecstatic, sporting looks of awe when they reached their VIP tables in the balcony section which boasts outdoor air conditioning. And even though the European electric beat was quite a stretch from the hip hop he produces, Snoop himself seemed to be getting down -- waving his hands in the air. But it wasn't long before the Dogg switched things up grabbed the microphone: \"You are now rocking with the big Snoopie D.O. double jizzle for shizzle dizzle\" he said, sending screams through the glamorous crowd. Then he turned toward the DJ podium: \"Hey! Yo! DJ! Why don't you play some of that Snoop Dogg sh*t? Once again the crowd was electrified, as Snoop began rapping to his track \"Drop it Like It's Hot,\" (Part of the that performance is available on Snoop's Web site.) Later he played other local favorites such as \"Gin and Juice\" and then rocked to a new track \"That's the Homie\" from his upcoming album \"Malice in Wonderland\" while being filmed by two cameraman and a flash light. The Beirut show producer, Roger Kalaouz later explained that Snoop was actually filming part of the music video for the new track that night. And when Snoop left the club at 3 a.m., the party continued till seven in the morning, according to Kalaouz, in true Snoop fashion, back at the hotel. Kalaouz says he's now preparing for Snoop's Middle East tour beginning in December, with a focus on cities in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf states, such as the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and maybe even Saudi Arabia. Though it remains unclear how much Kalaouz actually paid Snoop to perform in Beirut, he emphasized that the bidding process was intense with much competition from promoters in other Arab countries. Check out Battah's blog at beirurtreport.blogspot.com .","highlights":"Legendary U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg performs in Lebanon's capital, Beirut .\nBeirut journalist Habib Battah followed Snoop to show a different side of Lebanon .\nSnoop has never visited the Middle East before and plans more dates in region .\nSnoop on Beirut: \"This is the party capital of the world\"","id":"3f07e2acd2ccc47946b16210fb404ddb91f6c0dc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hannah Clark is a 16-year-old with a shy laugh and a love of animals. She likes to go shopping with friends and dreams of a career working with children. Teenager Hannah Clark's heart has healed itself more than a decade after she received a donor heart. But Hannah Clark is no ordinary teenager and her normal life today could not have been possible without a unique, life-changing heart surgery. In 1994 when she was eight-months-old, Hannah was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy -- an inflammation of the heart muscle that impairs the heart's ability to work properly. Hannah's heart was failing and she needed a transplant. But instead of taking her own heart out, doctors added a new donated heart to her own when she was just two-years-old. The so-called \"piggyback\" operation allowed the donor heart to do the work while Hannah's heart rested. But Hannah was not in the clear yet. As with any organ transplant, Hannah's body was likely to reject her new heart and she had to take powerful immune suppression drugs. Those drugs allowed her body to accept the donor heart but also led to cancer and yet another medical battle for Hannah that lasted for years. Nearly 11 years after receiving the extra heart, there was more bad news: The immuno-suppression drugs were no longer working. Hannah's body was rejecting the donor heart. In February 2006, her doctors tried something that had never been done before: They took out the donor heart. Doctors theorized that the donor heart had allowed Hannah's heart to rest, recover and grow back stronger. Now for the first time Hannah's father, Paul Clark, describes the agonizing decision the family had to make at the time: \"If she'd never had it done, she wouldn't be here. Watch a report about Hannah's amazing recovery \u00bb . \"In the very beginning it was a 50\/50 chance she wasn't going to make the operation. But in the next one it was even greater because it had never been done before. But we had to take that risk,\" he told CNN. The doctors were right. Three years later, Hannah has no need for any drugs and has been given a clean bill of health. The operation was a success. \"It means everything to me,\" Hannah told CNN after the pioneering operation. \"I thought I'd still have problems when I had this operation done. I thought after the heart had been removed I thought I'd have to visit hospitals. But now I'm just free,\" she said, smiling. Dr. Magdi Yacoub performed Hannah's original transplant and came out of retirement to perform the second. \"The possibility of recovery of the heart is just like magic.\" Dr. Yacoub said at a media conference. \"[We had] a heart which was not contracting at all at the time. We put the new heart to be pumping next to it and take its work, now [it] is functioning normally.\" The findings have been published in the British medical journal, the Lancet. Hannah's amazing recovery would not have been possible without a donor. Both Hannah's doctors and her family made an appeal for more people to consider organ donation. \"When it happens to someone close to you or yourself, you don't realize until then how important it is to be a donor and not to be selfish like, I need that part. You don't need that part. Give it to somebody else that needs it,\" said Clark. \"It just proves that if you can, be a donor. This can happen.\" Dr. Yacoub now advocates \"presumed consent\" -- a policy by which anyone can be considered an organ donor unless they specifically request to opt out. \"All you are asking is please make up your own mind. Do you or do you not want to be a donor? My own family, my kids, everybody wants to be a donor. But if you don't, then say so,\" he said. \"Just please tell us what you want to do. So, presumed consent is a good thing.\" Hannah has made a full recovery and looks forward to doing what many teenagers do during the summer holidays: Work at a summer job. Her family jokes that it's difficult to keep her from racing out the door now that she has so much energy. For Hannah, it took the strength of two to help heal a broken heart, something she could have never done alone.","highlights":"Hannah Clark suffered from a rare heart condition when she was a baby .\nDoctors added a donor heart to her own in a unique surgery when she was two .\nDoctors later removed donor heart and found her own heart had healed itself .\nHannah is now a healthy 16-year-old with normal teenage aspirations .","id":"86727cc3a396753dac1f0297cc552c26f09ac739"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jay S. Winuk, co-founder of MyGoodDeed, is the brother of Glenn J. Winuk, an attorney and volunteer firefighter and EMT who died in the line of duty when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001. This week Glenn was posthumously honored with the 9\/11 Heroes Medal of Valor from the United States of America. Jay Winuk says September 11 is best observed as a day of service to others. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The upcoming eighth anniversary of the attacks of September 11 raises a compelling question for millions of Americans: How should we best observe this uniquely tragic day in our nation's history? Surely, it should not be a holiday. This is no time for days off from work and three-day weekends to enjoy barbeques and white sales. No, September 11 is a day for reflection, and its historical and emotional significance should not lessen with time or be diminished in any way. It is a day to focus on the substantial lessons learned. I'm a 9\/11 family member. My brave brother, Glenn J. Winuk, was a partner at a large law firm, Holland & Knight, located two blocks from the World Trade Center. For almost 20 years Glenn was also a volunteer firefighter and an emergency medical technician. When the Towers were hit, Glenn borrowed rescue equipment and ran from safety toward the South Tower to participate in the rescue effort. He died when the South Tower collapsed. Soon after the attacks, I co-founded, with my friend David Paine and other 9\/11 family members and friends, a grassroots initiative called MyGoodDeed. Our goal? To establish the anniversary of September 11, 2001 as an annually recognized national day of service. Our widely shared view was that there would be no better way to pay tribute to those thousands lost and those millions who rose in spontaneous, compassionate and effective service to help rebuild our spirit and our nation in the aftermath of the attacks. Supported by all the leading 9\/11 family, survivor and volunteer organizations, the initiative has since attracted the attention and participation of millions of people around the world, from all 50 states and more than 170 nations and territories. People choose whatever form of kindness and service they'd like to perform each 9\/11. And with acts large and small, they are making a real difference in the lives of people and communities in need. Some make donations -- clothing, books, eyeglasses, money, blood. Some help repair schools and parks and beaches. Some send care packages to our troops overseas, or work in soup kitchens. Some read to the blind, or visit the elderly. This Sunday, retired New York Giants great George Martin is leading a fundraising walk from New York to New Jersey to raise money for the health care of thousands of rescue and recovery workers of Ground Zero who are ailing as a result of their service after 9\/11. There is no limit to what people can do to participate. Of note is that just like those who died in the horror of that September morning, those who engage in service on 9\/11 represent a wide range of political preferences, ages, races, religions, economic status and geographic locations. Unlike as suggested recently by some conservative journalists and bloggers, this 9\/11 service phenomenon is not new and is certainly not about some kind of liberal agenda intended to diminish the meaning of September 11 or redefine it for political gain. Indeed, the notion of engaging in service to mark each 9\/11 began during the Bush administration, and has been widely supported by both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. In fact, in 2004 the U.S. Congress unanimously passed House Congressional Resolution 473, saying the anniversary of September 11 should be a national day of service and compassion. In April of this year, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, substantially bi-partisan legislation that included a provision formally establishing September 11 as a \"National Day of Service and Remembrance.\" The 9\/11 community largely applauded this major step forward. And as I watched the president sign this legislation, along with members of the ServiceNation coalition and surrounded by a diverse group of political leaders, educators, students, service volunteers and others, I experienced both chills and a feeling of great warmth as I thought about my brother who died in service to others. Service as a way to honor the victims, workers and volunteers of September 11 ensures that future generations will learn not only about the attacks but about how good people around the world responded when our nation was severely wounded. Further, it serves as a productive and meaningful way forward out of the ashes of September 11 as our national challenges are now as great as ever. Some people say, \"Enough about 9\/11 already. Let's move on.\" Surely, I understand that. Even while remembering, we must move ahead. And that's really the point about this observance. Let's pay tribute to all those who were injured or who perished, like my brother, and to all those who rose in service to save and protect our nation, by looking forward and by improving the lot of those people and communities in need. This moment in history was not just about the attacks. It was also about compassion. And that is the lesson of the events of 9\/11, and for me is the essence of this National Day of Service and Remembrance. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jay S. Winuk.","highlights":"Jay Winuk: 9\/11 has been recognized as a national day of service .\nHe says it's not a day to skip work or go shopping .\nHe says people choose to do acts of kindness, large or small .\nWinuk: There's no political agenda, Bush and Obama have supported it .","id":"39ed5aa9afcecbdbb970c8d7b9541998362a0510"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A fugitive American white supremacist was arrested Monday in Israel, ending an international manhunt that began in 2007, Israeli and U.S. officials said. Micky Louis Mayon, pictured in a 2007 mug shot, entered Israel in 2008, authorities say. Micky Louis Mayon, one of the 100 most wanted people in the United States, was taken into custody in southern Tel Aviv after Israel received information from Interpol indicating he was there. The Ku Klux Klan member was located during a secret operation by Israeli immigration authorities, said Sabin Hadad, a spokeswoman for the country's Interior Ministry. He arrived in Israel in January 2008 on a one-month tourist visa, frequently changed apartments, and earned money by working part time at several restaurants, the ministry said. Mayon, 32, is being held at Israel's Maasiyahu prison and is in the process of being deported, Hadad said. \"The search for Mayon came to a successful conclusion ... with the actions in Israel,\" Michael Regan, a U.S. marshal in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said Monday. \"Locating and identifying Mayon in a foreign country sends a strong message that you can run, but you cannot hide.\" Two U.S. marshals are being sent to Israel to escort him back to the United States. Mayon was featured on the television program \"America's Most Wanted.\" He is a convicted felon and is accused of setting a judge's car on fire in Pennsylvania, the show's Web site said.","highlights":"Israeli authorities apprehend fugitive American white supremacist .\nMicky Louis Mayon was one of the 100 most wanted people in the United States .\nKu Klux Klan member accused of burning judge's car in Pennsylvania .","id":"ee4c135333c47d01e2013e3d0a73177969f7d04d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comedy isn't evolutionary. Hollywood has been plundering ancient history for yuks at least since Buster Keaton's day, and there's little in \"Year One\" to suggest we've progressed much over the last 90 years. Michael Cera and Jack Black go in search of meaning -- and some food -- in \"Year One.\" Quite the opposite, in fact. It's a stretch to envisage Keaton picking up bear poop, as Jack Black does here, giving it an appraising sniff, then a quick lick. And I can't imagine him peeing down his own nostrils, as Michael Cera does (he's chained upside down at the time). Not to say this monkey business isn't funny; these are the highlights of a relentlessly low-brow lark, notwithstanding several sophomoric speeches in a panicky existentialist vein. Black is Zed, a sorry excuse for a hunter in a tribe that has yet to discover the wheel. His buddy Oh (Cera) is even further down the totem pole, a mere gatherer. Neither is a hit with the ladies, and when Zed is exiled after stealing forbidden fruit, well, not even Oh wants to go with him -- though of course he does tag along. It's no fun being a sidekick all on your lonesome. Co-written and directed by comedy veteran Harold Ramis (\"Ghostbusters,\" \"Groundhog Day\"), \"Year One\" is little more than a series of juvenile skits dressed up in toga party glad rags. It rambles off into Old Testament territory when the boys stumble across Cain (David Cross) killing his brother Abel (Paul Rudd), then arrive in the desert in the nick of time to save Isaac's neck (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) from his zealous father's knife -- though his foreskin is another story. Sorely lacking the anarchic edge that Monty Python brought to \"The Life of Brian\" and the sheer chutzpah of Mel Brooks' \"History of the World: Part One,\" \"Year One\" is more akin to one of those old Bob Hope-Bing Crosby jaunts -- two guys bicker and banter in exotic climes, hopping from scrape to scrape without ever reaching the bottom of the barrel. Inevitably, Zed and Oh find themselves on the Road to Sodom, where Oliver Platt's plummy High Priest orchestrates orgies in the afternoon then presides over human sacrifices in the evening. It is in Sodom that the boys will prove their manhood. Black's manic over-reacher and Cera's shy mumbler complement each other well enough in theory, but at 39, Black is almost old enough to be the 21-year-old Cera's father. It's a big age gap for a comedy duo, and they never quite mesh or convince as bosom buddies, even if they're fairly amusing separately. Among the supporting cast, only Hank Azaria's fundamentalist Abraham really seizes on the possibilities; he and Platt deliver the goods. Too many others, on the other hand, just seem to have dropped by to hang out for a day or two on set. Typically, neither Juno Temple nor June Diane Raphael gets any breathing room as the heroes' designated distressed damsels; Ramis ogles female flesh as enthusiastically as he milks homophobia for cheap laughs. Bearing the tell-tale scars of slash-and-burn post-market testing editing -- several early scenes simply hit a brick wall -- \"Year One\" isn't an out-and-out disaster. It's just another feeble comedy that never finds its rhythm or builds up a head of steam. iReport.com: Share your review of \"Year One\" It was probably a lot more fun to make than it is to watch, but we'll have to take that on trust. Even the outtakes played alongside the end credits aren't funny. \"Year One\" is rated PG-13 and runs 100 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"Year One\" is a feeble comedy, says CNN.com's Tom Charity .\nHarold Ramis-directed film stars Jack Black and Michael Cera, but few laughs .\nBlack and Cera play Stone Age tribesmen who meet biblical figures .","id":"5c2aa535f7de31c11f8719d5a62be9be36b95728"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Burberry, the 150-year-old British luxury brand most famous for its distinctive check pattern, has recently experienced a resurgence. Christopher Bailey, Burberry's creative director, has been credited with the brand's resurgence. The brand credits much of its new a la mode image to creative director Christopher Bailey. The unassuming 37-year-old British designer has successfully reconnected Burberry with a trendy young audience -- using the likes of British super model Agyness Deyn, whom he has propelled to international stardom -- in ad campaigns. But times are hard for luxury brands, with a recession that has turned many high-end consumers toward cheaper alternatives. So how is Bailey handling the current economic climate? With stylish new headquarters in the heart of London and the recent opening of a Burberry Children's wear store in the capital, it seems the brand has kept its wheels rolling. Watch Burberry's creative director speak to CNN \u00bb . Bailey believes the new headquarters were an important extension of Burberry's image, telling CNN \"the building is the brand beacon.\" \"It's so important that everyone lives and breathes the aesthetic of what Burberry is. We have to do what feels right for the company,\" Bailey added. But that does not mean that Burberry is ignoring the recession. \"It's all about the balance between functionality and emotion. You have to be instinctive about what's going on,\" said Bailey. \"We think about the world recession, but it helps us focus and make sure that the brand purity and integrity is there in everything we do. \"We've just opened our first [children's wear] store in London and the first signs are pretty wonderful.\" But Bailey agrees that \"there has been incredible excess in the last five to 10 years, so it's a good moment to re-balance.\" So how will that translate to the catwalk? \"The [clothes] will be investment pieces for the long-term. It's not just about fashion for a season.\"","highlights":"Christopher Bailey, Burberry's creative director spoke to CNN .\nBurberry has recently opened new headquarters and children's store in London .\n\"We think about the world recession, but it helps us focus,\" said Bailey .","id":"a313d568a85d4ac29024718d9998b40a94a56026"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Father Alberto Cutie, an internationally known Catholic priest who admitted having a romantic affair and breaking his vow of celibacy, was married this week in Miami, Florida. Father Alberto Cutie was married in Coral Gables, Florida, on Tuesday, according to court documents. Cutie, 40, announced last month that he was leaving the Catholic Church and joining the Episcopal Church. A judge performed the marriage ceremony Tuesday in Coral Gables, Florida, for Cutie and Ruhama B. Canellis, 35, according to Miami-Dade County court documents. Cutie, whose name is pronounced koo-tee-AY, is a native of Puerto Rico, and Canellis was born in Guatemala. He was received into the Episcopal Church on May 28 at Trinity Cathedral in Miami. He will pursue the priesthood in the Episcopalian faith, the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida said in a written statement. It was not immediately clear how long the process would take. Cutie -- sometimes called \"Father Oprah\" because of the advice he's given on Spanish-language media -- shocked some in the Catholic community when photographs of him embracing a bathing-suit-clad woman emerged last month in TV Notas magazine. He acknowledged having carried on a two-year relationship with the woman, who at that time had not been publicly identified. \"This is something I've struggled with,\" he told CNN in May. \"I don't support the breaking of the celibacy promise.\" Referring to his relationship with the woman, he said, \"It looked like a frivolous thing on the beach, you know, and that's not what it is. It's something deeper than that.\" After the photographs surfaced, Cutie was removed from his duties at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach and on the Radio Paz and Radio Peace Networks. Cutie had been president and general director of Pax Catholic Communications, home of Radio Paz and Radio Peace. He has also written newspaper advice columns and a self-help book, \"Real Life, Real Love.\" John C. Favalora, archbishop of the Catholic Church's Miami archdiocese, said last month that Cutie's actions have \"caused a grave scandal within the Catholic Church.\" Favalora also had harsh words for the Episcopal Church's decision to accept Cutie. \"This truly is a serious setback for ecumenical relations and cooperation between us,\" he said.","highlights":"Alberto Cutie married Ruhama Canellis on Tuesday, court documents show .\nCutie was Catholic priest seen in tabloid photos embracing woman in bathing suit .\nAfter pictures surfaced, Cutie admitted two-year relationship with the woman .\nHe said last month he was leaving Catholic Church and becoming Episcopalian .","id":"dc67ded6f44b782153cb7bb2139e86f81a73a6cc"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An explosion outside a Starbucks on the Upper East Side of Manhattan sent frightened people running into the street early Monday. Police investigate an explosion in a Manhattan Upper East Side neighborhood. The explosion blew out the windows of a Starbucks coffeehouse at East 92nd Street and Third Avenue at 3:25 a.m., according to New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. A \"low-order improvised explosive device\" exploded after being left on a wooden bench in front of the coffeehouse, Kelly said. The blast could be heard many blocks away, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV of New York. Seven people were briefly evacuated from the building above the Starbucks, Kelly said, but no one was injured. The interior of the Starbucks sustained no damage. It's too early to tell whether Monday's incident is connected to other minor explosions in New York City in recent years, including ones at the British and Mexican consulates and another in Times Square, Kelly said. He did note one immediate similarity between the detonations: All occurred at roughly the same time of night. He said the police would continue to analyze other similarities. However, Kelly also noted that Starbucks has been the target of low-grade explosions in other cities. Police plan to examine surveillance cameras for information that could lead investigators to the perpetrator, he said.","highlights":"Minor explosion outside of a Manhattan Starbucks sends people fleeing .\nNo injuries reported from the blast; Starbucks damage limited to broken windows .\nPolice investigating whether explosion is connected to other pre-dawn blasts .","id":"6c09e5d7c6f27776697ed46615b10cc70cc8dfd2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Ian Black has a fine sense of the absurd. Michael Ian Black, left, and Michael Showalter have \"Issues\" in their new Comedy Central show. You can hear it in the comedian's deadpan delivery, which makes some of his serious musings sound like jokes -- and some of his jokes sound like serious philosophizing. You can see it reflected in his VH1 \"I Love the ...\" guest spots, in which he acts as if the most ridiculous pop cultural events are worthy of solemn commentary. The absurdity is also obvious in his new Comedy Central show, \"Michael and Michael Have Issues,\" in which he and pal Michael Showalter -- the two go back to the early-'90s troupe The State -- play exaggerated versions of themselves doing such things as competing for the attention of an intern and torturing a reporter as they make a TV show. \"Michael and Michael,\" which airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET on Comedy Central, premiered last week for a multiweek run. Though Black has hopes for more, he's well aware of the pitfalls of his particular brand of humor: Not everybody gets it. Watch Black respond to assertions that he's not attractive \u00bb . \"Well the first episode has aired, and it was a HUGE HIT!!! (Except for the fact that not enough people watched it),\" he wrote on the \"Michael and Michael\" site. \"Yes, once again Showalter and myself have produced a show which America has yet to discover.\" America may catch on yet, thanks to Black's determined publicity tour. He talked to CNN.com about the origins of \"Michael and Michael,\" the comedy of discomfort and the \"Jack Benny Projection Theorem.\" The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: How did the show come about? Michael Ian Black: The last show [Showalter and I] did together was called \"Stella,\" which was also on Comedy Central. After that, I talked to Comedy Central about doing a different show, and they said sure. I brought on Michael to help me make it. We made that pilot, it didn't go, but when it was done, they said, \"We'd still like you guys to do something.\" So we started pitching around ideas, and this is the one that stuck. CNN: Does Comedy Central keep a hands-off attitude with you guys? Black: Yes and no. They definitely trust us to a certain extent. We've had a long relationship with them, so they have a lot of faith in us. ... At the same time, they're a television network, and I don't know if you're familiar with television networks, but they definitely have opinions. CNN: They like to provide notes, I've heard. Black: Yes, that's exactly right. So they've given us lots and lots of notes. CNN: One thing that always strikes me about you guys is that you like the comedy of discomfort, [as in] the kind of thing that makes you laugh but makes you squirm a little bit? Black: When phrased that way, then yes, I suppose we do like that. There's something very funny to both Michael and myself about putting yourself in awkward situations and revealing this banal awkwardness that kind of happens to everybody. CNN: What makes you uncomfortable in real life? Black: I'm very uncomfortable with sincerity. (laughs) Anybody who's being sincere about stuff gives me the icks. I just invented a term: \"gives me the icks.\" CNN: Who did you follow when you were growing up? Black: The comedians who I always really looked up to when I was a kid were John Belushi, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy ... but for different reasons. I can't say I'm particularly like any of them, but I've always responded to comedy that doesn't point itself as being comedy. ... That's where that straight-faced thing comes from. You're telling the joke without telling people you're telling the joke. You have to trust that they're going to get it. CNN: How about Jack Benny? He was always marvelous at being able to stand off to the side. Black: I think what was great about Jack Benny or anybody who sort of does that kind of thing -- that deadpan thing -- is you're allowing the audience to project their thoughts on to you. So you think you understand what Jack Benny's thinking ... but it's because it's what you're thinking. And what you're thinking is funny, and that's what makes you laugh. Does that make sense? CNN: Absolutely. Black: It's a theory I just made up. I feel really, really good about it. ... I'm gonna call it the \"Jack Benny Projection Theorem.\" CNN: What do you think you'd be doing if it weren't for comedy? Black: Well, I don't know what recycled cans go for these days, but I suspect I'd be in that industry. CNN: Does \"Michael and Michael\" look like it will be renewed? Black: We just premiered last week, and it's just too early to know whether we'll come back or not. We've been fortunate. The press for the most part has been very good, and so now it's a ratings game and we'll wait and see how it does. CNN: You've worked consistently since the early '90s, but there's always the question of the big breakthrough. Your comedy might be too offbeat for the mainstream to get. Does that concern you? Black: Well, it certainly concerns the people who hold my mortgage. They're very concerned about it. They often say to me, \"Can't you be more mainstream?\" And the answer is, I don't think so. I've certainly tried. I can only be me. CNN: We're getting very philosophical here. Black: Well, that goes along with my Jack Benny Projection Theorem. CNN: Are you working on anything else? Black: I'm writing a book and I'm attempting to be a decent husband and father after not being home the last few months working on this television show. ... When you're working the kind of hours a television show requires, you don't see anybody but the people you work with. And as much as I love them, I don't love them as much as my family.","highlights":"Michael Ian Black now in \"Michael and Michael Have Issues\"\nComedy Central show features more of awkward comedy he's known for .\nIn real life? Black is uncomfortable with \"sincerity\"","id":"5748d0acf798ddc28ec7c98568ad6f02ff420e0c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anne and Michael Harris were an \"extraordinary\" couple with a zest for life, their niece said. Anne and Michael Harris' niece says the couple \"loved life, loved everyone.\" \"We truly hope that they are remembered for the way they lived their lives and not this tragic end,\" Charlstie Laytin said in a telephone interview Wednesday. \"We're all just devastated and going to miss them both so much.\" The Harrises were two of three Americans on board Air France Flight 447 when it crashed Monday. The plane was carrying 228 passengers and crew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France, when it crashed four hours into the journey. Investigators have not determined the cause of the accident. An official list with the victims' names was not available Wednesday afternoon. The Harrises lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Anne Harris' sister, Mary Miley, said. Michael Harris, 60, was a geologist in Rio de Janeiro. He worked for Devon Energy, a U.S.-based independent natural gas and oil producer, a company spokesman said. The couple were traveling to Paris for a training seminar and vacation, Miley said. The two \"loved everyone, they loved life,\" Laytin said. \"Definitely glass-half-full kind of people,\" she added, recalling her uncle as a \"ham,\" who could always offer a laugh on a bad day. She remembered a moment a few summers ago when her family was in Vermont, and had just seen a classical performance of Mozart. They were \"just sitting around and having a glass of wine, and laughing and talking about family and life and what was going on in our lives ... [the Harrises] could never get enough information about what all their nieces and nephews and family members were doing,\" she said. \"It's really the last time I can remember us all sitting around as a family and I'm so glad that I have that memory.\" She said her family was hopeful the investigation would soon determine what had gone wrong. \"I think the initial shock of it all has really started to wear off, and the reality that they're gone is starting to set in,\" she said. \"The grief and the grieving process is beginning and we're just really focused on helping each other heal.\" The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. The remaining victims were from 29 other countries. Ten were employees of French electrical equipment supplier CGED, according to Agence France-Presse. Nine of those employees had won the trip to Rio from CGED because of their strong work performance, AFP said. \"There was a competition for the best sales reps ... and nine of them won and went to Brazil for four days,\" Laurent Bouveresse, CGED chief executive, told AFP. The nine were allowed to take a friend or partner, and an executive also went along, Bouveresse said, according to the news agency. CNN tried repeatedly to reach representatives of CGED. Two others believed to have been on the flight were an engaged couple, Julia Schmidt of Brazil and Alex Crolow of Germany, the couple's friend, Brian Buzby of Houston, Texas, told CNN affiliate KTRK. Watch Buzby talk about friends on Flight 447 \u00bb . Buzby said he met the two while they were all students at Bucerius Law School in Germany. They finished studies last August, KTRK reported. \"This was Alex taking her back to tell her mom they were going to get married,\" Buzby told KTRK. \"I just hope that they were not suffering, and at least they were together, because I would have hated for one of them to go through it alone,\" Buzby said. \"They were my two best friends. I just hope she knows I loved her,\" Buzby said.","highlights":"NEW: 9 French victims won trip to Brazil for job performance, AFP reports .\nNEW: German victim was taking Brazilian fiancee home to announce engagement .\nAnne and Michael Harris were two of three Americans on Air France flight 447 .\nThe Harrises lived in Brazil and were going to France for vacation, training seminar .","id":"c3dd1fd7ab009ca7b99ba3b961be362eebda74c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Liverpool have secured the biggest sponsorship deal in the English Premier League club's history after they announced a four-year deal with Standard Chartered Bank. Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish and managing director Christian Purslow confirm the new sponsorship deal. The Reds have confirmed that the bank will replace current sponsors Carlsberg at the start of the 2010-11 season, ending a 17-year association with the Reds, for the beer maker. The figure for the sponsorship has not be disclosed but reports in British newspaper The Guardian suggest the deal is worth $133 million. Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow spoke of his delight on sealing the sponsorship agreement for the Anfield-based side. \"I am tremendously excited - it's a hugely important day in the history of Liverpool FC,\" he told the club's official Web site. \"This is the largest commercial agreement we have ever entered into. To have attracted a partner of the caliber of Standard Chartered Bank says everything about where we are trying to take this football club. \"They operate in a number of markets around the world where we have a long term plan to increase the family of Liverpool fans and this agreement will be very helpful to us in doing that.\" Purslow added: \"Many branches in these countries will effectively be a shop window for Liverpool FC and a means of attracting more supporters to the cause. \"We aspire to be the best at what we do on and off the field. This is the first commercial agreement the club has entered into which can truly be described as the best of its kind in world football. \"I hope this tells everyone, especially our fans, what we are trying to do with this football club in the future.\" The move follows Liverpool's American owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, concluding a deal in July to re-finance a $380 million bank loan they took out to buy the club in 2007. Plans to develop a new 60,000-seater stadium at a cost of $580 million were shelved due to the recession in 2008 by the club, despite planning permission being granted by the local city council.","highlights":"Liverpool announce a new sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered Bank .\nThe means the end of the Reds 17-year association with brewers Carlsberg .\nLiverpool will carry the bank's name on their shirts at the start of the 2010\/11 .\nThe deal is reported to be worth approximately $133 million to the club .","id":"b24ed592c57ddd45792fe556fdacb1bfdce4db0d"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An audio message attributed to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the highest ranking former member of Saddam Hussein's regime still at large, salutes the \"People of Palestine\" and calls on them to fight back against Israel in Gaza. A 1999 file image of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who served under Saddam Hussien's regime and who is still at large. \"We say to the people of Gaza, give more resistance and we will be with you in the field, and know that our victory in kicking out the invaders is your victory as well, because the main assailant on the nation and on Palestine is the American imperialism,\" the recording said. \"A salute to the martyrs of the massacre, and our condolences to their families.\" Al-Douri's recording follows reports of a similarly defiant message from al Qaeda's deputy chief a day earlier. Ayman al-Zawahiri reportedly vowed revenge for Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza and called Israel's actions against Hamas militants \"a gift\" from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. Israel is in the 12th day of a military operation against Hamas militants, who have been firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Al-Douri's 30-minute recorded message was broadcast Wednesday on al-Raei Iraqi satellite television over an old picture of al-Douri, wearing his Iraqi military uniform. CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the voice on the tape. This is not al-Douri's first purported audio message. There have been at least four others over the past three years in addition to a statement attributed to him. Al-Douri, 66, served as vice-chairman of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council. He remains at large nearly six years after the war in Iraq began. He has previously been reported killed and captured, although those reports later turned out to be erroneous. He was the King of Clubs (No. 6) on the U.S. military's card deck of most wanted regime officials. The U.S. military says he has helped finance the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq with Iraqi funds he transferred to Syria before Hussein's government collapsed in April 2002. But it says his influence has waned while he has been in hiding. U.S. officials say al-Douri played key roles in the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 and in putting down Kurdish and Shiite revolts after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.","highlights":"Al-Douri was vice-chairman of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council .\n30-minute recorded message broadcast on al-Raei Iraqi satellite television .\nCNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the voice .\nU.S. says he has helped finance the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq .","id":"0fb8c647ed9ff58b442bcf0cc832ed90703d15de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rancho Bernardo Inn, a San Diego luxury resort, is offering rooms for $19 a night. But there's a catch -- you have to sleep in a tent and bring your own toilet paper. \"For $19 a night, a customer gets a shell with a tent inside,\" says Rancho Bernardo Inn's John Gates. The declining economy has taken a toll on the Rancho Bernardo, a 200,000 acre luxury resort which has three pools, a golf course, three restaurants and a spa that was named No. 1 by Conde Nast in 2008. \"During a brainstorming session, we were talking about discounts and promotions and wanted to come up with something different than the same promotions and discounts,\" said Rancho Bernardo general manager John Gates. \"We wanted to do something fun and clever. It's a way of making the best of these bad economic times and trying to give customers an experience.\" Rancho Bernardo's \"Survivor Package\" starts at $219 per night, but customers are allowed to customize and pick their price point. Guests can lower the cost by opting to give up breakfast and other luxury items, including toiletries. \"For $19 a night, a customer gets a shell with a tent inside,\" said Gates. The bed, lighting, bed sheets, towels and toilet paper are all removed. \"We ran a similar promotion in June which was very popular. About 100 people took the offer.\" Gates said he has received several phone calls, and 50 customers have already booked a reservation at the $19 price. The promotion will run from August 16 to 31. And don't forget your toilet paper and toothpaste!","highlights":"Rancho Bernardo Inn, a luxury resort, was named No. 1 by Conde Nast in '08 .\n\"We wanted to do something fun and clever,\" general manager John Gates says .\nThe San Diego resort's \"Survivor Package\" starts at $219 per night .\nFifty customers have already booked the promotion, which runs August 16 to 31 .","id":"046f6a13027dba6e36a0aa3001ebbdaa51655fff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth has been suspended indefinitely by the National Football League, days after he pleaded guilty to killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol, the NFL said. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth on Tuesday pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter. Stallworth, 28, pleaded guilty in a Florida court Tuesday to DUI manslaughter charges in the March death of construction worker Mario Reyes. Under terms of a plea agreement, he will serve 30 days. Prosecutors said he began serving his sentence immediately. \"The conduct reflected in your guilty plea resulted in the tragic loss of life and was inexcusable,\" NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Stallworth in a letter Thursday, the league said. Excerpts from the letter were posted on the NFL Web site. \"While the criminal justice system has determined the legal consequences of this incident, it is my responsibility as NFL commissioner to determine appropriate league discipline for your actions, which have caused irreparable harm to the victim and his family, your club, your fellow players and the NFL.\" Stallworth's suspension is effective immediately, the league said. Goodell wrote in the letter that \"in due course\" the league would contact his attorney to schedule a meeting with him, after which a final determination would be made on discipline. Stallworth was driving his black Bentley GT east on the MacArthur Causeway, which connects Miami, Florida, to the South Beach area of Miami Beach, when he struck Reyes on the morning of March 14, according to prosecutors. He had been drinking at a Miami Beach club, according to court documents. His blood alcohol level was 0.126 percent, prosecutors said; Florida's legal limit is 0.08. Reyes, 59, reportedly was heading to a bus stop after work when he was struck. Court documents said he suffered \"critical head, chest and abdominal injuries\" and died at a hospital. When police arrived at the scene, Stallworth told them he was the driver of the car and admitted striking Reyes. During Tuesday's hearing, Stallworth offered his \"deepest condolences to the Reyes family.\" \"Though I cannot bring back Mr. Reyes or ease his family's pain, I can and will honor his memory by committing my time, my resources and my voice by educating this community about the dangers of drunk driving,\" he said. Stallworth could have served up to 15 years in prison. But State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle noted in a statement that he cooperated with authorities and had no previous criminal record or traffic violations. Reyes' family supported the plea agreement, she said. Stallworth's attorney, Chris Lyons, on Tuesday told CNN sister network HLN that Stallworth had reached an \"amicable\" financial settlement with Reyes' family but would not disclose the amount. He said the length of Stallworth's jail term \"had nothing to do with Donte Stallworth being a celebrity, a professional football player or money.\" Stallworth has shown \"genuine remorse\" and accepted responsibility for his actions, Lyons said. Goodell wrote Stallworth that there is \"ample evidence to warrant significant discipline\" under both the NFL's personal conduct and substance abuse policies. \"There is no reasonable dispute that your continued eligibility for participation at this time would undermine the integrity of and public confidence in the league,\" the letter said. \"Everyone associated with the league derives tremendous benefits from participating in our game and from the extraordinary support we receive from the public,\" Goodell wrote. \"With these benefits comes, among other things, the responsibility to conduct ourselves in a lawful and responsible way, with no entitlement to or expectation of favorable treatment.\" Goodell notified NFL clubs earlier this year that there would be increased emphasis on addressing driving under the influence and other misconduct, the league said. It noted the NFL offers a \"safe rides\" program used by most clubs to provide players and other employees with alternative transportation if they have been drinking. Under terms of Stallworth's plea agreement, he will face two years of house arrest upon his release. He is also required to donate $2,500 to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, serve eight years of probation and submit to random drug and alcohol testing throughout his probation. His driver's license was permanently revoked. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell calls Stallworth's action \"inexcusable\"\nCleveland Browns wide receiver Tuesday pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter .\nStallworth serving 30 days in jail, has reached settlement with victim's family .\nNFL player's blood alcohol level was 0.126; Florida's legal limit is 0.08 .","id":"c121252fd64402cc1ef1f9a8e8874805f547cd6d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Wendell Potter knows a little something about the health care industry's practices and is not afraid of to speak out as the health care reform debate heats up around the country. Wendell Potter once was a vice president in the public relations department for insurance giant Cigna. The former vice president of corporate communications at insurance giant Cigna, who left his post, says the industry is playing \"dirty tricks\" in an effort to manipulate public opinion. \"Words matter, and the insurance industry is a master at linguistics and using the hot words, buzzwords, buzz expressions that they know will get people upset,\" he told CNN Wednesday. Now a senior fellow on health care for the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, Potter writes a blog on health care reform. He is focusing on efforts to defeat legislation supporting a government health care plan -- something he supports. In early July, Potter testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, telling senators that \"I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry.\" Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies. Industry executives refer to the practice as \"purging,\" Potter said. \"When that business comes up for renewal, the underwriters jack the rates up so much, the employer has no choice but to drop insurance,\" Potter had said. In an e-mail to CNN, Cigna spokesman Chris Curran denied the company engages in purging. \"We do not practice that. We will offer rates that are reflective of the competitive group health insurance market. We always encourage our clients to compare our proposed rates to those available from other carriers,\" Curran wrote. But now, Potter is back in Washington at the invitation from Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-New York. He is questioning insurance companies' public relations tactics -- and says some of the questions from town hall meetings are familiar. Watch more on the health care reform debate \u00bb . \"People talk about the government takeover of the system ... that's a buzz term that comes straight out of the insurance industry,\" he said. A Cigna spokesman would not comment directly on Potter's accusations. Instead, the company released a written statement saying officials agree that health care reform is needed. But the statement went on to say that officials don't see how a government-sponsored plan can accomplish that. But Potter's concerns fall right in line with the Democrats' strategy of hitting insurance companies hard this summer. Republicans argue that insurance companies aren't solely to blame for the health care crisis, noting that many of their constituents are perfectly happy with the current system. The Democratic Party is also dealing with a group of fiscally conservative members known as \"Blue Dogs\" who are worried over the high costs of the health care plans being bandied about. Slaughter says that the concerns over a government option may be set up to \"try and protect one industry\" -- referring to the health insurance industry. Potter insists he has no agenda -- just a deep passion for the issue. \"This is hard to do. It's scary to do something like this. I don't think I'm any more courageous than anybody but I feel I had to do this.\" Potter also has said he decided to resign in 2007 after Cigna's controversial handling of an insurance claim made by the family of a California teenager, Nataline Sarkysian. The Sarkysian family made repeated appeals at news conferences for Cigna to approve a liver transplant for the 17-year-old, who had leukemia. Cigna initially declined to cover the operation, then reversed its decision. Sarkysian died hours after the company's reversal. CNN's Jim Acosta and Bonnie Knapp contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wendell Potter is a former vice president at insurance giant Cigna .\nPotter says insurance companies use key buzzwords as scare tactics .\nPotter also testified on his company's practice of 'purging'\nCigna spokesman denies claims that the company engages in patient purging .","id":"6f456dc76a4b7a57385d30907f5ab37c671cfe7e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police seized approximately 150 birds and arrested 19 people in a Connecticut home Sunday in an investigation of alleged finch and canary fighting, the Shelton Police Department said. Police seized cash, canaries, finches and bird cages from a home in Shelton, Connecticut. In addition to the 150 birds -- mainly saffron finches -- police seized their cages and $8,000 in cash from a home in Shelton, said police Sgt. Robert Kozlowsky. The 19 people, all originally from Brazil, are being charged with animal cruelty and illegal gambling, Kozlowsky said. The homeowner, Jurames Goulart, 42, was additionally charged with interfering with officers. Shelton Police say they've never seen or heard of this kind of bird fighting before. \"This is new to us,\" Kozlowsky told CNN. \"Finches are much easier to keep under the radar than roosters because they make less noise and they wouldn't arouse suspicions if someone had a lot of them.\" Watch police haul away the birds \u00bb . Kozlowsky said police obtained a search warrant after a monthlong investigation and raided the home after receiving tips that an illegal fight was scheduled to take place. Wayne Kasacek of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, which helped remove the birds, said that at least four of the finches have eye injuries. Saffron finches are canary-size birds native to South America.","highlights":"19 people arrested, $8,000 in cash seized at a Connecticut home .\nAll arrested, originally from Brazil, being charged with animal cruelty, illegal gambling .\nPolice call such fighting unusual, say it's easier to conceal than rooster fighting .\nPolice say that raid came after tips and that some of the birds have eye injuries .","id":"bb2288519cf217d02958f9226ba02194149fe196"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A $15.5 million payout made by oil giant Shell to settle a lawsuit brought against it by relations of executed Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists will allow the families of the victims to move on with their lives, Saro-Wiwa's son has told CNN. Saro-Wiwa said the settlement would allow the families of the victims to draw a line under the past. The New York lawsuit -- brought to court by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Saro-Wiwa's family and others in 1996 -- accused Shell's Nigerian subsidiary of complicity in the writer's 1995 hanging and the killings or persecution of other environmental activists in the Niger Delta. Nigeria's Ogoni people have complained for years that Shell was allowed to pollute its land without consequences. Saro-Wiwa's death sparked a worldwide outcry, and his movement ultimately forced Shell out of the oil- and gas-rich Ogoniland region. \"It enables us to draw a line under the past and actually face the future with something tangible, some hope that this is the beginning of a better engagement between all the stakeholders in this issue,\" Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. told CNN. Shell said it \"had no part in the violence that took place\" but called the settlement \"a humanitarian gesture to set up a trust fund to benefit the Ogoni people.\" Shell fought the lawsuit until last week, when a federal appellate court ruled that the plaintiffs could sue the company's Nigerian subsidiary in American courts, overturning a March decision in the company's favor. Saro-Wiwa said the case set a precedent for oil companies operating in regions such as West Africa by demonstrating that they could \"be brought to trial in America for human rights violations in Africa.\" Watch Saro-Wiwa discuss how he hopes the case will set a precedent \u00bb . \"Justice is always hard won... It took 13 years to go through the legal process but clearly before we started this corporations throught they could almost operate with impunity but now the legal landscape has changed,\" he said. Roughly half of the settlement will go into a trust fund to help the people of Nigeria's Ogoni region, according to court papers.","highlights":"Ken Saro-Wiwa's son says Shell payout will let families move on with lives .\nExecuted environmental activist's family sued oil company .\nAbout half of settlement will go to help people of Ogoni region .\nResidents have long complained that Shell was polluting land .","id":"67b95c0a355d4c2bddc183b8d81a556e528a087f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans of Usher Raymond IV view him as a singing, dancing and acting superstar. Superstar performer Usher Raymond IV at the closing ceremony for Usher's Camp New Look. But to a special group of young people, he is a mentor and a friend. \"He leads by example,\" said Arnold \"Supa\" LaFrance, a \"Mogul in Training\" at Usher's Camp New Look. \"Usher's all about peace and love and giving back to the community, and it's genuine. He does it when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off.\" Now in its fifth year, the camp is a passion for the Grammy Award-winning artist, who each year gives more than a hundred teens from underserved communities across the country the opportunity to learn about the entertainment and sports industries. Thomas Springer, a 17-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, resident, has participated in the camp for four years and said he wants to use his talent in filmmaking and what he has learned at Camp New Look to help his community. \"Before I came to camp, I didn't think I had a voice in my community and that I could do anything based on my age,\" Springer said. \"The camp let me know that no matter what your age, no matter what you do, you can make an impact on your community.\" Usher came to fame as a teen and has sold millions of records, including the hit singles \"Yeah\" and \"Confessions II.\" His success has allowed him to become part owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and to launch his own line of fragrances for men and women. The camp, the singer said, teaches participants the business aspects of the entertainment and sports industries and imparts the importance of being service-oriented. A selection committee selects campers that are nominated by partner organizations in various cities across the country. Now the father of two young boys, Usher said he is also enriched by the camp's experience. \"It makes me a better man. It makes me a better individual,\" he said. \"There's a difference between hard work and heart work, and this would represent heart work.\" Watch Usher talk about his camp \u00bb . As a youngster, Usher participated in the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and he said it helped shape his ideas about mentoring. \"I think that the Boys & Girls Club is a very positive environment for kids,\" he said. \"It's another place that allows you to be a product of your experience. I encountered a lot of people who became mentors for me there.\" At this year's closing ceremony for Usher's Camp New Look, held at the Alliance Theater at Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, the energy level was high as campers and their family members walked a red carpet alongside some of Usher's celebrity friends, including NBA star Alonzo Mourning and San Francisco 49er Allen Rossum. The free, residential camp held for two weeks every summer in Atlanta is an outgrowth of Usher's New Look Foundation, which he established to empower at-risk youth by giving them the skills necessary to enter careers in the sports and entertainment industries and working with them to provide employment opportunities. Mourning said Usher is one who understands that \"to whom much is given, much is required.\" \"The service that Usher is providing for these kids with these educational opportunities and expanding their lives to a whole new level, it's important that we all rally around these particular causes and support these initiatives,\" Mourning said. Gabrielle Brou, 16, a first-year camper from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who aspires to be an actress, said there were countless opportunities at camp to network with successful people who are living the lives she hopes to achieve. \"Once I found out that there were ways I could better myself in acting, learn the business and also give back ... I decided that this camp would be really great for me,\" she said. \"I would love to do it again next year.\" Having a day set aside for the campers and their families to revel in all that they have achieved and their future possibilities left Usher with a huge smile on his face. \"It's really good to see them be able to live out their dreams,\" he said.","highlights":"Usher's Camp New Look helps kids from underserved communities .\nCampers learn business behind entertainment and sports industries .\nSinger serves as mentor to more than 100 participants .\nUsher, who was mentored, said camp represents his \"heart work\"","id":"5b717a81b17b63ffad114c09b1d7241bffc2381d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Toyota-owned Fuji International Speedway circuit will stop hosting the Japanese Grand Prix from next year -- the track operators have announced. The Toyota-owned Fuji circuit will not be hosting the Japanese Grand Prix due to financial concerns. Fuji Speedway hosted the Formula One race in 2007 and 2008. The race is set to return to the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit this year, and was due back at Fuji for the 2010 race -- as the 16th leg of the 18-race Formula One series. The two venues were originally due to alternate hosting the Japanese Grand Prix but, due to the current downturn in the global economy, Fuji Speedway have confirmed they will no longer host the event. Fuji Speedway opened in 1965. It staged F1 races in 1976 and in 1977, when a spectator and steward died after a Ferrari driven by Gilles Villeneuve ploughed into the crowd. \"We decided it would be extremely difficult to continue holding the F1 Japanese Grand Prix in view of sharply deteriorating business conditions and few signs of a rapid economic recovery,\" Fuji International Speedway said in a statement. \"I apologize deeply for being unable to live up to expectations. It is truly heartbreaking,\" Hiroaki Kato, president of the the company that runs the circuit, told reporters. Kato said the economic downturn was causing a dramatic fall in the number of people attending motor sports events as the world's second-largest economy struggles through its worst recession since World War II. \"We are afraid that unless we circuit operators and promoters grit our teeth and support domestic motorsports, it will not be able to keep on going,\" he added. Toyota's decision to pull outcomes as the global economic crisis forces Japanese automakers to slash costs. Honda has sold its Formula One team while Suzuki and Subaru have withdrawn from the world rally championship. Motorcycle maker Kawasaki has exited the MotoGP and Mitsubishi is quitting the Dakar Rally despite a dozen victories. Toyota overtook American rival General Motors in 2008 as the world's top selling automaker but fell into the red for the first time in the year to March with a net loss of 436.9 billion yen ($4.6 billion). It expects a bigger net loss of 550 billion yen this year.","highlights":"Fuji International Speedway circuit will stop hosting the Japanese Grand Prix .\nThe Toyota-owned track staged the Formula One race in both 2007 and 2008 .\nSuzuka will stage the race this year but it was due to return to Fuji in 2010 .","id":"816ff77a1aab8ac2b90056efafb9bc2d6d77a48c"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Miami rapper Brisco lost $40,000 in jewelry and his luxury SUV when armed robbers stormed the barber shop where he was getting a trim, but the artist says the hold up may help his creativity. Security camera video showed Brisco, whose real name is British Mitchell, sitting in a barber chair when four armed men rush into the Miami, Florida, business, fire a few shots and order everyone, including the rapper, to the floor. \"He went to a barber shop to get his hair cut,\" Miami Police Officer Jeffery Giordano told Miami TV station WSVN. \"They took a little bit more off the top than expected.\" Brisco's gold watch, bracelet, chain and pendant were taken from him, along with the keys to his Range Rover. The vehicle was later recovered, Giordano said. \"For a rapper to have his bling stolen, they might as well stolen that man's heart,\" Giordano said. Brisco, known for his songs about ghetto street life, said he was still alive and looking at the bright side. \"I'll get bigger jewelry and still go hard,\" Brisco said. \"It's great material for my next album.\" Music fans also know Brisco by his other nickname, the Opa Locka Goon, a reference to his south Florida hometown. The armed robbery took place July 29 in Miami's Model City neighborhood.","highlights":"Security video shows Brisco getting a trim when four armed men rush in .\nGold watch, bracelet, chain, pendant, Range Rover were stolen .\n\"It's great material for my next album,\" rapper says .","id":"051ef0f7f4fc4f8c4805eb92a1b8cfea4485fadb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military hopes to kill or capture some 50 Afghan drug traffickers with financial ties to the Taliban in an effort to shut down one of the insurgency's biggest sources of revenue, a U.S. Senate report says. Afghan men smoke heroin in the city of Herat on August 7, 2009. The new plan is the first time the U.S. military has been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and commanders say it is an essential part of the overall plan to stabilize the country, which is under heavy Taliban influence. Until now the U.S. military has left the eradication programs to other U.S. agencies and the Afghan military, keeping its \"most wanted\" list to insurgent leaders tied to bomb making, weapons smuggling or facilitating foreign fighters into the country. \"The change is dramatic for a military that once ignored the drug trade flourishing in front of its eyes,\" according to the report. \"No longer are U.S. commanders arguing that going after the drug lords is not part of their mandate.\" It does not name the 50 targets, but says they are on a list of 367 names of Taliban and other insurgents targeted by the U.S. military. \"Some\" of the 50 have already been apprehended or killed, according to a senior military official. The official would not quantify the amount further and would not speak on the record because of the sensitive nature of the issue. The yet-to-be released report was prepared by staff for members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A copy was provided to CNN. It is based on testimony by U.S. military officials to the committee. Bush-era efforts by the United States and the U.S.-trained Afghan Army to eliminate poppy farms did very little to solve the problem, with numerous farmers' crops flourishing while other farmers were left with no source of income and bitterness toward the Afghan government, the report concludes. It criticizes former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for failing to push forward on a military role in drug eradication even after being shown proof of the connection between the drug lords and the Taliban. The change in the U.S. military's approach to fighting the drug war came last fall after the United States told NATO members that the drug trade was a threat to NATO troops because there was a direct connection between it and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. \"There is what we call a nexus of insurgency. There's a very broad range of militant groups that are combined with the criminality, with the narco-trafficking system, with corruption, that form a threat and a challenge to the future of that great country,\" then-U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. David McKiernan told reporters at the Pentagon last October. But with a new approach to the war by the Obama administration, the United States has started attacking the drug problem head on. According to the report, this year U.S. and NATO combat forces started attacking militants, drug labs and buildings connected to insurgents with ties to drug lords for the first time since the start of the war in 2001. Referring to people tied to narcotics and militants, the report says, \"The military places no restrictions on the use of force with these selected targets, which means they can be killed or captured on the battlefield.\" The Pentagon's spokesman said the effort is still focused on fighting terrorism. \"There is a well-established link [between] the drug trade and financing of the insurgency and terrorism,\" said spokesman Bryan Whitman. \"It's important to delineate that we target terrorists that are connected to the drug trade. ... Terrorist do interface with drug networks and we know they provide finance for the insurgency, and it's this nexus that creates the security and force-protection issues that make them a legitimate target.\" A major U.S. Marine offensive against the Taliban was launched last month in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, home to the majority of the poppy farms and opium trade. The report says the Taliban make about $70 million a year on the drug trade. The report concedes that counter-narcotics alone will not win the war, but says slowing the flow of illicit money will play a crucial role in \"determining whether we can carve out the space required to provide the security and economic development necessary to bring a level of stability to Afghanistan.\"","highlights":"Report: U.S. military pursuing 50 Afghan drug traffickers tied to Taliban .\nNew initiative strives to shut down big revenue source for insurgency .\nReport: \"The change is dramatic for a military that once ignored the drug trade,\"\nU.S., NATO forces now targeting insurgents tied to drug lords, report says .","id":"d71ab801dc0aae59a5b9b3ce60d5ee95151bbdff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Mexican man who was allegedly killed on orders from his own cartel believed they were hunting for him after he began working as an informant and was fearful for his life, according to court documents. Police say soldier Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, acted as the gunman. Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana began to worry after he began working as an informant for immigration officials in the United States. \"The victim was concerned for his own well-being and the safety of his family,\" the documents said, referencing statements the victim made to a witness. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials gave Gonzalez a visa so he could live in El Paso, Texas, his fellow Juarez cartel members began to get suspicious, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a press conference. Allen said Gonzalez's exit from Mexico, combined with a raid on a cartel warehouse and the arrest of cartel lieutenant Pedro \"El Tigre\" Aranas Sanchez led cartel members to believe he might be working as an informant, Allen said. Then, a Mexican newspaper named Gonzalez as an informant in the arrest of the high-ranking cartel member, according to court documents. Police say Gonzales quickly became the target of his own cartel. Police said Gonzalez knew if his fellow cartel members found him, he would likely be killed, police said. On May 15, the cartel found him. He was shot eight times outside his home in El Paso, Texas, police said. Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, Ruben Rodriguez Dorado, 30, and Christopher Andrew Duran, 17, were each named as suspects Monday and each are facing one count of capital murder. The three men are being held on $1 million bond. Police said Apodaca was the shooter, Duran was the getaway car driver, and Rodriguez was the one who coordinated the murder. On Wednesday, police also arrested a 16-year-old who they said was involved in the surveillance and reconnaissance of the victim. The juvenile also faces one count of capital murder. Rodriguez and the victim were in the Juarez cartel, based across the border from El Paso, police spokesman Chris Mears said. He said police believe Apodaca and Duran were not cartel members. Apodaca joined the Army a year ago and worked as a crew member on a Patriot missile launcher, officials at Fort Bliss in El Paso said. \"He was in the top of his class,\" said Dave Jackson, his grandfather. \"You talk to all his sergeants. He's a good soldier. Now, before he went in [and joined the Army], he was in, he was in with a bad crowd.\" Investigators said at the press conference they think the three suspects met through a relative of Rodriguez. \"He [Rodriguez] was the older guy, he provided the alcohol, the party locations,\" police Lt. Alfred Lowe said. \"And he recruited these people to do his bidding.\" Once the three men were allegedly hired, they were \"told to find the victim in the United States,\" Allen said. Rodriguez paid the victim's cell phone bill hoping he would be able to learn where he lived, federal officials learned, according to court documents. Federal law enforcement was apparently concerned enough about the incident that officers told local law enforcement to signal Gonzalez's home could be at risk. Hours before the slaying, police said Rodriguez called a tactical supply store that exclusively sells the same brand of ammunition found at the scene. The suspects found Gonzalez at a relative's home in Canutillo, Texas, and followed him back to his home before shooting him, police said. The three arrested men's phone records showed their approximate locations on the night of the killing and corroborated that the suspects were tracking the victim, according to court documents. During an interrogation, Rodriguez told investigators he ordered Gonzalez's execution, police said. But Allen also said during the press conference that Rodriguez planned the killing and hired the other suspects after he was given the order by cartel lieutenant Jesus Aguayo Salas. Police said there was also a warrant out for his arrest. Rodriguez told police he paid the participants for their role in the killing, the affidavit said. It said he also noted that he was a midlevel member of the cartel, which he called the \"Compania,\" and said he was in charge of coordinating surveillance for the cartel, \"following intended victims up until their execution.\" Duran and Rodriguez told police that Apodaca was paid to be the shooter and Duran to drive the getaway car, according to the affidavit. Allen said both men were each paid \"quite a robust amount of money ... under $10,000, in that area.\" Police said more arrests could still come in the case. CNN's Ashley Fantz, Tracy Sabo, Mallory Simon and Melanie Whitley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police say victim believed if cartel found him, he would be killed .\nDocuments: Suspect tried to find victim by paying his phone bill .\nSoldier Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, was one of three men arrested Monday .\nOther suspects include Ruben Rodriguez Dorado and Christopher Andrew Duran .","id":"8ee896966187f05bd31e87fbe9a8c006869d8b9d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The price of big screen televisions has been coming down, but this was ridiculous. Best Buy's Web site offered a 52-inch TV for less than $10, but the deal was too good to be true. Early Wednesday morning, BestBuy.com listed a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for $9.99 -- a savings of more than $1600. As customers jumped on the Web site trying to take advantage of the offer, Best Buy announced it was a \"pricing error\" and was no longer available. A recorded message on Best Buy's customer service line told customers \"we will not be placing any more orders for this unit,\" and messages were sent on Twitter apologizing \"for any disappointment.\" Customers who placed orders early Wednesday were left wondering if they got away with the bargain. Eric VanBergen of Grand Rapids, Michigan, told CNN he snapped one up for $84.79 -- including $70 shipping and taxes -- at 5:30 a.m. Then, he ordered a second. Dozens of customers were posting to Twitter and Bestbuy.com, saying they also placed often multiple orders. It appears they are out of luck. In a statement, Best Buy apologized for the mistake but said it would \"not be honoring the incorrect price.\" Company representatives posted online messages telling customers \"All current and previous orders made for the TV at this price on BestBuy.com will be cancelled, and customers will be refunded in full for the purchase.\" The company's Web site states Best Buy reserves the right to \"revoke offers or correct errors\" even if a credit card has already been charged. The price mix-up gave way to customer frustration as people lost out on the deal of the year. \".bestbuy dang you!!!!\" was how VanBergen reacted on Twitter after learning that his two confirmation e-mails from Best Buy were meaningless. But it appears there is little else they can do. A spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission that investigates consumer complaints told CNN \"The FTC act bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices.\" Those would be cases of phony offers or sweepstakes, rather than a mistake, she said.","highlights":"Best Buy's Web site offers 52-inch HDTV on Web site for less than $10 .\nCustomers get on Web site to take advantage of bargain .\nBest Buy officials admit \"pricing error\", says it will not honor TV purchases .","id":"981b9fefef07440bdbb43fba734b2a8a66a626fd"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Two days after the death of Michael Jackson, the family of the pop superstar thanked his fans for their condolences and support in \"one of the darkest moments of our lives.\" A girl holds up signs in memory of Michael Jackson outside New York's Apollo Theater on Saturday. \"Please do not despair, because Michael will continue to live on in each and every one of you,\" family patriarch Joseph Jackson said in a statement to People magazine obtained by CNN. \"Continue to spread his message, because that is what he would want you to do. Carry on, so his legacy will live forever,\" the statement told fans. \"Our beloved son, brother and father of three children has gone so unexpectedly, in such a tragic way and much too soon,\" the statement said. \"It leaves us, his family, speechless and devastated to a point, where communication with the outside world seems almost impossible at times.\" Watch how one fan mourns pop star \u00bb . Family members including Jackson's mother, Katherine, were at the estate Jackson had rented in Holmby Hills. Around midday, two moving vans pulled up. One left empty, and the other apparently contained objects from the house. Other vehicles came and went, including a silver Range Rover driven by a plain clothes police officer. Meanwhile, the doctor who may have been the last person to see Michael Jackson alive was expected to meet with police Saturday along with his lawyer, an associate of attorney Ed Chernoff said. Matthew Alford, an associate of Stradley, Chernoff and Alford law firm in Houston, Texas, said Dr. Conrad Murray, who is represented by Chernoff, was upset but willing to cooperate. Watch what Alford said about doctor's involvement \u00bb . The ongoing meeting could spill into Sunday, according to the firm. \"It's a human tragedy, and he's upset obviously over the loss of Mr. Jackson. But he is not a suspect in the death of Mr. Jackson,\" Alford said. \"We intend to cooperate fully.\" Los Angeles police, who met briefly with Murray after Michael Jackson's death, had been trying to set up an interview, Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck said. \"Is important to interview everybody that was in contact with Mr. Jackson immediately prior to his demise particularly anyone involved in his medical care,\" Beck said. \"So it's extremely important to talk to his doctor.\" Police said the doctor has been cooperating. Jackson's family suspects that Murray can answer some questions about the singer's death, but they have been unable to contact him, the Rev. Jesse Jackson told CNN on Saturday. The parents need to know what happened in the last hours of Michael Jackson's life, Jesse Jackson said. \"The routine inquiry is now an investigation,\" Jesse Jackson said. \"They (Jacksons) didn't know the doctor. ... He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son.\" Alford said Murray has \"not been hiding out. He's just being prudent.\" Detectives impounded Murray's car, which was parked at the singer's rented home, because it may contain evidence related to Jackson's death, possibly prescription medications. Police have released no information on what they may have found. Alford said he did not have any details. \"I have no information as to what if any treatment, or course of treatment he was doing for Mr. Jackson at all,\" he said. Michael Jackson died Thursday, and an autopsy was performed the following day. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office told reporters Friday that more tests must be conducted before a cause of death can be determined. That could take four to six weeks. The coroner said there was no indication of external trauma or foul play. Watch the coroner's spokesman discuss the autopsy \u00bb . The 50-year-old pop star was discovered unconscious Thursday by paramedics at his home, where Murray apparently had tried to revive him. He was rushed to a Los Angeles medical center, where he was pronounced dead. \"They need an independent autopsy to get even more answers to questions that are now being driven by the gap between when Michael was last seen alive and was pronounced dead day before yesterday,\" Jesse Jackson said. Watch Jesse Jackson detail the family's concerns \u00bb . There are lingering questions, such as: \"How long had he stopped breathing? How long had he been unconscious?\" he said. Jackson had been preparing for a comeback tour -- aimed at extending his legendary career and helping him to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report .","highlights":"\"One of the darkest moments of our lives,\" Jackson family says .\nDr. Conrad Murray upset but willing to cooperate, law firm says .\nRev. Jesse Jackson says behavior of Jackson's doctor raises questions .\nFamily should seek independent autopsy, Rev. Jesse Jackson says .","id":"0967da2001f605517fd1fdacc10e417d572b2744"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the disabled who founded the Special Olympics, died Tuesday, the Special Olympics said. She was 88. Eunice Kennedy Shriver speaks at a dinner in honor of the Special Olympics in July 2006. Born on July 10, 1921, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Shriver was the fifth of nine children to Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. She emerged from the long shadow of siblings John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as the founder of the Special Olympics, which started as a summer day camp in her backyard in 1962. Today, 3.1 million people with mental disabilities participate in 228 programs in 170 nations, according to the Special Olympics. \"She was the light of our lives, a mother, wife, grandmother, sister and aunt who taught us by example and with passion what it means to live a faith-driven life of love and service to others,\" the Shriver family said Tuesday in a statement. \"For each of us, she often seemed to stop time itself -- to run another Special Olympics Games, to visit us in our homes, to attend to her own mother, her sisters and brothers, and to sail, tell stories, and laugh and serve her friends.\" No final decision has been made on funeral arrangements, a source close to the family said. Shriver's husband, R. Sargent Shriver, and her five children and their spouses and all of her 19 grandchildren were with her when she died, the Special Olympics said in a statement. Watch a look at Eunice Kennedy Shriver's life \u00bb . \"We are tremendously grateful for the extreme outpouring of support and prayer from the public as we honor our beloved founder,\" Brady Lum, Special Olympics president and chief operating officer, said in a statement Tuesday. \"Today we celebrate the life of a woman who had the vision to create our movement. It is an enormous loss, but I know we can rest assured that her legacy will live on through her family, friends, and the millions of people around the world who she touched and transformed.\" Even before launching the Special Olympics in 1968, Shriver had established a reputation as an advocate for the disenfranchised and a trailblazer for the rights of the disabled through a variety of roles in the private and public sector. She also persuaded the Kennedy family to go public with one of its most guarded secrets. In September 1962, Shriver wrote an article about her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary, which was published in The Saturday Evening Post. At an event honoring her in 2007, Shriver spoke of her life: \"Most people believe I spent my whole life really interested in only one thing and that one thing is working to make the world a better place for people with intellectual disabilities. \"As important as it has been, it is not the whole story of my life. My life is about being lucky as a child to be raised by parents who loved me and made me believe in possibilities. It is also about being lucky to have had these extraordinary children. ... It is also about being especially lucky to have a wonderful husband.\" Watch Shriver reflect on her life \u00bb . At the same event, Edward Kennedy paid tribute to his sister, saying she had inherited the best qualities from his parents, including compassion. \"She had that sense no one should be left out or left behind. She picked this up, obviously, at a very early age. All of us could see that special relationship that Eunice had with Rosemary.\" After receiving a degree in sociology from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Shriver worked for the U.S. State Department in the Special War Problems Division from 1943 to 1945, helping former prisoners of war readjust to civilian life. From 1947 to 1948, she worked for $1 at the Department of Justice as executive secretary for the National Conference on Prevention and Control of Juvenile Delinquency. See highlights of Shriver's public and private life \u00bb . In the early 1950s, she was a social worker at a federal prison for women in West Virginia and in juvenile court in Chicago, Illinois. She married Sargent Shriver Jr., a World War II veteran who was building his career as a lawyer and public servant, in 1953. The couple's five children include California's first lady, Maria Shriver. Sargent Shriver had roles in many top government initiatives of the 1960s, including Head Start and the Peace Corps. He also worked with his wife on the Special Olympics. He ran President Johnson's War on Poverty and was U.S. ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970. He was Democrat George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 presidential election. In 1957, Eunice Shriver became executive vice president of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, which was established in 1946 to honor the family's eldest son -- who was killed in World War II -- to research the causes of disabilities and to improve the treatment of disabled people. Watch Shriver receive a special honor \u00bb . Her work with the foundation paved the way for a number of initiatives furthering the cause of disability advocacy. In 1962 she helped establish the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a government agency that conducts research on topics related to the health of children, adults and families that was named after Shriver in 2008. Disturbed by the treatment of disabled people in institutions across the country in the 1950s and 1960s, Shriver began inviting disabled children to a summer day camp, called Camp Shriver, on her farm in Maryland. Her vision expanded over the years, and in July 1968 the first International Special Olympics Games were held in Chicago. She also assisted in the establishment of a network of university-affiliated facilities and intellectual disabilities research centers at major medical schools across the United States, including centers for the study of medical ethics at Harvard and Georgetown universities in 1971. In 1981, Shriver began the Community of Caring program to reduce disabilities among babies of teenagers. That led to the establishment of Community of Caring programs in 1,200 public and private schools from 1990 to 2006. Along the way, Shriver earned worldwide accolades and awards, including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame's Founder's Award and nine honorary degrees. In 1995, the U.S. Mint issued a commemorative coin with her portrait. The Mint says that made her the first living woman to be depicted on an American coin. In 2009, a painting of Shriver with several Special Olympians was added to the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery. See images from Shriver's life \u00bb . Her health began to fail in recent years, landing her in the hospital in 2005 after a minor stroke and hip fracture. She was hospitalized again in 2007 for an undisclosed ailment. In addition to her husband and daughter, Shriver is survived by her sons Robert Sargent Shriver III, Timothy Perry Shriver, Mark Kennedy Shriver and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver.","highlights":"NEW: \"She often seemed to stop time itself,\" family says in statement .\nSister of President Kennedy, Sen. Edward Kennedy dies at 88 .\nEunice Kennedy Shriver was Special Olympics founder, honorary chairwoman .\nHusband R. Sargent Shriver, five children, 19 grandchildren with her at death .","id":"b2f349cf4a2af65dacc4ff6eba330407a4fc76d4"} -{"article":"ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- The hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery took on a different tone Monday -- the usually quiet and reverent resting place of fallen heroes was buzzing with volunteers, professional landscapers and their equipment during the annual \"Renewal and Remembrance\" project. Monday was the annual \"Renewal and Remembrance\" day at Arlington National Cemetery. \"Renewal\" was started more than 10 years ago by an Ohio lawn-care group that wanted to give a day of service to the cemetery outside Washington, according to Bill Hildebolt, spokesman for the Professional Landcare Network. \"It's grown fantastically from a few lawn-care operators to today we had over 400 individual PLANET members,\" he said Monday. Each year, volunteers take on several projects during the service day, including spreading lime over nearly 300 acres of the cemetery and installing irrigation systems, Hildebolt said. While the 95 companies participating Monday may normally compete for business in the lawn-care market, during Renewal the crews work together to honor the service members buried at Arlington. \"It's just a day of remembrance,\" said Jeff Dietrich of Pennsylvania-based Joshua Tree, who has been volunteering for four years. A crew of arborists from the Joshua Tree company took on one the most expensive projects -- protecting Arlington's biggest trees from lightning. According to Dietrich, the process of lightning protection is important for protecting a valuable part of history. Watch how trees are protected \u00bb . \"Lightning, electricity is unpredictable at best. ... It'll blow a tree apart.\" To protect a tree from lightning strikes, Dietrich and his crew climb up to the top of a tree and run copper wires down the trunk with anchors that resemble rifle cartridges. The wire is then grounded by a copper pole entrenched at the base of the tree. If lightning strikes, the electricity runs down the wire and dissipates into the ground instead of harming the tree. Even though it took the Joshua Tree crew longer to reach Arlington from Pennsylvania than the four hours needed to complete their work, the workers seemed eager for their chance to volunteer, cheering each other on while working and sharing some trade secrets with other crews. \"How many people can say they get to come down to Arlington, especially if they're not from around here, and climb some of these trees?\" said Deitrich. For Hildebolt, providing a service for the national cemetery is a way to make a national contribution. \"It's a privilege,\" he said. \"It's a very humbling experience that I'm very proud of.\"","highlights":"Landscapers volunteer during annual \"Renewal and Remembrance\" project .\n95 companies participated Monday at Arlington National Cemetery .\nVolunteers take on several projects including irrigation, lightning protection .","id":"bd8af75eab7c1cd3c15e81fd550cf0d461f02fa2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman and three children were killed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when a suspected robber fleeing in a car jumped a curb and struck them, police said Thursday. Four people were killed after a car fleeing police struck a home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. \"He literally cut a tree in half,\" Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said, \"then hit the 1-year-old, [who] was in a stroller. The other individuals were on the front porch of their own home. He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose.\" Latoya Smith, 22, died Thursday from injuries in the crash, which occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Fentonville area of north Philadelphia, police Capt. James Clark said. Smith's daughter, Remedy Smith -- who would have turned 1 on Friday -- died at the scene, as did Alicia Griffin, 6, and Gina Rosario, 7, Clark said. Video of the scene showed a crumpled silver Pontiac on the sidewalk, pushed up against the front steps of a house and wedged against a tree. Watch police commissioner describe carnage \u00bb . Donta Cradock, 18, the alleged driver of the gray Pontiac, faces charges for theft of a motorcycle, the crime that allegedly triggered his flight, police said. Other charges are pending approval from the district attorney's office, police said. \"We're hopeful that it will be four counts of murder,\" Clark said. Cradock and an alleged accomplice, Ivan Rodriguez, 20, stole a motorcycle at gunpoint around 7:30 p.m., he said. Rodriguez fled the scene on the motorcycle, while Cradock drove away in the Pontiac, Clark said. An unidentified person told a traffic police officer in the area about the alleged robbery and pointed out the Pontiac, he said. The police officer followed the car and tried to stop it at a traffic light, Clark said. \"At that point the Pontiac fled at a high rate of speed,\" he said. The officer followed the vehicle, but lost sight of it, Clark said. The officer was not close enough to chase the car, police said, but eventually came across what Clark called a \"horrific accident.\" Cradock was thrown from the Pontiac and is in the hospital, Clark said. He said a gun was recovered on the suspect. Rodriguez was arrested at his home, Clark said, and faces a theft charge. Both men have \"very extensive criminal histories,\" Ramsey said. Bench warrants were out on them at the time of their arrest, Clark said. It was not immediately clear if the two had retained attorneys. CNN's Mark Norman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Donta Cradock, 18, allegedly fled scene of motorcycle robbery in silver Pontiac .\nPolice chase ends when car hits home, killing Latoya Smith, 3 kids .\n\"He struck with such force that it knocked the concrete steps loose,\" police say .\nCradock and accomplice face motorcycle theft charges; others pending .","id":"8557ef9c868b0b5aea1a955ca5589b7c6ccb1f04"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- If you have a heavy foot and may travel a bit over the speed limit, you might want to keep an eye out for these popular police car models. Not all police cars are as clearly marked as this one. What to watch for on the interstate . The Ford Crown Victoria is the most popular police car currently in production. Renowned for its durability, many speeders have seen this unfortunate sight in their rear view mirror. But there are other patrol vehicles that road warriors should recognize, and many of them are faster than the popular Crown Vicky. Ford Crown Victoria Interceptor: The standard . Officers value the Ford Crown Victoria Interceptor for its durability, size, and overall performance. These cruisers feature reinforced frames, a special 4.6-liter V-8, and other heavy-duty components that enable them to handle high-speed chases. According to The Michigan State Police, the fastest Crown Victoria Interceptor will hit 128 mph. Chevrolet Impala: Under the radar . The Chevy Impala is one of the best-selling cars in the U.S. This makes it the perfect choice for police departments who want a car that blends in with traffic. The Impala's familiar shape doesn't stand out or call attention to itself. Fitted with the special Police Package (code 9C1), this mid-size sedan with a 3.9-liter V-6 engine hits an impressive 140 mph. Chevrolet Tahoe: Probably not taking kids to soccer camp . Some police departments need the strength and power that only a full-size SUV can deliver. Fitted with the special PPV option, the big Chevy Tahoe SUV can hit 133 mph thanks to its high-performance 5.3-liter V-8 with 320 horsepower. Look for the black wheels with tiny center hubcaps as a tip-off should you see one unmarked or without a light bar. Dodge Magnum: The wagon that knows how to haul . Dodge produced their last Magnum police car in 2008, but many police departments still have these station wagons in service. Fitted with the legendary 5.7-liter HEMI V-8, the wagon can hit 131 mph and charge up to that speed with muscle-car type performance. The wagon sprints from 0-60 mph in under six seconds. AOL Autos: Wonder wagons . HUMMER H3: Special duty . The H3 may be the smallest model in the HUMMER family, but it remains a very capable off-road vehicle. The police-version of the H3 is fortified for running off-road and carries other equipment necessary for police duty. The H3 can be equipped with a 5.3-liter V-8, but high-speed pursuit is not this vehicle's forte, except when the chase is across a desert, through fields, or over the Rubicon. Harley-Davidson Electra Glide: King of the road . Police departments also utilize an assortment of motorcycles in their quest to keep motorists safe. The Michigan State Police test two-wheelers on an annual basis and the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide is a perennial favorite. While the Harley offers other performance benefits, with a top speed of just 104 mph, they are not the best for high-speed pursuits. Dodge Charger: That cop car's got a HEMI! The sight of a Dodge Charger police car should be enough to make you think twice about attempting to out run an officer behind the wheel of one of these. Equipped with the 5.7-liter HEMI V-8, the Charger can hit a staggering 146 mph. This makes the Dodge the fastest mainstream police car available. But what about vehicles that aren't mainstream? AOL Autos: Fast cars --join the 600 horsepower club . Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 . Harper Woods, Michigan borders Detroit: It's a relatively quiet bedroom community that packs a big surprise for anyone speeding on the section of Interstate 94 running across its borders: a 2005 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. Acquired to boost \"community relations\" and to intimidate speeders, the Shelby's supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 puts out 450 horsepower and will easily exceed 150 mph. AOL Autos: First drive of 2010 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 . Police ID: What to look for in unmarked vehicles . Departments often use unmarked vehicles, many of which will be identical to their fully outfitted cruisers. Unmarked cars and trucks enable more stealthy operations. Tips for identifying unmarked police cars include looking for; light bars mounted in the rear window, municipal license plates, painted black wheels, and dividers between the front and rear seats. AOL Autos: Cops in the sky . Future cop car: Coming to a highway near you . Carbon Motors, a new company located in Georgia, is developing the E7, a purpose-built police interceptor. With a wheelbase of 122-inches and an overall length of 200-inches, the E7 is bigger than current Crown Victoria or Charger cop cars. Power for the E7 will be a 300-horsepower clean-diesel that should give the car a top-speed of 155 mph. AOL Autos: Speed cameras on U.S. roads .","highlights":"Ford Crown Victoria is the most popular police car currently in production .\nChevy Impalas blend in with traffic, but can hit 140 mph .\nDodge Magnum wagon sprints from 0-60 mph in under six seconds .\nPolice say a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 intimidates speeders .","id":"61395afbbddec1b3cd9e244a85b1bb9c3775cb5d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Southwest Airlines jet made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday after a football-sized hole in its fuselage caused the cabin to depressurize, an airline spokeswoman said. Southwest Flight 2294 made an emergency landing at Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday. There were no injuries aboard the Boeing 737, which was traveling at about 34,000 feet when the problem occurred, Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told CNN. The sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy. Southwest Flight 2294 was en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to Baltimore, Maryland, with 126 passengers and a crew of five aboard, McInnis said. It landed at 5:10 p.m. after the crew reported a football-sized hole in the middle of the cabin near the top of the aircraft, McInnis said. What caused the damage to the jet had not been determined, she said. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said. \"There is no responsible way to speculate as to a cause at this point,\" Southwest said in a statement Monday night. Watch as passenger describes watching the hole form \u00bb . \"We have safety procedures in place, and they were followed in this instance to get all passengers and crew safely on the ground,\" the airline said. \"Reports we have are that our passengers were calm and that our pilots and flight attendants did a great job getting the aircraft on the ground safely.\" Southwest dispatched a replacement aircraft to take passengers on to Baltimore. See map of flight path \u00bb . Charleston airport spokesman Brian Belcher said a local pizzeria provided food for the passengers as they waited. The damaged jet will remain on the ground there until federal inspectors can examine it, he said. In addition, all 181 of Southwest's 737-300s -- about a third of the airline's fleet -- will be inspected overnight after the emergency landing, McInnis said. Southwest does not expect the inspections to create delays, she said. CNN's Shawn Nottingham and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Southwest Airlines jet makes emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia .\nFootball-sized hole in fuselage causes cabin to depressurize, oxygen masks to drop .\nNo injuries reported aboard Boeing 737; Flight 2294 was traveling at 34,000 feet .\nNo determination of what caused the hole in middle of cabin near top of aircraft .","id":"4f95cc99aadffa18e904cd6fcb27a763022876e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended two air traffic controllers over last week's collision of two aircraft over the Hudson River that killed nine people, a spokeswoman said. The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted this week from the Hudson River. A controller at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport handling the flight of a Piper airplane carrying three people \"was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident,\" FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said in a statement Thursday. A source with knowledge of the investigation said the controller was on the phone with his girlfriend \"after he cleared the pilot for takeoff; he was still on the phone at the time of the crash.\" In addition, \"the supervisor was not present in the building as required,\" Brown said. \"While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident, this kind of conduct is unacceptable, and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings,\" she said. Watch amateur video of the moment of impact \u00bb . \"These are serious violations of the FAA regulations,\" said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the Transportation Department. The union for air traffic controllers urged caution. \"We support that any such allegation is fully investigated before there is a rush to judgment about the behavior of any controller,\" said a statement from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The National Transportation Safety Board is working with the FAA in investigating Saturday's collision of the Piper, which had taken off from Teterboro, with a sightseeing helicopter that was carrying five Italian tourists and a pilot. No one aboard either aircraft survived the crash. The NTSB has said the pilot of the small plane was cleared electronically and handed off to Newark, New Jersey, air traffic controllers, a standard procedure. However, Newark's control tower never got a verbal response from the pilot of the small plane. The controller put on leave was described as a longtime employee, the source said. He and the supervisor face disciplinary action that could include their firing. Also Thursday, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the agency may reissue advisories to pilots using the busy airspace over the Hudson. Pilots are urged to use a radio frequency dedicated to traffic in that corridor, fly no faster than 140 knots and turn on their lights as they enter that airspace. Babbitt made the comments at an event at the agency's research facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Spokeswoman: Controller was talking to girlfriend on phone during accident .\nController's supervisor also not present in building as required, spokeswoman says .\nController was handling plane carrying three people that collided with helicopter .\nNine people died in collision of tourist helicopter and plane over Hudson River .","id":"a4c7ce5f800421fd9ca68e01fa115c9e6636bb84"} -{"article":"She told stories, flirted outrageously with boys and was constantly changing her hairstyle. Anne Frank hid with her family in a secret room at her father Otto Frank's office in Amsterdam. It could be the description of almost any young girl growing up in Europe. But this is how Eva Schloss remembers her childhood friend Anne Frank, who had she not died in a Nazi concentration camp, would have celebrated her 80th birthday this week. Schloss described Frank, whose account of hiding from Jewish persecution in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam is one of the world's mostly widely-read books, as a spunky young schoolgirl with a passion for storytelling that often got her into trouble. \"She got her diary in 1942, so obviously her father knew she was interested in writing and I know she told stories,\" said Schloss. \"She talked a lot and she was called Mrs Quack Quack. Very often she used to write hundreds of lines [at school] of 'I'm not going to talk so much,' and so on -- but obviously she had a lot to tell.\" In some ways the two friends lived parallel lives -- but tragically they had very different outcomes. Watch more about Schloss' story \u00bb . Schloss and Frank both came from Jewish families who fled to Holland to escape the wave of anti-Semitism spreading across Europe as the Nazis rose to power in Germany ahead of the Second World War. But while Schloss was more of an introvert, Frank loved the limelight. Schloss said: \"I was actually quite shy and she was the center of attention. We had steps where we sat, and she had a crowd of children around her. \"She was a big flirt -- she loved boys. She was always showing us who was her boyfriend at that particular time. She was always interested in her clothes. Her style, she always changed it. Sometimes she had curls, then she had straight hair.\" Schloss says they were unaware of the full scale of what was going on around them as war escalated across Europe, placing their lives in increasing jeopardy. \"Our parents really protected us so there was no talk about the horrendous things which happened. \"You couldn't go out anymore after 8 o'clock, but for a 11 to 12 year old it didn't matter so much. Or not going to the cinema -- we were upset about those little things which we couldn't do, but we really didn't really take it seriously at that time.\" Like Frank, Schloss was also forced into hiding when the Nazis took control of Holland. Frank hid with her family in a secret room at her father Otto Frank's office. But Schloss and her family had to split up. Schloss stayed with her mother while her father and brother hid elsewhere. She and her mother moved around, staying in seven different hiding places over a two-year period. Eventually both families were betrayed and were sent to concentration camps, where Frank died at the age of 15. Schloss said: \"My father and brother were betrayed by a Dutch nurse who was a double agent, and all four of us were arrested and taken to the headquarters to be interrogated. \"I didn't know anything, which was a good thing. So eventually they realized this and they gave up torturing me. Within two days we were put on a transport to Auschwitz.\" Of her family, only Schloss and her mother survived Auschwitz, one of the most notorious concentration camps, located in southern Poland. Today Schloss, who has just celebrated her own 80th birthday, has a husband, three daughters and five grandchildren. Schloss says it took her decades to rebuild her life, with the help of Frank's father Otto, who also survived incarceration in a concentration camp. She met Otto in August 1945, when he showed her Frank's diary. Schloss said: \"He read a few passages but he always burst into tears. It took me 20 years. I was really unhappy, but it was Otto who came to our apartment to talk to us, and he helped me a lot. He had lost everybody. \"Her book, she [Frank] made people aware of what happened. There are many messages. She believed in the goodness of mankind. \"People always ask me, what she would have done. I guess we will never know. But I guess she would have gone into politics -- she was a fighter. It's a pity, but also -- maybe her diary would have never been published.\" CNN's Don Riddell contributed to this story.","highlights":"Anne Frank would have celebrated her 80th birthday this week .\nFrank, 15, died at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland .\nHer diary is one of the world's mostly widely-read books .\nLike Frank, Eva Schloss and her family fled from Nazi persecution of the Jews .","id":"aba7c6ade665622062e02c7fdc4b7cd217006258"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The music isn't new, but the discovery that a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart \"almost certainly\" composed it is a stunning revelation. A researcher in Austria says the works were probably transcribed by Mozart's father, as young Mozart played. The two compositions -- a concerto in G and a prelude in G -- have long been in the files at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, as anonymous works and were even published in the book \"New Mozart Edition\" in 1982. Now Ulrich Leisinger, director of the foundation's research department, believes the works actually were composed by Mozart before he was old enough to write music, and that Mozart's father, Leopold, transcribed them. The foundation said in a statement that Leisinger analyzed the handwriting and other \"stylistic criteria\" to determine the music was \"almost certainly unknown compositions by\" the young Mozart. The compositions were found in a book, compiled by Mozart's father, that was used for practice and the musical education of both Mozart and his sister, according to the statement. Leisinger's analyses \"support the claim that they were actually composed by the young Mozart, who was not yet versed in musical notation, and transcribed by his father as the boy played the works at the keyboard,\" the statement said. Jeffrey Kimpton, president of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, called the works \"a remarkable historical find.\" He said Leopold Mozart transcribed his son's early works as a way of preserving them. \"When parents go to a piano recital of an early student, a young student, who's playing for the first time, they get a video tape, they get a DVD, that's a way of recording it,\" Kimpton said. \"I think what's exciting is that Mozart's father wanted to preserve this incredible genius. The young boy at this time didn't know how to write music, but he sure could play it. It's like a family photo or video album.\" Finding such historical treasures is like detective work, Kimpton said. \"You're kind of putting together a DNA picture,\" he said. \"This particular museum has hundreds of manuscripts. Over time as you learn more and more by various scholars working on this, you might turn the page and you may have looked at it a hundred times before but suddenly begin to see some things or understand some things that make some sense.\" Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and started composing when he was 5 years old. By the time of his death in 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces of music.","highlights":"Researcher: Two pieces likely composed by Mozart before he could write music .\nMozart's father probably transcribed the music, researcher says .\nCompositions have long been known but as anonymous works .\nPieces were in book compiled by Mozart's father .","id":"38acd0558c76513b8218fa86f28f8b9e3686648f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Holly Hunter doesn't take roles based on what she thinks viewers want to see. Holly Hunter plays a tough detective grappling with issues of faith in TNT's \"Saving Grace.\" \"I have, frankly, very few expectations when it comes to audience,\" the acclaimed actress said. \"I've done features, I've done stage and I've done television movies.\" \"I'm used to having the experience of perhaps missing an audience where your feature, for some reason or another, may not have a large audience, while some of my features have found large audiences, so I am used to both. My expectations are adaptable and they are low.\" Hunter need not worry, because she has a hit on her hands with TNT's \"Saving Grace,\" which is soon to debut its third season. The television drama follows the decidedly messy life of Oklahoma City Police Detective Grace Hanadarko, who lives and works hard while being shadowed by a no-nonsense angel. The premise may sound unusual, but it is just that originality that attracted Hunter, an Academy Award winner whose eclectic career has included projects as varied as the films \"Raising Arizona,\" \"Broadcast News\" and the animated \"The Incredibles.\" See the significant roles Hunter has played \u00bb . The actress said she continues to be attracted to playing Hanadarko because it allows her to explore emotions and attitudes that a lot of roles these days simply aren't offering. \"She wants to have conversations about sex, she wants to have conversations about faith,\" Hunter said. \"She is very comfortable with the darkness in herself and with the darkness in others and I want to talk about that. There are not a lot of opportunities to have that conversation in features.\" It isn't surprising that Hunter was able to find such a rich, creative playground at TNT. The network (which is owned by the parent company of CNN) has carved a niche for itself as a destination for critically acclaimed and popular dramas. That reputation has been strengthened by the popularity of shows like Hunter's as well as the program many credit with raising TNT's game, \"The Closer.\" That show's fifth season kick's off the network's summer schedule on June 8. Star Kyra Sedgwick said Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson is in for some changes now that she's married -- though she will maintain the edge that fans have come to love. \"I think the character continues to be great at her job and struggles in her personal life and issues surrounding the possibility of having children come up,\" said Sedgwick. \"I think it's hard for someone who sees a lot of darkness in the world and deals with the darkest part of humanity to believe in the benevolence of the universe and the safety of a world to bring kids into.\" Like Hunter, Sedgwick said she loves playing such a strong character. That esteem, and flexibility of working on a cable series, which demands less of a time commitment than a network show, has made it easier to be on an opposite coast from her husband, Kevin Bacon, and their children, Sedgwick said. \"I was very clear on not wanting to give up any other part of my career,\" said Sedgwick, who this season also serves as the show's executive producer. \"By doing the show, I think it has opened up more in the way of feature films for me.\" Mark-Paul Gosselaar couldn't agree with Sedgwick more. His series, \"Raising the Bar,\" will be back on TNT for a second season and the actor said he appreciates being part of a network that values drama. His role as public defender Jerry Kellerman in the courtroom drama is a continuation of the actor's long-time collaborative relationship with Emmy-winning producer Steven Bochco. \"I've been fortunate enough, for close to the last decade, to work with one of the most prolific producers in this genre,\" said Gosselaar, who also had roles on Bochco's \"NYPD Blue\" and \"Commander-in-Chief.\" \"I couldn't be in a better situation than to have attached myself to a man who is willing to give me these roles and is one of my biggest supporters.\" The character of Kellerman is so earnest and passionately idealistic that he might remind some of an adult version of another character who first made Gosselaar famous -- Zack Morris on the teen sitcom \"Saved By the Bell.\" It's a role Gosselaar said he has no desire to escape, even after all these years. \"Zack has been something that has made such an impact on people and I am proud that I was able to do that,\" said Gosselaar, who hinted that a long-desired reunion of the show's cast is in the works. \"When I was doing the show, it was almost like some people were closet 'Saved By the Bell' watchers and now it's become this iconic thing, so it's fun.\" Gosselaar said \"Raising the Bar\" is a different type of courtroom drama, where viewers are able to witness the lives a different type of attorney. \"I don't think we have ever seen a show that deals with this side of the criminal justice system,\" he said. \"We've seen the cops and the prosecutors, but 'Raising the Bar' gives voice to the public defenders and their clients, who you almost never hear from.\" His is not the only TNT show that is giving the audience something different. Hunter said her show will continue to explore substantive themes. \"This season is a real investigation of beliefs and what does it mean to believe as opposed to what it means to know,\" Hunter said. \"It's a large question and many people have different answers. This show is exploring a more global idea of who God is to each of us.\" Also Included in TNT's summer schedule are the heist drama \"Leverage\" starring Timothy Hutton, which premiers its second season and new show \"Hawthorne,\" which stars Jada Pinkett Smith as a single mom and the director of nursing at a North Carolina hospital.","highlights":"TNT has a summer lineup that includes popular dramas .\nAcclaimed actress Holly Hunter returns as star of \"Saving Grace\"\nKyra Sedgwick's \"The Closer\" enters fifth season on network .\nMark-Paul Gosselaar still loves \"Zack,\" but enjoys role in courtroom drama .","id":"c4fe85deb4a7decc78c4d77ac4fd206728009164"} -{"article":"THE EVERGLADES, Florida (CNN) -- Joe Wasilewski drives along a narrow stretch of road through Florida's Everglades. The sun is setting, night is coming on quickly, and Wasilewski is on the prowl for snakes -- and one snake in particular. Reptile expert Joe Wasilewski holds a Burmese python he found in the Florida Everglades. \"The next 10 miles seem to be the hot spot for Burmese pythons,\" he said. Wasilewski is a state-sanctioned snake-hunter who regularly scours this area for the reptiles. The Everglades, known as the River of Grass, has the perfect space and climate for pythons to hide and breed. And breed they do: The largest clutches found in the Everglades have contained 83 eggs. They are also speedy travelers, able to move across 1.6 miles of land every day, experts say. The travel lets people like Wasilewski hunt the snakes from the driver's seat of his truck. But it also means that the problems created in the local ecosystem by the non-venomous snakes are spreading. \"It's a large predator, and they're eating basically everything in sight. That's the problem,\" Wasilewski said of the Burmese python. Volunteers like Wasilewski, happy to grasp the problem and the snakes with both hands, are not the only troops in Florida's war on the invading pythons. A \"Python Patrol\" was launched in the Florida Keys, south of the Everglades, by Alison Higgins of the Nature Conservancy. Her program uses utility workers, wildlife officials, park rangers and police to keep an eye out for snakes and trains them to capture any they find. \"The Burmese pythons that are coming out of the Everglades are eating a lot of our endangered species and other creatures, and we want to make sure they don't breed here,\" said Higgins, the conservation manager for the Keys. It is believed that the problem originated when reptile-breeding facilities near the Everglades were destroyed during Hurricane Andrew. Compounding the problem is the release of these snakes by pet owners. \"These pets were released by owners that do not understand the threat to the ecosystem,\" Everglades National Park spokeswoman Linda Friar said. She said the pets, which can grow to 200 pounds and live for 30 years, often get too big for owners to handle. The state has a pilot program with several volunteer snake hunters such as Wasilewski. Twenty years ago, no Burmese pythons were found in the Everglades, park statistics say. Now, there could be 100,000 snakes in the River of Grass, but no one knows for sure. What Wasilewski, an expert on reptiles, is sure of is that night is the best time for his hunting, as that is when the snakes tend to be on the move. When he finds his prey, he puts the snake in a bag, deposits it in a crate and delivers it to biologists for the Everglades National Park, where the snake can be studied and\/or destroyed. On one recent evening, the pickings were slim, and after two hours of driving back and forth along the two-lane Tamiami Trail, Wasilewski's crate was empty. He saw a python on the road, but it was dead, and the other small snakes and a baby alligator in the area did not interest him. Finally, Wasilewski, an environmental and wildlife consultant, spotted something. \"Yeah, baby! Hee ha! Look at the size of this one,\" he exclaimed from the front seat of his truck. He got out and picked up the brownish-green snake, which immediately coiled around his arm. \"This isn't a big one,\" he said, but as he got a closer look, he did not deny that it was a good one: \"At least 12 [feet.]\" Wasilewski has a soft spot for these species, and one of the reasons he volunteers for the snake hunt is to learn more about them. He says it is not the snakes' fault that they ended up in the Everglades, but he acknowledges the problems they are causing on the Florida ecosystem and the need to do something. \"One down, 100,000 to go,\" he said.","highlights":"Florida Everglades are perfect place for Burmese pythons to live and breed .\nHuge snakes breed quickly and travel quickly .\nOne reptile expert patrols the area for snakes to capture .","id":"7c81141ecf7519b089902395b7b354ccb5bf8575"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Carolina authorities have located a 555-pound teenager and his mother, who faces a charge of violating a custody order, police said Thursday. Alexander Deundray Draper, 14, \"is possibly at a stage of critical health risk,\" social services said. Alexander Deundray Draper, 14, of Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and his mother, Jerri Althea Gray, were located at about 4:30 p.m. near a laundromat in Baltimore, Maryland, by the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office, said Matt Armstrong, a spokesman for the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in Greenville, South Carolina. \"Draper was checked out by EMS [Emergency Medical Services] personnel and turned over to the Maryland Department of Social Services,\" Armstrong said. The South Carolina Department of Social Services will work with its Maryland counterpart to have the boy returned to South Carolina, he told CNN affiliate WYFF. The mother is being held in a detention center and will be extradited to South Carolina on an outstanding warrant, he said. Watch report on finding teen and his mother \u00bb . \"The understanding was that the individual was of the weight where it was decided by medical authorities that he needed treatment that was not being provided for by his mother,\" Armstrong said. Earlier in the day officials said the boy \"is possibly at a stage of critical health risk.\" Gray was supposed to appear in family court Tuesday with her son and failed to do so, the sheriff's office said. During the family court hearing, the boy was ordered into state custody because of medical neglect, as well as his mother's failure to appear. The Department of Social Services then contacted the sheriff's office, authorities said. The warrant said Gray was served with papers Monday and told to report to court for a hearing in which the department would seek state custody of Draper. \"The defendant has avoided the custody proceeding and has concealed the child,\" the warrant says. Travelers Rest is about 10 miles north of Greenville, South Carolina. CNN's Jackie Damico contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mother, boy found near laundromat in Baltimore, Maryland .\nTeen weighing 555 pounds, mother were sought after missing court appearance .\nJudge ordered Alexander Draper into custody because of medical neglect .\nBoy \"possibly at a stage of critical health risk,\" according to social services .","id":"e62e216b4084b6e94c188a62b1f9360635bdaa88"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- The imprisoned leader of the Nigerian militant group MEND has accepted an unconditional amnesty offer from the government, his lawyer said Friday. \"The president has ordered his release, and we are hoping he will be released very soon,\" Wilson Ajuwaand said, referring to his client, Henry Okah. \"We have briefed him on the amnesty and are now working out the details.\" CNN could not independently verify the lawyer's information, and Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua could not be reached for comment. Yar'Adua made the amnesty offer to Okah in June. Okah, who had been MEND's main arms smuggler, was arrested in September 2007 in the Angolan capital, Luanda. He was later extradited to Nigeria and has been in prison since then. \"We support Henry Okah's decision to accept any deal that will ensure his early release to attend to his failing health under the current circumstances,\" said Jomo Gbomo, a MEND spokesman. \"Since he has no weapons to surrender, the deal should be a straightforward one.\" An International Crisis Group report in April about the conflict between government forces and militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta said Okah is accused of treason, terrorism and kidnapping. His lawyers and relatives say he needs kidney treatment not available in Nigeria, the report said. MEND has declared an \"all-out war\" on the government, demanding a fairer distribution of oil wealth in the Niger Delta. The group wants oil revenue reinvested in the region instead of enriching those the militants consider corrupt politicians. Many of MEND's attacks have been aimed at oil and gas installations in the region. Okah's release had been a key demand of MEND before they accept any government amnesty offer. After receiving news of Okah's acceptance of the government officer, MEND issued a statement. \"The recent appointment of Mr. Timi Alaibe as the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta-Nigeria-MEND-Amnesty affairs by the Nigerian government is a humble and welcome development that is in line with the two-pronged approach of our current campaign,\" the statement said. \"With this channel of communication finally opened, MEND will put together its ... team of frank negotiators to pass our demands and expectations to the president through Mr. Alaibe, a man we respect and can work with.\" From CNN's Christian Purefoy.","highlights":"Henry Okah, MEND's main arms smuggler, was arrested in September 2007 .\nOkah is accused of treason, terrorism and kidnapping .\nLawyers, relatives say he needs kidney treatment not available in Nigeria .","id":"03c7fe8a15eb877edf5799e96ebf616930e78050"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Michael Jackson fans and the media pour into Los Angeles, California, for what could be the most widely watched memorial of all time, an obvious question remains: Where will he be laid to rest? Bette Davis is among the notables buried at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn park. Although the Jackson family hasn't made an official statement, all signs seem to point toward Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries, the not-for-profit organization that has buried a vast number of Hollywood's notables. Forest Lawn officials were working with the Jackson family on their plans, which were part of \"a package\" of events Tuesday, said Jim McDonnell, assistant chief of staff of the Los Angeles Police Department on Sunday. His comments, however, did not answer questions about where or when Jackson would be buried. There is speculation that the burial will be at Forest Lawn's Glendale location, but the media are swarming around the Hollywood Hills memorial park, located right off the freeway behind Disney Studios. Tito Jackson's ex-wife, Delores \"Dee Dee\" Jackson, is believed to be buried there. Forest Lawn Memorial is the first stop tourists make in search of the crypts of Hollywood greats. Numerous books and Web sites such as findagrave.com and seeing-stars.com claim to have insider knowledge about celebrity grave locations on the properties, but Forest Lawn is unrelentingly secretive about who, exactly, is entombed in its parks. \"We hold the privacy of our client families in very high regard,\" said Bill Martin, spokesman for the Glendale location, which is considered the \"mother lode\" for celebrity grave hunters. \"There are certain areas and property types that have limited access.\" The tombs of Sammy Davis Jr., Humphrey Bogart and Jean Harlow are in locked areas not accessible to the general public, according to findagrave.com. With that kind of commitment to privacy, it's understandable why Jackson, known for being reclusive, might be buried there. Avid grave hunter Lisa Burks, who frequents both the Glendale and Hollywood Hills parks, said she wouldn't be surprised if Jackson were to be buried at either location. Burks was first drawn to Forest Lawn Glendale because of its artwork and statuary, but once she found out that celebrities were \"buried with the regular people,\" she said, she began to grave hunt. \"We leave flowers and take pictures,\" Burks said of her time at famous graves. \"It's the way of remembering someone who made a difference, who cheered me up when I was a kid or entertained me. With Michael Jackson ... if he ends up at a cemetery, I'll definitely go and take flowers. They feel like a member of the family, so you treat them like a member of the family.\" Even if you can't find a way to see your favorite celebrity's crypt, Los Angeles residents said that just stepping foot in the park is an experience in itself. \"I know for some people cemeteries can be intimidating or just where you go to mourn. But at Forest Lawn, it isn't sad; it's really a beautiful place,\" said Beth Zeigler, an Echo Park, California, professional who frequents the park's museum. But if you call any of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuaries a cemetery, you would be remiss. There are certainly graves behind the Glendale park's majestic wrought-iron gates, but that's where the similarities end. Amid its 300 acres, the park has three churches, replicas of all of Michelangelo's works and a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's \"The Last Supper\" in stained glass. Instead of above-ground tombstones, the park uses flat, engraved markers for grave sites, so from afar all you can see are grassy hills. The memorial park draws over a million visitors each year, including 70,000 who come to get married. Built in 1906 as a traditional cemetery, Forest Lawn was revamped by Dr. Hubert Eaton in 1917. Like Jackson, Eaton was \"an icon [of his] time,\" said Laura Kath, author of \"100 Years in the Life of Forest Lawn.\" \"[Eaton] is the man who first envisioned the memorial park concept, that cemeteries should not be filled with tombstones but should celebrate the life of those entombed there and celebrate the living,\" Kath said, \"and people loved the whole concept. Eaton was a visionary.\" Burks agrees whole-heartedly with Eaton's vision. \"Cemeteries are for the living,\" Burks said about her visits to celebrity tombs. \"We're remembering them. It sounds crazy, but I dare anyone to do it, and I'd bet it would make them feel good.\"","highlights":"Will Jackson be buried among other stars at a Forest Lawn location?\nThe not-for-profit group's strict regulations about privacy would match Jackson's life .\nSammy Davis Jr. and Humphrey Bogart buried there, among other stars .","id":"92535d607e0ae97c7bad20ad2bd66443a0690cc4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1,100 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it emerged in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. A young girl wears a mask at a hospital in Hanoi. Vietnam reported its first death from swine flu this week. As of July 31, the total number of victims killed by the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, stood at 1,154 -- an increase of 338 since WHO's previous update on July 27. The virus has spread around the world with unprecedented speed, spreading as widely in six weeks as common influenza viruses spread in the six months, according to WHO. WHO data showed the total number of laboratory confirmed cases at 162,380, but the number could be higher since individual cases no longer have to be tested or reported. The total number of countries and territories reporting at least one case of infection now stands at 168, with new cases reported in Azerbaijan, Gabon, Grenada, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Monaco, Nauru, Swaziland and Suriname. In the United States, federal health officials are worried about the upcoming flu season. They say nearly 160 million Americans may need to be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, but it won't be as simple as a single shot. In a background briefing with reporters on Tuesday, two senior administration officials said the vaccine, which is still in clinical trials, would require two shots. The first shot would be followed by a second shot three weeks later. Immunity to the virus would finally kick in two weeks after that. That means someone who is vaccinated by the time the program is expected to launch in late October won't get protection until late fall. On Tuesday, British-based pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline announced it had signed contracts with nine governments to provide 96 million doses of a H1N1 vaccine and was in ongoing discussions with governments to provide further supplies. GlaxoSmithKline has already signed deals worth $250 million in total to provide 195 million doses and plans to donate 50 million doses to the World Health Organization. \"First supplies of the vaccine will be available to governments from September onwards, with shipments expected in the second half of 2009 and early 2010,\" GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement. \"The exact pace of delivery will be dependent on capacity and the yield of the influenza strain.\" Details of the immunization program were revealed as part of the government's overall plan to deal with what is expected to be a difficult flu season. The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last week issued sweeping guidelines for a vaccination campaign against the swine flu strain, identifying more than half the population as targets for the first round of vaccinations. The priority groups include pregnant women, health care and emergency services personnel, children, adolescents and young adults from six months to 24 years of age, household and caregiver contacts of children younger than six months and healthy adults with certain medical conditions. The symptoms of swine flu are similar to that of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, aches and runny nose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A significant number of infected people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting.","highlights":"WHO: Swine flu deaths up 338 in recent days to 1,154 in total worldwide .\nWHO: Virus spreads in 6 weeks as far as most viruses spread in 6 months .\nU.S. plans to vaccinate nearly 160M Americans ahead of winter \"flu season\"\nGlaxoSmithKline has signed deals to provide 291 million doses of vaccine this year .","id":"1e3ee0193651c54f396b628996273edde28d16b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They are four American friends and seasoned travelers who were hiking through Iraq's Kurdistan region before three of them crossed the unmarked border with Iran, where they were detained by Iranian authorities. Ahmed Awa, on the border of Iraq and Iran, is where police saw and warned the American hikers Friday. Kurdish officials identified the detained hikers as Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, CNN confirmed Sunday. The fourth hiker, Shon Meckfessel, stayed behind in Iraq. \"My husband and I are eager for the best welfare and conditions for our son, Josh, and for the other two companions he's with,\" Laura Fattal of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, told CNN Radio. \"And that is our only concern, his welfare and the best conditions for him.\" Meckfessel was identified by his grandmother, who told CNN that he stayed behind because he felt sick. Meckfessel is at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. \"My grandson has asked me not to talk to the media,\" said the grandmother, Irene Meckfessel of Carmichael, California, before hanging up Saturday. Iran's state-run media reported that Iranian security forces arrested the three Americans Friday for illegally entering the country from Iraq's Kurdistan region and that the matter is under investigation. U.S. State Department officials say the Swiss ambassador to Tehran is seeking information about the case on behalf of Washington. The United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations and Switzerland represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran. Friends of the travelers told CNN that the three who were detained have spent time or have lived in Western Europe and the Middle East. Sandy Close, executive director of the nonprofit Pacific News Service, described Bauer -- a photographer whose material was occasionally posted on her Web site in the past -- as a \"gifted linguist and photographer with wanderlust for travel and a student of Arab cultures. He's a remarkably talented guy.\" Shourd described herself as a \"teacher-activist-writer from California currently based in the Middle East\" on a profile listed on a travel Web site. Fattal shared his friends' love of travel and learning, and was described as \"fiercely intellectual\" by his friend, Chris Foraker, who spoke to CNN affiliate KVAL in Eugene, Oregon. Foraker said he met Fattal during a study abroad program in 2003, and the two worked together at the Aprovecho sustainable living research center in Cottage Grove. The four travelers spent the night at the Nirwan Hotel in Sulaimaniya on Thursday, said Mudhafer Mohammed, the owner of the hotel. Bauer, Shourd and Fattal left early Friday in a taxi for Ahmed Awa, a Kurdish town near Iraq's border with Iran, planning to hike in the mountains there, according to Peshrow Ahmed, spokesman for the security manager of Sulaimaniya. Ahmed Awa police spotted the hikers at one point Friday, Ahmed said, and warned them that they were near the border with Iran -- which is not marked in the area -- and that they should be careful. The group was in contact with Meckfessel in Sulaimaniya until about 1:30 p.m. Friday, when they reported they were \"surrounded by Iranian soldiers,\" Ahmed said. No further communication was received. Mohammed, of the Nirwan Hotel, told CNN that the hikers said they had come to the area because they heard it was safe, saying they were considering a trip to Ahmed Awa. But, he said, he advised them against it. \"I warned them many times,\" Mohammed told CNN. \"When they told me that they are planning to go to Ahmed Awa, I told them, 'Don't go there because it is unsafe for you because you're American and Ahmed Awa is very close to the Iranian border,'\" he said. Meckfessel left the hotel about 4:30 p.m., Mohammed said, asking him to take care of their luggage and saying he would not return. Later, he said, Sulaimaniya security forces took the luggage from the hotel. CNN's Arwa Damon and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd detained by Iranians .\nFellow travel companion Shon Meckfessel felt sick, stayed behind in Iraq .\nAmericans accused of illegally entering Iran from Iraq's Kurdish region, state TV says .\nDetainees were backpackers who blundered over border, hotel owner says .","id":"d3315fd264685252a3e33166fadc28758af8e740"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A U.S. company is offering a rare chance to holiday on a mega-yacht once used by a Hollywood star and her husband -- and thanks to the recession it's actually affordable. The 100-foot Katania normally would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. The 100-foot Katania was chartered by Hollywood star Hilary Swank and her husband, Chad Lowe. Seattle, Washington-based mega-yacht rental business CEO Expeditions usually charges around $100,000 a week to charter their 100-plus-foot yachts, but they have introduced a deal waiving the charter fees -- meaning guests will only need to pay for the running of the vessel. The move to make such vessels more affordable comes as the recession continues to put pressure on the luxury holiday and mega-yacht industries. Although the costs of crew and luxury food aren't extremely cheap, it is expected this move will open up the recession-strained market to many more potential holiday-makers. The Katania now costs less than $3,000 per day. Normally it would attract an additional $49,500 charter fee for a week's use. At the $2,950-per-day special rate, four people can stay on the Katania -- but with the maximum six on board ($450 extra per person) the cost per person is a slightly better $642. The price includes full crew, premium wines, gourmet food prepared by a private chef, amenities such as kayaks, hot tub, fishing\/crabbing\/shrimping equipment, and even a 30-foot whaler for guest use. According to the company, Swank said of her charter holiday: \"We had an absolutely enchanted time aboard the Katania. A more beautiful yacht does not exist.\" There is one small catch with the deal -- the boat is based in the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington and British Columbia, and any cruises to other destinations will attract an additional charge to cover fuel costs. The company's owner, Bruce Milne, released a statement saying the deal was largely a result of the impact of the recession. \"Travel is down, agents and brokers need deals, so rather than just a few full-price charters, we decided to stay busy, put more people to work, and help island tourism by doing charters at cost. \"Since we started chartering 10 years ago, we have been looking for a chance to provide our 'Expeditions to the Extraordinary' in the San Juan Islands at a price any luxury traveler can afford -- this recession provides that opportunity,\" he said. Tim Wiltshire, director and sales broker at international yacht company Burgess Yachts, said the charter market isn't a complete disaster, so he was surprised to see such a discount. \"I wouldn't have expected to see that,\" he said. \"We are seeing discounts on average of about 25 percent. Although some people are trying interesting gimmicks to inspire new business.\" Wiltshire said CEO Expedition's fleet isn't among the biggest or most luxurious on the market, and this deal appears to be clever marketing stunt. His opinion is that other larger vessels still warrant their greater price tags.","highlights":"U.S. mega-yacht charter company waives massive $50,000 charter fees .\nThe impact of the recession is reason given for the discounted deal .\nA yacht chartered by Hilary Swank can now be rented for less than $3,000 a day .","id":"24e40e460e543d9f94478a02642fa567718d9970"} -{"article":"BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- Kim Mickens, 49, has always been the caregiver among her eight brothers and sisters. So when her mother, Delphine Mickens, was told she had Alzheimer's disease, Mickens took care of all the arrangements for her mother's care -- among them, she chose a nursing home not far from her place in Baltimore. Kim Mickens, right, moved her mother, Delphine, in with her after unsuccessful stints at two nursing homes. But Mickens didn't like the way her mother was treated, so she moved Delphine to a second facility. That one didn't work out either. Mickens eventually concluded that the only way Delphine was going to receive acceptable care was to move her mother in with her. Moving Delphine into her house wasn't so easy: She needed medical equipment including a wheelchair, medication and round-the-clock care. \"She can't walk,\" Mickens says. \"So we bathe her, we feed her, we do everything for her.\" Because Mickens works two jobs, she also needed someone to provide in-home care. Because Delphine is in her 80s, Medicare covers a lot of the costs -- but Mickens didn't know where to start; the logistics were overwhelming. Medicare personnel helped her get some of the medical supplies she needed and also recommend a new Web site called Ask Medicare. Designed to give easy access to people taking care of elderly relatives, Ask Medicare provides information and links to services that are important to caregivers. Mickens says it was invaluable. \"The Web site tells you how to get Medicare assistance,\" she says. \"It also gives you information on how to contact people that you need to get the equipment and supplies for your parents.\" The Department of Health and Human Services says at least 44 million Americans provide care for a chronically ill, disabled or elderly family member or friend. Of those family caregivers, 7 percent -- like Mickens -- provide 40 hours or more of care a week. The new Web site designed by HHS is meant to be a navigational tool for caregivers -- for whom time is valuable -- that cuts through all the bureaucratic red tape. Listen to Kim Mickens talk about caring for her mother \u00bb . \"We call it a GPS for Medicare,\" says Rima Cohen, a special adviser at HHS. \"It's meant to make information readily available, and presented in a format that is easy to understand.\" According to the Center on an Aging Society at Georgetown University, family caregivers provide approximately 80 percent of long-term care services in the United States. \"We know that family caregivers are really the backbone of a long-term care giving system in the U.S.,\" says Cohen. \"You might be surprised to note that about $375 billion worth of services are provided by family caregivers -- if they were paid.\" So helping the caregiver is key. Watch more on the Ask Medicare Web site \u00bb . Mickens says she first used the Web site to set up the living space for her mother. Through a social worker and Ask Medicare, she ordered a special bed, supplies, a new wheelchair, and even filled Delphine's prescriptions. Because Delphine had previously suffered two strokes, she couldn't walk -- a very big problem, since Mickens lives in a two-story home. But through the site, she was able to order an elevator chair that takes Delphine up and down the stairs. Now that her mother is settled comfortably in her daughter's home, Mickens says she needs some emotional support and \"me time.\" That's not unusual: A study in the American Journal of Public Health finds family caregivers who provide 36 or more hours of care per week are more likely than noncaregivers to experience symptoms of depression or anxiety. Mickens found support in a chat room that was linked to Ask Medicare. \"The Web site has helped me read other people's stories,\" she says. \"And now I know I'm not going through this by myself.\" Today, Mickens and her mother are a loving twosome. When Mickens is at work, she leaves Delphine with an in-home nurse and relies on her son to help out when he gets home from school. Mickens finally feels content about the quality of care her mother is getting, and she says it would have never happened so quickly had she not found the Ask Medicare Web site. \"I have no problems with it: Once I punch it in, it comes up and takes me out to all the different Web sites,\" say Mickens. \"It's very helpful. I am glad they came up with it.\"","highlights":"Ask Medicare is new Web site designed to help caregivers cut through red tape .\nAt least 44 million Americans care for chronically ill, disabled, elderly family members .\nEighty percent of long-term care is provided by family caregivers .\nThe cost -- if family caregivers were paid -- would be $375 billion .","id":"30ca373ffbc97c199a1bb656d04d521e8c89b4f3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two U.S. Marines died Monday during a \"hostile incident\" in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Tuesday. U.S. Marines walk through a field on patrol on July 13, 2009, in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan . No further details were immediately available in their deaths. \"We deeply mourn the loss of these determined service members, who died in combat defending our freedom and the just cause of Afghans,\" said Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. \"This is a moment of great sorrow for these members' families and friends, and I extend my deepest condolences to them during this difficult time.\" The deaths come as almost 4,000 Marines and sailors, along with several hundred Afghan security forces, are working to clear Taliban militants from population centers in the Helmand river valley, in the south of the country. British forces launched a similar offensive in the province in late June. The push, called Operation Khanjar, is targeting militants in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and poppy-growing region. The forces are trying to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of national elections this August.","highlights":"Two U.S. Marines killed during a \"hostile incident\" in southern Afghanistan .\n4,000 Marines, sailors working to clear Taliban militants from Helmand river valley .\nBritish forces launched a similar offensive in the province in late June .\nForces are trying to gain ground in the region ahead of national elections in August .","id":"623c832222824776e500a5946e9f402b3cee36ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fans around the world have gathered at arenas and record stores, big screens, parks and makeshift shrines, to watch the memorial service of Michael Jackson and pay homage to their idol. A Michael Jackson fan in Berlin watches footage of the memorial concert. As thousands of fans joined Jackson's family and closest friends at Los Angeles Staples Center arena, millions more followed proceedings on television and online. In Germany, at least 8,000 Jackson fans watched events in Los Angeles unfold at a Trauerfeier,\" (translated as Sadness Party) at Berlin's O2 World arena, reported CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. Fans began arriving at least three hours before the event was due to begin, Pleitgen said. \"He [Jackson] connects races, religions and ages,\" said one fan, \"his music connects the world.\" Many fans were moved to tears when Jackson's daughter Paris Katherine wept as she called the singer \"the best father you could ever imagine.\" Pleitgen added: \"A lot of people got very wet eyes.\" Watch fans gather in Berlin \u00bb . South African former president Nelson Mandela paid his respects to Jackson in a statement read to the audience at the Los Angeles memorial by singer Smokey Robinson. Watch Smokey Robinson deliver Mandela's message. \u00bb . \"Michael became close to us after he started visiting and performing in South Africa regularly. We grew fond of him and he became a close member of our family. We had great admiration for his talent and that he was able to triumph over tragedy on so many occasions in his life,\" Mandela said. \"We mourn with the millions of families worldwide.\" In the southern Chinese enclave of Hong Kong, fans carried flowers and Jackson paraphernalia, such as a doll and record, at a memorial. Watch Jackson tributes pour in from around the world \u00bb . \"I cannot accept MJ has already left us, and I think we should come here and do something for him and express our feeling to show that we really miss him,\" said one man. Hundreds of British fans in London braved torrential rain to watch a giant screen outside the city's O2 Arena, where Jackson was scheduled to play a series of 50 concerts from July 13. Many more fans are expected to converge on the venue next Monday to mark what would have been the first of his concert dates. See images of Jackson fans from around the globe \u00bb . \"I am still in denial,\" said Jenny Keme, 21. \"We're going to stay here to the end of the ceremony even though it's pouring. He had such a gentle soul, that's what I love most about him.\" Celeste Dixon, 28, added: \"He is the King of Pop, not was. No one will ever be worthy of him, he is bigger than life. Without Michael Jackson breaking barriers, Barack Obama would never have made it.\" Elsewhere in London the cast of musical \"Thriller- Live\" paid their own tribute during the evening performance at the Lyric Theatre, with cast, crew and audience observing a minute's silence. \"Many of them were in tears during it,\" reported CNN's Phil Black. The theater has become a shrine to Jackson, with devoted followers holding vigils and leaving cards and messages at the building's entrance. In Japan, meanwhile, hundreds of fans gathered at a Tower Records store -- where Jackson twice visited -- in Tokyo to watch his videos on a big screen. Followers were even offered the chance to take a photograph next to a cast of a footprint left by Jackson when he last visited. Watch fans gather in Tokyo \u00bb . In a bar in New Delhi, the Jackson memorial gathering was small -- only a dozen or so people. On the wall of the bar that usually only plays hard rock, Jackson's music was blasting, candles were lit underneath two framed pictures of Jackson and customers had written messages saying goodbye. The bar manager said: \"We all grew up with Michael Jackson. Other generations had The Beatles, or Elvis Presley. Michael is our generation.\" And on the streets of Beijing, people were greeted by a Jackson look-alike, 28-year-old Wang Jie, who performed ahead of the memorial. Though Jackson never himself performed in China, he is loved in the country. Members of the official Michael Jackson Fan Club rented a hotel room so they could watch his funeral broadcast live. Thousands of other fans worldwide following the coverage online via CNN and Facebook, with many again moved by the comments of Jackson's daughter about her father. \"Never cried so much ever since my dad passed away,\" said Facebook user Rinoa S Koh from Singapore, while user Nomar Levey in Jamaica added: \"OMG Tears are really pouring.\" Facebook user Manu Tyagi from India said: \"The first English songs I ever heard in India were MJ songs... grew up with his music... and never though we would see him die so soon. He achieved his destiny before he passed to the kingdom of god! Really hope he rests in peace. He was the best.\" As Jackson's coffin casket was carried out of the Staples Center, Facebook user Marika Papazoglou in Greece said: \"RIP Michael. We love you more.\" Anouk Lorie contributed to this story .","highlights":"\"Sadness Party\" held in Berlin, where fans follow service live from Los Angeles .\nIn London, Jackson fans brave torrential downpours and hail to pay tribute .\nIn Japan fans gathered at record store, have photo taken next to cast of footprint .\nOnline fans pay tribute to King of Pop, comment as service progresses .","id":"81c2ebe0e07cbc3ccf5ebeceea31ac0bd5fe8f22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Another summer, another iPhone hardware update. This one's worth getting, too -- especially if you have an original iPhone or the iPhone 3G. A self-admitted tech geek, Chris Pirillo is president of Lockergnome.com, a blogging network. If you keep holding out because the iPhone doesn't have everything you want, it may be time to re-evaluate your position. This isn't just a phone -- it's a mobile communications device that boasts few true rivals in the marketplace. Instead of waiting in line at an Apple or AT&T store, I simply ordered mine though Apple, and that process was amazingly simple. I was guaranteed delivery by the June 19th launch date, and indeed, my 32GB (black) iPhone 3GS was handed to me on Friday morning. No muss, no fuss. Kinda. Before I get into the reasons I'm in love (LOVE!?) with the iPhone 3GS, let me just say that the activation process on AT&T's network was less than impressive. It took close to 32 hours for the SIM card to activate, and AT&T could offer little to no assistance in that process. They were, quite simply, overwhelmed. I contend that a lot of perceived iPhone issues have more to do with AT&T than they do with Apple. Even so, Apple saw fit to issue a $30 iTunes gift card to people caught in this delay. Now that is customer service. So, what else has Apple given the world in the iPhone 3GS? 1. Video recording capabilities. With the swipe of a finger, you can record a quick video. With another swipe, you can trim your recording. With yet another swipe, you can email it or upload it to your YouTube account. Even when it's transferred over AT&T's 3G network, the A\/V quality is rather impressive. Based on my first mobile YouTube upload test, I know I've sold a few more people on the 3GS. Apple seems to have integrated some kind of anti-shake feature into its video processing, too. 2. It's 50 percent faster than previous generations. Yes, believe me when I say that you'll notice a difference in speed (in direct comparison to the iPhone and iPhone 3G models). If you've never owned an iPhone before, then you're going to be equally as impressed. Animations are smoother, apps launch more quickly, and...well, the dang thing's just faster. 3. Twice the storage capacity. Are you good with 16GB? Would you rather have 32GB? Either way, you'll get what you want. I always say: Buy as much as you can afford. 4. Five times the amount of usable memory. Given that iPhone OS 3.0 now supports push data (that is, it allows applications to send and receive data in the \"background\"), you're going to want more than just 20MB available to you. Whereas the iPhone 3G comes with 128MB of memory, the iPhone 3GS has 256MB. This translates into far fewer app crashes. 5. Voice control. Press and hold the home button (that's the round thing at the bottom of the iPhone), and you'll be passed to the Voice Control application -- allowing you to tell your device to call a friend, play a song, and more. It didn't require any training for me to use, either. 6. Compass. Yeah, I have no idea when I'm actually going to need this. More importantly, app developers will take advantage of this new feature. Turn-by-turn navigation, anyone? TomTom's working on an app for that. 7. Improved battery life. I'm not sure you could make it through an entire working day without attaching an external battery pack to your iPhone, but Apple's found a balance in performance and power with the 3GS. They had to throttle the processor speed somewhat, slightly diminish the capability of the video processor, but at least people can't complain that they always have to keep 'er plugged in to an external power source. 8. Better camera. Isn't 3 megapixels usually better than 2? Generally, yes. But Apple also added the ability to take close-up (macro) shots, and an intuitive autofocus feature. Simply tap the area on the screen you want to be in focus, then take your shot. And before I forget, a friend told me that if you wanted to take a picture of yourself (with the screen facing the other direction), tap and hold the \"snapshot\" icon. Flip the screen away and when you're ready to shoot, simply lift your finger from the trigger. Thanks, David! 9. Same form factor as the iPhone 3G. Why is this nice? Well, you don't have to run out and buy new cases for your iPhone (if you were previously using the iPhone 3G). If this is your first iPhone, or you're upgrading from the original, then you'll still have a full range of accessories for your iPhone 3GS. I'm sure a revision is in the iPhone's future, but not this year. 10. Weight Loss support. Okay, this one's a bit of a stretch, but the iPhone 3GS has the Nike sensor built-in (no receiver required). Maybe I can convince people that I'm more healthy because I have the ability to track progress? Meh. Still, it's a convenience for those who use it -- I'd just recommend a waterproof case for your iPhone to keep it from being damaged by sweat! Admittedly, the iPhone isn't \"cheap\" to own. But the device is only getting better with time. The operating system is ever-maturing and (for the most part) backwards-compatible with older iPhones, the 3G S's hardware specs are comparable to today's sexiest smartphones, and Apple isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The only iPhone killer on the market today...is a newer iPhone.","highlights":"Tech enthusiast Chris Pirillo lists 10 things he loves about his new iPhone 3GS .\nIt's more than 50 percent faster than the original iPhone and iPhone 3G models .\nTwice the storage capacity and five times the amount of usable memory .\nThe only iPhone killer on the market today...is a newer iPhone .","id":"dd99ca599a3c18a7e5e333e61d96d90c999b39c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Mexico authorities have identified seven of 11 slain women whose remains were discovered several months ago in shallow graves in west Albuquerque, but have yet to identify a suspect in their killings, police told CNN on Thursday. The bodies of Candelaria, Chavez, Elks, Marquez, Nieto, Romero and Valdez were all ID'd by New Mexico police. A dozen victims -- 11 women and the unborn child of one of them -- were found on a 92-acre parcel west of the city in February, police said. Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said Thursday that police were considering all the deaths homicides, and believe they are linked because of the proximity of where the bodies were buried and how they were buried. \"It's ... likely that the same individual committed the same crimes,\" he said, \"But we have to leave all possibilities open.\" The victims were linked through drugs and prostitution, he said. Police identified the women as Victoria Chavez, Michelle Valdez, Veronica Romero, Cinnamon Elks, Julie Nieto, Doreen Marquez and Monica Diana Candelaria. Walsh said authorities estimate that the killings occurred somewhere between 2001 and 2004. \"We have to leave it wide at this point,\" Walsh said of the time frame. In February, a woman walking her dog on the property -- which had been graded in preparation for development -- discovered a bone, police said. The office of the medical investigator determined that it was human. The bodies were discovered afterward. The killings have been featured on \"America's Most Wanted,\" Walsh said. A task force in Albuquerque has been assigned to the cases, he added.","highlights":"Bodies of 11 women and one unborn child found in February near Albuquerque .\nPolice say they've identified 7 of the victims; no suspect yet in the killings .\nPolice think one person killed all the victims between 2001 and 2004 .\nVictims were linked through drugs, prostitution, police spokesman says .","id":"ba973998b139cf34e0d26586c07bc9e117f7623b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder stepped up his call for the passage of federal hate crimes legislation Thursday, arguing that the federal government needs to take a stronger stand against criminal activity fueled by bias and bigotry. Attorney General Eric Holder has been a vocal proponent for tougher laws regarding hate crimes. He also sought to assure opponents that such a bill would not allow Christian clergy to be prosecuted for outspoken opposition to homosexuality. Holder made his remarks during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is currently considering the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill would allow the Justice Department to provide assistance to state and local authorities in the prosecution of hate crimes while also expanding federal protection against hate crimes to cover disability, gender and sexual orientation. \"Hate crimes victimize not only individuals but entire communities,\" Holder said. \"Perpetrators of hate crimes seek to deny the humanity that we all share, regardless of the color of our skin, the God to whom we pray or the person who we choose to love. ...,\" he said. \"The time is now to provide justice to victims of bias-motivated violence and to redouble our efforts to protect our communities from violence based on bigotry and prejudice.\" The attorney general argued that recent numbers \"suggest that hate crimes against certain groups are on the rise, such as individuals of Hispanic national origin.\" Specifically, he said, more than 77,000 hate crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or \"nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade.\" In light of such statistics, he said, it was one of his \"highest personal priorities ... is to do everything I can to ensure this critical legislation finally becomes law.\" Republicans on the Judiciary Committee disputed Holder's assertion that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of hate crimes. They also questioned the need for federal involvement in the prosecution of violent acts -- traditionally a function of state and local governments. They pointed to FBI figures showing a slight decline from 7,755 hate crimes reported in 1998 to 7,624 in 2007, the most recently compiled statistics. It is \"important to know (if) we have a problem of significant numbers of (hate crime) cases ... not being prosecuted in state and local governments,\" said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the committee. \"Murders occur all over America every day. Robberies, assaults, rapes, burglaries occur every day, and those are handled by our state and local jurisdictions. ... They do a pretty good job.\" When pressed, Holder acknowledged he had no hard evidence of trends showing the problem getting worse, nor that states are not prosecuting cases based on their own state hate crimes statutes. The attorney general insisted, however, that the issue should be viewed more broadly. \"It seems to me this is a question of conscience,\" Holder argued. He emphasized that the bill is designed to give special protections to groups that historically have been victims solely based on who they are. Holder added that while state and local governments generally do a good job prosecuting violent crimes, there is nevertheless a need for the federal government to serve as a \"backstop\" on occasion, particularly if localities lack the resources for an effective investigation or prosecution. \"There are instances where the (federal) government needs to come in,\" he said. He also asserted that any federal hate crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs. \"It is the person who commits the actual act of violence, who would be subject to this legislation, not the person who is simply expressing an opinion,\" Holder said. Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate crimes law could be used to criminalize speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. The attorney general has been a vocal proponent of federal hate crimes legislation since his tenure in the Clinton Justice Department. Last week, in a speech on civil rights, he cited three recent fatal shootings in calling for stricter hate crimes laws. \"The violence in Washington, Little Rock and Wichita reminds us of the potential threat posed by violent extremists and the tragedy that ensues when reasoned discourse is replaced by armed confrontation,\" he said. Holder was referring to the shooting death of a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, allegedly by a self-avowed white supremacist; the shooting of two U.S. soldiers in Little Rock, Arkansas, allegedly by a man prosecutors say was targeting the U.S. military for its treatment of Muslims; and the slaying of a doctor who ran a women's clinic in Wichita, Kansas, allegedly by an abortion opponent. CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report .","highlights":"Bill would expand scope of federal protection against hate crimes .\nEric Holder says hate crimes against certain groups, such as Hispanics, on the rise .\nRepublicans on Senate panel dispute assertion of increase in hate crimes .\nSome religious groups worry law could be used to criminalize speech .","id":"63bda577fd61efd8f6267c0dbeb8ceee9f09d399"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama's plans for a similar system in the United States were branded \"evil\" by Republicans. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a heartfelt message of support for the NHS via Twitter. Tens of thousands of people have joined a Twitter group expressing pride in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), which offers free taxpayer-funded medical care to all British residents, while leading politicians have spoken out in support. Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this week condemned Obama's plans to introduce a public heath insurance scheme as an \"evil\" move that would result in \"death panels\" deciding who would live or die. Her criticism has been echoed by fellow Republicans in direct attacks on Britain's NHS. In an article, Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said British healthcare was run by \"Orwellian\" bureaucrats who put a price tag on life. Sound off: What do you think of the British healthcare model? The comments caused a storm of protest in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister Brown wading into the argument via micro-blogging site Twitter, where a conversation chain, \"#welovetheNHS\", is generating huge online traffic. Britons react to the U.S. healthcare debate \u00bb . A posting on the 10 Downing Street Twitter site on Wednesday read: \"PM: NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.\" The message was followed by another, from Brown's wife Sarah, adding: \"#welovetheNHS -- more than words can say.\" Professor Stephen Hawking, author of \"A Brief History of Time\", also spoke out in favor of the British system, telling the Guardian newspaper that he owes his life to NHS treatment for the neuro-muscular dystrophy he has suffered from for 40 years. \"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,\" he said. \"I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.\" Despite the support, the 51-year-old NHS is regularly the target of criticism at home, with opposition politicians accusing Brown's government of mismanagement resulting in long waiting lists and a \"lottery\" in deciding who gets life-saving drugs and surgery. Nevertheless, opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron also added his voice to the defense campaign with a posting on his party's Web site. \" Millions of people are grateful for the care they have received from the NHS -- including my own family. \"One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill -- no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got -- you know that the NHS will look after you.\" His statement followed comments from one of his own party members backing the Republican criticism of the NHS. Dan Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament reportedly said in an interview that \"he wouldn't wish it on anyone.\"","highlights":"Britons leap to defend National Health Service after U.S. criticism .\nPrime Minister Gordon Brown among those expressing pride in system .\nNHS offers free health care to all UK residents .","id":"d141f123ce7ae90c6297eea603862bef2bc3d805"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Michael Steele is chairman of the Republican National Committee. Michael Steele says it's becoming clear that the Obama administration is spending money recklessly. (CNN) -- Friday marks President Obama's 200th day in office, and in most respects, his second hundred days as president have been worse than the first 100. Obama campaigned on bringing \"change\" to America, and during his first 200 days as president, his real definition of change is becoming absolutely clear to Americans. Obama and congressional Democrats are determined to conduct their reckless and costly liberal experiments on the American people without any regard to the consequences. Whether a $787 billion stimulus bill, a \"cap-and-trade\" scheme that is nothing more than a huge national energy tax on every American family and business, or a $1.6 trillion government-run health care plan, more and more Americans are rightfully concerned about Obama's change for this country. Since Obama and Democrats rushed through Congress a $787 billion stimulus package, unemployment in America has risen close to 9.5 percent, and every indication is that it will climb even higher when July's unemployment report is released Friday. In total, more than 2.6 million jobs have been lost since Obama took office. But what has the president's stimulus bill brought us, if not the jobs he promised? Wasteful spending, such as $18 million to redesign Recovery.gov, the very government Web site used to monitor stimulus spending, or $3.4 million for an \"eco tunnel\" in Florida designed to provide safe passage for turtles looking to cross the street. This is not the economic stimulus that the American people expected. The second of Obama's grand experiments on America was his massive so-called cap-and-trade bill that was rammed through the House of Representatives this past June so fast that congressmen weren't given the chance to read it. This bill is nothing more than a national energy tax, plain and simple. Its sole purpose is to increase the cost of energy so that Americans might use less. The Heritage Foundation estimated that it would end up costing the average American family up to $1,870 per year and decrease the national GDP by $161 billion in the year 2020. The foundation also determined that during the 2012-2035 timeline, job losses would average more than 1.1 million. Add in the fact that it would do almost nothing to prevent \"climate change,\" and all that is left is a national energy tax on environmentally friendly clothing. Obama's third and final experiment of his first 200 days as president -- and arguably his most dangerous -- is the fundamental transformation of our health care system. Obama is correct about one thing: Our health care system needs reform. Health care today costs too much for families and small businesses, preventing too many Americans from accessing the affordable quality care they need, when they need it. However, the president's prescription to rein in these costs has little to do with real-world dollars and cents and everything to do with the complete government takeover and control of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. The president claims that more government involvement in health care will promote competition. However, creating such a government-run entity would result in a massive government health care monopoly. Private insurers would soon be put out of business, unable to compete with the subsidized government-run plan the president and liberals want. More than 88 million Americans could be forced out of their current private insurance plans and into the government-run plan, according to a study by the Lewin Group. Obama claims that if you like your current health care, you can keep it, but this is simply not true. Then there is the issue of cost. Despite what the president says, his government-run plan won't make health care more affordable. Quite the opposite. Nothing ever becomes cheaper by being more expensive, and the Democrats' plan would cost at least $1.6 trillion, according to an analysis by Roll Call. The Congressional Budget Office determined one of the House Democrats' plans would add more than $200 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years. The president is also planning to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid to help pay for his government-run health care scheme. This is the epitome of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The president and his Democratic allies have looked to raise taxes on many small businesses to help pay for his government-run health care scheme, a foolish proposition even during the best of times, let alone during a recession. Many small businesses would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of their payroll for failing to provide insurance for their employees. Punishing small-business owners with punitive tax legislation such as this will only increase the unemployment rate and extend the recession. Obama's first 200 days in office should be seen for exactly what they are: a clear indication of where he intends to direct America during his presidency. It is a direction that places less emphasis on individual entrepreneurs and private creativity and instead places power in the hands of a massive federal bureaucracy. It is a direction that rams massive spending bills through Congress in the name of economic stimulus and job creation, it is a direction that masks a costly job-killing national energy tax in environmentalism, and it is a direction that looks to put federal bureaucracy between patients and their doctors all in the guise of reducing costs and expanding coverage. America simply can't afford the president's experiments. The president has done all this in just 200 days, and there are still more than 1,200 days left in his administration. That's a frightening thought. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Steele.","highlights":"Michael Steele: The second hundred days have been worse than the first .\nHe says Obama's programs call for massive spending on liberal priorities .\nCap-and-trade bill is a disguised energy tax on average Americans, he says .\nHe says health care reform would be costly and lead to government control .","id":"40eac5187bac743b4620b95158f43f22dc0526a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yemen's government has laid out ceasefire terms to Houthi Shiite rebels fighting in the country's north, Yemen's official news agency reported Thursday. Yemeni security forces have been fighting against rebels in the north and south. According to SABA, the government's demands include removing check points, ending banditry and destructive acts, handing over all military equipment and weapons and offering information on the fate of six kidnapped Europeans who disappeared in June. The announcement of cease-fire conditions by Yemen's Supreme Security Committee comes only days after Yemeni forces began an offensive against the Houthi rebels in the northern mountainous province of Saada, which is on the Yemeni border with Saudi Arabia. It follows one day after a state of emergency was declared in all regions of Saada Province by the Saada Local Council. The English language Yemen Post reported Wednesday that, according to local sources from Sa'ada, \"army forces and fighter aircrafts launched a massive attack on Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi's headquarters in Saada province.\" Thursday, citing official sources, Yemen Post reported that, over a five-year period of sporadic battles between Yemeni forces and Houthi rebels, over 1,000 government soldiers have died and over 6,000 have been injured. According to Yemen Post, \"it is said that thousands of civilians and Houthi's followers died in the same period, but the real number is unspecified.\" Yemen's government and Houthi rebels have been involved in intermittent fighting since 2004. The conflict is believed to be both separatist -- over who will have power in the area -- and sectarian -- whether Shia Islam will dominate even though the majority of Yemenis are Sunni. Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is also faced with a separatist movement in the country's south and a growing threat from al Qaeda. Al-Qaeda's presence in Yemen has been a growing concern for the United States. In late July, Gen. David Petraeus, CENTCOM Commander, and an accompanying delegation, flew to Yemen and met with Saleh. According to SABA, one of the topics of discussion was how to better combat terrorism. Nine foreigners were abducted in June while apparently on a picnic in Saada Province. The bodies of three of them, a South Korean teacher and two German nurses were discovered. Five Germans, including three children and a Briton, are still missing and their status is unknown. It is still unclear who is behind the kidnapping. Initial official statements said the group was apparently seized by Houthi rebels. However, Yemen's news agency later reported Houthi rebels accused drug cartels of abducting the group and killing the three. In addition, SABA said a spokesman for the rebels accused regional tribes of being behind the kidnappings and slayings. The incident was the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreign workers in Yemen this year. All of the previous hostages had been released unharmed, including 24 medical workers seized in Yemen's Amran province. In March, four South Korean tourists were killed in the city of Al Shibam when a bomb exploded as they were taking pictures. In January, two female Belgian tourists and a Yemeni driver were killed by gunmen while the three were traveling in a convoy in Al Shibam.","highlights":"Move follows offensive by Yemeni forces against rebels in north .\nGovernment and Houthi rebels involved in intermittent fighting since 2004 .\nConflict said to be separatist -- who will have power in the area -- and sectarian .\nNine foreigners abducted in June while apparently on a picnic in Saada region .","id":"57d54f727ba5f756d89b6cf3080e3778b347be50"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's most celebrated fugitive -- \"the last of the gentlemen crooks,\" as he liked to describe himself -- was born Ronald Arthur Biggs in Lambeth, south London, on August 8, 1929. Biggs spent more than three decades as a fugitive after escaping from prison in 1964. The youngest of five children, his criminal career began at the age of 15 when he was arrested for stealing pencils from a local shop. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1947 but was dishonourably discharged two years later after being convicted of breaking into a chemist's shop while AWOL. The latter offence resulted in his first spell in prison -- four months in Lewes Prison for Young Offenders. He was released in June 1949, but was back in jail within a month for car theft. This second prison term -- also at Lewes -- was to change Biggs' life. He met and became friends with Bruce Reynolds, the man who later masterminded the heist commonly known as the Great Train Robbery. Between 1949 and 1963 Biggs was regularly involved in criminal activity -- he served several jail sentences -- although he also made money legally working as a painter and decorator. In 1960 he married Charmian Powell with whom he had three children -- Nicholas, Christopher and Farley. The couple were subsequently estranged. On August 8, 1963 -- Biggs' birthday -- he was one of a gang of 16 who held up the Glasgow to London mail train, escaping with a record haul of more than \u00a32.6 million ($4.4 million). He was arrested a month later after his fingerprint was found on some stolen notes, and in January 1964 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. After serving only 15 months, however, he made a daring escape from Wandsworth Prison in south London, thus beginning 35 years on the run. His first stop was Paris, where he spent much of his \u00a3147,000 ($246,000) cut of the train robbery money on plastic surgery and acquiring papers to Australia. He remained in Melbourne until 1969, working as a builder, before he slipped out of the country using a false passport on a ship bound for Panama. There followed brief spells in Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela before he eventually settled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1974 he was arrested and faced being sent back to the UK. His Brazilian girlfriend Raimunda de Castro, however, was by that point pregnant with his child, and under Brazilian law that meant he could not be deported. Further attempts were made to bring him back to England, including a highly publicized kidnapping in 1981 when he was seized by adventurers hoping to claim a reward for his capture. He was taken to Barbados in a sack marked \"Live Snake,\" but subsequently released due to a loophole in Barbadian law. In the meantime, he became something of a celebrity in Rio. He would entertain visitors at his house, where for a set fee he would provide a barbecue and tales of his criminal past. He featured on The Sex Pistols album \"The Great Rock and Roll Swindle\" -- singing No One is Innocent. Biggs suffered a minor stroke in March 1998, and with his health and finances failing he finally returned to the UK in 2001. His estranged wife Charmian said at the time: \"The man I remember was a strong, fit, big man who could take on the world. Now he looks like a walking corpse, just skin and bone. I feel so sorry and sad for him.\" Biggs and his family campaigned for him to be released because of his poor health virtually from the day he returned to the UK and was immediately incarcerated in Belmarsh high security prison. Instead, Biggs was moved to a prison facility for elderly prisoners in Norwich, his parole prospects dismissed by justice ministers because of his apparent lack of remorse. But on August 4 Biggs was moved to a hospital suffering with severe pneumonia. On August 7, the eve of both his 80th birthday and the 46th anniversary of the heist that turned him into a fugitive, Biggs was formally released on compassionate grounds. In 2001 Biggs said his last wish was to buy a pint of beer in a pub in the southern seaside resort of Margate. But Biggs' legal advisor Giovanni Di Stefano told journalists that Biggs was unlikely to ever leave his hospital bed. \"This man is ill, he's going to die, he is not going to any pub or going to Rio. He is going to stay in hospital,\" said Di Stefano.","highlights":"Ronnie Biggs was part of gang responsible for 1963 Great Train Robbery .\nBiggs released from prison on compassionate grounds on Friday .\nSentenced to 30 years in prison, Biggs escaped and spent decades as a fugitive .\nBiggs was locked up since his return to UK from Brazil in 2001 in ailing health .","id":"fa53cd3f0570f76690f755117dd5dd9682b68fd3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of three inmates who escaped from an Indiana maximum-security prison was captured Monday about eight miles away in southwestern Michigan, officials said. From left, Lance Battreal, Mark Booher and Charles Smith escaped from an Indiana prison Sunday. Charles Smith, 48, who was serving time on a murder charge, was captured in Grand Beach, Michigan, near the vacation home of Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago, Illinois. Daley said he was inside with his wife and three grandchildren at the time of the capture. Smith and another of the escapees were spotted walking near the house at 5:30 a.m. by a Chicago police officer assigned to Daley's security detail, the mayor said. \"I think they were lost, and they happened to pass in the vicinity,\" Daley said. Though Smith was captured and handed over to the Grand Beach Police Department, the other man escaped into the woods, where police have been searching, Daley said. Police urged residents to be on alert. \"I have residents in this area calling their neighbors and telling everybody, stay inside, keep their children inside and watch the news for updates,\" Dan Schroeder of the Grand Beach Police Department told CNN affiliate WLS on Monday. Smith escaped from the prison in Michigan City on Sunday with convicted murderer Mark Booher, 46, and convicted rapist Lance Battreal, 45, said John Schrader, a public information officer with the Indiana Department of Corrections. \"It appears they escaped by traveling in tunnels under the prison grounds,\" Schrader said Sunday. \"This is a very unusual occurrence.\" Smith was sentenced in 1999 to a 95-year sentence for murder. Battreal was sentenced in 1998 to 50 years for rape, criminal confinement and stalking. Booher was sentenced in 1999 to 65 years for murder and robbery. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Escapee found near Chicago mayor's Michigan vacation home .\nCharles Smith was captured Monday 8 miles from prison .\nTwo murderers and rapist apparently broke out of prison Sunday, officials say .\nEscape via tunnels under prison was \"very unusual occurrence,\" official says .","id":"8ee4326c1d73dd1b483e5fd06d475970987caf03"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Zeyno Baran, a native of Turkey, is senior fellow for the Center for Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank that says it is dedicated to \"global security, prosperity and freedom.\" From January 2003 until 2006, Baran directed the International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center. Zeyno Baran says the United States can learn much from Turkey's expertise on Afghanistan and Pakistan. (CNN) -- Turks greeted President Obama with huge excitement Monday. This was the first time a U.S. president visited Turkey at the start of his term, sending a clear signal that this administration recognizes the importance of Turkey and wants to engage with it from the start. His address in the Turkish parliament was one of the greatest speeches made by an American leader in such a setting: He not only showed his deep understanding of Turkey's many complex issues and identities, but also handled tough issues with great skill. He framed his talk just right by underlining Turkey's European identity as a secular democracy. That said, it is important to remember how good U.S.-Turkey relations were at the start of the Bush administration. President George W. Bush also considered Turkey an extremely valuable partner, but then came the Iraq war. The United States genuinely believed Turkey would be one of the most important allies going forward. Despite official channels and experts making clear the difficulties in allowing U.S. military to cross into Iraq via its lands, the administration chose to listen to those who sang music to its ears. As a result, they based a whole military strategy on the Turkish parliament voting yes and were shocked when they received a no. Bilateral relations then entered a downward spiral. With Obama's election, there is renewed excitement in Turkey. Like most of the people of Turkey, he opposed the Iraq war and considered Afghanistan the \"good war.\" Going forward, as President Obama underscored in his speech, Turkey can play an important role in Afghanistan as a reliable NATO ally. The question is: How can Turkey best help? Turkey is one of the few -- possibly the only -- NATO member that has deep religious, cultural and historic knowledge of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact, the Turkish government has brought together the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan much before the United States began approaching them together. Reading the tea leaves, one may conclude that the Obama administration wants to cooperate with Turkey in engaging with the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This would be the wrong kind of cooperation. Although Turkey has channels to the Taliban and has means to facilitate the talks, there cannot be a morally acceptable deal reached with the Taliban, whose ultimate goal is to curb all individual freedoms and universal human rights, especially when it comes to women. No matter what the reasonable sounding arguments may be in favor of this strategy, pulling Turkey into any kind of engagement with the Taliban -- either as part of NATO or bilaterally -- would have much worse long-term consequences. Instead, the Obama administration needs to think of \"victory\" not only in the short term and from a purely anti-terrorism perspective, but also in consideration of the people who have lived and will continue to live in those lands. In other words, providing true safety, security, justice and development for Afghanistan and Pakistan -- not the kind of society the Taliban has been providing. Indeed, it is in providing the basic securities that Turkey can be a great partner. Turkey not only can and will continue to help provide safety and physical security, but also could further assist with the reconstruction projects, such as building hospitals, schools, sanitation facilities and investment projects that would have direct impact on the socioeconomic development of the Afghan and Pakistani societies. There are many Turkish companies that have undertaken successful construction projects in these fields since early 2002. There are also military and civilian trainers, nongovernment organizations and even volunteer teachers who work in some of the most dangerous regions. Still, Turkey can possibly make the greatest contribution by helping the United States frame the challenges it is facing in a more accurate and honest way. Just as President Obama referred to his personal story and that of the United States to help Turks look deeper within, Turks can do the same for the United States. To start, Turkey can explain how the vast Eurasian region it belongs to is not just part of the \"Muslim world\" but has been at the crossroads of eastern and western cultures and ideas and witnessed many brutal wars and massacres over the millennia. Moreover, each country has its own spirit -- there are ancient cultures and tribal formations, and these do not move fast. It is important to stop and drink the tea. Turkey can also explain that it is only in recent decades that jihadism and extremism took root in these lands known for their Sufi teachings that talk about love, instead of hatred. As a true partner, it can also help the United States recognize its share, along with many others, in inadvertently contributing to the creation of the Taliban and al-Qaeda by making bad foreign policy choices. Anything short of recognition of the past catching up with us will leave us all unprepared for what may come in the future. In other words, we may be doomed to repeat the same mistakes until we learn our lesson. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Zeyno Baran.","highlights":"Zeyno Baran: Obama's speech shows deep understanding of Turkey .\nShe says administration needs to make good use of Turkey's role in region .\nBaran: Using Turkey to make peace with Taliban would be a mistake .\nShe says Turkey can help rebuild Afghanistan and provide security .","id":"85120db668eed10b40a7435772eddbefe08c8557"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's been compared to the Dalai Lama, the Chinese Tibetan Buddhist leader, but the name Rebiya Kadeer doesn't ring a bell to many people outside of China. Rebiya Kadeer has been dubbed \"the Mother of All Uyghurs.\" Nevertheless, the world-famous man and the relatively obscure woman share similarities that chime with political relevance. A diminutive northern Virginia resident, Kadeer has emerged as the voice of the restive but relatively unknown Uyghur Muslims, a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority in China, and the group's far-flung diaspora. And like the Dalai Lama, she's revered by supporters and reviled by the Chinese government. \"Even though one is a man, and the other is a woman, they have one thing in common, and that is they engage in activities to split the motherland and damage national unity,\" said Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Kadeer, 62, emerged in the world media spotlight after China blamed her for stoking July's unrest in China's remote Xinjiang Autonomous Region, an area four times the size of California in the northwestern part of the country. Reports vary on the number of people killed, ranging from around 200 to many more. The problems began in late June, after two Uyghur migrant workers at a toy factory in Guangdong province were killed after a brawl between Uyghurs and ethnic Han Chinese -- the majority group in China. Uyghurs protested in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, hundreds of miles from the toy factory. Uyghurs and Han reportedly attacked each other. Nur Bekri, the Chinese government's top official in Xinjiang, accused Kadeer and the World Uyghur Congress she leads of instigating the unrest via the Internet. \"The violence is premeditated, organized violent crime,\" Bekri said. \"It was instigated and directed from abroad and carried out by outlaws in the country.\" China's constitution guarantees ethnic minorities equal rights and limited autonomy. And the Chinese government has implemented several programs designed to help ethnic minorities, but Kadeer says China still treats Uyghurs as second-class citizens -- and she blames China for most of the recent unrest. Since the violence erupted, Kadeer has worked the media with a mission, drumming up support for the Uyghur cause and shining a light on what she says are China's \"unjust policies\" toward her people. The estimated size of Uyghur population in China ranges from 8 million to 11 million people, making them a distinct minority in a country of 1.5 billion people. Uyghurs have long complained of being treated as a lesser class, but China has dismissed that charge and touted its commitment to ethnic unity. \"Let them hear our voice and raise public awareness about our situation,\" Kadeer told CNN. \"That's the main thing that I wish to do right now.\" Dubbed \"the Mother of All Uyghurs,\" Kadeer doesn't quite fit the profile of a political firebrand. Born in modest circumstances, Kadeer fell into dire poverty amid the late Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong's forced relocation programs. She worked her way up from laundry worker to become a millionaire businesswoman as China opened to free enterprise. She amassed an empire with department stores, real estate, lumber, scrap iron, factories and other enterprises. She was also chosen as a member of a Chinese National Congress and other posts. However, the mother of 11 children -- some of whom are in jail in China -- wasn't shy about speaking out about the conditions faced by Uyghurs, such as political imprisonment. Her activism landed her in jail in 1999, an incarceration that attracted international attention and condemnation from rights groups and Western political officials. China released her on medical grounds in 2005 amid pressure from the U.S. government. She was granted political asylum in the United States, reunited with her husband, and embarked on activist work. Along with her role as president of the World Uyghur Congress, Kadeer is the president of the board of the Uyghur American Association and the full-time director of the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation. Those groups receive money from U.S. taxpayers through the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit organization created \"to strengthen democratic institutions\" around the world. Hugh Pope, author of the \"Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World,\" describes Kadeer as a skillful and hard-working activist who has done a lot for the Uyghurs. He said she is well-situated in the Washington area, where she has easy access to media outlets, and is a \"natural focal point\" for the Uyghur rights cause. \"She has a canny sense on how to get on top of the situation. As long as she can maintain the Dalai Lama-like profile, she will persist in being a spokeswoman for the Uyghurs,\" Pope said. Dru Gladney, an expert on China and its ethnic groups, described Kadeer as a significant leader who is a charismatic, determined and maternal figure who can move easily among the elites and the common people. She has a message that can unite Uyghurs, and China's criticism of her in some ways has enhanced her stature, said Gladney, president of Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College in California. \"She seems like somebody all Uyghurs can look up to,\" he said. He noted that her following is \"quite remarkable\" since she is a woman and both Muslim and Chinese cultures are patriarchal. She abhors violence and favors peaceful resolution of conflicts, Gladney said. In that respect, she mirrors the non-violent sentiment espoused by the Dalai Lama, who wrote an introduction to Kadeer's autobiography \"Dragon Fighter,\" recently published in English. \"The Uyghur and the Tibetan people have a history of relationship and in modern times have shared somewhat similar experiences. I therefore hope that this book by Mrs. Kadeer will enable the readers to comprehend the experience of the Uyghur people,\" the Dalai Lama wrote. Kadeer told CNN she has had \"close communication\" with the Dalai Lama. She said \"our philosophy in peace is the same\" and said the movements of both peoples for justice are connected. \"If the Chinese have the authority to destroy one of them, they have the authority to destroy the other,\" she said. China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday that Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a visit to Yunnan province this week, urged all people to show mutual respect and concern. He also said all ethnic minorities are important members of the Chinese family, the news agency reported in a story that did not specifically mention Uyghurs. The Communist Party of China and the government plan to emphasize more strongly developing areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and strengthen support to improve their livelihood, according to Xinhua's paraphrasing of Hu's remarks. In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, \"China's Ethnic Fault Lines,\" Gladney wrote that by the mid-1980s \"official minorities were beginning to receive real benefits from the implementation of several affirmative action programs.\" They include \"permission to have more children (except in urban areas, minorities are generally not bound by the one-child policy),\" paying fewer taxes, getting \"greater access to public office,\" and better education for children -- in Mandarin Chinese rather than native tongues. Kadeer has spent much of the last few weeks plowing through media interviews and chatting about how she juggles being the \"Mother of All Uyghurs\" with being a mother to her flesh-and-blood children. \"My family is very supportive of my activity,\" she said through a translator. Yet she has spent time apart from her husband, also a Uyghur activist, and children because of political ferment and imprisonment. Kadeer says this is a \"very dark time for the Uyghur people.\" She condemned Chinese security forces for killing and injuring Uyghur demonstrators this month in Urumqi. Unrest also took place in the cities of Kashgar and Hotan, she said. While she focuses on what she says is the Chinese crackdown against Uyghurs in \"East Turkestan\" -- the name Uyghurs use for the region -- she also condemned reported violence by \"a number of Uyghur demonstrators.\" \"Uyghur demonstrators were doubtless expressing discontent over the severe and comprehensive repression they have suffered for years in East Turkestan,\" she said. She cited \"arbitrary detention, torture, and execution\" the repression of their religion, \"forced abortion and discrimination in several spheres, including health care and employment.\" In her talks, Kadeer -- who sports braids and a traditional Uyghur dopa cap -- urges China to \"stop the cultural genocide\" and \"address the legitimate grievances of the Uyghur people.\" \"I do believe that even our enemy would come dine at our table,\" she said, \"because what we have been doing is in a peaceful way. So I do believe that they would come to our table and resolve this.\" CNN's Jim Clancy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Rebiya Kadeer emerges as leader of minority Uyghur Muslims in China .\nChinese government reviles Kadeer, blames her for stoking unrest .\nKadeer mirrors the non-violent sentiment espoused by the Dalai Lama .\nThis is a \"very dark time for the Uyghur people,\" Kadeer says .","id":"2160c5d812611becf442b5079a7908c2f48f6de7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amid the worsening conflict in his country, Somalia's president made a plea for Somalis living in the United States to stop sending their young men to fight. A Somali rebel points a heavy machine gun in the direction of government forces July 3. \"I call on the Somali-American community not to send their youth to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabaab,\" President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said on Sunday. He was referring to the Islamist militant group that is waging a brutal war against his administration in Mogadishu. \"I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to ferment violence against your people,'\" he said. Somalis began arriving in the United States in significant numbers after the U.S. intervention in Somalia's humanitarian crisis in 1992. A sizable group of young Somali-American men left Minneapolis last year and were feared recruited by al-Shabaab militants. In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota, traveled to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. The incident -- the first-ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen -- raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The president's call came after fresh fighting erupted Sunday between Somalia's transitional government forces and Islamist rebels. According to several witness accounts, AMISOM -- the African Union Mission to Somalia -- supported government forces to push back al-Shabaab as the militia attacked the presidential palace. AMISOM tanks and soldiers were involved in the fighting, according to witnesses. \"The sound of heavy artillery in Mogadishu was very loud and continuous,\" a witness told CNN. \"It was shaking the ground, and many buildings were destroyed by the shelling.\" The president called the operation \"a clear victory\" against al-Shabaab. \"Our forces have weakened the strength of the al-Shabaab militia in this fighting,\" Ahmed said. Government forces displayed the bodies of five al-Shabaab fighters in their trademark green uniforms. Al-Shabaab, a group that is on the U.S. government's terror watch list, remains entrenched in the northeast and sections of the south of the capital. The group categorized the involvement of AMISOM as a shift in their attempts to overthrow the transitional government. \"The fighting in Mogadishu has entered a new phase. Now it's between us and AMISOM,\" said Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for al-Shabaab. \"AMISOM was backing up the government directly, but we will keep fighting.\" Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting. The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by Islamist groups that have seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south. The United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been forced to flee Mogadishu since the latest round of fighting began in early May between the government and the Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups. The Somali-American population in the United States is concentrated in clusters primarily in Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle, Washington; and San Diego, California. The potential recruitment of young Somali-American men has been made possible by \"a number of factors that come together when a dynamic, influential and extremist leader gains access to a despondent and disenfranchised group of young men,\" Andrew Liepman, deputy director for intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center, said earlier this year. Many refugees, he said, \"lack structure and definition in their lives\" and are \"torn between their parents' traditional tribal and clan identities, and the new cultures and traditions offered by American society.\"","highlights":"President Sheik Sharif Ahmed says U.S.-Somalis joining Islamist rebels .\nMany Somalis went to U.S. after 1992 American intervention in Somalia .\nFresh fighting has erupted between transitional government and rebels .\nU.N. estimates 200,000 people have been forced to flee Somali capital .","id":"e988f065d2569305256ae5f689ee511c4c99f2a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended two air traffic controllers over last week's collision of two aircraft over the Hudson River that killed nine people, a spokeswoman said. The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted this week from the Hudson River. A controller at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport handling the flight of a Piper airplane carrying three people \"was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident,\" FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said in a statement Thursday. A source with knowledge of the investigation said the controller was on the phone with his girlfriend \"after he cleared the pilot for takeoff; he was still on the phone at the time of the crash.\" In addition, \"the supervisor was not present in the building as required,\" Brown said. \"While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident, this kind of conduct is unacceptable, and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings,\" she said. Watch amateur video of the moment of impact \u00bb . \"These are serious violations of the FAA regulations,\" said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the Transportation Department. The union for air traffic controllers urged caution. \"We support that any such allegation is fully investigated before there is a rush to judgment about the behavior of any controller,\" said a statement from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The National Transportation Safety Board is working with the FAA in investigating Saturday's collision of the Piper, which had taken off from Teterboro, with a sightseeing helicopter that was carrying five Italian tourists and a pilot. No one aboard either aircraft survived the crash. The NTSB has said the pilot of the small plane was cleared electronically and handed off to Newark, New Jersey, air traffic controllers, a standard procedure. However, Newark's control tower never got a verbal response from the pilot of the small plane. The controller put on leave was described as a longtime employee, the source said. He and the supervisor face disciplinary action that could include their firing. Also Thursday, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the agency may reissue advisories to pilots using the busy airspace over the Hudson. Pilots are urged to use a radio frequency dedicated to traffic in that corridor, fly no faster than 140 knots and turn on their lights as they enter that airspace. Babbitt made the comments at an event at the agency's research facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Spokeswoman: Controller was talking to girlfriend on phone during accident .\nController's supervisor also not present in building as required, spokeswoman says .\nController was handling plane carrying three people that collided with helicopter .\nNine people died in collision of tourist helicopter and plane over Hudson River .","id":"a175918a73063a9f515ea29e512917497335e817"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Maria Hinojosa, an award-winning journalist and author, joined NOW on PBS as senior correspondent in 2005. Hinojosa, who formerly covered urban affairs for CNN, also serves as anchor and managing editor of National Public Radio's \"Latino USA,\" a weekly national program reporting on news and culture in the Latino community. Maria Hinojosa says Sonia Sotomayor's success has helped boost self-confidence for many. NEW YORK (CNN) -- It's a question I never thought I would ask my daughter. But I loved being able to ask it. \"Yurema?\" \"Yes, Mom,\" my 11-year-old daughter said. \"Tell me what T-shirt you would most like to wear: one that says 'I am a Wise Latina,' 'My Mother is a Wise Latina' or 'Sonia is a Wise Latina'?\" She cocked her head slightly and then quickly said, \"I am a Wise Latina.\" Eleven years old, and this is the vision she already has of herself. It's a pretty wonderful thing to watch that certain something blossom in a girl ... one of those often fleeting moments when a girl owns her own power. For me, the decision to wear my own \"Wise Latina\" T-shirt raises all kinds of issues. It makes me confront a past that I have known for decades. Deep down inside, I, like many other Latinas, struggle with my own very deep insecurities in relation to my white male colleagues. I think after witnessing history on television for the past two weeks, those insecurities have pretty much dissipated. Sonia Sotomayor has blazed the trail. I can't go back to thinking that way, anymore, ever. Before, when I told people that I was a Latina, I never knew what, if any, image they might have in their mind. Everyone carries stereotypes and preconceived notions. But now when I say to people that I am a Latina, might they immediately think, \"A wise Latina\"? My daughter is learning all of these lessons from Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman. When I was Yurema's age, back in the '70s, the only Puerto Rican woman I knew of was Maria (played by Natalie Wood) from \"West Side Story.\" I grew up on the South Side of Chicago after being born in Mexico. My Puerto Rican Maria from West Side Story taught me that love and commitment could transcend borders and divisions. Sonia is teaching Yurema, and all of us, that intelligence and compassion (and an honest way with words) can also cross all borders: political ones, those of gender or ethnicity. And I have learned that my own challenge now is to reach this very high bar that Sotomayor has set. I must \"own\" that I am, indeed, a wise Latina. Later on the day of the T-shirt decision, my daughter hears my reaction when I read that Sen. John McCain, whom my daughter knows well because we followed the election, is going to vote against Sotomayor's confirmation. \"What a big jerk!\" was her age-appropriate response. Then, after a pause, Yurema said, \"So that means John McCain thinks Sarah Palin is a wise woman? But not Sonia? Harrumph.\" \"Harrumph\" is also an age-appropriate response. But the lasting impact of McCain's decision will be much more profound than upsetting an 11-year-old wise Latina girl. In fact, I would venture to say that, politically, there are many in the Republican Party who are convinced this was a politically unwise choice by McCain. It's just not that complicated. Look at the changing demographics in the United States. Then think about what happens when you vote against the first Latina Supreme Court nominee. Maybe McCain isn't wise enough to see that reality, so I will tell him a story about a Dominican-born, U.S. citizen cabby from my Harlem neighborhood. While he drove down Broadway, I asked the cabby if he thought that President Obama was pandering to the Latino communities across the country with the Sotomayor nomination. \"Pero muchacha!\" he exclaimed in a true Dominican style. \"He is not pandering. He owes us! Everyone knows now that without the Latino vote, you cannot win the presidency. He has to deliver, politically. I am a new citizen, and I voted for Obama my first time. Just like a bunch of us Dominican cabbies. Now this is my country and my politics.\" \"And is that the way you guys talk amongst yourselves? That the Latino vote is that powerful?\" \"Yep, asi lo vemos. That's how we see it! But even though we love Sonia, Obama still owes us.\" And what must Obama deliver to satisfy this very politically astute cabby? \"Imigracion! He must solve this immigration problem. Families are divided up. It is unjust. So Obama must understand that is what we want him to deliver now.\" A wise Latino with some wise advice for the president. And for McCain and the Republican Party? Buena suerte, winning the next elections! The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Maria Hinojosa.","highlights":"Maria Hinojosa: My daughter and I are wearing \"wise Latina\" T-shirts .\nShe says Sonia Sotomayor has helped erase insecurity for many .\nShe says McCain's opposition to Sotomayor's nomination was a mistake .\nHinojosa: Political impact of Latino population is likely to grow .","id":"e9111f558d30f81014a75be5da046fae50803fbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia, Michael Vick was reinstated to the National Football League on a conditional basis, according to an NFL statement Monday. Michael Vick will be considered for full reinstatement based on his progress by the sixth week. Vick \"will be considered for full reinstatement and to play in regular-season games by Week 6 based on the progress he makes in his transition plan,\" the statement said. Week 6 of the NFL season is in October. Vick may participate in practices, workouts and meetings and may play in his club's final two preseason games under the conditions of his reinstatement, the league said. Vick, in a statement, thanked the league's commissioner and former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, who has served as his mentor. \"I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Commissioner [Roger] Goodell for allowing me to be readmitted to the National Football League,\" Vick said in a statement. \"I fully understand that playing football in the NFL is a privilege, not a right, and I am truly thankful for the opportunity I have been given.\" Vick, 29, was freed from federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to his home to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement. Vick also said in his statement that he is re-evaluating his life after the \"terrible mistakes\" he made. \"As you can imagine, the last two years have given me time to re-evaluate my life, mature as an individual and fully understand the terrible mistakes I made in the past and what type of life I must lead moving forward,\" Vick said in the statement. \"Again, I would like to thank the commissioner for the chance to return to the game I love and the opportunity to become an example of positive change.\" The former Atlanta Falcons player is a free agent and has not been signed by any team. Goodell said he was not involved in any negotiations between Vick and a team. Dungy has agreed to continue working with Vick as an adviser and mentor, the NFL statement said. Goodell said Vick underwent tests after requests from animal rights groups, including a psychiatric evaluation. \"We worked with animal rights activist groups, and we are clear,\" he said. \"We worked with their medical professionals about the aspects of our evaluations. Michael fully cooperated with all of those tests. Those tests did not indicate there was any reason he couldn't make a transition forward.\" In a letter to Vick, Goodell wrote that his decision regarding full reinstatement \"will be based on reports from outside professionals, your probation officer and others charged with supervising your activities, the quality of your work outside football\" as well as factors such as the absence of any further law enforcement issues. iReport.com: Should Vick get a second chance? \"This step-by-step approach is not meant to be a further punishment and should not be viewed as such,\" Goodell wrote, according to the NFL. \"Instead, it is intended to maximize the prospect that you can successfully resume your career and your life. I believe that a transitional approach with a strong network of support will give you the best opportunity to manage effectively the various issues and pressures that you will inevitably face in the coming weeks and months and earn your full reinstatement.\" Watch Goodell talk about his decision \u00bb . The league suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after his guilty plea. Although he was released from federal custody July 20, he must serve three years of probation, the league said. In reviewing Vick's status, Goodell considered court records, submissions from Vick and others, reports from outside professionals and conversations with current and former players, among other items. At a hearing July 22, Goodell spoke to Vick along with his representatives and others, including NFL Players' Association officials. \"As I emphasized to you when we met ... it is actions that count,\" Goodell wrote to Vick. \"I accept that you are sincere when you say that you want to, and will, turn your life around and that you intend to be a positive role model for others. I am prepared to offer you that opportunity. Whether you succeed is entirely in your hands.\" Vick has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At a hearing in that case, he told the judge that he earned 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor while in prison. \"We take this as a very serious matter,\" Goodell said. \"We're dealing with a young man's life.\" He said Vick admitted lying to him about his involvement in dogfighting and apologized. Goodell said he accepts Vick's apology. He acknowledged that he does not like being lied to but said he intends to move forward. The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick has offered to work with the organization on anti-dogfighting campaigns. Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president, has said Vick was to work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting and on programs to assist young people who have been involved. In testimony before the bankruptcy judge, Vick acknowledged committing a \"heinous\" act and said he should have acted more maturely. \"Your margin of error is extremely limited,\" Goodell wrote to Vick. \"I urge you to take full advantage of the resources available to support you and to dedicate yourself to rebuilding your life and your career. If you do this, the NFL will support you.\"","highlights":"NEW: Commissioner: \"We're dealing with a young man's life\"\nQuarterback can participate in practices, workouts and meetings, NFL says .\nVick will also be able to play in his club's final two preseason games .\nVick was sentenced to 23 months on charges related to dogfighting .","id":"2803c7a296be508a83114d07180c3dbd89ff20cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite some high-profile bombings in recent days, Iraq's security forces are ready to take over for U.S. forces this week to stabilize the nation's major cities, the U.S. commander in Iraq told CNN on Sunday. Except for soldiers in advisory roles, all U.S. combat troops will leave Iraqi cities and towns by June 30. Army Gen. Ray Odierno said he's seen a \"constant improvement\" in both the security situation and governance in Iraq to prepare for the June 30 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from major cities. \"They've been working for this for a long time,\" Odierno said on CNN's \"State of the Union.\" In a separate interview on \"Fox News Sunday,\" Odierno said all U.S. troops already were out of Iraq's major cities before Tuesday's deadline. \"We have already moved out of the cities,\" Odierno said. \"We've been slowly doing it over the last eight months. And the final units have moved out of the cities over the last several weeks.\" Watch CNN's Michael Ware on the U.S. withdrawal \u00bb . The shift is part of the security agreement that former President George W. Bush's administration signed with Iraq. In the CNN interview, Odierno blamed the recent violence in Iraq on \"extremist elements using the timeframe and date to gain attention to themselves and divert attention from the success of Iraqi security forces.\" The 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still will \"maintain full coordination with Iraqi forces inside the cities\" and continue to have intelligence capacity, Odierno said. With approval from the Iraqis, they also will carry out operations in major cities as necessary, he said. Odierno said his goal is to help provide security that allows Iraq to hold planned national elections leading to the eventual removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011. He said his biggest worry is a breakdown in stability such as a \"consistent increase in violence\" or a situation that Iraqi forces can't handle. \"I don't see that\" happening, Odierno said. \"I think we're on the right path.\" Odierno also said Iran continues to \"interfere\" in Iraq, including training insurgents and paying surrogates. But he said his mission is limited to providing security within Iraq, no matter the provocation from Iran or elsewhere. \"I'm not authorized to do anything outside the borders of Iraq,\" he said. Iran's government has repeatedly denied fomenting violence inside Iraq.","highlights":"Gen. Ray Odierno sees \"constant improvement\" in security, governance in Iraq .\nIran continues to \"interfere\" in Iraq, Odierno says .\nIranian government repeatedly denies instigating violence inside Iraq .","id":"faabe4e3f09a968357a72e9bd8e18390c991b1d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Nepalese journalist who reported on women's rights and wrote several articles criticizing the dowry system was hacked to death in her room, a media rights group said Monday. A Nepalese journalist takes part in a protest last month demanding more freedom for the press. The killing of Uma Singh, 26, is part of a growing and troubling pattern of violence directed at reporters in the South Asian country, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists said. In protest, journalists throughout Nepal are expected to stage demonstrations Tuesday, calling on the government to ensure their safety. \"If the government is not ready to provide any kind of security to journalists, it will be very difficult to do journalism in a free mode,\" said Dharmendra Jha, president of the federation. Singh wrote for a daily newspaper and reported for a radio station in Janakpur, about 240 km (150 miles) southeast of the capital city of Katmandu. When she got home from work Sunday night, a group of about 15 men barged into the room she rented at a house and hacked her with sharp objects in full view of other boarders, Jha said. \"I am very very shocked,\" said Jha, who arrived in Janakpur Monday to probe the killing. \"She was my student and I brought her into active journalism.\" Authorities do not have a motive for the killing. In some of her articles, Singh spoke out against the dowry system, where a bride's family is forced to give cash and property to the groom's family before the wedding. Also Sunday, a group of men ransacked the house of another journalist, leaving a cross on her door and telling her it was her turn next, media groups said. Police do not know if the two incidents are related. In recent months, the number of attacks on journalists in Nepal has shot up. The federation released a year-end report, recording 284 incidents -- including three deaths and a kidnapping. The incidents also include shutting down media outlets, burning copies of magazines and beatings. Some of the assailants have ties to the Communist Party of Nepal, the largest party in Nepal's coalition government, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The party is led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or Prachanda -- a man who led a decade-long bloody insurgency before being sworn in as prime minister. During the decade-long civil war, Maoist forces under him carried out numerous attacks on journalists they believed were opposed to their cause, Human Rights Watch said. And after he became prime minister, Prachanda issued a public warning to journalists while addressing a massive crowd in Katmandu: \"Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people.\" \"The problem we're facing is the problem of impunity,\" Jha said. \"There are many armed groups in plain sight. The government has to hold them accountable. Otherwise, we are not safe.\"","highlights":"Nepalese journalist who reported on women's rights is hacked to death .\nKilling of Uma Singh is part of pattern of violence directed at reporters in Nepal .\nJournalists throughout Nepal expected to stage demonstrations Tuesday .","id":"88aedac04d89fee39455462f463fc21b3c5a97e5"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Elizabeth and Mary Profit will not be taking center court at the U.S. Open women's doubles final to face Venus and Serena Williams, but they share many of the athletic qualities that have made Venus and Serena the most dominant sisters in tennis history. Elizabeth Profit plays tennis while wearing an insulin monitor at her waist in this family photo. Elizabeth is 13 years old and holds a top ten ranking among 14-year-olds in Southern California. She is already defeating top-ranked players in the 18-year-old division. Her sister Mary, at 11, is also a top-ranked player and dominating her age group. Mary won her first tournament at the age of 6. Both girls started playing tennis as infants by hitting balls of socks across their living room. Their mother, Yvonne Profit, recognized their talent and saw it as an opportunity to develop sportsmanship and character and help them earn athletic scholarships at top national universities. So far, they have exceeded her expectations. In a sport that more often tends to develop players from affluent backgrounds, Elizabeth and Mary have already beaten overwhelming odds and endured the kind of adversity that too often ends in defeat. Watch how the sisters hope to achieve their tennis dreams \u00bb . The Profit sisters grew up in a single-parent household and trained with less than stellar coaches. They developed an exemplary work ethic to compensate for a lack of resources, Elizabeth said. Yvonne, who earned a degree at the University of Michigan, decided to give up her full-time job and move her daughters into an RV to keep up with the rigorous demands of traveling for tournaments. Elizabeth sleeps on a couch. There is a portable stove and shower. But the girls view living in an RV as an inconvenience rather than a hardship. The Profit sisters may be on a path toward a professional tennis career, but Elizabeth's story off the court is just as compelling. She has juvenile diabetes and has been living with the disease since the age of 2, when her body stopped producing insulin. Elizabeth learned how to test her blood sugar levels before the age of 3 and two years later, she began administering insulin injections on her own. \"My mom said I'm not going use my diabetes as a disability,\" said Elizabeth. \"I've got it for the rest of my life. And if they miraculously find a cure for it then that's great, but I have to live with it. I can't make excuses.\" Until she learned how to manage diabetes, Elizabeth found herself collapsing at times. \"In this one particular tournament Elizabeth played in, her blood sugar was totally out of control and I kept hollering out to her, 'Quit! Retire, you don't have to do this,' \" said Yvonne. \"She stopped and she turned around and said, 'I can do this. I can do this, Mom.' \" Elizabeth went on to win the match and the tournament. \"By the time we got home, she had collapsed on the floor. And I said, 'Sweetie pie, why didn't you quit?' \" Yvonne remembered. \"Because you didn't raise me to be a quitter,\" Elizabeth told her mother. In spite of her diabetes, Elizabeth reached the No. 1 ranking in her age group in Southern California at 10 years old. Her sister Mary knows that diabetes can be debilitating and a matter of life and death, so she constantly watches over her older sister. \"Sometimes when I wake up to go to the bathroom, I check her blood sugar, when my mom's sleeping,\" said Mary. \"Sometimes I wake up and give her something if her blood sugar is low.\" For the past ten years, Yvonne said, she has been unable to obtain private health insurance on the open market for her daughter because diabetes is considered a pre-existing medical condition. Elizabeth used to rely on a large insulin pump to make it through the day, but now she wears a small patch that releases insulin. Despite the inconvenience of checking her blood sugar level a dozen times a day, Elizabeth has not let diabetes deter her from achieving her goals. \"At 17, I hope to see myself in the quarters of the U.S. Open like Melanie Oudin,\" she said. \"I hope to win some grand slams and get that No. 1 ranking.\" Elizabeth's advice to anyone with diabetes is universal. \"I'd say if you give up, you're going to have to look back on your life and say, 'Oh I could have done this, I could have done that,' \" she said. \"You don't want to let life pass you by. You're going to have so many years to live, so you might as well have fun while you do it. And once you die, you're going to have a legacy behind, so make your life as fun as you can.\" Next year, Yvonne is planning to enter Elizabeth on the women's professional tour, at the same age that Serena and Venus Williams turned pro.","highlights":"Tennis player Elizabeth Profit, 13, ranks high in her age group; to turn pro next year .\nElizabeth has juvenile diabetes, manages it; \"I can't make excuses,\" she says .\nSister Mary, 11, also a rising tennis star, watches over her older sister .\n\"You don't want to let life pass you by,\" Elizabeth advises others with diabetes .","id":"c6c4344a9480e113eacfaba43642ed82196ea92a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Many skiers who visit Colorado prefer the slopes of Aspen, Vail or Breckenridge. But there's a cool little day trip from Denver that often gets overlooked by out-of-towners. The Ski Train begins its round-trip journey to Winter Park at Union Station in Denver, Colorado. The Ski Train is a 68-year-old local favorite that shuttles about 750 people between Denver and Winter Park. It runs on weekend days -- leaving Denver's Union Station at 7:15 a.m. -- and begins the return leg nine hours later. The 56-mile trip takes about two hours each way, and many riders say it's worth the cost to avoid the traffic hassles of the oft-congested I-70. A roundtrip ticket costs between $49 and $85. There are additional expenses, such as parking at the train station in Denver and lift tickets for skiers. If someone chooses to shop instead of ski, a free shuttle into Winter Park is available. Train riders love the trip route, which winds through the Rockies and climbs to 9,000 feet. It also travels through almost 30 tunnels, including the 6.2-mile Moffat Tunnel, which passes underneath the Continental Divide. \"The train ride up there is spectacular. You see wonderful vistas as you leave Denver through the northern plains and into the mountains,\" Kristal Kraft, a real estate agent in Denver, says. \"And once you get through the Moffat Tunnel, you're right there at Winter Park.\" Kraft says she enjoyed her maiden voyage on the train, which came courtesy of a local home builder that bought group tickets in one of the club cars. \"I loved the convenience [of the train],' she says. \"We relaxed, talked, socialized. And when you get off the train, you are right there at the slopes.\" According to skitrain.com, three additional cars are available for charter and one for company retreats. The Web site lists the price for the presentation car at $5,000 for a winter trip. The site says the current train cars were purchased after Ansco Investment Company bought the Ski Train in 1988. Kraft says the cars are comfortably heated and there is ample room to move around. Kraft, an amateur photography buff, enjoyed switching from window to window, side to side, to take pictures. There is one occasional hitch to riding the train. It shares the track with the Union Pacific Railroad and at times has to stop or pullover to make way for a freight train or Amtrak. And there are instances where another train has an accident. One time a coal train derailed in a tunnel and the Union Pacific officials told the Ski Train operators it would take two days to clear the tracks, says Ski Train media relations director Jim Bain. They called the passengers together in a cafeteria in Winter Park and advised them to call friends and family to come pick them up. The company also arranged for a few buses to come gather the remaining passengers and Bain says they were all headed back to Denver by 8:30 p.m. It was a worst-case scenario, he says, and it only happened once. There are occasional delays of a few hours. The bad news is you're delayed; the good news is you're on a full service train with food service and restrooms. And there's the ability to find a beverage. One reviewer on the Web site yelp.com said there's another bonus to the train. \"What's great is that once you get back into Denver you can hit Wynkoop brewery or any other bars around there to keep the party rolling,\" Ramon G. wrote.","highlights":"Ski Train from Denver to Winter Park has been a local favorite for 68 years .\nTrain ferries skiers to slopes in Colorado's Rocky Mountains .\n\"The train ride up there is spectacular,\" says Denver resident .\nTrain passes through 6.2-mile Moffat Tunnel underneath the Continental Divide .","id":"6622c2789d7dad025b979cc8cb6432b319c6db56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday he will not apologize again for yelling out that President Obama lied during the president's speech to Congress last week. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, shouts \"You lie!\" during President Obama's speech Wednesday night. \"I am not going to apologize again,\" the South Carolina Republican said on \"FOX News Sunday\" when asked about pending disciplinary steps against him by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Wilson said he already apologized to Obama and that the president accepted it. However, he insisted that Obama \"was misstating the facts,\" and that Democratic leaders in the House were \"playing politics\" by continuing to focus on the issue. House Democrats plan to censure Wilson if he refuses to apologize on the House floor this week. Wilson issued a statement about that Sunday, saying, \"The American people are fed up with the political games in Washington, and I refuse to participate in an effort to divert our attention away from the task at hand of reforming health insurance and creating new jobs.\" Watch the debate over Wilson's comment \u00bb . The controversy has shifted the focus of the heated health care debate by calling attention to claims by Republicans that a health care overhaul sought by Obama and Democrats would provide free insurance coverage for illegal immigrants. Obama and Democratic leaders insist that nothing in any of the health care proposals currently before Congress includes health care coverage for illegal immigrants or would provide taxpayer money to help illegal immigrants buy private health coverage. However, Wilson and other opponents of Democratic proposals say the plans provide no enforcement mechanism to screen applicants for citizenship requirements. Wilson said Sunday that Republican amendments calling for such enforcement were rejected by congressional committees that have passed the Democratic proposals. When asked if Obama had lied to Congress, Wilson responded: \"I believe he was misstating the facts.\" He noted that Senate Finance Committee members negotiating a compromise agreement have called for enforcement mechanisms similar to what Republicans are proposing. The national response to Wilson's nationally televised outburst, in which he yelled \"You lie\" as Obama spoke about health care to a joint session of Congress, shows the deep public divide over the issue. Wilson and his opponent for re-election next year have each raised more than $1 million since Wilson's heckling of the president on Wednesday, according to aides for each. In addition, Wilson has posted a Web video that asks for campaign cash to fend off attacks from political opponents. Immediately after Obama's speech Wednesday, Wilson issued a statement that apologized for inappropriate behavior. He also called the White House that night and spoke to Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who told Wilson that Obama accepted his apology. Obama said publicly that he accepted the apology. Wilson \"apologized quickly and unequivocally, and I'm appreciative of that,\" the president said. Wilson said Sunday that should be enough, adding that he respected the president and \"would never do something like that again.\"","highlights":"Rep. Joe Wilson says he apologized to Obama and that should be enough .\nWilson yelled \"You lie\" as Obama made health care speech to Congress last week .\nHouse Democrats plan to censure Wilson unless he apologizes in House this week .\nWilson says he respects president, \"would never do something like that again\"","id":"f41a2244c71e351d9d27d44bbbdc71ae680fd25b"} -{"article":"HAMILTON, Bermuda (CNN) -- Two of four Uyghurs relocated to Bermuda after seven years of detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied Friday that they had ever been terrorists and expressed gratitude toward U.S. President Barack Obama for working to free them. Salahidin Abdalahut and Kheleel Mamut were two of four Uyghurs released from Gitmo. Thirteen remain there. Asked what he would say to someone who accused him of being a terrorist, one of the men, Kheleel Mamut, told CNN's Don Lemon, \"I am no terrorist; I have not been terrorist. I will never be terrorist. I am a peaceful person.\" Speaking through an interpreter who is herself a Uyghur who said she was sympathetic toward the men, the other man -- Salahidin Abdalahut -- described the past seven years as \"difficult times for me ... I feel bad that it took so long for me to be free.\" The two Chinese Muslims were among four relocated from Guantanamo to Bermuda; another 13 remain in detention on the island. He said he had traveled to Afghanistan not to attend any terrorist training camps but because -- as a Uyghur -- he had been oppressed by the Chinese government. \"We had to leave the country to look for a better life, a peaceful life, and Afghanistan is a neighboring country to our country, and it's easy to go,\" he said. \"It is difficult to obtain a visa to go to any other places, so it was really easy for us to just travel to Afghanistan.\" Asked what he hoped to do next, he said, \"I want to forget about the past and move on to a peaceful life in the future.\" In addition to the four relocated from Guantanamo to Bermuda, another 13 Uyghurs remain in detention on the island. The four were flown by private plane Wednesday night from Cuba to Bermuda, and were accompanied by U.S. and Bermudian representatives as well as their attorneys, according to Susan Baker Manning, part of the men's legal team. The men, who are staying in an apartment, are free to roam about the island. Mamut accused the Bush administration of having held them without cause, and lauded Obama for having \"tried really hard to bring justice and he has been trying very hard to find other countries to resettle us and finally he freed us.\" He appealed to Obama to carry out his promise to shut Guantanamo Bay within a year. \"I would like President Obama to honor that word and to free my 13 brothers who were left behind and all of the rest of the people who deserve to be free,\" Mamut said. Asked how he had been treated in Guantanamo Bay, Mamut said, \"It is a jail, so there will be difficulties in the jail that we have faced and now, since I am a free man today, I would like to forget about all that. I really don't want to think about those days.\" He cited a proverb from his homeland that means, \"What is done cannot be undone.\" Asked if he had anything to say to anyone watching, he said, \"Thank you very much for those people who helped me to gain freedom.\" He said he had spoken earlier in the day with his family. \"They told me, \"My boy, my son, congratulations on your freedom.' \" The move has had international repercussions, including causing a rift between the United States and Britain. A British official familiar with the agreement but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told CNN the United States had informed London of the agreement \"shortly before the deal was concluded.\" A U.S. official, speaking on background, said the British feel blindsided. Bermuda is a British \"overseas territory.\" The four were twice cleared for release -- once by the Bush administration and again this year, according to a Justice Department statement. The issue of where they go is controversial because of China's opposition to the Uyghurs' being sent to any country but China. Uyghurs are a Muslim minority from the Xinjiang province of far west China. The 17 Uyghurs had left China and made their way to Afghanistan, where they settled in a camp with other Uyghurs opposed to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said in its statement. They left Afghanistan after U.S. bombings began in the area in October 2001 and were apprehended in Pakistan, the statement said. \"According to available information, these individuals did not travel to Afghanistan with the intent to take any hostile action against the United States,\" the statement said. However, China alleges that the men are part of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement -- a group the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization -- that operates in the Xinjiang region. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang. China on Thursday urged the United States to hand over all 17 of the Uyghurs instead of sending them elsewhere. The United States will not send Uyghur detainees cleared for release back to China out of concern that they would be tortured by Chinese authorities. China has said no returned Uyghurs would be tortured. A senior U.S. administration official told CNN that the State Department is working on a final agreement with Palau to settle the 13 remaining Uyghur detainees. CNN's Don Lemon and Brian Vitagliano in Hamilton, Bermuda, and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two Uyghurs relocated from Guantanamo spoke Friday with CNN's Don Lemon .\nBoth denied having been terrorists and expressed gratitude toward U.S. president .\nFour of the Chinese Muslims were relocated to Bermuda; 13 remain at Gitmo .\nIncident has had international repercussions centering on where to relocate men .","id":"9cc38648a56377f5f273a50a7889f59284e7f490"} -{"article":"Dutch Harbor, ALASKA (CNN) -- In Dutch Harbor the smell of fish wafting from the docks and the canneries is the smell of money. And lately, the town has smelled a lot less fishy. High seas high jinx: Tobias gives his shipmate Hanns a haircut at sea using a sail bag as a barber cape. Over fishing, new quota systems and changes in expected weather patterns have all played a role in changing the face of this once swashbuckling Alaskan town, fishermen say. \"Last summer we thought that pollock fishing was over for good, it was so bad. Time to turn out the lights and go home. But then they cut the quotas by 30 percent and now there are some small signs of more small fish, so maybe they are coming back,\" said Guy Collins, who coordinates with fishing captains who unload their catch at the Unisea docks in Dutch Harbor. \"The fishermen have to go further north toward Russia now to get the fish that are near the ice. It used to be the boats would go out 100 miles, now they go out 500. It could be partly due to temperature change and weather patterns.\" Dutch Harbor saw a revival in popularity with the reality show The Deadliest Catch, but even the high-fiving enthusiasm of the deck hands on the TV show can't match what the town was like in the glory days. \"Those were the days, in the mid 1980's, there was booze, drugs and partying. You had lines of coke going down the bar and no one said anything,\" says Byron Singley, captain of the 24-ton fishing boat the Nancy Allen. \"People were making big money and spending it as fast as it came in. I earned $78,000 as a deckhand the first year I was here but I can't remember where it went. Those days are long gone.\" Aboard the Silent Sound, as we sail north through the Bering Sea, we're finding other things are not quite like they used to be. For starters, we've been becalmed for much of the trip when we were expecting to encounter strong winds on the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. We have motored nearly half of our 2,300 miles so far. More importantly, the ice we were bracing ourselves for may not be where we expected to find it. While this is good news for the expedition from a sailing perspective, it's less attractive for wildlife such as polar bears, seals and walruses that use the ice as a platform for hunting, mating and migration. \"The present extent of northern sea ice is very similar to the extents at this time in 2008 and in 2007. It is close to values seen also in 1995 and 1990. It is about five per cent below the long-term average of 12.2m square kilometers,\" said Dr Humfrey Melling, a research scientist with the Institute of Ocean Sciences near Victoria, British Columbia. September 2007 was the first time that the Northwest Passage was open water from end to end. An ice forecast issued by the Canadian Ice Service on July 1 showed earlier than normal break up in many key areas in the Western Arctic. \"In the Western Arctic region, the breakup pattern is one to three weeks early in many coastal areas and by as much as one month in isolated areas,\" the report said. But we're still some 400 miles from the Arctic Circle and a month from entering the heart of the Northwest Passage, which gives the Arctic plenty of time to surprise us.","highlights":"Team aims to discover how climate change has affected Arctic and Inuit people .\nAt Dutch Harbor, Alaska, discovered how fishing quota transforming community .\nUnexpected calm weather on trip so far despite sailing \"Deadliest Catch\" seas .\nRead the first ship's log from the crew of the Silent Sound .","id":"a0d966444f64b041be7ebbe699a104fb97918c4a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Billionaire Bill Gates has urged industrialized nations to honor aid pledges to developing nations despite the recession. Bill Gates Thursday said industrialized nations need to do more to help developing countries. ONE, the advocacy group backed by Gates and rock musicians Bob Geldof Bono released a report Thursday attacking several Group of Eight nations for meeting financial aid goals, set in 2005, to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The report said that Italy, host to the next G8 summit, has \"performed especially poorly\" in its share of aid spending and that France has fallen behind on its commitment. In an interview with CNN's Richard Quest, Gates said nations such as France had not been able to fulfill their promises due to pressures on budgets and suggested they needed to \"raise the priority so the promises are met.\" Are G8 nations doing enough during the recession to help developing economies? The former Microsoft chief set up the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1994. Part of its remit is to help nations trapped by hunger and extreme poverty, donating billions of dollars on health aid during the past two decades. Gates said that as industrialized nations cut their budgets over the next few years to get deficits down there would be a real question of whether aid money will be untouched or increase. But if people knew how valuable such aid was, he said, the pressure on governments would be enough to allow it to be a priority. \"When you get young girls into schools and they're literate,\" said Gates, \"not only do they contribute to the economy, but the population growth that is overloading resources and is creating these problems, that starts to go down. And so the portion of the world that needs aid is far less today than it was 50 years ago.\" Watch full Quest Means Business interview with Bill Gates. \u00bb . Trade was also key to developing nations being able to become self-sufficient, said Gates, rather than relying on foreign aid or philanthropy. \"Why did China get to the point it got to?\" Gates asked. \"Aid was part of it but they got their governance and infrastructure up to a level where they are now going to be a net contributor. That's a very positive story for 20 percent of the world. \"We need to improve the trade rules,\" said Gates. \"The Doha Round would have been very beneficial to Africa. That's a failure that one hopes would be fixed.\" Gates, answering a question submitted by CNN viewer Jairo Martinez on how aid money was monitored, said that health priorities such as AIDs treatment, vaccines and malaria nets were all measurable. \"My foundation says for every dollar we put in, how many lives have we saved? And, as you save lives, amazingly you actually reduce the population growth and improve the entire ability of the country to move forward.\" CNN viewer Phill Elliott asked Gates, through a submitted question, about the importance of the $100 laptop, intended to improve access to education in developing nations. Gates replied that educational technology was a priority once more fundamental basics were in place. \"You have got to get your priorities right,\" he said. \"When children are dying and vaccines that only costs dollars aren't being delivered, that's the most important thing. If you do not have food, that's the most important thing.\"","highlights":"Gates: If people could see direct benefit to nations then aid would not drop off .\nBill & Melinda Gates Foundation sends billions of dollars to developing nations .\nGates: China is a great example of a nation which has progressed in recent times .\nQuest Means Business: Monday to Friday, 1800 GMT, 2000 CET, 0300 HK .","id":"e927f7c50fea8036e16e78cb55f64f4ef619bf16"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner resigned as leader of the ruling political party Monday following a poor showing in Sunday's elections, the official news agency Telam reported. Former Argentine Nestor Kirchner accepts defeat Sunday in legislative elections in Buenos Aires. The ruling Justicialist Party, or PJ by its Spanish acronym, lost its majority in the Chamber of Deputies after being defeated in 18 of 60 races, the newspaper Clarin reported in its Monday editions. The party also lost four Senate contests. The new composition of Congress could shift power away from Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Kirchner's wife. Nestor Kirchner also lost a race for a congressional seat in Buenos Aires province. He lost his bid to Francisco de Narvaez, who leads a rival Peronist party, Union PRO, by a tally of 34.6 percent to 32.1 percent. The Kirchners' party also lost in some of the most important urban centers, including Santa Fe, Cordoba, Mendoza and Entre Rios. Argentina's ability to withstand the global economic slowdown was a key election issue. Economic indicators from Argentina look good, but there is broad agreement among analysts that indicators such as inflation are underreported by as much as half. An effort by Cristina Kirchner, who succeeded her husband, to tax agricultural exports led to a standoff with angry farmers who ultimately forced the government to backpedal. \"The Kirchners have been weakened by this latest economic crisis,\" said Robert Pastor, who was a Latin America national security adviser for former President Carter. The election could signal that the limelight on the country's most powerful political couple could be evaporating. \"They'll probably begin to fade from the scene,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. \"It's going to be very hard for them to govern unless they do something they haven't been willing to do -- compromise and reach consensus.\" CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Argentine President Nestor Kirchner steps down as leader of ruling party .\nRuling Justicialist Party loses majority in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies .\nNew composition of Congress could shift power away from president .\nAnalyst: \"The Kirchners have been weakened by this latest economic crisis\"","id":"f1f9bd337023fe92c24d9fcf196da6e858e317c9"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Investigators are looking into whether employees at the Los Angeles County coroner's office illegally leaked information about Michael Jackson's death probe to the news media, according to a sheriff's spokesman. Police stand outside the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office when Michael Jackson's body was there in June. Vivid descriptions of Jackson's corpse, which was in the coroner's custody for an autopsy, were published by tabloid newspapers in the days after his death. The Los Angeles County Supervisors office on Friday asked the sheriff to conduct a \"preliminary inquiry,\" which will determine whether there is enough evidence to launch a full investigation, said Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's spokesman. Whitmore did not provide details on what prompted the request. The Los Angeles Times quoted Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as saying his office called the sheriff's department after reports that coroner's employees not involved in the Jackson death probe had viewed his death certificate in the office database. Ridley-Thomas has not responded to CNN requests for comment. The coroner's office is investigating the cause of Jackson's June 25 death. It has been waiting on toxicology lab results, but a final autopsy report is expected as soon as next week, a coroner's spokesman has said. Los Angeles police are also investigating the death. Detectives traveled to Houston, Texas, this week to search the medical office of Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor. CNN's Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report .","highlights":"Vivid descriptions of Jackson's corpse are published by tabloid newspapers .\nL.A. officials ask sheriff to conduct preliminary inquiry .\nA sheriff's spokesman did not say what prompted the request .\nThe coroner's office is investigating the cause of Jackson's June 25 death .","id":"8e8a095fdc7ac4eb962eb730e0867c2bdc757f51"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After a town hall meeting on health-care reform in Belgrade, Montana, President Obama will escape to Big Sky country on Friday evening where he'll spend time with family and go fly-fishing for the first time. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel carries fly-fishing tackle to Marine One on Friday. Fly-fishing requires a singular focus, much like golf. Having newly discovered the sport myself, it occurred to me as I watched Marine One lift off the South Lawn on Friday that there are probably some lessons on the river that could apply to Obama's presidency. Thinking like a producer, I called an expert -- fly-fishing instructor Tony Derosier, who described the evolution most fishermen go through. \"Usually, when you first go fishing, all you want to do is catch a fish, and then all you want to do is catch a lot of fish, and then you just want to catch the larger fish. After you've caught a lot of large fish, you kind of go back to square one and catch just one fish,\" said Derosier, manager at Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Aspen, Colorado. \"You basically just want to go fishing -- the numbers, the size, it doesn't matter any more.\" Obama is in the \"big fish\" stage of his presidency: He's trying to get health-care reform legislation passed hook, line, and sinker. If he's successful, anything else he gets passed will be icing on the cake. Learning the fundamentals of fly-fishing can serve as a metaphor for health care reform. Obama just needs to look at hooking and landing Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans like he would trout. The first step -- learn how to cast. \"Fly-casting is all about maximizing the energy you put in your rod and you lose energy if you wait too long,\" Derosier said. \"And conversely, if you don't wait long enough, your line will crack like a whip.\" Obama has to strike the right balance between rushing things through and losing momentum; and maintaining support while bringing others over to his side. The second step -- reading the water: \"Instead of blindly casting anywhere in the river you want to understand where you might find fish,\" Derosier explained. Obama zeroed in on a fairly conservative state, Montana, where he faces a land full of skeptics about his health care reform plan. Third -- hook and land the fish: Derosier said once you hook the fish you have to know how to play the fish, which is a delicate balance between applying pressure but not so much that the line breaks -- much like the delicate balance of Obama's courting members of Congress. \"The ultimate goal is to gain an advantage over the fish so that you can land him,\" he said. \"It's the hardest thing to teach when it comes to fly-fishing,\" he said. Out in Montana, the game is catch-and-release trout. But in Washington, Obama is trying to hook Congress and take home health care reform, or risk it being the big one that got away.","highlights":"CNN White House producer: Fly-fishing is a metaphor that fits Obama's presidency .\nBeginning anglers desire to catch bigger and bigger fish, expert says .\nObama is in the \"big fish\" stage of his presidency, Shawna Shepherd writes .\nDelicate processes of political success are like casting, reading the water, etc.","id":"26aa48a3811a38ff5ddf9abf6970865ad67eeafa"} -{"article":"SWAT VALLEY, Pakistan (CNN) -- The boys shuffle into the room in a remote army base high in the mountains of Pakistan's Swat Valley. They are disheveled, disoriented. These boys say they were kidnapped by the Taliban and trained to be suicide bombers. There are no smiles, their eyes stare at the floor. These are the lost souls of Pakistan's battle with the Taliban. Each has a story of terror to tell, but the trauma runs so deep they can't even begin to properly find the words to describe what they have been through. That task is best left to the psychiatrist who, with her team, was brought in to try to pick through the pieces of this nightmare; to make sense of the brutality here and try to put broken lives back together. Watch Stan Grant's report on the boys \u00bb . Dr. Fareeha Peracha describes these boys variously as \"psychotic,\" \"depressed,\" and in some cases, \"psychopathic.\" \"They have been brainwashed. Brainwashed against people like you and me,\" she said. CNN was given limited access to about a dozen boys. They had all been kidnapped by the Taliban and taken to camps where they would be trained to kill; trained to be suicide bombers. Watch Grant's exclusive interview with a wanted a Taliban leader \u00bb . CNN cannot reveal the boys' names; they have handkerchiefs tied across their faces to conceal their identities. The army fears they could face retribution should they be returned to their homes and families. The boys sit in a circle as I try to get them to open up about their ordeal. What happened? Were they brutalized? What did the Taliban ask them to do? So many questions. They answer hesitatingly, their voices barely a whisper. \"The first day they beat us and then made us exercise,\" one boy said. \"They made us run and told us you will wage jihad.\" They said the Taliban especially poisoned their minds against the Pakistan army. \"They just told us that they (army) are against Islam, are against the Quran. They said wage jihad against them; we are waging jihad for the Quran,\" said another boy. They all say they were kidnapped by the Taliban, some snatched from fields and others from the towns they lived in. \"I was coming from the shop to my house, I had some stuff with me. They said, 'put your stuff in the car.' I helped them put stuff in the car. They asked if they should drop me in my village, but when we reached the village they blindfolded me and put a hand over my mouth,\" one boy said. The Taliban's tactics seem to have worked. I ask one boy, would he kill for God? He replied: \"Yes.\" I asked the psychiatrist, Dr. Fareeha, if she believes the boys are capable of killing. \"Oh yes,\" she said. \"Two of them would not even give it a thought.\" The army freed the boys during fierce fighting with the Taliban. Now they are hoping to rehabilitate the boys and one day return them home. But Fareeha thinks that is a long way off -- if ever. She told army chiefs the boys are unpredictable. One boy, she said, told her if he had a suicide bomber's jacket he would use it, that if he had a Kalashnikov, he would shoot. Of course, it is impossible to verify all of the accounts of the boys, but the doctors have no doubt about their trauma. Fareeha told Army chiefs that these boys were just a tip of the iceberg. After talking to the boys, she believes there are possibly hundreds of others just like them. These boys are the victims of the Taliban's uprising here. All they are left with are the terrible memories, the voices in their heads: the voices of the Taliban telling them to kill, they said.","highlights":"Boys rescued from the Taliban in Pakistan are receiving psychiatric help .\nThey are abducted from their homes and are being trained for suicide missions .\nPsychiatrist says they have been brainwashed; fixing that will take time .\nArmy hopes the boys can one day return to their homes .","id":"08f631fcbdd1434717e6acd8e00836c699ff7230"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rob Thomas is a busy guy -- so busy, he apparently hasn't had much time to check in with his Matchbox Twenty bandmates. Rob Thomas prefers to focus on the \"musician\" side of his career, rather than \"celebrity.\" We only know this because we ran into guitarist Paul Doucette at the BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills several weeks ago, where he was picking up a plaque for songwriter of the year. \"We're interviewing Rob about his solo album,\" I told him. \"Hey,\" Doucette exclaimed. \"Tell that guy to call me, would you? I didn't even know he was in L.A.!\" By the time we met up with Thomas the next day, he and Doucette had already connected over drinks somewhere between midnight and the morning -- musician's hours. Thomas recently released \"Cradlesong,\" his second solo CD. Even though he's clearly excited about it, he spends as much time talking about Matchbox Twenty as he does the solo album he's in town to promote. For the 37-year-old singer-songwriter, it's all interconnected. One has fed into the other since he gained household name status a decade ago, after scoring a massive, Grammy-winning hit with Carlos Santana on \"Smooth.\" Watch Thomas describe the difference between being a celebrity and a musician \u00bb . The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Who has given you the best piece of advice? Rob Thomas: Carlos [Santana] will constantly send you messages out of nowhere. Carlos will call me at 10 at night and be like, \"Listen, I had a dream about you, and so much good is happening, but there's dark forces at work, and when you get out of here, I have this woman who wants to cleanse you.\" I think Carlos' most important piece of advice ever was that he taught me the difference between being a celebrity and being a famous musician. CNN: But some artists don't have that kind of success, and they try for celebrity instead. Thomas: Sure, and sometimes that works -- but none of my favorites have done that. I remember when Matchbox Twenty started years ago, and we had a lot of success, but nobody knew who we were. The first time we did an interview with MTV, it was about how no one knew who we were. We had sold 8 million records. I don't know if we were being naive at the time, but we thought we'd won because our songs were more famous than we were. I'm much more known for the music that I make than what I do with my life. It's never, \"Oh yeah, I've been seeing you in [the New York Post gossip column] Page Six at these clubs that you go to\" or \"I know who you're sleeping with.\" CNN: When you became famous for being Rob Thomas the solo artist, did that cause problems within the band? Thomas: No. I think the guys would rather it be me than them. None of them want the job, and they realize that it's working now. They have a singer. I can go out and do it [publicity] for them, and they're fine with it. They can stay home. I think there's nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity. If I'm not out supporting my work, I really don't want people to see me. I go to movie premieres -- my wife and I -- all the time, and nine out of 10 of those movie premieres, much to my publicist's dismay, I get there, but I sneak around the pictures and get into the party [using the back entrance]. If I have a record coming out, I'll go in front of the cameras, and I'll say, \"Hi! Hey, I'm at this movie premiere.\" I liken it to being a switch that I can move on and off. CNN: What has doing a solo project enabled you to do that you can't do with a band? Thomas: I get to pick my own schedule, and that's nice. Matchbox Twenty -- it's four lead singers, there's four front men, and everybody's tastes, everybody's schedule, everybody's personal life comes into account when you're doing something like that. We all live [in four different cities] ... so we literally have to pull ourselves up from all over the country and go somewhere, just to get us into a room to write. And you have to not think you're so great so you don't get upset when somebody doesn't like your stuff. Like \"Her Diamonds\" -- one of the singles on this solo album -- is one of my favorite songs that I've ever written, and the guys loved the song, but didn't want to play it. [They said,] \"When you do a new solo record, you should put it on there. It doesn't sound like a song we would do right now.\" And they were right. When we put together the last Matchbox record, it was much more of a rock record. CNN: What's the most surprising thing on your iPod? Thomas: Britney Spears. Come on! \"Toxic,\" man, is just one of the baddest tracks ever! I remember the first time we listened to \"... Baby One More Time.\" ... We were like, \"Oh, let's go play Britney Spears on the piano!\" And we all come over drinking, and after a couple of minutes, we're like, \"This Britney Spears is a lot harder than we thought!\" CNN: Whose career would you like to emulate? Thomas: Tom Petty is a famous musician. He's not a music celebrity. When Tom Petty walks down the street, you know that it's Tom Petty, but it would be like, \"Oh my gosh, it's Tom Petty! I love Tom Petty, right on!\" It would never be like, \"Aaaaaaaah!\" -- and 3 million teenage girls follow him down the street.","highlights":"Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty has new album out, \"Cradlesong\"\nThomas says Matchbox Twenty is still very much together .\nSinger: \"Nothing more attractive than wealth and anonymity\"","id":"03dc4c3d7f642a25fc3945a9efeee1cbe678e543"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six hip-hop artists from five countries speaking four languages are on stage, warming up for their show at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. International hip-hop artists warm up for their show at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday. \"Warming up\" doesn't really capture it; the dancers explode across the stage, each one with a different hip-hop style. Michelle Salazar is chic-grungy in black jeans and white T-shirt, her long black hair swirling around her head. Hassan El Haf, from Lebanon, tall and thin, does a kind of electric hip-hop mixed with salsa. Argentines Mauricio Trech and Silvia Fernandez move in a dramatic break dance. Both hail from Argentina, home of the tango. Hien Ngoc Pham from Vietnam, with a buzz cut and dressed in white jeans and a white T-shirt, has Broadway bravado in his every move. The dancing stops and Samer Samahneh begins rapping -- in Arabic. No translation needed; it comes from his soul. Three weeks ago, the dancers had never met, but now they're a team, participating in the State Department's Cultural Visitors Program. The program consists of three weeks of meeting American hip-hop artists and dancers and visiting New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. \"It's like a dream come true for me,\" Salazar said Tuesday, the day of the team's show, \"because I only read their names in the Internet and now, like, I met Afrika Bambaataa, the founder of hip-hop. I was right next to him. It's a real immersion into the culture. I don't want to wake up!\" Salazar isn't just star-struck. She's learning a lot and she plans to bring it back to her fellow dancers in the Philippines. \"Dancers in the Philippines don't have much of a foundation [in hip-hop],\" she says. \"They don't understand why dancers do this\" -- she moves her arm -- \"or why they do this\" -- she strikes a pose. \"Because if they knew why they would feel it. I can feel it by watching these [American] hip-hop dancers.\" Samahneh agrees: \"You've got to feel it.\" His rapping, he says, comes from inside-out. \"Even if you don't know the language, you can get involved with what I'm saying.\" Samahneh says that when he raps in his hometown of Nablus in the West Bank, he is \"asking God to bring peace to our land.\" Colombia Barrosse, the vibrant head of the State Department's Cultural Programs Division of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, says the cultural cross-fertilization is the goal of the program. \"There is nothing that can substitute for being in the United States and meeting Americans in their place, to look at the richness and diversity of the United States. That's irreplaceable,\" she says. The Cultural Visitors Program is part of the State Department's cultural programming around the world. The $8.5 million budget is supplemented by institutions like the Kennedy Center, which is co-sponsoring this performance. Most of the visiting artists in the program found their way to professional dance through hip-hop. Pham, a member of the Vietnam Dance Association, is currently working to open a hip-hop training center in Ho Chi Minh City to reach out to young people. With a broad smile, he says, \"Hip-hop is such energy. It's so young. It's also an opportunity for our countries to get closer, and I have a lot of friends all over the world.\" Hip-hop may have started in the United States, but it belongs to everyone. Here's how Hassan El Haf puts it: When he got to New York, he felt as if he had landed on his \"real planet.\" \"Yeah, I see them, all the dancers in the street, the music, all the people that like hip-hop music,\" he says. \"When I do hip-hop, it makes me feel happy all the time. This is my life.\"","highlights":"Hip-hop artists from five countries visit the U.S. to meet U.S. artists, perform .\nVisit is part of State Department's Cultural Visitors Program .\nTeam visits New York City, Washington, Philadelphia over three weeks .\n\"It's a real immersion into the culture,\" Philippine performer says .","id":"74660e59825c1e106d41c8cd334465896b5e9780"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Women's boxing will be included at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the president of the International Olympic Committee announced Thursday. Germany's Ina Menzer, left, fights American Franchesca Alcanter during a WIBF and WBC featherweight bout in May. The decision came during a two-day IOC Executive Board meeting in Berlin, at which board members also decided to propose golf and rugby for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games. \"I can only rejoice about the decision of inclusion of women's boxing,\" IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters. \"I think it's a great decision. Boxing was the sole (Olympic) sport with no women involved. \"The sport of women's boxing has progressed a lot, a tremendous amount, in the last five years and it was about time to include them in the Games.\" Have your say - should women's boxing be included? A men's class will likely be axed to make room for three women's weight categories at London 2012, the UK Press Association reported. Women will compete in the flyweight 48-51kg class, lightweight 56-60kg and middleweight 69-75kg, the agency said. When the IOC dropped baseball and softball from the 2012 Olympic program several years ago, it said it would consider adding new sports that had a clean reputation and a wide appeal. Rogge pointed out that women's boxing has around 200 athletes who could potentially compete in 2012, while softball has only around 120. As a result, he said, the IOC considered women's boxing to be more popular. Women's boxing has boomed in Britain since 2005, with the number of registered female fighters rising from 50 to 600, PA reported. Softball and baseball were considered for inclusion in the 2016 Games along with squash, karate, roller sports, golf and rugby, but the board decided to consider only the last two. Blog: IOC has picked the wrong sports, says CNN's Paul Gittings . The IOC has not yet selected the host city for 2016, but its board members will submit golf and rugby to the full IOC session for a final decision at its meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October. \"Golf and rugby scored high on all the criteria,\" Rogge told the IOC's official Web site. \"They have global appeal, a geographically diverse line-up of top iconic athletes and an ethic that stresses fair play.\" The International Golf Federation has proposed two four-day strokeplay tournaments for men and women, with 18 holes per round and medals awarded to the three players in each with the lowest scores. The International Rugby Board has proposed men's and women's Sevens tournaments, with 12 teams in each being divided into two pools before semifinals and finals.","highlights":"Women's boxing will be included in the 2012 Olympic Games in London .\nBoxing had been the only Olympic event without any female participants .\nGolf and rugby will be considered for inclusion at the 2016 Summer Games .\nSoftball, squash, baseball, karate and roller sports did not make the cut .","id":"61738c70f41a9b09792eb83f0050456ec144b1b6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that receives U.S. military funding to help it cover and get distributed free to American forces in war zones, complained Tuesday of censorship by military authorities in Iraq. A soldier with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division patrols the streets of eastern Mosul, Iraq, on June 16. In a story on its Web site, the newspaper known as Stripes said the military violated a congressional mandate of editorial independence by rejecting a request to embed reporter Heath Druzin with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which is attempting to secure the city of Mosul. The military cited various problems in Druzin's reporting on previous embed assignments with units of the division, according to the story. One example noted by the military was a March 8 story that said many Mosul residents would like the American soldiers to leave and hand over security tasks to Iraqi forces, the Stripes Web site said. \"Despite the opportunity to visit areas of the city where Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police displayed commitment to partnership, Mr. Druzin refused to highlight any of this news,\" Maj. Ramona Bellard, a public affairs officer, wrote in denying Druzin's embed request, according to the Stripes story. A military official in Iraq defended the move to turn down the reporter's request. \"U.S. Army units in Iraq remain committed to the media embed program and appreciate objective media reporting,\" said Lt. Col. David H. Patterson Jr., a spokesman for Multi-National Corps-Iraq. \"The relationship that Druzin established with the command during a previous embed did not facilitate being invited back.\" Patterson added that Druzin was welcome to embed in another unit and that the 1st Cavalry Division was open to having a reporter other than Druzin. \"Accusations of censorship are without merit,\" Patterson said. Other allegations against Druzin by the military included that he used quotes out of context, behaved unprofessionally and persisted in asking Army officials for permission to use a computer to file a story during a communications blackout period, the Stripes story said. Terry Leonard, editorial director at Stars and Stripes, denied the Army's allegations, calling Druzin's previous reporting on the division accurate and fair. \"To simply say 'you can't send him because we didn't like what he wrote' is unacceptable,\" Leonard said. He noted that Congress set up Stripes as an independent newspaper so that \"no commander can decide what news troops in the field receive.\" Army officials have offered to allow a different Stripes reporter to embed with the division or to allow Druzin to embed with a different Army unit in Kirkuk, Leonard said. Stripes rejected those offers because the military has no right to deflect coverage from Mosul or decide which Stripes reporter covers its operations, Leonard said. \"To deny Mr. Druzin an embed under the reasons stated by Maj. Bellard is a direct challenge to the editorial independence of this newspaper,\" Leonard wrote in his appeal to the decision, according to the Stripes story. \"That independence is mandated by Congress. The denial of the embed constitutes an attempt at censorship and it is also an illegal prior restraint under federal law. ... The military cannot tell us what stories to write or not write.\" Stripes receives close to $10 million a year from the Department of Defense to help defray the costs of covering \"contingency\" operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the publishing and distribution of roughly 85,000 free newspapers a day, Leonard said. The newspaper receives additional government subsidies, with the total amounting to less than half of its budget, he said. Other revenue comes from ad sales and circulation at permanent U.S. military bases and elsewhere, Leonard said. CNN has been denied embed requests on occasion but never because of the past conduct of individual journalists. The reasons have almost always involved logistical details involving security and force coverage.","highlights":"Newspaper says military's rejection of embed request is censorship .\nPaper wanted reporter Heath Druzin to be embedded with Army division in Iraq .\nArmy rejects request, cites Druzin's previous interactions with division .\nArmy denies accusations, says different reporter may embed with division .","id":"0fba2b730327357d2fc24dc5f0f028a97750b676"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa strengthened their grip on the Tri-Nations with a 29-17 victory over Australia in Cape Town on Saturday. The Springboks charge forward in their 29-17 victory over Australia at Newlands. It was the third straight win for the world champions, who were indebted to the boot of Morne Steyn as he totaled 24 points with seven penalties and a drop goal at Newlands. The Wallabies took a surprise lead in the second minute as Ashley Cooper barged over for a try with Matt Giteau converting, but the home side slowly took command. Steyne kicked three penalties in the space of six minutes to put them ahead and added a fourth after Berrick Barnes had restored Australia's lead with a drop goal. Steyne then sent over a drop goal of his own and South Africa moved further ahead as Victor Matfield went over for their only try of the match. With the Wallabies reduced to 13 men as Giteau and Richard Brown were sin-binned, Steyn took advantage with another penalty to put them 23-10 ahead at the half. Steyn added his sixth penalty shortly after the break, but Giteau charged through for a try and converted his score to give them hope at 26-17. Steyn's final penalty with two minutes remaining wrapped up the victory. South Africa, who have played all their three matches at home, lead the standings with 12 points, with New Zealand on four and Australia, who have played a game less, with a solitary point. Victory continues a fine run of form for the Springboks, who beat the British and Irish Lions 2-1 in a thrilling series which preceded the annual Tri-Nations tournament.","highlights":"South Africa beat Australia 29-17 in Tri-Nations match at Newlands .\nWorld champion Springboks have won three straight matches in tournament .\nMorne Steyn kicks 24 points for South Africa to seal victory .","id":"9e0b28c890e5819cab9f5ccc354d524aa86f60ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Science fiction flicks featuring aliens can be a little formulaic: Aliens invade American territory, mass destruction ensues, and nine times out of 10, Will Smith rides to the rescue . A company operative (Sharlto Copley) gets an alien's attention in \"District 9.\" But the alien-infested \"District 9,\" opening in theaters Friday, takes things in a different direction -- if the producer may say so himself. \"It's utterly original,\" producer Peter Jackson -- yes, \"Lord of the Rings\" helmsman Peter Jackson -- told Entertainment Weekly. \"In an industry that's looking to make movies out of every obscure TV show, or sequels, or video games, you look at 'District 9' and it's unlike anything you've ever seen,\" he said. With its inventive plot and crowd-pleasing special effects, the low-profile, relatively low-budget ($30 million, a pittance these days) film was a hit at Comic-Con, creating a buzz before the film's release. The brainchild of newcomer Neill Blomkamp, \"District 9\" is a mash-up of the director's love for science fiction with his rearing in an apartheid-divided South Africa. Set and shot in the shantytowns of Johannesburg, the film is a mix of action-movie shock and sociological food for thought. The mayhem begins when an alien spaceship runs out of fuel over South Africa in 1981, and simply hovers idly in the sky. With no attack forthcoming, officials finally evacuate a group of aliens -- it turns out they've fled their home world -- and corral them into barbed-wire ghettos, effectively separating the shrimp-like creatures from the human populace. Overseeing the aliens' camp is the corporation Multi-National United (MNU). It's an obvious nod to South Africa's own violent and divisive history, but director Blomkamp says he isn't aiming for political commentary. \"This is an organic thing that has grown out of me living in South Africa. I didn't want to go, 'Here's a whole bunch of people that have been oppressed by this apartheid-esque society' and beat people over the head with it,\" he told CNN. \"I wanted to say, 'This is the city I grew up in, and this is what it felt like,' with a science fiction veneer to it so that it doesn't take itself that seriously.\" Documentary-like authenticity was of prime importance to Blomkamp, and was the reason for his casting of fellow South African unknown Sharlto Copley as leading man. Copley has no prior acting experience, but critics have lauded his portrayal of Wikus van de Merwe, a private-sector employee who goes from being the oppressor to one of the oppressed after an accidental run-in with some DNA-transforming alien goo. \"Having grown up in South Africa, I was exposed to the tail end of apartheid as a child, [and] it's something I felt I could relate to,\" Copley said. \"Playing the character, I saw so clearly how you discriminate. ... The film deals with things that are fundamentally human.\" \"District 9\" is also fundamentally a thriller, and there's no shortage of gory, gritty scenes and clever special effects that will appeal to fans who like a little action with their sci-fi. Indeed, the film has been praised for its masterful use of special effects, weaving the technology seamlessly into the documentary-style scenes. Sometimes the two are in the very same shot, Blomkamp said. \"One of the first shots completed was a motherboard shot, where [computer-generated imagery] was incorporated into some of the handheld footage, and it felt like it was working, this idea of handheld stuff with [CGI],\" Blomkamp said. \"It set a good tone; it captured the essence of what I was going for.\" Not bad for a 29-year-old novice, who had previously directed short films and commercials. But that body of work was impressive enough to catch the eye of A-list producer Jackson, who originally had Blomkamp in mind for feature version of Halo, the video game. \"[Jackson] had received all of the crazy short films and commercials I had done, and once I met him and hung out and got familiar with the kind of filmmaking universe he set up down there, he did sign off on me as director of 'Halo,' \" Blomkamp recalled. But, five months into the project, the plug was pulled on \"Halo.\" \"Right away, [Jackson] said, 'If you want, you can stay in New Zealand and we can just keep the momentum going and allow another film to take place,' \" Blomkamp said. One of Blomkamp's friends suggested his short film, \"Alive in Jo'burg,\" for feature treatment. Blomkamp ran with the concept, developing it alongside fellow screenwriter Terri Tatchell into \"District 9.\" \"It's pretty cool,\" Blomkamp said. \"I would've packed my bags and left had [Jackson] not said that.\" It's been more than two years since Blomkamp started the project, and though he's found the experience exhausting, he has quite a final product to show off. \"There is nothing better than to come out the end of that process and have it play in a movie theater,\" he said. \"For that first film, I got what I had set out to do, [and] that's a pretty awesome feeling.\" CNN's JD Cargill contributed to this story.","highlights":"\"District 9\" offers sci-fi thrills with food for thought .\nAliens in South Africa are separated into a township; apartheid similarities obvious .\nFilm made by relative unknowns who bring documentary-style realism to subject .","id":"9371fba66dbc22130e3426f9fad5d9ce12c34dec"} -{"article":"GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A radical Muslim sheikh called Friday for the creation of an Islamic emirate in Gaza, sparking clashes with Hamas forces that left 13 people dead, Hamas sources tell CNN. Armed members of the radical Islamist group Jund Ansar Allah surround a group representative in Rafah on Friday. The clashes ended after several hours, after Hamas forces blew up the home of Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi, leader of the Salafist jihadist group Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Partisans of God, the sources said. Al-Maqdessi escaped, they said, and Hamas security forces were searching for him. The clashes were the latest between Gaza's Hamas rulers, who have said they are moderate Muslims pledged to the Palestinian cause, and more radical Islamic groups. In a televised statement, Hamas ministry spokesman Taher Nunu called al-Maqdessi's group \"outlaws\" and said they have been \"terrorizing the country and attacking civilians.\" \"We hold the group and its leader fully responsible for what is happening in Gaza, and we offer our condolences to everyone who was killed during the clashes,\" Nunu said. \"No one is above the law, and we urge everyone who is a member of this group to surrender himself to the authorities, or they will be accountable for all of their actions.\" The gunfighting erupted near a mosque in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the cleric delivered his sermon, the sources said. Hamas militants raided the mosque and seized control of it. Later, the fighting spread to al-Maqdessi's home, the sources said. The fighting has left at least 13 dead and more than 100 wounded, the sources said. Al-Maqdessi also called for a public meeting at the mosque, posting on Jund Ansar Allah's Web site an invitation dubbed \"the golden advice to the government of [Hamas leader] Ismail Haniya.\" The group posted a statement on the site announcing the establishment of the Islamic emirate in Gaza and proclaiming al-Maqdessi \"the commander of the faithful.\" The statement declared that armed forces in Gaza should unite under him. The statement urged Muslims everywhere to support the \"young emirate\" and provide the group with money, weapons and men because \"this is the hope of the Muslim nation in raising the banner of monotheism in Palestine and to liberate all the lands and purify Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the damned Jews.\" Al-Aqsa mosque is in Jerusalem. The group accused Hamas of not being Islamic enough, saying Hamas cares more about pleasing \"tyrants\" than \"obeying God.\" But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri dismissed statements about the establishment of an Islamic emirate as \"theoretical.\" \"It is not permitted to any party or individual to enforce their own laws, because this is the responsibility of the security forces,\" he said. Salafi is the term used to describe the radical islamist movement that follows the doctrines of the \"Salaf,\" or the predecessors, referring to the early generations of Muslims. The movement rejects all modern influences such as politics and government. CNN's Talal Abu-Rahman in Gaza City contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Radical sheikh escapes; Hamas forces blow up his home .\nSheikh's call for creation of Gaza Islamic emirate sparked clashes with Hamas .\nHamas raided mosque where sermon delivered in Rafah, seized control .\nHamas spokesman calls sheikh's followers \"outlaws,\" says they attacked civilians .","id":"4ebd379bc7a91c5f851cf0da1a6947d1afafa0fc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida jury has recommended the death penalty for a plumber who kidnapped, raped and murdered a police detective's daughter. Denise Lee's frantic 911 call was the centerpiece of her killer's trial. Michael King, 38, showed no reaction Friday afternoon as the jury's 12-0 decision was announced in Sarasota. Jurors deliberated for nearly three hours. King was convicted a week ago of first-degree murder and related offenses in the January 17, 2008, death of Denise Lee, a 21-year-old mother of two boys. Nathan Lee and Sgt. Dave Goff, the victim's husband and father, remained composed in court. They had maintained a daily presence in the courtroom during a trial that included the heartbreaking tape of Denise Lee's frantic 911 call on her captor's cell phone. Watch the jury recommend death \u00bb . In Florida, a jury's recommendation for a death sentence is advisory. King will be formally sentenced later. Judges rarely overturn a jury's unanimous decision. Jurors Marcia Burns and Pat O'Quinn told reporters that defense testimony about King's head injury from a sledding accident and his low IQ carried little weight in the jury room. Denise Lee's father and husband had hoped for the death penalty. \"I don't think he should be able to live another day,\" Nathan Lee said Friday as he awaited the verdict. Lee and Goff told the jury that she was a bright young woman who put aside her career ambitions to marry her college sweetheart and raise their two boys, now 2 and 3. \"She was everything we could wish for in a daughter and more,\" Goff said. Several jurors had tears in their eyes as Nathan Lee described his wife as a devoted mother who was nursing one son and potty-training another when a stranger abducted her from their home. \"I was so proud to call her my wife,\" he said. \"Denise was the love of my life, my soul mate. I knew after our first date that I had found the perfect girl.\" He added that their boys \"know their beautiful, courageous mommy has gone to heaven and now is an angel.\" King's siblings spoke of how a childhood sledding accident left him with a head injury that contributed to a lifetime of troubles. One expert described the injury as a \"divot\" in his brain. Experts testified that scans indicated that King's brain was abnormally shaped, especially his frontal lobe: the center for logic, planning and reason. His IQ was described as about 76, in the low range. A person with an IQ of 70 is considered to be mentally retarded, according to testimony. King's brother, Greg, testified that the defendant was 6 when he crashed head-first into a post while being pulled on a sled by a snowmobile. \"I felt bad for him,\" Greg King said. \"I felt responsible, but I wasn't.\" As a child, Michael King would get a faraway look in his eyes, witnesses said. Once, he fired his BB gun at witches he said he saw in the trees. Another time, he chased family members around the house with a running chainsaw. His eyes were \"bugging out,\" his brother testified. King also complained of headaches and hearing \"a buzzing sound\" in his head, Greg King told the jury. King seemed to be deteriorating mentally in late 2007, according to testimony. He faced foreclosure, was considering filing for bankruptcy and broke up with a girlfriend on Thanksgiving Day. The ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Robb, testified that he sat on the bed staring into space and unable to dress himself. \"He acted as if he were somewhere else,\" she said. But she said she never knew him to be violent. According to testimony, Lee was taken from her home during the afternoon, driven to King's home, sexually assaulted and then shot in the head and buried in a ditch. During the trial, Lee's voice filled the courtroom as her desperate 911 call was played to the jury. Listen to the heartbreaking 911 call \u00bb . A 911 operator repeatedly said \"Hello,\" and Lee was heard pleading with her captor: \"I'm sorry. I just want to see my family. ... I just want to see my family again. Please. ... Oh, please, I just want to see my family again. Let me go.\" Eventually, Lee managed to say, \"My name is Denise. I'm married to a beautiful husband, and I just want to see my kids again. ... Please, God, please protect me.\" Lee's heart-shaped ring, a gift from her husband, was found in King's car, and hair matching hers was found on duct tape at King's house. According to testimony and court records, Lee fought frantically for her life, banging on the windows of King's green Camaro, screaming for help and begging one witness, \"Call the cops.\" Several people reported seeing something suspicious and called 911. But authorities didn't find Lee in time, and allegations that dispatchers mishandled the calls have led to criticism of the local 911 system. The 911 communications breakdown was blamed on a shift change, and two dispatchers were suspended, according to the St. Petersburg Times. Lee's husband has launched a foundation bearing her name that works toward 911 reform. He plans to file a lawsuit this month, a family spokesman said.","highlights":"Jury votes 12-0 to recommend death sentence .\nMichael King convicted of kidnapping and murdering Denise Lee .\nMother of two was taken from her home by man in green Camaro .\nCenterpiece of trial was victim's frantic 911 call .","id":"0ade7b0c3e8d4618395d73afe7dcf52d44d0917d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Misdemeanor assault charges have been dropped against \"24\" star Kiefer Sutherland in a head-butting incident at a New York City nightclub, according to Alicia Maxey Greene, spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Kiefer Sutherland turns himself in to the NYPD on May 7. Charges against him have been dropped. \"We decided to drop the charge after a full investigation, including after speaking to a complaining witness, who was uncooperative,\" Greene told CNN Tuesday. The charges stem from an incident in which Sutherland allegedly head-butted designer Jack McCollough at a New York City nightclub in May. McCollough had claimed he was \"the victim of a vicious, violent, unprovoked assault,\" according to a statement released after the incident from McCollough's publicist.. Several weeks after the incident, Sutherland and McCollough issued a joint statement, through Sutherland's attorney, in which Sutherland apologized.","highlights":"Manhattan DA's office: Misdemeanor assault charges against actor dropped .\nCharges stemmed from alleged head-butting incident at New York club in May .\nKiefer Sutherland stars in the hit television drama \"24\"","id":"e60945ad25f6cd8db56a0824201cca35d28059e8"} -{"article":"PARIS, France -- Samoa center Brian Lima's World Cup is over after his dangerous tackle on England star Jonny Wilkinson. Lima arrives for his hearing regarding his dangerous challenge on England's Jonny Wilkinson. Lima, the only player to feature in five World Cups, has received a three-week suspension after being cited for the tackle during Saturday's Pool A clash in Nantes. Wilkinson escaped injury and match referee Alan Lewis did not punish Lima during the game, which England won 44-22 to knock Samoa out of the competition. But World Cup judicial officer Professor Lorne Crerar has upheld the complaint lodged by match citing commissioner Steven Hines. It means 35-year-old Lima will miss Samoa's tournament finale against the United States on Wednesday, with an additional two weeks' punishment also imposed. Lima is poised to quit international rugby after the World Cup, and although he has 48 hours to appeal against the decision, it is improbable a hearing could be convened before Wednesday's game. Samoa will head home after the U.S clash, having already seen the current World Cup campaign consigned to being the worst in their history. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Samoan Brian Lima is banned for three weeks and is out of the World Cup .\nThe center was cited for a dangerous tackle on England's Jonny Wilkinson .\nThe 35-year-old is the only player to feature in five World Cup tournaments .","id":"68a1bed71f776d5d7455b9e31d017cf1fa31323a"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A killer bug is spreading like wildfire. Armed guards stand outside the Mexico City Respiratory Hospital to control the flow of people. Streets of one of the world's biggest cities are eerily empty. Bars and restaurants have been shuttered for days. The president goes on TV to tell workers to stay at home for their own safety. Those who venture outside are clad in surgical masks. Once healthy people are suddenly falling sick and dying from a new disease, H1N1 swine flu. The government swears the situation is under control. But down at the hospital, medics scurry around behind the glass door of an isolation ward. They're clad from head to toe in biohazard suits, goggles and two pairs of gloves. At the airport, officials set up a barrage of thermal imaging machines. If the picture flashes up red or orange, would-be passengers are whisked off to medical facilities. See where the virus has been confirmed \u00bb . It may sound like a sci-fi movie. It's not. Welcome to Mexico City. It's a nightmare scenario and despite twice-a-day news conferences featuring Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova, people on the streets fear the virus may be out of control and that the real death toll may be greater than anyone is letting on. Watch how the city has been shut down \u00bb . \"The measures we're taking are working and are helping us to slow the spread of the virus. But the situation continues to be serious,\" Cordova said at a news conference this week. Government orders to its citizens are clear: wash frequently, don't shake hands or kiss, and stay away from crowded places. That's easier said than done. The doors on the subway car snap open at Hidalgo station. Dozens more passengers clad in surgical masks stream on. It's rush hour deep below the streets of downtown Mexico City. The subway system is the veins of the capital, ferrying millions of people from all social classes to and from work. It's hot and humid down there and there's little fresh air. It's just the kind of crowded place that Mexican authorities say could be a prime breeding ground for swine flu. \"I'm pretty nervous of this whole virus thing,\" welder Frontino Valdez mumbled through one of the masks. Watch passengers packed onto trains trying to protect themselves \u00bb . Sitting one carriage down, Berta Hernandez, a product demonstrator, tries not to show her panic and applies eyeliner like any other morning. But today she has a problem, she has no intention of lifting her mask to paint on lip gloss. \"I'm nervous of those people who aren't wearing masks. Maybe they will suddenly sneeze or cough,\" she said. In these days of swine flu paranoia, just coughing, or worse sneezing, in the subway, or \"metro\" as they call it here, brings black looks from fellow passengers. This has been a strange epidemic since the outset. So far, the Mexican government has been unable to pinpoint where or when this outbreak started. Authorities admit there was an outbreak of influenza in a village in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz in early April. But only one patient -- 5-year-old Edgar Hernandez -- was diagnosed as having swine flu. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta ask the boy about his symptoms \u00bb . The international media have taken to calling him \"Patient Zero.\" He made a full recovery. So far there's no evidence a pig farm near his home reported any problems with its livestock. The family hasn't explained how little Edgar could have infected a capital city let alone the world. The authorities haven't drawn up a genetic map of Edgar's illness nor compared it to the lethal strain that swept through Mexico City and other parts of the country. Lethal it is. But getting to the truth of who has really died from the virus is tough. Since midweek, the government abandoned its initial reporting and began to speak only of confirmed swine flu cases and confirmed deaths due to the H1N1 virus. Previously it had also tallied suspected cases and others under observation. In practice, it is taking days for the government to get test results from autopsies and tests. By the time a case is confirmed the patient may be long buried. One afternoon this week, at a cinder block home perched on a hillside in a poor northern neighborhood of Mexico City, a coffin was mounted on the living room table. A steady stream of neighbors filed in to pay their final tribute to a dead 24-year-old. Biting back tears, a young man said his brother had died of \"respiratory problems.\" When asked what kind of a person his brother was, he said simply: \"He was an honest man. He never got in any trouble.\" The man seemed to be feeling an underlying sense of shame. Suddenly there was a huge stigma attached to swine flu -- like in the early days of AIDS-related deaths -- and Mexican families were keen to dispel notions their loved ones had died of the mutant virus. They didn't want the prying eyes of the media near their home. We wanted to tell their story, observe the wake and follow the funeral. But death is a rite of passage. They had a right to mourn in private. The following day came a tip-off that a 5-year-old girl, Maria Fernanda Garcia, had died. The modest side street outside her home in eastern Mexico City was swarming with police, health workers and civil protection officials. Watch how armed guards were part of Maria Fernanda's funeral \u00bb . Little Maria Fernanda's father appeared briefly and told us we weren't welcome. He was curt when he told us his daughter had died from pneumonia. A medic confirmed the specific cause of death was indeed pneumonia. But he added the hospital was still waiting for test results to confirm whether the underlying cause was swine flu. He conceded that process could take days. But judging by the heavy security, local authorities certainly feared this was another case of the virus. \"These are the prevention measures we must take. This case is still not confirmed but we must take these steps to protect citizens,\" said Victor Luna, a member of the public security detail for this district of Mexico City. A few minutes later, the hearse with Maria Fernanda's body pulled out of the housing complex where she lived. Her dad was clutching a Winnie Pooh cuddly toy as he rode up front. Police and health officials shadowed the funeral cortege to the graveyard. Police guards only permitted immediate family and close friends through the iron gates. Through the bars silent, tearful mourners could be seen weaving through a labyrinth of headstones. Later that afternoon, the family had left Maria Fernanda's grave -- a tiny patch of newly dug dry earth, not much more than 3 feet long. It was covered with sweet-scented white flowers. The plaque on the grave was a simple hand-painted affair: . \"Maria Fernanda. 2004 to 2009. We love you.\"","highlights":"Every aspect of life has been hit by the spread of H1N1 in Mexico City .\nCitizens told not to shake hands or kiss .\nEven a tragic death of a child brings suspicion, paranoia .","id":"dc3ec2692a2627b4c015c967536d110636fae9fb"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Terrorism groups are using Facebook and other social networking sites to recruit Israeli citizens as spies, the Israeli government warned Monday. Israel says its citizens have been targeted by terrorist groups seeking to recruit spies on Facebook. Shin Bet, Israel's security agency, issued a statement warning Israelis about the dangers of trading confidential information for money. \"The Shin Bet has gotten many reports about cases where terrorist elements are using the Internet to get in touch with Israelis with proposals to enlist in terror activity or to pass classified information in exchange for payment,\" the statement said. Not only could the leaked information hurt Israeli security, citizens traveling to other countries to exchange the information for money \"might lead to them being kidnapped by terror organizations,\" Shin Bet said. The government did not reveal any examples of Israelis becoming spies through Facebook, but it did describe one attempt. \"Lately, an Israeli citizen contacted the Shin Bet and complained about a request in Facebook from a person that presented himself as a Lebanese merchant, who asked him to give him classified information for money,\" the statement said. Shin Bet said this was just one example \"among many incidents that were identified by the security services.\" \"It is initiated contacts, concrete and direct to Israeli citizens, with emphasis on the social networks, that offers them to enlist to terror activity or to pass classified information in exchange for payment,\" it said. Shin Bet said terror groups are combing Facebook and other networks \"for business or personal matters like names, addresses, Internet addresses and phone numbers that are being used to find and contact Israeli citizens in Israel and also abroad.\" CNN's Michal Zippori and Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"Terrorist groups using social networking to recruit spies, Israel says .\nSubjects are offered money to pass along secrets, security agency says .\nGroups looking for personal information to contact Israeli citizens .","id":"6d487023016a46677cca1b70f2ec4d94d66abd26"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has indicted two Minnesota men in connection with the recruitment of Somali immigrants to fight with Islamic insurgents in their home country. Jamal Bana is one of several missing Somali-Americans believed to have fought with an Islamist insurgency. Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse are charged with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, the indictment states. The recruiting effort took place between September 2007 and December 2008, according to the charges. Ahmed also is charged with two counts of making false statements to investigators. According to the indictment, he told FBI agents that he had traveled alone on a flight to Somalia when, in fact, he and another person were going together \"so that they could fight jihad in Somalia.\" Ahmed was arrested Saturday, FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson told CNN. Isse had been in custody for some time, said Omar Jamal, the head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. Both were from Minnesota and in their 20s, Jamal said. Jamal said Ahmed and Isse were \"foot soldiers\" carrying out the work of others, and that he expected more indictments \"in a week or two.\" The FBI has been investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by the al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months, and at least three have been killed in Somalia, community leaders have said. The latest, Jamal Bana, was confirmed dead over the weekend, his family said Sunday. The same day, Somalia's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country. \"I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to foment violence against your people,' \" President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said. Al-Shabaab has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government, U.S. officials said. It remains entrenched in the northeast and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. Wilson said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is \"in the 10s,\" but their recruitment is \"a significant concern and one that we're giving our highest priority.\" In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab, traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. It was the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen, and it raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Burhan Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis, went missing eight months ago, around the same time as Bana. Last month, his family learned that he was killed in Somalia. Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States, where they came as young boys, and Bana's family believes he was being held against his will, said Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. \"Only one time he placed a phone call [in mid-November], he didn't say much,\" Jamal said. \"He spoke as if he was being held hostage. He couldn't be speak freely. They asked him to cut the conversation short.\" Hassan's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, said a fourth man -- 30-year-old Zakariya Maruf -- was killed Friday, but Jamal said Maruf may only be injured. Maruf was the first of the missing Somalis to head overseas, said Bihi, who has become a spokesman for the families of the missing men. Bihi called him a \"leader\" whom the others consulted on travel plans. Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground. Ethiopia invaded Somalia to push the Islamists out of Mogadishu in December 2006, but their presence in the country was an outrage to most Somalis and became a rallying cry for al-Shabaab. Ethiopian troops left Somalia this year, leaving Ahmed's weak transitional government to battle the insurgents. CNN's David McKenzie and Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two defendants were mere \"foot soldiers,\" their legal advocate says .\nTwo charged with conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists .\nFBI investigating Somali militants' recruiting effort in immigrant communities in U.S.\nThe militant group in Africa has ties to al Qaeda .","id":"d4aa7135471c82bf38771e33a4e9cd1726272b3b"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Disney World has not been the happiest place on Earth for employees this year. The Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida, has lost some 1,600 jobs. Imagine one day receiving recognition for decades of service from your employer only to be laid off the next day. That is what happened to one Walt Disney Parks and Resorts employee who asked not be identified. Disney has eliminated 1,900 U.S.-based positions since mid-February. Some 900 salaried employees working at Disney's theme parks in Florida were laid off, and 700 open positions were eliminated, said communications Vice President Mike Griffin. In California, 200 workers were laid off and 100 open positions were cut. Disneyland in California and Disney World are having their behind-the-scenes operations combined in a restructuring, said Griffin. Disney officials say theme parks, the Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club and off-property resorts have seen some people with decades of experience laid off during the restructuring. The former employee let go after decades of service is still hoping to return once the economy improves. Several other employees said they did not want speak to CNN in fear of jeopardizing the generous severance packages offered by Disney. Employees let go will receive pay for 60 days; extended medical coverage; and severance packages that vary according to their years of service, said a Disney source. Disney's Griffin said: \"These decisions were not made lightly, but are essential to maintaining our leadership in family tourism and reflect today's economic realities.\" Central Florida's unemployment rate is 9.7 percent -- a 33-year high, according to the area's job service agency, Workforce Central Florida. The rate is more than double from the same time a year ago. The job agency's spokeswoman, Kimberly Cornett, said 40,000 to 50,000 people registered with the agency are vying for 1,000 jobs available through Workforce Central Florida. Fewer than 100 available job listings are in the tourism industry. Cornett said she does not believe Disney's layoffs will have a significant effect to the area's overall economy, since currently 107,000 people are unemployed in Central Florida. Cornett said, however, that the effect would be huge for those laid off. Orlando area hotels have been hit hard, too, with fewer tourist and business travelers. Orange County reported in February it collected 29 percent less revenue in a hotel bed tax in comparison to a year ago, said Brian Martin of the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Martin said the large drop is due to fewer booked hotel rooms at reduced rates to attract visitors. The convention and visitors bureau, in a survey of area hotels, has found companies are traveling less for meetings in Orlando. The hotels report that in the first two months of 2009, some 114 small business meetings were canceled, with $26 million in lost revenue. Martin said the White House is partly to blame for the dropoff in business meetings. President Obama said companies that receive taxpayer bailout money should not use the money to \"go take a trip to Las Vegas.\" \"When the president said 'don't travel,' business travel has been affected,\" Martin said. Las Vegas is the country's most popular convention destination, with Orlando No. 2. Orlando has not seen any large convention cancellations in 2009, the convention bureau says. Statistics from 2007, the latest available, show that even if Orlando saw a 10 percent drop in visitors, nearly 44 million people would still come to the city. Disney's 2008 financial report showed income was down last year. Disney would not comment on whether park attendance was up or down. A source within Disney said that even though the theme parks are crowded, customers are not buying. Disney's Mike Griffin said: \"We continue to work through our reorganization and manage our business based on demand.\" Griffin said the corporation's reorganization has been under way since 2005 and many of the recent positions eliminated would have eventually been cut. Due to the economy, Griffins said, the cuts took place sooner than expected. He added that Disney is downsizing just like many other U.S. businesses.","highlights":"One Disney employee recognized for decades of service, is laid off next day .\nLaid-off employees reluctant to talk for fear of jeopardizing severance packages .\nOrlando area hotels also hit hard by dropoff in business .\nDisney spokesman says company downsizing like many other U.S. firms .","id":"697d107e4403178f35a8db495df1d784a67e8020"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rainstorms and flooding in southern China have killed at least 16 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, according to state-run media. Residents in Rongcheng, southwest China's Guangxi region on July 4. Authorities had sent text messages to more than 1 million people to take precautions in southern China, the Xinhua news agency said Saturday. More than 400,000 residents total were forced from their homes in Fujian, Guangxi Zhuang, Hunan and Jiangxi. At least two people were missing in southeast Fujian Province after downpours that started Wednesday, according to the news agency. The financial damage caused by the rain and flooding -- including damaged homes and crops -- was estimated at $35.4 million. Destruction included a flooded reservoir and damaged dike in Luocheng County, where fears of a dam collapse forced evacuations. The storms also disrupted traffic, triggered landslides and cut electricity in various parts of southern China.","highlights":"Storms disrupted traffic, triggered landslides, cut electricity across southern China .\nMedia: Authorities send precautionary text messages to more than 1 million people .\nFinancial damage caused by rain, flooding has been estimated at $35.4 million .","id":"840610b768222135ae60837b4b943f83269ed944"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 44 people, including 23 Filipino soldiers, died Wednesday in fighting between the Philippine military and Islamic militants, the country's armed services said on Thursday. A wounded Philippine Marine receives a medal from Major Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino in Zamboanga Thursday. The fighting was sparked by military raids on Abu Sayyaf militant training camps in the villages of Silangkum and Baguindan on the southern island province of Basilan, said Steffani Cacho, public information officer for the Philippine Armed Services. Thirty to 40 militants were killed, but only 21 bodies had been recovered, the military said. Twenty-three members of the military were killed and 22 suffered injuries. The militants used the training camps to temporarily house kidnapping victims and make explosives, Cacho said, adding that high-power firearms, explosives and documents were seized in the raids. Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network, is one of several Islamic militant groups fighting the Philippine government. The group operates largely in Basilan, according to the U.S. State Department, and wants to establish a separate state for the country's minority Muslim population. The government has been fighting to contain the group, which is blamed for several terrorist attacks in the Philippines, including the bombing of a ferry in 2004 that left about 130 people dead. This year Abu Sayyaf has been implicated in the kidnappings of several Red Cross workers and journalists.","highlights":"Thirty to 40 militants were killed, but only 21 bodies recovered, military says .\nClashes take place on the southern island province of Basilan, military says .\nAbu Sayyaf has been linked to al Qaeda .","id":"9b401c919905a2a90652e00fc85cc04cc4554070"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Cheryl Reed's morning routine starts like that of millions of other mothers around the country. She makes breakfast for her 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, piles them into a minivan and drops them off at school. Cheryl Reed has a rare form of breast cancer that mostly affects young African-American women. It's the next stop that sets Reed apart from other women. Three weeks a month, she heads to the infusion center at the Emory Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, for chemotherapy treatments. Reed, 40, has breast cancer; not just any form of the disease, but a rare, aggressive and difficult to treat version called triple negative. Of the estimated 180,000 women who learn they have invasive breast cancer this year in the United States, about 15 percent will have triple negative. Like Reed, the majority of triple negative patients will be young African-American women. \"It never occurred to me that I'm going to die from this,\" Reed said. \"I was like, 'I've got breast cancer, let's take care of it.' \" Reed did take care of it. For eight months during 2006, she endured chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She thought the cancer was in remission, but it returned last November. This time, it had spread to her liver, lungs and chest wall. \"Triple negative cancers do tend to be aggressive in their natural histories, so they have a very high rate of recurrence or relapsing,\" explained Dr. Ruth O'Regan, Reed's oncologist at the Winship Institute. She's one of several breast cancer experts around the country who are trying to learn more about what causes triple negative and how to treat it more effectively. Dr. Funmi Olopade, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, was at the forefront of identifying triple negative and the trend among African-American women. She said what makes it different from other types of breast cancer is that women with the disease lack three hormone receptors known to fuel most breast cancer tumors: estrogen, progesterone and HER2. Health Minute: More on triple negative breast cancer \u00bb . \"When you have triple negative, it means that we cannot use hormone therapy. ... The only way we can treat that type of breast cancer is to use chemotherapy,\" Olopade said. Tamoxifen and Herceptin, two of the most effective medications for treating breast cancer, don't work for triple negative breast cancer patients. But if a patient responds well to chemotherapy, Olopade said, there's a very good chance of curing the disease. \"The challenge we have is when the cancer comes back,\" she added. \"Right now, we don't have any effective way to treat it, and that's why when it comes back, it tends to be deadly.\" Reed is enrolled in a clinical trial at the Winship center where she's receiving chemotherapy along with a drug called Avastin, which cuts the blood supply to cancer cells. Olopade is hoping better drugs will be available in the next two to five years that will help eradicate triple negative cancer cells. In the meantime, she stressed, early detection is the key to recovery, especially for women at highest risk. \"In this country, what we have found was young African-American women have a rate that is higher than young white women, and we don't know if that is because of a gene or other risk factors,\" Olopade said. \"We know that women with a family history of breast cancer who have a BRCA1 mutation are most at risk,\" she said. BRCA1 is a major breast cancer-causing gene that was identified 14 years ago. Olopade said women born with the defective gene have a higher chance of getting breast cancer and at a younger age. Olopade also wants to explore further whether triple negative rates are higher among women who do not breastfeed their children. \"It's that first pregnancy and first breastfeeding that really allows the breast to become fully mature,\" she said. She worried that in general, \"African-Americans are not likely to breastfeed, as they are getting in the work force and returning to work soon after childbirth.\" Even with several clues, Olopade acknowledged that researchers still don't know a lot about triple negative breast cancer and more study is needed. She encouraged all young women, no matter what their race, to talk to their doctor about doing a risk assessment for the BRCA1 gene. If there is a family history of the gene mutation, some physicians may tell a woman not wait until she turns 40 to get her first mammogram. \"We begin screening as early at 25,\" Olopade said. \"Many of the women are surviving. They are beating the odds of dying because they know they can do preventive approaches to reduce their risk of dying.\" Reed is trying to increase her chances of survival by getting experimental treatment in the clinical trial. She seems to be responding well, but she's realistic. \"There's always the possibility that once this is done, it could be two years and I'm back in treatment again,\" she said. \"It really is a part of my life now. ... I'm a survivor.\" CNN's Sabriya Rice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Triple negative breast cancer is rare, aggressive and difficult to treat .\nMost triple negative patients are young African-American women .\nEarly detection is the key to recovery, says Dr. Funmi Olopade .","id":"4b6e9ae5b315ed2b623edbe0f9000efb61342b27"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States hailed a World Trade Organization ruling to open Chinese markets and ease controls on the import of U.S. films, DVDs, music downloads and books. U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk, shown, says WTO's decision will \"help pave the way toward more open trade.\" \"Today, a WTO panel handed a significant victory to America's creative industries,\" U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Wednesday. \"These findings are an important step toward ensuring market access for legitimate U.S. products in the Chinese market, as well as ensuring market access for U.S. exporters and distributors of those products.\" In its ruling, the WTO said China violates free-trade rules by requiring importers to channel media products such as movies, books and music through state-owned companies, rather than giving them direct access to Chinese markets. China denied the charges in the ruling. \"The country has always fulfilled its obligations set by WTO on issues related to publication products market entrance permission,\" Yao Jian, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said Thursday. \"China will carefully evaluate the decision. ... Possibilities for China to issue an appeal on its concerned points cannot be ruled out.\" The U.S. trade representative's office said the ruling could put an end to China's discriminatory trade practices. \"This decision promises to level the playing field for American companies working to distribute high-quality entertainment products in China, so that legitimate American products can get to market and beat out the pirates,\" Kirk said. \"To me, that is a clear win. We believe that this report will help pave the way toward more open trade between China and America.\" In recent years, U.S. officials have pressed Chinese officials for help in controlling the counterfeiting of U.S. products and the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted U.S. products, including movies, music and software. Counterfeit products are estimated to cost U.S. companies billions of dollars in lost revenue. Though senior U.S. law enforcement officials have expressed optimism, China remains a haven for pirated U.S. products.","highlights":"China violates free-trade rules by impeding direct access to markets, WTO says .\nChina rejects charges .\n\"This decision promises to level the playing field,\" U.S. trade representative says .","id":"b60e67c1c8f942f12ca873218a6cd349ef47c0b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Late last month, Michelle Russell somberly walked on a Maui beach in Hawaii to mark her daughter Sarah Skiba's 20th birthday. Sarah Skiba visited her father, Paul Skiba, every other weekend. For Russell, who last saw Sarah more than a decade ago, when she was just 9 years old, some images will never fade with the passage of time. Russell especially recalls the cold Friday morning in February 1999 when she dropped Sarah off at a bus stop in Westminster, Colorado, for her ride to school. \"She loved to go to school,\" Russell said, remembering that Sarah ran for the bus and slipped on ice. \"She skinned her wrist at the bottom of her hand, and she was crying,\" Russell said. \"I had a first aid kit and gave her a Band-Aid.\" After school that day, Sarah's father, Paul Skiba, met Sarah to spend the weekend together, a visitation arrangement in place since Russell and Skiba divorced several years earlier. \"Her father picked her up at 3:30 p.m.,\" Russell said. \"She visited her father every other weekend.\" On Sunday, Sarah joined her father -- who owned a moving company -- and his employee Lorenzo Chivers as they went to a moving job. Watch a report about the case \u00bb . \"We know they had two moving jobs that day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon,\" said Thornton Police Department Sgt. Pat Long, the original investigator on the case. The second job was for a man who lived in Morrison, Colorado. The girl, her father and Chivers left Morrison between 5 and 5:30 p.m. to return the moving truck to the Westminster parking lot where Skiba stored his vehicles, Long says. On the way, a 12-year-old relative of Paul Skiba's girlfriend, Theresa Donovan, received a call from Sarah. The girl said they were on their way to return the truck and would then come home. But Sarah and her father never made it back to the house he and Donovan shared. Michelle Russell later called police, who initially thought it was a parental abduction, even though Chivers was also missing. \"It was almost three weeks after that that I became involved,\" Long said. \"I think we lost some key evidence during the initial time that passed at the scene.\" Paul Skiba's family and friends went to his truck storage lot one week after the girl and the two men went missing and grew suspicious when they found what they believed were two bullet holes in the exteriors of Skiba's moving trucks, Long said. They also noticed that Skiba's only functioning truck was not parked quite the way he would have done it himself. \"Paul was adamant that the moving truck always be parked in a certain position, and the way it was found was pulled nose-in and not back-in,\" Long said. \"Everyone knows he was anal about the way that truck was parked.\" Suspected ambush . Long said he thinks there was an attempt to disguise the scene to make it appear that the victims had come back to the lot and left. Investigators from the Thornton Police Department CSI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Westminster Police Department confirmed that bullets had, in fact, pierced Skiba's trucks. They also identified blood spatter on the two trucks and blood inside the cab of the truck used in the move. Hair attached to a piece of scalp was found on the hood of Skiba's moving truck, and additional hair was on the truck's fender. DNA tests revealed that blood on the ground belonged to Paul and Sarah Skiba. The piece of scalp belonged to Paul. The hair was Sarah's. \"The pool of blood on the ground looked like motor oil that had spilled,\" Long said. Authorities believe that the three were ambushed and killed when they returned the truck to the lot. Police think their bodies were put in the back of Skiba's moving truck, driven to another location and dumped. Chivers may have been forcibly taken from the lot and then murdered or killed at the lot in a manner that would have produced no evidence, according to police. No bodies were ever found, leaving police to suspect that Chivers was also a victim. \"We did have a witness who saw the truck come back to the lot,\" Long said. The truck's loading ramp, moving blankets and straps were also missing. Chivers' and Skiba's personal cars, which they had left at the lot during their Sunday moving jobs, were parked at separate apartment complexes across Denver. Investigators were never able to make a direct link between the victims and those buildings. Skiba was the likely target, they say, and Sarah and Chivers were bystanders. Police have interviewed as many as 80 people, but no arrests have been made. \"In my opinion, I believe we know or we have a strong feeling who is involved in the murders,\" Long said, declining to say more or disclose the possible motive. A tragic anniversary . Meanwhile, Russell has been doing her part to help solve the tragic mystery. \"I've done air, water and land searches, door-to-door searches, you name it,\" she said. She has also raised $50,000 in reward money for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Sarah's disappearance and apparent murder. \"This being the 10-year anniversary, we just really wanted to get a lot of focus on this case again and find my daughter and what has happened to her,\" Russell said. On the beach, Russell did things she knew her daughter would enjoy. She even brought cupcakes. \"We went for a walk, drove around. ... I was on my own, but I was with her,\" Russell said. \"It's pretty sad when the guest of honor is nowhere to be found.\" In her short time, Sarah celebrated life with sports, learning and music. \"Sarah sang as soon as she got up each morning, as well as at the dinner table, in the bathroom and to pet her dogs,'' Russell said. ' 'They were like her siblings,'' she added, explaining that Sarah was an only child. \"Someone took her away from me unjustly. I'm not going to sleep until I know why.\" Anyone with more information is asked to call the Westminster Police Department at (303) 658-2400.","highlights":"Sarah Skiba and father went missing in 1999, along with employee Lorenzo Chivers .\nDNA tests show pool of blood on the ground belonged to Sarah and her father .\nPolice have interviewed as many as 80 people, but no arrests have been made .\n\"Someone took her away from me unjustly,\" Sarah's mother says .","id":"5a7649ed3c3809d9514f461d06c5a1541df4a2e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Madonna was \"devastated\" to hear that a man was killed in an accident during construction for her upcoming concerts in Marseilles, France, a representative said Thursday. Firefighters leave the Stade Velodrome stadium in Marseille after the accident on Thursday. A 53-year-old French man was killed when a stage being built for the concert collapsed, a fire department spokesman in the southern French city said. Another two people, one British and one American, are severely injured, and four are lightly injured, officer David Goddin told CNN. \"At this point we don't know how it happened, but we are confident no one else is still under the rubble,\" Goddin said. \"My prayers go out to those who were injured and their families along with my deepest sympathy to all those affected by this heartbreaking news,\" Madonna said in a statement issued by her representative, Liz Rosenberg. At least one Madonna show has been canceled, Rosenberg told CNN. A crane collapsed while lifting a large metallic truss into place, Lt. Thierry Delorme of the French Navy told CNN. In Marseille, the Fire Department is a part of the Navy. An investigation has been launched into the cause of the collapse, he said. In addition to the six injuries and the single fatality, 34 people received psychological support after the incident, he said. About 27 fire engines and 80 firefighters responded to the emergency when the stage collapsed at 5:15 p.m. (1515 GMT). \"There were a lot of open fractures, of injuries, it was a messy sight,\" one of the rescue workers told Agence-France Presse. Madonna was scheduled to play the first of five concerts for her \"Sticky and Sweet\" tour at the 60,000-seat Stade Velodrome on Sunday. The singer was in Udine, Italy, when she heard the news, Rosenberg said. CNN's Per Nyberg in London, England, contributed to this report.","highlights":"One person was killed when stage being built for Madonna concert collapses .\nAccident happened Thursday afternoon in southern French city of Marseille .\nAnother two people, one British and one American, were severely injured .\nMadonna due to play first of five concerts in city for \"Sticky and Sweet\" tour Sunday .","id":"d134197f07abc0e167e45416ce454febf8ebff68"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A fighter jet crashed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, in the fourth wreck in three days, authorities said. A French Air Force Mirage 2000 sits under a shelter on the tarmac at an airbase in Kandahar on January 1, 2009. Authorities were looking into why the plane went down during takeoff from Kandahar airfield Monday morning, but the role of insurgents had been ruled out, said Lt. Col. Paul Kolken, the spokesman at the airfield. The crew ejected safely, and was being treated, Kolken said. Five hours after the crash, the wreckage of the plane was still on fire. Military officials did not identify the type of jet that crashed, nor did they release the nationality of the crew. Weather conditions were fair at the time of the incident, Kolken said. On Saturday, a U.S. fighter jet crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing its crew of two. In addition, a civilian helicopter went down on takeoff from Kandahar airfield on Sunday, killing 16 people, NATO said. Watch details of the helicopter crash \u00bb . And a military helicopter made a hard landing elsewhere on Sunday, apparently injuring at least some of those on board, NATO said. None of the aircraft were shot down, said the International Security Assistance Force -- NATO's mission in Afghanistan. It did not announce the cause of any of the crashes. There were at least two earlier crashes this month. Watch report on UK deaths in Afghanistan \u00bb . At least five people were killed when a helicopter went down in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province Tuesday, a local government official said. And on July 6, two Canadian air crew members and a British soldier were killed when a helicopter crashed during takeoff in Zabul province, the Canadian and British defense ministries said. CNN's Ivan Watson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities looking into why plane went down during takeoff from Kandahar airfield .\nCrew ejected safely; Role of insurgents has been ruled out of cause of crash .\nMilitary officials did not identify type of jet that crashed, nor the nationality of the crew .\nCrash is the fourth aircraft wreck in three days .","id":"963ee8a5c5bc543921aa92cbd92f344044345734"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It doesn't matter that they can be feverishly hot. Or that crowds make for long food lines or the tickets may be hard to come by. Bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding performed at this year's New Orleans Jazz Fest. Music festivals worldwide attract thousands of fans wanting to hear their favorite artists live or discover under-the-radar musicians. Each major festival has its own special twist, specific to the event and city that hosts it. From the notorious mud baths at Glastonbury, England, to the breath-taking mountains surrounding Fuji Rock in Naeba, Japan, these are events that festival-goers wait for all year. Experience the New Orleans Jazz Fest \u00bb . Our guide prepares music fans worldwide for the best festivals this summer and later in the year. GLASTONBURY, Somerset, England June 24-28 ($255) Glastonbury has been around since dairy farmer Michael Eavis first held a free two-day festival on his farm in 1970, and it's long been the festival in England for seeing the biggest and best bands in the world. It also may be the muddiest -- heavy rain in several years, most notably 1997, turned Glastonbury into a muddy bog. Everyone from Radiohead to Jay-Z has headlined the festival, and with more than 700 acts each year, there is something for everybody. Some of the proceeds from the festival go to Oxfam and Greenpeace. This year's headliners include Franz Ferdinand, Blur, and Bruce Springsteen. ROCK AL PARQUE, Bogota, Colombia June 27-29 (free) The Rock al Parque festival, launched in 1995, has become South America's biggest rockfest in recent years -- some 320,000 people traveled to Simon Bolivar Park in 2006 for a weekend of Colombia's top rock bands and renowned international headliners. Funded by Colombia's culture secretary, the free festival has included some of rock's biggest names, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Manu Chao, and Bloc Party. In the days leading up to Rock al Parque, the festival organizers host a series of panel discussions on music production, management, and the recording industry. ROSKILDE, Denmark July 2-5 ($220) Since 1971, the rock festival in Roskilde has hosted the top names in music, from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan. It is the biggest summer festival in northern Europe, and the \"Arena\" stage boasts a 17,000-capacity tent, the largest in Europe. The festival has a daily newspaper and a 24-hour live radio station and is also home to the annual \"Naked Run,\" where the first naked person to cross the finish line receives a free ticket for next year's festival. Some 80,000 will travel to Roskilde to see headliners including Coldplay, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails. EXIT, Novi Sad, Serbia July 9-12 ($105) Created in 2000 by three university students as a protest against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, the electro-focused festival in the heart of Serbia was named Europe's best festival in 2007 by fans voting in the UK Festival Awards. Over 200,000 people attended Exit last year, dancing at all-night raves in the gorgeous surroundings of Petrovaradin Fortress, an 18th-century castle near the Danube River. Some of techno's biggest names will be on hand to celebrate Exit's 10-year anniversary, including Moby, Kraftwerk, and The Prodigy. THISDAY, Abuja\/Lagos, Nigeria Dates tba . The THISDAY festival in Nigeria -- launched in 2006 by the editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery -- is the biggest music and fashion festival in Africa. According to Obaigbena, the festival is meant to highlight the positive progress being made in Africa, and find sustainable solutions for the continent's problems. The theme of last year's festival was \"Africa Rising,\" and it showcased some of the world's best-known artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Usher. Stay tuned for this year's lineup. FUJI ROCK, Naeba, Japan July 24-26 ($410) Japan's biggest outdoor festival takes its name from Mt. Fuji, the site of the first festival in 1997. Fuji Rock has been set amongst the cool forested mountains of the Naeba ski resort for the past ten years -- gondolas and hilly trails transport people from stage to stage, and the streams and forests between them are the reason why Fuji Rock has been called the most beautiful festival in the world. It's not just about the scenery, though -- over 100,000 people will trek through the mountains to see headliners Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Weezer. LOLLAPALOOZA, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. August 7-9 ($190) Rocker Perry Farrell began Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for his band, Jane's Addiction. The biggest grunge rock festival during the '90s disappeared for awhile around the turn of the century, but it was revived in 2005 as a more traditional \"big weekend\" destination festival in Chicago. The past few years at Grant Park have been marked by hot summers, huge crowds, and even bigger bands. The anticipated crowd of nearly 200,000 is staggering, as are this year's headliners: Kings of Leon, Tool, Depeche Mode, and Beastie Boys, just to name a few. BESTIVAL, Isle of Wight, England September 11-13 ($205) The trendy Bestival, the original boutique weekend festival on the Isle of Wight, is the best way to end the summer festival season in Europe. Bestival boasts a yearly fancy dress competition -- last year's was \"30,000 freaks under the sea,\" and 2009 is the year of \"Outer Space,\" so make sure to dress accordingly. Thousands of Bestival-goers will witness an eclectic lineup including Lily Allen, Massive Attack, and MGMT in the picturesque surroundings of Robin Hill Park. For family fun, look no further than Camp Bestival, a three-day family festival at a castle by the sea in July. PARKLIFE, Australia Late September-Early October . The Parklife series of one-day music festivals kicks off the summer festival season across Australia. The dance-focused fests have featured heavyweights Justice, MIA, and Muscles over the past two years. The day-long festivals are followed by an official \"After Life\" party that runs until the early hours of the morning, so be prepared for a long one if you're one of the estimated 100,000 people attending a Parklife gig in one of several cities across Australia at the end of September. WOODSTOCK, Johannesburg, South Africa November 27-30 When people think of Woodstock, South Africa isn't necessarily what comes to mind. But for the past decade, the festival has been the biggest youth music event in that country, hosting a variety of both well-known and upcoming mainstream and hip-hop acts -- not to mention a variety of extreme sports stunt acts, paintballing, and flea-market stalls. Woodstock may not have the star power of the legendary American festival -- but with the wide range of music and outdoor activities it presents, its promoters aren't lying when they say that boredom simply isn't an option. SUNBURN, Goa, India December . Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as South Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John 00 Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in \"Goa Trance,\" a type of pulsing, transcendental electro music that became popular in the early 1990s. Sunburn again treated more than 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. The festival's founder has said Sunburn will always be free to attend, and it is not to be missed if you happen to be in India in December.","highlights":"CNN has put together a list of some of the best upcoming music festivals .\nYou can dress to kill at England's Bestival's fancy dress competition .\nEnjoy the music, comedians and silent disco at Bonnaroo in Tennessee .\nDance all weekend in the shadows of a 300-year-old Serbian castle .","id":"e8d4cc28a61b6fad393c5319447a2ae3438afcc0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When then-President-elect Barack Obama first asked Hillary Clinton to be his top diplomat, she turned him down and recommended others for the job, the secretary of state said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Hillary Clinton meets with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Friday to discuss North Korea. Speaking to ABC's \"This Week,\" Clinton also said the president has answered the central question she raised about him when she was his chief rival for the Democratic nomination last year. In her famous \"3 a.m.\" ad, she questioned whether Obama was the right candidate to handle a middle-of-the-night international crisis. \"Has the president answered it for you?\" host George Stephanopoulos asked. \"Absolutely,\" Clinton replied. \"And, you know, the president, in his public actions and demeanor, and certainly in private with me and with the national security team, has been strong, thoughtful, decisive, I think he is doing a terrific job. And it's an honor to serve with him.\" The former senator from New York and former first lady revealed details of how she came to accept the role. Watch analysts dissect the Clinton-Obama relationship \u00bb . \"I never had any dream, let alone inkling, that I would end up in President Obama's cabinet,\" she said. \"When I left the presidential race after getting some sleep and taking some deep breaths, I immediately went to work for him in the general election. ... And I was looking forward to going back to the Senate and, frankly, going back to my life and representing New York, which I love. And I had no idea that he had a different plan in mind.\" When her name was mentioned in the media as a possible member of Obama's cabinet, Clinton said, she found the idea \"absurd.\" \"And then when he called and asked me to come see him, and we had our first conversation, I said, 'You know, I really don't think I'm the person to do this, I want to go back to my life. I really feel like I owe it to the people of New York.' And I gave him a bunch of other names of people who I thought would be great secretaries of state.\" But Obama \"was quite persistent and very persuasive,\" Clinton said. She added, \"Ultimately, it came down to my feeling that, number one, when your president asks you to do something for your country, you really need a good reason not to do it. Number two, if I had won and I had asked him to please help me serve our country, I would have hoped he would say yes. And finally, I looked around our world and I thought, you know, we are in just so many deep holes that everybody had better grab a shovel and start digging out.\" Some analysts have raised questions about how much power Clinton actually has in the administration, given that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have done a great deal of international outreach themselves. The president has also appointed special envoys to focus on several key regions. But Clinton said she wanted the envoys appointed \"because we were inheriting so many hot spot problems that I knew you could never have one person possibly address all of that.\" One of the biggest is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Clinton and the president have called on Israel to halt construction at settlements in the West Bank. Asked whether there is any room for compromise on that issue, Clinton said the administration would not \"prejudge the effort.\" She said the administration is committed to Israel's security. \"We see historical, demographic, political, technological trends that are very troubling as to Israel's future. At the same time, there is a legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people that needs to be addressed.\" On the nuclear standoff with Iran, Clinton said a diplomatic process in which U.S. representatives sit down with Iran's authorized representatives would give \"us information and insight that we don't have. ... We don't have any really clear sense as to what it is they are seeking.\" Clinton also addressed the growing tensions surrounding North Korea, and what she called its \"very provocative and belligerent behavior\" with recent tests of missile and nuclear technology. \"One of the positive developments,\" she said, is that \"it has actually brought the [other] members of [the] six-party process -- Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, the United States -- much closer together\" in how they view the challenge. She said there may be additional U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Several lawmakers have asked the president to put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. \"We're going to look at it,\" Clinton said. \"There's a process for it. Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism.\" She emphasized that North Korea's detention of two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, is separate from the political issues. \"It is a humanitarian issue and the girls should be let go,\" Clinton said.","highlights":"Clinton says she was looking forward to going back to Senate after the election .\nShe suggested to President Obama a list of other people for top diplomat post .\nClinton reconsidered when Obama was \"quite persistent and very persuasive\"\nClinton was recently in South Korea for discussions on North Korea .","id":"15ebb456370cf1d00d64a1f76c32c01abdd2634a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday it's considering tighter restrictions on propofol, a drug reportedly found after Michael Jackson's death in the Holmby Hills, California, mansion he rented. The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday it's considering tighter restrictions on propofol. \"We were petitioned and have been been looking into it for the past two years,\" said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne, who added in response to a question that the inquiry had not been affected by the singer's death of cardiac arrest on June 25. The agency is looking at designating the sedative as a \"scheduled\" drug, which would tighten restrictions on the its distribution and use. Payne said he could not divulge anything related to the Jackson investigation, \"but I can tell you that researchers making the decision about propofol would typically be interested in any information that would help them answer questions about the effects of propofol and its potential harm to the user.\" Propofol, known by the trade name of Diprivan, is administered intravenously in operating rooms as a powerful anesthetic and sedative. Payne said concern about the drug's potential for abuse led to the petition. But, he added, \"as far as we know, this is not something that's been highly abused.\" Payne said he did not know who had sought the change, adding, \"Typically we would not make that public.\" The process required to get a drug scheduled is a lengthy one, involving a number of agencies, he said. \"Lots of experts weigh in on questions such as potential for abuse, pharmacological effects, history and current patterns abuse,\" he said. Nutritionist Cherilyn Lee has said Jackson pleaded for the drug as a sleep aid, despite being told of its potentially harmful effects. And sources close to Jackson told CNN that the insomniac singer traveled with an anesthesiologist who would \"take him down\" at night and \"bring him back up\" during a world tour in the mid-1990s. The Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified sources, have reported that police found Diprivan among Jackson's medicines. Officials have said that the exact cause of death and whether drug use may have been involved will not be determined until after toxicology tests are completed, which could be several weeks. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory, saying two lots of a generic version of the drug had tested positive for endotoxin, a contaminant. The drug maker, Teva Pharmaceuticals, voluntarily recalled the lots. No fatalities were reported. A Teva spokeswoman said the DEA had contacted the drug maker \"about a specific lot number, and that lot number is not from the two we are recalling.\" Spokeswoman Denise Bradley would not say whether the contact was related to the Jackson investigation. A DEA spokesman said he could not comment on any ongoing investigation. In a written statement issued this month, the American Society of Anesthesiologists said it \"unequivocally maintains that Diprivan, or its generic name propofol, is a drug meant only for use in a medical setting by professionals trained in the provision of general anesthesia. \"Though the drug is often used for procedures requiring sedation, patients can have extremely variable responses to the drug and some patients can become completely anesthetized, including losing the ability to breathe,\" the statement continued. \"Diprivan should never be used outside of a controlled and monitored medical setting. Use of the drug should be directly supervised by a physician trained in anesthesia and qualified to provide physiologic rescue should too much drug be given,\" the statement said.","highlights":"Propofol, generic name of Diprivan, reportedly found in Michael Jackson's home .\nDEA spokesman: \"We've been looking into it for the past two years\"\nSpokesman says inquiry hasn't been affected by singer's cardiac arrest death .\nPropofol is administered intravenously in operating rooms as a powerful anesthetic .","id":"4e42aaf81663fdfcaddd0fe943431212dcaf7c9f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Luci Baines Johnson was just 16 years old when she approached her father, President Johnson, with what she considered a reasonable request. Luci Baines Johnson, left, and her older sister, Lynda Bird, pose inside the White House in 1963. \"I asked my father if we could have the Beatles come to play at the White House,\" she recalled. \"I was very excited about it.\" His response? A decisive no, \"without even any moment of trying to soften the blow,\" Johnson said in a recent phone interview. The president thought the move would be viewed as self-serving. His daughter, however, saw it as a chance to honor \"a great talent\" and strengthen ties between the United States and Great Britain -- not to mention a golden opportunity for her and her friends. \"I could see how different sets of folks could have either perspective. And I suspect my father could see that too,\" she said. Luci Baines Johnson learned quickly of the scrutiny that came from being a first daughter. Her family moved into the White House in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Johnson was catapulted into the exclusive fraternity of White House families and embraced what she describes as a role she landed simply by chance. That fraternity has most recently expanded to include President Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia. \"I was an eyewitness to history, over and over, during my father's five years in the White House. And I wasn't elected to that option. I had no qualifications that provided me that privilege except an accident of birth,\" she said. See famous first kids who grew up in the White House \u00bb . Johnson speaks fondly of the opportunity she was afforded to dine with kings and queens, meet the movers and shakers of her time, engage with the body of America and hold a front-row seat to history. While most of her memories fall into two categories -- \"the fond personal memories\" and \"the fond memories of public privilege\" -- there's one in particular that was a combination of both. \"My 17th birthday, I received a handwritten note from my father, the only handwritten note I have, telling me how much he loves me and how much he has delighted in having me as his daughter for all those 17 years,\" she said. The note was dated noon, July 2, 1964. Six hours later, in the East Room of the White House, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on race or gender in public places, schools and places of employment. \"Can you imagine ever receiving a more momentous, glorious, exciting, thrilling birthday present that lasted forever and ever than something like that, that would change the world for all time and make it a much more decent place? That took place on my birthday,\" she said. Life in the White House, however, came at a cost. Johnson and the first children before and after her will always have to \"pay a big price in terms of personal time,\" she said. More than 45 years after she moved into the White House, she still receives requests for interviews about the time she spent there. But the public's interest in first daughters is nothing new. Fanny Hayes, for example, who was about the same age as Malia when she moved into the White House in 1877, was followed by the media until the day she died. \"She was an American celebrity,\" said presidential historian Doug Wead. While the interest in first daughters has stayed steady, the pressure on the children has intensified, said Wead, author of \"All the Presidents' Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families.\" \"It's like the Miss America contest -- it's a real dilemma for the daughter of a president. She's supposed to be gracious. She's mocked and ridiculed if she isn't pretty,\" he said. When Chelsea Clinton was just 13 years old, for example, she was ridiculed in a 1993 \"Saturday Night Live\" sketch that declared her \"not a babe.\" Actor Mike Myers later apologized, and the skit was cut from replays of the show. Amy Carter, who was 9 when she moved into the White House, was also mocked for her appearance and for her poor manners, after she pulled out a book during a state dinner. Her parents enrolled her in public school, illuminating the already bright spotlight on her. An infamous photograph of her first day at school shows the young girl with her head hanging low, carrying a Snoopy book bag and surrounded by a swarm of paparazzi. To this date, no other presidential children have attended public school. But other presidential children have taken on power roles in their fathers' administrations. Anna Roosevelt, for example, was a \"super aide\" to Franklin D. Roosevelt during his last year in office, Wead said, describing her as a combination of a personal secretary and chief of staff, not to mention popular in the public eye. And Alice Roosevelt, a fashion icon who was known to have quite the rebellious streak, also played a pivotal role for her father, Theodore Roosevelt. She went on an around-the-world junket for the purposes of American foreign policy -- a move that diverted attention from her father's efforts to bring about a peace treaty in the Russo-Japanese War, Wead said. The president later won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on various peace treaties. Under the administration that followed, William Taft's daughter became one of the unsung heroes of women's rights, Wead said. Taft credited his daughter, Helen, for helping to change his mind about women's suffrage. But for all presidential children, Wead said, there remains a lifelong battle of seeking approval from their fathers while struggling to carve their own identities. Many presidential daughters have gone on to author books about their time in White House, in what Wead describes as an attempt to restore their fathers' reputations. \"It's like sitting in front of a big window ... and seeing a billboard with misspelled words on it. It's just irritating,\" he said. \"And the writing of a book, if it doesn't change history, it is a purifying experience for the child.\" Susan Ford Bales once told the San Francisco Chronicle that while in the White House, \"I kept thinking, I want to be normal. But I can't be normal. .... Everyone was watching. It was like living out loud.\" But Ford also cashed in on some of the perks of her high-profile position and took Alice Roosevelt's advice to \"have one hell of a good time.\" Ford roller-skated through the White House, held her prom in the East Room and scored VIP treatment at concerts -- including a backstage pass to see Rod Stewart. (That move ignited the public's interest in her, sparking rumors that she and Stewart were engaged.) Johnson said that some of the best advice she received while in the White House was to just recognize that she couldn't change things or make the attention go away. \"There are inevitably going to be moments when you feel like the pressures of the goldfish bowl seem unfair or more than you can bear, but so are the opportunities to learn, to understand, to grow, to love, to make friends, to witness,\" she said. \"I describe it as the best of times and sometimes the worst of times, but whatever the times, it was a time of extraordinary privilege.\"","highlights":"Luci Johnson describes being a first daughter as an \"extraordinary privilege\"\nIt was \"the best of times and sometimes the worst of times,\" she says .\nFirst daughters often followed by media for remainder of their lives .\nThe pressure on first daughters has intensified over the years, historian says .","id":"7a7ad0abdb30921783856364c093fbf979f0d255"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Thirty-eight years ago, Joseph McGinty Nichol was a boy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, playing with toy robots. Many of the robots in \"Terminator Salvation\" are real machines, which increased realism, the cast says. Today \"McG,\" as he is better known, builds and blows up real robots. The prominent filmmaker is the driving force behind one of the season's summer blockbusters, \"Terminator Salvation,\" which is filled with very expensive and very explosive robots. The choice to use real robots when possible, instead of CGI (computer generated images), was deliberate, McG said. According to the director and the film's stars, the decision to use real machines was a testament to the growing sophistication of the moviegoing public, whom they believe can \"feel\" the difference between actors standing in front of a green screen versus actors interacting with the real thing. It was also done in honor of the legendary special effects supervisor, four-time Oscar winner Stan Winston (\"Jurassic Park,\" the other \"Terminator\" films), who passed away during filming last year. Watch the robots in action \u00bb . The director and three of his cast members -- Christian Bale, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anton Yelchin -- took a time out with CNN to explain why gravity and singed eyebrows both played a role in \"Terminator Salvation.\" Bryce Dallas Howard: That was something that was really important to McG ... when an audience member sees this film, that they can actually feel what's occurring. I think that audiences are very savvy now. We can feel when something is CGI and that's no disrespect to CGI -- we couldn't do this movie without it -- but, whenever possible, in the tradition of Sam Winston, he wanted to build the robots. So a lot of what you see is real. McG: And if you drop something, we've spent our whole lives watching physics in play, and if you say, just have the CGI do that, people can tell something's off, and it releases you from being involved in the picture. So, we built all the robots, we built all the sets, we blew them up for real, a great many of us lost our eyebrows! Christian Bale: It was kind of comical at times because something that's meant to be so intimidating was actually surrounded by five guys with these kind of puppet rods I had to blank out or I would start laughing. But, the end result is something really formidable and you know, really iconic in movie history. Anton Yelchin: Now I'm obsessed with the robots! I'm so [annoyed] that this guy or whoever it is that's in charge of it wouldn't let me have one!","highlights":"\"Terminator Salvation\" filmmakers decide to use many real robots .\nIdea to avoid CGI was partly in tribute to special effects master Stan Winston .\nFilm is the fourth in the \"Terminator\" series .","id":"60f1778223d1fa879bf2a69e19b6b983962d8f40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The pastor of a non-denominational church in Argyle, Texas, passed around the collection plate to his congregants earlier this year -- and asked them to take money from it. Donations at the Cross Timbers Community Church had slumped because of the economic downturn. Pastor Toby Slough thought that his congregants had to be hurting, too. His gesture, instead, was met with an unexpected response: The church had its highest offering ever. It was a eureka moment for Slough: Give away money to those who need it, knowing his church members will help fill the need. \"In these economic times, we can't be so into church business that we forget what our business is, and that is to help people,\" Slough told CNN television affiliate KDAF in Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas. In the past two months, the 9-year-old church has done just that: handed out a half-million dollars to members and non-members who are struggling. Watch pastor on rip off concerns \u00bb . \"We've taken $200,000 and spread it out to organizations -- four local, two missions that are feeding and clothing people in these tough times,\" Slough said. \"We've paid utility bills for members of our church that are unemployed or under-employed.\" His favorite giveaway came three weeks ago. The church gave 1,400 families $50 each and told them to hand it out to someone else. One of the recipients was Katie Lewis. \"I've been alone so long. Just to be thought of and to be remembered, to be welcomed -- it's amazing,\" she said, crying. Church members are pleasantly surprised. \"You don't hear about a church giving money away,\" Amy Sullivan said. Slough said he is not concerned if people try to take advantage of the church's generosity. \"I told my church a couple weeks ago, if I'm not being taken advantage of, I'm not being like Jesus,\" he said. The church has now formed a group to look into the best ways to give out money. And, Slough said, it plans on doing so as long as there is a need in the community.","highlights":"Economy led to diminished donations at the Cross Timbers Community Church .\nPastor decides to give away money to those who need it .\nResult was highest amount of donations ever for the church .","id":"471a2e611bc557d161040f903fc45b03a7c76f94"} -{"article":"BELGRADE, Montana (CNN) -- President Obama on Friday took his push for a health care overhaul to traditionally conservative Montana, saying a bill to extend coverage to the uninsured while helping those already with coverage will pass this year. President Obama discusses his health care plans Friday at a meeting in Belgrade, Montana. However, an influential Democratic representative said the House would only pass a health care bill in January or later, signaling continuing rifts within Obama's party on his domestic priority for 2009. \"We're taking some time to make sure it's done right,\" said Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania. \"I don't know that we'll get something done before January, and even then we may not get it done. We're going to do it right when it's finally done.\" Obama told a largely supportive Montana audience at his second of three town hall meetings this week that fixing the health care system requires improving health insurance practices and reducing the costs of treatment. He sought questions from skeptics of his proposed health care overhaul, seeking to confront some misconceptions fueled by opponents Democrats say are undermining the debate. One man who identified himself as a proud National Rifle Association supporter and believer in the Constitution asked how the government would pay to expand health insurance coverage to 46 million uninsured people. \"You can't tell us how you're going to pay for this,\" said the questioner, Randy Rathie, a welder from Ekalaka, Montana. \"The only way you're going to get the money is to raise our taxes. That's the only way you can do that.\" Obama responded with his oft-repeated explanation that two-thirds of the cost of overhauling health care -- estimated at about $900 billion over 10 years -- would come from eliminating waste and improving efficiency in the current system, which includes the government-run Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly and impoverished. The rest would have to come from new revenue, he agreed with the questioner, and he called for reducing the amount of deductions that people making more than $250,000 a year can make on their income taxes. \"If we did that alone, just that change alone ... that would raise enough to pay for health care reform,\" Obama said, noting that would meet his election campaign pledge to avoid any tax increase on people earning less than $250,000 a year. However, Obama said some taxes would have to be raised, and the crowd applauded when he said he believes people with more money, like himself, ought to pay a heavier burden. \"We've got to get over this notion that we can have something for nothing,\" Obama said. \"That's how we got into this deficit and this debt in the first place.\" In reference to emotional and heated debate at some other town hall meetings across the country in recent weeks, Obama told Rathie, \"I appreciate your question, the respectful way you asked it, and by the way, I also believe in the Constitution.\" Afterward, Rathie said he was impressed by Obama's performance but remained skeptical. \"I don't think he knows where that money's going to come from,\" he said. \"If he does, he's not saying.\" Obama noted there is more work to be done, with Congress seeking to merge at least four bills, along with a possible compromise agreement being negotiated by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and five other members of his Senate Finance Committee, into a single bill in September. Another questioner chosen when Obama asked for a skeptic identified himself as an insurance provider who wanted to know why Obama and Democrats are vilifying the insurance industry in the health care debate. Earlier in the meeting, Obama described what he called discriminatory practices by insurance companies that dropped coverage of people who became sick or refused to cover those with pre-existing medical conditions. Obama noted some insurance companies are contributing to the reform debate, but said others are spending millions of dollars to try to defeat any health care legislation. For a health care overhaul to work for everyone, he said, it has to ensure all Americans are covered so that insurance companies have incentive to participate. They won't be able to exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions or \"cherry pick\" healthy people while refusing coverage for sick people, Obama said, so increasing the total numbers covered will be the enticement. On Saturday, Obama will hold another town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado, before vacationing in some national parks with his family next week. In addition, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will hold \"some events not yet announced\" in coming days. While Obama has said consensus can be reached on health care reform, contentious town hall meetings held by lawmakers around the country have created a different impression. The White House, and many Democrats in Congress, hope that by building support in the West, the president can start to turn the tide. Though the region is largely Republican, Obama made some inroads in the latest election. He won in Colorado and lost by just a slim margin in Montana. However, Murtha's comments in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, to CNN affiliate WJPA signaled continuing divisions among House Democrats over the scope and pace of health care legislation. \"We said to the speaker [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi], the leadership, let's not rush this thing,\" Murtha said. \"Let's do it right, so we'll have a uniquely American plan, if the thing passes.\" Obama's town hall events are just part of a larger Democratic strategy for winning support in the region. The Democratic National Committee began a TV ad this week promoting the president's health care plan. A committee spokesman said the ad will run on national cable as well as on local cable in New Hampshire, Montana, Colorado and the District of Columbia. The group Families USA, which supports the president's plan, also launched a campaign Thursday that includes an ad running in a dozen states -- among them Montana and Colorado. But groups opposed to the president's plan have their own campaigns. One voter in Livingston, Montana, not far from where the president spoke in Belgrade, summarized the kinds of concerns that she and many others in the region have. \"I believe that there is a health care crisis, I really do,\" Sonja McDonald, who voted for Obama in 2008, told CNN's Ed Henry on Thursday. \"Do I believe that the government needs to be more involved? No!\" Henry met McDonald at a clinic that gets half its funding from taxpayers. \"The government being involved is fine,\" McDonald said. \"It's just ... when they try and overstep, when they try to say, 'No, this is what needs to be done.' \"","highlights":"NEW: Rep. John Murtha says bill won't pass before January .\nFixing health care requires improving insurance, cutting costs, Obama says .\nInsurance companies need incentive to participate, Obama says .\nPresident will hold another meeting Saturday in Colorado .","id":"393294b1f7c078b8b98bc66bdcdfcac331e4fa96"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Katy Milane was asked to be in her college roommate's August 2007 wedding, she expected the bridesmaid dress to be simple and sporty, just like the bride's taste in clothes. Katy Milane, right, said none of the bridesmaids in her friend's 2007 wedding liked this hot pink dress. It wasn't. Milane and five other bridesmaids wore hot-pink floor-length satin dresses. One wedding guest commented that they looked \"like a row of Pepto Bismol bottles.\" \"I don't think any of us were happy with the dresses,\" said Milane. One bridesmaid had to be sewn into her gown when it ripped the day of the wedding. Another left her dress in a Cincinnati, Ohio, hotel room after the festivities had ended. \"We all tried to be very positive about it because the bride really loved them,\" said Milane. \"We would have worn anything to make her happy.\" Such is the case at countless weddings. Bridesmaids are stuck in matching dresses that they will likely never wear again. Some say that brides choose less-than-attractive dresses for her attendants to keep everyone's attention on her. Whatever the case, there are plenty of women with bridesmaid-dress horror stories. Check out some ugly bridesmaid dresses and pretty alternatives \u00bb . Kimberlee Norbury of Orland, California, was aghast at the bridesmaid dress her cousin chose for her saloon-themed wedding in July 2006. Norbury and three other bridesmaids were asked to wear \"saloon girl\" dresses purchased at a nearby costume shop. The dresses, complete with lace garters and corset tops, were so short that some of the bridesmaids added fabric to make them longer. Even with the additional fabric, Norbury walked down the aisle with her bouquet strategically placed in front of her. \"Everyone knew what I was doing,\" she said. \"I can laugh now, but I was so horrified.\" As soon as the wedding ended, Norbury changed out of the dress. \"I was running for my clothes as fast as I could.\" \"Afterwards I did explain that I loved her very much,\" she said. \"That's the only reason I wore that.\" Freedom of choice . Chandi Brooks knows how expensive bridesmaid dresses can be. She's been in five weddings -- as a bridesmaid three times and the maid of honor twice -- and has never worn any of the dresses again. According to Conde Nast Bridal Media's American Wedding Study, the average price of a bridesmaid dress in 2005 was $138.20. \"It's money down the drain most of the time,\" Brooks said. That's why she decided to let her bridal party choose their own dresses for her June 2007 wedding. Brooks' attendants picked black dresses that ranged from $20 to $100. The bridesmaids, all different sizes and ages, were pleased and so was the bride. \"I didn't have to shop around and didn't have to hear any griping. Everyone was happy,\" said Brooks. Other brides also are giving their attendants the freedom of choice. Celia Stangerone of Windsor, Connecticut, asked her bridesmaids to pick tea-length lavender dresses. The length and color were the only restrictions she placed -- the shade of lavender, style of dress and type of shoe were up to each individual bridesmaid. Stangarone said she's close to her bridesmaids, which factored into her decision to let them choose their own dresses. \"I knew the type of personalities I was dealing with and I also knew that they were all different sizes and shapes,\" she said. \"I had to let them pick whatever style they felt beautiful in.\" The final result was perfect, Stangarone said. Her bridesmaids chose dresses in varying shades of lavender that complimented each attendant's body type and skin tone. \"They all looked beautiful and were all really happy,\" she said. iReport.com: See the bridesmaids' lavender dresses . Keeping bridesmaids happy . Many of those who lived through their own bridesmaid nightmares hope not to put their friends through the same pain. Milane, who remains friends with the bride, is not planning to have a wedding anytime soon. When she does she intends to choose a dress that her bridesmaids can wear again. \"I want my bridesmaids to like what they're wearing,\" she said. \"I feel like if you choose something they can wear in their daily lives, they're going to be a lot happier in the end.\"","highlights":"iReporters shared horror stories of having to wear ugly bridesmaid dresses .\nKimberlee Norbury wore a \"saloon girl\" dress for her cousin's theme wedding .\nSome brides are letting their attendants choose their own dresses .\niReport.com: See bridesmaids' photos and stories, and share your own .","id":"ec5c5cda60a9e229053c5972e0ea1fcb0a01b4c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has tagged two great white sharks off Cape Cod in an area where shark sightings have been reported, state officials said Sunday. A great white shark is tagged Saturday off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Shark sightings closed nearby beaches. The first tagging Saturday marked the first time a great white shark had been successfully tagged in the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. coast, the division said in a statement. A second shark was tagged Saturday afternoon, officials said. The taggings took place in the waters near Chatham, Massachusetts, two days after Greg Skomal, shark expert for the Division of Marine Fisheries, reported as many as five large sharks were seen near Monomoy Island, a National Wildlife Refuge off the southern elbow of Cape Cod. The island is about a mile away from Chatham's Lighthouse Beach, a public swimming area. Chatham's beaches were closed to swimmers after the sightings, Skomal said. CNN affiliate WCVB reported that all of Chatham's east-facing beaches were closed after three sharks came within 75 yards of the coastline. Watch who is making money from sharks \u00bb . The beaches will be off-limits to swimmers until the middle of the week, officials told WCVB. After the sightings, Skomal and other biologists set out to identify the species, the division statement said. Skomal identified a great white shark on Friday, and then the two were tagged Saturday. \"The tags, which use satellite-based technology to record where a shark travels, allow scientists to better understand migratory patterns,\" the division statement said. Great white sharks are relatively rare in New England, the division statement said, but have been seen feeding near seal colonies. Massachusetts has recorded only four shark attacks since 1670, two of which were fatal. The last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts happened in 1936. Researchers have also tagged great white sharks off the coast of South Africa.","highlights":"Taggings of great whites are the first in the Atlantic Ocean, state officials say .\nBeaches in Chatham, Massachusetts, closed after shark sightings .\nGreat white sharks are relatively rare in New England, state officials say .\nTags will let scientists track the two sharks .","id":"157c940a6f601e3f153c41f066459cf01b55eb2d"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Mothers cradle children in their arms. Fathers smile softly at the helpless bodies they hold. Other parents are bent over from the weight of their teenage kids whose legs fall limp, almost touching the ground. In the absence of basic medical equipment, these parents do this every day. An Iraqi boy gives a thumbs up after receiving his wheelchair. Brad Blauser, center, created the program. Khaled is a father of three. On this day, his young daughter, Mariam, is getting fitted for her new wheelchair. Her arms and legs are painfully thin, little more than skin and bone. She's 7 years old, but looks barely half that. She and both her siblings, a sister and brother, suffer from varying degrees of polio. None of them can walk. Asked how he and his family cope, Khaled chokes up, fighting back tears. \"I am sick of life -- what can I say to you?\" he says after a long pause. One man, Brad Blauser, has vowed to try to make life a little easier for these families by organizing the distribution of wheelchairs, donated and paid for by his charity, Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids. He first came to Iraq in 2004 as a civilian contractor. Struck by the abject chaos surrounding him and seeing helpless children scooting along the ground, he pledged to find a way to help. Watch dads, moms carry kids; tears flow when wheelchairs arrive \u00bb . His first step was to consult an Army medic to find out what hospitals really needed. \"He surprised me with his answer about pediatric wheelchairs. We've got so many children out in the city that the ones who can get around are following their friends by dragging themselves around on the ground, which is heartbreaking to see,\" he says. \"I was surprised. It took me aback.\" Enlisting the help of generous supporters and an Iraqi humanitarian group Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids was born in August of 2005. Thirty days later its first 31 chairs were delivered. To date more than 250 Iraqi families have received the wheelchairs. Blauser has partnered with a nonprofit group called Reach Out and Care Wheels, which sells him the chairs at a manufacturing price of about $300. The chairs are made by prisoners at the South Dakota State Penitentiary and ultimately delivered in Iraq by the U.S. military. \"Getting these prisoners involved, it just means the world to them,\" said Andrew Babcock, the executive director of Reach Out and Care Wheels. \"Even the prisoners, I've been there and visited, and they're so excited. They come up with different design ideas and ways to make things better for the kids. They want to know where the chairs are going and what kids we're helping.\" Blauser said it's unbelievable to be there when the chairs are delivered. \"The most affecting thing about this whole wheelchairs for children is when the parents realize the gift that is being given to their children and they reach out to hug you.\" he said. \"The tears are running from their eyes and they say, 'We never thought that you could do this.' \" Blauser is helped on the Iraqi missions by the civil affairs division of the U.S. military, which helps organize the safe transport of the families to the distribution point and adjustment of the wheelchairs to fit each child. He said it gives \"the troops something when they go home, something good to remember where they know they have contributed, they know they have done a good thing.\" Army Sgt. 1st Class Jason Jurack agrees. \"It brings a smile to your face. It really gives a different image to the Army as a whole -- helping people out, putting a smile on local nationals' faces, little kids that need our help.\" It's a sentiment that is echoed by Samira Al-Ali, the head of the Iraqi group that finds the children in need. On this day, she tells the soldiers she hopes that this humanitarian act will give them a different image of Iraq, not one of a gun and war, she says. Her words are simple but effective. \"I wish the world would see with their own eyes the children of Iraq and help the children of Iraq, because the children of Iraq have been deprived of everything,\" she said. \"Even a normal child has been deprived of their childhood; a disabled child and their family is dealing with so much more.\" The children also show gratitude, even those who can scarcely move. Blauser remembers one boy's father who dressed him in a three-piece suit, with the trousers hanging off his motionless legs. \"He couldn't move his legs or his arms. But when we sat him in his chair, he gave us the thumbs up.\" Iraqi parents will go to any lengths to improve the quality of their children's lives. Blauser points to one of his favorite photographs, of a father carrying his son in his arms, an endless desert road behind him. He had carried his son more than 6 miles to get a wheelchair. \"In August 2006 we had a distribution in northern Iraq,\" Blauser remembered. \"We watched him [the father] come forward, and people rushed to take the boy from his arms. And he said, 'No, I've been carrying this child all my life. I can carry him the last 100 yards to receive his wheelchair.' \" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report from Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"Wheelchair distribution was the vision of American contractor Brad Blauser .\nHumanitarian group brings the kids to a safe area so they can get the wheelchairs .\n\"I am sick of life,\" says Dad who has three children disabled from polio .\nWheelchairs are made by prisoners in South Dakota, delivered by U.S. military .","id":"bb21e41a081075fe19b3edf0a4f8c0c30d1c5fa9"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- The TV no longer sits on a moving box, but she's still using filing cabinets as end tables. Desiree Jacobsen graduated from college years ago, so why does her apartment resemble a dorm room? It's hard to save for the finer things when you've had to shell out money to be in five weddings in one year, three times as maid of honor. Some maids of honor have gone deep into debt rather than disappoint a friend who expects a lot. \"I shop at the Salvation Army quite a bit to save money,\" says Jacobsen, 26, a medical editor in Dallas. Being a bride's maid or matron of honor is a distinction many women cherish. But it doesn't come cheap. It can easily cost a woman $1,000 or more for the honor of standing beside the bride on her big day, according to TheKnot.com, the leading wedding Web site. On top of the traditional expenses of wedding attire, transportation and chipping in for a gift from the bridesmaids, maids of honor can wind up hosting bridal showers, bachelorette parties and even the co-ed Jack and Jill party -- often footing the bill entirely. Expectations are reaching bridezilla proportions, a trend Anna Post, spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute and great-great-granddaughter of the etiquette authority, attributes in part to the extensive coverage of celebrity weddings on television and in style magazines. Watch etiquette tips on attending wedding events \u00bb . Many bridesmaids are left torn between maintaining a friendship and breaking the bank. Tough to say no . When Sarah de Maintenon, a 33-year-old real estate agent in Syracuse, New York, agreed to be her best friend's maid of honor two years ago, the economy was good and houses were selling like hot cakes. But the currently slow real-estate market means that money has become tight as the big day -- scheduled for October -- slowly approaches. \"I seriously just didn't know. I thought it was just a bachelorette party,\" says de Maintenon of the events she was expected to throw and attend. Her distress over the destination wedding sent her seeking advice online. The advice she received was simple, but effective: Talk to her friend and be honest about her situation. \"I contemplated telling her I couldn't do it, but I couldn't break her heart,\" she says. \"I was afraid it would cause an argument ... I didn't want to ruin her wedding day.\" Jacobsen hasn't skipped a wedding, but she did once skip the pre-wedding bridal portrait, which she would have had to travel out of town to participate in, because she was short on money and vacation time. \"She was upset with me for a little while, but it quickly blew over because I started planning for her bachelorette party.\" When feelings get hurt, Jacobsen says, she tries not to take it personally. \"It's usually because of the stress of the wedding.\" Etiquette rules vs. reality . Is all this necessary? Are brides asking too much of their friends? Post says that contrary to popular belief, the bridal shower isn't the maid of honor's obligation. Traditionally, a close friend would throw a bridal shower for the bride, and sometimes that person is also the maid of honor. But expenses can be agreed upon in advance and shared by the entire wedding party. And though there may be multiple parties thrown for the happy couple, Post says, the maid of honor is not required to go. \"That's not true,\" claims Kim Bohnert, a 32-year-old teacher in San Francisco. She's served nine stints as maid of honor and considers herself an expert bridesmaid. She insists that the entire bridal party -- especially the maid of honor -- is expected to attend all parties and shell out for a gift each time. \"It definitely adds up,\" says Melissa Bauer, spokesperson for TheKnot.com. Bauer ticks off some of the major expenses: about $300 for a dress, $50 to $200 for shoes, $40 to $60 for accessories, $50 for a shower gift and another $100 for a wedding gift. Then there are the parties. \"The big thing now is destination bachelorette parties,\" Bauer says. \"Some people might do it local, but regardless, you're [often] footing the cost for the bride [to attend].\" The cost of traveling to an out-of-town party can add several hundred dollars to the tab, Bauer notes -- to say nothing of the cost of traveling to the wedding itself. Going for broke . Whether popular wisdom requires such a commitment or not, there's a very real limit to what women can afford. Bohnert agreed to be her cousin's maid of honor, even though she was maxed out on her credit cards, and the many expenses included a $500 Sae Young Vu dress. \"I'm still in debt because of it,\" she says. Ma'ayan Geller, a part-time student and assistant physical therapist in San Francisco, was glad to hear her friend wanted to be sensitive to the financial constraints of her wedding party. But when Geller, one of the bridesmaids, suggested a cheap Las Vegas package for the bachelorette party, the bride gave her the boot, saying she wasn't being serious enough about her commitment to the wedding. \"I had already bought the dress -- close to $300 -- which was a lot for me at the time,\" Geller, 23, remembers. \"I think it could have been done in a better way.\" Geller still attended the wedding, partially because all her friends were there and also because she wanted to support the bride, \"although the friendship kind of ended after that.\" Making it work . In Post's experience, a wedding is a collaboration, and the wedding party often tries to find a solution that works for everyone. \"When something difficult arises, I've seen brides put on the brakes rather than force something on someone,\" she says. Jeri Kadison, a bridal coach in New York, says communication is key: Detail expectations early, and if something sounds too expensive, compromise and brainstorm other ideas, she advises. \"It's the bride's responsibility to be compassionate and considerate,\" she says. That strategy worked for de Maintenon. She and her bride talk almost every day. Instead of renting a restaurant, they're having a barbeque. Instead of renting a beach house, they're all staying with a girlfriend. It's also OK to say no, Post says. \"You can decline. Just do it early.\" De Maintenon recently declined when one of her best friends asked her to be the maid of honor, and her friend wasn't upset. \"She knows that I'll do anything else to help out in any way.\" LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Liane Yvkoff is a freelance writer in San Francisco .","highlights":"As economy gets tough, more women may reconsider being maid of honor .\nBridezilla expects bridal showers, bachelorette parties, co-ed Jack and Jill party .\nBridal coach: Detail expectations early and if concerns rise, compromise .","id":"78505fb7f645aa55451c6bd1c86b3a9efa2c5f6d"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A Boston police officer is suing the city after he was suspended for referring to a black Harvard professor as a \"banana-eating jungle monkey\" in an e-mail. Boston police Officer Justin Barrett apologized for his e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. \"If I'm charged with a crime I want a chance to answer. I want the chance for a fair hearing,\" Officer Justin Barrett told CNN on Tuesday. Barrett has apologized and denied he is a racist. His lawsuit claims his civil rights have been violated; Barrett's lawyer said the words referring to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were misinterpreted. \"The choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize professor Gates as a banana-eating jungle monkey,\" attorney Peter Marano said. \"They were meant in a response to behavior and characterizing the behavior. Not the person as a whole.\" Marano said the city had effectively fired Barrett, though he is officially suspended with pay. He said it was fair to hold Barrett to a higher standard than the general public because he is a police officer, but that he was still entitled to express his opinions. \"Being held to a higher standard shouldn't eradicate his right under the First Amendment for free speech. That is part and parcel of the lawsuit,\" the lawyer said. Gates was arrested at his house last month when a neighbor called police after she thought she saw a man trying to break into Gates' home. The man turned out to be Gates himself, who was attempting to free a jammed door. The incident sparked a national debate about race and policing, drawing in President Obama himself. Obama, who is a friend of Gates, said the officer who arrested the professor \"acted stupidly,\" but then withdrew the comment, saying he did not know all the facts when he spoke. He hosted Gates and Sgt. James Crowley for a beer at the White House to calm the tensions. Barrett later sent a mass e-mail about the encounter to other officers and to the Boston Globe newspaper. Barrett was suspended from his military duties as captain in the Army National Guard and placed on administrative leave from the Boston Police Department pending the outcome of a termination hearing. Barrett said he was moved to write the note because he believed a Boston Globe column about Gates' arrest \"seemed like it was biased.\" \"It did not show the roles and duties of a police officer and how dangerous it already is without having a debate about people getting in a police officer's face, which should never happen at all.\" Asked what led him to choose to use such language, he said, \"I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I have no idea.\" He added, in response to a question, that he had never used such language before. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis denounced the e-mail. Barrett used the \"jungle monkey\" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once to the Boston Globe column. He also declared that he was \"not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] toward people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers.\" According to a statement from Boston police, Davis took action immediately on learning of Barrett's remarks, stripping the officer of his gun and his badge. Barrett's arrests and investigations will be reviewed for indications of racial bias, Davis said. The department will also look closely at the officers who received or viewed the e-mail.","highlights":"Officer suspended for referring to black prof as a \"banana-eating jungle monkey\"\nJustin Barrett wrote e-mail talking about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates .\nBarrett is suing city of Boston, saying suspension violates his civil rights .\nGates was arrested at his house after police thought he was breaking in .","id":"75a88206bf00385edd67b823480f65cd7c23d284"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court heard new arguments Wednesday in a dramatic case that started with a movie attacking Hillary Clinton -- but that could have far-reaching implications for U.S. elections. The campaign finance case before the court stems from a film critical of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. \"If you thought you knew everything about Hillary Clinton, wait till you see the movie,\" said an ad last year for \"Hillary: The Movie,\" a scorching attack on the woman then running for president. Citizens United, the conservative group behind the film, promoted it as featuring 40 interviews -- a \"cast to end all casts\"-- and promised that if \"you want to hear about the Clinton scandals of the past and present, you have it here! 'Hillary: The Movie' is the first and last word in what the Clintons want America to forget!\" Few Americans ever saw the ad; a federal court ruled that it broke the law on campaign advertising. Citizens United argued that the movie was a documentary, not \"electioneering communication.\" As a result, the group argued, it was not subject to campaign finance rules that require disclosure of the movie's financial backers or restrictions on when the film could air. It was financed with a mix of corporate and individual donations. Judges disagreed. Citizens United, a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group, took its case to the Supreme Court. Unusually, the top court did not reach a decision on the case after it was first heard and ordered Wednesday's rare September rehearing to consider more aspects of the case. A ruling is expected in a couple of months. The case hinges on whether corporations can be barred from pouring money into election campaigns or whether they have free-speech rights -- and the right to spend their cash to influence elections, just like individual people do. \"It's about money,\" said Lawrence Noble, former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission and a national expert on campaign spending. \"It's about free speech, and it's about the ability of corporations to influence elections through the direct use of their ... money.\" Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 said the courts were right in the first place. \"Allowing corporations to flood our elections and use campaign expenditures to buy influence would fundamentally undermine our democracy,\" he said. \"The little guy would have no role here, because the dominant force in politics -- the dominant force in Washington decision-making -- would become corporations.\" But David Bossee of Citizens United doesn't buy that. He argued that groups of people who pool resources, ranging from labor unions to the health industry to advocacy groups like the National Rifle Association, still have the right to free speech. \"I don't believe the federal government should have the right to impede people's entry into the [political] process,\" he said. \"And that's what I believe the Federal Election Commission is doing here: squelch our First Amendment rights.\" U.S. courts have consistently ruled that spending money on elections is a form of speech. The case has made for unusual alliances: the American Civil Liberties Union, for example, sides with Citizens United. \"For many free-speech advocates, this is maybe a case of strange bedfellows, but they agree with Citizens United,\" said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. \"They say, 'If you start to say these types of movies are prohibited speech, it could sweep into things like books.' Indeed, [the first time this case was argued,] the U.S. government said, 'Yes, we could restrict books during these election periods,' \" Turley said. \"That sent a chill through the free-speech community. On the other side, people are saying, 'Yeah, campaign finance [reform] is strangling the democratic process,' \" he said. \"You have two worthy values and very strong values on both sides,\" he said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"There's a great deal at stake,\" he said. \"If they strike down part of the campaign finance laws, it occurs right before the mid-term [elections], and you would see major amounts of money dumped into the campaign.\" The court's rare special session marks the debut of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee. The original narrow focus of the case was on Section 203 of the comprehensive 2002 McCain-Feingold law, which bans the broadcast of \"electioneering communication\" by corporations, unions and advocacy groups if such a broadcast would be aired close to election dates and would identify candidates by name or image. The law also requires an on-screen notice of the groups financing such ads as well as public disclosure of all donors to the sponsoring organizations. But the scope of the case has now expanded significantly, and justices will ask whether they should re-examine important precedents banning direct corporate spending in campaigns. The Clinton movie case could launch a range of as-yet unanswered questions about political speech and government regulation. Since the filmmakers argued that their work was information, not political advocacy, should the government place itself as the ultimate arbiter of what is \"news\"? Some media groups say no. \" 'Hillary: The Movie' does not differ, in any relevant respect, from the critiques of presidential candidates produced throughout the entirety of American history,\" said the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in a brief to the high court. And can distinctions be drawn between regulating quickie 30-second or one-minute \"attack ads\" and a 90-minute documentary that could be viewed as an ideological \"infomercial\"? \"McCain-Feingold clearly has an impact on every candidate and everyone that raises or spends campaign dollars,\" said Edward Lazarus, author of \"Closed Chambers,\" an inside look at the Supreme Court. \"And the court has mediated that line between trying to allow Congress to protect against electoral corruption but at the same time protect the right of expression of corporations and individuals.\" Movie excerpts and the ads can be seen at www.hillarythemovie.com. The case is Citizens United v. FEC (08-205). CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Federal court ruled that movie broke campaign ad laws .\nGroup behind film attacking Clinton said it was a documentary .\nCan corporations be barred from giving to election campaigns?\nSupreme Court expected to rule in a couple of months .","id":"54cb9d5ad6c734904575e4cdad5a89dbd17059d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Chinese official accused \"Tibetan independence forces\" Tuesday of planning suicide attacks, an allegation that the Tibetan government-in-exile immediately denied. \"To our knowledge the next plan of the Tibet Independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks,\" Wu Heping, spokesman for China's Ministry of Public Security, said at a news conference, according to a translation of his remarks by The Associated Press. \"They claim they fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice,\" he said. He did not provide details or evidence, and Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of Tibet's exiled government, dismissed the accusation. \"We never heard (of) Tibetan independence force, such a group or people. Now, our suspicion is that the PRC (People's Republic of China) might be staging such a violent act in the name of Tibetan people to mislead the world community,\" he said in Dharamsala, India. Dharamsala is the center of the Tibetan community in India, where many Tibetans fled after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and where the government-in-exile led by the Dalai Lama is based. \"It is our ... suspicion, otherwise there is no ground to claim that some Tibetan people or group is planning to (use) suicide bombers or something like that,\" the Tibetan prime minister said. There was no immediate response from the Chinese government to Rinpoche's suspicion. In the U.S. State Department briefing on Tuesday, department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States did not share China's concern that supporters of the Dalai Lama were plotting suicide attacks. The Dalai Lama is a \"man of peace, there is absolutely no indication that he wants to do anything other than have a dialogue with China to discuss how to deal with some of the serious issues there,\" Casey said. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama and his followers for violence that erupted amid protests for Tibetan independence last month. China has drawn international criticism for its crackdown on the demonstrations, which began peacefully on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising. The protests have threatened to throw a shadow on the Summer Olympic Games, being staged in Beijing in August. Tibet's government-in-exile puts the death toll from the protests at about 140, but the Chinese government restrictions make it difficult to confirm that number. Chinese authorities have reported a death toll of 19, and say most of those killed were \"innocent victims\" -- Han Chinese targeted by Tibetans. Protests have spread across the globe with regular demonstrations in Nepal. A ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece was also targeted by pro-Tibet activists. Watch protests in Nepal \u00bb . Also on Tuesday, China's official Xinhua news agency reported that the country's foreign ministry urged the Dalai Lama to \"stop all separatist and sabotage activities if he really wants to contact and consult with the central government.\" Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu spoke in response to a March 28 statement from Dalai Lama. In that statement, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists said he does not seek the separation of Tibet and has no desire to \"sabotage\" the Olympic Games. \"Chinese brothers and sisters, I assure you I have no desire to seek Tibet's separation. Nor do I have any wish to drive a wedge between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples,\" he wrote. Instead, he said, the protesters seek \"meaningful self-rule\" while remaining a part of China. \"Despite my repeated support for the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities, with the intention of creating a rift between the Chinese people and myself, the Chinese authorities assert that I am trying to sabotage the games.\" He called on China to called \"to exercise wisdom and to initiate a meaningful dialogue with the Tibetan people.\" China offered some media organizations -- not including CNN -- a carefully managed tour of Tibet's capital, but ran into a public-relations roadblock when a group of Buddhist monks began screaming protests at a holy shrine. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Suicide attacks are being planned by Tibetan militants, Chinese official says .\nTibet's prime minister-in-exile denies allegation .\nTibet is center of a struggle for power between China and exiled Tibet leaders .\nPro-Tibet demonstrations threaten to overshadow Beijing's Summer Olympics .","id":"523470eee1ec57a09378df162c26c39241e238a3"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- One small slice Monday of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's war on drug cartels: two shootouts on the streets of two cities; a man and a woman ambushed in their car; at least four people dead; three soldiers wounded, one of them gravely. Suspected members of Los Zetas drug cartel are presented to reporters in Mexico City in April. The confrontations between unidentified gunmen and Mexican army and federal police took place in the communities of San Nicolas de los Garza and Escobedo, near the U.S. border in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, the state-run Notimex news agency said. One of the firefights lasted 45 minutes. At one point, the suspects launched hand grenades at the soldiers. House-to-house searches took two hours and it would be another seven hours before the areas were secured. According to Notimex and news reports from the newspapers Excelsior, El Porvenir, El Nuevo Leon and El Norte, here's what happened: . Around 6 a.m., a military convoy came across a group armed men in several late-model vehicles in San Nicolas de los Garza. Shooting broke out, and the gunplay continued for 45 minutes along several neighboring streets as the suspects tried to get away. The armed men abandoned their cars, blocked one of the streets with a Suburban truck and fled aboard several other vehicles. The confrontation continued for another two hours as soldiers sealed off a city block and searched house-to-house. \"From early on, we could hear the shots and much shouting,\" Excelsior and El Nuevo Leon quoted an unidentified woman as saying. \"We could hear footsteps on the roofs and soldiers yelling to them. There were several explosions; it seems like grenades went off, because we could hear it very loudly twice.\" Around 7:45 a.m., the soldiers entered a house where the gunmen had holed up. A grenade went off upstairs. Three gunmen died there, though officials did not say if it was from bullet wounds or the grenade explosion. At the same time, Mexican military and federal police were involved in a shootout with armed men in Escobedo. That confrontation left three soldiers wounded, with one of them clinging to life Monday afternoon. Also nearby, a man and a woman riding in car were ambushed at an intersection by armed men in several cars who surrounded them and drilled their auto with bullets. The woman died on the scene, her body sprawled on the street. The man was wounded but survived. The violent scene in Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, has become a near-daily experience in Mexico since Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched a war on drug cartels. More than 11,000 people have been killed during that time -- about 1,000 of them police and other authorities.","highlights":"Two shootouts in two cities near U.S. border in Mexican state of Nuevo Leon .\nSan Nicolas de los Garza and Escobedo are cities .\nShootouts leave 4 dead, 3 wounded .","id":"c3721939d20eda706db6ba3eeb64848ab03f8588"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- DNA testing to try to identify hundreds of bodies buried in a mass grave during World War I will start this week, the British and Australian ministries of defense announced Monday. File photo shows a crane unearthing the mass grave in northern France. The bodies come from Fromelles in northern France, where thousands of British and Australian troops were killed or wounded in a single night in 1916 -- a night the Australian military still considers among the worst in its history. An exploratory dig in May of this year confirmed that there are between 250 and 300 bodies buried at the site. Enough DNA has been recovered from teeth and bones to make full-scale testing worthwhile, the British Ministry of Defence said. Pieces of uniforms including belt buckles and buttons have also been found, which will help with identification, the ministry said. \"Each one of these soldiers will be laid to rest with the dignity they deserve and we owe it to them to do all we can to identify them,\" British Veterans Minister Kevan Jones said in a statement. The DNA testing program will be the largest undertaking to identify individuals killed in combat ever commissioned, the ministry said. The announcement comes only a week after the burial of the last British veteran of World War I still living in the United Kingdom. Harry Patch died July 25 at the age of 111, a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113. So many soldiers died on the night of July 19, 1916, that many were never found, identified, or given a proper burial. Two divisions of Allied infantry had attacked a strongly fortified German position known as the Sugar Loaf. The defenders knew the British and the Australians were coming; the terrain favored the Germans. As the British and the newly arrived Australians charged into battle, the Germans opened fire. By morning, about 2,300 British and Australian soldiers were dead. About 5,000 others were wounded. There has been speculation for decades that the Germans recovered hundreds of bodies and put them into mass graves, not forgotten, but anonymous. Last year, preliminary digs commissioned by the Australian government located five mass graves near the site of the battle. \"It's the largest military find since the end of the Second World War,\" said a spokesman for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. \"I have been on the commission almost 11 years and it's like nothing I have ever experienced. I have never known anything to have this sort of numbers of possible remains,\" Peter Francis told CNN. The commission is in the middle of a 15-month project to disinter the bodies, attempt to identify them, and rebury them in individual graves in a new cemetery on the site. The resulting graveyard will be the first new one consecrated by the commission for almost 50 years, Francis told CNN by phone. The British and Australian governments have asked people who think their relatives may have died at the site to get in touch, Francis said. The cemetery will be dedicated on July 19, 2010 -- the 94th anniversary of the battle. The bodies of more than 165,000 Commonwealth soldiers killed on the Western Front during the First World War are still missing, the commission says. The commission is a non-profit organization founded in 1917 that commemorates the dead of both world wars from the British Commonwealth.","highlights":"DNA tests will attempt to identify remains of World War I fallen .\nBodies removed from mass grave in Fromelles, northern France .\nUp to 300 bodies are believed to have been dug up .","id":"1172406ab9280117ba1c6cda439ff74f273d1386"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The search continued Tuesday for as many as 67 people missing after a boat carrying about 200 Haitians capsized, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted this crowded boat last week and repatriated its occupants to Haiti. The boat overturned Monday off Turks and Caicos, a British territory about 550 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. Searchers aboard boats and aircraft have rescued 118 passengers and found 15 bodies, said Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, on Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard described the boat's occupants as migrants from Haiti. The overcrowded vessel was believed to have set sail from the Haitian port of Cap Haitien, the Turks and Caicos Sun newspaper reported. The search resumed at dawn Tuesday after being suspended because of darkness Monday night, Johnson said. The Coast Guard is contributing one boat, the 210-foot cutter Valiant, and three aircraft to the search, Johnson said. The aircraft are a Falcon jet out of Miami, an HH-60 helicopter and a slow-flying C-130 cargo plane out of Clearwater, Florida. Watch Coast Guard rescue Haitians after boat capsizes \u00bb . \"If the weather and conditions are right, [the C-130] can fly really low,\" Johnson said. \"It makes a fantastic search aircraft.\" Turks and Caicos authorities are using small boats in the search, she said. About 70 people were plucked Monday from a reef near the island group, authorities said. Four other bodies were found, though it was unclear which authorities located them. A nurse at Myrtle Rigby Hospital in the Turks and Caicos said that about 70 people were brought there, including four who had died. Five people were admitted to the hospital, and the others had minor injuries, the nurse said. The Coast Guard said it intercepted another \"grossly overloaded\" boat, with 124 Haitians aboard, late last week in the same region. Those migrants were returned to Cap Haitien on Monday. Overloaded vessels can quickly lose stability and capsize, sending migrants into the water, a Coast Guard release said. CNN's Jim Kavanagh and Lateef Mungin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 15 confirmed dead after boat capsizes; as many as 67 missing .\nBoat with about 200 Haitians capsized Monday near Turks and Caicos Islands .\nCoast Guard intercepted another boat overloaded with Haitians late last week .","id":"638dbc218a90322c25e9e4c04d6a7f3ad568515e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Forget lawn mowers. Maryland officials have found a natural way to combat brush while protecting a threatened species. Maryland officials wanted an eco-friendly solution that wouldn't hurt the area's bog turtles. Forty bearded goats have been dispatched by the State Highway Administration to control plant growth in the area. They have been munching in an enclosed area for a week; they will stay until September, but will be put back to work next spring. The project is part of Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's \"Smart, Green and Growing\" legislative package, aimed at reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020. The pilot program will be evaluated at the end of two years, and officials will determine whether to send goats to other grazing projects on state highways, according to David Buck, a spokesman for the highway administration. The goats are reducing the state's carbon footprint and protecting the area's bog turtles, listed as threatened. In addition, he said, the animals are much cheaper than a mowing program: State costs are about $10,000 for two years, most of that for delivery and veterinary services. But the decision to utilize goats was not an easy one. Other herbivorous (plant-eating) animals were considered. Cows were ruled out because they are too heavy, and their hooves could stomp the small, colorful-shelled bog turtles. Sheep? Well, they just aren't goats. \"Goats were just a viable solution,\" Buck said. \"They do not eat moving things. They will not crush [the turtles] out there.\" Maryland is not the first to launch such an initiative. Officials in Hempstead, New York, bought natural grass cutters for a 50-acre park and preserve this year, said Mike Deery, town spokesman. The goats -- Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Happy and Doc -- were named after dwarves in the fairy tale \"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.\" In Vail, Colorado, officials have introduced 500 weed-eating goats in public areas after residents asked for an alternative to pesticides and chemicals. The initiative costs the town about $500 a day, the National League of Cities said. In Denver, signs touting \"Goats at Work\" alert passers-by to the animals' presence on vacant lots managed by the park system. The goats cost the city about $200 an acre, according to the National League of Cities. Environmental activists hail the measure, calling it innovative and worth implementing. \"Most times you can replace small engines that are sources of greenhouse gases with more natural systems, that's a good thing,\" said Bill Brower of GlobalGiving, a Washington nonprofit organization that describes itself as an online marketplace of grass-roots green projects.","highlights":"Maryland uses 40 goats to \"mow\" grass along highways .\nAnimals are reducing carbon footprint without hurting threatened turtles .\nNew York and Colorado also use goats to trim grass .","id":"9e6fd6f4517952974ef98a1cc2ac7a8dd58877d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The wife of a man suspected of killing five people in Tennessee and one in Alabama was among the victims found in southern Tennessee, along with her son, father and brother, police said Sunday. Jacob Shaffer was arrested in connection with the slayings of six people in Tennessee, police said. Jacob Shaffer, 30, of Fayetteville, Tennessee, was arrested Saturday after three people were found dead at a home in Fayetteville, 90 miles south of Nashville, Tennessee. Two other people were found at another home on the same street. The three found in one home were Shaffer's wife, Traci Shaffer, 38; her son Devin Brooks, 16; and the youth's friend and neighbor, 16-year-old Robert Berber, according to a statement Sunday from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The two people found at the other home were Traci Shaffer's father, Billy Hall, 57, and her brother Chris Hall, 34, authorities said. Autopsies were being conducted Sunday on the five, and causes of death would be released by medical examiners, the bureau said. A sixth person was found dead at a business about 30 miles away in Huntsville, Alabama, the Tennessee authorities said. The person's name was not released Sunday. Jacob Shaffer was in one of the Fayetteville homes when Lincoln County sheriff's deputies arrived Saturday, authorities said. Police believe the deaths happened either Friday night or Saturday, according to Kristin Helm of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Officials said they believe the deaths were related to a domestic dispute. It was unclear when or how the Huntsville victim died. \"We have no clue yet as to what unfolded there and how it relates to here,\" Huntsville Police Sgt. Mickey Allen said Saturday. Without naming Shaffer, Allen said Tennessee authorities told him a man confessed to a slaying in Huntsville and to five other killings in Fayetteville. Shaffer faces five counts of criminal homicide in the Tennessee deaths, the TBI statement said. He was in the Lincoln County Jail without bond Sunday. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect's wife and her son, brother and father among the dead, police say .\n30-year-old Jacob Shaffer was arrested Saturday, police said .\nShaffer faces murder charges, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says .\nFive bodies were found at two homes in Tennessee; one victim in Alabama .","id":"b36f5294309c9f97e75e48b6ddbac7ad52506db8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The day was supposed to be remembered as one filled with happiness. Their daughter, after all, had just turned 2 years old. Instead, Nikki Peterson remembers December 30, 2007 as the day her husband Billy got sick. Billy Anderson's undiagnosed condition has kept him in the hospital for more than a year. Billy Anderson was in fine health until that evening last winter. He woke up in pain and his wife rushed him to the emergency room. Over the next few days, he suffered a number of ailments, from a running fever and hives to swelling joints. Nikki says she knew there was something wrong when Billy was no longer able to walk around the house. \"This is a 6-foot, 240-pound guy who doesn't usually complain about anything,\" she says. The couple, from Baxter Springs, Kansas, made three trips to the emergency room. On their third visit, Nikki refused to go home until doctors agreed to keep Billy in the hospital for further evaluation. Since then, Billy, age 29, has been in and out of intensive care. He's spent time on a ventilator and suffered kidney failure. His body isn't absorbing nutrients, and as a result, his 240-pound frame has been whittled down by 100 pounds. See photos of Billy and his family \u00bb . One year and a battery of tests later, doctors still haven't pinpointed the cause of his condition. CNN's medical show \"Vital Signs\" recently asked viewers to tell their health stories on iReport.com. Nikki and her mom, Vicki Peterson, jumped at the opportunity. Tell your story with iReport.com . They hope their story will reach someone who can help solve Billy's unexplained illness. Doctors have gone through at least 40 possible diagnoses, according to Nikki. \"We've been told that this is 'Billy's Disease,' and that this will be written about in medical journals. We hope somebody has missed a test or overlooked something,\" she says. Billy, a father of two who dreams of opening up his own restaurant one day, appears to have some type of problem with B-cells, according to Nikki. B-cells play a critical role in keeping the immune system healthy. Dr. Jennifer Holter, who has been treating Billy at Oklahoma University Medical Center since the fall of 2008, says several immunologists have reviewed his case but the underlying reason for his immunodeficiency is still unclear. Early on, doctors thought he had Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, but that turned out not to be the case. They also haven't been able to identify a typical gene disorder that may be the source. Most immunodeficiency disorders present themselves in childhood. Adult onset that isn't linked to a genetic event is even more uncommon, Dr. Holter says. \"I think when you have close to 25 immunologists look at you and they can't figure out what's causing the problem, you can call that pretty rare,\" she says. The ordeal has taken an emotional toll on the family. \"It's been devastating. It's traumatic for the children to have to watch someone who was once so strong suffer,\" says Nikki. Being uninsured has added financial stress. Billy had just started a new job training to be a kitchen manager when he first got sick. As a result, he didn't have insurance. He was able to apply for Medicaid, but his coverage was canceled once he started receiving disability assistance. Oklahoma University Medical Center has become the family's second home. Nikki has moved to nearby Tulsa in order to be able to spend half of the week by Billy's side. Billy is currently receiving treatment that helps him replace the cells his body isn't making. He's also receiving immunosuppressants to suppress aggravation in his gut. \"This is a very unfortunate situation for a very nice 29-year-old and we will keep offering him the best clinical care we can,\" Dr. Holter says. Billy has cycled through five hospitals in the span of 12 months, and he and Nikki hope their next move will take them East. Billy recently applied for the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health. The program uses a combination of scientific and medical expertise to help patients with mysterious conditions. Nikki, who has started a support group for Billy on Facebook and provides updates on his condition on his MySpace page, says she refuses to give up: \"Billy deserves every opportunity to survive. He's a hard working man who took care of his family.\"","highlights":"iReport.com: Viewers, readers share their health stories .\nBilly Anderson's mysterious illness has kept him in the hospital for over a year .\nOnce the picture of health, Billy has lost 100 pounds due to his sickness .\nDoctors call his condition 'Billy's Disease', wife Nikki Peterson says .","id":"479be913541f28beb7f3a0feae1604a4292889a8"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- When British forces fully withdraw from Iraq on Friday, it will be the second time in a century that Britain will leave this nation with a legacy of war dead. Mechanics prepare a tank ready to shipped back to the UK from Basra. In the Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery rest thousands of British soldiers killed in a protracted military campaign during World War I, after which Britain established an occupying regime in Iraq. In the peak of the latest war that began in 2003, about 46,000 British troops were stationed in and around Iraq. Now, almost all British troops are being pulled out because an agreement that allows them to remain in Iraq expires Friday, according to the British Ministry of Defence. Britain leaves Iraq this time with 179 of its own dead. \"It's been a tough six years, no doubt about that,\" said Jon Wilks, the deputy head of the British mission. \"But I think what we left behind is a solid base on which to build.\" The British were based in southern Iraq, primarily in Basra, Iraq's second largest city that sits close to the Persian Gulf. \"We have in many sectors left Basra in a better state than when we arrived in 2003.\" Then, after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqis welcomed British troops. They were hailed as the force that would save the area's predominantly Shiite population from Saddam Hussein's persecution. But the mood turned when liberation was not followed by a quick withdrawal. \"It became the opposite of what we were wishing for,\" said Mustafa Atia, a member of the Basra provincial council.\" Hope started to turn to fear. By the end of 2004, extreme Shiite militias were gaining control of Basra. It seemed British forces had been sidelined as the militias enforced their own brand of laws. In September 2007, British troops withdrew completely from Basra and southern Iraq was touted as the coalition forces' success story. But Basra was left reeling. The British-trained Iraqi police had been infiltrated by militiamen; the Iraqi Army struggled to keep them in check. Women bore the brunt of the militia's brutal rule -- executed for \"un-Islamic\" acts like wearing tight jeans and lipstick. Or in the case of one woman, living alone. Sabriya, identified only by her first name for security reasons, recalled her sister's plight. \"They said, 'Why don't you have a husband?'\" Sabriya said. \"They came in at night and put a pillow on her face and shot her in the head.\" In March 2008, the Iraqi government launched Operation \"Charge of the Knights\" to battle Basra's lawlessness. The city was flooded with Iraqi soldiers and their U.S. advisers. The British were drawn back into the thick of the fight, their Mastiff and Warrior armored vehicles once again on the streets of the southern port city. \"The situation was awful, mainly because militias controlled the security forces,\" said Iraqi Gen. Aziz Swady, who was dispatched to Basra as part of the operation. \"But after this operation, the citizens started to trust the Iraqi security forces.\" Basra began piecing itself back together. On Friday, as the British leave Iraq behind for a second time, they are left to ponder the fragility of Basra's situation -- and their own sacrifices. The question that could linger is: Was it worth it?","highlights":"In 2003 about 46,000 British troops were stationed in and around Iraq .\nBritish forces leave Iraq with 179 dead .\nStationed in southern city of Basra, Iraq's second largest city .","id":"709e105dc15e3970a9079f98b8c9d4e6e0b446d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN explores Beijing's underground music scene and the bands making the rest of the world sit up and listen.","highlights":"Buyi is one of the bands breaking through the Beijing music scene .\nIn the last ten years the number of garage bands in China has exploded .\nThe internet and social software has helped create a vibrant underground scene .","id":"3cc2fa9d872cea16c23b243301499ffc86369708"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Moroccan man wanted for links to the Madrid train bombings in 2004 was brought to Spain from France on Wednesday, a Spanish police statement said. A photograph showing Moroccan-born suspect Said Rehou. The suspect, Said Rehou, 27, born in Casablanca, Morocco, allegedly held indoctrination sessions for Islamic militants at his former Madrid home, the statement said. \"Various individuals who participated in those meetings later were implicated directly or indirectly in the Casablanca attacks of 2003 and the March 11, 2004, attacks in Madrid,\" the statement said. The Madrid train bombings -- coordinated attacks on four morning-rush commuter trains -- killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. Spanish courts have convicted 14 Islamic militants for their roles in the Madrid bombings, along with four Spaniards, the latter for trafficking in explosives used in the attacks. Seven other prime Islamic suspects killed themselves in an explosion as police closed in on their hideout in a Madrid suburb three weeks after the bombings. The Casablanca bombings in May 2003 killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers. Rehou is wanted in Spain for belonging to a terrorist group, and is thought to have formed part of a cell created in Spain in 2002, with the aim of recruiting fighters to carry out attacks in Morocco, Spain and other countries, the police statement said. The meetings at his home lasted six to eight hours, with the screening of videos that included sermons and scenes promoting holy war, the statement said.","highlights":"Suspect Said Rehou allegedly held indoctrination sessions .\nMadrid bombings killed 191 people in March 2004 .\nCasablanca bombings in 2003 killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers .","id":"b2d4b365a868265be9b362ed10b60d23b14ab899"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen claimed his fourth Belgian Formula One Grand Prix victory in five years at Spa to end an astonishing run of 26 races without a win for the 2007 world champion. Kimi Raikkonen celebrates ending his victory drought after winning the Belgian Grand Prix. Raikkonen was hounded all the way for the majority of the race by pole-sitter Giancarlo Fisichella, who gave Force India their first points in F1 after 30 races with a second-place finish. In a chaos-filled race, British duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton crashed out on the opening lap in an accident that also accounted for the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari and Renault's Romain Grosjean. Despite Button failing to score points for the first time this season, the 29-year-old still has a 16-point world championship cushion over Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who was seventh, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel is now 19 points down after he came home third. After his 18th career win, Raikkonen told reporters: \"We haven't brought new parts for the last few races as we are looking at next year. But my aim was always still to win a race because we are aiming for third in the (constructors') championship. \"We probably weren't the fastest in terms of lap time, but we were able to keep everybody behind us. Hopefully we can now win more.\" The Finn is fifth overall, 38 points behind leader Button and 17.5 adrift of fourth-placed Australian Mark Webber. Fisichella was delighted and disappointed in equal measure as he said: \"It's a great result for us. \"It's a great day but I was quicker than Kimi and I'm a little bit sad because maybe I could have won the race as I was keeping pace with his car.\" Vettel believes anything is possible now over the remaining five races as he, teammate Webber and Barrichello continue to reel in Button. \"If you look at the championship it's a good result,\" remarked Vettel. \"We lost too much ground in the first stint because of the guys ahead, but in the second and third the car was fantastic. It was a pleasure to drive. \"We've managed to take points out of the Brawns, so overall a big thank you to the team and to Renault (engine providers) after all the trouble we've gone through recently. \"It shows we are back.\" Webber finished out of the points in ninth, with the BMW Sauber pairing of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld claiming fourth and fifth respectively. Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen was sixth, and Nico Rosberg of Williams took the final points-scoring position in eighth. Raikkonen's teammate Luca Badoer was again last of the 14 drivers who finished the race, with the Italian continuing to struggle as stand-in for the injured Felipe Massa. His future with the Italian marque will be decided by Wednesday, the team said after Sunday's race. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso retired after 26 laps due to a problem with a front wheel on his Renault, having been third at one stage. Toyota's Jarno Trulli, who started second on the grid, also retired after 21 laps after earlier pitting for repairs.","highlights":"Kimi Raikkonen claims fourth Belgian Formula One Grand Prix victory at Spa .\nGiancarlo Fisichella earns Force India's first podium place by finishing second .\nJenson Button still leads driver standings despite crashing out on opening lap .","id":"f215f09ba6864613982ad1983321522a037cc111"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The death of a spectator overshadowed an intriguing 14th stage of the Tour de France which saw Rinaldo Nocentini desperately cling on to the leader's yellow jersey in cycling's premier event. George Hincapie, front, upstaged his compatriot and former teammate Lance Armstrong to take second place overall. A woman died after being hit by a police motorcycle on Saturday afternoon in Wittelsheim, a village in Alsace in northeastern France which is 40 kilometers from the start of the race's leg from Colmar to Besancon. French police told CNN that two other people were injured and taken to hospital. The Tour released a statement on its official Web site saying the 61-year-old woman was hit when she crossed the road after a group of cyclists passed, then the motorcycle slid and injured two other spectators. A 36-year-old is in hospital with neck pain, and a 61-year-old has a broken leg . The incident marred an eventful day's racing in which George Hincapie leapt up into second place overall, five seconds behind Nocentini, following a 12-man breakaway. The American finished eighth in a group of eight who were all 16 seconds behind stage winner Serguei Ivanov of Russia, and had been ahead of Nocentini until the 143-strong peloton made up time at the end. The Columbia team rider's rise up the standings saw his compatriot and former teammate, seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, drop to fourth place overall. Armstrong was still eight seconds off the lead after finishing 49th, with Astana teammate Alberto Contador six seconds adrift in third following his classification of 37th. Nocentini was relieved to retain first place and was grateful to his AG2R teammates, with Nicolas Roche finishing second after powering past Hayden Roche in the final few hundred meters as Ivanov claimed his second stage victory eight years after his first. \"It was a very difficult day today because we're getting tired from all the effort in the last week,\" the Italian, who finished 45th, told the race's official Web site. \"We had a rider up front so we didn't have to ride but because Hincapie was in the move there was a big risk of losing the yellow jersey. \"Eventually, with 50 kilometers to go, our directeur sportif Vincent Lavenu said, 'Okay, let's go! Let's catch the guys.' Okay this wasn't possible but we had to limit our losses and keep the jersey. \"I told the guys, 'Listen, I don't mind. If you want to go for it and defend the jersey, that's great. But if you don't want to, that's okay. You've already worked so hard over the last few days so it doesn't really matter.' \"Eventually I've kept the lead by just five seconds, so I'm really pleased with how this Tour has gone for me so far. And I'm really grateful for the commitment from my team.\" Thor Hushovd extended his lead in the green jersey sprint category as he finished at the head of the peloton in 13th place, while nearest rival Mark Cavendish finished right at the back of it in 154th after the two tussled in the closing stages. The riders will now head back into the mountains through the Swiss Alps for the 207.5km 15th stage from Pontarlier to Verbier, with the climbers expected to come to the fore again just a week ahead of the finish in Paris.","highlights":"A woman dies after being hit by a police motorcycle during the 14th stage .\nPolice say two other people were injured and taken to hospital on Saturday .\nRinaldo Nocentini of Italy retains leader's yellow jersey after surviving big scare .\nGeorge Hincapie moves up to second place, Lance Armstrong drops to fourth .","id":"b176425aaed044df1c127afce7c967740e5ce00c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Football legend Diego Maradona had his earrings seized by Italian authorities Friday to help pay off his back taxes, according to media reports. Diego Maradona sports expensive-looking earrings during a recent football match. The current coach of Argentina's national team was staying at a clinic in northern Italy in a bid to lose weight when finance police swooped, Reuters.com reported. The jewelry was said to be worth \u20ac4,000 ($5,888). Italian tax authorities say he owes the country \u20ac31 million ($45 million) in back taxes from when he played for top league club Napoli between 1984 and 1991. But Maradona says the Serie A club should have paid the taxes. Three years ago, tax police took two Rolex watches from him when he was back in Italy for a benefit match. The 48-year old is under intense pressure in his native Argentina after a dismal World Cup qualifying campaign left his star-studded team in danger of missing their first tournament since 1970. After a recent defeat against Paraguay he was quoted by FIFA.com as saying, \"I am not afraid of criticism. I am afraid of nobody. I am doing my job, I have my team and I am going to go forward. \"I have been battling critics since I was 15 years old. Now I am 48 and I am going to continue to battle with them [the press].\"","highlights":"Maradona staying a clinic in Italy when tax authorities swooped .\nReports: Argentina coach owes millions in taxes from his time playing in Italy .\nMaradona says Serie A club should have paid the taxes .","id":"546df2d35f29cc5b7867db670e27f9c46918fe4c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Bollywood leading man Akshay Kumar plays a character who basks in the glamorous shadow cast by American stars like Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards in his latest movie. Akshay Kumar is one of the biggest names in Indian film. In reality, Kumar has no need for such humility. One of the biggest names in Indian film, he's increasingly rubbing shoulders with the global glitterati these days. In \"Kambakkht Ishq,\" he plays a Hollywood stuntman alongside Stallone and Richards, who have cameos in the film. He starred this year with U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg in the film \"Singh is Kinng,\" and he's set to appear in a film alongside Australian pop star Kylie Minogue later in the year. The unstoppable rise of Bollywood and the massive popularity of Indian film beyond its homeland have made stars like Kumar hot property. The poster boy of Indian action films now finds himself at the vanguard of the crossover between the world's two largest movie industries. Watch Kumar speak to CNN about his upcoming projects \u00bb . The Hollywood men in suits have been eyeing the Indian market greedily for some time. While the economic downturn has hit Tinseltown hard, Bollywood is a rising tiger -- the industry was worth $15 billion in 2008 and is projected to grow by 10 percent, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. With the notable exception of this year's runaway Oscar hit \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" attempts to make crossover films for both markets have largely failed. The masala mix of genres and exaggerated acting that typifies the Bollywood formula has met limited success in the West. Instead Hollywood studios have begun bankrolling Bollywood productions solely for the Indian market. But the financial traffic is by no means one-way. In the other direction, Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks recently snagged a multi-million dollar film production deal with Reliance Big Entertainment, one of Bollywood's biggest hitters. For Kumar, the strengthening of ties between Hollywood and Bollywood is bringing many opportunities, including the chance to work alongside his childhood hero Stallone. \"Well it was great. It was an honor to work with him,\" he told CNN. In addition to starring in \"Kambakkht Ishq,\" his other major role this year was as an Indian chef who learns martial arts in \"Chandni Chowk Goes to China.\" The movie was financed by Warner Brothers. (Warner Brothers, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.) The typically flamboyant plot of \"Chandni Chowk\" was loosely inspired by Kumar's own life. Born in Punjab but raised in Delhi, he came to acting late after working as a waiter in Bangkok. While in the Thai capital he learned martial arts, which he taught upon his return to India before becoming a male model. He landed his first movie role in the 1992 Hindi language film \"Deeder\" and has gone on to become one of Bollywood's leading men. He is married to fellow actor Twinkle Khanna. The couple created a buzz in India when they fell foul of the country's notoriously strict obscenity laws in March after Kumar encouraged his wife to undo the top button of his jeans at a fashion show in Mumbai. A complaint was lodged with the police and they were briefly questioned. With more than 80 features to his name, Kumar maintains that a strong work ethic is the reason for his longevity in the movie business. \"I think it's the simplest thing. It's actually hard work and punctuality,\" the 41-year-old told CNN from the London set of his latest movie, a comedy called \"Housefull.\" \"Even if you're not a good actor, to be a producer's actor is essential. If you finish your films on time you save money for the producer,\" he noted. His devotion to the job is coupled with a strong sense of family duty. \"I would say my success lies at the feet of my parents because that's been my biggest strength and that's what we Hindus believe,\" he said. \"Every morning before you go to work just touch your parents' feet and go ahead in life. People may not believe it, but I do.\"","highlights":"Bollywood leading man Akshay Kumar has appeared in more than 80 movies .\nA former martial arts teacher, Kumar made his name as an action hero .\nNow he finds himself at the forefront of where Bollywood meets Hollywood .\nIndia is home to $15 billion film industry -- the world's second largest .","id":"aa5dddf5ba7ab20980823eefdd991c86c7fd28a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If all goes according to plan, cancer survivor Kyle Garlett will compete in October's Ford Ironman World Championship, a grueling triathlon made up of a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a 26.2-mile run. Heart transplant recipient and cancer survivor Kyle Garlett will compete in October's Ironman World Championship. And he'll do it with another man's heart pumping in his chest. \"I don't think there's anybody who wouldn't consider me a success story and a survivor,\" Garlett said. His medical issues began in 1989 when he received his first Hodgkin's disease diagnosis as a high school senior. In 1995, during his third battle with the cancer, doctors ceased his chemotherapy treatment when they discovered it had weakened his heart. Two years later, Garlett learned he had secondary leukemia as a result of chemotherapy to treat the Hodgkin's, and three more years of chemotherapy ensued. And after five years on the waiting list, he received a new heart in 2006. Now, the 37-year-old savors his body's capabilities. \"It's kind of like the starving person who all of a sudden finds himself in front of a buffet. And now I've got the buffet. I've got my all-you-can-eat plate, and I'm just loading it up,\" Garlett said. A heart transplant may seem extremely daunting, but Garlett saw it as a more hopeful operation than his years of cancer treatments. \"Going in for chemotherapy, as a patient you know what's happening. Your body is being poisoned and you know that when you come out on the other side of it, you're going to have given up something,\" said Garlett, a sportswriter and motivational speaker living in Marina del Rey, California. \"On the heart transplant, though, it was completely the opposite. I knew that from the day of the transplant on, every day I'd be getting stronger. And they were now doing something that was going to fix me, improve my life.\" Garlett, who says he's \"not a klutz\" but \"definitely not a natural athlete,\" trains about 15 hours a week for October's Ironman in Kona, Hawaii. Closer to race time, he expects to spend 20 to 25 hours a week in intense training to achieve his goal of finishing within the 17-hour time limit. Garlett was invited to compete in the elite event because organizers believe he \"demonstrates the Ironman mantra: Anything is possible,\" said Blair LaHaye, director of communications for Ironman. LaHaye said a handful of athletes are invited to take part in the event each year, but their inclusion doesn't reduce the number of slots for those who get in by doing well in qualifying events, or by winning a spot through the Ironman lottery. Garlett will compete in a half-Ironman or other long-distance event before Kona to validate his selection. The training and competition are demanding enough for competitors without health issues. But being a heart transplant patient comes with the extra challenge of getting the organ to beat at an acceptable rate. \"When the old heart comes out, all the nerves are severed. And when the donor heart comes in, the nerves are not connected,\" explained Dr. Jon Kobashigawa, medical director of the UCLA Heart Transplant Program, where Garlett is a patient. In a person whose heart is intact, \"the brain will tell the heart, 'Let's go, start exercising, let's start beating faster,' \" Kobashigawa said. A donor heart, however, relies on circulating adrenaline in order to get it going. As a result, heart transplant recipients must warm up thoroughly to get their heart pumping properly. The \"denervated\" heart works about 80 to 90 percent as well as a normal heart, Kobashigawa said, \"but through exercise, these patients who do strenuous activities, I believe, do get their exercise capacity almost to the normal range, if not normal.\" It's also possible, doctors say, for the donor heart to re-innervate -- or grow nerves onto the donor heart. Following in his footsteps . Garlett is on a trail blazed by Dwight Kroening, the first heart transplant recipient to complete the Ironman, last year in Canada. Kroening, now 49, got a new heart in 1986 after his swelled to about twice its normal size for unknown reasons. He was 26 at the time -- a gym teacher, coach and athlete. At first, running with his students became a struggle. Within days, he couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without stopping to rest. Soon, combing his hair and brushing his teeth became too taxing, he said. When doctors examined him as a candidate for a heart transplant, they told him his heart was working at 8 percent of its normal capacity and he probably had about two months to live. Kroening began exercising a week after the surgery, but soon discovered he was incapable of athletic activities that required sprinting, he said. \"I [told my doctors], there's something wrong here. I'm not able to do these things. And they said, 'Of course not,' \" Kroening said. \"So being me, I was more or less bound and determined to prove that they were wrong, that I could actually train myself to be able to do these things,\" he said. But overcoming those hurdles wasn't easy, even after 22 years of practice. Three-quarters of the way into the Ironman's bicycle leg, Kroening felt ill and fatigued, he said. He questioned whether he would be able to finish. He did, in 15\u00bd hours -- one hour longer than his target. Watch Kroening compete in the Ironman \u00bb . \"When we test [heart transplant recipients] on the treadmill, their peak heart rate is around 140 beats [per minute] and they can maintain that for one minute. ... When Dwight did the Ironman, we recorded his heart rate, and he was able to exercise at a heart rate of 133 beats per minute for 15\u00bd hours,\" said Mark Haykowsky, a professor of rehab medicine at Canada's University of Alberta. Haykowsky studied Kroening for research on exercise habits of heart transplant recipients. Since the Ironman, Kroening has competed in other events, including a marathon and a triathlon. He may compete in another Ironman next year in Arizona, the state where he received his heart transplant. \"I relate [the Ironman] to what I guess would be like childbirth,\" Kroening said. \"In the process, you're thinking, 'I'll never do this again in my whole life. This is absolutely crazy.' But I think probably about three days later that I started thinking, 'Now this might be something that I might want to do again.' \" 'The ultimate price' Both Garlett and Kroening say promoting organ donation motivates them to compete in these endurance challenges. Kroening also says he wants to make the most of his \"orphaned\" heart. \"I wish I could meet my donor family and ... thank them personally,\" Kroening said. \"[I want to let them] know for 23 years, I've been taking good care of their son's heart.\" Garlett, too, recognizes his donor's family, who provided the heart of a 42-year-old construction worker who died on the job. \"I never lost sight of the fact that that moment for my family of great joy was only going to be coming ... with somebody else having to pay the ultimate price like that,\" Garlett said. \"And that always was in my head, and this man who gave me his heart would always be with me.\"","highlights":"Cancer survivor and transplant recipient Kyle Garlett will compete in Kona triathlon .\nLast year, Dwight Kroening was first person with heart transplant to finish Ironman .\nThe lack of nerves on a donor heart poses an extra challenge for transplant patients .","id":"bba53a7e309d791b6566163c09ab173490e92c4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Injured Formula One star Felipe Massa is looking forward to taking his first steps towards driving again after passing a series of mental and physical tests in Miami. Felipe Massa has been given the all-clear to begin training as he bids to return to the race track. His team Ferrari reported on its Web site on Tuesday that the Brazilian, who suffered horrific head wounds in Hungary in July, had come through the tests satisfactorily on Monday. \"The checks (which included neurometric, impact and cognitive capacity tests) all had a positive outcome, just like the eye exam: everything is in order for Felipe to get back to racing,\" the statement said. \"Now there has just to be carried out some plastic surgery at the brain box, where the spring at the accident at the Hungaroring hit his helmet. \"The surgery will take place in the upcoming days. After a short convalescence Felipe can then gradually start with physical preparations.\" The 28-year-old, who finished second in last year's drivers' world championship, said that he planned to take things slowly following the operation. \"I'm very happy about the results,\" he told www.Ferrari.com before returning home to Sao Paulo. \"After the small surgery, in the next few days I can finally start to go to the gym to get back into shape and drive some tests in karts. \"On the track with a Formula One single-seater? Let's take it step by step. At the moment I'm concentrating on taking up physical activities, which is a great step forward.\" Ferrari said Massa was expected to be at 100 percent fitness in time for the 2010 season, but gave no indication whether he would return to racing this year -- he has, however, indicated that he would like to drive at his home Brazilian Grand Prix on October 18. His replacement, test driver Luca Badoer, is not expected to drive at the Italian Grand Prix two weekends away after finishing last in his two races so far. Badoer, who stepped into the breach when F1 legend Michael Schumacher was unable to make a shock return to the sport due to a neck problem, was not allowed to test drive the current Ferrari vehicle during the four-week summer break due to this year's regulations. Veteran Italian Giancarlo Fisichella has been linked with Ferrari after finishing second at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, but his team Force India insist that he will race for them at Monza. Highly-rated Polish driver Robert Kubica is also in the running to replace Badoer, with his team BMW Sauber dropping out of F1 at the end of this season. Badoer's results aside, Ferrari have enjoyed a renaissance since Massa's injury, with 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen winning in Belgium to end a personal drought of 26 races and placing third in Valencia.","highlights":"Injured F1 star Felipe Massa passes series of mental and physical tests .\nThe Brazilian driver can begin training following minor surgery this week .\nMassa suffered horrific head injuries after a freak accident in Hungary in July .\nFerrari expected to drop his struggling replacement Luca Badoer .","id":"0921693ea2a6a55e3fa8ab66467d3ac934673609"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Top seed Dinara Safina battled from a set down to defeat Belarusian teenager Victoria Azarenka at the French Open, but there was no escape for scheduled semifinal opponent Maria Sharapova who suffered a humiliating exit. Sharapova bowed out of the French Open after suffering one of her worst career defeats. Sharapova was thrashed 6-0 6-2 by Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in her last-eight match on Tuesday while fellow Russian Safina overcame 19-year-old Azarenka 1-6 6-4 6-2. It could have worse for former world number one Sharapova as Cibulkova had a match point to mark her first Grand Slam quarterfinal by dishing out the dreaded double bagel. Sharapova survived and she saved three more match points in the 12th game of the second set before her resistance crumbled completely with a netted forehand. It was her heaviest loss since she went down 6-1 6-1 to Serena Williams in the fourth round in Miami in 2007. Sharapova, playing only her second tournament since a 10-month lay-off because of a shoulder injury, was bidding to reach her second semifinal following a run to the 2007 last four. The Russian star, whose ranking slumped to 104 in the world during her time off the tour, had won both her previous matches against the pint-sized, 20-year-old Cibulkova and both were on clay. But Cibulkova was in complete control, breaking in the first, third and fifth games of the opening set. The Slovakian was then quickly 1-0 ahead before receiving a code violation for taking too long between points. It did not throw her off her stride and she was soon flat out on the dirt surface of Court Suzanne Lenglen in celebration. Safina was given the runaround in the first set and was at one stage being held at 4-4 in the second, but recovered her poise on Philippe Chatrier court. Ninth seed Azarenka had beaten Safina at Indian Wells earlier this year and had also won three titles in 2009, in Brisbane, Memphis and Miami. She played an almost perfect first set in just 23 minutes, but Safina then found the form that had seen her lose just five games in her run to the quarters opening a 4-1 lead in the second. Azarenka fought back to make it 4-4 but Safina rallied again to take the set -- and break in the opening game of the third. World number one Safina, who has yet to win a grand slam, finished the stronger to wrap up victory in an hour and 52 minutes. \"I just didn't take the chances I had,\" said Azarenka. \"Shedefinitely stepped it up and played some good points at key moments, which I have to give her credit for. It's all experience. Hopefully I'll do better next time.\"","highlights":"Dinara Safina battles from set down to beat Victoria Azarenka at French Open .\nMaria Sharapova was thrashed 6-0 6-2 by Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova .\nCibulkova now faces semifinal with world No. 1 Safina who won 1-6 6-4 6-2 .","id":"ac1c523de5a81bed6a975ac5027bc836dac13f5e"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- The FBI has seized a two-page, handwritten letter of condolence sent by Jacqueline Kennedy to the widow of Robert F. Kennedy shortly after he was assassinated in 1968. The family contends the letter was stolen. Jacqueline Kennedy sent her sister-in-law a condolence letter in 1968 which is now in the hands of the FBI. \"We're trying to determine who the legal owner is,\" said Mark White, a spokesman for the FBI. \"There's still an ongoing investigation.\" The letter's path from the Virginia home of Robert Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, to a locked evidence vault in the Dallas field office of the FBI is described in a six-page affidavit filed last month in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas by Special Agent John Skillestad. It says Max Kennedy, the son of Ethel and Robert, alerted the bureau in July 2006 to the letter's pending auction at Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers Galleries in Dallas. Max Kennedy, who said he is the sole person in charge of his parents' papers, \"stated that he had not given authority to sell, give, or donate any papers of Ethel or Robert Kennedy to anyone,\" the affidavit says. After the gallery pulled the letter from its auction, the FBI traced its provenance to Thomas Nuckols, who told authorities he had found it among the papers left by his father, Russell Thomas Nuckols, a plumber who died in 1999. \"Thomas Nuckols said he was dumbfounded upon discovery of the letter because he had never seen it before and did not know how it came into his father's possession,\" the affidavit says. Nuckols said he contacted the Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts, but \"the person on the telephone did not seem too interested in the letter\" and referred him to a Connecticut collector, who bought it for $6,000, the affidavit says. CNN has not been able to reach Nuckols. The letter was then resold to several other collectors, and was at one time valued at as much as $30,000 before it wound up with the Dallas auctioneer, who has cooperated with authorities, the FBI said. Last October, the FBI spoke with Ethel Kennedy, who said she remembers Russell Thomas Nuckols as a plumber who worked at the Kennedy house in Virginia during the 1960s and 1970s, the affidavit says. The 81-year-old widow of the former senator and attorney general said she \"never gave the letter to anyone to keep and under no circumstances would anyone have the authority to transfer ownership of the letter to anyone.\" The affidavit concludes that the letter \"is considered as a stolen good.\" Once the rightful owner is determined, it will be given to that person, FBI spokesman White said. \"I don't know how long it will take.\" Jacqueline Kennedy was the widow of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. In the letter she mentions \"Stas,\" an apparent reference to Stanislas Radziwill, her brother-in-law. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in 1994. The letter is not dated, but appears to have been written shortly after Robert Kennedy died on June 6, 1968, the victim of an assassin's bullet. The Dallas News printed a copy of the letter, which White confirmed is authentic. It reads: . My Ethel -- . No one in the world could have ever been like you were yesterday -- except maybe Bobby -- We are going home now -- Your phone was busy . You don't want any more callers you must be so tired -- I stayed up till 6:30 last night just thinking -- and praying for you -- and for you in the months ahead -- . I love you so much -- . You know that anything -- Stas will take little Bobby to Africa -- I'll take them around the world + to the moon + back -- anything to help you + them now and always -- . With my deepest deepest love . Jackie .","highlights":"FBI trying to determine who owns letter written by Jackie Kennedy in 1968 .\nLetter passed from collector to collector, but widow says she gave it to no one .\nLetter found among papers of Russell Nuckols, who died in 1999, son says .\nSon Thomas Nuckols told authorities he found it among the papers left by his father .","id":"d6e2c349cd63cea90bde50e0b3a2e6d59bbab816"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- \"Ocean Emerald\" is a superyacht with added wow-factor. Her startling appearance has made sure of that and in real life she is every bit as dramatic as she appears in these photographs. \"Ocean Emerald\" is the second time Lord Foster has designed a superyacht. We were among the guests invited to the superyacht's official launching in La Spezia, in northern Italy, when her celebrity designer and his team walked down the red carpet to cast his eyes upon his latest masterpiece. Lord Foster of Thameside is no stranger to eye-catching and dramatic design. His architectural firm Norman Foster + Partners is responsible for iconic London landmarks such as 30 St Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin, and the Millennium Bridge. Foster is the master of the curved line. Imagine for a moment a photograph of the Gherkin split in two lengthwise and laid flat, recall the sweeping curves of the Millennium Bridge and you will see how he has managed to combine the drama of those two creations into what is arguably the most visually stunning superyacht of the year. Ocean Emerald is not the first of Foster's forays into the world of superyacht design. It was he who drew the lines for the L\u00fcrssen-built Izanami, a 58-metre yacht now called Ronin and owned by Larry Ellison. Launched in 1993, she is also a head-turner. Design and external appearance aside, Ocean Emerald is different from every other 41-metre superyacht in that she is not to be the sole property of any one owner. This perhaps is one of the reasons for her radical look as she is designed to appeal to those who are new to the concept of superyacht ownership. Unlike the traditional form of ownership, where one person, sometimes through an anonymous corporation, is the owner of all 64 shares of the yacht, the shares in Ocean Emerald are split either into eight or sixteen parts. These fractions -- one-eighth or one-sixteenth -- of Ocean Emerald have been sold to different individuals by the London-based company YachtPlus. When engaged to design the yacht, the Foster team were initially told to work within the confines of an existing hull designed by yacht builders Intermarine, part of Rodriquez Cantieri Navale. But after discussions, Rodriquez has produced a new 41-metre hull three metres longer than the original concept. Walking around Ocean Emerald, it is clear that Foster has taken all the traditional rules of yacht design, torn them up and started again. The public rooms benefit from abundant natural light, which floods in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, in addition to the copious artificial lights. Coupled with the use of pale-coloured woods, soft furnishings and white high-gloss, wipe-clean surfaces they create a wonderfully bright, modern feel. Unusually for a motor yacht, the natural teak decking extends right the way through from the aft deck to the saloon, ensuring a seamless visual transition between the outside and inside spaces. To join the Ownership Lifestyle Programme will cost an initial payment of \u20ac1.875 million. This buys you a one eighth share of the yacht and guarantees 30 nights per year on board -- ten nights peak season in the Mediterranean, ten nights peak season in the Caribbean, and two five-night cultural tours such as sightseeing, shopping, golf, Formula 1, vineyard visits and museums. Each year there will be an annual service charge of \u20ac200,000 to cover overheads, including marine and hotel operations, permanent crew, mooring and berthing fees, year-round maintenance and mechanical upkeep, marine and port charges and cruise itineraries management. Lord Foster said: \"With my team we have given a new emphasis to such issues as quality and quantity of space, outdoor terraces, light and views. Our commission is for the total design concept of the fleet, with an eye on beauty, function and luxury, down to the smallest detail. We believe that there is great potential in the concept of luxury cruisers to think afresh such issues as views, light, privacy and the quality of spaces -- both inside and outdoors.\" The concept of fractional ownership is fast becoming acknowledged as a logical way forward for those wishing to enjoy high-end luxury products without the massive capital investement required. Foster himself owns one of the shares and is very much looking forward to experiencing what it is like to step into the shoes of a superyacht owner. It may only be for a fraction of the time but it is also, as he so eloquently puts it, only for a fraction of the price. Subscribe to SuperYachtWorld . COPYRIGHT \u00a9 2009 IPC MEDIA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .","highlights":"Famous architect Norman Foster has designed a new superyacht .\n\"Ocean Emerald\" has a top speed of 17.5 knots .\nIt will be co-owned by investors laying down an initial $2.6 million payment .","id":"cb8b3b296fae11e8de576f72b72b22e948cbd00b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nine people were killed and 957 rescued when a ferry capsized Sunday in the Philippines, leaving crews scouring the waters for survivors, officials said. A woman and child rescued from a ferry accident off the Philippines on Sunday arrive in port. Two people remained unaccounted for from the SuperFerry 9 vessel carrying 968 people, according to the Philippine Coast Guard. It had no dangerous or hazardous cargo on board. The ferry took off from the city of General Santos and was bound for Iloilo City. Survivors and their families were moved to a nearby location, where they were getting medical help and other forms of assistance, the coast guard said. An investigation will be conducted after rescue operations are completed. It was the third major incident involving the SuperFerry 9 in the past three years. No fatalities were reported in the other incidents in 2006 and 2007. Meanwhile, a Panamanian cargo vessel sank off the central coast of the Philippines, though the 20 people on board -- 18 Filipinos and 2 South Koreans -- were rescued, the Philippine Coast Guard said. Journalist Cecilia Lazaro contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Nine dead, hundreds rescued as SuperFerry 9 capsizes in Philippines .\nTwo people are missing, according to coast guard .\nIncident is third involving SuperFerry 9 in past three years .","id":"b17fdb4b170f7533d3826dfab5c3fbe515907c0f"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A helicopter crashed during takeoff from Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 16 people, NATO said. U.S. Marines participate in operation Saturday to push Taliban out of Herati, Afghanistan. The aircraft was a \"civilian contracted\" helicopter, not a military one, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. The helicopter was not shot down, ISAF said, adding that the exact cause of the crash was not known. All the dead were civilians, ISAF said. There were an additional five casualties whose condition was not known, according to the military statement. Watch report on the crash \u00bb . The chopper was a Mil Mi-8 helicopter, owned by the Russian air company Vertikal-T, the Russian news agency Interfax said, citing Russia's Federal Air Transportation Agency, Rosaviatsia. The aircraft \"was on a mission to support the peacekeeping forces,\" an unnamed Rosaviatsia spokesman said, according to Interfax. Separately, a U.S. military helicopter made a hard landing in eastern Afghanistan, ISAF said. ISAF denied the helicopter was shot down in Kunar province, but suggested the people on board were injured. \"Personnel on the aircraft were initially treated on site and evacuated to the nearest medical facility for further treatment,\" the ISAF statement said. The two helicopter incidents come a day after a plane crash that killed two airmen on a U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagle in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday, the U.S. military said. The two-man fighter went down while it was conducting military operations, Lt. Col. Reid Christopherson, said earlier. He said he was \"confident\" it had not been shot down. July has been a difficult month for coalition troops in Afghanistan, with 51 international military fatalities, the highest so far, a CNN tally of official statistics shows. The United Kingdom lost eight troops in 24 hours, and has now had more killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Watch report on UK deaths in Afghanistan \u00bb . The United States has lost 26 troops this month, putting it on pace to be the deadliest ever for U.S. forces in the country. CNN's Ivan Watson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Civilian contracted helicopter crashes during takeoff in Kandahar, NATO says .\nAll of the dead were civilians, NATO says; conditions of 5 other casualties unknown .\nChopper owned by Russian air company, according to Russian news agency Interfax .\nU.S. military helicopter also makes hard landing; personnel get medical treatment .","id":"68108ace64769614392e3d8a824d61109a6fb7a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Autumn Preble was a teenager in the 1960s, she spent hours gazing at black-and-white LIFE magazine photographs that documented the journey of Peace Corps volunteers all over the world. George Stouter, 67, is helping build mental health programs in Saint Kitts for his Peace Corps stint. Preble, of Whidbey Island, Washington, wanted to join, but after college came marriage and a child. Now at 58, with her son off to college, she has begun her two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer working in the public health sector in Francistown, Botswana, where nearly one in four individuals are infected with HIV. \"I'm getting to experience what it's like to live in another culture, and that has a lot of value to me,\" Preble said from her simple two-bedroom bungalow in Botswana. Preble is known to natives in her community as Masego (Ma say ho), which means \"many gifts.\" \"This is the kind of travel that I'm interested in.\" Forget the mapped-out cruises or packaged vacations to see the world. A growing number of Americans over 50 are dedicating time in their golden years to volunteering abroad. The decision is becoming more attractive with a sickly national economy sparking more layoffs and early retirement packages. \"The economic crisis is giving them an opportunity to take a break,\" said Vanessa Noel, an associate director in the nonprofit department of Alliance Abroad Group. The Austin, Texas-based company offers work, teaching and volunteer programs to students and graduates in the U.S. and abroad. Noel coordinates volunteer trips abroad that typically last between two and 12 weeks. Inquiries from eager adults over 50 have flooded her office in recent months -- so much so that she is creating new programs this summer to Costa Rica and Ecuador tailored to older volunteers that will last several weeks. \"Life is short, and now they can seize the opportunities out there.\" Applications for the Peace Corps from adults over 50 have spiked 44 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, driven largely by the weak economy and a campaign launched in 2007 to lure mature volunteers. All applicants to the Peace Corps -- a federal program created in 1961 that puts Americans overseas in places of need -- must pass background checks and a health test. Married couples are allowed to join together. By the end of 2008, there were 428 Peace Corps volunteers over age 50 in the field in countries all over the world, from South Africa and Romania to the Eastern Caribbean, challenging the traditional image of the 20-something, post-college volunteer. See the stories of Americans over 50 who have volunteered abroad \u00bb . Other nonprofit groups specializing in shorter \"voluntourism\" trips also are seeing a spike in interest. For those unable to leave for the 27 months required by intensive volunteer programs like the Peace Corps, these paid programs last from a week to a year. Cross-Cultural Solutions, a nonprofit in New York that offers volunteer trips to countries like Russia and Peru from one to 12 weeks, experienced more than a 10 percent growth in volunteers over 50 in 2008, compared with 2007, according to company officials. San Francisco, California-based Global Services Corps, a nonprofit that coordinates service trips to Thailand, Tanzania and Cambodia for stays from two weeks to a year, saw a 25 percent jump in information requests from older Americans after the stock market tanked in October. Older volunteers have long donated time to volunteering abroad, perhaps most famously President Jimmy Carter's mother, Lillian Carter, who applied to the Peace Corps at age 68. As global health and economic issues abroad have become more publicized in an increasingly connected world, older Americans venturing overseas hope they can serve some of the poorest communities in the world while improving the tarnished American image abroad. Many older Americans, like Preble, say they are volunteering abroad in response to President John F. Kennedy's inspiring words from their younger years, asking them to serve their country. Now, they finally have the time. \"They have had a pretty lifelong pattern of community activism, so it makes perfect sense that as they approach the retirement years, they will do a lot of volunteering abroad,\" said Linda George, a professor of sociology specializing in aging at Duke University. Some volunteers also say they are motivated by President Obama's call for change. This month, Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which will pour an estimated $6 billion into volunteerism, including programs for older adults and retirees. Mary Hecht, 66, and her husband Norman Hecht, 68, left their cozy home in New Jersey to embark on a one-week trip this month to save the giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands. In the midst of packing, she said she is excited to stay with a host family and learn more about the native food and culture. \"I think the older you get, the more set in your ways you become,\" said Hecht, who worked in the education sector for most of her career. \"I think the trip will teach me to be flexible and roll with the punches.\" While many volunteers over 50 say there are some drawbacks to volunteering later in life -- such as missing their children and grandchildren back at home --there are many advantages, too. Mature volunteers bring with them valuable life and career experiences, and many countries tend to pay more respect to older people. \"The kinds of things they are struggling with in terms of creating programs are exactly the sorts of things I was previously involved with,\" said 67-year-old Peace Corps volunteer George Stouter, who started in Saint Kitts in the West Indies last fall. He consults on mental health initiatives at a local boys hospital, among many other projects. Stouter worked as a psychiatric social worker in Michigan for 35 years. Greg O'Neill, director of the National Academy on an Aging Society, added that Americans are retiring earlier and living longer, which lends more time to volunteering or making a career change. Darlene Grieger, an 81-year-old grandmother from Arizona, says there are no limits with age. In March 2007, she bid farewell to her five children and 14 grandchildren and went on her first volunteer trip to Costa Rica -- thanks to money donated by her family -- where she volunteered at an orphanage for three months. There, younger volunteers on her program usually called her \"grandmom,\" she said, chuckling. Last fall, she jetted off to Thailand for six weeks to work with a women's group. She did find time to do touristy things between her volunteer duties: Before coming back to the states, she flew on her own to Cambodia to catch a glimpse of Angkor Wat, one of the most famous temples in the world. \"I couldn't even imagine just going on a trip,\" said Grieger, who is planning on selling her home so she can continue volunteering abroad. \"That has to be so boring.\"","highlights":"Applications for the Peace Corps from adults over 50 have spiked 44 percent .\nNonprofit groups offering \"voluntourism\" trips report more mature participants .\nOlder Americans are motivated by President Obama's call for change .\n\"I'm getting to experience what it's like to live in another culture,\" one volunteer says .","id":"f93954558241fd6e2591b410050c842532ba74c1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Philippines Sen. Benigno \"Noynoy\" Aquino III announced he will run for president Wednesday, a month after the death of his late mother, the popular former President Corazon Aquino. Philippines Senator Benigno \"Noynoy\" Aquino III announce his candidacy in Manila on September 9. \"I'm accepting the challenge to lead this fight,\" said Noynoy Aquino, the state-run Philippines News Agency (PNA) reported. Aquino, 49, is the only son of Corazon Aquino, who died on August 1, and the late Benigno \"Ninoy\" Aquino, a senator who opposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos and was assassinated in 1983 on returning home from exile in the United States. Noynoy Aquino said his mother's supporters had urged him to make a run for the presidency in next May's elections. He said he would continue the fight started by his parents to promote democracy in the Philippines. At least one lawmaker was critical of Aquino's run, PNA said. Rep. Pastor Alcover Jr. said the media has deceived the public by presenting Aquino as the man who can save the country. \"We need a hardworking president,\" Alcover said. \"But the problem is, Noynoy has a dismal performance as congressman for nine years and as senator for three years. Do we want more of his laziness?\" President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term ends in 2010. Under Philippine law, she cannot run again. Arroyo first took office in 2001. Since then, she has survived several impeachment attempts and periodic rumors of coups. She won re-election in 2004, though opposition parties called into question the legitimacy of that race.","highlights":"Philippines Sen. Benigno \"Noynoy\" Aquino III announces he will run for president .\nHe is the only son of former President Corazon Aquino, who died on August 1 .\nHe said he would continue the fight started by his parents to promote democracy .\nPresident Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term ends in 2010 .","id":"21f55b3a768c627cfdef6a25161fdf344c4f0c17"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- In an effort to protect the planet, many people are looking for ways to reduce waste, reuse and recycle. Here's how celebrities take on the challenge. Actress Charlize Theron uses products made from recycled bottles. Charlize Theron . \"I like Endstar [makers of parkas, tents and sleeping bags]. The stuff is durable -- and made out of Return Textile fabric, which is partly created from recycled bottles.\" Julia Roberts . When the Oscar winner takes her cup of joe on the road, she carries it in a reusable mug. To tote yours in style, use leak-proof wide-mouth 8.6 oz stainless steel thermal bottles. Maggie Gyllenhaal . \"Peter [Sarsgaard] has taught me a lot about passive solar energy. For example, if your house faces south, it gets all the sun and you can heat it much more efficiently.\" Salma Hayek . The actress took a shine to a stunning tabletop bowl handcrafted by artisans in Nepal. Woven from discarded food wrappers, the bowl is a chic reworking of non-biodegradable waste. Kim Raver . \"My husband and I want the house we're building to be all green. To start, our energy will be solar.\" Parker Posey . \"I don't run the water too long when I wash my dishes. I also have a reusable bag from Trader Joe's that I use when shopping for groceries so I don't waste paper or plastic.\" Follow Parker Posey's lead and grab a pretty reusable tote such as the 100% recyclable option by Tote Le Monde. Courtney Love . \"I have green power at home. I also use recycled toilet paper even though it's not the softest.\" Laura Dern . \"We painted every room in our house with Bioshield [solvent-free] paints, which smell amazing. And the whole family wears Green Toe shoes by Simple. They are made from recycled materials and are most comfy.\" Sharon Lawrence . \"I seriously consider a political candidate's environmental record before giving him or her my vote. You can get that info from the League of Conservation Voters at lcv.org.\" Nicollette Sheridan . \"All my cleaning products are eco-friendly. I especially like Mrs. Meyer's because they're biodegradable, cruelty-free and natural.\" Alicia Silverstone . To save energy, the actress uses the laundry line she got as a birthday present to dry her clothes. \"The sun does all the work, and it makes me feel like I live in Italy. I love it!\" Courteney Cox . The former Friends star enjoys Little Twig, the extra mild unscented bath line, which is sulfate- and paraben-free, and gentle enough for her daughter, Coco, 3. Return four of the recyclable containers and get a reward for keeping the planet clean: a 30 percent discount online. E-mail to a friend . Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Celebrities have favorites ways to go green .\nActress Laura Dern uses solvent-free paints in her home .\nAlicia Silverstone dries clothes outside on laundry line .","id":"580053e9e214da1f8e9854f0c6310ecd55288542"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer Nelly Furtado is trying to cross over in a direction many artists don't ordinarily take. Singer Nelly Furtado says she enjoys diversity in music and broadening her fan base. With \"Mi Plan,\" the Grammy Award-winning singer is taping into a brand new market and fan base, almost a decade after she came to fame in 2000 with the single \"I'm Like a Bird.\" While the Canadian-born singer -- whose parents are Portuguese -- has sung in Spanish before, \"Mi Plan\" is the first time she has recorded an entire album in Spanish, a language she said she learned as a teen. It's seems like a natural progression for Furtado, an artist often noted for diversity in her sound. A few years after her breakthrough, Furtado teamed up with superproducer Timbaland for her 2006 album \"Loose,\" a collaboration that gained her scores of hip-hop and R&B fans as well, and spawned hits such as \"Promiscuous\" and \"Say It Right.\" \"Mi Plan\" pairs her with a few Spanish-language music artists, including Alex Cuba, Juan Luis Guerra, Julieta Venegas and La Mala Rodriguez, as well as English-language artist Josh Groban. The first single off the album, \"Manos Al Aire,\" made history as it marked the first time a North American artist reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart with a song that was originally written in Spanish, rather than a translated version of an English-language song. Furtado spoke with CNN about her passion for Spanish, why she feels like an artist reborn and the career path she hopes to take. CNN: What was the inspiration for the new album? Nelly Furtado: There were so many inspirations. The language was the biggest inspiration. I've sang so much in Spanish in the past, and also Portuguese. I get a lot of joy in singing in Latin languages. It expresses the Latin side of me. Watch Furtado talk about her new album \u00bb . My parents were born in Portugal and they raised us in Canada. We grew up speaking Portuguese and then I learned Spanish at the age of 14. I love being a multicultural artist, I love being a global artist. [The album] is almost like a literal reflection of that this time in the fact that it's all in Spanish and it's a completely original project written from scratch. CNN: So it's all new? Furtado: Yes. It feels like a rebirth of sorts. It's almost like a parallel world where I get to reinvent myself again as an artist, but in a very whole kind of way. It's been a lot of fun. CNN: You have such a loyal fan base. What do you hope they get from your latest project? Furtado: Just because I have collaborated with so many different people with so many different styles of music that I think my sort of goal or mantra my whole career has been to broaden the minds of my fan base. This album is just an extension of that. I'm an inclusive person and everyone is invited to the fiesta. I'm excited because I am meeting brand new fans for the first time who don't have any of my prior albums. Four albums in, it's a tough job to try to attract new fans and I think that's what I am doing with this new music. CNN: Did you consider it risky to do a Spanish-language album? Furtado: I like to take risks. I live for risk taking and challenges. I just find it so much more exciting and it keeps my job entertaining and interesting. Everyone is looking for that next challenge at work. Everyone wants that extra credential on their business card. If it's easy, it's not fun. CNN: How is performing in Spanish different? Furtado: When I express myself in Spanish or in Portuguese I feel very free. There are a lot of things you can say in a Spanish song that you can't say in an English song, especially from a feminine perspective. As a female, the moment you sing too passionately in English you are kind of labeled as an angry singer. In Spanish that doesn't happen. You can be dramatic as you want and it's accepted. So it's liberating. CNN: There are a lot of Spanish-speaking artists who want to cross over into the English-language market. How does it feel to be doing the reverse? Furtado: I think I'm capitalizing a little bit on the inroads I have already made in the Latin world through working with other established Latin acts. I dabbled in Spanish on my third album. I had two records on there in Spanish and I really enjoyed writing them and playing them live. I'm just going where my heart's at and following the passions. CNN: What's next for you? Furtado: It's interesting because when I got off the road from touring with my third album, \"Loose,\" I was exhausted. I tried to write some songs in English and no inspiration really came to me. Then I started writing songs in Spanish and it started flowing, so this album has been like a medicine of sorts. I'm so excited about music now. I can't wait to put out another project in English and further Spanish albums as well as Portuguese. The list is never-ending.","highlights":"Nelly Furtado's new album is sung completely in Spanish .\nThe singer worked with noted Latin artists on the project .\nFurtado, whose parents are Portuguese, finds performing in Spanish \"liberating\"\nFirst single made history on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart .","id":"8a879f292f67a81b2a3a67828e8262d84ca8739e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Coast Guard Sunday continues its search for a missing sailor whose five Texas A&M University crew mates were hoisted out of the Gulf of Mexico earlier in the day after their sailboat capsized. Members of the Texas A&M Offshore Sailing Team are shown in this photo from the team's Web site. The survivors -- four university students and a safety officer -- told the Coast Guard they were forced off their sailboat after it took on water and capsized. \"The flooding was so fast that the thing flipped over,\" USGS Capt. William Diehl told CNN. The missing sailor has been identified by the university as Roger Stone, the vessel's second safety officer. The sailboat, named Cynthia Woods, was one of about two dozen boats heading from Galveston, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, for the annual Veracruz Regatta race, which began on Friday. Diehl said the boat was well-stocked with safety equipment -- including emergency radio beacons, life rafts and ring buoys -- but the crew could only manage to find four life jackets after the boat tipped over. \"The survivors told us that [when] they went into the water, they had four life jackets among the five, and they huddled together and they exchanged the life jacket among them so that they could stay afloat,\" Diehl said. Communication with the boat was lost about midnight Friday, and the boat missed its 8 a.m. radio check the next morning, the Coast Guard reported. A sailboat matching the description of the missing 38-foot boat was found overturned about 5:15 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. The five survivors were found several hours later, lifted to safety by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter around 1 a.m. and taken to University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for treatment. A Coast Guard spokeswoman could not say exactly where the survivors were rescued, but said the search was focused on an area about 10 miles south of Matagorda, Texas. Diehl said a Marine Corps C-130, a Coast Guard cutter and a man-of-war naval vessel are searching for the missing crew member. All the mariners were experienced sailors, he said. \"They were very well trained,\" Diehl said. \"Obviously [they were] the more senior cadets at the university here, and they had very experienced safety people on board.\" When rescuers retrieved the capsized boat's hull, Diehl said the keel was missing. \"That's the part that keeps the sailboat balanced in the water,\" he said. \"And from talking to the survivors this morning, that's where the flooding started for them.\" The 725-mile Veracruz regatta began on Friday and boats are expected to arrive in Veracruz on Wednesday and Thursday.","highlights":"Coast Guard rescues five sailors reported missing; search continues for sixth sailor .\nTexas A&M sailboat was taking part in regatta from Galveston to Veracruz, Mexico .\nBoat's six-person crew missed 8 a.m. radio check Saturday .\nSailboat matching description found capsized, with no one in sight .","id":"2137b4b22ba465002a98ebd7b8a34dbfa0e64010"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 14 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in explosions across Iraq on Saturday, officials said. A woman adjusts a memorial of plastic flowers this week at the bombed Foreign Affairs Ministry building. Nine police officers were killed and 19 wounded in a suicide bombing north of Baghdad on Saturday morning, local officials said. The incident occurred in the Salaheddin province town of al-Shirqat. Local police said the suspected bomber had been driving a minivan near the outer checkpoint of a police base. The bomber detonated when police opened fire, police said. Twenty shops and dozens of cars were damaged. Later in the evening, a motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated outside a busy coffee shop in a southeastern Baghdad district called New Baghdad, killing two and wounding 13 others, according to the Ministry of Interior. The attack occurred about 9 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) as people had gathered to break their fast for Islam's holy month of Ramadan. In other violence Saturday, at least three people were killed and 40 wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in a marketplace in northern Iraq, an Interior Ministry official said. The bomb detonated in the town of Sinjar, a predominantly Yazidi town west of Mosul near the Syrian border. Yazidis are a minority group mainly concentrated in Iraq's north and have been often targeted by insurgents. The deadliest attack since the start of the war was in August 2007, when coordinated truck bombs hit Yazidi villages, killing more than 500 and wounding hundreds. Despite the improved security situation across the country, there has been a spike in attacks in recent weeks. Last week, two massive suicide truck bombs hit the foreign and finance ministries in Baghdad, killing at least 100 people and wounding hundreds more. The attacks come at a time when Iraqi security forces have come under a lot of criticism after they took control of security in cities and towns after the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces two months ago. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nine police officers killed, 19 hurt in suicide attack in Iraq .\nInterior Ministry official says bomber drove minivan into police station .\nMotorcycle blows up outside coffee shop, killing two .\nRoadside bomb kills three in marketplace near Syrian border .","id":"ec9241d2192b89eae9a42ff8529962520404e96c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson ended a trip to the Ivory Coast on Friday, after he spoke to leaders from the nation's political parties and was honored as a prince by a tribe in the West African nation. Jesse Jackson says ceremony to name him a prince of the Agni people was \"very exciting.\" Jackson said he met with President Laurent Gbagbo and leading members of two opposition parties, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. Bedie is a former president of the nation and Ouattara is a former prime minister. Jackson said his mission was not to endorse a candidate, \"but a process.\" \"I wanted the three of them to agree ... [to] campaign vigorously ... not to create divisive language, to each agree to support the winner, [and] end the [U.N.] sanctions,\" he said. \"I think there's a common agreement on these points. This country has so much to offer the world and Africa.\" The United Nations imposed sanctions on the nation in 2004, among them, a ban on arms and diamond trades, a travel ban and asset freezes for some individuals. The sanctions, renewed last year, are in effect until October 29. Earlier in Jackson's trip, Amon N'Douffou V, king of the Krindjabo kingdom, named Jackson a prince of the Agni people, news reports said. Jackson said it was a \"very exciting ceremony.\" Jackson's wife, Jacqueline, suffered a broken leg during the trip when a stage she and her husband were on collapsed, Jackson told CNN in a telephone interview. \"We had excellent medical care,\" the pastor said, adding that the collapse was \"not the fault of the organizers,\" but that too many people had gathered on the stage. Official news agency Agence Ivoirienne de Presse reported that the stage collapse occurred in a sports complex in Yopougon, north of Abidjan. A doctor was to accompany them on their Friday night flight back to the United States, Jackson said. The coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials. In a July 30 statement, the U.N. Security Council said \"any postponement of the elections of 29 November would be inconsistent with a credible process\" and with a peace agreement that had followed an armed rebellion in 2002 that had divided the country in two. The Security Council said it would review progress toward elections before October 15. In March, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the \"United States believes that long-delayed presidential elections are still technically possible in 2009 and calls on all parties to take every step necessary to ensure that credible elections go forward as promised.\" The statement said more than 5.7 million people had been enrolled as voters on a \"preliminary basis.\"","highlights":"Coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials .\nJackson meets with president, opposition leaders in trip to West African nation .\nLeader of Krindjabo kingdom reportedly names Jackson a prince of the Agni people .\nJackson: Wife received \"excellent medical care\" after breaking leg in stage collapse .","id":"2f108f8439dc3d2203c6d247d3e7ea6b2c2e02db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The box office fright flick \"The Haunting in Connecticut\" earned $23 million and a second-place ranking the first weekend of its release, satiating the moviegoer appetite for psychological thrills. Carmen Reed's family lived in a former funeral home. Their stories inspired \"The Haunting in Connecticut.\" But what is entertainment for many was reportedly true life for Carmen Reed, who insists on using her maiden name to protect her children and grandchildren. Reed, her husband and four children rented an old colonial home in Southington, Connecticut, in the mid-1980s in order to be close to a hospital where her 13-year-old son was receiving cancer treatment. Soon after, two nieces also joined them in the house that they learned had once been a funeral home. It wasn't long before that son began telling stories about noises he'd heard and visions he'd seen, including the one of the \"tall, thin man with long jet-black hair\" whom the boy said he saw every night, Reed said. \"I was the biggest skeptic of all,\" she explained. \"I put my son in a mental hospital because I didn't believe him.\" Watch Reed talk about life in a haunted house \u00bb . Reed sat down with CNN to talk about the spooky stories that later became her own and how what her family experienced inspired a blockbuster film. CNN: Tell me more about sending your son to a mental institution, where he arrived in a straitjacket and where you say he stayed for 45 days. Why did you do this, and what happened next? Carmen Reed: At first I thought it was his cancer treatment. ... I took him to a psychologist, but he got darker and darker. And this one time, he got so bad, he attacked my niece. ... An ambulance came and took him to a mental hospital. ... He was saying, \"Mom, don't leave me! It's going to come after you now.\" And it did. CNN: You mentioned seeing a hand that grasped your niece and that mop water would turn a deep, dark red. What are some other things you saw or heard? Reed: Mattresses would breathe. They had a pulse. ... There was the normal banging on walls, but it always came in threes. ... There was a deep, gravelly voice. CNN: And yet you stayed for two years! If what you were experiencing didn't drive you to move away, what did? Reed: I couldn't go to the grocery store without people telling me their ghost stories. I was usually there for three hours. CNN: You talk about how you read from the Bible in an attempt to drive away demons. How did your experiences in this home influence your faith? Reed: I've learned that most people just believe in this physical world. Some people question if there is a God or angels or demons. I don't need to question that. I found that answer in this house. CNN: Are you still haunted by your experiences in that home? Reed: I do dream about it, and I remember things, but one of the biggest mottos I have is \"Be not afraid.\" When people are afraid to go somewhere, I'll go into the deepest, darkest part of it because I know I'm not alone. CNN: You've consulted on this new film and are writing a book about your story. Why do you insist on using your maiden name? Reed: To protect my children. ... My daughter was more scarred by the publicity than she was by the house. And I have 11 grandchildren, and I want to protect them. CNN: What lesson do you hope people will take away from the film and the increased exposure to what you experienced in that Connecticut home? Reed: Leave the occult alone. You think you can control it, but it's going to backfire on you.","highlights":"Big-screen thriller \"The Haunting in Connecticut\" is based on true story .\nCarmen Reed speaks about her family's time living in a former funeral home .\nShe says mattresses breathed, a hand grabbed and mop water turned red .\nHer message: \"Leave the occult alone\"","id":"1a00d647f797e97f99e9a7bb4be30f3d632a8556"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Army ground commanders in Afghanistan say they need help, fast. That's not a request for more troops, but a request from commanders who say the current camouflage uniform is not blending well in the diverse countryside. U.S. Army commanders in Afghanistan say the current uniform does not blend well in the countryside. In response, the Army later this month will field-test two new camouflage color schemes and patterns on about 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, where the terrain is extremely varied. Commanders have had problems there because of the numerous changes in environments a soldier can move in and out of in a short period of time -- from woodland to desert to alpine, and to rocky and snowy mountain tops. The current uniform, known as the Army Combat Uniform or ACU, has lighter shades of green and tan, which some commanders have complained does not blend well if soldiers need to stay motionless on a mission, as snipers or reconnaissance troops must. The effort by the Army was recently accelerated, according to Army officials, after U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, told the Army he had a number of complaints from soldiers in Afghanistan who said the current camouflage pattern was not effective in the mountainous regions. Two yet-to-be-identified battalions -- a battalion has about 500 troops -- will test the two patterns, with initial results being turned into Army researchers by the end of October. While deployed, all 1,000 soldiers will have their regularly issued ACUs. In addition, one battalion will also get one of the new camouflage uniforms with a test pattern known as \"MultiCam.\" The pattern is made up of numerous blobs of white, brown, tan, black and greens for a more woodland look, and is already being worn by snipers and special operations forces. The other brigade will test a similar pattern to the ACU, called the Universal Cammo Pattern-Delta or \"UCP-Delta.\" While the pattern is the same, a series of \"digitized\" blocks of green and tan, the test uniform adds what he Army calls \"coyote brown\" and a slight color darkening all around to the greens and tans. The look is also designed to blend in the woods. Both battalions will be based in eastern Afghanistan where the terrain is the most rugged and diverse, Army officials said. The Army hopes to have the field input and a decision on what pattern is best by the end of January 2010 and the fielding of the new uniform as early as June 2010. Troops will still keep the existing ACU, and commanders will be able to decide mission by mission what the soldiers should wear, according to Army officials. The testing is part of the Army's long-term development of a permanent alternative to the current ACU, according to Army officials.","highlights":"Commanders say current uniform doesn't blend well in Afghanistan's countryside .\nArmy this month will field-test two new camouflage patterns in Afghanistan .\nArmy hopes to have decision on new pattern by the end of January 2010 .","id":"c23e2b453c7d8992177225557a3147359c82df30"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- One year after the collapse of banking stalwart Lehman Brothers, the administrator of its European business says the full impact on creditors may not be known until 2010. One year ago cameras caught shocked Lehman Brothers' employees leaving the building with boxes. Tony Lomas, a partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been sorting through the financial remains of the banking giant's European division since last September, when it became clear the bank would file for bankruptcy. He says administrators are still some months from finalizing the total amount owed to Lehman's creditors. \"That will come at some point, maybe in the course of calendar 2010,\" Lomas said. \"But up until that point we won't know the quantum of claims are. We have very complex trading relationships with a very large proportion of our counterparties. And we've got six thousand or so live counterparties out there.\" Watch the full interview with Tony Lomas \u00bb . Within a week of Lehman's collapse, Lomas sold Lehman's equity trading business to Nomura. The deal saw about half of Lehman's 5,000 employees in Europe move over to the Japanese investment bank. The agreement didn't include Lehman's trading positions, the infrastructure, the intellectual property, or the building. \"One of the big reasons why we retained the infrastructure here was because we knew we were going to be dependent on it for many years to come because of the complexity of what we were unraveling,\" Lomas said. Some 400 to 500 Lehman's staff still work in the London office for its administrators, poring through trading records and unwinding complex financial positions. \"We expect a significant number of those people to be with us for a reasonably significant time to work through all this,\" Lomas said. Among those who lost their jobs from Lehman Brothers, some such as former employee Caroline White, have turned their backs on the financial sector. White has since forged a new career in fashion and plans to unveil her first piece on Tuesday night. The former banker hasn't put her last career completely behind her. Her collection includes a laptop bag with the Lehman's logo. \"I themed it with a Lehman's theme because I think its quite appropriate. I wanted to show where I have come from, and where I am going,\" the designer said. The future is less clear for the London-based administrators who say their job will not be done for several years. \"This could well take more than 10 years to resolve, all the issues,\" Lomas said. \"By that time, it will outdate me.\" He is confident creditors will receive some of their money. In the past year the administrators have recouped $9 billion dollars in cash, most of which has been invested in government-backed securities. \"Our priority is to keep it safe and make sure we don't lose it,\" Lomas said. One year on, he said the job hasn't become any easier. \"Reflecting back on the astonishment if you like of being appointed administrator here in the UK and contemplating what lay ahead of us, I don't think I underestimated or understated the complexity of the task. It has proved to be every bit of that.\" \"There remains a very significant amount of complex still work to do,\" he added. CNN's Jim Boulden contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lehman administrator in Europe says significant amount of work still to do .\nFull amount owed to creditors may not be known until some time in 2010 .\nUp to 500 people still work for Lehman in London, unwinding trading positions .\nLomas: \"This could well take more than 10 years to resolve\"","id":"896daec9ef87fa67ac6fc6992a312fa11cd97bab"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- On your next trip, you could be checking into a wine cask, a salvaged 727 airplane, or a room where the furniture defies the law of gravity. The casks at the Hotel De Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands once held the equivalent of 19,333 bottles of wine. Upside-down stay . At Berlin's Propeller Island City Lodge, each of the 30 rooms is weird in its own way. The artist-owner, Lars Stroschen, has seen to that. One room, the first built, is made to look like a brightly painted medieval town, with an ultra-mini golf course surrounding the castle bed. Another has furniture attached to the ceiling, another has coffins for beds, and still another has lion cages on stilts (the Web site claims that kids \"love to sleep\" in them). Then there's the Freedom Room, which resembles a prison, complete with a toilet next to the bed -- oh, that German humor! 011-49\/30-891-90-16, propeller-island.com. A place to unwine'd . When they were owned by a Swiss ch\u00e2teau, the four enormous casks on the grounds of the Hotel De Vrouwe Van Stavoren in the Netherlands held the equivalent of 19,333 bottles of wine. Now, after some creative recycling, it's guests rather than booze that mellow out inside the casks. The richly worn and airtight oak barrels have two narrow beds, with a small sitting area outside. The grounds are quite close to tiny Stavoren's harbor, which was a major port in the Middle Ages. 011-31\/51-46-81-202, hotel-vrouwevanstavoren.nl. A bad trip (with none of the consequences) The daughter of Ho Chi Minh's number two masterminded the Hang Nga Guest House and Art Gallery, a complex that more than earns its local nickname, the Crazy House. This LSD nightmare's three main buildings are Gaudi-esque concrete treehouse-like growths that appear as if they flowed organically out of the ground. Inside, the walls seem to dissolve into the floor, and right angles are avoided entirely. Each guest room is built around a different animal theme: the Eagle Room has a big-beaked bird standing atop a huge egg, while another has arm-sized ants crawling up the wall. The animal theme continues outside -- a large giraffe statue on the property contains a teahouse, and human-size \"spider webs\" are set up here and there. 011-84\/63-82-20-70. Budget Travel: Check out these unusual hotels . In a league of its own . Hydrophobics should stay far from Jules' Undersea Lodge, named for novelist Jules Verne of \"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea\" fame. The 600-square-foot lodge, a former marine lab, is 21 feet underwater, close to the bottom of the mangrove-filled Emerald Lagoon, in Key Largo. You'll have to know how to scuba dive to reach your room, and guests without the mandatory certification must take a course at the hotel. Once you've reached the lodge, which sleeps up to six, you'll be close to angelfish, anemones, barracuda, oysters, and other creatures -- each room is equipped with a 42-inch window, so you don't need to be suited up to keep an eye on the neighborhood. 305\/451-2353, jul.com. Crash in a jet plane . Near a beach that's within Manuel Antonio National Park, the Hotel Costa Verde doesn't lack for great sights. But few are as amazing as its own 727 Fuselage Suite, a salvaged 1965 Boeing 727-100 that looks as if it's crashed into the Costa Rican jungle (it's actually mounted atop a 50-foot pillar and reached via a spiral staircase). The jet's interior was once able to hold up to 125 passengers, but there are few reminders left of its days in the service of South African Airways and Colombia's Avianca Airlines. The suite's two bedrooms, dining area, and sitting room are now covered over entirely in teak to match the surroundings. Guests can play \"spot the toucan\" on the small wood deck that sits on top of the right wing. 011-506\/27-77-05-84 or 866\/854-7958, costaverde.com\/727.html. Your escape pod awaits . Colored bright-orange for easy visibility, the '70s-era escape pods that make up the Capsule Hotel once hung outside oil rigs, ready to be deployed in case of an evacuation. Recycled by self-proclaimed \"garbage architect\" Denis Oudendijk, the fleet of pods now rotates among different moorings in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. At the moment, two are in the western Dutch town of Vlissingen and another is in The Hague. For a kind of James Bond-meets-Barbarella twist, opt to book your pod with a disco ball and all the spy's movies on DVD. It's a super-kitschy nod to a similar pod's appearance in \"The Spy Who Loved Me.\" 011-31\/641-76-55-60, capsulehotel.info. On the road again . Imagine how much ground you could cover if you took your bed with you. That's the idea behind Exploranter Overland Hotel, a converted 25-ton truck that's a true hotel on wheels in Brazil. An awning extends out from the truck's side to provide some al fresco shade at lunchtime. The \"kitchen\" comes tricked out with fridges, freezers, and a large convection oven -- on this trip, the restaurant comes with you too, and sometimes nearby cooks are brought in to give guests a taste of the local cuisine. Your luggage and sleeping quarters are towed behind you, in a trailer that sleeps up to 24. With so much flexibility, guests can see Brazil's back country, far from crowds and sometimes any other people at all. The tours, which last from three days up to three months or more, have included horseback riding, vineyard tours, bird watching, and rodeos. 011-55\/11-99-38-00-58, exploranter.com. Where the penthouse is a trailer park . Cape Town, South Africa's sleek Grand Daddy hotel has a surprise on its roof: a fleet of seven Airstream trailers, six of which were imported from the U.S. The aluminum-clad \"rooms,\" which sleep two people, have been done in playful themes that incorporate icons like \"Goldilocks and the Three Bears\" (a blonde wig and a bear suit are available for dress-up), and John Lennon and Yoko Ono (the room's white-on-white furnishings include an enormous bed, natch). If you don't want to stray as far from the trailers' original looks, there's the Pleasantville model, an Eisenhower-era fantasia with chintz, harvest-gold curtains, and flower-covered throw pillows. 011-27\/21-424-7247, granddaddy.co.za. STILL WEIRD! Meet the giraffes (from the 2008 edition) Without sacrificing its estate-in-the-country dignity -- or all of it, anyway -- Giraffe Manor in Langata, Kenya, is arranged so that roaming giraffes can poke their heads into any open window or doorway with impunity and lather guests with their sticky, prehensile tongues. Your guesthouse is their guesthouse, so the silly creatures pop up everywhere, including over the breakfast table, in the lobby, and through the curtains of the five guest rooms for adults. 011-254\/20-890-948, off-hours 011-254\/20-891-078, giraffemanor.com. Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved.","highlights":"Guests can mellow out inside wine casks in the Netherlands .\nA sleek Cape Town, South Africa, hotel has an Airstream trailer park on the roof .\nA Costa Rica hotel offers stays inside a salvaged airplane .","id":"defefdafc02b17a7687d08290e4af77109f057fe"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- African governments have stopped importing Chinese dairy products as the crisis which has seen more than 52,000 Chinese children poisoned by melamine-tainted goods spreads. Burundi, Gabon and Tanzania have joined governments closer to China -- including Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia -- in banning Chinese dairy products. At least 11 countries have banned imports. The precautions come as the number of affected children in China continues to swell. Four babies have died from melamine-tainted infant formula and more than 52,000 children have fallen ill, Chinese authorities say. \"I think we will see more cases, but it is, of course, impossible to predict how many cases there finally will be,\" said Hans Troedsson, the the World Health Organization's China representative. \"We have to remember that China is a large country with a population of 1.3 billion people. However, of course, 40- to 50,000 children are affected as reported now. It's a staggering figure, but where we will end up is too early yet to say.\" On Monday, China's top quality control official, Li Changjiang, resigned as a result of the scandal, which has seen the arrest of at least 18 people. Two brothers arrested last week on charges of selling contaminated milk could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. The raw milk used to produce powdered baby formula had been watered down and the chemical melamine was added to fool quality checks, the newspaper said. Watch CNN visit the company at the center of the scandal \u00bb . Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Beijing hospitals and a supermarket to show his concern. China's Health Ministry said about 13,000 children were hospitalized, while another 40,000 had undergone outpatient treatment. \"What we need to do now is to ensure that nothing like this happens in the future, not only in dairy products, but in all foods,\" he said. \"Manufacturers and owners of dairy companies should show more morality and social responsibility in these cases. They are heartless, so we have to create strict law and legislation. I'm sorry.\" Watch how Beijing is under pressure over public safety \u00bb . The repercussions from the scandal were felt as far away as Africa. Burundi imports milk products from two suspect Chinese companies and the government has set up a commission to investigate how much tainted product could remain on store shelves, officials said. \"For the moment, nobody knows if the milk is being sold on the Burundi market,\" Noel Nkurunziza, president of a Burundi consumer association known as ABUCO, is quoted as saying in The Guardian newspaper and other publications. In Asia, Singapore announced a recall of all Chinese milk products on Tuesday. The head of Indonesia's Food Safety Watch said she was instituting a temporary ban of all milk imports from China, although contaminated milk has not been found in the country. In issuing its recall of milk products, Singapore had already suspended the import and sale of milk and dairy products from China on Friday, after it said it has found traces of melamine in three Chinese-made dairy products. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said \"White Rabbit Creamy Candy\" was ordered off of shelves after tests showed it was contaminated. White Rabbit is among the best-known candy brands in China and one of the few exported widely. The United States is among 40 nations that import the candy, a man in the administrative office of the Shanghai-based company told CNN Monday. Earlier, Singapore's agri-food agency said it found melamine in two other milk-based Chinese imports: the Yili brand \"Choice Dairy Fruit Bar Yoghurt Flavored Ice Confection\" and the Dutch Lady brand of strawberry-flavored milk. In Bangladesh, three Chinese powdered milk brands -- Sanlu, Suncare and Yashili -- have been taken off shelves and all milk powder imports at Bangladeshi ports will be inspected. Bangladeshi TV showed the country's Rapid Action Battalion climbing over a fence to raid a storage facility believed to contain tainted milk. In Malaysia, Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai announced that import of Chinese milk products had been stopped. In addition to banning imports, thousands of tons of tainted milk powder have been recalled. In the Philippines Monday, the country's Bureau of Food and Drugs banned the distribution and selling of two brands of imported Chinese milk that could possibly be tainted, the Philippines News Agency reported. The milk brands were Yili and China Mengniu Diary Company, the agency reported. One of the implicated Chinese plants is operated by a subsidiary of the Marudai Food Co. in Japan. Marudai said it was recalling five types of products from the plant, would halt operations there for one month, and will send employees to the subsidiary to examine quality controls. The factory will be shut down through October 19. Even some countries that don't import Chinese dairy products, such as Malaysia and Brunei, have banned milk products from China. In Hong Kong, concerned parents have swamped hospitals. A 3-year-old Hong Kong girl was reported this weekend as the first case outside of mainland China. The girl was treated for kidney stones at Princess Margaret Hospital and released, Hong Kong's government Web site reported. Her condition is being monitored. Watch the public outcry faced by the Chinese government \u00bb . A second child, a 4-year-old boy, had similar renal symptoms, the government reported Monday. The boy, a Hong Kong native, had consumed milk products contaminated with melamine and was diagnosed with a kidney stone in mainland China, the Department of Health said. He was treated at Princess Margaret on Monday and was in stable condition. The hospital said Monday it has provided medical consultation to 63 people who might have consumed contaminated milk products. The patients, 34 males and 29 females, ranged in age from 2 months to 17 years old. A Hong Kong government hotline has received nearly 1,000 calls. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Some Chinese dairy plants have added it to milk products to make it seem to have a higher protein level. Learn more about the chemical melamine \u00bb . Melamine is the same industrial contaminant from China that poisoned and killed thousands of U.S. dogs and cats last year. Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition.","highlights":"NEW: Burundi, Gabon, Tanzania ban import of suspect milk products from China .\nNEW: Singapore, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei impose bans .\nHead of China's quality watchdog resigns over tainted baby formula scandal .\nFour infants in China dead, over 52,000 reported ill from tainted milk powder .","id":"4076ea6bd9994caa8ab0cb7487ec81487c770c79"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Water pressure is restored and it is now safe to drink in a Baltimore suburb where a huge water main burst, sending torrents of muddy water coursing over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. Muddy water envelops the community of Dundalk, Maryland, on Friday. Many were left without power. \"A bad situation is well in hand,\" Baltimore County chief executive Jim Smith said during a press conference Saturday morning. Crews were still at work inspecting homes and clearing water from flooded basements, he said, \"but the danger is over, the crisis is over.\" A prestressed concrete water pipe burst late Friday afternoon under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk. The 72-inch-wide main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Smith said. No injuries were reported, Smith said, and knee-high to chest-high water had been reduced to 4 inches. Resident David Johnson said he felt helpless as he stood outside his house and watched the dirty brown water creep up his lawn and approach his front door. It stopped, inches away, and his basement stayed dry. The worst part now is the sewage smell, he said. Local public works officials said at least 39 basements in the area were flooded. See water main break damage \u00bb . Shannon Woerner was at home in nearby Essex, Maryland, when he heard the news about the water main break and the call for boats. He loaded his kayak in his truck and headed to the scene. \"I just wanted to see if I could help,\" he said. Woerner said he delivered car keys and other items across flooded streets to people who couldn't get to their homes. Mike Pell, 34, watched the water slowly recede after the main was shut. Water covered the wheels of his pickup. \"My basement's done,\" he said, pointing to his shoulder to show the height of the water inside. He and his fiancee had a bedroom in the basement. \"All of our clothes are ruined,\" he said. He managed to get his two children, ages 2 and 3, to a dry area on the first floor of the house. \"Now I wonder who's gonna pay for this. We don't have flood insurance; this area doesn't flood,\" Pell said, shaking his head. Samantha Hansley, 21, could only watch from a dry hill and wonder if her truck would survive the flood. It sat in 2 feet of water a block away. Hansley and her boyfriend had been driving out of the floodwaters when they stopped to try to help some stranded drivers. \"Our truck just died,\" she said. A manager at the Box and Save grocery store about a block away from the break said the entire parking lot was flooded. Cathy Geisler said customers were still in the store Friday afternoon when police arrived to tell everyone except for essential personnel to evacuate. \"We were still doing business, then the electricity went out and we escorted everyone out of the store,\" Geisler said. Aerial video from CNN affiliates WMAR and WBAL showed a collapsed roadway covered by torrents of water. Entire neighborhoods had flooded streets, and some residents were evacuated, authorities said. Eric Braughman, who lives on one of the flooded streets, said he had \"thought something was up\" with the water Thursday when his faucets discharged orange-brown water. \"My wife didn't give the baby a bath because it didn't look safe,\" Braughman said. Nearly 1,000 customers were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s Web site. The main break is part of a larger issue with failing infrastructure in many U.S. cities, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's Department of Public Works. Kocher cited two other huge main breaks in the Maryland and Washington area that were started from the same type of pipe that burst in Friday's incident. \"This is a national infrastructure crisis,\" Kocher said. CNN's Alec Miran in Dundalk, Maryland, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Water is safe to drink; pressure has been restored .\nResidents say water damaged vehicles, homes and left sewage smell .\n72-inch main shut down after about two hours, county official says .\nNearly 1,000 were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric .","id":"533290e4208d6687168882aedc9b6a225e9e31b0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Kanye West called Taylor Swift with a \"very sincere\" apology Tuesday for interrupting her acceptance speech at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, Swift said. Kanye West called Taylor Swift to apologize for hijacking her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. West phoned Swift following her appearance on ABC's \"The View\" Tuesday, her publicist said. Swift talked about it in a radio interview with ABC. \"Kanye did call me and he was very sincere in his apology,\" she said. \"And I accepted that apology.\" The apology came the morning after West, in an interview with Jay Leno, appeared to blame the pain of his mother's death two years ago for his \"rude\" behavior. The rapper told Leno he would now \"take some time off\" to think about how he will \"make it through the rest of this life.\" West's appearance on the prime-time premiere of \"The Jay Leno Show\" capped a 24-hour period that began Sunday evening with him strolling down the red carpet at New York's Radio City Music Hall while gulping from a bottle of cognac. The low-light came about an hour later, when West jumped onstage and grabbed the microphone from Swift as she accepted the Best Female Video award. West declared that Beyonce Knowles should have won. West appeared sober and humble when he spoke on Leno's Los Angeles stage Monday, an appearance that was originally to be just musical. Watch West give an emotional interview to Leno \u00bb . \"I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong,\" West told Leno. \"And it wasn't a spectacle, you know. It was actually someone's emotions, you know, that I stepped on and it was very, it was just, it was rude, period.\" When Leno asked West what his mother would have thought of his behavior, he fell silent for more than a dozen seconds and appeared near tears. Leno pressed him again. \"Would she be disappointed in this? Would she give you a lecture?\" West gave a rambling, emotional answer: . \"Yeah, you know, obviously, you know, I deal with hurt and, you know, so many, you know, celebrities, they never take the time off, and I've never taken the time off to really, you know, I just, music after music and tour after tour on tour, and I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt.\" West said he wasn't trying to justify his behavior, \"because I was just in the wrong. That's clear.\" \"But I need to, after this, just to take some time off and analyze how I'm going to, you know, make it through rest of this life, how I'm going to improve,\" he said. \"Because, I am a celebrity and that's something I have to deal with.\" He said he would like to personally apologize to Swift, a 19-year-old pop-country singer. \"And if there's anything I can do to help Taylor in the future or help anyone, I want to live this thing. It's hard sometimes, so.\" After his four-minute talk with Leno, West joined fellow hip-hop superstars Jay-Z and Rihanna to perform \"Run This Town,\" a song they recorded together. The timing of West's antics came at a good time for Leno, who embarked on a new era of his career Monday. After 17 years of hosting \"The Tonight Show,\" Leno debuted his 10 p.m. weeknight talk show on NBC. Apologies from celebrities behaving badly have boosted Leno's ratings. In 1995, Leno enjoyed a ratings-grabbing moment when he asked actor Hugh Grant, \"What the hell were you thinking?\" Grant had been arrested two weeks earlier for public lewd conduct with a Hollywood hooker. When Grant told Leno \"I did a bad thing,\" it gave Leno's \"Tonight Show\" a viewership bump that has been credited with solidifying his lead over rival David Letterman in the late-night ratings war. This is just the kind of \"immediacy\" Leno was talking about in a call with reporters last week. \"The idea here is that we'll tape a new, fresh show every single day, talking about the events that happened that day that night,\" Leno said. Jerry Seinfeld also appeared on Leno's premiere Monday.","highlights":"Kanye West reaches out to Taylor Swift to apologize .\nRapper had interrupted Swift as she accepted the Best Female Video award .\nWest contacted her after she appeared on \"The View\"\nCountry singer said she accepted his apology .","id":"bcbef29671053a9c6b7106ead70086dca13648ec"} -{"article":"Sunny Hostin is a legal analyst on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano represented himself at his federal trial. The jury's still out. NEW YORK (CNN) -- There's a courthouse adage: A person who represents himself has a fool for a client. When a defendant utters those tragic words, \"I'm going to represent myself,\" judges blanch, attorneys snicker, and even the court reporters grimace. I've been on the opposite side of those who have chosen to represent themselves. It wasn't pleasant. Since 1975, when the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment \"grants to the accused personally the right to make his own defense,\" many defendants have decided to take the law literally into their own hands. The most recent self-represented \"client\" is Anthony Pellicano, the Hollywood private investigator who's been on trial for 78 counts lodged against him and two co-defendants. Pellicano's jury has been out for a week, so it's not yet clear whether the outcome of his case will follow the conventional wisdom. The 64-year-old celebrity sleuth is accused of leading a criminal enterprise that raked in more than $2 million by illegally spying, allegedly using wiretaps and law enforcement databases, on Hollywood's rich and famous. He then dished the dirt to their rivals. If convicted of leading a criminal conspiracy, known as a RICO charge, he could spend up 20 years to life in prison. RICO, by the way, stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It's the law the Justice Department used to bring down the mob. Prosecutors have to prove that Pellicano and his co-defendants ran a corrupt enterprise that profited from information they obtained illegally. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer granted Pellicano's request to represent himself, but she wasn't too happy about it. \"If the U.S. Supreme Court didn't require me to let defendants represent themselves, I wouldn't do it,\" she said. Even without a law degree, Pellicano seemed to realize that getting the jury to acquit him of the conspiracy charge was important. During his 15-minute closing argument, he denied he led a criminal enterprise and insisted that he acted as a \"lone ranger\" while gathering information for his clients. He also told the jurors that he shared no information with colleagues as he conducted investigations and allowed others to learn only what he wanted them to know. \"There was no criminal enterprise or conspiracy. Mr. Pellicano alone is responsible. That is the simple truth,\" he said, referring to himself in the third person. But unlike a seasoned attorney, he failed to address the evidence against him, including illegally taped conversations. Instead, he bragged about his career, while wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, saying of himself, again in the third person: \"Perhaps his business card should read, 'I deliver,' because he did it over and over again.\" Courtroom observers said his \"cross-examination\" often consisted of little more than settling old scores. So is Pellicano a fool, or absolutely brilliant? Well, if history is our teacher, he would do better if he had a lawyer, even a bad one. If you have a bad lawyer and you get convicted, you can always argue on appeal that your lawyer was ineffective and get a new trial. The following self-appointed lawyers learned the hard way that they had fools for clients: . In fact, I can't think of a defendant who represented himself or herself as well, or better, than a lawyer. So maybe I'm biased, but lawyers are trained professionals. We're trained in the art of trial war. Let us do our jobs.","highlights":"Private eye Anthony Pellicano chose to represent himself at his trial .\nPellicano is accused of illegally gathering dirt for A-list clients .\nPeople who represent themselves usually don't do well with juries .","id":"c75d6febd70450e68073fdb6cef76b269d0032c9"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: This story details how two members of the CNN Special Investigations Unit reported a story about controversial plans to spend $31 million to enhance two remote crossings on the border between the United States and Canada. The road to the border was so quiet it was safe for Drew Griffin to sit in the middle of it. SCOBEY, Montana (CNN) -- We were driving through some of the most remote country in the United States, chasing a story that seemed hard to believe. The Department of Homeland Security had announced it was spending $31 million to enhance and upgrade two remote border crossings -- just 12 miles apart -- on the border between Montana and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The spending was lauded by Montana's two senators, even though only an average of 22 cars a day traveled through these border posts. We hopped a plane from Atlanta, Georgia, to Billings, Montana, and then headed to Scobey and Whitetail. The six-hour drive took us through some of this nation's most beautiful country into the high plains of the Missouri River Region. It was a drive punctuated with glimpses of cows and antelopes, but few people. In fact, Burl Bowler, editor of the Daniels County Leader newspaper, which serves the border towns, advised us where to stop for gas en route, so we wouldn't run out and then really be in trouble. Besides seeing a part of the country where Lt. Col. George Custer took his last stand, there was the added benefit (sorry CNN management) of having no phone or Blackberry access. In that respect, it was a peaceful drive. When we got to Scobey, the few people we encountered couldn't have been nicer. Everyone we passed stopped, said hello, or waved. But encountering people was the problem -- and in fact, the story: We just didn't encounter that many. Certainly not at the border, where we stood and even sat in the middle of the road to show viewers how few people travel to and from Canada here. Watch just how quiet the border crossing was \u00bb . The Scobey border crossing itself seemed perfectly adequate. But the Department of Homeland Security had warned its agents not to allow us inside, so we don't know what the interior is like. If we came in, we would be too disruptive, one government spokesman had informed us. In Scobey, that claim seemed a little far-fetched, since there wasn't anything going on here -- disruptive or otherwise. On the Canadian side, farmer Marc Chabot, a U.S. citizen whose family has farmed the area on both sides of the border for generations, said he was grateful for the money his senators -- Democrats Max Baucus and Jon Tester -- steered to northeast Montana. But, he said, like others in the community, he gasped when he learned of the plan to spend $31 million expanding two border crossings that are rarely used. \"It would be wiser spent on something more useful to the public generally,\" he told us, adding that come winter, the average of 20 cars crossing a day in Scobey drops to almost none. Editor Burl Bowler told us the area could certainly use stimulus money for jobs, but not at the border. We asked both Bowler and Chabot about the possibility of terrorists creeping across the frontier. Both said that after the attacks of September 11, 2001, everyone needed to be more mindful of the porous border. But Chabot said the government had the area fairly well covered. \"Trust me, they know we are here right now,\" he said. And a massive new building costing more than $15 million in Scobey, Montana, wasn't exactly a deterrence to someone set on harming the United States, he added. Chabot joked that any stranger in the area certainly would not be a stranger long, since everyone knew everyone -- a point echoed by Bowler, who pointed out that while he hadn't told many people that CNN was coming to town, everyone seemed to know it anyway. In Whitetail, it was even quieter. The town has grain elevators and a post office. Bureau of Transportation statistics show only about two people a day cross the border there, and the agents' building seemed in good shape, save for maybe needing a paint job. The DHS planned to spend $15 million on the outpost. That would buy a lot more paint than the building seemed to need. So why did these two areas get so much money? Locals and critics suspect politics might have played a role. Baucus is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Tester is on the Senate's Homeland Security Committee. Both took credit for convincing the DHS to give these towns millions for border crossings, bragging in a joint press release that they pressured the agency. \"This is good news for all of Montana and especially communities across the northern tier,\" Baucus said in the statement. Tester said the spending would \"pay off for generations to come by creating new jobs and opportunity that will benefit all of Montana.\" As late as Wednesday, his spokesman reiterated Tester's support of the spending, saying that it would seal security gaps on the border. So, the nagging question: Did politics, rather than security, guide the DHS? Especially when a border town like Laredo, Texas, which sees 66,000 crossings a day, was getting not one dime of the $400 million in DHS border stimulus funds. Montana, in total, was to receive $77 million. In an interview Wednesday with CNN, Trent Frazier, the director of port modernization for the Department of Homeland Security, denied that politics played any role. \"We feel that these ports, like all ports of entry, are a vital part of the network of security that we have established across the border apparatus that we employ across the borders, and the investments we are going to do along these borders are a critical step in ensuring we can perform our mission,\" Frazier said. But if Frazier did not believe politics factored in the decisions, it appeared to play a big role by Wednesday afternoon. Fellow Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan, from the neighboring state of North Dakota, sent out a news release urging DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to suspend the stimulus program. He said that spending the money on such remote ports -- including the nine in his state -- was \"just nuts.\" Dorgan said the plan \"just defied common sense.\" Within hours, Napolitano announced she was ordering a 30-day review to see if the money was being spent appropriately. In her letter to Dorgan, Napolitano said 39 of the 43 Custom and Border Protection posts were located in the northern United States. She said most of the Southern ports were owned by the General Services Administration, and the money directed by Congress was earmarked for the Custom and Border Protection properties and required to be spent within 24 months. \"Nonetheless,\" she wrote, \"in order to ensure even further transparency in this process, I am ordering a 30 day review\" of all port construction decisions by officials who did not make the initial allocation decisions. So, for now, if you want to travel to Canada through Scobey or Whitetail, the agents who inspect your vehicles will be using the buildings now in place -- and according to the locals, you will be adequately served.","highlights":"DHS planned to spend $31 million to upgrade remote border crossings .\nThe crossings are 12 miles apart and get little to no traffic .\nLaredo, Texas, by comparison, gets 66,000 crossings a day .\nLaredo will not receive any of the $400 million in DHS border stimulus funds .","id":"5506742dac18ba418b5b72ba17cab00770c33b8b"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Thousands gathered in the Cuban capital on Sunday to pay their respects to one of Cuba's few remaining original revolutionaries, Juan Almeida, who according to state media died of a heart attack Friday evening. Cubans wait Sunday at Havana's Revolution Plaza to pay respects to deceased Cuban revolutionary Juan Almeida. A single column of people stretched around Havana's Revolution Square in a well-coordinated show of solidarity and remembrance during what state media reported as a national day of mourning. President Raul Castro and other top government officials were reportedly on hand, though elder brother and former Communist leader Fidel Castro -- not seen in public since abdominal surgery in 2006 -- did not make an appearance. Almeida, 82, fought alongside Fidel Castro and was among only a handful of surviving Cuban leaders who still bore the title \"Commander of the Revolution.\" Watch as Cubans remember Juan Almeida \u00bb . Widely admired among Cuban nationals, Almeida participated in the failed attacks on the Moncada army barracks in 1953. He was aboard the famed yacht \"Granma,\" that carried the small group of Cuban rebels who would later topple U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. A vice president and member of the Communist government Central Committee, Almeida was among only a few black leaders in top government posts. \"This shows how we're all participants in our revolution and there is nothing that sets you apart,\" said Havana resident Fernando, who declined to give his last name. \"Not color, nor religion,\" he added. Almeida's death underscores the mortality of an aging cast of Cuba's revolutionary leaders. Widespread speculation surrounding the health of Fidel Castro grew in 2006 after he underwent abdominal surgery and later ceded the presidency to his younger brother, Raul. The elder Castro recently surfaced in a series of photos and video looking healthier, though he has not appeared in public in over three years.","highlights":"Cuban revolutionary Juan Almeida died of a heart attack Friday evening .\nThousands gathered in the Cuban capital on Sunday to pay their respects .\nHe was among only a few black leaders in top government posts .\nAlmeida fought with the Castros at the start of their revolution .","id":"0c05333f16e1a2048028e4875a15ca10e7b3a9a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rielle Hunter, the woman at the center of the John Edwards sex scandal, has been known variously as a spiritual seeker, an aspiring actress, a party girl and a political operative, according to media reports. A video image shows Rielle Hunter arriving at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, on August 6. Last year, after months of denials, Edwards admitted having an affair with Hunter while he was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2006. Edwards' campaign paid Hunter $114,000 to make a series of short webisode videos about his presidential campaign, and she traveled extensively with the candidate's entourage. Edwards denies that he is the father of a baby Hunter bore in February 2008, saying the affair was over before she became pregnant. Former Edwards aide Andrew Young claimed the baby was his. But Young later said that the former senator is the father and that his paternity claim had been made at Edwards' request. Hunter has not said who the father is. Watch Hunter and baby arrive at federal court \u00bb . \"Rielle is the black sheep of the family. We were all raised the same way. She chose a different path,\" Hunter's sister, Roxanne Marshall, told People magazine in August 2008. Hunter, born Lisa Druck in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was known for her partying ways as a young adult in New York, novelist Jay McInerney told People. He said Hunter, whom he dated for a while, and her friends inspired his book \"Story of My Life.\" After moving to Los Angeles, California, in 1991, she married Alexander Hunter III, according to the Raleigh (North Carolina) News & Observer. They divorced in 2000. Watch how a scandal might not wreck a career \u00bb . Hunter explored New Age spiritualism. She called her co-stars in the play \"Savage in Limbo\" together and burned herbs in the theater \"to clear the space of bad spirits and bring in the good ones,\" actress Elizabeth Dennehy told People. \"But it was all meaningful and earnest.\" Hunter changed her first name to Rielle in 1994 because \"it just came to her,\" publicist Pigeon O'Brien, a longtime acquaintance, told People. The movie Web site imdb.com lists Hunter under several names, as a writer, producer and actress, having appeared on screen in four films. She's the co-founder of Midline Groove Productions, a New Jersey-based production company. Hunter told the television show \"Extra\" that she met Edwards by chance in 2006 when she was 42. \"It was a random meeting. He was in a business meeting in New York, and I was in the same place,\" she said. Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, related to talk show host Oprah Winfrey how her husband described the beginning of the affair. \"She was standing in front of the hotel and said to him, 'You are so hot.' I can't deliver it, because I don't know how to deliver such lines,\" she told Winfrey. \"But 'You are so hot' are the words she said to him.\" The tabloid National Enquirer first reported in October 2007 that Edwards had engaged in an affair, but he denied it for months. He finally acknowledged the liaison in an August 2008 interview with ABC's \"Nightline\" as the Enquirer's reporting gained momentum, including the publication of a photo the tabloid said showed Edwards holding the baby. Hunter has shunned publicity since the affair became public. She spent an entire day in August at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina. A federal grand jury is investigating payments to Hunter's production company, but officials would not say whether the grand jury was meeting on the day of Hunter's visit to the courthouse. Since the birth of her daughter, according to ABC, Hunter has assumed aliases and resided in various expensive homes in North Carolina and, more recently, in Santa Barbara, California. Edwards has denied giving any money to Hunter for anything other than her campaign work. Fred Baron, the finance chairman for the Edwards presidential campaign, told ABC that he used his personal resources to help Hunter move out of North Carolina and did not tell Edwards about the assistance, which consisted of access to jets, homes, cars and cash.","highlights":"Rielle Hunter was party girl who became spiritual, acquaintances say .\nFilmmaker says she met former Sen. John Edwards by chance .\nEdwards' wife says Hunter approached him at hotel, said, \"You're so hot\"\nHunter has avoided spotlight since birth of child; paternity never stated .","id":"e065dbb6fae276c475ab0602c90e11fcd1321202"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A giant oil-trading company is offering to pay thousands of Africans a settlement after a contractor illegally dumped toxic waste in West Africa three years ago. Parents say their child's body is covered in lesions as a result of toxic waste dumped in Ivory Coast in 2006. The United Nations says the 2006 dumping in Ivory Coast killed 15 people and sickened about 100,000 others. Trafigura is offering $1,536 (or 950 British pounds) per person to settle a lawsuit stemming from the dumping of 500 tons of toxic waste off Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Ivoire, a company spokeswoman said Monday. The law firm representing the claimants has said in the past it represents up to 30,000 people, making the settlement potentially worth about $46 million. A judge still must approve the deal before it becomes final. The Trafigura spokeswoman, Alex Nelless of the public relations firm Bell Pottinger, said she did not know if a court date had been set. The Dutch-based company does not admit liability in the settlement and aggressively fought the suit. It threatened to sue media outlets, including the BBC, for its reporting of the case. The British law firm representing the victims Monday refused to comment on any aspect of the case or to confirm the existence of a settlement. Nisha Patel, a spokeswoman for Leigh Day and Co. in London, said she did not know when the firm would be able to comment. Trafigura also sued Leigh Day for libel, a suit that Trafigura said had been \"resolved.\" Last week, the United Nations said that Trafigura caused death and injury when the cargo ship Probo Koala dumped 500 tons of toxic waste belonging to the company at sites around Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city. \"According to official estimates, 15 people died, 69 people were hospitalized and over 100,000 others, complaining of nausea and vomiting after inhaling fumes, sought medical treatment after the incident,\" said the report released Wednesday by Okechukwu Ibeanu, an unpaid investigator for the Geneva, Switzerland-based U.N. Human Rights Council. The areas where the toxic waste was dumped still have not been decontaminated and continue to threaten residents' health, Ibeanu said last month. Many people, he said, report headaches, skin lesions, digestive difficulties and nose, throat and lung problems, according to a U.N. statement. Trafigura rejects the U.N. findings and said the investigator ignored repeated offers to see the results of the company's own studies. It said 20 experts it had hired did not find a link between \"exposure to the chemicals released from the slops [toxic waste] and deaths, miscarriages, stillbirths, birth defects, loss of visual acuity or other serious and chronic injuries.\" It admits that a contractor dumped the toxic waste but denies responsibility. \"It remains Trafigura's position that it did not foresee, and could not have foreseen, the reprehensible acts of Compagnie Tommy in dumping the slops in and around Abidjan in August and September 2006, and that Compagnie Tommy acted entirely independently of, and without any authority from, Trafigura,\" the company said in a statement Saturday. \"Nevertheless, Trafigura regrets that this incident occurred and is pleased that the matter has now been resolved,\" it said. Trafigura said the statement was being issued jointly with Leigh Day and that a court had ordered the law firm to publish the statement on its Web site. CNN could not find the statement on Leigh Day's site, and the firm's spokeswoman declined to say if it was there. \"While we certainly do not accept legal liability, Trafigura regrets the Probo Koala incident and in particular the distress that it caused the local population,\" company director Eric de Turckheim said in a statement. Trafigura says on its Web site that it has \"access to approximately $17 billion in credit facilities and investments ... around the world of more than $1 billion.\"","highlights":"U.N. says 2006 dumping in Ivory Coast killed 15 people, sickened about 100,000 .\nFirm offers $1,536 per person to settle suit stemming from dumping of toxic waste .\nSettlement potentially could be worth $46 million; judge must still approve deal .\nDutch firm Trafigura says contractor dumped toxic waste, but it denies responsibility .","id":"5fda45c522bc6c34622787e77adf99b5b71b1bf1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Singer Chris Brown publicly apologized for assaulting his pop star girlfriend, Rihanna, in a video statement posted on his personal Web site Monday. Chris Brown, shown here at his June 22 court appearance, has publicly apologized in a video posted Monday. \"I have told Rihanna countless times, and I'm telling you today, that I'm truly, truly sorry in that I wasn't able to handle the situation both differently and better,\" Brown said. \"What I did was unacceptable, 100 percent. I can only ask and pray that you forgive me. Please.\" Brown, 20, was arrested after an early morning argument inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street in February. He admitted guilt to a felony assault charge in June in a plea deal under which he will serve five years of probation and do about 1,400 hours of \"labor-oriented service.\" Sentencing is set for August 5. A publicist for Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, has not responded to CNN requests for comment on the apology. Watch Brown ask for forgiveness \u00bb . Brown, in the two-minute video, said he had wanted to \"publicly express my deepest regret and accept full responsibility\" since February, but he remained silent on the advice of his defense lawyer. \"Although I will do some interviews and answer some questions in the future, I felt it was time you heard directly from me that I am sorry,\" he said. \"I have tried to live my life in a way which can make those around me proud of me, and until recently, I think I was doing a pretty good job,\" Brown said. \"I wish I had the chance to relive those few moments again, but unfortunately I can't. I cannot go into what happened, and most importantly, I'm not going to sit here and make any excuses.\" The incident began when Rihanna, who was riding in the sports car driven by Brown, found a text message on his cell phone from \"a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with,\" according to a sworn statement by Los Angeles Police Detective DeShon Andrews. \"A verbal argument ensued,\" followed by the physical attack, the statement said. It went on to describe the assault in great detail, saying Brown punched Rihanna numerous times and put her in a headlock, restricting her breathing and causing her to start to lose consciousness. He threatened to beat her and kill her, according to the statement, and he bit her ear and her fingers. Eventually, \"Robyn F. began screaming for help and Brown exited the vehicle and walked away,\" the statement said. \"A resident in the neighborhood heard Robyn F.'s plea for help and called 911, causing a police response. An investigation was conducted and Robyn F. was issued a Domestic Violence Emergency Protective Order.\" At the end of his statement, the detective said Brown sent a text message nine days later, apologizing. \"I take great pride in me being able to exercise self-control, and what I did was inexcusable,\" Brown said in his video apology. \"I am very sad and very ashamed of what I've done. My mother and my spiritual teachers have taught me way better than that.\" Brown, who lost several product endorsements after his arrest, said he realizes he has \"truly been blessed\" and he intends \"to live my life so that I am truly worthy of the term 'role model.' \" \"As many of you know, I grew up in a home where there was domestic violence, and I saw firsthand what uncontrolled rage can do,\" he said. \"I have sought and I am continuing to seek help to ensure that what occurred in February can never happen again. And as I sit here today, I can tell you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that it never happens again. And I promise that.\" His probation requires that Brown complete domestic violence counseling. The judge said he cannot have contact with Rihanna again until that is completed.","highlights":"Chris Brown posts an apology on his Web site .\nBrown struck a plea deal last month for incident involving girlfriend Rihanna .\nBrown: \"I'm not going to sit here and make any excuses\"","id":"2daa8f5b7f818db2aad2a3b3fecd72984699841c"} -{"article":"PINE VALLEY, California (CNN) -- Dozens of America's greatest military heroes are gathered in Chicago, Illinois, possibly the last large gathering of living Medal of Honor recipients. John Finn, 100, at his California ranch, said he was just a dutiful soldier. That \"hero stuff is a bunch crap,\" he said. Among the men with light blue ribbons holding a star around their necks signifying uncommon bravery, will be John Finn. Finn, who received the nation's highest medal for valor for his actions during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, turned 100 this summer, the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient. Finn was stationed at Kanoehe Bay Naval Air Station, where the Japanese struck five minutes before attacking Pearl Harbor, across southeast Oahu Island from Kanoehe Bay. Finn recalled how a neighbor was the first to alert him, when she knocked on his door saying, \"They want you down at the squadron right away!\" Finn saw the first Japanese plane before his car even reached his hangar. \"I put that old car of mine in second gear and wound it up getting down to the hangar where I could be where my guns and ammunition were,\" Finn said. One of the first things he did was take control of a machine gun from his squadron's painter. \"I said, 'Alex, let me take that gun,' \" Finn explained. \"I knew that I had more experience firing a machine gun than a painter.\" \"I got that gun and I started shooting at Jap planes,\" Finn said in the salty language not uncommon among veterans of that long-ago war. But Finn's machine gun was right out in the open, nothing protecting him from the attacking pilots. \"I was out there shooting the Jap planes and just every so often I was a target for some,\" Finn said. \"They were Japanese fighter plane pilots. I can remember seeing, in some cases, I could see their faces.\" Watch John Finn's give his account of his actions on December 7, 1941 \u00bb . He was wounded in the head, the arm, the hand and the foot, but Finn fought on, a one-man counterattack to the surprise air raid that pulled America into World War II. Finn talked to CNN at his ranch in the desert east of San Diego, California. He surrounds himself with reminders of his life -- his entire life, not just that one infamous day out of 100 years. There are pictures of his wife, Alice, who married him before Pearl Harbor and was by his side until 1998. The hillside outside his home is covered with old cars, old trucks and even an old military ambulance. But the first thing one notices when visiting Finn's ranch is the sign at the road, with a painting of his medal next to his name. The citation for his Medal of Honor tells that part of his story: . \"He continued to man this gun and to return the enemy's fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy strafing and bombing attacks and with complete disregard for his own personal safety. It was only by specific orders that he was persuaded to leave his post to seek medical attention. Following first-aid treatment, although obviously suffering much pain and moving with great difficulty, he returned to the squadron area and actively supervised the rearming of returning planes,\" the citation stated. With Japanese still attacking, getting his wounds treated wasn't a priority, Finn said. \"Medical help comes later. If you're busy shooting a machine gun or a rifle or a pistol or doing anything, you can't worry about getting medical attention,\" he explained. Less than a year later, Finn, out of the hospital and recovered from his wounds, was back on duty with the Navy in Hawaii. Adm. Chester Nimitz presented Finn with the Medal of Honor for his bravery, joining the ranks of the men, and one woman, recognized with the nation's highest award for heroism. These days most medals are awarded at the White House, but with the war heating up, such a long trip was out of the question. In fact, his first visit to the White House came in the spring when President Obama invited him for a visit. Back at his ranch, Finn bristled when asked about being called a \"hero.\" \"That damned hero stuff is a bunch crap, I guess. Well, it is one thing that I think any man that is in that, you gotta be in that position,\" Finn said. \"You gotta understand that there's all kinds of heroes, but they never get a chance to be in a hero's position.\" Fewer than 100 men who have received the Medal of Honor are alive today. More than half of them are expected in Chicago this week for the annual Congressional Medal of Honor Society Convention. But because they are all veterans of World War II, Korea or Vietnam, their ranks are shrinking every year. The men from more recent conflicts, like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, were all awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. And this week, while many of those living recipients gather in Chicago, Obama will present the latest Medal of Honor at the White House to a soldier who fought and died heroically in Afghanistan.","highlights":"In Pearl Harbor attack, John Finn was wounded in head and limbs but fought on .\nFinn's medal citation states he continued to \"return the enemy's fire vigorously\"\nCongressional Medal of Honor Society Convention is in Chicago this week .","id":"4f67ed9d769f36b938aaebf54153c89a9339ba28"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Park Ji-Sung made history this year when the Manchester United midfielder became the first Korean to appear in the final of the European Champions League. Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung in action for his club. The 28-year-old finished on the losing side in May, after Alex Ferguson's team were beaten 2-0 by Spain's Barcelona on the night, but for Park, his inclusion in the starting eleven represented a significant achievement. CNN will be traveling to the Red Devils' training ground on September 21 to speak to Park about his life, and we're giving you the chance to question the man himself. What do you want to ask Park Ji-Sung? When it comes to Asian football, there's no bigger star than Park Ji-Sung. The midfielder is a hero in his home country, not only for captaining the national team, but also for flying the flag for Korean football abroad thanks to a string of lung-busting performances for one of the world's most famous club sides. Video : Park Ji-Sung talks to CNN. \u00bb . In fact, he has been nicknamed \"Three-lung Park\" by the media in his homeland, thanks to his seemingly overflowing energy supply. The same newspapers plaster Park on their front pages whenever he plays. Yet when he signed for Manchester United from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, some unfairly thought that it was a mere sop, a marketing tool for Manchester United to sell more replica shirts. Check out CNN's Park Ji-Sung gallery. \u00bb . But Ferguson has had other ideas, picking Park for some of United's most important games. \"He has developed his tactical and technical ability and he has become a very important player for us,\" Ferguson told a press conference during United's summer tour of Korea. \"He has had a fantastic career with us.\" That career has seen him earn a Champions League winner's medal, numerous Premier League titles and a fourth place finish at the 2002 World Cup finals. If anything this year has been his best yet. Following last season's English Premier League title, and a start in this year's Champions League final, he led South Korea to the 2010 World Cup finals, scoring a late goal against Iran to secure their automatic qualification for South Africa. To confirm his status, he has just signed a two-year extension at United. And now CNN are offering you the chance to put your questions to arguably Asia's greatest player. What is Alex Ferguson like to work with? What has been the highlight of his career so far? And what hope do South Korea have of emulating their 2002 World Cup glory in South Africa next summer? Leave your questions below.","highlights":"Park Ji-Sung is the first Korean to play in the Champions League final .\nHe has just lead the South Korean national team to the World Cup finals .\nSir Alex Ferguson calls him \"a very important player\" for United .\nSound Off: What do you want to ask Park Ji-Sung?","id":"14acf65e11c86df5c57b57d39f449f80798c0094"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A legally insane killer who escaped in Washington state during a field trip to a fair was recaptured Sunday, the Spokane County Sheriff's Department said. Authorities combed Washington state for Phillip Paul, a killer who escaped Thursday during a field trip. Phillip Paul, who was on the run for three days, had been planning the break for \"at least the last several months,\" Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said at a news conference. Paul was recaptured at about 4 p.m. PT in Goldendale, Washington, sheriff's Sgt. Dave Reagan said. Goldendale is about 250 miles from the site of Paul's escape from a county fair in Spokane County, Washington. Police received a tip Saturday afternoon that Paul was dropped off by a person he managed to dupe into giving him a ride to Goldendale, Knezovich said. Police spotted him hiding in a wooded area about 100 yards from the drop-off point Sunday and eventually arrested him while he was trying to hitch another ride, Knezovich said. Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer. That same officer was involved in arresting Paul on Sunday, Reagan said. Paul, 47, escaped at around noon Thursday. Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to go on the trip to the county fair. Paul had packed all his personal belongings in a large backpack before leaving on the trip, which the sheriff said should have been a sign that Paul was \"about ready to do something this drastic.\" Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head. He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according to the documents. Paul's escape Thursday prompted a massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials and police. \"There was an extreme amount of anger throughout the law enforcement community that this event even took place,\" Knezovich said. \"This is a situation, in my opinion, that should have never happened.\" Knezovich also complained that hospital officials had not reported Paul's escape for two hours, which he said also hindered the investigation. A review of the policy that allows patients to take trips has been launched, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the Washington's Department of Social and Health Services. Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.","highlights":"Phillip Paul recaptured Sunday in Goldendale, Washington, authorities say .\nPaul duped someone into driving him 250 miles from escape site .\nPaul planned escape for at least several months, police say .\nLegally insane killer escaped Thursday during hospital field trip to fair .","id":"ea00bd2cc49320e98759b8c3a0313ba041c04839"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, a man dropped his pants and exposed himself to the female passenger sitting next to him, then punched her, according to an FBI affidavit. The plane was in midair, and the naked man reportedly grew angrier, screaming uncontrollably and shaking his fist in the air. In August, a man on Southwest Airlines exposed himself and punched a fellow passenger, an FBI affidavit says. The man had gone \"berserk,\" said James Scanlon, a 52-year-old passenger who witnessed the August incident. \"He was jeopardizing my safety on that airplane. I was afraid he would rush the cockpit or try to jump out.\" Laws prohibiting interference with flight crews and attendants on aircraft have been on the books for decades. But since the September 11, 2001, attacks, federal officials and airlines have clamped down on misconduct, imposing bigger fines and stricter punishments for passengers who behave badly. \"Now people are more hyper-vigilant on what occurs on aircrafts,\" said Ron Koziol, assistant section chief for the FBI's violent crimes unit, who calls airplanes a \"high-risk\" environment. \"The U.S. government is more aware of what can occur on an aircraft, and [officials] don't want those issues causing the plane to be in an unsafe environment.\" The FBI reports an average of 80 incidents aboard aircraft each year. The man on the Southwest fight, Darius Chappill, was charged in U.S. District Court in Oakland, California with interference with a flight crew and accused of exposing himself. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. The Federal Aviation Administration, which handles unruly incidents deemed to be civil violations, has reported more than 900 cases over the past five years. In 2000, a series of incidents in which passengers verbally harassed and hit crew members prompted the FAA to boost the civil penalty fine for interfering with a crew member from a maximum of $1,100 to $25,000. The FBI usually handles more serious cases of abuse or dangerous behavior. The FAA numbers don't reflect all the cases of inappropriate behavior, said Les Dorr, a spokesman for the agency. Crew members are used to experiencing the wrath of passengers who are frustrated by delays and missing baggage. Sometimes, these incidents aren't severe enough to be reported to government officials. Many confrontations occur when a flight attendant refuses to serve an intoxicated passenger another alcoholic beverage, according to flight attendants. When the temper tantrums get physical, airline officials may resort to plastic handcuffs and restraining tape. On a Frontier Airlines flight in July 2007, passenger Tamera Freeman was seen physically abusing her children, who were crying, according to court documents. The court records show that when the flight attendant refused to serve her alcohol, Freeman threw her drink at the attendant. Crew members subsequently taped Freeman into her seat, and she spent three months in jail for the incident. Passengers who fail to comply with standard airline policies -- such as staying seated when the seat-belt sign is on or turning off electronics when the plane is landing -- also spark confrontation, airline attendants said. Christina Szele, a New York passenger onboard JetBlue Airways in 2008, decided to smoke in her seat last summer despite the no-smoking law implemented on U.S. flights in 1990. Court documents revealed that when flight attendants asked Szele to stop, she began to yell obscenities and racial slurs. The flight was diverted to Denver, Colorado. Szele later was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Denver to serve five years' probation for interference with a JetBlue flight crew member. Szele was ordered to participate in anger management and drug and alcohol abuse treatment as well as fined nearly $8,000. Tim Smith, an American Airlines spokesman, reported a slight decrease in the number of incidents of misconduct this year compared with last year. The number of unruly passenger incidents tracked by the FAA also has dipped since 2004. The punishment for unruly behavior can be severe. In addition to federal charges, fines and jail time, passengers who are prosecuted may be liable for paying to divert a flight to an unscheduled airport, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on the offense, the unruly passenger may be banned from the airline permanently. But some passengers said they believe the airlines and government are reacting too harshly. \"You can't have a dispute on board an airline with the flight crew period,\" said Charles Slepian, CEO of Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center Inc., a security consulting group. \"In some instances, it's a good thing. But others will say it is a violation of my First Amendment rights.\" Several airlines require their attendants to take courses on how to defuse confrontations and calm passengers who make belligerent threats. \"We have all accepted that when we chose this career path our job is to be a safety professional,\" said Kelly Skyles, national safety and security coordinator for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, an organization that represents attendants at American Airlines. \"I'm the eyes, ears and nose of the aircraft to report everything to the cockpit. The service part, that's just a bonus of our job.\" Diana Fairechild, an aviation consultant and flight attendant for two decades, said flying conditions have become more strenuous. Few airlines serve meals on domestic flights, and snacks and drinks are carefully rationed. The seating space is smaller, leaving passengers feeling crunched. There are more delays, fees and less fresh oxygen on board, she said, which can trigger angry behavior. Fairechild said she has seen the quality of customer service dwindle since September 11 as some crew members have shorter tempers in dealing with passengers who disobey the law. \"Listening helps,\" Fairechild said on the skills she used to deal with rowdy passengers. \"Patience. Just being heard makes a big difference.\"","highlights":"FAA reports more than 900 cases of unruly behavior on planes over past five years .\nLast month, a man reportedly exposed himself to passenger on Southwest Airlines .\nFBI officials say bad behavior less tolerated on flights after September 11 attacks .\nUnruly behavior can bring civil fines up to $25,000 or criminal charges .","id":"6fc28498b9b51e6f8b1fa539f634ab4fb1565645"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The bodies of 152 people killed in a fiery plane crash in Iran Wednesday have been returned to their families, an Iranian state broadcaster reported Sunday. An Iranian Armenian woman places flower at crash site. Ahmad Majidi, the head of the special working group investigating the Caspian Airlines crash, also said a Russian team had arrived in Iran to help study the crash of the Russian-made plane, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said. The plane went down in a field near the city of Qavzin Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board and leaving a huge smoldering crater. Majidi did not say what had happened to the 16 bodies that have not been handed over. The plane's flight data recorders have been recovered and are being studied by Iranian and Russian experts, IRIB said. Fragments of the plane are also being examined to help determine the cause of the crash, Majidi said. The plane \"disintegrated into pieces,\" said Col. Masood Jafari Nasab, security commander of Qazvin. See a map of the crash location \u00bb . Video of the crash site showed a huge crater in the earth scattered with charred pieces of the plane and tattered passports. Watch as the flight data recorders are recovered \u00bb . \"The aircraft all of a sudden fell out of the sky and exploded on impact, where you see the crater,\" a witness told Iran's government-backed Press TV from the crash site. Ten members of the country's youth judo team were aboard the plane, several sources including Press TV reported. The government-backed network said the dead included eight athletes and two coaches. It was at least the fifth major airline accident in the world this year, following crashes of planes flown by Colgan Air, Turkish Airlines, Air France and Yemenia Airways. A US Airways pilot managed to land his plane safely on the Hudson river in New York City in January, with no major injuries, after the plane lost power. But aviation safety expert John Wiley said there was no reason to fear air travel in general, and no one airline or aircraft is particularly dangerous. Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 -- a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154M plane -- went down near the village of Jannatabad near Qazvin at 11:33 a.m. (2:03 a.m. ET) Wednesday, Press TV reported. Conversations between the pilot and the ground were normal and did not indicate any technical problems, the network's Web site reported, citing the managing director of Iran's airport authority without naming him. The Tupolev 154 is essentially banned in the West because it does not comply with European noise and pollution regulations, but it has a safer-than-average accident record, Wiley said. Wednesday's crash is the first on record for Caspian Airlines, which was founded in 1993, he added. The plane crashed 16 minutes after takeoff, said the newspaper Hamshari, quoting a spokesman from Iran's civil aviation organization. That would have put the flight in one of the safest stages of travel, according to International Air Transport Association data. Only about 5 percent of accidents take place during the phase called en-route climb, 16 to 20 minutes into a flight, when a plane climbs to cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. About half of accidents take place during landing.","highlights":"Bodies of 152 people killed in plane crash in Iran returned to their families .\nRussian team arrives in Iran to help study crash of Russian-made plane .\nIran's Press TV says flight data recorders of crashed plane damaged .\nAll 168 aboard killed when Tupolev Tu-154M went down near Qazvin .","id":"10c45573c66820f45465251935f6d372c2a307db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Why leave home when you can send out a sexy, stylish robot version of yourself to do anything you tell it? In \"Surrogates,\" lifelike robots take the place of humans in day-to-day life. That's the world of \"Surrogates,\" a film starring Bruce Willis that opens Friday. Willis plays an FBI agent who investigates the first murder to occur in years in a world where no one worries about crime or pain, because their robots self-heal with a quick reboot. Far-fetched science fiction? Sure. But scientists and the movie's makers say the technology might not be as far away as most people think. Armies use remote-controlled robots to attack enemies and destroy land mines. Emerging technology for the disabled allows users to operate robotic limbs and control computer cursors without touching a keyboard. And emerging \"telepresence\" technology is letting people see, hear and, increasingly, walk, talk and gesture using human-sized robots a world away. \"There are a lot of real-world components to this,\" said robotics expert and author Daniel H. Wilson, whose books like \"Where's My Jet Pack?\" and \"How to Survive a Robot Uprising\" explore the intersections between science fiction and real science. \"Clearly, there are not fully functional humanoid robots ... but there are a lot of components to telepresence that already exist.\" \"Surrogates\" director Jonathan Mostow, whose film credits include 2003's \"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,\" said he was drawn to the concept of surrogate robots as an extension of current technology. And, he said, as he met with scientists, he became convinced that something approaching the concept could one day be a reality. \"To me, it's not even a question of the technology. Technology always catches up,\" he said. \"The question is, is some universal human urge being met by this invention? It seems to me we have a fundamental human desire to be lazy, to sort of not have to do things in person and to do it remotely. \"That began with the telegraph and the telephone and has morphed into the Internet.\" The first steps down the road are being taken at Anybots, a Mountain View, California, company founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell. The company offers, for about $30,000, a 5-foot-tall, 35-pound robot that allows the user to remotely travel, see, hear and talk. It hopes to release its latest version of the robot at a more affordable price. The robot's vaguely humanoid curves, roughly adult height and ability to move around using technology similar to that of the Segway are important steps up from current teleconferencing technology, Blackwell said. Anybots in the development phase are being designed to run, jump and climb stairs, and they come equipped with fully articulated hands designed to perform increasingly human-like tasks. Blackwell said he's not sure the technology will ever advance to the level imagined in \"Surrogates\" -- but that may have as much to do with desire as ability. \"I don't know if we'll ever get quite to that level, of being that realistic,\" he said. \"Most of the time, you're not trying to fool people; you're just trying to make something human enough so people can relate to it.\" Wilson, who said he appreciates \"Surrogates\" because it avoids sci-fi's traditional \"man vs. machine\" dynamic, also imagines social reasons for not pursuing such technology. \"Would humans stand in line at the grocery store behind a robot? Would I let my children play outside if I knew there were robots outside walking dogs?\" he said. It's more realistic, Wilson said, that a humanoid robot could be created to remotely perform tasks that would be too dangerous for the machine's operator to do. although NASA employs robots in space, the highly technical work often required for space walks still requires a human touch -- at least for now. Plus, he said, making robots that look and act like us would help them function better, he said. \"Another major reason to create humanoid robots is, they can use all of our tools,\" Wilson said. \"Human beings have taken large chunks of the planet and completely transformed the environment to support our embodiment. Doorways are a certain width all over the world because human beings are about the same size. All our tools are similar because we've all got hands and thumbs.\" For Mostow, the movie also reflects technological advances that, for better or worse, exist as the world of online networking continues to grow. \"You can do your shopping. You can get your news. You can let everyone know what you're up to,\" he said. \"For those who telecommute, you don't even have to put your clothes on to go to work. \"This idea basically just takes that to its logical conclusion.\"","highlights":"In \"Surrogates\" sexy, stylish robots live life for their owners .\nScientists say \"telepresence\" with robots is real, will improve .\nCalifornia company Anybots developing robot that can jump, climb stairs .\nDirector: Androids are \"logical conclusion\" of technology that already exists .","id":"05a276f0585912a9dc7a327df9cdc6b9d6d16b62"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Florida school administrators face contempt charges and possible prison time for saying a prayer at a school luncheon. Pace High School enacted a decree in January banning officials from promoting religion at school events. Frank Lay, principal of Pace High School, and Athletic Director Robert Freeman are accused of violating a consent decree banning employees of Santa Rosa County schools from endorsing religion. They face a non-jury trial September 17 before U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers. The statute under which they are charged carries a maximum penalty of up to six months in prison, subject to sentencing guidelines. Attorneys defending Lay and Freeman call it outrageous that the two are being prosecuted for \"a simple prayer.\" But the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the consent decree, maintains that students have a right to be free from administrators foisting their religious beliefs on them. Still, an ACLU representative said the organization never suggested that people should go to jail for violating the decree. Watch why lawyer thinks men did nothing wrong \u00bb . The ACLU filed suit last year against the district on behalf of two Pace students who alleged that \"school officials regularly promoted religion and led prayers at school events,\" according to an ACLU statement. Both parties approved the consent decree put in place January 9, under which district and school officials are \"permanently prohibited from promoting, advancing, endorsing, participating in or causing prayers during or in conjunction with school events,\" the ACLU said. Lay was a party in the initial lawsuit, and his attorney was among those approving the consent decree, according to the organization. In addition, the court required that all district employees receive a copy. On January 28, \"Lay asked Freeman to offer a prayer of blessing during a school-day luncheon for the dedication of a new fieldhouse at Pace High School,\" according to court documents. \"Freeman complied with the request and offered the prayer at the event. It appears this was a school-sponsored event attended by students, faculty and community members.\" Attorneys from Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal group helping defend Lay and Freeman, said in a written statement that attendees included booster club members and other adults who helped the field house project, all \"consenting adults.\" In a February 4 letter to district Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick in which Lay acknowledged the incident, he said that although past football booster club members \"and other adults associated with the school system\" were at the luncheon, culinary class students were in charge of food preparation and serving. Lay wrote that he asked Freeman to bless the food \"for the adults. ... I take full responsibility for this action. My actions were overt and not meant to circumvent any court order or constitutional mandate.\" In response, Wyrosdick noted in a letter to Lay that in a meeting, the principal had admitted that \"you are, and were at the date of this incident, aware of the court injunction and aware that this type of action is not permissible under the injunction.\" Wyrosdick recounted telling Lay that the prayer was not appropriate. \"This note is to share with you written instructions to avoid this type of action,\" the superintendent said. Both letters are in the public court file. \"It is a sad day in America when school officials are criminally prosecuted for a prayer over a meal,\" said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at Liberty University, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. \"It is outrageous and an offense to the First Amendment to punish a school official for a simple prayer.\" Liberty Counsel said it is challenging the consent decree, maintaining that it \"unconstitutionally infringes on the rights of teachers, administrators and students.\" The ACLU, according to the Liberty Counsel statement, has begun \"to go against individual employees.\" The organization said that neither man \"willfully violated any orders of the court.\" \"We're not going after individuals,\" said Glenn Katon, director of the Religious Freedom Project for the ACLU of Florida. \"We're just trying to make sure that school employees comply with the court order.\" The ACLU did not request the criminal contempt charges against Lay and Freeman, he said; the judge initiated them after seeing a reference to the incident in a motion. And the ACLU is not involved in the criminal proceedings, he said. \"We certainly never suggested that anyone go to jail,\" Katon said. Lay is not facing jail time for praying, he said, but for violating a court order. \"The moral of this story is, for us, this is about the students' right to be free from teachers and school administrators thrusting upon the students their religious beliefs,\" Katon said. \"They keep talking about the religious rights of the administrators, but the administrators and the principals don't have any right to trumpet their religious beliefs in a school setting.\" Neither Lay nor Freeman has been placed on leave, according to the school district. Pace is about 10 miles north of Pensacola, Florida.","highlights":"Attorneys: It's troubling that officials are being prosecuted for \"simple prayer\"\nSchool's principal, athletic director could be jailed for six months .\nACLU says it supports prayer ban but never suggested officials should be jailed .\nPrincipal acknowledges requesting prayer but didn't mean to circumvent court order .","id":"5f16203dc59829143d56d0bb58800bc246d6c6ca"} -{"article":"Editor's note: John M. McCardell Jr., president emeritus at Middlebury College, is founder and president of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit organization that seeks to engage the public in debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age. John McCardell says the 21-year-old drinking age isn't preventing widespread binge drinking. (CNN) -- One year ago, a group of college and university presidents and chancellors, eventually totaling 135, issued a statement that garnered national attention. The \"Amethyst Initiative\" put a debate proposition before the public -- \"Resolved: That the 21-year-old drinking age is not working.\" It offered, in much the way a grand jury performs its duties, sufficient evidence for putting the proposition to the test. It invited informed and dispassionate public debate and committed the signatory institutions to encouraging that debate. And it called on elected officials not to continue assuming that, after 25 years, the status quo could not be challenged, even improved. One year later, the drinking age debate continues, and new research reinforces the presidential impulse. Just this summer a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry revealed that, among college-age males, binge drinking is unchanged from its levels of 1979; that among non-college women it has increased by 20 percent; and that among college women it has increased by 40 percent. Remarkably, the counterintuitive conclusion drawn by the investigators, and accepted uncritically by the media, including editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post is that the study proves that raising the drinking age to 21 has been a success. More recently, a study of binge drinking published in the Journal of the American Medical Association announced that \"despite efforts at prevention, the prevalence of binge drinking among college students is continuing to rise, and so are the harms associated with it.\" Worse still, a related study has shown that habits formed at 18 die hard: \"For each year studied, a greater percentage of 21- to 24-year-olds [those who were of course once 18, 19 and 20] engaged in binge drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol.\" Yet, in the face of mounting evidence that those young adults age 18 to 20 toward whom the drinking age law has been directed are routinely -- indeed in life- and health-threatening ways -- violating it, there remains a belief in the land that a minimum drinking age of 21 has been a \"success.\" And elected officials are periodically reminded of a provision in the 1984 law that continues to stifle any serious public debate in our country's state legislative chambers: Any state that sets its drinking age lower than 21 forfeits 10 percent of its annual federal highway appropriation. But it's not 1984 anymore. This statement may seem obvious, but not necessarily. In 1984 Congress passed and the president signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The Act, which raised the drinking age to 21 under threat of highway fund withholding, sought to address the problem of drunken driving fatalities. And indeed, that problem was serious. States that lowered their ages during the 1970s and did nothing else to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol witnessed an alarming increase in alcohol-related traffic fatalities. It was as though the driving age were lowered but no drivers education were provided. The results were predictable. Now, 25 years later, we are in a much different, and better, place. Thanks to the effective public advocacy of organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, we are far more aware of the risks of drinking and driving. Automobiles are much safer. Seatbelts and airbags are mandatory. The \"designated driver\" is now a part of our vocabulary. And more and more states are mandating ignition interlocks for first-time DUI offenders, perhaps the most effective way to get drunken drivers off the road. And the statistics are encouraging. Alcohol-related fatalities have declined over the last 25 years. Better still, they have declined in all age groups, though the greatest number of deaths occurs at age 21, followed by 22 and 23. We are well on the way to solving a problem that vexed us 25 years ago. The problem today is different. The problem today is reckless, goal-oriented alcohol consumption that all too often takes place in clandestine locations, where enforcement has proven frustratingly difficult. Alcohol consumption among young adults is not taking place in public places or public view or in the presence of other adults who might help model responsible behavior. But we know it is taking place. If not in public, then where? The college presidents who signed the Amethyst Initiative know where. It happens in \"pre-gaming\" sessions in locked dorm rooms where students take multiple shots of hard alcohol in rapid succession, before going to a social event where alcohol is not served. It happens in off-campus apartments beyond college boundaries and thus beyond the presidents' authority; and it happens in remote fields to which young adults must drive. And the Amethyst presidents know the deadly result: Of the 5,000 lives lost to alcohol each year by those under 21, more than 60 percent are lost OFF the roadways, according to the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse. The principal problem of 2009 is not drunken driving. The principal problem of 2009 is clandestine binge drinking. That is why the Amethyst presidents believe a public debate is so urgent. The law does not say drink responsibly or drink in moderation. It says don't drink. To those affected by it, those who in the eyes of the law are, in every other respect legal adults, it is Prohibition. And it is incomprehensible. The principal impediment to public debate is the 10 percent highway penalty. That penalty should be waived for those states that choose to try something different, which may turn out to be something better. But merely adjusting the age -- up or down -- is not really the way to make a change. We should prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol in the same way we prepare them to operate a motor vehicle: by first educating and then licensing, and permitting them to exercise the full privileges of adulthood so long as they demonstrate their ability to observe the law. Licensing would work like drivers education -- it would involve a permit, perhaps graduated, allowing the holder the privilege of purchasing, possessing and consuming alcohol, as each state determined, so long as the holder had passed an alcohol education course and observed the alcohol laws of the issuing state. Most of the rest of the world has come out in a different place on the drinking age. The United States is one of only four countries -- the others are Indonesia, Mongolia and Palau -- with an age as high as 21. All others either have no minimum age or have a lower age, generally 18, with some at 16. Young adults know that. And, in their heart of hearts, they also know that a law perceived as unjust, a law routinely violated, can over time breed disrespect for law in general. Slowly but surely we may be seeing a change in attitude. This summer, Dr. Morris Chafetz, a distinguished psychiatrist, a member of the presidential commission that recommended raising the drinking age, and the founder of the National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse admitted that supporting the higher drinking age is \"the most regrettable decision of my entire professional career.\" This remarkable statement did not receive the attention it merited. Alcohol is a reality in the lives of young adults. We can either try to change the reality -- which has been our principal focus since 1984, by imposing Prohibition on young adults 18 to 20 -- or we can create the safest possible environment for the reality. A drinking age minimum of 21 has not changed the reality. It's time to try something different. It's not 1984 anymore. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John M. McCardell Jr.","highlights":"John McCardell: 135 college officers joined in questioning 21 as drinking age .\nHe says binge drinking is flourishing in locked rooms and remote areas .\nHe says U.S. is one of very few countries with such a high drinking age .\nMcCardell says alcohol is a reality in lives of 18- to 20-year-olds .","id":"e89c3382ed5a06f91235d788ad88700bac0255aa"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday in a dramatic show of force designed to break up the Taliban's connection to heroin. The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday. The air strike occurred mid-day in Helmand province and was observed by CNN's Ivan Watson, who is embedded with the U.S. Marines operating in that province. The military dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs from planes on the mounds of poppy seeds and then followed with strikes from helicopters. Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs. Watch U.S. military bomb poppy seeds \u00bb . \"There is a nexus that needs to be broken between the insurgents and the drug traffickers,\" Wayne said. \"Also, it is part of winning the hearts and minds of the population because in some cases they are intimidated into growing poppies.\" In a bid to encourage Afghan farmers to swap out their poppy plants for wheat crops the U.S. Agency for International Development has been offering them seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation. Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year. Opium cultivation in the country, which has 34 provinces, dropped by about 20 percent in a year, the U.N. reported in August. \"It's a challenge to deliver assistance in a war zone -- you can hear fighter jets flying above us right now,\" said Rory Donohoe, a USAID development officer. \"At the end of the day, what we found is successful is that we work in areas that we can work,\" he told CNN in a recent interview in Helmand province. \"We come to places like this demonstration farm where Afghans can come here to a safe environment, get training, pick up seeds and fertilizer, then go back to districts of their own.\" Watch Afghans speak about the change in their farming practices \u00bb . Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals. Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID. Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan. \"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away,\" said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah. \"The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear.\" Atia Abawi contributed to this report .","highlights":"U.S. bombs poppy seeds in bid to break up Taliban's connection to heroin .\nPoppy seeds used to produce opium and heroin .\nOpium, heroin has been a major source of revenue for the Taliban .\nUSAID offering seeds, other help to encourage Afghan farmers to grow wheat .","id":"d31d2e5b0f3ddf284ba725a6704004cf664c6a63"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Honduras suspended diplomatic relations with Argentina on Tuesday in retaliation for having its ambassador expelled from Argentina last week. Riot police stand in front of marchers supporting ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday. The move stems from tensions between the two countries over a June 28 military-led coup in which Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was replaced by congressional leader Roberto Micheletti. When Honduran Ambassador Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams, who had been appointed by Zelaya, did not protest the coup, Argentina took exception. Most countries in the world -- as well as the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the European Union -- have denounced the coup and demanded that Zelaya be restored to power. Those nations still consider Zelaya president and do not recognize any officials from Micheletti's government or any functionaries who support him. Argentina asked Ortez to leave last week \"for supporting the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti.\" On Tuesday, Honduras suspended relations with Argentina and asked the South American nation's diplomats to leave within 72 hours. Honduras' relations with Argentina will be \"channeled\" though the Argentine embassy in Israel, said a release issued in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. \"With regards to Argentine personnel stationed in Tegucigalpa and who are finishing their functions in Honduras, they will be granted, based on the principle of strictest reciprocity, the same treatment, time and facilities that was conceded to Honduran functionaries accredited in Argentina,\" the Honduran release said. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution, despite the country's congress having outlawed the vote and the supreme court having ruled it illegal. Zelaya vowed to hold the vote anyway but was ousted before the voting started. The congress named Micheletti provisional president shortly after Zelaya was detained by the military and sent into exile. Micheletti said Zelaya was not overthrown in a coup, but rather removed from power through constitutional means.","highlights":"Honduras takes action after its ambassador is expelled from Argentina .\nArgentina ousted ambassador because she backed new Honduras government .\nArgentina among nations demanding that ousted Honduran president be restored .\nHonduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya ousted in military coup in June .","id":"ec092be437a0d63e6f55f8c445eb069d932088a5"} -{"article":"ASHLAND, Ohio (CNN) -- An Ohio bakery shut down in October is bustling again, with 60 eager employees who had expected a Christmas on the unemployment rolls. Cookie production has resumed and some workers are back on the job at the Archway factory in Ashland, Ohio. Some 300 workers lost their jobs when the Archway cookie factory in Ashland, Ohio, was suddenly closed by the private equity firm that owned it. The workers also were left without benefits like health insurance. But then Lance Inc., a Charlotte, North Carolina-based snack food company, purchased Archway at a bankruptcy auction. And last week 60 workers were asked to return immediately, with perhaps more coming back in the months ahead. Kathy Sexton, a worker at the bakery, had been preparing her children for a very modest holiday. Watch the holiday brighten for workers \u00bb . \"They said they understood,\" Sexton recalls. \"They said, 'That's all right, Mom.' You always want to give them more, but ... I didn't think I would be able to.\" Now she can. Tiny Ashland has been struggling. Ohio has lost 200,000 jobs over the past eight years. The recent presidential campaign saw both candidates visiting frequently. The outlook in Ashland became especially bleak when the Archway plant closed. Workers at the bakery said they felt betrayed when Archway at first said there would be more work in a day or two, but then changed the locks. Rita Devan remembers. \"They just kept taking and taking until there was nothing left to take,\" Devan says, \"and they didn't care that they were putting 300 people out of work.\" Things are different now. When it promised to reopen the bakery, Lance gave all 300 former Archway workers a $1,500 prepaid debit card. \"I was crying,\" Devan says of the gift. \"I am like, 'What are these people doing? They don't know me. They don't know us. They don't know any of the Archway people. And they are giving each and every one of us $1,500.' \" Sexton -- the woman who'd been preparing her kids for a meager holiday -- says of the $1,500 gift: \"It was awesome. My first thought was, 'I can give my kids a Christmas.' \" David Singer, CEO of Lance, says the gift cards were a way of letting Ashland know the new owners are different. \"We wouldn't do it willy-nilly,\" Singer says. \"We do want to make money. But this is the pool of folks that we intend to hire. We just wanted to let them know who we were.\" The 60 workers rehired so far are earning their previous salary and retained their seniority. They also were provided health insurance from day one. The bakery now produces Lance cookies that are sold to big chains like Target and Wal-Mart. But production of Archway cookies is scheduled to resume soon. Lance has told the employees that it hopes to have the plant fully operational by the end of 2009 -- that is, five lines of cookies being produced simultaneously. The new owners say that if new orders keep flowing in, more jobs will follow. Terry Mowry is another worker rehired by Lance. He says what has happened is hard to describe: \"You just saw life being breathed right back into the face of these people.\" And Devan says with a laugh: \"I walked into the garage last night, and my husband says, 'You actually smell like a cookie again.' \" \"He said, 'Boy, I missed that smell.' \"","highlights":"Archway bakery suddenly closed doors in October, throwing some 300 out of work .\nLance snack food company steps in, buys Archway at bankruptcy auction .\nNew owner gives each laid-off worker a prepaid $1,500 debit card .\nCompany rehires 60 workers, says more will regain jobs if orders keep coming in .","id":"4fbb39eff096442bfe5666810b15fd15b0f2da45"} -{"article":"Click here for video . Thursday, August 20, 2009 . 8:13 PM ET - Gruesome details emerging from Buena Park police in the brutal death of 28 year old Jasmine Fiore. Not only was Fiore stuffed in a suitcase and thrown away in a dumpster, but we learn Fiore's teeth and fingers were removed. Authorities believe the murder suspect, Ryan Jenkins, is armed with a handgun, still on the run, most likely in Canada. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 7:24 PM ET - Moments ago Buena Park, California police announced that as of this afternoon an arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Jenkins in the murder of 28 year old swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore. Jenkins is officially a fugitive. Although Jenkins' black BMW has been located in Washington State, Fiore's white Mercedes is still missing. Authorities do believe Jenkins has crossed the border into Canada and they are now working with Canadian Royal Police to apprehend Jenkins. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 6:23 PM ET - Major developments right now! The Orange County DA's office confirms they will file murder charges against reality TV star Ryan Jenkins in the brutal death of swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore. A news conference is set to take place any moment, standby for more details. We will also bring you all the latest developments on the show at 8pm EST for the full hour tonight. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 3 PM ET - Is a reality TV star wanted for questioning in the murder of swimsuit model 28 year old Jasmine Fiore on the run? LA cops have been unable to get in touch with Ryan Jenkins since Jenkins reported her missing and cops discovered the gorgeous model dead inside a suitcase dumped inside a Buena Park apartment complex dumpster. The last reported sightings of Jenkins were in San Diego alongside Fiore, before her death and within the last 48 hours near a Washington state marina. Jenkins' car and empty boat trailer discovered at that marina alongside the US-Canadian border. The Buena Park police are set to hold a news conference shortly. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 1:41 PM ET - Investigators confirm a reality TV star they want to question in connection with the murder of swimsuit beauty Jasmine Fiore may be heading for the border. A car and empty boat trailer belonging to Ryan Jenkins was discovered at a marina in Washington State, a few miles from the Canadian border. Authorities say Jenkins most likely walked across the border to British Columbia. LAPD wants to question Jenkins as a person of interest in Fiore's death because he was one of the last people to see her, reported her missing hours before the model's body was found, then took off. Jenkins has a criminal domestic violence record and was best known for his appearance on VH1's \"Megan Wants a Millionaire\". In light of the investigation, VH1 has shut down airing any more new episodes. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) Wednesday, August 19, 2009: 7:28 PM ET - Preliminary reports are the swimsuit model found dead in a suitcase inside a Buena Park, California dumpster was strangled. Jasmine Fiore had signs of physical trauma when her body was discovered Saturday morning. The shocking discovery came just hours after her husband, reality TV star, Ryan Jenkins reported Fiore missing. The pair was last spotted in San Diego at a poker game Friday night. And the skeletons are already flying out of the closet for Jenkins. We've just received a criminal report stemming from a 2005 assault case in Calgary, Alberta involving Jenkins and a woman who was not Jasmine Fiore. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 5:36 PM ET - A reality TV star is making headlines at this hour for something other than appearing on the airwaves on VH1's \"Megan Wants a Millionaire.\" Police want to question 32 year old Ryan Jenkins in connection with the brutal death of a young, gorgeous swimsuit model. 28 year old Jasmine Fiore vanished after a poker tournament in San Diego. Fiore was allegedly there with Jenkins and reports are the two were husband and wife, secretly married in Las Vegas. Police confirm Jenkins was the one who reported Fiore missing Saturday night, just hours after her body was discovered in a bloody suitcase, thrown away like trash at a Buena Park apartment complex dumpster...but then Jenkins went missing. There are two vehicles of interest in the search for Jenkins...Fiore's white 2007 Mercedes CL S550 and Jenkins' black BMW X5. Police say Jenkins could be behind the wheel of either car. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer)","highlights":"Jasmine Fiore, 28, was found choked to death and stuffed in a suitcase .\nHer husband, reality star Ryan Alexander Jenkins now a murder suspect in the case .\nJenkins reported Fiore missing last Saturday night .","id":"f6cd02c4a55b5f8598bf7b53eb654f051fd90880"} -{"article":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A British couple convicted for having sex on a public beach in Dubai will not face jail after a judge suspended their prison sentences, their lawyer said Tuesday. File image of one of the co-accused -- Vince Acors -- arriving at court in Dubai in September. The couple, Michelle Palmer and Vincent Acors, had faced a three-month sentence, but they were freed on bail in October pending an appeal. Hassan Mattar, one of their lawyers, said he was trying to get permission for Palmer -- who worked in Dubai -- to stay in the United Arab Emirates, and for Acors to travel back to Britain. Acors had been on a business trip to Dubai when he was arrested. The United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is located, is home to thousands of expatriates and is among the most moderate Gulf states. Still, the oil-rich kingdom adheres to certain Islamic rules. Palmer and Acors were arrested on a public beach shortly after midnight on July 5. Police charged them with illicit relations, public indecency, and public intoxication. A court found them guilty in October and fined them 1,000 dirhams ($367) for the charge of public indecency. Both denied they had intercourse. And during the trial, Mattar argued that the public prosecutor failed to produce corroborative evidence against his clients on the first two charges, though he said both tested positive for liquor. More than a million British visitors traveled to the UAE in 2006, and more than 100,000 British nationals live there, according to the British Foreign Office. The country is in the midst of a building boom to position itself as one of the world's premier tourist destinations. It is already home to the world's largest mall, the world's largest tower, and -- despite being in the Middle East -- the largest indoor snow park in the world. -- CNN's Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.","highlights":"The couple, Michelle Palmer and Vincent Acors, faced three-month sentence .\nThe pair were arrested at a Dubai beach shortly after midnight on July 5 .\nThey were charged with with illicit relations, public indecency, public intoxication .\nAlthough a relatively moderate Gulf state, Dubai adheres to certain Islamic rules .","id":"df295cd49e61a6ef5cf25bae9ec4d6b6522e919d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inspectors have found \"nothing unusual\" in the rest of Southwest Airlines' fleet of 737-300s after a football-sized hole in one of the jets forced an emergency landing, an airline spokeswoman said Tuesday. The breach in the aircraft's fuselage caused a loss of cabin pressure. No passengers were injured. The airline inspected its roughly 200 Boeing 737-300s overnight following the incident that forced Southwest Flight 2294 to make an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia. A sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy, but there were no injuries among the 126 passengers or the five-member crew. Marilee McInnis, a Southwest spokeswoman, said the jets were inspected during non-operational hours overnight, and the cause of the incident remained unknown Tuesday morning. The airline is working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the matter, she said. Flight 2294 was at 34,000 feet, en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to Baltimore, Maryland, when the incident happened, McInnis said. See map of flight path \u00bb . \"About 45 minutes into the flight, there was a loud pop. No one really knew what it was,\" passenger Steve Hall told CNN Radio. Watch as passenger describes watching the hole form \u00bb . The plane landed in Charleston at 5:10 p.m. after the crew reported the sudden drop in cabin pressure, which caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy. \"We were seated about two rows back from the wing, and four rows back you heard this loud rush and your ears popped, and you could tell that part of the inside was trying to pull out,\" passenger Sheryl Bryant told CNN affiliate WBAL-TV upon arriving in Baltimore aboard a replacement plane. \"And it was crazy -- the oxygen masks dropped,\" she continued. She put her mask on her face, then helped her 4- and 6-year-old children with theirs, she said. Bryant tried to stay calm and reassure her children, she said. Watch Bryant's account of acting brave \u00bb . \"My kids and I, we prayed, and then we said, you know, life will be fine,\" she said. Bryant praised the flight crew and ground personnel for keeping passengers informed and for giving clear instructions. \"We have a tremendous talent represented in the pilots and the flight crew,\" another passenger, Pastor Alvin Kibble, told WBAL-TV. \"I think we need to value them far more than perhaps what we do. It's very easy for us to begin to take things for granted.\" The damaged aircraft was still parked at Charleston's Yeager Airport on Tuesday, when NTSB officials arrived to inspect the plane, airport spokesman Brian Belcher said. A complete inspection could take one to two days, and investigators are expected to interview the passengers and crew as well, he said. The airline is \"doing things\" for the affected passengers on Monday's flight, but McInnis would not say whether they would receive refunds. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said. \"There is no responsible way to speculate as to a cause at this point,\" Southwest said in a statement Monday night. \"We have safety procedures in place, and they were followed in this instance to get all passengers and crew safely on the ground,\" the airline said. \"Reports we have are that our passengers were calm and that our pilots and flight attendants did a great job getting the aircraft on the ground safely.\" CNN's Shawn Nottingham and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Southwest inspects all its 737-300 aircraft after one develops hole midflight .\nPassengers describe ordeal, praise professionalism of flight crew .\nBaltimore-bound Southwest jet makes emergency landing in West Virginia .\nFootball-sized hole in fuselage causes cabin to depressurize, oxygen masks to drop .","id":"4d6fd6b826f73736241948722a9bde81b6547c88"} -{"article":"'SINDH KALAY', England (CNN) -- The aroma of freshly baking flatbread wafts through the air as a unit of British soldiers position themselves for a quick patrol around the village of Sindh Kalay. A British soldier on patrol in the mock Afghan village of Sindh Kalay. Market vendors hawk grapes and melons, as a group of village elders sit smoking water pipes and suspicious-looking men lurk beside battered motorcycles. What should the soldiers do? Conduct a weapons search? Approach the village elders first? In the complex political and cultural terrain of Afghanistan, what is the best course of action? Except this is not Afghanistan. It's Norfolk, England. Instead of the Hindu Kush mountains, it is the green ladscape and tidy farmhouses of the English countryside that stretch out behind them. Welcome to the British Army's state-of-the art training ground. It cost more than $20 million to build and every British soldier serving in Afghanistan will do his or her training here. \"I think it's the closest thing you are going to get short of being in Afghanistan itself,\" says Col. David Colthup of the 2nd Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. His troops have already served one tour of duty in Afghanistan's Helmand province and are training for another. British troops serving in Helmand province are tasked with mentoring and training Afghan security forces. Not an easy job in a Taliban stronghold and Afghanistan's center of opium production. \"Ultimately, a soldier joins the army and trains to fight. That's what a soldier trains to do. But today, it's a much, much more complex environment,\" explains Colthup. \"The business of being able to interact either through an interpreter or through Afghan security forces, whether they are police or army. And to understand how the people operate and how we can interact better with them. Because ultimately, that's what it's about,\" he says. The most distinctive features of Sindh Kalay are the high three-meter walls that make up the village compound, creating narrow alleyways difficult for troops to patrol. The village is staffed with Afghan asylum-seekers, many of whom have fled the Taliban. They play the roles of market vendors, village elders and sometimes Afghan security forces. Several Afghan women are also on hand, useful for training British soldiers on the religious and cultural sensitivities of entering an Afghan home. Watch British troops training in mock Afghan village \u00bb . The Taliban insurgents are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers authorized to handle weapons. They play their roles silently, unable to partake in the Pashtun banter among the Afghans. Fazel Beria is also an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan. He is responsible for recruiting and for creating the sights and smells of Sindh Kalay and is easily identifiable as the only Afghan in the market in Western clothes. He beams with pride walking down the bazaar and clearly relishes his role in training the British Army. \"Everything with the culture comes up with the issue of hearts and minds,\" he explains. \"If you want to win that, you need to know about their culture. You need to respect their culture, their religion and their way of life.\" He gives high marks to the soldiers training so far. After each exercise, the Afghan actors talk directly to the soldiers about what went wrong and what went right. Sometimes, it's the little things that count. \"Yes, there have been quite a lot of surprises,\" Beria says. Like Afghan will sit cross legged for hours. \"The British soldier cannot do that,\" he laughs. \"The Afghan will be sitting very comfortable and the British soldier is not. So, they have to get used to it.\" See photos of British troops on patrol in Sindh Kalay -- and for real in Afghanistan \u00bb . Previously, the army trained on farmhouses and in urban neighborhoods that resembled Northern Ireland more than Afghanistan. But Sindh Kalay does more than mimic the physical reality of Afghanistan. It also mirrors the changing tactics on the ground. Troops are grilled in IED training by amputees that act out the violence with latex wounds and fake blood. When a new IED tactic is discovered by troops in Afghanistan it is communicated to Sindh Kalay and put into practice immediately. \"Before we had this, it wasn't realistic enough,\" says Col. Richard Westley, head of training here. \"I think if you're going to be asking young men and women to go and risk their lives in someone else's country, then you have a moral obligation to prepare them for that environment. And that's what this village does. It gives them the isolation and complexity of an Afghan village. Which we can't do with farmhouses which represent Western Europe.\" Some of the details in the Afghan village don't quite ring true. The slabs of lamb and beef hanging from the market stalls are plastic, as are the grapes and melons the vendors try and sell to the British soldiers. Still, Sindh Kalay is eerily effective. When soldiers sit down for a \"shura\" or meeting with village elders, helicopters buzz overhead and the soldiers seem surprised to be served a homemade yogurt and cucumber drink. But the unit commander can't help laughing when one of the Afghan village heads pulls out a \"list of damages\" by British troops. It turns out to be a receipt for the local supermarket.","highlights":"British soldiers train in mock Afghan village before deployment to Afghanistan .\nVillage features Afghan asylum-seekers as vendors, elders, Afghan forces .\nTaliban militants are played by Nepalese Ghurkha soldiers .\nVillage trains soldiers to understand Afghan customs, respect Afghan culture .","id":"db77275c1804eeda4cd4951978fe7e93733be220"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Baltimore, Maryland, police officers were shot Saturday after a gunman's domestic dispute led to shootings at two locations, a police spokesman told CNN. Crime scene tape cordons off a squad car involved in a chase and shootings Saturday in Baltimore. The rampage began at the home of the suspect's ex-girlfriend, who has a restraining order against him, police spokesman Don Moses said. The suspect, 34, forced his way into her home and they argued, Moses said. In an apparent rage, the man fired a round from a 9 mm Ruger, Moses said. The ex-girlfriend called police about 10:30 a.m. Moses described to CNN what unfolded next. Police have not released the names of anyone involved. Police received a call from the suspect's current girlfriend just before 11 a.m. She told them the suspect came to her home and assaulted her, and she suffered minor injuries. While a 42-year-old policeman was at her home tending to her report, the suspect called her. The officer talked to the suspect on the phone and convinced him to return to west Baltimore, where the girlfriend lived. When the suspect pulled up in a car, the officer approached him and was fired upon, suffering a gunshot wound to the buttocks. The wounded officer got into his patrol car and chased the suspect. An officer providing backup at the first shooting scene spotted the suspect's vehicle parked three blocks away. As the policeman observed the vehicle from inside his patrol car, the suspect appeared on the driver's side and fired at the officer. The backup officer, 44, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, was shot in the chest and arm but managed to return fire, hitting the suspect three times. He was in stable condition after surgery and was expected to survive. The suspect is in custody and expected to live, Moses said. The officer shot in the buttocks was treated and released from the hospital Saturday.","highlights":"Police spokesman: Rampage began at the home of the suspect's ex-girlfriend .\nWoman told police the suspect came to her home and assaulted her, CNN told .\nOne officer received minor wound, and a second was stable after surgery .\nSecond officer shot returned fire, wounding suspect, who is expected to survive .","id":"95e8fc6ee620233ea0d875f1ce9abc2685ea3f8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In these eco-conscious times, there are few areas of life that have not been touched by the drive to go green, and golf is no exception. Justin Timberlake has been an advocate of eco-golf at his course in Tennessee. The trend for environmentally friendly golf is rocketing with celebrities such as Justin Timberlake taking up the cause in unveiling one of the world's top eco-golf courses earlier this year. His club, the Mirimichi Golf Course in Tennessee is the first in the country to be designated as a certified Audubon International Classic Sanctuary, re-using 80 percent of the energy it produces. Next month Stockholm will host one of the largest meetings of American and European golf clubs to decide how the game can become more environmentally and socially responsible. Living Golf looks at a selection of some of the best eco-equipment making our greens even greener. The recyclable golf ball: . Every club player will be familiar with the age-old problem of losing golf balls -- but what happens to the collection of wayward balls once the search is over? Dixon Golf are asking for their customers to recycle their balls. It is estimated 300 million golf balls are discarded in the United States alone, every year -- that is enough balls to create a solid line from Los Angeles to London and back. Dixon Golf are encouraging golfers to recycle their lost and found by offering a dollar for each ball that is returned to their recycling centers throughout the US and in over 15 countries worldwide. \"We're getting the word out there. We don't have the advertising revenue of [bigger] companies but the more people know, the more they chose our eco-friendly balls. \"We're also developing our first prototype putter made entirely from recycled crushed golf balls,\" said company owner Mike Carey. The solar-powered cart: . Ever felt like your golf cart could do with that extra bit of oomph? Well, SolarDrive sun-powered, solar-paneled golf cart could be the answer. The SolarDrive sun-powered car - an energy solution for the future? By recharging itself throughout the day, the cart can work in drizzly and damp conditions -- which could be good news for golf lovers in rain-soaked Britain and sun-baked Abu Dhabi alike. The design has proved so popular that golf clubs such as the Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course in Hong Kong and Sebonack Golf Club in the United States have recently converted entire fleets to use the power of the sun. General Manager at Sebonack Mark Hissey says it has been a great move for the club: \"First, it's a wonderful idea and second they look fantastic. Plus they're financially better for us to run, saving us over two-thirds on our electrical costs.\" Large-scale gated communities in the UEA are also reportedly keen to use the carts as a more environmentally-friendly alternatives to gas-run vehicles. The biodegradable tee: . A littered tee box may be a thing of the past with the biodegradable golf tee. Manufacturers XT-1 believe they are saving over 100, 000 trees with their nifty corn based tee. The manufacturers of the XT-1 claim it will biodegrade within three months. Unlike wooden tees which take up to two years to degrade, XT-1s take just two to three months by way of an interesting eco-system. Once the tee comes in contact with the soil, the corn-based product is attacked by incredibly small microbes (or micro-bugs) that eat away at the tee to corrode the core. A slightly unusual method perhaps but an effective one, as sales in the last few years have soared. Manager Alan Berry told CNN: \"We're gaining interest all over the world -- Australia, the Middle-East, Europe and the States. Our sales figures speak for themselves.\"","highlights":"New developments in golf show that the sport has a drive to go green .\nDixon Golf aim to recycle some of 300 million discarded balls in the U.S.\nSolarDrive can convert golf carts so they can run off the power of the sun .\nXT-1 have developed a golf tee that can biodegrade in just three months .","id":"fcb321716a52aff97f685f07c8bec144bbe70115"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Michele Maro became captivated by \"The Lord of the Rings\" movies, she never imagined she would one day be walking around in the Shire, touring Hobbiton and peeking into hobbit holes. Fans of the \"Lord of the Rings\" trilogy can tour a New Zealand farm that was used as the setting for Hobbiton. Those are all fictional places, but fans can visit the closest thing possible in New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed and where specially designed tours will take visitors to some of the stunning locations featured in the movies. Maro, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, spent two weeks in New Zealand in 2003 being guided around forests, national parks and farms, exploring sites that she didn't think were real when she first saw them on the big screen. \"The scenery was so pretty that I thought it had to be computer-generated,\" Maro said. But the place that moved her most was a serene sheep farm in Matamata, New Zealand, where filmmakers brought to life author J.R.R. Tolkien's vision of Hobbiton, the hobbit village where Frodo Baggins lives, complete with hobbit holes peeking out of hill sides. \"I just stood there and cried. It was like, 'I can't believe I'm actually here,' \" Maro said. \"I loved the movie so much, and to actually be there where they filmed that, it overwhelmed me.\" See iReporters' film location photos \u00bb . Sing along with 'The Sound of Music' Such passion has prompted tour operators all over the world to take fans to sites that have served as settings for blockbusters on the big and small screens. They can be legendary places recognized on their own or seemingly mundane restaurants, houses and street corners that become instantly recognizable when put in the context of a favorite movie or TV show. In London, England, you can visit locations used in movies such as \"Bridget Jones's Diary\" and \"Four Weddings and a Funeral.\" When in Rome, Italy, world-famous landmarks like the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum will make you feel as if you've stepped right into \"Roman Holiday\" and \"La Dolce Vita.\" Tours highlighting sites used during the filming of \"The Sound of Music\" have many visitors singing with joy in Salzburg, Austria. \"The buses were packed. It seemed to be very popular,\" said Kelly Van Baren, a sales manager who lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois. She and her sister watched the musical over and over while growing up, she recalled, and when they visited Munich, Germany, in the fall of 2007, they made a special one-hour train trip to Salzburg just to take one of the tours. It turned out to be an adventure in itself. A convoy of three huge buses with scenes from the film painted on their sides shuttled mostly American tourists to various sites, including the church where the main characters were married and a gazebo featured during some of the musical numbers, Van Baren recalled. Her favorite site was a majestic palace used as the von Trapp family home in some of the exterior shots. The movie was played on the bus during the tour, and the sightseers were encouraged to sing along, prompting Van Baren to wonder what the locals must think of the visitors. \"It was just hilarious, these three giant buses full of Americans driving around the countryside. It wasn't a proud moment, but it was fun,\" Van Baren said. Big Apple lures fans . Movie and TV fans who want to stay closer to home to explore famous locations have plenty of movie tours to choose from in the United States. New York, which has served as the backdrop for countless films and television shows, offers a wide variety of sites. Seeing them in person for the first time can be shocking, tour operators say. \"Guests are definitely surprised by the appearance of the locations,\" said Pauline Gacanja, public relations and marketing assistant for On Location Tours. \"On TV, things generally look larger and more dramatic than they really are.\" The company takes about 100,000 visitors a year to dozens of well-known sites around the city by bus, by water taxi or on foot. Buildings used as homes in \"Friends\" and \"The Cosby Show\" are among the most popular places, Gacanja said. Visitors can also see locations such as the diner used in \"Men in Black\" and the firehouse used in \"Ghostbusters,\" according to the company's Web site. But the most popular tour focuses on sites used in the television and big screen hit \"Sex and the City,\" Gacanja said. Fans of \"the Sopranos\" also have their own tour. \"Seinfeld\" aficionados may opt for Kramer's Reality Tour, offered by Kenny \"The Real\" Kramer, the man said to have inspired Jerry's colorful friend Cosmo Kramer. Stops include the Soup Shop that inspired the \"Soup Nazi\" episode and the real Monk's Restaurant, used for the exterior shots of the diner where the characters hung out. This may be the only tour that tempts visitors with highlights such as \"Visit the office building where Elaine worked for Pendant Publishing, Kramer had his coffee table book published and George had sex, on his desk, with the cleaning lady.\" Plenty of movie tours also thrive outside New York, in cities such as San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For Maro, the experience in New Zealand was so unforgettable, she went again a year later for another look at \"The Lord of the Rings\" sites. \"My imagination went wild there. It was so fabulous. It was just a great trip,\" she said.","highlights":"Tours take fans to sites that have served as settings for movies and TV shows .\n\"Lord of the Rings\" fans flock to New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed .\n\"The Sound of Music\" tours have visitors singing with joy in Salzburg, Austria .\nPopular tours in New York take fans to \"Sex and the City,\" \"Sopranos\" locations .","id":"0fa52fd9a09613e4a686e891cc10638fff1bc625"} -{"article":"GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (CNN) -- Families of September 11 victims visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday urged the Obama administration to drop plans to close the facility and to restart terror trials there. A guard talks with a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this year. \"I am opposed to the closing of this facility because of political reasons,\" said Gordon Haberman whose daughter, Andrea, was killed when terrorist planes struck the World Trade Center. \"I believe that the current administration spoke too quickly on this.\" Haberman said he thinks President Obama should not insist on carrying out his campaign pledge to shutter the detention facility. Haberman was one of nine people visiting Guantanamo this week who lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks. He and the others had the opportunity to observe pre-trial hearings for some suspects on Wednesday and Thursday. Several were critical of Obama's decision to suspend military commissions at Guantanamo Bay while the administration reviews what to do with each detainee. \"Our government's current executive order to halt the military commissions makes us foolish and weak, and invites more attacks,\" said Melissa Long, whose boyfriend was a first responder killed in New York. \"What is fair and just is to continue the military commissions and punish those who have committed acts of terrorism against Americans, period.\" Long later married a man who lost his parents when their plane slammed into the Pentagon on that fateful day. Brian Long acknowledged that some of the detainees may have gone through some inhumane treatment through the years, but he thinks they are being well taken care of now. \"The only injustice is being orchestrated by our leader by making decisions about something he knew nothing about,\" Long said. Other September 11 families have visited Guantanamo Bay for previous hearings and voiced support for using the facility for terror trials. The government uses a random process to select names of family members invited to observe. The family members said they think Guantanamo detainees have been provided with good attorneys, who, in many cases, are paired with clients who don't want their help. Some of that was on display at a hearing Thursday for five detainees charged with orchestrating the September 11 attacks, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Mohammed and fellow prisoner Ramzi Binalshibh refused to come to the proceeding, after being told no detainees would be allowed to make statements. Three others did show up. But one, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, left quickly because he was not allowed to talk to the judge about problems he said he was having with one of his military lawyers. All five September 11 suspects want to act as their own attorneys. Thursday's hearing focused on discussions about the competence of al-Hawsawi and Binalshibh to stand trial and represent themselves. Mohammed and two others have been granted permission to defend themselves.","highlights":"Families of September 11 victims urge Obama to keep Guantanamo Bay open .\nFamilies also want Obama to restart military commissions at facility .\nObama administration trying to determine what to do with detainees .","id":"4a525fddb6ba44e0a707d744ae78ff01576d4e6a"} -{"article":"ANTIOCH, California (CNN) -- Investigators who completed their search of the California property belonging to kidnapping suspects Phillip and Nancy Garrido said initial findings do not connect the couple to the disappearances of two young girls. Ilene Misheloff, left, has been missing since 1989; Michaela Garecht disappeared in 1988. But police said that they have not eliminated Phillip Garrido as a suspect in the decades-old cases. Bone fragments found on the couple's property near Antioch could be human but are \"far too old to be relevant in our cases,\" said Lt. Chris Orrey of the Hayward police department. Teeth found on an adjacent property are most likely from an animal, she said. And some anomalies found by ground-penetrating radar uncovered \"chunks of concrete, tree roots, and in one case a floor mat,\" Orrey said at a news conference. Investigators had already found bone fragments at the property in unincorporated Contra Costa County, but have not said if they are human. \"Although nothing [was found] that would definitively link Phillip and Nancy Garrido to the disappearance of Ilene Misheloff or Michaela Garecht, we're going to continue to follow up on the evidence that we have recovered,\" Lt. Kurt von Savoye of the Dublin Police Department said at the news conference. \"We're going to examine and process all items that have been taken from this property to see if there is any possible link to the Garridos.\" The processing of all the evidence could take several weeks, Orrey said. Police from Hayward and Dublin began executing search warrants simultaneously last week on the Garrido property and an adjacent property to which he had access. They sought any evidence in the 1988 abduction of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht of Hayward and the 1989 disappearance of 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff of Dublin. The search of the adjacent property was also completed and the resident will be able to return soon, police said. The Garridos' home will remain boarded up and the fence locked, Orrey said. The Garridos face a combined 29 felony counts in the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, then 11, from South Lake Tahoe, California. Authorities say the couple held Dugard in a hidden compound behind their home for 18 years and have said Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, fathered her two children. Phillip Garrido won't be eliminated as a suspect because of similarities in the Dugard case and the other disappearance cases, Orrey said. \"I can't help but feel relief that they didn't find anything here,\" Michaela's mother, Sharon Murch, told reporters. \"If they had found something on this property, it most likely would have meant Michaela wasn't alive.\"","highlights":"Police say they haven't eliminated Phillip Garrido as suspect in girls' disappearances .\nAuthorities seek evidence in abductions of Michaela Garecht, Ilene Misheloff .\nPolice began executing search warrants last week on Garrido property .\nThe Garridos are accused in 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, then 11 .","id":"a040a967a6b246186459b3ca673702ca0a2aca4c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was a heartwarming sight: Laura Ling and Euna Lee landing on U.S. soil and being reunited with their families. To the elation of their families, Bill Clinton returned to the U.S. with journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Then, after an appropriate amount of time for hugs and kisses, Bill Clinton appeared, descending from his movie-producer friend's plane like an angel from heaven. An emotional Ling practically referred to the former president as a messiah, describing to the media and well-wishers waiting at the airport how she and Lee thought they were being sent to a hard-labor camp, only to walk through a door to find Clinton. The crowd broke into loud applause. For all of those who wondered what Bill would do in Hillary Clinton's diplomatic world, wonder no longer. As details of the Clinton mission came out, it was revealed that the North Koreans themselves asked for Clinton, promising amnesty for the women upon delivery of the former president, whose visit eluded them while he was in office. The deal was done even before Clinton stepped on the plane. So what is next for Bill Clinton? If the mere thought of a meeting with him is enough to move a regime notorious for never moving, can the Obama administration use that star power to rescue three American hikers who ventured into Iran and are believed to be held by Iranian authorities? Can Clinton head off two Russian attack submarines cruising in the Atlantic off the East Coast of the United States? Former presidents are used as envoys and undertake humanitarian missions all the time. Then-President Clinton used former President Jimmy Carter to travel to North Korea in 1994 to negotiate the end to the first nuclear crisis. Clinton and his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, were tapped by Bush's son, then-President George W. Bush, to lead relief efforts to help Asian and African nations devastated by the 2004 tsunami and again in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. But the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton and President Obama is complex, to say the least. After a bitter-fought battle during the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton supporters were looking for a robust role for her in exchange for her support of Obama, with many even suggesting her as a possible candidate for vice president. That idea was short-lived. The Obama team wanted Hillary far from the West Wing. And they wanted Bill even farther. When Obama tapped Hillary to be his secretary of state, there was no shortage of critics who asserted that her husband's global foundation and role as a high-paid public speaker would present a conflict of interest. The Clintons agreed to strict rules of the road to avoid such conflicts going forward. However Hillary never demurred in her praise for what her husband has accomplished, both during his eight years in the White House or post-presidency. Hillary herself has said she considered her husband a trusted adviser and could even consider using him where appropriate. He is a former president, after all. Bill Clinton has largely stayed out of the limelight, quietly continuing his globetrotting on behalf of the world's poor and downtrodden. In May, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed him as the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti in an effort to refocus international attention on the Caribbean country's deep economic problems and environmental decay. But with the success of his North Korean mission so quick and easy, it's conceivable that Bill Clinton could add the role of \"diplomatic cleaner\" to his resume -- a version of Harvey Keitel's role as Winston Wolfe in the movie \"Pulp Fiction\" -- a fixer of messy problems, which he solves with a combination of stylish charisma and lucid thinking under pressure. The Obama administration has no shortage of messy foreign policy problems that Hillary Clinton knows could use a Winston Wolfe.","highlights":"Spotlight returns to Bill Clinton after successful mission to North Korea .\nEx-president's speedy retrieval of detained journalists could set stage for new role .\nIn \"Pulp Fiction,\" characters turned to Winston Wolfe to calmly solve messy problems .\nAnalysis: Clinton's charms could be used with Wolfe-like efficiency around globe .","id":"1434798ed94e811cdeccfe63ac4a26f275b42c15"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the seven weeks since the military-backed bloodless coup in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, a new Amnesty International report says. The marks of a police truncheon are shown on a student's back after a protest, Amnesty International says. The report, released Wednesday, said the beatings were meant to punish those who opposed the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in June. It includes testimony from, and photographs of, several people who were baton-whipped and detained by police officers who sometimes wore no visible identification and hid their faces behind bandanas as they broke up demonstrations. \"They beat us if we raised our heads; they beat us when they were getting us into the police cars,\" said a student whom Amnesty International interviewed in late July at the police station where he was being detained. \"They said, 'Cry and we'll stop.'\" Multiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered. The government has said in the past that the demonstrators were arrested for engaging in violence and provoking authorities. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's defiant push to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. He was ousted in a coup on June 28. The congress named Roberto Micheletti provisional president shortly after the military detained Zelaya and sent him into exile. Micheletti and his supporters deny that a coup took place, calling the action a constitutional transfer of power. The coup resulted in unrest throughout the country, with frequent clashes between police and military on one side and civilian protesters on the other. At least two people were shot to death, Amnesty said. Among several examples, the Amnesty report quotes F.M., a 52-year-old teacher, who said he was demonstrating peacefully when police descended on the rally. \"They grabbed me and shouted, 'Why do you (all) support Zelaya's government?' They beat me. I have not been informed as to why I am detained.\" He showed deep-red imprints on his back, which he said were from a beating with a baton. \"Detention and ill treatment of protesters are being employed as a form of punishment for those openly opposing the de facto government and also as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing,\" said Esther Major, Amnesty's Central America researcher.","highlights":"President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a bloodless coup in June .\nReport: Beatings meant to punish those opposed to ouster of Zelaya .\nMultiple requests to the government for comment went unanswered .","id":"5e518989583847e1302989123a3f871371758bf5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama urged Congress to adopt a \"pay-as-you-go\" approach to federal spending in order to restore fiscal discipline, but critics say the president's call lacks credibility. Preisdent Obama says PAYGO is common sense. Faced with a record $1.8 trillion deficit, Obama on Tuesday pushed Congress to take up the spending rules, known as PAYGO. The approach would require lawmakers to pay for new programs, dollar-for-dollar, with budget cuts elsewhere. \"The 'pay as you go' rule is very simple. Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere,\" Obama said, as he announced that he was submitting to Congress a proposal to make PAYGO law. Obama repeated his vow to halve the deficit by the end of his first term, and he said PAYGO is an important step toward making that happen. A previous PAYGO mandate helped erase federal budget deficits in the 1990s, and subsequent ineffective rules contributed to the current budget deficits, Obama said. \"Paying for what you spend is basic common sense. Perhaps that's why, here in Washington, it has been so elusive,\" the president said Tuesday. Watch more on Obama's 'pay-as-you-go' plan \u00bb . But Republicans were quick to question the administration's sincerity. Republican Whip Eric Cantor charged that the administration's focus on PAYGO \"seems more driven by polling and PR strategy than a serious commitment to fiscal discipline.\" \"It seems a tad disingenuous for the President and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to talk about PAYGO rules after ramming trillions in spending through Congress proposing policies that create more debt in the first six months of this year than in the previous 220 years combined,\" Cantor, R-Virginia, said in a statement Tuesday. Republicans point to the $787 billion stimulus package as evidence that Obama is not following his own advice. Cantor's statement included a \"fiscal timeline\" highlighting government spending initiatives this year. The timeline entry for June 8 points to polls showing dissatisfaction with the administration on spending and the deficit. The entry for June 9 shows the president holding a PAYGO summit. However, a group of fiscally conservative Democratic representatives known as the Blue Dogs say Obama's proposal is responsible and necessary. \"President Obama inherited an economy in free fall and a $10.6 trillion national debt,\" said Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, vice chairman of the Blue Dog Budget and Financial Services Task Force. \"While short-term spending was necessary to get the economy moving again, our long-term fiscal problems became that much more urgent.\" But when it comes to reducing the deficit, even the Senate Budget Committee's Democratic chairman doubts the president can deliver on his promise. Asked if Obama could halve the deficit -- given the recent government spending --- Sen. Kent Conrad said, \"I don't believe so. I don't believe anybody could.\" Administration officials still defend piling the stimulus spending on top of the deficit, arguing that it was the best approach to get the country out of the recession. \"Pay-as-you-go embodies a common sense principle that you shouldn't dig a hole deeper,\" said Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. CNN's Kristi Keck and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Approach requires Congress to balance spending increases with equal savings .\nRepublicans question timing of announcement -- after months of spending .\nA key Democrat says Obama could have tough time keeping promise to halve deficit .\nBlue Dog Democrats applaud \"pay-as-you-go\" as responsible and necessary .","id":"8bb305138676877870d6f9f233d555162631536c"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- At least 43 people are feared dead after a massive mudslide swept away three hamlets in northern India, authorities said Sunday. Two small villages were completely destroyed Saturday while one was partially knocked down, said Manoj Pande, a senior disaster management official in Pithoragarh district. Rescuers have pulled 15 bodies from the debris and many more may have been swept into the river, Pande said. More than 2.9 million people in India have been affected by floods since June, according to federal officials. Yearly monsoon rains sweep across the subcontinent from June till September. Though they bring much-needed relief to often-parched farmlands, they also leave a trail of landslides, home collapses and often fatal floods.","highlights":"Three hamlets affected by recent mudslide in India .\nAt least 43 people are feared dead .\nMillions in India have been affected by floods since June, officials say .","id":"3b7da246bc58865197f27363694ca9391a7e21ed"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- The French are in for a significant cultural shift next week if the Senate approves a new law from President Nicolas Sarkozy to allow more shops to open on Sundays. The law would permit shops, department stores, and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones. What seems routine in much of the Western world has been fiercely resisted in France, where Sundays have officially been set aside as a day of rest for more than a century and where a 35-hour workweek remains the norm. The new legislation, if approved by the Senate, would overturn a 1906 law that forbids Sunday trading in all but the largest cities. It is part of a raft of reforms Sarkozy has pushed for since becoming president. While the change is significant, it is not as much as the government originally hoped because Sarkozy had to deal with opposition from both the left and the right. Socialists filed thousands of amendments to the president's original version of the law. Leftists and unions said it would effectively introduce a seven-day workweek and allow bosses to force employees to work Sundays. Members of the president's own ruling conservative party opposed the law despite assurances it would boost economic activity, saying it would instead deprive families and church groups of their dedicated day. If approved by the Senate, the law would permit shops, department stores, and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones of what are called \"exceptional commercial\" centers near three of the country's largest cities: Paris, Marseilles, and Lille. Additionally, 29 areas involving about 500 cities and towns would be added to the list of tourist areas, which already allow some economic activity on Sundays. The new law will, among other things, straighten out a somewhat chaotic situation in which some stores managed to obtain exceptions from the old law and others didn't, and where some stores found it made more sense financially to accept fines for breaking the old law because the income from Sunday sales more than made up for the penalties. The measure passed the National Assembly last Tuesday by a vote of 282 to 238. It will go the Senate for three days of debate next Tuesday, where it is almost certain to be approved. Opinion polls in France show that slightly more than half the population want shops to have the freedom to open on Sundays, according to Time magazine. CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report.","highlights":"French Senate set to approve new law to allow more shops to open on Sundays .\nIf approved new law would overturn 1906 law forbidding Sunday trading in .\nSarkozy has had to deal with opposition from both left and right .","id":"8c458ebeb4983b6e504d7bc3e18114a2ec786e8c"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's reputation as the world's leading narcotics supplier is well-known, but in a squalid ruin in Kabul, the country hides a darker secret -- a huge home grown drug addiction problem now on the brink of fueling an HIV\/AIDS epidemic. Junkies smoking heroin can get high for $4. Here junkies lie in their own filth, wasted limbs poking out of blood-spattered clothing as they blank out the abject misery of their surroundings. In one room, a veritable narcotics bazaar offers pills and drug paraphernalia -- with hits retailing at less than $4. One user claims he has been an addict for 22 years, although it is difficult to talk to any of the dazed and ragged occupants of the drug rooms. The atmosphere is edgy and -- as thick clouds of burning opium fill the air -- dizzyingly toxic. The Kabul den is just the tip of the iceberg in a country awash with narcotics. The government estimates the number of addicts in Afghanistan could be as many as five percent of its 25 million people. Watch Nic Robertson's report from the 'house of hopelessness' \u00bb . And though nascent efforts are being made to tackle the problem, chronic funding shortfalls have prompted the United Nations to warn that drug use will escalate, potentially driving an HIV\/AIDS crisis as junkies move from smoking to high risk needle-sharing. Afghanistan has always been a major narcotics supplier -- responsible for 95 percent of the world's heroin -- although this was scaled back under the rule of the Taliban, which outlawed poppy cultivation and imposed strict penalties for drug users. Since 2001, when the extremist regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion that installed President Hamid Karzai, production has doubled. And for many in the country still mired in poverty and conflict, these cheap drugs offer a tempting escape. The last United Nations survey of Afghanistan's drug problem four years ago estimated the country's addicts to number about 200,000. According to Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Khodaidad, the figure is now far greater. \"More than 1.2 million people in Afghanistan are addicts. It's a very huge number and every year it increases,\" he told CNN. Khodaidad says the Afghan government is largely powerless to control the production of opium while Taliban extremists, who now control and draw funding from drug crops, control cultivation areas despite major international military efforts to push them back. \"We did very little due to weakness of governors, due to insurgents, due to pressure of terrorism in the area,\" he added. \"We don't have sufficient law enforcement agencies -- the police, the border security force, and other special forces to control this area -- so it will take time.\" But, says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Kabul, time is something Afghanistan does not have. As intravenous drug use takes hold, raising the prospect of needle sharing, he says HIV\/AIDS will follow quickly. \"The little data we have at the moment are very alarming,\" he told CNN. \"They tell us that we should not wait longer and if not, this country will be saddled with another burden it just can not afford. \"I think it is already happening today. We have seen, now, a few HIV\/AIDS cases. Hopefully we can contain the problem, although it is unlikely given the problems with the health structures.\" The U.N. has begun a program to detox users willing to get off drugs in Afghanistan. A renovated warehouse in Kabul offers hope to 100 addicts in the biggest facility of its kind in the country. Watch Robertson go inside the detox clinic \u00bb . In the center's clean, bare rooms, shaven-headed junkies tremble under blankets as they go through the agonizing cold turkey of weaning their ravaged bodies off drug dependency. Therapy sessions also help motivate them to kick their deadly habit. \"Here we deal with the problem from a humanitarian perspective, not from an addiction perspective, to save lives,\" says Jehan Zeb Khan, UNODC program manager. But says Khan, with what little funding there is now dwindling fast, the salvation offered to these lucky few may be short lived -- they will be forced back out on the streets, where more opium dens will flourish, bringing yet more misery for Afghanistan.","highlights":"Government officials say 1.2 million Afghans are now addicted to drugs .\nUnited Nations says growing drug use could lead to HIV\/AIDS crisis .\nEfforts to combat drug use suffering from chronic lack of funds .","id":"5106be3caa3c3b6ce3222c31ad1e96296f12deaa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There is more water on the moon in more locations than originally thought, a discovery that may bolster NASA's long-held goal of setting up an outpost there, a researcher said Thursday. NASA says there is more water on the moon in more locations than originally thought. One ton of the moon's surface -- in which the water's ingredients are held -- could yield as much as 32 ounces, or one quart, of water, according to three reports from research teams who studied data from three spacecrafts. Although that amount isn't large, said geological sciences professor Jack Mustard, the findings show \"there are ways you could convert these amounts of water into higher amounts\" that could support human activity. The water was discovered in rocky environments and in craters, Mustard said. \"It's in more places and in different places than were inferred previously,\" he said. Since the Apollo missions began in the 1960s, scientists have believed the moon was virtually dry. Only trace amounts of water were found in rocks and soil brought back to Earth, and that water may have resulted from contamination during the retrieval process, scientists said. Watch report on discovery of more sources of moon water \u00bb . Mustard was on a team led by Carle Pieters, science manager of the NASA-supported Keck Reflectance Experiment Laboratory at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Pieters also is principal investigator for NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), which the space agency contributed to India's first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, in October 2008. The mapper was a \"state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer\" that provided the first map of the entire lunar surface at high resolution, revealing the minerals of which it is made. Examining data from Chandrayaan-1, Pieters' team found signs of water at the moon's frigid poles. The researchers believe it might have migrated from elsewhere on the moon's surface, attracted by the cold, they said. Their overall findings also were confirmed by data from a high-tech spectrometer on the Cassini spacecraft -- which also found evidence of water at lower latitudes away from the poles -- and from infrared mapping done by the Deep Impact spacecrafts -- which found trace amounts over much of the moon's surface. Reports on those findings came from teams led by Roger Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey and Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. This most recent information is far more precise than any previous data, Mustard said. Previous measurements were \"the size of Texas, say, and now are the size of Providence.\" \"We find it (water) distributed more broadly,\" he added. In the late 1990s, scientists found pockets of hydrogen on the moon, and inferred that its molecules could bond with oxygen to make water, the professor said. He called the older information much coarser. This time, researchers are reassured that the components are on the moon to make water because of the presence of hydroxyl -- produced when hydrogen and oxygen also bond with a mineral structure. The researchers said the results also suggest that the molecules are continually being created on the lunar surface, perhaps as a result of the solar wind -- the stream of ionized particles ejected by the sun. The research reports were being posted Thursday by the journal Science, at the Science Express Web site, www.sciencexpress.org, and will be in the magazine that comes out Friday. A news conference on the findings is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Washington.","highlights":"NASA says there are small amounts of water in lunar soil .\nMany scientists thought there was no water on the moon .\nThe discovery could expedite NASA's plans to create lunar settlements .\nAbout 32 ounces of water could be created from a ton of lunar soil, NASA says .","id":"da3d0f2cb9904fc604d7ea17ecd559e76515206b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Texas authorities on Sunday were searching for a convicted burglar who escaped from a medical facility by rappelling off the building using a string of bedsheets, officials said. Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, was serving 35 years in prison for several convictions, including two escape charges. Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, was last seen at 8:15 p.m. Saturday on the seventh floor of a Texas Department of Criminal Justice medical facility in Galveston, Texas, said TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark. Fifteen minutes later, Barnes was gone, Clark told CNN. Security officers noticed there was a hole in the wall and a vent had been removed. According to Clark, Barnes busted a hole through a wall in his room and then broke through a thick window. He apparently tied bedsheets together, rappelled down the side of the building to a roof, and then jumped to the ground, Clark said. Barnes was serving 35 years in prison for several felony convictions, including seven burglary charges, two escape charges and an aggravated assault charge in the Texas Panhandle area, according to a TDCJ press release. The inmate was being housed at a prison in Midway, Texas. He was transported to the medical facility in Galveston last week after being hurt in an altercation, TDCJ said. The department of criminal justice has tracking dogs and dozens of officers searching the area, Clark said. Local police officers also joined the search. Barnes began serving his sentence in January. CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, was last seen on 7th floor at Texas medical facility .\nHe apparently tied bedsheets together and exited window, police official says .\nDepartment of criminal justice has tracking dogs, officers searching the area .","id":"8163f45ef755d080e6d722dd601fd87db605bc71"} -{"article":"A Saudi Arabian man who was arrested for bragging about his sex life on television has apologized for his comments while Saudi authorities discuss whether he should be charged with a crime, according to local media. Mazen Abdul Jawad appeared earlier this month on Lebanese channel LBC's show \"Red Lines,\" on which he discussed foreplay, sexual conquests and how he picks up women, all taboo subjects in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi daily newspaper Arab News, Abdul Jawad has initiated a damage-control campaign and on Sunday \"appeared in the pages of a local newspaper apparently wiping away tears from a handkerchief as he apologized and begged for forgiveness.\" Abdul Jawad is a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four. In Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal and unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle. According to Arab News, Abdul Jawad is not in jail and is considering filing a complaint against the show's producers for presenting him \"in the worst possible manner by taking two hours of footage and condensing it down to a minutes-long segment.\" Ashraf Al-Sarraj, the lawyer representing Abdul Jawad in his possible complaint against LBC, told Arab News, \"We will study the case and eventually present it to the Ministry of Information.\" According to the paper, \"LBC refused to comment on the matter until it has more time to formulate a response.\" The segment in question has, since its initial broadcast, been posted on YouTube and been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. It includes scenes of Abdul Jawad discussing his enjoyment of sex and how he lost his virginity at age 14. Abdul Jawad is also shown in his bedroom, where he holds up sexual aids to the camera. It ends with him cruising the streets of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in his car and looking for women. CNN has been unable to reach Abdul Jawad, the Saudi Ministry of Justice or the Saudi Ministry of Information for comment.","highlights":"Mazen Abdul Jawad apologizes for discussing sex life on TV, reports say .\nSaudi authorities debating whether charges should be filed, reports say .\nJawad appeared earlier this month on a show on Lebanese channel .\nIn deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, pre-marital sex is illegal .","id":"3dbb04e3e99511ddced42861bc038c12fb4e5a7e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fire, the wheel and even cup noodles were among the varied answers to the question posed by CNN: \"What is man's greatest achievement?\" Man set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. Was that man's greatest achievement? Have your say. CNN producers armed with cameras put the puzzler to passersby in Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Bangkok, Tokyo, New Delhi and Paris. In the lead-up to the 40th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, more people might have been expected to nominate the moon landing as one of man's greatest feats. Alas not. One woman in Germany suggested the computer. \"It has opened up my world. I can stay in my house and travel all over the world,\" she said. Another suggested the airplane. \"It's the easiest way to get from one country to the other. Imagine if you would be able to only take the ship. It would take you ages to go somewhere, so it makes humanity more flexible.\" See what they said \u00bb . Fire also got a look-in. \"Everything started there right?\" said one man in Spain. There was agreement in Italy: \"I think the most important is that man discovered fire because it's bringing a lot of life.\" The written word was also nominated in Italy, as were architecture and sanitation. \"The biggest achievement of mankind? Music, right?\" suggested one woman in Spain. In New Delhi, video games got one man's vote. \"It allows you to be whomever you want, in whichever world you want, and lets you live an alternate fantasy life,\" he said. One hopeful businessman in Italy told us, perhaps prematurely: \"Peace, I'd say peace. That would be the greatest achievement for all.\" What do you think is man's greatest achievement? Where does the moon landing fit in?","highlights":"CNN posed the question to people in seven cities .\nAnswers ranged from fire, to the written word, the Internet, plane travel .\nA few people nominated the moon landing as man's greatest feat .\nHave your say through Sound Off, or send us a video to iReport .","id":"205770a8b870fe06dfd8324ae0f34d463b00ae32"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence. Ben Freeth's farm was gutted by fire, as was his father-in-law's. The power-sharing agreement included an undertaking by both parties to ensure property rights are upheld but farm attacks and invasions continue unabated in Zimbabwe. Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks. \"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear,\" Lock said. Since 2000, Mugabe's controversial land reform program has driven more than 4,000 commercial farmers off their land, destroying Zimbabwe's once prosperous agricultural sector. \"When the land reform program began, we decided we were not going to have a confrontational attitude; that we would actually go along with this program because it was the only way that this whole thing would be sorted out. So I voluntarily gave away my own farm and moved onto my father-in-law's farm,\" Lock said. That was in 2002. A year later the government came knocking on his door again, he said, demanding more land. Lock told CNN he eventually gave up 70 percent of his father-in-law's farm, which he then owned. Now an army general is demanding Lock's remaining 30 percent. When Zimbabwe's new unity government was formed -- with Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change -- in February this year, the general allegedly posted soldiers on Lock's farm. The farmer said he stopped farming and trade at gun point. When CNN visited Lock's farm this month, workers were standing idle. Maize and tobacco, which Lock said is worth more than U.S. $1 million, lay in storage. \"They've switched off our irrigation system, taken out keys and stop our trucks if we want to deliver maize,\" he told CNN. So Lock had to sneak into his own property like a thief by cutting open the gate leading to his store room. He took a few valuables from his workshop suspecting that his whole place will soon be looted. With the formation of a unity government farmers were hoping for some protection but Lock said: \"Nothing is happening here. There is no land audit happening, no one comes out here to check, to see. We are just left vulnerable.\" On another farm, Ben Freeth's fight for his land has just escalated to another level. Freeth has been repeatedly beaten, arrested and harassed. Now his farmhouse and that of his father-in-law have been gutted by a mysterious fire. See the destruction the fire caused . Freeth could not say for sure that this is arson but told CNN that the group of ZANU-PF youths who have occupied his farm have repeatedly threatened to burn his house. \"One time they came round with burning sacks at night and they started making a huge noise and ringing a great big bell and shouting and screaming. They were going underneath the thatch saying we are going to burn your house down if you don't get out,\" he said. Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell are among a group of Zimbabwean farmers who won the right to remain on their land at a southern African tribunal. But Mugabe has declared the ruling null and void and pulled out of the tribunal. Farmers cannot contest land issues in Zimbabwe and approaching international courts has thus far not worked either. When CNN interviewed Mugabe's minister of state, Didymas Mutasa, about the disregard for human and property rights on the farms, he blamed the farmers for the violence, saying landless blacks are getting frustrated with their refusal to relinquish their land. \"Human rights are beginning to be seen now because they benefit the whites, and when they were affecting blacks badly as they did the likes of us, it didn't matter and nobody raised anything about those human rights. \"And sometimes we say, good heavens, if that is the kind of human rights you are talking about, you better keep them away from us; we don't want to see them,\" he told CNN. But it is black farm workers who are caught in the cross fire. They continue to bear the brunt of the land reform program by repeatedly being beaten and intimidated. Some have even been killed. Tractor driver William Kale said it is farm laborers working for white farmers who are targeted. \"They actually say you the workers, you are ones that are supporting the white farmer. That is why he is carrying on farming and we refuse to go because we have nowhere to go,\" Kale told CNN. Many farmers and farm workers we spoke to say they are in a worse position now under the unity government than they were before. Lock said: \"When ZANU-PF was in power, you had hawks and doves in government and the doves were approachable and often helped us. But now that these positions are being shared with Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC, Mr. Mugabe has only appointed hawks to his cabinet who insist on continuing the land reform program. And when it comes to the MDC, the land issue seems to be a hot potato they do not want to touch. I have asked Mr. Tsvangirai to intervene but nothing is happening.\" Prime Minister Tsvangirai refuted that. \"That is not true,\" he said. \"We initiated to find out who is being affected, the few remaining white farmers. Let's be frank here, we are talking of farmers as being white, but to me any destruction of farm production affects the whole viability of agriculture. There should be no disruption of any farm activity.\" To those under siege these words are little comfort as they continue to fight a battle they are unlikely to win.","highlights":"Zimbabwe white farmers battle continuing policy of land redistribution .\nOne farmer shows CNN his fire-destroyed farmhouse .\nControversial policy gives white-owned farms to landless blacks .\nSince 2000, more than 4,000 commercial farmers driven off their land .","id":"4cf24686be1c3323e6144951b122a1bf550dd676"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea's rhetoric toward the United States has always had a certain bizarre, over-the-top quality to it. Under the Bush administration it labeled Undersecretary of State John Bolton \"human scum.\" \"Complete and irreversible denuclearization is the only viable path for North Korea,\" Hillary Clinton says. But the North Korea's latest comments about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are stunningly personal. An unnamed North Korean official quoted by the state-run KCNA news agency calls Clinton \"by no means intelligent\" and a \"funny lady.\" \"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping,\" he said. The remarks seem to be a reply to Clinton's comments to ABC News in which she compared North Korea's leadership to \"small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention.\" Behind the scenes, U.S officials for months have made similar comparisons, claiming the Pyonyang's modus operandi is to be deliberately provocative, to \"act out\" to get the United States' attention and be rewarded for its \"misbehavior.\" This time, they say, it's not going to work. Clinton said Pyonyang has \"no friends left.\" After North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in May and fired several ballistic missiles over Japan, the United States rallied the United Nations to pass resolution 1874, which invoked strong sanctions, including targeting top North Korean officials connected to Pyonyang's nuclear program. Significantly, the resolution was supported by Russia and China, countries that have been reluctant to impose strict sanctions on North Korea. \"Complete and irreversible denuclearization is the only viable path for North Korea,\" Clinton said at the Association of Southeast Asia Nations meeting in Thailand this week. \"We do not intend to reward North Korea just for returning to the table, nor do we intend to reward them for actions they have already committed to taking and then reneged on. The path is open to them, and it is up to them to follow it. Unless and until they do, they will face international isolation and the unrelenting pressure of global sanctions.\" North Korea, however, says the six-party talks with the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan are dead and it's not going back. The country has the right to a nuclear program, it says, since it must defend itself against possible attack from the United States. With strong words on both sides, the standoff seems intractable. Clinton maintains the door still is open to the North, but only if Pyonyang does what it already has committed to: resume talks and dismantle its nuclear program -- completely, irreversibly and verifiably. \"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible denuclearization the United States, as well as our partners, will move forward on a package of incentives and opportunities, including normalizing relations that will give the people of North Korea a better future,\" she said. But a North Korean official, quoted by South Korean news agency Yonhap, calls the package of incentives \"nonsense.\" \"The U.S. is telling us to take off all of our clothes,\" he's quoted as saying. \"The most important thing for us is sovereignty. Sovereignty, security, namely life, should be guaranteed. How can we barter life with money?\"","highlights":"\"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl,\" official reportedly says of Clinton .\nU.S. officials have likened North Korea's provocative actions to children acting out .\nNorth Korea's nuclear test in May strengthened U.S. call for sanctions .\nNorth Korea remains defiant, showing no signs of abandoning nuclear program .","id":"2be8eece1258b4ae96b42502a466d725621ada22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A leading international children's charity has warned that Elton John's desire to adopt a 14-month-old baby boy could lead to more children being abandoned. Elton John kisses baby Lev during his visit to the orphanage in Ukraine on Saturday. The singer, 62, made the announcement during a visit with his partner, 46-year-old David Furnish, to an orphanage for HIV-affected children in Ukraine on Saturday. \"David always wanted to adopt and I always said no because I am 62 and I think because of the traveling I do and the life I have, maybe it wouldn't be fair for the child,\" he told reporters. \"But having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home. I've changed my mind today.\" While EveryChild praised the British musician for helping raise awareness of children affected by HIV\/AIDS, it said international adoption is sending out the wrong message. James Georgalakis, EveryChild's Communications and Advocacy Manager, told CNN: \"Research conducted in the Ukraine in 2007 which showed high-profile celebrity adoptions and news around foreigners coming into the country and adopting children generally was actually encouraging vulnerable young mothers to abandon their children into homes hoping their child would be adopted by a rich foreigner and have a better life. \"So it's quite well documented that these high-profile adoptions could actually be increasing the number of children in institutions.\" Do you think celebrity adoptions are a good thing? According to research by the charity's Web site, 95 percent of the children in Ukraine's institutions are not orphans, with babies born to HIV+ mothers facing particular discrimination. They are separated from their mothers and often end up in children's homes and institutions segregated from children not affected by HIV. It argues that governments such as Ukraine need to be encouraged to put more emphasis on keeping families together rather than placing them in outdated Soviet-era children's homes. \"After a great deal of campaigning by charities such as ours, the Ukraine government introduced a new 'gate-keeping' system which means the authorities will have to consider all available options before a child is placed in an institution,\" Georgalakis said. \"So when a child is taken into care or abandoned, they will have look at whether a child has other family or can be fostered by another family for example. This is a huge step forward and one that needs support. \"We will definitely be speaking to Elton and his representatives about this.\" Elton John is the latest high-profile figure to be linked with a case of this kind. Earlier this year, Madonna won a court appeal to adopt a second child from Malawi. Critics of the pop-star accused the pop superstar of taking advantage of \"archaic adoption laws\" in a bid to adopt three-year-old Chifundo James. Madonna's initial attempt was denied because she did not meet a residency law that requires applicants to have lived in the country for some time before adoption. This condition was waived when Madonna -- and then husband Guy Ritchie -- adopted her first Malawian child, David Banda. The judge in that case said the interest of the child outweighed the issue of residency. Meanwhile, the British Association for Adoption and Fostering said around 4,000 children need to be adopted in UK each year, with many facing a considerable wait. BAAF Chief Executive David Holmes told CNN: \"While Elton John may be considered too old under current guidance to adopt a baby in the UK, there are many children, particularly older children, sibling groups, children with disabilities, and children from black minority groups, all waiting for a family. \"We'll certainly be reinforcing this message during National Adoption Week in Britain later this year.\"","highlights":"Elton John, 62, made announcement during a visit to an orphanage in Ukraine .\nEveryChild charity believes international adoption sends wrong message .\nSpokesman: Mothers abandon children in hope they are adopted by foreigners .\nMadonna recently won appeal to adopt second child from Malawi .","id":"e92fe4e820edb115346bfbc31cd11d4baef09412"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001. In an exclusive, CNN talked with President Obama in Ghana about his order to review alleged deaths of Taliban. \"The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention,\" Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview during the president's visit to Ghana. The full interview will air 10 p.m. Monday. \"So what I've asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up,\" Obama said. The inquiry stems from the deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners who had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001. The fighters were in the custody of troops led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Afghan warlord who has served as chief of staff of the country's post-Taliban army. Dostum, a former communist union boss and militia leader who fought against the U.S.-backed mujahedeen in the 1980s, is known for switching sides as Afghanistan's political conflict has evolved. When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Dostum sided with the Americans and received military and CIA support to battle the Taliban. The allegations against him first surfaced in a 2002 Newsweek report, which cited a confidential U.N. memo saying the prisoners died in cramped container trucks while being transported from their Konduz stronghold in northern Afghanistan to Sheberghan prison, west of Dostum's stronghold at Mazar-e Sharif. At the time, the Boston, Massachusetts-based group Physicians for Human Rights said it found a mass grave in nearby Dasht-e Leili, where witnesses said the bodies of Taliban prisoners were buried. The finding prompted U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion of Afghanistan, to support an investigation into the allegations. But The New York Times, citing government officials and human rights organizations, reported Friday that the Bush administration \"repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode.\" State Department officials recently have tried to derail Dostum's reappointment as military chief of staff to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the newspaper reported, citing several senior officials who suggested the administration \"might not be hostile to an inquiry.\" Dostum, a key ally of Karzai, was reportedly living in exile in Turkey until last month, when he was reinstated to his post as defense minister. He had left Afghanistan over allegations that he had kidnapped Akbar Bai, a former ally turned political rival. When asked by CNN about whether Obama would support an investigation, the president replied, \"I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war. And if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of laws of war, then I think that, you know, we have to know about that.\" Watch part of CNN's exclusive interview with the president \u00bb . Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, on Sunday praised Obama \"for ordering his national security team to collect all the facts in the Dasht-e-Leili massacre and apparent U.S. cover-up.\" \"U.S. military and intelligence personnel were operating jointly and accepted the surrender of the prisoners jointly with General Dostum's forces in northern Afghanistan,\" Sirkin said earlier in the week. \"The Obama administration has a legal obligation to determine what U.S. officials knew, where U.S. personnel were, what involvement they had, and the actions of US allies during and after the massacre. These questions, nearly eight years later, remain unanswered.\"","highlights":"Allegations: Bush administration resisted inquiry into CIA-backed Afghan warlord .\nInquiry stems from alleged deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners under warlord .\nGen. Dostum has served as chief of staff of Afghanistan's post-Taliban army .\nObama: \"There are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war\"","id":"ce221bf5ed105ae3e4ef2296ef803c15dc9ab808"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Police in Irving, Texas, captured a convicted burglar Wednesday who escaped from a medical facility last weekend by rappelling off the building using a string of bedsheets, a department spokeswoman said. Saturday night's escape was the third for Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, since June 2008. Joshua Duane Barnes, 21, escaped Saturday night from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital at Galveston. It was Barnes' third escape from authorities since June 2008. Each time, he was caught in four days. He will face felony escape charges, spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. According to the Criminal Justice Department's inspector general, about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, police received a call about a suspicious person in a park, Lyons said. The man ran as police approached him, and police chased him. The man, later identified as Barnes, barricaded himself in an abandoned residence before surrendering to police without incident about 10 a.m. Barnes was to be taken to one of the department's Huntsville-area prisons later in the day. When authorities realized Barnes was missing Saturday, they noticed a hole in the wall where a vent had been removed. Barnes also had broken through a thick window. Barnes was serving 35 years in prison for felony convictions including seven burglary charges, two escape charges and an aggravated assault charge in the Texas Panhandle area, according to a department statement. He began serving his sentence in January. He was housed at a prison in Midway, Texas, but authorities said he was taken to the medical facility in Galveston last week after being hurt in a fight. Barnes' two other escapes took place in Potter County in the Texas Panhandle while he was under the control of local authorities. On June 6, 2008, he fled the county courthouse shortly after being asked to take the stand during a probation violation hearing. The second escape was on October 4, 2008, when Barnes fled the county jail recreational yard after hopping onto the corner of a roof and peeling back layers of sheet metal and galvanized fencing. In both cases, he was found four days later, hiding out at motels. CNN's Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.","highlights":"Convicted burglar escaped from Galveston medical facility Saturday .\nWednesday morning, Irving police receive call about suspicious person in a park .\nPolice chase escapee, who flees to abandoned house, then surrenders .\nEscapee was moved to Galveston medical facility last week after a fight .","id":"7713c9f9a19cb0fee861cfebfb168f22081274ac"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- September 10, 2009 . Quick Guide . Health Care Address - Hear the latest arguments in the debate over U.S. health care reform. Campaign Finance - Review the details of a court case that could impact U.S. elections. Purifying Invention - Find out how one inventor hopes to quench concerns about clean water. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: On HLN, online, on iTunes; here, there and everywhere, this is CNN Student News! Thank you for spending part of your Thursday with us. From the CNN Center, I'm Carl Azuz. First Up: Health Care Address . AZUZ: First up, health care reform reclaims the spotlight as President Obama takes up the issue in a speech to Congress. This debate has been heating up for months, with politicians and citizens weighing in with their opinions. It's an incredibly complicated issue, so we're gonna look at some of the main points right now. Some people think the country's health care system is fine the way it is. Others think it's broken, but what they don't agree on is how to fix it. For example, how much would it cost to reform the system, and where would that money come from? Should there be a government-run health insurance program? And if so, how might that impact private insurance companies? Those are just a few of the questions facing lawmakers. President Obama says he isn't the first president to take on health care, but he hopes to be the last. He's been pushing for reform since he took office, and he believes the time for action is now. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care. Health Care Response . AZUZ: After the president wrapped up his address to Congress, the Republican Party offered a response from U.S. Representative Charles Boustany. The Louisiana representative, who has more than 20 years of experience as a surgeon, says he agrees with parts of President Obama's plan. But he thinks it also presents several problems. Last night, he outlined some alternative ideas about how to improve the health care system and how to lower its costs. REP. CHARLES BOUSTANY JR, (R) LOUISIANA: We need to establish tough liability reform standards, encourage speedy resolution of claims, and deter junk lawsuits that drive up the cost of care. Real reform must do this. Let's also talk about letting families and businesses buy insurance across state lines. I and many other Republicans believe that that will provide real choice and competition to lower the cost of health insurance. Shoutout . GEORGE RAMSAY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas are all members of what governmental body? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Congress, B) The U.S. Supreme Court, C) President Obama's Cabinet or D) The Federal Reserve? You've got three seconds -- GO! Along with six other justices, these people compose the U.S. Supreme Court. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Campaign Finance . AZUZ: It's their job to interpret our country's laws, and one case the justices are looking at right now could have a major impact on elections, including the ones coming up next year! It's all about how much money corporations can give to candidates. Right now, there's a limit on that, but some people argue that violates the Constitution. Elaine Quijano is on the case. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FROM CITIZENS UNITED AD FOR \"HILLARY, THE MOVIE\": Who is Hillary Clinton? ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: It started small. During last year's presidential primaries, a federal court said campaign finance laws barred this ad for an anti-Hillary Clinton movie by an advocacy group, a non-profit corporation. FROM CITIZENS UNITED AD FOR \"HILLARY, THE MOVIE\": If you thought you knew everything about Hillary Clinton, wait 'til you see the movie. QUIJANO: But now, the Supreme Court could make a monumental change in how money influences politics, deciding, in the name of free speech, whether there should be any limits at all on corporate campaign spending. FRED WERTHEIMER, DEMOCRACY 21, CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM SUPPORTER: Allowing corporations to flood our elections and use campaign expenditures to buy influence would fundamentally undermine our democracy. QUIJANO: Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 warns overturning a century of precedents would shut average citizens out of the political process. WERTHEIMER: The little guy would have no role here, because the dominant force in our politics, the dominant force in Washington decision-making, would become corporations. QUIJANO: But David Bossee of Citizens United, the group behind the anti-Hillary Clinton movie, argues that anyone pooling resources, including unions, the health industry, advocacy groups like the National Rifle Association, has free speech rights. DAVID BOSSEE, CITIZENS UNITED: I actually went out and looked for this fight, because I don't believe the government should have the right to impede people's entry into the process. And that's what the Federal Election Commission is trying to do here, squelch our first Amendment Rights. QUIJANO: Interestingly, the American Civil Liberties Union agrees. A final ruling is expected in a couple of months, and legal observers say conservatives could hold the key, with enough votes to possibly declare much of current campaign finance law unconstitutional. Elaine Quijano, CNN, the Supreme Court. (END VIDEO CLIP) Flash Flooding . AZUZ: Six months' worth of rain in two days! That is what residents in parts of Turkey are dealing with. This massive downpour triggered flash floods in the country this week, claiming more than 30 lives. In this video - look at this - you can see how the water rushed through a low-lying valley. It flipped and ripped up dozens of cargo trucks. Hundreds of other vehicles were washed out into the sea. The country's prime minister said emergency workers rescued around 1,300 people from the floods. He's already pledged money to get help and relief to the affected regions that need it. I.D. Me . RAMSAY: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm a rock band originally from Liverpool, England. I made my first U.S. appearance in 1964. 20 of my songs landed at number 1 on the U.S. charts. And I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. I'm the Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr! The Beatles: Rock Band . AZUZ: They were a rock band. Now the Beatles are in Rock Band! A new game featuring the famous Fab Four is out this week. It lets players jam out on dozens of the group's biggest hits. Plus, it gives younger audiences -- you -- a chance to check out some of rock and roll's most famous songs nearly four decades after the band's last gig. That's not the only reason the Beatles are back in the spotlight. All 15 of their albums have been re-mastered and put back on store shelves. Purifying Invention . AZUZ: Meanwhile, a famous inventor wants to do some re-mastering of his own. But we're not talking about digital, we're talking liquid. More than a billion people around the globe don't have access to clean drinking water. Sure, there're water water everywhere, but if it's not clean, it can cause serious consequences. Gary Tuchman looks at one idea designed to quench the problem. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Water: It's the most abundant resource on the planet, yet every year, millions of people die because they don't have access to clean water. So Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, decided to take this problem on with a machine he calls the \"Slingshot.\" DEAN KAMEN, INVENTOR: We believe the world needs a slingshot to take care of its goliath of a problem: bad water. TUCHMAN: He says the machine can turn contaminated water like this dirty river water into clean drinking water by boiling, distilling and vaporizing it. KAMEN: In goes the bad, and as you can see, out comes the good. That is pure water. TUCHMAN: The machine is smaller than some other water purifying systems, making it more portable. KAMEN: It's ideally suited to go to places in the developing world. TUCHMAN: Kamen says it requires very little electricity and maintenance to function. But until he finds partners and distributors to keep costs down, Slingshots won't be available to the people who need them most. KAMEN: We've got to find better strategies to deal with this incredibly unique and valuable resource called water, that we've all come to take for granted, but we'll not be able to do that in the future. TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we leave you today, we've got a story about something that's pretty darn fast. Usian Bolt may be the quickest person on the planet, but he's got nothing on Sarah. The cheetah charged into the record books yesterday as the world's fastest land mammal. She made the 100-meter dash in 6.16 seconds. Then she went out and shaved some more time off in her second attempt. Now for reference, sprinter Usain Bolt did it in 9.58 seconds. So, cheetah wins. Think you could outrun her? You're welcome to give it a shot. Goodbye . AZUZ: But you've got to make sure that she doesn't break any rules. After all, she's a cheetah. Okay, we know a lot of you probably saw that coming, but you just can't miss the opportunity to make a cheetah pun. It's where we cross the finish line for today, but we'll be back tomorrow to close out the week. We look forward to seeing you then. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.","highlights":"Hear the latest arguments in the debate over U.S. health care reform .\nReview the details of a court case that could impact U.S. elections .\nFind out how one inventor hopes to quench concerns about clean water .","id":"d4dfbc7415e89e7e9df3710934c638cb2c7d4bb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Giant jellyfish descend on the Sea of Japan, causing untold devastation to coastal villages and leaving a trail of destruction and human misery behind. A diver attaches a sensor to a Nomura's jellyfish off the coast of northern Japan in October 2005. Sounds like a great sci-fi flick. But it's not. It's real and a nightmare for Japanese fishermen. The massive sea creatures, called Nomura's jellyfish, can grow 6 feet (1.83 meters) in diameter and weigh more than 450 pounds (204 kilos). Scientists think they originate in the Yellow Sea and in Chinese waters. For the third year since 2005, ocean currents are transporting them into the Sea of Japan. Monty Graham, a marine biologist at Alabama's Dauphin Island Sea Lab, said the jellyfish grow to an enormous size as they are transported by ocean currents. He said they stay together in packs and as they drift northward, they get caught in fishermen's nets. The giant jellyfish are one of about 200 species of coastal jellyfish or large jellyfish that exist around the world. But Nomura's stands out because of its enormous size. \"The sheer size of them, individually, makes them fairly spectacular,\" Graham said. Spectacular, perhaps, to scientists, but perilous to villagers along the Japanese coast who have seen the destructive habits of these colossal creatures in the past. They had giant-jellyfish invasions in 2005 and 2007, and because they've recently been spotted in the Sea of Japan, they're bracing for another, potentially harmful wave this summer. The jellyfish destroy fishermen's nets, getting trapped in them, tearing holes and ruining catches. Fishermen often use expensive mazelike nets that stretch for hundreds of kilometers. When swarms of giant jellyfish tear them, the result is devastating. \"Communities of fishermen and these fishing villages own these nets,\" Graham said. \"When these nets get wiped out, it actually has this economic devastation for an entire community.\" The good news is that previous attacks have prompted Japan to put in place a warning system for fishermen. While they still risk losing a big catch, they can, at least, save their pricey nets from the invasion of the giant jellyfish. It's not clear why waves of Nomura's jellyfish have made it to the Sea of Japan in recent years. Some have speculated that overfishing, pollution or rising ocean temperatures may have depleted the kinds of fish that prey on Nomura's jellyfish in the polyp stage. However, no one is certain, Graham said.","highlights":"Nomura's jellyfish seen in Sea of Japan for third year since 2005 .\nSpecies can grow 6 feet (1.83 meters) in diameter, 450 pounds (204 kilos)\nTears in expensive nets can devastate communities .","id":"b67f216010d7e32a0ec21487929c16ee050b2376"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish judge has indicted three suspected former Nazi concentration camp guards Thursday on charges of genocide and ordered their arrests. Visitors mark 60th anniversary of liberation Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 2005. Two of the suspects, Johann Leprich and Anton Tittjung, each 84, are thought to live in the United States, while the third, Josias Kumpf, also 84, is believed to live in Austria, according to a copy of the court order viewed by CNN. They are accused of serving in the Nazi SS. Leprich and Tittjung were armed guards at the Mauthausen concentration camp and Gross Raming subcamp, while Kumpf served at the Sachsenhausen camp, the court order said. In addition to Jews and other types of prisoners, the Spanish judge said there more than 7,000 Spaniards held prisoner at Mauthausen, of whom 4,300 died. Some Spaniards arrived at the Sachsenhausen camp, in convoys from France, the document said. The order, including international arrest warrants, was issued by Judge Ismael Moreno of Spain's National Court, which investigates genocide and crimes against humanity involving Spaniards. The 18-page document cited prior judicial investigative work from other countries regarding the backgrounds of the three alleged ex-Nazi guards and their suspected roles in the notorious Nazi death camps during World War II.","highlights":"Spanish judge indicts three suspected former Nazi concentration camp guards .\nTwo suspects thought to live in U.S.; third believed to live in Austria .\nOrder includes international arrest warrants .","id":"f55254febaee6d154e5108f45a8f3fc05c89d766"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry has identified the suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate the country's assistant interior minister last Thursday and released details of a phone conversation between the two men prior to the attack. A Saudi man reads a newspaper featuring a front-page story on Thursday's attack. The disclosures reported by the country's official news agency were highly unusual. The agency, SPA, reported the attacker, Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri, a wanted Saudi militant who had been hiding in Yemen, got in touch with Saudi authorities telling them he wanted to turn himself in to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the assistant minister of Interior for Security Affairs. After arriving back in Saudi Arabia, Asiri spoke by phone to Mohammed, who agreed to see him during a Ramadan reception at his home in the city of Jeddah. According to a transcript provided by SPA, during the phone call the men exchanged greetings and discussed the importance of the holy month of Ramadan. Mohammed is quoted as telling Asiri that \"one should be careful; evil people would like to exploit all of you. Now only you to fear Allah Almighty and come home.\" Later in the conversation, Asiri asked if a special plane could be dispatched to take him to meet with Mohammed. Asiri, escorted by security, was transported to Jeddah, where he met with the prince at his palace. During the meeting, Asiri explained to Mohammed that other Saudi militants in Yemen also wished to surrender but sought reassurances from the prince. According to SPA, a call was then placed to one of the militants in Yemen. While the prince was on the phone, Asiri blew himself up, SPA reported. Mohammed, who is also the son of the country's Interior Minister, was lightly injured in the attack. Saudi King Abdullah was shown visiting the prince in the hospital after the attack on Saudi TV. The king asked the prince why the militant was allowed to get so close him without being inspected properly and searched thoroughly. Prince Mohammed answered the king by telling him it had been a mistake. SPA adds that \"the concerned security authorities opened an investigation into the incident. However, the criminal laboratory and a forensic report have reached conclusions that, for security considerations, will not be announced at this time.\" Asiri's name was on a list of 85 most wanted suspects released by Saudi Arabia in February. At the time the list was released, Saudi Arabia asked Interpol for its help in apprehending dozens of the wanted Saudis on the list who were suspected of plotting attacks against Saudi Arabia from abroad. The announcement was significant because it is rare for the kingdom to announce that some of its most wanted terrorists are on the loose. It is also unusual for Saudi Arabia to ask for help in finding them. Some of the suspects on the most wanted list had been released from Guantanamo Bay, returned to Saudi Arabia, and had then gone through a Jihadi reeducation program run by the Interior Ministry, before fleeing to Yemen and taking up terrorist activity once more. Saudi Arabia has been battling terrorism since 2003, when al Qaeda launched a series of attacks inside the Kingdom. In the security crackdown that followed, Asiri, like many other wanted Saudi militants, fled to Yemen. Earlier this year, Saudi al Qaeda and Yemeni al Qaeda merged to form \"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.\" Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates out of Yemen, claimed responsibility earlier this week for the attack against Mohammed. In August, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry announced that over the past year, 44 al Qaeda suspects across the country had been arrested. While the Interior Ministry is calling the attempted assassination an \"action of treachery and treason\", SPA reports that the Ministry will not change its \"open-door policy\" of granting amnesty to militants wishing to surrender - in particular, \"those citizens residing outside the country\" who wish to \"take advantage of the state-sponsored program of advice and care.\"","highlights":"Wanted Saudi militant Abdullah Hassan Talea' Asiri had been hiding in Yemen .\nReportedly got in touch with Saudi authorities saying he wanted to turn himself in .\nAsiri met with Saudi assistant minister of Interior for Security Affairs .\nHe explained other Saudi militants in Yemen also wished to surrender .","id":"769084f224ed8d05a4f689070eb0bd1cca1f1932"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jordan Belfi has a great job: He plays Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage,\" a comedy series that takes a look at the life of a young actor, Vincent Chase, and the old friends who surround him in Hollywood. Jordan Belfi arrives at the premiere of \"Entourage\" season six in Los Angeles, California. Davies is one of the few characters on the show who has the ability to shake one of the central figures: the unshakeable agent Ari Gold. Belfi has been around since the early days of \"Entourage\" and remembers the humble beginnings of his character's career as an agent under Gold's direction. Since that first season, Davies has risen to become Ari's chief rival on the show. Belfi believes conveying the tension between him and Ari is easy, based on the great material he's given. \"It's a testament to the writing by Doug Ellin, the creator of the show. It's just on the page,\" Belfi said. \"When you get setups and writing and dialogue and scenes that good, it makes your job that much easier.\" CNN talked to Belfi, who's also in the movie \"Surrogates\" (opening Friday), about his experiences on the show and his inspiration for the role. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: A lot of fans really missed that rivalry between you and Ari Gold. Talk a little about how you and Jeremy Piven kind of prepare for that and try to make that real on screen. Belfi: Adam Davies has become ... one of the few characters on the show that really knows how to get under Ari's skin and push his buttons. Ari is an entertaining character, and it's fun to watch him go after things, but people really enjoy kind of when Ari's off balance. That interplay, that back and forth, particularly the sort of thing that's happening now [on the show], the constantly one-upping each other, is just really fun to watch. It's entertaining. And I get that response from a lot of the fans of the show. They love Adam Davies for that reason because he just knows how to do it. Jeremy ... [is] an actor with so much power and force and impact that you're sort of forced to up your game. You're really present in the moment. And when you're there and you're really going back and forth, that's when the sparks really fly. CNN: Talk little bit about the inspiration you draw from to play Adam Davies. Belfi: I started way back on season one in the beginning of the show. And back then, Adam Davies was still in his cubicle. So a lot of the inspiration came from meetings I had when I was starting out -- you know, behavior I experienced from agents and other industry people when I was starting out. I was in a not-too-dissimilar position. ... And I think that's what people really respond to. There's an absolute foundation of truth -- almost scary truth -- to the things Adam says, the things Ari does, all that kind of stuff. And it's why it's such a visceral experience for people in the industry and fun for people that happen not to be in the industry. CNN: What are your thoughts on Adam Davies as a person? Belfi: What gives Ari a little bit of his soul, his heart, is that we have all these scenes with his wife and his family, and you really get to see him as a dad. ... [But] we haven't gotten to see any of the personal life of Adam Davies. So I don't know if there's anything yet to kind of balance out those ruthless qualities he has. But I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have if you're that actor trying to go after that job. You want that agent who's going to beg, borrow and steal to help prove that you're the guy. So in that respect, it seems like he's someone you'd want on your side. And the thing is, I think that's what made the rivalry between him and Ari so great. You know when he was coming up, he probably did a lot of the same things [as Ari] and ran over people in similar kinds of ways. They're really kind of the same in a lot of ways. So you're either best friends or mortal enemies when you share that much in common with somebody. CNN: Exempting Davies, who's your favorite character on the show and why? Belfi: Ah! Impossible question! I have to exempt Adam Davies from the answer? ... If I absolutely, gun-to-my-head have to choose, there's a quality about [Chase's brother] Drama that I've always loved. And it was maybe more prominent in the first couple of seasons than it is now because it's evolved slightly. The quality that I always found the most entertaining, is that Drama was always this mix of desperation and simultaneous pride. And that's really funny. You know at the beginning he was just scratching, begging for something, some chunk of the game or to get back in the game. But he simultaneously kind of knows it all. And that mix is a great comedic mix, comedic recipe. It was both funny and heartbreaking. CNN: Of course, our diehard \"Entourage\" fans would love to get some scoop on the coming story lines. You've gotta give us something. Belfi: A little something? Well, I don't think I'd be giving away too much to say that Adam might get Lloyd. In terms of the story line, there's some stuff that I'm told with Drama and his going after this role on \"Melrose Place\" and the screen test for that role and the ups and downs of that. And also, some big things happen between Eric and Sloane. But in terms of the really exciting stuff between Adam Davies and Ari, I guess I'll say this: At the end of season two, when Ari is trying to form his coup, to break up the agency, and Adam is the one who rats him out and gets him fired and humiliated and causes that whole thing ... In the amazing way that Doug has constructed it, all that stuff from the end of season two comes full circle. There's this one thing that happens that will really stand out and that people will talk about. So some fun, exciting stuff to look forward to.","highlights":"Jordan Belfi plays acting agent Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage\"\nBelfi has played Ari Gold's nemesis on the show since the first season .\n\"I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have,\" Belfi says of Davies .\nA little something about coming story lines: Belfi says Adam might get Lloyd .","id":"0550be9865e8fcd68068c3cfab4bdba15f93d8e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The name is already taken, but \"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy\" might be a fitting title for a new interactive view of the Milky Way unveiled this week by the European Southern Observatory. Hundreds of photos taken with a regular digital camera, along with computer crunching, formed this panorama. The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy, complete with points of interests such as the 12-billion-year-old, star-packed globular cluster Omega Centauri and the beautiful, reddish Rosette Nebula. Want to stay closer to home? The panorama also points out familiar landmarks such as Jupiter, noting it's the third-brightest object in our night sky after the moon and Venus. For a bit of a head-rush, you can choose to zoom in and click on \"Tour Destinations,\" which will take you on a trip from one end of the galaxy to another, stopping at your selected point of interest. Users can explore the image in magnificent detail, uncovering millions of individual stars forming a dustlike haze, or superimpose a map of the different constellations in the sky. The beautiful panorama is the first to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project, which seeks to \"link the sky we can all see with the deep, 'hidden' cosmos that astronomers study on a daily basis,\" according to ESO. The image is composed of almost 1,200 photos, which were taken by French astrophotographer Serge Brunier with a regular digital camera from ESO observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile and from one of the Canary Islands. \"I wanted to show a sky that everyone can relate to, with its constellations, its thousands of stars, with names familiar since childhood,\" Brunier said. The images were then crunched into the single panorama using special software, an effort that took about 340 computing hours to finish, according to the ESO. You can chart your own trip across the Milky Way at GigaGalaxyZoom.org. The next GigaGalaxy Zoom image will be released Monday.","highlights":"The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy .\nUsers can zoom in and tour destinations such as globular cluster Omega Centauri .\nThe image can be explored in magnificent detail, showing millions of individual stars .\nThe image is the first of three to be released as part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project .","id":"291706900b90b2237013ea572e1676c0acf6ddff"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, in a rare interview Thursday, depicted himself as an African hero battling imperialism and foreign attempts to oust him rather than the widespread perception of a dictator clinging to power at the expense of the welfare of his people and country. Robert Mugabe says sanctions against his country are \"unjustifiable.\" The 85-year-old Mugabe, the only leader of Zimbabwe since it became independent from Britain in 1980, rejected repeated assertions by CNN's Christiane Amanpour that his policies have driven the nation once known as Africa's breadbasket to virtual economic collapse. Instead, Mugabe accused Britain and the United States of seeking to oust him by imposing economic sanctions, the effects of which he said were worsened by years of drought. He denied that his country is in economic shambles, saying it grew enough food last year to feed all its people, and defended policies that have driven white farmers off their land as properly restoring that land to indigenous Africans. \"The land reform is the best thing (that) could have ever have happened to an African country,\" said Mugabe, a former revolutionary leader who came to power when white-ruled Rhodesia became black-ruled Zimbabwe. \"It has to do with national sovereignty.\" Watch Mugabe on his controversial land reform program \u00bb . It was Mugabe's first interview with a Western television network in several years, and he appeared to get frustrated with some of Amanpour's direct questioning, repeatedly denying widely accepted evidence and reports on his nation's woes. Mugabe denied that his ZANU-PF party lost elections in 2008 that forced him to accept a power-sharing agreement with his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who now is prime minister. Violence surrounding the disputed election, much of it against opposition supporters, further damaged Zimbabwe's standing, but Mugabe rejected any blame on Thursday. \"You don't leave power when imperialists dictate that you leave,\" he insisted. \"There is regime change. Haven't you heard of (the) regime change program by Britain and the United States that is aimed at getting not just Robert Mugabe out of power but get Robert Mugabe and his party out of power?\" He also waved off Amanpour's assertion that the power-sharing arrangement is not working, and that opposition political figures are continuing to get harassed and arrested. Watch Mugabe talk about power-sharing \u00bb . Asked about Roy Bennett, a white opposition figure who has yet to be sworn in as agriculture minister a year after formation of the power-sharing government, Mugabe stammered before saying Bennett faces charges of \"organizing arms of war\" against Zimbabwe. He added that he's heard the prosecution lacks evidence in the case, but said he won't agree to swearing in Bennett until after any charges are dropped. Mugabe also denied any responsibility for harm to the nation from his economic policies, instead blaming what he called \"unjustified\" and \"illegal\" sanctions that he said were intended to bring regime change. \"The sanctions must be lifted. We should have no interference from outside,\" Mugabe said. \"The continued imperialist interference in our affairs is affecting our country adversely.\" When Amanpour challenged him by saying most of the sanctions were directed at individuals, rather than economic entities, Mugabe said she was wrong. \"The U.S. sanctions are real sanctions, economic sanctions. Have you looked at them?\" he said. \"It's because of sanctions, mainly.\" Amanpour tried to push the point, saying outside observers blamed his policies and not sanctions. \"Not everybody says so,\" Mugabe cut her off. \"It's not true.\" He also rejected criticism from South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle, who has accused Mugabe of turning Zimbabwe into a \"basket case\" and repressing his own people. \"It's not a basket case at all,\" Mugabe said. He later called Tutu's comments \"devilish talk\" and added: \"He doesn't know what he's talking about, the little man.\" On the takeover of white-owned farms -- a policy blamed for undermining the agriculture sector -- Mugabe displayed the African nationalist fervor of his revolutionary days. \"Zimbabwe belongs to the Zimbabweans, pure and simple,\" he said, then adding that white Zimbabweans -- even those born in the country with legal ownership of their land -- have a debt to pay. \"They occupied the land illegally. They seized the land from our people,\" Mugabe said. When Amanpour pressed him on white farmers being forced off their land, he shot back, \"Not just off their land. Our land.\" \"They are British settlers,\" he said, later calling them \"citizens by colonization, seizing land from original people, indigenous people of the country.\" Asked if would run again in elections likely to take place in 2011, Mugabe refused to answer, but denied he feared defeat and again rejected charges of past electoral wrongdoing. \"Elections don't go all that smoothly all the time in many countries,\" he said, tossing a jab at the United States. \"Look what happens elsewhere. They didn't go smoothly here, look at what happened during the first term of Bush.\"","highlights":"Mugabe rejects criticism that he has turned Zimbabwe into a \"basket case\"\nCNN interview is Mugabe's first in years with a major Western network .\nMugabe calls sanctions \"unjustified and illegal\"","id":"514bead40782c561c9f7ea8b8a610c1d80343dfd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jaycee Dugard will testify against the couple that allegedly held her captive in an elaborate compound hidden in their backyard for 18 years if there is a trial, a lawyer for her family said at a news conference Thursday. This photo of Jaycee Dugard was taken at the 1991 Rose Bowl parade. She was abducted later that year. Attorney McGregor Scott admitted it has been a difficult transition for Dugard and her two children -- who police say were fathered by her captor -- given her captivity spanned more than half her life and was the only world she knew for so long. \"But there is no question that she knows that terrible and wrong things were done to her and that those people must be held accountable,\" Scott said. Scott said he had no idea when a trial would be set for Phillip and Nancy Garrido, who have both pleaded not guilty to charges relating to Dugard's alleged kidnapping and subsequent abuse. He acknowledged Dugard would have to relive the \"trauma\" in court by sharing the \"very, very sordid tale.\" Scott also said that because of Phillip Garrido's previous criminal history, which includes a kidnapping and rape charge for which he was registered as a sex offender, Garrido would automatically receive a sentence of 25 years to life if he were found guilty on only one felony charge. But Scott said the family is trying not to focus on any of that and instead work on building a new life together. He said he had met with Dugard and her family twice for a couple of hours and was happy to see \"how well they had been doing.\" \"Even more encouraging was the second time I met with them, I saw progress,\" he said. \"I'm just very pleasantly surprised watching the dynamics, and I think it's a very positive thing going forward.\" Scott said Dugard's daughters, who police said never went to school or a doctor, were receiving tutoring. Dugard has been participating and observing. \"This is a woman whose [own] formal education ended in the fifth grade,\" he said. \"She has a brain that she wants to develop, so it's a very positive thing.\" The family received medical attention and counseling beginning the day Dugard and her children were discovered, Scott said. He also said they had received donations of more than $100,000 from the public, which would help the girls as they get older. He praised law enforcement and family members for helping protect Dugard and her children after her discovery. \"[They are] very guarded in allowing the girls access to TV news, Internet, etc.,\" he said. \"Because they're being a mother, a grandmother, protecting the girls from too much information too early.\" He said he knows there is a curiosity about where the family is, but pleaded that the public and the media give the family time to heal. More than anything, Scott said, Dugard's family is working to make life as normal as possible and allow them to make up for lost time. \"To watch the interaction between Jaycee and her mother ... after 18 years is remarkable,\" Scott said. \"The emotions there, I think they're still wrestling with all of that but I think they're making great progress.\"","highlights":"Lawyer: Jaycee Dugard \"knows that terrible and wrong things were done to her\"\nLawyer says Dugard, daughters and family progressing well since she was found .\nDugard daughters receive tutoring, counseling and medical attention .\nFamily has gotten donations of more than $100,000 from the public .","id":"16ef6fd77f7352e4ed9ef09f744d262299c4ea34"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Beastie Boys canceled all scheduled concerts and delayed their next album release while member Adam \"MCA\" Yauch is treated for a cancerous tumor in a salivary gland, Yauch says in a video statement to fans. The Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch will be treated for a cancerous tumor in a salivary gland. \"The good news is that they did scans of my whole body and it's only localized in this one area and it's not in a place that affects my voice,\" Yauch says. \"So, that's nice. That's convenient.\" The cancer is in his left parotid gland and \"also in a lymph node right in that area,\" he says. He will probably have surgery next week and radiation treatments afterward, he says. With band mate Adam \"Ad-Rock\" Horovitz sitting next to him, Yauch tells fans how he found out he had cancer. \"About two months ago, I started feeling this little lump in my throat, like you would feel if you have swollen glands or something like that, like you'd feel if you have a cold, so I didn't really think it was anything,\" he says. His doctor sent him to a specialist who diagnosed the cancer, he says. Yauch does not estimate how long the tour will be delayed, but he apologizes to \"anyone who's made plans\" to come to the shows. The illness will also delay the release of the band's next album, \"Hot Sauce Committee Part 1,\" he says.","highlights":"Beastie Boys member Adam \"MCA\" Yauch has cancerous tumor .\nBand postponing tour, delaying release of next album while he gets treated .\nYauch: Tumor \"only localized in this one area\"","id":"c926698fb760faef8fd5d0b3cc6a78facdb20201"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- Drew Barrymore keeps evolving -- from star to producer, and now director. Drew Barrymore sat down with InStyle for its October issue, on newsstands Thursday. The 34-year-old actress earned critic's attention with her uncanny portrayal of \"Little Edie\" Beale in HBO's \"Grey Gardens,\" and her directorial debut, \"Whip It,\" has been hailed as a success well before it rolls into theaters October 2. But, at her core, she's still the irresistible free spirit we all know and love, as she revealed in the October issue of InStyle. On being a celebrity ... Barrymore said that while she loves her life, there are still moments she battles with being a celebrity. \"Some days I want nothing more than a brilliant mask so I could look like someone else and go wander the streets and be free,\" she said. \"I'm very peeved that Halloween only comes once a year.\" On exercise... When it comes to transforming her body for a role, as she did for \"Grey Gardens,\" the sunny actress is nothing but dedicated. But in everyday life, Barrymore aims for balance and body acceptance. \"I don't have the time or discipline or interest in having a perfect-10 body. I work out, I eat right, but I'll always be a little bit of Jell-O on a pole.\" On her relationship with her mom ... Barrymore admitted her relationship with her mom is a topic she doesn't readily discuss, but the central love story between a girl and her mom in \"Whip It\" caused Barrymore to reflect on her relationship.\"I am OK with my dad, but my mom and I have yet to work it all out,\" she said, adding that she doesn't talk about it because \"how do you talk about something you're confused about?\" On girl power ... From \"Charlie's Angels\" to her new all-girl roller derby flick, it's no secret that Barrymore champions female friendships. \"I like teams -- I like buddies. I don't understand women who are competitive, apart from positive forums like athletics. One person is a powerful thing, but a tribe is unstoppable.\" On her first fashion faux pas ... Barrymore is known for her ever-evolving, ever-eccentric style, but said anything she donned during the \"E.T.\" era can be labeled as a fashion faux pas. Or can it? \"Velour and taffeta, together? Oh, no, no, no. Now I think it's brilliant.\" On her first broken heart... Barrymore recently broke up with The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and called the five-year relationship one of the most important in her life. But when it comes to her first broke heart, Barrymore said it was her \"first big boyfriend, Jamie Walters.\" Read the full interview with Barrymore in the October issue of InStyle, on newsstands Thursday. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Drew Barrymore talked first boyfriends, fashion and girl power in October's InStyle .\nBarrymore admitted that her relationship with her mother is hard for her to talk about .\nWhile she loves her life, she sometimes wishes that she could be someone else .\nThe full interview hits newsstands Thursday .","id":"1daa1b98a2c9c462df609a229acd35d0ff3bd9b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Mackenzie Phillips has said that she believes she had a \"genetic predisposition\" to the life of sex, drugs and rock and roll that have come to define her. Mackenzie Phillips tells CNN's \"Larry King Live\" that her father raped her in 1979. In a 1999 interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on \"Why Some Childhood Stars Crash and Burn,\" the former \"One Day at a Time\" star said she didn't blame Hollywood for the years of drug and addiction she had endured. \"I think that for a lot of us, alcoholism and addiction is the root of the problem, not the fact that we were child stars,\" she said at the time. \"Certainly, it lent to the problem, but it wasn't the root of the problem.\" By the time she did the interview, her well-publicized addiction to cocaine, drug arrests and stints in rehab had overshadowed an acting career once full of promise. Then, on Wednesday, the 49-year-old actress revealed on \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" that she engaged in an incestuous relationship with her father, legendary musician John Phillips, for nearly 10 years. In her tell-all memoir, \"High on Arrival\" -- named after a song her father dedicated to her -- she claims the relationship began in 1979. She claims her father forced himself on her while they were under the influence of drugs on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones' entourage. She ended the relationship a decade later, when she became pregnant and realized she did not know who had fathered her child -- her husband or her own father -- and terminated the pregnancy, the actress told CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" Watch Phillips discuss her alleged incestuous relationship with her father \u00bb . But before the incest claims -- and subsequent denials from relatives -- Mackenzie Phillips was better known as a child actor full of promise who fell from grace under the toxic guidance of her drug-addicted father. Born Laura Mackenzie Phillips in 1959 to John Phillips and Baltimore socialite Susan Adams, Phillips told People magazine in 1980 that she alternated between two wildly different worlds after her parents divorced when she was three years old. \"My mother concentrated on bringing me up a proper lady,\" Mackenzie Phillips told the magazine. \"And then on weekends at my dad's place, I would find Mick Jagger and Donovan and the Beatles hanging out. I remember crawling all over Paul McCartney.\" Her father taught her to roll a joint when she was 10, she tried cocaine for the first time when she was 11 and lost her virginity at age 12, she told Meredith Vieira of NBC's\"Today\" show. When she was 12, a talent scout for Francis Ford Coppola spotted her playing in a band with classmates on amateur night at the Troubadour, according to People.com. She eventually landed a memorable role in the 1973 hit coming-of-age flick, \"American Graffiti.\" After filming, her mother sent her to a Swiss boarding school, but the rebellious teen didn't last long in exile. She returned to her father's home in Los Angeles under the supervision of her father's sister, Rosemary Throckmorton. When her father and stepmother left for New York in 1974 and never returned, Mackenzie, her brother Jeffrey, moved in with their aunt in \"a little house behind the Hollywood Bowl which we shared with 12 cats,\" according to People.com. Despite her relocations, Phillips' career continued to advance. At 15, she appeared in her second movie, \"Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins,\" with Alan Arkin. In 1975, she was offered the role of Julie Cooper on CBS' hit sitcom, \"One Day at a Time,\" according to IMDB.com. \"By the time I turned 18, I moved into a little chalet of my own and felt very grown-up,\" Mackenzie told People in an interview in 1980. As her star grew, so did her appetite for drugs, particularly cocaine. A few years later, just after she turned 18, Phillips was arrested when she was found collapsed on quaaludes on a street in Los Angeles. Phillips said on \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" that her father's response was, \"Congratulations! Now you're a real Phillips. Now you know that even though they caught you, the rules don't apply.\" Her weight loss and erratic behavior disrupted the show's filming and became a source of distress to her co-stars, Bonnie Franklin and Valerie Bertinelli, according to People.com. According to Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's \"The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows,\" Phillips missed the 1980-81 season while in rehab for addiction issues. When she went to seek treatment at Fair Oaks, a psychiatric hospital in Summit, New Jersey, in December 1980, she joined her father and stepmother, who entered the hospital after being charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics, according to People.com. She left with a clean bill of health, but soon enough resumed using drugs even as she attempted to rebuild her career as a member of her father's new version of the Mamas & the Papas. In her memoir, she recalls arriving at a hotel room to find two packages -- one containing her father's newly published memoir and another containing an eighth of an ounce of cocaine, according to excerpts of the book published on MSNBC.com. After shooting up, she recalls reaching for the book and looking up her name in the index. \"Under my name was a list of subheadings and page numbers. I scanned down the entries: . Phillips, Laura Mackenzie . acting career of... arrested on drug charges... attempts to clean out... in California... childhood of... drug use by... early childhood of... at finishing school in Switzerland... Jeff Sessler and... marriage to Jeff Sessler... Peter Asher and... rape.... shipboard romance on QE 2... \"There it was, my life to date, with highlights selected, cross-referenced, and alphabetized. I had been organized and reduced to a list of sensational and mostly regrettable and\/or humiliating anecdotes. Being indexed, particularly under such dubious headings, gave me a weird feeling that definitely wasn't pride. I felt like I wasn't a real person, just a list of incidents and accidents,\" she writes in the book. Her television career experienced a revival in the 1990s, with guest appearances on hot shows including \"Beverly Hills, 90210,\" \"Melrose Place,\" \"Walker, Texas Ranger\" and \"Chicago Hope,\" her profile on IMDB.com states. From 1999 to 2001, she had a regular role in the Disney series, \"So Weird,\" and several other television guest appearances followed, according to IMDB.com. She appeared to be getting her life back on track, eventually giving birth to a son, Shane. She was arrested in for drug possession in 2008 on her way to an \"One Day at a Time\" reunion. Since then, she says she has been drug-free, and hopes that purging herself of the secret incestuous relationship will help her recover. Yet she insists she does not hate her father for what he did. \"I have to say that I loved my father, and I still do. I've been trying to come to terms with this very difficult past,\" Phillips told Winfrey.","highlights":"Mackenzie Phillips believes she had \"genetic predisposition\" to substance abuse .\nDad showed her how to roll joint when she was 10, she tells \"Today\" show .\nDrug abuse forced her out of role on successful CBS sitcom \"One Day at a Time\"\nWatch Mackenzie Phillips on Larry King Live, Wednesday 9 p.m. ET .","id":"bc0d28bff77c62ba6831e92a1b85cf1b6eb9c1eb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities have seized $1 billion worth of marijuana plants and have arrested 82 Mexican nationals with ties to drug cartels in the first week and half of an effort to eradicate marijuana fields from California's Fresno County, the county sheriff's office said Wednesday. The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels. Operation Save Our Sierra began July 13 and involves local, state and federal agencies working together to remove marijuana growing operations, investigate and arrest drug traffickers, and remove infrastructure on public lands in Fresno County, a news release said. \"This is a high-intensity drug trafficking area,\" U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said in a phone interview. \"I think what should be highlighted here is the local authorities' work to reclaim the land from the drug traffickers.\" The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels, local authorities said, though they did not release further details. Eastern Fresno County, where the seizures have been made, is mountainous and sparsely populated. Growers exploit the area's streams, rivers and lakes to create elaborate drip lines for their plants. A mature plant can be worth $4,000, said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims. \"Fresno County is roughly the size of Connecticut, and the drug traffickers target these areas because they know there is not that significant of a law-enforcement presence,\" Mims said. \"The chances of getting caught are slim.\" \"The bottom line is our public lands are being destroyed by foreign drug trafficking and heavily armed Mexican cartels,\" George Anderson of the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday at a news conference highlighting the seizures. The operation is the largest in Fresno County history and one of the largest in California, Mims said. \"What makes this operation unique is the approach: prevention, enforcement, eradication and reclamation,\" she said. Intelligence gathered for the operation began in February, with community presentations about prevention. The effort is now focused on shutting down the at least 70 marijuana farms identified by local authorities. The operation is expected to continue into November, when colder weather makes marijuana growing more difficult. At least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized, Mims said. \"This shows what can be accomplished at the local level when agencies work together,\" Kerlikowske said. Kerlikowske, who flew to Fresno County on Wednesday and toured a marijuana farm, said his office is one of the primary sponsors of the operation.","highlights":"The U.S. drug czar says it is a high-intensity drug trafficking area .\nSuspects have links to Mexican drug cartels, authorities says .\nAt least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized .\nOperation is expected to continue into November .","id":"1c7063dac738f370e6c2523a6011f3e895b4ef84"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- A terrorism suspect accused of plotting the bombing of a skyscraper made his first appearance in federal court Friday. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi said through his lawyer that he understood the charges Friday. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian, said little during a 20-minute hearing at the Dallas federal courthouse. His lawyer, however, said Smadi understood the gravity of the charge. Judge Irma Ramirez set a probable cause hearing for October 5. Smadi initially drew authorities' scrutiny because of his violent posts on an extremist chat site, court papers indicate. He was arrested Thursday in a sting operation, the FBI said. Federal officials said Smadi, who entered the United States illegally and lived in Texas, tried to set off an explosive attached to a vehicle at the base of the 60-story Fountain Place office tower. Long before authorities arrested Smadi, however, they were following his Internet discussions, according to a court affidavit. \"Smadi was discovered by the FBI within an online group of extremists,\" the affidavit says. \"Among many others in the group who espoused and endorsed violence, Smadi stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States.\" Undercover officers then contacted Smadi, posing as members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell. After months of conversations, the agents considered Smadi a legitimate threat. Smadi picked several targets to attack, including the Dallas-Forth Worth airport, before deciding on the skyscraper, which houses Wells Fargo Bank, the affidavit says. It details a conversation that Smadi is said to have had with authorities: . \"I have decided to change the target,\" he said, according to the affidavit. \"God willing, the strike will be certain and strong. It will shake the currently weak economy in the state and the American nation, because this bank is one of the largest banks in the city.\" Smadi said many times that he wanted to commit violent jihad and he was a soldier of Osama bin Laden, the affidavit says. Undercover agents tried to get Smadi to \"re-evaluate his interpretation of jihad,\" saying there were nonviolent ways to commit the act. But \"Smadi again communicated his continuing commitment for violent jihad,\" the affidavit says. After casing the bank in July, Smadi told an undercover agent he would target it, according to authorities. Initially, Smadi told the agent he wanted to bomb the bank on September 11 but decided to wait until the Islamic holy month of Ramadan ended on September 20, authorities said. After receiving what he thought was an explosive from an undercover agent, Smadi drove a car with the fake bomb into a parking garage under the skyscraper, authorities said. Watch how a Jordanian was given fake explosive \u00bb . Smadi thought he could detonate the bomb by dialing his cell phone, they said. When he dialed, the number rang a phone in authorities' possession, the affidavit says. Counterterrorism officials arrested Smadi on Thursday before publicly disclosing a similar but unrelated terrorism sting arrest Wednesday in Springfield, Illinois. A federal law enforcement official familiar with the cases said authorities feared that word of the Illinois arrest could tip off the Texas suspect to the sting operation. Watch what the recent terror arrests mean \u00bb . A charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction carries a potential sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. In the Illinois case, undercover FBI agents foiled a plot to bomb Springfield's federal building, authorities said. In neither case did authorities find ties to known terrorist groups. Journalist Todd Bensman and CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Sean Callebs and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect initially wanted to stage attack on September 11, authorities say .\nAffidavit: Teen accused in Texas bomb plot wrote violent posts on extremist Web site .\nHosam Maher Husein Smadi accused of plotting to bomb Dallas skyscraper .\nSmadi told plans to undercover FBI agents, authorities say .","id":"b9ddeab1d918e3f45401a9b24c165ac0e733f7e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed a deeply personal side in an interview Thursday night, saying he loves Jesus Christ and would have liked to play Major League baseball in Yankee Stadium. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke highly of President Obama at the United Nations on Thursday. He also expressed a fondness for American people and culture, saying he likes the movie actor Charles Bronson and the poet Walt Whitman. He loves to sing, he said, though he does not do it well. And Chavez had kind words for the U.S. security detail protecting him during his visit to New York, saying he chatted with them while out walking and that they \"have been very gracious, very efficient and very attentive, very kind.\" In an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King, Chavez spoke at length about a host of issues: relations between Venezuela and the United States and his hopes for improved ties with President Barack Obama; Iran, Israel and those who deny that the Holocaust existed; efforts to overthrow him and have him assassinated; criticism that he is power hungry and trying to silence critics. Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist, spoke with King a few hours after giving a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, in which he praised Obama but criticized some U.S. policies. Watch Chavez speak at the U.N. General Assembly \u00bb . When asked whether he is misunderstood in the United States, Chavez seemed to turn reflective. \"I'm a man with many defects,\" he said. \"I love. I sing. I dream. I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother. My children, my two daughters are with me and I want a better world for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren. \"Now, they demonize me. But that's the start of these world campaigns to try to defend what you cannot defend -- a system that is destroying the world. ... I'm a Christian. I want the world of justice and equality. This is the only way to achieve peace.\" Chavez then talked about his religious upbringing and current faith. \"I was an altar boy,\" he said. \"My mother wanted me to be a priest. I am very Christian and Catholic. ... I'm very faithful. I believe in God, in Jesus Christ. I love Jesus Christ. I am a Christian. ... I cry when I see injustice, children dying of hunger.\" His comments were all the more remarkable because Chavez and the Catholic Church have been at odds since he came to power in 1999. The church has been one of his major critics, with Pope Benedict XVI and other church leaders expressing concern over what they see as attempts by Chavez to limit the church's influence. Chavez's efforts to change anti-abortion laws have been at the top of those concerns. Chavez, in turn, has referred to church leadership as a \"tumor.\" Speaking of other matters, Chavez said he hopes for improved relations with Obama, but \"we want relations based on respect, relations of peoples where we are respected.\" That has not been the case so far, he said. \"Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America,\" Chavez told King. \"They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations. It's enough. We want to be brothers and sisters. We want respect and equality.\" Chavez particularly criticized former President George W. Bush, whom he accused of orchestrating an assassination attempt on the Venezuelan leader during a short-lived coup in 2002. Chavez regained power within days. Watch Chavez discuss the alleged assassination attempt \u00bb . \"The Bush government toppled me,\" he said. \"They asked for my assassination. They disrespected us. ... I saw my assassins. ... I was a prisoner in Venezuela, being a president. They took me to the seaside. I was debating with those who wanted murder me. They received the order to kill me. However, at this very moment, a group of soldiers refused. They did not kill me, but I saw those who wanted to kill me, and the order came from the White House.\" Chavez also expressed concern that the United States, which he calls \"the empire,\" still would like to topple him. As he has numerous times in recent weeks, Chavez criticized U.S. plans to begin operating out of military bases in neighboring Colombia. The United States says it needs a presence in Colombia to fight drug traffickers. Chavez sees a sinister intent. When asked what country he fears would harm him, Chavez replied, \"The empire. The empire. Seven military bases ... in Colombia, that's a serious threat against Venezuela.\" Chavez also defended his relationship with Iran but denied having said that Iran would help Venezuela obtain nuclear technology. Iran has embarked on a nuclear program that the United States and other nations think will lead it to develop nuclear weapons before long. \"They have fooled you,\" Chavez said. \"I've never said that Iran is going to help us to have nuclear technology. ... That's a strategy to attack Venezuela and say that we are building an atomic bomb. That's the next accusation. And I'm going to say this now: Please, come on. That's crazy. That's crazy.\" Chavez said he does not agree with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contention that the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were killed during World War II, never existed. \"But there also was another holocaust in South America,\" Chavez said. \"I do not deny the Jewish Holocaust. And I condemn it. But in South America, when the Europeans arrived, there were close to 90 million Indians; 200 years later, we only had four million remaining. That was a holocaust. And the Europeans denied this holocaust.\" Israel came under criticism from Chavez, who called it a \"small country with atomic bombs, and very aggressive country. ... They have massacred entire families. It is a war-mongering country.\" Turning to the situation in his own country, Chavez denied that he is trying to shut down critical media, such as the independent Globovision TV station. Government officials have levied several charges against the station, saying that it is disseminating false information and trying to foment dissatisfaction against Chavez. The Chavez government has repealed licenses for other independent TV and radio stations, and has threatened to do so against Globovision. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter this week joined human rights groups and others who have expressed concern over what they see as Chavez becoming too authoritarian. Chavez dismissed the criticism. \"Never in Venezuela have we had so much freedom of speech as now,\" he said. Pressed by King about whether he is going to shut down Globovision, Chavez answered, \"I do not know. It depends on them. If they keep on sponsoring coup d'etats, if they keep on calling for my assassination, if they keep on breaching the law even as well, it is not Chavez that's going to close them. I want to apply the law. We need to respect the law. It is the law. It's out of logic, and it's pure logic.\" As to Carter, Chavez said, \"Yes, I read that and I regret for him, because I think he's totally confounded and lost. It's a long time since he visited us. I respect him enormously, but I think he is wrong. He's a victim of so much falsehood in the world.\"","highlights":"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he loves Jesus Christ, U.S. people, culture .\nChavez says he hopes for improved relations with U.S. President Barack Obama .\nHe denies he is trying to shut down critical media in Venezuela .\nHe denies Iran would help Venezuela obtain nuclear technology .","id":"b949b31b5a3fc573adb434abe61350e643455ec5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four boys ages 9 to 14 have been charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year old girl, police in Phoenix, Arizona, said Wednesday. The girl was lured into a vacant storage shed by the suspects, who offered her chewing gum, police said at a news conference. The girl was restrained while the boys -- ages 9, 10, 13 and 14 -- sexually assaulted her, police said of the July 16 incident. All the suspects except for the 14-year-old live in the same apartment complex, according to Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill. The 14-year-old has been charged as an adult, Hill said. Detectives said the girl was placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services after the attack because of her parents' attitude toward her. The girl and the boys charged are all from families that have come to the United States from the West African nation of Liberia, police said.","highlights":"Police in Phoenix, Arizona, say 8-year-old girl lured to vacant shed with gum .\nFour boys ages 9 to 14 have been charged with sexually assaulting girl .\nGirl placed in the custody of Phoenix child protective services .","id":"1dd6a867425e6d5418cd6bb314feebdc9737a123"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Doctors say an encephalitis outbreak has killed 130 people -- mostly children -- in northern India since January. The outbreak of acute encephalitis -- an inflammation of brain tissue -- is mostly concentrated in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, said V.S. Nigam, the state's nodal officer for tackling the disease. He told CNN that 640 patients had tested positive for the infection, including 30 with Japanese encephalitis, which is spread by mosquitoes. Acute encephalitis can be spread in various ways, including a bacterial or viral infection; the ingesting of toxic substances; and complications of a disease. The disease has mostly struck children up to 15 years old, Nigam added.","highlights":"Encephalitis outbreak has killed 130 people in northern India since January .\nOutbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh .\nEncephalitis, an inflammation of brain tissue, mostly affecting children under 15 .","id":"31458339bdc234319b487435da05c16fd8739dfd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on issues affecting communities across the country. County administrator Brenda T. Buck is trying hard to help create eight to 10 sawmill jobs for Jefferson County. FAYETTE, Mississippi (CNN) -- The odds are against Brenda T. Buck, and she knows it. So she counts on what she calls the Sandwich Philosophy: \"Take it one bite at a time.\" Buck is the county administrator in Jefferson County, a rural area in southwest Mississippi dotted with small churches, modest homes and markers noting a Civil War skirmish. \"It is a great small town, and everybody knows everybody,\" Buck says. If you look through the statistics, three things jump out: . \u2022 The Census Bureau lists the population of Jefferson County as 86 percent African American, the highest percentage of any county in the United States. \u2022 It is the fourth-poorest county in the United States, with a median income of $15,037. \u2022 The unemployment rate in August was 18.6 percent, the highest of Mississippi's 82 counties. \"It has not always been this way,\" says Angelia Shelvy, a single mother of three who is among the unemployed. \"I think we are forgotten.\" Shelvy had a job making $10,000 a year as a teacher's assistant, but she left it to take a job paying twice as much, signing on with a union that provides workers to nuclear power plants. Her parents agreed to care for her children when she had to travel, for months at a time, as far away as Arizona. Shelvy thought it was the right thing to do for her family, but phone calls to home at bedtime proved otherwise. Her 4-year-old, especially, had a rough time adjusting. \"I'm like, 'You have Granny.' He's like, 'No, I don't want Granny; I want you to hold me,' \" Shelvy told us. \"I missed Mother's Day twice; for two years I missed it. ... So I decided that it was more important for me to be here with my children.\" Back home now, she has been searching for work since March, looking as far as 90 minutes away from Fayette. \"I did Internet searching, different jobs, hospitals, different schools,\" she said. \"They're not hiring. They either say they are not hiring, or I'm not qualified. I don't have enough years of experience. 'We'll call you later.' 'Get back with us.' And it's been stressful for me.\" Buck spends hours a day trying to help, and most of her time with the Board of Supervisors is spent debating economic development ideas. At home, too, she is reminded of the bleak local jobs market. Her husband isn't there. He's working 900 miles away, at the moment, in Indiana. \"He works with a company that has been going into a lot of the car plants\" during refittings and downsizing, Buck said. \"We have four kids. ... He is here basically maybe a total combination of, maybe, two months out of the year.\" The county got a modest amount of federal money to buy new police cruisers. But its requests for stimulus money to improve its roads have been ignored, at least to date, and as Buck continues to press those requests, she also is pushing smaller economic development grants. Reliable Mat LLC is her current obsession. The screeching hum of a giant saw greets visitors, and inside the warehouse are dozens of pallets of neatly stacked firewood, waiting to be loaded on 18-wheelers and distributed across the country for the coming winter. On the grounds, there are 10 workers, some running giant logs through the saw, others stacking and wrapping the wood for shipment. On average, the men make about $100 day, and Paul Southerland, the company's general manager, says the noise and activity attracts others who are down on their luck. \"I see a lot of people come by looking for jobs, yeah,\" Southerland says during a tour of the grounds. The company's main product is giant wooden mats used to create flat surfaces to provide access -- on foot and in vehicles -- to oil and gas fields. All of the work has shifted to the firewood production because orders for the mats have dropped dramatically. \"Mississippi is always last to feel the effects of a recession, and most of the time it is the last to pick back up,\" Southerland said. \"It hit us about June. .. It really hit us hard, too.\" Still, Southerland expects orders to pick up early next year. He hopes to expand the business by then if the county secures an economic development grant to help him buy a bigger sawmill. \"If we had that sawmill, we would be able to add eight or 10 more folks,\" Southerland said. Eight or 10 more jobs might not seem like much in many places. But Jefferson County's population is just shy of 9,000, and when nearly one in five are unemployed, Buck invokes her Sandwich Philosophy. \"My short term goal is to get that grant, to get those eight people working,\" she says. \"My philosophy, when I walk through the doors in the morning, just like a sandwich: take one bite at a time.\" She also sees a bigger gain than just eight or 10 jobs. \"Just imagine, eight people, if it were eight men making $10 to $11 an hour could actually come home and be home at night with their families,\" she said. \"The impact that it would make not just from the economical standpoint but from the social standpoint. \"That father's presence there in that household and not having to travel so far. I mean you have a double whammy. It's a win-win for any family.\"","highlights":"Jefferson County is fourth-poorest in U.S.; the recession came late but hit hard .\nSometimes, breadwinners must leave state, and their families, to scrape by .\nCounty administrator Brenda T. Buck wants to bring jobs close to home .\nShe considers every new job created in her county a small victory .","id":"15096688fb681576d2632cb116fd56c00ceb7723"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Three independent United Nations human rights experts have accused Iran of torturing confessions from detainees charged with fomenting political unrest, the international organization said Thursday. Iranian opposition suspects cover their faces at a Revolutionary Court hearing in Tehran last week. \"No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of harsh interrogations or under torture,\" said Manfred Nowak, who is the U.N. special rapporteur on torture. The treatment of detainees at Iran's prisons has increasingly become a divisive issue within Iran's Islamic leadership, as reformists continue to accuse the hardline government of allowing abuse and torture in attempts to coerce false confessions. Iranian officials have denied the allegations. \"These confessions for alleged crimes such as threats against national security and treason must not, under any circumstances, be admitted as evidence by the Revolutionary Court,\" said El Hadji Malick Sow, vice chairman of the U.N.'s working group on arbitrary detention. The United Nations, in a news release, said the statements also reflect the position of Margaret Sekaggya, special U.N. rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. Iran is conducting a mass trial of about 100 Iranian defendants in its Revolutionary Court. Reformist politicians, lawyers and journalists are among those accused of protesting in an attempt to overturn government leadership. Among the defendants are Seyyed Mohammad Abtahi, a former Iranian vice president; Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian reporter for Newsweek magazine; and Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar. Street protests and a brutal government crackdown followed the June 12 presidential election, leading to the arrests of more than 1,000 people. The official death toll from the post-election unrest is 30, although opposition leaders have reportedly said it's more than twice that figure. On Wednesday, Iran's influential parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, dismissed allegations by Iran's opposition that post-election detainees were raped while in custody, according to state-run media. Larijani said that a special panel of Iran's parliament, or Majlis, conducted a \"precise and comprehensive inquiry\" into the treatment at Tehran's Evin and Kahrizak prisons, and found \"no cases of rape or sexual abuse,\" government-funded Press TV reported. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry also denied that prisoners had been tortured. \"What kind of talk is this? There was never any pressure used against these people,\" Hassan Qashqavi said Monday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. They were responding to accusations made by opposition candidate Mehdi Karrubi who, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election. Iran's election authority declared Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner of the race, sparking hundreds of thousands of Iranians to take to the streets in protest. Iranian opposition figures such as Karrubi have compared the treatment of the detainees to political prisoners abused under the \"oppressing regime\" of the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In an open letter to former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani posted Saturday on his party's Web site, Karrubi says an \"impartial committee\" is needed to \"investigate these tragedies with transparency until they are resolved.\" He said he is willing to lead the investigation in a \"truthful, unbiased fashion.\" \"Some of the former detainees have told of such brutal and violent, repeated rapes of the young women [in detention] that have caused irreparable damage to their reproductive systems,\" Karrubi says in the letter. \"Others have raped our detained young men with such brutality that they have been afflicted by depression and are no longer speaking with anyone and refuse to leave the dark corners of their houses.\" Larijani on Wednesday challenged Karrubi to \"present evidence of such outrages\" for the Majlis to investigate, according to Press TV. Iranian media has reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has ordered one prison, Kahrizak, shut down amid reports it did not measure up to the required standards. Kahrizak's chief was fired and arrested over allegations of detainee mistreatment, according to local reports Saturday.","highlights":"3 U.N. human rights experts say government tortured detained protesters .\nGovernment denies opposition detainees were abused into confessions .\nIran conducting a trial of about 100 Iranian defendants in its Revolutionary Court .\n1,000 people arrested, accused of fomenting unrest after June 12 election .","id":"29a7a58182b1190aaedb6741ee96636bfec84931"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A report from an Israeli advocacy group based on what it says is the testimony of several unnamed Israeli soldiers accuses the Israeli military of intentionally putting Palestinian civilians at risk during its recent operation in Gaza. Palestinian Majid Abed Raboh, left, shows Wednesday how he says Israeli soldiers used him as a human shield. The report, released Wednesday from a group called \"Breaking the Silence\" -- which includes former Israeli soldiers -- has been dismissed by the Israeli military as slanderous. In the 110-page report, the group said some of the 26 soldiers interviewed said they used Palestinians as human shields during the military's more than two-week long ground operation in Gaza earlier this year. \"In some cases a civilian would be forced to walk in front of soldier while the soldier places his gun barrel on the civilian's shoulder,\" the report states. Other soldiers talk about destroying buildings even though the structures posed no direct threat. They also said that white phosphorus was used in densely populated areas and describe the rules of engagement as \"permissive.\" Phosphorus shells can be used to create a smokescreen for troops. In creating the diversion, the element ignites when exposed to oxygen and can cause severe burns. International law calls on militaries to limit the use white phosphorus in civilian areas. Other organizations, including the United Nations' Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights, have criticized the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza. Israel has questioned the legitimacy of those claims, as well. The stories presented by Breaking the Silence are anonymous accounts which CNN cannot independently verify. The group said that the soldiers were not willing to speak with the media. In response to the report's allegations, the Israeli military said it complied with international law on all fronts. The advocacy group said many of the soldiers interviewed in its report are still serving and fear repercussions if they reveal their identity, and they did not take their complaints up the chain of command. The Israeli military has rejected the report, saying the anonymous nature of the testimonies means they lack credibility. \"There are no factual details, no places, no names of incidents in specific houses on a specific date,\" military spokesman Lt. Col. Avital Liebovitch said. \"I would be more than happy to be provided with these details and I will be able to investigate them.\" The Israeli military conducted its own investigation into soldiers' actions during Operation Cast Lead, its 22-day military offensive in January against the militant group Hamas in an effort to end ongoing rocket attacks. It found that Israeli forces \"operated in accordance with international law\" although there were a few incidents in which \"intelligence or operational errors\" occurred. Fighting left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead according to officials in Gaza, while Israel put that death toll closer to 1,100, saying more than 70 percent of those killed were Hamas militants. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the operation, including three civilians. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, responding to the report which was widely publicized in Israel, said the criticism was \"misplaced and misdirected.\" \"If someone has a criticism, or information or conclusions about IDF (Israel Defense Forces) actions, they should bring them to me, as minister of defense of the state of Israel, and to the Israeli government that instructed the IDF to restore quiet to the communities in the south,\" Barak said. \"The IDF is the most moral army in the world and it operates according to the highest ethical code.\" CNN did independently obtain corroborating detail on one anonymous claim in the report. Gaza resident Shafiq Daher told CNN earlier this week that he was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers during the recent Gaza military operation. His description of his experience closely matched an account given in the Breaking the Silence report. \"He was holding with all his strength like this and with his heavy machine gun on the other shoulder,\" said Daher, who demonstrated how the soldier walked behind him as they approached his neighbors' homes. The Israeli military would not comment on whether Palestinians were used as human shields in Gaza, saying only that there are dozens of ongoing internal investigations into individual soldier conduct. Daher, who lives in Jabaliya outside Gaza City, said he was forced to search his neighbors' homes this way for about a week, under heavy fire. He said he was also given a hammer and told to break through his neighbors' walls. \"I felt like a dead man walking,\" he said. \"I was walking and praying to God and thought this is what death is like.\"","highlights":"Israeli advocacy group bases report on testimony of unnamed Israeli soldiers .\nSoldiers say they used civilians as shields, phosphorus in crowded areas .\nSoldiers referring to operation in Gaza; between 1,100 and 1,400 Palestinians killed .\nIsraeli military calls report slanderous, lacking in credibility .","id":"7f22e8384a11ba4c4d6244da30c866010b9ae159"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Astounding. Risky. Quitter. And that's what fellow conservatives had to say Sunday about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her decision to step down with 18 months left in her term. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down this month. Democrats left it to Republican and conservative voices to assess what Friday's unexpected announcement by Palin means for her and a possible run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. For example, Vice President Joe Biden called it a personal decision, offering no analysis of why she did it. By contrast, those on the political right acknowledged that they didn't know what to make of it. Karl Rove, the \"architect\" of George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns, said the resignation left many of Palin's fellow Republicans \"a little perplexed.\" \"It's a risky strategy,\" Rove told \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"Astounding,\" was the pronouncement by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and conservative columnist George Will said Palin was declaring herself a quitter. Palin, who was Sen. John McCain's vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, said she already knew she would not seek a second term and decided against being a lame duck governor for the next 18 months. She also complained that too much time and too many taxpayer dollars were going toward fighting ethics investigations and that the mainstream media were continuing with unfair attacks on her and her family. Some analysts believe that Palin will seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and that her resignation is intended to free her to prepare. Rove, whom Bush dubbed \"the Architect\" for managing his successful presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, said stepping down now won't lessen the media spotlight on Palin. In fact, he said, leaving the governor's office takes away her platform for controlling her agenda and message. \"The media, if she wants to run for president, is going to be following her for the next 3\u00bd years,\" said Rove, who called the move unclear and therefore a potentially harmful strategy for a politician. \"Effective strategies in politics are ones that are so clear and obvious that people can grasp. ... It's not clear what she's doing and why.\" iReport.com: Share thoughts on Palin stepping down . Grassley told the CBS program \"Face the Nation\" that he had \"no insight into why she did it.\" \"I would think, if you want to run for president -- and I'm not sure that's got anything to do with what she's doing -- that the forum of a governorship would be a better forum than just being a private citizen,\" the veteran senator said. Will told the ABC program \"This Week\" that he had \"no idea why she did this.\" \"The one that rings most hollow is, she doesn't want to put Alaska through the terror of [her] being a lame-duck governor,\" Will said. \"If she is just weary of it, one can understand that. Still, she made a contract with [voters] to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter.\" Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska criticized Palin's decision as abandoning the state's voters. Palin defeated Murkowski's father the gubernatorial election in 2006. But Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, also on the Fox program, said Sunday that Murkowski's statement disappointed him because it failed to recognize all that Palin has accomplished in her 2\u00bd years in office. \"She doesn't need a title to effect change and bring some hope to people who need it,\" said Parnell, a Republican who stands to become governor when Palin steps down this month. iReport.com: Conservative says Palin decision \"not a smart move\" Palin had no public appearances Sunday, but she encouraged her followers via Twitter to ignore the pundits. \"Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to not run again,\" her Twitter message said. In an Independence Day message to supporters, Palin said she was leaving office for a \"higher calling.\" \"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country,\" Palin said in a statement attributed to her on her Facebook page. \"And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family.\" Palin said her administration had \"accomplished more during this one term than most governors do in two.\" \"We have accomplished so much, and there's much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most,\" she said. \"And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier. I've never been one to waste time or resources.\" iReport.com: \"No solid explanation\" from Palin . Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, noted that Palin will remain in the media spotlight regardless of whether she is governor. \"The challenge that she's going to have is that there will be people who will say, 'Look, if they chased you out of this, it won't get any easier at other levels,' \" Huckabee said. \"It could be a brilliant strategy. The point is, we don't know.\" Huckabee called a presidential campaign \"brutal\" and said a Republican primary will ratchet up the pressure on Palin. \"When your opponents within your own team spend millions of dollars to redefine you, it's very, very difficult,\" Huckabee said. CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand and Shirley Hung contributed to this story.","highlights":"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fellow conservatives question decision to resign .\nColumnist George Will says Palin is declaring herself a quitter .\nSome analysts believe move intended to free her to prepare for presidential run .\nPalin: Once I decided not to run for another term, I didn't want to be lame duck .","id":"4315325145def26d470d03825dd10d80309bb9b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A controversial bill that California legislators say would allow the early release of more than 27,000 inmates from crowded prisons will be taken up by the state Assembly on Monday. Inmates at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, interact in a gym modified to house them in August 2007. The Senate on Thursday passed the corrections package 21-19, after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, assured senators the changes would protect the public from the most violent offenders. The legislation also would direct more resources toward parolees, he said. Senate Republicans say the bill would undermine public safety. All 15 Senate Republicans voted against the measure. Both houses of the legislature are controlled by Democrats. Consideration of the bill comes as California faces a mid-September deadline for reducing its prison population by about 40,000 inmates. A special panel of three federal judges issued the order, contending the crowded prison system violates prisoners' constitutional rights. The judges said they will make the reductions themselves if the state fails to act. The measure would save the financially strapped state $524.5 million, according to a statement from Steinberg's office. When coupled with budget revisions that lawmakers made in July, the total corrections savings would be $1.2 billion, he said. That is the amount that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants as part of his efforts to cut state spending and balance the budget. Republicans said the bill would lead to the release of about 27,000 prisoners, while Democrats estimated it would reduce the prison population by 27,300 in the 2009-10 fiscal year and 37,000 during fiscal year 2010-11. \"It is undeniable that the real failure of our criminal justice system is that it fails to distinguish between violent offenders and nonviolent offenders,\" Steinberg said. \"Of course, we want to keep violent criminals off our streets and out of our communities, and this reform package is a necessary step to do that because it concentrates our incarceration efforts on the violent criminals and ensures that nonviolent offenders have more contact with parole officers,\" he said. Some nonviolent offenders could serve shorter sentences. According to Steinberg, each parole officer in California is responsible for about 70 parolees, many of whom recommit crimes and go back to jail. If the legislation is passed, the ratio would be reduced to 45 to 1, he said. \"They [parole officers] cannot adequately supervise those who are the most at risk and those who are the most risk to the public safety,\" Steinberg said. With a lesser workload, the officers also can make more home visits and arrange more meetings with the people they supervise, the lawmaker said. Senate Republicans called the legislation a threat to public safety. \"Among the inmates who could be eligible for early release under the Democrat plan include felons convicted of human trafficking, stalking, identity theft, violent child abuse and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction,\" the Republican Caucus said in a written statement. \"Unfortunately, this proposal exploits a fiscal crisis in order to advance a dangerous liberal agenda that seeks to undo successful anti-crime laws,\" said Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta. GOP lawmakers in the Senate also strongly opposed the creation of what they described as \"an unelected and unaccountable sentencing commission that would be given broad authority to alter important public safety laws.\" The legislation would establish a 16-member Sentencing Commission that would put in place new sentencing guidelines by July 1, 2012. Unless vetoed by the legislature and governor, the guidelines would become effective January 1, 2013. The 13 voting members of the commission would include the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, a judge appointed by the chief justice, the state public defender and the secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A crime victim would be among the three ex-officio members. California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, issued a statement early Friday morning, explaining that the assembly recessed around midnight and will reconvene Monday. On Thursday and into Friday morning, she said in the statement, \"we have been taking into account many of the concerns raised by law enforcement, and are working toward a bill that the people of California can agree makes sense,\" and that process will continue through the weekend. \"Our target remains a responsible approach that will achieve our public safety and budgetary goals, and allow us to prevent the wholesale release of prisoners by federal judges.\" \"Relieving prison overcrowding and reducing recidivism are monumental challenges, but they are challenges that we will not retreat from,\" Schwarzenegger told an audience of prosecutors in June. California has a 70 percent recidivism rate.","highlights":"California Senate OKs bill to allow early release of 27,000 inmates .\nState Assembly will take up measure, which would save $524 million, on Monday .\nDemocratic Senate official says changes would protect public from violent offenders .\nSenate Republicans call the legislation a threat to public safety .","id":"83255a717d4ccc7d15fa1543f8defa6610b70c5f"} -{"article":"CISHAN, Taiwan (CNN) -- Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday he accepts responsibility for the government's slow response after Typhoon Morakot slammed into the island killing at more than 120 people and unleashing floods, mudslides and misery. Mourners kneel and pray to the dead as they face the devastated valley of Shiao Lin. Ma, who has faced heavy criticism from victims of the disaster, ruled out resignation, insisting his government did its best in the face of difficulties, however he pledged an investigation into any irregularities. \"Certainly, I will take full responsibility whatever the blame is because, after all, I am the president of this country,\" Ma told CNN, saying heavy rains grounded rescue helicopters in the first few days after the storm hit, delaying relief. \"Once the weather was good -- that is the 14th of August -- we were able to evacuate 2,518 people. It's a record,\" he said. Hundreds of people still await rescue in remote areas of Taiwan, where torrential downpours, dense fog, rugged terrain and raging rivers have hampered relief efforts. Washed-out roads and collapsed bridges have made some rescue operations impossible . Touring disaster areas, Ma has been confronted by angry survivors, and even provoked a scuffle when he opened a weekend baseball game as protesters demanded he step down. Ma has offered apologies and promises to do better. \"We will find out not only to correct the mistakes but (also) to punish the people responsible,\" he said. Rescue efforts were ongoing Sunday with military helicopters bringing stranded villagers to their waiting relatives. Watch rescue efforts in Taiwan \u00bb . Others, waiting days in anguish for word on their loved ones, lashed out in anger. \"Local officials don't care,\" one man said. \"There are still people there and they don't do anything.\" On Saturday, weeping relatives of typhoon victims set up shrines near devastated villages to calm the spirits of the dead and honor the belief that their souls will return home after seven days. Watch mourners call home souls of the dead \u00bb . Morakot hit the island last weekend, dropping 2.6 meters (102 inches) of rain. Before it roared on to mainland China on Sunday, the storm killed at least 123 people in Taiwan. The death toll could climb to more than 300 after more villagers buried by mudslides and floodwaters are found, Taiwan officials have said. Southern and central Taiwan were hardest hit by the storm. Mudslides inundated some places in the south, including the village of Shiao Lin, where 160 homes were lost. Authorities believe hundreds of people could be trapped under five stories of mud in the village. International aid efforts were mobilizing on Sunday, however these were complicated by diplomatic pitfalls in the face of China's territorial claims over Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province awaiting reunification. The U.S. military has begun a \"modest\" humanitarian aid mission to Taiwan with the dispatch of a Marine Corps C-130 cargo plane carrying plastic tarpaulins for shelter, U.S. defense officials said. Also Sunday, the USS Denver was en route to the Taiwanese coast with additional humanitarian aid and water purification capabilities, the officials said. The Navy ship is expected to arrive Monday, but officials could not say when it will launch its heavy-lift helicopters to drop the aid. Sources in Washington have said in providing aid to Taiwan, the United States must be sensitive to its territorial relationship with China. CNN's John Vause in Cishan, Taiwan; Pauline Chiou in Shiao Lin, Taiwan; and Mike Mount in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taiwan's leader says he takes blame for slow typhoon response .\nMa Ying-jeou has refused to stand down over criticism .\nTyphoon killed 123 people in Taiwan and left many thousands homeless .","id":"6cfff15a98b3a548aad4a5008309e0d964e8cb1b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inspectors have found \"nothing unusual\" in the rest of Southwest Airlines' fleet of 737-300s after a football-sized hole in one of the jets forced an emergency landing, an airline spokeswoman said Tuesday. The breach in the aircraft's fuselage caused a loss of cabin pressure. No passengers were injured. The airline inspected its roughly 200 Boeing 737-300s overnight following the incident that forced Southwest Flight 2294 to make an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia. A sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy, but there were no injuries among the 126 passengers or the five-member crew. Marilee McInnis, a Southwest spokeswoman, said the jets were inspected during non-operational hours overnight, and the cause of the incident remained unknown Tuesday morning. The airline is working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the matter, she said. Flight 2294 was at 34,000 feet, en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to Baltimore, Maryland, when the incident happened, McInnis said. See map of flight path \u00bb . \"About 45 minutes into the flight, there was a loud pop. No one really knew what it was,\" passenger Steve Hall told CNN Radio. Watch as passenger describes watching the hole form \u00bb . The plane landed in Charleston at 5:10 p.m. after the crew reported the sudden drop in cabin pressure, which caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy. \"We were seated about two rows back from the wing, and four rows back you heard this loud rush and your ears popped, and you could tell that part of the inside was trying to pull out,\" passenger Sheryl Bryant told CNN affiliate WBAL-TV upon arriving in Baltimore aboard a replacement plane. \"And it was crazy -- the oxygen masks dropped,\" she continued. She put her mask on her face, then helped her 4- and 6-year-old children with theirs, she said. Bryant tried to stay calm and reassure her children, she said. Watch Bryant's account of acting brave \u00bb . \"My kids and I, we prayed, and then we said, you know, life will be fine,\" she said. Bryant praised the flight crew and ground personnel for keeping passengers informed and for giving clear instructions. \"We have a tremendous talent represented in the pilots and the flight crew,\" another passenger, Pastor Alvin Kibble, told WBAL-TV. \"I think we need to value them far more than perhaps what we do. It's very easy for us to begin to take things for granted.\" The damaged aircraft was still parked at Charleston's Yeager Airport on Tuesday, when NTSB officials arrived to inspect the plane, airport spokesman Brian Belcher said. A complete inspection could take one to two days, and investigators are expected to interview the passengers and crew as well, he said. The airline is \"doing things\" for the affected passengers on Monday's flight, but McInnis would not say whether they would receive refunds. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said. \"There is no responsible way to speculate as to a cause at this point,\" Southwest said in a statement Monday night. \"We have safety procedures in place, and they were followed in this instance to get all passengers and crew safely on the ground,\" the airline said. \"Reports we have are that our passengers were calm and that our pilots and flight attendants did a great job getting the aircraft on the ground safely.\" CNN's Shawn Nottingham and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Southwest inspects all its 737-300 aircraft after one develops hole midflight .\nPassengers describe ordeal, praise professionalism of flight crew .\nBaltimore-bound Southwest jet makes emergency landing in West Virginia .\nFootball-sized hole in fuselage causes cabin to depressurize, oxygen masks to drop .","id":"1c47369a06a37a7822d026342c445879748e7a8f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Richard Phillips, the cargo-ship captain whose capture by pirates triggered a dramatic U.S. Navy rescue off the coast of Africa, called on the federal government Thursday to provide military escorts for international shipping vessels. Capt. Richard Phillips, left, and John Clancy, the head of Maersk Line Ltd., testify before a Senate committee. Testifying before a key Senate committee, Phillips conceded there may not be sufficient resources to do that. He also said arming vessels' crews could deter pirates, but should only be allowed in limited circumstances. Phillips was in command of the Maersk Alabama when it was boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia on April 8. Phillips said the optimum situation for cargo vessels would be to have military escorts. He said he realizes there is a limit to government resources that can be deployed in the vast area off the Somali coast and the Horn of Africa. See map of attacks \u00bb . Phillips told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he would not be opposed to having private security forces on a vessel, but \"very clear protocols would have to be established and followed. ... In the heat of an attack, there can be only one final decision-maker.\" Phillips said that, in his opinion, arming a ship's crew \"cannot and should not be viewed as the best or ultimate solution to the problem. ... To the extent we go forward in this direction, it would be my personal preference that only a limited number of individuals aboard the vessel should have access to weapons, and they should be specially trained.\" He warned that \"even this limited approach to arming the crews opens up a very thorny set of issues. ... We all must understand that having weapons aboard a merchant marine ship fundamentally changes the model of commercial shipping and we must be very cautious about how it is done.\" When the Maersk Alabama was seized, Phillips, 53, offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew. He tried to escape the next day, jumping into the ocean in an effort to reach a nearby U.S. Navy ship. He was rescued April 12 when Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed three pirates holding him captive on a lifeboat. John Clancy, the head of Maersk Line Ltd., said arming sailors could potentially worsen the current situation off the African coast. \"Arming merchant sailors may result in the acquisition of even more lethal weapons and tactics by the pirates in a race that merchant sailors cannot win,\" Clancy told the committee. \"In addition, most ports of call will not permit the introduction of firearms into the national waters,\" he noted. Clancy said the solution to piracy must ultimately be an international one. He pointed out that most of the vessels that face a piracy threat do not fly the U.S. flag. He also noted that most of the naval vessels assigned to counter piracy off the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden are not from the United States. Somali pirate attacks in and around the heavily traveled Gulf of Aden have risen dramatically in the past few years. Pirates have been able to successfully demand ransoms for millions of dollars from shipping companies -- for whom it makes business sense to pay in order to free their crews and many millions of dollars more worth of cargo. The attack on the Alabama was the first successful attack on a U.S.-flagged ship during that time. \"The renewed threat of piracy demands a multifaceted, multinational effort, one that coordinates the world's naval powers, the United Nations, the international shipping community, and the nations that border Somalia,\" said Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, at the start of the committee's hearing. \"International law is clear in its condemnation of piracy. This is an opportunity for all nations to come together and work in order to effectively respond.\" Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the committee, stated that the \"root cause of this problem is the breakdown of law and order in Somalia, which is what allows the pirates to operate from shore with impunity.\" Lugar warned that \"the existence of failed states directly threatens the national security interests of the United States.\" Meanwhile, the bodies of the three pirates killed by the Navy SEALs were turned over to Somali authorities Thursday, according to a U.S. defense official with knowledge of the matter but not authorized to speak about it. The bodies were being held on the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer until the U.S. State Department could arrange a transfer. The official said the bodies were turned over to police authorities from Puntland, a self-declared autonomous state in northern Somalia. Two police boats from the Puntland town of Bosasso met the Boxer to receive the bodies, the official said. It was unclear if the bodies will be returned to family members.","highlights":"Capt. Richard Phillips rescued earlier in April from pirates off Somalia's coast .\nArming crews under certain circumstances could deter pirates, he said .\nPhillips told Senate committee best solution is military escorts .\nBreakdown of law and order in Somalia at root of piracy says Sen. Richard Lugar .","id":"cc0d5a9529e8971468e146cd91d1d9e352bbf7c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard invaded Kuwait in 1990, they brought back some unusual war booty to Baghdad: tapes of the region's \"Sesame Street\" show. Troops also took a Muppet camel. Haneen and Karim are two of the Muppet stars in \"Shara'a Simsim,\" the Palestinian version of \"Sesame Street.\" The camel, Cookie Monster and the other Sesame friends immediately became permanent POWs in Iraq. \"To this day, they've never been recovered,\" Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell said. \"That's how much the show is loved there.\" That \"kidnapping\" is just one example of Sesame Street's devoted global following. And Sesame is trying to use that following to foster a culture of understanding worldwide, beginning with children. In the Palestinian territories, Muppets teach nonviolence on a local version of Sesame Street called \"Shara'a Simsim.\" Sesame Workshop calls this effort \"Muppet diplomacy.\" \"This means using our characters -- characters children love and parents trust -- to bridge some of the world's most intractable divides,\" Knell said. \"Muppets give children, and the parents who watch the show with them, a chance to explore other cultures from the safety of their living room, where no one will criticize them for being curious.\" Daoud Kuttab, executive producer of \"Shara'a Simsim,\" knows that the Muppets are highly effective communicators. \"Anything the Muppets do, anything they say, any idea they transmit, the children accept.\" Watch a clip from the Palestinian version of \"Sesame Street\" \u00bb . An internationally respected Palestinian journalist, Kuttab began working with the show more than a decade ago. After covering the war-torn region for years, he realized that Sesame was a great way to reach Palestinian children who desperately needed an alternative to the harsh lessons they were absorbing. \"I would say 3-, 4-, 5-year olds -- if we don't catch them at that early age, we do risk losing them to all kinds of propaganda, whether it's conservative, religious or fundamentalist,\" Kuttab said. Hamas television runs a weekly program for kids, that sometimes preaches violent resistance. \"They have to be willing, prepared for the future. And that's why the Palestinians are showing seriousness,\" said Ahmed Yousef, a political leader in Hamas, the party in power in Gaza. \"To keep our dignity and our independence, we have to sacrifice our life. We are either victorious, or we die for the good cause.\" With some funding from the U.S. State Department and guidance from the U.S. producers, Kuttab's team developed the Sesame program into something uniquely Palestinian, complete with live-action segments filmed in the West Bank and Gaza, a set that looks like a typical Palestinian street and Muppets named Haneen and Karim. Watch Palestinian Americans trying to instill peace in society's youngest members \u00bb . \"We are interested in teaching tolerance, respect, pride in their own country and their own nation, and also in understanding that there are people who are different, and that's OK,\" Kuttab said. Worldwide influence . Sesame's influential roots go back decades. The creators of \"Sesame Street\" launched the show in the 1960s to fill a gap in American education. Studies had presented compelling evidence that solid early education was vital for a child's later learning; still, public pre-kindergartens were scarce, and early education was rarely available to underprivileged children. Although it was designed to address an American need, Sesame Street had immediate global appeal. In the 1970s, German producers put their version of the show on air. Today, children in 120 countries watch some version of \"Sesame Street.\" \"When I saw [Sinn Fein leader] Gerry Adams wearing a Cookie Monster watch,\" Sesame Workshop's Knell said, \"I knew we had made it in Northern Ireland.\" The program has always found fun and funny ways to teach reading and counting. But interspersed with those ABCs and 123s are lessons in cooperation, tolerance and mutual respect. It wasn't by accident that Sesame was a multiracial street as far back as the 1960s. Its creators wanted children to understand that integration was OK, a message so controversial at the time that \"Sesame Street\" was banned by some TV stations in the U.S. South. Those social messages help explain Sesame Street's appeal to television programmers around the globe. Still, what's an important issue in one country may not be in another. That's why Sesame Workshop has helped local producers create customized versions of the show in more than 20 countries. In South Africa, for instance, a country where one in nine children is an AIDS orphan, \"Takalani Street\" producers pushed to create a Muppet who is HIV-positive while the South African government was still coming to grips with the country's AIDS epidemic. \"The local producers knew it was important for children to see an AIDS orphan who still has a sunny disposition and lots of friends, even while being very open that she is infected,\" Knell said. \"This had a great impact on destigmatizing people with the disease.\" In Tanzania, Muppets teach malaria prevention. In Egypt, Muppets stress the importance of girls' education. Haneen and Karim . In the Palestinian version, \"Shara'a Simsim,\" direct references to the region's political situation are not included. The Muppets like Haneen and Karim show pride in their own culture but also understanding that there are differences in the world. And Karim, an upbeat young rooster Muppet, aims to provide a healthy role model for boys. \"Boys are a problem in our society. They see their parents being humiliated. They think they are the men of the house and have to do something about it. But they can't do anything,\" Kuttab said. \"We're trying to tell them, 'your energy is OK, but let's channel it in a different way.' \" Live-action segments introduce children to Palestinians who have channeled their energy into becoming teachers, doctors or business owners -- people, Knell says, \"who can act as role models, people who strive to remove themselves from the hardships children see.\" Sesame Workshop hopes to expand this type of localized programming into other areas that have witnessed recent conflict, such as Pakistan. Perhaps that means Iraq will get its own show someday and won't have to hold on to someone else's.","highlights":"Children in 120 countries watch some version of \"Sesame Street\"\nSesame is trying to use that following to foster a culture of understanding .\nThe Palestinian version is called \"Shara'a Simsim\"","id":"9f4791ced4021d4f2d6c6298a4e9bc25b9469cc7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Don't let Jack Johnson fool you. Jack Johnson makes sure his business and his concert venues are environmentally friendly. Tabbed as a \"mellow rocker\" by perhaps one too many publications, the chart-topping singer-songwriter has a fire within that belies his laid-back manner -- a fire that extends to his company, Brushfire Records, and his environmental activism. Johnson started the record label in 2002 \"as a way to put out soundtracks for surf movies we were making,\" he says. \"Then our friends G. Love and Special Sauce were coming to the end of their record deal with another label, and the idea came up to put out their stuff.\" The Hawaii-based artist -- whose latest album \"Sleep Through the Static\" hit No. 1 in the U.S. and sold over 2 million albums worldwide -- has continued to assemble talent. The label's roster now includes indie-rockers Rogue Wave, folk-pop musician Mason Jennings and keyboardist Money Mark. Johnson says the record label is not driven by dollar signs. \"We never try to talk anybody into joining the label, but we just offer a lot of creative control over all their music and a fairer deal than with most other labels,\" he explains. Watch Johnson, Zach Gill and Money Mark perform \"Hope\" \u00bb . Rogue Wave frontman Zach Schwartz is one of the converts. \"The music business is traditionally pretty cutthroat, nasty and evil, but [with Brushfire], it is not that way,\" he tells CNN. \"You can make the music you want to make.\" Still, even in these major-label-dominated times, artist-friendly labels aren't unusual; Dave Matthews has also attracted talent with his ATO Records. It's in making Brushfire a model of green business that Johnson and his colleagues have stood out. As keen environmentalists, Johnson and his team have required Brushfire and its distributors to engage in earth-friendly implementations that have influenced others in the record business. \"The music is one thing, but there is this business side,\" says Zach Gill, a Brushfire solo artist and member of Johnson's touring band. \"I think more and more businesses are saying, 'Yeah, we want to be responsible. Responsible to our employees. Responsible for the waste our company generates.' We're starting to see that a lot in all kinds of businesses, not just in music,\" he says. Watch Gill and Johnson perform \"Family\" \u00bb . Entertainment industry giant Universal Music Group -- the largest family of record labels in the recording industry -- has taken notice. Under Brushfire's direction, UMG uses recycled stock on all of the packaging for its releases, including movies, ensuring that the paper is as environmentally friendly as possible. Some is even made using wind power. Moreover, Brushfire's artists have exerted their eco-influence on venues and promoters for concert tours worldwide. The tour rider, a checklist of artists' requirements at each venue, usually consists of specific brands of beer or (in one case involving Jennifer Lopez) the way the coffee is stirred. Brushfire uses an EnviroRider, a handbook of eco-friendly options and actions for various components of concert tour production. \"It gets augmented every year. What started out as suggestions are now becoming requirements [for us to play at a venue],\" says Johnson. Johnson and his management also created All At Once, a social action network that provides tools and information to people who want to become more involved in their community and worldwide. Visitors to the All At Once area at tour venues will be rewarded with exclusive music downloads by their favorite Brushfire artists. Johnson's charity, Ohana Charitable Foundation, will match any donation (up to $2,500) to nonprofits made by fans at the shows or online. \"We shrink our carbon footprint always, but we have all these nonprofit groups that we all work with,\" says Johnson. \"Money from the shows goes to these groups and helps bolster their memberships so that after we leave the town, these groups can continue to do good things. So more than just lessening our negative [environmental] impact, it's actually leaving a positive impact [wherever we tour],\" says Johnson. Additional actions taken by Brushfire tours will include fueling tour vehicles with sustainable biodiesel, offering eco-friendly merchandise, working with venues to create waste management programs, onsite recycling and encouraging fans to use alternative transportation. Back at home, Brushfire has adopted a similar strategy. All the power for the recording studios and the offices is generated by solar panels. Insulation is supplied by cotton from scraps of blue jeans. Energy-efficient lighting runs throughout the building. Second-hand furniture is all you will find in its offices. The mission resonates with the other artists on the label's roster. \"For me, it's so great to be a part of the label because so many people provide information about what we can do to make it better -- touring more efficiently, biodiesel -- stuff like that,\" says Jennings. \"I'm learning a ton being around those guys.\" At bottom, the atmosphere of collaboration and common purpose is rooted in the shared love of music, says Gill. \"Music is the great synchronizer. They've become quite a wonderful community to be a part of. I feel grateful to Jack for having the idea to bring together all these like-minded people to make music together,\" he says. Johnson agrees. \"It's everything. It is the whole reason to play music. I learn so much from playing with these other musicians,\" he says.","highlights":"Jack Johnson has artist-friendly record label, Brushfire Records .\nJohnson also puts green interests at forefront .\nSinger-songwriter's new album is \"Sleep Through the Static\"","id":"c99b8d586d7f483f1ddca66df2c5787fb7e2c26d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From the mid-1980s, Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist George Soros pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into foundations in Eastern Europe dedicated to promoting the idea of the \"open society\" and challenging the region's Soviet-backed regimes. Here, writing exclusively for CNN.com, he describes how the work of his foundations ultimately contributed to the collapse of communism. A Soviet tank rolls through Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist domination. I set up my first foundation in Hungary in 1984. The idea behind it was simple. The state dogma, promoted by the ruling communists, was false and by providing an alternative we could expose its falsehood. Accordingly we supported every cultural initiative that was not an expression of the established dogma. I was guided by the concept of the \"open society,\" which I adopted from the philosopher Karl Popper. I saw the open society as a more sophisticated form of social organization than the totalitarian closed societies of the Soviet bloc. The latter were trying to implement central plans; in an open society every individual or organization was supposed to implement their own plan. To make the transition from a closed to an open society would require outside help and that was what my foundations sought to provide. In Hungary the authorities insisted on having a controlling presence on the foundation's board. We eventually agreed to appoint two chief executives, one nominated by them and one by me. The project succeeded beyond my expectations. With very small amounts of money people could engage in a wide variety of civic initiatives ranging from self-governing student colleges to zither clubs. One of our first projects was to offer photocopying machines to cultural and scientific institutions in exchange for local currency. We used the money to give out local grants and support all kinds of unofficial initiatives, but the photocopying machines also did a lot of good. Up until then, the few existing copy machines were literally held under lock and key -- as more and more became available, the Party apparatus lost control of the machines and the dissemination of information. We did not have to exercise direct control. Civil society watched over the foundation. For instance, we were warned that a blind association, to whom we gave a grant for talking books, was stealing some of the money. With a budget of $3 million, the foundation had more influence on the cultural life of Hungary than the Ministry of Culture. Carried away my success in Hungary, by 1988 I had set up foundations in Poland, China and the Soviet Union. I think that I could have influenced General Jaruzelski in Poland to change his attitude toward the opposition and to see that dissidents such as Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron were also patriots despite their criticism of the ruling party. As the Soviet empire collapsed, and eventually the Soviet Union and also Yugoslavia disintegrated, we continued to expand. By 1992 there were foundations in 22 countries and expenditure had reached $53 million. A year later we were spending nearly $184 million. Right at the beginning, I had a disagreement with the Polish board about the way the foundation should be run. But that taught me a lesson. They were right and I was wrong. I realized that the people living there understood their country better than I did and I deferred to their judgment. It did not always work. In Bulgaria, a board member who made his name as a human rights activist turned out to be a racist. A Latvian businessman sought to hijack the foundation for nationalist purposes. It was the Russian foundation that gave us the most trouble; we had to reorganize it twice. But the foundations were the first out of the gate everywhere. I remembered the lesson my father who had lived through the Russian Revolution in Siberia taught me: In revolutionary times things that are normally impossible become possible. In Ukraine, we set up the Ukrainian Renaissance Foundation before Ukraine became independent. In Tajikistan, we persevered with the foundation during the five-year civil war although we had no way of controlling its activities. Our impact was the greatest during that turbulent period. When I set up the foundations in Eastern Europe I hoped the open societies of the West would follow in my footsteps, but in that regard I was disappointed. Unwilling to burden their own budgets, they gave the job to the International Monetary Fund, which was ill suited to the task. The IMF was accustomed to signing letters of intent with governments, making the continuation of their programs conditional on the governments fulfilling their obligations. The countries of Eastern Europe fared better, but in the former Soviet states one after another, the programs largely failed. East Germany was the exception: West Germany was willing to make the sacrifices that were necessary to integrate it. Eventually, the countries of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, also made the grade when the European Union gave them accession. But the rest of the former Soviet Union in the Caucasus and Central Asia never succeeded in making the transition. This has left a bitter legacy. Rightly or wrongly, both the rulers and the people of Russia harbor a deep resentment against the West, which the West has not come to grips with. The new order in Moscow that has emerged out of the chaos of the 1990s is very far from an open society. It is an authoritarian regime that preserves the outward appearances of democracy but derives its power from its control of Russia's national resources. It uses those resources to maintain itself in power, to personally enrich the rulers, and to exercise influence over its neighborhood, both in Europe and in the former Soviet sphere. But the ideal of an open society is difficult to suppress and I have not given up hope.","highlights":"Financier George Soros funded eastern European dissident groups in 1980s .\nSoros: In revolutionary times things normally impossible become possible .\nSoros set up first foundation in Hungary in 1984; by 1992 foundations in 22 countries .\nWest failed many post-communist states; Russia again an authoritarian regime .","id":"b517651873238945ddc4abd7ea7e83c4baef02b9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI says it found child pornography on a computer used by the man charged with the fatal shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum June 10. Museum shooting suspect James von Brunn remains in a Washington hospital. In court documents filed Wednesday, an investigator says the pornography was found on a desktop computer during a search of an Annapolis, Maryland, apartment where 88-year old James von Brunn had been living for the past two years. The documents did not provide details about the pornography, but investigators requested permission to make a more extensive search of the computer and others found in von Brunn's home. Von Brunn has been charged with the murder of museum security guard Stephen Johns. The white supremacist was shot in the face after two other security officers returned fire. He remains in a Washington hospital. The FBI also searched a red Hyundai that law enforcement officials say von Brunn left double-parked in front of the museum right before the shooting. In separate documents also filed on Wednesday, investigators say they found 35 rounds of live ammunition for a .22 caliber rifle. Officials allege von Brunn used a .22 caliber rifle, which was found at the scene, to shoot Johns in the chest. According to paperwork detailing the car search, investigators found business cards advertising a USS Liberty Web site that claims Israeli forces \"suddenly and brutally\" attacked the U.S. Navy vessel in international waters in 1967. Investigators also found business cards for von Brunn's own Web site, which hosts postings of white supremacist writings. Among other items found in the car were a disabled parking permit, mouthwash, a salt shaker and a roll of quarters totaling $7.25. Earlier this week investigators filed papers saying among the items discovered in von Brunn's apartment was a painting that appeared to depict Hitler and Jesus. They also found a .30-30 rifle, ammunition and a handwritten will.","highlights":"Computer found in apartment of 88-year old James von Brunn .\nFBI asks for more extensive search of the computers found in von Brunn's home .\nFBI also searches von Brunn's car; finds ammunition for .22 caliber rifle .","id":"4e30a289fac01343b33ab3f65cc17cab471eafa0"} -{"article":"FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (CNN) -- Marylisa Miller has spent much of her two decades as an Army wife bracing for the worst. But now the pressure is higher, as both her husband and their 20-year-old son are serving together in Afghanistan. Pfc. Martin Miller, left, and his dad, Sgt. 1st Class Martin Miller, serve in the same Army squadron in Afghanistan. It's rare, but not unheard of: Sgt. 1st Class Martin Miller and his son Pfc. Martin Miller have deployed as part of the same squadron of about 500 soldiers. Their brigade -- based at North Carolina's Fort Bragg -- is among the first specifically assigned to train Afghan security and military forces. \"If the phone rings in the middle of the night, I answer it no matter what,\" said Marylisa Miller. \"You never know. It could be the last call.\" Watch the Millers talk about serving together \u00bb . The Miller men -- both paratroopers -- didn't really plan to march shoulder-to-shoulder into harm's way. It just sort of happened that way. \"I pretty much have always wanted to be in the Army,\" said Pfc. Miller, who remembers watching his dad leap out of military aircraft with other soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division. \"I guess watching him do it -- it looked cool,\" he said. Shortly before they deployed in August, the Millers revisited family memories at Fort Bragg's Wilson Park -- the same spot where the couple picnicked with their toddler son and daughter years ago. Telling family stories, the Millers laughed about old snapshots showing the future private first class as a boy -- standing at parade rest while his father spoke to him. \"When I scolded him and his sister, I taught them to stand at parade rest,\" Sgt. Miller explained. \"Then their punishment would be laps, flutter kicks, push-ups and sit-ups. It taught discipline and put them in good shape.\" After high school, dad convinced his son to try a year of college first. Soldiers with college degrees go further in the service, Sgt. Miller said. But a year later it was clear the young man's interests were in the Army. After all, growing up with a warrior father tends to influence a boy. Sgt. Miller did what he could to have his son stationed at Fort Bragg. He ended up in the same squadron. The father and son describe themselves as close. \"Yeah, we're always doing something together,\" Pfc. Miller said. \"We go out and party together and we fish and ride motorcycles.\" Walking together wearing red Airborne berets marked with their distinctive squadron flashes, the Millers talked about what it means to be a military family and how this life of service often extends to civilian spouses and children. \"Back when I was a kid, there were a lot of people who saw the Army as something good,\" said Sgt. Miller, 46, who enlisted a year out of high school. \"Everybody should do a little bit for their country.\" Although the Millers serve in the same squadron, they are in different troops -- and therefore don't share the same chain of command. \"He can't work directly for me,\" Sgt Miller said. \"Family members are not supposed to work directly for other family members. But my platoon possibly would work with his.\" Unlike his previous tours of duty, Sgt. Miller now bears two heavy burdens: command and fatherhood. The possibility that his son could lose his life while serving in the same squadron has crossed his mind. \"If something happens to him, I can still function, but it won't be pretty,\" the sergeant said. \"But knowing others depend on me, I can't get all broken up about it. If something were going to happen to him, I'd probably break when I got back.\" 'Navy brat' Marylisa Miller has known the military since birth. She is the seventh of eight \"Navy brats\" born to a father who chose a sailor's life and moved his family from assignment to assignment. In the early '80s she met the man who would be her warrior husband. Shyly, she said they met in a bar. \"It wasn't a bar,\" her husband said, smiling. \"They say she's kind of like me: kind of hard-headed, a little bit stubborn and not afraid to voice my opinion.\" Marylisa laughed about their first meeting: \"I was trying to get him interested in my sister.\" Instead, she and Martin \"just clicked.\" They married six months later. Sgt. Miller has served in Cold War Europe, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. He said being away from his wife doesn't get any easier. \"After you hit the 12-month mark, and then it turns into 15, it feels like forever after that,\" he said. The Millers have chosen a life in which Marylisa may not hear her husband's voice for three or four months at a time. Over the years, she said, she has learned to rely on herself. \"He would come home from deployments and say, 'Let me help you,' and I'd say 'No, because when you're not here, who's going to do it for me?' \" \"I have to learn how to be independent, so I try to tell everybody else to learn how to do it yourself,\" Marylisa said. \"You can't always rely on them.\" 'I don't want to think about if the phone's gonna ring' She stays busy. At Fort Bragg, Marylisa is the co-leader of a Family Readiness Group, the Army's support group aimed at helping spouses, children and others make the best of difficult military deployments. \"I always like to be involved in everything,\" she said, laughing. \"That way you get to hear the information firsthand.\" The network of Army families provides a conduit of information on deployments and upcoming events. FRGs offer Marylisa a way to help other families. \"We have a lot of new families in the troop,\" she said. \"Some of them are young and we try to guide them in the right direction. When someone gets hurt, we're all right there to jump in. It's like an extended family.\" She recalled an FRG request to help a young Army wife with a newborn baby. \"I jumped in and baby-sat her child,\" she said. \"She didn't know me from the man in the moon.\" Volunteering keeps her away from TV news and its reminders that terrible events could be moments away. \"I don't want to think about if the phone's going to ring or if there's going to be that knock on the door.\" 'I should have been dead' The Millers' 4th Brigade Combat Team will be the first such unit designated for \"security force assistance\" in Afghanistan, said an Army spokeswoman. The brigade will train Afghan forces to battle Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. In the past, this kind of mission was given to small teams of advisers who were trained in the United States and then deployed in the region. This is the first time an entire brigade has been given this mission, according to the Army. The sergeant has embraced the view that there's nothing much a soldier can do except depend on his or her training to stay safe. \"I've had mortars come within 20 meters of me and not get a scratch out of it. I should have been dead,\" Sgt. Miller said. \"You see something happen like that and you know it's not your time until it's your time.\" His son, not long out of jump school -- he has just seven jumps to his credit -- said he's not worried about himself or his father. \"He ain't gonna die. He's too old for it now,\" Pfc. Miller joked. \"He has deployed too many times. He knows the secrets.\"","highlights":"The Millers, father-and-son soldiers, serve in the same squadron in Afghanistan .\nFort Bragg-based brigade is among first to train Afghan forces against Taliban .\n\"I've had mortars come within 20 meters ... I should have been dead,\" dad says .\n\"Navy brat\" mom co-leads Army support group to distract her from fears .","id":"a98c702bea39a40fea315d1c34c90d311bf01b63"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pregnant women in Peru are dying at scandalous rates, according to the author of an Amnesty International report into maternal mortality in the South American country. Vertical births where women are kneeling or crouching and holding on to a rope are common in Peru. The report, \"Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru\" found that hundreds of poor, rural and indigenous pregnant women are dying because they are being denied the same health services as other women in the country. It also concluded that the government's response to tackling the problem was inadequate. Peruvian government figures state 185 in every 100,000 women die in child birth, but the United Nations says the number is much higher at 240, which makes it one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas. In wealthy developed nations, only nine women die for every 100,000 births. The five main causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Peru are hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, infection, complications following abortion and obstructed birth, according to Peru's Ministry of Health figures. Amnesty's Peru researcher Nuria Garcia said in a statement: \"The rates of maternal mortality in Peru are scandalous. The fact that so many women are dying from preventable causes is a human rights violation. \"The Peruvian state is simply ignoring its obligation to provide adequate maternal healthcare to all women, regardless of who they are and where they live.\" Garcia added: \"Health services for pregnant women in Peru are like a lottery: if you are poor and indigenous, the chances are you will always lose.\" Amnesty's report highlighted the case of Criselda, a 22-year-old indigenous woman from the country's Huancavelica Department, one of the poorest regions of the country. While seven months pregnant, she fell and hurt herself, and after feeling pains, she went to the health post for a check-up. The doctor said she was fine and sent her away but she miscarried two days later, according to the report. The report found that so many women are dying because they face a number of barriers, including a lack of health staff who speak indigenous languages like Quechua -- a native Andean language spoken by some five million people in Peru. However, the vast majority of Peruvian doctors only speak Spanish, as they rarely come from areas or communities where indigenous languages are spoken. Criselda told researchers she believes the doctor may not have picked up her symptoms accurately because she could not understand her, and interpreters were not available. Transport problems are also a contributing factor to the high mortality rate among Peruvian indigenous women, as most of them usually have to travel long distances to a health center to get attention, the report found. Criselda's husband Fortunato said in the report: \"There is no ambulance when there is an emergency. To go from here it takes us two or three days and sometimes they die right here because there is no vehicle or ambulance.\" According to the report, 27 percent of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes occurred during pregnancy; 26 percent occurred during the birth itself; and 46 percent during the first six weeks after giving birth. Amnesty has urged the Peruvian government to allocate resources to maternal mortality and reproductive health, prioritizing the regions with the highest mortality ratios. The organization also recommends an increase in training, particularly in indigenous languages.","highlights":"New Amnesty report says Peru's poor pregnant women dying of neglect .\nPeru has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the Americas .\nIn wealthy developed nations, only 9 women die for every 100,000 births .\nProblems faced include a lack of health staff who speak indigenous languages .","id":"0bc7ac9bf4e3095230454db81c9523e865f151b0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's daughter touched the hearts of millions when she bid a tearful farewell to her father at his memorial service in a rare public appearance. Paris Jackson, 11, is consoled by her uncle Marlon Jackson after delivering a tearful tribute to her father. With her brief speech, 11-year-old Paris Jackson also shocked the event's organizers, who said her appearance was not a planned part of Tuesday's star-studded tribute to the \"King of Pop\" at Los Angeles' Staples Center. \"Ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,\" she said, fighting back tears as relatives consoled her. \"And I just want to say that I love him so much,\" she said as she burst into tears and sought refuge in the embrace of family members. Watch her emotional goodbye \u00bb . For many watching, Paris' appearance marked a rare glimpse of a child who has spent most of her life shielded from the public. Born to two mothers -- Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe and an unidentified woman who reportedly served as a surrogate -- Jackson's three children lived and traveled the world with him, their faces often covered by veils and masks when appearing in public. In its execution, the speech appeared to be a surprise to those onstage and off. \"It was a surprise they were there. All of us who know them were delighted they were strong enough to come and feel this love and great outpouring for their dad,\" Kenny Ortega, the choreographer (\"Dirty Dancing\") who was directing Jackson's \"This Is It\" comeback concerts in London, England, told CNN's Campbell Brown. \"We would've never expected that they had the strength. It was beautiful.\" Watch Ortega express his surprise at Paris Jackson's tribute \u00bb . Ortega, a longtime Jackson colleague who helped design the singer's 1990s tours, said planners left the end of the show open for family members to speak if they wished to, but he was surprised when the Jackson clan -- among them, his siblings and children -- went onstage for the two last songs, \"We Are the World\" and \"Heal the World.\" Marlon Jackson told the crowd that his sister, pop star Janet Jackson, wished to say some words. Instead, Janet appeared to encourage Paris to come forward from the sea of black dresses and suits and take the microphone, adjusting it and stroking the child's hair as Paris delivered her words. Ortega said he was touched by Paris' speech. \"Michael was so close with these beautiful children,\" he said. \"Little Paris was his biggest fan. ... A little girl couldn't love her papa more.\" The heartfelt display sparked a groundswell of emotion in the auditorium and around the world, where millions of viewers watched the service on television and the Internet. \"The saddest moment was when Michael Jackson's daughter spoke,\" said Angelina Martinez, who attended the service with her daughter, Jessica. \"She was really in pain. Everybody was crying inside,\" she said. \"It was beauty combined with sadness.\" Attendees, performers and speakers alike struggled for composure throughout the two-plus-hour event, which featured performances from Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson and Usher. But to many, Paris' tribute cast Jackson in the one role few have experienced him as: a father. \"It was very, very touching, and really it was an example of the good parent Michael was, because when I was at Neverland and with the kids he really was a good loving father -- they had a fantastic relationship, and they were very close-knit,\" Stuart Backerman said. \"So to see Paris come on in such an emotional moment and obviously give her heart out to her father was very, very touching.\" Others saw the tribute as a whole as Jackson's final legacy to his children. \"There are those I feel in years to come, will try to distort him to his children ... and not understand that the real challenges that Michael Jackson had to seriously face and did face and make a difference,\" the Rev. Al Sharpton said. \"And I thought it was very important to put in context for his children what he dealt with in history and what he was able to do.\"","highlights":"Planners of Michael Jackson memorial say they did not know daughter would speak .\nAppearance marks rare occasion in which Paris Jackson seen without veil .\nParis Jackson's tribute to her father strikes chord with viewers around the world .\n\"It was an example of the good parent Michael was,\" former Jackson publicist says .","id":"d4fc06d6bb9fe30926d47a594b8aff8f4c9c1c1d"} -{"article":"PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- A fourth suspect has been arrested in the shooting deaths of a Gulf Coast couple known for adopting special-needs children, authorities said late Monday. Police say they have evidence that places Gary Lamont Sumner at the crime scene. Gary Lamont Sumner faces a murder charge for his alleged role in the deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings on Thursday, Escambia County, Florida, Sheriff David Morgan said. Sumner was pulled over in a traffic stop in Okaloosa County Sunday and arrested after authorities found he matched a description put out by Escambia authorities. Police believe six to eight people were involved in the homicides, which occurred in the couple's home in Beulah, west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line. Watch surveillance video of the home invasion \u00bb . The crime was \"a very well-planned and methodical operation,\" Morgan said. Wayne Coldiron, 41; Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., 35, and Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Sr., 56, were arrested over the weekend. Coldiron and the younger Gonzalez face charges of murder, robbery and residential home invasion; the elder Gonzalez faces charges of evidence tampering for allegedly trying to disguise a vehicle spotted at the home. Morgan said at least three others are persons of interests in the investigation. \"We expect more arrests to be imminent,\" Morgan told reporters. Both of the Billingses were shot multiple times, Morgan said, but he would not release further details on their deaths. Authorities released two surveillance tapes taken from the front and rear of the Billingses' home. Each shows a vehicle pulling up to the property, and five people dressed in black and wearing masks entering the home through two entrances -- including through a utility door left unlocked, something Morgan said is not uncommon in the community. Authorities believe drivers remained in both of the cars. Investigators believe one motive in the deaths was robbery, but \"we believe there are other motives,\" Morgan said. He would not say what, if anything, was taken from the home. Melanie Billings' biological daughter, Ashley Markham, told reporters the couple initially had 17 children -- two biological children each for Byrd and Melanie Billings, with the rest adopted. Three have died over the years, she said. The couple had no biological children together. Watch Ashley Markham say, \"Love was never scarce\" in Billings home \u00bb . Morgan, however, said the couple had a total of 16 children, with two that have died and others that have grown older and no longer live in the Billingses' home. Nine of the couple's children were home at the time of the incident, Morgan said, and police believe three of them saw the intruders. One managed to flee the home and seek help at a neighbor's house, the sheriff said. Coldiron and the younger Gonzalez were being held on $1 million bond, according to records posted on the sheriff's Web site. The senior Gonzalez was being held on $250,000 bond. One of the first three arrested is believed to be the mastermind behind the crime, Morgan said, but would not say which one. Watch a report on the arrests in the complex case \u00bb . Police also released a surveillance photo taken at a Wal-Mart in nearby Gulf Breeze, Florida, recently. Two of the people in the photo are Sumner and the younger Gonzalez, but authorities want to know who the other man is, Morgan said. The sheriff called the surveillance tapes \"chilling.\" He noted the vehicles were at the home less than 10 minutes, and the five people were in the house less than four minutes. \"It leads me to believe that this was a very well-planned and methodical operation,\" Morgan said. Watch experts describe the \"military-style\" attack \u00bb . Although the Billingses were well known in the community, the sheriff said authorities are still trying to unravel why they were targeted. He compared their deaths to the slaying of the Clutter family of Kansas, inspiration for Truman Capote's novel \"In Cold Blood,\" noting the Clutter murders were something the community struggled with for years. \"It will be a very long time, I believe, until we piece together the truth of why this family was selected,\" Morgan said. Police believe the suspects might have bought the clothes they wore to the home and were reviewing surveillance tapes and photos from several stores, he said. Morgan said the crime's complexity is frustrating for investigators, comparing it to a complicated mathematics or word problem that lacks complete information. \"It seems as though each phase we complete, while we answer a set of questions, it opens up an additional set of questions.\" Earlier, he said the complete story, when revealed, is \"going to be a humdinger.\" Asked whether the suspects entered the home planning to kill the couple, Morgan said authorities do not know. Markham said earlier the family does not know any of the three suspects. She said the children \"are coping very well\" and are being cared for. \"They haven't asked too many questions,\" she said, noting that several have disabilities. While the investigation continues, the family is keeping the children's whereabouts a secret. CNN's David Mattingly contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gary Lamont Sumner faces murder charge in deaths of Byrd, Melanie Billings .\nMore arrests imminent, Escambia County county sheriff says .\nSurveillance video shows 5 masked people storming home in Beulah, Florida .\nRobbery a motive, but \"we believe there are other motives,\" sheriff says .","id":"021cd65cb4fb4c3be1fd55d8a30ff08246e76574"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's father says he is concerned about the last moments of his son's life and about the personal physician who found the pop icon unconscious at the singer's estate. Singer Ne-Yo (L) and host Jamie Foxx pay tribute to Michael Jackson at 2009 BET Awards in Los Angeles. \"I have a lot of concerns,\" Joe Jackson told CNN's Don Lemon on the red carpet leading up to the BET Awards ceremony Sunday night. \"I can't get into that, but I don't like what happened.\" Michael Jackson's personal physician, who was questioned extensively by investigators over the weekend, found the singer not breathing in bed when he entered the singer's estate last week, according to the law firm representing the doctor. However, Jackson did have a slight pulse when Dr. Conrad Murray discovered him Thursday, and Murray tried to resuscitate the singer as he awaited paramedics, a representative with the law firm of Stradley, Chernoff and Alford law firm in Houston, Texas, told CNN Sunday. Attorney Edward Chernoff is representing Murray. The law firm said reports that Murray injected Jackson with powerful painkillers, such as Demerol or Oxycontin, were false. Funeral arrangements for Jackson were pending Sunday. \"We haven't gotten to that yet -- we're working on that,\" Joe Jackson told CNN's Lemon. Watch Joe Jackson talk about the death of his son \u00bb . Murray voluntarily met for several hours with detectives, the Los Angeles Police Department said late Saturday night. \"Detectives assigned to Robbery-Homicide Division met with Dr. Murray and conducted an extensive interview,\" a police statement said. \"Dr. Murray was cooperative and provided information which will aid the investigation.\" Watch attorney for Jackson's doctor say his client is not a suspect \u00bb . Jackson's family suspects that Murray can answer some lingering questions about the singer's last hours, but they have been unable to contact him, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday. \"The routine inquiry is now an investigation,\" Jesse Jackson said. \"They (Jackson's family) didn't know the doctor. ... He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son.\" Watch latest developments in Jackson's death investigation \u00bb . Jackson family attorney L. Londell McMillan told CNN that a second autopsy is \"under way.\" \"We'll let that process take its course,\" McMillan, who accompanied Joe Jackson to the BET Awards, told CNN. McMillan said a will has not surfaced since Michael Jackson's death and that the singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, is seeking custody of his two children. \"Well, if there is no will, then under the state of California it goes to the next of kin. That's an adult to administer and oversee the best interests of the children and that would be Mr. and Mrs. Jackson,\" McMillan said. \"And Katherine Jackson is the duly appointed person.\" He added, \"She will seek custody of the children. That's who Michael would have wanted to have the children, she loves them dearly.\" On Saturday, the founder of 1-800-AUTOPSY, a private firm that conducts autopsies, told CNN that the Jackson family had contacted the business to inquire about possibly having a second autopsy done there. Jesse Jackson added on Saturday that the family needed \"an independent autopsy to get even more answers to questions that are now being driven by the gap between when Michael was last seen alive and was pronounced dead.\"iReport.com: Tributes pour in for Jackson . There are lingering questions, including: \"How long had he stopped breathing? How long had he been unconscious?\" Jesse Jackson said. Michael Jackson was discovered unconscious Thursday by paramedics at his home, where Murray apparently had tried to revive him. He was rushed to a Los Angeles medical center, where he was pronounced dead. Listen to the 911 call \u00bb . An autopsy performed by a county medical examiner was inconclusive -- although officials said there were no indications of external trauma or foul play. The Los Angeles County coroner's office has said more tests are needed before a cause of death can be determined. That could take four to six weeks. Detectives impounded Murray's car, which was parked at the singer's rented home, because, they said, it may contain evidence related to Jackson's death, possibly prescription medications. Police have released no information on what they may have found. CNN's Ted Rowlands, Traci Tamura, Drew Griffin and Anna Coren contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dr. Conrad Murray found Jackson not breathing but with a slight pulse .\nMurray believed to be last person to see Michael Jackson alive .\nJackson's father concerned about his son's last moments .\nPolice conduct \"extensive interview\" with Murray .","id":"80eb376068e1e3d3c960bf0dce77eda61b589902"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is the co-editor of \"Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s\" and is completing a book on the history of national-security politics since World War II, to be published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian Zelizer says Obama and Congress must decide whether to rein in presidential power. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- Executive power has been one of the defining characteristics of President George W. Bush's administration. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and many members of the White House pushed to expand executive power -- as much as any specific domestic or foreign policy -- from the beginning of the administration. The Bush administration formed in a direct conversation with the presidential politics of the 1970s. Several members of the Bush administration came of professional age working in the Nixon and Ford administrations. They watched an assertive Congress respond to the Watergate scandal by revitalizing legislative power through the War Powers Act of 1973, the Budget Reform of 1974, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Independent Counsel Act in 1978. The Bush administration thought vesting Congress with so much power was dangerous, because it saw the legislative branch as inefficient. Building on efforts since President Ronald Reagan to reverse the congressional reforms of the 1970s, the current White House spent enormous political energy, before and after 9\/11, trying to reclaim power for the executive branch. The expansion of presidential power is not unique to the Bush administration. It began early in the 20th century and, despite some exceptional periods such as the 1970s, continued steadily throughout. But in several respects, this expansion was bigger in scale and scope than under previous presidents. For example, as a way to agree to legislation without agreeing to follow the intention of Congress, Bush issued statements when he signed bills -- doing so far more frequently than preceding presidents. When Congress passed a bill banning the use of torture in December 2005, Bush added a signing statement allowing him to bypass the law in his role as Commander-in-Chief. Bush also used executive orders to achieve policy objectives without obtaining congressional consent. Most of the president's national security programs were also conducted under high levels of secrecy and sometimes ignored rules such as those spelled out by FISA. Even when Republicans controlled Congress between 2002 and 2006, the president barely consulted with the leadership. After the 2000 elections, many Republican moderates were optimistic they would have more power than ever because the White House would be forced to court their vote in the evenly divided Senate. But they were wrong. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island said he was disillusioned early in the Bush administration when Cheney met with a group of Republican moderates. Cheney simply listed the bills the administration would pursue -- such as canceling U.S. support for the International Criminal Court and cutting taxes -- and informed them the president expected their vote. The chances for restoring a better balance of power remain unclear. There was a notable silence on the issue during the 2008 presidential campaign. Congressional Democrats and President-elect Barack Obama have been extremely critical of Bush's muscular approach to the executive branch. But though Obama has promised to reverse a number of executive decisions made by Bush, it is hard to tell how far he will go. Most important, it is extremely rare in the postwar period for presidents to voluntarily relinquish power. Democrats in Congress might not be willing to do to Obama what they did to Richard Nixon or even Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. After decades of Republican rule, Democrats now believe they have an opportunity to build a new majority. In addition, in a time of true crisis there will be less incentive to challenge the institutional prerogatives of their president. But Congress and the White House must do something to reverse the trends of the past eight years. We need an executive branch that is accountable and a Congress that is active. So what can be done? The first solution is informal. The White House must alter the dynamic with Congress and create strong lines of consultation with legislative leaders. President Franklin Roosevelt worked closely with legislators during the New Deal to develop economic ideas and figure out the nuts and bolts of legislation. Obama must do the same. The second solution is legislative. Congress should not be timid about passing legislation to empower the legislative branch. After The Boston Globe reported the extensive use of executive signing statements by the Bush administration, there was discussion about legislation to curtail the power, but proposals for the legislation faded away. Congress needs to consider passing measures in this and other areas, such as further defining what kinds of interrogation techniques can be used by the U.S. military and intelligence services. The final solution involves oversight. There has been a dramatic increase in congressional oversight since Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. Legislators have been more willing to hold hearings and conduct investigations into everything from the ethical conduct of the White House to the administration of key government programs. But oversight under divided government is easier politically than under the united government -- Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress -- we will have after January 20. The aim of stronger oversight is to avoid failures such as FEMA's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina or the politicization at the Department of Justice. The fact that Democrats control the White House is no excuse for the party's leaders in Congress to become lapdogs. Obama must be held responsible as well. While presidents don't like to give up power, maybe this president will be different. At a minimum, Obama should avoid the techniques used so often in recent years to circumvent legislative will. It is not enough to reverse Bush's executive orders -- the crucial question is whether Obama uses such orders as frequently himself. If the nation can create a better balance between the executive and legislative branches, the country will benefit. The New Deal proved when both branches work together, the nation can produce some of its finest and most effective programs. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Bush administration sought to rebuild presidential power .\nHe says they wanted to reverse Watergate-inspired reforms from the 1970s .\nZelizer says Congress' role was diminished during the Bush administration .\nHe says Obama, Congress must decide whether to strengthen legislative role .","id":"af3b65244e053a8e1e9f26e44a5adab256763c34"} -{"article":"PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- Ricardo Martinelli, the multimillionaire owner of a supermarket chain, was inaugurated as president of Panama on Wednesday. Ricardo Martinelli is a pro-business conservative who defeated a candidate from the ruling center-left party. National Assembly President Jose Luis Varela performed the swearing-in and placed the presidential sash on Martinelli, a pro-business conservative who defeated a candidate from the ruling center-left party in May. The citizens of Panama \"want things to be done differently,\" Varela said at the inauguration. \"An attitude of change starts today.\" In his first speech as president, Martinelli promised a smaller government budget but raises for public workers. Public safety, an issue that the outgoing administration of Martin Torrijos struggled to maintain, will be a priority, Martinelli said. \"Our prisons will be rehabilitation centers, not schools for criminals,\" he said. Panama will also work with Mexico and Colombia to combat drug trafficking in the region, Martinelli said. Among the dignitaries at the inauguration was deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military-led coup Sunday. The Organization of American States has condemned the coup, and Zelaya has continued to carry out his presidential duties. The son of Italian immigrants, Martinelli, 57, is a self-made businessman who is chairman of the Super 99 supermarket chain, one of the largest private companies in Panama. The U.S.-educated president previously served as minister and chairman of the board of directors of the Panama Canal Authority and formerly was director of social security for Panama, according to his Web site. Martinelli won the presidency with 60 percent of the votes in a race against ruling-party candidate Balbina Herrera.","highlights":"NEW: Deposed Honduran president attends ceremony .\nSupermarket chain owner Ricardo Martinelli inaugurated .\nMartinelli promises smaller government budget, raises for public workers .\nNew president says Panama will fight drug trafficking in region .","id":"bf0fbd9009a2015f2ff5fb6d28cb37ba3cad2e7c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched a Beverly Hills pharmacy Friday in connection with the investigation into the death of Michael Jackson, an agency spokesman said. Dr. Arnold Klein denied in a CNN interview last month that he had given Jackson dangerous drugs. The agents executed a federal search warrant at the Mickey Fine Pharmacy and Grill, and were expected to seize pharmacy records, said DEA spokesman Jose Martinez. The pharmacy is in the same building as the office of Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein. Shortly before his death, Jackson visited the building several times to see Klein. The store remained open for business, giving journalists who chose to dine at its lunch counter an unusually close look at the searchers at work. Several DEA agents crowded behind the pharmacy counter, shuffling through paper documents, while pharmacy employees stood by to answer questions. Jackson had been sued by the pharmacy, which claimed the pop singer had not paid a $100,000 bill, but the dispute was later settled. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office visited Klein's office. \"We wanted some additional information and they provided it,\" said Ed Winter, coroner's spokesman. He said Klein's staff and attorneys cooperated with the requests. The coroner's office said more than a week ago that a \"thorough and comprehensive\" report into the death of Michael Jackson is complete, but police have requested that it not yet be released because of the ongoing criminal investigation. The coroner's office said it would abide by the request that \"the cause and manner of death remain confidential,\" and referred all questions to Los Angeles police. The DEA search did not involve detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department, although Martinez said the federal agents would share their findings with them. Jackson's June 25 death is also the focus of an investigation by Los Angeles police and the state attorney general's office. Klein, who treated Jackson for decades, denied in a CNN interview last month that he had given Jackson dangerous drugs. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"Beverly Hills pharmacy is next door to Dr. Arnold Klein's office .\nDEA search in connection with Michael Jackson investigation .\nKlein was Jackson's dermatologist .","id":"dfeb0aeb6843be63f0fae84eb507e2606e8e14f7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Arriving at the London premiere of his self-titled mockumentary dressed in an enormous bearskin hat, cropped red army tunic and barely there hot pants, flamboyant Austrian fashionista, \"Bruno,\" paid sartorial tribute to the British as only he knows how. Bear-ing all: British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comic creation Austrian fashionista, Bruno, hits the red carpet. Waxed to perfection and flanked by a group of muscular black men dressed like a camp Queen's Guards, the gay fashion reporter flounced down the carpet to greet his public. \"Vassup CNN! Lookin' hot,\" Bruno said to CNN. \"I don't want any attention; I'm not here to promote my movie.\" \"Bruno,\" which hits cinemas in most territories next month, is the latest comic creation of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who last shocked, insulted and delighted audiences in 2006 with Borat, Kazakhstan's \"Most Famous Broadcaster.\" Bruno continues the unique approach to comedy Baron Cohen honed with characters like uneducated, loutish jungle music fan Ali G and then homophobic, anti-Semitic Kazakh journalist Borat. Watch \"Bruno\" on the red carpet \u00bb . His specialty is characters who say the unsayable: like Bruno's carpet quip that his new film is \"the most important movie starring a gay Austrian since 'Terminator 2,'\" in joking reference to the married (and firmly heterosexual) Austrian Terminator star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Governor of California. In pictures: Bruno offers fashion advice to CNN \u00bb . Baron Cohen puts his creations in real-life situations and uses them to draw unsuspecting participants into letting well-hidden prejudices slip out, engage in embarrassing behavior or contradict themselves. Characters like Bruno and Borat \"essentially work as a tool,\" Baron Cohen told UK paper The Observer in a rare out-of-character interview: \"By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice.\" Baron Cohen's approach courts controversy. \"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan\" opened to a wave of outrage from race-relations campaigners. This time it is gay-rights campaigners who are up in arms. \"Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others,\" Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation told the New York Times. While some critics may suggest that his films may reinforce prejudices, others disagree. \"It is difficult to accuse Cohen of making films that are racist or homophobic,\" Aubrey Day, Editor-in-Chief of Total Film magazine told CNN. \"He takes characters and exaggerates them for broad comic value, but I don't think there's any credence in the idea that he supports any of those ideals.\" But Baron Cohen certainly knows how to manipulate the media. The 37-year-old has been whipping up anticipation for \"Bruno\" with a series of attention-grabbing, hilarious stunts. In September last year, he brought chaos to the hallowed fashion shows of Milan when he stormed the catwalk of designer Agata Luiz de la Prada's show dressed in a Velcro suit with clothes from backstage stuck all over it. Most recently, he descended from the ceiling at the MTV Movie Awards wearing nothing but a pair of angel's wings and a skimpy thong before \"falling\" onto irate rapper Eminem's face. Eminem stormed out of the awards but later admitted he knew about the stunt beforehand. \"Borat\" debuted at number one in the U.S. box office and went on to gross $300 million in box office and DVD sales. Industry experts are predicting an even bigger return for \"Bruno.\" The secret of the Baron Cohen comedy phenomenon may lie in his combination of laughs with something a bit deeper: namely his ability to highlight prejudices and hypocrisies. \"What he does very well is hold a mirror up to a lot of society's current ideals and expose them for what they are,\" Day told CNN. \"That is one of the joys of his films. \"You can enjoy them on a simple level, in that they are very funny, but hopefully you also come away thinking, or maybe re-thinking some of your attitudes.\"","highlights":"\"Bruno\" paid tribute to British icons in a bearskin hat at London movie premiere .\nThe Austrian fashionista is UK comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest creation .\n\"Bruno\" has already caused controversy with gay rights campaigners .\nBaron Cohen's comedy holds a mirror up to many of society's ingrained prejudices .","id":"9a00c1c8792ffdf4d27fe0d2bc648e5d7daba368"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities are asking for the public's help in finding an eighth suspect accused of being a member of a North Carolina group that allegedly plotted \"violent jihad\" overseas. Authorities are searching for North Carolina resident Jude Kenan Mohammed. \"The Raleigh Joint Terrorism Task Force is seeking any information the public may have regarding the whereabouts of Jude Kenan Mohammad,\" the FBI said in a statement. Federal authorities had said earlier that they believed Mohammad, 20, was in Pakistan. Seven other suspects are in custody. All eight are accused of plotting \"violent jihad\" overseas, according to the indictment, and are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people. The indictment identifies Mohammad as a U.S. citizen and a North Carolina resident. It says he traveled to Pakistan in October 2008 to \"engage in violent jihad.\" No further details are offered. A federal judge denied bail last week for six of the men, but expressed skepticism about the charges against them. Magistrate Judge William Webb said the defendants had made a number of statements espousing holy war, and said the statements could be interpreted in isolation as braggadocio. But because some group members had amassed a large arsenal and ammunition and had engaged in firearms training, Webb found there was reason to believe that they harbored criminal intent and presented a flight risk or a possible danger to the community. Bail was denied for the seventh man, Anes Subasic, on Monday, CNN affiliate WTVD reported. Five surreptitiously recorded audiotapes were played in a court hearing last week, along with a cell phone video showing someone firing an AK-47. On a tape made in May 2009, one of the suspects, Daniel Patrick Boyd, talks about getting the money needed to wage jihad and hitting Wells Fargo trucks and banks. He makes reference to how he had robbed a bank in Pakistan. Boyd's sons, Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as \"Mohammed,\" and Zakariya Boyd, 20, also are among the eight charged. Federal agents discovered in the Boyd house, among other items: several weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, $13,000 cash, gas masks, and a document described as a fatwa (Muslim religious edict) of jihad (holy war), the FBI said. They also found a trench under the deck of the house, which a witness told the FBI was a bunker to store and conceal weapons, and a plywood plank placed in a tree so that someone sitting there could see anyone approaching the house, FBI special agent Michael Sutton said. Sabrina Boyd -- the wife of Daniel Patrick Boyd and the mother of the two younger Boyds -- has said the allegations against her family are false.","highlights":"Authorities looking for whereabouts of 20-year old Jude Kenan Mohammad .\nMohammad accused of being a member of group that allegedly plotted \"violent jihad\"\nFederal authorities said earlier they believed Mohammad was in Pakistan .\nSeven others in custody facing conspiracy to commit terrorism, murder charges .","id":"6b8f15169e2df987e369d9afb36bc51862b94127"} -{"article":"WEST POINT, Georgia (CNN) -- A community that seemed on the road to becoming a ghost town has taken a turn toward prosperity despite the recession, thanks to an automaker. A roadside sign in West Point, Georgia, expresses support for Kia's new factory. Korean car manufacturer Kia plans to open a sprawling automobile factory in tiny West Point, Georgia, by the end of the year. The boon has already spurred economic growth -- and just plain excitement -- among residents, said Mayor Drew Ferguson. \"We jokingly call it Kia-ville,\" said Ferguson, a 42-year-old dentist helping to oversee expansion of West Point, population 3,500. The announcement is drawing workers and businesses to the community about 80 miles south of Atlanta. \"The revitalization of the community is touching every aspect,\" Ferguson said. \"We have infrastructure projects, new subdivisions going up, hotel professional services that are all needed to support the massive manufacturing.\" The plant, which will make Kia's Sorento sport utility vehicle, has hired 500 workers. By the time the factory opens, Kia hopes to hire 2,000 more. A smattering of Kia supply companies will eventually employ 7,500 additional workers. Watch the town's excitement about the new factory \u00bb . \"A lot of people feel that we are the savior for this area, which I hope we will be,\" said Randy Jackson, director of human resources for the manufacturing plant. \"We got 43,013 applications; 75 percent of those applications came from Georgia, and about 20 percent came from our neighboring state of Alabama.\" Some of those applications are coming from auto workers around the country, including Detroit, Michigan, Jackson said. Overall, West Point stands to gain 20,000 jobs as a result of the factory during the next five years, Ferguson said. Georgia's 9.7 percent unemployment rate reported in May is about the same as the June national average of 9.5 percent, according to federal statistics. The U.S. Department of Labor reported unemployment in a five-county region including West Point at 8.6 percent. To secure the $1.2 billion Kia plant, state and local officials helped assemble land from a former cattle farm to create a 2,200-acre industrial park. They also locked in about $400 million in tax breaks and other economic incentives. \"We think the investment will pay off big time,\" Ferguson said. \"We're already seeing it. But it's not only in the dollars, but in the hope and opportunity, and the ability to create new jobs.\" Ruthann Williams invested her life savings to buy and open the Irish Bred Pub on West Point's Main Street. Now she commutes to work 45 minutes a day from her North Georgia home. \"I came here because of Kia,\" Williams said. \"We jumped in with both feet and have not looked back one time.\" 'My little town was gonna die' Plans for the new factory have transformed a community that during the past ten years has been becoming a ghost town. Textile mills that once defined West Point shut down in the 1990s, leaving many out of work. Debbie Williams, co-owner of the popular Roger's Bar-B-Que, was worried her business would go under. \"We'd go downtown and there was nothing there,\" Williams said. \"I thought my little town was gonna die.\" Margaret McManus was laid off last year when the textile mill she worked for closed. The 52-year-old went back to school to study information technology. In April she landed a job as a trainer with Daehan Solutions Georgia, a parts supplier for Kia. McManus said she didn't think in a million years she'd be making car parts. \"The job that I used to do for a long time, we thought we'd retire there,\" McManus said. \"It feels good to go to work everyday and have something to do.\" The signs of transformation in West Point are everywhere. There's new construction, including the city's first new subdivision in 25 years. And businesses that once struggled are feeling the uptick. Williams recently replaced her restaurant floor because of all the new foot traffic. \"We see a lot of people we don't know now. They want to see where the Kia site's gonna be built,\" Williams said. \"We always say if we can get them in here one time, we can get them back, and they come. They're coming back.\" Tom Oswald, owner of West Point Shoe Outlet, said last year was his best year ever. \"Once Kia announced they were opening we've sold mostly steel-toed shoes for construction workers,\" he said. \"Now we're selling wingtips for men and heels for ladies.\" And Malcolm Malone, who runs M&M Car Wash, said business is booming. \"It's been up at least 70 percent,\" said the 44-year-old West Point native. \"It's like Christmas.\" Or perhaps a little divine intervention deserves credit, as a West Point sign pointed out: \"Thank You Jesus For Bringing Kia to Our Town.\" New flavors . On Main Street, residents are sampling new flavors that have come to West Point since the announcement. Asian restaurants and businesses are popping up. The old Pizza Hut has transformed into a Korean Bar-B-Que, and the southern staple KFC is now a popular Korean eatery called Young's Garden. Resident Christy Magbee said West Point is starting to feel like a melting pot. \"You got the culture coming in. You don't have to travel to Atlanta anymore. It's starting to come here,\" she said. \"The old downtown is new again. It's an exciting time,\" Ferguson said. \"For us there's a light at the end of the tunnel.\" CNN's Alina Cho contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mayor: West Point, Georgia, could get 20,000 jobs resulting from Kia car plant .\nBefore Kia announcement, business owner thought town was \"gonna die\"\nNews spurs construction of West Point's first new subdivision in 25 years .\nAuto workers from Detroit, elsewhere applying for jobs at plant, mayor says .","id":"084be3db696054c0c2c61d2910d052f47d39aef4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rudy Ruiz founded RedBrownandBlue.com, a site featuring multicultural political commentary. He is host of a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show and wrote a guide to success for immigrants (\"\u00a1Adelante!\" published by Random House). He is co-founder and president of Interlex, an advocacy marketing agency based in San Antonio, Texas. Rudy Ruiz says the lives of U.S. presidents can make them positive role models for students. SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- Perhaps we got too used to living in a nation where the president inevitably becomes persona non grata. Maybe after the Clinton and Bush years, we forgot how to give a president a chance to serve not just as a punching bag but also as a role model. Have we become so disenchanted and polarized we can't give our own president a chance to teach our children something about what it takes to succeed? As a small-town boy, I drew inspiration from presidential biographies. As I got lost in the adventures of Teddy Roosevelt, the spirit of George Washington and the ideals of Thomas Jefferson, I found kernels of America's greatness. In those pages, I unearthed a yearning to dream beyond my surroundings, to strive for more, to seek a way to contribute to our nation. Many of the leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin in Kentucky, ascended from humble beginnings on the wings of education to guide America forward. Devouring their stories, it ceased to matter where I was from or how far removed I was from the centers of power. With an education and a dream -- in America -- anything was possible. Whenever President Obama addresses our youth, he embodies the power of education. Education is the cornerstone of our democracy, the key to upward mobility, a linchpin to transforming whimsical dreams into actionable goals. Ask Bill Clinton. Raised by his widowed mother in Arkansas, he became a Rhodes Scholar. Look at Barack Obama. Emerging from a broken family, he built on degrees from Columbia and Harvard in his odyssey to the White House. Remember Dwight Eisenhower. Hailing from Kansas, he attended West Point on his way to heroism. From both sides of the aisle, education has propelled the career trajectories of our nation's leaders. Even if we disagree with a president's policies, we should accept he can serve as a role model in a broader way. For example, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Nobody would argue this was admirable. But Jefferson was also a great thinker, diplomat and strategist. He co-authored the Declaration of Independence and helped America become a global power by engaging Europe and transacting the Louisiana Purchase. Was he perfect? Of course not. Would we want our children to emulate his every action. No way. But has he been an inspirational role model over time? As a parent, I understand people's concerns about the concepts to which their children are exposed. But the content of the president's speech to students should assuage any worries regarding his motives. Clearly, his agenda is to inspire kids to make the most of education in building a better life, not to brainwash a generation to do his bidding. Pointing to his own experiences, as well as those of others from diverse and modest origins, his remarks convey the importance of personal responsibility, perseverance and education in fulfilling one's potential while contributing to our nation's future. The only way to argue with that is by confusing the issues, twisting the situation into something it was never intended to be. It's gotten so bad, some folks don't want their kids exposed to the president because they're afraid he'll teach them socialism. My answer is that even if he did plan to discuss socialism, they should let their child listen. Of course, the president wouldn't do that, but why is that my answer? Because, as another role model -- President Reagan -- once said: \"All great change in America begins at the dinner table.\" In that light, the president's speech isn't a threat but an opportunity for families to engage their children on the issues. If parents disagree with the president's views, they can sit down at the dinner table with their kids and explain their divergence. They may even find, when it comes to the value of education, President Obama might say something worth hearing. In the process, parents will teach their children: . \u2022 That we should listen respectfully to others. Doing so, we might realize that we can appreciate certain aspects of a person while disagreeing with others, and that partial differences of opinion needn't always spur absolute rejection. \u2022 That we should respect the president because, even if we didn't vote for him, we're still one nation. \u2022 That we should give our president an opportunity to lead by example. Obama's presidency is still young. We don't know what shape his legacy will take. But given his resume, regardless of politics, he's an excellent role model on the value of education. Why not give him a chance to serve in that capacity? iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's speech . Just as I found inspiration in those biographies during my childhood, our youth might be moved by the president's words and stories to cherish knowledge and learning, harnessing the power of education to grow into productive, exemplary Americans in their own right. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz.","highlights":"Rudy Ruiz: After Clinton, Bush years, presidents aren't viewed as role models .\nHe says he drew inspiration from the lives of American presidents .\nHe says Obama and others show the power of education to improve society .\nHe says letting students hear Obama's speech can give them a positive message .","id":"6c3214550a4304a4f970abb4dad6e0e787127137"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Taliban official Hakeemullah Mehsud has been selected the new head of the Pakistani Taliban, a local Taliban commander in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas told CNN Saturday. Baitullah Mehsud, right, former leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and a bodyguard in Pakistan, in 2004. Mehsud was selected Friday by a 42-member Taliban council, or shura, according to Taliban commander Qari Haris. Another Taliban official -- Maulvi Faqir Mohammad -- had been tapped as Mehsud's deputy, Haris said. Mohammad had named himself acting head of the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday. A third official -- Hazem Tariq -- was named the group's new spokesman, Haris added. The announced selection underscored the contention by Pakistani and U.S. officials that the group's former leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan. Both Mohammad and Haris claim Mehsud is alive but ill. Pakistani officials announced Tuesday that two top figures in the Pakistani Taliban had been arrested. Saif Ullah is believed to have been Baitullah Mehsud's right-hand man, and Maulvi Umar is the well-known spokesman for the militant group. Umar recently declared that Mehsud had not been killed in a drone strike on his father-in-law's house, but a senior Pakistani official said that Umar had admitted under questioning that Mehsud was dead. The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, told CNN that the Pakistani Taliban had not confirmed Mehsud's death because of an ongoing power struggle over his successor. Journalists Janullah Hamizshada and Nazar ur Islam contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taliban official Hakeemullah Mehsud was selected Friday by 42-member panel .\nTaliban officials say former leader Baitullah Mehsud is alive but ill .\nTaliban official Maulvi Faqir Mohammad tapped as new leader's deputy .","id":"57be498a16bea5fc3cd4740afe7feba398759ac0"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British man Gary McKinnon appeared in court Tuesday to try to prevent his extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly hacking into U.S. government computers at the Pentagon and NASA. Briton Gary McKinnon is accused of carrying out the biggest ever U.S. military hacking operation. McKinnon, who has admitted breaking the law and intentionally gaining unauthorized access to computer systems, wants to be tried in Britain rather than the United States. He is asking judges at the High Court to review a decision by the director of public prosecutions not to pursue legal action in Britain, a spokeswoman at the prosecutor's office told CNN. The prosecutor's decision effectively cleared the way for McKinnon's extradition, and McKinnon is hoping it will be overturned. It is not clear when the judges will make a decision on McKinnon's request. Prosecutors made their decision in February despite saying there was sufficient evidence to prosecute McKinnon. But they said their evidence did not reflect the level of criminality alleged by U.S. authorities, so they would allow him to be tried in America. The U.S. government says McKinnon carried out the biggest military computer hacking of all time, accessing 97 computers from his home in London for a year starting in March 2001 and costing the government about $1 million. McKinnon, currently free on bail in England, has said he was simply doing research to find out whether the U.S. government was covering up the existence of UFOs. Prosecutors in the United States and Britain disagree. \"These were not random experiments in computer hacking, but a deliberate effort to breach U.S. defense systems at a critical time which caused well-documented damage,\" Alison Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service said in February. \"They may have been conducted from Mr. McKinnon's home computer -- and in that sense there is a UK link -- but the target and the damage were trans-Atlantic.\" U.S. federal prosecutors accuse McKinnon of breaking into military, NASA and civilian networks and accessing computers at the Pentagon; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Meade, Maryland; the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Colts Neck, New Jersey; and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, among others. In one case, McKinnon allegedly crashed computers belonging to the Military District of Washington. McKinnon is believed to have acted alone, with no known connection to any terrorist organization, said Paul McNulty, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. A U.S. federal grand jury indicted McKinnon on seven counts of computer fraud and related activity. If convicted, he would face a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count and a $250,000 fine. McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, has complained that the United States has never provided evidence to prosecutors or McKinnon's legal team to support their extradition request -- and in fact, under Britain's Extradition Act of 2003, U.S. prosecutors are not required to. McKinnon has previously said it was easy for him to access the secret files. \"I did occasionally leave messages in system administrators' machines saying, 'This is ridiculous,'\" McKinnon has said. \"(I left) some political diatribes as well, but also a pointer to say, you know, this is ridiculous.\" McKinnon was on the brink of extradition in August 2008, when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, refused to reconsider the decision to send him to the United States, effectively clearing the way for his transfer. Shortly after that decision, however, McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, and he claims that diagnosis changed the case for extradition. It was on that basis that McKinnon made his appeals in Britain. Asperger syndrome is a form of autism that affects a person's social communication and interaction, according to Britain's National Autistic Society. Those affected often are of above-average intelligence and have fewer problems speaking than do those with autism. They sometimes have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and can be very literal in what they say, with difficulty understanding jokes, metaphors and sarcasm. In addition, some people with Asperger syndrome develop an intense, sometimes obsessive interest in a hobby or subject, the National Autistic Society said. \"He says what he thinks to his own detriment,\" a friend of McKinnon's told CNN in January. He said McKinnon fears that his compulsion to say what he thinks would land him in trouble in an American prison.","highlights":"Briton in court in bid to prevent extradition to U.S. for allegedly hacking computers .\nGary McKinnon admits intentionally gaining access to government systems .\nBriton accused of carrying out biggest ever U.S. military computer hacking .\nHe says he was researching whether U.S. was covering up existence of UFOs .","id":"40e6e53f2c29c1cfc5945015b49ef7e8998f2c2d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Cape Verde on Friday, the final stop on her seven-nation Africa tour in which she emphasized good governance and urged officials to implement reforms. Hillary Clinton was in Cape Verde on Friday on the final leg of her Africa tour. Clinton is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Pedro Maria Neves before returning to the United States. The Obama administration describes the island nation on the western coast as an African success story. \"Cape Verde enjoys a stable democratic system, high transparency and low corruption,\" said Marianne M. Myles, the U.S. ambassador to Cape Verde. The relationship between the two countries is based on a long history of partnership, which started in 1818 when the first U.S. consulate in sub-Saharan Africa was established in the country, Myles said. Clinton's 11-day trip started in Kenya, and has included stops in South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Liberia. She arrived at Cape Verde from Liberia, where she applauded the work of pro-American president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman elected head of state in Africa. \"Today, (Liberia) is a model of successful transition from conflict to post-conflict, from lawlessness to democracy, from despair to hope,\" Clinton said. \"For the last three years, the people of this country have been working to promote reform, reconstruction and reconciliation. Liberia has adopted sound fiscal policy and seen strong economic growth.\" Clinton's trip comes after President Obama's visit to Ghana in July, where he urged African leaders to improve government stability. During her visit, Clinton echoed Obama's sentiment on government reform. Like Obama, Clinton made it clear that America is willing to help, but from the background. African leaders must take the lead in reforming their own countries, she said. Clinton's message was a mix of praise and criticism. She also addressed other issues including democracy, trade and sexual abuse. Hours before her arrival in Kenya, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said that Africa did not need another lecture on good governance. But Clinton said she was delivering a \"tough but lovingly presented\" message to the East African nation. \"As President Obama pointed out in his speech in Ghana, Kenya has not fulfilled its economic promise because it hasn't yet realized fully what it means to have a functioning, dynamic democracy, and a free press and an independent judiciary,\" she said. She urged Angolan officials to adopt a new constitution and hold a proper presidential election. However, she also lauded the nation's commitment to fighting HIV as the two countries signed a partnership to combat the epidemic. At a town hall meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, Clinton talked about the importance of democracy and warned that though Nigeria produces 2 million barrels of oil a day, its poverty rate has gone up over the past 13 years. She blamed the lack of progress on corruption. \"The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria's wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at the local, state, and federal level,\" she said. Watch Clinton compare election to 2000 U.S. presidential election \u00bb . During a visit to Congo, Clinton denounced sexual attacks on women and announced $17 million in funding to help fight abuse in the country. \"In the face of such evil, people of good will everywhere must respond,\" she said. \"The United States is already a leading donor to efforts aimed at addressing these problems.\" Clinton also met with the leaders of Somalia's transitional government in neighboring Nairobi. The country has been waging a bloody battle against al Qaeda-linked militants with help from the United States. The State Department notes it is the earliest trip by a secretary of state and a president to Africa of any previous U.S. administration.","highlights":"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton winds up 11-day Africa trip with Cape Verde visit .\nClinton's visit has included stops in Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria .\nClinton has urged African leaders to continue government reforms .","id":"48a9204fa3337ad4351b2da9dec50de12c444c37"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Richard M. Nixon and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici, in 1971 discussed ways their countries could work together to overthrow the socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, according to a newly declassified document. President Richard M. Nixon, right, and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici. During a meeting of the two leaders at the White House on December 9 of that year, Medici was discussing the possibility of a coup by the Chilean military with assistance from Brazilian military officers when Nixon said that it was \"very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field,\" according to the document. Nixon offered money or other discreet aid for the effort if it could be made available, the document shows. \"We must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros, and try where possible to reverse these trends,\" Nixon said. Medici said he was \"happy to see that the Brazilian and American positions and views\" were so close. The declassified document, a previously top secret memorandum for Nixon's file written by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, was published by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute in Washington. The memorandum, along with other documents, were declassified in July as part of the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States series. \"This is an explosive document that details collusion between the colossus of the North [the United States] and the colossus of the South [Brazil],\" said Peter Kornbluh, the director of a Chile and Brazil Documentation Project for the National Security Archive. He called it \"a smoking gun of confirmation of Brazil's effort to engage in operations to overthrow the government of Chile and a discussion of collusion with the United States.\" The two leaders also discussed the creation of a back channel for direct communication outside normal diplomatic protocols, according to the document. Each designated personal aides to carry handwritten communications back and forth to keep discussions out of official records. \"I think there is precedent, but we've never seen it detailed in a document this way, in which two presidents set up the utmost secret of back-channel communications so they can discuss the most sensitive aspects of collusion and collaboration in efforts to challenge the left in Latin America and change the futures of select Latin American governments,\" Kornbluh said. He added that \"there's a significant paper trail of evidence of what that collusion was that remains secret, and we're going to have to press Brazil and Washington to recover those documents.\" Despite the leaders' effort to keep the subject of their talks secret, word got out. A declassified CIA memorandum written some time after the Nixon-Medici meeting in Washington said that word of the secret talks between the two leaders about shaping Brazilian foreign policy filtered down to Brazilian military officers by a \"Cabinet leak.\" Gen. Vicente Dale Coutinho, commander of Brazil's 4th Army, reacted to this by saying that the United States obviously wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work,\" it said. A declassified CIA national intelligence estimate written in 1972 concluded, \"Brazil will be playing a bigger role in hemispheric affairs and seeking to fill whatever vacuum the U.S. leaves behind. It is unlikely that Brazil will intervene openly in its neighbors' internal affairs, but the regime will not be above using the threat of intervention or tools of diplomacy and covert action to oppose leftist regimes, to keep friendly governments in office, or to help place them there.\" The newly published documents do not offer any conclusive proof of Brazilian involvement in the Chilean coup of 1973, which the Nixon administration supported. Kornbluh said that with the passage of time and change in governments in all of the countries involved, the real story of diplomatic and covert collusion between the United States and Brazil in Chile can finally be told. The National Security Archive will push for the declassification and publication of more top-secret documents from the Nixon library, he said, and will approach Brazilian government officials to ask for their cooperation in getting documents released in Washington and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Kornbluh said he also hopes that surviving Chilean government and military officers from the era who knew of any arrangements with the Brazilian government will come forward and tell their stories. \"This is history for history's sake, but history will not find closure until it's fully aired,\" he said.","highlights":"Document shows Richard M. Nixon, Emilio Medici had like-minded goals .\nIt says two leaders met at White House, Nixon offered money or other discreet aid .\nCIA memo says Brazilian general thought U.S. wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work\"\nMemo, other documents were declassified in July of this year as part of project .","id":"eace03b0b83764932f0dbb3898e3312c1d2f8bed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong brought a Scottish town center to a standstill on Tuesday when hundreds of people joined him for a group bike ride. Lance Armstrong's appearance in Paisley, Scotland, saw around 200 people joining him on a bike ride. The seven-times Tour de France winner used social networking site Twitter to invite fans to take part in the event in Paisley, Scotland and -- as a result -- around 200 people gathered in the town's High Street. Fans took photographs and asked for autographs from the American and the watching crowd applauded and cheered as the group set off on their ride. Asked whether he was surprised to see so many people turn out, Armstrong told reporters before climbing on to his bike: \"Yes. It's a chance to meet lots of people. We made up our mind to come and see a show two nights ago and I said hey let's have a bike ride,\" he added. Watch the chaos as Armstrong starts to ride \u00bb . Asked whether he knew much about cycling around Paisley, he smiled and said: \"I know nothing about it.\" In the Twitter messages before the gathering, Armstrong wrote: \"Hey Glasgow, Scotland!! I'm coming your way. Who wants to go for a bike ride with me??\" Followed by: \"Hey Glasgow -- ride is at 12 noon. Stay tuned and yes, I have my rain coat!\" iReport: Did you see Lance? Send pics, video . Cyclists and fans started to gather before 11am ahead of Armstrong's arrival at around 12.20pm. After the group cycle, Armstrong told fans through Twitter: \"Thanks to everyone who turned up to ride in Paisley! I figured we'd have a nice ride for a dozen or so. But 100's came. Haha! Awesome!\"","highlights":"Lance Armstrong brought a Scottish town center to a standstill on Tuesday .\nThe American announced on Twitter that he wanted people to join him on ride .\nA group of 200 people gathered in Paisley High Street to ride with Armstrong .","id":"a30b7a73b90b21c983e16ba30f67ffa5da9c4388"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nelson Piquet Jr admitted he will have to wait until the dust has settled on the \"crashgate\" scandal before he can attempt a return to Formula One. Nelson Piquet Jr has not ruled out a return to Formula One. The 24-year-old Brazilian attended a Motor Sport Council hearing on Monday over the conspiracy which saw him crash his Renault in the Singapore Grand Prix last year, where he subsequently revealed he is keen on a F1 comeback. Piquet, who was granted immunity by motorsport's world governing body (FIA) for his testimony, believes his talent was not appreciated by former team boss Flavio Briatore. Despite the furor surrounding the affair the Brazilian hopes he can return to F1, but added there may be other options too. \"I am aware that because of this (scandal) it will be difficult,\" Piquet told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. \"Some people will be afraid that the same thing will happen. But it was a unique case and I have learned from it. \"If I can't find a place in F1, perhaps for one year I will go to America and try to do a good job there until the waves have calmed down a bit. \"I was there in August for a week and spoke with some teams.\" Renault have confirmed that they intend to continue racing in F1 for the future and also have appointed Bob Bell as the acting team principal for the remainder of the season. A statement on the Renault Web site said: \"Following the unfortunate recent events, the Renault F1 Team has reacted swiftly by implementing a new temporary management team structure, which will be in place from today until the end of the 2009 season. \"Bob Bell, currently technical director, takes on the duty of team principal and chief technical office. Bell will attend all the remaining races of the season and will be the team's spokesperson on all sporting and technical matters . \"The Renault F1 Team is now ready to concentrate on the future.\"","highlights":"Nelson Piquet Jr is keen to make a comeback to Formula One in the future .\nThe Brazilian's reputation is tarnished after his part in the \"crashgate\" scandal .\nRenault confirmed Bob Bell will be acting team principal for rest of the season .","id":"adfcb1339c6e555f180ee3ff8fd421284b735133"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Richard M. Nixon and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici, in 1971 discussed ways their countries could work together to overthrow the socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, according to a newly declassified document. President Richard M. Nixon, right, and his Brazilian counterpart, Emilio Medici. During a meeting of the two leaders at the White House on December 9 of that year, Medici was discussing the possibility of a coup by the Chilean military with assistance from Brazilian military officers when Nixon said that it was \"very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field,\" according to the document. Nixon offered money or other discreet aid for the effort if it could be made available, the document shows. \"We must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros, and try where possible to reverse these trends,\" Nixon said. Medici said he was \"happy to see that the Brazilian and American positions and views\" were so close. The declassified document, a previously top secret memorandum for Nixon's file written by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, was published by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute in Washington. The memorandum, along with other documents, were declassified in July as part of the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States series. \"This is an explosive document that details collusion between the colossus of the North [the United States] and the colossus of the South [Brazil],\" said Peter Kornbluh, the director of a Chile and Brazil Documentation Project for the National Security Archive. He called it \"a smoking gun of confirmation of Brazil's effort to engage in operations to overthrow the government of Chile and a discussion of collusion with the United States.\" The two leaders also discussed the creation of a back channel for direct communication outside normal diplomatic protocols, according to the document. Each designated personal aides to carry handwritten communications back and forth to keep discussions out of official records. \"I think there is precedent, but we've never seen it detailed in a document this way, in which two presidents set up the utmost secret of back-channel communications so they can discuss the most sensitive aspects of collusion and collaboration in efforts to challenge the left in Latin America and change the futures of select Latin American governments,\" Kornbluh said. He added that \"there's a significant paper trail of evidence of what that collusion was that remains secret, and we're going to have to press Brazil and Washington to recover those documents.\" Despite the leaders' effort to keep the subject of their talks secret, word got out. A declassified CIA memorandum written some time after the Nixon-Medici meeting in Washington said that word of the secret talks between the two leaders about shaping Brazilian foreign policy filtered down to Brazilian military officers by a \"Cabinet leak.\" Gen. Vicente Dale Coutinho, commander of Brazil's 4th Army, reacted to this by saying that the United States obviously wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work,\" it said. A declassified CIA national intelligence estimate written in 1972 concluded, \"Brazil will be playing a bigger role in hemispheric affairs and seeking to fill whatever vacuum the U.S. leaves behind. It is unlikely that Brazil will intervene openly in its neighbors' internal affairs, but the regime will not be above using the threat of intervention or tools of diplomacy and covert action to oppose leftist regimes, to keep friendly governments in office, or to help place them there.\" The newly published documents do not offer any conclusive proof of Brazilian involvement in the Chilean coup of 1973, which the Nixon administration supported. Kornbluh said that with the passage of time and change in governments in all of the countries involved, the real story of diplomatic and covert collusion between the United States and Brazil in Chile can finally be told. The National Security Archive will push for the declassification and publication of more top-secret documents from the Nixon library, he said, and will approach Brazilian government officials to ask for their cooperation in getting documents released in Washington and Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Kornbluh said he also hopes that surviving Chilean government and military officers from the era who knew of any arrangements with the Brazilian government will come forward and tell their stories. \"This is history for history's sake, but history will not find closure until it's fully aired,\" he said.","highlights":"Document shows Richard M. Nixon, Emilio Medici had like-minded goals .\nIt says two leaders met at White House, Nixon offered money or other discreet aid .\nCIA memo says Brazilian general thought U.S. wanted Brazil \"to do the dirty work\"\nMemo, other documents were declassified in July of this year as part of project .","id":"04a475600aad07fbd5a577e532bcb2b8f0f799e5"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- An undersea cable plugging east Africa into high speed Internet access went live Thursday, providing an alternative to expensive satellite connections. The cable links southern Africa to Europe and Asia. SEACOM, the cable provider company, opened its 17,000 kilometer submarine cable, capable of 1.28 terabytes per second, allowing the region true connectivity. Most Africans rely on expensive and slow satellite connections, which make the use of applications such as YouTube and Facebook extremely trying. \"This is going to reduce the cost of doing business in Africa, within Africa and with international parties\" said Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM spokesman in South Africa. \"The cable is as thin as a hair strand, and in one second it can download the same amount of data that 160 people use in a month.\" SEACOM, privately funded and 75 percent African owned, will provide retail carriers with open source access to inexpensive bandwidth. It has taken less than three years to complete the mammoth project, providing landing stations at South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar and other points along the east coast of Africa. But telecoms analyst James Hodge said that some of the more ambitious hopes for the system -- such as impacting the continent's socioeconomic problems -- will be long-term, and that initially it will be those already connected who will see the benefits. The launch was delayed by a month because of increased activity by pirates along parts of the African coast. Security teams were beefed up to protect the slow moving cable layers. Neotel, a South African communications network operator, is the largest SEACOM customer in South Africa and is the country's landing partner, providing both the coastal landing station and Johannesburg data center for the submarine cable. Neotel managing director Ajay Pandey is excited about the opportunities for growth presented by the SEACOM cable. \"With this cable coming in, the pipe size opens up, so more and more people are able to get faster and better connectivity, hopefully at a lower price. It can't be more expensive than what it is today.\" SEACOM Chief Executive Officer Brian Herlihy added: \"Turning the switch 'on' creates a huge anticipation, but ultimately, SEACOM will be judged on the changes that take place on the continent over the coming years.\" South Africa has been hobbled by high costs and extremely slow bandwidth, effectively keeping the country on an information back road rather then the superhighway. There is much anticipation and hope that the cable will ensure Africa keeps up with the developed world in Internet connectivity, providing greater speed, flexibility and, potentially, a complete socioeconomic transformation. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said in his opening address: \"It's the ultimate embodiment of modernity.\" His speech was beamed via SEACOM from a launch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to the simultaneous launch in Johannesburg, South Africa.","highlights":"Undersea SEACOM cable links southern and east Africa to Europe, Asia .\nSystem provides cheaper alternative to satellite connections .\n17,000 km cable capable of 1.28 terabytes per second .\nSEACOM spokesman: This is going to reduce the cost of doing business .","id":"a86361a78e92087851ee122e369665f4fba7ed01"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Demand for the world's largest, most expensive yachts is on the rise ahead of the Monaco Yacht Show this week. Ships moored at the Moncao Yacht Show. \"We've gotten the strongest forward order book that we've ever had. It's the best outlook we've ever had since we've started the company,\" said Toby Allies, Sales and Marketing Director for Pendennis, a leading British manufacturer and re-fitter of superyachts. Amid the global recession, the worldwide market for luxury goods has plummeted over the last year, expected to shrink 10 percent for 2009 according to global business consultants Bain & Company. A few sectors, though, have shown surprising strength and even growth amid the downturn, including British-made superyachts. The British market for superyachts grew more than 15 percent during the fiscal year ending June 1, 2009, according to a new survey. Overall revenue increased to a record $663 million (\u00a3410 million) and jobs across the industry increased five percent, according to Superyacht UK, the trade group who conducted the survey. Since last September, yacht sales tanked in many parts of the world, particularly as cash dried up among clients from Russia and the Middle East. \"It was a difficult year, many manufacturers had to cut down on production numbers and give larger discounts,\" said Georges Tchoumak, Head of Sales and Marketing for Numarine, a manufacturer of superyachts based in Turkey. In France three of the four publicly-traded yacht companies who make yachts that cost more than $40 million took advantage of the country's bankruptcy laws to stave off collapse, including Rodriguez Group, the company who built Bernard Madoff's yacht \"Bull.\" Though affected by the recession, the UK industry managed to buck that trend, buoyed by a decline in the pound. \"In the last quarter of 2008 through the end of first quarter 2009 there was virtually zero activity in the large yacht sector,\" said Tim Wiltshire, Director of Burgess Yachts, a UK-based high-end boat manufacturer. Wiltshire said that at their worst, transactions were down 60 percent compared with the previous year, but that volume had recently returned, particularly in brokerage sales of used yachts. Heading into Monaco, manufacturers around the world including the UK now appear poised for a robust rebound. \"There have been a dozen significant sales in the past quarter ... enough of our customers think it's unlikely to get much worse.\" But whiles sales have picked up, Wiltshire predicted it could take years for sale prices to reach the premiums of only a few years ago: \"Since early summer [business] has picked up significantly ... We are back on par with 2007, albeit at reduced values,\" he said. Manufacturers across the UK share Wiltshire's optimism, according to the survey. Ninety-five percent of UK companies questioned rated their prospects for the year ahead either \"good or excellent\" (56 percent) or \"OK\" (39 percent). At Numarine \"things are looking better for the last three months,\" Tchomak told CNN. \"We've had more sales in the past three months than in the previous 12 months,\" he wrote in an email. At Pendennis, directors have changed their business strategy to accommodate the anticipated growth. \"We've increased our investment in infrastructure for large yachts,\" said Ailes. \"Improving facilities and looking to recruit more people to work on boats up to 70 or 80 meters.\" One of the reasons cited for the strength in Britain's superyacht business compared with manufacturers in other European countries has been the declining value of Sterling against the Euro. Hugo Andreae, Editor-in-Chief of Superyachtworld magazine said that the exchange rate helped, but the high quality of British boats and sustained demand among the world's wealthiest had helped hold up sales. Andreae also explained that one of the effects of the recession has been to shift demand from new builds to the used boat brokerage and chartering markets. \"There are signs that things are picking up ... Monaco is the premiere big yacht show and it's the real acid test of whether [the rebound] is the odd sale being picked up at a good price, or if the market has reignited properly,\" explained Tom Chant, International Commercial Manager for Superyacht UK. If interest in the Monaco Yacht Show is any indicator, then sales can be expected to meet bullish expectations. The annual end-of-summer yachting industry and yacht owners' conference is fully booked this week. The number of double-decker pavilions has doubled since last year, but in spite of the event's increased provision of these more expensive, higher visibility exhibition spaces supply still fell short of demand. In the United States yacht manufacturers also say they've seen a recent surge in interest in new construction of yachts over 150 feet. \"Over the last 45 days, all of a sudden, the inquires have started coming along really strong. That bodes well for the Monaco Yacht Show,\" said William Smith, V.P. of Sales and Marketing for Trinity Yachts. \"It's fair to say sales came to a shuddering halt after the Monaco show last year.\" In another sign that interest in the top-end of the yacht market is back, Luxury retailer Hermes recently announced plans to team up with Wally, the Monaco superyacht company, to build a $145 million (\u20ac100 million) yacht. Sales to Russia, the Middle East and other developing countries have rebounded more quickly than sales to Europe and the U.S., according to Smith, as uncertainty about the markets has subsided and boosted consumer confidence. In the past six months, Trinity had only had one inquiry from an American, which came in the last few weeks. Trinity, the largest U.S. retailer of megayachts, has had two projects out of 17 builds stall due to the recession, both about 164 feet long. Smith said the owners can either come back and pay for them to finish the work or let Trinity sell them. Throughout the downturn Trinity was able to continue to deliver ships at a record pace, thanks to a hearty backlog of orders placed during the markets peaks.","highlights":"The British market for superyachts grew more than 15 percent last year .\nAfter a year of steep declines, sales for new yacht constructions are picking up .\nThe Monaco Yacht Show is fully-booked this week, showing renewed interest .\nHermes teams up with Wally to build $145 million ultra luxury yacht .","id":"ec6309b6d72ca2a122dd3dd0a382edd4cf959bae"} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Lined up next to Pittsburgh police officers protecting a downtown office building Thursday morning were officers who traveled a little farther to get to work. Police officers from Tucson, Arizona, left, talk with a Pittsburgh officer Thursday outside the G-20 summit. About 2,000 miles farther. Thirty-six officers from the Tucson, Arizona, Police Department are in Pittsburgh as part of the G-20 security force. They were asked to assist by Pittsburgh officials as part of a Department of Homeland Security rapid response team. Officers from departments in several cities, including Cleveland, Ohio; Miami Metro Dade, Florida; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chicago, Illinois, were sworn in as part of the massive security effort, but Tucson wins the prize for the greatest distance traveled. Watch how Pittsburgh has prepared for protests \u00bb . \"There's a standardization in training,\" Tucson Lt. Paul Sayre said. Departments brought in to assist have undergone similar preparations in techniques and crowd control. The Arizona officers were asked to come to Pittsburgh after taking part in the protection effort at the Republican National Convention in 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The downtown Pittsburgh street on a morning with temperatures in the 50s was nothing like a typical day for the officers. \"It's a different environment,\" Sayre said -- but the job was the same. \"We're excited to be here. It's a lot of fun.\" \"Our role is to support Pittsburgh,\" said Capt. Perry Tarrant, commanding the Tucson team. The additional help protecting downtown locations \"gives Pittsburgh the flexibility to send its officers where needed,\" Sayre said.","highlights":"Police officers from around country join G-20 security effort in Pittsburgh .\nDepartments involved include Miami, Florida, and Baltimore, Maryland .\nCops from Tucson, Arizona, find chilly temps a change, but say \"It's a lot of fun\"","id":"76cfe6aee2630557276abb24f9e9344ccc827220"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say. MIT researcher Pablo Valdivia Alvarado works in his lab on a robotic fish he co-created. MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish. And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school. \"Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance,\" Alvarado said. \"Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds -- 200, 500 -- and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements.\" MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation -- modeled after bass and trout -- cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in Robotuna. At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans. \"Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside,\" said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. \"We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply.\" The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level. The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish. MIT's mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander. CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Engineers at MIT have created a new generation of robotic fish .\n'Robofish' could be used to map the ocean floor, inspect submerged boats or pipes .\nMIT researchers built their first robotic fish, \"Robotuna,\" in 1994 .\nNew robofish are modeled after bass and trout and cost only a few hundred dollars .","id":"94022e18db861530258a862bc374446c24d300ff"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Abayte Ahmed and her husband learned of their son's death in the most heinous fashion. A family acquaintance called and told them to click on an Internet site. There on the screen were photographs of their 20-year-old son -- the boy with the movie-star looks -- shot through the head thousands of miles away in Somalia. Jamal Bana died in Somalia. Several missing Somali-Americans are believed to have fought there. \"He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated, because he didn't have any clue about Somalia at all,\" his mother said, fighting back tears and barely able to speak about her eldest son. Jamal Bana had been missing for months from his Minneapolis home. His family is still grappling with the circumstances surrounding his death in a land they had fled -- an African nation wracked by chaos and violence. The FBI said Bana's death is part of a sweeping federal investigation into a recruiting effort in the United States by a Somali terrorist group called Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months. At least three, including Bana, have ended up dead in Somalia, community leaders say. Watch the harrowing saga of Jamal Bana \u00bb . Bana was the kind of son a modest immigrant family pins its hopes on. He was the eldest of seven and studying engineering at local colleges. But last fall, his family said, he disappeared without any warning. A few days later, the phone rang. All that could be heard was a quick sentence. \"I'm in Somalia,\" his mother quoted him as saying. He then hung up. Communication from then on was scarce. In calls or text messages, the family said, Bana was guarded, as though someone was watching or listening to him. On July 11, the family received the call telling them to look on the Internet. Bana's father broke down in tears when he saw the photos. One image was a close-up of his son's face, a bullet wound on one side of his head. Another showed the body being carried through the streets of Mogadishu on a stretcher. His parents said they believe their son was brainwashed and recruited to fight in the civil war between Somalia's unstable transitional government and Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab remains entrenched in northeast Somalia and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. The question immigrants in the United States want answered is: How have their youth ended up so far away? One of the missing youth, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, blew up himself and 29 others last fall in Somalia in what is believed to be the first suicide bombing carried out by a naturalized U.S. citizen. Ahmed had traveled from Minneapolis. The attack raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Just weeks ago, community activist Abdirizak Bihi lost his 17-year-old nephew, Burhan Hassan, in Somalia. Asked if his nephew had been kidnapped from Minneapolis, Bihi said, \"They kidnap them in the sense of mental kidnapping, not physically. But they play a male role of mentor.\" Bihi and community leader Omar Jamal said they hold one place at least loosely responsible: the Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minneapolis. \"All these kids missing, they all have one thing in common: They all participated in youth programs in that mosque,\" said Jamal. Jamal and Bihi said leaders of the mosque, at the very least, allowed people to come around their facility and recruit young men to fight in Somalia -- a charge the head imam denies. CNN was not allowed inside the mosque, but was granted an interview with the imam at a different location. \"This is the baseless accusation really,\" said Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmed. \"The mosque -- the mission of the mosque -- is to worship. And people come to worship and go. We don't have any control over what comes through everybody's mind or ideology.\" Sheikh Ahmed said at least two of the young men who died in Somalia did worship at his mosque. But he said no recruiters came around the mosque to pull them away, and said his mosque does not support Al-Shabaab. He added that he has encouraged local families to keep their young sons from going to Somalia. Federal authorities recently made their first arrests in the case, charging two Minnesota men, Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, according to the indictment. CNN could not reach Salah Osman Ahmed's attorney for comment. Published reports indicate he planned to plead not guilty. Isse has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal authorities, officials said. In court papers obtained by CNN, Isse's attorney said, \"Mr. Isse will not be the last defendant indicted.\" A local attorney involved in the case said at least seven Somali-Americans have been questioned by a grand jury. An FBI official said the bureau cannot rule out the possibility that some of the young men involved could be trained to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Meanwhile, CNN has learned more about how Shirwa Ahmed and Burhan Hassan made their way overseas. A travel agent in Minneapolis, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two men paid about $1,800 in cash for tickets to Nairobi, Kenya, or to Dubai, U.A.E. The travel agent said he thinks the two men then made their way to Mogadishu from those cities on a Somali carrier. For Bana's family, it's all too much to bear. Omar Boley is a close friend who grew up in the same tribe as Bana's family. He said Bana's mother is having difficulty coping with everything that has happened in recent months. \"She doesn't want to hear the story again,\" he said. \"She told me, 'Whenever I see someone talking about my son, I feel bad. I can't sleep. I feel sick. So this happened, nothing I can do. We pray for him.' That's what she said, and that's what I believe.\"","highlights":"Jamal Bana had been missing for months; family learns of his death via Internet .\nDeath is part of wider federal inquiry of terror recruiting by Somali group in U.S.\nImam of Minneapolis mosque says terror recruiters are not at his mosque .\nTwo men charged in U.S. with providing material support to terrorists .","id":"fbeb874b8dccd8f470a6ab257a45c8d3ba50052e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A top Baha'i official has criticized Iran's claim that the six imprisoned leaders of the religious minority were held for security reasons and not because of their faith. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has been accused of trying to eliminate the Baha'i community. Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, called Iran's assertion \"utterly baseless.\" \"The allegations are not new, and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue,\" Dugal said on Wednesday, quoted in a news release issued by the Baha'i movement. \"The documented plan of the Iranian government has always been to destroy the Baha'i community, and these latest arrests represent an intensification of this plan.\" Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the people were detained for \"security issues\" and not their faith, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency said. Elham said on Tuesday that the Baha'is were members of a group working together \"against national interest.\" \"The group is an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular,\" he said. The arrests of the six last week and another Baha'i leader in March sparked sharp condemnation by the Baha'is, the United States, Canada, the European Union and humanitarian groups. The Baha'is say the latest arrests are part of a pattern of religious persecution since 1979, when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and an Islamic republic was created in the predominantly Shiite nation. The Baha'is say they have been killed, jailed and \"otherwise oppressed\" only because of their religion. \"The best proof of this is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam, an option few have taken,\" Dugal said. Dugal said Iran's practice of connecting the group to Zionism, the underlying political philosophy of the Jewish state, was a \"distortion\" and an attempt to \"stir animosity\" among the Iranian public. The Baha'i World Center, which the movement refers to as its \"spiritual and administrative heart,\" is in the Acre\/Haifa area in northern Israel -- a location that predates the founding of the state of Israel since it was formed during the Ottoman Empire's rule of Palestine. The Baha'is explain that their founder, Baha'u'llah, \"after a series of successive banishments from his native Persia, was exiled, with members of his family and a small band of his followers, to the Turkish penal colony of Acre in 1868.\" Dugal said the Iranian actions were the \"most recent iteration in a long history of attempts to foment hatred by casting the Baha'is as agents of foreign powers, whether of Russia, the United Kingdom, or the United States and now Israel all of which are completely baseless.\" Dugal said the government's philosophies are based largely on the idea that there can be \"no prophet following Mohammed\" and that the faith \"poses a theological challenge to this belief.\" They say Baha'u'llah is regarded by Baha'is as \"the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Mohammed.\" The Baha'is-- regarded as the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran -- say they have 5 million members across the globe, and about 300,000 in Iran.","highlights":"Baha'i official denies Iran claim that six of its leaders held for security reasons .\nThe religious minority's leaders were arrested at their homes last week .\nBaha'i representative to U.N. says Iran's claim is \"utterly baseless\"\nBani Dugal says Muslim-run government is trying to destroy Baha'i community .","id":"340ccb660ba6b0932f956d5333dd22820792e633"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- U.S. officials urged American citizens in Germany to keep a low profile and remain wary of their surroundings after the terrorist organization al Qaeda posted a video message threatening attacks in the country. German special police patrol in Berlin last month during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu. A State Department travel alert, issued Wednesday, remains in effect until November 11 -- two weeks after Germany holds its federal elections on Sunday. Al Qaeda posted its video threat on the Internet on September 18, vowing attacks if the elections do not come out the way it wants. The same day, the German government reacted to the video by raising its own alert level and heightening security. The British Foreign Office has also issued an advisory to its citizens living and traveling to Germany. The State Department travel alert asks Americans to keep abreast of news reports and consider the security procedures in place when they visit public places or pick hotels and restaurants. Germany's interior ministry said earlier this month that the country has noted an increase in threats by al Qaeda and other Islamist groups since the beginning of the year. In the nearly 26-minute video statement, a man identified as Bekay Harrach, using the pseudonym Abu Talha and speaking in German, said that, if the September 27 elections vote into power parties that do not pledge to pull German troops from Afghanistan, there will be a \"rude awakening.\" The speaker called on Muslims living in Germany to stay away from public life during the first two weeks after the elections, implying that any attacks would take place then. The speaker repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also criticized Merkel's rivals, the Social Democrats, but offered the possibility of a \"peace offer.\" \"If the German people vote for peace, then the Mujahedeen will choose peace with Germany as well,\" he said. \"And with the withdrawal of the last German soldier from Afghanistan, the last Mujahed will also leave Germany. Al Qaeda gives you their word.\"","highlights":"Al Qaeda terror group posts video message threatening attacks in Germany .\nU.S. officials urge their citizens in Germany to keep low profile and be wary .\nGermany's interior ministry report increase in threats by al Qaeda this year .\nMessage criticizes Chancellor Merkel over wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .","id":"4813ee1a0569984988cbf6bd6ae4e5c03f9cdcea"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Myron Lowery is mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery fist bumps the Dalai Lama on his arrival in the Tennessee city. MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) -- \"Hello Dalai, . Well, hello ... Dalai!\" It seemed like a good idea at the time. And with hindsight being 20\/20; it still does. How often do you get to meet an international figure as captivating as the Dalai Lama? I wanted to make an impression, and break the ice, in my Southern hospitality sort of way. So enter the lyric from the song and the fist bump now heard round the world. I had been told by his representatives that the Dalai Lama had a wonderful sense of humor, and would enjoy the exchange. Indeed, he did. His Holiness laughed, returned the gesture, and gave me his blessings. And in our brief time together, I saw in his eyes the sparkle of kindness, love and good humor. It's unfortunate that not everyone could allow themselves to enjoy the moment, as we did. Barely an hour passed before reporters began calling to say my fist bump with the Dalai Lama was \"disrespectful,\" unusual and perhaps inappropriate. Why would I do that, they asked? Well to answer that, I would have to go back a couple of weeks or so. One of my assistants in the mayor's office began feeling ill. After a couple of days off work, she was diagnosed with the H1N1 flu. She sits 10 feet away from me. The swine flu story was hitting close to home in a major way. As the leader of a major city, I had to step forward and deal with fears about a virus that has never been known to man. Watch the Dalai Lama's fist bump \u00bb . So I rolled up my sleeves and took a shot for the seasonal flu. I encouraged everyone to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it becomes available. I urged people to cough politely into a napkin or their sleeve. I had hand sanitizer installed in the common areas at city hall. I greeted the Chairman of the City Council with a fist bump and it made the local news. It became a running theme in City Hall. The mayor would greet you with a fist bump. A day before His Holiness came to the city, I spoke to the Dalai Lama's protocol team and they said he would not be upset or offended being greeted this way. In fact it has happened in the past. So, armed with this information I decided to greet him when he arrived Tuesday in a similar fashion. Not because of any concern about H1N1. I greeted him this way because I'm a down to earth guy, who was raised by a single mother with four sons in public housing. I still tell everyone to call me Myron. I am now living a dream as the mayor of Memphis. And Wednesday, as I sat and watched His Holiness accept an award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the gravity of the moment was in no way lost on me. An international crusader for peace was here on the hallowed ground where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took his last breath. He offered his blessings, walked into the crowd, touched people. He carried himself humbly, not as one to be feared, but as a man, sharing his humanity, making us all better for it. So in the final analysis, I know His Holiness is always happy to participate in local customs, however obscure. He is about peace and harmony, and a fist bump is just another expression of warm friendship that he again returned to me before he left. And the \"Hello, Dalai?\" Well, that was just a bonus. He knew it was coming and we all laughed together. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Myron Lowery.","highlights":"Myron Lowery: I greeted the Dalai Lama with a fist bump and a pun .\nHe says H1N1 virus led to fears about spread of the new disease .\nHe says he's been encouraging people to use fist bump to reduce spread .\nLowery: \"A fist bump is just another expression of warm friendship\"","id":"847835a52896a9480110dbe5eb19f57d82e2318e"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The number of people killed in a car bombing in Afghanistan's capital rose to 26, including six Italian soldiers, Afghan authorities said Saturday. The coffins of six Italian soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Kabul return to Rome. Sixteen people died in the blast Thursday, and at least 55 Afghan civilians were wounded. Ten have died from their injuries since the bombing. The explosion Thursday targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul, a witness said. The bodies of the Italian soldiers killed in the blast returned to Italy Sunday, their coffins draped in the red, green and white Italian flag. Dignitaries, relatives and row upon row of uniformed troops stood on the airport tarmac as the coffins were carried off the plane, television pictures from the scene showed. Watch more about Italy in mourning \u00bb . Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano gently touched the caskets perched on the shoulders of grim-faced soldiers at Rome's Ciampino military airport. Nearby, a woman shook uncontrollably as a baby sported a maroon beret -- the kind worn by the paratroopers killed in the Kabul attack. The six deaths marked largest number of Italians killed in a single day in Afghanistan. Watch more about Italy's Afghan mission \u00bb . Before the remains left for Rome, the Italian military, international troops and dignitaries held a service in the Afghan capital. \"It's a tragedy for us,\" Lt. Col. Renato Vaira of the Italian military said at the Kabul service. \"But this is a point to continue our mission.\" \"We'll miss them. They're not the first. I hope it will be the last,\" said Maj. Gen. Tommaso Ferro of the Italian military. The arrival of the soldiers' remains was televised nationally in Italy. The bodies were taken for an autopsy. A day of mourning is scheduled in Italy on Monday, the same day as the burial service. After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it would be \"best\" for the country's troops to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. Berlusconi gave no timeline for a withdrawal, but said any pullout would have to be coordinated with allies. The 500 troops Italy sent to Afghanistan this summer will be home by Christmas, Ignazio La Russa, Italy's defense minister said. The troops were sent ahead of the Afghan presidential election August 20. The rest of Italy's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan will withdraw only when NATO calls for it, La Russa said.","highlights":"Explosion targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul .\nBodies of six Italian soldiers who died returned to Italy Sunday .\nItalian Prime Minister says it would be \"best\" for country's troops to leave Afghanistan .\nDeaths were the highest single-day death toll for Italy in the Afghan mission .","id":"2a2705a9e1cb84478dc56b0bd5f5f28eaeafbf16"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A 43-year-old woman convicted in the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Wednesday ended her hunger strike after authorities agreed to review her demand for early release. Nalini Sriharan received a death sentence in 1991 for plotting to murder former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Nalini Sriharan, who has been in jail for 18 years, went on a fast Monday, said Jaya Bharathi, superintendent of Vellore prison in southern India. Convicted of plotting the murder of Gandhi in a suicide bomb attack in 1991, she received a death sentence along with her husband and two others. Sriharan's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on a mercy petition by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the slain former prime minister. The other three remain on death row. In India, a lifer becomes eligible for early release after serving 14 years, Bharathi said. Authorities would consider setting up an advisory board on Sriharan's demand, Bharathi added. \"She ended her fast today and had her breakfast and lunch,\" Bharathi told CNN. India accused Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels of ordering the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, who had sent Indian peacekeepers to the restive island nation while in power.","highlights":"Authorities have agreed to review case of 43-year-old prisoner Nalini Sriharan .\nSriharan started a hunger strike on Monday to seek early release from jail .\nShe has been in jail for 18 years, convicted of plotting murder of Rajiv Gandhi .\nFormer Indian PM Gandhi was killed in a suicide bomb attack in 1991 .","id":"a783b1e914eef4d9e14f5cae4ac92d2decf187c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 24 people have been killed and hundreds rendered homeless in the worst floods to hit land-locked Mongolia in 40 years, emergency officials said Tuesday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was working with local authorities to distribute emergency goods to the flood-ravaged victims. Workers fear that without adequate food and shelter, the situation would worsen when winter arrives in three months, said Francis Markus of the Red Cross. The floods struck last week in the Asian nation's capital, Ulaanbaatar, and a province in the west. It was the worst to hit the country since 1966, Markus said. See images of flood victims \u00bb . The government issued televised broadcasts ahead of the rainstorms but many children and elderly could not be evacuated in time, Markus said.","highlights":"Red Cross working with local authorities to distribute aid to flood victims .\nRelief workers say winter poses major threat unless food and shelter in place .\nGovernment warned of floods but many people could not be evacuated in time .","id":"1f3016521eb8da9897e95204176995efe197a657"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson feared his father so much he would faint or vomit sometimes when his father entered the room -- even when the pop singer was an adult, according to a book written by a former Jackson confidant. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Michael Jackson's confidant, sat down with the King of Pop and taped 30 hours of interviews. \"The Michael Jackson Tapes\" includes Jackson talking about his fear of growing old, his relationship with children, his friendships with Madonna and Brooke Shields, and his remarkable shyness around people that made his surround himself with mannequins. Jackson opened up to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for 30 hours of interviews, which were taped nine years ago and intended for a book Jackson wanted written, Boteach said. \"He was trying to reclaim his life,\" Boteach said Friday in an NBC \"Today Show\" interview. Jackson, who died on June 25 of what the coroner found to be a deadly combination of drugs, \"lost the will to live, I think he was just going through the motions of life toward the end,\" Boteach told NBC. CNN has not independently confirmed Jackson's quotes in the book, but Boteach was known to be a spiritual adviser to Jackson for several years beginning about 1999. Ken Sunshine, spokesman for the family, including the singer's father, Joe, issued a statement on the book. \"We are not going to dignify this with a comment,\" he said. The book was not published during Jackson's lifetime because of the pop star's child molestation trial, which ended with an acquittal in 2005, the author said. The author said Jackson's arrest ended any interest in a book about him. \"I don't want to grow old,\" Jackson is quoted as saying in one interview with Boteach. \"When the body breaks down and you start to wrinkle, I think it's so bad,\" Jackson said. Jackson talked to Boteach about why he was drawn to children, especially those who were sick. \"I love them. I love them,\" he said. Helping children enjoy their childhood is his mission, Jackson said. \"I feel that this is something really, really in my heart that I am supposed to do, and I feel so loved by giving my love, and I know that's what they need,\" he said. Jackson said that while adults \"appreciate me artistically as a singer and a songwriter and a dancer and a performer,\" children \"just want to have some fun and to give love and have love and they just want to be loved and held.\" Boteach, in an interview about two years before Jackson's November 2003 arrest, asked Jackson about the young cancer patient who would later become his main accuser. \"He's special,\" Jackson said. Boteach asked Jackson whether by speaking to people like the boy \"part of the pain goes away for them.\" \"Absolutely,\" Jackson said. \"Because every time I talk to him he is in better spirits. When I spoke to him last night he said, 'I need you. When are you coming home?' I said, 'I don't know.' He said, 'I need you, Michael.' Then he calls me 'Dad.'\" Michael Jackson's taped statements about his father's treatment of him as a child echoed what he has said previously. \"He was rough, the way he would beat you, you know, was hard,\" Jackson said. \"He would make you strip nude first. He would oil you down. It would be a whole ritual. He would oil you down so when the flip of an ironing cord hit you, you know, and, it was just like me dying, and you had whips all over your face, your back, everywhere. And I always hear my mother like, 'No, Joe, you're gonna kill him. You're gonna kill him. No.' And I would just give up, like there was nothing I could do. And I hated him for it. Hated him.\" Joe Jackson has denied physically abusing his son. \"Now, Michael was never beaten by me, I've never beaten at all,\" he told CNN's Larry King in July. He did suggest he used spankings for disciplining his children. Another Michael Jackson quote from the book alleged emotional abuse by Joe Jackson: . \"God bless my father because he did some wonderful things and he was brilliant, he was a genius, but one day he said, 'If you guys ever stop singing I will drop you like a hot potato.' It hurt me. You would think he would think, 'These kids have a heart and feelings.' Wouldn't he think that would hurt us? If I said something like that to Prince and Paris, that would hurt. You don't say something like that to children and I never forgot it. It affects my relationship with him today.\" Jackson told Boteach he was still \"scared of my father to this day.\" \"My father walked in the room -- and God knows I am telling the truth -- I have fainted in his presence many times. I have fainted once to be honest. I have thrown up in his presence because when he comes in the room and this aura comes and my stomach starts hurting and I know I am in trouble. He is so different now. Time and age has changed him and he sees his grandchildren and he wants to be a better father. It is almost like the ship has sailed its course, and it is so hard for me to accept this other guy that is not the guy I was raised with. I just wished he had learned that earlier.\" In the excerpts provided to CNN by the book's publisher, there were no quotes from Jackson discussing his drug use, but Boteach does write about what he saw during the several years he was Jackson's spiritual adviser, starting in 1999. While Boteach said he never personally saw Jackson use drugs, he did suspect it. \"In the time that I knew him, he always seemed intent on me having a positive view of him and nothing untoward was ever done in my presence,\" he wrote. While their close relationship ended around the time of the molestation charges, Boteach said Jackson's parents reached out to him later for help in convincing him to enter drug rehab. \"Perhaps I could inspire Michael to make that decision, and his parents thought I could at least help,\" Boteach said. \"But I knew they were wrong. Michael had long since ceased taking my counsel. He found my advice too demanding. I was an irritant and was treated as such.\" He said he told Joe and Katherine Jackson that \"it was imperative for them to save their son's life by becoming available parents in his greatest hour of need.\" Sometimes those closest to Jackson were not people -- but mannequins, the book said. Jackson said he was so shy at times he surrounded himself with dummies. \"Because I felt I needed people, someone, and I didn't have,\" he said. \"I was too shy to be around real people.\" Boteach, in the NBC interview Friday, said it made his skin crawl to hear that. \"His celebrity had created a degree of isolation where he could not simply feel comfortable around other people,\" Boteach said. \"He thought that everybody wanted something from him. He felt that he was trapped in this cocoon of fame and that there was some exploitative relationship with virtually everyone that he met.\" The book does offer insight into Jackson's dating of celebrity women, including actress Brooke Shields. \"That was one of the loves of my life,\" Jackson said. \"I just wished she loved me as much as I loved her, you know.\" He told Boteach one problem he had with women was their jealousy of his fame. \"They admire you and know you're wonderful and great, but just they're jealous because they wish they were in your place, with they were in your shoes. And 'M' is one of them -- Madonna. Hate to say that on tape.\" CNN asked Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg for a response: . \"Madonna was very fond of Michael Jackson (as she clearly expressed in her tribute to him at the VMA's) and I doubt anything in the book will change her mind,\" Rosenberg said. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former confidant's book based on 30 hours of interviews with Michael Jackson .\nJackson told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach he was still \"scared of my father to this day\"\nJackson said Brooke Shields \"was one of the loves of my life\"\nKing of Pop said father would strip him naked and beat him, according to book .","id":"db43ca754ff385ab9ead775b981d248924c7a4a1"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Students will investigate the contributions of Hispanic Americans to U.S. culture, and what it means to be an Hispanic in America today. Procedure . Point out to students that Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) celebrates the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, \"September 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.\" In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, send student groups on a multimedia scavenger hunt to investigate how Hispanic Americans have contributed to U.S. culture, and the opportunities and challenges that exist for Hispanics in America today. Pose the following questions to guide students' research: . 1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, what is the estimated Hispanic population of the United States? What percent of the total U.S. population does this number represent? 2. What aspects of Hispanic culture can be found in the U.S? 3. Who are some Hispanic Americans who have had an impact in U.S. politics and government? 4. Who are some famous Hispanic-American musicians, artists, writers and actors? How have they impacted U.S. culture? 5. What Hispanic businesses exist in your community and other parts of the U.S.? How have these businesses contributed to the U.S. economy? 6. What issues have you seen or heard about in recent news that are of interest to the Hispanic community? Have groups share and discuss their findings with the class. Extension . Instruct each student to interview several Hispanic-American teens and adults to get their responses to the following question: What would you like other Americans to know about what it means to be Hispanic in America today? Have students summarize the interviewees' responses and share them with the class. Correlated Standards . Social Studies . I. Culture . Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity. V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions . Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions. The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org\/standards\/ are published by the National Council for Social Studies (http:\/\/www.socialstudies.org).","highlights":"Students will investigate how Hispanic Americans have contributed to U.S. culture .\nStudents will identify opportunities and challenges that exist for Hispanics in America .","id":"b559e1448345f5ea2c961565a4ce16cd2b9518ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For Dr. Lisa Newman, a 16-hour trip over two days from Michigan to Ghana in Africa is just part of the journey in uncovering clues about a rare form of breast cancer. Dr. Lisa Newman hopes to uncover clues in Ghana about an aggressive and rare form of breast cancer. Newman, a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at the University of Michigan, collaborates with doctors in Kumasi, Ghana, in hopes of discovering the origins of an aggressive and difficult to treat form of breast cancer that disproportionately affects black women. It is called triple negative breast cancer or TNBC. \"The women that are most likely to be afflicted with the triple negative breast cancers are younger aged women, women in the pre-menopausal age range, and women with African ancestry,\" says Newman. According to the American Cancer Society, 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States in 2009. Triple negative breast cancer represents approximately 15 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States. As an African-American female surgeon, Lisa Newman is a rarity in the United States. African-Americans make up less than 5 percent of physicians in this country, according to the American Medical Association. Newman, who is also the director of the Breast Care Center for the University of Michigan, recalls her early days during the '90's as a general surgeon in Brooklyn, New York. \"It was just heartbreaking every day in the clinic to continuously be seeing African-American women that seemed to be disproportionately afflicted with breast cancers at younger ages, and more advanced stages of disease.\" Little is known about what causes TNBC. But statistics show that black women are twice as likely as white women to get it. When diagnosing breast cancer, doctors look for three markers: estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and the HER2\/neu receptor. These markers show where the cancer is most vulnerable and help determine how best to treat it. The most successful treatments for breast cancer are drugs that specifically target these markers. Doctor travels to Ghana for cancer clues \u00bb . However, triple negative breast cancer is negative for all three markers, hence the name, making it very difficult to treat and more likely to recur. With the devastating statistics and grim reality of this disease, Newman began her journey about five years ago to learn more about it. Triple negative breast cancer survivor finds life's purpose . \"We are very interested in looking at whether or not African ancestry in and of itself might actually predispose women to a biologically more aggressive form of breast cancer, such as the triple negative breast cancer.\" Sixty percent of Ghanaian women who have breast cancer have triple negative breast cancer, according to Newman. \"Western sub-Saharan Africa is an important geographic location to focus on because that's where many of the slave colonies were located several hundred years ago,\" says Newman. To test her theory, Newman sets off for Ghana. Three flights and two days later, she arrives at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in the city of Kumasi. Newman is convinced there's a profound link between Ghanaian women and African-American women afflicted with TNBC. She hopes her trips each year to the African country could lead to clues about the origins of TNBC or perhaps pave the way to finding a cure. On each trip Newman gathers genetic evidence and tissue samples for her study. But she also believes there's a cultural and educational benefit for herself and her colleagues through this exchange. \"We bring medical students and trainees with us to Ghana and they get to see what the health care system is like in a medically underserved part of the world,\" she says. \"And our colleagues from Ghana have opportunities to visit with us at the University of Michigan, and to learn more about westernized practices in terms of multidisciplinary care of breast cancer patients. So, it allows trainees and cancer specialists on both sides of the ocean to learn more about each other and about what's available in different parts of the world.\" Working with her Ghanaian colleagues, Newman sees a wide range of patients. Some women need biopsies on undiagnosed breast abnormalities, while others have diagnosed tumors that have gone untreated for some time. In addition, Newman and her Ghanaian counterparts discuss the day's cases, a critical step to establishing individualized courses of treatment. Dr. Newman has her own scare with breast cancer \u00bb . \"It's heartbreaking that we see many advanced stage of cancers in the women of Ghana, but it's a tremendous opportunity to make a difference and to be able to share what we have in the United States with the women here, with our family, our extended family,\" says Newman. Back in the United States, Newman gathers samples at a local Detroit, Michigan, hospital and at events held by the Sisters Network, an organization for black breast cancer survivors. She runs DNA comparisons to the samples gathered in Ghana and one day hopes to correlate African ancestry with the risk of being diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in African-Americans. If this happens, according to Newman, it will open doors to new treatments.","highlights":"Dr. Lisa Newman travels 16 hours from Michigan to Ghana in search of cancer clues .\nShe collaborates with doctors to find origins of triple negative breast cancer .\nNewman: Women most affected are younger, pre-menopausal with African ancestry .\nShe believes there's a link between Ghanaian, African-American women with TNBC .","id":"0d633fecef0e5a988ab7e440b86a03d8e24219c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sodden and crumbling, the Pin Oak levee was the only thing standing between Winfield, Missouri, and the flood-swollen Mississippi River on Wednesday. James Burt sits on an embankment near a neighborhood inundated with floodwaters in Winfield, Missouri. \"The currents are already doing enough to our levees, but a 2-inch wake can cause an entire levee to break,\" said Andy Binder, public information officer for Lincoln County Emergency Operations Command. \"Right now, we are using the Missouri State Water Patrol to keep people from using their boats around the levees.\" On Tuesday, the 2\u00bd-mile levee was hit by a \"down slide\" along a 160-foot section of its northern wall. The Army Corps of Engineers rushed in with sandbags and extra dirt for the base to keep the soil from slipping further. The Army Corps of Engineers and Army National Guard announced Wednesday that the troubled section had been fixed, but a 100-foot-long slide west of the original was starting to crumble. Watch the Mississippi's waters rise \u00bb . For the 5,000 residents of Lincoln County, it is now a matter of waiting and hoping the levee holds until the Mississippi crests and begins to fall. The river level stood just above 37 feet Wednesday on its secondary crest, 11 feet above flood stage, and is expected to crest again Saturday afternoon at 37.5 feet, The Associated Press reported. At Winfield High School, halls normally dominated by teens are being shared with volunteer workers and evacuated families in the school's gymnasium, which has served as an American Red Cross rescue shelter since June 16. Floodwaters have damaged 692 homes. \"Right now, I'm feeling pretty desperate and in need,\" said Sam Payne, who is staying at the high school with his wife and two children. Payne, who left his home June 17, watched as water rose to the roof after one of the first levee breaches. \"It's positive that my family is still together,\" he said. \"We're trying to hold back [our emotions]. The hard part -- the working part -- is going to be after the water finally recedes.\" About 20 Lincoln County residents are completely dependent on the emergency center at the high school, according to the American Red Cross. \"What we have been doing is feeding people three times a day, even those who aren't sleeping in the gym, and giving others food and snacks to take home with them,\" said Dan Flippen, the shelter's manager. \"Luckily, the turnout of the businesses have been outstanding up here, and the school's principal and staff have been gems for us.\" iReport.com: Take a flood tour of Lincoln County, MO . The administration and staff memberse have been cleaning, cooking and making space inside the school for people who have been displaced by the flooding. Students have also been taking time to help. \"The students here are constantly trying to help out in the gym,\" Flippen said. \"We have to turn anyone who isn't 18 away, but most of those kids just go outside and sandbag.\" While the gym has been turned into a makeshift headquarters for the Red Cross and Salvation Army, the Army Corps of Engineers has created a loading depot for levee sandbags behind the school. Rescue officials were rushing to fill to 50,000 sandbags to fortify the levee. They brought in 200 tons of sand and called on anyone who wants to volunteer in the sandbagging effort to report to the high school. Their efforts have been vital to keeping the Pin Oak levee intact and protecting the southern end of Winfield. But with the river approaching its cresting level, sandbagging activities at the high school will stop Sunday afternoon, according to Binder. While they wait, officials watch the water levels and keep boats away from the levee. The Missouri State Water Patrol is also looking out for potential looters and people breaking into unattended cars. Only a few incidents have been reported, and law enforcement released a statement saying those caught looting flood victims would be prosecuted \"with the utmost prejudice.\" Evacuations are still being scheduled for people in areas close to the rising water, and the Red Cross and Salvation Army are stocking up on supplies from individual donors, local businesses and the St. Louis Red Cross chapter. Pending the rains, the weather service said the river wouldn't begin to recede at St. Louis -- where there is flooding, but it is not significant -- until Thursday night. Forecasters said the last point on the river to finish cresting would be near Chester, Illinois, about 80 miles south of St. Louis, on Friday. On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for Lincoln County. Early Tuesday, water broke through one of the main levees in neighboring St. Charles County. Officials working around the levee are required to wear life jackets, with the levee now able to \"go at any time,\" according to Binder. Meanwhile, President Bush declared 22 Missouri counties to be disaster areas on Wednesday. The declaration makes federal funding available to state and local governments for disaster-related damages. Even with the approaching water, residents are trying to remain optimistic. \"There have certainly been some tears shed here,\" Flippen said. \"But people here are used to getting flooded, and they'll try to do the best they can. \"Just the other day, we had a a couple of guys who were driving from Oklahoma just to sandbag. It shows the type of effort people are putting in to help us out.\"","highlights":"Town of Winfield, Missouri, hopes crumbling Pin Oak levee holds until river crests .\nMississippi expected to crest Saturday at more than 11 feet above flood stage .\nWinfield High School becomes staging ground for relief efforts, temporary shelters .\nFloodwaters have damaged 692 homes in Winfield .","id":"3676ffc54bf14dd7548e0d7f3d249114a97bf0ed"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day before the United Nations held a climate change summit, New York City was blanketed with 100,000 fake copies of the New York Post tabloid, filled with content related to climate change. The Yes Men activist group says everything in the bogus edition of the tabloid is \"100 percent\" true. But the Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., wasn't impressed, calling the effort by perennial pranksters the Yes Men a \"Witless Spoof in Flawless Format\" in a statement released Tuesday, a day after the faux Post hit the streets. The overall endeavor, the Post said, was a \"limp effort,\" and the fraudulent newspaper \"has none of the wit and insight New Yorkers expect from their favorite paper. The Post will not be hiring any of their headline writers.\" A phony \"Early City Special\" edition of the popular tabloid greeted millions of New York City commuters early Monday with a blaring \"WE'RE SCREWED\" headline. The headline and everything else in the 32-page publication, including some bogus advertisements and comics, revolved around climate change. Even the Post's notorious \"Page Six\" gossip and \"Best Sports in Town\" sections were spoofed with various true celebrity and sports articles connected to the green movement and climate change awareness. A statement released by the Yes Men, an activist group whose members have posed as officials and spokesmen of various organizations, companies and agencies, said that although their version of the New York Post is a fake, \"everything in it is 100 percent true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.\" Watch protesters don \"SurvivaBalls\" near U.N. \u00bb . The Post parody appeared a day before Tuesday's U.N. climate change summit, \"where Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will push 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December,\" the group said. The United Nations said that 54 presidents, 35 prime ministers and one prince were attending Tuesday's events. Former Vice President Al Gore and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also were involved. Yes Men spokeswoman Natalie Johns said the aim of the stunt was to \"report really important and relevant issues that have not been in the press a day before a U.N. climate meeting.\" Johns said the fake New York Post printing cost between $30,000 and $40,000, and was funded by numerous private donations of various amounts. On November 12, 2008, New Yorkers awoke to the organization's first prank-in-print, finding strategically located \"special editions\" of The New York Times around the city. The counterfeit Times, dated July 4, 2009, centered on the fictitious conclusion of the Iraq war, as well as other matters connected with the end of the Bush administration. The Yes Men also have posed as spokesmen for organizations including the World Trade Organization and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Their activities were documented in the 2003 film \"The Yes Men.\"","highlights":"Fake edition of New York Post has ads, \"Page Six\" column related to climate change .\n10,000 copies blanket city a day before United Nations climate change summit .\nActivist group Yes Men says aim of the stunt is to reveal underreported issues .\nNews Corp., owner of the real New York Post, calls endeavor a \"limp effort\"","id":"f0088a82fc9e8f2ccaca8f1067e68458bb9af045"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just as there are many choices of drivers, putters, balls, and other equipment, there are just as many choices of golf instructors. The process of how you choose your golf instructor is as unique as your finger prints. However, just like there are certain things you want to know before choosing your doctor, there are certain items you should inquire of your instructor. Compatibility - It is your responsibility to insure that there is a fit between you and your instructor on all levels, personality type, mutual goals, similar outlooks on the game, and your instructor's ability to relate to your individual needs. Before throwing a dart in the phone book under \"golf instruction\", research the professionals in your area. One way is to ask friends and playing partners for referrals of good instructors in your area. Ask them about pricing, reputation, location, and their improvement under the instructor's tutelage. If you get along with your playing partners and the instructor does too, odds are you have found a fit. Then, call the instructor and ask if they have time to talk to you about your game and improvement goals. A good instructor will be happy to talk to you about your game, and get to know you as an individual, prior to helping you with your golf game. Accreditation and Experience - Does your golf instructor have the education and experience to take your game to any level you desire? Many individuals claim to be golf instructors. Many of these individuals are self-proclaimed \"experts,\" or had enough money to take a one to two week course on how to teach golf and make more money. In seeking a golf professional to help you with your game, insure that the individual has an active accreditation with the PGA or LPGA, or, has demonstrated an inarguable ability to help players of many levels improve through many years of practice. Other associations claim they produce golf instructors. However, these organizations have one focus, to make money, not to produce solid golf instructors. Inquire of your instructor their accreditation, as well as their education both on and off the golf course. Check with the LPGA or PGA websites to confirm your potential golf instructor's accreditation with that organization, and, how much experience the instructor possesses. Inquire of the instructor's philosophy and past success stories. If needed, ask for references of students from all skill levels that you can contact. Video - Video swing analysis has become a staple for all golf instruction. It is no longer an option. If you are paying for instruction that does not include video review of your game, you should reconsider why you are paying for golf instruction. Video, when used correctly, is a third pair of eyes (you and your instructor are first and second). This is similar to a doctor using an X-Ray or M.R.I, to diagnosis a health issue. Your golf instructor should be using video in the same manner. Video should confirm the diagnosis to you, not the instructor. A good golf instructor has the ability to see the flaw first, and use his or her knowledge of that flaw to diagnose a cure or drill for you to practice to realize improvement. If your golf instructor is relying solely on video to tell what is happening in your swing, you will eventually lose trust in the instructor's ability to help you. You would second guess a doctor's ability to help you if he or she did not use their ability first and confirm their thoughts with tests. Then why would you rely on an instructor who is not \"practicing\" golf instruction in the same manner? Follow-up Communication - Your golf instructor should have a program available for you to utilize to ask questions, give feedback, receive follow-up instructions, schedule lessons, or make other inquiries after your lesson. Some instructors offer their phone numbers after hours. Others utilize the internet for follow-up and communication purposes. Regardless of what form of communication is available to you after the lesson, your instructor should be available, at no extra charge, within a reasonable amount of time, to answer your questions and take interest in your concerns.","highlights":"Handy hints from the PGA to help secure the right golf coach for your game .\nPersonality type and mutual goals are crucial to get the best from a coach .\nCheck your instructor has the education and experience to improve your game .\nYour instructor should be available, at no extra charge, to answer concerns .","id":"24911ca7b3b3f6074b88b42e744ed8711e39767e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Doctors gave Anna Nicole Smith a long list of dangerous drugs over the three years before her death, including while she was pregnant, according to sworn statements by investigators from state agencies. Dosages prescribed to Anna Nicole Smith were \"dangerously high,\" a drug expert says in an affidavit. Two doctors charged in connection with Smith's death allegedly also crossed professional lines by having personal relationships with their patient, the court documents released Tuesday said. Smith died in a Hollywood, Florida, hotel on February 8, 2007, of what was later ruled to be \"acute combined drug intoxication.\" One affidavit quoted a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription written for Smith as saying he warned one doctor he would not give her the drug \"unless you want your picture on the front page of the National Enquirer.\" One investigator described the former Playboy model and reality show TV star as a \"drug seeker.\" Her boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors -- Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor -- were charged with several felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007. All three defendants entered not-guilty pleas in May. A preliminary hearing is set for next month in the case. Smith, whose real name was Vickie Lynn Marshall, \"was given drugs in excessive amounts,\" according to a medical expert consulted and quoted by a state medical board investigator. Dr. Jill Klessig also told an investigator that \"in addition to the prescribing issues, there appears to have been a personal relationship\" between Smith and the two doctors that crossed the boundaries of professionalism. The affidavit references a video clip of Kapoor \"kissing and snuggling\" with Smith \"in a reclined position in a nightclub setting.\" Eroshevich traveled to the Bahamas to visit Smith and was with her for four days in Hollywood, Florida, four days before her death, an investigator said in an affidavit. The doctor personally visited a Burbank, California, pharmacy in September 2006 to get a sleep aid -- chloral hydrate -- for Smith to use in the Bahamas. It was just four days after Smith gave birth to a daughter in Nassau. \"I wouldn't give her chloral hydrate unless you want your picture on the front page of the National Enquirer,\" pharmacist Steve Mazlin told Eroshevich, according to the affidavit. The affidavit from Jon Genens, a senior investigator with the California medical board, detailed dozens of prescriptions written for Smith -- under several aliases -- for a long list of narcotics and sleep aids. Genens said even during the time she was pregnant -- starting in January 2006 -- Kapoor prescribed an average of 10 tablets of Methadone per day for Smith. He noted that Kapoor lowered the dosage in the last three months of her pregnancy. The volume of dangerous drugs being ordered by doctors spurred the chief pharmacist at the store where most of the prescriptions were filled to call a drug expert for advice in late 2006, according to a sworn statement by California Department of Justice Special Agent Jennifer Doss. Dr. Greg Thompson told Doss he recalled the dosages were \"dangerously high.\" \"Dr. Thompson stated they might work for a drug addict under supervised care, or with a dying cancer patient in a hospital, or 'if you were going to kill someone,' \" Doss said. Thompson told Doss he later \"admonished Dr. Eroshevich\" about the drugs she was requesting for Smith. \"Dr. Thompson stated Dr. Eroshevich was obviously not familiar with a lot of medications she was prescribing for ... Smith,\" Doss said in her affidavit. The Doss affidavit said the doctor used Smith's boyfriend as a cover to get the prescriptions filled. \"Of the 12 medications found in Anna Nicole Smith's hotel room at the time of her death, seven medications were prescribed the name of Howard K. Stearn [believed to be Howard K. Stern] by Dr. Eroshevich,\" Agent Doss said. The drugs were apparently personally delivered to Smith in the Bahamas and Florida by her doctor, Doss said. \"It is reasonable to believe that Dr. Eroshevich provided Anna Nicole Smith prescription medications and controlled substances by transporting them from California to Nassau, Bahamas with her on her travels to visit Anna Nicole Smith,\" Doss said.","highlights":"NEW: Doctors' relationships with Smith crossed professional lines, affidavits say .\nInvestigator says Anna Nicole Smith was \"drug seeker,\" court documents say .\nFormer Playboy model died of drug intoxication in 2007 .\nPharmacist refused to fill one prescription, warned doctor, affidavit says .","id":"7b38ca70c0b21605851d5671999b06790ad3676f"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- At 13 he was selling crack. By 30 he was a hip-hop legend -- having gone, in his words, \"from grams to Grammys.\" Jay-Z tells Oprah Winfrey a conversation with his father freed him \"one hundred percent.\" Now Jay-Z charts his escape from the hard-knock life, describes the reunion that healed the wounds of his childhood -- and even reveals his personal creed. The rapper, now 39, was born Shawn Carter in Brooklyn, New York. His albums include \"Reasonable Doubt,\" \"The Black Album\" and the just-released \"The Blueprint 3.\" Jay-Z also owns a portion of the NBA's New Jersey Nets and founded, with Damon Dash, the clothing line Rocawear. Jay-Z spoke with Oprah Winfrey about his father, his anger and his old life. The following is an edited version of the interview. Oprah Winfrey: When you were 5, your family moved to the Marcy projects -- and then your father left when you were 11. When you look back at that, what did your 11-year-old self feel? Jay-Z: Anger. At the whole situation. Because when you're growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you've let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. So I remember just being really quiet and really cold. Never wanting to let myself get close to someone like that again. I carried that feeling throughout my life, until my father and I met up before he died. Oprah: Wow. I've never heard a man phrase it that way. You know, I've done many shows about divorce, and the real crime is when the kids aren't told. They just wake up one day and their dad is gone. Did that happen to you? Jay-Z: We were told our parents would separate, but the reasons weren't explained. My mom prepared us more than he did. I don't think he was ready for that level of discussion and emotion. He was a guy who was pretty detached from his feelings. Oprah: Did you wonder why he left? Jay-Z: I summed it up that they weren't getting along. There was a lot of arguing. Oprah: And did you know you were angry? Jay-Z: Yeah. I also felt protective of my mom. I remember telling her, \"Don't worry, when I get big, I'm going to take care of this.\" I felt like I had to step up. I was 11 years old, right? But I felt I had to make the situation better. Oprah: How did that change you? Jay-Z: It made me not express my feelings as much. I was already a shy kid, and it made me a little reclusive. But it also made me independent. And stronger. It was a weird juxtaposition. Oprah: I've read that when you were 12, you shot your brother in the shoulder. Did your father's leaving have anything to do with that? Did it turn you into the kind of angry kid who would end up shooting his brother? Jay-Z: Yes -- and my brother was dealing with a lot of demons. Oprah: How old was he? Jay-Z: About 16. He was doing a lot of drugs. He was taking stuff from our family. I was the youngest, but I felt like I needed to protect everybody. Oprah: So how did you get back in touch with your father? Jay-Z: My mom set up a meeting. And now I realize why -- it makes all the sense in the world. I remember very distinctly that I had a conversation with her in my kitchen. I was saying, \"You know, Ma, I've really been trying to look inward, and maybe I'm just not meant to fall in love like other people do.\" She just looked at me like, \"Hush up, boy.\" Oprah: Wow. Jay-Z: And I guess from that point, she figured out what was wrong with me, and she planned a meeting between me and my father. I was like, \"Ma, I'm a grown man. I don't need a dad now.\" Oprah: You didn't feel a hole in your soul? Jay-Z: I never looked at that. I guess I didn't want to deal with it. Because, you know, once I looked, I'd have to do something about it. And I guess I still had too much resentment and anger. Oprah: In one of your songs, you wrote that you weren't sure if your father even remembered your birthday is in December. Jay-Z: I believed that. When I was a kid, I once waited for him on a bench. He never showed up. Even as an adult, that affected me. So when my mom set up this meeting, I told her he wouldn't come -- and the first time, he didn't. At that point, I was really done, but Mom pushed for another meeting, because she's just a beautiful soul. Oprah: The second time, your father showed up. Jay-Z: He showed up. And I gave him the real conversation. I told him how I felt the day he left. He was saying stuff like \"Man, you knew where I was.\" I'm like, \"I was a kid! Do you realize how wrong you were? It was your responsibility to see me.\" He finally accepted that. Oprah: Where had he been? Jay-Z: At his mom's house 10 minutes away from me. That was the sad part. Oprah: Was there any explanation he could have offered that would have satisfied you? Jay-Z: Yes -- and that's why we were able to mend our relationship. Oprah: What was his reason? Jay-Z: When I was 9, my dad's brother got stabbed, and my dad went looking for the guy who did it. People would call in the middle of the night and tell him, \"So-and-so is out here.\" So my dad would get up, get his gun, and go outside to look for the guy. After a while, my mom was like, \"Hey, this is your family now. You can't do that.\" But this was my dad's baby brother. And my dad was in so much pain that he started using drugs and became a different person. So I understand that the trauma of the event, coupled with the drugs, caused him to lose his soul. Oprah: When you saw him again, had he come back to himself? Jay-Z: He was broken. He had a bad liver, and he knew that if he continued drinking, it would kill him. But he didn't stop. Oprah: How soon after you saw him did he die? Jay-Z: A couple of months. I got him an apartment, I was buying furniture. And he passed away. Oprah: Did you instantly make peace with him during that conversation? Jay-Z: Pretty much. I felt lighter. Oprah: The conversation freed you in ways that you hadn't been free before? Jay-Z: One hundred percent. Oprah: Did it open the door for you to have a life with love in it? Jay-Z: Absolutely. Oprah: So what's your personal creed? Jay-Z: Be true to yourself -- and keep things simple. People complicate things. Oprah: My creed is that intention creates reality. Jay-Z: Now I'm having an aha moment! That's true. OPRAH.com: The top 20 things Oprah knows for sure . Oprah: What's the basis of your spiritual belief? Jay-Z: I believe in karma: What you do to others comes back to you. Oprah: But don't you think we're responsible only for what we know? Otherwise, you'd be facing karma for every person you sold drugs to. Jay-Z: As a kid, I didn't know any better. But now, if I were to act as if what I did wasn't bad, that would be irresponsible. And I'd have to bear the weight of that. Oprah: Maya Angelou always says, \"When you know better, you do better.\" Do you still think back on that time in your life? Jay-Z: All the time. When you make music, you're constantly on the psychiatrist's couch, so to speak. That's an outlet for me. Because I'm not normally a talkative person. I don't have conversations like this for no reason. OPRAH.com: Read the entire exclusive interview from O, The Oprah Magazine . By Oprah Winfrey from O, The Oprah Magazine, September 2009 \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Jay-Z rose from a life of hardship to superstardom .\nThe rapper discusses how he reunited with his estranged father .\nSays he believes in karma .","id":"0d8a02341b9dec7fc9bdeb010321ca5c5ff324aa"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Michael Jackson may soon return to the stage, at least for a \"special announcement.\" Pop star Michael Jackson has been the subject of recent rumors about his health and about a comeback. The pop star has scheduled a news conference Thursday at London's O2 arena, the same venue where Prince sold out 21 nights in 2007, according to London's Outside Organisation. Although the short statement announcing Jackson's news conference did not reveal any details, Britain's Sky News reported Wednesday that the 50-year-old King of Pop has agreed to a series of summer concerts at the O2. Rumors have circulated for years about a possible Jackson concert comeback, just as speculation has abounded about his physical and financial health. Jackson's reclusive lifestyle -- and a photo last year of him being pushed in a wheelchair -- created fertile ground for health rumors. When a London tabloid reported in December that Jackson was battling a potentially fatal disease that required a life-saving lung transplant, his publicist responded that he was \"in fine health\" and that the story was \"a total fabrication.\" Jackson's financial troubles in the past year have included the near-foreclosure of his Neverland Ranch in California, which he later sold. Jackson has not lived at Neverland since June 2005, after a Santa Barbara County jury found him not guilty of child molestation charges.","highlights":"Musician schedules news conference for Thursday at O2 arena .\nOne news outlet says he will hold series of summer concerts .\nJackson's physical and financial health have been subject of rumors .","id":"a0b5a6a9618cd5405f59b1448ecbb96741a63ab0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday to try to recoup bonuses paid to Wall Street executives with taxpayer money. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House members Wednesday announce tax proposals affecting bonuses. The measure passed, 328-93; most Democrats supported the measure, while Republicans were sharply divided. A two-thirds majority among all members voting was required for passage. The measure would tax individuals on any bonuses received in 2009 from companies getting $5 billion or more in money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Bonuses for people with incomes over $250,000 would be taxed at a 90 percent rate. \"Today's vote rightly reflects the outrage that so many feel over the lavish bonuses that AIG provided its employees at the expense of the taxpayers who have kept this failed company afloat,\" President Obama said. \"I look forward to receiving a final product that will serve as a strong signal to the executives who run these firms that such compensation will not be tolerated.\" The measure now moves to the Senate, which is considering a bill to tax retention bonuses paid to executives of companies that received federal bailout money. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday failed to get that bill passed by unanimous consent when Republican Whip Jon Kyl objected. Kyl wants \"to understand the root and cause of what happened here before we haphazardly rush and approve what we think is the remedy,\" his spokesman Ryan Patmintra said. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-New York, told reporters Wednesday, \"We can't have any concept of we're getting even, but we must have a concept that we're trying to show that Congress ... cannot tolerate that.\" The vote comes one day after AIG chief executive Edward Liddy testified before Congress that he has asked employees of the bailed-out insurer who took home more than $100,000 in bonuses to return at least half. Liddy, saying he knew that the public's patience is \"wearing thin,\" said some employees have decided on their own to return their entire bonuses to the company. More than $165 million has been slated for bonuses to AIG's senior executives; the federal government rescued the company from financial ruin with more than $170 billion in taxpayer assistance. Referring to the AIG executives who received bonuses, Rangel said, \"I don't think these are the type of people to [whom you can] make an appeal to equity and justice. I don't think they really know the difference. I don't really think they've had life experience to allow them to believe the pain that they've caused for millions of Americans.\" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said the bill was necessitated by the poor judgment shown by firms receiving bailout money. \"We must stabilize the financial system in order to strengthen our economy and create jobs,\" she said. \"We must also protect the American taxpayer from executives who would use their companies' second chances as opportunities for private gain. \"Because they could not use sound judgment in the use of taxpayer funds, these AIG executives will pay the Treasury in the form of this tax.\" A similar proposal in the Senate would attempt to recoup bonuses by taxing both individuals and companies, but Rangel said House leaders decided against penalizing companies because they could simply ask for more taxpayer money. Earlier Wednesday, President Obama also lashed out at the bonuses given to AIG executives, calling them \"outrageous.\" \"People are right to be angry. I am angry. ... People are rightly outraged about these particular bonuses,\" he said. \"But just as outrageous is the culture that these bonuses are a symptom of, that [has] existed for far too long; a situation where excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk-taking have all made us vulnerable and left us holding the bag.\" CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: House passes measure to recoup bonuses with a vote of 328-93 .\nBill would tax bonuses of people in firms that received at least $5 billion in bailout .\nPeople with incomes over $250,000 who received bonuses would be taxed at 90% .\nA similar Senate bill aims to recoup bonuses by taxing individuals and companies .","id":"b8c44384308dbba61f6a2ad9157084abe9733839"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As Democrats continue to splinter over President Obama's proposed health care reform plan, Republicans are taking the opportunity to home in on a key argument: A good bill deserves more time and deliberation. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, says his party may have enough votes to stall Democratic health care reform. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Georgia, said Friday that Obama's rush to put a bill together is \"totally irresponsible.\" \"Most of us believe that the decision as to major reform of how Americans get their health care in this country deserves at least as much time and deliberation as it would take to select a puppy to live in the White House,\" he said. \"It took the president six months to decide how long and which puppy he was going to have. ... To expect Congress to do something on major health care reform in six days is totally irresponsible.\" Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, speaking on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio show recently, was asked about whether his party had enough votes to block health care from going forward. His answer: \"I think so. I really do.\" \"If he is unsuccessful, which I anticipate and will predict he is, on getting a vote prior to the August recess, then I would say there's no way in the world they're going to get this done this year,\" he added. Obama's fight to get health care reform through Congress hit a major snag this week -- facing opposition from Republicans and fiscally conservative \"Blue Dog\" Democrats worried over the costs -- estimated to be around $1 trillion. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced that the Senate would not take up a vote before August recess -- a deadline that Obama had originally wanted. Watch a GOP senator lash out at Obama's plan \u00bb . Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas responded to Democratic criticism that the GOP has failed to present a viable plan. \"When the Democrats say we don't have a plan ... where's their plan? If they can't get a bill out of committee, where's their plan?\" he said. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said it's hard to combat the Democrats' proposed legislation when it changes \"by 100 pages every time you walk into the room.\" The GOP's fight is also getting political, namely looking ahead to the upcoming midterm election. \"I just hope the president keeps talking about it, keeps trying to rush it through. We can stall it. And that's going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election,\" Inhofe said. Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, was quoted as telling the group Conservatives for Patients' Rights, which opposes Obama's health care plan, that \"if we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.\" Obama debunked DeMint's claim during a live prime time news conference Wednesday night at the White House. \"I've heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it's better politics to 'go for the kill.' Another Republican senator said that defeating health reform is about 'breaking' me,\" he said. \"Let me be clear: This isn't about me,\" Obama said, noting that he and every member of Congress -- including those trying to scuttle health care reform legislation -- \"have great health insurance.\" Obama's chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel, took a swipe at the GOP's political maneuvering. \"At least they're honest about their motivation,\" Emanuel told National Public Radio Friday. \"Their view about health care is about defeating President Obama. Politically, I actually appreciate what they said.\"","highlights":"GOP Rep. Deal: Obama spent more time picking a dog than health care plan .\nObama's health care fight hit a major snag this week .\nSen. Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, says it's unlikely the president will get a bill this year .\nInhofe says stalling health care reform could be good for GOP in 2010 .","id":"0b4dd22336ccd2c610fbd440c26e81b26e28f624"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rich Roll, one of Men's Fitness magazine's \"25 Fittest Guys in the World\" in 2009, was the first athlete to compete in the Ultraman World Championships on an entirely plant-based diet. He's sharing insights today as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's \"Four Months to Fitness\" effort. Before: At 40 years old, Rich Roll called himself \"fat, unhappy and fed up.\" (CNN) -- I can still remember it, vivid as yesterday. It was the eve of my 40th birthday, and I walked upstairs to take a shower. And I was winded. I mean very winded. As I was trying to catch my breath, I took off my shirt, looked in the mirror and tried to convince myself that I was still that fit guy I had always thought I was. Somehow, I had been able to skate by on this delusion for all too many years. But the denial had finally caught up to me. I saw my true reflection, and I couldn't lie to myself anymore. I was in the worst shape of my life. I was fat, unhappy and fed up. It's the typical story. First it's the career. Then comes marriage, followed by kids. Your time is no longer your own, and you resign yourself to \"maturity,\" \"filling out\" or whatever euphemism for middle age that soothes that idea that you are simply overweight, unfit and unhealthy. I'm here to say that it doesn't have to be that way. I don't care how busy you are. I don't care how old you are, how many kids you have or how little time you think you have. The power rests within yourself to enact any change in your life you desire. And I can say this because I have seen it happen in myself and countless others. After that fateful day of clarity, I made a decision to change my life. Not a vague, wishy-washy notion that I should \"get in shape,\" maybe \"eat better\" or possibly \"go on a diet,\" but rather a specific long-term plan to enhance my wellness in a way that would not only stick, but fit within the parameters of my busy life as a full-time lawyer, husband and father of four small children. In my case, it began with a well-researched and supervised seven-day fruit and vegetable juice cleanse (during which time I weaned myself off caffeine), followed by an entirely plant-based nutrition program -- an animal-product-free regimen I have adhered to ever since. The immediate result was a rather surprising and unexpected increase in my energy levels, leading to a very gradual return to exercise, building up slowly over an extended period of time. The results were hardly overnight. But two years later, I had lost well over 30 pounds. And not only did I keep the weight off, I was the most fit I had ever been in my life. At 42 years old, I competed in the Ultraman World Championships, a grueling three-day uber-endurance triathlon circumnavigating the Big Island of Hawaii that involves 6.2 miles of swimming, 260 miles of cycling and culminates with a 52.4-mile double marathon run. I placed 11th overall and was the third-fastest American. To top it off, Men's Fitness magazine recently named me one of the \"25 Fittest Guys in the World.\" (Not that I actually believe I deserve such an honor!) Quite an extreme contrast from that day I looked in the mirror. I'm not advocating that everyone should test himself or herself so severely. But my point is that change starts with a decision followed by baby steps along a new, consistent trajectory that, over time, can lead to dramatic results. I'm nothing special. I'm not a professional athlete. I'm just a normal family guy. But if I could experience such a vast transformation in my own life, I know with certainty that everybody has within himself the power to enact his own well-balanced transformation. Change is never easy. And despite what you may see advertised, I'm sorry to say there is no secret diet, mystery pill or overnight miracle that will do it for you. But there is a solution. Here are some helpful tools I employed along the way that can help you get started: . Set a goal: Vague, nonspecific notions of \"getting fit,\" \"going to the gym,\" or \"eating better\" are all fine, but they are not true \"goals\" and all too typically devolve, paving the way for relapse to old habits. Instead, establish something very concrete you would like to achieve on a future date. The more specific, the better. Then create a solid plan with reasonable interim \"steppingstone\" milestones along the way to achieving the larger goal. Chart your progress, as meeting interim milestones will boost your confidence and invest you more deeply in the ultimate goal. Create community and accountability: If you go public with your quest, then you are on the hook. A good support network is a key to success. But beware of the negative dream crushers. Be selective, surrounding yourself with people who encourage your success. Do what you love: When it comes to exercise, it shouldn't be too painful. Ideally, it should be fun. If you absolutely hate running, find something else you enjoy. Otherwise, you set yourself up to fail. And don't be too rigid -- mix it up with a variety of activities you like to keep it interesting and fresh. Don't diet: Instead, get honest about your habits and embark on implementing healthy, lasting changes in your nutrition. I feel quite strongly that a nutrition program built entirely around plant-based foods and completely devoid of animal products is optimal. Conventional wisdom would say that an athlete cannot perform on plants alone. But I am living proof that this is false, and I have ample research to support this position. Personally, I cannot overemphasize the difference this has made in my own life, a secret weapon for enhanced athletic performance and overall long-term wellness. (In the last two years, I have not gotten sick or even suffered a cold.) I realize, of course, that not everyone is ready to go 100 percent vegan, but a program built on a strong foundation of fresh organic vegetables, fruits and grains should be the focus. Don't skip meals, but reduce your portions slightly. Read the labels and educate yourself. Avoid saturated fats, processed foods and soft drinks, all of which are entirely devoid of nutritional value. Eating whole fresh foods high in nutritional content will also stave off those unhealthy urges to binge. One day at a time: Large goals can seem insurmountable. The idea that you can never eat a cupcake or sleep in again is daunting at best. Instead, just focus on what is happening today, even if it's hour to hour, and don't worry about tomorrow. \"Today, I'm not going to eat that cupcake. Maybe I'll eat it tomorrow, just not today.\" And if you miss a beat, don't flog yourself; it only leads to discouragement and quitting altogether. The important thing is to make sure you get right back on it the next day -- don't let another day go by. Prioritize: Take an honest look at your average week, identify your inefficient uses of time and eliminate the things that don't serve your goals. No matter how busy you are, if you are truly honest about this inquiry, I guarantee you can make some cuts and carve out some time. Remember: Nothing changes if nothing changes. Be consistent: It's not about how much you do in a given workout or how hard it is. Ten minutes of core exercises four to five times per week is far better than one long run a week. Establishing a consistent rhythm of repetition is key, and another reason that your choice of exercise should be something you truly enjoy. Let's join together to shift the world's perspective on long-term health and wellness. No matter how old, overweight or out of shape you are, you have the power to make a decision, set a goal and create a plan. Positive change is always within your grasp, and today still remains the first day of the rest of your life. Make it count! The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Rich Roll.","highlights":"Rich Roll: Approaching 40, \"I was in the worst shape of my life\"\nTwo years later, he was the most fit he'd ever been .\nThis year, Men's Fitness named Roll one of the \"25 Fittest Guys in the World\"\nTo become fit, set a specific goal, be consistent and take it one day at a time, he says .","id":"19e0bec2f73b2be9e423a8f1639aa7a374554474"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- As voting was taking place in the German general election Sunday, attention was already turning to what coalition will rule the country. Social Democrats handing out flowers hope their party will stay in the ruling coalition. Few doubt that Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, CDU, will win most votes. So, will Merkel continue the current center right-center left \"grand coalition\" with the Social Democrats or will the votes suffice for a coalition with the business liberal but centrist Liberal Democrats or the FDP, a constellation Germans refer to as \"Black-Yellow.\" At a press conference ostensibly to outline Germany's position at this week's G-20 summit Merkel apparently let the cat out of the bag. \"We are in a time of crisis,\" she said, \"and I believe we can pull out of the crisis faster with a Black-Yellow government.\" But some political analysts believe she would prefer to keep the Social Democrats as the junior coalition partner. Polls indicate the CDU and FDP could gain a razor thin majority to form a governing coalition. Recent polls put their combined tally at around 48 percent. That is not exactly a large majority, but it's two percent more than the left of center parties, the Social Democrats, the Green Party, and the left wing \"Die Linke,\" who would reach about 46 percent if polls are accurate. The Liberal Democrats have been in opposition since 1998 and at a rally in Berlin, their leader Guido Westerwelle was sure his time has come. \"I think the voters won't allow a coalition of the left to be in power. I think they want a conservative government and they will vote to put us in power,\" he said. Westerwelle is eyeing the post of foreign minister under a future Merkel government. What's at stake in the German election \u00bb . A government of CDU and FDP, conservatives and liberal would probably be more business friendly than the current grand coalition. Both the CDU and FDP want to cut taxes to further jumpstart Europe's largest economy which emerged from its deepest recession only a few months ago. But even optimistic economists believe cutting taxes will be all but impossible for a government which will inherit the largest public deficit in German history after the current government was forced to ruin in its public finances to bail out banks and industrial companies in the wake of the international financial crisis. And it appears more trouble lies ahead. \"After the economic crisis we will see a social crisis,\" says Henrik Enderlein an economics professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Enderlein believes a coalition with the liberals would put Merkel under pressure to implement wider ranging tax breaks than she feels are sustainable. That is why some believe Merkel would not mind continuing her coalition with the Social Democrats who oppose tax cuts and call them irresponsible in a time of disastrous public deficits. The Social Democratic contender running against Merkel, Frank Walter Steinmeier, however, has all but given up any hopes of winning. \"We want to prevent a \"black--yellow\" coalition,\" he keeps repeating at rallies. Confidence sounds different. Polls currently have the Social Democrats at around 26 percent of the vote, a disastrous figure for a party that in 1998 gained more than 40 percent. But the Social Democrat ranks were decimated in the seven years they ruled the country under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Many traditional left wing SPD voters felt Schroeder betrayed the powerful labor wing of the party by cutting social benefits while making it easier for companies to fire employees in times of crisis. The SPD was further hit when many loyal members splintered off and joined the left wing party die Linke which also incorporates remnants of the former communist party that rules East Germany. Now Steinmeier is trying to lead the Social Democrats out of the impasse and he realizes his real chance to stay in power would be as the junior partner to Merkel. Steinmeier would keep his post as foreign minister and many political experts in Berlin think this might be what both Merkel and Steinmeier are really striving for. \"They worked very well together,\" said Gero Neugebauer of the Freie Universitat Berlin. \"The atmosphere was very good and that is very important for such a coalition.\" For Germans it seems like the two choices are realistic: A coalition of CDU and FDP, or a grand coalition of CDU and SPD, like the one that is currently governing the country. Those options haven't exactly fired up the election campaigns. Both Merkel and Steinmeier were loath to attacking each other and both of them cancelled several scheduled TV appearances which would have seen them go head to head. \"This election seems kind of lame,\" one young summed it up when I asked him near Berlin's technical university. International experts have a similar opinion. One issue they feel has gotten short shrift was the war in Afghanistan. Germans have the third largest troop contingent in the country with about 4,200 soldiers stationed in the north. But Afghanistan played only a minor role in the election campaigns and in their only televised debate, Merkel and Steinmeier devoted less than three minutes to the issue, less than a week after a German ground commander had called an air strike that killed almost 100 Afghans and possibly also civilians. \"It is simply not high on the political agenda,\" says Jan Techau of the German Council on Foreign Relations., \"Most Germans are against the war in Afghanistan and having German troops there, but they don't care about it enough for it to influence the way they vote.\" So Merkel and Steinmeier were careful to keep Afghanistan off the campaign agenda as best they could because they agree German troops need to stay in Afghanistan like they agree on so many topics. That did not make for an exciting campaign, but it could make for a good continuation of the grand coalition.","highlights":"Angela Merkel's CDU are favorites to win the election .\nBut they will need a coalition partner to rule .\nMerkel has publicly named the Liberal Democrats as her preferred choice .\nBut the current partner, the Social Democrats, may be the end result .","id":"17a87d5d3258bb6ec9586f06563a5f363522a808"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani forces in the last month foiled a planned attack on the parliament building, the intelligence agency and other federal institutions, the country's interior minister told CNN Sunday. Pakistan's parliament building was one target of a planned attack, an official says. In the last four weeks, authorities arrested three men with suicide vests who were plotting to carry out the attacks, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Malik would not say exactly when the men were caught. Pakistan is in the midst of an intense military offensive against Taliban militants. The militants are suspected of launching attacks inside Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan from their haven in the mountainous tribal region along the northwestern border. On Sunday, a suicide bomber in volatile northwestern Pakistan killed at three people and wounded 15 others, police said. The bombing rocked the Pakistani city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. The incident took place when police approached a man acting suspiciously. The man ran away, police chased him and a gunfight ensued. The man ran out of bullets and blew himself up. Two women and seven children were among the injured. Remains of the alleged attacker were found, police said. Five houses were destroyed. The incident follows a car bombing on Saturday in Peshawar that killed two people, including the spokesman for an extremist group called Ansar ul Islam. Two suspects are in custody. Malik said Sunday the government's anti-Taliban operations will continue during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month considered to be a time of peace. Militants in North Waziristan, part of the tribal region, have said they will observe a unilateral ceasefire throughout the month. \"There will not be a ceasefire during Ramadan. We are not interested in a ceasefire,\" Malik said. \"They haven't kept their commitment in the past. We will continue targeted actions against the Taliban.\" Malik also said the Taliban killed the father-in-law of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and several other relatives, accusing them of leaking information about his whereabouts. Pakistan and U.S. officials contend Mehsud was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan at his father-in-law's house. The Taliban claims Mehsud is alive but ill.","highlights":"NEW: Suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan kills at least three, authorities say .\nNEW: Suspect blew himself up after running out of bullets in gunfight, police say .\nPakistani authorities say they stopped plot on government buildings .\nThree men plotted to carry out attacks, says Interior Minister Rehman Malik .","id":"9cf84cb1c067cd2126858150c5d49f90a0b5f443"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year, Human Rights Watch alleged Monday. Anti-riot policemen patrol the streets in Jos, Nigeria, following riots between Christians and Muslims. Most of the victims of violence by security forces were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report. More than 700 people died in the violence last November, the group said, citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide. A 26-year-old mechanic described seeing anti-riot police known as MOPOLs hunting down people near where he worked. \"I saw them enter one house just across the street from us,\" the unnamed witness said. \"We heard shots and later we saw five bodies there. Anyone they found hiding in the garage, they shot them. They combed the garage hunting for people. This went on for about 10 minutes or so. Then they returned to their truck and left.\" Another witness described police units going from house to house, summarily executing unarmed men and boys. A third said he saw an unarmed shopkeeper plead for his life. Police ordered him to lie down on the ground, the witness said. \"He kept saying, 'Please God, allow me to live.'... One of them said, 'Today you go die,' and then he shot him in the side. Then the same MOPOL shot him again. As he was going to shoot him a third time, the other MOPOL said ... 'Leave it, he's already dead.'\" The shopkeeper managed to drag himself to a neighbor's house, where the neighbor tried to stop the bleeding from wounds to the back and abdomen. Police then returned and shot tear gas into the neighbor's house, he testified. The shopkeeper \"died a short time later,\" the neighbor said. In the report, released Monday, Human Rights Watch says it \"documented 133 of these killings but believes that the actual number of arbitrary killings by security forces may be substantially higher than these figures.\" James Manook, a spokesman for Plateau State where the violence occurred, said the Human Rights Watch claims are \"one of the issues that the commission has under inquiry, and given that - I do not want to comment while it's under investigation.\" However, he added, \" I assure you that we remain respectful of the rule of law.\" The clashes followed a dispute over an election that pitted a Christian candidate against a Muslim one in late November 2008. Police and soldiers responded to the riots with deadly force, on the same day the governor of the state issued a \"shoot-on-sight\" order, Human Rights Watch said. The group based its allegations on 151 interviews in the city of Jos in Nigeria's Plateau State, it says in the report. It withheld the names of many of the people it interviewed over the course of 18 days in December 2008 and February 2009. The report includes photographs of burned-out mosques, Christian boarding schools, and homes and businesses. The rights group said the state commission examining the riots should investigate and call for the prosecution of security forces involved. \"At least 130 men were killed by members of the very institutions charged with protecting them,\" said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. \"These investigative bodies owe it to the victims and their families to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into these extremely serious allegations.\" Eric Guttschuss, a Human Rights Watch researcher, testified before the commission Monday. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001. Local religious leaders in Jos have been trying to bridge the differences, including setting up a soccer league with teams on which Christians and Muslims play side-by-side. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nigerian police, soldiers accused of killing 133 during riots in November 2008 .\nU.S.-based Human Rights Watch says main victims were young Muslim men .\nWitnesses say police units summarily executed unarmed men and boys .\nHRW says death toll could be \"substantially higher\" than documented cases suggest .","id":"1427b71c108fff885462ac50b3b2120f254630ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A high-speed passenger train left its tracks on the outskirts of Split, Croatia, Friday, killing at least six people and injuring 45, according to Croatian police. The high-speed train derailed on the outskirts of Split, Croatia, about noon on Friday. The train was on its way from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, when it derailed about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from it's destination of Split about noon, said Marina Kraljevic-Gudelj, a spokeswoman for police in Split. \"This is a huge tragedy, so there is no place for speculation,\" she said. Police had launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"High-speed passenger train leaves its tracks on the outskirts of Split, Croatia .\nAt least six people killed and 45 injured, according to police .\nThe train was on its way from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, to Split .","id":"48b4d06249e9350966909cf2a88fed2777023fc8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A passenger plane skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on Friday, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 20, according to government-backed Press TV. Aryan Airlines Flight 1625 skidded off the runway and burst into flames Friday in Mashhad, Iran. There were 150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. There was no immediate information on the number of crew. An Iranian official said those aboard had been evacuated. Ghahraman Rashid, deputy governor-general of Khorasan province, said the plane had flown from Tehran, IRNA reported. \"All those killed and injured and the rest of the passengers had been evacuated from the plane and the fire on board had been brought under control,\" IRNA quoted the official as saying. He said the plane was a Russian-made Ilyushin. Watch video of the plane \u00bb . This is the second deadly plane crash in Iran this month. On July 15, a Caspian Airlines passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed in northwestern Iran, killing everyone on board, including 10 members of the country's youth judo team: eight athletes and two coaches.","highlights":"Passenger plane skids off runway and catches fire in Mashhad .\n150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to news reports .\nFlight had originated in Tehran, official says .\nOn July 15, a passenger plane crashed in northwest Iran, killing all 168 aboard .","id":"0d48d554414fd0f0a19596ddc22e3ad4e7e196a4"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Boris Kodjoe owns a mansion in Atlanta. But when he goes to answer his door, the black actor knows what it's like to be an outcast. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested last week on a charge of disorderly conduct. \"When I'm opening the door of my own house, someone will ask me where the man of the house is, implying that I'm staff,\" said Kodjoe, best known for starring in Showtime's \"Soul Food.\" It's a feeling some African-Americans say is all too common, even to this day in America: No matter your status or prominence in society, you're still typecast. That's why the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent African-American scholars, has stirred outrage and debate. Jelani Cobb, an author and professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, says it's troubling on many levels when \"one of the most recognizable African-Americans in the country can be arrested in his own home and have to justify being in his own home.\" Watch arrest of a Harvard scholar \u00bb . \"It's really kind of unfathomable,\" Cobb said. \"If it can happen to him, yeah, it can happen to any of us.\" That's a sentiment echoed by Jimi Izrael. \"If a mild-mannered, bespectacled Ivy League professor who walks with a cane can be pulled from his own home and arrested on a minor charge, the rest of us don't stand a chance,\" Izrael wrote Tuesday on The Root, an online magazine with commentary from a variety of black perspectives that's co-founded by Gates. \"We all fit a description. We are all suspects.\" In an interview with The Root, Gates said he was outraged by the incident and hopes to use the experience as a teaching tool, including a possible PBS special on racial profiling. \"I can't believe that an individual policeman on the Cambridge police force would treat any African-American male this way, and I am astonished that this happened to me; and more importantly I'm astonished that it could happen to any citizen of the United States, no matter what their race,\" Gates said. \"And I'm deeply resolved to do and say the right things so that this cannot happen again.\" Voices of black America: What it's like being black in America . Gates was arrested last Thursday in broad daylight at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home for disorderly conduct -- what the arresting officer described as \"loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space.\" The charge was dropped Tuesday on the recommendation of police, and the city of Cambridge issued a statement calling the incident \"regrettable and unfortunate.\" Gates had just returned from a trip to China when a police officer responded to a call about a potential break-in at his home that was phoned in by a white woman. According to the police report, Gates was in the foyer when the officer arrived. The officer asked Gates to \"step out onto the porch and speak with me,\" the report says. \"[Gates] replied, 'No, I will not.' He then demanded to know who I was. I told him that I was 'Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police' and that I was 'investigating a report of a break in progress' at the residence. \"While I was making this statement, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, 'Why, because I'm a black man in America?' \" Have race relations improved since the election of President Barack Obama? According to the report, Gates initially refused to show the officer his identification, instead asking for the officer's ID. But Gates eventually did show the officer his identification that included his home address. \"The police report says I was engaged in loud and tumultuous behavior. That's a joke,\" Gates told The Root. \"It escalated as follows: I kept saying to him, 'What is your name, and what is your badge number?' and he refused to respond. I asked him three times, and he refused to respond. And then I said, 'You're not responding because I'm a black man, and you're a white officer.'\" Known as Skip by friends and colleagues, Gates is the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, and an acclaimed PBS documentarian. While Gates' arrest lit up talk radio and blogs, it prompted others to defend the police against charges of racial profiling. \"I'd be glad if somebody called the police if somebody was breaking into my house,\" neighbor Michael Schaffer told CNN affiliate WHDH. For others, the incident symbolized something more. Seeing the police mugshot of Gates brought some African-Americans to near tears. Kim Coleman, a Washington radio host, cultural commentator and blogger, said she grew numb when she saw the mugshot. \"I was not prepared for that,\" she said. \"To see one of my heroes in a mugshot was not something that I was expecting. ... It just tells me we're not in a post-racial society.\" She said there's a reason why you don't hear about prominent white people arrested in their homes: \"because it doesn't happen.\" It's time for America to have a long overdue national conversation about race, Coleman said. \"When are we going to have that,\" she said. \"When are we really going to sit down and strip down and say, 'This is what I feel about you and this is what you feel about me. Now, how are we going to get over that?' \" Rebecca Walker, an award-winning author, said the arrest was devastating to scholars, writers, and artists \"who work so hard to keep a free flow of information.\" \"It seems eerily ironic Mr. Gates was returning from China, where surveillance is so high and freedom of speech and ideas so curtailed,\" Walker said. \"To see the mugshot of Skip was a blow to all of us who feel some sense of safety based on our work to try to mend all of these broken fences in America -- to make ourselves into people who refuse to be limited by race and class and gender and everything else.\" \"To end up, at the end of the day, treated like a criminal, unjustly stripped of our accomplishments and contributions even if only for a moment, is profoundly disturbing. We must ask ourselves what it means, and to allow ourselves to face various scenarios regarding power and freedom and how these will intersect in the coming years.\" Last week, President Obama spoke at the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, saying that while minorities have made great strides \"the pain of discrimination is still felt in America.\" \"Even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks -- we know that too many barriers still remain,\" the president said. Kodjoe, the actor, said Obama \"has affected a change in people's consciousness regarding such issues as racism and prejudice.\" But he said the arrest of Gates underscores that there's more work ahead. \"I think we're moving in the right direction. But no doubt, there still is a lot of work to be done,\" Kodjoe said. \"It's not just a problem here. It's a problem worldwide. Racism is universal.\" Gates said he has a newfound understanding of exactly what that means. \"There's been a very important symbolic change and that is the election of Barack Obama,\" he told The Root. \"But the only black people who truly live in a post-racial world in America all live in a very nice house on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.\"","highlights":"Boris Kodjoe: Arrest of Harvard prof underscores how blacks are typecast .\nActor Kodjoe says deliverymen often think he's hired staff at his house .\n\"If it can happen to him, yeah, it can happen to any of us,\" scholar says .\nCultural commentator says it was shocking \"to see one of my heroes in a mugshot\"","id":"25c3642c63969a36d6f745c7802fbd4031f9ae04"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Some families long separated by the Korean War saw their loved ones Saturday for the first time in years near the border between North and South Korea. South Korean Yoon Ki-Dal, right, meets the children he left behind as babies during the Korean War. Yoon Ki-Dal, 88, of South Korea thought such a moment would never come. After leaving his son and daughters when they were babies during the Korean War, he was able to hold the hands of his North Korean children on Saturday. \"Father, we thought you were dead,\" his daughter, now in her 60s, told him, her face trembling. Their family was one of 97 reunited Saturday on Mount Keumgang, a North Korean resort near the eastern part of the border, after decades of separation by war and ideology. And soon these families will be separated again. They are allowed to be together for a few days. Then the South Koreans must return home. The reunions -- the first in nearly two years -- are taking place through October 1. Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire and no formal peace treaty. No mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border. The agreement to hold the reunions came after North and South Korea held three days of talks, mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, last month, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported at the time. About 10,000 people applied to take part in the reunion, but fewer than 200 families were allowed to participate. In addition to the 97 families who met Saturday, another 99 families are expected to meet next week, authorities said. Watch families share hugs, tears \u00bb . Participants are selected randomly, and there is no date set for a further reunion, which means the tens of thousands of others who were separated by the Korean War have no idea when they may get a chance to see their loved ones -- if ever. For the many separated family members who are elderly, a reunion may never be possible. Reunions between North and South have been taking place off and on since 2000 after an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, Yonhap says. The last reunion took place in October 2007. Rapprochement talks between the two Koreas have hit a wall since conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a tougher stance toward the North than his liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-Hyun. The two Koreas have remained in conflict since the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953. Last month, officials from both sides had the first high-level, cross-border contact in nearly two years when South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek met with North Korean unity leader Kim Yang Gon. The meetings and reunions are in stark contrast to the tense public statements each side made about each other earlier this year. Tensions between the two were heightened in July when North Korea launched seven short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan, also referred to as the East Sea. The launches came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and threatened U.S. and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. South Korea condemned the action, calling the launches \"unwise.\" Journalist Sohn Jie-Ae contributed to this report.","highlights":"Families have reunion meeting at resort in North Korea, near border .\nThe South Koreans must return home in a few days .\nMillions of Koreans were separated following Korean War cease-fire in 1953 .\nAbout 10,000 people applied to participate; fewer than 200 families approved .","id":"732a4432cf1f1d6b0cb7a1e1779680f4318fbcfd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Images of a blazing car at the entrance of the terminal building at Glasgow airport were splashed across the front pages of Britain's Sunday papers, with many warning that Britain is under attack from a new wave of terrorism. How the British press reported the Glasgow attack. The Sunday Mirror published dramatic pictures of a burning man trying to ignite explosives in the vehicle while being sprayed with water by an off-duty policeman. The News of the World had a picture of a \"hero\" police officer pinning down a smoldering bomber. The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said Britain was feared to be under terrorist attack for the third time in 36 hours after the attack, and following the discovery of two cars packed with explosive material and nails in London. In an editorial, The Sunday Times newspaper says London and Glasgow appeared to have had a lucky escape. \"The people behind these attempted atrocities clearly have twisted minds. How else to explain an attack directed at \"ladies night\" at the Tiger Tiger nightclub? \"For Islamists -- and there seems little doubt that Muslim extremists were behind the plot -- young women drinking, dancing and enjoying themselves embodies everything they find repulsive about western society. \"There will be other weekends when we fear we will be commenting not on close shaves but on completed terrorist attacks.\" The Observer newspaper said Friday's aborted London bomb attack was \"al Qaeda inspired\" and may have been linked to five terrorism suspects who have escaped Home Office control orders and are on the run. The newspaper also reports that former British prime minister Tony Blair had launched a powerful attack on \"absurd\" British Islamists who have nurtured a false \"sense of grievance\" that they are being oppressed by Britain and the United States. Blair warns that Britain is in danger of losing the battle against terrorists unless mainstream society confronts the threat. \"The idea that as a Muslim in this country that you don't have the freedom to express your religion ... I mean you've got far more freedom in this country than you do in most Muslim countries,\" Blair told Observer columnist Will Hutton. In an editorial, the newspaper says: \"Some believe that the solution to terrorism is to resolve the myriad grievances the terrorists broadcast so violently. This is a mistake. Many such grievances are imagined -- the West does not want to 'dominate the lands of Islam,' for example. \"Many more are simply not Britain's fault; we are not to blame for the parlous economic state of many Islamic countries. Instead, we should remember that it is our way of life, and the attraction it holds, that remains our best weapon. \"The truth is that our democratic structures, our economy, our values and the society we have built upon them are much stronger than we often think.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Photos of burning cars and burned bombers splashed across UK press .\nNewspapers say they fear a \"new wave\" of car bombings and terrorism .\nFormer British prime minister Tony Blair attacks \"absurd\" British Islamists .","id":"646f1574b2b1c8c7fc467ef85aa5f53cfad60471"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A videotape on a Russian Web site allegedly showing a State Department employee having sex with a prostitute is a \"smear campaign\" meant to discredit the man, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. The State Department has said the tape allegedly showing an employee having sex with a prostitute is a fake. The employee, Brendan Kyle Hatcher, denied any encounter with a prostitute to his superiors at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, another State Department official said. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, \"supports\" Hatcher, who remains at his job at the embassy. Hatcher had previously worked in the sensitive area of religious and human rights in Russia, the spokesman said. \"Mr. Hatcher ... enjoys the full confidence of Ambassador Beyrle and fully intends to serve out the rest of his tour in Moscow,\" Kelly said at an afternoon briefing at the State Department. The United States \"deplores this type of campaign and use of the Internet to smear a foreign service officer of good standing,\" he added. Watch why the U.S. says the tape is doctored \u00bb . Beyrle was unequivocal in expressing his support in an interview with ABC News. \"Kyle Hatcher has done nothing wrong,\" he said. \"Clearly, the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated.\" A senior State Department official said, \"It's a doctored tape and a set-up designed to implicate someone working as a liaison with religious and human rights groups in Russia.\" The official said Hatcher, who is married, \"was approached by Russians; they tried to blackmail him, but he did everything correctly,\" reporting the incident to his supervisors at the Embassy. The tape then appeared on the tabloid newspaper Web site Compromat.ru and was picked up by other outlets. Diplomatic sources who declined to be named said Compromat.ru has a history of ties to Russia's security services. Russia's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about the video. Another senior State Department official, who has seen the video, said \"it's clear to me that it's him,\" referring to portions showing Hatcher alone in the hotel room. \"But then the lights go down,\" and the footage from there on is faked, that official said. The video of Hatcher in the hotel room was taken last year, \"somewhere in Siberia,\" said the senior State Department official who watched the video. It was shot in a hotel that Hatcher visited, the official said. When questioned about the possible motivation for creating the video, the official said it's presumed \"it was done because of his human rights work,\" in Russia. The official doubted the incident will have any effect on U.S.-Russian relations and noted that the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have both been \"very cooperative\" in the months since the footage came to light. \"The vast majority of people there are working toward better relations,\" the official said. Another official said Hatcher is a \"great officer\" who, until last summer, was a political reporting officer focusing on religious freedom issues in Russia. The assignment lasts two years: one year in that specialty and a year on the visa-issuing line at the embassy. Last year, this official said, Hatcher was the lead officer compiling the State Department's Religious Freedom report and was given an award for his work by the ambassador. Another official confirmed that Hatcher received a meritorious honor award in 2009 and a group award in 2008. Hatcher, one official said, worked with religious groups that are considered \"outside the mainstream\" in Russia, such as Protestants and non-Christians. Such faiths often face official and unofficial discrimination in the largely Russian-Orthodox society. Another senior State Department official said, \"there is a lot of inertia\" among some special security services in Russia. \"They are pretty much unreconstructed,\" he said. The security services may have wanted to compromise Hatcher's ability to work with religious groups, he says, \"or they may have wanted to throw a stick into the spokes\" of the U.S.-Russia relationship. \"Some in Moscow,\" he said, \"are looking to integrate with the West, and others are trying to stop that.\" The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow and Paul Courson in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Russian officials are being \"very cooperative,\" U.S. official says .\nRussian site allegedly shows State Department employee having sex with prostitute .\nU.S. ambassador says video clips \"clearly fabricated\"\nOfficial: Tape meant to discredit employee working in religious and human rights .","id":"fbcde3a063a916a72aa86a088d7d90cf33d0cb96"} -{"article":"WEST PARK, Florida (CNN) -- \"We are an army,\" says Andrea Ivory of the group gathered with her early on a Saturday morning. Breast cancer survivor Andrea Ivory is on a mission to educate Florida communities about the disease, one door at a time. Armed with clipboards, leaflets and high spirits, the energetic Ivory leads them into the neighborhood, where they start knocking on doors. The mood is lighthearted, but their mission is serious: to save lives, one house at a time. They're volunteers from the Florida Breast Health Initiative, or FBHI, and they are waging war against breast cancer. It's an effort started by Ivory, 50, herself a survivor of the disease. Every weekend in the spring and fall, she and her volunteers -- who include college students, senior citizens and suburban moms, all wearing matching T-shirts -- fan out across low-income communities in southern Florida, educating women about breast health. They especially seek out uninsured women age 35 and older, who statistics show are twice as likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, and thus more likely to die from the disease. For Ivory, comparing this work to a battle isn't overblown. \"The only thing that we have to fight this disease and lower the mortality rate is early detection,\" she says. \"We are the troops on the front lines.\" Since 2006, Ivory has helped provide more than 500 mammograms to eligible women. Ivory herself had always been diligent about getting annual mammograms, but when the breast cancer diagnosis came in 2004, she took it in stride. \"I just knew that it was for a higher purpose,\" she recalls. Ivory says that purpose became clear during her cancer treatment. Reflecting on how lucky she was to have health insurance and to have gotten annual mammograms, she realized that thousands of women without health care were likely falling through the cracks and putting themselves at risk. \"Those women don't even have a fighting chance,\" she says. \"The mission became reach[ing] those women.\" Ivory started FBHI to do just that. Her mantra: \"Early detection is the best protection.\" Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes . The operation runs like clockwork. The first three Saturdays of each month are devoted to outreach -- distributing educational materials and signing up women for free mammograms. She and her volunteers have visited nearly 18,000 homes. \"I love knocking on doors,\" Ivory says with a smile. \"I like to think of us as little pixies spreading breast cancer awareness.\" On the last Saturday of each month, a large mobile mammography van from a partner hospital rolls into the neighborhood, bringing screening technology directly to women who need it. As they line up around the van, the excitement is palpable. Since many have never had a mammogram, Ivory and her team try to make the experience fun -- providing refreshments, smiles and support. One mammogram recipient said the \"convenience factor\" of the free screenings made the offer too hard to refuse. \"Ultimately this is the reason we do the work that we do,\" says Ivory, \"because we want to screen women who would not ordinarily have [the] opportunity.\" Watch Ivory and her army in action \u00bb . Telmilda Ariza, 62, always had health insurance, but after losing her job, her annual mammogram became a financial burden. She smiles when recalling the volunteers' first visit to her home. \"They knocked on my door and, wow! It was [a] miracle, coming from the sky,\" she says. \"It's something I really needed.\" Ariza was so grateful that she started volunteering and knocking on doors herself. Watch Ariza describe how she went from recipient to volunteer \u00bb . Charlene Thomas, another of Ivory's regular volunteers, considers herself living proof of the program's impact. Uninsured, she'd paid for her mammogram out of her own pocket, but when she needed a follow-up, she kept putting it off because it was so expensive. \"I had other priorities. It seems stupid now,\" she admits. \"But I didn't think anything was wrong with me.\" She finally asked Ivory for help and FBHI paid for the screening. It led Thomas to a cancer diagnosis and ultimately a mastectomy. \"The fact that I was diagnosed and am cancer free -- there's no way I would've done it without the Florida Breast Health Initiative,\" says Thomas, who was back knocking on doors three weeks after surgery. \"Now I feel more of a sense of urgency. I'm knocking on doors trying to find myself.\" Stories like this only deepen Ivory's commitment to her cause. For her, every day is a chance to educate women about fighting the disease and Ivory says she's determined to expand her efforts around Florida and far beyond the boundaries of her state. Watch Ivory's group bring mobile mammography to the neighborhoods \u00bb . \"In the future, we want a fleet of mammogram vans. We'd love to do outreaches all over the country,\" she says. \"No woman needs to die from breast cancer. I can't be a doctor, but I know I can save a life. Every time I knock on the door, it's a chance to do that.\" Want to get involved? Check out The Florida Breast Health Initiative and see how to help.","highlights":"Breast cancer survivor founds group to educate women about the disease .\nAndrea Ivory, 50, and her volunteers have visited nearly 18,000 homes .\nSince '06, Ivory has helped provide more than 500 mammograms .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"26ba335ff16de539bafcc738e02f0aa1743cb560"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- You don't have to be Jennifer Aniston to think that the four women who Krazy-Glued a cheater's penis to his stomach were way harsh and beyond psycho. If your ex's loved ones ask why you broke up, it's OK to admit he cheated on you, writer says. But in our less scrupulous\/mature moments, many of us want to punish a particularly nasty ex, especially if he was a cheater. Ladies, let's keep it legal (and Krazy Glue-free), OK? Here are 10 ideas: . 1. Email his crappiest crap e-mail to Jezebel.com's Crap E-mail From A Dude and when they publish it, discreetly post the link as your GChat away message. 2. Call up your hottest platonic male friend, grab your digital camera and go do something adorable together. Now it's time to create a Facebook photo album full of pics of you looking smiley. (Bonus points if your ex was slightly paranoid that this guy had a thing for you). The Frisky: Possible to remain friends with an ex? 3. Permanently adopt that comfy sweatshirt he left at your place. Especially if he's the one who caused the breakup, he probably doesn't have the cojones to ask for it back now. 4. Gain that extra 10 lbs that fills you out nicely, like Joan Holloway on \"Mad Men\"... 5. ...or lose that extra 10 lbs so you can fit into your sexy jeans again. Either way, this also requires a Facebook photo album. The Frisky: How Joan Holloway gives me confidence . 6. You might hear from his mom, sisters, or other family members you were close to after the breakup, especially if you dated for a long time. Airing too much of your dirty laundry to them will make you look like a psycho. But if he did cheat on you (and you didn't cheat back), it couldn't hurt to mention how his bad behavior led to the split. The Frisky: 10 rules on way men and women eat . Dude sure as hell didn't tell them the truth about why you broke up! And any mom or sister worth her salt will tear your ex a new one when they learn that's why he lost a great girl like you. The Frisky: Continue relationships with an ex's loved ones? 7. Ignore every single text, Tweet, Facebook poke and email from here on out. But kept posting stuff on your social networking sites on the regular. 8. If you're a songwriter or a poet, well, you know what to do. The creep who caused Ani Di Franco's song \"Untouchable Face\" probably hasn't forgotten what he did. 9. Penning aggressive-aggressive emails (as opposed to passive-aggressive ones) is always therapeutic. The Frisky: Passive aggressive notes Web site . 10. Spend a few months feeling down. Indulge in some therapy. Do some fun things single women do. Work extra-hard at your job and get a promotion. Go take a trip or buy some new clothes. Whenever you're ready, go meet a new guy. Fall in love. Have tons of great sex. Laugh a lot. Talk about baby names and where you want your honeymoon to be. The next time you run into your ex, mention all the great things that have happened in your life since you broke up ... or just smile. The Frisky: Happy to be single . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"If your ex cheated on you, there are legal ways to get even .\nDo whatever it takes to look your best, post pix on Facebook with male friend .\nIf his mom or sister ask about breakup, tell them he cheated on you .\nIgnore all social media contact from him. But post a song about his cheating ways .","id":"d71483096a5c373224dbd9e0ea3a498e288301a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- All five members of a family found slain inside a Beason, Illinois, home early this week were beaten to death, police said Thursday. Police officers stand patrol outside the Gee household late Monday evening. A pathologist determined that the five -- Raymond Gee, 46; Ruth Gee, 39; and three children -- had been beaten, Logan County Sheriff Steve Nichols told reporters. \"All the injuries at the scene were from blunt-force trauma.\" The three children were identified as Justina Constant, 16, Dillen Constant, 14, and Austin Gee, 11. A 3-year-old girl remained in critical but stable condition Thursday at a hospital, Nichols said. He said he would not divulge or speculate what the family was beaten with, and remained tight-lipped about many aspects of the deaths, including when authorities believe they occurred. Beason is in central Illinois, about 45 miles northeast of Springfield, the state capital. A task force has been formed with officers from several different agencies to investigate the homicides, the sheriff said. Processing of the crime scene concluded Wednesday afternoon, and \"hundreds of seized items\" are being processed, he said. \"Forensic evidence in this case is significant.\" The sheriff has said authorities received a 911 call about a possible shooting at the home shortly before 4:30 p.m. Monday. Nichols said authorities are looking for a gray-primer-painted pickup truck that was seen in the area Sunday night. \"We'll take any tip that anybody has,\" he said. A tip line has been set up at 217-732-3000, Nichols said.","highlights":"Two adults, three children died of blunt force trauma, pathologist finds .\nKillings occurred in Beason, Illinois, about 45 miles northeast of Springfield .\nOne survivor, a 3-year-old girl, hospitalized in critical condition .","id":"33cf4b6fc85238d6e499e3fb361699eaacffbdb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran tested a missile-launching system and several types of short- and medium-range missiles Sunday, the state-run Press TV said. A short-range missile is test-launched during war games in Qom, Iran, south of Tehran, on Sunday. Earlier, the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had said it would stage missile exercises beginning Sunday to promote the armed forces' defense capabilities. The tests, which are expected to last until Monday, are code-named \"Payghambar-e Azam 4\" or \"The Great Prophet 4,\" Press TV said. The missiles, fired at targets around the country Sunday, included the Fateh-110, a short-range ground-to-ground missile, and Tondar-69, a short-range naval missile, the station said. Several models of medium-range Shahab missiles were tested at night, Press TV reported. Watch Iranian missile tests \u00bb . The final stage of the tests will be held Monday morning, when Iran plans to test the long-range Shahab missile, the station said. In May, Iran said it tested a surface-to-surface missile that is capable of reaching parts of Europe. At the time, a White House official said actions in Iran were noteworthy. \"Of course, this is just a test, and obviously there is much work to be done before it can be built and deployed. But I see it as a significant step forward in terms of Iran's capacity to deliver weapons,\" said Gary Samore, special assistant to the president on nonproliferation. The latest test follows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disclosure Friday that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility. Watch analyst's view on missile tests, nuclear tensions \u00bb . The United States and Israel believe that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program. Iran has denied the allegation.","highlights":"NEW: Iran test-fires several types of short- and medium-range missiles .\nNEW: Tests are code-named \"The Great Prophet 4,\" state-run Press TV says .\nMissile tests come days after Iran admits existence of second nuclear facility .\nIn May, Iran tested surface-to-surface missile capable of reaching parts of Europe .","id":"7e7437fcc1874f612f92f67a420eda910d78d242"} -{"article":"CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (CNN) -- An annual family fishing trip to the Florida keys took a bloody and life-changing turn for Jordan Thomas. Noah Parton, 6, got prosthetics from foundation started by Jordan Thomas, right. \"It was a beautiful day and we were going to go out spear fishing that night,\" said Thomas, who was 16 during the 2005 trip. But when he jumped into the water, the boat's wake dragged Thomas hard into its sharp, whirling propellers. He immediately knew what was about to happen. \"I looked down -- my black fins were gone and all I saw was red just everywhere,\" said Thomas, an athletic teen who was captain of his high school's golf team. \"But I had this unbelievable calmness over my body.\" Watch video of Thomas telling his story \u00bb . His father and mother, both doctors from Chattanooga, Tennessee, jumped into action. \"All of a sudden, my 16-year old, happy-go-lucky captain of the golf team was potentially dying,\" said Dr. Liz Kennedy-Thomas. She worked to stanch the blood flow from her son's legs while his father rushed the boat to shore and fetched paramedics. Thomas was rushed to a hospital where he spent the next two weeks -- undergoing several surgeries on what was left of his legs and, along the way, discovering what would become his life's work. While there, Thomas visited other amputees. \"I just remember seeing so many kids who didn't have parents, didn't have health care,\" he said. \"I just knew that the future was grim for them.\" The top-of-the-line prosthetics Thomas was fitted with -- the ones that helped him return to the golf links -- cost about $22,000. He learned that many insurance plans only cover about $5,000. That's especially tough on child amputees, who will outgrow several limbs before adulthood. \"I had no clue,\" he said. \"It's one of those things, unless you're affected by it, you just don't know.\" Thomas knew he was lucky. With a financially stable family, he'll always be able to afford good legs. He asked his family to give a donation to help others, but ultimately they decided to launch a fundraising foundation together. \"By the time we got home, we had bracelets -- all kinds of stuff,\" Kennedy-Thomas said. \"The foundation was just sort of started by the time we got home.\" The Jordan Thomas Foundation has raised $350,000 through bracelets, charity golf tournaments and cookouts. Some of that is paying for prosthetics for three children until they reach age 18. One of them is Noah Parton. The precocious 6-year-old born with a congenital heart defect had a complication with a tube inserted in his right leg, leading to an amputation above his knee. His family's insurance would only pay for what's called a \"stubby\" -- a wooden artificial leg without a bendable knee. \"His first bendable knee ... didn't have a certain number or something that would apply and they refused to pay for it,\" said Noah's mother, Nancy Parton, who lives with her son about an hour north of Chattanooga, in Evensville, Tennessee. Noah couldn't run and play with other children. And even day-to-day activities were tough. \"It was hard to put him in the car because his leg stuck out straight and I'd have my seat up as far as it would go and it would still hit the back of the seat,\" she said. Thomas's foundation stepped in, buying Noah several knee devices -- a new one for each new leg he needs as he grows. Now, his mom said, Noah is unstoppable. \"He loves to climb stairs now; he tries to ride bicycles,\" she said. \"You name it, he does it. \"Take him to the park [with] any other kid; he'll just blow you away.\" As Congress debates overhauling the nation's healthcare system, prosthetics are quietly getting some attention. In May, Rep. Robert Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced the Prosthetic and Orthotic Parity Act, which would require insurance companies to cover prosthetics at the same rate they do surgery. \"It's pretty simple,\" Andrews said. \"Prosthetic devices are not cosmetic. You can't walk without one or you can't lift something without one and I think one of the reasons people are so upset about the health care system in this country is they had hassles like this.\" Seventeen states have passed similar laws, most recently Missouri. But amputee advocates say there needs to be a national law. Kendra Calhoun, president and CEO of the Amputee Coalition of America, says there are 1.8 million amputees in the United States and at least 25,000 of them are children. Calhoun said that with more sweeping healthcare legislation taking all the attention, \"our biggest hurdle [for a prosthetics law] right now is being heard.\" Some insurance companies have argued that premiums would go up for everyone if they're forced to cover prosthetics to the extent advocates want. Advocates cite a study they say shows it would cost beneficiaries about five cents per month. Meanwhile Jordan, who's now a junior in college, says he'd like to become a voice for otherwise voiceless children. \"I'd really like to move into advocacy, giving a voice to the amputee community and just helping as many people as possible,\" he said. \"Just making a difference and letting these kids live normal and happy, productive lives.\" CNN's Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fishing trip turned tragic for 16-year-old Jordan Thomas .\nDouble amputee discovered others struggling to pay for prosthetic limbs .\nJordan Thomas Foundation has raised $350k to help those struggling to pay .\nLegislation addresses payment gap, but more needed, say advocates .","id":"e0e2a8efda4ab61461b6e34f95ca6f086c4d6b3b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Imagine taking the best characters and elements of your favorite fictional universe and weaving them into a new story that captures the imagination of fans. In the dark, cinematic \"Batman: Arkham Asylum,\" Batman must escape from a spooky psychiatric hospital. That's what Emmy-winning TV writer Paul Dini did in creating \"Batman: Arkham Asylum,\" a video game coming out in late August. Buzz is building online for the dark, cinematic game, which reimagines a brooding Batman and his most notorious nemesis, the Joker, for an experience that's reminiscent of \"The Dark Knight\" blockbuster movie. You want mayhem, insanity and brutality? Get ready for all of it. \"This is the Batman movie I would have liked to have written,\" said Dini, who was scheduled to discuss the game during a panel Saturday at Comic-Con International, the huge celebration of comic-book culture in San Diego, California. \"This is him with all the good stuff.\" The atmospheric game pits Batman against Joker in a battle of wits and brawn after the Clown Prince of Crime traps the Caped Crusader inside Arkham Asylum, Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. After the trap is sprung, the Joker releases the inmates, including some of Batman's most ferocious enemies: Bane, Harley Quinn, Mr. Zsasz, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc. Batman has appeared in video games since 1986, but none as ambitious or complex as \"Arkham Asylum,\" which draws much of its inspiration from the character's comic mythology. The game will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. It's being developed by Rocksteady Studios and will be published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics. (Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment is a division of Time Warner, which owns CNN.) As the lead writer for the game, Dini said he was given a clean slate to work from. Because there was no movie, graphic novel or comic tie-in to follow, he was able to create an original story. Dini's familiarity with the main character may help win the hearts and wallets of gamers. Winner of five Emmy awards, Dini has worked on Batman comic books and written episodes of \"Batman: The Animated Series\" and later, \"Batman Beyond.\" Dini, who has also written for the ABC-TV hit \"Lost,\" said he was influenced by Batman lore from character creator Bob Kane, the Batman comics of the 1960s and the Dark Knight graphic novels of Frank Miller. In creating his story's look and tone, Dini said he chose his favorite elements from different incarnations of Batman. For example, the game emphasizes Batman's intellect and use of technology by solving puzzles with the help of such tools as X-ray scanning and a pheromone tracker. \"Detective work is a crucial game element,\" Dini said. \"There are a lot of forensics aspects to the story.\" If you're expecting a Heath Ledger-like Joker in \"Batman: Arkham Asylum,\" you may be disappointed. With his less-smudgy makeup, spiky green hair and maniacal cackle, Dini's creation looks and acts more like earlier versions of the iconic villain. Kevin Conroy voices Batman in the game, while the Joker is voiced by Mark Hamill, known to millions as Luke Skywalker in the \"Star Wars\" movies. Conroy and Hamill were scheduled to join Dini at Comic-Con this weekend. Both actors also did the voices in \"Batman: The Animated Series,\" making the game feel very familiar. Sterling McGarvey, a senior editor for G4TV, said the game's developers were smart to rely heavily on the animated TV series. \"An entire generation of Batman fans grew up with the animated Batman,\" he said. \"It is a beloved, storied franchise with very few good games.\" The Internet is full of videos showing glimpses of the game, including movie-like trailers, demo gameplay, characters and layouts of Arkham Asylum. Among Batman fans and gaming reviewers, early reviews have been strong. Brian Crecente, editor-in-chief of Kotaku.com, said he likes the way the developers combined elements to create the ultimate Batman from the fans' perspective. \"Part dark, broody Batman, part serious crime fighter, but also part detective,\" Crecente said. \"Batman has this huge universe. Why not cherry-pick the best stuff and put it in the game?\" A key character in the game is Arkham Asylum itself, with its spooky corridors and Gothic architecture. Dini loves its \"mix of dark, creepy, steam punk and Victorian\" and calls it the perfect location in Gotham City for the gameplay. \"It is a totally over the top mansion with gargoyles on the inside,\" added Crecente. \"Very cool.\" Dini heaped praise on how the developers made his story come to life. He hopes fans who know Batman will love how familiar it feels, while gamers will love the action. \"Fans of the canon will be happy,\" McGarvey agreed. \"But the game was designed more for the Batman fan than a hardcore gamer.\" Crecente describes the game's combat as fluid and quick, with a martial arts feel. Acting as Batman, players will be able to hide in the shadows and stealthily take out their enemies. All the gaming mechanics in the world won't save Batman unless fans get drawn into the story. Remember Lego Batman? But Dini seems confident that gamers will respond to his vision. \"Nobody loves a good Batman story more than I do,\" he said.","highlights":"Online buzz is strong for upcoming \"Batman: Arkham Asylum\" video game .\nLead writer Paul Dini and others discuss the game at Comic-Con this weekend .\nThe game reunites a brooding Batman and his most notorious nemesis, the Joker .\nThere's no movie or comic tie-in to follow, so Dini could create an original story .","id":"3e44b1c9d99d1a3121df5c15f631197eac296102"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- An underemployed Spanish matador is breaking tradition and carrying advertising on his capes in the bullring -- promoting a soft drink aimed at gays. Matador Joselito Ortega in an exhibition fight on Sept. 23 in the southern Spanish city of Malaga. While fighting bulls, matador Joselito Ortega will use capes embroidered with the words \"Gay Up,\" the name of the energy drink. The move has many in the macho-steeped world of bullfighting seeing red. But Ortega, 29, told CNN, \"I'm glad to be the first person (in bullfighting) whom the gay community will take as an icon.\" \"People think the bullfighter is very tough, very rude and they only like women,\" Ortega added. \"But we are in 2009. Everything must change.\" Industry experts said it would be the first time advertising will appear on bullfighter's capes -- the large one used when the bull rushes into the ring, and a smaller one used later as the matador moves in for the kill. In the 1980s, matador Luis Reina had a contract showing the brand name of Japanese electronics giant Akai on parts of his shiny \"suit of lights,\" while fighting. \"But that lasted just one or two fights,\" recalls Curro Vazquez, a former bullfighter who now manages one of Spain's top-tier matadors, Cayetano Rivero Ordonez. Rivero Ordonez has declined offers to carry publicity on his bullfighter's suit and capes while in the ring, Vazquez said, out of respect for \"the ritual of bullfighting.\" \"The cape is a sacred thing,\" said Vazquez, adding that it's fine for premier bullfighters -- who are treated like rock stars -- to have lucrative endorsement deals for products, but only outside of the ring. This is the first endorsement deal of any kind for Ortega. He became a full matador in 2006, facing the biggest bulls, but said he's fought only six or seven fights since then. Yet a bullfighter in demand can have dozens of fights in just a single season. \"Ortega is a new bullfighter and he might see this as a way to get known,\" Vazquez said. If so, it appears to be working. Ortega and his drinks company have been flooded with media queries since they made the announcement this week. Pedro Suarez, the CEO at Grupo Banus Pi, the firm that makes Gay Up and took over management of Ortega's career just two weeks ago, said they plan to organize an exhibition fight for Ortega soon, and sell the TV rights exclusively. Gay Up is a non-alcoholic energy drink made in Spain, drawn from a formula originally from Colombia. Suarez said the company tried to sponsor a Spanish football (soccer) team but was turned down because of the Gay Up brand. Then they found Ortega, who says he's not gay. He's been gored six or seven times in his career, which started 13 years ago as a junior bullfighter. \"All sports teams have advertising on their uniforms,\" Ortega said, insisting he'd continue to fight bulls the same way, even with ads on his capes. Bull breeder Juan Pedro Domecq Morenes welcomed the change, saying it might help revive Spain's billion-dollar bullfighting industry, which he said in recent years has seen a 45 percent decline in the number of fights, especially in smaller village bullrings. \"Only God is sacred,\" said Domecq, who also publishes a bullfighting Web site. \"The rest of the traditions have to advance, modernize.\"","highlights":"Matador Joselito Ortega will use capes embroidered with the words \"Gay Up\"\n\"Gay Up\" is the name of a non-alcoholic energy drink in Spain .\nIndustry experts: First time advertising will appear on bullfighter's capes .\nOrtega, who says he's not gay, has been gored six or seven times .","id":"ce97c87f84ee4b8afc6229b8d5be9f1fc2a7754c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of children worldwide are thought to be working full-time on tobacco farms, suffering from toxic levels of nicotine exposure and abusive labor conditions. Children as young as five-years-old work on tobacco farms in Malawi, according to Plan International. In Malawi alone there are an estimated 78,000 boys and girls employed in tobacco harvesting. On average they earn 17 cents for a 12-hour day of back-breaking, bare-handed work, according to a recent report from Plan International. Handling burley tobacco leaves without gloves, in unwashed clothes and rarely bathing, these children can absorb the same amount of nicotine in one day of harvesting that they would from smoking 50 cigarettes. \"Sometimes it feels like you don't have enough breath...You reach a point where you cannot breathe because of the pain in your chest. Then the blood comes when you vomit. At the end, most of this dies and then you remain with a headache,\" the report quoted one child describing how he felt at the end of the day. See pictures of Malawi's child tobacco farmers \u00bb . \"Nicotine is water soluble and can enter via the skin, so if it has recently rained, or there is heavy dew, the nicotine migrates into the water on the leaf. If that water gets on to your shirt it essentially becomes a giant nicotine patch,\" explained Henry Spiller of the Kentucky Regional Poison Center. After reading the Plan report, Spiller, who has researched Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) in children working on tobacco farms in the U.S., told CNN that the Malawi children's symptoms were \"absolutely\" consistent with GTS. The Minister of Labor for Malawi, Yunnus Mussa, has denied the findings of the Plan report and told CNN their figures were \"absolute trash.\" According to Mussa, the government has been hard at work with UNICEF for the past two years to eliminate child labor and has made substantial progress. \"No estate-owner has ever employed children age five to 14,\" he added. In 2007 UNICEF estimated that 29 percent of children ages five to 14-years-old in Malawi worked, and that the majority of those children worked in agriculture. There are more than 30,000 smallholder farmers in tobacco production and the crop contributes 70 percent of foreign exchange and 30 percent of GDP, according to the government Web site. Figures aside, the pictures speak for themselves, showing that the danger of nicotine poisoning is real and that better regulation and monitoring is needed. \"There are a couple of things that could prevent this, like you should wash or change shirts,\" Spiller said, citing a study in which sweat rung out from tobacco workers' shirts contained up to 98mcg\/mL of nicotine. As well as exploitative conditions, the children described repeated physical and sexual abuse from their supervisors. Many of the kids also complained of \"sticky stuff\" from the stalks that they could not wash off their hands because they had no access to soap or water, according to Glynis Clacherty, who interviewed the children first-hand for the Plan report. \"We are busy working and we don't have time to go for bathing, so we develop those sores,\" one 15-year-old girl told Clacherty. The 44 children she interviewed were working full-time on both large estates and small family farms, but none were working for their own families, and 36 of them were orphans. The main reason the children gave for working was poverty: lack of food, clothing or money to go to school were frequently cited. \"A lot think it's fine for children to work. They don't see the dangers of the pesticides or the opportunity cost of not going to school,\" said Susan Gunn, an expert in hazardous child labor at the International Labor Organization (ILO), referring to farmers in East Africa. \"The new globalization of agriculture has a tendency to increase the demand for child labor,\" explained Gunn. When you have growers that are working under contract to larger companies, in industries such as tobacco, sugar or flowers, the contract is made with the adults, who in turn use their families to reach a quota or get a livable income.\" In recent years multinational tobacco corporations have been rapidly shifting farming production away from rich countries like the United States. Nearly 75 percent of tobacco production is now done in developing countries such as Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, China, Brazil and India. Re-location to poorer states by multinational firms increases the demand for all types of labor their, not just that of children, according to Professor Margaret McMillan of Tufts University. If anything, she argues, increased investment can actually bring higher salaries and improved monitoring of abuse. \"If children are working in the tobacco fields, they are probably very poor and the alternatives could be even worse,\" she said. \"I firmly believe that engagement by international corporations in African agriculture must happen, but they should be monitored on all fronts.\" Today UNICEF, the ILO, Plan and others all remain active in Malawi, working with the government to develop links between the ministries of labor and agriculture to end child labor on tobacco farms. Since the report came out in August, Plan International told CNN in an email that \"the government has been constructive in their response and are discussing\/looking to work with Plan to conduct a national survey to gauge the true scale of the issue and better enforcement of existing child labor laws.\"","highlights":"Children can absorb up to 50 cigarettes worth of nicotine on wet days .\nWearing gloves, washing clothes or bathing would all reduce exposure and risk .\nGreen Tobacco Sickness 'feels like death,' induces headaches, nausea .\nReport reveals widespread abuse of child workers, withheld wages, violence .","id":"4db8e64c4f065de7a4ef2e9a6748cfbcdc19ac7a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In just a few short weeks, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach could wake up at his home in Englewood, New Jersey, with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi camped a few feet from his front lawn. Gadhafi may be staying in a tent on the front lawn of a New Jersey house owned by the Libyan Mission. The authoritarian ruler of Libya is rumored to be planning to stay in an air-conditioned tent on the front lawn of a house owned by the Libyan Mission when he attends the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September. Members of the predominately Orthodox Jewish Englewood community are less than enthused about a visit from a leader who has made anti-Zionist statements in the past. The recent release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber to Libya has heightened the animosity. On Monday, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, called for the U.S. Department of State to restrict Gadhafi's travel to the area around U.N. headquarters in New York City, saying in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he \"was particularly concerned by news reports indicating that [Gadhafi] plans to stay in New Jersey, where the families of many Pan Am 103 victims reside.\" A representative from the Libyan Mission in New York would not confirm Gadhafi will stay in Englewood, only that he is scheduled to come to New York. Gadhafi has a history of setting up his extensive tent when visiting other countries, including Russia and France. Media reports have said that his request to pitch his tent in Central Park had been denied, and the New Jersey property was a likely second choice. Boteach said he had previously been willing to approach Gadhafi's rumored visit with an open mind, but he backtracked after the Lockerbie bomber's release. \"Judging by his actions, he hasn't changed one iota,\" Boteach said. \"He loves terrorists and welcomes them as heroes and speaks with a forked tongue. As soon as he had the opportunity he lionized people who committed murderous acts. Gadhafi is a fraud. I don't want him or his security team near my home.\" Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes said he was not informed of plans to erect a tent on the property, and no special permissions were requested from the zoning department. Only through neighborhood residents and media coverage was he alerted to construction on the house that, according to Boteach, began around three months ago. The mayor said he was \"mortified as a Jew and embarrassed as an American that a financier of terrorism is on U.S. soil. [Gadhafi] is someone who has embraced terrorism and has not changed his spots.\" Wildes said the Libyan Mission has \"not paid a nickel\" on taxes for the property, and said he would only be \"willing to sit down with him if he brings a check to cover years of back taxes and overtime pay for the additional police forces needed for his stay, and apologizes to the Jewish residents and the Lockerbie victims' families of New Jersey.\" Boteach, in a piece posted Thursday on The Huffington Post, where he is a regular contributor, said the residence had been left \"derelict and neglected\" for many years until the recent construction. In opposition to Gadhafi's possible visit to Englewood, Boteach said he plans several steps, including legal action, which he said would be in response to construction workers knocking down his fence and cutting down his trees. \"My plan is to sue them, extract as much money as possible and use Libyan money for planting trees instead of buying bombs,\" he wrote in another Huffington Post piece Monday. Boteach and Wildes also are planning a protest at the construction site on Sunday.","highlights":"Gadhafi travels with air-conditioned tent which he stays in .\nRumored to be planning to pitch tent on front lawn of Libyan Mission house .\nMembers of mostly Orthodox Jewish Englewood are less than enthused .\nMayor \"embarrassed as an American that a financier of terrorism is on U.S. soil\"","id":"6dfcb63c09b1750af9956105eabab1779e1abbef"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Former South Korean President and Nobel Laureate Kim Dae-jung, who struggled for democracy for decades and prodded communist North Korea toward rapprochement, died of heart failure on Tuesday, hospital officials said. As president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung helped bridge differences with North Korea. He was either 83 or 85, according to conflicting sources. The Nobel Prize Web site indicates he was born on December 3, 1925. The Kim presidential library lists his birth date as January 5, 1924. He served as president from 1998 to 2003, and in 2000, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea. Kim was admitted to Seoul's Severance Hospital more than a month ago for pneumonia. Before winning the presidency, Kim struggled for decades as an opposition leader. A former political prisoner, he endured a suspected assassination attempt, a kidnapping, repeated arrests, beatings, exile and a death sentence. Shortly after taking office, Kim vigorously met political leaders of Western countries in a bid to gain support for his \"Sunshine Policy\" to establish relations with the North. Kim's policy of detente culminated when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in June 2000, becoming the first South Korean leader to do so since the Korean War unofficially ended in 1953. But Kim left a mixed legacy as president. Although he helped pull South Korea out of a financial downward spiral, many of his promised economic reforms failed to materialize. A series of corruption scandals, including the imprisonment of two sons on graft charges, also tainted his tenure. \"Broadly speaking, his place in history is going to be a positive one,\" said Brian Bridges, a political science professor at Hong Kong's Lingnan University who specializes in politics and foreign policies of the two Koreas. \"While it is true that his presidency ended in a cloud of controversy ... he did have a very significant impact in two ways: He took over at a time when South Korea was on its knees and pulled it out from a tremendous economic downturn. And he helped in significantly changing public opinion and popular thinking of South Koreans toward North Korea.\" Kim was born to middle-class farmers on Ha Enido, a small island in South Cholla province, but the family moved to the nearby port of Mokpo so Kim could complete high school. He began dabbling in anti-establishment politics while working in the shipping industry. After his fifth try for political office, Kim was elected to the National Assembly in 1961. One month later, Gen. Park Chung-hee seized control of the government in a military coup, launching Kim's career as a key opposition figure. The tough, authoritarian Park proved the perfect foil for the fiery oratory of the charismatic Kim. The more Park persecuted Kim, the more Kim's popularity grew. During the height of the Vietnam War in 1971, Kim proclaimed his liberal views on the reunification of North and South Korea. The government branded him a communist, but in his first presidential race he won 46 percent of the vote against Park. Kim was headed to a rally in Seoul a month after the election when a truck turned directly into the path of his car, forcing him off the road. The truck hit another vehicle, killing two people. Kim was left with a permanent limp from the incident, which was widely considered an assassination attempt. Park tightened his hold in 1972, scrapping the constitution and doing away with any pretense of democratic rule. Kim traveled to Japan for medical treatment and continued his anti-Park campaign. In August 1973, South Korean agents kidnapped Kim from a Tokyo hotel and took him out to sea in a small boat, on which he spent several harrowing days. When then-U.S. Ambassador Philip Habib was informed of the abduction, he warned Park that he would face severe repercussions from the United States if Kim were killed. Kim was returned to his Seoul home, battered but alive, and spent the next nine years under house arrest, in jail or in exile. In 1979 Park was assassinated by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Another general, Chun Doo-hwan, imposed martial law as he moved to take over the presidency. Kim and other leading opposition figures were arrested as tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Kwangju, in South Cholla province. Troops used force to quell the demonstrations, killing at least 200 people, by some estimates. Kim was charged with sedition and nearly executed, but again the United States intervened. Under a deal with then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration, Kim boarded a plane to the United States in 1982. When he returned to his homeland a few years later, however, the United States could not help him. As soon as he stepped off the plane in Seoul, Kim was knocked down by Korean security officers and dragged back into house arrest. Kim made two more failed bids for president -- in 1987 and 1992 -- before declaring that he was quitting politics. His retirement did not last long and he was elected president in 1997, at the height of the Asian economic crisis. His inauguration marked the first peaceful transfer of power between rival parties in 50 years. At the time of his inauguration, Korea was plunging headlong into a financial crisis. He told CNN then that he felt as though he was handed an empty vault. Kim called on global investors to have faith in his country's future -- and on his people to forge their own recovery. Thousands answered, trading in gold rings for cash as a symbol of their desire to revive their country. The watershed moment of Kim's presidency came in June 2000 when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, grasping hands and beaming. But rapprochement talks between the countries hit a wall after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008, with a tougher stance toward the North than Kim and his successor, Roh Moo-hyun. In an interview with CNN in 2006, Kim looked back on his long political life, secure in the belief that -- despite setbacks -- his convictions were worth fighting for. \"After I was sentenced to death, people from the military regime came up to me and said, 'If you cooperate with us, we will let you live. If you don't cooperate, you will die.' \"I said, 'If I compromise with you, I'll live temporarily, but I will die forever. If I do not cooperate with you, my body will be dead, but I will live in my people's heart and history forever. I rather choose to live in history forever.'\" CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kim's \"Sunshine Policy\" with North culminated in 2000 meeting with Kim Jong Il .\nKim was president from 1998 to 2003 .\nHe was hospitalized more than a month ago for pneumonia .\nDespite Nobel Peace Prize, he failed to achieve economic reforms that he promised .","id":"3ea133cada64cbf7e237d742a5cf3e47d84c220f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The \"vast right-wing conspiracy\" that attacked him during his presidency has been weakened, but continues to operate against President Obama, former President Clinton said Sunday. Former President Clinton said Republicans won't see a 1994-like surge at the polls in 2010. On NBC's \"Meet the Press,\" Clinton was asked about the term his wife Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state, famously coined. \"Is it still there?\" host David Gregory asked. \"Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was,\" the former president replied. \"I mean, they're saying things about him [Obama] -- you know, it's like when they accused me of murder and all that stuff they did,\" Clinton said, in an apparent reference to conspiracy theories surrounding the suicide of White House deputy counsel Vince Foster. \"It's not really good for the Republicans and the country, what's going on now,\" Clinton said. \"I mean, they may be hurting President Obama. They can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up. But fundamentally, he and his team have a positive agenda for America.\" The nation needs \"a credible debate about what's the right balance between continuing to expand the economy through stimulus and beginning to move back to fiscal balance,\" Clinton said. \"We need a credible debate about what's the best way to get to universal [health care] coverage.\" Clinton was asked whether he is concerned that the 2010 midterm elections could resemble those of 1994, when Republicans took control of the House and Senate two years into his first term. \"There's no way\" that could happen, Clinton said, adding that \"the country is more diverse and more interested in positive action.\" Also, he said, Republicans had control of Congress for several years under President George W. Bush, \"and they know the results were bad.\" And, he said, \"the Democrats haven't taken on the gun lobby like I did.\" \"Whatever happens, it'll be manageable for our president,\" Clinton said.","highlights":"Clinton: Right-wing \"conspiracy\" not as strong as it once was, but is as virulent .\nObama's popularity may take hit, but attacks not good for country, Clinton says .\nClinton: \"No way\" that Republicans will enjoy 1994-level success in 2010 elections .","id":"eeeafbe4cca47c8b3ff2a64a8a7487555f913a71"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Redmond O'Neal, the son of Oscar-nominated actor Ryan O'Neal and actress Farrah Fawcett, was arrested Sunday morning on drug charges, authorities said. Redmond O'Neal was stopped at a jail security checkpoint, and volunteered he had drugs, police said. The younger O'Neal was stopped during a routine search at a jail security checkpoint and he volunteered that he had drugs in his possession, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County sheriff's office. O'Neal was arrested on charges of bringing narcotics to a jail facility and possessing a controlled substance, Whitmore said. He would not disclose what drugs O'Neal had, but said he was taken to a jail facility about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. It was not clear whether O'Neal posted bail, which was set at $25,000. -- CNN's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Redmond O'Neal arrested Sunday at jail security checkpoint .\nO'Neal was arrested on charges of bringing narcotics to a jail facility .\nIt was not clear whether O'Neal posted bail, which was set at $25,000 .","id":"dd0dc2aff9d86bc79de8ed1ee6aeb0be33b328ed"} -{"article":"HIGHLANDS COUNTY, Florida (CNN) -- At the heart of Florida researchers' high-tech efforts to protect black bears is a rather low-tech tool: day-old doughnuts. A young bear sits next to a pine tree after being snared by one of the traps set by researchers. Researchers use the doughnuts and other stale pastries to bait traps for the bears. Once snared, the bears are tranquilized and then fitted with a GPS collar. Using cell phone technology, every 15 minutes the collar sends a text message that tells researchers where the bear is located. Tracking the bears' movements -- or lack thereof -- is important. Dr. John Cox, head of the South-Central Florida Bear Project, said the bear population, in order to stay healthy, must be able to travel to different locations throughout the state. They need to travel between different bear populations. But that mobility has been decreasing. There was a time, Cox said, when the bears were free to roam the entire state. As development increased, however, the black bear lost much of its habitat. And the habitat that remained has become more fragmented due to development, primarily roads. The result: The bears become more isolated, with inbreeding within that isolated population. \"This population of bears is actually losing genetic diversity,\" Cox said. \"You see that loss of healthy genes in the population over time. \"That is a sign of isolation.\" Having the bears wear the GPS collars is \"wonderful because the bears are telling us what habitat we need to protect,\" said Tricia Martin of The Nature Conservancy. As of now, 55 black bears in the area have been fitted with collars. Watch the researchers at work \u00bb . Researchers want to know whether the bears' travels have them crossing a road, an orange grove, or somewhere else in order to get from place to place. Collecting data on the corridors the bears need to travel will help in pinpointing what land should be sought for conservation purposes. But first the bears must be snared -- and that's where the doughnuts come in. \"The doughnuts are a good bait, they can smell and it'll bring them in,\" said Wade Ulrey, one of the researchers with the South-Central Florida Bear Project. Recently a young female bear was found in a snare trap -- lured there by the doughnuts, or perhaps the brownie with whipped cream and a cherry that also had been placed there. Ulrey and fellow University of Kentucky research scientist Joe Guthrie slowly approached the trapped bear. The animal, with a cable around its paw, tried to climb a pine tree to escape. See photos of a snared bear \u00bb . The researchers waited for the bear to calm down, then they injected her with a tranquilizer that was at the end of an 8-foot-long pole. As they waited for the drug to take effect, Ulrey and Guthrie returned to their truck to gather the tools they needed to examine the bear. \"We have a couple of bags of ice here to help keep her cool,\" Ulrey said as he placed the bags under the legs and arms of the unconscious bear. The team scanned the 2\u00bd-year-old and realized she already had a microchip implanted under her skin. \"It's similar to an ID system used for pets,\" said Ulrey. The chip tells the researchers that this bear was caught in 2007, when she was a cub still roaming Florida with her mother. The researchers weighed and measured the bear. Then Ulrey used tweezers to pull out a bit of hair. \"We can get a DNA sample from this to see if she is related to any other bears we've captured in the area,\" Ulrey said. This young black bear, however, won't be telling researchers where she will be traveling. She is too young to be outfitted with a GPS collar. Ninety minutes later, the tranquilizer wears off. The bear is awake and appears unharmed. \"Usually the things you'll see is a little bit of an abrasion where they've rubbed some of the fur off, or maybe a cut,\" Cox said when asked about the danger of using a snare trap. As this young cub wanders off, the research team can only hope she finds a road less traveled -- and stays off the highways.","highlights":"Researchers in South Florida capture bears, outfit them with GPS collars .\nCollars help researchers track bears' movements .\nHealthy bear population relies on animals' free movement, breeding .\nBears' natural habitat has been reduced, fragmented by development .","id":"3ae7ec7720cf35599804bfccf5c6d52f9b91f26d"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in east Jerusalem stretched into Sunday evening after a visit by a Jewish group to one of the city's holiest sites. Israeli border police charge towards Palestinian protesters during clashes in Jerusalem's Old City. Street battles began in the Old City on Sunday morning, when Palestinians praying at the site -- known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or \"Noble Sanctuary,\" and to Jews as Temple Mount -- began to throw rocks at the visiting Jews, said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Police responded with stun grenades and arrested eight demonstrators, he said. Rosenfeld also said two Palestinians and two police officers were wounded in the melee, but Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, a former grand mufti of Jerusalem, said nine Palestinians were hurt. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat called the visit a deliberate provocation by hardliners opposed to a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and criticized the police response to the protests. Erakat compared the visit to the 2000 trip by Ariel Sharon -- before he was elected prime minister -- to the al-Aqsa mosque that Palestinians blame for touching off three years of violence. \"We've seen this before, and we know what the consequences are,\" Erakat said in a statement issued Sunday evening. He said the visit was \"deliberately timed\" on the eve of the anniversary of Sharon's September 28, 2000 visit. There was no immediate response from the Israeli government to Erakat's statement. The demonstration was broken up about 1:30 p.m., but Palestinians continued battling police with rocks and Molotov cocktails for several hours in other parts of east Jerusalem. Erakat said Israel was \"deliberately escalating tensions\" in Jerusalem at the same time that U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to coax the two sides into restarting talks aimed a permanent settlement of the decades-old conflict. \"Providing a police escort for settlers who are against peace at all costs, and whose presence is deliberately designed to provoke a reaction, are not the actions of someone who is committed to peace, but of someone who will go to extraordinary lengths to scuttle all hopes of peace,\" Erakat said. CNN's Shira Medding contributed to this report .","highlights":"Street battles began in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday morning .\nPolice: Clashes begin when Palestinians praying there start to throw rocks at visitors .\nPolice says 2 Palestinians, police officer hurt; former mufti says 9 Palestinians hurt .\nChief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat calls the visit a deliberate provocation .","id":"41325af9b608159f7d8aa8c2253ba972059826eb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, is a fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that promotes innovative thought from across the ideological spectrum, and at New York University's Center on Law and Security. He's the author of \"The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader.\" Peter Bergen says Osama bin Laden is still alive and still significant eight years after September 11. HELMAND, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight years after September 11, the \"war on terror\" has gone the way of the dodo. And President Obama talks instead about a war against al Qaeda and its allies. What, then, of al Qaeda's enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden, who has vanished like a wisp of smoke? And does he even matter now? The U.S. government hadn't had a solid lead on al Qaeda's leader since the battle of Tora Bora in winter 2001. Although there are informed hypotheses that today he is in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on the Afghan border, perhaps in one of the more northerly areas such as Bajaur, these are essentially guesses, not \"actionable\" intelligence. A longtime American counterterrorism analyst explained to me, \"There is very limited collection on him personally.\" That's intelligence community shorthand for the fact that the usual avenues of \"collection\" on a target such as bin Laden are yielding little or no information about him. Those avenues typically include signal intercepts of phone calls and e-mails, as well as human intelligence from spies. Given the hundreds of billions of dollars that the \"war on terror\" has consumed, the failure to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader is one of its signal failures. Does it even matter whether bin Laden is found? Yes, it does. First, there is the matter of justice for the almost 3,000 people who died in the September 11 attacks and for the thousands of other victims of al Qaeda's attacks around the world. Second, every day that bin Laden remains at liberty is a propaganda victory for al Qaeda. Third, although bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri aren't managing al Qaeda's operations on a daily basis they guide the overall direction of the jihadist movement around the world, even while they are in hiding. Those messages from al Qaeda's leaders have reached untold millions worldwide via television, the Internet and newspapers. The tapes have not only instructed al Qaeda's followers to continue to kill Westerners and Jews, but some also carried specific instructions that militant cells then acted on. In March 2008, for instance, the al Qaeda leader denounced the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper as a \"catastrophe\" for which punishment would soon be meted out. Three months later, an al Qaeda suicide attacker bombed the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killing six. Some reading this may think: But what's the proof that the al Qaeda leader is still alive? Plenty. Since September 11, bin Laden has released a slew of video and audiotapes, many of which discuss current events. After a nine-month silence, for instance, bin Laden released a 22-minute audiotape on March 14, sharply condemning the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza. Are these tapes real? Not one of the dozens of tapes released by bin Laden after 9\/11 has been a fake. Indeed the U.S. government has authenticated many of them using bin Laden's distinctive voiceprint. And what about the persistent reports that he is ill? In 2002, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said bin Laden had kidney disease, for which he required a dialysis machine, and was therefore likely dead. But the stories of bin Laden's life-threatening kidney problems are false, judging by his appearance in videos that he released in 2004 and again in 2007, in which he showed no signs of illness. On the 2007 tape, the al Qaeda leader had even dyed his white-flecked beard black, suggesting that as the Saudi militant entered his fifth decade, he was not immune to a measure of vanity about his personal appearance. In fact, bin Laden looked much better in those videos than he did in the video he released shortly after the battle of Tora Bora in late 2001, where he had narrowly escaped being killed in a massive American attack. The situation is further complicated by the fact that bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are almost certainly hiding out in the tribal areas of Pakistan, on the Afghan border. Arthur Keller, a CIA officer who ran a spy network in Pakistan's tribal areas in 2006, told me the problems of working in the region: \"It's an incredibly remote area. They're hiding in a sea of people that are very xenophobic of outsiders, so it's a very, very tough nut to crack.\" An additional factor operating in bin Laden's favor is the personal popularity he has long enjoyed in Pakistan. Three years after the September 11 attacks, for instance, a Pew poll found that al Qaeda's leader had a 65 percent favorability rating among Pakistanis. However, it is clear from the videos of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri that aired in the years since the attacks that they are not living in caves. In those tapes, both men's clothes were clean and well-pressed. Caves generally don't have laundry facilities. And the videos that they have released are well-lit and well-shot productions, suggesting access either to electrical outlets or to generators to run lights. Al-Zawahiri is often filmed in a library setting, and on one of his videos from March 2006, there are curtains clearly visible behind him, suggesting that the tape was shot in a house. By early 2008, the Bush administration had tired of the Pakistani government's unwillingness or inability to take out al Qaeda's leaders, and in July, the president authorized Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults in the tribal regions without the permission of the Pakistani government. But in the face of the intense Pakistani opposition to American boots on the ground, the Bush administration chose to rely instead on drones to target suspected al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Bush ordered the CIA to expand its attacks with Predator and Reaper drones. Between July 2008 and this month, U.S. drones have killed dozens of lower-ranking militants and at least 10 mid- and upper-level leaders within al Qaeda or the Taliban. This strategy seems to have worked, at least in terms of combating the ability of al Qaeda to plan or carry out attacks in the West. Law-enforcement authorities have uncovered no serious plots against U.S. or European targets that were traceable to militants who had received training in Pakistan's tribal regions after the drone program had been dramatically ramped up there. The increased pace of the American drone attacks in Pakistani's tribal areas was motivated in part by the hope that it would increase panicked communications among the militants, which might help pinpoint the locations of the top leaders in al Qaeda or the Taliban, but that approach has not paid off when it comes to bin Laden. If killing bin Laden with a drone has proved difficult, so too will be capturing him alive. His former bodyguard Abu Jandal told Al Quds al Arabi newspaper, \"Sheikh Osama gave me a pistol. ... The pistol had only two bullets, for me to kill Sheikh Osama with in case we were surrounded or he was about to fall into the enemy's hands, so that he would not be caught alive \" Should bin Laden be captured or killed, that would probably trigger a succession battle within al Qaeda. While al-Zawahiri is the deputy leader of the terror group and therefore technically bin Laden's successor, he is not regarded as a natural leader. Indeed, even among his fellow Egyptian militants, al-Zawahiri is seen as a divisive force, and so he is unlikely to be able to step into the role of leader of al Qaeda and of the world jihadist movement that is occupied by bin Laden. By the law of averages, eventually, bin Laden will be captured or killed. Yet the ideological movement that he helped spawn -- \"Binladenism\" -- will live on long after he is gone. That is bin Laden's legacy. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen.","highlights":"Peter Bergen: Osama bin Laden still inspires al Qaeda .\nHe says 8 years after 9\/11, the \"war on terror\" has failed to capture him .\nHe says law of averages suggests bin Laden will eventually be caught or killed .","id":"0254b59405a4bd611d20137ba4ffa579a3f872d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Peter Gathungu walks more than a mile to a shopping center, where he pays a sizable sum to charge his cell phone. The solar phone is expected to be a great success in Kenya. That's because electricity is nonexistent in Gathungu's hometown of Njoro, in northwest Kenya. Landlines and other forms of communication are not as efficient, so Gathungu and millions of others in emerging nations rely on mobile phones. Charging the phones can be a headache in towns and villages where electricity is scarce. Gathungu's troubles may soon be over, though. Kenya's biggest mobile phone company, Safaricom Ltd., launched the nation's first solar-charged phone this month. The handset comes with a regular electrical charger and a solar panel that charges the phone using the sun's rays, company CEO Michael Joseph told CNN by telephone. Retailing at about $35, the phones were manufactured by Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp. Safaricom plans to make an initial supply of 100,000 phones available. \"People are excited about these phones,\" Joseph said. \"I expect to be sold out in a week.\" Eco-friendly phones have been touted by several companies at global trade shows, but most have not been launched yet. Samsung unveiled a solar-powered phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this year and introduced its first sun-powered phone in India in mid-June. The company expects its Solar Guru model to perform well in India, another country where electrical supply can be erratic. Unlike many technological innovations, the solar phone is making its big splash in developing nations, where the need is the greatest. After the Solar Guru is in circulation in India, Samsung said, it plans to launch similar phones in other Asian markets, Europe and Latin America. For the time being, Kenyans are happy to serve as early adopters. \"The power crisis here has been going on for ages,\" Joseph said, adding that the Safaricom phone's solar panel is small and portable, unlike charging devices some Kenyans now use. Only about 1.3 million of Kenya's 37 million people are connected to the national electrical grid, said Migwi Theuri, a spokesman for Kenya Power and Lighting Co. The east African nation, which gets most of its energy from hydro-generation, has been undergoing power rationing after a three-year drought. Despite the limited availability of power, Kenya has one of the most vibrant cell phone markets in Africa, analysts say. An estimated 17 million Kenyans use mobile phones. Some charge phones on bicycle-run generators, Joseph said. Or like, Gathungu, they pay businesses in major cities to charge their phones, sometimes waiting an entire day. \"There's an enormous need for a device like this,\" Joseph said of the solar phone, which can charge during talk time, as long as there are rays. \"They will continue to charge on natural light, even on cloudy days,\" he added. Gathungu plans to buy one of the new environmentally friendly phones. For him, it's a matter of money and convenience. He earns 4,000 Kenya shillings ($53 dollars) a month as a waiter. Charging his phone for 50 shillings (70 cents) a week adds up. The solar phone would pay for itself, Gathungu said. Until he buys one, he'll keep making the trek to the shopping center every Sunday afternoon after church. He wouldn't go into further detail about his mobile phone woes, not wanting to waste his battery charge on the call.","highlights":"Solar cell phone launched in Kenya this month, retailing at $35 per handset .\nCountry has one of the most vibrant cell phone markets but has energy rationing .\nSafaricom expects its initial supply of 100,000 solar phones to sell out .\nSamsung launched its solar cell phone in India in June .","id":"9ef7c61be3ae295968b5a2acdbf0ca72796c13d5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government announced Friday that more than 4,000 former Gurkha soldiers are entitled to settle in Britain, but Gurkha supporters quickly denounced the measure as meaningless. Former Gurkha solider Tulbahadur Pun was awarded Britain's highest honor for bravery, the Victoria Cross. Supporters have fought for years for more rights for the Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers who have been part of the British Army for nearly 200 years. Gurkhas have fought alongside the British Armed Forces in every conflict in that period, including both world wars, and are known for their ferocity and pride. Despite their centuries of service, Gurkhas were not given the right to settle in the United Kingdom until 2004. And even then the order applied only to those discharged after the British handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, when the Gurkhas Brigade moved from Hong Kong to Britain. The government's announcement Friday applies to all Gurkhas, including those who left the army before 1997, if they meet one of five criteria. It also says around 6,000 of the Gurkhas' dependents may be able to apply for settlement in Britain as well. \"The guidance honors the service, commitment, and gallantry of those who served with the Gurkhas Brigade,\" Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said in a written statement. The Gurkha Justice Campaign, however, said the government's criteria for the Gurkhas' resettlement are unrealistic and too difficult for many of the soldiers to meet. \"Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy,\" the campaign said. \"The campaign for full Gurkha justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.\" The High Court ruled last September that the 1997 cut-off date was fair, but added that caseworkers needed revised guidance on deciding the cases of Gurkhas discharged before that date. Under the guidance, Gurkhas discharged before 1997 must meet one of five criteria to be considered for resettlement in Britain: . \u2022 Have three years' continuous residence in Britain, before or after service; \u2022 Have close family settled in the United Kingdom; \u2022 Have an award for gallantry, leadership, or bravery while in the brigade; \u2022 Have a chronic medical condition attributable to or made worse by army service; \u2022 Have served for 20 or more years. Actress Joanna Lumley, whose father served in the Gurkhas while she was a girl, has been an outspoken campaigner for their rights. She said the new criteria are harsher than she expected. \"They've given five bullet points which virtually cannot be met by the ordinary Gurkha soldier,\" Lumley told reporters Friday. \"This one page of criteria has taken the government four months to come up with. It has made me ashamed of our administration.\" She said most Gurkhas are allowed to stay in the United Kingdom for only two years, so three years of continuous residence is not possible. Most Gurkhas, she said, also have not been allowed to settle in Britain with their families. The requirement for having won an award discriminates against the ordinary soldier who has no award, she said. \"This sends out not only to the Gurkha soldiers, but to our own men fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the most appalling message: that unless you have been awarded a medal for gallantry, you're not a real soldier,\" Lumley said. Only officers are allowed to serve 20 or more years, she said, so most riflemen will not qualify for the service requirement. And proving that an injury is related to army service will be nearly impossible for most, she said. \"How on earth are men who were injured in the 1940s, '50s, '60s going to be able to prove that their long-term chronic illness is attributable to injures received during their service?\" she said. A Home Office spokesman said the government believes hundreds of Gurkhas will still be eligible to settle in Britain. \"We would not accept that,\" the spokesman said of Lumley's criticisms. \"We would say that the criteria as we see it is fair and balanced.\" The Gurkha brigade originated in the 19th century with Nepalese soldiers who impressed British imperial troops with their ferocity and military ability. The first Gurkha units were formed in 1815. They saw action in both world wars and were fundamental to the British military maintaining control of India in the 1800s. Today there are 3,400 troops in the Gurkha brigade, operating from bases in Great Britain. Most recently, Gurkha troops were used in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkan conflicts.","highlights":"British government unveils moves to let more former Gurkha troops live in the UK .\nGurkhas are part of British armed forces made up of Nepalese fighters .\nCampaigners say qualifying criteria mean most will not be able to settle in UK .\nFirst Gurkha units formed in 1815 and they fought in every campaign since .","id":"79e7420684c3a1e592d59de954b89349fa8ec6fd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Kentucky Chihuahua is expected to make a full recovery after a freak accident that left a large barbecue fork lodged in his head for days, according to the animal hospital where he was treated. During a family gathering two weeks ago, 12-week-old Smokey was waiting to be fed as his owner used the fork to shoo another dog away from Smokey's food, Su Smith, vice president of Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital in London, Kentucky, wrote in an article on the hospital's Web site. As owner Vickie Brumley of Manchester, Kentucky, waved the fork, the handle broke off and the fork end was flung through the air, embedding itself several inches into Smokey's head. Smokey immediately ran into the woods, Smith wrote. For two days, his owner's family searched for him despite bad weather and finally came to the conclusion that he had either died of his injury or been killed by wildlife. Brumley's brother, Hughie Wagers, was visiting his sister and sitting on the porch when Smokey came up the driveway with the fork still sticking out of his head, Smith wrote. He rushed him to the animal hospital. \"They arrived at 6:59 p.m., right as we were about to lock up,\" hospital staffer Michelle Duncum told CNN. \"Mr. Wagers walked into the hospital and asked if we could please help him.\" Staffers were shocked when they saw Smokey, she said. \"We had never dealt with anything like this before.\" Veterinarian Keaton Smith knew Smokey's treatment might be expensive and spoke with Wagers about options, Smith wrote. Keaton Smith offered to treat Smokey at the hospital's expense if Wagers allowed the hospital to call media outlets about the Chihuahua's story. However, staffers wanted to make sure Smokey would live through the night first before calling anyone, Su Smith said. It only took the veterinarian about 30 seconds to remove the fork from Smokey's head, Duncum said. And when the veterinarian arrived at the hospital the next morning, July 8, he found Smokey \"recovering much better than expected,\" Su Smith wrote. Smokey has been advised to take it easy for a few weeks, but is expected to fully recover, Duncum said. The Chihuahua's owner did not immediately return a call seeking comment from CNN. \"Dr. Smith asks everyone who believes this is a cruelty case to 'please back off' and stop jumping to unfounded conclusions,\" Su Smith wrote. \"If you have never had an accident of any kind, you may cast the first stone, but there will be no criminal charges filed in this case.\"","highlights":"Broken fork accidentally gets stuck in Chihuahua's head .\nSmokey ran into the woods, owners couldn't find him for two days .\nPet is \"recovering much better than expected,\" vet says .","id":"7196aa649bb09732cca01ed203b2d6fdd65e70ce"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spanish Primera Liga side Atletico Madrid have got one foot in the Champions League group stage after claiming a crucial 3-2 success at Greek side Panathinaikos in a tough qualifying round first leg encounter on Wednesday. Maxi Rodriguez celebrates scoring the opening goal in Atletico Madrid's 3-2 win in Greece. The visitors took a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute when Diego Forlan set up Maxi Rodriguez who took the ball around Panathinaikos goalkeeper Mario Galinovic to score. Panathinaikos levelled in the 47th minute when Dimitris Salpingidis, who had an earlier goal disallowed, flicked the ball over Atletico keeper Sergio Asenjo. However, Forlan restored the Spaniards' lead in the 63rd minute when he followed-up Rodriguez's blistering drive which had come back off the post. In-demand Argentine striker Sergio Aguero made it 3-1 in the 70th minute but Panathinaikos substitute Sebastian Leto closed the gap four minutes later to give the Greek side some hope. In the night's other matches, French side Lyon stormed closer to a 10th successive group stage appearance with a tumping 5-1 victory over Anderlecht. The Ligue 1 outfit had the match sewn up before half-time with Miralem Pjanic, a Lisandro Lopez penalty, Michel Bastos and Bafetimbi Gomis giving them a four-goal cushion. Anderlecht, beaten in Champions League qualifying for the last two seasons, pulled one back through Matias Suarez in the 58th minute, but Claude Puel's Lyon side restored their four-goal advantage inside five minutes with Gomis grabbing his second of the night. Swiss side FC Zurich took a giant step closer to playing in the competition for the first time in 28 years by claiming a 3-0 lead at Latvian side Ventspils. Goals from Johan Vonlathen, Sylvan Aegerter and Dusan Djuriuc look almost certain to put Zurich into the last 32 of the competition. Debrecen edged closer to becoming Hungary's first Champions League group stage participants since 1996 when they claimed a 2-1 advantage at Levski Sofia in Bulgaria. Laszlo Bodnar gave the Hungarians the lead but Levski levelled at the start of the second period with a fine strike from Cedric Bardon. However, 14 minutes from time, Peter Czvitkovics claimed Debrecen's winner. Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa were also winners on the road with a goal six minutes from time from substitute Shlomi Arbeitman earning a 2-1 win at Salzburg. Georgian striker Vladimer Dvalishvili headed Haifa in front before Alexander Zickler equalized on 57 minutes for the Austrians.","highlights":"Atletico Madrid beat Panathinaikos 3-2 in Champions League qualifier first leg .\nLyon look poised for a 10th year in competition after thumping Anderlecht 5-0 .\nZurich, Debrecen and Maccabi Haifa also edge closer to reaching group stage .","id":"d6d67018ed7c572396c4d442d24ef8cd4639e747"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Strange lights in the sky, mysterious flashes, dozens of witnesses, a missing wind turbine blade and a tabloid splash featuring the pun: E.T. farm harm. The Sun tabloid newspaper's UFO splash. Let's hope there isn't intelligent life out there watching us. Britain's tabloid Sun newspaper Thursday proclaimed from its front page that a wind turbine was ruined after a UFO hit one of its 20 meter-long blades in Conisholme, Lincolnshire. Dorothy Willows, who lives near the damaged turbine, told The Sun she was in her car when she saw strange lights in the sky. \"The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.\" Apparently, hours later, she and her husband were woken by a big bang; one of the turbine's three blades had gone. It, was, however, on the ground below. Other locals told the newspaper that the lights looked like \"balls of flames.\" Russ Kellett, a UFO expert, told the newspaper: \"Balls of light were seen in the sky and the MoD [Ministry of Defence] has no explanation. It must have taken a pretty massive object. We are very, very, very excited.\" However, The Guardian newspaper's Web site content director Emily Bell had a simple explanation for all those \"balls of light\" in the sky. She told The Guardian the lights were fireworks her brother Tim had bought at the local garden center for the 80th birthday party of dad Peter Bell. \"It was a medium-sized fireworks display with absolutely no ballistics, and the fireworks were mostly dropping over my parents' house. But we were laughing that we could have broken the wind turbine,\" Emily said. \"There we are in the middle of a scoop and we're beaten to it by a red-top tabloid,\" Emily's mother Bridget, 74, told The Guardian. Later Thursday, the British Press Association reported the blade may have come off after a mechanical failure. Fraser McLachlan, chief executive of GCube, which insures more than 25,000 wind turbines worldwide, told PA that although it was unusual, this kind of incident happened up to six times a year. \"It does happen that a blade will sometimes just come off a machine for one reason or another,\" he said. \"The main reason is the blade may shear. \"We don't normally see things like aircraft -- or UFOs -- hitting them. It's usually a mechanical failure that causes the blade to separate from the main hub.\" He said the cold weather was another possible cause. Dr Peter Schubel, an expert in the design and manufacture of wind turbine blades at the University of Nottingham, agreed. He told the BBC that if the turbine blade was still, it would take a 10-tonne load to remove a blade, but if it was rotating the force could be a lot less. \"It's definitely not a bird. It could be ice thrown from a neighbouring turbine that struck it.\" Aliens out of control or simple mechanical failure? A case for Mulder and Scully? What do you think?","highlights":"British tabloid blames UFO for destroying wind turbine blade .\nNewspaper quotes locals saying there were \"strange lights\" in the sky .\nSecond newspaper says lights were fireworks from staff member's family celebration .","id":"f69ea44505d6e9450839f75cdbab7d48a12e5e7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities have seized $1 billion worth of marijuana plants and have arrested 82 Mexican nationals with ties to drug cartels in the first week and half of an effort to eradicate marijuana fields from California's Fresno County, the county sheriff's office said Wednesday. The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels. Operation Save Our Sierra began July 13 and involves local, state and federal agencies working together to remove marijuana growing operations, investigate and arrest drug traffickers, and remove infrastructure on public lands in Fresno County, a news release said. \"This is a high-intensity drug trafficking area,\" U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said in a phone interview. \"I think what should be highlighted here is the local authorities' work to reclaim the land from the drug traffickers.\" The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels, local authorities said, though they did not release further details. Eastern Fresno County, where the seizures have been made, is mountainous and sparsely populated. Growers exploit the area's streams, rivers and lakes to create elaborate drip lines for their plants. A mature plant can be worth $4,000, said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims. \"Fresno County is roughly the size of Connecticut, and the drug traffickers target these areas because they know there is not that significant of a law-enforcement presence,\" Mims said. \"The chances of getting caught are slim.\" \"The bottom line is our public lands are being destroyed by foreign drug trafficking and heavily armed Mexican cartels,\" George Anderson of the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday at a news conference highlighting the seizures. The operation is the largest in Fresno County history and one of the largest in California, Mims said. \"What makes this operation unique is the approach: prevention, enforcement, eradication and reclamation,\" she said. Intelligence gathered for the operation began in February, with community presentations about prevention. The effort is now focused on shutting down the at least 70 marijuana farms identified by local authorities. The operation is expected to continue into November, when colder weather makes marijuana growing more difficult. At least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized, Mims said. \"This shows what can be accomplished at the local level when agencies work together,\" Kerlikowske said. Kerlikowske, who flew to Fresno County on Wednesday and toured a marijuana farm, said his office is one of the primary sponsors of the operation.","highlights":"The U.S. drug czar says it is a high-intensity drug trafficking area .\nSuspects have links to Mexican drug cartels, authorities says .\nAt least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized .\nOperation is expected to continue into November .","id":"b403fbd63b36b4b65bb59bad3015f8fafcdf3cd3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities have identified both people who died after being swept away by fierce waves churned up by Hurricane Bill on the East Coast. Tourists watch waves crash ashore at Acadia National Park in Maine on Sunday. Clio Axlerod, 7, of New York, died after a wave knocked her and six other people into the Atlantic at Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday, Park Chief Stuart West said. Of the other six who were swept from that park into the ocean, four made it back to shore on their own. Two -- Axlerod's father, Peter Axlerod, 55, and Simone Pelletier, 12, of Belfast, Maine -- were rescued by the Coast Guard, he said. The victims were among several thousand people who were at the park late Sunday morning to watch the high waves that Bill -- then a Category 1 hurricane -- was producing. iReport.com: See photos shot before tragic wave incident . The people knocked into the water were on a rock cliff about 20 feet above the sea, West said. A wave struck at about 11: 50 a.m., pushing water onto the ankles of some of the people standing on \"top of what we think would be a safe area,\" West said. People started to turn back, but then they were hit by a larger wave, which sent the seven into the sea, West said. Some people were taken to a hospital with broken bones or other injuries, according to Sheridan Steele, the park's superintendent. A witness, Mary Ellen Martel of Maine, said that before the seven were swept into the ocean, people were clapping and laughing when the wind would bring the spray over. \"It was a very festive atmosphere,\" Martel said in a telephone interview. \"It was a warm, sunny day and everyone was just enjoying the show that Mother Nature was offering, but not everybody knows to stay away from the edge -- or way, away from the edge.\" Martel, who had come to the park with her husband, said she feels \"pretty certain\" she had been on the same ledge as some of the victims who were swept to shore. Martel had stood far enough back that the first wave did not affect her much, but when she saw the second coming, she turned her back to protect a camera she had. She was doused from her shoulders down, and she went for the road that led away from the area, she said. \"When I looked [back], everybody was scrambling to get off the ledge,\" she said. Angel Rosa, 54, had come with family to Bethune Beach, one of Volusia County's 40 miles of beaches, Petersohn said. Although lifeguards had warned people not to go in the water because the offshore wind built waves to between 10 and 13 feet tall, Petersohn said, he suspects that's exactly why Rosa was in the water. \"I have a feeling he probably came over to body surf these huge waves,\" he said. He added that such waves come along only every few years. Rosa entered the water Saturday afternoon with a group, but was separated from them, Petersohn said. His fellow swimmers reported Rosa missing, he said, and as rescue teams were mobilizing, beach patrol received an emergency call that a man had been dragged to shore a half-mile away. Petersohn said Rosa might have suffered some kind of trauma that contributed to his drowning. Emergency personnel treated three spinal injuries during the weekend, Petersohn said, as the tough waves slammed swimmers into the bottom. An autopsy report on Rosa is expected in coming days. \"It's very unfortunate that this happened, and everyone feels terrible about it, but it's not something I'm surprised about,\" Petersohn said. \"As big as the surf was, as treacherous as it was, it doesn't surprise me.\" Bill was downgraded to a tropical storm and then to an unnamed storm Monday as it headed into the northern Atlantic. The storm was expected to be in the British Isles by midweek, according to a forecast map from the National Hurricane Center. CNN's Khadijah Rentas contributed to this report.","highlights":"Girl who died after being swept into Atlantic Ocean off Maine identified .\nBill, a Category 1 hurricane Sunday, downgraded to unnamed storm Monday .\nTwo other people rescued after being swept into ocean .\nMan died Saturday in surf off Florida .","id":"8a2e8dbd6a9ac7242d728c365138754cb4d2531d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Satirical TV anchorman Stephen Colbert may not have a dog in this fight, but his name alone may have helped a Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix puppy beat a 6-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Stephen Colbert el dos rips the prize away from Mozart in the weekly competition. In the online doggie beauty pageant, the canine Steven Colbert el dos won the latest weekly semifinal, which enables him to compete for a $1 million grand prize. Colbert el dos from Georgia beat Mozart, or MoMo as he's known to his family and friends in New Orleans, Louisiana, to win cutest dog of the week. \"While it certainly would have been a lot of fun for MoMo to win this past week, we're excited for Stephen Colbert el dos and his owners. What a fun and entertaining ride it's been so far.\" said piano teacher Cara McCool, MoMo's owner. \"We're just happy for the attention this has brought to our charities as well as others supported by so many cute dogs in this competition,\" McCool said. Her charities included: Redeemer Presbyterian Disaster Relief, Desire Street Ministries, Louisiana Teachers Save Our Students fund, Cavalier Rescue USA, Musical Arts Society of New Orleans, the Louisiana SPCA, and Teach for America. Colbert el dos' winnings are pledged to attract a stork to his owners' house. The owners, Bryan and his wife, Allyson, are newlyweds and are hoping to use the prize money for in vitro fertilization treatments to start a family. Colbert el dos' owners asked not to have their last names published to protect their privacy. There is some controversy over the weekly contest results. When the polls closed on Saturday at midnight Pacific time, Mozart was up by 131 votes. But on Monday the competition posted a message on its blog saying Mozart's fans had cheated. \"Mozart obviously worked very hard to receive over 4,500 valid votes in Week 8, but it's unfortunate that the judges had to remove 428 votes due to excessive voter accounts.\" The Cutest Dog Competition Web site, run by the All American Pet Brands, also said, \"there is no evidence that Mozart's owner had any part in the creation of these fraudulent accounts. Colbert's votes showed no signs of cheating.\" More than 60,000 people have uploaded photos of their adorable dogs to the contest's Web site. Voters have to register an e-mail account with the competition. The rules state only one vote per e-mail address per day. \"The fraudulent accounts, with e-mail addresses only one number apart, were all created on the same days, from the same computers, and all votes cast from these 70-plus accounts were received within one minute of each other from the same computers (which generally means the owner of these accounts simply logged off and logged back onto another account to vote again),\" according to the competition Web site. Bryan said he was shocked when he found out on Monday his dog had won. \"On Saturday night, I went to bed and we were down 150 votes,\" he said. \"I know they announced the winners on the blog and I saw winner for Week 8 and I was expecting to see Mozart and I saw Stephen Colbert el dos and I just couldn't believe it.\" He said it was a great day for the 7-month-old puppy and his owners. Their four-legged family includes three other dogs, all rescues, but they bought Colbert el dos from Puppies Galore in Lawrenceville, Georgia. When they met him, he was 2 months old, barely weighed a pound and would not eat. The manager of the store said the puppy was regressing after he was separated from his siblings. Now Stephen Colbert el dos is eating well and, \"He's as hyper as any puppy you'll see,\" Bryan said. Last week, they entered the competition and said they only told a few friends and family members. They posted a note on a Stephen Colbert fan site and support for the pooch went viral. A Web site said Colbert el dos had an invitation to appear on the \"Colbert Report\" if he made the top 12. Bryan said the TV show has not contacted them. Renata Luczak, a spokesperson for Comedy Central, could not confirm or deny the pet's booking, saying the \"Colbert Report\" \"refrains from commenting on upcoming guests appearing on the show.\" Colbert el dos' owners denied having anything to do with the fraudulent votes for Mozart. \"We did not vote for Mozart a single time. And neither did anyone we know. Definitely no way,\" Bryan said. The human comedian Colbert has wreaked havoc in other online competitions, from a Hungarian bridge-naming contest to a NASA competition to name a room in the international space station. In both cases, Colbert won the popular vote. Hungary declined to name the bridge after Colbert. NASA, instead of naming the room in his honor, sent a treadmill to space with the Colbert honorific. In those contests, the competitions received heavy promotion during the show, with Colbert urging his viewers to participate. In the dog photo fight, Colbert had an impact without direct participation. MoMo was automatically re-entered in the competition for this week. Over the next four weeks, four more dogs will have a chance to be voted into the semifinals. After finishing in second place two weeks in a row, MoMo would appears to be the favorite to advance, where he could get another shot at Stephen Colbert el dos.","highlights":"\"Stephen Colbert el dos\" beats Mozart in dog beauty pageant .\nContest Web site says Mozart fans violated the voting rules .\nMozart, a 6-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, had been winning .","id":"45fa4464f86599520ace75db52005bda9ee0a49b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An 18-year-old suspect in Tuesday's bus-stop shootings that wounded seven people in Detroit, Michigan, surrendered to authorities Wednesday, police said. Detroit's deputy police chief called Tuesday's shootings \"a travesty.\" Detroit Police Chief James Barren said Jamall Turner is one of two suspects in the shootings, which occurred at a bus stop near Cody High School after summer-school classes had ended for the day. Two men got out of a green minivan and \"fired multiple shots at a group of teens waiting on a bus,\" he said. Police were investigating rumors from witnesses that the shootings were gang-related. Officials said Tuesday that the gunmen asked for a person by name before shooting, getting back into their vehicle and fleeing. A third person was waiting in the minivan to aid in their escape, he said. Police have impounded two vehicles matching the van's description but do not know whether either was actually involved in the crime, he said. On Tuesday, police took another person into custody in an arrest that was not related to the shootings, \"but we believe that the arrested individual may shed light on the bus-stop shooting,\" he said. Deputy Police Chief James W. Tolbert said three of the victims remained hospitalized Wednesday with wounds that were not life-threatening. He said police believe that semiautomatic handguns were used. \"Any time there is a shooting and we have young people shot, it's a travesty,\" he said. \"We have to get our youth to understand that conflict resolution isn't picking up a gun.\" Tolbert added that the police are instituting a \"safe-routes-to-school program.\"","highlights":"Jamall Turner is one of two suspects in the shootings .\nSeven people were injured; three remain hospitalized .\nShootings came as summer school classes let out .","id":"5bee7250a21085964d958b91977019b0e834c5e2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police in San Mateo, California, said Monday that \"a potentially very drastic event\" at a high school was averted when school personnel subdued a former student who walked into the school armed with pipe bombs, a chainsaw and a 2-foot-long sword. At least 1,200 students and faculty were evacuated from the northern California school. \"It had the potential to be a catastrophic incident,\" said police Lt. Mike Brunicardi, describing the incident in which two pipe bombs exploded and at least 1,200 students and faculty were evacuated from the Northern California school. No one was injured in the incident, police said. Brunicardi said a 17-year-old former student wearing a nylon vest packed with 10 homemade pipe bombs entered Hillsdale High School in San Mateo about 8 a.m. Monday. He detonated two devices, with smoke setting off the school's fire-alarm system, before two teachers confronted him. \"The suspect was quickly wrestled down by a teacher who, with the help of the principal and another teacher, were able to hold him down until police arrived minutes later,\" Brunicardi said. The suspect's intentions were not clear, police said. \"He's being interviewed right now, but we don't have his specific motives at this time,\" Brunicardi said, adding that while the explosive power of the pipe bombs was not immediately known, the teachers who subdued the suspect put themselves in jeopardy. \"We are relieved that no one was injured and it's fortunate that we were able to apprehend the student before he hurt himself or anyone else,\" said San Mateo School District Associate Superintendent Kirk Black said. Authorities said the suspect, whose name was not immediately released, had been a student at the school in 2008. CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: Former student had pipe bombs, a chainsaw and a 2-foot-long sword .\n\"It had the potential to be a catastrophic incident,\" official says .\nAfter he sets off two devices, school personnel wrestle the student to the ground .\nPolice in San Mateo, California, say they do not know suspect's motive .","id":"fc016298b22eb2eef379847a97283a015130f40f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The skeletal remains of two infants were found underneath a rural Texas trailer, police said Monday, in the same area where another set of infant remains was found last year. The skeletal remains of two infants were found near a Texas trailer, police said Monday. Authorities were called about 3:30 p.m. Sunday to the trailer south of Kennedale, about 15 miles southeast of Fort Worth, Texas, in rural Tarrant County, said Terry Grisham, spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office. There is a group of about five mobile homes there, he said, that are leased by the property owner. One of the mobile homes had recently become vacant, and the owner was cleaning it up, Grisham said. The owner pulled back the metal \"skirt\" around the bottom of the mobile home and was \"digging around in there,\" and found a plastic bag, Grisham said. When the man opened it up, he found a box, and inside the box he found the \"bones of a very young infant,\" Grisham told CNN. He continued to look, and found another plastic container with more remains inside, of a \"similar-aged infant,\" before calling 911, Grisham said. In 2008, the same man called police to report that he had found a suitcase in the same area, in an overgrown field a distance away from the mobile homes, while dumping leaves. When he used a knife to cut into the suitcase, a set of infant bones were found, Grisham said. The medical examiner's office was unable to determine a cause of death because the remains were skeletal, although no bones were broken, he said. \"We worked the thing as best we could, without any more to go on than we had,\" but the investigation stalled, Grisham said. Police have contacted the two people -- a brother and sister -- who recently moved out of the trailer, he said. The two have been cooperative with authorities, he said. They were interviewed separately, but both told police they had no idea the remains were there, Grisham said. Authorities and the medical examiner's office remained at the scene Monday, Grisham said, and plan to use cadaver dogs at the site Monday afternoon in an effort to determine whether more remains were present. \"This ground is pretty brushy and overgrown,\" he said. A county work crew was brought in to carefully cut down the brush to aid the search, he said. CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this report.","highlights":"The skeletal remains of two infants found near Texas trailer police said Monday .\nRemains found in area where other infant remains were found last year .\nOne mobile home recently become vacant, owner was cleaning it up .\nIn 2008, same man told police he found a suitcase that had infant remains .","id":"c2d28428ef5ff94603db49e2df0e1ce1c5ea0e17"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Punctuality was one of Debbie Hooper's best traits. Authorities sort through the wreckage thought to be Debbie Hooper's car. She went missing September 20. The 44-year-old grandmother from Whitesburg, Georgia, was always on time for her play dates with her baby granddaughter. She was always on time picking up her 15-year-old son from school. So when Hooper, who juggled two jobs to support her family, didn't appear at her dispatch job for a transportation company last Monday morning, her daughter Jessica Bartke, 19, knew something was wrong. Her mother's cell phone went straight to voicemail. Co-workers hadn't seen the bubbly, kindhearted woman with curly brown hair and a magnetic presence. \"She's always at work,\" said Bartke, who lives in Winston, Georgia, about 10 minutes from her mother's home. \"She was never lazy. I knew something had to be wrong.\" Nearly a week after the torrential downpours that left the metro Atlanta area drenched, authorities are still searching for Hooper's body, which was last believed to have been in the Dog River in Douglas County, west of Atlanta. Late Monday afternoon, authorities discovered a female body in the Dog River Reservoir, said Brad Robinson, chief deputy of the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. They are waiting for lab work to identify the body, which is expected to be released Tuesday afternoon. Six flood-related deaths already have been reported in Douglas County. Bartke believes her mother went missing Sunday, September 20, the eve of her 44th birthday. Last Friday, when the water ebbed, a search crew of nearly 25 law enforcement officers from Carroll and Douglas counties uncovered Hooper's vehicle, a Jeep Liberty, stuck in the water in the Dog River. The team also recovered Hooper's purse. \"It was like putting an ant in front of the fire hose,\" said Sheriff Phil Miller of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. \"The little Jeep Liberty looked like it had been put in a crusher and beat into pieces.\" The following Saturday morning, more than two dozen authorities and four cadaver dogs continued to search the Dog River area. Miller said the water flow had been constant, which means the body could have drifted into the Chattahoochee River. Hooper remains the last missing flood victim in the Atlanta area, but in Tennessee, a man who disappeared after swimming in an overflowing ditch on a dare is still missing. This month's storm has been one of the worst in Southeastern U.S. history. The death toll in Georgia and Alabama has risen to 10. Gov. Sonny Perdue has declared a state of emergency in 17 flood-stricken counties, and State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine estimated that the flooding has caused $250 million in losses. Bartke, Hooper's daughter, has taken her 15-year-old brother into her home. She says they are both distressed about not knowing where their mother may be. \"We talked every day,\" Bartke said. \"We spoke to each other even if we were busy, even if it was for two seconds just to say 'Mom, I love you. I'm busy right now, but I will call you back.' \"","highlights":"Debbie Hooper, 44, of Whitesburg, Georgia went missing September 20 .\nAuthorities found her Jeep Liberty in Dog River in Douglas County, west of Atlanta .\nOn Monday, authorities found a female body, but body is not yet identified .\nThis month's rainfall has caused deadly flooding in the Southeast .","id":"3beaf01e536ceebebbc2b1f843955faa26884062"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Veterans Administration's handling of disability claims has seen improvements and setbacks, a congressional watchdog said Wednesday. Sen. Daniel Akaka says, \"Our goal is to provide veterans with accurate and timely resolution to their cases.\" \"Over the past several years, VA disability claims workloads at both the initial and appellate levels have improved in some areas and worsened in others,\" the Government Accountability Office said in a report. The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee asked the GAO to present its preliminary findings on the processing of disability claims, which were under discussion at a committee hearing. \"Our goal is to provide veterans with accurate and timely resolution to their cases,\" said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the committee's chairman. Ranking member Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said, \"For the men and women who have served and sacrificed for our nation, they deserve a system that meets their needs without hassles or delays.\" Along with a GAO representative, the hearing invited testimony from the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, a professor and an official from the Disabled American Veterans. The GAO report said the number of initial claims the VA annually completes has increased from the 1999 to 2008 fiscal years. But it says the number of pending claims at year's end has grown during the same time period. The review cites \"increases in disability claims received, growing complexity of claims, court decisions and changes in regulation.\" There have been mixed results for claims workloads at the appellate level. The number of resolved claims has increased from 2003 to 2008, but it took an average 96 days longer to resolve appeals during that same time period. \"One factor that affects workloads at the appellate level is the submission of new evidence or claims that must be evaluated,\" the report said. The report said the VA has worked to improve the handling of claims but said the results of those efforts \"is not yet known.\" It mentions an increase in staff from 2005 to 2009, \"which has helped to increase the total number of decisions VA issues annually.\" At the same time, training and staff integration challenges could cause a \"short-term\" decline in productivity . \"In addition, VA has established 15 resource centers to which it redistributes claims and appeals for processing from backlogged regional offices. Although VA has not collected data to evaluate the effect of its workload redistribution efforts, these efforts may ultimately increase the timeliness and consistency of VA's decisions,\" the report said. The VA is starting a pilot program with the Pentagon \"to perform joint disability evaluations that has the potential to streamline the disability process for prospective veterans.\" The VA also is reviewing other potential programs -- \"targeting certain claims for fast-track processing and leveraging technology.\"","highlights":"VA's handling of disability claims has seen improvements, setbacks, review finds .\nGovernment Accountability Office presents findings at Senate panel hearing .\nNumber of pending claims at year's end has grown, GAO report says .\nReport: Larger staff has led to increase in number of decisions VA issues annually .","id":"acdb6f77b03800b69b9d3156324e896b122711cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roman Polanski is regarded as one of the finest directors of his generation, winning an Oscar for \"The Pianist\" and nominations for \"Tess\" and \"Rosemary's Baby,\" but he is probably as equally well known for his own tumultuous life. Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate are pictured together in London in the 1960s. Polanski, who was arrested Saturday in Switzerland on a U.S. arrest warrant stemming from a decades-old sex charge, had lived in France for decades to avoid being arrested if he enters the United States. The 76-year-old declined to collect his Academy Award for Best Director in person when he won it for \"The Pianist\" in 2003. He was en route to the Zurich Film Festival, which is holding a tribute to him, when he was arrested by Swiss authorities, the festival said. Polanski was put in \"provisional detention\" and now faces the possibility of being extradited to the U.S., where a warrant for his arrest was issued in 1978. The director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl, but fled the U.S. before he could be sentenced. Polanski was accused of plying the girl, then known as Samantha Gailey, with champagne and a sliver of a quaalude tablet and performing various sex acts, including intercourse, with her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. He was 43 at the time. Nicholson was not at home, but his girlfriend at the time, actress Anjelica Huston, was. According to a probation report contained in the filing, Huston described the victim as \"sullen.\" \"She appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between -- could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old scared little thing,\" Huston said. Watch as filmmakers rally round Polanski \u00bb . She added that Polanski did not strike her as the type of man who would force himself on a young girl. \"I don't think he's a bad man,\" she said in the report. \"I think he's an unhappy man.\" Polanski was born in Paris in 1933 of Polish-Jewish parents. Aged three, he and his family returned to Krakow in his father's native Poland. After the Nazis invaded his parents were sent to concentration camps: his mother was gassed at Auschwitz although his father survived the war. The young Polanski survived the Krakow ghetto and \"soared out of Poland on sheer personality,\" according to director Marina Zenovich, whose 2007 documentary \"Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,\" paints a sympathetic picture of the exiled movie legend. Growing up in war-torn Poland, the young Polanski found comfort in the cinema and in acting in radio dramas, on stage and in films. In 1962, Polanski directed his first feature-length film, \"Knife in the Water.\" Poorly received in Poland it was a sensation in the West, and won an Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Film. See images of Polanski's life on cellulloid \u00bb . He later moved to England, co-starring with American actress Sharon Tate, whom he married in 1968, in the Hammer horror parody, \"Dance of the Vampires\/The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are in My Neck.\" Following his move to Hollywood, Polanski was at his peak: he was one of the hottest directors thanks to the critical and commercial hit Rosemary's Baby and he was married to the beautiful Tate. \"At a certain point in his life, Roman Polanski had a lot of hope,\" Zenovich told TIME magazine in 2008. \"He was living this great life. He was so talented and everyone wanted to work with him.\" But that hopeful period ended when Tate, eight months' pregnant, was murdered by followers of Charles Manson in 1969. According to TIME, Polanski spent the first years after her death on a kind of sexual spree, and began spending time with younger and younger women, like 15-year-old Nastassja Kinski. When Polanski was arrested for assaulting Gailey, his case drew the attention of Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, who had earlier presided over Elvis Presley's divorce, Marlon Brando's child-custody battle and a paternity suit against Cary Grant. Rittenband, in a manner reminiscent of the one-liner-dropping judge in the Anna Nicole Smith case, was obsessed with the media. He even had a bailiff maintain a scrapbook of his newspaper clippings, according court filings. The case proceeded in a strange manner. Rittenband, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days. The judge's bizarre behavior might have continued had Polanski not fled to France, where he has lived for the last 30 years, ultimately marrying again and having two children. Polanski has continued to make critically acclaimed films, such as \"Tess,\" an adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel \"Tess of the d'Urbervilles\" which tells the story of a beautiful country girl (Nastassja Kinski) who is seduced by an older man. In 1981, he returned to Poland to direct and star in a stage production of \"Amadeus.\" And 2002's \"The Pianist,\" re-established Polanksi as a top-flight director. There have been repeated attempts to settle the sex case over the years, but the sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to return to attend hearings. Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man to go free who \"drugged and raped a 13-year-old child.\" Polanski's lawyers tried earlier this year to have the charges thrown out, but a Los Angeles judge rejected the request. In doing so, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza left the door open to reconsider his ruling if Polanski shows up in court. Espinoza also appeared to acknowledge problems with the way the director's case was handled years ago. Polanski's victim is among those calling for the case to be thrown out. Now married and known as Samantha Geimer, she filed court papers in January saying, \"I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim, have surmounted and surpassed them with one exception. \"Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case.\" Geimer, now 45, and a mother of three, sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement. She long ago came forward and made her identity public -- mainly, she said, because she was disturbed by how the criminal case had been handled. Polanski was arrested two days after one of his wife's killers died. By her own admission, Susan Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, stabbing the 26-year-old actress 16 times. Polanski was filming in Europe at the time. Atkins, 61, died Thursday. She had been suffering from terminal brain cancer.","highlights":"Polanski born in France in 1933. Moved to Poland and survived Holocaust .\nCritically acclaimed as actor and director: Married actress Sharon Tate in 1968 .\nPregnant Tate later murdered by followers of Charles Manson .\nIn 1977 Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with 13-year-old girl; fled to France .","id":"ace49f9875a4256964bbd3fc9cbe49c8689c9b7a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barcelona midfielder Alexander Hleb has turned down a move to Inter Milan in favor of returning to Bundesliga club Stuttgart on loan for the season. Alexander Hleb is presented to the media after completing his loan move to former club Stuttgart. Hleb had been expected to be part of the swap deal that saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto'o switch clubs earlier this week. But the 28-year-old Belarus international has opted against joining Cameroon striker Eto'o at the San Siro due to the limited prospects of regular football under Jose Mourinho, and instead decided to return to Germany. Hleb left Stuttgart four years ago to move to English Premier League side Arsenal, where he spent three seasons -- including reaching the Champions League final in 2006, which the Gunners lost to Barcelona. Top 20 summer transfer targets . Hleb eventually ended up moving to the Nou Camp last summer, but struggled to claim a place in the side and was omitted from the 18-man squad that beat Manchester United in this year's Champions League final. Hleb told Stuttgart's official Web site he had moved to Markus Babbel's side because of their prospects for the coming season. \"I have opted for Stuttgart because the team has great potential and I am convinced that we can achieve a lot together,\" the 28-year-old said. Stuttgart general manager Horst Heldt added: \"We have signed a world class player with Alexander Hleb. He will increase the quality of our squad even further.\" Stuttgart had seen moves for both Real Madrid's Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Vagner Love of CSKA Moscow break down in recent weeks.","highlights":"Barcelona midfielder Alexander Hleb has turned down a switch to Inter Milan .\nHleb had been expected to be part of the Ibrahimovic and Eto'o swap transfer .\nHowever, he has chosen to rejoin former club Stuttgart in a one-year loan deal .","id":"15d6c5089f6801a6c0460cb3cc2aa1b9f757df45"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior administration official said Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Police Department will be visiting the White House Thursday. President Obama will meet Thursday with a Harvard professor and the officer who arrested him. The meeting among the three men will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday. Last week, Obama said he called Crowley and \"there was a discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House.\" Gibbs said: \"I think it was Sgt. Crowley's suggestion about the beer, and I think the president thought it was a good idea.\" Obama said he hoped the incident in Cambridge, which quickly spiraled into a national and racially charged controversy, \"ends up being what's called a teachable moment\" for the country. The president acknowledged that he had contributed to \"ratcheting it up\" by declaring the Police Department had \"acted stupidly\" even though he didn't know all the facts of the case and is a personal friend of Gates. Cambridge police called on Obama to apologize for the remark. Obama did not apologize, but in the phone call with Crowley he said his choice of words was \"unfortunate.\" Gates, a top African-American scholar, was arrested July 16 for disorderly conduct outside his home after police responded to a report of a possible burglary. The charge was later dropped. Gates called himself the victim of a \"rogue\" officer. But he said Friday he looks forward to meeting with Obama and Crowley, and to making the experience \"a teaching moment to improve racial relations in America.\" Crowley said Gates accused him of racism when he was at the home simply trying to do his job and assuring that Gates was safe and alone in the home. Cambridge police officials have praised Crowley, who in recent years had been selected by a black police officer to teach a police academy course on how to avoid racial profiling. Officials said they take pride in their relationship with the diverse community in the area. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas said he \"deeply regrets\" the arrest, but stands by the procedures his department followed. iReport.com: Share stories, concerns on racial profiling . Meanwhile, authorities in Cambridge announced Monday that they have created a panel to advise police on racial issues. \"Today is the day to move forward,\" City Manager Robert Healy said at a news conference. The committee, led by \"nationally recognized experts,\" will not investigate the arrest of Gates, nor will it \"make any judgments\" on the officers involved, Healy said. The committee \"will identify lessons to be taken from the circumstances surrounding the incident\" and will advise the police department on how \"those lessons can be applied\" to its policies and practices. CNN's Dan Lothian contributed to this report.","highlights":"Arrest of black professor by white officer turned into racial incident .\nPresident Obama poured fuel on fire by saying police acted \"stupidly\"\nCambridge officials create panel to advise police on racial issues .","id":"bc2ba874663bf95887e98e1914d4b95e9f0b7fec"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Raul Flores thought federal agents had barged with guns drawn into his home in Arivaca, Arizona, in the middle of the night. Shawna Forde, 41, denies involvement in the shooting deaths of an Arizona man and his daughter. The woman and two men wore uniforms and identified themselves as U.S. Marshals. They claimed the house was surrounded. They said they were looking for an escaped prisoner, Flores' wife told a 911 dispatcher. But there was no backup waiting outside, and no fugitive. The marshals were imposters. They had targeted Flores because they suspected he was a drug trafficker and they wanted to rob and kill him, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department. As the intruders searched his home, Flores asked one of the men why his handgun was taped. The man responded by shooting and killing Flores. \"Someone just came in and shot my daughter and husband,\" Flores' wife frantically told 911. She tells the police operator that she was shot and left for dead with her husband, Raul Flores, 29, and daughter Brisenia, 9, who were both shot in the head. Police are not releasing the woman's name to protect her identity. But her 911 call, released to the media by the Pima County Sheriff's Department, tells the story of a deadly home invasion by a rogue band of impostors. As she describes the initial attack, the intruders return to the house. The door can be heard opening. \"They are coming back in! They are coming back in!\" the caller screams. She has armed herself with her husband's handgun. \"Get the f--- out,\" she barks. The order is followed by the explosive sound of gunfire traded as the wounded woman and her would-be killers fire on each other. A man -- one of the intruders -- is hit and groans loudly. The attackers retreat and leave the woman alive and alone with her slain family. Hear gunfire on the 911 call \u00bb . Twelve days later police have the \"marshals\" in custody on charges of first-degree murder, burglary and aggravated assault. Police identified the suspects as Shawna Forde, 41, of Buena Vista, Arizona; Jason Eugene Bush, 34, of Kingman, Arizona; and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, of Tucson, Arizona. As police put her into a car, Forde told reporters, \"I did not do it.\" The Pima County public defender's office, which represents Forde, Bush and Gaxiola, did not return CNN's calls requesting comment. Authorities from five different police departments in three states are investigating crimes allegedly involving the trio. Forde's arrest has had even greater reverberations across a community of private citizens who believe the government is not adequately protecting the nation's borders. Forde was a one-time member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a citizens group whose self-described mission is to secure the U.S. border, before she started her own smaller border enforcement organization. The accusations against her have given more fuel to Minutemen critics who say the groups dangerously blur the lines between law enforcement and vigilantism. Forde was well known in anti-immigration circles. She ran a failed campaign for City Council in her hometown of Everett, Washington, that touted her connections to the Minutemen. She posted videos on YouTube of her border patrols and was an outspoken fixture at Minutemen Washington meetings and rallies in Washington state. But even among this gung-ho group of self-styled border warriors, Forde was extreme, both Minutemen members and their critics agreed. Washington human rights advocate Luis Moscoso said he had a run-in with Forde during a protest he attended at a 2007 Minutemen conference in Bellingham, Washington. While other Minutemen engaged in a dialogue, Moscoso remembered Forde shouting insults at the protesters. Moscoso later was shocked, he said, to find his photograph and address on Forde's Web site. \"It wasn't a bull's-eye but it was close enough,\" he said. The Web site was taken down after the arrests, so CNN cannot independently confirm Moscoso's account. Eventually, Forde's tactics alienated even the most stalwart proponents of border security. \"The screaming, hollering, calling names, we don't do that,\" said outgoing Washington state Minutemen president Joseph Ray. \"She broke standard operating procedure too many times, she was too damn unreliable.\" The Minutemen kicked Forde out of their ranks in 2007, Ray said. Around the same time, police said, Forde became embroiled in several bizarre incidents that remain under investigation in Everett. Forde's then-husband was shot in the abdomen by an unknown male assailant at their home. The couple later divorced. Forde next said she was the victim of a sexual assault. Later, Forde was found wounded in an alley where she told police she had been shot in the arm by an attacker. Speaking to the media about the attacks, Forde said she was being targeted by Mexican drug cartels for her work guarding the border. According To Sgt. Robert Goetz, spokesman for the Everett Police Department, Forde's sister and mother told police something very different. They believed she invented or played a part in the violence against her and her family. Cast out from the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, Forde formed her own organization called the Minutemen American Defense. Chuck Stonex was a member. Despite \"her cloudy reputation\" in Minutemen circles, Stonex said, he and Forde got along well. Still, he said he noticed during an operation monitoring the border in Arizona with her in 2008 that Forde was well funded for the leader of a tiny group on the fringe of the Minutemen movement. \"She always had a lot of cash,\" he said. Cash was what led Forde, Bush and Gaxiola to Raul Flores' house on May 30, 2009, said Dawn Barkman, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff. Flores had a reputation for involvement in the narcotics trade along the border, Barkman said, and Forde devised a plan to bluff her way into his home and rob and kill him to finance her border patrol group. According to Barkman, it was Forde's plan but Bush allegedly fired the fatal shots inside the Flores home. It was not Bush's first slaying, police say. After his arrest in the shooting of Raul Flores, police in Wenatchee, Washington, charged Bush with the fatal stabbing of Hector Manuel Lopez Partida. Homeless and traveling through Wenatchee, Lopez Partida was killed in 1997, stabbed seven times, apparently as he slept on the ground next to a grain silo. Police in Wenatchee found a blood-soaked shirt near where Lopez was killed. Eight years later, advances in forensics testing indicated that Bush's DNA was on the shirt, a police affidavit said. Bush has \"long-standing ties to Aryan Nations groups,\" the affidavit said, and he allegedly bragged to an unidentified police informant about killing \"a Mexican,\" saying he and another man \"stomped\" and \"stabbed\" the man and \"left [him] to bleed out.\" After the shooting at Flores' home, the crime wave continued, police said. A couple who are friends of Forde's mother was robbed at gunpoint of their $12,000 inheritance by men pretending to be U.S. Marshals, said Sgt. John Hubbard of the Shasta County Sheriffs Department. The victims, Hubbard said, identified Bush as one of the gunmen. Hubbard said police believe Forde helped carry out the robbery. In the next town over, Hubbard said, the home belonging to Forde's brother was robbed on the same day. The alleged crime spree leaves Forde's former compatriots feeling exposed and under attack. Stonex said he last saw Forde and Bush right after the shootout at the Flores home. Stonex helped patch a bullet wound to Bush's calf. \"They said they were jumped by border bandits,\" he said. He said had he known about their alleged killing of Flores and his daughter, Stonex would never have had anything to do with Forde. Now, he said, he and other Minutemen have been forced to cancel border patrol operations and wait for the scrutiny to die down. \"It's given us a lot of grief,\" said Stonex, \"I'd build her gallows if I could.\"","highlights":"Woman, two men allegedly posed as federal agents in home invasion .\nArizona man targeted because trio thought he was a drug dealer, police say .\nRaul Flores, daughter, 9, shot dead; wire calls 911 .\nAmong trio of suspects are woman with ties to Minutemen groups .","id":"dacfa443475efb6c9bfc96c2c44eb52691db24de"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- They're paid to watch for suspicious activity, to prevent bloody attacks. But employees at Baghdad's surveillance center often watch helplessly as death and destruction unfold before their eyes, on camera. Security cameras watch the streets of Baghdad, but the center's director says it has a long way to go. The center was set up a year and a half ago, with employees on the lookout for trouble, as police officers in a back room listen to the traffic on their radios. But there are not enough cameras to cover all of Baghdad -- only 5 percent of the city is surveilled under the current system. The cameras picked up suspicious activity last Wednesday, but within 20 seconds -- before any action could be taken -- a truck blew up in front of the Foreign Ministry building. By day's end, bombings had killed nearly 100 people in the city. The fledgling security surveillance operation has a long way to go, its director acknowledges. The center is understaffed and not yet open around the clock. Watch security camera video of attacks \u00bb . Though overall attacks have decreased in Iraq, the images on screen serve as undeniable evidence of the ongoing violence the Iraqi government is struggling to prevent. That effort includes 113 security cameras placed mainly around government buildings throughout the city, though not all are functioning at any given time. Each work station at the surveillance center monitors the feeds from 10 cameras. After last week's bombings -- which made Wednesday the bloodiest day in Iraq since U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June -- the center's managers met with Iraqi security forces in an effort to increase the number of cameras. \"We should all admit responsibility for this major breach of security,\" the director said. \"And we have to fix the system.\" For now, as the carnage fills the screen like a violent movie, employees cringe with guilt. They know that every time there is a blast on screen, it's because they were not able to prevent it.","highlights":"Baghdad has 113 security cameras around government buildings .\nBut workers often see attacks occurring that they don't have time to prevent .\nOnly 5 percent of the Iraqi capital covered by security cameras .\nCenter's managers want more cameras; \"We have to fix the system,\" director says .","id":"2ee95f20479852fb9c5dddbd2900e7dad5ebc663"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court will decide whether it is cruel and unusual punishment for young criminal offenders to be sentenced to life in prison with parole. Joe Sullivan, now 33, was convicted of burglary and rape when he was 13. He is serving life without parole. The justices agreed without comment Monday to accept appeals from two Florida inmates convicted as teenagers of criminal offenses. Oral arguments will be heard in the fall. One of the men is Joe Sullivan, 33, serving a life term without the possibility of parole in a Florida prison while confined to a wheelchair. He was sentenced for a rape committed when he was 13. The man's lawyers say he is one of only two people his age in the world who was tried as an adult and sentenced to \"die in prison\" for a non-homicide. The justices also accepted a case dealing with Terrance Graham, who was 17 when he took part in a violent home-invasion robbery while on parole for another felony. Outside a death-penalty context, the high court has offered little recent guidance on how to treat the youngest of underage criminal defendants. The appellate record for rapists younger than 15 is almost nonexistent, legal experts say. Child legal advocates say many states lack adequate resources to handle young inmates given long sentences, including a lack of proper jailhouse counseling. Few studies have been conducted on the psychological effects of young defendants facing life in prison at such a young age, said the Equal Justice Institute, which is representing Sullivan's high court case. \"We have created a forgotten population with a lot of needs,\" said Bryan Stevenson, Sullivan's lawyer. The crime happened in 1989, when, Sullivan admitted, he and two friends ransacked a home on Seabrook Street in West Pensacola. But he denied the prosecutor's claim that he returned with a knife and sexually assaulted the 72-year-old female homeowner. An older co-defendant claimed that Sullivan was the rapist. After a daylong trial, Escambia County Circuit Judge Nicholas Geeker sentenced Sullivan to life without parole. \"I am going to try to send him away for as long as I can. He is beyond help,\" the judge said. \"The juvenile system has been utterly incapable of doing anything with Mr. Sullivan.\" Sullivan, who had a lengthy juvenile record, continues to deny that he committed the attack. At the time, state prosecutor Larry Kaden -- who retired this year -- said, \"It was a brutal crime, and he had an extensive record. This was a bad, bad crime.\" The Florida attorney general's office told the high court that prosecutors should have the discretion they have long been given to decide how harshly young criminals should be prosecuted. Sexual battery remains a crime punishable by life imprisonment in Florida. A study by the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative found eight prisoners serving life terms for crimes committed at age 13, all in the United States. Among them is another Florida inmate, Ian Manuel, who was 13 when convicted of attempted murder and robbery in 1990. The Justice Department reports that no 13-year-old has been given life without parole for a non-homicide in a decade. And although about a thousand people under 15 are arrested for rape every year, none has been given life without parole since Sullivan. Only a handful of states -- including Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oregon -- prohibit sentencing minors to life without a chance for parole, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Equal Justice Initiative says 19 states have laws allowing the possibility of life without parole for those younger than 14. In 2005, the Supreme Court banned the death penalty for underage killers. The justices cited evolving \"national standards\" as a reason to ban such executions. Sullivan is in deteriorating health from multiple sclerosis and is confined to \"close management\" for dangerous or trouble-prone inmates, state corrections officials say. His lawyers admit that he has had more than a 100 incidents of fighting and threatening inmates and guards, plus having contraband and weapons, but they say Sullivan is the victim of bullying by other prisoners and is mentally disabled. \"It's important for the criminal justice system to recognize that inmates like Joe [Sullivan] are going to change biologically, psychologically and emotionally as they grow up in prison,\" Stevenson said. \"We should not assume it is a change for the worse.\" The thrust of their argument before the high court is not that Sullivan is innocent or that he seeks his freedom now but that he deserves to someday make his case before the state parole board.","highlights":"Justices will hear appeals of two Florida inmates sentenced as teens .\nJoe Sullivan committed his crime at age 13; Terrance Graham was 17 .\nAttorneys say life without parole is too harsh a punishment for young offenders .","id":"ab64cdf9c1048abb6317f0b4fbc7c89732ad005f"} -{"article":"The company that owns a cash depot targeted in a daring helicopter raid this week said Friday it is offering a reward of more than $1 million for information about the heist. A police Swat team enter a G4S cash depot in Vastberga, Stockholm. G4S said it is offering up to 7 million Swedish kronor ($1.01 million) for information leading directly to the arrest and conviction of the offenders or the recovery of the stolen money. G4S also said the circulation of cash in Stockholm would not be adversely affected by the heist, which occurred just days before Sweden's monthly payday, when the depot would have been rife with cash. The company did not disclose how much money had been lost, but the thieves could have gotten as much as the equivalent of several millions of U.S. dollars, according to CNN affiliate TV4. A group of heavily-armed thieves used a helicopter early Wednesday to land on the roof of the cash depot in Vastbarga, Stockholm, which serves automatic teller machines all across the capital, TV4 reported. They used explosives to get into the building, witness Bjorn Lockstrom told TV4, and later hoisted bags of money to the waiting chopper. TV4 later reported that the blueprints of the building were public documents which anybody could request to see. G4S had never asked for the blueprints to be classified. The helicopter had been stolen earlier during the night, police said. The thieves had also placed a bag marked \"bomb\" outside the police heliport, meaning Swedish police couldn't immediately pursue the thieves because they had to first deal with the bag. TV4 later reported that the bag never contained a bomb. The thieves had also blocked the roads around the cash depot with metal spikes, TV4 reported. No one was hurt during the heist, police said, even though several employees had been in the building when the robbers entered. Stockholm police said the heist had been elaborate. \"The robbery was very well planned. They brought a lot of firepower with them, among other things automatic weapons,\" Anders Bjargard from the Stockholm police, told TV4. Two people have been questioned in relation to the heist, but no one has been arrested. Police are still hopeful they will find the perpetrators. \"We have a lot of traces after the perpetrators, both where the robbery took place and where we found the helicopter,\" Bjargard said. The investigation is the biggest operation the Swedish police have mounted since the murder of Sweden's then-Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003. \"It's an enormous piece of puzzle, and we don't want to miss anything,\" Anders Buren, head of police operations, told TV4. Since the heist, Swedish police have been criticized for storing their helicopters at an unguarded heliport in the Stockholm archipelago, which enabled the thieves easily to put the police helicopter out of commission. Swedish media also criticized police for not shooting at the thieves as they escaped in their helicopter. But Bengt Svensson, the head of Swedish police, defended the police officers' actions. \"Just because we now have criminals who act like they do in the movies doesn't mean that we can do it as well,\" Svensson told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.","highlights":"Owners of Swedish cash depot offer \u00a31M reward for information on heist .\nThieves believed to have stolen the equivalent of several million dollars .\nArmed thieves used a stolen helicopter during the raid .","id":"ec7fcc0baa223aa5d743c6713d7074a016b74ba4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While a government-run public health care option irks conservatives, and even some fiscally minded Democrats, the idea of health care cooperatives has emerged as an option in the reform debate. Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, of North Dakota, says a public option plan might not make it through Congress. Small health care cooperatives have worked in a couple of markets. But whether the idea can be applied on a national scale is debatable. Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is pushing the co-op idea as an alternative to a government-sponsored insurance program that would compete with private insurers. He doesn't think a government option will pass in the Senate. Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Tuesday that his model could attract 12 million members and \"be the third-largest insurer in the country and be a very effective competitor [with private insurance companies].\" \"If you believe competition helps drive down costs, then they would certainly contribute to holding down costs,\" Conrad said. But Tim Jost, a professor at Washington and Lee University, said that Conrad is not offering concrete statistics on how the plan will help reform health care. \"I have not seen anything, other than Sen. Conrad's statements to the press, explaining how this is going to work,\" he said. \"He put out a couple of one-pagers early on, but he is talking about this actuarial data. Let's make it public, let's find out who the actuaries are.\" Co-ops are nonprofit organizations that aim to provide better coverage at a lower cost for their members. They put profits back into the system, so any money that is earned is used on patients and other costs. In addition, patients elect a governing board. Cooperatives are already established in cities such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Seattle, Washington. In order for a co-op to have reduced costs, analysts say, it needs to have tens of thousands of members. That could be a hard slog for the nonprofits because start-up costs would probably be in the millions. That may be where the federal government steps in -- by adding seed money for the program. That government infusion of money probably would put Democrats at odds with Republicans, who are worried about the rising federal deficit and an expanded role of government in health care. Watch two members of the House discuss reform \u00bb . And the costs of a cooperative might not allow enough people to sign up, meaning that some of the nearly 46 million uninsured Americans wouldn't be able to buy into the program. Other health reform alternatives, such as the public option, cost less for participants. \"Let's see how they [Conrad and others] explain that they are going to get to 10 to 12 million members. ... I can't see how that's going to happen,\" Jost said. Probably the biggest barrier, Jost said, is entering a new market and trying to establish a network. \"You have to go out there, you have to contract with hospitals, doctors, other providers of care. Well, the private insurers have their networks in place, and they often have what they call 'most favored nations' clauses, which provide that a provider cannot [offer] a lower rate than it does to the dominant insurer.\" The idea of co-ops appears to have received some support from the Obama administration. A top White House aide told Bloomberg Television's \"Conversations with Judy Woodruff\" that President Obama may accept nonprofit health insurance cooperatives in place of a new government-run plan. \"We would be interested in that\" if certain conditions are met, said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. And the idea has gotten support from a key Republican senator. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said on \"Fox News Sunday\" that co-ops are \"a step in the right direction.\" \"I don't know if it will do everything people want, but we ought to look at it. I think it's a far cry from the original proposals.\" But not everyone is so sure that co-ops will work to reduce health care costs across the board. CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who spoke with top officials at both co-ops, said this type of model would not solve the problem of uninsured Americans. \"Will co-ops solve that? No. That is according to two folks who run co-ops [one in Seattle and one in Minneapolis]. ... They said 'we are not charities. You have to spend money and pay premiums to join our co-ops. And we don't take everyone. We sometimes say no to people with pre-existing conditions,' \" she said. Co-ops also may not have the industry clout of the big insurance companies. Watch Obama discuss his plan for health care reform \u00bb . \"They [co-ops] would have some cost advantages over private plans -- they wouldn't have to make a profit -- but they are going to be running on a very small scale, at least initially, and therefore they are going to have very high administrative costs proportionate to claims,\" Jost said. \"But again, the big problem is how are they going to get providers to give them a better deal than the providers give the private insurers. They may not even be able to legally do that under their contracts with the commercial insurers,\" he added. CNN's Dana Bash, Lesa Jansen and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad favors health care cooperatives .\nCo-ops are run by nonprofits, and patients elect members to their boards .\nOne key Republican senator seems to be on board with the idea .\nSkeptics question start-up costs, whether all the uninsured would be covered .","id":"57079f078df4f971cd1053b1c71ddf9c53a9bede"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A London court cleared singer Amy Winehouse of assault Friday after a two-day trial, her spokesman told CNN. Singer Amy Winehouse was accused of hitting a woman at a charity ball last year. Winehouse was accused of assaulting a woman at a London charity ball last year. She had pleaded not guilty to the charge of common assault. \"Amy would like to thank her family, friends, and her legal team for their support during this difficult time,\" said a statement issued by her spokesman. \"She has always maintained her innocence and is very happy to move on with her life and put this episode behind her.\" The verdict will be good news for the troubled singer, who returned to Britain this month after spending six months on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Winehouse has publicly battled drug addiction, and this month a judge granted Winehouse and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, a divorce. It is scheduled to be made final next month. The Grammy-winning artist arrived at court Friday wearing a white shirt, gray blazer, black skirt and pink ballet slippers. Her hair is back to her trademark black beehive with a blond streak, in contrast to the natural curls she sported while in the Caribbean. Winehouse is famous for her retro, soulful R&B sound and has had a string of hits including \"Rehab,\" \"Back to Black,\" and \"Tears Dry on Their Own.\"","highlights":"Troubled singer found not guilty of hitting woman at charity ball in September .\nAmy Winehouse pleaded not guilty to the charge of common assault in March .\nWinehouse's divorce from Blake Fielder-Civil should be made final next month .","id":"a9081a5449974feee8edc0076fdbbf6abe03cd1a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A female marketing executive is suing the chief executive officer of a famous toy manufacturer, accusing him of sexually harassing and assaulting her. Steiff CEO Martin Frechen denies all the allegations. Both the company, known as the makers of the original Teddy bears, and another executive named in the lawsuit also deny the allegations in the lawsuit. The plaintiff, Jane Collins, now 32, joined Steiff as a temporary receptionist in 2000. She became Frechen's executive assistant in 2002, when he was named CEO of Steiff North America. Collins' lawsuit, filed Monday in New York state Supreme Court, contends that the harassment began in fall 2004, shortly before Frechen was to leave for Germany. After Collins rebuffed Frechen's advances in a hotel room and parking lot, he asked for her assistance in moving his wife's car to a storage unit, where he raped her, Collins alleges in her court filings. Collins' attorney, Chris Brennan, said his client was afraid that reporting the assault could jeopardize her job. She did not call police. \"I was a single mom at the time, and I simply couldn't afford to lose this job,\" Collins said in a statement issued by her attorney. The suit alleges that Frechen's unwanted advances continued after the assault, until as recently as February 2009. \"I had put it out of my mind, because I thought there was nothing I could do,\" she said. Brennan said, \"The company had in place no policies and procedures to inform her otherwise. \"This is a company that makes millions a dollars a year here in North America, and they didn't invest a dollar in training or educating their employees on sexual harassment policy.\" Collins is seeking $80 million in damages. In addition to the allegations against Frechen, the suit alleges that the company, Margarete Steiff GmbH, Steiff North America Inc. and the company's head of U.S. operations, James Pitocco, are culpable for failing to take appropriate measures to stop Frechen's harassment after Collins reported his behavior. \"Steiff North America is committed to providing a safe and comfortable working environment for all of its employees. It does not comment on pending litigation. However, Steiff North America, Margarete Steiff and James Pitocco resolutely deny the allegations in Ms. Collins' complaint and will vigorously defend the claims made by her in court,\" David Rosenthal, an attorney for the company, said in a statement. \"They are confident that when all of the facts and circumstances relevant to this case are revealed during this litigation, Ms. Collins' claims will fail.\" Michael Rosen, attorney for Frechen, issued a similar statement on behalf of his client. \"Mr. Frechen believes the plaintiff's claims are entirely without merit,\" he said. \"He intends to vigorously defend himself against these claims and believes he ultimately will prevail.\" Founded by German seamstress Margarete Steiff, the Steiff toy company produced its first plush animal, a felt elephant pincushion, in 1880. In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt was president when Steiff launched the plush bear that would become the company's signature. Quickly dubbed \"Teddy's bear,\" 3,000 Steiff bears -- now collectors items -- were sold worldwide that year. Collins, a mother of two, continues to work for Steiff as an assistant marketing manager.","highlights":"Female manager sues Steiff CEO, alleging sexual harassment and assault .\nLawsuit also claims company did not stop the harassment after she complained .\nSteiff and CEO Martin Frechen deny all allegations .","id":"7a83abc3ad5d84106df64e4d45a0b96a6e5f89ae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Melissa Huckaby, the former Sunday school teacher accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, will face additional charges that she tried to poison two people, including another 7-year-old girl. Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing Sandra Cantu and attempted poisoning of second child. A revised complaint against Huckaby, 28, of Tracy, California, was made public just hours before she was due back in court on Friday. The new charges caused another delay in the murder case, CNN afiliate KRON reported. The complaint charged that Huckaby \"did willfully and unlawfully mingle a harmful substance with food or drink\" with the intent to harm the child, identified only as \"Jane M. Doe.\" Another alleged poisoning victim was identified as Daniel Plowman, but no age or other information was immediately provided. The latest charges also include one count of child abuse endangerment relating to the unidentified child, who was allegedly in Huckaby's \"care and custody.\" Read the complaint (PDF) Huckaby did not enter a plea in the Cantu slaying in her first two court appearances last month. At an earlier hearing, Judge Linda L. Loftis agreed to keep the autopsy and toxicology reports under seal, citing a \"great danger of public outrage.\" If convicted on the murder, rape and kidnapping charges, Huckaby, could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, authorities said. CNN's Alan Duke and Jim Roope contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Melissa Huckaby charged with attempting to poison \"Jane Doe,\" 7 .\nHuckaby due in court to face charges in slaying of another 8-year-old .\nShe faces special circumstances including kidnap, rape by instrument .\nDecision on whether to seek the death penalty will come later .","id":"079e81fb34f2c8050e787e04a167906f686a1c1f"} -{"article":"DAVIS, California (CNN) -- If every scientist hopes to make at least one important discovery in her career, then University of California-Davis professor Pamela Ronald and her colleagues may have hit the jackpot. Scientists have bred a new strain of flood-tolerant rice that could help feed millions. Ronald's team works with rice, a grain most Americans take for granted, but which is a matter of life and death to much of the world. Thanks to their efforts to breed a new, hardier variety of rice, millions of people may not go hungry. About half the world's population eats rice as a staple. Two-thirds of the diet of subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh is made up entirely of rice. If rice crops suffer, it can mean starvation for millions. \"People [in the United States] think, well, if I don't have enough rice, I'll go to the store,\" said Ronald, a professor of plant pathology at UC-Davis. \"That's not the situation in these villages. They're mostly subsistence farmers. They don't have cars.\" As sea levels rise and world weather patterns worsen, flooding has become a major cause of rice crop loss. Scientists estimate 4 million tons of rice are lost every year because of flooding. That's enough rice to feed 30 million people. Rice is grown in flooded fields, usually to kill weeds. But rice plants do not like it when they are submerged in water for long periods, Ronald said. \"They don't get enough carbon dioxide, they don't get enough light and their entire metabolic processes are thrown off. The rice plant tries to grow out of the flood, but when it does, it depletes its sugar reserves. It starts to break down its chlorophyll, important for photosynthesis. It grows really quickly, and then when the flood recedes, it just dies. It's out of gas.\" Normal rice dies after three days of complete flooding. Researchers know of at least one rice variety that can tolerate flooding for longer periods, but conventional breeding failed to create a strain that was acceptable to farmers. So Ronald and her colleagues -- David Mackill, senior scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and Julia Bailey-Serres, professor of genetics at the University of California-Riverside -- spent the last decade working to find a rice strain that could survive flooding for longer periods. Mackill identified a flood-resistant gene 13 years ago in a low-yielding traditional Indian rice variety. He passed along the information to Ronald, who isolated the gene, called Sub1, and introduced it into normal rice varieties, generating rice that could withstand being submerged in water for 17 days. The team relied on something called precision breeding, the ability to introduce very specific genes into plants without the associated baggage of other genes that might tag along in conventional breeding. \"This can be a problem for farmers,\" Ronald said. \"The varieties that were developed from conventional breeding were rejected by farmers because they didn't yield well or taste good.\" Using precision breeding, scientists introduced the Sub1 gene three years ago into test fields in Bangladesh and India. The subsequent rice harvests were a resounding success. \"The results were really terrific,\" said Ronald. \"The farmers found three- to five-fold increases in yield due to flood tolerance. They can plant the normal way. They can harvest the normal way and it tastes the same. Farmers had more food for their families and they also had additional rice they could sell to bring a little bit of money into the household.\" \"The potential for impact is huge,\" agreed Mackill in a statement on the IRRI Web site. \"In Bangladesh, for example, 20 percent of the rice land is flood prone and the country typically suffers several major floods each year. Submergence-tolerant varieties could make major inroads into Bangladesh's annual rice shortfall.\" The researchers anticipate that the flood-tolerant rice plants will be available to farmers in Bangladesh and India within two years. Because the plants are the product of precision breeding, rather than genetic modification, they are not subject to the same regulatory testing that can delay release of genetically modified crops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture conferred one of its highest research awards last December on Ronald, Mackill and Bailey-Serres for their work on submergence-tolerant rice. But Ronald has no plans to rest on her laurels. \"I feel a great sense of gratitude that I was able to contribute in this way,\" she said. \"But the farmers have asked us, 'Can you develop varieties that are drought tolerant, salt tolerant? Can you develop varieties that are insect resistant?' There are always more things to work on.\" CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.","highlights":"Scientists breed a new strain of flood-tolerant rice .\nNormal rice dies after three days of complete flooding; this rice can survive 17 days .\nNew rice was successfully field-tested by farmers in India and Bangladesh .\nAbout half of the world's population eats rice as a staple of its diet .","id":"aa3d2028f5f2bf4c8cce9c86aa6c418c37816c6e"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- While many now recognize the scientific explanation for a solar eclipse, the phenomenon is still marked with tradition and sometimes suspicion in Hindu-majority India. People test the \"sky watching telescope\" at the Gujarat Council of Science City in India. The \"exceptionally long\" eclipse that will cross half the planet Wednesday will be able to be seen by virtually all of the population of China and India. For beggars in India, the occasion means an extra day of receiving alms and food. The panhandler in Sandeep Jaggi's neighborhood normally visits the block every week on Tuesdays and Saturdays, as well as the days of a new and full moon. And because his patrons mark an eclipse with alms-giving, prayers and bathing, he rarely misses the chance to meet them on this day as well. \"It's a family tradition and I follow it,\" says 34-year-old Jaggi. He will fill the beggar's small steel pail with mustard oil and coins and his disheveled sash with lentils. For others in the country, the eclipse is not a reason to celebrate, but a more ominous phenomenon. Send us your photos of the eclipse . Most pregnant women hope to avoid giving birth during an eclipse. \"None of the expectant mothers under my treatment are willing to have deliveries on Wednesday,\" Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynecologist at New Delhi's Fortis La Femme hospital, told CNN. In fact, there are critically ill patients who do not want to be in the hospital on the day of the eclipse, she said. Indian astrologers even advise expectant mothers to stay indoors when this celestial event occurs. \"It may not cause any physical harm to the baby, but it may affect the child's overall personality,\" said R.K. Sharma, who describes himself as a \"remedial astrologer.\" A solar eclipse, he says, weakens the sun god temporarily because of an encounter with dragon Rahu and leaves some cascading results everywhere. \"Bathing in holy rivers and ponds during this time thus helps protect health and develop positivism and greater will power,\" he explained. About 1.5 million people are expected at one such pond -- the Brahmsarovar, or the pool of Hindu god Brahma -- in northern India on Wednesday. \"They offer prayers to the sun god and take holy dips during an eclipse,\" said Ashok Kumar Bansal, the sub-divisional magistrate of Kurukshetra, an ancient Hindu city. But the century's longest total solar eclipse is not just about the dragon-sun combat, it also means business for some. Travel firms in India have plans in place to cash in on the phenomenon. Cox and Kings India has a planeload of eclipse watchers heading for the eastern state of Bihar, one of the most preferred locations for sighting the event. The plane will hover over Gaya in Bihar and return to New Delhi the same day, company spokesman Thomas C. Thottathil told CNN. Passengers were given two options: to book a \"sunside\" seat facing the eclipse for about $1,640, or reserve an \"earthside\" seat for about $610, Thottathil added. \"And it's a sold out flight now!\" he said.","highlights":"Solar eclipse marked with tradition and often suspicion in Hindu-majority India .\nMost pregnant women in India hope to avoid giving birth during eclipse .\nSome critically ill patients do not want to be in hospital on day of eclipse .\nAstrologer: Eclipse weakens sun god because of encounter with dragon Rahu .","id":"0788adeacefdfa67d56d6906276b3342a9ea8b23"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has pretty much got this acting thing down. After all, he started acting at the age of 15 and, well, he's got that Oscar. Nicolas Cage says that Academy Awards are \"not as important as children and making them happy.\" So he doesn't really need to deliver another gut-wrenching performance to demonstrate his chops. In fact, he can deviate from a traditional film and venture into animated territory. He's voiced animated characters in the past, but in Disney's new 3-D tale \"G-Force,\" Cage lends his voice to a mole. Speckles the star-nosed mole comes to life thanks to the film's impressive digital animation and Cage's voice. At first it's unclear that Cage is the voice behind Speckles, because he changes his sound for the critter, er, character. CNN talked to Cage about playing a mole, animated films and his taking walks in the forest. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: What do you play in this film? Nicolas Cage: I'm playing Speckles, the mole, and he's an outsider. He's an iconoclast -- he doesn't fit in. He doesn't get into the fray with the \"G-Force,\" the other guinea pigs. But his IQ is off the charts, and he's a technological wizard. CNN: So, you're an Academy Award-winning actor, and you decided to play (this role). How did this come about? Cage: To me, nothing's more sacred than the magical world of children, and with everything that's going on in the world, it gets increasingly more challenging to keep our kids smiling -- people are losing their jobs, families are tense. So anything I can do to give families something to look forward to and to put a smile back on children's faces -- I'm gonna do. Disney has a great tradition of enchanting children and giving them something to behold. I mean, you mention Academy Awards -- I mean, that's not as important as children and making them happy. CNN: Tell me about your voice: Why did you decide to really change it when you read the script? Cage: Mel Blanc is a hero because of what he could do with his voice for all the Looney Tunes, the Warner Brothers cartoons, to be the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To me, he's a great actor. I mean, one of the great character actors, and I knew that if I was gonna be in this movie, I'd want to do something like that and transform my voice. CNN: So you're clearly comfortable playing a mole? Cage: I'm comfortable with the mole, yeah. I mean, yeah, he's different, he's got issues, you know? I don't want a perfect character, I want a character who has, as strange as it sounds, some humanity, some flaws, some needs. But to be fair, I'm not in a lot of this movie. This is Darwin's movie, um Sam Rockwell and Penelope Cruz's movie -- they're the stars. I'm only in it at the beginning and the end. CNN : You seem to be a big fan of animated films. Cage: I do enjoy animated movies. I really love anime and movies like \"Spirited Away\" and \"Howl's Moving Castle.\" I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world, and no matter how many times you watch it, you're gonna see something new in that world. That level of detail really inspires me. CNN: Is there less pressure doing an animated film and lending your voice to a character as opposed to a traditional film? Cage: Well, you don't have the pressure of the camera. And that's -- that's very liberating. And you don't have the pressure of other actors trying to remember their dialogue or not being in rhythm with you. The challenge though is, these movies take years to make, and I may not be in the same state of mind I was in a year ago or two years ago, and then they tend to pull you out of wherever you are and put you back in a box, and then try to get the voice out of you again, so that's the rub. CNN: Have you gotten pretty good at honing your skills when it comes to choosing roles, or is it always a risk? Cage: I mean it is always a gamble. You never know what's gonna happen with a movie. But I think it's more of a matter of, am I doing something that I believe in on any level? Like, am I going to entertain children, or am I going to make a movie that I can stand by because it means well on some level? That's becoming more and more a part of the criteria. CNN: How do you think you've changed as an actor throughout your career? Cage: I think I've become more relaxed. I don't feel the need to jump up and down and make a big noise to get people to pay attention to me. I don't need to um, you know, do punk rock gestures or eat a cockroach or do something weird to say I exist. I feel like I'm hearing a different kind of sound now. It's a much more subtle sound, but it's still a truthful sound, that I can express myself in, in roles that are much more relaxed and seasoned as opposed to boisterous and rock and roll. CNN: What's inspiring to you, in every day. Cage: Well, I find children inspiring. The way they look at the world. The magical world they live in, to me, is inspiring. I like -- I mean, I'm afraid I'm gonna answer your questions and sound like a complete nature addict here, but uh, I like nature, I enjoy going for walks, I like the ocean, I like the forest. CNN: Is that what you do when you're not working, that's important to you in your life? Cage: Yes. Yes, I like to go for walks in the forest.","highlights":"Nicolas Cage voices character of Speckles the mole in \"G-Force\"\nDisney's \"G-Force\" opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, July 24 .\n\"I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world,\" Cage says .","id":"824089a3166a141dd7d96a03582700a7eb0e3dab"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Sure, you know these five creatures as stinging, biting merchants of death. But isn't it time we put aside our differences and embraced the positive? A creepy crawler from this guy's family could save your brain from cancer some day. 1. Poison dart frogs: The heart-healthy choice . It could kill you: You know an animal is bad news when its sweat was once considered a state-of-the-art military technology. Meet the poison dart frog, which secretes a highly dangerous neurotoxin, called batrachotoxin, through its pores. In fact, various Latin American tribes used to collect the stuff (carefully) to poison the tips of their arrows for hunting and warfare. Interestingly, however, the frogs don't produce their own toxin. They get it from eating insects that most likely pick up the poison from the plants they consume. The same frogs, if raised in a laboratory rather than the rain forest, aren't poisonous at all. But it just might cure you: Before batrachotoxin stops your heart, it speeds it up. Consequently, medical experts believe it might be possible to tweak elements of the frog's toxin to bring patients out of cardiac arrest and potentially save lives. And because it also deadens nerve endings, batrachotoxin has potential as an ingredient in anesthetics. Watch how gator blood may be become super drug \u00bb . Studies into other uses of the toxin are still in the early stages, but the frog's medical benefits bolster the argument for preserving the rainforest. Most scientists believe we've only just begun to grasp the pharmaceutical possibilities of some of the world's rarest and deadliest creatures. 2. Scorpions: Leading the battle against brain cancer . It could kill you: For the most part, scorpions use their toxins to capture prey, ward off competitors during mating season, and defend themselves against larger predators. Unfortunately, humans count as larger predators. A sting by some species can leave you with any number of potentially deadly conditions, including heart and lung failure. But it just might cure you: Medical researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered a new use for scorpion venom -- cancer medication. Each year, some 9,000 Americans are diagnosed with malignant glioma, a form of brain cancer that kills about half its victims within a year of diagnosis. Glioma cells work a lot like cockroach muscle cells. And while that fact is pretty disgusting, it also got UAB researchers thinking about the giant Israeli scorpion, whose venom is harmless to humans but deadly to its cockroach prey. Doctors found that when they injected a drug derived from the venom of giant Israeli scorpions into cancer-infected human brains, the poison destroyed the glioma cells and left surrounding, healthy cells alone. The treatment is still in the early stages of development, but researchers remain optimistic. 3. Cone shell snails: Little creatures tackling big pain . It could kill you: Thanks to their unique colors and intricate patterns, cone shells look like they'd make great beach souvenirs. But watch your fingers; they're actually home to one of the world's deadliest creatures. Cone shell snails come equipped with an extendable \"arm\" -- complete with a sharp, venomous tooth -- that they use to immobilize and kill prey. And while the venom certainly helps the slow-moving hunters from going hungry, it can also paralyze, or even kill, victims. The good news: Death by cone shell is completely painless. But it just might cure you: Cone shell venom, called conotoxin, has incredible potential as a painkiller, with one added bonus: Unlike many current anesthetics, conotoxin isn't addictive. In 2005, Ireland-based Elan Pharmaceuticals became the first company to market a drug made from the venom. Called Prialt, the drug is pumped into the fluid around a patient's spine to relieve chronic pain and is believed to be up to 1,000 times more powerful than morphine. Meanwhile, at the University of Melbourne, a research team headed by Professor Bruce Livett is currently developing another conotoxin-based painkiller called ACV1, which was first tested on humans in the summer of 2005. Unlike Prialt, however, ACV1 doesn't affect a patient's blood pressure and can be injected under the skin, making it a lot less intimidating. Plus, ACV1 is believed to be as much as 10,000 times stronger than morphine. 4. Vipers: Lowering your blood pressure since 1981 . It could kill you: Most vipers are scary enough as is, but jararaca vipers are venomous to boot. But what's truly fascinating is the unique way their venom works. Unlike a traditional toxin, viper venom functions by preventing the blood from clotting, meaning the snakes actually kill their victims by causing them to bleed to death. But it just might cure you: Lucky for us, slow-clotting blood isn't always a bad thing. Researchers have found that small doses of viper venom can prevent arteries from hardening, thus stopping the kinds of blood clots that commonly occur in cardiac patients. In fact, jararaca viper venom (or at least a synthesized version of it) is a key ingredient in most of today's ACE inhibitors. Introduced in 1981, ACE inhibitors work by slowing down the body's angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE). When left untreated, the enzyme can produce a peptide that causes muscle constriction around blood vessels. That kind of constriction can set off a chain reaction whereby a person's blood vessels narrow and his or her blood pressure shoots through the roof, leading to greater risk of heart attack and other ailments. Because the ACE inhibitors can stop this domino effect, they're frequently used to treat millions of men and women with high blood pressure. 5. Gila monsters: Attacking type 2 diabetes . It could kill you: One of only two species of venomous lizards, the Gila monster is native to southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Unlike other deadly critters, Gila monsters don't inject venom directly into their victims. Instead, poison oozes from the lizard's teeth into the open wounds of its prey, usually while the Gila monster is chewing. Because of this, human fatalities from Gila monster bites are rare, but a bite can cause intense pain, nausea, swelling, fatigue, dizziness, and chills -- none of which is particularly fun. But it just might cure you: In addition to causing all those nasty side effects, Gila monster venom stimulates insulin production and slows down glucose production, which is great news for diabetics. Byetta, a drug manufactured by Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Company to treat Type 2 diabetes, uses a manufactured form of Gila monster venom as its main ingredient. Approved by the FDA in April of 2005, Byetta is injected before meals to help their bodies produce the right amount of insulin at the right time -- the best part being that it doesn't cause the mood swings often associated with traditional insulin regimens. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Scientists hope deadly creatures can save humans .\nGila monster venom stimulates insulin production in humans .\nSnake venom lead to treatment for millions with high blood pressure .\nScorpions may help patients survive brain cancer .","id":"3614eda3b32535d46ec9e027c023ac106280d5b5"} -{"article":"VANCOUVER, British Columbia (CNN) -- When Canadian cocaine smuggler Charles Lai was being sentenced in a Seattle federal courtroom last month, the judge sending him to prison for 13 years offered a small item of good news. A suspected gang member in Vancouver is taken out of a bar in handcuffs. At least behind bars, Judge James Robart said, drug smuggler Lai would not become another fatality in Vancouver's gang wars. Authorities in Vancouver, just 30 miles from the border, are struggling to deal with the boom in the drug trade between the United States and Canada, along with the violence that has come with it. Cocaine from Mexico -- and many of the guns that fuel the violence -- come north via the United States. Canadian smugglers then bring south high-quality marijuana known as \"BC Bud\" and synthetic drugs like methamphetamine. A recent U.N. drug report named Canada as the \"primary\" supplier of Ecstasy to the United States. The gang killings are blamed in part over who will control which areas of this estimated $6 billion-a-year narcotics trade. Beyond the string of slayings and shootings that have taken place over the last two years are the new modes in which the violence is carried out. \"It's the type of murders, the more brazen public shootings, the shootings in front of the grocery store with automatic weapons,\" said superintendent Pat Fogarty of the Royal Mounted Police, who oversees a special multi-jurisdictional unit that is taking on the gangs and larger criminal organizations behind them. \"It's common now for gangsters to carry body armor and wear it, to have bulletproof cars,\" Fogarty said. \"What that does is when one gang is shooting up another gang, their .40-calibers aren't able to pierce the body armor of the vehicle or the body armor of the vests. So what we've seen is an elevation in firepower, which is a scary process.\" Watch how authorities are fighting the gangs \u00bb . Some of the incidents have already become legend: the car radio repairman killed while fixing a gangster's stereo, thugs shooting up the parking garage of a mall with machine guns, the postal worker refusing to deliver mail to a street where a family with well-known gang ties live. The gangs -- police estimate there at least 120 different groups operating in Vancouver and the surrounding area -- have names like the UN, the Red Scorpions, the Big Circle Boys and the Independent Soldiers. They are mostly homegrown operations or recruits from immigrant communities. Some gang members come from middle-class families and join up expecting the Hollywood version of criminal life. \"These guys act like rock stars,\" said Sgt. Kieron McConnell of the British Columbia Integrated Gang Task Force. It's McConnell's job to remove what he calls \"the mystique of being a gangster.\" A 20-year police veteran with a looming frame and completely bald head, McConnell and the officers who patrol with him act as a buzzkill to many gang members' night on the town. The Gang Task Force slowly winds through bars and clubs known for their gangster clientele. Until closing time, the police check for identification and run names. Through an agreement with most of the bars in the city, when police find anyone with a history of violence or drug peddling, they can bounce them from the establishment -- no questions asked. The police's goal is not to harass the gang members, they say, but to remove a potential target from an area full of bystanders. \"We are encouraging them not to bring violence with them to where they socialize,\" McConnell said. Chris Mohan's son did not need to go far, however, to become an innocent victim of the gangs. The violence literally came to his doorstep. In October 2007, Mohan, 22 years old, was walking out of the apartment where he lived with his parents when gang hit men came to murder a neighbor police believe was involved in the drug trade. Mohan was one of six people killed in the shooting. \"They killed Chris, but I got a life sentence,\" Mohan's mother, Eileen Mohan, said of having to live without her son. Despite what they took from her, Eileen Mohan does not show any fear of the gangs. She has become an advocate for tougher sentencing of violent criminals, attends the hearings for the men accused of her son's killing and still lives in the apartment where he died. Her mission now is to hurt gangsters. \"They touched my life illegally, I want to touch theirs legally,\" she said. Even though police say they are taking the fight to the gangs like never before, it remains to be seen if authorities can totally dismantle Vancouver's gangs and the larger criminal organization behind them. Watch how border agents look for smuggled drugs \u00bb . Police say they need legislation passed that would enable them to monitor encrypted cell phone conversations and for the legal system to pass down stiffer sentences on gangsters. Tougher sentences may explain why more Canadian drug traffickers like Charles Lai face a courtroom in America, not Canada. Even though Canadian authorities say they are capable of trying their own criminals, crime experts say police are sometimes all too happy if smugglers are captured in the United States, where they face a less bureaucratic justice system and longer stretches in jail. \"In these regional operations, the tendency has been for the offenders to be arrested, charged and processed in the United States, not Canada,\" said Robert Gordon, director of the School of Criminology at the Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. \"That's an indictment of how we are handling this.\"","highlights":"Thirty miles from U.S. border, authorities in Vancouver confronting gang warfare .\nViolence the result of turf wars over increased narcotics trade .\nInnocent bystanders have fallen victim to gangsters' heavy firepower .\nDrug dealers sometimes tried in the U.S., where sentencing is stiffer .","id":"75f73c6de7eb19369c405afcc13c3a5369e20c9d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Arizona man caught leaving water bottles in the desert for illegal immigrants has been sentenced to 300 hours of community service and a year of probation, an aid group said. Walt Staton was convicted in June of littering by leaving jugs of water in a wildlife refuge. Walt Staton, a member of the group No More Deaths, left full water bottles in December in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge for the illegal immigrants who routinely pass through the 18,000-acre refuge, according to court documents. A judge sentenced him Tuesday to 300 hours of picking up trash on public property and a year of probation, No More Deaths said in a written statement. He is also banned from the refuge during that time, the group said. Although the case involved only a misdemeanor charge, both sides used the divisive issue of illegal immigration in their arguments; Staton's lawyer argued that Staton's actions were humanitarian, but the government said otherwise. In a sentencing memo, the federal prosecutors wrote that Staton's \"actions are not about humanitarian efforts, but about protesting the immigration policies of the United States, and aiding those that enter illegally into the United States.\" Noting the phrase scrawled on many of the plastic water jugs -- \"buena suerte,\" or \"good luck\" in Spanish -- the prosecutors said, \"The obvious conclusion is that the defendant and No More Deaths wish to aid illegal aliens in their entry attempt.\" They also said, as did the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, that leaving the full plastic jugs on the refuge is detrimental to the health of the animals that live there. Citing a biologist, the prosecutors said that animals could eat the plastic and that others could get feet or antlers caught on the bottles. Prosecutors had requested a $5,000 fine, along with five years of probation, according to court documents. Staton, who No More Deaths says is to begin seminary school at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, had initially refused to pay a $175 fine for littering, said Staton's lawyer, Bill Walker. After his refusal, the government enhanced the charges against him, arguing that he \"knowingly littered,\" said Walker, who is also a member of No More Deaths. The charge can carry a $100,000 fine and a year in jail, Walker said. Charges against three other people who were cited with Staton in December were dropped, he said. A jury convicted Staton in June of littering. Walker said he is appealing. \"We think that Walt did nothing wrong,\" he said. \"We do not think that this conviction will be upheld on appeal.\" He described Staton as \"the kind of guy you'd want to have as your next door neighbor.\" A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona declined comment. Mike Hawkes of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge said Thursday that although he had no issue with groups leaving water out for illegal immigrants, \"there's ways to do it without leaving plastic jugs out there.\" He said the plastic jugs were strewn throughout the refuge, which is home to hundreds of bird, reptile and mammal species, according to its Web site. \"We have sympathy for what they have to do,\" he said. But \"they have do to do it without putting plastic bottles out there. ... You can't go anywhere in the refuge without seeing plastic bottles through the countryside.\" Hawkes said refuge officials and members of No More Deaths had met and were trying to come up with methods that don't involve plastic bottles. Staton is the second member of No More Deaths to be convicted of littering, according to court documents; however, the other received a suspended sentence. Walker said that after Staton's conviction, 13 No More Deaths members were charged with littering on the refuge. With tens of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing through the refuge -- Hawkes said last year's number was about 54,000, down from hundreds of thousands years earlier -- the last water-related death there was in June 2008, he said.","highlights":"No More Deaths member gets 300 hours of community service, year of probation .\nHe left bottles of water in Arizona wildlife refuge for people crossing border .\nProsecutors: \"Good luck\" written on bottles indicated intent to aid illegal immigration .\nFish and Wildlife Service said leaving bottles is detrimental to animals .","id":"4a8c64f5ee91fd0fdef4cf8578bf95ea64609522"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki voiced cautious optimism regarding the situation in Iraq Wednesday, noting greater stability and decreased violence as U.S. troops continue to cede control to their Iraqi counterparts. President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki talk Wednesday at the White House. \"I have no doubt that there will be some tough days ahead,\" Obama said during a joint appearance of the leaders at the White House. \"There are still those who want to foment sectarian conflict. ... But make no mistake, those efforts will fail,\" he added. The president said he is committed to moving forward with a pledge to remove all American combat brigades from Iraq by the end of August 2010, as well as all U.S. troops by the end of 2011. Al-Maliki promised the Iraqi government would step up its efforts to prevent a return of widespread sectarian violence. \"Those who thought that the Iraqi forces [would] be incapable of imposing peace and security [have been] proved to be wrong,\" he said. Watch al-Maliki speak about \"strategic friendship\" with U.S. \u00bb . In addition to meeting with Obama, al-Maliki is scheduled to sit down with Vice President Joe Biden. He will also meet with the secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury, and with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Some foreign policy experts have expressed concern that as the United States pivots from Iraq to Afghanistan, Iraq and its problems will be ignored. Responding to that criticism, one senior administration official said this week, \"Our goal is, in fact as we formalize the relationship, to concentrate on other areas,\" but he suggested that Iraq would remain a U.S. priority. Hours before the two leaders met, at least five Iranian pilgrims were killed and dozens more wounded earlier Wednesday in an attack northeast of Baghdad. The violence came a day after a spate of bombings left at least 22 Iraqis dead and about 150 wounded. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Dan Lothian contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama restates goal of removing all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011 .\nIraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki: Capable Iraqi forces have proven naysayers wrong .\nAt least five Iranian pilgrims die in attack northeast of Baghdad .","id":"12c03f0926e71ae6895dce77a0cf58086cc2d7c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a field largely still in its infancy, scientists are making headway toward using stem cells to treat heart ailments. The FDA regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials. The major focus of stem cell research in cardiology is promoting regeneration of the heart or preventing scar formation, said Jeffrey Karp, who runs a stem cell biology lab at Harvard University. One study reporting successful results in humans involves harvesting patients' own stem cells, purifying them, and injecting them directly into the heart muscle. The stem cells have a surface marker called CD34, which means they are capable of growing new blood vessels. The study, sponsored by Baxter Inc., is the largest adult stem cell study for heart disease in the U.S., said Dr. Douglas Losordo, cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, who is leading the trial. The researchers will present their one-year findings from Phase II of the trial in September, Losordo said. \"It's important to point out that this is a use of a patient's own body's repair capabilities,\" Losordo said. If everything goes well, it's conceivable this treatment could be widely available in a little over four years, he said. The target patient population, consisting of end-stage cardiac patients who have tried all other available therapies, is about 300,000 to 900,000 people, he said. So far, researchers have not found side effects from this method, Losordo said. However, because it is an invasive surgical procedure in which stem cells are delivered through a catheter, there is a risk of perforation of about 1 percent, he said. There is also a small risk of blood clotting from the drug, GCSF, which mobilizes stem cells. Injecting stem cells into the heart muscle carries the risk of arrhythmia, said Techung Lee, associate professor of biochemistry at the State University New York at Buffalo. But Losordo said this risk is theoretical in his trial, and is believed to be very low with CD34 cells in general. Lee and colleagues are working on a less-invasive technique. In a study in mice, they injected stem cells from bone marrow into skeletal muscles of limbs. They found that the stem cells produced growth factors that traveled to the heart, in addition to stimulating the muscle itself to make growth factors that also improved cardiac function. The challenge for translating this method to humans would be that, while each mouse needed only a few million stem cells, each human patient would need close to a billion stem cells for the therapy -- which would be far too expensive and logistically difficult. \"This is a problem that's been experienced by everyone in the field,\" Lee said. He estimates that his method could be available clinically in five years, after researchers find ways to reduce the required number of cells by a factor of 10 or even 100. Another therapeutic possibility is giving a patient an IV of stem cells, which would come from a stem cell bank or a company. The challenge is that the cells may not have the right homing receptors to land in the heart, Karp said. Karp's group is working on an approach to chemically modify the surface of cells to enhance their targeting to specific sites. Results from animal models have shown promising results for targeting sites of inflammation, he said. \"Essentially we know the ZIP code of vessels within a certain tissue, we can program the address on the surface of the cell,\" he said. Lee's and Karp's teams use adult mesenchymal stem cells, which may develop into connective tissue, lymphatic tissue, and blood vessels. These stem cells are largely interchangeable between patients and don't require matching, as organ transplants do. However, as more becomes known about the relatively new field of stem cell therapy, a more specific matching system may be required, said Dr. Joon Lee, cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Some stem cell therapies for the heart are being tested in human clinical trials. Osiris Therapeutics Inc. is enrolling patients in a phase II trial for Prochymal, which contains mesenchymal stem cells. The company intends to use this drug, which gets injected into the vein, to repair heart damage in patients who have just experienced their first heart attack. More than 90 percent of research on using stem cells to repair the human heart involves adult stem cells, Lee said. That means the controversy about using stem cells derived from human embryos is largely absent from this line of research. For developing treatments that involve transplanting stem cells from adults, there is no ethical concern about the use of embryos, Lee said. Embryonic stem cells are advantageous in research because they can be grown more easily than adult stem cells in a culture, and are pluripotent, meaning they can develop into any of the various cell types of the body, according to the National Institutes of Health. But it is not yet known whether tissues derived from embryonic stem cells would cause transplant rejection, whereas this does not seem to be a problem with adult stem cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials and sets the requirements for more routine use. Whether the FDA will become more or less lenient in these respects is unclear, Lee said. It's not unfathomable that within the next two to five years, some FDA-approved stem cell treatments will be available for cardiovascular disease, Lee said. Karp has a longer view -- five to 10 years before stem cell treatments become widely available for heart problems, he said. The biology of stem cell treatments for the heart is not well understood, said Dr. Ronald Crystal, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital\/Weill Cornell Medical Center. One of the challenges is that once a stem cell gets put into a person's body, no one can get it out, Crystal said. This is the opposite of other kinds of medications -- for instance, a person may get sick from taking too many aspirin, but eventually the drug leaves the system. Not so with stem cells, he said. Crystal expressed general caution about the future of stem cell research, which is still experimental, for heart patients. \"This is a good idea, but patients and families should not expect immediate results,\" he said.","highlights":"Most stem cell research targeted at the heart uses adult stem cells .\nThe FDA regulates adult stem cell techniques that are allowed to go into clinical trials .\nUnlike organ transplants, adult stem cells generally can be given to any patient .\nTherapies be available in a little over four years, although some say five to 10 .","id":"9a08a4e5069ad2b8eadb26bd349110f5feefb16d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three Disney monorail workers have been placed on paid leave just days after two monorail trains crashed at the Orlando, Florida, theme park, killing one of the train's operators, according to a Disney spokeswoman. Train operator Austin Wuennenberg, 21, was killed in Sunday's monorail crash. Walt Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said the action was \"part of an investigative process, not a disciplinary action.\" The three workers were a monorail maintenance shop member, the monorail pilot of one of the trains and a transportation manager. Disney would not name the employees. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Sunday morning accident, is expected to be at the park for several days. \"To this point in the investigation, no anomalies or malfunctions have been found with the automatic train stop system or with any mechanical components of the switch or with either trains,\" the NTSB said in a statement. The crash killed operator Austin Wuennenberg, 21. The operator of the other train was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. Additionally, six passengers on Wuennenberg's train were treated at the scene for minor injuries. Wuennenberg was piloting the \"Purple\" train. The other train, known as the \"Pink\" train, was operated by one of the employees who has since been placed on leave. The Pink train was instructed to go back through a track switch that would take it from the monorail's Epcot loop to the Magic Kingdom loop. \"For undetermined reasons that are currently under investigation, the switch had not changed position needed to allow the Pink train to be routed to the Magic Kingdom loop,\" putting the Pink and Purple trains on a collision course, the NTSB statement said. NTSB investigators believe that Wuennenberg attempted to put his train into reverse before the collision, attempting to avoid the crash. The Orange County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating Wuennenberg's death, would not comment, citing the ongoing investigation.","highlights":"Action is \"part of an investigative process,\" spokeswoman says .\nWorkers are maintenance shop member, pilot and transportation manager .\nSunday morning crash of two trains killed one driver .\nNTSB is still investigating incident .","id":"77429ae3a4e5828e5f1d0b7f1da6280db4ec7769"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Actor Jude Law is expecting his fourth child, his spokesperson said. Actor Jude Law's publicist confirmed he is expecting his fourth child. In a statement released to Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, the single actor confirmed that he will once again become a father. \"Jude Law can confirm that, following a relationship last year, he has been advised that he is to be the father of a child due in the fall of this year,\" the statement said. \"Mr. Law is no longer in a relationship with the individual concerned but he intends to be a fully supportive part of the child's life. This is an entirely private matter and no other statements will be made.\" The statement was released exclusively to Entertainment Weekly, whose site broke the story on Wednesday. Law, 36, has three children with ex-wife Sadie Frost. The handsome British actor known for appearing in movies such as \"Cold Mountain\" and \"The Talented Mr. Ripley\" and headlines a few years ago after an alleged fling with his children's caregiver and a broken engagement with actress Sienna Miller. He is scheduled to appear in \"Hamlet\" on Broadway in October and will star opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the movie \"Sherlock Holmes\" slated to open Christmas Day. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Jude Law's spokesperson says he will become a dad again in the fall .\nEntertainment Weekly broke the news the actor is expecting his fourth child .\nLaw, who is divorced, did not reveal the identity of the mother .","id":"976e5dc39fd7740224c1fc7675e2016bd0643b89"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- London police have arrested a man in connection with a brazen daylight robbery of a jewelry store last week, they announced Wednesday. Security camera footage shows images of the men wanted by police. The 50-year-old man was arrested on Monday, police revealed. Some $65 million in merchandise was stolen in the August 6 robbery. On Tuesday police released surveillance camera photos of two men sought for questioning over the heist as well as images of some of the rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches taken from Graff Jewellers on central London's New Bond Street. A total of 43 items were taken, with a value of about \u00a340 million, or about $65 million, Scotland Yard said. The heist occurred August 6, when two men walked into the jewelry store at about 4:40 p.m. and threatened employees with handguns. As the robbers were leaving the store, they brought a female worker outside with them before leaving in a blue BMW, Scotland Yard said. A shot was fired outside the store, but no one was injured. The men abandoned the BMW nearby, firing a second shot into the ground, Scotland Yard said. Police believe they switched to a silver Mercedes, then later to a black vehicle, possibly a Ford or Volkswagen. \"This was a well-planned robbery with a number of vehicles used to help the robbers escape,\" Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace said in the statement. \"These men are extremely dangerous and fired at least two shots in busy London streets as they made their getaway. Watch how robbers rip off London jewelers \u00bb . \"Someone knows who these men are,\" she said. \"They would undoubtedly have spoken about (the robbery) before or boasted about it afterwards. I would urge anyone who recognizes them, knows the whereabouts of the jewelry or has any other information to contact us.\" The images show the two men dressed in suits and ties. One man is white, about 30, police said. The second is a black man believed to be in his 30s with short hair. Both men are thought to have spoken with London accents, Scotland Yard said. The robbery is the latest in a spate of daytime thefts at jewelry stores and designer shops in London's exclusive shopping areas of Bond Street, which includes New Bond Street. Groups of men or teenagers typically stage \"smash and grab\" robberies, in which they break the windows and steal anything they can get their hands on before speeding away in waiting cars or motorbikes. A CNN camera crew filming in March on Oxford Street, near Bond Street, caught a group of thieves speeding away on motorbikes from a jewelry store they had just robbed. The thieves choose to strike during the day when a store's security system is typically disarmed, even though the store and sidewalk may be crowded with people.","highlights":"London police arrest man in connection with brazen daylight robbery of jewelry store .\n43 items were taken, with a value of about \u00a340 million, or about $65 million .\nPolice released surveillance images of two men wanted for questioning Tuesday .","id":"fcedb7b9d4d09a1dfe7a60cfd530e7a9357791b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From baby deliveries to unexpected deaths, Mike Bowes, a 911 dispatcher from Quincy, Massachusetts, has handled a wide range of emergency calls. Emergency dispatcher Mike Bowes received a call that his home was in flames Monday night. But Monday night, the 44-year-old received an unexpected call from his neighbor: His own house was on fire. The 911 call came in about 10:45 p.m. Monday, a little more than an hour before Mike Bowes' shift ended. My neighbor's house just blew up, the caller said. \"What's the address?\" Mike Bowes asked patiently, just as he did with every emergency call for the past 11 years with the Quincy Police Department. The caller frantically relayed the address, Bowes' home address for 20 years. \"It was shocking,\" Mike Bowes said. \"I thought she was kidding. It's a long shot. I mean, what's the chances it will be your house?\" Out of 90,000 people who reside in Quincy, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, Mike Bowes' was the home in flames, and he had answered the emergency call. Thoughts raced through his mind: Are my parents OK? Are the neighbors safe? What about my stuff? Following procedure, Mike Bowes transferred the call to the fire department. Soon, dozens of calls about the fire from other neighbors began to pour into the control room. Watch Mike Bowes talk about the fire \u00bb . One of the callers was his mother, Elizabeth Bowes, 68. She and her husband, Donald Bowes, 72, had escaped unharmed. About 10:45 p.m., Elizabeth Bowes was reading a novel in the kitchen when she heard the explosion and saw flames shoot through the kitchen window. She ran to wake her husband in a first-floor bedroom. There was also a landlord living in upstairs. Firefighters arrived within minutes and helped her to safety. Within five minutes of receiving the call, police escorted Mike Bowes to his home. He could see the fire light up the dark sky from afar. Anxious neighbors gathered in the park nearby. He was relieved to find his parents together on the sidewalk. \"My parents are alive; my neighbors are alive,\" he said. \"It's an inconvenience, but we'll get through it.\" In another coincidence, one of the first firefighters to arrive on scene was Mike Bowes' cousin, Tom Bowes. Tom Bowes, a firefighter for the past eight years, scrambled into the house to salvage old albums with wedding and baby photos amid the flames. But everything else -- the clothes, electronics and furniture -- were destroyed. No one was injured in the fire, and firefighters have yet to determine what caused the blaze. They say it started in the garage, about 15 feet from the home. Mike Bowes says his job prepared him to deal with the challenging circumstances. Bowes and his family are living in a hotel, and local police officers and firefighters have donated clothes and money. \"A lot of people think dispatchers are strange because I've been joking about what happened,\" he said. \"I say, 'If I'm not laughing, I'll start crying.' This is what I have to do.\"","highlights":"Massachusetts dispatcher answered neighbor's call about burning home .\nThree other people in home escaped uninjured .\nHe says his dispatch experience with crises helps him cope with losing a home .","id":"51a949d13dde24dbba2546100af13df1f1845179"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece the \"Mona Lisa\" was attacked with a mug earlier this month, but the world's most famous painting -- protected by thick glass -- emerged with its enigmatic smile undimmed. The \"Mona Lisa\" sits behind bulletproof glass in the Louvre gallery. French police say a woman \"not in her senses\" lobbed the mug at the 500-year-old painting, which hangs in the Louvre gallery in Paris. The woman, a tourist, was later transferred from police custody to a psychiatric unit, a police spokesman told CNN. The spokesman declined to be identified, and did not say where the woman was from. The \"Mona Lisa,\" considered one of the world's most valuable paintings, sits behind bulletproof glass in a special wing of the Louvre, attracting visitors in their millions. The Italian Renaissance masterpiece, which depicts a dark-haired young woman with an aloof facial expression, has been the target of attacks in the past. In 1956 the artwork was damaged when acid was thrown at it. A rock was also thrown in a separate incident in the same year. In 1911 it was stolen from the Louvre but was returned two years later. CNN's Flora Genoux in Paris, France, contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Mona Lisa,\" protected by bulletproof glass, is undamaged .\nTourist who threw mug has been sent to a psychiatric unit .\n500-year-old artwork has suffered previous attacks .","id":"c7748f346cb2aac934a6b9cbb6174b99a8e96130"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Known for building skate parks and shaping the skateboarding scene in New York, Andy Kessler, 48, died this week after an allergic reaction to an insect sting, friends and family told news media. Andy Kessler, seen in 2005, reportedly died this week after suffering an allergic reaction to an insect sting. Kessler's death is a reminder that stings can be deadly for those with an allergy to certain insects, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology said Friday. At least 40 people in the United States die each year as the result of insect stings, the academy said. As many as 5 percent of Americans are at risk for a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction from insect stings, according to the organization. In a typical week in the emergency room, doctors at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia, see about six or fewer cases of people with allergic reactions to insects, said Dr. James P. Capes, director of the emergency department. \"It's common, but not incredibly common,\" he said. Typically, when stung by an insect, a person will have no reaction or a mild local reaction, such as redness, swelling or itching at the site of the sting. However, some people experience a more widespread reaction, such as a drop in blood pressure, lightheadedness or hives all over. iReport.com: Send us your allergy stories . In the most serious cases, a person can go into anaphylaxis, a condition in which he or she may have difficulty breathing. Other symptoms include swelling of the mouth or throat, itchy skin, wheezing, cough and localized pain, said Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York. Capes advises people who experience a systemic reaction to call 911 and wait for an ambulance, because it will have medicine to treat the reaction immediately. An antihistamine such as Benadryl will be given and, in severe cases, a shot of epinephrine. Even if the reaction is not severe, Benadryl will help with normal symptoms of insect stings, Capes said. Those who have had allergic reactions to insects should always carry an antihistamine and an epinephrine auto-injector for emergencies, experts said. Insect allergies may be harder to control than some food allergies because it's not always possible to predict when bees, wasps and other stinging bugs are around, Capes said. Severe reactions don't usually happen the very first time a person gets stung, Capes said. \"The thing about allergic reactions that is interesting, or scary, is that we never know what the next allergic reaction is going to be,\" he said. For those who have a history of anaphylactic reactions to insects, vaccines are available for yellow jackets, wasps, honey bees and fire ants, Bassett said. The immunization process takes three to five years, he said. There are also blood and skin tests that people can take to determine whether they are sensitive to these insects, he said. Besides anaphylaxis, people may experience other kinds of reactions, Bassett said. If a person is stung hundreds of times at once, he or she may need emergency care, as the venom may lead to seizures, shock and even death, he said. There is also a rare reaction called serum sickness that includes joint pain and flu-like illness that may result from insect stings, and has allergy-like symptoms, Bassett said. In rare cases, even mosquito bites can lead to anaphylaxis, Bassett said. There is no treatment for mosquito allergies, but there is a diagnostic test, he said. Bassett offers the following tips to reduce the danger of insects: . \u2022 Stay away from stinging insect nests when possible. \u2022 Consider wearing closed-toed shoes in an area where there may be many stinging insects. \u2022 Remain calm and quiet around a stinging insect, and move slowly away from it. \u2022 Avoid brightly colored clothing, as well as perfumes and scented hair products and lotions. \u2022 Avoid loose-fitting clothing, which can accidentally trap the insect. \u2022 Use caution when eating outdoors, especially when sodas or other sweetened drinks are available. For more tips on managing insect allergies, visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Web site. The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology can also help you find an allergist.","highlights":"At least 40 people in the U.S. die each year as the result of insect stings .\nInsect allergies may be harder to control than food allergies .\nIf you are allergic to insects, carry antihistamine and an epinephrine auto-injector .\nIn rare cases, even mosquito bites can lead to anaphylaxis .","id":"1103fda804ec7bdd25ee40889175ad2233487878"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- \"The Time Traveler's Wife,\" adapted from the 2003 best-seller by Audrey Niffenegger, is one of those gooey romantic mind-benders, like \"Ghost\" (which I adored) or \"The Lake House\" (not so much), in which a couple must come to grips with some trippy impediment to their relationship, such as life after death or a hole in the space-time continuum. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana star as a couple trying to connect in \"The Time Traveler's Wife.\" Only instead of being milked for elaborate science-fiction thrills, the problem at hand gets treated as a weepy and grandiose inconvenience. Sort of like the metaphysical version of having a husband who takes too many business trips. Henry (Eric Bana) is deeply, and eternally, in love with Clare (Rachel McAdams), and she with him. The only problem is that he has a \"genetic anomaly\" that causes him to skip around through time without warning. All of a sudden, he will melt out of the present and pop up ... somewhere else, in the future or in the past, without a stitch of clothing on, so that he must scramble for cover and regain his bearings. Then, just as suddenly, he'll pop back into Clare's life -- sometimes when he's too young a man to have any idea who she is. (A little confused? So was I.) More jarringly, he sometimes appears when he's an adult and she's an adoring young girl standing in a pastoral meadow. That's when she falls in love with him -- which is meant to be innocent, but comes off as a bit unintentionally creepy. I mean, is the movie supposed to look like a contemporary version of \"The Lewis Carroll Story\"? To muddle matters further, Henry is seen at assorted ages, but except for the moment when he shows up at his wedding with sudden streaks of gray in his hair, Bana looks exactly the same in every scene. \"The Time Traveler's Wife\" is built as a game that the audience learns to play, and after a while, yes, we do get the hang of it. That is, we accept the film's mixture of the playful and the slightly arbitrary; we become romantic time travelers too. Although the script is by Bruce Joel Rubin, who wrote \"Ghost,\" the film's mood doesn't change very much; it's gentle, wistful, gauzy, and placid. Bana, so fantastic in \"Munich,\" has always had to work overtime to prove that an actor who looks like the Aussie gym-rat version of Rodin's \"The Thinker\" can play a gentle, unassuming regular guy. But he does nicely here. He and McAdams are sweet together, with matching dimples and starry eyes, and we grow eager to see them remain in the same place. In the end, that's all there is to the movie, really. It's a time-travel fantasy in search of a cozy love seat. EW Grade: B-minus . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Chemistry between Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams saves \"Time Traveler's Wife\"\nMovie about man who can travel through time, hurting chances for romance .\nA lot is silly, just waiting for the couple to get together at the right time .","id":"b4b68e14fd2535ca6db890c6b5a628e6b20335cb"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- A clerk's quick flip of a switch foiled a robbery Friday at an Office Depot store in downtown Chicago. Police said a man wearing a light blue button-down shirt and dark slacks entered the store carrying a gun concealed in a folded newspaper. He approached one of the store's cash registers and demanded the contents of the safe, police said. The clerk refused but immediately turned on the public address system so that other customers could hear what was going on. Hearing his threat broadcast throughout the store, the man fled. He ended up robbing a nearby Fannie May candy store at gunpoint, police said, and fled that store in a white taxi. Authorities said the robber, a man between ages 30 and 40, was still at large. No injuries were reported in either robbery.","highlights":"Store clerk switches on PA system after being threatened by man with gun .\nArmed robber flees after hearing his threat broadcast to customers in the store .\nRobber struck at nearby Fannie May candy store, holding store up at gunpoint .\nAuthorities say the robber, a man between ages 30 and 40, is still at large .","id":"e26d9215e36caeee46bb871e6c47b01aae78e2a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With his push for health care reform on the line, the president delivered a message of urgency to the public: . President Bill Clinton, pictured in 1994, greets members of a crowd following a speech on his health care reform plan. \"Don't let the fearmongers, don't let the dividers, don't let the people who disseminate false information frighten the United States Congress into walking away from the opportunity of a lifetime. Tell the members of Congress you will support them. This is not partisan politics,\" the president said. The date was August 1, 1994, and the voice behind the 11th-hour battle cry was then-President Clinton. Within weeks, that battle cry was reduced to a whimper of defeat as Congress tabled plans to vote on his legislation. As President Obama ratchets up the pressure on Congress to pass health care reform this year, he's following in the footsteps of the 42nd president. From his prime time push to his town hall meetings, Obama is taking the same path as Clinton, but hoping for a different ending. Clinton and Obama faced similar climates. Both made health care their signature issue, even though most people were happy with their coverage and were more concerned with fixing the economy. Clinton presented Congress with a plan, whereas Obama instead presented broad guidelines and asked the lawmakers to come up with a bill. \"Much of the complaint about the Clinton-era attempt at this was how complicated it was,\" said Candy Crowley, CNN's senior political correspondent. \"That has not been a complaint this time. But in the overview, there was no doubt that the steady drumbeat of criticism started out at a fairly low level and just has come to this deafening roar, and that's very much like it was in the resistance to the Clinton plan.\" Like Clinton, Obama's been accused of waffling on his proposals and failing to reach across the aisle. Following weeks of contentious town hall meetings, Obama this weekend appeared more flexible than ever on the idea of a government-sponsored, public health insurance option. Liberal Democrats have demanded a public option, but some conservatives call such a proposal a deal breaker. Obama has voiced his support for the public option but stopped short of calling it a necessity. At a town hall in Colorado this weekend, however, he called it \"just one sliver\" of reform. \"The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform,\" he said. The White House was quick to insist that the administration's stance has not changed, and sent talking points to congressional Democrats trying to ease concern about the public option. The administration has been \"boringly consistent\" on the issue, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. Watch: Is the White House changing its message? \u00bb . Clinton was accused of backtracking after he seemed to back down from his stated goal of universal coverage at a 1994 National Governors' Association conference. Democrats protested and the White House insisted that the president's words were misinterpreted. But those reading the tea leaves knew the effort was losing steam. Some Democrats distanced themselves from the president as the 1994 midterm elections neared. Clinton and other key Democrats tried to compromise with a scaled-down version of the president's original plan, but the effort unraveled and eventually faded from the agenda. \"It's the art of dealmaking, and it's not surprising that they would both face this. In the face of huge outcry, presidents or politicians look for a compromise,\" Crowley said. \"When you see the possibility that it could go down in flames, you look for ways to appease the critics of it, and both Clinton, and now it appears Obama, are trying to do that -- to find some way to pass something.\" When Congress reconvenes after the August recess, lawmakers will return to a different climate on Capitol Hill, kindled by the protests of those who have been questioning Obama's proposals. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, said last month that if Republicans can stop Obama on health care, \"it will be his Waterloo.\" Clinton's agenda was bruised following his health care defeat, but it was his party that was dealt the hardest hits. The Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. It took another 12 years to get it back. Mary Matalin, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, predicted a repeat of history for Obama, should health care fail. \"What is right about conventional wisdom is, he'll be fine, but the Democrats in Congress won't,\" she said on CNN's \"State of the Union.\" \"And you are already hearing Democrats in Congress saying, 'This is deja vu. This is what happened with Bill Clinton. He makes us walk the plank, then we lose,' as they did,\" she said. Clinton acknowledged the political importance of a health care win in his speech before the Netroots Nation convention last week. Passing comprehensive health care legislation, he said, \"is not only the morally right thing to do. It is politically imperative for the Democrats to pass a health care bill now, because one thing we know and that I have lived through is that if you get out there and then you don't prevail, the victors get to rewrite history.\" Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville said that since it's clear that Senate Democrats don't have the 60 votes needed to get a full Senate vote, they should instead force Republicans to filibuster the bill. \"Then, you say, 'They're the people that stopped it. We had a majority of Democrats. We had a good bill. They stopped it,' \" said Carville, a former adviser to Clinton. Republicans under the Clinton administration threatened to filibuster, but the warnings proved inconsequential, as the bill never got that far. As health care reaches a turning point for Obama, \"timing is everything,\" Crowley said. \"It's not an election year -- yet. To me, that works on Obama's side, where it didn't with Clinton because the minute it becomes an election year, it's just different, because congressmen, senators are looking at what their constituents are saying back home, and their jobs are on the line,\" Crowley said. But that safety net won't hold for long, and Obama has only a few more months to show whether history will repeat itself or be rewritten. \"I think the time is critical for President Obama because at the end of the year, Congress goes off and takes a recess ... and so you end up having a pretty narrow time frame, and then when they come back in January -- guess what, it's an election year,\" Crowley said.","highlights":"Bill Clinton, Obama both made health care their signature issue .\nBoth accused of backtracking from their original goals .\nObama at an advantage because lawmakers aren't facing re-election -- yet .\nClinton says it's \"politically imperative\" for Dems to pass a bill now .","id":"a119fa7510c27438f703a54ab5c462f5cab23618"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected a controversial measure to allow people to carry concealed weapons from state to state. A Miami, Florida, gun store offers concealed weapons training. The measure would have required each of the 48 states that currently allow concealed firearms to honor permits issued in other states. The vote was 58-39 in favor. The amendment needed 60 votes to pass. The vote split the Democrats, with 20 supporting the measure and 35 opposing it. Two of the Senate's 40 Republicans -- Richard Lugar of Indiana and George Voinovich of Ohio -- and both independents, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, voted against it. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, all Democrats, did not vote. A coalition of mayors that fought the law welcomed its defeat. \"Our bipartisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns fought this amendment tooth-and-nail, because we recognize that the laws of one state may not be best for another,\" Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, Massachusetts, said in a statement. \"We will continue to work with our members to support common-sense policies and oppose dangerous ones, like the Thune Amendment that was defeated today,\" he said, referring to Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, who sponsored the proposal. It was the first significant defeat this year for advocates of gun rights, after gun control advocates faced an unexpected setback in May. Map: See which states allow citizens to carry concealed weapons \u00bb . Gun rights advocates attached a measure allowing people to carry guns in national parks to credit card legislation. President Obama signed the package into law. The interstate concealed-weapons proposal was an amendment to a larger defense appropriations bill. Supporters of the measure argued it would help deter criminals; opponents claimed it would, in effect, force most of the country to conform to regulations in states with the loosest gun-ownership standards. Opponents of the amendment mounted a huge campaign to stop it. Mayors Against Illegal Guns -- which says it represent more than 450 mayors in 40 states -- took out an ad in USA Today opposing the measure. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a campaign co-chairman, opposed the law on a number of grounds, arguing both that it tramples on states' rights and that guns are dangerous. \"There's no evidence that if you have a gun, you're safer,\" he said on CNN's \"American Morning\" Wednesday. \"Quite the contrary. If you have a gun at home, [you are] something like 20 times more likely to have somebody in your house killed. ... \"We have to protect our policemen, protect our citizens. We can't have all these guns, and it's reasonable to have each state make their own laws,\" he said. \"Wyoming shouldn't be subject to New York state laws, and we're going in that direction,\" he said. \"What's right for the people of Wyoming isn't necessarily right for the people of New York and vice versa.\" Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who was a co-sponsor of the amendment, had argued that gun licenses should apply across state lines, like driver's licenses. \"People travel,\" he said on \"American Morning.\" \"We have truck drivers on our roads, people traveling for vacation in their vehicles, and if you have a license ... you should be able to use that license in other states. It should apply like a driver's license,\" he said. He argued that concealed weapons deter crime. \"Carrying a concealed weapon is a sign of self-defense, self-protection, and I think it lowers crime,\" he said. And he said people carrying guns would still have to obey laws wherever they are. \"The law of the state where that person happens to be at the time are the laws that apply in terms of if you're allowed to carry a gun into a bar or restaurant. ... State rights continue to apply there.\" This is the third time the Senate has considered gun rights this year. In addition to the national parks measure, Senate gun-rights advocates in the spring attached a measure loosening the District of Columbia's tight gun control laws to a bill giving full voting rights to Washington's representative in Congress. That amendment was approved 62-36. House Democratic leaders, unwilling to loosen the restrictions on gun ownership in the District of Columbia, have let the bill languish. CNN's Alan Silverleib and Evan Glass in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"Senate turns down proposal to make permits valid despite differing laws .\nFoes said it would force states to honor laws in more gun-permissive states .\nFirst significant defeat for the gun lobby .","id":"dce182373c7269a5b72999c3ceb6ffb60b58bae3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- North Korea on Thursday launched a scathing personal attack on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, raising comparisons with previous colorful comments about the West by the communist regime. Bush: \"A chicken soaked in the rain,\" according to a North Korean Cabinet newspaper. At a meeting of southeast Asian nations in Phuket, Thailand, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman blasted Clinton for what he called a \"spate of vulgar remarks unbecoming for her position everywhere she went since she was sworn in,\" according to the state-run KCNA news agency. The spokesman called Clinton \"by no means intelligent\" and a \"funny lady.\" \"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping,\" the statement said. In no particular order, here are some of the most outspoken comments of recent years: . In October 2001, North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun said U.S. President George W. Bush was \"an incompetent and rude president who is senseless and ignorant as he does not know even elementary diplomatic etiquette and lacks diplomatic ability.\" In March 2002, after Bush bracketed the communist state of Kim Jong-il with Iran and pre-war Iraq as being part of an \"axis of evil,\" the North shot back and called the United States an \"empire of evil,\" KCNA reported. In May 2005, North Korea described Bush as \"a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being, to say nothing of stature as president of a country. He is a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with.\" In December 2008 after an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at Bush at a news conference in Baghdad the North's cabinet newspaper said in an article that Bush looked like \"a chicken soaked in the rain,\" according to Reuters.com. In April 2004, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman described U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney as a \"mentally deranged person steeped in the inveterate enmity towards the system\" in the North. In May 2003, the North said Cheney \"is hated as the most cruel monster and blood-thirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood.\" In May 2004, the North branded the Grand National Party of South Party a \"vegetable assembly\" and a \"modern brand Nazi party.\" In November 2003, after U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld described North Korea as an \"evil country\" and an \"evil regime,\" KCNA shot back, describing him as a \"political dwarf, human scum or hysteric. His hands are stained with the blood shed by so many people. He is, indeed, a human butcher and fascist tyrant who puts an ogre to shame.\" In May 2005, after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the North as an \"outpost of tyranny,\" a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman described Rice as \"no more than an official of the most tyrannical dictatorial state in the world. Such woman bereft of any political logic is not the one to be dealt with by us.\" In May 2009, North Korean newspapers said Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso was \"greedy for power\" and \"incompetent in politics.\" According to KCNA, they described him as \"nothing but a political charlatan who does not know where to stand, a mere puppet and a guy with a poor knowledge of history.\"","highlights":"N. Korea launches personal attack on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton .\nRaises comparisons with previous comments about West by communist regime .\nPaper described U.S. President Bush as \"incompetent and rude president\"\nForeign Ministry said Dick Cheney was a \"mentally deranged person\"","id":"260a5ce822026f24f37e667470c0d959cbb45440"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's been a comedian, talk-show host and feared red carpet fashion critic. Now you can add winner of \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" to Joan Rivers' lengthy resume. Donald Trump and Joan Rivers attend \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" season finale Sunday in New York. After weeks of competition, the 75-year-old dynamo beat out 15 other contestants, including Dennis Rodman, Tom Green and Brian McKnight, to take the top spot in this season's edition of the reality show hosted by Donald Trump. Rivers went up against poker champion Annie Duke in Sunday night's finale in which both women were charged with planning a VIP party and silent auction for the last and deciding task. \"They're both tough, they're both smart and they both hate each other,\" Trump observed at the beginning of the show. The apparent tension between Rivers and Duke continued in the final boardroom, part of which played out in front of a live audience, with both finalists bickering and interrupting each other repeatedly as Trump looked on. In the end, Duke raised far more money at her event, but Rivers was able to attract more celebrities and provide a better overall experience for the guests at her party, and Trump declared her the winner of the competition. \"Your level of energy has been amazing,\" he told Rivers. The victory means $250,000 for Rivers' charity: God's Love We Deliver. If the series thrives on conflict, it got plenty of mileage out of Rivers. She blew up at country singer Clint Black, referred to another contestant as a \"stupid blonde\" and smashed a champagne glass out of frustration at one point. But Rivers seemed to be especially infuriated by Duke, calling her a \"despicable human being\" -- the tamest of the insults she hurled in Duke's direction over the course of the series. Rivers even walked out in a huff after her daughter, and fellow contestant, Melissa was fired from the show. The exit, complete with bleeped obscenities, was turned into a cliffhanger of sorts when it seemed like Rivers might not come back, but she returned to the show for the next task. You might think a show that's best known for the phrase \"You're fired\" might not do so well in a bad economy when thousands of people have heard similar words for real at their workplaces, but the series averaged more than 8 million viewers a week, according to Entertainment Weekly. EW: Did the right one win? Revived formula . \"The Apprentice\" made a splash when it debuted in 2004, making a reality television star out of Trump and contestants such as Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth. For several seasons, the series took ambitious young mogul wannabes, divided them into teams and had them compete in tasks that ranged from selling lemonade to creating advertising campaigns for major corporations. The contestants vied for the chance to run one of Trump's companies for a year, and Trump fired someone from the losing team each week until he selected an apprentice. Over the years, ratings for the show gradually declined, but the formula was revived in early 2008 with the first season of \"The Celebrity Apprentice.\" The tasks, pressure-cooker atmosphere and boardroom bickering stayed the same, but the competition now featured contestants with varying degrees of fame and focused on raising money for charity. The first \"Celebrity Apprentice\" top spot went to Piers Morgan, the prickly judge on \"Britain's Got Talent\" who made news this spring when he invited singing sensation Susan Boyle to dinner after her memorable performance on the show. Morgan also made several appearances on this season's \"Apprentice,\" sitting in as Trump's \"eyes and ears\" during one episode and interviewing the final four candidates in another. Morgan's aggressive questioning seemed to annoy the celebrities, especially Jesse James, who glared icily at Morgan when he kept asking him why he did not turn to his wife, Sandra Bullock, for help in raising money during the various tasks. Perhaps Bullock might be tempted to try competing on the show herself. NBC announced last month it is bringing back \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" for another installment in the spring of 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported.","highlights":"Joan Rivers wins this season's \"Celebrity Apprentice\"\nRivers goes up against poker champion Annie Duke in finale .\nDuke raises more money at her event, but Rivers is able to attract more celebrities .\nThe victory means $250,000 for Rivers' charity .","id":"d546f26ee4a342b9b4b983788ba745dc6a4f484a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Survivors of a deadly earthquake-triggered tsunami which hit the Samoan islands Tuesday have described how they watched the inrushing sea swallow up coastal towns and villages leaving devastation in its wake. iReporter Alden Tagarino captured this image of the damage caused by the tsunami in Pago Pago. At least 111 people are confirmed killed in Samoa, neighboring American Samoa and Tonga. But officials in the Polynesia region have expressed fears the toll will rise as rescue workers struggle to reach outlying villages submerged and flattened by the wave. American Samoa resident Frances Faumatu told CNN she had fled to Aoloau, the highest village on the island, as the earthquake shook her house. \"All of a sudden we heard on the radio everybody had to run for safety,\" she said. \"Right after the quake, the tsunami came.\" Faumatu and others stayed on the mountain for two or three hours until the warning was lifted, watching as the sea swallowed Pago Pago, island's capital, and then receded. At least 22 people are confirmed dead in the U.S. island territory. Cars, debris, and parts of buildings were randomly strewn over the landscape where the powerful waters dropped them. See iReporter images of the aftermath \u00bb . But in some cases, the sea left nothing behind. \"Other villages were taken to the ocean,\" Faumatu said. \"I can't even compare the image. It's one thing to see a photo or footage, but just to be there in person is pretty dramatic,\" Maneafaiga T. Lagafuaina told CNN Wednesday. \"American Samoa itself is experiencing a great loss.\" The 8.0-magnitude quake hit the small cluster of Samoan islands in the South Pacific early Tuesday. In Samoa, the death toll stands at 82, according to government minister Maulolo Tavita. But he said he feared the number of causalities would continue to rise. Around 220,000 people live on the two main islands which make up the nation of Samoa. The population of American Samoa is about 66,000. See a map of the affected region \u00bb . Salamo Laumoli, director of health services at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center in Pago Pago, said he feared more fatalities would turn up as rescue workers strived to access parts of the island severed by damaged infrastructure. \"I thought it was the end of the world,\" said Laumoli. \"I have never felt an earthquake like that before.\" Patients at the hospital were briefly moved to higher ground, but they were soon brought back and the hospital is operating, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said. The airport in the capital of Pago Pago was also operational and being used for emergency flights, FEMA said. A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 cargo plane was scheduled to land Wednesday around noon Eastern time, which coincides with sunrise in the Pacific U.S. protectorate, said Craig Fugate, FEMA administrator. A second C-130 was scheduled to land around 5 p.m. ET. \"The wave came onshore and washed out people's homes,\" said Cinta Brown, an American Samoa homeland security official working at the island's emergency operations center. The same happened on the hard-hit east and west sides of American Samoa, said Brown, who was standing in a parking lot when her sport utility vehicle began rocking left and right. She said she could hear the rattling of metal of a large chain-link fence around the lot. \"It shakes you because you know something else is coming,\" she said. The British Foreign Office said one of the dead in American Samoa was a British national, but no other details were provided. In Tonga, Lord Tuita, the acting prime minister, said at least seven people had been confirmed dead on the northern island of Niuatoputapu. Three others were missing and four people were being treated for serious injuries, he said. \"The hospital on the island is reported to have suffered major damage; telephone communications has been cut as a result of damage to equipment and facilities on the island; homes and government buildings have been destroyed; the airport runway has been severely damaged making it impossible for any fixed wing aircraft to land,\" a statement from the Tongan prime minister's office said. Were you there? Send us your photos and video . A series of aftershocks reverberated through the region Tuesday as reports emerged of entire villages flattened or submerged by the tsunami. The walls of water were so strong that they twisted concrete beams and mangled cars. See an explainer on tsunamis \u00bb . Laumoli said people in outlying villages on one end of the main American Samoa island had been cut off because the connecting bridge was washed away. Listen to Laumoli speak about the impact of the quake and tsunami \u00bb . American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono, speaking from Hawaii, said Tuesday's quake ranked \"right up there with some of the worst\" disasters on the island. He said he had spoken to the military about mobilizing reserve forces for assistance. Tulafono was on his way back home from Hawaii on Tuesday night on one of two U.S. Coast Guard transport planes delivering aid. He told reporters Tuesday it had been hard being away from home as the disaster unfolded. It was a time, he said, for families to be together. Watch American Samoa governor discuss tsunami \u00bb . President Obama declared American Samoa a major disaster area, ordering federal aid to supplement local efforts. \"We keep the many people who have been touched by this tragedy in our thoughts and in our prayers,\" he said. A U.S. Defense Department official said 75 members of the Hawaii National Guard were ordered to American Samoa to begin assisting with medical relief, search and rescue and providing communications capabilities on the island. The unit will bring enough supplies to sustain themselves for 96 hours and its expected more aid from the military could begin flowing in, the official said. The Coast Guard is transporting more than 20 officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to American Samoa, said John Hamill, external affairs officer for FEMA in Oakland, California. The FEMA team will include a variety of debris experts, housing experts, members of the Corps of Engineers, and other disaster relief specialists, Hamill said. The quake generated three separate tsunami waves, the largest measuring 5.1 feet from sea level height, said Vindell Hsu, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Preliminary data had originally reported a larger tsunami. CNN's Barbara Starr, Augie Martin, Mariano Castillo, Moni Basu, Tess Eastment, Jim Kavanagh, Mike Ahlers, Hank Bishop and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 111 dead in Samoan islands and Tonga after Pacific tsunami .\nOfficials fear death toll will rise as rescue workers reach outlying visitors .\nMagnitude-8.0 quake strikes near Samoan Islands early Tuesday .\nHawaii National Guard troops being sent on relief operation .","id":"ced2d08def3fd24c5eb6c12f29c43067fd7085ef"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Syria and Iraq each recalled their ambassadors from the other country Tuesday, after Baghdad demanded that Damascus hand over two suspects in last week's deadly bombings in the Iraqi capital. Plastic flowers decorate a car destroyed in last week's bombings in Baghdad, Iraq. Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported the government was ordering its ambassador home after the Iraqi government summoned its envoy from Syria and demanded that Damascus turn over two Iraqis living in Syria who played \"direct roles in the execution of the terror attack,\" last Wednesday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. A string of bombings struck Iraq's capital August 19, with two truck bombs ripping through the Iraqi Finance Ministry and Foreign Ministry. At least 100 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded in Baghdad's bloodiest day since U.S. troops handed over security control to Iraqi forces and moved outside Iraqi cities nearly two months ago. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the Foreign Ministry bombing site Tuesday. \"We know it was the Baath Party, known for its heinous crimes throughout history, along with al Qaeda, who did this,\" he said, according to his office. The Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella group for al Qaeda in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the attack, which Syria condemned. \"Syria felt pain over those bombings and strongly condemned them, describing those explosions as painful terrorist bombings and reiterating the Syrian support to the security, stability, safety and unity of Iraq,\" SANA reported. \"But what is regretful is the hastiness of the Iraqi government to arbitrarily accuse Syria while analysts say the issue was internal political or, perhaps, foreign disagreements.\" The Iraqi government asked Tuesday that Syria \"hand over all those wanted [by the Iraqi judiciary] for committing crimes of murder and destruction against the Iraqi people,\" al-Dabbagh's statement said. It further demanded that Syria expel \"terrorist organizations that use Syria as a headquarters and launchpad to plan terrorist operations against the Iraqi people.\" SANA reported that the Syrian government was willing to help the Iraqis investigate the bombings. \"Syria informed the Iraqi side of its readiness to receive an Iraqi delegation to inspect the evidence available to them concerning the bombings' perpetrators,\" a Syrian official said, according to SANA. \"Otherwise Syria considers what has been broadcast through the Iraqi media as mere fabricated evidence intended to serve internal political goals, and the conflicting and contradicting statements by the Iraqi officials are proof of that.\" The official added, \"Syria, which has frequently repeated its keenness on the unity, independence, security and stability of Iraq, expresses its regret that relations between Syria and Iraq have become subject to internal disagreements and perhaps foreign agendas.\" In its claim of responsibility for the attacks, the Islamic State of Iraq said, \"The earth shook under their feet and their hearts were torn in fear and horror. ... And the weakness and fragility of their state became apparent to everyone.\" The statement was posted on Web sites typically used by the group. The Iraqi government released on Sunday what it said was a confession from a man who said he received orders for the bombing of the Finance Ministry building from a member of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who now lives in Syria. The videotaped statement from Wissam Ali Kadhim Ibrahim, who was identified as a former Baathist police official, aired on Iraqi television. Ibrahim said he received orders from Sattam Farhan, who he said was a Baath Party leader in Syria. Farhan and Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, a former senior member of Hussein's regime, are the two men Iraq demands Syria turn over. The Iraqi government put al-Ahmed as the No. 2 man on a most wanted list it released in 2006, and the U.S. government announced a $1 million reward for him two years earlier. The spokesman for al-Ahmed's wing of the Baath Party in Syria contended Monday that the videotaped statement was fabricated and alleged that the man could have been paid to make it. The spokesman said the paths and ideologies of the party could never meet with those of al Qaeda, and blamed the attacks on struggles between Shiite parties in Iraq. Some midlevel and senior members of the Baath party sought refuge in Syria after the U.S. invasion that ousted Hussein in 2003. Al-Maliki asked for the handover of some of those ex-officials during a visit to Damascus last week, Iraqi officials said.","highlights":"Iraqi PM says \"we know\" bombings were done by al Qaeda and Baath Party .\nSyria recalls its ambassador to Iraq, state news agency says .\nIraq recalls ambassador to Syria amid furor over bombings, which killed 100 .\nIraq demands Syria turn over 2 Iraqis living in Syria, who are suspects in the attacks .","id":"281d0514d1a5193bdfa4c3cfe8f16e7deef9eacb"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The date of the funeral for pop legend Michael Jackson has been changed to September 3, the singer's spokesman said Friday. Michael Jackson's burial will be at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Thursday, September 3. Jackson was scheduled to be laid to rest August 29, on what would have been his 51st birthday. The private ceremony will still take place at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, according to a statement from Ken Sunshine. No reason was given for the change in date. The ceremony \"will be limited to family and close friends,\" the statement said. Jackson died June 25 of cardiac arrest. The famed entertainer was 50. The release date for the movie drawing on Jackson's rehearsal footage was announced Thursday. \"Michael Jackson: This Is It\" will run in theaters worldwide for two weeks only beginning October 28, according to Sony Pictures. Tickets for the film go on sale Sunday, September 27, Sony said in a news release Thursday. \"Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, and genius as he creates and perfects his final show,\" Sony said. Kenny Ortega, who was working with Jackson to create the \"This Is It\" concert, is also directing the documentary.","highlights":"Michael Jackson to be buried Thursday, September 3, at Forest Lawn .\nSinger originally scheduled to be buried August 29; no reason given for change .\nJackson movie drawing on concert footage will open October 28 .","id":"d5aa3c892859f551c0d0c619d62f60384f17d68c"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government says it has banned all organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave amid concern over support for the late dictator's former party. An Iraqi poet, left, gives a recital while children carry pictures of Saddam Hussein over his grave. A Cabinet statement on Monday said it had directed authorities in Salaheddin province and the Education Ministry to \"take all necessary measures\" to prevent such outings. The former dictator, along with his two sons and other relatives, is buried in his hometown of al-Ouja near Tikrit in Salaheddin north of Baghdad. And, Hussein supporters and schoolchildren have made visits there on the late dictator's birthday and hanging date. There have been videos on sites such as YouTube of people at the site. One video shows schoolchildren at the grave in December; they carried banners at Hussein's grave that said \"We won't forget you father\" and they read pro-Hussein poetry. The government move was made after a recent visit by schoolchildren to the grave, but no reason was given for the decision. However, the move reflects the concern of Iraq's government over the presence of the Baath Party in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's political movement. The party and its symbols have been banned in Iraq. On Saturday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that while there can be government reconciliation with individual Baathists who have not committed crimes such as killing Iraqis, there can never be national reconciliation with the party itself. Salaheddin Gov. Mutasher Hussein Alaiwi, said he had not received any official directives yet, but said he would implement Cabinet orders when he receives them. The governor said that would apply to organized group visits, but they would not stop individual ones. A resident of al-Ouja told CNN the government had no right to stop visitors from going to their former president's tomb. \"Even if they put police and army outside the door, they will not stop us from visiting our president, our leader and our father,\" said Mohammed al- Nasiri. Hussein was executed in 2006 after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.","highlights":"Iraqi government bans all organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave .\nFormer dictator buried in his hometown of al-Ouja near Tikrit, north of Baghdad .\nGovernment move was made after a recent visit by schoolchildren to the grave .\nMove reflects concern of Iraq's government over presence of the Baath Party .","id":"a38b0bc29fc90f30505ba69f40f2403a3d0ec88d"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Automotive expert Tom Torbjornsen answers a question about how to diagnose an exhaust problem and what to do about it. Dear Tom, Smoke is coming out of the tailpipe of my 2002 Chrysler Sebring with 90,000 miles. Is this a big problem? I have to put a quart of oil a week in the engine. What should I do? -- Sally, New York . Sally, Generally, engines burn oil due to a few reasons: bad valve seals, worn valve guides, pressurized crankcase (oil pan) due to a clogged PCV valve or breather system, and blow-by from worn piston rings. Bad valve seals: The valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. Oil is pumped at 40 to 80 PSI (pounds\/square inch) of pressure into the top of the head, lubricating the valve-train. The valves have seals to stop the flow of oil down into the engine when the valve is open. If the seals fail then oil is allowed to flow down into the combustion chamber and is burned. Worn valve guides: A small cylindrical chamber called a valve guide does just what its name says ... it guides the valves. These guides wear out over time causing eccentricity (slop). The excess gap that forms allows oil to flow down the valve stem into the combustion chamber to be burned. Normally the valve seal stops this flow. However, in this case the gap is too great for the seal to work. AOL Autos: Should you use synthetic motor oil? Pressurized crankcase due to clogged PCV or breather system: Your car's engine is a giant air pump, consequently it must breathe. The PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) system allows the engine to exhaust the excess pressure buildup (which is a natural phenomenon of the internal combustion engine). Carbon is a by-product of an engine and can build up in the PCV system, clogging the breathing passages. This in turn pressurizes the oil pan and pushes oil up into the fuel delivery system where it is fed into the engine and burned. AOL Autos: Do I need to replace my air filter? Blow-by from worn piston rings: The pistons in your car's engine have seals around them in the form of rings. These rings have two functions: (1) they seal the combustion chamber so that the power developed from the firing of the cylinder is not lost. (2) They provide vital lubrication to the cylinder walls. When the rings wear out, the pressure from combustion reverses down into the oil pan, pressurizing it, and forcing oil into the valve covers. From there it goes through the breather system, back into the fuel delivery system, and into the engine to be burned. I have to put a quart of oil a week in the engine. Is this a big problem? It's hard to say without performing some diagnostics on the engine. A quart of oil a week is excessive. It could be due to a plugged PCV or excessive internal engine wear. Take the car into the shop for engine diagnostics. My guess is that the tech will perform a compression test along with a cylinder leak down test after he\/she determines if the PCV system is open. During these tests the tech tries to determine if there is loss of engine compression, blow-by, or excessive oil consumption due to ring wear. If excessive ring wear is discovered then further engine teardown will be necessary to determine if the engine needs to be rebuilt or replaced. AOL Autos: How often should you change your oil . What is the difference between blue and white smoke? The engine can emit different colors of smoke: . Blue smoke: Blue typically means that engine oil is being burned in the combustion chamber. In rare cases, when a vehicle is equipped with a transmission that uses a device called a vacuum modulator valve (to soften shifts between gears according to engine vacuum) the diaphragm can break inside the valve and cause transmission fluid to be sucked into the engine via the vacuum line feeding the valve and burn. AOL Autos: Fluid leaks: unsafe and expensive . White smoke: White can mean one of two things. (1) Water condensation from a blown and leaking head gasket: This gasket is the seal between the cylinder head and engine block. Water runs through channels called water jackets that line the cylinder walls and thus carry away heat. When the head gasket blows, the seal between the cylinder head and engine block breaks and water is allowed to enter the combustion chamber. This water is emitted from the engine in the form of water vapor or steam and it is white in color. (2) Excessive gas: Fuel delivery systems sometimes falter and dump excessive amounts of raw fuel into the intake plenum. When this happens, the amount of fuel is too much for the engine to process. Hence, it exits the engine and tailpipe in the form of pure white fuel vapor. It stinks like raw gas and can be dangerous if it ignites in the hot muffler and catalytic converter. I have witnessed exhaust systems literally blown off the vehicle from the explosion that ensued from ignition of a gas-filled catalytic converter. This condition must be fixed immediately to prevent internal engine damage or worse yet, a serious fire. Can I add oil or coolant and keep driving the vehicle until I can afford to fix it? Yes. However, be advised that such maladies never get better by themselves; and they always get worse with time. There is a real possibility that you will get caught on the road driving at highway speeds (thinking you added enough oil, transmission fluid or engine coolant) and the oil runs out, causing a catastrophic failure. In general, when it comes to a need for auto repair, conditions never improve on their own. You must maintain your vehicle if you want to get the maximum life out of it and, in the long run, spend the least amount of money. AOL Autos: How to avoid common car problems .","highlights":"An oil-thirsty engine and smoke coming from car's tailpipe are signs of trouble .\nBad valve seals or worn guides, clogged PCV valve, worn piston rings among causes .\nWhite smoke: Water condensation from blown head gasket, too much gas .\nBlue smoke: Engine oil is being burned in the combustion chamber .","id":"c82599eae2cc3766c818bd5d0b278557e6b40aef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- William Safire, a onetime speechwriter for President Nixon who became a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times, has died at age 79, the newspaper announced Sunday. William Safire died in Maryland following a battle with pancreatic cancer, The New York Times reported. Safire joined the Times as a columnist in 1973. In addition to his conservative news columns, which he wrote until 2005, he wrote a language column for the paper's Sunday magazine from 1979 until shortly before his death. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1978. In 2006, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honor. Safire had suffered from pancreatic cancer and died Sunday at a hospice in Rockville, Maryland, the newspaper reported. Born in New York in 1929, Safire began his career as a reporter for newspapers, television and radio stations after dropping out of Syracuse University. After becoming a public relations executive in the late 1950s, he was credited with putting together the 1959 \"kitchen debate\" between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at that year's American National Exhibition in Moscow. Safire was the publicist for a builder at the time. \"What I was publicizing was the typical American house,\" he recounted during a conference at George Washington University in July. \"It was my kitchen.\" The next year, he went to work for Nixon's first, unsuccessful presidential bid. He rejoined the Nixon team in 1968, when the Republican eventually won the White House, and became one of the administration's top speechwriters. Perhaps his best-known line in that job was Vice President Spiro Agnew's denunciation of journalists as \"nattering nabobs of negativism.\" But Safire left the administration to join that nattering club in 1973, when he left the Nixon administration to join the Times. His often-pugnacious voice -- he once denounced then-first lady Hillary Clinton as a \"congenital liar\" -- held down the right flank of the Times' op-ed page for more than three decades. He won his Pulitzer in 1978 for columns on the travails surrounding Bert Lance, who as President Carter's budget director in 1977 resigned amid allegations of bank fraud. Lance was acquitted by a federal jury in 1980. And he was an outspoken advocate of the plight of Iraq's Kurdish population. He sharply criticized U.S. support for Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, when Hussein used poison gas to put down a Kurdish revolt, and he strongly supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, writing that \"nobody came out of this war more nobly\" than the Kurds. Safire also wrote four novels, several collections of columns and a political dictionary that was first published in 1968. A new edition came out in 2008. He is survived by his wife, Helene, two children and one grandchild.","highlights":"William Safire dies at age 79, according to New York Times .\nSafire, a Pulitzer Prize winner, died after pancreatic cancer battle, Times reports .\nSafire was columnist for the Times, former speechwriter for President Nixon .\nHe coined \"nattering nabobs of negativism\" for a Spiro Agnew speech .","id":"5f41d0a9c4e5ac7abc93f2c12d8494c56dbeed49"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Marine was killed in action and several others wounded Thursday in a major U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, the Marines said. U.S. Marines prepare for Operation Khanjar at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, on Thursday. The push, called Operation Khanjar, is targeting militants in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and poppy-growing region. The forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of national elections in August. Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors, along with several hundred Afghan security forces and British troops, worked to clear Taliban militants from population centers in the Helmand River valley. They have been operating in the districts of Nawa and Garmsir in central Helmand province and \"as far south as the vicinity of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district in the region of the Helmand River valley known as 'The Fishhook.' \" The Marines stressed the mission \"is to provide security for population centers\" and \"connect local citizens with their legitimate government while establishing stable and secure conditions for national elections.\" Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, said he believes the operation will work and has assured the populace that it will provide security for them. His spokesman also confirmed that resistance had been minimal. The Marines said about 80 percent of the American troops are in direct combat, with the rest working in support. Taliban resistance has been light and sporadic, consisting of intermittent small arms fire, the Marines said on Thursday. The troops have encountered only relatively small groups of militants. \"Indications are the militants break away shortly after they make contact,\" Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Abe Sipe said, referring to what is regarded as the Taliban's habit of running and hiding after troops confront them. A Taliban spokesman said the group's fighters had killed 33 soldiers and destroyed several vehicles. CNN could not independently verify the Taliban claims because of safety and access issues. There has been an outcry in Afghanistan over civilian deaths in the Afghan war's crossfire, with much ire directed toward coalition air operations. But the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan emphasized in a news release that the Marines have not \"received any confirmed reports of civilian casualties or damage to property.\" They said they have not utilized \"artillery or other indirect fire weapons, and no bombs have been dropped from aircraft.\" The brigade operates under NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The assault has prompted Pakistani authorities to redeploy troops along the Afghan border to stop Taliban from escaping the push in Helmand. More than 30 U.S., British and Danish troops have been killed there since January, with the latest being the Marine on Thursday and a pair of British soldiers slain in Helmand on Wednesday. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it comes after a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said. When President Obama announced his strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said American soldiers and Marines \"will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east, and give us a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces and to go after insurgents along the border.\" He also said the bolstered deployment \"will also help provide security\" ahead of August presidential elections in Afghanistan. The Obama administration has moved about 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the war launched after the September 11 attacks. It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official said the size and scope of the new operation are \"very significant.\" \"It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level,\" the official said. \"In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan.\" The defense official said the operation is a \"tangible indication\" of the new approach that McChrystal -- a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command -- is bringing to the nearly eight-year war. \"They're not just doing an offensive push to get bad guys; they're going in to hold the area and stay there,\" the official said. \"This approach is indicative of McChrystal's philosophy: measuring success by the number of Afghans protected, not bad guys killed.\" During his confirmation hearing in June, McChrystal told senators that the conflict requires a new focus on counterinsurgency to reduce violence and build support for the U.S.-led NATO alliance among Afghans. \"Although I expect stiff fighting ahead, the measure of success will not be enemy killed. It will be shielding the Afghan population from violence,\" he said. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan before its allies in al Qaeda attacked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Though quickly toppled after the attacks, its leaders escaped, and the movement regrouped in the Afghan countryside and across the border in Pakistan. Helmand was once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan, but the fertile land is now used for growing poppies. Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, with most of that coming from the poppies in Helmand. The drug trade is an import source of income for the Taliban and major supply routes run through the province. CNN's Atia Abawi in Afghanistan, Nic Robertson in Pakistan and Chris Lawrence and Barbara Starr at the Pentagon contributed to this report.","highlights":"One Marine killed, others wounded; Taliban says 33 soldiers killed .\n4,000 American troops, hundreds of Afghans involved in Operation Khanjar .\nIt focuses on Helmand River valley, hotbed of Taliban violence .\nOperation's size and scope are \"very significant,\" official says .","id":"e10e92a0194da5a7df96b68132f4106df59eeffc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Airline passengers who were trapped on tarmacs \"like sardines in a can\" had their opportunity to air their grievances Tuesday at an unofficial Capitol Hill hearing that shared some of the characteristics of those flights. The hearing was sponsored by advocates of the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights. The hearing was overbooked: The room had more participants than seats. The take-off was slightly delayed: The hearings started five minutes late. And, appropriately, it lasted more than three hours, the maximum time passenger advocates say people should be confined on the ground. The hearing was sponsored by advocates of the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, which would require airlines to give passengers the option of leaving a plane after it has sat on the ground for three hours. The proposal, which lacked adequate support in 2007 and 2008, has gained steam this year because of several highly publicized incidents, including a nearly six-hour overnight wait involving a regional jet in Rochester, Minnesota. \"We were not offered food. We were not offered water,\" said Link Christin, one of 47 passengers on the Rochester plane. \"The toilet broke at about 3 o'clock in the morning, and it was impossible to sleep. Either Baby One cried, or Baby Two cried, or my foot got stepped on by somebody going to the bathroom.\" \"People have asked me, 'Why didn't you do something?' \" he said. \"As a practical matter, you're a little bit in shock; you're in survival mode. You're being told every hour that you're going to get off. ... There was always a carrot in front of us that we think is going to get us off the plane. And I suggest to you that that's why 47 people did not mutiny that evening.\" The star witness for the passenger advocates was Robert Crandall, former chairman and chief executive of American Airlines, who spoke in support of the three-hour limit. \"We can and we should solve the problem of extraordinarily long tarmac delay by imposing reasonable obligations on the airlines and other agencies that make up our aviation system,\" Crandall said. But he added that he favors a looser four-hour limit until 2011 to give the industry time to adjust operating procedures. Crandall said the industry's resistance to the rule is rooted in its \"preoccupation with safety.\" The industry resists any change \"that is not fully understood and has not been thought through in every detail,\" he said. He said he believes that the rule can be made without affecting safety. While saying that lengthy tarmac delays can have significant impacts on individuals, he said the problem is statistically small. In the first seven months of this year, only 776 of 3.8 million flights -- or 0.02 percent -- experienced tarmac delays of more than three hours, he said. Sen. Barbara Boxer, sponsor of the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, called her bill \"extremely modest,\" saying many passenger advocates want even tighter time limits. The rule would give pilots discretion to keep passengers on board longer than three hours for safety reasons, such as lightning storms, or if the pilot believed that the plane would take off shortly. But two hearing participants testified that a three-hour rule could worsen the situation, increasing the number of canceled flights. \"I don't believe the three-hour rule will actually change things very much at all, given the small number of affected flights,\" said Amy Cohn, an associate professor at the University of Michigan. \"And when it does change things, I think some passengers may be helped, and others may be harmed.\" If one passenger insists on being released, Cohn said, the plane would return to the terminal, possibly delaying departure for everyone else on the plane. Cohn said the focus on extremely lengthy delays is also diverting attention from the more pressing problem of routine delays. If Congress fixed routine delays, it would help alleviate lengthy delays, she said. Tuesday's hearing was sponsored by FlyersRights.org and the Business Travel Coalition. And though it was held in a House of Representatives office building, it was not an official House hearing. Writers and editors for travel industry publications took the place of members of Congress in questioning the witnesses. Organizers said the top airline industry organization declined to participate.","highlights":"Unofficial Capitol Hill hearing addressed concerns over long tarmac delays .\nBill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer would allow fliers to deplane after three hours .\nFormer American Airlines CEO spoke in support of three-hour limit .\nAnother witness said routine delays are more pressing issue .","id":"3566ff9a32a19eb06e77617647b60900e722e37e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An American convicted of being an al Qaeda operative was resentenced to life in prison Monday in a Virginia courtroom after an appeals court ruled his 30-year prison sentence was too lenient. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, seated far left, appears in an artist's rendering of a March 2005 court hearing. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a native of Falls Church, Virginia, was convicted in November 2005 of conspiring with al Qaeda and involvement in a possible plot to assassinate then-President George W. Bush. A federal appeals court, however, ruled the lower court did not sentence Abu Ali harshly enough and that its deviance from federal sentencing guidelines was unjustified. \"The defendant sought to destabilize our government and to shake it to its core,\" according to the 2008 ruling. \"To this day, he wishes he had succeeded. ... It is not too much to ask that a sentencing proceeding not lose sight of the immensity and scale of wanton harm that was and remains Abu Ali's plain and clear intention.\" Abu Ali was resentenced to life in prison, federal prosecutors told CNN on Monday. In June 2003, Saudi Arabian authorities detained Abu Ali in Medina, where he was participating in religious studies. During his 20-month detention in Saudi Arabia, he confessed to being a member of al Qaeda and to discussing the execution of a number of terrorist plots, including one to assassinate Bush. Prosecutors offered no evidence that those discussions morphed into a specific plan. However, they maintained that Abu Ali discussed boarding a U.S.-bound plane from Australia or England and flying it into targets on the U.S. East Coast. Abu Ali's attorneys argued that his confessions were false and obtained through torture in Saudi Arabia before he was transported to the United States in February 2005. At his 2006 sentencing, Abu Ali faced a sentence of 20 years to life, and prosecutors maintained that \"only a life sentence will protect the citizens of the United States from the defendant attacking again.\" But U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee rejected that claim, saying there was no evidence Abu Ali took any steps within the United States to further the conspiracies. In sentencing Abu Ali, Lee quoted extensively from letters he received from his friends, family and others endorsing Abu Ali's character. But the appeals court said it was unmoved. \"What person of 'good character' aims to destroy thousands of fellow human beings beings who are innocent of any transgressions against him? This is not good character as we understand it, and to allow letters of this sort to provide the basis for such a substantial variance would be to deprive 'good character' of all its content.\" Abu Ali's 30-year sentence was to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. CNN's Justine Redman contributed to this report.","highlights":"An American convicted of being an al Qaeda operative gets life sentence .\nAhmed Omar Abu Ali convicted in 2005 in possible plot against President Bush .\nFederal appeals court ruled man's original 30-year prison sentence was too lenient .\nDefense argued confessions were false, obtained through torture in Saudi Arabia .","id":"c674d01c95cc502cce7afb9e923eaca938f426dd"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- An underemployed Spanish matador is breaking tradition and carrying advertising on his capes in the bullring -- promoting a soft drink aimed at gays. Matador Joselito Ortega in an exhibition fight on Sept. 23 in the southern Spanish city of Malaga. While fighting bulls, matador Joselito Ortega will use capes embroidered with the words \"Gay Up,\" the name of the energy drink. The move has many in the macho-steeped world of bullfighting seeing red. But Ortega, 29, told CNN, \"I'm glad to be the first person (in bullfighting) whom the gay community will take as an icon.\" \"People think the bullfighter is very tough, very rude and they only like women,\" Ortega added. \"But we are in 2009. Everything must change.\" Industry experts said it would be the first time advertising will appear on bullfighter's capes -- the large one used when the bull rushes into the ring, and a smaller one used later as the matador moves in for the kill. In the 1980s, matador Luis Reina had a contract showing the brand name of Japanese electronics giant Akai on parts of his shiny \"suit of lights,\" while fighting. \"But that lasted just one or two fights,\" recalls Curro Vazquez, a former bullfighter who now manages one of Spain's top-tier matadors, Cayetano Rivero Ordonez. Rivero Ordonez has declined offers to carry publicity on his bullfighter's suit and capes while in the ring, Vazquez said, out of respect for \"the ritual of bullfighting.\" \"The cape is a sacred thing,\" said Vazquez, adding that it's fine for premier bullfighters -- who are treated like rock stars -- to have lucrative endorsement deals for products, but only outside of the ring. This is the first endorsement deal of any kind for Ortega. He became a full matador in 2006, facing the biggest bulls, but said he's fought only six or seven fights since then. Yet a bullfighter in demand can have dozens of fights in just a single season. \"Ortega is a new bullfighter and he might see this as a way to get known,\" Vazquez said. If so, it appears to be working. Ortega and his drinks company have been flooded with media queries since they made the announcement this week. Pedro Suarez, the CEO at Grupo Banus Pi, the firm that makes Gay Up and took over management of Ortega's career just two weeks ago, said they plan to organize an exhibition fight for Ortega soon, and sell the TV rights exclusively. Gay Up is a non-alcoholic energy drink made in Spain, drawn from a formula originally from Colombia. Suarez said the company tried to sponsor a Spanish football (soccer) team but was turned down because of the Gay Up brand. Then they found Ortega, who says he's not gay. He's been gored six or seven times in his career, which started 13 years ago as a junior bullfighter. \"All sports teams have advertising on their uniforms,\" Ortega said, insisting he'd continue to fight bulls the same way, even with ads on his capes. Bull breeder Juan Pedro Domecq Morenes welcomed the change, saying it might help revive Spain's billion-dollar bullfighting industry, which he said in recent years has seen a 45 percent decline in the number of fights, especially in smaller village bullrings. \"Only God is sacred,\" said Domecq, who also publishes a bullfighting Web site. \"The rest of the traditions have to advance, modernize.\"","highlights":"Matador Joselito Ortega will use capes embroidered with the words \"Gay Up\"\n\"Gay Up\" is the name of a non-alcoholic energy drink in Spain .\nIndustry experts: First time advertising will appear on bullfighter's capes .\nOrtega, who says he's not gay, has been gored six or seven times .","id":"991fdbfeb96245d2d47b78523f93c24759459947"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michigan's Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday allowing lower state courts to \"exercise reasonable control\" over the appearance of witnesses and parties, a rule change proposed after a Muslim woman refused to remove an Islamic garment in a small claims court. A niqab is a garment that covers the entire face and head, except for the eyes. The order allows courts \"reasonable control over the appearance of parties and witnesses\" so as to \"ensure that the demeanor of such persons may be observed and assessed by the fact-finder and ensure the accurate identification of such person.\" The order, which amends a rule of the Michigan Rules of Evidence, is effective September 1. The amendment was prompted by a 2006 small claims case in Michigan filed by Ginnah Muhammad, who wore a niqab -- a garment that covers the entire face and head, except for the eyes -- to court, the order said. According to the Detroit Free Press, Muhammad was contesting a $2,750 repair bill from a car rental company because she said thieves broke into the vehicle she was using. As she prepared to testify, Judge Paul Paruk asked her to remove her niqab, saying he needed to be able to see her face to tell whether she was telling the truth, according to court documents. \"I can't see certain things about your demeanor and temperament that I need to see in a court of law,\" Paruk said at the time. Muhammad refused, saying that she was a practicing Muslim and would take off the veil only in front of a female judge. Paruk said a female judge was not available and told Muhammad she could remove the niqab or have her case dismissed -- she chose the latter, according to court documents. She sued the judge in federal district court, which declined to exercise jurisdiction over the case. Muhammad has since appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement saying that if the amended rule was interpreted broadly, it could \"not only adversely affect Muslim females who wear the head scarf, but could also be used to violate Jewish, Sikh, and other people of faiths' constitutional rights under the First Amendment while in Michigan courts.\" It added, \"As a civil rights advocacy group, CAIR-MI is concerned about individuals who may be reluctant to report crimes or petition the courts out of fear that their religious rights may be violated.\" Other religious groups, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and domestic violence groups, had opposed the rule change, the Detroit Free Press reported. The ACLU had asked that the court add a sentence to the rule saying \"that no person shall be precluded from testifying on the basis of clothing worn because of a sincerely held belief,\" the newspaper reported in May. CAIR also said that it would announce on Wednesday the filing of a federal lawsuit against a Wayne County, Michigan, judge who had asked a Muslim woman to remove her head scarf in court. \"The Muslim plaintiff felt so intimidated by the judge's repeated demand that she eventually removed her head scarf,\" the organization said in a statement released Tuesday. CAIR-MI is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit being filed on behalf of the Michigan woman, who is a member of the group. Last month, the Judicial Council of Georgia adopted a policy allowing religious head coverings in the state's courtrooms, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.","highlights":"Courts allowed \"exercise reasonable control\" over appearance of witnesses .\nChange prompted by case in which judge demanded woman remove face-covering .\nRule says \"demeanor\" must be observable, \"accurate identification\" ensured .\nCouncil on American-Islamic Relations, ACLU oppose the change .","id":"5ab0baef5ad2bc4d18801594b62e41b2227e1943"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English football star Steven Gerrard has admitted punching a man in a bar, but the Liverpool captain insisted in his court testimony that it was in self-defense. England international Steven Gerrard is in court defending his actions after a bar brawl late last year. The 29-year-old is facing a charge of affray after an incident in the early hours of December 29, when he attacked businessman Marcus McGee following a dispute about the music that was being played. If found guilty, Gerrard faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine of $7,200. Gerrard, who denies the charge, told a judge on Thursday that he was sorry about his actions in Southport's Lounge Inn, but at the time he thought McGee was going to attack him. They had been involved in an argument after Gerrard tried to change the music on the bar's sound system, but McGee would not let him, the UK Press Association reported. \"I thought he was going to hit me,\" Gerrard said. \"He was on his way forward to me and his behavior had changed from when I was having a discussion with him. I didn't know why.\" Gerrard said he was unaware that his friend John Doran had already punched McGee when he himself started to hit the 34-year-old. \"I am certainly mistaken in thinking he was coming towards me to throw punches at me,\" the midfielder said. \"Now I know, obviously, he had been struck, reacted and thought the strike was by me and he came into me and that's when I reacted. I am sorry about the whole incident. \"I grabbed the back of his jumper as he moved forward to me. When I had hold of Marcus, I remember swinging my right hand two or three times. \"I was trying to stop still and I felt I had arms all over me. I could see a melee around Marcus McGee. When I was getting pulled away I realized people were patting me, some of whom were my friends. \"I wanted to help control the situation. I was worried the fight I had with Marcus was going to get worse because people were going past me in that direction.\" Gerrard said that his friends had earlier told him to \"forget\" the argument, but he felt he needed to confront McGee. \"I couldn't understand why the guy had such a problem with me, why he was so aggressive,\" he said. \"I was also concerned that if I did leave it I would not have been able to enjoy my night, he may have come over to me. \"I wanted to see why he had such a problem with it, why a total stranger had such a problem with me putting my favorite songs on. I asked why I couldn't have an input in the music and tried to explain that I had permission from the manageress.\" \"I asked Marcus what was the problem with the music machine and why he treated me like that. Very quickly he came off the bar stool and was in my face right by me.\" Gerrard had been celebrating after scoring two goals as Liverpool thrashed Newcastle 5-1 to remain top of the Premier League, and admitted that he had been drinking alcohol. \"I certainly knew I had had a drink. I was certainly in control of how I felt in my surroundings,\" he said. The father of two said he had not been in trouble with the police since the age of 19, when he was banned from driving for nine months for drink-driving.","highlights":"English football star Steven Gerrard has admitted punching a man in a bar .\nBut the Liverpool captain says in court testimony that it was in self-defense .\nGerrard, 29, denies charge of affray for attacking businessman Marcus McGee .\nIf found guilty, he faces maximum penalty of six months in jail and $7,200 fine .","id":"51e3c471f80fd2ab80745f5ccaba412dc2145757"} -{"article":"ON THE ATLANTIC OCEAN (CNN) -- Up on the Lido Deck there is a rockin' band playing another love song. Rush of Fools gets the crowd going during an afternoon concert on the Lido Deck. Hundreds of people, many clad in bikinis or swim trunks, maneuver deck chairs, trying to maximize their worship time in the sun. Servers mill around the deck, trying to interest potential patrons in fruity concoctions. Other cruisers peer back at the band as they stand in the buffet line for an afternoon snack. The band stops, thanks the crowd for joining them on the ship and talks about why they are here. They are here to praise God. This is the K-Love Friends and Family Cruise, a four-day Christian music retreat filled with concerts from all types of bands that share one message. \"You look out at that ocean and you realize you are looking at a very small chunk of the big picture,\" says David Carr, drummer for the contemporary Christian band Third Day. \"It reminds me of how small we are and how big and expansive God is, yet He still loves us.\" More than 3,000 fans are on board the Destiny for this floating meet-and-greet bound for Grand Turk. Premier Christian Cruises has chartered the whole ship and has filled each day with concerts, shows and speakers. It's the sixth time Premier has put on this event. The Destiny, owned by Carnival Cruise Lines, is the largest ship the group has ever chartered, says Gary Gentry, one of three owners of Premier. It's one of three full-ship and one partial charter the company puts on each year. The Friends and Family Cruise features 15 bands as well as comedians, an illusionist and speakers. You can see an author in the morning, a rock band in the afternoon, a singer-songwriter in the evening and a big band late at night. \"To me, life is about making moments,\" Gentry says. \"I think that's what we have been able to do on the cruise, help people create moments of significance in their lives.\" He compared putting all the bands together on a ship with some of their most loyal fans to the amateur chemistry sets kids love to play with to surprising results. \"You don't know what's gonna happen, but you know it's going to be kinda cool.\" Music cruises have been around for decades but charters are a growing trend in the cruise industry. Each year more companies are renting entire ships not only for Christian artists but for all genres of music. There are events for jazz fans, rock fans, even polka fans. Andy Levine runs Sixthman, a music cruise organizer that connects fans with artists such as John Mayer, Sister Hazel and Emmylous Harris. He says his company is thinking about expanding from five rock music-themed cruises to seven this year and eventually nine. Levine used to work in the music industry and said there are so many walls now between performers and fans that there's almost no real interaction between them any more. \"Going on a cruise with your favorite artists is one of the coolest ways to make a real pure connection,\" Levine says by phone, before boarding a ship full of Barenaked Ladies fans. The biggest challenge for charter companies is to convey to fans the premium costs that come with a music-themed cruise compared to a standard voyage. (Rooms on the K-Love cruise for 2010 run between $599 and $6,600 and it is already 80 percent sold out.) \"If they were to go to a music festival instead they would have to pay a small fortune, more than they would on a music cruise,\" says Linda Coffman, who operates the Web site cruisediva.com and has sailed on more than 100 cruises. \"There are hotel costs, food costs and ticket costs, so when you consider all the things included on the ship, music cruises are a good deal.\" She adds that one thing you can't put a value on is included in the cruise. Many of the artists will stop and chat with the fans out on deck or in the hallways. Or if a fan sees their favorite singer walking around the pool, it's often OK to ask for a quick picture. (Most cruises do set up autograph sessions and tell fans that is the best time for such requests). It's not only cool for the fans, who might find themselves standing in a buffet line right next to the bass player in their favorite band, it's also cool for the artists, who get to see up close what they mean to people. A woman approached bassist Tai Anderson on the K-Love cruise to tell him how much Third Day meant to her during what had been a painful divorce. She told him how every morning she went for a run, and played their music while she tried to jog away her sorrow. \"Christian music can be an easy target for people to make fun of,\" Anderson says. \"[Critics say] it's derivative or not its own style but at the same time when I see people have connections like that, it encourages me because it's a pretty incredible thing.\" Fans sometimes also get to see reunions of bands that haven't played together in years. No one had to ask Kirk Sullivan twice to come on what was his 15th Christian music-themed cruise. Sullivan has been a solo artist for the past two and half years, since the group he sang with for 15 years, 4Him, disbanded. But the folks from Premier called him up and said they wanted the group to do one more show. Sullivan, who has an album due out this spring, loved the chance to see some old friends. \"I think what I miss is seeing them on a regular basis,\" Sullivan says. \"There's not anybody else I'd rather stand on stage with.\" As he talks, a woman stops by the table to say hello. She tells him how much she enjoyed the show. He promises to come by and chat with her later. He explains that she and her husband attended a lot of 4Him shows and he's seen her on past cruises. The cruises also give the performers a chance to see other artists for more than just a passing moment, he said. Most musicians rarely get to hang out because of their schedules but on the cruise, band members get a chance to catch concerts themselves and share dinner conversations with artists who are, as one performer said, in the same boat, so to speak. Fans get a similar experience, says Stacy Conville, a doctor from Louisiana. \"It's refreshing to get away from the world and all that's going on,\" she says. \"And to do it with other believers is encouraging.\"","highlights":"K-Love Friends and Family Cruise is a Christian music retreat .\nMore companies are renting ships for cruises featuring all genres of music .\nMusic cruises allow fans to connect with artists in a friendly setting .","id":"6b3db72d44f079b3ab60997e22d8ac310ce2674b"} -{"article":"NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- The accused came from all walks of life: Retirees, dads and twentysomethings. An engineer, a business owner and an auto worker. A man in a wheelchair. Men in need of Spanish or Farsi translators. Brett Beasley, with Nashville's Health Department, educates men arrested for trying to buy sex about STDs. About 40 men somberly entered a classroom on a recent Saturday morning. About half of them wore shiny wedding bands. All had tried to buy a prostitute's services and were caught by police. It was their first offense, and a county court referred them to a one-day program called the John School. It's a program run by volunteers and city officials in conjunction with Magdalene House, a nonprofit that works to get prostitutes off the streets. \"Prostitution doesn't discriminate,\" said Kenny Baker, a cognitive behavioral therapist who is the program's director. \"Most of these men don't have a prior criminal history, so our goal is to help these folks understand why they put themselves in a bad position, to prevent it from happening again.\" Set in a church in Nashville, Tennessee, the John School is led by former prostitutes, health experts, psychologists and law enforcement officers who talk to -- and at times berate -- the men about the risks of hiring a prostitute. Prostitution is based on the law of supply and demand. The thinking is: Women won't stop selling sex until men stop buying. So Nashville and a growing number of cities are shifting their focus from locking up suppliers to educating buyers. Across the country, about 50 communities are using John Schools. Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, are among dozens more cities that plan to launch similar programs by the end of the year. See where the John Schools are \u00bb . \"It will make them [offenders] see that this is not a victimless crime, and they are contributing to the exploitation of women,\" said Stephanie Davis, policy adviser on women's issues at the mayor's office in Atlanta. \"It's hurting them, the man, and it's hurting their families and its hurting the community.\" No comprehensive effort has been made to track the numbers, but experts estimate 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States. The FBI's 2007 Uniform Crime Report lists about 78,000 arrests for prostitution and commercialized vice, but experts say those numbers are extremely conservative because many sex workers and johns aren't caught. Experts add that easy accessibility to prostitutes and pornography on the Internet are feeding the problem. In most communities, prostitution has been a one-sided battle focused on the women who offer sex. Their customers, when they are arrested, are usually cited for a misdemeanor and fined. By comparison, prostitutes are often charged with more severe sentences and jailed for months, depending on the offense. But in Nashville, the johns' faces are shown on a police Web site. For decades, Nashville battled prostitution by arresting women on the streets and through stings. Still, the problem persisted, irritating business owners and residents. In the early 1990s, Nashville's mayor helped launch the John School with the help of the Magdalene House, public defenders, prosecutors and police officers. Nashville became one of the first major cities in the U.S. to focus on the customers, predominantly men. Only first-time offenders who solicit an adult are eligible for John School. Johns who pick up minors are not eligible and face much tougher sentences. \"If you get caught again and you get me, I will guarantee to put you in jail,\" warned Antoinette Welch, a local prosecutor, in speaking to the men in the class. \"I've had men cry to me that they will lose their jobs or their wives, but you're all grown up and you make your own decisions.\" The men listened carefully as Welch talked about their records; many had not yet told their wives or significant others about their arrest. If the john pleads guilty, pays a $250 fee and completes the course without re-offending, the charge can be dismissed after a year. The money paid by the john goes to Magdalene House; the program doesn't cost taxpayers any money. John School models in other communities may differ. A woman who called herself Alexis, a 35-year-old former prostitute with dark hair and bright blue eyes, spoke to the men as the class came to an end. Four years ago, she left the streets and now works at a factory. By the age of 10, Alexis had learned to barter with sex with her stepfather. In her 20s, she found herself hooked on drugs and selling her body. She was arrested more than 80 times. She was hospitalized after someone shot her on the job. As she told her story, the men were silent. A few blushed, while others stared at the floor. \"These gentlemen are no different than I was on the streets,\" she said. \"I think everyone has to look at the void they are trying to fill.\" One john, a father of two with salt-and-pepper hair, found himself near tears after Alexis spoke. In July, he tried to pick up a prostitute through Craigslist. He said he was depressed and having problems with his wife. \"I'm so embarrassed,\" he said. \"These girls are somebody's daughters. I have a daughter.\" Some evidence suggests that John Schools are working. A study released in 2008 by Abt Associates Inc. for the federal government looked at the John School program in San Francisco, California. It's one of the largest programs in the country; more than 7,000 johns have attended since 1995. According to the study, the re-arrest rate fell sharply after the school was launched, and stayed more than 30 percent lower for 10 years afterward. But critics call John School a slap on the wrist. On Saturday, one john abandoned the classroom. Carol Leigh, a member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, a group that promotes decriminalizing prostitution in California, said she doesn't believe the program is an effective deterrent. \"John School doesn't do that much,\" said Leigh, who has worked as a prostitute. \"The reality is they aren't spending that much time on the johns and they will just go to other venues. This also doesn't target the violent offenders who are the real problem.\" Melissa Farley, head of the nonprofit group Prostitution Research and Education in San Fransisco, believes johns deserve stronger punishment like longer prison sentences. A recent study by the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation conducted among johns in Chicago, Illinois, found that 41 percent of them said John School would deter them from buying sex, compared with 92 percent who said being placed on a sex offender registry would scare them from re-offending. Nashville officials said they haven't tracked recidivism rates in their city, but the school's program director said it's probably deterring a third of the offenders in each class. At least one college educated, 47-year-old john's attitude appeared to change on a recent Saturday. After class he wrote, \"There is no good part. I would rather be with my wife. This was quick but it wasn't worth it.\"","highlights":"Experts say about 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States .\nAbout 50 communities have programs that focus on deterring johns .\nNashville's program includes a speech from a former prostitute .\nThe Internet is making it easier for people to buy prostitutes, experts say .","id":"ecaf1ec534ac6324315ff290915ef1b5ba9de36c"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 400 people have been killed in a spate of violence in northern Nigeria, the president of a human rights group said Tuesday. More than 150 alleged militants were arrested by Nigerian police after clashes. The violence has pitted Islamic militants against government police and troops in the north-central part of the nation, officials said. Attacks continued Tuesday in the suburbs of the northern city of Maiduguri, said Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organization based in northern Nigeria. People there are seeking refuge in police and military barracks and in hospitals, he said. Police and troops were dispatched to the militants' hideouts after they began attacks on government establishments Sunday, said police spokesman Moses Anegbode. As authorities exchanged fire with the militants, 41 people, including a soldier and a policeman, were killed, Anegbode said Monday. In addition, some 176 people were arrested in Bauchi, he said. Besides Bauchi, militants also staged attacks on the nearby states of Yobe and Borno on Sunday and Monday, said Emmanuel Ojukwu, spokesman for the national police. Yobe's police commissioner, Alhaji Muhammed Abbas, said that 23 suspected militants were arrested in connection with a bomb attack at a police station in Potiskum that killed a policeman and a civilian and wounded seven people. The official News Agency of Nigeria reported that as many as 100 members of a religious sect led by Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf may have been killed in a confrontation with police. In Borno, police spokesman Isa Azare said that two policemen were killed in an attack on police headquarters late Monday. \"The religious fanatics took the police unawares,\" Azare told the government-affiliated New Nigerian newspaper. \"That was why they succeeded in killing all the officers on night duty.\" Panicked residents stayed inside in all three states, and businesses shut down, even though officials said the situation was under control. The militants used guns, bows and arrows and machetes in the attacks, officials said. The militants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam in the region, maintaining that the government allows itself to be influenced by Western values, and have been attacking government offices and Islamic clergy. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001. The human rights organization alleged last week that police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year. Most of the victims were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report. More than 700 people died in the violence, the organization said, citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"As many as 400 people killed in Nigerian violence, group says .\nMilitants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam .\n176 people also arrested, according to police .","id":"c10436566205e80f3b2c8c491e93353098197557"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Investigators think that a reality TV contestant wanted for questioning in the death of his ex-wife has gone to Canada, police in Washington state told CNN Thursday. Police want to question Ryan Jenkins about the death of his ex-wife, model Jasmine Fiore. Ryan Alexander Jenkins, who appeared on two VH1 reality TV shows, matched the description of a man seen driving a boat in Blaine Marina off the coast of northwest Washington on Wednesday, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office said. Blaine, Washington, is very near the Canadian border. Authorities searched the area and found Jenkins' black SUV with an empty boat trailer at the Blaine Marina, police said. The nude body of Jasmine Fiore, 28, a former swimsuit model, was found Saturday stuffed into a suitcase in California. Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive Friday in San Diego at a poker game with her ex-husband, Jenkins. Police have wanted to question Jenkins about Fiore's death. \"We believe that perhaps he might have information that would be beneficial to the investigation,\" Lt. Gary Worrall of the Buena Park Police Department said Wednesday on HLN's \"Nancy Grace.\" Jenkins reported Fiore missing Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said. Earlier that day, a body was found in a large suitcase inside a trash bin behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim in Orange County. Watch man describe finding body \u00bb . The body was identified as Fiore on Monday. While the cause of death has not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner's report indicates she was strangled. Jenkins, who appeared on VH1 shows, \"Megan Wants a Millionaire\" and \"I Love Money 3,\" may have headed back to his native Calgary, Alberta, police said. The U.S. Marshals Service and Canadian authorities have joined the search for Jenkins, according to the Whatcom County police. Jenkins and Fiore reportedly were married for a few weeks before getting the union annulled. \"Given the fact that he has some celebrity status, we're quite certain that he has been made aware of the media frenzy regarding this case,\" Worrall said. \"And we have made some attempts to get in touch with him.\" In a statement, VH1 said it has postponed any future airings of \"Megan Wants a Millionaire\" because of the \"tragic situation\" and said \"our thoughts go out to the victim's family.\" Davida Sullivan, who trained with Fiore in Las Vegas to be a Playboy Bunny called her a bit reserved, careful with her words, and a \"very, very sweet girl.\" \"Nancy Grace\" producer Philip Rosenbaum contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Man resembling Jenkins seen on boat near Canadian border, police say .\nPolice want to question Ryan Jenkins in connection with ex-wife's death .\nJenkins reported model Jasmine Fiore, 28, missing on August 15 .\nEarlier that day, Fiore's nude body was found stuffed into a suitcase .","id":"8c8063e478d196d62484addd8472761a45090670"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has agreed to review a civil liberties dispute over the government's power to criminalize \"support\" of a terrorist organization. The Supreme Court will review a key provision of the 2001 Patriot Act. The justices on Wednesday accepted review of a key provision of the 2001 Patriot Act, and whether it threatens free speech rights of those who would assist non-violent activities of designated groups. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, federal prosecutors have pursued \"material support\" cases against at least 120 individuals or organizations, winning convictions in about half of those cases. Nearly every such domestic terrorism-related prosecution has included that charge as part of the indictment. At issue is whether the congressional law allows prosecution of those with knowledge of \"any service, training, expert advice or assistance\" to a foreign terrorist organization, as designated by the U.S. government. A federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, struck down several parts of the legislation, finding them too vague to satisfy the Constitution. The government then asked the high court to intervene and uphold the law. Among those charged under the \"material support\" provision: John Walker Lindh, an American Muslim captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan; the \"Lackawanna Six,\" men from Buffalo, New York, who attended an al Qaeda training camp; several men in Portland, Oregon, who allegedly sought to travel to Afghanistan to fight on behalf of the Taliban; a group of young Virginia individuals who allegedly tried to assist a Kashmir terror group; and James Ujaama, an African-American activist in Seattle, Washington. The key plaintiff in the current appeal is the Humanitarian Law Project, a Los Angeles, California-based non-profit that says its mission is to advocate \"for the peaceful resolution of armed conflicts and for worldwide compliance with humanitarian law and human rights law.\" HLP sought to help the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a group active in Turkey. Known as PKK, the party was founded in the mid-1970s and has been labeled a terror organization by the United States and the European Union. Its leaders have previously called for militancy to create a separate Kurdish state in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, where Kurds comprise a population majority. In its appeal to the high court, the government noted that \"since its inception, the organization has waged a violent insurgency that has claimed over 22,000 lives.\" HLP claimed it wanted to advocate on behalf of the PKK before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and conduct other advisory sessions and public awareness campaigns. Another plaintiff is an American physician who wanted to help ethnic Tamils in his native Sri Lanka. Much of the island nation is controlled by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has also fought for decades to carve an independent state. The government claims the Tamil Tigers have \"used suicide bombings and political assassinations in its campaign for independence, killing hundreds of civilians in the process.\" HLP and a group of Tamil doctors say they merely wanted \"to provide their expert medical advice on how to address the shortage of medical facilities and trained physicians\" in the region but \"they are afraid to do so because they fear prosecution for providing material support.\" The Patriot Act was passed six weeks after the 9\/11 terrorism attacks. It included amending a previous anti-terror law to strengthen the \"expert advice and assistance\" provision, making it a crime punishable by a 10- to 15-year prison sentence. The Justice Department calls the material support provision \"a vital part of the nation's effort to fight international terrorism.\" Officials told the justices the law is constitutional since \"the statute in question regulates conduct, not speech, and does not violate the First Amendment in any of its applications.\" And the government argues lawmakers properly used their authority to address a pressing problem. \"Congress has banned a broad range of material support -- regardless of whether the terrorist group claims to engage in otherwise lawful activities, and regardless of whether the support is ostensibly given to assist those supposedly lawful activities,\" said the administration's brief. The case is Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (08-1498). Oral arguments will be held early next year, with a decision expected by the spring.","highlights":"Supreme Court to review a key provision of the 2001 Patriot Act .\nFederal appeals court had struck down several aspects of Patriot Act .\nGovernment had asked the high court to intervene and uphold the law .\nOral arguments to be held early next year, with decision expected by spring .","id":"c0b50aeb0f137ef3bc4f7fa2f5d9a8d38c6bc528"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Harry Shearer is an actor, author, director, satirist, musician, radio host, playwright, fine artist and record label owner who is the voice of a variety of regular characters on \"The Simpsons,\" most notably Mr. Burns, Smithers and insufferable neighbor Ned Flanders. Harry Shearer says the White House isn't getting actively involved in protecting New Orleans from flooding. (CNN) -- I spent much of this month in my adopted hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Uncharacteristically for August, the streets and restaurants and galleries and music clubs were largely full and throbbing with energy. There are hubs of entrepreneurs all over town trying to invent the future. And thankfully, Mayor Ray Nagin's term is only months away from its end. Between my weeks in the Crescent City, I joined some local folks in traipsing up to the Aspen Institute to share the news of New Orleans with interested outsiders. One talked about the progress in rebuilding homes. Another discussed the reform of the public-school system, the decoupling of the schools from a centralized board, resulting in the city becoming the leader in charter-school enrollment. A third talked about the move to neighborhood medical clinics, an effort to replace the hospital beds missing in the flooding's wake. A fourth reported the good economic statistics, marred only by the continuing shortage in affordable rental housing (80,000 units were whacked by the flood). And a fifth discussed the citizen activism that is helping, along with a determined U.S. attorney (who's just sent Rep. William Jefferson and his brother Mose to jail), to clean up local politics. After all, it was New Jersey pols, not New Orleans ones, who got snagged in a scheme involving black-market kidneys. Wish we'd thought of that. All good news. And all transpiring under a shadow, one made all too evident early last week when the city experienced a collective shudder as the spinning cyclonic shape of Hurricane Bill appeared on TV screens. New Orleans, hit so hard by what so many (including President Obama in his Sunday interview with the local newspaper) still see fit to describe, mistakenly, as a natural disaster, is making remarkable progress, while the agency that so disastrously failed at building a protective system mandated by Congress -- the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- may be making some of the same mistakes in rebuilding that system. And the White House, for the second consecutive administration, seems not to care. Me? I'm a humorist, a comic actor, a sometime musician-filmmaker-novelist-blogger. What the hell do I know about what happened to the city I love? Since the levees collapsed, I've been reading the local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, watching and listening to the local media, which, post-disaster, have rediscovered their mission to make local news more than a recitation of the previous day's murders, car crashes and celebrity misbehaviors. While the national media packed up and moved away after the initial orgasm of anger at FEMA, the local media reported something remarkable: The Corps was claiming that the flooding was due to the \"overtopping\" of its levees and floodwalls, while two teams of pro-bono forensic investigators were finding evidence that no overtopping had occurred. As the Corps started denigrating these investigators, they kept digging, and kept coming up with the real story, available now for all to see (though all too few have) as the ILIT report from the University of California at Berkeley and the Team Louisiana report from Louisiana State University. Their conclusions: The \"hurricane protection system\" built by the Corps had serious design and construction flaws, baked into the system over 40 years under administrations of both parties, that caused catastrophic failure in more than 50 locations under storm surge conditions markedly less than the system was advertised to withstand. You and I, federal taxpayers, had paid to flood New Orleans. Since the Obama administration took office, the Corps has: announced that one part of the new \"system\" will be built using a \"technically not superior\" solution, because of funding problems; and, defying a Congressional mandate, delivered a report supposed to offer a post-2011 plan for so-called Category 5 storm protection 20 months late and lacking a specific plan, offering only a menu of possible options. It's almost as if the Corps is inviting someone else to do the job. Someone else can. A New Orleans architect, David Waggonner, has been convening a group of local architects and planners and engineers and their Dutch colleagues to mine the eight centuries of collective wisdom of the Netherlands about the challenge of living with water. The resulting plans, published as the \"Dutch dialogues,\" make for inspiring and depressing reading; inspiring because they offer a vision of a city that has stopped fighting a war against water and has learned to use water both to enhance value and to enhance safety, depressing because there is so clearly no federal impetus, from the president on down, to embrace such a new approach. President Obama, who has mainly limited his comments about New Orleans to feel-good boilerplate, did pledge to make good on President Bush's promise on that eerie, floodlit night in a deserted Jackson Square in 2005, to rebuild New Orleans better and stronger. But he has yet to actively intervene to make sure New Orleans gets state-of-the-art flood protection and robust and timely coastal wetland reconstruction. Like President Bush, President Obama so far seems to be acting as if just saying it makes it so. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Harry Shearer.","highlights":"Harry Shearer: There is much good news in New Orleans, but still problems .\nHe notes report that Corps of Engineers levee design and construction led to breach .\nShearer says there may be flaws with the Army Corps' levee rebuilding .\nHe says Obama is ignoring problem, as Bush did previously .","id":"92c97f8f8a425af49fde8be46a249bc9970ff527"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher could be set to make a shock return to Formula One as Ferrari look for a short-term replacement for the injured Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher remains very much part of the Ferrari set-up as an advisor for the Formula One team. The 28-year-old Brazilian is currently in intensive care at the AEK military hospital in Budapest after suffering a fractured skull in a freak accident in qualifying for Saturday's Hungarian Grand Prix. Massa's condition has improved in the past 24 hours with doctors taking him out of a medically-induced coma on Monday night. He has since responded well to questions and Peter Bazso, the medical director of the hospital, claimed on Tuesday morning that Massa might be able to walk out of the hospital in 10 days' time. Felipe Massa's crash in pictures. \u00bb . \"My expectation is that he would walk out of the hospital on his own. If his recovery continues, I wouldn't rule out that he could leave within 10 days,\" Bazso told Hungarian TV channel M1. \"He's spending more and more time awake, talking to family and friends. I would like to point out that, although he is recovering, this is not the end of the story, he is still in a life-threatening condition. Of course, the danger is decreasing by the day.\" While the news regarding Massa's condition continues to be encouraging, behind the scenes Ferrari are faced with the task of finding a replacement driver. Doctors have said Massa will be out for at least six weeks, although there are still fears he may never return as a result of his injuries. He will certainly miss the European and Belgian Grands Prix at the end of August, although the current four-week break before the next race in Valencia gives the Italian team time to assess their options. On the list of likely replacements could be Schumacher -- who won five of his drivers' titles with Ferrari and works as an advisor for the team. The 40-year-old German's representative Sabine Kehm told CNN: \"There is no offer from Ferrari, but if they decided they need him, Michael would certainly weigh his options.\" Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni later confirmed to the Press Association that Schumacher, who retired in 2006, was an option. \"We have said before that it is possible that Michael Schumacher could return to help us out,\" said Colajanni. \"However, we have two test drivers at Ferrari (Luca Badoer and Marc Gene) at the moment and Michael is an advisor. Does safety need to be improved in Formula One? \"We have not spoken to him and we will have to wait and see what happens. It is something for (Ferrari team principal) Stefano Domenicali to consider over the coming weeks. \"We need to see how Felipe is and the situation will evolve from there. We are not in any hurry, the first and foremost thing is Felipe's recovery.\" Colajanni also provided further encouraging news regarding Massa, although he played down Bazso's assertion that he could walk out of hospital as early as next week. \"I think that on Monday he improved a lot but we have to remain cautious,\" he said. \"It is not useful to put forecasts on these things. I think for the moment we should just enjoy the positive improvements that Felipe is making.\" Massa was hurt when a spring that had fallen from the back of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car struck him on the helmet at high-speed, causing him to lose control of his car and crash into a tire barrier. On Monday, Professor Robert Veres, the surgeon who operated on Massa over the weekend, told reporters that Massa had suffered some damage to his left eye, which could threaten his future in the sport. \"It's too early to say about his future as we don't know the extent of the damage. Without an operation it's very hard to evaluate the eye's function,\" said Vares. Massa's crash came less than a week after Formula Two driver Henry Surtees, the son of former world champion John Surtees, was killed in similar circumstances, knocked unconscious by a tire which flew off another car in a race at Brands Hatch in England, before crashing. Formula One's safety record has improved dramatically in recent years, with the last fatality in 1994 when the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna crashed at Imola.","highlights":"Michael Schumacher could be set to make a surprise return to Formula One .\nSchumacher might be a short-term replacement for the injured Felipe Massa .\nMassa continues to make good improvement following his crash on Saturday .","id":"b3d45282e5405340365fd7c17068d5365d38d257"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against three men accused in connection with the July death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest, officials said Tuesday. Former boxing champion Vernon Forrest, 38, was shot and killed in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, on July 25. A grand jury indicted the three suspects -- Charman Sinkfield, 30; Demario Ware, 20; and Jquante Crews, 25 -- on charges including murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Fulton County Superior Court spokesman Don Plummer said in a statement. Forrest, 38, was shot and killed in southwest Atlanta on July 25. He had stopped at a gas station to put air in his tire, Plummer said, and was robbed at gunpoint of his championship ring and Rolex watch. \"Forrest chased the robber, believed to be Demario Ware, and then lost sight of him as he escaped into a nearby public housing complex,\" Plummer said. \"Forrest then encountered the accused triggerman, Charman Sinkfield, not far from the scene of the armed robbery. As he turned to walk away from the man, Forrest was shot seven times.\" Crews is accused of being the getaway driver, Plummer said. Forrest was the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion in 2001, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion in 2002-03, and the WBC light welterweight champion in 2007-08 and 2008-09, according to the BoxRec Web site. He was named the World Boxing Hall of Fame fighter of the year in 2002, the Web site said. A $17,000 reward has been offered for the return of the watch and ring, Plummer said. The watch has a black leather band and diamonds, and his championship ring is engraved with his name and four X's signifying his four championship wins.","highlights":"Three men accused in July death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest .\nCharges include murder, assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon .\nForrest, 38, was robbed, shot and killed in Atlanta, Georgia, after gas station stop .\n$17,000 reward offered for return of watch, championship ring taken in robbery .","id":"db517018fe09f466933cfa6330be22487de63aba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida man in custody in Haiti faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of his wife and five children, authorities said Tuesday. Police have obtained a warrant to arrest Mesac Damas, 33, on suspicion of six counts of first-degree murder. Police obtained a warrant overnight to arrest Mesac Damas, 33, on suspicion of six counts of first-degree murder, the Collier County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said in a statement. \"This warrant was obtained based on information and evidence collected thus far in the investigation and statements made by Damas to a federal agent after his detention in Haiti,\" the statement said. The body of Damas' wife, Guerline Damas, 32, was found Saturday in the family's North Naples, Florida, home, along with those of the couple's five children -- Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 11 months, police said. Authorities have not said how the five were killed, but Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk described the scene as \"horrific.\" Police released few new details in the case at a Tuesday news conference, except to say they think the killings were premeditated. They added that under the law, \"premeditated\" does not necessarily mean a crime was planned far in advance. Damas was last seen about 9 p.m. Thursday at the Naples restaurant where he was employed as a cook, authorities said. On Friday, he is thought to have arrived at Miami International Airport about 7 a.m. He boarded a flight for Haiti about 10 a.m., Rambosk said. His car was found at the airport. He purchased a one-way ticket to Haiti, police said Tuesday. Police had asked the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for help in finding Damas. The FBI's legal attach\u00e9 in the Dominican Republic notified Collier County authorities that a man believed to be Damas was taken into custody Monday by the Haitian National Police. \"Information obtained by CCSO shows Damas was found hiding near a hotel in the capital city of Port-au-Prince,\" a sheriff's statement said Tuesday. The judge who signed the warrant ordered that Damas be held without bond upon his return to Collier County, authorities said. If convicted of six counts of first-degree murder, Damas could face life in prison or the death penalty. Collier County investigators are traveling to Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to interview Damas, the statement said. Rambosk said authorities are looking into two options to return Damas to Florida: following the normal extradition process, or having him deported from Haiti, since he is a U.S. citizen. Mesac and Guerline Damas had a history of domestic violence, police said. Mesac Damas was arrested in January, and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery charges against his wife in June. Police said they did not believe he served any jail time, and did not think a restraining order was currently in place regarding the couple. However, an arrest warrant was issued Monday for Damas on charges of violating probation stemming from the January arrest. The Damases had been married about 10 years, Rambosk said. He did not know how long they had lived in Naples. The six bodies were found about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, a day after police had visited the home to check on the family, Collier County sheriff's Capt. Chris Roberts said. A family member asked police to conduct a welfare check on the home Friday, saying a resident there had not been heard from, Roberts said. Responding officers knocked on the door and got no answer, he said, but they saw nothing that aroused their suspicions. The following morning, the family member became more concerned and filed a missing persons report, Rambosk said. Later, authorities requested a key to the house from property management, as well as authorization to enter. Rambosk said Tuesday the victims' family members are \"extremely emotional and distraught.\"","highlights":"NEW: At a news conference, police say they think killings were premeditated .\nMesac Damas charged with first-degree murder in deaths of wife, 5 children .\nSix bodies found Saturday in family's North Naples, Florida, home, police say .\nDamas, 33, captured Monday in Haiti; authorities are headed there to interview him .","id":"4671b2776aef724b04b22637fbf2fdc80b35e4b9"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Central Intelligence Agency hired the private security firm Blackwater USA in 2004 to work on a covert program aimed at targeting and potentially killing top al Qaeda leaders, according to a source familiar with the program. CIA Director Leon Panetta canceled the covert program this year when he learned of its full scope. The existence of the program, which began in 2001, came to light earlier this year when CIA Director Leon Panetta canceled the effort, but it is only now that Blackwater's involvement has become known. That development was first reported Thursday in The New York Times. The program was part of a broader effort inside the CIA to develop the capacity to conduct training, surveillance and possible covert operations overseas, according to the source. The program was outsourced to contractors to \"put some distance\" between the effort and the U.S. government. By mid-2006, Blackwater's involvement in the program had ended, according to a U.S. official. Other contractors were brought in for other parts of the program, another source said. The total program cost \"millions,\" a U.S. official said. It is not known how much Blackwater was paid. The company -- now known as Xe -- did not return CNN's calls seeking comment. \"The program ebbed and flowed. There were different phases to it. There may have been different folks involved,\" the source said. U.S. officials have previously acknowledged that Panetta canceled the entire program this year when he learned of its full scope. At the time of the cancellation, officials said, renewal of the program was being considered. At that point, it had been brought to the new CIA director's attention. Panetta canceled the effort in part because Congress had not been notified about it, officials said. Also, some in the intelligence community were worried there could be a diplomatic disaster if contractors were caught performing such work in foreign countries. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who ran the agency from 2006 to 2009, downplayed the program during a speaking engagement in Washington. \"This was not a very prominent thing during my time as director,\" Hayden said. \"What you had were three separate efforts under three different directors to deal with an issue that everyone understood was a problem in a capacity that everyone agreed we should have.\" A spokesman for the CIA would not comment on the details of the still-classified program. \"Director Panetta thought this effort should be briefed to Congress, and he did so,\" spokesman George Little said. \"He also knew it hadn't been successful, so he ended it. Neither decision was difficult. This was clear and straightforward. \"Director Panetta did not tell the committees that the agency had misled the Congress or had broken the law. He decided that the time had come to brief Congress on a counterterrorism effort.\" Blackwater's extensive involvement in U.S. operations overseas, particularly in Iraq, has been controversial. The Iraqi government says that in a shooting in September 2007, Blackwater security guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians. Blackwater says its employees were returning fire after they were attacked by armed insurgents, but an Iraqi investigation concluded that the guards randomly fired at civilians without provocation. The incident led to the Iraqi government's refusal to renew the firm's operating license in the country when it expired in May. Although it lost the Iraq contract, the company, which changed its name to Xe earlier this year, continued to get multimillion-dollar contracts from the U.S. government for work in Afghanistan.","highlights":"Program, begun in 2001, came to light this year, when it was canceled .\nIt was part of CIA effort to develop possible covert operations overseas .\nU.S. official says Blackwater's involvement in program had ended by mid-2006 .\nEx-CIA director: \"This was not a very prominent thing during my time as director\"","id":"7911a566d303a0307b54c7a0b10b2859e7ac62ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 12 airplanes shared the trans-Atlantic sky with doomed Air France Flight 447, but none reported any problems, deepening the mystery surrounding the cause of the plane's disappearance. Image released by the Brazilian Air Force shows oil slicks in the water near a debris site. Airlines confirmed that at least a dozen aircraft departed roughly at the same time and traversed approximately the same route, but did not report problematic weather conditions. This has led some aviation experts to suggest that technical problems on the airplane might be the main cause of the crash, though they may have combined with weather conditions to create serious problems. The new information raises more questions than answers about Air France 447, believed to have plunged into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between the coasts of Brazil and West Africa on May 31, presumably killing all 228 aboard. The plane's computer system reported a series of technical problems about four hours after takeoff and immediately after entering a large storm system a few hundred miles from the far eastern coast of Brazil. Severe winds, updrafts and even lightning have been mentioned as possible causes of the crash, potentially triggering a failure of the plane's technical systems. But aviation experts cautioned that weather alone would not normally cause a crash. Planes routinely fly through large storms, using the sensitive radar on board to navigate through specific storm cells. When conditions are severe enough, planes can easily deviate around or above storms, experts say. In addition to Flight 447, Air France had four other Paris-bound flights that left in the same broad time frame from that part of the world, according to an airline spokesman. One flight left Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at 4:20 p.m. At that same moment, another Air France flight left nearby Sao Paulo. A third Air France flight left Buenos Aires, Argentina, at 5:50 p.m., also heading for Paris. A final Air France flight left Sao Paulo at 7:10 p.m., almost exactly when the doomed flight took off from Rio. All of these flights took a similar route toward Paris, heading first toward Recife on the east coast of Brazil and then continuing northeast over the Atlantic. None of the other flights experienced anything unusual, the spokesman said. All arrived in Paris the next day, with no significant delays of any kind. That same evening two Air Iberia flights bound for Madrid, Spain, left Brazil at about the same time as Flight 447; one departed from Rio de Janeiro and another from Sao Paulo, according to officials at Iberia. Those flights also reported no problems. It was the same story for one British Airways flight and three Air TAM Brazil flights, all of which flew routes similar to the missing plane. Although none of the other flights are known to have reported weather problems en route, aviation experts said weather can change suddenly and vary over short distances, so one plane might experience conditions far worse than another.","highlights":"At least 12 flights traveled from Brazil to Europe around same time as 447 .\nNone of the other flights reported bad weather or other problems .\nAviation experts say weather alone would not normally cause a crash .\nThey also say weather can change quickly and vary over short distances .","id":"83c27bb18cf40e6217bc6586fd46bbbff14d9789"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The separatist group behind a series of bombings on a Spanish vacation island marks the 50 year anniversary of its struggle this year, a milestone that sees it no closer to achieving its goal. Police cordon off the route leading to the location of the latest blasts in Palma de Mallorca. ETA, which is fighting for the independence of Spain's northern Basque region, was said to be behind three bombs that detonated on the island of Mallorca on Sunday without hurting anyone. The latest incident appears to be part of a new wave of attacks, including another in Mallorca which killed two Civil Guard officers in July, which have left a 2006 cease-fire a distant memory. The violent resurgence also defies Spanish government claims that the group's operational capabilities have been broken by a series of high profile arrests in Spain and France. ETA, blamed for more than 800 deaths and listed as a terrorist group by Spain the European Union and the United States, began campaigning for Basque independence in 1959. The group, whose full name Euskadi Ta Askatasuna means \"Basque Homeland and Freedom\" in the Basque language, killed what some say was its first victim in 1968. Since then it waged a campaign of violence against the Spanish state, targeting politicians, policemen, judges and soldiers, often clocking up numerous civilian casualties with deadly car bombs. In 1980 alone ETA was blamed for 118 deaths, and in 1995 it nearly succeeded in assassinating Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the opposition and later Spain's prime minister. On September 16, 1998, the organization declared a \"unilateral and indefinite\" cease-fire, raising hopes that its campaign was at an end. ETA called off the cease-fire in November 1999, however, and 2000 saw a sharp escalation in violence. Another unilateral cease-fire was declared in March 2005, with ETA raising hopes for a lasting peace by declaring it \"permanent.\" It was called off by ETA in June 2006 following numerous more ETA attacks. At the center of the struggle is a region know as Euskal Herria in Basque. The area straddles the western end of the Pyrenees, covering 20,664 square kilometers in northern Spain and southern France. See map of territory claimed by Basque separatists . Spain officially recognizes three Basque provinces, Alava, Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya. A fourth neighboring province, Navarra, is of Basque heritage. Separatists consider these four provinces plus three in France -- Basse Navarre, Labourd and Soule -- as the Basque country, with a population approaching 3 million. The area has always possessed a fiercely independent instinct. The Basque people are the oldest indigenous ethnic group in Europe and have lived uninterrupted in the same region since the beginning of recorded history. Their language, Euskera, which is spoken regularly by about 40 percent of Basque inhabitants, bears no relation to any other Indo-European tongue and dates back to before the Romans arrived in Spain. For many centuries the Basques of Spain enjoyed a strong degree of autonomy. The Basque region's hilly landscape helped keep its people isolated from outside influences. In the Spanish Civil War, two Basque provinces -- Guipuzcoa and Viscaya -- fought against Gen. Francisco Franco, while the provinces of Alava and Navarra fought for Franco. Under Franco's dictatorship (1939-75), most of the Basque region had its remaining autonomy rescinded. Its culture, people and language were suppressed. ETA and its demands for an independent Basque state arose in 1959 in the midst of this suppression. ETA has focused its activities on the Spanish side of the border. For many years France provided a safe haven for ETA members, a situation that began to change in the mid-1980s. The organization has financed its campaign through kidnapping, bank robbery and a so-called \"revolutionary tax\" on Basque businesses -- a payment widely regarded as plain extortion. According to the counter-terrorism office of the U.S. State Department, ETA members received training in Libya, Lebanon and Nicaragua, while the group also enjoyed close links with the Irish Republican Army. The Good Friday peace accord influenced ETA to call its cease-fire in 1998.","highlights":"Basque separatist group ETA formed in 1959 began violent campaign in 1968 .\nMost recent cease-fire collapsed in 2007 despite pledges of permanence .\nGroup blamed for more than 800 deaths, including many civilians .","id":"a3ca83020d849f89f4f58e200b8412e113351c59"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. troops have launched a \"major operation\" against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials announced in Afghanistan early Thursday. U.S. Marines gather for a briefing in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. About 4,000 Americans, mostly from the Marines, and 650 Afghan soldiers and police launched Operation Khanjar -- \"strike of the sword\" -- in the Helmand River valley, the U.S. command in Kabul announced. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it follows a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said. It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official said the size and scope of the new operation are \"very significant.\" \"It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level,\" the official said. \"In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan.\" Helmand Province, where much of the fighting is taking place, has been a hotbed of Taliban violence in recent months. At least 25 U.S. and British troops have been killed there in 2009. The defense official said the operation is a \"tangible indication\" of the new approach that McChrystal -- a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command -- is bringing to the nearly eight-year war. \"They're not just doing an offensive push to get bad guys; they're going in to hold the area and stay there,\" the official said. \"This approach is indicative of McChrystal's philosophy: measuring success by the number of Afghans protected, not bad guys killed.\" The Obama administration has moved about 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the war launched after the September 11 attacks. During his confirmation hearing in June, McChrystal told senators that the conflict requires a new focus on counterinsurgency to reduce violence and build support for the U.S.-led NATO alliance among Afghans. \"Although I expect stiff fighting ahead, the measure of success will not be enemy killed. It will be shielding the Afghan population from violence,\" he said. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan before its allies in the al Qaeda terrorist network attacked New York and Washington in 2001. Though quickly toppled after the attacks, its leaders escaped, and the movement regrouped in the Afghan countryside and across the border in Pakistan. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"4,000 American troops, 650 Afghans involved in Operation Khanjar .\nIt focuses on Helmand River valley, hotbed of Taliban violence .\nOperation's size and scope are \"very significant,\" official says .","id":"201eac1fecd4239697eb95c5a6fab2b2a8cdad1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Pentagon has revolutionized warfare during the past decade, making unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs, a staple of modern combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. A USAF technician at Creech Air Force Base, checks Hellfire missile attachments on a Predator. Remotely-controlled drones, such as the Predator and the Reaper, have allowed the U.S. military to spy on and attack enemy combatants without putting their own forces at risk, thereby making UAVs a must-have. \"The real advantage of unmanned aerial systems is they allow you to project power without projecting vulnerability,\" says USAF Lt. Gen. David Deptula at the Pentagon. But as USAF commanders try to provide enough pilots to take charge of drones, many are considering another aspect of the warfare revolution -- the psychological impact on those controlling the vehicles. As Dr. Kory Cornum, a USAF colonel, explains: \"Whereas we have thousands of years of data on what it's like to go to war really, we only have a few years of data on what it's like to go to war virtually. And so we don't have really enough data.\" Pilots are now dealing with something never experienced before -- a rapid transition from intense combat to home comfort, often in less than an hour. Some describe it as a version of post-traumatic stress disorder, often more associated with soldiers directly in harm's way. Peter Singer, an adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign team and author of \"Wired for War,\" described one encounter with a frustrated non-commissioned officer. \"She actually banged the table, saying: 'No one is paying attention to this issue of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] among my men and women, no one's paying attention to it,\" Singer says. \"And she talked about a scene where they were flying a drone above a set of U.S. soldiers that were killed and the drone was unarmed at the time and they couldn't do anything about it. They just circled above and they watched U.S. soldiers die in front of them.\" Watch the debate about the impact of UAVs on pilots \u00bb . USAF fighter pilots like Major Morgan Andrews remotely control drones from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Less than an hour after targeting he'll be back in suburban Las Vegas, his drive home more physically dangerous than the combat mission he has just undertaken. Commanders at Creech say that if there is stress, it comes from relentless around-the-clock shift work. Andrews says that like any good pilot he has learned to compartmentalize his life, using his commute to and from work to transition. \"I think about work, I think about what happened,\" Andrews explains, \"what I could've done better, anything I maybe did wrong that I could've done differently, how could I do it better next time. I just kind of go through it and usually, by the time I get home, I've sorted it all through my mind and stick it away in a file and go on with life.\" For Andrews, fighting from Nevada more than outweighs the drawbacks of long overseas deployments, allowing him to enjoy life at home with his family and friends. Cornum adds that the drive home is more of a blessing than anyone realized. \"It does give you some amount of time, as opposed to if you lived on base and you could literally walk out of war and into your house,\" he says. \"I don't know if 30 minutes is enough. But it gives you time to decompress.\" But conducting remote warfare, as Cornum explains, brings with it stress that vary from those usually experienced by troops. \"The big difference is that when you are actually deployed, you are with all your battle buddies who are experiencing the thing 24\/7. Whereas when you go home, you go home to your family, to your neighbors, who are not in the battle all the time. And that's good and bad.\"","highlights":"Robotic warfare allows pilots to control armed vehicles without risk to themselves .\nMilitary experts are now looking at the psychological impact this may have on pilots .\nPilots now transition from battlefield to home environment in less than an hour .\nSome pilots welcome operating from the U.S. rather than being deployed overseas .","id":"5d8adfb47ea566b7f254d5f62478b6d83aa7f01c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Man-made climate change threatens to stress water resources, challenge crops and livestock, raise sea levels and adversely affect human health, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Tuesday. Farmers and workers in central California are suffering through the third year of a worsening drought. The nearly 200-page document on global climate change -- released by the White House science adviser and mandated by Congress -- does not include new research, but encompasses several recent studies on the effects of global warming over the last half century. Among the report's key findings are an \"unequivocal and primarily human-induced\" rise in the Earth's temperature of 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 50 years, and a projection of more rapidly changing temperatures over the next several decades. \"It's not just a problem for the future,\" said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. \"We're beginning to see the impact on our daily lives.\" The continuing temperature rise is likely to spur a series of negative consequences for the Earth's energy supply, water, transportation, ecosystems and health, the study said. \"[The report] tells us why remedial action is needed sooner rather than later, as well as showing why that action must include both global emissions reductions to reduce the extent of climate change and local adaptation measures to reduce the damage from the changes that are no longer avoidable,\" said John P. Holdren, the White House science adviser. Among the study's specific predictions: Longer and more intense heat waves; increased heavy downpours likely to cause widespread complications such as flooding and waterborne diseases; reduced summer runoff, creating greater competition for water, especially in the West; rising ocean water temperatures that will threaten coral reefs; an increase in wildfires and insect infestations; and more frequent coastal flooding caused by rising seas. The report is the first in almost a decade to break down impacts of climate change on regions and economic sectors of the United States. For example, warming trends in coming decades are expected to reduce the lobster catch in the waters of the Northeast, increase the intensity of hurricanes in the Southeast and accelerate drought in the Southwest, it said. Authors of the comprehensive report said they hope it can serve as a valuable tool for policymakers and other Americans, such as farmers making crop decisions or local governments passing zoning restrictions in coastal areas. The report comes as Congress debates a White House-backed climate change bill that seeks to reduce the United State's greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a so-called \"cap and trade\" program. The bill cleared a key House committee vote in May and could be considered by the entire chamber within the next two weeks, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. The bill's future remains unclear in the Senate, where leaders are holding off advancing their own version of the legislation until it clears the lower chamber.","highlights":"Man-made climate change is adversely affecting the U.S., says a federal report .\nReport: Changes will stress water resources, challenge crops and raise sea levels .\nDocument is released by White House science adviser and mandated by Congress .\nReport's predictions: Hotter heat waves, more flooding and an increase in wildfires .","id":"14dc4f7acb9feae8cc936c424476d8af6c497334"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A woman asked Rep. Allen Boyd at a town hall meeting the other day if health care reform proposals would force people to let the government access their bank accounts. False rumors about health care have been aired at town hall meetings, like this one in Maryland last week. \"That's not true,\" the Florida Democrat responded. \"When someone sends you something on the Internet that sounds crazy, how about just checking it a little bit?\" The CNN Truth Squad, which fact-checks political claims, has debunked the bank-access rumor as false. Yet that claim, and others that have been disproved, keep coming up in the national debate on health care reform, inflaming an already emotional issue. Heated protests have disrupted town hall meetings nationwide, with people shouting at legislators and venting anger at President Obama. While the anger is genuine, some of it is based on misunderstandings of the actual proposals, said Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy expert at Emory University. \"People are freaked out because there's a lot of bad information and misinformation being ... put out there by opponents of health care reform,\" Thorpe told CNN. Obama and the Democrats say misleading information sows fear and anger, particularly among senior citizens who are worried about how changes in health care could affect Medicare. The White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have set up Web campaigns to refute what they describe as provably false information. \"It is now evident that an ugly campaign is under way not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue,\" Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote in a recent commentary. Republican opponents respond that the emotional reaction is due to Democratic efforts to rush through legislation that amounts to a government takeover of the health care system. They say the proposals eventually will lead to a system that rations treatment based on an individual's ability to contribute to society. \"We've actually started a national debate about exactly what is at stake here,\" Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Wednesday. Speaking on MSNBC, Steele said the town hall meetings across the country are reflecting that debate. However, when asked directly about one of the most controversial statements by some Republicans -- that a House bill would create \"death panels\" to decide who gets treatment -- Steele refused to acknowledge that such language was misinformation. The CNN Truth Squad determined the \"death panel\" claim was false, along with others spread by conservative commentators and activist groups who say Democratic proposals would promote euthanizing elderly Americans and mandate free health insurance for illegal immigrants. One of the most disputed provisions, contained in a House health care proposal, would pay doctors for consultations with patients on end-of-life issues, such as living wills. The proposal is similar to one originally written by Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia. Opponents have implied or said outright that consultations would be required -- even though the proposal says they would be voluntary. Some Republicans and Democrats have rejected the \"death panel\" language, but the issue keeps coming up. At a town hall meeting Tuesday night in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, powerful House Democrat Rep. Barney Frank called the notion that health care legislation required killing elderly people \"the single stupidest thing I've heard.\" Obama says the misinformation confuses people over an already complex issue that requires public understanding. \"The notion that somehow I ran for public office or members of Congress are in this so that they can go around pulling the plug on grandma ... when you start making arguments like that, it's simply dishonest,\" the president recently said. Wendell Potter, a former insurance company communications executive, told CNN that the insurance industry deliberately spreads false information with the goal of disrupting the debate. The insurance industry hires public relations firms that create front groups to try to \"destroy health care reform by using terms like 'government takeover of the health care system' or we are heading down a 'slippery slope toward socialism' or 'we're going to kill your grandpa' because of these health care regulations,\" said Potter, now a senior fellow at the Center for Media and Democracy, which calls itself a nonpartisan watchdog group on public relations spin. Asked to respond to Potter's accusation, the director of strategic communications at America's Health Insurance Plans, Robert Zirkelbach, acknowledged in an e-mail Wednesday that the group opposes some aspects of Democratic health care proposals. \"We have been very clear and up front since day one about our opposition to a government-run insurance plan that would dismantle employer coverage, bankrupt hospitals, and increase the federal deficit,\" Zirkelbach's e-mail said. He denied that employees of his group, which is the national association of health insurers, were \"responsible for disruptive and inappropriate tactics at health care town hall meetings.\" However, some of the language cited by Potter is used by politicians, including Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who told the NBC program \"Meet the Press\" on Sunday that \"the Democrats want a government plan, where the government will take over health care.\" Democratic proposals call for creating a government-funded health insurance plan for people who otherwise lack coverage. That is the so-called public option, which they say would compete with private insurers. Hatch and other Republicans argue the public option would create a subsidized competitor that would drive private insurers out of business, leading to the government taking over the health care system. Though Democrats deny that Republican assertion, it touches on broader fears among conservatives. Many conservatives consider the proposed health care overhaul an irresponsible and dangerous expansion of the federal government. They liken it to socialist-style control over private issues, at a cost of nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. At the same time, Americans facing an economic recession and costly government responses -- such as the $787 billion economic stimulus package and billions more paid to bail out the financial services and auto industries -- are fearful of further change and additional federal debt. Such concerns come up repeatedly at the town hall meetings held by Democrats and Republicans. The deficit recently topped $1 trillion for the first time; Obama has said he hopes to cut it in half by the end of his first term. \"When the economy is hurting, people are more inclined, I think, to be skeptical, nervous,\" Frank said. The misinformation, while refuted, has brought changes in the debate. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh exulted Monday when Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said that Senate negotiators dropped the end-of-life consultation provision from their proposal because Grassley said he worried it \"could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.\" Limbaugh said on his radio show that no matter what the health care proposals say, they will result in less money available for health care. \"It will forever transform the relationship between Americans,\" he said. \"We will instantly become rivals. We're going to become competitors vying against each other for precious health care dollars.\" Grassley, who is one of three Republicans negotiating a possible bipartisan health care agreement, has used controversial language himself. He told a town hall meeting last week he couldn't support a provision that would \"pull the plug on grandma.\" Former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle called such comments part of the problem. \"It's hyperbolic, it's fear-mongering, it's actually politics at its worst,\" Daschle said Sunday on NBC's \"Meet the Press.\" \"That's the kind of thing that generates the kind of anger and fear and anxiety that people have today.\"","highlights":"Claims that have been debunked continue to pop up in town hall meetings, protests .\nDems say \"ugly campaign\" under way to misrepresent proposals, disrupt debate .\nGOP says Dems trying to rush through a bill that eventually would lead to rationing .\nEnd-of-life provision that sparked \"death panel\" rumor dropped from Senate version .","id":"800265d8f5c8c56158e041fd9a981a0038ddd98e"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI preached and greeted well-wishers Sunday, three days after breaking his wrist in a fall. The pope celebrates mass with his broken wrist in plaster. He held the text of his speech in his uninjured left hand, then circulated among the crowd who came to hear him in Romano Canavese, pictures from the northern Italian town showed. The 82-year-old pope had surgery on his right wrist after he fell Thursday night, spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told CNN on Friday. The pope is \"learning\" to live with his cast, Lombardi told Vatican Radio. The most painful aspect of the incident for Benedict is having to give up writing by hand, which he had intended to do frequently during his annual vacation Italy's Val d'Aosta region, Lombardi told the official Vatican station. \"I know that here, too, in the Ivera region, many families are facing economic hard times due to a lack of work,\" he said, referring to the now-defunct Olivetti typewriter manufacturer in the region. \"Dear friend, do not be discouraged,\" he added, according to Agence-France Presse. \"Providence always helps those who do the right thing and seek justice; it also helps those who think not only of themselves, but also think of those in worse situations than their own.\"","highlights":"Pope preaches and greeted well-wishers, three days after breaking his wrist .\nBenedict XVI had surgery on his right wrist after he fell Thursday night .\nMost painful aspect for pope is having to stop writing by hand, spokesman says .","id":"a3267d136e6ff6cec08ab9b092f4cb6c97795318"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Many Google users probably didn't notice this month that they can now display their search tips in the Hawaiian language. Hawaiian is one of more than 125 \"interface languages\" now available on Google. Wedged between Hausa and Hebrew, Hawaiian is one of more than 125 \"interface languages\" now available on Google. The list also includes some humorous twists on English, including \"pirate,\" \"Klingon\" and \"Elmer Fudd.\" But for Hawaiian educators, the addition of Hawaiian is a small step toward legitimizing a language that is considered \"critically endangered\" by the United Nations. \"It's the capstone of a lot of work,\" said Keola Donaghy, an assistant professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. \"We've been doing this work for 18 years, simply trying to make it easier for people who speak Hawaiian to use these kinds of technologies.\" It marks the first native American language available through the \"Google in Your Language\" program. Getting started . It took Donaghy several years to get the project off the ground through the \"Google in Your Language\" program, which was launched by the California-based company not long after it was founded in 1998. \"The idea was to enable users worldwide to be able to access Google in the language of their choice, and if it wasn't available, to enable users to help make it so,\" Google spokesman Nate Tyler said. \"Why limit users to a set of dominant languages if they were willing to help make Google their own?\" The results of the search are still in English, although the user can select a preference for Web pages written in more than 40 other main languages. Google works with linguists like Donaghy who are interested in translating search instructions into their language. \"Volunteers sign up on their own to provide translation,\" Tyler explained. \"They simply sign themselves up, declare a language proficiency, and then start translating or reviewing the products that are available for volunteer translation. \"When the translations are completed, we make the product(s) available in that language. Recent other languages like this include Maori language.\" It was the Maori project, launched last year, that actually helped get Donaghy's initiative off the ground. Three years ago, Donaghy started e-mailing and calling Google about a Hawaiian language project, but he got no response. He put the project on hold until last year. \"When I heard the Maori version came out, I asked Google about it,\" Donaghy said. \"Apparently the original (language) coordinator had gone and as soon as a new coordinator was brought online, they set up the system.\" Donaghy began working on the massive translation project sometime late last year. \"It was whenever I could find an hour or two in between teaching or other duties,\" he said. \"It was a combination of personal and work time.\" He spent more than 100 hours translating the search terms that appear on the Google page into Hawaiian through the program. \"I did the actual translation from beginning to end, and then I consulted with my colleagues at the university who have worked on these projects in the past,\" Donaghy said. \"I wanted to be very consistent -- such as how you say 'Go to this menu and select this' -- or people may become confused.\" What's Hawaiian for 'browsing' the Web'? Some of the Hawaiian words for terms such as \"links\" or \"Web browser\" had already been established when Donaghy and others worked on translating the Netscape Navigator search engine in 1997. \"Over the years, we usually face the debate of do we want to 'Hawaiianize' an English word, or take an old Hawaiian word and give it a new meaning,\" he said. He explained some of the challenges in translating terms, such as \"browsing\" or \"surfing,\" into Hawaiian. \"People use the term 'surf the Internet' and they'll say 'he'e nalu' which is literally surfing the ocean out on a board,\" he explained. \"But we use 'kele,' which is what you do when you're steering a canoe. So we chose that as you're navigating the net.\" Donaghy finished the translation project in April, but there were issues with the code for the search engine that would not activate the Hawaiian language interface. The Hawaiian language interface actually launched on Apple's Safari browser first because Donaghy had worked with Apple to ensure that the language's diacritical marks and characters were available on the company's computers. \"Now, it comes with every computer that they ship,\" he said. See and hear phrases in Hawaiian \u00bb . Some Apple computer users who had selected Hawaiian as their primary language for other programs noticed a couple of weeks ago that Google's search terms started appearing in Hawaiian, too. \"People started calling me and asking, 'Did you hack into my computer? My Google is in Hawaiian,'\" Donaghy said. \"And that was the point I said, 'OK, word is getting out about this' and I put out a news release. I was afraid someone was going to start freaking out, 'Why is my computer in Hawaiian?'\" Important milestone for Hawaii's culture . The initiative is an important milestone for Hawaiian linguists and cultural educators who have pushed to have their native language taught in schools alongside English. It wasn't until the 1980s that the law banning the Hawaiian language from being taught in schools was overturned. The law was established in the late 19th century as a prerequisite to Hawaii becoming a U.S. territory. Today, more and more Hawaiians are studying and majoring in Hawaiian language programs. There are Hawaiian language immersion programs in which English is taught as a second language. Mona Wood, a Hawaiian speaker and owner of a public relations firm in Honolulu, said there has been a kind of Hawaiian language \"renaissance\" in the state since the late 1970s. \"Even tourism has been learning and growing and realizing that our 'host culture' must be added to the visitor experience,\" Wood said. \"There are many more programs available at hotels and shopping malls that weren't there 20 years ago.\" Wood said that when she studied Hawaiian in college, it was under the foreign languages department. \"It has been so wonderful to see so many of our youth embrace the native culture and see the programs expand to the point where there is an entire Hawaiian Studies Department,\" she said. \"One can now get a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) and M.A. (Master of Arts) in Hawaiian language.\" Wood -- who owns Ikaika Communications, which represents local officials, local and national companies and celebrities including Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman -- said that when she was growing up, \"Our culture was dying in every way.\" \"Learning my roots came through my own curiosity -- choosing to take hula lessons when my mom wanted me to take piano,\" she said. \"Then I went to the Hawaiian High School, Kamehameha, and continued with some Hawaiian classes and joined a club at UH (University of Hawaii). \"Seeing Hawaiian knowledge becoming an asset over the years has been truly satisfying,\" she said. Donaghy hopes the Google initiative is another step toward giving Hawaiian \"the same status as English and other major European and Asian languages\" -- particularly in the fast-moving sector of technology. \"To me personally it's very important that we are giving the opportunity to have as many things in Hawaiian as in English,\" he said. \"So if we had not begun to address technology in the early 1990s, we would be telling people that this is a place where Hawaiian doesn't belong. You have to revert to English. \"We didn't want to send that kind of message so we've worked to make the language more accessible.\"","highlights":"Google search terms now available in Hawaiian .\nKeola Donaghy spent 100 hours translating for \"Google in Your Language\" program .\nHawaiian is considered a \"critically endangered\" language by the U.N.\nIt is the only native American language available in Google search preferences .","id":"80fbbeaee790a3dbc63295a40de8a80f3228dacb"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two separate militant assaults Saturday in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika led to the deaths of two U.S. soldiers and at least 42 insurgents, military officials said. U.S. Marines, under fire from a building, move to take it Saturday in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The soldiers died when Taliban fighters attacked a base in Zerok that houses members of the U.S. military, Afghan national police and Afghan National Army, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Hamidullah Zawak. He said the Taliban first detonated a truck full of explosives, then attacked the base with missiles and rockets. The military responded by sending in aircraft and dropping bombs, killing 32 Taliban fighters and wounding many, Zawak said, without giving a number. Seven of the wounded Taliban fighters were arrested. Zawak said one U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded. Sgt. Chuck Marsh, however, a U.S. military spokesman, said two U.S. service members were killed and four wounded. Two soldiers from the Afghan National Army were also hurt, Zawak said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to a CNN stringer in Kabul. Several hours later, at least 10 militants were killed and one detained in an assault on a combat outpost in the province. Insurgents attacked with indirect fire, including multiple rockets and mortars -- at least one of which contained white phosphorous -- small-arms fire and a car bomb, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Soldiers from ISAF and the Afghan National Army fired back, aided by planes and attack helicopters. No civilian casualties were reported. In other developments in and around Paktika: . \u2022 On Saturday, a suicide car bomb detonated near a private security company in Lashkar Gah city in Helmand province. One person was killed and five were wounded, said Assadullah Sherzad, Helmand provincial police chief. \u2022 The U.S.-led Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, is targeting Taliban militants in Helmand province, near Paktika in southern Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers are trying to rout the Taliban from strongholds in the Helmand River Valley. The operation began early Thursday. Helmand's poppy crop produces more than half of the opium cultivated in Afghanistan, the source of 90 percent of the global supply, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The revenues help support the Taliban. \u2022 On Tuesday, a U.S. soldier was abducted in Paktika province. The Taliban claimed responsibility. A senior U.S. military official later said the soldier was being held by the militant Haqqani clan, a Taliban-affiliated network led by warlord Siraj Haqqani. The Haqqanis -- who operate on both sides of the Afghan and Pakistani borders -- are well-known to the U.S. military, which said it was using all means to locate the soldier, whose name has not been released. CNN's Atia Abawi and reporter Wahidullah Mayar contributed to this report.","highlights":"Taliban attacks base in Paktika province; two U.S. troops killed .\nInsurgents detonated explosives-laden truck, later launched rockets at base .\nAt least 32 Taliban fighters killed in response to attack .\nTen militants killed during assault on a combat outpost in Paktika province .","id":"c36f2e0461a14eff965c5e19213775030d2553ec"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau, the last two months have been a whirlwind. \"Full of the best moments and the scariest moments of my life,\" says the 24-year-old Olympic swimmer. Eric Shanteau said he felt angry when he found out he had testicular cancer. \"Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, 'I want to make an Olympic team. That's where I want to be'.\" In June, a week before the qualifying round of the Olympics he was told he had testicular cancer. \"My initial reaction was probably anger more than anything else,\" he says. \"I'm used to being in control of everything. I'm in control of how I train, how I race and then to all of a sudden have that control ripped away from me was tough.\" After weeks of tests to determine the \"stage\" or spread of the cancer, Shanteau's team of doctors cleared him to compete in the Beijing Olympics, which meant carefully monitoring his tumor but delaying treatment. Though putting off the surgery was controversial to some, Eric says it was an educated choice based on numerous doctor evaluations. \"I hope people understand that if I was in a different position with my test results, then I wouldn't have put off having surgery.\" He swam a personal best in the 200 meter breaststroke. He did not qualify for the finals. Cancer was a motivator, he says, because he knew it meant he could be facing his last competition. He put everything he had into that heat. \"Leave it all in the pool, and I don't look back and regret anything as far as how I raced.\" Once back from Beijing, Shanteau invited CNN to spend time with him the night before his surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Though admittedly a little scared, he spent the evening relaxing with his family, cooking dinner, walking the dog. A source of inspiration, he says, were fans who shared their stories of beating cancer. \"They send me their story and it helps me to learn that people are going through the same thing I am all over the world,\" says Shanteau. \"They all affect me in a different way and it's been really encouraging to share in this experience with other people.\" Testicular cancer will be diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime. It is the most common form of cancer for 15- to 34-year-olds. It is also one of the most curable if discovered early. Nearly 140,000 men in the United States are testicular cancer survivors. Shanteau says he experienced no symptoms of cancer and came across the tumor by chance. \"I've been in a Speedo half my life,\" he says. \"So I am really comfortable with my body. One day I just felt something that wasn't suppose to be there. I decided to go and get it checked out.\" He adds that although he had the \"greatest excuse in the world\" -- an Olympic dream -- to ignore the lump, he understood the importance of early detection. Shanteau's father Rick, is battling lung cancer and responding well to treatment. \"A lot of guys, if they hear a rattle in their car, they're at the mechanic the next day,\" he says. \"But if they feel something [physically] that they don't think should be there, it takes them a year to get to their doctor and that's just is not smart . There's really no excuse because it can save your life.\" Fast forward to Shanteau's recent operation at Emory University Hospital. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was with Shanteau during the surgery and spoke with the lead surgeon, Dr. Jeff Carney, moments afterward. \"I think the operation went very well,\" Carney said. \"Eric's a very healthy young man, very thin, in excellent shape. That makes my job easy.\" Later that week, Shanteau's pathology results revealed that the operation removed the most of the cancer. \"The majority of it is gone.\" he tells CNN. \"There is a small chance it could come back but I shouldn't need chemotherapy at this point, so I am really optimistic.\" His treatment plan is to keep a close eye on his health for the next year with regular medical tests. \"Obviously, it would have been nice if the doctor said, 'You're completely in the clear,' but my results are exactly what the doctors expected.\" Eric says the cancer diagnosis gave him a different perspective on life. \"I appreciate life much more now,\" he says. \"I don't let myself get upset about the little nitpicky things anymore. Food even seems to taste better. It is really great.\" As for Shanteau's swimming career, he plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome. \"2012 [the next Olympics] is a push for me. Right now I'm just kind of taking it year by year and we'll see what happens.\"","highlights":"Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau found out about his cancer in June .\nHe delayed treatment so he could compete in the games in Beijing .\nTesticular cancer will be diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime .\nHe plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome .","id":"215074b43ca389bf8b89c6448f84ffc8bd098bdb"} -{"article":"BURBANK, California (CNN) -- Jay Leno ended his 17-year reign as the host of \"The Tonight Show\" Friday with the children of people who met and started families while working at the long-running late-night show during his tenure, according to audience members who attended the taping. Jay Leno stands with the children of people who met and started families while working on the show. \"Jay said that's what he wanted his legacy to be,\" said Kevin Anthony of Miami, Florida. \"His staff members, from stage managers to runners, who met, got married and had kids joined Jay on the stage and he took a picture with the 70 kids of those parents.\" \"Jay also thanked his wife,\" said Kathy Young of Los Angeles, \"Jay said, when these kids are asked what was the 'Tonight Show' about, I want them to say, my parents met while working on the show and they had me. And that's what the 'Tonight Show' was all about.\" Others in the audience said the show was about celebration. \"It was amazing,\" said Justin Herring from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. \"It was a celebration more than emotional,\" he said. \"It didn't feel like a last show, more like a transition.\" Rosa Moore from Denver, Colorado, said Leno became teary-eyed when James Taylor sang \"Sweet Baby James.\" \"When James Taylor sang the line, 'I'm 10 miles from Boston with a thousand miles more to go,' Jay wiped his eye,\" said Moore. \"Jay explained that when he left Boston for Los Angeles, he was just outside of Boston when he heard that line and it gave him the courage to keep going,\" she said. \"It's like the song is Jay's personal soundtrack.\" Leno will be back in the fall with a new prime time show, and he's taking most of his staff with him. The new show will have some of the same elements as \"The Tonight Show\" but with some new features. Conan O'Brien, Leno's first guest Friday night, will be taking over \"The Tonight Show\" hosting duties beginning Monday.","highlights":"Leno brings out kids of those who met, married while working on his show .\nAudience members say show also includes song by James Taylor .\nConan O'Brien, Leno's first guest, takes over show Monday .\nLeno moves to prime time in the fall .","id":"32b452f7f48b7c385da39d44723c68a50ca52f9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Typhoon Morakot dumped heavy rain on Taiwan early Saturday and threatened to further soak the recently drought-stricken island. A man fights against strong winds in Hsintien, Taipei county, Taiwan, on Friday. As of 3 a.m. local time, the storm's eye was over the northern part of the island, CNN forecaster Kevin Corriveau reported, although he noted that slow-moving Morakot is so large it encompassed the entire island. Journalist Andrew Lee in Taipei, citing local media, said the storm had blown off roofs and washed out some bridges. Corriveau said the island has received more than 39 inches (99 centimeters) of rain from the storm, which he said was expected to dump another 39 to 47 inches (99 to 119 centimeters) of rain on Taiwan. The storm made landfall carrying winds of up to 92 mph (148 km\/h), with gusts up to 115 mph (185 km\/h), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. iReport.com: See balcony view of heavy rains . Corriveau said the storm was expected to linger over the island for several more hours, and the southern portion of Morakot would likely be passing over Taiwan for hours after that. The storm's impact had already been felt by Friday morning, with mudslides and landslides occurring on the island. The area has been severely affected by drought in recent months, leaving the ground so hard that it does not absorb the rainfall, Corriveau said. Taiwan's Central News Agency, acknowledging the drought, cited the Water Resources Agency as saying that the storm had replenished the island's reservoirs and would put an end to water rationing in several areas. Watch more about the typhoon's impact \u00bb . The storm prompted airlines to cancel flights. Schools and government offices were closed ahead of Morakot's arrival, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. Trading at the Taiwan Stock Exchange was also postponed until Monday, the news agency reported. In China, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that governments in coastal provinces were readying themselves for the storm and had ordered fishing boats to seek shelter before Thursday night. In Fujian province, about 8.4 million text messages had been sent to citizens warning them to prepare for the typhoon, Xinhua reported. More than 900 people, including Chinese and foreign tourists, have been evacuated from the resort of Nanji Island off east China, the news agency reported. CNN's Brandon Miller contributed to this report.","highlights":"Island gets more than 39 inches of rain; 47 inches more possible .\nAirlines cancel flights; schools, government offices, stock exchange closed .\nMore than 900 people evacuated from resort of Nanji Island off east China .","id":"73975542d370a186f44d69b486bcb7728b75a569"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From the time she was an 11-year-old, blue-eyed, freckle-faced blonde until she was a 29-year-old woman with two children, Jaycee Dugard was kept locked away in a backyard compound of sheds and tarps by a couple who police say abducted her. Jaycee Dugard was locked in a shed tucked under a blue tarp in her alleged captor's backyard. She was more than 160 miles from home, and her family had no idea where she was. Nobody else knew she was there except the couple who snatched her off the street in front of her house in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991, and took her straight to the soundproof shed, police said. Dugard's pocket of Phillip and Nancy Garrido's backyard in Antioch, California, was so overgrown no one even knew it existed. The details about Dugard's time in captivity emerged Thursday after one of Northern California's most enduring mysteries was solved and the Garridos were arrested and accused of her kidnapping. Anyone who came across the couple's backyard, littered with garbage cans and a dishwasher, would assume that it ended at a 6-foot fence. Watch aerial images of the backyard compound \u00bb . \"You could walk through the backyard and never know there was another set of living circumstances,\" said Fred Kollar, undersheriff of El Dorado County. \"There was nothing that would cause you to question it. You can't see it from either adjoining property. It was presumably well arranged.\" But tucked away beyond the tangle of bushes, high grass and trees was a blue tarp that concealed the only world Dugard had known since her abduction. Kollar said the property had \"a hidden backyard within a backyard.\" It included several sheds no taller than 6 feet, two tents and several outbuildings, \"where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives.\" It also held a vehicle that matched the description of the car used in Dugard's kidnapping, Kollar said. The \"secondary\" backyard was inside the first and was \"screened from view.\" One of the sheds was soundproof, he said. In it were sheds and tarps, a makeshift bathroom and shower, along with electricity supplied by extension cords. Kollar compared the primitive conditions to camping. Dugard lived for several years there by herself. The sheds were locked from the outside. She grew up and had her captor's children there, and raised them there. \"None of them have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor,\" Kollar said. \"They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will, at the rear of the house,\" he said. \"They were born there.\" The children, both girls, are now 15 and 11. \"They are all in good health,\" Kollar said in response to a question about how Dugard and her children are doing. \"But living in a backyard for the last 18 years does take its toll.\" Dugard's presence behind Garrido's home apparently went unnoticed by many in the neighborhood, where homes on one-fourth to one-half-acre lots typically sell for less than $200,000. Watch neighbors react \u00bb . \"My dad said he never saw a young woman,\" said Kathy Russo, whose father has lived two houses away from the Garridos for 33 years. She said the one-story house's backyard was obscured by trees and ringed by a wooden fence. Her 94-year-old father considered Garrido to be a \"kind of strange, reclusive, kind of an angry kind of guy,\" Russo said. But one man who lives in the neighborhood told CNN that he called the local sheriff's department a few years ago after seeing what he thought were several children living in the backyard. The man said authorities came out and had a brief conversation with the Garrido family, but nothing ever happened.","highlights":"NEW: Neighbor says he once called police after seeing children in backyard .\nJaycee Dugard locked in soundproof sheds in alleged captor's backyard for 18 years .\nCompound of sheds, tarps equipped with makeshift bathroom and shower .\nAuthorities: Dugard was \"kept in complete isolation in this compound\"","id":"8795d207253546308c8c0d2892a478c4f0725c2b"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations is calling on NATO to do more to stop the Afghan opium trade after a new survey showed how the drug dominates Afghanistan's economy. Afghan villagers tend to opium poppies in Taliban-controlled Helmand province in April 2007. The report from the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime shows the export value of this year's poppy harvest stood at around $4 billion, a 29 per cent increase over 2006. Despite Afghan security forces' efforts to curb the trade, 660 tons of heroin and morphine were trafficked out of the country in 2007, the report said. Opium is derived from poppies, and the data on cultivation was collected by examining satellite images and by assessments on the ground. The report said opium has accounted for more than half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2007. InvestorWords.com defines GDP as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, usually a calendar year. According to the U.N. survey, about a quarter of the earnings from opium go to farmers. The rest goes to district officials who collect taxes on the crop, to drug traffickers and to the insurgents and warlords who control the trade. Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, urged NATO to take a more active role in countering the spread of the drug trade, which has increased dramatically since the American-led invasion to remove the hard-line Islamist government of the Taliban in October 2001. \"Since drugs are funding the insurgency, NATO has a self-interest in supporting Afghan forces in destroying drug labs, markets and convoys,\" Costa said in a written statement to coincide with the release of the survey. \"Destroy the drug trade and you cut off the Taliban's main funding source.\" James Appathurai, a NATO spokesman, said coalition forces were equally concerned by the rapid growth in the narcotics trade. \"We share the U.N.'s concerns,\" Appathurai told CNN. \"Drugs not only poison people, but they poison economies and governments, and it is in everyone's interest to stop this proliferation.\" He said NATO forces were providing assistance to Afghan police through training and transport but he said there were no plans to deploy coalition troops to intervene directly. \"The issue of whether we can do more is certainly a live discussion for NATO, but at the moment this is a matter for the Afghan government,\" Appathurai said. Farming of opium poppies has been almost eradicated in the north and west of the country, Appathurai said. However, he said, in the lawless southern provinces and especially in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand, poppy production was going on largely unchecked. According to the report, U.N. observers have noticed a proliferation of heroin labs in neighboring countries and along trafficking routes. Costa said the labs are dependent on precursor chemicals, like acetic anhydride, that must be smuggled into the region. He called for tighter controls in chemical-producing countries and stronger intelligence-sharing between Afghanistan and its neighbors. \"Drug trafficking is a transnational threat, and therefore national initiatives have their limitations,\" the U.N. drug chief said. Appathurai said the most effective way to curb the drug trade was tackling the insurgency head-on. He also said it was important to provide alternative work for poor Afghan farmers to encourage them to give up opium production. \"You cannot have eradication in isolation. If we don't give them the support to produce alternative crops, then by wiping out their opium fields, you are only creating enemies for the future,\" he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Study finds opium makes up half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product .\nAgency pushes NATO forces to attack skyrocketing problem aggressively .\nDrugs funds insurgency; poppy trade unchecked in Taliban strongholds .\nU.N. drug chief advocates providing income alternative for poppy farmers .","id":"4c6b2cc82ce86e2172bf957d5534ba34f8d4a9bf"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Brand new runways are opening at three major airports Thursday, giving the aviation community something to cheer about in a year of dismal economic and travel news. Washington Dulles International Airport's new runway opens Thursday ahead of the busy holiday travel season. Washington Dulles International Airport will get a fourth runway, its first runway addition since the airport opened in 1962. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport's new runway is part of a massive, multi-billion dollar modernization program. Previously, six of the airport's seven runways intersected. When the entire project is completed in 2014, the airport will have eight runways in parallel configurations considered safer and more efficient. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's new runway is being especially welcomed because of the region's notoriously wet climate. The airport's third runway will allow planes to take off and land two abreast during inclement weather. The current runways are too close to allow simultaneous operations in foul weather. Airport officials claim the new runway will cut delays in half. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said travelers will benefit from coast to coast. See runways at the three airports \u00bb . \"It is going to make a difference,\" Peters said. \"It is going to allow us to conduct more operations, meaning more takeoffs and landings per hour at these airports and will help move passengers efficiently through. \"That, we hope, will give travelers a good experience this holiday season,\" she said. President Bush, this week, touted the arrival of the three new runways, noting that 14 new runways will have opened during his administration. However, aviation experts warn airport infrastructure still lags behind demand, and that real estate realities in the New York area, perceived to be the epicenter of aviation delays, mean that new runways are least likely to be built where they are most needed. Watch what Web sites offer best travel deals \u00bb . \"It would really be nice if we had even one new runway\" at each of the nation's most congested airports, namely LaGuardia, Newark and JFK,\" aviation consultant Darryl Jenkins said. \"It would do an enormous amount to relieve congestion throughout the entire nation.\" iReport.com: What are your holiday travel plans? Jenkins said new runways in New York are pipe dreams because of land constraints and local opposition. \"Local opposition wins. There's no opposition that is as tough to beat down as local opposition,\" he said. Chicago O'Hare's International Airport, which has purchased more than 500 single-family homes to make room for expansion, remains in court battles with several property owners. Aviation experts argue the experience at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia demonstrate that new runways are invaluable to airlines and travelers. A new runway that opened there in 2006 has increased operations by 25 to 30 flights an hour, shaved minutes off average flight delays and saved airlines $10 million a week in fuel costs, airport officials said. Air traffic controllers are generally happy with the added concrete they will lord over. \"There's no greater supporter of runways than controllers,\" said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). \"It's reason to shout and celebrate from the rooftops.\" However, the new Dulles airport runway may not be of much benefit at the start. Controller Chris Sutherland, the NATCA representative for the Potomac Consolidated Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), explained that because only one taxiway has been completed, planes that land heading north must roll to a stop, turn around and taxi more than a mile and a half to the taxiway, costing the airlines both time and money. \"Bottom line, the users are going to fight us tooth and nail if we try to land them on that runway out there,\" Sutherland said. The airport also does not have the technology necessary to use all three parallel runways in inclement weather, he said. \"We're actually creating delays with additional new concrete and that's kind of going against why we built it in the first place,\" Sutherland said. An airport official and Department of Transportation officials said Washington-Dulles International Airport must open the new runway before it can close the center runway and complete work on the remaining taxiways. Work is scheduled for the spring. Jenkins jokingly said new runways inevitably come on line precisely when they are not needed, but he said airline delays are here to stay. \"There's every reason to believe that until we're all comfortably dead, we will all enjoy delays in air traffic,\" Jenkins said.","highlights":"New airport runways open Thursday in Seattle, Chicago and Washington .\nOfficials say new runways will make airports safer, more efficient .\nHowever, aviation experts caution airport infrastructure still lags behind demand .","id":"ddbea47f0c8d2ce36ed750fb4bd9134ffb8839fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a reality TV contestant suspected in his wife's slaying, was found hanging from a coat rack in a motel room in an apparent suicide, according to Canadian officials. Police were hunting for Ryan Alexander Jenkins after the death of Jasmine Fiore. Staff at a motel in Hope, British Columbia, found Jenkins dead, officials said. \"It was a man hanging by a belt from a coat rack,\" Kevin Walker, the manager of the budget Thunderbird Motel, told CNN affiliate CTV on Sunday. Walker said a woman, about 20 to 25 years old, dropped off Jenkins at the motel on Friday in a silver Chrysler PT Cruiser with Alberta tags. Police have not been able to identify the woman. Watch how suspect found in hotel \u00bb . Earlier Sunday, Canadian authorities said they had credible information that Jenkins was in Canada and called on him to turn himself in. He was believed to be armed and dangerous. Watch what led police to hotel room \u00bb . The nude body of Jenkins' wife, former swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore, was found last weekend in Orange County, California. CNN has not confirmed reports that the marriage was annulled. Fiore's body was found last Saturday in a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim, California. Her teeth had been extracted and fingers removed in what police said was an apparent attempt to conceal her identity. Law enforcement sources have told CNN that Fiore was identified through the serial numbers on her breast implants. Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive in San Diego at a poker game with Jenkins, the night before the body was found. Jenkins reported Fiore missing last Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said. The body was identified Monday as Fiore. While the cause of death had not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner's report indicated she was strangled. According to court records in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jenkins was charged in June with battery for allegedly striking Fiore in the arm with his fist. And in 2007, Jenkins pleaded guilty in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to assault in a separate case. He was sentenced to 15 months probation, ordered to undergo counseling for domestic violence and sex addiction and to stay away from the person involved, according to court records. Jenkins, who appeared on the VH1 show \"Megan Wants a Millionaire,\" is from Calgary. 51Minds, which produced \"Megan Wants a Millionaire,\" said Thursday in a written statement that it \"was not aware of Ryan Jenkins' record when it cast him. \"The company did have in place what it thought was a thorough vetting process that involved complete background checks by an outside company for all contestants on its shows,\" it said. \"Clearly, the process did not work properly in this case. 51 Minds is investigating what went wrong and taking steps to ensure that this sort of lapse never occurs again.\" CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Body of Ryan Jenkins found hanged in British Columbia hotel, police say .\nAuthorities say preliminary evidence points to suicide .\nBody of Jasmine Fiore, 28, found stuffed into a suitcase inside a dumpster .\nHer teeth were extracted, fingers removed, making it harder to identify body .","id":"00579a91246db0df52a7106cc6650c56c9fbc604"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World-record signing Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his debut as Real Madrid kicked off the Spanish football season with a shaky 3-2 victory at home to Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday night. Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after paying off a small chunk of his record transfer fee with a goal on his Real debut. Real's new generation of \"Galacticos\" were preceded onto the pitch by the world's fastest man Usain Bolt, with the Jamaican sprint star dribbling a ball to the delight of a packed Bernabeu crowd. Coach Manuel Pellegrini fielded seven new signings against a team who stunned Real 2-1 on the opening day last season to foreshadow a season of massive upheaval for the underachieving capital club. The first goal took just 26 minutes in coming as $92 million signing Kaka fed the ball to $50 million capture Karim Benzema, whose shot rebounded off the post and fell welcomingly to Real captain Raul to score. Ronaldo, who cost $130 million when he left Manchester United, then rose highest to meet a free-kick from $50 million midfielder Xavi Alonso but headed over the bar. Deportivo stunned the home crowd in the 30th minute when former Real striker Riki was allowed a free header to equalize in the type of defensive lapse that typified Madrid's performances last season. But while Pellegrini has obvious problems to sort out at the back, where he fielded debutants Ezequiel Garay and Raul Albiol in the absence of the suspended Pepe, he has volumes of attacking resources at the other end of the pitch. His team took the lead again in the 34th minute through Ronaldo, who coolly slotted home from the penalty spot after Raul went down under goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia's challenge following a clever pass from midfielder Lassana Diarra. However, Real could not hold onto the lead, with veteran Juan Carlos Valeron firing a leveler from the edge of the area just 43 seconds into the second half following a cross by Andres Guardado. Valeron should have made it 3-2 with an even easier chance 12 minutes later, but he sidefooted another pass from Guardado wide of the Real goal. Real continued to pile forward in numbers, peppering the Deportivo goal, but it was the unexpected figure of Diarra who netted the eventual winner in the 60th minute with a low drive from outside the box. Benzema should have doubled the lead soon after following a mistake by Aranzubia, but saw his chip over the keeper rebound off the bar. The Frenchman made way for last season's top scorer Higuain in the 72nd minute, with the Argentine lucky to avoid being booked for a blatant dive in the penalty area. Real's rivals Barcelona start the defense of their title on Monday at home to Sporting Gijon, having already won a trophy this season by beating Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 in the European Super Cup on Friday.","highlights":"World-record signing Cristiano Ronaldo scores on his debut for Real Madrid .\nReal kick off the Spanish football season with a 3-2 win at home to Deportivo .\nRaul scores opening goal and Ronaldo's first-half penalty makes it 2-1 .\nJuan Carlos Valeron levels for visitors before Lassana Diarra's 60th-minute winner .","id":"35a46aeb76062988f2c9bbe95e60388680e849b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will reunite on stage next month to raise money to teach transcendental meditation to children around the world to \"help provide them a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world,\" McCartney said. Paul McCartney (above) and Ringo Starr are teaming up for a fund-raising concert. The star-studded list of performers who will join them include two musicians who were with the Beatles when they journeyed to India's Himalayan foothills in 1968 to learn transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. \"In moments of madness, it has helped me find moments of serenity,\" McCartney said in the concert announcement. Profits from the April 4 show at New York's Radio City Music Hall will fund the David Lynch Foundation's program, which has already taught 60,000 children around the world how to meditate, foundation spokesman Steve Yellin said. The goal of the project -- which is called \"Change Begins Within\" -- is to teach the meditation technique to a million at-risk children so they have \"life-long tools to overcome stress and violence and promote peace and success in their lives,\" Yellin said. Schools across the United States have asked the group to bring the classes to their students, he said. \"I would like to think that it would help provide them a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world,\" McCartney said. Singer-songwriter Donovan and musician Paul Horn, who studied at the Maharishi's ashram with the four Beatles, will also perform in the show. \"How great to be playing with Paul, Ringo, and Paul Horn again -- as we did in India in 1968,\" Donovan said. \"It's a real reunion after 40 years of Donovan, Paul Horn, Ringo and Paul McCartney,\" Yellin said. \"It's quite an interesting thing that they are still talking about transcendental meditation.\" Ringo left the ashram after just 10 days -- explaining the food was too spicy for his taste -- and McCartney stayed for six weeks, according to journalist Lewis Lapham in his book \"With the Beatles.\" McCartney and John Lennon wrote many of the songs for the Beatles' White Album while there, but the group disbanded within two years. The list of performers also includes Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Bettye LaVette and Jim James. Tickets go on sale Monday, March 9, through Ticketmaster.","highlights":"Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr participating in fund-raising concert .\nShow to benefit David Lynch Foundation program teaching meditation to kids .\nAlso on the bill: Donovan, Paul Horn, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder .","id":"99c3f23d43bb8cfa47b16981ce180a4ec0314211"} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Suzanne Hagelof and Iris Botros dreamed of adopting babies. Separately, they visited orphanages in Egypt. Hagelof adopted a child, and Botros was in the process of adopting twins, when they ran foul of authorities. Now they are in jail, accused of being part of a conspiracy to traffic children. Iris Botros and her husband, Luis Andros, are accused of trying to smuggle twins out of Egypt. Last week, the two women were led into a Cairo courtroom in handcuffs, along with six other people. They stood in a big black cage in the courtroom, looking apprehensive amid the hubbub. To their defenders, all they were trying to do was provide orphans with a better chance in life. To the prosecution, they were involved in forging documents to try to adopt children illegally and smuggle them out of the country. Along with the two American women, the accused include their husbands, two doctors, a nun who ran an orphanage, and an Egyptian banker. Watch the women get bundled into court \u00bb . A year ago, Hagelof, a U.S. citizen who lives in Egypt with her husband, adopted a child from an orphanage run by the Coptic Christian Church, a religious minority in Egypt. She says no money changed hands. Several months later, Luis Andros, a U.S. citizen who is originally from Greece, and his wife, Iris Botros, left their restaurant business in North Carolina for Egypt. Botros, who is originally from Egypt, visited another orphanage run by the church. She paid the orphanage about $4,600 for the twins -- partly for clothes and partly as a donation. Both women wanted to take the children to the United States -- in Hagelof's case for a visit, but in Botros' case to begin a new life in Wake Forest, North Carolina. And that's where the trouble began. To get a visa for the children, both women went to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. According to their attorneys, the documents they presented included birth certificates and certificates signed by doctors stating they were the natural mothers. According to defense attorneys, the two women knew they were using forged documents. Embassy officials became suspicious of the documents -- partly because the women seemed too old to be the mothers. Both Hagelof and Botros are in their mid- to late forties. The embassy contacted Egyptian authorities, and both Hagelof and Botros -- along with their husbands -- were arrested soon afterward, as was a nun from a Coptic orphanage and a banker who allegedly helped Botros make contact with the nun. Also arrested were two doctors who had written the certificates for the three infants, all of whom are now at an orphanage not affiliated with the church. Neither the U.S. Embassy nor the U.S. State Department will comment on the case, citing the ongoing trial. Botros' husband, Andros, blames the embassy for their plight. Asked through the bars of the courtroom cage what had happened, he replied, \"Well, our American Embassy, instead of helping the people, they put them in jail.\" His wife interjected, insisting they would not get a fair trial. A few feet away, Suzanne Hagelof called out, \"We want to tell our story,\" while her husband, Medhat, looked on, quiet and dejected. As reporters tried to talk to the defendants, a guard intervened, shouting \"Sit down, sit down.\" Adoption has long been illegal under Egyptian law as well as being forbidden under sharia, Muslim religious law. Fostering is legal but uncommon. It has become a high-profile issue since Suzanne Mubarak, wife of the president, embarked on a campaign to stamp out human trafficking. She recently told CNN that human trafficking \"exists in all societies.\" \"I came to realize what an insidious crime this was and how it was just really built on profit. On not only low morals, on no morals at all,\" she said. And that's how the prosecution seems to be framing this case, using a law passed last year that provides for tough penalties for human trafficking. Khalil Adil El Hamani, the attorney representing Hagelof, says Egyptian authorities want to prove that all the defendants are from one gang and are trafficking children, so as to make the case seem to be a giant conspiracy. Both couples insist they had no idea what they were doing was illegal and have no link with human trafficking. The attorney representing Botros and her husband says their only crime was to dream of being parents. \"They are now are in jail because of this dream,\" he told CNN after the first hearing in the case a week ago. \"They never thought that they will be in jail. They thought that they are going to adopt only. They didn't think they are making something against the law in Egypt.\" All eight defendants remain in jail -- the men at the Tora prison in Cairo, well known for its overcrowding. The next stage of the trial takes place May 16, and proceedings could last six to eight months. If they are convicted, the accused could each face up to 10 years in prison.","highlights":"Women adopted children from orphanage run by Coptic Christian Church .\nAlert was raised when they sought visas for children at U.S. Embassy in Cairo .\nThe women now face human-smuggling trial in Egypt, where adoption is illegal .","id":"575b7a415b5ed874786aa594be0dbea868ed1e78"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At 33, Joe Sullivan is serving a life term without the possibility of parole in a Florida prison while confined to a wheelchair. Joe Sullivan, now 33, was convicted of burglary and rape when he was 13. He is serving a life sentence without parole. The crime for which he was convicted was brutal: burglary and the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Pensacola. The man's lawyers say the punishment was equally harsh, particularly for someone with Sullivan's circumstances. He was 13 at the time, and is one of only two people his age in the world, say his supporters, tried as an adult and sentenced to \"die in prison\" for a crime that wasn't a homicide. Now the Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether that sentence was cruel and unusual punishment for someone who was barely a teenager at the time of his crime. The justices are scheduled to announce Monday whether they will accept the case for review. If they do, oral arguments would be held in the fall. If the review is rejected, Sullivan would have few legal options remaining to reduce his sentence. His lawyers are also fighting to get him a new trial. Outside a death-penalty context, the high court has offered little recent guidance on how to treat the youngest of underage criminal defendants. The appellate record for rapists under age 15 is almost nonexistent, say legal experts consulted by CNN. Child legal advocates say many states lack adequate resources to handle young inmates given long sentences, including a lack of proper jailhouse counseling. Few studies have been conducted on the psychological effects on young defendants facing life in prison, said the Equal Justice Institute, which is representing Sullivan in the high court case. \"We have created a forgotten population with a lot of needs,\" said Bryan Stevenson, Sullivan's lawyer. The crime happened in 1989, when Sullivan later admitted he and two friends ransacked a home in West Pensacola. But he denied the prosecutor's claim he returned with a knife and sexually assaulted the elderly homeowner. An older co-defendant claimed Sullivan was the rapist. According to the trial record, the victim testified the assailant was a youngster with \"kinky hair and he was quite black and he was small.\" She could not recognize Sullivan by his facial features, but the defendant was made to repeat at trial what he allegedly told the woman: \"If you can't identify me, I may not have to kill you.\" The victim testified, \"It's been six months, it's hard, but it does sound similar.\" After a daylong trial, Escambia County circuit court Judge Nicholas Geeker sentenced Sullivan to life without parole. \"I am going to try to send him away for as long as I can, he is beyond help,\" the judge told the boy. \"The juvenile system has been utterly incapable of doing anything with Mr. Sullivan.\" Sullivan had a lengthy juvenile record, but continues to deny the attack. At the time, state prosecutor Larry Kaden, who retired last month, said, \"It was a brutal crime and he had an extensive record. This was a bad, bad crime.\" The Florida Attorney General's office told the high court that prosecutors should have the discretion they have long been given to decide how harshly young criminal should be prosecuted. Sexual battery remains a crime punishable by life imprisonment in Florida. A study by the Equal Justice Institute found eight prisoners serving life terms for crimes committed at 13, all in the United States. Besides Sullivan, Florida inmate Ian Manuel is in a similar situation. He was 13 when convicted of attempted murder and robbery in 1990 and will not get out of prison. The Justice Department reports no 13-year-old has been given life without parole for crime that wasn't a homicide in a decade. And while about a thousand people every year under 15 are arrested for rape, none have been given life without parole since Sullivan. Only a handful of states -- including Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oregon -- prohibit sentencing minors to life without a chance for parole, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Equal Justice Institute says 19 states have laws allowing the possibility of life without parole for those under age 14. The high court in April 2008 refused to hear the case of a South Carolina boy who was 12 when he murdered his grandparents and was given a 30-year sentence, the maximum allowed under state law. Tried as an adult, Christopher Pittman's lawyers had argued the sentence was excessive, and that heavy doses of antidepressants the boy was taking at the time sent his mind spinning out off control. While disappointed, Pittman's attorney Michelle Deitch speculated the justices may \"have recognized the growing national trend against sentencing young children to harsh mandatory terms in prison, and wants to give state legislatures the opportunity to correct this problem before it rules again on the issue.\" Sullivan's attorneys hope the high court is ready to revisit the issue. The Supreme Court in 2005 banned the death penalty for underage killers. The justices in that case cited evolving \"national standards\" as a reason to ban such executions. \"When a juvenile commits a heinous crime, the state can exact a forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties,\" wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy at the time. \"But the state cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity.\" Sullivan is in deteriorating health from multiple sclerosis and confined to \"close management\" for dangerous or trouble-prone inmates, say state corrections officials. His lawyers admit he has had more than a 100 incidents of fighting and threatening inmates and guards, and having contraband and weapons, but say Sullivan is the victim of bullying by other prisoners and is mentally disabled. \"It's important for the criminal justice system to recognize that inmates like Joe [Sullivan] are going to change, biologically, psychologically and emotionally as they grow up in prison,\" said Stevenson. \"We should not assume it is a change for the worse.\" Sullivan's appellate team places much of the blame on his original trial attorney, who presented no opening statement and only brief closing remarks. No DNA results were offered and the state destroyed the biological evidence in 1993. \"It was absolutely outrageous,\" said Stevenson. The trial lawyer was later suspended from practicing law. The thrust of their argument before the high court is not that Sullivan is innocent, nor that he seeks his freedom now, just that he deserves to someday make his case before the state parole board.","highlights":"Convicted for a crime committed at 13, Joe Sullivan appeals to Supreme Court .\nHe is serving life without parole for burglary and the rape of a 72-year-old woman .\nDefense attorneys say punishment for Sullivan, now 33, was too harsh .\nThe Supreme Court is expected to decide Monday if it will hear the case .","id":"633640f6df1b52cab4a776b3230a0901337eae8e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Around 204,000 people have fled their homes in the Somali capital of Mogadishu as a result of a militant offensive against government forces, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday. Islamist fighters exchange gunfire with government forces in Mogadishu on July 3. The eight-week long push by Al-Shaabab and Hisb-ul-Islam militias has prompted what the agency calls \"the biggest exodus from the troubled Somali capital since the Ethiopian intervention in 2007.\" \"The escalating conflict in Mogadishu is having a devastating impact on the city's population causing enormous suffering and massive displacement,\" the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The agency said its local partners in the capital reported that fighting over the past week \"has killed some 105 people and injured 382.\" \"Neighborhoods affected by the fighting include Kaaran, Shibis, Shangaani and Boondheere in North Mogadishu. These areas have hitherto been islands of peace, escaping much of the conflict and destruction. Many residents are fleeing their homes for the first time since the start of the Somali civil war in 1991,\" the agency said. The agency said the number of internally displaced people in Somalia amounts to more than 1.2 million people. There has been growing concern that Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last month, a U.S. State Department spokesman said the United States is providing weapons and ammunition to Somalia's transitional government as it fights al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said that the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. \"Our concern right now is that likely safe havens are areas in the Horn of Africa, like Somalia and Yemen, that are countries that because of their political status can be attractive to al Qaeda in order to operate there,\" Panetta said earlier this month. Al-Shaabab, also known as the Mujahideen Youth Movement, was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in March 2008. It is waging a war against Somalia's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law.","highlights":"Eight-week long push by Al-Shaabab and Hisb-ul-Islam militias prompted exodus .\nU.N.: Conflict in Mogadishu having devastating impact on city's population .\nMore than 1.2 million people internally displaced in Somalia, U.N. estimates .\nMany fleeing their homes for first time since start of Somali civil war in 1991 .","id":"70798b1e1cdc576b80fba99d8ba85ad3af1c3e21"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican authorities on Saturday arrested four men in connection with last week's shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in San Diego County, California, Mexico's state-run news agency Notimex reported. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas was fatally shot Thursday night in California, U.S. authorities said. Mexican federal police identified the men as human smugglers, and said they were in the act of transporting 21 immigrants when they were detained in the northwest state of Baja California, Notimex said. At a news conference, federal police identified two of the suspects as brothers Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, 49, and Jose Evodio Quintero Ruiz, 43. The other two arrestees were taxi drivers Antonio Badallares Zepeda, 57 and Jose Alfredo Camacho Penuela, 34, Notimex reported. Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas was shot and killed Thursday night while responding to a potential incursion into the United States in the Campo area in San Diego County, U.S. authorities said. The Mexican federal police did not offer specific evidence of the suspects' role in the killing, but said intelligence reports indicated the group was responsible for kidnappings, rapes and murders of several people who tried to cross to the United States, Notimex said. The men were wanted by American authorities, police said. Notimex said that during his interrogation, Jose Eugenio Quintero told investigators the shooter was Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, a man arrested the day before by local police in Tecate, Mexico. Rosas, who is survived by his wife and two young children, had been a border agent for three years. Rosas was the ninth Border Patrol agent to be killed while on duty since 2006, according to the agency's Web site. Two agents died in a vehicle wreck in 2006, and four died in 2007, including two who died in vehicle wrecks, a third who drowned and a fourth who suffered a heart attack while pursuing undocumented immigrants. Two agents died on duty last year, the Border Patrol said. One died in a single-vehicle wreck; another was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by a suspected smuggler, according to the agency's Web site.","highlights":"Mexican news agency: Four arrested in connection with U.S. agent's death .\nU.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas gunned down Thursday in California .\nMexican police say suspects are smugglers of humans .\nNews agency: Suspect says fifth man -- arrested earlier -- was shooter .","id":"09e5339673b6e3a5637feec83e046a6c76090451"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau, the last two months have been a whirlwind. \"Full of the best moments and the scariest moments of my life,\" says the 24-year-old Olympic swimmer. Eric Shanteau said he felt angry when he found out he had testicular cancer. \"Getting to the Olympics was, has always been, my swimming dream since I was 8 or 9 years old. You know, right after I started swimming it was, 'I want to make an Olympic team. That's where I want to be'.\" In June, a week before the qualifying round of the Olympics he was told he had testicular cancer. \"My initial reaction was probably anger more than anything else,\" he says. \"I'm used to being in control of everything. I'm in control of how I train, how I race and then to all of a sudden have that control ripped away from me was tough.\" After weeks of tests to determine the \"stage\" or spread of the cancer, Shanteau's team of doctors cleared him to compete in the Beijing Olympics, which meant carefully monitoring his tumor but delaying treatment. Though putting off the surgery was controversial to some, Eric says it was an educated choice based on numerous doctor evaluations. \"I hope people understand that if I was in a different position with my test results, then I wouldn't have put off having surgery.\" Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from Eric Shanteau's surgery \u00bb . He swam a personal best in the 200 meter breaststroke. He did not qualify for the finals. Cancer was a motivator, he says, because he knew it meant he could be facing his last competition. He put everything he had into that heat. \"Leave it all in the pool, and I don't look back and regret anything as far as how I raced.\" Once back from Beijing, Shanteau invited CNN to spend time with him the night before his surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Though admittedly a little scared, he spent the evening relaxing with his family, cooking dinner, walking the dog. A source of inspiration, he says, were fans who shared their stories of beating cancer. \"They send me their story and it helps me to learn that people are going through the same thing I am all over the world,\" says Shanteau. \"They all affect me in a different way and it's been really encouraging to share in this experience with other people.\" Testicular cancer is diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime. It is the most common form of cancer for 15- to 34-year-olds. It is also one of the most curable if discovered early. Nearly 140,000 men in the United States are testicular cancer survivors. Shanteau says he experienced no symptoms of cancer and came across the tumor by chance. \"I've been in a Speedo half my life,\" he says. \"So I am really comfortable with my body. One day I just felt something that wasn't suppose to be there. I decided to go and get it checked out.\" He adds that although he had the \"greatest excuse in the world\" -- an Olympic dream -- to ignore the lump, he understood the importance of early detection. Shanteau's father Rick, is battling lung cancer and responding well to treatment. \"A lot of guys, if they hear a rattle in their car, they're at the mechanic the next day,\" he says. \"But if they feel something [physically] that they don't think should be there, it takes them a year to get to their doctor and that just is not smart. There's really no excuse, because it can save your life.\" Fast forward to Shanteau's recent operation at Emory University Hospital. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was with Shanteau during the surgery and spoke with the lead surgeon, Dr. Jeff Carney, moments afterward. \"I think the operation went very well,\" Carney said. \"Eric's a very healthy young man, very thin, in excellent shape. That makes my job easy.\" Later that week, Shanteau's pathology results revealed that the operation removed the most of the cancer. \"The majority of it is gone.\" he tells CNN. \"There is a small chance it could come back but I shouldn't need chemotherapy at this point, so I am really optimistic.\" His treatment plan is to keep a close eye on his health for the next year with regular medical tests. \"Obviously, it would have been nice if the doctor said, 'You're completely in the clear,' but my results are exactly what the doctors expected.\" Eric says the cancer diagnosis gave him a different perspective on life. \"I appreciate life much more now,\" he says. \"I don't let myself get upset about the little nitpicky things anymore. Food even seems to taste better. It is really great.\" As for Shanteau's swimming career, he plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome, Italy. \"2012 [the next Olympics] is a push for me. Right now I'm just kind of taking it year by year and we'll see what happens.\"","highlights":"Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau found out about his cancer in June .\nHe delayed treatment so he could compete in the games in Beijing .\nHe plans to compete in the 2009 World Swimming Championship in Rome .\nTesticular cancer is diagnosed in about 1 in 300 men in their lifetime .","id":"0fb99dfede4fad1238d2728c406acc2f85e84b23"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United came a goal behind and shrugged off the early loss of Michael Owen to injury to beat German champions Wolfsburg 2-1 for their second victory in Champions League Group B. Giggis is congratulated by teammates after scoring his 150th goal for United. Owen, looking to impress watching England manager Fabio Capello, survived for just 20 minutes at Old Trafford before going off with a groin strain. His replacement Dimitar Berbatov proved highly effective but the enterprising visitors went ahead through a Edin Dzeko header in the 56th minute. Ryan Giggs equalized just three minutes later with his 150th goal for the Red Devils, his deflected shot finding its way home. The evergreen Giggs then set up Michael Carrick for the 76th minute winner as he curled home his shot from the edge of the penalty area. United manager Alex Ferguson paid his own compliment to the Welsh wizard as he reflected on a hard-fought home victory. \"He's unbelievable, all the infinitives, all the praise over the years, I don't know if you can add to it. He's a marvellous player.\" Ferguson also revealed that Owen would be out for between two to three weeks with his latest injury. The three points leave United top of the group with two wins from two games after their eighth victory in a row in all competitions. In the other Group B action on Wednesday, CSKA Moscow bounced back from their 2-1 defeat to Wolfsburg in the first round of matches to see off Turkish champions Besiktas 2-1. Midfielders Alan Dzagoev and Milos Krasic scored for the hosts either side of half time, with Besiktas, beaten in their first two games, pulling a goal back thorugh Ismail Koybasi. In Group A, the heavyweight clash between Bayern Munich and Juventus ended in a goalless draw. Munich had several chances in their home Allianz Arena, but failed to convert them although they do top the group with four points. French champions Bordeaux are in second place on three points after a 1-0 home win over Israeli counterparts Maccabi Haifa. Having drawn with Juventus in their group opener, Laurent Blanc's men had wait until the 83rd minute for a vital breakthrough as Michael Ciani headed home from Gregory Sertic's corner. Juventus are third in the group after two draws, with Maccabi bottom after drawing blank.","highlights":"Manchester United beat VfL Wolfsburg 2-1 in Champions League Group B .\nMichael Carrick scores winner after Ryan Giggs equalizes for Red Devils .\nBayern and Juventus draw 0-0 in Group A clash in Munich .","id":"2fb95c6a7097882291b806997b3d4a460a2e7d97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The civil warfare and social instability in Somalia have prompted the flight of more than 50,000 refugees to neighboring Kenya this year alone, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday. The Dadaab refugee complex is the largest of its kind in the world. Somalis are arriving at an average rate of 6,400 a month, and their presence has placed pressure on northern Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex -- bursting at the seams with three times the population it was built to hold. There are more than 281,000 Somali refugees there, and the UNHCR fears that heavy rains in Kenya will lead to flooding at the complex and pose \"considerable health risks to the refugees.\" The International Organization of Migration has been working with the UNHCR, Kenyan authorities and non-governmental organizations to relocate refugees from Dadaab to the Kakuma camp in the northwestern part of the country. Somalia has been in turmoil for years. Clashes have raged between pro-government forces and rebel groups such as Al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia with ties to al Qaeda. And this fighting has prompted widespread displacement in the war-wracked nation. Al-Shabaab has been targeting the most prominent Western-linked entity in the capital, Mogadishu -- the African Union peacekeeping mission, the de facto military force of the weak, transitional Somali government. Fighting has forced about 250,000 Somalis out of their homes in Mogadishu since May and many of the displaced have sought refuge west of the capital in the Afgooye corridor, the U.N. agency said. Also, many Somalis have chosen to flee the country by traveling across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to Yemen or the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Many have drowned or have gone missing in their journey.","highlights":"More than 50,000 Somali refugees have entered Kenya since the beginning of 2009 .\nRefugees are arriving at 6,400 every month placing strain on Kenya's Dadaab camp .\nFighting forced about 250,000 Somalis out of their homes in Mogadishu since May .","id":"a853867f7f29dcf94b637c24e3a7a9e292d77acd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The earthquake in Sichuan, southwestern China, last May left around 69,000 people dead and 15 million people displaced. Now ecologists have assessed the earthquake's impact on biodiversity and the habitat for some of the last existing wild giant pandas. Giant pandas are more endangered than ever since the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. According to the report published in \"Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment\", 23 percent of the pandas' habitat in the study area was destroyed, and fragmentation of the remaining habitat could hinder panda reproduction. The Sichuan region is designated as a global hotspot for biodiversity, according to Conservation International. Home to more than 12,000 species of plants and 1,122 species of vertebrates, the area includes more than half of the habitat for the Earth's wild giant panda population, said study lead author Weihua Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. \"We estimate that above 60 percent of the wild giant panda population was affected to some extent by the earthquake,\" said Xu in the report. In an effort to develop conservation strategies for the panda's remaining habitat, Xu and his colleagues used satellite imagery to determine the pandas' habitat loss and fragmentation in the South Minshan region, which is adjacent to the earthquake's epicenter. Since forests are the main vegetation type used by the pandas, the authors compared forested areas in satellite images from September 2007, before the earthquake, to images after the earthquake and its aftershocks, in July 2008. The authors then combined results based on these satellite data with criteria that make forests suitable for pandas, including elevation, slope incline and presence of bamboo. Their analyses revealed that more than 354 square kilometers, or about 23 percent, of the pandas' habitat was converted to bare land. Of the remaining habitat, the researchers found that large habitat areas had been fragmented into smaller, disconnected patches, which Xu says can be just as harmful as habitat destruction. \"It is probable that habitat fragmentation has separated the giant panda population inhabiting this region, which could be as low as 35 individuals,\" said Xu. \"This kind of isolation increases their risk of extinction in the wild, due in part to a higher likelihood of inbreeding.\" Xu and his colleagues proposed a plan to encourage pandas to move between patches using specially protected corridors. They also recommend areas to be protected outside of nature reserves and that post-earthquake relocation of affected towns takes panda habitat into consideration. \"It is vital to the survival of this species that measures are taken to protect panda habitat outside nature reserves,\" said Xu. \"Giant pandas in this region are more vulnerable than ever to human disturbance, including post-earthquake reconstruction and tourism. When coupled with these increasing human activities, natural disasters create unprecedented challenges for biodiversity conservation.\"","highlights":"New report on affect of 2008 Sichuan earthquake on wild giant panda population .\nReport: 23 percent of habitat has disappeared; 60 percent of giant pandas affected .\nEstimates that wild panda population in affected region could be as low as 35 .","id":"1e442440fd19b4ceee8c274f82003b0df5320804"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flash floods and landslides triggered by a weekend tropical storm have killed at least 100 people in Vietnam, the country's news agency said Monday. Vietnamese villagers look at the rubble where 19 houses stood before a flash-flood ripped away the hamlet of Tung Chin in Lao Cai province. Forecasters fear additional casualties as more rain was expected Monday. The floods in the the country's northern mountain provinces damaged tens of thousands of homes, swept away thousands of cattle and submerged crops, the Vietnam News Agency said. More than two dozen people remained missing. Officials mobilized thousands of rescue workers to look for survivors and to carry relief to the areas hardest hit by the storm. Tropical Storm Kammuri struck the northern provinces on Friday. The southeast Asian country is prone to heavy rainfall during the May through September monsoon season. The resulting landslides and floods have killed hundreds in past years.","highlights":"Flash floods and landslides kill at least 100 people in Vietnam .\nDisasters triggered by tropical storm .\nForecasters fear additional casualties .","id":"4be65bc748e0700cfd5a6b43cb9801c8cd573bc6"} -{"article":"DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Investigators in Colorado say they have broken up a massive methamphetamine ring in the Denver area that distributed pounds of the dangerous drug every week and laundered the profits using collectible comic books. Aaron Castro and his brother were the leaders of the methamphetamine ring, authorities say. \"To launder the money you have to use something that is quick and convenient,\" Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said at a news conference Monday. \"And in this case, they used classic comic books.\" While arresting the alleged ringleaders, brothers Aaron and Alfonzo Castro, law enforcement officers seized about 100 boxes of first-edition collectible comic books. Investigators say one title alone is worth $3,500 and the total collection of comics is worth half a million dollars. \"It appeared they were working on a startup company for high-end comic books,\" said Don Quick, the district attorney in Adams County near Denver. Quick said the seized comic books included some first-edition Superman and Batman titles. The fragile, vintage comics were stored in plastic bags for protection. According to a grand jury indictment released Monday, the Castro brothers arranged for weekly, multiple-pound shipments of the meth from Phoenix, Arizona. The brothers then distributed the drugs to a network of runners that made deliveries to dealers around the Denver area. Suthers says Castro brothers sometimes used females \"as drug mules by having them hide methamphetamine inside their vaginal cavities.\" These women would then deliver the meth to a series of houses, and then lower-level dealers would distribute the drug. \"It's a tawdry piece of information, but it's a big part of what this group was doing,\" he said. These same runners also collected money from dealers and delivered it to the Castro brothers. Suthers said the drugs most likely were manufactured in Mexico, and each month's shipments had a street value of about $2 million. The indictment details 145 drug possession and distribution charges from October 2008 to earlier this month. The Castros and 39 other people are listed as defendants. The Castro brothers and their top runners are also charged with racketeering. Of the 41 defendants, 40 are in custody. The Castros are being held in the Adams County jail on $1 million bail each. It is unclear if they have attorneys.","highlights":"Colorado authorities say ring distributed pounds of meth each week .\nDrug was believed to have been manufactured in Mexico .\nCollectible comic books were used to launder money, officials say .\nAuthorities seize comic books with value of half a million dollars .","id":"f5cea881402673575e6eef37450392f8c5087366"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Organization of American States suspended Honduras late Saturday because the nation's new leaders refused to reinstate ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya appears Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly. Zelaya was removed by the military on June 28 and flown to Costa Rica. Congressional leader Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as provisional president later that day. The OAS set a Saturday deadline for Honduras to return Zelaya to power or be suspended from the 35-nation hemispheric organization. Honduran officials told OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza on Friday that they would not allow Zelaya to return to power. Thousands of protesters demanding the return to power of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya pushed through riot police at Tegucigalpa's airport and surrounded the terminal Saturday, but there were no reports of violence. The airport continued to operate, CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul reported. Zelaya, a leftist who took office in 2006, says he will return to Honduras on Sunday. Micheletti has vowed to have Zelaya arrested if he returns. \"I am simply defending a system,\" Zelaya told the OAS delegates early Sunday, after the 33-0 vote to suspend Honduras. Among the delegates were two heads of state: Presidents Christina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay. \"I am here not only as president of the republic of Argentina, but also as part of a delegation who was the object of coups in Argentina,\" Fernandez said. Lugo also spoke in favor of restoring Zelaya and democracy to his nation. \"I come from Paraguay, a country that has had the long night of dictatorships,\" Lugo said. \"I come here with a pain, but also with a hope.\" Micheletti repeated in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol on Saturday night that a coup did not take place. What happened, he said, was a constitutional transfer of power authorized by the nation's congress. But Micheletti is swimming against world opinion. The U.N. General Assembly condemned the coup last week and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. The European Union and other nations have recalled their ambassadors from Honduras, and the United States and the World Bank have suspended some aid. Honduran officials have said the Central American nation was prepared to withdraw from the OAS rather than reinstate Zelaya. \"If the Organization of American States doesn't deem Honduras worthy of membership of the Organization of American States, then Honduras would renounce with immediate effect the inter-American charter,\" said Deputy Foreign Minister Marta Lorena Alvarado. At the center of the dispute was a referendum Zelaya had vowed to carry out even after the country's supreme court and congress found it illegal. The nonbinding referendum could have led to the creation of a constitutional assembly to modify the country's charter to allow the president to run for re-election. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Zelaya ally, won a similar referendum this year, and many Hondurans thought Zelaya was trying to maneuver a way to seek re-election in November. Zelaya has denied that was his intent. Zelaya narrowly won the presidency in 2005, with 49.8 percent of the vote to 46.1 percent for Porfirio \"Pepe\" Lobo. After 18 years of nearly uninterrupted military rule, Honduras returned to civilian control in 1981. Since then, the military has not seemed interested in holding power in the nation of more than 7 million people, about 70 percent of whom live in poverty. Military interventions were once common in Latin America, but civilian governments have held sway since the 1980s. Before Sunday, the only other barracks revolt this decade was an unsuccessful 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, when the military displaced him but backed down days later and allowed his reinstatement. CNN's Tom Watkins contributed to this report .","highlights":"Organization of American States suspend Honduras in wake of coup .\nThousands of supporters at airport for return of ousted president Jose Zelaya .\nOrganization of American States wants Zelaya restored to power .\nNewly installed president says Jose Zelaya will be arrested upon return .","id":"2fe57b5f741a4eb96187590c70fa08aebbc37104"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- US Airways announced a $5 baggage fee increase Wednesday. A US Airways passenger's first checked bag will cost $20 if prepaid online. The fee for a passenger's first checked bag will rise from $15 to $20 if the fees are prepaid online. Online payment for a second checked bag will jump from $25 to $30. An additional $5 fee will be added for bags checked at the airport, bringing the fee for the first bag to $25 and the second to $35. The airline also will implement a $50 fee for the second checked bag on international flights -- $55 if paid at the airport. The first checked bag will continue to be free of charge. The changes will be applied to tickets purchased on Wednesday or later for travel on or after October 7. Also on Wednesday, Continental Airlines implemented a second checked bag fee of $50 for transatlantic flights. Travelers who pay in advance will be charged $45. Earlier this season American Airlines raised its fees for first and second checked bags on domestic flights to $20 and $30, respectively. Continental, Delta and United airlines charge $15 for the first checked bag if the fees are paid online, and $25 for the second bag. At the airport, these airlines charge $20 and $30 for the first and second bags.","highlights":"Fee for the first checked bag to rise from $15 to $20 if prepaid online .\nThe second checked bag will cost $30, US Airways says .\nAn additional $5 per bag will be charged for checking at the airport .","id":"58b1f52c849a975574026391dc337f342a0e559a"} -{"article":"LEONE, American Samoa (CNN) -- Another earthquake struck Wednesday near the Samoan islands, an area already devastated by earthquake and tsunami damage which killed more than 130 people. A traditional Samoan fale is destroyed Wednesday in the devastated village of Leone. The 5.5-magnitude earthquake occurred at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday evening (1:13 a.m. Thursday ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake's epicenter was 10 km (6 miles) deep in the Pacific Ocean about 121 miles (194 km) from the city of Apia, Samoa. The quake did not trigger a tsunami warning, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. It followed an 8.0-magnitude earthquake which hit the small cluster of Samoan islands early Tuesday triggering a tsunami. At least 139 people are confirmed dead as a consequence of Tuesday's quake and tsunami. They include 22 people killed in American Samoa, 110 in Samoa and seven in Tonga, according to officials on the islands. A huge emergency effort was continuing late Wednesday in the Samoan islands and officials warned that the death toll could rise as rescue workers start to reach outlying villages and discover new casualties. Watch the tsunami take over the street \u00bb . Survivors like Ropati Opa were trying to find ways to cope. The massive waves had destroyed his home, store and gas station in the village of Leone on the southwest coast of American Samoa. With tears in his eyes, he said \"I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I don't have money. I lost everything yesterday. But thank God I am alive.\" iReport.com: Witness describes tsunami hitting land . U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the disaster at an event Wednesday in Washington. \"To aid in the response,\" he said, \"I've declared this a major disaster to speed the deployment of resources and FEMA ... is working closely with emergency responders on the ground, and the Coast Guard is working to provide immediate help to those in need. \"We also stand ready to help our friends in neighboring Samoa and throughout the region, and we'll continue to monitor this situation closely as we keep the many people who have been touched by this tragedy in our thoughts and in our prayers,\" Obama said. Journalist Jeff DePonte contributed to this report.","highlights":"Latest death toll from Tuesday's quake, tsunami stands at 139 .\nSecond quake -- magnitude 5.5 -- shook Samoan islands region Wednesday .\nQuake does not trigger a tsunami warning, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says .\nHuge rescue effort under way in Samoan islands amid fears death toll could rise .","id":"a5e5d2e9443cfcfda4de7cad850539a8c515dba3"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- When I was a teen, I tried to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. My goal: Memorize its contents, be on TV game shows, win cash and prizes, run away from home, move to Manhattan and become a professional writer. Instead of focusing on getting Mr. Right, focus on finding Life Plan Right, says author. I got as far as Asparagus. To this day, I know a little about a lot of words beginning with \"A.\" Some favorites: ants, atoms, alchemy. Plus, Aristotle was a childhood crush, because I've always loved philosophy. When I finished reading his one-page encyclopedic write-up, I bought books about him. I'd been saving these dog-eared, underlined Aristotle books, as well as the \"A\" book of Britannica, all to be used in a novel, where I'd been planning to bless my protagonist with the quirky detail of knowing all things \"A.\" I recently rediscovered these Aristotle books when moving apartments. I flipped through and was surprised to discover Aristotle said a lot of the same things about love and happiness as modern psychologists. Only Aristotle obviously said it first, having been born at least 300 years B.C. Plus, Aristotle said it truly wisely. Indeed, much of what Aristotle said hit home big-time -- in particular about a sexy, smart, funny, rich, lying, cheating, don't-get-me-started Prince Harming I'd just broken up with. I could almost hear what Aristotle might say to me if we were to chat over souvlaki. 'Sold your soul to be with him' \"Mea bene, Karen,\" Aristotle would say. \"You know what your problem was with your ex? He was not your soul mate -- but your 'sold' mate -- because you sold your soul to be with him. Sure he was sexy, smart, rich, funny -- but alas, he was a liar and a cheat.\" \"You're an intellectual guy.\" I'd correct the regaled philosopher called the \"Mind of the Academy\" by Plato. \"I'm surprised you believe in something as namby-pamby metaphysical as a soul mate!\" Oprah.com: 10 rules to soul mate love . \"Absolutely!\" My fave Greek philosopher buddy Ari would respond emphatically. \"Actually, I sort of coined the concept of 'soul mate.' If there'd been a little TM trademark thingy back in the 300s B.C., I'd be a very rich man today. I firmly believe caretaking the soul is incredibly important for happiness. I describe a soul mate as a 'soul-nurturing mate.' Someone who nurtures your soul, thereby promoting insight and growth. I pushed folks to find soul mates because, in my opinion, real happiness only comes when you stimulate your core self -- and grow into your highest potential. Basically, the soul is the ultimate G-spot for happiness.\" Of course, I'm paraphrasing for my philosopher buddy. But if Aristotle were here, I know he'd agree with my verbal modernization. Plus, Ari would go on to describe how he views the world as offering three kinds of relationships, only one of which brings true happiness. 3 kinds of relationships . According to ancient philosopher Aristotle, there are three kinds of relationships, only one of which will bring you true happiness. Find out how your relationship measures up! 1. Relationships of pleasure . Partners who are about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. You share soulless, passionate sex and playful banter -- but they're about the body or ego. They never soul-nurture you with insight and growth, so they never bring real-deal happiness. Oprah.com: How to break your bad man habit . 2. Relationships of utility . Partners you spend time with in hopes of garnering status, power, money and beauty like the rich guy with a trophy girl. Again, this is about body or ego and doesn't bring true joy. 3. Relationships of shared virtue . Partners who challenge and inspire you to grow into your highest potential and nurture your soul. A good example is when Jack Nicholson's character in \"As Good As It Gets\" says, \"You make me want to be a better man.\" When you prioritize seeking a partner who supports you becoming your best self -- instead of crushing on \"superficial lures\"(hotness, funniness, smartness, success, etc.) -- you wind up with a soul mate\/a Prince Charming\/a definite keeper! With this in mind, if you want to be happy in love, you must take time to see past a guy's \"superficial lures\" and look inside his \"superinsidehimself.\" Unfortunately, those fumes of chemistry can often dizzy a gal into making stupid love choices. That's why it's important to remember: Hot, steamy chemistry eventually fades -- and what's always left beneath is a person's true soul. Yes, if you want to be happy, you must seek a good-hearted, ethical soul who brings you great growth -- not simply a hottie who brings great grope Oprah.com: The best things to do for your relationship . Confession time: Another superficially alluring quality I've been suckered in by is humor. I am Silly Putty in a friggin' funny man's hands. I once had a boyfriend who teased me that the secret to getting me into bed was to crack five good jokes in a night. He'd count down his jokes as the night progressed. Unfortunately, funniness is a mere decorative quality -- sometimes developed to avoid talking about real-life issues. Which is why in the past, after a few months of dating a friggin' funny guy, I've witnessed all that fabulous ha-ha-ha laughter often gives way to tears when the guy's true character -- true soul -- shows up as one that avoids honest communication, warm empathy and the desire for growth. Then, when I try to connect soul to soul -- heart to heart -- I am greeted by a gigantic, unmovable whoopee cushion wall. Basically, friggin' funny is only the tiniest tip of a person. Meanwhile, a person's soul is a person's foundation! For the record: Aristotle wasn't against finding someone friggin' funny or friggin' sexy or friggin' rich. He believed these pleasure-bringing qualities were good for stirring up passion, which humans need to be our fullest selves! But Aristotle recognized \"superficial lures\" and material goods were simply what he called \"means to the ends\" of happiness, not \"the final ends,\" which is always to grow into your most esteemed self. As Aristotle said: \"Men imagine the causes of happiness lie in external goods. That is as if they were to ascribe fine and beautiful lyre playing to the quality of the instrument rather than the skill of the player.\" Or as I like to say, \"It's just as easy to complain about a rich man as it is to complain about a poor man.\" Basically, it doesn't matter how rich a guy is if his behavior makes you twitchy and miserable. While on the subject of money, Aristotle was no fan of slackers either. He recognized that being or dating poor brought its share of problems. He even admitted the lack of a certain amount of wealth was as much an obstacle to happiness as deprivation of freedom. He gladly accepted that some wealth was needed to be happy -- just as exciting bodily pleasures were needed. But again, wealth and bodily pleasures were mere means to the ends of happiness -- these ultimate ends being to nourish your soul, so you can reach your most esteemed level of self. A big secret to happiness? Stop focusing on finding a Mr. Right! Start focusing on finding Life Plan Right. When a Mr. Potential Right comes along, you must ask yourself if this guy will lead you to Life Plan Right or Life Plan Wrong. As you get to know the guy, look to see if he: . 1. Offers you exciting growth as well as exciting grope . 2. Has developed good character -- so he'll be a positive influence on your character development. If the guy scores two for two, you're likely in Prince Charming territory. Oprah.com: What you could learn from dating 100 men . Adapted by Karen Salmansohn from her book, \"Prince Harming Syndrome.\" She is a best-selling author known for creating self-help for people who wouldn't be caught dead reading self-help. Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Author says ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's advice for dating still relevant.\n\"Soul is the ultimate G-spot for happiness,\" writer translates .\nSoul mate is someone who nurtures your soul, thereby promoting insight and growth .\nPleasure, utility and shared virtue are 3 types of relationships that bring happiness .","id":"8ce4fb3457776fd2fa88a9b529c65343d37dc05c"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government said Friday it has arrested members of a cell believed responsible for Wednesday's truck bombings in which more than 100 people were killed. Workers clear the site outside the ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs in Baghdad. Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, appeared on Iraqi state television Friday night to announce the arrests, which he said were made within two hours of the bombings in the capital city. Those arrested include people believed to have planned and executed the attacks, Atta said. It was not immediately clear how many people were arrested. Initial investigations show a link between the cell and the ousted Baath regime of Saddam Hussein, Atta said. Authorities are also seeking people thought to have provided cell members with logistical support and identification, he said. Iraq Security Forces recovered a truck Friday with five tons of C-4 explosives in the Abu Ghraib area, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, Atta said Friday night. More than 500 people were wounded Wednesday in the six explosions in Baghdad. In one attack, a truck bomb exploded outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The blast blew through the front of the building, sending some vehicles flying and leaving others in mangled twists of metal in the area, which is just outside the restricted International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Another truck bomb went off outside the Ministry of Finance building. Authorities said Thursday that 11 high-ranking security officials from the Iraqi army and police were detained for investigation. The Iraqi government in the past has made claims of arrests that did not hold up. In April, it said it had captured Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq's umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq denied it, and the capture was never confirmed by the U.S. military. The explosions made Wednesday the country's deadliest day since the United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns nearly two months ago and left security in the hands of the Iraqis. The U.S. military remains in a training and advisory capacity in those areas and continues to conduct combat operations outside cities and towns. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered increased security measures, including more checkpoints and more stringent vehicle searches across the capital, government officials said on Thursday. The Iraqi government has been trying to restore what it described as normalcy to the streets of the capital in recent weeks. Al-Maliki ordered his government to take down within 40 days the concrete blast walls that line Baghdad's streets and protected neighborhoods at the height of the war. Many Iraqis have criticized the move as premature.","highlights":"Wednesday bombings of Finance, Foreign Affairs ministries killed more than 100 .\nIraqi official says suspects were arrested two hours after attacks .\n11 high-ranking security officials from the Iraqi army and police detained, he says .","id":"61d25cfe2e0721ea6b70d993b3cab9a5ebb2d2a4"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Barack Obama promised his daughters Sasha and Malia that they'd get to bring a new puppy with them to the White House in January. President Bush's dog Barney, left, plays in 2001 with Spot, the offspring of George H.W. Bush's dog Millie. It's a good thing Obama said \"Yes, we can\" to the girls' request to getting a dog; for all of his charm, ability, and oratorical flair, he could never be our nation's chief executive without a White House pet. Counting Obama, the country has had 44 Presidents, and only two of them -- Chester A. Arthur and Franklin Pierce -- left no record of having pets. Like Obama himself, the family pooch will have some big shoes to fill. Previous White House pets have set the bar pretty high. iReport.com: What pet would you want if you lived in the White House? Here are a few of our favorites: Watch Obama on \"mutts like me\" \u00bb . 1. Billy: Calvin Coolidge's pygmy hippopotamus . Calvin Coolidge may have been known for his reticence, but he showed little of his trademark reserve when it came to acquiring pets. After taking over the presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding, Coolidge assembled a menagerie that would rival most zoos' collections. He had six dogs, a bobcat, a goose, a donkey, a cat, two lion cubs, an antelope, and a wallaby. The main attraction in his personal zoo, though, was Billy, a pygmy hippopotamus. Watch new baby pygmy hippo \u00bb . Billy was born in Liberia, but was captured at a young age. He came into the possession of tire mogul Harvey Firestone, who gave Billy to President Coolidge as a gift, possibly because Firestone didn't want to feed the critter. (Even a pygmy hippo is still quite rotund; Billy was six feet long and weighed upwards of 600 pounds.) Coolidge donated Billy to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Because there were only a handful of pygmy hippos in the U.S. at the time, Billy quickly went to work as a stud, an endeavor at which he found some success. He sired 23 little hippos, and many of the pygmy hippos you see in American zoos today are his offspring. Mental Floss: 7 crafty zoo escapes . 2. The White House gators . Herbert Hoover wanted to put a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and ... a gator in the Oval Office? It's true. Hoover owned a slew of dogs, but those weren't his only pets. His second son, Allan Henry Hoover, owned a pair of gators that were occasionally allowed to wander around the White House grounds. Sound crazy? Blame John Quincy Adams for setting the precedent. The sixth president also had a pet gator. His was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette; it lived in a bathroom in the East Room of the White House. According to some reports, he enjoyed using the gator to scare his guests. 3. Fala: FDR's traveling companion . What do you get the Depression-conquering president who has everything? A lapdog. In 1940 Franklin Roosevelt received a Scottish Terrier puppy named Big Boy as an early Christmas gift from a family friend. FDR immediately realized that Big Boy was no name for a presidential companion and rechristened the pooch Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, after a Scottish ancestor. For the sake of simplicity, though, he called his new pal Fala. After that, Fala became FDR's inseparable companion and traveled everywhere the President went. The dog \"gave\" $1 a day to the war effort, generosity that earned him the rank of honorary private in the Army. Each morning when FDR's breakfast tray came in, it included a bone for Fala. Fala also made a famous appearance in one of his master's speeches. When FDR was decrying personal attacks from his political opponents, he jokingly said that it was okay to mock him, but leave Fala alone. \"You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him -- at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or 20 million dollars -- his Scotch soul was furious. \"He has not been the same dog since!\" Fala stayed with FDR until the President's death in 1945 and lived in the care of Eleanor Roosevelt until his death in 1952. Mental Floss: 6 utterly loyal dogs . 4. Millie: Literary sensation . When George H.W. Bush took office in 1989, he brought his pet springer spaniel Millie to the White House. The bubbly canine won over the nation's heart so completely that she even collaborated with the First Lady on Millie's Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush. Millie brought further joy to the Bush family when she gave birth to a litter of six presidential puppies in 1989. Just as her master helped slip one of his boys into the White House, so did Millie: when George W. Bush moved into the Oval Office, so did his dog, Millie's son Spot Fetcher. 5. Barney, Miss Beazley & India: The current residents . Sadly, Spot Fetcher had to be put down in 2004, but the Bushes aren't pet-deprived now. They have a pair of Scottish Terriers named Barney and Miss Beazley, both of whom have websites and appear in White House-produced web videos. (Your tax dollars adorably at work!) The Bushes also have a black cat named India, who also goes by \"Willie.\" Watch Barney bite a reporter \u00bb . The name India rankled some citizens of the country of the same name to the point that many Indians supposedly named their dogs \"Bush.\" The name wasn't meant to be controversial, though; the Bushes merely named their cat after Ruben \"El Indio\" Sierra, who played for the Texas Rangers while George W. owned the team. Spot Fetcher was similarly named after former Rangers middle infielder Scott Fletcher. Other first pets of note: . Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection -- Benjamin Harrison's two opossums. Harrison's son Russell also had a pet goat named Old Whiskers. Pauline -- The last cow to live at the White House. She made milk for President Taft's consumption. Old Ike -- To save cash during World War I, Woodrow Wilson brought in a flock of sheep to take care of the White House's groundskeeping duties. Old Ike, a ram, supposedly chewed tobacco. Laddie Boy -- Warren G. Harding's beloved Airedale who had his own seat at Cabinet meetings and gave a 1921 \"interview\" with The Washington Post in which he talked about Prohibition and shortening the workday for guard dogs. Liberty -- Gerald Ford's golden retriever hung out in the Oval Office and could supposedly read a sign from Ford that she should go be affectionate to guests -- a cute and cuddly way to gracefully end the President's conversations. Socks and Buddy -- President Clinton's faithful cat and the chocolate lab he acquired while in office. Socks didn't like Buddy's youthful friendliness, so the two pets had to be kept separated at all times. The tensions were so bad that the family couldn't keep both pets at the end of Bill's second term, so Socks went to live with Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie. Gamecocks -- Ulysses S. Grant supposedly kept some gamecocks at the White House. Two tiger cubs -- Martin Van Buren received the cats as a gift from the Sultan of Oman. Congress supposedly made him give the gift to a zoo. Satan -- One of Abigail Adams' unfortunately named dogs. She called the other one Juno. Jonathan Edwards -- Theodore Roosevelt received this black bear cub as a gift from supporters in West Virginia who gave the bear the name, he wrote to a friend, \"partly because they thought they detected Calvinistic traits in the bear's character.\" Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O'Grady -- Teddy Roosevelt's kids also had these tremendously named guinea pigs. Josiah -- Roosevelt also had a pet badger, of course. Bonus trivia: Checkers . Nixon's dog was immortalized in the \"Checkers speech,\" which Nixon gave while facing allegations of illegal campaign contributions. He said the only gift he'd accepted was a cocker spaniel named Checkers for his daughters. Mental Floss: Why was the 'Checkers speech' so important? Checkers, however, was never the White House dog. This scandal bubbled up while Nixon was Eisenhower's running mate in the 1952 election, and Nixon gave the Checkers speech to convince Republicans to keep him on the ticket. Although the speech was a success and Nixon later made it to the White House, Checkers never got to be First Dog; he passed away in 1964. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Barack Obama promised puppy for girls; past presidential pets have been strange .\nWhat the heck? First lady Abigail Adams had a dog named Satan .\nPresident Harding's dog gave \"interviews\" and had a seat at Cabinet meetings .\nOriginal name of FDR's dog: Big Boy; President Grant had fighting gamecocks .","id":"02e00a31289a21f8c63585496737e96889abb459"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Christina Aguilar sits in a converted storage room of a Las Vegas medical center, the best hope for underinsured cancer patients to get the treatment they need. Christina Aguilar, 28, is being treated for advanced-stage ovarian cancer in Nevada. Drip by drip, Aguilar, 28, watches as chemo enters her body to fight advanced-stage ovarian cancer. She is here because her insurance company wouldn't pay for her chemotherapy or her surgeries. \"I thought, 'Why am I getting insurance if it's not going to pay for the most important thing?' \" she says, recalling the day she learned her insurance wouldn't cover treatment. Getting chemo in an old storage space isn't the most ideal situation, but it's her only choice. Watch chemo in a closet \u00bb . Earlier this year, state budget cuts in Nevada resulted in the slashing of the outpatient cancer center at the University Medical Center's oncology clinic, forcing patients to find treatment on their own. \"We're supposed to be the safety net for patients, and yet obviously the safety net has holes in it,\" says Kathleen Silver, the CEO of University Medical Center. Oncologist Nick Spirtos found a solution. He persuaded his partners to take on the patients pro bono, converted a storage area in his office into a chemotherapy room and got Clark County to pay for the expensive chemo drugs. One treatment can cost upwards of $10,000. He's also sought more primitive ways to cover costs. He holds up a clear plastic box bearing the label \"Cash for Chemotherapy.\" Dollar bills and loose change jingle. There are 380 boxes placed throughout the county. \"It helps,\" says Spirtos, the director of the Women's Cancer Center of Nevada. \"If these boxes pay for one more patient's chemo, that's one lady who in the overall context wouldn't be able to have her treatment.\" With the nation debating health care reform, Spirtos says he does favor universal health care, but not without trepidation. Learn more about America's health care debate \u00bb . He says Medicaid reimburses doctors at a fraction of their costs, and he believes other government programs are poorly run. He wrote an open letter to President Obama and Congress earlier this month. \"[I] respectfully suggest that instead of rushing headlong into ill-thought out proposals, you and your staff along with Congress take some time and thoughtfully review the issues facing us and formulate a plan that might actually meet our needs,\" Spirtos said. But on this day, he's focused on his patients. Decked out in a blue doctor's gown, Spirtos makes the rounds to see the women at his clinic. Aguilar's ovaries were recently removed and she is getting her latest chemo regimen. She's reclined in a chair, a red blanket draped over her legs. She opens a laptop and flips through digital pictures of her mother, who died of lymphatic cancer 10 years ago. Aguilar says her cancer was detected almost by accident. She went in for a checkup and a small acorn-sized cyst was discovered. A month later, it was the size of a grapefruit. She broke down in tears just after her ovaries were removed. \"I started crying. I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm not going to be able to have kids,' \" she says. Aguilar was a cashier at Toys R Us, making $8.76 an hour. She had insurance through work, but it wouldn't cover her costs. Her salary made her inelgible for Medicaid. With the slashing of the county hospital's oncology unit, her bills were racking up and she had few options. Luckily, her doctor referred her to Spirtos. Spirtos says cases like hers are becoming all too common, especially in the down economy. He treats 75 to 85 women per month; about 20 percent are in a similar situation as Aguilar. \"If you're recently unemployed, you have no insurance benefits and you don't qualify for any of the public aids,\" he says. \"So amazingly, the people who've been working and supporting the system, the moment they're out of work they don't fit in any of the round holes -- they're square pegs.\" If Aguilar wasn't getting treatment from him, he says, \"Over time, her cancer would progress and she'd pass away.\" The doctor, who is bald, stops at her side. Aguilar rubs the doctor's golden dome. \"The great part about this is Christina's hair is going to grow back and mine won't,\" he says. The two laugh and smile. Outside the room, the doctor says he's doing all he can to make sure the women who come to him have the best treatment possible. \"I get to hug my patients, I get my head rubbed and I get an incredible amount of gratification,\" he says. He pauses. \"Getting a hug from one of these ladies is like my kids running up and saying, 'I love you.'\" He turns and walks down the hall. More patients await his help. CNN's Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dr. Nick Spirtos of Nevada treats cancer patients pro bono after state funds slashed .\nChristina Aguilar, 28, is getting treated for ovarian cancer .\nIf Aguilar went untreated, \"her cancer would progress and she'd pass away\"","id":"de64dde4a07f7ae03716c5f3eb1ce0083e30bbc5"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Fires in southern Greece that have razed dozens of villages and killed at least 44 people may have been deliberately set ahead of next month's national elections, the prime minister suggested Saturday. A fire burns in the Mesohoria area on Evia Island, northeast of Athens. Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis declared a nationwide state of emergency Saturday night. He also turned to European Union allies, which have promised help. Emergency crews pulled charred bodies from homes and local media reported death tolls of up to 50 people. Scores are hospitalized with severe burns and respiratory problems, state-run television reported. Although the fires were concentrated in the southern Peloponnese region, heavy smoke billowing Saturday afternoon above Mount Hymettus, southeast of Athens, signaled a new fire. It was burning close to Athens International Airport, forcing officials to close a highway. In a nationally televised address, Karamanlis suggested the blazes might have been set by political extremists, disrupting political campaigning. \"So many fires sparked simultaneously in so many places is no coincidence,\" Karamanlis said, and vowed to punish those responsible. Many firefighters told CNN they are suspicious of the fire's source, given several witness reports that the blazes cropped up simultaneously along a 20-kilometer (12-mile) front of lush greenery in southern Greece. The prime minister described the situation as a \"battle that has to be won,\" and ordered all resources mobilized to fight the fires. He also announced that a fund has been set up for fire victims and their families, and an assessment of the disaster will be made. The most devastated area stretches for 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the western towns of the Zaharo, within the highlands of the western Peloponnese, to the southern tip of the peninsula, Mani. In the past 24 hours, hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, and planes loaded with water have been battling the infernos on a dozen fronts, authorities said. Yet, despite their efforts, officials said the flames had not been tamed. \"Our emergency services are overstretched and it is humanly impossible to battle this force of nature,\" a top fire official told CNN. An EU statement said 30 member countries had offered assistance. France on Saturday was slated to send two planes to help quell the fires, and Norway and Germany pledged to send aircraft as well. A sweltering heat wave in Greece has parched forests and scrubland. With intense winds fanning the flames, authorities call this the country's worst fire season on record. Since June, more than 3,000 fires have razed thousands of hectares of forests and scrubland across the country -- nearly triple last year's total -- according to officials. A mother, her child and at least seven other people died fleeing burning woods in the mountainous villages in western Peloponnese, near the town of Zaharo, according to a fire department official. Farther south, six people -- including two French tourists found by rescue crews in an embrace -- were killed in a forest fire that swept near their hotel in the town of Areopolis, located 190 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Athens. Greece's elections are set for September 16. The ruling party has called for a temporary suspension of political campaigning as a sign of respect to those who died in the flames, and flags on government buildings were flying Saturday at half staff. E-mail to a friend . Journalist Anthee Carassava contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Greek government declares a state of emergency for the entire country .\nNEW: Death toll revised to 44 for fires sweeping southern Greece .\nEuropean Union says 30 member countries have offered help .","id":"1c284251cd9f804cadae1fb019e780c363102557"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Services for Sen. Edward Kennedy will be Saturday morning at a Boston church before his burial in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, his office announced Wednesday. Sen. Ted Kennedy's funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Mission Church. President Obama, who called Kennedy an \"extraordinary leader,\" will deliver a eulogy at the funeral, according to several sources. Kennedy died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after being ill for 15 months with brain cancer. He was 77. Obama, on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, said Wednesday that Americans knew Kennedy's death was coming for some time, but have been \"awaiting it with no small amount of dread.\" \"The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we've all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives,\" Obama said. \"His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives -- in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education's promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including myself.\" The \"extraordinary good that he did lives on,\" Obama said. Before the funeral, Kennedy's body will lie in repose Thursday afternoon and Friday in the Smith Center at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, said the source, who once worked closely with Kennedy's office. A memorial service will be held Friday evening at the Smith Center, the source said. Learn about Kennedy's funeral arrangements \u00bb . The funeral will be held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston's Mission Hill section. The church is commonly known as the Mission Church. It is a short distance away from the Kennedy library. Watch bloggers talk about Kennedy's life \u00bb . The burial will take place at 5 p.m. at Arlington, the senator's office said. Kennedy is eligible for burial at Arlington because of his congressional service and his tenure in the Army from 1951 to 1953. Army officials and members of Kennedy's staff met at the cemetery a few weeks ago to discuss a plan for the burial, an official said. The plan was then given to the family by staff members. The proposed grave site is 95 feet south of the grave of Sen. Robert Kennedy, the official said. Robert Kennedy's grave is, in turn, just steps away from the grave of their brother, President John F. Kennedy. The plot of land is currently covered with grass. At this point, U.S. military ceremonial units have not received orders for participating in a funeral, but military sources said a typical congressional funeral would include military personnel at the internment, a military team to carry the casket, a firing party for a gun salute and a bugler. Any arrangements will depend on the family's wishes. CNN's Barbara Starr, John King and Alec Miran contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama calls Sen. Ted Kennedy an \"extraordinary leader\"\nMassachusetts service Saturday will precede burial in Arlington National Cemetery .\nFuneral will be at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston's Mission Hill section .\nBody will lie in repose Thursday and Friday at JFK presidential library .","id":"4a613acfcf92ae75bc0fffc6cd50add4f3ba2e82"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Software giant Microsoft apologized Wednesday for the apparent bad judgment that led to the head of a black model being swapped for that of a white model in an online advertisement. A black man in an online Microsoft ad was replaced with a white man, bottom, on the company's Polish Web site. The ad -- which showed three business people, one Asian, one white and one black -- was altered on Microsoft's Web site for Poland to place the head of a white man on a black man's body. \"We apologized, fixed the error and we are looking into how it happened,\" said Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman. He said that because the company was still reviewing how the swap occurred he could not comment further. On Microsoft's official page on the social network site Twitter, a posting calls the swap \"a marketing mistake\" and offers \"sincere apologies.\" The episode drew widespread criticism on the Internet after Engadget, an influential tech blog, published news of the gaffe Tuesday. The business Web site CNET.com wrote that the change in models may have been made with the \"racially homogeneous\" Polish market in mind. CNET is a CNN.com content partner.","highlights":"Microsoft apologizes for a gaffe in an ad on its Polish Web site .\nAd was altered to replace a black businessman's head with that of a white man .\n\"We are looking into how it happened,\" says a Microsoft spokesman .","id":"3afcbbdc9ab667c3ac0aee22a1a7686290af4a0a"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China, often criticized for its liberal use of the death penalty, will reduce the number of criminal executions it carries out, a top official said. Chinese police guard a group of prisoners outside a Beijing court on May 25, 2001, before their sentencing. \"As it is impossible for the country to abolish capital punishment under current realities and social security conditions, it is an important effort to strictly control the application of the penalty by judicial organs,\" Zhang Jun, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said in an interview with Legal Daily, the state-run China Daily reported. \"Judicial departments should use the least number of death sentences as possible, and death penalties should not be given to those having a reason for not being executed,\" Zhang said. Legislation will be enacted to restrict the number of death sentences imposed and the court will tighten restrictions on the use of capital punishment, according to Zhang. The sentence of \"death penalty with reprieve\" will be used more often in courts, Zhang said, which could be commuted to life in prison. The term could later be shortened to 20 years and possibly reduced further for good behavior. China will retain the death sentence, according to Zhang, adding that it should be applied to \"an extremely small number\" of serious offenders. Human rights groups estimate 1,700 to 5,000 people were executed in China last year for crimes such as spying, corruption and drug trafficking. The official number of executions is a state secret. The death penalty remains an iconic form of punishment in China, where executions are used as a public warning. Sentencing is broadcast on national television. Two years ago, however, the Supreme Court was given the authority to review death penalty cases and, last year, 10 percent of death sentences were overturned. Criminals who've expressed remorse or agreed to compensate victims' families have had their sentences reduced. The death penalty will now be reserved for those who commit heinous crimes with \"grave social consequences,\" the government said. It's a step in the right direction, China analysts say. But they criticize the move as being too ambiguous and remain skeptical that it will lead to an actual reduction in executions. \"This is a small incremental step, but a step in the right direction,\" said Victor Gao, a director of the China National Association of International Studies. \"While other countries have abolished the death penalty because they think it is cruel and unusual punishment, China has decided it wants to keep the death penalty.\" Crimes with \"grave social consequences\" is a \"broad, catch-all concept which can be interpreted flexibly,\" Gao said. CNN's Emily Chang contributed to this report.","highlights":"Government: Execution only for heinous crimes with \"grave social consequences\"\nHuman rights groups estimate 1,700-5,000 people were executed in China last year .\nSupreme Court overturned 10 percent of death sentences last year after review .\n\"This is a small incremental step, but a step in the right direction,\" Victor Gao says .","id":"cd69a4087057878849a8aeddb034130d5f3101d4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Carrie Prejean's lawyer gave Miss California USA executive director Keith Lewis what he said was a final warning to retract statements made about the former beauty queen or face a defamation lawsuit. The lawyer for former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, says the ousted beauty queen's good name is \"tarnished.\" Prejean, stripped of the Miss California USA title last week, \"suffered severe emotional distress\" and her reputation was harmed by Lewis, Charles LiMandri said in a letter sent Thursday to Lewis' lawyer. LiMandri's letter also accused Lewis, whom he referred to as a \"gay activist,\" of setting Prejean up to be fired because of her statements opposing same-sex marriage. When Prejean, 22, was dethroned, Lewis said it was for \"contract violations,\" including missed public appearances. He told CNN's Larry King last week that it wasn't one thing Prejean did, but \"many, many, many things.\" \"She came to us and said I'm not interested in your input; I'll make my own decision what I'm going to do,\" Lewis said. \"You know, when you have a contract, when you're working for someone, you have a responsibility to follow through on what that requirement is.\" Lewis told King it was clear \"she was not interested in upholding the title or the responsibilities.\" \"Carrie Prejean's good name has been tarnished by your client's false and defamatory accusations,\" the letter from her lawyer to Lewis' said. \"Please view this letter as a last opportunity for Mr. Lewis to retract the defamatory statements made against my client and to seek to restore her good name,\" LiMandri said. \"If he does not comply, I will have no alternative but to recommend that Ms. Prejean proceed to do so through litigation.\" In response to the letter, Lewis issued a statement that said: \"Mr. LiMandri obviously has never watched 'The Apprentice' if he believes that Mr. Trump could be so easily fooled. Facts are facts, and we stand by them.\" LiMandri denied any contract violations, saying it was a \"complete and utter pretext\" for her firing. The list Lewis gave to reporters of Prejean's missed appearances was \"an outright fraud,\" he said. Prejean \"did not refuse reasonable appearance requests\" that could \"be expected to promote and further the intended purposes of Miss California USA,\" he said. The beauty queen expected to be asked to attend \"Rotary conventions and avocado festivals,\" not events Lewis suggested, LiMandri said. \"She did not think it was appropriate for her to accept Mr. Lewis' invitation to attend a gay documentary in Hollywood promoting same-sex marriage,\" he said. \"It was not my client's job, as Miss California, simply to help your client promote his personal or business interests as a Hollywood agent and producer, or gay activist.\" He accused Lewis of trying to make commissions off Prejean's appearances. \"Your client was trying to wrongfully profit off of my client's participation as Miss California, in violation of her contract, by taking 20 percent of any appearance fee she would earn, such as at the Las Vegas jewelers convention she attended at his request,\" LiMandri's letter said. LiMandri cited a statement he said Lewis made during a May 15 conference call that \"clearly shows that your client was trying to 'set-up' our client for termination\" by relaying an offer to appear semi-nude in Playboy. Three people who worked for a public relations agency representing Prejean at the time heard it, he said. \"All three of those people distinctly remember Keith Lewis talking about sending Ms. Prejean an offer to do a Playboy photo shoot 'so when they take her title away, she doesn't sue me,' \" he said. LiMandri said Lewis -- and former co-executive director Shanna Moakler -- were \"bound and determined to get her fired, and they have now finally gotten their way.\" Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump announced last month that Prejean could keep her title despite a controversy over topless photos, missed appearances and her statements against same-sex marriage. Trump reversed himself last week. \"I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA organization, and I gave her the opportunity to do so,\" Trump said. \"Unfortunately, it just doesn't look like it is going to happen, and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision.\"","highlights":"NEW: Pagaent director responds, \"Facts are facts, and we stand by them\"\nAttorney Charles LiMandri pens ultimatum to Miss California USA director's lawyer .\nCarrie Prejean's lawyer says dethronement caused \"severe emotional distress\"\n\"Please view this letter as a last opportunity\" to retract statements, LiMandri writes .","id":"c17c7fd5b31a6b232861bc9ea1e8c0739489816a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- While authorities do not yet know what killed Michael Jackson, the possibility that anesthetics -- particularly the drug Diprivan -- might be involved continues to swell with each new revelation. Propofol induces a coma, not sleep, an anesthesiologist told CNN. On Friday, The Associated Press quoted an unnamed law enforcement source saying investigators found Diprivan in Jackson's Holmby Hills home. A nutritionist, Cherilyn Lee, said earlier in the week that Jackson pleaded for the drug despite being told of its harmful effects. Sources close to Jackson told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta that the singer, who suffered from a sleep disorder, traveled with an anesthesiologist who would \"take him down\" at night and \"bring him back up\" during a world tour in the mid-90s. The California State Attorney General's office has now said it is helping the Los Angeles Police Department in Jackson's death investigation. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is also looking into the role of drugs, two federal law enforcement sources said. The drug Diprivan, known by its generic name Propofol, is administered intravenously in operating rooms as a general anesthetic, the manufacturer AstraZeneca said Friday. \"It is neither indicated nor approved for use as a sleep aid,\" said spokesman Tony Jewell. The drug works as a depressant on one's central nervous system. \"It works on your brain,\" said Dr. Zeev Kain, the chair of the anesthesiology department at the University of California Irvine. \"It basically puts the entire brain to sleep.\" However, once the infusion is stopped, the patient wakes up almost immediately. \"So if you're going to do this, you'd have to have somebody right there giving you the medication and monitoring you continuously,\" Kain said. Dr. Hector Vila, chairman of the Ambulatory Surgery Committee for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, said he administers the drug during office procedures such as urology, dentistry and gynecology. It is also the most common anesthetic for colonoscopies, he said. Both doctors said that while they have heard of the drug being abused by health care professionals, who have ready access to it, they had not heard of it being used as a sleep aid medication. \"Propofol induces coma, it does not induce sleep,\" Kain said. \"I can put you in a coma for as many days as you want. And, in fact, in intensive care units who have patients who are on a ventilator, that's one of the drugs they use.\" Dr. Rakesh Marwah, of the anesthesiology department at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said the drug can lead to cardiac arrest without proper monitoring. \"Propofol slows down the heart rate and slows down the respiratory rate and slows down the vital functions of the body,\" he said. Not enough carbon dioxide exits the body; not enough oxygen enters. And the situation can cause the heart to abruptly stop. \"[It is] as dangerous as it comes,\" Kain said. \"You will die if you will give yourself, or if somebody will give you, Propofol and you're not in the proper medical hands.\" Los Angeles police have interviewed Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray, who apparently tried to revive the singer after he was found unconscious on June 25. They also impounded Murray's car, saying it might contain evidence -- possibly prescription medications. Police did not say whether they found anything. Through his lawyers, Murray has released several statements saying that he would not be commenting until the toxicology results into Jackson's death are released. The tests are due back in two to three weeks, the Los Angeles County coroner said Thursday. \"We are treating all unnamed sources as rumors. And, as we have stated before, we will not be responding to rumors or innuendo,\" Murray's lawyer, Matt Alford said Friday. \"We are awaiting the facts to come out and we will respond at that time. \" The anesthesiologist who accompanied Jackson during the HIStory tour in the mid-'90s also refused to comment, although he acknowledged Jackson suffered from a sleep disorder. \"I'm very upset. I'm distraught. Michael was a good person. I can't talk about it right now,\" Dr. Neil Ratner said outside his Woodstock, New York, home Thursday. \"It's really something I don't want to talk about right now. I lost a good friend.\" On Thursday, the California State Attorney General's Office said it will assist Los Angeles police in sifting through information in a state database that monitors controlled medication. The database, known as CURES (Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System), contains an estimated 86 million records that list all doctors who prescribe such medication, the amount, the date and the person who receives it. Authorities said the database was used in the investigation after the death of former model and reality TV show star Anna Nicole Smith. A day earlier, federal law enforcement sources said DEA agents would be looking at various doctors involved with Jackson, their practices and their possible sources of medicine supply. A number of people close to Jackson have expressed concern that medication could have contributed to the singer's death at age 50. In 2005, after he was cleared on charges of child molestation, Jackson spent a week at a center run by Dr. Deepak Chopra, a physician who focuses on spirituality and the mind-body connection. During that week, Jackson asked Chopra for a prescription for a narcotic, the doctor said. \"I said, 'What the heck do you want a narcotic prescription for?'\" Chopra said. \"And it suddenly dawned on me that he was probably taking these and that he had probably a number of doctors who were giving him these prescriptions, so I confronted him with that. At first, he denied it. Then, he said he was in a lot of pain.\" Brian Oxman, a former attorney for the Jackson family who was with the family in the hospital emergency room on June 25, also expressed concern about medications the pop star was taking. \"I talked to his family about it, I warned them -- I said that Michael is overmedicating and that I did not want to see this kind of a case develop,\" Oxman told CNN the next day. Earlier this week, the nutritionist Lee, a registered nurse, said Jackson suffered from severe bouts of insomnia and asked her to find him some Diprivan. \"I told him this medication is not safe,\" Lee said. \"He said, 'I just want to get some sleep. You don't understand. I just want to be able to be knocked out and go to sleep.' \" Lee, however, said she did not know of any doctors who would have given Jackson the drug nor had she seen him use it. CNN's Danielle Dellorto and Elizabeth Landau in Atlanta, Georgia, and Drew Griffin in Los Angeles, California, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Anesthesiologist: Diprivan \"as dangerous as it comes,\" without proper guidance .\nSources say Jackson traveled with an anesthesiologist during world tour in 1990s .\nDoctor would \"take him down\" at night and \"bring him back up,\" sources say .\nAssociated Press: Unnamed law enforcement source says Diprivan found in house .","id":"da086038f06fbfe0112d38f586c85043859c2682"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portuguese football coach Jose Mourinho caused outcry this week when he substituted Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari due to his low-energy levels -- which were a result of fasting. Muntari is a practicing Muslim who, like many of the same faith around the world, is currently not eating during the hours of daylight to mark the Ramadan holy period. The midfielder is not the only high-profile player who will be fasting, check out Fanzone's First XI of Islamic stars..","highlights":"Jose Mourinho substituted Sulley Muntari because he had been low energy .\nThe Ghanaian midfielder is a Muslim and had been fasting during Ramadan .\nFrance international Franck Ribery is another high-profile Muslim .","id":"d0592f7af19092ee907743cb89b6e72376e15415"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Ahh! Ohh! Spa time at the Hawks Cay Resort in Florida . I'm face down on a massage table looking through glass at fish swimming in the lagoon, as the Polynesian masseuse caresses me with bags of seaweed and creams made from ground pearls and deep-sea water. Polynesian music plays softly. Waves lap the shore. Can it get any better than this? We're at the Thalasso Spa at the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort, which I'm told is the largest spa in French Polynesia, the first in the world to use water drawn from deep in the Pacific, which they tell us is extremely pure and rich in minerals. It's just an average mom-and-daughter afternoon together, or once in a lifetime, in this case. My friend, Pam Roza, her daughter, Orlee, my daughter, Mel, and their two friends, Margaret Bylsma and Lane Washburn -- all newly minted high school grads -- have taken an afternoon off from sailing on our chartered catamaran to enjoy a little spa action, followed by a real shower. The two dads have declined our invitation to join us and are snoozing by the pool at the resort. As if the massage isn't enough, we luxuriate in a walk-through pool that pummels our legs with jets of water. There are also treatments with deep-sea water showers, baths with deep-sea water and hydro massages, marine scrubs and mud treatments ... too bad we only have an afternoon! Of course, my mom never took me to a spa -- I don't think she's ever been to one herself -- but I've taken my wilderness-loving daughters to spas from the Caribbean to Colorado, from Arizona to Austria from the time they were young teens, and like others their age, they are perfectly at home getting facials and massages (as long as mom's paying). It turns out they've got plenty of company. According to the International Spa Association, 4 million teens have been to a spa. More than half of the hotel resort spas with memberships in ISA now have teen programs, and new ones that include younger children are opening all the time. An increasing number of resorts have dedicated spaces just for kids and teens -- from Scoops Kid Spas at the 10 Great Wolf Lodges around the country (choose your own sherbet scrub) to the Wild Hare Youth Spa at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort in Texas where you can create your own lip gloss. The teen spa area at Loews Coronado Bay Resort, designed with Pottery Barn PBTeen, offers young spa goers a chance to play video games or watch DVDs while they wait for their special acne facials, sports massages or skincare lessons. The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia, meanwhile, advertises treatments suitable for several \"generations\" of your family, while the Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort in Costa Rica has a family spa bungalow that a family can use for an entire day, scheduling alternating treatments with dips in the river. \"Teens we see are experienced spa-goers,\" said Pat Liberto, manager at the Cloister Spa at Sea Island, Georgia. \"The younger children who have older spa-goer siblings want to try something too.\" (You'll find junior spa programs in cities (Trump International Hotel in Chicago), at ski resorts (The Sundance Resort in Utah), in Florida (Hawks Cay Island Resort) and Hawaii (Grand Hyatt Kauai), in Williamsburg, Virginia (Kingsmill Resort and Spa), where birthday party spa camps are all the rage and even on Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruise ships. And the Four Seasons Bora Bora, which is making a huge effort to attract the family market, is developing an entire teen program to add to their special treatments for honeymooning couples. This pampering won't necessarily break the bank either, since many \"treatments,\" especially for younger kids, are substantially discounted. The spa treatments at Orlando's Nick Hotel start at just $6. Solace Spa at Boyne Mountain Resort in Michigan now hosts Family Nights with mini treatments. Admission is just $5 and includes yoga, steam, sauna and mini-treatments for as little as $10. \"At the age of six, it's not often you get to be a princess for an evening and receive royal treatments,\" said Danielle Donovan, from Petoskey, Michigan, who took her daughter Libby. \"The special mommy\/daughter time made Family Spa Night one of a kind!\" \"It's an affordable luxury,\" added Carmen Gillett, an attorney from Sarasota, Florida, who takes her 9-year-old daughter, Rosie, to Longboat Key Club and Resort where kids' treatments might include a junior escape massage (strawberry kiwi body icing?). \"She loves it,\" Gillett says, adding, it's a great way to share an experience and have a good time yourself! While the International Spa Association reports that spa goers are opting for fewer and shorter treatments, youth spa programs continue to flourish -- likely because of the reduced fees. For that reason, said Anne Monnier, who took her daughter Hanna to the spa at Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, \"It was well worth the price. It made her feel like royalty. And just having some special mother\/daughter time (no husband or son allowed) was special in itself.\" For tweens and teens, spa treatments aren't just about indulgence either; they can have a lasting impact. \"The teen facial made a difference. It also helps teach a young girl about taking care of her skin and about taking pride in her appearance,\" said Laura Patterson, who has been taking her daughter, Sara, to the Homestead's Kid Spa for years. Carmen Gillett jokes she didn't even know what a spa was until she was in college. \"I'm giving her everything I didn't have,\" she laughs. Serenity Shower, anyone? (For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.) Copyright 2009 EILEEN OGINTZ, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"According to the International Spa Association, 4 million teens have been to a spa .\nThe spa treatments at Orlando's Nick Hotel start at just $6 .\nSolace Spa at Boyne Mountain Resort in Michigan now hosts Family Nights .","id":"12a2225b3c1ce4b522a3b6a62144a9acd3148a17"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Those most responsible for last year's post-election violence in Kenya may now be punished by the International Criminal Court, after Kenya missed a deadline to address the issue. A man runs past a market set on fire in post-election violence in Nakuru, Kenya, in January 2008. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the court, said in a statement Wednesday that his court will now step in to help Kenya address the post-election violence of early 2008. \"Kenya will be a world example on managing violence,\" he said. Kenya's coalition government promised action after more than 1,000 people were killed following a disputed election in December 2007. Hundreds of thousands were displaced amid the bloodshed. One of the chief promises was the formation of a tribunal to try the perpetrators of that violence. Now that Kenya has missed the deadline, Moreno-Ocampo announced a plan to address the issue. In the statement, he said the International Criminal Court would prosecute those most responsible, and other perpetrators would be subject to \"national accountability proceedings as defined by the Kenyan Parliament, such as a Special Tribunal.\" Kenya will also create \"other reforms and mechanisms such as the Justice, Truth and Reconciliation commission to shed light on the full history of past events and to suggest mechanisms to prevent such crimes in the future,\" the ICC statement said. During meetings with Moreno-Ocampo in July, a delegation from Kenya said that prosecuting those responsible for the violence was necessary to prevent similar acts ahead of the 2012 election. CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.","highlights":"Violence in early 2008 killed more than 1,000, displaced hundreds of thousands .\nKenya promised to set up tribunal to try the perpetrators, but has missed deadline .\nInternational Criminal Court says it will prosecute those most responsible .\n\"Kenya will be a world example on managing violence,\" top court official says .","id":"dbd4164bdca78b527205be233ea59f15a7a40f49"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nebraska lawmakers, meeting in emergency session this week, are set to change a controversial safe-haven law by sharply limiting the age at which a child can be dropped off with local authorities. Thirty-five children have been dropped off at Nebraska hospitals since the law was enacted. The state Senate voted 41 to 6 Wednesday to scrap the current version of the law -- which has no age limitation -- and instead establish a strict 30-day age limit. State legislators have expressed concern that, if the law is not changed, Nebraska's social services system will be overwhelmed by older children delivered by parents from around the country who find they are unable to provide proper care. The legislature -- which has only one chamber, the Senate -- is expected to approve final passage of the revision this week before Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman signs it on Friday. Nebraska's safe haven law was intended to allow parents to hand over an infant anonymously to a hospital without being prosecuted. Of the 35 children who have been dropped off at hospitals since the law went into effect in September, however, not one has been an infant, officials say. All but six have been older than 10, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. \"The abandonment of these children -- and the harm it is causing them -- is an immediate concern,\" said Jen Rae Hein, communications director for the governor. \"Some children have been begging their parents or guardians not to leave,\" said social worker Courtney Anderson. \"They may not really understand why they are being left at the hospital. But they know they are being left, and the parent or guardian might be fleeing.\" On Tuesday, a 15-year-old girl was left at a hospital in Hall County, located in the central part of the state. Last week, a 14-year-old boy and his 17-year-old sister were dropped off at an Omaha hospital; the girl ran away from the hospital. Earlier in the week, a father flew in from Miami, Florida, to leave his teenage son at a hospital, officials said. \"Please don't bring your teenager to Nebraska,\" Heineman told parents in an interview with CNN. \"Think of what you are saying. You are saying you no longer support them. You no longer love them.\" State Sen. Tom White said lawmakers have been caught off guard by the number of teenagers dropped off under the law. \"What you've seen is an extraordinary cry for help from people all across the country,\" he said. \"Nebraska can't afford to take care of all of them. Nebraska would like to be able to, but they know that we can't so we are going to have to change the law.\" Five of the 35 abandoned children were brought to Nebraska from out of state. Parents have traveled to Nebraska from Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Florida and Georgia. \"We didn't think [the law] would be used to the extent it [has been],\" state Sen. Brad Ashford said. \"We didn't anticipate children coming from other states.\" Tysheema Brown drove from Georgia to leave her teenage son at an Omaha hospital. \"Do not judge me as a parent. I love my son and my son knows that,\" Brown said. \"There is just no help. There hasn't been any help.\" Safe-haven laws allow distraught parents who fear their children are in imminent danger to drop them off at hospitals without being charged with abandonment. Nebraska was the last state in the country to pass such a law. But every other state included an age limit. There are 6,600 children in state custody in Nebraska, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The per capita rate is one of the highest in the country, said Todd Landry, director of the Division of Children and Family Services for the Department of Health and Human Services, . \"I think this has spurred some really healthy conversations about how do parents get the help that they need when they are struggling with some of these parenting issues,\" he said. \"And the message that we have been trying to get out is, 'Don't wait until it's a crisis. Reach out to your family and friends.' \" CNN's Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.","highlights":"State legislature meeting to set maximum age for drop-off, rule out older kids .\nSocial worker: \"Children have been begging their parents or guardians not to leave\"\nMom: \"Do not judge me as a parent. I love my son\"\nGovernor: \"Please don't bring your teenager to Nebraska\"","id":"fa57035aa7136d41c529272a71eda316f4acc41d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Honduras' de facto president said Thursday that he is willing to resign and let ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya back into the country, as long as Zelaya gives up his quest for leadership. Ousted Honduras leader Jose Manuel Zelaya may be allowed to return to his country under certain conditions. The new proposal calls for the person next in line, as required by the constitution, to succeed de facto President Roberto Micheletti. Under terms of the proposal, Zelaya could return as a private citizen, but not be allowed to resume his post. Presidential elections held after both resigned would be monitored by international observers such as the Organization of American States and the European Union, according to the proposal. Zelaya did not immediately issue a response to the offer. Until now, Micheletti has made clear that Zelaya would be arrested if he returned. The offer comes two months after Zelaya was seized by the military in his pajamas and forced to leave the country. Micheletti has insisted that Zelaya was not overthrown and was replaced through constitutional means. The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's plan to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution and allowed longer term limits. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. The Organization of American States sent a delegation to Honduras on Tuesday to promote the so-called San Jose Accord, which seeks an end to the political turmoil and the return of Zelaya to office. Micheletti's government declined to sign the agreement. On Thursday, the United States said it was considering cutting off all aid to Honduras. Washington froze its assistance to Honduras after Zelaya was removed from office and stopped issuing visas in the Central American country earlier this week. Further steps could choke off as much $200 million in additional aid dispensed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, funded by the U.S. government. The United Nations and the European Union also have said that they do not recognize Micheletti's provisional government.","highlights":"Honduras interim leader agrees to step down if former president will not seek post .\nJose Manuel Zelaya was removed from office in June, sought to change constitution .\nU.S. considers cutting off aid to Central American country .","id":"57f5322f2f26b2255da22ea925ee9bff7604a129"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The lawyer for the woman who faces 40 lashes for wearing clothes that Sudan deemed indecent called the law \"degrading.\" Lubna al-Hussein was told she had trousers considered too tight and a blouse too transparent. \"They ought to stop it,\" Nabil Adib said on Thursday. \"It is quite unnecessary and degrading. It is harassment.\" Lubna Al Hussein -- who writes for a newspaper and, until recently, worked for the media department of the U.N. mission in Sudan -- was arrested, along with 18 other women on July 3. At the time of her arrest, she said, she was wearing pants, a blouse and a hijab or headscarf. Police accused Hussein of wearing trousers that were too tight and a blouse that was too sheer, she said. Watch more about the case \u00bb . A hearing on the case has been scheduled for Tuesday. Adib, the lawyer, seemed confident that the court would drop the case. The indecent clothing charge has only one punishment under Sudanese law -- 40 lashes in public, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. \"These things have their ups and downs,\" Adib said. \"These laws have generally relaxed as a matter of policy. But they are still sometimes enforced.\" The Arabic Network humans rights organization said the threat of flogging was retaliation for Hussein writing critically about the Sudanese regime. However, Adib does not think his client was targeted. \"There are round-ups that they do and it is indiscriminate,\" he said. \"I don't think she was targeted specifically. They attack public and private parties and groups. They are called 'morality police' and she was just a victim of a round-up.\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called flogging \"against the international human rights standards.\" He said he would take every effort to protect his staff member. However, Hussein resigned from her position with the United Nations to avoid the immunity she would have received, Adib said. Hussein said she will stand firm that she did nothing wrong. CNN's Umaro Djau, Talia Kayali and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lubna Al-Hussein, 18 others recently arrested for wearing indecent clothes .\nAl-Hussein was told her pants were too tight, her blouse too sheer .\nAl-Hussein faces 40 lashes in public .","id":"1a45724d502cbb0cdc30b4854010c0f0149d2abc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- On the surface, the similarities are striking; they were both princesses born in the 1940s in a foreign land. Young and beautiful, the long-haired brunettes soon fell in love and followed their men to the United States where they built a reputation for steely determination and strength. Diane von Furstenberg's comic book image appears in the window at the London launch of her Wonder Woman collection. Thirty years later, in the 1970s, one was rewarded with her own fashion empire, the other, her own TV show. The only thing really separating them was the magic lasso. Oh, and the invisible plane, and maybe the bracelets that deflect bullets... Belgian-born New York designer Diane von Furstenberg has used Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, as inspiration for her latest collection, a brightly-colored clothing range that proves dressing like a cartoon character needn't involve teaming knee-high boots with hot pants. The influence of the American stars and stripes are evident in the collection, but in the star piece, a full-length dress, they blend together in muted tones, hinting only at their origin rather than screaming out superhero. The collection was launched in London last night, a day after Barack Obama stormed home as the next President of the United States. Diane von Furstenberg watched the election results from a London hotel room, having lodged an absentee vote from Asia. \"I think it's amazing -- I think we need him desperately,\" she said. In what could only be a gift from the marketing gods, images of the President-elect dressed as Superman started appearing on street corners in the U.S. in the lead-up to the election. Obama has insisted he's no superman, but do the images demonstrate that America is hoping and searching for a superhero? If not Superman, maybe Wonder Woman? \"It's not about a superhero,\" says Diane von Furstenberg. It's just because he's bright and he's willing to do the work. And he's young and he has energy, and that's it.\" Of all of America's superheroes -- and there are many -- Wonder Woman is seen as one of the most patriotic. She literally wears the stars and stripes. See images of Wonder Woman through the ages and the DVF collection \u00bb . She was created in 1941 during World War II by William Moulton Marston as a female alternative to the plethora of male action heroes who were saving the world in comic books of the day. He also invented the lie detector, the early version of Wonder Woman's \"Lasso of Truth.\" As the story goes, Wonder Woman was an Amazonian princess who left her home on Paradise Island to fight the \"Axis powers\" in the world of man. By day, she was Diana Prince who, with a quick spin, transformed into Wonder Woman, ready to destroy Nazi enemies, foil Japanese plots and expose international spy rings. In the early 1970s, she became a cover girl for feminism, appearing on the cover of the inaugural \"Ms.\" magazine. Fame followed on television when she was immortalized by actress Lynda Carter. After years of lying low, she starred in a popular exhibition \"Superheroes: Fantasy and Fashion\" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York earlier this year. Curator Andrew Bolton says, \"When designers look to Wonder Woman there are two things they seem to refer to -- her role as Amazon woman, this strong powerful Amazonian figure -- and her as a symbol of America, a symbol of democracy.\" In 2001, John Galliano for Christian Dior used Wonder Woman as inspiration for a rather risque ensemble which included a red and white striped jacket, starry gold bustier and tiny knickers. Bolton says the 9\/11 attacks in 2001 sparked a resurgence in American patriotism that's been strengthened this week with the election of a man with a mandate for change. \"I think that the idea of patriotism has become much more potent, certainly in light of recent events,\" Bolton says. \"It's a celebration of a new regime, a new democratic regime.\" It's perfect timing perhaps for the launch of a fashion range that celebrates an all-American, albeit originally Amazonian, hero. For Diane, the Wonder Woman collection is more about empowering women than tapping into the zeitgeist: \"The message is that there's a wonder woman inside every one of us,\" she says. She's penned a limited edition comic book to go with the collection, \"The Adventures of Diva, Viva and Fifa,\" which is emblazoned with the message \"Be the Wonder Woman you can be.\" All proceeds from the sale of the comic books, and a portion of the sales of the collection, go to Vital Voices, a non-governmental organization that aspires to empower women in developing countries, to address human trafficking and to train future leaders. \"What Diane von Furstenberg has done for us, by the Wonder Woman book, by supporting us in the way she has done has raised the profile of Vital Voices,\" says Baroness Mary Goudie, one of the group's directors. \"And by her example, she's empowering young women and other women around the world.\" A bit like Wonder Woman, really.","highlights":"Wonder Woman inspired Diane von Furstenberg's latest fashion collection .\nThe 1940s comic book character is considered one of America's most patriotic .\nDiane Von Furstenberg: \"There's a Wonder Woman inside every one of us\"\nProceeds will go to Vital Voices, a group that empowers women worldwide .","id":"122bad1bb5f5a9be9535c841e7fa0332b3d43be8"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has pretty much got this acting thing down. After all, he started acting at the age of 15 and, well, he's got that Oscar. Nicolas Cage says that Academy Awards are \"not as important as children and making them happy.\" So he doesn't really need to deliver another gut-wrenching performance to demonstrate his chops. In fact, he can deviate from a traditional film and venture into animated territory. He's voiced animated characters in the past, but in Disney's new 3-D tale \"G-Force,\" Cage lends his voice to a mole. Speckles the star-nosed mole comes to life thanks to the film's impressive digital animation and Cage's voice. At first it's unclear that Cage is the voice behind Speckles, because he changes his sound for the critter, er, character. CNN talked to Cage about playing a mole, animated films and his taking walks in the forest. The following is an edited version of that interview: . CNN: What do you play in this film? Nicolas Cage: I'm playing Speckles, the mole, and he's an outsider. He's an iconoclast -- he doesn't fit in. He doesn't get into the fray with the \"G-Force,\" the other guinea pigs. But his IQ is off the charts, and he's a technological wizard. CNN: So, you're an Academy Award-winning actor, and you decided to play (this role). How did this come about? Cage: To me, nothing's more sacred than the magical world of children, and with everything that's going on in the world, it gets increasingly more challenging to keep our kids smiling -- people are losing their jobs, families are tense. So anything I can do to give families something to look forward to and to put a smile back on children's faces -- I'm gonna do. Disney has a great tradition of enchanting children and giving them something to behold. I mean, you mention Academy Awards -- I mean, that's not as important as children and making them happy. CNN: Tell me about your voice: Why did you decide to really change it when you read the script? Cage: Mel Blanc is a hero because of what he could do with his voice for all the Looney Tunes, the Warner Brothers cartoons, to be the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To me, he's a great actor. I mean, one of the great character actors, and I knew that if I was gonna be in this movie, I'd want to do something like that and transform my voice. CNN: So you're clearly comfortable playing a mole? Cage: I'm comfortable with the mole, yeah. I mean, yeah, he's different, he's got issues, you know? I don't want a perfect character, I want a character who has, as strange as it sounds, some humanity, some flaws, some needs. But to be fair, I'm not in a lot of this movie. This is Darwin's movie, um Sam Rockwell and Penelope Cruz's movie -- they're the stars. I'm only in it at the beginning and the end. CNN : You seem to be a big fan of animated films. Cage: I do enjoy animated movies. I really love anime and movies like \"Spirited Away\" and \"Howl's Moving Castle.\" I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world, and no matter how many times you watch it, you're gonna see something new in that world. That level of detail really inspires me. CNN: Is there less pressure doing an animated film and lending your voice to a character as opposed to a traditional film? Cage: Well, you don't have the pressure of the camera. And that's -- that's very liberating. And you don't have the pressure of other actors trying to remember their dialogue or not being in rhythm with you. The challenge though is, these movies take years to make, and I may not be in the same state of mind I was in a year ago or two years ago, and then they tend to pull you out of wherever you are and put you back in a box, and then try to get the voice out of you again, so that's the rub. CNN: Have you gotten pretty good at honing your skills when it comes to choosing roles, or is it always a risk? Cage: I mean it is always a gamble. You never know what's gonna happen with a movie. But I think it's more of a matter of, am I doing something that I believe in on any level? Like, am I going to entertain children, or am I going to make a movie that I can stand by because it means well on some level? That's becoming more and more a part of the criteria. CNN: How do you think you've changed as an actor throughout your career? Cage: I think I've become more relaxed. I don't feel the need to jump up and down and make a big noise to get people to pay attention to me. I don't need to um, you know, do punk rock gestures or eat a cockroach or do something weird to say I exist. I feel like I'm hearing a different kind of sound now. It's a much more subtle sound, but it's still a truthful sound, that I can express myself in, in roles that are much more relaxed and seasoned as opposed to boisterous and rock and roll. CNN: What's inspiring to you, in every day. Cage: Well, I find children inspiring. The way they look at the world. The magical world they live in, to me, is inspiring. I like -- I mean, I'm afraid I'm gonna answer your questions and sound like a complete nature addict here, but uh, I like nature, I enjoy going for walks, I like the ocean, I like the forest. CNN: Is that what you do when you're not working, that's important to you in your life? Cage: Yes. Yes, I like to go for walks in the forest.","highlights":"Nicolas Cage voices character of Speckles the mole in \"G-Force\"\nDisney's \"G-Force\" opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, July 24 .\n\"I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world,\" Cage says .","id":"74553439d073437bcd8cc281df5371eccb8ad8a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Australian cruiser met the disguised German vessel in the waters off western Australia two years after the two became enemies in World War II. The gun turret of the Sydney II was discovered with the rest of the vessel in March 2008. The Australian ship approached, trying to determine whether the vessel was friendly. It wasn't. What resulted was Australia's worst naval disaster: the sinking of the Australian ship and the loss of its entire crew of 645. The wreckage wasn't found until last year, leading to decades of conspiracy theories about what actually happened. On Wednesday a long-awaited report on the sinking of the Sydney II ended the mystery that began when it met its fate, November 19, 1941. Made to look like a cargo ship, the German vessel was in fact a military raider that fired on the Australians when they got close. The Sydney fired back and, in the end, both ships went down. More than 300 of the sailors on board the German vessel, the Kormoran, survived. But because they were the only witnesses to the disaster, some doubted their accounts, leading to various theories about the real fate of the Sydney. After the wrecks of both ships were located in March 2008, an Australian commission began an inquiry to formally close the book on the loss of the Sydney. The results confirm the accounts provided by the German sailors. They said the Sydney closed in on the Kormoran until it was parallel with the German ship, little more than 1,000 yards away. \"Sydney obviously thought the ship was friendly and was taken by surprise when, after she asked what she believed to be (a friendly ship) to give her secret call sign, the response was a number of salvos that destroyed Sydney's bridge and amidships superstructure and a torpedo strike that crippled the ship and her forward guns,\" the report said. The Sydney had given up its tactical advantage of speed and armaments by getting so close to an unknown vessel, the report said. While that may have been an error of judgment by the Australian captain, Joseph Burnett, the report accepted that other factors -- which may never be known -- influenced his decision. \"It can never be known what matters were, in fact, operating in Capt. Burnett's mind when he decided to take the Sydney to the position described. Nor can it be known what advice, if any, he sought from or was given by other officers on the bridge,\" the report says. \"What is known, however, is that, in trying to identify the sighted ship, Capt. Burnett was performing his duty as a commanding officer.\" The German ship inflicted \"enormous damage\" on the Sydney during a battle that is believed to have lasted about 35 minutes and left 70 percent of the Sydney's crew dead or incapacitated, said Cmdr. Jack Rush, the lawyer who presented the evidence gathered by investigators to a commission of inquiry led by a retired judge. It is likely that Burnett, the navigator, and all of the Sydney's senior officers were taken out on the first salvo, Rush said. A torpedo tore into the Sydney's bow, flooding the forward end of the ship, while the Kormoran fired an estimated 87 rounds from its 15-cm (5.9-inch) guns into the Australian cruiser. The Sydney limped away and sank sometime between 2 hours to 4 1\/2 hours later, Rush said. During the battle, however, the Kormoran itself was hit by an Australian shell that damaged its engines and set the vessel ablaze. With hundreds of mines aboard, its captain ordered the crew to abandon ship, fearing the fire would set those off. Charges were set and the ship was scuttled. About 80 of the Kormoran's crew of nearly 400 were lost. A search began only five days after the battle, when the Sydney failed to return to port in Fremantle. And an 11-day delay by Australia's government in announcing the ship's loss fueled what a 1999 parliamentary report called \"a proliferation of theories\" about the fate of the crew -- that the ship was actually sunk by a Japanese submarine, that survivors were machine-gunned in the water or that the government hid bodies after they washed up on the beach. The commission thoroughly investigated all the theories and speculations surrounding the disaster and found no substance in any of them, said Terence Cole, president of the commission. Researchers found the Sydney's wreckage in the Indian Ocean, about 207 km (128 miles) off Australia's west coast. The commission was appointed in May 2008 and began its inquiry in January. \"For a long time our nation has struggled to understand how our greatest maritime disaster occurred. The unanswered questions have haunted the families of those brave sailors and airman that never came home,\" Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the chief of the Australian Defence Force, said in a written statement.","highlights":"Finding: Sydney's captain, senior officers likely to have died in first salvo .\nSinking of Sydney II and loss of crew of 645 was Australia's worst naval disaster .\nGerman vessel, the Kormoran, was made to look like a cargo ship .\nBoth ships went down; more than 300 on Kormoran survived; wrecks found last year .","id":"6b364d9a06b75920859ff87ee4ee2cd61a48c7c9"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Explosions tore through two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least eight people, a presidential spokesman said. Counter-terrorist police commandos secure the damaged Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta on Friday after the blasts. The number of injured was in the 40s, said Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They were taken to area hospitals. Hours later, local television reported a car bombing in north Jakarta, but that report was immediately contradicted by various other media sources. Police sealed off the area around both hotel blasts, one in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the other at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, about 50 meters away. Djalal said the attacks were coordinated. Forensics experts are collecting evidence at the \"disturbing scene,\" Djalal said. He said he had few details about the blasts, which occurred about 7:45 a.m. (8:45 p.m. Thursday ET) on Friday, Islam's holy day. \"What I can say is one of the most damaged areas that we looked at, where the bodies were, was a lounge area in the Marriott near the lobby,\" he said. \"That seems to be the epicenter of the bomb.\" \"This is a blow to us, but I don't have any doubts that we will be able to uncover and find out the perpetrators,\" Djalal said. Police said the bomb at the Marriott likely came from the basement beneath the coffee shop on the ground floor, which would have been busy at breakfast time. In a Twitter post four hours after the blast, Marriott said: \"Police responded immediately, sealed off the area. Guests @ both hotels have been evacuated & have been moved to a secure location.\" At the Ritz, windows were blown out on the second floor, as though the blast occurred from inside a hotel restaurant that would also have been crowded with a breakfast crowd, said witness Greg Woolstencroft. Another witness counted four foreigners among the wounded, according to state-run Antara New Agency. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel was to have accommodated soccer players from Britain's Manchester United, who were expected to arrive in Jakarta on Sunday. Watch a report on suspects behind the blasts \u00bb . U.S. Embassy Press Attache Paul Belmont told CNN no U.S. casualties have been confirmed and that the embassy was monitoring the situation closely. The death toll may be higher than reported, said CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director of international operations. He said two U.S. businessmen were treated for minor injuries. \"There was a boom and the building shook, and then subsequently two more,\" said hotel guest Don Hammer, who was leaving his room in the Marriott when the blast occurred. \"The shocking part was entering the lobby, where the glass at the front of the hotel was all blown out and blood was spattered across the floor, but most people were leaving calmly.\" Woolstencroft had just walked past the hotels and had gone to his nearby apartment when he heard an explosion. \"I looked out my window and I saw a huge cloud of brownish smoke go up,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I grabbed my iPhone to go downstairs ... and then the second bomb went off at the Ritz-Carlton, so I then ran around to the Ritz-Carlton and I was able to find that there had been a massive bomb that went off in this ... restaurant area and the explosion had blown out both sides of the hotel. \"I found inside the body of what appears to be a suicide bomber, it looked like someone who had been a suicide bomber or someone who had been very, very close to the explosion. Watch an eyewitness report of the blasts \u00bb . \"I also noticed that there were a number of injured people being taken off to hospital, but I only noticed one dead person at this point and time, that's all I saw. There has been extensive damage to both buildings, and at this point and time of course all the authorities are blocking up all the area and starting an investigation.\" He added, \"It's obviously targeted establishments where there are Westerners and expats ... I can only assume it's something to try and send a message.\" The television executive said he had lived at the Ritz for a year before moving to his nearby apartment and had been impressed by the facility's security. \"I just don't know how someone could get in there with a bomb, given the level of security and screening that people have to go through,\" he said, citing armed guards at checkpoints and thorough searches of people, bags and vehicles. The Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people. In that attack, an explosives-laden vehicle pulled into the motor lobby of the Marriott and exploded at the height of the lunch hour. Friday's attack \"was not nearly as bad,\" said John Aglionby, a reporter for the Financial Times who was at the site of both blasts. Former CNN producer John Towriss, who has spent many years in Jakarta, said the Marriott and Ritz often share employees and an underground passageway connects the two buildings that sit across the road from each other. Towriss said the Marriott has beefed up security since the 2003 attacks, making it impossible for people to drive up to the hotel in cars. Both hotels set up metal detectors and thick concrete barriers to prevent car bombers. \"I always thought I was safer at the Marriott because I thought it had already been bombed once,\" Towriss said. \"I thought that another hotel would be targeted.\" CNN's Andy Saputra in Jakarta and Miranda Leitsinger in Hong Kong. contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll rises to eight, a presidential spokesman says .\nExplosions hit Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta .\nAt the Ritz, second floor windows blown out, as though blast occurred from within .\nThe Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people .","id":"a302d316ffcb4cc59d9f331f7c3ac08114997084"} -{"article":"NASSAU, Bahamas (CNN) -- John Travolta testified Wednesday that would-be extortionists threatened to go the media with stories implying \"the death of my son was intentional and I was culpable somehow.\" John Travolta's son died of a seizure in January at the age of 16. Travolta testified for the second time in a case against paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamian Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater. The defendants are on trial, accused of plotting to extort $25 million from Travolta after 16-year-old Jett Travolta died from a seizure in the Bahamas in January. Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, entered the downtown Nassau courthouse Wednesday morning surrounded by security personnel. The actor took the stand appearing nervous, and he took a long, deep breath before beginning his testimony. Travolta told the court a longtime employee of his became upset after learning someone was demanding money of the actor in the wake of his son's death. The employee learned through the family attorney, Travolta said, that it was \"in regards to a paper I signed in the Bahamas.\" In earlier testimony, one of Travolta's lawyers, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, said Bridgewater approached her in the days after the January 2 death of Jett, saying she had a legal client who had a document Travolta might want. Bridgewater gave her copies of the papers, which included ambulance dispatch reports and a paper signed by Travolta releasing the ambulance company from legal liability, Maynard-Gibson testified. Watch In Session's Ashleigh Banfield discuss case \u00bb . The paramedic expected Travolta would pay millions to prevent publication of the documents because \"he would not want his name tarnished in media,\" Maynard-Gibson said. Bridgewater told Travolta's lawyer that her client believed the documents could suggest that Travolta was negligent by wanting to take his unresponsive son to his private jet for a flight to a Florida hospital, instead of going directly to a local hospital, she said. In testimony last week, Travolta said a nanny found Jett unresponsive at the home on the island of Grand Bahamas, where the family was spending their New Year's holiday. Travolta said he initially told the ambulance driver to rush them to an airport where his private jet was parked. Travolta, who is a pilot, said he wanted to fly his son to a West Palm Beach, Florida, hospital instead of driving him to one in Freeport. The paramedic, however, asked Travolta to sign a statement releasing the ambulance company from liability. \"I received a liability of release document. I signed it. I did not read it. Time was of the essence,\" Travolta testified last week. Travolta said that while he and his wife were riding in the ambulance with their son, they decided to divert to the hospital. At the hospital, Travolta was told his son \"wasn't alive,\" he said. On Wednesday, Travolta testified that he learned of a demand for $25 million or \"stories connected to that document would be sold to the press.\" \"The stories would imply the death of my son was intentional and I was culpable somehow,\" Travolta said. An attorney representing Bridgewater and Lightbourne asked Travolta if the defendants ever contacted or threatened him directly. Travolta said they did not, that he heard specifics about the situation through his attorneys. Travolta's testimony lasted only a short time. He was excused and is not expected to return to the witness stand. One of the actor's attorneys, Michael McDermott, took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon and began testimony about a videotaped meeting between him and one of the defendants. The video is expected to be played Thursday for the jury.","highlights":"Travolta in court: Defendants used papers to imply negligence in extortion attempt .\nTravolta: I signed waiver while considering alternative to area hospital for son .\nDefendants thought consideration of alternative would imply negligence, lawyer says .\nTravolta says two attempted extortion after his son, Jett, died .","id":"0c72419a3f3361a205de94eda4207ebb13298347"} -{"article":"(People.com) -- While she does not know who donated the kidney that potentially saved her life, Natalie Cole is on the mend and \"really doing well,\" the Grammy-winning singer said at Thursday's Harold Pump Foundation Gala in Beverly Hills to honor Earvin \"Magic\" Johnson and Bill Russell. Natalie Cole had a kidney transplant in May. \"I'm just really, really thankful,\" she says. \"It's remarkable what a new kidney does to your life. I have no complaints. ... I'm pretty amazed. I have been working on my stamina.\" Cole, whose transplant surgery took place in May, says, \"I just went to the doctor today. He is thrilled. I'm just really, really thankful. I'm thankful to the doctors, I'm thankful to the family that donated the kidney.\" In terms of the support she received, the Los Angeles, California-based Cole, 59, says, \"My sisters who live in Florida, they came out, my son, oodles of friends. I got sick in New York, I wasn't at home. I didn't know how many good friends I had until this happened. It was beautiful. I had people come and see me every day in the hospital for 10 days.\" Having already announced a Hollywood Bowl comeback performance set for September 9, Cole says, \"I only wish for anyone to have to go through this, that they have a circle of friends like I did. I was very blessed.\" When it came to the medical procedure, she says, \"It is hard to find a match. A lot of people want to donate a kidney, but they're not in a position to because they have health issues of their own, and a lot of people need them. That's why the list is long and it takes a long time. \"My friend was on dialysis for six years before he got a new kidney. I was on dialysis for eight months. I'm almost not even the typical person who has kidney failure.\" Thankful as she is for the gift, Cole is prevented from knowing who donated the organ. \"I don't know who they are. I have not met them, it's all anonymous,\" Cole says. One thing she did know, however: the family specifically requested that the organ go to Cole. \"That's what was so awesome, their family basically requested that the kidney go to me,\" she says. \"We are not sure how they knew.\" Would she like to meet the donor? \"Absolutely, are you kidding? I would probably kiss them all over the place.\" Try 4 FREE PREVIEW Issues of PEOPLE, CLICK HERE NOW . Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"Grammy-winning singer Natalie Cole said she's doing well after kidney transplant .\nCole has a comeback performance scheduled for September 9 .\nShe doesn't know who donated the kidney, but knows the family requested she get it .\nCole would \"absolutely\" like to meet her donor .","id":"dc2d6c08e4b8c3ebca39b74b955fdb870bc0cfa7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In a race to beat the flu season, medical institutes across the United States will begin human trials for a new H1N1 flu vaccine starting in early August, the National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday. Concern about the H1N1 virus grew after it spread quickly around the globe earlier this year. In the hope of getting the vaccine to those who will need it most by October, the clinical trials will enroll as many as 1,000 adults and children at 10 centers nationwide, said officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the NIH, which will lead the effort. The trials will measure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. The research is a first step toward U.S. health officials' goal of developing a safe and effective vaccine against H1N1, also known as swine flu, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization . The time frame for developing a vaccine is a tight one. \"It's going to be close,\" said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. \"I believe it can be [ready by October] if things run smoothly. We hope they will, but you never can tell when you're dealing with biological phenomena like making vaccines and administering them.\" The announcement of the U.S. trials followed the announcement earlier this week, by an Australian company, CSL Ltd., of the first human trials of a swine flu vaccine. Concern about the H1N1 virus grew after it spread quickly around the globe earlier this year. \"This virus has the potential to cause significant illness with hospitalizations and deaths during the U.S. flu season this fall and winter,\" said Dr. Karen Kotloff, professor of pediatrics and lead investigator and researcher at Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development. \"Vaccines have always been a vital tool for controlling influenza. The results of these studies will help to guide the optimal use of the H1N1 vaccines in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.\" After careful screening, volunteers will be inoculated and then asked to keep a diary on how they feel. After eight days their blood will be checked and after 21 days they will receive another dose, followed again by diary logs and blood tests. Patients will be monitored two months for safety issues, followed by a four-month and six-month checkup. \"The purpose of these trials is always to make sure they are safe,\" Kotloff said. \"But even after six weeks, if things look good, we're pretty sure the vaccine will work.\" She noted the response to the vaccine may vary in different age groups. \"This is because young people have not seen a flu virus like this one before,\" she noted. \"Older adults might have some immunity to the new H1N1 virus as a result of being exposed to similar flu viruses in the past. As a result, older adults might need fewer doses or a lower strength of the vaccine than younger individuals.\" The vaccine at this point has been tested only in animals, where it has shown to be effective. Further trials will examine questions such as how the vaccine works in combination with the seasonal flu vaccine and whether including an adjutant, a substance that boosts the immune response to vaccines, can make it work better at lower doses. Other trial sites along with the University of Maryland Medical Center are Baylor College of Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Emory University, Saint Louis University, Seattle Group Health Cooperative, the University of Iowa, and Vanderbilt University. They will be joined by Children's Mercy Hospital and Duke University Medical Center. CNN's Valerie Willingham and Matt Cherry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Human trials for H1N1 flu vaccine start August, says University of Maryland .\nConcern about H1N1 grew after it spread around the globe earlier this year .\nPatients will be monitored two months for safety issues, followed by checkups .\nVaccine so far tested only in animals, where it has shown to be effective .","id":"484c66e06d7f977cb4345f5b68ee56726a8249d2"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Reigning hot dog-guzzling champ Joey Chestnut and nemesis Takeru Kobayashi of Japan attempted to psych each other out Thursday at the weigh-in for the 94th annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest. Competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi take part in an official \"staredown.\" Chestnut and Kobayashi glared long and menacingly into each other's eyes in an official \"staredown.\" At last year's contest, 25-year-old Chestnut, a civil engineering student at San Jose State University, eked out a win over Kobayashi, 31, in a tiebreaker after both initially consumed 59 dogs apiece. It was Chestnut's second slim victory over Kobayashi in as many years. Kobayashi vowed he will avenge those two defeats on Saturday. He also said he no longer suffers from the \"jawthritis\" that some cited as the culprit for his 2007 defeat, which snapped his six-year winning streak at Coney Island. Chestnut, for his part, said he had no intention of ceding the coveted mustard yellow belt -- competitive eating's answer to golf's green jacket. He is setting his sights this year on 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Saturday's competition will be partially about redemption for Chestnut, too. In May, he suffered a stinging defeat to Kobayashi in a loss he said \"really set a fire underneath me\" and \"made me hungry for this contest.\" Chestnut revealed the extreme dietary regimen he is following in the days leading up to the contest. He said he is sticking to water to make sure he is \"empty\" when the mountain of hot dogs is placed in front of him. In addition to Chestnut, Kobayashi admitted to keeping a watchful eye on 32-year-old Tim \"Eater X\" Janus, whose signature painted face was described by Major League Eating impresario Richard Shea as an attempt to mask his \"inner torment.\" In a recent trial round, Janus downed a personal-best 55 hot dogs -- a weiner's throw from the 59 that Chestnut and Kobayashi wolfed down last year. As a lead-in to the main event, Major League Eating on Friday will hold a first-of-its-kind \"cross-species\" eating contest between three competitive eaters and three Asian elephants. MLE's Shea described it as the realization of one of his two lifelong dreams, the other being a scenario in which a dozen competitive eaters eat the entire contents of a convenience store. Twenty finalists will compete in the championship on Saturday. They were culled from 18 preliminary contests and comprise a Who's Who of the world of competitive eating. For people who stuff their faces with record-breaking quantities of food, many of the contestants at the weigh-in boasted surprisingly svelte physiques. Juliet Lee, a 44-year-old Maryland salon owner fresh off the feat of downing 13.23 pounds of cranberry sauce in 8 minutes, clocked in at a mere 105 pounds. Kobayashi, at 123 pounds, lifted his T-shirt to reveal the sort of chiseled abdomen one would expect at a bodybuilding competition. Others contestants were not quite as disconcertingly trim. Fearsome world matzo ball-eating champion Eric \"Badlands\" Booker tips the scales at 400 pounds.","highlights":"Reigning hot dog-guzzling champ Joey Chestnut, Takeru Kobayashi have staredown .\nLast year Chestnut won after a tiebreaker with Kobayashi .\nKobayashi vowed to avenge defeat from last year .\nChestnut: Kobayashi beat me in May contest and \"set a fire underneath me\"","id":"124e2fd18778dd3bfde497c5c9144d8bb14d8a4a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Many Google users probably didn't notice this month that they can now display their search tips in the Hawaiian language. Hawaiian is one of more than 125 \"interface languages\" now available on Google. Wedged between Hausa and Hebrew, Hawaiian is one of more than 125 \"interface languages\" now available on Google. The list also includes some humorous twists on English, including \"pirate,\" \"Klingon\" and \"Elmer Fudd.\" But for Hawaiian educators, the addition of Hawaiian is a small step toward legitimizing a language that is considered \"critically endangered\" by the United Nations. \"It's the capstone of a lot of work,\" said Keola Donaghy, an assistant professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. \"We've been doing this work for 18 years, simply trying to make it easier for people who speak Hawaiian to use these kinds of technologies.\" It marks the first native American language available through the \"Google in Your Language\" program. Getting started . It took Donaghy several years to get the project off the ground through the \"Google in Your Language\" program, which was launched by the California-based company not long after it was founded in 1998. \"The idea was to enable users worldwide to be able to access Google in the language of their choice, and if it wasn't available, to enable users to help make it so,\" Google spokesman Nate Tyler said. \"Why limit users to a set of dominant languages if they were willing to help make Google their own?\" The results of the search are still in English, although the user can select a preference for Web pages written in more than 40 other main languages. Google works with linguists like Donaghy who are interested in translating search instructions into their language. \"Volunteers sign up on their own to provide translation,\" Tyler explained. \"They simply sign themselves up, declare a language proficiency, and then start translating or reviewing the products that are available for volunteer translation. \"When the translations are completed, we make the product(s) available in that language. Recent other languages like this include Maori language.\" It was the Maori project, launched last year, that actually helped get Donaghy's initiative off the ground. Three years ago, Donaghy started e-mailing and calling Google about a Hawaiian language project, but he got no response. He put the project on hold until last year. \"When I heard the Maori version came out, I asked Google about it,\" Donaghy said. \"Apparently the original (language) coordinator had gone and as soon as a new coordinator was brought online, they set up the system.\" Donaghy began working on the massive translation project sometime late last year. \"It was whenever I could find an hour or two in between teaching or other duties,\" he said. \"It was a combination of personal and work time.\" He spent more than 100 hours translating the search terms that appear on the Google page into Hawaiian through the program. \"I did the actual translation from beginning to end, and then I consulted with my colleagues at the university who have worked on these projects in the past,\" Donaghy said. \"I wanted to be very consistent -- such as how you say 'Go to this menu and select this' -- or people may become confused.\" What's Hawaiian for 'browsing' the Web'? Some of the Hawaiian words for terms such as \"links\" or \"Web browser\" had already been established when Donaghy and others worked on translating the Netscape Navigator search engine in 1997. \"Over the years, we usually face the debate of do we want to 'Hawaiianize' an English word, or take an old Hawaiian word and give it a new meaning,\" he said. He explained some of the challenges in translating terms, such as \"browsing\" or \"surfing,\" into Hawaiian. \"People use the term 'surf the Internet' and they'll say 'he'e nalu' which is literally surfing the ocean out on a board,\" he explained. \"But we use 'kele,' which is what you do when you're steering a canoe. So we chose that as you're navigating the net.\" Donaghy finished the translation project in April, but there were issues with the code for the search engine that would not activate the Hawaiian language interface. The Hawaiian language interface actually launched on Apple's Safari browser first because Donaghy had worked with Apple to ensure that the language's diacritical marks and characters were available on the company's computers. \"Now, it comes with every computer that they ship,\" he said. See and hear phrases in Hawaiian \u00bb . Some Apple computer users who had selected Hawaiian as their primary language for other programs noticed a couple of weeks ago that Google's search terms started appearing in Hawaiian, too. \"People started calling me and asking, 'Did you hack into my computer? My Google is in Hawaiian,'\" Donaghy said. \"And that was the point I said, 'OK, word is getting out about this' and I put out a news release. I was afraid someone was going to start freaking out, 'Why is my computer in Hawaiian?'\" Important milestone for Hawaii's culture . The initiative is an important milestone for Hawaiian linguists and cultural educators who have pushed to have their native language taught in schools alongside English. It wasn't until the 1980s that the law banning the Hawaiian language from being taught in schools was overturned. The law was established in the late 19th century as a prerequisite to Hawaii becoming a U.S. territory. Today, more and more Hawaiians are studying and majoring in Hawaiian language programs. There are Hawaiian language immersion programs in which English is taught as a second language. Mona Wood, a Hawaiian speaker and owner of a public relations firm in Honolulu, said there has been a kind of Hawaiian language \"renaissance\" in the state since the late 1970s. \"Even tourism has been learning and growing and realizing that our 'host culture' must be added to the visitor experience,\" Wood said. \"There are many more programs available at hotels and shopping malls that weren't there 20 years ago.\" Wood said that when she studied Hawaiian in college, it was under the foreign languages department. \"It has been so wonderful to see so many of our youth embrace the native culture and see the programs expand to the point where there is an entire Hawaiian Studies Department,\" she said. \"One can now get a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) and M.A. (Master of Arts) in Hawaiian language.\" Wood -- who owns Ikaika Communications, which represents local officials, local and national companies and celebrities including Duane \"Dog the Bounty Hunter\" Chapman -- said that when she was growing up, \"Our culture was dying in every way.\" \"Learning my roots came through my own curiosity -- choosing to take hula lessons when my mom wanted me to take piano,\" she said. \"Then I went to the Hawaiian High School, Kamehameha, and continued with some Hawaiian classes and joined a club at UH (University of Hawaii). \"Seeing Hawaiian knowledge becoming an asset over the years has been truly satisfying,\" she said. Donaghy hopes the Google initiative is another step toward giving Hawaiian \"the same status as English and other major European and Asian languages\" -- particularly in the fast-moving sector of technology. \"To me personally it's very important that we are giving the opportunity to have as many things in Hawaiian as in English,\" he said. \"So if we had not begun to address technology in the early 1990s, we would be telling people that this is a place where Hawaiian doesn't belong. You have to revert to English. \"We didn't want to send that kind of message so we've worked to make the language more accessible.\"","highlights":"Google search terms now available in Hawaiian .\nKeola Donaghy spent 100 hours translating for \"Google in Your Language\" program .\nHawaiian is considered a \"critically endangered\" language by the U.N.\nIt is the only native American language available in Google search preferences .","id":"b60eb9cd0e9147cc321d2947614af4d058a021f8"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- \"Whip It!\" suggests what might have happened if Juno had gone to a high school as poky as Napoleon Dynamite's and decided that although her mother wanted her to be a beauty queen like Little Miss Sunshine, she'd rather just strap on roller skates. Ellen Page plays roller derby competitor Babe Ruthless in \"Whip It!\" Only here the petite, droll, feisty, Ellen Page-like heroine played by Ellen Page is named Bliss. And her idea of sass while chatting up a cute rocker (Landon Pigg) in this desexualized, slow-speed grrrl-power sports fantasy is \"I'm Bliss, but I could change that.\" Bliss does change her name, at least at the Roller Derby rink. She sneaks away from her square parents (Marcia Gay Harden as the U.S. Postal Service's least likely mail carrier and Daniel Stern as a nice schlub who likes beer) to roll with a sisterly Austin team who call themselves the Hurl Scouts. There, she dubs herself Babe Ruthless, making up in speed what she lacks in muscled aggression. She's heck on wheels, or so we are asked to believe: The rink footage is pretty un-whippy. Even Juliette Lewis, playing the film's designated bad girl and Bliss\/Babe's nemesis on the rink, is more of a cute bee-yotch than a real threat. The movie is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut (she also plays fellow Hurl Scout Smashley Simpson), and it's clear she's more attuned to grrrlishness than real athletic power: Smashley is the first to scream ''Food fight!'' and the 34-year-old actress leads the charge in kidlike mayhem. EW Grade: C+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Whip It!\" marks Drew Barrymore's directorial debut .\nEllen Page plays woman who signs up for roller derby .\nFilm leans towards softness, which hurts impact of roller derby .","id":"62d57f8f31b0bfc21a88aa8e9ff55904c4ade98a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. authorities arrested six people Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling African elephant ivory worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, law enforcement officials said. Imports of African elephant ivory have been banned in the United States since 1976. The defendants arranged to have ivory from Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Uganda shipped into the United States disguised as wooden snakes, guitars and statues, authorities said. \"The defendants plundered precious natural resources for personal profit,\" U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell and other officials said in a statement. \"Their illegal trade threatens the continued existence of an endangered species and will not be tolerated.\" Federal agents tracked at least eight shipments, including one worth an estimated $165,000. Federal agents used surveillance and shipping, phone and bank records to track the suspect shipments. Arrests were made in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Texas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security were involved in the law enforcement operation. One suspect told an undercover federal agent during a purchase that it was difficult to bring ivory into the United States, but easy to sell it at high prices, the government statement said. Two other suspects also are accused of paying a courier $15,000 to bring a shipment of ivory from Cameroon into the United States. The U.S. banned ivory imports in 1976, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora effectively outlawed trade in elephant tissue in 1989. Illegal trade in African elephant ivory is considered to be a major cause of the continuing decline of elephant populations in Africa. The defendants are expected to appear in court in New York on Wednesday. They face jail terms of up to 20 years if convicted.","highlights":"Six in four states face federal smuggling charges, U.S. attorney says .\nIvory reportedly disguised as wooden snakes, guitars and statues .\nElephant ivory trade illegal in U.S. since 1976, worldwide since 1989 .","id":"3a6440b35c19652981e15a5c80b70d9f81ef8552"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The modern and dysfunctional man, who struggles to find his footing in relationships, career and, in fact, the world, has in many ways been the bread and butter of best-selling British author Nick Hornby's career. Best-selling British author Nick Hornby releases his latest novel, \"Juliet, Naked.\" Best known for his novels \"High Fidelity\" and \"About a Boy,\" both of which were turned into movies (as was his memoir, \"Fever Pitch\"), Hornby's latest novel, \"Juliet, Naked,\" released in the United Kingdom on September 1, has just been released in the United States. It focuses on an American singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe, who still rests on the success he saw with one album in the 1980s, an obsessed English fan, Duncan, and his exasperated girlfriend, Annie. Hornby's love for music has inspired more than plotlines. It has fueled a partnership with the rock band Marah and other projects, which recently included penning the lyrics for Ben Folds' \"Levi Johnston's Blues.\" Meanwhile, Hornby is also the force behind the screenplay of the critically acclaimed film-festival darling, \"An Education,\" which will be released in New York and Los Angeles on October 9. CNN spoke with Hornby about how he develops the characters for his books, the challenges of writing in a woman's voice and his own prowess in relationships. CNN: Your newest novel, \"Juliet, Naked,\" seems to revisit the kind of character that anchored \"High Fidelity,\" the obsessive, somewhat dysfunctional music fan. What is it about this type that had you coming back, and how have the years changed this character? Hornby: Well, I conceived them as being different. Rob in \"High Fidelity,\" he wasn't the obsessive. It was the people around him. This one [Duncan] is one of three characters; he's the nerdy obsessive. ... The Internet's changed everything. There are no record stores to hang out in anymore. Ten or 15 years ago, he [Duncan] wouldn't have found anyone to talk to. And nobody's career [character Tucker Crowe's included] is allowed to die. Way back, obsessives had to admit other interests into their lives. These people don't have to really do anything like that. Watch the author talk about music, comedy and relationships \u00bb . CNN: Your books, and now your screenplay, are so rich in complicated and incredibly flawed characters who, in turn, have complicated and flawed relationships. How much of what they struggle with is autobiographical? Are there aspects to these characters that are reflections of you? Hornby: I think sometimes there are. I have three kids by two moms. Tucker has five kids by four women. But my experience is relatively ordinary. My relationships are fairly stable. A lot of this is trying to write comedy, and complicated relationships are funnier than straightforward ones. CNN: At times, for instance in your book \"How to Be Good,\" you've narrated as a woman. What are the challenges of taking on a woman's voice? Hornby: Anytime the narrator is someone who is not you, the challenge is equal. The challenge is to make people laugh. My last book, \"Slam,\" was for young adults, and I had to write as a 16-year-old boy. Of course, it makes me more nervous writing as a woman. I just made sure every woman I knew read the narrative as soon as I finished. But no woman speaks for all women. CNN: You've been open about having a son, now 16, who is autistic. How much, if at all, has that informed your writing when it comes to getting into the heads of kids and adolescents in, for example, \"About a Boy?\" Hornby: It hasn't. Not yet. The experience of fathering a child like that is so different, but I think you have to be very careful about how you use it and how it affects other people. CNN: Your screenplay for \"An Education,\" which is based on an autobiographical essay by British journalist Lynn Barber, was first recognized at the Sundance Film Festival in January and continues to get critical acclaim. How has this creative journey differed from the one you're used to traveling in the book publishing world? Hornby: The process is incredibly different. With movies, it always feels like such a long shot getting it made. With books, you write and talk about it with your editor. With movies, you need the money, the cast, the director -- I felt much more confused by the the movie-making process. CNN: But with movies, the insecurities you might have about your own work as an artist, as a writer, are helped by others. It's not all on you, right? Hornby: Yes. I can look at the film and take pride in other people's work.","highlights":"Nick Hornby, author of \"High Fidelity\" and \"About a Boy\" releases new book Tuesday .\n\"Juliet, Naked,\" revisits the dysfunctional male, music fan kind of character .\nInternet has changed how the obsessive type lives and thrives, Hornby says .\n\"An Education,\" for which he wrote screenplay, gets critical acclaim, festival attention .","id":"713815fcbae203f121e1683aa09365a1de654760"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The two men running Michael Jackson's estate gained new powers and an extension of their authority until the end of the year in a court hearing Friday. An investigator's report said Michael Jackson's children are doing well with Katherine Jackson as their guardian. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff also accepted an investigator's report that said Jackson's three children are adjusting well under the guardianship of Katherine Jackson. \"It looks like the children are really doing wonderfully with their grandmother guardian,\" Beckloff said. Joe Jackson sat in the courtroom for the hearing on estate and custody matters. It was the first time Michael Jackson's father has attended the hearings since his son's June 25 death. John Branca and John McClain, named as executors of Jackson's 2002 will, have been handling the estate's business as temporary special administrators since July while the will probate process is completed. Branca was a longtime attorney for Michael Jackson, who was rehired by the pop star just a week before his death, according to estate lawyer Howard Weitzman. McClain is a former music industry executive who worked with Jackson for years. Katherine Jackson's challenge of Branca and McClain appears headed for a trial in December, unless an agreement is reached between them. Her lawyers have not publicly given their objections to the two men, but have suggested the trial would explore possible conflicts of interest that would prevent them from running the estate. Jackson's lawyers have also said a Jackson family member should be included as an executor. While Joe Jackson did not speak to reporters after the hearing, a Jackson family friend, Majestik Magnificent, talked about the special administrators. \"Why are they even here? Why are they even involved in this? This is a family affair,\" he said. Until now, the administrators had to ask for court approval for every agreement they made for the estate, including a deal for a movie that will hit theaters at the end of October. \"Things went well for the estate, because the estate can now continue to do it's business,\" Weitzman said after the hearing. Beckloff said that while the case is fascinating, his calendar is too full for him to be involved in all of the estate's business. With their new powers, the special administrators only have to notify the court and the Jacksons about deals. Michael Jackson's mother and three children, along with unnamed charities, are the beneficiaries of the estate, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. An odd moment came in the hearing when a woman who has previously filed a papers claiming to be the mother of Michael Jackson's youngest child, Prince Michael II, spoke up to remind the judge she was there. She says her name is Billie Jean Jackson. At the end of the hearing, Joe Jackson approached her, but she frowned at him and walked away. Majestik Magnificent later wondered aloud why reporters even give any attention to \"crazy\" people surrounding the case.","highlights":"Judge extends Michael Jackson administrators' powers until the end of the year .\nAdministrators of estate don't need to have court approval for every decision .\nJoe Jackson attends court hearing for the first time since son's death .","id":"3bd34d8bb19a8690db3c76df8427f077ab64d776"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- One of Iraq's top Shiite leaders died Wednesday after a lengthy battle with lung cancer, a senior official with his office told CNN. Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, seen in a 2007 photo, was an ally of both the U.S. and Iran. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who was born in 1950, died in Tehran, Iran, where he had been receiving treatment for more than two years, according to his adviser Haitham al-Husseini. Al-Hakim had recently suffered a medical setback, according to his party, which asked people to pray for him in a statement released on Sunday. His body will be sent to Iraq and he will be buried in his hometown of Najaf, one of the holiest cities for Shiite Muslims, al-Husseini said. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, issued a joint statement expressing sadness over al-Hakim's death and describing him as \"a national leader.\" \"Throughout his life, His Eminence demonstrated courage and fortitude, contributing to the building of a new Iraq,\" the statement said. \"We offer our sincere condolences to his family and colleagues.\" Watch how al-Hakim helped shape Iraq's future \u00bb . Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also offered his condolences, saying al-Hakim was \"like an old brother.\" Al-Maliki credited him for being a \"strong supporter during the phase of fighting the ousted regime and a key figure in the process of building the new Iraq.\" \"His death at this critical stage that we are passing through is a great loss for Iraq,\" al-Maliki said in the statement. Al-Hakim ended his more than 20-year exile in Iran in 2003, when he returned to Iraq after U.S.-led forces toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his regime. \"It was very emotional for me to meet with my people after Saddam fell,\" al-Hakim said in a 2006 interview. \"I was longing to see them. My goal in this life is to serve those great people and I am very proud to be a part of them.\" Iraqi Shiites were suppressed under the Hussein regime, which favored the country's minority Sunni Muslims. Al-Hakim played a central role in shaping Iraq's future following his return. During his exile, which began in the early 1980s, al-Hakim commanded the Badr Brigades, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. SCIRI -- a religious movement that opposed the Hussein regime -- was led by al-Hakim's brother until he was assassinated in August 2003. Al-Hakim himself was also the target of numerous assassination attempts. He took over as the head of SCIRI and began his ascent to power as the Badr Brigades became the bulk of the Iraqi security forces in Iraq's predominantly Shiite south. SCIRI changed its name to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq in 2007 to remove the word \"revolution,\" in an effort to reflect the current situation in Iraq. Al-Hakim had always propagated a message of peace, calling on Iraqis to stop taking part in the bitter sectarian conflict that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein. But despite his desire for a secular democracy in Iraq, he wanted a country that recognized the importance of religion, religious institutions and its authorities. Al-Hakim successfully harnessed the fervor generated from emotional religious rituals like Ashura and turned it into a powerful political platform. That ability led some to consider him Iraq's most powerful man. His political bloc won the most seats in the Iraqi parliament in 2005. And although al-Hakim never held a government position, he commanded respect from those who did. Government ministers would meet with him at his office, not theirs, and he was often seen in the company of former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. And when talks on Iraq's constitution stalled, then-President George W. Bush called al-Hakim, not the Iraqi prime minister or president. Al-Hakim visited the United States three times during the Bush administration to address the situation in Iraq. But he remained artfully vague about Iran's influence in Iraq, saying its role was a positive one -- in direct contradiction to the U.S. government, which raised concerns about what it called Iran's \"meddling.\" He cited the two predominantly Shiite Muslim countries' shared border, historical and cultural relations, and emphasized the desire for strong ties. Al-Hakim's death comes at a time of violent political turmoil in Iraq. The power of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq party he leaves behind is just as uncertain as the nation he so proudly wanted to serve. Al-Hakim was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, and was first treated in the United States, then later in Iran. When he returned to Iraq later that year, he told CNN that he felt good. But it was around that time that it became apparent he was grooming his son, Ammar al-Hakim, to take over as head of ISCI. It was once Iraq's most powerful Shiite political party, but ISCI lost much of its influence following elections in January, when politicians allied with al-Maliki won control of most of Iraq's provincial councils. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. officials, Iraqi PM offer condolences, praise for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim .\nAl-Hakim headed Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, helped shape Iraq's future .\nHe never held public office, but was one of Iraq's most powerful, respected leaders .\nAl-Hakim was in neighboring Iran being treated for lung cancer .","id":"e474fd102692c1951f2caac452e2f3418a80860b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After hours of back and forth between members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided Friday evening to accept noncelibate clergy members and lay leaders who are in \"lifelong\" and \"monogamous\" same-sex relationships. Previous Evangelical Lutheran Church policy allows gay and lesbian clergy, lay people to serve only if celibate. One of the country's largest Protestant denominations, the Lutheran church approved four recommendations to its ministry's policies that underscore a new approach to homosexuality. While the recommendations passed at the weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, do not address recognizing same-sex marriage or civil unions, they do allow congregations to support same-sex relationships among their members and allow individuals in same-sex relationships to hold clergy positions. The previous policy of the 4.6-million member church allowed gay people to serve as members of professional rosters only if they were celibate. Some members argued prior to the vote that the change would fly in the face of religious teachings. \"Brothers and sisters, I ask you, before you dig yourselves deeper into this hole, if you are so absolutely certain that these behaviors are not sinful that you are willing to place yourselves and this church at the spiritual risk that comes from encouraging sin,\" said the Rev. Steven Frock of the Western Iowa Synod. Among those on the other side was Alan Wold of the Northern Illinois Synod. \"If according to some I am going to be in err for supporting this... Let me err on the side of mercy, grace, justice, and love of neighbor. Let me err on the side of gospel, which makes all things new.\" Many feared the emotional debate could tear at the unity of the church. So the members voted to re-order their resolutions -- moving to the top a resolution that the church \"commit itself to bear one another's burdens, love thy neighbor, and respect the bound consciences of all.\" It passed with overwhelming support. Other religious denominations, including Episcopalians and Unitarians, have made moves to accept gay clergy, and Evangelical Lutherans would not be the first to accept those openly in same-sex relationships, said David Masci, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But ELCA would be the largest to make such a move. The church is the third largest Protestant denomination, representing 2 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Forum. The battle Friday was the latest in what Masci said many \"socially moderate\" denominations, including those in Judaism, are grappling with: balancing the growing acceptance of same-sex relationships with traditional teachings. As some have moved toward accepting same-sex relationships, within those same denominations \"you see more conservative wings that are pushing back against it,\" said Masci. On hand for Friday's debate were hundreds of \"interested parties\" -- including some people who are not members of the church, said John Brooks, ELCA spokesman. When asked whether there had been protests or rallies on either side outside the convention site, he responded, \"Interestingly, no.\" In the convention hall, Brooks said, \"The debates haven't been rancorous or mean-spirited in any way. They've been quite civil. But people have been passionate with their feelings.\" The Rev. Terri Stagner-Collier of the Southeastern Synod said a vote in favor of the resolutions would cause members of her own family to leave the church. Her sister \"felt her church was being ripped away from her,\" Stagner-Collier said tearfully, adding, I urge you not to do this to all of those people in the pew and in my family.\" Sara Gross of the Oregon Synod said some \"dear members\" of the church will be lost if the resolution passes. But, she said, \"A vote to reject this recommendation sends a message to the world saying 'not all are welcome.'\" In a \"changing world,\" Gross argued, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America \"needs to be a voice that stands up and says 'yes.'\" CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Evangelical Lutheran Church to accept gay clergy in lifelong relationships .\nNew policy would allow them to serve if in monogamous relationships .\nPrevious policy allows gays, lesbians to serve as clergy, lay leaders if celibate .","id":"31e81b1f86ef31f92c1b4d52c003ac469d12f1e4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After actress Mackenzie Phillips spoke about her sexual relationship with her musician father, online and telephone calls to an anti-sexual assault hot line surged. Mackenzie Phillips told Larry King that incest survivors are \"incredibly underrepresented.\" Her interviews in the past few weeks brought a spotlight to an uncomfortable topic. Incest, a common but highly stigmatized form of sexual abuse, often leaves the victim ashamed, isolated and unable to tell others what's happening, because the perpetrator is someone related to him or her, mental health experts said. \"For any survivor of sexual trauma, it's challenging, and it takes a lot of courage to come forward,\" said Jennifer Wilson, director of the National Sexual Assault hot line. \"With incest survivors, it's particularly difficult, because not only is there social stigma pressuring them to stay quiet, but also there's pressure that's within the family to stay quiet.\" The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, which calls itself the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization, said it had seen an 83 percent increase in activity on its online hot line and a 26 percent increase on its telephone hot line after Phillips' interview with Oprah Winfrey aired last week. \"Unfortunately, it's something we hear everyday in our hot line, so to have somebody speak aloud about it was empowering to a lot of victims and survivors who went through similar situations,\" Wilson said. Phillips spoke about the taboo nature of incest in her interview with CNN's Larry King. \"There's very little in this world that is taboo today, but this subject is still, like, shove it under the carpet, sweep it away, protect the abuser, deny the reality. ... You're just on your own,\" the former child star said. This makes it one of the most under-reported and least discussed crimes, experts said. A U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that of the 60,000 sexual assault cases reported in 12 states in 2000, about a quarter were perpetrated by family members. About half of the sexual assault cases with victims younger than 11 involved family members. At times, a victim may feel unable to tell other family members what's happening. And if he or she tells a relative, that family member may have \"a knee-jerk reaction,\" refusing to believe it. Relatives may try to protect the offender in order to keep the family together or to avoid the shame and stigma, Wilson said. This takes a devastating toll on a victim. \"Their sexual selves are damaged. Their emotional selves are damaged, because 'who do I trust?' \" said Debra Laino, a sex therapist and counselor. \" 'My father did this. My mother did this. Who can I trust if I can't trust my family?' \" Sometimes the reluctance to report the crime comes from the victim, because he or she doesn't want to see the family member in jail. Although Phillips called the sexual relationship with her famed father, John Phillips, \"wrong,\" she said, \"I don't want bad things to happen to him, but I also don't want bad things to happen to me as a result of this. And I was convinced to let it lie.\" Her father, a co-founder of the Mamas & the Papas, died in 2001. Father- or stepfather-daughter incest is the most common form, although it also occurs between mother and child, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime. A sexual assault victim could suffer physical effects of the crime such as sexually transmitted infections, genital trauma and urinary tract infections. They could also experience many mental health effects: social withdrawal, isolation, post-traumatic stress disorder and regressive behavior such as bedwetting and thumb sucking. Some become hypersexual and engage in destructive behaviors, experts said. Humans \"have an instinct for avoiding incest or inbreeding,\" said Debra Lieberman, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Miami (Florida) who researches incest. But alcohol, drugs and mental illness may disrupt that instinct. \"Under the heavy influence of cocaine or heroin or whatever else you're taking, your mental boundaries are skewed, essentially,\" Laino said. The offender's sexual frustrations could also contribute to inappropriate actions. \"It also depends on his other mating opportunities,\" Lieberman said. \"What is the quality of his current relationship with the female's mother? Is she around? What is the ability for the guy to attract other mates?\" The perpetrator, frustrated by the absence of suitable sexual partners, may turn to whomever is around -- even if it's kin. Recovery from incest can occur, but it often takes years. A victim of incest has to understand that it's not his or her fault and get professional help, Wilson said. \"It doesn't make you broken,\" Phillips said. \"It doesn't make it so that you can't go on and be -- once you deal with honestly and realistically what you've been through, it doesn't mean that you can't be counted on or you can't be well enough to be a part of the world.\"","highlights":"Actress said she had sexual relationship with her father for years .\nExperts: Incest is one of the most under-reported and least discussed crimes .\nReal healing after incest is possible, Phillips says .","id":"2e375608e5d19dae176bd9203c6120997ac6c167"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When the economy gets tough, the tough come out fighting. For some businesses, that means bringing out a fighter brand -- a cut-price version of a flagship product, marketed under a new name, and intended to fight back against budget competitors. \"Jetstar\" is a fighter brand that worked, beating the competition and creating a lasting, money-making brand. When it's done right it can destroy cut-price competition, but done badly it can drive a business to the brink of bankruptcy. Mark Ritson, associate professor at Melbourne Business School, has written an article for the October issue of Harvard Business Review discussing the benefits and pitfalls of launching a fighter brand. He says that over the next six months a number of new fighter brands are likely to appear in response to the recession. \"Fighter brands are very unusual but they are becoming increasingly common,\" he told CNN. \"It's high risk and high reward, and when it works it can have astonishing results.\" Ritson gives the example of Intel, which launched its budget \"Celeron\" chip in the late 1990s to in response to AMD's low-priced chips, which were threatening Intel's premium \"Pentium\" brand. Read more business features With \"Celeron,\" Intel came up with a budget alternative to \"Pentium\" for the lower end of the market and cemented its position as market leader. But Intel's success is the exception rather than the rule. \"The majority of fighter brands not only haven't worked, but have gone on to do significant damage to the companies that launched them,\" said Ritson. General Motors' (GM) \"Saturn,\" United Airlines' \"Ted,\" and Kodak's \"Funtime\" film range are all high-profile fighter brands that failed. Despite the appeal of taking on the competition in a fist fight, launching a successful fighter brand is easier said than done. \"The problem is that fighter brands are almost always a knee-jerk reaction to a problem and are not always well thought out,\" Neil Saunders, consulting director with Verdict Research, told CNN. Ritson says one element in building a fighter brand is to avoid creating a low-price product that is so attractive that it steals customers who would otherwise be buying that company's premium-brand product. On the other hand, if the fighter brand is too expensive or too low quality, it won't put up much of a fight against the opposition it's designed to attack. Another complication is that even the biggest companies don't have the money and managerial time to distract themselves with a new brand at a time when they should be concentrating on their core products, and then there is the difficulty in operating at an unfamiliar low price level. \"The airline industry is a prime example, where people have launched fighter brands to combat the budget airlines and have been notoriously unsuccessful,\" said Saunders. \"If it's not your business model it's not easy to operate, and it's not usually these airlines' business model.\" United's \"Ted,\" and Delta Air Lines \"Song\" were launched to combat budget carriers, but they weren't up to the challenge. In fact, Ritson says those fighter brands contributed to United and Delta's bankruptcy. But with its budget \"Jetstar\" airline, Qantas managed to find the holy grail for fighter brands -- beating the competition and creating a lasting, money-making brand in its own right. So what was different about the Qantas model? \"One thing was that Qantas took a long, hard look at the numbers and decided if they could be profitable,\" said Ritson. \"One of the problems with fighter brands is that they are oriented towards destroying a competitor and because of that managers pay a lot less attention to the bottom line.\" He gives the example of GM's \"Saturn,\" a car designed to take on fuel-efficient, affordable Japanese cars. \"Saturn\" sold plenty of cars, at least at first, but its high operating costs meant it lost millions of dollars, playing a huge part in bankrupting GM. So given the huge risks involved, should companies even consider launching a fighter brand? \"Only do it if you can win and it fits with your existing proposition,\" says Saunders. Ritson cautions, \"The minute you add a new brand to your portfolio it's hundreds of thousands of hours of management time, and millions of dollars in development, advertising and distraction. \"Ask the question, 'do I need a fighter brand or is this a real seismic change in the market, which means I need to change my existing strategy with existing brands?' Otherwise you will lose five years and $50 million.\"","highlights":"Fighter brands are designed to fight back against low-priced competition .\nDone wrong, fighter brands can drive a company to the brink of bankruptcy .\nGM's \"Saturn\" is a fighter brand that failed, while Intel's \"Celeron\" succeeded .\nNew fighter brands are likely to be launched in response to the recession .","id":"6a1d5046d78b3a72488dda3a65263e31552b1b51"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A lot of people like Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star in \"Funny People,\" the new film from Judd Apatow. The box office earnings for many of his films are testament to his drawing power. Sandler's biggest comedic blockbusters include \"Big Daddy,\" \"The Waterboy\" and \"The Longest Yard,\" each of which has earned well over $150 million domestically. He has seven other titles that have also passed the coveted $100 million mark. The thing all these films have in common is that they are all comedies. So, it's likely safe to assume there are more than a few Hollywood execs nervously biting their knuckles right now, wondering how Sandler's latest big-screen offering, the dark comedy \"Funny People\" -- written and directed by his longtime friend Judd Apatow (\"The 40-Year-Old Virgin\") -- will fare. Though hilarious at times, the film's overall story of a world-famous comedian's brush with a terminal illness is decidedly serious. Watch Apatow and Sandler react to a doctor with an accent \u00bb . Much of the movie's personality can be summarized in one scene in particular in which Sandler and co-star Seth Rogen are sitting in a doctor's office receiving very bad news that they somehow turn into laughter. Sandler and Rogen talked to CNN about what went into creating that scene.","highlights":"\"Funny People\" stars Adam Sandler as comedian who gets bad health news .\nJudd Apatow-directed film balances comedy with dead seriousness .\nMany tough scenes are lightened by byplay of Sandler, co-stars .","id":"8cc11bef80e52056ae668707347d6c2667832b27"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California legislators plan to keep trying to find consensus on a controversial proposal that would release at least 27,000 inmates from state prisons. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, and officials tour a prison last week in Chino after a riot there. The California Assembly on Monday delayed a possible vote on the plan. Lawmakers likely will take up the proposal Wednesday or Thursday, said Shannon Murphy, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. \"When we arrive at a responsible plan that can earn the support of the majority of the Assembly and make sense to the people of California, we will take that bill up on the Assembly floor,\" Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, said in a statement. Bass said legislators continue to meet with each other and law enforcement authorities to try to craft a plan that increases public safety, improves the state corrections department and reduces costs. As part of the negotiations, a provision that would set up a 16-member sentencing commission -- which would put new sentencing guidelines in place by 2012 -- was stripped from the bill, Murphy said. But \"it's not as if we're giving up on that notion,\" she said. The sentencing commission is a priority for Bass, she said, but the speaker believes she will have more success if she introduces a separate bill to create it. A panel of three federal judges has ordered California to reduce its prison population by about 40,000 by mid-September. The judges acted on the grounds that overcrowded prisons violate inmates' constitutional rights. The state Senate voted 21-19 Friday to release several thousand inmates early. That vote came after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, assured senators the public would be protected from the most violent offenders. \"Of course, we want to keep violent criminals off our streets and out of our communities, and this reform package is a necessary step to do that because it concentrates our incarceration efforts on the violent criminals and ensures that nonviolent offenders have more contact with parole officers,\" Steinberg said Friday. All 15 Senate Republicans voted against the bill, arguing that it undermines public safety. Democrats control both houses of the California Legislature. \"California's prison system is in a state of crisis,\" Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last week while touring the California Institution for Men in Chino. Some 250 inmates were injured this month at the facility in a riot that officials said was ignited by racial tension. Fifty-five inmates were taken to hospitals with serious injuries, including stab wounds and head trauma. Schwarzenegger said the riot was \"a terrible symptom of a much larger problem. ... Our prisons are overcrowded and endangering the staff and the inmates.\" The governor noted he had signed a budget that mandates $1.2 billion in cuts to the state corrections system. \"We must be measured and smart about how we go about and create those reductions,\" said Schwarzenegger, a Republican. \"We must find a way to cut costs and relieve overcrowding but without sacrificing public safety.\" Steinberg said the bill under debate would save the financially strapped state some $524.5 million. Coupled with budget revisions made in July, the savings would total the entire $1.2 billion, he said. Republicans said the bill would lead to the release of about 27,000 prisoners, while Democrats estimated it would reduce the prison population by 27,300 in the 2009-10 fiscal year and 37,000 during fiscal year 2010-11. But Steinberg said the measure also would reduce the ratio of parolees to parole officers to 45-to-1. Currently, one parole officer is responsible for about 70 parolees, many of whom commit new crimes and return to custody; the state has a 70 percent recidivism rate.","highlights":"California Assembly delays vote on plan to release at least 27,000 inmates .\nProvision setting up sentencing panel stripped from bill, spokeswoman says .\nState Senate voted last week to release several thousand inmates early .\nJudges order state to reduce prison population by about 40,000 by mid-September .","id":"dfd07362dea7727104a1f36c532a1c938e5b0ca1"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The wounds of partition festered again this week in India, resulting in the banning of a book and the expulsion of a respected politician. Protesters burn an effigy of Jaswant Singh over his book; the former foreign minister was ousted from his party. The home state of the father of Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi, forbade the sale and circulation of a new book it says spews revisionist history about the birth of secular but predominantly Hindu India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Written by Jaswant Singh, a former federal minister and senior member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the book calls Mohammed Ali Jinnah, considered by Indians the architect of the partition, a great man who is wrongly demonized. Jinnah went on to become the first governor general of Pakistan. In \"Jinnah: India, Partition and Independence,\" Singh absolves the Pakistani leader as the man responsible for dividing the subcontinent, suggesting instead that it was another beloved independence leader, Sardar Patel, who played a major role. \"The book wrongfully portrays the fateful partition of our nation,\" the Gujarat state government said in a statement. \" Such a brainchild has no historic background at all. In the larger interest of society, the state government has decided to impose a ban on the book.\" The BJP accused Singh of deviating from the party's \"core ideology\". \"We always respect freedom of expression but can never compromise our ideology,\" Sidharth Nath Singh, a party spokesman, told CNN. \"You just can't eulogize Jinnah and accuse Sardar Patel instead.\" Singh, a widely respected politician known for his moderate views within the ranks of a conservative party, found it appalling that freedom of expression was threatened in the world's largest democracy. \"The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking,\" Singh told reporters. He defended his work and said he did not understand the objection to his writings about Patel, who, as India's first home minister, banned the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mother organization of the BJP, after the assassination of Gandhi in 1948. \"I don't know which part of the core belief I have demolished,\" Singh said. Nearly 350 years of British rule ended in 1947 when an agreement for independence was reached to give Muslims their own homeland. Indians think of Jinnah as the man who pushed a two-state notion based on religion as a prerequisite for freedom. In the days that followed, an estimated 1 million people died in a border-crossing exodus. Muslims fled from India into Pakistan while Hindus clamored to find new homes in India. The animosities fueled by that bloody birth -- including three wars fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- continue to haunt Indians, said journalist and author Tarun Tejpal. \"This flashpoint played out in public is a reminder of those wounds,\" Tejpal said of the book dispute. As a book of history written by a politician, it might have been inconsequential, Tejpal said. But as a book about the partition, it was incendiary. \"What happened 62 years ago continues to haunt us in a very bitter way,\" Tejpal said. \"We can't seem to leave our baggage in the past.\" This isn't the first time that Pakistan's founder has caused trouble for a Hindu nationalist. BJP President Lal Krishna Advani was forced to temporarily step down in 2005 for praising Jinnah's secularism during a trip to Pakistan. Political observers say the Singh controversy reflects a battle for the soul of the BJP, beleaguered by electoral defeats and vicious infighting. Many in India view the BJP as a divisive force attempting to gain power by exploiting Hindu-Muslim tensions. Advani was charged in the 1992 demolition of the 16th-century Babri mosque in the central Indian city of Ayodhya, though he was later acquitted in that case. Journalist K.G. Suresh, a longtime observer of conservative politics in India, said the BJP is struggling to figure out how to stay electable, whether to move right or stay closer to the center. \"Jaswant Singh's book is a manifestation of that clash,\" Suresh said. Singh's political climb is likely over, but what of younger Indians, now generations removed from those who remember independence? Tejpal for one, senses the wounds could keep reopening. And that, he said, \"doesn't bode well.\"","highlights":"Home state of Mahatma Gandhi bans revisionist history of India-Pakistan partition .\nBook suggests independence leader Sardar Patel was the architect of the division .\nAnimosities over the partition continue to impact India and Pakistan .","id":"81a1c9b15338fe19982fb9c44a87c332339fded6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key House committee passed comprehensive health care reform legislation Friday, moving President Obama's domestic priority one step closer to congressional approval. Speaker Nancy Pelosi says House Democrats will return to their districts ready to defend the bill. The vote occurred as the House of Representatives adjourned for its August recess. The 31-28 vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee came after several days of intense and often contentious negotiations between Democratic House leaders and an influential group of fiscal conservatives in the party. Three members of the Democrats' conservative Blue Dog caucus -- John Barrow of Georgia, Jim Matheson of Utah and Charlie Melancon of Louisiana -- voted against the bill, along with two other Democrats, Bart Stupak of Michigan and Rick Boucher of Virginia. The committee's bill will now be merged with two separate versions passed by other House panels before being considered by the full chamber in September. The prospects for health care reform in the full House, however, remain unclear. Democrats remain deeply divided, with a number of liberals expressing strong opposition to concessions made to the party's so-called Blue Dog conservatives on the Energy and Commerce Committee. The fate of health care reform also remains uncertain in the Senate, where the Finance Committee recently postponed its long-awaited vote on a bipartisan compromise plan until after the August recess. The coming fights in both chambers serve as a backdrop for what is expected to be a month of furious campaigning for and against the bill as members of Congress meet with constituents back home over the break. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that House Democrats will return to their districts with talking points and memos to help them rebut opponents running \"a shock and awe campaign ... to perpetuate the status quo.\" \"Facts mean nothing\" to insurance industry executives and others opposed to change, she said. \"Misrepresentation is the currency of their realm.\" Pelosi did not indicate, however, how Democratic divisions in the House might be overcome when Congress returns in the fall. On Thursday, 57 members of the House Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Pelosi and others complaining that the agreement with the Blue Dogs weakened language creating a government-funded health insurance option. \"Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, for a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates -- not negotiated rates -- is unacceptable,\" the letter said. The revised bill calls for the government-run public insurance option to be reimbursed on rates determined by negotiations with the insurance industry. The original version called for the same reimbursement rates as in the government's Medicare program for senior citizens. The progressive Democrats also argued that cuts to the bill's overall price would shortchange subsidies meant to help low- and moderate-income Americans buy health insurance. Some of those concerns were addressed Friday when the Energy and Commerce committee boosted funding for subsidies and added a provision empowering the federal government to directly negotiate prescription drug rates in the public plan. The agreement with the Blue Dogs, estimated to lower the cost of the House plan by $100 billion over a decade, would also exempt businesses with payrolls below $500,000 from having to provide health coverage to employees. \"We can compromise no more,\" warned Rep. Lynn Woolsey, co-chair of the 81-member Progressive Caucus. \"When leaders of the House meet ... to consider the three bills and produce a final one, we expect that it will retain a robust public option. If it doesn't, we will vote against it.\" Opposition from progressive Democrats and some conservative House Democrats who want additional cost cuts could defeat the bill. Pelosi admitted that she preferred the original bill, but noted that much of the new language matched a proposal supported by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, a longtime champion of health care reform who is revered by liberal Democrats. She also pointed out that the bill could change when the House and Senate negotiate a final measure in coming months. On the Senate side, key Republicans in the Finance Committee negotiations said Wednesday that they were unlikely to complete work on a compromise plan before the August break. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming said too many issues remained unresolved to sign on to a deal by the time the Senate breaks for its recess on August 7. On Thursday, Grassley said pressure from the White House and Democratic leaders to speed the process didn't help. \"It would be better for me to say that instead of saying there's no way we can cut a deal, there's no way we can get all the compromising that needs to be done by an artificial deadline of Friday of this week,\" Grassley said. \"So we're going to continue to work together this week and next week. But we're getting close.\" Democrats had hoped the Finance Committee could finish its work before the August break to show progress toward health legislation. CNN's Craig Broffman and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill passes 31-28 in House Energy and Commerce Committee before recess .\nBill calls for public reimbursement rates to be negotiated with insurance industry .\nSome complain that concessions to conservative Blue Dogs weaken public option .\nBill will be merged with versions from two other panels before going to chamber .","id":"033a9c61844bf25eab2e079d24eaa381f3a3feda"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuelan Stefania Fernandez was named Miss Universe 2009, beating out more than 80 other contestants during a pageant held Sunday night in Nassau, Bahamas. Venezuelan Stefania Fernandez was named Miss Universe 2009 on Sunday night. The 18-year-old was crowned by another Venezuelan, Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008, marking the first time that two contestants from the same country have won the title in consecutive years. As Miss Universe, Fernandez will have the use of a New York City apartment for the year of her reign, and will receive living expenses. Other prizes include a two-year scholarship at the New York Film Academy; a vacation for two in the Bahamas; and a wardrobe, including evening wear, swimsuits and jewelry. The competition involves swimsuit, evening gown and interview phases, which a 12-member panel judged. Miss Dominican Republic, Ada Aimee De La Cruz, was named first runner-up and would assume Fernandez's duties if she couldn't complete her term.","highlights":"Win marks first time 2 contestants from same country earn title in consecutive years .\nMore than 80 other contestants competed during the pageant .\nMiss Dominican Republic, Ada Aimee De La Cruz, was named first runner-up .","id":"8c6a3a845f42177e889155e3136df55c8f1f01ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators have heard a signal from the flight data recorders of the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed last week, they announced Sunday. Search parties continue their operation to locate the Yemenia Airbus A310 off the Comoros Islands Saturday. \"A signal was picked up from two acoustic transmitters from the plane's flight data recorders during a sea search to locate the data recorders this morning,\" the French air accident investigation agency, known as the BEA, said in a statement. Commonly known as \"black boxes,\" the data recorders should contain information to help determine what caused the crash. The Yemenia Airways Airbus 310 crashed into the Indian Ocean early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands. One person, a 13-year-old French girl, survived. Bahia Basari, who lives in Marseille, escaped with cuts to her face and a fractured collarbone. Watch teen survivor from crash \u00bb . The teen's father, Kassim Bakari, told a French radio network that his wife and daughter were flying to Comoros to visit relatives. \"When I had her on the phone, I asked her what happened and she said, 'Daddy, I don't know what happened, but the plane fell into the water and I found myself in the water... surrounded by darkness. I could not see anyone,'\" Bakari told France Info. The head of the rescue team in the Comoros told French radio RTL that the teenager beat astonishing odds to survive. \"It is truly, truly, miraculous,\" Ibrahim Abdoulazeb said. \"The young girl can barely swim.\" Another rescuer told France's Europe 1 radio that the girl was spotted in the rough sea, among bodies and plane debris in darkness, about two hours after the crash. The Airbus 310 plane tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said soon after the accident. A French official said the nation had banned the plane after it failed an aviation inspection in 2007. \"Since this check-up, we have not seen the plane reappearing in France,\" said Dominique Bussereau, the transport minister. But Yemenia Airlines was not on the European Union's list of banned airlines, he added. Passengers on the flight included 66 French citizens, 54 Comorians, one Palestinian and one Canadian, according to Yemeni and French officials. The crew was made up of six Yemenis, two Moroccans, one Ethiopian, one Filipino and one Indonesian. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar.","highlights":"Comoros Islands lie between east African and the island nation of Madagascar .\nData recorders should contain information to help determine what caused the crash .\nTeenage girl only person to survive plane crash off Comoros islands .\nFrench, U.S. divers are helping to search for debris and bodies from the plane .","id":"68e1d848d8fa30f8bdf2475bdc1dd225d55484ab"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It carries the nickname \"America's Finest City,\" and right now it appears San Diego is living up to the hype. Growing on the water: San Diego is becoming an increasingly popular super-yacht destination. Though the international financial crisis has precipitated economic woe across the United States, developments in San Diego's super-yacht industry don't appear to be slowing. Fifth Avenue Landing, a stylish new facility promising the ultimate docking experience for super-yachts up to 300 feet long, has just opened in city's downtown area. The marina, which is close to local attractions and top hotels, boasts 12 high-quality berths, each offering a concierge service. This impressive project is just the latest step in a significant development program for the west coast city, which is which is now beginning to compete with its northern neighbor, Los Angeles, as a destination for super-yacht owners. In 2005, Forbes rated San Diego as the fifth wealthiest city in the U.S. and in the years since, for the super-yacht industry particularly, the region has continued to develop rapidly. Today, the city is buzzing with super-yacht designers, builders, and brokers, and it now has plenty of facilities to accommodate the industry. There's also the annual \"YachtFest\" show, which will be going ahead in September this year and is expected to attract interest from super-yacht makers and owners around the world. Numerous marinas have sprung up amid the increasing interest in the city, with Kona Kai Marina, Shelter Island Marina, and The Wharf, among some of the most notable developments. Outside of the private super-yacht industry, San Diego is also home to the largest shipyard on the west coast of the U.S. -- General Dynamics' National Steel and Shipbuilding Company. Many cruise lines pass through the port and there are plans for a new cruise ship terminal to open in 2010. Much of the success in attracting super-yachts has been credited to the San Diego Super-yacht Association (SDSA) -- a collective of local super-yacht designers, builders, brokers and other interested parties that was formed in 2006. Super-yacht director of Marine Group Boat Works and founding member of the SDSA, Fred Larsson, told CNN that the key to San Diego's recent profile boost was realizing the economic needs of the industry. \"San Diego had the basic requirements of super-yachts covered already with the natural deep water harbor, year round superb weather, geographic location as the gateway to the Pacific and a wonderful youthful city. Then when you add the super-yacht facility upgrades it's a no brainer. San Diego has it all,\" he said. Larsson said the SDSA had been instrumental in developments as the combination of shipyards, marinas and suppliers working together means they have a good all-round knowledge of what super-yacht owners want when they come to port. The combination of major refit facility improvements, new marinas, marina expansions and an effective marketing campaign are behind the success, he added. Despite the international financial crisis, which threatens to hurt the super-yacht industry around the world, Larsson said that San Diego should not suffer too much as interest from owners is still growing. \"Due to the sheer size of the city and nearby cities there is so much for owners and crew to do here on their time off, the beaches are fabulous, Vegas is an hour away, there are 100 golf courses in and around San Diego. \"It's a metropolitan feel with small town charm. That's what makes us different,\" he said.","highlights":"A new super-yacht docking facility has recently opened in San Diego .\nThe city has its own super-yacht association, and annual show .\nSan Diego is becoming a rival to Los Angeles as a boating destination .","id":"aa264c85a3e94a898babba503f31d66e0324e583"} -{"article":"CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines (CNN) -- Typhoon Parma crossed the northern tip of the already storm-battered Philippines Saturday afternoon and early Sunday, killing three people, according to local media. A NASA satellite image shows Typhoon Parma as it headed toward the Philippines on Friday. Parma made landfall Saturday afternoon in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands. Tens of thousands of people to fled their homes for safer shelter. Winds whipped the coastline and felled power lines in northernmost Cagayan Province. Debris littered the roads, making evacuations even more difficult. At 5 a.m. Sunday (5 p.m. Saturday ET), Parma, known locally as Typhoon Pepeng, had maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph) with gusts as high as 148 kilometers (92 mph) as the eye began to leave land, heading to the northeast, according to the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Parma avoided a direct hit on heavily populated Manila, but the real menace in the Philippines capital was not wind. It was water, and there was no escape from it. Parma was expected to dump as much as 8 to 20 inches of rain in areas still water-logged from last week's Typhoon Ketsana. That storm resulted in the heaviest rainfall in 40 years and at one point, 80 percent of Manila was submerged. Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro appealed to Filipinos to remain in shelters even if they were in cities and towns not directly in Parma's path. He said he was worried about massive flooding and possible mudslides in mountainous regions. The government deployed 10,000 troops to help with rescue and relief operations as frightened Filipinos prepared for the worst. World Vision, the Christian humanitarian organization, was planning to launch relief operations Saturday evening in Isabela Province, one of the areas slammed by Parma. The group also plans assistance for nearby Cagayan province, whose capital, Tuguegarao, is being hit hard by Parma's strong winds. Arturo Fidelino, a telecommunications executive in Manila, described panicked people rushing to stock up on essential goods -- drinking water, canned food and electrical supplies. \"We had a traumatic experience when we had Ketsana,\" he said. \"We don't want that to happen again.\" President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo placed the country \"under the state of calamity.\" Macapagal-Arroyo said disaster-relief crews in vulnerable areas must be equipped with life-saving kits, boats, portable generators and trucks. Ketsana, which swallowed whole houses and buses over the weekend, killed 246 in the Philippines. It later strengthened into a typhoon. An additional 38 are missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. The storm affected nearly 2 million people and forced the evacuation of 567,000. CNN's Eunice Yoon and Pamela Boykoff in Cabantuan City, and Josh Levs in Atlanta contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: 3 dead in Philippines from Typhoon Parma, local media report .\nStorm heads to sea after crossing northern Philippines .\nTens of thousands of Filipinos sought shelter in evacuation centers .\nThe biggest threat was rain in areas water-logged by Typhoon Ketsana .","id":"551c069ec371a15e99f897036df04b84e3acfb56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking parents to immediately stop using a series of inflatable floats for babies in swimming pools, announcing a voluntary recall of about 4 million floats Thursday. The Squirtin' Tootin' Tugboat is among the floats covered by the recall. The items -- which inflate to seat babies and toddlers as they float on water -- are manufactured by Massachusetts-based Aqua Leisure Industries. The company has voluntarily recalled 14 models because the leg straps in the seat of the float can tear, causing children to slip into the water, posing a drowning risk, the commission said in a statement. There have been 31 reports of float seats tearing, though no injuries have been reported, the commission said. The floats were sold from December 2002 through June 2009 at retailers nationwide, including Target, Toys \"R\" Us, Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Kmart, Walgreens, Ace Hardware and Bed, Bath & Beyond. The commission is asking consumers to stop using the floats and to send them back to the company. Aqua Leisure officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but the company's Web site has posted the commission's recall advisory. CNN's Gerri Willis contributed to this report.","highlights":"Aqua Leisure Industries recalls 14 models .\nLeg straps can tear, allowing children to slip into the water .\nAgency says there have been 31 reports of seats tearing .\nFloats were sold nationwide at many chain retailers .","id":"4913f36ab79da578880f8ec53527a4d17b7cba45"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Thousands of people celebrated Friday on crowded Copacabana beach as the announcement that Brazil had been chosen as the 2016 Olympics host played live over huge screens erected above the sand. Thousands packed Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro after the city learned it will host the Olympics. \"It was a fantastic victory. We beat the big cities. Passion talked louder,\" said one man as he danced to live samba music in front of the stage. Rio de Janeiro beat out Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to become the first South American city to host the Games, something President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva made clear during his pitch to the International Olympic Committee. \"It is a time to address this imbalance,\" he told committee members making the selection in Copenhagen, Denmark. \"It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country.\" Happiness was a big part of Rio's pitch after it was voted the happiest city in the world by Forbes magazine. On Friday, thousands of people piled onto the beach wearing green and yellow, many with the Brazilian flag painted on their faces. Exuberant Rio de Janeiro is first South American city to host Olympics \u00bb . \"I thought that more than to the people, we owe this victory to our President Lula,\" said a woman wearing little more than a bikini. Rio also won points with an ambitious budget and new venues like the Joao Havelange Stadium, which opened for the 2007 Pan American Games. Rio's jaw-dropping natural beauty helped the city pull ahead of the competition. \"Rio is full of all things quintessentially Brazilian: sun, sand, soccer, samba, sensuality,\" the editorial director of Fodor's Travel, Laura Kidder, wrote in an e-mail. \"In Rio, it's about taking each day as it comes and living life to the fullest.\" Erik Torkells, editor for TripAdvisor, the world's largest online travel community, also praised the city for its social scene before the selection was made. \"If the Olympic Committee wanted to be sure everyone had a good time, they'd go to Rio,\" Torkells said. The selection also had its critics in Brazil. \"I don't think it's appropriate considering what our country is going through,\" said Orlando Pinto, a social worker. \"We don't have good health services, education; we have transportation problems, housing problems, crime problems.\" Security and traffic remain enormous challenges to overcome in Rio de Janeiro. But it was all celebration on Friday as crowds continued to stream onto the beach after the announcement was made.","highlights":"Thousands celebrate Rio de Janeiro win at Copacabana beach .\n\"We owe this victory to our President Lula,\" woman at celebration says .\nRio de Janeiro offered ambitious budget and new venues .\nCity also emphasized that Olympics have never been held in South America .","id":"5f005d2f42a131a4067467a2fcafe050b9cae3a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Americans appear to actually thrive on adversity, according to a study published this week that reached the conclusion after researching the nation's biggest economic downturn. This sculpture at the FDR Memorial in Washington depicts men waiting in a Great Depression bread line. Life expectancy during the peak years of the Great Depression increased 6.2 years -- from 57.1 years in 1929 to 63.3 years in 1933 -- according to University of Michigan researchers Jose A. Tapia Granados and Ana Diez Roux. The increase applied to men and women, whites and non-whites. The team crunched data from the federal government and concluded that \"population health did not decline and indeed generally improved during the four years of the Great Depression, 1930-1933, with mortality decreasing for almost all ages, and life expectancy increasing by several years in males, females, whites, and non-whites.\" For most age groups, \"mortality tended to peak during years of strong economic expansion (such as 1923, 1926, 1929 and 1936-1937),\" they wrote in the \"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\" \"The finding is strong and counterintuitive,\" said Tapia Granados, the lead author of the study. \"Most people assume that periods of high unemployment are harmful to health.\" The researchers used historical life expectancy and mortality data to examine the association between economic growth and population health from 1920 to 1940. Though population health improved during 1930-1933 and during the recessions of 1921 and 1938, mortality -- the death rate -- increased and life expectancy fell during times of economic expansion, such as 1923, 1926, 1929 and 1936-1937, they wrote. The researchers looked at mortality rates due to six causes of death that made up two-thirds of total mortality in the 1930s: cardiovascular and kidney diseases, cancer, influenza and pneumonia, tuberculosis, motor vehicle injuries and suicide. Only suicide went up during economic downturns, they said, citing the recession years 1921, 1932 and 1938, but suicides accounted for less than 2 percent of total deaths. Those years were marked by high unemployment; the nation experienced its highest unemployment rate of 22.9 percent in 1932, they wrote. Yet from 1920 to 1940, life expectancy increased 8.8 years. The authors speculated about possible explanations for why population health tends to improve during recessions but not expansions. \"During expansions, firms are very busy, and they typically demand a lot of effort from employees, who are required to work a lot of overtime, and to work at a fast pace,\" Tapia Granados said. \"This can create stress, which is associated with more drinking and smoking.\" In addition, new, inexperienced workers may be more likely to become injured; workers may sleep less and adopt less healthy eating habits, he said. Further, boom times may translate into more industrial pollution, which can take a toll on populations' health, he said. During recessions, with less work to do, employees may work slower, sleep longer and spend more time with family and friends, he said. With less money, they may spend less on alcohol and tobacco. The researchers pointed out that their work looked at the relationship between recessions and mortality on a macro level and was not predictive for any one person. The findings may apply to others, too. Tapia Granados, 53, whose work was self-funded, said he has carried out similar studies that looked at Japan, Spain and Sweden. \"In the three of them, it was the same,\" he said.","highlights":"Study: Life expectancy rose, mortality dropped during Great Depression .\nOpposite happened during surrounding times of economic expansion, study shows .\nStudy examined population health from 1920 to 1940 .\nSpeculation: In hard times, more sleep, less money for drinking and smoking .","id":"536a3c613668707f0c7fc7d0b768052a480219f4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Looking directly at the man who murdered his 9-year-old daughter, Mark Lunsford told John Evander Couey, \"I hope you hear her cry as you try to sleep at night.\" \"You will never hurt another child again,\" Lunsford said in testimony Tuesday in a Florida court hearing where a judge will decide whether to give Couey the death penalty. Jessica Lunsford, seen in an undated family photo, was 9 when she was abducted and killed. She disappeared in 2005 from her home in Homosassa, Florida. His eyes fixed on Couey, Lunsford continued, \"For 29 months, my daughter has heard me cry and begged God to stop the pain in my heart.\" Addressing Florida Circuit Court Judge Ric Howard, Lunsford pleaded for Couey to die for his crime. Then he turned back to the man who took his daughter. Watch Lunsford's emotional testimony \u00bb . \"I hope you see the tears at night when she asked you [if she could] go home. You will never hurt another child again.\" Lunsford spent much time talking about memories of Jesse Lunsford. \"I can remember when she was about 1 year old and would give me kisses and hugs and steal the raisins from my cereal,\" he said. \"From bumps to bruises, from Band-Aids to bicycles, she was a tomboy with her daddy and a very nice little lady for her grandmother.\" The hearing will continue Wednesday. Couey's attorneys are trying to convince Howard that Couey is mentally incompetent and should be spared the death penalty. \"That's a cop-out,\" Lunsford said Tuesday on Larry King Live. \"He is not retarded.\" The father said he wants Couey to die for his crime. King asked him if he would attend the execution by lethal injection. \"I'd hold the syringe if they'd let me,\" he answered. But a prosecution expert testified Tuesday that the convicted killer had an IQ of between 80 and 90, about low average. \"My opinion is that he is not mentally retarded,\" said Dr. Greg Pritchard, a clinical psychologist. Couey was convicted in March on charges of kidnapping, raping and murdering Jessica. The jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty. In Florida, the vote does not have to be unanimous to recommend the death penalty. The judge is expected to sentence Couey next month. Jessica Lunsford disappeared in February 2005 from her home in Homosassa. Her body was found three weeks later in a shallow grave outside a mobile home about 100 yards from where she lived. Couey, a convicted sex offender, was staying nearby in a trailer with his half-sister. Couey kidnapped the girl from her bedroom and later, in a taped confession, admitted that he buried the child alive. \"I went out there one night and dug a hole and put her in it. Buried her,\" he said. She was found wrapped in garbage bags, holding a stuffed toy dolphin, her hands bound with stereo wire. Jessica died from asphyxiation after being sexually assaulted, according to a medical examiner's report. The judge ruled the confession was inadmissible in court because Couey had asked for a lawyer the day before he told police he committed the crime. Evidence at the trial included Jessica's fingerprints in a closet in Couey's trailer and DNA from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his bedroom. Lunsford has led a push for stricter sex offender laws since his daughter's death. Then-Gov. Jeb Bush signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into Florida law. The 2005 legislation calls for prison sentences of 25 years to life for sex offenses against children under age 12, better registration of convicted sex offenders and a Global Positioning System notification mechanism to track down probation violators. Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed similar legislation Monday. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Mark Lunsford testifies at sentencing hearing for 9-year-old daughter's killer .\nJury recommended death for John Evander Couey .\nCouey was convicted of kidnapping, raping, killing Jessica Lunsford .\nCouey's attorney says he's mentally incompetent .","id":"f6e230190212493a8147501b1cb8a15beb073864"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The number of people killed by a typhoon that slammed into Taiwan and China earlier this month continues to rise, Taiwan announced Thursday. Tsai Sung Yu holds photos of his mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece who were all killed in the mudslides. At least 543 people are now known to have died when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, the country's Central Emergency Operation Center said Thursday. At least 117 people are still missing, and at least 46 people were injured. Emergency services also reported that 60 human limbs had been found, separately from the number of dead and wounded. Kaohsiung county was the worst hit, with 472 dead, 72 missing and 13 hurt, one seriously, the emergency center said. Morakot dropped 102 inches of rain on Taiwan August 8 before it roared on to mainland China the next day. More than 1.4 million people in China were forced to relocate because of the storm and more than 6,000 homes were destroyed. At least six people were killed there, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said after the storm passed. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou apologized last week for the slow response to the typhoon. He said he plans sweeping changes to the country's rescue agencies and may punish some government officials. \"We will try our best to do a better job in the rescue work that has been criticized for being too slow,\" said Ma. \"There are things that we have to correct and we also will be responsible for whatever mistakes or neglect that government officials have made.\" Rescuers have struggled to locate many who were missing in remote mountainous areas of southern Taiwan. Ma also apologized a week earlier for failings of the rescue effort as he traveled around the typhoon-battered island. He said heavy rain grounded rescue helicopters in the first few days after the storm hit, delaying relief efforts. Ma said the storm destroyed buildings, homes, roads and farms, causing about NT$100 billion (U.S. $3 billion) in damage. CNN's Eileen Hsieh contributed to this report.","highlights":"At least 543 people are now known to have died when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan .\nAt least 117 people are still missing, and at least 46 people were injured .\nEmergency services have also found 60 human limbs .\nTaiwan President Ma Ying-jeou apologizes for the slow response to the typhoon .","id":"2b0e7fb9384b149eb49ec5003f5fcfcab09fcda3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an unusual step, NASA scientists interrupted testing of the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope to aim the orbiter's camera at Jupiter and capture an image of the planet's mysterious new scar. The revamped Hubble telescope captured these images of an impact scar near Jupiter's south pole. The resulting picture, taken Thursday, is the sharpest visible-light photo of the dark spot and Hubble's first science observation since astronauts repaired and upgraded it in May, NASA said. Earth-based telescopes have been trained on Jupiter since an amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark, probably created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrated, early Monday. But in its rarified orbit 347 miles above the Earth, the Hubble has a better view of the gaseous planet. This week's event marks only the second time scientists have recorded debris colliding with Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in our solar system. The appearance of the impact spot is changing day to day in the planet's cloud tops, making it a priority for scientists to document it quickly. Although the Hubble is not expected to resume full operations until late summer and its new camera is still being calibrated, NASA scientists decided the Jupiter event was too significant not to put the orbiting observatory back into action for a day. \"Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble,\" said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \"Details seen in the Hubble view shows a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere.\" Jupiter's colorful atmosphere is 86 percent hydrogen and 14 percent helium, with tiny amounts of methane, ammonia, phosphine, water, acetylene, ethane, germanium and carbon monoxide. The chemicals are responsible for producing the different colors of Jupiter's clouds. The object created a mark on Jupiter that has about same diameter as Earth, though the object itself was probably only 50 to 100 miles across, said Anthony Wesley, the astronomer who first noticed the scar. The mystery object was probably moving at speeds of about 50 to 100 kilometers (31 to 62 miles) per second when it struck near Jupiter's south pole, Wesley said. The new image of Jupiter was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed by the astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis in May. Because it is still being calibrated, the camera's full power has yet to be seen, NASA said. The Hubble has been in orbit since 1990 and can capture images that telescopes on Earth can't, partly because it doesn't have to gaze through the planet's murky atmosphere. The unplanned Jupiter photo shoot will add delays to the recommissioning of Hubble, NASA said. But scientists are at a point in the telescope's reboot where they have enough flexibility to employ Hubble to look at the unexpected astronomical event, they said.","highlights":"Revamped Hubble telescope captured image of Jupiter's mysterious new scar .\nScar was created when comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere .\nImage was taken by Hubble's new camera, which is still being calibrated .\nHubble is not expected to resume full operations until late summer .","id":"ce506a55746a4e7cbc9ba89fae858a2a1441feda"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The body of a woman who authorities say was impaired by marijuana and alcohol when she caused a deadly head-on collision shows no signs of long-term alcohol use, according to an investigator hired by her family. Diane Schuler's minivan was heading the wrong direction as the wreck happened, police said. \"I have looked at the autopsy, and the pancreas, liver and esophagus were clear,\" Tom Ruskin, lead investigator and president of CMP Protective and Investigative Group, told CNN. \"I've never seen a case like this. No one has seen this woman drunk and we have interviewed over 50 people -- relatives, friends, colleagues and former employees from her company.\" The Westchester County medical examiner's office found that Diane Schuler, 36, had a blood alcohol level of .19 percent -- more than twice the legal limit -- and had marijuana in her system when she drove a minivan the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and ran head-on into an SUV. Three adults in the SUV were killed in the July 26 crash, along with Schuler and four children in her minivan -- her daughter and three nieces. A fifth child, Schuler's son, survived and is in stable condition. Ruskin, a former officer in New York Police's narcotics division, said he is hesitant to fully accept the autopsy report. \"I'm not saying the autopsy is wrong or right. I don't know if she smoked pot weeks prior. Marijuana stays in your system for up to 30 days,\" he said. The medical examiner's office released a statement on August 6, saying it stands by its autopsy results, and reiterated that Sunday. Schuler's family expressed shock when the details were revealed, saying she had no history of substance use. \"There's no way she'd do this,\" Jay Schuler, Schuler's sister-in-law, said earlier this month. \"She was responsible.\" Tests revealed that Schuler had an additional six grams of alcohol in her stomach that had yet to be metabolized, according to Maj. William Carey of the New York State Police. A vodka bottle was also found in the vehicle after the crash. Ruskin is adamant that it is necessary to go back through the day of the crash. \"We are analyzing all of the data that we have to date. We have a staff that has consumed themselves with this case,\" he said. \"We are trying to determine what happened here.\" Schuler's husband, Daniel, \"would like to remind people that no matter what happened here he lost his wife, his daughter, his nieces and he also grieves for the Bastardi and Luongo families,\" Ruskin said, referring to the other crash victims. \"He talks about that constantly in my daily conversations with him.\"","highlights":"Autopsy shows no signs of heavy alcohol use, investigator for driver's family says .\nInvestigator says Diane Schuler not known as heavy drinker .\nSchuler, 7 others killed in head-on collision as she drove wrong way on parkway .\nSchuler had high levels of alcohol, marijuana in system during crash, officials say .","id":"67efd681507017147f9312f0831f4bb47321276e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For someone who seems to go to great lengths to keep his private life away from prying eyes, late-night talk show host David Letterman has seen a great deal of his personal life become public. David Letterman has mined private events in his life for very public jokes on his show. Heart problems, a troubled stalker and a plot to kidnap his son have all landed Letterman in the news and provided fodder for jokes, including some of his own. The latest, an alleged extortion attempt involving his sexual dalliances (it's been dubbed \"sextortion\" by pundits), was handled very much the way Letterman fans might expect: with humor and a bit of storytelling. \"He told it as a story that you felt like you were living along with him, and so I think he immediately won your sympathy by telling it that way,\" said Hal Boedeker, TV critic for the Orlando Sentinel. \"He also took the seedy factor out of it with restraint by not saying too much and trying to protect the people he was involved with.\" Watch Letterman tell what happened \u00bb . Letterman revealed on his show Thursday night that he'd had sexual relations with members of his staff and that he had testified about those liaisons before a New York grand jury for a case involving the alleged attempted extortion. A CBS producer, Robert \"Joe\" Halderman, has been charged with first-degree attempted grand larceny; officials said he threatened to go public with the 62-year-old funnyman's dalliances unless Letterman paid $2 million. Halderman pleaded not guilty Friday. The revelation, which Letterman shared with the audience of the \"Late Show,\" seemed especially shocking given his reputation as the self-deprecating everyman. \"Letterman picked up on [that shock] and played on that,\" said Robert Thompson, a professor and founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. \"It was the weirdest 10 minutes of television I've seen in a long time, and yet I think I've concluded that it was brilliant.\" Watch \"Larry King Live\" guest host Jim Moret talk to panel about Letterman case \u00bb . Letterman has had plenty of experience dealing with awkward, and sometimes painful, episodes on television. Beginning in the 1980s, he was stalked by Margaret Ray, a woman with schizophrenia who often broke into his New Canaan, Connecticut, home, wrote him letters and once stole his Porsche. Letterman would sometimes joke about her -- without using her name -- on his show and told The New York Times that was because he joked about every public aspect of his life. Ray would refer to herself as \"Mrs. David Letterman\" and once watched the talk show host and his now-wife Regina Lasko from a hallway in their home as they lay in bed. Ray committed suicide in 1998; Letterman offered his condolences on-air to her family. Though Letterman was quoted as saying Ray's actions were usually more odd than frightening, a plot in 2005 to kidnap his then-toddler son proved to be more alarming. Kelly A. Frank, an ex-con who had done some work at Letterman's Deep Creek Ranch in Montana, was charged with planning to kidnap Letterman's son, Harry, and his nanny. Frank pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. In 2007, he escaped and was later captured. Thompson said Letterman has shown that he is able to rise above his troubles, including emergency bypass surgery in 2000, with a healthy dose of comedy. This latest incident was no different, Thompson observed. \"The interesting thing is that he never went out of comic mode,\" Thompson said. \"His magnum opus was when he was the first late-night comedian to come back after September 11th ... and he did it brilliantly. All of the other comics who came on in the following weeks followed him exactly.\" He kept Thursday's tale so light, Thompson said, that many who may not have been aware of the news would have thought it was just another Letterman bit. \"I think he realized that we are so cynical and so disbelieving of this long string of people apologizing for stuff like this,\" Thompson said. \"We don't believe it anymore, and we think they are only doing it for public relations. But he didn't handle it that way, and he delivered it in such a way that it came across as light-hearted and sincere.\" Glenn Selig, founder of the Publicity Agency, said that from a crisis-management perspective, Letterman handled his most recent incident well. \"I think the fact that he put it out there in his own way, in his own terms with the timing that he wanted to do it, that was the best way to go,\" Selig said. \"He tried to interject some humor and self-deprecation into it, which I think takes the wind out of those who may have tried to knock him down, because he was already knocking himself down.\" And although more intimate, and embarrassing, details may be revealed as the case continues, critic Boedeker said he thinks Letterman, his show and his career will come out well. \"I think his fans are, for the most part, pretty forgiving,\" Boedeker said. \"He's always made fun of himself and his looks. It's not as if he has set himself up as some paragon of virtue, and I really don't think this will hurt him in the long run.\" A representative for Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants, said, \"All the relationships David Letterman was referencing when discussing the matter on the 'Late Show' predated his marriage to Regina\" in March.","highlights":"Alleged plot against David Letterman isn't first time private woes made public .\nLetterman was once stalked and his young son targeted for kidnapping .\nMedia expert: Letterman handled reveal of alleged extortion brilliantly .\nTV critic says he believes that fans will be \"pretty forgiving\"","id":"f7a68a17a408bcf9181fa2c9de66c5b0dc311d44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It was still dark when Stan Brock began calling out numbers on his megaphone to admit a crowd of hundreds gathered at a Los Angeles sports arena Tuesday morning. A mobile health clinic offering free services has drawn thousands of people in Los Angeles in the last week. \"We opened the door at 5:30 and there were 600-odd people already gathered,\" he told CNN. Over the last week, thousands seeking free medical care have turned up at the mobile health care clinic set up by Remote Area Medical, a non-profit organization founded by Brock. Tuesday marks the final day of its eight-day operation in Los Angeles, which so far has resulted in the provision of at least $2 million in free health care services, according to Brock's early estimates. Remote Area Medical, better known as RAM, is a volunteer organization that brings free medical, dental and vision care to people around the world. See other groups that provide much-needed health services \u00bb . Since its launch in 1985, RAM has sent expeditions to developing corners of the world, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic and India. But in recent years, the Knoxville, Tenn.-based organization has faced increasing demand for its services in the U.S., including from large urban areas. \"We've had to cut back on services to needy places like Haiti because of overwhelming need in the U.S.,\" Brock told CNN. \"We have to take care of the home front first.\" On the final day of the Los Angeles operation, Brock said crowds were still gathering with the hope of receiving care. Patients have spent hours waiting in line in the past week for the chance to get free care. RAM has had to turn away some patients because it didn't have enough volunteers to provide treatment. It hasn't reached its target of treating 1,500 patients a day, but Brock still considers the operation a success. He said RAM has treated at least 4,557 people, and that doesn't include figures from the last two days of the operation, which aren't available yet, he said. Many patients have used more than one service, resulting in roughly 11,500 patient encounters. That includes the extraction of nearly 1,800 bad teeth and the production of 1,090 pairs of new eyeglasses. While limited access to health care is often associated with developing countries, it's a problem that faces patients around the world. That's become increasingly clear as America debates the future of health care. Los Angeles is by far the largest urban community RAM has served so far. The organization has been besieged for requests from a number of metro areas, including Detroit, Seattle, Miami and Atlanta, Brock said. The lack of accessible health care from an economic standpoint is a problem that has been going on for decades, Brock said. \"We could have come to Los Angeles 15 years ago and I guarantee there would have been just as big of a turnout of patients,\" he told CNN. Brock started RAM after spending 15 years in what used to be British Guiana -- now known as Guyana -- in South America. In that isolated area, it would take 26 days on foot to reach care, Brock recalled, and he wanted to find a way to bring medical care to such remote areas. RAM usually provides services in the Appalachia region of the U.S. where it's easier for volunteers to work, Brock said. Medical practitioners providing free care in Tennessee can be licensed in any state. Unfortunately, he said, other states don't have similar provisions, making it difficult for RAM to recruit enough local volunteers to be able to deal with the demand if they were to set up in areas like New York or Washington. Running the temporary clinic is practically a 24-hour operation. Brock's day starts at 4 a.m. and runs well into the night. But it's a rewarding experience for volunteers when they get to see how much their efforts have been appreciated, he said. \"When you see a patient who has had thousands of dollars of free dental care come out of a dental chair and they've got tears in their eyes and hug the dentist and dental assistant, it makes it all worthwhile.\"","highlights":"Pop-up clinic in Los Angeles has treated at least 4,500 patients in last week .\nNon-profit Remote Area Medical behind the mobile medical center .\nFounder Stan Brock says demand for free care not just limited to rural areas .","id":"1a74ab8d7d47e3cb2119413b80adba407f3f0542"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Sri Lankan court sentenced a journalist Monday to serve 20 years in prison for articles that criticized the military, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam is led from court after being sentenced. \"The AHRC is not surprised by this judgment because at the very inception of this case, the AHRC pointed out that this is purely a political case,\" the commission said in a statement. J.S. Tissainayagam, the editor of a monthly magazine, was arrested in March 2008 for printing articles critical of the Sri Lankan military's treatment of civilians during the country's war on the Tamil Tiger rebel group, according to several human rights groups. The Tamil journalist was held without charge for several months, prompting outrage from human rights and press freedom organizations. He was later charged under the country's controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act. His case has drawn international attention to the plight of press freedom in Sri Lanka, which ended its decades-long war against the Tamil rebels earlier this year. The country's military has been accused of numerous atrocities against civilians during the final months of the 26-year conflict. Sri Lanka has denied the accusations, and routinely rejects calls by human rights groups for independent investigations into its campaign against the Tigers. U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned Tissainayagam in his May 1 statement on World Press Freedom Day: . \"In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed: from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, Burma to Uzbekistan, Cuba to Eritrea. Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures like J.S. Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka, or Shi Tao and Hu Jia in China.\" The Asian Human Rights Commission condemned Monday's sentence as \"the most glaring proof of the absence of freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.\" It called on Sri Lanka and the international community \"to condemn the judgment and the sentence in Tissainayagam's case and to call for his unconditional release.\"","highlights":"J.S. Tissainayagam, editor of a monthly magazine, arrested in March 2008 .\nPrinting articles critical of Sri Lankan military's treatment of civilians during civil war .\nTamil journalist was held without charge for several months .\nCase drawn international attention to the plight of press freedom in Sri Lanka .","id":"5d75123a221dcd651356fd73586b5c08e13c16a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dutch Court will decide the fate Friday of 13-year-old Laura Dekker, either making her a potential world-record-breaking sailor, or returning her to school. Laura Dekker will find out on Friday whether the Dutch Court will back her record attempt. Welfare services in the Netherlands have taken legal action to try to stop the teen from attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world because they believe the voyage will be too dangerous. The Dutch Council for Child Protection has applied to the District Court in the city of Utrecht for Dekker to be made a ward of court so that her parents, who support her plans, temporarily lose the right to make decisions about her. Laura's father, Dick Dekker, has already had a request for her to miss two years of school turned down. However, CNN affiliate TVNZ reported that Laura, who was born off the coast of New Zealand and began sailing solo when she was 10, may attempt to obtain a Kiwi passport which would allow her to start her round the world trip from New Zealand shores instead. Laura's court battle comes as a 17-year-old English teen sailed into the record books Thursday as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe to date. Mike Perham sailed into Lizard Point in Cornwall, the southernmost point in Britain, at 9:47 a.m. (4:47 a.m. ET) to mark the end of his 48,280-kilometer (30,000-mile), 282-day ocean journey. Perham set off on his round-the-world trip on November 18. He has been sailing his yacht, TotallyMoney.com, single-handedly, though a support team has been sailing next to him along the way. Perham told CNN how he battled 50-foot waves and 57 mph winds in the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica. He said at one point, a \"freak wave\" picked up the boat and turned it on its side.","highlights":"Laura Dekker, 13, wants to become youngest person to sail solo around globe .\nDutch social workers say it is too dangerous and want to prevent her .\nDekker may apply for New Zealand passport to start bid there instead .\nComes as 17-year-old English teen breaks current record .","id":"ff01b11c47d4c872cdbc87bf24326baba8fae824"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including \"Off the Wall,\" \"Thriller\" and \"Bad\" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed. Michael Jackson, shown in 2008, was one of the biggest pop stars in history. He was 50. He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center. Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said an autopsy would probably be done on the singer Friday, with results expected that afternoon. Watch crowds gather at Jackson's hospital \u00bb . \"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color,\" the Rev. Al Sharpton said. \"To say an 'icon' would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was. He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by.\" Jackson's blazing rise to stardom -- and later fall from grace -- is among the most startling of show business tales. The son of a steelworker, he rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jackson 5, a band he formed with his brothers in the late 1960s. By the late '70s, as a solo artist, he was topping the charts with cuts from \"Off the Wall,\" including \"Rock With You\" and \"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough.\" Watch Jackson perform at a 1988 concert \u00bb . In 1982, he released \"Thriller,\" an album that eventually produced seven hit singles. An appearance the next year on a Motown Records 25th-anniversary special cemented his status as the biggest star in the country. Timeline: The life of Michael Jackson \u00bb . For the rest of the 1980s, they came no bigger. \"Thriller's\" follow-up, 1987's \"Bad,\" sold almost as many copies. A new Jackson album -- a new Jackson appearance -- was a pop culture event. iReport: Share your memories of Michael Jackson . The pop music landscape was changing, however, opening up for rap, hip-hop and what came to be called \"alternative\" -- and Jackson was seen as out of step. His next release, 1991's \"Dangerous,\" debuted at No. 1 but \"only\" produced one top-ranking single -- \"Black or White\" -- and that song earned criticism for its inexplicably violent ending, in which Jackson was seen smashing car windows and clutching his crotch. And then \"Dangerous\" was knocked out of its No. 1 spot on the album charts by Nirvana's \"Nevermind,\" an occurrence noted for its symbolism by rock critics. After that, more attention was paid to Jackson's private life than his music career, which faltered. A 1995 two-CD greatest hits, \"HIStory,\" sold relatively poorly, given the huge expense of Jackson's recording contract: about 7 million copies, according to Recording Industry of America certifications. A 2001 album of new material, \"Invincible,\" did even worse. In 2005, he went to trial on child-molestation charges. He was acquitted. In July 2008, after three years away from the spotlight, Jackson announced a series of concerts at London's O2 Arena as his \"curtain call.\" Some of the shows, initially scheduled to begin in July, were eventually postponed until 2010. Watch the reaction to Jackson's passing . Rise to stardom . Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958, to Joe Jackson, a Gary, Indiana, steelworker, and his wife, Katherine. By the time he was 6, he had joined his brothers in a musical group organized by his father, and by the time he was 10, the group -- the Jackson 5 -- had been signed to Motown. Watch Michael Jackson's life in video . He made his first television appearance at age 11. Jackson, a natural performer, soon became the group's front man. Music critic Langdon Winner, reviewing the group's first album, \"Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5,\" for Rolling Stone, praised Michael's versatile singing and added, \"Who is this 'Diana Ross,' anyway?\" The group's first four singles -- \"I Want You Back,\" \"ABC,\" \"The Love You Save\" and \"I'll Be There\" -- went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart, the first time any group had pulled off that feat. There was even a Jackson 5 cartoon series on ABC. Watch reaction from Motown Studios \u00bb . In 1972, he hit No. 1 as a solo artist with the song \"Ben.\" The group's popularity waned as the '70s continued, and Michael eventually went solo full time. He played the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie version of \"The Wiz,\" and released the album \"Off the Wall\" in 1979. Its success paved the way for \"Thriller,\" which eventually became the best-selling album in history, with 50 million copies sold worldwide. At that point, Michael Jackson became ubiquitous. Seven of \"Thriller's\" nine cuts were released as singles; all made the Top Ten. The then-new cable channel MTV, criticized for its almost exclusively white playlist, finally started playing Jackson's videos. They aired incessantly, including a 14-minute minimovie of the title cut. (\"Weird Al\" Yankovic cemented his own stardom by lampooning Jackson's song \"Beat It\" with a letter-perfect parody video.) On the Motown Records' 25th-anniversary special -- a May 1983 TV extravaganza with notable turns by the Temptations, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson -- it was Michael Jackson who stopped the show. Already he was the most popular musician in America, riding high with \"Thriller.\" But something about his electrifying performance of \"Billie Jean,\" complete with the patented backward dance moves, boosted his stardom to a new level. Watch Jackson perform \"Thiller\" \u00bb . People copied his Jheri-curled hair and single-gloved, zippered-jacket look. Showbiz veterans such as Fred Astaire praised his chops. He posed for photos with Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the White House. Paul McCartney teamed with him on three duets, two of which -- \"The Girl Is Mine\" and \"Say Say Say\" -- became top five hits. Jackson became a Pepsi spokesman, and when his hair caught fire while making a commercial, it was worldwide news. It all happened very fast -- within a couple years of the Motown special. But even at the time of the \"Motown 25\" moonwalk, fame was old hat to Michael Jackson. He hadn't even turned 25 himself, but he'd been a star for more than half his life. He was given the nickname the \"King of Pop\" -- a spin on Elvis Presley's status as \"the King of Rock 'n' Roll\" -- and few questioned the moniker. Relentless attention . But, as the showbiz saying has it, when you're on top of the world, there's nowhere to go but down. The relentless attention given Jackson started focusing as much on his eccentricities -- some real, some rumored -- as his music. As the Web site Allmusic.com notes, he was rumored to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber and to have purchased the bones of John Merrick, the \"Elephant Man.\" (Neither was true.) He did have a pet chimpanzee, Bubbles; underwent a series of increasingly drastic plastic surgeries; established an estate, Neverland, filled with zoo animals and amusement park rides; and managed to purchase the Beatles catalog from under Paul McCartney's nose, which displeased the ex-Beatle immensely. In 1990s and 2000s, Jackson found himself pasted across the media for his short-lived marriages, the first to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie; his 2002 claim that then Sony Records head Tommy Mottola was racist; his behavior and statements during a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir done for a documentary called \"Living With Michael Jackson;\" his changing physical appearance; and, above all, the accusations that he sexually molested young boys at Neverland. Watch report on legacy on Michael Jackson \u00bb . The first such accusation, in 1993, resulted in a settlement to the 13-year-old accuser (rumored to be as high as $20 million), though no criminal charges were filed, Allmusic.com notes. He also fell deeply in debt and was forced to sell some of his assets. Neverland was one of many holdings that went on the block. However, an auction of material from Neverland, scheduled for April, was called off and all items returned to Jackson. Interest in Jackson never faded, however, even if some of it was prurient. In 2008, when he announced 10 comeback shows in London, beginning in July 2009, the story made worldwide news. The number of concerts was later increased to 50. Seventy-five thousand tickets sold in four hours when they went on sale in March. However, when the shows were postponed until 2010, rumors swept the Internet that Jackson was not physically prepared and possibly suffering from skin cancer. Watch discussion of his tough life, brilliant career \u00bb . At the time, the president and CEO of AEG Live, Randy Phillips, said, \"He's as healthy as can be -- no health problems whatsoever.\" Jackson held open auditions for dancers in April in Los Angeles. He is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II.","highlights":"Michael Jackson suffers cardiac arrest at home in Los Angeles suburb .\nSinger was dominant in pop music for four decades with Jackson 5, solo .\nJackson had many No. 1s; his \"Thriller\" is one of the best-selling albums of all time .","id":"7adb70b53090e070fdeab9429b789de268b1f1dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For the past decade, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has been moving the data from his brain onto computers -- where he knows it will be safe. Gordon Bell wearing a SenseCam, which automatically records photos throughout the day. Sure, you could say all of us do this to some extent. We save digital pictures from family events and keep tons of e-mail. But Bell, who is 75 years old, takes the idea of digital memory to a sci-fi-esque extreme. He carries around video equipment, cameras and audio recorders to capture his conversations, commutes, trips and experiences. Microsoft is working on a SenseCam that would hang around a person's neck and automatically capture every detail of life in photo form. Bell has given that a whirl. He also saves everything -- from restaurant receipts (he takes pictures of them) to correspondence, bills and medical records. He makes PDF files out of every Web page he views. In sum, this mountain of data -- more than 350 gigabytes worth, not including the streaming audio and video -- is a replica of Bell's biological memory. It's actually better, he says, because, if you back up your data in enough places, this digitized \"e-memory\" never forgets. It's like having a multimedia transcript of your life. By about 2020, he says, our entire life histories will be online and searchable. Location-aware smartphones and inexpensive digital memory storage in the \"cloud\" of the Internet make the transition possible and inevitable. No one will have to fret about storing the details of their lives in their heads anymore. We'll have computers for that. And this revolution will \"change what it means to be human,\" he writes. Bell, who, along with fellow researcher Jim Gemmell, is the author of a new book called \"Total Recall,\" talked with CNN about the advantages and drawbacks of recording one's life in painstaking digital detail. The following is an edited transcript. CNN: What have you learned about yourself through this process? That's been a really hard question to answer. ... The main driver of the recall turns out to be a [computer] screensaver or something where I go looking for [a digital memory] and I find something else. I guess it's the rich set of connections and people that I've been involved with. CNN: What do you use to record your memories? In a way, most of what happens during the day is sort of routine -- what you've done before. So I carry the SenseCam only when I think there's an episode or a sequence or a certain set of events that I want to capture and have automatically photographed. But I tend to always carry a camera with me. I live next to a fire station and I've got lots of photos of the hook and ladder coming out of the house. And I like food so I tend to photograph wonderfully presented food all the time. To me those are very pleasant memories. CNN: If we rely on computers instead of our brains, will humans become mentally sluggish? That's certainly one of the concerns. I tend to counter that theory. To me, I feel a lot freer. In a way I feel like I still remember all that stuff, but I generally remember that [the computer is] remembering something for me so I can find it. People have no memory of phone numbers now because of the cell phone -- their address book is in a cell phone. So I don't think they're getting any worse or any less facile about that. What an e-memory does, to me, is gives me a really wonderful free feeling. CNN: If we all record audio of our lives, do you think conversations will become stilted and fake? I think there will be a lot of court cases and lawyering around all of that. I'm personally less hung up about that. Certainly, people my age and Baby Boomers are. But the current X-Generation, [they think] this is pretty natural. CNN: Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Yeah, I'm on Facebook and Twitter and occasionally I will tweet something. Somehow my problem is that I don't think I have anything interesting to tweet about. CNN: Should all of our memories and observations be public? Absolutely not. Our own memories are our own private thing, and how much you choose to have on Facebook or blogs, that's your thing. CNN: What does your family think about your effort to record everything? Gradually, everybody is getting this idea. ... Think of it: You are a librarian for your life. Somebody has to be the family librarian. CNN: Are you worried about losing your memory? ... Forgetting is not a feature, it's a flaw. I don't think forgetting is an important feature of human memory. I think it's important to be able to remember things accurately. CNN: Are there any memories you deleted? No. When we were scanning stuff I had written a memo about a company, an unpleasant company -- probably the only company I was ever ashamed to be a part of. ... I put a note on that file that said, \"Don't ever scan or copy this!\" My assistant who was doing the scanning ran across this and said, \"What do you want me to do with this?\" And I said, \"Well, gee. This is my life.\" I said, \"It's OK, just go ahead.\" So it's all there. CNN: Do you think it's possible for people to turn away from new technologies? Or are advances like \"Total Recall\" inevitable? I think it's inevitable because so much content is being created. Virtually everything is coming in digitally -- everything from your photos to your videos to your music. ... I will love that day when the world is just bits. It's the ultimate in green, by the way.","highlights":"Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell argues we will soon have searchable memories .\nBell details his ideas in a new co-authored book called \"Total Recall\"\nBell has been recording almost every detail of his life digitally for a decade .","id":"fa88fae5b975aa56ebb88cc94ed4ade7e149fc82"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Madame Tussauds unveiled a wax figure of Michael Jackson on Thursday, showing the late entertainer in a pose from the concerts he had planned to hold this month. The new waxwork of Michael Jackson -- only Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more times by Madame Tussauds. Sculptors at the wax museum started working on the figure four months ago. They had intended to display it this month, to coincide with the start of Jackson's \"This is It\" comeback tour in London. The new figure is modeled on a Jackson pose from the concert poster, the museum said. It shows him \"arms outstretched, pelvis thrusting and tip-toed, with his trademark trilby angled forward,\" the museum said. It is the 13th Jackson waxwork by Madame Tussauds, the museum said. Only Britain's Queen Elizabeth II -- who has been on the throne for almost 60 years -- has been portrayed more often. \"It is extremely unusual for a personality to have been portrayed so many times,\" said Madame Tussauds spokeswoman Liz Edwards. \"But Michael Jackson was totally unique and his iconic status made him one of the most popular stars here.\" The London museum has two other Jackson waxworks -- one in a pose from \"Thriller\" and another from his \"Dangerous\" album. The other 10 Jackson waxworks are in other Madame Tussauds museums around the world. The museum said it decided to proceed with the figure after Jackson's death last month \"as a tribute to one of the greatest musicians of all time and to celebrate his amazing 40-year career.\"","highlights":"Waxwork is the 13th of Jackson unveiled by the London tourist attraction .\nModel had been commissioned before singer's death to coincide with London concerts .\nOnly Queen Elizabeth II has been portrayed more often by the museum .","id":"7161844a9bf770f2f3b5949fa5adf0dfe726a7b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A controversial exhibition featuring preserved corpses having sex opened Thursday in Germany's capital. Gunther von Hagens' controversial \"Body Works\" shows have traveled throughout the world. Part of his traveling \"Body Works\" exhibition, \"The Cycle of Life,\" is showing at Berlin's Postbahnhof and features 200 human bodies at various life stages -- from conception to old age, including embryos and fetuses taken from historic anatomical collections. In one exhibit a male body is lying on his back with a woman sitting astride him with her back towards his head. Torsten Woehlert, spokesman for Berlin's Culture Ministry, told CNN that there has already been a number of complaints from the public in the press, though none have come to the ministry itself. He said: \"As it is not against the law, only against good taste, there is not much the government could do anyway.\" Conceived by Gunther von Hagens -- dubbed Dr. Death in Germany -- the exhibition displays the bodies with their muscles, nerves and tendons on show using a preservation technique he pioneered called plastination. This process involves replacing all body fluids and soluble fat with specially manufactured plastics. On his Web site, the anatomist describes the exhibition's purpose and goal \"to reveal and expose the anatomical structure of the human body and its function, in a unique lesson, and to teach us about the complexity of the human body, its anatomy, and the importance of leading a healthy way of life.\" What do you think? He added that the source of the exhibition is from donors -- people, who during their lifetime, declared their willingness, by informed consent, to display their bodies at the exhibition for the \"benefit of education, health and the awareness of the wide public to the different systems of the human body.\" When asked about the coupling of sex and death, von Hagens told Germany's Bild that \"death and sex are both taboo topics. I'm bringing them together. Death belongs to life.\" He added that \"without sex no life would exist.\" Von Hagens' work has divided opinion in the past, with critics often doubting his scientific motives and accusing him of shocking people to gain publicity. His public autopsy in 2002 for British broadcaster Channel 4 -- the first in the UK for 170 years -- received hundreds of complaints. The authorities also threatened to arrest him after declaring the procedure illegal. Von Hagens justified his actions as \"demystifying the post mortem examination,\" and likened the medical profession to \"medieval priests who would not allow ordinary people to read the Bible,\" The New Scientist reported.","highlights":"Cycle of Life features 200 human bodies at various life stages .\nOne exhibit shows male body lying on back with a female sitting astride him .\nVon Hagens: Exhibition to teach us about the complexity of the human body .\nVon Hagens performed first UK public autopsy in 170 years in 2002 for television .","id":"eda35fafee83b26241ef8be0d1d1da76b3df90a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You had a close encounter with a 40-yard-wide asteroid this week, but the astronomer who first spotted the large rock said it's nothing to worry about. An asteroid (inside circle) passed within 38,000 miles of Earth on Monday. Asteroid 2009 DD45 on Monday passed within 38,000 miles of Earth, less than twice the height of the geostationary satellites we depend on for communications, according to Robert McNaught of the Australian National University. McNaught, who watches for asteroids with his telescope 250 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, discovered the approaching rock last week. \"It's not something to worry about, but something to be aware of,\" he said. While a direct hit on Earth could be a devastating natural disaster, McNaught said keeping track of asteroids can make a hit \"potentially preventable.\" \"If discovered in advance and with enough lead time, there is the possibility of pushing it off course, if you have decades of advance warning,\" McNaught said. \"If you have only a few days, you can evacuate the area of impact, but there's not a great deal [else] you can do.\" In either case, he said, a global catastrophe as depicted in Hollywood movies such as \"Deep Impact\" is \"very, very unlikely.\" The 2009 DD45 asteroid circles the sun every 18 months, but its path will not threaten this planet at least for the next century, he said. The number of \"potentially harmful asteroids\" discovered each year has grown dramatically over the past decade as \"systematic programs\" to scan the skies have been put in place, McNaught said. Nearly 100 new ones have been found in each of the past several years, he said.","highlights":"Asteroid passes within 38,000 miles of Earth on Monday, an astronomer says .\nThe 40-yard-wide rock was nothing to be worried about, he says .\nAsteroid was spotted by Robert McNaught through his telescope in rural Australia .","id":"7a89ba04e891112983d7e9b9f70bfd73f64306d0"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- About 200 people have been arrested in a flare-up of anti-Christian violence in Gojra that left seven dead, a government minister said Monday. Christians in Karachi, Pakistan, on Monday protest the slayings of seven Christians in weekend violence. Rana Sana Ullah, Punjab's provincial law minister, told CNN that the paramilitary Rangers force was helping police and maintaining law and order. Seven people were killed and 20 injured Saturday when Muslim demonstrators set fire to houses in a Christian enclave and fighting broke out, authorities said. Police said the Muslims were protesting an alleged desecration of pages in the Quran, the Muslim sacred text, at a Christian wedding. At a news conference in Islamabad carried on local TV, Shehbaz Bhatti, federal minister for minorities, said an investigation determined there was no desecration of the Quran in village 95 Gill near Gojra City, and the allegations were baseless. He also said the government will rebuild all the burned houses. Bhatti told CNN that four women, two men and a child, all Christians, were either shot to death or killed when their houses were burned. About 50 houses were burned down, and more than 100 were looted by the protesters, Bhatti said. The incident occurred in Gojra City, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Lahore. Kamran Michael, Punjab provincial minister for human rights and minority affairs, who is a Christian, told CNN after meeting with Pakistan's Christian leaders in Gojra that a consensus had been reached to observe three days of mourning, from Monday to Wednesday, for the attack on the Christians. On those three days, all schools, colleges, missions and educational institutions run by Christians will remain closed. Christian schools in Karachi, which were due to open for the new term Monday, remained closed. However, schools in most other areas of Pakistan are still on summer vacation. Michael also criticized Pakistan's \"law of offenses relating to religion,\" which has a penalty of life imprisonment for desecration of the Quran and even death for defiling the name of the prophet Mohammed. He called the law unjust and misused, and he strongly condemned it, demanding that it be amended because of its misuse against minorities. Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"7 killed, 20 hurt Saturday when Muslim protesters set fire to houses in Christian area .\nThey were protesting alleged desecration of Quran at a Christian wedding .\nFederal official says investigation determined there was no desecration of Quran .\nAbout 50 houses were burned down, more than 100 looted in violence .","id":"127ec2abcc5690d53f0af8fa3b5a60fe05b926cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The son of an infamous CIA double agent who is himself accused of spying was released from jail Friday in Portland, Oregon, pending trial after a federal judge ruled he did not pose a flight risk. Nathaniel Nicholson, son of an infamous CIA double agent, faces his own spying charges. Judge Anna J. Brown ordered that Nathaniel Nicholson, 24, can be freed provided he stay with family, not leave Oregon without permission from authorities and wear a GPS monitoring device. Brown also ordered that he not have any contact with his father, the admitted spy Harold James \"Jim\" Nicholson. The elder Nicholson pleaded guilty in 1997 to spying for Russia and is the highest ranking CIA officer ever to be sentenced for espionage. While serving a 23-year prison sentence, prosecutors allege, Jim Nicholson, 58, restarted his career as a double agent and enlisted his son Nathaniel in his efforts to collect money owed to him by the Russian spy services and to sell more secrets. Both father and son were charged in January with acting as agents of a foreign government, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They have pleaded not guilty. Court appointed lawyers representing the men did not return CNN's calls for comment . According to the indictment, Nathaniel Nicholson made trips to California, Mexico, Peru and Cyprus, where he met with Russian government representatives who gave him payments totaling over $35,000 in cash. At his father's request, Nathaniel Nicholson allegedly shared the money with his sister and grandparents. Nathaniel Nicholson had complained to his father that he and his sister were short of money to pay for college, prosecutors said. Jim Nicholson told his son that his alleged spying activities \"were 'risky' but not 'illegal,'\" the indictment said. According to court testimony, Nathaniel Nicholson, who is a former U.S. Army paratrooper, initially told authorities that he had traveled overseas to visit \"a battle buddy.\" The FBI agents informed Nicholson that lying to them was a federal crime and offered him a \"mulligan,\" or a chance to change his story, according to the agent's testimony. At that point, FBI special agent John Cooney testified, Nicholson became more \"forthcoming\" about his meetings with Russians. If convicted, Jim and Nathaniel Nicholson could face up to 20 years in jail.","highlights":"Nathaniel Nicholson, son of a CIA double agent, faces spying charges .\nA Portland, Oregon, judge releases him from jail, pending trial .\nHis father, Jim Nicholson, pleaded guilty in 1997 to spying for Russia .\nWhile in prison, father allegedly enlisted son to help continue spy services .","id":"13f401224bfda7adf2d09e098f4d1edc12a1e94c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The AMC series \"Mad Men\" has been honored for its sharp writing, polished acting and engaging portrayal of life at a New York advertising agency in the early 1960s. \"Mad Men\" has gotten attention from fashion designers and clothing merchandisers. It has also been much noticed for something else: its fashion sense. The series, which features all the looks of that era -- thin-lapeled suits and skinny ties, crinoline-puffed dresses and pencil skirts, Peter Pan collars and subdued pinks and greens -- has attracted attention from fashion designers and clothing merchandisers. Banana Republic, which has placed \"Mad Men\"-inspired clothes in its window displays, is even offering a walk-on role for the winner of a contest. \"Mad Men,\" which returns for its third season Sunday, isn't the first Hollywood creation to influence fashion trends. For decades, movies and television shows have played a primary role in dictating people's fashion choices, whether they've been aware of it or not. Here are a few examples. 1. In the 1934 film \"It Happened One Night,\" star Clark Gable took off his shirt and showed his bare chest, instead of the standard white undershirt. For decades, an urban legend has maintained that undershirt sales dropped up to 75 percent, not to recover until World War II. Though the mythbusting site Snopes.com says the truth is uncertain, it's testimony to the legend's strength that we're still talking about it 75 years later. 2. The 1967 film \"Bonnie and Clyde,\" with its (somewhat idealized) Depression-era fashion, continues to inspire today's designers. Faye Dunaway's berets, scarves, trench coats, fitted cardigans and long pencil skirts were a hit at the time and remain so today. 3. \"Annie Hall\" boldly showed women that the masculine preppy look was attractive. Star Diane Keaton wore baggy pants, dress shirts, a vest and tie in the 1977 Woody Allen film. The film is said to have influenced a spike in tie sales for women. 4. \"Saturday Night Fever\" rejuvenated a fading disco craze in 1977 and told men it's OK to wear crotch-hugging pants, wide-open, chest-baring shirts and large medallion jewelry. John Travolta's white polyester suit -- later bought by film critic Gene Siskel at auction -- became a disco-era icon. 5. The 1983 film \"Flashdance\" made active wear -- like a ripped sweatshirt off one shoulder, tight leggings and leg warmers -- sexy for women in the early 1980s. Actor Jennifer Beals is said to have cut the collar off a sweatshirt that had shrunk in order to get it over her head, according to the Internet Movie Database. 6. The 1980s TV series \"Miami Vice,\" with its lightweight fabrics and pastel colors, proved a hit on television and in menswear departments. Star Don Johnson's signature look -- T-shirt, suit jacket, linen pants and shoes worn sockless -- could be seen all over the country. (He also popularized the unshaven, stubble-bearded look.) 7. \"Sex and the City\" trendsetter Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Carrie, talked about her shoe addiction constantly during the HBO series, which ran from 1998 to 2004 and spawned a 2008 movie. Soon, stilettos -- paired with a thrown-together look -- became something the cool crowd of viewers would follow, along with brands such as Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. 8. A game show starting a fashion trend? It happened with \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,\" which featured host Regis Philbin sporting a monochromatic shirt-and-tie look. Later, he launched a line of shirts and ties in the Regis by Van Heusen collection.","highlights":"\"Mad Men\" has influenced fashion designers; looks filter into public view .\nMany movies, TV shows have had similar impact .\n\"Miami Vice,\" \"Sex and the City\" are among names on the list .","id":"fe2b0c1550069dfb9da7081485cf02bc61bdbb7b"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Concerns were growing Wednesday for a polar bear born last month at a German zoo after its twin died and was possibly eaten by its mother. One year ago Vera gave birth to Flocke, pictured here playing in her enclosure in April. The young polar bear died Monday, less than two weeks after it was born, Nuremberg Zoo said. The surviving twin was doing well, the zoo said, but added that it was concerned the mother may not be able to care for it properly. Zookeepers watching a video feed from the bears' enclosure said they had noticed the baby bear looking thinner and weaker. They saw the bears' mother, Vera, nudging the dead bear with her nose and observing it -- and as of Wednesday, they said, the dead bear was nowhere to be seen. \"It is very, very sad,\" said zoo director Dag Encke. \"it is unfortunately frequently the case that with twins, one of the animals doesn't survive.\" Zookeepers had kept their distance from Vera and her babies, watching them only on camera so as not to make the mother feel threatened. Polar bears are known to eat their young if they sense any danger or interference. \"We have to worry more about the surviving young animal and take care that the polar bear with her baby is not disturbed,\" Encke said. \"So far, Vera is caring for the surviving baby in an exemplary way.\" One year ago Vera gave birth to Flocke, who became an instant celebrity across Germany. Flocke's first birthday is Thursday.","highlights":"German zookeepers concerned for baby polar bear after its twin died .\nYoung polar bear died Monday, less than two weeks after it was born .\nBaby nowhere to be found in enclosure; mothers often eat young if sense danger .","id":"eebea6ea101534ef2f6346bfab4a284fc6100e79"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An additional 440,000 Honda vehicles are being added to a recall initially announced in November to repair a potential defect in airbag inflation systems, American Honda Motor Co. said Friday. The 2001 Honda Civic is among the vehicles covered by the recall. The recall involves driver-side airbags in certain 2001-02 Honda Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-03 Acura TLs, the company said in a news release. The affected vehicles will require the replacement of the steering-wheel-mounted airbag inflator. \"In some vehicles, airbag inflators can produce over-pressurization of the driver's [front] airbag inflator mechanism during airbag deployment,\" the release said. \"If an affected inflator deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator casing to rupture. Metal fragments could pass through the cloth airbag cushion material, possibly causing an injury or fatality to vehicle occupants.\" Honda spokesman Chris Noughtan said the potential defect has resulted in six known injuries and one known death. The company will send a recall notice in the mail over the next few months, the release said. Owners may check their car's recall status by visiting the Honda \"Owner Link\" Web site at www.owners.honda.com\/recalls or the Acura \"My Acura\" Web site at www.owners.acura.com\/recalls. \"Only certain vehicles are affected, and concerned owners of 2001-2002 Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-2003 Acura TLs are encouraged to wait to receive a recall notice in the mail before scheduling an appointment with their local dealer,\" the company said.","highlights":"2001-02 Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-03 Acura TLs included .\nAirbag inflators can produce over-pressurization, company says .\nAt least six injured, one killed by potential defect .\nOwners will receive recall notices in the mail .","id":"c0ee571c4632ccd1e698fd55798022a0c4dd24ab"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 12 people have died in clashes between Iraqi police and members of an exiled Iranian opposition group at an Iraqi refugee camp, a group spokesman told CNN Friday. Iraqi police block entrances to Camp Ashraf in Diyala province on July 29. A police raid at Camp Ashraf in Diyala province Tuesday led to fighting with members of the group -- the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. Along with the deaths, there have been reports of several hundred injuries. The PMOI was allied with Saddam Hussein in Iraq during the 1980s with a goal of toppling the Iranian regime. But since Hussein's overthrow in 2003, Iraq has established good relations with the Iranian government. Iran wants to see the camp shut down, and the Iraqi government has said it would close the facility after it got control of the camp from the United States this year. Residents in the camp are concerned about being forcibly turned over to Iran. People there said they would be willing to go back to Iran but only if there are assurances its members won't be mistreated. The PMOI official also said 35 people are missing, and there are fears that they were to be forcibly taken back to Iran. The fighting is over now, and Iraqi police have control of the entrances to the camp and its intersections and streets. It also has control of the camp's power station and water purification plant, the PMOI official said. Amnesty International, the human rights monitoring group, wants the Iraqi government \"to investigate the apparent excessive use of force by its security forces.\" The group said \"armed security forces used bulldozers to force their way into the camp\" and they \"used tear gas, water cannons and batons against unarmed residents who tried to stop them from entering the camp.\" The United States and Iran say the group is a terrorist organization. Amnesty International said in most cases the \"terrorist\" designation pinned on the PMOI by most entities -- such as the European Union and other governments -- has been shelved because the group \"no longer advocates or engages in armed opposition to the government of Iran.\" Meanwhile, at least 29 civilians died in Baghdad on Friday when roadside bombs exploded near four Shiite mosques, an Interior Ministry official said. Police believe the attacks were coordinated. The explosions, after Friday prayers had ended, appeared to target worshipers leaving the mosques. The deadliest bombing occurred in the Shaab neighborhood of northern Baghdad, where 21 people were killed and 35 were wounded. Two others exploded in southeastern Baghdad. Two people were killed and seven others were wounded in Jisr Diyala and one person was killed and seven others were wounded in Zafaraniya. Four people were wounded in the eastern neighborhood of Kamaliya neighborhood, and three people were wounded in the southwestern neighborhood of I'lam neighborhood. CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police raid at camp led to clashes with Iranian opposition group .\nPeople's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran allied with Saddam Hussein in 1980s .\nIran wants to see the camp shut down .\n27 dead after bombs exploded near four Shiite mosques in Baghdad .","id":"661594a2c9d92e7aaa20018de658e589a7a2027f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An infant girl delivered prematurely from her mother, who has the swine flu virus, has died, hospital officials said Monday. Aubrey Opdyke was put into a medically induced coma to give the baby as much oxygen as possible. Parker Christine Opdyke was delivered 14 weeks early by doctors at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Florida's Palm Beach County. Her mother, Aubrey Opdyke, was placed into a medically induced coma June 3 to help give the baby as much oxygen as possible. But doctors delivered Parker on Saturday after her mother suffered a collapsed lung last week. Aubrey Opdyke remains comatose and in critical condition in Wellington's intensive care unit. \"Despite heroic efforts on the part of physicians and nurses, we are sad to announce that baby Parker Christine Opdyke has expired,\" said a written statement from the hospital. No other details were available Monday. Attempts by CNN to reach the family were unsuccessful. Even under the best circumstances, delivering a child at 27 weeks is a very early birth, Dr. David Feld, a Palm Beach County obstetrician and gynecologist, told CNN affiliate WPEC. \"When you have an infectious case, I don't think you're going to see that lung maturity as quickly, and I think that is the issue,\" he said. But, he said, now that Aubrey Opdyke is no longer pregnant, she will be able to fight for her own life. Palm Beach County has had 247 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, but only one death. In late June, a 25-year-old pregnant woman died, but her baby survived. Pregnant women have long been a prime concern of health care officials regarding the flu virus, but are of particular concern during this outbreak of swine flu. Pregnant women have always been advised to get a flu shot because they are at greater risk because of the weakened immune system resulting from their pregnancy. But the H1N1 epidemic has seen new complications and challenges. \"We have seen, with this virus, worse complications and severe infections in pregnant women,\" said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"We're urging women who are pregnant who develop fever or respiratory symptoms to seek care promptly.\" The CDC said it is vitally important for pregnant women to recognize the signs and symptoms, like fever and cough, to get to their doctor quickly and to begin taking antiviral medicines early on. \"I know that many pregnant women don't want to take anything while they're pregnant,\" said Schuchat. \"This is a situation where you need to be more worried about your health and the baby's health.\" The CDC also recommends that pregnant women get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, in addition to an annual flu shot. \"For people who are at high risk, like pregnant women, planning to receive both vaccines is probably the right way to go,\" Schuchat said. The CDC's advisory committee will meet later this month to make recommendations on at-risk groups who should receive the new vaccine.","highlights":"Baby delivered 14 weeks prematurely from a mom battling swine flu has died .\nThe baby's mother, who has been placed in a coma, remains in critical condition .\nCDC sees \"worse complications, severe infections in pregnant women\" with this flu .","id":"72e93a76ab0198e50cf2ff9f237d5f09f3b691d1"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Abayte Ahmed and her husband learned of their son's death in the most heinous fashion. A family acquaintance called and told them to click on an Internet site. There on the screen were photographs of their 20-year-old son -- the boy with the movie-star looks -- shot through the head thousands of miles away in Somalia. Jamal Bana died in Somalia. Several missing Somali-Americans are believed to have fought there. \"He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated, because he didn't have any clue about Somalia at all,\" his mother said, fighting back tears and barely able to speak about her eldest son. Jamal Bana had been missing for months from his Minneapolis home. His family is still grappling with the circumstances surrounding his death in a land they had fled -- an African nation wracked by chaos and violence. The FBI said Bana's death is part of a sweeping federal investigation into a recruiting effort in the United States by a Somali terrorist group called Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months. At least three, including Bana, have ended up dead in Somalia, community leaders say. Watch the harrowing saga of Jamal Bana \u00bb . Bana was the kind of son a modest immigrant family pins its hopes on. He was the eldest of seven and studying engineering at local colleges. But last fall, his family said, he disappeared without any warning. A few days later, the phone rang. All that could be heard was a quick sentence. \"I'm in Somalia,\" his mother quoted him as saying. He then hung up. Communication from then on was scarce. In calls or text messages, the family said, Bana was guarded, as though someone was watching or listening to him. On July 11, the family received the call telling them to look on the Internet. Bana's father broke down in tears when he saw the photos. One image was a close-up of his son's face, a bullet wound on one side of his head. Another showed the body being carried through the streets of Mogadishu on a stretcher. His parents said they believe their son was brainwashed and recruited to fight in the civil war between Somalia's unstable transitional government and Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab remains entrenched in northeast Somalia and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. The question immigrants in the United States want answered is: How have their youth ended up so far away? One of the missing youth, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, blew up himself and 29 others last fall in Somalia in what is believed to be the first suicide bombing carried out by a naturalized U.S. citizen. Ahmed had traveled from Minneapolis. The attack raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Just weeks ago, community activist Abdirizak Bihi lost his 17-year-old nephew, Burhan Hassan, in Somalia. Asked if his nephew had been kidnapped from Minneapolis, Bihi said, \"They kidnap them in the sense of mental kidnapping, not physically. But they play a male role of mentor.\" Bihi and community leader Omar Jamal said they hold one place at least loosely responsible: the Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minneapolis. \"All these kids missing, they all have one thing in common: They all participated in youth programs in that mosque,\" said Jamal. Jamal and Bihi said leaders of the mosque, at the very least, allowed people to come around their facility and recruit young men to fight in Somalia -- a charge the head imam denies. CNN was not allowed inside the mosque, but was granted an interview with the imam at a different location. \"This is the baseless accusation really,\" said Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmed. \"The mosque -- the mission of the mosque -- is to worship. And people come to worship and go. We don't have any control over what comes through everybody's mind or ideology.\" Sheikh Ahmed said at least two of the young men who died in Somalia did worship at his mosque. But he said no recruiters came around the mosque to pull them away, and said his mosque does not support Al-Shabaab. He added that he has encouraged local families to keep their young sons from going to Somalia. Federal authorities recently made their first arrests in the case, charging two Minnesota men, Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, according to the indictment. CNN could not reach Salah Osman Ahmed's attorney for comment. Published reports indicate he planned to plead not guilty. Isse has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal authorities, officials said. In court papers obtained by CNN, Isse's attorney said, \"Mr. Isse will not be the last defendant indicted.\" A local attorney involved in the case said at least seven Somali-Americans have been questioned by a grand jury. An FBI official said the bureau cannot rule out the possibility that some of the young men involved could be trained to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Meanwhile, CNN has learned more about how Shirwa Ahmed and Burhan Hassan made their way overseas. A travel agent in Minneapolis, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two men paid about $1,800 in cash for tickets to Nairobi, Kenya, or to Dubai, U.A.E. The travel agent said he thinks the two men then made their way to Mogadishu from those cities on a Somali carrier. For Bana's family, it's all too much to bear. Omar Boley is a close friend who grew up in the same tribe as Bana's family. He said Bana's mother is having difficulty coping with everything that has happened in recent months. \"She doesn't want to hear the story again,\" he said. \"She told me, 'Whenever I see someone talking about my son, I feel bad. I can't sleep. I feel sick. So this happened, nothing I can do. We pray for him.' That's what she said, and that's what I believe.\"","highlights":"Jamal Bana had been missing for months; family learns of his death via Internet .\nDeath is part of wider federal inquiry of terror recruiting by Somali group in U.S.\nImam of Minneapolis mosque says terror recruiters are not at his mosque .\nTwo men charged in U.S. with providing material support to terrorists .","id":"df797773b9e8d16817cad44d9a023506dac4a7c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators on Tuesday released the identities of eight people who were killed in a mobile home in southeastern Georgia. Guy Heinze Jr. faces drug charges and is accused of evidence tampering and making false statements. A ninth person remains in critical condition, the Glynn County Police Department said. Police identified the victims as Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Chrissy Toler, 22; Joseph L. West, 30; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Guy Heinze Sr., 45; and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. They were found dead Saturday in Brunswick, Georgia, about 300 miles southeast of Atlanta, on the Atlantic coast. Police said autopsies were completed Monday, but they did not offer any information about the findings. Authorities did not identify the hospitalized victim. A man who found the bodies called 911 Saturday to report in an anguished voice that he had arrived home to find \"my whole family's dead.\" Hear the frantic 911 call reporting the slayings \u00bb . \"I just got home,\" a man identified as Guy Heinze Jr., 22, tells the emergency dispatcher in the call, released Monday. \"I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody's dead. ... My whole family's dead. It looks like they've been beaten to death. \"I don't know what to do, man,\" an emotional Heinze tells the dispatcher. \"My dad, my mom, my uncle, my cousin. .... My dad, he's laying there dead. That was my dad.\" A neighbor placed the call and put Heinze on the phone as well as the mobile home park's maintenance man. The park manager also called 911, sobbing as she told dispatchers, \"Please hurry.\" Officers found seven people dead in the residence at the New Hope mobile home park. An eighth person died Sunday. Heinze was arrested Saturday night and faces charges of having a controlled substance and marijuana as well as evidence tampering and making false statements to a police officer, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said. According to an arrest warrant, Heinz provided \"investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members.\" No further details were available. The arrest warrant also said that he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car. He had Darvocet, a narcotic painkiller, and marijuana in a pill bottle in the center console of his car, according to the arrest warrant. Doering said Heinze has been cooperative. He stopped short of naming him a suspect in the deaths. \"We're still looking for anybody and everybody that may be related to this,\" he said Sunday. \"That naturally includes [Heinze]. Of course, we're looking at him.\" Heinze's attorney, Ron Harrison, said his client, who has a bail hearing Wednesday, denies any involvement in the killings. The arrest warrant, he said, alleges that his client took a shotgun from the house and hid it in his car. Asked how Heinze was doing, Harrison said, \"Not well. Not well at all. You come across this murder scene, you call 911, and then you end up in jail.\" Police have said they have \"no known suspects\" in the case. \"We are not looking for any known suspects,\" Doering said. \"That doesn't say that there are no suspects. They're just not known to us.\" The 911 call paints a picture of violent chaos. At one point, while the maintenance man, known only as Mike, talks to dispatchers, Heinze goes in the mobile home and reports that his cousin, identified as Michael, is breathing. The maintenance man said that Michael is a \"young man with Down syndrome.\" Heinze reports the youth's \"face is smashed in,\" he said. Heinze gets back on the phone to talk to a supervisor, repeating that Michael appears to be having trouble breathing and needs an ambulance. The dispatcher assures him help is on the way and tries to question him gently. \"People's beat,\" Heinze said. \"Everybody is dead.\" Asked what the mobile home looks like, he yells, \"It looks like a [expletive] murder scene.\" The dispatcher asks Heinze to try to question Michael, and Heinze asks him, \"Where do you hurt?\" There is no response. Doering said Sunday that police think at least one person not in custody may have information in the case. Police had been called to the home before, Doering said, but would not say why. He has been tight-lipped about many aspects of the case, refusing to say how the victims died. All nine victims lived in the mobile home, he said, and police do not believe any of them conducted the assault. He said police are making progress and have narrowed down the timeline for when the deaths occurred. CNN's Sean Callebs contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Warrant claims caller took shotgun from house .\nInvestigators release names of eight people found dead in mobile home .\nNinth person hospitalized in critical condition, police say .\nGlynn County, Georgia, police have been tight-lipped about case .","id":"501205723d9f4ec5315d50b16a47d0e24b17fa02"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The renewable energy sector has received a boost with the inauguration of the world's first commercial wave power project off the Portuguese coast. It is hoped that the Pelamis Wave Energy Converters will provide energy for 15,000 homes. Developed by a Scottish engineering company, Pelamis Wave Power Limited, the Pelamis Wave Energy Converters (PWEC) have been towed into position three miles off the coast of Agucadoura in north Portugal. The first phase of the project is using three PWEC to generate 2.25 megawatts of power at a cost of nine million euros. If successful, a second phase will see energy generation rise to 21 megawatts from a further 25 machines providing electricity for 15,000 Portuguese homes. The project is a joint venture between Pelamis Wave Power Limited, Babcock and Brown Ltd -- a global specialist asset manager, Energias de Portugal (EDP) and Portuguese energy group EFACEC. Named after the sea snake Pelamis, each machine measures 140 meters in length, is 3.5 meters wide and sits partially submerged in the sea. Babcock and Brown's Anthony Kennaway explained to CNN how the PWEC work. \"Effectively what you have is four long sections making up one machine. Between those sections are three small generating motors,\" he said. \"The four sections are all joined by hydraulic rams. As the waves run through the machine it pushes the rams in and out. The action of the rams going to and fro pushes hydraulic fluid into a high-pressure reservoir. That high-pressure reservoir then releases the fluid at a steady rate through a generating motor.\" This power is fed down to a cable on the sea bed which then links back to a sub-station on shore where it is converted into useable electricity. The PWEC are, of course, reliant on the weather. Depending on the wave resource, Pelamis predict that the machines will on average produce 25-40 percent of their full power output over the course of a year. When the full array of 25 machines are in place it is calculated that around 60,000 tons of CO2 will be displaced. If wave power was fully exploited, the British Wind Energy Association estimates that one-two billion tons of CO2 could be displaced every year. Ian Fells, emeritus professor of energy conversion at Newcastle University in England, gave this latest development in wave power a cautious welcome. \"It's extraordinarily difficult to design a machine that will cope with the extreme violence of waves. Some wave machines are under the surface all the time -- but they are not as well developed as yet. Pelamis lies in the surface and it remains to be seen how successful it will be,\" he told CNN. \"But good luck to them. We'll just have to see how it operates over time and how it copes with serious weather conditions.\" Professor Fells, a founding chairman of the New and Renewable Energy Center (NaREC) at Blyth, Northumberland, is convinced of the potential of wave power engineering but says it is still in its infancy. \"A few years ago when I was talking about a 500-kilowatt Wavegen machine, I was asked by a reporter how many of these we would need to replace the two nuclear power stations in Scotland, and the answer is 10,000. That puts things into perspective.\"","highlights":"World's first commercial wave power project is inaugurated off the Portuguese coast .\nThe semi-submerged machines will initially provide 2.25 megawatts of power .\nA second phase will produce 21 megawatts and displace 60,000 tons of CO2 .","id":"e43d98158d6945867a02a8f69b3a7aad2709f096"} -{"article":"(REAL SIMPLE) -- If you were to ask my friends back in high school, they would probably say I was one of the lucky ones. I had a face most people at least considered attractive, maybe even beautiful. And for much of my life I had an hourglass figure. Asha Bandele wrote \"Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story,\" 'The Prisoner's Wife\" and \"Daughter.\" But as 40 approached and my figure, um, filled out, I would look in the mirror and no longer see myself as sexy. Then one night that changed. I was at a meeting in a small town with a group of young women who were reading from my most recent book, a memoir that discussed my history of depression and surviving abuse. After the gathering ended, one of the women approached me. She told me that while she was growing up, she had been told to shut up so often she just did it automatically. It felt good to hear someone give voice to how she felt inside, she said. We talked about all the things that kept us silent and shut down. She promised to speak out more from that day on. As she walked away, something came over me: I felt ignited, energized...yes, beautiful. Real Simple: 34 low-cost, make-you-smile ideas . And the more I thought about that woman and our conversation, the more I realized that it wasn't just those instances of bonding or appreciation at public readings that triggered my inner glow; it was my own solitary engagement with language. What makes you feel beautiful? Writing requires us to take the world on more slowly, to notice its harshness as well as its richness. Writing reduces the chaos in my mind. As the gospel song says, it orders my steps and makes me feel in control of myself and therefore appreciative of the world. Real Simple: Keep your mind and body in top condition . Women don't get enough credit for the amount of self we invest in our work. In the last year, watching some of the most talented women I know being laid off has been tough. Knowing that the work they loved -- whether in finance, real estate, or writing -- may be gone forever has been downright devastating, and their grief over this loss is boundless. \"I feel like nothing, like I just want to disappear,\" said one brilliant friend. \"Losing my job is like the worst breakup I've ever been through,\" said another. In the midst of this carnage, I've clung ever tighter to my work -- not so much to the money-making part of it, which ebbs and flows (mostly ebbs, lately), but to the basic joy I've always taken in words; that at least doesn't go anywhere. Real Simple: How to worry less . For so long I had measured my beauty (and, really, my worth) by my dress size. And, hey, I would love, I mean love, to be a size 6 again. Still, every time I give a lecture or teach a workshop and touch someone -- or write a page and reach a deeper part of myself -- I feel so useful and relevant. It translates to a more profound feeling of beauty than the rush I once got from someone admiring my breast size. I like superficial praise as much as the next person, but at 40 the love finally had to go deeper, didn't it? Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Author notes how many women are emotionally devastated by job loss .\nAsha Bandele used to measure beauty, self worth by her dress size .\nNow she's realized her own solitary writing makes her feel beautiful .\nAnd says touching others through her words is a more profound beauty .","id":"2efdc3e237851aa7d64c601f2cae8a7f1f7e189c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A 16 year-old Australian schoolgirl is hoping to achieve a sailing feat that is so tough it has brought many experienced men and women to the brink of death. Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson of Australia plans to sail solo around the world . Jessica Watson, of Mooloolaba, Queensland, plans to set out on a solo round-the-world sailing mission in November -- and hopes to become the youngest person to ever sail non-stop around the world alone. But with the impending weeks of solitary confinement, freeze-dried foods, changing conditions and threat of injury, illness or death -- why would she want to do it? Watson told CNN her inspiration had come from fellow Australian Kay Cottee, who became the first woman to sail the globe alone, without stopping; and German-born Australian Jesse Martin, who still holds the record as the youngest person to do it. Martin achieved his feat in 1999 aged 18 (at the finish), and subsequently wrote a book titled \"Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit.\" \"I read Jesse's book and that was inspiring. If you had to put it down to one thing that encouraged me to do this that would be a good one,\" Watson said. Since deciding she wanted to take on what she describes as the \"Everest of the ocean\" about four years ago, Watson has been doing all she can to gain the best preparation for the adventure. She has already sailed \"mock solo\" across the Tasman Sea, which flows between Australia and New Zealand, at 15 and has been sailing since she was 8 years-old. \"I've been talking to people [who have done it] about it all, and I'll get in some good solo miles before I go,\" she said. Despite the experience she has gained, Watson admits there are some aspects of the journey that remain unknown. \"There are definitely things I'm nervous about -- like the big waves and gear failure. But, it's amazing the detail of preparation we can get and what you can do with technology. \"Though, there's no telling how you'll handle yourself when you're out there for eight months until you're actually out there.\" Watson's journey around the globe is part of what seems to be an increasingly popular trend among young sailors. Seventeen year-old Briton, Mike Perham is currently part-way through his attempt to sail the world solo for charity. Perham is at present stuck in Tasmania, Australia, with gear problems and faces the daunting task of sailing around Cape Horn during the winter season. Still, he has come a long way when many people had raised concerns about the voyage before he departed. On his daily blog, Perham writes about the challenges of being at sea alone, \"The first few days at sea are always the worst -- the lack of sleep leaves me feeling drained all the time but I know I just need to keep pushing on, knowing that I'll soon acclimatize and that things are going to get better and better.\" Another teenager -- 16 year-old Zac Sunderland, who is from California -- is also on a mission to become the youngest sailor to achieve the feat. Sunderland has also progressed from his departure point in California, through the Panama Canal, and into the Atlantic Ocean. For Perham, Sunderland and Watson it was the high level of communications technology at the teenagers disposal as they sail that has convinced their parents to allow them to attempt their journeys. Would you allow your teenage daughter or son to sail solo around the world? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . On Sunderland's Web site his father, Laurence, said, \"Although Zac is alone as he sails, he really has so much help. There will always be people who will disagree with our decision to let Zac go on this trip. It was his idea and it is his desire to continue.\" Watson said her parents had also been supportive from the outset. For the young sailor, the next big challenge is preparing the boat for departure and securing a final sponsor to help fund the journey. She said her life is primarily geared towards the challenge this year. \"It might take a little bit longer to finish school ... this puts everything else on hold.\"","highlights":"Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson plans to sail solo around the world .\nWatson is inspired by Jesse Martin who is the youngest person to have done it .\nBriton Mike Perham, and Zac Sunderland of the U.S. are currently at sea .","id":"7f7c14a39e68cdfcbd0aabddefac7e474b5652bc"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexico has fired more than 700 customs agents and replaced them with better-trained and educated workers who officials hope will be less likely to give in to the temptation of bribery and other crimes. Cars cross the border into Mexico at the customs post in Tijuana on Monday. The new agents were trained by the army to detect the smuggling of weapons, drugs, pirated products and other items, which has increased in recent years due to corruption. But Mexican Department of Customs officials were quick to point out that the military is not taking over at the nation's 49 customs posts. \"They are not military,\" said Customs Chief Juan Jose Bravo. \"They are practically professional, most of them in outside commerce, in similar careers, who are qualified to work in customs matters.\" All the new agents underwent psychological exams, drug screenings and background checks, Mexican officials said. The new recruits are between the ages of 18 and 30; 65 percent are men and 35 percent are women. Authorities also want to improve the Customs Department's image. The department is part of the Federal Mexican Government Ministry of Commerce and Industrial Development. \"Of course, the outside perception held by many about officials, and particularly this group, was of high corruption,\" Bravo said. \"We did this, fundamentally, because we wanted to professionalize new training with a new plan.\" But some security experts believe that replacing the customs agents will not resolve the problem of corruption. \"It's been perfectly demonstrated that that changing people can be absolutely futile if the structures keep functioning the same way,\" said Ernesto Lopez Portillo, executive director of the Institute for Security and Democracy. \"Because the structures, the protocols, the systems are what allow people to comply with regulations.\"","highlights":"More than 700 customs agents replaced with better-trained workers .\nNew recruits got psychological exams, drug tests, background checks, officials say .\nOfficials want to improve Customs Department's image, make it more professional .\nSome experts say the problem wasn't the old agents, but the system .","id":"839e41003f5ad05a9b0470180e06a206aed882b9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A 23-year-old British student has designed a \"super-green superyacht\" built using only sustainable materials and which produces virtually no carbon emissions. 600 square meters of solar panels and three giant \"wings\" mean \"Soliloquy\" can run on wind energy or solar power. \"Soliloquy's\" unique eco-luxury design allows the boat to run on two different sources of sustainable energy by incorporating 600 square meters of solar panels on the exterior of the boat and giant rigid \"wings\" that function like sails. Although the 58-meter boat has yet to be built, it would be able to run either on wind energy via the wings (known as \"rigid-wing solarsails\"), solar power supplied by the panels or a combination of the two. An equivalent-sized superyacht burns anywhere between 250 and 600 liters of marine diesel per hour, depending on speed and fuel efficiency, and emits three times that in CO2 emissions, according to British yachting carbon offset company, Yacht Carbon Offset. Some of the biggest SUVs on the road burn around 20 liters of fuel per hour. Both the panels and solarsails -- developed by Australian company Solar Sailor -- on the vessel can fold up or completely stretch out depending on which energy source is in use, changing the yacht's shape. \"I wanted to prove that eco-luxury no longer has to be an oxymoron and doesn't have to make a yacht more expensive,\" designer Alastair Callender, a life-long sailing fanatic, told CNN. See more images of super-yacht Soliloquy \u00bb . \"My generation is passionate about the planet and we've got to do all we can so that the earth can sustain us,\" he added. \"At the same time, however, I am also passionate about superyachts.\" Soliloquy is projected to cost approximately $60 to $65 million to build -- similar in cost to conventional superyachts of its size. Callender is currently in talks with potential owners to have the vessel built. The wider superyacht community is enthused about the potential of his design and he has also been invited to speak about his ever-evolving, eco-vessel in Abu Dhabi and Monaco. Callender was originally inspired by famed architect David Fishers' design for a \"constantly moving\" tower in Dubai. \"That's how the idea of an ever-evolving superyacht started -- with the three wings that can independently rotate through 360 degrees,\" Callender explained. Do you like the look of Soliloquy? Tell us in the Sound Off box below . Callender designed \"Soliloquy\" during his final year studying at Coventry University in England. He approached Solar Sailor, an Australian technology company for technical validation of his design. He also asked a local engineering company, Visioneering, to help construct an intricately detailed scale model. At first, some at Visioneering were taken aback by Callender's young age. \"But the idea was innovative and sometimes younger people can bring on board really fresh, new ideas,\" said Adrian Coppin of Visioneering. \"He also has a lot of experience in the yachting industry.\" Callender says his passion comes from a childhood spent in Portsmouth, England: \"I grew up near a harbor, 200 meters away from my sailing club.\" After school, Callender went to Greece for six months to teach sailing. He then worked with some of the big yacht design companies, including that of his mentor, Andrew Winch. He now feels confident that with a good business plan, his project will become reality. \"There are hundreds of extremely rich families who invest in green technology and until now have not wanted to buy yachts because they produce too many carbon emissions,\" he said. \"But with a yacht like Soliloquy, I think they may consider it.\"","highlights":"A 23-year-old British student has designed a super-green superyacht .\nIt runs on either solar power from panels or wind energy from giant \"wings\"\nYahct produces virtually no emissions and is made from sustainable materials .\nDesigner is now in talks with potential owners to have \"Soliloquy\" built .","id":"c7a46fb612a658e2e0a0eb1e7cce16d31758127a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Billy Graham, the 88-year-old legendary Christian evangelist, was hospitalized in North Carolina early Saturday for evaluation and treatment of intestinal bleeding. Evangelist Billy Graham speaks at the Billy Graham Library dedication on May 31, 2007, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was admitted to the Mission Health and Hospitals in Asheville, North Carolina, near his home in Montreat, and is listed in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said in a written statement. \"Mr. Graham's physicians said the illness does not appear to be life-threatening, as Mr. Graham's condition had stabilized over the hours following admission and treatment. \"An upper endoscopy and a bleeding scan showed no areas of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. The physicians say the bleeding may have come from diverticuli, small pouches that can form in the lower intestine. These may become irritated and bleed. A diverticular bleed often begins suddenly and may stop on its own.\" Graham's wife, Ruth Bell Graham, died in June. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Christian evangelist Graham, 88, in fair condition .\nAdmitted to Mission Health and Hospitals in Asheville, North Carolina .\nPhysicians say the bleeding may be diverticulitis .","id":"9ebc59bb9f80e800205fea7853801a7e9dc2d82a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hong Kong is well suited to providing a quick hit of urban thrills and retail therapy, but time-pressed visitors can also get a glimpse of another side of the city away from the shopping malls and neon-lit streets. It's not hard to find things to do or places to go at any time of day or night. A trip to The Peak is a good point from which to begin the day. Home to some of Hong Kong's most expensive properties, it's also the place for an unbeatable view, smog and weather permitting. Catch a tram there from next to the tranquil Hong Kong Park -- where early risers practice their tai chi -- or take a cheap taxi ride, which can whisk you there in a few minutes. A clear morning will reveal the city's high-rise buildings and skyscrapers unfurled below, with Kowloon and the green and mountainous New Territories in the middle distance. The pay-to-enter Peak Tower will also give you a view of the southern side of Hong Kong Island and the South China Sea, although a short walk round Lugard Road is a more rewarding way to take in the city below and work up an appetite. Hong Kong is a restaurant city and dim sum, which refers to a variety of light dishes like dumplings, is a city staple that can be enjoyed at any time in this 24-hour city. It's most commonly taken as a mid-morning meal. Image gallery: Hong Kong highlights \u00bb . Head back down towards Hong Kong's Central district, center of the city's finance and banking industry that funded the striking skyscrapers. The Luk Yu Tea House on Stanley Street is an oak-paneled gem that retains its charm despite its popularity: it's a fine spot for tea and dim sum. For even more local flavor, pull up a plastic stool at a \"dai pai dong,\" or street restaurant, situated further along Stanley Street, for cheap, quick, tasty eats. If you're in the city on Sunday, Maxim's in Wan Chai is one of the few places where dim sum is still served by aging trolley dollies. Flag them down as they trundle past; point, eat and enjoy. You can't book a table but it's worth a visit for the atmosphere and harbor backdrop as much as the food. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places on the planet, but its bustling streets are easy to navigate, helped by the affordable and plentiful taxis and an efficient public transport system. The city's skinny trams are a throwback to a different era and worth jumping on for a short journey just to watch the city go by: consider it a good chance to digest lunch. While the city is generally unsentimental when it comes to preserving its old architecture, Sheung Wan, well within walking distance from Central, can give you a better feel of the city away from the shiny malls and new office buildings. From Queens Road, jump on the escalator (yes, escalator) all the way up to Caine Road and wind your way back down the hill. The Dr Sun Yat Sen Museum and some incense-burning temples are nestled among the evocative streets, where you'll also find galleries and independent shops. The area is subject to increasing gentrification, so stroll down Gage Street while you still can: its market will soon disappear as part of the area's redevelopment. Head towards the piers to catch the Star Ferry to Kowloon. Take one of the vintage green tugs -- as iconic as the city's skyscrapers -- from Central Pier to Tsim Sa Tsui (commonly referred to as TST) on the other side of the harbor. As shopping is more of a way of life than a pastime for many Hong Kongers, you'll find you're never far from luxury brand outlets. TST offers just as many consumer delights as anywhere in the city. Away from the air-conditioned glitz of TST's Harbour City shopping plaza, or the boutiques around Granville Terrace, the streets to the north of Yau Ma Tei have a more visceral feel where shopping is no less popular and goes on until late at night, especially at the bargain-paradise for watches and bags, the \"ladies night market\" on Tung Choi Street. Even if shopping isn't on the agenda it's a great place for people watching and getting a sense of the energy of the city. From the throng to a bit of flash: early evening cocktails at Felix or Aqua bar should revive any weary spirits. The swank factor here is high, but there are killer views. They are also great vantage points for the lights and laser show that illuminates the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island every night at 8pm. On the island side, Sevva's balcony is next to the HSBC building, where you can feel closer to the lights and laser action while enjoying some well-mixed cocktails. Horse racing, like shopping, is another Hong Kong passion and if you're in town on a Wednesday race night, losing a few dollars at Happy Valley racetrack is great entertainment, as well as a glimpse into the expat social scene. Finding a place to eat dinner is never a problem, but for a night on the town head to Central's Soho (here it means South of Hollywood Road). Lan Kwai Fong is the main honey-pot for the bar crowd, but there's better to be had around Peel Street, Staunton Street and -- for extra posing potential -- Wyndham Terrace, where the bars and restaurants stay open late, late enough at least until the clubs open their doors. What are your tips for getting the most out of the city? Use the Sound Off box below and have your say.","highlights":"Take a morning walk round the Peak for stunning views before diving into the city .\nSample some of the world's best dim sum and indulge in some retail therapy .\nCocktail bars with a view of Hong Kong Island should play some part in your evening .\nTell us about your favorite places in Hong Kong using the Sound Off box, below .","id":"455991b2456c39e09923ffd69d218c3e9b434aba"} -{"article":"CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines (CNN) -- Typhoon Parma crossed the northern tip of the already storm-battered Philippines over the weekend, triggering landslides that killed at least 12 people, local media reported Sunday. Residents paddle boats through the streets of Santa Cruz, south of Manila. At least three other deaths related to the storms were confirmed earlier. Among the latest victims were children ages 8 and 10, a local reporter who was at the scene of both landslides told CNN. The storm is expected to stall for at least three days north of Luzon -- the largest of the Philippine islands -- dumping more rain on the island nation still reeling from a typhoon last week, said CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. Heavy rains will remain, but wind will not be much of a factor, Cabrera said. At 11 p.m. ET on Saturday, Parma had maximum sustained winds of 120 kph ( 74 mph), Cabrera said. Aid agencies were in the area assisting survivors. \"There are many uprooted trees, as well as down power lines, making roads impassable in some areas,\" said Wilma Lacaden, a member of the World Vision organization, in a statement. \"Homes constructed of light materials were blown away. In many areas, there is no electricity, and rivers have overflowed, making some towns and villages inaccessible.\" World Vision staffers handed out food and candles to 200 families on Saturday night, and plan to assist another 350 families in nearby Zambales on Sunday, distributing relief packs of food and water, the statement said. Parma, known locally as Typhoon Pepeng, made landfall Saturday afternoon in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon. Tens of thousands of people fled their homes for safer shelter. Winds whipped the coastline and felled power lines in northernmost Cagayan Province. Debris littered the roads, making evacuations more difficult. Read about the fate of a farming community in Cagayan . Parma avoided a direct hit on heavily populated Manila. In the capital city on Sunday, it was sunny, Manila resident Arturo Fidelino said in an e-mail to CNN, adding the last few days have been \"grueling\" for Filipinos. \"After those two horrendous typhoons ... we've got to start picking up the pieces and move on,\" he said. \"Easy for me to say and for those who were not worst hit by the devastation, but too difficult for those whose houses were wiped out, furniture destroyed and relatives and loved ones nowhere to be found.\" However, he said people have banded together to help one another, and it \"has made me realize that the 'bayanihan spirit' (part of Filipino culture where neighbors help each other) among Filipinos is still alive and kicking. All along I thought that it has just been part of our history and not part of this present times. I was mistaken.\" Fidelino wrote his 73-year-old mother had to be evacuated when her home flooded. The typhoon is expected to dump as much as 8 to 20 inches of rain in areas still water-logged from last week's Typhoon Ketsana. That storm resulted in the heaviest rainfall in 40 years and at one point, 80 percent of Manila was submerged. Ketsana, which swallowed whole houses and buses, killed 246 in the Philippines. An additional 38 are missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. The storm affected nearly 2 million people. CNN's Eunice Yoon and Pamela Boykoff in Cabantuan City, and Josh Levs in Atlanta contributed to this report.","highlights":"15 dead in Philippines from Typhoon Parma, local media report .\nStorm heads to sea after crossing northern Philippines .\nTens of thousands of Filipinos sought shelter in evacuation centers .\nThe biggest threat was rain in areas water-logged by Typhoon Ketsana .","id":"ceb74bec803447c0a5f8939286fec099368da54b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1 million babies born prematurely die each year before they are a month old, the March of Dimes said Sunday in the first comprehensive global report on premature births. A premature baby rests at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in October 2007. The organization suggested the situation could worsen if the rate of premature births increases. Each year, 12.9 million infants -- or nearly 10 percent of the annual worldwide birth total -- are born before 37 weeks of development in the womb, the organization said. More than 85 percent of the premature births occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia. \"Premature births are an enormous global problem that is exacting a huge toll emotionally, physically and financially on families, medical systems and economies,\" March of Dimes President Jennifer Howse said in a statement. \"In the United States alone, the annual cost of caring for preterm babies and their associated health problems tops $26 billion.\" The March of Dimes report, which used data collected by the World Health Organization, breaks down premature birth rates by continent. The highest premature birth rate is in Africa, where 11.9 percent of births each year are preterm, with more than 4 million premature deliveries annually. In populous Asia, although the preterm birth rate is lower at 9.1 percent, the number of premature births is higher, at nearly 7 million a year. While North America -- consisting of the United States and Canada in this report -- counts fewer than 500,000 premature births a year, its preterm birth rate is close to that of Africa, at 10.6 percent of all births, according to the report. The rate is the world's second highest. In the United States, the rate of preterm births has increased 36 percent in the past 25 years, with births between the 34th and 36th week of gestation accounting for the majority of the increase, the organization found. Much of the hike in preterm births is linked to more pregnancies after the age of 35 and the use of fertility treatments that can lead to multiple births. \"Wherever trend data are available, rates of preterm birth are increasing,\" the report said. Infants who survive premature birth face lifelong health risks, including the possible development of cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, learning disabilities and other chronic conditions, according to the March of Dimes. \"Preterm birth is a global problem that needs greater attention by policymakers, researchers, health care providers, the media, donor organizations and other stakeholders,\" the report said. \"The marked disparities in preterm birth along racial\/ethnic lines in many high-income countries and the concentration of preterm births in Africa and Asia also clearly indicate that addressing preterm birth is essential for reducing the pronounced inequities in neonatal health and for the world to achieve,\" it added. The March of Dimes, a nonprofit agency engaged in pregnancy and baby health research, said some premature births can be prevented by addressing risk factors in mothers, including diabetes, high blood pressure, nutrition, body weight and tobacco and alcohol use. Women who earlier gave birth to a preemie face a greater risk of having another. While doctors know some of the health and behavior factors in mothers that increase the risk of preterm births, doctors have yet to identify a reliable remedy to prevent early labor, said Christopher Howson, vice president for global programs of the March of Dimes. \"While much can be done right now to reduce death and disability from preterm birth even in low-resource settings, we need to know more about the underlying causes of premature birth in order to develop effective prevention strategies,\" Howson said.","highlights":"March of Dimes: Nearly 10 percent of world's births are premature .\nMore than 85 percent of premature births are in developing parts of Africa, Asia .\nBut North America has world's second-highest premature birth rate .\nDoctors have yet to identify a reliable remedy to prevent early labor, group says .","id":"ee16a4fc84d2cd555f4008dd0c0f8dc5f546ea1b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When iReporter Carlos Ortega evacuated Galveston's West End last week, there was a road, a row of houses and about 150 feet of sand between his house and the water. Now the surf laps about 30 feet from his door. iReporter Carlos Ortega says there's \"not an inch that isn't damaged\" in his Galveston, Texas, neighborhood. Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas city over the weekend, and Gov. Rick Perry said it could be weeks before residents could return. \"There's substantial structural damage, obviously ... (no) electrical power,\" he said. \"It's going to be a while.\" Ortega, a professor at the University of Houston, and his partner walked about six miles down the beach on Sunday and said there's \"not an inch that isn't damaged.\" iReport.com: See Ortega's home before and after Ike . He said one beachfront house was knocked off its stilts and was lying on the ground like an amusement park funhouse. A dead cow washed in front of another home. \"It was pretty depressing and devastating to see how everything was just torn up,\" he said. \"People's lives and houses were just torn up.\" All but two of the houses on the \"front row,\" nearest the beach, in their Bermuda Beach subdivision were destroyed, he said. \"You wouldn't know there was a house there.\" \"The house across the street from us is completely gone, and there's no trace of it,\" he said. The first floor of their house is covered with 3 to 4 feet of sand and debris, including huge chunks of asphalt from the road that ran in front of the house. \"We don't keep anything of value down there,\" he said, because people expect to get high water occasionally. There were some windows out on the second level, but they did not have much water damage. Ortega said the storm washed a Jet Ski out of the garage and dumped it about five blocks away. iReport.com: Have you been home after Ike? Share your story . It still worked, Ortega said, but was stuck in the sand. Ortega rode out the storm at his house in Houston, which also suffered some damage. \"The expectation was that it was going to be like three years ago when the last storm (Rita) came through, and it was so much worse,\" he said. iReporter Matteu Erchull stayed on Galveston Island during the storm. \"I think everybody downplayed the severity of the storm, including myself,\" he said, adding that he didn't regret staying. iReport.com: Ike passes over Galveston iReporter . After the storm, he put on his fishing waders and helped rescue some of his neighbors. \"Some people literally hid in their attics. Right after the storm, you go into these areas, and they were just helpless,\" the former Eagle Scout said. \"They were just waiting.\" Nearly 2,000 people who did not evacuate have been rescued along the southeastern Texas coast, said Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Office of Homeland Security. On Sunday, a Galveston County sheriff's official said three bodies were pulled from storm wreckage in Port Bolivar, bringing to 10 the number of reported deaths in Texas linked to Ike. Erchull said he got through the storm OK, but most of his stuff was ruined. \"I lost everything. Water rose up to about 10 feet. Got into everything and flooded everything I had,\" he said. He said he tried to wash his clothes, but he just couldn't get the smell out. \"The smell was just this really musky moldy wet smell, it's really hard to explain. Imagine leaving your clothes accidentally in the washer for 10 days, it's just disgusting,\" he said. Erchull said there's no power on the island, and the National Guard was going door-to-door asking people to leave. He went to Dallas, where he was up all night telling his friends what had happened and what to expect when they get back. \"It's hard to tell people that there's not much to go back to,\" he said.","highlights":"Galveston residents may not be able to come home for weeks .\niReporter Carlos Ortega says beachfront houses are gone in his neighborhood .\niReporter Matteu Erchull rode out storm and lost everything .\nAre you cleaning up after Ike? Share photos, videos .","id":"d55022ad775b37945b07f2c4f49b2376f156e300"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The nude body of a former swimsuit model found last weekend in Orange County was identified through her breast implants' serial number, two law enforcement sources said Friday. An arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, wanted in the death of Jasmine Fiore. An arrest warrant alleging murder was issued Thursday for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a reality TV contestant whom Jasmine Fiore, 28, married in March. CNN has not confirmed reports that the marriage was annulled. Fiore's body was found Saturday in a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim, California. Her teeth had been extracted and fingers removed in what police said was an apparent attempt to conceal her identity. Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive Friday in San Diego at a poker game with Jenkins, a reality TV contestant. \"We believe he has crossed into Canada,\" U.S. Marshals Chief Inspector Thomas Hession told reporters. Prosecutors requested bail be set at $10 million. Reality contestant charged \u00bb . Jenkins is believed to be armed, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Thursday. \"There's a handgun missing from his apartment, which is the last place he was before he fled,\" he said. Jenkins matched the description of a man seen driving a boat Wednesday in Blaine Marina off northwest Washington, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office said. Blaine, Washington, borders Canada. Authorities searched the area and found Jenkins' black SUV with an empty boat trailer at the Blaine Marina, police said. Jenkins reported Fiore missing Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said. The body was identified Monday as Fiore. While the cause of death had not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner's report indicated she was strangled. According to court records in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jenkins was charged in June with battery for allegedly striking Fiore in the arm with his fist. In 2007, Jenkins pleaded guilty in Calgary, Alberta, to assault in a separate case. He was sentenced to 15 months probation, ordered to undergo counseling for domestic violence and sex addiction and to stay away from the person involved, according to court records. Jenkins, who appeared on the VH1 show \"Megan Wants a Millionaire,\" is from Calgary. 51Minds, which produced \"Megan Wants a Millionaire,\" said Thursday in a written statement that it \"was not aware of Ryan Jenkins' record when it cast him.\" \"The company did have in place what it thought was a thorough vetting process that involved complete background checks by an outside company for all contestants on its shows,\" it said. \"Clearly, the process did not work properly in this case. 51 Minds is investigating what went wrong and taking steps to ensure that this sort of lapse never occurs again.\" CNN's Paul Vercammen contributed to this story.","highlights":"Breast implants' serial number helps identify model's body, police say .\nBody of Jasmine Fiore, 28, found stuffed into a suitcase inside a Dumpster .\nHer teeth were extracted, fingers removed, making it harder to identify body .\nArrest warrant issued Thursday for Ryan Alexander Jenkins .","id":"dc904a846040c44016feb82d1994614efb3f80cb"} -{"article":"CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CNN) -- A \"dangerous\" Hurricane Jimena bore down Tuesday on the Mexican peninsula of Baja California, with the resort town of Cabo San Lucas lying in its path. Meanwhile, a new tropical storm was forming in the Atlantic Ocean. A NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Jimena off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, on Tuesday morning. Jimena's maximum wind speed dropped from 145 mph to 135 mph, but it still remained a Category 4 storm, according to the U.S. National Weather Service's 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET) update. \"Some fluctuations in strength are likely today and gradual weakening is forecast on Wednesday,\" the weather service said. \"However, Jimena is expected to remain a major hurricane until landfall.\" Also on Tuesday, Tropical Storm Erika formed in the Atlantic, 390 miles east of the Leeward Islands, the National Hurricane Center said. Jimena's storm center is forecast to come ashore on Thursday morning, but the weather service warned that \"because it will be moving parallel to the coastline, any slight change in direction could have a huge impact in the location and timing of landfall.\" Mexico's government extended a hurricane warning for most of the southern half of Baja California -- from Punta Abreojos on the peninsula's west coast to Mulege on its east coast, according to the National Weather Service. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area in the next 24 hours and people should quickly prepare \"to protect life and property.\" \"A dangerous storm surge along with battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California Peninsula,\" NWS said in its 11 a.m. PT report . On its current track, Jimena's center will approach the peninsula's southern portion later on Tuesday and central Baja California peninsula by Thursday, the weather service said at 11 a.m. PT. In addition to damaging winds, the storm could bring as much as 15 inches of rain, forecasters said. Jimena -- the 10th named storm of the Pacific season -- was centered about 110 miles (175 km) south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, according to the weather service. It was traveling north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph). People in his town of Los Cabos, at the very tip of the peninsula, were preparing for the storm and were getting a precursor as winds and rains began to pick up, said resident Cuauhtemoc Morgan on Monday. Morgan, who sent videos to to CNN's iReport, said residents had protected every home in his neighborhood, fortifying windows with masking tape. Lines at supermarkets were long with worried residents preparing for the storms, Morgan said. Authorities were setting up shelters in schools and trying to devise a plan to protect the homeless, he added.","highlights":"NEW: Tropical Storm Erika forms in eastern Atlantic, National Hurricane Center says .\nJimena's maximum winds fell to 135 mph, but storm is still a Category 4 .\nThe storm's center is forecast to come ashore on Thursday morning .\nHurricane warning covers most of the southern half of the Baja Peninsula .","id":"03b10ae6ee3094d5c02ab53743b9261eee919ece"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The world will soon see an \"explosion\" of swine flu cases as the H1N1 virus spreads rapidly around the world, a top World Health Organization official said Friday. Spread of the H1N1 virus is entering an \"acceleration period,\" WHO official says. Spread of the virus is entering an \"acceleration period\" and it is certain that there will be more cases and more deaths, said Dr. Shin Young-soo, the organization's regional director for the Western Pacific. \"Most countries may see a doubling of cases every three to four days for two months until peak transmission is reached,\" he said at a symposium in Beijing, China. \"At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers. I believe it is very likely that all countries will see community-level transmission by the end of the year.\" More than 1,490 people around the world have died from the virus since it emerged this spring, Shin said. Swine flu is the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years. So far, it has caused mostly mild illness, but Shin warned \"the virus has a sting in its tail\" because it is very infectious and \"has the potential to cause more serious disease.\" Any widespread resistance to antiviral drugs, expected to be available this fall, could make the situation worse, he said. The virus so far has shown itself to be unpredictable, Shin said, so the public needs to be prepared. He called for accurate and timely public health messages and early treatment of severe cases. The public needs to comply with these health messages, and everyone needs to be able to recognize symptoms early and get timely medical care, he said. \"We will only be safe when we have applied these lessons in every country dealing with this virus,\" Shin said. \"We need to learn quickly since, as I believe, it appears that this pandemic will get worse before the situation gets better.\"","highlights":"Spread of the virus is entering an \"acceleration period,\" official says .\nCountries may see a doubling of cases every three to four days, he says .\nMore than 1,490 people have died from the virus since last spring .\nH1N1 is the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years .","id":"0c4eaf7c5263b7a6be99c4d4fb75d1e6707b05d8"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Honey has been used to treat wounds since ancient times, but recent years have seen a surge of medical interest in the sticky stuff. Research has shown that honey has antibacterial properties. Manuka honey has been the subject of particular interest, with the results of a study just published by Sydney University finding that it has powerful antibacterial properties, and is even effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Associate Professor Dee Carter, from Sydney University's School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences said: \"Our research is the first to clearly show that these honey-based products could in many cases replace antibiotic creams on wounds and equipment such as catheters. Using honey as an intermediate treatment could also prolong the life of antibiotics.\" \"Most bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and there is an urgent need for new ways to treat and control surface infections.\" She added: \"We don't quite know how these honeys prevent and kill infections, but a compound in them called methylglyoxal seems to interact with a number of other unknown compounds in honey to prevent infectious bacteria developing new strains that are resistant to it.\" Honey is a complex substance, containing up to 800 compounds and its complexity means it has been difficult to pinpoint exactly how it kills bacteria. Manuka is a type of honey that is made by bees pollinating the flowers of the Manuka bush, a member of the Leptospermum family that grows naturally in New Zealand. Now, an Australian company is claiming to have produced the world's most potent medical-grade antibacterial honey, made by bees pollinating the Australian jellybush, also a member of the Leptospermum family. Australia's Medi Bioactive Honey Company claims its Berringa antibacterial honey has twice the antibacterial content of normal manuka honey, and has launched the product in the UK. Dr Rose Cooper of the University of Wales Cardiff School of Health Sciences has researched honey's antibacterial action and has written a book called \"Honey in Modern Wounds Management.\" Cooper told CNN that there are many components in honey that contribute to its antibacterial nature. She says its high sugar content, low water content and low pH are all factors. Additionally, some honey produces hydrogen peroxide, which can kill bacteria. Since 2004, Britain's National Health Service has licensed the use of manuka-honey wound dressings and sterilized medical grade manuka-honey creams.","highlights":"Research has shown that honey can have powerful antibacterial properties .\nManuka honey is made only by bees that pollinate the manuka plant .\nAn Australian company claims it has produced the world's most potent honey .","id":"ae20b4bcc701cfd7e1c4f1d1d72bcaa6ebf95279"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of Muslims gathered Friday on Capitol Hill for a day of prayer that organizers said was intended to inspire American Muslims and non-Muslims alike. People traveled from all over the United States to attend the Capitol Hill event, organizer Abdul Malik said. \"America is not perfect,\" Abdul Malik, an organizer of the event called Islam on Capitol Hill, told the crowd. \"But I will say something it took me my whole adult life to come to: America is not perfect, but I want to tell the truth: It is one of the best places in the world to live.\" Organizers had hoped that 50,000 people would show up for the Friday afternoon prayer session, which took place at the foot of the U.S. Capitol. There were also anti-Muslim protesters near the event. Earlier, Malik said, \"This is not a protest, it is a day of prayer, of devotion, hoping that we can work ... for the betterment of the world community.\" He added, \"We can come together and work together for the common good.\" He said that Muslims in the United States have a \"unique responsibility\" and that the event seeks to inspire Muslims and all Americans. \"America represents, still, a beacon of hope,\" he said. Malik said conversations about the event began only a few months ago. \"It's amazing,\" he said. \"The Web site has gotten more than 3 million hits already.\" Friday's event was focused on a 1 p.m. prayer, and a reception and banquet were planned afterward. Malik said attendees were traveling from all over the United States -- including Texas, Florida and Georgia -- as well as from other countries, such as Britain and Canada. \"The beautiful thing ... about this, is that we have a good representation of the uniqueness and beauty of what Islam stands for,\" he said. Besides the protesters, the event drew other criticism. Malik said he had received some \"very nasty e-mails.\" And one Christian leader warned of a strategy to \"Islamize\" American society. \"It is important for Christians to understand that Friday's Muslim prayer initiative is part of a well-defined strategy to Islamize American society and replace the Bible with the Koran, the cross with the Islamic crescent and the church bells with the Athan [the Muslim call to prayer],\" the Rev. Canon Julian Dobbs, leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America's Church and Islam Project, said in a written statement. \"The time has come for the American public to call Islam to account,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Speaker calls U.S. \"one of the best places in the world to live\"\nPrayer event sought to inspire Muslims and all Americans, one organizer says .\nEvent drew protesters, criticism from Christian leader, \"very nasty e-mails\"","id":"7478e206662b47caf733363b3204732515cf1093"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- What's in a name? Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked. Local dishes like \"Husband and wife's lung slice\" or \"Chicken without sexual life\" conjure lots of furrowed eyebrows on famished foreigners. So, with the Olympics a few short weeks away, China is giving its cuisine a linguistic makeover. It is proposing that restaurants change the names of exotic, but bizarrely named, delicacies to make them more delectable for the estimated 50,000 visitors arriving in August for the Summer Games. The appetizer \"Husband and wife's lung slice\" is taking on the more appetizing \"Beef and ox tripe in chili sauce.\" \"Chicken without sexual life\" has been transformed into \"Steamed pullet.\" The government has put down more than 2,000 proposed names in a 170-page book that it has offered to Beijing hotels, according to state media. \"Thanks to the pamphlet, we do not have to struggle to come up with the English translations of dishes any more, which is usually time consuming,\" a senior manager at the four-star Guangzhou Hotel in downtown Beijing told the Xinhua news agency. The Chinese say the names of their dishes focus more on appearance than taste or smell. But Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked -- such as pot roast. The government realizes local names are a matter of taste, but don't want them to get lost in translation. Hence, the spicy Sichuanese dish \"Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman\" has been bestowed the more palatable \"Mapo tofu.\" Not everyone is pleased. \"The process of standardizing a menu translation is a double-edged sword,\" wrote columnist Raymond Zhou in the China Daily newspaper. It \"removes the ambiguity and unintended humor\" and \"takes away the fun and the rich connotation. \"It turns a menu into the equivalent of plain rice, which has the necessary nutrients but is devoid of flavor.\"","highlights":"\"Chicken without sexual life\" has been transformed into \"Steamed pullet\"\nThe Chinese say the dishes' names focus more on appearance than taste or smell .\nMore than 2,000 proposed names have been offered to Beijing hotels .","id":"11d3effe17e9cd9bba36fd22fc1e5f3b1e286c00"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Two U.S. filmmakers were injured Saturday when their small plane crashed into a three-story residential building in downtown Nairobi. People gather around the wreckage of a plane that struck a building in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Saturday. Dan Parris, 25, and Rob Lehr, 26, both from St. Louis, Missouri, were shooting an independent documentary on poverty in Africa. Both men were hospitalized and expected to survive, according to David Peterka, who was part of the film crew, but was not aboard the plane. He said that all four aboard the plane were Americans. A flight engineer, whose name was not released, was critically injured and was in a coma, Peterka said. The pilot, whose name has not yet been released, was killed in the crash. The crew had been in the east African nation for four days and was shooting video of Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. The plane was headed to nearby Wilson Airport, where most light aircraft land in the Kenyan capital. \"The pilot had warned that he was going to hover and go slow,\" Peterka said. \"They were surprised when they went to about 50 feet off the ground --- and then they hit electrical lines and the plane flipped into the building.\" Just before the plane crashed, the listening devices went off and they could not communicate with the pilot, Peterka said. Peterka said Lehr, who was ejected because the doors were open for filming, ran back in to rescue the others. Parris crawled out and Lehr, with the help of bystanders, pulled the pilot and the engineer out as the plane burst into flames, Peterka said. \"Local residents were using water, dirt to put the fire out\" before the fire department arrived, Peterka said. \"Before the plane crashed, witnesses said it was flying unusually low,\" said Francis Mwaka, a Kenyan federal communications official. The four-seater plane was owned by African Inland Missions company. No one on the ground was injured, Mwaka said. The crash is under investigation. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this story.","highlights":"Pilot killed, three passengers injured when plane crashes into building .\nTwo victims were U.S. filmmakers shooting documentary on African poverty .\nDan Parris, Rob Lehr were taken to hospital, expected to survive .\nWitnesses say plane was \"flying unusually low\" before crash .","id":"07d505ba2225dfcdfda018866e082c769987f642"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Switzerland defender Philippe Senderos is in talks to leave Arsenal and join English Premier League rivals Everton, according to the Liverpool-based side. Philippe Senderos is seeking to leave Arsenal to keep his World Cup hopes alive. The 24-year-old has been out of favor with the London club for the past year or so, and spent last season on loan with Italy's AC Milan. The center-back made only 15 appearances in his injury-hit stint with the Rossoneri, and returned to Arsenal where he has a year left on his contract. Everton chairman Bill Kenwright confirmed that talks were underway, but said that no deal had been done despite an earlier claim by the Swiss Football Federation. \"We have been negotiating with Arsenal for the transfer of Philippe. Nothing has been concluded yet but talks are on going,\" Kenwright told Everton's official Web site on Tuesday. Everton face the possible departure of England defender Joleon Lescott, the subject of two bids from big-spending EPL rivals Manchester City. Transfer gossip: City to bid again for Lescott. Manager David Moyes has rejected both offers and is determined to keep the player, who has been ruled out of recent pre-season friendly action due to a hip injury picked up on the tour of the United States. Moyes needs cover for injured center-back Phil Jagielka, who is not expected to return to action until November. The Swiss Football Federation had said on its official Web site on Monday that Senderos had agreed to join Everton because he needed regular first-team action ahead of next year's World Cup finals in South Africa. Switzerland are level on points with Greece at the top of Group Two after six of 10 games, with the winner qualifying directly and the runner-up hoping to go into one of the four play-offs. Senderos joined Arsenal in the summer of 2003 from Swiss club Servette, and established himself in the first team alongside Kolo Toure when regular Sol Campbell was injured. However, he missed the 2006 Champions League final defeat by Barcelona due to his own injury, with England defender Campbell returning in his place to score the opening goal of the 2-1 reverse. Senderos missed the start of the 2006-07 season after suffering a shoulder problem at the World Cup finals, and subsequently struggled to break back into the Arsenal team. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has a wealth of central defensive resources despite selling Toure to City last month, having brought in Belgium international Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax in June. William Gallas, Johan Djourou, Mikael Silvestre and Alex Song are also competing for first-team places.","highlights":"Philippe Senderos in talks to leave Arsenal and join English rivals Everton .\nSwitzerland defender wants regular first-team action ahead of 2010 World Cup .\nSenderos spent an injury-hit loan spell with Italy's AC Milan last season .\nThe 24-year-old joined Arsenal in 2003 from Swiss club Servette .","id":"6d160489b33eacaaab0ef00a03f315f1cd84df3d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After nearly 40 years of recorded increases, the number of immigrants living in the United States remained flat between 2007 and 2008, recent statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau show. The number of naturalized citizens in the U.S. increased, partly attributed to voter drives for the 2008 election. According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the U.S. foreign-born population represented about 12.5 percent of the population in 2008, down from 12.6 percent in 2007. Taking into account the margin of error, it was possible that the immigrant population remained even. \"Between '07 and '08 there really wasn't that much of a change,\" said Elizabeth Grieco, chief of immigration statistics staff at the Census Bureau. But given the steep upward trend in the foreign-born population since 1970, no change is big news. The American Community Survey collects data from about 3 million addresses each year, and provides one of the most complete pictures of the population, according to the bureau. The survey doesn't give a reason for the leveling off, but experts pointed to the economic downturn and the resulting high unemployment as factors behind the shift. \"The recession has had a significant effect on immigrants' decisions on whether to come to the U.S.,\" said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. Would-be unauthorized immigrants and legal temporary workers are mostly the ones who have decided to stay put in their home countries for now, Mittelstadt said. The largest declines in the foreign-born population were in states that were hardest hit by the recession, including California, Florida and Arizona. Mittelstadt noted, however, that those immigrants already in the United States appear to be staying. A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center concluded that emigration from Mexico, the largest source of immigrants to the United States, slowed at least 40 percent between mid-decade and 2008, based on national population surveys in the United States and Mexico, as well as Border Patrol apprehension figures. The Mexican-born population in the United States dropped by about 300,000 between 2007 and 2008, according to census data. The new Census statistics show that for the first time since the American Community Survey was fully implemented in 2005, the number of noncitizens decreased, Grieco said. There were about 21.6 million noncitizens in 2008, down from 21.9 million in 2007. The label noncitizens includes both legal residents and illegal immigrants. Along with the decline in the noncitizen population, however, there was a notable increase in the number of naturalized citizens, Grieco said. The number of individuals who are naturalized citizens increased to 43 percent of the foreign-born population in 2008 from 42.5 percent in 2007. The Census survey matches reports from the Department of Homeland Security on the rise of naturalization applications. \"Naturalizations grew at a record pace between 2006 and 2008, with a total of 2.4 million immigrants becoming new citizens in the United States,\" according to a DHS statement. A significant fee increase imposed in 2007 for naturalization applications and an awareness of citizenship brought on during voter registration drives for the 2008 election help explain the increase, Mittelstadt said.","highlights":"Bureau official: \"Between '07 and '08 there really wasn't\" much immigration change .\nNotable increase in naturalized citizens, Census Bureau's Elizabeth Grieco says .\nMexican-born population in U.S. dropped by about 300,000 between 2007 and 2008 .","id":"0069a5a18a299389ea9fa6d48ea308056fe08e13"} -{"article":"BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- You know you've arrived at Bengies Drive-In Theatre when you first see the giant movie marquee, announcing the features showing that weekend. Each letter has to be placed and adjusted by hand, as it did when the theater first opened. Bengies Drive-In Theatre has been owned by the same family since it opened in 1956. \"As far as the operation of the drive-in goes, I'm kind of a die-hard. I try to make it run the way it did, to bring a little bit back of the '50s. ... the integrity and the innocence of that age,\" says Bengies owner D. Edward Vogel, who claims to have the largest outdoor movie screen in the country at 52 feet by 120 feet. Vogel has spent most of his life trying to maintain the feel and charm of the Baltimore, Maryland, drive-in movie theater that his family opened in 1956. Vogel wants moviegoers to have the same experience as he did when he went to his family's outdoor theater as a child, although he knows that people today have many more entertainment options. \"Sometimes I'm actually taken aback with the amount of children that are fascinated with this,\" says Vogel. \"Thinking of what their options are, with modern devices and videos and all that, that they are so taken aback . with what happens here.\" Vogel started learning, at age 9, the secrets of running a movie theater from his father, Jack Vogel. He has worked tirelessly since to maintain the theater as it was in its glory days. Vogel even operates the same machines that he did as a child; the projection room is filled with the original projectors, which Vogel cleans and cares for each night. And for each movie, threading the film is a complex process far removed from the simplicity of inserting a DVD into the player that we know today. Once threaded, the film spins around as each frame follows an intricate path from the tray, to the projector, until it is shown on the gigantic screen. Watch the drive-in come to life \u00bb . The scene immediately invokes a feeling of nostalgia, reminding us why they were called \"motion pictures\" way back when. Yet, Vogel is quick to tell you that keeping the 53-year-old business alive hasn't always been easy. At Bengies, each night is a double feature, so guests can see at least two movies for $8 a person. Vogel estimates that Bengies makes 60 percent of its revenue from ticket sales, and the rest comes from concession purchases. There's a strict \"no outside food\" policy, and he's open about the fact that the food sales help keep the business open. The waterfront property would be more profitable as condos, he says, and his father planned to build them before Vogel took over the theater in the 1980s. He was only able to avoid closing by cutting costs and staff. \"My parents had a union operator in the booth, they had a manager, they had a concessionaire. I am all of those things, so that has changed,\" Vogel says. Vogel even acts as the host. Known only as \"the voice\" to his audiences, he starts each night by using the theater's speaker system to welcome everyone to his venue. \"When you see the sun setting, and the shadow being cast on that screen, no matter what has happened during that day, good, bad or indifferent, I become a different person when I turn the microphone on.\" Besides the challenges of being a small business owner, Vogel's efforts to maintain the integrity of the movie-going experience is challenged by another intrusion of this modern world -- light pollution. Between car headlights and brightly lit businesses nearby, a once-dark sky is now polluted with obtrusive light. Bengies asks that drivers turn their headlights off when entering the grounds of the theater. But over the years, it has been the outside light from other businesses that bleeds into the surrounding sky, making the giant screen hard to see. For solutions to such predicaments, Vogel turns to the owners of other drive-in theaters that have managed to survive since the 1930s. He is an active member of a drive-in theater owners association and is working with other owners across the country to support each other. \"They would all have easier lives if they opened Laundromats in the right location, but they don't. They endeavor; there is a passion about it,\" Vogel says. It is a passion that his audience seems to appreciate. As the sun lowers in the sky and eventually sets behind the screen, the ticket booth is opened on a Sunday night in autumn. People make the trip to the last drive-in theater in the Baltimore area. They set up their chairs, and some sit in their classic cars to enjoy the show. It's an experience Vogel hopes to keep around for generations to come.","highlights":"Bengies Drive-In Theatre hasn't changed much in its 53-year history .\nOwner says he's often surprised by children's fascination with drive-in .\nEach night features a double feature; admission is $8 a person .\nOnslaught of light pollution has been challenge to theater owner, moviegoers .","id":"c15ae49bdc5ad6be13eea7e2f56999e93e8ac4e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She added smart to sexy as a Bond girl opposite Pierce Brosnan's 007, and proved her dramatic and action credentials in \"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,\" but for actress Michelle Yeoh, life and acting are both all about balance. Michelle Yeoh: \"There are reasons why you do movies. It's for the love of it.\" \"I think it's very boring for my audience, just to see me in the regular roles. I love my action films. And I think right now, I have a nice balance,\" she told CNN's Talk Asia. Poise and balance are something that Yeoh is naturally blessed with. Her childhood dream of becoming a professional ballerina was dashed when she sustained an injury while training at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. However, she continued to study completing a degree in dance and a minor in drama, before serving as Miss Malaysia at the age of 21, which was more of an ambassadorial role for the country's tourism industry than bikini modeling. Making her film debut in an action movie in 1984, she made further appearances in Hong Kong action films doing her own stunts, until she married millionaire Hong Kong businessman Dickson Poon in 1988 and put her career on hold. On giving up acting for the sake of her married life she said: \"At that time, it's very difficult to try and juggle a normal life, be where your husband is, try to start a family life, and filming months on end in another country. So I weighed my options. I am a person that believes, you have to give your all. There's no half measure in doing things. You do it well or at least you've got to give it your best shot.\" The couple divorced three years later and Yeoh resumed her film career in 1992 in the Jackie Chan smash-hit \"Police Story 3.\" While she continued to use her athleticism in her roles and do her own stunts, in the pursuit of playing good characters and that all-important balance, she credits the directors she has chosen to work with. \"I look at the scripts and you can understand where the story is going ... but it's a director with a vision that brings it to life,\" she said. \"There are reasons why you do movies. It's for the love of it or you're thinking of your paycheck. And you have to find your own balance.\" When it came to doing \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,\" Ang Lee was the essential ingredient. \"I did it really because I adore Ang Lee. That's a true film maker, where they move you, they bring you to places where you can't imagine but want to be.\" But being an all-or-nothing person has taken its toll when it has come to the stunts she has performed. Yeoh tore her anterior cruciate ligament after the first sequence she performed for \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,\" which meant that only the dramatic scenes in the film could be shot until she had recovered. Yeoh has turned her attention to producing as well as acting and found it a challenging experience. \"As an actor you would be judged on how your performance is and so that's where your focus is. It's a very selfish environment and that sense, because as you know, you can't make excuses afterwards. But as a producer, you have to make sure everyone is well protected and everyone is safe. And if anything goes wrong, it's all on your shoulders,\" she told CNN. The films she produced, 2002's \"The Touch\" and \"Sliver Hawk\" from 2004 were panned by critics, but she makes no excuses: \"That's the nature of the business. You should never take these things personally when it works or doesn't work.\" And when it comes to passing on what she's learned to young Asian actors, her advice is typically practical. \"For any Asian face, or any Asian girls that have dreams, aspirations or doing crossover work in Hollywood, you must have the language. These are your tools. And then afterwards, the right face, the right demeanor, and the right chemistry.\"","highlights":"Trained dancer turned to acting after injury at college .\nPerforms her own stunts and has pioneered stronger female roles in Asian films .\nInternational recognition came as a Bond girl and \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon\"","id":"eaef00e59a4ffb6d880ea8d673a87cd32ef1ae7b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexican authorities have arrested a reputed senior member of a major Tijuana-based drug cartel after a shootout, U.S. authorities confirmed Sunday. Eduardo Arellano-Felix was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday. Eduardo Arellano-Felix was arrested at a Tijuana, Mexico, residence Saturday, said Special Agent Eileen Zeidler of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego, California. She said federal authorities received a tip on the whereabouts of Arellano-Felix and provided the information to Mexican authorities. No other details were immediately available. Arellano-Felix was one of the last wanted members of the powerful and brutal trafficking organization bearing his family name, authorities say. His brother, reputed Mexican drug lord Javier Arellano-Felix, was captured by U.S. authorities in August 2006 off the shore of southern Baja California. The brothers were on the top of the DEA's Most Wanted List, carrying rewards of $5 million dollars for their capture. Officials say seven brothers and four sisters of the Arellano-Felix family inherited the Tijuana cartel from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo in 1989 after his arrest for drug trafficking. Eduardo was the last remaining brother who had an active role in the cartel. Today, the notorious cartel is split into two factions -- one headed by Eduardo Garcia Simental and another headed by Eduardo Arellano-Felix's nephew, Fernando Sanchez Arellano. The two sides have engaged in brutal fighting, accounting for nearly all the violence in Tijuana, according to the DEA. More than 400 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Tijuana this year. While Eduardo Arellano-Felix was not the boss of the cartel, DEA officials said his nephew sought his advice on decisions. Zeidler said the arrest of Arellano-Felix was a significant step in potentially dismantling the cartel. \"You pull the foundation out of the house and the house is going to come down,\" she said. \"[Arellano-Felix] was the foundation.\"","highlights":"Eduardo Arellano-Felix was arrested at a Tijuana residence Saturday .\nHe was on the DEA's Most Wanted List .\nArrest could help dismantling the family's drug cartel, DEA agent says .","id":"42f403c79f87d0b34dab41c9047b83be3aeec486"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two former Blackwater employees have made statements against Blackwater Worldwide and its founder Erik Prince, accusing the security company and its former CEO of murder and other serious crimes in Iraq, according to court documents filed this week. Blackwater founder Erik Prince, shown here before a congressional panel in 2007, recently left the company. The sworn affidavits by an ex-Marine who joined Blackwater and another employee -- listed in the documents as \"John Doe No. 1\" and \"John Doe No. 2\" -- are part of a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Virginia against Prince on behalf of Iraqi families who say they lost loved ones at the hands of his company. Blackwater, recently renamed Xe, issued a statement Tuesday, saying it would respond \"to the anonymous unsubstantiated and offensive assertions put forward by the plaintiffs,\" in a brief to be filed August 17. The company had a security contract for operations in Iraq under the U.S. State Department until May, when the federal government declined to renew the contract. The decision did not affect other contracts Blackwater has with the State Department, a senior State department official told CNN earlier this year. Several of the plaintiffs are connected to a September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad in which the Iraqi government says security guards, then employed by Blackwater, fired upon and killed 17 Iraqi civilians. The affidavits by the two witnesses, who did not want to be identified in the court documents filed Monday for fear of retaliatory \"violence,\" paint a menacing portrait of Prince, who recently resigned from his company. \"First, he views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe. ... Second, Mr. Prince is motivated by greed,\" says John Doe No. 2. \"He sought every opportunity to deploy men to Iraq in order to earn more money from the United States government.\" He refers to another incident when he \"first arrived in Baghdad\" in which he saw fellow employees pulling weapons out of a shipment of dog food -- the allegation being smuggling. John Doe No. 1 describes witnessing one incident in Baquba, where a Blackwater employee allegedly fired into a passing single-passenger vehicle without provocation. He says he's heard of similar instances of excessive or deadly force from other Blackwater employees. However, neither gives clear details about the incidents they describe, such as specific dates or locations. The court documents filed Tuesday are in response to a defense motion to dismiss the suit. The suit says the affidavits were also submitted to the Justice Department, which is engaged in an ongoing investigation into the Blackwater case. No criminal charges have been filed against Prince. \"It is obvious that Plaintiffs have chosen to slander Mr. Prince rather than raise legal arguments or actual facts that will be considered by a court of law. We are happy to engage them there,\" the company statement said. \"We question the judgment of anyone who relies upon and [reiterates] anonymous declarations.\" Earlier this year, five former Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty to federal charges of manslaughter and other serious crimes stemming from a September 16, 2007, shooting. Their trial is set for February 2010.","highlights":"Statements are part of civil suit brought by Iraqi families who've lost loved ones .\nThe witnesses -- \"John Doe No. 1\" and \"John Doe No. 2\" -- fear retaliatory \"violence\"\nAffidavits say founder Erik Prince \"views himself as a Christian crusader\"\nCompany statement says plaintiffs ignore \"actual facts\" and \"slander\" Prince .","id":"9844b800307026dc2914c0e1b60f8f3c13661f82"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors Tuesday urged a Florida judge to sentence actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison and fine him $5 million to demonstrate to taxpayers that refusal to pay income taxes carries severe penalties. Wesley Snipes was acquitted of the most serious charges against him. Snipes is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 by U.S. District Judge William Hodges in Ocala, Florida, on three counts of failure to file federal income tax returns. One week after vowing to crack down on \"tax defiers,\" the Justice Department filed court papers seeking the maximum penalty for the three misdemeanor counts on which Snipes was convicted. \"This case presents the court with a singular opportunity to deter tax fraud nationwide,\" the government said in its sentencing recommendation. Snipes had been charged with felony conspiracy counts for participating in a scheme that rejects the legal foundation of the tax system. However, a jury accepted his argument that he was innocently duped by errant tax advisers, and acquitted him on the most serious charges. \"The fact that Snipes was acquitted on two felony charges and convicted 'only' on three misdemeanor counts has been portrayed in the mainstream media as a 'victory' for Snipes,\" the government document says. \"The troubling implication of such coverage for the millions of average citizens who are aware of this case is that the rich and famous Wesley Snipes has 'gotten away with it.' In the end the criminal conduct of Snipes must not be seen in such a light.\" Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman, head of the Justice Department's Tax Division, last week promised to beef up the government's efforts to pursue those engaged in a variety of schemes making legal assertions that income taxes are either voluntary or unconstitutional. \"For nearly a decade Snipes has engaged in a campaign of criminal tax conduct combining brazen defiance with insidious concealment,\" the prosecutors say. \"By these means Snipes has escaped paying more than $15 million in income tax to the IRS and has pursued an intended fraudulent harm to the United States Treasury of more than $41 million.\" The document says Snipes shipped millions of dollars to accounts in Switzerland, Antigua and the Isle of Man to avoid taxes. \"Given defendant's income, earning capacity, and financial resources, both disclosed and undisclosed, the United States submits that a fine of at least $5 million is warranted,\" the sentencing recommendation says. The 35-page argument for the stiffest possible penalty ends with a dramatic flair. \"In the defendant Wesley Snipes, the court is presented with a wealthy, famous and inveterate tax scofflaw. If ever a tax offender was deserving of being held accountable to the maximum extent for his criminal wrongdoing, Snipes is that defendant,\" it says. The IRS is also seeking repayment of all taxes and interest through civil court proceedings. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Federal prosecutors urge judge to sentence Wesley Snipes to 3 years .\nProsecutors also want to fine Snipes $5 million .\nJustice Dept. wants to use Snipes as example to deter tax fraud .\nSnipes was charged with conspiracy, was acquitted of most serious charges .","id":"532c705a658e9a4a8ebc13471004077d4c625a57"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is a graduate of Yale University. Medalist Sarah Hughes says the Games are about excellence and unity. (CNN) -- What are the first thoughts that pop into your mind when you hear the word Olympics? Probably something synonymous with excellence, greatness, excitement, achievement. Maybe it's the striking image of Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 etched in your mind, or the experience of following Michael Phelps' quest to win a record-breaking eight gold medals last summer in Beijing, China. Or is it the thrill of watching the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team winning the gold medal in Lake Placid, stacked up against unimaginable odds, that occupies that space? I could go on and on, but whatever image the Olympics has for you is probably accompanied by a feeling of pride, happiness, joyfulness, maybe even a childlike glee. Sometimes it's the simple way you can sum up your response to the question -- and perhaps that's the point of asking the question -- but it would be foolish to ignore other aspects of the Games that contribute to making the event happen. Although the presence of public officials at host-city bids shows the International Olympic Committee that they are behind the bid and will be supportive, such appearances are not required. On Friday, President Obama, a Chicago, Illinois, resident for many years, will arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark (his wife is already there), to support and try to persuade the IOC voters in favor of the 2016 Chicago bid. Obama's visit to Copenhagen will make him the first U.S. president to attend an Olympic host-city vote. His visit will not be the first by a president (or prime minister) whose country went on to win a bid for the Games. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife were in Singapore lobbying IOC members for the 2012 Summer Games host-city vote when London was awarded the event. Two years later, Russian President Vladimir Putin went to the host-city vote in Guatemala when Sochi, a relatively unknown city, won the right to host the 2014 Winter Games. The other 2016 contenders vying for votes from the 100-plus eligible members of the IOC are Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan. Michelle Obama, a lifelong Chicagoan enthusiastically championing the U.S. bid, is displaying her \"Olympic spirit.\" On Monday, the eve of her visit to Copenhagen, she spoke of being ready to woo each voter individually if need be: \"Gloves are off. I'm talking to everybody. That's what my schedule looks like.\" Sounding like an Olympic competitor already herself, she added that she didn't \"think there's one person left off.\" It is easy to come to the conclusion that I might be biased, having won a gold medal in figure skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, but I was an American and a fan long before those Games, and I will be one long after. The memories, unity and patriotism from the Salt Lake Games wasn't about any one particular thing but about all those little \"things\" coming together: the result of what the participants -- the fans, volunteers, competitors, coaches, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, cities and nations -- created by sharing the best we have to offer with one another. That's what the Olympics are about. They are about greatness, they are about excellence, but above all, the Games are about unity. In a September 10 letter to IOC members, Obama wrote about how he \"sees the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games as an extraordinary opportunity for America to renew our bonds of friendship and welcome the world to our shores with open arms.\" And on Friday, when Obama arrives in Copenhagen, he will be joined by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and King Juan Carlos of Spain. Let the Games begin. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sarah Hughes.","highlights":"Sarah Hughes: Obama is among other world leaders who have sought Olympics .\nShe says Games are about excellence and unity in support of U.S. teams .\nShe says Michelle Obama is showing she shares the Olympic spirit .","id":"040499c2598d158eaa36c36851063973329427d6"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- In his first public appearance since the \"Beer Summit\" at the White House, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates joked about his controversial arrest last month in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and said he likes police Sgt. James Crowley. Sgt. James Crowley and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. sit for beers with the president and vice president Thursday. \"I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me anymore,\" Gates said. Gates was speaking Sunday at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival where he signed copies of his book, \"In Search of our Roots.\" The professor said he plans on meeting with Crowley again. \"I offered for the two of us to have lunch together, one-on-one, or go to a Red Sox game, or a Celtics games, or maybe the families can get together for dinner. Why not?\" Gates had a face-to-face meeting and a beer with Crowley at the White House last week, a move orchestrated by President Obama in an attempt to defuse racial tensions that had erupted following Gates' arrest. Gates called the president's gesture \"brilliant.\" Crowley arrested Gates on July 16 when the officer responded to a call of a possible home break-in at the Cambridge residence. Gates was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly yelling at the officer and protesting his actions. But Gates, who is black, claimed he never raised his voice and accused Crowley of racial profiling. Charges against the professor were later dropped. The tone at the book fair turned more serious when someone asked Gates how the arrest has affected him. \"I'm still trying to figure that out and processing it. It was stressful. I was worried about my daughters.\" Fortunately, he said, the press was not camped out at his family home like they were at the Cambridge residence, which is owned by the university. He admitted to receiving bomb threats and deaths threats and said the university is encouraging him to move. \"I haven't been back to the Cambridge house since I got arrested so I have to make that decision.\" He also said he has had to change his phone numbers and close his public e-mail account. \"I received thousands of fan letters but some of the e-mails were from crazy wacko people who wrote 'You should die,' 'You're a racist,'\" Still, Gates said he doesn't want to exaggerate the trauma of the arrest. \"A lot of people go through far worse. I was in jail for four hours, not four years or four months or four days,\" he said. \"The night before I went to the White House, I had a dream that I got arrested in the White House,\" he said. Then he joked, \"But it's cool; I was OK.\"","highlights":"Professor on officer who arrested him: We could lunch or go to a Sox game .\nThe lighthearted comments came after Gates and officer met at White House .\nArrest of Harvard professor sparked discussion on race .","id":"785fb718cc313e62dd26d70bc6de57724e779d41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Saturday Night Live\" was formed in the crucible of the mid-1970s, when Watergate brought respect for politicians to all-time lows, the counterculture was taking over comedy, and many television viewers were seeking out something fresh and bold. Fred Armisen played Barack Obama in a talked-about sketch Saturday night on \"Saturday Night Live.\" It was a powerful combination -- and after 34 years, the combination of \"SNL\" and politics can still strike sparks among political observers. The most recent example came this past weekend when Fred Armisen, as President Obama, chided \"those on the right\" for saying that he was \"turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.\" Not true, said Armisen as Obama. \"When you look at my record,\" he said, \"it's very clear what I've done so far -- and that is nothing.\" Watch the sketch -- and the reaction \u00bb . The sketch has caused a rumble among the inside-the-Beltway chattering classes and New York news nabobs. Wrote Washington Post blogger Jonathan Capehart, \"When your 'friends' start talking about you like this -- and friends with a huge megaphone and a feel for the national mood -- the White House should listen.\" \"Humor with some truth in it is always dangerous. Make no mistake, a drumbeat of belittlement can damage a president,\" added CNN political contributor Ed Rollins in a column. The White House had no comment when asked about the sketch by CNN. \"SNL\" cast members weren't available for interviews, an NBC representative said. \"SNL\" creator Lorne Michaels also turned down an interview request but has said the show doesn't take sides. \"I think 'SNL's' role is, the moment they're in power, we're the opposition,\" he told CNN's Alina Cho last year. \"We're not partisan. We're not, you know, we're not putting on anything that we don't believe is funny.\" Video gallery: \"SNL\" takes on presidents through the years \u00bb . The recent sketch is indicative of the end of Obama's honeymoon, Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson says, but he doesn't want to read more into it than that. \"Comedy is about going after the people in power,\" he said. The president has also taken recent shots from \"The Daily Show\" and \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" \"What this says is that the comedy-industrial complex has turned its sights on the reigning president of the United States,\" he said. But, he added, \"I wouldn't put this into the meme category,\" referring to concepts that travel so quickly they take on a life of their own, such as Tina Fey's Sarah Palin sketches from last year. \"The [Obama] sketch wasn't that funny.\" Indeed, the show's overall impact is often mixed, observes Slate columnist and Rutgers media studies professor David Greenberg. It can \"capture or intensify\" a storyline that's being passed through the news media, but the show is more a barometer that can change with events. \"It's not incapable of influencing things,\" he said, noting the show's slash-and-burn '70s satire and Fey's Palin parody. \"But since the early '80s, those moments are pretty rare. ... You'll see good impersonations but not the underlying critique you had with, say, Dan Aykroyd as [Richard] Nixon.\" Besides, he added, the Obama sketch may have titillated the politico-media crowd, but he wonders whether its impact went any wider. \"I'm a political junkie,\" he said, \"and this is the first I've heard of it.\" Indeed, the ratings for the episode were a far cry from last year's Palin-fest -- from a 7.3 rating for the same week in 2008, to 4.7 -- and the Armisen sketch didn't get the frenzied online dispersion the Palin sketches did. iReport.com: 'SNL' won't hurt Obama . However, Obama should be concerned about one thing, observes Thompson. In general, \"SNL\" mocked previous presidents' personal characteristics, such as Clinton's outsized appetites or George W. Bush's struggles with spoken English. With Obama -- who lacks the same kind of easily caricatured traits, Thompson says -- the show went after his record. \"In some ways,\" Thompson said, \"he's vulnerable to more serious damage.\"","highlights":"Recent \"Saturday Night Live\" sketch attacked President Obama .\nPolitical pundits, media seized on sketch as meaningful .\nIt marks end of honeymoon, one observer says, but probably not much more .\n\"SNL\" can \"intensify\" storylines but is mostly a barometer, says expert .","id":"7e2fa90d37d984fe18174fabadbd57e5ba4504a4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rafael Nadal's shock French Open exit at the hands of a player ranked outside the top 20 is already attracting suggestions that it may be the biggest upset in tennis history. Rafael Nadal faces media after his shock loss to Sweden's Robin Soderling at the French Open on Sunday . Nadal, the world number one had never lost a game at Roland Garros, winning the previous four titles in a row. However, Sweden's Robin Soderling proved too good for the \"King of Clay,\" beating him 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6. The official French Open Web site called it \"one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam history,\" while other news outlets have rushed to praise the Swede for the \"game of his life.\" The result leaves the men's draw at the French Open tournament wide open -- with Roger Federer and Andy Murray now the highest-ranked players remaining. Undoubtedly a massive upset, Nadal's loss also raises the question of what have been the biggest men's Grand Slam upsets in tennis history. Is this is the biggest? Below, in no particular order, are ten of the most shocking.What do you think the biggest upset in recent tennis history is? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. 1. Robin Soderling beats Rafael Nadal, French Open 2009 Spain's clay master was unbeaten at Roland Garros and looking for his fifth title in a row when he was shocked by the 23rd seed Swedish player. Soderling was too good for Nadal, and deserved the win. 2. Michael Chang beats Lendl and Edberg, French Open 1989 American Michael Chang etched his name in history by winning the 1989 French Open aged just 17 years and three months. He beat legends Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg (in an epic five set final) to win the event and he is still the youngest winner of a Grand Slam. 3. George Bastl beats Pete Sampras, Wimbledon 2002 Swiss player Bastl was ranked 145 in the world when he took on the seven-time champion of Wimbledon, Pete Sampras. Bastl, who only got into the tournament as a lucky loser after failing to qualify, beat the American in five sets. 4. Mark Edmondson wins the 1976 Australian Open The Australian only ever won one Grand Slam event, and he beat defending champion John Newcombe in the final to do it. The most remarkable point however, was that he was ranked 212th in the world when he did it. He remains the lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam title. 5. Goran Ivanisevic wins 2001 Wimbledon Left-handed Ivanisevic had lost the Wimbledon final three times before he finally won it in 2001. The eventual victory was a near-miracle, as he had only entered the tournament as a wild card. Ranked outside the top 100 at the time, he became the lowest-ranked player and only wild card to win Wimbledon. 6. Mats Wilander wins the 1982 French Open The young Swede shocked the tennis world when at 17 years of age he beat the second, third, fourth and fifth seeds at Roland Garros to win the tournament. He was unseeded for the event. 7. Richard Krajicek beats Pete Sampras, Wimbledon 1996 Krajicek surprised everyone when he became the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon in 1996, but the biggest upset had come when he defeated Pete Sampras in the quarter-final. His win was Sampras' only loss at the grass tournament between 1993 and 2001. 8. Gustavo Kuerten wins the 1997 French Open It's no surprise that \"Guga\" was a Roland Garros favorite. When he won the 1997 tournament he was ranked 66th in the world and he beat three former champions along the way. He remains the third-lowest ranked Grand Slam champion. 9. Lleyton Hewitt beats Andre Agassi while ranked #550 The Australian went on to win his first ATP tour title after beating Agassi in the semi-final of the Adelaide International. The win over former world number one Agassi was remarkable given that he was ranked at 550th and only 16 years old. 10. Vladimir Voltchkov makes 2000 Wimbledon semi-final The Belarussian was ranked 237 when he managed to make it through to the semi-finals of Wimbledon -- becoming the lowest-ranked player to ever make the last four at the London tournament.","highlights":"\"King of Clay\" Rafael Nadal records his first loss at the French Open .\nNadal's win widely reported as one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam tennis .\nDebate: Tell us what match is your biggest tennis upset of all time .","id":"7931b2775961284d858ef5d555669535e7ffb9f1"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- When we requested an interview with members of the Communist Youth League, I expected an army of suits with well-rehearsed answers. Instead, we met three students casually dressed in jeans, just 18 to 23 years old. Christina Zhang wants to be a linguistics teacher or professor. She plans to attend graduate school. The interview was arranged by the State Council Information Office, in advance of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Unlike many government-sanctioned shoots, it was not carefully choreographed or closely monitored. The students did arrive with a \"minder\" of sorts, but he was no older than them and didn't interrupt the conversation. We sat down for tea at Ritan Park in downtown Beijing. My questions seemed to be more sensitive than they expected, but the students remained poised and answered every one. All of the students are members of the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Youth League, the same organization that launched the successful careers of Chinese President Hu Jintao and many of China's other top leaders. \"I think Communism is an ideal state of society that everyone should pursue,\" said Natalie Chen, an 18-year-old freshman and finance major at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. \"In the Communist society, everything is fair in economics, in politics, in education. Everybody has equal opportunity and that's a great society.\" \"Do you think everything is fair in China?\" I asked Natalie. \"At present I have to say no,\" she said. \"But, we are of course making progress towards it.\" Watch Chang's interview with the students \u00bb . Young students like Chen are the future of the Chinese Communist Party, which now is the largest political party in the world with 75 million members. It has come a long way. In 1949, the Communist Party was a group of mostly revolutionary farmers, who came to power on the heels of civil war. See how China has changed over 60 years \u00bb . \"The party was a rag tag organization you might say,\" said David Shambaugh, a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and political science professor at George Washington University. \"They had no experience in ruling, but a lot of experience in fighting and they were faced with a number of problems of how to set up a government and run the country.\" The first three decades of Communist rule were tumultuous, marred by backward isolation and a destructive Cultural Revolution. However, the next 30 years transformed China from the inside out, with the implementation of new economic goals and gradual openness to the outside world. The Communist Party now is largely credited with delivering the country from isolation to economic prosperity. Despite this achievement, perhaps the party's most astounding achievement in 60 years is, quite simply, surviving as the one and only political party in a massive country. \"To be adaptable and flexible is a path to survival,\" said Shambaugh. \"So this has been a very adaptable, and I would argue, eclectic party, borrowing bits and pieces from different political systems all around the world and studying other political systems.\" Yet, in being so adaptable, analysts say the party has run the risk of having a lot of slogans and little substance. Slogans such as \"the scientific mode of development,\" \"socialism with Chinese characteristics,\" and \"harmonious society\" often cannot be explained by the average Chinese citizen. \"These are all current slogans, but people are not really sure what they mean,\" Shambaugh said. Indeed some of the party's youngest members provided vague answers when asked for what exactly the Communist Party stands. \"I think we have a goal,\" said 23-year-old Christina Zhang, an undergraduate in linguistics at Beijing Normal University. \"That is to reach a harmonious society. That is our dream ... I believe we are sure to realize our dream.\" \"We discuss science, we discuss thought, we discuss everything,\" added Lin De-yuan, a 23-year-old first-year graduate student in Marxist studies at the Chinese Youth University of Political Sciences. He also suggested I read \"the book by Karl Marx,\" referring to the Communist Manifesto. China's younger generation has been criticized for caring too much about securing good jobs instead of about policy and politics. These days, it is widely regarded that many young people join the party, not because they share Communist ideals, but because it looks good on their resumes. Chen, Zhang and Lin denied joining the party for personal gain. Chen plans to become a banker or a politician, Zhang aspires to be a teacher and Lin dreams of becoming an NBA referee. However, they do acknowledge joining the party may have some benefits and some members actively use their party credentials to achieve certain career goals. \"Admittedly, some people join the party with their own purpose of getting a good job, or getting a promotion,\" Chen said. \"But that's why we are still having a fierce battle with corruption in the party.\" In fact, corruption is one of the biggest challenges the Communist Party will face in the years ahead. Young Communists like Chen, Zhang and Lin will be responsible for rising to these types of challenges and shaping the party's future. Their generation may determine whether the Communist Party is still China's one and only ruling party 60 years from now.","highlights":"Unlike many government-sanctioned shoots, this one was not closely monitored .\nYoung students are the future of the Chinese Communist Party .\nYouth have been criticized for caring too much about securing good jobs .\nAnalysts say the party runs the risk of having many slogans but little substance .","id":"679825737e90414b7d5fbe74f164a3444aba0a99"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Alexandra Seldin prepays for a rental car through Alamo's Web site. But when her flight is canceled, and she arrives a day late, the company charges her three times more than it originally said it would. Is it allowed to do that? And is there any hope for a refund? A customer's late arrival cost her an additional $1,116 for her car rental. Q: My car rental company has more than tripled the rate it charged me, and I don't know what to do. I had prepaid $390 for the car through Alamo's Web site. When my flight was canceled, I called Alamo to tell it I could not get the car until the next day. I was told that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. I picked up the car the next day and returned it on time. When I dropped off the rental, a representative said the computer system was down. But when I got my bill the next month, there was an additional $1,116 charge because of the late pick up. I believe this additional charge to be unfair and am requesting a refund. I believe Alamo should honor its promise of the prepaid amount as well as the representation that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. Can you help? -- Alexandra Seldin, San Diego, California . A: So Alamo is charging you another $1,116 even though you rented one of its cars for one day less. Where's the logic in that? The answer: It's airline logic. Air carriers have figured out a way to quadruple the price of a ticket depending on the time you bought it. So a \"walk-up\" fare purchased at the last minute can be hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars more expensive than an advance-purchase fare. But you're getting the same seat. You prepaid for your rental weeks in advance -- kind of like an advance-purchase ticket. But when you didn't show up as expected, the system reset your rate, charging you the more expensive \"walk-up\" rate. The computer problems should have been a showstopper. When a representative says the system is down, you need to get a receipt, even if it's handwritten. That way, if the company tries to double-dip, you can dispute the charge using the invoice as evidence that your bill was paid. Even if you have assurances that you won't be billed again, it's important to monitor your credit card. A car rental company isn't going to send you an e-mail letting you know that you're being charged more. It's just going to quietly take it off your credit card. As soon as you see a questionable charge on your card, mention it to the company or dispute it with your credit card company. I think you would have won a credit card dispute, by the way. You would have needed to show the prepaid voucher as proof that you had already paid for the rental, and the credit card company should have sided with you. I suggested you write a brief, polite e-mail to Alamo, asking it to reverse the charges. The response? A snippy note that said, \"Any changes to the basis of the reservation makes the rate subject to change,\" and adding, \"We are disappointed that this policy is a source of dissatisfaction for you.\" Alamo denied your request. Like you, I was unhappy with the denials by phone and e-mail. So I contacted Alamo for you. It promptly refunded the $1,116 it should have never charged you in the first place. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"A customer's flight was canceled, and she arrived a day late for her car rental .\nShe called to let Alamo know and it said her reservation would be held .\nShe was charged an additional $1,116 for the rental because of the late pick up .\nAfter declining a refund, Alamo was persuaded to reverse the charges .","id":"308cd461e6f6a3a45eb9619282d09ad354cae199"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution extending the mandate of NATO-led military forces in Afghanistan for a year, hours after a deadly bombing near the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The bomb exploded in the center of Kabul on the corner of Passport Lane and the Indian Embassy. The suicide car bomb attack on Thursday left at least 17 people dead, most of them civilians, and 63 wounded. \"I think this is another reminder of the dangers that the Taliban pose to the Afghan population and to the international community in Afghanistan, and the importance of the continued international efforts there,\" said John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the world body, after the resolution was passed. The council provides international legal approval for the deployment of NATO troops to assist in the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The resolution, however, did not address troop numbers, an issue that has generated controversy since the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested an additional 40,000 troops. The Security Council also condemned the attack, calling for the \"perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism\" to be brought to justice. In addition to extending the mandate, the resolution stressed the need to bolster Afghan security forces to help them become self-sufficient in protecting their country. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's new leader, recently announced that NATO forces would begin training Afghan police and increase training of the Afghan National Army. Some 90,000 international forces are deployed in Afghanistan, with 35,000 serving with NATO and 65,000 with the United States. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Thursday bombing, saying an Afghan national in a sport utility vehicle carried out the attack. The bomber had intended to strike the embassy, Indian officials said. Watch what a local shopkeeper says about the area \u00bb . \"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the embassy gates,\" Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry, told CNN on Thursday. \"The embassy was the target.\" The bomb went off about 8:30 a.m., just as offices and shops were opening for the day. The force of the blast shattered some of the embassy's windows, according to Prakash. The bombing came a year after a similar deadly attack outside the Indian Embassy. The Thursday attack killed 17 -- most of them civilians -- and 63 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said. The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking Indian Embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police officers. The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the the embassy, said staffer J.P. Singh, but \"there were no casualties on the Indian side.\" The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings. The explosion shattered car windows and toppled restaurant walls. Paramedics dug through twisted metal and debris, looking for survivors. A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an obvious assault on civilians and said \"the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent people for their malicious goals.\" About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7, 2008, attack were two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school. More than 100 were wounded in that blast. Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation. India is the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing millions of dollars to help with reconstruction efforts there. CNN's Atia Abawi and Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.N. Security Council condemns Kabul attack, calls for justice .\nNEW: Resolution does not address troop numbers; comes hours after Kabul attack .\nBombing near Indian Embassy in Kabul killed at least 17 people .\nNATO's new leader Rasmussen recently announced training of Afghan police .","id":"afadaa2d6eb62ae43a4a160825a45dbf26edbaec"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An air traffic controller was joking with a woman about a dead cat just moments before a helicopter and small plane collided over the Hudson River in August, according to a recording released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration. The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted on August 11 from the Hudson River. There were no survivors from the August 8 crash, in which three people died aboard the Piper Saratoga PA-32 fixed-wing plane that collided with a helicopter carrying six people, five of them Italian tourists. The FAA in August confirmed the air traffic controller at New Jersey's Teterboro airport, who initially handled the flight of the Piper before handing off to Newark controllers, had \"involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident.\" The controller and his supervisor, who was not in the building as required, were suspended. \"While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident, this kind of conduct is unacceptable, and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings,\" FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said at the time. The recording, released for the first time Thursday, caught the air traffic controller at Teterboro airport having a giggly chat with the woman, suggesting she grill the dead cat she apparently found. A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN the woman was the controller's girlfriend. \"That thing was disgusting,\" she says, to which the controller responds, \"Chinese people do it, so why can't we?\" The exchange, which lasts about six minutes, is interrupted by a controller at the Newark airport, who asks the Teterboro controller for help with air traffic. \"Hey, Teterboro ... would you switch that guy, maybe put him on a two-twenty heading to get away from that other traffic please?\" the Newark controller is heard saying. The Teterboro controller seems to be juggling both conversations, telling to woman to \"hold on real quick\" while asking the Newark controller to repeat the request. \"Can you switch that (Piper) PA-32?\" the Newark controller said. Neither is able to communicate with the pilot of the Piper, with the Teterboro controller saying, \"He's lost in the hertz.\" The conversation between the Teterboro controller and the woman continues as she mentions that it seems her friend is doing \"a lot of babysitting.\" Seconds later, the crash occurs with no survivors. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that before the accident, Teterboro controller had switched control of the Piper plane to Newark tower, which the pilot never contacted. Raymond Adams, head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, is representing the Teterboro controller. He declined to comment Thursday, except to say that \"the FAA has previously stated that the conversation had no connection to the crash.\" The controller is still on paid administration leave pending further investing by the FAA, he added. The helicopter was taking the tourists on a 12-minute Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tour around New York, while the plane carrying three individuals was headed for Ocean City, New Jersey. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m. as it flew at an altitude of about 1,100 feet. The FAA released the recording after a request from The Associated Press citing the Freedom of Information Act.","highlights":"FAA reveals recording of air traffic controller just before fatal crash .\nOn recording, controller joking with woman on phone about what to do with dead cat .\nFAA spokeswoman: \"The kind of conduct is unacceptable\"\nNo survivors in August 8 crash of helicopter, small plane over Hudson .","id":"c42c0a8295c983ce2521751641cbc88b4439ea84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What green gadgets are worth splashing out for? Lucy Siegle, a British journalist specializing in ecological issues and trends, told CNN which eco gizmos get her seal of approval. Solar powered tents . Solar tent: A great green gadget for occasionaly campers. Siegle: I'm not big into camping but it's a massive thing here in the UK. During the summer barely a weekend goes by without a festival of some sort. The only thing however that gets me through the frequently rain-sodden experience is the ingenuity of a solar powered tent (I love them). Fit-PC2: Small is beautiful . Siegle: I'm acutely aware of the specter of e-waste because I make films about fly tipping in beautiful parts of Wales and come face to face with mounds of dumped monitors and keyboards. We have an issue in the UK with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive as there's a lot of crime -- see as evidence how a consignment of e-waste was found in Brazil recently. It's horrible. Anyway all this makes me technologically monogamous -- I keep my machine until the bitter end. However the bitter end is approaching for my Mac Book as half the keys have sprung off so I came across this. The Fit-PC 2.0 claiming to the world's smallest fully functioning PC and also the greenest. 115mm x 101mm x 27 mm. That's tiny! I love dematerialization of these objects. It should be sustainable design realized. If the makers are to be trusted, it uses 90 per cent less energy than a standard desktop PC. It uses less energy than a low energy light bulb. The main board is lead free. View a gallery of the gadgets \u00bb . Dyson Animal hand-held vacuum cleaner . Siegle: I just got one of these, and have become quite the Stepford wife. Well, as far as crumbs are concerned - my house is a zero tolerance zone. Dyson is the most celebrated UK inventor, famous for the bagless vacuum cleaner. This offspring, the handheld, chargeable vac does some spectacular stuff. It 'spins dust and dirt out of the air' using a motor that spins ten times faster than the engine of a Boeing 747 courtesy of digital switching (subject to 15 patents). Another key factor is that this alternative motor does not cause those polluting carbon particles. All of this may sound rather energy hungry, but the new digital motor is 84 percent energy efficient. The reason I've listed it here is because it has huge potential in all sorts of applications and is a physical embodiment of Dyson's insistence that 'bigger motors don't always equal better performance'. Savaplug . Siegle: This is a retro inclusion (odd for a gadget list I know). I'm into the idea of Dynamic Demand -- regulating flow of power to our homes to even out and to make the grid more efficient (in the UK two thirds of power, mostly produced by coal fired power stations is lost before it gets to our homes). The Savaplug regulates flow on a microscale when you plug in an old style fridge. I don't need mine any more -- I have a new style, energy efficient fridge these days but keep it just in case I find someone who doesn't. Ikea Sunnan solar powered desk lamp . Lucy Siegle: Very simple, but actually very effective. I was sent this as a promotion. When you buy one, another is given free to kids in the developing world who have to study at night. A slightly mawkish, marketing stunt, but one that still appeals. I was amazed how it charged up in my kitchen, without me having to do anything. It was ready when my two year old nephew came to stay, fell out of his bed (I've subsequently got a bed guard for him) and needed the light on. The Sunnan has a warm, comforting glow. Riversimple hydrogen powered car . Lucy Siegle: I recently made a film about hydrogen fuel cells and how a British scientist, Dr Tom Bacon developed fuel cells for the Apollo 11 command center. Nixon (okay, not a president known for his probity) told Bacon that there would have been no mission without Bacon and his fuel cells. Anyway, it made me consider this technology more seriously. At Cranfield University (there are other partners too) they are perfecting a hydrogen fuel cell car. If it was funded like electric -- an easier option for the automotive industry -- it would have taken off by now (to pun from the Apollo connection). Hugo Spowers who is masterminding the project is an ethical visionary. He used to work in Formula One racing -- hardly known for its ethical outlook -- then did a Schumacher course at Dartington, famed for its deep green economics. He also has an MBA from Cranfield and is running this project as a shared commons program. Extraordinarily enlightened. The batteries are being recharged in China currently having been tested into submission, but when they come back I'm hoping for a test drive.","highlights":"Eco journalist Lucy Siegle gives CNN her top practical green gadgets .\nSolar tent, world's smallest and greenest PC included in the list .\nSimple gadgets also on the list including energy efficient plug and solar lamp .","id":"2f85b0f58f82a77311b4a96f8901919482159b9d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dolton, Illinois, police officer assigned to a school was placed on administrative leave and later resigned after a surveillance video surfaced of him allegedly assaulting a special-needs student, officials said. Videotape allegedly shows an unidentified police officer assaulting student Marshawn Pitts, 15. Ed Manzke, an attorney who represents the student, Marshawn Pitts, 15, told CNN Wednesday the officer beat Pitts for not adhering to the school's dress code. The incident occurred in May at the Academy for Learning, a Dolton high school for special-needs students. Pitts was admitted to the school in May after moving from Iowa, Manzke said. He suffered brain injuries as a child when he was hit by a car. The police officer, who has not been identified, reprimanded Pitts for not tucking in his shirt as school dress code and policy requires. A video, released to Pitts' parents by the school several weeks after the incident, showed Pitts talking to the officer and a faculty member grabbing Pitts' arm. Pitts pulls away and walks down the hall, with the officer and faculty member close behind. But the officer then slams him against the lockers and pins him on the floor -- breaking his nose, according to Manzke. Pitts was treated by a school nurse after the incident, then taken to the Dolton Police Department, where his mother picked him up, Manzke said. The officer was taken to a hospital and treated for an eye scratch, Manzke said. But, he said, the officer was never charged with anything and an explanation for the incident was never provided. In a written statement, Guy Lindsay, internal information officer for Dolton police, said the department was made aware of the incident and the tape on May 20. After review of the tape, the officer was removed from the school and placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Lindsay said. While on administrative leave, the police officer returned to the department and voluntarily resigned, Lindsay said. The investigation continues, he said. In a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WGN, the Academy for Learning said it could not comment on an incident involving a specific student. But, the school said, \"Unfortunately, the physical restraint of a student sometimes becomes necessary. In such instances, AFL and its staff are committed to employing techniques that are safe, effective and which conform to best practice standards. \"Annually, a Behavioral Intervention Committee comprised of administrators, staff, union representatives and parents convenes to review restraint procedures. The AFL Behavior Management Team also participates in professional development and training regarding physical restraint on an annual basis. After a physical restraint occurs, the team meets to process, debrief and evaluate the incident and use of a physical restraint. AFL addresses the unauthorized or inappropriate use of a physical restraint, or improper techniques, as necessary, as an internal manner.\" Pitts' parents are considering litigation against the city of Dolton, the school and Dolton police, Manzke said. He added he is in talks with Dolton police to settle the case. If those talks are not fruitful, Manzke said, a lawsuit could be filed within a few weeks. Pitts is now living with his father and attending another school, Manzke said. CNN's Monica Trevino and Kara Devlin contributed to this report .","highlights":"Officer beat student for not adhering to school's dress code, says student's lawyer .\nIncident at Academy for Learning, a Dolton high school for special-needs students .\nStudent, Marshawn Pitts, 15, suffered brain injuries as a child in car accident .\nAcademy for Learning would not comment on incident involving a specific student .","id":"5a77829a1ce0a865e0fe9d38799de40312387601"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday for their World Cup qualifier against Cyprus next week, despite being under the cloud of a drug test controversy. Fabioo Cannavaro's proudest moment came in 2006 when he led Italy to World Cup glory. It was revealed on Thursday that the 36-year-old Juventus defender recently failed a drug test after taking a medicine that contained the banned substance cortisone. Cannavaro was interviewed by the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri on Thursday night in Turin but national coach Marcello Lippi does not expect his star to be absent from the squad. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" Lippi told reporters. \"Will he be here with us on Sunday? Of course he will. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" added national team doctor Enrico Castellacci. \"But he is calm and serene. This is just a bureaucratic case.\" Juventus claimed the defender needed cortisone treatment for an insect sting in August. The player requested an exemption from taking drugs tests on the grounds of having taken a medication in an emergency situation but his request did not include a document necessary to complete the application. While awaiting a decision, Cannavaro took an anti-doping test after a Serie A game at Roma which returned a positive result. \"When he came to the national team, after the Roma game, he told us what had happened and he told us that without the medicine that contained cortisone he would have had a reaction, an anaphylactic shock,\" Castellacci said. \"We asked Juventus for all the necessary documents regarding the medicine taken by Cannavaro and all the communication is in our possession.\" Cannavaro will not travel to Dublin for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Ireland as he serves a one-match ban, but is expected to lead the Azzurri in Wednesday's qualifier against Cyprus in Parma.","highlights":"Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday to face Cyprus .\nCannavaro tested positive for cortisone after having treatment for an insect bite .\nThe 36-year-old Juve defender has an allergy to insect bites which can be fatal .\nDefender was interviewed by Italian Olympic Committee anti-doping prosecutor .","id":"3c0a9207a1693ee474200e677045fdce30416cae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shortly after McDonald's celebrated its 30-year presence in France, the fast-food chain is conquering one of the country's most valued cultural institutions --the Louvre. McDonald's burgers and fries will be available under the glass pyramid of the Louvre. The restaurant will be serving its fast burgers in the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall which lies under the main entrance of the museum and which still contains an ancient wall that was discovered during construction works. McDonald's plans seem to have caused more media attention abroad than in France, but for some French outlets, the idea of combining fast food and ancient art is stomach churning. The Parisian Web site \"Louvre pour tous\" (Louvre for everyone) describes the company's plans to open a restaurant in the prestigious museum as \"bad taste\" and blamed the Louvre's directors for failing to prevent what could result in \"fragrances of fries drifting under Mona Lisa's nose\". Marion Benaiteau, spokeswoman for the museum, told CNN it was not their decision and declined to comment further on the issue. The Carrousel du Louvre mall is managed by Unibail-Rodamco, Europe's largest property company, and not the museum itself. The mall, which is situated next to the most visited museum in the world, counts 8.3 million visitors a year and enjoyed a total gross sales of $75 million in 2008. Le Parisien, a daily newspaper described the difference between McDonald's and the Louvre by comparing Ronald McDonald, the restaurant's clown character, to Venus de Milo, the famous ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite, which is on display at the Louvre. Should McDonald's be in the Louvre? Tell us what you think in the Soundoff box below. McDonald's sees the opening of its new restaurant next to the home of Mona Lisa as nothing out of the ordinary. \"There are already many other restaurants in the mall, so we will only be one of the many restaurants that offer visitors their products.\" said a spokeswoman for McDonald's in France, who declined to be named. \"There's even a Starbucks,\" she added. Museum lovers in France are shocked about the news, but not surprised, one told CNN. \"Museums have to offer services like restaurants and boutiques, it's completely normal,\" Jean-Michel Raingeard, President of the Federation of French Friends of Museums told CNN. What worries him, however, is the choice of shops. \"Museum directors seem to care more about the number of people they attract rather than the quality of people. Should a museum be a museum or an amusement park?\" asks Jean Michel Raingeard, who is also the European Vice President for The World Federation of Friends of Museums. Criticism, though fierce, has not halted the plans: construction work will start soon and the restaurant should be open \"by the end of the year,\" Mcdonald's said. The menu will also very likely stay the same. \"McDonald's functions the same way in all of France, so there will probably be no special menus,\" the spokeswoman said.","highlights":"McDonald's to open restaurant in the mall of the world's most visited museum .\nDecision has attracted criticisms there will be 'unpleasant smells' in the museum .\nThe restaurant is not the only fast food joint in the shopping mall .","id":"207de0451002dd5090468ad36390cd3cdc7b7704"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Switzerland's largest city has permitted the use of controversial posters which call for a ban on the construction of minarets on mosques in the European country. The Federal Commission against Racism said the posters defame Switzerland's peaceful Muslim population. The posters are part of a campaign by the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP) and feature a veiled woman against a background of a Swiss flag pierced by several minarets resembling missiles. The cities of Basel and Lausanne have described the posters as racist and banned them in publicly-owned spaces. However, Zurich is among a clutch of cities that have chosen not to prohibit them. According to the SVP, the minarets symbolize ideological opposition to the country's constitution. Switzerland will hold a national referendum on the issue on November 29. According to Agence France-Presse, an opinion poll by the daily Tages-Anzeiger showed more than 51 percent of Swiss voters are against any ban on minaret construction. The Swiss government and all the other major political parties are recommending a \"no\" vote, while local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have joined forces to reject a ban, AFP added. The mayor of Zurich, Corine Mauch, told CNN that the decision on the poster was taken on the basis of political freedom of speech in the run-up to November's vote. \"While we disapprove of the posters we took the decision after legal consultations. \"We consulted the Federal Commission against Racism and spoke to Muslim communities in the city, but decided banning the posters from public spaces would draw more attention to the issue.\" Do you agree with the Zurich decision? However, the Federal Commission against Racism said in a statement Wednesday that the posters \"defame Switzerland's peaceful Muslim population, feed prejudice, and portray the Muslim community as wanting to dominate Switzerland, oppress women and trample on fundamental rights.\" The SVP have courted controversy with their campaigns in the past. In 2007 they faced international criticism for leading an anti-immigration campaign during the federal election that featured a poster with a white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag. Under party leader Christoph Blocher they went on to win the biggest share of the vote in the 200-member parliament, taking 55 seats. Earlier this year they issued a poster depicting crows pecking at a map of Switzerland, as the country prepared to vote on whether to support an extension of a free movement of labor deal with the European Union which would include new members, Bulgaria and Romania.","highlights":"Posters call for a ban on the construction of minarets on mosques .\nPosters are part of a campaign by the nationalist Swiss People's Party .\nSVP says they symbolize ideological opposition to the country's constitution .\nZurich decides against ban on posters on freedom of speech grounds .","id":"46150583888893136a77afc7e6a1e455b4e3f70e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A small, rural town in the hills of New Hampshire was jolted by a home invasion over the weekend that left a mother dead and her young daughter severely injured. Steven Spader, 17, is accused of using a machete to kill a woman and injure her daughter. \"This type of murder does not happen very often,\" New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said. \"This is something out of the ordinary.\" Four teenagers have been charged in connection with the incident early Sunday morning along an isolated dirt road in Mont Vernon, a town of about 2,000. In a news release Tuesday, the New Hampshire Department of Justice identified the victim as 42-year-old Kimberly Cates. The medical examiner determined that she died from \"multiple sharp injuries to the head, torso, left arm, and left leg.\" The victim's 10-year-old daughter sustained serious knife injuries that required hours of surgery. \"She's still in the intensive care unit,\" Delker said. \"Her injuries weren't life-threatening, but you shouldn't minimize the severities of the injuries she suffered.\" Delker said Kimberly Cates' husband was away on business at the time of the attack. Cates was a registered nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire. \"She worked part time in our maternal and labor department and also in our emergency department,\" Sarah Ward, director of marketing and communications for the hospital, said Tuesday. \"The staff is pretty upset about it. They were pretty close to her.\" \"The people up here aren't used to this kind of thing,\" Don Himsel, senior photo editor for the Nashua Telegraph, said Tuesday. \"This never really happens.\" Himsel also said violent crime is extremely rare in Mont Vernon. \"I think we may have had one assault in town in the last 10 years.\" The Mont Vernon Congregational Church opened its doors Wednesday for people who want to grieve, pray and meditate. \"This is a way to come together peacefully; that's what we are trying to do,\" church official Jane Nilles said Wednesday. \"The church understands that there are people hurting on both sides. This is a time to pray and ask for God's presence right now. It is a time to gather and to pray.\" On Tuesday, the state Department of Justice announced the arrests of the four teenagers accused of taking part in the crimes. Steven Spader, 17, and Christopher Gribble, 19, were charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. William Marks, 18, and Quinn Glover, 17, were charged with burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and armed robbery. \"The allegations are that Spader wielded the machete and Gribble used the knife, and each of them struck the victims,\" Delker said. Delker, who described the case as being in its earliest stages, said prosecutors will evaluate whether additional charges will be brought or upgraded. \"Under New Hampshire law, anyone 17 and older is charged as an adult,\" Delker said. A probable cause hearing for the suspects will be held October 20.","highlights":"Four teens charged in Sunday incident in Mont Vernon .\n42-year-old woman was killed; 10-year-old daughter severely injured .\nWoman's husband was away on business at time of incident .\n\"This type of murder does not happen very often,\" state official says .","id":"f39b9b7fc62d30bc62925db3dd2e5f6e896447e1"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered his government to take down concrete blast walls that line Baghdad's streets and surround whole neighborhoods, the Iraqi military announced Thursday. The walls split Baghdad along sectarian lines, shielding some from Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents. \"The concrete walls will be taken off from the main roads and side streets in all Baghdad areas, with no exceptions and within 40 days,\" a statement from Iraqi military's Baghdad Operations Command read. The massive concrete barriers, typically 3 meters (10 feet) tall, were quickly erected around many Baghdad buildings after the U.S. invasion in 2003. They mushroomed during the sectarian warfare that followed the 2006 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, when they were put up to separate Shiite and Sunni districts across Baghdad. While they split the city along sectarian lines, they also managed to protect neighborhood residents from Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents and helped U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces manage security within them. The order does not cover the Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. Embassy, or military installations, government institutions, hotels or some private companies. The order came after meeting Wednesday with high-ranking security officials, according to the command. Iraqi forces are now calling the shots on issues related to security in their homeland since June 30, the date U.S. combat troops were mandated to leave Iraqi cities and towns pursuant to a joint security agreement.","highlights":"Walls will be removed from main roads, side streets within 40 days, statement says .\nThe massive concrete barriers about 10 feet tall went up after U.S. invasion .\nOrder does not cover Green Zone, military installations, government institutions .\nThe walls helped U.S. troops, Iraqi forces manage security within them .","id":"4014037362172f566321477888d61003e9c5e97e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With the movie \"Zombieland\" sitting on top at the box office, fans of the walking dead got another grisly, ghoulish treat on Wednesday. \"He's so meticulous,\" author Max Brooks said of \"Recorded Attacks\" illustrator Ibraim Roberson: . \"The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks,\" the latest in the series of zombie chronicles by author Max Brooks, is a graphic novel that looks at the undead menace throughout history. \"When I wrote 'Zombie Survival Guide,' I always wanted to come back to the historic attacks at the end of the book,\" said Brooks, whose \"World War Z\" is in development to become a movie. View a gallery of essential zombie movies . In the book, illustrated by Brazilian artist Ibraim Roberson, cavemen, the Roman legions and African slaves all battle the undead with varying degrees of success. \"More than a zombie nerd or a science fiction nerd, I'm a history nerd,\" said Brooks. \"I was a history major in college -- history is probably the only subject that allowed me to graduate high school.\" And in a move sure to please genre fans -- Brooks might say \"genre nerds\" -- there's even a scrap in feudal Japan between zombies and ninjas. \"It's never a bad thing to put zombies and ninjas together,\" said Brooks, whose father is comedy legend Mel Brooks. In looking for the right artist to set his story to a comic format, Brooks said he reviewed lots of artists before settling on Roberson. \"He's head and shoulders above most people illustrating today,\" Brooks said. \"The book itself is unique and I wanted a unique look. His artwork is unlike anything else I've ever seen, zombies or otherwise ... . He's so meticulous.\" But turning his work into a two-person job required some extra effort. The former \"Saturday Night Live\" writer said he hadn't worked with a collaborator since being on the show. Roberson was in Brazil during the writing of the book. \"It was definitely a new world for me to sharpen my communication skills,\" he said. \"Usually, the way I worked was brain to pen to paper. Now it was brain to e-mail.\" Next up for Brooks, he said, is a writing project he deems \"top secret\" and a comic-book mini-series for IDW Publishing detailing the classic comic\/action figure characters of \"G.I. Joe.\" \"They're not continuing stories,\" he said of the project with the working title, \"Hearts and Minds. \"They're up-close and personal stories for G.I. Joe and Cobra characters.\"","highlights":"\"Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks\" released Wednesday .\nAuthor Max Brooks says he's always been a \"history nerd\"\nRomans, cavemen and ninjas all get a crack at undead in graphic novel .\nBrooks and Brazilian artist Ibraim Roberson worked remotely on project .","id":"8f28c1ea470bcf1a20ef3e99d67bf4d93eec01f9"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Who is stealing -- and crashing -- airplanes in Washington state? Police say they found this self-portrait of Colton Harris-Moore in the deleted file of a stolen digital camera. The 18-year-old man police call the prime suspect does not have a pilot's license. But he does have a nickname -- \"The Barefoot Burglar\" -- and a Facebook fan club, which compares him to Jesse James \"without the murders\" and exhorts: \"Fly, Colt, Fly.\" Police say Colton \"Colt\" Harris-Moore has been linked to crimes in five counties involving planes, luxury cars and boats. He's known to alternate between squatting in vacant vacation homes, which he allegedly burglarizes, and roughing it in the woods. Since November, police say, at least three small, private planes have been stolen and flown away. The latest to go missing crash-landed last week in a clearing in Granite Falls, Washington, after running out of fuel, police said. The rough landing damaged the Cessna 182, which along with its instruments is worth more than $500,000. But authorities said the plane's pilot appears to have walked away unhurt. Harris-Moore has not been charged in any of the plane thefts. But authorities are testing vomit found in the cockpit of one plane to see whether they can place the teen inside. Harris-Moore has been on authorities' radar for years. \"Colt,\" as he is called, was first arrested for burglary at age 12, said Detective Ed Wallace, a spokesman for the Island County Sheriff's Office. The break-in at a local school earned Colton a few weeks in a juvenile facility, Wallace said. Local media reports tally nine arrests for Harris-Moore before the age of 15. Now police in five counties in Washington state are looking for him. Harris-Moore dropped out of high school and, according to Wallace, police believe he spent his teens burglarizing unoccupied homes on Camano Island, a vacation community of about 15,000 people off the Washington state coast. He became known as \"the Barefoot Burglar,\" because, investigators say, he preferred to prowl shoeless. Gradually, Wallace alleges, Harris-Moore moved onto more sophisticated crimes. \"He will typically break into a home or vehicle and copy down the credit card numbers,\" Wallace said. \"He then leaves the credit cards behind so people don't realize they have been stolen.\" Wallace said Harris-Moore has charged thousands of dollars worth of video games, GPS devices and police scanners online, using stolen credit cards. When Harris-Moore wasn't squatting in homes, he took to the woods with survival gear to elude police. He's been known to hide in the trees. \"He's almost like a feral child,\" Wallace said. Harris-Moore's days of running from authorities on the 40-square-mile island appeared to end in 2007 when he was arrested and pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary. Wallace said some of the charges were dismissed as part of the guilty plea. Less than a year later, Wallace said, Harris-Moore allegedly walked away from a juvenile halfway house. Police on Camano Island again began receiving reports of thefts that fit Harris-Moore's profile, Wallace said. In 2008, a deputy said he spotted Harris-Moore in a stolen Mercedes-Benz, but he lost the suspect when he allegedly dove from the moving vehicle. After the chase, police recovered a stolen digital camera from the car. Wallace said he found a deleted self-portrait of Harris-Moore, who posed in a shirt with a telltale Mercedes-Benz insignia. The shirt also belonged to the vehicle's owner. Harris-Moore faces 10 counts in that case, as well as other thefts, Internet crimes and burglaries, Wallace said. Charges are expected soon in a dozen more cases. Harris-Moore dropped from sight for a while when wanted posters of him went up around Camano Island. Soon, though, authorities in the San Juan Islands noticed a series of break-ins and wondered whether Harris-Moore was island-hopping. The theft of a Cessna 182 from the San Juan Islands in November jogged Wallace's memory. He recalled what he had found on a computer he said Harris-Moore used. \"He had looked at flight manuals and how to fly a plane,\" he said. Another theft of a small experimental plane had been reported in September. John Zerby, undersheriff of San Juan County, said police don't think the two thefts are a coincidence. \"This doesn't happen here, that's why we think they go together,\" he said. Police consider Harris-Moore to be a fugitive. Even though Harris-Moore has no known flight training, Zerby said police are certain he is their mystery pilot. Harris-Moore's mother doubts her son learned to fly on his own. \"Any time anything is stolen, they blame it on Colt,\" Pam Kohler told the Everett Herald newspaper. \"Let's say you're the smartest person in the world. Wouldn't you need a little bit of training in flying a plane? They're not easy.\" CNN attempted to contact Kohler, but her phone was disconnected. CNN also tried to reach a former attorney for Harris-Moore but the lawyer has not returned calls requesting comment. Experts said that teaching oneself to fly is difficult but not impossible. \"It's been heard of,\" said flight instructor Devin Tolentino. \"Let's face it, the Wright brothers were able to teach themselves. Landing would be the hardest part, but if you weren't too concerned about using the plane again, it could be done.\" Meanwhile, authorities in Whatcom County are investigating whether Harris-Moore stole a boat and used it to reach Point Roberts, where burglaries at three vacation homes have recently been reported, Deputy Jeff Roberts said. Point Roberts, a small peninsula, is U.S. territory but is accessible only from the water or through Canada. From parts of Point Roberts, entering Canada is just a matter of crossing the street. Last week, law enforcement agencies got a new lead when a private plane was stolen in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, just across the border from Canada. Residents noticed a plane flying at an altitude of 100 feet as it left the area on Tuesday, said Detective Dave McClelland. The plane was found Thursday, crashed and out of fuel in a patch of cleared forest in Granite Falls, Washington. On Sunday, authorities say they received a report of a burglary. \"Blankets, shoes and food [were] taken instead of big-ticket items like TVs,\" said sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover. A gunshot rang out as deputies searched the woods and came across some of the stolen items, Hover said. No one was injured, but the SWAT team was called in. Police searched the area, using a helicopter with an infrared heat detection scanner and another Blackhawk helicopter provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Low-tech police work led to Harris-Moore's arrest in 2005. Police staked out his mother's house, waiting until someone inside ordered a pizza. Police rode in the delivery car to the house and waited for Harris-Moore to come to them.","highlights":"Police believe Colton Harris-Moore may be stealing, crash-landing small planes .\nHarris-Moore, 18, is well-known to authorities in Washington state .\nHe allegedly has been breaking into buildings since he was 12 .\nKnown as the \"Barefoot Burglar,\" Harris-Moore has a Facebook fan club .","id":"bbc00a59699094ef50849a049002c1890f5ec111"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He's already served the time, but lawyers Thursday argued to clear his name as onetime U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith appeals a conviction for the torture of detainees once held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Abu Ghraib prison was taken over by the Iraqi government after claims of abuse by U.S. troops. Disturbing snapshots and video portraying sexual humiliation and physical intimidation against the detainees tarnished the image of the United States as it fought to stabilize Iraq after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein. A military panel found Smith guilty in March 2006 on allegations that he used his military working dog to illegally \"terrorize and frighten\" detainees as part of interrogation techniques at the U.S.-managed facility in Baghdad. But his lawyer, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Potter, told a military appeals court Thursday that the conviction was based on faulty instructions to the jury. \"Nowhere in this case did the government establish that the use of the dog was illegal,\" the defense counsel said, noting that Smith \"was not trained in interrogation techniques.\" The military's prosecutor, U.S. Army Maj. Karen Borgerding, argued that Smith \"would know it's unlawful\" to use his unmuzzled dog to snarl within inches of a detained prisoner's face. Smith was originally sentenced to 179 days confinement and received a bad conduct discharge. Smith was not in the courtroom for the proceedings. Potter told CNN that he was not authorized to disclose his whereabouts but confirmed that his client remains on \"appeal release\" status after completing a three-month sentence. If the appeal fails, the discharge stands. If the appeals court overturns the conviction, Smith could return to the military and may receive back pay, pension and other benefits. The judges did not indicate when they may rule after each side presented oral arguments Thursday. At the 2006 court-martial, the jury found Smith guilty of charges that he used his military dog, Marco, to terrify prisoners, allegedly for amusement and in competition with other soldiers. Smith also was found guilty of an indecent act involving his dog. A female soldier testified on the first day of the court-martial that she had allowed Smith's dog to lick peanut butter she had placed on her bare chest as part of a dare from another soldier, who videotaped the stunt. \"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile,\" Smith said of the incident, reading from a statement. \"There's nothing I can do to take it back. If I could, I would.\" Smith did not specifically express regret for the wrongdoing involving detainees.","highlights":"Former Sgt. Michael Smith served three months on torture conviction .\nLawyer says Smith didn't know it was illegal to use working dog to threaten detainees .\nSmith could return to military if conviction is overturned .","id":"8f497103686329bc3cf1a9eb4432d3ae16eeeccf"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- George Lucas didn't get to be a billionaire by delegating. George Lucas says he was \"completely surprised\" by \"Star Wars in Concert.\" Holding fast to his vision -- and his marketing rights -- for the \"Star Wars\" empire has made it the biggest franchise in history, and made Lucas one of the most powerful people in entertainment. But while he's enthusiastic about the new touring show \"Star Wars In Concert,\" it wasn't his idea, and when I talked with him before the first Los Angeles performance this week, he kept giving the credit to others. \"Star Wars In Concert\" is built around John Williams' well-known scores from the films, performed by a symphony orchestra and choir, and accompanied by specially edited clips from all six movies, displayed on a mammoth LED screen. Anthony Daniels, who has played and voiced the golden protocol droid \"C3PO\" in every film and most of the spinoffs, provides live narration -- and another reason for the \"Star Wars\" fans in the audience, especially those waving lightsabers and dressed as everything from sand people to Imperial stormtroopers, to cheer mightily, as they did the night I interviewed Lucas. iReporter praises the 'Force' of the show . George Lucas: I've seen some presentations of, you know, live orchestras with \"Star Wars\" clips, and that sort of thing. But this is so much more than that -- it's so much more emotional, because what they've done is taken the emotional content of the score ... one is obviously the Imperial March, one is obviously romantic ... and then they've cut all the pictures around that from all the movies, so that you get this really wide range of visuals going with the music, and it really is quite powerful when you see the depictions of all of the various Imperial shenanigans that were going on over the Imperial March. CNN: Obviously, when John Williams did the music for the original film, neither of you could have guessed your association would last so long, or that you'd be so identified with each other. How did he get involved originally? Lucas: What I did was, I was doing this space opera, and I was talking to Steve Spielberg and I said, \"Look, I've got to get somebody who really knows the old-fashioned music score, I really am doing some giant romantic action adventure, you know, throwback to the '30s, and who do you know that can do that?\" And he said, \"Oh, there's only one person who can do that and that's John Williams -- he did 'Jaws' and he's perfect.\" And I said OK, and I met him, and we hit it off, you know, perfectly, and doing the first film was such a great experience -- he's so wonderful to work with -- that, you know, I'll never let him go. And Steve won't let him go either! CNN: How did this show come together? Lucas: Howard! [Lucas calls over Howard Roffman, the president of Lucas Licensing.] You're the man who did the whole thing -- I've got nothing to do with it. ... We would kid him about how his concert was going and he had to get Johnny [Williams] to buy in and me to buy in. Howard Roffman: Well, he always got it from the beginning, so he was an easy sell. CNN: But what was it he \"got\"? How did you sell him on a new concept for his franchise? Roffman: I think he understood that the music was so powerful and the images are so powerful that when you put that together with a live orchestra on a big venue, I mean, who would not be thrilled to see that? CNN: It's a very different experience, being live. Lucas: It's very powerful. I was completely surprised by it. And I've seen other live orchestra performances with \"Star Wars\" images, but nothing like this -- I mean this really works, because it was edited specifically to bring out the emotion.","highlights":"\"Star Wars in Concert' features John Williams' music and scenes from films .\nGeorge Lucas supported idea, though he's quick to give credit to others .\nEffect of the arrangement? \"It's very powerful,\" says Lucas .\n\"Star Wars\" remains a tremendously successful franchise .","id":"7134dace553e71e0d495e7498fbe0194fb4b4d14"} -{"article":"LONDON (CNN) -- Did President Obama land a Nobel peace prize at such an early stage of his presidency simply because he's not George W. Bush? A \"surprised and humbled\" Obama said he would accept the Nobel peace prize as a \"call to action.\" Diplomatic circles are certainly not dismissing such a notion and a \"surprised and humbled\" Obama has himself agreed that the award (for which nominations had to be submitted only two weeks after his inauguration) can hardly have been a recognition of anything he has yet accomplished. It is a prize for aspiration rather than achievement. One of the best deliberate laughs Bush obtained in his last days in office came when he expressed himself pleased at the street reception during his attendance at a NATO summit in Romania. \"A lot of the crowd were waving... some of them with all five fingers,\" he said. Bush was acknowledging that many in Old Europe at least could not wait to say goodbye to a man whom they saw as a Cold Warrior at heart, the president who had led the world into a disastrous intervention in Iraq and a man heading a gas-guzzling nation who was not prepared to help the world cope with climate change. For many Europeans, the chief concern through the long, drawn-out race for the Democratic nomination and through the presidential election was that the result should give them anybody but Bush. Watch reaction in Europe to Obama's award . They were uneasy about his missile defense shield plans to base U.S. military installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. They felt he had never lived up to his pledge to work as hard on the Middle East peace process as Tony Blair had done on bringing peace to Northern Ireland. Especially they felt that the internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and the \"extraordinary rendition\" to countries where terror suspects might have been tortured was an affront to democracy which besmirched the reputation not only of the U.S. but of its allies, too. Europeans were alarmed that Bush seemed to be encouraging the climate change deniers. And although he became readier to listen to his European allies during his second term, they never really took to the man whose instinctive response was to use America's military might in the world's trouble spots rather than to stay at the negotiating table and who had little time for the United Nations. Couple that with the words in the Norwegian Nobel Committee's citation that the peace prize is being awarded to Obama \"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples\" and that they have \"attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,\" and the message is clear. Unusually, this is a world statesman being rewarded not for what he has done but for representing a new beginning. As Mikhail Gorbachev was quick to point out, the Obama presidency is a big signal -- \"He has given hope.\" By commenting approvingly that Obama has created a new climate in international politics, with emphasis on the role of diplomacy and of the United Nations, the Nobel Committee is clearly encouraging the new president, after just eight months in office, to continue with a style that Europeans find much more comfortable than that of Bush and the neo-conservatives. Those who worked with Bush are likely to feel aggrieved and to maintain that they, too, were working for the extension of democracy for which Obama is now being commended. As Europe digested the news of the prize, nobody wanted to go public with critical comment on a man who is still seen across Europe as a beacon of hope. But there were off-the-record mutters that this was all somewhat premature. Cool heads were noting that while intentions have been expressed, there has been no significant progress yet on the Middle East peace process. The proposed closedown of Guantanamo Bay has been announced but it has not happened. There are still large numbers of American troops in Iraq and the numbers in Afghanistan are likely to be increased. While Obama has spoken of his hope of agreeing with Russia on a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads, we are nowhere near to seeing an end to nuclear weapons, which are currently in the possession of the U.S., Russia, China, India, the United Kingdom, France, Pakistan and Israel. Obama may want the Senate to ratify the test-ban treaty but that has not happened yet and his moves on climate change, too, will require congressional compliance. The truth, say many continental commentators, is that Obama deserves a badge for effort -- an effort begun by scrapping the missile shield development in Poland and the Czech Republic -- but a peace prize is a step too far at such an early stage. He is being rewarded not for solid achievement but for creating new hope -- in effect, for not being Bush. It may well be, as President Sarkozy of France has declared, that the award \"confirms finally America's return to the hearts of the people of the world.\" But some fear that America's conservatives will take it as a sign of weakness and become more obstructive to Obama's aims. Meanwhile, others are wondering: \"What on earth will they give him when he does have a real achievement to point to?\"","highlights":"Oakley: Obama's Nobel an award for aspiration rather than achievement .\nEuropeans had hopes that Bush's successor would be different .\nNobel committee said Obama had created favorable international political climate .\nSome commentators say Obama should be saluted for effort but not yet a Nobel .","id":"70f76004c5aafe4787cfca741f1d4b40af51c01e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Didier Drogba came off the bench to rescue a point for Ivory Coast as they drew 1-1 with Malawi on Saturday to book their place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Didier Drogba scored for Ivory Coast as they drew 1-1 with Malawi to book their place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Ivory Coast needed only a point from their match with the bottom-placed team in African qualifying Group E but found themselves a goal down in the 64th minute when Jacob Ngwira put the hosts ahead at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre. Elephants coach Vahid Halilhodzic responded by throwing on Chelsea striker Drogba who was able to level the scores in the 67th minute. Malawi pushed for a winner as the second half wore on but were unable to add to the score and Ivory Coast secured the point they required for qualification. The result brought Ivory Coast's 100 percent run in the group to an end but ensured they will feature in the World Cup Finals for a second time following their debut appearance in 2006. Malawi also improved their chances of qualifying for the African Cup of Nations by moving third with four points, just behind Burkina Faso who have six and Guinea who are now last with three points. Elsewhere in the African qualifying zone Egypt recorded a 1-0 win over Zambia in their Group C clash in Konkola to potentially set up a deciding match with Algeria in Cairo next month. Egypt were on the back foot in the first half and were indebted to goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary who frustrated the Zambia fans with several fine saves as the visitors struggled to get to grips with the pitch at the Konkola Stadium. But the Pharaohs were a much-improved side after the half-time break and Hosny Abd-Rabou secured all three points with the only goal of the game in the 68th minute. Egypt defender Sayed Moawad laid off the ball for Abd-Rabou to fire a powerful right-footed shot past Zambia goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene and into the top corner of the net. The result means qualification will go right down to the wire even if Algeria take maximum points from their clash with bottom side Rwanda on Sunday and go three points clear of Egypt at the top of the group. Cameroon moved a step closer to qualification as they remained top of Group A with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Togo in Yaounde. The Indomitable Lions took the lead in the 32nd minute through Newcastle midfielder Geremi when he smashed home the rebound after Togo goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale had saved his initial shot from the penalty spot. Lyon's Jean Makoun doubled the advantage two minutes after the interval after he tapped home following a mazy dribble by Samuel Eto'o and Achille Emana made the points safe in the 52nd minute with a low drive. Gabon remain a point behind Cameroon after they clinched a 3-1 win over Morocco in Libreville having taken the lead after Hicham Mahdoufi put through his own net moments before half-time. Eric Mouloungou and Daniel Cousin gave Gabon a three-goal lead before Adel Taarabt pulled one back for Morocco with a late consolation. Paul Le Guen's Cameroon side, who had looked doubtful to qualify when he took over, are in pole position at the top of the group with 10 points ahead of Gabon on nine, Togo on five and Morocco with three.","highlights":"Striker Didier Drogba scored as Ivory Coast drew 1-1 with Malawi in Blantyre .\nThe result ensured Ivory Cost qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa .\nEgypt kept alive their qualification hopes with a 1-0 win over Zambia in Konkola .\nCameroon moved a step closer to qualification after their 3-0 win over Togo .","id":"50ccccdfeb180955eb32eeb12ea03f34d6eca985"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Atlanta rapper DeAndre Cortez Way, better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em or just Soulja Boy, was charged with obstruction after running from police despite an order to stop, a police spokesman said Friday. Rapper Soulja Boy was arrested in Georgia after allegedly running from police. The 19-year-old singer was among a large group that had gathered at a home in Stockbridge, 20 miles south of Atlanta, said Henry County, Georgia, police Capt. Jason Bolton. Way was arrested Wednesday night along with another man, Bolton said. Police said Way left jail Thursday after posting a $550 bond. Bolton said officers responded to a complaint about a group of youths milling around the house, which appeared to be abandoned. When police arrived, they saw about 40 people. Half of them ran away, including Way, Bolton said. The ones who remained told officers they were at the home to film a video. Way was arrested when he returned to the house to get his car, Bolton said. He said the house was dark inside and looked abandoned. \"He just ran from the police, and then he decided to come back,\" according to Bolton. The second man who returned for his vehicle was arrested after police found eight $100 counterfeit bills inside, according to the officer. Way broke into the music scene two years ago with his hit \"Crank That (Soulja Boy).\" The rapper also describes himself as a producer and entrepreneur.","highlights":"Rapper Soulja Boy arrested after allegedly running from police in Georgia .\nOfficers responded to a report of a large group gathered near a house .\nWitnesses told police the group was filming a video .\nArtist taken into custody after he returned to the scene to get his car, police say .","id":"409dee9e08aec60ee94bae505222eedad8b0e2eb"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Iran's trial of more than 100 people who it has linked to post-election unrest is a \"sign of weakness\" and shows that the Islamic republic \"is afraid of its own people,\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN Thursday. Iran is \"afraid of the truth and the facts coming out,\" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. \"It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it,\" Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in a wide-ranging interview to be broadcast on his \"GPS\" program Sunday. \"It demonstrates I think better than any of us could ever say that this Iranian leadership is afraid of their own people, and afraid of the truth and the facts coming out.\" Clinton spoke to Zakaria during her visit to Africa. Those on trial include Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, who has dual citizenship in Iran and Canada, and Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar. The trial, which began over the weekend, is scheduled to resume Saturday, according to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency. This week, the State Department issued a statement expressing deep concern for Tajbakhsh. \"Given that the charges facing Mr. Tajbakhsh are without foundation, we call on Iran's leadership to release Mr. Tajbakhsh without delay,\" State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Tuesday, reading a prepared statement. \"He has played absolutely no role in the election and poses no threat to the Iranian government or its national security.\" Wood said Tajbakhsh has not been provided an attorney, which he is entitled to, and warned Iran that \"the world is watching what is happening in Iran and will bear witness.\" Speaking on Thursday, Clinton said the United States also has \"expressed our concern about Mr. Bahari's confinement and trial\" to Canada's government, and offered its help. All of those on trial in Iran -- who include Iranian journalists and supporters of the opposition -- have been charged for their alleged roles in protests that followed last month's disputed presidential election. The June 12 election gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office, but it also sparked a massive opposition movement that has regularly protested against the Iranian leadership and has shaken the foundation of Iran's Islamic theocracy. Those on trial will be placed into three categories, according to Fars: the \"plotters, intriguers, and planners of the riots\"; \"the antagonists and those affiliated to foreign services\"; and \"the opportunists, hooligans, and hoodlums who set ablaze, or destroyed private and public properties, and those that have had hands in disturbing public security.\"","highlights":"\"It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it,\" Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria .\nAmong the accused is journalist Maziar Bahari, a dual citizen of Iran and Canada .\nIranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh also is charged with crimes .\nInterview with the secretary of state will be broadcast on \"GPS\" Sunday .","id":"3f02d946f5ece02957ed52958fd906a9cf332b85"} -{"article":"VERACRUZ, Mexico (CNN) -- The dead always tell a story. And in Mexico that story is the fight for the right to meet U.S. demand for illegal drugs -- a war becoming more violent and ruthless, mostly because of one group. Suspected members of Los Zetas drug cartel are presented to reporters in Mexico City in April. Its name is Los Zetas. Imagine a band of U.S. Green Berets going rogue and offering their services and firepower to drug cartels. That's what happened in Mexico in the 1990s. Commandos from the Mexican army deserted and set up a cartel, known as Los Zetas. The U.S. government says Los Zetas is \"the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico.\" Los Zetas are blamed for last week's brutal killings of the police chief in the southern Mexican city of Veracruz, his wife and four children. The way in which the killers carried out their crime sent a message. At 5 a.m. on July 29, two cars pulled up in front of the police chief's house, and eight or nine gunmen got out, armed with assault rifles and 40 mm grenade launchers. They blasted their way into the house, and it took them less than five minutes to execute Jesus Antonio Romero, his wife, also a police officer, and their son. The gunmen then set the house on fire, killing the remaining three children, all girls. Watch scenes of the escalating drug war in Veracruz \u00bb . With their fierce weaponry and military expertise, Los Zetas are considered the most formidable enemy in the drug war. \"The Zetas have obviously assumed the role of being the No. 1 organization responsible for the majority of the homicides, the narcotic-related homicides, the beheadings, the kidnappings, the extortions that take place in Mexico,\" said Ralph Reyes, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's chief for Mexico and Central America. The fight against Los Zetas will take years, Reyes said. \"They continue to train new recruits through several campaigns. One of them is the very open and public narco banners that they post around the country of Mexico, specifically tailored to the military and [saying] that they will offer better pay and better benefits if they join the ranks of the Zetas,\" Reyes said from his Washington office, where he directs the U.S. battle against Los Zetas. With its mastery of combat, Reyes said, the organized crime network operates more like a U.S. infantry company patrolling the streets of Falluja, Iraq, than a street gang. Newspapers in Veracruz have headlines almost every day about drug cartels' bloody violence, more often than not linked to Los Zetas. The DEA said that although the group originally was based on military lines, the cartel has been built into a business structure, with quarterly meetings, business ledgers, even votes on key assassinations. And now Los Zetas are taxing businesses beyond their drug reach -- from human trafficking across the U.S. border to, as one recent scandal showed, imposing a kind of tax on the Mexican government. The state oil company has been bleeding billions to corrupt officials linked to Los Zetas. And, as a DEA agent recently said, the American border makes no difference to Los Zetas. It doesn't matter if violence is perpetrated on the Mexican or U.S. side of the border. Inside the United States, one of the instruments of assassination Los Zetas unleashed was teenager Rosalio Reta. Given six months of military training in Mexico, he was sent across the border to target rival drug gangs. He was 13 years old when he committed his first killing. \"I loved doing it,\" Reta says in a police interrogation tape. \"Killing that first person, I loved it. I thought I was Superman.\" U.S. officials have said there are many more like him.","highlights":"U.S. labels Los Zetas as Mexico's most \"sophisticated and dangerous cartel\"\nLos Zetas cartel formed by commandos who deserted from Mexican army in '90s .\nLos Zetas blamed for last week's brutal killings of police chief and family .\nAmerican border makes no difference to Los Zetas, DEA agent says .","id":"75cb1cf30a9ec256ccb3a3f24b292e7eaf91cc59"} -{"article":"Editor's note: John Feehery worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients that include News Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. John Feehery says he's proud Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, but now the president needs to earn it. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Usually, when a president wins the Nobel Peace Prize, it is uniformly seen as a positive development for America and for the world. Both opponents and allies tend to celebrate the fact that an American president actually got recognized by a bunch of Norwegians for something he achieved. But with Barack Obama, who surprisingly picked up his first Nobel Prize on Friday, the reaction was not altogether positive from either the left or the right. You would expect that conservatives would raise questions about the president's award. Conservatives raise questions about everything the president does. But liberals also joined in. Mickey Kaus of Slate said that the president should say thanks, but no thanks. \"Turn it down! Politely decline. Say he's honored but he hasn't had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish.\" Liberal columnist Richard Cohen wrote a mocking column, comparing Obama's award to a fictional award given to Sarah Palin for promising to \"read a book someday.\" We are all glad that Norway loves Obama, but come on. Let's get serious. I am reminded of when Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf decided to retire the jersey of longtime White Sox player Harold Baines. It was a little premature for Baines to get his uniform retired when he himself was playing for another team. (Baines played a couple more years, surely the only instance where a player's uniform was retired before the player was.) Awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is similarly premature. In fact, the White House seemed as surprised as anybody about the gesture. I imagine that when Obama first picked up the line, he thought it was a crank call. \"I won what?\" he must have exclaimed. But it is no joke. It seems that President Obama won his first Nobel Peace Prize, for, well, being President Obama. Just the very idea of a President Obama is enough to make the Nobel Selection Committee swoon. The president said he was humbled by this award. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, he has much to be humble about. When it comes to peace, it is hard to see what notable accomplishments have been achieved thus far in the Obama presidency. That is not a slap at him. Peace takes time. It took John Hume and David Trimble about 30 years of really hard and dangerous work in Northern Ireland before they got a Nobel Peace Prize. And despite all of that hard work, peace and reconciliation is still elusive in that region. Mr. Obama hasn't even been able to get a peace deal between Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who continue to snipe at each other over the health care public option and Afghanistan. Peace hasn't exactly broken out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, or Iran either. Nobel Prizes usually go for some fairly notable accomplishments. Nelson Mandela spent much of his life protesting apartheid and serving a prison sentence. He is a man who deserved a peace prize. Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the Soviet Union to collapse without much of a whimper. That was an accomplishment that deserved a peace prize. But what exactly has President Obama done to deserve such an award? And if he actually does something in the future, does that mean he gets another one? Apparently, the voting on the peace prize started shortly after the president was sworn in. Perhaps he is getting the peace prize because of his inaugural address. Yep, a lot of people came to that speech, and peace mostly reigned on that day (except for those people with tickets to the Inauguration who got stuck in the \"purple tunnel\" in Washington). But I don't think he deserves a peace prize for that. I guess he got the prize because he was elected president and he wasn't George Bush. Well, if that is the case, maybe all of those millions of Americans who voted for him should share the prize, because they actually did most of the work. They voted. As an American, I am proud that our president was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Now, I, like many others on the right and the left, would like to see him do something to earn it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Feehery.","highlights":"John Feehery: Obama's Nobel Prize win surprised the right, the left, Obama himself .\nHard to see any notable achievements for peace by Obama so far, Feehery says .\nHe says Obama won because he was elected president and wasn't George Bush .\nObama voters should share the prize, because they elected him, Feehery says .","id":"f10087b95d5cfba0e1f5bded689acba65ffb3d76"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The new horror movie \"Paranormal Activity\" could be filling movie studio marketing departments with fear. \"Paranormal Activity\" tells the story of a couple determined to discover if their house is haunted. Using a campaign of limited showings, social media and word-of-mouth fan buzz, the film has managed to become a breakout hit without the aid of a glitzy marketing campaign -- or even a traditional movie trailer. According to Variety, the very low-budget film (it reportedly cost $11,000), which played in fewer than 200 theaters, raked in $7.1 million over the weekend -- a record for a limited-release film. The film had an impressive $44,163 per-screen average and placement in the top five of the box office ratings over the weekend. \"We think it's exciting that they are taking this grassroots approach to independent film because sometimes independent films do get lost in the shuffle,\" said Kevin Carr, a writer\/reviewer for the site Film School Rejects. \"It's a unique test to see if people can demand things outside of standard marketing campaigns.\" \"Paranormal Activity\" bills itself as \"the first-ever major film release demanded by you.\" The movie, which was an audience favorite at the alternative Slamdance festival in early 2008, was acquired by Dreamworks (then a part of Paramount Pictures) two years ago. The studio initially planned to remake it using better-known actors. But after studio executives, including Steven Spielberg, viewed it, they decided the film could stand more or less as it was (though director Oren Peli did shorten the film and shoot a new ending). The movie gained buzz after Paramount began late-night screenings in college towns, and fans took to Twitter and other sites to hail the scary flick, which centers on a young couple who believe their house may be haunted. Paramount increased the interest by urging fans to sign on to ParanormalMovie.com and demand theaters in their locations show the film. Peli posted a video on YouTube expressing gratitude to the fans and urging them to continue rooting for the movie. \"I just wanted to take this opportunity to speak directly to the fans and thank you all for the amazing support,\" Peli said on the video. \"It's just been overwhelming especially considering the long road this film had for three years and the studio wanting to do a remake.\" More than a million people have heeded the call. The result has been a groundswell of interest rivaling that of big-budget films. Megan Colligan, co-president of marketing for Paramount, said the studio had a limited budget for advertising the film, so its marketing had to be tightly targeted. Moreover, condensing its atmosphere into a 30-second TV spot was a challenge, so executives opted to produce a trailer showing fans waiting in line for the movie and their reaction to the film, said Josh Greenstein, who also serves as co-president of marketing for Paramount. \"It was very important that we sold this as an experience and rather than just a movie,\" he said. \"When people saw the movie they loved it so much and there is such a slow build of terror that you have to sit through to experience the full effect of the movie, so we changed the marketing techniques in advertising and online to make it more experiential.\" The unique marketing campaign appears to have paid off. \"The fans have really made this their film and they are doing the bulk of the work [to market the film],\" Colligan said. \"The film is selling itself,\" Greenstein added. Critics have also taken notice, and have showered the film with good reviews. In giving the movie an A-minus grade, Entertainment Weekly film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote \"With its this-is-really-happening vibe, 'Paranormal Activity' scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clich\u00e9s. The fear is real, all right, because the fear is really in you.\" Overall, the film has earned a strong 85 percent approval rating at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers agree. Rajiim Gross, an iReporter who posted a review of the film, said he found \"Paranormal Activity\" to be much better than \"Blair Witch Project,\" another indie-horror film to which it is being compared. Check out Rajiim Gross' iReport . \"It actually scared the hell out of me,\" Gross said. \"I saw it during the day and I would hate to be someone who went home after seeing it late at night.\" Gross said he believed the studio was smart to leverage the Internet to spread the word. Watch Rajiim Gross' review of 'Paranormal Activity' \u00bb . \"The best advertising is word of mouth,\" Gross said. \"People tell 10 friends, they go see it and they tell 10 more friends and soon you have an entire community who wants to see it.\" Carr, whose Film School Rejects site has been following the frenzy, said the movie \"gets inside of your head\" and benefits from the traditional fan support that horror films often enjoy. That, coupled with the big cinema thrills and chills, should add up to continued box office success, Carr said. \"Watching it with 250 strangers in a movie theater and getting everybody to jump at the same time definitely has an effect,\" he said. \"It's the event film right now of the year, which is something that needs to be experienced.\"","highlights":"New horror film has found success with fans spreading the word .\n\"Paranormal Activity\" is using nontraditional marketing campaign .\nThe movie broke box office records over the weekend for a limited release .\nParamount executive: \"The film is selling itself\"","id":"2f1ad309f271316f2d4986719023d504607a1418"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The assault began at dawn, as bullets and rockets peppered the remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan. Lt. Cason Shrode said that in less than two minutes, his team's generator was hit and they were out of power. The insurgency was so fierce, according to one soldier, that the troops couldn't get to their mortars to fire back. \"They were under heavy enemy contact,\" Sgt. Jayson Souter said, describing the October 3 attack that pinned his comrades at Combat Outpost Keating, a remote base in Nuristan province. Four servicemen -- Souter, a fellow soldier, an Apache helicopter pilot, and a gunner -- talked to a military reporter about their roles during the Keating attack in an interview posted by the Department of Defense on Facebook and NATO's International Security Assistance Force YouTube Channel. The United States says about 200 insurgents -- mostly local fighters, with some Taliban organizers and leaders -- had been planning the attack for days, hiding mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns in the mountains. Watch more about their story \u00bb . The battle started early on October 3 and lasted for 12 hours. At the end, eight American soldiers and more than 100 militants were killed and buildings at the outpost were destroyed. Fire support officer 1st Lt. Cason Shrode said the initial round \"didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.\" There was a lull and then there was a heavy attack. \"We started receiving a heavy volley of fire. Probably 90 seconds into the fight they ended up hitting one of our generators so we lost all power,\" Shrode said in the interview posted online by the Defense Department. \"At that point I knew that this was something bigger than normal.\" Troops called in air support. Helicopter gunner Chad Bardwell said he had to confirm the fighters he saw on ridgelines were the enemy because he had never seen such a large group of insurgents. \"We tried to stop them as they were coming down the hill. ... We were taking fire pretty much the entire day,\" he said in the Defense Department interview. Chief Warrant Officer Ross Lewallen, the Apache pilot, said a few aircraft were damaged in what was a \"time-consuming endeavor\" governed by tough terrain. He said the morning battle was \"significant,\" but later troops were able to identify targets and eliminate larger weapons. \"One of the primary reasons for the fight taking so long is that it is an extreme terrain,\" he said in the same interview. Lewallen said the valley sits beneath mountains to the west and north. \"There's a lot of cover so you really can't detect the enemy until they start moving again,\" he said, adding that it was tough for medical evacuation aircraft to land \"because we were still trying to control\" the outpost. The intense assault on Keating led to fires. There were five main buildings at the post and four of them burned. Soldiers eventually ended up going into one building. \"The next morning it was pretty much ash besides that one building. I mean that's the way to describe it. Most of it had burned down. So we were pretty much at one building and the rest was just a shadow of what it used to be,\" Shrode said in the Defense Department interview. Lewallen said what came together was \"air-ground integration.\" \"All the training we've done before deploying here; it really clicked that day,\" he said in the interview. \"We started realizing that the guys on the ground knew what they needed to tell us to get the job done. It made things that much easier.\" He disputed media reports suggesting that there weren't enough weapons and troops. He said 40 minutes into the fight, air power arrived. \"We had everything we needed. It was just a big attack with a lot of people. Bad things happen -- but I think we did well, under the circumstances.\" Reflecting on the fight, Souter said, \"Everybody basically came together and in the mix of it all, they were donating blood for the wounded that we had. They all pulled together to make sure that we can pull our boys out of this.\"","highlights":"Soldiers describe October 3 attack at a remote base in Nuristan province .\nTheir account posted by the Department of Defense on Facebook and YouTube .\nU.S.: Battle lasted 12 hours and eight American soldiers were killed .","id":"74aef0a82637f03ab01a2dc6458b9f0ce9bbdb99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Percy von Lipinski figures he flies about 100,000 miles a year. He knows he's going to see a healthy share of flight delays regardless of where he goes. A new study says delays will continue to frustrate fliers like this man at Washington's Dulles International Airport. But he especially anticipates them at the larger airports, such as Chicago's O'Hare International -- \"You can't possibly put that many planes there and not have a delay,\" he said -- and New York's John F. Kennedy International. So when he has a choice between two connecting cities, he said he'll generally choose the smaller one. Delays at the larger airports, he said, are compounded by other hassles such as longer distances between terminals. \"There's wear and tear on your travel psyche -- which bus you need, which terminal you should be at,\" said von Lipinski, a 54-year-old Vancouver, British Columbia, resident who owns businesses around the globe. \"By the time you get to your destination, you're bound to come up frazzled.\" Delays contribute to that frustration, and there may be more of it to go around these days. Though the percentage of delayed U.S. flights has dipped recently because fewer planes are flying during the recession, there's been a 20-year trend of increasing delays, and the increases should continue once economic growth returns, a study released Thursday by the Brookings Institution said. The average length of U.S. flight delays rose from 40.9 minutes in 1990 to 56.5 minutes in June 2009, according to the study, \"Expect Delays: An Analysis of Air Travel Trends in the United States.\" It also found that among delayed flights, the share of those that landed at least two hours late more than doubled from 4.3 percent in 1990 to 10.1 percent in May 2009. And in a 12-month period ending in June 2009, the majority of delays was concentrated in 26 metropolitan areas, or hub cities, the study said. Of these 26 hub cities, six had worse-than-average, on-time percentages for both arrivals and departures: New York; Chicago, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and San Francisco, California. The nationwide on-time arrival rate was 78.9 percent, and the departure rate was similar, study co-author Robert Puentes said. New York's on-time arrival rate, 66.3 percent, was worst in the nation, said the study, which analyzed air travel between metro areas rather than airports. Delays are going to get worse, study co-author Adie Tomer said. \"On-time performance has improved recently because the number of people flying is at its lowest point since 9\/11, but as the economy bounces back, air passenger levels will grow, and on-time performance will likely resume its decline.\" The hub cities that did better than the national average for both arrivals and departures were Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; Detroit, Michigan; and Washington. The study said on-time performance generally decreases as air travel increases. In 1990, with more than 400,000 domestic passengers nationwide, the country's on-time flight percentage was just under 80 percent. In 2007, with nearly 700,000 domestic passengers, the on-time rate was around 74 percent. The authors recommend Congress and other authorities use the findings to help decide where to invest in high-speed rail projects and other measures to ease airport congestion. Michael Boyd, president of Colorado aviation consulting firm Boyd International Group, is critical of the recommendation, saying the country could handle the current flight demand -- and cut delays -- by improving its air traffic control system. The old system, he said, is outdated, doesn't use all of the sky and directs planes to fly farther and longer than they need to. \"Instead of saying, 'Let's get a system that can handle the traffic,' Brookings wants to lessen the demand. That's a caveman mentality,\" Boyd said. Deron Lovaas, transportation policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the study \"hit the nail on the head in terms of the opportunity\" to promote alternative modes of transportation. \"The planes waste a lot of fuel idling on the tarmac and during takeoff and landing cycles of flight. So the lowest-hanging fruit available for reducing emissions -- beyond changing plane designs and changing the fuel mix in planes -- is to reduce congestion at airports and to go after short haul flights, where a greater percentage of the flight is made up of takeoff and landing cycles, where most of the emissions are,\" Lovaas said. Airplane passengers can take steps to cushion the impact of a delay or lower the chance of getting on a delayed flight, Boyd said. Passengers should only choose connection flights that depart at least an hour after their first plane's scheduled landing, he said. Also, he said, people who book a flight just a day or two in advance should look at weather forecasts. \"If there's bad weather in Chicago, don't go through Chicago\" if you don't have to, Boyd said. Von Lipinski's recommendation, besides trying to avoid busier airports, is to treat airline workers with respect. \"The agents have a lot of discretion, and they're human beings. If you treat them like dirt and are screaming [because of a delay], you know what the result is going to be,\" he said. \"If you [treat them well], you'll probably find they'll be willing to help you.\" CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Major hub cities are bottleneck for air traffic, Brookings Institution study says .\nFrequent flier advises connecting through smaller cities when possible .\nAviation expert says there's plenty of room for streamlining existing system .\nStudy's authors advocate using high-speed rail to alleviate runway congestion .","id":"c8bf99068964315d70cd8cf8f517e5104e440967"} -{"article":"Editor's note: David B. Givens is Director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Washington. He is the author of \"Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to the Body Language of Courtship\" (St. Martin's, New York, 2005), \"Crime Signals: How to Spot a Criminal Before You Become a Victim\" (St. Martin's, 2008), and the forthcoming \"The Body of Work: Sightreading the Language of Business, Bosses, and Boardrooms.\" His online Nonverbal Dictionary is used around the world as a reference tool. Barack and Michelle Obama celebrate winning the Democratic nomination with a fist bump in 2008. SPOKANE, Washington (CNN) -- The H1N1 swine flu virus is putting our most familiar gesture of greeting -- handshakes -- at risk. As an anthropologist who watches people for a living, I can tell you that human beings touch their own faces with their own fingertips hundreds, if not thousands of times a day. Repeated face touching -- especially finger contact with eyelids, lips, and nostrils -- is as predictable as blinking. You'll observe hand-to-face gestures in every culture and society, as well as in our closest primate relatives, the monkeys and apes. There's nothing wrong with face touching. Nothing, that is, unless you're afraid of germs. And today, many of us around the world are terrified by these tiny organisms, especially ones that cause swine flu. Merely by shaking the hand of someone infected by the swine-flu virus, we risk infection each time we inadvertently reach up and touch our faces. Physicians urge that we wash right after shaking hands. But since the anthropologist in me knows that, as a primate, you'll touch your face before washing, germs will inevitably visit unsuspecting lids, lip, and noses. The human handshake itself, meanwhile, is a widespread gesture used for meeting, greeting, and sealing a deal. It's a ritualized gripping of another's hand, with one or more up-and-down (or, in Texas, sideways) motions followed by a quick release. Since the fingertips and palm of the hand are exquisitely sensitive, the shake itself can be deeply personal. We instantly feel the warmth or coolness, dryness or moistness, and firmness or weakness of another's grip. Sensory input from a hand's thermal and pressure receptors to the brain's sensory cortex and then to deeper, emotional brain areas can be intense. If you travel to France, be prepared to shake hands dozens of times a day. Office workers in Paris, for example, may shake in the morning to greet, and in the afternoon to say goodbye, to colleagues. Outside vendors and technicians will handshake with everyone present when they enter or leave an office. The risk of hand-carried flu virus is thus greater here than it is in the United States, where handshaking is far less frequent. Contrast this to the Japanese practice of giving fewer handshakes, still, in favor of polite bows of the head. In all three nations, casual face touching is frequent, but germs in Tokyo are less apt to spread through handshakes. In Islamic nations, it is strictly taboo for men to shake hands in public with women. So, Muslim couples are less likely to exchange swine-flu germs through manual contact than are business men and women in, say, Seattle, Washington. Since in much of the world a handshake is both a visual and a tactile index of your concern for other people, it's hard to hold one back. In North America, Latin America, and Europe, when someone holds out a hand, it's difficult not to just take a step forward and shake. You don't want, after all, to seem rude. In Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, handshaking may be more nuanced than in the West, or even absent. An Asian namast\u00e9, with your palms and fingers pressed together in front of your chest, given with a slight bow -- or a Muslim salaam, in which your right hand touches your forehead, also given with a slight bow, may be proffered instead of a handshake. While you'll see the same incidence of facial touching -- to wipe a lip, relieve tension, or scratch an itch -- the fingertips themselves won't carry germs born of handshakes. So, what are we face-touchers in the rest of the world to do? Are we doomed to spread flu germs through our practice of ritually of gripping each other's hands? The short answer is no. Thanks to a pair of the planet's most well known human primates, we now have a healthier hand sign with which to meet and greet. Since the Obama-Lama \"fist bumps\" have been so well publicized of late, I'm sure you've seen it in newspapers and magazines and on Web sites and TV. Primates are the most imitative of all of Earth's animals, so don't be surprised if you find yourself bumping fists -- a lot -- in the weeks and months ahead. On September 22, 2009, the Dalai Lama was welcomed to Memphis, Tennessee, not with a handshake but with a fist bump from interim Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader balled up his fist and reached it forward to make friendly contact with the mayor's own proffered balled-up fist. From his smiling face, I could tell the Dalai Lama enjoyed his new greeting ritual. It looked as if he were playing with the cue. Though it was unclear if either of the fist-bumpers had flu phobia, that they touched with the knuckles instead of the fingertips rendered disease transmission far less likely. A year earlier, on June 3, 2008, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama tenderly fist bumped with his wife Michelle, in what The Washington Post called \"the fist bump heard 'round the world.\" That a U.S. president publicly performed the fist bump -- a gesture that originated partly from the sportsman's palm high-slap of victory and partly from the Black Power fist of the 1970s -- has given the gesture staying power, even though some people were critical of its use. It will last considerably longer than Andy Warhol's \"15 minutes of fame.\" Thanks to Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, and the swine flu, the fist bump will surely show up at a greeting near you. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Givens.","highlights":"David Givens: H1N1 flu is prompting focus on how we greet each other .\nHe says handshakes create risk of spreading the flu virus .\nFist bumps are a less risky way of greeting people .\nGivens: Obamas and Dalai Lama have popularized the fist bump .","id":"37686673ec29899e6c8fe88639aa52f0ae062f1c"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman, twice nominated for a Nobel Peace prize, died Thursday at her home in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was 91. Helen Suzman, pictured at her Johannesburg home in November 2007. Suzman, a constant thorn in the side of South Africa's apartheid governments, was one of the leading white opponents of the segregationist regime and the only opposition lawmaker for 13 of the 36 years she served in parliament. She was particularly instrumental in exposing the indignities of the pass laws, which curtailed the movement of black South Africans. The Nelson Mandela Foundation, in a statement Thursday, called Suzman \"a great patriot and a fearless fighter against apartheid.\" Send your tributes to Helen Suzman. The African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, also paid tribute, saying: \"As a member of parliament and a vocal critic against apartheid, the ANC remembers and respects the contribution of Suzman towards the demise of apartheid.\" Suzman told CNN in an interview in 2008 that she was \"persistent\" in her fight against the injustices of apartheid and used her position to constantly ask uncomfortable questions. Watch Suzman's fight against apartheid. \u00bb . \"I used to put 200 questions a session,\" she said. \"They were all of course designed to expose the atrocities. I made good use of my parliamentary position.\" A hugely influential advocate for prisoner's rights, Suzman was one of the first people to visit future South African President Nelson Mandela in jail on Robben Island in 1967, shaking hands with him through his cell bars. \"I knew immediately that this was a man of considerable courage,\" she said. Suzman continued to work for his release, visiting him frequently in the 27 years he was imprisoned. Mandela and Suzman remained friends after his release in 1990, often having lunch at her home in Johannesburg, where she said she would serve him \"his favorite dish, oxtail.\" After she retired from parliament, Suzman continued to play an active role in South Africa's new democracy and was honored by numerous prestigious universities, with 27 honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Yale and Columbia among others. In a nod to Suzman's tenacity and legendary sense of humor, the Helen Suzman Foundation Web site writes that one \"honor\" Suzman was \"inordinately proud\" of was being declared an \"Enemy of the State\" by Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in 2001. Suzman's family has said that there will be a private funeral this weekend, to be followed by a memorial service in February.","highlights":"Apartheid foe Helen Suzman campaigned for release of Nelson Mandela .\nConstant opponent of South African apartheid regime protested against pass laws .\nFor more than a decade she was the only opposition member of parliament .\nSuzman's family says that there will be a memorial service in February .","id":"1e3cfbe9bf7af3ace4a755774a9ed8e30ca34b68"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Public Utility Commission of Texas will review the case of a cancer patient fighting to keep her electricity on to power her oxygen machine, the commission told CNN on Wednesday. Mable Randon, who has stage 4 cancer, was denied help paying for electricity, which she needs to power her oxygen tank. CNN affiliate KHOU of Houston, Texas, said calls poured in from as far away as Connecticut after the station aired its story on Mable Randon, a stage 4 cancer patient who received a cutoff notice after she fell behind on her bills. \"I'm on a set income,\" she told KHOU. \"My husband lost his job. He finds a little work every now and then, but it's hard.\" She applied to CenterPoint Energy's Critical Care Program which helps maintain service for people who depend on electric-powered life support systems, but she was rejected. \"I'm fighting for my life, and I thought people at the power company would help me,\" said Randon, who uses a wheelchair. \"I just thought they'd make some kind of exception for me.\" Randon's power will stay on until the commission examines the facts in the case, said Terry Hadley, spokesman for the commission. CenterPoint told Randon she failed to meet the criteria. Spokeswoman Alicia Dixon told KHOU that Randon could have bought a battery-powered oxygen machine. The critical care program has thousands of applicants, and only 300 of them have been accepted, she said. \"This program is a communication program, not a guarantee of uninterrupted power, even to customers who are on the list,\" she said. Since the rejection, Randon said she is \"up and down all night,\" partly because she is worried about whether the power will be on when she wakes up. \"They have no consideration for life,\" she said. \"It's just like they don't care.\" CenterPoint spokeswoman Leticia Lowe said the company does not send electric bills; it merely owns the wires and poles and is directed to disconnect power by retail electric providers. Randon's electric company is Freedom Power, she said. CNN's attempts to contact Freedom Power were unsuccessful Wednesday. As of Tuesday, CenterPoint had not received a notice from Freedom Power to disconnect Randon's service, Lowe said. Following the KHOU report, CenterPoint received calls from viewers, she said. But the company can do nothing since they don't bill Randon. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mable Randon, a stage 4 cancer patient, got a cutoff notice after falling behind on bill .\nShe applied for critical care program, was told to buy battery-operated oxygen tank .\n\"I'm fighting for my life, and I thought people at the power company would help me\"\nPublic Utility Commission of Texas reviewing Randon's case .","id":"2d026ddbc14c54db6ee4e41beb353e633342fa36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill commemorating Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to public office in the state, a spokesman for the governor said Monday. Stuart Milk, nephew of Harvey Milk, sits next to a photo of the gay rights activist in March. \"He really saw this signing as a way to honor the gay community in California,\" spokesman Aaron McLear told CNN in a telephone interview. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, saying he believed Milk should be recognized at the local level. But since then, \"Milk has become much more of a symbol of the gay community,\" McLear said, citing the eponymous movie starring Sean Penn, Milk's posthumous receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and his induction into the California Hall of Fame. Milk served briefly as San Francisco's supervisor before he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in 1978 by Dan White, a city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Under the measure, the governor each year would proclaim May 22 -- Milk's birthday -- as a day of significance across the state. The bill was one of 704 signed Sunday -- most of them near the midnight deadline -- by Schwarzenegger, said spokesman Aaron McLear. The legislation passed the state Senate in May and the state Assembly last month. The legislation has been divisive, with the governor's office receiving more than 100,000 phone calls and e-mails, most of them in opposition, spokeswoman Andrea McCarthy said last month. But she added that most of the Twitter posts the governor received were in favor of the bill. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, saying he believed Milk should be recognized at the local level. Milk was a \"unique\" historical figure who led a civil rights movement and then was \"assassinated in his public office for being who he was,\" State Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat, told CNN last month. The day of significance would not close schools or state offices, according to its text. However, Randy Thomasson, the president of SaveCalifornia.com, said the bill was vague and could allow for a number of things at schools, including gay pride parades or \"mock gay weddings.\" \"Harvey Milk was a terrible role model for children,\" said Thomasson, whose organization opposed the bill. \"The reality is Harvey Milk is a hero to so many people and a great role model,\" said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, the group that backed the bill introduced by Leno. \"It's very appropriate that the state he worked in and passed the first gay rights bill in the country should honor him.\" He said the bill marks the first time any state has officially honored an openly gay person. Leno said that claims that the bill would lead to schools holding gay-pride parades and similar activities were \"hyperbole.\" The bill \"mandates nothing,\" he said, although it \"affords an educational opportunity.\" President Obama posthumously honored Milk with a Presidential Medal of Freedom this year, and Sean Penn portrayed him in the 2008 film \"Milk,\" for which he received an Oscar for best actor.","highlights":"Bill commemorates Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected in California .\nEach year, governor would proclaim May 22 as day of significance across state .\nMilk, a San Francisco supervisor, and Mayor George Moscone assassinated in 1978 .\nSchwarzenegger got more than 100,000 e-mails, phone calls about bill .","id":"fc92a91de693365a9a3f59c796f5b3b79beb7e56"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Investigators have raised the wreckage of the helicopter involved in Saturday's deadly mid-air collision over the Hudson River, but they were still looking for the small plane involved in the crash, authorities said Sunday. Divers unload a body from their raft onto a police boat Sunday. Nine people are believed dead in the crash. New York police said they believed side-scan sonar pointed them to the wreckage of the Piper Saratoga PA-32 just north of where the helicopter went down, but Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said swift current and low visibility were hindering divers. The search stopped as a storm approached Sunday evening and will resume Monday morning, police said. Nine people, including five Italian tourists, were aboard the two aircraft when they collided over the river shortly before noon Saturday. Seven bodies had been pulled out of the river by Sunday afternoon, Hersman said. Authorities believe none of the nine people aboard the two aircraft survived the crash. Neither aircraft was required to carry electronic \"black boxes\" that record cockpit voices and flight data on larger planes, but electronic navigational devices on board might retain some information that could help the probe, Hersman said. Investigators are trying to establish the facts of the crash but won't determine the probable cause for some time, Hersman said. See where the collision occurred \u00bb . \"We are looking at everything. Nothing has been ruled out at this point in time,\" she said. Most of the Eurocopter AS350 had been lifted out of the Hudson on Sunday and taken to a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, for examination, Hersman said. The helicopter was taking the five Italians on a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York and had taken off from a heliport in midtown Manhattan shortly before the crash, she said. Watch crews search for victims \u00bb . New York police identified the pilot of the helicopter as Jeremy Clark, 32. He had worked for the operator, Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, for about a year and a half and had 2,700 helicopter flight hours, Hersman said. iReport.com: Were you there? Send images . His passengers were Michele Norelli, 51; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; Filippo Norelli, 16; Giacomo Gallazzi, 15; and Tiziana Pedroni, 44, all of Bologna, Italy. The plane took off from a Philadelphia-area airfield Saturday morning, landed at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was bound for Ocean City, New Jersey, with three people aboard -- the owner and pilot, Steven Altman, 60, of Ambler, Pennsylvania; his brother, Daniel Altman, 49, of Dresher, Pennsylvania; and Daniel Altman's son Douglas, 16. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m., when it was at an altitude of about 1,100 feet, Hersman said. View images from the scene \u00bb . Hersman said the NTSB has recorded eight accidents and one \"incident\" involving Liberty, but Saturday's crash was the first to involve fatalities. Previous accidents included a 2007 case in which a helicopter crash-landed in the Hudson from a height of 500 feet, but without injuring passengers; a 2008 incident in which one helicopter taking off clipped another on the ground; a 2008 incident in which a pilot caused \"substantial damage\" to a helicopter while landing during an instructional session. In 2001, a Liberty pilot made an \"improper decision\" to continue flying in poor weather at night, causing the helicopter to hit trees, according to the NTSB. Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the tour operator, said Liberty executives \"are cooperating fully\" with investigators. \"Right now, the company is focusing its efforts on cooperating with the NTSB and giving as much information as it can,\" Horowitz said. \"At this time, their priority is to help with the family of their pilot, and of course the families that were involved in the accident.\" Investigators will focus on radio communications along the congested air corridor at the time of the crash and examine any pictures or video contributed by the public, Hersman told CNN earlier. Witness accounts and still photographs already provided \"good information\" to investigators, she said. A witness told investigators he saw the airplane approach the helicopter from behind, and the plane's right wing make \"contact with the helicopter,\" Hersman said. The witness, another Liberty pilot who was refueling at a nearby heliport, said he tried to warn the helicopter pilot but got no response. Other witnesses reported seeing debris flying from the helicopter as it slammed into the water. Arnold Stevens, who saw the collision from the W Hotel in Hoboken, said the helicopter \"dropped like a rock,\" while one of the plane's wings was sheared off and it began \"corkscrewing\" into the water, he said. The busy airspace surrounding Manhattan has been the site of several recent aeronautical accidents. Earlier this year, a US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into the Hudson after apparently striking birds upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, officials said. Capt. Chesley B. \"Sully\" Sullenberger's landing, which resulted in no deaths or serious injuries, was captured on closed circuit television. In 2006, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, 34, and his flight instructor were killed when the ballplayer's plane crashed into a high-rise apartment building near the East River, city officials said. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Seven bodies pulled from water; two others believed dead .\nSearch stops Sunday evening because of weather, will resume Monday .\nAuthorities investigating Saturday's collision of helicopter, plane over Hudson River .\nPilot on ground says he tried to warn helicopter before accident .","id":"a6d1e8583d150e83a587d412168994813108098a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A leading UK hospital has defended its practice of using organs donated by smokers after the death of a soldier who received the cancerous lungs of a heavy smoker. A close up X-ray view of a cigarette smoker's lungs. Corporal Matthew Millington, 31, died at his home in 2008, less than a year after receiving a transplant that was supposed to save his life at Papworth Hospital -- the UK's largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital, in Cambridgeshire, east England. Papworth Hospital released a statement saying using donor lungs from smokers was not \"unusual.\" The statement added that the hospital had no option but to use lungs from smokers as \"the number of lung transplants carried out would have been significantly lower,\" if they didn't. Should hospitals use smokers' lungs in transplants? An inquest held last week heard that Millington, who served in the Queen's Royal Lancers, was serving in Iraq in 2005 when he was diagnosed with an incurable condition that left him unable to breathe. He was told he required a transplant and in April 2007 received a double lung transplant at Papworth Hospital. Less than a year later, doctors discovered a tumor in the new lungs. Despite radiotherapy, Millington died on February 8, 2008, at his family home near Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire. The inquest found a radiologist failed to highlight the growth of a cancerous tumor on the donor lungs. Tests found that he had received the lungs of a donor who smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day, the inquest at North Staffordshire coroner's court heard. The hospital said in the statement: \"This is an extremely rare case. Papworth Hospital has a very strong track record of high quality outcomes and this is an extremely rare case. \"Patients who are accepted on to the transplant waiting list have no other option open to them, however, we must stress that all donor organs are screened rigorously prior to transplantation. \"Using lungs from donors who have smoked in the past is not unusual. During 2008\/09 146 lung transplants were carried out in the UK. \"During the same period 84 people died on the waiting list. If we had a policy that said we did not use the lungs of those who had smoked, then the number of lung transplants carried out would have been significantly lower.\" The tumor's growth was accelerated by the immuno-suppressive drugs Millington was taking to prevent his body rejecting the transplanted lungs, the inquest heard. North Staffordshire coroner Ian Smith recorded that Millington, had died of \"complications of transplant surgery and immuno-suppressive drug treatment.\"","highlights":"Iraq veteran Matthew Millington died after transplant using cancerous lungs .\nLeading UK hospital defends practice of using organs donated by smokers .\nInquest found a radiographer failed to find cancerous tumor on donor lungs .","id":"525289d6d8d31ab54c4607f822199a345fa323e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new bill into law Sunday that will fine paparazzi for taking photos that invade a celebrity's right to privacy. The law also targets media outlets who purchase the photos. Singer Britney Spears' run-ins with paparazzi took center stage a few years ago when she took an umbrella to a photographer's SUV. Throngs of photographers often jockey to get the perfect shot of a celebrity, but that doesn't mean it's welcomed. Britney Spears famously had enough one night, taking an umbrella to a photographer's SUV. In 1998, Schwarzenegger himself had his car swarmed by paparazzi while he was picking up his child from school. Jennifer Aniston received $550,000 and an apology from a photographer who used a high-powered telephoto lens to shoot her in the backyard wearing only panties. Watch how stars impact paparazzi \u00bb . While paparazzi may get a bad rap for their methods, celebrity columnist Ben Widdicombe said things are not always what they seem. \"A lot of times the shot you see in the magazine is actually orchestrated by the celebrity themselves,\" said celebrity columnist Ben Widdicombe. \"Celebrities like Britney Spears, for example, are infamous in the industry for letting their assistants tell the paparazzi when they'll be leaving the gates.\" Celebrity photos can be big business, especially when it comes to major milestones. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher reportedly pocketed $3 million from OK for their 2005 union. Eva Longoria and Tony Parker received $2 million from OK for photos of their lavish Paris, France, wedding. Expectant celebrities can also rake in big bucks. People magazine reportedly paid $14 million for the first pictures of the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie twins. The new California law makes it a crime to take and sell unauthorized photos of celebrities in \"personal or familial activity.\" Violators face fines up to $50,000. The anti-paparazzi amendment takes effect in January.","highlights":"Under new California law, paparazzi can be sued for taking unauthorized photos .\nMedia outlets who use photos could also be subject to fines .\nCelebrity columnist claims some photos are planned in advance by celebrities .","id":"fac77bb67ee4bf3e1e48a3439cfff5f387d48596"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Last year's inaugural Prix Pictet photography award for environmental sustainability produced a stunning shortlist of photos. Ed Kashi has documented the impact oil has made on the Niger Delta in Africa. This year is no different with 12 photographers in the running for the first prize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500). The theme in 2009 is described simply as \"Earth.\" The aim is to highlight how man exploits the planet's resources and how this impacts the landscapes and communities surrounding them. In an extraordinary series of photos Canadian Christopher Anderson captures how the quest for raw materials affects Venezuela. In \"The Diminishing Present,\" Portuguese-born Edgar Martins records forest landscapes in the moments before they are engulfed by flames. In \"Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta,\" Ed Kashi captures the impact of the oil industry on Nigeria's environment and people since it was first discovered five decades ago. Kashi, an American photojournalist, spent three years compiling his photos of the Niger Delta, making a total of five trips to the troubled region. Kashi told CNN: \"It was truly one of the most graphic examples of economic inequity that I have ever seen. Especially with the backdrop of hundreds of billions of oil wealth that has been generated over the previous 50 years.\" As a result of his work, Kashi says that his photos are now being used by universities and NGOs to raise awareness to try and effect change. To him, this has been one of the most gratifying and exciting by-products of his work. One of this year's most intriguing entries is by Sammy Baloji, who superimposes colonial black and white archive photos of Belgian-run mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and places them over his color images of the decaying mines as seen today. Nadav Kander's images of China's Yangtze River depict communities adjusting to the changes caused by the re-routing of the country's largest river. And, Andreas Gursky has captured an extraordinary image of an ocean of rubbish at a landfill site in Mexico City. Darren Almond's ethereal images of China's Yellow Mountain Range are made all the more magical through the knowledge that they were shot using only the light of the Moon. All the nominees' pictures showcase the power of the camera when in the hands of master craftsmen. Click here to view some of the short-listed images \u00bb . The winner will be announced by Prix Pictet honorary president, Kofi Annan, on October 22 at the Passage de Retz gallery in Paris. All the short-listed photos can be seen at the same gallery for one month after the award. Further exhibitions are planned in Greece and Dubai and the Netherlands. If you can't attend the exhibitions, there is a book entitled \"Earth,\" published by teNeues which showcases the work of all Prix Pictet nominees.","highlights":"Shortlist for Prix Pictet photography award highlights destruction of natural resources .\nTwelve world-renowned photographers are up for the award .\nPrize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500) goes to the winner announced on October 22 .","id":"4b9e361792f5994f6c7348f363fa29e5940ea05c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose new book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says ordinary life stops when Muhammad Ali appears anywhere. (CNN) -- It was still early enough in the evening that the main dinner crowd had not yet started to show up; the restaurant, east of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, was less than half-filled. The party of 10 at the table by the front window had arrived promptly for their 6 p.m. reservation. Nine of the 10 studied their menus, but the 10th, the man at the head of the table, did not. Muhammad Ali, 67, stared down toward the white tablecloth and drew on a piece of paper. He sketched a picture of a mountain. There are a handful of men among us who, simply by appearing out of nowhere, make other men and women pause involuntarily to consider the long paths of their own lives. It is as if these men have always been with us, and if you should unexpectedly spot Bob Dylan in an airport, if you should see Paul McCartney walking through a hotel lobby, if you should encounter Sean Connery entering an office building, it will bring you up short. It's like opening a diary, even if you have never met them, even if you have never seen them except on a television set or a movie screen. Yet Ali is different even from them. Ali -- his story so complicated, his health failing, his imprint on the world so indelible -- makes people mist up the moment they lay eyes on him. It was happening tonight inside this restaurant called the Rosebud Steakhouse; diners at their own tables, not quite sure for a second that they were really seeing what they were seeing, let their gazes linger and could not look away. Ali drew. The other men and women at his table -- this was a gathering of family and friends to celebrate a birthday, and Ali had come into Chicago from his farm in Michigan -- talked animatedly and laughed. Ali did not speak. He wore a blue-and-white Hawaiian-style shirt; someone had tucked a white napkin into the space above the top button. Over the speaker system of the restaurant, a slowed-down acoustic knockoff of the old Tom Petty hit \"Free Fallin' \" was playing softly: . \"She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis ...\" A family, across the way, talked spiritedly among themselves. They were deciding something. The father and the children stood up. From the ceiling, the song: . \"... and I'm free, free fallin' ...\" They walked over to Ali's table. \"We apologize for the intrusion,\" the father said. Ali looked toward them, showing a gentle expression. The father had a camera. He said to his children: \"This is the most famous face in the world.\" It is difficult to know what the children made of this. Youth and strength and beauty are so fleeting. The man in the Hawaiian shirt once embodied all of those things, before these children were born. Three times the world heavyweight boxing champion, the center of global fascination and frenzied controversy after winning his first title and then changing his name from Cassius Clay, endlessly mesmerizing with his float-like-a-butterfly, sting-like-a-bee ring style, called \"the greatest of all time\" so often that the words became almost an official designation, the sight of his flawless face and the sound of his confident-beyond-all-dispute voice a sustaining part of the very atmosphere. ... But his road has turned hard, and here were these children, who were not around for any of that, standing with their father next to the table. Ali's family members and friends said it would be all right for the father to take some photos, so he did. When he left, Ali went back to his drawing. More diners were beginning to arrive at the restaurant. Their evenings changed the moment they caught sight of him. Some pulled out cell phones to call people across the nation; others quietly debated whether to approach him. Many years ago, I traveled the country with him to prepare a magazine profile for a special issue on the 50 men and women judged to have had the greatest impact on society during their time on Earth. Everywhere Ali went, he was mobbed; people grabbed at him, people cried out, people attempted to touch his face. In the middle of all this one day, he said to me, almost in a whisper: . \"This is the whole world. This is what my whole life is like.\" That hasn't changed, although his ability to speak aloud about it has. The food began to arrive at his table. The people to his right and to his left helped him with his. He demonstrated not the least sliver of self-consciousness; this is part of his life now, and he knows how much he is loved. He handed something to a man named Cleve Walker, who has been his friend for 50 years. It was a drawing that a young girl had brought over to him earlier. She had made a picture of a butterfly and had presented it to him. Now Ali gave it to Walker, who took it across the restaurant to where the child was sitting with her family. Ali had signed his name to it. Walker handed it to the little girl. Her face lit up. Outside the restaurant, on Walton Street, a group of young men walked by, wearing officially licensed jerseys bearing the names and uniform numbers of their favorite current-day sports stars. One of the young men glanced through the windowpane but did not register that the man at whom he was looking was Ali. Ali studied the tablecloth, and a birthday cake arrived, and the others at the table began to sing in the direction of one woman among them: . \"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you ...\" Ali did not sing nor did he look up. But then the others reached the penultimate line of the song: . \"Happy birthday, dear Marilyn ...\" And with that Ali lifted his head and gazed directly at her, right into her eyes, and smiled the most luminous smile toward her. \"... happy birthday to you.\" Soon they rose to depart. Some in the restaurant, now more crowded, applauded. Ali did not react. And then he was out on the street and in a moment out of sight. Around the next corner, although they did not yet know it, people would soon be stopping in their tracks. He may be the only one who remembers his life when it was any other way. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Muhammad Ali's extraordinary life brings him instant attention .\nGreene: Ali embodied youth, strength and beauty in his remarkable career .\nHe says Ali drew attention of everyone in a Chicago restaurant .","id":"962c2c5398c0f398d2dd7635a6679d361c75246f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"China is not on the Internet, it's basically an intranet. Everything is banned by the Great Firewall,\" says Sherman So, co-author of \"Red Wired: China's Internet Revolution.\" Sherman So, author of \"Red Wired,\" talks about China's online habits and Internet culture. With 338 million Internet users in June 2009, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China is no longer a niche market of the online industry. Chinese is the second most common language on the Internet, according to The Economist, and quickly gaining ground on English. As the former technology writer for Hong Kong's daily English-language newspaper, South China Morning Post, So has been following closely China's exponential Internet developments over the past decade. What inspired her to write \"Red Wired\" was the chasm in online culture on either side of China's carefully controlled borders. \"The information gap between those who are from this part of the world and who know Chinese and those who are from another part of world and who don't is just so huge,\" observes So. \"I've talked to lots of investors, analysts, visitors to Hong Kong, and they really don't know what's happening in China. They ask the silliest questions about China and the Internet.\" \"Red Wired\" tells the stories behind China's homegrown online start-ups, often overtaking dominant start-ups that have been successful in the West but which flailed after venturing into Chinese territory. One anecdote involves an advertisement by Baidu, China's most popular search engine, teasing Google China for not knowing Chinese. Google focused on high-end technology rather than Chinese linguistics. From 2002 to 2005, Google's Chinese site also suffered interference from the Chinese government, which redirected users to Baidu whenever Google's search results failed to comply with China's censorship rules. Although Google China has since learned the lingo and learned to cooperate with the higher order, it still trails Baidu with only 28 percent of the search-engine market share, compared to Baidu's 63 percent, according to a 2008 study by Analysys International. Conquering the Internet with Chinese characteristics . So what are the unique characteristics of China's Netizens? While 25.5 percent of the Chinese population is now online, CNNIC's 2008 statistics sketch a relatively coherent portrait of the mainstream majority of them: 67 percent are below the age of 30; 73 percent have only a high school education or lower; 33 percent are students; and 28 percent fall into the lowest income bracket of under $75 per month. Moreover, 78 percent go online at home and 42 percent log on at an Internet cafe. Once connected, 84 percent listen to music, 75 percent instant-message, 63 percent play online games, and only 57 percent e-mail. In short, for the vast majority of Chinese, Internet means play, not work. One could conclude that an Internet entrepreneur's target audience in China is teenage and twenty-something students, low-end consumers in search of entertainment with plenty of time to kill. Among the most salient of China's Internet start-ups are those that innovated on proven Western models by successfully adapting them to the Chinese market. Tencent, with a 77 percent market share of instant messaging services nationwide, is one of the start-ups that gets it. Tencent is now the largest Internet company in China. \"What really made [Tencent founder] Pony Ma stand out is that he viewed his QQ instant messenger differently from other IM services such as MSN and Yahoo,\" says So. \"They viewed IM as a two-way communication, so made it as efficient as possible. They targeted the high-end white-collar users, thinking they're rich, advertisers will love them, they'll buy additional services. \"Ma thought differently. QQ was a community targeting low-end users -- kids, factory workers. They don't need efficiency, they come online to kill time, to be entertained, to talk with friends, not to do work.\" In a China where economic growth comes at different speeds, So believes that the Internet has leveled out the playing field. \"The online population in China comes from very modest families,\" she says. \"Forty percent go online at Internet cafes, which is the cheapest entertainment alternative you can find. It costs just 30 cents per hour. The poorest kid can afford that, and these Internet cafes can be found in the most remote regions. \"So actually the Internet is flattening out this information gap, if not material gap, because even the poorest kid in China can go online and get information. And because of piracy, they can also download lots of stuff for free.\" Sea turtle power . Another recurring factor of success among Chinese Internet start-ups is their founders' extensive experience working in Silicon Valley before returning to China to launch their own business. A person who has returned to China from overseas is known in Mandarin as \"hai gui,\" which sounds the same as the Mandarin words for \"sea turtle.\" Such entrepreneurial returnees include Baidu's Robin Li, Sohu's Charles Zhang and Ctrip's James Liang. \"Sea turtles bring in new ideas,\" says So. \"Like what is a search engine?\" \"Robin Li was an engineer with a patent on search mechanism, and he wanted to build a Chinese search engine. He brought in the idea, the technology and the funding. While he was still working for Infoseek in Silicon Valley, he got $1.2 million from former executives of Inktomi. Then he went back to China and recruited students and teachers from Peking University, and he built Baidu in a year. \"Finally [the sea turtle CEOs] go to the Nasdaq for IPO listing, because that is where the market really understands the Internet and can appreciate what they did.\" Likewise, China is growing from both foreign interaction and the new technological and political challenges of online culture and commerce. As the \"Great Intranet\" continues to expand and evolve, China continues to explore the fragile balance between censorship and control, and enterprise and innovation.","highlights":"China counts 338 million Internet users, but only 25.5 percent of its population .\nMajority of Chinese Netizens are low-end users in search of entertainment .\nInternet in China has made information and popular culture accessible to all .\nChinese \"sea turtles\" bring back knowledge and resources from Silicon Valley .","id":"aa35fa6f613b29bf80806552b1bf260f04bbedc2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The sights and sounds of rocks rolling down mountainsides are common but still captivating phenomena for the residents of the Nile Valley in central Washington state. The landslide covered up to a half-mile of Washington state Route 410 with rock up to 30 feet deep. \"Every morning I hear big rocks coming down,\" said longtime valley resident Frank Koch. But a landslide over the weekend was more than Koch and the other 1,500 people in the Nile Valley bargained for. \"We just had the whole face of the mountain just pretty much come off,\" said Valerie Royster, manager of the Woodshed Restaurant, which sits just across the road from the edge of the landslide. The slide covered a quarter-mile to half-mile of State Route 410, which connects Yakima with Mount Rainier National Park, with rock up to 30 feet deep, said Washington state Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Westbay. Westbay said 25 homes had been affected by flooding and five by the landslide itself, including a mobile home that was demolished. See how slide blocked roads, moved homes \u00bb . Damage was estimated at $20 million, but that would likely increase, said Jim Hall, director of emergency management for Yakima County. Watch aerial shots of landslide area \u00bb . \"My bet is it's probably going to be a lot more than that,' Hall said. Roads would needed to be rebuilt or rerouted, he said, and tons and tons of rock and debris moved. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your photos, videos . The mountain's movement attracted dozens of residents to the parking lot of the Woodshed, which Royster calls the hub of the community, on Sunday morning to take in the spectacle. \"It was a slow slide,\" she told CNN by telephone Monday morning, which meant residents had enough warning to get out of their homes and to the Woodshed's parking lot to watch nature's majesty and fury. \"It was very loud. You could watch trees coming down\" as the slide pushed the rocks in the valley's riverbed 30 to 40 feet up the opposite bank, Royster said. Afterward, residents found river fish high and dry on the hillside, she said. Westbay said the slide was like nothing the state has seen before, in that it wasn't the result of a weather or seismic event. \"We've had rockslides, mudslides, avalanches, but nothing like this,\" he said. Geologists were calling it a \"natural land movement,\" he said. Westbay said the rocks had stabilized by Tuesday morning, and crews had begun work on a temporary gravel road to restore access to residents. Flooding was the biggest obstacle to that; the slide changed the course of the Naches River, he said. For all the spectacle of the weekend, local resident Koch was impressed by something else Tuesday morning -- the government response. \"They're out there kicking bootie today,\" he said of the repair crews. \"It's pretty amazing to see government moving that fast.\"","highlights":"Landslide covers half-mile of highway up to 30 feet deep .\nDamage estimated upwards of $20 million in Yakima County, Washington .\nSlide changed course of Naches River .\n\"They're out there kicking bootie,\" resident says of government response .","id":"a8a16750f53ef645d26e328985450f9e0b3d2621"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shouting from the audience. Holding up signs blasting the health care reform bill before Congress. Frequent hissing and booing. Many Facebook and Twitter users condemned Rep. Joe Wilson for his outburst toward President Obama. Though it sounds like behavior at one of the health care town hall meetings last month, it was how some Republicans reacted to President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. But Norm Ornstein, a longtime observer of Congress and an expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said the tone and behavior from members of Congress are not necessarily new. \"A lot of what went on [Wednesday] night has become fairly typical of what we've seen in the State of the Union messages over the last 10 or 12 years, where it's one side jumping up wildly and the other side sitting on their hands in stony silence.\" The most memorable moment came from Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, who shouted \"You lie\" after the president said that a Democratic-sponsored health care bill would not cover illegal immigrants. Ornstein said that in addition to being beyond the bounds of what is typical, Wilson's comment is \"just sort of stunning in the level of disrespect for not just the president but the presidency.\" Watch more of Wilson's outburst \u00bb . During several moments in Obama's speech, members of the GOP hissed and yelled at the president as he laid out his plan for reform. One Republican held a sign saying, \"What bill?\" House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, was seen several times typing on his phone during the speech. Vice President Joe Biden told ABC's \"Good Morning America\" on Thursday that he was \"embarrassed for the chamber and a Congress I love.\" Observers said the behavior is probably indicative of the vitriolic sentiments found during town hall meetings. \"I think a lot of those Republican members went home to their district and were met with very angry reaction from their constituents. Congress, as you know, is pretty polarized,\" said Kasie Hunt, a health care reporter for National Journal's Congress Daily. \"I think, in some ways, that's what you really saw last night: the degree of acceptance of that angry discord that we've really hadn't seen in a long time.\" Hunt said there is still a lot of misunderstanding among Republican members of Congress. John O'Connor, who covers politics for The State newspaper in South Carolina, said that a lot of Wilson's anger mirrors what many feel in his home state. \"I think he feels the way a lot of people in South Carolina feel about [health care reform]. They're suspicious. They're worried. There's some fear out there about what could happen.\" But O'Connor points out that South Carolina tends to be more conservative than other states, and Wilson's town halls were generally civil. \"Rep. Wilson, however, held a town hall meeting in Columbia where, for the most part, there was a pretty reasoned debate,\" he added. \"There were folks on both sides raising issues, asking questions.\" Still, it might have been Wilson's constituents' anger and distrust that contributed to the outburst in Congress, O'Connor noted. \"His takeaway from that was that people support his stance, which was to oppose any version of what he's calling Obamacare,\" he said. \"So despite the fact that there was clearly some support in that audience for doing something about health care and health insurance, he kind of had a different impression of what the majority of the crowd thought.\" Could Wilson face any trouble for his comments Wednesday night? Unlikely, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi said Thursday that there is a procedure that could have been implemented to strike Wilson's \"lie\" comment from the record. But she said the president did the right thing in continuing on and not giving it \"any more attention than it deserved.\" Pelosi indicated that she would not press the issue farther. \"As far as I'm concerned, the episode was unfortunate. Mr. Wilson has apologized. It's time for us to talk about health care and not Mr. Wilson,\" she said. Political observers in South Carolina opine that the comment heard around the world \"was a little surprising.\" \"This is not his personality. He's not a guy who tends to make a lot of inflammatory statements. You expect that a lot more from Rep. DeMint [Republican from South Carolina] than Wilson for sure,\" O'Connor added. Wilson said Thursday that his outburst was simply \"spontaneous.\" Watch Obama's full speech \u00bb . Meanwhile, the controversy surrounding him -- and anger on both sides of the aisle to his statement -- has helped his opponent in the 2010 midterm election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Thursday afternoon that since Wilson's comment, his Democratic opponent, former Marine Rob Miller, received 11,000 individual grass-roots contributions and raised more than $400,000. During the 2008 election, when support for Democrats and Obama was high, Wilson faced a tough slog against Miller. The Republican, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, including most of Columbia and parts east, won 54 percent of the vote to Miller's 46 percent. Ornstein added that Wilson's comment was an \"incredibly dumb thing to do\" for the broader picture of the Republican Party. \"It was a gift, in a way, to Barack Obama,\" he said. \"To independent voters out there, this just underscored the notion that you've got a party that is unremittingly hostile to the president that has no interest in negotiating or finding common ground.\"","highlights":"President Obama delivered his health care reform plan to Congress on Wednesday .\nGOP Rep. Joe Wilson yelled out \"you lie\" during Obama's speech .\nS.C. observer says his view might be echoing sentiment from voters .","id":"021dbce5d540fdc29198dffd2c3c77d8c3d62f14"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. With money a bit tight these days, many people searching for jobs would like a salary of $80,000 a year. (CareerBuilder.com) -- Let's be honest: Sometimes you don't care about the job -- you just care about the salary. But it's awfully hard to look for a job that fits both your salary requirements and your skill set. Not to mention that we always tell you that your work and career should be something you love. Ideally, money is just an added benefit. That being said, we're also realists. We know that times are tough and at this point, some people just need to get paid. We went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at the latest (May 2008) salary information for the United States and found 30 occupations pay in the $80,000 range based on national averages. 1. Administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers Do this: Conduct hearings to rule on government-related claims; determine penalties and liability; and help to craft settlements. Get paid: $80,870 . 2. Biomedical engineers Do this: Design and develop devices and procedures to help solve health-related problems. Projects might include information systems, artificial organs or artificial limbs. Get paid: $81,120 . 3. Chiropractors Do this: Diagnose and treat musculoskeletal conditions of the spinal column to prevent disease and alleviate imbalance, pain and pressure believed to be caused by interference with nervous system. Get paid: $81,340 . 4. Atmospheric, earth, marine and space sciences teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in the physical sciences, except chemistry and physics. Get paid: $81,470 . 5. Agents and business managers of artists, performers and athletes Do this: Represent and promote their client's business while handling business matters and contract negotiations. Get paid: $81,550 . 6. Materials scientists Do this: Study the chemical composition of various materials and figure out ways to develop new materials and improve existing ones; also determine ways to use materials in products. Get paid: $81,600 . 7. Physician assistants Do this: Perform health-care services and provide treatment plans under a physician's supervision. Get paid: $81,610 . 8. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists Do this: Research and investigate human diseases and how to improve human health. Get paid: $81,870 . 9. Physics teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics pertaining to the laws of matter and energy. Get paid: $81,880 . 10. Atmospheric and space scientists Do this: Study the effects the atmosphere has on the environment, most commonly through weather forecasting. Get paid: $82,080 . 11. Management analysts Do this: Figure out best practices of management by conducting studies and procedures to help companies figure out how to operate more effectively. Get paid: $82,920 . 12. Producers and directors Do this: Produce or direct, and make all creative decisions for stage, television, radio, video or motion picture productions. Get paid: $83,030 . 13. Biological science teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in biological sciences. Get paid: $83,270 . 14. Materials engineers Do this: Develop new uses for recognized materials, and develop new machinery and processes to make materials for use in specialized products. Get paid: $84,200 . 15. Transportation, storage and distribution managers Do this: Oversee transportation, storage or distribution activities in accordance with governmental policies and regulations. Get paid: $84,520 . 16. Financial analysts Do this: Assess the financial situations of an individual or organization. Get paid: $84,780 . 17. Electrical engineers Do this: Design, develop and test the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment. Get paid: $85,350 . 18. Education administrators, elementary and secondary school Do this: Oversee all activities of public or private elementary or secondary schools. Get paid: $86,060 . 19. Industrial-organizational psychologists Do this: Work with companies to solve problems within the company. You may help with policy planning; employee screening, training and development; and organizational development and analysis. Get paid: $86,460 . 20. Computer software engineers, applications Do this: Build computer applications software and code; ensure that all software projects adhere to a company's technology and business standards. Get paid: $87,900 . 21. Economics teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in economics. Get paid: $88,330 . 22. Biochemists and biophysicists Do this: Study the chemical composition and physical principles of living cells and organisms, their electrical and mechanical energy, and related phenomena. Get paid: $88,450 . 23. Art directors Do this: Create design concepts and presentation in artwork, layout design and copywriting for visual communications media. Get paid: $88,510 . 24. Electronics engineers, except computer Do this: Design, develop and test a wide range of electronic equipment, from CD players to global positioning systems. Get paid: $88,670 . 25. Medical and health services managers Do this: Supervise medical and health services in hospitals, clinics and similar organizations. Get paid: $88,750 . 26. Chemical engineers Do this: Design chemical plant equipment and create processes for manufacturing chemicals and products. Get paid: $88,760 . 27. Geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers Do this: Study the composition, structure and other physical aspects of the Earth. Get paid: $89,300 . 28. Veterinarians Do this: Provide health care for family pets, livestock and zoo animals. Provide check-ups, treat diseases and advise caretakers on how to best raise their animals. Get paid: $89,450 . 29. Construction managers Do this:Oversee all activities concerned with the construction and maintenance of structures, facilities and systems. Get paid: $89,770 . 30. Sales engineers Do this: Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a bachelor's degree in engineering. Get paid: $89,770 . Jobs by Salary, a new salary tool from CBSalary.com, allows you to search for jobs by salary based on where you live or work in the United States . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 report lists dozens of jobs paying at least $80,000 .\nPhysics and post-secondary biology teachers can earn as much as $81,880 .\nSales engineers get paid the most on the list, at $89,770 .","id":"5d56ce8a96ee1ef5592a37ad6440345d1300f9ac"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen and Innosight Institute Executive Director of Education Michael B. Horn are the co-authors along with Curtis W. Johnson of \"Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.\" Clay Christensen says the sudden burst of federal spending on schools holds great danger. (CNN) -- Historically the federal government has been a small investor in the nation's education system. With the recent economic stimulus bill, however, this changed virtually overnight. There is great danger in the sudden and massive amount of funding -- nearly $100 billion -- that the federal government is throwing at the nation's schools. District by district, the budgetary crises into which all schools were plunging created the impetus for long-needed changes. The most likely result of this stimulus will be to give our schools the luxury of affording not to change. This is borrowed money that we're pumping into our schools, and it comes at a price. Charging education isn't changing it. That our schools need to change should not be surprising. Just walk into your local school and enter a classroom. Odds are high that it won't look too different from a classroom from a generation or two ago. Sure, there might be some computers in the back of the room and perhaps an interactive white board instead of a chalkboard, but chances are high that students will still be sitting at desks lined up in neat rows with a teacher at the front delivering the same lesson on the same day to all the students. This might be acceptable if society and the skills many people need to succeed in today's economy hadn't changed either, but they have. While U.S. schools stand still, the rest of the world is moving forward, and this has a price tag -- not just for individual children, but also for the nation. We urge the federal government to consider four criteria when creating new programs or grants for states and districts to help transform an outdated educational system into one fit for the 21st Century. First, don't fund technology that simply shoves computers and other technologies into existing classrooms. We've spent well over $60 billion in the last two decades doing just that, and there is now overwhelming evidence that when we do it, the current unsatisfactory system co-opts the technology to sustain itself. We should instead use technology funding to bolster new learning models and innovations, such as online-learning environments, to level the playing field and allow students from all walks of life -- from small, rural communities to budget-strapped urban schools -- to access the rich variety that is now available only to children in wealthy suburban districts. Second, don't fund new school buildings that look like the existing ones. If the architecture of new buildings is the same as that of existing schools -- designed around teachers delivering monolithic, one-size-fits-all lessons to large batches of students -- it will lock students into another century in which the physical infrastructure works against the flexibility needed for student-centric learning. Instead, invest in bandwidth as an infrastructure of change. The government has a productive history in investing in infrastructure that creates change and innovation -- from allocating land to those building the transcontinental railroad and the land-grant colleges in 1862 to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funding the creation of the Internet. To allow all districts to realize the power of online learning to advance us toward a student-centric system, the federal government should help deliver broadband capabilities necessary not just for today's needs, where schools already lag, but also in anticipation of tomorrow's. Third, don't fund the institutions that are least likely to change. Our research shows that institutions are good at improving what they are structured to do, but that transformative innovations that fundamentally change the trade-off between cost and quality -- disruptive innovations -- come from start-up institutions. This means that there is a high probability that spending money on existing schools of education will only result in their doing more of the same, for example. Meanwhile, there are a host of disruptive training organizations that are providing comparable educators at lower cost, such as Teach for America, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and New Leaders for New Schools. Alternative certification, including alternative programs from existing schools of education, has grown at a 29 percent compound annual growth rate since 1997. The government must embrace this and back the winners, not defend the old institutions. Fourth, direct more funds for research and development to create student-centric learning software. Just a fraction of 1 percent of the $600 billion in K-12 spending from all levels currently goes toward R&D. The federal government should reallocate funds so we can begin to understand not just what learning opportunities work best on average but also what works for whom and under what circumstance. It is vital to fund learning software that captures data about the student and the efficacy of different approaches so we can connect these dots. Transformation of any existing system isn't an easy process, but ignoring the laws of innovation, although it may be perhaps politically expedient in the short run, will only make it more difficult. When the federal government directs future funds toward education, having these principles in place will go a long way toward making sure we're not simply charging education, but that we have a fighting chance of changing it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn.","highlights":"Christensen, Horn: Federal spending on schools is set to jump .\nThey say it would be a big mistake to use money to let failing schools resist change .\nCo-authors: Federal money should go to innovators challenging traditional ways .\nThey say technology should be used to create new forms of schooling .","id":"4f7424eb3186f18c00da413f77a29e85d498c6d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Like a lot of people, Anna Owens began using MySpace more than four years ago to keep in touch with friends who weren't in college. Our real-world friendships are often a reflection of who we connect with online, experts say. But soon she felt too old for the social-networking site, and the customizable pages with music that were fun at first began to annoy her. By the time she graduated from the University of Puget Sound, Owens' classmates weren't on MySpace -- they were on Facebook. Throughout graduate school and beyond, as her network began to expand, Owens ceased using MySpace altogether. Facebook had come to represent the whole of her social and professional universe. \"MySpace has one population, Facebook has another,\" said the 26-year-old, who works for an affordable-housing nonprofit in San Francisco, California. \"Blue-collar, part-time workers might like the appeal of MySpace more -- it definitely depends on who you meet and what they use; that's what motivates people to join and stay interested.\" Is there a class divide online? Research suggests yes. A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook, while the less affluent are 37 percent more likely to connect on MySpace. More specifically, almost 23 percent of Facebook users earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to slightly more than 16 percent of MySpace users. On the other end of the spectrum, 37 percent of MySpace members earn less than $50,000 annually, compared with about 28 percent of Facebook users. MySpace users tend to be \"in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods,\" said Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, which used an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. \"They're on their way up, or perhaps not college educated.\" By contrast, Mancini said, \"Facebook [use] goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs,\" driven by a demographic that for Nielsen is represented by white or Asian married couples between the ages of 45-64 with kids and high levels of education. Even more affluent are users of Twitter, the microblogging site, and LinkedIn, a networking site geared to white-collar professionals. Almost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year. Nielsen also found a strong overlap between those who use Facebook and those who use LinkedIn, Mancini said. Nielsen isn't the first to find this trend. Ethnographer danah boyd, who does not capitalize her name, said she watched the class divide emerge while conducting research of American teens' use of social networks in 2006. When she began, she noticed the high school students all used MySpace, but by the end of the school year, they were switching to Facebook. When boyd asked why, the students replied with reasons similar to Owens: \"the features were better; MySpace is dangerous and Facebook is safe; my friends are here,\" boyd recalled. And then, boyd said, \"a young woman, living in a small historical town in Massachussetts said to me, 'I don't mean to be a racist or anything, but MySpace is like, ghetto.'\" For boyd, that's when it clicked. \"It's not a matter of choice between Facebook and MySpace, it was a movement to Facebook from MySpace,\" she said, a movement that largely included the educated and the upper-class. So why do our online worlds, unencumbered by what separates us in daily life, reflect humans' tendency to stick with what -- and who -- they know? A lot of it has to do with the disparate beginnings of MySpace and Facebook, said Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief of Mashable, a blog about social media. Facebook originated at Harvard University and was limited at first to students at approved colleges before opening itself to the public in September 2006. MySpace, on the other hand, had a \"come one, come all\" policy and made a mad dash towards monetization, Ostrow said. \"They used a lot of banner ads without regard to the quality, and it really diminished the value [of the site] for the more tech-savvy demographic.\" And while the Internet can build bridges between people on opposite sides of the globe, we still tend to connect with the same people through online social networks who we connect with offline, said technology writer and blogger Sarah Perez. \"It's effectively a mirror to our real world,\" she told CNN. \"Social networks are the online version of what kids do after school.\" These social-networking divides are worrisome to boyd, who wrote \"Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics.\" Instead of allowing us to cross the boundaries that exist in our everyday lives, these online class differences threaten to carry those boundaries into the future. \"The social-network infrastructure is going to be a part of everything going forward, just like [Web] search is,\" boyd said. \"The Internet is not this great equalizer that rids us of the problems of the physical world -- the Internet mirrors and magnifies them. The divisions that we have in everyday life are going to manifest themselves online.\" Jason Kaufman, a research science fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, examined the Facebook profiles of a group of college students over four years and found that even within Facebook, there's evidence of self-segregation. Multiracial students tended to have more Facebook friends than students of other backgrounds and were often the sole connection between white and black circles, Kaufman said. Nonetheless, Kaufman feels that social networks may one day help us overcome our instinct to associate with those who share our income level, education, or racial background. \"I think it's fair to say that the Web has great potential to at least mitigate everyday tendencies towards self-segregation and social exclusion,\" Kaufman said. \"In some ways, [Facebook] levels the playing field of friendship stratification. In the real world, you have very close friends and then there are those you just say \"Hi\" to when you pass them on the street. \"The playing field is a lot more level in that you can find yourself having a wall-to-wall exchange with just an acquaintance. If you pick up the unlikely friend, not of your race or income bracket, the network may [help you] establish a more active friendship than if you met them in real life.\" But MySpace's users still find something appealing about MySpace that they don't about Facebook, and it may have nothing to do with class or race, blogger Perez said. \"It's not just the demographics that have people picking one over the other,\" Perez said. \"It also comes down to what activities you like. If you like music, you'll still be on MySpace. If you're more into applications, then you might go to Facebook because you're addicted to Mafia Wars or whatever.\" In the end, boyd isn't as concerned about the reasons behind these divisions online as she is about the consequences of people only networking within their chosen social-media groups. \"Friendships and family relationships are socially divided; people self-segregate to deal with racism sometimes,\" she said. \"Okay, fine: We've made a decision to self-segregate, but what happens when politicians go on Facebook and think they're reaching the whole public? What happens when colleges only go on Facebook to promote?\" When and if that does happen, Mashable's Ostrow said, we'll know perhaps we've given social networks more credit than they're worth. \"When it comes to information, I don't think social networks are the best source for that. The Internet is so open,\" said Ostrow, who believes users would go beyond their networks to search out information online. If you're looking to branch out of your social network box, your best option may be Twitter. Nielsen's survey didn't find a dominant social class on Twitter as much as they found a geographical one: Those who use Twitter are more likely to live in an urban area where there's greater access to wireless network coverage, Mancini said. \"The simplicity of Twitter definitely creates less of a divide, because it's not a relationship like it is on MySpace or Facebook,\" Ostrow said. \"If you live in the middle of nowhere or you live in a city, you can follow anyone about anything.\"","highlights":"A recent Nielsen study finds class differences between online social networks .\nWealthier people are more likely to use Facebook; the less affluent, MySpace .\nAlmost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year .\nA researcher found that college students tended to self-segregate online .","id":"b23a4177253593f4298c54b15554355de05e6f6d"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Jury selection is set to start Monday in a trial pitting two children of Martin Luther King Jr. against their brother, whom they accuse of mishandling the late civil rights leader's estate. Bernice King and her brother Martin Luther King III say Dexter King took funds from their father's estate. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III sued their brother Dexter King in July 2008, one month after accusing him of converting \"substantial funds from the estate's financial account at Bank of America\" for his own use, according to the lawsuit. Also named as a defendant is the Martin Luther King Jr. estate, which is incorporated. Dexter King is the corporation's president and chief executive, in addition to being the estate's administrator. The three are the only shareholders in the corporation, and the plaintiffs hold at least 20 percent of its outstanding shares. The lawsuit contends Dexter King illegally and fraudulently converted estate funds and should be forced to repay the money and reimburse the plaintiffs' legal costs. The document, which lists five counts, does not say how much he is accused of taking. Dexter King has denied the accusations. The lawsuit reveals a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings. The three are the only surviving children of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968, and Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006. Their oldest child, Yolanda King, died in 2007. Bernice King administers her mother's estate. In a countersuit, Dexter King has asked a judge to force Bernice King to turn over their mother's personal papers, including love letters central to a now-defunct $1.4 million book deal. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King complained that Dexter King refused to hold shareholders meetings, which they said was another example of his lack of transparency in handling their father's estate. There had been no shareholders' meeting of the corporation since 2004, something that Dexter King blamed on the distraction caused by the deaths of his mother and sister. Judge Ural D. Glanville ordered a meeting, which was held last week. In a hearing held in late September, Glanville, who will preside over the trial in Fulton County Superior Court, also expressed serious concern about governance of the King estate. The judge issued an order saying \"the court is extremely troubled.\" He noted that Dexter King, as the majority shareholder, wields significant power in the corporation because he holds 80 percent of its shares. He alone can constitute a quorum for transacting business, the order says. The judge warned all three Kings that any failure to comply with the Georgia Corporation Code could result in the dissolution of the corporation and the appointment of a receiver.","highlights":"Bernice King, Martin Luther King III accuse brother of taking estate funds for own use .\nDexter King, administrator of Martin Luther King Jr. estate, denies accusations .\nDexter King files countersuit, wants sister to turn over mother's personal papers .\nJudge's order says \"the court is extremely troubled\"","id":"5ad699bdd522bc7c303bc5f9934cd6fa0a8aea67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's the most complex construction project in history. NASA's funding of the international space station is scheduled to end in 2016. Flying 250 miles overhead, the international space station can be seen with the naked eye, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, usually carrying a crew of six. Now, before construction of the station is even complete, there is already talk of when the lights will be turned off. NASA is waiting for the Obama administration to decide how much longer the station will fly and exactly which direction the U.S. space agency will take next -- a return to the moon, or maybe a trip to Mars? The initial phase of the international space station was launched in 1998, although the station is still being expanded. The U.S. is one of 16 countries that help build and operate the station, whose laboratory runs a number of science experiments, including measuring the effects of space conditions, such as weightlessness, on humans. The U.S. contribution to the space station so far: $44 billion. (NASA says it does not keep track of contributions from the other 15 partners.) NASA's funding of the space station is currently scheduled to end in 2016. \"The general idea that we would spend approximately 11 years building the space station, get it to its full operational capability, and then kind of abandon it a few years later ... doesn't make a lot of sense,\" said Robert Braun, a former NASA chief engineer. Braun currently is the director of Georgia Tech's Space Systems Design Laboratory. An independent committee reviewing the future of U.S. human spaceflight recently recommended to the White House that the station's life be extended to 2020. Watch more on the future of the space station \u00bb . \"You've got all of these different countries working together on this common project in space. And if we go ahead and stop ... it's going to break up that framework,\" said Leroy Chiao, a former space station commander and shuttle astronaut who sits on the advisory panel. \"The different countries around the world will lose confidence in the U.S. as a leader in space exploration,\" he said. But the committee also found that the U.S. space program appears to be pursuing goals that exceed current funding levels. So it will be up to the Obama administration to chart a new course. NASA has been planning on retiring the aging space shuttle fleet upon completion of the space station in 2011. That shuttle funding was to be used instead for NASA's next great endeavor -- the Constellation Program, which would take astronauts back to the moon. But that means NASA would no longer have its own spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station. Until a new space vehicle is ready to fly, the U.S. will have to hitch a ride on Russia's Soyuz capsule. One of the options the advisory committee has recommended is that NASA fly shuttles on a reduced schedule through 2015 to help close that gap, Chiao told CNN. \"That gap is real,\" he said. \"It's going to be there, and the only access we're going to have [to the space station] is to buy seats on the Russian Soyuz.\" Part of the problem with the U.S. space agency's funding gap, according to some experts, is that NASA's culture is to build. \"We're always looking for that next engineering or construction project,\" said Marco Caceres, a senior analyst on aerospace at the Teal Group. \"But the big thing is the science, and you can't sell that to the public. It's not sexy,\" he said. \"So NASA keeps moving on to other things, without putting the really hard work into doing what will benefit the people the most -- doing the things that station was designed to do in the first place.\" Until now, the majority of the science done in space involves human experiments with microgravity. Such research is considered essential for long-duration missions on the space station, or for future trips to the moon or Mars. Biomedical challenges such as bone loss, cardiovascular issues, psychosocial issues and exposure to radiation must be resolved before humans can venture too far from Earth for too long. While promised space research on diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's hasn't happened yet, some space science has brought encouragement. Astrogenetix, a private company, has used the zero-gravity environment aboard space shuttle flights to develop a salmonella vaccine, which is moving through the Food and Drug Administration's approval process. Growing the bacteria in space is much easier than it is on Earth. \"That process on Earth ... can take up to 10 years. And we send it up to space, for really three trips, and we found that we already had a vaccine for salmonella,\" said company Chairman Thomas Pickens. Astrogenetix also conducted an experiment on the last shuttle flight aimed at producing a vaccine for MRSA, a highly resistant staph infection. Pickens said that up until now, the space station hasn't been a viable location for long-term, commercialized experiments. \"They've been under construction, and you wouldn't do heart surgery in the middle of a construction site for a skyscraper,\" he said. Now all NASA needs is direction from the White House -- and, of course, money. The station's backers say you don't spend a fortune constructing a customized house only to knock it down. But NASA also may need to conserve funds for a possible mission to Mars. Observers should find out soon whether the hope of groundbreaking science is enough for Obama to keep the space station aloft.","highlights":"President Obama must decide how long to fund the international space station .\nNASA's funding of the space station is currently scheduled to end in 2016 .\nThe station's laboratory can conduct valuable science experiments .\nObama may wish to shift NASA funding instead to missions to the moon or Mars .","id":"4bc14b0768db6c0db769b918c44596eeec228b45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rap star T.I. threw himself a going-away party Sunday night, less than two days before he was scheduled to begin serving a prison sentence on federal weapons charges. T.I. performed to a packed crowd Sunday, days before he was to start a prison term. The Grammy-winning rapper performed at Atlanta's Philips Arena before a packed house. He is scheduled to head to prison Tuesday to start a 366-day sentence. During Sunday's concert, the 28-year-old reiterated a message that's become familiar in recent weeks: He wants others to learn from his mistakes. \"I'm doing the best I can to get out there, man, and put something positive on these young kids, man,\" T.I. said during the show. \"I try my best. I need y'all help, though.\" The rapper played to a sell-out crowd of 16,000 people, said Kenan Woods, a spokesman for the arena. T.I., whose given name is Clifford Harris, played through much of his catalog, including the hits \"Whatever You Like,\" \"Live Your Life\" and the Grammy-winning \"Swagga Like Us,\" Woods said. At times in the show, Harris was joined on stage by fellow rapper Soulja Boy and by his five children and mother, Woods said. He was greeted by a welcoming crowd, and some members of the audience held up signs supporting him. Tickets for the show started at just $10, according to the arena, which called the event \"T.I.'s Final Goodbye Bash.\" Harris has been the subject of an MTV reality show, \"T.I.'s Road to Redemption,\" in the lead-up to the prison term. He was sentenced in March on weapons charges related to purchasing machine guns and silencers. In addition to serving prison time, T.I. was placed on house arrest, was given community service and was ordered to pay a $100,300 fine. Though he had been in legal trouble before, Harris' current situation began when he was arrested just hours before he was to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. The rapper had provided a bodyguard with $12,000 to buy weapons. Harris was not permitted to own any guns, however, because he was convicted in 1998 on felony drug charges -- possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute -- in Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta. After his arrest, he entered a plea agreement, which federal authorities called unique because it allowed the rapper to remain out of prison for a year while he performed community service. Harris has already left a strong mark on the hip-hop genre, music experts told CNN, which should position his career well when he is released. Harris had been named to the Forbes list of top-earning rappers, making an estimated $16 million in 2006. Some music industry observers have said T.I.'s prison term will only make him more popular. \"I think that if anything, it will gain him more fans and actually support his fan base, because he's talked about making a mistake,\" Emil Wilbekin, editor in chief of Giant Magazine, told CNN. \"He's talked about taking care of the error of his ways.\" The Atlanta rapper has expressed remorse for the situation. \"I would like to say thank you to some and apologize to others,\" he said at his sentencing in March. \"In my life, I have been placed in the worst-case scenario and had to make the best of it.\" In a March interview with CNN's T.J. Holmes, Harris said he no longer felt like he needed to carry weapons to protect himself. He said people should not idolize him for what he's gone through, but should take note of the fact that he has taken responsibility for his actions. \"You shouldn't take the things that I've gone through, and the negative parts of my life, and admire me for that. If anything, admire me for how I've accepted responsibility for the part I played in placing myself in these situations, and what I've done to recover from it,\" Harris said.","highlights":"T.I. performed Sunday, less than two days before his prison term starts .\nThe rapper has been sentenced in connection with federal weapons charges .\nHis prison term of one year and one day starts Tuesday .","id":"e4da49390db4e8f4b50d06d609d27a63a10540e8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An attorney for convicted Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, who is scheduled to be executed November 10, will seek clemency from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on October 22. John Allen Muhammad listen to testimony from victims' relatives during his 2004 sentencing. Jonathan Sheldon said he will also file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on November 2. He posted the dates Tuesday on his law firm's Web site. During a three-week period in October 2002, police say, Muhammad and young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo shot 13 people, killing 10. Malvo, who was 17 at the time, was convicted in one shooting and was sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad is to be executed for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Virginia, gas station. Meyers was killed by a single bullet, which became the signature of the two-person sniper team. Kaine told CNN affiliate WTOP Radio during its \"Ask the Governor\" program last month that he couldn't imagine a circumstance under which he would grant clemency. \"I know of nothing in this case that would suggest that there is any credible claim of innocence or that there was anything procedurally wrong with the prosecution,\" Kaine said. Under Virginia law, condemned prisoners can choose to die by electric chair or by lethal injection. If the inmate does not state a preference, he or she is executed by lethal injection.","highlights":"John Allen Muhammad is to be executed November 10 for a Virginia slaying .\nPolice say Muhammad and an accomplice killed 10 people in October 2002 .\nGov. Tim Kaine has said he couldn't imagine a circumstance for clemency .\nOn his firm's Web site, attorney says he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court .","id":"ecb5f3386ae4309da1e9f13e77b87320213bdcd4"} -{"article":"PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Noah Gotbaum told a Phoenix airport operator that his wife was distraught after being bumped from a flight and that her situation was a \"medical emergency,\" not a case of \"some lout who's just drank too much.\" Video shows Carol Ann Gotbaum being arrested at a Phoenix airport shortly before she died while in custody. His wife, Carol Ann Gotbaum, died in a police holding cell at the airport, apparently strangling herself as she tried to maneuver her way out of handcuffs that were secured behind her back. Police have released a video showing officers arresting the 45-year-old woman at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport just before she died on September 28. Phoenix Police Sgt. Andy Hill said: \"Officers had no information ... that Ms. Gotbaum had traveled unescorted and alone from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona, in order to seek treatment for a substance abuse issue. \"The officers had no knowledge of any of Ms. Gotbaum's personal issues. They had not been apprised of any calls from the family to the airport seeking to locate Ms. Gotbaum.\" Michael Manning, a Phoenix attorney whom Gotbaum's family has retained, told CNN Gotbaum was calm, sober, and committed to alcohol treatment when she arrived at the Phoenix airport that day. \"By the time she reached the gate and found out she was denied boarding, she had a very, very strong emotional reaction to that, and we believe that that wasn't just a result of her being upset because of her determination to get well. We believe she may have been drinking,\" Manning said. According to the police report released Thursday, Gotbaum's husband, Noah, called the airport several times that day, trying to reach his wife or the airport police, telling them they didn't know the circumstances involving his wife, whom he described as suicidal. Noah Gotbaum on Thursday claimed his wife's body in Phoenix after an autopsy, and the body was to be returned to New York. In a statement Wednesday, police said they attempted to calm an irate Gotbaum before arresting her. They also said authorities had no idea of her \"personal issues,\" including her plans to check into an alcohol treatment center. Sgt. Hill said Thursday that there were indications alcohol may have played a role in the incident. Toxicology tests administered during the autopsy would determine if that were the case, but results of such tests typically take weeks. Gotbaum, who was flying through Phoenix on her way to Tucson, became angry when she was denied access to her flight and argued with a gate attendant, police said. According to the police statement, Gotbaum \"became agitated and loud\" and threw her hand-held PDA, which shattered after narrowly missing a person. She then left the gate area, but the attendant summoned police. The video showed Gotbaum after she apparently had just left the gate area. She was by herself, standing in the middle of a concourse, doubled over, and she seemed to be screaming. Watch how the arrest video answers some questions, raises others \u00bb . The video contains no audio, but witnesses -- including a federal police officer -- said Gotbaum was \"screaming at the top of her lungs, 'I'm not a terrorist, I'm not a terrorist,' \" according to Sgt. Mike Polombo, who is investigating the death. In the video, Gotbaum backs away from an officer who reaches for her, and she becomes combative before dropping to the ground. With officers on the ground attempting to handcuff her, she continues to scream profanities, Polombo said. Gotbaum was placed in a holding room, and a female officer searched her, but she \"continued to be uncooperative,\" the police statement said. \"Ms. Gotbaum was handcuffed with her hands behind her back, and additionally those handcuffs were attached to a shackle that kept her attached to the bench,\" the report says. Phoenix police policy is that prisoners can be left alone in holding rooms as long as they are checked every 15 minutes. Department policy bans cameras in holding rooms to protect detainees' privacy. After officers left, Gotbaum continued to scream, the police statement said. However, police checked on her when she fell silent and found her unconscious. \"Initial information ... indicated that Ms. Gotbaum had somehow worked the handcuffs to the front of her body, probably from under her legs, and had pulled the chain from the shackle across her neck area,\" the statement said. Officers used cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a defibrillator and other measures in futile attempts to save her life. Firefighters arrived and pronounced Gotbaum dead. The officers involved \"are still very upset about what happened,\" Hill said. \"They did everything they could to save Ms. Gotbaum.\" Hill said police are not aware of any policy violations, but he said the death remains under investigation, as any in-custody death would be. CNN security analyst Mike Brooks, a law enforcement veteran, said it appeared from the video that Phoenix police did everything by the book. \"It looks like they did everything they could to calm her down, and then she was still combative,\" Brooks said. \"We didn't see any use of any TASER, no pepper spray, and in my opinion, no excessive force was used here.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Family attorney says woman may have been drinking before arrest .\nHusband called airport saying his wife was suicidal, police report says .\nVideo shows woman apparently yelling before officers approach her .\nCarol Ann Gotbaum, 45, dies in custody September 28 at Phoenix airport .","id":"5928a449dfe33c7fa3cf597607cc6ce9b6f0b44b"} -{"article":"(Health.com) -- An analysis of the sickest swine flu patients in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand suggests that relatively healthy adolescents and young adults are among the most likely to get very sick after an H1N1 infection, a pattern similar to that seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic. The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, Dr. Neil Schachter said. Almost all critically ill patients in the studies were sick for only a few days before rapidly progressing to more severe symptoms and respiratory failure, which required treatment with a breathing machine, according to three studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent, depending on the country. The findings may help shine some light on what the 2009 H1N1 flu season may bring, and who may be hit the hardest by the swine flu during the next few months. \"These studies are telling us that young people are at risk for bad complications of H1N1 and under usual circumstances, [seasonal] flu does not cause acute respiratory failure in younger people,\" says Dr. Neil Schachter, the medical director of the respiratory care department at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York City, and the author of The Good Doctor's Guide to Colds and Flu. The analysis of cases in Australia and New Zealand looked at people who developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (a condition in which the lungs fill with fluid) and were put on a life-support system known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This artificial heart and lung machine system, which puts oxygen into the blood and then carries this blood to the body tissues, is considered risky and expensive; as a result, it is not readily available in every hospital. The mortality rate was 21 percent for these patients, although it may have been higher without this treatment, the authors say. Health.com: 8 ways swine flu is changing society . \"These studies provide important signals about what clinicians and hospitals may confront in the coming months,\" Dr. Douglas B. White, and Dr. Derek C. Angus, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, write in an editorial accompanying the new studies. In young, healthy patients, H1N1 can quickly cause respiratory failure that can't necessarily be reversed with mechanical ventilation, although such patients are not currently a priority group for H1N1 vaccination, they note. In the Canadian study, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the patients had lung disease, were obese, or had high blood pressure, a history of smoking, or diabetes. Overall, 14.3 percent of 168 critically ill people with confirmed or suspected H1N1 died within 28 days. The mortality rate in the Mexican study was strikingly higher. In Mexico City, where the H1N1 pandemic was first reported, 41.4 percent of 58 critically ill people died within 60 days of developing the flu. Health.com: 10 best big cities for people with asthma . Those people who died from H1N1 got sicker earlier in the course of their illness, had extremely low levels of oxygen in their blood, and had multiple organ failure. Their average age was 44 years old, and 54 of 58 patients needed mechanical ventilation. Other signs of more severe H1N1 included fever and severe trouble breathing. Health.com: 10 ways you put yourself at risk for swine flu (without realizing it!) In the Canadian study (in which the average age was 21.4), the critically ill tended to be hospitalized within four days of developing flu symptoms, and there was about a one-day lapse between hospital admission to intensive care unit (ICU) admission. As in the Mexico City study, younger patients with low blood oxygen and multisystem organ failure were hardest hit. What's more, the critically ill tended to require mechanical ventilation and rescue therapies to aid in breathing. Health.com: 8 causes of chronic cough . In both countries, the H1N1 outbreak lasted about three months. \"It is not clear of hospitals' need to invest in this ECMO technology because this has not proven very successful in other respiratory illnesses,\" says Schachter. \"We do know that treating H1N1 with antivirals such as Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) did help improve mortality.\" The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, which is safe, he says. \"The technology for making swine flu vaccine is no different than that used to make the regular flu vaccine, so in principle, there should be no differences in terms of safety,\" he explains. \"Recent surveys have shown that Americans are iffy about whether they will let their children receive this novel vaccine.\" Dr. James B. McAuley, the director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago, Illinois, notes that the studies focused on the sickest of the sick patients. Health.com: 7 surprising triggers of lung trouble . \"The mortality rate can be high for a small subset of people, but the overall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003,\" he says. \"This is a serious flu and there is mortality, but it is about the same as with the seasonal flu -- maybe a little worse.\" As to why younger people seem to be hit hardest, the current school of thought is that perhaps a similar virus circulated 50 or 60 years ago, so older people could have immunity to H1N1. McAuley's advice? \"Definitely get the vaccine,\" he says. (He says his own children have already received the H1N1 vaccination.) The editorialists write that the burden is on the public health system to heed the warnings in the new studies and prepare for the coming flu season: \"Any deaths from 2009 influenza A(H1N1) will be regrettable, but those that result from insufficient planning and inadequate preparation will be especially tragic.\" Such planning should include widespread availability of antivirals, antibiotics, and mechanical ventilation systems. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"In sickest H1N1 patients, mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent .\nOverall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than SARS, doctor says .\nOlder people could have immunity to H1N1 because of virus 50 to 60 years ago .\nDoctor: \"Definitely get the vaccine\"","id":"eaf5ebc4f1965b07abd49e09a9d832d3aa279020"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Mississippi schoolteacher was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for shooting and stabbing to death her lover's pregnant fiancee in 2006. Carla Hughes met the victim's fiance at the middle school where she was a teacher. The same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of two counts of murder Tuesday for the death of Avis Banks spared her life, declining to impose the death penalty. Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives. Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest asked the panel of nine women and three men to sentence Hughes to death based on the gruesome nature of Banks' murder. Banks, 27, was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29, 2006, in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Keyon Pittman, the father of her unborn child. She was five months pregnant. She had been shot four times in the leg, chest and head, and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying, according to medical testimony. Prosecutors alleged that Hughes killed Banks so she could have Pittman, a colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, to herself. \"She took Avis Banks' life and the life of her unborn child because she wanted that life,\" the prosecutor said. The jury deliberated Wednesday for about an hour to decide on the sentence after hearing emotional testimony from seven defense witnesses, including her parents. \"Carla has been a kind, loving person all her life,\" said Carl Hughes, who adopted his daughter when she was 6 weeks old. \"I'm not asking you, I'm pleading with you, to spare my daughter's life,\" said Hughes, who is also a teacher. He said that the person portrayed by prosecutors as a cold-blooded killer was completely different from the accomplished honors student, equestrian and beauty pageant contestant that he knew and loved. Hughes' pastor and friends also took the stand to describe her work mentoring youths, volunteering at church and at the school where she met the victim's husband. Suspicion initially fell on Pittman, who admitted to having an affair with Hughes, a language arts teacher. A key prosecution witness, Pittman told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes' home and even went out of town together, but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex. Throughout the trial, defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman, portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood. Prosecutors alleged the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime. The defendant's cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Banks' death. Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Banks' body to the gun, which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police. None of Banks' relatives testified at the sentencing. Instead, the jury heard from a forensic pathologist, who described the nature of Banks' injuries. Madison County Deputy District Attorney John Emfinger urged the jury to look past Hughes' prior achievements and focus on the crime in rendering its sentence. \"In my mind, this overshadows everything else she's done in life. She took the lives of two people in that garage,\" he said in his closing argument Wednesday. \"When that door opened, (Avis Banks) was not met by a beauty pageant winner, she was not met by a member of the mayor's youth council, she was not met by a peacemaker. ... She was met by a stone-cold killer,\" he said. In Session's Jean Casarez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of murder declines to impose death penalty .\nProsecutors said gruesome nature of crime warranted death sentence .\nAvis Banks was five months pregnant when she was shot, stabbed multiple times .\nProsecutors alleged Hughes killed rival so she could be with Keyon Pittman .","id":"1b303bd4927ee69fd73b566c1764e22bd076a75b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jennifer Schuett didn't know it, but the DNA of the man suspected of attacking her in 1990 was sitting in an FBI database for at least 13 years, just waiting for a connection to be made. Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, was arrested after DNA allegedly tied him to the crime. She was 8 and had been abducted from her room, raped and left for dead in a field. All she knew about the man who kidnapped her was that he called himself Dennis. His DNA was found on underwear left behind, but the sample was too small at the time to get a match. Schuett helped police create a detailed sketch of the man who attacked her. CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett decided to go public with her story and her name to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker. For nearly two decades, there were no answers. But with technological advances, authorities were able to retest the small sample of the attacker's DNA last year. With those results, a suspect would be found -- and it would all be because he was convicted for an eerily similar crime. Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, was arrested Tuesday in connection with Schuett's abduction and attempted murder. Authorities believe he was the man who kidnapped Schuett from her Dickinson, Texas, home, choked her, dragged her from his car and slashed her throat in 1990. Watch the sketch artist's memories of Schuett at 8 \u00bb . Years later, Bradford was arrested for a similar crime, court records show. On April 16, 1996, Bradford walked into Gator's Bar in Garland County, Arkansas, and offered to buy a woman a beer. They played pool for a while until she was ready to leave, and he offered her a ride. He wanted to spend more time with her, so he asked if she wanted to ride around in his car for a while and listen to an Ozzy Osbourne tape, the woman told police, the documents show. About 20 to 30 minutes later, he said he wanted to show her some property. According to the court documents, he stopped the car, began choking her and beat her in the head. \"He dragged her from the car into the woods and threw her to the ground,\" according to the court documents. They go on to say that he beat her and choked her again, at one point knocking her unconscious, she told police. He stripped her naked and put a knife to her throat. Bradford told her \"he was going to kill her, that he was going to put the knife in her eye and was going to cut her jugular,\" court documents show. Then, according to the documents, he raped her. He ordered her to stay still, gave her a towel to clean herself up and took her to a nearby creek and helped her finish bathing, court documents said. As they got back into the car and drove toward the Oaklawn Race Track, he said again that he had planned to kill her, the court documents show. This time, she asked him why he didn't. She told police he said he got scared. Bradford began apologizing repeatedly, the victim said, until he stopped the car at the track and let her out. That's when she turned and saw his license plate as he drove off into the distance. When Bradford was arrested in 1996, police took his DNA, which was entered into the FBI database. It remained there for years, until technology would catch up. A Garland County Circuit Court jury found Bradford guilty of kidnapping but was not able reach a verdict on the rape charges. Arkansas corrections officials said Bradford entered prison in march 1997, facing a 12-year-sentence, and was paroled in February 2000. In March 2008, in Houston, Texas, FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison, Dickinson Police Department Detective Tim Cromie and a Galveston sheriff's deputy met to discuss Schuett's 1990 case. Cromie asked if the FBI could see if new methods of DNA testing might help find a match for Schuett's attacker. In July 2008, the evidence from Schuett's attack was sent for analysis, and on September 22, 2009, authorities say they received word there was a match. The FBI lab informed them that the DNA in the attacker's underwear matched Bradford's DNA profile. Bradford was arrested Tuesday morning on his way to work in Arkansas. He appeared in court in Little Rock on Wednesday and waived extradition to Texas. Attorney Mark Jesse, who represented Bradford at the hearing, said plans were in place to fly him to Texas later in the day. Earlier, the FBI said Bradford would arrive in Texas as early as Wednesday night and no later than Friday. Though it may have taken 19 years to find a suspect, Schuett's story came full circle this week with Bradford's arrest. \"I hope that my case will remain as a reminder to all victims of violent crime to never give up hope ... \" she said. \"With determination and by using your voice to speak out, you are capable of anything.\"","highlights":"DNA from suspect in 1996 case leads to arrest in 1990 rape case .\nDennis Earl Bradford arrested for rape, attempted murder of Jennifer Schuett .\nBradford convicted of kidnapping, slashing woman in 1996 in similar manner .\nBradford's DNA sat in database for 13 years before connection was made .","id":"fc414216497fbc37258276f1ff9e64cceedf4225"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Emblazoned on a long, tall, concrete barrier in the midst of a rocky Middle Eastern landscape is this spray-painted message: \"Mirror, mirror on the wall. When will this senseless object fall?\" Messages of peace, marriage proposals and jokes are among the most popular graffiti requests. It's one of more than 900 graffiti messages that have been spray-painted by Palestinians on the controversial wall that separates Israel and the West Bank. The painters take orders through a Web site that lets customers get a message on the wall. For the equivalent of $40, a Palestinian will spray paint the message and send three digital photos of it. Anything goes -- marriage proposals, jokes, notes to friends -- as long as it isn't extremist, hate-filled, or pornographic, said Faris Arouri, one of the founders of the site. \"Trying to imagine a clear view between Palestine and Israel,\" one message reads. \"If all humans are equal, why do they have to live separated?\" says another. And another simply shouts: \"Get along with each other!\" \"This is an alternative way to send your message to whoever you're sending it to,\" Arouri told CNN from Ramallah. \"It is there physically and it will stay there until someone sprays over it or someone decides to demolish that wall ... Hopefully it won't stay forever, because hopefully this wall will be removed sometime soon.\" The Israeli government began building the barrier in 2002, about two years after renewed violence erupted in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In some areas, it takes the form of a tall concrete wall; in others, it is more of a fence. Israel says the barrier has been successful in preventing terrorist attacks by Palestinians. But Palestinians say it amounts to an illegal land grab of Palestinian territory because it does not match the line of Israel's border with the West Bank before the 1967 Six Day War. The barrier cuts so far into West Bank territory at some points that the West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe and five Palestinian villages are actually now on the Israeli side of the wall. Palestinians in those villages contend they are cut off from both Israel and the West Bank because they are not allowed to travel into Israel and they must pass through military checkpoints to reach other West Bank villages. The Sendamessage Web site says other families cut off by the barrier are deprived of their livelihoods. The site describes how the wall separated a family from the hotel they owned and kept farmers away from their 500 olive trees. Israel's supreme court has twice ruled that the government must reroute sections of the barrier to avoid infringing on the lives of thousands of Palestinians. Arouri represents a Palestinian non-profit group, the Peace and Freedom Youth Forum, that works on the social and political issues facing young people in the West Bank. About two-thirds of the money raised through the site goes to the group, which uses it to pay for projects like building a playground, buying bicycles, or establishing laundry facilities for university students in Bir Zeit, near Ramallah. The group says it only works with organizations that are legal in the Palestinian territories and allowed to operate by the Israeli government. The rest of the money goes to the group's partners in the Netherlands, who maintain the Web site, accept payments, and manage the paperwork. First conceived at a Dutch-Palestinian workshop in Ramallah two years ago, the site has gone on to attract customers from around the world. There have been 910 orders so far, said Justus van Oel, a Dutch screenwriter who volunteers his time maintaining the site in the Netherlands. Spray-painting on the wall is a peaceful way for Palestinians to protest the barrier, Arouri said. \"You're not only defying the existence of the wall, but you're also showing the international community our refusal, first of all, to such a structure,\" he said. \"Also, it's an attempt to humanize the Palestinian society in the eyes of the world, showing that the Palestinians are not just militants who are violently resisting occupation.\" There are other benefits to the project, too, Arouri said. The rest of the world can get a glimpse, however small, into the Palestinians' lives behind the wall -- and the Palestinians get a sense that they're not forgotten, Arouri said. \"There's no big concept,\" van Oel told CNN. \"The wall won't fall because texts are on it, but the people behind the wall, they will have a face. It's also about beauty and poetry. It inspires people.\" Poetry is indeed on the wall, as are emotional pleas to take the wall down. Marriage proposals are a frequent order, Arouri said, but so are jokes and funny messages. \"We had a series of obviously French (people) making silly jokes about each other, because the names were just being repeated and repeated,\" he said. \"We also got a message supposedly from a dog, asking the neighbor's dog to come out and play in the sun.\" The diversity of the messages is something Arouri says he finds incredible. \"We've covered most of the aspects of human life,\" he said. Caspar Nieuwenhuis, a Dutch theater director, used the site to propose to his girlfriend. His plan was to feature a picture of the spray-painted proposal on a Dutch news broadcast about the wall and make sure his girlfriend, a journalist, was watching -- but the picture never aired. \"Then I thought, well, I have this photo of a Palestinian boy who's writing my proposal on the wall,\" Nieuwenhuis wrote to CNN. \"I've got a notebook (computer). I could save the photo (onto) my desktop and show it to my girlfriend, just that plain and simple. \"So I did. And when she saw this, she said 'yes' and cried,\" he said. Nieuwenhuis said he heard about the site through van Oel, a friend, and liked the idea right away. \"I thought it was a brilliant idea to have something beautiful written on an ugly wall,\" he told CNN. The Sendamessage Foundation is also planning to spray-paint an entire letter written by South African human rights activist Farid Esack next month. It's looking for customers to sponsor a portion of the letter in exchange for having their name signed onto the end. In the letter, Esack compares the situation in the Palestinian territories to South Africa under apartheid, the Web site says.","highlights":"Web site takes orders for graffiti messages to be sprayed on Israeli barrier .\nSecurity barrier separates Israel from Palestinian West Bank .\nMessages of peace, marriage proposals, jokes among most popular slogans .\nActivists says spray-painting is a form of peaceful protest for Palestinians .","id":"1cf0dc7e9029220682ddc81dd0d43844b8aaf26f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Diane Sawyer will take over nightly news anchor duties for ABC when Charlie Gibson retires from \"World News\" at the end of this year, a network spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer worked together on \"Good Morning America.\" Sawyer, 63, will be the second woman to be the solo host of an evening newscast for an American broadcast TV network. Sawyer will take the chair in January, ABC's Jeffrey Schneider said. Gibson, 66, and Sawyer worked together for years on ABC's morning show -- \"Good Morning America\" -- before Gibson was promoted over Sawyer to anchor ABC's \"World News\" in May 2006. Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff co-anchored the newscast before Gibson. That duo came to an end after Woodruff was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Maria Brennan, president of the Washington-based American Women in Radio and Television organization, called the announcement a \"watershed moment\" and said Sawyer was the \"obvious choice\" to take over ABC's anchor chair. Asked about the significance of two out of three network nightly news anchors being women -- the other being CBS' Katie Couric -- Brennan said, \"It comes with some excitement and some glee for groups like ours, who have worked for years to ensure that women have parity with their male counterparts.\" \"When we get to a point in time when we don't even notice the gender, we can really celebrate,\" Brennan said. Sawyer worked for President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, first in his White House press office and later helping him write his memoirs after his resignation. After a stint with CBS News -- including five years as a \"60 Minutes\" correspondent -- Sawyer joined ABC News in 1989. She worked on news magazines for ABC -- including \"Primetime Live\" and \"20\/20\" -- before being assigned to co-host \"Good Morning America\" with Gibson in 1999. CNN's Albert Lewintinn contributed to this report.","highlights":"ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson retiring at end of the year .\nDiane Sawyer will take over \"World News\" beginning in January .\nThe pair worked together for years on \"Good Morning America\"","id":"38f6af2b49bce1de70a5754baf9267a44fcb74a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The family behind a dramatic flight of a helium balloon that floated free appeared on a reality show that highlighted concerns about the children's safety. The Heene family appeared on two episodes of ABC's \"Wife Swap.\" Richard and Mayumi Heene and their three sons were featured on the ABC show \"Wife Swap,\" in which the mothers of two often opposite families switch places for two weeks. Mayumi Heene traded places with Karen Martel, whose husband runs a child-proofing business intended to keep children safe, according to a recap posted on Reality TV Magazine. In listing information on the Heene family, ABC's \"Wife Swap\" Web site described them this way: \"When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm.\" The description of the episode from ABC that appears on the Web site said \"[Martel] is shocked as the Heene kids jump off banisters and run wild, and appalled by Richard's attitude to women.\" \"Meanwhile at the Martels', Mayumi Heene sees safety gates everywhere and wonders how the family have fun. She asks the kids about their anxieties and confronts Jay about the climate of fear in his house.\" The Heenes reportedly allowed their children to accompany them as they tracked Hurricane Gustav. A YouTube video of the family appearing on Denver, Colorado's KMGH local newscast features two of the Heene sons briefly discussing chasing the Hurricane. \"What my kids learn from these storms and what they walk away with is the fact that these storms can be very deadly,\" Richard Heene told the KMGH reporter. According to the newscast, the family track 30 to 40 weather activities a year. The family was invited back by ABC to appear on the 100th episode of \"Wife Swap,\" where Mayumi Heene switched places with Sheree Silver, a psychic. A Los Angeles Times story documented the show by saying \"The Heene family, with its three rowdy boys, is anchored by father Richard, whose anger arrives in sudden bolts between his fringe science projects.\" \"The Silvers, who have two quirky, artistically inclined sons, revolve around the mother, Sheree, who is a psychic and who initially fails to impress Richard. 'Sheree's like a clogged drain, OK? Things aren't happening,' he barks. 'I'll bet you the heaviest thing she lifts is the fork to her mouth.' \" Mayumi Heene reportedly found it difficult on the show to adjust to Silver's household. \"It's their spouses who struggle most,\" the Los Angeles Times story said. \"Richard's wife, Mayumi, finding Sheree's 'househusband,' Sam Castiglia, to be 'a very feminine husband' and finds it tough to even tolerate the quirks of the Silver children, who are so unlike her own, seeming less like a parent than a conspirator against the alien family. So much for learning.\" A balloon that was set adrift from the Heenes' Fort Collins, Colorado, home was empty when it landed, and authorities later found one of the Heene sons -- who initially had been thought to be in the balloon -- safe on the ground. Officials said he had been hiding in the attic of the family's garage. What appears to be the three Heene boys are featured in a YouTube rap music video that seems to spoof overprotective parents.","highlights":"The Heene family of Fort Collins, Colorado, appeared on \"Wife Swap\" twice .\nOne episode had mother trading places with wife of child-proofing business owner .\nThat mother reportedly \"shocked\" by the Heene kids' behavior .\nHeene family chases storms together .","id":"9991114f0492d96345b8bf7d509d401c27435fb8"} -{"article":"FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (CNN) -- Michelle Mack has turned medical thinking upside down. The right side of Michelle Mack's brain rewired itself to take over functions controlled by the left. Born with only half a brain, Mack can speak normally, graduated from high school and has an uncanny knack for dates. At 27, doctors determined that the right side of her brain had essentially rewired itself to make up for function that was likely lost during a pre-birth stroke. But her childhood and young adult years were fraught with frustration. \"It was very hard for me,\" Mack said. \"It was very hard for me growing up. No one knew the truth about my brain.\" Mack's parents, Carol and Wally, realized shortly after her birth that something was wrong. \"There wasn't a group to turn to,\" said Carol Mack. \"Michelle didn't have cerebral palsy, I knew that. She didn't have Down's syndrome, I knew that. I had no place to turn.\" Ten years ago, Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institutes of Health, finally diagnosed the problem. Watch how Mack's brain healed itself \u00bb . An MRI scan revealed she was missing nearly all the left side of her brain. While it was clear Mack has some problems, Grafman said he and the family were shocked by the extent of the damage. \"We were surprised to see the extent of the lesion in her brain, which basically took away the left side of her brain,\" said Grafman. \"There's some very deep structures remaining, but the surface of her brain, the cortex is 95 percent gone and some of the deeper structures, structures that control movement, are missing. These are all structures that are important for movement, behavior, cognition.\" The only answer, Grafman said, was that Mack's brain has rewired itself. The remaining half took over some of the essential functions that are normally done by the left, such as speaking and reading. That rewiring, however, came at a cost. \"Michelle has fairly normal language abilities, certainly basic language abilities, she can construct a sentence, she can understand instructions, she can find words when she's talking, but actually she has some trouble in some aspects of visual-spatial processing,\" said Grafman. \"It's quite possible that in her learning, in her development, when the right hemisphere either took over or developed some of the language abilities that it cost her in some of the skills that are normally mediated by the right side of the brain,\" added Grafman. In the 10 years since Grafman first diagnosed Mack, she has seen some intellectual functions improve, the doctor said. Recovery has not been perfect, however. Mack still struggles with abstract concepts and becomes easily lost in unfamiliar surroundings. The diagnosis explained why Mack had experienced a lifetime of difficulty controlling her emotions. \"He's helped us understand the reason why I tend to throw fits, temper tantrums,\" she said. \"It was because I was missing half my brain.\" Mack will always have some problems, but dad Wally Mack said that Grafman's diagnosis and treatment answered a lot of questions and gave him hope. \"Dr. Grafman explained that the right hemisphere is taking over, and it might take her a little while longer to get there with all the rewiring that has to take place,\" he said. \"But that told us all these bad days are behind us and there are nothing but good days ahead.\" Michelle Mack is now 37 and lives with her mother and father. She works from home doing data entry for her church. She is fairly independent, pays rent and can do most household chores. She realizes she'll need help for the rest of her life but wanted to tell her story to make it clear that she is not helpless. \"I wanted to do this so people like producers, photographers and security guards and police officers learn about people like me,\" she said, \"that I'm normal but have special needs, and that there are a lot people like me, so that they could be more understanding.\" CNN's Campbell Brown contributed to this report.","highlights":"Doctor: Lesion \"basically took away the left side\" of Michelle Mack's brain .\nRight side of her brain essentially rewired itself to take over left-side functions .\nShe lost some language ability, emotional control because of the rewiring .\nMack's message to the world: \"I'm normal but have special needs\"","id":"a3022dea1ac49297a4a16c4f38fe9c4b4594297d"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- The FBI wants to question two men who were described as behaving oddly on a Washington state ferry earlier this summer. The FBI wants to speak with these two men seen on a ferry in Washington state earlier this summer. Members of the public and ferry workers reported the men to authorities after the two were seen pacing in areas of the boat, including a cargo hold, as if trying to measure distances, FBI Special Agent Larry Carr said Tuesday. The men were also seen about two months ago taking photographs of the ferries -- including restricted areas -- and studying an emergency evacuation poster. The men were spotted on multiple ferries and ferry routes, Carr said. The FBI wants to question the men to determine if their behavior was harmless or whether they were surveilling the ferries and ferry terminals for nefarious purposes. A ferry worker snapped photos of the men using a cell phone camera and gave the stills to law enforcement. The photos were shown to police and ferry workers, but no one could identify the men, so authorities called on the public for help. Pictures of the men have appeared in media outlets for more than a week. None of the 200 tips that have come in so far has led investigators to the men. Some news organizations have refused to publish the photos, saying the men have not been accused of a crime. It appears the men could be of Middle Eastern origin. Although the initial FBI news release on the men did not discuss their possible ethnicity, \"We just want to ensure that there is just one standard being implemented for suspicious behavior for both people who appear to be Middle Eastern and those who appear not to be Middle Eastern,\" said Naseem Tuffaha of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Carr said the FBI made the photos public because \"the result of not doing anything at that point in time is a ferry blowing up and thousands of people losing their lives. We can't let that happen.\" More than 25,000 people commute daily through the Seattle Ferry Terminal and more than 9 million people travel through the terminal annually, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation web site. But various FBI officials have stressed the agency is acting out of an abundance of caution and that the men seen on the ferry could have a logical and harmless explanation for what they were doing. Robbie Burroughs, also with the FBI in Seattle, said the ferry system could be an attractive target to terrorists. \"Here the ferries are the equivalent of subways, so we are cautious,\" Burroughs said last week when the effort to identify the men began. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. law enforcement has emphasized the need for the public to report suspicious behavior. Many such reports turn out to be nothing of concern. However, seizures of al Qaeda materials overseas have turned up reconnaissance photos taken in the United States. E-mail to a friend . CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve and senior producer Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI: Two men seen taking photos of Washington ferries, pacing a cargo hold .\nFBI asking public to help find men so agents can question them .\nSome media refuse to run photos of the men, saying men not accused of crime .\nIn Seattle \"ferries are the equivalent of subways,\" official says .","id":"e122884e1f7c7944c4474eaf5b4dbe7820fd8693"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mayor of a small town in the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico was found shot dead Tuesday, apparently among the latest victims in the fight against organized crime in the region. Hector Ariel Meixueiro Munoz, 53, was mayor of Namiquipa, a small town in the state of Chihuahua. The body of Hector Ariel Meixueiro Munoz, 53, mayor of Namiquipa, was found inside his SUV on the side of a road on the outskirts of the rural town of 20,000, said Eduardo Esparza, spokesman for the attorney general in the state of Chihuahua. \"He was on his way to work in the morning,\" said Esparza. \"We are still trying to confirm if there was a police escort with him at the time.\" The incident has put other officials in the region on alert. Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told CNN during a phone interview that death threats are common in his town on the other side of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. \"It's very sad,\" he said. \"This mayor was fighting crime, he had received several threats, but he was brave. Several of the mayors have received threats and we take them seriously.\" Reyes Ferriz said the mayors of the state's large cities have the resources to take sufficient precautions, but for the mayors of smaller towns like Namiquipa, such security is a luxury they often cannot afford. The mayor of Juarez and his family are protected by a 24-hour security detail and are driven in bulletproof vehicles. \"Sadly, this has become part of the process in the fight to regain security in the cities,\" Reyes Ferriz said. Asked whether he feared for his life or those of his family, he would not say. \"All the fears of a public servant are private,\" he answered.","highlights":"Hector Ariel Meixueiro Munoz, 53, was mayor of Namiquipa in northern Mexico .\nFellow mayor: He \"was fighting crime, he had received several threats\"\nUnlike mayors of bigger cities, mayors of smaller towns often can't afford security .\nThe incident has put other officials state of Chihuahua on alert .","id":"e55bb619579bdc279f1906e2b32f2629c2fc16f8"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Erica Williams is deputy director of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based organization that describes itself as dedicated to progressive causes. She works to engage the millennial generation and communities such as people of color, women and people of faith in the political process. She can be found at ericawilliamsonline.com and on Twitter at @ericawilliamsdc. Erica Williams says the idea that young people don't care about the health care issue is wrong. (CNN) -- As Congress returns to Capitol Hill, back from a recess of contentious town halls on health care reform, one new voice has the potential to break through the seemingly endless deadlock: the voice of young Americans. Just Thursday, there were more than 880,000 Facebook status updates posted with the meme of a demand for health care reform, generated organically and spread virally from young people and other Facebook users across the country. Some are regarding this as the first symbolic demonstration of young people's engagement in the debate despite the common, and categorically false, notion that young people \"don't care about health care reform.\" Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 represent nearly a third of the entire uninsured population, and two-thirds of those uninsured young people reported going without necessary medical care because of costs in 2007, according to research for the Commonwealth Fund. More than half of all young adults have low incomes (below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, $21,660 for a single person in 2009), and low-income young adults are more than 2.5 times as likely to be uninsured as higher-income young adults, according to the Urban Institute. And contrary to popular belief that young people see themselves as invincible college students who choose to remain uninsured, 56 percent of uninsured young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are full-time workers who are half as likely to be covered by their employer as older workers. Millennials regarded health care reform as one of their top concerns during the 2008 election campaign, according to the Rock the Vote Poll of 18- to 29-year-olds, conducted in February 2008 by Lake Research Partners. Whether it is the 25-year-old freelancer with a pre-existing condition who can't purchase insurance in the individual market, the 20-year-old line cook who doesn't receive insurance through her job or the 28-year-old bank employee who is insured but is worried about the rising costs of premiums, young Americans experience the deficiencies of our health care system on a daily basis. Nevertheless, despite a recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey showing that 60 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 support Obama's reform plan, the voice of young Americans has been strikingly absent from the public, televised national debate. And that silence is a dangerous state of affairs for the larger dialogue around reform. Young Americans have the most at stake and the longest to live with the result, and they are often the primary voice of a moral imperative (the idea that health care reform is not only economically necessary but the just and fair thing to do). Without their voices, the health care reform debate will continue to be stalled and hemmed in by older Americans who are in a better economic position than young people and who are afraid to change the status quo, despite all signs that it is rapidly failing. Young people were such a vital force during the election, not simply because of their own voting turnout but because of their ability to reach out to their elders and persuade them. And what could be more needed now? But if health care reform matters so much to young people and their voice is so crucial in the debate, why the silence? Why does it appear as if young people aren't interested in the debate that will inform so much of their future? Well, if we are gauging America's overall interest in the debate by the aforementioned displays of partisan yelling, screaming and death panel-ing at some town halls, no wonder we think young people don't care. Those sideshows were a clear turnoff to a population that voted overwhelming for less partisanship and \"drama\" in its politics. Or perhaps it is because this administration did little in the early stages of the debate to engage and activate a \"fired-up and ready to go\" base of young people that saw health care reform as a top concern at the polls. Obama rarely highlights the fact that reform would provide protections against price differentials that often result in discrimination based on age and gender. Or what about the fact that the president's reform proposal would mean that a young person can be covered up until the age of 26 by a parent's plan, rather than the current limit of 19 for those who don't attend college? This is what young people should have been told. But it isn't too late. As 2008 showed, young people, like all other constituencies, speak when spoken to. As the debate slogs into what is sure to be the most consequential stage of the battle, President Obama has a prime opportunity to speak directly to those who should have been the base of this issue all along. It is beyond time for the White House, and other organizers working to support reform, to hit college campuses and other community centers where young people can be found, both on- and offline, and empower them to make their voices heard. In the meantime, young people are doing it themselves. Students across the country are beginning to plan their own town hall events and forums, designing health care T-shirts and sending in photo petitions to their elected officials. They are demanding real reform and trying to get the health care debate back on track. In order to succeed, the fight for bold health care reform needs the enthusiasm, support and perspective of young people. And time is running out. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Erica Williams.","highlights":"Erica Williams: There's a myth that young people don't care about health care .\nShe says young people showed concern about the issue in 2008 .\nShe says they overwhelmingly support Obama's health care plans .\nWilliams: Reform fight needs enthusiasm and perspective of young people .","id":"2326d69072e1821bc767584dc2c1274db536b982"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 35,000 fugitives across the United States were arrested in June as part of an annual sweep that teams the U.S. Marshals Service with local law enforcement in a summer push to clean up the streets, U.S. Marshals said Thursday. U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark says unregistered sex offenders were a major target. Among the 35,190 fugitives apprehended during Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Operating Nationally) were 2,356 fugitive sex offenders, the service said. \"This might be considered the cream of the crop for the most violent felons that are out there. For example, we arrested 433 murder suspects,\" said U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark at a Chicago, Illinois, news conference. In the course of the operation, the marshals also confiscated 582 firearms and 2,400 kilograms of narcotics. \"Often when we find fugitives in hiding, we have other fruits of their crimes: firearms, drugs, some other evidence of some type of criminal activity,\" Clark said. Unregistered sex offenders were a major target, Clark said. \"We highlighted one [case] here in the Chicago area. It involved an individual who was alleged to have molested a 9-year-old girl. He had violated his parole, and after an investigation he was located,\" he said. \"There's evidence of further crimes that happened since he didn't register as a sex offender. This is typical of the type of individual who is out there, somewhere on the streets of America, and is often harming children or others.\" One operation involved a Cleveland, Ohio, Police SWAT team and the U.S. Marshals, who were following a lead on Jeremiah Jackson, 29, who was wanted for murder, accused of shooting a woman in the back during a robbery. On June 9, the team surrounded a house where an intelligence surveillance team said Jackson might be. Jackson was reported to be armed and dangerous. But Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Koerbel said once Jackson saw the team, it had its man. \"When he saw he really had nowhere to go, he gave himself up,\" said Koerbel. \"He made the statement, 'I'm the guy you're looking for and I'll come right down.' \" In Cleveland, Koerbel said, the program was a success. \"We were able to arrest 1,211 people in a 30-day period. Five were for homicides,\" he said. Typically, the U.S. Marshals office in Cleveland arrests about 100 fugitives in any given month. \"This is just the type of operation that brings us all together and shows we're a force of one and shows the community we're here and this is a safe place to raise a family,\" Koerbel said. Jackson was jailed on $10 million bond. He has not entered a plea on the murder charge, but his father, Willie James Jackson, told CNN affiliate WJW the police have the wrong man.","highlights":"U.S. marshals team with local law enforcement for annual sweep .\nNationwide operation apprehends 2,356 fugitive sex offenders, officials say .\nRaids also net 433 murder suspects, 2,400 kilograms of narcotics .\nIn Cleveland, Ohio, officials arrest 1,211 people in 30 days .","id":"7d29852cecf995651bdae06b86f75d03fbf59989"} -{"article":"DOBBS FERRY, New York (CNN) -- Jude Ndambuki teaches high school chemistry, but when he's not in class, you might find him Dumpster diving for discarded computers. Jude Ndambuki's Help Kenya Project provides refurbished computers for Kenyan students. For the past eight years, the Kenya native has been refurbishing computers, printers and other electronic educational resources otherwise headed for landfills, then sending them to grateful students back home. \"The children in Kenya have very few resources; even a pencil is very hard to get,\" said Ndambuki, 51, who lives in the New York City suburb of Dobbs Ferry. \"Being one of the kids who actually experienced very dire poverty in Kenya, I feel any part that I can play to make the life of kids better, I better do it.\" In lieu of compensation for the considerable time, expertise and expenses he devotes to his Help Kenya Project, Ndambuki asks that recipients plant 100 trees for every computer they receive. By connecting computer recycling, educational development and environmental conservation, he hopes to encourage a greener, more prosperous future for his country. The Help Kenya Project has provided more than 2,000 refurbished computers to Kenya's schools and planted more than 150,000 trees. Watch Ndambuki and his Help Kenya Project in action \u00bb . \"Many of the schools that I give computers [to] in Kenya have not seen computers before. So we're bringing them closer to the development,\" explained Ndambuki, adding that without this opportunity, some of those schools might have gone another 20 years without touching a computer. \"It's like giving the kids new life,\" he said. \"Computers are getting new life, and trees are being planted to bring a new life, too. It's all connected.\" Finding treasure in the trash . \"Growing up was not easy\" for Ndambuki, who said he became a teacher to help children who are struggling the way he did. The second of eight children raised by a widowed mother, Ndambuki attended school at the expense of his older brother; he quit because the family couldn't afford both boys' education. Ndambuki was appointed principal at a Kenya high school where he befriended American exchange students who helped bring him to the United States to further his education. In 1997, he arrived with his wife and two children for his new teaching post in a Dobbs Ferry private school. On a late-night walk home from continuing-education classes, he passed a computer thrown out on the curb for trash collection. He brought it home, where he found it was in perfect working order. It struck Ndambuki that the machines ending up in landfills could offer life-altering opportunities for children in his homeland. \"It all came together,\" recalled Ndambuki. \"Kids in Kenya need to know technology. It's the way of the world, and they will be left behind without it. I am determined to prepare them for office jobs instead of field work.\" The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates that 98 percent of Kenya's public primary schools and 80 percent of public high schools lack computers. And 70 percent of Kenya's energy is derived from charcoal and firewood culled from the country's forests, according to the UN Environment Programme. \"There's a lot of trees that are cut every year,\" Ndambuki said. \"We find the land becomes bare, a lot of erosion of the soil takes place. So we need trees to be planted.\" The trees also help protect the computers from dust blowing in through the classroom windows, he said. Ndambuki ships a 40-foot container loaded with hundreds of refurbished computers to Kenya for distribution once a year. He and a few of his chemistry students often tinker with computer parts after classes, spending hours refurbishing, packing and preparing the shipments. Each Kenya school receives an average of five computers. To ensure that private data of the computers' former owners is not accessible to new users, the Help Kenya Project wipes that information from the machines, loads them with necessary memory and restores them to functioning order. Every two years, Ndambuki visits recipient schools to show teachers and students the basics of computer programming and maintenance. Some of his American students accompany him and help teach the computer classes. Watch Ndambuki trade technology for trees in his native Kenya village \u00bb . In addition, Ndambuki joins students, teachers and members of their communities to plant trees. \"While I'm doing this project, I feel so much connection with the kids in Kenya,\" he said. \"I'm not just gone to America to enjoy the good life. This has been a very nice bridge for me so that I can feel I've not left them.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Help Kenya Project and see how to help.","highlights":"Jude Ndambuki's Help Kenya Project sends used computers to Kenyan students .\nIn exchange, recipients plant 100 trees for each computer .\nGroup has sent more than 2,000 computers, planted more than 150,000 trees .","id":"de06cd00a6114a6d1097fd17b641ea46d70633cd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities in Colorado say criminal charges are expected to be filed against Richard Heene, a storm-chasing father whose giant Mylar balloon ascended into the sky earlier this week, sparking fears that his 6-year-old was aboard. Richard and Mayumi Heene leave the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Saturday. \"We do anticipate at some point in the future, there will be some criminal charges filed with regards to this incident,\" Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said. The saga captured the nation's attention early Thursday afternoon, after authorities reported the family's homemade helium balloon was set adrift, apparently with young Falcon Heene inside. Since then, speculation has mounted over whether the incident was a hoax by the father, who has appeared with his family on ABC's \"Wife Swap,\" and posted videos of storm chasing and other activities online. Earlier Saturday, in an impromptu press conference outside his home, Heene told reporters the runaway balloon incident was \"absolutely no hoax.\" The incident prompted a widespread search in northern Colorado that included law enforcement from several counties, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Colorado National Guard. It ended when Falcon climbed down from the attic above the garage at the family's Fort Collins, Colorado, home. If the incident was a hoax, the only charge local authorities could press would be making a false report to authorities -- a Class 3 misdemeanor, Alderden told reporters Saturday. However, a misdemeanor \"hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances,\" the sheriff said. \"We certainly want to talk to FAA officials and federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that would be more appropriate in the circumstances than what we're able to do locally,\" he said. He said further details would be disclosed Sunday morning, and that neither Richard nor Mayumi Heene, who came in voluntarily Saturday, was under arrest. The couple emerged Saturday evening from the sheriff's office after several hours of interviews with investigators. \"I was talking to the sheriff's department just now to further things along,\" Richard Heene told reporters outside the building. \"We're doing well.\" He refused to take questions before the couple drove away in their minivan. Earlier Saturday, Heene emerged from his house and offered a cardboard box for the media to submit questions. Watch Heene reveal question box \u00bb . \"I got people e-mailing me, calling me; they've got a lot of questions, and I don't know how to quite frankly answer any of them other than I've got a box,\" Heene said around 10 a.m. He said he'd answer the questions later Saturday night. \"I'm going to place the box up front. Please write your questions down,\" he said. \"I have no idea what the news are saying. I don't have cable.\" Speculation began to mount over whether the incident was staged after the family appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Thursday night. Heene asked Falcon why he had not come out from hiding when his parents were calling for him. \"You guys said we did this for the show,\" the boy said. Heene said his son was confused when he made the \"show\" remark. There were media assembled on the front lawn asking all sorts of questions, and that's what Falcon was referring to, Heene said. Alderden said Friday that -- based on reports that the parents \"took these children into potentially dangerous situations\" with tornado chases, the experimental balloons and other activities -- it would be \"appropriate to involve child protection [services] to at least see what the family situation is and whether the children are in a safe condition.\" Earlier, the sheriff told reporters his department contacted child protection officials but asked them not to contact the family until investigators had a chance to re-interview them.","highlights":"NEW: Criminal charges expected \"sometime in the near future,\" sheriff says .\nNEW: Sheriff says he wants to consult FAA to see if federal charges apply .\nFather of boy thought to be in runaway balloon says he'll answer questions .\nRichard Heene sets box in front of home to receive reporters' queries .","id":"2a853caa0177515501abb206103e15fed7bf2315"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Some issues, it seems, still transcend America's increasingly bitter partisan divide. Ex-President George H.W. Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates smile during Obama's speech Friday. President Obama attended a community service forum at Texas A&M University on Friday hosted by one of his Republican predecessors, former President George H.W. Bush. Obama took the opportunity to emphasize that, regardless of partisan politics, the government can only do so much with the challenges facing Americans. \"We face threats to our health, our climate and, of course, our security that have left many of our young people wondering what kind of future they will be leaving for their own kids,\" Obama told the audience, which including the former president and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. \"Anyone here thinks that our government always has the solutions, President Bush and I will be the first to tell you that you'll be sorely disappointed.\" \"The government can build the best school, with the best teachers, but we can't run the PTA ... we can pass the most comprehensive health care reform bill, but Congress can't be on the ground in our communities caring for the sick and helping people lead healthy lives.\" The two leaders met at Bush's presidential library to celebrate almost two decades of work from the Points of Light Institute, which was founded with Bush's encouragement in 1990 to \"encourage and empower the spirit of service,\" according to the group's Web site. The Institute takes its name from Bush's 1989 inaugural address, where he referenced \"a thousand points of light ... all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good.\" Obama lauded the former president's lifetime of service -- from his enlistment at 18 to his community work during retirement -- noting that Bush was the first president to create a White House office devoted to promoting volunteer work. The president said Bush's legacy of service affected the life of his own family. \"It's a vision that's changed lives across this country, including that of a young woman who went to work for an organization called Public Allies to prepare young people for public service careers -- an organization initially funded by the Bush administration,\" Obama said. \"Her experience there inspired her to devote her own life to serving others, and that young woman happens to be my wife, Michelle Obama.\" Obama latched onto the community service theme during last year's presidential campaign. He signed a measure in April designed to strengthen national community service efforts by boosting federal funding for thousands of volunteers in fields ranging from clean energy to health care and education. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, renamed to honor the late senator's sponsorship of the measure, will more than triple the number of positions in the AmeriCorps program, from 75,000 to 250,000, by 2017. \"Our government can help to rebuild our economy ... [but] we need Americans willing to mentor our eager young children, or care for the sick, or ease the strains of deployment on our military families,\" Obama said when signing the bill into law. The law created four national service corps and launched several other initiatives, including, among other things, a \"Summer of Service\" program to spur greater community outreach by middle- and high-school students. Older Americans were encouraged to volunteer more through the creation of a \"Silver Scholars\" program, under which individuals 55 and older who perform 350 hours of service receive a $1,000 award. The law increased the existing AmeriCorps educational stipend offered to volunteers to $5,350 -- the same amount as the maximum Pell college grant. Some critics have contended the measure, expected to cost roughly $6 billion over the next five years, is fiscally irresponsible in light of the current economic downturn. They also argue that the concept of volunteerism is undermined by providing financial compensation for community service. Points of Light Institute CEO Michelle Nunn, however, praised the legislation for encouraging people to \"volunteer their time and talents to positively impact the nation's largest problems.\" CNN's Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama speaks at forum hosted by ex-President George H.W. Bush.\nNEW: 44th president praises 41st for \"thousand points of light\" ethic .\nNEW: Obama: It \"changed lives across this country,\" including Michelle Obama's .\nObama: \"You'll be sorely disappointed\" expecting government to solve all problems .","id":"140827f1ecef96f90ab68ff79593bd0fc1c1cd1f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The driver who collided with a vehicle driven by Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps will be cited for failure to stop at a red light, police said Friday. Michael Phelps' black Cadillac Escalade collided with another vehicle at an intersection, police say. But the gold medal winner will also be cited -- for failure to present a valid driver's license and for failure to establish a Maryland residency and obtain a Maryland driver's license -- in connection with his involvement Thursday in a car wreck, police said Friday. At the scene, he presented a Michigan driver's license, which police determined \"was not valid,\" said Baltimore, Maryland, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Phelps was driving one of two vehicles that collided at an intersection about 9 p.m., Guglielmi said. The female driver of the second vehicle was transported to a local hospital as a precaution, Guglielmi said. Phelps and his two passengers were uninjured. Video from CNN affiliate WBAL showed Phelps' black Cadillac Escalade at the crash site. Watch wrecked cars at the intersection \u00bb . Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Earlier this year, he was suspended from organized competitive swimming after a photo of him holding a bong -- a device commonly used to smoke marijuana -- surfaced in February. CNN's Scott Spoerry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Michael Phelps will be cited for failure to present a valid driver's license .\nOlympic champ driving one of 2 vehicles in Baltimore crash .\nFemale driver of 2nd vehicle taken to a hospital as a precaution, police say .\nCrash is under investigation, police spokesman says .","id":"58808eaaf62840d39b7bdde98d8e5c8801453ec3"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- America's most recent war dead lie in a quiet patch of ground at Arlington National Cemetery known as Section 60. A soldier places flags alongside tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery. In that parcel are 485 men and women who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most tourists keep to other paths at the cemetery, visiting the Tomb of the Unknowns or President John F. Kennedy's gravesite. However, especially on Memorial Day weekend, relatives and friends pay their respects at the graves in Section 60. \"I wish that everyone in their lifetime could come here at least once,\" said David Christoff of Rossford, Ohio, as he stood where his son is buried. Marine Sgt. David Christoff Jr. died in Iraq two years ago at age 25. As his father's arms swept toward the rows of white granite gravestones, he said, \"You can see the cost of freedom. It's not free, by any means.\" \"These are all heroes. This is why we're free today. This is why my son was there.\" According to the latest numbers from the Department of Defense, 4,080 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq and 423 in Afghanistan. Arlington is one of more than 100 national cemeteries in the United States where there are military graves. Some families turn down the opportunity to have a loved one buried at Arlington, opting instead to have the grave closer to home. \"It's a hard place to be -- very emotional,\" said Jerry Fowler of Los Altos, California, while visiting the grave of her nephew, Army Sgt. Dale Brehm. He died in Iraq two years ago. \"All these people who lost their lives,\" Fowler said, \"and we just walk by like it's nothing. They meant something.\" \"When you walk down these rows,\" she added, \"you learn to respect every single person in this row, not just the person you came to see -- every one.\" At least 4 million people visit the cemetery each year, according to its Web site, and officials say Arlington, sadly, is running out of space for graves. There are more than 290,000 bodies buried there. Plans to expand the cemetery include seven areas where urns can hold the ashes of more than 100,000 people. Stepping lightly with heavy boots along the row of graves, Army medic Andrew Harriman of the 82nd Airborne dropped to one knee at several. \"We lost 22 guys from our unit,\" said the soldier, who was wounded in Iraq. He was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his valor. \"Every time I come to town, I stop by.\" Four of Harriman's friends are buried in Section 60. \"I don't think people realize how hard it is for the families and the co-workers or friends of these guys,\" he said. Also buried in Section 60 is Ross Andrew McGinnis of Knox, Pennsylvania. The 19-year-old Army specialist died in Baghdad when he threw himself on a grenade that had been tossed into his Humvee. He saved four fellow soldiers. Next month, McGinnis will be awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for his bravery. Not far from his resting place is the burial site of Capt. Maria Ines Ortiz, who became the first Army nurse killed in combat since Vietnam when she died in Iraq last year. Particularly touching are the mementos left at some of the graves -- photographs of wives and children, children's drawings, coins, greeting cards, notes, stones and even unopened beer bottles. Nino Livaudes was killed in Iraq in April 2003. At his grave is a multicolored, handmade card bearing the message: \"You are my hero, Daddy. I am 4 years old, and I miss you and love you very much, Grant.\"","highlights":"More than 290,000 veterans are buried at Arlington National Cemetery .\nSection 60 is final resting place for troops killed most recently in Iraq, Afghanistan .\nParticularly touching are the mementos left at some of the graves .\n\"You are my hero, Daddy. ... I miss you,\" reads one handmade card .","id":"2fde58b64eab1ff41166dacc5c72f06c3e2f4523"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who rose from the housing projects of the Bronx to the top of the legal profession, made history Thursday when the Senate confirmed her to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Sonia Sotomayor, 55, will be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was easily confirmed in a 68-31 vote. Nine Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting her nomination. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, supported Sotomayor but was not present for the vote because of illness. Sotomayor, a 55-year-old federal appeals court judge, will be the 111th person to sit on the high court and the third female justice. She will be sworn in at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts on Saturday. President Obama, who selected Sotomayor on May 26, said he was \"deeply gratified\" by the Senate vote. \"This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America,\" Obama said at the White House. Watch Obama's remarks \u00bb . Watching the final vote with friends and family at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, Sotomayor was confirmed after senators spent a final day of debate rehashing arguments for and against her. Democrats continued to praised Sotomayor as a fair and impartial jurist with an extraordinary life story. Many Republicans portrayed her as a judicial activist intent on reinterpreting the law to conform with her own liberal political beliefs. Among other things, Republican opponents emphasized concerns over her statements and rulings on hot-button issues such as gun control, affirmative action and property rights. See how Sotomayor measures up with her new colleagues \u00bb . They also raised questions about some of her most controversial speeches and statements, including her hope that a \"wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences\" would reach a better conclusion than a white man \"who hasn't lived that life.\" Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped close the debate by stressing the historic nature of the nomination. \"It is distinctively American to continually refine our union, moving us closer to our ideals. Our union is not yet perfected, but with this confirmation, we will be making progress,\" Leahy said on the Senate floor. \"Years from now, we will remember this time, when we crossed paths with the quintessentially American journey of Sonia Sotomayor, and when our nation took another step forward through this historic confirmation process.\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, took aim at what he claimed was Sotomayor's inability to refrain from bringing her personal political opinions to bear on her rulings. \"This is the most fundamental test for any judge and all the more so for those who would sit on our nation's highest court, where a judge's impulses and preferences are not subject to review. Because I'm not convinced that Judge Sotomayor would keep this commitment, I cannot support her nomination.\" Several Republicans, however, bucked party leadership by voting in favor of Sotomayor. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, announced Thursday morning that he had decided to back Sotomayor after weighing a range of factors, including her education, experience and temperament. \"Judge Sotomayor is not the nominee I would have selected if I were president, but making a nomination is not my role here today,\" Voinovich said. \"My role is to examine her qualifications to determine if she is fit to serve. ... Based on my review of her record, and using these factors, I have determined that Judge Sotomayor meets the criteria to become a justice on the Supreme Court.\" Voinovich was joined by Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, New Hampshire's Judd Gregg, Indiana's Richard Lugar, Missouri's Kit Bond, Florida's Mel Martinez, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Tennessee's Lamar Alexander. Watch the Senate vote \u00bb . In a telling political sign, none of the Republicans who voted for Sotomayor is seeking re-election in 2010. Conservative activists, including the powerful National Rifle Association, mounted a concerted effort to rally GOP opposition to Sotomayor. The abortion issue also played a significant role in the nomination, with abortion-rights supporters backing Sotomayor and opponents urging her defeat. \"Today's historic vote is a sign of progress for Americans who want a Supreme Court that values individual freedom and privacy,\" said Nancy Keenan, head of the group National Abortion Rights Action League Pro-Choice America. Charmaine Yoest, head of Americans United For Life, praised the 31 Republican senators who opposed Sotomayor for a \"stunning vote of 'no confidence' in a nominee whose background of abortion advocacy and record of judicial interventionism raise serious questions about her fitness for the high court.\" Underlying the debate over Sotomayor was the larger political question of whether the Republican Party risked alienating Hispanic voters by opposing the first Latina nominee. The party's share of the Hispanic vote dropped sharply in last year's presidential election. \"If you meet all of the challenges that you are told you need to meet and still you can be told no, despite fidelity to Constitution, the law and precedent, then it sends a tough message to us as a community,\" said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey. Sotomayor's confirmation capped an extraordinary rise from humble beginnings. Her parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during World War II. Her father worked in a factory and didn't speak English. She was born in the Bronx and grew up in a public housing project, not far from the stadium of her favorite team, the New York Yankees. Her father died when she was 9, leaving her mother to raise her and her younger brother. Her mother, whom Sotomayor has described as her biggest inspiration, worked six days a week to care for her and her brother, and instilled in them the value of an education. Sotomayor later graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and went on to attend Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. She worked at nearly every level of the judicial system over a three-decade career before being chosen by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Accepting the nomination, Sotomayor thanked Obama for \"the most humbling honor of my life.\" After the selection, Sotomayor was touted by her supporters as a justice with bipartisan favor and historic appeal. She has served as a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1998. She was named a district judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and was elevated to her current seat by President Clinton. Sotomayor presided over about 450 cases while on the district court. Before her judicial appointments, she was a partner at a private law firm and spent time as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes. CNN's Lisa Desjardins, Kristi Keck and Bill Mears contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Abortion opponent praises 31 Republican senators who voted \"no\"\nSonia Sotomayor wins confirmation by 68-31 vote .\nShe will be the 111th justice, the third woman and first Hispanic on high court .\nNine Republicans join unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting nomination .","id":"fb23f565438827abdd6426ec620945bad42c2f38"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amanda Knox's parents are hopeful that an Italian court's decision not to re-evaluate the evidence against their daughter means she will be found not guilty of killing her roommate. Edda Mellas and Curt Knox say they have never believed their daughter was guilty. \"We asked for the independent review because we were sure that anybody [who] independently looked at it would support our position,\" Edda Mellas, Knox's mother, told CNN's Larry King in an interview to air Friday night. \"Now, maybe the court decided that they don't even need that support. That our arguments have already been good enough.\" Knox, of Seattle, Washington, has been in an Italian jail and on trial for nearly two years on charges that she helped murder her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher. Knox's defense lawyers had asked the court for an independent review of the evidence, which can be requested if there is contested or contradicting evidence. Prosecutors say a kitchen knife, allegedly the murder weapon, has Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade. The defense disputes that, but last Friday, the court denied the request for a review. Closing arguments in the trial are expected at the beginning of November, and Knox's parents hope a verdict will finally vindicate their daughter. Watch Curt Knox say why he thinks his daughter was arrested \u00bb . Her father, Curt Knox, told CNN that he thinks Amanda Knox was targeted as a suspect from the beginning. Within days of Kercher's murder, Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were questioned and portrayed in the media as the undisputed killers. \"I believe that there was a huge mistake made very, very early on by, you know, having a -- literally a 'case closed,' you know, presentation by the police over there,\" he said. Prosecutors held news conferences weeks after the killing, declaring the case solved. Knox, Sollecito and bar owner Patrick Lumumba were believed to have killed Kercher during a sexual game gone horribly awry. Knox was criticized in newspapers and tabloids around the world for her demeanor after the killing, which included photos of her and Sollecito comforting each other as crime scene investigators looked for clues in her house. Knox's mother told King that those headlines couldn't be further from the truth. \"You know, she's very much a person who internalizes,\" Mellas said. \"She was extremely upset, and her roommate testified that when she found out it was Meredith that was killed, she was very upset. She cried; she did all of that. But by the time those photos were taken, it was hours later, and she was being comforted by Raffaele.\" As the investigation went on, the scenario of what happened changed. Lumumba was released because he had an airtight alibi, and DNA evidence from the crime scene soon pointed to a different suspect: Rudy Guede. Guede was sentenced to 30 years for the murder in a separate trial and is appealing the verdict. Knox's parents believe that Guede is the sole killer, but because the prosecution hammered the idea that Knox and Sollecito were guilty, they couldn't back away from it. \"They were just too far into it, and they've been trying to press it ever since,\" Curt Knox said. Knox's family and friends insist that the girl they know wouldn't kill anyone. Her parents say they never believed that she was guilty. After the murder, Mellas said, friends and family told Knox to leave Italy -- to either come home or stay with relatives in Germany -- but Knox refused because she wanted to help find the killer and prove that she had nothing to do with it. \"Many people asked her to leave, but she said no. 'I'm going to stay. I'm going to try and help. I'm going to try and finish school,' \" Mellas said. Looking back, her parents wish Knox had left. Now, all they can do is wait -- and hope things turn out how they believe they should. \"We have to believe that what they're hearing in court -- and it's so clear that she had nothing to do with it -- then they'll come out with the right answer,\" Curt Knox said. \"I mean, that's -- that's what we have to believe.\"","highlights":"Knox is on trial in Italy, accused of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher .\nItalian court refused defense request to re-evaluate evidence .\nAmanda Knox's parents hope that means she will be found not guilty of murder .","id":"edb050ec077c9a87ad0a419333dba3d57170f341"} -{"article":"In this new weekly feature, CNN.com highlights five recommended Twitter feeds about a hot topic in the news. Despite her importance in the health care debate, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is not on Twitter. (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate Finance Committee this week passed a 10-year, $829 billion health care reform bill -- partly because of a \"yes\" vote from a lone Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. Snowe doesn't appear to be on Twitter. Too bad. But plenty of other people are posting about health care reform and the U.S. health care system on the micro-blogging site. This list of health care twitterers is by no means comprehensive, so feel free to tell us about your favorites in the comments section below. 1. PolitiFact: The health care reform debate has been nothing if not confusing. \"Death panels,\" \"tea parties,\" Rep. Joe Wilson shouting \"You lie!\" at the president. It's a mess to sort through, especially on a vat of commentary and opinion like Twitter. Luckily, there are feeds like @PolitiFact to help. This Pulitzer-Prize-winning news group, which is part of the St. Petersburg Times, sorts fact from fiction on the health care debate and other topics. That \"You lie!\" comment, for instance? A lie, Politifact says. Followers: More than 4,800 . Sample tweet: We fact-check whether the Baucus #healthcare bill would tax medical devices such as X-ray tests and surgical needles http:\/\/bit.ly\/dzZdu . 2. SusannahFox: Fox is a researcher at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Doesn't sound very health-care-relevant, huh? But Fox's Twitter feed is packed with anecdotes and statistics about how social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are changing doctor-patient relationships and the state of health care at large. Followers: More than 2,150 . Sample tweet: Pew Internet: 38% of internet users look online for information about hospitals or other medical facilities http:\/\/bit.ly\/oS9mq . 3. kevinmd: Blogger and doctor Kevin Pho offers up commentary on his life as a physician and the health care system. His random tidbits of medical information can be a riot, especially if you're looking in from outside the medical community. Followers: More than 15,300 . Sample tweet: Should medical journals use the term nauseous, nauseated, or nauseating? http:\/\/bit.ly\/1yffx . 4. whitehouse: Buildings can type? Apparently. The official White House Twitter feed covers a slate of topics, but heath care has been especially big on the administration's recent tweeting agenda. Followers: More than 1.3 million . Sample tweet: Jibber jabber on costs in reform from protectors of the status quo. Take it from the expert instead: http:\/\/bit.ly\/4CGmMs . 5. AmerMedicalAssn: This doctors' group tries to spice up the health care debate with its purple font! Oh, and tons of newsy updates on the latest votes, disputes and developments. Followers: More than 5,600 . Sample tweet: Why do #healthcare costs keep rising? An in-depth analysis of America's health system. @ThisAmericanLife http:\/\/ow.ly\/u0JX .","highlights":"On \"Follow Friday,\" CNN.com recommends Twitter feeds on a news topic .\nThis week's topic: The U.S. debate over health care .\nSusannahFox comments on health care and social media .\nkevinmd posts insights from his life as a physician .","id":"128bf641f6a35a845ecf89dbab736cfadbb4043e"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Virgin Airlines heir Sam Branson was hanging out with Andy Roddick, and couldn't resist challenging him to a bet. Andy Roddick played left-handed against Sam Branson and still won. Branson wagered $150 that he could beat Roddick in a tennis match, as long as the right-handed sports star played with his left hand. Even as a leftie, Roddick cleaned up. They played one set and Branson didn't score a single point. Since celebrities have so much money to throw around, they often amuse themselves by placing weird bets. Peep a few more who've put their money where their mouth is. 1. George Clooney was so convinced he'd still be childless and unmarried when he hit 40 that in 2001, he bet Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer $10,000 each. The two gals just couldn't believe that this hunky dude wouldn't be tied down. But they were wrong. That's $20,000 for bachelor George! The Frisky: They dated? Hollywood's oddest hookups . 2. Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry made a bet on the set of \"The Whole Nine Yards.\" Perry allegedly thought the film would open at the top of the charts in the U.S. but Willis wasn't feelin' it. When Bruce lost, he had to do a cameo on \"Friends.\" Doesn't sound so bad, right? Well, he had to give away all the money he made. The good news is, he gave it to charity. The Frisky: Celebs whose new loves look just like their exes . 3. Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio each bet $25,000 that the other would become a father first. The Frisky: Hollywood hotties set to play historical figures . When Maguire's fiance had their first kid, the actor had to pay up. He gave DiCaprio the cash, but didn't mind. Cause, uh, he was a dad. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Celebs have so much money they amuse themselves sometimes by placing bets .\nSam Branson bet Andy Roddick he could beat him at a tennis match .\nGeorge Clooney bet two actresses he'd still be childless at 40 .\nBruce Willis lost a bet to Matthew Perry and had to appear on \"Friends\"","id":"6ec8f2ae960b6df1a35eb4386b5b136b81ad58e4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman hospitalized after spending time in a sauna-like \"sweatbox\" has died, bringing the total fatalities to three, authorities said late Saturday. Retreat participants spent up to two hours inside the sweatbox, the sheriff's office said. In addition to the deaths, 18 others were injured at the October 8 event at Angel Valley Retreat Center near Sedona, Arizona. The latest victim, Lizabeth Neuman, 49, was a Minnesota mother of three. She died at the Flagstaff Medical Center, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said. There were up to 65 visitors, ages 30 to 60, at the resort attending the \"Spiritual Warrior\" program by self-help expert James Arthur Ray, according to authorities. Participants spent up to two hours inside the sweatbox, a dome-like structure covered with tarps and blankets, the sheriff's office said. Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in the enclosed environment. Neuman's attorney, Lou Diesel, told CNN her family is cooperating with the investigation and once it's complete, he will \"take all the appropriate actions in response to those responsible for Liz's death.\" Fire and rescue officials received an emergency call from the resort and transported the injured by air and land ambulances to nearby medical facilities, the sheriff's office said. Two people were pronounced dead shortly after arrival at a local medical center. A homicide investigation into the incident is under way, authorities said. The other retreat participants who were hospitalized have since been released. Ray is widely known for programs that claim to teach individuals how to create wealth from all aspects of their lives -- financially, mentally, physically and spiritually. He has appeared on various national programs, including CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Sweatbox\" retreat claims third victim, a Minnesota woman .\nRetreat participants fell ill after spending hours in hot, dome-like structure .\n\"Spiritual Warrior\" program was led by self-help guru James Arthur Ray .\nPolice are conducting a homicide investigation into \"sweatbox\" deaths .","id":"5fd8dd9dc1cf6175506674d65eb1443ced35c41c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The doctor who implanted six embryos in octuplets' mother Nadya Suleman last year has been expelled from a fertility medical society, a spokesman for the group said. Nadya Suleman gave birth to eight babies after being implanted with six embryos by Dr. Michael Kamrava. Dr. Michael Kamrava demonstrated \"a pattern of behavior that violated the group's standards,\" American Society for Reproductive Medicine spokesman Sean Tipton said. An employee at Kamrava's Beverly Hills, California, clinic -- the West Coast IVF Clinic -- said the doctor would not be commenting on the expulsion. The expulsion, which was imposed last month and just announced, does not affect Kamrava's ability to practice, because affiliation with the professional association is voluntary. Suleman was 33 years old in January 2009 when she gave birth to eight babies. She was a single woman who already had six young children conceived through in-vitro fertilization. The reproductive medicine society recommends no more than two embryos for women under 35 years old and no more than five for women over 40, for whom it is harder to get pregnant, according to guidelines published on its Web site. Suleman, in an interview in February on NBC, said Kamrava told her about risks for the children, but she did not want to have only one or two embryos implanted. \"Of course not, I wanted them all transferred,\" she said. \"Those are my children. And that's what was available and I used them. I took a risk. It's a gamble. It always is.\" Two of the six embryos split in utero, resulting in the birth of eight babies. Doctors say giving birth to extreme multiples comes with tremendous risks for the mother and the babies. Risks for the children include bleeding in the brain, intestinal problems, developmental delays and lifelong learning disabilities. Suleman's children, six boys and two girls born nine weeks premature, all went home after an extended stay in the hospital. No indication has been given on whether any problems have emerged. Suleman and her children will star in a \"quasi-reality TV series\" about the family, it was announced in June. CNN's Carey Bodenheimer contributed to this report.","highlights":"Reproductive medicine society: Dr. Michael Kamrava \"violated\" standards .\nKamrava implanted Nadya Suleman with six embryos before octuplets' birth .\nExpulsion from group does not affect Kamrava's ability to practice .\nGroup advises no more than two embryos for women under age 35 .","id":"1e29e3ad18b672d0a0092483faa072d4bbc4cc69"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has granted a condemned Georgia inmate's request that his execution be delayed as he attempts to prove his innocence. Troy Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. The inmate, Troy Davis, has gained international support for his long-standing claim that he did not murder a Savannah police officer nearly two decades ago. Justice John Paul Stevens on Monday ordered a federal judge to \"receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at trial clearly establishes petitioner's innocence.\" Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer supported the decision. Sonia Sotomayor, who was sworn in August 8 as the newest member of the high court, did not take part in the petition. Davis' case has had a dramatic series of ups and downs in the past year. He was granted a stay of execution by the Supreme Court two hours before he was to be put to death last fall. A month later, the justices reversed course and allowed the execution to proceed, but a federal appeals court then issued another stay. The high court's latest ruling means Davis will continue to sit on death row. Stevens said the risk of putting a potentially innocent man to death \"provides adequate justification\" for another evidentiary hearing. His supporters in June delivered petitions bearing about 60,000 signatures to Chatham County, Georgia, District Attorney Larry Chisolm, calling for a new trial. Chisolm is the county's first African-American district attorney. Davis is also African-American. Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. Witnesses said Davis, then 19, and two others were harassing a homeless man in a Burger King restaurant parking lot when the off-duty officer arrived to help the man. Witnesses testified at trial that Davis then shot MacPhail twice and fled. But since his 1991 conviction, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the policeman. The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board last year held closed-door hearings and reinterviewed the witnesses and Davis himself. The panel decided against clemency. MacPhail's mother, Annaliese, told CNN at the time, \"This is what we were hoping for, and I hope pretty soon that we will have some peace and start our life, especially my grandchildren -- my grandson and granddaughter. It has overshadowed their lives.\" After the justices in October refused to grant a stay of execution, Davis' sister, Martina Correia, told CNN she was \"disgusted\" by the decision. \"It doesn't make any sense,\" she said. \"We are praying for a miracle or some kind of intervention. We will regroup and fight. We will never stop fighting. We just can't be discouraged. The fight is not over till it's over.\" Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas objected to the court's decision Monday, calling it a \"fool's errand.\" \"Petitioner's claim is a sure loser,\" wrote Scalia. \"Transferring his petition to the [federal] District Court is a confusing exercise that can serve no purpose except to delay the state's execution of its lawful criminal judgment.\" Ten days after the high court refused last October to intervene, a federal appeals court in Georgia granted a temporary stay of execution. Since then, further appeals by Davis' legal team have dragged on for nearly a year. Prominent figures ranging from the pope to the musical group Indigo Girls have asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial. Other supporters include celebrities Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; world leaders such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and former and current U.S. lawmakers Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Braun and John Lewis.","highlights":"Supreme Court's latest ruling means Troy Davis will continue to sit on death row .\nDavis was convicted in 1991 of murdering a Savannah, Georgia, police officer .\nSince his conviction, 7 of 9 witnesses against him have recanted their testimony .\nJustices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas objected to the court's decision .","id":"84e53a5a271a6f16ad85fc8c4cbcf8bbcd795758"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson ended a trip to the Ivory Coast on Friday, after he spoke to leaders from the nation's political parties and was honored as a prince by a tribe in the West African nation. Jesse Jackson says ceremony to name him a prince of the Agni people was \"very exciting.\" Jackson said he met with President Laurent Gbagbo and leading members of two opposition parties, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. Bedie is a former president of the nation and Ouattara is a former prime minister. Jackson said his mission was not to endorse a candidate, \"but a process.\" \"I wanted the three of them to agree ... [to] campaign vigorously ... not to create divisive language, to each agree to support the winner, [and] end the [U.N.] sanctions,\" he said. \"I think there's a common agreement on these points. This country has so much to offer the world and Africa.\" The United Nations imposed sanctions on the nation in 2004, among them, a ban on arms and diamond trades, a travel ban and asset freezes for some individuals. The sanctions, renewed last year, are in effect until October 29. Earlier in Jackson's trip, Amon N'Douffou V, king of the Krindjabo kingdom, named Jackson a prince of the Agni people, news reports said. Jackson said it was a \"very exciting ceremony.\" Jackson's wife, Jacqueline, suffered a broken leg during the trip when a stage she and her husband were on collapsed, Jackson told CNN in a telephone interview. \"We had excellent medical care,\" the pastor said, adding that the collapse was \"not the fault of the organizers,\" but that too many people had gathered on the stage. Official news agency Agence Ivoirienne de Presse reported that the stage collapse occurred in a sports complex in Yopougon, north of Abidjan. A doctor was to accompany them on their Friday night flight back to the United States, Jackson said. The coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials. In a July 30 statement, the U.N. Security Council said \"any postponement of the elections of 29 November would be inconsistent with a credible process\" and with a peace agreement that had followed an armed rebellion in 2002 that had divided the country in two. The Security Council said it would review progress toward elections before October 15. In March, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the \"United States believes that long-delayed presidential elections are still technically possible in 2009 and calls on all parties to take every step necessary to ensure that credible elections go forward as promised.\" The statement said more than 5.7 million people had been enrolled as voters on a \"preliminary basis.\"","highlights":"Coming elections in the Ivory Coast are being closely watched by U.N. officials .\nJackson meets with president, opposition leaders in trip to West African nation .\nLeader of Krindjabo kingdom reportedly names Jackson a prince of the Agni people .\nJackson: Wife received \"excellent medical care\" after breaking leg in stage collapse .","id":"b4abaf892714691347e8bd09090ff3004b18031d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two international staffers supporting the peacekeeping mission in the volatile Sudanese region of Darfur were kidnapped Saturday morning, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force told CNN. Soldiers with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) pictured in June. The man and the woman, whose identities and nationalities were withheld, worked for UNAMID, a U.N. and African Union force designated to keep peace in Darfur. \"Our people have been able to establish contact with the people responsible for the abduction,\" said UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni, but he declined to identify the abductors. The organization is \"asking for their immediate release,\" Mezni added. The peacekeeping force began operations in Darfur in December 2007 and is expected to remain there until July 2010, according to UNAMID's Web site. As of July 31 its force is comprised of more than 13,000 troops from 39 countries. As of June 30, 999 international civilian personnel were on staff, according to the site. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Sudan denies the death toll is that high. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Arab militias with ties to the Sudanese government went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report .","highlights":"United Nations estimates 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur .\nForce began operations in Darfur in December 2007, expected to remain till 2010 .\nViolence erupted in 2003 after rebels began uprising against Sudanese government .","id":"d7933fb2b9537f667dc69625e7ccbde7e24d482e"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Because you weren't going into botany, the priesthood, or coin manufacturing, you thought you were safe to dismiss Latin as a dead language. Obviously, you didn't graduate cum laude. I think, therefore I am the famous statue \"The Thinker\" by French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Latin is about as dead as Elvis (who, by the way, made $54 million in 2004). Whether you're deciphering a cryptic state seal or trying to impress your Catholic in-laws, knowing some Latin has its advantages. But the operative word here is \"some.\" The ability to translate The Aeneid probably isn't going to come in handy anytime soon, so we'll start you off with 9 phrases that have survived the hatchet men of time (in all their pretentious glory). Caveat Emptor: (KAV-ee-OT emp-TOR): \"Let the buyer beware\" Before money-back guarantees and 20-year warranties, caveat emptor was indispensable advice for the consumer. These days, it'd be more fitting to have it tattooed on the foreheads of used-car salesmen, infomercial actors, and prostitutes. For extra credit points, remember that caveat often makes solo appearances at cocktail parties as a fancy term for a warning or caution. Oh, and just so you know, caveat lector means \"let the reader beware.\" Persona Non Grata: (puhr-SOH-nah non GRAH-tah): \"An unacceptable person\" Remember your old college buddy, the one everybody called Chugger? Now picture him at a debutante ball, and you'll start to get a sense of someone with persona non grata status. The term is most commonly used in diplomatic circles to indicate that a person is unwelcome due to ideological differences or a breach of trust. Sometimes, the tag refers to a pariah, a ne'er-do-well, a killjoy, or an interloper, but it's always subjective. Michael Moore was treated as a persona non grata at the Republican National Convention. Bill O'Reilly would experience the same at Burning Man. Habeas Corpus: (HAY-bee-as KOR-pus): \"You have the body\" When you wake up in the New Orleans Parish Prison after a foggy night at Mardi Gras, remember this one. In a nutshell, habeas corpus is what separates us from savages. It's the legal principle that guarantees an inmate the right to appear before a judge in court, so it can be determined whether or not that person is being lawfully imprisoned. It's also one of the cornerstones of the American and British legal systems. Without it, tyrannical and unjust imprisonments would be possible. In situations where national security is at risk, however, habeas corpus can be suspended. Cogito Ergo Sum: (CO-gee-toe ER-go SOME): \"I think, therefore I am\" When all those spirited mental wrestling matches you have about existentialism start growing old (yeah, right!), you can always put an end to the debate with cogito ergo sum. Ren\u00e9 Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher, coined the phrase as a means of justifying reality. According to him, nothing in life could be proven except one's thoughts. Well, so he thought, anyway. E Pluribus Unum: (EE PLUR-uh-buhs OOH-nuhm): \"Out of many, one\" Less unique than it sounds, America's original national motto, e pluribus unum, was plagiarized from an ancient recipe for salad dressing. In the 18th century, haughty intellectuals were fond of this phrase. It was the kind of thing gentlemen's magazines would use to describe their year-end editions. But the term made its first appearance in Virgil's poem \"Moretum\" to describe salad dressing. The ingredients, he wrote, would surrender their individual aesthetic when mixed with others to form one unique, homogenous, harmonious, and tasty concoction. As a slogan, it really nailed that whole cultural melting pot thing we were going for. And while it continues to appear on U.S. coins, \"In God We Trust\" came along later (officially in 1956) to share the motto spotlight. Quid Pro Quo: (kwid proh KWOH): \"You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours\" Given that quid pro quo refers to a deal or trade, it's no wonder the Brits nicknamed their almighty pound the \"quid.\" And if you give someone some quid, you're going to expect some quo. The phrase often lives in the courtroom, where guilt and innocence are the currency. It's the oil that lubricates our legal system. Something of a quantified value is traded for something of equal value; elements are parted and parceled off until quid pro quo is achieved. Most recently, Arizona Senator John McCain co-opted the phrase to describe campaign finance and influence pedaling because he believes that one doesn't give major milk to a campaign without expecting major cheese in return. Ad Hominem: (ad HAH-mi-nem): \"To attack the man\" In the world of public discourse, ad hominem is a means of attacking one's rhetorical opponent by questioning his or her reputation or expertise rather than sticking to the issue at hand. Translation: Politicians are really good at it. People who resort to ad hominem techniques are usually derided as having a diluted argument or lack of discipline. If pressed, they'll brandish it like a saber and refuse to get back to the heart of the matter. Who said the debate team doesn't have sex appeal? Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: (ad-MA-yor-em DAY-ee GLOR-ee-um): \"All for the Greater Glory of God\" Ad majorem dei gloriam is often shortened to AMDG. In other words, it's the WWJD of the Jesuits, who've been drilling the mantra into their followers since (Saint) Ignatius of Loyola founded the Catholic Order in 1534. They believe all actions, big or small, should be done with AMDG in mind. Remind your Jesuit-educated buddies of this when they seem to be straying from the path. (Best used with a wink and a hint of irony.) Sui Generis:(SOO-ee JEN-er-is): \"Of its own genus,\" or \"Unique and unable to classify\" Frank Zappa, the VW Beetle, cheese in a can, that feeling you get when the Red Sox win the World Series: Sui generis refers to something that's so new, so bizarre, or so rare that it defies categorization. Granted, labeling something \"sui generis\" is really just classifying the unclassifiable. But let's not over-think it. Use it at a dinner party to describe Andy Kaufman, and you impress your friends. Use it too often, and you just sound pretentious. E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Nine Latin phrases commonly used today .\nPersona non grata: Person unwelcome due to ideological differences .\nQuid pro quo refers to a deal or trade .\nSui generis refers to something so new or bizarre it defies categorization .","id":"93917d7b00efaf5ed2c654ab18d32ce7dcefe4dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He armors himself, keeps other people guessing and likes to wear a mask. Christian Bale is known as a hard worker who immerses himself in his characters. Batman? Try Christian Bale. Though in his case the armor and mask are metaphorical, the 34-year-old \"Dark Knight\" star likes to keep his personal life as shadowy as a superhero's back story. He's been known to keep a low profile -- \"You will never see me at a party,\" he told the Times of London -- and delights in concocting stories about his life. \"I make up [things],\" he told Details magazine earlier this year. \"Absolutely. I'm an actor -- I'm not a politician. I always kick myself when I talk too much about family, or personal things. I'll enjoy chatting now and then later I'll regret it.\" But with the explosive impact of \"The Dark Knight\" -- the film has set box office records in the 10 days since its release, becoming the fastest film to reach the $300 million mark in history -- and the forthcoming release of the fourth \"Terminator,\" which will star Bale, he may find his privacy limited. (\"The Dark Knight\" is a Warner Bros. film. The studio, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.) \"Can he stand the glare of the spotlight?\" a rival studio executive asked Entertainment Weekly. \"Being put in major roles and major films?\" Already there are signs that Bale has made the jump from actor to movie star. Last week, news of an alleged hotel-room tussle between the actor, his mother and his sister made headlines around the world. Bale, who has denied the allegations, described the incident as \"a deeply personal matter\" and asked the media to \"respect my privacy in the matter\" at a press conference. Watch the latest on the incident \u00bb . In general, he's been successful at making sure his personal matters are off-limits. Though willing to do interviews about his films -- the Internet is filled with them -- he usually sticks to talking about their production and his performances, reluctant to bring up his personal life. A few facts are well established: Christian Bale was born January 30, 1974, in Wales. His father, a former RAF pilot, once served as a film double for John Wayne; his mother was a one-time circus performer. (After divorcing his mother, Bale's father later married women's-rights advocate Gloria Steinem.) The family moved often, with Bale estimating he lived in 15 different places in his first 15 years. He started his acting career while still a child. He received his first acting break appearing opposite Rowan Atkinson (\"Mr. Bean\") in the London stage show \"The Nerd\" in 1984, followed by two British TV miniseries. At 12 he was plucked from 4,000 hopefuls to star in Steven Spielberg's 1987 film \"Empire of the Sun.\" (According to the Times of London, he was recommended by Spielberg's then wife, Amy Irving.) Even then he disliked dealing with the press: he abruptly walked out of a Paris press conference for \"Empire\" while promoting the film. \"Empire\" was followed by an eclectic filmography: Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation \"Henry V\" (1989); the musical \"Newsies\" (1992); the historical drama \"Swing Kids\" (1993); and the 1994 version of \"Little Women,\" which made him a sex symbol to a group of \"Baleheads.\" (He was one of the first stars to have a fan site devoted to him.) Through the latter, he also met his future wife, Sandra Blazic, a onetime assistant to \"Little Women\" star Winona Ryder. The two have been married for eight years, and have a 3-year-old daughter. By the late '90s, he was acting in a number of independent films, including \"Metroland\" (1997), based on a Julian Barnes novel about London yuppies; \"Velvet Goldmine\" (1998), the Todd Haynes film that starred Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as early-'70s rockers; and, most infamously, \"American Psycho\" (2000), based on the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel about a vicious serial killer who hides behind a bland investment banker persona. iReport.com: Your thoughts on 'Dark Knight' Bale has said he was more affected by trying to get the \"Psycho\" part than the role itself. He was strung along -- the studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio, who was slated for it but walked after contract negotiations broke down -- and put a number of projects on hold while hoping the role would come through. But making the movie, which was given an NC-17 rating by the ratings board for its (often implied) violence and sex -- was fairly easy, he told Entertainment Weekly in 2000. \"I can't say I felt queasy once making this movie. ... I slept really well,\" he told the magazine. \"I played Jesus in this TV thing [NBC's 'Mary, Mother of Jesus'] after doing 'American Psycho' -- I had nightmares the whole time, like I haven't had since I was 10 years old. ... But ['Psycho' character] Patrick Bateman? Nothing.\" Since \"American Psycho,\" Bale has become as known for his work ethic as his performances. He dropped 60 pounds for \"The Machinist,\" about a blue-collar worker afflicted with insomnia, and then bulked up again for \"Batman Begins,\" his first go-round at the Batman role. He played a disturbed military veteran in \"Harsh Times\" (2006), investing the role with such intensity that he shocked director David Ayer, and ate worms in \"Rescue Dawn,\" which he made for the equally intense director Werner Herzog. He changes his natural English accent for each role, to the extent of doing publicity in his character's voice. He's said on many occasions that he tries many roles for \"the experience.\" But it's \"The Dark Knight\" that has everybody buzzing. In interviews for the movie, Bale has been eager to shine the spotlight on his fellow cast members, notably the late Heath Ledger and co-star Michael Caine, and even his stunt double. Watch Bale talk about the film and Ledger \u00bb . But director Christopher Nolan -- who's now directed Bale in three films (the two Batmans and \"The Prestige\") -- says the actor deserves praise in his own right. \"I knew I wanted to work with him when I saw him in 'American Psycho,' \" he told USA Today. \"You have to be extremely talented to take that kind of absurd violence and make it funny. That's what I wanted for Batman, too.\" With \"The Dark Knight\" earning raves and raking in money, Bale would seem to have his pick of future roles. He loves working with Nolan -- he's intimated that he'd sign on for \"Batman 3\" if Nolan's on board -- and doesn't seem to care if the role is for a small-scale indie or a big-budget summer blockbuster. But give people a bigger glimpse of Christian Bale? That's not going to happen if he can help it. Indeed, he takes pride in his anonymity. He told Details of two incidents -- one in which an agent didn't recognize him, another with a casting director who confused him with Christian Slater -- that encouraged him, and told the Los Angeles Times he will continue to make things up to entertain himself during endless movie junkets: \"I have no desire for people to get their facts right about me,\" he said. What finally matters, he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune while promoting \"The Prestige\" (a film in which he convincingly played a magician), is the work. Acting, he pointed out, has its blessings. \"We're fortunate that it's easy for us to disappear inside our characters,\" he said.","highlights":"Christian Bale prizes his privacy .\nActor has been known to make up stories about himself .\nWith success of \"Dark Knight,\" he may find spotlight shining more brightly .","id":"afc3503c2ba8eeafb6b1a39e47439434e5413348"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's long simmering battle against corruption has come to a boil, this time in Chongqing, the largest megalopolis in the world. A massive crackdown has implicated millionaires, gangsters, and even police officers. Known as \"dahei\" (combat triads), the campaign has put the spotlight on organized crime and how it has infested local bureaucracy and businesses through bribery, extortion, blackmail and violence. The anti-triad campaign in Chongqing is being led by Bo Xilai, the city's party chief. Criminal trials are underway following months of police investigation. Details of murky cases are trickling out. Among those on the dock is Xie Caiping, a portly woman believed be the \"mama san\" of one of Chongqing's notorious triads. Xie is accused of operating gambling dens, drug trafficking, giving and collecting bribes and terrorizing people, including policemen who had tried to investigate her illicit activities. More trials are expected as the city fights at least 14 mafia-style gangs. Given China's opaque political world, it is notable that the ongoing trial is extensively covered by the Chinese media. For years after the Cultural Revolution, Chongqing languished as a decrepit mountain-city in Sichuan province, better known for its spicy food and poor farmers carrying goods on bamboo poles. It became the world's largest city in 1997 when the central government, by administrative edict, incorporated a huge area adjacent to the city into what is now the Chongqing municipality. China's goal was to build up Chongqing into a modern mega-city that will later serve as the new economic engine in central China. Over the years, thanks of the influx of corporate investments and central government funding in infrastructure projects, the city of 31 million has become a center of an economic boom. But the economic boom has also led to the resurgence of local gangs engaged in human and drug trafficking, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion and protection rackets. Gangsters were blamed for heinous crimes of murder and kidnapping. Local officials were accused of \"economic crimes\"-- bribery, profiteering and malversation involving public funds and property. Such abuses have prompted popular anger and social unrest. Communist Party officials are under pressure to clean up or perish. \"The life or death of the party depends on whether or not we have a strong will to punish and prevent corruption,\" Chinese President Hu Jintao told a meeting of the party elite last September. Party leaders pledged to attack the \"acute problems\" of corruption, the gap between the rich and the poor, and the lack of democracy within the party's own ranks. At the meeting, they outlined an anti-corruption directive that would compel officials and their families to disclose their property holdings and investments. \"The new transparency rules are meant to curb abuse of power,\" says political analyst Wenran Jiang. \"It's also aimed at appeasing public discontent over corruption.\" In Chongqing, police operations started in June, leading to the arrest of over 4,800 suspected gangsters and the confiscation of 1,700 illegal firearms. Investigations led to many city officials, including police officers. They include Wen Qiang, Xie Caiping's brother-in-law, who is now accused of colluding with gangsters. Highly regarded as an ace investigator, Wen was the deputy police commissioner and head of the city's justice bureau. Last August, he was stripped of his posts, detained and charged of accepting over 100 million yuan in bribes in exchange for giving gangs a \"protective umbrella\". Local media reports say Chongqing residents celebrated Wen's arrest by setting off firecrackers. The \"dahei\" campaign is led by Bo Xilai. 60, the city's party chief who also sits on China's ruling politburo. Son of a revolutionary veteran, Bo had served as Dalian city mayor, Liaoning provincial governor and China's minister of commerce. An outsider in Chongqing, Bo has had to bring in his trusted prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Wang Lijun, to replace Wen Qiang as chief of police and clean up the city. Wang made his name as a tough, upright police commissioner in Liaoning province, Bo's former turf. In response, the gangs have reportedly put a 12 million yuan bounty on Wang's head. \"It not us who took the initiative to fight the underworld,\" Bo Xilai told the Chongqing media. \"It's the underworld who has compelled us to do so. The public has been gathering at the gate of our government building, holding blood-stained pictures, deeply distressed. The underworld has killed innocent people with machetes, like butchers killing pigs -- too horrible to see.\" Bo said the campaign is aimed at restoring economic order and winning people's trust. Bo's get-tough stance has earned him praises, especially among the Netizens. \"Chongqing's experience should be popularized nationwide,\" wrote a Netizen from the eastern province of Zhejiang. \"Bo should be China's leader in the new era,\" wrote another. Some political observers think success in Chongqing could catapult him as a \"dark horse\" in the next round of political transition, when the next generation of leaders take over in 2012. \"Whatever his motives, the impact is not local but national,\" says Wenran Jiang. \"Clearly, there is public support for such bold actions.\" Jiang, who was Bo's college classmate at Peking University in the late 1970s, remembers Bo as \"a smart student of Chinese and world history who always want to do the right thing.\" It remains unclear if the current house-cleaning in Chongqing will spread nationwide. Cynics doubt if the Communist Party leaders have the stomach to genuinely root out the evil of corruption wherever investigations find them. \"These crackdowns are like swatting flies while ignoring tigers,\" shrugs a white-collar worker in Beijing. Some see progress. \"At least they realize that the problem is very acute,\" says a government functionary [who asked to remain anonymous]. \"We cannot speak of a harmonious society unless the people are treated equally before the law.\"","highlights":"Anti-corruption drive in Chongqing implicates millionaires, gangsters, police .\nCampaign has spotlighted organized crime, how it has infested local bureaucracy .\nCity's economic boom has led to the resurgence of local gangs .\nCriminal trials are underway as the city fights at least 14 mafia-style gangs .","id":"89f46197431005ebd59c790f24086fe662babaf2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There are several definitions of where the Northwest Passage begins and ends, but using the Arctic Circle is certainly the most encompassing, so we've been holding our breath until we crossed this line. The crew has negotiated some stunning and treacherous waters to sail the Northwest Passage. The Arctic Circle (66 30N) marks the lowest latitude at which the midnight sun is ever seen. We've had some stormy weather along the Baffin Island coast. We had waves up to 8m high and winds over 40 knots. Silent Sound was being tossed around a lot, and I was thrown clear across the cabin on one occasion, suffering a minor concussion that kept me in my bunk for several days. Now that we're out of the Arctic Archipelago and into the open sea, we are seeing more icebergs, instead of ice floes. Ice floes are frozen seawater while icebergs are chunks of ice broken off glaciers in the High Arctic. Bergs begin as snow falling on land, which is then compressed into ice. Even though the icebergs we see are easily 20 or 30 meters high, most of their volume is below water. Only about one third of their entire volume is visible above water. This means you have to stay well clear of them because they may spread out under water, like an upside down mushroom. We've also started thinking about what we've experienced and learned this summer. By far the most impressive feature of the Arctic has been its people. In every town we visited we met complete strangers who offered us help, welcomed us into their homes and provided us with hot showers and food. So many people showed genuine interest in our journey and generously told us about their lives, and we left nearly every town with a few fish or other wild game in our fridge. Our mission when we left Victoria, British Columbia in June was to find out how climate change is impacting Arctic communities. We saw and heard about the impacts, from slumping land due to the melting of permafrost to hunter stories about the northward migration of species and the challenge that early ice break up poses for transportation. But more importantly, I'm leaving the Arctic with a sense that its communities are at a crossroads. They underwent a rapid change in the 1950s and 60s when people moved off the land and into settlements. Now, those settlements are bracing themselves for unprecedented change due to resource exploration, economic development, political wrangling and an influx of new wealth, people and social forces. They're all tied to climate change in one way or another, and they leave Arctic community leaders with a big job ahead of them. Climate change is turning the spotlight on the Arctic, and hopefully that will mean federal government help where it is needed to aid the Inuit in making wise choices for their future. I've been struck by how although the Arctic is very different place than the urban habitat most of us occupy, it is not in a different time. To maintain a romantic notion of the Arctic as a place time has forgotten where life is simple and basic would be an insult to the people that call it home and be a mistake. Many of the challenges brought to the Arctic by climate change and economic development are the same as those faced around the world. It's just a little colder, and a little more remote. While we've begun mulling over our experiences this summer, it's too soon for the crew of Silent Sound to relax. We are still about three weeks from our final port. And the sailing is getting cold and tiring. The nights are very dark at sea, and temperatures are hovering just above zero degrees Celsius. On many days we are sailing in snow, rain and sleet. Our onboard heater has broken down, so we have to wear extra layers in our sleeping bags to keep warm. This also means that the condensation builds up in the boat and it gets pretty damp, making it hard to dry our socks and gloves. But Halifax is in sight, and we can get some comfort from our accomplishment of completing the Northwest Passage.","highlights":"Crew of Silent Sound complete the Northwest Passage, heading for Halifax .\nCrew have faced dangerous ice bergs and waves up to 8 meters high .\nArctic communities at a crossroads, directly and indirectly from climate change .","id":"a1228cb5642782f5274d79b095f97d837c2712f1"} -{"article":"Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somalia-born writer, activist, and former member of the Dutch Parliament. She is an outspoken advocate for women's rights in Islamic society and a strong critic of Muslim extremism. Outspoken critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali . Hirsi Ali fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage in Africa, and served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006. In parliament, she promoted the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society and defending the rights of women in Dutch Muslim society. In 2004, she worked with the late director Theo Van Gogh on the film \"Submission,\" which highlighted the oppression of women in conservative Islamic societies. The airing of the film on Dutch television resulted in the assassination of Mr. Van Gogh by an Islamic extremist, and she went into hiding. Her memoir, \"Infidel,\" published in 2007, recounts her decision to denounce Islam and become an atheist, and her transformation, she says, from \"the world of faith to the world of reason.\" Ayaan was named one of Time Magazine's \"100 Most Influential People of 2005,\" one of the Glamour Heroes of 2005, and Reader's Digest's \"European of the Year.\" She has also received Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award, the Danish Freedom Prize, the Swedish Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.","highlights":"Hirsi Ali is an outspoken advocate for women's rights in Islamic society .\nSomali-born activist went into hiding after death of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh .\nHirsi Ali served as Dutch lawmaker from 2003 to 2006 .\nShe was Anamed one of Time Magazine's \"100 Most Influential People of 2005 .","id":"71ad01a4c21f2109bd497f7c7f96ea24e874f395"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide -- more than any other drug -- and the opiate heroin kills five times as many people in NATO countries each year than the eight-year total of NATO troops killed in Afghan combat, the United Nations said Wednesday. An Afghan police officer digs up a field of opium poppies in April. About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market for the drug and also fueling terrorism and insurgencies: The Taliban raised $450 million to $600 million over the past four years by \"taxing\" opium farmers and traffickers, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a report. Not all the money is going into the pockets of rebels or drug dealers; some Afghan officials are making money off the trade as well, he said. \"The Afghan drug economy generates several hundred million dollars per year into evil hands: some with black turbans, some with white collars,\" Costa said. The latter reference is \"to officials in the Afghan administration, federal government of Kabul or the provinces or the army or the police,\" Costa told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Watch Costa talk about the problems \u00bb . And the problem is spreading, he added. Drug money is funding insurgencies in Central Asia, which has huge energy reserves, Costa said. \"The Silk Route, turned into a heroin route, is carving out a path of death and violence through one of the world's most strategic yet volatile regions,\" he said. Authorities are seizing too little heroin, intercepting only about 20 percent of opiate traffic around the world, according to the U.N. report, \"Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: the Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium.\" It comes on the heels of a U.N. warning last month that two years' worth of opium is effectively \"missing,\" probably stockpiled by the Taliban and criminal gangs. More than 12,000 tons of opium, which can be consumed as a narcotic itself or turned into heroin, is unaccounted for, the United Nations estimated in September. It is not clear who has it or why, but the United Nations speculates that criminals could be holding it as a hedge against falling prices or that insurgents or terrorists could be stockpiling it to fund attacks. The latest report claims to be the first systematic attempt to track where Afghan opium ends up. See how Afghan heroin reaches Europe and the West \u00bb . Europe and Russia together consume just under half of the heroin coming out of Afghanistan, the United Nations concluded, and Iran is by far the single largest consumer of Afghan opium. Afghanistan is also probably supplying an increasing share of the heroin in China -- perhaps as much as a quarter, the report said. Afghanistan is by far the world's largest producer of opium, although Laos, Myanmar and Latin America produce small quantities, it said. The United Nations found that Afghanistan may be supplying more heroin to the United States and Canada than had been suspected. The two North American countries consume more than twice as much heroin as Latin America produces. That means either that more Afghan heroin is making its way to North America than had been known or that Mexico and Columbia are producing more than was realized, the United Nations said. The report confirmed an estimate that $400 million in drug profits goes to the Taliban, Costa said. The Taliban \"are deeply involved\" in processing, in protecting farmers and in exporting, he said. The solution \"is very clear,\" he said. \"We need a much greater effort and commitment by governments to prevent drug addiction, to take care of drug addicts ... to reduce demand.\" But the popular will for change needs to increase, he said, noting that the Security Council in 2006 and 2007 passed resolutions inviting member states to give the names of drug traffickers to authorities so that their ability to travel can be curtailed and their assets seized. \"So far, much to my dismay, not a single name was provided to the Security Council,\" he said. The report offered little new in the way of possible solutions, said Ethan Nadelmann, founding executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes alternatives to the war on drugs. \"It's very good at describing a problem,\" he said. \"But it truly is devoid of any kind of pragmatic solution, and it essentially suggests that the answer is to keep doing more of what's failed us in the past.\" So long as there is a global demand for opium, there will be a supply, he said. \"If Afghanistan were suddenly wiped out as a producer of opium -- by bad weather or a blight or eradication efforts -- other parts of the world would simply emerge as new producers, \"creating all sorts of new problems,\" he said. And Afghanistan itself would not be helped either, he said. \"You would see in Afghanistan millions of people probably flocking to the cities unable to make a living and probably turning more to the Taliban than they are now,\" he said. He listed three possible options. The first, global legalization and control, \"is not happening, not any time soon,\" he said. The second option is to increase drug treatment for addicts who want it and to provide legal access to the drug, as Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Spain and Canada have done, he said. \"In all of these places, there are small, growing programs of heroin maintenance that allow addicts to obtain pharmaceutical-grade heroin from legal sources rather than from the black market,\" he said. But Nadelmann added that more people died of opiate overdose last year involving pharmaceutical opiates than died from illegal heroin. A third possibility, he said, would be to view Afghanistan as essentially a red-light zone of global opium production and to think about the solution as a vice-control challenge, \"which means acknowledge that Afghanistan is going to continue to be the world's supplier of illegal opium for the foreseeable future and then focus on manipulating and regulating the market participants, even though it is still illegal.\" He added, \"That, I think, is in some respects the de facto strategy, even though it cannot be stated openly, for political reasons.\"","highlights":"Afghan heroin trade funds terrorism, insurgencies, U.N. report says .\n12,000 tons of opium missing, probably stockpiled by Taliban, gangs, U.N. says .\nAfghanistan is world's largest producer of opium, from which heroin is made .\nIran is by far largest consumer of Afghan heroin, U.N. report says .","id":"39bce0640f48822d7531a4d10a2e863eb6681fb6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past. Musk ox in the Arctic check the spread of shrubs to the High Arctic, but promote grass growth. That's the message from Eric Post, lead scientist of a new report into the effects of climate change on life in the Arctic. Published in \"Science\" magazine, Post and his team of international scientist conducted the study during the fourth International Polar Year that ended in 2008. \"It seems no matter where you look -- on the ground, in the air, or in the water -- we're seeing signs of rapid change,\" said Post in a press statement. The report found that flora and fauna of the Arctic are responding in various ways to the region's changes in climate over the last 150 years, and more recently the 20 to 30 years where seasonal minimal sea ice coverage has declined by 45,000 square kilometers per year. With the decline in sea ice and snow, animals usually seen at lower latitudes are being found in more northerly regions, including red foxes that have been displacing native Arctic foxes. View the gallery of Arctic life affected by climate change \u00bb . The report found that some native Arctic species have also benefited from climate change, including wild reindeer on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. With less snow cover and a longer growing season, these non-migratory reindeer have taken advantage of the increased plant abundance, with the result that reindeer populations and their ability to reproduce are up, while mortality is down. But other animals are not adapting well to rising temperatures and the effect on delicate ecosystems. Migratory caribou in low Arctic Greenland and elsewhere are declining in number as they have not been able to keep their calving season in synch with changes in plant growth. With the decline in caribou comes a knock-on effect to native Inuit hunters, according to the report's authors. Hotter summers could result in more insects and parasites that prey on the caribou, which could then also reduce the annual caribou harvest by local indigenous peoples. \"Inuit hunters at my study site in Greenland have all but given up on hunting caribou there. What will be the next component to disappear from their traditional lifestyle, a lifestyle that has worked for thousands of years?\" said Post. Iconic Arctic animals dependent sea ice, including Pacific walrus, ringed seal, hooded seal, ivory gull, narwhal and polar bear, are faring especially badly, said the report. The researchers found that polar bears and ringed seals, both of which give birth in lairs or caves under the snow, lose many newborn pups when the lairs collapse in unusually early spring rains. These species may be headed for extinction, said the report.","highlights":"New study on Arctic changing temperatures finds dramatic changes to region .\nConducted during Fourth International Polar Year that ended in 2008 .\nSome animals and plant life benefiting from rising temperatures .\nDramatic decline in sea ice threatening iconic species like polar bear .","id":"158f61d1d1bc7e0625768232edacb692c751c3da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There is a region of the world where the weather is always hot and humid and it rains almost every day of the year. Sounds predictable, right? But weather in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, can be volatile and dangerous. Air France Flight 447 went down in a volatile zone along the equator between South America and Africa. The Intertropical Convergence Zone, which circles the Earth near the equator, is where officials say Air France Flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. While weather has not been cited as a reason for the plane's crash, the tragedy does call attention to the region. The ITCZ is a belt of low pressure that wraps around the planet. Clouds and storms form along it because it is literally where the winds of the world's hemispheres meet. High pressure in the Northern Hemisphere churns air from the northeast toward the equator. On the flip side, air is steered from the southeast by high pressure in the Southern Hemisphere. The winds that move this air toward the equator are also known as \"trade winds\" and converge in the middle of the tropics. That's where the Intertropical Convergence Zone name comes from. Here, air and water temperatures are typically in the mid-80s. The warm, moist air is heated further by the blazing tropical sun. Steamy air, coming off the ocean, rises until it hits cooler, drier air aloft, forming clouds and thunderstorms. These gigantic storms contain volatile updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph. The height of these storms also can tower to more than 10 miles in the air. Even if you stacked two dozen of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other, they still wouldn't reach the tops of the biggest thunderstorms of the ITCZ. Former Air Force meteorologist Tim Vasquez wrote about thunderstorms over the Atlantic at the time of the Air France plane's disappearance on his Web site, weathergraphics.com. \"Based on the infrared satellite imagery, I was able to. . .estimate the altitude of the thunderstorms at around 51,000 feet,\" he told CNN in a phone interview. Vasquez himself has flown through the ITCZ at least half a dozen times. \"I remember flying from Guam to the Philippines, constantly weaving around the thunderstorms. Sometimes, though, pilots are forced to fly through them,\" he said. That's because commercial airliners cannot fly above 50,000 feet. In addition, ITCZ thunderstorms can merge with one another to stretch far and wide, covering hundreds of miles. The crew of Air France Flight 447 reported severe turbulence shortly before the plane disappeared. How did the plane break into pieces? \u00bb . When it's not storming in the ITCZ, the weather can be completely calm, with little to no wind. This stretch of ocean was particularly dreaded by sailors of the 19th century, who named it \"The Doldrums,\" because its lack of wind could leave them stuck at sea, unable to propel forward. Despite these challenges and dangers, planes and ships successfully cross the ITZC every day, thanks in part to technology that has made it easier to see where the thunderstorms are. Here are some commonly asked questions: . Can hurricanes form in the ITCZ? It's extremely rare for a hurricane to form near the equator. However, the ITCZ doesn't stay in one place all year long. In the summer, for example, it drifts more northward, where it's possible for tropical cyclones to develop from the thunderstorms there. What does the ITCZ have to do with the \"monsoon season\" in Asia? Since the position of the ITCZ fluctuates, the location of the heaviest rainfalls varies depending on the time of year. When the zone drifts more northward in May and June, it brings the rainy season to places like Southeast Asia and India. The term \"monsoon\" refers to a seasonal reversal of winds.","highlights":"Weather in the ITCZ, where the Air France plane went down, is volatile .\nThe zone circles the Earth near the equator and can produce violent thunderstorms .\nThese storms contain updrafts and downdrafts that can move at speeds of 100 mph .\nBecause the storms are so huge, it can be difficult for airliners to avoid them .","id":"74db509ec0f377da627579843e44e2af2f069b26"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- My taxi driver is telling me about his meal last night. His name is William. He ate whale. Melting world: mountainous icebergs in Greeland's Sermilik Fjord. \"Delicious,\" he says, kissing the tips of his fingers on one hand, making the universal sign for good tasting food. William tells me he went out on a boat with some friends a few days ago and shot the whale. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Welcome to Greenland. On this remote but enormous island subsistence whale hunting is allowed. This was just the memorable start to an extraordinary journey. Cameraman Neil Bennett and I had traveled to the small town of Tasiilaq in southeastern Greenland to meet up with the Arctic Sunrise, a ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace. Read Neil's blog on filming in challenging conditions . The 34-year-old icebreaker and its crew are on a three month expedition around Greenland's coast. They say their mission is to help scientists working in the region and to publicize the environmental changes taking place here. We join the Arctic Sunrise as it moves slowly up Sermilik Fjord. This is simply the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It's an inky blue body of water thick with floating, ancient ice. Some of the icebergs are mountainous. They all come from the Greenland ice sheet, a vast mass of frozen fresh water, hundreds of miles across and up to two miles thick. View the gallery of the stunning landscape \u00bb . Over the next four days we observe independent scientists working to understand why the ice sheet is melting so rapidly. We fly over and land on Helheim Glacier, a major outlet for the ice sheet which has sped up dramatically in the last decade. We accompany oceanographers in inflatable boats as they collect data on the warming water currents in the fjord. All this research, they say, points to sea levels rising beyond current predictions. There are still those who question humankind's role in the warming of the Earth's climate, but these scientists are not among them. \"Things could be very bad,\" glaciologist Dr Gordon Hamilton tells me. \"If we don't start to do something about it now we'll very quickly reach a tipping point from which there'll be no return. And the consequences for society as a whole would be catastrophic.\" Joining Greenpeace on this expedition was a difficult decision for CNN. Does it compromise our editorial independence on what can still be a highly divisive issue? In my experience it's no different to embedding with soldiers on one side of a military conflict. I've traveled with American soldiers in Iraq and Russian soldiers in Georgia. It enables journalists to access newsworthy locations and people that we couldn't get to otherwise, either practically or safely. And the stories told can still be balanced and fair. Traveling with Greenpeace allowed us to record powerful images of Greenland's accelerating melt. And we met independent scientists who believe the world must act boldly to slow down change that science is struggling to keep pace with.","highlights":"CNN traveled with Greenpeace to Greenland on their study of the region .\nFlow of Helheim Glacier has sped up dramatically in last decade .\nResearch of warming water in Sermilik Fjord points to higher sea-level rise .","id":"a0970316118227808118c022b3846cb11dbc6e7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller, according to a study that suggests climate change can trump natural selection. Can't see me now: Climate change could be shrinking Soay sheep in Scotland. The authors of the study published in \"Science\" believe that it highlights how wide-ranging the effects of global climate change can be, adding further complexity to the changes we might expect to see in animal populations in future. \"It's only in the last few years that we've realized that evolution can influence species' physical traits as quickly as ecological changes can. This study addresses one of the major goals of population biology, namely to untangle the ways in which evolutionary and environmental changes influence a species' traits,\" said Andrew Sugden, deputy and international managing editor at Science. The researchers analyzed body-weight measurements and life-history data for the female members of a population of Soay sheep. The sheep live on the island of Hirta in the St. Kilda archipelago of Scotland and have been studied closely since 1985. They selected body size because it is a heritable trait, and because the sheep have, on average, been decreasing in size for the last 25 years. According to the findings lambs are not growing as quickly as they once did as winters have become shorter so do not need to put on as much as weight in the first months of life to survive. The results suggest that the decrease is primarily an ecological response to environmental variation over the last 25 years. Evolutionary change, the report says, has contributed relatively little. \"Sheep are getting smaller. Well, at least the wild Soay sheep living on a remote Scottish island are. But according to classic evolutionary theory, they should have been getting bigger, because larger sheep tend to be more likely to survive and reproduce than smaller ones, and offspring tend to resemble their parents,\" said study author Tim Coulson of Imperial College London. \"Our findings have solved a paradox that has tormented biologists for years -- why predictions did not match observation. Biologists have realized that ecological and evolutionary processes are intricately intertwined, and they now have a way of dissecting out the contribution of each. Unfortunately it is too early to tell whether a warming world will lead to pocket-sized sheep,\" said Coulson.","highlights":"Study of wild sheep in Scotland suggests climate change making them smaller .\nAuthors of report suggest that climate change can override natural selection .\nWild Soay sheep in remote Outer Hebrides closely studied since 1985 .","id":"5245fa11b56ff0161822c9b2bc038a7fcd35cee2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As a hobby, Suzie Jirachareonkul, a teacher and mother of two, spends many of her nights searching for endangered toads on the country roads near her home outside Cape Town, South Africa. Volunteers in South Africa are collecting data on the Western Leopard Toad, which is endangered. She often finds them flattened on the street. \"They're so beautiful and it's just really hard to live with, especially when you're living on the road right here,\" the 33-year-old said of the toad deaths. \"So we started doing something about it. We started saving them off the road in the middle of the rain.\" When a scientist caught onto her efforts, Jirachareonkul and a friend assembled about 20 volunteers -- a group she calls the \"Toad NUTS\" -- to collect data on the endangered Western Leopard Toad. The information they collect is being used in scientific research. Each time Jirachareonkul comes upon one of the spotted, faintly iridescent creatures, she springs into action. She marks down GPS coordinates, measures the toad, makes notes on its behavior (Is a mate stuck to its back? Is it headed toward a pond?) and uploads the information so scientists can use it. Oh, and she moves the toad out of traffic's way, too. While her nighttime hobby may sound a bit strange, Jirachareonkul is far from alone in her efforts to collect amateur scientific data. At a time when climate change and urbanization are poised to set off a new wave of extinction, some members of the scientific community are turning toward backyard biologists for the data they need to monitor ecosystems and protect struggling species. This \"citizen science\" movement is not exactly new, but it has grown fresh legs as the Internet and social-networking sites help people with uber-specified and often bizarre interests gang up for a cause. Amateur-produced Web sites now serve as data hubs for squirrel sightings, bird photos, ant anthologies, snapshots of leaves, flowers and trees, water quality info, beetle hunts and firefly tracking, among others. Find links at CNN's SciTech blog . \"It's pretty random,\" said Cyndy Parr of the Encyclopedia of Life. \"There's a lot of charismatic things that won't surprise you -- backyard birds, that sort of thing. But there are also thriving communities of people who like to take pictures of butterflies, centipedes, wildflowers, plants.\" Some of the sites have sweeping goals. The Encyclopedia of Life, which seeks to gather online information on all known species, has started taking public submissions through a public Flickr group. Some individual users have uploaded more than 2,000 photos. Project BudBurst, out of Boulder, Colorado, aims to collect so much amateur data about plant species that scientists will be able to tell how climate change is altering the seasons in North America. The venture, managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, gathers \"data that would not otherwise be collected,\" said Sandra Henderson, the project's director. \"We have these additional sentinel eyes on the landscape, if you will. There aren't enough ecologists to be making all of these different plant observations.\" National Science Foundation funding for citizen science dropped off significantly in 2002 but generally has been on the rise since, according to budget numbers compiled for CNN. Since that year, funding in the United States has increased more than 240 percent, to more than $3 million for 2008. Several of the Web projects receive government funding, but others survive on their own merits. In Spain, Josep del Hoyo founded the Internet Bird Collection, an international compilation of bird videos, sounds and photos that's funded solely by his company. He said the intense passion of birders around the world, plus some money from his publishing company, keep the site running. Amateurs have posted video of never-before-seen birds on the site, he said, and some of the work has been the foundation for scientific articles. Technology is amplifying this passion for citizen science, which has been around since scientists started cataloging species. Researchers at several universities are working on iPhone applications and computer programs that could analyze digital photos of plant leaves and automatically identify the plant's species. When those photos -- from ordinary people all over the world -- are paired with the photographer's location and uploaded to a database, the information would be more valuable than anything scientists could come up with on their own, said John Kress, a botanist and research scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The information could help scientists know if a species is going extinct or dying off in certain regions as the climate warms. Identifying a plant species can be tricky, Kress said, so these technologies also would ensure that nonprofessional data is good enough to use for scientific research. \"When people do these things as citizen scientists you're always a little suspect as to, 'Are you getting it right?' \" he said. \"There's some plants out there that are maples and look like oaks -- and only I would know they're really maples. But with this system we would have a standard way of identifying the accuracy of this information.\" Some scientists said they're excited about the trend toward citizen-submitted data because it is impossible for scientists to document all of the changes going on around the world. \"At some point it will really lead to almost a democratization of science, where the amateurs and the volunteers are having just as much of an impact on science as the professionals are,\" said Rick Bonney, who started a citizen science project with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1987. \"It's just going so fast I can't keep up with it anymore.\" Others find the movement limited or controversial. The relationship between formal science and citizen science is similar to that between professional news reporters and bloggers; some scientists worry that the information coming in from nonprofessionals will be inaccurate, said John Musinsky, a senior director at Conservation International. The citizen efforts are also limited in the sense that, at least for now, they're largely concentrated in North America and Europe, where there aren't nearly as many plant and animal species as in Latin America and Africa. That's beginning to change, though, said Conrad Savy, a conservation science adviser at Conservation International. \"It's gaining steam,\" he said of the global citizen-science movement. \"It's working very well and it's a great way also to engage the community in conservation issues.\" As photo-taking cell phones become more popular in developing countries, a more diverse group will join the efforts, said Kress, the Smithsonian botanist. Jirachareonkul's group devoted to the Western Leopard Toad now works with the South African National Biodiversity Institute to promote understanding of the endangered species. Dr. John Measey, a researcher with the institute, said by e-mail that some research on the toad would be possible without the volunteer efforts. But the \"Toad NUTS\" raise awareness and help scientists \"obtain usable accurate data from a much wider area than we could possibly manage or fund,\" he wrote. When Jirachareonkul started the project, she didn't know much about the toads -- they were just a creature she found squashed in front of her house. Now she has a personal connection to them. She said citizen science is a way for people to connect with their local environment -- and to make a difference. \"There are so many problems in the world, but I think the main problem is that everybody is worried about everybody else's problems that they don't focus in on their little areas,\" she said.","highlights":"Average people help scientists collect valuable data in era of climate change .\nMany Web sites are hubs for citizen-collected info used in research .\nResearchers developing iPhone app to automatically identify plants, upload data .\nIn South Africa, a teacher has started a network of people collecting info on toads .","id":"6b4941d8f4bbfd75075b070c7788569234b74610"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- CNN International's Going Green is back for another special series of in-depth reports, this time looking into the world's green pioneers. From groundbreaking ideas in conservation, to the latest water sanitization systems that are impacting the world while advancing the green movement, this next edition focuses on innovative ways to tackle today's environmental challenges. Anchored by CNN's New Delhi-based correspondent Sara Sidner, \"Going Green -- Eco Pioneers\" visits Rajendra Singh, also known in India as the \"Rainman of Rajasthan,\" who is on a self-imposed mission to improve access to water in one of India's driest states. Watch the 'Rainman' of Rajasthan \u00bb . CNN's Michael Holmes tells how Australian Geoff Lawton is working to spread his knowledge about Permaculture, which he says can turn arid land into fertile food-growing territory. Watch Lawton's oasis in the desert \u00bb . In Argentinean Patagonia, CNN's Brian Byrnes speaks with Douglas Tompkins, the environmentalist and founder of The North Face clothing company. He is the biggest private land owner in Chile and is advancing conservation initiatives in the southern tip of the South American continent. CNN's Brian Byrnes reports from Argentina \u00bb . And reporting from Texas, CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera takes viewers on a tour of the laboratories of Pliny Fisk, an American engineer who is paving the way for more environmentally friendly structures.","highlights":"CNN International's Going Green is back with new special on Eco Pioneers .\nSee \"Going Green\" for stories, tune into television special from October 1 .\nHalf-hour special profiles four environmental pioneers on four continents .","id":"34764d21d81d2b853ad9781a23c3822f6b02f833"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for two breakthroughs that led to two major underpinnings of the digital age -- fiber optics and digital photography, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Willard Boyle, left, and George Smith handle a charge-coupled device in 1974. Charles K. Kao, a British and U.S. citizen, won for \"groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.\" Willard S. Boyle, a Canadian and U.S. citizen, and George E. Smith, a U.S. citizen, \"invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device).\" Kao in 1966 \"made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers,\" the academy said in a press release. Today, \"optical fibers make up the circulatory system that nourishes our communication society\" and \"facilitate broadband communication such as the Internet,\" the academy said. Boyle and Smith's Charge-Coupled Device -- invented in 1969 -- \"is the digital camera's electronic eye\" and paved the way for digital photography. \"It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. The digital form facilitates the processing and distribution of these images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.\" The Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week and next. The medicine award was handed out on Monday. The prizes for chemistry and literature will be awarded Wednesday and Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize winner will be named on Friday, and the award in economics will be issued on Monday.","highlights":"Breakthroughs led to fiber optics, digital photography .\nOptical fibers facilitate broadband communication such as the Internet .\nScientists made it possible to capture light electronically instead of on film .\nNobel Prizes handed out this week .","id":"7b7bdc5e0f73d034eff7d395d90dc86644b862c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Americans and an Israeli were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for painstakingly mapping out the thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome -- work that paves the way for new antibiotics. U.S. researcher Thomas Steitz is one of three scientists sharing the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Inside all animals, plants and bacteria are DNA molecules that contain the blueprint for life. Ribosomes are an organism's protein factories. They use the information in the DNA to make the tens of thousands of proteins that enable the organism to function properly. These proteins include hormones, enzymes and hemoglobin, which transports oxygen. From a medicinal standpoint, the ribosome is important because it is what antibiotics target. In a bacterial strain, antibiotics bind to the ribosomes, preventing them from making the proteins the bacteria need to survive. Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath shared the $1.4 million prize for mapping the position of the thousands and thousands of atoms that make up ribosomes. Their three-dimensional models showed how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. \"These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering,\" said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize. Ramakrishnan, a U.S. citizen who was born in India, is a senior scientist and group leader at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, according to the Nobel Prize Web site. Steitz is a professor at Yale University and an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Yale, the site said. Yonath is a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and director of the Helen & Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure & Assembly at the Weizmann Institute, the Nobel site said. The Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week and next. The medicine award was handed out on Monday and the one for physics on Tuesday. The prize for literature will be awarded Thursday; the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be named on Friday, and the award in economics will be issued on Monday.","highlights":"Two Americans, one Israeli to share $1.4 million prize for work on ribosomes .\nRibosomes in every organism use info from DNA to make proteins needed for life .\nAntibiotics work by binding to ribosomes of bacteria so they can't make proteins .\nNobel winners' mapping of ribosomes helps in development of new antibiotics .","id":"251205247a1a29602468c6af29c4b97e35d7f363"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Last year's inaugural Prix Pictet photography award for environmental sustainability produced a stunning shortlist of photos. Ed Kashi has documented the impact oil has made on the Niger Delta in Africa. This year is no different with 12 photographers in the running for the first prize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500). The theme in 2009 is described simply as \"Earth.\" The aim is to highlight how man exploits the planet's resources and how this impacts the landscapes and communities surrounding them. In an extraordinary series of photos Canadian Christopher Anderson captures how the quest for raw materials affects Venezuela. In \"The Diminishing Present,\" Portuguese-born Edgar Martins records forest landscapes in the moments before they are engulfed by flames. In \"Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta,\" Ed Kashi captures the impact of the oil industry on Nigeria's environment and people since it was first discovered five decades ago. Kashi, an American photojournalist, spent three years compiling his photos of the Niger Delta, making a total of five trips to the troubled region. Kashi told CNN: \"It was truly one of the most graphic examples of economic inequity that I have ever seen. Especially with the backdrop of hundreds of billions of oil wealth that has been generated over the previous 50 years.\" As a result of his work, Kashi says that his photos are now being used by universities and NGOs to raise awareness to try and effect change. To him, this has been one of the most gratifying and exciting by-products of his work. One of this year's most intriguing entries is by Sammy Baloji, who superimposes colonial black and white archive photos of Belgian-run mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and places them over his color images of the decaying mines as seen today. Nadav Kander's images of China's Yangtze River depict communities adjusting to the changes caused by the re-routing of the country's largest river. And, Andreas Gursky has captured an extraordinary image of an ocean of rubbish at a landfill site in Mexico City. Darren Almond's ethereal images of China's Yellow Mountain Range are made all the more magical through the knowledge that they were shot using only the light of the Moon. All the nominees' pictures showcase the power of the camera when in the hands of master craftsmen. Click here to view some of the short-listed images \u00bb . The winner will be announced by Prix Pictet honorary president, Kofi Annan, on October 22 at the Passage de Retz gallery in Paris. All the short-listed photos can be seen at the same gallery for one month after the award. Further exhibitions are planned in Greece and Dubai and the Netherlands. If you can't attend the exhibitions, there is a book entitled \"Earth,\" published by teNeues which showcases the work of all Prix Pictet nominees.","highlights":"Shortlist for Prix Pictet photography award highlights destruction of natural resources .\nTwelve world-renowned photographers are up for the award .\nPrize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500) goes to the winner announced on October 22 .","id":"3b3a35ad7ba02f3c6348cc1eefc586a2084fd454"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Toward the end of her marriage, Rabia Iqbal said she feared for her life. Robina Niaz said the Quran \"condemns\" abuse of women. \"If we witness injustice, we're required to speak up.\" Iqbal was born in New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from the tribal areas of Pakistan. She had a strict Muslim upbringing and when she was 16, her parents arranged her marriage to a 38-year-old man. She claims her husband turned violent during their 10 years of marriage. When she finally left him, she did not know where to turn. Going home wasn't an option, she said. \"My parents ... made clear that they would disown me,\" Iqbal said. \"My father even said ... 'You're lucky you live in America because if you lived back home, you would have been dead by now.' \" She was hiding out in her office at work when a friend put her in touch with Robina Niaz, whose organization, Turning Point for Women and Families, helps female Muslim abuse victims. \"It was such a relief ... to speak about things that ... I thought no one would understand,\" said Iqbal, who has received counseling from Niaz for more than two years and calls Niaz her \"savior.\" \"Robina understood the cultural nuances ... the religious issues,\" Iqbal said. Watch Iqbal tell her story \u00bb . A devout Muslim, Niaz stresses that there is no evidence that domestic violence is more common among Muslim families. \"Abuse happens everywhere,\" said Niaz. \"It cuts across barriers of race, religion, culture.\" But, she said, Muslims are often reluctant to confront the issue. \"There's a lot of denial,\" she said. \"It makes it much harder for the victims of abuse to speak out.\" When Niaz launched her organization in 2004, it was the first resource of its kind in New York City. Today, her one-woman campaign has expanded into a multifaceted endeavor that is raising awareness about family violence and providing direct services to women in need. Niaz said she firmly believes that domestic violence goes against Islamic teachings, and considers it her religious duty to try to stop abuse from happening. \"Quran condemns abusive behavior of women,\" she said, noting that the prophet Mohammed was never known to have abused women. \"Allah says, 'Stand up against injustice and bear witness, even if it's against your own kin. So if I see injustice being done to women and children, I have to speak up. It's my duty.\" Niaz's mission began after a difficult period in her own life. Born and raised in Pakistan, she had earned a master's degree in psychology and had a successful career in international affairs and marketing when she moved to the United States to marry in 1990. \"It was a disastrous marriage,\" she said. As Niaz struggled to navigate the American legal system during her divorce, she said she appreciated how lucky she was to speak English and have an education. She realized that many immigrant women without those advantages might be more likely to stay in marriages because they didn't know how to make the system work for them. \"If this is how difficult it is for me, then what must other immigrant women go through?\" she remembered thinking. After volunteering with South Asian victims of domestic violence, Niaz, who speaks five languages, got a job using those skills to advocate for immigrant women affected by family violence. But Niaz's focus changed on September 11, 2001. \"I was no longer a Pakistani-American ... I looked at myself as a Muslim.\" Niaz said the backlash many Muslims experienced after the terror attacks made abuse victims more afraid to seek help; they feared being shunned for bringing negative attention to their community. Watch Niaz explain the effects of 9\/11 on abused Muslim women \u00bb . \"Women who were caught in abusive marriages were trapped even more,\" recalled Niaz. In 2004, Niaz used her savings to start Turning Point for Women and Families. Today, her work focuses on three main areas: providing direct services to abused women, raising awareness through outreach, and educating young women -- an effort she hopes will empower future generations to speak out against abuse. Crisis intervention services are a critical element of Niaz's efforts. Through weekly counseling sessions, she and her team provide emotional support to the women while helping them with practical issues, such as finding homeless shelters, matrimonial lawyers, filing police reports or assisting with immigration issues. Niaz has helped more than 200 Muslim women. While most of Turning Point's clients are immigrants, the group helps women from every background. While Niaz has support from many people in New York's Muslim community, she acknowledges that not everyone appreciates her efforts. She keeps her office address confidential and takes precautions to ensure her safety. \"There have been threats ... but that comes with this work,\" she said. \"I know that God is protecting me because I'm doing the right thing.\" Want to get involved? Check out Turning Point for Women and Families and see how to help.","highlights":"Robina Niaz's organization helps female Muslim domestic violence victims .\nTurning Point for Women and Families was first resource of its kind in New York City .\nNiaz: Domestic violence goes against Islamic teachings, but \"denial\" is a problem .\nThe Top 10 CNN Heroes will be announced on October 1 .","id":"873e60642d9da1e3978153ae3cc3ad0f56eac1da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A massive dust storm swept through parts of Australia on Wednesday, bathing the city of Sydney in a reddish haze. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen on Wednesday in Sydney, Australia. Susan Paget marveled at the eerie red view from the balcony of her apartment in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, and said she took the day off work to avoid the dust storm mess. \"It just feels dirty and rusty,\" Paget told CNN. \"It was totally bizarre to wake up around 5:30 a.m. and see such a red bizarre sky.\" A video Paget submitted to CNN's iReport showed thick haze, which made it difficult to see her neighbors' homes. Watch Paget's updated iReport . Health officials in Sydney warned residents to stay in indoors if possible, especially if they had asthma or heart and lung conditions. \"Avoid spending too much time outdoors due to the high particle levels and hazardous air quality,\" the New South Wales Department of Heath Web site said. See images of the dust storm \u00bb . The Ambulance Service of New South Wales said the dust storm had kept it busy with emergency calls. \"We have already seen an increase in calls to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems,\" the agency said in a statement. Watch a news report on the haze \u00bb . iReporter Mark Clarke told CNN he woke up earlier than usual with a stuffy nose and cough at his home in Stanmore, a suburb of Sydney. iReporter: \"It was like Mars\" He pulled the curtains back and saw a \"strange red orangish glow coming from outside.\" \"It feels and smells like a vacuum cleaner exploded,\" he said. Watch Clarke's iReport . The country's bureau of meterology attributed the red haze to strong north-westerly winds which blew the dust overnight to Sydney and regions west of the capital. During the day, the dust blanket moved north onto the Queensland capital of Brisbane. The bureau of meterology's senior forecaster Tony Auden told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the haze was likely to continue moving north. \"It should make its way up into the Sunshine Coast and into those Capricornia and central coast areas soon,\" he said. \"For the south-east expect it to probably linger for the rest of today and hopefully settle out of the air overnight.\"","highlights":"Residents of Sydney, Australia wake to eerie red haze over surrounding areas .\nWeather forecasters say strong north-westerly winds blew dust in overnight .\nWind blew dust storm north onto Brisbane, predicted to move further north .\niReporter: \"It was totally bizarre to wake up and see such a red bizarre sky\"","id":"6730ac24654f0187b3eb4b80f4009f62a68c5c36"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It is midday and Geoff Lawton is hard at work at Zaytuna Farms in New South Wales, Australia. But the real work, he says, is going on inside the center of the compost. Geoff Lawton says that permaculture \"revs up\" systems of soil creation. \"There's lots of things breeding in there,\" Lawton says. Compost may not seem a sexy subject, but within this steaming pile, life is being created. \"There's organisms breathing and dying and reproducing very quickly,\" he says. \"It's all very hot and steamy.\" That rich soil lays the groundwork for Lawton's revolutionary method of food production. It's called permaculture. Lawton's friend and mentor, Bill Mollison, developed the process back in the 1970s. Since then he and Lawton have traveled the globe preaching the value of permaculture and its aim to create harmony between the landscape and the people who live on it. \"Nature exists in an incredibly rich form, and enriching form and does so without any energy inputs from mankind,\" Lawton explains. \"Permaculture does the same thing.\" \"We've taken the systems of soil creation and soil life and we've revved them up. We've speeded up nature itself and we've improved the system.\" Watch Geoff Lawton at work \u00bb . So what does it take to improve the system? Lawton says it's about rehabilitating areas that have been damaged by pollution or overuse by recycling nutrients and energy back into the soils. Permaculture also takes all the things we need -- our housing, energy sources, food and water supplies -- and tailors them to fit into the natural rhythms of the ecosystem. The idea is to work with, not against, nature. Lawton says that during the first few weeks and months you don't see the real benefits, but after a year to 18 months you really start to see the difference. \"Within two or three years you can see a system that is really something that's got great opportunities and possibilities,\" he said. The gardens at Zaytuna Farms bear fruit and vegetables of all that hard work. The real measure though isn't how it works, but where. Lawton claims this permaculture method can work anywhere in the world, including the desert. \"Almost all the deserts on earth at one point were forested,\" he said. \"They all have different types of oasis systems. What you're doing is picking different points in the desert and turning them into a rich oasis.\" On a DVD created by the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, Lawton shows us what happened when he took this method to places like Morocco and Jordan -- just 80 kilometers from the Dead Sea. \"People were amazed to see an area that was salty, sandy ground, turn into a lush green forest, that had mushrooms growing from the soil,\" Lawton said. The ability to \"green\" the desert is not only having an impact on the communities where these gardens are grown. Interest is also sprouting among young people. Dozens come to Zaytuna Farms every year to learn about the permaculture method. \"I've only been doing it a year and once you hit upon the principles it's basically observations,\" said intern Jonathan Chan. \"You have to look at the land and which way the wind is blowing and see where the sun angles are and design around that and it does seem quite simple.\" For Chan it's as much about cultivating a new way of life as it is about cultivating the land. \"I think people are getting to the point where they have to make change and permaculture is a good direction to go,\" he said. Still, permaculture isn't without its critics. They argue the method is time-consuming in the early stages and that makes the system hard to get off the ground in many places. It can be made even more difficult if the people living around the site aren't familiar with the process. But Lawton argues the time and energy expended in a permaculture garden is offset by the quality of the experience, and the richness of the end result. \"A good organic farmer works a thousand hours a year. The industrial mankind works two thousand to three thousand hours a year. What do we have to show for it? Gadgets. \"We don't have community, we don't have clean water, clean air or sensible housing. As negative as we currently are, we can be equally positive,\" Lawton said. \"It's not just self-reliance or self-sufficiency, it's absolute abundance.\"","highlights":"Geoff Lawton is using renewable natural resources to enrich ecosystems .\nPermaculture can turn the most arid, nutrient-free soil into thriving habitats .\nLawton's friend and mentor, Bill Mollison developed the technique in the 1970s .\nLawton has turned deserts in Jordan and Morocco into rich oases .","id":"68e5579c8c8f20e97583ce22aee8f9870dff8910"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama huddled with top military, foreign policy and national security advisers Wednesday as part of an ongoing review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Obama and his national security team meet in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday. The meeting, the fifth such gathering in recent weeks, came as the administration continued to weigh a call for as many as 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in that country. McChrystal has said the extra manpower is necessary to implement an effective counterinsurgency strategy. Wednesday's meeting, however, focused on efforts to strengthen the American civilian mission in Afghanistan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. Obama also received a report on ongoing efforts to train Afghan security forces, Gibbs added. While McChrystal is pushing for a major troop increase, others in the administration are advocating a different approach. Vice President Joe Biden has called for a counterterrorism strategy, which would focus on using special forces and technology to reduce the number of al Qaeda insurgents on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. \"I will tell you that our principal goal remains to root out al Qaeda and its extremist allies that can launch attacks against the United States or its allies,\" Obama said Tuesday. \"That's our principal mission. We are also obviously interested in stability in the region, and that includes not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan.\" Obama has come under intense pressure from several leading senators to follow McChrystal's recommendation, a move vehemently opposed by many liberal Democrats. As Obama huddled with his national security team, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said he's not ready yet to support sending additional troops to Afghanistan. Hoyer also told reporters he has serious questions about U.S. chances for success in the region and the stability of the Afghan government. \"Afghanistan has not been a successful venue for many great powers in the past,\" Hoyer said. \"I can't think of any. I think we also need to have some degree of confidence that the government in Afghanistan is a viable government that can create confidence within its people. I have reservations about whether that has happened at this point in time.\" The majority leader also argued that the situation in Afghanistan can't be viewed in isolation and requires a regional approach that includes Pakistan and India. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Sunday that any added military deployment that fell short of McChrystal's request \"would be an error of historic proportions.\" \"And I think the great danger now is a half-measure, sort of a -- you know, [trying] to please all ends of the political spectrum,\" McCain told CNN's John King. \"I have great sympathy for the president, making the toughest decisions that presidents have to make, but I think he needs to use deliberate speed,\" he said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, argued that U.S. troops would be put in \"jeopardy\" if Obama does not listen to McChrystal. \"I don't know how you put somebody in who's as crackerjack as Gen. McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you're not going to pull out,\" she said Sunday on ABC's \"This Week.\" Feinstein heads the Senate Intelligence Committee. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Wednesday that he is increasing British troop levels in Afghanistan to 9,500, an increase of 500. The British have the second-largest contingent in Afghanistan, after the United States, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Obama announced a plan to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in March. A total of 65,000 U.S. soldiers are currently serving in the war-torn country. CNN's Richard Greene and Adam Levine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gathering focuses on efforts to strengthen civilian mission .\nAdministration continues to weigh call for additional U.S. troops .\nLeading senators have urged president to approve request .\nVice president has called for counterterrorism strategy .","id":"d19e071d8ff9f14cb6e598f7bcd3e5ead410b6cc"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actress Kelly Preston, whose son Jett Travolta died earlier this year, will talk publicly in October about how she and her husband, actor John Travolta, have dealt with their grief. Kelly Preston is going to speak on a panel titled \"Grief and Resilience\" in October. Preston, 46, will appear on a panel titled \"Grief and Resilience\" at a conference hosted by California first lady Maria Shriver, according to a conference spokeswoman. Jett, 16, was found unconscious on January 2, while on vacation with his family in the Bahamas' West End. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, local police said. The Travolta family has not spoken publicly about the exact cause of Jett's death, but employees of the funeral home that handled the remains said in January the death certificate listed \"seizure\" as the cause of death. The family has remained out of the public eye since his death, only issuing a few written statements. When his latest movie, \"The Taking of Pelham 123,\" was released last month, John Travolta did not take part in the publicity tour to promote the movie, instead issuing a short statement saying his family needed \"additional time to reconcile our loss.\" Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Sen. John Edwards, and actress Susan St. James will also be on the panel, conference spokeswoman Marissa Moss said. Both women have mourned the loss of sons. The Women's Conference will be in Long Beach, California, in late October, according to its Web site.","highlights":"Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife, to address conference on grief .\nPreston and Travolta's 16-year-old son Jett died in January .\nOther speakers include Elizabeth Edwards, Susan St. James .","id":"664db2a7033130ebcc19d219be9a061f83d02443"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- It's Nobel Prize announcement week, and if you had Carol W. Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn, or Jack Szostak in your office pool, you're off to a good start (the trio will share this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine). As we await news of the rest of the winners, here are some stories about past Nobel laureates. Nobel Prize winners receive a medal and a cash award. 1. Robert Lucas, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the theory of \"rational expectations,\" split his $1 million prize with his ex-wife. If there were a Nobel Prize for Foresight or Timing, she should be nominated, based on a clause in their divorce settlement from seven years earlier: \"Wife shall receive 50 percent of any Nobel Prize.\" The clause expired on October 31, 1995. Had Lucas won any year after, he would have kept the whole million. 2. Physicist Lise Meitner, whose work helped lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times without ever winning (though nominations are kept secret, so we don't know for sure). This makes her the Dynasty of the Nobel Prize scene -- that show was nominated for 24 Emmy Awards but never won. Other analogies we'd accept: The Color Purple (11 Oscar nominations in 1985, no wins), the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings (4 Super Bowl losses each without a victory) and William Jennings Bryan (three-time Democratic nominee for President, losing twice to McKinley and once to Taft.) 3. People who refused the prize: . \u2022 Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Henry Kissinger for their roles in brokering a Vietnam cease fire at the Paris Peace Accords. Citing the absence of actual peace in Vietnam, Tho declined to accept. \u2022 Jean Paul Sartre waved off the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. His explanation: \"It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.\" \u2022 Afraid of Soviet retribution if he traveled to Stockholm to claim his prize, Boris Pasternak declined to accept the 1958 Prize in Literature, which he'd earned for Doctor Zhivago. The Academy refused his refusal. \"This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place.\" Yevgeny Pasternak accepted the prize on behalf of his deceased father in 1989. \u2022 Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt won for Literature in 1918. He did not accept because he was Secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize. He was given the award posthumously in 1931. This was allowed because the nomination was made before Karlfeldt died -- no candidate may be proposed after death. Mental Floss: 10 technologies we stole from the animal kingdom . 4. In 2007, 90-year-old professor Leonid Hurwicz became the oldest person to ever win (one-third of the Prize in Economics); at 87, writer Doris Lessing became the oldest woman (Literature). 5. DNA expert Kary Mullis -- 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- was scheduled to be a defense witness in O.J. Simpson's murder trial. However, Simpson's lawyer Barry Scheck felt the prosecution's DNA case was already essentially destroyed, and he didn't want Mullis' personal life to distract jurors (he'd expressed an affinity for LSD.) 6. Nobel Laureates you must know: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Jimmy Carter, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Pierre & Marie Curie, Max Planck and Albert Einstein. 7. Big names who never won: Dmitri Mendeleev, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, Henrik Ibsen, Joan Robinson, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Jules-Henri Poincar\u00e9, Raymond Damadian and Mahatma Gandhi. Mental Floss: 6 people who accidentally found a fortune . 8. Winners without the greatest reputations: . \u2022 Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who won in 1976 for his research in human slow-virus infections, spent 19 months in jail after pleading guilty in 1997 to charges of child molestation. \u2022 Johannes Fibiger won in 1926 after discovering parasitic worms cause cancer -- a breakthrough that turned out to not be true. \u2022 Yasser Arafat shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. This decision caused Nobel Committee member Kare Kristiansen to resign. \"What consequences will result,\" he asked at the time, \"when a terrorist with such a background is awarded the world's most prestigious prize?\" \u2022 William Shockley won for Physics in 1956 for his role in the invention of the semiconductor, but his support of the eugenics movement alienated the scientific community. Shockley also donated sperm to the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank developed to spread humanity's best genes. 9. As part of his divorce settlement, Einstein's Nobel Prize money went to his ex-wife, Mileva Maric. 10. The Curie family is a Nobel Prize machine, winning five: Pierre and Marie for Physics in 1901; Marie solo for Chemistry in 1911; daughter Irene and her husband Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Joliot-Curie for Chemistry in 1935; and Henry Labouisse, who was married to Pierre and Marie's daughter Eve, accepted on behalf of UNICEF in 1965. 11. Marie Curie's second prize was marred by scandal. Then a widow, Curie had an affair with a married scientist, Paul Langevin -- a former pupil of Pierre Curie. Love letters were involved, eventually leading to a duel between Langevin and the editor of the newspaper that had printed them (no shots were actually fired.) According to NobelPrize.org, when it was suggested that Curie not accept the prize, she wrote a shrewd letter, \"which pointed out that she had been awarded the Prize for her discovery of radium and polonium, and that she could not accept the principle that appreciation of the value of scientific work should be influenced by slander concerning a researcher's private life.\" 12. Singing support --While there's no evidence the Nobel judges can be swayed by theme songs, that hasn't stopped Loriana Lana from composing one for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. \"Peace Can\" includes the lyrics, \"Silvio forever will be \/ Silvio is reality \/ Silvio forever! \/Silvio gives us trust.\" 13. Alfred Nobel -- inventor of dynamite -- may have been inspired to create the Nobel Prize after a premature obituary in a French newspaper called him a \"merchant of death.\" 14. Nobel died on December 10, 1896. The formal awards ceremony is held in Stockholm each year on the anniversary of his death. The first awards show took place on December 10, 1901. (These things take time to plan.) And in case you were wondering just how much of a say Alfred Nobel had in the prize, here's what he wrote in his will: . \"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: . \"The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. \"The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.\" Mental Floss: 13 bizarre stipulations in wills . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"More than one Nobel winner had to share or give prize money to ex-wife .\nMarie Curie was urged not to collect her second Nobel because of affair .\nThree U.S. presidents have won the Nobel prize .\nLise Meitner was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times, but never won .","id":"e337f93e6d93f51fc69a5973e6ff614dd9ce6438"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan has joined the growing number of major economies that are back in black. Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso's $150 billion stimulus helps nation out of recession. Japan's economy grew 3.7 percent on an annualized basis from April to June this year, the first time the world's second largest economy has seen positive growth in 15 months. The announcement of preliminary figures by Japan's Cabinet Office comes after France and Germany surprised economists last week by posting 0.3 percent growth for the second quarter of the year. The news that Japan has rebounded -- the hardest hit of the major economies because of its reliance on exports -- gives economists cautious optimism that the worst of the global recession is over. \"The economy has seen a bottoming out of global demand, which has pushed out net exports ... especially in high tech industries and basic materials, such as chemical, steel and so on because of Chinese demand,\" said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist in Japan for Credit Suisse. Japan's GDP grew just under 1 percent during the three-month period and trade increased 1.6 percent. The uptick marks the end of the worst recession in Japan since the end of World War II. Japan's GDP fell at a record pace during the January-March quarter, when GDP was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year. The Japanese economy was buoyed by a historic \u00a515 trillion ($150 billion) stimulus package in May, which included unemployment benefits, aid to struggling companies, promotion of green industries and a variety of tax breaks. \"There are many times in the past when tax breaks and fiscal stimulus were offered and failed, but this time around, it worked,\" Shirakawa said. Economists expect GDP to continue modest growth through the rest of the year, especially with an expected rebound in global auto sales this quarter. But whether the recovery can continue into the new year after the stimulus package runs its course remains a question. \"Japan's economy still is quite sensitive to global demand ... and for consumer demand to grow on a self-sustained basis still seems unlikely,\" Shirakawa said.","highlights":"Japan's economy grows by 3.7 percent on an annualized basis .\nFirst growth in the world's second largest economy in 15 months .\nEnds the nation's worst recession since World War II .","id":"268db3f83c39bae1ac632ff305a26f85e99da184"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- Watch \"Planet in Peril: Battle Lines\" on Thursday, December 11, at 9 p.m. ET\/PT on CNN, hosted by Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling. CNN's award-winning series examines the environmental conflicts between growing populations and natural resources. After watching \"Planet in Peril,\" use these questions to focus students' attention on the concepts explored in the program. Teachers: \"Planet in Peril: Battle Lines\" depicts environmental struggles in the real world. The scenes and accounts presented may not be appropriate for all students. Please determine whether this content is appropriate for your students. Bush meat and Zoonotic Viruses . 1. What is bush meat? According to the program, what are some examples of bush meat? Why do people eat bush meat? 2. What are zoonotic viruses? What are some examples of zoonotic viruses described in the show? What is the relationship between bushmeat and zoonotic viruses? 3. According to the program, why are some people turning to wilderness areas for their food? In your opinion, is hunting bush meat different from hunting wild game in the United States? Explain your rationale. 4. What are some of the negative impacts of hunting bush meat on the local ecology? Do you think these environmental concerns should outweigh the demand for food in these villages? Explain. 5. What are some factors that might cause an increase in the spread of zoonotic viruses? What are some methods Dr. Nathan Wolfe has used to stop the spread of zoonotic viruses? In your opinion, how might scientists and policymakers prevent the spread of these diseases? Nigerian Oil . 1. What valuable resource found in Nigeria generates billions of dollars in revenue? 2. Who is currently benefiting from the oil revenues? In your opinion, who should benefit from Nigeria's oil resources? Explain. 3. What is MEND? What is MEND's goal? How is MEND trying to achieve that goal? 4. Do you agree with MEND's tactics? If so, why? If not, why not? How would you address the issue? 5. What are some of the environmental challenges faced by the Nigerian communities surrounding the oil fields? In your opinion, who should be responsible for addressing these issues, and how should they be addressed? Shark Finning . 1. According to the program, why do some people engage in shark fishing? What are some ways that people catch sharks? 2. What is shark finning? What are some of the markets for shark fins? How do humans use shark fins? Why are they so expensive? What do some fishermen do with the rest of the shark's body? 3. According to the program: What is the economic value of the fishing industry? What do you think shark fishermen might do if they were not allowed to hunt sharks? 4. How is the shark finning affecting the shark populations? In your opinion, should people care about the issue of shark finning? Why or why not? 5. What are Peter Knight and Wild Aid doing to try to stop the shark trade? Do you agree with Peter Knight's analogy when he says, \"If it was Yellowstone Park and people were shooting up grizzlies, no one would ever get away with it,\" in reference to shark killings? Why or why not? In your opinion, should shark species be preserved? Why or why not? 6. How have some countries tried to regulate the shark-fishing trade? What are some of the challenges faced by those who regulate the industry? In your opinion, have they been successful? What more, if anything, could they do? 7. What might happen to the fishing industry if there are no more sharks to fish? What might happen to the ocean's ecosystems if the shark population becomes extinct? What effect could this have on the global economy? Shark Tourism . 1. What is cage diving? According to the program, what might be the positive and negative impacts of cage dives? 2. What is chumming? According to the program, what controversies surround the issue of chumming for sharks? How have some countries tried to regulate chumming? Why? Do you think this regulation is a good or bad idea? Explain. 3. According to the segment, what are some reasons that sharks are misunderstood? What are some things that scientists are trying to understand about great white sharks? What do you think motivates scientist Allison Kok to study great white sharks? According to Kok, are the sharks associating humans with food, leading to more shark attacks on humans? Explain. 4. Why does Mike Rutzen say that free diving \"is the same as a jackal at a lion feed\"? What do you think Rutzen means when he says, \"They're just trying to be sharks\"? 5. How does Anderson Cooper compare his experiences diving with sharks in a cage to free diving? Would you prefer to cage dive or free dive with great white sharks? Explain. Ivory Wars . 1. According to the segment, what are some of the challenges facing the Zakouma Park elephants in Chad? 2. How is Mike Fay attempting to save these elephants? Why do you think he works to save these elephants? 3. Why are poachers targeting the elephants? What part of the elephant are they after? What do they do with the rest of the elephant's body? 4. What is ivory? How much is it worth? Why do some value it highly? 5. According to Mike Fay, what is the status of the \"Ivory Wars\"? Who are the combatants? What do you think are the motives for participants on each side of the conflict? 6. What do you think might be the environmental impact if all the African elephants disappeared? Gorilla Tourism . 1. What struggle did Rwanda recently undergo? How were Rwandan mountain gorillas affected by the conflict? 2. How is the Rwandan government managing the mountain gorillas now? Why do you think Anderson Cooper calls the story of the mountain gorillas \"a success story in one of the most unlikely places on earth\"? 3. Why do you think that park ranger Digirinana Francois risked his life for the gorillas just after the genocide? 4. Why do you think poachers plunder rare wildlife such as the mountain gorilla? What do you think can be done to prevent poaching? 5. According to Rwanda's head of parks and tourism, Rosette Rugamba, why were the efforts to save the mountain gorilla \"a tough sell\"? How are the Rwandans using the mountain gorillas to promote tourism? What have been the benefits of gorilla-related tourism? 6. Using the program as a guide, contrast the mountain gorillas' situation in Rwanda with their situation in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. What is the impact of instability in the Congo on the lives of the gorillas? 7. Why is continuing the research on gorillas important? How do mountain gorillas benefit humans? What role do mountain gorillas play in their ecosystems? 8. What are some pressures the mountain gorillas face from humans? How might these issues be resolved? Who should be responsible for resolving these issues? Overview Questions . 1. What role do environmentalists play in the prevention of the plundering of wildlife? Overall, do you think their efforts have been successful in the examples from this program? Why or why not? 2. What responsibility do individuals, corporations, non-governmental organizations and government policymakers each have in managing natural resources? What responsibility does each of these entities have in maintaining economic development? Can environmental and economic priorities be balanced? If so, how? If not, why not? 3. If the issues portrayed in the program were not addressed, what do you think might happen to each of the species involved? How might that affect the global environment? 4. How do the issues examined in this program relate to you, if at all? 5. If you could choose an environmental cause to champion, what would it be? How would you raise awareness of the issue? How would you address the issue? What challenges do you think you would have to face?","highlights":"CNN's award-winning series explores conflicts between people, environment .\nTopics include zoonotic diseases, poaching, ecotourism, and shark finning .\nThese questions focus on the concepts explored in the program .","id":"c0a9f5ca1bdc47073d953449715029121b654c27"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of people around the globe may find the payoff Thursday for the countless hours they have spent perfecting the most ridiculous of feats. Chefs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, try in September to set a record with a tub of Quaker soup, made with Quaker oats. More than 200,000 people in 18 countries hope to make it into the \"Guinness World Records\" book with a variety of rather odd achievements on this day. Students at the University of Bournemouth in the United Kingdom plan to round up more than 100 participants to set a record for the Most People Dressed as Superheroes. Several Germans will vie to set a record for the Most Juice Extracted from Grapes by Treading. And in New Zealand, would-be record-holders will chase glory in a race to set the Fastest Time to Peel and Eat -- what else? -- a Kiwi Fruit. The unusual pursuits unfold worldwide as part of Guinness World Records Day. The editors of \"Guinness World Records\" -- universally recognized as the foremost authority on record-breaking achievement -- began celebrating the day in 2004, a year after the book sold its 100 millionth copy. \"We are very happy to see that people are still passionate and eager to achieve their goals in the midst of the global market turmoil,\" Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said in a prepared statement. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, shows its studious side Thursday in an effort to enter the record books for Most People Reading Simultaneously. Brazil will try to break the record for World's Largest Bread, and Japan hopes to clock the Fastest Time to Run 100 Meters On All Fours. Various places in the United States are also getting in on the act. New York will try for the Most Grains of Rice Eaten with Chopsticks in a Minute and Oak Park, Illinois, will host the Largest Dog Wedding. Sports network ESPN will televise attempts at the Fastest Egg and Spoon Mile and the Most Apples Cut in the Air with a Sword. Roll your eyes if you must. But keep count of the rotations: You could be a contender next year.","highlights":"Guinness World Records Day efforts range from the ridiculous to the absurd .\nLargest Dog Wedding, Most Apples Cut in the Air with a Sword among categories .\nRecord book's editor praises pursuit of goals in spite of economic turmoil .","id":"db72049654703079e37a49492d5c22ba1d2fdbf2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three runners died Sunday during the Detroit Free Press\/Flagstar Marathon in Detroit, Michigan, police told CNN. An EMT vehicle is at the scene Sunday in Detroit after three runners collapsed at a marathon. All three deaths occurred between 9 and 9:20 a.m. ET, Second Deputy Chief John Roach said. A man in his 60s fell and hit his head, Roach said. The cause of the fall was unknown. The man was transported to Detroit Receiving Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two other men, ages 36 and 26, also collapsed during the race and were pronounced dead at the hospital, Roach said. All three collapsed near the end of the race, he said. Witnesses describe scene \u00bb . The weather at the time was overcast, Roach said, with temperatures in the low 40s. CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Second Deputy Chief John Roach: All three deaths occurred between 9 and 9:20 a.m.\nMan in his 60s fell hit his head; Two men others, ages 36 and 26, collapsed .\nRace was Detroit Free Press\/Flagstar Marathon in Detroit, Michigan .","id":"116bded692ea4842fb7092373116899a4e7d70c8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- To offset carbon dioxide, a Japanese airline is asking its passengers to go to the toilet before boarding. All Nippon Airways is asking passengers to use the restroom before flying to reduce weight. The unusual request by All Nippon Airways (ANA) is part of its \"e-Flight\" promotional program to reduce the amount of carbon expelled on 38 domestic routes and its twice daily international flights to Singapore. \"Asking passengers to go to the toilet (before boarding) is just a small part of the program,\" said spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka, which includes using recycled paper cups and plastic bottles instead of glass. \"We are making these items lighter -- and making the passengers lighter, a little bit,\" Tezuka said. The airline estimates that if 50 percent of passengers relieved themselves before boarding, it would reduce carbon dioxide by 4.2 tons a month. Flights will also show educational films on the environment. The month-long trial program, which began October 1, will be evaluated and may be extended if successful, Tezuka said. In true Japanese fashion, the encouragement to eliminate is more suggested than explicit. This is what is announced before boarding the flights: \"This flight is a so-called 'eFlight.' The idea behind the operation is to think about the Earth in the sky above. Fuel reduction by lightening the weight of the aircraft will lead to restrain the carbon dioxide emission, which is one of the causes of global warming. Thank you for your understanding.\" So no mother-like admonishments to use the toilet before leaving? \"No, it's more subtle than that,\" Tezuka said. People are also encouraged to pack lighter for the flights, although no additional weight restrictions apply. The program comes as the airline industry in Japan is struggling. The nation's largest carrier, Japan Airlines, is seeking a government bailout and forecasts $700 million in losses this year. This week, ANA's stock price hit a 52-week low in trading Wednesday.","highlights":"All Nippon Airways is asking passengers to go to toilet before flights .\nAirline estimates that four tons of carbon dioxide a month would be reduced .\nComes as Japanese airlines are struggling in the weak economy .","id":"e7cffc850eef761375f5e71966bf4ef850bcc497"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Didier Drogba is backing his Ivory Coast team to make history by becoming the first African country to reach the final of the World Cup next year. Drogba is contemplating a big challenge by the Ivory Coast in South Africa. The Chelsea striker scored the decisive goal as the Elephants sealed their place in South Africa with a 1-1 draw against Malawi on Saturday, but he is now looking ahead to the finals with relish. \"It is going to be a challenge,\" the 31-year-old told reporters. \"To make it to the final will not be easy because there are great teams like Brazil and Germany who have won the World Cup for many years. \"But my teammates and I want to make history and want to change the way the world sees African football. Can an African team win the World Cup next year ? \"I hope that we'll be the team that is going to go to the final and win the competition.\" Ivory Coast have joined Ghana as definite qualifiers from Africa, with three other places up for grabs in the final round of matches in November. Drogba is one of several stars in the Ivorian squad with Champions League experience, including Barcelona's Yaya Toure who is anxious to erase memories of their failure to qualify from the group stages in the 2006 finals in Germany. \"At the last World Cup we played really well in Germany, but we were unlucky because we were in a very tough group with Argentina and Holland and so went out in the first round,\" he said. \"But I think with this kind of experience, it will be possible at South Africa 2010 to do much better. Perhaps we can make the quarterfinals and then semifinals, this is something we can achieve.\" Coach Vahid Halilhodzic is also upbeat after seeing his side fight back from a goal down against Malawi to top African Group E. \"We are very proud to participate in the World Cup for the second consecutive time and this time it is going to be better,\" he added.","highlights":"Didier Drogba targets World Cup glory with African powerhouses Ivory Coast .\nDrogba scored crucial goal as Ivory Coast clinched qualification for South Africa .\nIvory Coast exited in group stages at the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006 .","id":"4566e90ca5e65f0323c41319030ca4349357cd67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Lance Armstrong and 2007 champion Alberto Contador will head a strong Astana team for next month's Tour de France. Armstrong (left) will be backed by a strong Astana squad in Tour de France. Armstrong is bidding for an unprecedented eighth victory in cycling's most prestigious race while his teammate Contador will start as favorite for the yellow jersey. The Kazakh-backed squad will have strong support riders with Andreas Kloeden, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zulbedia also named in the tea, . Kloeden and Leipheimer have both been podium finishers in the Tour de France while the team is packed full of good performers for the key mountain stages. The remaining three riders to make up the squad of nine will be picked from Jani Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Benjamin Noval, Dmitriy Muravyev, Sergio Paulinho, Gregory Rast and Tomas Vaitkus. \"The complete 2009 Tour roster will be chosen based on the strongest team from both a sportive and team-spirit criteria,\" Astana's team chief Johan Bruyneel told Press Association Sport. Astana have also settled doubts over outstanding debts run up by the team which left their participation in the Tour in doubt with the Kazakh government putting up guarantees that riders would be paid. The team is returning to the Tour after a two-year absence, having been barred from the 2008 because of doping misdemeanors by former squad members. It left Contador to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour of Spain and he will be bidding for a second Tour triumph when racing gets underway in Monaco on July 4. Armstrong returned to the peloton earlier this year after a three-year absence and finished 12th in the Giro d'Italia, his preparation hampered by breaking his collarbone at a minor stage race in Spain in March. In other Tour de France news, organizers have barred former world champion Tom Boonen from competing in this year's race. The Belgian, who won Parix-Roubaix for the third time this year, tested positive for cocaine in April. His Quick Step team said on Friday that they would consider legal action to challenge the decision.","highlights":"Lance Armstrong is named in a strong Astana squad for the Tour de France .\nArmstrong will be bidding for an eighth victory in cycling's most famous race .\n2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will start as the race favorite .\nBelgian rider Tom Boonen not welcome on the Tour after positive for cocaine .","id":"5ce90aae139369769c503ec31fb87479f6d334a5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When she was about 8, Frida Sepulveda developed dark folds of skin around her neck. It's a well-known warning sign of type 2 diabetes. Blanca Sepulveda, right, was \"devastated\" when her daughter Frida began showing signs of type 2 diabetes. Frida's mother, Blanca Sepulveda, who has watched other family members struggle with diabetes and obesity, was \"devastated\" to see her daughter experience similar health problems. Now at age 11, Frida is about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs around 180 pounds, her mother said. Despite a high body weight for her age and height, Frida does not seem to have additional symptoms of diabetes -- or any other major health concerns -- but her parents are trying to reverse the weight problem Frida has had since infancy. The San Diego, California, family is among a disproportionately high number of Latino-American families with overweight and obese children. According to the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, 16.6 percent of Latino high school students were obese and 18.1 percent were overweight. The corresponding national averages for high school students were 13.3 percent obese and 15.8 percent overweight. It's an epidemic that shocked and saddened Lorena Garcia, a chef who appears on Univision and Telemundo. \"I travel all over the country to the major Hispanic festivals and I realized that 90 to 95 percent of the kids that I saw at the festivals were overweight,\" said Garcia, who established the Big Chef Little Chef program to teach Latino youth healthy cooking and eating habits. Watch Garcia interact with her fans \u00bb . The problem is caused by a wide range of cultural, social, economic, environmental and possibly genetic factors. Experts agree it is an uphill battle to solve. \"You can't just try to change someone's behavior necessarily without trying to change their environment,\" said Dr. Michael Goran, director of the University of Southern California's Childhood Obesity Research Center. How can childhood obesity be reduced? Blanca Sepulveda, 38, believes her own upbringing in Mexico before coming to the United States in junior high school ultimately contributed to her daughter's weight problem. \"The way I was raised ... you don't [leave] the dinner table until you're done with all your food. That's instilled in you,\" Sepulveda said. Back in Mexico, she said, the food was healthier and fresher, and she didn't drink soda. But she still applied that mentality to her own children, who were born and raised in the United States, where sugar-laden and fattening foods are widely available. The Sepulveda family's story is similar to that of other immigrants who are healthier than their American-born children: Those born outside the United States are less likely to be obese than native-born children, said Luisa Franzini, Ph.D., of the University of Texas School of Public Health. Despite the trends, more study is necessary to determine whether American acculturation is entirely to blame for poor diets among Latinos, an expert says. Rafael P\u00e9rez-Escamilla, a nutrition and public health professor with the University of Connecticut, wrote in the June 2009 issue of Journal of the American Diabetic Association that adaptation to U.S. society may explain, to some degree, \"deterioration of dietary quality\" and the risks of diabetes and other chronic diseases. However, he wrote, it's still not completely clear. Healthy food harder to come by . Economic factors play a major role for many Latinos in their weight struggles. Angelica Delgado is trying to overcome the obstacle with the Healthy Latino Families initiative, a culturally tailored nutrition and exercise program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the Community Research Supervisor for the United Community Center, Delgado is trying to get healthy school lunches in the Bruce-Guadalupe Community School, with which she's working on Healthy Latino Families. About 80 percent of Bruce Guadalupe's student body, which is 97 percent Latino, come from low-income households and therefore are eligible for reduced-price or free lunch. Without money coming in to support the lunch program, it's difficult to fund better quality food and equipment to ensure that it's freshly cooked, Delgado said. For now, she hopes the fun, bilingual setting of Healthy Latino Families will teach children to make smart food choices. The lack of availability of inexpensive, fresh, healthy food is a common for low-income populations in general, Franzini said. Research suggests that more affluent neighborhoods have a higher availability of healthy food, she said, adding that the cost of healthy food is lower in more advantaged communities. The community factor . Exercise also poses tricky problems for Latino children struggling with weight, as many live in disadvantaged areas may make it tough for them to play outside or walk to school. From a physical point of view -- in terms of sidewalks and litter -- those areas tend to be in worse shape than an average neighborhood, Franzini said. But her research also suggests that the social component of a neighborhood affects children's physical activity levels. \"It's not sufficient to just clean up the neighborhood -- pick up the trash and build sidewalks,\" said Franzini, whose study on the impact of neighborhoods' social characteristics was published earlier this year in the American Journal of Public Health. \"It also needs to be a neighborhood where people feel safe and they feel that they can go out and walk and run and exercise and do whatever they want to do.\" To that end, Franzini's research indicates that those Latinos living in tight-knit communities often get more exercise than those in more mixed neighborhoods. \"Having a neighborhood which is more connected, where people feel safe -- I think it's all a matter of feeling empowered in a way. And so those who feel that they have this stronger neighborhood from a social point of view, they are also more likely to be physically active,\" Franzini said. Finding solutions . Researchers and community advocates are attempting to combat the Latino youth obesity problem. But the multitude of factors makes the issue a moving target and results of interventions are mixed. For example, about a year after a previous phase of Healthy Latino Families in Milwaukee wrapped up, children reportedly ate better and watched less television per day. Delgado said they are awaiting results from the current program, but she has seen some success already. USC's Goran worked with Latino teenagers over 16 weeks to improve their diets, promoting fiber-rich tortillas and altering recipes of aqua fresca so it would have less sugar. But at the end of the four months, he saw \"no significant improvement in the outcomes.\" \"We have to do those studies over longer time periods than we have previously done to kind of give these things a chance to work and kick in,\" Goran said. \"We're ... taking it one step at a time.\" And Frida's mom, Blanca Sepulveda, said she is focusing on modifying her own behavior to help her entire family. \"It's a retraining of the mind,\" Sepulveda said. \"It gets hard because you have to be an example.\"","highlights":"A disproportionately high number of Latino-American families struggle with obesity .\nPrograms designed specifically for Latino children have had mixed results .\nEconomic factors play a major role for many Latinos in their weight struggles .\nExercise, and whether or not children feel safe to play, is another factor .","id":"356bab6a6fddae0f073b0ce691cf82513e9c85eb"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A U.S. professor claims he has identified the parts of the brain that help to make someone a good leader. Pierre Balthazard is using EEG to find out what parts of the brain are involved in leadership. Pierre Balthazard, an associate professor at the Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, also says he can use neuroscientific techniques to help people improve the skills that play a part in leadership. Balthazard uses electroencephalography (EEG) to produce a \"brain map\" of his subjects. By attaching electrodes to their heads, he says he can measure electrical activity generated by neurons in their brain. Much of his work has focused on calibrating the EEG data with standard psychometric tests, and now Balthazard says that just by looking at someone's brain map he can predict their capacity for certain traits linked to leadership. \"From someone's brain map I can tell if someone would rank high, medium or low on a psychometric assessment of their transformational leadership, and just that is an earth-shattering finding,\" he told CNN. He has been working with the U.S. military to produce a model that will allow them to scan soldiers' brains for complexity. The idea is that more complex brains produce better situational awareness and adaptive thinking -- essential skills for the modern soldier, who must be able to transition from front-line combat to nation building. He refers to traits like complexity and transformational leadership as antecedents to leadership itself. But for Balthazard, the ability to assess these skills is only half the story. What really excites him is the possibility of brain training and improving leadership skills. \"If you could only assess and not develop then it's only an exercise in social engineering, and that's of no interest to me,\" he said. Balthazard explained that brains can be trained using positive and negative reinforcement, in the same way that disorders like ADD are treated. A subject is wired to software programmed to recognize \"correct\" functioning of a specific part of the brain. If the brain isn't performing correctly, there is a negative reinforcement, such as a noise emitted from a speaker at an unpleasant frequency. \"The brain is amazing at adjusting so it doesn't get the negative feedback,\" he told CNN. But others think it may prove difficult to develop something as intangible as leadership. Dr Bob Kentridge, a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit at Durham University, in England, told CNN, \"Even if you find differences in the brains of people with different leadership abilities, it's very difficult to say if that difference is just related to leadership. \"It could be due to all sorts of things that might be fairly tangentially related to leadership.\" \"Leadership is such a fuzzy quality that it's hard to say conclusively what you are changing,\" Kentridge added. \"You might change things that contribute to leadership, for example people might learn to stay calmer in conflict situations, but is that the same as saying you're improving the leadership center of your brain?\" So, what's inside the brain of a born leader? Interestingly, intelligence is not a requirement. \"There's zero correlation between IQ and leadership,\" Balthazard told CNN. \"Emotion control has a lot to do with leadership. People who lead very well tend to have a much more coherent brain on the emotional, right side, and more differentiated brain on the more rational, left side, that can assess more different options.\" Balthazard says that although he has identified brain profiles for antecedents to leadership, he stresses that before he can produce a set of exercises designed to improve leadership itself, he must develop a \"leadership norm\" -- a standard for what makes a good leader. He has currently analyzed the brains of between 200 and 225 subjects, including bankers and military leaders, and says he must test twice that amount before he has his \"norm.\" But he said plenty of people are already going to neurotherapists to train their brain for skills linked to leadership, such as decision-making, cognition, and memory retrieval, and Balthazard says he'll soon be able to use neuotherapy techniques to develop leadership itself. \"At some point in the next 18 months we'll have a seminal paper out that says we've done this. We're not there yet but I've seen it in the lab.\" If that happens, budding CEOs might be queuing up at neurotherapists to plug themselves in and turn themselves into the business brains of the future.","highlights":"Researcher says he can spot a good leader just by scanning their brain .\nPierre Balthazard is a business professor who uses neuroscientific methods .\nThere is no correlation between intelligence and leadership, he says .\nHe hopes to improve people's leadership by working on brain function .","id":"a9bd7a2ca88bf6dec5dcf1a1540e56fbdb091959"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A new lawsuit alleges that convicted swindler Bernie Madoff financed a cocaine-fueled work environment and a \"culture of sexual deviance,\" and he diverted money to his London, England, office when he believed federal authorities were closing in at home. A new lawsuit alleges Bernie Madoff financed a sex-and-drugs workplace with investors' money. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New York's State Supreme Court, was brought on behalf of former investors and seeks unspecified punitive damages and compensation. Beyond that, it offers a look at what the plaintiffs' attorneys say was once Madoff's multimillion-dollar empire and what is now his world in a federal prison in North Carolina. Among the allegations in the 264-page lawsuit are that during the mid-1970s, Madoff began sending employees to buy drugs for company use. The complaint alleges that some employees and investors were aware of the drug purchases, and that BMIS [Bernard Madoff Investment Services] was known by insiders as the \"North Pole\" in reference to the excessive amount of cocaine use in the work place. Attorneys Joseph Cochett and Nancy Fineman filed the complaint based on an investigation, including a four-hour interview with Madoff in prison in July, that they conducted for former investors. They also allege that major financial institutions, including KPMG, the Bank of New York and JP Morgan Chase, were aware that Madoff was transferring stolen funds to his London office for personal purchases. According to the complaint, Madoff transferred funds to London to buy extravagant personal items. \"In 2006 Madoff thought the end was near because the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] investigated. He realized he had to change things up so his focus shifted to London,\" Fineman said. \"We know that KPMG were the auditors for the London branch and that money was used to buy yachts and Bentleys, they are supposed to look at related-party transactions. KPMG should have noticed these as a red flag.\" Officials of KPMG and the Bank of New York did not immediately respond to calls from CNN Wednesday evening for comment on the lawsuit. JP Morgan Chase spokesman Tom Kelly said, \"We do not comment on pending litigation.\" The alleged illicit behavior outlined in the complaint did not stop at drug use and extravagant spending. Company parties consisted of topless entertainers, and some employees had affairs in places such as Madoff's own office, the lawsuit says. Madoff was fond of escorts and masseuses, and used money stolen from investors to pay them, according to the complaint. Madoff was convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme and defrauding thousands of investors. He pleaded guilty in March to 11 counts, including fraud, money laundering and perjury, and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Prosecutors have said it was the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person, totaling billions in losses to investors. Before Madoff, 71, was transferred to Federal Butner Correctional Complex outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, he lived a life of luxury. The lawsuit states that he had multimillion dollar residences in Manhattan, Montauk on New York's Long Island; Palm Beach, Florida; and Cap d'Antibe, France. The complaint includes details of Madoff's drastically different life now in prison. He lives in a cell where he sleeps on the bottom bunk while up top sleeps his 21-year-old cellmate, who is serving time for drug crimes, according to the lawsuit. Madoff's recreational activities consist of walking around the prison track at night, and eating pizza cooked by a convicted child molester, the lawsuit says. Madoff now spends his time with infamous inmates, the lawsuit says, including Carmine Persico, a former organized-crime former boss, and Jonathan Pollard, a convicted spy for Israel. Many of his fellow inmates are in prison for drug and sex crimes, according to the lawsuit. Going after large financial institutions that allegedly allowed Madoff's scheme to flourish is the goal of Fineman and her associates. \"Our goal of meeting with Madoff during the investigation is to get as much money back from responsible parties and that's why lawsuits are filed and why lawyers do what they do,\" Fineman said. \"Even now, 10 months later, the pain in the victims' voices is still evident. I still hear it when I talk to people who were being defrauded for so long.\" According to the complaint, Fineman and Cochett are seeking punitive and compensatory damages for their clients with \"an amount to be determined at trial, including interest thereon.\" Fineman said that during the prison interview with Madoff, \"He said he was apologetic, but he didn't seem apologetic.\" \"I forgot I was in prison, he was talking to us as if we were in a restaurant -- he has quite an ego, you could see why people would be drawn to him,\" Fineman said. \"He told us things that were self-serving to him,\" she said. \"But he told me he knew he would die in prison.\"","highlights":"Lawsuit seeks punitive damages, compensation on behalf of former investors .\nStarting in '70s, Madoff sent employees to buy drugs for company use, suit alleges .\nLawsuit: Madoff used money stolen from investors to pay for escorts and masseuses .\nMadoff now eating prison pizza cooked by a convicted child molester, lawsuit says .","id":"0101e95643d00082c667dc1e393cdc9775e3f51e"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: In an exclusive series this week on \"Campbell Brown,\" the FBI has unveiled three additions to its list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The FBI says Semion Mogilevich has been involved in arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and murder for hire. NEWTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Semion Mogilevich may be the most powerful man you've never heard of. The FBI says Mogilevich, a Russian mobster, has been involved in arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and murder for hire. \"He has access to so much, including funding, including other criminal organizations, that he can, with a telephone call and order, affect the global economy,\" said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Peter Kowenhoven. Mogilevich's alleged brutality, financial savvy and international influence have earned him a slot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, though he has lived and operated from Moscow, Russia, for years. Watch CNN report on Mogilevich \u00bb . \"He's a big man. He's a very powerful man,\" FBI Special Agent Mike Dixon said. \"I think more powerful than a John Gotti would be, because he has the ability to influence nations. Gotti never reached that stature.\" He is accused of swindling Canadian and U.S. investors out of $150 million in a complex international financial scheme. It centered on a firm called YBM, which purportedly made magnets at a factory in Hungary. Authorities say the scheme involved preparing bogus financial books and records, lying to Securities and Exchange Commission officials, offering bribes to accountants and inflating stock values of YBM, which was headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania. In a raid in 1998, FBI agents found a treasure trove of documents -- purchase orders, invoices, shipping orders, even technical drawings -- everything a legitimate business would produce. But there was one thing missing. \"There were no magnets,\" Dixon said. It was all a sham, investigators say. \"In essence, what his companies were doing was moving money through bank accounts in Budapest and countries throughout the world and reporting these to the investment community as purchases of raw materials and sales of magnets,\" Dixon said. And because the company was publicly traded, anyone owning the stock would have made a lot of money. \"And of course Mogilevich controlled large, large blocks of stock from the outset, and he made a substantial amount of money in this process,\" Dixon said. Investors lost millions into the pockets of Mogilevich and his associates. He and his associates were indicted in 2003 on 45 counts of racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. Russian authorities arrested him last year on tax fraud charges, but because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he remained beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. He is now free on bail. The FBI believes Mogilevich moved on after YBM and began manipulating international energy markets, giving him a large influence on other nations. Dixon noted that Mogilevich had control or influence over companies involved in natural gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine. Authorities say Mogilevich, who has an economics degree from Ukraine, is known for his ruthless nature but also for his business acumen, which led to his nickname \"the Brainy Don.\" \"He has a very sophisticated, well-educated, loyal group of associates that he works with,\" Dixon said. \"He hires top-notch consultants, attorneys, risk management firms to assist him and protect him in his criminal ventures.\" Louise Shelley, an organized crime expert from George Mason University, says Mogilevich is a new kind of criminal. \"The major criminal organizations in Russia have not only tapped into people with economics degrees,\" Shelley said. \"They've tapped into people with PHDs in finance and statistics who assist them.\" The FBI hopes Mogilevich will eventually travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with the U.S. But, in case he doesn't, his wanted poster will be distributed all over Russia.","highlights":"Semion Mogilevich accused of taking U.S., Canadian investors for $150 million .\nFBI believes he moved on to manipulating international energy markets .\nFBI: Mogilevich's business degree, large influence on nations make him dangerous .\nAlleged Russian mobster known for his ruthlessness, power, business acumen .","id":"483fcf9cb5807fd311156c1504efcb7636a5851e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how an international flight into Atlanta's major airport landed on a taxiway instead of a runway early Monday. The pilots of the plane that landed at the Atlanta airport have been relieved from flying duties pending probes. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Delta Flight 60, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, was cleared to land about 6:05 a.m. Monday on Runway 27R but landed instead on Taxiway M, which runs parallel to the runway. The flight had 194 passengers and crew aboard, according to CNN affiliate WXIA. No other aircraft were on the taxiway, and there was no damage to either the taxiway or the plane, a Boeing 767, Bergen said. A runway or taxiway collision, particularly with one plane preparing to take off and carrying a full fuel load, would be catastrophic. Bergen said she isn't sure whether or when other aircraft have ever landed on the taxiway at Hartsfield. Both Runway 27R and Taxiway M are 11,890 feet long, Bergen said, but the runway is marked with white lights while the taxiway is marked with blue lights. Delta spokesman Anthony Black said the airline is cooperating with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board in their investigation, as well as conducting an internal investigation. The pilots of the flight have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations, Black said. Bergen and Black said a medical emergency was reported on the plane, but neither offered any details. The incursion came just two weeks after the FAA announced that serious runway incursions were down 50 percent from the year that ended September 30, 2008, over the year ending on the same date this year. The FAA said there were 12 serious incursions in 2009 and 25 in 2008. Only two of the serious incursions involved commercial airliners in 2009, compared with nine in 2008. The FAA defines a serious incursion as one in which a collision is narrowly avoided, or there was a significant potential for collision that resulted in the need to take quick corrective action.","highlights":"Plane landed on taxiway instead of runway Monday morning, FAA says .\nNo other plane was on the taxiway; aircraft wasn't damaged .\nThe taxiway is parallel to a runway, but they're marked differently .","id":"76bb55cb5bec86e4f99ea33ea0911fe17fe47517"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The best way to get tongues wagging is to say nothing at all, and it's a skill Rihanna has down to a science. Rihanna apparently revealed the release date for her new album over Twitter. The Barbadian songstress arrived a bit late to the Twitter party when she -- or her people -- created a \"rihanna\" tag yesterday and sent out a single, sparse tweet: \"The Wait Is Ova. Nov. 23 09.\" Whether that's the name of a new single, the beginning of a viral marketing campaign -- or both -- is unknown, but a representative for Rihanna told Entertainment Weekly that though the date \"looks accurate\" for her album release, \"The Wait Is Ova\" is not the album title. The only other object fans can mine for clues about the singer's upcoming release is the logo, a metallic nail fashioned into a crudely shaped \"R\" that has swarmed the Internet. The new record would be her fourth since her debut at 17. In the four years since, she's evolved from an unknown, breezy pop singer to a sonically and fashionably more distinct persona. One can only expect that her latest effort would continue to show that growth. Yet there are extra layers of anticipation surrounding the unnamed work: Not only is this Rihanna's follow-up to \"Good Girl Gone Bad,\" the album that made her an international superstar, it's also the first time she is piping up as a solo artist since the infamous fight with her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, in February. Those who've worked with the star on the record have said to expect something with more ferocity. \"Expect an edgier, almost angrier Rihanna on this one,\" Ne-Yo told E! Online. \"Rihanna says some things on this album that you've never heard her say before.\" But, said Mariel Concepcion, associate editor for Billboard.com, that statement shouldn't be taken too literally. \"She has changed a bit, but I think she's simply grown. Fans are expecting her to reveal some details, but I think she's going to subliminally let it be known that 'Yes, [Chris] hurt me, but I'm moving forward with life.' This issue was such a serious issue, it calls for more than putting out an angry song about it.\" Tracey Johnson, who said she's been a fan of the singer since the beginning, has high expectations for the upcoming release, but not because she expects to hear about Rihanna's personal life. \"[Some fans] feel like it would be good for her to represent abused women in some sort of way and say something, but in my perspective, she doesn't owe us anything,\" Johnson said. \"She's always been pretty private about the relationship, and she's never opened a lot in her music anyway.\" If Rihanna maintains her silence, Johnson said, it will be \"kind of a hit back at the critics who said she disappeared after not becoming the spokesperson for domestic abuse. She's saying this is what you should be paying attention to: I'm a fashion icon, and I make great music.\" Johnson, co-founder and editor of celebrity Web site NeonLimelight.com, has paid close attention to Rihanna's reported studio time over the past few months, but said he didn't expect to see the album appear so soon -- and with a tweet, no less. \"I'm definitely expecting more for this album,\" she said. \"Rihanna has a platform now that she didn't have before 'Good Girl Gone Bad.' She's gone a step forward with each album, and I think it's going to be a little more of what we heard on 'Good Girl Gone Bad,' but to the next level.\" That's a prediction that Concepcion agrees with, considering that the people who have been pulled in on this album resemble the team who worked on \"Good Girl\": Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo and Tricky Stewart, who was behind the single \"Umbrella\" that launched Rihanna to a new level of pop stardom. Devin Lazerine, editor of Rap-Up.com, said Stewart isn't trying to top the success of \"Umbrella,\" but rather create a sound that would live up to its success. \"Just from hearing 'Run This Town' we can see the direction she's heading in,\" Lazerine said. \"It's going to be darker and more edgy. She was actually going to put that song on this album, and then Jay-Z heard it and they traded songs.\" Still, Lazerine said, \"dark\" and \"edgy\" don't always equal \"personal.\" \"She's all about the music and the sound -- I think we're going to get something that embodies her fashion sense,\" he said. \"I don't think there's going to be much about the Chris Brown situation; I don't even think her fans expect that. They just want something that pushes the boundaries.\" Rihanna's former other half, Chris Brown, has been busying in the studio as well. The singer, who was sentenced to five years' probation and more than 1,400 hours of community service in August, released the single \"I Can Transform Ya\" with Swizz Beatz and Lil Wayne a few weeks ago, but it's not the only one circulating the Internet. \"So Cold,\" a ballad with lyrics that sound suspiciously autobiographical, was leaked onto the Internet yesterday, as Brown's Twitter page confirms. Nonetheless, the artist does plan to keep it on the upcoming album \"Graffiti,\" which has an undetermined release date.","highlights":"Cryptic tweet from Rihanna appears to reveal new album release date .\nAlbum would be the first since fight with Chris Brown in February .\nColleagues expect \"edgier\" Rihanna on the album .\nFan: \"She doesn't owe us anything\" about personal life .","id":"f9171c584adc4a1e81424a6811c98002856a4110"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Embattled Sen. Larry Craig accused police after his June arrest of trying to entrap him, but CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says he puts little faith in such a defense. A police mug shot of Sen. Larry Craig after he was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June. In a police recording released Thursday, the Idaho Republican denied that he was trying to engage in lewd behavior in a men's bathroom at a Minnesota airport. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. \"You shouldn't be out to entrap people,\" Craig said on the tape. The arresting officer denied Craig's accusation of entrapment. Listen to police interview Craig \u00bb . CNN.com asked Toobin about how an entrapment defense might work in court. CNN.com: What's the legal definition of entrapment? TOOBIN: The key concept with entrapment is the idea of predisposition. A person is entrapped if they are lured into committing a crime that they are not otherwise predisposed to commit. Basically an entrapment defense shifts the burden of proof to the prosecution to prove that the defendant was not predisposed to commit the crime. The question is, did the police entice you to do something that you didn't want to do in the first place? And the important point to raise about entrapment defenses is that they're rarely successful. And most juries tend to think that if you commit a crime, you did it of your own volition. CNN.com: What tactics do police employ to protect their sting operations from the entrapment defense? TOOBIN: Well, what they often do, which was not done here, is use tape recordings or video so the jury can see how anxious the defendant was to commit the crime. Tape and video is the best refutation of an entrapment defense. I think Craig had the possibility of raising an entrapment defense in this case. Now, I don't know if it would have been successful. What you have to remember about that tape is the officer's report says that Craig did a heck of a lot more than just pick up a piece of paper in the stall. Watch how fellow Republicans are pressuring Craig to quit \u00bb . He rubbed his hand along the side of the stall, and he lingered outside and looked through the crack and rubbed his fingers together. I mean there were a whole series of signals. And the jury might very well have believed the officer rather than Craig. I don't mean to suggest that entrapment defense would have necessarily been successful, but it was not an implausible defense given the facts. The whole issue is moot because he pled. I don't take seriously his protestations of entrapment because he pled guilty. You know, he's not innocent until proven guilty. He's guilty. He's an intelligent, sophisticated man with access to lawyers, and he actually told the authorities that he'd consulted a lawyer. He had weeks to reflect on whether to plead guilty. It would have been one thing if the day of the offense, he signed a paper pleading guilty. He could have made the argument that he just panicked on the day of the offense. But there were weeks between the offense and the guilty plea. CNN.com: Is there any way that Craig could use entrapment as a defense to improve his case -- to work backward legally toward vindication? TOOBIN: Out of the question. No way. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"You shouldn't be out to entrap people,\" Sen. Larry Craig told arresting officer .\nEntrapment defense possible, but juries don't often believe it, says CNN analyst .\nIdaho Republican pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after arrest in men's room .","id":"a341b9993616c99afe6706faf06f994faa6b8d5d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A few seconds could have made all the difference in the fate of a family who spent three days lost in the snowy California woods, according to the helicopter pilot who found them. Josh and Lexi Dominguez exit a helicopter Wednesday, shortly after being found. The father of the family, Frederick Dominguez, came running out of the culvert where they had sought shelter when family members heard the sound of the California Highway Patrol helicopter Wednesday afternoon. \"Had he not been moving, we would not have seen him, because the tree line was very dense and he came climbing out of the culvert,\" helicopter pilot Steve Ward told CNN on Thursday. \"We were just very lucky.\" Dominguez had arranged branches to spell the word \"help\" near the culvert, but rescuers didn't see that until they were turning the helicopter around after spotting Dominguez. The helicopter was on its way out of the area at that point, trying to get ahead of bad weather. \"The small window of opportunity we had to find them, it was nothing short of a miracle,\" paramedic David White, who was riding with Ward, told CNN on Thursday. Watch White and Ward describe the rescue \u00bb . Dominguez and his three children had been lost in the snow since Sunday, when they set out to cut down a Christmas tree. They sought shelter first in a lean-to they made of branches, then in the culvert under a road. See family's photos of their ordeal \u00bb . Dominguez said his daughter Lexi, 14, was the first to hear the helicopter overhead. He said he ran though several feet of snow barefooted to wave it down. \"When they turned around, man, I was just praising God and saying, 'Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord,' because I knew we had made it,\" he said. Thursday, Lexi was hospitalized after complaining that her feet hurt. Trying to protect their cold, wet feet from frostbite was an ongoing problem while the four were lost in the forest. Through their three-day ordeal, the oldest son, Chris, 18, tried to keep his younger brother and sister optimistic. \"I didn't want them to really lose hope,\" he told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night, hours after the family was rescued. \"Whenever they would freak out, I would just be like, it's all right. We're going to make it through this. This is nothing. Like, we have already been here a couple of days. What's a couple more days?\" Watch the family talk about their \"scary\" ordeal \u00bb . But it was hard to stay hopeful lost in rugged terrain, in heavy snow, with no food and few warm clothes. \"I just remember walking and walking and being like, we're not going to make it,\" said Lexi. \"They can't even see us through all this fog. And I just -- there was just a couple of times where I was really, really scared.\" \"I didn't think we were going to make it,\" said Josh, 12. They removed their sodden socks in an effort to stay warm and dry while they waited for rescue, according to the rescuers who found them. They warmed their feet inside each other's shirts to help stave off frostbite. \"You just go to survival mode,\" Frederick Dominguez said. \"Every parent would do that. You would do anything, sacrifice yourself, because these are your kids.\" Watch mother as she finds out family is safe \u00bb . While the family huddled in the culvert, Lexi led them in impromptu singalongs. \"Someone would say, sing this song, and I would be like, OK,\" she recalled. \"We would all help her, too,\" her brother Josh added. Chris told CNN one of the things he would remember most about the experience was \"Lexi in there, in the tunnel, singing her heart out.\" The four were reported missing Monday night by Dominguez's former wife and the children's mother, Lisa Sams, according to police in Paradise, California, a town of 27,000 people north of Sacramento. Although police found the family's car, it offered no clues as to where they might have gone. The remote area is beyond the reach of cell phones, authorities have said. More than 80 searchers scoured the woods Wednesday until the four were found about 1 p.m. White said the family was found north of where ground crews were searching. All four appeared to be in good condition as they were brought by chopper to the command post and taken to ambulances. After an emotional reunion with her mother Wednesday night, Lexi felt pain, said Brian Clarke, her mother's fiancee. \"She woke up in the middle of the night and her feet were hurting her really bad, so I carried her out to the van and Lisa took her to the hospital,\" he told CNN. \"She just kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' I told her she didn't have to be sorry, we just wanted her to get better.\" Her brothers have not complained of health problems that require hospitalization, he said. However, doctors asked the other three family members to come in for checkups, said Barbara Mejia, the girlfriend of Frederick Dominguez. Lexi was at Feather River Hospital in Paradise, California, on Thursday, her father said. \"I'm glad I'm home. Praise God,\" Dominguez told reporters after exiting a chopper at the search command post. \"It was awful.\" Asked how he survived, he replied, \"Jesus Christ.\" Butte County Search and Rescue dispatcher Madde Watts said, \"They had angels with them, for sure.\" Mayor Alan White said he and many others in and around Paradise have cut Christmas trees in the same place where the family vanished. When winter weather sours there, he said, people in the woods can get lost quickly. \"If you're 50 feet from your car, you might not be able to find it,\" he said. \"We weren't prepared at all,\" Chris said. \"We just thought we were going to go up to the mountains, get our tree and go back home. It didn't turn out that way.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Doctors ask family to return to hospital for precautionary checkups .\nLexi Dominguez hospitalized after complaining her feet hurt .\nFamily sought shelter from snow in culvert, warmed each other's frostbitten feet .\nFrederick Dominguez and his 3 children set out Sunday to cut Christmas tree .","id":"e45373c83b2cf6929e377443c60aadd17dc52c3e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. President Obama has said the country must make significant changes to ensure equal rights. The expanded federal hate crimes law now goes to President Obama's desk. Obama has pledged to sign the measure, which was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure. The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year. \"Knowing that the president will sign it, unlike his predecessor, has made all the hard work this year to pass it worthwhile,\" said Judy Shepard, board president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation named for her son. \"Hate crimes continue to affect far too many Americans who are simply trying to live their lives honestly, and they need to know that their government will protect them from violence, and provide appropriate justice for victims and their families.\" Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate-crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. Attorney General Eric Holder has asserted that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs. Holder called Thursday's 68-29 Senate vote to approve the defense spending bill that included the hate crimes measure \"a milestone in helping protect Americans from the most heinous bias-motivated violence.\" Watch survivor of attack discuss legislation \u00bb . \"The passage of this legislation will give the Justice Department and our state and local law enforcement partners the tools we need to deter and prosecute these acts of violence,\" he said in a statement. Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called the measure \"our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.\" \"Too many in our community have been devastated by hate violence,\" Solmonese said in a statement. \"We now can begin the important steps to erasing hate in our country.\" This month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians. \"Despite the progress we've made, there are still laws to change and hearts to open,\" he said during his address at the dinner for the Human Rights Campaign. \"This fight continues now, and I'm here with the simple message: I'm here with you in that fight.\" Among other things, Obama has called for the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the \"don't ask, don't tell\" policy. He also has urged Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and pass the Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act. The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage, for federal purposes, as a legal union between a man and a woman. It allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages. The Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act would extend family benefits now available to heterosexual federal employees to gay and lesbian federal workers. More than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or \"nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade,\" Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June. The FBI, Holder added, reported 7,624 hate-crime incidents in 2007, the most current year with complete data.","highlights":"NEW: Senate approves bill expanding hate crimes law .\nMeasure would make it a crime to assault person because of sexual orientation .\nReligious groups fear law could criminalize conservative speech .\nAttorney general says it will be used only to prosecute violence .","id":"aeab009dde1b866538dee666349d028314ada887"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- During the current economic crisis, high-flying women have been overlooked for promotion, according to a study out Tuesday. At the upper level of management, business is still dominated by men. The study, by U.S. nonprofit research group Catalyst, surveyed 873 MBA alumni who graduated between 1996 and 2007, asking how their careers had fared between November 2007 and June 2009. The results showed that overall, male and female MBAs have proved resilient to the recession and have fared equally well in the U.S., Canada and Asia, with 31 percent of surveyed women reporting that they had been promoted during that time period, compared to 36 percent of men. However in Europe, just 26 per cent of women were promoted, compared with 44 percent of men, according to the study published in the Harvard Business Review. According to the Harvard Business Review, of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies only two per cent of the CEOs are women, and only 15 per cent of the seats on their boards of directors are held by women. Professor Susan Vinnicombe is the director of the Center for International Women Business Leaders at Cranfield University School of Management in England. She told CNN that while it isn't clear why the figures for Europe in particular show such a gender discrepancy, it reflects discrimination faced by women business leaders in general. Read more business related features . \"There is a whole stream of research of male and female MBAs that systematically shows the more senior they get the bigger the disparities in salaries and promotion,\" she said. \"Immediately after the MBA -- at the mid level -- women do quite well, but as they progress upwards the disparities emerge and get wider. That's not just for MBAs, it's the function of men and women in the workforce in general.\" When it comes to the top tier, women worldwide were much more likely than men to lose their jobs, with 19 percent of female senior executives losing their jobs, compared with six per cent of men. Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden, General Manager of Catalyst Europe told CNN that the discrepancy is probably not the result of the current economic malaise. \"These figures reflect what has been a challenge in Europe for a number years,\" she said. \"The talent pipeline in Europe is clearly not as robust for women. This study indicates that by and large this is not directly related to the economic crisis, but it may have magnified the discrepancy.\" Haller-Jorden cites European corporate culture, perpetuation of gender-based stereotypes, exclusion of women from informal networks and a lack of role models as reasons behind the discrepancy. Cranfield University produces what it calls the \"Female FTSE Index,\" showing the percentage of female directors in Britain's top 100 companies. Vinnicombe says that in the last 10 years the number of female directors has hardly improved, increasing from seven per cent to just 11 percent. Vinnicombe adds that she has found anecdotal evidence that a number of senior women in the British banking sector have chosen to leave their jobs, rather than work in a \"high pressure, highly controlling\" work environment brought about by the economic crisis. The Catalyst study also shows that many MBAs aren't letting the economic crisis get in the way of career advancement. Overall, 34 percent of respondents had received a promotion and 35 percent made a lateral move. \"The data almost indicates business as usual, in highly unusual times for business,\" Haller-Jorden told CNN. The common perception might be that given the current economic uncertainty, employees would choose to play it safe rather than chance their luck in a volatile job market, but the study found that MBAs have been willing to risk career moves, with 20 percent of respondents changing jobs, 14 percent relocating and four percent starting their own business. Haller-Jorden said that MBAs represent \"high-potential employees\" who tend to be entrepreneurial and show a high level of initiative. She added that these individuals tend to be opportunistic when it comes to their careers, seeking out new developmental opportunities, exploring lateral moves, looking at options around relocating, and choosing other employment opportunities to make sure they aren't negatively impacted by recession. \"The results are sobering for a corporate sector which may have assumed that people would be grateful to have a job and wouldn't necessarily be exploring other options,\" she said. \"For companies to rest on their laurels and assume they don't need to worry about retention is a mistake.\"","highlights":"Study: High-flying women are missing out on promotion .\nDiscrepancy in female promotions may have been magnified by recession .\nElsewhere, male and female MBAs proving resistant to the economic crisis .\n\"High-potential employees\" willing to change roles, despite harsh job market .","id":"cdcc7759609e1624c80951f7cedc44125c31f6b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 30 people died and 70 were wounded in shelling on a marketplace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Thursday, according to journalists and emergency services. Members of Islamist militia Al-Shaabab patrol Bakara Market in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this month. A local journalist called the rocket fire on Bakara market \"unprecedented.\" \"This was the most brutal shelling,\" according to an ambulance service representative who said they had picked up 61 wounded, but expect the number to climb. Other victims were being brought to hospitals by family and friends. The source of the shelling could not immediately be determined. Journalists saw shell fire coming from AMISOM -- the African Union Mission in Somalia -- strongholds in a fortified district of the capital and from near the airport. AMISOM is the only force in the area believed to have the firepower capable of such an intense attack. However, AMISOM denied any involvement in the incident. The African Union has a 3,400-member peacekeeping force in Somalia, made up of troops from Burundi and Uganda. It operates under a U.N. mandate to support Somalia's transitional federal government. The peacekeeping force is charged with protecting key government and strategic installations in Mogadishu, including the port, airport and presidential palace. It is the de facto military force of the weak, transitional Somali government. African Union forces have been battling an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia in Somalia called Al-Shaabab. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al-Shaabab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power in early 2007. Ethiopia invaded Somalia with the support of Somalia's weak transitional government. Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"30 people killed after shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu according to reports .\nJournalists report shell fire coming from African Union Mission in Somalia stronghold .\nMilitary force AMISOM has denied any involvement in the incident .","id":"950a0fe1cd5751b59853867c1bcb93465e2350fe"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department on Thursday announced 300 additional arrests in a four-year operation that it says produced nearly 1,200 arrests and seizures totaling 11.7 tons of illegal drugs. Authorities look through seized property after a drug raid at a house near Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the wrap-up of Project Coronado, which resulted in arrests in 15 states in the past two days. Holder said the operation targeted the distribution network of a major Mexican drug trafficking organization known as La Familia. About 3,000 federal agents participated in the investigation and raids, officials said. \"This unprecedented, coordinated U.S. law enforcement action -- the largest ever undertaken against a Mexican drug cartel -- has dealt a significant blow to La Familia's supply chain of illegal drugs, weapons and cash flowing between Mexico and the United States,\" Holder said in a news conference. Watch Holder announce the arrests \u00bb . Michele Leonhart, acting chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the cartel was known for specializing in the trafficking of methamphetamine and for its brutal violence, including beheadings. Authorities said the arrests made Wednesday and Thursday occurred in California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Dozens of arrests occurred in the Dallas, Texas, area where agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives filed charges against cartel members believed to have illegally purchased and shipped high-powered firearms to the cartel, which was based in the Mexican state of Michoacan. U.S. officials vowed to indict cartel leaders and extradite them to the United States. One leader, Servando Gomez-Martinez, was indicted in New York on Thursday. He remains at large, and is presumed to be in Mexico. A senior law enforcement official involved in the operation, who asked not to be identified, said he was certain the latest crackdown on La Familia would affect the methamphetamine market in the United States for months. \"It'll make a difference not only because of how hard we hit 'em, but where we hit 'em,\" the official said. Another official said during the course of the investigation that labs run by La Familia had been discovered in Atlanta, Georgia, and San Jose, California. To date, Project Coronado has led to 1,186 arrests in 44 months. During that time, agents seized $32.8 million in U.S. currency, and about 1,225 kilograms (2,700 pounds) of methamphetamine, 2,000 kilograms (4,409 pounds) of cocaine, 13 kilograms (29 pounds) of heroin and more than 8 tons (7,200 kilograms) of marijuana.","highlights":"In past two days, Project Coronado resulted in arrests in 15 states .\nOfficials: 4-year operation produced nearly 1,200 arrests, 11.7 tons of drugs seized .\nAG says operation targeted La Familia, a top Mexican drug trafficking group .\nLaw enforcement official: Crackdown will affect methamphetamine market in U.S.","id":"0ec7e5d1c41cc93f03837fa15ec4a93ed96641a8"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Authorities are seeking the public's assistance in identifying a teenage girl who mysteriously turned up in Manhattan two weeks ago, claiming to have no memory of her family, her home -- or even her own name. The teen has recalled an excerpt from the fantasy novel \"Fool's Fate\" by Robin Hobb. \"I just want to know who I am,\" the girl says in a statement released by the New York City Administration for Children's Services. The teen, who is being referred to as Jane Doe, continues, \"I want to know who I am and what happened to me.\" The Caucasian young woman, described by New York ACS as \"very soft-spoken,\" is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, light-skinned, with short, straight, cropped blond hair and blue eyes. Doctors are estimating her age to be between 14 and 17. ACS Commissioner John B. Mattingly appealed to the public in a statement, \"asking anyone who may know this young woman to help us locate her family as quickly as possible, so we can safely reunite her with those who love her.\" The girl was found in midtown Manhattan around 12:30 a.m. October 9 outside the Covenant House youth shelter, although the organization tells CNN that she was not a resident at the time and did not appear as if she intended to seek refuge at the facility. According to its Web site, with nearly 7,000 youths seeking shelter per year, \"Covenant House New York is the nation's largest adolescent care agency serving homeless, runaway and at-risk youth.\" A security guard for the shelter noticed the girl walking around on the sidewalk near Covenant House and approached her. Finding her unresponsive, he called the New York City Police Department. Police officers interviewed the young woman, but it became clear that she couldn't provide authorities with any information about herself. The NYPD said she was wearing military green camouflage pants, a black shirt and a pair of black sneakers when she was discovered. Children's Services said the girl recently wrote down the name \"Amber\" and has responded to it on one occasion, but she has no idea whether it is her true name. On another occasion she is said to have recalled certain words, which turned out to be an excerpt from the fantasy novel \"Fool's Fate\" by Robin Hobb. The girl is also apparently writing a fantasy story of her own that features a heroine named Rian, \"who's been raised by the commander of the guard post on the edge of a fantasy kingdom,\" says the young woman. The girl has a 2- to 4-inch scar on her lower left back and had a black, handwritten birthday message on her arm, addressed to a name of Japanese origin, when she was found, police said Friday. Judging from poor dental hygiene, said Lt. Christopher Zimmerman, she appears to have been living on the streets for some time. \"This case has been going on since October 9,\" Zimmerman said. \"Today is the 23rd, and we're vey concerned. It's been a very long time now. That's a long time frame to not identify somebody. Especially someone who we believe is a juvenile. Usually juveniles we get a lot of inquiries about.\" While the girl is confused and her story remains vague, Mattingly said, \"she is safe with us, and we are doing all we can to help her, but she needs to find her family.\" She is apparently reviewing materials for a high school GED exam, saying that she is able to do the math but has no recollection of studying the history and science portions. However, according to the Children's Services statement, the young woman \"can easily retain the information.\" New York City Administration for Children's Services and police are asking anyone with information about the young woman or her family to contact the NYPD Missing Persons Squad at 212-694-7781 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.","highlights":"\"I just want to know who I am,\" girl says, according to children's services agency .\nShe's described as 5', 6\" tall, \"very soft-spoken\"; doctors say she's 14 to 17 years old .\nGirl was found in midtown Manhattan early October 9 outside youth shelter .\nAgency says girl recently wrote down the name \"Amber\" and has responded to it .","id":"9e7d78ba97bc674e69bc02f31c8ad0a7dc87406d"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican said Tuesday it has worked out a way for groups of Anglicans who are dissatisfied with their faith to join the Catholic Church. The Vatican says more Anglicans have expressed an interest in joining the Catholic Church. The process will enable groups of Anglicans to become Catholic and recognize the pope as their leader, yet have parishes that retain Anglican rites, Vatican officials said. The move comes some 450 years after King Henry VIII broke from Rome and created the Church of England, forerunner of the Anglican Communion. The parishes would be led by former Anglican clergy -- including those who are married -- who would be ordained as Catholic priests, said the Rev. James Massa, ecumenical director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. \"This sets up a process for whole groups of Anglicans -- clergy and laity -- to enter in to the Catholic Church while retaining their forms of worship and other Anglican traditions,\" Massa said. The number of Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church has increased in recent years as the Anglican Church has welcomed the ordination of women and openly gay clergy and blessed homosexual partnerships, said Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Their talks with the Vatican recently began speeding up, Vatican officials said, leading to Tuesday's announcement. \"The Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion,\" Levada said. Levada said \"hundreds\" of Anglicans around the world have expressed their desire to join the Catholic Church. Among them are 50 Anglican bishops, said Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia of the Congregation for Divine Worship. While married Anglican priests may be ordained as Catholic priests, the same does not apply to married Anglican bishops, Levada said. \"We've been praying for this unity for 40 years and we've not anticipated it happening now,\" Di Noia said. \"The Holy Spirit is at work here.\" One interested group is the Traditional Anglican Communion, an association of churches that is separate from the Anglican Communion and has hundreds of thousands of members worldwide. The TAC in 2007 petitioned the Vatican for unity with the Catholic Church with the stipulation that the group retain its Anglican rites. The TAC's primate, Archbishop John Hepworth of Australia, said in a statement Tuesday that the Vatican's announcement \"more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition two years ago.\" That is because the Vatican's move involves not only the TAC but other Anglican groups that want to unite with the Catholic Church, said the Right Rev. Daren K. Williams, bishop ordinary of the western diocese of the Anglican Church of America, which is part of the TAC. The Vatican has yet to release all details of the offer, and the TAC's leaders will meet and discuss how to respond when it does, Williams said. But Williams said he believes much of TAC will respond favorably. Williams, who also is rector of All Saints Anglican Church in Fountain Valley, California, said his parishioners have generally been \"very warmly receiving\" Tuesday's announcement. \"It is encouraging for them to know their worship experience wouldn't be turned upside down by the Roman Catholic Church,\" Williams said. \"The person in the pew should see very little difference in the way we pray. We might be asked to pray aloud for any pope who happens to be in office, in addition to praying for our primate. \"Really, there'd be very little other difference.\" The parishes retaining the Anglican rites would answer not to Catholic bishops but to regional or nationwide \"personal ordinariates\" who would report to the pope, Massa said. Those officials often will be former Anglican clergy, Vatican officials said. The Church of England said the move ends a \"period of uncertainty\" for Anglican groups who wanted more unity with the Catholic Church. Both groups have a \"substantial overlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality\" and will continue to hold official dialogues, the archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster said in a joint statement. \"Those Anglicans who have approached the Holy See have made clear their desire for full, visible unity in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church,\" Levada said. \"At the same time, they have told us of the importance of their Anglican traditions of spirituality and worship for their faith journey.\" Preserving Anglican traditions, such as mass rites, adds to the diversity of the Catholic Church, he said. \"The unity of the church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows,\" he said. \"Moreover, the many diverse traditions present in the Catholic Church today are all rooted in the principle articulated by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: 'There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.' \" CNN's Hada Messia and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.","highlights":"Vatican opens door to disillusioned Anglicans wanting to join Catholic Church .\nMarried priests and bishops to be allowed to \"enter into full visible communion\"\nVatican says \"hundreds\" of Anglicans have expressed interest in joining .\nAnglicans can retain their rites while recognizing the pope as their leader .","id":"3ab2536953c1559321998e191541a8899ad5c3f9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Pier Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's eldest son and a top official in his media empire, says his father was \"always there for me.\" Pier Silvio Berlusconi, vice president of the Mediaset group, in Cologno Monzese, Italy in March, 2009. Berlusconi, 40, is vice chairman of Mediaset SpA, the Italian commercial television network founded by his father and now owned by the Berlusconi family through the holding company, Fininvest. He's held several positions at the company since joining in 1992, at the age of 23, following a serious motorcycle accident. He started in the marketing department of Publitalia, the company's advertising group. Four years later, he was appointed director of scheduling and program coordination for Mediaset's three channels. In an interview with CNN's Hada Messia, the younger Berlusconi says his father, Italy's longest-serving prime minister, was \"always a very present father\" even though there were periods he saw him more and times he saw him less. Watch more on the private life of Silvio Berlusconi \u00bb . \"He was always a busy man,\" Pier Silvio Berlusconi says of his 73-year-old father, who besides being the Italian head of government, is also a billionaire media entrepreneur, real estate and insurance tycoon, bank proprietor, sports team owner and song-writer. \"I never felt like something, or even more the father figure, was missing,\" he said. The younger Berlusconi, the prime minister's second child, says he grew up in a \"totally normal family ... at least until my father began to go into work in politics. It was a normal family, a healthy family.\" Asked what makes a normal Italian family, the younger Berlusconi replied: \"A normal Italian family is where certain values are always very present. Some of these values are connected to being a family. Being closer to each other and respecting certain traditions, being there for one another.\" Pier Silvio and Marina Berlusconi, the prime minister's oldest child and also a top official in his media empire, the billionaire entrepreneur's children with first wife, Carla Elvira Dall'Oglio. The couple divorced in 1985 and Berlusconi went on to marry actress Veronica Lario, with whom he had three more children. In May of this year, Lario announced she was filing for divorce after the Italian press reported the prime minister attended the birthday party of an 18-year-old Neapolitan model. Asked what he learned from his father, Pier Silvio Berlusconi said that as a young boy, his father taught him normal father-son things like \"how to swim\" and play tennis. The most important thing he taught him in life though, he told CNN, was \"respect for other people. I am impressed by how much respect he always has for the other person.\" The younger Berlusconi said he got into his father's business by accident in 1992 after suffering a terrible motorbike accident. \"I had a very bad motorbike accident when I was 20 years old,\" Pier Silvio Berlusconi told CNN. \"I couldn't walk for one year. After that, I decided I wanted to do something more than just being in college.\" He then joined Mediaset, which was not listed on the stock market at the time. Berlusconi says when his father decided to go into politics in 1994 -- something the elder Berlusconi says he did to stop the advance of the Left in Italy -- \"he totally disappeared.\" \"In Mediaset, in our company, he was very very present and operative before and he stopped being here. He stopped existing basically,\" Berlusconi said. \"From there on, my job was a continuous revolution and I started looking into things I never thought I would have. In three or four years, I found myself completely into the veins of the company and having important responsibility.\" He said his father \"never even knew exactly what I was doing or what my work was. I know this can sound strange, but it is the way things went.\" Pier Silvio Berlusconi says he has no plans to follow his father into the political arena, however, saying politics is not something you can learn. \"You have it or you don't have it,\" he said. Asked to describe his flamboyant father in a few words, Pier Silvio Berlusconi replied: \"Positive energy.\" \"He's like a battery,\" he said, \"full of energy always, always positive, towards people, towards things he has to do, towards problems which he always tries to do everything he can to resolve.\" \"He is really unique in as far as how much passion and devotion he puts into what he does,\" his son told CNN. \"He did a lot as a businessman and now as a politician.\" Asked about the passion his dad feels for his sports team, Italian soccer team AC Milan, Pier Silvio Berlusconi said: \"When my father went into Milan, the passion became a really big passion.\" \"We had many many happy times connected to Milan,\" Pier Silvio Berlusconi said, \"so it is not only a passion that has to do with a sport. \"For me, it is part of my family and what my father has done.\" CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this story.","highlights":"Berlusconi's eldest son says he grew up in a \"totally normal family\"\nSays the most important thing father taught him was respect for others .\nDescribes his dad as like \"a battery,\" always moving forward, always positive .\nSays father disappeared from media empire after going into politics in 1994 .","id":"85d4cdcd2e4f8ca159c06844d0732072e8385065"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An Oscar-winning songwriter was indicted on charges of sexually assaulting women whom he would fly in to New York under the impression they were auditioning for movie roles, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said Tuesday. Songwriter Joe Brooks is best known for writing \"You Light Up My Life\" and directing the movie. Joseph Brooks, 71, faces multiple charges including rape, criminal sexual act, sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, grand larceny and criminal mischief. The charges involve 11 women, authorities said. Brooks won the Oscar for best original song for the 1977 song, \"You Light Up My Life.\" He also directed the movie, which is about a director who has a one-night stand with an actress. \"I'm flabbergasted,\" said actress Melanie Mayron, who starred in \"You Light Up My Life.\" Mayron said she did not stay in contact with Brooks over the years but described him as a \"lovely man.\" In the indictment, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau alleges that Brooks would fly women in from California, Florida and Oregon for private auditions. He would serve the women one or two glasses of wine, said Lisa Friel, assistant district attorney. The women described feelings that suggest a date-rape drug was used, she said, but added that toxicology results were unclear. Shawni Lucier, Brooks' personal assistant, was also charged with criminal facilitation in connection with arranging some of the encounters. Brooks pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday. Bail was set at $500,000 bond or $250,000 cash. The suspect agreed to the terms and left the courthouse. He is set to return Thursday morning and meet the bail agreement, said Jeffery C. Hoffman, his lawyer. Hoffman said some of the women who made the accusations were trying out for a role in a screenplay Brooks wrote. None of the girls was chosen for the part and may feel \"upset about that fact,\" the lawyer said. Hoffman said he is looking forward to proving his client's innocence. \"All I can say is, my client is anxious to clear his name of these false charges,\" he added.","highlights":"\"You Light Up My Life\" songwriter Joseph Brooks indicted .\nManhattan D.A.'s office charged Brooks with rape, sexual abuse, other counts .\nBrooks won Oscar for 1977 No. 1 song .","id":"e2c66e0eb7b40d9a6994466e3a23e638f8e2e714"} -{"article":"GREENVILLE, South Carolina -- Some are girlish 22-year-olds; others are women approaching 40. They come from South Carolina's rural counties and its booming cities. They are loud and muted, lively and vacant, hopeful and desperate. A pregnant Ashley Hendrix sought treatment at Serenity Place for her painkiller addiction. As different as they are, they share a connection to two powerful forces : their addictions and their babies. They are swallowed by the same shameful past. They don't know if they can be good mothers. They don't know if they can be clean mothers. They're here at a state-run drug-treatment program to learn how to do both. On this summer day, Ashley Hendrix, 24, is eight months pregnant with her first child and one of 16 women at the Phoenix Center's Serenity Place. This is her last shot to get clean -- or face jail. South Carolina's state supreme court is alone in upholding the prosecution of pregnant women for the damage drugs might do to their unborn children. Across the country, local and state agencies have found ways to prosecute pregnant women for drug use, but the cases are often rejected by the courts. And judges in more than two dozen states have overturned decisions that criminalize pregnant addicts. In recent years, Missouri and North Dakota have ruled against charging pregnant women with neglect and endangerment. Illegal substances -- marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription drugs -- consumed Hendrix for more than a decade. \"To this day, I still cry about it, \" she said, \"that if anything does come out wrong with my baby, I know that my drug use is the reason why. Since 1989, at least 126 women in South Carolina have been arrested during their pregnancies, according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Most were charged with drug and alcohol use that posed harm to the fetus the woman was carrying. During the same period, only about 80 pregnant women were arrested on similar charges in all other states combined. \"Word on the street\" in South Carolina, says Stephen Donaldson, program manager of a drug-treatment facility in Charleston County, \"is if you use during pregnancy, you're being prosecuted or you're losing your baby.\" Over the last 15 years, that message has driven many women to Serenity Place, a residential treatment center designed for pregnant women and new mothers. Here, the ultimate goal is to help the women recover from their addiction but Serenity also strives to give the women the confidence to become better mothers. They want the women to know there are second chances, and there is hope. \"I'm grateful everyday for being here and I'm grateful to have my baby with me,\" says a freckled Kim Clark, 28, who gave birth to her son Jaelyn at the center. \"I've been using drugs since I was 11 years old. I didn't know any other life. And I've learned a lot about myself. I've been taught things here.\" She graduated in August, has her own apartment now and works to support herself and her son. Some women arrive here voluntarily. Others were sent by the state's Department of Social Services. Others made a plea bargain with the courts, allowing them one last chance at treatment to avoid prison. \"My biggest fear was the [health of the] baby, but right behind that was that 'I'm going to go to jail',\" says Sandria Doremus, one of Hendrix' classmates at Serenity. Afraid of being turned in for her opiate addiction, she delayed getting prenatal care. \"I should have gone in a lot sooner,\" she admits. Doremus, 37, arrived at Serenity after a hospital reported her drug use to law enforcement officials, as required by law. She has sandy blond hair and warm blue eyes that open up her leathered face. She cuddled her 8-month-old son, Matthew, when CNN visited the center in July. Born with heroin in his system, Matthew was placed on methadone. Today, he is healthy, but studies show drug-exposed babies can face developmental delays and learning disabilities in later years. Watch the women of Serenity Place share their story \u00bb . In 1997, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a fetus in the third trimester was viable and charges of child abuse, neglect and murder could apply to the mother. Some treatment providers and advocacy experts say this ruling opened the door for prosecutors to charge pregnant women. \"These are addicts who become pregnant,\" says Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. \"They aren't women who chose to use drugs after becoming pregnant.\" 'If I didn't have pills, I felt like I had nothing' Hendrix's drug addiction started long before her pregnancy. She was born into a world of drugs. She says her mother was an addict, her father a violent alcoholic who once held a shotgun to her grandmother's head. Hendrix's grandparents rescued her at age 3 by taking her into their home in rural Union, South Carolina. She has fond memories of her grandfather, but one morning, shortly after her 12th birthday, Hendrix watched her 54-year-old grandfather die from a heart attack. The innocent girl started experimenting with drugs, partly because she couldn't cope with her feelings, she says, but mostly to fit in. By the time she turned 18, marijuana use gave way to cocaine and methamphetamine. Then she discovered prescription painkillers: Lower tabs. OxyContin. Percocet. \"It wasn't even about being high anymore. It was just being able to cope with everyday life,\" Hendrix says. \"If I didn't have the pills, I felt like I had nothing.\" Hendrix could no longer leave bed without the painkillers. Her routine consisted of melting OxyContin pills with water, placing the mixture into a syringe and shooting up, even during her pregnancy. By April of this year, she was six months pregnant and on probation for stealing jewelry to feed her drug habit. She took herself to Serenity Place. Tucked alongside empty factories in a once-thriving textile district, the center looks more like a college dormitory inside than a sterile treatment center. Homemade posters, photo collages and cards congratulating the women for giving birth are strewn along the hallways. There is a communal kitchen and colorful playgrounds. Research shows women who remain with their children during treatment have better chances of defeating their addictions. But a national study in 2005 found that only 3 percent of treatment centers had programs tailored specifically to pregnant women. About 14 percent of treatment centers accepted pregnant or postpartum women. The women at Serenity Place follow a rigid schedule that includes therapy, parenting classes and chores. They aren't allowed phone calls or the freedom to surf the Internet without permission. Security cameras guard all exits. The structure can be particularly hard for addicts who grew up in dysfunctional households with few rules. Women spend on average six months in treatment. If a woman violates the rules, she can be removed from the program. On some occasions, women have walked out of the center, leaving their newborns behind. Why prosecute? Why should addicted women be given a chance at motherhood? What about the welfare of the children? These are the questions asked by South Carolina prosecutors, known as solicitors general. Several solicitors general contacted by CNN declined to comment on how many such cases they have prosecuted, but they say that charging pregnant women has become less common in the state. Bob Ariail, solicitor of Greenville, says his district's policy is a far cry from the 1990s, when then-South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, an anti-abortion advocate, publicly declared he would aggressively crack down on pregnant mothers accused of substance abuse. Condon often referred to a fetus as his \"fellow South Carolinian.\" Despite several phone calls by CNN, Condon, who is now a private lawyer in South Carolina, could not be reached for comment. In his two decades as a Democratic state representative, Joe Neal of Columbia, South Carolina, has pushed for more drug treatment funding, an effort he says has little chance in these tough economic times. \"Drug treatment?\" says Neal. \"South Carolina's response to addiction has been incarceration not treatment.\" But Wanda McMichael, manager of women's services at Serenity Place, knows treatment can be beneficial. She guides women like Hendrix and the others through that process. Some who graduated from the program when it began in 1993 still remain clean. \"What's the other alternative if they don't come here?\" says McMichael. \"It's prison. That costs more than treatment, but a lot of people don't know that. If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die.\" A healthy baby, a new hope . Most of the women at Serenity Place say they were little girls the first time they used drugs, some as young as 8. Many could not recall what sobriety felt like until they came to the center. Hendrix says her own mother was 15 when she gave birth to her and then abandoned her. \"She was real pretty. Blond hair, pale skin like me,\" Hendrix says. \"I have her nose and lips. She just didn't respect herself.\" Hendrix doesn't want to be like her mother. Her son, who was born July 24, is healthy. In August, Hendrix left Serenity for an intensive outpatient treatment program, and she and her baby live with her grandmother in Union. Of the 16 women enrolled in Serenity in July, half have graduated, program directors say. Six continue receiving treatment and two have left the center. Three women are on a waiting list to get in, including one who is pregnant. Hendrix hopes to get her GED and enroll in the University of South Carolina to study psychology next year. \"I am happy today,\" she says, \"and that's something I haven't felt in a long time. \"My grandmother. My baby. They make me happy. But you know, it's not about them, jail or none of that anymore. That all changed. I am doing this for me.\"","highlights":"Serenity Place in South Carolina caters treatment programs to pregnant addicts .\nSouth Carolina has been known to prosecute women in their third trimester .\nA pregnant Ashley Hendrix sought treatment earlier this year for her addiction .\n\"If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die,\" a counselor says .","id":"5806102cf9e813e48ced3314cea2a80e1bd614c7"} -{"article":"Dixon, Illinois (CNN) -- William Heirens, the \"Lipstick Killer,\" is believed to be the longest-serving inmate in the United States. He turns 81 on November 15. Diabetes has ravaged his body, but his mind is sharp. \"Bill's never allowed himself to be institutionalized,\" said Dolores Kennedy, his long-time friend and advocate. \"He's kept himself focused on the positives.\" The days are spent mostly watching television and reading magazines. Using a wheelchair and sharing a cell with a roommate in the health unit of Dixon Correctional Center, he still yearns for a chance at freedom. It is something he has not tasted since 1946. Heirens has been locked behind bars and walls for 63 years, making inmate C06103 the longest-serving prisoner in Illinois history, state officials say. According to Steven Drizin, the legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, Heirens \"has served longer than anyone in the U.S. that I can find.\" He was put away a year after the end of World War II. It is a dubious record, but fitting for the man dubbed the Lipstick Killer, whose crime spree remains among the most infamous in the history of Chicago, the city of Capone and Leopold and Loeb. The scar-faced gangster and the thrill-kill pair are long gone. Heirens, however, has not slipped into the past. He lives in the present and hopes for a future outside prison. Supporters have championed his cause, convinced that he is innocent, or arguing that he has been rehabilitated, a model inmate who has served his sentence. \"Pray for my release,\" he wrote in a letter dated October 11. \"There is no reason to keep this man behind bars,\" said Drizin. \"He meets all the criteria for parole.\" While Drizin, who has represented Heirens since 2001, and others passionately plead for his release and prepare to re-petition the state parole board that has consistently refused to free Heirens, others are convinced he is a manipulative murderer. \"He was the bogeyman,\" said Betty Finn of the man convicted of strangling her sister. \"I don't think you need to feel sorry for him. He chose his life and he chose his actions.\" Josephine Ross was the first victim. The 43-year-old was found stabbed to death in her apartment. She was killed on June 5, 1945. In December, police discovered the body of Frances Brown in her bathroom. She was stabbed through the neck and shot in the head. The killer left a message on the wall. It said, \"for heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.\" It was scrawled in red lipstick. The press seized on the detail. The headlines would soon scream of the Lipstick Killer. Four weeks later, an intruder used a ladder to enter the second-floor window of Suzanne Degnan's bedroom. The killer approached the sleeping 6-year-old girl and abducted her. \"I was old enough to know everything that happened and remember the looks on my parents' faces,\" Finn said of the crime against her younger sister. \"Can you imagine as a child to have this happen? Can you imagine going to bed at night and all of a sudden your sister is not in her bed?\" There would be a ransom note demanding $20,000. But there would also be the horrific discovery of Suzanne's severed head in a sewer. Other body parts were found within days. Chicago was gripped in fear. Scores of people were questioned, but the investigation dragged on for months without a break. One, however, came in June, when two police officers confronted a burglar near the Degnan home. The young thief was a 17-year-old student at the University of Chicago. His name was William Heirens, and police soon became convinced he was the killer. Drizin said Heirens was subjected to days of brutal interrogation. He also was beaten and given sodium pentothal to make him tell the truth, Drizin said. He underwent a spinal tap, another extreme measure to compel him to talk. Prosecutors said his handwriting matched that of the words scribbled in lipstick at the scene of the Brown killing. The FBI determined that a fingerprint lifted from the Degnan ransom note matched Heirens. That gave the state's attorney two powerful pieces of evidence against Heirens. But a confession would seal his fate. On August 7, 1946, Heirens supplied it, describing how he killed Degnan, Brown and Ross. He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder. In exchange for the plea, Heirens was spared the death penalty and given three consecutive life sentences. Heirens has distinguished himself in prison. He was the first inmate in Illinois to receive a college degree. \"He helped redesign the library system in the department of corrections,\" said Drizin, who also commended Heirens for becoming a \"first-rate jailhouse lawyer.\" Drizin said Heirens has been eligible for parole nearly every year since the 1970s. The Center on Wrongful Convictions mounted a clemency campaign for Heirens on the grounds that he has served longer than required, and that the evidence used to convict him was unreliable. \"Smoke and mirrors\" was how Drizin described it. Kennedy, who wrote a book that attempts to prove Heirens is innocent, said a political component is keeping him in prison. \"It's a very political case,\" she said. \"Authorities have made statements that he would never get out. I think the courts managed to look the other way and the [parole] board didn't want to take the heat.\" John Russick, senior curator for the Chicago History Museum, said the story of William Heirens is complicated. \"This is not a largely understood case,\" Russick said. \"People know the term Lipstick Killer, and that there was a sensational crime, but I don't think it's talked about in detail.\" He added, \"I feel like it defies logic, and that's what's troubling about it. When you look closely at the nature of these kinds [of confessions] and when you know how these confessions were acquired, there's enough there to -- at the very least -- to make you feel very unsure.\" Frank Czagany, who met Heirens when both were working in the machine shop at U.S. Steel in 1944, remembers his friend as being \"very quiet, not wild.\" \"He wouldn't say crap if he had a mouthful of it,\" Czagany said. Finn calls the efforts supporting Heirens misguided. \"I'm not a vindictive person, I'm not doing this out of anger. It's fear,\" she said. \"There is no evidence that says he's the least bit innocent. How can every single court be wrong?\" Finn, who attended Heirens' most recent parole hearing, in July, said he is not innocent by any stretch of the imagination. \"Keep him locked in jail,\" she said. Kennedy said she and others are looking for a suitable placement in a nursing home for Heirens. She said she believes there is some indication that if an acceptable facility is located, he may have a chance to spend his final days a free man. \"He looks for any glimmer of hope,\" said Kennedy. \"He still wants to be out.\" Drizin said that time has come. \"This is a case where I have serious doubts about his guilt,\" he said. \"But it's a case where there is no question in my mind that the circus-like atmosphere that pervaded his arrest and his prosecution resulted in a trial proceeding for Bill and a guilty plea that was fundamentally unfair.\" \"They probably have good hearts and are dedicated,\" Finn said of Heirens' believers. \"He is not innocent by any stretch, no matter how they twist it.\"","highlights":"William Heirens may be the longest-serving prison innate in the United States .\nHe has been behind bars for 63 years .\nAt 81, Heirens is diabetic and uses a wheelchair .\nHe says his 1946 confession to the \"Lipstick Murders\" was coerced .","id":"69e38ec7caa6189b900e14e9b6a161672418b7d9"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Don't confuse Katey Sagal for Peg Bundy -- it's a common mistake. Katey Sagal says being a mother has been her greatest teacher -- for all her roles. While her infamous alter ego was uneducated, Katey is thoughtful and well-spoken; Peg's fashion is time-warped (hello, bouffant!), Katey's is earthy; for every ounce of laziness in Peg's body, Katey has a multitasking one to match. It may have taken years for the actress to shake her TV counterpart, but watch Katey as fierce matriarch Gemma Morrow on FX's motorcycle drama \"Sons of Anarchy\" (which was released on DVD Tuesday), and you'll start to wonder, \"Peg who?\" Rachel Bertsche: You're known for playing three very different mothers -- \"Married with Children's\" Peg Bundy, Kate from \"8 Simple Rules\" and now Gemma. Plus, you have three kids of your own, two teenagers and a 2 1\/2-year-old. Given all that on- and off-screen mothering experience, is there any universal quality that you would say all moms have? Katey Sagal: Being a mother has been my greatest teacher and also the most self-sacrificing thing I've ever done. I've never loved anybody the way I love my children. It's an experience I was surprised by. You have your boyfriend, your husband, your friends, but it's a different thing. It's deeper, and it's a fantastic -- and risky -- commitment to love that deeply. I think the characters I've played all have that quality, even Peg Bundy. She was devoted and loyal to her children in her own wacky way. But Gemma is intensely dedicated to her family and would do anything to protect her son and her extended family, which is the club. In my personal life, I don't know that I would go to the lengths for my kids that Gemma does, but close. Bertsche: You were Peg Bundy before you were actually a mom. Once you had your first child, id having firsthand experience change the way you played her? Sagal: Well, I've always been a maternal type, but yes, everything was different once I had kids. Your whole perspective on the world changes -- I love how I wasn't so self-obsessed anymore! I can't say my characterizations of Peggy necessarily changed much. I just understood more what I was doing. Bertsche: You mentioned your husband, Kurt Sutter, who is also the creator of your show. What's it like to mix family with business? Sagal: Most of the time it's super great. There are moments when it's not, of course, but most of the time it's nice because we actually get to see each other. His job is intense, so he doesn't get a day like I have today where he can stay home from work. When I'm there, we can sometimes have lunch together, stuff like that. The hard part gets to be like \"OK, maybe we should talk about something else.\" It becomes the constant topic of conversation, the show and the kids, and we have to make a conscious effort to say, \"Let's not talk about it tonight.\" Bertsche: People used to say that women of \"a certain age\" -- over 40 -- couldn't find any roles in Hollywood. That's certainly not true anymore, especially on cable, and you might be playing one of the toughest women out there. Why do think that has changed? Sagal: I don't know why it's changed, but I'm really grateful it has. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we're all living longer and suddenly it's okay to get older. Maybe there's a broader audience for these characters. The stories you can tell about older women are deeper. Plus, cable has opened up enormous possibilities. In feature films, you're still lucky if you're not the girlfriend or the wife. But I just read yesterday that Dianne Keaton is going to be on television now, she's doing a series with HBO, so TV is where our stories are being told. Bertsche: Gemma's a pretty controversial character. How do you feel about her? Sagal: I really like her. I like that she's flawed but she doesn't think that she is. She's survived a lot, and people like that tend to live in a lot of denial. She knows how to get through life in her way, and she doesn't question it. It's just, \"This is how it is.\" For instance, I don't think Gemma's ever been to therapy. She's not that girl. What you see is what you get. Bertsche: What's on tap for her this season? Sagal: Something very dark happens. The club is going to go through some turmoil -- when you live an outlaw lifestyle, that's the risk you take. As my husband says, this season is all about loyalties. Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin are on the show this year, and they ... well, I don't want to say too much, but they're not really good guys. Bertsche: I promised a co-worker I'd ask you about \"Lost.\" She's dying to know if your character, Helen, is really dead. Even though we saw the grave, she doesn't believe it's the full story. Got anything on that? Sagal: I was just reading an article this morning at the gym about how they were going to bring back people who were dead on \"Lost,\" and they didn't mention me! Nobody tells me anything. I'm always thinking that Helen should come back and show up on the island, but as of today, no one's sent me a plane ticket to Hawaii. So I don't think it's going to happen, but I don't know. They're very close to the chest with all that stuff. Oprah.com: Get up close with all the hottest celebrities! Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Katey Sagal's series about cyclists, \"Sons of Anarchy,\" is out on DVD .\nSagal says being a mother has given her insight into her major roles .\nShe hears rumors about \"Lost,\" but nobody's told her anything personally .","id":"65bdb8e4face7b8a2832f175150522c779042e31"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A train collision in northern India killed at least 13 people early Wednesday. Indian Railway Protection Force personnel look at a damaged carriage after the collision Wednesday. The death toll remained uncertain. Railway officials said 13 people were killed and 15 injured in the crash. But the top administrative official of Mathura, where the collision occurred, put the number of dead at 21, with about as many injured. The Goa Express slammed into the stationary Mewar Express apparently because the driver overshot a signal to stop, said Anant Swaroop, spokesman for India's northern railway. Indian Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered an inquiry into the crash, according to CNN's sister station in India, CNN-IBN. The Goa Express, bound for New Delhi from the western coastal state of Goa, was running on the same track as the Mewar, which shuttles between New Delhi and Udaipur, in western Rajasthan state. Both trains have stops in Mathura, about 90 miles south of New Delhi. Rescuers had to cut trapped passengers from a wrecked car of the Mewar Express. The car had a special compartment for women, disabled passengers, cargo and train guards, said Aditya Verma, a senior police official in Mathura. Bannerjee said victims' relatives would receive compensation of about $10,000, according to CNN-IBN. Several other trains that go through the Mathura station had to be diverted. Trains are the most widely used mode of transportation for national travel in India. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh in New Delhi contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Railway officials say 13 people killed, 15 injured after trains collided .\nNEW: Mathura official, where the collision occurred, put the number of dead at 21 .\nGoa Express, apparently on the same track, hit Mewar about 5:30 a.m.\nRailway spokesman: Trains collided apparently because driver overshot stop signal .","id":"9085cfeafa77004e99a35aef24825abe6a7133e7"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Authorities have identified a teenager believed to be suffering from amnesia who was found on the streets of New York two weeks ago. Police say a CNN viewer in Maryland identified the young woman, who mysteriously turned up in Manhattan two weeks ago, claiming to have no memory of her family, her home or even her own name. The 18 year old whose name is not yet being released, is in the process of being reunited with her family. They are from Washington state and are on their way to New York, New York Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said on Saturday. A photo of the woman, who has been referred to as Jane Doe, was circulated by police and aired on CNN this week. The viewer in Maryland was familiar with her situation and knew she had been missing from her family earlier this month. The girl was found in Midtown Manhattan around 12:30 a.m. October 9 outside the Covenant House youth shelter, although the organization said that she was not a resident at the time and did not appear as if she intended to seek refuge at the facility. \"I just want to know who I am,\" the girl said in a statement from the New York City Administration for Children's Services. \"I want to know who I am and what happened to me.\" According to its Web site, \"Covenant House New York is the nation's largest adolescent care agency serving homeless, runaway and at-risk youth.\" Nearly 7,000 youths reportedly seek shelter there per year. A security guard for the shelter noticed the girl walking on the sidewalk near Covenant House and approached her. Finding her unresponsive, he called the New York City Police Department. Police officers interviewed the young woman, but it became clear that she couldn't provide authorities with any information about herself. The police said she was wearing military green camouflage pants, a black shirt and a pair of black sneakers when she was discovered. The children's services agency said the girl recently wrote down the name \"Amber\" and has responded to it on one occasion, but she has no idea whether it is her true name. On another occasion she is said to have recalled certain words, which turned out to be an excerpt from the fantasy novel \"Fool's Fate\" by Robin Hobb. The girl also is apparently writing a fantasy story of her own that features a heroine named Rian, \"who's been raised by the commander of the guard post on the edge of a fantasy kingdom,\" the young woman said. Judging from her poor dental hygiene, said Lt. Christopher Zimmerman, she appeared to have been living on the streets for some time. Evan Buxbaum, Susan Candiotti and Vanessa Juarez contributed to the report.","highlights":"NEW: New York Police say the 18-year-old is being reunited with family in Washington state .\nNEW: CNN viewer in Maryland identified the young woman, police say .\nShe was found October 9 outside Manhattan youth shelter .\nAgency says girl wrote down \"Amber\" and responded to name .","id":"ecc6fdcd5533e26f8d36adb37487679e5c859cc1"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- For Kenny Ortega, Travis Payne and Michael Bearden, \"It\" is a bittersweet feeling. The three men expected to be spending their time this summer and fall working on Michael Jackson's concert engagement at London's O2 Arena, which was scheduled to begin in July. Instead, they are talking about Jackson's last days and the new movie about that time, \"This Is It.\" In an interview, they described \"This Is It,\" the movie that they've made from rehearsal and backstage footage of Jackson, shot just before he died June 25. The film, which has been dominating advance ticket sale outlets, opens wide on Wednesday. The full movie wasn't screened for critics, with only 12 minutes of footage available to the media before the interviews. But as director Ortega describes it, the film tries to blend backstage footage with the performance to give an inside glimpse of those last days at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The scenes show the superstar working on his dance moves, figuring out choreography, practicing on stage and running the show. From the clips, there's no question that Jackson was in charge. His physicality is vibrant: At one point, he dances with a troupe of top-notch hoofers and keeps up with all of them. There's no indication of the infirmities that would ultimately take his life. All three men -- Payne was the show's choreographer and Bearden its music supervisor -- stressed how they wanted this movie to represent the Jackson they knew. \"It was an honor project,\" Bearden said. According to Ortega, the film is for the fans. He said he was inundated with e-mails from fans wanting to know just what Jackson had planned for the concerts he would never give. Above all, they said they were concerned about Jackson's three children. They said that they wanted to make a film that his kids -- Prince Michael, Paris and \"Blanket\" -- would be able to see in years to come that would make them proud of their father. Though the men acknowledged a heavy responsibility, there were light moments during the interviews. Payne and Bearden both smiled as they talked about working for the King of Pop and how he'd try to tell people what he wanted. \"I know you mean well, but ...,\" Jackson would say as he corrected colleagues, they recalled. But all of them talked about he emotional toll that making this film has taken on them. There were \"a lot of tissue moments on this film,\" Bearden said. Watch a former Jackson guitarist reflect on his career . Ortega added that he didn't know whether he could handle the emotional stress involved in making this movie so quickly. Ultimately, according to Ortega, the movie proved to be cathartic. \"I thought I'd collapse,\" Ortega said. \"I thought I'll never get through it, it's too hard, it's too soon, but in fact it was healing and helpful.\" He hopes Jackson's fans will feel the same way.","highlights":"\"This Is It,\" Michael Jackson concert film, is dominating advance ticket sales .\nFilm was tough to make, musician's colleagues say .\nProduction was for the fans but especially for Jackson's children .\n\"American Morning\" looks at the value of Michael Jackson's estate Monday 6 a.m. ET .","id":"c597c85e1e122518bfcc6a1a61943bed5735cb54"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- I once told my mother about a girl I had a crush on. At the time, I think I was about 16, and I had so much acne that if I fell asleep at a library, when I woke up, a blind guy would be trying to read my face. \"Just go for her,\" my mother said. \"It's not that simple,\" I said, while filling out my order form for 25 crates of Noxzema. \"She's got a boyfriend.\" \"Well, don't do anything differently. Act like she doesn't. That's how I got your father.\" She then walked out of the room, leaving my pasty teenage complexion an extra shade of white as I actually contemplated my mother dating. I've since related this story as an example of how hitting on someone with a significant other isn't always a terrible thing. Hey, if they're not married or serious, go for it. However, if you're considering trying to get a guy who has a girlfriend, there are a few things you should know. The Frisky: The Top 5 online dating do's and don'ts for guys . First, I'll admit guys will hit on anything. I once observed one of my friends hitting on a street sign. Granted, he was drunk, but it did not matter to him that he was hitting on an inanimate object, or that the street sign was a little out of his league. Men do have standards, but when they're single, they'll hit on a woman with a boyfriend. They'll hit on nuns. Very occasionally, they'll hit on nuns with boyfriends. I'm not going to defame my own kind, but women can be better at subtlety, and you should use this to your advantage. The Frisky: Is cheating worse when you're married? I'm a big anti-cheating guy, so if a woman hit on me while I had a girlfriend, I'd be flattered. If she offered to go home with me or tried to kiss me or something like that, milk would shoot out of my nose and I'd run for the hills. (I have an odd fight-or-flight mechanism.) Subtlety is your friend. We'll pick up on the signals. If a guy is interested, wait for him to honorably break up with his girlfriend before the two of you start dating. Frankly, this is just good manners. The Frisky: To tell or not to tell on a cheater? It should go without saying that it's bad form to hit on a guy while his girlfriend is actually there, or even if she's in the same town. Men have a well-honed sense of panic that kicks in when someone's hitting on them while their girlfriends are in the same ZIP code. We know that women can read us, so unless you're hitting on a really shady guy, you'll scare him off as he runs home to call his girl and tell the story of the Evil Homewrecking Woman. The Frisky: Can couples get past infidelity? One last thing: If you do snag a guy away from his girlfriend, be wary. The good news is that, despite the popular perception, most of us men tend to be loyal once we're in a committed relationship. But know that if it happened once, it can happen again. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Writer: Some guys will hit on anything -- even inanimate objects .\nWriter: Hitting on a man when his girlfriend is nearby could make you \"Evil Homewrecking Woman\"\nIf you snag him away from someone, be wary: It could happen again, writer says .","id":"ece137ace69e832df113b3b33e14872b5dc032b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An infant falls to his death from a second-story window while his parents are making love. The mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is consumed with grief and guilt. She's hospitalized and sedated for days and weeks before her husband (Willem Dafoe), a therapist, insists she return home. He gets rid of all her medications. He will be her partner and her grief counselor, and he will see her through this, if only she will place her trust in him. Not a good idea for either of them, as it turns out. Halloween is nearly upon us, but \"Antichrist\" is a mighty strange kind of horror movie, a wrenching psychodrama for two-thirds of its running time before collapsing into a steaming heap of deranged sadism and supernatural symbolism in the outrageous third act. The movie's peculiarity can be accounted for in three words: Lars von Trier. The Danish provocateur twice won prestigious honors at the Cannes Film Festival (with \"Breaking the Waves\" and \"Dancer in the Dark\") and re-energized European art cinema in the 1990s with the Dogme movement's so-called \"Vows of Chastity.\" It's not often that an art-house director takes up the implements to make a horror film, and for a while, \"Antichrist\" compels with its anguished intensity and audacious stylistic choices, not least the severity that keeps the focus exclusively on this man and woman, neither of whom is named. The prologue -- the child's death -- is a luxurious, slow-motion rhapsody of explicit sex, black-and-white photography and baroque music, commingling with the infant's almost ersatz tragedy and finding perfunctory counterpoint in banal close-ups of the family's washer-dryer. (There may be a deliberate echo here of the famous sex scene in Nicolas Roeg's \"Don't Look Now,\" a far more keenly calibrated examination of grief succumbing to the supernatural.) Dafoe and Gainsbourg are riveting as the ill-matched couple. He's an implacable rationalist, urging her to confront her fears and venture into the darkest recesses of her psyche. She's not sure he's ready to share that torment with her. Their bitter, sometimes sourly funny back-and-forth fleetingly echoes the railing, pugnacious and remorseful men and women we find again and again in Strindberg and Bergman. Of course, when those great Scandinavian dramatists wanted to shock us with the ferocity of the battle of the sexes and show a married couple going at it tooth and nail, their only weapons were words. Mindful that he's up against \"Hostel,\" \"Saw\" and the like, Herr von Trier ups the ante considerably. Hiking to a log cabin in the mountains to uncover the apex of his wife's fears (it could be anywhere, but let's imagine we're in the neighborhood of Burkittsville), the doctor's little experiment in exposure therapy ends in crushed genitals and, uh, worse. Much worse. It's safe to say von Trier knows this climax is over the top: \"Chaos reigns!\" announces a fox, in perfect English, just as the movie goes off the deep end. Chaos reigns all right, and Gainsbourg's traumatized mom is transformed nonsensically into a raving psycho witch-bitch. This director has often been accused of misogyny for the punishments that befall his heroines -- spuriously, in my opinion. But this time the boot is on the other foot, and for once the charge seems to stick; no matter that the first half of the movie suggests Dafoe's smug therapist is due for a comeuppance. Apparently someone had a seizure when the movie showed at the New York Film Festival recently. When I caught up with it at the Vancouver International Film Festival two weeks ago, the screening was punctuated with the single loudest shriek I've ever heard in the theatre -- that would have been when Gainsbourg gets out the scissors for a spot of ad hoc auto-surgery. There also was a very vociferous walk-out: a gentleman who fairly barked \"You get what you pay for, folks\" as he made for the exit a full 20 minutes before the end. That unhappy camper had a point. Either von Trier is barking up the wrong tree, or he's pandering to the basest instincts of an audience that's seen it all before and still demands more, more, more. Beautifully shot by Anthony Dod Mantle and acted with raw conviction, \"Antichrist\" is a calamitous atrocity from a major filmmaker, nothing more and nothing less. If you don't believe me, go ask the talking fox. \"Antichrist\" is not rated and runs 104 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"Antichrist\" has met with vitriolic reaction at film festivals .\nLars von Trier film stars Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourgh as troubled couple .\nHorror goes from moody to over-the-top and graphic .\nTo CNN.com's Tom Charity, the film is a \"calamitous atrocity\"","id":"a87caa1f2968815cd6e3355539cc3722e88cc754"} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- From the custom-made, hand-beaded white dress to silver-studded high-heeled shoes, diamond jewelry and tiara, Jenny Ferro is preparing for a day she's dreamed about since she was 3 years old. \"I'm really excited,\" says Jenny, eagerly nodding her head. \"Really, really, a lot!\" She isn't getting married. The 15-year-old is preparing for her quincea\u00f1era, a coming-of-age ritual in Latin culture, marking a young girl's entrance into womanhood. The centuries-old tradition began as a ceremony to introduce girls to society on their 15th birthday and signified that they were ready for marriage. Today, many quincea\u00f1eras have become much more elaborate. Jenny and her mother, Marlene Ferro, have worked out every detail of the party well in advance, from the rehearsal to the reception to the flower girl and the music. The theme of the party is bedazzled. First, there is the dress, which Marlene had designed specially for her daughter. It cost about $800. Then there are the shoes, high-heeled and silver to match the dress. During the party, the high heels will be ceremoniously slipped onto her feet to replace her flat shoes -- a symbolic transition of her journey from childhood to womanhood. \"It makes her look like a princess,\" gushes Marlene Ferro. Quincea\u00f1eras are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. One reason for their popularity is a greater acceptance of Latin culture in America, according to Michele Salcedo, author of \"Quincea\u00f1era!\" a comprehensive guide to the celebration. \"The 15th birthday, culturally, is a milestone. It doesn't have to be celebrated with a party at all, but it is generally marked by something quite special,\" Salcedo says. Experts believe the quincea\u00f1era is rooted in Mayan, Aztec and European traditions. Today, many coming-of-age ceremonies resemble lavish \"Sweet 16\" celebrations. Beyond the elaborate apparel, food and festivities, modern quincea\u00f1eras often feature a court of 15 people, typically consisting of family and friends. As the event continues to grow in popularity, the makeup of the court has also changed. \"It has gone beyond Latinos, so that a lot of Latino girls will have not only family members in court but they will reach out to non-Latino friends,\" says Salcedo. \"So it's a way of reaching out and extending social ties and bringing people in who might not otherwise have an opportunity to know a Latino family and to know the culture.\" Family plays the largest role in the quincea\u00f1era, leading up to and during the party. Mothers, fathers, grandparents and godparents can spend years preparing a night to remember for the young girl. The tradition is just as important to the family as it is to the young woman. The large, extravagant celebrations often symbolize a family's hard work and success. How has America changed Latinos? Marlene Ferro, who emigrated from Cuba as a child with her parents, says Jenny's quincea\u00f1era was a gift to both of them. The 43-year-old, single mother of three, saved for years and estimates that she spent at least $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era. \"I was able to accomplish something that I had been looking forward to for 15 years,\" says Marlene Ferro. The parties can be as big and expensive as a family can imagine and costs can escalate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Salcedo. She recommends that families manage expectations before the party planning even begins. iReporter Alexis Fernandez's quincea\u00f1era was a big event in Alaska . \"Sometimes people go way overboard and [spend] much more on the celebration than they can afford and that's the downside of the quincea\u00f1era,\" says Salcedo. \"Because when it's done right it can be a beautiful family celebration and a celebration of a milestone that a young girl goes through.\" Quincea\u00f1eras have changed over the years. Even though her tiara was taller than her daughter's, Marlene says her quincea\u00f1era was simple. It was a small gathering at her sister's apartment with family and friends. She wore borrowed jewelry from a family member, had a homemade cake and danced with her father. Marlene Ferro's 15th birthday present was a telephone in her bedroom. \"I didn't have a big quince party. I chose to have a small party with my friends,\" she remembers. \"My dress was really easy ... I didn't have an option. It was this one or that one. Now, we give our kids the option.\" iReporter Diamond Ramirez's mother, grandmother never had quincea\u00f1eras . There's a spiritual element to these celebrations as well, says Salcedo. The church plays a role in helping to prepare teenage girls for this transition to womanhood. Ceremonies and classes before the coming-of-age celebration teach the young women that with adulthood come certain responsibilities, both physical and spiritual. \"When it's done in the spirit that it probably should be, the girl has certain responsibilities and by the end of the process, she's met them and she has showed her mother that she can, in fact, be responsible and she does acquire ... a bit more maturity then she [had] before,\" says Salcedo. As the celebrations become more popular in the United States, they also offer an opportunity for more Americans to participate. \"It's a way to push back a lot of the negativity that a lot of Latinos feel is directed at Latinos,\" says Salcedo. \"It is a way for people who have recently arrived, or maybe not so recently arrived, to say 'I have done well here' ... I'm throwing this party for my daughter and I'm inviting all of you to partake of my generosity so that you can see exactly how well we've done.\"","highlights":"Quincea\u00f1eras, or 15th birthday celebrations, mark a girl's transition to womanhood .\nJenny Ferro, 15, has been preparing for her celebration since she was 3 years old .\nMarlene Ferro estimates she spent $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era .\nExpert: The elaborate parties are a way for Latinos to say 'I have done well here'","id":"de056d81d57eff6a93135e76a53ae45fc2070c84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has been 20 years since best-selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell began work on her first novel in the series chronicling the cases of forensic analyst Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Now, both have found celebrity. Cornwell's latest novel, \"The Scarpetta Factor,\" places her enduring heroine in a role the author knows all too well, a pop culture celebrity sought-after for her expertise. In an interview with CNN.com, Cornwell discussed the challenges of staying fresh, the need for happy endings and the merits of the History Channel and the movie \"White Chicks.\" CNN: The title of your new book, \"The Scarpetta Factor,\" has many meanings. Can you tell me about some of them? Cornwell: On the one hand, it's a very direct reference to the fact she's the chief forensic analyst for CNN in this book. But while she's doing the on-air spots, they decide they want her to have her own show and that's what they call it, \"The Scarpetta Factor,\" which is a reference to a clich\u00e9 that's beginning to float around, that there's one element that she can add that will solve the case like she's Sherlock Holmes. This becomes very upsetting to her, first of all, because it's a clich\u00e9 and the scientist in her doesn't think she has a special factor, she's a scientist. It begins to pose problems for her because even some colleagues and friends start to wonder if she's begun to believe her own legend and make mistakes. With her years of experience and high level of visibility and exceptional grasp of the criminal world, she would be asked to be on major shows. When someone like Michael Jackson dies or Caylee Anthony disappears, that's the obvious thing that would happen. People would say, I wonder what Scarpetta has to say. I'm trying to put her in the world we live in. CNN: Why did you choose CNN? Cornwell: It would make perfect sense that she would sit on the set with Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blizter and be asked relevant questions from a hard news angle. It's one [network] she would go on and there's lots she wouldn't go on. CNN: How have things changed since you published your first novel? Cornwell: When I was shopping my first book around, it was rejected by the major publishing houses and that was because a lot of people didn't think morgues and labs were interesting, and that's a huge statement about how things have changed. I remember one time, I called my literary agent at that time, and I said I was in a toxicology lab, and she said, I hate talking to you because you're always in these awful places. Forensic science was not viewed as cool, as it is today. CNN: Are there any on-air personalities we might recognize in \"The Scarpetta Factor?\" Cornwell: When she is up at CNN for a scene when she's on a fictitious show, she walks past posters of Nancy Grace and Lou Dobbs and Wolf Blitzer because she's up on that floor, so I do make real references to people, but the characters, the producers, none are real and they're not based on anybody I met or know. CNN: How much of yourself do you see in Kay Scarpetta? Over the years, have you grown into her or has she grown into you? Cornwell: Only insofar as we have the same values and sensibilities and perhaps the same approach to solving cases. I'm imposing the way my mind works in terms of connecting the dots, but beyond that, there are huge differences between us. She's a standalone character. I would feel very self-conscious and bored if she was a projection of me. I have certain things in common with all my characters. Like Marino, I can be a slob and sometimes say stupid things and rush to judgment. CNN: You're known for doing a lot of research on the ground to give your stories depth and realism. Where did your research for \"The Scarpetta Factor\" take you? Cornwell: I've certainly been in the CNN studios so that's helpful. When I was there over in the last year, I made a mental note of everything I saw while walking around so I could create the studio in the novel. I also spent lot of time with the NYPD, their bomb squad, their emergency unit, the Real Time Crime Center, so I could describe the amazing way computers are used to transmit data to police responding to a call. I spent time at the NYPD crime lab, the New York Medical Examiner's office, so I can show Scarpetta actually working there. The scene in the elevator in the beginning and the way people ID loved ones is based on what happens. Even the technology of the electronic nose, the mechanical sniffer that takes the place of cadaver dogs, is based on things I've seen. My research also included looking into the methods and means criminals are using, like TracFones, spoofcards and the different ways to disguise IP addresses. CNN: How has the CSI factor affected your research for your books? Cornwell: I think people are so inundated with this sort of detail that I don't want to make the story just about forensics. The people and their relationships are the heart of my books, the forensics are something they wear like an old pair of shoes. I'll always show you the latest and greatest forensic science and technology, but I can't show it all, so it's very important that I make things interesting in different ways. In the early to mid-'90s, up to the late '90s when I was coming out with new books, I was the only show in town and all of the sudden now they're everywhere, and I don't have any problem with that because I don't own forensics or forensic pathology. CNN: In your opinion, what has been the greatest change in forensic science since Scarpetta started out? Cornwell: DNA has changed our lives forever, just like the Internet has changed our lives, there's no going back to pre-DNA or pre-Internet. I would say both of those. The Internet has dramatically changed everything because it's creating a whole new wave of crimes that our laws and the courts don't know how to deal with. DNA analysis and the ultra-sensitivity of it: When you're dealing with some types of DNA, you only need three or four human cells to get a DNA profile, which is something that can't even see with the naked eye, so that helps investigators but it also creates a whole other set of problems. They're saying there will be a point when you can get DNA just from someone walking in the room, and you can see the problems if you have 20 people walk into a room and only one did something bad. Defense lawyers are going to have a field day with that. CNN: What do you want people to take away from this novel? I'd like them to take away an idea of how someone like Scarpetta deals with being in the same world you and I wake up to. Now she has a BlackBerry and she has to deal with it, which poses as many problems as it offers benefits. I want people to feel happy ending the book. We need to feel good right now, there's a lot to feel bad about and that's something I decided with the last book, I didn't want people to be depressed when they finished it. I used to write very dark books but we lived in happier times. Now, the goal is to scare you, lead you into suspense but when you finish, I want you to feel happy. CNN: What current cases in the news fascinate you? How much attention do you pay to crime and justice news? Cornwell: I'm fascinated by the Michael Jackson situation and the people who disappear and get abducted, all of it fascinates me in terms of the psychology involved and what science might tell us. I'm always frustrated because I love to know what's behind the scenes. I've been following Michael Jackson because it seems so unnecessary, an example of people who should've said no and not taken it upon themselves to solve a problem. I've also been interested in the case in Italy with the American on trial for murder. That is intriguing from a forensic standpoint because I think all of us would like to know more about the evidence and what's there to piece together that could tell us what happened. I'm afraid that because of how much time has passed and how the case was handled that a lot of the answers are gone and the kind of evidence that was collected could have been handled differently, . CNN: What do you like to watch? Cornwell: I don't watch crime dramas. I don't want to subconsciously get ideas from their shows. I try to keep my mind blank, and keep the influence of my own research, so I don't tend to watch crime dramas or crime movies. I rarely read crime novels because my work is so steeped in nonfiction, so I try to keep my mind free of those ideas. What I watch is the nonfiction, documentary type things, shows that depict real crimes that happened. I like the History Channel and I will watch reruns of \"The Sopranos\" until I'm 90 years old. I like comedy, stuff that's mindless. I don't watch stuff that scares me or makes me sad. There's enough of that in real life. CNN: What's the last movie you saw? Cornwell: The last movie I saw was a rerun of \"White Chicks.\" How's that to people who think I have this very esoteric repertoire? I think it's a hilarious movie. ... Will Ferrell, I love his stuff, Ben Stiller, I really enjoy comedy, especially stuff that's kind of warmhearted in its own way. I don't like stuff that's really scary. I've seen so much stuff that's real. Blood is always real to me. If they ever make a real movie of Scarpetta, I may not be able to watch it.","highlights":"Author Patricia Cornwell talks about Kay Scarpetta, fame and forensics .\nIn latest book, Scarpetta is CNN's chief forensic analyst .\nCornwell says she works hard to keep up with scientific advances .\nShe says she doesn't watch crime shows or scary movies .","id":"8e4f05c96355f9b3089ee176ec5ddbbb28ce3f32"} -{"article":"Greenville, South Carolina (CNN) -- Some are girlish 22-year-olds; others are women approaching 40. They come from South Carolina's rural counties and its booming cities. They are loud and muted, lively and vacant, hopeful and desperate. As different as they are, they share a connection to two powerful forces : their addictions and their babies. They are swallowed by the same shameful past. They don't know if they can be good mothers. They don't know if they can be clean mothers. They're here at a state-run drug-treatment program to learn how to do both. On this summer day, Ashley Hendrix, 24, is eight months pregnant with her first child and one of 16 women at the Phoenix Center's Serenity Place. This is her last shot to get clean -- or face jail. South Carolina's state supreme court is alone in upholding the prosecution of pregnant women for the damage drugs might do to their unborn children. Across the country, local and state agencies have found ways to prosecute pregnant women for drug use, but the cases are often rejected by the courts. And judges in more than two dozen states have overturned decisions that criminalize pregnant addicts. In recent years, Missouri and North Dakota have ruled against charging pregnant women with neglect and endangerment. Illegal substances -- marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription drugs -- consumed Hendrix for more than a decade. \"To this day, I still cry about it, \" she said, \"that if anything does come out wrong with my baby, I know that my drug use is the reason why. Since 1989, at least 126 women in South Carolina have been arrested during their pregnancies, according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Most were charged with drug and alcohol use that posed harm to the fetus the woman was carrying. During the same period, only about 80 pregnant women were arrested on similar charges in all other states combined. \"Word on the street\" in South Carolina, says Stephen Donaldson, program manager of a drug-treatment facility in Charleston County, \"is if you use during pregnancy, you're being prosecuted or you're losing your baby.\" Over the last 15 years, that message has driven many women to Serenity Place, a residential treatment center designed for pregnant women and new mothers. Here, the ultimate goal is to help the women recover from their addiction but Serenity also strives to give the women the confidence to become better mothers. They want the women to know there are second chances, and there is hope. \"I'm grateful everyday for being here and I'm grateful to have my baby with me,\" says a freckled Kim Clark, 28, who gave birth to her son Jaelyn at the center. \"I've been using drugs since I was 11 years old. I didn't know any other life. And I've learned a lot about myself. I've been taught things here.\" She graduated in August, has her own apartment now and works to support herself and her son. Some women arrive here voluntarily. Others were sent by the state's Department of Social Services. Others made a plea bargain with the courts, allowing them one last chance at treatment to avoid prison. \"My biggest fear was the [health of the] baby, but right behind that was that 'I'm going to go to jail',\" says Sandria Doremus, one of Hendrix' classmates at Serenity. Afraid of being turned in for her opiate addiction, she delayed getting prenatal care. \"I should have gone in a lot sooner,\" she admits. Doremus, 37, arrived at Serenity after a hospital reported her drug use to law enforcement officials, as required by law. She has sandy blond hair and warm blue eyes that open up her leathered face. She cuddled her 8-month-old son, Matthew, when CNN visited the center in July. Born with heroin in his system, Matthew was placed on methadone. Today, he is healthy, but studies show drug-exposed babies can face developmental delays and learning disabilities in later years. Watch the women of Serenity Place share their story \u00bb . In 1997, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a fetus in the third trimester was viable and charges of child abuse, neglect and murder could apply to the mother. Some treatment providers and advocacy experts say this ruling opened the door for prosecutors to charge pregnant women. \"These are addicts who become pregnant,\" says Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. \"They aren't women who chose to use drugs after becoming pregnant.\" 'If I didn't have pills, I felt like I had nothing' Hendrix's drug addiction started long before her pregnancy. She was born into a world of drugs. She says her mother was an addict, her father a violent alcoholic who once held a shotgun to her grandmother's head. Hendrix's grandparents rescued her at age 3 by taking her into their home in rural Union, South Carolina. She has fond memories of her grandfather, but one morning, shortly after her 12th birthday, Hendrix watched her 54-year-old grandfather die from a heart attack. The innocent girl started experimenting with drugs, partly because she couldn't cope with her feelings, she says, but mostly to fit in. By the time she turned 18, marijuana use gave way to cocaine and methamphetamine. Then she discovered prescription painkillers: Lortab. OxyContin. Percocet. \"It wasn't even about being high anymore. It was just being able to cope with everyday life,\" Hendrix says. \"If I didn't have the pills, I felt like I had nothing.\" Hendrix could no longer leave bed without the painkillers. Her routine consisted of melting OxyContin pills with water, placing the mixture into a syringe and shooting up, even during her pregnancy. By April of this year, she was six months pregnant and on probation for stealing jewelry to feed her drug habit. She took herself to Serenity Place. Tucked alongside empty factories in a once-thriving textile district, the center looks more like a college dormitory inside than a sterile treatment center. Homemade posters, photo collages and cards congratulating the women for giving birth are strewn along the hallways. There is a communal kitchen and colorful playgrounds. Research shows women who remain with their children during treatment have better chances of defeating their addictions. But a national study in 2005 found that only 3 percent of treatment centers had programs tailored specifically to pregnant women. About 14 percent of treatment centers accepted pregnant or postpartum women. The women at Serenity Place follow a rigid schedule that includes therapy, parenting classes and chores. They aren't allowed phone calls or the freedom to surf the Internet without permission. Security cameras guard all exits. The structure can be particularly hard for addicts who grew up in dysfunctional households with few rules. Women spend on average six months in treatment. If a woman violates the rules, she can be removed from the program. On some occasions, women have walked out of the center, leaving their newborns behind. Why prosecute? Why should addicted women be given a chance at motherhood? What about the welfare of the children? These are the questions asked by South Carolina prosecutors, known as solicitors general. Several solicitors general contacted by CNN declined to comment on how many such cases they have prosecuted, but they say that charging pregnant women has become less common in the state. Bob Ariail, solicitor of Greenville, says his district's policy is a far cry from the 1990s, when then-South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, an anti-abortion advocate, publicly declared he would aggressively crack down on pregnant mothers accused of substance abuse. Condon often referred to a fetus as his \"fellow South Carolinian.\" Despite several phone calls by CNN, Condon, who is now a private lawyer in South Carolina, could not be reached for comment. In his two decades as a Democratic state representative, Joe Neal of Columbia, South Carolina, has pushed for more drug treatment funding, an effort he says has little chance in these tough economic times. \"Drug treatment?\" says Neal. \"South Carolina's response to addiction has been incarceration not treatment.\" But Wanda McMichael, manager of women's services at Serenity Place, knows treatment can be beneficial. She guides women like Hendrix and the others through that process. Some who graduated from the program when it began in 1993 still remain clean. \"What's the other alternative if they don't come here?\" says McMichael. \"It's prison. That costs more than treatment, but a lot of people don't know that. If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die.\" A healthy baby, a new hope . Most of the women at Serenity Place say they were little girls the first time they used drugs, some as young as 8. Many could not recall what sobriety felt like until they came to the center. Hendrix says her own mother was 15 when she gave birth to her and then abandoned her. \"She was real pretty. Blond hair, pale skin like me,\" Hendrix says. \"I have her nose and lips. She just didn't respect herself.\" Hendrix doesn't want to be like her mother. Her son, who was born July 24, is healthy. In August, Hendrix left Serenity for an intensive outpatient treatment program, and she and her baby live with her grandmother in Union. Of the 16 women enrolled in Serenity in July, half have graduated, program directors say. Six continue receiving treatment and two have left the center. Three women are on a waiting list to get in, including one who is pregnant. Hendrix hopes to get her GED and enroll in the University of South Carolina to study psychology next year. \"I am happy today,\" she says, \"and that's something I haven't felt in a long time. \"My grandmother. My baby. They make me happy. But you know, it's not about them, jail or none of that anymore. That all changed. I am doing this for me.\"","highlights":"Serenity Place in South Carolina caters treatment programs to pregnant addicts .\nSouth Carolina has been known to prosecute women in their third trimester .\nA pregnant Ashley Hendrix sought treatment earlier this year for her addiction .\n\"If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die,\" a counselor says .","id":"f3c1f061d06f13d358c64be34e16ec490e5a9135"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Keep the government's hands off my Medicare.\" Those words -- quoted by so many TV talking heads -- never seem actually to have been spoken by anyone. It's like that poodle in the microwave story: Everybody has a neighbor who heard it from his cousin. The town hallers were angry, but they were not crazy, and they were not stupid. They knew perfectly well that Medicare is provided by the government. They also knew that their government is proposing to change Medicare in ways they do not like. The health care reform plans backed by President Obama would cut hundreds of billions out of the the growth of Medicare spending over the next 10 years. More ominous for seniors than the dollar figure is the plan behind the number. The president wants to reduce spending on Medicare Advantage, the privately run plans that offer seniors a better deal than conventional Medicare. Over the longer term, the president aspires to shift Medicare patients to teams of health care providers paid by the year, instead of individual doctors charging fees for each particular service -- rather than by the particular medical service they perform. Meet new CNN contributor David Frum . The changes the president has in mind won't kill Grandma. But they will change medicine in ways Grandma may find uncomfortable. Ten years from now, Grandma probably won't have a personal doctor. Her Medicare will cover less -- and cost more. Medicare was under pressure even before the election of Obama. The gap between the future revenues and future obligations of Medicare and Social Security is estimated by the Social Security trustees at some $45 trillion. How much is that? Adjusting for inflation, it's the cost of fighting World War II -- 10 times. Medicare is the single biggest spending commitment of the United States. As Obama stacks enormous new health care spending commitments atop the old, Medicare's already bleak future grows dimmer still. Who wins as Medicare loses? The short answer is: the uninsured. The president will use the money squeezed from Medicare to extend some form of coverage to the 35 million to 40 million people estimated to lack health insurance. And who are these people? About one-quarter of them are foreign-born. Recent immigrants to the United States -- unlike the immigrations who arrived between World War II and 1970 -- have tended to be very low-skilled. Their labor is just not worth enough to their employers to support the high cost of an American health insurance plan: $13,000 a year, on average, for a family of four. So here's how the world looks to a Medicare enrollee: . Over the opposition of some 80 percent of the American people, your government allowed millions of poor newcomers to enter the country, many of them illegally. (Over the past 10 years, half of all immigrants to the United States have arrived illegally.) These people cut the lawns of your more affluent neighbors, tended their babies, cleared their tables after their restaurant meals. If you were not so affluent, they reduced your wages and crowded your schools, highways and hospital emergency rooms. Now you are being told that your old age will be made less comfortable to accommodate them. Unsurprisingly, you don't like it. The debate about immigration and health care has centered on whether immigrants who are here illegally might qualify for coverage under the Democrats' reforms. Theoretically, they will not be eligible, but since Democrats have so far voted against enforcement measures, some illegal immigrants will no doubt slip through. But the debate over illegal immigrants is a proxy for something larger and more unsettling to older Americans. The problem is not illegal immigration, it is all low-skilled immigration, legal and illegal. By importing tens of millions of people who earn too little to pay for their own health insurance, we have made this supremely difficult social problem radically more difficult than it ever needed to be. With \"Obamacare,\" the bill for four decades of permissive immigration has at last come due. Since the 1930s, the United States has run two different kinds of government social programs. One kind of program is sustained by contributions from the very same people who will benefit from the program in future: Social Security, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation. These programs have never been controversial. The other kind of program taxes some for the benefit of others: Medicaid, social housing, the old welfare programs for the poor. These programs have always been intensely resented. Medicare was the first kind of program: social insurance. Obama's public option will be the second kind of program: income transfer. That's the explanation for the resistance the president is encountering. And it's the emotion that explains the actual quote -- not the bogus quote -- we heard from so many town hall protesters this summer: \"Fix old. No new.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.","highlights":"Town hallers know government wants to change Medicare in ways they don't like, Frum says .\nHe says changes won't kill Grandma, but Medicare will cover less and cost more .\nChanges will benefit the uninsured, some of whom can't pay for insurance, he says .\nFrum: Resistance to Obama's plan comes because it will be an income transfer program .","id":"5d33d32cffa473a4dc7b82ab8f8e184a3624f852"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A bear on ice skates attacked two people during rehearsals at a circus in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, killing one of them, Kyrgyz officials said Friday. In the incident, which happened Thursday, the 5-year-old animal killed the circus administrator, Dmitry Potapov, and mauled an animal trainer, who was attempting to rescue him. \"The incident occurred during a rehearsal by the Russian state circus company troupe which was performing in Bishkek with the program, Bears on Ice,\" Ministry of Culture and Information director Kurmangazy Isanayev told reporters. It is unclear what caused the bear to attack Potapov, 25, nearly severing one of his legs while dragging him across the ice by his neck. Medical personnel were unable to save Potapov, who died at the scene. The 29-year-old circus trainer Yevgeny Popov, who attempted to rescue Potapov, was also severely injured, according to doctors. \"The victim has sustained serious injuries - deep scalp lacerations, bruising of the brain, lacerations on his body. His condition is considered critical,\" Dr. Gulnara Tashibekova told reporters on Russian state television. After the incident, the circus was cordoned off by police and emergency service workers. Experts have been brought in to examine the bear, which was shot and died at the scene. Russia has a long-standing tradition of training bears to perform tricks such as riding motorcycles, ice skating, and playing hockey. Fatal attacks are unusual.","highlights":"Ice skating bear kills man during rehearsals at Russian circus .\nBear dragged circus administrator Dmitry Potapov across the ice by his neck .\nRussian state circus company troupe were preparing for \"Bears on ice\"\nRussia has a long-standing tradition of training bears to perform tricks .","id":"3be16454a3c497e881342f91c98d23d2f927113d"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 30 Iraqi children riding in a bus were among the 160 people killed in Sunday's twin car bombings in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday. At least 540 people were wounded in Sunday's attacks, the deadliest in the capital in more than two years, the ministry said. One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry. The bombs detonated in quick succession about 10:30 a.m., officials said. The children were packed in a mini bus that was outside the Justice Ministry building, a ministry official said. The vehicle carrying the explosives that detonated outside the ministry building was a stolen white pick-up from Falluja, Baghdad Gov. Salah Abdul Razzaq told CNN during his inspection of the bomb site. Images from the time of the attack showed the truck, linked to the Department of Water, pull up to the side of the building and blow up, he said. Plumes of smoke billowed from the sites as victims fled, some with blood streaming down their faces. The streets were strewn with debris, including charred cars and chunks of concrete. Some government buildings and others in the area were heavily damaged. Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy said, declining to provide further details. The area struck is close to the heavily guarded \"Green Zone,\" which houses the embassy. The blasts sparked questions about Iraq's security and national elections planned for January. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who visited the scene shortly after the explosions, said holding the elections as scheduled would send a strong message to the attackers. \"The cowardly attack ... should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party, and the terrorist al Qaeda organization,'\" al-Maliki said in a written statement. U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections. Obama spoke with the prime minister and President Jalal Talabani to express his condolences and reiterate U.S. support. In August, more than 100 people were killed in a series of bombings that led to tightened security in Baghdad. Blast walls were installed across the city and checkpoints were added. Two years earlier, three truck bombings killed hundreds in Qahtaniya, in northern Iraq. Sunday's attacks were the deadliest on Iraqi civilians since those blasts in August 2007. A day before Sunday's explosions, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, visited Iraq for the first time. During her trip, she made a condolence stop at the Foreign Ministry, one of six sites attacked in August. Iraqis are supposed to go to the polls January 16, but parliament has not passed key election legislation, putting the balloting in limbo. The president, prime minister and other top officials are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the elections law and security concerns. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Mohammed Jamjoom, and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Death toll in Baghdad double bombing rises to 160 .\nBombs exploded outside government buildings in Baghdad .\nObama condemns bombings, pledges U.S. support for Iraq election .","id":"e9900aaa34e250a36ee875a90a369e401770024e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A key investor with convicted swindler Bernie Madoff drowned in his swimming pool Sunday afternoon, police said. Jeffry Picower, 67, was found unconscious in his pool at his Palm Beach, Florida, home, Palm Beach police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police said they are investigating his death using \"standard operating procedure in any drowning.\" Picower invested with Madoff, who was convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme and defrauding thousands of investors. Madoff pleaded guilty in March to 11 counts, including fraud, money laundering and perjury, and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Prosecutors have said it was the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person, totaling billions in losses to investors. Picower's Picower Foundation of Palm Beach announced it was shutting down early this year because of Madoff losses, CNN Money reported. Picower's 2007 tax return valued its portfolio at $955 million. But there were also suggestions that Picower benefited from Madoff's swindle. Citing an unnamed source, Fortune magazine said in April that Frank DiPascali, the chief lieutenant in Madoff's secretive investment business, was \"prepared to testify that he manipulated phony returns on behalf of some key Madoff investors,\" including Picower. Picower also allegedly \"extracted billions of dollars from Madoff's fund before it collapsed,\" according to Forbes magazine.","highlights":"Jeffry Picower, 67, found unconscious in his pool in his Palm Beach, Florida .\nPicower invested with Madoff, who was convicted in Ponzi scheme .\nHis foundation announced it was shutting down early this year because of Madoff losses .","id":"7935e3570497d5099419bd9a0040b28ad7db1b14"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Benjamin Todd Jealous is the new president and CEO of the NAACP. Benjamin Jealous says the 100-year-old NAACP has an ambitious agenda for civil and human rights. (CNN) -- Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and for legalized segregation. It arrived more than a hundred years late, but better late than never. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to pass a similar resolution, and when they do, the bipartisan resolution will acknowledge our nation's need to take a historic leap out of the shameful past of racial discrimination and toward a future that promises all citizens full access to the legal protections laid out in the U.S. Constitution. But we must go beyond the civil rights guaranteed in the Constitution and advocate for the human rights that will assure that America's promise is realized for all. While our Constitution mandates equality, for example, there is no constitutional guarantee for an education, let alone a good education. The fight for good schools is a struggle for our human rights. Some have opined that there is no longer a need for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and that we as a society are post-racial because of the election of our first black president. But we cannot be post-racial until we are post-racism. The case of Troy Davis, an African American man set for execution who we believe was wrongly convicted, is an exemplar of the disparities that still rock our nation (see IAMTROY.com). Davis was convicted of killing a police officer and has spent 18 years on death row. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime and seven of the nine witnesses recanted or contradicted their testimony. His case has sparked an outcry from both proponents and opponents of the death penalty including former FBI director William Sessions and conservative presidential candidate Bob Barr. Yet our laws don't allow him a new trial to reexamine the evidence that points to his innocence. African-Americans are disproportionately represented on death row. Of the 3,500 people on death row, about 42 percent are black, and virtually all are poor. Studies underscore that it is race and class, more than guilt, that determines whether a defendant, once convicted, is sentenced to death. The statistics paint an ongoing portrait of inequality. Unemployment for African-Americans remains twice that of whites and studies show there is no scientific rationale -- neither education nor experience -- that explains the gap. In some American cities, 50 percent of school-aged black men drop out of school and as much as 50 percent of young black men are unemployed. Now, as we prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAACP in New York from July 11-16 (NAACP.org), we recognize that despite our many accomplishments, we have a long path ahead to right the inequity that still racks our nation. Prompted by the riots in Abraham Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois, where a mob of whites containing many of the town's \"best citizens,\" raged for two days, killed and wounded scores of African-Americans, and drove thousands from the city, a multiracial group of intellectuals, journalists and activists gathered in a small New York apartment to launch the NAACP and fight lynching's and mob violence. History has shown the efficacy of our tried and true approach: dreaming bold dreams, breaking them down into incremental steps and ultimately achieving big victories. And our triumphs strengthen the fabric of democracy in America. When, after a multidecade-long struggle, we ended the cruel practice of lynching, not only African-Americans benefited but also Catholics, who were, after black people, the likeliest targets of lynchings in the South. Similarly, our lawsuit against 15 banks for steering African-Americans into the predatory loans that have devastated neighborhoods today would force transparency and accountability that would benefit all Americans. The election of President Obama is the result of a decades-long fight for political inclusion. His victory may have come as a bolt from the blue for some, but at the NAACP, we know that our century of hard work helped pave the way for the junior senator from Illinois, a black man, to win the White House. If our unofficial motto, \"registration, mobilization, education,\" sounds familiar, it is because that deceptively simple formula informed the successful election campaign of Obama. The NAACP has always been about the present and the future, and we choose to focus on solutions, rather than just bemoan the hard work to be done: This doesn't indicate denial, or ineffectiveness, we simply prefer action over rhetoric. Now, we see Lincoln's radical determination to extend the rights of the Constitution to all American citizens as the NAACP's guiding light. We don't often hear the words \"radical\" and \"NAACP\" in the same sentence but I like the proximity: . We've kicked off our next hundred years with actions that might have been perceived as \"radical\" at our founding a century ago -- from ending the death penalty in New Mexico to successfully passing anti-racial profiling legislation in Missouri and other states. Being radical is not new for me. I was born out of resistance to Jim Crow when my mom and dad married despite their union being illegal in many states. My dad, Fred, was disowned for marrying a black woman and was used to being the only white guy thrown out of the diner for trying to integrate the lunch counter. My mom, Ann, was an early activist in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. My generation, was told the civil rights battles had largely been won -- \"Go forth young man and make money, enjoy your life and be successful\" -- but we woke up to find ourselves the most murdered and incarcerated generation in history. So I chose to be an activist, starting at 14 with voter registration drives. I was later kicked out of Columbia University for protesting -- ultimately graduating and becoming a Rhodes scholar. During that forced hiatus, I journeyed south where I learned firsthand about the tenacity and pain of southern racism and poverty. I already knew well its northern urban counterpart. I also learned that we could win -- which filled me with a sense of hope for the nation and confidence in our ability to impact the world. Our many victories and the election of our first black president fuels my optimism over the bright future of the civil and human rights movement. It is spiced with a dash of pride, too. Thanks, in part to the work of the NAACP, my 3-year-old daughter and her girlfriends will grow up in an America where the idea of a woman president -- or a black man, or an Asian woman, or a Latino man -- isn't likely to be \"radical\" at all. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Benjamin Todd Jealous.","highlights":"Benjamin Jealous: NAACP formed in response to lynchings and race riots .\nHe says organization still has a \"radical\" agenda after 100 years .\nJealous: We must move beyond civil rights to human rights .\nHe says organization is fighting inequities in education and criminal justice .","id":"bd3c48f583ed9749b93d480bf46d3ffb5115ba8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities have charged two teenagers and an adult in connection with the beating of a 76-year-old African-American man early Tuesday in Baltimore, Maryland, in an incident police say had a racial connection. From left, Emmanuel Miller, 16, and Zachary Watson, 17 are charged as adults in the alleged beating. Emmanuel Miller, 16, and Zachary Watson, 17 are charged as adults, police said. They and Calvin Lockner, 28, face numerous charges in the alleged beating of James Privott, including attempted murder, assault and harassing a person because of race or religion, according to court documents. Lockner is a white supremacist with the nickname \"Hitler,\" Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Gugliemi told CNN. Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld told reporters some of Lockner's tattoos seem to indicate his affiliation with racist groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood, according to audio comments posted on the Web site of CNN affiliate WBAL. There is no evidence the teenagers were affiliated with any white supremacist groups, Gugliemi said, but the two knew Lockner. Police responding to a report of an armed carjacking about 3:25 a.m. Tuesday found Privott with a head injury, according to probable cause statements accompanying charges, filed in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. Privott told police he was loading his Chevy Tahoe after fishing in the nearby Patapsco River when three or four white males approached him and began to kick and punch him, knocking him to the ground while using racial epithets, according to the statements. One of the men struck him with a baseball bat, Privott said. While he was on the ground, the men stole his wallet, which contained $19, as well as the keys to his vehicle, he told police. The men left in the Tahoe, the statements said. Privott was taken to a hospital and later was transferred to the University of Maryland Hospital's shock trauma center because of his head injuries. Doctors told police he had a possible fractured eye orbital bone and had sustained serious head trauma, according to the court documents. Privott remained in critical condition, but was making progress, a Baltimore police spokeswoman said Thursday . \"What has happened is an unfortunate thing,\" Privott's wife, Ethel, told WBAL. \"I think we're living in a prison world because we can't -- we're not safe here. We go and try to have clean fun and this is what happens.\" The Chevy Tahoe's tracking system helped police locate the vehicle, which eventually crashed and overturned, the court documents said. An anonymous witness led officers to Lockner after seeing him running from the accident scene. As he was being arrested, Lockner told police, \"I'm sorry for what I did,\" according to the probable cause statements. Lockner told police he was involved in the beating, but said another man -- later identified by police as Watson -- was the one who assaulted Privott and took his wallet. Both Miller and Watson, however, told police it was Lockner who assaulted Privott, according to the court documents. Watson claimed Lockner used a sledgehammer and Miller used a bat. Both youth said Lockner forced them into the Tahoe after the assault, according to the statements. Watson said the three then smoked marijuana, police said. Bealefeld told reporters that while authorities have received conflicting information from the three, \"I think the consensus is that Mr. Lockner played a leading role in a lot of this.\" Miller said, according to the probable cause statements, that he, Lockner and Watson were at Fort Armistead Park near the river when they saw Privott and a woman fishing. Miller said the three asked the man and woman if they had any water or cigarettes, but they said no. Lockner grew angry at their refusal, Miller told police, and used a racial epithet as they were walking away, the documents said. Miller said the three waited for the woman with Privott to leave and then Lockner assaulted him, hitting him about 10 times, according to the probable cause statements. Ethel Privott told WBAL the two enjoy fishing near the park and have been doing so for more than a decade. \"It's usually a party,\" she said, but the two had stayed late on Tuesday. \"A lot of seniors go down there. It's a nice secluded area, and we have fun. Until this,\" she said. A preliminary hearing for all three suspects is set for September 18.","highlights":"James Privott, 76, says white males kicked, punched him, used racial epithets .\nSuspect Calvin Lockner is white supremacist with the nickname \"Hitler,\" police say .\nTwo teen suspects charged as adults .\nPrivott in critical condition but making progress .","id":"7b22f15fc7c28ce0dfa819644f88f513e38824f5"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Have you ever been watching television and thought, \"Wow, this soap opera is so good it could cause the downfall of a corrupt communist regime,\" or even, \"I bet one day this show is going to send the first woman into space\"? Well, maybe you're not giving the boob tube enough credit. Popular television shows have influenced politics in the United States and around the world. While others are busy blaming television for all of society's downfalls, we think it's time someone stood up for ye olde idiot box. After all, these 10 television shows didn't just entertain, they helped convince the world to get with the program. 1. \"DALLAS\" The Show that Overthrew a Dictator . (Well, kind of.) \"Dallas\" was one of the most popular TV shows in history -- and nowhere was it more talked about than in Nicolae Ceausescu's communist Romania. How did the soap opera get past Romanian censors? With help from \"Dallas\" leading man, J.R. Ewing, of course. Because J.R. was portrayed as a despicable oil baron, Ceausescu's government presumably decided the show must be anti-capitalist. Whatever the reasoning, \"Dallas\" became a runaway hit when it arrived in Romania in 1979. A series about wealthy, beautiful people (evil or not) was an inspiration to Romania's poor and dejected masses. Eventually, the government decided such Western television was a bad influence, and \"Dallas\" was taken off the air in 1981. But by then, it was too late. The fantasies of Western life lived on in the imaginations of Romanians, and in 1989, Ceausescu was overthrown during a public uprising. Not incidentally, the actor who played J.R., Larry Hagman, visited Romania some years later and was treated as a hero. In an interview following the experience, Hagman said, \"People from Bucharest came up to me in the street with tears in their eyes saying, 'J.R. saved our country.' \" 2. \"SEE IT NOW\" The Show that Ended McCarthyism . If you know your 1950s history (or if you saw the movie \"Good Night, and Good Luck\"), you know the impact crusading journalist Edward R. Murrow had on American politics. His vehicle for galvanizing change? The current affairs show, \"See It Now,\" which premiered in 1951. Well known as a World War II radio correspondent, Murrow wasn't a fan of television initially. He wanted to go beyond the talking-head discussions and newsreels that filled most nightly news shows at the time. So when he finally decided to move forward with \"See It Now,\" he did so on his own terms. The show's debut episode featured television's first live coast-to-coast transmission, which included a split-screen of the Brooklyn Bridge on one side and the Golden Gate on the other. Murrow also broke new ground by airing a day in the lives of Korean War soldiers. Of course, the show's most influential role was in exposing Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist fear campaign and opening Americans' eyes to the many lives and careers it was ruining. Thanks in part to fallout from Murrow's broadcast on March 9, 1954, the U.S. Senate reprimanded McCarthy for abusing his power, and McCarthyism came to an abrupt end. Murrow wasn't afraid to take on rogue senators, and later, he proved he wasn't scared to take on Big Tobacco, either. Two episodes of \"See It Now\" explored the link between cigarettes and cancer -- a brave move, considering television depended heavily on tobacco sponsorships at the time. But perhaps Murrow had a personal interest in the story. A three-pack-a-day smoker who regularly appeared on camera with a cigarette in hand, Murrow died of lung cancer in 1965. 3. \"GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER\" The Show that Turned Ronald Reagan into a Republican . In the early 1950s, film actor Ronald Reagan was at a low point in his career. So when Taft Schreiber, of the Music Corporation of America, got him a gig as the host of the anthology series \"General Electric Theater,\" Reagan jumped at the opportunity. For $125,000 a year and part-ownership of the program, he not only hosted the show, but also toured America as a \"goodwill ambassador\" for the electricity giant, giving speeches to plant employees and acting as its public spokesperson. By the time \"General Electric Theater\" was cancelled in 1962, Reagan was a new man. Turns out, all those years defending free enterprise for one of the nation's biggest multinational companies had transformed Reagan into one of America's leading conservative speakers. Although the actor had long been a Democrat, the Republican Schreiber convinced Reagan to change political parties. Four years later, the newly Republican Reagan was elected governor of California, and the rest is presidential history. 4. \"CATHY COME HOME\" The Drama that Transformed the Welfare State . Directed by Ken Loach (who later became one of Britain's most respected filmmakers), the drama \"Cathy Come Home\" was a poignant episode of the BBC-1 anthology series The Wednesday Play. It told the tragic story of Cathy Ward, a young wife and mother who becomes the victim of Britain's welfare state. Going from working-class struggle to dire poverty, Cathy's journey begins when her husband loses his job following an accident and becomes unable to support the family. In a painful spiral toward destitution, Cathy suffers through various states of homelessness, separates from her husband, and eventually, has her children forcibly taken away from her by government council workers. A truly horrifying story, its impact was compounded by the fact that \"Cathy Come Home\" was filmed in such a realistic style that some viewers thought it was a documentary. And although the Conservative Party government claimed the movie was \"full of blunders,\" Labour Party politician Anthony Greenwood said the show should be \"compulsory viewing once a month for the next five years.\" British audiences agreed, and \"Cathy Come Home\" was aired again shortly after. The ensuing public outrage helped bring major changes to British welfare law. Other nations followed suit, with similar reforms and charities. 5. \"THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR\" The Show that Swung an Election . \"The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour\" was many things. It was the first network TV show to make fun of the Establishment, support America's counterculture, and have enough nerve to put blacklisted singers (such as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger) back on the air. Ironically, however, the show's major achievement might have been making Richard Nixon president. As a gag, show star Pat Paulsen ran for office during the 1968 presidential election. \"I'm consistently vague on the issues,\" announced Paulsen on national television, \"and I'm continuing to make promises that I'll be unable to fulfill.\" Regardless of his humorous motives, Paulsen seemed to have a \"Ralph Nader Effect,\" stealing 200,000 votes from the Democrats and helping to swing one of the closest elections in history. Thanks to Paulsen's efforts, Nixon narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. \"Hubert Humphrey told me I cost him the election,\" recalled Paulsen, \"and he wasn't smiling when he said it.\" E-mail to a friend . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Dallas\" gave poor Romanians a view of a better life .\nJ.R. Ewing actor Larry Hagman greeted as hero in the country .\nHubert Humphrey blamed comic for election loss .","id":"1abe69721152db4f4c8812b685769768bb8151d1"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Steve Perry is the founder and principal of the Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, and author of \"Man Up!: Nobody is Coming to Save Us,\" which offers solutions to problems in the black community. Steve Perry says a question from a parent started his journey to creating a top-performing school. HARTFORD, Connecticut (CNN) -- \"Why do only rich kids get good schools?\" I was the founder and director of a part-time out-of-school college preparatory program. The questioner was a parent; herself a victim of a dulled urban education. The statement was more of an indictment than question, and I had no answer. \"Well, why can't this program be a school,\" she offered. The program sent 100 percent of our graduates to college. We served poor students who were the first generation in their families to attend college. We provided college preparation through a six-week summer program, after-school tutoring and in-school academic advising. That single mother's question came at the end of the summer program. This was always a tough time. As the kids said goodbye to their friends and the program's high expectations, we all looked at the school year with great trepidation. We knew that the students were returning to failed schools with very low expectations -- and results to match. Like that mom, I too wondered why wealth and whiteness are too often linked to quality education. Her question connected to a discussion that I'd been having with some colleagues during the summer program. All of the teachers in that program worked in failed urban schools. Many had tried to reform traditional urban schools. They'd started formal and informal programs, identified groups of kids and connected to parents. Each had had some success with some kids, but the conditions that led to the need to do something went unchanged. The question was raised at the end of our 2002 summer program. My first instinct was to begin down the path of opening an all-male minority charter school. In Connecticut, charter schools are publicly funded and privately run, with no teachers' unions, no school board influence and no centralized curriculum. These were the pluses. There was only one minus: There was no money. The charter idea was dead as soon as it began. I assembled an all -black team. My plan was to put black educators together, and we would show 'em. Brothers and sisters were gonna open a successful charter school. Black educators serving black kids. This was my first major mistake. Talent and commitment have no color. Kids don't care what color their teachers are, and I shouldn't have either. After almost a year of stops and starts with a team that was not effectively assembled, I realized that I failed in my judgment because I did not keep my eye on the goal, which was to build a school that sent kids to college regardless of their hue or economic status. I have never made that mistake again. I doubled back and went into the schools and found the teachers who stayed the latest and arrived the earliest. I looked for the most ambitious teachers who had a reputation of being the most talented, and we started a second team. I am a social worker. I knew that I could run an organization, but wasn't sure about developing curriculum. When I created Team 2, my first pick was the best teacher I could find. Rich Beganski is the perfect complement, or opposite, of who I am. He's meticulous and lives and breathes curriculum. He is an operations genius. He was a longtime assistant coach who never wanted to be coach. I've never been an assistant and don't want to be one. Our team was composed of a white guy, a Latina, a black woman and a black man bound by a single commitment: to send kids to college. In 2003-04, Connecticut was settling a desegregation case. A component of the agreement was to open eight magnet schools in Hartford in two years. Magnet schools are publicly funded and publicly run theme-based schools, complete with unions and subordinate to the local school board. The part-time college preparatory program was hosted in a community college. The college's president was an impulsive visionary. On a Friday afternoon elevator ride from the 10th to the seventh floor, he said, \"Steve, we're gonna start a high school, you should run it.\" I told him I would and got off on the seventh floor. First thing that following Monday, I was in his office with the dead charter school application. Over the next few months, we tweaked it until it became a magnet application. With the help of some of the program's parents, we submitted it to Hartford's mayor, superintendent, and then the board. The process was anything but smooth. The district could not conceptualize what Capital Prep would become. A year-round college-preparatory uniform school for grades six to 12 was the absolute antithesis of the district's offerings. Hartford was either the worst or second-worst school system in Connecticut, with a high dropout rate and three failed traditional high schools. At first, Capital Prep was a poorly received idea. It became real, in large part, because of the state's settlement and our team's determination to answer the question. After receiving school board and state approval in December 2004, we were expected to open for August 2005. The problem was that while we had a \"team,\" Capital Prep didn't have a single employee. Since we were becoming Hartford Board of Education employees, we all had to apply for our jobs. My hire was relatively painless. Beganski, the team's operations genius, was turned away as an \"internal\" candidate. After two years of working 30 hours a week to turn an idea into a reality, he became our first central office\/union casualty. I promised to resign if he wasn't hired. Finally, the district relented and gave him the job that he had designed. This was to become an ongoing theme in the school's first few years: ridiculous actions focused on maintaining the failed status quo. We worked through the summer with the rest of the team. The district stumbled and stalled until, with less than two weeks before our first day of school, Capital Prep only had two staff members: Beganski and me. We were not allowed to hire a single teacher. Even though we had had a team that had worked for years researching and designing the school for no money, we were told that none of them could be hired because union rules dictated who and when we could hire. This meant that our last employee for year one was hired 14 hours before the first day of school. In the years that have followed, the struggles with the union and central office's narrow, regressive policies have tested our commitment to answer that mother's simple question. The complexity of the answer is rooted in Capital Prep's relationship to the failed policies of the once highly centralized district and educators' union. In recent years, a new superintendent has come on board -- the third in our first three years. His approach has been absolutely aligned with what we need to exist. He leaves us alone as long as we get results. He can't shield us from the unions, but he has supported our creativity and commitment to our kids. He lets me run the school, and our teachers teach what works. That's all we've ever sought. Answering the question of \"why only the rich kids get good schools\" has set our team on an odyssey. Seven years later, we have an answer that we are proud of. Rich kids are not the only kids who have good schools, because Capital Prep's 80 percent black\/Latino, 60 percent poor students attend one of America's top high schools, according to US News & World Report. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Steve Perry.","highlights":"Steve Perry: A parent asked why only rich kids get good schools .\nHe says question started process of building a quality school .\nPerry says his team fought bureaucracy, union to try something new .\nHe says his school is highly rated and sends all graduates to college .","id":"cfc7f22181a54a4cd75f8fb200fbeb01083b2ed5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Meet Bailey. She's a registered therapy dog, but you won't find her in hospitals or nursing homes. Instead, Bailey makes weekly visits to libraries and schools. She sits quietly or snuggles up to kids as they read her a book. And no, she's not napping, and the kids don't have treats in their pockets. She's actually helping these children learn to read. It sounds implausible. After all, dogs can't read. How could they possibly help someone learn a skill that they themselves can't grasp? But it's a growing trend, and it seems to be working. The philosophy is simple. Children who are just learning to read often feel judged or intimidated by classmates and adults. But reading to a dog isn't so scary. It won't judge, it won't get impatient, it won't laugh or correct if the child makes a mistake. In a nutshell, dogs are simply excellent listeners. And for shy kids or slow readers, that can make all the difference. Kathy Klotz is executive director of Intermountain Therapy Animals, which runs a nationwide program called R.E.A.D. -- Reading Education Assistance Dogs. She says there's another benefit of reading to the dogs that she didn't anticipate: confidence. \"A factor that we never planned for, that turned out to be really important, is that the child feels like they're letting the dog understand the story,\" she says. \"They get to be the teacher, the storyteller, the one who knows more than the dog for a change. ...They just blossom when they get to be the one who knows more than the dog.\" The children know they're not actually teaching the dog, of course, but the for the kids, the idea that they know more than the dog and can share their knowledge is a powerful one. And now that volunteers are aware of that aspect, Klotz says they actively foster the idea of the child as the teacher. \"One of the things you do in the program is you always speak for the dog,\" says Klotz. \"Like if [the child] doesn't know a word, the dog doesn't know the word either. And then they're not alone, and they can look it up in the dictionary together.\" Bailey and her owner, Jim Wilmoth, participate in weekly reading sessions at local libraries in West Virginia with kids who are generally between 6 and 12 years old. They're part of the \"Sit. Stay. Read.\" program, which is similar to R.E.A.D. Programs like these have popped up in nearly every state to help improve literacy rates in the United States. \"The kids come in and read stories to Bailey and other therapy dogs for about 15 or 20 minutes at a time,\" says Wilmoth, who was interviewed by iReporter Jennifer Sias at the West Virginia Book Festival. \"It encourages them to practice their reading skills ... and it's a good way to involve families with the library system.\" And the dogs really do pay attention, according to Lisa Saroyan. Her pomeranian, Minnie, has been a reading therapy dog for about a year in Fresno, California, as part of Therapy Dogs International's \"Tail Waggin' Tutors\" program. Minnie, who weighs in at only five pounds, sits calmly but alertly on a table for an hour at a time as children take turns reading to her. \"She really does sit there and stare at them,\" says Saroyan. \"And sometimes as they're turning the pages, she follows the page with her nose, and the kids just light up. She just knows what she's supposed to do.\" See Minnie in action . And then, of course, there are the proven physiological benefits of interacting with dogs. According to the researchers at the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University, blood pressure drops and the heart rate slows when a person is petting a dog. The National Institutes of Health confirms what any dog owner knows: Dogs have been found to reduce stress. Each of these factors helps calm children and makes them feel less nervous or intimidated about reading. For older children and teens, the dog can be a supportive friend and provide an outlet from stress and peer pressure. Klotz says her organization has had particular success with kids in detention programs. \"A comment we always get in our detention program is that animals make kids respond so genuinely,\" she explains. \"They get away from peer pressure and towards a genuine enjoyment [of reading]. ... They love it.\" It's hard to measure scientifically the success of the program and others like it. Because they're volunteer-based, and because each state uses different methods to measure reading level, doing a nationwide study would be difficult. However, Klotz says it's possible to see results in individual schools by comparing the reading improvement of kids who participate in the program with kids who don't. She says it's typical for the kids who read to dogs for just 20 minutes a week to improve their reading skills by a couple of grade levels in one school year. She's even seen as much improvement as four grade levels in a year. And Klotz thinks that reading comprehension is just the beginning of how these dogs help kids. \"It's not just reading scores,\" she says. \"They start to speak up in class, and volunteer, and finish homework. They don't want to miss school when they're going to read to the dog, so it improves attendance. It kind of just flows over onto everything.\" R.E.A.D. staff and volunteers know people are skeptical about the program's results at first, but Klotz says anyone who's spent time with a dog will understand. \"It sounds a little kooky when people first hear the idea,\" she admits. \"But if they know dogs at all, and the way people relate to dogs, it quickly starts to make sense. But you don't quite ever grasp how really lovely it is until you see it happen and you see the kids light up and you see how excited they are. You see all these changes in them that they just weren't able to make.\" And therapy dog owners say the pups love the program as much as the kids. \"They kind of benefit each other,\" says Saroyan. \"[Minnie] just craves that human attention, and [the kids] really benefit from her just sitting there and listening.\"","highlights":"Therapy dogs in libraries can help kids become more comfortable with reading .\nIt's less intimidating for a child to read to a dog than a parent or classmate .\nSpending time with a dog also helps physiologically reduce effects of stress .\nDogs in libraries and schools are a small but growing trend across the U.S.","id":"b64ce8270337e30fb6d7293564388aff728f352f"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration revoked the licenses of two Northwest Airlines pilots Tuesday in an extraordinary letter in which the agency chastised the pair, saying they endangered the public by flying an hour and half without contacting controllers \"while you were on a frolic of your own.\" The letter to Northwest Captain Timothy B. Cheney and First Officer Richard I. Cole puts the total time the pilots maintained radio silence at 91 minutes -- 13 minutes longer than originally defined by federal investigators. The letter said the pilots were \"extremely reckless.\" \"Not only did you not comply with ... [air traffic controller] instructions, you did not even monitor the aircraft's air-ground radios,\" the letter said. \"You were disengaged and impervious to the serious threat to your own safety, as well as the safety of people for whom you are responsible. This is a total dereliction and disregard for your duties.\" The letter provides new details about the flight. Cheney, 53, and Cole, 54, were piloting Flight 188 from San Diego, California, to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in Minnesota on Wednesday when air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the Airbus A320 over the Denver, Colorado, area. Instead of beginning to descend as planned about 22 minutes before its scheduled arrival, the plane continued flying at its cruise altitude of 35,000 feet and passed over the Minnesota airport. At 8:14 p.m. CT -- 36 minutes after the plane was to begin its descent and 14 minutes after its scheduled arrival -- the pilots contacted controllers, the FAA said. One of the pilots radioed: \"We got distracted and we've overflown MSP [Minneapolis-St. Paul airport]. We are overhead EAU [Eau Claire, Wisconsin] and would like to make a 180 and to [make] an arrival from over EAU.\" Cheney and Cole told federal investigators that they \"lost track of time\" while working on personal laptop computers, the National Transportation Safety Board said. They became aware of their plane's position only after a flight attendant asked about the landing time, according to the NTSB. The FAA said the revocations cite several violations of regulations, including failure to comply with air traffic control and clearances and operating carelessly and recklessly. The pilots have 10 days to appeal the revocations, which are effective immediately, to the NTSB, the FAA said. Flight 188 carried 144 passengers, the two pilots and three flight attendants. Cheney was hired in 1985 and has more than 20,000 hours of flight time, while Cole was hired in 1997 and has about 11,000 hours of flight time, according to an NTSB report released Monday. Neither pilot reported having had an accident, incident or violation, neither had any ongoing medical conditions, and neither said he was tired, the report said. They each had had a 19-hour layover in San Diego; neither said he had slept or argued during the flight, but both said \"there was a distraction\" in the cockpit, according to the report. The pilots said there was \"a concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the airplane or calls\" from air traffic control, though both said they heard conversation on the radio, the report said. Neither pilot said he noticed messages sent by company dispatchers, the report added. It said the men were talking about a new monthly crew flight scheduling system that was put into place in the wake of Northwest's merger with Delta Air Lines. \"Each pilot accessed and used his personal laptop computer while they discussed the airline crew flight scheduling procedure,\" the report said. \"The first officer, who was more familiar with the procedure, was providing instruction to the captain.\" After landing at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, both voluntarily underwent alcohol breath tests, which proved negative, the report said.","highlights":"NEW: Pilots were \"extremely reckless,\" \"on a frolic,\" FAA says .\nNEW: Radio silence lasted 91 minutes, longer than initially believed, FAA says .\nPair involved in overflight of Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in Minnesota last week .\nNTSB: Pilots were on laptops, discussing scheduling system, lost track of time .","id":"fbe19353736df1eaa81fc7252156c8cab625db43"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Three men who kidnapped and tortured a man over a drug debt were sentenced Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia, to decades in prison, in a case tied to Mexican drug cartels. Federal authorities point to the 2008 case as evidence that Atlanta has become a major distribution hub for powerful Mexican drug groups such as the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels. Victor Abiles Gomez, 20, Omar Mendoza-Villegas, 19, and Gerardo Solorio Reyes, 23, were sentenced to more than 20 years each in the kidnapping and beating of Oscar Reynoso in a suburban Atlanta home, federal authorities said. Gomez and Mendoza-Villegas were sentenced to 24 years in federal prison; Reyes was sentenced to 26 years. The three gagged the victim and left him chained to a mattress in an unfinished basement for six days because of a $300,000 drug debt, authorities said. The three are illegal immigrants from Mexico and had ties to powerful drug cartels there, authorities said. \"This case demonstrates the danger inherent in the illegal business of drug-dealing,\" said Atlanta U.S. Attorney David Nahmias. \"Fortunately, this violent episode did not spill over to innocent members of our community.\" In fiscal 2008, authorities confiscated about $70 million in drug-related cash in Atlanta, more than anywhere else in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration has said. Atlanta has become a stopping point for truckloads of Mexican cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine, agents say. The drugs are held in stash houses before being distributed on the East Coast.","highlights":"3 men linked to cartels kidnapped and tortured man over drug debt, authorities say .\nVictim was found gagged, chained in basement in Atlanta suburb .\nThe three convicted kidnappers got sentences of 20+ years in federal prison .\nAtlanta is stopping point for Mexican drug cartel shipments, authorities say .","id":"e31d15d4a0c530949f0b4f2f9c89f839715adf06"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The militants behind Wednesday's deadly strike on a Pakistani marketplace that killed at least 90 people -- most of them women -- are \"on the losing side of history,\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a joint news conference with her Pakistani counterpart. \"If the people behind the attacks were so sure of their beliefs let them join the political process, let them come forth to the people and make their case that they don't want girls to go to school, that they want women to be kept back, that they believe they have all the answers,\" Clinton said in response to the car bombing in Peshawar. \"They know they are on the losing side of history but they are determined to take as many lives with them as their movement is finally exposed for the nihilistic, empty effort that it is.\" Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also condemned the deadly attack, offering his condolences to the victims and their families and directly addressing the attackers. \"We will not buckle, we will fight you because we want stability and peace in Pakistan,\" Qureshi said. \"You are on the run and we know that. We defeated you in Swat and Malakand. You think by attacking innocent people and lives you will shake our determination? No, sir, you will not.\" The blast at the Meena Bazaar killed at least 90 people, most of them women, and injured more than 200 others, according to North West Frontier Province's information minister. The market is a labyrinth of shops popular with women in the Peepal Mandi section of the city. The attack is the deadliest ever carried out in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. Clinton arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday for a series of meetings with top Pakistani officials. Talking with reporters en route to the country, Clinton said she wants to \"turn the page\" on what has been, in the past few years, \"primarily a security-anti-terrorist agenda.\" \"We hold that to be extremely important, and it remains a very high priority,\" she said. \"But we also recognize that it is imperative that we broaden our engagement with Pakistan.\" Clinton said there have been \"a lot of misconceptions\" about American intentions. \"We have a relationship that we want to strengthen, but we don't want it to be lopsided. We don't want it to be just about security and just about our anti-terrorist agenda,\" she said. \"It is unfortunate that there are those who question our motives, who perhaps are skeptical that we are going to commit to a long-term relationship, and I want to try to clear the air up on that while I am in the country,\" she said.","highlights":"Clinton condemns bombing of Peshawar market which killed at least 90 people Wednesday .\nOf militants who carried out the attacks, she said: \"They are on the losing side of history\"\nThe U.S. Secretary of State is in Pakistan to shore up strained relations .\nClinton said relationship is about more than security and anti-terror campaign .","id":"3bf0b5061818b81a3c2ee8810806e2cfa2460647"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When Danish auteur Lars von Trier presented his gothic thriller, \"Antichrist\" at Cannes Film Festival last month, it was greeted with cat-calls, jeers and, at times, disbelieving laughter. Danish auteur Lars von Trier has been making films that shock, provoke and impress for over 40 years. Filmmakers are expected to give audiences a hard time at Cannes and the two-hander starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple grieving the loss of a child is no exception. But it was the level of pornographic sex and visceral brutality that outraged some and astonished many. Von Trier was labeled a woman-hater for the wince-inducingly horrific final scene in which female lead Charlotte Gainsbourg takes a pair of rusty scissors to her genitals and performs a DIY clitoridectomy right to camera. An Ecumenical Jury that normally hands out a prize at Cannes celebrating spiritual values felt moved to award \"Antichrist\" an \"anti-prize\" for being \"the most misogynist movie from the self-proclaimed biggest director in the world.\" \"Lars von Trier, we get it,\" wrote film critic Wendy Ide in UK paper The Times. \"You really, really don't like women.\" Misogyny couldn't be further from the truth, according to Von Trier, who says he sees himself up there on the screen: \"I mostly see myself as the female character,\" the 53-year-old director told CNN in Cannes. Do you think that Lars von Trier is a woman-hater? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . The director says that he shot the film as a form of therapy after recovering from a serious mental illness. Indeed, a few years ago, it was questionable whether von Trier, who is famously multi-phobic, would be able to make another film. In the winter of 2006, he fell victim to depression and checked into hospital, the aftermath of which left him \"like a blank sheet of paper,\" he told Danish paper Politiken at the time. Today, if not fully recovered -- the most terrifying thing he can think of is still \"myself\" -- he is able to function once more and is receiving cognitive behavioral therapy to help him face up to his psychological issues. Despite, or perhaps because of, what he describes as his \"sensitive\" nature, von Trier is one of today's great contemporary European auteurs, considered responsible for spearheading a revival in the fortunes of Scandinavian filmmaking. \"I think that if you are, shall we say, sensitive, then there is a good side and a bad side about it,\" said von Trier. \"The good side is that you can sometimes achieve something creatively. But, of course, it always also allows some of these negative thoughts in.\" Watch Lars von Trier talking to CNN's The Screening Room about \"Antichrist\" \u00bb . He has been nominated for the top prize at Cannes, the Palme D'Or, a staggering eight times, winning once in 2000 for the harrowing operatic tragedy, \"Dancer in the Dark,\" starring Icelandic musician, Bjork, who also took home the Best Actress prize that year. It is rumored Bjork became so unhinged filming \"Dancer in the Dark\" she ate her own cardigan. Von Trier claimed each morning she would say \"Mr von Trier, I despise you,\" and spit at him. In pictures: The wierd world of Lars von Trier \u00bb . Von Trier has a reputation for being tough on his actors. His friend and long-time collaborator, actor Stellan Skarsgard describes von Trier as \"not uncomplex.\" \"I was scared,\" admitted Gainsbourg who won Best Actress at Cannes for her performance. \"I had heard stories about him as a director ... maybe he's cruel and vicious.\" But she now describes him as her \"guide\" and \"the greatest director I've ever worked with.\" Fueled by his unconventional approach and upbringing, the mythology surrounding von Trier looms large over everything he touches. Brought up in Copenhagen by bohemian parents who were committed nudists, he suffers from crippling bouts of agoraphobia; and, most famously, a fear of flying. Each visit to Cannes involves a five-day road trip from Denmark to the French Riviera by camper van. He has an undeniable egotistical streak: this year at Cannes, he declared, \"I am the best filmmaker in the world,\" and in 1991, when displeased that Cannes jury president Roman Polanski had only awarded \"Europa\" the runner-up Grand Prix prize, he called him a \"dwarf.\" He also seems to actively court controversy: 1998 Palme D'Or contender \"Dogme #2: The Idiots\" grabbed headlines for being the first commercial film to show non-simulated sex on screen, and for von Trier's typically eccentric claim that the best way to prepare actors for sex scenes is to direct in the nude. But, von Trier says, he has always taken a deeply personal approach to the experimental, often dark and challenging works that he creates. He says he finds it difficult to know how to satisfy the needs of others with his films and so works only for himself. \"I feel very strongly for satisfying, maybe not my own needs, but my own idea of the film and the images that come from within,\" he told CNN. \"If I didn't follow my instinct, then I can't work.\"","highlights":"Pornographic sex and visceral violence in \"Antichrist\" shocked early audiences .\nVon Trier was accused of misogyny but claims to identify with the female character .\n\"Antichrist\" stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe as a bereaved couple .\nVon Trier's \"The Idiots\" (1998) was first mainstream film to show non-simulated sex .","id":"2609c7962d93a689b6a2106ede9331a2c665e0c3"} -{"article":"CANNES, France (CNN) -- The line-up at this year's Cannes Film Festival is a cineaste's dream. There are high expectations for Jane Campion's \"Bright Star,\" a drama about 19th-century poet John Keats. Packed with big name auteurs (Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach, Lars Von Trier, Quentin Tarantino, and Park Chan-wook among others) and intriguing propositions, the competition for the coveted Palme d'Or is sure to be fierce. While there may be a dearth of surprises in the line-up, the world's shiniest cinema event has certainly proved that in these tough economic times it can still cherry pick the best of what's out there. But what among the dizzying array of celluloid magic has caught the eye of industry insiders and professionals? The Screening Room asked a blogger, a critic and a film buyer attending the festival what films they will be watching out for at this year's event. THE CRITIC . Name: Jonathan Romney . Credentials: Film critic for British newspaper The Independent on Sunday . Cannes experience: 17 years . It's heavily loaded with big names and the strange thing is that this year there are very few surprises in there. Last year there was Italian Matteo Garrone's \"Gomorrah\" (which won the Grand Prize) and Israeli Ari Folman's animation \"Waltz with Bashir,\" films that nobody knew anything about in competition. The one that people are either really looking forward to or dreading is \"Enter the Void,\" Gaspar Noe's new film. Noe gave everybody a rough time in 2002 with \"Irreversible,\" a violent, confrontational rape-revenge drama. The thing about him is once he's got you in the cinema you're not going to get out. This one has been made in Japan and is the story of someone looking at the events leading up to their own death. In particular, I'll be looking at Jane Campion's film, \"Bright Star,\" starring Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw. It's based on the three-year romance between 19th-century poet Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by his death at the age of 25. She hasn't delivered for quite a while. Her last few films were at best patchy and at worst disappointing. She's shown skill at her version of costume dramas in the past with films like \"The Piano,\" which won the Palme d'Or in 1994. Five-times Palme d'Or nominated German[-born] Michael Haneke's \"The White Ribbon\" is another film people are talking about. It is set in 1914 and is apparently about the emergence of Nazism. I imagine it will be fairly austere and confrontational. I also imagine it will be very good. He has never made a film that doesn't really engage or impress on some level. There's also Danish Cannes stalwart Lars von Trier's film \"Antichrist,\" starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg about a grieving couple who retreat to a small cabin in the forest to mourn following the death of their child. There has been some controversy over why he is making what looks like a conventional Hollywood horror. It almost certainly won't be that. I suspect it will be philosophical. A lot of these filmmakers are not entertainers. They like to give their audiences a hard time. One of the keynotes of this year is going to be confrontation. THE BLOGGER . Name: Karina Longworth . Credentials: Co-founder of Cinematical film blog and editor of Spout blog . Cannes experience: two years . In the Directors' Fortnight section I'm really excited about \"Go Get Some Rosemary,\" which is directed by these two young American brothers, Joshua and Benny Safdie. Their style is reminiscent of the French New Wave -- but with this sense of humor and willingness to experiment in real locations, and use the people that are walking by as accidental characters. They're sometimes lumped together with the young American \"Mumblecore\" scene but their films are really different. They've got a really interesting sense of style. Another film I'm really excited about is a documentary by French Oscar-winner Michel Gondry. The English title is \"The Thorn in the Heart,\" and it is about his aunt. Because it is in the Special Screening section and it's not in competition, it won't get the full red carpet treatment. But while the international press is looking the other way, if it's really good it could stand out from the crowd. Of course I'm excited to see a Quentin Tarantino movie, but my experience of being at Cannes is that going to see one of those giant films ends up taking all day long. I try to go and see films that I might not ever be able to see again. The film I'm most excited about seeing is Lars von Trier's \"Antichrist.\" It looks sort of \"Rosemary's Baby\"-ish and it is a return to working in English with American-known actors. I'm also looking forward to Jane Campion's new film. THE BUYER . Name: Robert Walak . Credentials: Senior vice-president, Acquisitions Worldwide, Momentum Pictures . Cannes experience: seven years . Sometimes a film is going to \"pop\" where you least expect it, and it's often not the film with established directors. It's quite difficult to find those -- the ones that create industry buzz, the ones that the critics suddenly go for, but also when you finally do get around to releasing it in your territory that the film actually crosses over and becomes an art house hit. I've already read the scripts for a lot of the films in competition -- you really want to get all of the information and do your homework. This year there's buzz about a film by an Iranian director, Bahman Qobadi, called \"No One Knows Persian Cats,\" which is being sold by innovative production company Wild Bunch. Qobadi has served as a juror on the Cannes jury before and took home a Golden Camera award in 2000 for \"A Time for Drunken Horses,\" a drama about young Iranian Kurds. I'm also looking forward to \"Antichrist.\" It's going to be interesting to see what von Triers' take on a horror movie is going to be. The script was off the wall and I want to see how he brings it all together. The Ken Loach film \"Looking for Eric,\" which stars ex-footballer Eric Cantona, is meant to be fantastic. It's already sold in the UK but the script was wonderful and I think it's going to be a very distinctive, different film for Loach. Feel-good is a very overused term, but people are going to be looking for more feel-good films now anyway.","highlights":"From Quentin Tarantino to Ken Loach, Cannes is packed with big names .\nCritic Jonathan Romney's looking forward to Jane Campion's \"Bright Star\"\nBlogger Karina Longworth can't wait for Lars von Trier's \"Antichrist\"\nBuyer Robert Walak says people will be looking for \"more feel-good films\"","id":"c425aa189962dd2e79cf73e6447c54f4f5b9c571"} -{"article":"HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- A new video and a photo of ailing Communist leader Fidel Castro surfaced on Sunday, revealing a healthier-looking man than in previous photos. A man in Havana, Cuba, reads a newspaper on Sunday featuring a picture of a healthy-looking Fidel Castro. State-run Cubavision aired video of Castro during its Sunday news broadcast, saying the footage was taken Saturday when the former president met with Venezuelan law students. It was the first video of Castro broadcast in at least a year. The photo -- the second in 10 days -- published in Cuba's state-run youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, shows Castro, 83, meeting with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on Friday. The photo shows a well-groomed Castro wearing a white short-sleeve shirt and standing face-to-face with Correa. The meeting involved discussions of economic matters and medical checkups, according to the state-run newspaper. Another photo of the former Cuban president was released on August 13 by Pastors For Peace, a U.S.-based advocacy group that recently traveled to the island nation and is pushing for an end to the near half-century-old U.S. trade embargo. Castro, who came to power in 1959, underwent abdominal surgery in 2006. The Cuban leader ceded the presidency to his younger brother, Raul, last year, but has retained leadership of the Communist Party, the only legal political party in Cuba. CNN's David Ariosto contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: The video of Castro is the first broadcast in at least a year .\nNew photo shows fit-looking Castro meeting with Ecuadorian president .\nReport: Castro and Correa met over economic matters and medical checkups .\nHe ceded Cuba's presidency to his brother in 2008 but is still Communist Party chief .","id":"4d29f268cb54bd59ca8449e7c0bfc0f26f86fa02"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Loretta Chaisson Lewis, 28, was the first to die. She was reported missing on May 17, 2005. Three days later, fishermen found her body floating in a canal off Highway 26 in Jennings, Louisiana. Victims, clockwise: Laconia Brown, 23, Whitnei Dubois, 26, Brittney Gary, 17 and Necole Guillory, 26. Her father, Thomas Lewis, recently posted a plea on a Web site established in September by the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office to draw attention to the killing of his daughter and the deaths of seven other women in the area. Police say the slayings may be linked. \"We love and miss her,\" the father's message said. \"She was a loving mother, wife and daughter. If you have any information about her death, please let someone know.\" There have been eight killings in four years in a small town that averages one homicide a year. The victims' bodies were dumped on the outskirts of Jennings -- population 10,546 -- west of Lafayette, Louisiana. Townspeople are perplexed. They're asking themselves, \"Is there a serial killer among us?\" That seems likely, authorities say. \"Based on an analysis of the investigation thus far, we believe the homicides may be linked to a common offender,\" Sheriff Ricky Edwards said in a recent news release. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 30 and had similar lifestyles. They were drug abusers who in some cases resorted to prostitution, \"trading sex for drugs,\" Edwards said. The throats of two of the victims were slit and the others died \"from some sort of asphyxiation, according to the coroner's office,\" he said. The bodies of all but two of the victims were either nude or partially nude, the sheriff said, but the coroner's office has not determined whether any were sexually assaulted. One month after Lewis' death, the body of Ernestine Patterson, 30, was found in a drainage canal. Two young women were killed in 2007, Kristen Lopez, 21, and Whitnei Dubois, 26. Mike Dubois, Whitnei's brother, criticized the slow pace of the investigation. \"How can there not be anything?\" he asked. \"I want justice, not just for my family, but for the families of all the girls. We live in fear that someone else is going to get killed.\" But Edwards said his department and investigators from the neighboring parishes of Acadia and Calcasieu, the state attorney general's office, the Louisiana State Police and the FBI are doing everything they can. \"This investigation is intense,\" he said. \"We are following up on all leads. I assure you that we are working tirelessly to solve these murders.\" In 2008, the bodies of three women were found: Laconia \"Muggy\" Brown, 23; Brittney Gary, the youngest victim at age 17; and Crystal Shay Zeno, 24. Zeno's mother, Sarah Benoit, posted this message on the Sheriff Department's Web site: . \"How beautiful you are. Your smile is forever a reminder of how special you are. It has almost been a year, but it seems like yesterday that you were taken from us. If anyone has any information on my daughter's death, please come forward. Without closure, not knowing who could have done this is very frightening. I pray every day that God will give the task force what they need to solve these cases.\" In the most recent case, the body of Necole Guillory, 26, was found in Acadia Parish, off Interstate 10, in August. Edwards believes this represented a change in the killer's modus operandi. The bodies of all the previous victims were left on the side of smaller, rural roads. \"It's likely whoever's responsible changed behavior because of increased attention in the public and the media,\" he said. Investigators think the offender has significant ties to Jefferson Davis Parish and is known to its residents, because he has demonstrated a strong familiarity with the area, Edwards said. Of the victims, the sheriff said, \"All of these young ladies had substance abuse problems and would go anywhere to fulfill their addictions.\" But he said he stopped referring to their \"high-risk lifestyle\" after the family of one of the victims expressed outrage and accused his department of not caring about the women. \"Jennings and Jefferson Davis Parish is hurting and grieving the deaths of eight women since 2005,\" the sheriff said. \"The investigative team continues to pray for Loretta, Ernestine, Kristen, Whitnei, [Laconia] 'Muggy,' [Crystal] Shay, Brittney, and Necole and your families.\" He encouraged anyone with information to visit the site, www.jeffdaviscrimes.net, or contact the task force at 337-824-6662. In the meantime, the families continue to wait for news. Benoit, Zeno's mother, has distributed more than 1,200 fliers in the community urging everyone to attend an October 17 prayer vigil at Lake Arthur. \"It's called Community United in Prayer,\" she said. \"Everyone is invited to pray for the victims and their families. It's a healing for our community.\" \"We try to shoulder each other up,\" said Dubois, Whitnei's brother. \"It's not the time to be quiet. It's time to say 'enough is enough.' \"","highlights":"Eight women have been slain in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, since 2005 .\nPolice believe a serial killer may be at work .\nSheriff Ricky Edwards launched a Web site on the case last month .","id":"6aebb7ad42015ae10089591fd2bbf4280702bc05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For astronaut Jose Hernandez, his first space flight, scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery, marks a remarkable journey from the farm fields of California to the skies. Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico. Hernandez, an American-born son of immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico, is getting plenty of attention at home and abroad for his journey from working the fields to operating some of the most advanced mechanics on the space shuttle. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the 47-year-old astronaut over the weekend to congratulate him. A transcript of the entire conversation was promptly posted online by the Mexican government. Hernandez is also reaching out to fans through Twitter, where he posts updates under the name \"@Astro--Jose.\" \"I come from a very humble family and what I would call a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said in a NASA interview. As a child, Hernandez's family split their time between Mexico and California, where they worked as migrant farm workers. During the school year his parents emphasized his education, but on the weekends Hernandez would help the family, he said in the interview, posted on the NASA Web site. Growing up in Stockton, California, it was Hernandez's job as the youngest child to hold up the rabbit ear antennas on the family's television set in order to get the best reception while everyone watched the Apollo missions. \"Now I kid around with my family saying that, you know, it was through osmosis that I became an astronaut because I was closest to the whole situation,\" Hernandez told NASA. The real catalyst for his dream to become an astronaut, however, came when Franklin Chang-Diaz, became the first Latin American astronaut in 1981. \"There was a lot of parallels and that's when I challenged myself. I said, \"Hey, if Franklin can do it, why can't I do it?\" Hernandez said in the interview. Hernandez earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering, and before joining NASA worked on a number of high-tech projects, including an X-ray laser to be deployed in space, a digital mammography system and the disposal of excess nuclear material in Russia, his official biography states. According to NASA, there are nine Hispanics currently in the astronaut program, and 13 total in the program's history. Astronaut Danny Olivas, also of Mexican descent, will also fly on Discovery's upcoming 13-day mission. The scheduled launch of Discovery on Tuesday was scrubbed twice, once because of weather and then hours later because of of mechanical issues involving a drain valve. NASA did not announce a new launch schedule.","highlights":"Astronaut Jose Hernandez is an American-born son of Mexican immigrants .\nJose Hernandez scheduled to be aboard the space shuttle Discovery .\n\"I come from ... a typical migrant farm working family,\" Hernandez said .\nMexican President called the 47-year-old astronaut to congratulate him .","id":"dd64c950228645f78a1dd9e94481752cfb51a389"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- We are losing in Afghanistan, on two fronts. The most important center of gravity of the conflict -- as the Taliban well recognizes -- is the American public. And now, most Americans are opposed to the war. For years, Afghanistan was \"the forgotten war,\" and when Americans started paying attention again -- roughly around the time of President Obama's inauguration -- what they saw was not a pretty sight: a corrupt Afghan government, a world-class drug trade, a resurgent Taliban and steadily rising U.S. casualties. Many surely thought: Didn't we win this war eight years ago? Americans, of course, hate seeing the deaths of fellow citizens in combat, but even more they hate to see those deaths in the service of a war they believe they are either not winning or maybe even losing, which is one of the reasons why they largely turned against the Iraq war in 2006. Within a couple of years, Iraq came back from the brink and started to turn around, after which the war there became largely a nonissue for most Americans. Similarly, the American public would be more likely to tolerate the losses of blood and treasure in Afghanistan if they saw real progress being made there. And right now, they don't. The second front we're losing is the Afghans themselves, who are the United States' center of gravity in the Afghan war. Eight years into this conflict, America and its NATO allies -- who are still looked on favorably by a majority of Afghans -- are not providing large swaths of the Afghan population with the most basic public good, which is security. It's time to table fancy counterinsurgency doctrines about \"connecting the Afghan people to the government\" -- Afghans have never had, and don't expect much, in the way of services from their government, and it's time now to focus on something much more basic: security. The last government to provide Afghans with real security was ... the Taliban. When they ruled the country before 9\/11, security came at a tremendous price: a brutal, theocratic regime that bankrupted the country and was a pariah on the world stage. But in the context of Afghan history, the Taliban bringing security was decisively important, since what had immediately preceded their iron rule was a nightmarish civil war during which you could be robbed or killed at will by gangs of roving ethnic and tribal militias. It is has been a staple of Western political theory since the mid-17th century, when Hobbes wrote \"Leviathan,\" that if the state does not provide security to its people, life will be \"nasty, brutish and short.\" Hobbes wrote \"Leviathan\" in the shadow of the English Civil War, deriving from that bloody conflict the idea that the most important political good the state can deliver is security. The United States relearned this lesson in Iraq with some success starting in 2007. But the U.S. seems to have developed instant amnesia about this issue in Afghanistan, where around 40 percent of the country was controlled by the Taliban or was at high risk for attacks by insurgents, according to a private assessment prepared by the Afghan military in April, which was obtained by CNN. A glaring symbol of the collapse of security in the country is the 300-mile Kabul-to-Kandahar highway, economically and politically the most important road in the country, which is now too dangerous to drive on. Who will then provide security? The Afghan army is relatively small and generally ineffective. The police are worse. The plans to ramp up the size and efficacy of those forces are, of course, a key part of the American exit strategy from the country. But that training mission is going to take years. Nor are NATO allies going to add significantly more troops. Indeed, a number of NATO countries are already heading to the exits. That means that it now falls to the United States to do the heavy lifting in Afghanistan, and if Obama is serious about securing the country and rolling back the Taliban, he really doesn't have much choice but to put significant numbers of more troops on the ground. That way, he can start winning the war: win back the American public, roll back the Taliban -- who have melded ideologically and tactically with al Qaeda -- and provide real security to the Afghan people. Such a ramp-up will have an additional benefit. In the larger war on al Qaeda and its allies, the center of gravity is the Pakistani public, military and government because it is in Pakistan where al Qaeda and its Taliban allies are headquartered. And in one of the most important strategic shifts since 9\/11, the Pakistani military and government are now getting serious about wiping out large elements of the Taliban and allied groups on their territory and, most importantly, are doing it with the support of their population. No longer are Pakistani military operations against militants in Swat and Waziristan seen by Pakistanis as \"America's war\": they are now seen as being in the vital interests of the Pakistani state because the Pakistani Taliban and other jihadist groups have made major strategic errors since early 2009, including marching close to Islamabad, attacking Pakistan's equivalent of the Pentagon and killing hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and policemen. This new development is vitally important. Over the years, U.S. military commanders have often talked about hammer and anvil operations in eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan that would bring an American hammer down on the militants based along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, who would then in turn be caught on a Pakistani anvil. In reality, the American hammer was never large and the Pakistani anvil was never strong. But the ongoing Pakistani military incursion into Waziristan, which was preceded by months of \"softening up\" operations with air strikes and artillery as well as a ramped-up American drone program aimed at al Qaeda and Taliban leaders there, is today setting the conditions for a real anvil. The hammer must now be applied. Armed groups don't sue for peace when they believe they might have the upper hand, and right now, the Taliban feel that they are winning the war -- or at least not losing it, which for most insurgencies amounts to the same thing. If there is to be some kind of political reconciliation with elements of the Taliban, that will only come once they truly believe they have no prospect of military success. At the same time, key roads, cities and towns in Afghanistan must also be secured. Without providing that security, as Hobbes wrote three and half centuries ago, governments of any kind will fail at their most basic task. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen.","highlights":"Peter Bergen: Most Americans now oppose the war in Afghanistan .\nHe says U.S., Afghan government don't provide basic security .\nHobbes said life in nations without security is \"nasty, brutish and short\"\nBergen: Obama has to add troops if he is serious about repelling Taliban .","id":"8fc35132b9aaa9c0c6745bcc70d6068caa1923d5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There are no immediate plans to commit more U.S. troops to the ongoing war in Afghanistan, President Obama said Wednesday. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, and President Obama meet in Washington on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama said he would consult with U.S. allies before determining a strategy in Afghanistan after last month's elections there. \"I'm going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions,\" Obama said. \"There is no immediate decision pending on resources, because one of the things that I'm absolutely clear about is you have to get the strategy right and then make a determination about resources.\" The United States has about 62,000 U.S. troops in the country, and NATO allies -- including Canada -- have another 35,000. The Pentagon is planning to add 6,000 troops by the end of the year. There have been indications that Obama soon could be asked to commit even more American troops. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, has signaled he would like to gauge the impact of the 6,000-troop increase before considering whether to send more. Support in the United States for the war in Afghanistan has dipped to an all-time low. Just 39 percent of Americans favor the war, while 58 percent oppose it, according to a national CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday. Recent polling suggests that the increasing violence and slow pace of progress are also taking a toll on support for the war in Canada. Obama thanked Harper for his country's commitment to Afghanistan, where more than 2,800 Canadian troops and dozens of civilians are stationed. \"They have fought; they have had staying power; they have absorbed losses that we all grieve for,\" he said. Watch Obama and Harper meet \u00bb . Most of the Canadian forces are based in the southern Kandahar province, home to some of the worst violence and instability. At least 130 Canadian troops have been killed in the war. Last year, after a national debate, the Canadian government extended the mission -- which was to end this February -- until the end of 2011. Harper said Wednesday that \"Canada is not leaving Afghanistan\" but is \"transitioning from a predominately military mission to a mission that will be a civilian humanitarian mission after 2011.\" The two leaders also discussed economic issues, issuing a joint statement after their meeting saying in part that \"open trade and investment are essential for competitiveness and sustainable growth in North America and globally.\" Obama acknowledged that the \"Buy American\" clause in the economic stimulus package has been a \"source of irritation\" between Canada and the United States and is something Harper has repeatedly brought to his attention. The clause is a provision in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted in February that states only American goods can be used in stimulus projects. But it stipulates that the measure would not override existing U.S. trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. Harper said Canada's concerns about the clause are \"important irritants ... but relatively small\" when compared with the overall U.S.-Canadian trade relationship.","highlights":"U.S. already planning to send 6,000 more troops to Afghanistan this year .\nNo immediate plans for deployment beyond that, Obama says .\nRemarks follow meeting with PM of Canada, which has 2,800 troops in Afghanistan .\nPolling shows support for Afghanistan war dropping in both U.S. and Canada .","id":"1d77d0687a32e8147f87d0f97cb7224266036b56"} -{"article":"Editor's note: President Lyndon B. Johnson secured passage of Medicare, the Voting Rights Act and other milestone legislation. Tom Johnson, who served as one of LBJ's White House press secretaries, is former chief executive of CNN News Group and former publisher of the Los Angeles Times. He is an associate member of the board of visitors of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Tom Johnson says President Lyndon Johnson would have used every tool to get Congress to pass a health care bill. (CNN) -- LBJ would: . Have a list of every member of Congress on his desk. He would be on the telephone with members (and their key staffers) constantly: \"Your president really needs your vote on this bill.\" He would have a list of every special request every member wanted -- from White House tours to appointments to federal jobs and commissions. He would make a phone call or have a personal visit with every member -- individually or in a group. Charts, graphs, coffee. They would get the \"Johnson Treatment\" as nobody else could give it. He would have a willingness to horse-trade with every member. He would keep a list of people who support each member financially. A call to each to tell them to get the vote of that representative. He would have Billy Graham calling Baptists, Cardinal Cushing calling Catholics, Dr. Martin Luther King calling blacks, Henry Gonzales calling Hispanics, Henry Ford and David Rockefeller calling Republicans. He would get Jack Valenti to call the Pope if it would help. He would have speeches written for members for the Congressional Record and hometown newspapers. He would use up White House liquor having nightcaps with the leaders and key members of BOTH parties. Each of them would take home cufflinks, watches, signed photos, and perhaps even a pledge to come raise money for their next election. He would be sending gifts to children and grandchildren of members. He would walk around the South Lawn with reporters telling them why this was important to their own families. He would send every aide in the White House to see every member of the House and Senate. He would send me to see Sen. Richard Russell and Rep. Carl Vinson because I am a Georgian. He would call media executives Kay Graham, Frank Stanton, Robert Kintner, and the heads of every network. He would go to pray at six different churches. He would do newspaper, radio and TV interviews -- especially with Merriman Smith, Hugh Sidey, Sid Davis, Forrest Boyd, Ray Scherer, Helen Thomas, Marianne Means, Walter Cronkite, Phil Potter, Bob Novak. He would threaten, cajole, flirt, flatter, hug -- and get the health care bill passed. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tom Johnson.","highlights":"Tom Johnson: Lyndon Johnson would use many tools to get action in Congress .\nHe would have used staff, intermediaries to pressure legislators .\nHe would have gained support by granting lawmakers' special requests .\nHe would have used every device to get the health care bill passed .","id":"b2c5366903361511cbff74ddae9458350bd4b219"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Al Vivian is president & CEO of BASIC Diversity, Inc., a 35-year-old consultancy that specializes in diminishing cross-cultural biases that has worked with clients such as Coca-Cola, Ford, Kroger, McDonald's, the National Security Agency and CNN. He is also an adviser to the United States Army for diversity and cultural affairs. Al Vivian says Eric Holder was right to urge Americans to confront diversity issues now. FAYETTEVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- Privilege can be a dangerous thing. It releases you from the task of thinking about things that others must. I am an African-American male and I am privileged. Not on race; but on gender, education, religion, income and many other areas. As a man, my authority and intellect are not second-guessed. As a Christian, my moral code is not questioned, nor am I subject to post-September 11 profiling. I have privilege in these areas, and I realize that this privilege creates blind spots. An advantage to any group creates a corresponding disadvantage to all others . Recently Attorney General Eric Holder made some statements concerning America's need to confront its racial history, and the need for Americans to engage in cross-racial dialogue. Holder's comments offended some and motivated others, not uncommon when dealing with the touchy issue of race. On confronting our history he said: . \"To get to the heart of this country, one must examine its racial soul. ... in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. \" Concerning cross-racial dialogue he opined: \"If we are to make progress in this area, we must ... have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.\" In a recent interview, President Obama responded by saying, America has made \"enormous progress, and we shouldn't lose sight of that ... I think it's fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language.\" The president went on to say, \"I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure people have health care, ensuring that every kid is learning out here.\" They were both right; but they were addressing two different things. Obama was talking about fixing the economy to ease racial tensions. Holder was talking about overcoming our fears to dialogue and confronting racial privilege so that we can eliminate inequities that cause the racial tensions. Additionally, Holder was not saying that progress had not been made. He was saying that there is much yet to be done in order to fully engage and leverage the abilities of all of the nation's human capital. Elaborating on history, we must acknowledge that whites have been the benefactors of centuries of history that included half-truths that socially affirmed them to the detriment of all others. Addressing this privilege will take extreme courage, for there will be many loud dissenting voices. For example, there has never been a discussion in America about whether we should or should not celebrate a White History Month. That would be an irrelevant waste of time, because white history has been the basis of practically all that we have been taught. Being able to sit in a classroom and open history books that positively portray a plethora of people that resemble you has been, and continues to be, the exclusive historical privilege of whites. This privilege psychologically and economically benefits every member at every level of the advantaged category so profoundly that its members never have to question their place in society. And that place is on top: the expected and accepted norm. If you are white, consider how different life might be for you now if you had grown up from meager beginnings, while simultaneously being denigrated by a society that had denied equal access to you, your parents and every member of your race during every prior generation. This is the history of black America that Holder is saying we must understand to truly know the heart of America. History is history, and these are the facts. When we choose to exclude vital portions of history, we are no longer teaching history; we're teaching ideology. And if you're a person of color, you're excluded. The classroom experience for those who are not white tends to fit the following quote by poet Adrienne Rich: \"When someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world -- and you are not in it -- there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.\" It's impossible to grasp the true significance of any groups' contributions when they are taken out of context, and told as a separate story during some isolated month. It's like reading a great novel and leaving out chapters. What's missing is what the late Paul Harvey would have called \"the rest of the story.\" George Washington Carver, a black man, had many breakthrough inventions utilizing the peanut. His contributions could sound insignificant until put into context. The south, as a region, made its money through agriculture, primarily cotton. Poor crop management practices eventually damaged the soil throughout the south until it was almost impossible to successfully grow cotton anywhere in the region. The south needed a new cash crop -- then came the peanut. George Washington Carver revitalized the agricultural south; thus the financial south. He saved the south. But because we tell his story out of context, no one understands the significance of his contributions. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, which was a tremendous invention. However its paper filament was only operable for short periods of time, until a black man named Lewis Latimer contributed his invention, the carbon filament, to the project, making possible the widespread use of electric light. Had there been no Latimer, there would not have been a successful Edison. But most history books have no mention of Latimer. Textbooks currently teach that our great nation became a democracy in 1776. Great nation, strong republic, yes! Democracy, no. The very foundation upon which democracy was built demanded that the political leadership be selected for the people, by a vote of the people. To deny this right to millions of our citizenry for no legitimate reason was to abort democracy before it was born. The uncomfortable and blunt truth is, the United States did not legitimately become a democracy until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it law that no citizen could be denied the right to vote based on their race. Until we as Americans change course, grow a spine, teach true history that is inclusive of all races and replace these fallacies and half-truths with reputably documented facts, our citizenry will continue to be relegated to racially segmented ideology instead of history. We are a great democracy, and thus ready for honest dialogue. The time is now, and this discussion must go beyond black and white. It must be inclusive of Arabs, Asians, Latinos and others. It must also go both ways. People of color cannot only talk. We must also listen. All parties must be willing to be critiqued as well as offer criticism. As Holder said, this will be uncomfortable, but \"this way we can hasten the day when we would truly become one America.\" It's unusual when someone who is out of the norm makes his or her way into the seat of privilege, because those with whom you now share this privilege do not expect you to speak for those who do not. Welcome to your seat Mr. Holder, it fits you well. And thank you for not taking the coward's route. By the way, mission accomplished. We're talking. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Al Vivian.","highlights":"Al Vivian: Privilege creates blind spots that conceal the harm they do .\nHe says whites have had a longstanding racial privilege in the U.S.\nVivian: History has largely been written from perspective of white Americans .\nHolder was right to make his \"nation of cowards\" speech and urge dialogue .","id":"b5cb9fe9bae4f2f48ecec4299d3c6d3ba7649063"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- \"You break it, you buy it...\" Clark Howard says shoppers may save money if they keep their hands off the merchandise. \"Look, but don't touch...\" \"Keep your hands to yourself...\" Three tired platitudes you might hear in the world of retail that all suggest a direct connection between the power of touch and the act of buying something. Now a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research confirms what many have long believed, when you touch something in a store, you feel a sense of ownership and you're more likely to overpay for that item. That's why retailers like Apple always encourage you to play with the merchandise. First and foremost, the Journal of Consumer Research study presents a real caveat emptor for your wallet during a recession. And second, it confirms that I have the reading habits of a really dull guy! Hear a few interesting tips for saving money at the grocery store \u00bb . The warning for you is that if you don't want to spend money, don't go out and handle the merchandise. Whenever I shop at Costco Wholesale, I never get a cart. I only buy what I can carry in my two arms. Once my arms are full, I'm not constantly picking up new items along the way to the register. You'd be surprised how you can cut down on your bill using this simple trick. But there's a further caution in the study. Even window shopping or browsing online can prove dangerous for your budget. The study's authors talk about the power of visualization. They suggest that if e-tailers can get you to picture yourself owning something -- even if you really can't afford it -- they have a better chance of converting you into an online sale. The question of why people spend money in ways that don't make sense is one that's addressed by behavioral economics. It's a field of study that used to be discredited in serious academic circles. But now it's proving to be an important discipline as people look for new ways to save more and spend less. A 2008 study in The American Journal of Psychiatry found that about 1 in 16 Americans -- that's some 6 percent of us -- have compulsive spending habits. This kind of behavior leads to a momentary rush of adrenaline, but afterward comes the financial hangover. Christa, my radio show's executive producer, has done a lot in her life to take control of her wayward spending habits. She believes that if you're always buying new clothes, for example, you disrespect the things you already have in your closet. When the shopping bug bites you, try paying attention to the stuff you've already acquired in your life. Speaking of closets, I once owned a house built in 1937. The master bedroom's sole closet was all of 2 x 1.5 feet in dimension! During those Great Depression years, that was big enough for a middle-class husband and wife. Today, a closet of that size would never work. Some people have so much clothing that they can go for months without wearing the same thing. So the best way to tackle compulsive spending is with shock therapy -- you've got to ban yourself from stores! Let's say you're prone to go on a shopping binge when you feel blue. You've got to make sure you don't even get into the car to go to the store or the mall. Go for a walk or go to the park if it's a nice day. If you have a conditioned response that's bad for you, you've got to work to change it. And the next time you're tempted to pick something up while shopping, remember the study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Or if that's too pointy-headed for you, just start humming the refrain from that old song by the Georgia Satellites: \"Don't hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself!\"","highlights":"Research says if you touch an item in a store, you are more likely to overpay for it .\nPeople form emotional attachments with merchandise .\nTo save money, identify and avoid your emotional shopping habits .\nFind many more money-saving tips at CNN.com\/ClarkHoward .","id":"ec1fa880f9f1ae6c7faf04a83e69555c8cd3726c"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The world has lost almost one-fifth of its coral reefs according a new report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Coral reefs could be wiped out in 30-40 years according to a new report. Compiled by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the report has brought together the work of researchers from 15 countries with data stretching back 20 years. It's not just climate change -- which raises ocean temperatures and increases seawater acidification -- which is damaging reefs. In some parts of the world overfishing, pollution and invasive species are proving equally harmful. Scientists are warning that reef destruction will have alarming consequences for around 500 million people who rely on coral reefs for their livelihood. Left unchecked, remaining reefs could be completely wiped out by 2050, the report says. Professor Olof Linden from the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden, told CNN: \"We see a great and imminent threat of more reefs being lost.\" Speaking from the U.N. Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland, Professor Linden said that the 19 percent figure is an average. \"For many developing countries like Sri Lanka and countries in East Africa the percentage of damage is much worse. Sometimes three times as high in some places,\" he said. \"In these areas we have local effects like dynamite fishing and other destructive fishing techniques combined the threat of coral mining, unmanaged tourism and all kinds of pollution from agriculture.\" But overall the biggest threat to reef survival is climate change. \"The most destructive climate event to impact the coral reefs so far,\" said Linden, \"was the 1998 El Nino which caused major coral bleaching and disrupted ecosystems all over the planet.\" iReport.com: What little things are you doing to save the planet? Scientists say reefs have recovered somewhat from those bleaching events. But the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, coupled with coral disease and human effects, have slowed their recuperation. Coral reefs not only provide an income and food for those who live near them, but are also effective natural barriers against storm surges. Despite the report's pessimism, researchers see some encouraging signs. Forty-five percent of the world's reefs are currently in good health and the hope remains that damaged reefs can recover and adjust to the changing conditions. \"We must focus on helping corals to adapt to climate change and on diverting people away from destructive practices such as overfishing,\" Linden said.","highlights":"The world has lost almost one fifth of its coral reefs, according a new report .\nClimate change, overfishing and coral mining all are contributing to destruction .\nIn some parts of Indian Ocean up to 60 percent of reef life has died .","id":"89a7a4d8fd1ce27a5ab073f9d5e8e18fc5e74eeb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Clark Howard, the Atlanta, Georgia-based host of a nationally syndicated radio show, is host of a television show designed to help viewers save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off during these tough economic times. The show airs at noon and 4 p.m. ET Saturdays and Sundays on HLN. Clark Howard says it's smart to cut back and save, but sometimes being cheap doesn't pay. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Over the last several years, we as Americans became \"negative net savers\" -- a fancy term used by pointy-headed economists to say that we spent more money than we made. In fact, our savings rate was at negative 2.7 percent as recently as four years ago. Now, however, the trend seems to be reversing. We actually saved five percent out of every dollar of disposable income in January, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Wow, a whole nickel out of every dollar. Thomas Jefferson would be proud! Sure, it's not the \"dime on a dollar\" rule of thumb for savings that I rave about, but it's a start. Watch Clark talk with an amazing saver \u00bb . The truly noteworthy thing here is how we're saving this much-heralded five percent. Where exactly are we cutting back to satisfy our newfound hunger for pinching nickels? The BEA's numbers show that vehicles and fuel expenses account for nearly two-thirds of the savings. That category alone has seen a $115.2 billion decline compared with January 2008 numbers. Americans are riding their vehicles until the wheels fall off. The second largest category where we've cut back on is eating out, which is down $55.7 billion from last January. After that, we're also trimming the budget on clothing, jewelry, alcohol and more. In most recessions, the sales of alcohol do very well as people try to drown their worries in a bottle. I'm not so sure that behavior itself has changed, but this time around, people are trading down in their drink of choice. For example, fancy wine drinkers may be switching to Trader Joe's lines of Charles Shaw wines (a.k.a. Two Buck Chuck, for their $1.99-$3.49 per bottle price). Beer drinkers, meanwhile, are skipping expensive and exotic microbrews in favor of cheaper choices. Of course, there are other ways to save a nickel without having to trade down or go without. Many people are simply becoming \"do-it-yourselfers.\" This trend has also been called insourcing -- when you do something yourself instead of paying someone else to do it. Some marketers have seized on insourcing to great effect. For example, Target recently ran an ad campaign that aimed to reinvent the store's image for these new, leaner times. Consider this: The ailing retailer has always positioned itself as an affordable splurge over the years. But suddenly, any kind of splurge is seen as irrelevant in today's economy and Target's sales are suffering. So their recent ad campaign was all about the \"new.\" A circular I saw showed the \"new\" room service (store brand orange juice and cereal served at home); the \"new\" personal trainer (using home exercise equipment instead of paying for a gym membership); and the \"new\" restaurant (eating at home) -- all things that can be pricey, but are now being repositioned on the cheap in an effort to boost sales. Insourcing is making direct inroads into the home too -- quite literally. The Wall Street Journal's Weekend Journal recently reported on \"closet boutiques\" where women are now opening up their homes and closets to strangers in order to sell unwanted designer clothes. Closet boutiques are typically advertised on Craigslist. There were 715,000 postings in February -- more than double the amount last year at that time. For buyers, a closet boutique offers the opportunity to pick up designer threads at a tiny fraction of their new cost. But a word of caution for sellers: You'll almost certainly have some questionable characters coming into your home. Store away all your valuables, and make sure you have enough eyeballs on hand to ensure that people don't wander around your home with sticky fingers. In other DIY (do-it-yourself) moments, The Washington Post recently reported that sales of sewing kits at Wal-Mart are up 30 percent in just the last few months. People are mending their own clothes instead of paying a tailor or seamstress to do the same. And let's not even mention all the botched dye jobs that hairdressers are having to work with from women (and some men) who tried to take matters into their own hands. Sometimes, it doesn't pay to be cheap!","highlights":"Americans are saving five percent out of every dollar .\nVehicles and fuel expenses account for nearly two-thirds of the savings .\nMore people trying \"do-it-yourself\" projects like sewing, hair dying .\nClark says, sometimes it doesn't pay to be cheap .","id":"57227a437b0c4b9a21e2e2e02732ddc78aebfe86"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- American tennis legend Andre Agassi has admitted using crystal methamphetamine a year before he won the French Open in 1998, and that he lied to the sport's governing bodies in the same period about a positive drugs test to avoid a ban. The 39-year-old, who is only one of six men in history to have completed a career grand slam of winning titles at all four majors, confessed in his autobiography that he took the highly addictive narcotic in 1997 while suffering poor form and to quell worries about his upcoming marriage to actress Brooke Shields. The eight-time grand slam champion revealed in his book how he felt when he first took the substance -- possession of which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence in the United States. \"Slim [Agassi's assistant] dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've just crossed. \"There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful -- and I've never felt such energy,\" Agassi recounted in an excerpt of his book that has been serialized by British newspaper The Times. Following his use of crystal meth, the former world number one pulled out of the French Open and admitted he did not practice for Wimbledon a month later. Later in the year an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doctor confirmed to Agassi -- who is currently married to former number one women's tennis player Steffi Graf -- that his use of recreational drugs had shown up in a positive dope test and that he faced a three-month suspension. The tennis great revealed how he lied in a bid to retain his reputation: \"My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I've achieved, whatever I've worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. \"It's filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth. I say Slim, whom I've since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth - which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter. \"I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely. I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it,\" Agassi added. Following the letter from Agassi the ATP dropped the case, allowing the American to regain a form that would see him go on to win the French Open in 1998 and the U.S. Open in 1999 before retiring in 2006. The ATP have yet to comment following the revelations.","highlights":"Andre Agassi has admitted that he used crystal methamphetamine .\nThe American used the drug in a year before winning the French Open in 1998 .\nThe former world number one lied to the ATP to cover up a positive dope test .\nAgassi is one of only four men to complete a career grand slam .","id":"efc7ac6d474877f25b674644b5079c64f66d99f0"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The Kurdish bloc in the Iraqi parliament intends to boycott the vote on a proposed election law if the oil-rich province of Kirkuk is banned from voting in next year's national elections, two Kurdish lawmakers said. A vote may be held Thursday on a proposal that would govern the elections, now set for January 16, legislators Mahmoud Othman and Abdul Bari al-Zebari said on Wednesday. Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, was excluded from provincial elections last January. Kurds displaced under Saddam Hussein's rule settled on land they say is rightfully theirs. However, Arab and Turkmen residents claim many more Kurds have moved into Kirkuk than were displaced, and that allowing them to vote would create an unfair advantage. Without the Kurdish lawmakers there will be no quorum, thereby blocking the vote, Sunni lawmaker Salim al-Jabouri, a member of the small Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, told CNN. Before conducting balloting next year, Iraq needs an election law that lays out basic rules. If one is not adopted, the government may have to either reschedule the election or rely on the law used in the 2005 national elections, officials say. Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on the issue a week ago. The other contentious election issue is that of open lists versus closed lists on ballots. Open lists would name candidates and their parties; closed lists would name only parties. Existing law, used in the 2005 election, mandates a closed list. President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other political leaders -- members of the Political Council for National Security -- reached a tentative agreement on the draft bill Tuesday evening. Talabani's office released no details on the content. The constitutional deadline for the elections is January 31. The election commission needs at least 90 days after passage of the law to carry out elections, which U.S. and Iraqi government officials call a vital step in Iraqi efforts to solidify a democratic system in the post-Saddam Hussein era. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report .","highlights":"A boycott would lead to no quorum, blocking a vote, Sunni lawmaker says .\nKirkuk was excluded from provincial elections last January .\nThe issue of open lists versus closed lists on ballots is also contentious .","id":"dc279fe8334e66de1c4c6754d27f4f25db5b4734"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Leonard Pitts Jr., a columnist for The Miami Herald, won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and is the author of a new novel, \"Before I Forget\" and \"Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood.\" Leonard Pitts says we know what it takes to improve the performance of African-American students. (CNN) -- Back in 1972, on an episode of \"All in the Family,\" Gloria posed the following riddle to Archie and Meathead. Father and son go driving. There's an accident. The father is killed instantly, the son is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. The surgeon walks in, takes one look at the patient and says, \"I can't operate on this boy. He's my son.\" The answer to the apparent paradox eluded Archie, Meathead and the guys down at Kelsey's bar for the balance of the half hour. They floated theories involving stepfathers, sons-in-law, priests, adoptions and returns from the dead. All of which Archie apparently found more believable than the true answer which was, of course, that the surgeon was the boy's mother. \"If that's the answer,\" he spouted, \"that's the dumbest riddle I ever hoid!\" Thirty-seven years later it is, perhaps, difficult to appreciate why this riddle ever was a riddle, how so apparent an answer could have stymied Archie, Meathead and, I would wager, the vast majority of the viewing audience. The riddle speaks volumes not just about how the world has changed in four decades, but also about how unconscious expectations can blind us to the obvious. In 1972, one expected a man when one heard the word \"surgeon.\" Much as, in 2009, one expects a white kid when one hears the word \"scholar.\" People will deny this, will say all the right and politic things. But the disclaimers will be as thin and transparent as Saran Wrap. Black, white and otherwise, we are all socialized by the same forces and all carry, by and large, the same unconscious assumptions. One of which is that a certain level of achievement is black and another is white. This is what you are hearing when a black kid speaks standard English and another black kid chides him for \"talking white.\" This is what George W. Bush was alluding to when he decried \"the soft bigotry of low expectations.\" And this is what we need to address forthrightly if we ever hope to close the so-called achievement gap that looms between black kids and white ones. In 2007 and 2008, I traveled the country for a series of columns called \"What Works,\" aimed at profiling programs that addressed that gap. I traveled between big programs and small ones, from the Harlem Children's Zone, which encompasses 90 square blocks of holistic education, family counseling, medical care and tutoring in New York City, to the Freedom Project in Sunflower County, Mississippi, which offers field trips, martial arts and academic enrichment in a rural county where the median income is $25,000 a year and the teen pregnancy rate is said to be 25 percent. I toured Self Enhancement Inc. in Portland, Oregon, a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) School in Gaston, North Carolina, the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, and many others. In all these places, I saw black kids -- well-spoken, clean-cut and noon-sun bright -- making a lie out of other peoples' expectations. Over the course of 13 months, common themes began to emerge whenever I would ask why kids such as these were doing such wondrous work in these places and substandard work elsewhere. We have more power to fire bad teachers and reward good ones, they said. We require parental involvement. We have a longer school day and a longer school year. We mentor children that need it. We counsel children and families that need it. We are invested in them and make sure they know it. Most of all, they spoke of the simple power of expectation: making it a conscious point to look for greatness in black kids in whom people had not thought to look for it before. What I came to understand in those interviews is that we already know the secret to improving academic performance for African-American children. What is missing is the will to do so. And that, I think, is because where they are concerned, we have other expectations. I asked Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, how he justifies asking for money to uplift poor kids in Harlem. His response struck me: \"Someone's yelling at me because I'm spending $3,500 a year on `Alfred.' 'Alfred' is 8. OK, Alfred turns 18. No one thinks anything about locking him up for 10 years at $60,000 a year.\" But then, we expect Alfred to be locked up, don't we? Expect it so blithely that we will not challenge the expectation even when it works against our own economic self-interest. Canada, after all, presents a rather stark choice: invest a smaller amount early and produce a citizen who pays taxes and contributes to the system or pay a much larger amount later for the upkeep of a citizen who consumes tax monies and contributes nothing. That we consistently choose the latter says something about how we assess the educability, the salvageability, of African-American kids. Thirteen months of interviewing young scholars left me more impatient than ever with a culture that writes off black kids because they are black kids. Somewhere between the 13-year-old in rural Mississippi who wants to go to Harvard and the second-graders in Harlem studying Vincent Van Gogh, I ceased being surprised and started being angry that what I saw was still the exception and not the rule. Everywhere I went, there were black kids excelling. And at some point, you say to yourself: well, of course. What did you expect? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Leonard Pitts Jr.","highlights":"Leonard Pitts Jr.: Unconscious expectations can blind us to the obvious .\nHe says many people expect black students to perform more poorly .\nPrograms have demonstrated that investing in children's education pays off .\nPitts: We already know secret to improve performance, but do we have will to do it?","id":"400da289bfb9575e521700b95edd3b540059bdea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- American tennis legend Andre Agassi has admitted using crystal methamphetamine a year before he won the French Open in 1998, and that he lied to the sport's governing bodies in the same period about a positive drugs test to avoid a ban. The 39-year-old, who is only one of six men in history to have completed a career grand slam of winning titles at all four majors, confessed in his autobiography that he took the highly addictive narcotic in 1997 while suffering poor form and to quell worries about his upcoming marriage to actress Brooke Shields. The eight-time grand slam champion revealed in his book how he felt when he first took the substance -- possession of which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence in the United States. \"Slim [Agassi's assistant] dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've just crossed. \"There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful -- and I've never felt such energy,\" Agassi recounted in an excerpt of his book that has been serialized by British newspaper The Times. Following his use of crystal meth, the former world number one pulled out of the French Open and admitted he did not practice for Wimbledon a month later. Later in the year an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doctor confirmed to Agassi -- who is currently married to former number one women's tennis player Steffi Graf -- that his use of recreational drugs had shown up in a positive dope test and that he faced a three-month suspension. The tennis great revealed how he lied in a bid to retain his reputation: \"My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I've achieved, whatever I've worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. \"It's filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth. I say Slim, whom I've since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth - which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter. \"I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely. I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it,\" Agassi added. Following the letter from Agassi the ATP dropped the case, allowing the American to regain a form that would see him go on to win the French Open in 1998 and the U.S. Open in 1999 before retiring in 2006. The ATP have yet to comment following the revelations.","highlights":"Andre Agassi has admitted that he used crystal methamphetamine .\nThe American used the drug in a year before winning the French Open in 1998 .\nThe former world number one lied to the ATP to cover up a positive dope test .\nAgassi is one of only four men to complete a career grand slam .","id":"e17d3cfb69bd810790eb7893eac11853301b33d9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Her identity revealed, a blogger who posted rants about model Liskula Cohen said she was the real victim in the case and plans to sue Google for violating her privacy. Rosemary Port says she plans to sue Google for not doing enough to protect her identity. Rosemary Port and her lawyer said Monday that they will file a $15 million lawsuit against the search engine giant for not doing enough to protect her identity. \"I not only feel my client was wronged, but I feel now it sets precedent that anyone with money and power can get the identity of anyone that decides to be an anonymous blogger,\" said Salvator Strazzullo, Port's lawyer. A New York Supreme Court judge ordered Google to reveal Port's identity after Cohen sued the company to acquire information about the anonymous blogger. Watch model explain her persistence \u00bb . \"I wanted it gone,\" Cohen said. \"I didn't want it to be there for the rest of my life. And I knew the only way for it to be gone was to call my lawyer.\" In August 2008, Port, a user of Google-owned Blogger.com, created \"Skanks in NYC.\" The site assailed Cohen, 37, a cover girl who has appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines. The blog featured photos of Cohen accompanied by derogatory terms. The judge rejected Port's argument that blogs on the Internet \"serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions\" and should not be regarded as fact. Cohen's attorney, Steve Wagner, said he couldn't believe Port's nerve in suing Google. \"Her being a victim here? I have trouble understanding that in its entirety,\" he said. Legal experts said Port is not likely to win her case. Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's senior legal analyst, said Google was complying with a court order and that disclosing Port's name cannot be viewed as violating her rights. \"Google never promises anyone absolute anonymity,\" Toobin said. \"There are all sorts of circumstances when Google cooperates with law enforcement.\" Blogger.com requires only a valid e-mail address to register for a blog. After the court demanded Port's identity, Google handed over her e-mail address to Cohen's lawyers so they could track her down. In response to CNN's request for an interview, Google issued a statement: . \"Google does comply with valid legal processes, such as court orders and subpoenas, and these same processes apply to all law-abiding companies. At the same time, we have a legal team whose job is to scrutinize these requests and make sure they meet not only the letter but the spirit of the law.\" Online activists have closely followed the model blogger's case. Nick Thompson of Wired magazine said the case will force people to recognize that the blogosphere, however anonymous, is not above the law. On the other hand, it could deter some bloggers who fear the cloak of anonymity could be lifted at any moment. \"There will be people who won't publish things that maybe they should publish or that would be good for society,\" Thompson said.","highlights":"Rosemary Port created \"Skanks in NYC,\" a site that assailed cover girl Liskula Cohen .\nJudge ordered Google to reveal Port's identity after it was sued by Cohen .\nLegal experts said Port is not likely to win her case .","id":"c053f9cb5a1625eed198a117306addbbb60fdf81"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Bartal is a journalist who grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Sweden after marrying a Swedish woman. He has lived in Stockholm for more than 20 years and writes the blog \"Cool Stockholm,\" which looks at the hottest trends in the Swedish capital. Blogger David Bartal describes Stockholm as \"progressive, quite tolerant, somewhat reserved and beautiful.\" CNN: What is your favorite thing about Stockholm? David Bartal: Nature is close and accessible. Even if you live in the middle of the city you can get to a forest in a short time, but you still have that big-city feeling. CNN: Swedes have a reputation as being cold or hard to get to know -- is that fair? DB: I wouldn't say they're cold, but they are shy. People aren't especially keen to talk to strangers -- they can do quite nicely without them. People are a bit more reserved than in the U.S., which may not be a bad thing, but if you take the initiative they may be delighted to get to know you and become good friends. And no people are entirely homogenous. There are lots of extrovert, crazy Swedes -- and many of them are my friends. Watch ABBA songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus take CNN on a tour of Stockholm \u00bb . CNN: What is Stockholm like in the winter? DB: Between December and March the winter can get a bit long. It's not the cold as much as the dark -- it can make people glum. In the winter, the sun sets at four o'clock, but in summer you get incredibly long, beautiful days. It's one of the most beautiful cities on earth and it's fun to be here in the summertime. CNN: What do Stockholmers like to do in the summer? DB: In the summertime many will go to their country houses, they want to get out of the city. If they have a boat they want to be on the boat. In early August there are crayfish parties. People get together in groups and put on conical hats and paper napkins and eat crayfish, drink hard liquor and sing drinking songs. I've become quite assimilated, but not assimilated enough for crayfish parties! Foreigners just shake their heads in wonder. See photos of Bjorn Ulvaeus in Stockholm \u00bb . CNN: What areas are good for nightlife? DB: There are two options: Stureplan has glitzy clubs and fancy restaurants. Party people might typically start their evening at the \"little bar\" at Riche, which has good DJs and attracts an arty crowd, then shift to Berns at midnight for flirting and dancing, and if they know the doorman or are feeling lucky, party in the early hours at celebrity hot-spot Spy Bar. There's also an area on the south side, mainly up on Mosebacke. It's funkier, a little more bohemian and a little more mellow, with clubs and music venues. You have to trudge up a steep cobble-stone street to get to the top of Mosebacke, but it's worth the climb. The view of the city at night is amazing and there are some cool nightspots. One of them is K\u00e4gelbanan (which means bowling hall). I danced my socks off not long ago there to some high-energy Turkish pop. What makes Stockholm special to you? Tell us in the SoundOff box below . CNN: Sweden is known for its design -- are Stockholmers a fashionable bunch? DB: They are fashion conscious -- people follow trends quite slavishly. This season men are wearing red pants and women are wearing gladiator sandals -- it's almost mandatory. CNN: What are the latest trends in the city? DB: There's a lot of variety in coffee shops that didn't exist previously. There are imitation New York coffee shops, but there is also some innovation. Ljunggren Cafe, on the south side of town, is very designed. It has low, gray couches spread over a large area creating a very social environment; it's great for people watching. Also, when it comes to coffee shops I recommend Vete-katten at Kungsgatan 55. It's authentic and retro, furnished like your great-aunt's parlor. They make a delicious open-faced shrimp sandwich and awesome pastries. CNN: If Stockholm were a person, what would he or she be like? DB: Progressive, quite tolerant, somewhat reserved, and beautiful.","highlights":"Culture-vulture David Bartal has lived in Stockholm for more than 20 years .\nNature is close by but Stockholm still maintains a big-city feeling, he says .\nPeople may be a bit shy, but there are also \"lots of extrovert, crazy Swedes\"","id":"fdb07ddad5eed3cfc4908f407c7c41e49ad7318b"} -{"article":"San Francisco, California (CNN) -- Repair work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will continue nonstop into the weekend and the bridge may reopen Monday, but officials were making no promises Friday. \"Commuters are going to need to check back with us over the weekend,\" said Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. \"We're going to do everything we can to get the bridge open for the Monday morning commute, but safety is the priority for us right now.\" Repair work has not stopped since it began Tuesday night when two steel rods and a steel crossbeam plummeted from the bridge, landing on the roadway and forcing the span's closure. The same section had been the site of repairs over Labor Day weekend, when crews fixed a crack. On Friday, workers were grinding the areas where there was the potential for steel-on-steel connection, Ney said. \"We want them to be very smooth.\" The rods' alignment has not been completed to the point where workers could begin stressing them, he said. Once that work is complete, a third-party group will look at how the system handles vibrations, he said, adding, \"There is still a lot of work to be done.\" Transportation officials had said Thursday night that repairs of the bridge, which carried about 280,000 vehicles per day, would be complete by late Friday morning, but Ney said contractors were still working on custom-fitting steel for the structure. Crews worked Friday to replace four steel rods. One of those had failed and caused the problems, Dale Bonner, California's secretary of business, transportation and housing told reporters Thursday. Engineers also will make sure the rods are centered and will strengthen the welds to ensure stability, Bonner said. Vibrations in the rods, affected by strong winds, caused the break, officials said. In the wake of the bridge's closing, commuters flocked to the Bay Area's rail system. On Thursday, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) said, the system carried the most passengers ever, breaking a record set the day before. About 442,000 people took BART, 24 percent more than on an average Thursday, the agency said in a news release.","highlights":"NEW: \"We're going to do everything we can to get the bridge open\" Monday .\nPieces of steel from bridge fell onto roadway on Tuesday, forcing closure .\n73-year-old bridge spans San Francisco Bay, carries about 280,000 vehicles daily .\nBART has been swamped with riders since Bay Bridge closed .","id":"a0eace3a21c61cd257cb789308aecf0140eca650"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A search has been launched for a 50-year-old convicted rapist and suspect in the killings of six people whose bodies were found in and around a house in Cleveland, Ohio, police said Friday. The incident began unfolding a month ago, when a woman accused Anthony Sowell of rape and felonious assault, Cleveland Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho told CNN. \"Once we were able to get the cooperation of the victim, we secured an arrest warrant for Mr. Sowell and subsequently a search warrant for his premises,\" Stacho said. On Thursday, detectives from the department's sex-crimes unit and members of its SWAT team went to Sowell's home to execute the warrant and to arrest the suspect, but he was nowhere to be found, Stacho said. What they did find were the badly decomposed remains of two bodies on the third floor of the house, which is owned by an elderly relative of Sowell who did not live there, Stacho said. A subsequent search on Thursday revealed what appeared to be a freshly dug grave under the stairs in the basement, he said. On Friday, investigators returned to the house, dug up the grave and found a third body, he said. A further search of the house and property found two more bodies in a crawl space and a sixth body was found in a shallow grave outside the home, Stacho said. Read local coverage on CNN affiliate WJW . None of the bodies has been identified, and the genders of only two -- those found on the third floor -- have been determined, he said. Both were female. \"He apparently is a serial rapist,\" Stacho said about Sowell, who he said makes his living as a \"scrapper.\" \"He walks around and picks up scrap metal and takes it to junk yards to make a few pennies.\" Sowell was convicted for a 1989 rape for which he was imprisoned from 1990 to 2005, Stacho said. Authorities plan to continue their search of the house on Saturday.","highlights":"Search launched for a convicted rapist, 50; he's suspect in six slayings .\nBodies of six people found in and around a house in Cleveland, Ohio .\nNone of the bodies has been identified; search of house to continue Saturday .","id":"6fdb0518891da3834a366311b3bba4f49a47b5f7"} -{"article":"SRINAGAR, Indian-administered Kashmir (CNN) -- The state's governor gave his support to the embattled chief minister, who had tendered his resignation after an allegation that he was involved in a sex scam dating back to 2006. Omar Abdullah denies any link to a prostitution ring, saying he has stepped down to clear his name. The allegation was leveled Tuesday against Omar Abdullah, 38, by a senior leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, on the floor of the state assembly. Omar's swift resignation plunged the state into a constitutional crisis that appeared to end Thursday when the New Delhi-appointed governor, N. N. Vohra, issued a communique asking Omar to \"continue in office as (Vohra) had got the allegation investigated through the Indian home ministry.\" The governor said that, \"based on the information supplied to him by the union home ministry, there is no basis for Omar Abdullah seeking to resign.\" Vohra urged the chief minister to \"most vigorously devote himself to discharging responsibilities of chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.\" The opposition party dismissed the governor's communique, saying, \"It has the potential of bringing the highest constitutional authority of the state also into controversy as the communique doesn't make mention about the chief minister's resignation.\" A relaxed Omar told journalists Thursday evening that he had \"full confidence\" in his innocence. Omar had delivered his resignation to the state governor after opposition member Muzaffar Hussain Beigh accused him, during a session of the state legislative assembly, of being connected to a prostitution scandal. Muzaffar served as deputy chief minister in the previous government, when several top pro-India officials were arrested on charges that they had misused their authority to force girls and women into a prostitution ring in Kashmir. Omar denied involvement but said he could not \"continue in the office following the allegation\" and would not serve again until he was cleared of the charges. Omar entered office in January after elections in late 2008 that saw the highest voter turnout in the region in nearly 20 years, since the eruption of a secessionist insurgency. Voters went to the polls in large numbers, despite a separatist call for a boycott of the voting. Most recently, the chief minister has been working to defuse tensions that are still running high after the arrest of four police officers in the probe of the alleged rape and murder of two young Muslim women in May. Two people have died and many have been wounded in clashes between Muslim protesters and Indian security forces stemming from the case. The arrests included the former police chief of south Kashmir's Shopian district and three of his subordinates, who are accused of \"destruction of evidence\" and \"dereliction of duty\" in connection with the deaths, which occurred in the town of Shopian. Kashmir has been in the throes of a bloody secessionist campaign for nearly two decades during which, 43,000 people have been killed, according to official figures. Various rights groups and non-governmental organizations in Kashmir, however, contend that the number killed during the last two decades is twice the official figure.","highlights":"New Delhi-appointed governor Vohra asks Omar to \"continue in office\"\nOmar says he had \"full confidence\" in his innocence .\nKashmir has seen two decades of violence in which 43,000 people have been killed .","id":"d9e14e255e51c122ddcd454df4b2d3d18857f009"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new policy sets guidelines for how long U.S. border officials can hold computers and downloaded information seized at checkpoints, and with whom they can share that information. New rules announced Thursday specify border searches to be conducted \"as expeditiously as possible.\" The policy, announced Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, continues to give border officials the authority to search files in travelers' laptop computers, mobile phones, Blackberrys and similar devices with or without suspicion that a crime has occurred. That is in keeping with long-standing court rulings that say the federal government's powers of search and seizure are greatest at the border to protect the country. But the new policy also attempts to address complaints from travelers that border officials are needlessly perusing confidential information, downloading it and keeping devices and information indefinitely without any explanation. The policy gives travelers the right to be \"present in the room\" during searches, although they are \"not necessarily ... permitted to witness the search itself.\" It says searches should be conducted \"as expeditiously as possible.\" And Customs and Border Protection officers should keep devices no longer than five days unless there are \"extenuating circumstances.\" Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the investigative branch of the Homeland Security Department, can keep devices up to 30 days. It also requires border officers to document searches and conduct them in the presence of a supervisor. And it says they should take steps to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information and share it only with federal agencies \"that have mechanisms in place to protect\" the data. Border officers have long had to deal with issues pitting privacy versus security. But with the proliferation of laptop computers, travelers increasingly are traveling with sensitive information, including confidential legal documents, medical records, credit card and bank information and trade secrets. \"Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States,\" Napolitano said in a written statement. \"The new directives ... strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders.\" The American Civil Liberties Union said the new rules are a \"welcome first step,\" but said they do not go far enough. \"There are two key aspects of this new policy worth applauding -- the limitations on the time that electronic devices can be held by customs officers and requirements that information from electronic devices only be retained if there is probable cause that a crime has been committed,\" said ACLU attorney Christopher Calabrese. \"These procedural safeguards recognize that the old system was invasive and harmed many innocent travelers.\" \"But unless and until the government requires agents to have individualized suspicion before reviewing such sensitive information as medical records, legal papers and financial information, even the most elaborate procedural safeguards will be insufficient,\" he said. The ACLU this week filed suit seeking records about the Customs and Border Protection's policy of searching travelers' laptops. The Homeland Security Department's statement said its new policies \"enhance transparency, accountability and oversight of electronic media searches at U.S. ports of entry.\" \"Searches of electronic media ... are vital to detecting information that poses serious harm to the United States, including terrorist plans, or constitutes criminal activity -- such as possession of child pornography and trademark or copyright infringement,\" the statement said. The department said it searches electronic media \"on a small percentage of international travelers.\" The border protection agency said that between October 1, 2008, and August 11, it conducted about 1,000 laptop searches while processing more than 221 million travelers at U.S. ports of entry. Just 46 searches were in depth, it said.","highlights":"New policy attempts to address travelers' complaints about privacy at borders .\nTravelers given right to be \"present in room,\" but not necessarily view searches .\nHomeland Security: New rules \"enhance transparency, accountability\"","id":"3e160ffb67e7107331bc31d80a3b44de7600979b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Marian Salzman is chief marketing officer and a partner at Porter Novelli Worldwide and is co-author of \"The Future of Men\" and \"Next Now.\" She was named among the \"top five trendspotters\" by VNU in 2004 and has been credited with popularizing the term \"metrosexuality.\" She blogs at www.pnintelligentdialogue.com. See Salzman on American Morning and CNN.com Live Monday, December 29. Marian Salzman says \"cuspers\" are staking out a separate identity from the baby boomer generation. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rarely has there been a year when so many things went out of style in such a short time: not just investment bankers, gas-guzzling vehicles, corporate jets, conspicuous consumption and political polarization, but also a whole generation. After strutting and tub-thumping and preening their way across the high ground of politics, media, culture and finance for 30 years, baby boomers have gone from top dogs to scapegoats in barely a year. As baby boomers lose their authority and appeal, generational power is shifting one notch down: to cuspers (born roughly 1954-1965), who arrived in style in 2008 with their first truly major figure, Barack Obama (born 1961). George W. Bush, born in 1946 at the start of the postwar baby boom for which his generation is named, will leave office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon was president. As Thomas Friedman has written, Bush epitomizes what's now seen as \"The Greediest Generation.\" Who's to blame for the economy going into serious decline? The short and easy answer is greedy boomers. This is the generation that knew better than their cautious, fuddy-duddy parents, the generation that protested, that had ideals and marched to the beat of defiant music: \"Street Fighting Man,\" \"We Want the World and We Want It Now,\" \"Hope I Die Before I Get Old.\" It's the generation that pursued pleasure, proclaimed \"I can have it all\" and refused to grow old -- \"50 is the new 30,\" etc. And now, after years of taking credit for changing the world, baby boomers are taking the rap for the reversal of fortune that's shaking the world. Whatever history may decide, today's commentators and pundits of all ages have decided that boomers, the dominant cohort in many developed countries, are guilty. And whether they're really to blame, what counts is that they look like they are. Their profile fits. Like a big-name Hollywood director who's lived on the edge too long, caused one too many scandals and made one too many turkeys, suddenly the boomers are the generation no one wants to be associated with. Cuspers, the age cohort that have been living in the shadow of the boomers, now have even more reasons to stake out their own separate identity and values. It's taken a long time for this rising demographic to be recognized as a distinct generation in its own right. They've been called \"late boomers\" because they missed the formative boomer experiences of the '60s, such as civil rights and anti-war protests. They've been called tweeners or cuspers because they straddle the divide between Boomers and Gen X. American social commentator Jonathan Pontell has worked hard to establish their identity as Generation Jones. There's still debate about whether cuspers are even a generation apart from boomers and where the generational boundaries lie. But those arguments miss the key point, which is that Americans want change. In Obama, they see the hopeful prospect of a new generation taking over. And in these dark days, they're hoping against hope that his generation can usher in new, better values to guide the nation. His victory has been portrayed as the end of Vietnam War politics and the 1960s \"culture wars.\" About half those Obama named to major posts in the new administration are also cuspers including the proposed energy czar, education secretary, treasury secretary and U.N. ambassador. Cuspers may have another poster child if Caroline Kennedy, born in 1957, is named to the New York Senate seat that Hillary Clinton is expected to vacate. Obama himself has made clear he thinks in terms of generational difference. He has spoken of carrying on the work of the \"Moses generation\" -- the Martin Luther King Jr. generation -- whose successors he has referred to as the \"Joshua generation.\" His activists rallied under the banner of Generation Obama, and his campaign's ability to mobilize the youth vote proved decisive in his victory. Whether we call them cuspers, Generation Jones or Generation Obama, there are enigmas and paradoxes within this generation and its fans. They respond to Biblical imagery, but they're not dogmatic in their faith. They value traditional notions of family but see men and women as equals in parenting. They go back to older American values -- civility, community, responsibility -- yet keenly embrace technology and use the Internet naturally. In fact, embracing digital technology is one of the telling dividers between boomers and cuspers. It's no coincidence that leading-edge Cuspers such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Tim-Berners Lee, all born in 1955, helped create the digital universe cuspers and younger generations now inhabit as a matter of course. It's also telling that Gates and wife, Melinda, another cusper, are the parents of philanthro-capitalism. For marketers and brand specialists, cuspers are a fast-emerging challenger brand that's fascinating to watch as it defines itself and attracts fans. Brand attributes once seen as disadvantages -- living in the shadow of boomers, a lack of major formative experiences, no \"heroic\" narrative -- have turned out to be advantages as the boomer brand loses its sheen. The cusper brand can define itself by what it's not: greedy, selfish, confrontational, hung up on past battles. The cusper generation is as much an ideal as it is a demographic group, and that appeal extends well beyond the birth years that define it. Watch out for tweets (messages on the Twitter platform) that proclaim \"Ich bin ein cusper.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Marian Salzman.","highlights":"Marian Salzman: For 30 years, baby boomers dominated politics, culture .\nShe says they've earned the title of the \"greediest generation\"\nSalzman says next generation of \"cuspers\" is taking over with Obama .\nThe cuspers are different and unlikely to repeat boomers' mistakes, she says .","id":"7ad09d23274dd0eefc896a4bc718011f316de8c3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia's president escaped an opportunistic attack by Islamic militants Wednesday as deadly fighting erupted in the center of Mogadishu, officials said. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was returning from a trip to Yemen when insurgents began firing mortars, resulted in a clash with African Union peacekeepers, the president's director of communications told CNN. \"The Islamic insurgents were just guessing the arrival of the president so they started firing mortars, just to send a kind of their regular violent message that they are around,\" said Abdulkadir Barnamij. The heaviest of the fighting was centered on Maka Al Mukarama, which links the airport to the presidential palace but it is heavily guarded by forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia. Meanwhile Ali Muse, head of an emergency group in the city, confirmed to CNN that three people died and 16 others were wounded in the fighting. \"The casualty (number) is small because people deserted the streets soon after the fighting started,\" said Ali Muse. -- Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report .","highlights":"President's office: Islamist insurgents, African Union peacekeepers exchanged fire .\nFighting left at least five dead, according to Shabelle Media network .\nThe heaviest of the fighting centered on area linking airport to the presidential palace .","id":"9201ba2caf72ece9ea056f51e6ede294b381a574"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former Alabama judge accused of checking male inmates out of jail and forcing them to engage in sexual activity was found not guilty Monday on charges of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy and assault, his lawyer said. Attorney Robert Clark said former Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on several charges and the judge in the case granted a directed verdict of acquittal on all the other counts. The Mobile County district attorney did not immediately return CNN calls for comment. Thomas, 48, denied wrongdoing. Clark said on October 20 that the judge was trying to mentor the inmates and did not assault them. The judge does not deny bringing the inmates into his office, Clark said last week. \"He was mentoring them. He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens.\" Thomas cried after the verdicts were read, Clark said Monday. \"He hugged me and he hugged his wife. And he had a courtroom full of supporters. It all worked out in the end,\" the attorney said. One of the alleged victims testified October 19 that he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office by Thomas, according to The Mobile Press-Register newspaper. But he did say Thomas spanked him with a belt on several occasions, the newspaper reported, and that the paddlings took place inside a jury room, in the small office and at a Mobile, Alabama, fraternity house. Another man testified that after he was charged with kidnapping and robbery in 2002, Thomas visited him in jail and urged the man to let Thomas decide the case instead of a jury, according to the Press-Register. Thomas convicted him of lesser charges, he testified, and sentenced him to a 90-day boot camp. He said Thomas also beat him with a belt on his bare buttocks about a dozen times at the courthouse, the newspaper reported. Neither man was identified. \"All of them [the alleged victims] were given preferential treatment at some point,\" Nicki Patterson, chief assistant district attorney for Mobile County, said earlier this month. \"And ultimately, when some of them refused to continue participating [in the activities], they were given what I would view as excessive sentences. But certainly while the inmates were involved with the activities we allege, the state would say, it was extremely lenient sentences.\" Clark said his client's next hurdle is the Alabama State Bar. \"They suspended him back in March because he got indicted. And we're fighting to give him his law license back,\" he said. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-Judge Herman Thomas acquitted of sexual abuse, attempted sodomy, assault .\nJudge says he brought inmates to his office to mentor them .\nLawyer: \"He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens\"","id":"4003475ca17e6319ec54a3b1be9cb2cb5f594142"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities have decided to call off a search-and-rescue mission for nine people who may have plunged into the Pacific Ocean off southern California after a Coast Guard C-130 plane and a Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter collided Thursday night. \"I've reached the conclusion that hope is no longer viable,\" Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo said Sunday. \"We no longer believe there is any chance somebody could still be alive.\" California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered his condolences to family members of the missing Sunday. \"Together, we send our thoughts and prayers to their families and friends,\" Schwarzenegger said in a statement. \"Our hearts are with them during this difficult time.\" Searchers had scoured the ocean for 60 hours without finding any sign of survivors. They reported Saturday that the search had covered 644 square miles. The Navy, Marine Corps and Customs Border Protection helped in the search. The Coast Guard weighed the exhaustive nature of the search, the wreckage, the nature of the collision, the temperature of the water and the time elapsed. A Coast Guard captain said Friday that survivability could be up to 20 hours. On Saturday night, relatives of the missing were briefed about the decision to call off the rescue effort. The order was to go into effect as soon as the planes involved in Sunday morning's dawn search returned about 9 a.m. Coast Guard pilots had been searching for a missing person in the water. That person was \"reported to have gotten in a dinghy and attempted to row to Catalina [Island],\" Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Farris said Friday. \"We were searching in that area because of the drift that would have naturally occurred after that event.\" The collision occurred about 7 p.m. Thursday, when the Coast Guard plane with a seven-person crew collided with a Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter carrying two people. A pilot not involved in the incident reported seeing a fireball about 7:10 p.m. Thursday near the crash site. The two Marine pilots were conducting routine training about 15 miles off San Clemente Island when their helicopter collided with the U.S. Coast Guard plane. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar identified them as Maj. Samuel Leigh and 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, both with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469. The Coast Guard's seven missing personnel were stationed at Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, California, where their aircraft was based. Castillo has said that an investigation was beginning with the Marine Corps. A large debris field has been located, and pieces have been collected, the Coast Guard spokesman said. The Coast Guard identified its seven missing personnel as Lt. Cmdr. Che J. Barnes of Capay, California, aircraft commander; Lt. Adam W. Bryant of Crewe, Virginia, co-pilot; Chief Petty Officer John F. Seidman of Stockton, California, flight engineer; Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl P. Grigonis of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, navigator; Petty Officer 2nd Class Monica L. Beacham of Decaturville, Tennessee, radio operator; Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason S. Moletzsky of Norristown, Pennsylvania, air crew; and Petty Officer 3rd Class Danny R. Kreder II of Elm Mott, Texas, drop master. The Coast Guard announced that a memorial service for personnel missing in the collision will be at 11 a.m. PT Friday at the Coast Guard station in Sacramento.","highlights":"Spokesman: Search halted because \"hope is no longer viable\"\nCoast Guard plane and Marine Corps helicopter collided Thursday .\nCoast Guard craft had been on search for missing boater .","id":"1f505c2ccf8eebc9c7b0708b9cc7a9c0660c5450"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Ted Kennedy would have had a \"very, very difficult\" time politically surviving the drowning death of a young woman if it happened in the era of blogs, talk radio and 24-hour news cycles, experts said. Sen. Ted Kennedy hit the airwaves to say it was \"indefensible\" he didn't immediately report the accident. Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, drowned after Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile off a bridge following a regatta party in July 1969. The incident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, helped dash the youngest Kennedy brother's chances at the Oval Office in 1972 and 1980. Massachusetts was more forgiving than the rest of the nation, however, backing Kennedy by a 3-to-2 margin in his 1970 bid to keep his Senate seat. That his brothers, John and Robert, had been assassinated in recent years may have been a factor, experts said. Watch Kennedy attend brother Robert's funeral \u00bb . \"Great expectations and great tragedy has always been the storyline of the Kennedys,\" said Christopher Arterton, dean of George Washington University's graduate school of political management. \"The people of Massachusetts were prepared to forgive a lot of transgressions.\" Kennedy vanished to the family compound for days after the incident, huddling with advisers before emerging the following week to plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. A judge suspended his two-month jail sentence. Critics saw the plea as an attempt to stifle details that would have emerged during a trial. In a display of the senator's legendary oratory, he delivered a nationally televised explanation and apology, saying it was \"indefensible\" that he hadn't called police until the day after the accident. See how Chappaquiddick fit into Kennedy's legacy \u00bb . \"If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their senator's character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duty and should not continue in office,\" Kennedy said. Jim Baughman, author of \"The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Filmmaking, and Broadcasting in America since 1941,\" said he recalls Kennedy's address being \"less an explanation to the country than to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.\" The nation's response was tepid. According to a Time-Harris poll in August 1969, about 44 percent of respondents said Kennedy failed \"to tell the real truth,\" 51 percent said his explanation was inadequate and 77 percent said he was wrong not to report the accident immediately. However, 58 percent of respondents said \"he has suffered, been punished and should be given the benefit of the doubt.\" Watch a timeline of Kennedy's tragedies, triumphs \u00bb . \"I think the national repercussions would have been more severe [today],\" Baughman said. In 1969, the national media were dominated by three TV networks and a handful of magazines and newspapers. New media and talk radio would be a \"much more ferocious force\" today, he said. Media reports from the time indicate few mysteries were solved by Kennedy's address. Then-Edgartown Police Chief Jim Arena was often lambasted for his handling of the case. He said Thursday he would handle it no differently today except that he would charge Kennedy with vehicular homicide, a charge that did not exist in 1969. \"I will always contend that what happened that night was an accident. What happened afterward has never been completely explained,\" said Arena, who is now 79. In his national address, Kennedy said he was driving Kopechne to a ferry landing because she was tired. He denied \"widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct\" and also refuted reports that he was \"driving under the influence of liquor.\" Watch Kennedy's explanation \u00bb . Kennedy said his unfamiliarity with the bridge, which had no guardrails and met the road at an awkward angle, caused him to drive off the side and into Poucha Pond. \"The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately filled with water,\" Kennedy said. \"Water entered my lungs and I actually felt the sensation of drowning, but somehow I struggled to the surface alive.\" Kopechne did not. Kennedy said he dived back into the water several times, \"but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm.\" Conceding he did not seek a telephone, Kennedy said he returned to the party and summoned a cousin and friend to the scene. They, too, failed in saving Kopechne, he said. \"All kinds of scrambled thoughts -- all of them confused, some of them irrational, many of them which I cannot recall, and some of which I would not have seriously entertained under normal circumstances -- went through my mind during this period,\" he said. He asked to be taken to the ferry slip, he said, where he jumped into the water, swam the 500-foot channel back to Edgartown, returned to his hotel room and collapsed. It wasn't until morning that he called police, and then, only after he called legal adviser Burke Marshall, he said. The media clamored with questions: Why had Kopechne left her purse and room key at the cottage and told no one she was going home? How did Kennedy get lost on a one-turn trip to the ferry? Was the ferry operating when Kennedy and Kopechne left? \"The larger anger about it was the 10-hour lag [in reporting the accident], that he was more concerned about his reputation than this young woman's life,\" Baughman said. \"He didn't take enough time to blame himself and take responsibility.\" Today, Baughman said, Kennedy could still survive a Chappaquiddick -- largely because of the Kennedys' clout and because Massachusetts is so enamored with the family -- but it would be tougher with the Slate.coms and Drudge Reports of the world hounding him. George Washington University's Arterton concurs that, like Jesse Helms' North Carolina or Strom Thurmond's South Carolina, Massachusetts would likely forgive one of its favorite sons today. If Kennedy survived his first re-election, as he did in 1970, he likely would have prevailed in later ones, though it would have been \"very, very difficult to remain in office,\" Arterton said. He also doubts Kennedy would have been able to isolate himself with advisers for days without making a statement. Watch a newsreel of Kennedy's early years \u00bb . \"In the cable news era, that would not have been possible,\" he said, explaining that blogs and other new media would have prodded the networks and newspapers. \"There would have been much more effort to dig into that story nationally.\" At the least, Baughman said, \"you'd have maybe a more diverse conversation about Kennedy's culpability and judgment.\" Then-Chief Arena remembers the intense criticism of his investigation from his own counterparts. Diver John Farrar, who pulled Kopechne from the car, told media outlets she may have lived had Kennedy called police immediately, and George Killen, a detective-lieutenant with the State Police, alleged at the time that Kennedy \"killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.\" Kennedy's explanation was a \"weak defense,\" Arena acknowledges, but he insists there was no evidence of negligence to facilitate manslaughter charges. Arena said the Kennedys never pressured him during the investigation. He also never obfuscated details to benefit Kennedy -- in part, because of a paternal adage he has always held dear. \"When you tell the truth, you don't have to worry about what you said the first time,\" he said. \"The charge I came up with was the only one I thought we could prove. ... I did what I could, and I'll stick by it.\"","highlights":"Media \"more ferocious\" today, wouldn't have left questions unanswered, expert says .\nEx-police chief says he would have charged Kennedy with vehicular homicide today .\nChappaquiddick incident credited with ending Ted Kennedy's presidential hopes .\nChief: \"What happened afterward has never been completely explained\"","id":"08f5d0e9d3d5c34698a34cf7ca1c91dc65ab6c18"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Two people have died and 28 people have fallen ill with matching strains of E. coli after an outbreak in ground beef, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Sixteen of those people are in hospitals and three have developed kidney failure as a result of the contamination, the CDC said late Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that Fairbank Farms in Ashville, New York, was recalling more than half a million pounds of fresh ground beef products that may be contaminated with a strain of E. coli, a potentially deadly species of bacteria. The products subject to recall were sent to retailers including Trader Joe's, Price Chopper, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Shaw's, BJ's, Ford Brothers, and Giant Food Stores. The exact products affected are listed on the USDA's Web site. The recall was for distribution centers in eight states, but Fairbank Farms said some retailers may have sent the affected beef to other states. Each package is printed with \"EST. 492\" inside the USDA mark of inspection or on the nutrition label. They were packaged on September 15 and 16 and may have been labeled at the retail stores with a sell-by date from September 19 through 28, the USDA said. Consumers should ask at their point of purchase if the products they have purchased are subject to recall, the USDA said. E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, seniors and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service advised consumers to safely prepare raw meat products, whether they are fresh or frozen, and only consume ground beef that has been cooked to a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The only way to be sure ground beef is cooked to a high enough temperature to kill harmful bacteria is to use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature, the FSIS said. Of the 28 people infected with E. coli from the outbreak, eight are in Massachusetts; four each are in Connecticut and New Hampshire; two each are in Maine, Pennsylvania and South Dakota; and one each is in California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Vermont, according to the CDC.","highlights":"Two people have died after becoming infected with E. coli in this outbreak .\nE. coli is a bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, kidney failure .\nUse a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of beef .","id":"ab503d942af4e4f3940140304b0b4952a82435d7"} -{"article":"(Travel + Leisure) -- Portland, Oregon, doesn't lack for fashionable boutique hotels, but to the west, along the Pacific Ocean, the options have tended to be as primal as the shoreline. Recently, however, a group of properties has sprung up on the northern coast, aiming to seduce 21st-century travelers with designs steeped in post-World War II Modernism. The Cannery Pier Hotel was built on the site of a fish-packing facility on the Columbia River. Each stop on this easy three-night itinerary provides a stylish Oregon beach getaway -- along with postcard-worthy water views. Day 1: Portland to Astoria . Follow the Columbia River Highway (U.S. 30) as it meanders along the waterway that led Lewis and Clark to the sea. (For more shore-hugging river views, cross the Oregon Way Bridge, just west of Rainier, and drive on Washington's Ocean Beach Highway -- but be sure to return to Route 30 by crossing back over at Cathlamet.) Make your way to Astoria, the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies (founded in 1811), a revitalized former fishing town with Victorian architecture and a restored 1913 riverfront trolley. Take in the town -- and the mouth of the Columbia River -- from the 125-foot Astoria Column, and for a dramatic close-up of the Astoria Bridge, which connects Oregon and Washington, check in to the Cannery Pier Hotel (doubles from $299). Built on the site of a fish-packing facility on a pier that extends 600 feet into the river, the four-year-old hotel embraces a Pacific Northwest version of loft architecture, with exposed steel beams in the atrium-style lobby and hardwood floors in the 46 balconied rooms. The best place to eat is just a short stroll down the pier at the Bridgewater Bistro (dinner for two $75; 503\/ 325-6777). The restaurant offers exceptional views of the river and bridge, a tasting room for the Oregon Coast's Flying Dutchman Winery, and a small-plates menu featuring watermelon-and-feta salad and a savory cheesecake with Dungeness crab. Day 2: Astoria to Arch Cape . The Oregon Coast Highway (U.S. 26) crosses Youngs Bay and snakes southward almost to Arch Cape, set in the lush green terrain of Oswald West State Park. It's a 30-mile trip that passes through the monied enclave of Gearhart, as well as Seaside, one of the first beach resorts in Oregon. Travel + Leisure: 45 best new hotels of 2009 . Be sure to explore the Cannon Beach art colony, comprising 19 galleries and crafts studios; then hit the sand to behold Haystack Rock, a 235-foot-tall basalt formation that's the third-largest such ocean monolith in the world. You might also want to scope out a spot for dinner in Cannon Beach -- locals love the French-Italian dishes such as pesto-and-prawn pasta at Newmans at 988 (dinner for two $110, 503\/ 436-1151) -- or stock up on Oregon wine and Tillamook cheese before heading to Arch Cape, a tiny residential community with no restaurants. It is here that Bruce Bessey transformed an old beach house into the Ocean Point Inn & Spa (doubles from $275). The three handsome suites, with mod furnishings, are perfect for curling up in when the rain lashes the wild surf. In fair weather, guests mingle on the oceanfront deck to watch gray whales or gaze at the stars. In the morning, a hearty breakfast with fresh pastries provides fortification for beachcombing. Nestled between two state parks, the inn offers direct access to a nearly deserted Pacific stretch with sand dollar-filled tide pools. Day 3: Arch Cape to Lincoln City . Lincoln City is a straight 79-mile shot down the 101, past open stretches of sand with more clumps of beach grass than sunbathers. Along the way: Laneda Avenue, in Manzanita, is a charming shopping strip; the Picnic Basket (503\/ 355-8500), in Rockaway Beach, has 97 flavors of salt-water taffy; Garibaldi Marina (503\/ 322-3312) will hook you up for crab hunting and clam digging; and the Hawk Creek Caf\u00e9 (503\/ 392-3838), in Neskowin, serves fresh seafood and a popular wood-fired pizza. Tillamook is the home of the famous cheddar, as well as ice creams made from local berries. Past Lincoln City, in Newport, is a worthwhile detour: the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, dating from 1871. The beachfront at Lincoln City is stacked with condo-by-the-sea complexes which makes the recent renovation of the 141-room Surftides (doubles from $134) that much more welcome. Under the new management of the owners of the hip Farmer's Daughter hotel, in Los Angeles, the Surftides -- first opened in 1936 -- is now decorated with cork bulletin-board walls and jazzy striped daybeds. The balconied guest rooms reference Midcentury Modern design with sleek built-ins and bold orange accents. You'd swear you were sleeping in an urban boutique hotel, except the roar outside your door is waves, not traffic. Planning a beach getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to Affordable Beach Resorts. Copyright 2009 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.","highlights":"A handful of fashionable hotels have opened along Oregon's northern coast .\nThe Cannery Pier Hotel in Astoria sits on a pier in the Columbia River .\nOcean Point Inn & Spa in Arch Cape is housed in a renovated beach house .","id":"c953e4a5b96c94d08c4c8d4520d3309a8d4ba7e7"} -{"article":"BELLEVUE, Nebraska (CNN) -- If LeRoy Carhart's abortion clinic had a terror alert scale, it would be at Code Red this weekend. Anti-abortion protesters plan demonstrations this weekend outside Dr. LeRoy Carhart's clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska. \"I feel safer on an airplane than I do in my clinic,\" Carhart said, sitting at his desk in his windowless office in Bellevue, Nebraska. \"You try to think about every way an attack could happen. You try to do all you can to prevent it, but obviously Dr. [George] Tiller thought he was safe in church.\" It's been nearly three months since Tiller, one of the world's most well-known doctors performing abortions, was shot in the head at point-blank range on May 31 as services began at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. Anti-abortion groups, led by Operation Rescue, plan to launch protests outside Carhart's clinic this weekend in Bellevue, just south of Omaha. They will be the first major anti-abortion protests since the Tiller killing. The demonstrations are set to culminate Saturday with so-called Truth Trucks -- delivery trucks with giant rolling billboards of dismembered fetuses on the sides -- parking outside Carhart's clinic and canvassing area neighborhoods. Protesters carrying anti-abortion signs also are expected. Operation Rescue President Troy Newman has vowed a peaceful demonstration and said that any hints of possible violence are ginned up by what he calls left-wing groups and the liberal media. His group scaled down plans to protest at Carhart's facility Friday when it learned women's rights groups, including the National Organization for Women, would be there. Operation Rescue will hold a rally at a church instead Friday. \"Operation Rescue has said Dr. Carhart is the next target ...,\" said Katherine Spillar, executive vice president with the Feminist Majority Foundation. \"We fear that these kinds of activities can eventually erupt in violence, and I urge the community to make sure violence doesn't happen.\" Abortion rights supporters were predominant in the 50 to 75 people gathered outside the clinic Friday morning. \"Welcome, welcome, this clinic stays open,\" some shouted when cars pulled into the clinic's driveway. Newman said earlier, \"I'm not interested in putting our folks in any situation where the other side might flare up. I'm very confident about our side. They're very peaceful moms and dads and families that will be showing up with signs.\" He said he abhorred the killing of Tiller. \"Shooting someone in the head in a church,\" he said, \"is not a pro-life act. Sorry, it doesn't qualify.\" Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old anti-abortion activist, is charged in Tiller's killing. He has pleaded not guilty. Newman said he wants Carhart shut down -- through legal means. He said he was confident his organization would have shut down Tiller this summer through a legal battle. \"I vehemently disagreed with what Mr. Tiller did, as well as all abortionists for what they do. But they're still human beings, and they deserve due process,\" Newman said. Tiller was one of about a dozen U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. In the wake of his death, his family decided to close his clinic permanently. Carhart was a close friend and understudy of Tiller's. He performed abortions at Tiller's clinic for a week every month, including late-term procedures. Carhart has vowed to open an office in Kansas and said he'll keep doing abortions as long as he's healthy. He said he's performed more than 60,000 abortions in the past two decades. About 400 of those were after 24 weeks, he said. Staring across the room at a poster of Tiller, he said, \"I don't want his death to be in vain. He spent his whole life trying to ensure better health care for women.\" Carhart was performing an abortion in his clinic when Tiller was killed that Sunday morning. He learned of the news by phone from Tiller's head nurse. \"That's when she told me that George had been shot in church and that he was dead.\" Carhart is unlike many abortion doctors. He's doesn't parse his words about his profession. The outside of his office has the name of his clinic in bold letters: Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska. He said he takes pride in the term abortionist. \"I do abortions, and that is what I do,\" he said. On Friday, Carhart teared up when talking about the abortion rights supporters outside his clinic. \"It's unbelievable,\" he said of the support. Mark Gietzen, the driver of a truck for Operation Rescue, beamed with pride ahead of the protests. He stood outside his truck in Wichita adorned with a poster showing the dismembered hand of a fetus on a quarter. Across the top of the van, it reads, \"Abortion is an ObamaNation.com.\" He said he knew Tiller \"quite well\" from the vantage point of a peaceful common enemy over the years and said the killing was a setback for \"pro-lifers.\" He's only had one encounter with Carhart -- when the doctor drove his car by protesters and \"quacked like a duck.\" Carhart acknowledges he might've done that. Gietzen's message to Carhart: \"Please respect the life of the babies. Stop the killing, stop committing such a horrible act for money.\" Newman, the head of Operation Rescue, said he'll keep praying Carhart \"turns back to the healing arts and not taking babies' lives.\" Carhart remains unmoved. \"When they're ready to accept our position, then we'll sit down. We say choice is right. If you don't want to have an abortion, don't have one.\" Here in America's heartland, a battle is being waged and both sides are entrenched. There is no middle ground.","highlights":"NEW: Abortion rights supporters dominant outside clinic on Friday .\nFirst major abortion protests set since killing of Dr. George Tiller in May .\nDr. LeRoy Carhart of Nebraska was understudy of Tiller's .\nCarhart says he takes pride in the term abortionist .","id":"4d96205e9b1bff66526277e32ef2122f0d2415ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Last year's world champion Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for Sunday's inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix while his successor as Formula One's top driver, Jenson Button, qualified fifth. Hamilton will be looking to end a disappointing year for McLaren with victory in the season finale at the new Yas Marina circuit, but even with a win can do no better than hold onto his fifth overall placing in F1's first day-night event. The 24-year-old will start a race from the front of the grid for the 17th time in his career, and the fourth in the last seven races, after setting the fastest time in all three sessions. He clocked a best lap of one minute 40.948 seconds as the sun set on Saturday evening to head off the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Vettel, whose bid to prevent Button clinching the world title ended last time out in Brazil, timed 1:41.615 while Webber recorded 1:41.726. \"The car is the best it has been all year. It was a smooth lap, and it just kept getting better and better,\" Hamilton told reporters. \"The place is just stunning. They all said it would be a great event, but it's mind-blowing. It's a great place to come to, a great country. The weather has been great and the people are so respectful and so welcoming. I hope we can put on a great show tomorrow.\" Button's bid to ensure the first all-British front row since 1995 came to nothing as he was out-qualified by teammate Rubens Barrichello for the 10th time this season. The Brazilian is expected to be making his final race outing for world champions Brawn, who are expected to sign Nico Rosberg from Williams. The German, who announced during the week that he will be leaving the British team, qualified ninth as Toyota's Jarno Trulli and BMW Sauber duo Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld took sixth, seventh and eighth places. Kimi Raikkonen, who will be making his final race appearance for Ferrari, finished outside the top-10 for only the third time this season, and will start in 11th behind Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi. Heikki Kovalainen's chances of keeping his drive with McLaren took a blow as he finished 15th after suffering gearbox problems. The Finn, fastest in Friday's practice sessions, was just ahead of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who along with Renault teammate Romain Grosjean failed to make it beyond the opening 20-minute session. Alonso, at least, can look forward to joining Ferrari as Raikkonen's replacement, but Frenchman Grosjean faces an uncertain future as he has failed to take his chance since taking over from the sacked Nelson Piquet Jr. Former world champions Ferrari will prop up the grid as veteran Giancarlo Fisichella again struggled ahead of what could be the final race of his career as he will be the team's reserve driver next year when the injured Felipe Massa returns.","highlights":"Last year's world champion Lewis Hamilton claims pole position for inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix .\nHis successor Jenson Button qualifies fifth behind Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello .\nRed Bull duo Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber second and third for F1's first day-night race .\nButton has an unassailable lead going into the final race of the 2009 season .","id":"1ed25f2d720db1306046f10c528d746f5d2edf03"} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- He lies in a bed on a balloon-type mattress, to reduce pressure on his burned body. He is covered with bandages; a ventilator breathes for Michael Brewer because he can't do it for himself. He's hooked up to the marvels of modern medicine that are trying to give the 15-year-old burn victim a chance to be a kid once again. Sixty-five percent of his body is covered with second- and third-degree burns. \"People are writing horror stories ... but people just can't imagine the kind of sickness we're talking about,\" said Dr. Nicholas Namias, medical director of the University of Miami\/Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center in Miami. \"I've been to movies like everyone else, and Hollywood hasn't even thought of something like this,\" Namias said. Brewer is heavily sedated, and the ventilator does not allow him to speak. His open wounds are covered by bandages, which are changed daily. It's a four-hour process. He has not been able to speak with police since his desperate fight for life began October 12, when police say five teenage friends, including a 13-year-old, doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire. The attack occurred after Brewer reported to police that one of the youths had stolen his father's bicycle. Police say the bicycle was stolen because Brewer did not pay one of the boys $40 for a video game. According to police, witnesses said the teens called Brewer \"a snitch\" as they used a lighter to set him ablaze. Namias explained how Brewer's organs are not functioning the way they should be, but that is expected at this early stage of recovery. \"He's still on the ventilator and advanced modes of mechanical ventilation. We are breathing for him. His contribution to the breathing is trivial,\" Namias said. Namias also explained that in burn cases, words must be chosen carefully when talking about patients and their condition because so much is at risk and so much can change quickly. \"When you say he's doing OK, in this situation it means he's alive and responding to treatments,\" Namias said. \"We're still dealing with the respiratory failure. We're dealing with infection now and the need to supply the massive amount of nutrition that this person needs to survive.\" On Monday, the five teens who are accused of taking part in the attack appeared separately before judges in Broward County, Florida. State prosecutors were granted additional time to build their case. Formal charges are expected later this month. For now, all five teens are being held in custody. Four of the boys, all 15 years old, could be charged as adults. The 13-year-old also could be charged as an adult but under Florida law only if Brewer dies. Michael Brewer's parents, Valerie and Michael Brewer Sr., issued a written statement through the hospital last week. They are not granting interviews. \"The recovery process will be baby steps, but eventually he will be whole again,\" they wrote. But their son's injuries enter the realm of medicine and science that has no guarantee. \"There's no evolutionary mechanism to survive a 65 percent burn,\" Namias said. \"Surviving is a miracle of modern medicine and about the technology and the things we do. This is not like a gunshot and you come out of the [operating room], and say everything's going to be OK,\" he added. \"We never give up, and we never predict it. ... Our expectation is survival.\" Across the hospital floor in the burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital, six other people's lives also are at stake: all victims of various accidents, all with burns similar to Michael Brewer's. They, too, are trying to regain at least a part of what they used to have. \"It's understandable that people can be burned in accidents,\" Namias said. \"But this was no accident. This didn't have to happen at all.\"","highlights":"Police say teens doused Michael Brewer, 15, with rubbing alcohol and set him ablaze .\nAttack came after Brewer reported that one boy had stolen his father's bicycle .\n65 percent of Brewer's body is covered in second-, third-degree burns .\nTeen suspects appeared before judges Monday in Florida .","id":"043ea5ab9abaa5cfa83ea63dcccf94873561c266"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It seems the world of the golf cart is changing if certain industry manufacturers are to be believed. By shedding their normal surroundings, improving their dowdy image and hitting the streets -- \"pimped up\" carts may increasingly be seen away from the course. Celebrities have been queuing up to jump on the buggy-wagon. The most recent purchase was by pop star Cheryl Cole, who bought husband and Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole a \"Mini-Hummer\" buggy as a gift, spending $8,000 customizing the cart with gold-plated hub caps, Swarovski crystals and a trunk for his golf clubs. Dominik Jackson, owner of Mini-Hummer says demand for the vehicles has rocketed since 2006: \"It started as a glorified golf buggy, but since adapting the look we've had demand from all over Europe and even from royal families in the Middle East.\" The carts are already on the roads in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and the company are planning to launch a new fully enclosed Mini-Hummer in London next year. While Europe is catching up with the trend, there has been a big market for \"pimped\" golf carts in the United States for some time. \"I'd say about 99% of our sales these days are for individual use,\" says Randy Hopper, owner of Sick 'N' Twisted Designs, one of the largest bespoke golf cart manufacturers in California. \"We build customized golf carts to the specific requirements of the customer - we pretty much do everything.\" And this really means everything. Modern carts are now built with leather seats, wooden dashboard, surround-sound systems, iPod players, lower lighting and air bags, in a variety of themes - street, lifted, off-road and even Limo carts. Sick 'N' Twisted customer Dave Johnson is having his golf cart pimped and modified to match the color of his boat: \"It's going to be burgundy with 12-inch wheels, full sound system and air-bags that adjust the height of the cart.\" Dave insists that in his neighborhood, golf carts are more of an everyday than a luxury item: \"They're practical, affordable and it's nice to cruise around and see your neighbors.\" So is this a case of keeping up with the Joneses? \"There's no official competition on our street, but people take notice of things like that. It's definitely seen as a status symbol.\" While the golf cart remains a staple on the fairways, the souped-up street version is no longer just par for the course.","highlights":"Adapted golf carts are growing in popularity across Europe .\n99% of sales are for individual use in the USA .\nModern carts built with leather seats, airbags and iPod players .\n'Pimped' golf carts are seen as status symbol .","id":"8fcd6a080b87b5ac2e8f22f2d3caf6fdd53c3277"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Turn back time, more than 90 years, to a cold case that won't gather dust. It's a classic whodunit, starting with the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl and ending in a lynching. It was grist for a prosecutor's political aspirations, a case that was appealed all the way to the country's highest court and a story hotly debated in the national press. At the center of it all was Leo Frank, a northern Jew who'd moved to Atlanta to supervise the National Pencil Company factory. When the body of Mary Phagan, a white child laborer, was found in the basement, law enforcement homed in on Frank. He was tried and convicted, based on what most historians say was the perjured testimony of a black man, and sentenced to death. But when the governor commuted his sentence in 1915, about 25 men abducted Frank, 31, from the state prison and hung him from a tree in Marietta, Georgia. Considered one of the most sensational trials of the early 20th century, the Frank case seemed to press every hot-button issue of the time: North vs. South, black vs. white, Jew vs. Christian, industrial vs. agrarian. In the years since, it has inspired numerous books and films, TV programs, plays, musicals and songs. It has fueled legal discussions, spawned a traveling exhibition and driven public forums. Who murdered Mary Phagan? What forces were behind the lynching of Frank? Why should we still care? Answers to these questions, or theories, keep coming. \"Leo Frank was not a good ole Southern boy. He was different and not ashamed of being different,\" said Ben Loeterman, whose new documentary, \"The People v. Leo Frank,\" will air Monday on PBS. \"The test of us as a society is not necessarily how we treat the best among us but how we treat the most questionable.\" Mixed in with ongoing analysis of the Phagan-Frank story are the descendants of those involved, people who learned of their connections differently and carry these legacies forward in unique ways. The accused . \"The story goes that no one in my family talked about it,\" said Cathee Smithline, a 62-year-old great-niece of Frank. Frank was the one who handed Mary Phagan her check when she stopped by the factory on April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day. The night watchman, Newt Lee, would find the body and call police early the next day. Smithline, of Wyckoff, New Jersey, was 16 when she first heard about the case. Her mother sat her down, told her a story about what a man in the South had been through, said it was based on her uncle and handed over a book: \"A Little Girl is Dead.\" It turns out Smithline's mother got the news in her teens, too, when her boyfriend turned to her after seeing \"They Won't Forget,\" a 1937 Hollywood film. \"You know that's about your uncle,\" he said. She'd grown up hearing Uncle Leo died of pneumonia, and after asking family about it, the truth was revealed, followed by the words, \"We will never talk about this again,\" Smithline said. \"I think it was a family embarrassment,\" she said. \"My grandmother [who died when Smithline was 1] was very close to her brother. It cannot be easy to tell someone your brother was lynched and why.\" The first victim . Mary Phagan Kean was 13 when the story hit her. She was in a South Carolina classroom, and her name stopped short a teacher taking attendance. \"Mary Phagan, you say?\" she recalled the teacher asking, peering up from his list. He wanted to know if she was related to a girl with that name who died in 1913. Confidently, she told him she wasn't. But the boys on the playground taunted her anyway, telling her she was reincarnated from a dead girl. Traumatized, she asked her father about her name. \"He turned whiter than white,\" she remembered. Mary Phagan had been her grandfather's little sister. He only wept when asked about her. When Mary Phagan Kean's family moved back to Marietta, questions about that name never stopped. \"I went on a campaign,\" said Kean, 55, who sought out every article and piece of information she could find. \"I did that for years and years and years.\" The consensus of historians is that the Frank case was a miscarriage of justice. Crime scene evidence was destroyed, they say. A bloody hand print was not analyzed. Transcripts from the trial vanished. Frank's conviction was based largely on the testimony of a janitor, Jim Conley, who most came to see as Phagan's killer. He'd written notes found with the body, but said they were dictated to him. The prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey, used race in his argument, saying a black man couldn't be smart enough to come up with such stories. Witnesses would come forward to say Conley was seen carrying the body and washing out a bloody shirt. Conley's own attorney, William Smith, came to believe in Frank's innocence, scrawling a note to that effect on his death bed nearly 35 years later. Conley, who appeared in the press for petty crimes over the years, eventually disappeared. Dorsey, the prosecutor, had political aspirations riding on this win. \"A conviction of just another black guy wasn't going to do anything for his career,\" said Sandy Berman, the archivist at The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta who created the traveling exhibit, \"Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited.\" Two years after Frank's lynching, Dorsey was elected governor of Georgia. But the story was interpreted differently by Kean, who wrote \"The Murder of Little Mary Phagan,\" and stands by this conclusion: \"Leo Frank was guilty as sin. He was a sexual pervert.\" Kean often visits her namesake's grave in Marietta. She's not the only one. She says she's struck by the teddy bears people leave there. The governor . Elizabeth Slaton Wallace couldn't be prouder of her heritage. At 81, she's the great-niece of the late Georgia Gov. John M. Slaton, the man who commuted Frank's death sentence to a life sentence, believing Frank's innocence would be proved and, in doing so, ruined his political career. The Georgia National Guard was called out to protect the governor after his decision prompted a rabble-rousing newspaper publisher to call for the lynching of both Frank and Slaton. Frank had been moved to the state prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where an inmate slashed his throat. He survived, but weeks later about two dozen Marietta men came into the prison, with no resistance from officials, and abducted Frank in the dark of night. By dawn, he was hanging from a tree in Marietta. Photographs of his dangling body and the crowds who gathered there adorned souvenir postcards. \"Leo Frank was a Jew and a Yankee Jew at that. He was railroaded. Uncle Jack knew that,\" said Wallace, who lives in Atlanta. She can't explain why the story persists to this day. But throughout her life she's witnessed the kindness of the Jewish community, especially toward her father, who was named for the late governor. \"The Jewish community could never do enough for my father,\" said Wallace, who recalled being in a Jewish-owned store with her parents in the 1980s. \"They could have given us the shop.\" As grateful as they were to Slaton, Frank's lynching left Georgia's small Jewish community frightened. Many left the state; those who stayed kept a low profile. For decades, they only spoke of Frank in hushed tones. The lynching party . The lynching of a white man can hardly be compared to what happened in the black community in the South. But this case, the only lynching of a Jew on American soil, was the culmination of a state-sponsored conspiracy, historians say. While Georgia Jews remained quiet, so did those who were involved in Frank's killing, said Steve Oney of Los Angeles, California, who wrote the authoritative book \"And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank.\" It would be about 80 years before members of the lynching party were publicly, and not just secretly, known. \"They were not liquored-up yahoos,\" said Oney, a journalist, editor and Atlanta native who spent 17 years researching his book. \"These were smart, deliberate people -- from good, prominent families.\" They included a former governor, a former mayor, a U.S. senator's son, a judge, lawyers, a state legislator and business owners. One of the 25 or so men was Cicero Dobbs, the grandfather-in-law of Roy Barnes, a Georgia lawyer and politician who is a former governor himself and will be running again in 2010. Barnes and his wife, Marie, never knew Dobbs, who owned a taxi company in Marietta and likely provided transportation to the prison where Frank was held. Oney broke the news about the family connection to them. \"Marie's parents didn't know. It was never mentioned,\" Barnes said. \"On death beds, people confessed. It was just that powerful.\" Barnes, who is featured in the new documentary, said it's important to keep the story alive and learn from it. \"It's a terrible blot on our history,\" he said. \"How we keep it from happening again is to never forget.\"","highlights":"Mary Phagan's murder in 1913 spawned an Atlanta trial that's still talked about today .\nLeo Frank was convicted, later lynched by mob of respected community leaders .\nCase hit hot buttons: North vs. South; Jew vs. Christian; black vs. white .\nStory continues through new books, films and descendants from all sides .","id":"2c1c04d654216147159da9b56f6c05f24f3c203f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators discovered four more bodies Tuesday at the Cleveland, Ohio, home of a convicted rapist -- making a total of 10 since last week, Police Chief Michael McGrath said Tuesday. Authorities on Tuesday charged Anthony Sowell with five counts of aggravated murder after unearthing the bodies of women at his home last week, police said. Sowell, 50, also was charged with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping, police said. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning. Police arrested Sowell on Saturday, two days after discovering the decomposing bodies of five females inside his home and another woman's body outside the house. Earlier Tuesday, a source close to the investigation had told CNN that a seventh body had been found in the home. The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, did not reveal the gender of the seventh body found at Sowell's home. The source did not say exactly where the body was found at the residence. Authorities found the first two bodies last week while trying to serve an arrest and search warrant on Sowell related to a sexual assault investigation, and an intensive search began. Sowell was not home at the time; officers found him after a tipster told them of his whereabouts. The decomposing bodies of the first six women, all of whom were African-American, could have been lying where they were found for \"weeks, if not months or years,\" Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller III told CNN on Saturday. All six deaths were ruled homicides, Lt. Thomas Stacho of the Cleveland Police Department said Monday, with five of the deaths due to strangulation. About a month ago, a woman accused Sowell of rape and felonious assault, Stacho noted last week. Investigators obtained the warrants that set off the search after the \"cooperation of the victim,\" he said. Officers serving the warrants Thursday discovered the badly decomposed remains of two bodies on the third floor of the house, he added. A subsequent search revealed what appeared to be a freshly dug grave under the stairs in the basement. On Friday, investigators returned to the house, dug up the grave and found a third body, Stacho said. A further search of the house and property found two more bodies in a crawl space and a sixth body in a shallow grave outside the home. Five different burial methods were used on the victims, and the bodies were in varying states of decomposition, said Miller, which made it difficult to determine the ages of the victims. Stacho said Sowell makes his living as a \"scrapper.\" \"He walks around and picks up scrap metal and takes it to junk yards to make a few pennies,\" he said. Sowell was convicted of a 1989 rape and was imprisoned from 1990 to 2005, Stacho said. CNN's Karan Olson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Four more bodies unearthed on Tuesday, Cleveland police chief says .\nTotal of bodies found at home of Anthony Sowell is up to 10 .\nSowell, 50, has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder .\nBodies could have been there for \"weeks, if not months or years,\" coroner says .","id":"979348f0bdd10edc6311a74a80ac96cdf1bfd995"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They were there for the view -- spectators awed by a vista of massive waves smashing against the rocky shore. A U.S. Coast Guard rescue boat reaches a man swept out to sea Sunday at Acadia National Park in Maine. But then one wave struck violently, sweeping three people into the churning ocean, one of them a 7-year-old girl. What spectator Mary Ellen Martel saw next were bodies bobbing along in the frothy waters. And in a heartbeat, a day of spectacular surf turned tragic. Watch a dramatic rescue at sea \u00bb . Thousands of people flocked to the jagged shoreline of Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday as Hurricane Bill weakened offshore on its trajectory north and delivered dramatic waves to the New England seaboard. \"People were clapping and laughing when the wind would bring the spray over. It was a very festive atmosphere,\" Martel told CNN in a telephone interview. \"It was a warm, sunny day, and everyone was just enjoying the show that Mother Nature was offering, but not everybody knows to stay away from the edge -- or way away from the edge.\" A section of the shore is known as Thunder Hole, a popular tourist attraction where waves crashing against the shore mimic the sound of thunder. But Sunday, conditions were such that even the walkway to Thunder Hole was closed for the safety of spectators. On a rock cliff about 20 feet above the sea, a wave struck about 11:50 a.m., pushing water onto the ankles of some of the people standing on \"top of what we think would be a safe area,\" Acadia Chief Ranger Stuart West told CNN. People started to turn back, to get farther away from the edge, and then a second, monstrous wave hit them. The unrelenting sea dragged in seven onlookers, forcing four to claw their way back to shore but sweeping three others out into the chilly waters. Two were rescued, but 7-year-old Clio Axlerod of New York perished, West said. Watch preparations for the storm \u00bb . Martel, a resident of Maine's Southwest Harbor for more than 35 years and a frequent park visitor, had come there with her husband, and she said she feels \"pretty certain\" she had been on the same ledge as the three victims swept out to sea. Martel had stood far enough back that the first wave did not affect her much, but when she saw the second coming, she turned her back to protect the camera she used to photograph the surf. She was doused from her shoulders down, she said. She said she knew then she had to get back to the road that led to the area. \"When I looked [back], everybody was scrambling to get off the ledge,\" she said. Her husband, a volunteer firefighter, ran back to offer his help and overheard a woman say that her husband and daughter were swept away from the spot where the Martels and maybe 30 others had been, she said. U.S. Coast Guard rescuers arrived about 20 minutes after the first call and had the tough task of finding the three drifting in the rough seas. \"Of course, trying to locate a head in frothy, agitated water like it was is a very difficult operation,\" West said. \"But the rangers on the shore could still spot them.\" Martel saw bobbing buoys out in the distance, but not until she used a zoom lens on her camera could she tell the buoys from the bodies, she said. At 12:52 p.m., the Coast Guard picked up Simone Pelletier, 12, of Belfast, Maine, and Peter Axlerod, 55, Clio's father. The 7-year-old was found at 3:32 p.m., West said in a statement. Petty Officer Dayton Trubee of the Coast Guard said he was not present during the rescue effort, but heard from his colleagues what happened when they grabbed Peter Axlerod out of the sea's grip. \"They told me when they pulled them on board he was exhausted,\" Trubee said. \"He really didn't have any idea what happened to his daughter. He was totally worn out from just struggling.\" Six others at Acadia suffered broken bones and cuts from the effects of the intense waves, West said. Park officials had warned visitors of the dangers of the surf, West said, but he was not sure whether those seven pulled out by the massive wave got the warning. West said that people ask why rangers didn't just close off the park's shoreline. \"The reality is we have so many miles of boundary that if we close up one section people just go to the other section,\" he said. Instead they concentrate rangers in the areas they know people want to visit, he said. But nature can't be managed. The second wave has been reported by some as a rogue wave, because it was unexpected and \"monstrous,\" said Chief Christopher Wheeler of the Coast Guard's field office for Northern New England. Martel said she did not initially think the waves would be an injurious, \"imminent\" threat. \"It's kind of like a false sense of security, and then out of nowhere comes this monstrous wave that's like, holy moly,\" Wheeler said.","highlights":"People flock to Maine seashore to watch waves stirred up by Hurricane Bill .\nEnormous wave takes spectators by surprise, sweeps three out to sea .\nTwo are rescued from pounding surf, but 7-year-old girl dies .","id":"ac69b8d31ed81055688259e6586a1d90368baf21"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Nearly all healthy pregnant women who receive a single dose of the H1N1 flu vaccine will be protected from that flu, according to just-released clinical trial data. In a news conference Monday at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said out of about 100 pregnant women who participated in trial studies, over 90 percent showed a robust immune response to a single 15-microgram dose of the H1N1 vaccine. And at this point, there have been no reported side effects, Fauci said. Fauci stressed that these results should be reassuring for already-vaccinated pregnant women and this is \"vital information for those who have not yet been vaccinated.\" He added that \"pregnant women have tolerated the vaccine well, and no safety concerns have arisen.\" Pregnant women are considered to be among the highest at risk for serious complications of this new flu strain. Since H1N1, also known as swine flu, first emerged in April, 28 pregnant women reportedly have died from complications of this flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Despite health officials repeatedly saying the H1N1 vaccine is safe, questions about it persist. To reassure those who question the safety of the vaccine, Dr. Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program Office, noted that a new independent panel has been formed to review data from all sources on the safety of the vaccine. The group will monitor all sources reporting problems with the vaccine. \"The vast amount of adverse events have been minor,\" said Gellin. He said there has been one reported death linked to the vaccine, but further investigation showed that the person died from the actual H1N1 flu, not the vaccine. Gellin said the panel was designed to keep an eye on any possible negative consequences and report them immediately. According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, who also attended the news conference, 30 million doses of the vaccine are available for states to order. She explained that that does not mean 30 million shots are available to the public at this point. The vaccines need to be ordered by each state and distributed before they make it to doctor's offices and clinics. Schuchat reassured the public that more vaccines would be made available within the next few weeks, as demand for shots continues to rise. Fauci also noted further studies on children -- youngsters between the ages of 6 months to 35 months, and children from the age of 3 years to 9 years -- found they responded much better to two 15-microgram doses of the vaccine, than one single dose. For children 9 and older, a single 15-microgram dose gave young people a robust immune reaction that should protect them against the virus. When asked how this H1N1 virus differed from the seasonal flu, Schuchat said they were at opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to high-risk patients. \"With seasonal flu,\" said Schuchat, \"Ninety percent of the deaths every year are in people over the age of 65.\" She noted, \"But with H1N1, 90 percent of the deaths, thus far, have been in people under the age of 65.\" And she added, \"half of those are under the age of 25 years, in young people. So those are the people we want to get our message to. Children, pregnant women, young people should be getting vaccinated.\" Fauci agreed saying, \"You need to look at the risk ... Right now, the risk of becoming seriously ill, even dying from this virus, outweighs the risk of something happening to you if you take the vaccine. It's really that simple.\" CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Over 90% of women in study showed robust response to one 15-microgram dose .\nDr. Anthony Fauci: Vaccine is safe and effective in pregnant women .\nYoung people and pregnant women have shown to be vulnerable to H1N1 flu .\nChildren 9 and younger have responded better to two doses of the vaccine .","id":"8c5e9830f1239f7479955821b4069e81ad90866e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tuesday's off-year election might not have the high stakes of the 2008 presidential election, but there are several significant races worth watching: . \u2022 Virginia governor: McDonnell is projected winner . CNN has projected that Republican Bob McDonnell will be elected Virginia governor. The 55-year-old former state attorney general will be the first Republican to win the state's highest office in 12 years. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, McDonnell was leading Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds 59 percent to 41 percent. The race was seen as an early referendum on voters' attitudes toward President Obama and his policies and an opportunity for Republicans to turn back recent Democratic gains. More on Virginia gubernatorial race . \u2022 New Jersey governor: GOP's Christie is winner, CNN projects . Republican challenger Chris Christie will defeat New Jersey Gov. John Corzine, CNN has projected. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Christie was leading Corzine, a Democrat, 49 percent to 45 percent. Chris Daggett, an independent candidate, had 6 percent. Corzine, who was seeking a second term, trailed Christie during the summer, but recent polls showed them in a dead heat. As Election Day approached, some thought growing support for the moderate Daggett might siphon votes from Christie. More on New Jersey gubernatorial race . \u2022 New York mayor: Bloomberg to win third term, CNN projects . New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will win a third term despite a tough challenge from Democrat Bill Thompson, CNN has projected. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Bloomberg led Thompson 51 percent to 46 percent. Bloomberg's apparent victory comes after he changed the city's constitution to lift a two-term limit. Bloomberg, an independent candidate, had led Thompson, the city comptroller, by double digits in most pre-election surveys. Bloomberg has outspent his rival in TV ads, $33 million to $2.66 million. \u2022 Boston, Massachusetts, mayor: Menino wins, Globe says . Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has won a record fifth term, the Boston Globe reported. CNN is not making a projection in the race. With all precincts reporting, Menino led City Councilman Michael Flaherty 57 percent to 42 percent, according to the Globe. In Menino's previous races, he either won overwhelmingly or he ran unopposed. Boston.com: Menino wins fifth term . \u2022 Maine same-sex marriage vote: Early results are close . Early results on a measure that would reject a law allowing same-sex marriage were tight, according to the Bangor (Maine) Daily News. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, nearly 52 percent of voters chose to reject the law, with more than 48 percent voting to retain it, according to the Daily News. When Gov. John Baldacci signed the legislation on May 6, he did so knowing there was a possibility that voters could overturn it. In September, opposition groups delivered the necessary signatures to get a vote. Maine would be sixth state to allow same-sex marriage if voters uphold the legislation. iReport.com: Same-sex marriage proponents work to get out the vote . \u2022 Medical marijuana in Maine: 'Yes' has lead . Early results seemed to favor the passage of a referendum that would expand the use of medical marijuana in Maine. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, 59 percent of voters chose \"yes\" in the referendum, according to the Bangor (Maine) Daily News. Voters in Maine, one of 14 states to allow the use of medical marijuana, were asked to decide whether to expand the list of conditions that could be treated with medical marijuana and make it easier to expand the list further in the future. It also would create state-licensed dispensaries. Portland Press Herald: Turnout may surpass 50 percent, official says . \u2022 New York's 23rd Congressional District . Why it matters: A conservative backlash against a moderate Republican candidate propelled this race into national headlines as proof of an ongoing family feud between the far right and moderates for control of the party. What's the story?: Local Republican leaders picked Dede Scozzafava because of her appeal to centrist Republicans, independents and even some Democrats. But it sparked a conservative revolt, and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman outpolled Scozzafava, forcing her to withdraw. Scozzafava has since endorsed Democrat Bill Owens. New York district bares fight for GOP's soul . iReport.com: Interviews with supporters of Owens, Hoffman . \u2022 Civil unions in Washington state . Why it matters: Washington decides whether to edge closer to same-sex marriage. What's the story?: Earlier this year, what is called Washington's \"everything but marriage\" bill was signed into law and gave registered domestic partners additional state-granted rights currently given only to married couples. In a vote similar to Maine's, Washington will decide whether to overturn the legislation. Share election day images from your town . \u2022 Atlanta, Georgia, mayor . Why it matters: Thirty-five years of African-American control of the mayor's office could end in Georgia's capital city. What's the story?: White City Councilwoman Mary Norwood is the front-runner in this nonpartisan race between her and chief competitors City Council President Lisa Borders and former state lawmaker Kasim Reed. Incumbent Shirley Franklin, limited to two terms, recently said she is voting for Reed. Watch how Atlanta's mayor isn't backing the front-runner . Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Coverage of mayoral race . \u2022 Houston, Texas, mayor . Why it matters: The nation's fourth-largest city could elect its first openly gay mayor. What's the story?: City Controller Annise Parker, who has been elected six times to citywide posts, has an even chance of winning, according to polls. Among her competitors are City Councilman Peter Brown and City Attorney Gene Locke. Watch how a Texas candidate could make history . KHOU: Voter turnout appears light Tuesday . Houston Chronicle: Scouting report on mayoral race . CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Emily Sherman, Ed Hornick, Robert Yoon and John Helton contributed to this report.","highlights":"GOP's Chris Christie will win New Jersey governorship, CNN projects .\nNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg turns back tough challenge .\nCNN projects Republican McDonnell wins Virginia governor's race .\nHouston voters could elect Texas city's first openly gay mayor .","id":"9371d7babfddfdd4be3f2ca7534f58bc50df5eb0"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Like the David Letterman Debacle wasn't bad enough, now we have the story of Steve Phillips, the ESPN analyst, who had an affair with a 22-year-old coworker. Unfortunately for the 46-year-old sports dude and married father of four, his latest dalliance (and apparently there've been others before her) turned bunny boiler when he broke it off with her. Brooke Hundley, the jilted junior, allegedly went ballistic; repeatedly emailing and calling Phillips' long-suffering wife, tricking their 16-year-old son into an online flirtation, and then finally showing up at the family home, scaring the crap out of everyone. Lucky for Hundley, the Phillips's declined to press charges, but her reputation, both professionally and personally, is shot. (His too. He's since been fired from ESPN and has entered a treatment facility.) Obviously, being some cad's side action is always a sucker's game, but if you're going to do it, do it right. The Frisky: If he's not on the market, shop elsewhere! Choose carefully . It's bad enough that you're \"dating\" a married guy, but when you start sleeping with someone who's in a position of authority over you, you're screwing yourself twice. Every good grade will be chalked up to your romance with the professor and every promotion, credited to time served on your back. Don't kid yourself that nobody in your class or office knows, because people aren't blind and you're not that slick. Don't go home with him . Maybe he's too cheap to pay for a hotel room, could be he secretly wants to get caught . . . then again, maybe he's just a sociopath, but I can't even tell you how many times I've heard about a marriage dude bringing his girlfriend back to the house he shares with his wife and kids -- usually when everyone's out of town, but not always. Letterman even took his mistress on vacation with his family! Whatever his motivation, resist. You're already hurting this woman by having sex with her husband; at least have the decency to stay out of the bed they share. The Frisky: Can couples get past infidelity? Accept that you're No. 2 . Married guys will tell you a lot of things in their quest to bed you. That they haven't slept with their [insert bitchy descriptor here] wives for [insert insanely long period of time here] and that they're only staying together for the [kids\/finances\/etc.]. You need to know going in that you will always come second. (Or third. Or fourth.) Sure, you might get expensive gifts, but you'll also be spending nearly every holiday by your lonesome, you'll never meet his friends, and plans will be canceled on a moment's notice if something more important (i.e., anything) comes up. The Frisky: How to handle being the other woman . You're not his first . . . When an acquaintance of mine started an affair with a married coworker, she was furious when I suggested this might not be the first time he'd strayed during his very long marriage. She screamed that I was a cynic and that their love was a special flower they alone shared. (On the conference room floor.) Okay, she didn't use the term \"special flower,\" but that was the gist. A week later I got an embarrassed call back reporting that, contrary to what he'd told her, he'd been straying since his wedding day. A cheat and a liar -- who would've guessed?! The Frisky: 10 ways to punish a cheater . ...And probably won't be his last . Most guys don't leave their wives for the women they're seeing on the side. Yes, I know -- your grand passion is \"different.\" Snort. But what if he actually does splinter the family into bits and make a (semi) honest woman out of you? According to the Web site, \"Beyond Affairs,\" only 3 percent of men marry their affair partner and out of those, only 3 percent of those marriages last. And why would they? You're committing to a relationship that was built on lies and deceit. On second thought, maybe you want to rethink this whole \"other woman\" thing. The Frisky: How do you define cheating? TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Woman rarely come out ahead after having affair with married men, columnist says .\nESPN fired Steve Phillips and Brooke Hundley's reputation is shot after affair .\nWriter says women should realize men rarely cheat just once .\nQuotes Web site saying 3 percent of cheaters wed, 3 percent of those marriages survive .","id":"48b0773105960838fad659b1da5807415f6d3712"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. serviceman was among six victims of an early morning shooting at a Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, strip club Wednesday, officials said. Unidentified gunmen entered the Amadeus club in the border city across from El Paso, Texas, just after midnight and fatally shot six men, Chihuahua state attorney general's office spokesman Arturo Sandoval said. An additional person was injured, he said. Two of the victims were identified as employees of the strip club, a waiter and a security guard, the spokesman said. Another was identified as an American citizen and member of the U.S. Air Force, Sandoval said. A statement from Holloman Air Force Base, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, confirmed that the airman was based there, and identified him as Staff Sgt. David Booher, 26. The gunmen appeared to have targeted the victims, Sandoval said. \"Everything indicates that these people were looking for these men,\" he said. Investigators recovered more than 30 shells from the scene. Because of drug-related violence, particularly in border cities, Juarez is considered off-limits for the U.S. military. At Fort Bliss in El Paso, for instance, a memorandum prohibits its soldiers from traveling into the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located. More than 2,000 killings have been recorded in Juarez this year. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario, Mike Mount, Dave Alsup and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Air Force Staff Sgt. David Booher shot with 5 others in Ciudad Juarez .\nGunmen appeared to have targeted the victims, Mexican spokesman says .\nJuarez is considered off-limits for the U.S. military because of drug violence .","id":"92e7d7a71dc47642d327f94b5828ef074bb68070"} -{"article":"FREDERICK, Maryland (CNN) -- Andrew Stein, 10, and his brother, Nathan, 7, are having a typical end-of-summer vacation: hanging out at the pool, visiting their grandparents and waiting for the beginning of school. Nathan Stein, 7, said getting some shots was worth it to help other kids. But this week they're doing something most of their classmates will never do. The Stein brothers will be testing the new vaccine to prevent swine flu. Because the younger population, from 6 months to 24 years, is at high risk of developing complications from the H1N1 virus, the National Institutes of Health is conducting a clinical trial specifically to make sure the vaccine is safe for children. Vaccine developers hope to get the doses out by mid-October, before the flu season really shifts into high gear. Although both boys dislike needles, they are willing to make the sacrifice. \"One boy that I knew at our school died from a type of the flu,\" said Andrew, frowning. \"So I wanted to prevent that as much as I could.\" The boys, who live in the suburbs between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, got their first inoculations at the vaccine satellite office in Frederick, Maryland. The trial is being conducted by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, one of 11 institutions across the country holding pediatric trials. Researchers will test the boys' blood, have them keep journals and make sure they have no severe reactions after each vaccine. The pediatric studies are divided into two groups within the United States. Half the sites will be comparing reactions between the H1N1 shot and the seasonal influenza vaccines on kids; the others will be looking at the effectiveness of a two-dose vaccine. The Steins are enrolled in the dosage trial. The data are crucial for developing a safe vaccine, said Dr. Karen Kotloff, who heads both the pediatric and adult trials at Maryland. \"The purpose of the studies we are doing is to try to collect information that will help to inform policymakers about the best way to give the pandemic H1N1 flu vaccine,\" she said. \"Whether we need one or two doses and what strength we need.\" Before they received their shots, both boys, along with their parents, Christy and Eric Stein, got an explanation of the procedure and were warned about possible complications. Nancy Wymer, who coordinates the study, says the boys will receive two inoculations over six weeks and will continue to check in periodically over the following six months. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on the H1N1 clinical trial \u00bb . Neither brother gave more than a grimace as he rolled up his sleeve and took a shot for science. Andrew Stein said it was no big deal. \"It was in and out, in a couple of seconds.\" Why would parents have their children be part of such a trial? Most say to help other children. Christy Stein was involved in a pediatric trial for the swine flu vaccine in 1976 and understands what her sons are going through. But she also believes it's good for the country's public health. \"I trust the people who are running the study,\" she said. \"And I'm not concerned about it at all.\" The studies are based on other influenza trials in the past. Many parents have already volunteered their children but openings still exist. Children 6 months to 35 months are needed, Kotloff said. \"Like with any shot, children may have a sore arm. Your arm can be red...There might be some fever or achiness, but the symptoms go away in a couple of days. \"There can be allergic reactions, mostly rashes, but in some rare circumstances there can be severe allergic reactions,\" she added. \"Each volunteer is informed about these possibilities, so it's up to the parents to make that choice.\" The 11 main sites across the U.S, in nine states, are currently recruiting children for the vaccine trials. The two-dose vaccine tests are being conducted at the University of Maryland Baltimore; Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri; Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington; and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. And the trial comparing H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines is at Hope Clinic, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; St. Louis University in Missouri; the University of Iowa in Iowa City; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas; and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Each location has a Web site to sign up if more children are needed. Andrew and Nathan are doing fine. They will keep a diary on how they feel and what, if any, reactions they have. Each was rewarded with a $40 gift card for his trouble. And even after being stuck with a couple of needles, Nathan Stein says it was worth it. \"Not just for the gift card,\" he said, \"but for being able to help other kids.\"","highlights":"National Institutes of Health has specific H1N1 vaccine trials for children .\nPeople 6 months to 24 years at high risk of developing H1N1 complications .\nStudies compare H1N1 and seasonal shots, look at dosage .\nDoctor: Data gathered will be crucial for proving vaccine safe for kids .","id":"70ea5a6793eaf553f372bfb52fa8eb719e9a6e30"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former England forward and Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards has been banned from coaching for three years for his part in masterminding a fake blood injury to one of his players. Tom Williams spitting fake blood from his mouth in a match between Harlequins and Leinster. The 46-year-old was hit with disciplinary action after a hearing by an independent European Rugby Cup (ERC) panel found he had \"organized the fabrication of a blood injury\" on wing Tom Williams during a European Cup quarterfinal match against Leinster. With his side trailing by one point Williams, under instructions from Richards, faked a cut in his mouth with a capsule of fake blood, thereby allowing goal-kicker Nick Evans to return to the field of play. The plan may have worked if Williams had not winked to the oncoming player as he left the pitch, an action that infuriated their opponents Leinster. The ERC confirmed in a statement on their official Web site that Richards had acknowledged his role as the orchestrator of the plan that has since been dubbed \"bloodgate,\" and the subsequent cover up of the injury. Watch journalists discuss club's 'shame' \u00bb . Richards was initially cleared of improper conduct by a hearing in July in which Williams was given a 12-month ban, but the verdict was challenged by ERC disciplinary officer Roger O'Connor. Further evidence came to light in an appeal made by Williams before an admission of guilt by Dean Richards, who recently resigned from his position with Harlequins, prompted the ban. The ERC appeal committee chairman Rod McKenzie said details of four other incidents of Harlequins faking injuries had been passed to the relevant authorities. Williams's ban was reduced to four months and the fine imposed on Harlequins has been increased from $340,000 to $425,000 -- the club still awaits to hear whether they will be expelled from this season's European Cup. The physiotherapist for the London-based club, Steph Brennan, has also been banned for two-years. Richards had not decided whether to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but reacted to his ban by telling reporters: \"I'm surprised. Three years is a long time but I'll reflect on it overnight. \"I took full responsibility for it. It was a farcical situation, it really was. It didn't pan out particularly well on the day. Everybody looked at it and thought, 'That's unreal', which is what I thought on the touchline as well. \"But I had to hold my hands up,\" Richards added.","highlights":"Ex-England rugby player Dean Richards is hit with three-year coaching ban .\nRichards admitted orchestrating a fake blood injury to one of his players .\nThe 46-year-old also admitted a subsequent cover up of the operation .\nWing Tom Williams had 12-month ban reduced to four on appeal .","id":"3e16859cf13d53051ea6ed627e47f9fccd0b7628"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country. Be warned, this mission includes very real dangers such as hardening arteries and skyrocketing cholesterol. We've compiled a list to get you started. 1. If you're at Starbucks and in need of just a little caffeine, don't worry -- there's a tiny option for you. It's the Short size, and they don't advertise it. It's like a little baby cup of coffee. It also comes in handy when you're scrounging for change and don't have enough for a tall (not that that has ever happened to me). 2. It's a good thing we don't have Jamba Juice here in Iowa, because I would be all over candy-based smoothies. Because it's considered a health-food chain, Jamba Juice doesn't officially list these on their in-store menus, but the Web site Mighty Foods assures us that the secret flavors exist. The ones they confirmed with the company's headquarters include Strawberry Shortcake, White Gummy Bear, PB&J, Various flavors of Starbursts, Fruity Pebbles, Push-Up Pops, and Skittles. Other tantalizing flavors that are rumored to exist: Chocolate Gummi Bear, Apple Pie, Sourpatch Kid, Tootsie Roll, and Now and Later. 3. This one might be my favorite. At Fatburger, you can order a Hypocrite -- a veggie burger topped with crispy strips of bacon. 4. Chipotle has a whole secret menu that is limited only by your imagination -- they have a store policy that says that if they have the item available, they will make it for you. Things that have been tested include nachos, quesadillas, taco salads and single tacos. Some stores are testing out quesadillas as a regular menu item, however, so maybe someday soon you won't need a super-secret handshake to order one. Mental Floss: 7 food promotions gone horribly wrong . 5. If you're at Wendy's and you're really hungry -- like, three-patties-just-won't-cut-it hungry -- go ahead and order the Grand Slam, which is four patties stacked on a bun. This option is only available at select Wendy's, and it's also known as the Meat Cube. 6. Several places, including McDonald's and In-N-Out, will serve you the Neapolitan milkshake. It's just what it sounds like -- chocolate, vanilla and strawberry shakes layered in a cup. 7. In-N-Out Burger's \"secret menu\" isn't so secret these days -- in fact, they've posted it on their Web site. But in case you're not in the habit of surfing fast food Web sites, here's the skinny on their rather un-skinny items: ordering something \"Animal Style\" at In-N-Out means you're going to get it with lettuce, tomato, a mustard-cooked beef patty, pickles, extra spread (it's sort of Thousand-Islandy) and grilled onions. You can even get your fries Animal Style. Mental Floss: Why is it called \"Thousand Island\" dressing? \"Protein Style\" is a burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun. A Grilled Cheese is two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato and spread on a bun (grilled onions if you so choose). And you can get just about any combo of meat and cheese that you want if you order it like you're ordering lumber: 3\u00d73 gets you three beef patties and three slices of cheese, 4\u00d74 gets you four of each, and so on. According to photos posted at SuperSizedMeals.com, one gluttonous patron requested and received a 100x100 at a Las Vegas store a few years ago. One item not listed on the Web site secret menu: the Flying Dutchman, which is two slices of cheese sandwiched between two patties, hold the bun. 8. Feeling a little health-conscious at Popeye's? If you are, you really should have gone somewhere else. But there's a little hope for you -- ordering \"naked chicken\" will get you breading-free poultry. The word is that this is on the menu at some Popeye's, but not all of them, although it is an option at all of them. 9. Like Chipotle, Taco Bell will make you just about anything within reason as long as they have the ingredients for it. Since most of the food at Taco Bell is made out of the same basic items, that means you can probably ask for most discontinued items and get them. One \"secret,\" though, is that they have a not-advertised green chili sauce at most locations, and apparently it's excellent. 10. Some Subways will still make you the popular pizza sub from the 1990s. Once the chain decided to make their focus healthy eating, the pizza sub disappeared from the menu in most places (the word is that Canadian and Mexican Subways still offer them on a regular basis). But if you ask, lots of places will still make it for you. Be warned, though -- Jared would not approve of the nine slices of pepperoni and copious amounts of cheese slathered in marinara sauce. Mental Floss: Brief history of dubious dieting . For more mental_floss articles, visit MENTALFLOSS.COM . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some fast food outlets have not-on-menu items you can get if you ask for them .\nFatburger's Hypocrite is bacon-topped veggie burger; Popeye's offers naked chicken .\nSome Subways will still make the popular pizza sub from the 1990s .\nWendy's offers the Meat Cube; McDonald's has a Neapolitan milkshake .","id":"b1df0d3677e52b29f2065c806e05598c91655bc8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Among the entertainers who have donated their energies to the USO in recent years are Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, Kid Rock, Queensryche, Toby Keith, Lewis Black and Robin Williams. Stephen Colbert's trip to Iraq, facilitated by the USO, was six months in the planning. But when the USO conducts a public opinion survey asking people who they think of when the military service organization is mentioned, one name always comes up. \"The first thing out of their mouths is 'Bob Hope,' \" said Mark Phillips, the USO's vice president for communications, with an audible shrug. \"And if they're not part of the military, the list stops there.\" As the country celebrates Independence Day and pays tribute to the men and women who serve in its armed forces, the USO is trying to change that mindset. The organization, which was founded in 1941 to bring comfort and entertainment to America's men and women in uniform, has been focusing its support on American troops stationed around the world, particularly those in the military theaters of Iraq and Afghanistan, said Phillips. As part of that initiative, it's paying a great deal of attention to the troops' desires, whether they be for high technology -- the USO recently brought video game\/HDTV entertainment centers and satellite-based telephone systems to some areas -- or a diversity of entertainers, including rappers and NFL players. The Colbert trip was a meeting of the minds between the Comedy Central star and the military, said Rachel Tischler, the USO's vice president for entertainment operations. The \"Colbert Report\" host, who has attested to his interest in Iraq in such venues as Newsweek magazine (he was a guest editor last month), expressed interest in going, a request that made its way up the chain of command to Gen. David Petraeus, the former leader of coalition forces in Iraq. Petraeus liked the idea, said Tischler, and the principals were put in touch with the USO. Colbert's excursion, which the comedian called \"Operation Iraqi Stephen,\" was unusual for the USO, she added. \"We try to keep our footprint small,\" she said, noting that the organization is reliant on the military to feed and house its guests. In \"Colbert's\" case, the footprint was considerably larger: Colbert's staff and several USO employees -- not to mention 150 volunteers. The trip required six months of planning. But the broadcasts went well, with Colbert paying tribute to the military and the USO's volunteers (as well as his own staff) on the \"Report.\" He also put in a plug for USO donations: \"The USO does more than bring my show to Baghdad,\" Colbert said on the show. \"They also deliver much-needed care packages to the troops.\" (Whereupon, in a care-package primer, Colbert and Tom Hanks filled a box with shaving gel, Tang and a demolished ice sculpture.) The group remains greatly dependent on the kindness of strangers, said Phillips. \"We're primarily a volunteer organization,\" he said, noting the USO has fewer than 400 paid employees and 25,000 volunteers. Though the USO does receive a small congressional appropriation -- $20 million in 2008 -- much of its funding comes from individuals, corporations and in the form of in-kind services. Jamie Masada, the owner of Los Angeles' Laugh Factory comedy club, said the organization is close to his heart. He followed a tour of Laugh Factory comedians with an invitation to service members to visit his club. \"What we try to do is give the soldiers -- the people that are out there putting their lives on the line for our country ... we try to say, one day if you come to Los Angeles, if you want to be a comedian, our door is open to you. We want you to send us some material, some jokes,\" he said. At a recent USO fundraiser, five service members were given the opportunity to compete for the title of \"funniest service member.\" The group was given advice from several notable comedians, including Tom Dreesen and Paul Rodriguez, and the winner received cash, gift certificates and a performance at the club, complete with name on the marquee. A number of performers return again and again. Toby Keith has gone on at least seven USO tours; \"He insists on going to the smallest, most remote places,\" said Phillips. Actor Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band are also frequent participants. \"There aren't enough words to describe just how grateful I am to our nation's troops,\" said Keith in a press release before this year's tour. \"I've participated in several USO tours over the years and I've seen firsthand their sacrifice. And I will not stop doing all I can to show my support and lift their spirits.\" Many entertainers shy away from publicity, particularly on the home front. \"We have celebrities come to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed ... and they almost always insist we don't talk about [the visits],\" said Tischler. At its core, Phillips said, the USO remains dedicated to the needs of U.S. service members. \"Service members in Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently at small, remote bases,\" said Phillips. \"There's little in the way of creature comforts. Those are the things we try to deliver.\"","highlights":"USO often brings thoughts of Bob Hope, but organization well beyond that .\nGroup offers technology, entertainment to troops overseas .\nUSO played key role in arranging \"Colbert Report\" from Iraq .","id":"93b73b5b45160b9242d3db75886788ecd56f48a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A global commodities trading company says it is considering a settlement to legal claims that it is responsible for the deaths of 15 people and thousands of illnesses after 500 tons of toxic waste were dumped in the African nation of Ivory Coast. Signs such as this were still up in \"toxic zones\" around Abidjan, Ivory Coast, a year after the waste dumping. The Dutch company Trafigura said studies by 20 experts it has hired conclude that the chemicals did not harm anyone. \"In view of that expert evidence, and the fact that claims are not being made in this litigation for deaths, miscarriages, still births, birth defects and other serious injuries, the parties are exploring the possibility of compromising the claims which have been made,\" Trafigura said in a release Wednesday. \"A global settlement is being considered by the parties and it currently appears that this settlement is likely to be acceptable to most, if not all, of the claimants.\" A United Nations report also released Wednesday said Trafigura did cause death and injury when the cargo ship Probo Koala dumped 500 tons of toxic waste belonging to the company at sites around Abidjan, the West African nation's largest city. The incident happened in August 2006. \"According to official estimates, 15 people died, 69 people were hospitalized and over 100,000 others, complaining of nausea and vomiting after inhaling fumes, sought medical treatment after the incident,\" said the report by Okechukwu Ibeanu, an unpaid investigator for the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council. \"We still don't know -- and we may never know -- the full effect of the dumping. But there seems to be strong prima facie evidence that the reported deaths and adverse health consequences are related to the dumping of the waste.\" Ibeanu, who visited Ivory Coast and the Netherlands during his investigation, urged all parties to take steps \"to address possible long-term human health and environmental effects of the incident.\" According to a U.N. statement, Ibeanu said last month that the areas where the toxic waste was dumped still have not been decontaminated and continue to threaten residents' health. Many people, he said, are still reporting headaches, skin lesions, digestive difficulties and nose, throat and lung problems. Trafigura noted in its release Wednesday that it initiated a plan two years ago that would compensate, without any admission of liability, any claimants who could demonstrate any injury caused by exposure to the waste, which the company calls \"slops.\" \"The company has always maintained that the Probo Koala's slops could not possibly have caused deaths and serious or long-term injuries,\" Trafigura said. \"Independent expert witnesses firmly support Trafigura in this stance.\" Trafigura also maintains it \"sought to comply with all relevant regulations and procedures concerning the offloading of the Probo Koala's slops in Abidjan.\" The company denies that the ship went to Ivory Coast solely to dump the toxic waste. \"Trafigura has consistently stated that the Probo Koala was returning from a routine commercial voyage to deliver a gasoline cargo in Lagos, Nigeria, when it stopped in Abidjan,\" the company statement said. \"Consequently, any suggestion that the vessel was sent to West Africa solely for the purpose of offloading its slops is entirely inaccurate.\" As one of the largest independent companies trading commodities, Trafigura has 1,900 employees in 42 nations, the company's Web site says. \"We handle every element involved in the sourcing and trading of crude oil, petroleum products, renewable energies, metals, metal ores and concentrates for industrial consumers.\" the company says. Ivory Coast, a former French colony with a population of 20 million, is also known as Cote d'Ivoire.","highlights":"Dutch firm Trafigura: Toxic dumping didn't harm anyone, according to experts .\nU.N. report: Fifteen people died, 69 were hospitalized, and thousands were treated .\nToxic waste areas still have not been decontaminated, U.N. statement says .","id":"7ca5cdb58e45b0a01e4fe34e1b9541c8d8ba66b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 14 people were dead and four missing in the Philippines a day after Typhoon Mirinae roared through the heart of the country, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday. Mirinae was the fourth typhoon to affect the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands in a month. It quickly dissipated after Saturday's landfall, becoming a tropical storm. Mirinae was forecast to weaken further before hitting Vietnam on Monday, forecasters said. The hardest hit areas were the Southern Luzon and Bicol regions, the Philippines News Agency reported. Civil Defense administrator Glenn Rabonza said more than 13,000 people were affected by the storm. The storm brought at least 85 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain to Manila. The city of Daet, on the eastern coast, received 149 millimeters (5.8 inches) of rain, and Virac, which sits on an island that juts into the Pacific, received 72 millimeters (2.8 inches) of rain. The first of the four typhoons to threaten the Philippines happened in late September, when Ketsana drenched the island nation with its heaviest rainfall in 40 years. Eighty percent of Manila flooded and more than 420 people died. Are you there? Share photos, video of the weather . Flooding from Ketsana has lasted well into October and tens of thousands of people are still in evacuation centers, according to the disaster coordinating council. Typhoon Parma made landfall on October 3 in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands. It destroyed 55,000 houses and killed more than 430 people. Last week, a third typhoon, Lupit, narrowly missed making landfall, but brought lots of rain to the Philippines.","highlights":"Typhoon Mirinae leaves at least 14 dead, four missing .\nMirinae is latest in rash of storms to hit region .\nForecasters say weakened storm will hit Vietnam on Monday .","id":"0d19464c65554c43c7bd75fc9acf6c2ca5f4118a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Republican Party that struggled in the wake of recent Democratic landslides sprang back to life Tuesday with wins in hotly contested races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, according to CNN projections. In Virginia, 55-year-old former state attorney general Bob McDonnell will be the first Republican to win the state's highest office in twelve years, CNN projects. Republicans will win races for Virginia's lieutenant governor and attorney general as well. In New Jersey, former federal prosecutor Chris Christie will oust first-term Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, CNN projects. Christie will be the first Republican to win the top office in heavily Democratic New Jersey in 12 years. Corzine will be the first New Jersey governor to lose a re-election bid since 1993, when then-Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat, lost to GOP challenger Christie Todd Whitman. The two gubernatorial contests have been deemed by some analysts as the first major referendum on President Obama's administration. Republicans leaders, demoralized after landslide defeats in 2006 and 2008, have been hoping to capitalize on wins in Virginia and New Jersey to help fuel a nationwide Republican resurgence. They were buoyed by a huge swing of independent voters to the Republican column. Democrats sought to minimize the defeats. Since 1989, it was noted, the party winning the White House has always gone on to lose the gubernatorial races in both states the following year. CNN also projects that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be re-elected to a third term. The billionaire mayor is believed to have spent well over $100 million of his own money in his quest for a third term -- shattering the record for personal spending in any American campaign. Democrat Bill Owens has won a vacant U.S. House seat in upstate New York, CNN projects. The contest to fill the seat sparked a vicious internal fight between GOP conservatives and moderates. The struggle has been viewed as a proxy for a national struggle between activists arguing the GOP slipped by betraying conservative values and officials warning a rightward move would further alienate an increasingly independent-minded electorate. The split could result in the election of a new Democratic congressman from a region that has backed Republican congressional candidates since 1872. Voters in nearby Maine -- not generally noted for their hard-edged, ideological politics -- tackled an emotional hot-button issue as voters decided whether to overturn a recently enacted law legalizing same-sex marriage. Results on the measure were not immediately expected, however. Washington state voters are choosing whether to uphold a law granting same-sex domestic partners the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Results on either measure were not immediately available, however. The fight for control of New York's City Hall is one of 380 mayoral races across the country, including contests in Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Houston, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. It was the two races for governor, however, that appeared to attract the most interest at the White House. Obama personally campaigned for the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in both states. A plurality of voters in both states cited the economy as their top concern, according to exit polls. Majorities in both states said Obama's job performance was not a factor in their vote. In Virginia, McDonnell beat Democratic nominee Creigh Deeds, a state senator from the rural western part of the state, by 21 points among critical independent voters. Last year, in contrast, Obama edged out GOP presidential nominee John McCain by one point among Virginia independents. African-Americans, as expected, voted overwhelmingly for the 51-year-old Deeds. Their total share of the vote, however, dropped from 20 percent from last year -- when Obama topped the ballot -- to 16 percent. McDonnell benefited from a Virginia electorate that, according to the exit poll, was slightly more conservative Tuesday than it was in 2008. Conservatives were also more unified in their support for McDonnell than they were for former GOP presidential nominee John McCain. McDonnell himself is a staunch conservative, but stressed bipartisan solutions to problems relating to job growth and transportation. Deeds sought to peel social moderates and political independents away from McDonnell in part by highlighting McDonnell's graduate school thesis, in which the Republican was critical of homosexuals and women in the workplace. The attacks appeared to backfire on Deeds. Almost two of every three voters said Deeds attacked McDonnell unfairly; those voters broke for McDonnell by a 21-point margin. McDonnell's expected victory is in keeping with Virginia's tradition of backing candidates from the party that most recently lost the White House. Republican George Allen was elected in 1993, one year after Bill Clinton won the presidency. Democrat Mark Warner won in 2001, a year after George W. Bush's first presidential victory. In 2008, Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry an increasingly diverse Virginia in more than four decades. Fewer than one in five voters on Tuesday, however, said their vote was meant to express support for the president. Almost one in four said their vote was meant to express opposition to Obama. Further north in New Jersey, Corzine had pulled even in the final surveys before Election Day with the help of a virtual 2-to-1 spending advantage. Many analysts believed independent candidate Chris Daggett, a socially moderate former Republican, was also be digging into Christie's support. Obama, who carried New Jersey by almost 16 points in 2008, campaigned for Corzine three times, most recently this past Sunday. The president's help, however, was not enough to save Corzine, who was saddled with burden of seeking reelection in the midst of a steep economic downturn. Almost one-third of New Jersey voters cited the economy as their top concern in early exit polls, with another 25 percent citing the state's high property taxes. One in five voters said their top concern was the state's ongoing struggle with corruption. Independent voters broke even more heavily for Christie in New Jersey than for McDonnell in Virginia. Corzine was able to keep the race close, however, due to New Jersey's political landscape. New Jersey voters were both more Democratic and more liberal than Virginia voters. Last year, the president also managed to carry New York's sprawling 23rd congressional district, a traditional GOP stronghold running along the Canadian border from Lake Champlain to Lake Ontario. The area has sent Republican representatives to Congress since Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant occupied the White House. But this year it was the scene of a GOP civil war. The district's U.S. House seat opened up a few months ago after nine-term Republican Rep. John McHugh stepped down to become secretary of the Army. Local Republican leaders picked state assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava as their nominee to replace McHugh because they felt her moderate views would appeal to centrist Republicans, independents and even some Democrats. The decision, however, sparked a revolt among conservatives angry with what they saw as Scozzafava's liberal views on same-sex marriage, abortion and fiscal matters such as the president's $787 billion economic stimulus plan. They backed Doug Hoffman, an accountant, ran on the state's Conservative Party line. Scozzafava suspended her campaign Saturday after her poll numbers plummeted following a flood of support and contributions to Hoffman from leading conservative politicians and organizations. Republican leaders were fractured by the choice. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich backed Scozzafava. Gingrich's one-time deputy, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, backed Hoffman. After dropping out, Scozzafava endorsed Democratic nominee Bill Owens. She campaigned for him on Monday. CNN's Peter Hamby and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: CNN projects that Chris Christie will unseat New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine .\nNEW: CNN projects Republican Bob McDonnell will win Virginia governorship .\nNEW: CNN projects New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg re-elected to a third term .\nCNN TV: Instant results, analysis from the Best Political Team, 8 p.m. ET .","id":"8a77c4e76ca4e7dbcd99b9114739d9b77f997192"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Scottish Rugby Union has appointed Andy Robinson, formerly coach of bitter rivals England, as the new national team boss. Andy Robinson will be seeking to revive the fortunes of Scotland's struggling rugby side. The 45-year-old won eight caps as a flanker for England, and was assistant coach in Clive Woodward's 2003 World Cup-winning set-up before taking over for an ill-fated reign himself in 2004, winning just nine of 22 matches. Robinson returned to top-class coaching with Celtic League team Edinburgh in 2007, and has sufficiently impressed Scottish officials in the 20 months since then to win favor as the replacement for Frank Hadden. He had been part of Hadden's backroom staff, and had already been chosen to coach Scotland A this summer. Hadden resigned on April 2 after Scotland again struggled in the Six Nations, finishing second from bottom with just one win from five outings. Robinson was delighted to be given the chance to return to the international stage. \"With the World Cup in New Zealand in 2011, I believe we have a crop of players who can really challenge the world's best, and preparation for that starts now,\" he told the SRU Web site. \"I'm looking forward to leading Scotland A into the IRB Nations Cup in Romania next week and thereafter preparing for our Autumn Tests at Murrayfield against Fiji, Australia and Argentina.\" Robinson is believed to have headed off the likes of South Africa's World Cup-winning coach Jake White and former Australia boss Eddie Jones for the job. Former Scotland captain and British and Irish Lion Gordon Bulloch was part of the interview panel that determined the appointment. \"Andy was the outstanding candidate from a quite exceptional shortlist which underlines the allure of coaching the Scotland team,\" he told the SRU's Web site. \"I know from having had the privilege of his coaching and guidance on Lions tours that he is passionate about his rugby, is a skilled communicator and has values and an ethos which are absolutely at one with developing a winning Scotland team.\" Scottish Rugby chief executive Gordon McKie said he was confident Robinson would prove to be successful. \"Andy has proved himself at every level of the game and we are thrilled that he will now be leading the Scotland team as we look towards the challenges of the next three years, including the 2011 World Cup,\" McKie said. \"He has been part of the Scottish Rugby family for the past two years and has brought success both to Edinburgh Rugby, with their highest ever Magners League finish in successive seasons, and has also guided the Scotland A team to notable successes.\"","highlights":"Andy Robinson appointed new coach of Scotland's national rugby team .\nRobinson replaces Frank Hadden, who resigned in April after poor results .\nThe 45-year-old has played for and coached England's national side .\nHe rebuilt his career with Edinburgh after being sacked by England .","id":"e56b9ec9b7ecfede07d81b3437cdf0f83768ef2f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. With money a bit tight these days, many people searching for jobs would like a salary of $80,000 a year. (CareerBuilder.com) -- Let's be honest: Sometimes you don't care about the job -- you just care about the salary. But it's awfully hard to look for a job that fits both your salary requirements and your skill set. Not to mention that we always tell you that your work and career should be something you love. Ideally, money is just an added benefit. That being said, we're also realists. We know that times are tough and at this point, some people just need to get paid. We went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at the latest (May 2008) salary information for the United States and found 30 occupations pay in the $80,000 range based on national averages. 1. Administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers Do this: Conduct hearings to rule on government-related claims; determine penalties and liability; and help to craft settlements. Get paid: $80,870 . 2. Biomedical engineers Do this: Design and develop devices and procedures to help solve health-related problems. Projects might include information systems, artificial organs or artificial limbs. Get paid: $81,120 . 3. Chiropractors Do this: Diagnose and treat musculoskeletal conditions of the spinal column to prevent disease and alleviate imbalance, pain and pressure believed to be caused by interference with nervous system. Get paid: $81,340 . 4. Atmospheric, earth, marine and space sciences teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in the physical sciences, except chemistry and physics. Get paid: $81,470 . 5. Agents and business managers of artists, performers and athletes Do this: Represent and promote their client's business while handling business matters and contract negotiations. Get paid: $81,550 . 6. Materials scientists Do this: Study the chemical composition of various materials and figure out ways to develop new materials and improve existing ones; also determine ways to use materials in products. Get paid: $81,600 . 7. Physician assistants Do this: Perform health-care services and provide treatment plans under a physician's supervision. Get paid: $81,610 . 8. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists Do this: Research and investigate human diseases and how to improve human health. Get paid: $81,870 . 9. Physics teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics pertaining to the laws of matter and energy. Get paid: $81,880 . 10. Atmospheric and space scientists Do this: Study the effects the atmosphere has on the environment, most commonly through weather forecasting. Get paid: $82,080 . 11. Management analysts Do this: Figure out best practices of management by conducting studies and procedures to help companies figure out how to operate more effectively. Get paid: $82,920 . 12. Producers and directors Do this: Produce or direct, and make all creative decisions for stage, television, radio, video or motion picture productions. Get paid: $83,030 . 13. Biological science teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in biological sciences. Get paid: $83,270 . 14. Materials engineers Do this: Develop new uses for recognized materials, and develop new machinery and processes to make materials for use in specialized products. Get paid: $84,200 . 15. Transportation, storage and distribution managers Do this: Oversee transportation, storage or distribution activities in accordance with governmental policies and regulations. Get paid: $84,520 . 16. Financial analysts Do this: Assess the financial situations of an individual or organization. Get paid: $84,780 . 17. Electrical engineers Do this: Design, develop and test the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment. Get paid: $85,350 . 18. Education administrators, elementary and secondary school Do this: Oversee all activities of public or private elementary or secondary schools. Get paid: $86,060 . 19. Industrial-organizational psychologists Do this: Work with companies to solve problems within the company. You may help with policy planning; employee screening, training and development; and organizational development and analysis. Get paid: $86,460 . 20. Computer software engineers, applications Do this: Build computer applications software and code; ensure that all software projects adhere to a company's technology and business standards. Get paid: $87,900 . 21. Economics teachers, post-secondary Do this: Teach courses and research topics in economics. Get paid: $88,330 . 22. Biochemists and biophysicists Do this: Study the chemical composition and physical principles of living cells and organisms, their electrical and mechanical energy, and related phenomena. Get paid: $88,450 . 23. Art directors Do this: Create design concepts and presentation in artwork, layout design and copywriting for visual communications media. Get paid: $88,510 . 24. Electronics engineers, except computer Do this: Design, develop and test a wide range of electronic equipment, from CD players to global positioning systems. Get paid: $88,670 . 25. Medical and health services managers Do this: Supervise medical and health services in hospitals, clinics and similar organizations. Get paid: $88,750 . 26. Chemical engineers Do this: Design chemical plant equipment and create processes for manufacturing chemicals and products. Get paid: $88,760 . 27. Geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers Do this: Study the composition, structure and other physical aspects of the Earth. Get paid: $89,300 . 28. Veterinarians Do this: Provide health care for family pets, livestock and zoo animals. Provide check-ups, treat diseases and advise caretakers on how to best raise their animals. Get paid: $89,450 . 29. Construction managers Do this:Oversee all activities concerned with the construction and maintenance of structures, facilities and systems. Get paid: $89,770 . 30. Sales engineers Do this: Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a bachelor's degree in engineering. Get paid: $89,770 . Jobs by Salary, a new salary tool from CBSalary.com, allows you to search for jobs by salary based on where you live or work in the United States . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 report lists dozens of jobs paying at least $80,000 .\nPhysics and post-secondary biology teachers can earn as much as $81,880 .\nSales engineers get paid the most on the list, at $89,770 .","id":"07dc23410135470cb60b2b66396a5e0712d5969e"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan electoral officials Monday declared incumbent President Hamid Karzai the winner of another term in office, after canceling this weekend's second round of voting. U.S. President Barack Obama called Monday for a \"new chapter\" of improved governance in Afghanistan now that Karzai's re-election as president is complete. Observers say Karzai's real test will be whether he can form a government that is seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people and the international community. Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission announced Karzai's victory Monday after it canceled Saturday's presidential runoff because of the withdrawal of candidate Abdullah Abdullah. A runoff could have been held with just one candidate, but commission president Azizullah Lodin said electoral officials decided to cancel the second round of voting for several reasons, including security and money. The decision was made just a couple of hours before the announcement, according to commission deputy Zakria Barakzai. Afghans went to the polls on August 20, in a vote marred by widespread fraud. Karzai had initially claimed victory, but two months after the vote, a U.N.-backed panel of election monitors threw out nearly a third of his votes, citing fraud. That left Karzai short of a majority, and he eventually agreed to the runoff. Abdullah had called for the resignations of top election officials and politicians to avert electoral fraud in the runoff. He argued that the commissioners, who are hired by Karzai, cannot be impartial. But that request was not met, Abdullah said Sunday, and he did not believe a transparent election was possible. \"I want this to be an example for the future so that no one again tries to use fraud to abuse the rights of the Afghan people,\" Abdullah told reporters. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Kabul on Monday hours before the commission's announcement. He issued a statement welcoming the decision, congratulating Karzai, and restating the U.N.'s commitment to supporting the new government. \"This has been a difficult election process for Afghanistan and lessons must be learned,\" Ban said in the statement. \"Afghanistan now faces significant challenges and the new president must move swiftly to form a government that is able to command the support of both the Afghan people and the international community.\" On Monday, Ban met with both Karzai and Abdullah, as well as U.N. officials, including Kai Eide, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also issued a statement Monday welcoming the commission's decision and congratulating Karzai. In Washington, President Barack Obama told reporters in the White House that he had congratulated Karzai in a telephone conversation. \"Although the process was messy, I'm pleased to say that the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law,\" Obama said. He said he told Karzai \"that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption, joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces so that the Afghan people can provide for their own security.\" Obama added that Karzai assured him he understands the importance of the moment, \"but as I indicated to him, the proof is not going to be in words, it's going to be in deeds.\" Despite the resolved election issue, Gibbs refused to put a firm timetable on when Obama would announce whether he would increase troop levels Afghanistan. Instead, Gibbs repeated past language that the decision would be made within weeks. \"Now begin the hard conversations about ensuring credibility and ensuring improving governance, addressing corruption\" in Afghanistan, Gibbs said. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican defeated by Obama in last year's presidential race, said Monday that Karzai's re-election should encourage Obama to fulfill Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for up to 40,000 more troops. \"The most urgent priority now is to support our Afghan partners in reversing what General McChrystal has rightly called the 'deteriorating' security situation,\" McCain said in a statement. \"This requires a properly-resourced counterinsurgency strategy, and I urge President Obama to provide our civilian and military leaders with the resources they need to succeed.\" The cancellation of the runoff \"puts the election issue behind us,\" but Karzai has yet to achieve a true victory, according to the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. \"Now the key issue is how the Afghan people will react to this, what kind of government will President Karzai put together, and how the international community will react,\" Khalilzad said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"We're in a new stage now in Afghanistan.\" Khalilzad had predicted last week that Abdullah would quit the race, in an interview for CNN's \"Amanpour.\" \"First, he doesn't have much money left,\" he said in the interview, which aired Sunday. \"Second, I think that he thinks that given the situation, he's likely to lose, and maybe he'll get less votes than he did in the first round, so that would be embarrassing.\" Speaking to CNN following his withdrawal, Abdullah said his decision does not mean he has given up public life. \"I will be available to serve this country,\" he said. \"At this stage, I am in consultation with my followers, with my supporters and a movement for change will be there and I will lead that movement. There is no doubt about it.\" Karzai served as acting president following the U.S. ouster of Taliban rulers in 2001, then secured a victory in the 2004 elections. He begins his second term in office amid a resurgence of the Taliban. The militants claimed responsibility for a Wednesday attack that killed five United Nations workers -- two of whom were helping with the vote. Nine others were wounded in the attack, on a guest house in Kabul. In response, the United Nations ordered nonessential personnel out of the country. International troop levels increased this year to provide security for the Afghan election in August. Attacks against U.S. and NATO forces have also spiked: 59 American troops died in Afghanistan in October, the highest U.S. monthly toll since the war began eight years ago. CNN's Jonathan Wald in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: President Obama called for \"new chapter\" of improved governance in Afghanistan .\nKarzai made president following withdrawal of opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah .\nAbdullah withdrew Sunday, saying he believed the second round would be as fraudulent .\nHamid Karzai has been president of Afghanistan since December 2004 .","id":"aeaf06bc855b6be62e60d9d1cef6b15a9b18f21c"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- It's all the rage to criticize the airlines. But we found some smart, practical initiatives that point the way to a better future. This test design for Personal Rapid Transit is part of plans for driverless pods to replace airport shuttles. Driverless pods at airports . Someday, driverless pods may be zipping passengers between an airport and its parking lots. Fully automated, pods are more convenient than shuttle buses driven by humans. Currently, 18 pods are being tested at London Heathrow's Terminal 5. They let you board when you want to, rather than wait for a bus on a fixed schedule. Punch in your destination, such as a parking lot, on a touch screen. Then leave the driving to the machine, which glides on rails at speeds of 25 mph. A bonus perk: The pods are battery powered, so they don't spew out environmentally destructive exhaust. Improved design of coach seats . Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific Airways has reinvented the economy-class seat: As the seat reclines, the bottom slides forward, but the back stays in place. So the passenger sitting behind doesn't have to endure a seat hovering inches from his or her chin. The new seats are especially welcome on long-distance hauls -- which happen to be routes Cathay Pacific flies regularly. American Airlines is among the other carriers reportedly interested in installing similar, slide-forward seats. In-cabin mood lighting . Poor cabin lighting on a long flight may worsen jet lag. For instance, exposure to bright light at an hour when you are ordinarily asleep can confuse your body's internal clock. But smart cabin lighting may actually help your body adjust to a new time zone -- and beat back jet lag. Virgin America has an in-cabin lighting system that subtly shifts through 12 shades of violet, including a welcoming, bright blue-purple during the day, a softer violet hue after dusk, and a deep, calming near-black on red-eyes when it's time to sleep. Elsewhere in the world, Air Canada, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways offer mood lighting on many long-haul flights. Luggage check before you get to the airport . Schlepping your bags isn't fun. It's also not necessary -- at least not in the many capital cities where you can drop checked luggage at bus or train stations and forget about it until you land at your destination. Many passengers can check bags at London's Paddington station (for Heathrow flights), Vienna's Wien Mitte station, Moscow's Kievsky Station, and Hong Kong Station. In the U.S., the best advance luggage-check option is at Walt Disney World: Guests staying at Disney lodging can check bags at their hotel before hopping on the free Magical Express ride to the Orlando airport. Paperless boarding passes Boarding passes printed on flimsy paper seem almost as outdated as paper airline tickets. Now, cell phone check-in is allowed at many airports, such as Chicago O'Hare and Los Angeles's LAX. Punch in your phone number at check-in and a bar code appears on your phone via e-mail or text message. Security officers and gate agents scan your phone's screen, making for an entirely paperless process. Some airlines, including American, Continental, and Delta (plus its sister unit, Northwest), plan to adopt the new technology at every airport gate nationwide. More power --sockets -- for the people . Sometimes it's the simple things that count. Virgin America not only became the first airline to offer Wi-Fi on every flight, but it did so in an especially sensible way, with standard sockets (no adapter necessary) at every seat on the plane. Because while Wi-Fi is nice (even when there's a fee for it), it's even nicer to know that you won't run out of juice in the middle of a flight. Sockets obviously work with portable DVD players and cell phone chargers, too. Replacements for outmoded radar-tracking systems . Radar is outdated. Locating a plane's position can take up to half a minute, a long time when planes are traveling at speeds over 500 mph. To play it safe and avoid accidents, planes fly extremely far apart from each other. They also fly routes that zigzag rather than go straight. The reason? Aircraft need to remain within signal range of radar beacons, which are irregularly spaced around the country. To shave flight times -- and improve safety -- the FAA is rolling out NextGen, a GPS-based air traffic control system that provides real-time plane locations to pilots and air traffic controllers. Using GPS technology (already in trial use by Alaska Airlines), planes will be able to fly straighter, more efficient routes while maintaining a safe distance from other aircraft. But we may have to wait until 2025 to see this technology adopted nationwide. Sigh. Easier upgrades . With most airlines, upgrading is an esoteric process that may involve loyalty program points, elite status, or just dumb luck. But when you check in at the airport for a Spirit Airlines flight, the kiosk presents a simpler formula. The screen may inform you that one of Spirit's Big Front Seats (the carrier's version of business class) is available for as little as $35 extra. The roomy seats are often dispensed on a first-come, first-served basis close to departure time. Depending on how you're feeling that day, you may very well decide that an upgrade to a more comfortable seat is money well spent. Copyright 2009. Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"18 driverless pods are being tested at London Heathrow's Terminal 5 .\nVirgin America has in-cabin lighting that subtly shifts throughout the day .\nA GPS-based air traffic control system is in trial use by Alaska Airlines .","id":"3f5ca95629547152142476f5cfa04557d7e69b50"} -{"article":"Thanks to the flu, a broken ankle, a staph infection, and bronchitis, plus several school cancellations, my three children were at home -- hurting, vomiting, coughing, or tracking muddy water into our house -- all but seven days last February. (Shall I pause to let the horror of that number sink in? All but seven.) I'm normally an efficient, organized person who thrives on plans and checklists, but by the end of that month, I'd accomplished almost nothing beyond reading aloud the entire fifth book of Harry Potter. I felt so anxious that I was on the verge of hyperventilation. Originally a form of self-defense, the ancient Chinese art of tai chi promotes serenity through gentle movement. \"You need to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine yourself surrounded by an egg of light,\" a Buddhist friend said. But when I closed my eyes and took a breath, I was surrounded by used tissues and dirty laundry. Obviously, I was in need of some inner peace. Studies have shown that learning to still the mind, if only for a few minutes, can lower blood pressure, reduce heart rate, limit stress hormones, and enhance immune function. But traditional forms of meditation don't work for me. If I sit still and close my eyes, I fall asleep or think about my to-do list. So, I gave myself a new task: Find an activity that calms my mind without giving my weary body a chance to nod off. Does such a thing exist? Health.com: Making time for me . Tai chi . This ancient Chinese practice -- believed to offer all the health benefits of silent meditation while giving you something to do with your hands and feet -- seemed like an obvious place to start for an antsy, toe-tapping sort like me. The thing is, I have a poor sense of balance and tai chi often requires standing on one foot. To avoid the not-so-peaceful experience of looking like a dork in front of a group of total strangers, I opted for a DVD, with only the tiniest hope of success. I surprised myself. The quiet music and the calm voice of the middle-aged woman demonstrating the moves were so reassuring that I forgot I looked like an idiot. The effort it took to follow along in what resembles the slow-motion version of a beautiful dance was literally mesmerizing. If I didn't feel peaceful, exactly, at least I was filled with quiet concentration, the kind that banishes all thoughts of picky eaters, mortgage payments, and unreliable co-workers. I emerged from the first lesson feeling refreshed and rested. Health.com: A new prescription for happiness . Knitting . I have friends who are passionate about knitting. Don't they know that it's possible to buy an immediately wearable sweater for less than the cost of the yarn it takes to knit one? Nonetheless, stressed-out 21st-century workingwomen are returning in droves to the craft. It made no sense to me ... until I tried it, that is. Knitting, it turns out, is the perfect example of active stillness. In fact, 20 minutes of knitting can lower your heart rate and blood pressure -- the same physical response triggered by yoga, Tai Chi, or meditation. Some hospitals have even begun to offer knitting courses for stress release. The secret seems to lie in the soothing combination of rhythm and repetition. By the end of my first lesson, I'd become proficient enough that my hands could make the motions almost automatically. The sound of the needles had a metronomic quality, a calming pace that automatically slowed my thoughts. And the feel of the wool sliding through my fingers was almost like a caress. Health.com: Boost your mood with color . Walking in the woods . I'd read somewhere that exposure to nature can boost a person's general well-being and sense of calm -- and I certainly needed a dose of that. So I headed to some nearby woods where the redbuds and crab apples were in full bloom. Birds called piercingly, squirrels quarreled, and high branches clattered together in the wind. In other words, nothing about the forest was still or quiet or remotely peaceful, but somehow it made me feel peaceful. I stopped thinking about my family and work deadlines and all that laundry. In fact, I stopped thinking altogether. Back at my car, I checked the clock and was shocked to learn that more than an hour had passed. Now, I can't realistically give up an hour every day to nature. But studies have shown that even small doses of nature can be healing, so I've tried a few smaller-scale nature interactions, as well. I started a small aquarium, planted a windowsill bean garden, and hung a bird feeder where I can see it from my desk. Health.com: Make time to play . OK, so the fish aren't as interesting as I'd hoped for: Watching them swim aimlessly in their small tank, in constant motion but getting absolutely nowhere, hits a little too close to home for me. But the sight of tiny leaves unfurling on the bean vines and the scent of soil filling the room when I water them have been surprisingly gratifying. As for the bird feeder? It's the best minidose of nature I've found so far. All spring I watched goldfinches and cardinals courting right outside my window. Watching them hop from branch to branch as they get their fill and move out of the way for others to feed may not be meditation, per se, but it's something similar -- a reminder that the world can offer peace and stillness, even in the midst of mayhem. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Stilling your mind can lower blood pressure, reduce heart rate, limit stress hormones .\nIf traditional meditation leaves you sleepy, try mind-calming activities .\nTai chi believed to offer benefits of silent meditation but with movement .\n20 minutes of knitting can lower your heart rate and blood pressure .","id":"ef6e6ee0f5406974c2763a83554851f8b5a3f403"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Outside a Manhattan mosque where the imam preaches against terrorism, the brothers of the \"Revolution Muslim\" are spreading a different message. Protected by the Constitution of the country they detest, radical Muslim converts like Yousef al-Khattab and Younes Abdullah Mohammed preach that the killing of U.S. troops overseas is justified. In their thinking, so were the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States -- and so are attacks on almost any American. \"Americans will always be a target -- and a legitimate target -- until America changes its nature in the international arena,\" Mohammed said in an interview to air on tonight's \"AC 360.\" Al-Khattab and Mohammed consider al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden their model. \"I love him like I can't begin to tell you, because he doesn't seem to have done anything wrong from the sharia,\" al-Khattab said, referring to Islamic law. \"If you're asking me if I love him as a Muslim, I love him more than I love myself.\" They hand out fliers outside the gleaming 96th Street mosque, where up to 4,000 people visit every day. Inside the sleek, modernistic house of worship, Imam Shamsi Ali preaches against the violence that now sweeps many Muslim countries. \"What we try to do is reminding our people about the real Islam,\" Ali said. \"We tell them what the real Islam is all about. Islam is about peace. Islam is about moderation. Islam is about friendship. Islam is opposed to any kind of hatred against anybody.\" Law enforcement sources have told CNN the men walk right up to the line of protection under the First Amendment, but their message is not going unnoticed. Al-Khattab handed CNN Correspondent Drew Griffin a business card from an FBI agent who he says is keeping tabs on him. The agent would not comment without clearance from his superiors, except to say, \"Obviously, if they gave you my card, you know we are watching them.\" The mosque has called police on Al-Khattab and Mohammed several times, and passers-by occasionally engage them in heated debates. Ali told CNN that ordinary Muslims are \"disgusted with their behavior.\" But they insist they don't fight themselves, and don't incite others to do so. Al-Khattab calls President Obama \"a murderer, a tyrant, a scumbag,\" and says he wouldn't \"shed a tear\" if Obama were killed. But he added, \"Would I incite his murder? That's not what I teach.\" Mohammed calls himself an American \"by default\" who identifies with Muslims. Al-Khattab, a Jew who lived in Israel before converting to Islam, says he \"would like to see a mushroom cloud\" over the Jewish state -- \"but before that, I'd like to see the people guided, and I'd like them to go back to their original countries where they're from.\" But federal agents are not only watching them, they're watching some of those who are listening. Neil Bryant Vinas, a young New Yorker who has pleaded guilty to plotting to attack trains on the Long Island Rail Road, met with al-Khattab. Al-Khattab said Vinas and \"some brothers\" traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and had dinner with him. Al-Khattab said they considered him something of a hero because he left Israel and converted to Islam. Al-Khattab also claims friendships with Tarek Mehanna, now under indictment in Boston, Massachusetts, on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and Daniel Maldonado, who pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Texas to receiving military training from Islamic militants in Somalia. Mohammed says he and his fellow radicals are \"commanded to terrorize the disbelievers ... making them fearful so that they will think twice before they go rape your mother or kill your brother or go onto your land and try to steal your resources.\" \"We are defending innocent women that are bombed every day, innocent children that are bombed every day,\" he said. But asked whether those who take their fliers should take up arms against Americans, he said, \"We certainly have never said that.\" CNN's Paul Cruickshank contributed to this report.","highlights":"Radical Muslim converts defend violence against the U.S. outside a New York mosque .\nInside the mosque, an imam preaches against terrorism .\nAuthorities say the language walks \"right up to the line\" of free speech protection .\nSee the full investigation on \"AC 360\" tonight, 10 ET .","id":"826f756a12142b1c31317ec67cface3fda08ddf0"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Diane Sawyer will take over nightly news anchor duties for ABC when Charlie Gibson retires from \"World News\" at the end of this year, a network spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer worked together on \"Good Morning America.\" Sawyer, 63, will be the second woman to be the solo host of an evening newscast for an American broadcast TV network. Sawyer will take the chair in January, ABC's Jeffrey Schneider said. Gibson, 66, and Sawyer worked together for years on ABC's morning show -- \"Good Morning America\" -- before Gibson was promoted over Sawyer to anchor ABC's \"World News\" in May 2006. Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff co-anchored the newscast before Gibson. That duo came to an end after Woodruff was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Maria Brennan, president of the Washington-based American Women in Radio and Television organization, called the announcement a \"watershed moment\" and said Sawyer was the \"obvious choice\" to take over ABC's anchor chair. Asked about the significance of two out of three network nightly news anchors being women -- the other being CBS' Katie Couric -- Brennan said, \"It comes with some excitement and some glee for groups like ours, who have worked for years to ensure that women have parity with their male counterparts.\" \"When we get to a point in time when we don't even notice the gender, we can really celebrate,\" Brennan said. Sawyer worked for President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, first in his White House press office and later helping him write his memoirs after his resignation. After a stint with CBS News -- including five years as a \"60 Minutes\" correspondent -- Sawyer joined ABC News in 1989. She worked on news magazines for ABC -- including \"Primetime Live\" and \"20\/20\" -- before being assigned to co-host \"Good Morning America\" with Gibson in 1999. CNN's Albert Lewintinn contributed to this report.","highlights":"ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson retiring at end of the year .\nDiane Sawyer will take over \"World News\" beginning in January .\nThe pair worked together for years on \"Good Morning America\"","id":"0d698a501e6f6f6a901406773c79b3504b8d2ab5"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- No running water, no electricity, no fuel and little food. Pakistanis displaced by fighting demand government assistance during a protest Sunday in Karachi. International Red Cross officials are \"gravely concerned\" about the stark situation in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where a monthlong offensive against the Taliban has displaced more than 2 million civilians. Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived in the Swat Valley this weekend for the first time since the onset of violence there. The organization evacuated more than a dozen people in need of urgent medical care and called for an immediate humanitarian response. \"The people of Swat need greater humanitarian protection and assistance immediately,\" Pascal Cuttat, head of the organization's delegation in Pakistan, said Sunday. \"The ICRC will do its utmost to meet those needs without delay. Given what we have already seen on the ground, we are mobilizing additional resources, but safe and unimpeded access to the area remains essential for our teams to deliver.\" Those who have left their homes tell of the whole valley being turned into a battlefield as citizens flee on foot, many of them with no shoes. Some fall ill from sun and heat exposure, particularly infants and those already weak and sick. According to the most recent United Nations numbers, about 2.4 million Pakistanis registered as displaced persons since May 2. Currently, the clashes are concentrated near Mingora, the valley's largest city. \"People have been blocked for weeks,\" said Daniel O'Malley, who led the ICRC team. \"There is no running water, no electricity, and food is scarce. There is no fuel left for generators and most medical facilities in the district are no longer functioning. Phone lines are down, so people have been cut off from the outside world and are anxious for contact with relatives who fled the area.\" The Red Cross team visited Khwazakhela hospital, one of the few medical facilities left in Swat Valley, to deliver supplies and found a small group of hospital staff members struggling to work without water, electricity or supplies, O'Malley said. \"They simply cannot cope with the influx of patients,\" he said. The team evacuated 14 patients. Meanwhile, one soldier was killed in a roadside bombing, and security forces killed two militants in the Swat Valley over the last 24 hours, the Pakistani military said on Sunday. The military said an unknown number of slain militants were found in a training facility destroyed by security forces in Shangla district, and a government girls' school at Baiderra was torched by militants. The Pakistani military said on Saturday its security forces have taken back the city of Mingora from the Taliban, calling it a significant victory in its offensive.","highlights":"Residents of Pakistan's Swat Valley need help immediately, Red Cross official says .\nU.N.: Offensive against the Taliban has displaced more than 2.4 million people .\nRed Cross: Food scarce; hospital struggling to operate without running water .\nResidents say people fleeing valley are falling ill from heat exposure .","id":"e8d2701696b7b79e674088cd8b339dacb23703af"} -{"article":"FORT HOOD, Texas (CNN) -- The first people who came across Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the psychiatrist suspected of Thursday's murderous rampage, told tales Friday of quick, calm efforts in the face of danger. By the time it was over -- in less than five minutes, base commander Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said -- 13 people were dead and 38, including Hasan, were wounded. Mark Todd was one of two civilian police sergeants credited with helping take down Hasan. He and partner Kimberly Munley pulled up outside the building where the shooting was occurring at the same time, and Todd saw the shooter standing outside -- about 15 yards away. He appeared calm. \"As soon as we got there, it was game on, and then that's when it escalated, and we did what we had to do,\" he told CNN's \"Anderson Cooper.\" \"I yelled at him, 'Stop! Drop the weapon!' And that's when he raised his weapon and fired a couple of shots at me.\" Todd said he and Munley both took cover and as Hasan walked around one side of the building, he went around the other. \"That's when I saw him again. I told him to drop his weapon and he fired a couple more rounds. He fell, I went up and secured his weapon.\" As soon as his weapon had been taken away, medics appeared, Todd said. \"It was like instantaneous,\" he said. \"We started life-saving measures to keep him alive as well.\" Specialist Francisco de la Serna, a medic, was among those who treated the wounded, including Munley, shot in both thighs and a wrist, and the suspect. \"When the first gunshots started, you know, it was complete chaos,\" he told CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"Just everyone outside the building started scattering. They just all ran behind anything that would stop a bullet -- cars, trash cans, trees, anything.\" De la Serna said he came upon Munley, who was already being helped by others. \"I made a tourniquet, put it around her thigh and put it down until the bleeding stopped, but she'd already lost a lot of blood,\" he said. \"She was fading in and out of consciousness.\" He then turned his attention to Hasan, asking him where he had been shot. \"I couldn't get him to answer,\" de la Serna said. \"He looked really calm, really pale.\" Army reservist Sgt. Jeannette Juroff also stepped in to help the wounded, but first she and some co-workers took refuge in a bathroom. Juroff told CNN's \"Campbell Brown\" that she was taking her lunch break when she overheard fellow soldiers saying they heard shooting. At first, that didn't alarm her. \"This is Fort Hood, shooting goes on,\" she said. But when a major told her to call 911, she tried to do so, but couldn't get through, she said. Soon, it became apparent that the threat was real. \"I was walking down the hall and wondering what I would tell 911 and then a lot of my coworkers come in and they said, 'Just get in the bathroom.'\" They took refuge there for about a minute, \"but it felt like it took forever,\" she said. \"It was so quiet, but then we heard just loud screams and stomps, a lot of chaos going on.\" Unwilling to stay cooped up in the tiny room as an unknown danger lurked outside, they opened the door and ran out, she said. Ahead of them she saw the building exit and the conference center where the shooting was taking place. Then, her cell phone rang -- it was one of her captains calling to talk about administrative matters. \"I just said, 'Shut up, I need to talk to you. Call 911.' He called 911,\" she said. By now, she had figured out what to say. \"I said, 'We're coming under attack. There's somebody shooting at the SRP,\" she said, using soldier shorthand for \"soldier readiness program.\" \"As I'm talking to him, I'm seeing a soldier who's wounded and there's two soldiers holding his leg up, a medic and others helping,\" she said. Share thoughts on Fort Hood shooting, memories of victims . The soldier they were working on appeared in shock, his lips a pasty white, so Barbour said she tried to calm him down. \"I just went in there and said, 'Hey kid, whatcha doing?'\" she recalled. The two talked about pool, about their weekend plans \"and, little by little, he started to look good.\" Authorities said Friday that the 18-year-old wounded soldier was going to recover. All around them, medics were working at high speed, she said. \"They were just completely doing everything they were told to do, every soldier was helping everybody out, every civilian that worked there.\" In one area, a \"nearly naked\" soldier -- his pants torn -- was using his hands to put pressure over a wound to keep the blood from pouring out, she said. \"He was staying calm and everybody else was doing the same,\" she said. \"It was really awesome.\"","highlights":"First responders credited with stopping Maj. Nidal Hasan, saving his life .\nOfficer praised for disabling Hasan shot in legs, wrist .\nWitness: \"Every soldier was helping everybody out, every civilian that worked there\"\nThirteen people died, 38 others wounded in shooting .","id":"e49dd16da102334e735bfe2e1f2190b6fd6a7e51"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Famed for keeping people slim, healthy and living longer, the Mediterranean diet has followers all over the world. Cultural treat? Moves are underway to get the Mediterranean diet on UNESCO's world heritage list. However, the diet is being increasingly shunned by people who live in the Med as the convenience of fast food gains popularity. The renowned low-fat, high-fiber diet has \"decayed into a moribund state\" in its traditional regions, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). So sharp is the decline that governments from the region are scrambling to protect their traditional fare from becoming an \"endangered\" species. Populations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, such as Greece, Spain and Italy, tend to eat these foods, and governments there have joined forces to apply for their diet to be placed on the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Heritage list. Those lobbying for UNESCO protection have argued that its inclusion would ''fend off the watered-down clones assailing its integrity worldwide in this age of killer fast food.'' The UNESCO list is famous for including historic and cultural sites but in recent years the UN body has opened its register to include ''intangible heritage,\" such as endangered languages or vanishing traditions. \"The Mediterranean diet is a heritage that should be protected and shared,\" Paolo de Castro, a former Italian Agriculture minister, said earlier this year. \"Science has long recognized the unusual health properties of the diet, which has strengthened and accompanied the common cultural identity of Mediterranean countries,\" he said, according to Italian news agency ANSA. \"The diet is an integral part of the historical and cultural identity of the Mediterranean, and an opportunity for growth for the countries in the area.\" Originally considered the diet of the poor, who didn't have much money to buy meat, the \"Mediterranean diet\" is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals, whole grains, fish and olive oil. Numerous studies have associated it with long life-spans and low rates of cancer, heart disease and other ailments. See a comparison of the old and new diets in Mediterranean countries \u00bb . However, some fear that it has become supplanted by supermarket ready-made foods and fast food as people have become more cash-rich and time-poor. \"The European diet has become too fat, too salty and too sweet,\" senior FAO economist Josef Schmidhuber concluded in the group's report on the European Union diet. The FAO's 2008 report ranks Spain as the country with the biggest leap in fat consumption in Europe -- from 25 percent of the diet 40 years ago to 40 percent now. EU and Mediterranean countries with the worst dietary changes are Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, where calorie intake has increased by 30 percent in the last few decades. Three-quarters of the population of Greece is overweight or obese, while in Spain and Italy the number is more than 50 percent. In the U.S., 66 percent of the population fits into this category. Alarmed by the growing health problems associated with obesity, Spain's Health Ministry has launched a series of initiatives to combat obesity. In 2007, it ordered fast-food chain Burger King to remove ads for its Big King XXL, which contains 1,000 calories, and which were aimed at teenagers and young people. A 2001 report by Foodservice Intelligence, a London-based market research firm, found that traditional-style restaurants in Italy and Spain were outnumbered two-to-one by their fast-food counterparts. UNESCO will decide whether to include the Mediterranean diet in its Heritage list late next year. Until then, Spain and other countries in the region undoubtedly will hope they can retain their reputation as a rewarding destination for the gourmet traveler.","highlights":"Mediterranean diet has declined into a \"moribund state\" according to the U.N.\nFat consumption has increased markedly in Mediterranean countries .\nItaly, Spain, Greece and Morocco want Med diet to gain UNESCO status .","id":"e34ba5cae30ffbf40a762af5ba9e7bacd097a8dc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking parents to immediately stop using a series of inflatable floats for babies in swimming pools, announcing a voluntary recall of about 4 million floats Thursday. The Squirtin' Tootin' Tugboat is among the floats covered by the recall. The items -- which inflate to seat babies and toddlers as they float on water -- are manufactured by Massachusetts-based Aqua Leisure Industries. The company has voluntarily recalled 14 models because the leg straps in the seat of the float can tear, causing children to slip into the water, posing a drowning risk, the commission said in a statement. There have been 31 reports of float seats tearing, though no injuries have been reported, the commission said. The floats were sold from December 2002 through June 2009 at retailers nationwide, including Target, Toys \"R\" Us, Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Kmart, Walgreens, Ace Hardware and Bed, Bath & Beyond. The commission is asking consumers to stop using the floats and to send them back to the company. Aqua Leisure officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but the company's Web site has posted the commission's recall advisory. CNN's Gerri Willis contributed to this report.","highlights":"Aqua Leisure Industries recalls 14 models .\nLeg straps can tear, allowing children to slip into the water .\nAgency says there have been 31 reports of seats tearing .\nFloats were sold nationwide at many chain retailers .","id":"20fbeffc08d403f01e40e3695b22c7467e875152"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military said disturbing video that shows masked boys brandishing guns was an al Qaeda in Iraq training and recruiting tool. The U.S. says this image of young boys is from an al Qaeda in Iraq training and recruitment video. \"Al Qaeda in Iraq wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis,\" said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith during a Baghdad news conference about the release of the tape. The video, he said, showed boys, \"many below age 11\" being used \"to produce the next generation of al Qaeda.\" Masked boys are seen in the tape armed with grenade launchers, AK-47s and pistols. They're standing in front of a black banner hung on a wall, shouting slogans. Another video shows a boy, surrounded by automatic weapons and wearing a suicide vest, according to The Associated Press. Also in the video, armed boys in black hoods, with weapons pointed, shout and force a man off his bicycle, search a car, and clear a building while a male voice off camera instructs them. Smith said the military doesn't know how many children al Qaeda in Iraq uses in its operations. He said it's believed the boys in the video were willing participants. Watch the disturbing video \u00bb . \"Al Qaeda often refers to the children as the new generation of the mujahedeen,\" Smith said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors. \"We've also seen evidence of al Qaeda entering schools, disseminating propaganda and no doubt terrorizing the children and their teachers.\" The video indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq was increasingly targeting children and posting propaganda on some of the 5,000 al Qaeda-affiliated Web sites. The U.S. military said the video excerpts were culled from five propaganda videos obtained during a raid targeting a senior member of al Qaeda in Iraq in December in Diyala province. In Baghdad on Wednesday, roadside bombings in south-central Iraq killed seven people and wounded nine others, Iraq's Interior Ministry said. A roadside bomb targeting police killed four people and wounded nine others in the south-central Iraqi provincial capital of Diwaniya on Wednesday morning, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. The city is the provincial seat of the largely Shiite Qadisiya province. Police were transporting prisoners at the time of the attack. The four killed, two women, a child and a man, were civilian passers-by. Four civilians, three detainees, and two police officers were wounded. A roadside bomb exploded midmorning in central Baghdad's Andalus Square, killing three civilians, according to the ministry. In eastern Baghdad, a third roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military patrol, the Interior Ministry said. There was no immediate word on casualties. The U.S. military on Wednesday also reported the deaths of two Sons of Iraq members who were trying to thwart a suicide attack on Tuesday in a town northwest of Baghdad. Watch more on Sons of Iraq \u00bb . A militant detonated a suicide vest outside a photo shop in Awad. The pair died in the strike but \"prevented the man from detonating the explosive vest filled with ball bearings in a crowd of local Iraqis. The selflessness of these men allowed time for surviving witnesses to recognize the threat and escape the blast,\" the military said. The Sons of Iraq, Concerned Local Citizens and Awakening Councils are the names of anti-al Qaeda in Iraq citizen groups that have emerged across the country in recent months. The U.S. military on Wednesday also reported a series of raids across Iraq over the last few days that led to the detentions of 20 suspected militants. The operations took place in the Baghdad area, in Mosul, and near Ramadi. Iraqi soldiers and Sons of Iraq members also found weapons caches. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. admiral says tape made from al Qaeda recruitment tapes .\nArmed kids enact detaining bicyclist, searching car, clearing building .\nSoldiers seized video during December raid targeting al Qaeda in Iraq leader .\nThree separate roadside bombings in south-central Iraq kill seven, wound nine .","id":"18ee6e0e99cd1cad49d771df9cbfde2bc9c6cdac"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama and top aides have quietly stepped up talks with moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine on a scaled-back health care bill, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations. Sen. Olympia Snowe is part of the bipartisan so-called \"Gang of Six\" negotiating on health care. The compromise plan would lack a government-run public health insurance option favored by Obama, but would leave the door open to adding that provision down the road under an idea proposed by Snowe, the sources said. One of the sources said White House officials are \"deep in conversations\" with Snowe on a much smaller health care bill than Obama originally envisioned. The modified proposal would include insurance reforms, such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, according to the source. The potential deal would give insurance companies a defined period to make such changes in order to help cover more people and drive down long-term costs. But if those changes failed to occur within the defined period, a so-called \"trigger\" would provide for creating a public option to force change on the insurance companies, the source said. Snowe is pivotal to the debate because she may be Obama's last possibility for getting a Republican senator to support his push for a health care overhaul. She is one of the so-called \"Gang of Six\" members of the Senate Finance Committee, three Democrats and three Republicans, involved in separate negotiations on the only bipartisan health care proposal in Congress so far. However, the slow pace of those talks and recent partisan attacks by the other two Republicans in the negotiations have dimmed hopes for a breakthrough, leaving Snowe as the only Republican senator that White House aides believe they can work with on the issue. Snowe first proposed the so-called \"trigger\" idea for a public option months ago, and has talked to Obama about it on several occasions, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The source told CNN that the White House staffers increased their phone calls to Snowe aides and their interest in her trigger idea this week. Obama and Democratic leaders seek a solution that could win support from a Republican or two, and more importantly, help bridge a divide among Democrats on the public option issue. Allies of the president hope that if Snowe accepts a health care agreement, she might also bring along her Republican colleague from Maine, moderate Sen. Susan Collins. Getting some Republicans to sign onto a proposal would improve Obama's chances of gaining the support of key moderate Democratic senators such as Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. All three are skeptical of a government-run public option supported by their more liberal fellow Democrats. Despite the flurry of direct talks this week between Snowe and White House staff, Snowe aides insist she remains engaged in the \"Gang of Six\" bipartisan talks that have been going on for months. Those talks have focused on creating nonprofit health insurance cooperatives instead of a public option to force competition and lower medical rates. The source familiar with Snowe's discussions with the White House said Snowe's trigger idea isn't being considered in the bipartisan negotiations because of early resistance from fellow Republican negotiators, especially Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming. Enzi and the other Republican negotiator, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, insist they are still committed to the bipartisan negotiations. However, their recent sharp criticism of Democratic health care proposals favored by Obama has caused tense relations with the White House.","highlights":"Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe's plan doesn't include public care option .\nBut public option is triggered if private companies don't offer reforms .\nSnowe is considered last possibility for Democrats to get some GOP backing .","id":"604a7b96f3814deb878012ba4436f2b238dbdbe8"} -{"article":"Bakersfield, California (CNN) -- When Vincent Barrett died alone in July at age 72, the coroner's office could not find any next of kin. Similarly, Ronald Axtell was listed as indigent -- no survivors and no funds for a funeral -- when he died at age 69. And yet a small army of men and women gathered to pay their respects to the two men, both Air Force veterans, as they were buried at Bakersfield National Cemetery in September. Marsha Dickey, who works in the Kern County coroner's office, was instrumental in making sure the men got the honors they deserved. \"She worked very hard to see that they were veterans ... and without that ... we probably would not be here today to honor them,\" said Lynn Sprayberry, founder and chairwoman of Friends of Fallen Heroes, a local organization that makes sure veterans receive a respectful service at Bakersfield National Cemetery. The coroner's office also discovered that Barrett, a former staff sergeant, had been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in Korea. Axtell was a former airman second class. \"Without [Dickey's] persistence, these two individuals would be placed in a county-owned site,\" said Wesley Jones, director of the Bakersfield National Cemetery. \"Nobody would have known. ... Nobody would have any concept of who these individuals were.\" Leon Thomas, who served in the U.S. Army in Korea in 1951 and was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star medal for bravery, helped spread the word about the double funeral. \"The folks at the coroner's office are patriotic Americans,\" Thomas said. \"We got on the phone and on the Internet and invited our friends.\" News of the funeral even made the local paper. \"I really didn't know there would be this many people to come out,\" Sprayberry said. And come they did, civilians and veterans. An awning built to shade mourners from the hot San Joaquin Valley sun was not big enough to cover everyone. A few brought umbrellas for shade. Many held American flags, some small and some very large and carried on poles. Some brought flowers; one vet held a few yellow roses; another left a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers with a simple message printed on a white ribbon: \"Thank you.\" When the honor guard approached with Barrett's flag-draped casket, civilians put their hands over their hearts. The veterans -- some wearing motorcycle leather and bandanas, some sport shirts and slacks, others donning the suit jackets and pea caps favored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- stood at attention and snapped crisp salutes. They saluted again when the honor guard fired three volleys of seven shots and when the lone bugler played taps. As the guard tightly folded the flag that draped Barrett's casket, a woman in her 20s took cell phone video with one hand and wiped tears with the other. Barrett's ceremony was brief, not much longer than 10 minutes. Axtell's ceremony started shortly after, his ashes carried by the honor guard in a small wooden box. It lasted about as long as the first, with the same volley of shots, taps and salutes. The sergeant of the guard gave Barrett's folded flag to Sprayberry. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who also serves as the county coroner, received Axtell's flag. In the minutes between services, cemetery director Jones asked the crowd whether there were \"any family representatives here for Mr. Axtell?\" No one came forward. \"There were 125, give or take, people here who had no idea who ... Barrett or Axtell were,\" Jones said. \"They didn't know if they were African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian. They didn't even know they were in the Air Force. But they were here.\" \"They're patriotic Americans, and they showed up,\" Thomas added. \"I knew their names and their rank, and that's all I knew,\" Sprayberry said. \"And yet, I was here, and I was very proud to be here, and spend a little time saying goodbye. ... Nobody deserves to be laid to rest alone, especially for fighting for their country, and ... they deserve the respect.\" Bakersfield National Cemetery is far different than any county facility where the indigent would be interred. In the arid foothills of California, their upright headstones will stand in a field of decomposed granite instead of grass, joining about 250 others in an orderly formation. The granite is raked daily, giving the new cemetery a Zen garden look amid the rolling hills and century-old oak trees. Axtell and Barrett's cases should not be unusual, Jones said. \"They're veterans. And because they are veterans, they're entitled to be here, and we honor them the very best way we can.\" \"I think we're going to see more ... people identified as veterans from the ranks of the indigent,\" Thomas said. \"They should be honored in a fitting way, like we honored these two today.\" Between Barrett and Axtell's services, Youngblood addressed the crowd: \"Because you may be indigent, it doesn't make you inconsequential. They served our country, and you're paying them a great tribute by being here.\"","highlights":"Two Air Force veterans died in California without any next of kin .\nLocal coroner's official helped make sure the men got military burials .\nWithout her efforts, they would have been interred in a county-owned facility .\nSmall army of men and women turned out to pay their respects .","id":"c28fcd32e9e51b497e237f3a3149f412c25495c8"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- There is no evidence of \"friendly fire\" during this week's deadly shooting at Fort Hood, an Army spokesman said Saturday. Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said authorities did not believe that any of those killed or wounded were shot by anyone other than the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Furthermore, Grey reiterated that all evidence indicates that the suspect \"acted alone.\" Grey said there was \"no evidence to contradict that finding.\" He added that the investigation is continuing. Thursday's mass shooting left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and 42 people wounded, according to the post's public information office. It was unclear how many of those injured suffered bullet wounds. By Saturday night, 17 people and the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained hospitalized, Col. John Rossi told reporters. All had suffered gunshot wounds, he said. Rossi said Hasan is no longer on a ventilator, but is still in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center. Earlier Saturday, W. Roy Smythe, chief of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, said \"a lot of progress has been made\" in treating patients wounded in the rampage and that \"some of them are out of the woods.\" But Smythe, flanked by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and two state representatives, told reporters there is a possibility some patients will be \"physically impaired\" for life. And, he said, there's \"no doubt many\" will be \"psychologically impaired the rest of their lives.\" The incident has sparked national outrage. In his Saturday address, President Obama said it was \"an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America.\" But the president said, \"it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.\" The White House said President Obama and the first lady will be attending a memorial service on Tuesday and the president ordered flags flying over the White House and other federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff until Veterans Day on Wednesday. In Texas on Saturday, Smythe told reporters that of the 10 patients admitted to that hospital after the Thursday massacre, four have gone home and one may go home later Saturday. He said of the six originally in the surgical intensive care unit, only two remained there Saturday morning, with the others moved to a regular in-patient floor. The people in the intensive care unit \"are no longer on the ventilator and quite stable.\" Despite improvements, he said the injuries to some \"are so severe that only time will tell how they'll do in the long run.\" He said \"some of these patients are young and sometimes young patients will surprise you in regards to their rehabilitation.\" And at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Jeri Chappelle, a representative of that facility, said eight patients are currently being treated there -- five in the hospital's intensive care unit and three others in a regular unit who are in fair condition. Perry -- speaking outside the Scott & White hospital -- lauded the hospital's quality and professionalism and praised the patriotism of the soldiers. \"What I heard time after time in those hospital rooms that it's their honor to be able to serve our country, and that is a very humbling thing to watch a young man or woman whose life has been irreparably harmed in a violent act, yet their concern and their interest is in continuing to be able to serve this country,\" Perry said. Also, he praised the first responders, and mentioned Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan in a shootout. Munley has drawn praise from the military and from citizens across the nations for her quick and bold actions. Perry called her a \"true professional\" and a \"selfless public servant.\" \"She's very understated,\" said Perry, who spoke with Munley on Friday. \"A person who understands the gravity of what occurred, but also a classic public servant who is not interested in anything but getting on with her life and hopefully never having an event like this ever occur again.\" Citing other reports, Perry said, \"this is not the first time that she's been called to action\" and said \"we all should be thankful that we have people like that in America.\" Perry said he is in contact military and state law enforcement officials and that the Texas Rangers are helping federal officials in their probe. The governor also said the Department of State Health Services to send crisis counseling teams to the area. Share memories of victims . As for the investigation, Obama said he met with FBI Director Robert Mueller and representatives of other relevant agencies to discuss their probe. \"I'll continue to be in close contact with them as new information comes in,\" he said in his Saturday radio address. Obama, a Democrat, and Perry, a Republican, both said that the situation brought out the best in people, citing the efforts of soldiers and civilians to aid others. \"Even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display,\" the president said, \"we also saw the best of America.\"","highlights":"NEW: Official: Evidence so far indicates alleged shooter acted alone .\nNEW: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan off ventilator, spokesman says .\nChief of surgery: Some patients will be \"physically impaired\" for life .\nPresident Obama says he met with FBI director and will monitor investigation .","id":"faab0c87f5d3bd51b5930609027e8d35d8ce9ac6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa lock Bakkies Botha will miss the final Test against the British and Irish Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday after failing in his appeal against a two-week ban. Bakkies Botha will be eligible to return for the start of the Springboks' Tri-Nations campaign. The 29-year-old was cited for a dangerous charge which left Lions prop Adam Jones with a dislocated shoulder. Jones was forced off shortly after halftime during last Saturday's second Test in Pretoria, in which the Springboks fought back to snatch a 28-25 victory and clinch a 2-0 series triumph. The incident ended Jones' tour, while Lions center Brian O'Driscoll also went home early after suffering concussion in the same match. Beginner's guide to the Lions. The South African management decided to appeal as they felt Botha had legally been trying to clear out a ruck. Assistant coach Dick Muir said: \"We certainly don't see any wrongdoing in that challenge and if it wasn't for the injury which came from it, I don't think anything would have been said about it.\" The Blue Bulls forward will return in time for the Springboks' Tri-Nations opener against the All Blacks in Bloemfontein on July 25. For Saturday's third Test against the Lions, Botha will be replaced by Johann Muller, who captained his Sharks province to defeat against the tourists in one of the warm-up matches. He gets his chance with Andries Bekker injured and versatile loose-forward Danie Rossouw struggling with concussion. The Springboks will also be without flanker Schalk Burger, who was banned for eight weeks for eye-gouging Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald. There was no appeal on that ruling, but the International Rugby Union has pledged to review its punishments for such offenses in the wake of criticism that the player got off lightly. Peter de Villiers has made 10 changes, leaving captain John Smit, vice-captain Victor Matfield, Fourie du Preez, Tendai Mtawarira and Juan Smith as the only survivors in the starting XV. Last weekend's match-winner Morne Steyn starts in place of fly-half in place of Ruan Pienaar, who has paid for his poor goalkicking form. Zane Kirchner will make his debut at full-back, while Odwa Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier and Jongi Nokwe also come in to the backline. Chiliboy Ralepelle, Heinrich Brussow and Ryan Kankowski join Muller as new faces in the forward pack. Lions boss Ian McGeechan has made seven changes and one positional alteration, meaning mean just four players will have started all three Tests: fly-half Stephen Jones, scrum-half Mike Phillips, skipper Paul O'Connell and No. 8 Jamie Heaslip. With Wales center Jamie Roberts joining O'Driscoll on the sidelines due to a wrist injury, England's Riki Flutey forms a new midfield combination with Tommy Bowe, who switches from the wing. Ugo Monye, dropped after the first Test defeat, returns on the right wing, with world player of the year Shane Williams starts in place of Fitzgerald on the left. Teams for the third Test: . South Africa: Z Kirchner; O Ndungane, J Fourie, W Olivier, J Nokwe; M Steyn, F du Preez; T Mtawarira, C Ralepelle, J Smit, J Muller, V Matfield, H Brussow, J Smith, R Kankowski. Replacements: B du Plessis, G Steenkamp, D Carstens, S Sykes, P Spies, R Pienaar, F Steyn. British and Irish Lions: R Kearney; U Monye, T Bowe, R Flutey, S Williams; S Jones, M Phillips; J Heaslip, M Williams, J Worsley; P O'Connell, S Shaw; P Vickery, M Rees, A Sheridan. Replacements: R Ford, J Hayes, A-W Jones, D Wallace, T Croft, H Ellis, J Hook.","highlights":"South Africa lock Bakkies Botha out of final Test against British and Irish Lions .\nSpringboks fail in appeal against forward's two-week ban for dangerous charge .\nBotha's challenge on Adam Jones left Lions prop with dislocated shoulder .\nBoth teams make wholesale changes for third match, with series decided .","id":"939901b190c0f104d5b573c5f9e8812412a3bc59"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Portugal have confirmed that captain Cristiano Ronaldo will not be fit for the World Cup playoffs against Bosnia-Herzegovina, thus ending a growing club-versus-country row. The Portuguese Football Federation had insisted that the world's most expensive player travel home to be assessed, despite his Spanish club Real Madrid insisting that he could not play due to his ongoing ankle problems. Coach Carlos Queiroz had selected the forward in his squad for Saturday's match in Lisbon and the return leg in Zenica four days later despite the objections of the Spanish club. Real at first refused to release the 24-year-old, having sent him to see Dutch specialist Niek van Dijk, but relented on Tuesday to allow the Portuguese medics to make their own verdict. \"After clinical evaluation and imaging, it was concluded that the player is not physically able to integrate the preparation stage of the national team for these games,\" read a statement on the Portuguese FF's Web site on Tuesday night. \"The Portuguese Football Federation wish the player a good and quick recovery.\" Ronaldo has been sidelined since October 10, when he aggravated an ankle problem playing for Portugal in a qualifier that he had suffered on club duty the previous month. Real do not expect him to be fit for at least another two weeks, but Portugal had hoped he could help them qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Queiroz defended his decision to make Ronaldo travel home to be assessed. \"Based on the rules and principles governing clubs and associations, we have put Cristiano in the squad,\" he said. \"I was coach of Real. The club deserves respect. I know the medical team, president and CE,. I have every respect for that club. This fact cannot compel me to put any club below or above the others. All clubs and players deserve equal treatment.\"","highlights":"Real Madrid's injured star forward Cristiano Ronaldo will not be fit for World Cup playoffs .\nThe 24-year-old was named in Portugal squad for matches against Bosnia-Herzegovina .\nCoach Carlos Queiroz selected him despite Real's objections due to his ankle problems .\nReal let Ronaldo travel to Portugal for tests, where it was confirmed that he could not play .","id":"bb09a89dce1c01b5b8259dd2b421e65c6bf88d28"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Thirteen flag-draped coffins left Fort Hood on Friday as authorities searched for a motive in the massacre that left more than 50 casualties at the largest U.S. military base. Thursday's mass shooting killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 38 people at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas. The suspect in the shooting, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a licensed Army psychiatrist, was among the two dozen who remained hospitalized Friday night. Hasan was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and was in critical condition but stable, a spokesman said. Investigators were waiting to speak to the comatose Hasan, who is under heavy guard, said Col. John Rossi, the post's deputy commander. The bodies of the 13 personnel who died were transported through a \"ramp ceremony\" to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a dignified transfer, he said. It was a \"truly moving ceremony.\" FBI agents helping investigate the shootings searched Hasan's apartment on Friday while investigators sifted through the crime scene, Fort Hood's military processing center, where soldiers report before they go to war. Are you there? Share your stories, photos and videos . Hasan, who worked at a hospital on the base, is accused of using two handguns in the shooting. Two law enforcement sources told CNN that one of the weapons used is an FN 5.7-millimeter pistol, a semiautomatic purchased legally at Guns Galore, a Killeen gun shop. Details on the other gun, identified only as a type of revolver, were not immediately available. Rossi told reporters late Friday that both guns were privately owned and never registered at the post. Earlier, officials said investigators were looking into whether some soldiers may have been shot accidentally by others trying to shoot the gunman. However, Rossi said, \"All indications are that this is not a friendly fire incident. And, of course, that will be validated when the investigation is complete.\" Rossi attributed the high casualty rate to the \"more than 100 rounds\" fired by the gunman and the relatively small size of the room, among other factors. Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who has been credited with shooting Hasan and ending the massacre, was among the wounded. She was in stable condition Friday night, according to her family and military officials. Munley's partner, Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, was also lauded for \"engaging\" the shooter, Rossi said. Todd, in an interview Friday night with CNN's Anderson Cooper, described the intense scene as both officers fired shots at the accused gunman. \"He looked like he was calm. He was just pointing a finger at me,\" Todd said. \"The weapon ... I just know I saw the weapon and that's when we returned fire.\" Todd, a retired member of the military police, offered his condolences to the families of the victims. \"I wish we could've gotten there sooner and helped out a lot sooner -- but we got there as soon as we possibly could.\" Texas Gov. Rick Perry was scheduled to visit hospitalized victims of the shooting Saturday. As the Fort Hood community grieved its numerous losses, holding a candlelight vigil and setting up support lines, some details about the alleged gunman emerged. Relatives say Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a \"calm\" individual who had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Others described him as a vocal opponent to the war on terror whose rhetoric concerned colleagues. Fort Hood's commanding general said witnesses have reported that the gunman yelled \"Allahu Akbar,\" Arabic for \"God is great,\" during the rampage. However, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said investigators had not confirmed that. Hasan's neighbors at his Killeen, Texas, apartment complex said he cleaned out his place just hours before the rampage and gave copies of the Quran to several residents. President Obama, in remarks Friday morning, cautioned against \"jumping to conclusions\" about what had triggered \"one of the worst mass shootings ever to take place on an American military base.\" He ordered that flags at the White House and other federal buildings be flown at half staff until Veterans Day, Wednesday of next week. \"This is a modest tribute to those who lost their lives, even as many were preparing to risk their lives for their country,\" the president said. \"It's also a recognition of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our safety and uphold our values. We honor their service, we stand in awe of their sacrifice, and we pray for the safety of those who fight and for the families of those who have fallen.\" Obama said he met with FBI Director Robert Mueller and representatives of other relevant agencies to discuss the investigation. He promised his administration will provide updates. The central question investigators want to answer: Why would a member of the military who had been trusted with helping others achieve a healthier mental state allegedly shoot his comrades? \"He took care of soldiers with behavioral health problems and also evaluated people who had disability evaluations,\" Braverman told reporters Friday morning. Asked whether Hasan, 39, had seemed adequately prepared for his job, Braverman responded, \"We had no indication otherwise.\" According to the American Psychiatric Association, Hasan co-chaired a panel at the group's May convention titled \"Medical Issues for Psychiatrists in Disasters.\" Military records show Hasan received his appointment to the Army as a first lieutenant in June 1997 after graduating from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, with a degree in biochemistry. Six years later, he graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' F. Edward Hebert School Of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was promoted to major in May. Army Lt. Col. Wayne Hall said Hasan was to deploy to Afghanistan to work with a unit already there as part of behavioral health support. It wasn't clear when Hasan was scheduled to go overseas for what would have been his first deployment. Since 2001, Hasan had been telling his family that he wanted to get out of the military but was unsuccessful, said a spokeswoman for his cousin, Nader Hasan. She added that he told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Nader Hasan issued a statement late Thursday on behalf of relatives, saying they were shocked by the shootings. Another family statement on Friday said, \"We are mortified with what has unfolded and there is no justification, whatsoever, for what happened. We are all asking why this happened -- and the answer is that we simply do not know. \"We can not explain, nor do we excuse what happened yesterday. Yesterday's violence in no way reflects the feelings, beliefs, or principles of our family,\" the statement continued, adding that the family is cooperating with authorities. CNN's Ted Rowlands and Michael Cary contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Fort Hood holds candlelight vigil for victims of shooting .\nResidents of Killeen, Texas, complex say suspect gave them Qurans .\nWatch a CNN special investigation on the shootings, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN TV .","id":"b70cd01b8302de30621dd82e496c7953f4c4b341"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The aging veterans gingerly walk from the plane in the nation's capital. Some get pushed in wheelchairs. A brass band strikes up World War II era tunes. Strangers rise to their feet and clap their hands. \"Why are they doing this?\" says Frank Bales, 86, a co-pilot on a B-24 during World War II. \"I feel as humbled as a mouse.\" Walter Victor was overwhelmed as he made his way through the crowd. \"The chills came over me. Very seldom do you see something like that,\" says the 92-year-old army veteran. These World War II veterans have traveled here to visit the National World War II Memorial, which honors the 16 million U.S. armed forces who served and the more than 400,000 who died in battle. The vets made the trip thanks to a former employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A physician's assistant at the VA in Springfield, Ohio, Earl Morse was struck by the WWII vets he treated and how few made the journey to see the memorial that honors them. \"They dedicated the WWII memorial in May of 2004, 60 years after the war had ended. That was a cause of celebration in my clinic. All of the veterans wanted to see it but they were in poor health or didn't have the means to visit it.\" \"Reality set in,\" Morse says, \"they were never going to see their memorial.\" Morse was determined to change that, because he so admired the quiet grit and heroism of the unassuming men he treated every day. He took his cause to a local air club. \"I stood before 150 pilots and told them I was going to start flying WWII veterans to Washington. I said if you want to help me, the WWII veteran doesn't pay a penny. You'll have to rent an airplane and cover all the travel costs.\" \"Honor Flight\" took to the skies in May of 2005. Six planes flew 12 veterans. The next month, eight planes flew 16 veterans. Today, it operates like a volunteer airline, with 86 hubs in 33 states. Instead of renting small planes, they charter Boeing jets, thanks to donations that keep the planes in the sky. So far, more than 30,000 veterans have experienced a visit to the memorial, courtesy of Honor Flight. \"Witnessing their emotions is what fuels our cause. When you see WWII veterans break down in tears because they had no idea how much this nation reveres, cherishes and loves them for what they've done, it really overwhelms them,\" Morse says. In the days and weeks before each Honor Flight, an army of ground volunteers coordinates every detail of each trip -- from the buses that pick them up to the meals they eat. Shortly after Bales and his group arrived in Washington this day, they were taken by bus to the memorial. Many said they were stunned by its size and scope. Inscriptions carved in granite recognize specific battles that were fought in Europe and across the Pacific. A wall of stars marks the high price of freedom. They paused to remember the 448,000 who died in the war -- and their fellow survivors who didn't live to see this moment. \"Each of those stars represents 100 men and women who died in WWII, and I realized that my division has almost 39 stars on that wall,\" said Tom Rone, 85, who stormed the bullet-ridden beaches on Guadalcanal as a platoon sergeant with the Marines. Morse says the trip often provides closure for the vets who visit. Many veterans open up at the memorial and speak in detail for the first time about what they went through. \"I've had exchanges with veterans that are jaw dropping,\" Morse says. \"You can't fathom what it's like to have experienced what they went through fighting for their lives.\" The same \"Honor Flight\" that transported the veterans to Washington returns them back home, landing just 12 hours after it took off. The elderly warriors seem renewed rather than exhausted by their whirlwind trip. \"I will never forget this,\" say 86-year-old Marcus Lee Long, who served in the Pacific on the USS Ellet. \"Everybody is so happy and treating us so nice.\" Allen Pittard, 88, added, \"I feel so fortunate to be here. So many didn't make it.\" For Morse, the founder of Honor Flight, the end of each flight is a bittersweet experience. His mission continues with an air of urgency, because less than 10 percent of the Americans who served in World War II are still alive. An estimated 1,200 WWII veterans die every day. \"In another five to seven years, our efforts will be a moot point because they will be gone or too infirm to participate in a mission like this,\" he says.","highlights":"Program called Honor Flight takes WWII vets to see memorial in Washington .\nHonor Flight has taken 30,000 vets to D.C. since it began in 2005 .\n\"I've had exchanges with veterans that are jaw dropping,\" founder says .\nWW II vet on the trip: \"I feel as humbled as a mouse\"","id":"84e7d712befcd21848cbd14936b93e2a7aafc683"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- \"Late Show With David Letterman\" bandleader Paul Shaffer is a walking Wikipedia of rock 'n' roll history -- and now he's added his own story to the mix. Paul Shaffer has been David Letterman's bandleader for 27 years. Shaffer's new memoir, \"We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga\" (Flying Dolphin Press) offers his take on a colorful career, from piano lessons in his native Canada to a \"Saturday Night Live\" stint to the gig he's had, and relished, for 27 years -- Letterman's sidekick. Oh yeah, and he co-wrote the hit disco song \"It's Raining Men.\" Shaffer appeared this week at a Manhattan Barnes & Noble to sign books and give a performance. Among those who dropped by were the Beach Boys' Al Jardine -- who joined in for \"Help Me, Rhonda\" -- Martin Short and girl group belter Darlene Love. Shaffer also took questions from the audience. Though the topic of Letterman's recent troubles was off-limits, one audience member did ask Shaffer what the host was really like -- emphasis on \"really.\" Shaffer responded that the boss he's respected and admired for nearly three decades is \"very transparent on the air and you can see exactly what he's like.\" Shaffer talked to CNN about how he picks songs to introduce guests, his renowned Passover celebrations and his chance to be on \"Seinfeld.\" The following is an edited version of the interview: . CNN: When guests are introduced on the \"Late Show,\" you usually add a musical accompaniment that's an obscure reference to their name. My favorite was when Dustin Hoffman was a guest, and you played \"Dust in the Wind.\" Can you tell me how you come up with those, and what some of your favorites have been? Paul Shaffer: We think of them in rehearsal before the show. I have about 15 minutes, and I often throw it open to the floor. And by the floor, I mean the musicians, the band [the \"Late Show's\" CBS Orchestra members]. And I say \"Who has an idea for this?\" And I pick the one that I like the best. [Once we] had a new actor named Aziz Ansari, and one of the guys in the band says, \"I'm Sorry\" [referring to the Brenda Lee song]. So we did it, and it cracked Dave [Letterman] up so I know that I got my one laugh -- and the most important laugh. CNN: What's the story behind using Ray Charles' \"Busted\" for Tom Brokaw? Shaffer: He was particularly difficult to come up with something for because he's on all the time, and we didn't want to play a news theme or a song about the news. So Will Lee, my bass player, suggested \"Busted\" ... \"I'm broke, aw -- I'm busted.\" And Brokaw asked about it once: \"Why do you play Ray Charles' 'Busted' when I come on?\" He asked on camera, and I said, \"I'm broke -- aw -- I'm busted.\" CNN: What is your favorite song of all time? Shaffer: As far as favorite \"overall package\" record of all time, I'd have to say \"My Girl\" by The Temptations. I like everything about it, not only the composition -- but the arrangement, the production, the lead vocals, the background vocals, the horns, the strings. That one I listen to over and over again. And, of course, \"Be My Baby\" by the Ronettes. Maybe that's my favorite song, and \"My Girl\" is my favorite record. CNN: For some reason I thought it was \"He's a Rebel\" by the Crystals. Shaffer: Well that's way up there. I consider that my national anthem. When I hear \"He's a Rebel,\" I stand. CNN: Are there any musicians you regret never having had a chance to work with? Shaffer: Well, of course, Frank [Sinatra] is one, and Elvis is the other. But aside from those two I think I've done pretty well. CNN: Can you tell me a little bit about your famed \"Celebrity Seders\"? Shaffer: We spent a lot of time at the show during the early days of \"SNL\" [\"Saturday Night Live\"]. We had no personal lives at all. ... And, of course, we were there doing a show around Passover time, and Suzanne Miller, who was one of the writers, came up with the idea that we should have a seder for the cast and crew and writers who wouldn't be going home. So I said, \"I can conduct it!\" I knew how to conduct a seder at lightning speed because my parents couldn't wait to get to the matzo ball soup. So I have that skill, and I also sort of had an act, too. As a prize for finding the matzo, I gave out a pizza on [\"SNL's\"] \"Weekend Update.\" [Producer] Lorne Michaels liked it so much that he had matches printed up immediately that said \"Paul Shaffer's Celebrity Seder\" and that became legendary. CNN: In the late 1980s, you were offered the role of George Costanza on \"Seinfeld.\" Any regrets on not accepting that part? Shaffer: Just to be clear, I was offered the role of Jerry Seinfeld's sidekick. He had three sidekicks, and I had a feeling mine might've been that role. And any regrets? Well, I mean it was only the most beloved show of all time. ... Truthfully, though, I would have missed the opportunity to play music. CNN: How do you stay hip and current in a world where today's kids don't appreciate showbiz legends and the origins of comedy? Shaffer: I still talk incessantly about \"SCTV,\" and I say, \"Screw the kids!\"","highlights":"Paul Shaffer: The David Letterman viewers see on air is who he really is .\nShaffer's new memoir has stories of \"Saturday Night Live,\" Letterman .\nShaffer was offered chance to play Jerry Seinfeld sidekick at one point .\nBandleader legendary for his \"Celebrity Seders\"","id":"8196897286eff1ac32b9ed3fd07d0b6b157fbfbf"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The FBI is asking for public assistance in finding a serial bank robber dubbed the \"Granddad Bandit,\" who is believed to have struck in at least seven states. The man, thought by authorities to be between 50 and 60 years old, is suspected in a string of nine bank robberies beginning in April in Houston, Texas, the FBI's Atlanta Field Office said in a news release. Since then, police believe he has robbed two banks in Atlanta and single banks in Roanoke, Virginia; Little Rock, Arkansas; Dallas, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; Syracuse, New York; and Tallahassee, Florida, the last bank robbery, which occurred on October 16. \"His robberies are described as being calm, with a deliberate attempt to not attract attention to himself,\" the FBI said. \"The robber quietly presents a demand note to the victim teller and thereafter departs the bank without disruption to normal banking business going on around him.\" The man is described as being between 6 feet and 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing between 220 and 250 pounds. He is described as stocky and bald, with short gray hair on the sides, and wears glasses. A $10,000 reward is being offered by law enforcement. To offer information in the case, contact the Atlanta FBI. In September, a man sought in at least 10 bank robberies in at least four states was arrested in Missouri. The FBI posted photos from the bank robberies on billboards, leading to the man identified as Chad Schaffner. A retired state trooper saw Schaffner in Kingdom City, Missouri, and notified authorities. Schaffner is suspected of robbing banks in states including Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, authorities said.","highlights":"Last bank robbery occurred October 16 in Tallahassee, Florida .\nFBI: \"His robberies are described as being calm, with a deliberate attempt to not attract attention\"\nHe is described as stocky and bald, with short gray hair on the sides, and wears glasses .","id":"0783bb08ac7a8b8c4f925743cc2fd9ea7c642a2d"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The sound of taps echoed across the Texas plains Tuesday after President Obama pledged that the work of those killed in last week's Fort Hood massacre will go on despite their \"incomprehensible\" slayings. Speaking to an estimated 15,000 people at a memorial service at the post, Obama vowed that justice will be done in the attack that left 13 dead and 42 wounded. Though he told the families that \"no words can fill the void that has been left,\" he added, \"your loved ones endure through the life of our nation.\" \"Their life's work is our security and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy,\" the president said. After his remarks, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama laid a presidential coin before each of the 13 battlefield crosses -- the helmet, boots and rifle representing each of those killed -- before family members and comrades filed past. Fort Hood Army Post has seen 545 soldiers killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the post's commander, \"but never did we expect to pay such a high price at home.\" Gen. George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, added, \"Grieve with us. Don't grieve for us.\" \"Those who have fallen did so in the service of their country,\" he said. \"They freely answered the call to serve, and they gave their lives for something that they loved and believed in.\" Obama called the wartime killings of American troops on their home soil \"incomprehensible.\" But he said the values the dead volunteered to defend will live on and will be extended even to the man accused of carrying to the slayings. The suspected gunman in the attack is a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who remained in intensive care at an Army hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Hasan, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan but had told his family that he wanted to get out of the military. \"No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts,\" Obama said at the memorial service. But he said soldiers who responded to the attack \"remind us of who we are as Americans.\" \"We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes,\" he said. No charges have been filed, and authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack. But in a statement issued Monday night, the FBI said its investigation \"indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.\" Thursday's victims included 12 soldiers and a retired soldier working as a civilian physician's assistant. Shortly before the ceremony and 1,200 miles away, the remains of one of the soldiers was carried off a chartered jet in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An honor guard met the casket of Sgt. Amy Krueger on the apron at General Mitchell International Airport. Krueger, 29, was a high school athlete who joined the military after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. She was assigned to a medical unit that was doing checkups on soldiers bound for Afghanistan and Iraq when the shooting erupted. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and more than a dozen members of Congress were among who attended the service on the warm Texas afternoon. CNN correspondent Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Grieve with us. Don't grieve for us,\" Army chief of staff says .\nFact that soldiers died on base \"makes the tragedy even more painful,\" Obama says .\nTroops, military brass, Congress members, Texas governor also attend memorial .\nRemains of one victim greeted by honor guard on return to Wisconsin .","id":"b3fda9033577d6f0aafb18447d77b860dfccd745"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Rapper Kanye West and his business manager must complete 50 hours of community service in exchange for the dismissal of charges stemming from a Los Angeles airport scuffle with paparazzi last year. Kanye West must complete 50 hours of community service by December 23. West has already attended 12 hours of anger management classes and paid for the camera that was broken during the incident, his lawyer told the judge during a hearing Friday morning. Police arrested West and Don Crawley on September 11, 2008, after an altercation with a photographer and a cameraman who were taking their photos, airport police said. West and Crawley were later charged with three misdemeanors counts: vandalism, battery and grand theft. \"There was not a situation where there was a lot of time for either defendant to reflect on what they were doing,\" said Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Mark Zuckman. Zuckman, who presided over Friday's hearing, said he could take the position that \"a brief impulsive response\" by West and Crawley \"doesn't necessarily demonstrate a severe character flaw that needs to be addressed in a criminal case.\" Still, he said, he did not want \"to send a message that ripping the camera from someone's hand and destroying it [in] an act of vandalism is acceptable, no matter what kind of provocation caused them to be angry. There are other remedies.\" Zuckman said if anyone had been injured in the incident, his decision would have been different. West and Crawley have until December 23 to complete 50 hours of community service, Zuckman said. If they do, he will dismissed the charges. If convicted, West could have faced up to two years and six months in jail, while Crawley could have faced up to five years, according to Frank Mateljan, the spokesman for the city attorney.","highlights":"Rapper and his business manager must finish 50 hours of community service .\nIn exchange, charges will be dismissed in L.A. airport scuffle in 2008 .\nKanye West, Don Crawley had altercation with photographer, cameraman .\nCourt official: Incident doesn't \"demonstrate a severe character flaw\"","id":"a7ea64260f21861a08557d7a506ba1133b25de9b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Britain says it has suspended the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands and imposed direct rule after allegations of systemic corruption and \"serious dishonesty\". Former Turks and Caicos Islands Premier Michael Misick, shown here with his wife, LisaRaye, could be investigated. British Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said he instructed the British governor of the island territory to suspend the ministerial government and the House of Assembly for as long as two years. Bryant said his order also suspends the constitutional right to trial by jury in the Turks and Caicos. \"This is a serious constitutional step which the UK government has not taken lightly, but these measures are essential in order to restore good governance and sound financial management,\" Bryant said in a statement. \"It remains our intentions that elections should be held by July 2011, if not sooner. It is also important that the people of Turks and Caicos Islands continue to have a voice in the interim and the order puts in place an advisory council and consultative forum to make sure this happens.\" The move follows allegations of corruption in the Turks and Caicos, a British Overseas Territory of eight major islands and numerous uninhabited keys, 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Miami, Florida. The British government set up a commission of inquiry in July 2008 to look into possible corruption or other serious dishonesty in recent years of past and present elected members of the legislature. The commission's report, delivered May 31, found \"information in abundance pointing to a high probability of systemic corruption and\/or serious dishonesty\" in the Turks and Caicos, the Foreign Office said. \"This, together with clear signs of political amorality and immaturity and of general administrative incompetence, demonstrated a need for urgent suspension in whole or in part of the constitution and for other legislative and administrative reforms,\" the Foreign Office said. The report also recommends criminal investigations into former Premier Michael Misick and four of his former Cabinet ministers. \"This is not a 'British takeover,'\" said Gordon Wetherell, governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands. \"Public services will continue to be run by people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, as indeed they should be. But I hope we can now begin to run them better.\" Queen Elizabeth is the head of state of the British territory, and the governor is her official representative. The governor is responsible for defense; external affairs; internal security, including the islands' police force; and the appointment of some public officials, but he is normally required to act on the advice of the Cabinet. The islands' ministerial system includes the premier and six other ministers who must act according to Cabinet policies.","highlights":"Britain says it has suspended the government of the Turks and Caicos .\nMove follows allegations of systemic corruption and \"serious dishonesty\"\nTurks and Caicos is a British Overseas Territory of eight major islands .","id":"ab26bc3de0eb1e5713cf40952143fe7ff37786b3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil has confirmed 557 deaths caused by H1N1 flu, the highest total in the world, the nation's Health Ministry says. A vaccine against H1N1 is being tested but is not expected to be available until at least mid-October. The United States has counted 522 fatalities through Thursday, and nearly 1,800 people had died worldwide through August 13, U.S. and global health officials said. In terms of mortality rate, which considers flu deaths in terms of a nation's population, Brazil ranks seventh, and the United States is 13th, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said in a news release Wednesday. Argentina, which has reported 386 deaths attributed to H1N1 as of August 13, ranks first per capita, the Brazilian health officials said, and Mexico, where the flu outbreak was discovered in April, ranks 14th per capita. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the United States have the most total cases globally, according to the World Health Organization. The Brazilian Ministry of Health said there have been 6,100 cases of flu in the nation, with 5,206 cases (85.3 percent) confirmed as H1N1, also known as swine flu. The state of Sao Paulo had 223 deaths through Wednesday, the largest number in the country. In addition, 480 pregnant women have been confirmed with H1N1, of whom 58 died. Swine flu has been shown to hit young people and pregnant women particularly hard. Many schools in Sao Paulo have delayed the start of the second semester for a couple of weeks, and students will have to attend classes on weekends to catch up. Schools also have suspended extracurricular activities such as soccer, volleyball and chess to try to curtail spread of the disease. Flu traditionally has its peak during the winter months, and South America, where it is winter, has had a large number of cases recently. The World Health Organization said this week that the United States and other heavily populated Northern Hemisphere countries need to brace for a second wave of H1N1 as their winter approaches. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other U.S. health agencies have been preparing and said this week that up to half of the nation's population may contract the disease and 90,000 could die from it. Seasonal flu typically kills about 64,000 Americans each year. A vaccine against H1N1 is being tested but is not expected to be available until at least mid-October and will probably require two shots at least one week apart, health officials have said. Since it typically takes a couple of weeks for a person's immunity to build up after the vaccine, most Americans would not be protected until sometime in November. The World Health Organization in June declared a Level 6 worldwide pandemic, the organization's highest classification.","highlights":"Nearly 1,800 people died worldwide of H1N1 through August 13 .\nBrazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and U.S. have most total cases globally .\nU.S. health officials said that up to 90,000 could die from new strain .\nSeasonal flu typically kills about 64,000 Americans each year .","id":"67868a53d2171e29dbd9f4327e559fd2b8fbf0fc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In death as in life, Michael Jackson continues to light up the Internet. Millions worldwide watched online coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral service in Los Angeles. Millions of people around the world watched coverage of Jackson's memorial service on the Web, although the event appeared to fall well short of online viewership records. Global Web traffic was at least 19 percent above normal, and as high as 33 percent above normal, during most of the star-studded memorial at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, California, according to Akamai Technologies, a Massachusetts-based firm that monitors Internet traffic. CNN.com reported 9.7 million live video streams Tuesday between 12 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET -- which included the entire memorial service -- according to CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin. The news site's all-time viewership record for a full day, almost 27 million video streams, was set on President Obama's inauguration day in January. During that period Tuesday, CNN.com also attracted 81 million page views, 11.8 unique visitors and a peak of 781,000 concurrent live video streams, according to internal data. Jackson's startling June 25 death nearly brought the Web to a standstill, with several sites buckling under the sheer weight of traffic. The Internet appeared to fare better during Tuesday's memorial service, however. \"So far we are seeing some slowdowns ... [but] overall the Internet is performing OK,\" said Dan Berkowitz, spokesman for Keynote Systems, a mobile and Internet monitoring firm based in San Mateo, California, midway through the Staples Center event. Keynote monitors the 40 most popular news Web sites from major cities around the United States. CNN.com partnered with Facebook, the social-networking site, to let friends and family share commentary while watching Jackson's memorial service live online. As of 1:30 p.m. ET, shortly before the memorial service began, the partnership was yielding about 6,000 status updates per minute, said a Facebook spokeswoman. CNN.com and Facebook entered into a similar collaboration during Obama's inauguration, although Facebook saw twice as many status updates during that event. With many North Americans at work during Jackson's memorial service, online traffic had been expected to reach near-record levels. \"This event will almost certainly shatter records for the biggest single live stream ever, and could be one of the biggest worldwide media events in history,\" wrote blogger Ben Parr on Mashable, the social media news site. Other Web sites, including CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com, FoxNews.com and Hulu.com, also hosted live streaming coverage of the service. The 10 most popular topics on Twitter Tuesday afternoon were all connected to Jackson's memorial. Google Trends rated the Jackson memorial's online popularity as \"volcanic,\" while on Web-traffic monitoring site Alexa, most of its hottest stories Tuesday were Jackson-related. But early numbers suggested that Internet traffic Tuesday may have lagged behind other recent news events. Akamai recorded a peak of 3.9 million global Internet visitors per minute shortly after noon ET -- less than half the number of users who went online the evening of November 4, 2008, to follow presidential election returns. \"It may be impossible to say for sure how many people watched once all is said and done, because there's still no comprehensive way to measure Web viewing,\" said Toni Fitzgerald, managing editor of Media Life, in an e-mail interview with CNN. Long before the memorial service began about 1:40 p.m. ET, many Web sites braced themselves for an onslaught of traffic. During the sign-up period for the memorial ticket lottery, the Staples Center Web site took down all non-essential materials to ensure that it coped. Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine said the computer servers hosting the registration site counted 500 million \"hits\" -- 120,000 a second -- in the first 90 minutes on Friday. About 17,500 fans were randomly selected to watch the memorial live at the Staples Center -- only a small fraction of the 1.6 million fans who applied for tickets. Watch panelists discuss Jackson's legacy \u00bb . CNN's Stephanie Busari and Linnie Rawlinson contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Web viewership of Michael Jackson's memorial fell short of online records .\nNEW: Global Web traffic was at least 19 percent above normal during service .\nNEW: Views of live video on CNN.com trailed President Obama's inauguration .\nWeb sites braced themselves Tuesday for heavy traffic .","id":"d87273e53bd805a3648803e9c50797a788b73cd0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- October has been the deadliest month for the US and NATO militaries fighting in Afghanistan as well as UN workers trying to organize an election runoff. Surely the surge in deaths serves to underscore why Afghanistan matters. For all the debate happening away from the battlefield, here are a couple of important bottom-line questions: . Is the world prepared to see the Taliban and their opportunistic allies al Qaeda return to power in Afghanistan? Are people prepared for the terrorists' dream- photo-op of Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden sitting smiling together in Kabul? And here's what's at stake: . The West fortunately has been free of terrorist attacks on its major cities in the last few years, but it was not so long ago that the London Tube bombings; mass murder in Madrid; mayhem in Mumbai in 2008; the murders of Benazir Bhutto and Daniel Pearl; the Bali bombing; the shoe bomber and, of course, 9\/11 and the attacks on the World Trade Center changed our world and our way of life. Together, those events created pervasive fear and anxiety, not to mention a change in our lifestyle caused by security measures in airports, trains, banking transactions and office buildings. What all of these events have in common is that the perpetrators all came from, visited, were financed by, or were led by terrorist organizations operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially the ungovernable territories on those countries' border. The Bush administration, in the view of some, may have gone too far in responding to these events by creating an all-encompassing \"war on terrorism.\" However, for the eight long years America and NATO countries have been at war in Afghanistan, this war, uniquely in modern history, is still supported by all the world's major powers, the neighbors of Afghanistan, and mostly by the people of Afghanistan, who dread both insecurity and a return to the brutal horrors of the Taliban. If the threat of new terrorist attacks is not enough, what about the threat of a nuclear catastrophe? Look at Pakistan this week. Horrific bombings in the frontier town of Peshawar and elsewhere have also killed scroes of people, just as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives to firm up security and development co-operation with that country. While foreign policy and intelligence experts continue to worry that terrorism, Islamic extremism, the continued threat of renewed war between Pakistan and India, plus the presence of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries, could prove a combustible mix in the not-too-distant future. This is not scare-mongering; it's simply the reality that what happens in South Asia could affect all of our lives. That's why all of us must be concerned by the outcome of the war that is being fought today in mountains of the tribal areas in Pakistan and the plains of Afghanistan. Many of the soldiers and officers I speak to in Afghanistan say the best way to beat back the threat of Taliban insurgents is with boots on the ground and additional military resources, as well as a proper development assistance for the Afghan civilians. The Afghan people need protecting and enabling. I have been reporting from Afghanistan since 1996 and the one thing I've noticed over the years is that every Afghan asks foremost for security. Then next on the list is development to help them earn a decent living and raise their families. They also want a decent government. They know this will take years of patience and effort. They know it will be a hard slog. After all, they have been at war for 30 years now, during which the traditional, honor-bound society they had for decades has all but vanished. Though it is true that fierce tribal traditions mean some Afghans distrust even the tribe next door, not to mention foreign troops, over and again, Afghan men, women and children have told me they do not see the U.S. and NATO forces as occupiers, rather as armies from countries who came to help them ... but who have fallen short of their promises. This fear and disenchantment is what the Taliban feeds on today. They want the U.S. and NATO out, they try to convince the people those outsiders are occupiers bent on harming them. And yet, if you look at the current trends and the latest polls in Afghanistan, despite massive governmental corruption, abuse and dysfunction, the majority of the people want nothing to do with the Taliban. Polls show only a tiny minority support them. And that is mostly because they are desperate for security and safety, something the West has failed to follow through on after roundly defeating the Taliban and al Qaeda in seven weeks after 9\/11. And across the border in Pakistan surveys show Osama Bin Laden has lost his luster among Muslim youth. Support for Islamic extremists is dropping. The Pakistani government is finally fighting back against the extremists who threaten the future of this mostly moderate Muslim country. Under pressure, the militants are lashing out in parts of the country. See Christiane Amanpour's special report on \"Generation Islam\" Unfortunately, at this crucial moment, people in America and Europe are tiring of their governments' support for the war in Afghanistan and the battles in remote parts of Pakistan. The agonized debate over strategy in Washington hides the sad fact that since sending the Taliban and al Qaeda packing, shortsighted U.S. vision snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Bush administration mostly ignored Afghanistan while diverting its attention and resources to Iraq. Now that the U.S. is finally refocusing on the war in Afghanistan it's an opportunity to look at what is at stake: the urgency of finishing the job in Afghanistan pitted against the real war-weariness of western voters. This is the dilemma of the modern world where the latest of life's challenges such as the financial crisis, unemployment, new flu pandemics, health care, and the housing market dominate daily life. Getting the job done in Afghanistan will take years in time and resources. It will require faith and patience. The mass media is not the best place to reflect that. It does not usually focus on the hard slog, instead it is constantly in search of the new and the now. But the next time there is a major terrorist attack, in all likelihood it will have been generated by an organization somewhere near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Again, people will ask: Why weren't our leaders and the media there to warn us of the dangers? As a member of the media I believe that's our job: to report the facts.","highlights":"Amanpour: Is the world prepared to see the Taliban return to power?\nThey'll bring their allies, al Qaeda, with them, she says .\nMajority of Afghans want nothing to do with the Taliban, she says .\nBut they feel NATO, U.S. troops have fallen short of their promises, she says .","id":"268c50987054dfba31e34cdb08dc64b6b02cd096"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The first child in Britain known to have been screened as an embryo to ensure she did not carry a cancer gene was born Friday, a spokesman for University College London told CNN. Genetic screening allows lab-fertilized embryos to be tested for genes likely to lead to later health problems. Her embryo was screened in a lab days after conception to check for the BRCA-1 gene, linked to breast and ovarian cancer. People with the gene are known to have a 50-80 percent chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer in their lifetimes. British newspapers have dubbed the girl the \"cancer-free\" baby. \"This little girl will not face the specter of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life,\" said Paul Serhal, a consultant at University College London Hospital and Medical Director of the Assisted Conception Unit. \"The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations.\" Yet not everyone is thrilled with the idea of testing embryos for genes that could cause health problems later in life, a process known as preimplanatation genetic diagnosis. \"This is not a cure for breast cancer,\" said Josephine Quintavalle, co-founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, which describes itself as group that focuses on ethical dilemmas related to reproduction. What do you think about testing embryos for gene defects? \"This is simply a mechanism for eliminating the birth of anybody (prone to) the disease,\" she said. \"It is basically a search-and-kill mechanism.\" She opposes the procedure because embryos found to carry disease-causing genes often are discarded. She says that is essentially murder. \"They will be destroyed,\" she said. \"They will never be allowed to live.\" Doctors in Britain and elsewhere increasingly test embryos for genes that are certain to cause illnesses such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington's Disease. What's different about the girl born Friday is that she is the first infant known to have been tested in Britain as an embryo for a gene that is merely likely -- not certain -- to cause disease. In the United States, geneticists are free to test for any condition for which they can develop a probe -- and they're free to look for genes that are certain to cause diseases as well as genes that merely may pose problems later in life. Quintavalle opposes any form of in-vitro fertilization where embryos are \"killed,\" she said. But she is particularly troubled by the idea of screening an embryo for the BRCA-1 gene because carriers of the gene do not always develop the disease, and the disease is not always fatal. \"The message we are sending is: 'Better off dead than carrying (a gene linked to) breast cancer,'\" she said. \"We have gone very much down the proverbial slippery slope.\" Peter Braude, one of the top British experts on the genetic testing of embryos, said he understands the ethical objections but focuses on the benefits. \"There has always been a vociferous group in opposition,\" he said. But \"there are people who can benefit and I think they should be allowed to do so.\" In fact, he argues that the procedure actually prevents abortions because it takes place on a three-day old embryo in a lab. Only embryos that lack the defective gene are implanted. \"I don't think you can equate eight cells in a dish to an embryo or a child,\" said Braude, head of the department of women's health at the King's College London School of Medicine. For many couples, the alternative to testing an embryo is to conceive a child naturally and test the fetus weeks or months into a pregnancy. Some couples opt for an abortion when such testing reveals a defect. Diagnosing an embryo genetically typically involves fertilizing an egg with a sperm in a lab, testing the resulting embryo and implanting it in the mother if no defects are found. Braude agrees that testing for diseases that may not be fatal -- or may not manifest themselves for decades -- raises thorny ethical questions. \"How serious does it have to be before you throw away an embryo?\" he asked. \"Are you prepared to throw away a 16-week embryo for Huntington's, which will not manifest until age 40?\" In Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority determines the conditions for which geneticists can test. It has approved testing for more than 60 conditions since it was established in 1990. The authority approved testing for the BRCA-1 gene in 2008. Dr. Mark Hughes, who founded a genetics clinic in the United States, said he likes the idea of an authority that regulates what tests can be performed -- the system in place in Britain -- but believes that parents who want to test for genetic abnormalities should be allowed to do so. At his Genesis Genetics Institute in Detroit, Michigan, Hughes carries out about two tests a month for BRCA-1 or BRCA-2, a related gene. \"The couple is the best one to be making these decisions, because they live with these diseases,\" he said. \"When it hits your family over and over again, many couples are saying: 'Enough of this. Let's prune this out of our family tree forever.'\" He rejects the notion that parents will use genetic testing to remove all imperfections from children. \"You can get up on your high horse and say people are looking for perfect children, but let's give these families more credit,\" he said. \"They just want one that has a fighting chance of not having a disease.\" Hughes said he doubts genetic screening will ever be used to test all babies. That's partly because it costs the equivalent of about $11,755 -- 8,000 British pounds -- to screen embryos. It's also because the process is very complex. \"It's gotten easier to do now than it was 19 years ago,\" when Hughes did his first test for cystic fibrosis, he said. \"But it has not exploded, not burst onto the medical field like some technologies do. \"No one would use these technologies for a trivial reason. It's too much effort,\" he said. \"Not just the money -- it's so many hoops to jump through for a couple that would prefer to make their baby on vacation rather than in a clinic.\"","highlights":"\"Cancer-free baby\" born; baby girl is first in UK to be screened for cancer gene .\nEmbryo was screened to check she didn't carry gene linked to breast, ovarian cancer .\nEthicists criticize screening for genes that could cause later health problems .\nDoctors say cost of screening makes it unlikely all embryos will ever be tested .","id":"3f90d746161d9bfb80363925c3d462d966d1e7ae"} -{"article":"It's a disease that affects millions of women in Africa, yet talking about it has been considered a taboo, and that silence has been deadly. Nigeria's Princess Nikky Onyeri has dedicated her life to speaking out to raise awareness about breast cancer in Africa. Princess Nikky Onyeri is not a member of a royal family, \"Princess\" is a given name, but for many of Nigeria's cancer survivors she is their princess. It's a passionate cause that defines her life. Based in Abuja, Nigeria, Onyeri has lobbied the Government to do more to help women with cancer. The impetus behind her drive and persistence is a wrong diagnosis of cancer 15 years ago.","highlights":"Health advocate from Nigeria campaigns for better awareness of breast cancer .\nLobbies Nigerian Government to do more for women with cancer .\nWas misdiagnosed with cancer 15 years ago; issue still a taboo in Africa .","id":"61bf5eaa216e352650a2022133304e009276a1fb"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Top flight golf is a high-stakes, high-stress sport -- but it's not just the pros who are feeling the strain. Stress can affect golfers of all abilities. Swede Robert Karlsson returned from a four-month layoff recently with an eye condition that's thought to be stress-related, while England's Ian Poulter defended his decision not to play in the Vivendi Trophy by saying that he wanted to avoid fatigue -- mental as well as physical. While professional sport is bound to have its pressures, recreational golf is usually regarded as a way to unwind and relieve stress. But it seems that weekend players are having to deal with anxieties of their own. Victor Thompson, a London-based sports psychologist, told CNN that golf is a much more psychological sport than most. \"It can be particularly stressful because, unlike team sports, you very much have the spotlight on you while you're playing,\" he said. \"You've got a lot of time between your shots for you to think, time for other people to watch you and time for you to think about what people will think of you if you don't play well.\" That doesn't just apply when there's an audience of millions watching on TV -- it's just as true when you're playing at your local municipal course with your friends. \"It can actually be tougher playing against your mates and people you know because they can ridicule you or laugh at you, or you might worry about disappointing them if you're playing on their team,\" said Thompson. That would appear to be borne out by a 2004 study on the moods of older recreational golfers. The subjects reported being no happier or calmer after playing golf -- in fact, they reported feeling more angry and depressed. One of the researchers, Haydn Jarrett, senior lecturer in sport and exercise science at the University of Worcester, told CNN that the study also showed that golfers reported feeling more fatigued and less vigorous after playing golf, as most players walked an average 10.2 km during a game. Jarrett's study was carried out on \"senior\" golfers, with an average age of 68, but he said the findings on mood change tied in with other studies carried out on younger recreational golfers. \"Golf does appear to be stressful for recreational players,\" he told CNN. \"If we wanted golfers to enjoy it more fully it might be nice to engage with golfers and bring potential negative moods to their attention.\" While those negative feelings probably don't last for long, they can have disastrous effects on your golf. Thompson says negative thoughts on the golf course can make you tense and frustrated, giving you an adrenaline rush that can affect your swing and timing. As you start dropping shots you can overanalyze your game, which just make things worse. The secret of dealing with golf stress is to get on top of your thoughts, says Thompson. Rather than thinking in terms of how badly you're playing or what other people will think of you, you need to realize that your emotions are getting the better of you and that anxiety is the problem, not your technique. So with all that stress, could playing golf actually be bad for you? \"If you're beating yourself up emotionally and getting angry that's not very good for your health,\" said Thompson. \"But it's all a matter of attitude. Somebody might go out and enjoy it, see it as a chance to get away from work, have a nice stroll and catch up with their mates.\" And Jarrett has encouraging news when it comes to golf and health. He has carried out unpublished work showing that a round of golf can give a significant reduction in blood pressure. \"My gut feeling is that golf is incredibly positive for health,\" he told CNN. \"The positives of the distance walked, the heart-rate increase and the blood-pressure suppression will outweigh any negative mood states. But it might be that we need to recognize that mood profiles can go down and mediate against that.\"","highlights":"Golf is especially stressful, says sports psychologist Victor Thompson .\nThompson says that it can be even tougher playing with your friends .\nStudy shows recreational golfers feel more angry and depressed after playing .\nStress may be bad for you, but golf can still be good for your health .","id":"566be049908d10cc04f0284ea1734f8b85b688e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Novak Djokovic is up to number three in the world after defeating Marin Cilic in the final of the China Open in Beijing on Sunday. Novak Djokovic holds aloft the giant China Open trophy after victory over Marin Cilic in Beijing. The Serb captured his third ATP title of the year with a 6-2 7-6 victory over the battling Cilic, who beat fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko and top seed Rafael Nadal en route to the final. Second seed Djokovic took advantage of a 90-minute rain delay, which came at 2-2 in the first set, coming back on center court at the Beijing Olympics tennis venue with sharper ground strokes and well-placed serves. After holding serve to go 3-2 up, Djokovic broke Cilic straight away and then a second time to take the opening set, with the Croat the victim of two unlucky net cords in the final game. In the second, Cilic -- a wild card entry -- and Djokovic traded breaks three times to force a tie-break, with the Cilic failing to serve out twice. Djokovic took control midway, winning a rally that left Cilic sitting on the court to go up 4-2. The Serb closed it out on his second match point when the Cilic sent an inside-out forehand sailing wide. \"I certainly played much better after the rain delay,\" Djokovic told reporters. \"I kind of got my nerves together -- I was very fresh on the court after that. Even though it was a straight set win, it wasn't easy at all. Marin could have had at least a set under his belt.\" Djokovic, by reaching the final, is assured of taking over the world number three ranking, surpassing injured Scot Andy Murray. Meanwhile, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Mikhail Youzhny to become the first French player to win the men's singles title at the Japan Open in Tokyo. The world number seven, who knocked out compatriots Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet on his way to the final, chalked up a 6-3 6-3 final win over the Russian.","highlights":"Novak Djokovic up to number three in the world after winning the China Open .\nThe second-seeded Serb defeats Croat Marin Cilic 6-2 7-6 in Sunday's final .\nFrenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeats Mikhail Youzhny in Japan Open final .","id":"a175b17c7ee9c04074f4d1e4a1690ef381d4f195"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British-led military operation meant to clear the Taliban from parts of Afghanistan has succeeded, UK officials said Monday. A file image shows a British Royal Marine sniper team on an operation in Afghanistan. NATO and its Afghan allies launched Operation Panther's Claw to flush the Taliban from parts of southern Helmand Province before Afghan presidential elections next month. Major fighting is mostly over, and the military will now focus on \"holding\" the areas that have been cleared of Taliban so they do not return, Lt. Gen. Simon Mayall said in a briefing. The operation's success will enable up to 80,000 people in Helmand to vote. \"Panther's Claw has been extremely successful,\" said Brigadier Tim Radford, the top British military commander for the operation. \"There will be many Taliban who will not be fighting any more.\" He said the Taliban suffered \"significant casualties,\" but refused to say how many. Nine British troops were killed in action in the operation, he said, and there were three Afghan civilian casualties. Radford estimated that there were 450 to 500 Taliban fighters in the area at the time of the operation, which he called \"one of the biggest that has taken place.\" The British gave several weeks' warning that they were planning to attack, he said, both to exert psychological pressure on the Taliban and to give civilians a chance to flee. As a result, \"quite a few Taliban managed to get away,\" Radford said. \"They will always get away and they will always come back in.\" Mayall, the deputy chief of the British Defence Staff for Operations, said the challenge now was to convince local people that the Afghan government and its allies could protect them from the Taliban. The Taliban \"are going to assume that we are going to lose interest and move on,\" he said. But they are wrong, he said. NATO forces were going to \"stay in Afghanistan for a very long time,\" he said, adding that active NATO-led fighting should \"tail off\" as Afghan security forces develop the ability to fight the Taliban themselves. The counter-insurgency strategy of clearing and holding an area to allow for development of infrastructure and the rule of law echoes the coalition forces' plan in Iraq. Panther's Claw focused on the area around the town of Babaji in Helmand Province. The operation mirrored a similar operation by U.S. Marines in the area. At least 20 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan this month, sparking intense debate in Britain about the country's military role there. The British-led operation involved about 3,000 troops -- mostly from the British military but also with Afghan, Danish and Estonian forces, the British Ministry of Defence said in a written statement. The operation started in mid-June with an air assault along a canal about 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the city of Lashkar Gah, the ministry said. British-led forces attacked from three different directions over the next three weeks, essentially creating a \"gated community\" where Taliban insurgents could not get in or out, Radford said. Major fighting ended July 20, he said.","highlights":"Major fighting in Operation Panther's Claw over, British military says .\nOperation aimed at clearing Taliban from southern Afghanistan's Helmand .\nAt least 20 British troops have been killed in past month .","id":"1cf80deeb560656fb1b96d4d56dd4eb4e02bae2f"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Five people connected to an Afghan presidential candidate have been released after being kidnapped the day before, an official with the candidate said. Five of Dr Abdullah Abdullah's campaign workers were kidnapped and later released. The group of five, who worked for Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, were in a two-car caravan in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday when they were abducted, said Sayed Ahmad Samey, the security chief of Badghis province. Elders negotiated for their release, Samey said. The workers have now been freed and are in a good condition, according to Sami Panah of Abdullah's campaign office. Abdullah is a former Foreign Minister who is seeking to unseat incumbent President Hamid Karzai in the August 20 election. This is not the first time that Abdullah's supporters have been targeted. One of the presidential hopeful's campaign workers was wounded by an unknown gunman in late July. A month earlier, gunmen in the province of Kapisa killed another of Abdullah's campaign managers in a midnight attack. Hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have headed to southern Afghanistan to secure polling stations and protect citizens during the elections. It will be the nation's second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.","highlights":"Afghan election campaign workers released after 24 hour kidnap .\nThe group of five were working for presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah .\nAbdullah seeking to unseat incumbent President Hamid Karzai on August 20 .","id":"d4f3ab73e5cdf98e02e33e5af0ec0f413beaed49"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Protecting drivers and passengers from injury has been a high priority for car makers for the last 40 years or more. A truck driver tests an anti-collison system. The red light goes on if the car in front of him is too close. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because having a reputation for building safe vehicles helps automakers sell more cars. But in recent years, high-tech advancements have come along at such a fast and furious rate that auto-safety systems have entered a whole new universe. For most of the history of auto manufacturing, car makers' efforts in the area of safety have been devoted to developing \"passive\" safety features -- seat belts, air bags, building a stronger frame for the cabin, side-impact door beams, etc. All those things help you stay safe once you are involved in an accident. But just as advanced technology has changed almost every other industry, so too has it changed the automotive industry, leading to the design of more \"active\" safety features. AOL Autos: Safest cars . It started with now-common features like anti-lock brakes (ABS) and electronic stability control systems (ESC). But in recent years, engineers have taken safety technology to a new level. And these days, they spend more time and money researching and developing \"crash avoidance\" features and technologies. These computerized systems, instead of protecting you if a crash occurs, help you avoid accidents in the first place. Some of these systems are already in vehicles on the road today, while others are coming down the pipeline in the next few years. Mercedes uses radar, rear-view monitor . Given that it's a higher-priced luxury brand, it figures that Mercedes-Benz is one of the leaders when it comes to these kinds of high-tech crash-avoidance systems. Finely-tuned anti-lock brake and electronic-stability-control systems are standard equipment in all Mercedes cars. AOL Autos: Best and worst hybrids . \"And presently, a number of our vehicles offer Distronic Plus, a crash-avoidance system that employs dual-band radar that measures the distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you,\" said Patrik Borenius, Mercedes' manager of advanced product planning. \"If that distance closes too rapidly, indicating that a crash might be imminent, it emits first an audible signal, then a visual warning, and the system can actually start to apply the brakes to a certain threshold. \"Or, if you start to apply the brakes yourself, but not quickly enough to help you avoid impact, our Brake Assist system applies even more braking power.\" AOL Autos: Most popular fuel-efficient cars . \"We also have a Blind Spot Monitor that uses radar to examine the area just to the rear and to the left of your vehicle,\" added Bart Herring, product manager for Mercedes' S-Class and CL-Class. \"So when another vehicle, or any object, enters into that blind spot, a red indicator light in your side view mirror lights up. And if you start to change lanes while that other car is in your blind spot that also triggers an audio alert to warn you.\" Plus, Mercedes' Rear View Monitor \"views\" anything that is directly behind the vehicle as it is backing up, and then projects that image onto the navigation-system screen. This feature helps avoid accidents in situations where the vehicle is going in reverse and the driver's view of oncoming traffic is impaired -- like in parking structures, or when backing out of a driveway on a heavily-trafficked street. AOL Autos: Most popular crossover vehicles . Mercedes also offers a Night View system in the S-Class and CL-Class, which, at night, \"gives you a very sharp, daytime-quality picture of everything that is going on in front of you,\" Herring said. \"And it's projected onto a separate display screen that's in the middle of the instrument cluster, right in front of you.\" The \"new frontier\" of safety technology . Ford Motor Company is another car maker where the engineers are excited about its tech-driven crash-avoidance systems -- some currently in use, some still in development. AOL Autos: Luxury cars with the best MPG . \"Developing new active-safety systems really is the new frontier in safety technology in the auto industry,\" said Steve Kozak, Ford's global chief engineer for safety systems. Ford has owned Volvo since 1999, so Ford is benefiting from many of Volvo's renowned safety features. \"Some of the more advanced features that were first offered in Volvo's vehicles are cascading down into the Ford product line, due to our engineers working together with theirs,\" Kozak said. One Ford system in development addresses the fact that many accidents happen because drivers aren't paying attention. \"Studies have shown that in 50 percent of accidents, the drivers never even stepped on the brake,\" Kozak said. So, one technology that excites Kozak is the \"collision mitigation system\" that originated in the 2007 Volvo S80 and will be cascading into the Ford product line in the near future. \"It senses that that the car ahead of you is coming to a rapid stop, so if you're not paying attention, it essentially tells you to 'wake up and do something,' \" Kozak explained. \"With this system, there is a light mounted at the top of the instrument panel that reflects into the windshield, it's essentially a heads-up display, so in this kind of panic situation, that light will illuminate plus you get an audio alert telling you it's time to take action.\" Ford is also presently developing a blind-spot alert system (for early '09 rollout) and a lane-departure warning system (similar to those offered in Mercedes vehicles) -- technologies that also originated in Volvo vehicles. \"One interesting aspect of the lane-departure system that we're working on is that it may involve 'tactile input' in addition to an audio warning,\" Kozak said. That is, when you're coming up too fast on the car ahead of you, \"you could get a vibrating sensation in the car seat or steering wheel.\" From roll mitigation to trailer stability -- and more . Meanwhile, Chrysler LLC is \"devoting plenty of resources and doing a lot of system-development work devoted to trying to mitigate a crash,\" said Chris Barman, Chrysler's director for active and passive safety systems. One such crash-avoidance system currently employed in various Chrysler\/Dodge\/Jeep vehicles is an electronic Roll-Mitigation System. \"It senses when the vehicle is in danger or is moving sideways at a rapid pace, which could lead to a rollover,\" Barman explained. \"So it applies more brake pressure to the outside front wheel, which corrects the lateral motion and keeps the car moving forward.\" Chrysler's own version of a computerized Brake-Assist system helps in another situation that is all too common, Barman said. \"Many times, in an emergency-braking situation, drivers will initially hit the brakes -- but then, unknowingly, let off the brake pedal, which means they lose a lot of stopping distance. \"So, if they don't hit the brakes with enough pressure, or don't brake fast enough, this system will detect that, and automatically applies the optimum amount of brake pressure in the shortest amount of time -- which could go a long way toward avoiding a crash and any resulting injury.\" Another Chrysler feature Barman likes is the trailer-stability control system. \"Sometimes, if you've never towed a trailer before, or if maybe you have too much weight in the rear of the trailer, the trailer can start swaying back and forth,\" Barman explained. \"Well, this system uses sensors to determine yaw rate and lateral-movement rate, and then provides brake pressure that is counter to the sway of the trailer to get it to settle down.\" Other crash-avoiding features being introduced for the 2009 Chrysler Town & Country and the Dodge Caravan minivans are Chrysler's own version of the Blind Spot Monitoring system, plus the Rear Cross Path system, which uses an illuminated icon in the mirror and an audible chime to warn you of the presence of an oncoming vehicle when you're backing up -- like in the parking-structure scenario cited above. \"We're trying to take a 360-degree view all around the vehicle, in order to determine everything we can do to help a person avoid a crash,\" Barman said.","highlights":"High-tech advancements push auto-safety systems forward .\nHaving reputation for building safe vehicles helps automakers sell more cars .\nMercedes' Rear View Monitor views directly behind the vehicle as it backs up .\nChrysler system senses when car is in danger of rolling over .","id":"4a9a0e027f1620208daa3c558658f344cad4ba20"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- People with a stable mood and better capacity to handle stressful situations without anxiety have a reduced risk of developing dementia, according to a study published this week in the journal Neurology. Stress can increase the risk of dementia in older people, a study has found. This finding was particularly strong in highly extroverted people, the study said. Subjects who were both socially active and not easily stressed had the lowest risk for dementia. But even socially isolated individuals who were more calm and self-satisfied showed a reduced likelihood of dementia, the study said. Extroverted people usually have more optimistic outlooks on life, and \"may be better equipped to cope with stressful events and therefore less prone to depression,\" said Hui-Xin Wang of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and lead author of the study. The study looked at 506 older people from the Kungsholmen Project in Stockholm who did not have dementia at the first examination. These people then filled out questionnaires that determined their personality types and level of social activity. Those who said they were easily distressed were classified as having high neuroticism. Researchers followed these participants for six years, during which time 144 of them developed dementia. Although it is not easy to change someone's personality, \"The good news of our finding is that an active lifestyle -- having a rich social network and participating in physical, mental and social activities -- may buffer the negative effect of high neuroticism on dementia risk,\" Wang said. One in seven Americans age 71 and older, or about 3.4 million, have dementia, according to the National Institutes of Health. In this age-group, 2.4 million people have Alzheimer's disease, NIH research has shown. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, according to the Mayo Clinic. Previous research has documented that personality factors may play a role in how people cope with dementia. This study is unique in that it looks at a combination of different lifestyle and personality traits, said Dr. Yaakov Stern, professor of clinical neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, who was not involved with the study. Stern and colleagues have found that people with higher educational or occupational attainment, or who engage in leisure activities, appear less demented. They call this concept \"cognitive reserve,\" because these lifestyle factors seem to allow them to cope with the pathology of the disease better. That is, as the disease progresses in the brain, those who have a greater \"reserve\" do not show symptoms of Alzheimer's -- memory loss and impairment of day-to-day functions -- as quickly. Mounting evidence suggests that lifestyle factors also directly influence brain changes, he said. The Swedish study builds off the established idea in the field that stress actually harms the brain. The pathology of dementia appears about 10 to 15 years before a person actually develops Alzheimer's disease, Stern said. That means, just like a man with prostate cancer may not have any symptoms, a person's brain may have undergone changes that lead to Alzheimer's without visibly affecting a person's day-to-day life. Doctors can look for indications of the disease using positron emission tomography (PET) scans. A chemical called Pittsburgh Compound B is used in the imaging of brain tissues to find signatures of Alzheimer's -- namely, beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. \"The working idea is that if we can detect it before it's clinically expressed and stop it then, we can prevent people from developing the disease,\" Stern said.","highlights":"Study: Less-stressed older individuals had lower risk of developing dementia .\n3.4 million Americans age 71 and older have some form of dementia .\nSome people do not show symptoms of Alzheimer's but have pathology .","id":"c48c4fd3c892828b7d993fe0c3e3d1cfd13d6a5c"} -{"article":"DOUGLASVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- Like many young girls, Jennifer Marnell always dreamed that one day she'd become famous. Jennifer Marnell once maxed out at 300 pounds. She lost 180 pounds and is now a fitness instructor. Bubbling with personality and quite the ham -- she was no stranger to performing. Marnell loved singing, dancing and acting in local plays while growing up on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. Even though her family showered her with adoration and unconditional support -- Marnell was hiding something that she was afraid to share with anyone. Since the age of 8, she struggled with her weight. \"I was the only one in the whole family who was overweight,\" Marnell recalled. \"[They] were always supportive and told me I was beautiful ... I didn't realize how depressed I was because my family loved me no matter what.\" But other people weren't so nice. Marnell says classmates and other people teased or ridiculed her about her weight. Instead of talking about her feelings -- she turned to food for comfort. As she ate to soothe her pain -- Marnell's weight spiraled out of control. Watch more on Jennifer Marnell's journey \u00bb . \"It got out of control over the years because it became an addiction,\" said Marnell. \"Food didn't talk back to me and didn't tell me no ... I didn't know how to stop and listen to my body.\" Working as a nanny at the age of 27, Marnell was 5-foot-tall and weighed 300 pounds. The wife and mother says a series of embarrassing moments such as not fitting into a restaurant booth, running out of breath while walking and lacking the energy to play ball or skate with her daughter -- took an emotional and physical toll on her health. But the final straw came during a trip to an amusement park with her family. \"We were at Six Flags waiting on a ride and we waited for an hour-and-a-half,\" said Marnell. \"When we got on, I couldn't latch the belts because I was too big and they had to ask me to get off.\" Devastated by the incident, Marnell says she broke down in tears and had a heart-to-heart talk with herself. Afraid that she might die before the age of 30, she was tired of being a \"fat mom\" and wanted to set a good example for her daughter. After the mental pep-talk, Marnell started her weight loss journey by joining a gym. She started by exercising in the women's-only section and ate a low-fat, low-calorie diet. After a few months, she'd lost 50 pounds. The weight loss boosted her confidence and she decided to try a water aerobics class which was a lot less stressful on her bones and joints. Over the next two years, Marnell continued taking group fitness classes, hired a personal trainer to get past a plateau and eventually lost 180 pounds. CNN I-Reporters share weight loss photos \u00bb . After reaching her goal weight of 120 pounds, she decided to start a new career as a fitness instructor and provides personal training advice on her Web site http:\/\/www.fitbyjen.com\/. One of the most important lessons she's conquered is emotional eating. \"You've got to learn to talk through your problems instead of using food,\" Marnell says. \"An alcoholic can't just have one drink. I will never eat a Snickers bar because that is my one weakness ... the one thing I won't have.\" The weight loss has also helped her realize another dream -- being in the limelight. In January, she was featured on the \"Oprah Winfrey Show\" and in People Magazine's \"Half Their Size\" issue and will appear on the game show \"Don't Forget the Lyrics\" with Wayne Brady. She's also touring the country as a spokesperson for Gold's Gym and has just inked a book deal to tell her weight-loss story. Marnell says all of the recent attention has been a bit overwhelming but she's enjoying every minute of her new career and life. \"It's made life more exciting,\" said Marnell. \"I still feel like the same person on the inside, I have the same heart. But the outside, it's just enhanced the inside even more.\" What advice does she have for other people who want to lose weight? The toughest part of losing weight, according to Marnell, is staying mentally focused. She recommends taking \"baby steps,\" trying not to do everything at once or focus on how much you have to lose and joining an online support group. \"Learn to accept yourself for who you are,\" Marnell advises. \"It can be done ... it's not going to be easy -- but it can be done.\" iReport.com: Have you lost weight? Send your story, photos and video E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Jennifer Marnell struggled with weight, emotional overeating most of her life .\nBy the age of 27, she maxed out at her heaviest weight of 300 pounds .\nMarnell lost 180 pounds through exercise and a low-fat, low-calorie diet .\nShe's now a fitness instructor and plans to write a book to inspire others .","id":"c9787663ddc38334fcc4d30b72dd8575204efe69"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hope was 14 years old when her uncle raped her. Betty Makoni founded the Girl Child Network to help Zimbabwe's young sexual abuse victims. \"He trapped me to the ground and covered my mouth with his hand,\" said the 18-year-old from Zimbabwe. \"He threatened to kill me if I ever told anybody.\" So, she kept quiet. \"After a while people around the villages started saying that I looked pregnant,\" she said. Hope was not only pregnant, but her uncle had infected her with HIV. Like many young girls in Zimbabwe, Hope was the victim of a widely held belief that if a man with HIV or AIDS rapes a virgin he will be cured of his disease. This so-called virgin myth, perpetuated by Zimbabwe's traditional healers, has led to the rape of hundreds of girls, according to UNICEF. Some of those victims are too young to walk, much less protect themselves. Betty Makoni has fought for nearly a decade to protect her country's young girls from sexual abuse. And she's witnessed some of the worst cases of the myth in action. \"The youngest girl I ever came across was a day-old baby who was raped,\" said Makoni, 37. Through her Girl Child Network (GCN), Makoni has helped rescue 35,000 girls from abuse -- including Hope; thousands more have found an empowering community and a public forum in which to speak out. Vote now for the CNN Hero of the Year . \"Ten girls per day report rape cases,\" she said. \"It means if we keep quiet, at least 3,600 girls per year may just be contracting HIV and AIDS.\" Makoni's own tragic experiences fuel her fierce determination. \"I was raped when I was 6 years old,\" she recalled. Her attacker was a local shopkeeper. Makoni said her mother would not allow her to report the abuse. \"She said, 'Shh, we don't say that in public,' \" Makoni remembered. \"I had no shoulder to cry on.\" Three years later, she witnessed her father murder her mother. In that moment, Makoni said she realized the potentially deadly consequence of a woman's silence. \"I told myself that no girl or woman will suffer the same again,\" she said. Believing an education would provide her the best opportunity and means to speak out, Makoni earned two university degrees and became a teacher. While teaching, she noticed that girls were dropping out of school at an alarming rate. She approached her students with an idea. \"I [said] to girls, 'Let's have our own space where we talk and find solutions,' \" Makoni said. Girl Child Network was born. Watch Makoni help young girls find safety and empowerment in Zimbabwe \u00bb . By the end of the first year, there were 100 GCN clubs throughout Zimbabwe where girls could find support. Makoni said she was not surprised: \"Every woman and girl identified with the issues that we were raising,\" she said. In 2000, she quit her teaching job to volunteer with GCN full time. \"I decided to become an advocate because I walked my own journey to survival,\" she said. The following year Makoni successfully procured a piece of land and opened the organization's first empowerment village, designed to provide a haven for girls who have been abused. Girls are either rescued or referred to the village by social services, the police and the community. The healing begins as soon as a girl arrives. \"In the first 72 hours, a girl is provided with emergency medication, reinstatement in school, as well as counseling,\" said Makoni. It is important to her that the girls are in charge of their own healing. \"It gives them the confidence to transform from victims to leaders,\" she explained. The process helped Hope work through the times when she said \"I thought my life had come to end.\" \"They offered all they could ... as I was in a traumatized state,\" she said. \"I really appreciate what [Betty Makoni] has done and is doing in my life.\" Today, GCN has grown to 700 girls' clubs and three empowerment villages across Zimbabwe. An estimated 300,000 girls have received assistance. For those who were at greatest risk, Makoni believes that help was especially critical. \"If my organization didn't exist, the 35,000 girls I've saved from rape and abuse could have died by now,\" she said. But for Makoni, speaking out came with a high personal cost. In 2008, she was forced to flee her native country. \"I left Zimbabwe because my life was in danger as a result of my project being interpreted politically.\" Watch Makoni describe her reasons for leaving her homeland \u00bb . Today, she lives with her family in the United Kingdom. She still serves as executive director of her organization and shows no signs of slowing down. GCN has partnered with the DOVE project, a group based in Essex, England, that deals with domestic violence. \"We are now bringing the girls from a local community to the international scene,\" she said. Her efforts in Zimbabwe will also be highlighted in an upcoming documentary, Tapestries of Hope. Makoni says nothing will end her fight for the rights of women and girls. \"This is the job I have always wanted to do, because it gives me fulfillment. And in girls I see myself every day.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Girl Child Network and see how to help.","highlights":"Many in Zimbabwe believe a man raping a virgin can cure him of HIV or AIDS .\nBetty Makoni's Girl Child Network cares for Zimbabwe's young sex abuse victims .\nThe organization has rescued more than 35,000 girls .\nVote now for the CNN Hero of the Year at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"d1dd20555b01a0817b8978a3a317077750f3447f"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The bodies of three American contractors who died in a plane crash in Afghanistan earlier this month have been recovered, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Tuesday. The C-12 plane went down in the mountains of Nuristan province October 13, but the military withheld information about it until the recovery operation was complete, ISAF said in a statement. The crew were subcontractors working for Lockheed Martin, the company confirmed. A spokesman named two of them as Jeff Lehner, a former Air Force member working for Sierra Nevada, and Randolph Bergquist, a former Marine working for Avenge. They are not releasing the third name at the family's request. Thomas Casey of Lockheed Martin confirmed the third victim was the co-pilot and also worked for Avenge. The cause of the crash that killed them is not yet clear, but it is not thought to be enemy action, ISAF said. A helicopter sent to recover the remains October 17 itself made \"a hard landing\" that required the crew to be rescued, ISAF said. The helicopter was stripped of sensitive parts Wednesday and destroyed in place Sunday, ISAF said.","highlights":"3 contractors killed when plane went down in mountains of Nuristan province .\nPlane, a C-12, crashed October 13; crew worked for Lockheed Martin .\nCause of crash not yet clear, but it is not thought to be enemy action .\nCrew of copter sent to recover remains had to be rescued after hard landing .","id":"609e301b65a6119e91ae0e5c035553cecc7c1578"} -{"article":"Ann Arbor, Michigan (CNN) -- Even among the hundreds of applications, this one stood out. Most applicants to creative writing programs submit stories about the angst of their suburban childhoods. This writer's stories concerned the daily ordeals of a boy living with his family on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, and the horrific plight of a Rwandan girl whose mother is Tutsi and father Hutu. Not only did the applicant have what writers call \"material,\" he was blessed with an uncanny ear for human speech and the poetry to describe his characters' very unpoetic lives. I can still remember the young Kenyan boy watching his mother decant the glue she intends to sniff. The glue, the boy tells us, \"glowed warm and yellow in the dull light,\" and when his mother had poured enough, \"she cut the flow of the glue by tilting the tin up. The last stream of gum entering the bottle weakened and braided itself before tapering in midair like an icicle.\" Still, this applicant gave us pause. The writer had so much to say, he seemed to be trying to channel a raging waterfall through the tiny funnels of two short stories. His use of punctuation was idiosyncratic, to say the least. And the applicant was a priest! Would the other students be willing to share their stories, rife as these tend to be with profanity, drugs and sex, if a clergyman was in the room? And would this particular clergyman understand what all great religious writers know -- that true literature doesn't spring from one's certainties about the universe, but rather from one's questions? That said, how could our students be inhibited by a classmate who didn't hesitate to describe a 12-year-old Kenyan prostitute being paid by rich white tourists to perform sexual acts with their monkey? As to the shapelessness of the applicant's prose and the eccentricity of his punctuation, anyone with this writer's gifts could be taught to structure his material and punctuate his characters' speech correctly. If I still felt apprehensive about having a priest in my workshop, that anxiety vanished when Uwem Akpan walked in the room. Rather than wear his clerical garb and collar, Uwem showed up in a blue and maize University of Michigan sweatshirt. With his wide, gap-toothed smile, wall-shaking laugh, disarming candor and gleeful giggle, he exuded magnetic charm. Nor was Uwem out of place for being the only Nigerian in his cohort. Despite what the judges of the Nobel Prize might say about American writers being too insular to compete with their European counterparts, this country's MFA programs provide one of the only spaces on the planet where writers of many races, religions, nationalities and sexual orientations can come together. Writers find common ground not through the homelands they once inhabited but the thematic questions with which they grapple. Early that first semester, I assigned a story by Philip Roth called \"Defender of the Faith,\" in which a Jewish sergeant who has witnessed the horrors of the concentration camps must decide whether to grant special favors to the Jewish recruits in his command or enforce strict impartiality. I didn't know whether Uwem would connect to Roth's quintessentially Jewish outlook. But the moment the discussion started, Uwem's hand shot up. \"This is the story of my continent!\" he declared. If Africans continued to put tribal allegiances above universal fairness, Uwem said, progress would remain unattainable. This abhorrence of tribalism is what makes Uwem so open-minded. Like most people who are comfortable in their own skins, he is wonderfully able to inhabit the skins of others. One semester, he audited a seminar on Holocaust literature. The professor had no idea who Uwem was, so she couldn't help but be surprised when he asked, \"Can you tell me, please, how is it that people can do such terrible things to one another?\" If anyone else had asked that question, the professor might have thought he was simpleminded. But she could tell that this mysterious stranger was asking his question in the most profound way, from the depths of his own experience. A few months later, Uwem accompanied me to my temple for the Jewish New Year. After sitting -- and standing -- for hours through the service, he commented that he had studied in the Bible how Jesus opened the scroll to read, but he had never quite understood how that worked, so it was beautiful for him to see how the Jews really did that. And he was happy to note what Catholicism had copied from Judaism. Just as Uwem opened his mind and heart to us, I opened my mind and heart to Uwem. An atheist with a degree in physics, I don't believe in prayer. And yet, when Uwem stopped by the evening before a frightening operation on my spine, I granted his request that he pray for my well-being. Startled by the warmth I felt flowing along my spine as Uwem held his hands above my head, I burst out crying. Of course, my colleagues and I never forgot why Uwem was in Ann Arbor, Michigan. During his two years in our program, all of us worked hard to help him develop his many gifts. But mine was the first workshop Uwem took, and I saw his stories at their rawest. As I waded through the reams of rough drafts he had given me, it occurred to me that I had been called upon to help the children of Africa the only way I could -- by helping Uwem to write their stories. We talked about the need to focus each story around a single character's conflict and a single thematic question rather than attempting to convey everything Uwem knew about all his characters. I also urged him to allow his young protagonists at least a chance for freedom or redemption. Yes, the children whose lives he wanted to depict were the victims of adults who abused, exploited and betrayed them. But even in a society in which a child can be prostituted to provide her family's food and pay her brother's school fees, the prostitute's brother might choose to decline that money, to leave the family, to walk away. Uwem listened attentively, but I wasn't sure that he believed what I was saying. I didn't see another version of his story about the street family in Nairobi for several months. When I did, the hairs at the back of my neck stood up. That second version of \"An Ex-Mas Feast\" was so powerful and finely polished that I asked Uwem if he would send it to the deputy fiction editor of The New Yorker, whom I had met a few weeks earlier when the magazine brought its college tour to Ann Arbor. Uwem hesitated -- I didn't know this, but he already had submitted an earlier version of the story, twice, to \"The Editor\" at The New Yorker -- but I kept nagging him until he sent the new version. The rest, as they say, is history. The magazine accepted Uwem's story for its fiction issue. Then, a year later, it published a revised version of the story about the half-Tutsi, half-Hutu Rwandan girl. In many ways, Uwem's success makes sense. Even when he was studying to be a priest, he gave up precious hours of sleep to stay up writing. He applied to an MFA program and got accepted. His teachers recognized his extraordinary potential and helped Uwem to achieve it. And yet, much of Uwem's success is inexplicable. In a world in which so little attention is paid to children's suffering, a world in which fewer and fewer publishing houses remain interested in acquiring literary fiction and independent bookstores, even in college towns such as Ann Arbor, are closing their doors, the editors at every major publishing house in New York competed for the privilege of publishing a book that might not sell many copies but had shaken them to the core. And Oprah ... how could Oprah, who had never selected a collection of stories for her book club, choose a collection like Uwem Akpan's, with its multilingual patois, complete absence of pathos or sentimentality and nearly unbearable-to-read violence toward children? Yet all of this came to pass. Oprah respected her audience enough to assume that if she was so deeply moved by Uwem's stories, they would be moved as well. In choosing \"Say You Are One of Them,\" Oprah brought to Uwem's cause the intelligence and heart of her many readers. That any of this happened at all, let alone in five short years, is a literary miracle. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eileen Pollack.","highlights":"Eileen Pollack: There was concern about Uwem Akpan's application to a writing program .\nShe says he fit in well and his talent soon became evident .\nAkpan's blessed with great talent for hearing people and with poetic writing ability, she says .\nHis book of stories about African children has been selected by Oprah's book club .","id":"5b5825799efedb1dc8757ba4a0d99de7915dc856"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- Interpol is chasing more than 200 leads on the potential identity of a pedophile suspected of molesting young boys, just one day after launching a global manhunt. Interpol has launched a global appeal to find this man, accused of abusing young boys. The organization, which facilitates global cooperation among police agencies, said its Web site logged 30 times more visitors than in an average day after it made its plea for the public's help Tuesday. Interpol is trying to locate a man who is pictured sexually abusing young boys in hundreds of images on the Internet. \"'The public's response has been very positive,\" said Kristin Kvigne, assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings unit, in a news release. \"The smallest piece of information from anywhere in the world could be crucial in identifying this man.\" The man is featured in 100 photographs sexually abusing at least three boys between the ages of six and 10, Interpol said. The organization posted six pictures of the suspect on its Web site. The pictures came to light in 2006, when Norwegian authorities discovered them in the possession of a man they arrested. Watch a report on Interpol's man-hunt \u00bb . \"While these images were only discovered two years ago, we believe the photographs were taken between April 2000 and May 2001, so clearly this man will be older than he appears in the pictures,\" said Kvigne. Last October, Interpol disseminated pictures of another man whose face appeared in more than 200 images of sex acts with children. It dubbed its operation Vico, because the images were thought to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ten days later, Christopher Paul Neil -- a 32-year-old Canadian man who had been working as an English-language teacher in South Korea -- was arrested in Thailand and charged with child abuse. Following the success of that operation, the organization's general assembly approved a resolution allowing Interpol to seek public help in child sex abuse investigations.","highlights":"NEW: Interpol chasing 200 new leads in global manhunt for serial pedophile .\nInterpol Web site logged 30 times more visitors than in an average day .\n100 photographs show man sexually abusing at least three boys aged 6 to 10 .\nInterpol issued appeal for first time in October, arrest made after 10 days .","id":"6102d1f00fa721590cafdac08d72e2f6747c1588"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The number of drug-related killings in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, so far this year has reached 1,647, surpassing the death toll for all of 2008, a city spokesman told CNN. Police gather at the rehab facility where 17 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in early September. A spate of killings since the weekend, including 12 on Tuesday, pushed this year's death toll higher than the 1,607 recorded murders for last year, spokesman Sergio Belmonte told CNN. Killings in Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, began to spike in early 2008, when the Sinaloa drug cartel began a turf war with the Juarez cartel. In response, President Felipe Calderon sent federal troops to patrol the city. About 7,500 troops will remain in Juarez at least for another six months at the mayor's request, officials said. The army presence has helped curb the violent daylight shootouts that damaged the city's image and threatened its economy, but killings and reprisals among street-level dealers continue to mount, Belmonte said. On Monday, 635 new police officers graduated from the police academy and joined the ranks of a force that had been thinned by about 700 in the city's effort to root out corrupt cops. The police department is now up to more than 2,600 officers, Belmonte said. Another 400 cadets are expected to join the force in October. Officials hope that the larger police force, together with investments in police equipment and a new crime-stoppers phone system, will turn things around for the city. More than 5,100 have been killed in drug-cartel violence across Mexico this year, according to a tally by the newspaper El Universal.","highlights":"Killings since the weekend pushed 2009 death toll past 1,607 killed in 2008 .\nKillings increased as Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels began turf war in 2008 .\nIn response, President Felipe Calderon sent federal troops to patrol the city .\nMore than 5,100 killed in 2009 drug-cartel violence in Mexico, says newspaper .","id":"3f20b2ab0e2927f5da89be761f8a8a08e4dabd3e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military hopes to kill or capture some 50 Afghan drug traffickers with financial ties to the Taliban in an effort to shut down one of the insurgency's biggest sources of revenue, a U.S. Senate report says. Afghan men smoke heroin in the city of Herat on August 7, 2009. The new plan is the first time the U.S. military has been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and commanders say it is an essential part of the overall plan to stabilize the country, which is under heavy Taliban influence. Until now the U.S. military has left the eradication programs to other U.S. agencies and the Afghan military, keeping its \"most wanted\" list to insurgent leaders tied to bomb making, weapons smuggling or facilitating foreign fighters into the country. \"The change is dramatic for a military that once ignored the drug trade flourishing in front of its eyes,\" according to the report. \"No longer are U.S. commanders arguing that going after the drug lords is not part of their mandate.\" It does not name the 50 targets, but says they are on a list of 367 names of Taliban and other insurgents targeted by the U.S. military. \"Some\" of the 50 have already been apprehended or killed, according to a senior military official. The official would not quantify the amount further and would not speak on the record because of the sensitive nature of the issue. The yet-to-be released report was prepared by staff for members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A copy was provided to CNN. It is based on testimony by U.S. military officials to the committee. Bush-era efforts by the United States and the U.S.-trained Afghan Army to eliminate poppy farms did very little to solve the problem, with numerous farmers' crops flourishing while other farmers were left with no source of income and bitterness toward the Afghan government, the report concludes. It criticizes former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for failing to push forward on a military role in drug eradication even after being shown proof of the connection between the drug lords and the Taliban. The change in the U.S. military's approach to fighting the drug war came last fall after the United States told NATO members that the drug trade was a threat to NATO troops because there was a direct connection between it and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. \"There is what we call a nexus of insurgency. There's a very broad range of militant groups that are combined with the criminality, with the narco-trafficking system, with corruption, that form a threat and a challenge to the future of that great country,\" then-U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. David McKiernan told reporters at the Pentagon last October. But with a new approach to the war by the Obama administration, the United States has started attacking the drug problem head on. According to the report, this year U.S. and NATO combat forces started attacking militants, drug labs and buildings connected to insurgents with ties to drug lords for the first time since the start of the war in 2001. Referring to people tied to narcotics and militants, the report says, \"The military places no restrictions on the use of force with these selected targets, which means they can be killed or captured on the battlefield.\" The Pentagon's spokesman said the effort is still focused on fighting terrorism. \"There is a well-established link [between] the drug trade and financing of the insurgency and terrorism,\" said spokesman Bryan Whitman. \"It's important to delineate that we target terrorists that are connected to the drug trade. ... Terrorist do interface with drug networks and we know they provide finance for the insurgency, and it's this nexus that creates the security and force-protection issues that make them a legitimate target.\" A major U.S. Marine offensive against the Taliban was launched last month in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, home to the majority of the poppy farms and opium trade. The report says the Taliban make about $70 million a year on the drug trade. The report concedes that counter-narcotics alone will not win the war, but says slowing the flow of illicit money will play a crucial role in \"determining whether we can carve out the space required to provide the security and economic development necessary to bring a level of stability to Afghanistan.\"","highlights":"Report: U.S. military pursuing 50 Afghan drug traffickers tied to Taliban .\nNew initiative strives to shut down big revenue source for insurgency .\nReport: \"The change is dramatic for a military that once ignored the drug trade,\"\nU.S., NATO forces now targeting insurgents tied to drug lords, report says .","id":"820d2d647e5dbf9924bdf03e535e4e65b6f1ce65"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Army ground commanders in Afghanistan say they need help, fast. That's not a request for more troops, but a request from commanders who say the current camouflage uniform is not blending well in the diverse countryside. U.S. Army commanders in Afghanistan say the current uniform does not blend well in the countryside. In response, the Army later this month will field-test two new camouflage color schemes and patterns on about 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, where the terrain is extremely varied. Commanders have had problems there because of the numerous changes in environments a soldier can move in and out of in a short period of time -- from woodland to desert to alpine, and to rocky and snowy mountain tops. The current uniform, known as the Army Combat Uniform or ACU, has lighter shades of green and tan, which some commanders have complained does not blend well if soldiers need to stay motionless on a mission, as snipers or reconnaissance troops must. The effort by the Army was recently accelerated, according to Army officials, after U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, told the Army he had a number of complaints from soldiers in Afghanistan who said the current camouflage pattern was not effective in the mountainous regions. Two yet-to-be-identified battalions -- a battalion has about 500 troops -- will test the two patterns, with initial results being turned into Army researchers by the end of October. While deployed, all 1,000 soldiers will have their regularly issued ACUs. In addition, one battalion will also get one of the new camouflage uniforms with a test pattern known as \"MultiCam.\" The pattern is made up of numerous blobs of white, brown, tan, black and greens for a more woodland look, and is already being worn by snipers and special operations forces. The other brigade will test a similar pattern to the ACU, called the Universal Cammo Pattern-Delta or \"UCP-Delta.\" While the pattern is the same, a series of \"digitized\" blocks of green and tan, the test uniform adds what he Army calls \"coyote brown\" and a slight color darkening all around to the greens and tans. The look is also designed to blend in the woods. Both battalions will be based in eastern Afghanistan where the terrain is the most rugged and diverse, Army officials said. The Army hopes to have the field input and a decision on what pattern is best by the end of January 2010 and the fielding of the new uniform as early as June 2010. Troops will still keep the existing ACU, and commanders will be able to decide mission by mission what the soldiers should wear, according to Army officials. The testing is part of the Army's long-term development of a permanent alternative to the current ACU, according to Army officials.","highlights":"Commanders say current uniform doesn't blend well in Afghanistan's countryside .\nArmy this month will field-test two new camouflage patterns in Afghanistan .\nArmy hopes to have decision on new pattern by the end of January 2010 .","id":"d6548d032e737d58b85a35482cca555b0aec8750"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- As a journalist, as a human being, the stories of the people around you stick with you. Whether it is in passing memory or in daily wonderment, they are in your mind and many in your heart, engrained forever. CNN's Atia Abawi, center, with Banafsha (denim jacket) and her siblings and mother. The first story I worked on for CNN in Afghanistan back in November, just as we were opening our new bureau in Kabul, was on a girl who attended a school for street kids called Aschiana. Aschiana, which means \"nest\" in Dari, was a place for the nearly 60,000 street kids in the capital city to escape from their terrible reality and get an education. There, we met Banafsha, an 11-year-old girl who along with her two younger sisters would beg on the streets for bread, feeding their family of eight. Her mother would stay home and take care of her baby brothers and their father, she told us, was a heroin addict. Banafsha was young in age but her eyes told of experiences that have taken her far beyond childhood. In our conversations, she spoke with candor and honesty, not allowing emotions to creep in. Until when, she told me that she prayed everyday for a change in her life. Watch Abawi's first story on Banafsha \u00bb . \"I say, 'God take me out of this poverty and have my father go work so I can go to school,'\" she said, wiping away one lonely tear. The story received a tremendous response from viewers and readers after it was posted on CNN.com. An organization from the U.S. began to sponsor Banafsha, promising to provide for her. This was great to hear, but it didn't stop me from worrying. Did I bring her more trouble or was she going to be okay? Every time we would drive around the neighborhood, I would look for her to see if she was among the other street beggars. Were they suffering in the winter cold? Did they have enough food? About a week ago, I went to the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force with our cameraman Charlie Miller. As we were leaving, we met three little street kids, a sweet girl among them with a beautiful smile -- which made me think of Banafsha and her sisters. The sight of kids begging always breaks my heart because I know that their childhoods are forever stolen by poverty. I am also always scared to give them money because I remembered a story Banafsha told me about her little sister. She was given two dollars by an American, and when the American walked away, an older boy came and punched her 7-year-old little sister in the face, knocking her out. When she woke up, her money was gone. As we were driving away from those children and the smile on the girl's face, I shared the story with our driver and told him that I wished I knew how Banafsha was doing now. On our way home we decided to stop at a DVD shop, part of our limited entertainment living in Kabul. After making my selection, I walked out and I heard a beggar girl with a familiar smile on her face exclaim, \"You came over to our house!\" There was a girl next to her in a yellow dress also beaming with the same indistinguishable smile, lugging a bag of leftover pieces of bread over her tiny back. Watch Abawi reunite with Banafsha and her family \u00bb . It was Banafsha's little sisters: 10-year-old Samira and 7-year-old Tamina. I was so excited to see them and even happier that they recognized me. But I was at the same time dejected that they were still on the streets. They told me that they go to school but they still beg on the streets. However, Banafsha is at home and no longer begging. We went home with them because I wanted to see Banafsha and her mother. On the way to their house in the middle of a Kabul graveyard, Samira told me that her dad left again three days ago and they have no clue where he is. As Samira went to go get her mother, who was nearby at their grandmother's home, her little brother called Banafsha for us. She came out of a little room in the backyard, used for the wintertime. It holds what is called a \"sandalee,\" a table heated by coal that is used by the more impoverished in Afghanistan to stay warm in the torturously cold winter. Banafsha looked drained, her eyes heavy with burden. I heard a baby crying from the room she just left, which had to be her little brother Ajmal. If it was true that she was not begging anymore I knew she was still carrying the weight of her family on her tiny shoulders. She was wearing a denim jacket and new dress. The family told me that the organization that has promised to help has been there twice so far, bringing Banafsha clothes and some cooking supplies for the family. They said they were grateful for the help Banafsha was getting but there were still difficulties. Banafsha was quiet and didn't talk much, but she had her rare moments when a smile would creep out. Those moments were like a glimmer of light in a dark room to me. The entire family had that same smile, but it was Banafsha's and her mother's that were the most infrequent. As we were about to leave, I asked about their health and the mother said everything was fine except for something on Banafsha's arm. She pulled up her daughter's sleeve and showed us a thick forming rash. Banafsha told us it kept growing and it was itchy. Charlie pulled out his still camera and took a picture of it. He planned on showing it to a medical friend in the city for treatment. I did not want to say goodbye, but I also did not want to intrude anymore than we had. That day, seeing them, re-energized me in a way that I could not explain. In Afghanistan, you see a lot of misery, in the city of Kabul alone your heart sinks at every turn. The poverty, the destruction, the hopelessness and the loss of dignity for survival, is everywhere. You are grateful for what you have and how lucky you are, but you know it is not fair. Those feelings continue to weigh on your heart and mind, and they can add up. Some times you are strong about it, other times you feel weak. And as much as it pains you, you know you are lucky to see their lives, you know you have benefited from these people and from this place -- in ways you may never understand why.","highlights":"Abawi meets Banafsha while doing a story about a school for street kids .\nBanafsha and her sisters beg on the streets for food .\nAbawi runs into Banafsha's sisters six months later .\nBanafsha receives some help from a charity, but the family is still struggling .","id":"de7341e5fea004a59df30b690dc5d06488a7b916"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. If you're struggling to find work, try applying for positions that are more obscure. Job seekers in today's economy are all familiar with the difficulty in finding a job. Adding to that difficulty is the fact that many job seekers are all competing for the same positions and job titles. Perhaps the secret to finding a job in this competitive market is by looking for work in a lesser-known field that not many people know about. Do such industries exist? Absolutely -- you just need a little help in finding them. U.S. News and World Report compiled their annual \"Best Careers\" report and this year, they added something new. They profiled 10 jobs that scored just below \"Best-Career\" level but, because they're little known, they may be easier to land a job. Here are 10 of the best-kept-secret careers, in alphabetical order, according to U.S. News and World Report: . 1. Accent-reduction specialist . What you do: Trying to understand and communicate with people who have heavy accents or poor English can be difficult and frustrating. Whether your accent is from Brooklyn, India or the Southern United States, accent-reduction specialists will work with you to communicate more clearly and effectively. What you need: A master's or Ph.D. in speech-language pathology, a state-issued license in speech-language pathology, or a specialty credential in accent reduction or ESL training. Salary*: N\/A . 2. Casting director . What you do: You cast all of the actors in commercials, movies, plays, etc., from the leading role to the hundreds of extras. You'll schedule auditions, read scripts, talk to agents and help actors relax in their auditions. Casting directors typically work alongside directors and producers to find the right person for a role. What you need: No formal training is required, but experience is vital. Many start out as interns or in an entry-level position as an assistant in a talent agency or as a casting assistant. A background in arts, English, film or theatre is helpful. Salary: $42,333 . 3. Child-life specialist . What you do: In this rewarding field, you'll work with sick children and their families in hospitals, hospices or programs for children with serious diseases. You'll determine the medical and emotional needs of the child and support him or her, whether it's creating games and activities, helping to get them comfortable in their surroundings, or role-playing scary medical procedures. You'll also help support the patient's family. What you need: A bachelor's degree in a related field and one year of experience working with hospitalized children. Salary: $43,997 . 4. Creative perfumer . What you do: Without getting too technical, you'll mix several scented chemicals to concoct the perfect fragrance. It can take hundreds of trials and consumer testing to get it just right. What you need: A good nose, lots of patience, experience and an education at perfumery school. It takes about seven years to train as a perfumer, and about 10 years before you are considered a qualified perfumer. Salary: $21,791 . 5. Orthoptist . What you do: Orthoptists provide vision training for patients with correctable vision defects like a cross or lazy eye. They measure visual acuity, focusing ability and eye-motor movement, then work with ophthalmologists (eye doctors) to create treatment plans for the patient. What you need: A combination of over one year of directly related training and\/or experience; two years of post-bachelor's training is typically required. Salary: $40,280 . 6. Orthotist\/prosthetist . What you do: Help patients with partial or total absence of limbs by either creating a custom-designed orthopedic brace (orthotist), or designing and making custom-fit artificial limbs (prosthetist). What you need: A combination of over four years of directly related training and\/or experience. Salary: $58,134 . 7. Program analyst . What you do: Also called a management analyst, you'd work in federal and local governments, providing information on the most effective way to carry out a project or procedure. The job involves gathering and analyzing lots of data, in addition to writing reports outlining the information you found. What you need: A master's degree in public policy is preferred, but a bachelor's degree and experience is standard. Salary: $63,610 . 8. Program evaluator . What you do: You'll evaluate several different programs, making suggestions about changes to make them better, or whether they should even continue. You'll switch programs every few weeks (or whenever you are done evaluating), so you'll get to work with a variety of clients, whether it's a nonprofit, corporate venture or a government initiative. What you need: A bachelor's degree is sufficient, although some evaluators have a Ph.D. from specialized training programs. Salary: $56,647 . 9. Prospect researcher . What you do: True to their job title, prospect researchers identify prospective donors who are likely to contribute to a cause. Typically employed by nonprofit organizations, you will find people who have donated to similar causes in the past and dig up detailed information about them to help solicitors maximize the donation. What you need: N\/A . Salary: N\/A . 10. Surgical technologist . What you do: Essentially, you will scrub into surgeries and assist surgeons, nurses or other operating room personnel by arranging equipment and supplies, placing patients on the table and handing the surgeon his tools. \"Scalpel!\" What you need: Training programs last nine to 24 months and lead to a certificate, diploma, or associate degree. Salary: $33,777 . *Annual salaries according to CBSalary.com, powered by Salary Expert . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"U.S. News and World Report does an annual \"Best Careers\" list .\nThis year's list included 10 little-known jobs that have more opportunities .\nThe list includes positions like casting director and creative perfumist .\nEducation required ranges from a bachelor degree to highly specialized training .","id":"6e407e0acc85142f404b0073132a3a2037925aeb"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A German man is facing federal charges in the United States on suspicion of trying to extort money from supermodel Cindy Crawford and her husband, using a photograph of the couple's then-7-year-old daughter, court documents said. Edis Kayalar is charged with one count of extortion in a criminal complaint filed Thursday, according to Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. The photo, apparently taken as a prank by their former nanny, shows the couple's daughter bound to a chair, court documents said. Kayalar was deported to Germany from the United States in September after he had repeated contacts with Crawford and her husband, business mogul Rande Gerber. However, the complaint against him alleges, he continued to demand money from them. Federal prosecutors are in contact with German authorities on the matter, Mrozek told CNN, but as of Thursday night Kayalar was not in custody. If convicted, Kayalar faces a maximum penalty of two years in federal prison. Kayalar first contacted Crawford and Gerber in July, according to the criminal complaint. He told Crawford, who answered the phone, that he had a photograph of their daughter and wanted to help them out because he is a \"good person,\" the documents said. Crawford then handed the telephone to her husband. Identifying himself as \"Brian,\" Kayalar told Gerber he had a photograph of their daughter in \"revealing clothing, bound to a chair and gagged,\" according to the complaint. He said he had stolen the photograph from the former nanny and that he wanted to return it because it \"bothered\" him and he felt it \"just wasn't right,\" the complaint said. He told Gerber he wanted to give up the photograph so it would not end up in the tabloids, according to the documents. Kayalar told Gerber he had met the former nanny at a bar about three months before, when the woman still worked for the couple, and that he had been at her apartment and gotten Crawford's number from the nanny's cellular phone while the nanny was sleeping, the complaint said. The couple notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. In the affidavit, an FBI agent states that she reviewed the photograph, which depicts the girl, who has since turned 8, bound and gagged in a chair and wearing shorts and a T-shirt. The girl told her parents -- who did not know it had been taken -- that the former nanny took it as part of a \"cops and robbers\" game. Kayalar called again, arranging to meet Gerber at a bar in Venice, California, to return the photograph, the court documents said. He did not ask directly for money, but hinted that he was \"broke\" and would like a monetary reward for the return, according to the complaint. Gerber brought a sheriff's deputy to the meeting. During the meeting, Kayalar told Gerber he did not have the original image with him, saying he had left it with friends for \"security purposes,\" but showed him a copy he had saved on his cellular phone, according to the complaint. He told Gerber stole the photograph from the nanny's apartment along with a handwritten note saying, \"The baby sitter went crazy and tied everyone up and they need your help! Please.\" Gerber and the deputy then got Kayalar to call and arrange to meet the former nanny with them. When the former nanny -- who was not identified in court documents -- saw Gerber with Kayalar, she \"became extremely upset and began to cry,\" the court documents said. She apologized to Gerber and told him the photograph had been taken as a prank, and that she initially had planned to put the photograph and the note on the front door of the couple's home \"in order to pull a prank on Crawford\" but had not done so. On the way back to the bar, Kayalar repeatedly asked Gerber for money, the complaint said, saying that \"he could get a lot of money from the tabloids for the photograph.\" He said he would deliver the photograph to Gerber the following day. Gerber went to meet with Kayalar the next day in Malibu, later telling police he obtained a hard copy of the photograph from him and gave him $1,000 \"for his trouble,\" according to the court documents. But two days later, Gerber called police again, saying Kayalar called and demanded more money, saying he still had a copy of the photograph. During the Venice meeting, Kayalar told the sheriff's deputy he was a German citizen and that his true name was Edis Kayalar, the complaint said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found he was in the United States illegally, and he was arrested and deported. In November, Kayalar began calling the couple from Germany, however, saying he had no choice but to demand more money since they had \"gotten him deported,\" court documents said. He said he wanted $100,000 for not releasing or selling the photograph to the media. \"Kayalar stated that before, he had not committed any crime, but that now he was committing extortion,\" the complaint said. He provided them with German bank account information. Gerber asked for proof that he still had the picture, and shortly afterward received an e-mail with a copy of it. Authorities traced the computer used to send the e-mail to Stuttgart, Germany, the complaint said. Since then, Kayalar has made another attempt to obtain money from the couple, according to court documents, and Gerber stalled, saying he needed more time to get the money.","highlights":"Edis Kayalar, of Germany, charged in U.S. with extortion .\nMan used photo of Crawford's daughter in extortion attempt, authorities allege .\nCourt documents: Photo, showing girl bound to a chair, apparently taken by nanny for prank .\nMan claimed he stole photo from nanny, court documents say .","id":"6e9e6aed17718ee279fe77222f5205ad2377914b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nikolai Valuev will face Ruslan Chagaev in their much-anticipated rematch for the WBA heavyweight title in Finland on May 30. Ruslan Chagaev (left) lands a powerful left-hander during his win over Nikolai Valuev two years ago. The bout, at Helsinki's Hartwall-Arena, will be the first-ever heavyweight contest on Finnish soil, and will see a pumped-up Valuev going all out to \"settle the score\" against the only man to defeat him in a 51-bout career. Chagaev twice pulled out of scheduled rematches with Valuev last summer due to injury problems, prompting the WBA to vacate the title. Uzbeki southpaw Chagaev has been listed as 'champion in recess' ever since and -- as a result -- has to fight Valuev by the end of June in order to determine the undisputed champion. Valuev reclaimed the vacant belt by defeating American John Ruiz in August and defended his title against Evander Holyfield in December. \"The day has come to settle the score,\" Valuev told a news conference. \"I have been waiting for two years to make amends. Only a victory over Chagaev can put my mind at rest.\" Valuev bounced back with four wins on the spin following his loss to Chagaev in April 2007 but the Russian admits the only scalp that matters is that of the Uzbeki. \"I know everything there is to know about Chagaev,\" said Valuev. \"This is the fourth time I am actually preparing for a fight with him,\" he added, referring to the two postponed fights last year. \"Now is the time to end all this confusion. There will only be one WBA heavyweight champion after May 30 -- and that will be me.\"","highlights":"Nikolai Valuev will face Ruslan Chagaev for WBA heavyweight title next month .\nThe May 30 showdown will be the first-ever heavyweight clash on Finnish soil .\nValuev looking for revenge after Chagaev won their first contest two years ago .","id":"b0a56ecff803041fd3cb6ee8f7d8c695e7f171c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A jury sentenced an Arkansas man to life in prison without parole for killing a television anchor, officials said Thursday. The Pulaski County, Arkansas, jury on Wednesday convicted Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, of capital murder, residential burglary, rape and theft of property in the October 2008 slaying of Anne Pressly, 26. Pressly, the morning news anchor for CNN affiliate KATV, was found beaten and unconscious in her home. She died five days later. Vance's sentencing phase began after he was convicted Wednesday of capital murder, rape and burglary. Jurors were tasked with deciding whether the aggravating circumstances in favor of the death penalty outweighed the mitigating circumstances. \"Tonight, they have come back with a sentence, a sentence that they believe, and we share with them, is the harshest possible sentence for this gentleman going forward, where he will now spend the rest of his natural life in a 6-by-9 cell with nothing to think about but what he has done,\" said Guy Cannady, stepfather of the victim. \"It's not until he's carried out of Tucker Max in a pine box will he really meet his true judgment,\" Cannady added, referring to Arkansas' Tucker Maximum Security Prison. He said he was not disappointed that Vance did not receive the death penalty. Prosecutor Larry Jegley said the jury gave Vance \"everything they could give him except the death penalty.\" Asked if there were too many mitigating circumstances, Jegley said, \"I don't know. I can't speak for the jury. Cases like this, all you can do is put 'em in front of 12 good people and ask them to follow the evidence and do what their conscience demands.\" Attempts by CNN to reach members of Vance's defense team were unsuccessful Wednesday and Thursday. \"There really aren't any winners tonight,\" Cannady said. \"Nothing that's been done here will ever bring Anne back. We'll never see her smile, we'll never hear her laugh, we'll never know the joy of her presence with us until we see her again in heaven.\" Among the defense witnesses presented Thursday was Vance's mother, Jacqueline Vance Burnett, CNN affiliate KARK reported. Burnett cried on the stand as she spoke about her battle with crack addiction and admitted abusing her son when he was a child, including an incident when he was 7 years old and she slammed his head into a brick wall, the station said. A doctor testified earlier Thursday that Vance had told him school was easy for him before that incident, but difficult afterward. Both doctors said they believe Vance has frontal lobe damage to his brain as well as cognitive impairment, according to KARK. Vance was linked to the killing through DNA, however, and police said at the time of his arrest last year they were \"110 percent\" sure he was guilty. He had given several statements to police, including one saying he was at Pressly's home and another admitting to her murder. Defense attorney Steve Morley told CNN affiliate WREG as Vance's trial began earlier this month that such evidence presented an obstacle for the defense, but said he hoped jurors could be persuaded to spare his client's life. KARK reported that jurors heard recordings in which Vance apparently confessed to beating Pressly with a piece of wood. Pressly's mother, Patti Cannady, told NBC last year her daughter fought hard for her life, breaking her left hand in the process. \"I found my daughter beyond recognition, with every bone in her face broken, her nose broken, her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it,\" Cannady said. \"I actually thought that her throat had possibly been cut. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke.\" DNA evidence has also tied Vance to a rape in April 2008 in Marianna, Arkansas, about 90 miles east of Little Rock, police said in December. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Curtis Lavelle Vance, convicted in slaying of Anne Pressly, faced death penalty .\nDoctors, mother testify about Vance's abuse as a child, possible brain damage .\n\"There really aren't any winners tonight,\" Pressly's stepfather says of case .","id":"169f6203951f39a056e7a94bb8db4bbda45e4ae2"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Reports that Iran has sentenced a British embassy employee to four years in prison are \"deeply concerning,\" British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Thursday. Hossein Rassam \"is a hardworking embassy official\" who was \"doing work that was wholly within the boundaries of diplomatic work,\" Miliband said at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium. The reported sentence is \"wholly unjustified and represents further harassment of embassy staff for going about their normal and legitimate duties,\" Miliband had said earlier, in a statement issued Wednesday. Rassam is one of several British embassy employees arrested in the wake of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the official results declaring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. Iran accused Britain and the United States of fomenting the unrest. Rassam was put on trial in August. The European Union, France and the United Kingdom denounced the proceeding. Rassam's lawyer has not officially been informed of the embassy worker's sentence, and he does not know where Rassam is, he told Iranian media. Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told the Fars News Agency that the terms of Rassam's bail did not prevent him from leaving the country. He said Rassam had been in Iran recently, but he did not know his current whereabouts. He said he could not express an opinion on the verdict before the court officially informs him of it, which he said normally happens after it is issued. The European Union condemned the reported verdict as \"unjustified and harsh,\" and urged \"the Iranian authorities to overturn it swiftly,\" the Swedish presidency of the 27-nation bloc said in a statement Thursday. \"Any action against one EU country (a citizen or member of embassy staff) is considered an action against the entire EU, and will be treated accordingly,\" the statement said. France also condemned the sentencing of Rassam. Miliband said he understood the sentence could be appealed and urged \"the authorities to conduct this quickly and overturn this harsh sentence.\" \"This will be seen as an attack against the entire diplomatic community in Iran,\" he said in a statement late Wednesday. The Foreign Office summoned the Iranian ambassador to London, and Britain's envoy in Tehran spoke to Iran's deputy foreign minister, Miliband said.","highlights":"European Union, France and the UK denounced the trial of Rassam .\nRassam one of several UK embassy employees after unrest in June .\nThousands of Iranians protested the results of the presidential election .","id":"b0702ce7992a873a7971b4e0d71b1b026f8beac9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- \"My One and Only\" begins with Renee Zellweger, playing a woman based on George Hamilton's mother Anne, discovering her husband with another woman. Renee Zellweger plays a woman based on George Hamilton's mother in \"My One and Only.\" Despite the initial heartbreak, Anne puts on a happy face, and Zellweger gives life to a character who's determined to make the rest of her years comfortable and adventurous. Her husband's indiscretion is the catalyst that sends Anne on a cross-country quest to find a new husband in 1953 America. She pulls her two sons out of school in New York City and the trio set off on an adventure by car. The tale has its roots in actor George Hamilton's young life. The film takes a look at gender roles of the time and how women were perceived. Much of the film gets colored in by the characters and their ever-present emotions (though Zellweger's fabulous frocks add plenty of color on their own). Zellweger, who won an Oscar for \"Cold Mountain,\" spoke with CNN about \"My One And Only,\" George Hamilton and the way she believes she is perceived. Watch Zellweger talk about playing Hamilton's mother \u00bb . CNN: What do you think of George Hamilton as a person now, knowing what he went through in his youth? Renee Zellweger: I think it's so fascinating. It was probably my favorite part of this experience, discovering that this was actually his life story. I mean, who knew? You have an idea about who a person is based on their public persona and the work that they've done. He's a spectacular actor, and his collection of parts that he's played and work that he's done is unbelievable. ... But to get to know him, he's so interesting. He's so clever, and he's very kind. Very kind. CNN: You're playing Hamilton's mother. Did he fill you in on what she was like? Zellweger: No. You know, that's what's so interesting about it. [Despite] being such a personal ... project that he worked on so closely with Merv Griffin for over a decade ... he didn't. He had great faith and he just kind of let us go, which was sort of unbelievable when you look back on it. It was really clear to me from what was on the page who she was. CNN: Did you like her? Zellweger: Very much. She's kind of doing the best she can, and she thought, oh everything's kind of a lark ... and things work out without your having to put your hands on it and make it happen. But she learns a different way and a more satisfying way to be involved in her own life, which is wonderful. So she sort of discovered that she could and gave herself permission to be in charge of herself. It was kind of a wonderful journey to watch. CNN: She was judged on her looks many times in the film. Have you faced similar situations, being judged on your looks and people not taking you seriously? Zellweger: Not in such an overt way. I'm not an actress who made her way based on physicality -- I think quite the opposite, in fact. I sort of disappear a little bit, with respect to my looks. I'm lucky. I'm not a standout, kind of knockout kind of girl that, you know, it's all about my great hair or something. But, in subtle ways, maybe. I mean, people presume to know you for something and respond to you accordingly, I'm sure. CNN: How was it stepping into the era of old Hollywood? Did you enjoy wearing the clothes from the early '50s? Zellweger: I loved it. I loved it. I had such a great time with it, and I brought a lot of my own things, actually. Things that have been given to me, things that I just would find while I'm traveling on the road but have no opportunity to wear. You know, junk store finds that I think are spectacular. We brought them in, spruced them up and made them costumes. It was really exciting; it was fun. CNN: Do you think you would have liked to work in that era? Zellweger: Oh, yes and no. Yes because the glamour of it all or the -- it feels like play to me. It's like playing dress-up all the time. And no because of the responsibility of having to maintain that immaculate presentation all the time would be exhausting. I think back on Marilyn Monroe putting those lashes on everyday, and I can't imagine, as I tie up my sneakers to go for a run. I cannot imagine that you're supposed to simultaneously look beautiful while you're going out to buy groceries. I just don't know that it would fit well with my personality. I don't know that I would succeed (laughs).","highlights":"Renee Zellweger plays character based on George Hamilton's mother in new film .\nZellweger says she's \"lucky,\" generally not judged on her looks .\nCharacter was a joy to play -- particularly the immersion in '50s era of clothes .","id":"8b46c8aa936650a0c669db516b7e9fb5d57f38e1"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- CNN's Lou Dobbs stepped down from his controversial role as an advocacy anchor at the network at the end of his show Wednesday night, saying he plans to seek a more activist role. \"Over the past six months, it has become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us, and some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day and to continue to do so in the most honest and direct language possible,\" Dobbs said during his 7 p.m. broadcast. Dobbs, 64, said he had discussed the issue with CNN President Jonathan Klein, who had agreed to a release from his contract \"that will enable me to pursue new opportunities.\" In a written statement, Klein called Dobbs \"a valued founding member of the CNN family.\" \"For decades, Lou fearlessly and tirelessly pursued some of the most important and complex stories of our time, often well ahead of the pack,\" Klein said. \"All of us will miss his appetite for big ideas, the megawatt smile and larger-than-life presence he brought to our newsroom, and we're grateful to have known and worked with him over the years. \"With characteristic forthrightness, Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere. We respect his decision and wish him, Debi [Dobbs' wife], and his family the very best.\" Dobbs, who is the last of the 29-year-old network's original anchors, said he was considering \"a number of options and directions.\" He cited the growth of the middle class, the creation of jobs, health care, immigration policy, the environment, climate change and the U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as \"the major issues of our time.\" But, he said, \"Each of those issues is, in my opinion, informed by our capacity to demonstrate strong resilience of our now weakened capitalist economy and demonstrate the political will to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C. I believe these to be profoundly, critically important issues and I will continue to strive to deal honestly and straightforwardly with those issues in the future.\" Read Dobbs' full statement about his departure from CNN . Those issues, he added, are defined in the public arena \"by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous, empirical forethought, analysis and discussion,\" and he vowed to work to change that. In an e-mail to CNN staff members, Klein described the parting as \"extremely amicable,\" and said Dobbs' replacement would be announced soon. Dobbs was with Cable News Network from its initial broadcasts in 1980, acting as chief economics correspondent and host of the business program \"Moneyline.\" His coverage of the 1987 stock market crash won him the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. That was one of many awards he received while at CNN, including an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement that he received from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2005. Dobbs left the network in 1999 to found SPACE.com, a Web site devoted to space-related subjects. He returned to the network in 2001 as anchor and managing editor of CNN's Moneyline News Hour, which became Lou Dobbs Tonight. He also acted as lead business news anchor for CNN\/U.S. and CNNfn, the forerunner of CNNMoney. During his second stint at CNN, Dobbs positioned himself as \"tough, relentless, independent,\" lashing out at what he described as the deficiencies and \"partisan nonsense\" of both major political parties, and injecting advocacy journalism into his coverage of topics ranging from free trade to immigration. His no-holds-barred, sometimes acerbic style brought him a loyal following, but also attracted controversy both to him and to the network, especially over the subject of illegal immigrants. Dobbs will continue as anchor of The Lou Dobbs Show, a daily radio show that began in March 2008 and is distributed to more than 160 stations nationwide by United Stations Radio Networks Inc.","highlights":"Dobbs, 64, said President Jonathan Klein agreed to release him from his contract .\nDeparture will \"enable me to pursue new opportunities,\" said Dobbs .\nDobbs said he was considering \"a number of opportunities and directions\"\nDobbs' no-holds-barred style brought loyal following, but also controversy .","id":"6ec35426c923ac6e3f4def661f2a7d8564045327"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Army Secretary John McHugh ordered a new investigation into poor record keeping and other problems at Arlington National Cemetery even as a separate investigation ended without an absolute answer to who is buried in a grave marked \"Unknown.\" \"As the final resting place of our nation's heroes, any questions about the integrity or accountability of its operations should be examined in a manner befitting their service and sacrifice,\" McHugh said in a statement after signing the order directing the Army's Inspector General to begin an investigation into allegations regarding cemetery operations. The Army IG is already in the middle of an investigation ordered by the previous secretary of the Army to review management of the cemetery. In recent years, the cemetery -- where President Kennedy and thousands of fallen U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are buried -- has had a number of embarrassing problems. In 2008, the cemetery discovered that workers inadvertently buried cremated remains at a grave site already in use. Those remains were moved to another grave site. In 2003, as workers were digging a grave for a new burial, they discovered a casket already buried there. There was no headstone or grave marker to indicate who. Only recently, after a report by a journalist at Salon.com, did the Army take action on the problem. Over the summer, the cemetery put up a headstone on the mystery grave that reads \"Unknown.\" As McHugh ordered the new investigation, the Army released results of a separate investigation of problems at the cemetery. That investigation focused on the discovery of the \"Unknown\" grave. A spokesman for the Military District of Washington, which conducted the review, said \"Cemetery records, the MDW investigation, and the non-invasive geophysical analysis of the grave sites strongly indicate that a husband and wife, who died years apart and should have been buried in the same grave site, were instead buried in adjacent graves.\" A DNA test of the remains in the two adjacent graves could prove conclusively that is what happened, but the family of the husband and wife did not wish for their remains to be disturbed. The MDW said the Army will abide by the family's wishes and has ordered a headstone to properly mark the wife's grave. One of the problems discovered by the MDW investigation was a possible lack of adequate staffing at the cemetery. Last year Arlington conducted 4,377 burials, up more than 21 percent over the past 10 years. During that same period the number of civilian staff members has dropped nearly 19 percent. Currently the cemetery has four employees to schedule 135 to 150 funerals a week as well as maintain all grave records. Arlington, which sits on a hill across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, has been the final resting place for America's military heroes since the Civil War, when the Union seized the estate from the family of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. McHugh hopes this new investigation will \"ensure America's confidence in the operation of its most hallowed ground.\"","highlights":"Army Secretary John McHugh orders inquiry into poor record keeping .\nPrevious investigation sought to identify remains in grave marked \"Unknown\"\nIn recent years, the cemetery has had a number of embarrassing problems .","id":"21736c606a4e0f152e3269b9b16b6c772cd7d0b5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince Charles has converted his 38-year-old Aston Martin to run on biofuel made from surplus wine, his office revealed Tuesday. Prince Charles with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on a visit to a whiskey distillery in Northern Ireland last month. The car was a 21st birthday present from Queen Elizabeth, and the prince has converted it to run on 100 percent bioethanol as a way to reduce his carbon emissions, his office, Clarence House, said. The prince has also converted his other cars -- several Jaguars, an Audi and a Range Rover -- to run on 100 percent biodiesel fuel made from used cooking oil, his office added. Details of the prince's biofuel use were made public Monday in his household's 2008 Annual Review, which details the prince's income and activities over the past year. The report says Charles and his household reduced their carbon footprint by 18 percent last year after switching to green electricity supplies and reducing their travel-related emissions. Charles, 59, has a strong interest in environmental issues and rural affairs. He is active in environmental charities, and his food company, Duchy Originals, uses ingredients produced at his organic farm in Cornwall, southwestern England. The biofuels are converted and provided by Green Fuels Limited, a British company that previously provided biodiesel to power the royal train, Clarence House said. The wine used for the bioethanol comes from current vintage that remains after English wine producers reach the EU limit for annual wine production, a spokesman for Green Fuels said. The prince uses wine from a vineyard close to his Highgrove Estate, the spokesman said.","highlights":"Prince Charles' office reveals his car runs on biofuel made from surplus wine .\nPrince converted other cars to run on biodiesel fuel made from used cooking oil .\nReport says prince's household cut carbon footprint by 18 percent last year .\nThe prince renown for strong interest in environmental issues and rural affairs .","id":"ea7dc0b7815c9ce53ba1da6f393aec081d533802"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Blystone was CNN's senior correspondent in Europe throughout 1989, witnessing and reporting on the momentous events of that year from the first protests in the communist Eastern Bloc to the fall of the Berlin Wall and revolution in Romania. CNN's Richard Blystone reports from the former Iron Curtain in 1990. The following year Blystone traveled the length of the former Iron Curtain to report on the new Europe emerging from its shadow. Here he recalls how the the divided continent had simply become the only reality that most people knew. It was there. Like the stop sign on the street or the wastebasket in the corner of the living room. Like a long, long overcast day. Just there. Growing up in America the Cold War, the East-West confrontation and the prospect of Mutually Assured Destruction were so prosaic you never really thought much about them. You couldn't remember anything different. The situation seemed as immutable as the profile of the mountain tops or the patterns of stars in the night sky. And then, when I was 53, in the length of a football season, it was gone. If you're reading this online, chances are you don't remember and can't ever know what it was like in the days before the collapse of communism. There was \"Duck and Cover,\" a jingly film that showed little American children what to do in the event of nuclear attack. In later years, the black humor. Tom Lehrer's line about \"someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.\" Nothing to get excited about. If you were male, the U.S. draft loomed ahead, promising to take anything from six months to four years from your civilian life. Maybe more than that if you were in the Korea or Vietnam age group. During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, I was flying back and forth over the North Atlantic in a Navy patrol plane for 15 hours a day, not knowing what the hell was going on, trying not to dwell on the orders that could send us on a one-way mining trip to Murmansk Harbor if the balloon went up. For Germans and others along the line that divided Europe, the symbols of the threat of war were still harder to ignore. In Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968 Soviet troops had helped crush efforts to loosen Moscow's grip. But ignore them they did. \"We couldn't think about the wall, so we didn't,\" said the mayor of a West German village standing right on the border, when we talked to him in 1990. \"The bushes had eyes,\" West German border guard Ernst Wackernagel told us, describing the creepy job of patrolling a few yards from the binoculars and guns of their East German counterparts. Very few of the people we taxpayers paid to know about such things had any idea how close the collapse was. A couple of years before, the former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt had advised me tartly to quit asking whether Germany would ever be reunited. Not in his lifetime or mine, he said. When it came, we were all surprised we hadn't seen it coming. The Poles and Hungarians had been levering into chinks in the wall for years. The rulers of the Eastern Bloc were largely aged, ossified, inflexible and corrupt, and those who served them were all that plus scared. Their system was beyond repair. Along came Mikhail Gorbachev, the first Soviet leader born after the Russian revolution, who saw things as they were and was tired of pouring money into a clapped-out old car. He became a hero to young people in the East. Near the end of August, activists from East and West had celebrated a \"Pan European Picnic\" on the now-neutered border between Hungary and Austria. A few weeks later, the rush was on. CNN poured resources into the story. I was there, and will always be glad that I was. Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria. And finally, at the end of the year, poor tortured, abused Romania threw off the system in what I found the most emotionally charged days of the whole upheaval. But I was never satisfied with the way the West received it all. We had become used to instant gratification, and this was an example. The drama was over, the commercials came on, and world was supposed to live happily ever after. And it didn't. The whole experience made me realize that liberty is not a thing. It is a way of life. If you don't practice it, you don't have it. A couple of months later, three of us made a journey along the line to check on what was happening. We called it the Iron Curtain Odyssey. But that's another story...","highlights":"\"Iron Curtain\" dividing Europe felt permanent to those who grew up after WWII .\nFormer senior correspondent Richard Blystone covered momentous events of 1989 .\nBlystone: East-West divide was \"like a long, long overcast day\"\nSoviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev recognized system was \"clapped-out old car\"","id":"3c8ec77c67a4ee70521bd4205f9156dd2704769c"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Yue Minjun acknowledges that \"Execution,\" inspired by the bloody Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, is the most politically sensitive of his work. A section of Yue Minjun's \"Execution,\" which the artist shows how human conflict is worth laughing at . But while Tiananmen served as the catalyst, the oil painting should not be seen as depicting what happened at Tiananmen, the Beijing-based artist said this week through a translator in a phone interview. Billed by Sotheby's as \"among the most historically important paintings of the Chinese avant-garde ever to appear at auction,\" \"Execution\" had been tucked away from sight until now. Its owner bought it from a gallery in Hong Kong a decade ago under condition that the painting not be shown in public because of its subject matter, according to Sotheby's. On Friday, it went on auction in London, a highlight in a contemporary arts sale that also included Jean-Michel Basquiat's \"Untitled (Head),\" Mark Rothko's \"Untitled (Blue Divided by Blue)\", Andy Warhol's \"Jackie,\" Francis Bacon's \"Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne,\" and Damien Hirst's \"Adenosine.\" \"Execution\" would become the most expensive work of Chinese contemporary art at auction, selling for 2.9 million British pounds ($5.9 million). It eclipsed Yue's previous record, set in June when his \"The Pope\" sold for nearly 2.15 million British pounds ($4.37 million). The sale of \"Execution\" also comes on the same week another Yue piece, \"The Massacre at Chios,\" sold for nearly $4.1 million at a Sotheby's auction of contemporary Chinese art in Hong Kong. Stretching across \"Execution\" is a long red building, suggesting Tiananmen's gate outside the Forbidden City. Is the painting of Tiananmen? \"I want the audience not to think of one thing or one place or one event,\" he said from his Beijing home. \"The whole world's the background.\" The red building, he explains, is simply something that's familiar to him as a Chinese artist. \"As I said, the viewer should not link this painting to Tiananmen. But Tiananmen is the catalyst for conceiving of this painting.\" The background may make people think of Tiananmen because he is a Chinese artist. \"But it should not be,\" he said. Yue painted \"Execution\" in a month -- in 1995. However, \"it took me quite a long time for me to put the idea together.\" The big picture, he said, \"it's on the whole world's human conflict that is worth laughing about.\" Drawing references to Francisco de Goya's \"The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid\" and Edouard Manet's \"The Execution of the Emperor Maximilien of Mexico,\" the painting depicts a mock execution. Manet, it must be pointed out, modeled his painting after Goya's; and Yue's \"Execution\" mirrors both of those -- but with his trademark grinning clones, all likenesses of Yue himself. And the men in the position of being shot are shown in their underwear. \"People feel freedom, most themselves, at home in their underpants,\" Yue said. And whereas in Goya's painting, the man's hands are up in resistance, the men's hands in \"Execution\" are down. \"They are not fearing death,\" Yue said. \"The laughs illustrate my deep feelings,\" he said. The viewer will feel happiness but also fear toward the future and the unknown, a universal sentiment, he said. \"One might be very happy now but always unsure of what's going to happen next. \"I think Chinese and the world have similar feelings in this respect,\" he said. As for the main figures that dominate the right-half of the painting, they assume the position of holding the guns, but without the guns themselves. \"In my painting, they're pretending to hold guns, as if playing a game.\" The man on the far right, holding one hand to his chest and another by his waist, is a direct reference to the man on the far right-hand side of Manet's painting: In that, he is cocking a gun. Yue disagrees with the notion that his paintings are a veiled criticism of his government or of Chinese society, and he does not believe that this work will bring him trouble. \"I think the painting expresses my feelings. It's not a criticism,\" he said, describing himself as not having strong political leanings. \"I was trying to express my confusion over what I see.\" The world has similar problems, he said. Yue said he does not agree with being tagged a \"Cynical Realist,\" a term coined by leading art critic Li Xianting to describe China's post-Tiananmen generation of disillusioned artists. At the same time, he doesn't concern himself about what people call him, he said. That his painting has political undertones is inevitable, he said. \"I cannot recall any event that has shaped my political views, but politics is everywhere in Chinese life, like the meal you eat every day,\" he said. Of China, he said, \"I think it is full of hope, but there are a lot of difficulties, too. China has a long cultural history and also faces a lot of problems right now. Right now, people are not satisfied, but we can find our way out.\" Yue sold \"Execution\" to Hong Kong art dealer Manfred Schoeni shortly after painting it. \"It sold for about $5,000,\" Yue said. \"Probably not any cent would come back to me,\" he said of the millions his paintings now garner at auctions. Now 45, Yue said he learned about other artists through reading books after 1978, when China had begun to open itself up under new leader Deng Xiaoping's \"Open Door policy.\" The decade-long Cultural Revolution that had preceded made reading books an impossibility. And what is the meaning behind the cloned figures that bear his likeness in all his paintings? \"Because I want to be famous.\"","highlights":"NEW: \"Execution\" sold for $5.9 million, a record for contemporary Chinese art .\nYue: Tiananmen was catalyst for \"Execution,\" but painting does not depict it .\nThe big picture is, the world's human conflict is worth laughing at, Yue says .\nOwner tucked painting away from public view for a decade .","id":"bda5ab9fa624063f0c82f598f84126b453b62fc3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In these cash-strapped times, you might well wonder why governments around the world continue to pour millions of dollars in to their respective space programs. Space exploration has produced a host of medical benefits including the ingestible thermometer pill. But one of the very important by-products of space exploration has been the adaptation and invention of medical equipment and technologies which are making individual lives better and in many cases saving them. Most people are familiar with temper foam -- perhaps the most famous of NASA's many medical spinoffs -- which started life protecting astronauts' posteriors in the 1960s and is now used in a host of products from mattresses to athletic shoes. It is surprising to note how many aspects of space exploration have played a part in helping scientists improve the health of nations. Who would have thought that analysing fluid flow around a Space Shuttle engine would help create a tiny heart pump? Or that a water purification device for astronauts could help patients suffering from kidney disease. And that the humble hospital thermometer would be transformed by measuring infrared radiation in the stars and planets?","highlights":"Space exploration has provided us with numerous medical benefits .\nSpace Shuttle engines have influenced an ingenious heart pump .\nMeasuring infrared radiation of the planets has revolutionized the thermometer .\nNASA put the first men on the moon 40 years ago on July 20, 1969 .","id":"dae79c9aa6820b2045a1e38c0d72a889e35951b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An explosion that critically injured the chairman of the Arkansas Medical Board on Wednesday was caused by a bomb, police said. Dr. Trent Pierce was injured outside his home Wednesday, authorities and local media say. Dr. Trent Pierce was wounded when the car blew up in front of his West Memphis, Arkansas, home, authorities said. Earlier, police told CNN affiliate WREG that they did not believe foul play was involved. Pierce, a family practitioner who specializes in asthma, was flown to a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital in extremely critical condition, the station reported, citing police. The blast occurred at about 8 a.m. as Pierce got into the car, affiliate WMC-TV reported. Aerial footage from the scene showed the white SUV with its hood blown up and its front end extensively damaged. Medical board spokeswoman Peggy Cryer said the board heard Pierce was flown to the hospital but had no definite information beyond that. \"We do not know enough to give any kind of statement,\" she said. Callers to Pierce's office received an answering machine message saying the office is closed, but the call repeatedly disconnected during the recording, preventing messages from being left. Doris Davis, who works in an eye doctor's office next door, said Pierce's office staff is swamped trying to deal with patients who arrived for their appointments. FBI spokesman Jason Pack said agents were en route to the scene, along with personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The FBI is assisting local authorities in their investigation, he said. West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee, are separated by the Mississippi River. Pierce was described as a pillar of the community in West Memphis, a small town of about 30,000 people. Davis said Pierce is well-liked, active in his church and is married with two adult children. She said the FBI was at her office and interviewed her boss, Dr. Eddie Bryant. Bryant is a close friend of Pierce's and went to medical school with him, Davis said. CNN's Kathleen Shahriari contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police say bomb placed in doctor's car .\nDr. Trent Pierce described as pillar of community, well-liked .\nAerial footage shows Lexus SUV with its front end extensively damaged .","id":"e21d51a65b29dd4c3b351e101b4795c874ff943d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rafael Nadal ended the Paris Masters run of defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday to help fellow-Spaniard Fernando Verdasco book his spot at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Tsonga needed to retain his title to deny Verdasco a place at the prestigious eight-man tournament later this month, but found Nadal far too consistent and fell to a 7-5 7-5 quarterfinal defeat. The world number two struggled in his first two matches, saving five match points against Nicolas Almagro before edging out Tommy Robredo, but his form was much improved on Friday. Tsonga dominated much of the first set with his blistering groundstrokes but could not take advantage of five break points and gradually Nadal took the sting out of his opponent before breaking in the 11th game. The second set took on a similar pattern, although the errors were more frequent from the home favorite and Nadal again broke at 5-5 thanks to a poor game from Tsonga. The 23-year-old confidently served out for victory and will now face third seed Novak Djokovic in a superb semifinal showdown on Saturday. Djokovic was a 6-4 1-6 6-3 winner against Robin Soderling, who would needed to reach the final in Bercy to have a chance of reaching the London finals. The Swede dominated the second set and created 14 break points on his opponent's serve during the match, but took only three of them. Serb Djokovic admitted he was not at his best and was relieved to reach the last four after a fifth successive victory over Soderling. He told Sky Sports: \"I'm very pleased to go through, it was a big struggle for me. Mostly I was fighting myself. In the second set I was not moving well and I was letting him control the match but in the end I managed to hold the nerves and focus.\" Nadal and Djokovic have met 19 times, with the Spaniard holding a clear lead at 14-5. However, Djokovic won their last encounter in Cincinnati in August for the loss of only five games.","highlights":"Rafael Nadal beats holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach Paris Masters semifinals .\nNadal will now face Novak Djokovic who saw off Sweden's Robin Soderling .\nTsonga's defeat means Fernando Verdasco is assured a place in the ATP World Finals in London .","id":"6b41a85d65ffa9fa7c15125b0c1df4ec83eedf49"} -{"article":"Beijing, China (CNN) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted U.S. President Barack Obama in China's capital on Tuesday, with trade and the thorny issue of North Korea expected to be on their agenda. The U.S. delegation was met by an honor guard at the Great Hall of the People, and Obama shook hands with Hu and other top Chinese officials before the two leaders went behind closed doors. It is their fifth meeting in the past year, and they made no public statements beforehand but are to issue a joint statement after their talks. The United States imports billions of dollars in Chinese products each year, while China is a major purchaser of the U.S. Treasury bonds that finance America's budget deficit. Facing a global economic recession, Washington and Beijing are in \"a mutual hostage situation,\" former Bush administration China analyst Victor Cha said. \"China needs to purchase these Treasuries in order to maintain a strong dollar. Otherwise, the value of their foreign currency holdings goes down dramatically,\" Cha told CNN. \"We need China in order to finance a lot of the deficit spending we're doing now. It's very much intertwined in a way that two countries in the history of international relations have not been intertwined.\" China is also an important player in the diplomatic showdowns over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and holds one of five permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council. China is North Korea's closest ally and has played a key role in the six-party talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday found 71 percent of Americans consider China an economic threat to the United States, with two-thirds considering it a source of unfair competition for U.S. companies. The survey also found 51 percent of the U.S. public consider China a military threat, with 47 percent disagreeing. That 4-point margin is within the poll's 4.5 percent sampling error. But Obama told students at a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai that the two nations don't have to be at odds with each other. \"Our relationship has not been without disagreement and difficulty, but the notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined,\" Obama said. But he said there are certain core principles that all people must share -- including equal rights for everyone, a government that reflects the will of the people, open commerce, free access to information, and the rule of law. \"We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation,\" he told the gathering. The issue of human rights has often been a sticking point between Beijing and Washington. China regularly cracks down on its religious and ethnic minorities, keeps tight reins on the media and censors the Internet. Obama told the students that he is against censorship and is a believer in the free flow of information, calling it a \"source of strength\" in a democracy, despite the sting that sometimes comes with it. He told the students he welcomes a strong China, saying there are very few global challenges -- specifically referring to climate change -- that can't be solved if the United States and China work together. The town hall meeting was shown locally on Shanghai's Phoenix TV, but it was not broadcast nationally on any of China's state-run networks. The Xinhua news agency posted a translated running transcript of the event on its Web site. The United States also streamed the forum live on WhiteHouse.gov. Chinese censors did not block the event to those with Internet access. The final stop of Obama's trek is Seoul, where he will meet with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and deliver a speech to U.S. troops at Osan Air Base. Obama is on an eight-day journey that is taking him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. He'll return to the United States on Friday. The president left for China from Singapore, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and Association of Southeast Asian Nations economic forum. He met on the sidelines with world leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.","highlights":"NEW: Obama to hold formal talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing .\nNEW: New U.S. poll shows split on whether Chinese pose military threat .\nObama tells students free flow of info a source of strength, despite sting .\nUnited States imports billions of dollars in Chinese products each year .","id":"ca4b2471c4316df30f77ff12c9be596cb031289d"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The Pentagon is blocking public release of photos apparently depicting abuse of suspected terrorists and foreign troops in U.S. custody, and urging the Supreme Court to dismiss a lower court ruling ordering the photos to be publicly disclosed, according to court documents. Defense Secretary Robert Gates notified the high court late Friday that he was issuing an order to block the release. The photos have been at the center of a years-long lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Congress last month gave the Obama administration specific authority to prevent any release of the 44 photos. Afterward, Gates signed a certificate of authorization, or order, to prevent the photos' release, saying their disclosure would endanger U.S. troops serving abroad. The order covers all photographs taken of people captured or detained in overseas military operations between September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and January 22, 2009, shortly after President Obama took office. The Pentagon initially was set to release the images of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the ACLU. But Obama and the Justice Department objected to the court-ordered release, reversing an earlier executive decision. Obama had initially agreed to the release, but changed his mind after military leaders privately and intensely urged him to block it. The ACLU criticized the administration's about-face, saying it \"makes a mockery\" of Obama's campaign promise of greater transparency and accountability, and damages efforts to hold accountable those responsible for abusing prisoners. A homeland security appropriations bill passed October 29 by Congress and signed by the president grants the Department of Defense authority to withhold the photographs. The images were gathered as part of a military investigation into allegations that detainees held in Afghanistan and Iraq were tortured and physically abused. According to the government legal brief filed with the high court, several of the photos show \"soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees.\" Other images described by military reports show prisoners in restrained and humiliating positions. Military investigations led to criminal charges against some of the soldiers shown in the images. The photos currently at issue are separate from those first publicly released in 2006 showing abuse of Muslim men held at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September 2008 that the photos must be released. The president later said that doing so \"would pose an unacceptable risk of danger to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.\" Newest Justice Sonia Sotomayor had served on that appeals court until August, but was not involved in that particular case. The high court has delayed for weeks a decision on whether it would accept the ACLU appeal on the broader issues associated with government authority to block release of potentially embarrassing and inflammatory material by the military. The justices will now probably wait to hear from the ACLU over Gates' order before deciding whether to take the case. The Senate in May voted for the Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act, which would limit the reach of the Freedom of Information Act request in this instance. The House adopted a similar provision in October. Other photos could be released under the earlier appeals court ruling. The case is Department of Defense v. ACLU (09-160). Separately, the administration also urged the high court to dismiss a pending lawsuit by several Guantanamo Bay detainees, over their claims of torture and religious discrimination. A brief was filed by the Justice Department late Friday, the same time as the separate photograph disclosure case. Four British men, all Muslims and former detainees at the military prison at the Navy base in Cuba, had sued onetime Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon officials, saying they knew of and condoned physical abuse and denial of rights guaranteed under international law. A federal appeals court had dismissed the lawsuit -- the second one filed by the men -- saying the officials had immunity from such claims. But in June 2008, the Supreme Court allowed Guantanamo prisoners to challenge their captivity in federal court, and the justices in December urged the lower court to reconsider its decision against the British detainees. In the government filing, Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the high court to exercise caution in granting what she called \"new rights\" to detained foreign fighters suing for damages in a military setting. The high court, she noted, had previously told lower courts \"to pay particular heed to any special factors counseling hesitation before authorizing a new kind of federal litigation.\" The case is Rasul v. Myers (09-227).","highlights":"Documents show Pentagon urging Supreme Court to dismiss ruling ordering photos' release .\nDefense secretary says showing photos would endanger U.S. troops abroad .\nObama, Justice Department have objected to release, reversing executive decision .\nSeparately, administration wants Gitmo detainees' suit alleging torture, discrimination dismissed .","id":"8172862893884f67ee410fc35afc003cf1affafb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of Egyptians took part Monday in the funeral of Marwa Sherbini, an Egyptian woman who was stabbed to death last week in the German city of Dresden in a crime believed to be racially motivated. Egyptians take part in the funeral of Marwa Sherbini, who was murdered in Germany last week. Sherbini, 33, was stabbed to death Wednesday in a courtroom as she prepared to give testimony against a German man of Russian descent whom she had sued for insult and abuse. The man, identified in German media as Alex A., 28, was convicted of calling Sherbini, who wore a headscarf, \"terrorist,\" \"bitch\" and \"Islamist\" when she asked him him to leave a swing for her 3-year-old son Mustafa during an August 2008 visit to a children's park. He was fined and appealed the ruling. The two were in court Wednesday for that appeal when Alex A. attacked, pulling out a knife and stabbing Sherbini 18 times. He also stabbed her husband three times and attacked another person. According to Arab media, police officers tried to intervene to end the fight, and a number of shots were fired. One hit the husband, who fell unconscious and is currently in intensive care in the hospital of Dresden University. Sherbini was three months pregnant at the time of her death. Hundreds attended Sherbini's funeral in Alexandria, Egypt, her hometown, among them government officials, including Egyptian Manpower Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi and Telecommunications Minister Tariq Kamel, Egyptian media reported. Many shouted hostile slogans against Germany and called for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to take a firm stand on the incident. Egypt's grand mufti, Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, demanded the severest punishment to be issued against Alex A. Berlin witnessed angry protests on Saturday, when hundreds of Arabs and Muslims demonstrated after a funeral prayer that called her killing an outrageous racist murder against Muslims. In a phone call with Al Arabiya, Marwa's brother, Tariq Sherbini, said, \"Extremism has no religion. My sister was killed simply because she wore the veil. This incident clearly shows that extremism is not limited to one religion or another and it is not exclusively carried out by Muslims.\" \"We are only asking for a fair punishment,\" he said, adding that his sister was not a radical. \"She was a religious woman who prayed and wore her headscarf, but she was killed because of her belief.\" Anger about Sherbini's death smoldered online, as Twitterers and bloggers pushed the cause. \"She is a victim of hatred and racism,\" tweeted Ghada Essawy, among many other Arab twitters and bloggers. Essawy called Sherbini \"the martyr of the veil.\" Various videos circulated on YouTube calling on Egypt to take action and urging Germany to address what their makers saw as a new wave of hatred against Arabs and Muslims in its community. One video showed various pictures of a young happy Marwa saying that \"The woman stood up for her rights and she was killed. May God bless her.\" The English font in the video presentation asked \"when will Egypt cares for its citizens' rights inside Egypt and abroad.\" Sherbini and her husband moved to Dresden in 2003, after the husband received a grant to study genetic engineering in the renowned Max Planck Institute. He was scheduled to present his Ph.D. thesis in the coming days. CNN's Saad Abedine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sherbini killed in courtroom as she prepared to give testimony against man .\nThe man was convicted of calling Sherbini a \"terrorist,\" \"bitch\" and \"Islamist\"\nMany Egyptians shout hostile slogans against Germany during her funeral .","id":"63f60ddf050d9f97a492c601b2dd1a23072a01f9"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- We were scheduled to speak with Steve Martin just after his sound check for a concert in Los Angeles to benefit the city's public libraries. We pulled into the parking structure 45 minutes early when my cell phone rang. It was Martin's publicist. Steve Martin has been playing the banjo for decades. His new album is a collection of bluegrass tunes. \"Hey, where are you?\" she asked urgently. \"We're in the garage,\" I replied. \"Can you get up here quickly? He's ready.\" A musician ready early? There goes his street cred. Interviewing Martin can be like an awkward first date. Like many comedians, he's polite, but he sometimes struggles to make eye contact, gives monosyllabic answers and leaves the impression that he wants to be anywhere but talking to you. But when the subject is his new album, \"The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo,\" he's chatty, enthusiastic and engaged. On the CD, the comic\/actor\/novelist\/playwright\/musician shows off his picking skills as well as his ability to craft witty bluegrass songs with titles such as \"Hoedown at Alice's,\" \"Wally on the Run\" and \"Late for School.\" It's been his passion for 45 of his 63 years. This past weekend, the ultimate Hollywood hyphenate made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. \"The Crow\" has received more than respectable reviews, but that's not surprising, given Martin's uncanny ability to excel in whatever he does -- except maybe idle chitchat. The following is an edited version of the interview: . CNN: People know you as a versatile artist, but now it's about the banjo and your bluegrass album, \"The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.\" Steve Martin: I did a lot of things when I first started out. In order to be in show business, I juggled, I did magic tricks, cards tricks and I played the banjo. CNN: You've been playing it for 45 years, right? Martin: Yes, I have. It's a long time, and I remember when I was going through a particularly difficult time of learning, I'd go, \"Well, if I just stick with it, one day I'll be saying, 'I've been playing for 40 years.' \" CNN: Picking up the banjo might seem likely if you grew up in the Appalachians -- maybe Kentucky or somewhere down South. But you grew up in Garden Grove, California. This is the O.C. Martin: There was a lot of musical activity in Orange County in the 1960s. There were the Dillards, and Doc Watson would come by, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, all these different players. I also had this friend, John McEuen, in high school, and he played, and he actually produced this album now -- 45 years later. [McEuen is a founding member of country-bluegrass group, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.] . CNN: Isn't John the one who taught you how to do an \"Open D\" tuning on the banjo? Martin: Yes, he did. CNN: See, I read your CD liner notes. [Both laugh] There's a cute little story in there about taking a photo of the three things you love most -- your wife, your dog and the banjo. Martin: Well, we all love more things that that. I just happened to take a photo, and there was my wife, my dog and my banjo, all in the same shot -- and I thought, \"Oh, that's like a family portrait right there.\" CNN: Sounds like your next Christmas card to me. ... You're playing a benefit for the Los Angeles Public Library. Martin: As you can see, it's sold out [gestures to an empty room]. ... You know, it's also a little bit sneaky, because doing a benefit takes the pressure off having to be so great. This is the first time I've really played banjo live as a concert -- ever. I mean, I've played a song or two, but I've never done a dozen songs, so I hope people will be forgiving. CNN: Are you nervous at all? Martin: I'm a little nervous. CNN: Really? A little butterfly or two? I'm surprised. Martin: No butterflies, but it's very different playing music onstage if you're not used to it. I mean, doing comedy is one thing. I used to get nervous on that, but I was very practiced. I'm as practiced as I can be. I'm performing with the Steep Canyon Rangers, a group I met in North Carolina. They're a renowned bluegrass group -- young men who play and sing really, really well. I'm lucky to have them. CNN: You've won three Grammys and an Emmy. You do all kinds of things -- a modern-day Renaissance man. Martin: Well, in a strange way, I don't have a job, so I have a lot of time on my hands. When I do work, it might be very concentrated, and it might be months where you're not really doing anything except maybe playing the banjo or writing something. You know, there's a lot of time in the day if you're not working 9 to 5. CNN: Writing books, writing plays, doing comedy, writing music? Martin: It's been a long life. CNN: So have you decided whether you're going to embark on a full-fledged tour? Martin: I'm kind of seeing if -- you know, I haven't really performed for a long, long time -- 30 years live onstage. You know, I've done things like host the Oscars and things like that. But it's a little different. You have to get comfortable, you really have to know what you're doing, and it has to be almost boring to you to be able to do it well. You have to be so confident. I need to get some shows under my belt just to feel really good about it. CNN: They always say comedians are the least confident people in the entertainment industry. Do you feel like you're not confident? Martin: No, I feel confident, but I know what they mean because when you tell a joke, it might last six seconds, and then you have to tell another joke. But a song lasts three minutes, and then you have another song for three minutes and you've killed six minutes. In that time, a comedian does 360 jokes. Might not be the right math but anyway. CNN: When you guest-hosted \"Saturday Night Live\" in January, you performed one of the songs on your new album -- which you immediately made available on the Web. Martin: It was an exclusive release on Amazon because I knew I was doing \"SNL,\" and I wanted the record to be available, and the only way you could get it available that quickly was electronically. And now it's out on Rounder in a more normal release now. CNN: Are you a big iPod guy who downloads stuff constantly? Martin: I do, a lot. I find a lot of songs that way. I use the Internet a lot to find music. I always download it legally -- especially my own songs. [Laughs] I think it's very important to keep that honor among yourselves. CNN: Who do you find a lot of your fans are musically? Are they people who have followed your career from the early days of \"SNL\"? Martin: I honestly don't know. It's too new. I don't know if there are any fans. I know that the record sold really well on Amazon, but you know there's a bluegrass audience for bluegrass music, and there's probably an audience that wants to see, \"OK, let's see if this idiot can play.\" CNN: Can you? Martin: We'll see tonight. [Laughs] I do have a record out.","highlights":"Steve Martin's new album is not comedy but features bluegrass music .\nMartin is an accomplished banjo player, often used instrument as prop .\nMartin just made debut at Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee .","id":"8e596db6b60963ef715da3fa289e4ad495d047bb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A proposal to house federal prisoners, including some detainees from Guantanamo Bay, in a largely vacant maximum-security prison would be an economic boost to struggling northern Illinois, state officials said Sunday. \"This is something that is very good for our state, it's good for our economy, it's good for public safety,\" Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters. Officials from the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and the federal Bureau of Prisons will visit the Thomson Correctional Center on Monday, the officials said. Quinn's office on Saturday said the officials would see whether the \"virtually vacant, state-of-the-art facility\" in Thomson, about 150 miles west of Chicago, could be of use to the Bureau of Prisons. If it is, the governor and other officials said Sunday, it could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money to the area. And Dick Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, said he believes the proposal provides a \"once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\" for his state's residents. \"There are other states that want to take these jobs,\" Sen. Durbin said. \"We've got to win this competition.\" Under the proposal, he said, federal officials have said fewer than 100 detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba would be housed in the 1,600-bed facility. They would be in a wing under the control of the Department of Defense, while the Bureau of Prisons would assume responsibility for the rest of the facility. The United States is asking other countries to house some of the Guantanamo detainees when the prison is closed, said Durbin, the Senate majority whip. But those countries are asking why America is not housing some of the inmates itself, he said, and use of the Thomson facility would demonstrate to them that the United States is willing to shoulder some of the responsibility. An Obama administration official said Saturday that as part of the conversion at Thomson, the Bureau of Prisons and Defense Department would enhance security to exceed those of the nation's only supermax prison -- the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado. No person has ever escaped from the prison. The Thomson proposal, first reported Saturday by the Chicago Tribune, triggered immediate concern from critics. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, whose district covers suburban Chicago, circulated a letter addressed to President Obama to Illinois leaders Saturday, opposing the possible transfer of detainees and saying that housing them in Thomson would turn metropolitan Chicago into \"ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization.\" As home to Chicago's Willis (formerly Sears) Tower -- the nation's tallest building -- \"we should not invite al Qaeda to make Illinois its number one target,\" says Kirk, who is running for the same Senate seat once held by Obama. Durbin on Sunday pointed to the federal maximum-security prison in Marion, Illinois, which he said already houses 35 people convicted of terrorism, along with members of Colombian drug gangs and Mexican drug cartels -- \"some of the most dangerous people in America.\" \"They're all in our prisons, and they're all held safely,\" he said. And \"things haven't changed in Marion, Illinois.\" Those housed in the Marion penitentiary include Ali al-Marri, who is serving a sentence of eight years and four months after pleading guilty in federal court to conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda. The Thomson prison was built in 2001 and sat empty for five years because the state lacked the resources to open it. Despite being built as a maximum-security facility, it houses 144 minimum-security male inmates, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections Web site. \"After living in limbo for eight years, we're open to any and all alternatives for Thomson,\" said Jerry \"Duke\" Hebeler, Thomson village mayor. He estimated that the move would cut the county's unemployment in half. \"I'd never chase jobs if I thought it would jeopardize the security and safety of my neighbors and friends,\" Hebeler said. Quinn said that during the inspection Monday, \"We want to answer any and all questions that the federal authorities have.\" The Obama administration has vowed to close the Guantanamo facility, but acknowledges it is unlikely to happen by its self-imposed January 22, 2010, deadline. About 215 men are held there. They include alleged 9\/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who officials said Friday will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court. The federal prison system houses approximately 340 inmates linked to international terrorism, including more than 200 tied to international incidents, another Obama official said. CNN's Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Proposal calls for using maximum-security prison in struggling northern Illinois .\nOn Monday, federal officials to visit facility in Thomson, about 150 miles west of Chicago .\n\"It's good for our economy, it's good for public safety,\" Illinois governor says .\nBut Rep. Mark Kirk says plan could make Chicago \"ground zero\" for terror plots, recruitment .","id":"81b153aceb6b7945a78898aa3eec81611a0b4d5d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A suspect was arrested Wednesday night in connection with the death of Little Rock, Arkansas, television news anchor Anne Pressly, police said. Anne Pressly, 26, was a popular morning news anchor at KATV-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas. Curtis Lavell Vance, 28, was arrested at a Little Rock home soon after investigators named him as a suspect. CNN affiliate KATV-TV in Little Rock reported that police were tipped off to Vance's location after investigators publicly identified him as a suspect at a news conference. \"We went there and he's in custody,\" said Lt. Terry Hastings, a police spokesman. Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas did not say what led investigators to name Vance as a suspect, but he said it was \"a very, very solid case due to solid detective work.\" Pressly, 26, was found beaten at her home in October. The KATV anchor had been beaten around her face and upper body. She died days later in a hospital. She had been sedated and unable to speak to police or family members, and suffered massive brain swelling, her family said. Her condition had seemed to be improving shortly before her death. Police earlier said Pressly might have been the victim of a burglary because her purse was missing. Her credit card was used at a gas station sometime this week, police said. Pressly's left hand was broken, possibly as she tried to fight off her attacker. During the investigation, detectives combed the area around Pressly's home in the Heights neighborhood, a mix of bungalows and mansions near the Little Rock Country Club. A $30,000 reward, established by KATV, was offered to anyone providing information leading to the arrest of Pressly's attacker.","highlights":"NEW: Little Rock, Arkansas, police chief says he has \"solid case\" against suspect .\nCurtis Lavell Vance, 28, arrested late Wednesday in death of TV news anchor .\nKATV-TV anchor Anne Pressly was 26 .\nShe was severely beaten in her home, died days later at hospital .","id":"2b61633355bdd7b2d721946ddd58c7013ff2ef0f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A militia killed a ranger in a Democratic Republic of Congo park where authorities are trying to protect endangered gorillas threatened by civil war, the park said. Safari Kakule, a ranger at Virunga National Park, was killed Thursday in an attack by a militia, the park says. A Mai Mai militia attacked a ranger station in the Virunga National Park on Thursday night and killed ranger Safari Kakule, according to a news release from the park. Another ranger was wounded in the attack, and one of the rebels was captured, the statement said. The Mai Mai are community-based militias without specific political objectives, often involved in banditry and looting, the park statement said. \"It is not clear why the group attacked [the ranger station] but the attack went on for several hours during Thursday night and the rangers were heavily outnumbered,\" the statement said. Seven rangers were at the station when the attack happened, according to the statement. That area of the park is home to an isolated population of 18 endangered Eastern Lowland gorillas. The park also is home to about 200 of the world's estimated 700 mountain gorillas, the park has said. The Virunga park's Web site said 15 additional rangers have been sent to the park, where they will be \"strengthening the position, which we cannot abandon.\" \"Because of the arrest that the rangers were able to make, we have several leads on the perpetrators of the attack, who will be brought to justice,\" a statement on the Web site said. More than 100 rangers returned to the park's gorilla sector late last year after hundreds of rangers fled the area in 2007 because of fighting involving ethnic Tutsi rebels, the Congolese army and militias. Rangers and scientists were out of contact with the park's endangered gorillas for more than a year until rangers returned late last year, the park said.","highlights":"One ranger killed, another injured in attack by militia, park says .\nOne attacker captured; park says it doesn't know why rangers were attacked .\nPark in Democratic Republic of Congo is home to endangered gorillas .\nRangers are trying to protect gorillas threatened by civil war .","id":"991c343cc52b3e554e283d241c14ee412fd24d09"} -{"article":"(Wired) -- Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process. Seriously. Google has bought Gizmo5, an online phone company that is akin to Skype but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users. TechCrunch, which broke the news on Monday, reported that Google spent $30 million on the company. Google announced the Gizmo acquisition on Thursday afternoon Pacific Time. Gizmo5's founder Michael Robertson, a brash serial entrepreneur, will become an Adviser to Google Voice. It's a potent recipe -- take Gizmo5's open standards-based online calling system. Add to it the new ability to route calls on Google's massive network of cheap fiber. Toss in Google Voice's free phone number, which will ring your mobile phone, your home phone and your Gizmo5 client on your laptop. \u00ff\u00fe . Meanwhile you can use Gizmo5 to make ultracheap outgoing calls to domestic and international phone numbers, and free calls to Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo and AIM users. You could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on your smartphone. Then layer on deluxe phone services like free SMS, voicemail transcription, customized call routing, free conference calls and voicemails sent as recordings to your e-mail account, and you have a phone service that competes with Skype, landlines and the Internet telephone offerings from Vonage and cable companies. That's not just pie in-the-sky dreaming. Ask longtime VOIP watcher and consultant Andy Abramson, who introduced the idea of integrating Gizmo5 and Grand Central (now Google Voice), long before Google bought either. \"Google is now the the uncommon carrier,\" Abramson said, punning on the iconic 7-UP commercials and the phrase \"common carrier.\" That refers to phone companies that operate on the traditional publicly switched network -- a status that gives them benefits and obligations. \"If AT&T is Coca-Cola, Google is now 7-UP,\" Abramson added. \"All of a sudden you have something that offers more than Skype,\" Abramson said, saying the combo could now put Google in competition with phone and cable companies, IP \"telephony\" (VOIP) companies and Vonage. \"But now you can do everything with Google and pay nothing and have a platform where engineers can build new things.\" In fact, Gizmo5 offered a rogue version of that service for $6 a month until last week. On November 2, Gizmo5 abruptly canceled the two-month old \"residential service,\" which paired the free phone number available through Google Voice with Gizmo's Internet calling service to provide the equivalent of a home-phone replacement like Vonage. Now, that service has been wiped off the Internet and, more intriguingly, Google's cache of the page disappeared the day after the acquisition was reported. For $6 a month, Gizmo5 residential users got 300 minutes a month of outbound calling anywhere in the United States, unlimited incoming calls on their home computers or even home phones (using a broadband-to-phone network conversion box) and E911 service (which means 911 calls work like landlines calls do, once you register your home address). It's not too surprising that offer got taken down. For one Google is already trying to steer clear of U.S. regulators by making it clear that Google Voice isn't a replacement for a home phone since you have to have phone service from some other company to use it. You can forward calls from a Google Voice number to your Gizmo5 number, but you must have a mobile or landline number as well. Google doesn't say it, but clearly it hopes that restriction will keep the service from incurring the common carrier obligations attached to the regular phone system (PSTN), and the 911 and wiretapping requirements that apply to Internet telephony and to traditional copper wire phones. AT&T has already tried to sic federal regulators on Google Voice because Google is blocking outgoing calls to a handful of shady calling services mostly free conference-calling services that exploit federal rules that let rural phone companies charge high fees to connect calls to rural areas. AT&T itself has sued similar services that play this arbitrage game, and complaining to the feds may have only brought more attention to an issue the FCC has procrastinating fixing for too long. Gizmo5 will also help save Google money on phone-call termination fees as users start to use computer-based clients to connect to Google Voice. That would allow Google to recoup the purchase price of $30 million in little time, if only it saves even a few dollars per user per year. Google also gets Michael Robertson, a troublemaker with technical chops. Robertson made millions from MP3.com in the dot-com boom, despite drawing lawsuits from major record labels for creating innovative services. He was later sued by Microsoft for his startup Lindows, which made Linux installations for cheap PCs. And his current music venture, MP3tunes.com, is being sued by EMI. Though still in invite-only mode, Google Voice has about 580,000 active users and nearly 1.5 million registered users, according to a Google filing with the FCC. If you are interested in the combination, you might want to sign up for Gizmo5 before the acquisition is formally announced, since Google often freezes new registrations at companies it acquires until it figures out how to integrate the technology. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process.\nGoogle has bought Gizmo5, an online phone company that is akin to Skype .\nUsers could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on smartphones .\nConsultant: \"If AT&T is Coca-Cola, Google is now 7-UP\"","id":"4a19fbe8a9ade37e50be202ba93f6ea2970d5e13"} -{"article":"Lima, Peru (CNN) -- Peru will turn over to Chilean authorities all evidence into allegations that a Peruvian air force officer was spying for the neighboring country, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Monday. Garcia ordered his foreign minister and justice department to hand over all details of the investigation so Chile could \"give the corresponding explanations,\" he said in a televised address. The alleged spying by Chile, Garcia declared, was the result of fear and an inferiority complex by the Chileans. He added that Peru will not let the incident become a full-blown crisis between the two nations. The suspect, Victor Ariza Mendoza, remained imprisoned at a maximum security facility north of Lima, authorities said. Two other Peruvian air force officers, accused of being collaborators, also were detained, as were two Chilean military officers who were alleged accomplices, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported. Mendoza could face charges of treason, which carry a minimum sentence of 25 years. News of the spy case caused Garcia to prematurely end a trip to Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Garcia and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, had planned to attend a workshop Saturday with other world leaders, but the Peruvian leader canceled his agenda to return to Lima. Chile has dismissed the espionage allegations. \"Chile has nothing to do with this case,\" Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez told reporters after a meeting with his nation's ambassador to Peru. According to local media, the suspected spy once worked at the Peruvian Embassy in Chile and sold secrets to the Chileans since 2002, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported. Chile and Peru have a history of animosity, having fought in the War of the Pacific from 1879 to 1883. Hard feelings linger to this day. The two nations nearly came to war in 1975, when left-wing Peruvian leader Juan Velasco, who was backed by Cuba, wanted to invade Chile, which was led by right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The invasion was called off, and Velasco was deposed in a coup a short while later. Tensions rose again when Peru discovered a Chilean spy mission, but war was averted. More recently, tensions between the two South American nations flared in December after the revelation that Peru's top army general said at a party that Chileans in Peru would be sent back in coffins or body bags. Both countries said they would work to heal relations after the general's comments. Journalist Gisu Guerra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Peruvian president says Chile spied on neighbor because of inferiority complex .\nPeruvian officials ordered to turn over evidence of espionage to Chile .\nSpy suspect, Peruvian air force officer, remains in prison north of Lima .\nChile has dismissed allegations .","id":"77479840470ec11b07e0d3f6f0a09f515bf22ece"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two Pennsylvania teens will serve time in a county jail for participating in a brawl that left a Mexican immigrant dead last July. Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak's joint trial began in late April in Schuykill County, Pennsylvania. Brandon Piekarsky, 17, was sentenced to 6 to 23 months, and Derrick Donchak, 19, received 7 to 23 months for their roles in the beating death of 25-year-old Luis Ramirez. Judge William Baldwin ordered the two to report to Schuylkill County jail on July 19 to begin serving their sentences. An all-white jury convicted the two former high school football players of misdemeanor simple assault at trial last month and acquitted them of felony counts, including aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and hindering apprehension -- charges that carried lengthier sentences. In fashioning his sentence, Baldwin acknowledged the severity of the attack, which left Ramirez on life support for two days before he died, but said he could pass a sentence only in accordance with the jury's verdict. \"This wasn't any fight, this was a group of young athletes ganging up on one person. That's not a street fight,\" Baldwin said, referring to the defense team's characterization of the confrontation as a \"street fight.\" \"You picked out a guy who wasn't one of you and beat the pulp out of him,\" Baldwin said. The incident divided the small, rural mining town of Shenandoah into camps for and against the boys as it became a flashpoint for racial tensions across the country. After the verdict, Gov. Ed Rendell sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recommending that the Department of Justice pursue civil rights charges. \"The evidence suggests that Mr. Ramirez was targeted, beaten and killed because he was Mexican,\" Rendell said. \"Such lawlessness and violence hurts not only the victim of the attack but also our towns and communities that are torn apart by such bigotry and intolerance.\" During Wednesday's sentencing, Baldwin said he was surprised that Rendell had chosen to speak out on the case and told the court that his sentence was not affected by the governor's letter. Fred Fanelli, Piekarsky's lawyer, said he felt the sentence was harsh, given the circumstances. The judge could have sentenced the teens to probation under Pennsylvania's sentencing guidelines. \"I'm disappointed that the court exceeded the aggravated range and sentenced him to six months. Having said that, I'm glad we finally have some finality with this case,\" Fanelli told CNN affiliate WBRE after the sentencing. Baldwin heard from several teachers, coaches and family friends who testified that the teens were good kids who fell into a bad situation. They urged leniency so the teens could realize their potential as adults. Ramirez's longtime girlfriend and mother of two of his children read a statement in open court before an audience consisting mostly of the defendants' supporters. \"He was my one and only love, and they took him away from me, and they took my children's father,\" Crystal Dillman said. \"Now I have to live without my best friend and love of my life.\" The court also heard a prepared statement from Ramirez's mother, Elisa Zavala, who lives in Guanajuato, Mexico. \"I'm not the same person as before, now I feel a great emptiness within my heart,\" she wrote. \"There are moments in which I'm alone and I ask myself: What do I do now that I don't have my son? I feel that without him, I am no one.\" The judge also tacked on extra days to each boy's sentence for consuming alcohol earlier in the evening. For providing the alcohol to his friends before the fight, Donchak was also convicted of corrupting minors. Jurors found Piekarsky not guilty of third-degree murder. Prosecutors had said he delivered a fatal kick to Ramirez's head after Ramirez was knocked to the ground in the alcohol-fueled brawl, which occurred on a residential street in Shenandoah the evening of July 12. Prosecutors alleged that a group of teens, which included Piekarsky and Donchak, baited Ramirez into the initial confrontation after a night of drinking, hurling racial epithets at the undocumented Mexican immigrant. After the fight broke up, witnesses said Ramirez came back at the teens, who beat him so severely that, according to a medical testimony, brain tissue oozed out of his skull during surgery at a hospital. Jurors heard from several teens who witnessed the incident but did not participate, as well as one teen who pleaded guilty in juvenile court and another whose case is being handled in federal court. The testimony painted a picture of confusion, with several inconsistencies as to who did what. Defense lawyers argued that Ramirez's death was a street brawl gone wrong that was not motivated by racial bias. They also suggested that Ramirez was responsible for triggering the second confrontation. Advocacy groups condemned the verdict and sentences, and called on the Department of Justice to bring federal hate crime charges against the defendants. \"The meager sentences handed to the defendants today leaves justice gasping for further redress,\" said Gladys Limon, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Citing FBI statistics, Limon said that hate crimes against Latinos have risen 40 percent in the last five years and called on Congress to strengthen hate crime laws. \"The failure to hold these defendants responsible for their atrocious crimes denies justice not just to the Ramirez family, but also to the entire community by failing to deter similar crimes in the future,\" she said. Richard Cohen, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the case had troubling implications in the wider context of race relations nationwide. \"Since the year 2000, we've seen a 50 percent surge in the number of hate groups across the country, to a record 926 by our latest count,\" he said. \"The increase has been fueled by the same factor responsible for the rise in the anti-Latino hate crimes -- a backlash against the changing demographics of our country, a backlash fueled by politicians trolling for votes and pundits looking for ratings.\" CNN's Brian Rokus and Rose Arce contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Victim's girlfriend, mother speak out; groups condemn verdict, sentences .\nDerrick Donchak, 19, sentenced to 7 to 23 months for role in death of Luis Ramirez .\nBrandon Piekarsky, 17, gets 6 to 23 months for simple assault .\nDefense lawyers said assault was street brawl gone bad; no racial bias .","id":"7791e0ef973bbc026de0a80326cfd68dae2e3599"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Living Golf's resident pro Adam Scott shows the tricks of the trade that have helped him conquer some of the world's toughest courses. Whether it is acheiving a better drive, improving approach shots to the green or tackling testing bunkers, Scott has the tips to help your game. Improve your game by following the Living Golf lessons every month on CNN.com .","highlights":"Australia's Adam Scott tells Living Golf the tricks of the trade .\nImprove your game by following Scott's lessons each month .","id":"57ce630e55452eca2d5501a55f5ff1c51b7b0617"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The media has been abuzz since former Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair. Cubby Squires met John Edwards in 2007. He said news of the affair makes Edwards' political career \"nonexistent.\" Edwards told ABC News' \"Nightline\" on Friday that he had an affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter. The affair began in 2006 after Hunter was hired to make documentary videos for Edwards' presidential campaign. The scandal was a hot topic in the news, including among iReport contributors. \"I took it really personally,\" said Cubby Squires of Charlotte, North Carolina. \"I always thought John Edwards was different from the typical politician.\" Squires said there has been nonstop coverage of Edwards' affair in Charlotte. \"It just makes his political career nonexistent,\" he said. \"I really don't think he can get into politics again.\" Mike Daly of Santa Barbara, California, said he sympathizes with Edwards. Daly, who lost his wife to breast cancer six years ago, noted that Edwards had been facing a great deal: the loss of his child, a failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and wife Elizabeth's diagnosis with cancer. \"These are real hard hits and perhaps he's crumbling,\" Daly said. iReport.com: Read Daly's opinions . Many iReporters questioned why the Edwards scandal deserves so much media attention. Carroll Byrd of Richmond, Virginia, described it as a \"nonstory,\" adding that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain deserves the same level of scrutiny of his sexual relations. \"[Edwards] is not a candidate for office now,\" said Byrd, a supporter of the former senator from North Carolina. \"I think something that happened two years ago should be a private matter between him and his wife.\" Read below to see a sampling of responses from iReport.com users, some of which have been edited for length and clarity: . iReporter jd1rymal: Good grief. ... He has an affair. Terrible. The shame, the agony of it all. I'm not talking about his moment(s) of weakness, but the blood in the water that the media are feeding on as if they were sharks. Get over it! Shellyta: No, I am not surprised by a powerful man having an affair. At least twice a year we hear about one of those. What amazes me is how in the world someone thinks that they can get away with something like this without thinking about the consequences. kardolfin: It is disappointing to hear that Edwards had an affair, but it's not the end of the world. He isn't the first person to do it and I'm sure he won't be the last. It is just a big deal because he was in the presidential race and that it is obviously a negative thing. I am disappointed in Edwards, but I don't think he is a bad person and I don't think it will destroy him. captain1944: Obama is in Hawaii, McCain is, as usual, taking the weekend off, and the Olympics are on. The media needs something to fill up airtime. Now CNN, please, this does not really need to be a 24\/7 story. cgigante: I still believe in John Edwards' message. He was a true progressive candidate with a shot at winning, and it's a shame he'll now be sidelined over an indiscretion like this. Sure, it's no good that he was dishonest in his personal life, but I don't see how it has any bearing on his plans for economic equality and justice in the United States. JanaSagan: This affair in no way affects or concerns anyone other than the three adults involved. This should not even be in the news. We have no right to judge him or anyone else in matters of love. It is not a crime to fall out of love with one person and into love with another. Love is beyond our control. No one knows what causes love to begin or end. If we are trying to crucify him for this because of our moral Christian values, then we should also not cast stones on him or judge him. Leave him and his family alone so they can sort this out in peace and dignity. thebridge: From my perspective, John Edwards' affair does not diminish his capabilities or enhance his lack of capabilities as a leader or public representative or any other job other than being a husband. However wrong or immoral we may find cheating (and lying about cheating), the truth is that it does not necessarily reflect the other roles individuals have to fill. A great mother could also be a cheater or a great judge could lust after women 50 years his junior. That said, I think John Edwards is the same John Edwards -- politically -- that we knew before his affair hit the news.","highlights":"Former Sen. John Edwards admits to an extramarital affair .\nMany iReport contributors question why Edwards' affair is a big news story .\n\"We have no right to judge him or anyone else,\" one iReporter says .\niReport.com: What do you think? Share your verdict on Edwards' affair .","id":"873489ffc0479622c9ff8956dfea13e1e7acf05a"} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- '\"I had such a crush on him when I was a kid,\" says my friend Didi Linburn, pigtails peeking out from beneath her pink ski helmet rather than the wool pompom hat she wore as a kid. I peer into the tiny ski shop at the Alta Peruvian Lodge and catch a glimpse of a cute guy in glasses behind the counter. \"No idea how old he is,\" she says, \"but I've seen him here every winter since I was 15.\" Didi and Jeff Linburn on the slopes . Twenty-two years later, and Didi and her teenage crush are still here? I've yet to even take a run down the powder white slopes, but I already sense that Alta, Utah, just might be as special as everyone says it is -- including my self-proclaimed \"Altaholic\" husband. Tired of not getting an invite to his annual \"guys' trip,\" and admittedly jealous about the other love in his life, I decided to tag along on Didi's annual father-daughter jaunt. And finally experience for myself this almighty Alta -- with just seven lifts (and not much else) spread across 2,200 acres of heart-pumping hikes and narrow chutes, chest-deep powder, and total lack of pretension. Skis slung over our shoulders, we walk out the weathered wooden door of the lodge, taking in a deep breath of fresh -- albeit thin -- mountain air. I'm instantly happy to be here at 10,550 feet, on leased U.S. Forest Service land at the resolutely un-corporate resort, where faded one-pieces outnumber Bogner jackets, chairlifts seat at most four across, and five no-frills lodges, scattered up Little Cottonwood Canyon, sleep 1,200 skiers, tops. Skiers. Not shoppers. Not ski bunnies. Sunset.com: Plan your trip to Alta . And, above all, not snowboarders. As the mountain motto goes, Alta is for skiers. During my stay, I see it flaunted on banners, baseball caps, bumper stickers. Alta is, after all, one of just three resorts left in the country that ban boarders, since Taos Ski Valley opened its slopes to all in March. Geared up, Didi, her dad, and I creep along in a bar-less triple chair, surrounded by nothing save blue sky and the towering peaks of the Wasatch Range. \"Same as it was in the '60s,\" says Geoff Linburn, who first came to Alta from California in search of what he'd heard was the best snow in the West. Back then, lift tickets cost $8, and there were only five slowly moving chairlifts, but apart from building a couple more and raising ticket prices to a reasonable $64, Alta remains Alta. Didi's dad smiles. \"Still the best snow in the West.\" A whopping 500 inches annually of light-as-a-feather powder -- and I can't wait to try it. But that will take some effort. Without a convenient tram to Alta's best terrain, the limited number of skiers allowed uphill work for every turn with an almost perverse pleasure. As a typically lazy, play-it-safe sort of skier, I'm intimidated. Is this really worth it? We hop off the Sugarloaf chair and onto a big \"dump\" (a record-setting blessing of snow) and join the parade of people inching their way, single file, up, up, up, and gliding precariously, over, over, over, only to climb again. Is this really worth it? I think to myself, sweating in the snow. I contemplate taking off my skis, but then I look up. \"Aw, it's a bootpacker!\" one guy yells at another fellow who's stomping with his skis on his shoulders rather than suffering the steep sidestep with everyone else. I press on, inspired by the unspoken camaraderie on the traverse toward Devil's Castle -- a wide-open bowl and depository of powder -- and the shared anticipation among strangers bound by a passion for Alta's almost guaranteed fresh tracks. Still, exhausted -- okay, panting really -- I stop and watch as the hard-core hikers keep stomping; my heart is pounding. I look downhill at the almost untouched powder and decide I've had enough hiking. Who needs the untouched stuff? Time to ski. After a blissful day on the slopes, the return to the Peruvian lodge is a comedown. The guest rooms remind me of my college dorm. There are shared bathrooms and a Ping-Pong table but no TVs. Still, the Peruvian, like all of Alta's lodges, has a 75 percent return rate. Sunset.com: Top 10 ski resorts . I'm honestly baffled, but by the end of dinner -- a slippers-acceptable, family-style affair, where a wine collector wearing turquoise sweatpants shares rare bottles he brought from home and our table swaps stories like old friend -- I start to understand. But, unlike most of the longtime guests, who remain fiercely loyal to \"their\" lodge, never venturing steps away to check out another, I'm curious and leave Didi a few nights later for Alta's Rustler Lodge, where things are a tad more civilized (read: pricey). Now I have a television and my own bathroom, and reservations are taken for the window-walled dining room, where the next morning, I overhear a waiter bellow \"Welcome back!\" to guest Roger Urban, who has been staying here since his bachelor days. He and his wife -- looking very '80s (like the lodge) in their matching rainbow-striped rugbys -- fuel up at the breakfast buffet, while their teenage daughter, Alexandra, heads out for a lesson with the same instructor she's always had. Meanwhile, I finish my eggs alone and realize that I miss the chaos of the Peruvian's hostel-like atmosphere. I slip on my skis and hop the rope tow to meet Didi for another day on the slopes. Alta never changes . From the chatter around the lift line, it's clear that it's not just the powder that draws people to Alta -- it's also the people themselves. Old college buddies, moms and sons, widows who used to come with their husbands ... everyone returns without question. Likewise, all the locals I meet say they'd intended to come out for a season and do the ski-bum thing. But before they knew it, 10, 20, 30 years had passed -- and they're still here. \"Alta just swallows you up,\" says Craig Dillon, Didi's ski shop crush, who, it turns out, is 41 and has lived here half his life. And so, because people never leave Alta, it's only natural that they grow old here. Not in the typical, canasta-by-the-pool way of growing old. Rather, Alta is like a real-life \"Cocoon,\" where the mountain is the fountain of youth. Senior passes start at age 80. Didi and I return to the Sugarloaf chair and ride up with an 86-year-old couple. \"Skiing is only getting easier!\" the husband says, beaming. \"Free tickets!\" says his wife. Inspired, I make a mental note to be just like them in 50 years. As we climb, once again, toward Devil's Castle, a father whizzes by with a tiny skier bouncing on his shoulders. \"Daddy? Are we at Devil's Castle yet?\" He hikes as far as possible, plops his daughter in knee-deep powder, and off she goes: a 4-year-old making fresh tracks. I watch, dumbfounded. And determined. I decide to hike out as far as I can. I want those fresh tracks, and this time I'm willing to work for them. Heart racing, legs aching, I reach the end of the ridge. I rest for a moment and then dip in. Flying solo through feet of untouched powder, carving near-perfect turns, snow spraying like the pros, I realize that I'm floating. This is it. This is why I've come to Alta. Sunset.com: Top 10 hotels for nature lovers . Later that evening, lounging around the Peruvian lobby after dinner -- with Scrabble, impromptu sing-alongs, nothing to face tomorrow but more fresh snow -- I get the feeling I'm continuing a tradition at risk of being lost forever to the fast-paced, froufrou world beyond Little Cottonwood Canyon. \"Everything changes in your life ... so much,\" reflects Leslie Johnson, who's been coming here every winter since 1982. \"Friends move on ... my family's homes have come and gone ... but Alta, Alta never changes.\" I get it. I'm hooked. Another Altaholic is born. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2009 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Alta is spread across 2,200 acres of heart-pumping hikes and narrow chutes .\nThe resort is one of just three in the country that ban snow boarders .\nGuests at the resolutely un-corporate resort stay in five no-frills lodges .","id":"63ba648eb30a301f1cf9045f80a3ab2aa21eb07b"} -{"article":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- An elementary school teacher was arrested for punching an 8-year-old student in the face this month, Fort Lauderdale police said Tuesday. David Adam Grant is accused of striking an 8-year-old student at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, school. David Adam Grant, 36, an art teacher at Sunland Elementary School, turned himself in to police Tuesday in connection with the November 5 incident, authorities said in a written statement. Police responded to a report of battery at the school, and \"preliminary investigations revealed that an 8-year-old student ... had been battered.\" Authorities allege that Grant \"hit the 8-year-old student around his left eye with a loosely closed fist, causing a bruise over his right eye,\" according to the police statement. Grant surrendered to police after detectives contacted him, the statement said. He faces child abuse charges. The incident remains under investigation, authorities said. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fort Lauderdale art teacher said to strike 8-year-old in the face .\nMan turned himself in to police Tuesday .\nSunland Elementary teacher faces child abuse charges, police say .","id":"78369580451f780dfc8543dd9bd842691ddaed92"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- When US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River and all of its 150 passengers and five crew members were safely rescued in January, the landing of the airplane by pilot Chesley Sullenberger was quickly proclaimed the \"Miracle on the Hudson\" and dominated national news for days. A pilot who virtually grew up in airplane cockpits, writer William Langewiesche set out to analyze what happened in the five-minute flight of US Airways 1549, which lost power in both engines when it collided with a flock of Canada geese. His conclusion after writing a new book \"Fly by Wire\" -- there was no miracle. \"I'm sure Mr. Sullenberger himself wouldn't have used that word,\" Langewiesche said in an interview with CNN. \"There was no miracle. There was extremely skillful flying going on and skillful engineering in the background. You can include the flight attendants and the passengers. ... There was a lot of altruism, kind of a bravery, soberness. They were not hysterical, and there was no stampeding. \"Many good things happened, but they all related to the individual strength of the people involved. That includes [Bernard] Ziegler [the designer of the aircraft], Sullenberger, [co-pilot Jeffrey] Skiles and Patrick Harten, the air traffic controller -- he was as good as it gets, offering alternatives, the backing off of alternatives, staying cool.\" Langewiesche, international editor for Vanity Fair and author of six other books, was drawn to the story because it allowed him to use it as a window to tell the tale of the aircraft, the Airbus A320, a controversial plane built with digital controls that rein in pilots who exceed safe flying limits. \"Within the limits of physics and structural science,\" Langewiesche writes, \"Ziegler and his colleagues identified the wrinkles of conventional handling and mostly ironed them out. The result in the A320 is the product of a genius -- an airplane that is ... exquisitely wrought, a delight to handle, and extraordinarily easy to fly.\" It also allowed Langewiesche to describe the economic squeeze that has affected pilots as airlines have come under tremendous pressure to lower fares and reduce costs. Just one example described in the book -- Sullenberger had seen his salary cut 40 percent and his retirement pension destroyed through airline bankruptcies and cutbacks. Sullenberger, for his part, has been critical of Langewiesche's book, saying it makes too much of the aircraft's automation. In an interview with The New York Times, Sullenberger said, \"There are some situations where the automation will protect a pilot, but at the same time a highly automated airplane makes possible other types of errors, so it's a mixed blessing. And greater knowledge is required to fly a highly automated aircraft.\" CNN spoke with Langewiesche this week. CNN: What got you interested in the story? William Langewiesche: I realized that because this airplane is the A320, which is a revolutionary plane, not just any airplane, the story of the A320 is in many ways the story of the modern airline industry of the last 20, 30 or 40 years. CNN: How did you become a pilot? Langewiesche: My father was a well-known aviator and writer. I got my first flying job when I was 18; I worked my way through college flying airplanes. My father was a German immigrant, an anti-Nazi who came here before the beginning of the war ... who became a test pilot for the U.S. Navy. CNN: What's it like to fly an A320? Langewiesche: It all relates to flight control characteristics and how the stick feels in your hand. ... The attitude or the pitch of the airplane stays where you put it, it's an airplane that responds in an extremely docile manner to the control stick when it's flown by hand. ... The airplane was very controversial in the early 1980s, especially in France. The unions really resented it; it was because of flight envelope protections that kick in when the plane goes where a normal airline pilot will never go. ... The airplane will take over, and it will override the pilot, and philosophically that's a really provocative thing to do. CNN: Did the flight envelope protection kick in during the landing in the Hudson? Langewiesche: It was sort of a normal flight until the challenge of the flare itself, when the nose rises just before touchdown, that was a different flare for various reasons. For one thing it was done with no power, no thrust. ... Also the landing gear was up. So at the very end in the flare, in the last two seconds or three seconds, it went into alpha protection, it got into the protection zone. The airplane lowered its own nose. It happened so late in the flare that my gut feeling is that it was kind of irrelevant, that the inertia of the airplane was going to dominate the landing and so it probably doesn't matter. CNN: Sullenberger's flying ability was widely praised. Was that justified? Langewiesche: Of course, it's justified. The thing that was most important about it was the concentration he brought -- the intense concentration on what was important. Other people could have been distracted. It didn't happen in this case. He was intensely focused on making the right decision. CNN: What was the most important decision he made? Langewiesche: The decision he made to go into the water as opposed to trying to return to LaGuardia [Airport]. While in most simulations conducted after the fact, pilots were able to get back to the airport safely, he made the right decision. In the real world, that would have been an unacceptable crapshoot. Obviously, calling it a miracle is silly. In a way to use the word miracle is to insult what they did -- skilled flying in an extremely competent airplane. CNN: Why was the A320 so controversial? Langewiesche: The role of the pilot had been downsized. And with deregulation, the salary of the pilot had been downsized. So when this technology came in it was kind of coming in in that context. That's why the French saw it as such an attack on their professional future. There had also been a global shift in the industry to two-pilot crews. The flight engineer position had been eliminated through automation. The emotions that this airplane produced still linger. No one's going to be flying pilotless airliners anytime soon. It's technically possible, and the U.S. flies drones in Afghanistan ... but obviously that's not the future of airlines in a dense traffic world with the public aboard. CNN: Is automation the reason for the downsizing of pilots? Langewiesche: We're not looking at technology as the reason for the decline of pilots. It's because of deregulation. The public demands cheap tickets. There was a time, a glorious interval, when airline pilots were paid a lot of money and there was still prestige associated with the job ... but after deregulation everything changed. CNN: How important is the pilot to safety? Langewiesche: Pilots, of course, are central. Without the pilot, forget about it. The aircraft's not going to land itself on the Hudson River. In day-to-day operations the pilot is central to flight safety -- the relationship between that and salary is a whole different question. CNN: Should people be concerned about the effect of the lower salaries? Langewiesche: If you look at new pilots coming in now, these guys are as competent as the older guys, and they're being paid a lot less money. The standard correlation between how much you're paid and how good you are, I would question that. CNN: The book quotes a National Transportation Study Board study of the most lethal 50 percent of U.S. airline accidents from 1983 through 2000. It found that 86 percent of the occupants survived. Wouldn't most people find that surprising? Langewiesche: The problem is that the accidents that get the most attention are the ones that kill the most people -- with this one being an exception. CNN: What advice do you have for maximizing your chances of survival? Langewiesche: This thing we hear so repetitively -- it's actually the safety briefing on a plane, which is probably a pretty good guide to it. Where are the exits, how do the life rafts work; it's probably all a passenger needs to know. And by the way, airline accidents are very, very rare. Let's face it, airlines are extremely safe, specifically because of the contributions of the people involved in this success story -- the pilots, the engineers, the flight controllers, the flight attendants. These are the agents of the public's safety at work. CNN: Sullenberger has criticized your book, saying it places too much emphasis on the plane's automated systems. Langewiesche: There's no quarrel at all. The book elevates legitimately and correctly what Mr. Sullenberger and Mr. Skiles did as pilots. ... Without those two pilots in the cockpit, doing the job they did, people would not have survived. Clearly, they were flying a fly-by-wire airplane, and that's part of the story. I never imply that, had they been flying a 737, things would have been worse. That would be highly speculative and silly. I'm writing about what did happen. There's no argument here from my side.","highlights":"The safe landing of Flight 1549 was hailed as the \"Miracle on the Hudson\"\nAuthor William Langewiesche says there was no miracle .\nAuthor says the skill of the crew, engineering of the plane made a difference .\nLangewiesche: Airbus A320 is controversial, especially with French pilots .","id":"11211aeb7c8f3d7a50c960bc6d148c1f168028be"} -{"article":"SHENZHEN, China (CNN) -- The white BMW Mr. Liu drives around this humid coastal city in southern China may be real, but the spiffy little black smart phone he carries with him is definitely fake. Phone clones: China's \"bandit\" mobile phone market is huge. \"But it has Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, FM radio, a digital video camera, hundreds of games, even a voice recorder,\" says Liu. \"And I invested over $500,000 to make it.\" Liu, a 31-year-old who studied fine arts in college and designs cigarette cartons on the side, is one of countless thousands here who've earned big bucks manufacturing \"gray market\" mobile phones, millions of which are not only being sold across China but also exported to dozens of developing countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and other regions around the world. \"They are everywhere,\" said Karl Weaver, a wireless evangelist and mobile device specialist for the Chinese handset ecosystem. \"You can find them in major department stores and malls, in back alleys and in underground markets. Everyone is selling them. It is really very entrepreneurial.\" In 2008, an estimated 150 million, or 20 percent, of the 750 million handsets produced in China were either counterfeit or off-brand phones, according to CCID Consulting, a market research firm based in Beijing. Of those, over 51 million were sold in China while the remainder were sent to foreign markets. Known here as \"shanzhai ji\", or bandit phones, China's gray market handset industry was virtually non-existent just a few years ago. While a handful of illegal companies produced black market mobiles, they often were of poor quality mainly because the technology needed to make them was hard to come by and even harder to master. This all changed in 2005 when Mediatek, a microchip design company from Taiwan, developed what experts call a turnkey solution -- a platform that integrated many complex mobile phone software systems onto a single chip. This made it much easier and cheaper to build handsets and churn out new models at astounding speeds. \"[Mediatek] basically commoditized the entire market,\" said Jonathan Li, founder of Shanghai-based technology design studio Asentio Design. \"They made it really simple and really cheap to make your own phone. Almost anybody could do it.\" The shanzhai business got another boost a couple of years later when the Chinese government relaxed regulations limiting the number of companies that could manufacture handsets, lowering the entry barrier for hundreds of entrepreneurs eager to have a piece of the world's biggest mobile phone market. \"It is so easy to do because this whole ecosystem is in China,\" said Weaver. \"It isn't so complex for a guy to figure out by watching how the global supply chain works in the mobile handset space to do his own thing.\" Small operations, big rewards . By 2008, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 shanzhai businesses had emerged, many with fewer than a dozen employees operating in offices sometimes comprised only of a back bedroom in a small apartment or basement of a private home. Some blatantly copy major brands, producing knock-offs with slight twists in their names, others come up with special makes of their own. Either way, the shanzhai phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by legitimate handset manufacturers. The gray market phones, which typically sell for around $100, have already driven down the prices of brand name mobiles and are beginning to take away their market share, too. \"You cannot compete with them. You can't,\" said an employee of Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies who spoke on the condition of anonymity. \"It is almost impossible to make a profit [from handsets] now because of shanzhai.\" Some manufacturers, like Nokia, say they are working with the Chinese government to crackdown on the counterfeiting companies as well as raise awareness about the potential dangers of the fake phones, some of which have had exploding batteries or expose consumers to abnormal amounts of radiation. \"We have a very good working relationship with the Chinese authorities,\" Lucy Nichols, Nokia's global director of intellectual property rights and brand protection, told CNN. \"They recognize this is an issue that needs to be addressed.\" Aside from also trying to highlight the risks of using shanzhai mobile phones, Beijing has yet to take serious steps to curtail the proliferation of the underground mobile phone industry. Some experts say this is because the companies involved in it blur the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. Even though they may still partake in shady practices, such as evading taxes, avoiding safety checks and using pirated software, a growing number of bandit phone firms are becoming licensed, creating brands with nearly as much recognition as established domestic ones. And whether licensed or not, nearly all the grey market firms place orders with mobile phone component companies that work with major manufacturers as well, which keeps factories up and running especially as handset sales plummet amidst the economic downturn. Not just faking it . Many shanzhai companies have begun to move beyond mere copying and into the realm of creativity. Some have been developed to suit the needs of the local market, with two slots for SIM cards for businesspeople traveling between Taiwan, Hong Kong and the mainland. View the gallery of the phones \u00bb . Some have gimmicky appearances, like cigarettes boxes or watches, but others have special lights that can be used to identify fake money, large screens and keypads for the elderly or extra loud speakers for farmers who may not be able to hear their phones while working outside. \"This is an important way to cultivate grassroots innovation,\" said Jack Linchuan Qiu, a communications professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong who has studied the shanzhai industry. \"There is a lot of raw power in the development of these bandit phones that could be channeled into normal, productive creativity from the bottom up.\" Fierce competition among bandit phone firms continues to drive prices down while prices for more advanced technology continues to go up, causing many of the companies to close simply because they can't make the margins they did a couple of years ago. Thousands of shanzhai companies have disappeared in recent months or have moved into new areas of opportunity, making shanzhai laptops and digital cameras. Mr. Liu is now planning his exit strategy, too. He says he is not sure what he'll do next, but whatever it is, he hopes it will involve making lots of money. \"I am trying to realize a big dream,\" he said. \"But every success has a shortcut.\"","highlights":"One fifth of 750 million mobile phones produced in China thought to be 'fake'\nNew microchip allowed phones to be made cheaper, better and develop new models .\nBig name manufacturers working with Chinese gov. to crack down on counterfeiting .\nDespite legal gray area, growing number of bandit phone firms are becoming legit .","id":"5a2be0b97b4814a447be7102982e53ed3843fa01"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- November 12, 2009 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . \u2022 Brazil \u2022 Pakistan \u2022 Macon, Georgia . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. SUMAYA AHSAN, PAKISTANI STUDENT: He's like a legend to us because he saved our lives, our friends' lives. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We've got that incredible story coming up in just a minute. I'm Carl Azuz. CNN Student News starts right now! First Up: Executive Agenda . AZUZ: First up, a look at President Obama's executive agenda. Today, he's taking off for Asia, making a nine-day trip to the region to meet with world leaders and to take part in an economic conference. Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. All of them are stopping points along the way. The president plans to talk about the importance of the U.S. and Asian countries working together on things like economic growth, climate change and the war in Afghanistan. That last subject, the war, is something he discussed with his war council yesterday. It was the latest in a series of meetings to review the U.S. approach to the conflict in Afghanistan. President Obama is said to be considering four options, some of which may include sending additional troops to the country. That's something that military leaders have requested and some Republican lawmakers have urged the president to do. In a recent CNN poll, 56 percent of people were against sending more troops, while 42 percent were in favor of it. Earlier in the day, President Obama took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Just one of the Veterans Day events held around the country. He and first lady Michelle Obama walked through the cemetery's Section 60, where service members from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been laid to rest. During a speech yesterday, the president said \"to all who served in every battle in every war, it's never too late to say thank you.\" Is this Legit? RICK VINCENT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this legit? Brazil is the biggest country in South America. Legit! In fact, Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world, and it's home to nearly 200 million people. Blackout in Brazil . AZUZ: About 60 million of those people were left in the dark Tuesday night by a massive power outage. Officials say it affected 18 of Brazil's 26 states, including some of the country's largest cities. There's some uncertainty about what actually caused the power outage, but it's been linked to a hydroelectric dam. The power was back on in most areas by Wednesday morning. Unsung Hero . AZUZ: Pakistan is a country that's seen a lot of violence this year. Three weeks ago, suicide attacks at a university claimed seven lives. One of them was a janitor who had only started working at the school a week earlier. But his reported actions on that day have many people in Pakistan calling him a hero. Ivan Watson shares his story. (BEGIN VIDEO) IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, ISLAMABAD: 70-year-old Kurshaid Siddique makes this walk every day, clutching a photo of her son. Pervaiz Mahsi was killed on October 20th when a suicide bomber attacked the university cafeteria where he worked. Pervaiz was a janitor. He barely earned enough money to feed his family. Now, some people are calling him a hero. SUMAYA AHSAN, STUDENT: Now, he's like a legend to us because he saved our lives, our friends' lives. WATSON: 20-year-old Sumaya Ahsan and her classmates are also in mourning. The suicide bomber killed three of their friends in the women's cafeteria of Islamabad's International Islamic University. But if it wasn't for the janitor named Pervaiz, they say many more of their classmates could have been killed. AFSHEEN ZAFAR, STUDENT: If he couldn't stop that suicide attacker, there could have been great, great destruction. WATSON: On October 20th, a suicide bomber disguised in women's clothes shot and wounded the guard on duty and then approached this cafeteria, which was packed full of hundreds of female students. The caf\u00e9 where this deadly attack took place is back open. This is the doorway where, by some accounts, Pervaiz Mahsi helped stop the suicide bomber from coming in and doing more damage. The explosion instantly killed Pervaiz. Who knows how many young women would have died if the bomber had gotten got into this room? Pervaiz's family lives here, in a house crowded with three other families. The family of eight people lives in this single room, sleeping on three beds. You all are Christians? MAHSI'S SISTER: Yeah . WATSON: They are members of Pakistan's Christian minority, one of the poorest communities in Pakistan. They had to borrow money for Pervaiz's coffiin, and now they're behind on the rent. Pervaiz's mother is inconsolable. From what we've heard, your son really helped save a lot of people and he's a hero. KURSHAID SIDDIQUE, MOTHER OF PERVAIZ MAHSI [TRANSLATED]: \"But my hero is dead now,\" she says. WATSON: The illiterate Christian man who saved the lives of so many Muslim girls is buried here, just a few feet from a muddy road in a garbage-strewn grave. The government of Pakistan is calling him a national hero. Ivan Watson, CNN, Islamabad. (END VIDEO) Word to the Wise . TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise... segregation (noun) the separation of people or groups, especially by race . source: www.dictionary.com . Together at Last . AZUZ: Segregation was a policy that was practiced in many schools across America before a Supreme Court ruling declared it unconstitutional. In Macon, Georgia, many students from the class of 1959 recently attended their 50th reunion. And they decided that while their schools were segregated then, they wanted to come together now. Brooke Baldwin takes us there. (BEGIN VIDEO) BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are the nametags, the nerves, the hugs of recognition. But a typical 50th high school reunion this is not. Instead, this luncheon marks the first time Macon, Georgia's classes of 1959 have sat side by side ever. BETTY WEBB-HAYES, 1959 GRADUATE, BALLARD-HUDSON HIGH SCHOOL: I grew up in a town for 50 years with all those people around and never knew who they were. BALDWIN: Betty Webb-Hayes knows. In 1959, the southern city's three public high schools -- Ballard-Hudson, Lanier and Miller -- were segregated. In the 1950s, Jim Crow laws ruled, and separate was supposedly equal. But as a Ballard Hudson alumna, as a young child, she says segregation was simply a way of life. WEBB-HAYES: We didn't find out that we were being discriminated against until we were in high school, until that high school teacher told us that we were living in a segregated society. We didn't know it. BALDWIN: Fifty years later, Lanier alumnus Tom Johnson, former CNN president and publisher of the \"L.A. Times,\" had an idea to close the five-decade gap. In a letter to Macon's three classes of 1959, Johnson wrote, \"It was a different world then. We were divided by policies, politics, and tradition. It is a different world today. We no longer are separated except by personal choice.\" That letter and several months of planning later, 210 members of the class of 1959 sat together at last. RUBY DEAN DUPREE, 1959 GRADUATE, BALLARD-HUDSON HIGH SCHOOL: Well, the old saying is better late than never. I could not sleep last night. So, it just means the world to me. It was just like waiting for Santa Claus to come. LINDA CARSTOFFEN GUGEN, 1959 GRADUATE, A.L. MILLER HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS: I realized how much we actually missed, people that we could have known. BALDWIN: For this former class president, the gathering of old and new friends brings tears to her eyes, not just because of the symbolism, but for the empty seats, classmates whose attitudes on race 50 years later haven't changed. GUGEN: There are some people that still feel resistant to the idea and think that what we're pushing for is not a good thing. And I think we have to focus on the ones that were here today. I think those people went away with a changed heart. BALDWIN: It may have taken those people 50 years to come together. Unlike these old-fashioned photos, their story is no longer told in black and white. Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Macon, Georgia. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: CNN Student News has made an online upgrade! To check it out, go to the U.S. page on CNN.com, scroll down, and click on \"Student News.\" Or you can enter \"CNNStudentNews.com\" into your browser. Our redesigned site has all of the free materials you love: Daily Discussion questions, downloadable maps, our blog. Log on and check out our new look today! Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, some reputations are hard to keep. But Joey Chestnut -- the guy in the middle -- is up for the task. He's one of the world's top-ranked competitive eaters, and he showed off his skills, if that's what you want to call it, at this meatball eating contest. Chestnut gobbled up 50 meatballs in just 10 minutes, setting a world record along the way. The guy who came in second finished one meatball behind. Goodbye . AZUZ: A close loss like that has to be a punch to the gut. You guys have a great day. CNN Student News will see you tomorrow to close out the week.","highlights":"Find out some topics that President Obama plans to address on a trip to Asia .\nHear the story of a late Pakistani janitor who is being hailed as a hero .\nVisit a class reunion that brought former students together for the first time .\nUse the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .","id":"d5abefb5bb35c6209db5993f33f1d40706a4fd10"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Are you one of the seemingly few Americans in the market for a car? There are more of you out there than you might think. Clark Howard: Before jumping at all the new car deals, think about the bigger picture of car ownership costs. CNW Marketing Research, a respected automotive marketing research firm, reports that 4 million used cars were purchased in the United States during the month of May alone. That's amazing when you consider that the market for new cars is 9 million in the United States over the course of an entire 12 months. Yet don't overlook the new car as a potential purchase just yet. New data from Comerica Bank's Auto Affordability Index shows that new cars are now the most affordable they've been since records started being kept in 1979. In fact, the average new car is now $1,700 cheaper than it was during the last quarter of 2008. And we've got more price cuts coming because of oversupply. As you probably know, I'm a used car guy, the self-proclaimed champion of driving a car until the wheels fall off. So I can't believe the advice that I am about to give ... but it's now possible to get a better deal on a brand new car than on a relatively new used car. Watch Clark Howard talk to a woman who learned what not to do when buying a used car \u00bb . It's really just a classic case of supply and demand. The used car market is up about 23 percent, and new car sales are down 34 percent, according to CNW. More new cars on dealer lots mean more deals for you. But realize this: It's just a temporary phenomenon. Do not take this blip on the radar as gospel for the future; in most instances, a used car will almost always be a better buy. Just not right now. When buying a new vehicle, you want to start by arranging your financing first. Go to your bank or credit union and prequalify for a car loan or apply online. This will tell you how much car you can afford and what type of monthly payment you will have to budget. Next, you want to get a price for the car you have in mind. In the past, I've talked about using CarsDirect.com to get a guaranteed quote. A car dealer then can do his or her best to beat that online quote and win your business. In some cases, the price from CarsDirect.com winds up being the best a consumer can get. But now there's a new kid on the block known as Zag.com. This service gives buyers instant guaranteed upfront prices from a network of certified dealers. It also offers an easy delivery process that helps you avoid \"the grind\" at a dealership. Do you know what \"the grind\" is? That's when you're at a dealer lot, and the sales representative says he or she will go talk to the manager about getting you the best deal. Instead they go watch TV for five minutes, and then come back and tell you that the manager couldn't help out with a good price -- despite their best efforts on your behalf. That's why sites such as Zag and CarsDirect are so appealing; they take you out of the car dealers' ballpark and put you on level playing ground. But before you jump at all the new car deals, take a moment to think about the bigger picture of car ownership costs. It's more than just the sticker price and the expense of gas. AAA reports that the true annual cost of owning and operating a car is $9,369. Ouch. That $9,369 takes into account somewhat hidden costs such as insurance, maintenance, interest on a car note, depreciation and other factors. Hey, maybe driving your current car until the wheels fall off is still a great idea.","highlights":"Four million used cars reportedly purchased in the U.S. during May .\nAverage new car is $1,700 cheaper than during the last quarter of 2008, data shows .\nClark Howard: Arrange financing first to see how much car you can afford .\nAAA reports the annual cost of owning and operating a car is $9,369 .","id":"6e74dd788f48d4634e3e4d6184653ecbbdcb1f1a"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Do you need to borrow to fund a college education for yourself or your child? Be sure you're taking my \"Clark Smart\" approach to borrowing. Clark Howard: If a four-year college is too cost prohibitive, try a two-year institution at a fraction of the cost . Subsidized Stafford loans are the single best source of money you can borrow. The interest is picked up by the federal government -- courtesy of your fellow taxpayers -- while you're in school and for a six-month grace period following graduation. Once the loans go into repayment, subsidized Stafford loans taken out during the 2009-10 school year carry a fixed interest rate of 5.6 percent. The rate will be lower still at 4.5 percent for loans originating during the next school year, and all the way down to 3.4 percent the following year. There are, however, limits to the amount you can borrow. Freshman can get up to $3,500 annually; sophomores can borrow $4,500 each year; and juniors and seniors cap out at $5,500. Once you exhaust your subsidized Stafford stockpile, you want to move on to unsubsidized Stafford loans, which are now offered at 6.8 percent. Remember, though, to borrow as little as possible because the interest on these unsubsidized loans accumulates while you're in school. Watch smart choices when paying back the loans \u00bb . As a third option, parents can take out PLUS loans, which are issued at a fixed rate of 8.25 percent. Visit FAFSA.ed.gov to determine your eligibility for all these loan options. What's one type of loan you do not want to take out? Private student loans. Back in 2005, the private student loan industry used its political influence to gain the right to use any and all tactics (short of threatening bodily harm or actually causing it) in their efforts to collect money. In fact, private student loans typically can't even be dismissed in bankruptcy. Remember my rule of thumb when it comes to determining what level of borrowing you can comfortably handle: Do not take on a total loan amount that exceeds the likely first-year earnings in your field. If college is still too cost-prohibitive after you've gotten all the financial aid and loans you can, I'd love for you to think about starting your degree at a two-year community college. The cost of a community college can be as little as one-tenth to one-twentieth that of a private college, as I discovered when I researched schools with my eldest daughter. Let's say you decide to do your first two years at a community college. People often worry about the lack of prestige associated with these kinds of schools. But most employers only look at the name of the traditional college that issues your degree after you've put in your time at a community school. In fact, an employer might even prefer someone who worked their way through a community college and had to struggle financially. Doesn't that show more fortitude in a job candidate than the person who cruised through a 4-year college on the silver-spoon plan? And for those of you already dealing with paying off student loan debt, there's a radical change coming that I want you to know about. Effective July 1, an income-based repayment plan (IBR) became available to borrowers with Stafford loans and Grad PLUS loans. Under the new program, your payment will be based on your current income and family size. That means your monthly payment could be an unprecedented zero dollars if you qualify! Contact your lender to see if you qualify and to apply for the IBR. In addition to the IBR, other new provisions that went into effect July 1 include loan forgiveness options for certain workers. Nonprofit workers and some government employees are eligible for loan forgiveness after making on-time monthly payments for 10 years. If you work in the traditional for-profit sector, it will take 25 years of on-time payments before you're eligible for loan forgiveness. Visit LoanConsolidation.ed.gov for more information.","highlights":"Interest on subsidized Stafford loans picked up by government while in school .\nNext best options are unsubsidized Stafford loans and PLUS loans with fixed rates .\nHoward warns against private student loans .","id":"5bdae138adf6eaf1c16aacb22d0531e95059c07b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As part of the investigation into the remains of 11 women found inside and outside the Cleveland, Ohio, home of a registered sex offender, police have turned to the self-described \"bug guy.\" Joe Keiper, curator of invertebrate zoology from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, started consulting with law enforcement in 2001. His job is to identify the bugs found on bodies and determine their age, to help police determine the \"post-mortem interval\": the time between death and body discovery. It's a grisly task but a useful one, as it can help police determine a timeline for deaths. Bugs \"can be the most important evidence when it comes to pinpointing a timeline,\" Keiper said, adding that bugs' sense of smell \"puts bloodhounds to shame.\" And in this case, with 11 deaths -- each with their own mystery -- bugs could play a huge role in helping investigators figure out how and when each of these bodies ended up at the home of Anthony Sowell, 50. From the beginning, Keiper was involved in the case of the remains found at Sowell's home. All the remains are of African-American women, police said. All that remains of one victim is a skull, wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement. Police conducted an additional search at Sowell's home and an adjacent property Wednesday, Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho said. Although \"various items\" were removed, no more remains were found, he said. Police had used ground-penetrating radar to analyze the properties. Sowell, who served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape, now faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths. Typically, Keiper said, he requires three weeks to a month to complete a report on one body, but in the Sowell case, he hopes to have an initial report completed \"before Christmas. ... It isn't going to be a three-week process.\" The difference between one bug and another can be \"minute,\" with some of them looking \"very similar,\" he said. But the minute difference can be huge in terms of bug species, as different species can tell very different stories about the time of death. For instance, there are only a few dozen species of flies in his part of Ohio, he said, but the presence or absence of each one can tell a story, since each has a different rate of growth in varying temperatures. Temperature will be a factor in this case, he said, because some of the bodies were found inside and others outside. Keiper said he'll need to determine what effect the bodies being \"hidden\" will have on the bugs he finds, as well. In research done with dead pigs, he said, bugs will cover the pig's face within an hour. Keiper said his job is to be \"meticulous,\" as any mistakes can disrupt an investigation. Preliminary information is generally not useful, he said, so he has not spoken to police or the coroner regarding any of his findings. Asked how exact his findings will be concerning time of death, he declined to answer, saying that would mean giving specifics on the conditions of the bodies when they were found. He said only that he believes he can do \"better than years\" in trying to pinpoint a time of death for each victim. \"This is a singular situation that I hope is once in a lifetime,\" he said of the Sowell case. \"This is something, for the sake of our society, I hope I never have to do again.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Consultant identifies bugs found on bodies and determines their age .\nHe is helping police investigate remains of 11 women found in Cleveland, Ohio .\nHis work could help authorities establish timeline in case .","id":"705444371cb550e778bd45a380304005fdd62173"} -{"article":"Kennett, Missouri (CNN) -- A woman accused of cutting in line at a Wal-Mart, shoving merchandise and assaulting police officers will plead guilty to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. Under the agreement -- reached after the jury received the case for deliberations -- Heather Ellis will plead guilty to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. She will serve a year of unsupervised probation, attend an anger management course and serve four days in jail before the end of the year. The sentence stipulates that if Ellis stays out of trouble for a year, the charges will be sealed and the arrest won't be on her permanent record. Ellis said after court was adjourned that she was \"taking responsibility for her actions and [hopes] that everyone else involved in the case will take responsibility for theirs.\" Earlier Friday, Ellis, 24, took the stand and denied all charges in the racially charged case. Witnesses and police say Ellis cut in front of customers at a Wal-Mart in January 2007, pushed aside merchandise belonging to another customer to make room for hers on the conveyor belt and, after police were called to the scene, kicked one officer in the shin and split another's lip. The prosecution has also alleged the Ellis went \"ballistic in a profane tirade\" that continued when police officers arrived. Ellis, now a schoolteacher, denied all accusations against her, although she acknowledged in her Friday testimony that she touched another shopper's items on the conveyor belt. She was initially charged with assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. Had she been convicted of those charges, she could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Ellis, then a college student with no criminal history, has said that some white patrons shoved and hurled racial slurs at her when she switched checkout lines. Store employees refused to give her her change and called police, she said. She said Friday that the incident began when she joined her cousin in the checkout line and was ignored by the clerk. She did not not cut in line and did not yell or use profanity, said Ellis, who has not spoken about the case outside of court. As she left the store, Ellis told the Dunklin County Circuit Court, a police officer told her, \"Look at this stupid bitch. Take your ass back to the ghetto.\" She alleged that an officer behind her forcefully grabbed her shoulder without telling her she was being arrested. She did not resist, but said her body was \"flung around\" by officers. She screamed loudly for help as officers \"choked\" her and pulled her hair, but she did not hit or kick them, she testified. Testimony from Ellis' cousin, who was with her at the Wal-Mart, and from her aunt, whom the cousin called as Ellis was arrested, backed up the young woman's account. Ellis said she saw a doctor after the incident because tight handcuffs had cut her and made her bleed. She said she also had a headache and neck pain from the incident. An emergency room doctor testified that he had seen bruises on one of Ellis' wrists, but did not see cuts or bleeding. He also said he did not see any neck or head injuries. Surveillance tapes from the store were shown in court Thursday and released publicly, but the tapes don't show much of the alleged confrontation. A camera from above the cash register appeared to show Ellis' arm shoving merchandise to the side on the register's conveyor belt. Another camera showed her being led out of the store by police, with her arm in the air. A third, from the parking lot, showed her being handcuffed and put into a police car. It appeared to show Ellis kicking backward at police, as authorities allege. Her defense maintains she did so after police had assaulted her. Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have said the case is indicative of racial bias in the town, where 13 percent of the population is African-American. Black and Hispanic residents have long complained of being unfairly profiled during traffic stops by the predominantly white police department. When Ellis' supporters held a peaceful rally in June, officers found business cards scattered along the route that read: \"You have been paid a social visit by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The next visit will not be social.\" During another rally on Monday, a handful of opponents stood on the sidelines waving Confederate flags. Her lawyers have not brought up race as a contributing factor in the incident. Two years ago, prosecutors offered a plea deal under which Ellis would have received probation if she dropped her complaint against the police. \"She decided not to sign it, because she was taught to never admit guilt when you're innocent,\" her father has said. CNN's David Mattingly and Tristan Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ellis' permanent record will be cleared if she stays out of trouble for a year .\nHeather Ellis agrees to probation, anger-management class .\nPlea deal reached as jury deliberated .\nEllis testifies on her own behalf in racially charged case .","id":"dc642181b69af80462cf408284323b8f02404e03"} -{"article":"Fort Lauderdale, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida teenager attacked and set on fire last month, allegedly by five teenage friends, was undergoing skin graft surgery Friday, the first procedure in his recovery, a hospital spokeswoman said. Michael Brewer, who suffered burns over 65 percent of his body, will have his own skin transplanted onto the burned areas of his back and buttocks, said Lorraine Nelson, a spokeswoman at the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center. Brewer will return to the intensive care unit after the surgery. He has been heavily sedated since the October 12 incident and on a ventilator until last week to keep him alive. He is listed in guarded condition. On Thursday, three teens accused of setting Brewer on fire pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, a public defender for one of the boys said. Each of the three -- Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16 -- is charged as an adult with one count of attempted murder in the second degree in the attack in Deerfield Beach, Florida. They were arraigned in Broward County Circuit Court before Judge Dale Cohen, and are being held without bond. Prosecutors say the three boys were in a gang that poured alcohol over Brewer, then set him ablaze in a dispute over $40, a video game and a bicycle. Gordon Weekes, Bent's attorney, denounced the fact that the teens were charged as adults. \"It's been decided by society that a 15-year-old can't vote, can't join the armed forces and cannot buy alcohol, because society has recognized that children do not have the ability to appreciate the long-term consequences of their actions,\" he said. \"But they can treat them as adults in court, when we have very capable remedies for them in the juvenile justice system, which is geared towards rehabilitation,\" Weekes added. The attorney said he and the other two public defenders plan to make separate motions to the court asking that their clients be allowed to post bond. Detectives say eyewitnesses told them that Mendez used a lighter to set fire to Brewer after Jarvis allegedly poured alcohol over him. They said Bent allegedly encouraged the attack. Authorities say that Mendez admitted setting Brewer on fire, and that he made a \"bad decision,\" according to an arrest transcript. Two other boys who were allegedly involved -- a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old -- have been charged as juveniles. Witnesses say Brewer jumped into the swimming pool at his apartment complex to put out the flames. Detectives with the Broward County Sheriff's Office have been unable to interview Brewer. \"We hope that we can maybe get a statement this week,\" sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said. \"Detectives have been waiting for him to recover to the point where he's strong enough to give us a complete statement.\" Doctors say Brewer is improving but his condition is tenuous because of the severity of his burns and the possibility of infections. Most of his burns are on his back and buttocks; his face and hands were largely spared, doctors say. Brewer's doctor told CNN the teen faces several more months in the hospital, and will need multiple skin grafts and surgeries. \"They still have to perform several operations on him for skin grafting, but his parents are with him all the time,\" Nelson said. \"I don't tell him what happened,\" Brewer's mother, Valerie, told CNN affiliate WFOR-TV. \"I just tell him he's in the hospital and he's safe and he's getting better. \"And he'll say, 'Am I going to be OK?' And I say 'Yes, Michael. You're going to be fine. You're going to be just fine,' \" she said. Investigators believe Brewer owed Bent $40 for a video game. When Brewer did not pay, police say, Bent stole Brewer's father's bicycle. Brewer reported him to police and Bent was arrested, police say. The next day, the group surrounded Brewer. According to witnesses, the five boys called Brewer \"a snitch\" and set him on fire. The Brewer family told WFOR that none of the families of the accused boys have tried to contact them, but that it doesn't matter. \"We can't focus on it. They'll get theirs is all we can say. I don't focus on it,\" Brewer's father, also named Michael, told WFOR. If convicted, each of the three teen suspects could face up to 30 years in prison. A court-appointed psychologist who has examined two of the five boys allegedly involved in the attack told CNN they are competent to take part in legal proceedings and assist their attorney. \"I can describe both of them as being afraid, being fearful,\" said Michael Brannon, a forensic psychologist, without identifying the boys. \"I can describe both of them as being tearful at various times during the interview, especially when talking about the specific incident which led to the injuries of the victim.\" Psychologists are often brought into cases involving teenagers and young adults to judge their mental capabilities to determine their competency to proceed. They must determine whether the alleged attackers understand the charges against them, the court proceedings and potential sentences. Psychologists also must evaluate whether the defendants can talk about what happened and communicate effectively with defense attorneys. \"I don't think they expected to have happened, what happened,\" Brannon said. \"It's a horrible event that occurred, but this was not their conceptualization, in my opinion, of what was going to happen.\"","highlights":"Hospital spokeswoman says Michael Brewer having own skin put onto burned areas .\nBrewer, 15, in guarded condition, will go back to intensive care after procedure .\nMore surgeries to come; October 12 attack left burns over 65 percent of his body .\n3 of the 5 teens accused of setting Brewer on fire plead not guilty to attempted murder .","id":"08634ffe6dbb22e99d6317225a410a4391cdba8d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Forget Hollywood special effects or Impressionist paintings -- some of the most stunning images are created by the mysterious and often violent forces in the universe. The Butterfly Nebula is about 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. Witness the handful of new snapshots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which was equipped with a new imaging camera during a space shuttle servicing mission in May. It's back in business and there's lots to ooh and aah over. \"Let there be no doubt, this is truly Hubble's new beginning,\" said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator, during a news conference Wednesday. Take the image on the left of planetary nebula NGC 6302, also known as the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. Its \"wings\" are made of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a dying star at its center. \"The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes,\" NASA's Web site says. The \"butterfly\" is more than 2 light-years across. NASA took advantage of the special filters on Hubble's camera to isolate the light of different elements, said Bob O'Connell, chair of the science oversight committee for Wide Field Camera 3. The red in the image is nitrogen gas, for example, and the blue is oxygen. See some of the previous amazing images taken by Hubble . Colors are also prominent in the image of globular star cluster Omega Centauri, which contains almost 10 million stars, but the color contrast here is real. The gold dots are stars like our sun, but the blue ones are extremely hot, while the red ones are cool, O'Connell said. \"Just by looking at the color of the stars in the picture, you can sort them by temperature and evolutionary state because the temperature differences here are caused by differences in the internal structure of these stars and in the kinds of fuels they're burning deep inside of them,\" O'Connell said. Another image shows Stephan's Quintet, a group of five galaxies -- some of which are 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Over time, those galaxies will eventually merge into a single big galaxy, O'Connell said. Finally, images of a stellar nursery as seen in visible and infrared light reveal the secrets inside the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away. \"This is a cloud of dense material which is being bombarded by intense radiation from surrounding stars,\" O'Connell said. \"But dissolve to infrared and the cloud disappears. ... An energetic infant star is being formed inside this cloud.\" Hubble is expected to continue its mission for at least five more years.","highlights":"Hubble Space Telescope was equipped with a new imaging camera in May .\nNew snapshots show beautiful images from the universe .\nButterfly Nebula is more than 2 light-years across .\nStar cluster Omega Centauri contains millions of colorful stars .","id":"337ecd8adf8d8164b8d65ccadd7dae25e924e778"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The Iranian government has blocked access to the social networking site Facebook amid political jockeying for the June 12 presidential elections, according to the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency. Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad like Mir Hossein Mousavi are using technology to reach voters. Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi -- a former prime minister considered a threat to current hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- created a Facebook page for his campaign that has more than 5,000 supporters on the site. Those attempting to visit Facebook received a message in Farsi saying, \"Access to this site is not possible,\" according to CNN personnel in Tehran. ILNA reported the Masadiq Committee, made up of representatives from Iran's intelligence ministry, judiciary and others had ordered the action. After a few hours, the blockage was lifted, but was then reinstated, ILNA said. No reason was given for the block. \"We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions,\" a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. \"We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers. It is always a shame when a country's cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet provides.\" Ahmadinejad's challengers are increasingly turning to new technology to spread their message, according to a May 13 article in the Financial Times newspaper. Iran's population -- estimated at more than 66 million by July 2009, according to the CIA World Factbook -- has a median age of 27. The Financial Times, which put the country's population at 70 million, said 47 million Iranians have cell phones and 21 million have Internet access. \"We are using new technologies because they have the capacity to be multiplied by people themselves who can forward Bluetooth, e-mails and text messages and invite more supporters on Facebook,\" Behzad Mortazavi, head of Mousavi's campaign committee, told the Financial Times. At a Mousavi rally at a stadium Saturday, the Facebook blockage was a topic of conversation among reporters. Many said they had accessed Facebook on Friday night and believe the site was blocked Saturday morning.","highlights":"Facebook visitors see message in Farsi saying, \"Access to this site is not possible\"\nIran's intelligence ministry reportedly behind action; no reason given for blockage .\nReformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi created Facebook page for campaign .\nPresident Ahmadinejad's opponents are using new technology to spread message .","id":"e257bcf24a3edf481628283ce12f0a72ee32cf72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four people, including a 12-year-old, died when an Amtrak train hit their car in Hardeeville, South Carolina, an official said Tuesday. The accident occurred Monday night near the South Carolina-Georgia state line, not far from the intersection of South Carolina 46 and U.S. 17. \"It appears that the vehicle tried to go around the gate arms ... to beat the train across the tracks,\" said Ted Felder, Hardeeville's interim city manager. The Jasper County, South Carolina, coroner has not released the names of the dead. The car became wedged onto the front of the southbound train, which pushed it for a mile down the track, Felder said. The Hardeeville Fire Department received a call shortly before 9 p.m. ET Monday, but teams from various agencies reportedly were unable to detach the car until about midnight. Felder said no one on the train was injured, and once the car was detached, a bus took passengers to the Amtrak station in Savannah, Georgia. The train was en route from Charleston, South Carolina, to Savannah when the crash occurred.","highlights":"Amtrak train hits car near South Carolina-Georgia state line .\nCar apparently tried to beat train across tracks, official says .\nFour killed in car, including 12-year-old .\nNo train passengers injured, official says .","id":"af0ca4b63af63b9a95f9718fbd9f920a92418915"} -{"article":"The state you live in may affect your state of mind, according to new report that shows that rates of stress, depression, and emotional problems vary by geographic region. Where you live may affect your state of mind, according to a new mental health report. That's good news if you live in Hawaii, where only 6.6 percent of people report frequent mental distress. Not-so-good news for those in Kentucky: In the Bluegrass State, 14.4 percent of people said they frequently experienced mental distress -- the highest prevalence in the country. Frequent mental distress is defined as having 14 or more mentally unhealthy days during the previous 30-day period. The researchers were surprised that the study, which will be published in the June 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed such a broad range in mental distress depending on geographic location. \"The occurrence of frequent mental distress in adults differs much more than expected among the residents of U.S. states and counties,\" said lead researcher Dr. Matthew M. Zack, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. People who have frequent mental distress may have treatable and preventable mental illnesses or problems, and social programs or interventions may help, Zack said. Health.com: How stress may affect psoriasis . In the study, the researchers looked at rates of mental distress by state among 2.4 million adults across two time periods -- 1993 through 2001 and 2003 through 2006 -- as part of the ongoing Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System study. Overall, the prevalence for frequent mental distress across both time periods was 9.4 percent, with the lowest rate in Hawaii and the highest rate in Kentucky. Why the difference? It may be because residents in some areas of the country are more likely than others to have health conditions such as disability or diabetes, untreated mental conditions like anxiety or depression, high unemployment rates, risky behaviors including cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse, and\/or social circumstances such as lower incomes. Health.com: Manic spending puts bipolar patients at risk for financial woes . An area centered on Kentucky showed high levels of frequent mental distress that remained elevated over time, while in other parts of the country (such as the upper Midwest) low levels of frequent mental distress remained low over time, the study showed. Health.com: Secrets to a stress-free home . Overall, though, frequent mental distress seems to be on the rise. The rate of frequent mental distress increased by at least 1 percentage point in 27 states, and by more than 4 percentage points in Mississippi, Oklahoma, and West Virginia from the first time period to the second time period. \"In some areas, normal or low frequent-mental-distress levels increased over time, implying the introduction of influences that increased levels of frequent mental distress,\" Zack said. Health.com: Stress-reduction therapy may hike breast cancer survival rates . The new state-by-state breakdown of rates of mental distress should have ramifications as the Obama Administration takes on health care reform, said Chuck Holzer, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. \"From a public health standpoint, it's great to be aware of places with high rates of frequent mental distress so we can help make sure that access to care is increasing in those areas,\" he said. Many of the states with high rates of frequent mental distress are struggling economically, as are their residents. As a result, they may not be able to afford health insurance that includes mental health services. \"The big message is that you need to monitor the health and mental health of the country because it will lead to greater equity in mental health services,\" Holzer said. And Zack said, \"Community mental health agencies, social service agencies, and public health agencies in counties where frequent mental distress is increased should recognize that such increases may indicate unmet health and social service needs.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Mental distress differs among residents of U.S. states and counties .\nHawaii: 6.6 percent of people report frequent mental distress; Kentucky: 14.4 percent .\nResidents in some areas are more likely to have health conditions or disabilities .","id":"cb036a39d4f650e240cad2904874a640aef23ce8"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Health care reform backers won a key victory Saturday night as the Senate voted to move ahead with a floor debate on a sweeping $848 billion bill. The 60-39 vote to prevent a Republican filibuster against the start of debate on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's legislation broke down along strict party lines. All 58 Senate Democrats -- along with independent Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- supported bringing the measure to the floor. Thirty-nine of the 40 Senate Republicans opposed the motion. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, didn't vote. \"Tonight's historic vote brings us one step closer to ending insurance company abuses, reining in spiraling health care costs, providing stability and security to those with health insurance and extending quality health coverage to those who lack it,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. The polarized vote set the table for a holiday season now virtually certain to be marked by acrimonious deliberations on President Obama's top domestic priority. Top Senate Democrats, who are trying to pass a bill before the end of the year, spent much of the day tarring their Republican colleagues as defenders of a broken status quo benefitting rich insurance companies at the expense of ordinary American families. Republicans, in turn, slammed Democrats for pushing a bill that conservatives insist will force millions of Americans to drop insurance plans they like while boosting premiums, raising taxes and leading to government rationing of care. Read the health care bill (PDF) \"Today we [decide] whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation,\" Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said shortly before the vote. \"Whether this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from fear of illness and death, which can be prevented by decent health care for all.\" The Republicans \"are frightening people,\" said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. \"Now is not the time to go wobbly in the knees. Now is the time to stand strong ... and move this country forward.\" \"This bill... is a massive monument to bureaucracy and spending,\" replied Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. It \"imposes punishing taxes on almost everyone. ... A vote in favor of proceeding to this bill is a vote in favor of adding to the tax burden of the American people in the midst of double digit unemployment.\" The bill \"does worse than nothing,\" said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. It \"threatens the economic recovery. ... Changes to the health care system must be responsible and not break the backs of the taxpayers.\" The procedural vote represented another milestone in what has become an epic battle over the future of America's health care system. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a more than $1 trillion bill this month. If the Senate also manages to pass a bill, a congressional conference committee will then need to merge the House and Senate proposals into a consensus version requiring final approval from each chamber before moving to Obama's desk to be signed into law. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that Reid's 2,074-page bill would extend health insurance coverage to 31 million additional Americans. The agency estimates that the proposal would reduce the federal deficit by $130 billion over the next 10 years, through 2019. Any effect on the deficit in the following decade would be \"subject to substantial uncertainty,\" but probably would result in \"small reductions in federal budget deficits,\" according to budget office analysts. A minimum of 60 votes is required to break a filibuster in the 100-member Senate. The outcome of the Senate vote was unclear before Saturday afternoon, when Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Arkansas, announced her intention to back a floor debate on the measure. Lincoln, a key moderate probably facing a tough re-election campaign in 2010, said the issue deserved further debate and consideration. She made clear, however, that she opposes several aspects of Reid's bill, including a controversial government-run public option. \"Although I don't agree with everything in this bill, I believe it is important to begin debate,\" Lincoln said. \"The issue is very complex. There is no easy fix.\" Republicans wasted no time tearing into Lincoln's vote, issuing a news release while she was still announcing her decision, proclaiming that she had caved to \"pressure from the left wing of her party.\" \"There's no doubt that this vote will be a critical issue for Sen. Lincoln as she embarks on her uphill re-election bid,\" said Amber Wilkerson Marchand, a GOP spokeswoman. \"The people of Arkansas will have an opportunity to hold her accountable when they cast their ballots next November.\" Two other Democratic moderates whose support was considered to be in doubt -- Nebraska's Ben Nelson and Louisiana's Mary Landrieu -- also announced their decision to back a full debate shortly before the vote. Reid's bill, projected to ensure coverage for 94 percent of Americans, includes a range of tax increases and new fees. The Medicare payroll tax on individuals earning $200,000 a year and couples earning $250,000 a year would increase by half a percentage point, from the current 1.45 percent to 1.95 percent. In addition, insurers providing costly health coverage -- known as Cadillac plans -- would face a 40 percent tax on policies worth more than $8,500 for individuals and $23,000 for families. The bill also includes a 5 percent tax on the cost of elective cosmetic surgery, as well as new fees for insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers. The total projected revenue raised by all the taxes and fees would exceed $200 billion. The bill would require individuals to buy health insurance, with a fine for non-compliance of $95 in the first year that would escalate to $750 by 2016. Unlike the plan recently passed by the House, the Senate bill does not mandate that all employers offer health care. Businesses with more than 50 workers, where at least one employee qualifies for government subsidies, would face a penalty of $750 for every full-time employee if it does not offer health care coverage. Reid's bill also would expand government-run Medicaid coverage for the poor to everyone making less than 133 percent of the national poverty level. Democratic leaders in both chambers have been wrestling with the most contentious issues, including abortion and immigration, as well as how to pay for reform. The House bill has more restrictive abortion language and includes a 5.4 percent income tax surcharge on individuals making more than $500,000 and couples earning more than $1 million. Both bills include a government-run public option, but the Senate version allows states to opt out before the national program would go into effect in 2014. The two bills are virtually identical on a broad range of changes, including creating health insurance exchanges, expanding Medicaid, subsidizing insurance for low- and some middle-income families, and capping out-of-pocket medical expenses while preventing insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Insurers under both plans would be barred from charging higher premiums based on a person's gender or medical history.","highlights":"\"Tonight's historic vote brings us one step closer,\" White House press secretary says .\nAll 58 Democrats, two independents clinch vote .\nDemocrats rip into Republicans as defenders of status quo .\nGOP decries \"massive monument to bureaucracy and spending\"","id":"1624d8e1df4e83f489da7c71c29fd92bb0bf55a7"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- There are dozens of get-well cards on his wall. On his bed, there's another pile from family, friends, high school pals. The patient must be 19 or 20 -- a kid -- and his smile is magnetic. His mother hugs every visitor, strangers like us included. \"I'm a hugger,\" she explains. His girlfriend is by his bedside too, wearing a sweatshirt from her college in upstate New York, her studies interrupted. \"My leg will never be a hundred percent,\" he says, \"which means I just have to get a new hundred percent.\" It helps that we were visiting this wounded soldier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a few weeks ago, with the actor Woody Harrelson, instantly recognizable from TV and movies. Woody is profoundly good-natured and can make anyone smile, even the maimed young men and women, just back from a combat zone they carried home with them. But this particular soldier\/kid is happy anyway. Happy to be alive, mature enough to be grateful. A few weeks earlier, an Afghan soldier he had known for eight months -- a man who fought by his side -- turned his rifle on his American \"allies\" and killed two of this soldier's buddies, wounding three, including him. This kid knows he's among the lucky ones. \"I have no idea why he did it,\" he says. \"It's the Middle East,\" I reply. \"I guess so,\" he says with a sigh. In room after room, our delegation encounters stories of war that are just not a part of the national conversation. I keep thinking: Whatever happened to the telling of these stories in America? Do we need a Washington lobbyist to push the soldier's-story agenda? Individual tales make up the reality of war; anecdote by anecdote, they become the truth of combat. But in the U.S. mainstream media, they have too little presence. How did we get to a place where sharing a soldier's narrative or reading soldiers' names on television or meeting their coffins when they are brought back to their country becomes a political or disloyal act? Why can't we share the truth about war? When I was growing up in Israel, we saw scenes from military funerals on the news: screaming, crying mothers and all. Wounded soldiers would be interviewed, sometimes with burned bodies or missing limbs. It was not political; it was just the subjective, human reality of the soldier. There was a need to know. It gave our warriors a public stage from which to reconnect. I remember coming back from Lebanon when I was a soldier in the '80s, feeling like I've just been to another planet. Filmmaking, storytelling, was my therapy. We made an earlier trip to Walter Reed, along with our lead Ben Foster, to immerse ourselves in the lives of returning soldiers in preparation for making a movie about casualty notification officers, the soldiers who knock on the door to bring the grim news of a loved one's death while on military duty. We think of it as an uplifting movie about getting back to life. When we tell these troops about our movie, most smile bitterly; they know their families were spared that awful encounter -- they got a phone call -- but they imagine their friends' families having their hearts ripped out by two soldiers in Class A uniforms at the door. \"The secretary of the Army regrets to inform you ...\" Visiting a military hospital is always an inspiring, shocking, beautiful, complicated experience. I highly recommend it. It's a gift to the soldier, and it's a blessing for the visitor. Those who are in good enough shape to talk take us to the front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in vivid, visceral detail. We feel privileged to hear their voices crack, to see their eyes fill with tears. Firefights. IEDs. Accidents. Friendly fire. Boredom. Porn. Burn pits. Torn up buddies. Locals. Shifting alliances. Lives lost in translation. The stuff of war. Nothing pretty about it. And that's OK. If these guys can live through it, we can listen. It doesn't take much before you're reminded that wars are about human beings -- on both sides. With more than 5,000 dead; more than 35,000 soldiers coming back with injuries, many that will last a lifetime; with one in six returning soldiers afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder; and with families torn apart by multiple deployments, domestic violence, substance abuse, divorces, suicides, homelessness, etc., we are slowly transitioning into the longest part of the war: the aftermath. There are many dedicated professionals and volunteers who are dealing with these issues. They're the ones who will be learning the soldier-stories that we all must know, the individual accounts that should allow us to address, head-on, our collective responsibility as a society toward those who fight in our name. But we won't hear these stories unless we insist. Instead, we'll get more statistics, political punditry, screamers trying to pull us left or right. We say goodbye to this kid in his military hospital bed. He waves and says, \"No need to worry about me.\" Which is the only thing I think he got wrong. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Oren Moverman.","highlights":"Oren Moverman says soldiers' stories tell war's truth, but media often avoid them .\nHe says visiting soldiers in a military hospital is inspiring, not pretty, but important .\nListening to soldiers' experience lets society confront its responsibility in war, he says .","id":"14e74935beef1ce9218a8d7ad5b0543fc07eca05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Chilean inspectors stumbled upon hundreds of exotic animals from Peru destined for illegal trade while conducting what they thought was going to be a routine inspection of a fishing boat, the government said Tuesday. A family of Scarlet macaws in Costa Rica in June 2008 at a zoo aimed at conserving the species. The Chilean boat, the Rosa Isabel, was carrying macaws, toucans, parrots, turtles, squirrels and crocodiles, most of them protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which prohibits the sale of these species, the government said in a statement. In all, officials counted more than 400 exotic animals from Peru, the statement said. The incident began before dawn, when inspectors from Chile's Maritime Administration boarded the boat and found the live cargo stuffed inside dozens of cardboard boxes lined with chicken wire and with holes cut on the sides for ventilation. The animals were handed over to the Farm and Cattle Service of Arica, Chile's northernmost city, for return to Peru, the minister of agriculture said Monday in a statement. The captain of the ship, Moises Segundo Diaz Verdugo, a Chilean national, faces a possible fine of between $188,000 and $940,000, to be determined by an Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) court. Under an agreement between SAG and the National Institute of Natural Resources of the Republic of Peru, signed in 2007, the animals will be returned to Peru, SAG said. The national director of SAG, Francisco Bahamonde, credited coordination among various state bodies with impeding the illegal entry of protected species and products that can transmit pests or illnesses and said they would \"redouble\" their efforts. Chile busts trade in exotic animals from Peru .","highlights":"More than 400 exotic animals from Peru were found .\nThe animals include macaws, toucans, parrots, turtles, squirrels, crocodiles .\nMost of the animals are protected under international pact on endangered species .\nThe wildlife will be returned to Peru .","id":"48a86e317eba03e167e049961256131956b652b7"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- A century and a half ago, Athens was a humble, forgotten city of about 8,000 people. Today, one out of every three Greeks packs into this city of about 4 million. To avoid the Parthenon crowds, go in the early evening when the marble turns golden as the sun sets. Athens has been famous for its sprawl, noise and pollution. My advice has long been to see the big sights, then get out. But visiting it recently to research a new guidebook, I've seen a dramatic change. The city has made a concerted effort to curb pollution, clean up and pedestrianize the streets, spiff up the museums, build a new airport and invest in one of Europe's better public-transit systems. Even with its new look, the Greek capital still has its \"big three\" sights: the stunning Acropolis, the Ancient Agora just below and the remarkable National Archaeological Museum. But coming in June is the opening of a fourth big sight -- one that will stoke a battle over Greece losing her marbles more than 200 years ago (more on that later). To many, the most important ancient site in the Western world is the Acropolis, rising gleaming like a beacon above the gray concrete drudgery of modern Athens. This is where the Greeks built the mighty Parthenon -- the most famous temple on the planet, and an enduring symbol of ancient Athens' glorious Golden Age from nearly 2,500 years ago. The major monuments of the Acropolis survive in remarkably good condition. While the Persians, Ottomans, and British were cruel to the site in the past, the greatest dangers it faces now are acid rain and pollution. Ongoing restoration means that you might see some scaffolding -- but even that can't take away from its greatness. I like to come late in the day, as the sun goes down, when the white Parthenon stone gleams a creamy golden brown. While the Acropolis was the city's ceremonial showpiece, it was the Ancient Agora that was the real heart of classical Athens. For some 800 years, it was the hub of all commercial, political, and social life and home to many of the city's religious rites. Little survives in the Agora from the classical period. Other than one very well-preserved temple and a rebuilt portico, it's a field of humble ruins nestled in the shadow of the Acropolis. But that makes it a quiet, uncrowded spot to wander and get a feel for the ancients. Romantics can't help but get goose bumps as they kick around the same pebbles that once stuck in Socrates' sandals, with the floodlit Parthenon forever floating ethereally overhead. North of the city center is the world's best collection of ancient Greek art, the National Archaeological Museum. It takes you from 7000 B.C. to A.D. 500 on a beautifully displayed and well-described sweep through Greek history, from prehistoric and Mycenaean artifacts through the evolution of classical Greek statuary. This museum now has a worthy competitor -- the New Acropolis Museum, slated to open in June. It's a world-class space, custom-built to showcase the Parthenon sculptures, along with truckloads of other artifacts, all complemented by modern exhibits. And the state-of-the-art building itself is worth a look, as the boldest symbol yet of the post-Olympics vision for Athens. The new museum also serves as a sort of 21st-century Trojan horse, intended to lure the famous Elgin Marbles (the Parthenon sculptures) away from London's British Museum. In the early 19th century, the British ambassador to the Ottomans, Lord Elgin, got permission to strip marble panels from the Parthenon and take them to England. For years, the Greeks have asked for the marbles back, and for years, the Brits have responded with claims that Greece can't give them a suitable home. And yet, now that this state-of-the-art facility is ready and waiting, it still seems unlikely that the marbles will be returned anytime soon. Britain is reluctant to give in, for fear of setting a precedent ... and getting \"me, too\" notices from Italy, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and all the other nations who'd like the missing pieces of their cultural heritage back. But even without the Elgin Marbles, this new museum will be worth the wait, capturing the timeless splendor of ancient Athens in an ultra-modern building. Athens is more than a showcase for its past. Take some time to smell the souvlaki, whether by wandering through the touristy Plaka district, browsing through the Monastiraki flea market, or exploring the Psyrri neighborhood, the cutting-edge place to go for nightlife and dining. The narrow winding streets can be confusing, but you can't get too lost with a monument the size of the Acropolis looming overhead to keep you oriented. And after you visit Athens, get out -- to the wild, mountainous landscape of Greece's Peloponnese, covered in my next column. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c\/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nHis TV series, \"Rick Steves' Europe,\" airs on PBS stations .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours .","id":"d7a5cde4fdcab0ae3969fcdd2166769b04263fc1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"The LHC is back,\" the European Organization for Nuclear Research announced triumphantly Friday, as the world's largest particle accelerator resumed operation more than a year after an electrical failure shut it down. Restarting the Large Hadron Collider -- the $10 billion research tool's full name -- has been \"a herculean effort,\" CERN's director for accelerators, Steve Myers, said in a statement announcing the success. Experiments at the LHC may help answer fundamental questions such as why Albert Einstein's theory of relativity -- which describes the world on a large scale -- doesn't jibe with quantum mechanics, which deals with matter far too small to see. Physicists established a circulating proton beam in the LHC's 17-mile tunnel at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) Friday, CERN said, a critical step towards getting results from the accelerator. \"It's great to see beam circulating in the LHC again,\" said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. \"We've still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we're well on the way.\" Located underground on the border of Switzerland and France, the LHC has been inching towards operation since the summer. It reached its operating temperature -- 271 degrees below zero Celsius -- on October 8 and particles were injected on October 23. Now that a beam is circulating, the next step is low-energy collisions, which should begin in about a week, CERN said. High-energy collisions will follow next year. The collider has been dogged by problems. It made headlines early this month when a bird apparently dropped a \"bit of baguette\" into the accelerator, making the machine shut down. The incident was similar in effect to a standard power cut, said spokeswoman Katie Yurkewicz. Had the machine been going, there would have been no damage, but beams would have been stopped until the machine could be cooled back down to operating temperatures, she said. The collider achieved its first full-circle beam last year on September 10 amid much celebration. But just nine days later, the operation was set back when one of the 25,000 joints that connect magnets in the LHC came loose and the resulting current melted or burned some important components of the machine, Myers said. The faulty joint has a cross-section of a mere two-thirds of an inch by two-thirds of an inch. \"There was certainly frustration and almost sorrow when we had the accident,\" he said. Now, \"people are feeling a lot better because we know we've done so much work in the last year.\" Mark Wise, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, said he's just as excited about the results that will come out of the LHC as he was last year and views the September 2008 accident as a delay rather than a devastating event. Wise noted that Tevatron, the collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, has also had its share of failures but is generally considered to work just fine. \"It's a horribly complicated piece of equipment, it's not like there's not going to be problems along the way,\" he said. \"They will surmount those problems.\" The LHC will probably be in operation more than 20 years, Myers said. But it won't be that long before scientists could potentially discover new properties of nature. The as-yet theoretical Higgs boson, also called \"the God particle\" in popular parlance, could emerge within two or three years, Myers said. Evidence of supersymmetry -- the idea that every particle has a \"super partner\" with similar properties in a quantum dimension (according to some physics theories, there are hidden dimensions in the universe) -- could crop up as early as 2010. For some theoretical physicists such as Wise, finding the Higgs boson and verifying every prediction of the Standard Model of physics would be the worst outcome. He wants the LHC to deliver surprises, even if that means no Higgs. \"When push comes to shove, the name of the game is 'what is nature,' and we're not going to know until our experimental colleagues tell us,\" Wise said. ATLAS and CMS are the general-purpose experiments designed to find the Higgs boson and other rare particles that have never been detected before. ALICE, another experiment, will explore the matter that existed some 10 microseconds after the Big Bang, said John Harris, professor of physics at Yale University and national coordinator of ALICE-USA. At that time, there was a \"hot soup\" of particles called quarks and gluons at a temperature of around 2 trillion degrees above absolute zero, he said. Although they have never been directly seen, these particles are theoretically the building blocks of the bigger particles -- protons, neutrons and electrons -- that form the universe as we know it. CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this report.","highlights":"LHC restarted more than a year after being shut down by electrical fault .\nThe full scientific program for the LHC wil probably last more than 20 years .\nThe LHC will look for the Higgs boson, quarks, gluons and other small particles .\nRestarting $10B research tool described as \"herculean effort\"","id":"21c71a362c1dd75695623ecdc6682856ef90ba91"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI is expected to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury on Saturday, the first meeting between the religious leaders since a Catholic overture to disaffected Anglicans that some commentators compared to a hostile takeover on Wall Street. Rowan Williams, the nominal head of the world Anglican Communion, threw down a theological gauntlet to the pope in a highly challenging speech in Rome in the run-up to their meeting. He laid out a series of questions suggesting that decades of hard-won apparent reconciliation between the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations might have weak foundations. He also proposed that a truly universal Christian church might have to be structured more like the Anglican Communion -- with no central authority laying down the law -- than like the Catholic Church, with the pope on his throne. \"Is there a mechanism in the church that has the clear right to determine for all where the limits of Christian identity might be found?\" Williams asked. \"Is the integrity of the church ultimately dependent on a single identifiable ministry of unity to which all local ministries are accountable?\" The meeting comes in the wake of a Vatican move that some say will shatter more than 40 years of efforts to reconcile the Catholic and Anglican churches. The Vatican announced in October that it had worked out a way for Anglicans who are dissatisfied with their church to switch allegiance en masse to Rome. The process will enable groups of Anglicans to become Catholic and recognize the pope as their leader, yet have parishes that retain Anglican rites, Vatican officials said. The move comes some 450 years after King Henry VIII broke from Rome and created the Church of England, forerunner of the Anglican Communion. The number of Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church has increased in recent years as the Anglican Church has welcomed the ordination of women and openly gay clergy, said Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in announcing the move in October. Williams was said to have been taken by surprise by the move, which critics described as an end run around a long-established Catholic-Anglican dialogue. \"The Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion,\" Levada said. Levada said \"hundreds\" of Anglicans around the world have expressed their desire to join the Catholic Church. Among them are 50 Anglican bishops, said Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia of the Congregation for Divine Worship. Catholic and Anglican theology and rites are broadly similar, but Anglicans have long allowed priests to marry and have children. In recent decades, the Anglican Communion has allowed women to become priests. The Episcopal Church, the United States branch of the Anglican Communion, has ordained an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, and appears to be on the verge of ordaining more. Those developments have caused controversy within the communion, with more conservative parishes setting up alternative structures of authority. Pope Benedict hinted clearly when he last met Williams in Rome almost exactly three years ago to the day that Rome did not look kindly on the Anglican moves. \"Recent developments, especially concerning the ordained ministry and certain moral teachings, have affected not only internal relations within the Anglican Communion but also relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church,\" the pope said in November 2006. \"We believe that these matters, which are presently under discussion within the Anglican Communion, are of vital importance to the preaching of the gospel in its integrity, and that your current discussions will shape the future of our relations,\" he added. There are about 77 million Anglicans worldwide, and about 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.","highlights":"Pope Benedict XVI, Anglican head to meet, discuss ideologies .\nVatican recently opened door to disillusioned Anglicans wanting to join Catholic Church .\nAnglican Church has welcomed ordination of women, openly gay clergy .","id":"30f3fa9373876ab0a0139bbdd62300db73163a1f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Jersey City, New Jersey, police officer shot in the line of duty last week died of his injuries Tuesday, a day before his 38th birthday, a spokeswoman for the city's mayor announced. Police officers gather at the site of a shootout in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday. Jennifer Morrill said Officer Marc DiNardo, who was wounded last Thursday in a shootout, passed away Tuesday morning. Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey told reporters Monday night that DiNardo was not expected to live. DiNardo was one of five officers injured early Thursday as they moved in for a tactical entry into an apartment where a shooting suspect and another person were holed up. Officials say the officers were met with gunfire, and a shootout ensued. Both suspects were killed, and DiNardo suffered two gunshot wounds to the face. Melissa Bartholomew, a family friend and fellow police officer, read a statement Monday from DiNardo's family, which includes his wife Mary, three young children and his parents. She said DiNardo, whose 38th birthday is Wednesday, had a personality that no one could forget. \"Marc was not a selfish man. He was a moral man; a man who gave himself for those who couldn't care for themselves,\" she said. DiNardo's family plans to donate his organs, said Joe Scott, president of LibertyHealth and its Jersey City Medical Center. \"This unselfish act will live on in the lives that Marc will impact through organ donation.\" Officer Michael Camacho, who was also wounded in the shootout, was upgraded from critical to serious condition and moved out of the intensive care unit, Scott said Monday. Camacho was shot in the neck during the gun battle. The other three officers were treated at a hospital and released.","highlights":"Marc DiNardo was one of five officers injured in New Jersey shootout last week .\nTwo suspects were killed in shootout; DiNardo was shot twice in face .\nDiNardo's family plans to donate his organs, medical center's president says .","id":"5f4c039564d4d5ddee9d270d98d242f3c548e152"} -{"article":"Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Two Pakistani men accused of providing logistical support for last year's deadly terror attacks in Mumbai, India, were arrested Saturday in Italy, police said. They were arrested in the northern Italian city of Brescia, said Stefano Fonzi, head of Italy's Division of General Investigations and Special Operations. The attacks on India's largest city lasted four days. The attackers targeted several sites in Mumbai, taking over several hotels and a Jewish center. The attacks left 160 people dead. On November 25, 2008, the day before the attacks in Mumbai, the two men arrested allegedly transferred $229 that was used to activate Internet phone lines used by the suspects. Two others connected with the longstanding money transfer agency in Brescia also were arrested for other illegal activity, Fonzi told CNN. Police are looking for a fifth man. Italian police started their investigation the following month after being alerted by Indian authorities and the FBI that funds had been transferred from Italy, Fonzi said. Authorities suspected the agency after money was transferred under the Muslim name of a man who had never entered Italy, a police statement said. Indian police have said 10 Pakistanis were involved in the deadly assault, nine of whom were killed in the carnage. The lone surviving suspect has linked the coordinated shooting and bombing incidents to the leader of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a militant group that is banned in India. CNN's Hada Messia in Rome contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two men arrested in Italy in connection with November 2008 Mumbai, India, terror attacks .\nPolice say men transferred money to activate Internet phone lines for terrorists .\nSiege at hotels and attacks on other targets left 160 people dead .","id":"97bf3b41d4b47b1afc670894b8a19acf3f9c7c6b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Carrie Prejean has filed a lawsuit against Miss California USA officials who stripped her of her title, accusing them of libel and religious discrimination for her views on same-sex marriage. Carrie Prejean was stripped of her Miss California USA title earlier this year. \"We will make the case that her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage,\" her attorney, Charles LiMandri, said in a news release. Prejean stepped into controversy at the Miss USA pageant in April when, in response to a question from a judge, she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage. Prejean finished as first runner-up. The complaint was filed in Superior Court of California against Miss California USA officials Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler, as well as publicist Roger Neal. It alleges that Prejean suffered because of \"libel, public disclosure of private facts, religious discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.\" LiMandri had threatened to file a defamation lawsuit if Lewis did not retract statements he made about the former beauty queen. LiMandri's letter to Lewis' attorney also accused Lewis of setting Prejean up to be fired because of her statements opposing same-sex marriage. When Prejean, 22, was dethroned in June, Lewis said it was for \"contract violations,\" including missed public appearances. He said then it wasn't one thing Prejean did, but \"many, many, many things.\" \"She came to us and said I'm not interested in your input; I'll make my own decision what I'm going to do,\" Lewis told CNN's Larry King in June. \"You know, when you have a contract, when you're working for someone, you have a responsibility to follow through on what that requirement is.\" Lewis said it was clear \"she was not interesting in upholding the title or the responsibilities.\" After that interview, LiMandri penned a letter to Lewis' attorney saying, \"Carrie Prejean's good name has been tarnished by your client's false and defamatory accusations.\" \"Please view this letter as a last opportunity for Mr. Lewis to retract the defamatory statements made against my client and to seek to restore her good name,\" LiMandri wrote. He denied any contract violations by Prejean, calling those claims a \"complete and utter pretext\" for her firing. The list Lewis gave to reporters of Prejean's missed appearances was \"an outright fraud,\" he said. \"She did not think it was appropriate for her to accept Mr. Lewis' invitation to attend a gay documentary in Hollywood promoting same-sex marriage,\" he said. \"It was not my client's job, as Miss California, simply to help your client promote his personal or business interests as a Hollywood agent and producer, or gay activist.\" Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump announced in May that Prejean could keep her title despite a controversy over topless photos, missed appearances and her statements against same-sex marriage. Trump later reversed himself. \"I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA organization, and I gave her the opportunity to do so,\" Trump said. \"Unfortunately, it just doesn't look like it is going to happen, and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision.\"","highlights":"Carrie Prejean was stripped of Miss California USA title earlier this year .\nPrejean claims she suffered because of officials' statements, actions .\nPrejean was involved in controversy after statements about same-sex marriage .","id":"6a67dec59c8468264717c54bbb5b0c9d0221e139"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A dispute over abortion between the only remaining Kennedy in Congress and his Roman Catholic bishop has highlighted the political volatility of the issue and the challenge it presents to the nation's Catholics. \"How can you claim to be a Catholic and also support abortion?\" Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, asked Monday, discussing his request that Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, stop receiving Holy Communion because of his pro-choice politics. Kennedy went public Sunday about Tobin's request, originally made in a private letter to Kennedy in 2007. Tobin responded with a statement Sunday followed by his television appearance Monday, in which he acknowledged holding Kennedy to a higher standard than an ordinary parishioner because of the congressman's position as a legislator who can shape abortion laws and policy. The issue is considered much broader than a public rift between the two men. A sweeping health care bill in Congress could get derailed by conflicts over abortion language, with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last week criticizing a Senate version of the measure for lacking the tougher language adopted earlier by the House. Kennedy, a member of the most influential Catholic family in U.S. history, is the son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and nephew of the late John F. Kennedy, the nation's first Catholic president. When running for president in 1960, John Kennedy famously said he was \"not the Catholic candidate for president,\" but \"the Democratic Party's candidate for president who also happens to be be a Catholic.\" Edward Kennedy was known for his liberal policies, including support for a woman's right to choose an abortion. When he died earlier this year, a Roman Catholic funeral Mass was held in Boston's Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica. Patrick Kennedy holds similar views to his late father, and the dispute with Tobin festered anew when Kennedy publicly criticized the Catholic Church for opposing health care reform that lacked stringent anti-abortion language. Requests to Kennedy's offices in Washington and Rhode Island for comment Monday went unanswered. Tobin, appearing on CNN, called Kennedy's support of abortion \"a scandal.\" Asked why he was singling out Kennedy, Tobin said the congressman started the dispute by attacking the church's opposition to a health care bill that lacks tough abortion restrictions. He acknowledged \"a difference between someone who is the average Catholic in the pew ... and someone like the congressman who is in a high-profile position and is in a position to affect legislation on allowing access to abortion.\" Other Catholics questioned Tobin's stance. \"The simple fact is that most bishops don't want to deny communion to politicians, and we know for a fact that Pope John Paul II gave communion to pro-choice Italian politicians,\" said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. \"So the question is, is Bishop Tobin more Catholic than the pope on this?\" Politicians have previously run afoul of Catholic bishops on the abortion issue. Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to stop receiving communion when she was a pro-choice governor of Kansas, and former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said in 2004 he would deny communion to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for being pro-choice. Brian McLaren, a longtime Christian pastor who has written a book coming out next year called \"A New Kind of Christianity,\" said politicizing religious views limits the perception and, eventually, the impact of a church's teachings. \"Both Catholics and Protestants have allowed themselves to be pushed into this kind of binary, either-or thinking\" on abortion and homosexuality, McLaren said. \"It's disturbing for me as a non-Catholic to see the Catholic Church possibly risking its moral authority on a number of other issues by only focusing on abortion.\" The Roman Catholic church strongly opposes abortion, which has been legal across the United States since 1973. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbied for tight restrictions on federal funding of abortion in the health care bill the House passed earlier this month. In an October interview, Kennedy criticized the bishops for threatening to oppose the health care bill if it lacked the tough restrictions. In the House debate on the measure, Kennedy opposed a provision with the church-backed restrictions on federal money for abortions, but voted in favor of final passage of the bill that included that language. He repeated that criticism and revealed Tobin's earlier admonition in an interview published Sunday, the 46th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Tobin responded by calling Kennedy's position \"unacceptable to the church and scandalous to many of our members.\" Most bishops and priests oppose using communion as a \"political weapon,\" and Kennedy's disclosure of Tobin's admonition may be an attempt to push back against the bishops' support for the abortion restrictions in the House bill, CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen said. \"The Catholic bishops have been fairly successful, at least to date, at putting abortion at the center of the debate over health care reform, and that obviously has generated some resentment from people who don't share their views,\" Allen said. Kennedy's decision to come forward \"in effect puts the Catholic bishops in a negative light, because it ends up making them look intolerant.\" To McLaren, the admonishment by Tobin displays an inconsistency. \"The bishops have taken I think a wise stand against the proliferation of nuclear weapons,\" he said. \"Would they apply withholding of the Eucharist to someone who supports increasing nuclear stockpiles?\" The health care debate reveals the depth of division on the issue, according to McLaren. Both sides apparently believe they are advocating language that makes the legislation effectively \"abortion neutral,\" meaning it doesn't change existing abortion law. \"What we discovered is 'abortion neutral' is a matter of interpretation,\" McLaren said, adding: \"This is what happens in the politics of polarization. Each side plays to its more extreme base. It makes common ground and respectful dialogue harder to achieve. The idea that we're playing a win-lose game, that you're saying if you don't agree with us, we're not even going to have a conversation with you, that attitude chills civil discourse.\"","highlights":"Rep. Patrick Kennedy's support for abortion rights brings criticism from church .\nBishop tells Kennedy not to take communion .\nThe issue is considered much broader than a public rift between the two men .","id":"d6940b1e06e143fe9fcb682e3fdc9e8b6fc853b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. President Obama sent a direct message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weeks before this month's disputed election, Iranian sources said Wednesday. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calls for an end to protests last week at Tehran University. The letter requested dialogue and engagement between the two nations, the sources said. The sources said that Khamenei has yet to reply to the letter but that nonetheless it \"had set the negotiating table in order for both sides to sit around it after the election.\" The White House refused to \"get into the specifics of our different ways of communicating,\" a senior Obama administration official said. \"We have indicated a willingness to talk for a long time and have sought to communicate with the Iranians in a variety of ways,\" the official said. Khamenei made an indirect reference to the letter in his sermon on Friday at Tehran University. \"The U.S. president said that we were waiting for a day like this to see people on the street,\" the Iranian leader said. \"Some people attributed these remarks to Obama, and then they write letters to say we're ready to have ties, that we respect the Islamic Republic, and on the other hand, they make such comments. Which one should we believe?\" One Iranian source said, \"We thought President Obama would send congratulations to President Ahmadinejad,\" and before the election, his senior advisers prepared a response to the anticipated note, which never came. The Iranian source said the election dispute is wasting time on the issue of starting U.S.-Iranian negotiations. Watch how the reported letter is part of a new policy of engagement \u00bb . \"The longer it is delayed,\" the source said, \"the less likely [U.S.-Iranian talks] will happen.\" Another Iranian government official said there is still \"no trust\" between Iran and the United States. The source said he is waiting for \"real change\" even though the Iranian government welcomed the change in tone of the Obama administration before the current election turmoil in Iran. The official went on to cite a recent gesture by Iran toward Obama: the release of journalist Roxana Saberi. The official said Iran accepted Obama's assurances that she was not a spy and had allowed the Iranian citizen to leave the country. Since, under intense scrutiny amid growing concerns over Tehran's violent crackdown on street protests, Obama has sharpened his language on Iran. \"The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days,\" Obama said Tuesday, adding that he strongly condemns \"these unjust actions.\" He has not spoken in support of Ahmadinejad or his main rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose supporters have taken to the streets to protest the results of the June 12 election that gave Ahmadinejad a second term. Obama's letter to Khamenei is in keeping with his publicly stated aim of engagement with Iran and his New Year's message in which he described a new way forward. The Obama administration has \"made it clear that any real dialogue -- multilateral or bilateral -- needed to be authoritative,\" according to the senior administration official. The official noted that the Iranians have yet to respond to a diplomatic outreach made during talks on Iran's nuclear program April 8. At that time, the administration asked the European Union's international policy chief, Javier Solana, to invite Iran to new talks with the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. But the administration's tack toward Iran may be changing, as senior officials in Washington said the Obama administration is seriously considering not extending further invitations to Iranian diplomats for July 4 celebrations overseas. Some invitations had been sent and will not be rescinded, senior administration officials said. The officials said intense discussions on the issue were taking place, but the final decision had not been made. The Obama administration had decided to invite Iranians to the celebrations at overseas posts as part of Obama's policy of engaging the Iranian regime. As part of that engagement, Obama videotaped a message for the Iranian people on the Persian new year, and U.S. officials have engaged members of the Iranian government. CNN's Elise Labott and Dan Lothian contributed to this report.","highlights":"White House refuses to \"get into the specifics,\" administration official says .\nObama's letter requested dialogue and engagement, Iranian sources say .\nSources: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hasn't replied to letter sent before June 12 election .\nKhamenei made an indirect reference to letter in sermon last week .","id":"27b7fea292e26937322b8218db4e91f3ec020f46"} -{"article":"(CareerBuilder.com) -- The importance of references seems to be a hot topic these days. Employers want to make sure they are hiring the right person for the job; but some thwart the process because checking references can be labor-intensive. On the other hand, job seekers provide references they know will give a glowing report, but employers are getting smarter and finding references you didn't provide. So, what's the deal? Do references matter? Do employers even check them anymore? What's the protocol for providing them to a potential employer? Who are the best people to include as references? And, if an employer doesn't call any of your references, is it a bad sign? While the definitive answer to any of these questions depends on the employer, overall, yes, references do still matter. The process has just changed. \"References play a huge role in the hiring process, perhaps now more than ever,\" said Heather R. Huhman, founder and president of Come Recommended, an online community that connects internship and entry-level job candidates with employers.\" Oftentimes, hiring managers fall in love with a candidate on paper and then again in an interview, only to find out through a reference check that none of their previous employers would ever hire them again. By checking a candidate's references, hiring managers save themselves the frustration of hiring a person who is not a good fit for a company. In this economy, where hiring budgets are slim, every hire must be a great fit.\" Provided references are no guarantee . Though the majority of employers do check references, others skip this step. Not only is it labor-intensive to check references for people who might not be poised for a job offer, but Jack Harsh, adjunct professor at the University of Richmond Robins School of Business, said that many employers worry about the risk of liability in rejecting a candidate based on poor references. \"[Hiring] decisions cannot be based on information that is discriminatory in nature, so to avoid any liability, the checks are forgone,\" Harsh said. \"Sadly, the first reference the employer gets in such cases is from colleagues after employment has begun.\" Steve Langerud, director of career development at Depauw University, adds that sometimes, the quality of references is benign. \"Everyone wants to be helpful and supportive to former employees, but in the end, they offer little substance to a new employer,\" he says. \"Legally, they are limited by what they can or want to say about former employees. I think the old formal system of references is dead in most professional fields.\" Langerud warns that just because an employer isn't checking personal references the traditional way doesn't mean he isn't checking references at all. \"Employers are more likely to check the informal, but tangible, behavioral reference sources like LinkedIn, Facebook, credit history [or] criminal history than the more subjective references provided by candidates,\" he said. \"Candidates should be much more intentional about crafting a professional identity that serves the role of a 'reference' but within the context of the work, profession and colleagues you seek to engage. It eliminates the weaknesses inherent in the old style of references that become so watered down they are useless.\" Making the right choices . The last thing you want to do is give an employer useless references, but many job seekers make the mistake of not taking the time to thoughtfully choose the right people to speak on their behalf, said Elaine Varelas, managing partner for Keystone Partners, an outplacement and talent management consulting firm. \"You want people who can speak to your role as a professional, not as a nice neighbor,\" Varelas said. \"Candidates can make their references count by prepping them to discuss their specific skills as they relate to the job and the impact they brought to the job, which can be just the differentiation needed in this highly competitive market.\" Harsh agrees that when he receives a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 with references attached, he gives them virtually no weight. \"They seldom are specific to the role my company seeks and are not meaningful in considering qualifications or traits of successful candidate,\" he said. Finally, when it comes to protocol for submitting references, the process has changed as well. It used to be that applicants sent them in with their other application materials, but now, Varelas says, you should wait to provide references until you are asked. \"Most companies do not want your references until the end of the process and they will let you know when to provide a list of names and contact information. Do not send written references,\" she said. \"These do not offer the highest impact as they are not specific on how you will fit into the job you are pursuing. It is better to spend your time preparing your references for the kinds of questions they will be asked, and what they can do to help you close an offer.\" Helpful hints . Harsh, Varelas and Langerud offer these 10 tips to ensure you do everything right when it comes to providing references: . 1. Include references only when requested by an employer. 2. Carefully consider whom to provide after discussion with the prospective employer. The time to check references is before an offer is made, but after the candidate is either the final candidate or among the final few for the job. 3. Seek references from people who actually know you and your work. Ask for permission to list them as a reference. 4. Ask directly if they can provide you with a positive reference for the position(s) you are seeking. If they hesitate, move on! 5. Prepare your references about who will be calling them and what to focus on when talking about you. Always ask them to call you after they have been called. 6. Prepare your references to speak consistently about your skills, but not identically. Suggest a different highlight for each person. Have 100 percent confidence in what they will say and how they speak about you, or cross them off the list. 7. Provide accurate contact information about your references, and ask your references how they prefer to be contacted (e-mail, phone, etc.). 8. Let your references know what happens to you and the position(s) you applied for. Thank your references. 9. Prepare a LinkedIn site to demonstrate your skills and interests. 10. Participate in professional blogs to create a history of professional involvement in your field that is independent of your work history.","highlights":"Refrences still matter these days, but the process has changed on how they are used .\nOften times an employer will use more informal tools like Facebook and LinkedIn, said an expert .\nMake sure to include references only when requested by an employer, and never before .\nSeek references from people who actually know you and your work, not just personaly .","id":"dee6a56cddd39d68aadae31155342043af7c9a61"} -{"article":"Seattle, Washington (CNN) -- When Amanda Knox's parents head to Italy for closing arguments in their daughter's murder trial they'll be carrying a present they hope desperately she can use soon: a plane ticket home. In that purchase lies one family's entire hope. Curt Knox and Edda Mellas say their daughter is nothing like the person they've seen depicted before and during her trial. They grimace at the description prosecutors have used in court: that Amanda Knox was a resentful American so angry with her British roommate Meredith Kercher that she exacted revenge during a twisted sex misadventure at their home two years ago. Prosecutors say Knox directed then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and another man infatuated with her, Rudy Guede, to hold Kercher down as Knox played with a knife before slashing Kercher's throat. \"She is totally nonviolent, almost a passive person,\" Mellas told CNN in a joint interview with her former husband. So passive was Knox, the parents said, that she couldn't even continue a kickboxing class because she felt it was too violent. She was so caring, they said, that she would make her friends stop a car to let a spider out rather than kill it. Knox was an easy child to raise in Seattle, Washington, along with her younger sisters Deanna and Ashley, her parents said. She took to soccer early on but hit the books as hard as she played. It was on the field that she earned the nickname Foxy Knoxy, though they say it was rarely used and taken out of context when Kercher was found killed to portray their daughter as a sex-hungry party animal. \"It was totally associated to soccer and how she prepared herself as a defender, waiting to take on a striker going down,\" Curt Knox said. \"So how people read this nickname is totally wrong.\" Eventually, though a star player at college, Knox gave up the sport to focus on her education. She knew she wanted to study in Italy and wouldn't be able to leave the team to go abroad. Her mother said she threw herself into jobs to help the family save for the trip, working as a soccer coach, a barista and in a gallery. They recall a young woman far different from the wild party girl depicted by prosecutors, one they said found more enjoyment in going to a coffee house and reading a book than going out to a club. They say she met her former boyfriend and co-accused Sollecito at a classical concert. Yes, they concede, Knox, now 22, and Sollecito say they were smoking marijuana and having sex at his home the night Kercher was killed, but that was as wild as it got. They reject the idea of revenge as a motive for Knox to kill Kercher. Mellas said her daughter e-mailed and called to tell her about her new roommate regularly. Knox told her they got along great and spent time together, going to libraries and a chocolate festival. What has happened in Perugia, Italy, is unfathomable to them. On November 2, 2007, at 4 a.m. in Seattle, Mellas was awakened by the phone. \"Amanda called [and said] 'I hate to wake you up, but something's not right here, I think someone's been in my house,' \" Mellas recalled. The door to the home she shared with Kercher had been ajar when she came home that morning, and when Knox got out of a quick shower, she noticed drops of blood. Kercher's door was locked, and Knox couldn't reach her, she told her mother, adding that Sollecito was calling the police. Later, when officers broke down the door to Kercher's room, Mellas said her daughter struggled to understand what was going on, hanging on the few words of Italian she understood at the time. \"They were screaming 'A foot, a foot,' that's what they could see,\" Mellas recalled Amanda Knox saying. When she learned Kercher was dead in the room, a hysterical Knox called her mother, Mellas remembered. \"We were constantly on the phone,\" she said. \"She was tired, scared, there was a murderer out running around and she was afraid to be alone.\" On the day Knox was arrested, Mellas was flying to Italy to be with her daughter, to comfort her and help her find a new place to live since her home was still a crime scene. But Mellas' plane was diverted to Switzerland, where she switched on her phone and learned that Knox had been charged with murder. \"I felt physically ill, I went to the bathroom to throw up. I was stuck [in Switzerland] for five hours,\" Mellas recalled, beginning to cry. By the time she reached Italy and was allowed to see her daughter, Mellas had already heard news reports that Knox had confessed. She was flabbergasted and confused. See the evidence against Amanda Knox . \"It was horrible. We cried most of the time,\" Mellas recalled of the first meeting. \"But we held each other and it all made sense. She told me what happened in the interrogation, how they asked her to imagine the possibilities. She talked about being hit, screamed at, threatened; it was the most horrible thing she had ever been through in her entire life.\" But even with the way Knox has been treated and portrayed, her parents know they are the lucky parents in this case. \"As parents, the Kercher family received the worst phone call they could get,\" Curt Knox said, adding he believes Kercher has gotten lost in the sensational coverage. \"At least our daughter called us.\" After the arrest, Mellas was sure there was a mix-up or problems with translation that would soon be cleared up. But they weren't. When Guede was later arrested in Germany, police said he had been speaking to a friend on a Skype call monitored by police and had been talking about being at Kercher's house. Mellas and Curt Knox were sure again that everything would be fixed. During the conversation, despite saying that he knew who Amanda Knox was, he never indicated she was at the home the night of the murder. But after being jailed, his story changed, and he pointed the finger at Knox and her then-boyfriend, Sollecito. Her family said they've tried to shield Knox from knowing how high-profile the case has gotten and how people are talking about her, discussing what she wears to court and what kind of person she is. But she does know she may be going to jail for a very long time. During closing arguments, prosecutors asked for her to be sentenced to life in prison, shocking her family who had expected a demand for 30 years. Read about the case against Amanda Knox . Still, at occasional prison visits, Curt Knox and Mellas try to give Knox a light at the end of the tunnel. \"We have to try and put on a face that it is going to work out,\" Mellas said, beginning to cry. \"We keep telling her it's taking way longer than expected but she will get out of there. They will not put an innocent 20-year-old in jail, they just can't.\" They take solace and hold onto the moments the court allows Knox to share with her parents after the trial has recessed each day. \"They allowed us to go into the back room and say goodbye and hug her, tell her we love her,\" Curt Knox said choking up. \"Just those few seconds are worth a lot.\"","highlights":"Parents of Amanda Knox say they still hope murder trial will acquit their daughter .\nThey say they don't recognize the vengeful killer portrayed by the prosecution in Italy .\nKnox's parents say they know they're luckier than parents of victim Meredith Kercher .","id":"db35d9a34acd758ec36a31aeefde20cc0b17d68a"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The Pentagon is making detailed plans to send about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in anticipation of President Obama's decision on the future of the eight-year-old war, a defense official said Tuesday. Obama held a lengthy meeting with top advisers Monday night and said Tuesday that he would announce plans for Afghanistan after the Thanksgiving holiday. A Defense Department official with direct knowledge of the process said there has been no final word on the president's decision. But planners have been tasked with preparing to send 34,000 additional American troops into battle with the expectation that is the number Obama is leaning toward approving, the official said. Obama ordered more than 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in March. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, reportedly has called for up to 40,000 more to wage a counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban, the Islamic militia originally ousted by the U.S. invasion in 2001. The president has weighed several options for bolstering the American contingent, ranging from sending a few thousand troops to sending the 40,000 McChrystal requested. McChrystal was among those who took part in Monday's conference with Obama and other top advisers, which broke up at 10 p.m. Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, were among the other senior officials in the meeting. Obama said Tuesday that the deliberations have been \"comprehensive and extremely useful.\" \"It's going to be important to recognize that in order for us to succeed there, you've got to have a comprehensive strategy that includes civilian and diplomatic efforts,\" he said at a news conference Tuesday with visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The military has planning under way to send these units: three U.S. Army brigades, totaling about 15,000 troops; a Marine brigade with about 8,000 troops; a headquarters element of about 7,000; and between 4,000 and 5,000 support troops -- a total of approximately 34,000 troops, according to a defense official with direct knowledge of Pentagon operations. CNN reported last month that this was the preferred option within the Pentagon. The troops would be dispatched throughout Afghanistan but would be focused mainly on the southern and southeastern provinces, where much of the recent fighting has taken place. Currently, brigades from Fort Drum in upstate New York and Fort Campbell in Kentucky are among those that are next in line to deploy. About 68,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, along with about 45,000 from the NATO alliance. Two U.S. military officials said NATO countries would be asked to contribute more troops to fill the gap between the 34,000 the Pentagon expects Obama to send and the 40,000 McChrystal wanted. The request is expected to come during a December 7 meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell would not discuss specific numbers, but he said NATO would be asked for additional help. \"Clearly, if the president decides to commit additional forces to Afghanistan, there would be an expectation that our allies would also commit additional forces,\" Morrell said. U.S.-led troops invaded Afghanistan in response to the al Qaeda terrorist network's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The invasion overthrew the Taliban, which had allowed al Qaeda to operate from its territory, but most of the top al Qaeda and Taliban leadership escaped the onslaught. Taliban fighters have since regrouped in the mountainous region along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, battling U.S. and Afghan government forces on one side and Pakistani troops on the other. Al Qaeda's top leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, remain at large and are suspected to be hiding in the same region. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 900 Americans and nearly 600 allied troops. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Tuesday suggests that the U.S public is split over whether more troops should be sent to Afghanistan. Fifty percent of those polled said they would support such a decision, with 49 percent opposed. The poll found that 66 percent of Americans believe the war is going badly, up 11 percentage points from a similar survey in March. Overall support for the war has fallen to 45 percent, with 52 percent opposed. iReporters sound off; share your views on sending more troops in Afghanistan . Afghanistan was among the topics Obama and Singh discussed in their meetings Tuesday. Singh said the international community needs \"to sustain its engagement in Afghanistan, to help it emerge as a modern state.\" \"The forces of terrorism in our region pose a grave threat to the entire civilized world and have to be defeated,\" he said. \"President Obama and I have decided to strengthen our cooperation in the area of counterterrorism.\" India is one Afghanistan's biggest international donors, contributing $1.2 billion in aid. That involvement has been met with suspicion in Pakistan, India's nuclear rival in South Asia. But it has helped the United States by sharing some of the burden of stabilizing the country and providing civilian support. In addition, several leading analysts have argued that settling the decades-old tensions between India and Pakistan would allow both sides to pull troops off their borders, giving Pakistan more resources to battle the Taliban along its northwest frontier. \"I think that will certainly be at the center of the agenda this week,\" Nicholas Burns, a former State Department official, said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" U.S. prospects in Afghanistan depend partly \"on convincing Pakistan to be more cooperative in the fight against those terrorist groups.\" \"The United States is not going to be an outright mediator between Pakistan and India, but we can quietly, behind the scenes, push them to reduce their problems,\" Burns said. CNN's Elaine Quijano and Mike Mount contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: NATO allies will also be asked to send more troops, officials say .\nAnnouncement on troop increase to come after Thanksgiving .\nObama met with national security team Monday night to discuss Afghanistan .\nObama wanted clarification on how, when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility .","id":"cf0489a929ed06333a9179438c01f3fb44025a2a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After the fire, all that was left of Jonathan Reyes' massive Hot Wheels collection was a piece of metal that once was part of a toy car. Jonathan Reyes shows off his new Hot Wheels cars sent by Mattel after they heard his own toys were lost in a fire. But on Wednesday, the arrival of two cardboard boxes at his grandparents' house sent 7-year-old Jonathan flying to the door, said his mother, Jan Reyes. Mattel, the company that makes Hot Wheels, sent racetracks, play sets, stickers, folders, T-shirts, hats and hundreds of toy cars. \"He was speechless,\" Reyes said. \"He didn't say anything. He just smiled. He opened it up. It was like Christmas. All of us were bawling, crying. He was so happy.\" Jonathan, who has autism, meticulously collected more than 500 Hot Wheels. But all that was destroyed when his Sylmar home, along with hundreds of other structures, were burned down by wildfires in Los Angeles County. Toys are like anchors for children with autism, psychologists say. They like to play with the same toys, eat familiar foods and be in a consistent environment. When faced with unpredictable changes, they can feel frustrated or anxious and become disruptive, according to experts. On Tuesday, Jonathan and his parents searched for his toys among piles of debris, but they found only a piece of a Hot Wheels car and a rusty tricycle. The rest of Jonathan's toys were reduced to ashes. Watch the Reyes family return to their home. \u00bb . Mattel, with headquarters in El Segundo, California, wanted to get involved after hearing on CNN that Jonathan, who had been collecting Hot Wheels since he was 2, had lost everything. Looking for hope in the ashes. \"We wanted to send as many as possible,\" said Deborah Dicochea, associate manager of the Mattel Children's Foundation, which sends toys globally to children affected by crisis. \"With autistic children, they like sorting them, arranging them.\" Offers of toys, a computer, resources to connect to other families dealing with autism and financial donations have been pouring into the family. \"It's wonderful, because he literally lost every toy he had,\" Reyes said. \"He had a personal attachment to all of his toys. Part of autism is they have a little connection to everything and his biggest thing was to his cars. For Mattel to send him the cars and tracks, it's just incredible. He is so happy.\" The toll of the disruption to Jonathan's life is starting to become evident. He has been throwing more frequent tantrums as his parents are trying to establish a new routine. But the toys definitely have helped, Reyes said. \"The cars were like gold,\" she said.","highlights":"Box full of Hot Wheels sent to boy with autism who lost everything .\nFamiliar toys are important for children with autism .\nIt was \"like Christmas\" to receive donations, mother says .","id":"783667c237c4ef0b72ebb72ef72a8c2641c8a0a5"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- South American nations have always played a major part in the world of football, and when it comes to the World Cup they are considered among the main contenders every time. But this time around there may be a new threat from the continent making its mark internationally. Nelson Valdez (left) celebrates his goal against Venezuela, Tuesday, to keep Paraguay top in qualifying. Out of 18 World Cup Finals to date, a South American team has won the competition nine times, demonstrating that although Europe may be where the money is, the other side of the Atlantic has the raw talent. Generally speaking, however, the continent's dominance has been largely down to two countries: Brazil, who have won the title an astonishing five times; and Argentina, who have made it to the tournament's final match four times and taken the trophy home twice. The rest of the continent has rarely played a major part in the proceedings. Now, though, as the qualifying stages for the 2010 World Cup Finals gather speed, the two giants are being put to shame by a footballing nation that has, until now, had very limited success at international events: Paraguay. Having only qualified for the finals seven times, and never made it further than the second round of the competition, Paraguay aren't usually seen as a serious threat to the big international teams, but this year the bookmakers may have to take a serious look at the small country from the center of the continent, with a population of just 6.1 million. Following Tuesday night's 2-0 victory over Venezuela, Paraguay cemented their position at the top of the South American qualifying group, with 17 points from eight matches -- four points clear of the faltering Argentina and Brazil, who share second place. So far in the group, the Paraguayans have recorded a 2-0 home win over Brazil and managed to secure a 1-1 draw away to the recent Olympic champions Argentina, proving they can keep up with the best in the world, even without one of their star players, striker Roque Santa Cruz, who was injured for the Buenos Aires fixture. So, how are they managing it? And can they continue this form through the qualifiers and into the finals themselves? Since 2006, the team has undergone some radical changes. A lot of big names in the squad and behind the scenes left the team following Paraguay's relatively poor performance in the World Cup Finals in Germany. So it was goodbye to the old, including Paraguay's most capped player, Carlos Gamarra and coach, Anibal Ruiz, who has been replaced by Argentine Gerardo \"Tata\" Martino. But this left the door open for a whole new face for the nation's team. And the new breed of players clearly have a lot of skill, impressing people all over the world. Players like Santa Cruz, for the English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, and Edgar Barreto, an integral part of the Reggina Calcio squad in Italy's Serie A, represent Paraguay's swelling talent in the major European leagues. The Paraguayan presence in the world's top leagues, shows the depth of their squad, and it also means players will be given the benefit of experiencing top level football on a regular basis; something that can only aid the development of an already talented player. The style the team plays -- emphasizing a strength in attack, boosted by Santa Cruz and his gifted strike partners, Club America's Salvador Cabanas and Borussia Dortmund's Nelson Valdez -- hints at a tactical change, as well. In the past, the Paraguayans have relied heavily on a solid defense to secure results, and not always had the goals to back that up. Now, although the defense is still strong -- featuring Boca Juniors regular Claudio Morel Rodriguez, and the powerful partnership of Paulo Da Silva and Julio Cesar Caceres -- there is some flair up front, which the manager is capitalizing on. So, with an influx of good players, who are getting the necessary top level experience and a manager who knows how to get the most out of his team, this may be an opportunity for a new country to step to the foreground from South America and end the dominance of Brazil and Argentina. As the table stands now, Paraguay are looking good to qualify, and if they can exercise the same level of skill they have shown in the opening eight matches, they could top the group and head to South Africa as the team to watch in the finals.","highlights":"In the past Brazil and Argentina have dominated South American football .\nParaguay are challenging, beating Brazil and topping World Cup qualifying group .\nThe team has had a reshape since 2006, many new, talented players .\nExperience of playing in major leagues across the world helps player development .","id":"c0e55fdcf74c7eb093dc57bdf325c7336e468724"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Doctors chose a woman who survived a shotgun wound to her face as the first recipient of a face transplant after treating her for nearly four years. This image projects what Connie Culp, 46, may look like two years after the face transplant. Connie Culp knew of the Cleveland Clinic's interest in face transplants and approached the medical staff, doctors said at a news conference Tuesday. Dr. Maria Siemionow, the Cleveland, Ohio, hospital's director of plastic surgery research and head of microsurgery training, had more than 20 years of experience in complex transplants. By 2004, Siemionow was looking for the right candidate for a face transplant who wasn't doing it for vanity. \"They are not looking to go out on the street and be beautiful,\" Siemionow told CNN in a 2006 interview. \"Some of these patients, when they were interviewed just said 'I want to walk on the street and just make sure I am not sticking out.' They just want to have a normal face.\" The doctors examined the patient's history, motivation and ability to understand the risks of the transplant. And they found Culp to be an ideal candidate. Five years after a gun blast shattered her nose, cheeks and upper lip, she had a band of scar tissue extending across her face. \"The most devastating of all was the fact that society had rejected her and children were afraid of her,\" said Siemionow, who led the December 10 transplant operation. See before and after photos of Culp \u00bb . Culp, a mother of two and a grandmother, told her doctors she could understand that some adults would shun her. \"But what really bothered her the most were children -- the children that shied away from her,\" said Dr. Frank Papay, the chairman of Institute of Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. \"That sense of innocence, and her not being able to see that innocence really, really affected her.\" The shooting . In September 2004, Culp's estranged husband shot her in the face in an attempted murder-suicide outside a restaurant in Hopedale, Ohio, according to CNN affiliate WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio. Culp was 8 feet away from her husband, Thomas Culp, when he pulled the shotgun's trigger. He then turned the weapon on himself, according to local news reports. They both survived. Thomas Culp was sent to prison. Despite her wounds, she told WTOV in 2008, \"I'll always love him. He was my first love.\" At the same time, Culp said, she felt angry. \"I wouldn't be human if I didn't. I forgive him, but I have to go on, you know?\" After the shooting, Culp recuperated in a hospital and in a personal care home for two years. Culp told WTOV she had vision problems and was learning Braille. Her approach to life was to \"keep motivated. Don't sleep your life away -- that could have happened. I could be depressed. I'm not.\" As she spoke, her breaths emitted a small whistle from her tracheotomy tube, which protruded from a surgical opening in her neck. \"I cannot smell. I will never be able to smell,\" she said in the interview. Culp was wrong. How doctors transplanted a face . The doctors at the Cleveland Clinic analyzed Culp's injuries using CAT scans and developed plastic models of her skull. They practiced face transplant operation on cadavers several times. Culp met with the hospital's surgeons, ethical committee members and psychiatry and psychology specialists who determined that she was an ideal candidate for the surgery. Then, the wait for the right donor began in 2008. \"We thought we were going to wait a long time because we had to find a Caucasian female in her mid 40s to match Connie, so we expected a year before we were able to find a donor,\" said Papay, who is also head of craniofacial surgery. \"Well, three to four months later, I got a call at around midnight from Dr. Siemionow saying 'I think we have a donor.'\" The family of a brain dead woman granted permission to use her face. He likened the preparation for the December transplant to a rocket launch, saying, \"Everything was prepared beforehand very, very, very carefully.\" Surgeons sheared out the donor's mid-facial area including the lower eyelids, cheekbones, the nose, some of the sinus and the whole upper jaw, with the blood vessels. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta discuss the face transplant \u00bb . When it came time to move the donor's parts to Culp, they had to see that the donor and recipient parts aligned. \"One of the ways you can tell that is how your upper teeth fit to the lower teeth,\" Papay said. \"We knew it was like a hand in a glove, exactly where we needed to be.\" They secured the bones into Culp's face using titanium plates and screws. Then the microvascular surgeons attached the vessels. They tucked the scars around Culp's ears or underneath her eyelid, where they would not be visible. How the doctors operated \u00bb . Doctors added more skin than needed in case of tissue rejection. After monitoring Culp's progress, doctors say they will remove the excess tissue and tighten her jawline in future surgeries. Contrary to science fiction and movies, the surgery did not make Culp look like the donor. \"If you just took the skin and transplanted it to the other patient, the bony structure is different,\" Papay said. \"If you took the bony structure and transplanted it on the other side, it ends up being a composite. So, it doesn't look like the donor. It doesn't look like the recipient. It ends up looking like someone new.\" Recovery . At this point, all the transplanted parts of Culp's face are functioning except for her facial nerves, which are growing about an inch a month. Doctors anticipate Culp will be able to have full facial function -- and more expression -- by this winter. In physical therapy, she learns to train her nerves, make facial expressions, smile and purse her lips, doctors said. \"If you cry or you laugh or you smile, it's not like you think about it. You just emotionally do it. So that's a wait and see for us,\" Papay said. \"As far as the emotional one, that's really the key issue. A far as when she laughs, cries and grimaces and gets angry at you...what's her face going to look like? That's the exciting part about it.\" Five months after the first face transplant in the United States, Culp lives at home. She has checkups with the medical staff once or twice a month and will do so for the next year, her doctors said. Initially, Culp used immunosuppressants that transplanted kidney, liver or heart patients would normally take. Transplant patients must take immune-suppressing drugs throughout their lifetime to prevent tissue rejection. But she showed improvements that enabled the doctors to reduce her regimen to one medication, doctors said. \"She's taking her medications,\" Siemionow said. \"We know she is compliant. She cares about how she looks. She has her hair done in a new color...She is full of life. She does her push-ups. She's on the treadmill. What else can I say?\"","highlights":"Face transplant recipient was shot in 2004 by her husband .\nIn a 2008 interview she told CNN affiliate that she forgave her husband .\nDoctors say Connie Culp fit criteria for ideal face transplant recipient .","id":"229989c9544ee95bd9a50e8984e16706631403aa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two people were executed Tuesday in China for their part in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six babies and sickened about 300,000 others, state-run media reported. Zhang Yujun was executed for endangering public safety and Geng Jinping was executed for producing and selling toxic food, the Xinhua news agency said. The tainted formula came to light in September 2008, after several babies fell ill from drinking formula that contained melamine. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Some Chinese dairy plants added the chemical to milk products so they would appear to have a higher protein level. The tainted milk caused kidney stones and urinary tract problems in hundreds of thousands of children. The 22 Chinese dairy producers that made the formula have offered compensation to victims' families. In all, 21 people were tried and sentenced in January for their roles in the scandal, Xinhua reported. Among them, Zhang and Geng were sentenced to death, and most others received at least 15 years in prison.","highlights":"Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping executed for their roles in toxic milk scandal .\nIn all, 21 people were tried and sentenced in January for their roles in the scandal .\nTainted milk killed at least six babies and sickened about 300,000 others .\nDrinking formula held melamine, a toxin dairy plants used to make protein levels appear higher .","id":"b33da49470a6c0e286ec68077284877582cc7843"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The American Psychological Association concluded Wednesday that there is little evidence that efforts to change a person's sexual orientation from gay or lesbian to heterosexual are effective. The report looks at 87 studies conducted between 1960 and 2007. In addition, the 138-page report -- covering 87 peer-reviewed studies -- said that such efforts may cause harm. \"Contrary to claims of sexual orientation change advocates and practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation,\" said Judith M. Glassgold, chairwoman of the task force that presented the report at the group's annual meeting in Toronto, Canada. The Washington-based association represents more than 150,000 members. \"At most, certain studies suggested that some individuals learned how to ignore or not act on their homosexual attractions. Yet, these studies did not indicate for whom this was possible, how long it lasted or its long-term mental health effects. Also, this result was much less likely to be true for people who started out only attracted to people of the same sex.\" In response, the group's governing Council of Representatives passed a resolution Wednesday urging mental health professionals not to recommend to their clients that they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or any other methods. The group's Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation reached its conclusion after its review of 87 studies conducted between 1960 and 2007 and finding \"serious methodological problems\" in the vast majority of them. Those few studies that did have \"high-quality\" evidence \"show that enduring change to an individual's sexual orientation is uncommon,\" it said. In addition, the report cited evidence that efforts to switch a person's sexual orientation through aversive treatments might cause harm, including loss of sexual feeling, suicidality, depression and anxiety. Many who tried to change and failed \"described their experiences as a significant cause of emotional and spiritual distress and negative self-image,\" it said. The six-member task force was appointed two years ago to address concerns about \"efforts to promote the notion that sexual orientation can be changed through psychotherapy or approaches that mischaracterize homosexuality as a mental disorder.\" The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1975. The task force noted that some people attempt to change their sexual orientation because it conflicts with their religious beliefs, and recommended that their mental health care providers help them \"explore possible life paths that address the reality of their sexual orientation, reduce the stigma associated with homosexuality, respect the client's religious beliefs, and consider possibilities for a religiously and spiritually meaningful and rewarding life.\" \"In other words,\" said Glassgold, \"we recommend that psychologists be completely honest about the likelihood of sexual orientation change, and that they help clients explore their assumptions and goals with respect to both religion and sexuality.\" Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, a network of more than 250 ministries that he said \"reach out to men and women and families that are affected by what we call 'unwanted same-sex attraction'\" disagrees. He offered himself as proof that such efforts can work. \"The fact is that there are tens of thousands of men and women just like me who once identified as gay,\" Chambers said in a telephone interview. \"For me and for these people, the truth is change is possible.\" Chambers said his transformation from gay man began more than 18 years ago, when he attended a support group at the organization he now leads. Chambers, who said he married a woman nearly 12 years ago, has written a book, \"Leaving Homosexuality,\" which was published last month. \"You can't refute a personal story,\" he said, adding that about a third of those who try to switch their sexual orientation through the group's ministries wind up doing so. \"We're not talking a light switch that you turn on and off, we're talking about very deep and complex issues that, I think, take years to resolve.\" Though all mainstream health and mental health organizations concluded years ago that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, the American Psychological Association formed the task force to work on the report two years ago after noting a resurgence of groups that identified homosexuality as a defect or spiritual or moral failing.","highlights":"American Psychological Association: Trying to change orientation can be harmful .\nGroup urges mental health professionals not to advocate changing orientation .\nHomosexuality de-listed as mental disorder in '75, but some programs still treat it .\nOfficial with one such program says, \"Change is possible\"","id":"d4c77a6da24a368fd4a2f0d1bf61c1f72928fe4f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are detailing their plans for solving the country's energy crisis and criticizing each other's proposals this week as they campaign in battleground states. Here's a look at the candidates' energy proposals: . Overall strategy . McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has proposed a national energy strategy that would rely on the technological prowess of American industry and science. McCain has said he would work to reduce carbon emissions 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. He has said he would commit $2 billion annually for 15 years to advance clean coal technology. He also has pledged to oppose a windfall profits tax on oil companies that, according to his campaign Web site, \"will ultimately result in increasing our dependence on foreign oil and hinder investment in domestic exploration.\" McCain also believes the U.S. needs to deploy SmartMeter technologies, which collect real-time data on the electricity use of individual homes and businesses. Meanwhile, Obama laid out his comprehensive energy plan Monday in Lansing, Michigan. \"If I am president, I will immediately direct the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a single, overarching goal -- in 10 years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela,\" the presumptive Democratic nominee told a crowd. Obama's plan also would invest $150 billion over the next 10 years and leverage billions more in private capital to build a new energy economy that he said would harness American energy and create 5 million new jobs. He also called on businesses, government and the American people to meet the goal of reducing U.S. demand for electricity by 15 percent by the end of the next decade and said he would modernize the national utility grid. Another prominent feature in the plan: Immediately give every working family in America a $1,000 energy rebate and pay for it from oil company profits. Offshore drilling . McCain: Proposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling as part of his plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help combat rising gas prices. Would let individual states decide whether to explore drilling possibilities. Opposes drilling in some wilderness areas -- including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and said those places must be left undisturbed. Obama: Opposed new offshore drilling, but later shifted to say that he would consider it if it were part of a larger strategy to lower energy costs. Supports bipartisan energy plan from the Senate that combines alternative energy innovation, financial, nuclear energy and drilling proposals. Effort by five Democrats and five Republicans to break Congress' energy impasse would allow expanded offshore oil exploration and embrace ambitious energy efficiency and efforts to develop alternative fuels. Believes oil companies should drill on the 68 million acres they have access to but haven't used and would require oil companies that will not drill to give up their leases. Strategic oil reserves . McCain advocates suspending the purchase of foreign oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during periods of high prices to reduce demand. Obama called for tapping into strategic oil reserves as part of his plan to provide relief from high gas prices. (He previously said he was opposed to using the strategic reserves, but on Monday he proposed selling 70 million barrels of oil from the reserves to lower gas prices). Cars and driving . McCain: Proposed a $300 million award for \"the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.\" Called for the suspension of the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4-cent-a-gallon diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Says the lost revenue would be paid for by money from the general fund. Obama: Would provide $4 billion in loans and tax credits to American auto plants and manufacturers so that they can retool factories and build fuel-efficient cars; would put 1 million 150-mpg, plug-in hybrids on U.S. roads within six years and would give consumers a $7,000 tax credit to buy fuel-efficient cars. Nuclear energy . McCain: Calls for building new nuclear reactors, saying barriers to nuclear energy are political, not technological. Would put a plan in place to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 -- with the ultimate goal of 100 new plants. Would provide for safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and give host states or localities a proprietary interest so when advanced recycling technologies turn used fuel into a valuable commodity, the public would share in the economic benefits. Obama: Says he'll find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste. In Democratic debate earlier this year, he said, \"We should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix.\" Renewable energy . McCain: Would commit $2 billion annually to advance clean coal technologies. Calls for a permanent tax credit, which he says will \"simplify the tax code, reward activity in the U.S., and make us more competitive with other countries,\" according to his campaign Web site. Encourages development of low-carbon fuels -- wind, hydro and solar power. Obama: Would require 10 percent of U.S. energy come from renewable sources by the end of his first presidential term. The plan would extend the Production Tax Credit for five years to encourage the production of renewable energy. Create five first-of-a-kind, coal-fired demonstration plants that would capture and store carbon dioxide emissions and invest in technology that will allow for more coal use. Climate change . McCain: Proposes a bipartisan plan to address the problem of climate change and stimulate the development and use of advanced technologies. It is a market-based approach that would set caps on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and provide industries with tradable credits. Obama: Calls for a reduction of carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 by using a market-based cap-and-trade system. Would create what his campaign calls a \"Global Energy Forum\" and re-engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. CNN's Ed Hornick, Kerith McFadden and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sen. Barack Obama lays out comprehensive energy plan this week .\nObama vows to eliminate the need for Mideastern, Venezuelan oil in 10 years .\nSen. John McCain proposes an energy strategy relying on technology and science .\nMcCain says the federal government should lift restrictions on offshore drilling .","id":"d36eec6aaeeeb1d0c489a401c2668f7c1a9e7b62"} -{"article":"SHENANDOAH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Crystal Dillman says she will never understand why a group of teenage boys beat her fianc\u00e9 to death. She says she will spend the rest of her life seeking answers -- and justice -- for the man she has lost as she struggles alone to raise her three young children. \"My life is forever destroyed,\" said Dillman, who was 24 at the time of her fianc\u00e9's death. \"My family is forever destroyed.\" Her fianc\u00e9, Luis Ramirez, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, was walking down the street in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, on July 12, 2008, with Dillman's half-sister, who is white. A fight broke out between him and a group of white high school football players. He died from his injuries two days later, leaving a small community stunned at the brutality of the crime. A central issue in the case is race in a town with a reputation for being an ethnic melting pot. Witness Eileen Burke said she heard the group call Ramirez a \"spic.\" One of the boys who was charged as a juvenile, Brian Scully, admitted telling Ramirez to \"go home, you Mexican motherf---er.\" Residents speak out about the crime, racial overtones . Scully was charged with ethnic intimidation. Another teen pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations in a plea deal. But two teens who faced a local jury were acquitted of charges of ethnic intimidation. Dillman doesn't doubt that the attack was racially motivated. \"They said some racist remarks to him,\" Dillman said of the teens. \"Truly, in my heart, I believe they beat him up because he was Latino.\" Many in Shenandoah deny that race played a role and say it was just a street fight gone wrong. The young men involved were ordinary high school students -- good kids, according to their families, friends and coaches. Shenandoah resident interrupts CNN interview . It took almost two weeks for arrests to be made. But on July 25, Colin J. Walsh, 17, and Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation. Derrick M. Donchak, 18, was charged as an adult with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Walsh, who admitted throwing a punch that left Ramirez unconscious, got straight A's in school and ran track. His father says he was never a troublemaker. See photos of key figures in the case . But how do ordinary kids get caught up in such a brutal incident? Experts say everyone has biases, and violent instincts are common, especially in young adults. Young offenders . \"Hate is part of our culture,\" said Jack Levin of the Brudnick Center on Violence at Northeastern University. \"It transcends generations, it's widely shared, and it's learned from an early age,\" Levin said. \"Even otherwise decent, honorable people can be pulled into it.\" Jack McDevitt of Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice said, \"We all carry around biases with us, and it's not the extraordinary monster that decides to act on it. Generally speaking, it's someone more like us and our children than a member of the [Ku Klux] Klan.\" Research conducted by both Levin and McDevitt shows that there are three major types of hate crime offenders: . \u2022 \"Thrill seekers\" who look for excitement and power in attacking a person they perceive as different. \u2022 \"Retaliators\" who seek revenge for a real or perceived crime against someone similar to the attacker. \u2022 \"Defenders\" who are trying to protect their neighborhood or way of life. Perhaps the most expected type is also the rarest: an offender who may be a member of a group like the KKK and has a deep-seated hatred of a specific ethnic group. \"Hate criminals, most of them young men, believe they are carrying out the fervent, unspoken wishes of their communities,\" said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. McDevitt says offenders often \"believe other people share their biases ... everybody feels the way they do, or at least the majority.\" By taking action, he says, they think \"they're being heroic while others are scared.\" Communities most likely to experience a hate crime have a \"special combination of ethnic homogeneity and a rapid in-migration of groups perceived to be outsiders,\" according to Donald Green, a professor at Yale University. He says a \"flashpoint\" can occur \"when there's a boundary-crossing.\" For example, \"an inter-ethnic, inter-sex relationship on public display.\" Offenders sense that an outside group is crossing a boundary, and when women are involved, it can trigger a defensive reaction, especially among young men. Shenandoah's rich immigrant heritage has long been a source of pride in the former coal-mining town, and families have held tight to their cultural traditions for generations. But an influx of Latinos in the late 1990s brought some discomfort. Cheap housing and jobs in agriculture and construction drew undocumented immigrants -- among legal Latino residents and citizens -- to a community that was struggling economically. Crimes against Latinos rising . FBI statistics show that anti-Latino crimes are on the rise. There were 595 anti-Latino crimes in 2007, up almost 40 percent from the 426 crimes in 2003; the Latino population in America grew only 14 percent during that time. In December, Ecuadorean Jose Osvaldo Sucuzha\u00f1ay died after he was beaten with a baseball bat in Brooklyn, New York. One month earlier, a group of seven teenagers with a history of harassing Latinos went out looking for \"Mexicans to f--- up\" and fatally stabbed Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue, New York. FBI figures from 2007 show that anti-Latino attacks account for about 8 percent of all hate crimes. About 35 percent of hate crimes were directed at blacks, 16 percent at homosexuals and 13 percent at Jews. But experts say hate crimes in general are underreported. States are not required to report those figures to the FBI. And it can also be hard for law enforcement and prosecutors to prove that a perpetrator's motive was hate, especially if a robbery occurs or the attacker had a prior relationship with the victim. Often, the victims themselves -- especially Latinos who may not be in the United States legally -- don't report the crimes and may mistrust the police. McDevitt says many victims may not realize or want to acknowledge that they have been the target of a hate crime. Experts say communities can heal after hate crimes occur, and even prevent them from happening altogether, if local leaders take certain steps. \"Different people need to be welcomed,\" McDevitt said. Donald Green says a community can portray change as positive, \"saying, 'we've got more great restaurants, more people who work hard, more people who are family-oriented,' \" for example. Still struggling . Eventually, Piekarsky was convicted of simple assault and consumption of alcohol, and Donchak was convicted of simple assault, and three counts of corruption of a minor, providing alcohol to minors and consumption of alcohol. The jury acquitted Piekarsky and Donchak of ethnic intimidation charges. Piekarsky was sentenced to between six and 23 months in prison and Donchak from seven to 23 months. Walsh pleaded guilty to violating Ramirez's civil rights. More than a year after Ramirez's death, Shenandoah is still struggling. Civil rights officials at the Department of Justice are investigating the death and the actions of the Shenandoah police officers who urged the boys to get their stories straight before talking to investigators. But there is no closure for Crystal Dillman. \"It's not done for me,\" she said, \"not by a long shot. That's not justice at all. Not even close.\"","highlights":"Small town stunned by death of Mexican immigrant after fight with white teens .\nFianc\u00e8e: \"Truly, in my heart, I believe they beat him up because he was Latino\"\n\"Hate is part of our culture,\" expert says .\nWatch CNN Presents \"Latino in America\" tonight at 9 ET on CNN TV .","id":"7f1f17dcf07a299d8d7bd843adc12a77b29534e4"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Shoes tell a lot about a person. If you stumbled into my closet, you would probably think I was a security guard, a construction worker or a Nurse Ratched wannabe. My taste in shoes tends to be boxy, low-heeled and sturdy. If the equipment isn't cleaned properly, you could be at risk for infection when you get a pedicure. So it probably doesn't surprise you to learn that when it comes to pedicures, I am hardly a nail salon enabler. Unfortunately, in some sort of twisted cosmic comedy, both my teen and my tween daughters are pedicure addicts. To pedicure addicts, there is nothing better than being seated in those massive padded massage chairs, chin deep in fashion magazines, while some woman bathes, chisels, files and paints their toes. And up until now, the only thing I worried about was how much the extra flower motif on her big toe was going to cost me. Now, I have plenty of other stuff to worry about. Dr. Dina Tsentserensky, a podiatrist in New York, made it clear. \"I definitely see patients that have had problems as a result of getting a pedicure,\" she said. \"I guess the most common is fungal nails.\" Fungal nails!!! I really don't want to pay for that. The National Institutes of Health, unfortunately, describes fungal nail in less-than-clear terms: Fungal nail infection is an infection of the nails by a fungus. Prescription treatments are only about 50 percent effective, and most of these infections usually require the loss of the infected nail itself, the NIH Web site says. Cuts, scrapes and some other infections are also common results of seemingly soothing foot romps. Tsentserensky thinks it's nothing new. \"I think it's a chronic problem that has been going on for a while,\" she said. \"People just maybe chose to ignore it or don't pay attention as much as they should.\" Anyone who did pay attention could have known about some of those risks eight years ago. That's when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported finding a nasty infection that hit more than 100 pedicure patients. The culprit: a less-than-sterile footbath screen. The result: an infection called mycobacterium fortuitum. That mouthful of a malady left these customers, most of them women, with prolonged boils on their lower legs and some long-term scars. Although that report prompted nail salons to clean the screens on those foot baths more often, it doesn't mean that in the land of pedicure pampering, you can just relax and enjoy the polishing. Tsentserensky's chief advice is to be on high cleanliness alert. \"I tell patients to make sure that the bathtubs are being cleaned properly, that they are using enough time in between so the disinfectant has time to work,\" she said. And the magic timeframe, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is about 10 minutes between clients. The EPA also stresses that to ensure the safest conditions, the tubs need to be cleaned with an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant, which means the bottle itself will have a EPA registration number listed somewhere on the label. But it's not just the tubs that need to be clean. So do those instruments. \"Make sure that instruments are getting sterilized properly,\" Tsentserensky cautions, \"that they are using a sterilizer or an autoclave to properly sanitize the instruments or using the liquids for the proper periods of time.\" Timing is also important, but that's a condition that's on your side. Don't get a pedicure right after you've shaved your legs, had laser hair removal or have any cuts or bites on your legs. Any opening in the skin is an invitation that you might not want to be extending. And finally, make sure you can communicate with your nail technician to ensure he or she is taking the proper precautions to make your pedicure a stress-free experience and, more important, to ensure that the only thing you're taking with you when you leave that salon is the pretty polish.","highlights":"Some people get fungal nails or infections from pedicures .\nMake sure that instruments are getting sterilized properly .\nTubs need to be cleaned with an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant .","id":"eb896392de868bbebbbafebbec8937afdd9967bc"} -{"article":"One doctor says the study \"very clearly shows that autism did not arrive through a vaccine.\" A new study published in the January 2008 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry found the prevalence of autism cases in California children continued to rise after most vaccine manufacturers started to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in 1999, suggesting that the chemical was not a primary cause of the disorder. Researchers from the State Public Health Department found that the autism rates in children rose continuously during the study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative, thimerosal, has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, except for some flu shots. The latest findings failed to convince some parents and advocacy groups, who have long blamed mercury, a neurotoxin, for the disorder. For years, parents have been concerned that a mercury-containing vaccine preservative may play a role in autism. But a study conducted in California found that autism rates increased even after thimerosal was removed from most vaccines. The study authors say this is evidence that thimerosal does not cause autism, although advocacy groups say it's too soon to determine whether autism rates have been affected. Do these findings suggest that autism isn't linked to mercury in vaccines? Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent: Let me explain. In 1999, manufacturers began removing thimerosal - which is a mercury-based preservative - from vaccines. Some people believed autism would decrease as a result, because they thought the two were connected. A new study in the Archives of General Psychiatry says this just didn't happen. Researchers looked at cases of autism in California after 1999. They reasoned that if mercury exposure in vaccines was a major cause of autism, the number of affected kids should have dropped after thimerosal was removed. Just the opposite happened. From 2004 to 2007, when exposure to thimerosal dropped significantly for 3- to 5-year-olds, the autism rate continued to go up, from 3 per 1,000 children to 4 per 1,000 children in California. A child psychiatrist who supported the study said it \"very clearly shows that autism did not arrive through a vaccine.\" But advocacy groups say it's too soon to determine whether autism rates were affected by removing thimerosal from vaccines. The National Vaccine Information Center says the study doesn't include children under the age of 3, which they say is the only group that was never exposed to mercury in vaccines. It says thimerosal wasn't completely off the shelves until 2002 or 2003. Their main point is that mercury is a neurotoxin, so why take a chance by putting it in vaccines? What do scientists think causes autism? As many as one in every 166 children in this country is found to have autism, and doctors still don't know why. Doctors point to genetics and environment as culprits, but it could be more complicated than that. The latest research shows these children are not necessarily born with autism but with the potential to develop it. What exactly are these outside factors? It's hard to pinpoint. What we eat, what we breathe, what we drink -- all these things could play a role. Some doctors say the increase is due to a change in the way the condition is diagnosed kids who were once labeled mentally retarded are now being labeled as autistic. What are possible signs of autism in your child? Doctors are now looking for signs of autism in children as young as 18 to 24 months. Some red flags that indicate your child may have autism: no babbling or pointing by 12 months, no single words by 16 months, no brief phrases by 24 months, loss of language or social skills. If you see any of these signs, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends seeing a pediatric neurologist, developmental pediatrician or child psychologist. What led companies to remove thimerosal from vaccines to begin with? Several things pushed companies in this direction. Over the past decade, more and more attention was given to the health effects of mercury on humans. And then in the '90s, the CDC added new vaccines to the list of routine shots that children should get. Some of them used thimerosal as a preservative. This was happening while the government was trying to decrease our exposure to mercury. So the FDA began looking into the issue. In 1997, Congress passed a bill that mandated review of products containing mercury, which led manufacturers to begin removing thimerosal from vaccines two years later.","highlights":"Removal of thimerosal from most vaccines hasn't reduced the number of autism cases diagnosed in the state of California.","id":"102eb8311fc40d22bd42ad73d4db290c70c19bc5"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An advisory panel is recommending a major step up in protection for health workers dealing with patients suspected or confirmed to have H1N1 influenza. One expert says that based on current knowledge, N95 respirators offer health workers the best protection. The Institute of Medicine said Thursday, in recommendations requested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that loose paper masks are inadequate because the workers could still breathe in the virus. Instead, health workers should switch to N95 respirators that form an airtight seal around the nose and mouth. If properly fitted and worn correctly, N95 respirators filter out at least 95 percent of particles as small as 0.3 micrometers, which is smaller than influenza viruses, the report notes. The institute provides independent, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, private entities and the public. It is one of four groups that make up the National Academies. The study released Thursday was requested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. \"Scientists do not know to what extent flu viruses spread through the air or whether infection requires physical contact with contaminated fluids or surfaces,\" a summary of the report says. It calls for \"a boost in research to answer these questions and to design and develop better protective equipment that would enhance workers' comfort, safety and ability to do their jobs.\" \"Based on what we currently know about influenza, well-fitted N95 respirators offer health care workers the best protection against inhalation of viral particles,\" said committee chairman Kenneth Shine, executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. He is a former president of the institute. \"But there is a lot we still don't know about these viruses, and it would be a mistake for anyone to rely on respirators alone as some sort of magic shield.\" Health care workers should use several strategies to guard against infection, such as innovative triage processes, washing hands, disinfecting, wearing gloves, getting vaccinated and using antiviral drugs, Shine said. The institute was asked specifically to evaluate personal protective equipment designed to guard against respiratory infection, and therefore the committee focused on the efficacy of medical masks and respirators.","highlights":"Panel recommends health care workers wear N95 respirators for H1N1 patients .\nN95 respirators form an airtight seal around the nose and mouth .\nThey filter out at least 95 percent of particles as small as 0.3 micrometers .\nReport says it is not known to what extent flu viruses spread through the air .","id":"8720e2114e39badfd5f1374e35077f5b404dfd33"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama toasted a growing U.S. friendship with India at the first state dinner of his administration Tuesday, an evening of regal pageantry and symbolic politics in a tent on the White House South Lawn. \"To the future that beckons all of us,\" Obama said with glass raised toward his guest of honor, visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. \"Let us answer its call. And let our two great nations realize all the triumphs and achievements that await us.\" A tradition dating back to 1874, state dinners are the most treasured and formal honor a U.S. president can offer a foreign dignitary, and the most coveted invitation in Washington. The Tuesday night dinner showed Obama's intention to signal strong ties with the world's largest democracy and go his own way in navigating the pomp and tradition of White House customs. Traditionally, a new administration's first invitation goes to the leader of neighboring Canada or Mexico, though recent presidents also haven't followed that precedent. The event planned by first lady Michelle Obama emphasized eco-friendly themes such as White House-grown herbs and lettuce served to guests and sustainably harvested magnolia branches -- from species native to both India and the United States -- in arrangements adorning the tent where more than 300 guests wearing tuxedos and gowns were wined, dined and entertained. A White House document said common themes of state and official visits are \"forging friendships, exchanging knowledge and building bridges that last for years.\" In a toast that followed Obama's, Singh praised his host's leadership and prompted applause by citing the charm of the U.S. first lady. Obama's election was \"an inspiration to all those who cherish the values of diversity, democracy and equal opportunity,\" Singh said, adding that India \"warmly applauded\" the Nobel Peace Prize awarded Obama this year for \"the healing touch you have provided and the power of your idealism and your vision.\" \"We need to find new pathways of international cooperation that respond more effectively to the grave challenges caused by the growing interdependence of nations,\" Singh said. \"As two leading democracies, India and the United States must play a leading role in building a shared destiny for all humankind.\" Obama, in a black tuxedo, and the first lady, in a dazzling cream gown with silver accents, greeted Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, as they arrived, shaking hands on the White House steps and posing for pictures before leading their guests inside. Guests in tuxedos and evening gowns streamed into the White House for the historic social event, passing a line of journalists. In one humorous mishap, the cummerbund of Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, fell off as he and his wife walked in. The guest list included political allies, a few opponents, celebrities and members of the Indian diplomatic community. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the list, but not her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Democratic colleagues of the president including other Cabinet ministers, several senators and top aides made the list, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts (but not his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and White House Budget Director Peter Orszag. Ticker: See the list of expected attendees . A couple of Republicans also made it, notably Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Celebrities included Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, actors Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood, CBS News anchor Katie Couric and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. However, one name rumored to be included, but not appearing on the list, was Oprah Winfrey. The dinner, in a tent set up on the White House South Lawn with a view of the Washington Monument, featured round tables for 10 set in resplendent colors -- apple green, ruby, gold -- with floral arrangements of roses, hydrangeas and sweet peas in plum, purple and fuchsia. Place settings in fine china from three previous administrations -- Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush -- were flanked by five pieces of silverware and crystal glasses. Place cards were in script -- \"The President\" and \"Mrs. Obama\" read two. A seasonal menu reflecting both American and Indian flavors started with a potato and eggplant salad made with White House-grown arugula and accompanied by an onion seed vinaigrette, according to the White House. Red lentil soup with fresh cheese followed, and then a choice of entrees -- roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chick peas and okra for vegetarians, or green curry prawns, caramelized salsify and smoked collard greens. Dessert was pumpkin pie tart and pear tatin with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Each course was paired with a different wine, all of American vintage. The herbs and lettuces were harvested from the White House Kitchen Garden started by Michelle Obama, with honey from the White House beehive used to poach the dessert pears. Entertainment was by jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, Grammy and Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson, the National Symphony Orchestra directed by award-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch, Academy Award-winning Indian musician and composer A.R. Rahman, and The President's Own United States Marine Band. \"It's not every day you get to sing at the White House or even get invited to the White House,\" said Hudson, who said she would dress in a purple and black gown \"with the longest train I've ever worn\" and sing standards including \"The Very Thought of You,\" \"What a Difference a Day Makes\" and \"Somewhere.\" Veterans of state dinners said the planning for such a trend-setting event is meticulous. \"It's stressful, it's very stressful,\" said Lisa Caputo, a press secretary for Hillary Clinton when she was first lady. \"What is the first lady going to wear? What will be served? How are the flower arrangements being done? There's a lot of protocol in terms of the serving line.\" Every unit in the White House weighs in on the dinner's guest list, Caputo said, with a lot of thought going into who sits where. \"There's particular protocol in terms of who is seated at the president's table and the prime minister's table,\" Caputo said. \"But don't forget that an enormous amount of thought goes into that with the White House social office and the president and first lady in terms of who will round out the appropriate table, who will get along with who, what will be the dynamics of each table. \"Yes, of course it's social, but, of course, there's business done,\" Caputo said. The final list is ultimately decided by the president and the first lady, said Anita McBride, who was chief of staff for first lady Laura Bush. \"Of course, having friends and supporters is really important to share that kind of event, and it's also important for all the other guests that are there and the Indian members of the delegation to meet these people that are a cross-section of America,\" McBride said. Amy Zantzinger, who was a social secretary for President George W. Bush, said all state dinners are different, and an administration's first one is a big one. \"First they'll bring the newness -- the newness of the whole day because it's their first big dinner,\" she said. What makes a successful dinner? It's what you don't plan, Zantzinger said. During a Reagan state dinner, Princess Diana and actor John Travolta took to the dance floor. \"What made it so special was that it was so absolutely spontaneous,\" she said. \"You had one of the most beautiful women in the world and one of the best dancers in the world come together in this incredible place, and I think the spontaneity of it and the combination of the two of them was perfection.\" CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, Samantha Hayes, Kiran Chetry, Ed Hornick, Becky Brittain and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama toasts India prime minister, urges greater cooperation between two countries .\nTuesday's event is the first state dinner of Obama administration .\nState dinners are deemed one of the most treasured and formal honors .\nMenu includes greens from White House garden, honey from White House bees .","id":"988bf4aaff32959cc553d24c380d638d6e3195cd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Tananarive Due is an American Book Award-winning and NAACP Image Award-winning novelist. She is based in Los Angeles. Her Web site is http:\/\/www.tananarivedue.com\/. The Due sisters -- Johnita, left, Tananarive, center, and Lydia -- prepare for a Jackson concert in 1984. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson died Thursday, and my family gathered by telephone from Florida, Texas, California and Georgia to mourn and remember. But we began mourning long ago. I was 17 when the \"Motown 25th Anniversary Special\" aired in 1983, and my parents, sisters and I first saw Michael Jackson moonwalk to \"Billie Jean.\" He sent a lightning bolt through our living room, and all of us leaped to our feet with shouts. He may have been the best entertainer I live to see. His music asked us to transcend race and geography, hate and bigotry, and made us feel like we were the world. In recent months, I showed my 5-year-old son, Jason, that Motown performance on YouTube. \"Billie Jean\" made Jason want to moonwalk and wear a glove. \"Beat It\" inspired Jason to kick his leg and fling his head from side to side like Michael. But it has been a long time since I could watch Michael Jackson videos without feeling sad. His death is only the next stage of the loss. Michael Jackson left the music world to mourn -- but many of us, especially black Americans, felt like we lost a family member on Thursday. He pained and puzzled us, but we still loved him. Until Thursday, some of us had forgotten how much. Michael was not always easy to love. He tested us, sometimes asking us to ignore what we could see with our own eyes. We may never know fully what Michael did or didn't do, but he was like the lost relative we wished we could bring back to shore. When Jason asked questions about Michael's changing face in the videos, I showed him the beautiful brown-skinned, bright-eyed little boy who grew up in my family's living room. There is supreme irony in the death of Michael Jackson the same year as the inauguration of the first black president. Michael, who would ascend higher than any black artist in music history, learned a bitter lesson: Even at the top of the mountain, there is only the man in the mirror. Jason isn't old enough to fully understand black and white, why his grandmother was sent to jail for ordering a hamburger at a Woolworth lunch counter in 1960, or how an ill-used child's soul might never find its way back home. So I told Jason about the time Mommy, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lydia and Aunt Johnita [now an assistant general counsel at CNN] drove from Miami to Jacksonville to see the Jacksons' Victory Tour in 1984, when Michael Jackson ruled the world. How his aunties and I dressed up for the concert in our own gloves. After the concert, still floating from the surreal experience, we approached a stretch limousine on the highway. As my father sidled our car closer and my sisters and I pressed our noses to the window to try to see, the limo's tinted electric window slid down. A sparkling silver glove waved out to us. When we saw that glove, the whole car screamed -- even my father, who was driving. My sisters and I begged my father to follow the limousine...and it finally came to a stop in front of our budget hotel. When the rear door opened, a white blond-haired decoy stepped out -- wearing a silver Michael Jackson glove. If only we'd never seen past the tinted window. If only we had a perfect memory of Michael waving goodbye. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tananarive Due.","highlights":"Tananarive Due: My family mourned the loss of Michael Jackson last week .\nIn some ways, she says, the mourning began long ago with his puzzling behavior .\nShe says many black Americans forgot how much they loved him .","id":"4abddb8c6e0df6689eee21bfe27aa231d0ae8dc9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Health officials say the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, is likely to cause more illnesses and deaths in the United States, even though much of the initial anxiety has eased. A researcher investigates swine flu at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported higher levels of flu activity than the average for mid-May and an unusual number of outbreaks in schools. Some clinics reported high numbers of respiratory diseases more commonly seen during the peak of flu season. \"We do think that the way the virus is spreading in the U.S., we are not out of the woods, and the disease is continuing,\" said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health program at the CDC in a news conference this week. In the United States, six deaths have been linked to the swine flu, although it's unclear whether these were caused by the virus or pre-existing conditions. Nationwide, at least 5,123 cases of H1N1 flu have been reported, although the actual number of people affected may be higher. New data released by the CDC Tuesday showed that the majority of the 30 patients who were hospitalized with H1N1 in California had other medical conditions, such as chronic heart and lung disease, suppressed immune system, diabetes, and obesity. None of the patients died. They had fevers, coughs, vomiting and shortness of breath, according to the CDC report that examined the patients. Six of them were admitted to the intensive care unit and four required mechanical ventilation. See an explanation of H1N1 flu \u00bb . Five of them were pregnant -- two of the fetuses did not survive. Earlier this month, Judy Dominguez Trunnell became the first U.S. resident to die from complications of the H1N1 flu. Her daughter was delivered via emergency Caesarean section. Dominguez Trunnell felt body aches and numbing in the left side of her face and went to the hospital, her husband, Steven Trunnell, told CNN's Larry King. Watch the interview. \u00bb . Trunnell has filed a wrongful death claim against Smithfield Foods, a pork and meat producer, alleging that the company's actions may have contributed to the virus' creation. \"She was a healthy, pregnant woman who was eight months pregnant until she contracted the virus,\" he said. \"She became acutely ill, but she was never diagnosed with any major medical complications of any kind.\" Health officials have said repeatedly since the outbreak's beginning that the virus cannot be contracted from eating pork. Pregnancy increases the risk of certain medical problems and creating complications from the flu, Schuchat said. \"There is some immunosuppression that occurs during pregnancy,\" she said. \"There maybe also a role of the mechanical effect of pregnancy in decreasing the lung capacity that maybe you're not easily able to handle lung infection or respiratory problems.\" Early steps toward an H1N1 vaccine are being taken. The process could take between five and six months from the time the virus appeared to when the vaccine would be available to the public, officials have said. Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, said the agency has sent H1N1 strains to roughly seven labs around the world to use in the first steps of vaccine development. The CDC expects to get the viruses back from the institutions by the end of the month and \"if we do go in the direction of producing a vaccine, we could see the production of pilot lots, and clinical trials, beginning as soon as late June.\" Though the initial surveillance of the California cases indicates that most healthy patients recovered and were discharged after short hospital stays, those with other medical conditions had greater complications. \"Our best estimate right now is that the fatality [with the H1N1] is likely a little bit higher than seasonal influenza, but not necessarily substantially higher,\" Schuchat said. The seasonal flu kills 36,000 people every year. While people of all ages get the seasonal flu, its complications more severely affect older people or those with weakened immune systems. About 95 percent of people who die from the seasonal flu are 65 years old and above, according to the World Health Organization. Many of the confirmed and probable cases for the H1N1 virus have been younger people between the ages of 5 and 24. \"The hospitalizations that we're tracking have this disproportionate occurrence among younger persons,\" Schuchat said. \"That's very unusual to have so many people under 20 requiring hospitalization and in some of those intensive care units.\" While there have been no deaths in that age group in the United States, Schuchat said: \"We would not be surprised to see serious hospitalizations and deaths occurring in people in this age group and I think we need to be prepared for that.\" \"It's important to dispel the idea that we're out of the woods, or that this was a problem that really didn't merit response,\" she said. \"Influenza is unpredictable, and we really need to stay attuned to that, to be prepared for surprises in the days and weeks ahead.\" And the flu viruses can mutate. Dr. Dan Jernigan, deputy director for the CDC's influenza division said last week, \"We're not seeing significant evidence of any mutation towards more virulence in the U.S.\" H1N1 flu activity has been confirmed in 22 states and appears to be most active in the Southwest. In April, concerns about the H1N1 virus prompted travel warnings, airport checks and school closures. The outbreak has sickened 9,830 people worldwide and caused at least 79 deaths -- mostly in Mexico, according to the WHO. Last month, U.S. officials discouraged all nonessential travel to Mexico after the flu strain killed dozens of people there. On Friday, the CDC downgraded its warning and advised people with medical complications, advanced age or pregnancy to check with a doctor before going on a trip to Mexico. CNN medical senior producers Saundra Young and Shahreen Abedin contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC reported higher levels of flu activity than the average for mid-May .\nHealth officials warn disease is likely to continue and contribute to more deaths .\nInitial data shows hospitalized patients had underlying medical conditions .","id":"43bd7ec053904345ffba1318902f171ec0074ee6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Health Organization announced Tuesday it is still considering increasing its pandemic alert level to phase 6 because of growing worldwide cases of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. WHO considers raising the pandemic alert level to 6 as cases of H1N1 increase worldwide. \"Globally, we are at phase 5, but we are nearing phase 6,\" said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director General. \"As this continues to spread internationally, some countries are moving from isolated to sustained community spread.\" Phase 6 is a declaration that many member countries have long feared could mean economic disaster. It is the highest on the WHO's pandemic alert system, and is described by the organization as a global pandemic. Fukuda was quick to remind journalists that the designation does not reflect the severity of the disease, but how widespread it is. \"Our overall assessment of severity is moderate,\" he said, \"because although the overall number of serious and fatal cases is relatively limited ... we really don't have a full handle on the number of people with serious illness.\" Fukuda said nearly 19,000 cases of the H1N1 virus have been reported in 64 countries, resulting in 117 deaths.","highlights":"World Health Organization considers increasing pandemic alert level to phase 6 .\nDesignation does not reflect the severity of the disease, but how widespread it is .\nPhase 6 is highest on pandemic alert system and means global pandemic .","id":"7f50fc79bc6f91146b7198b974320d4b5da8364a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A sharp increase in the number of reported cases of the H1N1 virus in Australia may prompt the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the first global pandemic in over forty years. Australian rugby league star Karmichael Hunt is one of several players being tested for the H1N1 virus. The number of Australian cases of the virus, commonly known as swine flu, has reached more than 1,200, with state and federal medical officers set to hold an emergency meeting in Sydney to review the country's swine flu protection measures. \"We will take each decision along the way in response to the expert medical advice,\" Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). On Wednesday it was announced that the entire Brisbane Broncos rugby league squad had been placed into quarantine after one of their players was suspected of having the virus. The Queensland club confirmed on its Web site that full-back Karmichael Hunt was being tested for the virus, while the sport's governing body, the National Rugby League (NRL), said Hunt had tested positive for the common flu, influenza A. With over 26,000 H1N1 cases worldwide, the WHO could move to Phase 6, the highest on its pandemic alert system. \"It's really a matter of making sure that countries are prepared as possible. We do not want people to overly panic,\" Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director General, told ABC. In a statement a day earlier, Fukuda said the WHO had been working extremely hard preparing countries for what a potential move to a global pandemic would entail. \"I want to point out that by going to Phase 6 the activity has become established in at least two regions of the world,\" he said. \"It does not mean that the severity of the situation has increased and that people are getting seriously sick at higher numbers or higher rates than they are right now.\"","highlights":"Australian cases of the H1N1 virus reach more than 1,200 .\nPhase 6 is highest on pandemic alert system and means global pandemic .\nDesignation does not reflect the severity of the disease, but how widespread it is .","id":"b3934ffc5d6f93224c964159900fe826b867e947"} -{"article":"Manila, Philippines (CNN) -- The son of a Philippines provincial governor is voluntarily turning himself in for questioning in the massacre of at least 57 unarmed civilians, a CNN affiliate reported Thursday. Andal Ampatuan Jr. -- who is the mayor of Datu Unsay and the son of Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan -- has agreed to face questioning, reported Patricia Evangelista of ABS-CBN. Ampatuan was not identified by authorities as a suspect in the killings in the southern Philippines, though victims' survivors and local media reports had done so. Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo \"is enraged by these barbaric acts,\" spokesman Cerge Remonde said. \"She has literally thrown the full force of the law and has mobilized the security and police forces of the state to go after the perpetrators.\" Philippines authorities had disbanded a paramilitary force in the southern Philippines suspected of playing a role in the massacre, the country's state-run media reported Wednesday. Remonde said the deaths were the result of a political clan war, not Muslim secessionism in that troubled region of the country. \"So far as this case is concerned, this is a limited clan political rivalry, which has been going on for some time now,\" Remonde said. The death toll grew Wednesday after 11 more bodies were recovered from a rural area of Mindanao and buried. Arroyo has declared Wednesday a national day of mourning. Arroyo's government is under intense pressure to find those responsible for planning and carrying out the abduction and killing of the group of about 60 politicians, lawyers and journalists -- and reportedly some bystanders. Suspicion has fallen on the Ampatuan family, key allies of the Arroyo administration in the Maguindanao region of the southern Mindanao province. Ampatuan family members have not commented on the slaying allegations. Remonde appeared to blame the Ampatuan clan, adding: \"There is, however, a move now by the administration party to expel the suspected clan.\" Those killed include the wife and two sisters of a local politician who plans to run for the spot vacated next year by Maguindanao's governor, Andal Ampatuan. While the investigation is ongoing, a spokesman for the country's national police has said that Andal Ampatuan Jr. has been linked to the crime, according to local media reports. \"According to the initial reports, those who were abducted and murdered at Saniag were initially stopped by a group led by the mayor of Datu Unsay,\" National Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said, according to ABS-CBN News. The massacre is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippines history. On Monday morning, in daylight, a group of about 100 gunmen stopped a convoy carrying supporters and family members of local politician Ismael \"Toto\" Mangudadatu, witnesses and officials say. Mangudadatu had sent his wife and sisters to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao in May after he had been threatened and told not to file the papers himself. He said the threats came from allies of Governor Ampatuan. The number of people kidnapped and killed was still unclear, as recovery continued at the mass grave site in Maguindanao. A car traveling behind the convoy was mistaken for being a part of the politician's contingent, a local official told the Philippines GMA News Network. The car was instead heading to a hospital, according to Tom Robles, head of the Tacurong City Employees Union, who spoke to GMA News. The driver and four passengers -- including a government employee who had suffered a mild stroke and his wife -- were rounded up and killed along with the members of the convoy ahead of them, Robles said. A police official confirmed that the car and the bodies of three of the passengers were among those recovered at the grave site, GMA reported. The state-run Philippines News Agency said the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD (Christian, Muslim, Democrats) was to meet Wednesday to discuss whether to remove the Ampatuan clan members in Mindanao from the party as a result of the killings. \"In our opinion, they were not able to fulfill their obligations to the party,\" said former Defense Secretary Gilberto \"Gibo\" Teodoro, Lakas-Kampi-CMD national president and the party's standard bearer in the 2010 elections, in a radio interview, according to PNA. Ampatuans hold leadership positions in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, including governor of the region, governor of Maguindanao and mayor of Datu Unsay. \"Like many others, I am appalled and outraged by it, and I join the rising chorus of indignation against it,\" Arroyo said. \"This is not a simple election feud between opposing clans; this is a supreme act of inhumanity that is a blight on our nation. The perpetrators will not escape justice. The law will haunt them until they are caught.\"","highlights":"NEW: Authorities did not identify Ampatuan as a suspect .\nDatu Unsay mayor led group that initially stopped civilians, police cite reports as saying .\nAmpatuans hold leadership positions in Mindanao .\nAuthorities disband paramilitary force in the southern Philippines .","id":"69cca577c3a6ab3a3f1f2cb167c5a54e1f2eff31"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Tables set in apple green, ruby and gold with arrangements of roses, hydrangeas and sweet peas awaited guests to Tuesday's White House state dinner. The place settings in fine china from three previous administrations -- Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush -- are flanked by crystal glasses and five pieces of silverware. Place cards are handwritten, including two that read \"The President\" and \"Mrs. Obama.\" The first state dinner of Barack Obama's presidency, in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will take place in a tent set up on the White House South Lawn, with a view of the Washington Monument. Guests will sit at round tables for 10, with the floral arrangements intended to pay homage to the state bird of India, the Indian peacock, and the dinner featuring a seasonal menu reflecting American and Indian flavors, according to the White House. The first course will be a potato and eggplant salad made with White House-grown arugula and accompanied by an onion-seed vinaigrette. Red lentil soup with fresh cheese follows, and then a choice of entrees: roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chickpeas and okra for vegetarians, or green curry prawns and caramelized salsify with smoked collard greens. Dessert will be pumpkin pie tart or pear tatin with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Each course is paired with its own wine, all of American vintage. Michelle Obama worked with guest chef Marcus Samuelsson and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford to \"create a menu that reflects the best of American cuisine, continues this White House's commitment to serving fresh, sustainable and regional food, and honors the culinary excellence and flavors that are present in Indian cuisine,\" the White House said. The herbs and lettuces were harvested from the White House Kitchen Garden started by the first lady, and honey from the White House beehive is being used to poach the dessert pears.","highlights":"Dinner in honor of Indian premier will take place on White House South Lawn .\nFloral arrangements intended to pay homage to the Indian peacock .\nDinner reflecting Indian and American flavors uses herbs from White House garden .","id":"8af8de2c6257fc337ebf8d84ce75cc852c28fbf0"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The high school honor student and the NFL's highest-paid defensive back stroll down the destitute streets of Skid Row. \"I can sell you something right quick,\" a drug dealer hisses. Another shouts, \"Gonna whoop your ass!\" More expletives are hurled. Seventeen-year-old Kenneth Chancey is giving a tour to Nnamdi Asomugha, showing the NFL star the streets that he and his sister used to walk to get to school while living in a Skid Row homeless shelter. Prostitutes, addicts and drug dealers scatter. \"Camera! Camera!\" they shout. The two make it safely past the park, one of the roughest areas of Los Angeles. An orange soda whizzes through the air, nearly hitting the teen and the Oakland Raiders' All-Pro cornerback worth $45 million. \"Wow,\" the teen says. \"I'm sure they watch you every Sunday, and they don't even recognize who you are.\" It is Kenneth's inner strength and his love for education that have brought together this high school class president and NFL star. \"The thing I took away is how fearless he is,\" Asomugha said later. \"The things he's been through are so big and so severe -- they were threatening our lives and throwing things at us on Skid Row. But it doesn't bother him. \"His potential meter is at 1,000 right now.\" Escaping through education . Even while Kenneth lived on Skid Row, he dreamed of attending Harvard to become a neurosurgeon. When Asomugha saw Kenneth's story on CNN, he wanted to help. He runs a foundation, the Asomugha College Tour for Scholars, that takes talented inner-city kids on tours of college campuses they otherwise would never be able to see. He's helped get 25 teens into college over the last four years. On this day, he's come to tell Kenneth that he will be among the 16 students traveling in the spring to visit schools in Washington, D.C. \"I'm thankful to be able to give back,\" Asomugha said. Hours before the Skid Row tour, Asomugha traveled to Hollywood's Helen Bernstein High School, where Kenneth is a starting running back in his senior year. They met at the school's football stadium, where Asomugha told Kenneth in person. \"This smile on my face,\" Kenneth said, \"is a freaking good thing. This is awesome!\" Asomugha leaned closer. \"You know who we're working on now?\" \"Obama?\" Kenneth asked nervously. \"We have to,\" the NFL star replied. Kenneth's fever-pitched excitement reached a crescendo, \"Oh my gosh!\" His father, Gordon Costello, joined in and handed a folded paper to Asomugha. The proud dad didn't show off football awards or his son's athletic achievements. Instead, it's Kenneth's latest report card, straight A's. \"He might overqualify for the tour,\" Asomugha said as he studied the report card. \"This shows someone with a lot of drive and ambition. These are some great grades.\" \"I'm at a loss for words,\" the teen said. \"Stuff like this doesn't happen every day.\" Asomugha came from a family where education was stressed from day one. He remembers asking his mom as a boy, \"Can I have some ice cream?\" \"No,\" she responded. \"You haven't finished your homework.\" \"I'd say, 'but I'm 3!' \" Asomugha's sister is a pediatrician, his mother holds a doctorate. Two other siblings have secondary degrees. \"I am the least educated in my family,\" Asomugha said. \"I catch a lot of heat from my family.\" The football star, who is the highest-paid defensive back in NFL history, has a degree in finance from the University of California-Berkeley. Kenneth is energized. \"I'm going to be the first one in my family to get a secondary education,\" he told Asomugha. \"And everyone will follow you,\" his father added. Kenneth spent his sixth-grade year living in a van with his mother and stepfather. His sister once was beaten up by someone who wanted her shirt. Kenneth was held up at gunpoint for his laptop. He refused to hand it over because his grandmother bought it for him. \"If you're going to shoot me, shoot me now,\" he told the would-be thief. \"He said, 'I ain't gonna kill no little kid.' \" Mantra: Always keep your head up . From February to August of this year, Kenneth lived at the Union Rescue Mission homeless shelter along Skid Row with his father and sister. After the CNN piece aired, his friend invited him and his sister, Stephanie, to stay with his family, while Kenneth's father looked for work. Outside Kenneth's earshot, the NFL star talked about how the teen is an inspiration, doing all the right things to achieve greatness in life. \"You don't hear about guys like Kenneth,\" Asomugha said. \"When you have your back against the wall and you're trying to fight and there are so many things -- so many obstacles -- against you but you're still keeping your head above the water like he's doing ... the sky's the limit.\" Kenneth says he constantly thought about dropping out to get a job to help his father financially. His dad would have none of it. \"Your education will pay off in the long run,\" his father always told him. On the tour at Skid Row, Kenneth took Asomugha to the shelter's rooftop. It's a million-dollar view of the Los Angeles skyline. It's where Kenneth studied. It's also where he learned his biggest lesson: to always keep his head up. The student and the football player leaned over the building's ledge. Down below, drug deals were being made. \"Anytime you look down over the ledge, you start to see the negative,\" Asomugha said. \"When you keep your head up, you're seeing all the positive. Was that your mantra?\" The teen smiled. \"That's how you do it in life,\" Kenneth said. \"I just try to keep my head up, to look into the future.\" Five years from now, he'll be graduating from college. The hell of Skid Row will be a distant memory. \"Once I succeed,\" he said, \"I will be able to help other people.\" CNN's Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha decides to help homeless teen after CNN report .\nKenneth Chancey, 17, lived in homeless shelter, yet made all A's and is class president .\nAsomugha will take Chancey and 19 other inner-city kids on college tour in spring .","id":"22316b87f38deac4e1ef2c5820832b311f5dc188"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Could humans one day live to be 1,000, and would that be a good thing? CNN's global health show Vital Signs has teamed up with world renowned anti-aging experts to bring you an in-depth discussion on the search for immortality. Vital Signs host and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be joined by best-selling author Dan Buettner who has done extensive studies on the areas in the world people live the longest, healthiest lives, known as Blue Zones, and shares their formula for a long life. The other panelist is geneticist Dr. Aubrey de Grey, best-selling author of \"Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime.\" He believes regenerative medicine could, in a matter of decades, extend life expectancy to 1000 years. This special edition of Vital Signs: The Clinic will be broadcast LIVE on CNN.com and we want you to take part in the conversation. You can do that by using the soundoff comments box below, post on iReport.com or e-mail vital.signs@cnn.com. You can also send questions via Twitter. What would you ask the experts? Do you want to learn how to live until 100 and beyond? Or find out which diets or exercise to follow for living longer? Do you have concerns about how an aging population might impact on resources? The best questions will be featured on the show where the experts will give you tips on how to live longer. Dr. Gupta will also investigate the longevity hot spots around the world and you can tap into the secrets of their success. Watch Vital Signs: The Clinic LIVE on CNN.com on Monday November 30, at 1200 GMT. (0700 ET, 2000 HK, 1300 CET)","highlights":"Watch a LIVE webcast on CNN.com on November 30, at 1200 GMT .\nLeading anti-aging experts will share their insights on the search for immortality .\nSend them your questions via soundoff, ireport and twitter .","id":"3635c86432e15381cc8fd3d4b9d6b68fcfeabf99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six-year-old Makayla Sitton didn't get to act in The Nutcracker Ballet. The night before she was to go on stage, she was shot to death with three others in a home in Jupiter, Florida. \"I do not know how we're ever going to recover from this, but we know where she is. She is in heaven,\" her father, Jim Sitton, told CNN affiliate WPTV-TV of West Palm Beach, Florida. \"God has blessed us with this beautiful girl, and he just took her home a little bit earlier than we wanted,\" he said, struggling to hold back tears. Police were searching Friday for a suspect in the deaths of Makayla and three others: twins Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight, 33, and Raymonde Joseph, 76, police said. Patrick Knight and Clifford Gebara were wounded in the shooting, police said. Officers were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, who is thought to have left the area armed, said Jupiter police Sgt. Scott Pascarella. The dead were Merhige's twin sisters, his aunt and 6-year-old cousin. Interviews with family members suggest that Merhige \"had ongoing resentment\" for some of his relatives, said Sally Collins-Ortiz, a spokeswoman for Jupiter police. One of the victims -- Knight -- was pregnant, Collins-Ortiz said Friday. The U.S. Marshals have joined the search for Merhige, she said. The shooting occurred about 10 p.m. ET Thursday. Pascarella said he did not know the motive. Merhige is thought to have driven away in a blue 2007 Toyota Camry with Florida license plate number W42 7JT, the officer said. CNN's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four killed, 2 hurt in southern Florida on Thanksgiving night .\nPolice searching for victims' relative in connection with the shootings .\nPaul Michael Merhige, 35, may have \"had ongoing resentment\" for relatives, police say .","id":"6f5d4ba84ff23b57608152ad5025e6ffc57abd34"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Three years ago I began research on a book dedicated to the national pastimes: shopping and buying. The plan was to devote the first half of the story to what I called the \"sell side\": the retailers, marketers and consumer researchers who have their sights trained on us. The second half would be about us, the \"buy side.\" I would explore all that attracts us -- bees to nectar-- to specific stores and products, why some of us are cheapskates and others have holes in our pockets. Then, a not-so-funny thing happened. Between the time I started my reporting and the time I handed in my finished manuscript, both the sell and the buy sides had cratered. Home prices crashed. Credit markets collapsed. The government tried feverishly to glue broken banks back together. Unemployment went up and up and up. The result: consumer spending -- as in that which drives 70 percent of the U.S. economy -- was running on fumes. Department store sales sank by double-digits. \"The golden age of spending for the American consumer has ended and a new age of thrift likely has begun,\" said a Wall Street analyst. \"Sixty percent off is the new black,\" quipped a magazine fashion writer. Gone, seemingly overnight, were the throngs of buyers from Europe and Asia who had been dragging their wheelies down Fifth Avenue in New York, loading up on shoes and handbags and leaving us American shoppers feeling, even then, like poor country cousins. Word spread that we were now living in \"the Wal-Mart moment,\" which was likely to be rather drawn out. Our longstanding fetish for bigger, faster, flashier, pricier was no more.. With the most hyped shopping day on the calendar -- Black Friday! -- upon us, we all might take a deep breath and focus, not just on where to find the best door-busters, but on more important questions: What is going on out there? In the buying and selling universe, are we witnessing a permanent change in values? Have we all turned forever frugal? The fact is, nobody's quite sure right now. Over the past several months, there have been small signs of recovery. Consumer confidence surveys offer a glimmer of hope. On the \"sell side\" retailers are viewing the holiday selling season with slightly more optimism than when they put in their holiday purchase orders six months ago. And it seems reasonable to hope that we've at least touched bottom and that the consumer escalator is on the way up again, however fitfully. But on the buy side -- our side -- things have changed dramatically, and in some ways for the better. We're shopping more with our heads, not just our hearts; we're thinking about the things we buy. A woman in Boston -- affluent, accomplished, largely unscathed by the financial collapse -- told me that when she now looks back on the expensive shoes and clothes she bought routinely just a few years ago, she \"just can't believe what I was doing.\" The Internet is now a daily, indispensable tool we use to search for better prices and seek counsel from others with firsthand knowledge of brands and stores we might be considering. The result: Up and down the socioeconomic ladder we're shopping more prudently. We're paying down credit card balances and placing greater value not just on the new and novel, the cool and the trendy, but also on value itself. Does it work? Is the price fair? Will it last? And yes, we're also splurging now and then -- on impulse purchases that can make a day all the more sweet: a new hairstyle, a brightly colored this-or-that for spring, an electronic gadget that performs amazing tricks, some useful, some just diverting. There are those who would tell us that purchases like this -- \"unnecessary!\" \"juvenile!\" etc. -- are signs of character weakness, that we are routinely \"conned\" into buying useless things by manipulative Mad Men, but I think it's more complicated. Because if there's one thing I learned after three years of watching folks shop and buy -- in good times, then bad -- it isn't that we buy that's been our problem, it's how we bought that was the issue: recklessly, and with little more than a piece of plastic or phantom home equity. But that was then. This is now, and a little self-reward -- a from-me-to-me purchase here, an I-love-you purchase there -- are hardly crimes in my book. Assuming, of course, they don't bring down the house -- this holiday season and beyond. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Lee Eisenberg .","highlights":"Lee Eisenberg says a down economy has turned American spenders into scrimpers .\nIt's early to tell whether consumer habits have shifted permanently, he says .\nEisenberg: Consumers are placing a new importance on value when they buy .","id":"608318c46d94c2f656f12e2c82dcf17386ca51ac"} -{"article":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The de facto president of Honduras denied Wednesday that his government turned off the power at the embassy where deposed President Jose Manual Zelaya surprisingly reappeared this week, and said that the people inside were free to come and go. A soldier takes a picture Wednesday of the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Honduran forces also will not enter the Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya has been housed since Monday, de facto President Roberto Micheletti said in an interview with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol. But these developments do not spare Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup, from being arrested and facing charges for violating the constitution if he leaves the safe haven of the embassy, Micheletti said. \"President Zelaya should present himself before the tribunals of justice in our country where he has charges against him,\" Micheletti said. The de facto president challenged versions of events surrounding Zelaya's return. Despite local reports citing police officials that authorities turned off the power to the embassy and surrounding area ostensibly to discourage looting, Micheletti said that a congregation of pro-Zelaya protesters at the embassy short-circuited the power themselves. As of Wednesday, power was restored to the building, Micheletti said. A nationwide curfew was lifted Wednesday, but a security cordon remained in the area around the embassy. Micheletti said that the police were there because the people inside the embassy requested the protection, and said, \"We are not impeding the exit nor the entrance of absolutely anybody.\" Zelaya's announced return has re-ignited a stand-off between the two disputed leaders of Honduras. Brazil now finds itself involved because of its embassy. Brazil wants an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the situation, the official Brazilian news agency reported. In another development, Micheletti said he is willing to meet anywhere with ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya as long as Zelaya agrees to abide by presidential elections scheduled for November 29. But the de facto leader said in a statement read by his foreign minister Tuesday that his offer to talk with Zelaya does not nullify an arrest warrant issued against the ousted president by the nation's Supreme Court. \"I think that what the whole world should understand about this country is that there is no immunity for anyone -- for anyone,\" Micheletti told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol. \"And, no one can be above the law.\" Micheletti's willingness to engage Zelaya seemed to be a reversal of his position. On Tuesday, he had said in an interview with local network Televicentro that Zelaya's sudden appearance would not revive negotiations to have him return to power. The United States and Brazil have said they support dialogue between the two sides, centered on the San Jose Accord, an agreement negotiated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. That deal calls for Zelaya to be restored to power. The Brazilian request for a Security Council meeting came after the Honduran government isolated the embassy by cutting water, power and phone lines to the building, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed to reporters Tuesday in Washington. This was the same action that Micheletti denied Wednesday. Micheletti said that other nations have not given his government a fair hearing of its position. \"This is what we Hondurans want: to be heard, for them to read our constitution, to read our laws, and to see what happened before June 28,\" Micheletti said. The de facto government argues that Zelaya was not removed in a coup, but in a constitutional transfer of power. Zelaya, a centrist whose politics took a strong turn to the left once in office, was ousted in a June 28 military-backed coup. Despite increasing political, diplomatic and economic isolation, Micheletti has steadfastly resisted pressure to allow Zelaya to return to power and Micheletti thwarted two very public attempts by Zelaya to return to his homeland. \"Yes, we are alone, but we are surviving,\" Micheletti said. \"Two months ago, people didn't think we would withstand all this time, but here we are almost three months later.\" Amnesty International issued a statement Wednesday in which the human rights group \"denounced a sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights defenders in Honduras since the June coup d'\u00e9tat and warned that fundamental rights and the rule of law in the Central American nation are in grave jeopardy.\" The organization said police fired tear gas Tuesday at a building housing a prominent human rights organization. Around 100 people, including women and children, were inside, Amnesty International said. Many were there to denounce what they said were police abuse while breaking up the demonstration outside the Brazilian Embassy, the rights group said. \"The situation in Honduras can only be described as alarming,\" said Susan Lee, Americas director at Amnesty International. \"The attacks against human rights defenders, suspension of news outlets, beating of demonstrators by the police and ever increasing reports of mass arrests indicate that human rights and the rule of law in Honduras are at grave risk.\" It was still not publicly known Wednesday how Zelaya got into the country and he declined to provide details, only telling CNN en Espa\u00f1ol on Tuesday that it was a 15- to 16-hour trip he took \"with the help of Hondurans.\" Journalist Elvin Sandoval contributed to this report for CNN en Espa\u00f1ol.","highlights":"Amnesty International official calls situation in Honduras \"alarming\"\nHonduras reportedly cuts utilities at Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa .\nBrazil official calls Honduran action on its embassy a \"serious\" move .\nOusted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya inside embassy .","id":"0a3ad75d92c5bc2eccf2763df86afe5ddeffed75"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose new book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says Logan, Ohio, paid an extraordinary tribute to its most dedicated football fan. (CNN) -- \"Yes, it's all gone now,\" Craig Dunn told me the other day. \"If you're not from around here, you'd never know it was ever there.\" Dunn is the sports editor of the Logan, Ohio, Daily News, a paper with a small circulation (around 4,000) and a small news staff (five people put the paper out, covering the entire county). Last fall, when I was crisscrossing the country on the CNN Election Express, I spoke with Dunn about the town's high school football stadium, which was being demolished. Bill Sauer Field, it was called. The story I wrote appeared briefly on the Political Ticker and then went away quickly; there was so much rapidly breaking news coming out of the presidential campaign that the story was little more than a blip. Yet I found myself, during the last year, thinking about Bill Sauer Field, and Logan, Ohio, and how it's possible for all of us, if we make the effort, to find the best in ourselves -- to find the best in each other. I find myself thinking about Bill Sauer, and about what that little town did for him, more than I think about almost anything else on which I reported during our long journey through America. And so, with a new football season beginning all across the United States, I spoke with Craig Dunn again the other afternoon. \"When I drive by the place where it used to be, it's not with a sense of sadness,\" he said. \"It's with pride for what this town once did.\" Bill Sauer Field was the core of public life in Logan. The town, population 7,300, gravitated to the old stadium on Friday nights in autumns to watch the high school team, the Chieftains, play their games. And who was Bill Sauer? A self-made millionaire from the community who had bestowed the stadium upon the town? A prominent local politician? A long-gone Logan football hero? No. Bill Sauer was born in Logan more than 100 years ago -- in 1908. From the time he was a little boy, he could not walk. He spoke with great difficulty. His parents, desperate, searched for answers. Logan was and is a rural community, and back then sophisticated medical diagnoses were not easy to come by. His mother and father were eventually told that the boy had cerebral palsy. He attended public school in Logan. It was not easy, of course. He was 23 by the time he graduated from Logan High School. Then, as now, the boys who were strong and swift and athletically graceful were the ones most celebrated. Bill could not even take a step on his own. But he loved the Logan sports teams, and he took pride in supporting them. Football, basketball, track and field -- he never missed a game, and he seldom missed a practice session. He would be there on the sidelines, sitting in his wheelchair, cheering for his classmates. His life didn't get any less arduous after he graduated. His father died. It became incumbent upon Bill to support himself and his mother. He sold Christmas cards; he sold magazine subscriptions. At the town's swimming pool, he ran the concessions stand. His philosophy of life, Craig Dunn told me, was basic: However often you get knocked down, you get back up one more time. Bill Sauer grew older. New generations of healthy and talented young athletes played for the Logan Chieftains on Friday nights. No matter the weather, no matter how he was feeling, Bill was always there. The Logan football stadium had been constructed in 1925. It was the heart of the town; it was what made the community feel like a community. In 1975, there was a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the stadium. On that night, it was renamed. For him. For Bill. The whole town had fallen in love with him. All of the quarterbacks who had ever thrown touchdown passes in that stadium, all of the linebackers who had ever made jarring tackles, all of the field goal kickers who had ever won games for Logan as the scoreboard clock ticked down ... and the place was renamed for the boy who could never run a single stride. As the years went by, when visiting teams would come to town, few of the opposing players would have any idea why the stadium in Logan bore the name that it did. That didn't matter. Logan knew. Bill knew. He never married or had a family. He kept going to the games, sitting on the sidelines, right up until his death in 1988. The town, by honoring him the way it did, had given his life meaning, and contentment, and joy. The decades after his death passed; the stadium grew too old, too outmoded. Finally, by last year, there could be no more delay. It was time to tear down Bill Sauer Field. It has vanished now. The new athletic complex -- Logan Chieftain Stadium, it is called -- has risen out near State Route 328. Craig Dunn, the sports editor, spends his Friday nights in the fall covering the games there. Plans are in the works, he said, to erect a plaque at the new stadium in memory of the lifelong fortitude of the town's most faithful fan. \"They want the plaque to be in a place where the Logan players can see it as they run onto the field for every game,\" Dunn said. \"They want to make sure that Bill is never forgotten.\" This can be a mean old world sometimes. But other times, when you least expect it, it can light you up. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Bill Sauer was a dedicated fan of his small-town football team .\nHe says Sauer had cerebral palsy and a challenging life .\nGreene: Sauer wasn't a football star, a millionaire or a politician .\nHe says town paid him extraordinary tribute by naming stadium after him .","id":"f4098c35c80561d7e0f5c2494908ee1c61416323"} -{"article":"Peppermint oil, soluble fiber, and antispasmodic drugs can indeed help people with irritable bowel syndrome, according to an analysis of 25 years of research on the condition, which is characterized by bouts of diarrhea and constipation. \"It wasn't appreciated how much of an impact [IBS] can have on a patient's quality of life,\" says one researcher. About 10 to 15 percent of people in North America have IBS, and it's twice as common in women. However, only about one-third of people with the intestinal disorder seek treatment. The exact cause of IBS remains unknown, and that lack of knowledge has led to the use of a variety of treatments, including fiber supplements, probiotics, antidepressants, behavioral-based therapies, psychotherapy, food modification, acupuncture, and laxatives. However, many treatments are controversial because study results have been mixed. Newer and more expensive medications have been introduced to the public, but some were ineffective or withdrawn from the market due to side effects. The recent study sheds light on the cheap and readily available treatments that can help patients, says study coauthor Eamonn M. Quigley, M.D., a professor of medicine and physiology at University College Cork in Ireland. \"Medical science has tended to ignore IBS; it wasn't appreciated how much of an impact it can have on a patient's quality of life,\" he says. Health.com: Is that belly ache in your head? In the new analysis, researchers systematically reviewed 38 studies from the last 25 years; more than 2,500 volunteers were involved. That research compared therapies -- all relatively cheap, safe, and readily available -- with a placebo or with no treatment at all. The team looked at three treatments -- soluble fiber, peppermint oil, and antispasmodics, which are drugs that relax the smooth muscle in the gut and relieve cramping -- and found that they were all more effective than a placebo, according to the report in the British Medical Journal. But not all fiber is the same. The soluble fiber ispaghula husk, which is also known as psyllium and found in some bulk laxatives, significantly reduced symptoms of IBS, particularly constipation; insoluble fiber, such as bran, did not relieve symptoms. Several antispasmodic drugs helped prevent IBS symptoms, particularly diarrhea. The most effective one was hyoscine, which is sold without a prescription in the United States. Although peppermint oil was found to be the most effective of the three therapies, more data are needed, cautions Quigley. The peppermint-oil therapy was analyzed in only four trials involving 392 patients. Because past research has been mixed, doctors' treatment guidelines mention the remedies, but don't necessarily give them a ringing endorsement, says author Alex Ford, M.D., a registrar of gastroenterology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. \"I suspect that filters down to the practitioners who don't believe they work, so they try something that's newer or a bit sexier,\" Dr. Ford says. \"The problem with IBS is that it's a chronic medical condition and no drug has been shown to alter its natural history.\" Health.com: Should I be tested for IBS? The study results are not surprising, says Joanne A.P. Wilson, M.D., a professor of medicine in the gastroenterology department at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Wilson adds that such treatments are best for patients with mild or moderate IBS. However, in her practice, she's found that prescription medications need to be used for severe cases that don't respond to these treatments. Health.com: Belly flab doubles mortality risk . Prescription drugs that have been used to treat IBS include Amitiza, a drug for chronic constipation; Zelnorm, which was pulled from the market in 2007; and Lotronex, which was removed from the market because of potentially life-threatening side effects (although exceptions are now made for women with severe, diarrhea-prominent IBS who don't respond to other treatments). Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"An estimated 10 to 15 percent of people in North America have IBS .\nThe exact cause of IBS remains unknown, which has hampered treatment .\nStudy analysis: Peppermint oil, soluble fiber, and antispasmodic drugs all work .","id":"7f168bcfaf5c98dc6831a11ab8a25ca26b930e39"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A couple who allegedly crashed this week's state dinner at the White House met President Obama in a reception line at the event, a White House official told CNN on Friday. A White House photograph taken Tuesday evening shows Michaele Salahi, wearing a gold-accented red sari, clasping her hands around Obama's right hand as her smiling husband, Tareq, looks on. The dinner was held for visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is smiling next to the president in the photo. An investigation into Tareq and Michaele Salahi has found that Secret Service agents did not follow protocol at a security checkpoint, the Secret Service said. \"The Secret Service is deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the State Dinner on Tuesday,\" the agency said in a statement Friday. \"The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list.\" The Salahis, who are aspiring reality TV stars, made news when they showed up at Tuesday's state dinner. The White House says the Salahis were not invited, but their lawyer, Paul W. Garner, \"states emphatically that the Salahis did not 'crash' this event,\" according to a statement from the couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones. The Secret Service's statement says that although the Salahis went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, \"they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely.\" \"That failing is ours,\" the statement said. The investigation continues and \"appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated,\" the agency said. Also Friday, two Secret Service agents visited a Virginia winery to say they wanted to question the couple, according to the winery's manager. Diane Weiss, manager at the Oasis Winery in Hume, Virginia, said the agents wanted to speak with the Salahis. Weiss said she didn't know their whereabouts. The Warren County Report, a local newspaper, quoted Weiss as saying the agents said they wanted to speak with the couple and not arrest them. It also quoted her as saying that the Salahis live in Linden, Virginia, but receive mail at the winery. And the agents said it was \"imperative\" that investigators speak with the couple and that they would \"take whatever action\" is necessary if they did not, the paper quoted Weiss as saying. Weiss told CNN that the newspaper quoted her accurately, but she declined to elaborate. Meanwhile, court records have revealed a more complete picture of the Salahis, who have left an extensive paper trail in federal bankruptcy and state court filings. They are named in at least 16 different civil suits in Fauquier County, Virginia, near Washington, sometimes as plaintiffs, sometimes as defendants. Family members have sued the county and each other. The family winery, Oasis Winery, has sued Michaele Salahi. They did not respond to CNN requests for comment Thursday about their legal history or the White House dinner. \"At this time the Salahis will not make any formal comments regarding the rumors and media speculation surrounding the White House State Dinner,\" Jones, their publicist, said in a statement. Tareq and Michaele Salahi were engaged in a long court battle with his parents over the winery. Tareq Salahi sued his mother, Corinne, court records show, and the suit was dismissed. The mother sued Tareq Salahi and the case went to trial. The outcome is not clear from a Virginia courts Web site. Tareq and Michaele Salahi won control of the winery in 2007, but it has run into debt since then. Oasis Winery filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February of this year, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records in the Eastern District of Virginia. Tareq Salahi is listed as company president in the filing. Listed creditors include the IRS, Fauquier County, the state of Virginia, several banks and American Express Corp., among others. The company claims about $335,000 in assets and $965,000 in liabilities.","highlights":"White House official: Couple met Obama in reception line .\nSecret Service 'embarrassed' it didn't prevent couple from entering event .\nWhite House: Tareq and Michaele Salahi appeared at state dinner uninvited .\nSecret Service looking for couple, manager says .","id":"1e21876d53842ab1be226f320123610a44ac5d43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A salty soup of seawater, microscopic pieces of plastic and marine debris. Those are the ingredients in the North Pacific Gyre, an ocean vortex estimated by Greenpeace to be the size of Texas, contaminated with the floating detritus of our modern lives. The sheer size of the ocean area affected has been enough to catch public attention, but a number of concerned groups are aiming to capture more than that. Project Kaisei plans to find a way to scoop up the plastic waste and devise a way to turn it into a future fuel source. It's a huge task, but led by innovator and environmentalist Doug Woodring, Project Kaisei has already embarked on a mission to the gyre. An August voyage onboard the New Horizon and Kaisei sailing ships was in partnership with Scripps Research Institute. The crews returned with samples of the water from various locations in the gyre and the most immediate discovery was the pervasiveness of plastic material found at regular points over 3,500 miles. The most heavily polluted areas of surface water in the gyre contained six times more plastic than plankton biomass. Derelict, or \"ghost\" nets, plastic crates and even toys were found by the crew. Some items like plastic bottles had become impromptu homes to varieties of marine mollusc. As well as posing hazards to the oceans through toxic contamination and to sealife through ingestion or being trapped in nets, unnatural transport systems could allow invasive species to be introduced to different areas and upset delicate ecosystems. The project now counts scientists, innovators, sailors and environmentalists among its ranks, galvanized around a desire to clean up the Pacific's plastic vortex. A further voyage next year hopes to gather more data and move closer to a practical solution to the ever increasing problem.","highlights":"Voyage to the North Pacific Gyre found plastic in the ocean over 3,500 miles .\nPlastic vortex has large pieces of plastic and microscopic fragments .\nAim of voyage was to learn how to collect the waste and turn into fuel .\nProject Kaisei will embark on another mission next year .","id":"738b73ab9d8b9c10fe4d62bd3ad6e5455469095a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dubai could lose its place on the Women's Tennis Association Tour calendar after Israeli Shahar Peer was denied entry to compete at this week's event, the WTA supremo warned Monday. Shahar Peer told CNN she learned of her visa ban Saturday, just before her scheduled flight to Dubai. Peer was scheduled to fly into the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, but was informed Saturday night by telephone that she would not be granted a visa. WTA Chairman and CEO Larry Scott said the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour \"will review appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament.\" Scott added: \"The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking.\" Peer, who had just finished playing in the Pattaya Open in Thailand, where she reached the semifinal, said she is \"very, very disappointed\" to have been denied the opportunity to play in Dubai. \"They really stopped my momentum because now I'm not going to play for two weeks and because they waited for the last minute I couldn't go to another tournament either,\" Peer said from Tel Aviv. \"So it's very disappointing, and I think it's not fair.\" Watch Peer describe her disappointment \u00bb . Scott, meanwhile, confirmed: \"Following various consultations, the Tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the Tour's Board of Directors. \"Ms. Peer and her family are obviously extremely upset and disappointed by the decision of the UAE and its impact on her personally and professionally, and the Tour is reviewing appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer.\" Scott said Peer's visa refusal has precedence: Last year an Israeli men's doubles team was denied entry to Dubai. He said the Emirate cited security reasons following recent unrest in the region. \"At that time I was in Dubai. I made it clear to the authorities, the representatives of the government, that next year when our top players wanted to play this very prestigious tournament all of them had to be allowed to play,\" Scott said. \"They had a year to work on it and solve it. We've spent time through the year discussing it. We were given assurances that it had gone to the highest levels of government,\" Scott said. \"I was optimistic they would solve it. And we've made crystal clear to the government, to the tournament organizers that there could be grave repercussions not just for tennis in the UAE but sports beyond that.\" Watch CNN's interview with Larry Scott \u00bb . The Dubai government issued a short statement through the state-owned news agency, saying that Peer was informed while in Thailand that she would not receive a visa. The agency quoted an official source in the organizing committee saying, \"The tournament is sponsored by several national organizations and they all care to be part of a successful tournament, considering the developments that the region had been through.\" Earlier an official source who did not want to be named, said, \"We should check what happened in New Zealand, when Peer was playing there with all the demonstrations against Israel during the attacks on Gaza. We have to consider securing the players and the tournament.\" In January, a small group of about 20 protestors waved placards and shouted anti-Israel slogans outside the main entrance to the ASB Classic tournament in Auckland. They were moved on before Peer played her match. The Israeli player said she's received phone calls of support from her fellow players. \"'All the players support Shahar,\" world No. 6 Venus Williams told The New York Times, adding, \"We are all athletes, and we stand for tennis.\" Peer is uncertain of her next move. She said the last-minute decision had left her at a loose end. She said she was concerned about her points and ranking and may go to the U.S. this week to try to take part in another tournament. \"I don't think it should happen,\" she said. \"I think sport and politics needs to stay on the side and not be involved. I really hope it's not going to happen again, not only to me but to any other athlete.\" CNN Dubai bureau chief Caroline Faraj contributed to this report .","highlights":"Israeli tennis player back in Tel Aviv after being denied entry for Dubai event .\nShahar Peer told night before tournament she would not be granted visa by UAE .\nWTA chief Larry Scott warned Dubai tournament could lose place on calendar .\nScott: \"This runs counter to everything we were promised and is a setback\"","id":"99f188ddcbf253b2c17c79aedb8384470450e309"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- On February 2, 7-year-old Cameron Dunmore crossed a street to get to his elementary school in Lithonia, Georgia. This scenario takes place thousands of times uneventfully each school day in our country. But this time Cameron did not make it to school. A crossing guard was halting traffic at the time, but the busy intersection did not have a traffic light and one vehicle did not see the boy. Cameron was struck by an SUV and died that same day in the hospital. Remind children to walk, not run, when crossing the street, so drivers have a chance to see them. As a parent who walks my young child to school every day, Cameron's story is tragically heartbreaking, but unfortunately not unique. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 5,000 pedestrians died and 70,000 were nonfatally injured in traffic crashes in 2007. Children are at particular risk because of their size, immature judgment and lack of experience with traffic rules. As we promote walking as a healthy and environmentally sound way to get to school, how can we make sure our children make it there safely? Read NHTSA's tips on walking and biking safety . Can seeing red help? Sally Flocks, president and CEO of PEDS, a pedestrian advocacy organization based in Atlanta, believes that traffic lights or flashing red lights in school zones can make a difference. She cited studies showing that having a marked crosswalk without a light may be more dangerous than having no crosswalk at all, and that yellow lights tend to get ignored compared with red. Flocks encourages the public to urge their legislators to invest in traffic safety measures such as red lights, which can ultimately benefit motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. Speed kills . According to a United Kingdom Department of Transportation study, speed really matters. A pedestrian hit by a car traveling 20 mph has a 5 percent chance of being killed, while one hit at 40 mph has an 85 percent chance. Flocks suggests that radar signs that tell how fast you are driving and photo enforcement of speeders at intersections near schools could help save lives. Even without the threat of getting a speeding ticket, I would hope the risk of injuring or killing someone else or ourselves would be enough to remind most of us to slow down, especially in school zones and other congested areas. Give walking and driving your undivided attention . It's well known that the distraction from talking on a cell phone while driving can be as bad as or even worse than driving drunk. New research shows that cell phone use while walking can also be distracting. Psychologist David C. Schwebel Ph.D. and his associates from the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported in the February 2009 issue of Pediatrics that preadolescents (ages 10 and 11 -- when most children are mature enough to cross the street by themselves) talking on cell phones had a greater chance of being hit or nearly hit during a simulated road-crossing exercise. Schwebel explains that crossing a street is much more complex than we may realize, with the need for assessing such variables as the approaching vehicles' direction and speed, along with the distance and time needed to cross the street. Adding a diversion such as a cell phone conversation causes risky behavior and delayed reactions. Use common safety sense . Don't check your common sense at the door when you leave for school. Encourage your children to wear brightly colored clothing. Try to walk in groups, and be sure to include adults, who are taller and more visible to drivers. Remind children to walk, and not run, when crossing the streets, so that drivers have a chance to see them. Finally, don't take any traffic risks: If you're not sure whether you can cross safely, wait until you can. It could happen anywhere . Cameron's story took place in metropolitan Atlanta, but it could happen anywhere in America, in my neighborhood or yours. Mourners have placed stuffed animals and flowers at the intersection where Cameron was killed. I'm going to put some at my crosswalk too, in hopes of reminding us all to be safer pedestrians and drivers. After all, our lives -- and our children's -- may depend on it. Jennifer Shu, M.D., is an Atlanta-area pediatrician and mother. She contributes regularly to CNNhealth.com .","highlights":"NHTSA: Nearly 5,000 pedestrians killed, 70,000 injured non-fatally in 2007 .\nChildren at risk because of size, immature judgment, lack of experience .\nDrivers should slow down in pedestrian areas; walkers should hang up cell phone .","id":"bd9c1487538e097384a7a538fcea05878be1458b"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: Daniel J. Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy research foundation. He formerly worked at The Heritage Foundation and as an economist for Republican Sen. Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. He also served on the 1988 Bush-Quayle transition team. Daniel Mitchell says an auto bailout would subsidize bad management and reward inflexible unions. (CNN) -- General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union are pouring millions of dollars into a lobbying campaign for a taxpayer bailout. The money devoted to influence peddling in Washington would be better spent on improving quality and finding ways to reduce a bloated cost structure, but both management and UAW have decided that fleecing taxpayers is a better option. A taxpayer bailout would be a terrible mistake. It would subsidize the shoddy management practices of the corporate bureaucrats at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, and it would reward the intransigent union bosses who have made the synonymous with inflexible and anti-competitive work rules. Perhaps most important, though, is that a bailout would be bad for the long-term health of the American auto industry. It would discriminate against the 113,000 Americans who have highly-coveted jobs building cars for Nissan, BMW and other auto companies that happen to be headquartered in other nations. These companies demonstrate that it is possible to build cars in America and make money. Putting them at a competitive disadvantage with handouts for the U.S.-headquartered companies would be highly unjust. A bailout also would be bad for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The so-called Big Three desperately need to fundamentally restructure their practices. More specifically, the car companies need to endure some short-term pain in order to restore long-term viability. But that won't happen if politicians raid the treasury. Getting access to taxpayer money would be akin to giving an alcoholic the key to a liquor cabinet. It also would be bad for American taxpayers and the American economy. For instance: . \u2022 A bailout will hurt the overall economy by misallocating resources. When politicians grant special favors to a certain industry or a particular union, such decisions necessarily mean that market forces are being replaced by special-interest deal-making. This type of interference with free markets is why nations such as France, Germany and Japan tend to grow more slowly and enjoy less prosperity. But if America goes down this same path of government intervention, it is inevitable that we will suffer the same fate of stagnation and higher unemployment. \u2022 A bailout will encourage other industries to seek taxpayer handouts. The Wall Street bailout was a disaster in many ways, most notably as measured by the weak stock market and economic volatility. But another negative aspect of the bailout is that other industries have now decided that it is OK to stick their snouts in the public trough, as well. First Wall Street's high fliers get a bailout. Now the inefficient management and union at the Big Three want a handout. Who will be next in line to pillage taxpayers? Giving handouts in exchange for political support is akin to getting high. Once politicians decide they like the buzz of campaign contributions, they'll turn into junkies with ordinary Americans footing the bill. \u2022 A bailout is a perverse transfer from poor taxpayers to rich taxpayers. America's Founding Fathers surely never envisaged that the federal government would take money from one group of Americans and give it to another group. Yet much of the federal budget is devoted to redistribution programs. Bailouts are a particularly bizarre form of redistribution, however, because the corporate bureaucrats at the Big Three are among the very richest Americans. The UAW bosses make extravagant salaries, as well, and even regular union workers make an average total compensation including benefits of approximately $70 per hour, far higher than the average American. The government should not be in the business of giving unearned wealth to any group of citizens, but surely liberals and conservatives both can agree that politicians should not be taking money from middle class taxpayers and giving it to upper-middle class and rich taxpayers. Advocates oftentimes admit that bailouts are not good policy, but they invariably argue that short-term considerations should trump long-term sensible policy. Their biggest assertion is that a bailout is necessary to prevent bankruptcy, and that avoiding this result is critical to prevent catastrophe. But Chapter 11 protection may be precisely what is needed to put American auto companies back on the path to profitability. Bankruptcy laws specifically are designed to give companies an opportunity - under court supervision - to reduce costs and streamline operations. Bankruptcy would not be popular in some quarters, to be sure. The bloated management structure would be streamlined and many overpaid executives would be unhappy about having to find new jobs. The UAW would be equally upset, particularly since bankruptcy might force an end to extravagant pension benefits and inefficient workplace practices. But bankruptcy is akin to getting an alcoholic to put down the bottle. There clearly will be short-term discomfort, but compassionate people recognize that this is the best approach. America is on a dangerous path. The Wall Street bailout was a mistake. It transferred a huge amount of money from the productive sector of the economy to the government, and also exacerbated \"moral hazard\" by rewarding companies and executives who made dumb decisions. But this may be the tip of the iceberg. A bailout of U.S.-headquartered auto companies also would be a mistake, as would bailouts of homeowners or any other constituency. If politicians genuinely want to help the economy, they should focus on reducing the burden of government, not increasing it. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Daniel Mitchell.","highlights":"Daniel Mitchell: Bailing out the Big Three would reward shoddy management .\nA bailout would be unfair to other auto companies making cars in the U.S., he says .\nMitchell says auto execs, workers and unions are overpaid .\nBankruptcy would let the companies streamline their operations, Mitchell says .","id":"4a3fe7b1c8fb8571b8c629293fe9d19d3b534059"} -{"article":"Mecca, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Chanting \"Allahu Akbar\" -- God is Greater than any -- more than 2 million pilgrims crossed new pedestrian bridges Saturday to perform one of the last rituals of the Hajj season. Jamarat is a re-enactment of an event when Prophet Abraham stoned the devil and rejected his temptations, according to Muslim traditions. The ritual stoning of three pillars, which occurs in the tent city of Mina -- about two miles from Mecca, was the scene of stampedes and many deaths in the 1980s and 1990s as pilgrims passed a crowded bottleneck area leading to the small pillars on the ground. But this year the Saudi government completed a new project that avoids past congestion at the site. The government has erected three massive pillars and completed a $1.2 billion, five-story bridge nearby where pilgrims can toss stones. Authorities and pilgrims say it's a roomier atmosphere and more efficient way to accommodate the faithful. \"Everything went fine so far,\" Col. Khakled Qarar Mohammadi, head of the emergency forces at Jamarat, told CNN. \"It is an immense responsibility that we had to deal with. About 3 million pilgrims move in a small geographic area at the same time wanting to do the same ritual. So we have been preparing for this for years now.\" Irtiza Hasan, a pilgrim from the United States, said all went well at the ceremony. \"The only incident I saw was that there were some handicapped women who were turned away in fears that they get hurt.\" But Mohammadi said, \"There are 10 vans on the second floor especially designated to serve the elderly and handicapped. Each van can take up to 14 pilgrims.\" As a measure to alleviate harm, according to Muslim traditions, the elderly and the handicapped can appoint someone else to stone for them. The five-story Jamarat bridge is air-conditioned at 19 degrees Centigrade, or 66 Fahrenheit, throughout the day and backed by water sprinklers that can reduce the temperature to about 29 degrees C, or 84 F. The bridge is designed to allow the addition of seven more levels to hold as many as 5 million pilgrims in the future if the need arises. According to authorities, the bridge is 950 meters (1,039 yards) long and 80 meters (87 yards) wide. Each floor is 12 meters (13 yards) high with three tunnels and 12 entrances and 12 exits in six directions. It has a helicopter pad for emergencies. According to Mohammadi, the project has 509 advanced closed-circuit television cameras monitoring pilgrims' movements. Those cameras feed into the main operations room, which oversees the Jamarat Bridge and the surrounding areas -- all screened by dozens of security officers on 72 monitors at the operation room. The stoning ritual is done over at least two days, where pilgrims stone three pillars at Mina -- believed to be where the Prophet Abraham stoned the devil when he tried to dissuade him from obeying God's orders to slaughter his son. According to tradition, the event was a test from God, who gave Abraham a ram to slaughter instead. The last ritual that marks the end of Hajj is when pilgrims go from Mina to Mecca to make a last visit to al-Masjid al-Haram, Islam's holiest site, before going back home. The ritual is called Tawaf al-Wada'a -- or farewell circumambulation in the holy mosque. It's where pilgrims go around the black cube seven times counter-clockwise asking that their Lord accept their pilgrimage and grant them another visit to the holy city.","highlights":"Goverment constructed three new massive pillars, five-story bridge for Hajj ritual .\nJamarat re-enacts Abraham's stoning the devil, according to Muslim tradition .\nRitual was scene of deadly stampedes as pilgrims crammed through bottleneck .\nThe air-conditioned bridge is 950 meters long, 80 meters wide; each floor is 12 meters high .","id":"2d4125c6162f9b4924a262a55bd8fe3faad0b3c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A proposal to house federal prisoners, including some detainees from Guantanamo Bay, in a largely vacant maximum-security prison would be an economic boost to struggling northern Illinois, state officials said Sunday. \"This is something that is very good for our state, it's good for our economy, it's good for public safety,\" Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters. Officials from the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and the federal Bureau of Prisons will visit the Thomson Correctional Center on Monday, the officials said. Quinn's office on Saturday said the officials would see whether the \"virtually vacant, state-of-the-art facility\" in Thomson, about 150 miles west of Chicago, could be of use to the Bureau of Prisons. If it is, the governor and other officials said Sunday, it could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money to the area. And Dick Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, said he believes the proposal provides a \"once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\" for his state's residents. \"There are other states that want to take these jobs,\" Sen. Durbin said. \"We've got to win this competition.\" Under the proposal, he said, federal officials have said fewer than 100 detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba would be housed in the 1,600-bed facility. They would be in a wing under the control of the Department of Defense, while the Bureau of Prisons would assume responsibility for the rest of the facility. The United States is asking other countries to house some of the Guantanamo detainees when the prison is closed, said Durbin, the Senate majority whip. But those countries are asking why America is not housing some of the inmates itself, he said, and use of the Thomson facility would demonstrate to them that the United States is willing to shoulder some of the responsibility. An Obama administration official said Saturday that as part of the conversion at Thomson, the Bureau of Prisons and Defense Department would enhance security to exceed those of the nation's only supermax prison -- the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado. No person has ever escaped from the prison. The Thomson proposal, first reported Saturday by the Chicago Tribune, triggered immediate concern from critics. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, whose district covers suburban Chicago, circulated a letter addressed to President Obama to Illinois leaders Saturday, opposing the possible transfer of detainees and saying that housing them in Thomson would turn metropolitan Chicago into \"ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization.\" As home to Chicago's Willis (formerly Sears) Tower -- the nation's tallest building -- \"we should not invite al Qaeda to make Illinois its number one target,\" says Kirk, who is running for the same Senate seat once held by Obama. Durbin on Sunday pointed to the federal maximum-security prison in Marion, Illinois, which he said already houses 35 people convicted of terrorism, along with members of Colombian drug gangs and Mexican drug cartels -- \"some of the most dangerous people in America.\" \"They're all in our prisons, and they're all held safely,\" he said. And \"things haven't changed in Marion, Illinois.\" Those housed in the Marion penitentiary include Ali al-Marri, who is serving a sentence of eight years and four months after pleading guilty in federal court to conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda. The Thomson prison was built in 2001 and sat empty for five years because the state lacked the resources to open it. Despite being built as a maximum-security facility, it houses 144 minimum-security male inmates, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections Web site. \"After living in limbo for eight years, we're open to any and all alternatives for Thomson,\" said Jerry \"Duke\" Hebeler, Thomson village mayor. He estimated that the move would cut the county's unemployment in half. \"I'd never chase jobs if I thought it would jeopardize the security and safety of my neighbors and friends,\" Hebeler said. Quinn said that during the inspection Monday, \"We want to answer any and all questions that the federal authorities have.\" The Obama administration has vowed to close the Guantanamo facility, but acknowledges it is unlikely to happen by its self-imposed January 22, 2010, deadline. About 215 men are held there. They include alleged 9\/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who officials said Friday will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court. The federal prison system houses approximately 340 inmates linked to international terrorism, including more than 200 tied to international incidents, another Obama official said. CNN's Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Proposal calls for using maximum-security prison in struggling northern Illinois .\nOn Monday, federal officials to visit facility in Thomson, about 150 miles west of Chicago .\n\"It's good for our economy, it's good for public safety,\" Illinois governor says .\nBut Rep. Mark Kirk says plan could make Chicago \"ground zero\" for terror plots, recruitment .","id":"c0fc794c2deb468d465dc15bd55932f680d2334c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- EU border patrol missions are scouring the Italian shore in search of yet another missing vessel carrying North Africans attempting to reach Europe, a Maltese commander told CNN Thursday. Many immigrants from Africa attempt to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats. On Friday, a French patrol frigate operating under Frontex, a EU border patrol mission, alerted Italian officials of new incoming vessels after sighting six corpses floating in the Mediterranean. Maltese army officials were unable to recover the corpses because of poor weather conditions. \"Unrelated to these corpses cited, last Friday, we monitored a fiberglass boat that originated from North Africa carrying about 30 to 35 people on board,\" said Major Ivan Consiglio from Valletta, the Maltese capital. \"Its fate is uncertain,\" he said. \"We have lost track of this boat.\" Malta is a hub for immigrants from Africa trying to reach Europe. Approximately 20,000 would-be immigrants have been apprehended on European shores just this year alone, according to Frontex figures. But many do not survive the trek. \"These waters are like the American Wild West,\" Consiglio said. \"So many boats try to cross with families and children and some never make it.\" Humanitarian groups such the Dutch-based UNITED against Racism, which keeps records on immigration, say thousands of Africans have died trying to cross the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. The trek between Sicily and Tunisia has been dubbed \"a floating cemetery for African immigrants.\" In August, 70 people died off the cost of Malta attempting to cross the Mediterranean. On Wednesday, about 300 would-be immigrants were rescued during a storm in the Italian island of Lampedusa. Consiglio said that a growing number of would-be immigrants are braving the waters of the Atlantic in overcrowded dingy boats -- a dangerous mission this time of the year. \"It's fall here, waters are choppy and covered with fog,\" he said. \"Trips are becoming even riskier and these locally-manufactured fiberglass boats don't have the same rigidity.\"","highlights":"This year around 20,000 migrants have been apprehended on European shores .\nMalta is a hub for immigrants from Africa trying to reach Europe .\nThousands of Africans have died trying to cross Mediterranean and Adriatic .","id":"83600703ee9ef8db3cc9550f0191960da7cb5da9"} -{"article":"NEW YORK -- There's no shortage of diners in New York City, but one of its most beloved will soon be taking up residence in Alabama. The Cheyenne Diner, which opened in 1940 in New York City, shut its doors in April 2008. The Cheyenne Diner, which first opened in 1940, was split in two Monday night to begin its move on a pair of flatbed trucks some 860 miles to its new home near Birmingham. The dining experience at the Cheyenne was typical of many similar New York eateries, where more often than not, you're guaranteed a hearty meal at a comfortable price. After taking a seat in a roomy booth or even at the counter, you check out the flimsy paper placemat with innocuous historical information or a simplified map of the Greek Isles. A busboy places a glass of ice water on your table. Then it's time to break out the reading glasses and flex those muscles to heft the always lengthy menu. While it may take you several minutes to sift through it, take comfort in knowing that you may actually burn some calories by lifting this bible of comfort food. Unlike the sometimes stuffy pretense of a formal restaurant, the diner experience is generally simple, while the food offerings are diverse -- from apple pie to baked ziti and everything in between. While never known as a bastion for fine dining, the Cheyenne saw brighter days before it unceremoniously closed on a chilly Sunday in April 2008. Originally known as the Market Diner until its moniker was changed in 1986, the pre-assembled restaurant stood as a rare classic definition of free-standing diners. Its streamlined, railcar-inspired design boasts a reverse-channel illuminated neon sign. Horizontal and vertical stainless steel strips border the colorful enamel panels and wrap-around windows on its facade. Celebrities from Jerry Lewis to David Letterman entered through its curved entryway lined with glass blocks. But, like a beloved baseball team whose owner has tossed in the towel, the Cheyenne is moving to a new town for a new life in a new home. The owner of the diner, George Papas, wanted to change the flavor of the block and replace the eatery with a multilevel condo building. Enter preservationist Michael Perlman, a 26-year-old patron saint of sorts for unwanted diners. Perlman found out that the Cheyenne was facing demolition and began to look for a guardian angel to save it. He connected with Alabama businessman Joel Owens, head of the investment group NAIC, who saw the Cheyenne for sale on a Web site devoted to the preservation of New York City structures and fell in love with its \"gorgeous structure.\" \"I like it better each time I see it,\" Owens said. \"The barrel roof. The exterior facades are second to none. I think it's the most beautiful diner in the world.\" Owens and his business associate, Patti Miller, have a grand vision for the diner and eventually want to incorporate it as part of an entertainment and historic area outside of Birmingham. Once it's restored, which could take up to a year, the Cheyenne will become the first free-standing diner in Alabama, Owens said. A longtime collector of antique cars and Coca-Cola memorabilia, Owens is a firm believer in the lessons that can be learned from the past. \"If you think about what's wrong with today, in order to fix the problems of today, you've got to look back... [to] when it was better,\" Owens said. \"I think [the diner] is symbolic of the glory days. Technology and more money doesn't necessarily mean progress. We long for simpler times,\" he explained. \"These types of buildings can be an instrument for our youth to learn from the past. Teenagers need a clean environment for entertainment, a 'hang out.'\" The departure of the Cheyenne Diner brings back some bitter memories for aficionados of historic New York. The Moondance Diner encountered a similar fate in 2007, after it was put up for sale by developers who purchased the land it was sitting on and planned to build a hotel. That summer, a couple from Wyoming found the Moondance's sale notice on the American Diner Museum Web site. Perlman acted as a conduit there also, helping to broker the sale of the 1920s diner located in the SoHo section of Manhattan, which the couple planned to move to their home state. When news of the sale and move came out, the Pierces began to have some doubts. \"We're quiet people,\" said Cheryl Pierce, of La Barge, Wyoming. \"[But] the media response has been a blessing as people have shown a keen interest.\" Pierce and her husband paid $7,500 for the Moondance and ultimately invested $40,000 to move it more than 2,100 miles to La Barge, where it became a popular site in the town of 600 residents with few other restaurants. The barrel-roofed diner reopened on January 12 this year, complete with its original floor and window frames. Customers can sit at the old-fashioned soda fountain or on the outdoor patio in the summer. The menu contains the traditional diner fare -- burgers, fries and milk shakes -- but also caters to the local palate, with chicken fried steaks, ribeye steaks and prime rib. \"Business has been exceptional. We've been able to hold our own,\" said Pierce. \"We get a lot of people who take a detour to visit us.\" She noted that it's a lot of work, and a huge commitment, but said she and her husband \"have been blessed.\" \"There's never going to be another Moondance Diner,\" she said. In response to critics who complain that historic pieces of New York City are being sold off, Pierce said that in the cases of old diners, \"to keep it alive, somewhere else is the best option, [rather] than seeing it demolished. We've run into New Yorkers who are appreciative that we brought it back to life.\" Owens is hoping that will be the case with the Cheyenne, which was loved as a no-frills refuge for comfort food on Manhattan's desolate west side. But now it's served up its last order in New York. And that last order was to go.","highlights":"The Cheyenne Diner, opened in 1940, moves to its new home by Birmingham .\nPreservationist hooked up with Alabama businessman to save diner .\nBusinessman: Cheyenne will be the first free-standing diner in Alabama .\nCelebrities from Jerry Lewis to David Letterman were seen in New York diner .","id":"b0d9034f80769fd0cf61ef01463c9cc5ab3a2a02"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man dubbed \"the Field Marshal\" by one advocacy group for alleged third-world arms dealing has been arrested on charges that he conspired to illegally export U.S. F-5 fighter jet engines and parts to Iran. An Iranian F-5 fighter jet lands in southern Iran during a military exercise on June 23, 2009. Jacques Monsieur, 56, a Belgium native who currently lives in France, was arrested Friday in New York, officials said. An indictment also charges Dara Fotouhi, 54, an Iranian living in France, with participating in the alleged crime. Fotouhi remains at large, official said. Monsieur pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Wednesday in Mobile, Alabama, where he is being held. He and Fotouhi are charged with conspiracy, money laundering and smuggling, as well as violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. According to the indictment and an affidavit filed in the case, both are experienced arms dealers who have been actively working with the Iranian government to procure military items. The F-5 Freedom Fighter, also called the Tiger, is built by Northrop and is used by the U.S. military for training. It is also sold overseas as a combat aircraft. The F-5 engine and parts are listed on the U.S. Munitions List and may not be exported from the United States without a license from the State Department, said John Morton, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and they can not be exported to Iran without a license from the Treasury Department. In a 2002 report by the Center for Public Integrity, a citizen advocacy group, Monsieur was nicknamed \"the Field Marshal\" for allegedly acting as a middle-man in numerous arms deals with war-torn countries. The center's report said Monsieur is \"believed to be among the biggest arms traffickers in Europe\" and said he \"violated a United Nations embargo by shipping arms to Bosnia and Croatia during the long, bloody conflict in those countries, with the approval, he later claimed, of both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the ... French domestic intelligence service.\" Morton said his agency launched an investigation in February when Monsieur contacted an undercover federal agent and indicated he wanted to buy engines for F-5 or C-130 aircraft for export to Iran. In subsequent e-mails to the agent, Monsieur requested engines for F-5 jet fighters. Officials said the engines could be used as replacements in fighters sold to Iran by the United States before the imposition of sanctions in 1995. In March, Monsieur met with the undercover agent in Paris and again requested engines and parts, the indictment alleges. They met again in May in London, where Monsieur introduced Fotouhi as a business associate and again discussed the export of F-5 engines to Iran, according to the indictment. During this negotiation, it says, Monsieur and Fotouhi asked the agent if he could use U.S. shipping or export authorization documents that falsely indicated the items were going to Colombia. In July, Monsieur and Fotouhi wired about $110,000 from a bank in the United Arab Emirates to one in Mobile, Alabama, the indictment says. \"The two believed the funds would be used for the purchase of F-5 aircraft parts,\" Morton said. Monsieur indicated he would deposit an additional $300,000 as a down payment for the purchase of two jet engines. \"This is part of our long-standing efforts to ensure that sensitive military equipment is not exported in violation of U.S. law and against the international interests of the United States,\" Morton said.","highlights":"A man dubbed \"the Field Marshal\" allegedly tried to get F-5 engine parts for Iran .\nF-5 built by Northrop; used by U.S. military for training; used overseas for combat .\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement launched investigation .\nArrest part efforts to stop improper export of sensitive military equipment .","id":"b82244d001d46df66d26bb7aef432235606128ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mushroom cloud of thick dark smoke hovered over the Puerto Rican capital after a blast ripped through a fuel storage complex near San Juan early Friday and caused a massive fire. At least one injury occurred and at least 350 people have been evacuated as about 100 firefighters worked through the night to fight the blaze, Gov. Luis Fortuno said. Firefighters said it would take a few days to control the inferno. Eleven tanks are ablaze, and firefighters are trying to cool down the remaining 29 tanks. The tanks are holding jet and diesel fuels and gasoline. Authorities are looking into the cause of the blaze, which took place at Caribbean Petroleum Corp., a storage complex on San Juan's bay that owns the Gulf brand in Puerto Rico. iReport.com: See, share, send images of the explosion . Justin Gehrke, a U.S. Army civilian employee who filed an iReport for CNN, was taken aback by the sight of the thick black smoke and took photos of the scene from his iPhone. \"I didn't expect to see a mushroom cloud from my house,\" he said.","highlights":"Explosion, fire rip through fuel storage complex .\nOne person injured, 350 evacuated near San Juan, Puerto Rico .\nCaribbean Petroleum Corp. tanks held jet, diesel fuels plus gasoline .\niReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, videos of the flames .","id":"cf4bd1781530fca8d14d726f47c45ad2d64c2d92"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A street vendor in Ghana's capital sells small American flags with an image of President Obama on them, in front of a billboard that proclaims \"Akwaaba\" -- or \"Welcome\" -- next to a smiling image of the U.S. leader. President Obama says he chose Ghana partly because of the \"democratic commitments\" by President Mills. When Obama arrives in Accra on Friday night, he will be the third sitting American president to visit the West African nation of Ghana. But unlike Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama is only visiting Ghana and no other country in the continent. Obama said he picked Ghana as the first African country he would visit as U.S. president partly because of the \"democratic commitments\" demonstrated by President John Atta Mills, who took office in January after a close election. \"By traveling to Ghana, we hope to highlight the effective governance that they have in place,\" Obama said Tuesday in an interview with AllAfrica.com. During his 24-hour visit to Ghana, Obama will meet with the president and address parliament before he and first lady Michelle Obama tour the Cape Coast Castle, which was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Security has been tight all week in Accra, and Ghana plans to deploy some 10,000 security forces during Obama's visit, according to Ghana News Agency (GNA). The White House has set up SMS codes to allow people across Africa to send \"words of welcome\" via text message to Obama during his visit. Obama has already received thousands of messages, and plans to answer several of the questions sent to him, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday. Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to visit Ghana, in 1998, as part of a six-nation Africa tour. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, stopped there during a four-nation Africa tour during his last year of office that largely focused on U.S. aid programs. Ghana's government named a road after Bush to recognize his government's contribution towards the country's development. As the United States' first African-American president, Obama's trip has broader significance as well. Obama's father is from Kenya and he expressed concern about the political situation in that East African nation. \"The political parties [in Kenya] do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation that would allow the country to move forward,\" Obama told AllAfrica.com. \"And Kenya is not alone in some of the problems that we've seen of late, post-election or pre-election.\" Many in Kenya were critical of Obama's decision to pick Ghana the first African nation he visited instead of his father's birthplace. During his campaign for president, Obama was hailed by many as a \"son of Kenya.\" Shortly after the White House announced the Ghana trip in May, newspaper headlines in Nairobi asked, \"Why Obama Snubbed Kenya.\" A political cartoon in one Kenyan paper showed Air Force One dropping a note to Kenya's leaders saying, \"Get your act together,\" as it flew over the country. Obama said he wanted his visit to Africa to mean more than just something to cross off his list as U.S. president. \"I actually thought that it made sense for us to connect a trip to Ghana to a previous trip with the G8 ... to show that Africa is directly connected to our entire foreign policy approach,\" Obama told AllAfrica.com. \"That it's not some isolated thing where once every term you go visit Africa for a while to check that box, but rather it's an ongoing part of a broader discussion about how we move many of these international challenges forward.\" As Ghana gears up for the visit, a group of local singers and rap artists wrote a welcome song for Obama and produced a music video on YouTube. \"President Obama, Welcome to Ghana,\" they sing, with images of U.S. and Ghanaian flags interspersed between the musicians. \"We welcome you to the Land of Gold.\"","highlights":"President Obama arrives in the West African nation Friday night .\nObama says he picked Ghana partly because of the \"democratic commitments\"\nGroup of local singers, rap artists write a welcome song for U.S. president .\nKenyan media wondered why Obama didn't choose to visit his ancestral nation first .","id":"62aea8449db6d641ee9870278d3c56e888fbcfd2"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An emotional Nancy Reagan helped unveil a statue of her late husband, President Reagan, on Wednesday, calling the 7-foot figure \"a wonderful likeness.\" Nancy Reagan, with House Minority Leader John Boehner, wipes away tears at Wednesday's event. \"I know Ronnie would be deeply honored to see himself with a permanent home in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and very proud to be representing his beloved California,\" Nancy Reagan said. She appeared to battle emotions as she mentioned her last visit to the marbled hall for Reagan's memorial in June 2004. \"It's nice to be back under happier circumstances,\" she said. Watch Nancy Reagan unveil the statue \u00bb . The statue is one of two from California in the National Statuary Hall Collection donated by states to honor significant figures. Nancy Reagan stood arm-in-arm with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio to pull down the curtain from the statue. She thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for making the event possible. In her remarks, Pelosi noted that the former president's statue contains pieces of the Berlin Wall, \"as a symbol of his commitment to national security and to his success.\" The wall was torn down shortly after Reagan left office. \"I'm so grateful to Californians for giving him this honor,\" Nancy Reagan said. \"Artist Chas Fagan has captured his likeness so well, and I think the addition of the pieces of the Berlin Wall in the pedestal reflects my husband's commitment to freedom and democracy for everyone.\" The former president is credited with polices that led to the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the dismantling of the wall that divided Berlin as a symbol of Cold War politics. James Baker, a longtime Republican who served in the Cabinets of Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, recalled that Reagan inherited some major problems when he took office in 1981. Citing the former president's trademark optimism, he quoted from Reagan's first inaugural address that \"we are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline.\" Nancy Reagan attended a White House ceremony Tuesday marking Barack Obama's signing of legislation authorizing a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission. The 11-member commission will plan activities marking Reagan's 100th birthday on February 6, 2011. Reagan was president from 1981 to 1989.","highlights":"NEW: Former first lady touts husband's \"commitment to freedom\"\nCalifornia donated figure for Capitol Rotunda to honor former president .\nPelosi says statue contains pieces of Berlin Wall .\nCommission planning events to mark 100th birthday in 2011 .","id":"9b39b4f53636a898c70daf36e0a3bc6990d39964"} -{"article":"SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- An outbreak of flu at Washington State University showed few signs of slowing down as more students continued to report symptoms suspected of being from the H1N1 virus, school officials said Wednesday. WSU Web page gives information, advice to students who suspect they may have H1N1 virus. About 2,500 students have come down with possible cases of H1N1 since classes began August 24, said James Tinney, WSU director of media relations. He added, \"It takes about three to four days to get over the virus, so many of the people who have had it are already feeling better and are back in class.\" On Wednesday, 169 new suspected cases of the virus, also known as swine flu, were reported among the nearly 18,000 students that make up the school's Pullman, Washington campus, according to a university news release. The university said while it is no longer testing sick students to confirm H1N1, it is following guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the local health department by \"treating all patients with influenza-like symptoms as if they have H1N1.\" Students who contact the school health services department complaining of symptoms of swine flu are urged to stay at home and drink fluids. None of the suspected H1N1 cases have required hospitalization so far, said a university news release. Watch report on what to look for with H1N1 \u00bb . Despite the high number of possible cases, media director Tinney said the students and faculty are not alarmed. \"The symptoms are fairly mild; some people have said milder than a regular case of the flu. I don't see people walking around the campus wearing masks,\" he said. Read about H1N1 facts \u00bb . But Tinney said officials were surprised that the long Labor Day weekend, when most students left campus, did not do more to interrupt the virus' spread. \"I guess we are an early test case of how this virus will spread over the population,\" Tinney said.","highlights":"Outbreak of flu at Washington State University shows few signs of slowing down .\nNo one suspected of having swine flu has been hospitalized so far, school says .\nSome of the people stricken say illness feels milder than regular case of flu .\nUniversity \"treating all patients with influenza-like symptoms as if they have H1N1\"","id":"533e8e8f326b27d27989d17b0c3fb82ef52dfcee"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A weekend incident with racial overtones at a high school for deaf students could result in criminal charges with \"enhanced penalties for a hate crime,\" Metro Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Wednesday. A black student was held against his will and then released with \"KKK\" and swastikas drawn on him in marker at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf on Sunday, she said. No charges have been filed, and no names have been released, Lanier said. The incident began when a group of black students and a group of white students were in a dorm. \"My understanding is the two groups engaged in friendly horseplay,\" she said. But, she said, the groups got \"angry with each other.\" The two groups separated, she said, but later, six white students and one black student -- all between the ages of 15 and 19 -- took one of the black students into a dorm room and \"held him there against his will.\" \"They used markers to write 'KKK' and draw swastikas on the student,\" Lanier said. The student was released after about 45 minutes. He notified dorm and school authorities, who called police. Lanier said police have identified and interviewed the students involved and the \"investigation is ongoing.\" \"The support we've received from the campus and from the school employees has been tremendous,\" Lanier said. \"And I think they're supporting us in making a very strong statement that this investigation may lead to charges that could have enhanced penalties for a hate crime.\" The school is a residential high school on the campus of Gallaudet University, a higher education facility for deaf and hard of hearing people. The high school is administered as a division of the university's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. Dean of Clerc Center Katherine A. Jankowski said the seven students who participated in the incident were sent home. Gallaudet provost Stephen Weiner said the school does \"not tolerate any action, behavior of this type.\" \"We are taking action,\" he said. \"We are looking at programs to help students understand we are a school with a diverse population.\" \"This incident is intolerable,\" he said. \"That's why the Metro police are involved. That's how serious we are about this incident.\" Jankowski said the school has also hired a consultant to work with the school and its students on diversity issues. On Monday, teachers and staff hosted a school-wide assembly with students related to the incident, said Jankowski. Individual and group counseling services were also available to students, teachers and staff. \"We are committed to ensuring MSSD is a safe and supportive learning environment,\" she said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Groups of white, black students argued on Gallaudet University campus .\nPolice: White students and one black student later assaulted black student .\nTeens could face criminal charges, including hate crimes, police said .\nNone have been charged yet, said police .","id":"4b735fcbc459efc9f9d472766da2ef97a4b82140"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Cosmologist, theoretical physicist and author, Stephen Hawking is possibly the world's greatest living scientist. Submit a question for scientist Stephen Hawking and we will put the best to him on \"The Spirit of Space\" in October. Certainly, he is a preeminent authority on all things space-related. This is the man, after all, who once said: \"My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe.\" It is this drive to get a better grasp on the laws which govern the universe that has informed Hawking's research since the early days when he was a research fellow at Cambridge University in the UK. One of his great achievements since then, together with mathematician Roger Penrose, has been to prove that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity means space and time has a beginning in the \"Big Bang\" and ends in black holes. In 1998, Hawking published \"A Brief History of Time,\" a layman's guide to the origins of the universe. The popular science book, which is aimed at helping the general public to answer questions like, \"Where did the universe come from?\" and \"Will it end and if so, how?\" is a best-seller and has since become a modern classic. As part of next month's \"The Spirit of Space\" show we are interviewing Hawking and giving Web site users the opportunity to submit a question to the professor. Please put forward your short and space-related questions in the Sound Off box below. We will put the best to him, and air his responses on \"The Spirit of Space\" in October. The Spirit of Space will air at the following times in October: . Thursday 9 October: 1300, 1730 Saturday 11 October: 0700, 1730 Sunday 12 October: 0300, 0730, 1300 .","highlights":"Submit your space-related questions for Stephen Hawking .\nWe will put the best questions to arguably the world's greatest living scientist .\nHis responses will be aired on \"The Spirit of Space\" in October .","id":"511fa443bdaabb7845aba2cb69737c96d7efd757"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Benjamin Button\" received more life, but Batman ended up in the dark. \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" scored a best actor nomination for Brad Pitt, here with Cate Blanchett. The nominations for the 81st annual Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning, and to nobody's surprise, \"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button\" did well, nabbing 13 nods to lead all films. The movie, about a man who ages in reverse, is a big film (almost three hours long) with big themes (death and love) and earned nominations for best picture, best director (David Fincher), best actor (Brad Pitt), best supporting actress (Taraji P. Henson) and best adapted screenplay along with eight nominations in other categories. \"This is a great honor for the movie, and I'm especially happy for David Fincher, for without him there would be no Ben Button,\" said Pitt in a statement. The film, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, has been a project of Fincher's for years. Gallery: The major Oscar nominees \u00bb . However, despite eight Oscar nominations, \"The Dark Knight\" -- 2008's box-office king -- only picked up one in a major category, that for Heath Ledger's performance as the villainous Joker. The late actor, who died exactly one year ago Thursday, is nominated for best supporting actor, the same award he won posthumously at the Golden Globes almost two weeks ago. Commentary: CNN.com film critic Tom Charity rates the Oscar nominations . \"The Dark Knight\" had made the short lists for the producers', directors' and writers' guilds, but those honors weren't enough to qualify it for a best picture Oscar nomination. What do you think of the nominations? Send us an iReport . \"Slumdog Millionaire,\" the sleeper hit about a Mumbai orphan who seeks fame and love through the Indian version of \"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?\", earned 10 nominations, including best picture, best director (Danny Boyle) and best adapted screenplay. The film, which struggled to find a U.S. theatrical distributor after its initial studio folded, has dominated the awards season thus far and is considered the front-runner for best picture. Watch star Anil Kapoor talk about the reaction the film has gotten \u00bb . \"I'm ecstatic,\" Boyle said in a statement from Mumbai, where the film premiered Thursday. \"Thank you to the Academy from the cast and crew here in Mumbai where the film was made. ... It feels like you've given us a billion nominations.\" In a mild surprise, \"The Reader,\" based on the best-selling novel about a postwar German boy who has an affair with an older woman with a Holocaust-related secret, took home nominations for best picture, best actress (Kate Winslet) and best director (Stephen Daldry). \"The Reader\" comes from the Weinstein Co. -- the studio headed by producer and master Oscar player Harvey Weinstein. \"I'm extremely happy to have been nominated. And very fortunate. Playing Hanna Schmitz will always remain one of the biggest challenges I've ever been blessed with,\" Winslet said in a statement. The other best picture nominees are \"Frost\/Nixon\" and \"Milk.\" Watch a rundown of the major nominations \u00bb . The Oscar nominations included a handful of other surprises. \"Revolutionary Road,\" featuring the heavyweight trio of Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio and director Sam Mendes (\"American Beauty\"), picked up just one major nomination -- a best supporting actor nod for Michael Shannon's portrayal of a troubled savant. Woody Allen, whose \"Vicky Cristina Barcelona\" was widely praised, didn't receive his usual original screenplay nomination. He can take solace in his previous 21 Oscar nominations, including three wins. One of \"Barcelona's\" performers, Penelope Cruz, received a nomination for best supporting actress. iReport.com: Deliver your acceptance speech . And Oscar favorite Clint Eastwood, who many believed would pick up an acting or directing nomination for his \"Gran Torino,\" received neither. However, Angelina Jolie, who starred in Eastwood's \"Changeling,\" earned a best actress nomination. The nominations also highlighted some lesser-known talent. Character actor Richard Jenkins, best known for his role as the deceased patriarch on the TV series \"Six Feet Under,\" received a best actor nomination for \"The Visitor.\" Melissa Leo, an actress who has had roles in such TV series as \"Law & Order,\" \"CSI\" and \"The L Word\" (as well as a regular role on \"Homicide: Life on the Street\"), earned a best actress nomination for her performance in \"Frozen River.\" \"Frozen River\" also earned a best original screenplay nomination. Two comeback stories received nominations: Robert Downey Jr., who battled back from drug abuse and incarceration to star in two 2008 hits, \"Iron Man\" and \"Tropic Thunder,\" earned a best supporting actor nomination for the latter. And Mickey Rourke, who has received raves for his performance as a struggling fighter in \"The Wrestler,\" got a best actor nomination. iReport.com: Who do you think will win? \"Milk,\" the biopic about pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk, earned nominations for star Sean Penn, director Gus Van Sant and its original screenplay as well as a best picture nod. \"Frost\/Nixon,\" about the 1977 interviews between David Frost and Richard Nixon, also received best picture, actor (Frank Langella) and director (Ron Howard) nominations as well as a nod for its adapted screenplay. Josh Brolin, who was overlooked by Oscar for last year's \"No Country for Old Men,\" received his first Oscar nomination. Brolin played Dan White, Milk's assassin, in \"Milk.\" \"To me, to question how a decent guy could resort to such a monstrous act ... It's just my fascination with that kind of behavior,\" Brolin told CNN.com Live of his reasons for taking the role. As for his competition, \"I couldn't be happier to be in this group of people,\" he said. Watch Brolin discuss the complexity of the role \u00bb . Meryl Streep, nominated for \"Doubt,\" received her 15th nomination, a record for a performer. The other major performers in \"Doubt\" -- Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis -- also were nominated in supporting categories. Israel's controversial \"Waltz With Bashir,\" an animated film about a soldier's memories of the 1982 war in Lebanon, received a nomination for best foreign-language film. The category's other nominees are \"The Baader-Meinhof Complex\" (Germany), \"The Class\" (France), \"Departures\" (Japan) and \"Revanche\" (Austria). The nominees for best animated feature are \"WALL-E,\" \"Kung Fu Panda\" and \"Bolt.\" \"WALL-E\" also earned a best song nomination for Peter Gabriel's \"Down to Earth.\" It will compete against two songs from \"Slumdog Millionaire.\" Bruce Springsteen's \"The Wrestler\" was left out of the category. The Oscars will be presented February 22 from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. The broadcast will air on ABC. Hugh Jackman is scheduled to host.","highlights":"\"Benjamin Button\" scores 13 Oscar nominations, including best picture, actor .\n\"Slumdog Millionaire,\" nominated for best picture, considered Oscar front-runner .\nHeath Ledger, who died exactly one year ago, up for best supporting actor .\n\"The Reader\" does surprisingly well; \"Revolutionary Road\" mostly snubbed .","id":"9870450c3b792c1cc9023867396849e6d4d53043"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- With the weekend arriving and a long day finally over, 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan stepped off her yellow school bus on a chilly Friday around 4 p.m. Cherrie Mahan's third-grade school photo was used on her missing child flyers. The bus stop was about 100 yards from her home in rural Winfield Township in western Pennsylvania. But Cherrie did not make it to the hilltop trailer she lived in with her parents. She was never seen again. Investigators say her disappearance after the four mile ride home from elementary school on February 22, 1985, remains a mystery. \"It's like a black hole opened up and she fell in,'' said Cherrie's mother, Janice McKinney. She recalled that she and Cherrie's stepfather, Leroy, could hear the bus pulling up that day. Soon after Cherrie did not arrive, he went to the stop to look for her. ''He came flying back up because she wasn't there,'' McKinney said. Watch what the girl's mom has to say \u00bb . Cherrie, an only child, would soon be celebrating her 33rd birthday, but in the minds of many, she will always remain a missing girl. \"People still talk about it,'' said Trooper Frank Jendesky, the lead detective working on the case for the Pennsylvania State Police for the past 15 years. The driver and children riding the bus remember Cherrie getting off the bus with a few other students who lived nearby. One lingering detail has baffled investigators for years -- reports that a 1976 model van was following the school bus. The van, according to students, had a distinctive painted mural of a snow-capped mountain and skier wearing red and yellow clothes coming down the mountain. Despite many efforts, the van was never found and it remains unclear whether it holds a link to the puzzle. ''By now it's probably in a junkyard or somewhere,'' said Jendesky, who considers the case a kidnapping or abduction -- rather than a homicide -- because a body was not found. \"It's the not knowing that kills you,'' McKinney said. ''Every day you wonder and you look at some girl who's 33 and you wonder, 'Is that her?' I look at little kids and wonder, 'Is that my grandchild?' '' Over the years, police conducted hundreds of interviews and cleared several persons of interest, while the case file grew to more than 4,000 pages. Among his biggest frustrations, Jendesky said: \"The time lapse and a lot of the calls I've gotten over the years really had no relevance to the case.'' In the days before Amber Alerts and greater public awareness of crimes against children, McKinney said it took time before word of her daughter's disappearance became widespread. McKinney said Cherrie's case was included as a public service insert in a direct mail advertising campaign, one of the first times that approach was taken. Cherrie was especially close with McKinney's parents. She described how the girl would lovingly mimic her grandfather's daily morning walk in the garden with his hands cupped behind his back. Hanging in McKinney's dining room is a picture Cherrie drew of a rainbow, trees, birds and clouds. It says \"Mom and Dad.\" \"I have more memories of my daughter than most people get in a lifetime,'' McKinney said, remembering that Cherrie loved the children's character Strawberry Shortcake, enjoyed spelling and wanted to be an elementary schoolteacher. The day Cherrie went missing she was bringing home annual school pictures. That photo and the girl who never made it home with it became known to many on missing posters distributed across the nation. \"She was one heck of a special kid,'' McKinney said. \"And there's somebody out there that knows. And I hope that someday they have a conscience and they'll let us know. Because that's all I pray for, is to have an answer.'' Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Cherrie Mahan or those responsible for her disappearance are asked to call the Pennsylvania State Police at (724) 284-8100.","highlights":"Third-grader disappeared in February 1985 .\nPolice looked for, but never found van with mural of skier .\nCherrie Mahan's missing person flyer was one of first sent by direct mail .\nKnow something? Call the Pennsylvania State Police at (724) 284-8100 .","id":"8fa85f448d2715564c530c243d59ae4b57c4ae4e"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- So you're finally ready to settle down and make that marriage proposal? There's no better time to do it than engagement season, which, lucky for you, is now! Get inspired by these uber-romantic celebrity proposals. Brandon Routh popped the question to Courtney Ford while on a picnic. Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict . Although the set of a slasher movie seems an unlikely place for romance to bloom, that's just where it happened for actors Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict. Shortly after shooting began in 1999 on their film \"Hollywood Horror,\" the co-stars started spending time together. Seven years later, on Christmas Day 2006, Hardrict, 32, told Mowry, 30, that he wanted to give her a promise ring. Then, as her entire family looked on, the \"Lincoln Heights\" actor yelled, \"Psych!\" and got down on one knee to present her with a 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring. Antonio Pierce and Jocelyn Maldonado . Antonio Pierce, an NFL linebacker, met Jocelyn Maldonado during a celebrity appearance at an ESPN Fantasy Football Draft. Maldonado, a model at the event, instantly caught his eye. Pierce and Maldonado (who now hosts Mets Weekly) were inseparable over the next six months. In February 2007, Pierce treated Maldonado to a helicopter ride above Manhattan, New York, before dining at Brooklyn's The River Caf\u00e9. Famous for its chocolate Brooklyn Bridge cake, Pierce conspired with the restaurant's manager to place the engagement ring atop the confection, which was covered with pink rose petals. Howie Dorough and Leigh Boniello . Backstreet Boy Howard \"Howie\" Dorough got more than he bargained for after hiring Leigh Boniello to be the band's webmaster in December 2000. Boniello went on tour with the group and quickly grew close to Dorough. Six years later, the couple attended a New Year's Eve party at the New Jersey home of Boniello's father. \"I figured, what better timing,\" says Dorough, \"because all of her family was going to be there, including her 92-year-old grandmother.\" Just before the stroke of midnight, Dorough made a toast and presented Boniello with a custom-designed three-stone diamond engagement ring. Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford . Three years before actor Brandon Routh donned those famous blue tights, he tended bar at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood. During a party there in 2003, actress Courtney Ford repeatedly poured out the drinks he made her as a ruse to chat him up. \"I kept asking him for another drink, telling him the one before was too strong,\" she recalls. In 2006, Routh purchased the 3-carat diamond ring that had caught Ford's eye during an earlier visit to Neil Lane. But since the two were traveling for the Superman Returns press tour, Routh asked Gilbert Adler, one of the film's producers, to hold the ring until they arrived in England. \"Poor man!\" says Routh. \"He carried it around for two and a half weeks.\" Finally, while picnicking in Glastonbury, Routh popped the question. Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter . Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter became friends after meeting at a party in 2006 and Sanchez immediately pegged him as perfect husband material. She found out for certain that he felt the same way just two days before Christmas 2007, under a full moon at midnight, in a bay off the coast of the Puerto Rican island Vieques. The two were seated in a double kayak, taking in the bioluminescent organisms shimmering in the water all alone, except for a tour guide in a second kayak. The scene should have been pure bliss, except that Sachez was concerned when their guide speedily paddled away. \"The guy knew to take off so Eric could propose, but imagine how I felt floating in this huge bay in the middle of the night with nobody around,\" Sanchez explains. \"I started calling back, 'Senor, hello! Come back!' until I realized something was going on.\" After an \"amazing speech,\" Winter pulled out a 4.3-carat brilliant-cut diamond ring by Michael Barin, Sanchez's favorite jeweler. But her joy was soon laced with anxiety over the fact that such a costly bauble was surrounded by acres of sea. \"I said, 'Put it away, please. I don't want it to drop in the water!'\" Anna Chlumsky and Shaun So . Actress Anna Chlumsky, 27, best known for her role in \"My Girl,\" was awaiting her seven-year anniversary with college sweetheart and army reservist Shaun So, 28, and hoping he might pop the question. While they were having breakfast at a caf\u00e9 in her neighborhood a week before their anniversary, Chlumsky described a cocktail ring a friend was selling. So, who had been carrying an engagement ring for two weeks in anticipation of the perfect moment, pulled out the 1-carat, cathedral-mounted, radiant-cut bauble and asked, \"Does it look anything like this?\" Guiliana DePandi & Bill Rancic . It started out all business: Giuliana DePandi was interviewing Bill Rancic, first-season winner on \"The Apprentice\" and co-host of the Chicago, Illinois, TV show \"In the Loop with iVillage.\" But when the cameras stopped rolling in April 2006, a whirlwind -- and adventurous -- romance began. Eight months later, when Rancic, 36, popped the question during a chopper flight over Chicago, complete with champagne, Giordano's deep-dish pizza (DePandi's favorite) and Michael Bubl\u00e9 tunes piped into the headset. \"Bill told me we were going to look at Christmas lights,\" says DePandi. \"It was dark in the helicopter, so I didn't really get a look at the ring until the next day, when I went into shock for the second time,\" she says of the 4-carat cushion-cut diamond in a micro pav\u00e9 setting Rancic helped design. Jeri Ryan and Chistophe Eme . \"He was hot!\" Shark star Jeri Ryan, 39, recalls of first glimpsing her future husband, Christophe Em\u00e9, 38, at a food-related charity event four years ago. \"He looked good in his chef's hat, and he had this ornery little spark in his eye that I really enjoy.\" After dating for two years, the couple opened Ortolan, their celebrated French restaurant in Los Angeles, California. The proposal came soon after. \"One night, Christophe covered my eyes and took me into our bedroom,\" recalls Ryan. There the die-hard romantic had placed candles, champagne and a canvas painted with the messages \"And you come with me forever\" in French and \"Grow old along with me\" in English. Em\u00e9 then presented Ryan with a made-to-order cushion-cut solitaire set in pav\u00e9 diamonds. Jason Priestley and Naomi Lowde . Fate has looked after Jason Priestley. On Valentine's Day 2000 the actor met Naomi Lowde, a makeup artist from Hertfordshire, England, while walking back from a play rehearsal in London. \"I was smitten,\" says Priestley, now 36. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum and Lowde, 27, immediately began dating, and in 2002 they moved back to California together. That's when fate took another turn: On August 11, 2002, Priestley was driving his race car on a Kentucky track when he hit a wall at 180 mph. Though he sustained three skull fractures, a broken back and a bleeding artery in his neck, he pulled through. \"It was a tough time, but it was also magical because we kept each other's spirits high,\" says Lowde. \"We pushed two beds together in the hospital and put Swifty, our French bulldog, in the middle. We were together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months.\" In May 2004 Priestley arranged another trip to London, England -- to the very street corner where he and Naomi first met, where he presented her with an emerald-cut, three-diamond ring by Steven Pomerantz. Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell . What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas -- and for Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell, that's not a bad thing. Nearly four years ago the two ran into each other poolside at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. \"I was working on a documentary, and Jerry offered to help,\" recalls Romijn, 35. \"He spent a week operating the microphone, but later he told me he would have done anything. I don't think he really cared about the project, if you know what I mean.\" For their first date the couple went to see the Blue Man Group with friends, and O'Connell had Romijn in stitches. \"It was this whole Jerry show in my ear. That's how it is with Jerry. You get sucked into it!\" Evidently: A year and a half later, on September 18, 2005, O'Connell, 33, proposed to Romijn in New York with a diamond ring from Simon G. \"I got down on one knee, asked her to marry me and said, 'You better say yes' a couple of times -- there was a little bit of a pause on her part,\" says O'Connell. Romijn's take? \"Not true!\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict got engaged on the set of a slasher movie .\nBackstreet Boy Howard \"Howie\" Dorough proposed on New Year's Eve .\nRebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell first met in Las Vegas, Nevada .\nJason Priestley proposed on the street corner where he and Naomi Lowde met .","id":"92af98f512e0cbea87fd851954ff3c0b45693300"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A prisoner killed in a Maryland county jail on Sunday was a victim of \"vigilante justice,\" Prince George's County Chief Executive Jack Johnson said. Ronnie White, 19, died of strangulation and asphyxiation and had two broken bones in his neck, an autopsy showed. An attorney for White's family said that because White was being held in solitary confinement at the Prince George's County Correctional Center, a corrections officer would have had to let whoever killed the prisoner into his cell. His death came two days after his arrest in connection with the death of Prince George's County police Cpl. Richard Findley, who died Friday after being struck by a truck. Authorities believe that White was driving the truck, which was thought to be stolen. Police were attempting to flag it down when Findley was struck. \"The killing of the officer is absolutely abhorrent, but also, Mr. White was presumed innocent and deserved his day in court just like any other citizens,\" Johnson said Monday night. \"We live in a constitutional democracy, and no one has the right to be judge and jury.\" The FBI's Baltimore field office said it has opened a civil rights investigation into White's death. The Justice Department said Tuesday that federal prosecutors have been in contact with the state police and FBI as well as county prosecutors and the department's own Civil Rights Division. \"In support of the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office, which intends to retain lead responsibility for the criminal investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office will provide guidance and legal advice to the officials looking into the death and seeking to develop evidence of criminal violations,\" the department said in a written statement. Johnson said Monday that he had requested that the Maryland State Police conduct an independent investigation into White's death. White family attorney Bobby Henry said there are only two ways someone could get into solitary confinement. Watch why death has outraged family \u00bb . \"You either have to be buzzed in from the booth -- I believe it's called the control booth -- you need a key from there, or you have to get a key from one of two officers who were assigned to his unit on that day,\" Henry said. The attorney said a \"yet to be identified person or persons took it upon themselves to be the judge, jury and executioner for Mr. White.\" \"The family of Ronnie White is absolutely, unequivocally outraged, incensed and deeply saddened that the life of their loved one could be taken so cold[ly], so callously,\" Henry said Tuesday. \"Something is dreadfully wrong with the system.\" County authorities have said that police are not suspects and that seven corrections officials and an unspecified number of supervisors were the only ones authorized to be in White's cell. None has been suspended or removed. There were no surveillance cameras in the area of the jail where White was being held. White had not had the opportunity to meet with an attorney, Henry said. A physical conducted when White was processed revealed no health issues, according to Johnson. He was checked regularly in his cell and appeared fine when corrections officers saw him at 10:15 a.m. Sunday. When officers brought him lunch 20 minutes later, he was unconscious and without a pulse, Johnson said. Henry said White's family was not notified of his death until several hours after it occurred. They were told to go to Prince George's Hospital to identify the body, he said, but upon arrival were told the state medical examiner's office had taken custody of the body and it had been taken to Baltimore. \"At this very moment, the family has not even seen the body of their loved one,\" Henry said. \"They have been denied the opportunity to start the grieving process which naturally must occur.\" He said White's family is calling upon the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Maryland State Police and county officials \"to conduct a thorough and exhaustive investigation into all of these tragic events, beginning with the events of Friday, June 27, and continuing up until this time.\" Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey said a grand jury will be convened in the case. He said his office, which will handle any prosecutions that might result, is keeping an open mind. \"We'll follow the evidence wherever it leads,\" he said. He added that he's \"never seen one like this. We've had deaths in custody, but this could be a unique one.\" CNN's Jeanne Meserve and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FBI opens civil rights investigation .\n19-year-old held in connection with death of police officer .\nRonnie White died of strangulation .\nWhite was in solitary confinement at Prince George's County Corrections Center .","id":"0ec024bb01d6afa8a9492e9749947838adc2b983"} -{"article":"Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNN) -- Electricity returned early Wednesday to a large swath of central and southern Brazil that was plunged into darkness when power from a major hydroelectric dam was lost. Up to 18 of Brazil's 26 states were left without power when electricity from the Itaipu dam was interrupted around 10:15 p.m. (7:15 p.m. ET) Tuesday, leaving Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other cities in darkened chaos. Hundreds of people were trapped in elevators. Subways, trains and buses stopped running their routes. Video showed long snaking lines of cars at a near standstill on the roads, their headlights the only illumination. The outage also led to medical emergencies, with a report in Sao Paulo of neighbors having to rescue someone who breathes with the help of a ventilator but the back-up battery was running low. Police also reported increased robberies and looting related to the blackout. Authorities in Rio de Janeiro and other cities stepped up enforcement. Officials said up to 60 million of Brazil's nearly 200 million residents were pitched into darkness. \"I thought, 'How is this happening?' \" said Rio de Janeiro resident Wesley Ferreira. \"All of Copacabana is black.\" Power was restored to most of Brazil by 6 a.m. (3 a.m. ET), the government-run Agencia Brasil news agency said. But some water-treatment plants remained affected Wednesday. Authorities in Sao Paulo reported that 3 million residents in the metropolitan area remained without water, down from a previous 6.7 million. Sao Paulo is the largest municipality in South America, with about 11 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 20 million in the metro area. The Itaipu dam, one of the world's largest hydroelectric facilities, is shared by Brazil and Paraguay, which also lost power. Neighboring Uruguay also reported outages. Itaipu provides more than 19 percent of Brazil's energy and 87 percent of Paraguay's, Agencia Brasil said. The outage affected 18 states, the UOL Noticias news outlet said, citing Brazil's minister of mines and energy, Edison Lobao. The states of Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo went totally dark, while Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Goias, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana, Acre, Rondonia, Bahia, Sergipe, Paraiba, Alagoas, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte were partially affected. The Federal District in which Brasilia, the nation's capital, is located also had outages. As a point of reference as to how widespread the blackout was, it is about 2,000 miles from the southern tip of Santa Catarina to the northern tip of Pernambuco. Jorge Samek, the director general of the agency that runs the dam, said the blackouts were caused by a failure in the Brazilian power delivery system, not the hydroelectric plant at the dam. Officials said three transmission lines went out. Officials said they had not determined an official cause for the power failure, but pointed at the weather. They discounted any type of sabotage. \"Apparently, according to information that we have, it was because of meteorological conditions that were pretty adverse, with strong winds and strong rain at the same time,\" Lobao said. Some experts agreed that the electric system should not collapse because of a storm. \"There is a problem,\" said Luiz Pinguelli, director of the Post-Graduate Engineering Center at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University. \"And you can't say under any circumstances that this is due to nature. There is a transmission problem, and the worst part of it is the dimension it takes. That is to say, an accident that can tumble one line is always possible. But for the power to go out in so many cities for such a long time, that shouldn't happen.\" Some residents blamed a sudden surge in electricity use as Brazil, which is in the Southern Hemisphere, enters spring and the weather gets warmer. \"Those responsible for the energy supply do not perceive that the weather is changing and that there's a lot of hot weather in the spring,\" said Rio resident Pabla de Visconti. \"Summer promises to be hot, and everyone is turning on air-conditioners and fans.\" The nation's ability to handle basic utilities concerns some officials as Brazil prepares to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics two years later. \"I always say that Brazil is a country that is growing much, that everyone takes pride in, that is talked about favorably in the rest of the world, but that has a Third World infrastructure,\" said Adriano Pires, director of the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure. \"When we have consumption peaks, there are blackouts. If the government does not invest in infrastructure, the problems will be more serious each time. It will lead to the strangulation of economic growth and could embarrass the country in events like the World Cup and the Olympics.\" CNN's Alessandra Castelli and journalists Fabiana Frayssinet and Lucrecia Franco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Electricity returns to central and southern Brazil after power from major hydroelectric dam was lost .\nNeighboring Paraguay, Uruguay report related blackouts .\nHydroelectric dam provides over 20 percent of Brazil's energy .","id":"f7224fb03fe025d0d1382ad4a7f15bbb1f569f53"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tillakaratne Dilshan scored his sixth Test century of a remarkable year to give Sri Lanka a fine start to the third match of their series against India in Mumbai on Wednesday. Dilshan made 109 as Sri Lanka, seeking a win to level the series at 1-1, closed on 366 for eight wickets on the opening day. All-rounder Angelo Mathews was closing on his first Test century with an unbeaten 86 on a wicket offering turn and bounce, but was rapidly running out of partners to the second new ball. India, who won the second Test in Kanpur last week by a crushing innings and 144 runs, will take over from South Africa as the top-ranked Test team in the world if they can win the series 2-0. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh claimed four victims and slow left-armer Pragyan Ojha two but Dilshan proved a formidable opponent. He continued his superb 2009 with 10 boundaries and two sixes to reach three figures for the 11th time in Tests. He made 112 in the high-scoring draw in the first Test in Ahmedabad. Dilshan put on 93 in 20 overs for the first wicket with Tharanga Paranavitana, who made 53.before becoming Harbhajan's first victim just before lunch. India claimed three wickets in the afternoon as Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara went cheaply with Mahela Jayawardene adding 59 for the third wicket before falling victim to paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. Harbhajan had Thilan Samaraweera caught in the leg-trap for one just before the tea interval. Mathews and Dilshan put Sri Lanka back on top again in the final session with a 74 stand which was ended when the opener was given out caught at short-leg off Harbhajan, with TV replays indicating he was unlucky. Prasanna Jayawardene made 43 in a sixth-wicket stand of 67 with Mathews, but he Nuwan Kulasekara and Rangana Herath fell in quick succession as India hit back again.","highlights":"Tillakaratne Dilshan scores sixth Test century of 2009 for Sri Lanka .\nOpener helps his side to 366 for eight on first day against India in Mumbai .\nHarbhajan Singh takes four wickets to lead Indian attack on helpful wicket .","id":"29e1abac6ff67c65e94e6e60e00d333576ac64fb"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- We remember Henry Ford as the automotive magnate who perfected assembly line technology, but he also dabbled in ambitious social programs, including one in which he hired ex-convicts straight out of Sing Sing to staff his factories. Henry Ford, pictured in 1942, unsuccessfully attempted to increase the rubber supply with a plantation in Brazil. Although many of these efforts were successful, Ford's ill-fated foray into the Brazilian jungle was a notable and fascinating exception. The plan . If you're going to make millions of cars, you're going to need an awful lot of rubber. In 1927, Ford came up with a novel plan: He'd solve his rubber problem and test out his lofty theories about social planning. If everything went well, he could craft both a utopia full of healthy, productive workers and a direct pipeline of coveted rubber to Detroit. Ford approached the task with characteristic zeal. He talked the Brazilian government into granting him 10,000 square kilometers of land in the Amazon rain forest -- a plot that was nearly twice as big as the state of Delaware -- in exchange for a 9 percent cut of the plantation's profits. In theory, this setup seemed like one of Ford's ideas that would shake out pretty well, and in 1928, Ford sent a barge full of supplies from Michigan down to his new plantation town, which was dubbed \"Fordlandia.\" Growing rubber in the jungle . Unfortunately for Ford's stockholders, though, the captain of industry didn't always have a great eye for detail. (One famous story about Ford was that he disliked accountants so fiercely that he never had his company audited. By the end of his tenure, the Ford Motor Company allegedly had no idea exactly how much it cost to build a car.) Ford didn't check to see if the plantation was suitable for growing rubber. According to Greg Grandin, author of \"Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City,\" Ford never consulted any sort of expert on rubber cultivation; he just sent a bunch of supplies and managers into the jungle hoping to grow some rubber. Mental Floss: Henry Ford and others who survived bankruptcy . Ford was legendarily contemptuous of experts, but he could have saved some serious dough if he'd just hired a consultant to tell him that the plantation wasn't at all suitable for growing rubber. The land wasn't very fertile, but that wasn't the main problem. The real difficulty was that it's practically impossible to farm rubber in a plantation setting in the Amazon rainforest. To grow the trees on a commercial scale, you've got to pack them in fairly close together, and at that point they become incredibly susceptible to blight and insect attacks. Fordlandia's trees were no exception, and caterpillars and blight quickly decimated the fields. Not exactly a worker's paradise . Obviously, the rubber production part of the Fordlandia got off to a rocky start. How was the \"worker's paradise\" part of things going, though? Even more abysmally. The American managers and their families that Ford imported from Michigan weren't accustomed to the sweltering Brazilian heat and headed back north with an alarming frequency. The heavy machinery used on the plantation left deep ruts in the soft soil, which collected stagnant water and became breeding grounds for malaria-ridden mosquitoes. Ford had attempted to design Fordlandia like any American town, complete with schools, restaurants, a golf course, and shops. The catch here, though, was that the indigenous Brazilians who farmed the rubber weren't used to living in a stylized American community. Worse still, the plantation's workers were expected to work a strict shift from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., whereas normal harvesting practices in the region saw workers hit the fields before dawn, take a long break, and then head out again at twilight to save themselves the misery of working in the tropical midday heat. Food fights . Ford's influence extended all the way down to the residents' diets, and while the indigenous workers weren't crazy about having to eat American foods, they were livid about having to eat in a cafeteria setting rather than enjoying the homestyle meals to which they were accustomed. Eventually, the workers decided they'd had enough of the affront of cafeteria dining and rioted during a meal. Mental Floss: Three historical food fights . As the American managers fled to the safety of boats, the workers destroyed their mess hall and continued to riot until Brazilian soldiers came in to suppress violence. Another sticking point for the workers was Ford's insistence that his model community be entirely free of alcohol and tobacco. Although Prohibition wasn't exactly an unqualified success at home, and although alcohol was still legal in Brazil, Ford stayed firm on his booze ban. Workers who needed a drink were forced just outside the city limits to buy a bottle of cachaca; enterprising liquor salesman could simply paddle by on the river and unload their wares. Mental Floss: Why is the drinking age 21? End of the road . Eventually, even though Henry Ford steadfastly insisted that the community could thrive and help introduce American-style industrialization to the rest of the world, it became abundantly clear that the noble Fordlandia experiment was a flop. After the perfection of synthetic rubber in 1945, Ford sold the plantation at a $20 million loss and left Brazil. Just how much of a fiasco was the Fordlandia experiment? Although Ford spent 17 years trying to produce rubber on the plantation, no Ford car ever rolled off the assembly line with a single bit of Fordlandia's rubber in it. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The auto magnate set up a plantation in the Amazon rain forest to produce rubber .\nHe didn't research the land and found out to late it wasn't suitable for growing rubber .\nBrazilian workers rioted against U.S.-style mess hall, ban on alcohol .\nFord ultimately sold the plantation at a $20 million loss .","id":"1486bf735a2b6259aa2c511985d1235865281f41"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of Opel workers went on strike in Germany on Thursday in protest at the decision by U.S. parent General Motors to abandon the sale of the automaker. GM shocked German public officials when it announced earlier this week its decision to keep its European Opel and Vauxhall units and cancel a planned sale to Canadian firm Magna. If Magna had bought GM's European operations thousands would have lost their jobs in Spain and at Vauxhall plants in Britain. After the announcement there were celebrations in Britain but fury in Germany, where thousands of workers fear they will face the axe. \"We want Opel to continue to exist,\" Hesse state Premier Roland Koch -- one of the biggest lobbyists for a sale to Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank -- told rallying workers at Opel headquarters in Ruesselsheim on Thursday, according to Reuters.com. \"We will have to fight again with the goal of saving jobs.\" GM announced a restructuring plan for Opel that would include cuts of as many as 10,000 jobs at the European subsidiary. About half of Opel's 50,000 workers are based in Germany. The U.S. car giant confirmed in a statement to CNN that its revised viability plan for Opel \"will likely include cuts in that range.\" J\u00fcrgen R\u00fcttgers, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where GM proposes closing a factory, told the Financial Times: \"General Motors' behaviour shows the ugly face of turbo-capitalism. That is completely unacceptable.\" German Opel workers reject GM's restructuring plan for the company, which they believe will see a drain of vehicle development from Germany to the United States, Lorenz said. Employees in Germany are not only unwilling to accept pay cuts moving forward, but they will also demand to be paid for concessions they have made, like giving up a scheduled pay rise in May, their 2008 Christmas bonus, and vacation pay for 2009, Lorenz said. GM promised to work with all the European labor unions on a plan for Opel's restructuring. The GM board of directors said an improving business environment over the past few months and the importance of Opel and its British brand, Vauxhall, to GM's global strategy were reasons to retain Opel. The board said it would begin restructuring its European operations \"in earnest\" instead, according to a news release issued late Tuesday. GM's decision is a setback for Magna, which agreed to purchase Opel and Vauxhall in September in a deal brokered by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. General Motors said in March that it wanted to sell Opel after it reported an annual loss of $30.9 billion for 2008. Opel, together with Vauxhaull, is the fourth-largest car brand in Europe after Volkswagen, Ford, and Renault. It is also GM's largest-selling brand in Europe by far, representing more than 70 percent of GM's European sales. While GM's decision may still mean layoffs as it restructures its European businesses, it may safeguard jobs in the short-term. Employees at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, England, welcomed the news. \"I think it's a good idea, really, because a lot of people will have jobs,\" one employee told Sky News. \"We've had a three-day week now for ages,\" said another man. \"We've lost money, so now we're going to start getting some back.\" The head of the Unite union, which represents Vauxhall workers, said he was \"absolutely delighted\" that GM will retain ownership of the brand. \"GM was once the biggest company in the world and we have no reason to believe that it cannot restructure itself to address its present difficulties,\" Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley said. \"My worry is that they would be forced to spin off their UK business to Magna, which simply does not have the expertise to run a global car company.\" CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Berlin, Germany, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Opel workers in Germany strike Thursday over GM's decision to abandon sale of automaker .\nGM's Opel restructuring plan could eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs .\nU.S. parent company says improving business environment behind its decision not to sell Opel .\nGM said in March it wanted to sell Opel after reporting losses of $30.9 billion .","id":"4556c500c19e1bd1324c800e85f0932d8c89b867"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, was political director for President Reagan and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Ed Rollins says Jack Kemp's intellect and force of personality helped guide the Republican party. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The world of politics has many players but few giants. One of the giants left the stage last week. I was privileged to have had Jack Kemp as a friend. Our friendship was not unique, because Jack Kemp had thousands and maybe tens of thousands of people who thought of themselves as his friend. He gave his friendship willingly and with a spirit of generosity. Those of us who knew him are saddened by his passing and the political world is a whole lot emptier because he's gone. When Jack entered a room he filled it with an energy and fervor and his presence was felt big-time. Every conversation with him became a debate, even if you agreed with him on an issue. Jack Kemp had no casual thoughts. I knew Jack for nearly 40 years. He was one of my early heroes. To this day I think of myself as a Reagan-Kemp Republican. We both were Californians who came out of blue-collar working-class roots. His father was a truck driver, my father a shipyard worker. We both wanted to remake the Republican Party into a party for working people where hard work was rewarded and opportunities were offered to every man and woman regardless of background, color, religion or beliefs. Jack went from a 13-year all-star career as the starting quarterback with the Buffalo Bills straight to Congress. He was first elected in 1970 and over the next four decades he was one of the most influential and popular men in the Republican Party. He was a true intellectual, a vociferous reader and was a warrior for his ideas. He took the intensity that made him the AFL's most valuable player directly to the halls of Congress without missing a beat. In his 18 years in Congress he was a leader of the new breed of conservatives. After he ran for president in 1988, he was appointed the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by President George H.W. Bush. In 1996, he was the Republican vice presidential nominee running with Sen. Bob Dole's presidential effort . Along the way he was an extraordinary husband for 50 years to his wonderful Joanne and a remarkable father to his two sons, Jeff and Jimmy, and his two daughters, Jennifer and Judith, who provided him 17 grandchildren. I was the national chairman of Jack's presidential campaign in 1988. I believed he was the rightful heir to Ronald Reagan and that his conservative principles and ideas would continue to build on the foundation that President Reagan had established. Many of us thought Jack or Sen. Paul Laxalt, Reagan's closest friend and campaign chairman, should have been the vice presidential candidate in 1980. If either of them had been selected, he likely would have been the future president and there would not have been a Bush dynasty. They were the favorites of the convention delegates and President Reagan's top choices, too. He was argued out of them because people said you couldn't have a movie star running with a football star -- or two former governors from neighboring states (California and Nevada). Be that as it may. Jack's contributions to Ronald Reagan's legacy as the tax-cutting guru and unstoppable missionary of supply side economics made much of President Reagan's domestic policy possible. Even though he had always been a quarterback, he became a blocking back for President Reagan in moving his legislation through Congress. Shortly after he became HUD secretary in 1989, several National Football League team owners came to him offering him the job of National Football League Commissioner to replace his long time friend Pete Rozelle. He told me it was the one job he always wanted. My counsel was to take it. He called me back several days later and said he couldn't, because he felt he owed it to President Bush not to walk away after so short a time and that he so wanted to help all those in the urban communities who needed help. Jack was the Republican party's greatest advocate of a \"big tent theory\" and felt the party of Lincoln needed to do more to broaden civil rights and encourage minority participation. He often said he played and showered with more African-Americans then most Republicans meet in a lifetime. They were his friends, and in sports you learn all men bleed the same color. He often repeated the line: \"I wasn't there with Rosa Parks or Dr. King or John Lewis. But I am here now, and I am going to yell from the rooftops about what we need to do.\" And just as he led his Bills to back to back championships, he drove his party to an ideology that led to the Republican Congressional majorities in the '90s. Like all of us, Jack wasn't perfect, but he was darn good. As someone who tried to manage him, I found that he wasn't manageable. I once told him: \"Jack, if I could remove half your knowledge and three-quarters of your vocabulary, I could make you into a decent candidate.\" He laughed and went on his merry way. And of course it was that incredible intellect and his passion for words as well as people that made him such a powerful force. Jack Kemp was the indefatigable happy warrior, who over the last four decades drove his party with an intellectual fervor that influenced every leader from President Reagan to Speaker Newt Gingrich. He fought for his ideas with an intensity like that of very few men I have known. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Rollins.","highlights":"Ed Rollins: Jack Kemp helped guide Republican Party in 1980s and 1990s .\nHe says Kemp was a strong source of ideas the party put to use .\nRollins: Kemp believed in a GOP \"big tent\" and encouraged minority participation .","id":"20691249195f1d6da10ec724e9674f5a96644313"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A strong Russia is good for the United States, President Obama said in a speech in Moscow, where he is visiting in an effort to \"reset\" the countries' relations. President Obama meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday before heading to the G-8 in Italy. Obama delivered a commencement speech Tuesday at a Moscow graduate school. \"America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia,\" he told a large crowd at the New Economic School. \"This belief is rooted in our respect for the Russian people, and a shared history between our nations that goes beyond competition.\" He repeated the message in a meeting later with Russian business leaders, but also said Russia has to do more to fight corruption. \"We have to promote transparency, accountability, rule of law on which investments and economic growth depend,\" he said. Watch Obama discuss thoughts on Kremlin visit \u00bb . \"We want Russia to be selling us goods and we want Russia to be buying goods from us,\" he said. \"Total trade between our countries is just $36 billion. Our trade -- America's trade with Russia -- is only about 1 percent of all our trade with the world -- 1 percent -- a percent that's virtually unchanged since the Cold War.\" Watch Obama's full opening statement \u00bb . Obama later met Russian opposition leaders, speaking of the importance for the country to \"not simply tolerate dissenting voices but also to respect and recognize dissenting voices.\" Obama also spoke to civil society leaders, promising the United States will support universal values and human rights such as the rights of people to live as they choose, to have a free press and to speak their minds. On Monday Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and discussed a series of agreements -- including one on nuclear-arms reduction -- as part of an effort to strengthen ties between the one-time Cold War rivals. The two signed a deal on parameters for negotiations to replace the START agreement, with the goal of reducing nuclear weapons. START expires December 5. Watch Obama discuss arms control pact \u00bb . Under Monday's agreement, Russia and the United States will reduce their strategic warheads to a range of 1,500 to 1,675, and their strategic delivery vehicles to a range of 500 to 1,100. The numbers would be a reduction from the expiring START, which allowed 2,200 warheads and 1,600 launch vehicles. The two-day summit in Moscow was to help refocus a relationship that, according to Obama, \"has suffered from a sense of drift\" in recent years. The president reiterated that in his speech Tuesday. \"That is why I have called for a 'reset' in relations between the United States and Russia,\" Obama said. \"This must be more than a fresh start between the Kremlin and the White House, though that is important,\" he said. \"It must be a sustained effort among the American and Russian people to identify mutual interests and to expand dialogue and cooperation that can pave the way to progress.\" Obama met with Medvedev again Tuesday and with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin before heading to Italy for the Group of Eight summit. The G-8 agenda is packed with issues, including Iran, the global financial crisis, climate change and eradicating world poverty. Putin said his meeting with Obama was \"very good and substantive.\" \"We also talked about how we will be improving our relations in the near- and medium-term. It was a very well-intentioned and substantial conversation in many concrete fields. We have many points we agree on,\" Russia's prime minister said. After his speech, Obama sat down with Ed Henry, CNN senior White House correspondent, for a brief interview. The president spoke about a wide range of issues, including how much his daughters were enjoying Moscow, his impressions of Putin, relations with Iran and Michael Jackson. On Iran, Obama reiterated recent statements about the post-election protests there. \"Events in recent weeks have disturbed the world. They are not only heartbreaking, but raise questions over where leaders want to take the country,\" Obama said. \"We have to wait and see how the dust settles. But we have to speak out and say that the Iranian people have to be treated with justice.\" The president also spoke about the legacy of Michael Jackson, on the day of the pop star's public memorial program. \"No doubt he was one of greatest entertainers of our or any generation. Like Elvis, Sinatra, the Beatles, he became core part of our culture,\" Obama said. \"His extraordinary talent and music was mixed with big dose of tragedy in private life. It is important for us to affirm the best of him.\" CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: PM Putin: Much agreement in \"well-intentioned, substantial\" talks .\nObama cites respect for Russian people, shared history that transcends competition .\nObama is in Moscow for two-day summit with President Medvedev, Putin .\nObama, Medvedev sign \"joint understanding\" on cutting nuclear arsenals .","id":"6eb09c9b1cf19f73e7f847e932a24b6d5096ec7c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States successfully tested a sea-based component of its missile defense shield Thursday evening, intercepting a ballistic missile with a dummy warhead over the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said. A dummy missile is launched from a ship during a 2008 test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The exercise was the 19th successful test in 23 attempts of the system -- known as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program -- since 2002. A target missile was fired from Hawaii about 5:40 p.m. (11:40 p.m. ET) and was tracked by Navy ships hundreds of miles away. The USS Hopper, one of three Navy ships tracking the launch, fired an interceptor missile, which struck the target about 100 miles above the Earth. The process -- from launch to shoot-down -- took less than five minutes, according to the U.S. military. The United States plans to use the sea-based system on Navy Aegis-class ships to protect against incoming short- to medium-range missiles fired from hostile countries. Eighty-six of the ships eventually will have the capability. Another part of the missile defense protection -- ground-based midcourse defense -- is designed to strike at long-range missiles. Both the sea-based and ground-based systems are part of the Pentagon's \"layered\" missile defense plan. Much of the missile defense program is still under development, including lasers fired from a plane that the military hopes would destroy an enemy missile during launch. Other parts of the missile defense would fire short-range missiles at incoming warheads that are close to hitting their targets. Over the past seven years, the U.S. military has spent billions of dollars on the missile defense program. Pentagon officials have said that each missile defense test costs about $85 million.","highlights":"Ship-based system shoots down dummy missile from hundreds of miles away .\nAegis Ballistic Missile Defense has 19 successful tests in 23 tries, agency says .\nMore than 80 U.S. Navy ships eventually will be equipped with system .","id":"2ed85b0c6b3de5bd83aec07273a148897cc2c1dd"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The suspect in last week's deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood urged in 2007 that Muslims in the U.S. Army be allowed to claim conscientious objector status when it comes to fighting other Muslims in war, a defense official said Tuesday. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also discussed religious aspects of Islam during a presentation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as part of a final project for his residency tenure, said the official, who has knowledge of the investigation into Hasan. \"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims,\" Hasan said, according to a slide show that The Washington Post said Hasan used in the June 2007 presentation. \"Muslims [sic] soldiers should not serve in any capacity that renders them at risk to hurting\/killing believers unjustly,\" a Hasan slide said, though he added that individual feelings \"will vary!\" Hasan is the only suspect in the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas on Thursday that left 13 people dead and 42 wounded. Twelve of the dead were soldiers. Hasan remains in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, after having been shot by a police officer. Dr. Val Finnell, a former medical school classmate of Hasan's, described him as \"a very outspoken opponent of the war\" in the classroom and in public settings. \"He equated the war against terror with a war against Islam,\" Finnell said. He added that he was shocked by Thursday's shooting. \"However, that said, given the things that Maj. Hasan has said to me in the past and to other people, I am not surprised.\" Hasan's comments came in what was supposed to be a medical seminar, The Washington Post reported, but instead he spoke to senior Army doctors about Islam. Hasan, a psychiatrist, aimed to describe \"religious conflicts that Muslims may have with the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,\" according to the newspaper's report. The report is based on a slideshow that The Washington Post said Hasan used in the June 2007 presentation. See the presentation and the Post's report . In a statement issued Monday night, the FBI said its investigation \"indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.\" Hasan came under investigation for a time last year when his communications with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki were intercepted by terrorism investigators monitoring the cleric's communications, a federal law enforcement official said. An employee of the Defense Department's Criminal Investigative Services, assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, ultimately made the decision to drop the investigation after reviewing the intercepted communications and Hasan's personnel files. However, a senior defense department official said late Tuesday that the agency was not aware of any such communication. \"Contrary to reports we have seen in some news outlets, based on what we know now, neither the United States Army nor any other organization within the Department of Defense knew of Major Hasan's contacts with any Muslim extremists,\" the official said. \"Not until after the tragic shooting at Fort Hood last week were Major Hasan's e-mail communications first brought to our attention by federal investigators.\" President Obama traveled to Fort Hood for a memorial service on Tuesday for the victims of the shooting. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other dignitaries also attended the service. Read profiles of the shooting victims . Hasan, 39, was wounded several times during the attack. His ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterward, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. Federal agents attempted to interview Hasan on Sunday, but he refused to cooperate and asked for an attorney, according to senior investigative officials, who insisted they not be identified by name because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing federal investigation. Hasan has retained a lawyer, ex-military judge and retired Army Col. John Galligan, the attorney told CNN affiliate KXXV-TV. \"Like anybody that's facing criminal charges in the military arena, he's entitled to a defense counsel,\" Galligan told the station. Galligan said he had a 25-minute conversation with Hasan, and the two did not talk much about the Fort Hood shooting. \"There's still a lot to be done on the medical side,\" Galligan said. Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He was promoted to major in May and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan sometime soon but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military. Hasan, a Muslim, also told his family that he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11. In August, he reported to police that his car was keyed and a bumper sticker that read \"Allah is Love\" was torn off. A neighbor was charged with criminal mischief after that complaint.","highlights":"Official: Let Muslims be conscientious objectors, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said .\nFormer classmate says Hasan opposed war on terror .\nHasan remains in intensive care, has reportedly retained lawyer .","id":"af584726e90a34375e6a60a5d50128a188580356"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Want to boost your spending power? Try giving your wallet a break by shopping at a dollar store. Americans have embraced the four leading chains -- Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and the 99\u00a2 Only store -- in droves during the recession. This year, Dollar General's sales were up almost 10 percent quarter-over-quarter, and they're opening 450 new stores, according to The New York Times. Dollar Tree, meanwhile, planned to open 235 new stores this year. And Family Dollar's early 2009 numbers pointed to sales being up 6.5 percent year-over-year. But despite the booming sales, Consumer Reports' Money Adviser has taken a close look at this hot retail segment and found that not everything is a deal. Before I tell you what they say to stock up on and what to pass on, I want to clarify something. There are important distinctions to note among the chains. Dollar General and Family Dollar both price the majority of their items at $1, but they also offer some merchandise at higher price points. Dollar Tree and the 99\u00a2 Only chain are the only true dollar stores where everything is $1, with no exceptions. So what did Consumer Reports find? Cotton rounds, gift wrap, birthday candles, paper bags, composition notebooks, plastic cups, security envelopes, napkins, foam plates and tissue paper are among the best deals. Yet they advised against buying jewelry (too much lead content), electrical products (possibly fake UL labels), medication (expired products) and vitamins (probably not to be from reputable sellers) at any dollar stores. Now, I've routinely bought medication like ibuprofen at dollar stores and have not found it to be past expiration date. Of course, some would argue that I can get a better deal on ibuprofen at a warehouse club. But unless you're in constant pain, who can use all those 12 million pills in the bulk container before they expire?! The research that Consumer Reports did reminded me of a similar report in Good Housekeeping several years ago. At that time, the women's magazine compared four knockoff products from the dollar stores versus four brand name products purchased elsewhere. The products included generic glass cleaner, body lotion, dishwashing liquid and detergent. The brand name products were Windex, Lubriderm, Dawn and Tide, and they proved to better than their generic counterparts. For example, a teaspoon of Dawn washed 19 dishes, while a teaspoon of the dollar brand washed only six! As for the detergent, the dollar brand failed to wash out a mustard stain that Tide did. So the message is, let the buyer beware at the dollar stores. Certainly, there are some deals to be had, but you've got to be picky.","highlights":"Recession has boosted spending at dollar stores .\nCotton rounds, gift wrap, birthday candles among the best deals .\nNot all dollar stores are equal; some have more expensive items .\nSome knockoff products from dollar stores failed tests against brand names .","id":"fa8a544225876008355a66c4e276e223f1d5ed39"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thierry Henry could face FIFA disciplinary action over his handball which helped France to qualify for the finals of the 2010 World Cup at the expense of Ireland. FIFA president Sepp Blatter told reporters in Cape Town that the Barcelona striker's \"blatant unfair play\" could land him in hot water. \"The FIFA disciplinary committee will open an investigation ... concerning the behavior of the player Thierry Henry,\" he said. \"It was blatant unfair play and was seen all around the world. I don't know the outcome of the disciplinary committee, let them make the decision. \"Fair play must be maintained in our game.\" Blatter was speaking after an extraordinary meeting of the FIFA executive committee, which was convened to consider the refereeing controversy in the France - Ireland match, incidents surrounding the Algeria - Egypt playoff tie and matchfixing in Europe. It had been widely trailed that the FIFA executive would sanction the use of two extra officials behind both goal lines in World Cup. But Blatter said that the finals in South Africa was too soon to introduce the system which has been used in the second-tier European club tournament this year. \"The experiments with the Europa League shall go on into the knockout stages next year but it has been decided, for the World Cup 2010, there is no change in the refereeing: one referee, two assistants and a fourth official.\" He went on to say that there would be further investigation into both video technology and additional referees. \"We shall have a look at technology or additional persons and this shall be done by a committee but not the referees committee alone, it will be done by the football, technical and medical committees, too,\" he added. Ireland were denied a place in the finals by a goal that should have been disallowed because Henry used his hand to control the ball before setting up William Gallas to score the aggregate decider in the second leg in the Stade de France. Ireland subsequently launched two appeals, the first for the match to be replayed, the second for them to be added to the line-up for the finals as the 33rd team. Both have been rejected, but Blatter was forced to apologize to the Irish for making public their supposedly private bid to be included as an extra team. Blatter put their request into the public domain in light-hearted comments made in Johannesburg, which left Irish football officials infuriated and insulted. \"I would like to express my regrets for the wrong interpretation of what I said. I regret what I have created and I'm sorry to the Ireland football confederation for these headlines going around the world,\" he said. \"It's a pity I communicated in this way. Sorry again.\"","highlights":"Thierry Henry face disciplinary action over his handball in World Cup playoff match .\nFIFA president Sepp Blatter says their disciplinary committee will investigate .\nFIFA rules out use of extra officials or video technology at the finals .\nBlatter apologizes to Irish officials for comments made over their request to be 33rd team .","id":"890f167b2f32160294a06d70f1d4631f9474dfbf"} -{"article":"This week in iReport we're celebrating a couple anniversaries. It's been 20 years since the world watched the Berlin Wall fall. And, that children's television favorite \"Sesame Street\" turned the big 4-0. Meanwhile, Hurricane Ida stormed ashore, slamming the Gulf Coast. We've got all this and more in this week's video wrap-up. Berlin Wall anniversary -- Twenty years ago this week, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in a decisive moment in a revolution that ultimately ended decades of Communist rule and signaled the end of the Cold War. For many iReporters, the fall of the wall holds personal significance. They dug into their photo albums to share memories of this historic event. Bracing for Ida -- iReporters updated on preparations and conditions as Hurricane Ida approached the Gulf Coast. Two iReporters shared several photos of preparations in Pensacola Beach, Florida, including closed roads, sandbags and high tides, saying it \"packed a pretty good punch.\" Another in New Orleans compared the rising waters from Ida with those of Gustav last year. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? -- The classic children's television show 'Sesame Street' turned 40 this week. CNN producers collaborated with iReporters to create a fun video alphabet that would make Jim Henson proud. iReporters of all ages also shared their memories of \"Sesame Street\" and how the show made an impact on their lives.","highlights":"iReporters remember the fall of the Berlin Wall, 20 years later .\nThe Gulf Coast braces for Hurricane Ida .\n'Sesame Street' celebrates 40 years .\nTell your stories at CNN iReport .","id":"d5220a0993178aeb8a37e0023d82b7d3e3a0a5b1"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- What do you say when you meet one of the most iconic statesmen in the world? Mandela holds baby Freya as Robyn Curnow and her husband Kim look on. For someone who makes a living out of communications, I have consistently been tongue-tied around Nelson Mandela. The funny thing is I am not particularly star-struck -- as a CNN correspondent I get to interview and profile all sorts of \"famous\" people. It's just a not a big deal for me. However, with Madiba (as Mandela is often called), I feel like every moment spent with him is a gift, a blessing that I will tell my grandchildren about one day. As a South African he has a place in our hearts that is hard to define. However, my stories about my encounters with Nelson Mandela are the stuff of comedy clubs. I've never quite managed to hold my own with him. I always land up somehow embarrassing myself when I am around him; I've slipped on shiny presidential floors, got tangled up in camera equipment and made pathetically inane comments. I first met Nelson Mandela in the early 1990s. I can't remember exactly when, but it was at the Wanderers cricket stadium in Johannesburg. He visited the VIP room, during a test match, where I was working during school vacations and everybody lined up to meet him. I stood proudly and waited my turn, he came over to me. He was tall. He said to me, \"You are so gracious, I am so humbled to meet you.\" I remember thinking, if Nelson Mandela thinks I am gracious -- fantastic. I promptly turned around and ungraciously tripped on my best shoes, tumbling into the crowd behind me. I was the one humbled. Years later, I was a young reporter working for the South African Broadcasting Corporation during Mandela's presidency. I wasn't senior enough to cover the big political stories of the day so news editors only assigned me the light hearted Mandela news stories. The one I remember most was around a birthday or Christmas during which there was a photo opportunity at one of his grandson's kindergartens. Word had got out among the press that \"Twinkle twinkle little star\" was Madiba's favorite nursery rhyme, so, of course, all the children sang it for him. I sang along too, twinkle-finger actions included, it's a great song. Whether it was or not Madiba's favorite, is not something I have ever asked him. Years after that, I was taking a sabbatical from journalism and spent a year studying for my Masters degree at Cambridge University. Mandela just happened to be an honorary fellow at Magdalene College, where I was studying. He came to visit that year, giving a speech in the college's beautiful cloisters. I waved at him, as he passed by all of us students assembled in the quadrangle. Of course, he didn't wave back, but I felt gracious and humbled in his presence, protected by Magdalene's great walls. And then I turned to my awe-struck friends and said, \"Did you know his favorite song is 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?'\" -- which kind of killed the moment. Fast forward a few more years, I reported on Mandela occasionally during my time as a correspondent at CNN London's bureau. From a distance, I saw him get older and shakier on his feet. His hair got whiter and his public engagements lessened considerably. Once in while, I would regale my friends with Madiba's stories -- yes, there are more -- like the time I sneaked into the bathroom in his presidential mansion, desperate for relief, before a long-delayed press conference and phoned a friend from within to ask whether it was morally right to steal some of Nelson Mandela's soap. ( I didn't. It isn't very gracious). Or the time, I asked Zelda la Grange, his devoted personal assistant, to take a photo of me and Madiba together before I went up to Cambridge. He agreed and came over to me, throwing his arm around me and giving me squeeze a and joking, \"Ah, I am sure your boyfriend will be jealous.\" Did you know that Nelson Mandela is a terrible flirt? Again, I became self-conscious. I was carrying my handbag over my shoulder and I didn't want the photo to look like I was Margaret Thatcher or my grandmother, for that matter, constantly clutching a handbag. So with his arm still firm around my middle, I bent down to put my handbag on the floor. That's when Zelda took the photo... unfortunately; the automatic flash went off on my camera. That's a complete no-no around Mandela -- his eyes were damaged during his years of imprisonment on Robben Island and flash photography is forbidden. So they whizzed away, slightly peeved, and I landed up with a \"Me and Mandela\" photograph that showed the president grinning into camera, holding me around the waist and me half bent over, lowering my handbag, with my head half cocked and eyes half closed. It was not mantelpiece material. I never thought I'd meet him again, up close and personal, until, last year when Zelda, ever the diplomat, like her boss, invited to me to introduce my newly born daughter, Freya, to him. My husband Kim and I had just returned back to live in South Africa, after nearly six years away in London. It was oddly nerve-racking, and I did what I always do in his presence I acted incredibly gauche, stupid and clumsy. I kept on saying: \"So how are you?\" As if he'd offer me a glass of wine, and say, \"Ya know Robyn, my knees are killing me, I'm bit worried about the situation in Zimbabwe and howz about them Mets?\" I offered my baby to him, like a little sacrificial lamb. The pictures tell it all. The ones we sent to friends (and everybody we knew), show us laughing with the world's greatest statesman. The ones we didn't email to the world show our daughter freaking out and crying. Madiba tried to placate her by wagging a finger at her and telling her, \"I am your great great grandfather.\" She freaked out some more. I think she takes after her mother.","highlights":"Curnow first met Mandela in 1990 and has encountered him several times .\nMeetings usually ended less than graciously for Curnow .\nLast encounter saw Mandela trying placate Curnow's upset daughter .","id":"1a90119450a0fe8b91ad2c3afa2a73caf89e5c11"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When she heard news of the Continental Airlines plane that plunged into a house in suburban Buffalo, New York, on Thursday night, killing 50 people, Jenny Gomez experienced a familiar feeling creep deep within her psyche. \"It definitely sparked those old feelings of anxiety,\" she said. The risk of dying in a jet crash has been estimated to be one in 70 million, according to an MIT analysis. Gomez, 31 and a mother of two, was never afraid to fly during her childhood and early adolescence. \"I had flown all my life since I was very small, getting on a plane to visit my grandparents at least a couple of times a year, and I was fine,\" she remembered. Then, in her late adolescence, the panicky feelings began, slowly at first, but then the anxiety and nervousness started to snowball. \"Every bump, every shake of the plane would set me off.\" Finally, during a college psychology class, she realized she fit the classic criteria for someone with a fear of flying, also known as aviophobia or aviatophobia. For five years, Gomez avoided flying altogether. \"I missed out on some really cool things in my life back then because I wouldn't get on an airplane,\" she said. An estimated 10 percent to 25 percent of the U.S. population experiences the phobia of flying, according to the American Psychological Association. View a timeline of recent notable crashes \u00bb . In contrast, the risk of dying in a domestic jet crash has been estimated to be one in 70 million, according to MIT statistician Arnold Barnett, who has performed statistical analyses for the Federal Aviation Administration. Among the causes for aviatophobia is what many will experience as a result of seeing reports about the crash near Buffalo: vicarious trauma. This is trauma that one observes and subsequently develops within based on that observation. \"They see it, and they imagine what would that be like if it happened to me,\" said anxiety disorder psychologist R. Reid Wilson. By focusing on the possibility instead of the actual probability of the plane crashing, someone who's vulnerable to such fears can grow even more anxious about flying, he said. The fear of flying constitutes one of the two most common fears humans grapple with (the other one being fear of public speaking), said Wilson, who served as lead psychologist for American Airlines' first national program for fear of flying. Gomez's development of the phobia later in life is not unusual either, Wilson said; the average age of onset is 27, which is relatively old compared with when most other phobias begin. Some people who are subject to vicarious trauma actually see the crash scene in the media and actively put themselves in the scenario. Wilson has seen patients who fixate on visualizing themselves in the plane and who go so far as to seek out information such as how long the plane fell through the sky so they can intensify the reality of the experience in their minds. \"They get wrapped up in what is actually happening. Your body reacts to what you're seeing,\" he said. Another cause of the condition is the perception of a non-dangerous event -- such as turbulence or normal sounds that planes make -- as being an actual threat to one's safety. Many people afraid to fly actually have panic disorder, which is an anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms. Having what Wilson refers to as a \"constellation of other fears\" could also contribute to the phobia of flying; claustrophobia, fear of death and being afraid of turning control over to the pilot could all contribute to the ultimate fear of the not-so-friendly skies. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for better living . Overcoming the fear of flying begins with a solid trust in the aviation industry and the ability of the plane, the pilot and everyone involved in the safety of the flight to be competent. \"If it's about someone else, then you have no control, but if you shift your feelings of fear to yourself, then you can do something about it,\" Wilson said. Relaxation, meditation and breathing skills can improve the chances of surmounting one's distress. Distractions, such as having someone to talk to on the plane or focusing on an engrossing book, can also work to ease the tension. However, changing one's mind about the extreme unlikelihood that something would go wrong is key; relaxation and distractions serve as additional support systems. A licensed mental health professional can aid individuals seeking help to beat the fear of flying. Hypnotism can work too, especially when administered by someone trained in anxiety disorders. Virtual reality therapy, wherein a helmet is worn to simulate the experience of flying, has also been proved an effective technique, but the institutions providing virtual reality therapies are few and far between. In 2005, Gomez reached a crossroads. Her new job description would require her to travel frequently. A licensed counselor herself, she knew she could avail the services of a specialist to help her get past her fears. Perhaps the most useful part of her course of therapy, she reveals, was developing an understanding of the science behind aviation. \"If I was sitting in the cockpit, I would have had no problems at all. It's the lack of control, sitting in the back of the plane, that would get to me, so when I learned what all the sounds were and how unlikely it would be that the plane would actually fall out of the sky, that's what really helped me.\" Another aid that worked for Gomez was Xanax, a drug often prescribed by doctors to provide temporary relief from the stress of flying. Working as a mild tranquilizer, Xanax, Valium and other benzodiazepine class drugs do not remove the underlying fear but instead work to dull the sensations. When Gomez finally started to fly again, she began with Xanax, a glass of wine and a meditation CD that she would listen to during the entire flight. Her anxiety progressively subsided over the course of a year and a half of regular flying for work. \"With each successful flight, I would need less and less help from the pills or the wine,\" she said. Finally, she let go of the medication and alcohol altogether and allowed her sense of trust to keep her calm.","highlights":"10 percent to 25 percent of the U.S. population experiences the phobia of flying .\nFear can be exacerbated by watching reports of other crashes .\nAverage age of onset of such phobias is 27 .\nRelaxation, meditation, breathing skills can improve the chances of beating fear .","id":"461aa6c463d8ed8a3485519f8347d3e8fd30d5f7"} -{"article":"KILLEEN, Texas (CNN) -- Spc. Logan Burnette arrived at Fort Hood, Texas, a week ago Wednesday to prepare for an upcoming tour of Iraq. The following day, he, like all deploying soldiers, reported to the \"ready room\" on post to fill out final paperwork. However, what was to be another day of the mundane erupted into hell on Earth. Burnette heard shots, though that's a sound to which soldiers grow accustomed. He had been hearing blanks for many months of training. But on November 5 at Fort Hood, he quickly understood that something was terribly wrong when he saw the blood -- crimson everywhere. \"Seeing bullet wounds in the back of a friend's head, seeing friends grabbing their arms, and blood just everywhere. It's a pretty hard thing to see,\" Burnette recalled. \"And not having any way to defend yourself.\" The gunman had been in the room for a while and had perfectly blended in with his Army combat uniform, his gold major rank emblazoned on his chest. No one had reason to pay him heed, Burnette said. When the madness began, the gunman popped up like a target at a shooting range. He just stood up and started firing methodically and with precision. He reloaded. And fired. Reloaded. And fired again. \"He was very swift, very tactical,\" said Burnette, sitting in a wheelchair at the Metroplex Adventist Hospital near Fort Hood, his left arm and hand bandaged. The mass shooting last week was the deadliest ever on a U.S. military base. Twelve soldiers and one civilian were killed; more than 40 others were wounded. Fifteen soldiers remained hospitalized on Wednesday, four in intensive care, according to Fort Hood spokesman Col. James Rossi. They were victims of a soldier who turned on his own, authorities say. Burnette saw the laser sights on the gunman's weapon. The shooter looked serious, intent. He screamed at the top of his lungs, \"Allahu akbar,\" which means 'God is great' in Arabic. Burnette dropped to the floor, hugging the ground for dear life. His mind was spinning. What insanity was this? \"Once I saw the blood, I realized I had to move,\" he said. \"I had to get out of there.\" Burnette began to stand up and noticed the gunman was pointing in his direction. He picked up a folding table next to him -- it was the heaviest object he could see -- and hurled it toward the shooter. He knew it would draw the gunman's attention and divert his line of sight from others. Burnette said he wasn't trying to play a hero. \"There are guys overseas doing more than what I did,\" he said. \"I just happened to be at a certain place at a certain time in the world and hopefully I made a difference.\" But that's when he got hit. He took a round that pierced his hip on the left side and tore through his abdomen. \"After the hit, I fell down, not even realizing I had been hit,\" he said. \"As I tried to get back up, I was shot in the elbow on the left arm and ... the knuckle on the left pinky finger.\" He was like a wounded animal desperate to escape the hunter's aim. \"He wanted to kill all of us,\" Burnette said. \"We were all unarmed.\" Burnette's gut felt like a knife slicing through it. He couldn't feel his leg. His left arm was numb, too. He stared at it and thought of those dummy arms that people buy at Halloween. \"Oh my God,\" he thought. \"This guy shot me.\" Burnette began moving with every ounce of strength he could muster and hid in a nearby cubicle. The gunman had started moving to the other side of the building, reloading and shooting. Reloading and shooting. Burnette knew he had to get out of that building. \"As I started to run, I fell again, not realizing I couldn't use my left leg.\" After falling, Burnette said, he \"threw all of my body weight ... towards that door as hard and as fast as possible.\" \"Once I hit that front door, I began to low crawl, about five meters up a hill just, you know, pushing my body forward with everything I had,\" he said. A staff sergeant grabbed him by his uniform collar and dragged him into an office and locked the door. \"Everything is going to be all right,\" the sergeant told him, as he began administering first aid. Burnette said he doesn't know the sergeant's name, but he will recognize him instantly if their paths ever cross again. \"Our Father who art in heaven ... hallowed be thy name.\" Burnette, a practicing Catholic, lie on the ground, repeating the prayer over and over again. He didn't know whether he would see his wife again. A week later, Burnette has undergone two operations and still has a bullet lodged in his right hip. On Wednesday, he was making his way to the Army's Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, for further treatment. He knows that's where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused shooter, is also being treated. \"I can't really think about it,\" Burnette said. \"I have a lot of faith in our military, our judicial system -- and God.\" Soldiers are taught from day one that you help the wounded, even when they are enemies in combat, even the guy who shot you. \"Don't get me wrong,\" he said, \"Everything in your heart wants to [unleash] anger at this person, but we have to trust that our system works somehow. \"By no means am I happy that he is in better shape than a lot of my comrades,\" Burnette said about the suspect. \"But I'm not here to play God, either.\" Ultimately, Burnette said, he is sorry for a man who feels the need to execute unarmed personnel, his comrades, in the name of God. Does he pity the Fort Hood shooter? \"Yeah,\" he said, pausing. \"To an extent.\" CNN's Sanjay Gupta and Danielle Dellorto contributed to this report.","highlights":"Spc. Logan Burnette's original day at Fort Hood turned to nightmare .\nBurnette says he threw table at accused shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan .\nBurnette is being transferred to same hospital that houses Hasan .","id":"a344f8a963b5fa9255e83c395c58a53ec6a1b16e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan soldiers have embarked on a major operation against militants in the eastern Afghan region of Tora Bora, near the border with Pakistan, officials have told CNN. File photo of the remote mountain Tora Bora region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Air and ground strikes under way in the remote mountain region are aimed at large numbers of militant fighters. The troops are targeting \"hundreds of hardened al Qaeda and Taliban in dug-in positions,\" said officials familiar with the intelligence. The operation started two days ago in the region, where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was once thought to be hiding. The Bush administration has been criticized for not sending enough ground forces to Tora Bora in December 2001 to capture the militant after the invasion that toppled the Taliban. \"U.S. and Afghan forces engaged al Qaeda and other violent extremist fighters in eastern Afghanistan during a combined arms assault using precision munitions. There have been no substantiated reports of civilian casualties in this engagement,\" said Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman, a U.S. Army spokeswoman. \"The targets were carefully chosen to pinpoint enemy positions and eliminate the likelihood of harming innocent civilians,\" she said. \"This region has provided an ideal environment to conceal enemy support bases and training sites, as well as plan and launch attacks aimed at terrorizing innocent civilians, both inside and outside the region.\" Also Wednesday, a manager at a private British security firm in Afghanistan was shot and killed in the capital Kabul, a spokesman for the company said. \"We did lose a manager today in Kabul to unknown assailants,\" Christopher Beese, spokesman for ArmorGroup International, said Wednesday. He said next of kin have been notified and an inquiry into the incident has begun. The name of the man, a British national, was not released. \"It's bad news. He was a very well-respected man,\" Beese said, noting that the victim had experience in Afghanistan going back to the early 1980s. Beese -- who said the man's role was to run the administration of the 1,200-person-strong security presence in the country -- described the man as a \"logistics manager\" and \"all things to all people.\" The firm, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2002, mostly provides diplomatic protection and has contracts with the British and American governments. The man recruited and trained Afghan guards and was the most senior administrator at the company's Kabul base, Camp Anjuman, the company said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan soldiers embark on major operation in Tora Bora .\nThey are using air, ground strikes to target al Qaeda, Taliban .\nOsama bin Laden was once thought to be hiding in remote mountain region .\nU.S. Army: No substantiated reports of civilian casualties .","id":"b1e998cd481253945d4f174d3686ea165c8396b4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Another Hollywood marriage is ending -- but this one was no flash in the pan. Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn had been married 11 years. Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn are divorcing, according to their representative, Mara Buxbaum. People magazine first reported the split Thursday night. The actors began dating after they met making the 1990 movie \"State of Grace.\" They married in 1996, and have two children, Dylan Frances, 16, and Hopper Jack, 14. Previously, Penn was married to Madonna for four years, while Wright was married to actor Dane Witherspoon for two years. In addition to \"State of Grace,\" Penn and Wright appeared together in 1997's \"She's So Lovely\" and 1998's \"Hurlyburly,\" and both are set to appear in Barry Levinson's next film, \"What Just Happened?,\" due out in 2008. Penn, 47, won a best actor Oscar for 2003's \"Mystic River,\" and was nominated for best actor for \"Dead Man Walking,\" \"Sweet and Lowdown,\" and \"I Am Sam.\" His latest directorial effort, \"Into The Wild,\" has received four SAG Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. Wright, 41, is best known for her title role in \"The Princess Bride\" and for starring opposite Tom Hanks in \"Forrest Gump.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn had been married 11 years .\nPair met while making 1990's \"State of Grace\"\nCouple has two children; has made three films together, with fourth due out .","id":"dd5dc457ba9fdf2212a7d8f5bc2ebbe799a405e2"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For 8-year-old Ryan Mohar, an elevator isn't just an elevator. He spends hours pressing the buttons and riding up and down, preferring this to the slew of alternatives that his teachers offer -- even candy. Ryan Mohar, who has autism, gets treated with ABA approaches at the Marcus Autism Center. Ryan is one of many American children with autism, a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive behaviors or limited interests, and difficulties with communication and social interactions. At the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Ryan and other children with communication and behavior difficulties get help through a rigorous empirical method called Applied Behavior Analysis. \"Decades of research has shown that that is the treatment of choice, and results in the best gains in terms of skill acquisition and behavior problem reduction for kids with autism and other developmental disabilities,\" said Alice Shillingsburg, program coordinator of the center's Language and Learning Clinic. The effectiveness and nature of ABA is particularly relevant as many parents fight for insurance companies to cover it and other autism treatments. The organization Autism Speaks has endorsed bills in 25 states that would require private health insurance policies to cover the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders for anyone under the age of 21. The legislation would specifically be targeted at ABA and other structured autism therapies. Only eight states have autism insurance reform, according to Autism Speaks. While ABA encompasses a broad range of practices of studying and changing behavior, the one usually associated with autism is called discrete trial instruction. A trial consists of a cue, the opportunity to respond and a reward. Watch therapists using applied behavior analysis on Ryan \u00bb . For example, a therapist might try to teach a child who likes sweets to request candy. The trial gets repeated over and over so that the child learns that candy comes only as a result of the request. The clinicians at Marcus Autism Center carefully record how many trials the child successfully completes. Learn more about autism \u00bb . \"If suddenly they can emit some vocal response, and suddenly when they do that, candy appears -- someone delivers candy to them -- that's a very powerful response for that child,\" said Nathan Call, director of Behavior Treatment Clinics at the Marcus Autism Center. Analysts examine progress based on such data at least once a day -- sometimes five or six times a day -- and will change the treatment plan if necessary. In Ryan's case, a trial begins when his clinical specialist takes him near the elevator and asks him to hand over a card -- his way of requesting access to the elevator. If Ryan gives the card, he gets to go to the elevator, and that is the end of one trial. If he does not, his helpers walk him away, and a new trial begins. Experts working with Ryan hope that teaching him to ask for the things he enjoys -- elevator rides, elevator buttons -- will help him stop running away, which he does even at home. In fact, Ryan wears a GPS-equipped ankle bracelet so that police can track him if he gets far from home. ABA is very effective, but the term \"cure\" is inaccurate, experts said. Autism describes a broad range of characteristics, not an underlying cause, Call said. ABA techniques can produce significant behavior changes, however. \"The goal is not necessarily for the child to have hit all of their developmental milestones, necessarily, but rather it's hopefully to get them to a point where they're able to take advantage of a more typical or less restrictive educational environment,\" he said. Studies have shown that 60 percent of high-functioning children can lose their diagnosis of autism by age 8 by using ABA, according to the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a leading center in autism research and treatment in Baltimore, Maryland. Not everyone is so enthusiastic about ABA, however. Dr. Max Wiznitzer, associate professor of pediatric neurology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, cautions that the treatment should fit the child, and ABA may not work as well for some children as other types of therapy. An alternative approach is play-based therapy, whereby the therapist takes cues from the child rather than the other way around. For example, if a child is bouncing a ball, the therapist would take that as an opportunity to encourage the child to bounce the ball back to him or her, Wiznitzer said. One of the pioneers of ABA is Ivar Lovaas, a child psychologist who in the 1960s began investigating how to help children who injured themselves. His research showed that components of ABA could reduce these behaviors. The therapy has evolved since then, however. In the beginning, the approach to ABA was more dogmatic and \"cookie-cutter,\" Wiznitzer said. A child who cooperated got a reward, but a child who did not cooperate got a punishment such as yelling or a squirt of water. \"ABA in a classic sense is a very restricted, very limited program that has issues with the ability to generalize the learned skill outside of the ABA environment,\" he said. A family once told him that their child showed great restaurant manners -- but only in the basement, he said. Today, many analysts who use ABA as a guide go more with the flow of the needs of the child, he said. ABA isn't just for children with autism -- the methods have been used for people of all ages, with and without disabilities. Staff members at Marcus Autism Center try to help children use the skills they learn outside of the artificial environment of the classroom. \"They're doing research here on finding the best way to create those moments where the child really needs information in order to complete a preferred task or to gain access to a preferred activity or a preferred outcome,\" Call said. Another criticism of ABA is that children become mechanical because they learn to have only one specific response for a given prompt in real life. Call's response is that variability is just another behavior that can be taught, but noted that there are trade-offs. Parents have input in the decision to focus more on teaching a lot of different skills, rather than to teach several responses in any one situation. \"Oftentimes, the goal is to focus more on giving as many functional skills as possible to that child, so they can have as fulfilling a life as they can,\" Call said. ABA is extremely costly, however. For the behavior clinics, therapy sessions at Marcus Autism Center begin at $60 per hour, and go higher in price depending on the expert who is providing the treatment -- a session with someone with a master's or doctorate may cost more. A person with autism costs society about $3.2 million over the course of his or her lifetime, according to a 2007 study in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Direct medical costs for the first five years are, on average, about $35,000, the study said. For children from non-English-speaking families, two staff members at Marcus Autism Center speak Spanish, and an outside translator can be brought in if necessary for other languages, said Chris Tullis, a clinical specialist. But the Association for Behavior Analysis International told CNN that it does not have any \"board-certified therapists\" in Atlanta who report speaking Spanish. As for Ryan, after only about two weeks at Marcus Autism Center, his screaming has come down from more than 200 times an hour to about 38, Call said. \"It looks promising, but we've got 10 more weeks to actually find out what's really going to work the best with Ryan,\" Tullis said.","highlights":"Applied behavior analysis is a rigorous empirical method to teach behaviors .\nAutism Speaks has endorsed bills in 25 states to make insurance cover ABA .\nResearch: 60 percent of high-functioning kids can lose autism diagnosis with ABA .\nFive-year medical costs for children with autism, on average, about $35,000 .","id":"be8b13de5bf59cbf3d64eeae780110cc99e20382"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Kevin Pho, a primary care physician in Nashua, N.H., blogs at KevinMD.com . Dr. Kevin Pho says health reform can't succeed as long as there's a shortage of primary care doctors. (CNN) -- When President Obama recently cited the number of Americans without health insurance, he declared that, \"We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women, and children.\" Uninsured patients often delay preventive care, waiting to seek medical attention only when their conditions worsen. This leads to more intensive treatment, often in the emergency department or hospital where costs run the highest. Universal health coverage is therefore a sensible goal, and the reforms being considered all make considerable effort to provide everyone with affordable health care. But expanding coverage cannot succeed as long as there remains a shortage of primary care clinicians. After all, what good is having health insurance if you can't find a doctor to see you? Massachusetts is often held out as a model for national health reform, and the bills being considered in Washington emulate much of that state's 2006 landmark universal coverage law. As a physician in neighboring New Hampshire, I have had the opportunity to observe the effect of the Massachusetts reforms. Today, 97 percent of Massachusetts residents have health insurance, the highest in the country. But less publicized are the unintended consequences that the influx of half a million newly insured patients has had on an unprepared primary care system. The Massachusetts Medical Society reported that the average wait time for a new patient looking for a primary care doctor ranged from 36 to 50 days, with almost half of internal medicine physicians closing their doors entirely to new patients. And when you consider that Massachusetts already has the highest concentration of doctors nationwide, wait times will likely be worse in other, less physician-abundant parts of the country, should universal coverage be enacted federally. When patients are forced to wait weeks to obtain medical care, they inevitably find their way into the emergency department for treatment that ordinarily can be handled in a doctor's office. Indeed, since health reform was passed, according to state data provided to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts emergency rooms have reported a 7 percent increase in volume, which markedly inflates costs when you consider that emergency room treatment can be up to 10 times more expensive than an office visit for the same ailment. Alwyn Cassil, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change, told HealthDay News that expanding coverage without improving access to care is a \"recipe for failure,\" as well as unsustainable, \"because it will just bankrupt us.\" Massachusetts is finding out just how difficult it is to fiscally maintain universal coverage. In part due to soaring health costs, the state Legislature has proposed reducing health benefits for 30,000 legal immigrants and cutting funding to inner-city hospitals like Boston Medical Center, which, according to the Boston Globe, may \"force it to slash programs and jeopardize care for thousands of poverty-stricken families.\" The success of universal health coverage depends on an adequate supply of primary care providers. But the Association of American Medical Colleges is forecasting a shortage of 46,000 primary care physicians by 2025, a deficit that not only will balloon under any universal coverage measure, but cannot be made up as doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants all gravitate towards more lucrative specialty practice. It's not only the financial incentives that need to substantially change for primary care to prosper. More important, the working conditions for the physicians already in the field have to improve. A recent survey in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that roughly half of primary care doctors reported practicing in a work environment \"strongly associated with low physician satisfaction, high stress ... and [an] intent to leave.\" Primary care clinicians routinely face unreasonable time pressures, a chaotic work pace, and bureaucratic impediments. Onerous paperwork requirements that obstruct patient care have to be reduced. And instead of the current system which encourages doctors to rush through as many office visits as possible, physicians who take the time to counsel, guide, and address all of their patients' concerns should be rewarded. Better valuing the doctor-patient relationship will increase satisfaction, not only for physicians, but for their patients as well. Such solutions, however, have been largely absent from the health reform conversation. Although it is a moral imperative for every American to have access to health insurance, alleviating the shortage of primary care providers is of equal importance. The prospect of suddenly adding tens of millions of patients to an overburdened primary care system has the potential to make the already dire state of American health care even worse. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Kevin Pho.","highlights":"Kevin Pho: It's important to extend coverage to the uninsured .\nHe says reform can't work if there aren't enough doctors to care for all .\nPho says Massachusetts is finding it can't provide care to those newly covered .\nPho: Adding tens of millions of patients could strain system .","id":"4deaf91045739d30f9dbf12a56d7f6b5321b2988"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man charged with murder in the deaths of 11 women pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday, said Ryan Miday, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutor. A grand jury has indicted Anthony Sowell on 85 counts, following the discovery of 11 sets of human remains at his Cleveland, Ohio, house in October. The charges include several counts of aggravated murder with a \"mass murder specification,\" meaning multiple people were killed in a similar fashion, said Bill Mason, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor. Sowell, 50, faces rape and kidnapping charges as well and also has been charged with brutalizing three other women and raping two of them, Mason said. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sowell. Investigators arrested him in October after authorities serving a search warrant in a rape case discovered the remains of six women in and around his house. Subsequent searches turned up the remains of five others. All 11 remains were of African-American women. Police used cadaver dogs Wednesday to search Sowell's childhood home, just outside Cleveland. \"We're just trying to cover all our bases,\" said Scott Wilson, spokesman for the FBI, which is assisting local detectives in the case. Authorities have said they are looking at the unsolved slayings of three women in East Cleveland to determine if they share any similarities with the remains found at Sowell's house. The indictment against Sowell also alleges that he assaulted women on December 8, 2008, and on September 22 and October 20 of this year. The women in September and October were raped, and the other woman was punched and choked before escaping, Mason said. Sowell's charges in those cases include attempted murder, rape or attempted rape, kidnapping, robbery and felonious assault. Sowell has pleaded not guilty to charges in the September 22 rape. On October 20, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor of his house. Firefighters responded and later notified police. But the woman told officers she fell off the roof while she was at the home \"partying,\" police said earlier. No charges were filed at the time. Sowell threatened his victims and warned them not to contact police, Mason said. It's possible there are others, he added, and urged anyone who has not come forward to do so. Sowell \"knew what he was doing was wrong at the time he was doing it,\" the prosecutor said. As of last month, Sowell was on suicide watch at the request of his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. She had said a psychiatric evaluation of Sowell had been ordered but was unlikely to happen until after an indictment was filed. Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid told reporters this week that Sowell has been a \"model prisoner,\" is kept in an isolated unit and has declined visitation requests. Most of the victims were strangled by ligature -- which could include a string, cord or wire -- and at least one was strangled by hand, officials said. Seven still had ligatures wrapped around their necks. The skull of one woman was wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the home's basement. Sowell served 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape and was released in 2005. He was required to register as a sex offender. After the discovery of the 11 women, police in mid-November used thermal imaging in an attempt to see if any additional human remains were on the property and dug certain areas by hand. No more remains were found.","highlights":"Suspect pleads not guilty by reason of insanity .\nAnthony Sowell accused in deaths of 11 women .\nRemains of African-American women found at Cleveland, Ohio, house .\nCadaver dogs also search Sowell's childhood home .","id":"0576133f6c2201f8f319375ce5a6e5a37d424c29"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- From bedroom creators to big studios, hand-drawn to CGI, animation has charmed and entertained children -- and, increasingly, adults -- for many years. The Screening Room went to Annecy in France to discover the secrets of success in animated films... Annecy has hailed animators like director Tim Burton, seen here receiving a special award at Annecy in 2006. Annecy is the Cannes of animation. The French town, which lies close to the Swiss border just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Geneva, has hosted the International Animated Film Festival for almost half a century and attracts a younger crowd than many of the major film festivals. With prizes for long and short features, television and student animation, Annecy highlights a wide variety of different types of animation and budgets. One veteran of Annecy is Craig Decker, known as worldwide cult figure \"Spike\" and co-founder of \"Spike and Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation.\" Beginning 30 years ago as a means of bringing independent animation to new audiences, the touring festival was instrumental in showcasing the early works of legendary animators such as Tim Burton, Pixar's John Lasseter and Aardman's Nick Park, as well as the first episode of \"Beavis and Butthead.\" Spike explained to CNN the challenge of getting animation taken seriously. He said, \"Originally we had to deal with the stigma. We showed great films like National Film Board of Canada [pieces], or \"Tin Toy\" by John Lasseter, works of art, masterpieces that take two to three years to make, and we had to deal with, 'What is it? Cartoons like Bugs Bunny or something like that?' And over the years we've educated the public, and we've put animation in the context of a very cool thing [with] a young, hip, adult audience of 18 and over.\" Stop-motion classics . One of Spike and Mike's biggest fans, Nick Park, won the Annecy award for Best TV Animation with \"Shaun the Sheep,\" a spin-off from \"A Close Shave,\" one of Aardman's famous Wallace and Gromit short features that grabbed an Oscar. Stop-motion is also close to the heart of director Tim Burton, who employed the technique on \"Corpse Bride\" and \"The Nightmare Before Christmas.\" He said, \"Because it's such an old-fashioned technique, a lot of it truly has to do with finding the right group of animators, the right group of people to build the puppets, because a lot of things are being done by computer now. Very few people are doing this style of animation.\" Allison Abbate, a producer on \"Corpse Bride,\" added, \"Stop motion is an age-old process as far as animation in film-making goes. It hasn't really changed since the days of King Kong - we used new technology in 'Corpse Bride' to bring it into a new century.\" Appropriate animation . \"I think there's room for all types of animation,\" she continued. \"It depends on the story. The story should really decide how you tell it. I think there are stories that are better made in 2-D and CGI and that's what you'd go for.\" 2-D animation is the mainstay of Japanese anime - a subject so vast it will command its own feature in a subsequent edition of the Screening Room. The film \"Paprika\" has won worldwide critical praise during the past year as a sophisticated example of the art, whose keenest supporters are sometimes contemptuous of their Hollywood animation counterparts. Asia is becoming an increasingly powerful force in animation, where companies who traditionally provided a cheap source of labor for animation studios are now using their skills to take a leading role in the creative process. UTV Toons is one of several Indian companies forming partnerships with big U.S. production houses to make new animated features. Combination of skills . Animation requires a combination of several skills, as producer Allison Abbate explained. She told CNN that animators face many complex challenges. \"Animators have to know how to move things, how things work anatomically in a space, but they also have to know how to act, how to emote and that is what makes animation so different from live action. It is so crafted, one frame at a time.\" But Spike points out that the rewards animation promises can be very high. \"Obviously in features, look at the most successful films,\" he told CNN. \"They're nearly all animated Pixar pieces or, if it's live action, it's the special effects animation that carries the film.\" And the future? Spike believes animation is going mobile. He said, \"Internationally, what's exciting is with new media: with digital; with broadband; with mobile phones. That's where we're going with our stuff.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"The International Animated Film Festival in Annecy is the Cannes of animation .\nFestival highlights the best in animation, from student work to studio shorts .\nExperts say the future of animation is on mobile devices .","id":"cd07258a299afd97aa73fb55bee550a98924245a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What could be bigger than the appointment of the first female minister in Saudi Arabia? Saudi King Abdullah made more than one noteable appointment to his council of ministers. Possibly the appointment of a new minister of justice who may actually help her get equal rights with her male counterpart. Right now, Norah al-Faiz, the new deputy minister for women's education, is bound by the same laws as every other woman in the land. She can do only what her closest male relative permits. For many women of her status and education, that law is interpreted liberally, but for the vast majority, it is not. Over the weekend, at a single stroke, King Abdullah set Saudi Arabia on what appears to be an irreversible new course, one of modernization. He replaced the conservative ministers of justice and the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice with people closer to his way of thinking. The king also appointed a new head of the central bank, SAMA -- widely seen by financial experts as a wise move -- and brought in young blood and fresh ideas to the Majlis al Shura, the closest thing the country has to a parliament. That these changes happened should not be a surprise. Since he took over as king in August 2005, when his ailing half-brother Fahd died, King Abdullah has been working quietly to bring about change. Indeed, al-Faiz used to lead the king's Center for National Dialogue, a sort of talking shop that allowed issues such as women's rights to be debated. The hope was that as discussions about change bubbled up in national and regional arenas, they would also filter out to newspapers and onto television. It's exactly what's been happening. The king is well into his 80s and inherited many ministers and other top officials almost as old as him. Many had been in their posts for decades, and many, unlike the king, held their conservative upbringings more than half a century ago to be models for the country's future. So when a judge recently upheld the marriage of a 47-year-old man to an 8-year old-girl, there was a public backlash. Why? Because debate about this issue had percolated into the public arena. And suddenly the judge looked out of step with society. It's not what made the king decide to replace the minister of justice; it just highlights how his steady behind-the-scenes work has helped him outflank the sizeable conservative segment of Saudi society. What the king and many of his fellow royals have realized for a long time is that no country is an island, least of all one as rich and prosperous as Saudi Arabia. The kingdom's large and rapidly growing young population watches satellite TV, surfs the Internet and chats on Blackberries with friends in Europe, and it expects a different future than the one currently on offer. The sweeping changes remove some of the ministers most likely to hold back the next generation. The old Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice commission head, who runs the religious police, is an example. He has been replaced with someone closer to the king's thinking, according to a deputy minister I talked with. The religious police patrol shopping malls and streets, enforcing religious laws such as ones requiring women to keep their heads covered and refrain from talking to men who aren't their relatives. They rile the youngsters who strain for more freedom. But no one is expecting revolutionary change overnight. Saudi Arabia is not about to become a \"permissive society.\" Religious law, long-held customs and deep religious principles are not up for negotiation. After all, the Saudi king derives respect and authority from his role as \"guardian\" of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina. To be less than thoroughly religious would not wash, even with Saudi's moderates. King Abdullah is calculating that he is making change at a pace people can cope with. On a recent visit to a shopping mall where religious police had taken a back seat for the past year, it seemed to me the octogenarian king is just about keeping up. The religious police were in the background, and among young girls in particular, headscarves were gone and lipstick was in bright abundance.","highlights":"With minister picks, king appears to have put Saudi Arabia on a new course .\nWoman at education post is kingdom's first female minister .\nConservative justice minister, head of religious police have been replaced .","id":"a63e7a312dc69c319ff430a0aa49429425d66b9e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Maggie Sorrells looks at her husband, Andy, she doesn't see the man she married. In fact, most days, she doesn't even recognize herself. Maggie and Andy Sorrells weighed 440 pounds and 505 pounds, respectively, at their heaviest. Before the Franklin, Tennessee, couple met online, both had endured lifelong struggles with weight and emotional overeating. Together, they had a combined weight of nearly 1,000 pounds. Maggie, who had a family history of heart disease and diabetes, had been warned by her doctor at the age of 27 that she wouldn't live to see 30. But her real moment of truth came when she visited her mother in the hospital. \"The biggest shock of my entire life was stepping on a hospital scale and realizing I weighed 440 pounds,\" she recalls. Until that moment, Maggie says she never knew how much she weighed, because she was too heavy to register on a household scale. Andy, like Maggie, tried countless diets but failed to keep the weight off. At his heaviest, he was 505 pounds and had to have most of his size 64 clothing made by his mother to fit his 6-foot-3-inch frame. See before-and-after photos of CNN.com I-Reporters \u00bb Obesity took an emotional and physical toll on the couple. Andy says people constantly teased him about his weight and he eventually withdrew. He battled depression and took anti-depressants for seven years. Maggie, on the other hand, tried to conceal her misery by making other people laugh. \"I was so depressed and so miserable. I was always the funny fat girl, but on the inside I was miserable,\" recalls Maggie. \"It held me back in many ways and I started to accept it as being genetic and felt this was just the way I was going to be.\" Though she never let her obesity keep her from traveling or socializing, it had affected her quality of life. Maggie had to use a seatbelt extension on airplanes and was once asked to get off a roller-coaster at an amusement park. In August 2002, the couple was married and they soon made a decision that would forever change their lives. Before getting married, a friend introduced Maggie to The Weigh Down Workshop, a faith-based weight loss program, which teaches people to conquer their addiction to food, as well as other substances and vices, by turning to God. Maggie says she was never consistent or committed enough to stick with the program. But shortly after their wedding, the couple started packing on the pounds and while Andy tried another diet, Maggie gave Weigh Down another try. \"At the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003, I called Weigh Down and started taking the classes,\" says Maggie. \"My whole life, I had always wanted somebody to [lose weight] with me. But I knew if I wanted it bad enough, I would have to do it alone.\" She began to lose weight. \"I ate whatever I craved, but only when I was truly hungry and then I ate a lot more slowly, so I could tell when to stop,\" Maggie says. In February 2003, after seeing his wife's results, Andy stopped counting calories, gave up the low-fat foods and reduced his portion sizes. Fifteen months later, he had lost 257 pounds. \"Once I started this program, it changed my outlook on my entire life. I realized that being happy is a choice. I can either be filled with hate and despair or I can be happy,\" says Andy, who realized he no longer needed the anti-depressants. Maggie's weight loss was more gradual. Shortly after starting the program, Maggie became pregnant with the couple's first child. Sadly, she lost the baby when she was seven months pregnant. \"Many of our family members were afraid that we would turn back to food after we lost our first daughter, since we had turned to food to solve our problems our whole lives,\" remembers Maggie. Faith, she says, helped her overcome the loss and continue on the program. Three years later, she had not only lost 300 pounds but she also gave birth to another daughter, Lily. Last week, the couple welcomed their son, Jacob. How has the weight loss changed their lives? Maggie, who now weighs 140 pounds and wears a size six, and Andy, who weighs 220 pounds and wears a size 36, say they had no idea their lives could be this good. \"It blows my mind that we look the way we do,\" says Maggie. The couple shares their success and strategy for weight loss by leading online classes for Weigh Down. Maggie believes if just one person's life can be changed by her story then her struggle will have been worth it. \"I want people to know there is hope. I looked for hope my whole life,\" says Maggie. \"I want that person who is just like the old me to look at where I am now and know that you want to be here!\" iReport.com: Have you lost weight? Send your story, photos and video E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Maggie and Andy Sorrells once had a combined weight of nearly 1,000 pounds .\nDoctors warned Maggie that she wouldn't live to the age of 30 .\nA faith-based program and portion control helped them shed 580 pounds .","id":"6eafe46ff607a3271a197293ef3eb213347e7c7e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Alaska lottery held to raise money for a group that helps sexual abuse victims had a surprise winner: a convicted sex offender. Alec Ahsoak in an undated photograph. Alec Ahsoak, who according to the state sex offender registry was convicted in 1993 and 2000 for sexual abuse of a minor, came forward Saturday with the winning ticket for the $500,000 Lucky Time Pull Tabs jackpot. Proceeds of the lottery help Standing Together Against Rape in Anchorage, a nonprofit group that offers support to sexual assault victims among other services. \"It's not how we had envisioned the story going,\" Nancy Haag, the group's executive director, told CNN Radio. Alaska has the highest per capita number of rape cases in the United States, according to FBI statistics. \"With a ranking that high, it's ironic that the person who wins is a convicted sex offender,\" Haag added. Ahsoak's past was first revealed by KTUU-TV in Anchorage on Sunday. His attorney, Lance Wells, did not immediately return a call Monday from CNN. Efforts to reach lottery organizer Abe Spicola, who owns Lucky Times Pull Tabs, were unsuccessful late Monday. But Spicola told the Anchorage Daily News that Ahsoak \"was going to buy a house and said he was going to donate part of it to God, and, you know, charity.\" CNN's Samira J. Simone and April Willliams contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lottery winner reportedly convicted in 1993 and 2000 for sexual abuse of a minor .\nProceeds of the lottery help Standing Together Against Rape in Anchorage .\nFBI: Alaska has the highest per capita number of rape cases in the United States .","id":"918313f341aec1096238fdfb720b8b61d8d32167"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You'd think someone who lasted 17 years as host of a television program in this day and age -- particularly a show as venerable as NBC's \"Tonight Show\" -- would be receiving praise and honor. Jay Leno has rarely impressed critics, but he's been the No. 1 late-night host for almost 15 years. Not so Jay Leno, whose final \"Tonight Show\" is Friday. \"Without fail, Leno's show fills an hour and kills an hour,\" wrote The Associated Press' Frazier Moore in a recent column on Leno's \"Tonight\" legacy. \"For 17 years in late night he has vigorously played a game of lowered expectations, and met them.\" Ouch. Leno has never been the critics' favorite. David Letterman, who watched Leno receive Johnny Carson's \"Tonight Show\" desk but never Carson's blessing, has long been touted as the King of Late Night's true successor with his CBS show. Conan O'Brien, who began his run as Letterman's NBC successor facing howls of derision, leaves it with some critics' hopes that he'll infuse the \"Tonight Show,\" his new home as of Monday, with new life. Watch how the late-night scene is changing \u00bb . And Leno? He'll leave behind the heavily rimshotted jokes, the Dancing Itos, the \"Jaywalking\" and \"Headlines\" bits -- all the things that drove Letterman and O'Brien fans up the wall -- with an audience of 5 million, still tops among late-night TV shows. And he'll be moving to prime time in September. Some CNN iReporters, asked to choose between Leno and O'Brien, say it's no contest. iReport: Whom do you prefer? \"I feel like Jay Leno is more for men and women,\" said iReporter Melissa Fazli of Yorba Linda, California. \"Where I think Conan O'Brien, only men get. ... I don't get his sense of humor.\" \"Jay Leno is like everybody's cool guy to go to. You want to hang out with Jay,\" said Kyle Aevermann of Itasca, Illinois. Leno's comedy has usually played off his regular-guy persona. In the 1980s, when he was a regular guest on Letterman's \"Late Night,\" Dave used to welcome a wound-up Leno with a jovial, \"What's your beef, Jay?\" To which Leno -- who looked like a cross between a class clown and a Boston greaser -- would respond with a well-turned wisenheimer riff on being stuck in the middle seat on airplanes or evil-twin plots on television. (YouTube is full of Leno's old \"Late Night\" appearances.) Moore and other critics may criticize Leno for \"lowered expectations,\" but upon taking the reins of \"Tonight\" on May 25, 1992, Leno opted for a more Jack Paar-esque \"Tonight\" show, mixing raconteurs among the comedians, actors and pop singers. Along with the usual entertainers -- Tom Cruise, Rosie O'Donnell -- among his early guests were opera singer Kathleen Battle, humorist P.J. O'Rourke and author-reporter Robert Krulwich. But the show, also beset by infighting between Leno's then-executive producer and NBC brass, suffered in the ratings, often finishing behind Letterman's CBS \"Late Show,\" which premiered in 1993. Sources give various reasons for the turnaround -- a new set, Leno's growing comfort, broader jokes -- but generally pinpoint the moment Leno became late night's leader to the appearance of one guest: Hugh Grant. The actor, who was promoting his film \"Nine Months,\" appeared on \"Tonight\" in July 1995, just after his arrest for consorting with a prostitute. Leno led off the interview with a humorously exasperated, \"What the hell were you thinking?\" The audience picked up, and \"Tonight\" has led the late-night ratings ever since. Entertainment Weekly recently named the Grant interview the best moment of Leno's \"Tonight\" tenure. Leno, though he's been portrayed as a ferocious backroom infighter -- before striking a deal for the 10 p.m. talk-variety show he'll lead in the fall, he made no secret of his willingness to leave NBC -- generally lets criticism go by like a morning mist. \"Trash talking is a part of the competition,\" he said after hearing about a jab from ABC's Jimmy Kimmel. \"You do your best. It gives you the impetus to prove them wrong.\" And the man must be doing something right. Until being hospitalized last month, he'd never missed a \"Tonight\" taping. He's done 3,775 episodes, about 750 fewer than Carson, but in 13 fewer years. He still gets out on the road, recently putting on free shows for Detroit autoworkers. In fact, the criticism aimed at Leno can be reminiscent of the complaints aimed at reliable-but-dull cars. When an auto executive was asked why his top-selling vehicle -- often compared to vanilla ice cream -- remained so popular, he pointed out that although some people may find vanilla ice cream boring, a lot of people like it. Leno, a major auto buff, must know what he means.","highlights":"Jay Leno concludes 17 years as \"Tonight Show\" host Friday .\nLeno has been criticized for dumbing down the show, but he's been No. 1 for years .\nHe'll be succeeded by Conan O'Brien; in fall, he'll launch prime-time show .","id":"c9b74a15d2b040c86e74bfc9c199a8e8d921f9e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Akil Vohra quit a lucrative job in international trade litigation to take up something he strongly believes in -- as a legal expert, a Muslim and, most importantly, he says, as an American. He wanted to make sure that Muslims could fulfill zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam that mandates the giving of alms. Zakat is especially important during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends on Saturday. But after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a dark cloud hung over Muslim charities as the federal government heightened scrutiny over terrorism concerns. Zakat suddenly became a risky religious obligation. Agencies all over America from women's shelters and health clinics to inner-city community centers saw donation checks dry up. \"The fear of giving was very real, said Vohra, 33, who now works for San Francisco-based Muslim Advocates, an agency that was created to address two needs in post-September 11 America: racial profiling of Muslims and charitable giving. Muslim Advocates partners with the Better Business Bureau to attain accreditation for Muslim nonprofits so that agencies can attain greater transparency and overcome perceptions of wrongdoing. Plus, people can feel more at ease about their donations. The Muslim Charities Accreditation Program, which began in August 2008, examines nonprofits and trains agency leaders to comply with the federal government's legal and financial regulations, said Vohra, the program's legal counsel. Just before the start of Ramadan a month ago, three nonprofit organizations had met all 20 standards required for accreditation. Vohra said several others are going through the process. In turn, Vohra hopes that Muslim charities will start seeing more dollars come their way. \"We don't make comments on which group to give to,\" Vohra said. \"What we're concerned about is giving the right way -- best practices for zakat. \"To be able to give freely is a right of all Americans.\" he said. Vohra takes phone calls from people around the nation seeking guidance. \"We're planning to send money,\" people tell him. \"Is this group OK? What's the best way to send our donation?\" Because of the widespread concerns, Muslim Advocates decided to upload a guidance video on YouTube. It asks people to consider donating to U.S.-registered tax exempt charitable organizations. It tells them to make the intent of their donation clear, keep records and perhaps ask for proof that the funds were used for their intended purpose. The guidance became essential after the federal government cracked down on Muslim groups in 2001, Vohra said. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Bush administration froze the assets of three U.S. charities -- the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, Global Relief Foundation and Benevolence International Foundation -- during Ramadan in 2001. Six others have been shuttered to date, the ACLU said. Only one, the Holy Land Foundation, was tied to terrorism after five of its leaders were convicted of providing money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. \"The government's actions against these three charities were the start of a pattern of conduct that violated the fundamental rights of American Muslims' charitable giving in accordance with their faith,\" the ACLU wrote in a report published in June. It said the result was that many in the American Muslim community restricted or stopped their donations altogether out of fear that they would be investigated for terrorism. Vohra, however, is hopeful the tide is turning. President Obama signaled change in his historic speech to the Muslim world delivered in Cairo, Egypt, earlier this year. Obama said he was committed to working with American Muslims to ensure they can fulfill zakat. Vohra said the accreditation program, along with new government perspective, can return confidence and comfort to a religious obligation for Muslims. \"It's been tough for American Muslims post 9\/11,\" he said. \"This has to do with civic engagement, to be treated as full Americans.\"","highlights":"U.S. government started cracking down on Muslim charities after 9\/11 attacks .\nDonation checks to shelters, community centers started to dry up .\nCharities hope accreditation will overcome perceptions of wrongdoing .","id":"3860346e9ce4292dd16332cc817172643e5a0865"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The war in Afghanistan may no longer be forgotten but the true victims always are. Having been denied healthcare and education under the Taliban, Afghan women are now training as midwives . Women and children in the landlocked Asian country have continuously paid the ultimate price throughout the decades of conflict and war. It is their lives that are considered not precious enough to save. A woman here dies every 29 minutes due to childbirth complications, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) -- one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. One in four children die before they reach the age of five because of the lack of health care and medical facilities in their cities and villages. But ignorance is also deadly. Misguided cultural pride prevents men from allowing their women to see a doctor, merely because the doctor could be male. And in many cases, it's not just women who die from childbirth-related issues. It is young girls forced into marriage before they even reach puberty. Their still-forming bodies cannot handle the complications of childbirth. But there are women in Afghanistan stepping up within the crowds of the forgotten and pushing past the barriers. They are training as midwives across the country to help bring change and save lives. \"A woman can help a woman more,\" midwifery student Fariha Ibrahimi told CNN. \"We have to introduce them with what to do, what foods to eat, how to take care of themselves. \"[We] tell their husbands how to treat them. There are some husbands who beat their wives to the point where they can no longer even get pregnant.\" At the Ibni Sina Balkhi Midwifery Training Center in Kabul, dozens of future midwives study and practise in the hope of bringing a brighter future to their countrywomen. \"It's very heartbreaking,\" Ibrahimi said of the situation women face. \"Afghanistan has gone through so much war and most girls were not allowed to get an education, so I want to study and bring forth something new.\" Sympathy for Afghan women is the strongest motivating force among students in this field: Many know personally what is like to live in a society where pregnant women are ignored and forgotten. \"We live in an area where we are far from any clinic or hospital and there are a lot of difficulties there for pregnant women,\" Nourzia, a student and mother, told CNN. \"It's very difficult for them to reach a hospital. This is why I was so keen in learning this profession and helping these women; so in the future they are in less danger.\" All the women here are training with the permission and support of their families. They are leading the way to a brighter tomorrow for Afghan women -- one that may one day catch up with the rest of the world. \"The world is moving forward and he didn't want me to sit around jobless,\" said future midwife, Maurina whose husband is supportive of her new career. \"He wanted me to push ahead in this field, especially a field in which our people need help in.\" There are still many obstacles left and these women are still in the minority. According to the World Health Organization there are only about 2,000 trained midwives servicing Afghanistan's population of just under 33 million. But that is a giant leap from just eight years ago when most women were denied an education, medical care and the basic necessities of survival under the Taliban regime. It will take many years to change mindsets instilled by decades of brutality. But these women prove that maybe, just maybe, the next generation can fix the mistakes of the last.","highlights":"Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world .\nA woman dies in childbirth every 29 minutes, one in four children die before age 5 .\nIn Kabul, dozens of women are now studying to become midwives to help save lives .","id":"cbfe003c367c328150c26e926d6020d5f336b23b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Dangerous cocktails of prescription drugs were pumped into Anna Nicole Smith \"almost to the point of stupefaction\" and eventually led to her death, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Friday. Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend Howard K. Stern was among those charged Thursday. Brown called Smith's longtime partner and attorney Howard K. Stern the \"principal enabler\" in a conspiracy with two doctors for giving the \"known addict\" thousands of prescription pills. Stern and a doctor were jailed on charges of conspiring to furnish drugs before her death in 2007, authorities said. \"Stern and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor were arrested and later released from a Los Angeles County jail Thursday night after each posted a $20,000 bond, a police spokesman said. Dr. Khristine Eroshevich also faces charges and is expected to turn herself in Monday, authorities said. The doctors and Stern devised a plan to use fake names so Smith could be prescribed \"thousands of pills,\" Brown said. Her doctors knew she was addicted and gave her drugs \"excessively,\" Brown said. \"The quantity of the drugs, the variety of the drugs, the combination at any given point and her continuing to use that; that, to a professional, is clear evidence of addiction,\" Brown said. \"These cocktails of methadone and antidepressants and sleeping pills and Xanax, you put all that into a cocktail, it explodes and can cause death, injury and permanent morbidity and disability,\" he said. Watch Brown speak to the media \u00bb . Brown said he hoped the charges send a loud and clear message. \"Doctors do not have a license to pump innocent and often vulnerable people full of dangerous chemicals,\" he said. Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8, 2007, after being found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood, Florida. The former Playboy playmate and reality TV star died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, a coroner said. Several prescription medications -- both in Smith's and Stern's names -- were found in the room after her death. Officials said prescription and over-the-counter drugs were found in Smith's system, including three antidepressant or anti-anxiety drugs. Also found in toxicology testing was human growth hormone and chloral hydrate, a sleep medication, officials said. Stern and Kapoor, both 40, and Eroshevich, 61, each were charged with eight felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 to January 2007 -- only weeks before Smith's death. Kapoor and Eroshevich also were each charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by \"fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.\" And each was charged with one count of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office. Smith was buried in the Bahamas on March 2, 2007, next to the grave of her son, Daniel, who had died in September 2006, days after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn. Brown said his office will aggressively target California doctors who over-prescribe dangerous drugs. \"People think those drug dealers on the street corners are the only threat,\" he said. \"As a matter of fact, people in white smocks and pharmacies and with their medical degrees are a growing threat, and we aim to curtail it and curb it in the best way we can.\"","highlights":"NEW: Attorney General calls Howard K. Stern the \"principal enabler\" in conspiracy .\nEx-playmate drugged \"almost to the point of stupefaction,\" California AG says .\nHoward K. Stern, Sandeep Kapoor, Khristine Eroshevich charged with eight felonies .\nThe three are accused of conspiring to furnish drugs before her death .","id":"f2c3b50fc341391c60cd3a0cb40a6e85294d22a3"} -{"article":"ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Sex columnist Dan Savage and author of the popular syndicated sex advice column \"Savage Love,\" made his way to St. Paul, Minnesota, to attend the Republican National Convention where he is filming a piece for HBO's \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" Sex columnist Dan Savage is reporting on the GOP convention for HBO's \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" Planted in the CNN Grill, Savage shares his thoughts on John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, tells us what a sex columnist is doing at a political convention, and gives us his take on who's sexier, Democrats or Republicans. Here are five questions for Dan Savage: . CNN: You're here because you're a lifelong Republican? Savage: No, that's not true, actually. I'm a Democrat, although I am a registered Republican in Washington State, but just to drive the Washington State Republican Party up the wall. CNN: Why are you here? Savage: I was here to see if I could find any evidence of George W. Bush at the convention. And I found very little. There was that satellite feed. I bought this button [points to Dick Cheney button on his shirt]. This will be the only time you'll see Dick Cheney at the convention is when you see me walk by with this button ... I wasn't able to purchase it here ... I mean you talk to Republican delegates walking around, a lot of them will admit that George Bush has been a major disappointment and they're happy that he's not here. And one of the reasons that they're happy he's not here is that they don't want America reminded that four years ago and eight years ago, these same delegates ... thought George Bush walked on water. CNN: Why would \"Real Time with Bill Maher\" send a sex columnist to cover the Republican National Convention? Savage: Because when you're a sex writer in America you have to write about politics because politicians will not stop obsessing about it -- screwing around with people's sex lives. Often when I write about politics in \"Savage Love,\" my sex advice column, people write to me and say, \"you're a sex columnist, stick to sex.\" And I'll say -- I usually respond -- \"I'll be able to stick to sex when politicians stick to politics and leave our sex lives alone, and stop politicizing our sex lives.\" But they do. And it's one of the major differences between the two political parties, our sexual issues. And so my view is very relevant, I feel very at home here. CNN: Any thoughts on McCain's running mate choice? Savage: I think Palin has been the clown car of the vice presidential nominee. You never know what's going to pop out of Palin next. CNN: Who's sexier: Republicans or Democrats? Savage: Well, there's just something about those Young Republicans. They're very sexy. They're very tense and nervous. I spoke to a lot of them because I've been running around the convention asking teenagers throughout the convention if they're virgins or not. 'Cuz I feel like I have a right to know because we've invested over a billion dollars in abstinence education programs under George Bush.","highlights":"Savage: Here to see if I could find any evidence of George W. Bush at the convention .\nSavage: I found very little of Bush or Cheney .\nSavage: \"I think Palin has been the clown car of the vice presidential nominee\"\nSavage: \"You never know what's going to pop out of Palin next\"","id":"6eda84d80d9c9d9f2fb9024eb0765131436d6c12"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Chicago, Illinois, nightclub accused of barring six African-American students last week will participate in a rally against discrimination late next month, the senior class president of Missouri's Washington University said Wednesday. Fernando Cutz, 21, said the group and Original Mother's in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood had reached an agreement that would also see the nightclub sponsoring four fundraisers and its managers attend diversity training classes. \"What we are looking to do is to turn this negative into a positive,\" the text of Cutz's remarks said. \"To make sure that all of us learn from what happened to these six students in Chicago 10 days ago and that we move forward, together, in a productive manner. ... \"We would also like to show that the best way of fighting discrimination can be by reaching out and extending a helpful hand to those who need it,\" Cutz said at a news conference. The club has also agreed to a private apology to the six students and a public apology to the senior class, which was in Chicago for a two-day class trip. The students complained to state and federal agencies after six African-American members from their senior class trip celebration were denied admission to the club on October 17. Bar personnel cited dress code violations -- specifically baggy jeans -- in barring the African-American students, Cutz said. At one point, a white student and a black student exchanged jeans to see what would happen. The white student was admitted while his classmate still was kept outside, Cutz said. After the students' news conference, an attorney representing the club said the bar would be working with the students to fight discrimination and will issue an apology because they had a bad experience at Mother's. But Brad Grayson said the club does not believe it discriminated against the group. \"There was no intention to admit white kids with baggy jeans and exclude black kids with baggy jeans,\" he told the Chicago Tribune newspaper. In his remarks Wednesday, Cutz said the students wanted to avoid being \"caught up in the hype\" of the situation and \"forget the values that we are truly fighting for.\" Mother's representatives will speak at the rally, which will be held in in Chicago in late November, he said. The celebration at Original Mother's had been arranged with the bar in advance by the student class board, which includes two of the African-American students who later were denied entry, Cutz said. He said he was already inside the bar with some 200 other students, none of whom are African-American, when the first group of African-American classmates arrived. Cutz said he quickly learned that the manager of the bar had denied the six students entry, and he said the manager told the students their baggy pants violated the bar's dress code. Cutz, who is white, said he confronted the manager. \"These six [students] were better-dressed than I was,\" Cutz told CNN. He told the students to \"go back to the hotel and change.\" But the manager of the bar stepped in to say that he had made his decision and that the six men could not return to the bar even if they changed clothes, Cutz said. The students became \"more agitated\" and \"set up an experiment,\" Cutz said. Class Treasurer Regis Murayi, who is black, exchanged jeans with a white student, Jordan Roberts, who -- being 3 inches shorter than Murayi -- looked \"substantially baggy.\" Roberts approached the same manager who had turned away the African-American students, paid the entry fee and was allowed in, Cutz said. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Leavitt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Club accused of barring black Washington University students from entering .\nSenior class president says bar will participate in rally .\nManagers will be sent to diversity training .\nStudents want to \"turn this negative into a positive,\" president says .","id":"a97a8ff4bfaf7757041cba8fb92b8aa9be570947"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A shoeless Tiger Woods snored on their lawn while the golfer's wife stood silently by in the minutes after his SUV crashed into a tree, neighbors told Florida investigators. The Florida Highway Patrol on Thursday released the audio recording of their interview of Wood's longtime neighbors who rushed out of their house in the early hours of last Friday to help Woods. Troopers issued a careless driving citation to Woods for the crash, but he will not face criminal charges, police said Tuesday. Woods, 33, struck a fire hydrant and a tree with his 2009 Cadillac SUV in his luxury neighborhood near Windermere, Florida, early Friday, police said. Kimberly Harris said she was awake in her bedroom when she heard \"a faint, continuous knocking sound for about 10 or 15 minutes.\" It was unclear from the interview what Harris heard. Harris eventually noticed headlights shining toward her house from a vehicle on the lawn, so she awakened her brother, Jarius Adams. \"It's Tiger, dial 911,\" Harris said her brother yelled after rushing outside. \"I saw Tiger lying on the ground,\" Adams said. \"Elin was talking to him,\" he said, referring to Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren. \"'Can you please help me, can you please help me?' \" he said she asked. After that, she \"wasn't very verbal,\" Adams said. \"She was actually very quiet. Just kind of in shock, you know, just kind of sitting there.\" Nordegren told investigators she used a golf iron to smash a rear window so she could unlock the door to get her husband out after the wreck. Woods appeared to have a cut lip, but he wasn't bleeding much, Adams told the troopers. \"Maybe if you'd have bitten your lip, or something like that,\" he said. \"Nothing on his shirt, nothing on his hands.\" It was a cool morning, so Adams and Harris covered Woods with a blanket and put pillows under his head, Adams said. \"I tried to just keep everyone kind of calm,\" he said. When a trooper asked if Woods was unconscious, Adams said, \"At that point, he was, uh, he was snoring.\" \"He was snoring?\" the investigator asked. \"He was actually snoring,\" he said. Adams said he never smelled alcohol on Woods' breath. Woods eventually was placed in an ambulance and taken to a hospital. He was released several hours later. The police report called his injuries serious, but a spokesman for Woods described them as minor. Woods cited the injuries as the reason for his decision not to attend his own charity golf tournament this week.","highlights":"Shoeless Tiger Woods snored on neighbor's lawn as his wife stood by after car crash .\nNeighbor said she was alerted to accident by headlights shining into home from vehicle on lawn .\n\"She was actually very quiet. Just kind of in shock,\" neighbor said of Woods' wife .\nNeighbors didn't smell alcohol on Woods as they covered him with blanket, gave him pillows .","id":"137797fd34ea672ca506d1c8848d0da355baf7d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Biologist Matt Aresco has been carrying a big burden for years. A biologist says that wherever he can get it, he'll take money to protect turtles from a killer stretch of road. He's made it his mission to save thousands of turtles from near-certain death on one of the worst turtle-killing highways in America, U.S. Route 27 just north of Tallahassee, Florida. The road skirts Lake Jackson, but that didn't stop the turtles from wanting to get to the other side. In three years, Aresco counted nearly 9,000 dead turtles. \"There were days when I would find 200 turtles attempting to cross,\" he told CNN. \"It was unreal.\" But what sounds unreal to some in Washington is the solution to the turtle trouble: $3.4 million in federal stimulus money to build a series of walls and tunnels under the highway so the turtles and other creatures don't have to take on the cars and trucks roaring overhead. U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, highlighted the turtle crossing in a blistering report on what he called the 100 worst projects in the stimulus bill. \"They are wasteful projects, and most of us don't want to steal money from our grandkids to do something that's really stupid right now,\" he said. Members of the turtle contingent in Florida were less than thrilled to be singled out. \"You've got 30- to 40-pound box turtles as big as a manhole cover, and 12-foot alligators,\" said Leon County Commissioner Cliff Thaell. \"Now if Sen. Coburn was to drive his SUV speeding down Highway 27 [at] 60 miles per hour tonight and met one of those fellows, he would have an unpleasant encounter.\" But according to the White House, the stimulus money is all about jobs, not turtles. Thaell said he expected \"dozens\" of jobs to be created in the construction of the tunnels, but he could not be precise. The jobs that will last only as long as it takes to build the tunnels, and Aresco says he'd rather get the money to help the turtles from other sources. But after years watching the creatures die, and trying to slow the carnage with makeshift fences, he says he'll take the money wherever he can get it.","highlights":"Biologist wants to end deaths of turtles on highway near Tallahassee, Florida .\n$3.4 million in federal money sought to build walls, tunnels to protect creatures .\nReport says the road work is among 100 worst projects in stimulus bill .\nBut project supporters say jobs will be created, creatures and drivers will be safer .","id":"ba77882cda6aeddcd21c56b9fea85f8e2af93fae"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A barn fire that killed two men and dozens of horses in Ohio on Saturday shows no sign of criminal intent, authorities said. The Ohio State Fire Marshal said the cause of the fire, at the Lebanon Raceway near Cincinnati in southwestern Ohio, is undetermined. \"However, investigators have ruled out criminal intent,\" it said in a written statement. The ages and identities of the men are not yet known. Initially, officials reported that 65 horses perished, but later put the number at 43. The state fire marshal said that preliminary information from the men's autopsies may be available by Sunday. The fire began in the northwest corner of the barn, according to the state fire marshal's office. It would not release the specific origin of the fire because of the investigation. The Warren County Fair Board -- which operates the track -- confirmed the men's deaths and the destruction of the barn, but couldn't say how many horses were killed. It said in a statement that harness racing scheduled for Saturday night has been canceled. Firefighters from 11 departments, which received the call just before 5 a.m., cleared debris and extinguished hot spots during the day. For more than 50 years, the Warren County Fair Board has been operating the county fair grounds, which includes \"a harness racing track and supporting facilities that are leased for harness racing meets to two harness racing clubs,\" according to the statement issued by a fair board attorney, Bill Schroeder. Schroeder said the fire was first noticed by a neighbor and that the barn, harness-racing carriages, and other racing equipment have been destroyed. Firefighters kept the flames from spreading to other barns, officials told CNN affiliate WHIO-TV. State and local fire officials are working to determine what sparked the fire. Follow CNN affiliate WHIO's local coverage . Follow CNN affiliate WLWT's local coverage . Another barn fire at the fairgrounds killed 35 horses in 1988, Warren County Commissioner Pat South said, according to the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun newspaper.","highlights":"NEW: Ohio State Fire Marshal: \"Investigators have ruled out criminal intent\"\nDeath toll comes down from earlier reports of 65 .\nTwo men who died are still unidentified; autopsies will be conducted Sunday .\n11 departments respond to fire just before 5 a.m.","id":"7ccb7534e11be6f28219a26e5586a3dfc595dea5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manny Pacquiao returned home to a hero's welcome in his native Philippines on Friday after wresting the WBO welterweight title from Miguel Cotto on a 12th round technical knockout in Las Vegas. 'Pacman' has a fanatical following in the Philippines which has been further enhanced by his record breaking victory as he claimed his sixth world title at a different weight by beating Cotto on Saturday night. \"Welcome home, the world's bext boxer of all time,\" read a banner as thousands of fans greeted the 30-year-old. Following his hard-fought victory over Puerto Rican Cotto, all the talk is of a cash-rich superfight with American Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year. Leading promoter Bob Arum said he is ready to put the pay-per-view extravaganza at the 147-pound welterweight class, with Las Vegas the preferred venue. Pacquiao played down the possibility as he talked to reporters on his return. \"We are not forcing a fight with him. It is right that he is the one challenging me, because my fights score more on pay-per-view,\" he said. Pacquiao has greatly enhanced his reputation with successive wins over Oscar de la Hoya, Britain's Ricky Hatton and Cotto. Mayweather returned to the ring with a comfortable win over Juan Manuel Marquez and has the reputation for grossing massive receipts from his pay-per-view appearances. For the moment, Pacquiao will spend time at home with his wife, Jinkee, and three children and is also set to pursue his ambition to enter Filippino politics, standing for a congressional seat in his home island of Mindanao.","highlights":"Manny Pacquiao returns home to Philippines after Las Vegas triumph .\nPacman won world title at sixth different weight after beating Miguel Cotto .\nCash-rich fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the offing in the United States .","id":"0346149ea27954b0dc90121f99fd109692dd77f5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The beautifully ornate Catholic church in the nation's capital has seen its share of history and controversy. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Chief Justice John Roberts attend Red Mass in 2005. In 1963, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle was the site of John F. Kennedy's funeral. After the service, on the steps outside, the slain president's young son famously saluted his father's memory. But the church is also the site of an annual Mass that has drawn criticism for what many see as an unhealthy mix of politics, the law and religion. Washington's annual Red Mass, which celebrates the legal profession, will be held this year on Sunday, October 4 -- the day before the Supreme Court begins its new term. Several justices traditionally attend, along with congressional leaders, diplomats, cabinet secretaries and other dignitaries. Past presidents have also attended, though there is no word yet on whether President Obama will appear. It is a Catholic service, but power brokers of other faiths are asked to attend the invitation-only event. Justice Stephen Breyer, who is Jewish, is a regular. The Mass \"takes its name from the color of the vestments. ... [It] goes back centuries, to Rome, to France to England,\" Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl said. \"There was the idea [to] bring all the people who are involved in the law ... once a year so that together, they can simply pray for the wisdom of God.\" The church, built starting in the 19th century, is considered one of Washington's hidden gems. Tucked between modern office buildings a few blocks from the White House, it is a mix of architectural styles, a hint of ancient Roman style, a splash from the Italian Renaissance and a definite Byzantine flavor. St. Matthew, noted Monsignor Ronald Jameson, was the patron saint of civil servants, appropriate in a city where the federal government dominates the workforce. Five justices attended last year's Red Mass, which was similar in tone to other recent gatherings. Cardinal John Patrick Foley, who has held several prominent positions in the Catholic Church, noted many parts of the Bible \"sound very much like American ideals\" and reminded the members of the high court to build a society \"of justice, of peace and of love.\" Critics of the service, however, find the attendance of leading decision-makers, including members of the highest court in the land, to be inappropriate. \"The truth is, this was set up as a way to basically lecture and give information to the justices,\" said the Rev. Barry Lynn, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. \"There is no other institution that has this special way to talk to the justices on the Supreme Court.\" The Red Mass was started in Washington in 1952 by the John Carroll Society, a lay Catholic group of prominent lawyers and professionals. Chief Justice John Roberts' wife, Jane, is an officer of the group. Lynn, an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ, noted the Mass was begun after several high court decisions that were disapproved of by the archdiocese. \"They figured if they got all the justices together and chatted them up in a worship service, they might be able to convince them to see the law their way,\" he said. In 1989, a top church official used the occasion of the Mass to call for a return to \"religiously based moral values\" and lament the \"inviolable, impenetrable and towering wall\" between church and state. In 1986, Washington Cardinal James Hickey attacked the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. Among those in attendance that year were then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and William Brennan, both Catholics. One member of the court who no longer attends is Ruth Bader Ginsburg who, like Breyer, is Jewish. Ginsberg said she grew tired of being lectured to by Catholic officials. \"I went one year, and I will never go again, because this sermon was outrageously anti-abortion,\" Ginsburg said in the book \"Stars of David: Prominent Jews talk About Being Jewish\" by author Abigail Pogrebin. \"Even the Scalias, although they're much of that persuasion, were embarrassed for me.\" Six Catholics now sit on the high court: Roberts, Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor. Church officials, however, said they do not attempt to lobby or seek to persuade anyone who attends the service. Wuerl likens the experience to putting aside the partisanship and troubles in the world and seeking comfort in a shared community and a sacred place. Americans have \"been very careful about ... not allowing any one tradition or church to become the state church,\" he said. \"But from the very beginning, we've always said we need to hear the voice of faith in all the discussion that is a part of determining what we want to do.\" Lynn takes a different tack. \"I don't think there is any doubt that people in that congregation, including the Supreme Court justices, are going to listen to what is said. They might hear something phrased in a way you might never hear it in the court, but it might become a lingering factor in their decisions. ... People who are concerned about the Red Mass worry about this kind of undue influence, an influence that no other group, religious or otherwise, has on those nine men and women.\" Their sharply differing perspectives show that, more than two centuries after the Constitution's ratification, the interpretation of the First Amendment and the role of religion in American society remain hotly contested questions. CNN's Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Annual Catholic Mass in Washington celebrates the legal profession .\nIt began in 1952; several Supreme Court justices regularly attend .\nIt is touted as a chance for those involved in law to pray for wisdom .\nCritic says Mass set up to \"lecture and give information to the justices\"","id":"6570180535f4a5a28e6f5d43f46c8f635a509cda"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terrorists are likely to use a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next five years, a blue-ribbon panel assembled by Congress has concluded. Police watch over travelers at New York's Grand Central Terminal before Thanksgiving. They are more likely to use a biological weapon than a nuclear one -- and the results could be devastating, the chairman of the commission told CNN. \"The consequences of a biological attack are almost beyond comprehension. It would be 9\/11 times 10 or a hundred in terms of the number of people who would be killed,\" former Sen. Bob Graham said. He cited the flu virus that killed millions of people in 1918 as an example. \"Today it is still in the laboratory, but if it should get out and into the hands of scientists who knew how to use it for a violent purpose, we could have multiple times the 40 million people who were killed 100 years ago,\" he said. Watch how officials worry about a biological terror attack \u00bb . The U.S. government \"needs to move more aggressively to limit\" the spread of biological weapons, the commission said in its report. Graham warned that such measures would be costly, but were necessary. \"The leadership of this country and the world will have to decide how much of a priority ... they place on avoiding the worst weapons in the world getting in the hands of the worst people in the world,\" he said. \"It is not going to be cheap. It is not going to be accomplished without some sacrifices. It won't be accomplished without putting this issue ahead of some other competing national and international goals. But I think our safety and security depend upon doing so,\" he added. Graham said a biological attack was more likely than a nuclear one because it would be easier to carry out. Biological weapons \"are more available,\" he said. \"Anthrax is a natural product of dead animals. Other serious pathogens are available in equally accessible forms.\" \"There are so many scientists who have the skills to convert a pathogen from benign, helpful purposes into an illicit, very harmful weapon,\" he added. But the commission warned that there is also a threat of nuclear terrorism, both because more countries are developing nuclear weapons and because some existing nuclear powers are expanding their arsenals. \"Terrorist organizations are intent on acquiring nuclear weapons,\" said the report, which was published Tuesday on the Internet and will be officially released Wednesday. CNN obtained a copy of the report Monday evening. It cited testimony before the commission from former Sen. Sam Nunn, who said that the \"risk of a nuclear weapon being used today is growing, not receding.\" The report recommends a range of measures, including increased security and awareness at biological research labs and strengthening international treaties against the spread of biological and nuclear weapons. \"Many biological pathogens and nuclear materials around the world are poorly secured -- and thus vulnerable to theft by those who would put these materials to harmful use, or would sell them on the black market to potential terrorists,\" the report warned. The commission expressed particular concern about the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, and about Pakistan, which it described as \"the intersection of nuclear weapons and terrorism.\" While observing that Pakistan is a U.S. ally, the report said, \"the next terrorist attack against the United States is likely to originate from within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas\" in Pakistan. The tribal areas lie in northwest Pakistan where the government exerts little control; the United States says it is a haven for militants from both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Congress created the commission to investigate and report on WMD and terrorism in line with a recommendation from the 9\/11 Commission, which compiled a report on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Commissioners heard testimony from more than 250 experts from around the world over the course of their six-month investigation. CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Next terror attack on U.S. likely to originate in Pakistan tribal areas, report says .\nTerrorists with biological weapons could kill millions, panel's chairman says .\nBiological attack more likely than nuclear attack, report says .\nNumber of nations with nuclear weapons also growing, panel says .","id":"8aff83049d0d5087510cdfe0de75cb834b5e9c91"} -{"article":"HAMILTON, Bermuda (CNN) -- Two of four Uyghurs relocated to Bermuda after seven years of detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied Friday that they had ever been terrorists and expressed gratitude toward U.S. President Barack Obama for working to free them. Salahidin Abdalahut and Kheleel Mamut were two of four Uyghurs released from Gitmo. Thirteen remain there. Asked what he would say to someone who accused him of being a terrorist, one of the men, Kheleel Mamut, told CNN's Don Lemon, \"I am no terrorist; I have not been terrorist. I will never be terrorist. I am a peaceful person.\" Speaking through an interpreter who is herself a Uyghur who said she was sympathetic toward the men, the other man -- Salahidin Abdalahut -- described the past seven years as \"difficult times for me ... I feel bad that it took so long for me to be free.\" The two Chinese Muslims were among four relocated from Guantanamo to Bermuda; another 13 remain in detention on the island. He said he had traveled to Afghanistan not to attend any terrorist training camps but because -- as a Uyghur -- he had been oppressed by the Chinese government. \"We had to leave the country to look for a better life, a peaceful life, and Afghanistan is a neighboring country to our country, and it's easy to go,\" he said. \"It is difficult to obtain a visa to go to any other places, so it was really easy for us to just travel to Afghanistan.\" Asked what he hoped to do next, he said, \"I want to forget about the past and move on to a peaceful life in the future.\" In addition to the four relocated from Guantanamo to Bermuda, another 13 Uyghurs remain in detention on the island. The four were flown by private plane Wednesday night from Cuba to Bermuda, and were accompanied by U.S. and Bermudian representatives as well as their attorneys, according to Susan Baker Manning, part of the men's legal team. The men, who are staying in an apartment, are free to roam about the island. Mamut accused the Bush administration of having held them without cause, and lauded Obama for having \"tried really hard to bring justice and he has been trying very hard to find other countries to resettle us and finally he freed us.\" He appealed to Obama to carry out his promise to shut Guantanamo Bay within a year. \"I would like President Obama to honor that word and to free my 13 brothers who were left behind and all of the rest of the people who deserve to be free,\" Mamut said. Asked how he had been treated in Guantanamo Bay, Mamut said, \"It is a jail, so there will be difficulties in the jail that we have faced and now, since I am a free man today, I would like to forget about all that. I really don't want to think about those days.\" He cited a proverb from his homeland that means, \"What is done cannot be undone.\" Asked if he had anything to say to anyone watching, he said, \"Thank you very much for those people who helped me to gain freedom.\" He said he had spoken earlier in the day with his family. \"They told me, \"My boy, my son, congratulations on your freedom.' \" The move has had international repercussions, including causing a rift between the United States and Britain. A British official familiar with the agreement but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told CNN the United States had informed London of the agreement \"shortly before the deal was concluded.\" A U.S. official, speaking on background, said the British feel blindsided. Bermuda is a British \"overseas territory.\" The four were twice cleared for release -- once by the Bush administration and again this year, according to a Justice Department statement. The issue of where they go is controversial because of China's opposition to the Uyghurs' being sent to any country but China. Uyghurs are a Muslim minority from the Xinjiang province of far west China. The 17 Uyghurs had left China and made their way to Afghanistan, where they settled in a camp with other Uyghurs opposed to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said in its statement. They left Afghanistan after U.S. bombings began in the area in October 2001 and were apprehended in Pakistan, the statement said. \"According to available information, these individuals did not travel to Afghanistan with the intent to take any hostile action against the United States,\" the statement said. However, China alleges that the men are part of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement -- a group the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization -- that operates in the Xinjiang region. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang. China on Thursday urged the United States to hand over all 17 of the Uyghurs instead of sending them elsewhere. The United States will not send Uyghur detainees cleared for release back to China out of concern that they would be tortured by Chinese authorities. China has said no returned Uyghurs would be tortured. A senior U.S. administration official told CNN that the State Department is working on a final agreement with Palau to settle the 13 remaining Uyghur detainees. CNN's Don Lemon and Brian Vitagliano in Hamilton, Bermuda, and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two Uyghurs relocated from Guantanamo spoke Friday with CNN's Don Lemon .\nBoth denied having been terrorists and expressed gratitude toward U.S. president .\nFour of the Chinese Muslims were relocated to Bermuda; 13 remain at Gitmo .\nIncident has had international repercussions centering on where to relocate men .","id":"97e2e630f06bc347ab9153d8c9b7bdc46bd79819"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A fire at a karaoke bar and discotheque in Medan, in Indonesia's North Sumatra province, killed at least 20 people Friday night, according to a hospital. At least two people survived, according to Aida Sofiati of the Pringadi Hospital in Medan. Sofiati said 20 people were killed. Mohammad Zein, a fire official, said the blaze started around 10 p.m., but firefighters were able to extinguish it within a half-hour. He said the cause of the fire was not known.","highlights":"Blaze hits karaoke bar and discotheque in Medan, in North Sumatra province .\nMedan hospital official says at least two people survived .\nFire official: Fire started around 10 p.m., was extinguished within half-hour; cause isn't known .","id":"cef876d93c4fd3add89ba5fa6bff2a0ab72b7959"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal authorities are moving to rein in the man dubbed \"America's Toughest Sheriff\" after complaints that immigration raids by his deputies amounted to unconstitutional roundups of Latinos. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio supervises an inmate relocation in Phoenix, Arizona. Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff's department have had an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security since 2007 that allows his department to enforce federal immigration laws. But Arpaio says the federal agency is moving to revise the agreement to limit that power to checking the immigration status of inmates already in his Phoenix jail. Arpaio has cultivated his image as \"America's Toughest Sheriff,\" a nickname earned by his treatment of Maricopa County inmates. Many of his prisoners are housed in tents and forced to wear pink underwear, and he once boasted of feeding them on less than a dollar a day. Now he faces a Justice Department investigation into allegations of civil rights abuses, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona is suing the sheriff over immigration raids conducted by his department. The class-action lawsuit alleges that Arpaio has abused the power delegated to him under his agreement with Homeland Security, known as the 287(g) program. \"He's unconstitutionally acted to racially profile many persons in the community, persons who appear or are Latino,\" ACLU lawyer Dan Pochoda told CNN. Pochoda said the five-term sheriff has launched a series of high-profile raids to appeal to \"his anti-immigration base.\" Arpaio told CNN's \"American Morning\" the allegations were \"garbage\" and said he would continue to use state laws to crack down on undocumented immigrants in his county. \"We do not go on street corners and grab people that look like they're from another country,\" he said. \"Pursuant to our duties, when we come across illegals, we take action.\" Watch what Arpaio has to say \u00bb . Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was Arizona's governor before taking her Cabinet post, told CNN that Arpaio is reacting prematurely to decisions that have not yet been finalized. But Arpaio says he's now become the poster boy of the emotionally charged immigration debate and is losing authority for political reasons. \"They don't want to aggravate the Hispanic community, aggravate the businesspeople who hire the illegals, and they want amnesty,\" he said. Arpaio said he planned to continue his operations \"with no changes.\" \"We do enforce traffic violations. All law enforcement does that, and comes across some serious criminals, which we do in our crime suppression,\" he said. \"We go into workplaces under the state law, and we arrest people in the workplace there illegally with identity theft situations and human smuggling.\" But according to a 2008 policy report on effective law enforcement by the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian-leaning watchdog group based in Phoenix, Arpaio's department \"falls seriously short of fulfilling its mission.\" The report found that Maricopa County has \"diverted resources away from basic law-enforcement functions to highly publicized immigration sweeps, which are ineffective in policing illegal immigration.\" CNN Correspondent Thelma Gutierrez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Some say his deputies' raids were unconstitutional roundups of Latinos .\nSheriff: Federal agency wants to limit him to checking inmates' immigration status .\nSheriff rejects allegations that he abused power, violated civil rights .\nHomeland Security chief says he's reacting prematurely to decisions yet to be made .","id":"67552fd4f2590db53ab1ce5446aa947dd1080924"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Italian media call her \"Foxy Knoxy,\" portray her as a \"devil with an angel's face,\" and there are 11 Facebook pages dedicated to her, all in Italian. Both Raffaele Sollecito (left) and Amanda Knox deny charges of murder and sexual assault. Amanda Knox, 21, is an American college student from Seattle, Washington, who is on trial for murder in Perugia, Italy. The case has given Knox almost pop star status there. She was voted the top woman in an online \"person of the year\" poll by an Italian TV channel in December, beating out Carla Bruni, the Italian-born French first lady. Seven of the 11 Facebook pages champion her innocence; four seem convinced that Knox is pure evil. A sampling of comments: \"No to Amanda. No to her superstardom\" ... \"She's a sociopath\" ...\"Everyone is not sure if she is guilty or not and that she will lead us to a new existential awareness. Please shout with me your anger. ... Let's say no. Let's say Knox.\" Knox and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, are charged with murdering and sexually assaulting one of Knox's roommates, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, on November 1, 2007. They insist they are innocent and are disputing the allegations. Knox and Sollecito are due back in court today. The last time Knox appeared before the panel of eight judges, she wore a T-shirt quoting The Beatles: \"All you need is love.\" Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini alleges that Kercher, 21, was killed because she refused to participate in a drug-fueled sex game played by Knox, Sollecito, and a third man, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede. In court papers, prosecutors stated that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her. The case is being tried in Perugia, a university town about 115 miles north of Rome that is better known for its chocolate than for its scandalous murder trials. According to the prosecutor's office, Kercher had been in Italy for two months as part of a year-long course with Leeds University, where she was working toward a degree in European Studies. She shared a house with Knox, a University of Washington student in the same exchange program, and two Italian housemates. The crime scene, which has become a tourist attraction, has been broken into twice, police say. Knox and Sollecito were arrested November 6, 2007, and were kept in prison while an investigation continued. The judge overseeing the investigation found both were capable of committing the crime again, fleeing the country or tampering with the evidence. Police sought charges in July 2008, and they were ordered to trial in October. The trial began January 16 and has been held mostly on weekends. Italian newspapers assigned their top crime reporters, and the case has received unprecedented international coverage. Knox has appeared on the cover of People magazine, which shares a corporate parent with CNN. A random sampling of women on the streets of Rome showed that all of them had heard of the case and most believed Knox and Sollecito were at the very least implicated in the slaying. The superheated publicity surrounding the case helped make Knox a household name in Italy. She is usually portrayed as a femme fatale. Consider these headlines: . \u2022 \"Sex, lies and stabbings\" \u2022 \"Lovers without any inhibitions\" \u2022 \"And in prison, she even tries to sun tan\" Italian journalists also have plastered their newspapers with photos they found of Knox on the Internet, especially images that showed her as a \"wild girl.\" They pounced on the \"Foxy Knoxy\" nickname they found on her MySpace page, even though her parents later explained the high school moniker came from the way Knox played soccer, quick like a fox. Although Italian law limits the publication of court and police records, the media ban is less strict than in many European countries. While it is not exactly legal to publish police investigative reports, no journalist has gone to jail in Italy for doing it. Among the items leaked: Knox's diary, various police interrogations, photos of Kercher's body, video of Kercher's body (which wound up on YouTube but has been pulled), and video of the Italian forensic police carrying out their investigation. Eventually, even the leaks made headlines, leading to more speculation. Knox can do no right in the Italian media. If she appears reserved and timid in court, she is portrayed as someone with plenty to hide. If she smiles or laughs in court, she's called disrespectful. As far as the Italian media is concerned, Knox is the mastermind who manipulated those around her and seduced her Italian boyfriend and led him astray. While Knox and Sollecito's preliminary hearings were being held in October, Guede was convicted of murder after a fast-track trial. His lawyers had hoped that the speedy resolution of the case would give him a break at sentencing. He got 30 years in prison. According to testimony at Guede's trial, his fingerprints were found in the house, and his DNA was linked to Kercher's body. He has never denied being in the house the night of the slaying but insists he didn't kill her. He says he had an \"appointment\" with her that night and was in the bathroom when she was killed. Sollecito and Knox say they weren't at the house the night of the slaying. They say they both were at Sollecito's house. But the alibi has been contradicted by witnesses at the trial. Eighty-six media outlets sent 140 journalists to cover the opening of the trial in January, but publicity has waned since then. The Italian 24-hour news channel TG24 no longer breaks into its programming with multiple updates. Knox, for now, has been relegated to the pages preceding the sports or weather report. But Italians love their murder cases, and attention has shifted to other crime news. A mother is accused of killing her toddler son, a husband and wife are accused of multiple killings. Their courtrooms are now filled with spectators who wait in line an hour or more. The Perugia courtroom still is packed, but the long line is gone. That is likely to change, however, as testimony shifts to the defense case.","highlights":"Murder trial makes American student notorious in Italy .\nAmanda Knox, 21, is accused with former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito .\nBritish student Meredith Kercher found dead in house shared with Knox .\nItalian media portrays Knox as seductive femme fatale .","id":"5a5e1ddf81223e8321ec17d0eb18e24c11207961"} -{"article":"REDMOND, Washington (CNN) -- Should a bridge that would connect two campuses at Microsoft's headquarters be funded with $11 million from the federal stimulus package? An artist's rendering shows how the proposed bridge would be constructed over a busy highway. Critics of using stimulus money for the bridge say it would give the software giant a break on a pet project. They also say it serves as a warning sign of how some stimulus money is not being used to finance new projects but is being diverted to public works already under way. Supporters argue the bridge is an ideal public-private partnership that will benefit an entire community while fulfilling the stimulus package's goal of getting people back to work. \"It's going create just under 400 jobs for 18 months constructing the bridge,\" says Redmond Mayor John Marchione. \"It's also connecting our technical sector with our retail and commercial sectors so people can cross the freeway to shop and help traffic flow.\" See a larger image of the proposed bridge \u00bb . Marchione applied for federal stimulus money after costs jumped on the project from $25 million to $36 million. Marchione says the increase in costs were due to a rise in construction prices and because the bridge will be built on a diagonal in order to connect Microsoft's original East campus with a newer West campus that are split by a public highway. Microsoft is hardly getting the bridge for free. The company is contributing $17.5 million or a little less than half the tab of the $36 million bridge, which would be open for public use. And even though the bridge goes from a parking lot behind Microsoft's West campus across a highway to an entrance of Microsoft's East campus, Marchione says, people other than Microsoft employees would use the overpass. \"We're not a one-company town,\" Marchione says. \"Our traffic studies show that Microsoft traffic would be about 42 percent of the bridge, yet Microsoft is paying for about 50 percent of the bridge, so we think we are getting fair value. \"The United States taxpayer is leveraging their dollars, and I think everyone is getting a fair deal.\" But a watchdog group monitoring how stimulus money is being spent says the taxpayer in this case is getting ripped off. \"This is $11 million where we are substituting public money for private money, and that means there's some other project that would have a greater benefit than a bridge to Microsoft that's not being built,\" says Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. But without the stimulus money, Marchione counters, the bridge may not have been built. Microsoft had \"capped out\" its contribution to the project, he explains. And the economic tough times have affected even the biggest companies. \"Microsoft laid off 5,000 people in January,\" Marchione points out. Ellis doesn't buy it. \"Let's face it. Microsoft is one of the most lucrative companies in the country,\" Ellis says. \"They could have easily funded this out of pocket change. This is really about getting while the getting is good. Uncle Sam has a big wallet that's there for the taking, and Redmond wanted to take it -- and Microsoft was happy to let them pick up that part of the tab.\" Microsoft did not respond to CNN requests for an interview on the bridge project. But in a posting online, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith wrote: \"As the largest employer in Redmond, Microsoft takes its responsibility to the surrounding community seriously. We have spent over $50 million to assist the City of Redmond and other local governments with street construction, transit facilities, water and sewer facilities and fire equipment.\" Last week, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire certified 138 projects, including the bridge, to receive stimulus funding. Construction is expected to begin in June. Michael Ennis of the Washington Policy Center, a Seattle-based not-for-profit group that advises policy makers, said there are many reasons the bridge project is a good one. \"Any time you can include the private sector in funding transportation projects, it's a win-win situation,\" Ennis explains. \"The state has a monopoly on our roads system. Even if Microsoft wanted to pay for this project on their own, legally they are required to work with the public sector.\" But Ennis also says the bridge does not fit with the kind of projects the stimulus plan is meant to bankroll. \"This project would have moved forward regardless of having the federal money or not, so it doesn't have any additional benefit to the economy,\" he says. As he pedaled on his bicycle to work, one Microsoft employee saw the issue in much simpler terms. \"It's going to cut about two miles off my ride each day,\" he said.","highlights":"Project would build bridge between Microsoft's two campuses .\nMicrosoft paying for about half of the $36 million project .\nMayor backs plan, says bridge will benefit entire community .\nTaxpayer watchdog group says project a good example of waste .","id":"7c9d5fa3c6dd8683542c1a8ff909f3f98b18a5ab"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal agents have arrested more than 1,300 suspected gang members, including 343 with violent criminal histories, in the past three months, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said Tuesday. Gang weapons and paraphernalia are displayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2006. \"Violent foreign-born gang members and their associates have more than worn out their welcome, and to them I have one message: good riddance,\" Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a news release. Of those arrested, 374 face criminal charges, officials said. The rest face deportation, they said. During the nationwide crackdown, immigration and customs agents worked with law enforcement counterparts in 23 cities in what officials described as a \"summer surge.\" The most arrests were made in the New York area (205) and Miami, Florida (160), but gang members were arrested in cities as small as Boise, Idaho, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. Watch agents in action in suspected gang roundup \u00bb . Myers told a Washington news conference that some of \"the worst of the worst\" gang offenders had been taken off U.S. streets. One of the gangs targeted has been MS-13, which is believed to be the fastest growing group in the United States as well as one of the most violent, the agency said. The FBI estimates MS-13 has about 10,000 members in the country, along with tens of thousands in Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, where the gang originated in the late 1980s. \"MS-13 still seems to be the primary gang and the most violent gang still out there, and it is penetrating throughout the United States,\" said Marcy Forman, director of investigations for the agency. Don Hunter, sheriff of Collier County in southwest Florida, said MS-13 was present in what he called the \"upscale\" community. \"We are not unique, we have transnational gangs, we have homegrown gangs,\" Hunter told the news conference. But he said cooperation among federal and local agencies had made it possible to put a dent in gang operations. The sweep was part of the agency's Operation Community Shield anti-gang initiative, which started in 2005, and has resulted in arrests of more than 7,000 alleged members and their associates from more than 600 gangs, the agency said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kelli Arena and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Immigration and Customs sweep part of initiative started in 2005 .\nArrests took place over three-month period in 23 cities .\nOf those arrested, 374 face criminal charges; the rest will be deported .","id":"6a67eac18f26ec4873bdca1128efbc8a481c1960"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off after inspiring Real Madrid to an incident-packed 4-2 victory at home to Almeria on Saturday night, in which he created a goal, scored one and also missed a penalty. The world's most expensive player helped Real bounce back from last weekend's 1-0 \"El Clasico\" defeat to Barcelona as the big-spending capital outfit came back from 2-1 down in an explosive final 20 minutes. However, unbeaten Barca stayed five points clear at the top -- having played one more match -- with a 2-1 victory at Deportivo La Coruna as Lionel Messi scored twice. Ronaldo, making his first appearance at the Bernabeu in two months following ankle problems, crossed for Sergio Ramos to head the opening goal in the 31st minute. However, Fernando Soriano leveled with a deflected shot in the 58th minute and Kalu Uche put lowly Almeria head just three minutes later as Real failed to clear a corner. The hosts equalized with 17 minutes left as Argentina forward Gonzalo Higuain kept up his hot scoring run with a predatory finish after the Almeria defense did not deal with a cross from the left. With eight minutes remaining, Ronaldo went down under the challenge of the onrushing Diego Alves, but the goalkeeper saved his resulting penalty -- however, Karim Benzema followed up to smash in the rebound to put Real ahead. Ronaldo wrapped it up a minute later from Higuain's low cross, and was booked for tearing off his shirt to pose in front of his adoring fans. The Portugal captain received his second yellow card five minutes later for kicking out at Michel, but it was not costly as Real completed a morale-boosting win ahead of Tuesday's Champions League trip to Marseille. Barcelona, whose European title defense is still in the balance ahead of Wednesday's trip to Dynamo Kiev, took the lead against Deportivo in the 27th minute when Messi scored with a trademark neat finish. However, Adrian leveled in the 39th minute with a header after an error by Sergi Busquets, who returned from suspension. But Messi, named Europe's top player for 2009 during the week, put Barca ahead again with 10 minutes left from Pedro's cross and Zlatan Ibrahimovic followed up his winner against Real by wrapping up the victory on 88. Third-placed Sevilla again failed to keep pace with the leaders after being held 1-1 at home by mid-table Valladolid, who had a player sent off. Angola striker Manucho put the visitors ahead in the 33rd minute with a glancing header from Diego Costa's cross but five minutes later Borja Fernandez was red-carded for a lunge on Diego Perotti. Sevilla, who were held at home by Malaga last weekend, leveled with a penalty from Luis Fabiano just before halftime after Marcos brought down Jesus Navas. Brazil striker Fabiano squandered two golden second-half opportunities as Valladolid held on, meaning Valencia can move above Sevilla with victory away to Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. Atletico Madrid moved further away from relegation trouble with a 2-0 victory at promoted strugglers Xerez, with star strikers Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero scoring in each half. Uruguay international Forlan put Atletico ahead in the 29th minute from a cross by Jose Antonio Reyes, while Argentina's Aguero doubled the lead on 65 with a low shot from 12 yards.","highlights":"Cristiano Ronaldo sent off after inspiring Real Madrid to 4-2 victory at home to Almeria .\nWorld's most expensive player scores goal, sets one up and misses a penalty .\nReal trail Spanish leaders Barcelona by five points after the Catalans beat Deportivo 3-1 .\nBall d'Or winner Lionel Messi scores twice and Zlatan Ibrahimovic nets the third goal .","id":"e44592e132621516f48e79a53fc6bd0d4d945610"} -{"article":"Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Family members of Meredith Kercher said Saturday they were satisfied with the verdict that found American Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, guilty of the fatal knifing of the British student. \"Ultimately we are pleased with the decision,\" said Lyle Kercher, Meredith Kercher's brother. \"But it was not a moment of celebration. We are here because our sister was brutally murdered.\" The victim's sister, Stephanie Kercher, talked Friday about her family's grief. \"Our lives have been on hold, really. You can't really carry on as normal,\" she said. \"You have to take each day as it comes. It's not ever going to be the same without [Meredith].\" Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of murder Friday after a lengthy, sensational trial. Knox was given a 26-year sentence; Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. Both will appeal, attorneys said. Knox and Sollecito were convicted on all charges except theft. The pair was accused of staging a theft to cover up the killing. Authorities said 300 euros (about $444) was discovered missing from Kercher's purse. The pair must pay 5 million euros ($7.4 million) to Kercher's family. In addition, Knox must pay 40,000 euros (nearly $60,000) to a man whom she falsely accused of the killing. One of Knox's sisters said Saturday that Amanda \"had a rough night.\" Her mother, Edda Mellas, said, \"She had a lot of support. The inmates and the guards were all taking great care of her. They care a lot. \"Amanda, like the rest of us, is extremely disappointed -- upset about the decision,\" Mellas said. \"We're all in shock; we're all heartened by the support\" that she said residents of Perugia and other Italians had shown. \"People from all over the world have been sending us messages of support all through the night,\" Mellas said. \"We told her she's going to get out of there. It's [just] going to take a little longer.\" Sollecito's lawyer, Luca Maori, criticized his client's punishment -- less than the life sentence the prosecution requested but far short of exonerating Sollecito -- as making no sense. \"For the grave crimes they claimed, you either sentence them to life. ... or you acquit. There is no middle way,\" Maori said. Public prosecutor Giuliano Mignini told CNN he feels he presented a strong case. He said about 20 magistrates worked alongside police during the investigation. However, he said that in the face of the planned appeals, clearly the conviction is not final. Learn how the murder case played out . People who disagree with the verdict should at least respect it, because so many professionals were involved in the investigation, Mignini said. \"I believe, evidently, that they think there was violence. They are the deputies who establish the foundation\" of charges, he said. \"And they did this.\" The victim's mother said she believed the defendants were guilty of the slaying. \"You have to go with the evidence,\" Arline Kercher said. Take a look at the evidence against Knox . Knox's lead defense attorney, Luciano Ghirga, said that when he met with his client Saturday morning, she was angry and continued to proclaim her innocence. He told CNN the situation has been a trying experience, and Knox hardly slept Friday night after the verdict. She was consoled by the other prisoners, who managed get her a cup of warm milk, Ghirga said. The jury reached its verdict after deliberating nearly 11 hours on the 11 counts. Jurors must submit an explanation of how they reached their decision to the judge within 90 days, and this \"jury motivation\" will be made public. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of life in prison. Italy does not have the death penalty. CNN's Richard Greene and Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Sentence makes no sense, co-defendant's lawyer says .\nKnox, her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito sentenced for Meredith Kercher's murder .\nAppeals mean convictions not final, Italian prosecutor says .\nMeredith Kercher's sister: \"It's not ever going to be the same\"","id":"086977dad90c35858d511066f62bcab319ec9d15"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Philippine House of Representatives and Senate were meeting Monday to debate the imposition of martial law in the country's south by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the aftermath of last month's massacre of 57 civilians. As required by law, the president issued a report Sunday explaining her reasons for making the proclamation for the province of Maguindanao. \"Lawless elements have taken up arms and committed public uprising against the duly constituted government and against the people of Maguindanao,\" Arroyo said in a 20-page letter to the leaders of the House and Senate. Martial law went into effect Friday night, allowing arrests without a warrant. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said it was necessary to impose peace following what has been called a politically motivated massacre. He added that Congress would have to approve any extension beyond 60 days. The House and Senate might jointly convene on Tuesday to discuss the president's report, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said Sunday, according to the Philippine News Agency. The debate began as elite forces of the Philippine National Police clashed in the town of Datu Unsay with suspected followers of the politically powerful Ampatuan family, which has been implicated in the massacre, the Philippine News Agency reported Monday. Reports said the armed men offered stiff resistance on Sunday against government security forces in a 10-minute firefight, withdrawing after government reinforcements arrived. No casualties were reported on either side. Charges of rebellion will be leveled against many of those arrested since martial law was implemented, Philippine Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said Saturday, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported. At least six members of the Ampatuan family have been arrested, including Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., according to ABS-CBN. Ampatuan, whose father is governor of Maguindanao, has been accused of directing the killings and has been charged with 25 counts of murder. One of the massacre victims implicated members of the Ampatuan family before she died, the affiliate reported. Over the weekend, authorities raided at least one warehouse and ranch belonging to the family. They confiscated firearms, ammunition and vehicles, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, deputy of operations for the eastern Mindinao command, told CNN. The military was looking at arresting at least 100 people tied to the massacre, ABS-CBN reported. The Philippine military is investigating its own forces in connection with the case as well, Brawner said. Asked why martial law was imposed 12 days after the killings, Cabangbang said authorities \"were trying to build a case, a tight case\" against suspects. \"But it is taking long to build a case, so I think the government gave us a free hand in arresting those who are suspects, and allowed us to search, even without warrant. So we really need this declaration of state of martial law.\" Violence in the run-up to elections is not uncommon in the country. The Maguindanao massacre, however, is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history, according to state media. The victims included the wife and sister of political candidate Ismael \"Toto\" Mangudadatu, who had sent the women to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao. He said he had received threats from allies of Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the father of the accused mayor, saying he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself. Maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly Muslim Mindanao, which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Christian Asian nation.","highlights":"Arroyo outlines reasons for martial law declaration in 20-page letter .\nReport: House, Senate might jointly convene Tuesday, House Speaker says .\nAt least six members of Ampatuan family arrested, ABS-CBN reports .\nAuthorities raid at least one warehouse and ranch belonging to family .","id":"6a8f5c0dd2455117be364dae8dc99778b46ff91c"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Like many young men, Josh Nahum loved a thrill. That's why he took up skydiving. But on Labor Day weekend in 2006, he had an accident while skydiving in Colorado, fracturing his femur and skull. Josh Nahum, right, died at 27 from a bacterial infection he got while being treated for skydiving injuries. Josh spent six weeks in the intensive care unit. Slowly, his condition improved, and his doctors predicted that with rehabilitation, he could fully recover in a year or two. But instead of recovering, Josh developed a bacterial infection. He died two weeks later at the age of 27. \"One nurse, who was trying to be comforting, said, 'These things happen,' \" says Victoria Nahum, Josh's stepmother. \"That's true, but they happen way more often than they need to happen.\" According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Josh is one of 99,000 people who die each year because of infections acquired in the hospital. As Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York, put it, \"You don't often come across such a big problem that you can prevent.\" After being contacted by families like the Nahums, McCaughey started the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. After Josh died, the Nahums started the Safe Care Campaign. These groups, and others, have advice about what you can do to keep yourself safe in the doctor's office and hospital, from the waiting room to the operating room. 1. Bring your own toys . At the pediatrician's office, don't let your child play with the toys or books in the waiting room. \"They're covered with bacteria,\" McCaughey says. Also, don't let your child crawl on the floor; bacteria there could get into cuts on their knees or hands. \"This is one place you ought to keep your child sitting still or on your lap,\" she says. 2. Heat up your car . Yes, we know that sounds strange. But studies show staying warm before and during surgery can help you fight infection. So the Institute for Healthcare Improvement suggests that in cold weather, you heat up the car, wear warm clothes on the way to the hospital, ask the hospital staff to give you plenty of blankets while you wait for surgery, and ask how they plan to keep you warm during surgery. 3. Want to touch me? Wash your hands first. Many people feel uncomfortable asking this. Nahum suggests putting it like this: \"I didn't see you wash your hands. Do you mind doing it in front of me?\" Dr. Vicki Rackner, a patient advocate, also has a few ideas for lightening things up. \"In the hospital, you can have the grandkids make a sign that says, 'Please wash your hands and keep Grandma healthy.' \" Watch more on preventing hospital infections \u00bb . Another suggestion: Put a dish of wrapped candy near the sink and say 'Could you please wash your hands, and oh, please take some candy with you when we're done.' \" If the doctor or nurse has gloves on, are you safe? \"Don't be falsely assured by gloves,\" McCaughey says. \"If they put on gloves without washing their hands first, those gloves are immediately contaminated.\" 4. Ask where that syringe has been . Doctors offices sometimes reuse syringes -- it's unusual, but it happens. In fact, there have been 14 documented outbreaks of hepatitis since 1999 because of reused syringes. The recent outbreak in Nevada, where 50,000 people will be notified that they might have been infected at a colonoscopy clinic, is one example. It's not an easy question to ask, but when someone's heading at you with a syringe, ask if this is the first time it's been used. Dr. Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health, suggests phrasing it like this: \"I read in the paper that some doctors are reusing syringes. I can't imagine anyone would do that. Do you?\" 5. Having surgery? Speak up! A week or so before surgery, ask your doctor whether you should wash your skin daily with a disinfectant such as chlorhexidine to prepare. Also, ask whether you should have a nasal or skin swab for MRSA, the superbug that causes many hospital infections. If you've got it, you can be treated with antibiotics. The day of surgery, if the surgical site needs to be shaved, ask to be clippered, not shaved with a razor, which can create nicks where bacteria thrive. Also on the day of surgery, if your doctor has ordered IV antibiotics just before surgery, make sure you get them, as they're sometimes forgotten. One last note: If you or a loved one has a urinary catheter in the hospital, be extra vigilant -- they can become breeding grounds for bacteria. First, ask if one is truly necessary. \"If the patient is awake and oriented and alert and can use a bedpan, it may not be needed,\" says Dr. John Jernigan, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. If you get one, make sure it comes out ASAP, since the longer it's in, the riskier it becomes. Ask the same questions about central venous catheters, (also called central lines), another potential host for bacteria. \"My brother was in the hospital and needed a central venous catheter for his procedure,\" Jernigan says. \"The day after surgery, I asked the nurse, 'Are you all still using this? Do you still need it?' And she checked and came back and said, 'We don't need it anymore, we'll take it out.' \" Nahum says it all boils down to this: Passivity kills. \"People need to start participating instead of just being spectators when it comes to their medical care,\" she says. \"You need to do your due diligence.\" CNN Medical News associate producer Jennifer Pifer and associate archive coordinator Sarah Edwards contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC: 99,000 people die annually from hospital-acquired infections .\nDon't forget the basics: Make people wash their hands before touching you .\nStaying warm before, during surgery can help fight infection; ask for extra blankets .\nBefore surgery, if shaving is required, request clippers, not a razor, which can nick .","id":"5247ebc33be1ff7cbe27a2f00e5a8f21dd254e60"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military will stop publishing the number of Taliban and insurgents it kills in Afghanistan under orders from the senior U.S. military spokesman for the American-led coalition. A French soldier mans a gun Sunday during maneuvers in Afghanistan's Kapisa province. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith ordered the change as part of the new military strategy in the war that focuses on protecting Afghan citizens rather than killing militants. \"Indicating the number of insurgents killed has little relevance to impacting the lives of Afghans. In fact, if that were the only purpose and metric, you would likely only extend the time it takes to bring about an end to the insurgency,\" Smith said in an e-mail to CNN responding to a query about the change. The issue of publishing enemy body counts has been extremely sensitive to the U.S. military since the Vietnam War when the military regularly published large enemy body counts but seemed to be failing overall to make progress in the war. In the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon has shifted policies several times, both publishing numbers in news releases on particular engagements and firefights and also declaring it would not publish body counts. In the past some military officials have said the numbers have been part of individual releases to the media as a means of demonstrating success against enemy forces. Smith said, \"We conduct operations not aimed at killing insurgents, although in many instances that is the outcome, but to over time clear areas of insurgency and give the people a chance to reconnect with official forms of governance and to rebuild their lives, socially and economically.\"","highlights":"U.S. will stop publishing number of Taliban and insurgents killed in Afghanistan .\nChange is part of a new military strategy that focuses on protecting Afghans .\nIssue of publishing enemy body counts has been sensitive to military since Vietnam .","id":"426c45837b6fa942b1e6b7789b5583659b6628b2"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Thirty-six people were killed and dozens were injured in explosions at a market in Lahore, Pakistan, on Monday, an official said. Rizwan Naseer, chief of Lahore's rescue service, also said 109 people were wounded. The explosions did not appear to be a suicide attack but could instead have been bombs detonated by remote control, Punjab Police Chief Tariq Salim said. The nation's state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan, said the blasts were the result of \"bomb explosions.\" The explosions occurred at Moon Market in the Iqbal Town neighborhood, the news agency said. It cited Iqbal Town Division's Ali Nasir Rizvi as saying most of the victims were women. Khusro Pervaiz, a senior government official in Lahore, said in a television interview that 60 people had been taken to five Lahore hospitals. The blasts happened around 8:45 p.m. at the popular market, said Rai Nazar Hayat, a spokesman for Lahore police. Earlier, ten people were killed -- including two police officers -- when a suicide bomber detonated outside a district courthouse in Peshawar on Monday, officials said. At least 36 were injured, six of them seriously, said Dr. Hameed Afridi, CEO of the Lady Reading Hospital. The bomber got out of a rickshaw and detonated himself, according to witnesses. The attacker was wearing a suicide jacket with about 6 kilograms of explosives, said Shafqat Malik, head of the North West Frontier Province bomb disposal unit. Peshawar is the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province, where the Pakistani government waged a recent military offense against Taliban militants. Meanwhile, five people were hurt in a bomb attack in Quetta on Monday morning, said Jamil Kakar, a Quetta police official. The explosives were placed in a car and destroyed two other cars and three motorbikes. The courthouse attack comes three days after four militants armed with guns and grenades stormed a mosque in Rawalpindi frequented by military personnel. At least 36 were killed and 75 wounded. Among the dead were 17 children, according to military officials. Also killed were an army general and eight other military officials, six of senior rank. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the mosque bombing. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan reiterated its claim in an e-mail to CNN the next day, after media outlets quoted officials who doubted the group's participation. \"We reconfirmed it, that the TTP has done it and will do more which are already planned,\" the group said in the e-mail. \"We once again mention that we are not against the innocent people and the state of Pakistan but against those officers and ministers who are American by hearts and minds and Pakistani just by faces.\" Rawalpindi is the headquarters of the Pakistani army. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"36 dead, dozens hurt following two explosions at market in Lahore .\nExplosions could have been bombs detonated by remote control, police say .\nTen killed, including two police officers, in suicide attack in Peshawar .","id":"90122043cb6d769a58dbf8ef25a83ad09c62d2a0"} -{"article":"Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNN) -- A former Miss Argentina died Sunday after complications arising from plastic surgery, the official Telam news agency said. Solange Magnano, 37, died in a hospital after being transferred from a clinic where she underwent an elective surgery on her buttocks on Wednesday, the agency reported. Magnano ran her own modeling agency in Argentina, and had been a model and Miss Argentina in 1994. She also was the mother of 7-year-old twins. The cause of her death was under investigation, authorities said. News of her death shocked her fans. By Monday, a tribute page on the social networking site Facebook had more than 830 members. \"This is a horrible day. We will miss you, Sol,\" one Facebook poster wrote. \"You couldn't be any more beautiful than you already were,\" another person added. \"You had to pay with your life.\" Magnano's most recent project was a runway show to be held in December in her hometown of San Francisco, Argentina, according to Telam. In recent years, Argentina has become an international destination for plastic surgery. The costs of such procedures there are much lower than in other countries. Estimates say that 1 in 30 Argentines has gone under the knife, making surgeons here some of the most experienced on the globe. Medical tourism has seen a huge jump over the past decade, and is projected to be a $100 billion global industry by 2010, according to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.","highlights":"Solange Magnano, 37, died Sunday following elective surgery on buttocks .\nMagnano ran her own modeling agency, had 7-year-old twins .\nArgentina has become popular destination for plastic surgery .\nAround 1 in 30 Argentines estimated to have gone under the knife .","id":"be4516225a8cdcd7d1beca452d803d87b997fa33"} -{"article":"Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said. The four suspects -- two 15-year-old boys, a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man -- were taken into custody on Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. They are accused of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road. U.S. Forces Japan was informed of the August incident in late October, a public information officer said. There was no clear explanation for the delay in the handover of the suspects to police, other than it involved rules between Washington and Tokyo covering U.S. forces and their dependents in Japan. The U.S. military presence and its impact on Japanese residents have been a thorny issue over the years. Most recently, residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa, where the U.S. maintains a large military presence, have blamed American troops for crime and noise. In 2008, a 14-year-old Okinawa girl alleged that a Marine had raped her. The prosecutor released the Marine after the girl decided not to pursue charges. In 1995, a 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by three servicemen. A Japanese court convicted all three men. Both incidents caused a furor in Japan. Then-Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called the 2008 incident \"unforgivable ... It has happened over and over again in the past and I take it as a grave case.\" It is unclear what, if any, role the military can take in the case. The 1960 Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Japan gives Japan jurisdiction over \"the members of the United States armed forces, the civilian component, and their dependents\" in cases of offenses committed in Japan and punishable under Japanese law. The agreement also says the United States must cooperate in investigating such offenses. CNN's Kyung Lah and Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspects range in age from 15 to 18 years of age .\nThey are accused of stringing a rope between poles across a road .\nA restaurant employee, 23, received a severe head injury .\nIncident occurred in August, follows other crimes connected to U.S. military personnel .","id":"2d4abaa21f2ba296b0df57b888d43b6682ce7228"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Armored cars patrolled the streets of Zimbabwe's capital and residents flocked to banks Thursday after limits on cash withdrawals were lifted in the inflation-ravaged African nation. With prices rising even more than once a day, shopping is a mathematical proficiency test for Zimbabweans. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had capped maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars -- about 25 U.S. cents, and about a quarter of the price of a loaf of bread. But faced with mounting chaos in a country already in economic free fall, the bank decided last week to raise that limit to 100 million dollars ($50 U.S.) per week. Soldiers were deployed to all banks in anticipation of throngs of people lining up to withdraw money Thursday, when the increase took effect. Wednesday, police chased depositors away and arrested union leaders who planned to protest the limits. Zimbabwe's inflation rate of 231 million percent is the world's highest. In addition, the country is faced with a growing outbreak of cholera that its government declared a national emergency Thursday. The outbreak has killed at least 565 people and sickened more than 11,000, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Office said. Medical professionals blame the resurgence of the water-borne disease on the lack of safe water in many parts of the country. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said 69 people were arrested across the country during Wednesday's demonstrations. Amnesty International has demanded to know the whereabouts of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, whom it said was abducted at dawn Wednesday by armed men in plainclothes posing as police. And angry, unpaid soldiers clashed with foreign currency exchangers and some civilians Monday, three days after troops who had failed to get cash from their banks looted shops they suspected to be illegally dealing in foreign currency.","highlights":"Residents flock to banks after limits on cash withdrawals lifted; troops patrol streets .\nCentral bank caps maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars .\nBank last week raise that limit to 100 million dollars ($50 U.S.) per week .\nZimbabwe's inflation rate of 231 million percent is the world's highest .","id":"7edd0c904e67e05413f5d4217637365ecc728623"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Philippine House of Representatives and Senate were meeting Monday to debate the imposition of martial law in the country's south by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the aftermath of last month's massacre of 57 civilians. As required by law, the president issued a report Sunday explaining her reasons for making the proclamation for the province of Maguindanao. \"Lawless elements have taken up arms and committed public uprising against the duly constituted government and against the people of Maguindanao,\" Arroyo said in a 20-page letter to the leaders of the House and Senate. Martial law went into effect Friday night, allowing arrests without a warrant. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said it was necessary to impose peace following what has been called a politically motivated massacre. He added that Congress would have to approve any extension beyond 60 days. The House and Senate might jointly convene on Tuesday to discuss the president's report, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said Sunday, according to the Philippine News Agency. The debate began as elite forces of the Philippine National Police clashed in the town of Datu Unsay with suspected followers of the politically powerful Ampatuan family, which has been implicated in the massacre, the Philippine News Agency reported Monday. Reports said the armed men offered stiff resistance on Sunday against government security forces in a 10-minute firefight, withdrawing after government reinforcements arrived. No casualties were reported on either side. Charges of rebellion will be leveled against many of those arrested since martial law was implemented, Philippine Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said Saturday, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported. At least six members of the Ampatuan family have been arrested, including Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., according to ABS-CBN. Ampatuan, whose father is governor of Maguindanao, has been accused of directing the killings and has been charged with 25 counts of murder. One of the massacre victims implicated members of the Ampatuan family before she died, the affiliate reported. Over the weekend, authorities raided at least one warehouse and ranch belonging to the family. They confiscated firearms, ammunition and vehicles, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, deputy of operations for the eastern Mindinao command, told CNN. The military was looking at arresting at least 100 people tied to the massacre, ABS-CBN reported. The Philippine military is investigating its own forces in connection with the case as well, Brawner said. Asked why martial law was imposed 12 days after the killings, Cabangbang said authorities \"were trying to build a case, a tight case\" against suspects. \"But it is taking long to build a case, so I think the government gave us a free hand in arresting those who are suspects, and allowed us to search, even without warrant. So we really need this declaration of state of martial law.\" Violence in the run-up to elections is not uncommon in the country. The Maguindanao massacre, however, is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history, according to state media. The victims included the wife and sister of political candidate Ismael \"Toto\" Mangudadatu, who had sent the women to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao. He said he had received threats from allies of Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the father of the accused mayor, saying he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself. Maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly Muslim Mindanao, which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Christian Asian nation.","highlights":"Arroyo outlines reasons for martial law declaration in 20-page letter .\nReport: House, Senate might jointly convene Tuesday, House Speaker says .\nAt least six members of Ampatuan family arrested, ABS-CBN reports .\nAuthorities raid at least one warehouse and ranch belonging to family .","id":"11a195e87fccbff2720f0abeabfaf87458ba644b"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- There have been conflicting accounts of how former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto died Thursday. Here is a timeline of the accounts reported by CNN. Late Thursday, Pakistan time: . \u2022 Pakistani police say that a suicide bomber killed 14 people at a rally in Rawalpindi organized by Bhutto supporters. A Bhutto spokesman says the opposition leader was rushed away from the scene and was safe. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto arrives at a campaign rally Thursday in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. \u2022 Pakistan's Geo Television Network, quoting Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, reports the ex-premier was critically wounded in the bombing. \u2022 Former Pakistani government spokesman Tariq Azim Khan says Bhutto was hurt leaving the rally, but there is no indication whether she was shot or hurt in the bombing. Reports from police and the Bhutto camp conflict over whether she was injured. \u2022 Geo TV quotes Zardari saying his wife suffered a bullet wound to the neck after the suicide bombing. \u2022 Khan and Pakistan's primary television networks report Bhutto is dead. Television reports indicate she died of bullet wounds suffered after the suicide bombing. \u2022 Khan says it appears Bhutto was shot, but he adds it's unclear whether bullets or shrapnel caused her wounds. \u2022 Doctors and a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party confirm the ex-premier's death, but it remains unclear how she was killed. \u2022 Police tell CNN that a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle detonated himself near Bhutto's motorcade. She was rushed to nearby Rawalpindi General Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead. Khan says it's unclear if a bullet or shrapnel dealt the fatal wounds. Friday morning, Pakistan time: . \u2022 The Pakistani Interior Ministry tells the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan that Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck. The suicide bomber fired shots before blowing himself up, the ministry tells the news agency. A photographer for Getty Images confirms hearing three shots before the blast. \u2022 CNN quotes a witness who describes Bhutto's killer as a \"thin young man jumping toward the vehicle and opening fire.\" Friday evening, Pakistan time: . \u2022 The Interior Ministry tells the Associated Press of Pakistan that flying shrapnel from a suicide bomb killed Bhutto. The bomber also shot at her with a pistol, the ministry tells the state-run news agency, but Bhutto suffered no injuries from bullets. \u2022 Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Javed Iqbal Cheema, citing a medical report, says Bhutto was hit on the right side of her skull with shrapnel. \u2022 Another Associated Press of Pakistan report quotes Dr. Mussadiq Khan saying that Bhutto showed \"no signs of life\" on her arrival at Rawalpindi General Hospital and that she was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later. \u2022 Cheema says Bhutto died after fracturing her skull on a sunroof lever in her vehicle. Contrary to previous reports, she did not die from bullet or shrapnel wounds and nothing entered her head, the Interior Ministry spokesman said. \u2022 Cheema says that Bhutto \"fell down or perhaps ducked\" when gunshots rang out. She apparently hit her head on a lever, Cheema said, adding that it was stained with blood. \u2022 Khan, the doctor who treated Bhutto before she was declared dead, says the former prime minister had a \"big wound\" on the side of her head \"that usually occurs when something big, with a lot of speed, hits that area.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Pakistani government now says Bhutto died after hitting head on sunroof lever .\nReports early Friday said Bhutto died from a gunshot wound to the neck .\nReports later Friday said flying shrapnel from a suicide bomb killed Bhutto .","id":"33c85f3267add71ad519467f0389ffbfe5b6c449"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seiji Ozawa is Asia's most successful conductor, a maestro in a quintessentially Western art form, and a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan. But the affable 74-year-old is used to crossing cultural boundaries. Born in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation - his father a Buddhist, his mother a Presbyterian - he was raised in Tokyo, and greatly influenced by western culture and a Christian upbringing. His love of music was first explored through the church, but later he studied at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo. A career as a pianist was curtailed when the 16-year-old sports-loving Ozawa broke two fingers during a rugby match. From Toho he traveled to Europe and New York to further his studies. It was a steep learning curve where he learnt how to deal first-hand with other cultures and prejudices. \"I have many problem, beginning. Um... maybe now, I don't know, but beginning especially. It was difficult. Some people ask me, 'You came from China, you came from Japan, do you really understand Bach or do you really understand Mozart?'\" he told CNN. After years abroad, his return to Japan in 1962 to conduct the NHK Symphony Orchestra for six months was far from a happy homecoming; the orchestra rebelled and refused to play for him. \"I made mistake, and I think it was too soon [for me] to take a professional orchestra for six months and at the end I think they had enough. \"I think I was a little bit stuck up... I mean, I was conducting the best orchestra in Japan already I'm still 26 or 27. Very young. And I think I'm sure during rehearsal I say something not so nice. And in Japan very bad if conductor say something not so nice. But I learned, so I become more careful and I think I started more studying, so not make mistake. \"But in a way, it may sound very strange, but really it did me good that boycott.\" It meant Ozawa explored opportunities outside of Japan, directing festivals and orchestras across Europe, Canada and the U.S. He became musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra a post he held for 29 years until 2004. He left Boston for Vienna to embrace a new challenge with the State Opera. As well as the challenge of a new city and repertory, Ozawa believes it was a move that rounded out his musical education, even if he was 68-years-old at the time. When a young conductor his interest in opera had been fostered by his early tutor Herbert von Karajan. \"He said if you don't study this, one half of Mozart you'll never touch and almost 99 percent of Wagner, almost 100 percent of Puccini and Verdi, you know, half of Mozart is gone.\" While Ozawa will step down from his position at the Vienna State Opera next summer, he will remain active in directing, conducting and educating the next generation in classical music. \"I have big hope all Asiatic people and countries... everybody love music basically,\" he said. \"Teaching has become, I think, more and more important my life, really.\"","highlights":"Seiji Ozawa was musical director of Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years .\nSuccessful career has seen Ozawa conduct some of world's greatest orchestras .\nHad to deal with prejudice and expectation as Asian in Western dominated art form .","id":"425b7e623fe2901f05cb374f65bf4a9c336f7f10"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. If you've rewritten that r\u00e9sum\u00e9 several times and sent out dozens of applications but your job search still shows no promise, you might not be the problem. One frequently overlooked but critical factor in finding a new job is your state's unemployment rate. You can have the experience and skills of an employer's dream, but they won't do you any good if there just aren't enough jobs available. The unemployment rate is the percentage of job seekers in the work force who are still looking for work. The higher the percentage, the more difficult it is to find a job. The national unemployment rate is 5 percent, based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). If you're looking for a job, you should see how your state compares to the rest of the country. Here are the 10 worst states to find work ranked by their unemployment rates. 1. Michigan Unemployment rate: 7.6 percent Population: 10,071,822 Mean annual wage: $41,230 Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (18.4 percent)*** . 2. Mississippi Unemployment rate: 6.8 percent Population: 2,918,785 Mean annual wage: $30,460 Top industry: Government (21.2 percent) 3. South Carolina Unemployment rate: 6.6 percent Population: 4,407,709 Mean annual wage: $33,400 Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.4 percent) 4. Alaska Unemployment rate: 6.5 percent Population: 683,478 Mean annual wage: $43,920 Top industry: Government (25.9 percent) 5. California Unemployment rate: 6.1 percent Population: 36,553,215 Mean annual wage: $44,180 Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (18.9 percent) 6. District of Columbia Unemployment rate: 6.1 percent Population: 588,292 Mean annual wage: $61,500 Top industry: Government (33.3 percent) 7. Ohio Unemployment rate: 6 percent Population: 11,466,917 Mean annual wage: $37,360 Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.3 percent) 8. Arkansas Unemployment rate: 5.9 percent Population: 2,834,797 Mean annual wage: $30,870 Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.6 percent) 9. Nevada Unemployment rate: 5.8 percent Population: 2,565,382 Mean annual wage: $36,000 Top industry: Leisure and hospitality (26.5 percent) 10. Kentucky Unemployment rate: 5.7 percent Population: 4,241,474 Mean annual wage: $33,490 Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.4 percent) *Unemployment rates, mean annual wages and industry percentages obtained from BLS in January 2008. Percentages based on nonfarm payrolls, seasonally adjusted. **Population figures based on U.S. Census Bureau data. ***Top industries are those that employ the largest percentage of a state's labor force. E-mail to a friend . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"High unemployment rates can handicap job seekers .\nMichigan, Mississippi and South Carolina have highest rates .\nAlaska's top industry is government .","id":"fe4714cbac974088fe26e702cb35a1117cb36070"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi parliament members adjourned on Saturday without reaching an accord on a controversial new elections law, and the lawmakers could make another try to forge and pass legislation tomorrow. Abdul Bari al-Zebari and Mahmoud Othman, Kurdish members of the Council of Representatives, told CNN that the session is adjourned until Sunday because lawmakers didn't forge an agreement. Passage of the law on Sunday is expected to ensure that national elections would be held on January 16. Al-Zebari said several Sunni Arab parliament members boycotted the Saturday session and doubts there will be a Sunday vote. Othman told CNN that lawmakers couldn't reach an accord over the issue of Kirkuk and said some Sunni Arab and Turkmen members left the session. But the biggest roadblock to a new election law is the question of how balloting should unfold in the ethnically diverse, oil-rich province of Kirkuk, where Kurds displaced during Saddam Hussein's rule have returned to claim their land. The power struggle among Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen has been a political hot potato. Kurds have long regarded Kirkuk -- the province and the city of the same name -- as an integral part of Kurdistan, and many want it to be part of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Arabs and Turkmen also lay claim to the city and province, and all the groups want their voices and votes to be adequately represented in the political system. Disgruntled Arab and Turkmen residents say many more Kurds have moved into Kirkuk than were displaced, and that allowing them to vote would create an unfair advantage. Arabs and Turkmen want special measures to adjust for the increased numbers because they believe many of the Kurdish immigrants are there illegally. The Kurds insist there should be no special voting procedures and reject a United Nations' proposal that singles out Kirkuk for special treatment. The disagreements among the groups spurred the postponement of provincial elections in Kirkuk last January because officials there could not agree on how to apportion seats among the ethnic groups.","highlights":"New election law will ensure that national elections take place January 16 .\nBiggest roadblock is how balloting should unfold in Kirkuk, where Kurds stake claim to land .\nKurds regard Kirkuk as part of Kurdistan; Arabs and Turkmen also lay claim to it .","id":"e92ccd7fca8e9a1209b2e0ef9d95a7091637db53"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- December 9, 2009 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . \u2022 Baghdad, Iraq \u2022 Kabul, Afghanistan \u2022 New Orleans, Louisiana . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz. You've landed on CNN Student News. First Up: Job Creation . AZUZ: During a speech yesterday, President Obama offered some ideas on how to create new jobs and help out the country's economy: offering tax breaks to small businesses, expanding some of the government's stimulus programs, and spending more funds on infrastructure projects -- things like roads, bridges and water systems. The thing is, all of that costs money. And that's where the TARP comes in. That's the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the financial industry bailout passed last year. The bailout ended up not costing as much as expected, and President Obama thinks the extra could be used to help out in other ways. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The TARP program was flawed and we have worked hard to correct those flaws and manage it properly. And today, TARP has served its original purpose and at much lower cost than we expected. In fact, because of our stewardship of this program and the transparency and accountability that we put in place, TARP is expected to cost taxpayers at least $200 billion less than it was anticipated just this past summer. AZUZ: Couple of things to keep in mind here, though. First, White House officials say that they can't just use TARP money to pay for infrastructure projects; the program just doesn't work like that. And second, some Republicans are outraged by the idea of spending any unused TARP funds because they say that money was supposed to help pay off the country's debt. REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R) MINORITY LEADER: This makes me so angry. I was there. I know all about TARP. First, it was never intended that all this money would ever have to be spent. But any money that wasn't spent was to go to the deficit. And the idea of taking this money and spending it is repulsive. Health Care Debate . AZUZ: Senators are considering alternatives to part of their health care legislation. Specifically, the so-called public option: That's a government-run health insurance program. Senate Republicans, and some Democrats and Independents, are against that plan. A group of Democratic senators was working to come up with some other ideas that could replace the public option. Late last night, they said they had reached an agreement. If the Senate passes its health care bill, that doesn't make it law. It would still need to be combined with the House bill, and then that final version would need to pass both the House and the Senate. Baghdad Bombings . AZUZ: The head of Iraq's government says that a series of suicide bombings is designed to create chaos in that country and prevent progress toward elections that are scheduled for next year. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called yesterday's terrorist attacks \"cowardly.\" The five explosions killed more than 125 people and injured more than 440 others. The bombings all took place within minutes of each other Tuesday morning. They targeted several government buildings around the capital city of Baghdad, as well as a neighborhood and a business district. Is this Legit? TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this legit? Hillary Clinton is the U.S. secretary of defense. Not legit! Robert Gates is the defense secretary. He was appointed by President George W. Bush, and President Obama asked him to stay on the job. Defense Secretary Visit . AZUZ: It's Mr. Gates' job to advise the president on military issues like the war in Afghanistan. And that is where the defense secretary is right now, meeting with military officials and Afghan leaders following President Obama's announcement that he plans to send 30,000 additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan. Barbara Starr has more on Mr. Gates' trip there and some of the challenges that U.S. troops face there. (BEGIN VIDEO) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Defense Secretary Roberts Gates arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced trip. He is here, of course, for the first time since President Obama made the announcement that 30,000 additional U.S. troops will be headed to this war zone. The defense secretary plans to meet with troops, commanders, and he has already met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to talk about the way ahead, Secretary Gates assuring Karzai that the U.S. has a continuing commitment to this country. But where we are right now, at FOB, Forward Operating Base, Shank, south of Kabul, really illustrates the continuing security challenge in this country. The U.S. Army task force that operates here has already had the plus-up from 300 troops to 3,000 troops operating in this region to try and get a handle on security against the Taliban and the insurgents. One of their major jobs here is to continue every day to secure Highway 1, the main road to Kabul. The road is secure right now, they tell us, because the troops, U.S. and Afghan troops, are out patrolling every day. If the troops weren't out there, the feeling is that the Taliban and the insurgents would again rear their head and control the road and really hinder commerce and development in this region. So, that's the bottom line here. It's a continuing, spotty security picture. Where the troops are, security improves. But where the troops are not located, security still very troublesome in many areas of this country. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: Another member of President Obama's Cabinet, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, can have an impact on your education. Ed Henry, CNN Senior White House correspondent, is going to interview Secretary Duncan, and Mr. Henry wants to know what you would ask Duncan if you had the chance. So, teachers and students, share your questions on our blog. We'll share them with Henry, and you might hear your question answered on our show. Shoutout . MATT CHERRY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! When does winter officially start? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) October 31, B) November 15, C) December 21 or D) January 1? You've got three seconds -- GO! Winter begins around December 21, which is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Wintry Weather . AZUZ: Don't tell that to the folks who are already getting hammered by the first major storm of the season. States out west got slammed by two to three feet of snow, winds whipping around at up to 90 miles per hour. Even some desert states felt the freeze. Check out this video from Arizona! The storm is making its way east, and as of yesterday, parts of Iowa and Minnesota were both under a blizzard warning. Green Collar Training . AZUZ: Some homes are protected against winter cold by weatherizing, which keeps heat in and costs down. Installing it is an example of a green-collar job, work that's focused on the environment. Christine Romans shows us how some folks are learning to be part of a green-collar world. (BEGIN VIDEO) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hot air is coming into your house. You know that you're losing, what? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Energy. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Energy. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The skills taught here are green. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is recycled newspaper. ROMANS: And so are the students. SUZY MASON, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, LOUISIANA GREEN CORPS: We do work with 17- to 24-year-olds who lack work history, are often low income, court involved. Our corps members don't want to hang out on the street. They want to be productive. They want to work. ROMANS: That's where Louisiana Green Corps comes in. Based in New Orleans and funded through a grant from the U.S. Labor Department, the program teaches young adults how to weatherize and rehabilitate homes. MASON: We're giving a general base of construction knowledge, carpentry skills. We also emphasize academic improvement, work readiness, and really encourage our corps members to make positive life decisions. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of work to be done in New Orleans. ROMANS: One of the people doing that work is LA Green Corps graduate Chris Williams. After completing the program, he landed a job with local contractor Brotherhood Way, weatherizing homes and building new ones. CHRIS WILLIAMS, LOUISIANA GREEN CORPS GRADUATE: I believe that this program helps kids by, you know, letting them see that there is another way, you know, besides, you know, maybe they aren't, you know, high... maybe they don't have their high school diploma, or maybe they aren't the ones who go to college. So this program, you know, it invites them in and it gives them the opportunity to learn a trade, you know, to learn a skill. On average, their energy bill will be $20-$30 on a month. ROMANS: Despite Chris's success, jobs are still hard to come by. So far, out of 177 LA Green Corps graduates, 37 percent have found jobs and a third have gone back to school. Even those who didn't immediately find work have achieved something. DAVID WEATHERSBY, BROTHERHOOD WAY: For Chris and so many other young adults, when they finish the program, they are ready to be thrown into the work force. ROMANS: So, when the job market does turn around, they're ready. Christine Romans, CNN, New York. (END VIDEO) Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, we have some really cool pictures for you today, but as neat as they look, it doesn't seem like a good idea. Up to 20-foot waves -- swells so powerful that people staying in a hotel near the shore could feel them crash -- they thundered in to the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Tuesday. They kept tourists from sleeping, ate up tons of beach, and despite the power and the danger, yep, surf's up! Hope these guys know what they're doing. Goodbye . AZUZ: Because for amateurs like me, it would've been a total washout. CNN Student News is rolling in again tomorrow, keeping you current on more headlines. We'll see you then.","highlights":"Consider why a proposal for unused bailout money is causing controversy .\nLearn about some security challenges facing U.S. troops in Afghanistan .\nHear how a program helps young people prepare for green-collar jobs .\nUse the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .","id":"d3491d04a32a3587d52ee32ef3dda9852f57a14e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Yemen told outside powers Wednesday to stay out of its battle with a Shiite rebel group in its northwest amid concerns that Iran and Saudi Arabia are being drawn into the conflict. The statement, carried by the state news agency Saba and attributed to a Foreign Ministry source, followed a statement of concern for Yemen's \"national unity and territorial integrity\" by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Tuesday. \"We welcome what Mottaki affirmed about Iran's position towards Yemen's unity and stability, and Yemen reaffirms that it definitely rejects the interference in its internal affairs by any party,\" the statement said. It said Yemen's battle with the Houthi, a Shiite Muslim rebel movement, is \"an internal Yemeni affair, and Yemen can solve its issues without any interference from others.\" Battles between Yemeni government forces and rebels have raged intermittently for five years, and government troops launched a new offensive in late summer. Saudi Arabia, Yemen's northern neighbor, turned its air force against suspected Houthi rebels last week after it said the rebels had crossed into Saudi territory. The Houthi claimed that the airstrikes occurred within Yemeni territory, a claim both the Saudi and Yemeni governments denied. The persistent fighting has raised concerns that Yemen -- where U.S. officials say al Qaeda is attempting to establish a new foothold in the region -- could be the stage for a proxy struggle between Shiite-dominated Iran and the Sunni-led Saudi monarchy. Yemen says the conflict is about reasserting government authority and is not a sectarian war. Yemen has accused Iran of supporting the rebels. A Yemeni government official told CNN on Tuesday that Yemen's navy was \"on the highest state of alert\" after an Iranian boat was captured near Yemeni and Saudi territorial waters last week. In Washington, however, a senior State Department official told CNN that although the U.S. government is concerned about the Yemeni conflict it does not see any sign of an Iranian hand in the Houthi revolt. The State Department has been in touch with the Yemenis and Saudis about the need to reduce tensions but is yet to be convinced that Iran is involved in Yemen, the official said. The United Nations has expressed alarm over the fighting and said there has been a \"significant increase\" in the number of people displaced in recent weeks. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates as many as 175,000 people have been affected by the conflict since 2004, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Tuesday. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Yemen battles with Shiite rebels in its northwest .\nIran foreign minister expressed concern for Yemen's territorial integrity .\nSaudis launched airstrikes against rebels .","id":"d826a7716d4c3f98ef7b6660f91ed87c1692d6fc"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Kristin Budden's hotel promises her a refund for her nonrefundable hotel room after a hurricane strikes. But months later, there's no sign of the money and the hotel has gone into radio silence. Should she kiss the money goodbye? A guest's hotel promised her a refund, but she hasn't received anything. Q: I think that you may be my only hope! My father and I were supposed to meet in San Antonio before a conference. Lucky for us, the weekend that we were to be in San Antonio was the same weekend Hurricane Ike plowed through Texas. After experiencing Gustav just two weeks prior in Baton Rouge, I was not very keen on going for round two. My flight was canceled, anyway. We had made reservations at the Holiday Inn on the Riverwalk for the weekend. The rate was pre-paid and nonrefundable, which at the time of booking was fine. However, when we saw where the hurricane was headed, we called to cancel our reservations independently. After some discussion about the storm, the hotel told us both independently that, due to the extreme circumstances, we would receive refunds. I have an e-mail from the hotel regarding my \"refund.\" Despite numerous e-mails to the hotel over many months, we've received nothing. Any assistance that you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. -- Kristin Budden, Baton Rouge, Louisiana . A: I think Holiday Inn owes you a refund. Not because of the hurricane, or because it was the right thing to do (although both are true) but because a hotel representative promised one in writing. If you had disputed the hotel charge on your credit card -- which would have been one of your options -- then the e-mail from your hotel is almost like money in the bank. During a dispute, a hotel may counter that by citing its nonrefundability policy, but from your credit card's perspective, a written statement from the property that it agrees to override its rule is compelling evidence in your favor. Many resorts offer hurricane guarantees that give guests a no-questions-asked refund when a storm is on the way. Holiday Inn wasn't one of those hotels as far as I can tell, but the commonly accepted practice in the travel industry is to not hold a customer accountable for a trip that can't be taken because of circumstances beyond his or her control. (Remember, we let travel companies off the hook when they can't operate a plane because of bad weather or a hotel shuts down during a flood -- it's only fair that they should do the same thing for us.) It looks as if you limited your correspondence to the hotel. In a situation like this, it's useful to begin with a brief, polite e-mail to the corporate guest-relations section on its Web site. Many hotels pass these complaints along to the hotel and may fine it if the grievances aren't resolved quickly. However, dealing with the hotel directly puts it under no such pressure and it may feel as if it can ignore your repeated requests. Next time you reserve a room during hurricane season, consider one that's refundable. And if not, then at least consider taking out a travel insurance policy that would cover you if a hurricane hit your hotel. I contacted Holiday Inn on your behalf and it promised you a full refund. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"A Holiday Inn agreed to give a guest a refund due to an approaching hurricane .\nThe hotel said via email it would make an exception to its nonrefundable rate .\nThe guest tried for months to get her money back .\nThe Troubleshooter contacted the hotel and it promised to deliver the refund .","id":"e7c1f9a06c5c9cfc541d404b0d1a38abe6f85084"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A wildfire continued its rampage through the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California on Monday, but the U.S. Forest Service said fire crews were gaining ground. The Sheep Fire in Southern California has burned thousands of acres and left this bus a charred ruin. \"Firefighters have made very good progress against the Sheep Fire. It's currently at approximately 7,500 acres with 20 percent containment,\" U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Robin Prince said Monday. The fire, which was reported Saturday afternoon in the Lytle Creek area, quickly grew to 3,500 acres by early Sunday and forced about 4,000 people in the community of Wrightwood from their homes. \"People are going to have to hold off on getting back to their homes until we get a little better containment lines on the fire, but things are looking really good,\" according to Prince. More than 1,200 firefighters were battling the blaze, and numerous firefighting aircraft have dropped water and retardant on the wildfire. Back fires have been set to protect homes at the eastern edge of Wrightwood, authorities said. The weather was cooperating Monday, unlike over the weekend when a high-wind warning remained in effect and gusty winds helped fan the flames. \"There's very little smoke. There's a few flare ups here and there, but if the winds pick up, we could still have some problems. So that's why we're holding off on letting people go back into the mandatory evacuated area,\" said Prince. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County on Sunday so the state can mobilize agencies and equipment to help fight the fire.","highlights":"Sheep Fire is about 7,500 acres with 20 percent containment, Forest Service says .\nAbout 4,000 people in San Bernardino County forced from their homes .\nDespite more cooperative weather, people not let back into homes yet .","id":"0bfe3806958dbb89e46ad9fe849ae86ed0e73060"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The New Zealand All Blacks gave their nation double reason for cheer with a 20-6 win Italy before a massive crowd at the San Siro in Milan. With their football counterparts qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals with a win over Bahrain earlier on Saturday, it was left to Graham Henry's men to complete the double. But they were given a tough fight by underdogs Italy, who were inspired by an 80,000 crowd in a stadium normally reserved for Serie A giants Inter and AC Milan. Henry fielded a largely second-string team after last week's 19-12 defeat of Wales in Cardiff. Italy briefly led as former Australian rugby league international Craig Gower kicked a penalty. But New Zealand pulled ahead with two Luke McAlister penalties and Corey Flynn put them further ahead with the only try of the game after 25 minutes. McAlister landed another penalty before halftime to send the visitors into the break with a 14-3 lead. After the interval he kicked two further penalties with Gower getting his second for Italy. The All Blacks next play England, who saw off Argentina 16-9 at Twickenham in a poor quality match in difficult conditions. A late try by Matt Banahan gave Martin Johnson's men the edge and his sixth win from 13 games in charge. Fly-half star Jonny Wilkinson provided all of England's points in the first half, with a drop-goal and two penalties as the scores were tied at 9-9 at the half. Center Martin Rodriguez, one of a trio of Argentina debutants, kicked three penalties from five attempts to keep them level until the late home try. In other international action, former England coach Andy Robinson led his new Scotland team to a 23-10 win over Fiji. Johnnie Beattie and Graeme Morrison went over for tries for Scotland at Murrayfield. On Friday night, France shocked world champions South Africa 20-13 in Toulouse. The Tri-Nations champions paid the price for ill-discipline as Julien Dupuy kicked four penalties and Morgan Parra one. Winger Vincent Clerc capped a fine performance for the home side with a try. South Africa's points came from Morne Steyn with a penalty and drop-goal as well as converting a fine try by captain John Smit.","highlights":"New Zealand All Blacks beat Italy 20-6 in rugby union international .\nA massive crowd of 80,000 watched the game in San Siro stadium .\nEngland and Scotland register wins over Argentina and Fiji .\nFrance score superb win over world champions South Africa .","id":"3f928c972d46c94bc75e9ea4b7402c7d0c147d93"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- It's the oldest trick in the political playbook: Call together a \"summit\" of fancy people so you'll appear to be focused on work that must get done. Thursday, the White House convened CEOs from companies such as Boeing, AT&T, Comcast and Dow Corning, top leaders of the United Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers, American Federation of Teachers unions, Ivy League academics and a few small-business representatives to brainstorm how the country might generate much-needed jobs. A schmooze-fest is nice, but the hard work of putting America back to work will be done by entrepreneurs, not the leaders of the biggest companies in the nation and the heads of big unions. The mom-and-pop shops, garage start-ups and small businesses across the country will put Americans back on the payroll. According to the Census Bureau, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. since 1980 has been generated by firms operating less than five years. This means that our job generators are likely not on the White House guest list. They are home working long hours to meet payrolls on tight deadlines and scraping by with limited resources. While others can advocate for the merits of entrepreneurship, and will hopefully do so, our job creators are strangely left out. Innovators from Oregon to Tennessee are the ones who will generate new jobs. Commerce Department data show that small companies represent 99.1 percent of all employer firms (a firm is an aggregation of all establishments owned by a parent company, even in multiple locations.). They pay nearly 45 percent of U.S. private payroll and have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade. A few start-ups from the last century may be familiar: Disney, Burger King, Fed-Ex, CNN and Microsoft all started during a period of economic downturn. Today, each of these companies employs thousands of people in the U.S. and abroad. Recent research shows that more than half of the 2009 Fortune 500 companies were launched during a recession or bear market. In 2002, when the tech bubble burst, I graduated from business school just a few miles from Google. The start-up was a mysterious algorithm-based business, little known and lesser understood. Today, Google employs 20,000 people worldwide. So the question is how can we foster the next Google? Policy-makers can't predict breakthrough technologies, but they can create an environment that will encourage innovation. How to start? First, provide further access to capital. Last week, two Small Business Administration stimulus provisions that helped to get millions of dollars to small-business owners ran out of funding. The provisions, passed as part of the Recovery Act, raised the maximum guarantee on SBA loans to 90 percent and reduced or eliminated fees associated with the loans, making it more attractive for banks to lend during the downturn. Access to capital is the lifeblood of small businesses. We must renew these provisions and provide even greater access to credit. Helping fledgling companies grow fuels the economy from the bottom up. Second, welcome immigrants who are job generators. We are a country of immigrants, and yet in recent years, we have made it incredibly difficult for immigrants to launch companies in the U.S. Why not create a new visa for entrepreneurs? Increasingly venture capitalists, angel investors and innovators are advocating a \"start-up visa\" offered to immigrant entrepreneurs who want to start a company in the United States. In 2008, nearly 40 percent of technology company founders were foreign-born; 52 percent of Silicon Valley company founders were foreign-born, including the founders of Google, Yahoo, eBay and Intel, to name a few. Why chase these innovators away when we need jobs and should be hanging an \"innovators wanted\" sign on our front door? Third, match funds for early investors. Early investors need incentives to put money behind companies that will create U.S. jobs. We have channeled billions of dollars to preserve \"too big to fail\" institutions. Why not make federal matching dollars available to catalyze smart investment in next generation businesses? Investors could keep their normal returns and a share of returns on federal matching funds could go back to the government to further revitalize our weakened economy. Instead of preserving outdated jobs, we need to fuel the creation of future employment prospects. Early-stage investors with a track record of success can help make this happen. Obama came into office on an entrepreneurial platform. His campaign catalyzed involvement at the grassroots level. Tapping into new technologies such as YouTube, Facebook and other social networks, our president benefited from entrepreneurial advances. It is time for the White House to return to its campaign roots. Since Obama's inauguration, our unemployment rate has risen from 7.6 percent to 10.2 percent. It is time to stop propping up outmoded and overleveraged institutions and start betting on the new men and women who offer hope for greater prosperity. Supporting entrepreneurs is change we can believe in. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Amy M. Wilkinson.","highlights":"Amy M. Wilkinson says Obama's summit had mostly CEOs, union reps, academics .\nBut, she says, most job creation in the U.S. since 1980 has been from start-up firms .\nWilkinson: Government funds and policies should target entrepreneurs .","id":"fd5acd641e7ba9510214a706d9726a790f9660f4"} -{"article":"SILVER SPRING, Maryland (CNN) -- Thomas Cuddy enlisted in the U.S. Army 28 years ago, but he's facing his greatest battle now that he's out. Retired veteran Thomas Cuddy is so weakened by ALS that he often can't catch himself when he slips. Cuddy spends most of his days in his small apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland, reading on his couch, and working at his computer. He leaves only when it is absolutely necessary; the trek down the three flights of stairs is exhausting and dangerous. He slips easily, and he does not have the strength to catch himself. Thomas suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, after the legendary baseball star who lent his name to the mysterious illness over 60 years ago. His doctors have told him to stop working but he cannot afford to, so he works when his body will let him. He is able to work from home most days -- he's a community relations officer, command speechwriter and medical publications reviewer based at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But as typing becomes an increasingly strenuous chore, even this will become too much to bear. Thomas hopes this day comes later rather than sooner. Sitting idly is not is his nature, but ever so slightly, that is changing. \"This is a disease where...one day you wake up and you can walk, and the next day you can't,\" he says. \"And once you lose it, you can never get it back.\" ALS is a progressive disease that attacks neurons in the brain, eventually leading to total paralysis. It affects 20,000 to 30,000 Americans at any given time, according to the ALS Association. It can take up to 10 years to fully develop, but by the time it is diagnosed, it is usually fatal within two to five years. ALS was first classified as a disease in 1869, yet there are still few clues as to its cause. Researchers are just as far from finding an effective treatment or cure. In fact, just one drug has been approved by the FDA to treat ALS, and has been proved only to extend life by a few months. \"They have no idea what is happening to us. I'm taking it one day at a time,\" Thomas says. Thomas has found that many of his brothers suffer from the illness as well -- his fellow veterans, that is. \"There have been recent studies that have been proven that if you are a veteran, your chances of developing ALS are double that of anyone else,\" Thomas says. Dr. Mark Weisskopf, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that doctors took notice as a large number of veterans of the first Gulf War began to report \"non-specific neurological conditions.\" Several subsequent studies published in the last decade have established an increased rate of ALS among Gulf War veterans. Weisskopf was co-author of a study in 2005 that found that men with any history of military service are about 60 percent more likely to develop ALS than men who did not serve in the military. He concluded that \"the branch, length of service, and where you served didn't seem to matter.\" The cause of this connection is still unknown. Weisskopf says that there may be an environmental trigger, but due to the immensity of potential exposures to which military personnel are subjected, no one has been able to pinpoint exactly what that trigger might be. For men who are trained to fight for their lives, this disease is perhaps the ultimate torture. \"The way we are in the military, if you show us an enemy, we'll defeat it, \"Thomas says. \"It's really hard to identify what you're fighting. I'm just fighting to stay alive.\" The Department of Veterans Affairs established ALS as a service-connected disease on September 23, 2008. This acknowledgment gives veterans suffering from ALS access to much-needed benefits such as health care, disability compensation, and many other essential support systems. While it may seem as if the VA has moved slowly in reacting to these studies, Weisskopf notes that there is still a lot that is unknown about the connection between ALS and military service. \"In that regard, I commend the VA in taking this step before many scientists are fully convinced,\" Weisskopf says. Nonetheless, for those suffering from ALS, navigating the vast bureaucracy at the VA can be an exasperating process. Veterans such as Thomas find themselves in the helpless position of watching their disease advance at a much faster pace than their paperwork. When he filed for disability last March, Thomas was told that his request could take up to a year to be approved -- if it is approved. For now he waits. Despite his deteriorating condition, Thomas has chosen to remain positive. Each day, he carefully gets out of bed and tests his legs, hopeful that he is able to walk for one more day. He is all too aware that he will wake up one day soon and his limbs will no longer work. Someday, he will lose the ability to talk, and eventually, he will stop breathing. But today, he can do all of these things, and he is grateful. \"What I do all day long, is I tell myself in six months, I will probably be in much worse condition, and in six months I would give anything to be where I am today,\" he says. \"So today I'm happy with what I have.\"","highlights":"ALS, a progressive disease, attacks brain neurons leading to total paralysis .\nIt affects 20,000 to 30,000 Americans at any one time but vets have twice the risk .\nThe VA listed ALS as a service-connected disease on September 23, 2008 .\nRetired vet Thomas Cuddy navigates VA bureaucracy as his disease progresses .","id":"58695d7743fa4c5657a82aeddb9cf482c88e42d3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- He's been a homicidal singing barber in \"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street\" and a drunken swashbuckler in \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.\" Depp is back as bank robber John Dillinger, revered in the Depression as a modern-day Robin Hood. Now, Hollywood shape-shifter Johnny Depp is back as another unexpectedly charismatic outlaw: Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger, a character he says he's been drawn to since he was a boy. \"I sort of had a fascination with John Dillinger when I was about 10, 11 years old, for some reason,\" Depp told CNN. \"I always kind of admired him, oddly.\" Oddly, perhaps, because for a short but intense period between September 1933 and July 1934 Dillinger and his gang rampaged through the American Midwest, staging jail breaks, robbing banks, and killing 10 men and wounding seven along the way. Dillinger's violent spree is the focus of gangster drama \"Public Enemies,\" the latest offering from director Michael Mann, and also starring Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. Mann is known for his sympathetic portrayal of criminals, and Dillinger -- whose acts on the wrong side of the law led him to become one of America's first celebrities -- is the quintessential good hood. In the 1930s, the United States was in the grips of the worst financial disaster in history -- a time when many Americans watched their life savings disappear and became jobless and hungry. Members of the public blamed banks for losing their money and politicians for failing to stop them. For many, Dillinger's exploits represented sticking it to the fat cats, and he was idolized as a modern-day Robin Hood. J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director at the time, may have made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy No. 1, but the bandit was careful not to alienate the public. There is a memorable moment where he drapes a coat over a female bank hostage during a raid to keep her warm. Also, it's said he never swore in front of women. He was always courteous even as he tried to meet his target of robbing banks in under two minutes. Crucially, he never robbed the average guy, telling him to put his money away during robberies. It is this Dillinger that Depp captures: a captivating revolutionary with the gift of gab who lit the public's imagination, causing people to flock to cinemas to watch his exploits in weekly newsreels. Review: Depp is great in 'Public Enemies' Of course, the dark, violent side of Dillinger's psyche is unavoidable. Depp plumbed the depths of his own character to come up with those murkier elements. That was something that took courage, according to Mann: \"He had Dillinger in him; that's something I sensed. Deep in the core of Johnny there's a toughness.\" Depp gained recognition throughout the 1990s for immersing himself in characters. He shook off an early reputation as a teen pin-up in movies like Tim Burton's 1991 Gothic tale \"Edward Scissorhands.\" He went on to cement his reputation for unusual film choices and quirky performances in films like \"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\" (2005) and \"Finding Neverland\" (2004). In pictures: Johnny Depp's iconic roles \u00bb . The 46-year-old actor says he felt a close affinity to Dillinger: \"I related to John Dillinger like he was a relative. I felt he was of the same blood. He reminded me of my stepdad and very much of my grandfather. \"He seemed to be one of those guys with absolutely no bull whatsoever, who lived at a time when a man was a man.\" \"Public Enemies\" was adapted by Mann from a nonfiction book of the same name by Bryan Burrough. Is it sozzled Captain. Jack Sparrow or smooth Donnie Brasco? Tell us your favorite Johnny Depp character in the SoundOff box below. The \"Last of the Mohicans\" director is known for fastidious research and attention to detail, which in this case included collaborating closely with the FBI to check facts -- although Mann subsequently chose to gloss over some elements for the sake of the story. Mann filmed in many of the locations where Dillinger's story took place almost 80 years ago, including the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, where the bandit was finally shot dead by FBI agents as he came out of a Clark Gable movie. They also shot at Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters in the far north of Wisconsin, the site of one of Dillinger's most famous showdowns with the FBI. Dillinger was hiding out there after a botched robbery. When the feds finally caught up with him, two men were killed in the vicious gunfight. \"We were able to shoot not just in the actual place where this happened, but in his actual room,\" says Mann. \"There's a certain kind of magic for Johnny Depp to be lying in the bed that John Dillinger was actually in.\" A lot of Dillinger's success was down to superior guns and getaway cars. Depp, who has experience shooting guns from previous productions, had to learn a completely different technique for the heavy guns of the time. Depp says shooting the Thompson submachine gun was one of the highlights of the production: \"When you've got a beast like that strapped to you and you're emptying magazines, a 50-round drum, it's a good feeling.\" The ride may have been thrilling for Depp but he also recognizes that the Depression-era setting has some extra significance these tight-belted times. \"You know,\" says Depp, \"We're in the middle of a recession, teetering on a depression. It's time to view the banks and grown-ups for what they are.\"","highlights":"Johnny Depp plays charismatic bank robber John Dillinger in \"Public Enemies\"\nDepression-era tale of first Public Enemy No. 1, idolized as modern-day Robin Hood .\nDillinger's gang killed 10 men, wounded seven during a spree of less than one year .\nDepp on Dillinger: \"I always kind of admired him, oddly\"","id":"da88c8df5aaf8b98e9653b255719e30496f6a447"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A schoolteacher from southern England with no previous filmmaking experience has given amateurism a good name by directing her pupils in a feature film fit for Hollywood. Alice Ralph, 18, stars in \"Far From the Madding Crowd\" as Bathsheba Everdene. It has taken a year of hard work using only one camera, but teachers and pupils at The Gryphon School in Sherborne, Dorset, recently premiered their 110-minute long adaptation of English novelist Thomas Hardy's seminal 1874 work \"Far From the Madding Crowd.\" \"When I watched it for the first time, it was actually quite an emotional experience,\" director\/producer and Head of Drama Rosita Clarke told CNN. \"It's a kind of relief to see the efforts of what you've worked on and achieved an absolute reality.\" Clarke is the driving force behind the project and says many people didn't believe she would be able to pull off a feature film when she first came up with the idea. \"Miss Clarke pitched the idea, and said she was going to make a feature film and we all thought she was joking,\" said 18-year-old Ben Jones, a Gryphon student, who plays Sergeant Troy in the film. \"But we all kind of went along with it and it's turned into this.\" Clarke was inspired to make the feature after she directed a play with some film footage in it the previous year. \"I thought to myself, 'I'm going to make a film,'\" she said. After getting permission from the school, Clarke sat down with Hardy's book during the school summer holidays and over two weeks wrote a screenplay. In August 2008, Gryphon's Hardy feature went into production. \"Far From the Madding Crowd\" unfolds against the backdrop of rural 19th Century England and tells the story of beautiful Bathsheba Everdene who inherits a farm from her uncle and finds herself loved by three men. The feature was filmed over weekends, holidays and snatched evenings after school. It is full of exquisite costumes, gorgeous Dorset vistas and faultless acting from students aged between 16 and 18-years old. Despite the demands of the shooting schedule, the students say they were able to fit in their schoolwork around it. \"As far as the study goes, it's been ok,\" said Jones. Watch CNN The Screening Room's Myleene Klass report on the Gryphon School's London premiere . The pupils involved say it didn't undermine their studies, and in some cases helped it by giving them an invaluable experience in an industry they would like to work in in the future. \"Some of us want to get into the profession and this experience has been really valuable,\" said Jack Buckley, 18, who plays shepherd Gabriel Oak. \"We haven't done any film acting before and it's very different to stage acting so we've learn a lot about that.\" But the experience has not been without challenges: Using just one camera Clarke and her team had to film a fire in a 19th Century hayrick [haystack], work with livestock including sheep and shoot large crowd scenes. In total 130 pupils worked on the film in roles from hair and make-up to walk-on parts. Alice Ralph, 18, who stars as Bathsheba, says acting for the camera was one aspect that took some getting used to. \"At first I found it really hard to get used to the camera. I found it really awkward,\" she said. \"I remember the first shoot. I couldn't even say my lines.\" Emotional scenes shot up-close requiring convincing tears and restrained acting also proved a challenge for the students who are used to acting on stage. \"The emotional scenes were actually really difficult,\" said Ralph. \"I found them quite hard to get, with the crying and things but with Mrs Clarke's help she put me in a situation and I'd use emotional memory and I'd get there in the end.\" Clarke had no experience of filmmaking when she started up and used the Internet and books to learn about lighting and camera angles. She also picked up some tips on camera work from her 21-year-old son, Sunny, a broadcast production student. Sunny also edited the film and Clarke says he had the editor's final word and helped her to keep the film slick. \"I wanted as many students as possible to have a little showing, and he's looking at it from a professional level of final finish.\" The film cost a little over $11,000 (\u00a37,000) to make, much of which Clarke raised from banks and supermarkets in the local community. \"We haven't had money and we couldn't get the sound right all the time and it got dark too quickly because we were trying to get it all done and it's just been so pressurized,\" says Clarke. Nevertheless, she was always convinced she would successfully complete the film -- \"It wasn't ever not going to happen.\" For Clarke the best bit of the film is \"the success for the students. What they're feeling. What they must be feeling. That just blows me away. \"That's what makes me proud and if I've helped them on their way.\"","highlights":"The school in southern England made a feature-length film starring pupils .\n130 pupils spent a year filming Hardy's \"Far From the Madding Crowd\"\nFilm cost $11,000 and includes a fire scene, animal-wrangling and crowd scenes .\nSome pupils involved hope to go on to work in film industry .","id":"2fc4ead5acc3e68793bf767e706ca46e60fc81b8"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Crack-addicted Felicia Anderson was pregnant with her third child when an ultrasound changed the direction of her life. After inpatient rehab, Felicia Anderson sought help from Mothers Making a Change to help beat her addiction. \"You could hear that baby's heartbeat strong and steady. Really, that's her personality today, a strong, vibrant little girl. And at that time, laying there, tears starting rolling down my face,\" Anderson, 44, recalled. In that moment, Anderson vowed to stay off drugs, something she'd been unable to do in more than a decade addicted to crack cocaine, even when she was pregnant with her first two children. Anderson didn't think she could do it alone, so, like almost 2 million Americans a year, she entered a treatment program. Anderson spent three weeks in residential treatment -- all she could afford -- but didn't think that was enough, so she enrolled in Mothers Making a Change, a year-long outpatient drug and alcohol program in Atlanta, Georgia. Three times as many Americans choose outpatient treatment as residential treatment, or rehab. It costs less, is more likely to be covered by insurance and does not require participants to leave work or their families for a month or more. The outpatient program Anderson chose, Mothers Making a Change, is designed especially for pregnant women and women with young children. Anderson was both. At the time, her oldest daughter, Sierra, was 5; her middle child, Anicia, was almost 2. In addition to therapy and education, Mothers Making a Change provided transportation and offered free child care while Anderson was there. When she completed the program, Mothers Making a Change helped her find a job. \"I can say with everything in me, with every bit of my breath, that program helped me turn my life around,\" said Anderson, who now runs a program to help the developmentally disabled in DeKalb County, Georgia. Interactive: Addiction and the brain \u00bb . Like most programs, residential or outpatient, Mothers Making a Change is built on the 12 steps pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them: Admit you're powerless over your addiction, and turn your life over to a higher power. \"It's important in my opinion to have a connection with your spiritual world, your higher power,\" Anderson said. \"So I thank God, first of all, for giving me a second chance in life.\" Anderson began drinking and smoking marijuana in high school. She moved on to snorting cocaine and then smoking it. She said her drug use began spiraling out of control when her husband, an Army infantryman, committed suicide after returning from Operation Desert Storm. She said the crack numbed her pain. Watch Felicia Anderson describe her experience \u00bb . Anderson tried to hide her addiction, but the lies became harder to maintain. She lost weight. She couldn't keep a job. And she began stealing to keep her children clothed and fed and to support her habit. She even stole their Christmas presents. \"The gifts would be under the tree, and I needed some crack, and I would take whatever present was there,\" Anderson recalled. \"The crack was my friend. The crack was my job. The crack was my children. You know, it was my life. So no matter how bad I wanted to stop, I couldn't stop,\" she said. Anderson said she even smoked crack as she went into labor with her second child. \"That's to tell you how bad off, how out of control, how much it didn't matter,\" she said. \"But I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop.\" Caught shoplifting repeatedly, Anderson said, she was facing a five-year prison sentence in Maryland for violating probation when her brother Brian Robinson intervened. He convinced the judge to let Anderson and her two daughters come to Georgia with him and to let his sister check into rehab instead of going to jail. Like many addicts, Anderson hit rock bottom before seeking treatment. Counselors and others say most addicts get help only when they get in trouble at home, at work, with their health or with the law. Anderson went for her ultrasound and had an epiphany. \"Something inside me -- and I would say it's the voice of God -- saying, 'You can do this.' And laying there at that moment, I did say to myself, 'I can do this. Let me try to do this.' That was a turning point for me,\" Anderson said. \"That baby that was born was born drug-free.\" Anderson said that she has been drug-free for 12 years and that she's lucky: Her older two children did not suffer any health consequences from her addiction. Anderson now has everything she had lost for a big part of her adult life: a stable home life, a job. Also, she's engaged. \"There's all kinds of beautiful things happening for me and my daughters right now.\"","highlights":"When she heard her baby's heartbeat, Felicia Anderson vowed to give up drugs .\nShe could afford 3 weeks in residential treatment, then moved to outpatient .\nThree times as many Americans choose outpatient treatment as residential rehab .\nAnderson, now clean 12 years, says program \"helped me turn my life around\"","id":"0d26d1cfc723e91a81dec6be4f5fc6aaa2b6552b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's not just for French kissing or for showing your dissatisfaction. Besides showing off at concerts, licking lollipops, and teasing, the tongue could help people gain mobility. Aside from everyday functions of chewing, swallowing, talking and tasting, the tongue has new uses such as steering wheelchairs and helping blind people see. Also in Spain last month, doctors transplanted a tongue as part of a face transplant surgery. \"The tongue is considered very much like the trunk of an elephant or the tentacle of the octopus. It's the same kind of structure with how many shapes, configurations the trunk or tentacle can assume,\" said E. Fiona Bailey, an assistant professor of physiology at The University of Arizona in Tucson. \"Researchers realize there is a lot of potential there.\" Transplanting tongues . A team of surgeons in Spain last month performed a face transplant, which is considered the first to include the tongue and jaws. A 43-year-old man who lost his jaws and tongue after a cancer battle 11 years ago received a transplant for the bottom third of his face, according to the Hospital La Fe in Valencia, Spain. Dr. Pedro Cavadas, the surgical team leader, said the objective was for the patient to recover feeling in his face and also to swallow, talk, feel and taste with his tongue again. But the first tongue transplant in 2003 had short-lived results. Doctors in Austria transplanted a tongue to a 42-year-old cancer patient. The cancer returned and the patient died 13 months after the surgery, according to a 2008 article written by his doctors in the journal Transplantation. A transplant recipient has to take immune suppressing drugs so he or she won't reject the new organ. But this puts the person at risk for cancer recurrence because of the weakened immune system, said Dr. Douglas Chepeha, a head and neck surgical oncologist at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor. Unlike liver or kidney transplants, reconnecting the tongue is also more complex because of its nerves, said Chepeha, who is the director of the microvascular program. \"A nerve is not like a single wire in your house,\" he said. \"When we say a nerve, there are literally thousands if not hundred thousands of tiny little fibers. It'll be like taking a fiber optic cable and cutting it -- let's say that cable had 100,000 fibers in it -- how do you realign it?\" Chepeha said: \"If we can get some way of knowing which way to hook the nerves up, someday it'll work better. Right now, we're not there.\" Driving wheelchairs . A new kind of wheelchair allows people who cannot use their hands and feet to steer using simple tongue movements. This technology can assist people who have spinal cord injuries, said Maysam Ghovanloo, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Unlike hands and feet, the tongue has a distinct advantage because it doesn't connect to the spinal cord, he said. To use the wheelchair, a magnet the size of a lentil sits on the driver's tongue affixed by edible glue. When the person in the wheelchair touches a certain tooth with his or her tongue, the wheelchair moves -- for example, a left tooth, the wheelchair will turn left. Magnetic sensors trace the movement of the tongue and transmit the directions to get the wheelchair moving. \"The tongue is always moving, but the technology is smart enough to tell the difference between natural movements and the tongue movements [meant to steer the wheelchair],\" Ghovanloo said. Researchers conducted clinical trials this summer in which people with spinal cord injuries navigated through an obstacle course using their tongues. Those who had recently been injured were more receptive to driving with their tongues than others who have gotten used to the existing technology, Ghovanloo said. The tongue-driven wheelchair is not available to the public yet, pending more clinical trials in 2010. Aiding vision . Researchers devised an instrument to allow users to \"see\" through the tongue. Called the BrainPort, the vision device sits on the tongue to help blind people get a sense of their environment. The device, which is the size of a postage stamp, connects to a digital video camera. The camera paints the visual scene in front of a person by turning it into gentle stimulations on the tongue that feel like bubbles. For example, when a person moves across the room, the device creates vibrations across the tongue to resemble the movement. Aimee Arnoldussen, a neuroscientist at the device maker's company, Wicab Inc., said scientists turned to the tongue because \"the tongue has a high density of nerve endings, which makes it sensitive.\" Other parts of the body, such as the back, were not sufficiently sensitive. The fingertips were sensitive enough, but people wanted full use of their hands to grip a cane or to grab objects. Placing the device \"on the tongue inside the mouth, frees the hands to interact with environment,\" Arnoldussen said. Plus, the device can be hidden in the mouth. The device is still in development, but Arnoldussen said the company hopes to make it available to the public within the next year. E-tongue senses sweet . Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed a handheld device the size of a business card, which can taste the sweetness in food and drinks. This could lead to the first electronic tongue that would be able to identify sources of sweetness. \"We could determine what sweetener would be in your tea,\" researcher Christopher Musto told CNN Radio. The device can distinguish among 14 kinds of sweeteners, from natural sugars to artificial ones such as Splenda. Musto described two possible applications: This would be a first step toward an electronic tongue and second, it could be a handheld device that would determine what sweetener and the amount.","highlights":"Researchers turn to the tongue for new ways to help people with disabilities .\nSpanish doctors performed face transplant including tongue this summer .\nEngineers are testing a wheelchair that can be steered by the tongue .","id":"787c59b415529093f2157bf3ee02c08ca4597160"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six gay men were shot dead by members of their tribe in two separate incidents in the past 10 days, an official with Iraq's Interior ministry said. In the most recent attack, two men were killed Thursday in Sadr City area of Baghdad after they were disowned by relatives, the official said. The shootings came after a tribal meeting was held and the members decided to go after the victims. On March 26, four additional men were fatally shot in the same city, the official said, adding that the victims had also been disowned by their relatives. The official declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Witnesses told CNN that a Sadr City cafe, which was a popular gathering spot for gays, was also set on fire.","highlights":"In the most recent attack, two men were killed Thursday in Sadr City area of Baghdad .\nWitnesses tell CNN a Sadr City cafe, also popular with gay men, was set on fire .\nShootings came after tribal meeting when members decided to go after the victims .","id":"0e7ad86e13fa56a92d7950a33f6f5968751c5236"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Panathinaikos sacked Dutch coach Henk Ten Cate on Tuesday after the Greek side lost the league leadership to arch rivals Olympiakos. Ten Cate took over at the Athens-based side last season as Panathinaikos looked to end the dominance of Olympiakos, who have won every Greek championship bar one since 1997. They led the standings until a 2-0 defeat to Olympiakos saw the champions move one point clear of Panathinaikos after 13 games. Panathinaikos are also still in the Europa League and Greek Cup, but this did not prove enough to save Ten Cate, who will be replaced by Nikos Nioplias, the coach of the Greece under-21 team. Ten Cate, who was assistant manager at English Premier League side Chelsea, told the official Panathinaikos Web site that it had been an \"honor\" to be in charge. \"I have laid the groundwork for this team. I respect the fact that some people may not be happy with the general picture, but my assistants and I have given everything to succeed.\" The 54-year-old was assistant at Chelsea under Avram Grant and was previously number two at Barcelona to Frank Rijkaard. Panathinaikos was his first managerial position and he took them to the last 16 of last season's Champions League, but could not dislodge Olympiakos in the Greek title race. He was on a two-year contract, which still had six months to run on his departure. The 45-year-old Nioplias, was bullish in his official statement on taking charge. \"My aim is to achieve with the team as a coach what I have achieved as a player -- win titles.\" He has an excellent record with the Greek age group teams, taking the under-19 team to the final of the European championship and leading the under-21 squad to the top of their European championship group. On other managerial news, Sinisa Mihajlovic has taken charge of Catania after the Serie A side dispensed with Gianluca Atzori on Monday. Former Bologna coach Mihajlovic has signed a two-year deal with Catania, who are second bottom of the Italian standings.","highlights":"Coach Henk Ten Cate sacked by Greek giants Panathinaikos .\nPanathinaikos second in Greek league to arch rivals Olympiakos .\nTen Cate was formerly assistant coach at Chelsea and Barcelona .\nCatania appoint Sinisia Mihajlovic as coach in place of Gianluca Atzori .","id":"e2a93ed1e1a926e35fe488ac02318d6c8117c7ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When George Pinon thinks of colors, he associates them with what other people have described. George Pinon leads tour groups through Dialog in the Dark, an exhibit that simulates the blind experience. \"They say that red is supposed to be a warm color, a hot color. I heard that apples are red and roses are red. I heard that plants are green, the grass is green,\" he said. \"That's all you can do, you know?\" Pinon, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, has been blind since age 3, when a high fever caused optic nerve damage. He leads small tour groups through Dialog in the Dark, an exhibit traveling around the world that aims to foster understanding between people with and without vision. For about an hour, visitors navigate different environments in complete darkness, relying on all senses except sight, and ask questions of their visually impaired guide, whose face they don't see until leaving. Stumbling in darkness makes the Dialog visitor appreciate how visually oriented the world is -- how would you go grocery shopping? How would you cross the street? -- as well as the reliance on other senses such as sound and touch to navigate the world. Investigating preventions, therapies . Researchers continue to search for methods of preventing and treating blindness. A new study in the Journal of Archives of Ophthalmology shows that a single serving of fish per week is associated with a reduced risk of incident early age-related macular degeneration, a disease that is the leading cause of severe vision loss in people older than 60. The macula, a part of the retina that allows central vision, deteriorates in this condition. Stem cells may also hold promise for AMD. The London Project to Cure Blindness, with support from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, is working on a therapy from human embryonic cells. The project's goal is to begin human clinical trials by 2011. The therapy aims to use embryonic stem cells to replace the cells that have been lost because of the disease. Through surgery, the cells would be implanted to restore vision. Read more about AMD . Interpreting the world . A variety of devices have been developed to help visually impaired individuals interact with the world around them. Some of these technologies use Braille. There are Braille codes for alphabets, mathematics, science, music and even computer programming, all based on the system of characters called cells, which consist of six dots in two parallel columns. But fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind individuals in the United States read Braille, according to the National Federation of the Blind. Only 10 percent of blind children are learning the system of raised dots that allows blind people to read and write through touch. Reasons for this include a shortage of teachers qualified to teach Braille and misconceptions about the system, such as that it's difficult to learn, the organization said in a recent report. The National Federation of the Blind has worked with technology developers to enhance Braille to adapt to the needs to visually impaired people, said Mark Riccobono, executive director of the organization's Jernigan Institute. The organization's International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland, has nearly every tactile and speech output technology available for blind people to learn how to use. A mechanical device called a refreshable Braille display raises and lowers a set of pins to form characters, translating words on a computer screen into Braille. The pins refresh and translate subsequent text as the user scrolls down on a computer screen. Riccobono, who has glaucoma and has been losing vision throughout his life, did not learn Braille as a child and believes that he missed out on literacy opportunities. He discovered Braille in college, which cut his study time down by 50 percent, he said. Braille is the only equivalent to print for visually impaired individuals, he said. \"Listening is not the same as actively reading something and seeing how words are spelled,\" he said. \"Sometimes technology is used as an excuse to not provide Braille.\" Still, Pinon, who reads Braille, uses speech access software to browse the Internet. He also noted that some movie theaters provide a special earpiece that has voice commentary describing what's on screen, and some DVDs have commentary features also. Some visually impaired individuals use a knfbReader, a device that takes a picture of text, such as a menu, and reads it back. The Amazon Kindle, a digital reader for books and magazines, now has speech access, a feature for which the National Federation for the Blind advocated. Read more about the voice capabilities of Kindle 2 . Improving sight through technology . There are also technologies that allow visually impaired people to use other senses to orient themselves. One new device is called BrainPort, which allows the user to \"see\" through the tongue. BrainPort consists of an electrode array the size of a postage stamp on the surface of the tongue, which communicates with a digital camera, a base unit and a hand-held controller. The device electrically stimulates the tactile receptors on the tongue. The electrode array has a spatial map such that, as people move across a room, the vibration goes across the tongue. \"People are able to adapt and be trained to interpret this as spatial information,\" said Dr. William Seiple, vice president for research at the nonprofit Lighthouse International in New York. The device is being tested at Lighthouse, which has a mockup bedroom, bedroom and kitchen to help visually impaired individuals learn how to handle real-life situations. Watch as one patient gets an artificial corneal transplant \u00bb . Another avenue of research is the retinal implant. The user experiences something akin to what a person with sight sees when pressing on a closed eyelid: flashes of light, Seiple said. The rays of the electrode in the eye produce these flashes, which the brain learns to interpret. \"We've all done this throughout our lives,\" he said. \"We have to interpret what's out there in the world.\" Getting around without seeing . The U.S. Mint introduced the first coin with readable Braille in March, but not for general circulation. Only 400,000 are minted, and they cost more than $30 each. The National Federation of the Blind can receive surcharges from sales. Since paper bills have no obvious tactile indicators, blind individuals can ask for their money bill by bill at the bank and fold it in different ways to know what they're getting, Pinon said. He tends to use debit cards when possible. As sighted people feel around with canes in the dark at Dialog, Pinon helps them along with the sound of his voice and, for the lost ones, a gentle pat on the shoulder. Pinon has a dog to help him navigate. He has a wife and three children. He even enjoys traveling, sampling the smells, tastes and sounds of foreign voices. Moving to a new place -- from Florida to Georgia -- was somewhat challenging, but, as he told a group of Dialog visitors seated in total darkness, \"You have to be adventurous and explorative and just get out and get to know the area a little bit. \"You pretty much have to be fearless,\" he said.","highlights":"Fewer than 10 percent of legally blind individuals in the U.S. read Braille .\nBrainPort allows the user to have spatial orientation through vibrations on the tongue .\nStem cells may also hold promise for age-related macular degeneration .\nAnother avenue of research is the retinal implant .","id":"c87982351da7f05b176ecc7941d0c3b252e173a6"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A suspected terrorist linked to several Indonesian bombings in the past decade was killed in a protracted firefight Saturday in the Central Java town of Temanggung, two law enforcement sources told CNN. A poster in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, has under \"dicari,\" or\"wanted,\" Noordin Top. Another raid by police Saturday averted a planned assassination attempt on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, authorities said. Noordin M. Top was killed during a raid by the anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88 that began Friday and lasted 18 hours into Saturday, said a police source and a security analyst with close ties to the police. Official confirmation of Top's identity will come next week after DNA results, said Indonesia's National Police Chief, Bambang Hendarso. Indonesia's anti-terrorism forces had been hunting Top for the past six years. He is also the main suspect in last month's twin hotel bombings in Jakarta. A statement attributed to Top, 40, a Malaysian-born explosives expert, claimed responsibility for the attacks that targeted Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. The coordinated bombings killed seven people and the two suspected bombers, and wounded more than 50. Watch more about the raid \u00bb . It was the first major terrorist attack in Indonesia in more than three years. Top is reportedly an officer, recruiter, bomb-maker and trainer for a splinter group of the militant organization Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to al Qaeda. He allegedly was involved in a previous attack on the Marriott in Jakarta in August 2003, as well as attacks on a Bali nightclub in 2002 and the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004, according to the FBI. In February 2006, the FBI added Top to its list of 10 suspected terrorists who have not been charged in the United States, and are wanted only for questioning. The ramifications of Top's death were not immediately clear. \"This is a huge advance in Indonesia's fight against terror,\" said Sidney Jones, a senior Asia adviser for the International Crisis Group, a global nonpartisan advisory organization. \"But this is not the end of it because we still don't know the extent of the network and the funding source of Noordin's network.\" Three to four people were believed to be holed up in the house in Temanggung, police said. Security forces had launched a raid on the house after two people believed to be nephews of its owner were arrested earlier in the day, according to the official Antara News Agency. \"Police officers entered the house and fired profusely inside the house while other policemen surrounded the house and opened its windows by force,\" Antara said. After the gunfire ended, local television showed police with their helmets off, shaking hands and carrying caskets into the house, suggesting that those inside the house had been killed or captured. Also on Saturday, in a house on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesian police killed two militants believed to be connected with a 2004 bombing and found a cache of explosives in an early morning raid, the national police chief said. Hendarso said that police found about 100 kg (220 lbs) of explosives along with bomb-making materials and a truck, which they did not immediately open for fear it might have been rigged to explode. Those bomb-making materials were going to be used in an attack on the president, Hendarso said. The two militants killed are believed to be connected with the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in which 16 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded, Hendarso said. Also, a man identified as Suryana, who uses the aliases Yayan and Gepeng, was arrested in north Jakarta on suspicion of terrorism charges, said Nanan Soekarna, police inspector general. Soekarna could not say whether Suryana was connected with last month's hotel bombings or other incidents. CNN's Andy Saputra contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Another raid averted planned assassination attempt on Indonesian president .\nTop was killed during the 18-hour raid, law enforcement sources say .\nTop is the main suspect in the twin hotel bombings in Jakarta last month .\nAlso killed: Two militants allegedly linked to the 2004 Australian Embassy bombing .","id":"36882fd476e06e9e06a61216b3904429e9ee7f96"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Leon Panetta, chief of staff in President Bill Clinton's White House, will be President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be CIA director, two Democratic officials told CNN on Monday. Leon Panetta, who has a strong background in economics, was chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. The officials also said retired Adm. Dennis Blair, who formerly headed the U.S. Navy's Pacific Command, will be tapped as director of national intelligence. Panetta, 70, has had a long political career, beginning in 1966 when he served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel. R-California. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1977, serving California's 16th (now 17th) District until Clinton appointed him to head the Office of Budget and Management in 1993. He was chief of staff from 1994 to 1997. Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, founded and co-direct the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy at California State University, which provides study opportunities for students there and at several other schools. He serves on several boards and committees, and lectures internationally on economics. With a strong background in economics, Panetta has little hands-on experience in intelligence. But he is known as a strong manager with solid organizational skills. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will be the new chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she had not been told in advance of Panetta's selection. \"My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time,\" the California Democrat said. But Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Intelligence Committee, said he was consulted on the pick and praised Panetta. \"I believe he has the skills to usher in a new era of accountability at the nation's premier intelligence agency,\" said Wyden, D-Oregon. \"For too long our nation's intelligence community has operated under a policy of questionable effectiveness and legality in which consulting two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee counted as 'consulting with Congress.' \" Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, also questioned Panetta's lack of intelligence experience, as did outgoing committee chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, wouldn't comment until Obama makes an announcement, but his spokesman said that Hoekstra \"has called for a new direction and a change in the culture a the CIA for some time.\" \"Whether it is Leon Panetta or someone else, it is important the agency move in a new direction,\" Jamal Ware said. Blair, 61, was a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and attended Oxford University in Britain as a Rhodes scholar at the same time as Clinton. Blair retired from the Navy in 2002. He was the CIA's first associate director of military support and served on the National Security Council. He has been sharply critical of U.S. policy in terms of strategic long-term planning. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's cabinet picks . \"I am in awe of the sophisticated strategies that American politicians can devise and pursue over many years,\" he told a House panel in July. \"They involve very public activities -- speeches, programs, alliances -- but also backroom deals, and stratagems, tactical flexibility but strategic constancy, investment in intellectual and organizational capabilities that will not pay off for years. \"I have yet to see these same brilliant politicians come up with similar strategies to advance the national interest when they come into national office. Our national strategies show little of the depth, brilliance and effectiveness of the domestic political strategies this country produces.\" Blair also is known in Navy circles for once trying to water-ski behind the destroyer he skippered, the USS Cochrane.","highlights":"Next Senate intelligence chairwoman says she wasn't told Panetta was picked .\nSen. Feinstein: CIA best served by \"an intelligence professional in charge\"\nPanetta is Barack Obama's choice for CIA director, two Democratic officials say .\nOfficials: Retired Adm. Dennis Blair to be tapped as director of national intelligence .","id":"8875141ea7bb1ce9a3a56ce5f3cb9d678ccc175c"} -{"article":"Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Richard Waltzer has a pitch for Cuba: Miller beer and H\u00e4agen-Dazs ice cream. If he has his way, those products soon will be available at supermarkets and beach resorts on the communist island. \"This is one of the things people are going to pay premium for,\" Waltzer said, \"especially the tourists that have the dollars. It's going to be a phenomenal product.\" This week, dozens of Americans are in Havana, peddling their wares at an international trade fair: apples, pears, grapes, raisins, nuts out of California. U.S.-Cuba relations appear to be thawing. In Havana, billboards depicting the U.S. president as Adolf Hitler have disappeared. In Washington, President Obama has lifted restrictions on Cuban-American travel and money transfers. The new political climate has prompted companies such as Chicago Foods to come to Havana's trade fair for the first time. They're hoping to break into the little-known market and go home with a contract. Despite a trade embargo imposed against Cuba in 1962, the United States is the No. 1 supplier of food to that country and has been for more than five years. A law passed in 2000 allows the United States to export agricultural products and medicine. But this year, the global economic crisis is taking its toll. \"Cuba has not been an exception,\" said Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, minister of foreign trade and investment. \"At the end of the third quarter in 2009, our trade fell by 36 percent.\" The country is slashing imports of U.S. food by one-third, which means some vendors will go home empty-handed. But vendors are betting U.S.-Cuba relations will only get better. They said they're also hoping the next step could be bills in the U.S. Congress that would eliminate restrictions on all Americans traveling to Cuba. \"We're in this for the long haul as well,\" said Paul Johnson of Chicago Foods. \"Like I said before, we're thinking about today as well as tomorrow.\" A tomorrow that would have U.S. tourists sipping American beer on Cuban beaches.","highlights":"New political climate prompts U.S. firms to come to Cuban trade fair for first time .\nU.S. companies want to break into market and go home with a contract .\nCuba also reeling from global economic crisis .\nCuba is slashing imports of U.S. food by one-third .","id":"a6011a0db0b375ee2df976f9513e89e3676bd818"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Stevie Wonder has had more than 30 U.S. top ten hits and has won 22 Grammy Awards -- more than any other male artist. Blind from birth, Wonder's music has always reflected his concern with humanitarian and social issues. On Thursday, he joined the prestigious list of U.N. Messengers of Peace and will focus on the battle for disabled rights. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment, calling Wonder a \"musical genius\" and \"great humanitarian, who has campaigned against apartheid, for children in need, and for persons with disabilities.\" Speaking about his new U.N. role Wonder told CNN's Becky Anderson: \"It's about that ten percent of the world that suffers with a disability. It's about sounding that alarm off that says to the 90 percent: it's time to get it together for those of us with disabilities.\" Asked by Anderson what phrase which would encapsulate his mission Wonder said: \"We can never let our fears put our dreams to sleep.\" He said the 90 percent of people who aren't disabled should learn not to fear disability, whatever form it takes and called for a stop to an \"ignorance to the highest point of ridiculousness.\" Wonder hopes that politicians will listen to him in his new role as a U.N. messenger. \"If you love my music that much, then care about those ten percent as well. There are 650 million disabled people in the world. Lets do something about that. Lets make a change,\" he said. The popularity of Wonder's music at the White House is well known. Indeed, President Obama says he owes a lot to his music. When awarding Wonder the U.S.'s highest award for pop music: the Library of Congress' Gershwin prize earlier this year the president said: \"Michelle might not have dated me, we might not have married. The fact that we agreed on Stevie was the essence of our courtship.\" Wonder isn't surprised to see a black man in the White House. \"That whole place of feeling that you can't have a black president or a female president, it's always been about people's inability to think out of the box that's always been backward in the first place.\" The only downside from Wonder's new role is for his fans. His new album \"Gospel Inspired By Lula\" wont be coming out until next May he told Anderson. He admitted that after all these years in the business he still gets nervous and still hits the odd bum note. \"We did a show recently where my voice cracked and I said 'we gotta do that again!' We all laughed about it.\" Does he have a favorite song from his own catalogue? \"I always use this thing that Duke Ellington would say. He used to say that 'I haven't written it yet.' I guess I would say the same. I would say this to you: whatever your favorite is, is my favorite too.\"","highlights":"Stevie Wonder talks to CNN about his new U.N. role .\nThe multi award-winning Grammy artist is a new Messenger of Peace .\nWonder will fight for the rights of 650 million disabled people worldwide .","id":"8e5e2fe6ff76cc41753b1e4c765764112eed3e97"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Formula 1 will continue to take place in Britain for the next 17 years after a deal was struck between Silverstone's owners and the sport's chief Bernie Ecclestone. Monday's announcement by the track's owners means the oldest venue on the F1 calendar keeps its place. Silverstone's comeback took place despite rival track Donington Park being awarded the contract to host the British Grand Prix from 2010. However, that circuit lost out after failing to secure the $200 million needed to fund redevelopment plans. That had led to fears Ecclestone would look to move the race abroad. Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips told the Press Association: \"We've always had five-year deals and never been able to get the investment we needed to redevelop. \"But 17 years gives us the ability to invest and move forward. We've always had the belief the British Grand Prix was an important cornerstone of Formula One but, with Bernie, you're never quite sure. Phillips described the deal as \"peace in our time\" between the circuit's owners, the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), and Ecclestone. \"The relationship with Formula One Management has been improving,\" added Phillips. \"There's a good working relationship with him now and we don't have any issues.\" Applauding the negotiating team, BRDC president and 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill told the Press Association: \"It's not easy to enter into an agreement of this magnitude. It's a big commitment. \"But the BRDC felt we wanted this relationship to continue, and we were prepared to back the negotiating team, with the level of risk satisfactory for the deal to go ahead. \"This announcement is tremendous news. It really does cement Silverstone as a motor sport venue and is incredibly satisfying for the BRDC to cement its relationship with F1.\"","highlights":"Formula 1 will continue in Britain after deal between Silverstone and sport's chief Bernie Ecclestone .\nAnnouncement by the track's owners means the oldest race on the F1 calendar keeps its place .\nDonington was to host British Grand Prix from 2010 but failed to secure $200 million for redevelopment .","id":"b356ff10b72e1580d01070efdbc6425bc277dd3b"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Sherrilyn Ifill is a professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law and a civil rights lawyer who specializes in voting rights and political participation. She is the author of \"On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century,\" and is a regular contributor to The Root at http:\/\/www.theroot.com\/. Sherrilyn Ifill says Sonia Sotomayor's speech was an honest effort to describe how judges rule on cases. (CNN) -- When Don Imus denigrated in clearly racist terms the championship women's basketball team from Rutgers University; when actor Michael Richards screamed at black guests in a comedy club, calling them the \"n-word\" and invoking the threat of lynching; when Trent Lott said that things would have been better if a southern segregationist had been elected president a half-century earlier, responsible white people from across the ideological spectrum stepped forward to explain that these individuals were not racist. The \"R\" word has become the taboo of the white world. By this I mean that calling someone racist is a taboo, not racism itself. So when Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich and several other conservative commentators call a sitting federal appeals court judge and Supreme Court nominee who happens to be Latina, a racist, it's time to push back. Real hard. The evidence offered in support of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's alleged racism is a speech she gave in Berkeley, California, in honor of Judge Mario G. Olmos, a former judge, community leader and graduate of Boalt Hall Law School who died an untimely death at the age of 43. The offending section of the speech is this: \"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.\" This passage inspired Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives and potential 2012 presidential candidate, to call Judge Sotomayor \"a Latina racist.\" To lift one statement out of Judge Sotomayor's eight-page speech without examining the context and substance of her remarks, is an example of the kind of shoddy character assassination that I suspect will dominate this judicial confirmation process. Judge Sotomayor's speech is, in fact, an excellent meditation on how the experiences of judges might affect how they approach aspects of judicial decision-making. It explores the important, and too-little examined reality that judicial deliberations can be affected by a judge's background, perspective and experience. In the next sentence immediately following the passage above, Judge Sotomayor says, \"Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice [Benjamin] Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society.\" Could she have been referring to Buck v. Bell, the 1927 case in which Justice Holmes -- widely regarded as perhaps the most brilliant justice in the Supreme Court's history -- upheld the state's plan to sterilize Carrie Buck, an 18-year-old white woman, who was accused of being congenitally retarded. Buck's main crime seems to have been the fact that she'd had a child out of wedlock. In any case, Justice Holmes upheld the sterilization order, emphatically and coldly stating, \"three generations of imbeciles is enough.\" Does anyone seriously believe that a woman, and especially a woman of color \"with the richness of her experiences\" would not have \"reach[ed] a better conclusion \" than that adopted by Justice Holmes in 1927? In fact Buck v. Bell is the perfect example of how a \"wise old [white] man\" got it wrong in a way that a woman judge or a racial minority most likely would not. It's worth pointing out that in that same speech Judge Sotomayor cautioned, \"we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group.\" But she acknowledges that \"there may be some [difference in her judging] based on my gender and my Latina heritage.\" What Gingrich and others decry in Judge Sotomayor should be applauded. Judge Sotomayor has the humility to recognize the difficulty of achieving true and pure impartiality. Instead, as she pointed out in her speech, \"[t]he aspiration to impartiality is just that -- it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others.\" Unlike so many judges who by virtue of being white and male simply assume their impartiality, Judge Sotomayor recognizes that all judges are affected by their background and their life experiences. Ironically, it was Justice Cardozo who recognized this when he said, \"[t]he great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men, do not turn aside in their course, and pass the judge by.\" Justice Cardozo concluded that \"[n]o effort or revolution of the mind will overthrow utterly and at all times the empire of ... [a judge's] subconscious loyalties. These are the realities of judicial decision-making evoked by Judge Sotomayor's speech. It's perhaps easier to say as [then-Supreme Court nominee] Clarence Thomas so famously did, that a judge can simply, \"strip down like a runner,\" and become utterly impartial simply by putting on a black robe. But it is more honest to acknowledge that regardless of race, gender, ideology or professional background, impartiality is always a work-in-progress for judges. Even Judge Richard Posner, a conservative stalwart on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals once observed that, \"Litigation commonly involves persons at different social distances form the judge, and the more proximate will garner the more sympathetic response regardless of actual desert.\" Justice Thomas is the perfect example of how hard it can be for a judge to lay aside the personal experiences that shape his worldview. His views about the affirmative action cases that come before him are shaped quite clearly by what he regards as the self-sufficient dignity of his hard-working grandfather and the humiliation he says he felt when others believed his scholarly accomplishments were the result of affirmative action. White judges are also shaped by their background and experiences. They needn't ever speak of it, simply because their whiteness and gender insulates them from the presumption of partiality and bias that is regularly attached to women judges and judges of color when it comes to matters of race and gender. Only a judge who is conscious and fully engaged with the reality of how her experiences may bear on her approach to the facts of a case, or sense of social justice, or vision of constitutional interpretation, should be entrusted to sit on the most influential and powerful court in our nation. Too often we have allowed ourselves to be placated and charmed by fantasies about umpire judges calling \"balls and strikes,\" without ever asking which league the game is being played in or whether the umpire was standing in the best position to see the play. We forget that when deciding whether a batter checked his swing, the homeplate umpire will routinely ask for the alternative perspective from the first or third base umpire before calling a \"swing and a miss\" a strike. Judge Sotomayor rightly suggests that these things matter. She notes in her speech that \"personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.\" She should know this. She's been a trial judge. None of the other justices who will serve with Judge Sotomayor will have had that experience. Judge Sotomayor's speech is one of the most honest and compelling statements about judicial impartiality we're likely to hear from a judge of her stature. It ends with this humble observation: . \"Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I re-evaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences, but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.\" It's entirely appropriate to question Judge Sotomayor about this speech at her confirmation hearings. She is evidently more than capable of explaining in compelling, clear language what precisely she wanted to convey in this speech. But Judge Sotomayor is not a racist. It is an insult of unimaginable proportion to unleash this charge on her, based on one sentence from her Berkeley, California, speech. It is not just irresponsible to make this charge against a sitting federal appeals court judge based on this flimsy record; it is -- and here I'll break the taboo -- racist to do so. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sherrilyn Ifill.","highlights":"Sherrilyn Ifill: The charge of being a racist is a taboo in much of society .\nCritics of Sotomayor have called her racist for one sentence in a speech, Ifill says .\nShe says judge was honestly examining how judges make their decisions .\nIfill says Impartiality is always a work-in-progress for judges .","id":"b5cf57b7944934c585512864b7a51bd9c8371e38"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- If the location is anything to go by, then the omens are promising. Denmark's capital city, Copenhagen -- host to the U.N. climate summit which starts today -- is already one of the greenest cities in Europe. With over 300 kilometers of cycle lanes it is estimated that around 40 percent of the 1.2 population travel to work on a bicycle. And visitors to the city are encouraged to join in by making use of the network of city bikes for a deposit of just 20 DKK ($4). The influence of two wheels has extended into Yuletide this year, as cyclists in City Hall Square are generating the electricity powering the lights on the Christmas tree. It's just one of hundreds of activities and events which Copenhageners have organized to coincide with the 11-day U.N. summit taking place at the Bella Center in the Orestad district in the southeast of the city. The opening of the summit marks the end of an exhaustive planning period by the city. Preparations at the Bella Center began two years ago. The finishing touches began eight weeks ago. \"It is, by far, the largest conference we have ever held and the largest political conference in Europe,\" the Bella Center press manager, Lars Lemche told CNN. \"If numbers continue to grow, it will be the biggest political meeting the U.N. has ever held,\" he said. The center has hosted big events before -- a European Union summit in 2002 and the 2006 MTV European Music Awards -- but the U.N. summit makes them look like a tea party. \"A conference is 36 hours. This is 11 days,\" Lemche said. The Bella Center has had to extend its floor space to 77,000 square meters -- the size of 11 football pitches -- to accommodate all delegates and 1000 staff will be on hand throughout. Numbers are expected to peak at around 18,000 in the second week when 100 heads of state arrive for the high-level political negotiations. This Herculean effort of planning is being backed up by a raft of green initiatives. Outside the conference center solar-powered streetlights are helping light the car parks. A wind turbine is helping power the lights indoors. Inside the conference center delegates will eat from a menu that is 65 percent organic and drink water that has come out of a tap rather than a bottle. Pens provided will be made from recycled plastic, and even the carpets are biodegradable. In a bid to offset the considerable carbon dioxide emissions - estimated to be 40,000 tons -- generated by the summit, organizers are funding the replacement of polluting brick factories in Dhaka, Bangladesh with 20 new efficient ones. Despite the disruption, Copenhageners have gone about their daily business as usual. Jason Heppenstall, Editor of The Copenhagen Post, a weekly English language newspaper told CNN: \"There hasn't been much of a build up until the last few days. Until about two weeks ago it's not been talked about a lot in the press and maybe a month ago half the people in Denmark didn't know there was going to be a conference,\" he told CNN. People are starting to notice changes now, and the mood among Copenhageners is positive, apart from the locals living near the Bella Center and whose lives have been disrupted by all the security arrangements, Heppenstall said. The concrete barriers and the perimeter fence erected to protect the Bella Center have been one of the more obvious signs of security in the city. And now that the conference has started, 6000 officers will be on duty during the conference. Niels-Otto Fisker, communications advisor to the Danish national police commissioner, told CNN: \"It is the single greatest operation that the Danish police have undertaken. Police are being drafted in from all over the country, and shifts are being extended from eight to 12-16 hours.\" In all, the security operations are costing the Danish government an estimated $122 million. Last week, police unveiled a 22-ton vehicle armed with a water canon which will be used if trouble flares during the conference. The only confrontations in the buildup to the conference have been between Copenhagen's female mayor, Ritt Bjerregaard, and the city's prostitutes. A row started after city leaders requested hotels display postcards saying: \"Be sustainable: Don't buy sex.\" The prostitutes -- whose are free to work under Danish law -- have responded by offering their services free of charge. \"Our office is based in the red-light district. There are prostitutes here, but it's not like Amsterdam,\" Heppenstall explained. \"I think some people coming to the conference think it might be. So the city council have been trying to pre-empt it by sending postcards saying please refrain from going to these areas. The sex workers have responded by saying that's ridiculous. They see this as their big moment.\" As Copenhagen hands over to the U.N. for two weeks, the world's eyes are now turning to negotiations which precede the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama and company. Earlier this year, Copenhagen announced the aim of being carbon neutral by 2025. Perhaps the U.N. could take a leaf out of their host's book.","highlights":"Danish capital, Copenhagen, one of the greenest cities in Europe .\nU.N. climate summit is biggest political event Denmark has hosted .\nCopenhagen aims to be carbon neutral by 2025 .","id":"04492e5f44f11a62de6d75d79abd8719a66d929d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six heat-trapping gases that contribute to air pollution pose potential health hazards, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday in a landmark announcement that could lead to regulation of the gases. \"This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem,\" EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said. The gases -- carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride -- have been the subject of intensive analysis by scientists around the world, the EPA said. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the EPA's scientific review in 2007. \"This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations,\" EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a release, later adding, \"The science clearly shows that concentrations of these gases are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions, and these high levels are very likely the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate.\" The EPA's finding now goes into a public comment period. The report, titled \"Assessment of the Impacts of Global Change on Regional U.S. Air Quality: A Synthesis of Climate Change Impacts on Ground-Level Ozone,\" is the culmination of a study started in 2000, the EPA said. The White House moved quickly to try to squelch any concerns that the EPA would immediately issue any regulations concerning the gases. \"The president has made clear his strong preference that Congress act to pass comprehensive legislation rather than address the climate challenge through administrative action,\" White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said. \"That's why the president has repeatedly called for a bill to provide for market-based solutions to reduce carbon pollution and transition to a clean-energy economy that creates millions of green jobs.\" The EPA announcement comes amid efforts by Congress to enact a limit on global warming pollution. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to begin hearings next week on a comprehensive energy and climate bill, called the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Committee Chairman Henry Waxman is said to want the bill out of committee by Memorial Day, which falls on May 25, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wants to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote this year. Environmentalists hailed the EPA's announcement, with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund calling it a \"historic step ... [that] formally determined that global warming pollution 'endangers' the nation's human health and well-being.\" \"The U.S. is taking its first steps as a nation to confront climate change,\" said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel at the environmental advocacy group. \"Global warming threatens our health, our economy, and our children's prosperity. EPA's action is a wake-up call for national policy solutions that secure our economic and environmental future.\" But critics say the finding will just produce a \"glorious mess.\" \"Today's action by the EPA is the beginning of a regulatory barrage that will destroy jobs, raise energy prices for consumers and undermine America's global competitiveness,\" said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. \"It now appears EPA's regulatory reach will find its way into schools, hospitals, assisted living facilities and just about any activity that meets minimum thresholds in the Clean Air Act.\" The EPA notes in an accompanying report released Friday that global warming could make ozone pollution worse in some parts of the United States. Future ozone management decisions may have to take into account the possible effects of global warming, the report says. \"Climate change, along with other aspects of global change, including changes in population, land use and the technologies employed for energy production and transportation, may alter the capacity for U.S. states to successfully attain the national air quality standards in the future,\" the report concludes. Ground-level ozone is formed when sunlight causes a chemical reaction in the air between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emitted by motor vehicles and industrial plants. Ozone levels are typically higher on sunny days in areas that have many vehicles or smoke-stack industries. Global warming also could increase the number of days with weather conditions conducive to forming ozone, potentially causing air quality alerts earlier in the spring and later in the fall, the report says. In addition to health problems, the report says global warming could lead to increased drought, more heavy downpours and flooding, and more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires. Global warming could also cause a greater rise in sea level, more intense storms and harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems, the report said. CNN political correspondent Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.","highlights":"EPA official says \"concentrations of these gases are at unprecedented levels\"\nEnvironmentalists say announcement is important step in reduction efforts .\nCritic: Finding may help destroy jobs, raise energy prices, cut U.S. competitiveness .\nThe House is will begin discussing the American Clean Energy and Security Act .","id":"71573a2a60b277392330c1741fa97d982693646c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Women were dismissed from the military for being gay at a greater rate than men last year, according to new statistics obtained by a California research group. Women were dismissed from the military for being gay at a greater rate than men last year. All the services kicked out a disproportionate number of women under the \"Don't Ask, Don't Tell\" policy, according to Department of Defense data obtained by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The center studies gender and sexuality in the military. The \"Don't Ask, Don't Tell\" policy, implemented in 1994, bans troops who are openly gay from serving in the military. In the Air Force, a majority of those removed were women, the first time a service has had such a record since the implementation of the controversial law in 1994, according to Palm Center senior research fellow Nathaniel Frank. Watch CNN's Randi Kaye report on Obama's promises \u00bb . In fiscal year 2008, the Air Force dismissed 56 women and 34 men. In addition, the Army removed more women under the \"Don't Ask, Don't Tell\" policy at a greater rate than men when compared with the ratio of women to men in each service. Of those discharged under the policy, 36 percent were women, although women make up only 14 percent of troops in the Army, the data showed.","highlights":"New statistics obtained by a California research group, the Palm Center .\nServices kicked out disproportionate number of women under \"Don't Ask, Don't Tell\"\nIn the Air Force, a majority of those removed for being gay were women .","id":"18820f6e4313015bce803fcdbaa977dd16e1a1a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English Premier League Fulham produced a superb performance in Switzerland on Wednesday to eliminate opponents Basel from the Europa League with a 3-2 victory. Roy Hodgson's men went into the away game needing victory to leapfrog their opponents and join Group E winners AS Roma in the last 32 of Europe's second-tier club competition. Fulham were led by striker Bobby Zamora, who capped a recent scoring spree with two goals just before halftime. Basel hit back with a disputed penalty before Zoltan Gera put Fulham 3-1 ahead with a neat finish. But a Marco Streller 87th minute strike for the home side set up a nervous finish for the visitors, who survived to reach the knockout stages. Roma beat CSKA Sofia in the group's other match with Alessandro Cerci scornig twice. In Group F, French star Djibril Cisse scored a late double as Panathinaikos booked their passage with a 3-0 home win over Dinamo Bucharest. Ante Rukavina set the Greek giants on their way to the last 32 with a 55th-minute strike. Turkish side Galatasaray won the group but lost 1-0 to Austria's Sturm Graz, who scored through Daniel Beichler. In Group D, Bundesliga Hertha Berlin beat Sporting Lisbon of Portugal 1-0 through Gojko Kacar's second half strike. It meant Dutch side Heerenveen were eliminated despite a 5-0 home victory over FK Ventspils. Second-half goals from Gerard Sibon, who scored twice, Mika Vayrynen, Viktor Elm and Darryl Janmaat gave Heerenveen victory, but Hertha's win spoiled their celebrations. Sporting were already through as group winners. Last season's UEFA Cup finalists Werder Bremen beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to top Group L, with both guaranteed their spots in Friday's draw. Bremen netted three times in the opening 36 minutes through Claudio Pizarro, Naldo and Markus Rosenberg to complete a comfortable win.","highlights":"Fulham reach last 32 of Europa League at the expense of Basel with 3-2 win in Switzerland .\nGreek giants Panathinaikos book place in knockout stage with 3-0 win over Dinamo Bucharest .\nHertha Berlin go through with 1-0 win over group winners Sporting Lisbon .\nFellow Bundesliga side Werder Bremen top Goup L after 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao .","id":"64605c878e6db7da728656ac7c52e9e8d2fcc70f"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (Reuters) -- A newborn Indian baby found abandoned with 26 stab wounds has survived, doctors said on Wednesday, despite a cracked skull and exposed intestines. The baby boy, who doctors said was aged between one and two days, was discovered soaked in blood at a garbage dump in India's financial capital of Mumbai on Tuesday, they said. His intestines were hanging out from a deep wound on his back and he had dirt and garbage stuck on him. \"When he was brought in he looked pale from blood loss,\" said Ramesh Hatti, a doctor at a city hospital. \"He is still in a lot of pain but is now stable.\" Police have not been able to trace the baby's parents or establish a reason for the attack. Babies are sometimes abandoned by unwed Indian mothers, who fear severe social repercussions for having a child out of wedlock. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"A newborn Indian baby found abandoned with 26 stab wounds has survived .\nThe baby boy also suffered a cracked skull and exposed intestines .\nDoctors said he was aged between one and two days .\nBabies are sometimes abandoned by unwed Indian mothers .","id":"aae471e5a5e4aafa9eef2493399f03147bcbd9ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Attorneys for 16 Indiana National Guard soldiers on Wednesday sued the largest U.S. contractor in Iraq, alleging the company knowingly exposed the soldiers to a cancer-causing toxic chemical. 16 Indiana National Guardsmen have sued the Houston-based company Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR. The lawsuit against Houston-based KBR, which seeks an unspecified amount, alleges that the soldiers were exposed to sodium dichromate, an inorganic compound containing a highly toxic form of chromium known as hexavalent chromium. The soldiers say that they, along with other American civilian contractors, were exposed to the chemical at the Qarmat Ali water pumping plant in southern Iraq shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003. KBR was tasked with getting the plant up and running using civilian contractors. The National Guardsmen were assigned to protect the civilian workers. The Guardsmen and civilian contractors who worked there have described walking on and sitting near the bright orange powder that was widely dispersed throughout the grounds of the water plant. The chemical was believed to have been left behind by forces loyal to Saddam Hussein. Some of the Guardsmen already suffer from nasal tumors or respiratory system problems and other health problems, according to the lawsuit. One of the guardsmen may have died from the exposure, though the exact cause of his death earlier this year is still not clear. The odorless sodium dichromate was used at the plant as an anti-corrosive, the lawsuit says. The chemical contained nearly pure hexavalent chromium, the toxic substance that poisoned homeowners in Hinkley, California, and was made famous by activist Erin Brockovich, according to the suit. For the Guardsmen, KBR's \"knowing acts and omissions\" resulted in \"months and months of unprotected, unknowing, direct exposure to one of the most potent carcinogens and mutagenic substances known to man,\" the lawsuit alleges. A spokeswoman for KBR said the company was still reviewing the lawsuit, but denied responsibility for creating unsafe conditions at the plant. \"We are not providing comment on the suit at this time. The company does intend to vigorously defend itself,\" KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said. The Guardsmen say the company knew about the dangers of exposure to the chemical as far back as 2003, but did not act to protect the soldiers. \"KBR managers knew full well long ago that this stuff was incredibly dangerous. But there was no information about it for years. And now these soldiers are facing some pretty serious health concerns. They're going to be stuck with this the rest of their lives,\" said Doyle. \"The most frustrating thing is that these guys are finding out years later that they were exposed to something,\" said Mike Doyle, one of the Houston attorneys representing the Guardsmen. KBR took issue with the allegation that the company knowingly exposed the soldiers or anyone else and did nothing to help. \"KBR's commitment to the safety and security of all employees, the troops and those we serve is the company's top priority,\" the statement read. \"KBR appropriately notified the Army Corps of Engineers upon discovery of the existence of the substance on the site and the Corps of Engineers concluded that KBR's efforts to remediate the situation were effective. Further, the company in no way condones any action that would compromise the safety of those we serve or employ.\" Mark McManaway, a father and grandfather, was an Indiana National Guard sergeant at the water plant from May through September 2003, when the worst exposures are believed to have occurred. He is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. \"The worst part is that the military has only just recently advised us that the stuff we were exposed to was much worse than they thought while we were out there,\" said McManaway. \"It's in our bodies, but we don't know how bad it is. Maybe within the next five years cancers could start showing up. You've got a ticking time bomb in you -- and when's it going to go off?\" The U.S. military is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The toxic chemical made famous by Brockovich in California was a diluted form of hexavalent chromium that caused serious illnesses after being ingested by homeowners through their water. The chemical the Guardsmen were exposed to in Iraq was a nearly pure form of the chemical and could have been inhaled directly by anyone working at the plant. The U.S. Senate held hearings in August on emerging concerns about the exposure to the toxic chemicals after reports of civilian contractors and their exposure to the chemicals at the water plant. But officials of the National Guard -- and most of the Guardsmen who worked at the plant -- were not even aware of the possible dangers at the time of the hearing. Some heard about for the first time during the televised hearings. Only then did the National Guard begin efforts to find the men, some of whom had already been back in the United States for four years. An estimated 275 American soldiers may have been exposed to the chemical at the water plant, over a period of months through mid- to late-2003.","highlights":"Suit says Guardsman, contractors exposed to cancer-causing chemical at Iraq plant .\nSuit alleges KBR knew of contamination threat and did nothing to protect soldiers .\nSome Guardsmen suffer from nasal tumors, respiratory problems .\nKBR says it's not to blame for creating unsafe conditions at plant .","id":"e2c551a48b89104f62e4cb84ca832c3eb7db47bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Brazilian court ordered Wednesday that 9-year-old Sean Goldman be returned to the custody of his father, David, in the United States, but his Brazilian relatives were expected to try to block the order, a Brazilian official said. Outside his home in New Jersey, David Goldman told reporters he was heartened by the news, but would not consider his efforts successful until he and the boy are reunited. \"I'm hopeful,\" he said. \"I can't be optimistic because I've gone down there so many times, always under the guise that the rule of law will be followed and Sean will come home to me and his family, and that doesn't happen.\" The 3-0 ruling by the Federal Regional Tribunal in Rio de Janeiro upheld a June decision by the 16th Federal Court in Rio, which ordered Sean returned to his home in New Jersey in accordance with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abductions. But a Brazilian official with knowledge of the case predicted Wednesday's order would be appealed. So far, the boy's Brazilian family has filed 40 appeals, most of them procedural but one substantive. The Brazilian high court is to take up any appeal on Thursday, said Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, who has been pressing the case for his constituent. \"Frankly, every possible nuance has been appealed by the other side,\" he told CNN's \"Situation Room.\" \"Remember, this is an abducting family, they're kidnappers, but they have had a great deal of sway with the court.\" The Supreme Court could still allow Sean Goldman to be returned to his father in the United States while it decides any appeal. Goldman, a former model, said he had last spoken with his son in June, but they did not discuss the custody battle. The case began in 2004, when his wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their 4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and retaining custody of their son. She died last year in childbirth. Goldman has argued that, as the sole surviving parent, he should be granted custody. But the boy's stepfather and his other Brazilian relatives have argued that it would be traumatizing to the boy to remove him from what has been his home for most of his life. The case has drawn high-profile input, including pressure for the boy's return from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Wednesday in a statement that she was pleased to hear about the decision. \"We appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the government of Brazil in upholding its obligations under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction,\" she said. \"And it is my hope that this long legal process is now complete and that the Goldman family will be reunited quickly.\" CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Clinton: \"It is my hope that this long legal process is now complete\"\nDad hopeful, but not optimistic after ruling .\nCourt rules David Goldman should regain custody of his 9-year-old son .\nGoldman's wife took son to Brazil in 2004; she filed for divorce and later died .","id":"238128396a88a7293a0d8069bf7a791b10d4ae92"} -{"article":"A whopping 70 percent of American kids aren't getting enough vitamin D, and such youngsters tend to have higher blood pressure and lower levels of good cholesterol than their peers, according to two new studies published this week in the journal Pediatrics. Low vitamin D levels also may increase a child's risk of developing heart disease later in life, experts say. People who drank milk less than once a week were among those most at risk for vitamin-D deficiency, a study found. \"We were astounded at how common it was,\" says study author Dr. Michal Melamed, an assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the Bronx, New York. \"There is a lot of data that suggests adults with low vitamin-D levels are at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and a lot of cancers, and if kids start out with low levels and never increase them, they may be putting themselves at risk for developing all of these diseases at a much earlier age.\" Vitamin D is often called the \"sunshine vitamin\" because the human body makes it only when exposed to sunlight -- although it only takes 10 to 15 minutes a day to make an adequate amount. Vitamin D, which helps the bones better absorb calcium, is also added to multivitamins and milk. In Melamed's study, the researchers looked at the vitamin D levels of more than 6,000 people ages 1 to 21. They checked for vitamin-D deficiency, which is defined as less than 15 nanograms per milliliter of blood (ng\/mL), and vitamin-D insufficiency, which is defined as 15 to 29 ng\/mL. Overall, 7.6 million, or 9 percent, of U.S. children were vitamin-D deficient, and another 50.8 million, or 61 percent, had insufficient levels of this important vitamin in their blood. Children with low levels of vitamin D were more likely to have high blood pressure and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein, also known as good cholesterol -- two factors that are considered major risk factors for heart disease later in life. Health.com: How cholesterol affects your heart's health . Children with low vitamin-D levels also had higher levels of parathyroid hormone than their counterparts with adequate vitamin D in their blood. Parathyroid hormone is a measure of bone health. When levels are high, it suggests that bones need more calcium to grow. Watch more on kids in the U.S. and low levels of vitamin D \u00bb . Overall, those most at risk for a vitamin-D deficiency were older, female, obese, drank milk less than once a week, and spent more than four hours a day watching TV, playing video games, or working on a computer. They were also more likely to be children with darker skin, including non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans. (Children with darker skin are more likely to be deficient in vitamin D because they have more melanin than their fairer counterparts. Melanin is the pigment that gives skin color, but it may prevent the skin from absorbing enough sunlight to produce an adequate amount of vitamin D.) Health.com: Battle aging with vitamin D . In the second study, a research team led by Jared P. Reis, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, looked at 3,577 adolescents ages 12 to 19. Those with low levels of vitamin D were more likely to have high blood pressure, high levels of blood sugar, and metabolic syndrome (a cluster of factors known to increase risk of heart disease) than their counterparts with ample vitamin D in their blood, regardless of how much they weighed. Exactly how a lack of vitamin D increases the risk of heart disease is an evolving story. In terms of blood pressure, vitamin D helps control renin, a protein that plays a role in regulating blood-pressure levels. Health.com: Why belly fat increases type 2 diabetes risk . The best vitamin-D boosting strategy involves a three-pronged approach, says Melamed. \"You can get a little bit from food, but not as much as you need,\" she says. \"Supplements are readily available, and kids like to take Flintstones or gummy-bear multivitamins, which typically contain vitamin D.\" Also, parents should help their children get at least 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure daily without sunscreen. \"Set your watch and then apply sunscreen after 15 minutes,\" Melamed says. Some children, including those in high-risk groups, may need to be screened to check for low vitamin-D levels. Dr. Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., a professor of medicine, physiology, and biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine, and the author of \"The Vitamin D Solution\" (to be released in April 2010), has been sounding an alarm about the dangers of low vitamin-D levels for years. Health.com: Easy food swaps cut cholesterol, not taste . \"This is a recipe for serious diseases occurring in our children when they are in their 20s and 30s,\" he says. Holick was among the first to document the return of rickets--a disorder caused by a lack of vitamin D and other minerals--which can lead to the softening and weakening of the bones. Health.com: How to get vitamin D safely . \"[But] rickets is just the tip of the iceberg,\" Holick says. \"Vitamin-D deficiency has insidious, serious long-term health consequences for children that could remain with them throughout their lives,\" he explains. \"[Parents should know] their child is likely to be vitamin-D deficient if the child does not take a supplement of 400 IU vitamin D a day and receive some unprotected sun. It is next to impossible to get enough vitamin D from diet, and the sun-phobic attitude has made the problem much worse.\" Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Study: 70 percent of American kids aren't getting enough vitamin D .\nChildren with darker skin are more likely to be deficient in vitamin D .\nVitamin D helps control the protein renin, involved in blood pressure levels .\nVitamin D also helps the bones better absorb calcium .","id":"1eebe14f510c33ff2c1d1ee22748b4f5f32078e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manor GP are to be rebranded Virgin Racing ahead of their Formula One debut next season. Manor team chief John Booth and Virgin supremo Richard Branson are due to announce the long-awaited sponsorship tie-up on Tuesday. The news has effectively been confirmed by motor sport's world governing body, the FIA, as they have announced the 2010 entry list for the F1 world championship. Currently there are 12 teams, with the name Virgin Racing amongst the newcomers for 2010, joining Lotus F1 Racing, Campos Meta 1 and US F1 Team. The issue of the 13th entry remains unresolved, although Sauber are widely expected to be granted a place on next year's grid following a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on December 11. Peter Sauber last week regained control of the team he sold to BMW four years ago after the German manufacturing giant's withdrawal from the sport. \"I am very relieved about that development,\" the 66-year-old Swiss, who is hopeful the FIA will now look favorably on the team's entry, told reporters. \"It would have been a crying shame had one of the best Formula One factories closed down. Regarding the slot on the grid, I am very confident we will be given a final confirmation very shortly.\" The Formula One Commission are due to discuss Toyota's fate next week, again in Monaco on Wednesday. The Japanese manufacturer pulled out of F1 at the end of last season, despite during the summer signing the new Concorde Agreement that bound them to the sport for the next three years. Speculation has surfaced of late regarding a potential takeover, yet it is unclear whether a buyer would automatically be granted an entry on the basis of Toyota's signature on the Concorde. In a statement, the FIA said: \"Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so. \"An announcement will be made regarding this entry in due course.\"","highlights":"Manor GP are to be rebranded Virgin Racing ahead of their Formula One debut next season .\nA formal announcement will be made at a news conference on Tuesday .\nThe news has been confirmed by the FIA, who have announced the 2010 F1 entry list .","id":"dd3581eec5037a43b93964dbd501d4ad07a84f83"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- An executive of the Chinese dairy company Sanlu Group pleaded guilty Wednesday over her role in the contaminated milk scandal that sickened nearly 300,000 infants, state-run media reported. A salesgirl arranges powdered milk in China's Sichuan province in September. Tian Wenhua, Sanlu's former board chairwoman and general manager, and three other executives are on trial for producing and selling fake or substandard products, according to Xinhua news agency. Wenhua, 66, pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial at a court in Shijiazhuang, the capital of northern Hebei Province, Xinhua reported. She told the court that she first received tainted milk complaints from consumers in mid-May -- four months before the issue became widely known -- according to the report. Wenhua led a working team to investigate the claims, Xinhua reported. The three other executives are former deputy general managers Wang Yuliang and Hang Zhiqi, and Wu Jusheng, a former executive heading Sanlu's milk division. Chinese investigators found melamine in nearly 70 milk products from more than 20 companies, according to quality control official Li Changjiang, who was eventually forced to resign. The Ministry of Health has said the contamination likely caused the deaths of at least six babies. Another 294,000 infants suffered from urinary problems, such as kidney stones. The tainted formula came to light in September after babies who were fed milk powder produced by the Sanlu Group, which recently filed for bankruptcy, had developed kidney stones. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. Some Chinese dairy plants added the chemical to milk products so they would appear to have a higher protein level. Prior to the four Sanlu executives, at least eight people stood trial over charges of producing, adding melamine-laced \"protein powder\" to milk or selling the tainted milk to Sanlu or other dairies. Victims of tainted baby formula are expected to be compensated by the 22 Chinese dairy producers that made the milk. \"The enterprises offered to shoulder the compensation liability,\" the country's Dairy Industry Association said Saturday, according to Xinhua. \"By doing so, they hope to earn understanding and forgiveness of the families of the sickened children.\" The group said victims will receive a one-off cash payment, but did not provide the amounts, according to Xinhua. \"The money for compensation is in place now and will soon be handed to the people who have custody of the sickened children through various channels,\" the association said. No date for the payments was given. The dairies also raised money to cover medical bills for any after-effects suffered as a result of the poisoning, the association said.","highlights":"Tian Wenhua, former Sanlu chairwoman and general manager, pleads guilty .\nFour Sanlu executives accused of producing and selling substandard products .\nScandal revealed after babies fed milk powder developed kidney stones .\nVictims of tainted baby formula to be compensated by 22 Chinese dairy firms .","id":"c6e4a1eec07573d2d02c392ba63d0c21151873cc"} -{"article":"(CareerBuilder.com) -- The importance of references seems to be a hot topic these days. Employers want to make sure they are hiring the right person for the job; but some thwart the process because checking references can be labor-intensive. On the other hand, job seekers provide references they know will give a glowing report, but employers are getting smarter and finding references you didn't provide. So, what's the deal? Do references matter? Do employers even check them anymore? What's the protocol for providing them to a potential employer? Who are the best people to include as references? And, if an employer doesn't call any of your references, is it a bad sign? While the definitive answer to any of these questions depends on the employer, overall, yes, references do still matter. The process has just changed. \"References play a huge role in the hiring process, perhaps now more than ever,\" said Heather R. Huhman, founder and president of Come Recommended, an online community that connects internship and entry-level job candidates with employers.\" Oftentimes, hiring managers fall in love with a candidate on paper and then again in an interview, only to find out through a reference check that none of their previous employers would ever hire them again. By checking a candidate's references, hiring managers save themselves the frustration of hiring a person who is not a good fit for a company. In this economy, where hiring budgets are slim, every hire must be a great fit.\" Provided references are no guarantee . Though the majority of employers do check references, others skip this step. Not only is it labor-intensive to check references for people who might not be poised for a job offer, but Jack Harsh, adjunct professor at the University of Richmond Robins School of Business, said that many employers worry about the risk of liability in rejecting a candidate based on poor references. \"[Hiring] decisions cannot be based on information that is discriminatory in nature, so to avoid any liability, the checks are forgone,\" Harsh said. \"Sadly, the first reference the employer gets in such cases is from colleagues after employment has begun.\" Steve Langerud, director of career development at Depauw University, adds that sometimes, the quality of references is benign. \"Everyone wants to be helpful and supportive to former employees, but in the end, they offer little substance to a new employer,\" he says. \"Legally, they are limited by what they can or want to say about former employees. I think the old formal system of references is dead in most professional fields.\" Langerud warns that just because an employer isn't checking personal references the traditional way doesn't mean he isn't checking references at all. \"Employers are more likely to check the informal, but tangible, behavioral reference sources like LinkedIn, Facebook, credit history [or] criminal history than the more subjective references provided by candidates,\" he said. \"Candidates should be much more intentional about crafting a professional identity that serves the role of a 'reference' but within the context of the work, profession and colleagues you seek to engage. It eliminates the weaknesses inherent in the old style of references that become so watered down they are useless.\" Making the right choices . The last thing you want to do is give an employer useless references, but many job seekers make the mistake of not taking the time to thoughtfully choose the right people to speak on their behalf, said Elaine Varelas, managing partner for Keystone Partners, an outplacement and talent management consulting firm. \"You want people who can speak to your role as a professional, not as a nice neighbor,\" Varelas said. \"Candidates can make their references count by prepping them to discuss their specific skills as they relate to the job and the impact they brought to the job, which can be just the differentiation needed in this highly competitive market.\" Harsh agrees that when he receives a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 with references attached, he gives them virtually no weight. \"They seldom are specific to the role my company seeks and are not meaningful in considering qualifications or traits of successful candidate,\" he said. Finally, when it comes to protocol for submitting references, the process has changed as well. It used to be that applicants sent them in with their other application materials, but now, Varelas says, you should wait to provide references until you are asked. \"Most companies do not want your references until the end of the process and they will let you know when to provide a list of names and contact information. Do not send written references,\" she said. \"These do not offer the highest impact as they are not specific on how you will fit into the job you are pursuing. It is better to spend your time preparing your references for the kinds of questions they will be asked, and what they can do to help you close an offer.\" Helpful hints . Harsh, Varelas and Langerud offer these 10 tips to ensure you do everything right when it comes to providing references: . 1. Include references only when requested by an employer. 2. Carefully consider whom to provide after discussion with the prospective employer. The time to check references is before an offer is made, but after the candidate is either the final candidate or among the final few for the job. 3. Seek references from people who actually know you and your work. Ask for permission to list them as a reference. 4. Ask directly if they can provide you with a positive reference for the position(s) you are seeking. If they hesitate, move on! 5. Prepare your references about who will be calling them and what to focus on when talking about you. Always ask them to call you after they have been called. 6. Prepare your references to speak consistently about your skills, but not identically. Suggest a different highlight for each person. Have 100 percent confidence in what they will say and how they speak about you, or cross them off the list. 7. Provide accurate contact information about your references, and ask your references how they prefer to be contacted (e-mail, phone, etc.). 8. Let your references know what happens to you and the position(s) you applied for. Thank your references. 9. Prepare a LinkedIn site to demonstrate your skills and interests. 10. Participate in professional blogs to create a history of professional involvement in your field that is independent of your work history. © CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority.","highlights":"Refrences still matter these days, but the process has changed on how they are used .\nOften times an employer will use more informal tools like Facebook and LinkedIn, said an expert .\nMake sure to include references only when requested by an employer, and never before .\nSeek references from people who actually know you and your work, not just personaly .","id":"682e284e75e7e366855d1c177a44c87f1c2190bb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This month on MainSail . Shamrock V, a 1930's Americas Cup challenger at the J-class race in the Solent, Isle of Wight, in 2001. What makes a \"classic\" yacht? Is it age, or era? Are classics born or made? Is it size and value, or cultural significance? Classics can be modern and old -- from three-mast 1930s teak works of art like the original America's Cup racers, to cutting edge, contemporary monsters, like the \"Maltese Falcon\" and the exclusive fleets of luxury boat builders like Perini Navi and Wally. This month CNN's Mainsail investigates what makes a classic yacht at one of the world's great yachting regattas. Les Voiles de St Tropez . St Tropez, playground of the rich and famous, a bastion of class, richesse and style, plays host for the 26th year to Les Voiles de St Tropez, a classic event in every possible sense of the word. The regatta gathers together the most extraordinary modern sailing boats alongside the most beautiful traditional yachts, as sailors from all over the world gather to do battle in the Mediterranean's most glamorous bay. During the week's racing, presenter Shirley Robertson hitches a ride on board some of the world's most iconic yachts both ancient and modern, and attempts to find out what makes them \"classics.\" Ernesto Bertarelli . Reporting from Genoa in a world exclusive, Shirley chats to Alinghi team boss, Ernesto Bertarelli and drives the new \"Alinghi 5\" -- the defender of the America's Cup. Robertson is likely to be the only person in the world outside of the Alinghi team to get her hands on the wheel of the spectacular 90-foot catamaran. Will this boat, just a few months old, become an instant classic? And in a report from the Perini Navi Cup in Sardinia, boat builders and skippers of the most glamorous luxury yachts on the planet explain what makes their machines the classics of the future.","highlights":"What makes a 'classic' yacht? Mainsail takes up the challenge to find out .\nShirley Robertson hitches a ride on some of the world's most iconic yachts .\nShe drives the new Alinghi 5, while chatting to Alinghi team boss Bertarelli .","id":"4bd885a8fad7ad5aee9cfecf5aa0531aa8866d65"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Three hundred and forty. At the Bandelier National Monument visitors can climb into ancient cliff dwellings used by Native Americans. That's how many steps and ladder rungs we climb to Bandelier National Monument (http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/band\/), to crowd into its ancient (dating back to before 1300) cliff dwellings about 50 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Even the kids are impressed that Ancestral Pueblo families lived here before Columbus arrived, even before the Pilgrims stepped foot on Plymouth Rock. We look at the crumbling adobe and try to imagine apartment-type dwellings that stretched more than three stories: We crouch inside the ceremonial Kivas where the ancient people gathered to teach the children, weave, congregate and discuss the affairs of the day. These unique sites -- Bandelier certainly isn't the only one -- and spectacular desert landscape make New Mexico a terrific family destination winter or summer, and one that will win kudos from all ages. Where else can you ski one day -- in Taos or outside of Santa Fe, gallery hop or take a cooking lesson the next, shop or tour museums till you drop and gain a new perspective on Native American history? New Mexico is home to 22 sovereign Indian nations, including the Navajo Nation, two Apache Tribes and 19 Pueblos. The Pueblo of Acoma (http:\/\/www.skycity.com\/), which sits on a 367-foot-high sandstone rock, is considered the oldest inhabited village in the United States. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque can help you get started (www.indianpueblo.com). You can even stay on a Pueblo -- the deluxe Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa (http:\/\/www.tamaya.hyatt.com), owned by the Santa Ana Pueblo and managed by Hyatt, offers holiday packages. The 350-room resort, halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, sits on 500 sprawling acres of a 73,000-acre reservation and is one of the largest resorts ever built on Native American land. And you can't beat the Sandia Mountains on the horizon for scenery. Great pains have been taken to respect the ancient spirits at the resort. One of the pools is built in a circle, replicating the ceremonial Kivas that have been an integral part of Pueblo life for centuries. Spa treatments are designed to use products that are indigenous to the area (how about a hydrating treatment using desert seaweed or an exfoliation treatment with Tamaya Blue Corn flour?) The signature Corn Maiden restaurant serves dishes from the region. The profits go back to the Pueblo and fund everything from college scholarships to senior centers. Sure you can hang out by the pool, opt for the spa, or play golf here, but horseback riding through the pueblo's backcountry to see petroglyphs, making adobe bricks, drums or pottery or visiting the cultural center and museum devoted to the history, culture and art of the Santa Ana Pueblo make this a different experience. \"All of these activities appealed to us,\" said Eric Shimabukuro, who is from suburban Chicago and was busy making bricks one morning with his two daughters, Lauren, 9, and Carolyn, 7. New Mexico, I think, as I make my way down the ladder at Bandelier and later, watch my daughters knead the dough for Pueblo bread at the Hyatt Tamaya, under the watchful eye of a member of the Santa Ana Pueblo, can be a terrific winter vacation bet for families whose members are not all equally enthusiastic about spending their entire vacation on the slopes. Especially at holiday time when there are traditional dances at Northern New Mexico Pueblos and a variety of celebrations in Santa Fe and around New Mexico (www.santafe.org, www.nmtourism.org). Santa Fe Mountain Adventures (www.santafemountainadventures.com) can help plan a unique sojourn, organizing family activities from touring Bandelier to geocaching, an outdoor treasure-hunting game, to snowshoeing, cooking and pottery making. \"You get so much more out of a visit to a place like this when you're with a guide,\" offers David Thompson, whose family joined us touring Bandelier with Santa Fe Mountain Adventures guides Bill Neuwirth, a college professor, and Anne Stanley, an artist and guide. As we climb ladders and steps, courtesy of the National Park Service, Neuwirth points out the foot holes in the volcanic rock that the ancient peoples used. We wonder what it was like to live in this community so long ago when 30 was considered old, when children were married as soon as they reached puberty and when everything was about the community, not individuals. They raised corn, (the Pueblo people have some 50 recipes to prepare corn) squash and beans. The elevation here is 7,000 feet, but it doesn't seem to bother us. Where we hike at Bandelier, there are as many as 50 dwellings in one section -- and the ground floor doesn't have any doors or windows. The people who lived here climbed up to the roof and then climbed down into the room, which they probably did to protect their homes. No one, Neuwirth explains, really knows why the ancient Pueblo people decided to leave -- whether it was drought, or illness or an impulse to move to another Mesa; Neuwirth gestures out to the desert landscape, \"You couldn't have walked a meter in any direction without running into pueblo remains.\" As we prepared to fly home, all I could think about were those ancient families (did their kids drive them crazy sometimes too?) and all those Pueblos I would have liked to visit, the cooking classes I didn't have time to schedule, the Santa Fe galleries and museums we missed, (check out the Eldorado Hotel and Spa's (www.eldoradohotel.com) Winter Wonderland package, valid now through Jan. 31, 2008. Starting at $199 per night, double occupancy, it includes daily breakfast in the hotel's Eldorado Court or via room service.), and the hikes we didn't attempt. \"We did something different every day!\" my husband said. More important, no one complained about what we did or where we were going. No one was bored. We ate great food, especially the guacamole at El Pinto restaurant (www.elpinto.com) outside of Albuquerque, which was made right in front of us. Not that our New Mexico sojourn was perfect. Traveling with kids -- no matter what their ages -- never is, even in the most spectacular locales. What matters, of course, is the chance to explore a new place -- a new culture -- together. Pass the guacamole, please. E-mail to a friend . (For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.) Copyright 2009 EILEEN OGINTZ, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Several thousand ancestral Pueblo dwellings can be viewed at Bandelier .\nNew Mexico is home to 22 sovereign Indian nations .\nSome Pueblos offer tours and activities .","id":"fb9dcd8a102c492d555f0cca32ee7360c84e5cb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has been accused of \"physical and verbal aggression\" towards a journalist after Sunday's 1-1 Serie A draw at Atalanta. The Italian Sport Union of Journalists (USSI) condemned Mourinho's alleged actions against Corriere dello Sport's Andrea Ramazzotti. A statement from the USSI urged Inter president Massimo Moratti, and the country's governing sporting bodies to investigate. It read: \"The physical and verbal aggression of Inter coach Jose Mourinho towards our colleague Andrea Ramazzotti marks one of the lowest and alarming moments in the relations between football and sporting press. \"Mourinho was already cited, prior to the Champions League game with Rubin Kazan, for his uneducated and disrespectful tone that he used towards certain colleagues. \"This aggression marks an irresponsible and unacceptable escalation. USSI expresses not only its indignation, but a strong concern for gestures and the unspeakable behavior that only increases tensions and controversies. \"It asks president Moratti to intervene energetically so that a member of his club (Mourinho) adapts to the great tradition of civility of the club and of the Moratti family. \"It asks as well of the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) that the sporting justice panel intervenes to examine the behavior of Mourinho for eventual sanctions.\" Mourinho watched Sunday's game from the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban. Reports in Italy have claimed a heated argument took place between Mourinho and Ramazzotti outside the team bus. Mourinho has not commented on the incident but Moratti told the club's official Web site: \"For the moment I don't want to comment as I still don't have all the facts, but I'm sorry. \"I will talk to the head of the union to find out what he means by energetic action.\"","highlights":"Inter coach Jose Mourinho accused of \"physical and verbal aggression\" towards a journalist .\nThe alleged confrontation happened following the 1-1 Serie A draw at Atalanta on Sunday .\nThe Italian Sport Union of Journalists (USSI) have condemned Mourinho's alleged actions .","id":"da8ebeb262da0b345ca3c4a39fc88c3b551402e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The torch for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was lit in a ceremony at the ancient Greek site of Olympia on Thursday, less than four months ahead of the games' opening ceremony. Actress Maria Nafpliotou, as a high priestess, lights the flame for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics on Thursday. The torch will be carried on an eight-day trip through Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics, before being transported to Canada for what will be the longest domestic torch relay in the games' history, officials said. Women dressed in white togas performed a ceremony on the green hillside at Olympia, the home of the Olympic flame and the place where the ancient Olympics took place. A woman playing the role of a high priestess lit the flame by sunlight focused on a mirror, the only way by tradition it can be lit. That fire then was used to light the Vancouver Olympic Torch, which Greek skier and three-time Olympian Vassilis Dimitriadis then carried on the first leg of its journey through Greece. \"The Olympic torch and flame are the symbols of the values and ideals which lie at the heart of the Olympic Games,\" International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said before the ceremony. The torch will carry a message of peace throughout the world, he said -- words echoed by Vancouver 2010 Chief Executive John Furlong. \"Today we build a bridge between ancient Olympia and young Canada,\" he said. \"Canada is a country with a welcoming spirit and a glowing heart. ... We will do all we can to be a shining example of the ideas and values that were first kindled here in this hallowed place.\" After its 1,351-mile (2,180-kilometer) trip through Greece, the torch will be taken to Canada. On October 30, the first of 12,000 torchbearers will begin carrying it through Canada on what will be a 106-day, 27,900-mile (45,000-kilometer) relay. \"It will be the longest domestic relay in Olympic history, just to be sure every Canadian will be given the right to dream and celebrate,\" Furlong said. The torch relay is derived from ancient rituals in Olympia, where torch and relay races were popular festival events and where heralds traveled throughout Greece to announce the games. The torch for the 2010 Winter Games was designed by transportation and aerospace company Bombardier, a Vancouver Olympic sponsor. The lean curves of the white torch were inspired by the lines carved in the snow by winter sports and by the \"undulating beauty of the Canadian landscape,\" the company said. The torch's special construction will allow it to burn through a range of winter weather, including snow, rain, sleet, wind and subzero temperatures, Bombardier said. It weighs 3.5 pounds (1.6 kilograms) fully fueled, the company said. The flame is due to arrive in Vancouver, British Columbia, on February 12 when the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Games will be held at the domed BC Place Stadium.","highlights":"Olympic flame due to arrive in Vancouver, British Columbia, in February .\nVancouver Olympic Torch lit in ceremony in Greece's ancient Olympia .\nTorchbearers will begin carrying flame through Canada next week on 106-day relay .\nVancouver Olympics official: \"It will be the longest domestic relay in Olympic history\"","id":"127eb179a922a12c89add920f500f15bc446fe31"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A former New York City bouncer was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for the brutal slaying of a graduate student from Boston, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said. Darryl Littlejohn, 44, is already serving prison time for the attempted kidnapping of another student in 2005. Darryl Littlejohn, 44, was convicted of first-degree murder last month in the 2006 death of Imette St. Guillen, 24, who had been studying criminology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Littlejohn, who is already serving 25 years to life for the October 2005 attempted kidnapping of a 19-year-old Queens college student, will serve out the sentences consecutively, said Sarah McNaughton of the Brooklyn district attorney's office. During the trial, witnesses said they saw Littlejohn and St. Guillen leaving The Falls bar in lower Manhattan together early February 25, 2006. Littlejohn was working as a bouncer at the bar. Hours later, St. Guillen's nude body was found in an isolated lot in Brooklyn. Her face was covered with strips of packing tape, and a sock was stuffed into her throat. She died of asphyxiation, and investigators determined she had been raped. Littlejohn was charged with murder after investigators linked his DNA to blood found on plastic ties used to bind St. Guillen's hands behind her back. Littlejohn's attorney, Joyce David, has filed an appeal on behalf of her client and maintains his innocence. She said that although Littlejohn has a long criminal record, he has no history of violence against women. The horrific incident spread shockwaves through New York City nightlife, which relies heavily on unlicensed bouncers to keep order in the city's bars and nightclubs. Littlejohn is being held at New York's Rikers Island maximum security facility. CNN's Chris Kokenes and Kristen Hamill contributed to this report .","highlights":"Darryl Littlejohn was convicted last month of murdering Imette St. Guillen, 24 .\nWitnesses saw the two leaving Manhattan bar the morning of February 25, 2006 .\nInvestigators linked his DNA to ties used to bind St. Guillen's hands behind her back .\nLawyer for the former bouncer says he is innocent .","id":"db1c5cf156bc3bf89f9a95983ba6d7355fe35072"} -{"article":"Editor's note: How would you rate President Obama's first 100 days? You'll get a chance to make your opinion known on at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on the CNN National Report Card. Franklin D. Roosevelt had an ambitious first 100 days, CNN's Bill Schneider says. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senior White House adviser David Axelrod has called the 100-day benchmark an \"odd custom, the journalistic equivalent of the Hallmark holiday.'' But where did the notion of a president's \"First 100 Days\" originate? With Franklin D. Roosevelt, another president who took office at a time of dire economic crisis. Roosevelt used his first 100 days to launch the New Deal, his plan to jumpstart the economy and put people back to work. Democrats had just won huge majorities in Congress and were ready to do the president's bidding. But, should Congress fail to act, Roosevelt would ask for \"broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were, in fact, invaded by a foreign foe,\" he warned in his inaugural address. Watch what FDR's First 100 Days were like \u00bb . Congress gave Roosevelt nearly nearly everything he wanted -- 15 major bills in the first 100 days, including the Emergency Banking Relief Act, the Public Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Congress also approved the Beer-Wine Revenue Act that anticipated the end of Prohibition. A White House adviser remarked that members of Congress had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats. Comedian Will Rogers joked at the time that, \"Congress doesn't pass legislation any more. They just wave at the bills as they go by.\" Nothing since has equaled FDR's first 100 days. But as Obama nears the symbolic benchmark, he may have had the boldest 100-day agenda since FDR. Still, Congress has passed only a few major bills, including the $787 billion economic stimulus package, the public lands preservation bill and an expansion of children's health insurance. So what has changed? Presidents can no longer count on the kind of bipartisan cooperation FDR got in 1933 -- even at a time of crisis.","highlights":"Franklin Roosevelt used his first 100 days to launch the New Deal .\nRoosevelt, like President Obama, took office during an economic crisis .\nRoosevelt quickly acted on 15 major bills .\nObama has bold agenda, but little legislation to show for it .","id":"fed446911b886b6a4375a2d059e0ffe398890660"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Criminal charges will not be filed against the 18-year-old college freshman who falsely accused five men of raping her in a dormitory bathroom at Hofstra University, an official said Friday. Instead, Danmell Ndonye must participate in a year-long psychiatric program and spend 250 hours in community service for lying to police about what was a consensual sexual encounter with four of the five accused men, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a written statement. Ndonye said she did not engage in sexual activity with Rondell Bedward, the only one of the men who attends Hofstra University. He has returned to classes. Rice said she retains the option of filing criminal charges against Ndonye if she fails to complete the course of therapy or community service. Rice added that filing criminal charges might have made any future false accuser reluctant to recant and tell the truth, possibly leading to an innocent person serving a lengthy prison sentence. Authorities dropped charges and freed the four men they had taken into custody after their accuser changed her story about having been tied up and sexually assaulted in a dormitory bathroom. The woman recanted after authorities told her that part of the incident was recorded on a cell phone video, Rice said. \"That was when she began to tell the truth,\" she said. It is against the law to report a crime when there was not one, the district attorney said. \"Her actions and her demeanor depict a very troubled young woman in need of much help,\" Rice said. Hofstra University has suspended Ndonye.","highlights":"Danmell Ndonye, 18, will not face criminal charges for falsely accusing 5 men of rape .\nNdonye must participate in yearlong psychiatric program, do community service .\nShe recanted because part of the incident was caught on cell phone video .\nHofstra University has suspended Ndonye .","id":"669b65642cd177438b20233bde7bbfdc44fbaa90"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's family and about 200 of their closest friends gathered on a hill Thursday evening for their final farewell to the pop singer, who died 10 weeks ago. Thursday's service for singer Michael Jackson began 90 minutes past the announced start time. Jackson's burial may lay to rest some of the mystery and controversy that erupted with his sudden death on June 25. His large family was divided over where the superstar's final resting place should be, but matriarch Katherine Jackson settled on a crypt inside the well-guarded and ornate Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California. Thursday's service began 90 minutes past the announced start time, leaving dozens of celebrities -- including Elizabeth Taylor -- waiting in their seats for the 26 cars carrying the Jackson clan to arrive. Gallery: Invitation for Jackson's service \u00bb . It began with Jackson's five brothers -- each wearing a single sequined glove -- carrying his flower-covered bronze casket onto the outdoor stage among six large bouquets of white lilies and white roses, along with green topiaries. His three children, led by daughter, Paris, 11, placed a crown atop their father's coffin, which a family spokesman said it was \"to signify the final resting place of the King of Pop.\" Jackson's children, parents and siblings took their seats in the front row, while his nieces and nephews filled several rows of white chairs behind them. After an opening prayer by Pastor Lucius Smith, soul music legend Gladys Knight sang the gospel hymn \"His Eye Is on the Sparrow.\" Clifton Davis sang \"Never Can Say Goodbye,\" a hit he wrote for The Jackson 5 -- the group that featured a young Michael and his brothers. What was said by Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, and others who took the lectern is not publicly known, because the family barred news cameras from the ceremony. A family statement issued afterward said close friends and family, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, spoke \"spontaneously to celebrate Michael's life.\" News helicopters hovering above captured video from a distance, but without sound. Watch media cover Jackson funeral \u00bb . Lisa Marie Presley, one of Jackson's former wives and the daughter of Elvis, attended the service, according to the family statement. It did not mention Debbie Rowe, Jackson's second wife and the mother of his two oldest children. Macaulay Culkin, the \"Home Alone\" actor who spent time with Jackson during his Neverland Ranch days, was there with his girlfriend, actress Mila Kunis. Actors Corey Feldman and Chris Tucker were also seen arriving for the service. Motown founder Berry Gordy, who gave Jackson and his brothers their first big record deal, and Quincy Jones, who produced Jackson's \"Thriller\" album, were there. Music producer Teddy Riley, who helped with Jackson's 1991 \"Dangerous\" album, attended. The guest list included TV executive Suzanne de Passe, who produced a miniseries about Jackson's family, and Kenny Ortega, who was producing Jackson's comeback show. Thomas Mesereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson in a child molestation trial, sat just behind the Jackson family. When the hour-long service ended, his brothers lifted Jackson's casket for a final time to carry him inside the Great Mausoleum, where he was placed in his crypt at 9:43 p.m. PT (12:43 a.m. ET Friday). The family statement said it was \"his final resting place.\" The family and friends then drove to an Italian restaurant eight miles away, in Pasadena, California, for \"a time of celebration.\" The massive mausoleum, the final resting place for Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and dozens of other celebrities, is normally open to tourists, though the public is denied close access to crypts. Security guards, aided by cameras, keep constant vigil over the graves and crypts, which are surrounded by a world-class collection of art and architecture. The Forest Lawn Web site boasts that the mausoleum, which draws its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Italy, \"has been called the 'New World's Westminster Abbey' by Time Magazine.\" Visitors will see \"exact replicas of Michelangelo's greatest works such as David, Moses, and La Pieta\" and \"Leonardo da Vinci's immortal Last Supper re-created in brilliant stained glass; two of the world's largest paintings,\" the Web site says. Jackson's burial was delayed by division among family members, though Katherine Jackson would make the final decision, brother Jermaine Jackson recently told CNN. He preferred to see his youngest brother laid to rest at his former Neverland Ranch home, north of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara County, California. That idea was complicated by neighbors who vowed to oppose allowing a grave in the rural area -- and by Jackson family members who said the singer would not want to return to the home where he faced child molestation charges, of which he was ultimately acquitted. The mystery of where Jackson would be buried became a media obsession in the weeks after his death. After his body was loaded onto a helicopter at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center hours after his June 25 death, it stayed in the custody of the Los Angeles County coroner for an autopsy. It was only later disclosed that Jackson's corpse was kept in a refrigerated room at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn cemetery until his casket was carried by motorcade to downtown Los Angeles for a public memorial service in the Staples Center arena. Again, speculation about Jackson's whereabouts grew when the media lost track of his casket after his brothers carried it out of sight inside the arena. It was only recently confirmed that it was taken back to the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn while awaiting his family's decision. Though Thursday's interment may settle one Jackson mystery, a more serious one remains. The coroner announced last week that he had ruled Jackson's death a homicide. A summary of the coroner's report said the anesthetic propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the primary drugs responsible for the singer's death. Los Angeles police detectives have not concluded their criminal investigation and no one has been charged.","highlights":"Jackson's three kids, led by daughter, Paris, placed a crown atop their father's coffin .\nClifton Davis sang \"Never Can Say Goodbye,\" a hit he wrote for The Jackson 5 .\nGuests included Elizabeth Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley and Macaulay Culkin .","id":"0246f64a1da528ea94bd1d3b17562a2fda8938f6"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Obama marks his 100th day in office, most recent national polls indicate that more than six in 10 Americans approve of the job he's doing as president. Polls reflect that most Americans approve of President Obama's performance during his first 100 days in office. According to a CNN poll of polls compiled Wednesday, 63 percent said they approve of how Obama is handling his duties. Twenty-nine percent disapprove. The rating is down 3 percentage points from CNN's previous poll of polls, which was compiled Sunday. The president's approval rating stood at 64 percent in a CNN poll of polls in January shortly after his inauguration. \"The number of Americans who think Obama has the right personal qualities to be president has gone up since the campaign last fall,\" said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. \"That wasn't true for George W. Bush eight years ago, and it may be one reason why Obama's approval rating is still in the 60s.\" How does Obama compare with his predecessors around the first 100-days mark? Bush stood at 62 percent in a CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup Poll in April 2001; Bill Clinton at 55 percent in a CNN\/USA Today\/Gallup Poll in April 1993; George H.W. Bush at 58 percent in a Gallup Poll from April 1989; and Ronald Reagan at 67 percent in a Gallup Poll in April 1981. \"The 100-day mark tends to fall during a period when Americans are still evaluating a new president. The danger period for most presidents comes later in their first year in office,\" Holland said. \"Bill Clinton, for example, still had good marks after his first 100 days, but his approval rating had tanked by June of 1993. Ronald Reagan's approval rating stayed over 50 percent until November of his first year in office, but once it slipped below that mark, it stayed under 50 percent for two years. So Obama's current rating certainly does not indicate that he is out of the woods yet.\" The most recent edition of the CNN poll of polls is an average of seven national surveys taken over the past week: CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. (April 23-26), ABC\/Washington Post (April 21-24), Fox\/Opinion Dynamics (April 22-23), CBS\/The New York Times (April 22-26), Marist (April 21-23), Quinnipiac (April 21-27) and the Gallup tracking poll (April 25-27). iReport.com: Grade the first 100 days . The poll of polls does not have a sampling error.","highlights":"CNN poll of polls finds 63 percent approve of how President Obama handling duties .\nObama's approval rating at 64 percent in CNN poll of polls in January .\nCNN poll of polls is an average of seven national surveys taken over the past week .","id":"fe4c002023451791f364f4030e40eac18a8fcb00"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's early April, and President Obama is on his way to France with the nation's top diplomat at his side. As he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton converse in a private room aboard Air Force One, a photographer peers through the half-open door and snaps a candid picture of the formerly bitter campaign rivals. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton share a conversation on board Air Force One. Photographing two of the most powerful people in the country up-close and personal may seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to most Americans. But for photographer Pete Souza, it's a common occurrence. \"I try to photograph everything. Every meeting that the president does,\" Souza told CNN's John King on \"State of the Union.\" On leave of absence from his normal post as an assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, Souza is the chief official White House photographer for President Obama, meaning he has an all-access pass to the president's most intimate and private moments. \"I look at my job as a visual historian,\" Souza said on Sunday. \"The most important thing is to create a good visual archive for history, so 50 or a hundred years from now, people can go back and look at all these pictures.\" Watch Souza talk to CNN's John King about his work \u00bb . While he relishes his unobstructed seat to a historic administration, he knows his limits. \"I'm smart enough to know that if he's having a one-on-one meeting with a head of state, I let them have some privacy,\" he said. \"I let him initiate any conversation. I am not there to take up his time in conversation.\" Souza brings a unique perspective to the job, having also been the official White House photographer during Ronald Reagan's presidency. He acknowledged that Reagan was probably more formal, but told CNN he sees similarities between the two. See some of Souza's photos \u00bb . \"I think they're both comfortable with themselves, which makes them great photographic subjects. The presence of the camera in behind-the-scene situations didn't seem to bother either president, which is good for me,\" he said. Souza released four never-before-seen photos on \"State of the Union,\" including one of the president and the first lady sharing a moment on the dance floor at the annual Governor's Ball, the couple's first big event at the White House. \"Earth, Wind and Fire was the band and I think the president was singing along to the music. I think their intention is to bring some fun to the White House, too,\" Souza said while reflecting on the picture. Previously a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, Souza began documenting Obama's ascension to the presidency in 2004 after a former colleague asked him to shoot the young politician's first year as a U.S. senator. Last year, Souza published \"The Rise of Barack Obama,\" an extensive book of photos chronicling Obama's rise from junior senator of Illinois to the highest office in the country. When asked to choose one picture as his favorite, Souza selected one of the president and first lady softly butting heads in a freight elevator, surrounded by staffers who appear to be avoiding eye contact with the couple. Michelle Obama is smiling playfully wearing her husband's jacket. \"I chose this one because it's a genuine moment. It was chilly in the elevator. He took his coat off, put it around his wife's shoulders and then there is this private moment going on between the two of them,\" he said. \"It's just a complete storytelling picture.\" Though the historic nature of Obama's presidency is not lost on Souza, he doesn't view Obama any differently than past commanders in chief. \"Certainly you feel a sense of history, no question about that. When I look at him, I look at him as the president. I don't look at him as the African-American president, I look at him as the president.\"","highlights":"Pete Souza is the chief official White House photographer for President Obama .\nSouza is assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University .\nFormerly with the Chicago Tribune, Souza began following Obama in 2004 .\nSouza: \"I look at my job as a visual historian\"","id":"4418e9297bb6e250123691df8b486ca474d2ece3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Everton scored twice late on and goalkeeper Tim Howard saved an injury-time penalty as they fought back to secure a 2-2 Premier League home draw with Tottenham on Sunday. Jermain Defoe gave the visitors the lead soon after the interval when nipping in front of Tony Hibbert to convert Aaron Lennon's cross at the near post for his 13th goal of the season. And they doubled their advantage soon after when defender Michael Dawson headed home a Niko Kranjcar corner. But Everton got a foothold back in the game when Seamus Coleman's run and cross was converted by fellow-substitute Louis Saha in the 78th minute. And Tim Cahill rescued a point for the home side with four minutes remaining when he stooped low to head home Leighton Baines' bouncing cross. However, there was still further drama to come when Hibbert was penalized for crashing into Wilson Palacios in the area. However, England striker Defoe smashed his penalty too close to Howard and the keeper pulled off a fine save to give out-of-form Everton a morale-boosting point. The result means Tottenham remain in fourth place, behind north London rivals Arsenal, while Everton have now won just one of their last nine league games. In the day's other match, Bobby Zamora scored the only goal of the game as Fulham beat Sunderland 1-0 to move up to eighth place in the table.","highlights":"Everton recover from 2-0 behind to earn a 2-2 Premier League draw with Tottenham .\nJermain Defoe misses an injury time penalty to give the visitors all three points .\nBobby Zamora scores the only goal to give Fulham a 1-0 victory at home to Sunderland .","id":"c0b70a66f60008eac1cce02e38b071f6e75b5488"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Peruvian authorities say they have arrested four members of a gang that specialized in selling to European labs fat obtained from dead humans. Officials are investigating the disappearance of at least 60 people they believe were killed by gang members in two mountainous states in central Peru, lead prosecutor Jorge Sanz Quiroz said Friday. The four suspects have been charged with murder in the September slaying of a Peruvian man, the prosecutor said. \"They killed to obtain human fat because there were European laboratories that would pay them,\" Sanz Quiroz said. The suspects told authorities they were paid $15,000 for a liter (about 1 quart) of human fat. Officials did not disclose what possible use laboratories could have for the human fat, but fat can be a component of cosmetics and is used in reconstructive or cosmetic surgery. The use of human fat for any purpose is extremely rare, however, physicians say. Other suspects, including the Peruvian ringleader, have eluded capture, Sanz Quiroz said. Authorities have the names of two Italian suspects who are being sought by Interpol, the 188-nation worldwide police agency, the prosecutor said. He declined to reveal their identities. Sanz Quiroz acknowledged the uniqueness of the allegations. \"We are not making this up,\" he said. \"They have confessed to this. That's what's coming out now.\" One of the suspects told officials he had been committing the murders for five years. According to a criminal complaint Sanz Quiroz filed November 18, officials discovered on September 22 a small container containing a fat-like substance that had been stored at the Bella Durmiente bus station in Lima, Peru's capital. On November 3, the complaint says, suspect Serapio Marcos Veramendi Principe was arrested after he retrieved three bottles from the Estrella Polar bus station. The bottles contained a substance authorities believe is human fat, the complaint says. Lab tests are being performed to determine what the substance is. Authorities identified the three other suspects as Elmer Segundo Castillejos Aguero, Hilario Cudena Simon and Enedina Estela Claudio. The suspects identified each other for police in photo lineups, the complaint says. In addition to murder, Veramendi Principe and Castillejos Aguero face weapons charges. Castillejos Aguero, Veramendi Principe and Estela Claudio also face drug charges, authorities said. They are accused in the September 16 killing of Abel Matos Aranda, the criminal complaint says. Authorities believe the substance found at the bus stations is body fat obtained from Matos Aranda. Officials unearthed a partially buried male body November 13 in Huanuco state. They believe it was Matos Aranda. Sanz Quiroz referred to the suspects as \"brujos,\" the Spanish word for witches. He noted that the suspects are part of an Andean mountain culture that believes bodies can be used to ward off evil and prevent disasters. For example, he said, bodies are often buried at the entrances to mine shafts and bridges in the belief they will keep the structures from collapsing. Authorities are calling the suspects \"pishtacos,\" which are Andean mythological creatures. In his 1996 book \"Death in the Andes,\" Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa mentions pishtacos extensively, saying they are half-white ghouls who live in caves, lurk along dark isolated roads and suck the fat out of anyone careless enough to travel Andean roads at night. Andean myth holds that the fat is used to make soaps, lubricants, healing potions and cosmetic creams. Until the arrests, few believed that anything resembling pishtacos existed. \"It's an Andean myth that we've now been able to prove,\" said Miguel Jimenez Torres, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office. Some physicians say human fat is used in some medical procedures, but a few products were taken off the market because they were considered unsafe. The longevity of implants that use human tissue often is not as good, said Atlanta cosmetic surgeon Harold Brody. Nor is there any advantage, he said, to using human fat in cosmetic creams or lotions. \"They're a little behind the times,\" Brody said. \"It makes a great moisturizer, but it has no advantages over good moisturizers that don't use human fat.\" New York dermatologist Barry Goldman said he had never heard of human fat being sold on the black market. \"The idea that anybody would use an injectable where you didn't know where it came from would be laughable if it weren't unethical and potentially dangerous,\" he said. Still, the notion of black market human fat seemed possible to him. \"They steal kidneys, so why not this?\" he asked. \"It is sick, but in the Holocaust they did use skin for lamps.\"","highlights":"Peruvian authorities reported to have arrested gang who are selling human fat .\nOfficials investigating disappearances of at least 60 people .\nTwo suspects arrested with a plastic container with human fat in it .","id":"35df6049630646e3ec2d480ce9611f680727b7ca"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Were nine attractive young Turkish women duped and imprisoned in a villa by Internet soft-core porn peddlers? Or did they simply call in the police to help them break their contract with an Internet contest similar to the reality TV show \"Big Brother\"? A lawyer for the production company, Istanbul Group Electronic Trade Communications and Advertising A.S., is arguing the latter. In a written statement on the company's Web site, Hilmi Tufan Cakir denied reports published in the Turkish and international media, that nine women were trapped against their will in an Istanbul villa, while cameras sold their images on the Internet. \"My client organized a contest with reward money, contracts were signed with the contestant girls,\" the lawyer's statement said. \"In accordance with the contracts signed by the nine girls, this contest was to be broadcast on the Internet live.\" But on Friday, an officer with a Turkish gendarme unit, told CNN that security forces raided the reality show's villa earlier this week, after they received a complaint. \"We detained one person,\" said the gendarme officer, who asked not to be identified. \"There were eight or nine young girls, some younger then 18, who were returned to their families.\" Turkish television showed footage of gendarme officers raiding the villa and detaining a suspect earlier this week. The disputed Web-site is a page of hot pink graphics and photos of scantily clad young women, accompanied by throbbing dance music and the title, \"We Are at Home.\" It shows video of the villa and its pool, and flashes photos of the nine female \"contestants\" as well as a list of ratings for viewers, who can vote for their favorite lady via cell phone text message. Audience members were also encouraged to send \"virtual gifts\" to the contestants, like pink panties, beer, chocolate and a pearl necklace. Each resident of the house had their own introductory video. The women, dressed in mini-skirts and bikinis, pose by the villa's pool, dance around in revealing outfits, and introduce themselves to the camera. In one segment, a hostess named Zeynep Karacan, who wears a long dress with a plunging neck line, reads from cue cards, introduces viewers to the house and its residents, who enter one-by-one waving to the camera and carrying luggage. According to the Web site's rating system, the second most popular contestant was woman from the town of Kocaeli who went by the name \"Tugce.\" Text on the web-page said she was 18-years old, born on September 14th, 1990. But in her on-camera appearance, Tugce tells the audience \"I am 16.\" She wears a purple bikini by the pool and goes on to say \"I came here to be discovered. My biggest dream is to be a model.\" In Turkish press reports, the women said they signed contracts requiring them to pay fines of more then $30,000 if they left the show before it completed filming. This is not the first time scandal has rocked the booming reality TV industry in Turkey. In 2005, a male contestant from the hit show \"Would You Be My Bride?\" died of an apparent drug overdose after the season wrapped up production. On that show, mothers helped their sons choose a bride. The mother of the young man who killed himself, has since gone on to host another reality match-making TV show.","highlights":"Police: 8 or 9 young girls, some under 18, were returned to their families .\nTurkish television showed footage of gendarme officers raiding the villa .\nWomen were to take part in a Big Brother-style show on the Internet .\nReport: Women signed contracts requiring them to pay fines if they left show .","id":"e887786599410a82924c9fdf2f0310210f862cfb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States needs to formulate an \"updated strategy\" for Iraq, now that the Bush administration's 18-month game plan for the country is completed, the head of the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers Wednesday. U.S. soldiers crouch at their positions during a mission in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, earlier this month. Acting U.S. Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro appeared before a House Armed Services Committee hearing to discuss last month's GAO progress report on Iraq, which reaffirmed the need for a renewed strategy in the war-ravaged country. The report, Dodaro said in prepared remarks, noted that \"some gains\" have been made in the security, legislative and economic areas since President Bush last year announced \"The New Way Forward\" -- the near-term goals for Iraq that included the military surge. The surge, or troop escalation, ended this month. \"The United States had made some progress in achieving key goals stated in 'The New Way Forward,' \" the report said. \"Looking forward, many challenges remain, and an updated strategy is essential.\" Dodaro said the progress report recommended an updated strategy in Iraq to the Departments of State and Defense. He told lawmakers that the departments said they will \"review and refine the current strategy as necessary, but asserted that 'The New Way Forward' remains valid.\" Dodaro also argued that a renewed strategy is important \"for several reasons.\" The goals and objectives for the present phase end this month and they are \"contained in disparate documents rather than a single strategic plan,\" he said in his prepared remarks. \"Much has changed in Iraq since January 2007, when the president announced 'The New Way Forward.' Violence is down, U.S. surge forces are leaving, and a new framework for the U.S. presence in Iraq needs to be agreed upon beyond the U.N. mandate,\" Dodaro said. The GAO report said that while the number of enemy-initiated attacks in Iraq have decreased about 80 percent from June 2007 to June 2008, the \"security environment remains volatile and dangerous.\" The agency noted that not all of the country's provinces have lead responsibility for security and less than 10 percent of Iraqi security forces \"were at the highest readiness level.\" The progress report also cited the enactment by Iraqi lawmakers of measures \"to return some Baathists to government, grant amnesty to detained Iraqis and define provincial powers.\" It said there is an \"unfinished\" legislative agenda, citing the need for measures on \"sharing oil revenues, disarming militias, and holding provincial elections.\" A provincial election law was passed on Tuesday by Iraq's parliament, the Council of Representatives, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has rejected it, his office said Wednesday. The measure was strongly opposed by Kurdish lawmakers and Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government had criticized it, calling for its rejection. It's not clear whether further negotiations may take place to amend the legislation. As for the economic arena, crude oil production is below U.S. goals, even though it has \"improved for short periods,\" the GAO report said. Goals for water service are \"close to being reached,\" but the daily electricity supply \"met only slightly more than half of demand in early July 2008.\" It also noted that Iraq \"spent only 24 percent of the $27 billion it budgeted for its reconstruction efforts between 2005 and 2007.\" Dodaro said the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies should \"develop an updated strategy for Iraq that defines U.S. goals and objectives after July 2008.\" \"This strategy should build on recent security and legislative gains, address the remaining unmet goals and challenges for the near and long term, clearly articulate goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities, and the resources needed,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Head of Government Accountability Office speaks to House committee .\nThough attacks are down, situation in Iraq remains \"volatile and dangerous\"\nReport cites \"unfinished\" legislative agenda in Iraq .\nIraq's oil production remains below U.S. goals, report says .","id":"105abe681ebfa410e9704d47939e34a6e8183d5f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gennaro Gattuso has ended speculation over his future by signing a new AC Milan contract, the Serie A club have announced. Gattuso has been linked with moves to the English Premier League in recent weeks as he was said to be unhappy with his first-team opportunities after battling injury. But the club have confirmed he will be remaining in Milan for the next three years. \"Milan announce that Rino Gattuso has extended his contract with the club until 30 June 2012,\" said a statement on the club's official Web site. Gattuso, who turns 32 next month, has spent the last decade with Milan after spells with Perugia, Glasgow giants Rangers and Salernitana early in his career. He also has 70 caps for Italy and was a member of the World Cup-winning squad in 2006.","highlights":"Gennaro Gattuso has ended speculation over his future by signing a new contract at AC Milan .\nGattuso has been linked with moves to the English Premier League in recent weeks .\nBut the club have confirmed he will be remaining in Milan for the next three years .","id":"393f07ab970bfbd897c08846dd216d95e6660c22"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Lang Lang Revealed - narrated by Jazz Legend Herbie Hancock. Heralded as the \"hottest artist on the classical music planet\" by The New York Times, 27-year-old Lang Lang has played sold out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world. The Chinese child prodigy started playing piano at the age of 3, won his first competition aged 5, and today age 27, he is on Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. On this month's Revealed, we follow the piano prodigy on an adventure out of his classical zone, and into the jazz world to meet his hero, American legend Herbie Hancock. Hancock narrates us through this journey, following Lang Lang back to China for a bittersweet trip down memory lane, and then onto Montreux in Switzerland for his first foray into the jazz world. Today Lang Lang is so much in demand that he is constantly on the move, joking to CNN, \"I am a professional traveler.\" Revealed joins Lang Lang on board his private jet on a trip to China, where his megastardom has reached levels which make public outings rather problematic; Lang Lang is mobbed as soon as he sets foot on the street. We talk to his parents about the practice regime they implemented from the age of 4, and the ruthless work ethic that they believe has brought him success. Lang Lang has made it his mission to share classical music around the world, with an emphasis on training children through outreach programs. Following his performance at the opening of Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games, he became a symbol of the youth and future of China. This status has inspired over 35 million Chinese children to learn to play classical piano - a phenomenon popularly referred to as \"the Lang Lang effect.\" Revealed documents the days leading up to Lang Lang's next major Chinese performance. He has been selected by the government to perform in celebrations of the 60-year Anniversary of the People's Republic of China in Tiananmen Square, a fitting performance for the prodigy who is seen to embody modern China. The frenzy surrounding Lang Lang in China inspired iconic piano maker Steinway to create their first piano branded in someone's name. On a visit to the Steinway shop along the way, Lang Lang meets two aspiring young pianists, and Revealed captures an impromptu masterclass with the two young boys. Lang Lang is not however everyone's cup of tea. Famously \"loved by some, reviled by others,\" there are those who find his flashy image and demonstrative performing styles at odds with the world of classical music. But Lang Lang is not concerned about that. His mission is to spread a love of music and popularize classical works. Revealed follows him to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where he teams up with his hero, Jazz legend Hancock. The feeling of admiration is entirely mutual, and for Hancock who has not played classical repertoire in many years, he is feeling out of his depth. \"Lang Lang is totally amazing, I'm pretty terrified to be up on stage playing alongside him. I've never practiced so much in my life!\" Backstage another Jazz legend Quincy Jones has popped by for the concert, remarking, \"Lang Lang has taken the world by storm. This is as good as it gets.\" Only 27 years old, Lang Lang is high on life and music, and hungry for as much adventure as he can get his hands on. His energy and enthusiasm rubs off on all those he comes into contact with, and as Revealed quickly discovers, a trail of laughter, hugs and applause seems to follow him everywhere he goes. Tune in to Revealed to join Herbie Hancock as he walks and laughs us through the adventure that brought him and Lang Lang, two worlds, two generations, and two musical genres together. Join Revealed for a glimpse into a musical genius' life. www.cnn.com\/revealed . Watch Lang Lang on Revealed in November at the following times: Wednesday 18 November: 0930, 1730 Saturday 21 November: 0930, 1800, 2130 Sunday 22 November: 0630, 1830, 0400 (all times GMT)","highlights":"Chinese child prodigy Lang Lang started playing piano at the age of three .\nHe has performed at the Beijing Games and China's 60th anniversary .\nWatch Lang Lang collaborate with jazz legend Herbie Hancock .","id":"885e1a09caadcd533aae6ec10c8bedb2e6afb1ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Comcast rolled out a Web-based on-demand television and movie service on Tuesday that gives customers access to more than 2,000 hours of television and movies. The move comes as users increasingly are bypassing their TV sets and heading straight to the Web -- both legally and illegally -- to watch their favorite shows. The service, named Fancast XFINITY TV (formerly called TV Everywhere), is the biggest cable industry initiative to keep people from skipping traditional TV service in the United States. \"I watch TV online every day. I find it more convenient than my regular TV...,\" Michael Heard, a self-employed computer repairman from Atlanta, Georgia, said via e-mail. \"I'm usually watching TV on one window while reading e-mail or tweets on another. \"And also my time is important, so sitting down and watching a show at 8 or 9 p.m. isn't convenient. Online TV allows me to watch what I want when I want.\" Networks have tried for the past couple of years to find a way to reach Web-watching audiences by streaming content on their Web sites or making partnerships with Hulu, one of the larger online TV sites. Now, Comcast is hoping it can make a dent in the market by serving up premium content. It is available to all Comcast customers, so long as they subscribe to both Internet and Cable service. Heard said he doesn't expect to give up Hulu, though many of the same episodes and Web clips will be available on Fancast. Heard, trying out the site Tuesday after it went live, tweeted that he thought the service was \"awesome,\" and he finally had a place where he could watch the entire series of \"The Sopranos.\" \"The quality, it's really clear and loads fast,\" he said, though he noted there were still some bugs in the product. Heard occasionally had to reload the site, and felt that installing the video player and authorizing the computer took a bit more time and was harder than simply pressing play on Hulu. The service is getting mixed reviews on Twitter, with customers giving instant feedback about their experiences. Some complained that high-definition videos, which are available on Hulu, are not available on Comcast's service. Others complained about having to download a separate video player, the service not being compatible with the Linux operating system, and only being able to authorize the service on a total of three computers. Comcast hopes to wow customers even more in the future. In the next six months, after the service has gone through more beta testing, the company plans to open the service to a broader customer base. Customers will be able to access all content -- depending on the tiered level of service they subscribe to. Those not paying for HBO regularly, for example, won't be able to snag the newest episode of \"Curb Your Enthusiasm\" online. In addition to catching up with sites like Hulu and Clicker, Comcast executives told media outlets they expect to serve up a feature that Tivo fans have come to love -- allowing customers to program their DVR from afar. Executives said they hope the service would be available in about six months. To access the content, users simply need to log in with their Comcast e-mail address at fancast.com. The site is offering live online help, including help retrieving those addresses.","highlights":"Comcast's Fancast XFINITY TV goes live Tuesday for its Internet, TV subscribers .\nService follows trend of trying to keep users from abandoning cable TV for Web .\nSite allows users access to premium content, like HBO, if they subscribe .\nNew user finds a few bugs, but calls site \"awesome\" for its selection and load time .","id":"289a45e715707cf650352f3eaa123f85d3653d4b"} -{"article":"(Health.com) -- More than one in 10 women develops depression during pregnancy. Now, a new study suggests that women who are treated with antidepressants are more likely to give birth early or to have newborns that need to spend time in a neonatal intensive care unit. Babies of women taking SSRIs were born earlier and were more likely to have been admitted to intensive care. Depression itself can have ill effects for both mom and baby. Therefore, the benefits of the antidepressants -- known as selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors -- may still outweigh the risks for some women, researchers say. \"There is no easy way out of this,\" says Dr. Tim Oberlander, a developmental pediatrician at BC Children's Hospital, in Vancouver, Canada, who has studied the effects of SSRIs on children exposed in the womb, but was not involved in the current study. \"Depression needs to be managed, and for some women, the use of these medications is appropriate and necessary.\" Health.com: 3 Signs you should stop, adjust, or switch antidepressants . The new study, led by Dr. Najaaraq Lund, of Aarhus University, in Denmark, found that babies whose mothers had taken SSRIs were born earlier and were more likely to require treatment in an NICU. Women have been using SSRIs during pregnancy since the early 1990s, Lund and her colleagues point out in the report, which is published in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. These drugs, which include Zoloft, Prozac, and others, are widely considered to be the safest type of antidepressant medication to take during pregnancy. It's been difficult to confirm their safety, however, especially since investigators have to find a way to distinguish between the effects of depression itself -- and habits that depressed women may be more likely to engage in, like drinking and smoking -- and the drug on the newborn. Health.com: Do pregnancy and bipolar disorder mix? Lund and her colleagues tackled this issue by including a group of women who reported a history of some type of psychiatric illness but weren't taking SSRIs. Some, but not all, of these women had suffered from depression. \"Using this group as a comparison group takes into account possible genetic or lifestyle factors associated with present or previous psychiatric disorders,\" the researcher notes. The analysis included 329 women who took SSRIs in pregnancy, 4,902 with a history of psychiatric illness who weren't taking the drugs, and 51,770 women who reported no history of psychiatric illness and weren't taking SSRIs. All had received prenatal care at Aarhus University Hospital between 1989 and 2006. Babies of women taking SSRIs were born an average of five days earlier than those born to women who had no mental illness, and were twice as likely to be born preterm. The babies whose mothers took SSRIs were 2.4 times as likely to have been admitted to the NICU than infants who hadn't been exposed to the drugs in utero. They were also more than four times as likely to have Apgar scores below eight, just five minutes after birth. (Apgar scores measure an infant's health at birth by looking at his or her breathing, heartbeat, reflexes, muscle tone, and skin color; scores of seven and above are considered normal, and a newborn's Apgar score has no influence on how he or she will fare later in life.) There was no difference between SSRI-exposed babies and unexposed babies in head circumference or birth weight. Antidepressant medication is just one part of the equation in addressing women's mental health during pregnancy, notes Oberlander, who says depression in pregnancy is a \"huge public health issue\" with lasting implications for women and their children. Helping ensure that women are getting enough social support and adequate nutrition is essential, he adds, while alternative treatments for depression -- such as exercise, light therapy, and omega-3 fatty acids -- ought to be explored further. \"In general, optimizing non-pharmacological treatment would be a really important step,\" he says. He explains that it is essential to follow SSRI-exposed babies as they grow up, to identify any problems and intervene as necessary. However, he and Lund agree that it's still unclear whether the differences seen at birth will have lasting effects on a child's development and health. Health.com: 6 Rules for a healthy postpartum slim-down . \"As depression itself can influence birth outcome in a negative direction, treatment is warranted in some cases based on the existing body of evidence,\" Lund says. \"In cases with mild or moderate symptoms, psychotherapy can be used as an alternative treatment. In severe cases and in patients with a history of recurrent, severe depression, continuation or initiation of treatment might be the best option. \"Every single case should be considered individually, and the decision should be made by the woman and her ob-gyn and psychiatrist,\" she says. Health.com: Why you cannot wait to treat postpartum depression . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Danish study finds babies whose mothers took antidepressants were born earlier .\nBabies of mothers who took SSRIs were 2.4 times likely to be in intensive care .\nIt's unclear whether differences seen at birth will have lasting effects on child .","id":"0f6fe00c5de423b4ebe97cb0be7ff7b36e2f2a2b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The drinking water in the area of last month's coal-sludge spill in eastern Tennessee is safe, but elevated levels of arsenic have been found in the sludge, authorities said. Properties near ground zero of the December 22 Tennessee spill are covered in sludge. A billion gallons of the sludge, made up of water and fly ash from a coal-burning Tennessee Valley Authority steam plant in Kingston, Tennessee, swamped 300 acres of mostly private property when a dike on a retention pond collapsed December 22. All residents in the area were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, according to the TVA. About a dozen other homes were damaged. Preliminary results from water samples taken in the spill area show no unsafe levels of toxins, said Leslie Sims, on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency. The testing includes municipal supplies and private wells, he said. Kingston Mayor Troy Beets said he let his grandchildren drink and bathe in city water at his house over the holidays and didn't worry about it. At a Friday news conference, he drank a cup of water he said was straight from the tap in his home. View a map of where the spill occured \u00bb . \"I'm gonna be fine,\" he quipped. However, samples of the fly ash scooped up along roadsides and river banks show elevated levels of arsenic that normally would trigger an EPA response, Sims said. \"These are levels that we consider harmful to humans,\" he said. But the EPA is not responding because the TVA is taking action to fix the problem, he added. Arsenic is a natural element found in soil and minerals, but exposure to it can cause sickness, the National Institutes of Health says. Learn more about arsenic \u00bb . The arsenic is in the sludge but not in the air in significant amounts, said Alan Nye, a scientist with the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, a private scientific consulting company based in Arkansas. \"The bottom line is that the air quality is very good and continues to be so,\" Nye said. That's not good enough for Suzanne Solomon, who rents a home about 2\u00bd miles downwind from the spill zone. She and her family are moving somewhere they feel will be safe from fly ash that might blow around once it dries. \"We have a 2-year-old daughter whose health is not worth the risk, even if it is a minuscule risk,\" she said. \"I am an opera singer with mild asthma [and] I do not wish to expose [my lungs] to any dust which might become airborne. ... I do not see any way that they can keep all of this out of the air.\" Rather than try to gather up all the spilled ash, the TVA plans to lock it in place by planting seeds and covering it with mulch, said Bob Summers, the TVA's operations section chief. \"We're hearing all kinds of stories,\" said Tom Vereb, whose formerly picturesque lakefront property is now caked in deep, swirling layers of gray muck and debris. \"We're hearing everything from 'This is perfectly fine to be around,' to 'Get away, as far as you can, from it.' So we really don't know what the right answer is there. We're not going to get panicked about it.\" Howie Rose, director of the Roane County Emergency Management Agency, said the city of Kingston, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, has asked the EPA for long-term environmental monitoring, \"and we've got a commitment for that.\" The TVA also is rebuilding the dike, as well as the roads and railroad tracks that were heavily damaged by the rushing sludge. \"It's 40 feet deep of sludge in the middle of a channel, and they're talking about four to six weeks of cleanup,\" said Travis Cantrell, another local resident. \"That'd be a stretch.\" Whether the plant will continue to store its fly ash -- a byproduct of coal-burning -- in ponds will have to be evaluated, said Tim Hope, the TVA's incident commander. \"I would imagine that things would be done differently,\" Hope said. CNN's Brooke Baldwin, Taylor Gandossy and Mike Phelan contributed to this report.","highlights":"EPA says water safe, but arsenic at levels \"considered harmful to humans\"\nFamily moving to avoid potential risk to toddler from arsenic .\nMayor chugs cup of water, says, \"I'm gonna be fine\"\nBillion gallons of fly-ash sludge from TVA coal plant spilled December 22 .","id":"3405b7399fdc39e57170a399b9ca75223e58eeed"} -{"article":"Paris, France (CNN) -- French investigators said they are looking into problems encountered by an Air France jet last month in nearly the same spot over the Atlantic where another Air France jet mysteriously crashed in June. Air France flight 445 was flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, the night of Nov. 29 when it encountered the problems, the French accident investigation agency, BEA, said in a news release this week. It is the same route taken by Air France flight 447 when it went down in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather June 1, killing all 228 people aboard. The investigation agency has not established the cause of the crash, and large parts of the plane -- including both flight recorders -- have never been found. \"The analysis of what happened could lead to complementary explanations about the accident of flight AF 447,\" the investigation agency said. Flight 445 encountered \"severe turbulence\" about four hours after takeoff on Nov. 29, forcing the pilots to descend, Air France said in a statement after the flight. The crew sent out an emergency radio message to indicate it had left its flight level, Air France said. The flight, with 215 people aboard, \"continued normally\" after half an hour of moderate to severe turbulence, the airline said. Air France declined to comment on the investigation agency's statement this week. The BEA said the November flight was an Airbus A330-203, the same model involved in the June crash, but Air France said the November incident involved an Airbus A330-200. While French authorities have not yet determined what caused the June crash, tests have brought into question the performance of pitot tubes, which are used to measure the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed. Flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages before it crashed that suggested the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through the thunderstorms, officials have said. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a directive in late August requiring airlines to replace pitot tubes manufactured by Thales Avionics on Airbus A330s and A340s. It said airlines should replace them with other Thales tubes and those manufactured by Goodrich. -- CNN's Luc Lacroix contributed to this report .","highlights":"Air France jet encountered problems near where Airbus jet crashed earlier this year .\nFlight 445 encountered \"severe turbulence\" about 4 hours after takeoff on Nov. 29 .\nFlight 447 went down in the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing 228 people .","id":"a3fa0b2d387f8a6ea24b6c7ffdc90a446805c714"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italy's Valentino Rossi gave his bid to seal a seventh Moto GP world title at the Malaysian Grand Prix a boost after qualifying for the race in pole position. The defending champion set a name lap-record time of 2 minutes 00.518 seconds despite sweltering conditions on Saturday. The time smashed Casey Stoner's 2007 lap record of 2 minutes 02.108 seconds. The Yamaha rider celebrated his seventh pole of the season by pulling a wheelie as he drove into the pit lane at the Sepang circuit. The 5.5-kilometer track that is situated south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, is a notoriously tought test for rider and machine alike with its combination of tight corners, long straights and tough high-speed bends. The 30-year-old currently leads the world championship by 38 points, a position that means a top-four finish at Sepang would seal the title on Sunday. Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo qualified in second place, just 0.569sec behind -- a result that prompted Rossi to pay tribute to the hard work of his team. \"The team worked well, the bike performed well, hence I was able to go faster. \"Starting from pole is important since the (first) corner is far away,\" he added. Spaniard Dani Pedrosa (Honda) was 0.736sec behind Rossi while Australian Stoner was fourth at 0.937sec. Ducati rider Stoner, who finished ahead of Rossi in last weekend's Australian Grand Prix to take the win, is third in the world championship standings, with Pedrosa fourth on a Honda.","highlights":"Italy's Valentino Rossi qualifies in pole position for the Malaysian Moto GP .\nThe 30-year-old's fastest time smashed the lap record at the Sepang circuit .\nRossi currently leads the world championship by 38 points with two races left .\nThe defending champion can clinch his seventh title with a top-four finish .","id":"a585c2402f5f5120c8a86c3ea88b02b95f9874b4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"For architects, perfection is necessary,\" said Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. \"It is my mission to use the kindness and delicateness that old architecture had. I believe that this mission is not easy to complete. So I am planning to work until I fall down.\" With nearly 60 projects on the go across the world, Kuma's search for perfection is all consuming; he rarely takes a day off from work and sometimes even finished projects are analyzed and amended. The 55-year-old from Tokyo has become synonymous with delicate simplicity and sensitivity to a building's surrounding. From the Great (Bamboo) Wall House located near the Great Wall of China outside of Beijing to the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo, Kuma has employed natural materials that complement a building's location to great acclaim. View the gallery of Kuma's spectacular buildings . \"I try to catch the atmosphere of the place where we build the house. We try to find out how the people live there and what kind of materials they use. After we find out the atmosphere of the place, we will think how we can relate that with the architecture.\" Using mostly glass and Chinese bamboo to make the house by the Great Wall, it comfortably blended into the natural surroundings, but the Suntory Museum of Art, completed in 2007 presented different challenges. \"Usually, a building in a massive developed area tends to be a sad building. However, I wanted to make a building which is warm and could feel a human's touch. To make that ideal building, I used natural material such as Japanese paper and paulownia [wood]. I wanted to take back the human element even if the building was inside the city.\" Much of modern architecture is often unfairly portrayed as lacking that human element, but Kuma's focus on retrieving and remaining Japanese traditions in architecture has gone some way to dispel that myth. It is a far cry from his initial architectural fascination with concrete, in part inspired by the Olympic stadium designed by Kenzo Tange for the 1964 Games in Tokyo. \"I learned that architecture can impress people. If the Olympics were not held in Tokyo, I might not have become an architect,\" he told CNN. If Tange's buildings for the Olympics were responsible for sparking Kuma's imagination, he's followed a different path in his career. After earning a master's degree in architecture from The University of Tokyo in 1979 and further study at Columbia University in New York, he returned to Japan in 1986 -- a boom time for architects. \"People who were only about 30-years-old could design a building. It was an era of post-modernism and a lot of young people were making outstanding buildings during that time.\" But the economic recession hit Japan in 1992 and it had a profound impact on Kuma's life and changed his attitude to architecture. \"I didn't have a job in Tokyo for 10 years. I was designing small buildings in the countryside. I worked with a craftsman and studied how to use natural materials in those 10 years. From this experience, I learned the great aspects of Japanese traditional architecture. I started to design traditional Japanese architecture and foreign people took notice of the design,\" he said. \"I think the cities of Japan are a bit damaged by the concrete buildings,\" Kuma added. \"Because of the sub-prime issue and now another economic crisis, I feel this is again a good opportunity for architects to design buildings slowly.\" In focusing taking a more holistic approach to his craft, Kuma has promoted the humanizing elements of architecture and its ability of improve people's lives. It's an approach that he has likened to making sushi. \"There are two important things to make sushi. One is the material and the other is the skill... For sushi, both the power of the material and skill is important and their balance is very important. \"I believe that this balance is what people want,\" Kuma continued. \"People and society are seeking the thing like sushi for the architecture and their city. A variety of people are interested in Japanese architecture and traditions and this is parallel to why sushi is popular in Western country.\"","highlights":"Japanese architect has popularized sensitive Japanese traditions in buildings .\nHas works across the world including museums and private residences .\n\"Architecture is like sushi: balance of material and skill is very important\"","id":"73031d4f314a9cf277ee4f8b55fd3f27f7c105e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A parade of world leaders took the lectern at the United Nations on Wednesday. But days before the speeches on a host of issues, the global body quietly undertook an issue that often flies under the radar: Women. The United Nations consolidated four agencies that tackle women's issues and created a new super agency. Last week, the United Nations consolidated four agencies that tackle women's issues and created a new super agency. Humanitarian workers around the world embraced the move. It was about time, they said, that the world got serious about how half its population lives. The 1945 charter on which the United Nations was founded mandates equal rights for men and women. Since then, the United Nations has added new agencies that focus specifically on children, the environment, refugees, health, education, atomic energy and Palestinians. All report directly to the secretary general, except the agencies pertaining to women. Women's advocates said the agencies were run by lower-ranking officials and lacked clout. In 2006, a high-level panel on U.N. reform described the women's agencies as \"incoherent, under-resourced and fragmented.\" It recommended that the United Nations create a dynamic agency focused on gender equality and women's empowerment. And last year, a coalition of 300 private development agencies launched the European Campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR), which pressured the United Nations to create a single organization to address what it described as consistent neglect of women's needs. Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World, said a double standard persists, despite the image of the United Nations as a strong women's advocacy machine. The only thing the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has in common with the well-known U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a similar sounding name, Donovan said. UNIFEM had neither the high-level U.N. staff nor the money of UNICEF, said Donovan, who worked at UNICEF for 15 years. She said UNIFEM's entire global budget equaled the budget of the UNICEF operation in Ethiopia. Donovan hopes the new agency will \"lift the ideals that are worded so eloquently in U.N. declarations and resolutions off of the inert pages they're written on and plant them in real women's lives.\" \"Women who have been leading and achieving for decades without the help of the U.N. system will now enjoy the strengths and benefits that the U.N. can offer,\" she said. Development agencies shared high expectations for the new agency's promotion of women's rights in a world where a disproportionate number of the suffering and persecuted are female. \"This is a great move,\" said Helene Gayle, president of CARE, an international humanitarian agency that focuses on empowering women and girls in developing nations. \"Now, what's needed are resources, a clear mandate and strong leadership,\" she said. \"But I think what we're looking for most is the accountability to make sure gender is integrated into all U.N. strategies. It's up to member states to move quickly, get this new agency off on the right foot and turn the plan into reality.\" Ahead of this week's U.N. meetings, UNIFEM issued a report on the progress of women's rights, part of a set of development goals that global agencies have committed to achieving by 2015. \"Implementation still has a long way to go in translating commitments to women's rights into changes in women's lives,\" UNIFEM said. Roughly 60 percent of the world's population living in poverty are women and girls. According to UNIFEM: . \u2022 Women are outnumbered four to one in legislatures around the world. \u2022 Over 60 percent of all unpaid family workers globally are women, and women still earn on average 17 percent less than men. \u2022 About one-third of women still suffer gender-based violence during their lives. \u2022 In some parts of the world, one in 10 women dies from pregnancy-related causes even though the means for preventing maternal mortality are cost-effective and well-known. \"Gender gaps on this scale are symptomatic of an accountability crisis,\" UNIFEM said. \"Governments and multilateral organizations have a responsibility to do a better job of answering to women.\" Last week, the General Assembly voted to merge UNIFEM and three other U.N. women's agencies to better address glaring gender inequities. In Kenya, for example, the Parliament adopted a new sexual offense bill that hands a minimum 10-year-sentence to a man who is convicted of rape. If he is acquitted, his accuser goes to jail for 10 years. The bill was adopted two years ago over the objections of women lawmakers. Donovan cited the Kenyan law as an example of the uphill climb women face in developing nations. She said AIDS-Free World and other non-governmental organizations are urging the United Nations to fund the new women's agency with an initial $1 billion budget. Advocates would also like to see a presence of the agency in every developing nation, she said. HIV\/AIDS agencies especially welcomed the news. \"This is a historic opportunity to advance the rights of women and girls,\" said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the U.N. agency on HIV\/AIDS. He noted that 60 percent of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women. Some aid agencies say that number is as high as 75 percent. Donovan said the new agency has the potential to change the way the United Nations functions in everything it does, as every institution -- whether it's a courtroom or classroom, a political party or a pub, a gymnasium or a country club -- opens its doors to women. And treats them differently, once they step inside.","highlights":"United Nations consolidates agencies, creates group focused on women's issues .\nWomen's advocates say previous agencies lacked clout .\nRoughly 60 percent of the world's population living in poverty are women and girls .","id":"e76fc242f6006f7a995b87f4b88d1fea734343c4"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Danyel Smith is the chief content officer of Vibe Media Group and the editor-in-chief of Vibe. Danyel Smith says Michael Jackson sacrificed himself in the name of his art. (CNN) -- It falls to me to prepare a statement on behalf of Vibe magazine when someone is promoted, when there is trouble, or when something major happens in the world of pop. It occasionally falls to me to write an obituary or a tribute when an entertainer dies. It's a part of my job. One has to do it quickly, and I've never been prepared. Yet I've been prepping for this one my whole life. Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50. The sorrow at his passing is palpable, and wet, and illogical -- in my 20 years of being a critic and an editor, I've never met him. But this is a death in the family. I've known Jackson's work since I was 5 years old and was given The Jackson 5's \"ABC\" as a gift. He was on the surface the most uncomplicated of all boys -- beautiful, emotional, untouchable, ours. Michael has bruised my heart many times -- his antics and the accusations, his seeming desire not to be, at least physically, who he'd been. Which is who I am. But as his funeral is prepared, I, like the Jackson brothers sang with optimistic melancholy in 1976, think about the good times. There is no moonwalk down memory lane about Michael. The legends mix in with the rumors mix in with the ice-cold facts of 1960s black working-class Gary, Indiana. That mixes in with girls fainting at the sight of him when he was barely a teenager; which mixes with the many sold-out tours, and with Michael collaborating with Quincy Jones on 1979's \"Off the Wall\" and 1982's \"Thriller.\" There is the alleged abuse inflicted on Jackson and his brothers by his father, Joe, along with the strong love and late rivalry with his superstar sister, Janet. There is the magic and melodrama of Motown. The accusation of child abuse (no charge; he agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit against him in 1994), and the 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted of child molestation and other heinous charges. There is the drastic change of his skin color, the radical narrowing of his nose, the short marriage to Elvis Presley's daughter, the friendship with Emmanuel Lewis, the 13 Grammys, the 13 No. 1 singles, the two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the haunting, otherworldly performance at Motown's 25th Anniversary special. The way he integrated MTV in 1983 with \"Billie Jean,\" the \"We Are the World\" extravaganzas, the face masks, the oxygen tanks, the Neverland Ranch -- all that mixes in with everything from \"Stop the Love You Save\" to \"Dancing Machine,\" \"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin',\" \"P.Y.T.,\" \"Man in The Mirror,\" adding up to the more than 750 million albums sold worldwide... I mean. And this is not the half, the tenth, the thousandth of what he was. It comes down to the fact that Michael Jackson gave. Whether he chose to or did it because it was all he knew, he sacrificed himself in the name of his art. Jackson gave almost his entire life on this planet to singing, to dancing, to recording, to performing. He practiced, he watched James Brown and Jackie Wilson and Diana Ross and he watched his brothers. He bent, when he had to, to the will of those who could have done better by him. He was knowing enough about who he was to pretty much demand we all call him The King of Pop, but it was the public shyness, the nerdiness of Michael Jackson that endeared. The whispery voice juxtaposed with the explosive grace he demonstrated on stage and on record. The tenderness, especially of his childhood work, and of \"Off the Wall,\" that seduced, and that inspired loyalty. He made me a believer. He made millions believe. I saw The Jacksons in 1981 in Los Angeles on the Triumph tour, sat in the nosebleeds and was living a dream. It was ecstasy, for what I know of it -- unadulterated joy at witnessing. I saw The Jackson 5 live in 1972 at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. My mother got tickets for herself, my sister and me for my 7th birthday. What moves a heart? What makes a fan? I deserted my family and dashed toward the revolving stage. I told people until I was in my teens that Michael Jackson touched my hand. I know he didn't. I never got close, I was 7 and my mother grabbed me back. I know he didn't touch me, but he did touch me. I swear he did. Is it as simple as saying that an era has closed, that part of our childhood and teen years has died with him, that we have to face true adulthood with its Adult Contemporary radio formats, logical love, and guided tours through Neverland? Is the world grieving Michael Jackson, or mourning for a time when such earnest fandom was possible? Michael was truly something rare, the last of an endangered species. That he is the best entertainer who ever lived I will argue for life, and I come from an Elvis Presley and Motown household. iReport.com: Share your favorite memory of Jackson . In his absolute prime (1974-1986) there was no holding back. There was no cool. Michael Jackson had a sense of humor, but there was little he did, as a performer, with a wink or a nod to himself at our expense. He sometimes got tired of singing \"ABC,\" and the ditties of his (and my) childhood, but he was working. We could see it. It's a dying art. We took and take pride in it. For a time, with the white gloves and flooding pants and loafers and odd military jackets, we emulated it. He gave himself to the world. And Michael Jackson left nothing but blood on the dance floor. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Danyel Smith.","highlights":"Danyel Smith: Michael Jackson made millions believe .\nShe says he gave almost all of his life to entertaining others .\nSmith: He sacrificed and left nothing but blood on the dance floor .\nSmith believes Jackson was the best entertainer who ever lived .","id":"69782663a18056a8ea582730015ed423253fbf55"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- As I raised my hands toward the ceiling and then pointed them toward my head, I had to wonder: How would the 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol feel if he knew that a bunch of foreigners were dancing the YMCA at a nightclub named after him? The iconic St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square takes on a brighter, more colorful look at night. Gogol the man is considered the father of modern Russian realism, with works such as \"Dead Souls.\" Gogol the cafe-club is considered a favorite hangout for Russians and expatriates alike, perfect for meals, coffee, fruity cocktails and music 'til everyone clears out around 2:30 a.m., when Moscow's \"real\" nightclubs heat up. Since the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Russia's capital city has progressed in many ways, breaking free of old social structures while struggling to maintain its cultural heritage. The city has preserved a lot of its old beauty, boasting monuments such as St. Basil's Cathedral and gorgeous landscapes such as Tsaritsino Park. At the same time, there are Internet cafes and 24-hour bookstores, and you'd be hard-pressed to meet someone who doesn't carry a cell phone. But, as an American studying abroad at Moscow State University, I sometimes felt perplexed in this immense modern metropolis that still makes certain familiar conveniences inconvenient. In Moscow, kiosks for adding money to your cell phone seem far more common than ATMs. Even nice restaurants with $40-minimum meals -- for example, the best beef stroganoff and fried cheese balls of your life -- accept only cash, no cards. After two weeks, I never figured out where to buy a nail clipper -- but I did see Vladimir Lenin's body, perfectly preserved since 1924. View more photos of Moscow \u00bb . At the university, I had to present a special ID card to one set of guards at the entrance, a dorm pass to another crew, and then confront a third layer of hallway-based security before arriving at my room. I also needed written approval from my floor's \"administrator\" to take luggage out of the building. Then, there's money. Moscow, or \"Moskva\" in Russian, holds the distinction of the world's most expensive city, according to Mercer's 2008 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. Be prepared for fees from your bank and the Russian bank whenever you use an ATM. Try to stay away from touristy restaurants for meals, and do your souvenir shopping at Izmailovsky Market (Metro: Izmailovsky Park) instead of in stores. The expatriates I encountered all echoed the sentiment that Moscow is a city of constant stress. Maybe that's why I will always love most the Moscow I experienced at night. The monuments that look mildly impressive by day suddenly come to life with light against the onyx sky. You can look out over Sparrow Hills and see the endless glittering skyline, or settle down somewhere like Gogol (Metro: Tverskaya) for vodka-enhanced beverages and music from around the world. And, as long as you know \"Mozhna?\" (\"May I?\") and \"Spasiba\" (\"Thank you),\" it matters less that few people speak substantial English. Caf\u00e9 Bilingua (Metro: Chistye Prudy) is another cozy place to mingle with locals and ex-pats for hours on end -- you can have your coffee in the tiny two-story book shop, or take it up to the restaurant and performance section. Another bar I liked is Etage (Metro: Pushkinskaya), right off Pushkin's Square near a large neon-light sculpture of flowers (how would the great poet feel about that?). Nightclubs dedicated to too-many-people-to-move dance floors don't start up until well after midnight. Propaganda (Metro: Lubyanka), conveniently located near the headquarters of the KGB, spins all kinds of dance music -- go on a Thursday evening for a less crowded experience. Then there's The Real McCoy (Metro: Barrikadnaya), so packed with people that merely crossing the room to stand in the bathroom line requires bumping bodies to the beat. At first we couldn't even get in because the bouncer shook his head at my Swiss friend. But, as always, it's all about who you know -- my Spanish friend's Spanish friend had VIP status, so we went as his entourage to an upscale restaurant-like room in the back. Part of my Moscow nightlife adventures included riding on an overnight train. For my trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow, I had been told at every ticket office that only seats were available. But upon boarding at midnight, I asked a crew member if I could have a bed. Five minutes and $80 later, the fleshy man who took my ticket had locked me into a less-than-closet-sized space with him. I prepared to claw at the door with my untrimmed nails and scream. \"Close,\" he said. Then he unlocked it to demonstrate \"open.\" He stepped out, gave me a stiff wave, and said, \"See you in Moskva.\" I sighed and fell asleep on the child-sized mattress. Among the plethora of Moscow's unspoken rules: Do not talk in the elevators or hallways of your student dorm. Accustomed to the silence, one night I was surprised to hear the glorious sound of a Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin nocturne coming from behind a security guard's desk. \"Mozhna?\" I asked, pointing to the door his chair blocked. He just shrugged, so I quietly ducked behind him and pulled the handle. Behold, a secret two-story ballroom with tables and chairs and an upright piano in the corner, and a Russian student who abruptly lifted his hands from the piano keys when I sat down. We took turns playing (thus, my failed-love song \"Sad Panda\" debuted on a new continent) and, in broken but passionate English, he told me how he wished he could sound like the Russian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz, and said he often comes with his friend to play around 9 p.m. As if it were the end of a great Russian novel, I never heard music in that hallway again.","highlights":"The preserved body of Vladimir Lenin is on display in Moscow's Red Square .\nMoscow has been named the world's most expensive city .\nIzmailovsky Market has the best souvenir shopping at reasonable prices .\niReport.com: Show us your travel snapshots .","id":"adc46f8c97157d5c96a98dbd10294f4ed35c6f72"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida man is using billboards with an image of the burning World Trade Center to encourage votes for a Republican presidential candidate, drawing criticism for politicizing the 9\/11 attacks. Businessman Mike Meehan says he has put up three billboards such as this one around Orlando, Florida. \"Please Don't Vote for a Democrat\" reads the type over the picture of the twin towers after hijacked airliners hit them on September, 11, 2001. Mike Meehan, a St. Cloud, Florida, businessman who paid to post the billboards in the Orlando area, said former President Clinton should have put a stop to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda before 9\/11. He said a Republican president would have done so. \"I believe 9\/11 could have been prevented if we'd had a Republican president at the time,\" Meehan said Wednesday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" But Democrats and Republicans are saying Meehan shouldn't be using a 9\/11 image to make a political point. \"This is a blatant exploitation of that terrible tragedy for political and, perhaps even worse, personal gain,\" Bill Robinson, the Orange County, Florida, Democratic Party chairman told CNN affiliate WFTV-TV in Orlando. The local Republican Party called the billboard \"inappropriate,\" according to WFTV. \"There are many ways to convey the importance of national security in this election without going to extremes, and we encourage a constructive dialogue,\" the Florida Republican Party said in a statement Tuesday. According to Meehan, President Bush has done \"an excellent job ... going after these terrorists.\" Watch Meehan's take on terrorism and the election \u00bb . \"You got to remember all the ... people that George Bush did catch and how much success he did have. And we haven't had an attack on this soil since 9\/11,\" Meehan said. \"Unlike Bill Clinton, who actually had bin Laden right in his hand and through the CIA and other high officials decide to get him go,\" Meehan said. In a 2006 interview with \"Fox News Sunday,\" Clinton said he authorized the killing of bin Laden in 2000 after the attack on the Navy warship USS Cole in Yemen, but the order was never carried out because U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies refused to certify that bin Laden was behind the Cole attack. \"I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since,\" Clinton said in the 2006 interview. Meehan also is using the billboard to promote his Web site, the republicansong.com, where he's trying to sell copies of his song, \"Please Don't Vote for a Democrat.\" The song goes beyond the national security issue, ripping Democrats on taxation and energy issues, too. \"They want to take the money from the hard workin' man, and give it to the lazy folks that don't give a damn,\" Meehan sings. Another verse takes on the oil issue. \"We're not fightin' for oil, we got plenty if we drill it,\" he sings. The song's not a moneymaker, he said, just an effort to recoup some of what he's invested in the billboards. A copy of the song on CD cost $5 on the Web site, and the site points out that Meehan can be hired to perform at a \"concert, party, meeting or event.\" \"I'm willing to pay the cost for the fact that our soldiers that have died protecting this country have paid a heck of a lot more than what these billboards cost,\" Meehan told \"American Morning.\" Florida resident Mary Anderson told WFTV she doesn't see politics when she's looking at the billboard. \"Just looking at it, I'm not thinking about Democrat or Republican, I'm thinking about the twin towers and all the people killed,\" she told WFTV.","highlights":"Billboards use image from 9\/11 to encourage GOP votes .\n9\/11 image wrong for ad, say Florida political parties .\nFloridian praises President Bush, says ex-President Clinton failed to stop al Qaeda .","id":"dc804f5062703c3d47ace08fe32a29466fded30f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brenda Gardenhire shows off her new home with pride. It looks like an oversized shopping cart covered with a khaki canvas. But to her, it's \"wonderful\" -- a stepping stone to get her off the streets and get her life back in order. Brenda Gardenhire was homeless over the last year, until she got her EDAR unit. \"It's like your own home, your own apartment, your own room,\" she said, showing off the 7-foot-long living space on wheels. \"No one else can come in here but me.\" Gardenhire is talking about her makeshift home called an EDAR, which stands for Everyone Deserves A Roof. The units are being distributed to homeless people in the Los Angeles area by the Everyone Deserves A Roof nonprofit organization. It's the brainchild of \"Revenge of the Nerds\" movie producer Peter Samuelson, who has spent much of his life working with charities to help impoverished children. He got the idea to help the homeless in recent years as he rode his bicycle from Los Angeles to the beach at Santa Monica. Watch a canvas-covered 'home' for the homeless \u00bb . On those bike rides, he began seeing more and more homeless people. But he didn't just whiz by. He stopped to talk with them -- 62 people in all. One by one, he listened to their needs and what they wanted most: a roof over their heads. And the idea for the EDAR was born. iReport.com: Homeless in pink tents . \"If you had to define the value of a civilization, it's not how many SUVs you've got,\" Samuelson said. \"To me, I think it's how well do we take care of our children, our homeless people, our mentally ill, those less fortunate.\" He partnered with the Pasadena Art Center College of Design for a design contest and the current contraption was created. Each unit costs about $500 to make. The four-wheeled home has an expandable base that stays off the ground and is covered by a canvas, giving it the feel of a tent. It extends 86 inches and is 32 inches wide, thin enough to fit through standard doorways. Each unit has a mattress and sleeping bag to provide comfort. It's also flame-retardant and sturdy enough to keep its occupants dry during heavy rains. A braking mechanism prevents the unit from rolling away at night. They also come with a chain and padlock to prevent it from being stolen. Samuelson said he initially wanted to build more permanent shelters for all of the homeless people in the Los Angeles area. \"But when you do the math, you're looking at $3 billion to get 60,000 people off the damp concrete, and that's just in L.A.,\" he said, explaining why he opted for the cheaper EDAR instead of permanent shelters. He said the EDAR isn't a perfect solution, but it's a good, economical stopgap. \"This is $500 to get a man or a woman or a child off the damp concrete,\" he said. \"I don't think it's the best. ... But for now, I think a little bit of privacy -- not being rained on, not sleeping on the ground, not getting pneumonia from the damp -- has a little bit of value.\" Jose Font, 50, agrees. He got an EDAR late last year. He said he's been homeless off and on since 1979. He slept on a tarp with a blanket and worked on computer repairs before he became one of about 60 people to get an EDAR. \"Everybody calls it the hobo condo. Everybody envies me because I sleep on a mattress inside,\" he said. \"It makes me feel like I've got something to come to. It feels more like a home than just a tarp and concrete.\" He added, \"It's light as a feather when I push it. I can put it anywhere.\" Font keeps it locked to a telephone on public property when he's away. James Ramirez, a social worker with the Venice Community Housing Corporation, said he has been able to use the EDAR as incentive to get people's lives back on track. \"What we're doing is using the EDAR as a carrot for them to come in to see us,\" Ramirez said. \"They want the EDAR because they want to keep dry when it's raining and they want a place to stay at night that's comfortable. So we're using this to connect with them.\" \"For us, it's working really well,\" he said. \"This is their home. This is what they're proud of at this moment. ... It means a step in the right direction to get back into society.\" The EDAR organization says it's starting with baby steps. In addition to the 60 units already given out, another 110 units have been ordered. The units are distributed to shelters, churches and other organizations that help the homeless. Those groups then distribute the units. The EDAR group tries to stay in phone contact with its users every week or two. EDAR.org: How you can help . EDAR currently has about 30 people on a waiting list, plus another 10 shelters in the Los Angeles area. The organization is also looking at land provided by a local authority where they could let women and families stay on a site that also has functioning bathrooms. EDAR has fielded dozens more calls from across the country and around the world about the units. Samuelson said they're \"studying what works best\" and looking at an array of options. \"People talk about the homeless as if it's some homogeneous group of drunken, unemployed, too-lazy-to-get-a-job men. They're totally wrong. They need to come meet people,\" he said. \"What's the point in having a society if it's devoid of helping people less fortunate?\" He added, \"As we raise money, we will get people off the concrete.\" For Brenda Gardenhire, that means the world. \"It's a step up to you. It's like you're making progress,\" she said. \"Now, I have me a little place to stay. I'm moving up.\" CNN's Traci Tamura and Gregg Canes contributed to this report.","highlights":"A Los Angeles-based charity has begun distributing makeshift tents .\nCharity was brainchild of \"Revenge of the Nerds\" movie producer Peter Samuelson .\n\"This is $500 to get a man or a woman or a child off the damp concrete,\" he says .\nHomeless man: \"Everybody calls it the hobo condo\"","id":"1e000399e3b381926150cb0b20eb2f7c0115e803"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- That's right, I said it. And I mean it. Roland Martin says the GOP is missing its chance to win black voters. The GOP as a whole is completely scared of black voters, and the actions by the front-runners for the party's 2008 nomination show they are continuing the same silly political games the party has played for years. Oh, don't bother tossing out the appointments of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state by Bush. Yes, they are African-American. But I'm speaking of the party. Ever since Richard Nixon ran for the White House, the GOP has run on a \"Southern Strategy,\" meant to alienate blacks in an effort to garner white voters. They've worked the strategy to perfection. When he was head of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman apologized for that strategy as he sought to make inroads among black voters. Republicans will tell you they are the party of Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but their outreach efforts to black voters are lacking. Oh, yes, I know. Democrats have a stranglehold on the black vote, receiving upward of 90 percent in national elections. A significant part of that is a result of the party seeing blacks as the backbone of the party. But the reality is that when you have only one party that truly makes a play for those voters, of course you will see such disparities! That's why it's dumb, dumb, and dumber for the leading GOP candidates to skip Thursday's debate hosted by Tavis Smiley and airing on PBS. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain have all cited \"scheduling conflicts\" as the reason for their lack of attendance to debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, even though Smiley personnel tell me they began discussions with then-RNC head Mehlman in February 2006. When the debate was announced earlier this year, along with a Democratic forum held in June at Howard University, the RNC promised their candidates would speak. But those of us who follow politics knew that wasn't going to happen. This summer, all of the Republican candidates, save Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, skipped the NAACP and the National Urban League conventions. OK, I get the former, but the Urban League? President Bush has spoken there several times as president! The GOP keeps blowing a big opportunity by ignoring blacks. And what about the debate sponsored by Spanish language TV station Univision? Only McCain accepted the invite. Today's generation of blacks and Latinos shouldn't be seen as the same as their parents. An increasing number of people are refusing to identify themselves with a party, and looking at issues. Latinos have been a huge part of the Republican outreach, but the immigration debate is turning that in a different direction. Why should the GOP talk to black voters, and what would they talk about? First, I can tell you that immigration is huge in the black community, and gets folks riled up in a hurry (you ought to see my talk show lines when this comes up). Education and health care are also major. And every GOP debate has been about faith in the public square, and we know that plays well with black voters. Now, when it comes to the war in Iraq, the GOP can forget that tune. No one is listening. And they are completely uneven on the issue of civil rights. Here is an example that further explains the GOP's stupidity on this topic. Several years ago, a Republican in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was trying to unseat then-Rep. Martin Frost, a heavily entrenched Democrat. That summer, a series of black churches were being burned. My good friend, Michael Williams, a third-generation black Republican, was planning to hold a fundraiser at his home for the GOP candidate. He called the campaign and said it would be a good idea for the candidate to make a statement on the burnings, condemning them and saying it didn't make sense. The campaign said no. Williams called back and made the suggestion again, and the response was they didn't want to seem as if they were pandering to the black community. He laughed at that because the campaign was bringing then-Rep. J.C. Watts, a prominent black Republican, to visit black churches with the candidate. Hello! That's pandering. So Williams told his wife, Donna, what the candidate said. She replied, \"Any man who is such a coward that he can't speak against churches being burned is not welcome in my home.\" The fundraiser was called off. Here was a simple opportunity to actually show that he cared, but the candidate was so scared to say something, he turned off a campaign donor. Will speaking at one debate turn around decades of black support for the Democrats? Nope. But not speaking will just mean business as usual, and the GOP needs less of that. Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning, multifaceted journalist and CNN contributor. Martin is studying to receive his master's degree in Christian Communications at Louisiana Baptist University, and is the author of \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith.\" You can read more of his columns at www.rolandsmartin.com . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Martin: Republican outreach efforts to black voters are lacking .\nMartin: Democrats win the black vote because they try for it .\nMartin: GOP could appeal to blacks on immigration, education, health care .","id":"814fc9a7f861c611e01bacee5e04f301cca5257e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- China's space program has really taken off in the last six years. Back to Earth: Yang Liwei faces the cameras on returning to Earth in 2003. In 2003 Yang Liwei became a national hero when he became the first Chinese man in space, followed five years later by Zhai Zhigang who became the first \"taikonaut\" to make a spacewalk. \"The moment I stepped out of the hatch and entered space, the sensation of completely becoming one with space was a feeling I had never felt before on Earth,\" Zhai told CNN. \"I deliberately looked into outer space, looking past my toes and deep into outer space. The differing brightness and distances of the celestial bodies really brought out the deepness of outer space. The vast , boundless expanse of outer space stirred my soul.\" View the photo gallery to learn more about the history of China's space program. From out of this world moments to their place in Chinese history, these two pioneering spacemen tell CNN's John Vause about their missions, how they had prepared for the worst should things go wrong and if China and other nations with the moon in their sights are creating a new international space race.","highlights":"Chinese \"taikonauts\" Yang Liwei and Zhai Zhigang talk to CNN .\nFirst Chinese man in space and first Chinese to conduct a spacewalk, respectively .\nTalk about their historic moments to international space race .","id":"489ba5f5aa41db0a6fc5121c0b043276d9456d4c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The drama of the action in-and-around the golf course has enraptured fans of the game through the generations and around the world. But the same drama that pulls in the crowds has also provided rich material for filmmakers too. Stars of the screen including Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy have all starred in club-themed movies, as have more contemporary celebrities like Adam Sandler, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Will Smith. Though the stories committed to celluloid vary in their approach - from The Stooges comedic farce entitled \"Three Little Beers,\" to the Ben Hogan biopic \"Follow the Sun,\" - the central attraction of golf remains at all the film's core. Here is CNN's best ten golf movies ever made - do you agree with our selection? If there is another film you feel should be included then add your comments to the Sound Off below.","highlights":"The drama and comedy of golf has provided great material for film makers .\nFunny films Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore lead the list .\nDean Martin, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn all starred down the years .\nSOUND OFF - Do you agree with the ten movies CNN has picked?","id":"3945fea4e3134fe968b1e0d3a08822c29aea3798"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Archaeologists in Israel have discovered what they believe is the bust of a Roman boxer from the second or third century. The figurine is small -- about 6 centimeters high by 4 centimeters wide -- but very detailed, archaeologists say. \"It seems that what we have here is a unique find,\" the two directors of the excavation said in a statement released Monday by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The figurine, made of marble, comes from a time when \"the art of Roman sculpture reached its zenith,\" Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets said. It's tiny -- only about 6 centimeters high by 4 centimeters wide, Ben-Ami told CNN. \"That's why it is so impressive. It's so small, but still you can see every little detail on the marble,\" he said. The archaeologists believe a merchant family from the eastern part of the Roman Empire most likely passed down the \"precious object\" through the generations until the fourth or fifth century, when an unfortunate family member had it with him at a public building, perhaps a hostel -- and an earthquake struck. A team has been digging up the building in the City of David, part of Jerusalem. The object is part of the \"silent testimony of the drama that occurred in this impressive structure prior to its collapse,\" the Israel Antiquities Authority said. The \"short hair style, the prominent lobes and curves of the ears, as well as the almond-shaped eyes suggest that the object most likely portrays an athlete, probably a boxer,\" the statement said. Little bits of the sculpture have broken off. It is missing part of the nose and mouth, Ben-Ami said. \"The high level of finish on the figurine is extraordinary,\" Ben-Ami and Tchekhanovets said in their statement. They added: \"To the best of our knowledge, to date no similar artifact made of marble (or any other kind of stone) bearing the same image that was just found has been discovered in excavations elsewhere in the country.\" A few similar artifacts made of bronze have been found \"at different sites in the country and they have been found in large numbers in different places throughout the Roman Empire, where the overwhelming majority of them date to the third century CE (the Roman period).\" Two tiny holes in the figurine suggest it was used as a suspended weight together with a balance scale, the archaeologists said. Last month, the excavation team at this same site discovered \"one of the largest and most impressive coin hoards ever found in Jerusalem,\" the Israel Antiquities Authority said. \"It consists of 264 gold coins and was found at about the same time as a gold earring, inlaid with expensive pearls and remarkably well preserved.\" \"Every single object has a story behind it,\" Ben-Ami said in an interview with CNN. \"Behind every object there are people. And, for us, the most important thing is to try to tell the stories behind these items.\"","highlights":"Archaeologists in Israel unearth tiny marble figurine .\nDetails on bust suggest it is that of an athlete, probably a boxer .\n\"High level of finish on the figurine is extraordinary,\" archaeologist says .\nStash of gold coins was found last month at the same site .","id":"ff671b6dd9be9cbc9d44cc68b828896021cc5be5"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A man in a wheelchair blew himself up Monday in a northern Iraqi police station, killing three National Police officers, including a commander, police said. Soldiers stand by as pilgrims gather Sunday in Karbala for al-Arbaeen, one of holiest days on the Shiite calendar. The attack also wounded nine officers on the police force, which the Iraqi Interior Ministry operates. The bombing in Samarra raises concern about the recent tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq. Bombs have been placed inside dead animals and hidden in carts. And in recent days, vagrants have been involved in bombings. \"As a sign of desperation, some of those terrorists resorted to some new methods and techniques,\" said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad's security plan. One of the tactics is the use of remote-controlled \"sticky\" bombs, small enough to tape under vehicles. A high-ranking Samarra police official said the disabled man came to meet with Brig. Gen. Abdul Jabbar Rabei Muttar, deputy commander of security, at the security operations building in Samarra. The pair met last week as well. The man was searched when he entered the building, but police didn't look under his wheelchair seat, where the explosives had been placed. The man, who police say was cogent, detonated the explosives when Muttar approached him. Also Monday, a roadside bomb exploded in the middle of a crowd of Shiite Muslims in Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 15, an Interior Ministry official said. The strike, in southeastern Baghdad's Zafaraniya district, is the latest attack against pilgrims trekking to Karbala for al-Arbaeen, one of the holiest days of the Shiite religious calendar. It falls on Wednesday. On Sunday, a suicide bomber in Iskandariya killed at least 45 people and wounded 68 others, and armed militants attacked pilgrims in southern Baghdad, killing three and wounding more than 30 others. Pilgrims traditionally make their way to Karbala on foot as a demonstration of piety, and those who head to the city from Baghdad go through Babil province, where Iskandariya is located. Joint forces have stepped up patrols during the pilgrimage to protect the thousands headed to Karbala. Last year, more than 180 pilgrims were killed in a series of attacks, most during twin suicide bombings in Hilla, Babil province's capital. Sunday's attack in Iskandariya, conducted by a bomber wearing an explosive vest, prompted authorities there to replace the police chief, Hilla police said. More National Police officers have been deployed to Babil to ensure the safety of pilgrims heading to Karbala, a police official said. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and American-led coalition forces condemned Sunday's \"barbaric attacks in Baghdad and Iskandariya\" against \"innocent citizens participating in an important religious commemoration.\" Every year, thousands of pilgrims amass in Karbala for al-Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. Hussein, one of the most revered Shiite martyrs, is buried in Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad. Karbala's main holy site is the gold-domed Imam Hussein Shrine. Other developments . CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqi major says attacks show how insurgents are resorting to new methods .\nPolice: Bomber had met at least twice with deputy security chief before blast .\nThree people are killed, 15 injured in roadside attack in southeastern Baghdad .\nPilgrims on way to Karbala for al-Arbaeen, one of holiest days on Shiite calendar .","id":"fb4c5cf215019fed7272a6f4c04a2b9e3a61ab56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hold on to the audacity of hope but shun the arrogance of over-promising. A scholar says President Obama could learn from Lyndon Johnson's Great Society mistakes. That's the message from a scholar who says President Obama can learn much from the success and mistakes of another ambitious attempt to remake America. Robert Weisbrot, co-author of \"The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s,'' says the Great Society revolution was \"tremendously liberating\" for members of the most vulnerable groups in America. The Great Society was President Lyndon Johnson's sprawling legislative attempts in the mid-1960s to lift Americans out of poverty, erase racial injustice and clean up the environment. But historical circumstances won't permit Obama to push through his own Great Society, Weisbrot says. \"Obama is living in a different age,\" Weisbrot said. \"The circumstances won't permit him to be another Lyndon Johnson.\" Obama came to office with the nation's economic institutions verging on collapse. He also has to contend with bitter partisanship and a public that's suspicious of big government programs. \"Obama needs to not only learn lessons from the Great Society but keep in mind the limits of what he can draw from a fundamentally different age,\" Weisbrot said. Americans were ready for the Great Society when Johnson became president, he says. The country was enjoying a post-World War II economic boom. The Republican and Democratic parties worked together because both had a significant number of moderates. And people had more faith in the federal government, which had led the nation out of the Great Depression and World War II and helped rebuild the European economy, Weisbrot says. \"For many Americans, the federal government could achieve anything for which there was a national mandate,\" Weisbrot said. Yet that same optimism helped stain the Great Society's legacy, Weisbrot says. He says Johnson framed the Great Society as a war to defeat poverty and racial injustice. He over-promised, particularly when the Vietnam War began to drain away resources for the Great Society. \"Lyndon Johnson dealt in hyperbole,\" Weisbrot said. \"It works well in getting legislation through Congress, but it sets the nation up for disillusionment when the promised Utopia didn't materialize.\"","highlights":"Scholar: Circumstances won't allow another Great Society .\nObama could learn from President Johnson's mistakes, he says .\nDid Great Society sputter because Johnson over-promised?","id":"6a584573c4af35cd963dde180d755dacf7bec95a"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Ramadan, the holy month of Islam, began Saturday with Iraqis hoping for tranquility but fearful after recent attacks that have shaken the country. Plastic flowers and banners hang on cars destroyed in Wednesday's bombings in Baghdad. Al-Iraqia state TV interrupted regular programming Saturday afternoon to broadcast Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's address to Iraqis on the occasion of the start of the holy month. The prime minister said that as he congratulates Iraqis, his \"heart is full of sadness and sorrow.\" Four Iraqi soldiers and a government worker were killed Saturday in attacks in Baghdad and Mosul, according to an official of the Interior Ministry. Gunmen opened fire earlier in the day on an army checkpoint in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in northeastern Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding one. Two more soldiers died and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol in Zummar, about 50 miles northwest of Mosul. Mosul is 260 miles north of Baghdad. A bomb left inside the district manager's office in the Qahira neighborhood in eastern Mosul killed the manager and two children. A roadside bomb also exploded near a car and wounded two people in the Saidiya district of southeastern Baghdad. The holy month of Ramadan, considered to be a time of peace and giving, is when Muslims across the world fast from dawn until dusk, and its observance is one of the five pillars of Islam. But since the start of the war, Iraqis every year brace for an uptick in violence during the holy month. Some years have seen a rise in suicide attacks. Extremist attacks during Ramadan are sometimes \"fueled by a belief that to carry out violence -- 'jihad,' a suicide bombing -- during a holy month such as this one will gain them more credibility with the Lord,\" said CNN Correspondent Arwa Damon in Baghdad. Ramadan \"is meant to be a time to show one's devotion to God, a time of sacrifice,\" said Damon, \"Unfortunately, even though it is very much intended to be a time of peace ... it has proven over the last few years in places like here in Iraq to be a time of increased violence.\" On Wednesday, more than 100 people were killed and more than 500 were wounded in a series of truck bombings in Baghdad. It was the deadliest day since the United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns nearly two months ago and left security in the hands of the Iraqis. Watch report on bombings of Iraqi ministries \u00bb . At least four people were killed and 76 were wounded Thursday in a string of bombings in Babil province, according to the Iraqi government. It is not just Iraq where extremists see Ramadan as a time of opportunity. Kuwait's state-run news agency reported earlier in August that security forces had arrested six Kuwaitis linked to al Qaeda who had planned to attack a U.S. military installation. The suspects had planned to bomb Camp Arifjan in Kuwait during Ramadan, Kuwaiti security sources told CNN. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqis hope for peace but fearful with start of Muslim holy month .\nIn recent years, Ramadan in Iraq has been time of increased violence .\nThis week, dozens have died in series of bombings in Iraqi capital .","id":"423565a4e571fb3b3dbaf76e648cba5fb2f69965"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Gloria Borger is a senior political analyst for CNN, appearing regularly on CNN's \"The Situation Room,\" \"Campbell Brown,\" \"AC360\u00b0\" and \"State of the Union With John King,\" as well as special event coverage. Gloria Borger says we could be in for a month of venting sessions aimed at members of Congress. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ah, the summer. Time for all those members of Congress to go home, meet with their constituents, get their input on health care reform and take back what they have learned from the voters. Not exactly. In some town hall meetings around the country, anger and fear are trumping any constructive argument -- at least so far. Recently, for instance, Sen. Arlen Specter held a town hall meeting with Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary. In attempting to answer questions, they were shouted down by folks more interested in venting than discussing. On the conservative FreedomWorks Web site, the display was headlined \"Specter Gets Schooled.\" Above the video of the event, the site says \"... this is a must watch and a must emulate at town halls across the country over the next month.\" Really? What about those folks who are actually interested in debating and discussing a very complex issue they're trying to digest? There are some who may actually want to figure out the best way to solve the health care problem. What ever happened to asking questions about the quality of care, the cost of insurance, the impact of any public plan on the health care system? After all, this has been a turbulent economic time for this country, and another huge shock to the system is naturally worrisome. Especially when it comes to an issue as complex as health care. But it's not just the folks at these town halls who have learned how to heckle. Their bad behavior is a derivative of the questionable quality of the political debate they listen to every day. Indeed, if there's one thing we've gotten really good at over the years, it's this: reducing complicated problems to bite-sized slogans. It seems to work, so we keep doing it. Ipso facto, Obama's reform ideas become \"socialism\" to his Republican critics. And the administration is not above creating a handy bogeyman of its own: the insurance companies. At least according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who accuses them of \"full-force carpet-bombing and shock and awe against the public option.\" Too bad they actually support the rest of reform, and are still running positive ads about the effort. They weren't at the table at all 16 years ago when Hillary Clinton's effort at reform failed. The world has changed since then, and the congressional plans for reforming health care have changed, too. But the invective of the debate, sad to say, has not. The effort on Capitol Hill has been serious. I hate to sound like Pollyanna, but members of Congress are actually doing some real work. Some policy differences may never get resolved because they are too ideological; others are regional, and that's tough, too. But they're working at it, for hours on end, behind closed doors. No cameras, no grandstanding. One of those working the hardest, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, was derided at a town hall recently on the matter of his own health insurance. So here's the fellow who is spending every waking hour trying to get a bipartisan measure that can pass the Senate -- and be fair to Iowans -- and he goes home and gets an earful. Maybe the discourse will become more productive as the summer progresses. And maybe not. But the health care dilemma remains, no matter how loud the discussion. As John F. Kennedy told us, \"To govern is to choose.\" Especially when the choices are not easy. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger.","highlights":"Gloria Borger: Congressional recess provides chance for health care discussion .\nShe says some people more interested in shouting than serious talk .\nShe says Congress is grappling with a tough, complex issue .\nBorger: Stop reducing complicated issues to simplistic sound bites .","id":"1a4a9999ab5adb223b99ad743d0330da2cfb9452"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives passed a $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010 Thursday night, capping off weeks of acrimonious partisan debate and a long day of voting marked by the defeat of several alternative plans. The U.S. House passed a $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010 Thursday night. The House version of the budget passed by a margin of 233-196 in a virtual party-line vote. All but 20 House Democrats supported it; no House Republican voted in favor. In London, England, where he has been attending the Group of 20 summit, President Obama lauded the House vote. \"Tonight, the House of Representatives took another step toward rebuilding our struggling economy,\" he said in a statement. \"And by making hard choices and challenging the old ways of doing business, we will cut in half the budget deficit we inherited within four years. With this vote comes an obligation to pursue our efforts to go through the budget line-by-line, searching for additional savings. Like the families we serve, we must cut the things we don't need to invest in those we do.\" The Senate plans a vote on its $3.53 trillion version of the budget later Thursday night. That vote, too, is expected to fall on party lines. Moderate GOP Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, who voted in favor of Obama's stimulus bill last month, intend to vote against what is essentially the blueprint of Obama's economic policies going forward. The House budget largely tracks Obama's initial proposed spending plan, with the exception of a decision to drop his $250 billion request for potential future bailouts of struggling financial institutions. Watch more on Obama's budget details \u00bb . Fiscally conservative House Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, also negotiated with House Democratic leaders to cut $7 billion from the president's $540 billion request for nondefense discretionary spending. Under the House Democrats' plan, the federal government will run an anticipated deficit of $1.2 trillion in the next fiscal year. Their plan promises to cut the deficit by more than half by 2013. House Democrats agreed to extend the middle class tax cut that was included in the recently passed economic stimulus plan, but failed to specify how the cut would be paid for after 2010. They also included language that allows for the controversial procedure called \"budget reconciliation\" for health care, a tool that would limit debate on major policy legislation. Senate Democrats did not include reconciliation in their version of the budget. The matter is guaranteed to be a major partisan sticking point when the two chambers meet to hammer out a final version of next year's spending plan. If it passes, it would allow the Senate to pass Obama's proposed health-care reform without the threat of a Republican-led Senate filibuster. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, speaking for most of his GOP Senate colleagues, warned Tuesday that if a health-care \"reconciliation winds up in the budget bill, it'll be like a declaration of war. ... I hope that that wedge doesn't get thrown in there.\" Both the House and the Senate version of the budget allow former President George W. Bush's tax cuts for couples who make more than $250,000 to expire in 2010, and both plans let Obama's signature tax cuts -- $400 for individuals and $800 for couples -- expire as well, unless the White House finds a way to pay for them. Under the House plan, the cuts would expire in 2010; in the Senate plan, they would expire in 2012. Key differences between House and Senate include deficits and nonmilitary discretionary spending. The House budget would reduce the deficit from $1.7 trillion in 2009 to $598 billion in 2014, House Democrats said, while the Senate Democrats say their plan would bring the deficit down an additional $80 billion. The House rejected an alternative proposal put forward by the GOP leadership, which called for $4.8 trillion less in overall spending over the next decade, in part through a five-year freeze in most non-defense discretionary spending. \"House Republicans were united in the desire to find reasonable solutions for middle-class families, focused directly on creating jobs, tax relief and empowering small businesses to survive and grow,\" said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. \"The Republican budget was crafted to help those Americans worried about their jobs, their health care, their financial security, and their real fears that Washington is spending and borrowing money that America does not have. Republicans offered a comprehensive budget that provides the American people with the ideas, energy and common-sense solutions they are looking for.\" Among other things, the House GOP's version of the budget would have repealed the entire $787 billion economic stimulus package except for an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It also would have rolled back a recently passed 8 percent spending boost in the budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Watch more on the GOP budget alternative \u00bb . Thirty-eight Republicans voted against their own leadership's bill in that vote, while two Democrats voted in favor of it. The final vote was 293-137 against the GOP proposal. Overall, the Republican version of the budget called for $3.6 trillion less in borrowing over the next 10 years. CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: In England, President Obama praises House vote .\nBudget passes 233-196 in party-line vote; no House Republican voted in favor .\nBudget drops Obama's $250 billion request for potential financial institution bailouts .\nSenate plans vote on its $3.53 trillion version of budget later Thursday night .","id":"a572e09d74d511fadb2ab1e59fbdc78bf29be20f"} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- He wanted to sit outside for a while and enjoy the night air, then took a shower and curled up on the couch to watch a cartoon movie. A boring night by many teenagers' standards. But 15-year-old Michael Brewer, who suffered burns over 65 percent of his body in October -- allegedly at the hands of a group of youths he knew -- reveled in it, his mother told reporters Wednesday. Being out of a hospital burn unit, she said, was \"the only thing he wanted for Christmas.\" \"He's really looking forward to spending Christmas with his family,\" Valerie Brewer said of her son, who was released from the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center on Tuesday. \"We hope everybody has as wonderful a Christmas as we're going to have.\" Three teens -- Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16 -- are accused of being in a group that poured alcohol over Brewer and set him ablaze October 12 in what police said was a dispute over $40, a video game and a bicycle. All three teens are charged as adults with one count of attempted murder. Each has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, each could face a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. The family did not return to their Deerfield Beach, Florida, home, and does not plan to, Valerie Brewer said. Instead, they went to \"a safe place\" -- both so they can have privacy and so Michael Brewer can feel secure. \"He doesn't feel safe going back to the neighborhood,\" she said. \"The families of the boys live within five blocks of us. He does fear for his life going back there. ... He doesn't want to go back and I don't blame him. We're looking forward to moving on and having some peace.\" She told CNN in an interview later Wednesday the family is looking for another home. Brewer, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over about two-thirds of his body, has \"a long road ahead of him,\" Dr. Louis Pizano, associate director of the burn center, said Wednesday. He faces hours of physical therapy five days a week, Pizano said -- a painful process both because of the burns and because of muscle atrophy resulting from the recovery process. Therapists are working to help him walk more easily and regain a range of motion in his arms and legs, Pizano said. Doctors are hopeful Brewer will not require any more skin grafts, he said. Valerie Brewer told CNN in a later interview Wednesday that her son managed to shower \"all by himself\" Tuesday night. Showers can be excruciating for him, she said, as it hurts when the soap and water hit his open wounds. Plus, she said, he must take a piece of gauze and wipe his wounds to get any dead skin off. \"He's very courageous for doing it by himself.\" Besides his painful treatment and recovery, Brewer suffered an emotional toll, his mother said. \"He really doesn't talk about it with me or with his father,\" Valerie Brewer said. \"He talks to the therapists about it because he doesn't want to upset us.\" He takes medication to help with night terrors, she told CNN, but \"he wakes up every night with nightmares.\" She said she sleeps about three or four hours a night, depending on how many times her son wakes up in pain or with a nightmare. Detectives say eyewitnesses told them that Mendez used a lighter to set fire to Brewer after Jarvis poured alcohol over him. Bent allegedly encouraged the attack, police said. Brewer jumped into a pool at his apartment complex to put out the flames. Authorities have said Mendez admitted setting Brewer on fire. According to an arrest transcript, the boy said he made a \"bad decision.\" Pizano said Wednesday he would have predicted a six-moth hospital stay for Brewer. While he said it is \"miraculous\" that Brewer was released in two months, \"the reason why he's home so early is because of him.\" He said Brewer did everything he needed to do, a formidable task even for an injured adult. \"He followed everything to the T, and he got home early.\" Brewer will be home-schooled for the rest of this year and possibly next to allow his recovery to progress, Valerie Brewer said. \"He never gave up on anything,\" she said. \"He got a little depressed once in a while -- anybody would, going through this kind of situation -- but his will to live is just unbelievable, and to move on and live a happy, normal life.\" She told CNN, \"He's such inspiration to me. Seeing him go through this -- I know the rest of his life, he's going to have challenges, but nothing is going to ever amount to what he has gone through now, and what he's going to go through for the next several months.\"","highlights":"Michael Brewer, 15, was severely burned in October, allegedly by teens he knew .\nGetting out of hospital was \"the only thing he wanted for Christmas,\" his mom says .\nBrewer family to spend holiday at \"a safe place,\" not their old home .\nDoctors credit Brewer's \"miraculous\" recovery to his determination, spirit .","id":"81668801a74a96a293d19f1eb825cad06aa410b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The new seven wonders of the world were named Saturday following an online vote that generated server-crushing traffic in its final hours. The Great Wall of China was among the top vote-getters of the \"New 7 Wonders of the World\" project. The final tally produced this list of the world's top human-built wonders: . \u2022 The Great Wall of China . \u2022 Petra in Jordan . \u2022 Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer . \u2022 Peru's Machu Picchu . \u2022 Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid . \u2022 The Colosseum in Rome . \u2022 India's Taj Mahal . Before the vote ended Friday, organizers said more than 90 million votes had been cast for 21 sites. Watch the contenders and controversy surrounding the 'new' seven wonders \u00bb . Voting at the Web site, www.new7wonders.com, ended at 6 p.m. ET Friday. Traffic was so heavy Friday that the site was crashing at times. One message urged voters to use text messages as an alternative form of voting. \"Keep on voting, as it is your votes that decide the New 7 Wonders of the World,\" the message said. \"We have traffic that is simply off the scale,\" Tia Vering, spokeswoman for the \"New 7 Wonders of the World\" campaign, told CNN.com. \"Things are just going ballistic.\" The new wonders were announced at a star-studded event Saturday in Lisbon, Portugal, that featured performances by Jennifer Lopez and Chaka Khan. The event was hosted by Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Ben Kingsley as well as Bollywood star Bipasha Basu. Send CNN.com photos and video of your favorite \"wonder\" The top contenders for the seven wonders were last made public in early June. The oldest candidate was Britain's Stonehenge; the newest was Australia's Sydney Opera House. The U.S. Statue of Liberty also was among the choices. Voting nearly doubled after the June results, when organizers said about 50 million votes had been cast. A single user can cast multiple votes. To be considered for the competition, all structures had to be built or discovered before 2000. All are among top tourist attractions around the world. Of the seven ancient wonders of the world, only one remains standing today, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Some nations have enthusiastically endorsed the new wonders campaign. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Jordan's Queen Rania actively promoted their countries' hopefuls. But the new wonders campaign hasn't been universally recognized. The United Nations' cultural organization, UNESCO, issued a statement saying it has \"no link whatsoever\" to the vote. Egypt's top antiquities expert also objected to the list. He said Egypt's pyramids are a \"symbol of the genius of the ancient people\" -- and are above any sort of online poll. As a result, the organizers struck up a compromise. The pyramids have been assured honorary status, in addition to the new seven wonders. The new wonders project was the brainchild of Swiss businessman Bernard Weber. He said he wanted to invite the people of the world to take part in selecting the world's greatest wonders. \"So that everybody can decide what the new seven wonders should be and not some government, not some individuals, not some institutions,\" he said. Vering said she believes the vote has accomplished that goal. \"We've managed to bring culture out of the museum -- out of the dusty, dry academic corners -- and have people talk about it,\" she said. \"That, we feel, is the greatest achievement of this campaign.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: .\nStar-studded event in Lisbon, Portugal, unveils the new wonders .\nVoting in the final hours so intense the Web site crashed at times .\nPyramids of Giza given honorary status as a \"wonders\" member .","id":"705c762be1488af409da95bece16ee68c1f2671e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What do Elvis, Kim Kardashian, the Jonas Brothers, Dilbert and teen vampires have in common? Calendars like this one featuring the movie \"Twilight\" are big sellers. They are all subjects of hot calendars. Be it pinned to the wall, tucked in a pocket or lounging on a desk, calendars have maintained popularity even as they face stiff competition from technology. While just about every cell phone or PDA allows users to keep track of those ever important events and appointments, calendars still seem to hold an allure for users day by day. \"We do not see technology-based calendars as the competition,\" said Robert Gilbreath, director of marketing for Calendars.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites for calendars on the Web. \"They do not evoke memories of past occurrences, experiences, and pleasures.\" A cell phone calendar also can't give fans the opportunity to gaze upon 12 images of their favorite celebrity or object of desire in the comfort of their own home or office. Some of Calendars.com's most popular sellers include classic movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne as well as today's hottest fan favorites like the cast of the movie \"Twilight.\" Calendars featuring beautiful women who also happen to be celebrities are also always in demand such as those featuring \"Transformers\" actress Megan Fox, Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends, known as The Girls Next Door, and a perennial favorite -- the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar. If sales are any indication, print calendars are still holding their own. \"We've seen double-digit annual growth in our e-commerce channel every year until the last one,\" said Paul Hoffman, chief operating officer of Calendar Holdings LLC, parent company of Calendars.com and Calendar Club retail stores. \"We are very optimistic about the future growth online.\" Calendars have a long history as a part of American culture. Larry Krug, one of the founders of the Calendar Collectors Society, said calendars used to be must have collectors items when they were produced using the works of famous photographers and artists such as Norman Rockwell. Calendars still have their enthusiasts, Krug said, especially among those who are able to tie in calendars to an already existing passion, such as collecting Coca-Cola memorabilia. \"People collect different kinds of calendars,\" he said. \"There are wall calendars, desk calendars, pocket calendars, towel calendars and calendar plates. It's really a very broad and interesting area.\" And while there are a multitude of calendars that can be found -- often in a kiosk at the mall where a savvy shopper knows the prices will drop after the first of the year -- there are some that start out as collectors' items even before they are produced. The Pirelli calendar, with its limited availability and artistic nude photos of some of the world's most beautiful models, has become a sought-after item known for its exclusivity. Gruppo Campari, the makers of spirits, wines and soft drinks, also produces a limited-edition calendar every year which is not for sale and has featured various starlets including Eva Mendes, Jessica Alba and Salma Hayek. Since 2000, the company has employed world-famous and emerging photographers to capture the images, which are designed to tell a story within the calendar. Chiara Bressani, head of Gruppo Campari's Communication, said the calendars are marketing works of art. \"The calendar is always trying to convey seduction and passion,\" Bressani said. \"It's a creative way of showing what Campari is.\" She said the women chosen to appear in the calendars are selected because they convey the Campari values. The calendars have become very popular in Europe and the United States, Bressani said, despite the fact --or maybe because -- they are not easy to obtain. \"[The popularity] is growing every year,\" said Bressani, whose company has chosen Bond girl Olga Kurylenko to appear in the upcoming 2010 calendar. \"You can enjoy the pictures on the Web, but it's a different feeling when you have the calendar in your hands.\"","highlights":"Celebrity calendars still the rage among fans .\nCalendars featuring stars and beautiful women among top sellers .\nLimited-edition Campari calendar features international starlets .","id":"b49bab21ce7c4ab3d759bcb216f6bd90130b1d3c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Senior Taliban official Maulvi Faqir Mohammad has named himself acting head of the Pakistani Taliban, a close relative of Mohammad and local Taliban spokesmen in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas told CNN Wednesday. Baitullah Mehsud, right, and a bodyguard arrive at a meeting in South Waziristan, Pakistan, in 2004. Pakistani and U.S. officials believe that the group's leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan. Through his relative, however, Mohammad said that Mehsud is alive but ill and temporarily unable to perform his duties. Mohammad believes that he is in line to lead the group because he is a deputy of Mehsud's, the relative said. A year ago, Mohammad was falsely believed killed in a Pakistani airstrike, according to media reports at the time. The relative also said that Mohammad appointed Haji Muslim Khan as the group's spokesman. Khan is a former provincial Taliban spokesman in Swat. Pakistani officials announced Tuesday that two top figures in the Pakistani Taliban had been arrested. Saif Ullah is believed to have been Mehsud's right-hand man, and Maulvi Umar is the well-known spokesman for the militant group. Umar recently declared that Mehsud had not been killed in the drone strike on his father-in-law's house, but a senior Pakistani official said Umar had admitted under questioning that Mehsud was dead. The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, said the Pakistani Taliban have not confirmed his death because of an ongoing power struggle over his successor. Journalist Janummah Hashaimzada contributed to this report.","highlights":"Group's leader is believed to have been killed in air attack this month .\nDeputy claims leadership; he was falsely believed killed last year .\nPakistani officials announce arrest of two top Taliban figures .","id":"75526953da6d52469c0b94898cd8bf527a477f25"} -{"article":"Parkersburg, West Virginia (CNN) -- At nearly $12.1 trillion, the U.S. national debt has reached a size that is incomprehensible to most people and as intangible as the '\"Big Bang\" or bipartisanship. But it is real in West Virginia, where a small, nearly anonymous group of government accountants calculate the public debt to the penny each day, living a mathematic nightmare and number cruncher's dream. At a large desk in Parkersburg, Jaime Saling watches over roughly 6,500 pieces of data and trillions of dollars each day. Her title takes up a few characters itself: Saling is the debt accounting branch manager for the Bureau of Public Debt. She and a division of just 15 people quietly and relentlessly work to account for every penny of the national debt. It is tedious and potentially overwhelming work, but Saling acts as if she flies jet fighters. \"I get very excited,\" the petite and energetic Saling says, \"They call me a nerd, several times; I think it's because I get very excited about all the work we do.\" That work happens in a simple one-story, brick building in Parkersburg, some 300 miles from Washington. The public debt offices landed there thanks to heavyweight home-state Sen. Robert Byrd. The bureau's offices are tucked into a corner of town that's easy to miss. A brown hill and train track sit on one side, parking lots for county offices on the other. The locale is still a surprise to some. \"Every now and then we get a comment, 'Where are you? Parkersburg?'\" Saling says. The public debt building has become a number nerds' paradise. Employees say they balance their checkbooks at least weekly, some daily. A big happy-face sign marks progress on a recent audit. A written goal is taped to a Nerf-sized football. And the security guards brag that someone brings in a cake about every other day. Inside, Saling's office is pin-neat, but her computer screen is cramped. A full-screen photo of Saling's 4- and 5-year-old children is covered by dozens of icons for spreadsheets and documents, so that glimpses of bright blonde hair poke out from under a field of white data squares. \"I need to clean it out right now,\" Saling says with a shrug, then laughs. She then calls up the brain of the debt-management system, a software program called PARS, or Public debt Accounting and Reporting System. The acronym is a pun only an accountant would love. \"Par value\" means \"stated value\" in the field. PARS is a custom program, designed in the early '90s to check and double-check the constant buying and selling of U.S. debt. Thanks in part to the debt software, what used to take 100 people a month to compute now is done by 15 people in a day. Even so, the program looks like it's from another time, with a black screen and neon-colored letters that recall computer monitors of the \"War Games\" era. \"It is outdated,\" Saling says of the font. But she insists the program itself still operates well. Annual government reviews of PARS back that up. And the division overall has a remarkable record of 13 straight years of unqualified audits, the accounting gold standard of accuracy. That brings a massive smile to Saling's face; you see how someone so enthusiastic can be called a nerd. \"Things like that make me very excited.\" (Her favorite report, by the way, is the \"schedules of public debt\".) Each day, to check the funds flowing in and out of the public debt, Saling types in five-digit codes into PARS and checks a slew of accounts. She knows about 50 of those codes by heart. In general, there is a scale to this work that would disrupt most minds. \"Most people don't have a sense of it until they come here and see it,\" said accounting director Mike Linder, who is Saling's boss. \"Most calculators don't handle what we do.\" And almost no one sees the debt as they do. \"A lot of people, I don't think realize what the debt's made of,\" Saling put forth. \"In that $12 trillion you have both debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings.\" In other words, the debt held by those outside the government and debt the government owes to itself, such as money borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund. At the end of November, $7.7 trillion was debt held by the public and $4.4 trillion was intragovernmental holdings. Saling sees a heartbeat in the numbers. \"It's actually helping us operate government.\" And never has government been larger. But Saling and these accountants of the people are careful on that note. \"It's not that we're saying this is the right thing to do,\" she states matter-of-factly. \"A lot of times we're saying, 'If they pass this, how are we going to account for it?' A lot of times that takes a lot of meetings.\" Saling is right, in the age of deficits and debt, all of that literally keeps government operating. Yet those trillions of dollars are overseen by a small division that works without contractors and is content with a software system that may look clunky, but which they insist works more than well. There is an irony here. These self-proclaimed nerds oversee the very symbol of big government but exude sobriety and restraint. Saling and her staff are nearly anonymous but deeply significant. And they are more than happy that way.","highlights":"In West Virginia, a small group of accountants calculate the public debt to the penny each day .\n\"Most calculators don't handle what we do,\" accounting director says .\nThe program accountants use is outdated, but works well, Jaime Saling says .\nThe public debt building has become a number nerds' paradise .","id":"1faf026fbece9e42ccf95ae7245d55ae2cd18cf9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man described as a former employee shot and killed two people and seriously wounded another at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, construction company before workers wrestled him to the ground, sheriff's officials said. Dianna Tullier, 44, of Walker, Louisiana, and Cheryl D. Boykin, 55, of Denham Springs, Louisiana were pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. They were both clerical workers in the construction office. The suspect, identified as Richard Matthews, 53, of Slaughter, Louisiana, parked outside Grady Crawford Construction Co. shortly before 2 p.m. and entered a building, where he shot a female dispatcher, said Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Casey Rayborn Hicks. Hicks said Matthews then went into a second company building and killed two people inside. Matthews left the second building to reload his weapon, Hicks said. He re-entered that building, shot at and missed a fourth person, Hicks said. Four people then wrestled Matthews to the ground. One of them, a foreman at the construction company, put his finger between Matthews' finger and the trigger guard of Matthews' gun, stopping the gunman from shooting, Hicks said. The four people held Matthews down until police arrived. Matthews was transported to the sheriff's office in downtown Baton Rouge, Hicks said, and was being questioned. Hicks said police are uncertain if Matthews has prior arrests, mental health or substance abuse issues. Matthews will be booked on two counts of first degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, Hicks said. As he was escorted in for questioning, in response to a reporter's question about the shooting, the Matthews replied numerous times: \"I couldn't get my unemployment, they wouldn't give me my unemployment.\" CNN's Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Victims from Walker, Louisiana, and Denham Springs, Louisiana, official says .\nOfficial: Worker put finger between trigger guard of gun to stop suspect from shooting more .\nOfficials identify suspect as Richard Matthews, 53, of Slaughter, Louisiana .\nSuspect: \"They wouldn't give me my unemployment\" as he is escorted by police .","id":"46e5d83e93f000b7bf8f539f5cccf30dc0d60293"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- He was a cold, calculating, \"morally depraved\" man who spent the last years of his socialite and megaphilanthropist mother's life bilking her fortune to line his pockets. That's one way to see Anthony Marshall -- and it's the only way, according to the prosecutors who secured a conviction against him for grand larceny and scheming to defraud his mother, Brooke Astor. Now as the 85-year-old son prepares to be sentenced Monday for his crimes, another portrait of him has emerged -- thanks to close friends and celebrity acquaintances (including Al Roker and Whoopi Goldberg) who sent letters to the court in hopes of saving him from a lengthy prison sentence. The man prosecutors described during the trial is apparently unrecognizable to many of Marshall's friends and acquaintances. He was a loyal, churchgoing man, a Purple Heart recipient wounded in Iwo Jima during World War II and a son who tried mightily but could never live up to the high ideals of his socialite mother, according to letters friends submitted to the court. And now, they say he is a frail and sickly man who has faced extreme humiliation and would essentially be given a death sentence if a judge hands down the maximum sentence allowed. It will be up to Judge A. Kirke Bartley Jr. to decide how to reconcile the two portraits of Tony Marshall. He faces a minimum one to three years, or as much as eight to 25 years in state prison. The drastically differing views have only further heightened interest in the case, which during the trial stage was a tabloid feeding frenzy, fostering headlines such as \"Bad heir day,\" \"Mrs. Astor's disaster\" and \"DA's kick in the Astor.\" The witness list was a virtual \"Who's Who\" of New York's social elite -- including Henry Kissinger, Graydon Carter, Barbara Walters, Vartan Gregorian and Annette de la Renta. During the case, prosecutors and witnesses portrayed Marshall as an only son preying on his physically and mentally ill 101-year-old mother. Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann called the case \"disturbing,\" and said the trial told the story of \"how a son, an only son, would stoop so low to steal from his own mother in the sunset years of her life in order to line his own pockets and the pockets of his wife.\" His only goal, they said, was to selfishly tap her fortune -- money that prosecutors said Astor intended to donate to ordinary New Yorkers who needed help after she died. He was convicted of the most serious charges against him -- first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud. One of the most serious convictions involved Marshall giving himself a $1 million-a-year raise for handling his mother's affairs, Seidemann said. During trial testimony, Marshall's lawyers called no character witnesses to come to his defense. So the new letters from friends are the first attempts by those who know him to share what they believe is his true character. Whoopi Goldberg told a judge in her letter that she met Tony Marshall and his wife, Charlene, 10 years ago when Goldberg moved into a building on the Upper East Side with Frank Langella. Unlike other residents who turned their nose up at her, Goldberg said she became quick friends with the Marshalls. Her interactions with Tony, she wrote, gave her an insight into his relationship with his mother, and in turn taught her about how fame can affect family dynamics. \"I also understand what it must be like for my own daughter to be around my fame,\" she wrote. \"I am not comparing myself to Mrs. Astor, but I've seen how you can be dismissed as not being good enough, or hip enough, and seeing it happen to Tony made me make sure that it didn't happen to my own daughter.\" The humiliation and ugliness of the trial was punishment enough and a prison sentence would be unjust, friends argued in the letters. Marshall's cardiologist, Kenneth W. Franklin, also wrote to urge the judge to consider his age and health in sentencing. A prison sentence \"will accelerate his deterioration from cardiac and neurologic disease and would result in his premature death due to medical complications,\" he wrote. NBC's \"Today\" show weatherman Al Roker came to Marshall's defense too, having met him at his church 10 years ago. He argued Marshall had suffered enough, paying a price greater than any sentence a judge could hand down -- seeing his son turn on him during the trial and being portrayed in a negative light each day. \"Given his advanced age and deteriorating health, justice may be better served by turning a compassionate eye towards this good son, father and patriot and finding it in your heart not to add 'prisoner' to Anthony Marshall's otherwise unblemished resume,\" Roker wrote in his letter to the court. Goldberg too, believed \"breaking this man\" by putting him in prison, was not the right punishment. \"Please don't put him in jail,\" she writes at the end of her letter. \"It would only amount to an unnecessary cruelty that would serve no real purpose. Hasn't Tony been through enough?\" CNN's Beth Karas and Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Whoopi Goldberg, Al Roker among those asking for a compassionate sentence .\nTony Marshall convicted of bilking mom Brooke Astor of money before her death .\nMarshall faces a minimum one to three years, or as much as eight to 25 years in state prison .\nFriends cite Marshall's age of 85, deteriorating health, among reasons for light sentence .","id":"2516833afa50c5eb27449545c65d5fc79a765878"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An anti-abortion activist charged with gunning down a Wichita, Kansas, doctor cannot use the \"necessity defense\" at trial, a judge ruled Tuesday. Scott Roeder, 51, is set to stand trial January 11 on one count of first-degree murder in the death of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot to death at his church May 31. Tiller ran a women's clinic in which he performed abortions. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. He had already survived one attempt on his life before he was slain. Under a necessity defense, a defendant argues an action was justified because breaking the law was more advantageous to society than following it. Several anti-abortion activists facing criminal charges have attempted to use the defense but none has been successful. In an Associated Press interview last month, Roeder admitted killing Tiller and said he plans to argue at this trial that the shooting was justified. \"Because of the fact preborn children's lives were in imminent danger, this was the action I chose,\" he said. \"... I want to make sure that the focus is, of course, obviously on the preborn children and the necessity to defend them.\" Roeder's comments prompted prosecutors to file a motion asking Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert to bar Roeder's attorneys from using the defense. Wilbert noted that the Kansas Supreme Court, in a previous case regarding blocking entrance to an abortion clinic, ruled the necessity defense cannot be used when the harm the defendant claims to be avoiding through his or her actions is a constitutional and legal activity, and the defendant broke the law. That precedent, Wilbert said, required him to rule that the necessity defense is not a viable defense in Kansas or in the Roeder case. Defense attorney Mark Rudy pointed out to Wilbert that the defense team has not yet acknowledged what their tactic might be. Roeder, however, filed a 100-page motion on his own behalf, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston said Tuesday, on the necessity defense, acknowledging it previously has been unsuccessful. Prosecutors also asked Wilbert to bar Roeder's attorneys from claiming his alleged actions were justified because he used force in the defense of another -- the unborn. Wilbert said that would require further argument -- particularly an offering from defense attorneys regarding the evidence they plan to present in support of that premise at trial. \"I will leave the door open on the issues surrounding use of force in defense of another,\" the judge said, adding he does not mean it's \"wide open.\" Under the law, such a defense can only be used if a defendant was preventing unlawful conduct. Foulston argued that Tiller posed no threat that would justify his shooting. \"Dr. Tiller was not an aggressor,\" she said. Roeder is also charged with two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two church members. Dressed in a coat and tie, he conferred with his attorneys and listened intently to the arguments on Tuesday. In a June interview with CNN's Ted Rowlands, Roeder would not admit that he killed Tiller, but said that if he is convicted, \"the entire motive was the defense of the unborn.\" Roeder's attorneys also argued Tuesday that the trial should be moved outside Wichita because extensive pretrial publicity in the case could have tainted the jury pool. Foulston, meanwhile, noted that Roeder, who has talked often to the media, brought some of that publicity on himself. Wilbert said 300 jury summonses have gone out in the case, and he was optimistic that some impartial jurors could be found. However, he said he would revisit the issue later if the court experienced difficulty in picking jurors. Rudy also asked that the judge prohibit prosecutors from excluding potential jurors because they have anti-abortion beliefs. The judge said he was confident that some individuals who are anti-abortion would still be able to make an impartial decision, but suggested the issue be examined on a juror-by-juror basis if the court recognizes a pattern of exclusion during jury selection. \"I can't make a pretrial ruling and just make a broad-brush approach,\" he said.","highlights":"Scott Roeder is accused of first-degree murder in the death of Dr. George Tiller .\nTiller was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions .\nNecessity defense: Defendant argues breaking the law is better for society than following it .\nJudge bars Roeder from using the necessity defense in the doctor's slaying .","id":"913a5512cff987b1673db308a0280dc78c3ab3c7"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Formula 1 will continue to take place in Britain for the next 17 years after a deal was struck between Silverstone's owners and the sport's chief Bernie Ecclestone. Monday's announcement by the track's owners means the oldest venue on the F1 calendar keeps its place. Silverstone's comeback took place despite rival track Donington Park being awarded the contract to host the British Grand Prix from 2010. However, that circuit lost out after failing to secure the $200 million needed to fund redevelopment plans. That had led to fears Ecclestone would look to move the race abroad. Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips told the Press Association: \"We've always had five-year deals and never been able to get the investment we needed to redevelop. \"But 17 years gives us the ability to invest and move forward. We've always had the belief the British Grand Prix was an important cornerstone of Formula One but, with Bernie, you're never quite sure. Phillips described the deal as \"peace in our time\" between the circuit's owners, the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), and Ecclestone. \"The relationship with Formula One Management has been improving,\" added Phillips. \"There's a good working relationship with him now and we don't have any issues.\" Applauding the negotiating team, BRDC president and 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill told the Press Association: \"It's not easy to enter into an agreement of this magnitude. It's a big commitment. \"But the BRDC felt we wanted this relationship to continue, and we were prepared to back the negotiating team, with the level of risk satisfactory for the deal to go ahead. \"This announcement is tremendous news. It really does cement Silverstone as a motor sport venue and is incredibly satisfying for the BRDC to cement its relationship with F1.\"","highlights":"Formula 1 will continue in Britain after deal between Silverstone and sport's chief Bernie Ecclestone .\nAnnouncement by the track's owners means the oldest race on the F1 calendar keeps its place .\nDonington was to host British Grand Prix from 2010 but failed to secure $200 million for redevelopment .","id":"f58dc25ab892c6657e657a604a0d64f61c2770ed"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A man died after being gored in the neck during the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, the Navarra regional government said Friday on its Web site. Runners take part in the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain on July 9. The death would be the first in the running of the bulls since a 22-year-old American was gored to death in 1995. The latest victim was a Spanish man, Daniel Jimeno Romero, age 27, from the Madrid area who was vacationing in Pamplona with his family, CNN partner station CNN+ reported from the hospital, where authorities identified him. He was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest and underwent surgery but died soon after, said the statement from the regional government, whose capital is Pamplona. Watch man try to scramble away from bull \u00bb . Amateur video footage showed the victim falling to the ground toward the end of race, just before the entrance to the bullring, and apparently being gored in the neck. Three other runners were gored and suffered less serious injuries on Friday, and six others went to the hospital with bruises or other injuries, the Navarra government said. Emergency workers and ambulances line the route to quickly attend those who fall. Do you think this tradition should be banned? The run in Pamplona started 400 years ago and became popular worldwide after author Ernest Hemingway wrote about it in the 1920s in his book \"The Sun Also Rises,\" also published under the title \"Fiesta.\" The event is held July 7-14. Six bulls and a pack of tame steers run from the corrals, through Pamplona's old town, to the bullring -- where the bulls will die later in the day in a bullfight. Including the recent death, 14 people have been killed in the runs since 1924, when record-keeping began.","highlights":"Victim was a 27-year-old Spanish man from the Madrid area .\nTragedy happened during annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain .\nDeath the first since 22-year-old American was gored to death in 1995 .","id":"eac6001b809b8d100f48affe7721eb0e8f07e59f"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A new witness in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann has told investigators he talked with a \"Victoria Beckham look-a-like\" who may have revealed clues about the girl's fate, a family spokesman said Thursday. Sketch shows woman who may hold new clues to disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Investigators would not release what was said in the conversation but the clues have led police to try to find the woman. Madeleine vanished from the family's holiday villa at the Portuguese beach resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007 as her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined in a nearby restaurant. She was 3 years old at the time. The suspicious woman was seen outside a bar in Barcelona, Spain, by partygoers on May 7, 2007, and the new witness had a conversation with this woman, said McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell. Watch McCann spokesman describe new lead \u00bb . Authorities released a sketch of the person, described as a woman who spoke with an Australian accent and who could also speak fluent Spanish. Former detective inspector Dave Edgar, who was hired by the McCann family, called the new witness a significant movement in the case. Edgar would not say why the witness waited so long to come forward, stating only it was personal reasons. Mitchell described the woman they are looking for as similar in appearance to the former Spice Girl singer and wife of soccer star David Beckham. She was described as in her 30s and about 5 feet 2 inches tall. Madeleine's parents have garnered international support in an effort to find their daughter, enlisting the aid of celebrities and even Pope Benedict XVI. At one point, authorities in Portugal had named the girl's parents as suspects, along with a British man living in Portugal, Robert Murat. But a spokesman for the Portuguese public prosecutor's office said in July 2008 that authorities found no evidence of involvement by any of the three and were no longer considering them suspects. Portuguese investigators closed the case in July 2008.","highlights":"Investigators would not release specific details of new clues .\nMadeleine McCann vanished from holiday villa in Portugal in May 2007 .\nMadeleine's parents have garnered international support in hunt for their child .","id":"94e2352597908e400ae7ddaddadd4d46fbd3f4e7"} -{"article":"Hamid Dabashi is the author of \"Iran: A People Interrupted.\" He is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. His Web site is http:\/\/www.hamiddabashi.com\/ . Hamid Dabashi says it's wrong to view the conflict in Iran as a battle of the middle class vs. the poor. (CNN) -- In a short essay that Abbas Amanat, a scholar of 19th-century Iran at Yale University, was asked to write for The New York Times on the current crisis in Iran, he asserted that what we are witnessing is \"the rise of a new middle class whose demands stand in contrast to the radicalism of the incumbent President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and the core conservative values of the clerical elite, which no doubt has the backing of a religiously conservative sector of the population.\" This learned position of a leading scholar very much sums up the common wisdom that Iranian expatriate academics are offering an excited public mesmerized by the massive demonstrations they witness on their television sets or computer screens and eager to have someone make sense of them. In part because of these hurried interpretations, the movement that is unfolding in front of our eyes is seen as basically a middle-class uprising against a retrograde theocracy that is banking on backward, conservative and uneducated masses who do not know any better. While the illiterate and \"uncouth\" masses provide the populist basis of Ahmadinejad's support, the middle class is demanding an open-market civil society. Highly educated, pro-Western and progressive Iranians are thus placed on Mir Hossein Moussavi's side, while backward villagers and urban poor are on Ahmadinejad's. The fact that in North America and Western Europe, usually unveiled and fluently English-speaking women are brought to speak on behalf of the women demonstrators further intensifies the impression that if women are veiled or do not speak English fluently then they must be Ahmadinejad supporters. This is a deeply false dichotomy that projects a flawed picture to the outside world. It is predicated on the spin that a very limited pool of expatriate academics are putting on a movement that is quite extraordinary in Iranian political culture, one whose full dimensions have yet to be unpacked. The fact is that given the structural limitations of a nascent democracy that is being crushed and buried in Iran under a particular interpretation of a Shiite juridical citadel, opposition to Ahmadinejad is fractured into the followers of three candidates with deeply divided economic programs and political positions. Moussavi is universally known as a hard-core socialist in his economic platform and a social reformist in his politics. Mehdi Karrubi is far to Moussavi's right in his economic neo-liberalism and social conservatism. Mohsen Rezaie, meanwhile, is even more to the right of Karrubi in his social conservatism but to his left in his economic platform. What above all challenges the reading of this event as a middle-class revolt against \"uncouth radicalism\" is a crucial statistic that professor Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, one of the most reliable Iranian economists in the U.S., provides in the same set of responses that The New York Times solicited from experts. \"Young people ages 15-29,\" Salehi-Isfahani reports, \"make up 35 percent of the population but account for 70 percent of the unemployed.\" The overwhelming majority of the people pouring into streets of Tehran and other major cities in support of Moussavi are precisely these 15- to 29-year-olds. How could this then be a middle-class uprising if the overwhelming majority of those who are supporting it and putting their lives on the line are in fact jobless 15- to 29-year-olds who still live with their parents -- who cannot even afford to rent an apartment, let alone marry and raise a family and join the middle class in a principally oil-based economy that is not labor-intensive to begin with? Another crucial statistic that Salehi-Isfahani does not cite is the fact that more than 63 percent of university entrants in Iran are women, but only 12 percent are part of the labor force. That means that the remaining 51 percent are out of a job, and yet the most visible aspect of these anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrations is that women visibly outnumber men. How could jobless men and women be participating in a massive middle-class uprising against their \"uncouth\" leaders? If we were to look closely at Moussavi's campaign commercials, his social and economic platforms since he entered the race, and the presidential debates with all the other candidates, we see that a sizable component of his supporters are indeed university students, young faculty and the urban intellectual elite --such as filmmakers, artists and the literati. But the fact is that a major constituency of Moussavi is also the urban poor and particularly the war veterans who have no respect for Ahmadinejad, believing he had an inglorious war record, but are full of unsurpassed admiration for Moussavi because of his role as a fiercely dedicated prime minister during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Conversely, there is a significant segment of the traditional middle class, the bazaaris, that is in fact the beneficiaries of Ahmadinejad's economic policies of governmentally subsidized commodities and services, and thus supports him. As for the \"uncouth\" among the Iranian peasantry, Eric Hooglund, a senior scholar of Iran with decades of experience in rural areas, has recently said that when he hears reports that Ahmadinejad's support base is rural, he is left quite baffled. \"Is it possible that rural Iran,\" he asks pointedly, \"where less than 35 percent of the country's population lives, provided Ahmadinejad the 63 percent of the vote he claims to have won? That would contradict my own research in Iran's villages over the past 30 years, including just recently.\" The fact is that we really don't know how this uprising is going to pan out, and yet we seem to be in too much of a rush to assimilate it backward to inherited assumptions that may have lost their validity in face of this new reality. I am convinced that we are witness to something quite extraordinary, perhaps even a social revolution that is overriding its economic roots. Although there are many similarities, this is a much different event than the 1977-1979 Islamic Revolution. I am not sure that this movement either sees itself as a revolution or will actually transmute into one. Given the brutality it faces, it has no choice but opt for a nonviolent civil disobedience route. The age of ideological warfare is over in Iran. If anything, this momentum is the closest event in Iran to the civil rights movement of the 1960s in the United States, and precisely like that movement, its economic dimensions are couched in social demands. We need to adjust our lenses and languages in order to see better, and there is no better adjustment than just cautiously, hopefully and responsibly watching what is unfolding in front of us and reading it accordingly. This movement is ahead of our inherited politics, floating ideologies or mismatched theories. We need to sit back, hope for the best and let this inspirational movement of a whole new generation of hope teach us courage and humility. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hamid Dabashi.","highlights":"Hamid Dabashi: Some are depicting Iran conflict as a battle of middle class vs. poor .\nDabashi: Mir Hossein Moussavi draws support from wider group than middle class .\nHe says it's wrong to say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supporters are poor, rural Iranians .\nDabashi says best parallel may be to the U.S. civil rights movement of 1960s .","id":"412580adf885d47702d67661335e19633966f003"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Barack Obama is sworn in as president January 20, there will be music -- by, among others, Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and the U.S. Marine Band. There will be prayers and speeches -- including Obama's inaugural address. And for the fourth time in the nation's 56 inauguration ceremonies, there will be poetry -- by someone far less well-known. Elizabeth Alexander says poetry can help solve problems by looking at them from a fresh angle. After the president's speech, Elizabeth Alexander will read a poem she is writing for the occasion. Alexander is a 46-year-old Yale University professor and a friend and former faculty colleague of Obama's. She joins three other poets who have read at inaugural ceremonies -- Robert Frost in 1961 for John F. Kennedy's inauguration and Maya Angelou and Miller Williams, who read at Bill Clinton's 1993 and 1997 inaugurations. Alexander has written five books of poetry, including \"American Sublime,\" a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. Her father is Clifford Alexander, secretary of the Army in the Carter administration, and her mother teaches history at George Washington University. Her brother is an adviser to Obama's transition team. Alexander's view of poetry is captured in a few lines from \"American Sublime\" (Graywolf Press): . Poetry is what you find \/ in the dirt in the corner, . overhear on the bus, God \/ in the details, the only way . to get from here to there. \/ Poetry (and now my voice is rising) is not all love, love, love, \/ and I'm sorry the dog died. Poetry (here I hear myself loudest) \/ is the human voice, . and are we not of interest to each other? Alexander spoke Friday to CNN.com. CNN: What do you think is the role of a poet in a ceremony like this? Alexander: I think that the fact that President-elect Obama has decided to have a poem in this ceremony is a wonderful affirmation to the power of language, the way in which poetry gives us distilled and mindful and careful language that can both give us a moment of pause, a moment of contemplation and that can also ... look at the world from a slightly different angle. CNN: You met Barack Obama when you were both teaching at the University of Chicago? Alexander: In the community in Hyde Park, he and Mrs. Obama were just people I'd heard about for a long time and heard wonderful things about, and we were of a generation. ... He was in the law school, and I was in the Department of English so our day-to-day work didn't really cross so much. ... [We were in] the community of people who were at that time in our early 30s, thinking about the different ways that we could contribute to improving things with whatever skills we had -- political skills, intellectual skills, skills in the discipline of law, in literature, artistic skills. That was the common ground, thinking about how we could contribute to bettering our community. CNN: And you did it by writing? Alexander: By writing and teaching. I've been a professor for many years now, and I now teach in the African-American studies department and the English Department at Yale. ... My teaching is incredibly important to me ... helping people see that the study of African-American history and culture is fundamental to understanding this country that we live in. It's been wonderful to be able to share those riches of the culture over the years. CNN: We have this historical moment, the 80th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, the inauguration of the first African-American president. How does that resonate with you? Alexander: It's amazing, isn't it? I just shake my head and say, \"Isn't that something?\" The civil rights struggle in this country and in the world is not over because we have an African-American president. At the same time, this must be recognized as a tremendous moment in our nation's history. I can't tell you how many older people have said to me, \"I never thought I'd live to see this day.\" The fact that this country has -- with a multiracial coalition -- elected an extraordinary president who is African-American really does feel like just an exquisite moment for us to savor even as we recognize there's still a tremendous amount of work ahead of us. CNN: What's ahead of us? Alexander: Oh my goodness, so much. There are wars or conflicts in many different places, there are potentially incipient conflicts in different places, there's the tremendous challenge of the economy. ... The larger metaphysical challenge is to think about how to work together in new ways that are, if not post-partisan -- because I don't think there's anything wrong with partisanship per se -- borne of new coalitions. Within our communities large and small, making new coalitions and finding common ground is absolutely what we're going to have to do in order to make things better. CNN: Can poetry help in that regard? Alexander: I do believe that it can. The way in which poetry models precise and mindful language is useful, because after all if we can't be precise with language, how can we share ideas? Also the felicity of art ... the way in which it makes you draw a breath and look at the world in a different way is very useful to the process of thinking through new solutions. You can look straight in front of you and never get any yield to a problem, but if you can look around the back of it or step to the side of it, those are the ways that we experience some movement with calcified problems. CNN: So you're going to write a poem about health care? Alexander: That would be fun. Of course, this [poem for the inauguration] is an occasional poem, it has to serve the moment, it has to serve the day, right? So those are the challenges of writing something that makes sense at this moment on this particular day. But of course, what I hope to do, rather than the laundry list poem, is to find language that will hopefully have a little resonance after the day is done. CNN: Will you show it to anybody before you read it? Alexander: I show it to my husband [artist Ficre Ghebreyesus] , and he is my first, last and best critic. CNN: You wrote an essay about Gwendolyn Brooks [the Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American poet] in which you said that \"the pressure on creative work can be intense for artists who belong to groups still struggling for their fair shake in society.\" And then later on you said you've seen your work \"overpraised by narrow-minded white critics\" and \"criticized small-mindedly by more than one black woman elder poet -- the same poets I imagined would be pleased by it.\" Your work is read very differently depending on who's reading it? Alexander: I think what I was trying to say is that at the end of the day, demographics doesn't really tell you about how your work is going to be received. ... On the one hand, I have devoted much of my work to African-American culture. That's my group, that's who I am, [I'm] proud and unambiguous about that -- but at the same time, one of the really great discoveries of a life in poetry has been that poetry is quirky. It reaches people unexpectedly. You really, really can't predict who is going to connect with various aspects of your work. That's been a real gift to me; it's made me try not to assume too much about who thinks what and who is able to gain something from work. CNN: You have two children? Alexander: Two sons, 9 and 10. CNN: How do they feel about the poem? Alexander: They are so excited, and that's of course a lovely thing. And in the excitement, we still live in our every day, so mommy is still mommy, and all the mommy things are expected of me, and that's the way I like it. CNN: What are your tastes in music? Alexander: Jazz is the music that I know deepest and love the most, and I mean jazz across the board because that's an incredibly diverse art, and also I must say, R&B, funk and soul speak very powerfully to me. CNN: Favorite artists? Alexander: Thelonious Monk is quite a favorite artist. Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane, and also the breadth and accomplishment over a career of Duke Ellington. CNN: And Aretha Franklin? Alexander: Can you imagine? I get to hear her at close range. Boy, that's going to be my gift for the year.","highlights":"Elizabeth Alexander will be fourth poet to read at an inauguration .\nAlexander: Poetry can provide a fresh way of looking at problems .\nShe says poetry is quirky and no one can predict how people will react to it .","id":"07a1dc0faebffdd2da2191a05528074cf8e86ab4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was once a student revolutionary himself, perhaps not much different from the thousands of protesters who this week have taken to the streets in Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became a political activist while a religious scholar studying under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . Khamenei became a political activist while a religious scholar studying under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, among others, according to his biography on his official Web site. He was part of a circle of clerics who opposed the rule of the shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and was jailed by the shah's secret police, the Savak, at least six times in the 1960s and 1970s. He says he was tortured in prison before being exiled in 1976, three years before the revolution that deposed the shah. Khomeini was in exile in Paris, France, when the shah fled Iran in 1979. He appointed Khamenei to represent him on an Islamic Revolutionary Council, alongside other key figures such as Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The appointment may have been a career-making moment for Khamenei, who was a fairly low-level scholar at the time, said Iran analyst Shireen Hunter, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University in Washington. Learn more about Iran's recent history . \"He is not qualified to be an ayatollah,\" or top-ranking Islamic scholar, she said, saying he had picked up the title by dint of succeeding Khomeini as supreme leader, \"like an honorary doctorate.\" Khamenei, now 70, was briefly minister of defense and head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the early 1980s before becoming president, a post he held from 1982 to 1990. In power, he clashed ideologically with Rafsanjani, favoring a more left-wing politics than Rafsanjani, who came from a more bourgeois background than the poor Khamenei. He also locked horns with the man who was prime minister when he was president -- Mir Hossein Moussavi, now the most prominent opposition leader. The two had similar anti-American, left-wing politics but struggled over power in what Hunter called \"the two-headed monster\" that was then the Iranian political structure. \"There were turf battles between the president and the prime minister,\" she said. Khomeini died in 1989, and Khamenei was appointed the next supreme leader. The post of prime minister was abolished. Rafsanjani seems to have been a \"kingmaker\" in the elevation of Khamenei to the top job, Hunter said, perhaps thinking he would be the power behind the throne. But with time, Khamenei has become his own man, she said. Rafsanjani was president in the 1990s, but lost a comeback attempt in 2005 -- defeated by current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As supreme leader, Khamenei is the ultimate arbiter of policy in Iran. He appoints the Guardian Council, the country's election authority. He also appoints key posts in the intelligence services and the armed forces, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Additionally, he confirms the president's election. In theory, the supreme leader is appointed by a body of clerics whom voters elect. But in practice, this body -- the Assembly of Experts -- has answered to the supreme leader. Khamenei's authority has been challenged at times. Nearly half the members of Iran's parliament criticized him openly in 2004 for ordering general elections to go ahead despite a widespread belief that they would not be free or fair. The elections took place as scheduled. Khamenei supports the country's controversial nuclear program, and when President Obama reached out directly to the people of Iran with a video message, it was Khamenei who responded. Khamenei said in March he saw no change in U.S. policy toward Iran despite Obama's promise of a \"new beginning.\" He said a change in rhetoric was not enough, and Washington must practice what it preaches, according to the English-language Press TV channel in Iran. He hailed the disputed Iranian presidential election as \"a miracle\" for the record turnout, but that very public enthusiasm for the election may signal a shift that Khamenei failed to anticipate. \"He has now very much become his own man, but the country has changed,\" Hunter said. \"Look at the women's situation. They make a big deal out of saying how many women they have educated. That is true, but then you cannot expect them to keep doing things the same way.\"","highlights":"Post on Islamic Revolutionary Council may have been career-making .\nAyatollah Ali Khamenei was minister of defense, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards .\nMir Hossein Moussavi was prime minister when Khamenei was president .","id":"fdf0bfdaa5fb919fc1442079760308786e854cb5"} -{"article":"DIR VALLEY, Pakistan (CNN) -- The rugged beauty of the expansive Dir Valley can mask the detail of what is happening on the ground. Pakistani soldiers look on from a mountain during a patrol in the troubled area of Maidan. In June, the Pakistani military organized a media tour to areas of the Lower Dir in North West Frontier Province that were under their control. The town of Maidan had been at the center of fierce fighting between Pakistan's military forces and militants. Tension was visible on the faces of those escorting us. The IED (improvised explosive device) craters in the road and the bullet holes in our unarmed pickup trucks explained why. The direct fighting had stopped some days before, after opposition forces were reported killed or they disappeared into the surrounding hills and among the population. Under the watchful eye of government forces, anxious local residents were starting to return. A Pakistani army spokesperson now tells us that all of those who fled the town due to the fighting have returned home. They have a lot of rebuilding to do. Most of the structures we saw had some kind of damage to them from bullets or direct hits from artillery fire. One person who will likely not be returning anytime soon is the pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad, who brokered a short-lived deal between the Taliban and the government that allowed the Taliban to enforce Sharia law in the Swat Valley. But the deal collapsed and the government set off this offensive. Sufi Muhammad was arrested in Peshawar in late July, accused of encouraging violence. His ransacked house was the last stop on our tour.","highlights":"The beautiful Dir Valley has been the scene of ferocious fighting against the Taliban .\nTown of Maidan had been at center of fighting between military forces and militants .\nPakistani military show off pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad's ransacked house .","id":"a12608aa664475e801157da6ab734d0a9a49646a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For almost a week, tens of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in daily protests -- handkerchiefs shielding their faces from the pungency of tear gas, fists punching the air, and chants of \"Down with the dictator\" echoing against buildings. Moussovi supporters rally Wednesday in Tehran, Iran. Released by Fars News Agency of Iran. The massive outpouring is a result of a disputed presidential election that the protesters think coronated the incumbent hard-liner, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over their candidate, Mir Hossain Moussavi. Context can help put their grievances into perspective: . Q. The Iran that we know today is the result of the Islamic Revolution. What is it? A. The Islamic Revolution is the name given to the Iranian revolution of 1979, when the ruling U.S.-supported monarchy was overthrown and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was forced into exile. See timeline of recent Iranian history \u00bb . The country held a national referendum to become an Islamic republic and approve a new constitution. The constitution was a hybrid of democracy and unelected religious leadership. It appointed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini -- the leader of the revolution -- the supreme leader of the country. Before he died in 1989, he made it known that he wanted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to succeed him. Q. Is it true that the ultimate power in Iran lies with Khamenei? A. Yes. The supreme leader has the final say in all important matters of the country, such as ties with foreign nations or Iran's nuclear aspirations. He appoints the Guardian Council -- the country's election authority. He also appoints key posts in the intelligence services and the armed forces, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Additionally, he confirms the president's election. In theory, the supreme leader is appointed by a body of clerics whom voters elect. But in practice, this body -- the Assembly of Experts -- has answered to the supreme leader. Khamenei, 70, was appointed supreme leader for life in 1989. Q. What is the Guardian Council, which has been in the news, saying it will recount some of the votes in the disputed election? A. The unelected Guardian Council is the second-most influential body in Iran politics. It consists of six theologians whom the supreme leader picks and six jurists nominated by the judiciary and approved by parliament. The council approves all candidates running for office in the country, and verifies election results. It vetoes bills passed by the parliament if they do not conform to the constitution and Islamic law. In the present crisis, opposition leader Moussavi has had to take his grievance to the Guardian Council. It has agreed to some vote recounts. See galleries of protests in Iran \u00bb . Q. So, how much power does the president wield? A. It depends on how nicely he plays with the Guardian Council. The president is elected by direct vote to a four-year term, for a maximum of two terms. He is responsible for economic policy and social programs, but most of the larger decisions are made by the supreme leader. In theory, his powers are second to the supreme leader's. But in practice, he is often hamstrung by the Guardian Council. The Guardian Council has worked with hard-liner Ahmadinejad, a 53-year-old former mayor of Tehran who was elected in 2005. But it thwarted reform attempts by his predecessor, Mohammad Khatami. Q. What is the Revolutionary Guard, who said they will take legal action against pro-Moussavi Web sites? A. The guard was initially created to protect the leaders of the revolution. But over the years, it has broadened its scope. Today, it is directly under the control of the supreme leader and enforces the governments' Islamic codes and morality . With more than 200,000 members, it is tasked with overseeing the country's crucial interests, including guarding its oil fields and missile arsenals. Q. What is the Basij, who are said to be behind most of the violence against opposition supporters? A. The Basij is a volunteer paramilitary force that takes orders from the Revolutionary Guard. It plays the role of de facto morality police and is often summoned to crack down on protests. It is unknown how large the force is, though estimates are in the millions. Q. What evidence is there of ballot fraud? A. There are no concrete examples of fraud, because independent monitors did not oversee polling in Iran, but the circumstantial evidence is persuasive. The government had initially said it would take three days to verify the ballots after Election Day on June 12. But the election authority proclaimed Ahmadinejad the winner two hours after the polls closed. At the same time, the interior ministry said that 85 percent of the country's 46 million eligible voters had cast ballots -- a record turnout. To many, so many ballots could not have been hand-counted in such a short time. Also, the published results showed that Ahmadinejad won even in his opponents' strongholds, including Moussavi's hometown of ethnic Azeri Turks. \"This is the equivalent of Barack Obama losing the African-American vote to John McCain in 2008,\" said Karim Sajadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Furthermore, Moussavi went into the election with massive support from the country's youth, who were unhappy with the faltering economy and an unemployment rate that tops 30 percent by some accounts. The youth make up 60 percent of Iran's population of 70 million. Q. Is it true that Ahmadinejad still enjoys widespread support? A. Yes. Ahmadinejad is popular across Iran's rural areas and among the Basij militia. He presents himself as a populist and a fighter. He has paid attention to the families of the bloody Iran-Iraq war, offering special preferences to veterans' children in university admissions. As president, his hardline approach has won him support among the Guardian Council. He has earned a reputation internationally as a fundamentalist for his Holocaust denials, calls to annihilate Israel, and cat-and-mouse games with the United States and the United Nations over Iran's nuclear activities. Many in the establishment view him as someone who does not cower to big-footing by the West. Q. Why, then, do some analysts think the vote was manipulated? A. Some experts say that even if it is likely that Ahmadinejad won the election, it is unlikely he could have won by the margin the government is claiming -- 62.63 percent of the vote. Time magazine's Joe Klein explains it this way: \"It is entirely possible that Ahmadinejad would have won anyway, but narrowly, perhaps with less than 50 percent of the vote, setting up a runoff election he might have lost as the other candidates united against him. It is possible that his government, perhaps acting in concert with supreme leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, decided to take no chances.\" Q. Why is Iran's population so young? A. After the revolution, the leaders encouraged early marriage and large families, rewarding families with cars and television sets for each additional child. During the country's devastating eight-year war with Iraq, which began in 1980, the regime continued encouraging population growth, because more children meant more future soldiers. It is those children who are now coming of age. Q. Why did Iran summon Switzerland's ambassador to complain about perceived U.S. involvement in Iran's election process? A. The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran following the hostage crisis in 1979, when students in support of the Islamic Revolution took 52 Americans hostage and held them for 444 days. Q. Is this movement a challenge to the Islamic republic? A. The demonstrators say their demand is simple: Hold fresh elections. They say they are not out to challenge the Islamic regime. Watch protests Wednesday in Tehran \u00bb . Furthermore, Moussavi is an unlikely man for the job. Though the 67-year-old former prime minister is credited for successfully navigating the Iranian economy as prime minister during the Iran-Iraq war, he also was a hard-liner whom the Economist described as a \"firm radical.\" He, like most Iranians in power, does not believe in the existence of Israel. He defended the taking of the American hostages in 1979. He was part of a regime that regularly executed dissidents. And as late as April, he opposed suspending the country's nuclear-enrichment program but said it would not be diverted to weapons use. The protests have exposed a fissure in the country, however, with tens of thousands of Ahmadinejad backers taking to the streets in a show of force of their own. Q. Are the current protests likely to continue? A. For now, the government seems to be allowing the populace to vent pent-up frustrations. But it also is gradually cracking down, such as blocking Web sites and banning international journalists from filming the rallies. The demonstrations have so far been focused on urban areas. Should the populace in rural areas take up the call for reform, the government might step in quickly to quash the protests, analysts say. See map of demonstration sites in Tehran \u00bb . Q. Is this the first time Iranians have risen up in mass protests against the regime? A. No. Iran has twice seen public calls for reform in recent years: in 1999, after the closing of a reformist newspaper, and after parliamentary elections in 2000. On both occasions, the Revolutionary Guard descended on the streets after a few days and crushed the movements. Q. So, can true reform come to Iran? A. It is possible. Ahmadinejad's predecessor, Khatami, was elected president in 1997 by a landslide, despite being a reformer. During his two terms, he championed freedom of expression, tried to mend diplomatic relations, and supported a free market. He was, however, hamstrung at every step by stiff resistance from the supreme leader and the Guardian Council. This report includes information from various sources, including the U.S. State Department, the CIA Factbook, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, previous CNN reports and guest commentaries.","highlights":"Protests have followed disputed presidential election results in Iran .\nPresident Ahmadinejad is popular across Iran's rural areas, among Basij militia .\nProtesters say not out to challenge the Islamic regime, just want fresh vote .\nIran previously saw protests, public calls for reform in 1999 and 2000 .","id":"e14c83e7db6e463da0a776d0c80c8c197de58772"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A former Iranian presidential candidate is calling on one of the Islamic republic's most powerful clerics to approve a special committee to investigate alleged mistreatment of detainees arrested in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections. Mehdi Karrubi says an \"impartial committee\" is needed to investigate alleged mistreatment of detainees. In an open letter to Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani posted Saturday on his party's Web site, reformist Mehdi Karrubi says an \"impartial committee\" is needed to \"investigate these tragedies with transparency until they are resolved.\" He said he is willing to lead the investigation in a \"truthful, unbiased fashion.\" The letter is dated July 29 and was posted on the Karrubi's Eetemade-Melli (National Trust) party's Web site, called Saham News. The Web site said the letter was posted after Rafsanjani failed to respond. The treatment of detainees at Iran's prisons has increasingly become a high profile issue, with human-rights groups accusing guards of conducting harsh interrogations, beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats of torture to coerce false confessions. Iranian media reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, ordered one prison, Kahrizak, shut down amid reports it did not measure up to the required standards. Kahrizak's chief was fired and arrested over allegations of detainee mistreatment, according to local reports Saturday. A special parliamentary committee has made rounds at Tehran's Evin prison, but did not find any signs of abuse, according to recent media reports. Hundreds of detainees have since been reportedly released from Evin, though \"political figures\" were held and put on trial. In his plea for an investigation, Karrubi says he has heard descriptions of torture and violence that make his \"body shake,\" though he doesn't specify a prison. \"Some of the former detainees have told of such brutal and violent, repeated rapes of the young women [in detention] that have caused irreparable damage to their reproductive systems,\" Karrubi says in the letter. \"Others have raped our detained young men with such brutality that they [the victims] have been afflicted by depression and are no longer speaking with anyone and refuse to leave the dark corners of their houses.\" He adds that an investigation will \"teach a lesson to the thugs and criminals in the future and prevent the smearing of the reputation of the Islamic Republic.\" Rafsanjani -- a former president and head of the Assembly of Experts, the council responsible for appointing or removing the supreme leader -- called for the release of the detainees during a highly anticipated July 17 sermon at Friday prayers. He backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi in the presidential election, in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner. Karrubi and Moussavi unsuccessfully challenged the results for weeks, and Ahmadinejad was sworn in for his second term last week. Rafsanjani himself has been accused of helping fuel the post-election unrest as part of recent mass trials of the remaining detainees over the past week.","highlights":"Mehdi Karrubi calls for investigation in letter to Rafsanjani posted on Web site .\nHe said he is willing to lead the investigation in a \"truthful, unbiased fashion\"\nKarrubi sites brutal beatings, torture and rapes of both men and women detained .\nMehdi Karrubi was one of the candidates in June's disputed presidential election .","id":"15a5591ab4a5740efede45dbcfb485c1a290139d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: John Feehery worked as a staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients including the News Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. John Feehery says Al Franken's victory gives liberal Democrats a dominant position in Washington . (CNN) -- The metric system is the kind of thing that you can expect from the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority Democrats now have in the United States Senate. After the Watergate scandal in 1974, Democrats trounced Republicans in the mid-term elections, getting 61 seats in the Senate and 291 in the House. In the Senate, they adjusted the rules to make it harder for Republicans to filibuster (reducing the magic number from 67 to 60 to invoke cloture, which ends debate). In the House, they passed all kinds of reforms to take power away from senior members and give it to junior members. And Congress mandated that the American people embrace the metric system. The metric system idea never really caught on, and although the pain of Watergate afflicted Republicans for another two elections, they eventually pulled themselves out of their deep hole, with some good ideas and a charismatic leader, who promised to restore America to greatness. Democrats have once again reached the magic number of 60, as Norm Coleman finally threw in the towel against the one-time joke writer for Saturday Night Live, Al Franken. Republicans have little reason to laugh, though, as they look at their diminished ranks and wonder how they have put themselves in such a weakened position. It was only four-and-a-half years ago that the GOP was on the top of the world, and some of their more smug strategists were confidently predicting a permanent Republican majority. This is a good time for such self-reflection. Republicans lost three top-notch senators in the last election -- Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith and John Sununu -- who lost not because they were bad senators, or because they had scandals, or because they had lost touch with constituents. All three lost because they were Republicans. In other words, the brand killed them. And if you look at the latest polls, the GOP brand hasn't gotten any better in the last six months. In fact, according to Gallup, even 38 percent of Republicans have a negative view of the Republican Party. But let's not throw in the towel yet, my Republican friends. Just as in the mid-1970s, when Democratic overreach led to a Republican resurgence, the house that Franken has built will inevitably collapse on its own leftward-self. A new Gallup poll shows that the American people are starting to catch on that Democrats are pushing the country to a place that it doesn't want to go. The poll \"finds a statistically significant increase since last year in the percentage of Americans who describe the Democratic Party's views as being \"too liberal,\" from 39 percent to 46 percent. This is the largest percentage saying so since November 1994, after the party's losses in that year's midterm elections.\" It is no surprise that Americans would have that impression of Democrats in the White House and in Congress. When they passed a so-called stimulus bill that Republicans branded as pork-filled, they lost their credibility on fiscal responsibility. When the president assumed control over General Motors, dictated terms to Chrysler, and then refused to allow some banks to pay back their TARP loans, independent voters grew nervous about the government's stepped-up intervention in the private sector. And last week, when Democrats passed a climate change bill that Republicans insist will sharply raise energy prices for middle-class families, moderate Democrats started to jump ship. In fact, 44 Democrats defied intense pressure from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and voted no. Democrats are now making plans to intervene in the health care marketplace, with some liberals insisting on a government-run \"public option\" health insurer. In any event, many won't be satisfied until the government basically sets prices for health insurance and prescription drugs. The arrival of the man from Minnesota will make the Democrats move even more to the left. He will not only be one more vote for the left, but one more loud voice for liberal policies. Because of his celebrity status, he will attract media attention, and because of his philosophy, he will use that attention to move Democrats further left. When Franken first started in politics, he did so as the liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh. Imagine if Rush were the 60th vote for Republicans, with George Bush as president. Now, think how Franken will act as the 60th vote for President Obama. Yes, Democrats will move left by more than a few kilometers, but they will do so at their own peril. Another poll showed that while 40 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative, only 21 percent think of themselves as liberal. The American people voted for change. They didn't vote for a liberal orthodoxy that promises more government, higher taxes, slower growth, more pork and a liberal social agenda. In 1975, the newly dominant Democratic Congress sent President Gerald Ford a bill that declared that America was going to be metric, which he signed. When Jimmy Carter became president two years later, he signed a law that told Americans that they couldn't drive faster than 55 mph. These measures made perfect sense to the liberal sensibilities of the time. But they didn't make sense to the American people, and are symbols of a philosophy that was out of touch with the people in the 1970s and is still out of touch with the lives of most Americans today. Most Americans still don't use the metric system, and most certainly don't stick to the 55 mile an hour speed limit on the highways of America. And while they may still like Barack Obama and still laugh at jokes written by Al Franken, they will eventually grow weary of the newly dominant liberals who now run Washington. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Feehery.","highlights":"Feehery: With Franken as 60th vote in Senate, liberals dominant in D.C.\nHe says liberal control in 1970s led to bill to convert U.S. to metric system .\nFeehery says Democrats are overreaching and will lose public's support .\nHe says voters wanted change but not bigger government .","id":"80d42d75da0935b0c965ab2d832b49cab459a4df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials warned Wednesday that the bridge linking the California cities of San Francisco and Oakland will likely remain closed Thursday morning, promising more delays for Bay Area commuters. That work is intended to dampen vibration on the structure. Vibration may have played a role in causing pieces of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to fall Tuesday night from the span onto the roadway, resulting in its closure. The 73-year-old bridge spans the San Francisco Bay and carries an average 280,000 vehicles daily, according to the state's Transportation Department. \"Right now, we do not have a time when the bridge will potentially open,\" said Bart Ney, a spokesman for California Department of Transportation. \"The work has to be completed first.\" Once the new steel is in place and the rods have been made tense, at least three hours of testing will be carried out before the bridge will reopen to vehicular traffic, Ney said, refusing to speculate on when that might occur. \"The first thing that I would say to motorists is that you need to be at this point planning other routes over the next day or so,\" he said. The Federal Highway Administration and the Seismic Peer Review Board are scrutinizing the repair plans, he said. Wednesday's commute was a horror show for many. \"My wife actually drives over to the peninsula; she says it's taken her two hours to get to work so far and she's not there yet,\" commuter Seth Carp told CNN affiliate KTVU as he prepared to board a Bay Area Rapid Transit train. \"I tried to take the Golden Gate Bridge,\" said a woman who identified herself only as Yemi. \"It was a big mistake.\" She gave up and wound up taking BART. \"It was back-to-back bumper, there were rows of cars everywhere,\" said Christina Chou, who lives in Foster City near the San Mateo Bridge, which served as an alternate route for many. \"It was just horrible.\" Ridership increased on ferries, too, with some people finding a silver lining to the snafu. \"I have been looking for an opportunity to go across the bay in the ferry,\" said Jack Pierce of Oakland. \"I'm sorry the cable parted, but I am glad to get the opportunity.\" Ney said wind gusts of up to 50 mph slowed repair efforts on Tuesday, but the winds had diminished by Wednesday evening. Winds increased vibration by the rods that were fatigued and ultimately failed, he said. \"It was a contributing factor, but not necessarily the only factor, and we are analyzing what the factors are right now,\" he said. Travelers flocked to BART, which ran longer trains and extra trains. The rail line was on track to exceed its peak ridership of 405,000 in a single day, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. Were you there? Send photos and video . \"We have called in extra personnel to help us make sure we operate with every available train car we have in order to provide as much capacity as possible,\" said BART's assistant general manager of operations, Paul Oversier. Amtrak was running a shuttle between the San Francisco and Martinez stations for Coast Starlight and California Zephyr passengers. The pieces that fell -- a cross beam and tie rods -- came from the same section that was repaired in September over Labor Day weekend, when crews worked almost around the clock to fix a crack in the span. A 50-foot section of the bridge collapsed in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, killing one person and prompting efforts to make it quake-tolerant. The whole Bay Bridge is slated to be replaced in 2013, said Patrick Siegman, a transportation planner at Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates, a national transportation planning firm based in San Francisco. The bridge is \"really showing its age,\" he said. \"It's kind of a race against time to finish the new bridge before the next quake hits.\"","highlights":"San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge closes after parts of it fall to roadway .\nRepair work ongoing, but there's no word when bridge will reopen .\nTravelers flock to public transit, including trains and ferries .\nRepairs aim to stop vibration, which may have caused the problem .","id":"dd41788d33d549206c35eb4b3726ee164a24ad7d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday the United States and its allies must have patience if his country is not ready to assume control of its own security by July 2011, when U.S. troops would begin leaving under President Obama's plan. Karzai spoke to CNN's \"Amanpour\" program in his first television interview since Obama's announcement last week that he will deploy an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Obama also said the U.S. forces would begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in July 2011. The date was not \"an exit announcement,\" but instead a goal for Afghan forces to be able to start assuming security control from U.S.-led allied forces, Karzai said in the interview. \"We will try our best as the Afghan people to do it the soonest possible,\" Karzai said. \"But the international community must have also the patience with us and the realization of the realities in Afghanistan. If it takes longer, then they must be with us.\" Karzai also offered his own timeline goal, saying Afghanistan wants to be able to assume security control in some parts of the country in two years, and to lead security for the entire country by the end of his five-year term, which just started after his recent re-election. \"We as Afghans will try our very best to reach that goal, and we hope our allies will back us to reach that goal,\" Karzai said. Later Sunday, Obama's national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones, told CNN's \"State of the Union\" that the July 2011 date was \"not a cliff\" for U.S. withdrawal, but instead the start of a gradual slope for turning over security responsibility to Afghanistan. Obama \"has also said that we're not leaving Afghanistan,\" Jones noted, adding: \"We are here to make sure that Afghanistan succeeds.\" To prepare his country, Karzai said, he would do all he can to root out corruption and improve governance. He has fired corrupt officials already, he said, adding he is prepared to act against anyone proven to be breaking the law. However, he warned against other nations using the corruption as a political tool in making decisions about Afghanistan. And he said the United States and its allies also must halt practices that contribute to corruption from outside the country or create what he called \"parallel\" governance issues. The main objective for Afghanistan and its allies is to defeat terrorism and return peace to the nation, neighboring Pakistan and the region, Karzai said. That means training Afghan security forces, rebuilding the economy and other nation-building efforts, he said. \"I have fired people and I will be firing people,\" Karzai said. He seemed to laugh when he was played a video clip of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying the United States would bypass corrupt government officials if necessary. \"Afghanistan is a sovereign country, it has a sovereign government, it's not an occupied country,\" Karzai said, adding that a foreign power can't undermine or go around the government to deal with whomever it chooses. Top priorities on a \"long list\" of reforms include improving the rule of law, improving the judiciary, reducing bureaucracy that forces people to visit dozens of offices to get licenses, and other steps to make the government more transparent and simpler, Karzai said. However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in interviews broadcast Sunday that Karzai still must prove he means what he says. \"The proof is in the pudding,\" Clinton said on the ABC program \"This Week.\" \"We're going to have to wait to see how it unfolds.\" U.S. assistance will be \"based on a certification of accountability and transparency,\" Clinton said on the CBS program \"Face the Nation,\" adding that \"certain ministries ... American money will not be going to.\" In his CNN interview, Karzai said his government would welcome Taliban supporters who had no ties to al Qaeda or other terrorist networks, renounced violence and pledged to support the constitution. Clinton told ABC's \"This Week\" that such reintegration might be possible with lower-level Taliban members, but not the hard-core leadership. \"We have no firm information whether any of those leaders would be at all interested in following that kind of a path,\" Clinton said. \"In fact, I'm highly skeptical that any of them would.\" Eradicating terrorist networks and helping Karzai's government defeat the Taliban insurgency are main goals of the U.S.-led mission. Approximately 1,000 U.S. Marines are expected to deploy this month as the first wave of the new deployment, military officials say. The Army may not deploy the first soldiers until at least March. Testifying before a congressional committee last week, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a \"significant\" number of troops will arrive in the spring and summer, with the final troops moving to Afghanistan by late summer or early fall. Meanwhile, the White House said Obama would meet with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, on Monday. Both are expected to testify before Congress this week. Clinton and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday that Britain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and non-NATO member Georgia are among at least 25 countries offering to send a total of 7,000 additional troops. At present, there are 68,000 U.S. troops operating under both NATO and U.S. commands in Afghanistan, and around 42,000 non-U.S. forces under NATO.","highlights":"NEW: \"Proof is in the pudding\" on Afghan reform promises, Hillary Clinton says .\n\"We will try our best\" to be ready to take over security in 2011, Karzai says .\nPresident Obama has said U.S. troops will start leaving Afghanistan in 2011 .\nAfghan president says Obama timeline is a goal, not \"an exit announcement\"","id":"2bb1bd2e01afb3361bea20c82bea3e79d91d2bf2"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia man who spent a year in jail for nonpayment of child support -- despite the fact he has no children -- has been cleared of the debt, his attorney said Tuesday. Frank Hatley was ordered to make back payments even after he learned a teenager wasn't his son. Frank Hatley, 50, spent 13 months in jail for being a deadbeat dad before his release last month. A judge ordered him jailed in June 2008 for failing to support his \"son\" -- a child who DNA tests proved was not fathered by Hatley. Last week, Cook County Superior Court Judge Dane Perkins signed an order stating, \"defendant is no longer responsible for paying any amount of child support.\" The order permits the state's Office of Child Support Services to close its file on Hatley. \"We're satisfied with the result for Mr. Hatley, but still troubled by the state's monumental lapse of judgment in this case,\" attorney Sarah Geraghty with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights told CNN in a written statement. Hatley did not immediately return a call from CNN Tuesday. His story dates back to 1986, when Hatley had a relationship with Essie Lee Morrison, who gave birth to a son. According to court documents, Morrison told Hatley the child was his, but the two ended their relationship shortly after the child was born. The couple never married and never lived together, the documents said. When the child turned 2, Morrison applied for public support for the child. Under Georgia law, the state, can recoup the cost of the assistance from a child's non-custodial parent. For 13 years, Hatley made payments to the state until learning in 2000 that the boy might not be his. A DNA test that year confirmed the child was not fathered by Hatley, court documents said. He returned to court and was relieved of any future child support payments, but was ordered to pay more than $16,000 he owed the state before the ruling. Since 2000, Hatley paid that debt down to about $10,000, Geraghty said. Court documents showed he was jailed for six months in 2006 for falling behind on payments during a period of unemployment, but afterward he resumed making payments, continuing to do so even after he lost another job and became homeless in 2008. But last year he became unable to make the payments and was jailed. The argument for keeping Hatley liable for the back payments, according to the attorney who represented him in 2000, was that he signed a consent agreement with the Office of Child Support Services. The court agreed that Hatley had to comply with the consent agreement for the period he believed the child was his son, said attorney Latesha Bradley. But many, including Cook County Sheriff Johnny Daughtrey, didn't think Hatley's incarceration was fair, given that the child was not his. \"I knew the gentleman's plight and didn't know how to help him,\" Daughtrey told CNN last month. When the Southern Center for Human Rights visited the jail earlier this year, Daughtrey told them about Hatley's case. Hatley was released from jail last month after Perkins ruled he was indigent and should not be jailed for failing to make the payments. The Georgia Department of Human Services, which includes the Office of Child Support Services, plans to propose legislation in the next session of the state Legislature that would prevent similar situations in the future, said agency spokeswoman Dena Smith. Two things still remain to be cleared up for Hatley, Geraghty said -- lifting the child-support holds on his driver's license and his income tax. It remains unclear whether he will be reimbursed for the $6,000 in payments he made since 2000, she said -- so far, he has not been. Cook County, Georgia, is in the south-central part of the state, about 200 miles south of Atlanta.","highlights":"Frank Hatley was jailed last year for falling behind on child support payments .\nHatley had paid for 13 years until he learned boy might not have been his .\nDNA test proved child wasn't Hatley's, but court still ordered back payment .\nThe south Georgia man is cleared from his debt, his attorney announces .","id":"e728885a4a818a04d61b6ec559a690f494189788"} -{"article":"COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- South Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd seemed to suggest Wednesday that the time had come for GOP Gov. Mark Sanford to consider resigning from office. Gov. Mark Sanford has said it's better for him to keep his governorship to \"learn lessons.\" \"For the past two days, I have been speaking with Republican leaders across South Carolina,\" she said in a statement. \"There is clearly a growing view that the time may have come for Governor Sanford to remove himself and his family from the limelight, so that he can devote his efforts full-time to repairing the damage in his personal life.\" The statement comes on the same day as a growing number of GOP state senators called for Sanford to step down. CNN has learned that GOP Sens. Daniel Verdin, Shane Martin, Ronnie Cromer and Wes Hayes joined the anti-Sanford chorus Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of Republican senators calling for the governor's resignation to 13. There are 27 Republicans in the state Senate. Another state senator stopped just short of calling for Sanford to step down Wednesday. Glenn McConnell, Senate president pro tempore, didn't explicitly ask Sanford to resign, but he did ask him \"to do the right thing for himself, his family and our state.\" Sanford and his staff have said repeatedly this week that he will not resign. He wrote in a message to his political action committee e-mail list Monday that while he considered resigning, \"I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.\" After returning last week from a secret trip to Argentina that his staff and wife didn't know about, Sanford admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman identified as Maria Belen Chapur. Sanford also told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's \"crossed lines\" with other women, although Chapur was the only one he had sex with. Watch a report on Sanford's situation \u00bb . Sanford's support among legislators and grassroots leaders in the state eroded considerably Tuesday after Sanford told The Associated Press he had met with his mistress more times than he had previously disclosed. He also admitted to dalliances with other women. At least four county GOP chairmen have also called for Sanford to go. Glenn McCall, the York County Republican Party chairman who has been leading a grassroots effort against the governor, said Wednesday that he and other conservative activists are postponing a rally at the State House next week because legislators are starting to come out strongly against Sanford. The rally had been scheduled to pressure Senate and House leaders to call for Sanford's resignation and start an investigation into his activities. But now that officials are publicly coming out against the governor and Attorney General Henry McMaster has begun investigating Sanford's travel records, McCall said the rally may not be necessary. \"We are hoping that legislators can quietly, in private talks with the governor, ask him if he would please step down,\" McCall said. A top South Carolina Democrat also called for Sanford's resignation Wednesday. \"While I believe an investigation should still be done to determine the full extent of Mark Sanford's abuse of power, [through] his long stream of confessions he has already revealed enough immoral and reprehensible behavior to justify asking him to step [down],\" state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said in a statement. \"State officials seem unable to do anything except worry and talk about Governor Sanford's extramarital affair, which we learn more about every few hours. \"... South Carolina can't afford to be at a standstill for the next 18 months with a governor who ignores his job responsibilities while pursuing personal interests,\" the statement said. \"Any other worker in South Carolina would be fired for not showing up at work with no notice.\" Late Tuesday, seven GOP senators, including Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, jointly issued a letter demanding that the governor step down because he has lost the trust of South Carolinians. \"The bottom line is that the Governor's private matters should remain private, but his deception and negligence make it impossible for us to trust him, and for him to govern in the future,\" they wrote. Peeler told CNN that Sanford \"has lost his ability to lead, and I'm afraid he has lost his ability to function as a man.\" \"He is sitting all alone in that big governor's mansion, totally alone,\" Peeler said. \"It's about leadership and moving forward and it's time for him to resign.\" Peeler issued the statement along with Sens. Hugh Leatherman, Paul Campbell, Thomas Alexander, Jake Knotts, Larry Martin and William O'Dell. Earlier Tuesday, two of Sanford's top conservative allies in the senate -- Larry Grooms and Kevin Bryant -- also said Sanford must go. The Greenville News, one of the largest papers in South Carolina, also issued a sharply worded editorial Wednesday telling Sanford to go. It wrote that Sanford has \"acted like a heart-sick school boy, and he's revealed facts that clearly demonstrate he is capable of exceptional deception, arrogance and narcissism.\" The State, of Columbia, South Carolina's largest paper, editorialized earlier that he should remain in office. Watch a reporter from The State comment on the situation \u00bb . The attorney general of South Carolina asked the State Law Enforcement Division to review Sanford's travel records after the governor admitted Tuesday to more visits with his mistress than previously disclosed. The review by law enforcement officials would be the first formal investigation into whether Sanford abused his power while carrying on his affair. State Law Enforcement Division Chief Reggie Lloyd said he would not characterize the review as a criminal investigation. He told reporters on a conference call that law enforcement officials are reviewing documents from the governor's office going back to 2003, when Sanford came to power. He said the review should be concluded by the end of the week. Attorney General Henry McMaster, a Republican, had been reluctant to move forward with calls for an investigation into Sanford, saying he is wary of mixing legal matters with political score-settling from longtime Sanford opponents. However, an aide to McMaster told CNN on Tuesday that \"that all changed this morning when the governor disclosed additional trips that were not disclosed last week.\" Sanford said in a statement Tuesday that he's \"pleased that [the State Law Enforcement Division] will look into this matter.\" \"There's been a lot of speculation and innuendo on whether or not public moneys were used to advance my admitted unfaithfulness. To be very clear: no public money was ever used in connection with this.\"","highlights":"GOP chairwoman suggests Sanford may have to step down .\n13 of South Carolina's 27 GOP state senators now calling on Sanford to resign .\nSouth Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman calls for Sanford's resignation .\nCounty GOP Party chair cancels anti-Sanford rally, says it may not be needed .","id":"c52bcaad0217a941b9d504c84eb56f6fa86db66f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite his threats of \"consequences\" and the subsequent beatings and shooting deaths by government agents, the open protests on Iran's streets by hundreds of thousands of people have dented the shield of invincibility of Iran's Supreme religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, say sources in Iran. Riot police patrol a Tehran street earlier this week. Chants of \"Death to Khamenei\" broke a state-imposed, and a self-imposed absolute prohibition on criticizing a leader believed to be wielding the wisdom and authority of God himself. But right now, the massive network of Iran's intelligence agents, Revolutionary Guard, paramilitary Basij, and police of all sorts, are cracking down. Sources say they are also going house to house, through email accounts and web postings, through cell phone calls and SMS text messages (when the system is allowed to stay up) and even to taxi agencies whose drivers hoisted Mir Hossein Moussavi posters during the election campaign. They are rounding people up and, as it was chillingly put to me, in Iran's prisons \"we have room for all of them.\" In addition protestors are being paraded \"confessing and repenting\" on Iranian state TV. The government also claims to be arresting \"foreign agents\" accused of stirring up the protests. Sources say the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), aligned with Ayatollah Khamenei, plucked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from total obscurity as presidential candidate in 2005, in order to hold the line against \"reform\" in the country after eight years of the reformist president Mohammad Khatami. Sources in the Iranian government and well-placed analysts inside the country Say the IRGC has taken up influential positions in many major sectors of Iranian society, such as the oil industry, finance, transport, construction and other businesses and politics. Iran has been \"increasingly radicalized over the last four years,\" one told me. While there are divisions within the clerical establishment and in parliament, sources tell me that for now that does not threaten the ruling establishment. I was told the weekend arrests of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter and other relatives, and their swift release, were a warning to Rafsanjani, who backed Moussavi in the election. So far the powerful mullahs, monitoring it all from the holy city of Qom, are mostly quiet. And finally, for now, while Moussavi has startled the system with his willingness to press the election case, he is also considered, at this moment, no Ayatollah Khomeini. Nowhere near as charismatic and powerful as the leader of the successful revolution in 1979. Sources say Moussavi is not formally arrested or under house arrest. However his movements and words are \"controlled\" by security and intelligence officials. So in effect there is no visible leader for the street protesters today -- unlike 1979, when Khomeini led from exile. Sources say all this could change if mass demonstrations hit the streets and simply remain there all over the country, if the security forces refuse to expand the crackdown, or if people go on nationwide strike, like they did in 1978-79. As long as the streets and squares remain blanketed by security, they are mostly clear of protesters. Right now, chants of Allahu-Akbar still resound from the rooftops at night. Although residents say they seem to be dying down in some neighborhoods. Even the honking horns and flashing headlights are fading from the traffic. At this moment, however, it is impossible to know how this contest of wills -- and powers -- will play out.","highlights":"Amanpour: Ayatollah's credibility dented by huge street protests in Iran .\nSources say security forces are monitoring activists' emails, SMS messages .\nIran: Intelligence officials could lose their control in face of mass protests .","id":"852a3f67474f6951c302a3e15cf8e1ab23c29e9f"} -{"article":"ARNOLD, Missouri (CNN) -- On his 100th day in office, President Obama said Wednesday that he was \"pleased with the progress we've made but not satisfied.\" Obama marked his 100th day in office Wednesday with a town hall meeting and later a news conference. \"I've come back to report to you, the American people, that we have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, and we've begun the work of remaking America,\" the president said at a town hall meeting in a high school gymnasium in Arnold, a St. Louis suburb. \"I'm confident in the future, but not I'm not content with the present,\" he said. \"You know the progress comes from hard choices and hard work, not miracles. I'm not a miracle worker,\" he said. Obama acknowledged challenges of \"unprecedented size and scope,\" including the recession. These challenges, he said, could not be met with \"half measures.\" \"They demand action that is bold and sustained. They call on us to clear away the wreckage of a painful recession, But also, at the same time, lay the building blocks for a new prosperity. And that's the work that we've begun over these first 100 days,\" he said. He responded to critics who say he is trying to do too much as he works to address the recession as well as health care, energy and education. \"There's no mystery to what we've done; the priorities that we've acted upon were the things that we said we'd do during the campaign,\" he said, prompting loud applause. The president made an opening statement that lasted about 20 minutes before taking questions from the audience. The last question was from a fourth-grade girl who asked about the administration's environmental policies. Later Wednesday, Obama will hold a prime-time news conference in the East Room of the White House. Leading up to the date, White House aides had labeled the 100th day as a \"Hallmark\" holiday. \"They don't mean anything,\" quipped one aide, \"but you have to observe them.\" More than six in 10 Americans approve of the job Obama is doing as president, a recent poll of polls shows. According to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled early Wednesday, 63 percent say they approve of how Obama is handling his duties. CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"We've begun the work of remaking America,\" he says in Missouri .\nObama warns that progress comes from \"hard work, not miracles\"\nHe will hold a prime-time news conference later Wednesday .","id":"70d29e642bc29b28c288363d41fa608493ef47e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With the 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa next year CNN takes a look at one of the greatest talents South African football has ever produced, Jomo Sono. Jomo Sono's international career never took off because of South Africa's exclusion from world football. Matsilela Ephraim Sono was born in 1955 in Soweto, but his career as an international player never got off the ground as South Africa were officially expelled by world governing body FIFA in 1976 during the apartheid regime in the country. The Black Prince, as he was known, made his mark as a player of legendary skill who was denied a world stage through circumstances beyond his control. Sono was a midfield general and renowned for his dribbling and accurate passing -- but it is difficult to say how he would have faired against the best players in the world as he was not given the opportunity. Watch CNN's interview with Sono. \"He was one of the first South Africans to play overseas where he played for the New York Cosmos alongside Pele,\" South African football writer Mo Allie told CNN. \"He played at a time when South Africa was internationally isolated so there was no opportunity for players to showcase their skills to the world. \"But he was fortunate in that he got the opportunity to go to the U.S. and he did very well there, playing alongside greats such as Pele.\" After accomplishing everything that he set out to do at home club Orlando Pirates, Sono starred for the New York Cosmos, Colorado Caribous and Toronto Blizzard in the United States. On his return to South Africa after his retirement, Sono bought the Highlands Park Club in Johannesburg in 1982 and renamed it Jomo Cosmos in honor of his old team in New York, before becoming coach of the South African national side. \"So many of today's South African players would have heard a lot about Jomo Sono but many wouldn't have seen him in action apart from a few snippets of TV highlights,\" Allie added. \"They will identify more with him as a coach because he led the national side in the 1998 African Cup of Nations and took them to the 2002 World Cup finals.\" Sono has proved to be as astute off the pitch as he was on it and has become a successful businessman, owning a number of companies around Johannesburg. And the current South African squad will be looking to carry on his footballing legacy when they attempt to become the first African team to win the World Cup next year.","highlights":"Jomo Sono is one of the greatest footballers South Africa has ever produced .\nSono's international career never took off because of South Africa's exclusion .\nHe was major success at Orlando Pirates before playing in the United States .\nSono also coached South African national side to the 2002 World Cup finals .","id":"bfd0d219acc80c59e3fb6c1d14365ffcd48bba84"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- American U2 reconnaissance planes have been flying over the Turkey-Iraq border to observe military movements, said three U.S. military sources Wednesday. A Turkish army convoy heads toward the Turkey-Iraq border on Monday. Word of the flights comes a day before top-level meetings between U.S. and Turkish government officials and prior to a regional conference aimed at easing tensions between Ankara and Kurdish rebels across Turkey's border with Iraq. Turkey -- which shares its Incirlik air base with U.S. forces -- is a key member of NATO and acts as a vital conduit for U.S. military supplies. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed Wednesday that U.S. military and intelligence communities are sharing information with Turkey to help them fight members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who have made cross-border attacks. See location of key U.S.-Turkish air base \u00bb . \"We are assisting by supplying them, the Turks, with intelligence, lots of intelligence,\" said Morrell. \"There has been an increased level\" of intelligence sharing. Turkey has urged Washington to offer more support against the rebels and Ankara has threatened to launch a full-scale offensive if Iraqi and Kurdish officials fail to neutralize the PKK. U.S. and Iraqi diplomats have been working to restrain Turkey from such a response. Recent limited fighting in southeastern Turkey has spilled into northern Iraq. During operations near the border on Monday, Turkish forces fired on suspected rebel positions. Watch Turkish helicopters fire on rebels \u00bb . On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to meet with Turkish officials in Ankara and President Bush holds talks in Washington with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Also, a conference of regional officials, including Iraq, is scheduled Thursday and Friday in Istanbul. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has joined efforts to ease cross-border tensions. Mottaki met in Iraq Wednesday with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Mottaki's involvement prompted him to delay a scheduled visit to Lebanon, according to Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency, which quoted Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad Reza Sheibani. Iran's foreign minister is offering his \"full support\" to the regional conference in Istanbul, said a statement from al-Maliki's office. The statement also said Mottaki wants to help \"solve the border crisis between Turkey and the PKK.\" Earlier this month, proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress prompted Turkey to threaten to restrict U.S. access to Turkish airspace or cut off access to the air base at Incirlik. Some lawmakers wanted a vote on legislation that would have officially declared that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in World War I was \"genocide.\" Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States and warned of repercussions in the growing dispute. Sponsors of the congressional resolution have asked for a delay in the vote. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Increased level\" of intelligence sharing with Turkey, says Pentagon .\nU2s observing military movements amid tensions between Turks, Kurd rebels .\nTurkey has threatened full-scale attack on rebels; U.S. relies on Turk air base .\nBush, Rice to meet with Turk officials; Iranian diplomat meets with Iraqi PM .","id":"64707187d0a7ec0591c0f41ebd37f98f57846e8c"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday that the United States \"will never turn our back\" on Afghanistan. Gates, who is on an unannounced visit in the war zone, held a joint news conference with Karzai. \"President Obama is sending 30,000 more U.S. troops, the first of which are scheduled to arrive within days,\" Gates said. \"Afghanistan's international partners have pledged at least 7,000 additional troops; when all is said and done, some 43 nations will make up a force.\" Gates also was scheduled to meet with Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, as well as American military officials. Karzai has asked for patience as his nation struggles to take control of its own security. \"A number of years Afghanistan will not be able to sustain our force with our own resources, \" Karzai told reporters. \"We hope the international community and the U.S. will help Afghanistan reach the ability to sustain our force with numbers and equipment.\" Obama has said that U.S. forces will begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in July 2011 -- at which point international troops would begin to turn over security responsibility to Afghan forces. Gates spoke about the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan on Tuesday. \"Our relationship with Afghanistan is a long-term commitment,\" Gates said. \"As security improves our relationship grows ... especially with economic and political development. As President Obama said, we will never turn our back on the region.\" Karzai also offered his own timeline goal, saying Afghanistan wants to be able to assume security control in some parts of the country in two years, and to lead security for the entire country by the end of his five-year term, which just started after his recent re-election. \"We as Afghans will try our very best to reach that goal, and we hope our allies will back us to reach that goal,\" Karzai said. Building and developing Afghan security forces will be a continuing challenge, Gates said, and is an effort that has involved some trial and error. \"One of the eye-openers for us was learning that the Taliban for the most part are better paid than the Afghan security forces, so that's something that we and the Afghans have already taken steps to correct,\" Gates told reporters on the way to Afghanistan. \"I think, frankly, that's the biggest obstacle.\" The Afghan president is under intense pressure to clean up government corruption, a task he said is under way. \"I have fired people and I will be firing people,\" Karzai said. Some of those changes will become known when Karzai announces his new Cabinet. The Afghan president said at the news conference with Gates that he would try to get a list to parliament by the middle of next week. Karzai was originally expected to submit the list on Tuesday.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. relationship with Afghanistan \"a long-term commitment,\" Robert Gates says .\nNEW: U.S. defense secretary meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul .\nKarzai sets his own timeline goal for security handover in Afghanistan .\nGates acknowledges Taliban \"for most part\" better paid than Afghan security forces .","id":"d440765bea41d38263eebb110ab93886b22ac984"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Airline pilots and cabin crew across Europe are holding demonstrations Monday to protest over rules governing their flying hours which they say are putting the lives of passengers at risk. European pilots and cabin crew are calling for shorter flying times to protect passenger safety. Organized by the European Cockpit Association (ECA), and the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF), protesters are demanding that European Union rules on flying times are brought into line with scientific evidence. The Moebus Report -- mandated by the EU in September 2008 -- recommends that an airline crew should not operate for more than 13 hours during the day and 10 hours at night. Current EU rules stipulate pilots work up to a maximum of 14 hours during the day and nearly 12 hours at night. Are you concerned at the hours worked by airline pilots? Tell us. Speaking from one of the protests outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Captain Martin Chalk, President of the ECA told CNN: \"At the moment, the EU level is not adequate. That's not our view that is the view of experts employed to review the EU's own level of protection.\" Chalk said that despite being in possession of the report, the EU completely ignored the recommendations when they produced new fatigue proposals in January 2009. The ECA and the ETF have printed over 100,000 dummy airline tickets which they will hand out to airline passengers. The tickets contain cigarette-style warnings giving details on crew fatigue and an explanation as to why the EU current legislation needs to be changed. \"All we are trying to do at this stage is raise public's awareness. We're not trying to get in anyone's way,\" Chalk said. Hundreds of protesters are attending events taking place at 22 airports across Europe. 400 ECA members are expected to attend the protests at Madrid airport. \"What we are saying today is that they need to listen to the safety review,\" Chalk said. \"It was conducted by the best scientists in this field in Europe. It was commissioned by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and therefore it should not be ignored when writing the rules.\" Francois Ballestero, Political Secretary of the ETF echoed Chalk's concerns. \"Flight safety is the core mission of every cabin crew member. But EU law is insufficient to ensure that air crew can perform their safety role in an alert and effective way,\" he said. But the EASA were critical of the protests and their timing. \"This is jumping the gun. It is not a constructive contribution to a debate which is yet to happen,\" Daniel Hoeltgen, EASA communications director told CNN. Hoeltgen believes that the pilots are simply setting up stall for an industrial debate between the unions and the airlines. \"It's got nothing to do with safety regulations. We have made it clear that we will invite the unions and the airlines to take part in a review of the current rules and the timeframe for that has been made clear.\" The current law in Europe on air crew fatigue is set at two different levels. There is a minimum level set by EU and then there is a level set by individual countries that can be better than that minimum level. In 2012 the EU level is due to come into force. \"There needs to be a change in the law to protect passengers and our members from the insidious effects of airport fatigue,\" Chalk said. The ECA represents over 38,000 pilots and flight engineers in 36 European countries.","highlights":"Hundreds of pilots across Europe are protesting about flying hours and safety .\nPilots argue the EU is ignoring scientific evidence which says hours are too long .\nDemonstrators to hand out dummy airline tickets with a list of their complaints .","id":"b2e47b1f1304ab3cc5e187c0f1ad7f4aa4838708"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A third beluga whale belonging to the world's largest aquarium has died, the Georgia Aquarium announced late Monday. The exact cause of Nico's sudden death on Saturday is inconclusive from the initial necropsy or animal autopsy. The Georgia Aquarium hopes to find out more information in the months ahead from a more detailed necropsy. \"As we work with and care for the many animals at the Georgia Aquarium, we become attached emotionally,\" said Dr. Gregory D. Bossart, chief veterinary officer at the aquarium. \"The loss is not unlike that of faithful dog or special horse that has been a part your life for years.\" Nico died at Sea World in San Antonio, where he and two other beluga whales had been moved temporarily while the Georgia Aquarium is undergoing renovation. Nico was scheduled to return home to Atlanta next month with companions Maris and Natasha. Nico arrived in Atlanta with Gaspar, two whales obtained from a park in Mexico. Both animals suffered \"significant health issues\" from their times in a foreign park and were essentially \"living on borrowed time,\" said Bossart, who had been caring for the two whales as far as nine years ago, while they were still in Mexico. \"We rescued Nico knowing that he had health issues due to his prior home, but we were confident that we could provide a better quality of life for his final years,\" Bossart said. Gaspar was suffering from a bone disease contracted before arriving at the downtown Atlanta aquarium and was euthanized in January 2007. Another beluga whale, Marina, died 11 months later from complications of old age. Beluga whales or white whales, whose name is derived from a Russian word meaning white, typically live in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions including Canada, Russia, Greenland and the U.S. state of Alaska. They can live up to 35 years. The belugas are not the only high-profile deaths at the Georgia Aquarium, which opened in late 2005. A pair of whale sharks have also died at the eight-million-gallon facility, the only one outside Asia to display the giant fish. CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"After autopsy, the cause of Nico's sudden death Saturday is inconclusive .\nNico died at Sea World in San Antonio, where he was kept temporarily .\nThe Georgia Aquarium is undergoing renovations, which is why Nico was moved .","id":"05542b701e2624ae375b03c2c609da9ae865da43"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- In her first television interview since Mel Gibson went public with their relationship in April, his girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, made it clear to CNN: \"I'd like to be known for my music.\" Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson are expecting a child this year. Still, the 39-year-old singer was willing to talk about her beau and her pregnancy, as well as her new album, \"Beautiful Heartache.\" \"Beautiful Heartache\" was released to iTunes on July 23 by Icon Distribution, Gibson's company, which up until now has handled only soundtracks for his movies. \"He's an incredible artist,\" Grigorieva said. \"A visionary. He enabled me to produce this album, for my music to live.\" The Oscar-winning (\"Braveheart\") filmmaker also directed four music videos for Grigorieva during a whirlwind week in Mexico. Watch Grigorieva talk about Gibson, love \u00bb . \"They're like dramatic miniature films -- a whirlpool of different, exciting, bright images. That's quite rare,\" she said. The music videos and music are available on her Web site, www.oksana.fm. Grigorieva has a background in music. She said she was classically trained as a pianist in her native Russia, and both her parents are musicians. In 2006, a song she penned called \"Un Dia Llegara\" was recorded by Josh Groban for his album \"Awake.\" Though she describes her album as being about \"different facets of love,\" she cautions that listeners shouldn't overthink the lyrics. \"This album is not autobiographical -- maybe only partially so. It's not a diary.\" Gibson, 53, and his wife of nearly 30 years, Robyn, filed for divorce in April. The two have seven children. Grigorieva and Gibson were first photographed together on the set of his movie \"Edge of Darkness,\" according to People magazine. Grigorieva is pregnant with Gibson's child and is to give birth this year. She said the couple has opted not to learn the sex of the child. It will be her second child, after Alexander, her 12-year-old son with actor Timothy Dalton. \"I'm already buying things in gender-neutral colors. It's very cute,\" she chuckled. Alexander, she added, is excited about having a sibling. \"He's like a little man, protecting me. He's looking forward to it very much.\" Grigorieva says she and Gibson have no immediate plans for marriage. \"We don't know yet. We haven't really talked about it,\" she admitted. She acknowledged that her relationship with Gibson has given her a unique opportunity to present her skills. \"If you think about it, every talent needs a serious push and help from somebody who is stronger, because it's pretty much impossible for anybody to succeed in this industry. So I've become very lucky, and I'm very grateful,\" she said. \"You don't control the situations or the people you meet. I did not plan this. I'm just doing what I've always been doing. It's not like I've changed my goals at all.\" In the meantime, Grigorieva is adapting to life in the public eye. \"It hasn't been too bad, actually. There was a period of time where it was a little bit difficult, but now it's much better,\" she said. Before embarking on limited press for the new album, Gibson did offer a few words of advice, she added: \"Just be myself and speak the truth. What I most like to talk about is my music and 'Beautiful Heartache.' And that's pretty much it.\"","highlights":"Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson have been a couple for at least a year .\nGrigorieva has a new album, \"Beautiful Heartache\"\nSinger is pregnant with Gibson's child, describes Gibson as \"a visionary\"","id":"1565af280881ab0e8077bf0b387085af3bee87b5"} -{"article":"CAVITE CITY, Philippines (CNN) -- At 16, Rhandolf Fajardo reflects on his former life as a gang member. Efren Pe\u00f1aflorida's Dynamic Teen Company offers Filipino youth an alternative to gangs through education. \"My gang mates were the most influential thing in my life,\" says Fajardo, who joined a gang when he was in sixth grade. \"We were pressured to join.\" He's not alone. In the Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Preda Foundation, a local human rights charity. \"I thought I'd get stuck in that situation and that my life would never improve,\" recalls Fajardo. \"I would probably be in jail right now, most likely a drug addict -- if I hadn't met Efren.\" Efren Pe\u00f1aflorida, 28, also was bullied by gangs in high school. Today, he offers Filipino youth an alternative to gang membership through education. Vote now for the CNN Hero of the Year . \"Gang members are groomed in the slums as early as 9 years old,\" says Pe\u00f1aflorida. \"They are all victims of poverty.\" For the past 12 years, Pe\u00f1aflorida and his team of teen volunteers have taught basic reading and writing to children living on the streets. Their main tool: A pushcart classroom. Stocked with books, pens, tables and chairs, his Dynamic Teen Company recreates a school setting in unconventional locations such as the cemetery and municipal trash dump. Pe\u00f1aflorida knows firsthand the adversity faced by these children. Born into a poor family, he lived in a shanty near the city dump site. But he says he refused to allow his circumstances to define his future. \"Instead of being discouraged, I promised myself that I would pursue education,\" he recalls. \"I will strive hard; I will do my best.\" In high school, Pe\u00f1aflorida faced a new set of challenges. Gang activity was rampant; they terrorized the student body, vandalized the school and inducted members by forcing them to rape young girls, he says. \"I felt the social discrimination. I was afraid to walk down the street.\" Pe\u00f1aflorida remembers standing up to a gang leader, refusing to join his gang. That confrontation proved fateful. At 16, he and his friends \"got the idea to divert teenagers like us to be productive,\" he says. He created the Dynamic Teen Company to offer his classmates an outlet to lift up themselves and their community. For Pe\u00f1aflorida, that meant returning to the slums of his childhood to give kids the education he felt they deserved. \"They need education to be successful in life. It's just giving them what others gave to me,\" he says. Today, children ranging from ages 2 to 14 flock to the pushcart every Saturday to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and English from Pe\u00f1aflorida and his trained teen volunteers. Watch Pe\u00f1aflorida and his group in action with their push cart classroom \u00bb . \"Our volunteers serve as an inspiration to other children,\" he says. The group also runs a hygiene clinic, where children can get a bath and learn how to brush their teeth. Since 1997, an estimated 10,000 members have helped teach more than 1,500 children living in the slums. The organization supports its efforts by making and selling crafts and collecting items to recycle. Take a look at the slums where Pe\u00f1aflorida and his group spend their Saturdays \u00bb . Through his group, Pe\u00f1aflorida has successfully mentored former gang members, addicts and dropouts, seeing potential where others see problems. \"Before, I really didn't care for my life,\" says Michael Advincula, who started doing drugs when he was 7. \"But then Efren patiently dug me from where I was buried. It was Efren who pushed me to get my life together.\" Watch Advincula describe how he met Pe\u00f1aflorida in the slums \u00bb . Today, Advincula is a senior in high school and one of the group's volunteers. Pe\u00f1aflorida hopes to expand the pushcart to other areas, giving more children the chance to learn and stay out of gangs. \"I always tell my volunteers that you are the change that you dream and I am the change that I dream. And collectively we are the change that this world needs to be.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Dynamic Teen Company and see how to help.","highlights":"Efren Pe\u00f1aflorida was bullied by gangs in high school in the Philippines .\nNow his Dynamic Teen Company offers an alternative to gangs through education .\nSince 1997, some 10,000 members have taught more than 1,500 children in slums .\nVote now for the CNN Hero of the Year at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"77fdb05b5dcd10ec899df6ddfc4b3122026a548d"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Michelle Obama dazzled on the dance floor Tuesday night at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, wearing an elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created for her by 26-year-old designer, Jason Wu. First lady Michelle Obama dazzled in a Jason Wu original gown. The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes, Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver embroidery. The first lady accessorized with diamond chandelier earrings, a white gold and diamond ring and a stack of diamond bangles by jeweler Loree Rodkin. The president summed up his wife's look best before their first dance -- to Beyonc\u00e9's rendition of \"At Last\" -- when he said, \"First of all, how good-looking is my wife?\" Michelle Obama has worn Wu once before, during an interview with Barbara Walters. Wu, one of America's leading young designers, debuted his first collection in February 2006 and has since earned accolades such as Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award. Watch InStyle.com's Joe Berean discuss the gown \u00bb . Obama was likely introduced to the designer in one of her favorite Chicago, Illinois, boutiques, Ikram. The new first lady has made a conscious effort to support young, diverse talent in the fashion community. In choosing Wu, who is originally from Taiwan, Obama continues a tradition of wearing American designers who hail from other countries. They include Cuban-American designers Isabel Toledo, who designed her yellow lace inauguration ensemble; Narciso Rodriguez, designer of the red and black dress she wore on election night; and designer Thakoon Panichgul, originally from Thailand, who designed the floral dress she wore the evening her husband accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Michelle Obama's style statement is one meant to inspire ethnic and class diversity in the world of fashion. Aside from being a socially conscious purveyor of style, Obama also sends a clear message of hope and promise by choosing colorful, reasonably priced pieces. Watch the Obamas enjoy the night \u00bb . She prefers bright, cheerful shades such as yellow, electric blue, red and purple, and has been seen on multiple occasions in head-to-toe looks from moderately priced American retailer J.Crew. In fact, daughters Malia and Sasha braved Tuesday's chilly weather in coats from the brand's children's collection. Michelle Obama was first seen in J.Crew during a visit to the \"Tonight Show\" with Jay Leno on October 27. \"This is a J.Crew ensemble,\" she told the host. \"We ladies, we know J.Crew.\" The first lady also said she had a penchant for Internet shopping, saying, \"When you don't have time, you gotta click!\" Obama wore J.Crew again at the Kids' Inaugural Concert on Monday. She gave the colorful ensemble a luxe spin with dangling green sapphire earrings from Loree Rodkin and a Deco-inspired belt buckle. InStyle magazine Fashion Director Hal Rubenstein appreciates Obama's straightforward approach to fashion. \"People tend to think classic looks are synonymous with boring, but they're not,\" he explains. \"Michelle Obama has a specific style that works for her. She has a lady-like approach to style that is elegant and inspiring. \"What we'll see as a result is this idea of looking put-together and sophisticated, as opposed to being daring or flamboyant. It's all about looking polished, like you know what you're doing.\" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"First lady's elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created by 26-year-old Jason Wu .\nThe one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes .\nMichelle Obama has tradition of wearing American designers from other nations .\nHer time-saving shopping secret -- buying on the Internet .","id":"7a14c3645f3fb06861169c2eda64b139fd02f4ff"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Since 2007, CNN and CNN.com have followed the story of Youssif, an Iraqi boy disfigured when he was burned by attackers. Today, CNN's Arwa Damon catches up with the boy and his family, now living in California where Youssif is undergoing treatment. Today Youssif goes to school in California and continues to have treatment to help his scars. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Youssif stands on stage beaming as he belts out \"Jingle Bell Rock,\" his tiny burned hands waving in sync with his classmates at Hamlin Street School. His mother, Zaineb, stands at the back, cradling his little sister, Aya, tears rolling down her face. \"I am so proud of him,\" she says. \"It reminds me of what he was like in Iraq when he used to sing in kindergarten. I felt for a moment that none of this had happened. My son was back, without fear, strong.\" Youssif spots us, and waves wildly. Little appears to remain of the sullen and withdrawn dark-eyed boy we first met in Baghdad more than a year ago. It has been almost two years since masked men in Baghdad doused Youssif, then just 4 years old, in gasoline and set him on fire. His mother still doesn't sleep at night. \"I still blame myself. I should have protected him. Sometimes I say to myself that I wish it had happened to me, just not to him.\" Zaineb says, her voice starting to quiver. \"If only I hadn't let him go out to play that day.\" Today Youssif plays freely, without fear. \"Let's race\" he shouts to his friend Brandon as the two boys dash across the schoolyard. A couple of minutes later the two are playfully jostling over a rubber ball. Youssif shrieks and bursts into laughter as the two play catch. \"It's like this weight has been lifted off of me, off of him,\" his father, Wissam, says. \"It's like we've left this dark, depressing state where we were consumed by Youssif and the attack that had happened. You know, it's so hard to see a child, my child, go through something like this. When I see him like this, I feel like he's coming back.\" Watch more on Youssif's recovery \u00bb . After CNN and CNN.com first reported Youssif's story in 2007, more than 12,000 CNN.com users contributed to a fund set up by the Children's Burn Foundation of Sherman Oaks California, enabling the boy and his family to travel to the United States for treatment. Youssif has undergone more than a dozen surgeries. Much of the thick scar tissue around his eyes, mouth and nose -- left by his treatment in Baghdad -- has been removed. He currently has yet another tissue expander in his left cheek, intended to stretch out \"good skin\" to be used to replace his scar tissue. Youssif has grown used to the sometimes painful treatments. \"When I started this process of tissue expansion, I would have to chase him around the room,\" Dr. Peter Grossman, Youssif's surgeon, tells us as he injects more liquid into the expander. \"We'd need three people to hold him down for these injections.\" Youssif will probably have many more surgeries stretched out over time. \"The problem we have with Youssif is that every operation we do tends to heal well after surgery, but then a month after, he starts to form these really thick scars,\" Grossman said. \"It's probably best at this time to let his body relax, let these scars mature over a period of a year or two years.\" Today, Youssif grimaces in pain but braves it alone, refusing to take his father's hand. \"Seven or eight times put water,\" Youssif says back at home, explaining how the tissue expansion works. \"I am not scared. It goes here,\" he says pointing to the scarring over his lip. He's not all that interested in talking about medical procedures. \"When I sharpen this it broke,\" he says, trotting over with his new pencils. We all smile. \"You cut it like this\" he orders, handing me scissors and what is meant to be a snowman he's just drawn. A few moments later I am being berated for coloring \"wrong.\" \"Great, I am taking orders from a 6-year-old\" I think to myself, laughing. Keely Quinn with the Children's Burn Foundation comes by for an extra reading lesson. They are reading one of the \"Five Little Monkeys\" books, Youssif's favorite. By the time I join them on the couch, Youssif's got Dr. Seuss' \"Foot Book.\" \"What's the biggest change you've seen in him in the last year?\" I ask her. Youssif pipes up, reading, \"Small feet, big feet.\" \"Aside from reading and learning English,\" Keely says as we're both laughing. \"I think it's the change in confidence, in his ability to handle himself in social situations. He's worked really hard in saying good morning to his teachers, saying hello back, answering questions and just gaining social confidence.\" He's thriving at school, loving the first grade. \"He's amazing,\" his teacher Mario Daley says. \"I work with children of all levels of ability, and Youssif, with what he's gone through, his motivation, what he produces is fantastic. He just tries so hard.\" Before the attack, Zaineb says, Youssif wanted to be a doctor. Now he says \"I want to be a doctor to help burned Iraqi children.\"","highlights":"Youssif continues to be treated in California for his burns, scars .\nHe is enrolled in school and learning English .\nMore surgeries lie ahead .\nBoy was doused with gasoline, set on fire by masked men in Baghdad .","id":"f7aee16e98424f27eb826073e55b1d173d6585c9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Earlier this year, Matt Keller sat down with officials in Afghanistan -- not to discuss troop deployments, suicide bombings or opium traffickers. He was there to talk about getting laptop computers into the hands of little girls. Girls in India take a seat on the floor and get to work on their new laptops. As Taliban insurgents continue to crack down on girls who go to school and women who dare to teach them, Keller was awestruck by the Afghan government's determination to educate all children, even if it means finding tools that allow them to intellectually grow in the privacy of their own homes. \"For them to propose this was astounding,\" said Keller, who works for One Laptop per Child, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, nonprofit committed to creating and distributing affordable, durable and solar-powered laptops to the world's poorest children. \"That hunger for knowledge, that desire to learn, is pretty profound.\" From Uruguay, Haiti and Mexico to Mongolia, Ghana and the small Polynesian island of Niue, at least 750,000 kids -- a number that will double by June, Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said -- are tapping away on One Laptop per Child-produced XO laptop keyboards. They're exploring mathematics, composing music and art, learning new languages, designing animation, collecting data, collaborating with peers across borders and accessing learning tools (including textbooks) that they would never see otherwise. Targeting current and historic conflict zones, including Iraq, Rwanda and most recently the Gaza Strip, not only fulfills the group's mission to offer equal-access education to the most isolated children, it may also promote world peace, Keller said. By putting laptops \"into the hands of kids who would otherwise be indoctrinated,\" he explained, \"we can make the case pretty successfully that doing this is a long-term solution to root causes.\" When the laptops, which incorporate free wireless Internet connectivity and open-source programming, first rolled out in 2007, they cost $205 each. Now, they're down to $180. The price is higher than Negroponte's original goal of $100 a pop, but it's a figure he believes will keep going down as One Laptop per Child finds ways to engineer the product with fewer components. The hope is that with corporate sponsorships and donations, collected through a program called Give One Get One, the computers can be delivered to kids at no cost to the poorest host-country governments. The laptops allow students to engage in learning differently, enjoy a customized approach and hone critical thinking skills, explained David Cavallo, One Laptop per Child's vice president of learning. And their mere existence, he said, keeps kids coming to school. Cavallo spoke of a school in Rwanda that lacks electricity and traditionally had a 50 percent attendance rate. It is now drawing 1,000 more students than its previous full capacity, he said, and is even attracting kids -- who in turn are teaching their parents and grandparents -- on weekends. \"Rwanda is recovering from genocide,\" he said. This is a \"real engagement of a society directing itself to a different future.\" And the kids, no matter their previous exposure to technology, immediately gravitate to the machines. Keller, the group's director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, recalled a visit to rural Ethiopia. As he passed out the laptops, he kept one eye on the children, the other on his watch. Seven seconds was all it took for an 8-year-old boy to flip open the never-seen-before computer, find and then hit the power button. Within two weeks, that boy and his classmates would be programming. Meanwhile, the nearby adults stared at the oddball objects and flashed the international look of, \"What the hell is this thing?\" Keller said. \"Kids are technology natives, and adults are technology immigrants.\" Despite its ongoing successes, the downturn in the economy has taken a toll on the nonprofit. The last Give One Get One promotion brought in $2.5 million, while the first incarnation brought in $37.5 million, Negroponte said. And corporate sponsors fell from 11 to three in the span of 30 days, he added. Early this year, the organization laid off half of its staff, bringing the total on payroll to just 32. These economic realities, though disappointing, won't impede the mission, said Negroponte, who created One Laptop per Child with others from the MIT Media Lab. Thousands of volunteers around the world offer technical support and training, and serve as translators and programmers. \"If we could get all the children in the world -- 1.2 billion of them between 6 and 12 -- to have a connected laptop, that would be success,\" Negroponte said. \"Roughly half of those children have no electricity at home or school. The poverty is so extreme, and the environmental conditions are so extreme, we have to focus on them.\" The push has been to reach out to developing nations, but that hasn't precluded the group from serving American communities that can pursue the program at a scale that makes sense financially. Birmingham City Schools in Alabama, for example, now has 14,000 of the group's laptops in students' hands. Michael Wilson, principal of Glen Iris Elementary School in Birmingham, opened his building's doors last year as the district's pilot school for the free laptop program. \"It's been an overwhelming success at our school,\" which has a poverty rate of 83 percent, Wilson said. Through professional development and a summer camp for kids, the school is learning how to best utilize the computers. And the students, who own their laptops, are learning about responsibility. They're \"totally engaged in what they're doing,\" Wilson said. \"I have kids getting out of cars in the morning with their laptops open.\" One of those kids might be Amicah Bitten, a fourth-grader who is using the computer on her own time to learn Spanish with her mother, Kamonia Bates. \"It gets me more interested because she's interested. ... She doesn't put it down,\" said Bates, who used to take her daughter to the library when she needed a computer. \"I like it because people can learn stuff,\" Amicah, 9, said after school. \"You can listen to music. You can take pictures. You can also learn how to make different things. I can learn Spanish. I can learn French. I can learn how to use the keyboard. ... Yes ma'am, my laptop can do many things.\"","highlights":"One Laptop per Child targets kids in poorest and most conflicted regions .\nLaptops can help girls learn in Afghanistan, where Taliban cracks down on schools .\n1.5 million laptops will be distributed by June, chairman says .\nEconomy may be a challenge, but goal to give equal access to all kids won't stop .","id":"34316427b674615310d5c487f5ed898cb2cc0b77"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai bowed to Western pressure Tuesday, agreeing to take part in a presidential runoff vote in two weeks. Hamid Karzai failed to score a first round win in August's election. Karzai, who will face his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah in the November 7 second round, said he was putting his country's interests over his own. \"It was not important who the winner is, and we need to leave this to the people of Afghanistan to judge who the winner was,\" Karzai said at a news conference through an interpreter. \"Whether I am the winner or not, it's probably in my interest, but I prefer the national interest of Afghanistan over my personal interests.\" Western powers, particularly the United States, had been pushing Karzai to accept the final election results in order to ensure Afghanistan has a legitimate government, particularly as Washington considers beefing up its military presence there. Karzai spoke shortly after Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission certified the election results, which gave him less than the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission had invalidated nearly a third of Karzai's votes from the August 20 presidential election because of \"clear and convincing evidence of fraud.\" Last month, final uncertified results showed Karzai with 54 percent. \"We welcome the decision made by the Independent Election Commission, we believe the session is legitimate, legal and according to the constitution of Afghanistan,\" Karzai said Tuesday. \"It's going to be a historic period that we all are waiting to go through.\" The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said that it would \"support the Afghan National Security Forces' preparations to ensure a safe runoff election.\" Spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said that ISAF had been preparing for a possible runoff election \"for some time.\" \"As in the election's first round, ISAF will only provide third-layer of security, reinforcing the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army in line with the security plan signed by the chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission along with representatives from the Afghan Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Defense, and ISAF in 2008,\" Shanks said. Karzai's decision was immediately hailed by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, one of several Western representatives who appeared alongside the Afghan president at Tuesday's delayed news conference. Kerry, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Karzai's decision to participate in the runoff \"will allow the national leadership to govern with legitimacy.\" \"We believe with this decision by the president today that a time of enormous uncertainty has been transformed into a great opportunity,\" Kerry said. Watch President Karzai and Sen. John Kerry discuss runoff elections \u00bb . Minutes after the news conference concluded, U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement praising Karzai for accepting the election results and agreeing to a second round of voting. \"While this election could have remained unresolved to the detriment of the country, President Karzai's constructive actions established an important precedent for Afghanistan's new democracy,\" Obama said. Obama is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan, and Kerry has said the results of the country's election should be settled before the United States makes any decision on troop levels. Watch Nic Robertson discuss pressure President Karzai is under \u00bb . Abdullah told CNN on Monday he was prepared to participate in a runoff, but said \"the door is open\" to other alternatives. \"There are some practical questions ahead,\" Abdullah told CNN's Christiane Amanpour, citing winter, the security situation \"and other realities on the ground.\" If the election were not held by early November, winter weather would make voting impossible in some areas and force a delay until spring of 2010, according to Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad. Such a delay, he warned, would be a \"recipe for disaster\" that would create confusion in Afghanistan and heighten tension between the United States and Karzai's government.","highlights":"Afghan runoff election scheduled for November 7, officials say .\nRunoff follows probe into election fraud that invalidated thousands of votes .\nRunoff with pit Karzai against his former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah .","id":"e4603bdcf4aa1b40e593829ee572f0746146e885"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"All politics is local.\" That four-word statement, originally uttered by former Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill, is one of the favorite clich\u00e9s of political pundits everywhere. But it's seldom respected when it matters most. Consider, for instance, the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, which conservative Democrat Bill Owens won in spite of partisan and nonpartisan polling that had shown Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman with a solid lead. Almost overnight, Hoffman became a sort of folk hero among conservative activists around the country, a decidedly ordinary-looking man who seemed poised to take an extraordinary path into Washington. Some 95 percent of his fundraising came from outside the district. Hoffman, indeed, had some initial success. The original Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, dropped out of the race after polling showed her trailing both Hoffman and Owens. But when push came to shove, Hoffman lost. Why? Because those activists -- however well-meaning they might have been -- misunderstood the district. The 23rd is a Republican district, but it is not a particularly conservative one, having split its vote between Barack Obama and the moderate Republican John McHugh last November. If Nancy Pelosi is regarded suspiciously in the 23rd, so are Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson, who cut commercials and robocalls on behalf of Hoffman. What the voters there wanted was a candidate who understood them. Owens -- superior to Hoffman in his command of local issues -- provided the best approximation. Alternatively, consider the outcome in New Jersey, where Republican Chris Christie knocked off incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine. This election is being touted as a referendum on Obama, who took a risk -- a bad one, indeed -- by campaigning on behalf of Corzine. But Obama was the least of Corzine's problems: Voters in Tuesday's election approved of Obama's performance 57 percent to 43 percent, according to exit polling. It was Corzine they didn't like; 27 percent of the voters who approved of Obama nevertheless found someone other than the Democratic incumbent to vote for. Corzine, for his part, ran a polarizing campaign; every time Christie's name appeared in one of his commercials, it came with a scarlet (R) -- for Republican -- attached. Republicans are not popular in New Jersey, but local issues drove the race. Whereas three-quarters of Corzine's voters cited a national issue -- health care or the economy -- as their primary reason for voting for him, two-thirds of Christie's picked a local one (property taxes and corruption). There is a much stronger case that national factors were in play in Virginia. The voters who turned out there Tuesday were more likely to have supported John McCain than Obama last year. Obama carried the state by 6 percentage points last year. But exit polls found that 51 percent of this year's voters in Virginia were people who had voted for McCain. Even a strong Democratic candidate would have struggled under the circumstances. But Democrats also made a mistake in thinking that Creigh Deeds, who hails from rural Bath County on the West Virginia border and wears his upbringing on his sleeve, would be the best candidate to represent them in the state. In many other states -- Ohio, say -- it's the rural, working-class vote that swings elections. But that's not the case in Virginia, which is one of the wealthiest and most suburban states in the country. There, suburban moderates such as Mark Warner tend to do better. Deeds might have been the right candidate -- but he was in the wrong state. State-level politics, indeed, routinely differ from national ones. That's why you have Democratic governors in red states such as Oklahoma and Wyoming, but Republican ones in blue states such as Vermont and Hawaii. That does not mean that local elections can't tell us anything about national trends -- the White House would be feeling better, certainly, if Democrats had won New Jersey, and likewise Republicans if they'd won NY-23. But usually the party that applies a one-size-fits-all approach to local races is the losing one. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nate Silver.","highlights":"This year's elections more about local concerns than national ones, says Nate Silver .\nSpecial election in New York in a district that isn't particularly conservative, Silver says .\nNew Jersey voters rejected Gov. Jon Corzine for local reasons, Silver says .\nSilver: In Virginia, Democrats had candidate who didn't appeal statewide .","id":"572702ba60143d7b89a9b825f655e1dab5543d81"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A restaurateur has gone to great lengths to tackle the spread of the H1N1 virus in his eatery, including taking staff's temperatures before they start work and preventing them from touching plates directly. Kitchen staff at Silk and Soya restaurant in Spain wear face masks and gloves while preparing food. Silk and Soya, a Thai-themed restaurant in Madrid, Spain, implemented the measures to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, in the upscale locale. \"We implemented these measures so that our employees would serve only food, not a virus,\" restaurant owner Cipri Quintas told CNN. As well as employees having their temperatures taken before starting their shifts, windows are opened to aerate the restaurant before meals. Each table is set at least one meter -- 3.2 feet -- from any other table. Any member of the kitchen staff involved in food preparation must wear a mask and gloves, and waiters are required to hold napkins when carrying plates to avoid touching them directly with their hands. Upon entering the elevators leading to the top-floor restaurant, customers find an automatic disinfectant gel dispenser. At each table, diners find a packet of gel next to their silverware. The restaurant's restroom doors are propped open, the lights turn on automatically and the faucets are hands-free -- measures intended to keep customers from having to touch surfaces after they've washed their hands. Similar initiatives are under way around the world. Last spring, during the peak of the scare in Mexico City, restaurants were closed for 12 days. When the restaurants reopened, the government ordered owners to put extra space between the tables and not to allow more than half of seats to be filled at any given time; cooks and waiters were mandated to wear surgical masks. The World Health Organization's Web site states that hand-washing is one of the best ways to prevent infection and provides instructions with drawings that can be printed and posted in public places, such as restaurants. Silk and Soya's Quintas started his anti-H1N1 measures in August and has already proved popular with some customers. Simona Savin, who was having lunch, told CNN, \"These are measures you don't see everywhere. Here you have everything. They are great because there's a need for hygiene.\" Another diner, swimming coach Fernando Barea, said, \"We came to the restaurant because we heard good things about it and I wanted to see these measures against the H1N1 flu. These measures should be used by other restaurants.\" Quintas predicted they soon will be. \"People from other businesses like hotels and theaters have called us asking, 'What have you done? Can we come see your setup?' There's been a big response,\" said Quintas. He insisted that his goal is not solely to garner publicity, but to protect his customers and staff -- a responsibility, he said, that the business community at large should undertake. One expert on the disease applauded the efforts and recommended they be broadened. \"They should implement them every winter against all respiratory diseases,\" said Dr. Tom Jefferson, a medical epidemiologist with the Cochrane Collaboration. The international organization reviews health care interventions and \"promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions,\" according to its Web site. As of September 13, the WHO had tallied more than 296,000 cases worldwide, 3,486 of them fatal.","highlights":"Thai-themed restaurant in Madrid implements anti H1N1 flu measures .\nEmployees have their temperatures taken, windows are opened, gel provided .\nRestaurant owner says there is \"a big response\" from other owners .","id":"5fa9a686b4e56497e6dc831880a8adafb6222c34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Reality TV star Heidi Pratt was hospitalized Saturday in Costa Rica, her publicist confirmed. Heidi Pratt was taken to a hospital for an undisclosed illness, her publicist said Saturday. The details about Pratt's hospitalization were not immediately available. Pratt, star of MTV's \"The Hills,\" has been competing on NBC's \"I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here,\" a reality show about surviving the jungle. Pratt and her husband, Spencer, tried to quit the show earlier in the week, but later decided to return. \"We realized that we made a big mistake and that the devil got to us and said, 'Get out of the jungle,'\" Pratt said. \"We realized it's not even about us. \"It's about the charity, and it's about the experience here and we took that for granted,\" she said.","highlights":"Heidi Pratt was rushed to a hospital in Costa Rica for undisclosed illness .\nPratt is currently appearing on \"I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here\"\nPratt had blamed \"the devil\" for wanting to leave show earlier in week .","id":"8a24714d46521ef37c66d155450c80eaeadb76c7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Is the United States the \"greatest country on earth\"? You hear that a lot, or phrases like that, during this presidential campaign. Candidates may attack other candidates, or the sitting president, but they never attack the idea that America is special, a \"city upon a hill.\" \"The last, best hope of Earth.\" It's part of America's ideology and its tradition of political rhetoric. To many Americans' ears, it sounds normal. But to citizens of other countries it's sometimes jarring, as if Americans put their country ahead of any other, as if the United States thinks it has the right to tell the rest of the world what to do. We went to the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. and asked visitors if they agree America \"knows best\" and the United States has an obligation to spread its values around the world. Almost everyone we talked with did not agree. Rachel Army, a teacher with a Washington, D.C. non-governmental organization, said: \"I have a lot of pride in our government however, at the same time, it is ours and I don't think that it is right to force it on other people.\" Jermane Bonilla, from Los Angeles, said he thinks the United States is a special country, \"the most powerful nation on earth and the most beautiful country on earth, in my mind.\" But, he told us \"it might not be the same model that everybody should be using.\" They're not the exception, it turns out. In their book, \"America Against the World,\" Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut and journalist Bruce Stokes say it's more often U.S. leaders who want to impose American values in other countries -- not the American people. The authors analyzed international surveys of people around the globe going back to the 1980's as well as more than 100,000 interviews in 60 countries. Their conclusion? \"Contrary to widespread misconceptions, Americans' pride in their country is not evangelistic. The American people, as opposed to some of their leaders, seek no converts to their ideology.\" Citizens of many other countries, too, may think their national way of life is the best but, these authors say, \"they don't dominate the globe.\" Americans may not be that different from others but the differences that do exist are magnified, fueling resentment around the world. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"U.S.A. the special\" is a staple of political rhetoric .\nAuthors find citizens are proud but not evangelistic about the country .\nView is similar to citizens of other countries but it's magnified by U.S. power .","id":"0647cb1cc9a98d8e0a8011a3e3bae8ce24674940"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- \"Whip It!\" suggests what might have happened if Juno had gone to a high school as poky as Napoleon Dynamite's and decided that although her mother wanted her to be a beauty queen like Little Miss Sunshine, she'd rather just strap on roller skates. Ellen Page plays roller derby competitor Babe Ruthless in \"Whip It!\" Only here the petite, droll, feisty, Ellen Page-like heroine played by Ellen Page is named Bliss. And her idea of sass while chatting up a cute rocker (Landon Pigg) in this desexualized, slow-speed grrrl-power sports fantasy is \"I'm Bliss, but I could change that.\" Bliss does change her name, at least at the Roller Derby rink. She sneaks away from her square parents (Marcia Gay Harden as the U.S. Postal Service's least likely mail carrier and Daniel Stern as a nice schlub who likes beer) to roll with a sisterly Austin team who call themselves the Hurl Scouts. There, she dubs herself Babe Ruthless, making up in speed what she lacks in muscled aggression. She's heck on wheels, or so we are asked to believe: The rink footage is pretty un-whippy. Even Juliette Lewis, playing the film's designated bad girl and Bliss\/Babe's nemesis on the rink, is more of a cute bee-yotch than a real threat. The movie is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut (she also plays fellow Hurl Scout Smashley Simpson), and it's clear she's more attuned to grrrlishness than real athletic power: Smashley is the first to scream ''Food fight!'' and the 34-year-old actress leads the charge in kidlike mayhem. EW Grade: C+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Whip It!\" marks Drew Barrymore's directorial debut .\nEllen Page plays woman who signs up for roller derby .\nFilm leans towards softness, which hurts impact of roller derby .","id":"0406ab5c8423695232401a179f0679071f854166"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There will be no criminal charges filed in the death of a Green Beret who was electrocuted in his quarters in Iraq last year, the Department of Defense said Friday. Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret, died in a shower at his base in Iraq in January 2008. The Army's 11-month investigation \"concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that any one person, persons or entity was criminally culpable\" in the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, the Department of Defense said in a written statement. Maseth, a 24-year-old decorated Green Beret from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was electrocuted in a shower in his Baghdad quarters -- a former palace of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein -- in January 2008. \"The investigation revealed that there were numerous entities, individuals, both contractors and government employees, who breached their respective duties of care; however, none of those breaches, in and of themselves, were the proximate cause of his death,\" the Army said. A report released last month from the Pentagon's inspector general found that Maseth's death stemmed from failures both by the U.S. military and by military contractor KBR. The company did not properly ground and inspect electrical equipment, the inspector general's report found, while Maseth's commanders failed to ensure that renovations to the building where he was based had been properly done. The Army did not set electrical standards for jobs or contractors. KBR has said the palace was not properly grounded by contractors when it was built. The Pentagon report concluded that KBR failed to ground a water pump at the building, and the company did not report improperly grounded equipment during routine maintenance. Maseth's family is suing the company. After the Pentagon inspector general's report Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, both Democrats, called on the Pentagon last month to take back more than $83 million in bonuses paid to KBR. Casey said the Pentagon should fine KBR: \"Make it hurt and make it count.\" The Department of Defense said there were 18 reported deaths caused by electrocution in Iraq since the war began and that a task force designed to assess fire and electrical safety issues in Iraq was created \"after a series of electrical accidents and incidents.\" The task force has inspected more than 67,000 of the approximately 90,000 pieces of equipment and facilities in Iraq. Almost 14,000 deficiencies have been corrected, the department said.","highlights":"Army: Probe reveals \"numerous entities ... breached their respective duties\"\nPentagon report last month found failures by U.S. military and contractor KBR .\nFamily of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, is suing military contractor .\nDefense says nearly 14,000 deficiencies in gear and facilities have been fixed .","id":"cc8216d2df302ced9349e5f67e652f68bd7af3b8"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Tim Roth is in an abandoned building near downtown Los Angeles, and he's about to mix things up. British actor Tim Roth plays a human lie detector on the hit series \"Lie to Me.\" \"This is a scene where the FBI is interrogating a suspect,\" Roth said. \"I'm breaking into the interrogation to get information out of him using the sort of techniques that my character espouses as opposed to pressuring him.\" Roth, who plays Dr. Cal Lightman on the hit Fox series \"Lie to Me,\" is shooting scenes for the season finale, which will air May 13. His character is an expert on body language and the detection of deception. \"Our series is based on the idea that we can read what's going on across your face and if it's contradicting what you're actually saying,\" Roth said. Lightman and his colleague, Dr. Gillian Foster -- played by Kelli Williams -- run \"The Lightman Group.\" They observe body language and interpret what it means in order to help law enforcement agencies see through the bull. His character is based on Dr. Paul Ekman, a specialist who reads clues embedded in the human face, body and voice to expose the truth in criminal investigations. Ekman, who in 2001 was named as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century by the American Psychological Association, is a scientific consultant for the show. Roth says Ekman can be intimidating. \"He makes me very, very nervous, Paul, you know,\" he said. \"I mean, he's the sweetest man, as sweet as can be, but when he's around, you feel like your acting is really being judged.\" Roth is perhaps best known for his outings with famed director Quentin Tarantino. The British actor pulled off a convincing American accent in the cult classics \"Reservoir Dogs\" and \"Pulp Fiction.\" He uses his true-Brit accent in \"Lie to Me,\" which debuted in January and is one of the season's few successful new dramas. In a review for Entertainment Weekly, critic-at-large Ken Tucker wrote that \"Like 'Monk' and 'Psych' and 'The Mentalist,' 'Lie' offers us an eccentric who's brought in by law enforcement to solve crimes.\" Though he gave the show a B-minus, Tucker praised Roth for \"resist[ing] the cuddly\/cranky.\" The show has quickly found its fan base, though ratings have declined slightly since the show was put in its 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot, ahead of \"American Idol.\" (The first five episodes aired after \"Idol.\") \"I got stopped because one of my lights was out and I was coming back from work and the guy, the cop that stopped me said 'Oh, we watch your show' and they seemed to enjoy it,\" said Roth. \"ER\" alum Mekhi Phifer is set to join the cast as an FBI agent for two episodes this season, starting Thursday. \"I'm here to kick ass and take names, you know. So it's kind of different,\" Phifer said. \"It's fun, you know. Obviously, I carry a gun and I'm in law enforcement rather than being a doctor.\" Phifer particularly likes acting in intense scenes with Roth. \"I have my own way of doing it,\" he said. \"It's a little different than the way Tim does it. It's a lot of fun, and we're having a great time.\" And will time spent on the show help Phifer better detect when people are lying to him in real life? \"It's going to take a few more episodes, but I'm pretty perceptive,\" he said. Roth, however, makes no claims of special powers -- at least when he's away from the set. \"I try not to know too much, because it actually is quite extraordinary,\" he says. \"When you watch politicians on TV, you can use the stuff that Paul does to see if they're lying or not. I try not to take it home.\"","highlights":"British actor Tim Roth stars in the hit Fox series \"Lie to Me\"\nActor best known for his appearances in Quentin Tarantino films .\nRoth plays a body language expert who can detect liars .\n\"ER\" alum Mekhi Phifer is set to join the cast .","id":"518c0b015bc3fbf811cff72b1022ffa044f1320d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres will join the judges' panel on \"American Idol\" for the show's ninth season beginning in 2010, a Fox spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres brings years of experience in front of a live audience to her role. \"I'm thrilled to be the new judge on American Idol,\" DeGeneres said Wednesday. \"I've watched since the beginning, and I've always been a huge fan. So getting this job is a dream come true, and think of all the money I'll save from not having to text in my vote.\" The popular comedian and entertainer will fill a seat left vacant by Paula Abdul, who announced she was leaving the show in August after eight seasons. Was DeGeneres the right replacement? DeGeneres will sit alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi after auditions are completed for the popular talent show, which starts in January. Until then, guest judges including Mary J. Blige, Kristin Chenoweth, Joe Jonas and Neil Patrick Harris will fill the empty slot, Fox said. Watch Jackson discuss what DeGeneres brings to the show \u00bb . \"We are thrilled to have Ellen DeGeneres join the \"American Idol\" judges' table this season. She is truly one of America's funniest people and a fantastic performer who understands what it's like to stand up in front of audiences and entertain them every day,\" said Mike Darnell, president of Alternative Entertainment for Fox. \"We feel that her vast entertainment experience, combined with her quick wit and passion for music, will add a fresh new energy to the show.\" DeGeneres brings years of experience in front of a live audience as the host of \"The Ellen DeGeneres Show,\" now in its seventh season, and the host of the 79th Annual Academy Awards. In her new role, the Emmy Award-winning talk show host faces the task of winning over Abdul's supporters, who lamented that her departure would irreparably alter the show. The singer-dancer turned \"Idol\" judge was known for her positive comments to the singers participating in the shows. She was also known for her on-camera run-ins with Cowell and other judges in the show. \"With sadness in my heart, I've decided not to return to Idol. I'll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day 1 become an international phenomenon,\" a statement on Abdul's verified Twitter account said last month.","highlights":"The popular talk show host will fill seat on judges' panel left empty by Paula Abdul .\nDeGeneres will will join the judges' panel after the auditions, which begin in January .\n\"Think of all the money I'll save from not having to text in my vote,\" DeGeneres says .","id":"f91a4b542ade9b6dbbadceafe24c7ed9200c8aa4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been asked to investigate whether Panama tortured an Ecuadorian citizen who was being held as an illegal immigrant, an official hemispheric human rights organization said. Jesus Tranquilino Velez Loor was arrested November 11, 2002, and deported to Ecuador on September 10, 2003. During that time, he was held without receiving procedural guarantees, the right to be heard and the right to present a defense, said the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. \"The case also involves the lack of investigation of complaints of torture presented by Mr. Velez Loor before the Panamanian authorities, as well as the inhumane conditions of detention under which he was held in several Panamanian penitentiaries,\" the human rights commission said in a release Tuesday. The human rights panel, which is part of the 35-nation Organization of American States, said it referred the case to the court last week because Panama did not adopt sufficient measures to address issues raised in a previous commission report. Velez Loor \"was sentenced to a prison term for having repeatedly entered Panama illegally. ... Panamanian law provides that foreign nationals, who repeatedly enter Panama, without the necessary papers, will be imprisoned for two years and then deported,\" Panama said in a 2006 report. Velez Loor admitted he had gone into Panama without proper papers or visas. The commission said it received an e-mailed complaint from Velez Loor on February 10, 2004, \"in which he claims to have undergone torture, forced isolation, and mistreatment at the hands of Panamanian police officers at two Panamanian detention centers without being given the opportunity to defend himself, without the benefit of any court of law, without being allowed to make a telephone call and while being deprived of all medical care.\" Panama denied those allegations in the 2006 human rights commission report. Officials at the Panamanian embassy in Washington did not return a telephone request Tuesday from CNN for comment on the latest development. The human rights commission consists of seven members who act in a personal capacity, without representing any country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.","highlights":"Commission says it received complaint from Velez Loor in 2004 of alleged torture .\nVelez Loor sentenced to prison term for illegal entry into Panama, Panama says .\nOfficials at Panamanian embassy in Washington did not return request for comment .","id":"b77e4cc2837a62103cf7649fbee0ae695e2311c2"} -{"article":"BROOKLYN, New York (CNN) -- Every Friday evening, the Nunez family sits down to a traditional religious dinner. Moshe Nunez and his family moved to Crown Heights, a New York neighborhood with thousands of Hasidic Jews. Like most families in their Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, their Jewish Sabbath meal includes blessings over the wine and bread, the company of family and friends and excellent food. But for the Nunez family, the Sabbath table would not be complete without salsa picada and jalapeno dip. Moshe Nunez, an information technology consultant and motivational speaker, was born to a Mexican father and American mother and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. His wife, ChanaLeah, grew up in Panama, the daughter of a Salvadoran mother and American-born father. \"Our home is a Latin American home,\" Nunez says. \"We bring into our home a mixture of the American and Latin culture, and that's reflected in the way we eat. We also enjoy hosting guests, so it's a very Hispanic thing, and a Jewish thing.\" The couple and their two children moved to Brooklyn's Crown Heights area about five years ago so their son, Michael, 17, and daughter, Simcha, 18, could have \"the best Jewish education available,\" Nunez says. Crown Heights is the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidism that is itself a form of Orthodox Judaism. Among the thousands of Hasidic families in the neighborhood, a significant number are also Latinos, Nunez says. \"There are a lot of Latin American Jews here,\" Nunez says. \"Some of them have moved from countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, where there's political unrest. We make a life here, settle down and become part of the fabric of American society, but we still don't lose our roots.\" Join the conversation: How has America changed Latinos? Many non-Jewish Latinos are surprised to see Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn who speak Spanish, carry on their Hispanic traditions and even keep up with soccer scores from their home countries, Nunez says. Although Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez were raised in Christian homes, they believe that Moshe's family name is proof that his ancestors are Marranos -- Jews who were forced to denounce or abandon their faith centuries ago in Europe. Moshe Nunez began studying his family genealogy about 13 years ago, while the family was living in Atlanta, Georgia. He met Lorraine Nunez, a woman raised as a Christian who believed she was a direct descendant of Samuel Nunez, a Portuguese physician who fled Europe in the early 1700s to help start one of the oldest Jewish synagogues in the United States, Congregation Mikve Israel in Savannah, Georgia. Like other Marranos living in Europe, Samuel Nunez pretended to be Catholic and practiced Judaism in secret, according to Chabad.org, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's Web site. Meeting Lorraine Nunez inspired Moshe Nunez -- who was still going by his Christian name, Marco -- to further explore his own genealogy. ChanaLeah -- who was going by her Christian name, Jacqueline -- had already known that her grandfather, a well-known army colonel in El Salvador, was Jewish. Like many Jews of his time, he hid his Judaism and married a non-Jewish woman. Marco and Jacqueline believed that their descendants were also Marranos from Spain and Portugal who had to hide their Judaism for fear of persecution. \"The Nunez family started as a Jewish name,\" Moshe Nunez says. \"During the Inquisition they were forced to convert or practice their faith in secret. Most of the Nunez family... like mine assimilated and lost their Judaism.\" Watch Nunez talk about his life in Crown Heights \u00bb . While researching his genealogy, Moshe Nunez also began to study the Bible more closely, including the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. \"When I began studying the Torah, I saw that the Sabbath was on Saturday and not Sunday,\" he says. \"That opened [a] Pandora's Box,\" he says, figuring that \"if the Jews had the Sabbath right, maybe they have other stuff right, too.\" Around that time, the Nunez family relocated to Milan, Italy, for Nunez' work as a consultant. Marco and Jacqueline -- who changed their names to the Hebrew Moshe and ChanaLeah while in Italy -- continued their Judaic studies under the tutelage of Orthodox rabbis and decided to undergo an Orthodox conversion to Judaism. \"When I got to Italy and continued to research our family name and studied the Torah, I decided we were going to live a Jewish life,\" Nunez says. The Jewish community in Milan welcomed the family \"with open arms,\" Moshe said. \"The rabbi said to me, 'Moshe, you are Jewish, you were always Jewish.'\" Moshe says he and ChanaLeah \"took every step together,\" going through a formal conversion process. As part of the process Moshe and his son had ritual circumcisions. (They had both been circumcised at birth.) The final step was for the family to appear before a Beit Din, or religious council, to approve the conversion. \"We decided we had to make our full return to Judaism, and we had such good mazal (luck) because the rabbis made it relatively easy. They saw that we were serious people that had studied the religion,\" Nunez says. The Nunez family's story is not out of the ordinary, says Rabbi Shea Rubenstein, an Argentine rabbi who leads the Jewish Latin American Connection at The Shul in Surfside, Florida. \"We have a very vibrant synagogue, and a very large percentage happen to be from Spanish background from countries such as Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and Cuba,\" the rabbi says. Rubenstein says that quite a few non-Jewish Hispanics come to The Shul to learn more about Judaism, and while they may not be able to prove they are Jewish, they believe they are descendants of Jews and seek to reconnect with their Jewish roots. If a person wants to practice Judaism but cannot verify their Jewish roots, Rubenstein recommends they go through a formal conversion as the Nunez family did. \"It's difficult to verify because there's some 400 or 500 years of history that people cannot trace, especially since Judaism is passed through the mother and the last name reflects that of the father,\" Rubenstein says. Inspired by their experiences, Moshe and ChanaLeah -- both songwriters and musicians -- wrote a song called \"Jews of Spain,\" with lyrics in Spanish, English and Hebrew. Nunez recorded the song, part of the album \"Kol Haneshema (Every Soul).\" Aside from his work as a consultant and musician, Nunez leads seminars, conducts a weekly program called Quality Life Now at the Empire State Building and teaches weekly Webinars from his Brooklyn home. His seminars, taught in both Spanish and English, focus on seven core values found in the Old Testament. The seven values are often referred to as the Noahide Laws. According to the Bible, the laws were given from God to Noah to serve as a moral code for all humankind. \"I've taken the seven Noahide Laws and I teach them as universal core values, so everyday people can apply them to their lifestyle,\" Nunez says. He says he hopes to share his teachings with all of mankind, regardless of religion, to help them lead a more meaningful life. \"Sharing the knowledge of Torah to the world through education, songs and acts of kindness will help ensure that what happened to the Marranos during the Inquisition will never happen again.\"","highlights":"Moshe and ChanaLeah Nunez are Latino Jews who were raised in Christian homes .\nNunez believes he is a decendant of Jews who left oppression in medieval Europe .\nHe and his wife converted to Judaism and moved to a Hasidic New York area .\nThe couple and their children blend Latino and Jewish culture in their lives .","id":"6c6fe74303e45c7b2b0c87cc43d16a48dca57af8"} -{"article":"PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- The president of Athletics South Africa has admitted that he lied about gender tests on runner Caster Semenya before her gold-medal win at the World Athletics Championships last month. Caster Semenya celebrates her gold at the world championships in Berlin. The national sports body has always denied that it agreed to the tests before the race in Berlin, Germany -- an event that kicked off international controversy over the 18-year-old Semenya's gender. But after South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper printed e-mails on Friday showing that ASA President Leonard Chuene was aware of the tests, he held a news conference to apologize. \"I now realize that it was an error of judgment and I would like to apologize unconditionally,\" Chuene said on Saturday, according to South Africa's SAPA news agency. After receiving the results of the tests, the South Africa team doctor requested the 18-year-old Semenya be withdrawn from the 800-meter race she ended up winning, Chuene said. But Chuene said he refused to do it because the sport's international governing body did not request withdrawal. He also said withdrawing Semenya might have looked bad. \"If we did not let her run, we would be confirming that she is not normal,\" Chuene told the news conference in the capital, Pretoria. The e-mails printed by the Mail & Guardian are an exchange between team doctor Harold Adams and ASA General Manager Molatelo Malehopo, with Chuene copied in. \"After thinking about the current confidential matter I would suggest that we make the following decisions,\" Adams wrote on August 5, more than a week before the Berlin race. \"1. We get a (gynecological) opinion and take it to Berlin. 2. We do nothing and I will handle these issues if they come up in Berlin. Please think and get back to me ASAP.\" An e-mail response from Malehopo to Adams, sent the same day, says: \"I will suggest that you go ahead with the necessary tests that the IAAF might need.\" The controversy over Semenya erupted after she crushed her rivals in the 800 meters and secured victory in one minute, 55.45 seconds -- the best women's time in the world this year. Semenya's masculine build and dominant performance fueled existing questions about her gender, and the International Association of Athletics Federations -- which oversees the sport worldwide -- ordered tests on her. Reports in two newspapers last week said the results of the tests showed Semenya has both male and female characteristics. The IAAF declined to confirm those reports and said a decision in the case would come in late November. The IAAF said it sought tests on Semenya's gender before the Berlin championships because questions had been raised after her winning performance at the African junior championships in July. South Africans have rallied behind Semenya, angrily dismissing reports about her gender. Semenya's relatives and the South Africa team manager have maintained she is female. This week, South Africa's minister for women, children and people with disabilities wrote to the United Nations to complain that Semenya had not been treated in line with international protocols on gender and quality. Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya sent a letter to the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women, urging it to investigate, SAPA reported. \"The questioning of her gender is based on a stereotypic view of the physical features and abilities attributable to women,\" she wrote in the letter, according to SAPA. \"Such stereotypes demonstrate the extent of patriarchy within the world's sporting community.\" The process of gender verification has undergone big changes since it was first introduced for international competition in the 1960s, the IAAF said. The first mechanism involved \"rather crude and perhaps humiliating physical examinations,\" which soon gave way to mouth swabs to collect chromosomes. There were too many uncertainties with mouth swabs, so the IAAF abandoned them in 1991 and the International Olympic Committee discontinued them in 2000. A proper test has yet to be found, the IAAF said, and the current tests are considered a good interim solution.","highlights":"President of Athletics South Africa admits that he lied about gender tests .\nNational sports body had denied it agreed to tests on runner before Berlin race .\nLeonard Chuene apologizes in aftermath of controversy over Caster Semenya .\nE-mails reveal that team doctor had advised not allowing her to compete .","id":"fdf0dd42384f9cd9d5872db731145e1365447cb4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The solution to ending an abusive relationship seems simple: Walk out the door. But for an abused woman, leaving can be a confusing process, complex at every step, said a newly published article in an University of Illinois journal. Co-author and graduate student Lyndal Khaw told CNN that abused women actually go through a five-step process of leaving that involves denial, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. And the transition from one step to another is hardly seamless, Khaw said. \"Some women can skip stages, some repeat a cycle of going back and forth to other steps and others go through the motions -- going from one stage to another\", she said. In their study, Khaw and co-author Jennifer Hardesty, an assistant professor of human and community development, applied their model to 25 abused women. The report was published recently in the Journal of Family Theory and Review. Khaw said that moving from step to step can put a strain on those who are being supportive to an abused woman because they can have a hard time understanding why she returns or refuses to leave. Hardesty said that physically leaving a relationship entails more than a woman's decision to embrace change and prioritizing her own safety. The abuser can affect her decisions, as can children, who can motivate her to return to the relationship, Hardesty said. Even though a woman may return to the abuser at some point, practitioners and women themselves need to understand that every time the woman disengages she gains additional resources and support, Hardesty said. \"So next time she is contemplating and preparing she'll be stronger and perhaps more likely to stay out of that relationship,\" she said. Khaw said service providers, family members and other sources of support need to recognize the stages of what can be a lengthy -- and risky -- process. \"When trying to leave, abusers may get more violent,\" Khaw said. Recognition of the five-step process can be helpful to abused women, Hardesty said. \"Not all women are ready to leave, but recognizing it's a process can be empowering,\" she said.","highlights":"Authors say leaving abuse can be a confusing process, complex at every step .\nProcess includes denial, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance .\n\"Not all women are ready to leave,\" says co-author Jennifer Hardesty .","id":"f909f77ec37c7fd448e34247f546aa5b8793cad5"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Valerie Jarrett does not like to talk about herself. I know this because we've sat down on numerous occasions for interviews, going back to the early days of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. But this one was perhaps the most challenging because the focus was on her. She is fiercely loyal to Obama, as one of his closest friends. But she also advises him as president, with the title of Senior Adviser and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison. The ultimate insider does not spill the beans. But doing a series on the power players inside the White House would not be complete without looking at Jarrett's role. She has called her relationship with the president a \"mind meld.\" \"We're good friends who have known each other for a long time,\" Jarrett says. \"Eighteen years, you get a pretty good sense of him.\" Her first sense of him came in 1991 when Obama was a young law professor in Chicago, Illinois. Jarrett was interviewing his fianc\u00e9e, the future first lady, Michelle Robinson, for a job in Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's office. The protective partner, Obama, was making sure Jarrett was on the up and up. Jarrett first explained the scene when I interviewed her in May 2008. \"They sat next to each other and when she was speaking he would just look at her with this adoring look,\"Jarrett said with a laugh, \"but he was really tough on me in the nicest possible way.\" The three became fast friends. Now Obama says he runs every important decision by Jarrett, trusts her completely and considers her family. When I bring this to her attention she accepts her role humbly. \"Well, I hope he would trust me the way any close friend does. He knows I have his best interest at heart and that I understand, because I'm part of the administration, the myriad of challenges he faces,\" Jarrett says. \"So I hope he views me a sounding board, someone who's going to be honest, direct and candid with him at all times.\" She laughs when I suggest perhaps she is his consigliere. \"You can tell I'm uncomfortable with this,\" she says when I try to get her to focus more on her role. She does not like to be singled out from the rest of the White House team. Instead she paints a picture of what it would be like if I were in an Oval Office meeting with the president. \"When everyone's done talking, if there've been a couple of people who've been quiet, he'll say, 'Well, Suzanne, what do you think of this issue?' \" Jarrett says. She describes his style in running the meetings as \"accommodating.\" \"He reads people very well. He's extraordinarily perceptive. He can tell from the body language if someone is uncomfortable with something,\" Jarrett says. But she can also read the president's body language when he's heard enough talk. \"He's not moody, but you can tell when he's ready for a conversation to end,\" Jarrett says. \"He enjoys making sure there is robust debate, but when he's finished with debate he's finished. He's ready to move on. So I can detect when enough is enough, let's bring in the next issue.\" Jarrett says newcomers to the administration have pulled her aside to get her take on how things were going. \"Particularly early on, people who didn't know the president as well as I did would come to me after a meeting and say 'What did he really mean? I know he said this, but what is he really thinking?' and I took such delight in being able to say he meant exactly what he said. That's who he is.\" It's the intangibles that Jarrett sometimes brings to the table. \"People are always looking for the hidden intent, the body language, and he is about as straight a shooter as you're going to ever come across. So I think part of what I do is go around and give people some comfort to really trust what he said. He meant exactly what he said. You can take him at face value.\" Jarrett says the president does not make deals after his meetings are done. People don't trail him through the back door trying to change his mind. \"That's just not the way he operates,\" Jarrett says. \"He likes to hear from everybody at the same time. Then he makes a decision.\" Jarrett's job includes acting as a liaison to the business community and conducting outreach to African-American groups. But it's her role as confidante to the president that makes her the ultimate insider. Jarrett sits in on Obama's daily briefings in the morning that deal with national security and the economy. She also attends policy meetings regarding the president's agenda on health care, energy and education. She facilitates and hosts small groups of CEOs to have lunch with Obama. And she heads the Office of Public Engagement as the president's contact with outside groups. Jarrett says she also spends \"a good deal of time\" with Michelle Obama both personally and professionally. Part of her portfolio is working closely with the first lady's team, \"making sure there's seamless interaction between the East and West Wings.\" Jarrett occupies the office previously used by Karl Rove and former first lady Hillary Clinton. She is often the only woman in the room in briefings with the president. But she dismisses talk of tension with \"the boys,\" as some of the male power players are referred to in the White House. \"We really do pull together as a team,\" Jarrett says. While Jarrett's ability to freelance as the president's senior adviser has rankled some, Jarrett says being inside the circle of power is a \"warm\" and \"inclusive\" environment. As for Obama's all-male pickup basketball games, Jarrett says that's not where the real power resides. \"I think what's really important is who does the president surround himself with and give substantial responsibilities to.\" Jarrett's got plenty of responsibility. Her challenge is separating her friendship with the president from her job. Often she takes her cues from where she stands. \"If we're in the Oval Office, I call him \"Mr. President.\" It's very formal. I think it's appropriate. It's not just deferential to him but to the office,\" Jarrett says. \"I really try to compartmentalize our friendship and what my role is outside the office, and my role as senior adviser.\" When I ask her if that's a difficult thing to do, requiring her to flip a switch, she says \"no.\" She says when she's in the Oval Office, they're all about business, outside, \"everything but business.\" \"The one thing I don't do is try to mix the two. I don't try to be his friend when we're having a business conversation and I try not to burden him with office issues when trying to have downtime,\" Jarrett says. When they're hanging out as friends, it's often indulging in their favorite pastime. \"We like to eat,\" Jarrett says with a hearty laugh. \"He's a healthy eater. I'm not. We have a lot of wonderful conversations around the dinner table -- something we've always enjoyed.\" But now that dinner table is in the White House. The movies they enjoy watching, they now take in at the White House movie theater. But despite that, Jarrett insists her longtime friend is the same. She says what she finds \"so appealing\" is he's still \"grounded.\" \"He has a very good sense of self, he's steady. His temperament is very predictable,\" she says. A year after Obama captured the White House, Jarrett is still in awe. \"Not a day goes by I don't pinch myself and treasure this experience and opportunity to serve this president who also happens to be my friend.\"","highlights":"Jarrett has known Barack and Michelle Obama for 18 years .\nShe's now a senior adviser in the Obama White House .\nObama says he runs every important decision by Jarrett .\nShe says she tries to keep business role, friendship separate .","id":"3c20137f3f7403ce3ef18ec543f12cfe030b711b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The young girl whispered in a hushed tone. She looked down as she spoke, only glancing up from her dark round eyes every now and then. She wanted to tell more, but she was too ashamed. She was just 9 years old when, she says, Congolese soldiers gang-raped her on her way to school. The young girl on the right says she was raped by Congolese soldiers. She was just 9 when it happened. \"These two soldiers nabbed her, put a bag over her head and pulled her into the bushes. She explains it as, 'They got me,' \" says Sherrlyn Borkgren, who spent a month in the Democratic Republic of the Congo late last year. Borkgren, a wedding photographer and freelance journalist, traveled to the war-torn region of eastern Congo after being awarded the ShootQ Grant, a $10,000 award to free photographers from everyday life to pursue a project that raises awareness of an important global issue. Borkgren pauses when she speaks of meeting the girl. \"She was obviously very traumatized to repeat this out loud, and I don't think she had repeated it to anyone.\" The young girl lied to her about her age when they first spoke. \"She said she was 15 when she was raped,\" Borkgren says. \"I figured she probably wanted to say she was 15 because it's more acceptable than to say, 'I was 9 when they raped me.' \" The United Nations estimates 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Congo over the last 12 years, when war broke out with Rwanda and Uganda backing Congolese rebels seeking to oust then-Congo President Laurent Kabila. Rape became a weapon of war, aid groups say. \"It is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or girl,\" says Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 10 years focusing on Congo. \"These are often soldiers and combatants deliberately targeting women and raping them as a strategy of war, either to punish a community, to terrorize a community or to humiliate them.\" Most times, the women are raped by at least two perpetrators. \"Sometimes, that is done in front of the family, in front of the children,\" Van Woudenberg says. She sighs, \"What causes men to rape -- I wish I had an answer to that.\" Against this backdrop, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of the world's strongest voices for women's rights, traveled to Congo as part of her whirlwind trip to Africa. Watch Clinton detail expectations for Africa \u00bb . Clinton arrived in Goma in eastern Congo Tuesday where she is to meet with rape victims during her visit. \"I hope that here in the [Congo] there will be a concerted effort to demand justice for women who are violently attacked, and to make sure that their attackers are punished,\" Clinton said Monday after a tour of a Kinshasa hospital. Human rights groups are eager to see if Clinton pressures Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the son of Laurent Kabila, to do more to pursue charges against top army commanders accused of rape. \"Soldiers have committed gang rapes, rapes leading to injury and death, and abductions of girls and women,\" a report released last month by Human Rights Watch says. \"Their crimes are serious violations of international humanitarian law. Commanders have frequently failed to stop sexual violence and may themselves be guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity as a consequence.\" Van Woudenberg says punishment, unfortunately, is all too rare for sex crimes. \"If you rape, you get away with it,\" she says. According to the United Nations, there were 15,996 new cases of sexual violence registered throughout Congo in 2008. Nearly two out of every three rapes were carried out against children, most of them adolescent girls, the Human Rights Watch report says. A paltry 27 soldiers were convicted in military courts last year. Under the current court system, the military handles accusations of rape against its soldiers -- something aid groups say must be changed for real accountability. Since January of this year, aid organizations say there's been a surge of violence against civilians as a result of Congolese operations against Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are believed to have participated in 1994's Rwandan genocide. The fighting has left more than 1.8 million people displaced in the volatile region, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Aid groups have started to see an uptick of rapes of men this year, although women and girls remain the primary targets. \"The brutality has increased on a huge scale,\" Van Woudenberg says. She says she interviewed one 15-year-old girl who was held in a hole for five months and gang-raped nearly every day. She had gone out shopping when soldiers approached. \"They asked me to take off my clothes, and I did. There wasn't much I could do,\" the girl told her. \"They took me into the bush. I stayed for five months with these people, and when I came back, I was five months pregnant.\" Van Woudenberg adds, \"Gosh, the brutality against the women and girls is unimaginable.\" Congo has taken some measures to try to curb the sexual violence. In 2006, its parliament passed a law criminalizing rape, with penalties ranging from five to 20 years. Penalties are doubled under certain circumstances, including gang-rape and if the perpetrator is a public official. Kabila's wife, Olive Lemba Kabila, has launched a public campaign speaking out against rapes of the nation's women and girls. The army has also started a zero-tolerance campaign in which commanders have emphasized to troops that they must respect human rights and protect civilians from harm, according to the U.N. In May, the United Nations handed over the names of five top military officers accused of rape. Two of the senior officers are now detained in the capital of Kinshasa and the three others must report to authorities under close observation. \"It's expected that a trial could happen soon,\" said U.N. spokesman Yves Sorokobi. \"It certainly is a big development. ... It's important. It's significant.\" Still more must be done, aid groups say, starting with the establishment of a special court made up of Congolese and international judges and prosecutors to investigate rape allegations. Borkgren, the photographer from Eugene, Oregon, says she went to the Congo after having a dream in which two women yelled at her to \"come over here.\" She won the grant and traveled there for four weeks, beginning in November of last year. She hitchhiked her way around the country, something she now admits was \"a little bit stupid.\" She says she once came face-to-face with soldiers when she was shopping at a market by herself. One of the men said he wanted to \"take me up to his camp.\" She still can't shake the looks of the local women who were there. \"That was interesting,\" she says. \"When the soldiers were harassing me, the women looked ashamed of the soldiers. And when they saw me tell them, 'No, go away,' the women looked at me quite surprised.\" Eventually, she found the girl who touched her heart -- \"the great, great kid.\" Borkgren first spoke with her father, who was initially reluctant to introduce her to his daughter. He explained that the family had gone to authorities, only to be ignored. Borkgren says that when she met the girl, they got along instantly. At times, the young child didn't know how to describe what happened. \"She would say, 'I don't understand what it is, and I don't know what words to use.' \" \"It just turned my heart to think that here's this little girl who doesn't even have the words to describe what happened to her, and has to live her life having had this violence put upon her. Just this thoughtless violence that she didn't deserve or ask for. It's so inhumane.\" Her images capture a glimpse into that world, of savagery and lost innocence. The soldiers and rebels carrying out the rapes, she says, are misguided people who need help. Caught in the middle are the innocents: women, girls and fathers struggling to get justice.","highlights":"UN: 200,000 women, girls raped in Democratic Republic of Congo in last 12 years .\nPhotographer Sherrlyn Borkgren met a girl who detailed being raped by soldiers .\n\"Two soldiers nabbed her, put a bag over her head and pulled her into the bushes\"\nAid worker: Congo \"is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or girl\"","id":"6351e66d90505c85abd4e7b3eda8677aeaeeede4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The global economic crisis has caused a spike in world hunger that has left more than a billion undernourished, United Nations agencies said in a new report. The report says the stabilization of financial markets has meant less investment in agriculture, food distribution. \"It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry,\" said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme. \"At a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory.\" The report by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization was released Wednesday, ahead of World Food Day on Friday. Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries, according to the report. An estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific. An additional 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa while 95 million come from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Near East and North Africa. The final 15 million live in developed nations. Should developed economies be doing more to eradicate hunger, poverty? The number of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold and governments pumped resources into stabilizing financial markets. The move meant smaller investments in agriculture and food distribution. \"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis, and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty,\" said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO. \"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable.\" The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises. \"We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs -- we just need the resources and the international commitment to do the job,\" Sheeran said.","highlights":"World Food Programme: One in six of world's population is now going hungry .\nNearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries .\nNumber of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold, report says .\nCalls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger .","id":"6391fb851f67f0ac423854b841f4f17d9d991e05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The reaction to Kanye West's hijacking of the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards came quickly and unequivocally. Kanye West took the microphone from Taylor Swift during her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Celebrities and fans alike expressed their disapproval of West interrupting Swift's win for Best Female Video to tout his appreciation of nominee Beyonce. \"Taylor, I'm really happy for you,\" West said after grabbing the microphone from a clearly stunned Swift. \"I'll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!\" Elliott Wilson, founder and chief executive officer of Rap Radar, sat in front of members of West's entourage at the live Sunday night awards show and said the mood quickly turned from one of surprised amusement to anger. Watch West grab the microphone from Swift \u00bb . \"At first, people weren't sure if it was kind of like a gag,\" Wilson said. \"You could feel everybody being nervous and not knowing if it was a prank or something. Then people started booing him really loud.\" Wilson said he believes that West -- who he said bounded on stage from his seat in the front row near Beyonce -- intended to have his say before allowing Swift to continue but said the rapper became angered by the crowd response in a moment that wasn't captured by the MTV cameras. \"The reaction to his tantrum was so strong ... and what happened was, he gave everybody the finger,\" Wilson said. Stars taking to Twitter returned the sentiment with some harsh words for the sometimes mercurial rap star. Singer Pink tweeted, \"Kanye West is the biggest piece of [expletive] on earth. Quote me,\" and Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte tweeted, \"All i'm saying is Taylor Swift is a young chic and you just walk up and grab the mic.\" Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said via Twitter that \"Taylor Swift deserved that award, damnit. It is what THE PEOPLE voted! My heart broke for her, she looked so sad at the end of that moment.\" Singer Katy Perry weighed in with \"F--- u Kanye. It's like you stepped on a kitten.\" VMA nominee Kelly Clarkson took to her blog to publish an open letter to West. \"What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough??\" she asked. On Monday, \"Taylor Swift,\" \"VMAs,\" \"Kanye's\" and \"Beyonce\" were top trending topics on Twitter. Watch Swift respond to what happened \u00bb . Wilson, a noted hip-hop journalist, said there was a great deal of tension inside the event Sunday night before West and his girlfriend, model Amber Rose, left the show. \"It was almost like wrestling, when the good guy turns bad and the crowd turns on him,\" Wilson said. \"Every time his name was mentioned, people booed.\" Wilson said he believes that alcohol may have played a part in West's actions, given that the rapper appeared both on the red carpet and inside the arena with a bottle of cognac. Wilson added that West is well known for such behavior. He appeared uninvited onstage at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, walked out of the 2004 American Music Awards after losing in the Best New Artist category and reportedly threw a backstage tantrum at the 2007 VMAs because he did not perform on the main stage. \"I think Kanye came in to be the bad boy, but he obviously had an emotional spaz moment because he is cool\" with Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z, Wilson said. \"I think the alcohol blurred his judgment.\" Wilson said attendees at the awards show were allowed to have drinks at their seats. Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence.com, said West may have gone too far with his antics this time. \"I think that it was not Kanye's place to speak for Beyonce or to ruin Taylor Swift's moment,\" Wilbekin said. \"It's OK for Kanye to rattle off about himself, but I think he crossed the line when he decided to speak for other people.\" Though West is known for having a healthy ego, Wilbekin said, his actions may be damaging the very legacy the rapper claims to want to leave. \"He's talked about wanting to be Elvis; he's talked about wanting to be the new king of pop,\" Wilbekin said. \"It's almost like he's overshadowing himself by getting in his own way with his mouth.\" West apologized to Swift via his blog. As for Swift, the young singer gave her acceptance speech after Beyonce graciously invited her onstage during her win for Video of the Year. West's disruption wasn't the only one the evening offered, Wilson said. During a performance by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, rapper Lil Mama rushed the stage. Wilson said that from his vantage point in the audience, the female rapper, who also serves as a judge on MTV's \"America's Best Dance Crew,\" was neither expected nor wanted as part of the performance. iReport: Is civility dead? The stars' behavior might have long-lasting consequences, Wilson added. \"I wouldn't be surprised if MTV banned alcohol [at the event] next year,\" he said.","highlights":"Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance speech .\nCelebs take to Twitter and blogs to express outrage .\nWest is well-known for shocking behavior .\nVMA attendee: \"Every time his name was mentioned, people booed\"","id":"4cf86e5e2128a1b22dfc8782457cf8acee2cee76"} -{"article":"MUTARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A Zimbabwean court ordered a senior opposition politician back to jail Wednesday to await his trial, set to begin next week. Roy Bennett talks to the press in March 2009, a few moments after being released on bail. \"I commit the accused to prison,\" Magistrate Lucy Mungwari said as she announced the ruling in Roy Bennett's case to a packed courtroom in Mutare, about 185 miles southeast of the capital, Harare. Bennett, a Movement for Democratic Change politician and an ardent critic of President Robert Mugabe's policies, was arrested on February 13 -- just before he was to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister in the new power-sharing government. He faces charges of possessing weapons for sabotage, banditry and terrorism. Initially he had been charged with treason. Immediately after the ruling, prison guards whisked away a visibly shocked Bennett, clad in khaki trousers, brown shoes and a checked shirt. \"We are really worried by this development,\" said Bennett's lawyer, Trust Maanda. \"We are trying all possibilities to have him released. We will be at the high court this evening to seek his liberty.\" State prosecutor Chris Mutangadura said the development was a \"natural effect of the law.\" \"It is procedural,\" Mutangadura said. \"He had to be indicted to the high court, and that means he loses his liberty until the trial resumes.\" \"If there is any defect in the process, the accused should raise it with the high court,\" said the magistrate, Mungwari. A spokesman for Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the premier has tried to meet with Mugabe since hearing that Bennett was sent back to jail. Tsvangirai has not been granted access by Mugabe's employees, said spokesman James Maridadi. \"The prime minister has suspended the council of ministers' meeting he chairs on Thursdays,\" Maridadi said. \"... He is meeting his party leadership first thing on Thursday.\" The arrest of Bennett, a white coffee grower whose property was expropriated under the country's controversial land reform laws, came as other ministers where being sworn into the coalition government formed by Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The action almost derailed the power-sharing deal, which had been brokered by the regional Southern African Development Community after a hotly disputed election won by Mugabe last year. Bennett spent about a month in jail before the country's Supreme Court ordered him released on bail in March. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa called Wednesday's ruling \"a ridiculous and extraordinary development.\" He said it was a \"serious abuse of the law, which will affect the coalition government,\" and added, \"We are not going to sit and watch this abuse go on.\"","highlights":"Bennett is a Movement for Democratic Change politician .\nHe is arrested before he was to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister .\nHe faces charges of possessing weapons for sabotage, banditry and terrorism .\nPM is trying to meet with President Mugabe about the latest development .","id":"fd5659159f6720d61be41de20423a08419bd2809"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Sudanese journalist could receive 40 lashings after she was caught wearing trousers. Lubna al-Hussein was arrested with 18 other women this month for wearing indecent clothes. A Sudanese court began hearing Lubna al-Hussein's case Wednesday. It will continue the hearing August 4. At the time of her arrest, she was wearing pants, a blouse and a hijab, she said. Police accused her of wearing trousers that were too tight and alleged that her blouse was too transparent, al-Hussein said. Al-Hussein, who works for a newspaper and the media department of the United Nations mission in Sudan, said she did nothing wrong. She has been released to her home in Khartoum. The crime of wearing indecent attire has only one punishment under Sudanese law, a 40-stroke public flogging, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. \"This case is the official retaliation against the reporter for her writings criticizing the Sudanese regime and extremists,\" the organization said in a statement. Al-Hussein was arrested along with 18 others July 3 after Sudan's \"discipline police\" accused the women of wearing indecent clothes, al-Hussein said. Six were released, and 10 received the 40 lashes, she said. Al-Hussein and two others fought the charges and hired attorneys, she said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke out against the decision Wednesday, saying he was \"deeply concerned\" and would take every effort to protect his staff member. \"The flogging is against the international human rights standards,\" he said. \"I call on all parties to live up to their obligations under all relevant international instruments.\" CNN's Umaro Djau, Talia Kayali and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lubna al-Hussein's case is scheduled to continue August 4 .\nAl-Hussein, 18 others were rounded up this month for wearing indecent clothes .\nTen arrestees have received 40 lashes, al-Hussein says .\nAl-Hussein was told her pants were too tight, her blouse too transparent .","id":"7c14be2f9588525038d4c6ab6fe3689527a33976"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Had this custody drama played out in the United States, Christopher Savoie might be considered a hero -- snatching his two little children back from an ex-wife who defied the law and ran off with them. A Tennessee court awarded Christopher Savoie custody of his son, Isaac, and daughter, Rebecca. But this story unfolds 7,000 miles away in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, where the U.S. legal system holds no sway. And here, Savoie sits in jail, charged with the abduction of minors. And his Japanese ex-wife -- a fugitive in the United States for taking his children from Tennessee -- is considered the victim. \"Japan is an important partner and friend of the U.S., but on this issue, our points of view differ,\" the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Tuesday. \"Our two nations approach divorce and child-rearing differently. Parental child abduction is not considered a crime in Japan.\" The story begins in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee, with the January divorce of Savoie from his first wife, Noriko, a Japanese native. The ex-wife had agreed to live in Franklin to be close to the children, taking them to Japan for summer vacations. Savoie in March requested a restraining order to prevent his ex-wife from taking the children to Japan, saying she had threatened to do so, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate WTVF and posted on the station's Web site. A temporary order was issued, but then lifted following a hearing. \"If Mother fails to return to Tennessee [after summer vacation] with the children following her visitation period, she could lose her alimony, child support and education fund, which is added assurance to Father that she is going to return with the children,\" Circuit Court Judge James G. Martin III noted in his order on the matter. After that ruling, Christopher Savoie tried to have Martin recuse himself, as he was a mediator in the case prior to becoming a judge, said Marlene Eskind Moses, Noriko Savoie's attorney. But that request was denied, as Savoie earlier said he had no concerns about Martin hearing the matter. Following the summer trip, Noriko Savoie did return to the United States, and Christopher Savoie then took the children on a vacation, returning them to his ex-wife, his attorney, Paul Bruno, told CNN. Watch latest report on Savoie's situation \u00bb . But days later, on the first day of classes for 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca, the school called Savoie to say his children hadn't arrived, Bruno said. Police checked Noriko Savoie's home and did not find the children. Concerned, Savoie called his ex-wife's father in Japan, who told him not to worry. \"I said, 'What do you mean -- don't worry? They weren't at school.' 'Oh, don't worry, they are here,' \" Savoie recounted the conversation to CNN affiliate WTVF earlier this month. \"I said, 'They are what, they are what, they are in Japan?' \" The very thing that Savoie had predicted in court papers had happened -- his wife had taken their children to Japan and showed no signs of returning, Bruno said. After Noriko Savoie took the children to Japan, Savoie filed for and received full custody of the children, Bruno said. And Franklin police issued an arrest warrant for his ex-wife, the television station reported. But there was a major hitch: Japan is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on international child abduction. The international agreement standardizes laws, but only among participating countries. So while Japanese civil law stresses that courts resolve custody issues based on the best interest of the children without regard to either parent's nationality, foreign parents have had little success in regaining custody. Japanese family law follows a tradition of sole custody divorces. When a couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children. In court documents filed in May, Noriko Savoie denied that she was failing to abide by the terms of the couple's court-approved parenting plan or ignoring court-appointed parent coordinators. She added she was \"concerned about the stability of Father, his extreme antagonism towards Mother and the effect of this on the children.\" Noriko Savoie could not be reached by CNN for comment. Bruno said he helped Christopher Savoie pursue legal remedies to recover the children, working with police, the FBI and the State Department. \"We tried to do what we could to get the kids back,\" Bruno said. \"There was not a whole lot we can do.\" \"Our court system failed him,\" said Diane Marshall, a court-appointed parent coordinator who helped Savoie make decisions about the children. \"It's just a mess.\" But Moses, Noriko Savoie's attorney, told CNN that the children's father had other legal options. The International Association for Parent-Child Reunion, formed in Japan this year, claims to know of more than 100 cases of children abducted by non-custodial Japanese parents. And the U.S. State Department says it is not aware of a single case in which a child taken from the United States to Japan has been ordered returned by Japanese courts -- even when the left-behind parent has a U.S. custody decree. Facing such statistics and the possibility of never seeing his kids again, Savoie took matters into his own hands. He flew to Fukuoka. And as his ex-wife walked the two children to school Monday morning, Savoie drove alongside them. He grabbed the kids, forced them into his car, and drove off, said police in Fukuoka. Watch CNN panel discuss Savoie's legal options \u00bb . He headed for the U.S. consulate in that city to try to obtain passports for Isaac and Rebecca. But Japanese police, alerted by Savoie's ex-wife, were waiting. Consulate spokeswoman Tracy Taylor said she heard a scuffle outside the doors of the consulate. She ran up and saw a little girl and a man, whom police were trying to talk to. Eventually, police took Savoie away, charging him with the abduction of minors -- a charge that carries a jail sentence of up to five years. Bruno said if the situation were reversed and a Japanese parent had abducted a Japanese child and fled to America, U.S. courts would \"correct that problem, because it's a crime.\" He said he has \"concerns about Japan ... providing a place for people to abduct children and go to. The parent left behind does not have recourse.\" He added, \"the president and his administration should do something to correct this.\" The consulate met with Savoie on Monday and Tuesday, Taylor said. It has provided him with a list of local lawyers and said it will continue to assist. Meanwhile, the international diplomacy continues. During the first official talks between the United States and Japan's new government, the issue of parental abductions was raised. But it is anybody's guess what happens next to Savoie, who sits in a jail cell. CNN's Kyung Lah in Tokyo, Japan, and Aaron Cooper, Saeed Ahmed and Carolina Sanchez in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ex-wife's attorney says dad had other legal options besides grabbing kids .\nAmerican dad tries to snatch children from ex-wife who took them to Japan .\nShe is a fugitive in Tennessee, but has broken no law in Japan .\nFather, who has legal custody in U.S., charged in Japan with abduction .","id":"288a5010b271e229256dcb7c86c5a1ee2ad31989"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Briton accused of hacking into U.S. government computers on Friday lost his court appeal to have his case heard in Britain, his legal team said. Briton Gary McKinnon is accused of carrying out the biggest ever U.S. military hacking operation. The decision means Gary McKinnon faces extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly hacking into computers at the Pentagon and NASA. His mother, Janis Sharp, promised to appeal. McKinnon, who has admitted breaking the law and intentionally gaining unauthorized access to computer systems, wanted to be tried in Britain rather than the United States. He planned to ask judges at the High Court in London to review a recent decision by the director of public prosecutions not to pursue legal action in Britain, a spokeswoman at the prosecutor's office told CNN July. The prosecutor's decision effectively cleared the way for McKinnon's extradition. The U.S. government says McKinnon carried out the biggest military computer hacking of all time, accessing 97 computers from his home in London for a year starting in March 2001 and costing the government about $1 million. McKinnon, currently free on bail in England, has said he was simply doing research to find out whether the U.S. government was covering up the existence of UFOs. Prosecutors in the United States and Britain disagree. \"These were not random experiments in computer hacking, but a deliberate effort to breach U.S. defense systems at a critical time which caused well-documented damage,\" Alison Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service said in February. \"They may have been conducted from Mr. McKinnon's home computer -- and in that sense there is a UK link -- but the target and the damage were trans-Atlantic.\" U.S. federal prosecutors accuse McKinnon of breaking into military, NASA and civilian networks and accessing computers at the Pentagon; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Meade, Maryland; the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Colts Neck, New Jersey; and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, among others. In one case, McKinnon allegedly crashed computers belonging to the Military District of Washington. McKinnon is believed to have acted alone, with no known connection to any terrorist organization, said Paul McNulty, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. A U.S. federal grand jury indicted McKinnon on seven counts of computer fraud and related activity. If convicted, he would face a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count and a $250,000 fine. McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, complained that the United States has never provided evidence to prosecutors or McKinnon's legal team to support their extradition request -- and in fact, under Britain's Extradition Act of 2003, U.S. prosecutors are not required to. McKinnon has previously said it was easy for him to access the secret files. \"I did occasionally leave messages in system administrators' machines saying, 'This is ridiculous,'\" McKinnon has said. \"(I left) some political diatribes as well, but also a pointer to say, you know, this is ridiculous.\" McKinnon was on the brink of extradition in August 2008, when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, refused to reconsider the decision to send him to the United States, effectively clearing the way for his transfer. Shortly after that decision, however, McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, and he claims that diagnosis changed the case for extradition. It was on that basis that McKinnon made his appeals in Britain. Asperger syndrome is a form of autism that affects a person's social communication and interaction, according to Britain's National Autistic Society. Those affected often are of above-average intelligence and have fewer problems speaking than do those with autism. They sometimes have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and can be very literal in what they say, with difficulty understanding jokes, metaphors and sarcasm.","highlights":"Gary McKinnon admits intentionally gaining access to government systems .\nBriton accused of carrying out biggest ever U.S. military computer hacking .\nHe says he was researching whether U.S. was covering up existence of UFOs .","id":"995415bb4adc6c52d0a03186fb905afa0950bb40"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. schoolchildren still have work to do when it comes to mathematics, the secretary of education said Wednesday. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says U.S. schools need to be better equipped to teach math. Arne Duncan, releasing a report on the Department of Education's latest examination of how well American children are doing in mathematics, said no one should be satisfied with what it found. \"Today's results are evidence that we must better equip our schools to improve the knowledge and skills of America's students in mathematics,\" he said. \"More must be done to narrow the troubling achievement gap that has persisted in mathematics, and to ensure that America's students make greater gains toward becoming competitive with their peers in other countries.\" Fourth- and eighth-grade students from more than 7,000 public and private schools nationwide were tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress for the report, titled \"The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2009.\" Massachusetts students had the highest marks at both grade levels. Other high-performing states were Minnesota, Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey. The area with the lowest marks in both grades was the District of Columbia, though the report showed that the district -- along with Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- had improved its scores since the last tests were taken in 2007. The average scores were categorized at each grade level into four groups: below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced. According to the Department of Education, some of the skills required to achieve a basic level of understanding of mathematics at the fourth-grade level include performing simple computations with whole numbers; showing understanding of fractions and decimals; and solving simple real-world problems. To achieve a basic level of understanding at the eighth-grade level, students must be able work with whole numbers, decimals, fractions and percentages; be able to solve word problems and use diagrams, charts and graphs; and be able to solve simple algebra and geometry problems. Scores were slightly higher in the 2009 report than they were in 2007, but Duncan said more needs to be done. \"Our students need to graduate high school ready to succeed in college and the workplace,\" he said. The National Assessment of Educational Progress results \"are a call to action to reform the teaching and learning of mathematics and other related subjects in order to prepare our students to compete in the global economy.\"","highlights":"Department of Education takes look at how American kids are doing in mathematics .\nFourth- and eighth-grade students from more than 7,000 U.S. schools assessed .\nMassachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey ranked high .\nDistrict of Columbia had lowest marks in both grades, but its scores are up since '07 .","id":"3bf28f76a973714f75a51a3cf72296e95ccd7f6c"} -{"article":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York (CNN) -- Two years ago, Dawn Warfield was drowning in debt. Dawn Warfield sold one of her two video stores to help reduce her debts. The average American household has $8,329 in credit card debt, according to the Nilson Report, a credit industry newsletter. Warfield had nearly 10 times that amount. At its worst point, her debt totalled nearly $80,000. She had 17 credit cards and admits that living beyond her means was part of the problem. \"I'll own up to that,\" she said. \"There is always unforeseen expenses, and when you are making the minimum payments on these credit cards, when you think you can't afford to make more than that, they don't go down.\" But Warfield's spending was not the only factor working against her. Watch Warfield describe how the debt piled up, and how she started paying it off \u00bb . She was in the middle of an expensive divorce and had been charging business expenses to her personal credit cards when she opened a second location of her video store. \"Every month I was writing out 17 checks,\" she said. \"And the interest rates ranged from like 6 percent to 33 percent. So it was impossible. \"I was transferring balances from one card to another, and every time I got a card to a decent interest rate, I felt like one of the cards would come off the promotional interest rate, and I was just never catching up.\" So Warfield took matters into her own hands. She sold the second location of her video store, stopped using her credit cards and decided it was time to get help. \"I sat down one day and I called each credit card one by one, and I asked each one to work with me ... to lower my interest rate.\" The credit card companies did not respond to her plea. Instead, she was directed to the debt management program of the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service, part of Money Management International. Counselor Eric Jackson helped Warfield analyze her bills and expenses and created a plan to help her get lower interest rates. Now she makes a single monthly payment. \"I don't even have to think about it, which makes it a lot easier for me, because when you have a lot of debt, it's not just financial, but it's emotional, you know, even physical,\" Warfield said. \"You think about it all the time.\" Adds Jackson: \"She's making her payments on time, they're posting to her creditor accounts, she has very low interest rates -- that was one of the benefits -- and she's definitely doing well. \"She is on track to get all her debts paid off in full within the five years.\" Today, Warfield is less than $40,000 in debt. \"I'm about halfway,\" she said. \"It hasn't been easy, but we're getting there.\" Are you fighting the recession, using innovative techniques to stay ahead in this economy or overcoming financial adversity? Share your story with us by sending an e-mail to realstories@cnnmoney.com , and you could be profiled in an upcoming segment on CNN.","highlights":"Two years ago, Dawn Warfield had $80,000 in debt on 17 credit cards .\nThe video store owner was facing a divorce and expanding her business .\nShe also admits that living beyond her means was part of the problem .\nNonprofit counseling service is helping her get lower rates and pay off her debts .","id":"25d98089cd4659bf69da1de25271130a14dac034"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While investigators trudge through pig farms and remote villages in Mexico, searching for clues about the new swine flu, answers about the virus' origin may finally appear on a computer, based on genetic codes. A researcher investigates swine flu at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. At the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University, researchers are using public databases to trace the origins of the 2009 H1N1 virus. They've found that the closest relatives to the new virus are viruses that were isolated from pigs in the United States in the past few years. Their analysis, recently published in Eurosurveillance, suggests that the virus has at least two swine ancestors, one of them related to a virus isolated in North America in 1998. Still, the relatives are distant, and it's premature to conclude that the virus came from the United States based on this analysis, said Raul Rabadan, study co-author and assistant professor at Columbia. Influenza is like a small jigsaw puzzle with eight pieces, each with its own function, Rabadan said. The puzzle changes all the time, which is why exposure does not lead to total immunity and vaccines need to be updated yearly. When two viruses infect the same cell, they can create yet other viruses with pieces of each of the original strains. This process is called reassortment. The 2009 H1N1 virus is a reassortment of swine, human and avian genes. Rabadan and colleagues are finding the closest ancestors for each of the parts of the virus and then trying to understand how these parts may have combined in the past, a complicated question. It is impossible to know from the available data where geographically the 2009 H1N1 virus came from, but with more samples, researchers may be able to decipher more clues, he said. Just from looking at the genetic code, it is unknown what species is the virus' host, how easily it is transmitted and how deadly it is. \"We have a set of letters that you can try to map, and then you can try to see how this map is working, how would you know if a particular combination is giving you something? That's something that has to be solved.\" Although a 5-year-old boy in the small village of La Gloria, Mexico, is said to be \"patient zero,\" with the earliest confirmed case of 2009 H1N1, no one knows exactly how he contracted the virus. Read more about the boy . Some say that tracking the origin of the virus isn't as important as finding ecological weak points and bolstering surveillance. \"We may not be able to say precisely say, 'This pig farm spawned this virus' and all that, but I think it's very important to face the facts about what kinds of ecological settings are spawning danger,\" said Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. For influenza, the new ecological stress points mostly relate to industrial-scale livestock and, in the case of avian flu, backyard chicken farming, she said. In both of those cases, there are \"economic lives at stake\" in making decisions such as killing certain animals, she said. \"We have to figure out a way we can surveil those populations, surveil that ecology, without the industries at stake -- or, in the case of chickens, the small family farmer in Indonesia -- feeling that their livelihood is challenged just by the very fact that anybody's even trying to do surveillance,\" Garrett said. But the genetic lineage of the virus does offer useful clues, she said. Cooperation among the United States, Canada and Mexico in every step of the investigation has been profound, she said. By contrast, Indonesia has refused to share bird flu samples with the World Health Organization in the past. Some researchers say it's not surprising that a new virus such as 2009 H1N1 would seem to have its focal point in Mexico. A 2008 Nature study co-written by Peter Daszak, president of Wildlife Trust, an international organization of scientists, used computer modeling to find that hot spots for emerging infectious diseases include China, Southeast Asia, Mexico, parts of Brazil, Europe and the United States. The study showed that socioeconomic, environmental and ecological factors correlate with emerging infectious diseases and help identify \"hot spots\" for where they crop up. Now, researchers are looking at travel and trade patterns from Mexico to shed light on how the virus has spread. There's a large trade of pigs from the United States and Canada, as well as pig trades from other countries, each year into Mexico, he said. \"There's a lot of mixing, and a lot of potential for viruses,\" Daszak said. \"It's equally likely that it emerged in Mexico as it is in Canada and the U.S.\" The main driving factors for an emerging infectious disease are the demographics of people, livestock production and changing food production strategies, Daszak said. Although scientists know of several thousand viruses, more than a million viruses could be out there, assuming every vertebrate species on the planet has 20 viruses that no other vertebrate has, and there are 50,000 vertebrates, he said. The lesson from the swine flu outbreak is that \"we missed the boat,\" he said. While resources were thrown at avian flu in Southeast Asia, the newest virus has emerged at the United States' doorstep, he said. \"We should have been out there looking for these things happening,\" he said. \"We should have been working better with those pig farms or with in any industry in a hot zone.\" Anyone who is building pig farms or poultry farms in a hot zone of emerging infectious diseases should increase security, look out for new diseases in livestock or people, and investigate any novel diseases rigorously, he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that each gene segment of 2009 H1N1 had its closest ancestor in swine influenza virus, and officials hypothesized that the reassortment of these genes occurred in pigs, said Nancy Cox, director of the CDC's Influenza Division. \"It doesn't necessarily mean that that's where it occurred, but that was our working hypothesis based on the genetic relationship of each of the gene segments,\" she said. Regardless of the outcome of 2009 H1N1, more infectious diseases will crop up over time, and there's no end in sight, Daszak said. \"When you're in a genetic arms race like this, we're always going to be fighting this battle,\" he said.","highlights":"One of swine flu's relatives was isolated in North America in 1998 .\nExpert: Industrial-scale livestock production is an ecological stress point .\nResearcher: Better surveillance needed in hot zones of emerging diseases .","id":"f990bc568d35932c55b700611bb027500e23c1be"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Investigators are looking into whether employees at the Los Angeles County coroner's office illegally leaked information about Michael Jackson's death probe to the news media, according to a sheriff's spokesman. Police stand outside the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office when Michael Jackson's body was there in June. Vivid descriptions of Jackson's corpse, which was in the coroner's custody for an autopsy, were published by tabloid newspapers in the days after his death. The Los Angeles County Supervisors office on Friday asked the sheriff to conduct a \"preliminary inquiry,\" which will determine whether there is enough evidence to launch a full investigation, said Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's spokesman. Whitmore did not provide details on what prompted the request. The Los Angeles Times quoted Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as saying his office called the sheriff's department after reports that coroner's employees not involved in the Jackson death probe had viewed his death certificate in the office database. Ridley-Thomas has not responded to CNN requests for comment. The coroner's office is investigating the cause of Jackson's June 25 death. It has been waiting on toxicology lab results, but a final autopsy report is expected as soon as next week, a coroner's spokesman has said. Los Angeles police are also investigating the death. Detectives traveled to Houston, Texas, this week to search the medical office of Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor. CNN's Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report .","highlights":"Vivid descriptions of Jackson's corpse are published by tabloid newspapers .\nL.A. officials ask sheriff to conduct preliminary inquiry .\nA sheriff's spokesman did not say what prompted the request .\nThe coroner's office is investigating the cause of Jackson's June 25 death .","id":"322270fe8c74098a3003ec4685bfabaf3aaf790a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The two people who died and the 19 others who fell ill at a central Arizona resort after spending time in a sauna-like \"sweatbox\" were attending a program by self-help expert James Arthur Ray, authorities said Saturday. Two people died and were 19 injured after spending up to two hours inside this \"sweatbox\" at an Arizona resort. The dead were identified as James Shore of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Kirby Brown of Westtown, New York, Sheriff Lloyd Waugh told reporters. They were among the 50 or so visitors at the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona attending Ray's \"Spiritual Warrior\" program. Nineteen others were treated for injuries sustained in the sweatbox, a dome-like structure covered with tarps and blankets. Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in the enclosed environment. Waugh said investigators are looking into evidence that \"may turn this into a criminal prosecution.\" Investigators are looking into similar events held previously in other locations by Ray, who refused to speak with officers at the scene, Waugh said. A follow-up interview is expected to happen. Ray's publicist, Howard Bragman, did not immediately return calls from CNN on Saturday. Ray posted a noted late Friday on his Twitter page, saying: \"I'm shocked & saddened by the tragedy occurring in Sedona. My deep heartfelt condolences to family & friends of those who lost their lives.\" On Saturday he posted another message, saying he's \"spending the weekend in prayer and meditation for all involved in this difficult time; and I ask you to join me in doing the same.\" The self-help guru is widely known for his programs that claim to teach individuals to create wealth through all aspects of their lives -- financially, mentally, physically and spiritually. Ray, whose company is based in Carlsbad, California, has appeared on a variety of national programs, including CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" In that appearance, Ray was about to address 3,000 people in Phoenix, Arizona. Asked what he thinks about critics of his teachings, Ray told King: . \"Well, you know, it's interesting, Larry, because any time a new idea comes to the fore, it goes through three phases. It's first ridiculed. Then it's violently opposed. And then it's finally accepted as self-evident, normally after the opposition dies.\" Angel Valley Resort advertises itself as \"a place to relax and heal ... where powerful earth energies are present and active.\" It was founded in April 2002 by Michael and Amayra Hamilton, both of whom are teachers and counselors there. The resort is on 70 secluded valley acres 20 minutes from Sedona, surrounded by thousands of acres of national forest, according to the Web site. It has Internal Revenue Service nonprofit status as a religious organization, its Web site says. \"There are twenty marked vortexes and angel sites to experience connection with Earth and spirit, deep relaxation, and balancing,\" an online brochure says. \"Angel Valley offers two labyrinths and an Angel Wheel for going inward, finding answers and getting insights.\" No information about the sweat lodge could be found on the Web site Saturday morning, and numerous internal links were not functioning. The use of sweat lodges for spiritual and physical cleansing is a part of several Native American tribes' cultures. A traditional Native American sweat lodge is a small dome-like structure made up of willow branches carefully tied together and covered in canvas. Rocks are heated in a nearby fire pit and placed inside the lodge, and water is poured over them to create steam. \"We are curious to find out what happened there,\" Richard Moreno, a member of Pira Manso Pueblo tribe, told KPHO-TV. \"I've been participating in the sweat lodge since the age of 3 and I've never recalled being sick from being in the sweat lodge.\" Moreno told the station he has never been to a lodge that held more than 20 people.","highlights":"NEW: Illnesses occur during event led by author James Arthur Ray, reports say .\nNEW: Evidence \"may turn this into a criminal prosecution,\" sheriff says .\nAbout 50 people had spent up to two hours inside the \"sweatbox,\" officials said .\nResort is nonprofit religious organization, Web site says .","id":"a0dfa6c733f5f1ff9aafaaed6f25d79c8124d984"} -{"article":"Honolulu, Hawaii (CNN) -- U.S. Navy hospital corpsman Francis Nicola received a unique Christmas gift Thursday: a phone call from his commander in chief. President Obama called Nicola, currently deployed in the Arabian Gulf, to extend a personal holiday greeting, according to a Navy spokesman. Nicola has served on the guided-missile frigate USS Rentz for one year. The Rentz is on an extended eight-month deployment, Public Affairs Officer Corey Barker noted in a statement. \"It was a great honor,\" Nicola said. \"The president passed his personal thanks to me and to the crew for our service over the holidays.\" Obama \"started the conversation off asking about my wife and my son Anthony,\" he added. \"He then went on to express his thoughts on being deployed away from them during the holiday period and hoped for my safe return to them in the coming months.\" The president's decision to call Nicola was the result of a submission by Nicola's commanding officer. \"Petty Officer Nicola's performance has been nothing short of flawless,\" said Cmdr. Jeff Miller, the Rentz's commanding officer. \"He quickly earned my trust [and] confidence.\" Nicola said he invited Obama \"for a day of burgers and basketball on the pier in San Diego,\" the Rentz's home port. Obama said he \"would try to take us up on that offer,\" Nicola noted. Nicola, who previously served on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, is the senior medical representative for over 220 crew members on the Rentz, Barker said. His duties include routine patient care and trauma response. Presidents have traditionally called members of the military during the holiday season. Obama told reporters Thursday that he was planning to call \"a few\" service members this year \"and wish them merry Christmas and to thank them for their extraordinary service.\"","highlights":"Obama calls Navy corpsman Francis Nicola at sea to wish him merry Christmas .\nNicola is on board the USS Rentz in the Arabian Gulf .\nHis commanding officer submitted his name as candidate for presidential call .\nNicola says he invited Obama for burgers and basketball when the Rentz gets home .","id":"affa1f994a905b303b56b8d7a7d7ec79596533ba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dan Kruse started to feel weak one day while hanging out with his friends in a park. The next day, the eighth-grader woke up completely jaundiced -- the whites of his eyes were yellow -- and he urinated blood. Dan Kruse, now 23, had food poisoning from E. coli bacteria as a teenager. Deeply concerned, his mother took him to the doctor, who told him to go to the hospital immediately. Doctors determined he had a severe form of food poisoning that made his kidneys shut down in a condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, caused by the bacteria E. coli. A priest gave him last rites, and doctors said he would most likely spend the rest of his life on kidney dialysis. \"I didn't go to the bathroom at all for seven to nine days because of my kidneys shutting down,\" said Kruse, now a Web developer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. \"I definitely almost died.\" But with the help of an experimental treatment involving medicine \"like a fine grain sand\" that he ate six times a day, Kruse began to improve, and made a full recovery without dialysis. Food poisoning from strains of E. coli is less common in the United States than salmonella, a bacteria that has caused more than 1,000 infections in a recent outbreak since April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tomatoes have been implicated in this outbreak, but many other foods, such as raw meat and poultry, can spread salmonella and other kinds of bacteria. Food borne illnesses result in more than 300,000 hospitalizations in the United States every year, according to the CDC. About 76 million cases of food borne disease occur annually in the United States, the CDC said. Salmonella and E. coli present themselves in such similar ways that doctors can't tell which is which without testing a stool sample. Learn more about the differences between salmonella and E. coli \u00bb . Both kinds of bacteria can lead to infections involving diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and sometimes a low-grade fever. In most cases, an infected person will recover within a week without medicine simply by staying hydrated, doctors said. People who experience voluminous, bloody and persistent diarrhea should seek medical attention, and may need antibiotics, said Dr. Jennifer Christie, gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Emory University. When should you go to the hospital? When you're not able to tolerate fluids, vomiting so much that you can't keep anything down, or have profuse watery diarrhea, said Dr. Iris Reyes, associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. A racing heart along with diarrhea and vomiting indicates dehydration, she said. People with compounding medical problems such as cardiac conditions or diabetes should also seek medical attention, doctors said. In some cases, especially among small children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, the infection may become more severe and lead to long-term complications. Salmonella can lead to a condition called Reiter's syndrome that involves joint pain, eye irritation and painful urination. Chronic arthritis may result, regardless of whether a person takes antibiotics. A common strand of E. coli, often called E. coli 0157, can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, which makes bacterial toxins go into the bloodstream and destroy red blood cells. This can result in kidney failure as a result of damaged cells clogging tiny blood vessels, according to MayoClinic.com. That strain of E. coli is distinct from enterotoxigenic E. coli, which causes traveler's diarrhea. People traveling to developing countries of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia are at particular risk for traveler's diarrhea, but it usually resolves in a few days and is rarely life-threatening. Symptoms of food borne bacterial infections are also similar to those of some viruses, though bloody diarrhea is sometimes a telltale sign of bacteria. To prevent these infections, medical professionals emphasize the importance of washing your hands after handling raw meat, poultry, and uncooked eggs. You should also wash your hands after using the bathroom, touching pets or coming into contact with a person who has a bacterial infection. Read more tips about food safety \u00bb . While it is always a good idea to wash produce, a rinse doesn't always get rid of bacteria. In fact, you would have to scrub a vegetable for several minutes with antibacterial soap to kill the invisible offenders, Reyes said. \"In the operating room, surgeons scrub for at least several minutes to make sure there's no bacteria on their skin,\" she said. Food is the same way -- it would take a long time to actually make sure that no bacteria remains. The best solution is to just stay away from any foods, like tomatoes, that have been reported to be contaminated. You may be tempted to eat that piece of salami of indeterminate age sitting in your refrigerator. But if you do take a bite and it just doesn't taste right, Reyes has some advice for you: Stop eating. This may sound like a no-brainer, but Reyes said it's not unusual for people to contract food borne illnesses this way. \"Make sure your food looks good and tastes good before you eat it,\" she said. Cooking at high temperatures also kills bacteria, but people do not typically cook tomatoes and other produce, Reyes said. Avoid anything containing raw eggs, such as Hollandaise sauce, Caesar salad dressing, and undercooked French toast, Christie said. Food that has been sitting out for hours at picnics or buffets may also be contaminated, Reyes said. Hot food should typically be eaten hot, and meat should never cool below 140 F before reheating. Below 140 F, bacteria thrive and multiply, regardless of the time that the food has been sitting out. Similarly, cold foods like shrimp cocktail will go bad if allowed to warm. \"You want to avoid a situation when your bacteria find your food just as appealing as you do,\" she said. Kruse said he avoids alfalfa sprouts, which have been associated with E. coli outbreaks, but still eats meat. \"I love meat, I'm a meat eater. It was a fluke,\" he said. \"The doctors told me that the body will fight it off better\" since he had the infection as a teenager.","highlights":"There are about 76 million cases of food borne illnesses in the U.S. each year .\nSymptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and a low-grade fever .\nSalmonella and E. coli infections present similar symptoms initially .\nWashing hands after handling raw food is key to prevention .","id":"36ba75ac772fabddbdd3a69328583cf77a67b910"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Wu-Tang Clan -- the New York hip-hop supergroup that spawned millions of album sales, nine solo acts and a few acting careers -- almost never was. If RZA, left, had been jailed or Method Man killed, Wu-Tang may have never formed, RZA says. Method Man, the group's most recognizable voice, was nearly killed before the band formed, Wu-Tang's chief producer, RZA, writes in his forthcoming memoir. Meth was walking to buy marijuana at 160 Park Hill Avenue in Staten Island -- the house in Wu-Tang's \"Protect Ya Neck\" video -- when RZA saw him across the street, he writes in the book. \"Come over here, yo!\" RZA beckoned, according to \"The Tao of Wu\" (Riverhead). \"He stopped and came running over. A few seconds later -- pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! -- a guy started shooting up the front of 160. A buddy of ours, Poppy, an innocent, school-going, nice guy -- he was shot and killed right there.\" Interactive: Where's the Wu been? \u00bb . It wasn't the only close call RZA said could have snuffed the band that rewrote the rule book for hip-hop acts. The year before the group formed in 1993, RZA was acquitted on an attempted murder charge that could have put him behind bars for eight years, he writes in \"The Tao of Wu,\" out Thursday. Expanding on the book's anecdotes in an interview with CNN, RZA explained that if he had been imprisoned or if Method Man, aka Clifford Smith, had been killed, the band never would have come to fruition. RZA, whose real name is Robert Diggs and whose stage name is pronounced \"Rizza,\" also talked about his role in the death of his cousin, Russell Jones, better known as Ol' Dirty Bastard or ODB. Two days before his 36th birthday in 2004, ODB died in a New York recording studio from an overdose of cocaine and painkillers. RZA writes in the book that he once witnessed ODB force his own son to watch him do drugs. RZA tried to leave, he writes, but ODB wouldn't let him. Now, RZA told CNN, he wishes he would've been tougher with ODB about his drug problem. Following are excerpts from the interview, which has been edited for language, flow and length: . CNN: Could your imprisonment or Method Man's death have derailed Wu-Tang's formation? RZA: Either one of those incidents could definitely have derailed it. Of course, myself being the abbot, the one who came with the idea, if I wouldn't have made it out of that tumultuous time -- it seemed like I wasn't going to make it out of it; there was a lot of odds against me -- but we stood strong, and self-defense made sense to the jury. We beat that ... It was the victory over that incident that made me change my whole direction. In a way, it's double-edged in that incident. One, if I would've lost that, yeah, Wu-Tang wouldn't have happened, but also it's the victory of it that inspired me and gave me the drive also to go and really get serious about Wu-Tang and the things I was dealing with. Same thing with Meth, he always brings it up ... that that day saved his life. He actually said, if it was anybody else calling him, he wouldn't have came. CNN: In the book, you cite lessons from Eastern religions, Christianity, Islam, [Nation of Islam offshoot] Five Percent, numerology, comic books, kung fu, chess. What would you say to someone who says it's difficult to reconcile these dogmas? RZA: Like it says in the Bible, \"In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh\" -- if we go to the root of the word, we will find that, yeah, everything is similar. Everything is teaching us all the same path. It's just that one religion was good for these people because of their living conditions. In the Quran, they mention paradise being filled with wells, wells of water, and if you're in the desert and you've got a chance to get water and gardens -- as they describe paradise in the holy Quran -- if you're going to get gardens, that's the paradise that fits your situation. ... Everything they're saying relates to the people they're talking to. ... You remove the messenger and take the message. CNN: You say in the book that your penchant for violent lyrics in your younger years \"was a product of my history and environment\" and that it no longer represents you. But you also say you won't repudiate violence. Why not? RZA: One reason I haven't repudiated it is because when it's necessary, it's necessary. [The Bible's] Ecclesiastes tell us there's a time for everything -- a time for war, a time for peace -- so in times for war, there's time for violence. Then in [the Hindu scripture] Bhagavad Gita, it says Arjuna was talking, Arjuna didn't want to commit violent acts against an army that was attacking him. He couldn't find it in his heart to do it. It was people he loved. He didn't want to get into violence, but Krishna had to point out to him, \"Your duty is your duty.\" ... So, to me, violence in the light of justice is still violent, but I don't see it the same. It's because of justice that I don't repudiate violence because justice must be served somehow. CNN: ODB was a product of his environment as well. To what degree were you and other Wu-Tang members responsible for his death? RZA: The guys would say it's more me than them because they say that's my cousin and I was right there. If you let a man that you love or anybody -- man, woman or child that you love -- sit there and destroy themselves in front of you, you're neglecting them ... Everybody let him do what he wanted to do. ... There were times when I took his drugs and threw them down the toilet. When I do that, he would get so pissed off I don't see him for weeks after that. ... So it got to a point, I was like, \"[expletive] it, let him do his drugs\" just to have him around me, just to keep him there. ... But it's still neglect, yo. CNN: You say you ran Wu-Tang like a dictatorship in its first five years. I know you and Raekwon have had creative differences and Ghostface Killah is suing you over royalties. Ever regret the dictatorship approach? RZA: I don't regret it because it got us to the power we are. ... To me, in the beginning, the dictatorship led us to such a strong foundation that even though Wu-Tang seemed to be crumbling, it didn't fall because of the root foundation of one man's idea. But now as it's coming back together -- we're living in the twilight age of it right now -- it's still surviving because of the democracy of it. CNN: Wu-Tang is still around, but nothing like the heyday of the 1990s. Will we ever see a renaissance? RZA: Well, to me, Wu-Tang is beyond Wu-Tang Clan. ... It's just like hip-hop is beyond Grandmaster Flash, but Grandmaster Flash was one of the first guys to hit those turntables like that. ... The same thing with Wu-Tang. You'll see the difference in hip-hop from the moment we came in to before we came in. We changed it. We changed the whole structure. CNN: Have you accomplished everything you've set out to accomplish? RZA: I'm me and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing. I'm grateful for what I've accomplished. I'm grateful for anyone who thinks I accomplished something and says, \"Well he did this; he did that.\" I'm proud to be accepted, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface for some weird reason. CNN's Kyle Almond contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wu-Tang producer: Attempted murder conviction also could have derailed band .\nRapper\/producer\/actor RZA talks of forming Wu-Tang Clan in upcoming memoir .\nRZA: Ol' Dirty Bastard made son watch him do drugs before 2004 fatal overdose .\nBook cites lessons from Christianity, Islam, numerology, kung fu, chess .","id":"677112677907410588ed78384ec10353a21de83d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- More than two years after her death, Carol Anne Gotbaum's children are expected to receive a $250,000 settlement from an insurance company on behalf of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, and its police department. Carol Gotbaum, shown in an undated family photo, died accidentally, a medical examiner said. The 45-year-old Gotbaum accidentally strangled herself while in police custody after behaving erratically in a terminal at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport when she missed her connecting flight, according to both family and police accounts. Gotbaum, the stepdaughter-in-law of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, was traveling alone and unescorted on her way to an alcohol rehabilitation center in Tucson, Arizona. Gotbaum's family had originally sought $8 million but subsequently reduced that to $5.5 million. They accused the city and its police department of negligence in leaving Gotbaum chained and unattended in an airport police cell. Her three children, all still under age 10, will be the beneficiaries of the settlement once it is approved by a New York surrogate court, whose duties are to deal with issues concerning the deceased. According to the Phoenix Police Department, its insurance carrier had spent $500,000 so far on the case and anticipated spending another $750,000 in litigation. It was a financial decision by the insurance carrier to settle in order to minimize further costs, the department said. Witnesses reported that Gotbaum may have been drinking on her flight and had been drinking heavily in an airport bar just before the altercation with police. She had missed her connection and was bumped from another one after airline personnel would not allow her to use a boarding pass given to her by another passenger. She grew incensed, threw her phone and started running down the concourse yelling, \"I am not a terrorist,\" according to witness accounts. Police said they had no information regarding her physical or psychological state when they responded to a call from gate agents. In a security video she is seen struggling with officers as they drag her down a concourse. An internal police investigation and one by the city found that the police did not violate any laws. But Gotbaum's husband, Noah, filed suit claiming the officers were negligent in leaving her unattended in a disoriented state.","highlights":"Carol Anne Gotbaum's children are expected to receive a $250,000 settlement .\nMoney comes from insurance company on behalf of police and city of Phoenix .\nGotbaum accidentally strangled herself while in police custody .\nWoman was taken into custody after acting erratically at airport .","id":"02df64ac7652ec365fd71cdc94e6c458ca3d15f4"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Is anyone else besides Michelle Obama leaving the house these days? Because for the last week, you would have thought that Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry had gone into the Witness Protection Program. First lady Michelle Obama arrives with President Obama in London, England, for the G-20 Summit. During first lady Michelle Obama's whirlwind visit to Europe this past week, her refreshing take on American style has emerged. It is elegant, smart, appropriate and shows the first lady to be comfortable in her own skin. Coverage surrounding the first lady's wardrobe in Europe, from cardigans to kitten heels, has been relentless, riveting, fawning and, frankly, missing the objective of her strategically packed suitcase. No doubt about it, Michelle Obama scored big, looking terrific everywhere, delighting everyone -- probably no one more so than Mickey Drexler, CEO of J. Crew. But the post-game commentary sparked by each of her appearances has been hyperbolic when it hasn't been comical. See photos of the first lady's outfits \u00bb . You would have thought each of the first lady's \"face offs,\" as both American and British tabloids labeled her meetings with Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's first lady Sarah Brown, and France's Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, had been deliberately set up as counter-programming to C-SPAN's coverage of the budget negotiations in Congress. Watch Michelle Obama wow the world \u00bb . One wire service reporter asked me if Michelle, wearing a two-toned silk dress by Isabel Toledo, should have \"taken a bigger fashion risk\" when meeting the 83-year-old British monarch, who was all mumsy in blush pink. It was an afternoon tea, folks, not the Embassy Ball in \"My Fair Lady.\" Another wanted to know if I agreed that the first lady's now-sold-out J. Crew outfit, an embellished cream cardigan and mint-green jacquard skirt, was \"a little too down-market\" to meet the prime minister of England's wife, completely overlooking where the two women were headed after the photo op. Or would a bias-cut silk charmeuse dress have been a wiser choice for visiting a children's cancer ward? But the main event was going head-to-head with the former supermodel, pop-star first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Except both women wound up wearing similar bow-tied coats -- Mrs. Obama's floral print number by the American designer Thakoon, and her counterpart's, a dove-gray look by the French house of Dior. Nevertheless, Tina Brown's TheDailyBeast.com went so far as to immediately declare the up-until-recently overtly scrutinized Mrs. Bruni-Sarkozy \"over.\" The citizens of France might argue the point. More importantly, the press has been missing the over-arching point of our new first lady's wardrobe. Despite the declaration by many of the fashion community's talking heads that she is this generation's Jacqueline Kennedy, Michelle Obama's approach is quite different. True, Michelle's reception has been equally rapturous. But, Mrs. Kennedy's transatlantic mission nearly 50 years ago was to show the world that despite America's image of a country fueled by energy and youth, it was also one of elegance, poise and culture. In addition, whether speaking in English or French, Mrs. Kennedy purposely presented herself and her husband as children of privilege, embracing the aura of Camelot, which had cast them as American royalty. Conversely, what's most striking about each of Mrs. Obama's appearances is not the grandiose message, diverse labels or designers' origins. Rather, it is their unmistakable, uniform accessibility and appropriateness. Michelle Obama looks exactly like what she is: a modern American, working woman. Her outfits appear comfortable instead of buttoned up, her impression is pretty rather than formal, her silhouette based on sportswear -- the form of design that is at the heart of American fashion -- not politics. Add warmth, confidence, and openness and what the world is seeing -- besides someone who knows how to pack for a week -- is a woman they would want to know, to embrace as a neighbor or a friend. Though I'm still having trouble getting past those kitten heels (note to Michelle: You'd look so much better in a four-inch pump. Don't worry, your husband can handle it), what Michelle Obama has brilliantly accomplished in fairly record time is refashioning the image of Americans as relevant, approachable, relatable, and best of all, likable. When speaking to a group of school children in London, the first lady freely admitted, \"I like getting A's. I like being smart.\" She sure is. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"During her visit to Europe, Michelle Obama shows her own American style .\nMrs. Obama shows her style to be elegant, smart, and appropriate .\nAn outfit from J. Crew that Obama wore has since sold out on the brand's Web site .\nMichelle Obama looks exactly like what she is: a modern American working woman .","id":"f5df70469ad4ca9e8b558fa1e266aae857151e67"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's government ordered the country's army chief of staff fired Sunday, touching off street protests and a split in Nepal's Maoist-dominated ruling coalition. General Rookmangud Katawal gestures after inspecting the guard of honour in New Delhi on December 12, 2007. But Gen. Rookmangud Katawal has refused to accept his dismissal, and Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav -- the constitutional commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces -- has told Katawal to remain in office, a presidential spokesman said. Nepal's Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required. The move prompted the Maoists' largest coalition partner to quit the government, the party's leader said. \"Without consensus, the ongoing peace process will not reach its logical conclusion and the drafting of the new constitution will not be possible,\" said Ishwor Pokharel, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). \"The consensus that existed so far has come to standstill.\" Supporters of both sides in the dispute took to the streets for demonstrations Sunday. Despite sporadic clashes between the two factions, there were no serious injuries reported. The Maoists laid down their arms and won power in 2008 elections after an agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency. Under the deal, more than 19,000 former insurgents were to be integrated into the country's security forces. But two weeks ago, the government asked Katawal to explain why he went to the Supreme Court to challenge the government's refusal to extend the tenure of eight brigadier generals in March. Government spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said Sunday that the government was not satisfied with Katawal's explanation and fired him -- three months before his scheduled retirement -- in a meeting that the Maoists' coalition partners boycotted. Pokharel said his party urged the Maoists not to fire Katawal without a consensus in the country's parliament. He said the Maoists, led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, ignored that advice. \"We do not like the way the Maoists' way of functioning,\" Pokharel said. The Maoists hold 238 of the 601 seats in parliament, while Pokharel's party has 109. The Maoists could continue to hold power with the support of smaller parties, but Pokharel said his party is working to form a new ruling coalition. The Cabinet named an interim army chief, but presidential spokesman Rajendra Dahal told CNN that 18 parties in Nepal's parliament asked Yadav to keep Katawal on the job. There was no immediate reaction from the government on the president's decision.","highlights":"Nepal's government orders army chief of staff fired after recruitment issue .\nMilitary refused to stop recruiting soldiers while it hasn't accepted ex-Maoist rebels .\nDismissal touches off street protests and a split in Maoist-dominated ruling coalition .\nGen. Rookmangud Katawal has refused to accept his dismissal .","id":"04485e9153e34405313ab73d82b5bba20aad0034"} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Leaders representing 90 percent of the world's economic output were gathering Thursday in a U.S. city that has reinvented itself, hoping to bolster the global economy. Police boats pass under Greenpeace activists as they hang from a bridge near the G-20 summit. The Group of 20 will meet for two days to focus on the worldwide financial crisis, and plot how to avoid a repeat in the future. The White House is using the economic summit to showcase Pittsburgh -- a city that President Obama says has exhibited an innovative 21st-century recovery after a well-publicized downfall following the shuttering of much of the city's steel industry. Pittsburgh \"has transformed itself from the city of steel to a center for high-tech innovation -- including green technology, education and training, and research and development,\" the president said. Watch what summit means for Pittsburgh \u00bb . Most of the world leaders have come from New York, where they attended the start of the U.N. General Assembly. The G-20 gathering is Obama's first time hosting a major international summit. \"As the leaders of the world's largest economies, we have a responsibility to work together on behalf of sustained growth, while putting in place the rules of the road that can prevent this kind of crisis from happening again,\" the president said in a statement ahead of the gathering. The tightening of global financial regulations is expected to top the summit's agenda and comes as some major economies are beginning to recover. Germany, France and Japan have announced that they have emerged from recession, prompting hopes that the worst of the financial crisis may have passed. Watch city's preparations for protesters \u00bb . G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed at a meeting this month not to start cutting back just yet on stimulus efforts. They fear it would put economies at risk for plunging back into recession. However, the economic outlook has improved enough that countries are being encouraged to start working on exit strategies, which will vary by nation. The ministers also have proposed a change in how bankers' bonuses are awarded. They said financial rewards should be based on long-term merit, instead of short-term risk-taking. Because of that, ministers oppose paying large bonuses upfront. A proposed bonus control mechanism would pay for results over a longer window for measuring profits. Bonuses would be forfeited if initial success doesn't hold up. The economic summit will be the third time in a year that the world's top industrial powers have gathered. They met in November in Washington and followed up with an April session in London. As the leaders headed to Pittsburgh, four people attached to a massive banner dangled from a Pittsburgh bridge Wednesday to protest the global economic meeting. iReport.com: Pittsburgh braces for protests . The banner hung from the West End Bridge over the Ohio River and read like a road sign: \"Danger: Climate Destruction Ahead. Reduce CO2 Emissions Now.\" Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, claimed responsibility for the stunt. On its Web site, the group said it wanted to send a message to G-20 leaders with the nearly 80-by-30-foot sign, calling for more attention to the issue of global climate change.","highlights":"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, plays host this week to G-20 summit .\nPresident Obama says city is example of how to weather recession .\nPittsburgh has reinvented itself from steel plant roots to new focus on green jobs .","id":"ceaf2e99c12c46a17df5868d50be48b3b01a08f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English contains more words than any other language on the planet and added its millionth word early Wednesday, according to the Global Language Monitor, a Web site that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created. The Global Language Monitor says the millionth word was added to English on Wednesday. The site estimates the millionth English word, \"Web 2.0\" was added to the language Wednesday at 5:22 a.m. ET. The term refers to the second, more social generation of the Internet. The site says more than 14 words are added to English every day, at the current rate. The \"Million Word March,\" however, has made the man who runs this word-counting project somewhat of a pariah in the linguistic community. Some linguists say it's impossible to count the number of words in a language because languages are always changing, and because defining what counts as a word is a fruitless endeavor. Paul J.J. Payack, president and chief word analyst for the Global Language Monitor, says, however, that the million-word estimation isn't as important as the idea behind his project, which is to show that English has become a complex, global language. \"It's a people's language,\" he said. Other languages, like French, Payack said, put big walls around their vocabularies. English brings others in. \"English has the tradition of swallowing new words whole,\" he said. \"Other languages translate.\" The Internet, global commerce and global travel have accelerated the trend by putting English in contact with many other linguistic groups. This has made English more rich and more complex -- hence all of the new terms, he said. Still, Payack says he doesn't include all new words in his count. Words must make sense in at least 60 percent of the world to be official, he said. And they must make sense to different communities of people. A new technology term that's only understood in Silicon Valley wouldn't count as a mainstream word, he said. His computer models check billions of Web sites -- including the Global Top 5,000 media sites -- dictionaries, scholarly publications and news articles to see how frequently words are used, he said. A word must make 25,000 appearances to be deemed legitimate. Learn about how other languages stack up \u00bb . Payack said news events have also fueled the rapid expansion of English, which he said has more words than any other language. Mandarin Chinese comes in second with about 450,000 words, he said. English terms like \"Obamamania,\" \"defriend,\" \"wardrobe malfunction,\" \"zombie banks,\" \"shovel ready\" and \"recessionista\" all have grown out of recent news cycles about the presidential election, economic crash, online networking or a sports event, he said. Other languages might not have developed new terms to deal with such phenomena, he said. Language experts who spoke with CNN said they disapprove of Payack's count, but they agree that English generally has more words than most, if not all, languages. \"This is stuff that you just can't count,\" said Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary. \"No one can count it, and to pretend that you can is totally disingenuous. It simply can't be done.\" The Oxford English Dictionary has about 600,000 entries, Sheidlower said. But that by no means includes all words, he said. For example, Sheidlower said \"great-great-great-great grandfather\" could be considered a word, but wouldn't be in the dictionary. There's a similar problem with numbers, which may be counted up by their pieces -- \"twenty\" and \"three\" -- but not always as a group, as in \"two-hundred twenty-three.\" Part of what makes determining the number of words in a language so difficult is that there are so many root words and their variants, said Sarah Thomason, president of the Linguistic Society of America and a linguistics professor at the University of Michigan. In the language of native Alaskans, she said, there are dozens of words for snow, but many of them are linked together and wouldn't be counted individually. Does that mean, she asked, that \"slush,\" \"powder\" and other snow words in English should be counted as one entry? Thomason called the million-word count a \"sexy idea\" that is \"all hype and no substance.\" Linguists and lexicographers run into further complications when trying to count words that are spelled one way but can have several meanings, said Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Illinois, and an officer at the American Dialect Society. \"The word bear, b-e-a-r -- is that two words or one, for example? You have a noun that's a wild creature and then you have b-e-a-r, [which means] to bear left or to bear right, and there's many other things,\" he said. \"So you really can't be exact about a millionth word.\" Payack said he doesn't consider his to be the definitive count, just an interesting estimation based on set criteria he has helped develop. \"It's always an estimation,\" he said. \"It's like the height of Mount Everest is an estimation. The height of Mount Everest has changed five times in my lifetime because as we get better tools, the estimates get better.\" He said the count is meant to be a celebration of English as a global language. And, while he says other languages are being stamped out by English's expansion, it's a powerful thing that so many people today are able to communicate with such a vast list of words.","highlights":"Web site estimates English got its millionth word at 5:22 a.m. Wednesday .\nEnglish accumulates new words from other languages and from its global reach .\nLinguists question group's formula, which estimates rate of new words .\nEnglish has more words than any other language, site says .","id":"638ba8792a1e0738a2fe5162b7b525f2eeb53cd2"} -{"article":"SPRING HILL, Tennessee (CNN) -- The town that Saturn put on the map is worried about its future and its residents hope the auto plant and jobs won't go the way of its most famous product. The move to shut down Saturn has left some in Spring Hill, Tennessee, disappointed and perplexed. General Motors announced this week that it would close its Saturn line after its sale to Penske Automotive Group fell through. At the end of \"Saturn Parkway\" in Spring Hill, Tennessee, sits the huge plant where -- as the ads touted -- \"a different kind of car company\" produced a \"different kind of car.\" The first Saturn, a red S-Series, rolled off the line in 1990 and it's still on display at the factory. The factory, along with the town, have played a major role in the company's image and advertisements, even hosting tours and \"reunions\" for Saturn car owners. At City Hall, the walls are decorated with old photos of the small town Spring Hill was before Saturn came to town and what it's grown into. \"I think people are very proud an American-made car was made here,\" area resident Barbara Williams said. Mayor Mike Dinwiddie credits most of the town's growth to the Saturn plant. \"GM, back in the mid 80's, is the reason this town began to grow in the first place,\" he said. Eventually, GM decided to move production elsewhere. The last Saturn made in Tennessee rolled off the line in 2007. After retooling, GM started building the Chevrolet Traverse in Spring Hill, but that production is now on its way out too. In November, it will be moved to a plant in Michigan, leaving Spring Hill's plant idle. The move to shut down Saturn has left some in town disappointed and perplexed. \"It's been a great car,\" remarked Keith Slep who runs an auto repair shop a few miles from the factory. Slep said he hoped Penske would have been able to keep the brand viable. \"He has a track record that won't quit of being a great business man and a good leader. I don't know what happened,\" Slep said. Williams said she was also stunned about the end of Saturn. \"I'm like everyone else, 'How can this happen?' GM has been a forerunner in the automobile industry, and it's just a really sad indictment on what is happening,\" she said. \"We are kind of curious as to why the decisions have been made that have been made,\" Dinwiddie said. \"I do know that what GM is trying to do now as a company -- as far as how they are trying to operate and what they are saying the improvements they need to make -- almost mirror what Saturn was 20 years ago.\" Resident Joyce Avello puts the blame squarely on the federal government. \"It's an abomination what the government is doing to the automotive industry ... Get it out of the government's hands. They don't know how to do cars. They can hardly do the government.\" As for the future of Spring Hill, Dinwiddie is optimistic. \"I have to believe the plant is going to come back. It all depends on the overall economy,\" he said. \"I hope that Americans start buying American products and start supporting the American auto manufacturing industry and if that happens, we'll get a product in this plant.\" Dinwiddie said he has been working with General Motors on a daily basis, and has invited President Obama and the auto recovery czar to come and tour the plant. \"I don't think they understand what this plant is capable of doing and once they see that, I think that they will be well aware of the situation, and I think they could probably give us some help,\" he said. At 94, G.W. Bowman has lived in Spring Hill most of his life and remembers stories of his grandfather collecting the mail in the area during the Civil War. With Saturn gone and the local plant preparing to idle, Bowman said, \"Of course, it's going to hurt, but it's not going to kill Spring Hill.\"","highlights":"Saturn's demise leaves Spring Hill, Tennessee, residents dismayed .\nTown was where the first Saturn rolled off assembly line in 1990 .\nGM announced plans to shut down Saturn brand after Penske fails to reach deal .","id":"8011e25fa44d3c13b7a9ee00f2104f9519e75d65"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elizabeth Taylor is having a \"procedure on her heart,\" she announced on her Twitter page Tuesday. Elizabeth Taylor has used Twitter to share personal information. \"It's very new and involves repairing my leaky valve using a clip device, without open heart surgery, so that my heart will function better,\" the famed actress wrote. \"Any prayers you happen to have lying around I would dearly appreciate. I'll let you know when it's all over. Love you, Elizabeth.\" The 77-year-old Oscar winner did not go into further detail about her heart condition or the medical procedure. She was briefly hospitalized this summer for \"scheduled testing,\" she said at the time. She checked out \"sore, but intact,\" the actress said in an online message posted July 17. Her publicist had denied tabloid rumors that her hospitalization was brought on by her grief over the sudden death of her close friend Michael Jackson in June. Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to publish what they are doing using 140 characters or less. Taylor posts regularly on her account, DameElizabeth, which has more than 155,000 followers. She opened the account this year at the suggestion of her close friend, author and actress Kathy Ireland, publicist Dick Guttman said. She posted emotional messages in July to counter rumors about how she was dealing with the news of Jackson's death. \"Although my grief over Michael could not be any deeper, I am not on suicide watch as some of the cheaper 'rags' would have you believe,\" Taylor wrote July 5. Taylor -- who uses a wheelchair because of scoliosis, or abnormal curving of the spine -- gave fans several days advance notice of her last hospitalization. The London-born movie star has won two Academy Awards for best actress: first for \"Butterfield 8\" in 1961 and then for \"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf\" in 1967.","highlights":"Elizabeth Taylor takes to Twitter to announce surgical procedure .\nActress did not go into detail about heart issue .\nShe has used Twitter to talk about coping with Jackson's death .","id":"7432dd675aa4fa832553b91fda838ce6e5aebd8d"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A man has been arrested in connection with the July shooting death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest, Atlanta police said Tuesday night. Vernon Forrest, seen in September, was killed July 25 near an Atlanta gas station. Demario Ware, 20, turned himself in to police on Tuesday and is being held in the Fulton County jail on charges of murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault, Atlanta police said. Forrest, 38, was shot in a neighborhood southwest of downtown Atlanta on the night of July 25. Police and his longtime manager have said Forrest was robbed, leading to a confrontation in which he was shot several times. Forrest died of multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and thigh, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office said. Information on what led police to suspect Ware in Forrest's death wasn't immediately available. The case still is under investigation, said Officer J. Polite Jr., Atlanta police spokesman. Forrest's longtime friend and manager, Charles Watson, said last month that Forrest was returning from the gym after a late workout when he and his godson stopped at a Southwest Atlanta gas station on the night Forrest was shot. While Forrest was at the gas station, a man snatched his wallet out of his hand after asking him for money, said Watson, who spoke to police and the godson. Atlanta police told CNN affiliate WSB-TV in July that Forrest chased the suspect and that gunfire was exchanged. Forrest was the International Boxing Council junior welterweight champion in 1995, the World Boxing Council continental welterweight champion in 1997, the North American Boxing Federation welterweight champion from 1998 to 2000, the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion in 2001, the WBC welterweight champion in 2002-2003, and the WBC light welterweight champion in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, according to the BoxRec Web site. He was named the World Boxing Hall of Fame fighter of the year in 2002, according to BoxRec. CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: Man, 20, arrested Tuesday in connection with July killing of Vernon Forrest .\nForrest, 38, was robbed and then shot during confrontation, Atlanta police say .\nPolice: Suspect held on charges of murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault .\nForrest was former welterweight and light middleweight boxing champion .","id":"9da4dc19a12b2b92ab2754578245d1217215223d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Known for lederhosen, weisswurst and its beer festival, Munich is a city that counters these brassy cliches with a mix of art, history and style. From onion domes to beer halls, the city of Munich also has more than its fair share to entrance culture vultures. Don't be fooled by the chocolate box architecture in parts of the Altstadt (old town): Munich is the biggest city in the state of Bavaria with an ego to match -- no other state in Germany boasts its own \"national museum.\" Yet the city manages to mix regional traditions with a slice of urban savvy and sophistication. Visitors can take their pick from the cultural attractions and blend a little low and high culture together for a flying visit. The Altstadt is walkable and the place to begin a day with its mix of baroque and gothic architecture. The green onion domes of the Frauenkirche remain visible over the low-rise city center. Mostly destroyed during the Second World War, the Frauenkirche was rebuilt from its rubble and is worth a quick look inside for the peculiar windowless nave -- so designed after the architect made a pact with the devil, apparently. Nearby is Marienplatz and the fine gothic architecture of the new town hall with its ever-so-twee glockenspiel and animated chiming clock. From the Karlsplatz U-Bahn station to Marienplatz you'll find some \"any-town, anywhere\" shopping options, but push on towards Maximilianstrasse and you'll discover where the Munich money goes to splash the cash, although gaudy ostentation isn't a very Muenchner trait. For more down-to-earth shopping a few steps from Marienplatz is the Viktualienmarkt and Schrannenhalle, the former offering food and drink from across Europe and the re-built Schrannenhalle housing a buzzy mix of shops and places to grab a bite to eat. Alternatively the city is dotted with snack bars where you can grab a w\u00fcrst and hope for the best. From the boutiques and brands to the beer cellers. The city becomes a beer-lover magnet every autumn, when international boozers stagger into the city for the annual Oktoberfest beer festival. Things can get messy, but you can get a taste of the beer hall experience any time of year. There are a number of beer halls around the city, one on Marienplatz itself, although the most famous is the Hofbrauhaus a few minutes to the north. But if a darkened, boozy room with an oompah band and the sight of some ill-fitting lederhosen isn't your preferred choice for lunch, there are many cafes and restaurants around the Altstadt to cater for all tastes. Away from the traditional aspects of the city, Munich is a hub for high tech, high art and high rollers. BMW has its HQ here -- auto fans should motor over to its museum. The city also has more than its fair share of world-class cultural attractions. The Residence Museum, National Theater and Museum of Egyptian Art are just a few to be found between Marienplatz and the Hofgarten. Just to the north is one of Europe's largest city parks, the Englischer Garten, scene of the German tradition of the post-prandial walk. The park stretches about 5 km away from the city center. View photos of the Englischer Garten and more of Munich \u00bb . As you're walking through you can duck off to the west and you'll be close to Munich's cultural big hitters, the Pinakothek museums. The Pinakothek triumvirate have enough art and history to span hundreds of years, and take almost as long to see in their entirety. If you've only got a few hours it's a better idea to pick one. The latest edition is the Pinakothek der Moderne, which opened in 2002 and houses an impressive collection of 20th century and contemporary art in an almost equally impressive interior. If you've had your fill of art, take a short walk north and you'll hit the formerly bohemian residential area of Schwabing. Now more well-to-do, the area retains a bit of cultural mix, with the nearby university providing some youthful energy. Independent shops, cafes and bars are dotted around the streets, some catering for student budgets, others for those who paid off their student loans long ago. It's a fine area to stop for some afternoon coffee and cake -- The News Bar has a mix of the local demographic and Cafe Zeitgeist on Turkenstrasse is another choice spot. Further afield, there's the vast, but staid, Deutsches Museum on its own island in the middle of the River Iser, while to the west of the city is Olympic park. It's home to the Tollwood summer and winter festivals, but year round you can get a great view from the tower of the Olympic Stadium of the city and the former home to the city's two football clubs. The Allianz Arena, a huge swirl of a stadium that opened in 2005, is now the home of Bayern and lowly 1860 Munich. Football fans can visit the stadium with daily tours. From the masses to regal splendor, the Nymphenburg Palace was the summer residence of the Wittelbach dynasty that ruled Bavaria for over 700 years until 1919. The grand rooms should sate anyone's need for gold gilt and eighteenth-century grandeur. When evening comes, the city can accommodate those with a hunger for cosmopolitan dining as well as more traditional cuisine. For entertainment, theaters and the city's opera house provide more refined fare, while those in search of some more late-night, grungy fun can head to the complex of bars and clubs of the Kultfabrik -- a former industrial site now offering late-night kicks on an industrial scale. Better than Berlin? What do you think of Munich? Send in your travel tips for the Bavarian city using the Sound Off box below.","highlights":"The biggest city in Bavaria mixes local tradition and cultured sophistication .\nFrom beer halls to 17th-century palaces, visits can be tailored to suit all tastes .\nOktoberfest is an annual exception; city is home to a number of world-class galleries .","id":"22cb6df7430f1f6ae5a1429f495615a3dd137122"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Health officials expect more than 3 million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine to be available in the first week of October. Three flu shot manufacturers were licensed by the FDA last week. \"3.4 million doses of vaccines will be available,\" said Dr. Jay Butler, who heads the 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Task Force at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \"All of that vaccine is the inhalable vaccine,\" he said Friday. That form of vaccine is marketed in the United States as FluMist and is approved only for healthy individuals between the ages of 2 and 49. Pregnant women are not allowed to get this type of vaccine because it contains a live virus. Butler added that he thinks there some flu shots may be available in early October as well, but he had a hard number only for the inhalable vaccine. Flu shots contain an \"inactivated,\" or dead, virus. Take a quiz about the H1N1 flu \u00bb . The 3.4 million doses of vaccine that will be shipped at the beginning of October are the first of 195 million doses the U.S. government has purchased from five vaccine manufacturers, Butler said. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration licensed the vaccine from four of those companies. Sanofi Pasteur, Novartis and CSL Limited all manufacture flu shots, and MedImmune manufactures the inhalable vaccine. GlaxoSmithkline, which also is producing injectable flu vaccine, still needs to have its vaccine approved by the agency. Health officials report that the new H1N1 flu virus has not changed from what was seen earlier this year, so they are expecting the vaccine to be very effective. In some parts of the country, the vaccine can't some soon enough. The deputy director of the CDC's Influenza Division, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, said 21 states are now reporting widespread flu activity. \"It's a very strange thing for us to see that amount of influenza at this time of year\" rather than much later in the flu season. Jernigan said there's been only a small an increase in hospitalizations, mainly among young children and adults. But there has been a lot of activity in outpatient settings. Watch a report on the surprising spread of flu \u00bb . Until the vaccine becomes available, health officials have recommended steps that people can take to cut their chance of getting sick or, for those already sick, prevent the spread of the flu, including frequent handwashing, sneezing into a tissue or sleeve rather than into one's hand, and staying home when sick. Those who are at the highest risk of getting seriously ill -- pregnant women, children, young adults and people with chronic lung or heart disease or diabetes -- should be the first to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus. Health care workers and emergency medical personnel are also encouraged be vaccinated early. \"Our goal is to ultimately make the vaccine available to every American who wishes to be vaccinated,\" Butler said. \"The vaccine demand is hard to predict.\" Learn more about the H1N1 flu from the CDC . According to a CNN\/Opinion Corp. poll conducted in late August, 66 percent of Americans plan to be vaccinated against H1N1 flu. Health care workers may not necessarily be among them. In the past, only about 40 percent of health care workers have been vaccinated against flu, according to the CDC.","highlights":"Inhalable vaccine available only between ages 2 and 49; not for pregnant women .\nSome flu shots will be available in early October as well .\nNew H1N1 has not changed much from earlier virus, officials say .\n21 states are now reporting widespread flu activity .","id":"6077eebc6f82d89aa80f69129bd1bce27251aba9"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Florida high school student was killed Tuesday by another student during an altercation at the school, officials said. One student was killed following an argument between first and second periods, police at the scene said. The incident occurred just after 9 a.m. at Coral Gables Senior High School in Coral Gables, the officials said. The school was placed on lockdown after the incident. Two students were arguing between the first and second period at the school, and one produced a weapon and killed the other, police at the scene told reporters. Miami-Dade Public Schools identified the victim Tuesday afternoon as Juan Carlos Rivera, 17. The students involved were both males, the district said. CNN affiliate WSVN reported the student was killed in the courtyard area of the school, where the 17-year-old was stabbed in the chest. A suspect was taken into custody just after the incident and was being interviewed, officials said. His name was not released. Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said students' parents were being contacted after the incident, and crisis psychologists were being made available to students, faculty and parents. Watch as bystanders gather at the Florida high school \u00bb . \"I think we need to understand that whether it's Liberty City, Opa-Locka or Coral Gables, children are responding to everyday stressful situations in very negative ways,\" Carvalho said. \"... Random acts of violence like the one we saw here today are almost not preventable.\" Coral Gables is about 8 miles southwest of Miami. CNN's Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Victim identified in high school stabbing in Coral Gables, Florida .\nNEW: Juan Carlos Rivera, 17, was killed in altercation in school courtyard area .\nA male suspect is taken into custody, but police do not identify him .\nSuperintendent: Violent acts such as this \"are almost not preventable\"","id":"e07d287fd95bad94bd7d960eab083c0a16a5e67d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Garrison Keillor, author and host of the folksy radio show \"A Prairie Home Companion,\" was being treated Wednesday for a minor stroke he suffered over the weekend, a hospital spokesman said. Author Garrison Keillor attends an event in New York on November 18, 2008. Keillor, who turned 67 last month, was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on Sunday night, spokesman Karl Oestreich said in a news release. \"He is up and moving around, speaking sensibly, working at a laptop, and it's expected he'll be released on Friday,\" Oestreich said. \"He plans to resume a normal schedule next week.\" The live variety show \"A Prairie Home Companion\" is aired on Minnesota Public Radio. Keillor launched the program on July 6, 1974, in a St. Paul, Minnesota, college theater before an audience of 12 people. According to a \"Backstage Chat\" on the show, Keillor got the idea for it from watching the Grand Ole Opry. Keillor, also a storyteller and satirist, has written 11 books, including three for children. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.","highlights":"Garrison Keillor, 67, was admitted to a hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, on Sunday .\nSpokesman: \"He plans to resume a normal schedule next week\"\nKeillor is expected to be released from the hospital on Friday .","id":"42e8906e52acd6d32e0c13d9aaaccb7b1ed18d9c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized Thursday after falling ill in her chambers, the court confirmed. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became ill in her chambers on Thursday. Ginsburg, 76, felt faint, light-headed and fatigued about 4:50 p.m., around an hour after receiving a treatment for iron deficiency, the court said in a statement. She was monitored by an in-house physician, who performed blood tests and found her to be in stable health. Her symptoms improved, though she was taken to the Washington Hospital Center as a precaution at about 7:45 p.m., according to the court statement. Ginsburg had surgery in February for pancreatic cancer. She termed the removal of her cancer \"successful\" and was back on the bench 18 days later when the high court resumed oral arguments. Ginsburg, who was appointed by President Clinton, has been on the Supreme Court since 1993. She was the second woman appointed to the court.","highlights":"Ruth Bader Ginsburg feels faint, light-headed and fatigued about 4:50 p.m.\nThe 76-year-old Supreme Court Justice had treatment for iron deficiency hour earlier .\nShe's sent to Washington Hospital Center as a precaution at about 7:45 p.m.","id":"0b74f694e057a564258dc55d8276cf426a63e84a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The American man who swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in Myanmar said Thursday he still believes he did the right thing, even though his visit led to an extension of the pro-democracy leader's house arrest. John Yettaw told Aung San Suu Kyi he had a vision she would be murdered. John Yettaw, 53, swam across a lake to Suu Kyi's home in May and stayed for two days before authorities arrested him along with Suu Kyi and two of her staff. His presence violated the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest -- which was about to expire -- leading a judge to extend it by another 18 months. But Yettaw said he made the trip to Yangon to save Suu Kyi from assassination, and that it was successful. What critics have described as a \"stunt\" brought enough attention to her plight, he said, to ensure that Suu Kyi could not be killed by the country's ruling military junta. Yettaw said on CNN's \"American Morning\" that he is \"grateful that she's alive, grateful that the entire world is watching and there's no way these generals are ever going to try to assassinate her.\" To many, however, his visit did more harm than good. Some thought he might be mentally ill to attempt what he did -- an idea he rejects, though he says he can understand why people believe it. But Yettaw said he had no idea that Suu Kyi would be arrested and put on trial for something that he would do. \"I wept every day and I've suffered every day\" because of the punishment she received, he told CNN. He called her sentence \"heartbreaking.\" The case of Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been the symbol of the country's opposition for two decades, first came to Yettaw's attention when he was in Thailand and saw her photograph. \"I instantly had a premonition, or a vision, that I saw myself going through a lake and over a fence and was at a back door of a house,\" he told CNN. \"Then (I) Googled from there and realized she lived next to Inya Lake and I got a visa to get into Yangon. And I thought, since this has been presented to me, I'm going to make this happen.\" The retired bus driver and Vietnam veteran from Missouri told his wife only that he had a premonition he would become a political prisoner in Myanmar. She told her husband not to go, but he went anyway. In November 2008, Yettaw said, he managed to swim across the lake and leave scriptures from the Book of Mormon for Suu Kyi. But later he had a vision that Suu Kyi would be assassinated, so he decided to make another trip. That was the fateful trip on May 3. \"The second time that I came was the same route, in through the sewer tunnel and into the water,\" he said. \"But this time of year the water level was much lower and I had two bags filled with a lot of stuff, and so I had to military-crawl with these two bags and I got caught. Two soldiers spotted me. \"Fortunately, by the time they got close to me, I rolled over into the water with my bags which were tied together, and I literally was walking through the water and they were frightened. They, I don't think, saw me -- they saw this bag floating through the water and moving at a consistent rate, so they started throwing rocks at it. And inside I prayed, 'What do I do?' and the only response that I felt, inspiration, was 'keep walking.' And that's what I did.\" Yettaw managed to reach Suu Kyi's house and was able to explain that he had a vision she would be murdered. He said Suu Kyi didn't think he was crazy, and she was \"absolutely\" happy to see him. Yettaw was arrested and convicted of violating immigration laws, municipal laws, and the conditions of Suu Kyi's house arrest. He was sentenced to seven years of hard labor, though he was freed this month after U.S. Sen. Jim Webb traveled to Myanmar and intervened in his case. After his arrest, Yettaw said, he spent two and a half weeks under armed guard and was subject to interrogation at any hour of the day or night. Suu Kyi was initially sentenced to three years in prison after a military court found her guilty of violating her house arrest, but the head of the junta later commuted it to 18 months of home confinement. Suu Kyi's two housekeepers, who are her sole companions in her heavily guarded residence, also were sentenced to 18 months of house arrest to be served alongside Suu Kyi. The opposition leader told the court she didn't know Yettaw, was unaware of his plans to visit, and didn't report his intrusion because she didn't want him to get in trouble. Yettaw insists he saved Suu Kyi's life. He said the ordeal has made him value the rights people have in the United States. \"I'm so grateful we live in a country where we have freedom of speech, and over there (in Myanmar), where they speak the truth, they're killed and imprisoned,\" Yettaw told CNN. \"I want you to know that even on our worst day ... the United States is one of the greatest nations in the world.\" Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989. The following year, her National League for Democracy party won more than 80 percent of the legislative seats in the first free elections in the country in nearly 30 years. The military junta disqualified Suu Kyi from serving because of her house arrest, annulled the election results and refused to step down. The government has said next year's scheduled elections will reintroduce democracy in Myanmar. But its rules forbids citizens who bore children with foreigners from running for office. That makes Suu Kyi ineligible because she married a British man and has two sons with him.","highlights":"John Yettaw: Made the trip to Yangon to save Suu Kyi from assassination .\nSaid he had no idea pro-democracy leader would be arrested and put on trial .\nYettaw had swam uninvited to Suu Kyi's house and stayed for three days .\nThe visit to her home violated her house arrest terms, Myanmar government says .","id":"cf2e2d1e19339832fb6c3b007af3f813557cccd7"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Punctuation promises comedy in \"The Informant!\" as if the title subject is a cartoon secret agent -- maybe Agent 86 in \"Get Smart.\" Matt Damon, as a corporate turncoat, offers up secrets in \"The Informant!\" But he's not. The whistle-blower worthy of an exclamation point in this groovy-looking, chuckle-baiting, fact-based movie from protean director Steven Soderbergh is Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a biochemist and well-placed executive at the agri-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Decatur, Illinois. It's the early 1990s. The company man is helping expose ADM's alleged global price-fixing activities to the FBI, cooperating with the feds long enough to gather invaluable evidence. But what Whitacre doesn't confide to his FBI handlers, and what his wheat-colored jackets, Dilbert ties, and weakling mustache hide, at least at first, is that this inside source is not completely trustworthy. Damon, fattened up to fit his boxy suits, wears Whitacre's slack demeanor beautifully. The star -- who has quietly and steadily turned into a great Everyman actor -- is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies. Watch why Damon gained 30 pounds for the role \u00bb . Soderbergh's amused study of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history is adapted from \"The Informant: A True Story,\" an amazing, deeply reported book by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald. That book told the story without editorial eye-rolling. But somewhere between Eichenwald's journalistic attention to detail and the bubbly, dialogue-besotted script by \"The Bourne Ultimatum's\" Scott Z. Burns, Soderbergh has chosen to apply an attitude of arch whoopee, a greasy veneer of mirth over what is, no joke, a serious mess of malfeasance and mental instability. It's tempting to laugh, but what's the joke: Whitacre? ADM? The FBI? The fashion trends of Decatur? Smarty condescension lurks behind the suburban bushes. Had a '90s date and place card not been supplied, I would have remained in an honest muddle about the era depicted on screen. And since Whitacre is subliminally likened to bumbling, fictional Maxwell Smart, that's probably as the filmmaker intended. The artistic choice is reinforced by a '70s-era \"Laugh-In\" aesthetic seen in everything from the smiley yellow novelty typography of the opening credits to the fancy rubber-chicken music served up in heaps of horns and whistles by essence-of-'70s composer Marvin Hamlisch. Sock it to me. Playing it straight and letting his Sam-Donaldson-meets-Spock hairdo suggest otherwise, Scott Bakula makes an appealing FBI agent with a deadpan grimace just this side -- or maybe it's the other side -- of \"Dragnet's\" Joe Friday. Comedian Joel McHale from E!'s \"The Soup\" plays the fellow agent who stares with big round eyes while his partner squints at Whitacre's successive leakages of truth\/lie\/ truth\/lie. The always wonderful, huggable Melanie Lynskey, who stole the show in \"Away We Go,\" does more great wifely work as Ginger Whitacre, her husband's biggest booster. A valued subset of Soderbergh's audience is sure to dig iconic hipster comic brothers Tom and Dick Smothers in small roles. In fact, the wily pair would fit right in with an \"Ocean's Whatever\" cast of coolios, enjoying some retro-style ensemble fun, regardless of whether the audience does. Soderbergh is as smart, stylish, and attentive a filmmaker as they come. And there are moments in \"The Informant!\" when I can almost be convinced that the tonal feints he establishes at the intersection of joke and no-joke are seriously, thoughtfully meant to replicate the misaligned synapses in Whitacre's own head. iReport.com: Damon's latest worth checking out . But if that's the intention, Soderbergh ultimately made the choice to abandon interesting, dispassionate empathy for the more quick-fix payoff of amusement. As Whitacre goes through his days, Damon recites interior monologues of distracted observation in voice-overs meant to demonstrate how his character's unusual brain works. In \"The Informant!\", that brain -- screwy and yet capable of doing important undercover work -- free-associates like Ellen DeGeneres on a swing through Walmart. Cute, but as even Agent 86 would say in \"Get Smart\": Missed it by that much. EW Grade: B . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"The Informant!\" stars Matt Damon as corporate worker giving info to FBI .\nDamon's character is an untrustworthy provider, and actor's performance great .\nBut movie plays situations too much for laughs, says EW .\n\"The Informant!\" is directed by Steven Soderbergh .","id":"3eb6718cae8bcf126e020f30fae55ed1f151ed88"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Muslims around the world woke up Sunday and welcomed the end of a long month of fasting with hearty greetings of \"Eid Mubarak,\" or happy festivities. Egyptian women perform the Eid al-Fitr dawn prayer at a stadium in Mansura, 120 km north of Cairo. The faithful were ushering in Eid al-Fitr -- three days of celebrations that Muslims mark with joyous community prayers, acts of charity, visits from far-flung relatives, gift-giving and elaborate feasts. \"Think Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's -- all rolled into one. It's that huge for us,\" said Sajjad Aziz of Hoboken, New Jersey. Islam follows a lunar calendar, and the timing of Eid al-Fitr varies around the world depending on when the crescent of a new moon is sighted. So, while most countries -- including the United States -- observed Eid on Sunday, some will begin their celebrations on Monday. The night before Eid, entire communities gather on rooftops, scanning the sky with giddy anticipation. \"It only needs one sighting of the moon in the whole country, and the whole nation erupts in cheers,\" said Qazi Arif, 35, of Sirajgong, Bangladesh. \"It's a divine feeling, hard to describe.\" Eid al-Fitr bids goodbye to Ramadan -- a month of dawn-to-dusk abstinence from food, drinks and other sensual pleasures. Muslims believe the Quran, the religion's holy book, was revealed to Prophet Muhammad during Ramadan more than 1,400 years ago. The Eid is one of two major holidays in Islam, alongside another called Eid al-Adha. The latter commemorates the prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, for God. On the morning of Eid, Muslims don new clothes and head to prayers that are often held in open fields to accommodate crowds too big to contain in mosques. Those who can afford it donate a small percentage of their possession or its equivalent to the poor and needy so they too can avail themselves for the celebrations. Feasts await at every house. \"It's a festival principally about community. We're even asked to take a different route when we walk back from prayers so that we can meet different sets of people to greet and celebrate with,\" said Wasim Iqbal of Karachi, Pakistan. For Muslims in North America -- and countries where they are the minority -- Eid is a more subdued affair. \"If you have family close by, then you can kind of capture the mood that you remember from back home,\" said Abdallah Gamal, a native of Egypt who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. \"But it's not the same.\" Because the U.S. Census does not ask about religious affiliation, it is difficult to gauge the Muslim population in the United States. The Pew Muslim American study conducted two years ago estimated it at 2.5 million, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations places it as high as 6 million. On Saturday, both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered greetings to American Muslims. \"We know there is more than unites peoples of faith than divides us,\" Clinton said. \"So as Ramadan draws to a close, let us hold on to that spirit of community throughout the year to achieve our common goals of peace, prosperity and stability.\" It is a message that Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, also shared during Eid prayers when he called on the Taliban to join the peace process in his war-weary country. The day wasn't one of universal comity, however. In Yemen, the government and rebels accused each other Saturday of breaking a cease-fire they both asked for to commemorate Eid. And Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei used his Eid sermon to launch another volley at the country's arch-rival Israel and at Western powers. \"We're not quite there, I'll will admit,\" said Mehreen Ali of Boston, Massachusetts. \"But have you seen an Eid prayer? Rows and rows of Muslims all prostrating together in unison. It's a feeling of such unity and brotherhood. You have to believe that with that spirit present, anything is possible.\"","highlights":"Eid al-Fitr marks end of Ramadan -- dawn-to-dusk abstinence from food, drinks .\nTiming of Eid varies around world depending on when crescent of new moon sighted .\nOn the morning of Eid, Muslims don new clothes and head to prayers .\nOn Saturday Barack Obama offered greetings to American Muslims .","id":"99327819e99aacabee7d098497bc1e2c390b644f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actor Michael Jai White thinks the negative connotation surrounding the term \"blaxploitation film\" is a bunch of jive. Michael Jai White stars in the new spoof \"Black Dynamite.\" \"The problem I have with the word is that it seems to encompass movies that don't fall under that category,\" White said. \"As soon as you hear the title 'Shaft' people think 'blaxploitation' and that is absolutely unfair because that film was made before the term even existed.\" White, the star and co-writer of the new movie \"Black Dynamite,\" would rather people focus on what he views as the positives of the genre of 1970s urban action films starring African-American actors. His new movie, which opened in limited release last weekend and will start going wider, follows the exploits of Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent who takes to the streets after his brother is killed by the mafia, orphanages are flooded with drugs and some bad malt liquor finds its way into the 'hood. It is both a spoof of, and homage to, the genre whose films like \"Black Caesar,\" \"The Mac,\" \"Foxy Brown,\" and \"Superfly\" have developed a cult following over the years. \"Black Dynamite\" caught the eye of Sony Pictures at the Sundance Film Festival and the studio acquired the rights to distribute the film. A viral marketing campaign helped whip up anticipation for the movie, which also features former late-night talk show host Arsenio Hall and \"In Living Color\" cast member Tommy Davidson as pimps. Director Scott Sanders said he has always been fascinated by the fact that while blaxploitation really only grabbed hold of the industry for about five years during the early 1970s, it was so influential. \"It was such an extreme genre with the look and the music and there were really no boundaries or rules,\" he said. \"It's always been a fascination for me given how much it influenced hip-hop, black culture and culture as a whole, given the brevity.\" White, best known for his roles in the films \"Spawn\" and Tyler Perry's \"Why Did I Get Married,\" said he is a huge fan of blaxploitation films and views his movie as a loving send-up. While he is aware that some of the films were unintentionally funny with their low-budget gaffes -- such as the appearance of mic booms in some scenes -- and their stereotypes, White said the genre is a valued part of the movie industry's history. \"These movies really saved Hollywood because the studio system was in trouble and they learned that they had a cash cow with these films,\" he said. \"Later they exploited it by making any movie and throwing the term 'black' in front of it and that's what made it exploitive.\" They also gave African-American actors a chance to work and reflected a people's pride following the gains of the civil rights era. Laurence Washington, managing editor and co-publisher of Blackflix.com, said the movies helped young, black fans like him realize that \"when we grow up we don't have to be train porters, busboys and waiters.\" The films instead portrayed handsome, brave and suave black heroes who always got the girl, Washington said. \"When the blaxploitation films came out in the '70s, black audiences had never had action film heroes they could identify with,\" he said. \"[The movies] also opened the door for today's black actors and directors to enter the mainstream.\" Darius James, author of \"That's Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury),\" said blaxploitation films were like any other film that appeal to a specific audience, such as the indie movies of Roger Corman and Russ Meyer. James said he grew up seeing civil rights workers beaten and hosed on television and the movies came out time when there was a sense of defiance and resistance against the marginalization of African-Americans. \"These films, black exploitation films, reflected that spirit,\" James said. White said he wishes there were more action films starring black actors these days. The films of the past were fearless and about true emotion, he said. \"The 'black is beautiful' movement had taken off and there was so much pride,\" White said. \"When they called each other 'brother' they meant it.\" \"The heroes were strong, sexy and they kicked ass.\" \"I ask 'Where is that now?' I would like people to look at our film and say: 'Where are the black actors like that now?' \" Jay Potts, the cartoonist behind World of Hurt -- which bills itself as \"The Internet's #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic\" -- said he hopes \"Black Dynamite\" furthers interest in the genre. And while \"blaxploitation\" is a convenient moniker to lump in films that may not have always had the best production value, Potts said they were a testament to an era. \"The films came out at a time when black people were learning about themselves and flexing their creative muscles,\" Potts said. \"To me, there was a lot of fun, had a lot of energy and while it always wasn't perfect by any means there was so much life in it that I hope people take another look.\"","highlights":"\"Black Dynamite\" spoofs the blaxploitation genre .\nFilm stars Michael Jai White, who says he is a fan of the movies .\nDirector Scott Sanders says genre greatly influenced the culture .\nAuthor says films reflected a post civil rights era spirit .","id":"8a3e92d69ea5da38753f14ea0f323b0b44bffe09"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Investigators have found the knife believed to have been used in the stabbing of a University of California, Los Angeles student in a chemistry lab, authorities said Friday. A student stabbing victim is recovering at UCLA Medical Center, authorities say. The 20-year-old, whose identity has not been released, is being treated at the UCLA hospital for multiple stab wounds, including ones to her neck, sustained in the Thursday attack. Police have arrested Damon Thompson, a 20-year-old UCLA senior, who is accused of stabbing the woman at the lab in Young Hall. He is being held on $1 million bail. The knife was found at the scene of the attack on Thursday, Detective Mike Pelletier told CNN, though he did not disclose details about the weapon. A statement Friday from the victim's family said, \"She is showing signs of improvement, and her surgeons expect a good result as she continues to heal.\" Last month, Connecticut authorities found the body of a 24-year-old pharmacology graduate student inside a wall of a lab building at Yale University. She had been strangled. Raymond Clark III, 24, a lab technician at Yale, is charged with murder in Annie Le's death. CNN's Monica Trevino and Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police have not released name of woman student stabbed in chemistry lab .\nAnother UCLA student has been arrested in the case, is held on $1 million bond .\nVictim's family says she is recovering, \"showing signs of improvement\"","id":"8700d2590af27e8290d045019701c0134a6a96f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Henry Olszewski was stoked in 2008 when he, along with millions of Americans, drafted New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to his fantasy football team. Tom Brady's season-ending knee injury last year sparked an idea at Intermarket Insurance. About eight minutes into the season, a 220-pound safety was blocked into Brady's knee, tearing two of the quarterback's ligaments. Brady's season ended, as did Olszewski's. \"That Monday, [Olszewski] came in the office, and he was bummed out,\" said Anthony Giaccone, president of Intermarket Insurance. \"He asked, 'Why can't we buy insurance for fantasy team players?' \" Thus spawned the brainchild for Fantasy Sports Insurance, which guarantees that NFL players won't miss a certain number of games. FSI will reimburse a fantasy player's entry fee if they do. It's one of a blitz of bizarre businesses cropping up in the $800 million industry of turning quarterback stats to greenbacks, said Paul Charchian, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. See fantasy football's top 10 prospects \u00bb . Charchian is familiar with the wellspring of offbeat companies fueled by the fantasy football craze; he owns LeagueSafe, which stores league entry fees in a bank until it issues a payout to the winner at season's end. Other specialty businesses, he said, range from the obvious, such as trophy companies, to the esoteric, such as fantasy dispute resolution. You read the last one correctly. Web sites like fantasydispute.com and sportsjudge.com offer to mitigate fretful fantasy feuds. Think there was collusion in a trade or your league commissioner is playing favorites? Write up your dispute and send it to one of the sites. For $15, a lawyer will settle your quibble. For the uninitiated: Fantasy football players generally \"draft\" NFL quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends and team defenses and use their statistics each week to score points in head-to-head matchups. Countless variations have proliferated, as have magazines and Web sites beholden only to fantasy players. Sort the top picks by position at SI.com . The NFL has introduced the RedZone Channel, which flips between games where a team is on the verge of scoring, CBSsports.com has launched a live Web show called \"Fantasy Football Today,\" and cable's FX is scheduled to air a sitcom based on a fantasy football league this year. The stakes have skyrocketed as well. The World Championship of Football offers a $300,000 top prize. The Fantasy Football Open Championship's is $1 million. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that a group of well-heeled financiers has a 10-team league with a $100,000 entry fee. A June study by the research company Ipsos says three in 20 American men (and one in 20 women) play some fantasy sport. \"It takes the fans of one sports team and makes them interested in every game that's happening,\" said Jason Kint, senior vice president and general manager for CBSsports.com. \"It's a welcome escape, as much of sports is right now.\" Not all fans are enamored, however. ESPN's Colin Cowherd explained his aversion on his radio show last month, saying fantasy football was too time-consuming and, in his experience, for \"total nerds and geeks.\" \"I'm a gambler, lived in Vegas. My friends are gamblers. We don't play fantasy football,\" he said. \"We're busy. We have jobs. We have careers. We have lives. We don't have time for three-hour draft parties and an hour or two on the computer every week to update our fullback situation.\" But more than 22 million Americans and Canadians do, Charchian said, and the economic downturn doesn't seem to be sacking the industry. \"It's hard to get out. It's enmeshed in your social circle,\" he explained. Also, with most leagues costing less than $10 a week and with the average player spending nine hours weekly researching and tweaking his or her roster, \"the dollar-per-entertainment value is really advantageous,\" Charchian said. Fantasy players at CBSsports.com spent an average of 102 minutes per visit on the site, according to Nielsen data from last year. The site has more users willing to pay to play, whereas competitors like NFL.com and Yahoo! host predominantly free games, \"so it's more meaningful to them,\" Kint said. Kint could not divulge specific figures but said \"millions\" play CBSsports.com's free and pay games. Entry fees and related fantasy products make up about 30 percent of the site's non-advertising revenue, he said. Advertisers are getting wise to the \"coveted market,\" comprised largely of young, educated males, Kint said, as evidenced by the site's partnerships with Ford, Snickers, Buffalo Wild Wings and Dave & Buster's. \"When people are down and depressed, they look for escapes. Fantasy football fills that void like booze and anything else that kind of distracts you,\" said Ed Reichow, owner of Titlecraft, which builds custom trophies only for fantasy footballers. Reichow had the idea after a decade of making trophies for his personal fantasy league. He sold 70 trophies in his first year and is on track to sell more than 100 this year. They are handcrafted from materials such as cherry, Carpathian elm and Swarovski crystal and range in price from $129 to $799, he said. \"It's something you can really pass down if you want to,\" he said. \"And the wife isn't going to get upset if you put it on the mantle, because it's nicer than some of the furniture in the room.\" But what would the wife think about buying insurance policies on your fantasy football players? Some spouses must be OK with it because, FSI's Giaccone reported, business has been threefold what he expected -- this, despite that it costs considerably more, percentagewise, to insure a fantasy quarterback than it does a real quarterback. Chris Nash, an underwriter with Australia-based Sportscover, which insures athletes, said the average U.S. football player pays up to 4 percent of the sum insured. FSI's products range between 10 percent and 15 percent of the league entry fee. Despite the contrast, Giaccone described fantasy insurance as a must-have for fantasy die-hards. He went so far as to question the sanity of some fantasy players who might ignore his product. \"If you are playing fantasy sports and you have Tom Brady on your team, you'd be crazy not to insure him,\" he said.","highlights":"Magazines, Web sites, TV shows spin off $800 million fantasy football industry .\nTwo sites offer real lawyers to settle fantasy-sports disputes for $15 each .\nExperts: Game provides cheap entertainment, \"welcome escape\" from hard times .\nPrizes include $1 million, trophies made of Carpathian elm, Swarovski crystal .","id":"96fa9517328500e9207a61707bb22fb0bc774db3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five members of a family were found slain in their Beason, Illinois, home, authorities said Tuesday, and they urged people in the area to be cautious until the killer is found. Police officers stand patrol outside the Gee household late Monday evening. \"This was a brutal homicide against an entire family and we are determined to identify and arrest those responsible,\" Logan County Sheriff Steve Nichols said in a news conference. He said authorities received a 911 call about a possible shooting at the home shortly before 4:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. ET) Monday. When law enforcement officials arrived, they discovered the five bodies, Nichols said. He identified the dead as Raymond Gee, 46; Ruth Gee, 39; Justina Constant, 16; Dillon Constant, 14; and Austin Gee, 11. One survivor, a 3-year-old girl, is in a hospital in Peoria, Illinois, he said. He did not identify the girl. The sheriff did not release the manner of death, but said autopsies were under way Tuesday. He warned people in the area to be cautious. \"Until we find this person, we would consider this person armed and dangerous,\" Nichols said. He did not release any further details, and it was not immediately clear if authorities had identified a suspect. \"Leads have been developed and are being vigorously pursued,\" he said, without elaborating. Beason is about 45 miles northeast of Springfield, Illinois. CNN's Kara Devlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"This was a brutal homicide against an entire family,\" sheriff says .\nOne survivor, a 3-year-old girl, hospitalized in Peoria, Illinois .\nKillings occurred in Beason, Illinois, about 45 miles northeast of Springfield .\nThe latest on the investigation on tonight's Nancy Grace, HLN 8pm and 10pm ET .","id":"8443e043460185b7303c84a5d367d2be08f6d097"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar of Springdale, Arkansas, are the parents of 18 children, and their family is the focus of a TLC network reality series. Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar say they are grateful for their 18 children, and may have more. Joy Behar, guest host Thursday night on \"Larry King Live,\" asked the Duggars how they are able to stay debt free with such a large family and what they thought of Nadya Suleman, the single mother who recently gave birth to octuplets after having fertility treatments. Following is a transcript of their conversation. Joy Behar: Let me ask you something. What is your reaction to this octomom? Nadya Suleman, the story. What do you think about that? Michelle Duggar: Well, I just know from my own heart, I can't judge and look at her and judge her situation. I just know from my heart, and personally God changed our heart about children years ago. And so we've kind of gone about it the old-fashioned way. And so we are enjoying each one of the blessings that God has given us, and we're thankful for each one of them. Behar: Right, at least you guys enjoyed having the babies, you went through the sex then the giving birth. This woman didn't have any of that, except the giving birth, which must have been rough, don't you think? Michelle Duggar: Oh, my, I can't imagine. I had twins, but I have -- I just can't imagine having eight at once and the responsibility that that brings. Behar: Why do you suppose this woman has provoked such negativity? They have a \"USA Today\" Gallup poll saying 70 percent of those surveyed are unsympathetic to this woman. What is going on? Michelle Duggar: Well, you know, I feel like probably more than anything it's just the fact of the responsibility issues from their perspective, and I, you know, I imagine that's probably more of the animosity that's out there. And so -- but I do -- I just can't imagine, you know, her -- how she's going to handle that many little ones under the age of 8. That's a lot of little ones all at once. Jim Bob Duggar: We just need to pray for her. Behar: But you guys haven't experienced that kind of hostility for the children you have. Is that because you're married? Michelle Duggar: I don't know. I think maybe, you know, being that God's given ours one or two at a time and we've kind of done it the old-fashioned way, I don't know. We love them, we're enjoying them, and by God's grace we're taking care of them if he gives us one more. So I just think we're grateful. Behar: I understand that you guys are debt free. I can't even imagine how you pulled that off. ... How did you do that? Jim Bob Duggar: Well, back about 18 years ago, we saw Jim Sammons' financial seminar on DVD, and it was life-changing. At that point, we purposed to try to get out of debt and try to stay out of debt. And our family motto is to buy used and save the difference. We shop a lot at garage sales, thrift stores. Michelle Duggar: Auctions. We bought our industrial kitchen equipment that way, our vehicles that way, and so we really cut corners and we live very frugally. Jim Bob Duggar: That's right, we've never bought a new vehicle. So we do live -- we try to -- we know how to stretch a dollar. Behar: How many cars do you have? Jim Bob Duggar: We actually have probably about, what? Seven or eight right now? Michelle Duggar: We have a lot of drivers, which is great. Behar: Seven or eight cars, well, that's an expensive proposition, isn't it? Do you get public assistance of any kind? Jim Bob Duggar: No, we don't -- we've never had any public assistance. Just like our 21-passenger bus, we bought at a sealed-bid auction for $2,100, we bought an '04 Suburban at an auction for like $7,000. Instead of $40,000 on a vehicle we ... Behar: Yeah, I got it. I see what you're doing. But you have a book deal and a TV show. That's got to help. Do you think the octomom could get a TV show like you have? That might help her a lot. Michelle Duggar: I could not imagine having that many little ones and being busy with a show. I think for our situation, our children are a lot older and our heart is really to just share with other families, encourage them that children are a gift and enjoy them while you have them because they grow up really fast. And so ... Behar: Well, you keep having more. But you have plenty to still enjoy. They keep coming. I don't see that you're ever going to have an empty nest syndrome. They're going to be there. Michelle Duggar: I hope not. Behar: You guys will never be alone. Michelle Duggar: We look forward to grandbabies, then. That'll be fun. Behar: You know, let me ask you one more question about her. If she did get involved in doing a reality show like you guys are doing, do you have any advice for her? What kind of show should she have? Maybe she needs a baseball team or something. What advice could you give her? Michelle Duggar: I don't -- I really -- I don't know. Jim Bob Duggar: Yeah, I think it's a full-time job just taking care of the children while they're young. Maybe 10 years from now when the kids are 10 years old, that might be an option. But when they're all small, I think there's a lot of needs. And so, I think, she'll have her hands full. As I know when we had seven that were 7 and under, it was a very busy time. Behar: Are you going to have some more, Michelle? Jim Bob Duggar: I've always left it up to Michelle. Michelle Duggar: We'll see. We'll take it one at a time. I would love more, but we'll see if the Lord sees fit and blesses us with another one. Behar: Do you ever say to Jim Bob, get away from me, I have a headache? Jim Bob Duggar: Actually, I can't keep her away from me. Behar: Oh, boy. You guys are funny. OK, thanks so much for sharing your time with us yet again. Good luck to you both. Michelle Duggar: Thank you. Jim Bob Duggar: Thank you, Joy.","highlights":"Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have 18 children, are subject of reality show .\nThe Duggars have managed to stay debt-free by buying used and saving difference .\nMichelle on octuplets' mom: \"I just can't imagine having eight at once\"\nMaybe when octuplets are older, mom could handle doing reality show, Jim Bob says .","id":"375ad61db7318d82eef5312062025c9e26e67adb"} -{"article":"(PopSci.com) -- Until last December, no one had ever seen the bottom of the Tasman Fracture, a trench that drops more than four kilometers below the surface of the ocean. A group of Australian and American researchers recently spent a month hundreds of kilometers southwest of the Tasmanian coast, exploring the fracture's depths. This funnel-shaped sea squirt, never before seen, will snap shut like a Venus flytrap around shrimp that are unfortunate enough to go near it. Jess Adkins, a professor at Caltech and one of the project's lead scientists, remembers sitting in his control room and watching the underwater life on his monitors with a sense of awe. Once, he says, none of the scientists or pilots said a word for 10 minutes straight as their submersible glided over an undiscovered coral reef full of urchins and sponges and sea stars. The researchers explored the fracture with Jason, a remotely-operated submersible the size of a small car. On loan from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, it carried a high-definition camera that weighed more than 500 pounds and beamed underwater video up to the ship through a long fiber-optic tether. At 3,000 meters below sea level, the crew saw thousands of sea spiders. At 3,500, millions of specimens of a new, purple-spotted sea anemone. At 4,000 meters, a single never-before-seen carnivorous sea squirt with a funnel-shaped body that snapped shut like a Venus flytrap around any shrimp unfortunate enough to brush against it. Back on land, the three new species (the anemone, the sea squirt, and a new kind of barnacle) have drawn the most attention, but it's the team's coral collection, some 10,000 pieces of it, that can tell us about the history of our climate and, perhaps, its future. A coral skeleton acts as a tape recorder of its environment. As it grows, the coral's chemical structure (specifically the weight of its oxygen molecules) varies depending on the temperature of the water around it. And, because the coral's uranium decays into thorium over time, it is conveniently datable. By charting different corals' ages and oxygen weights, researchers can map the ocean's changing temperature. During the coming months, expedition scientists will compare 40,000 years of oceanic and atmospheric records. The ocean's temperature and carbon dioxide levels are important because of their impact on our atmosphere. The watery part of the world absorbs and stores sixty times more CO2 than the atmosphere. Huge reservoirs of the ocean's CO2 lurk in its coldest, densest waters (found in the Tasman Fracture and off Greenland). Because cold water releases more CO2 into the air than warm water, the rate at which bottom water rises to the surface has a profound effect on the atmosphere above. Until recently, we had assumed that our climate was relatively stable. After all, for the past 10,000 years -- during which we developed the alphabet, electrical wiring, and microchip necessary for this article -- little has changed. But early-'90s research on Greenland's ice core proved that, over the past 100,000 years, climate stability has been the exception, not the norm. During the last glacial period, global temperatures fluttered up and down by as much as several degrees in as little as a decade. CO2 levels in the atmosphere changed along with the temperature, though more slowly. The researchers' ultimate goal is to see if changes in the ocean followed or proceeded changes in the atmosphere. Adkins suspects that the ocean (and in particular the depths of the ocean) played a part in triggering the climate's sudden fluctuations. He's sure, though, that we're adding more CO2 to the ocean now, in the form of burning fossil fuels, than it has ever held before. Given how little we know about how the ocean regulates the amount of CO2 in our air (we've mapped the surface of Mars, he points out, but not the ocean floor) he wonders if that's such a good idea. We do know that increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the ocean makes it more acidic. And whether or not it sets off a climate shift of Pleistocenic proportions, acidification could kill the researchers' newly-discovered, awe-inspiring reef, along with others we haven't even found yet. There would be just as much ocean to study, but less to find. Copyright \u00a9 2009 Popular Science .","highlights":"Scientists studied the Tasman Fracture, a deep trench in the ocean .\nThey used a remote-controlled machine which sent back video .\nDiscoveries included a new anemone, the sea squirt and a new kind of barnacle .","id":"25874b02f2d9cf0307b04886c0ad54d82cd8f91a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When an earthquake threatens to turn part of an ocean into fast-moving walls of water, tsunami warning scientists can do nothing for the first five minutes except wait for information. But within the next five minutes, they have to decide whether to issue a warning of danger. Brian Shiro has been a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for four years. And you thought your job was high pressure. \"If we see a set of circumstances and it fits into our criteria for [the] event, we just follow that criteria because we don't have much time to think. There isn't a lot of time for decision-making,\" said Paul Whitmore, director of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. \"Weighing back there [in your mind] also is the effect of your decision. If the effect of your decision is going to evacuate the entire West Coast waterfront, you don't want to take that lightly,\" he said. With Tuesday's tragic tsunami that engulfed villages in Samoa and American Samoa, the pace of events was so frenetic that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii --which tracks earthquakes and tsunamis for countries throughout the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Caribbean Sea -- had already been alerted to the looming disaster by the time the seismometer evidence came in. \"The National Weather Service director in American Samoa called the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center a few seconds before the alarms went off here, so we had an advanced warning and we were already sitting at the computer, looking at the data in real time,\" said Brian Shiro, a Pacific warning center geophysicist. It can take 30 seconds to five minutes for information from earthquake sensors placed strategically around the globe to roll into the two U.S. tsunami warning centers. When there's a clear tsunami threat, the center's operation room -- built to accommodate the two workers on duty -- becomes flooded with people all jostling to offer assistance. The phone lines consistently ring and \"people are yelling at each other so everyone will be on the same page, and you don't miss something important that someone else caught,\" said Bill Knight, a West Coast and Alaska warning center scientist. Scientists must \"locate the earthquake and then determine based on the science data whether there should be just a normal bulletin or whether there should be a warning,\" said Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center. She added that it took the Pacific warning center 15 minutes to issue a warning for Tuesday's tsunami. This wasn't because the center's scientists were moving slowly, Shiro said, but a result of the sparse number of seismic stations in the Southwest Pacific region. The fewer stations there are, the longer it takes for scientists to receive adequate information. \"There was no delay yesterday,\" he said. \"You're only restricted by the earth itself and how fast the seismic waves can travel.\" As a result, workers at the two U.S. warning centers said they often have to make decisions based on incomplete information, erring on the side of caution by issuing a tsunami warning and canceling it later if more monitoring reveals a less dangerous situation. \"It can be a lot of pressure at first, and you have to get used to that,\" Shiro said. \"You do have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders: You have to act quickly and sometimes you have to issue your very first initial message based on incomplete information, because one of the important factors is time and you want to get it out.\" Since the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, the question of time has become more critical to tsunami warning scientists. The staff has doubled at the Pacific warning center, and when they're \"on shift,\" they sleep in on-site housing, said spokeswoman Delores Clark. The warning centers have turned into 24\/7 operations. Scientist Knight and director Whitmore at the West Coast and Alaska center said constantly being on call does not interrupt their personal lives; neither of them have kids at home. Shiro, on the other hand, has a 2-year-old son and has to strike a balance. At first, his wife and son stayed with him when he was on shift, sleeping at the on-site housing with him. When that proved too disruptive, his family instead began visiting for meals and a bit of quality time during his weekly two-day shift. The Pacific center's on-site housing is unique, created so the workers can react to a tsunami whether they're fixing a meal or fast asleep, and while it may pose a slight inconvenience, it's all part of the job, Shiro said. The workers, drawn to the position by a mutual love of geophysical science, consider themselves lucky to work in one of the few science fields that allows them to do research while making a difference in people's lives. Instances such as Tuesday's tsunami, which killed at least 130 people, provide them with perspective on the importance of their position and the need for more tsunami education. Shiro is encouraging the Pacific center to use social networking as a tool, considering the massive response he got after he tweeted live updates Tuesday. For Knight, it's getting the word out about what to look for when disaster is imminent. \"One of the reasons we have an outreach program is because we know that people can't wait for us to make a decision,\" Knight said. \"If the ground is shaking for more than 20 seconds, you're experiencing a large earthquake and the more likely it is that a tsunami is going to happen.\" International Tsunami Information Center director Kong, whose work emphasizes the need for better, more local warning systems and education around the globe, agreed. \"It's especially tragic when you know that a number of us were in American Samoa and Tonga in July talking about tsunamis, telling them that in the worst case scenario they would only have 10 to 20 minutes and asking them to plan the best they could,\" she said. \"We kind of have a feeling when we're issuing those messages that something like this might happen, and it's your worst nightmare when it does come true. It's not a good feeling the next day when the numbers start to increase,\" she said. \"We can't prevent the tsunami from happening; it's going to happen. We can only do our best right now and plan beforehand, because when it does happen, there's just no time.\"","highlights":"Time is always crucial when you work as a tsunami warning scientist .\nA warning can be issued anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes after a threat is identified .\nAt the Pacific warning center, workers live on site for two days to monitor data .\nAfter the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, warning centers operate around the clock .","id":"3deecee02dba9cb11c3dda429f4f3181696915f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stewart Copeland and Sting get along great. Really. Stewart Copeland's background includes a wide range of musical influences, many of which emerged in the Police. OK, the Police's drummer and bassist may have argued from time to time. Perhaps even ferociously. And Copeland finds Sting's attempts to be a drum arranger annoying. OK, maybe infuriating. But, as he writes in his new book, \"Strange Things Happen\" (HarperStudio), \"We have discovered that we can be good friends -- as long as no one mentions music.\" Besides, Copeland adds in an interview, both Sting and guitarist Andy Summers \"are crap at drums.\" Watch Copeland dish on the band \u00bb . Copeland may be best known for the hitmaking musical trio, but he hasn't let the Police define him. The son of a CIA officer, he grew up in the Middle East and has let his musical fascinations range widely. He's written operas and dozens of film and television scores and is currently working on a concerto for the Dallas Symphony. (He also plays polo.) Copeland took some time to talk about his relationship with the Police, the importance of percussion and the social niceties of West L.A. private schools. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: The pace of the book makes it seem like you've been living \"A Hard Day's Night\" for the last 30 or 35 years. Is it really that busy? Stewart Copeland: Oh, it's pretty busy, but if it wasn't busy, I'd be stressed and anxious. In fact, this week I've got some down time, and I'm looking at the walls. CNN: It's been inescapable that people are focusing on the part of the book involving you and your fellow Police members. You say that you have a great relationship with Sting until music gets involved. Copeland: We get along in every way until it comes to music. ... [But] both of them are crap at drums, so at least I don't have that to deal with. CNN: So Sting is not much of a drummer, despite the fact that he has all these ideas. Copeland: Actually, he can play a bit of drums, but he's much better arranging drums than playing them. And I think I'd rather have him as a drummer than as an arranger of drums, even though he's quite brilliant at [arranging]. CNN: Has there always been that friction in the band? Copeland: Yes. With Andy, there's no friction at all; we get along great. ... And by the way, he's not the man in the middle, either. He's not a mediator. He's his own little volcano. He's a very sharp point to the triangle. But this conflict ... when we did the reunion tour, it was like everything was different, but nothing had changed. From the first 16 bars, we were straight back into where we left off. CNN: With the Police, the friction seems -- for lack of a better term -- healthy. Copeland: Well, it's that musical dichotomy that makes the band what it is. If we didn't have those beautiful, sensitive songs, we'd be lost. Those beautiful, sensitive songs have an extra kick to them because there's a madman in the group. CNN: Does the madman change, or is it always Sting? Copeland: Actually, all three of us have our moments. CNN: You grew up in the Middle East. Do you see any reflections of that in the way you play the drums, in the way you feel the beat? Copeland: Absolutely. I grew up surrounded by Arabic music. The central element of Arabic music is the baladi rhythm, which is just Arabic for \"country.\" And it has that drop on the three-beat. And it has that use of negative space. And it also has the very ornate use of the 16th notes, which are very expressive in Arabic music. And I suppose those are all factors that show up in the Police. CNN: You mentioned in the book that you put aside the sticks for many years until [Primus'] Les Claypool got you back into it. Copeland: Yes. The Police experience in the studio was so horrendous that my two colleagues actually managed temporarily to convince me that I had no talent and I was a menace to music. And I was distracted by composing. ... I wanted to play with all of those toys, and needed to shake off the rhythm label. And I think I was successful in doing that, to the detriment of my drumming career. CNN: Was picking up the sticks again like riding a bike? Copeland: Absolutely. The rhythm is still there. The pulse is still strong. The persnickety bits -- the finesse -- that took awhile to come back. CNN: You mention getting together with all-star bands with others -- Gene Simmons, Stephen Stills -- at your son's school. Is that common in L.A.? Copeland: Well, in Los Angeles in the west side here, there are three or four schools where all the alpha types send their kids. Between the three schools, we have all of the glitterati. CNN: Do you still find yourself a fan in those situations, seeing musicians you admire? Copeland: Not really. I'll get completely filled with fan fervor in listening to the music, but I've just learned so many times that the person is not the music. ... And also at these schools, everything is extremely downplayed. All of these alpha wives of these luminaries -- and the female luminaries themselves -- all go down to Gap especially to buy their school clothes. No bling, Gap clothing. It's all extremely dressed down and un-ostentatious. CNN: Is there a favorite or least favorite Police song you do? Do you get so that you think, \"If I have to play 'Roxanne' one more time ... \" Copeland: No, I still enjoy playing \"Roxanne.\" ... Some songs are more of a mountain to climb physically, [like] \"When the World Is Running Down.\" Andy takes a guitar solo that is so stratospheric, climbs so high and has such power, I get carried away. By the time he's finished, I am done. And I realize that I've just burnt every calorie, and I've got another 45 minutes of set to play. CNN: People don't realize how physically demanding it is. Copeland: But the thing is, when you're doing it, you're hardly aware of it as well, because you're sustained by 80,000 people freaking out. ... I don't want to get all metaphysical here or nothin', but something definitely happens. You are definitely empowered by the power of that huge audience. ... It pumps you up.","highlights":"Stewart Copeland writes about his life in new book, \"Strange Things Happen\"\nCopeland says he and Sting get along fine when music isn't involved .\nBesides, he says, group's \"sensitive\" songs helped by \"madman\" in trio .\nCopeland grew up in Middle East, says rhythms of region part of his roots .","id":"d89fa893cfdd6934d0a197742b80f74ee236bf72"} -{"article":"SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Many among the thousands of evacuees from California's wildfires were suffering from stress and worry about their homes after seeking shelter at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, said a pair of Navy medical volunteers Wednesday. Navy medics Daniel Brautigam, left, and Jacob Hackfeld volunteered to help wildfire evacuees. The stadium -- home to the NFL's Chargers -- at one time housed 11,000 evacuees, but that number dropped to 7,500 this morning. Of the thousands of people who've been sleeping, eating and passing time at the arena, many are showing symptoms of stress, said Petty Officer Daniel Brautigam. Patients are showing \"a lot of smoke-induced nausea,\" he said. \"A lot of people are watching TV while they're here -- they're watching their houses burn.\" Brautigam said the word \"panic\" came to mind to describe how some evacuees were feeling. \"But it's not. People are just worried sick. That phrase alone explains it all.\" Watch sailors tell more about treating evacuees \u00bb . According to the San Diego's mayor's office, medical staff treated between 70 to 100 people since the stadium opened to evacuees. He said counselors are being made available to the evacuees at Qualcomm, where volunteers have also been providing food, tents and cots to families and others fleeing the fires. \"We've been working nonstop now for about 48 hours with a few hours of sleep in between -- just enough to get well-rested,\" said Brautigam. Brautigam and another sailor, Seaman Jacob Hackfeld, stepped forward on their own to offer medical services after their nearby base was evacuated. Hackfeld said he was \"sitting on my couch watching TV and I'm thinking to myself, why can't we come out here? The community provides for us -- the military. Why can't we give back to them all the things that they've given to us?\" Although both men said they helped in the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, they said the emergency response to both disasters was markedly different. \"Here you have complete organization,\" Brautigam said. \"You have a community coming together getting things done, helping people out -- cooperation between civilians, military, everybody. See dramatic photos of the disaster \u00bb . \"Here everybody comes together, and we're all just people. I think that's the most important thing that's going on right here right now. The main focus is just getting people the help that they need.\" About 300 convalescent patients who had been evacuated to Qualcomm from nearby facilities were expected to be returned later Wednesday, said George Biagi, spokesman for the San Diego mayor. More than 20 fires have scorched 400,000-plus acres from the Mexican border to northern Los Angeles County and inland into the San Bernardino Mountains since the weekend. Statewide, an estimated 950,000 people have sought refuge from the fires in shelters, hotels and at friends' homes. The National Weather Service said a red-flag warning for extreme gusty winds was in effect through 3 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET) Wednesday, but forecasters said firefighters should see an end to the Santa Ana winds that have fueled the fires by Thursday. Some residents won't have to wait for Thursday to get home. People who evacuated earlier this week from Rancho Bernardo, Scripps Ranch and Del Mar Heights can go home immediately, San Diego emergency spokeswoman Lynda Pfieffer said Wednesday morning. The blazes have killed one person and injured at least 70 more. Thirty-four firefighters have been hurt, authorities said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kiran Chetry and Miriam Falco contributed to this report.","highlights":"Evacuees at San Diego arena treated for nausea, worried about homes .\nMedic: \"A lot of people are watching TV here -- watching their homes burn\"\nNavy medics step forward to offer services to some 12,000 wildfire evacuees .\nMedics describe conditions at Qualcomm Stadium as organized, cooperative .","id":"dd40165e34231ce788ca9505c898b977bdc2f0cd"} -{"article":"PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CNN) -- As a little girl, Maria Toor Pakay would beat up boys. Maria Toor Pakay has overcome unusual adversity to rank among the world's top 100 squash players. Now, she dispenses of anyone who takes her on within the walls of a squash court. Pakay, 18, is Pakistan's No. 1-ranked women's squash player. But what makes her story remarkable is that she hails from the country's tribal region of South Waziristan. The region, along the border with Afghanistan, is home to the Taliban. There, suicide attacks are a way of life. And the militants, bent on imposing a strict form of Islamic law, punish girls who attend school -- let alone play sports. \"They have no future,\" Pakay said. \"They spend their entire lives in four walls in their home. Their ability is destroyed.\" But Pakay wasn't like most girls growing up. She sported a buzz cut and mixed with the boys. \"If someone argued with me, I used to beat them up,\" she said. \"I wanted them to obey me all the time.\" Her father, Shams-ul-Qayum Wazir, knew early on that his daughter was different. \"I didn't want her talent to go to waste,\" he said. \"If I would've kept her in the village, all she could do was housekeeping.\" Watch Pakay talk about her life's mission \u00bb . So, Wazir packed up the family and moved to Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province. Here, Pakay picked up the racquet and swatted down the competition with ease -- first winning the Under-13 championship, then the Under-15, then the Under-17. In squash, players take turns hitting a ball to the front wall of a court, until one misses. Pakay, it turned out, rarely did. \"I thought nobody could beat me,\" she said. \"From the beginning when I played squash, I thought I could be a world champion.\" Today, despite the lack of a sponsor and few resources, Pakay has gone pro -- and is ranked 91st in the world. Her father's sacrifice, she said, made her success possible. \"I think I have a great father -- so broad-minded,\" she said. For his part, Wazir -- a teacher -- was more circumspect. \"I sacrificed because I want to promote a message of peace,\" he said. \"If the tribal people pick up a racquet instead of a gun, there would be peace.\"","highlights":"Maria Toor Pakay, 18, is Pakistan's No. 1-ranked women's squash player .\nShe hails from the country's tribal region of South Waziristan, home to the Taliban .\nThere, militants impose strict Islamic law, punish girls who even attend school .\nDespite risks, lack of a sponsor, Pakay has gone pro, is ranked 91st in the world .","id":"d93ee91a5f5e3e7dfc46540c904bd3f206b58f23"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Over-the-counter cold and cough medicines don't work for children under age 6, and giving the common medicine to young children cannot be recommended, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee said in October. An FDA panel has called for more studies on how cold medicines affect children. The panel of health experts, which looked at how safe and effective antihistamines, decongestants, antitussins and expectorants are in children, said it is not appropriate to take data from adults and apply it to children under 12. After a two-day hearing, the panel called for more studies about how the medicines affect children. Although the panel's recommendation is nonbinding, it could lead to changes in how cough and cold medicines are used. The votes are to be taken into consideration by FDA regulators, who might take action against the products at a later time. Dr. Jeff Jenkins, of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said it could take a year or even years for the agency to make a final decision on the recommendations. During the panel's meeting, the experts looked at a number of proposals, including whether multiple-symptom over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold medicines should be banned for children under 6 years old. FDA experts voted 13-9 that certain cold medicines with certain ingredients should not be used by young children. The committee said medicines with the same ingredients could be used by children ages 6 to 12. The experts voted unanimously to require that standardized dosing devices accompany all liquid medicines, in an effort to reduce the likelihood of excessive or unintentional overdosing. Separately, the committee voted to allow marketing of multiple-symptom products to children between the ages of 2 and 12 if new research showed the products to be safe and effective. Combination products can be particularly susceptible to problems with overdosing because parents sometimes don't realize they are duplicating ingredients. Committee members also emphasized the importance of proper and easy-to-read labels. Dr. Daniel Rausch, director of the pediatric hospital program for New York University, said that cold medicine is effective only at doses that are too strong for young children. Rausch recommends a more traditional treatment where dosing isn't a problem: chicken soup. \"A cold does not kill, so people should just relax,\" Rausch said. \"Kids get sick and there's nothing that people can do about it, but they will get better.\" About 800 pediatric cough and cold products are sold in the United States, many using multiple ingredients that have been marketed for use in children for some 30 years. Earlier this year, the FDA completed a review that found that between 1969 and the fall of 2006, there were 54 reported child deaths from decongestants and 69 from antihistamines. Watch one family's tragic ending \u00bb . Most of the deaths occurred in children under 2. In August, federal health officials recommended the \"consult your physician\" advice to parents on the labels of cold and cough medicines aimed at young children be replaced by a warning not to use the medications in children under 2 unless directed to do so by a health care provider. Before the FDA hearings, some of the leading manufacturers of cold and cough medicines announced a voluntary recall of more than a dozen cold medicines for infants. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association said the products were being pulled \"out of an abundance of caution.\" Potential misuse of the medications, not product safety, is driving the voluntary withdrawal, the group said. The American Academy of Pediatrics applauded last week's decision to pull those products, saying, \"These medicines are ineffective and can have serious side effects. There are other ways to treat cold symptoms.\" The AAP suggests: . When the drug industry voluntarily withdrew products last week, it insisted that when used as directed, the drugs are safe, and they work. \"Parents can continue to trust over-the-counter cough and cold remedies for their children,\" said Linda A. Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. \"We strongly encourage parents to adhere to the recommended dosing instructions for all medicines, recognizing that the vast majority of adverse events associated with their use are due to inadvertent overdosing and misuse.\" Suydam said CHPA will be launching a major educational campaign for parents and caregivers in coming months. Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein headed the push that led to the FDA hearing. He became alarmed when four Baltimore children died after their parents gave them excessive doses of cold medicines. Until those deaths, he did not realize that a dose of cold medicine could turn into a life-and-death issue among young children, he said. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Panel: No evidence that the over-the-counter medicines help young children .\nMore study sought about how cough, cold medicines work in children .\nAbout 800 pediatric cough and cold products are sold in the United States .\nPediatrics group suggests \"other ways to treat cold symptoms\"","id":"16604ed2399eeccbf47652a43ed2ea37aad28d04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A jury in Manhattan found the son of Brooke Astor and one of his lawyers guilty Thursday of scheming to bilk millions of dollars from the late philanthropist's estate. Anthony Marshall was convicted of bilking millions of dollars from the estate of his mother, Brooke Astor. The verdict, returned on the 12th day of deliberation, ended a six-month trial that featured as witnesses a Who's Who of New York's social elite. Anthony Marshall showed no visible reaction as he was found guilty of 14 of the 16 counts against him. His wife, Charlene, who many believed fanned his greed and instigated his mistreatment of his elderly mother, also did not seem to react. Marshall was convicted of the most serious charges -- first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud. One of the most serious convictions involved Marshall giving himself a $1 million-a-year raise for handling his mother's affairs, said Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann. Marshall's former lawyer, Francis Morrissey, was convicted of all five counts against him, including forgery and scheming to defraud Astor. Watch Marshall's attorney vow to appeal \u00bb . \"These defendants, two morally depraved individuals, preyed on a physically and mentally ill 101-year-old woman to steal millions of dollars -- dollars that she had intended to go to help the lives of ordinary New Yorkers,\" Seidemann said, echoing his closing argument to the jury. Astor, who had Alzheimer's disease, was 105 when she died in August 2007. The prosecution called nearly 70 witnesses -- Henry Kissinger, Graydon Carter, Barbara Walters, Vartan Gregorian and Annette de la Renta among them. Prosecutor Seidemann called the case \"disturbing,\" and said the trial told the story of \"how a son, an only son, would stoop so low to steal from his own mother in the sunset years of her life in order to line his own pockets and the pockets of his wife.\" Marshall, who is free on $100,000 bail, faces a maximum 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on December 8. Morrissey faces up to seven years in prison. Author Meryl Gordon, who has followed the Astor story for years, was in the courtroom when the jury returned its verdicts. \"It was an incredibly bad, intense time,\" she said from her cell phone before hopping on a subway. \"I was a little surprised that Charlene did not get visibly teary. I guess she was braced for it.\" Marshall, Astor's only child, was indicted on criminal charges in 2006. The case kicked off a tabloid feeding frenzy that fostered headlines such as \"Bad heir day,\" \"Mrs. Astor's disaster\" and \"DA's kick in the Astor.\" Through her late husband's Vincent Astor Foundation, Brooke Astor is credited with giving New York, where the Astors made their fortune, about $200 million. The Astor Foundation gave millions to New York cultural jewels -- including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library -- as well as lower-profile programs. Astor was often quoted as saying, \"Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around.\" \"Mrs. Astor stood in New York as a symbol of generosity. And this trial stands as a landmark for the nefarious impact of money and greed,\" said her longtime friend, Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. \"It will in many ways tarnish her memory,\" he said. \"It's a sad day, but at the same time, one good thing that will come out of this -- that Mrs. Astor would approve of -- is that the elderly cannot be abused.\" The case began when Marshall's son, Philip, filed a petition in 2006 asking the court to appoint a guardian for his grandmother. The court documents alleged \"elder abuse\" and were intended to remove Anthony Marshall's control of her affairs and transfer care to Astor's dear friend Annette de la Renta. He reacted to the verdict in an e-mail: . \"I hope this brings some consolation and closure for the many people, including my grandmother's loyal staff, caregivers and friends, who helped when she was so vulnerable and so manipulated,\" Philip Marshall wrote. \"I sincerely hope these sad circumstances contribute to the recognition of elder abuse and exploitation as a growing national problem.\" CNN's Ann O'Neill contributed to this story .","highlights":"Anthony Marshall faces up to 25 years in prison .\nMarshall swindled millions from mother in her declining years .\nProsecution witnesses included the cream of New York society .\nAstor's foundation gave $200 million to New York; she died at 105 .","id":"12f06b22d9997bf30fe1422f35e351430cb27a8c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An altercation between a South Carolina high school student and a school resource officer ended tragically Friday with the student dead of a gunshot wound and the officer hospitalized after being stabbed. Police officers in body armor vests are on the scene after violence at a school near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The incident took place about 8:25 a.m., and both the officer and the 16-year-old student were transported to Conway Medical Center, where the student died, said Sgt. Robert Kegler of the Horry County Police Department. The resource officer, who was a Horry County police officer assigned to the school, remains hospitalized, he said. Kegler had no other information. \"Anytime anything happens with a police officer like this, we ask an outside agency to come in to investigate,\" he said. \"In this case, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is taking the lead.\" Teal Britton, a spokeswoman for Horry County Schools, said the student had asked to see the officer at Carolina Forest High School in Myrtle Beach. \"They went into his office, and the door was shut, and then the struggle began,\" she said. School officials have \"no clue in terms of what might have brought that about.\" Britton also had no further information and said the Law Enforcement Division had asked that the high school refrain from discussing details. Neither Britton nor Kegler named the officer or the student. The state agency has not responded to requests for comment. Myrtle Beach is a popular vacation destination in northeast South Carolina, on the Atlantic coast. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police confirm incident at South Carolina high school .\nStudent, 16, dies after struggle with school resource officer .\nSchool hasn't named student or officer .\nOfficer being treated for injuries at hospital, spokeswoman says .","id":"2bcf1a49d3e0e803c592702226f2c68a69da9fb8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Susie Levitt's and Katie Shea's feet had had enough. Walking around Manhattan sidewalks between classes in their high heels was getting unbearable. Katie Shea and Susie Levitt, founders of \"CitiSoles,\" said walking around Manhattan in high heels was painful. Tal Raviv felt frustrated. While studying in Hong Kong in 2007, he found that adjusting to a new city was hard enough. Even more aggravating was trying to connect with friends on Facebook whose names were common. Jaun Calle and Adam Berlin were bored. Watching college football on television isn't as exciting as being there in person, they thought. Instead of just grinning and bearing it, all of these university students did something: They started their own businesses. Levitt and Shea created \"CitiSoles,\" a shoe company that makes a foldable shoe for when the pain of high heels gets unbearable. Raviv created \"DropCard\" an e-business card that lets users send more contact information than is commonly found on a business card. Calle and Berlin formed \"SEC Excursions\" a travel company that provides busing, tailgate parties and hotel accommodations to college football games. The recession and lack of experience might stop most adults in their tracks, but these students weren't discouraged. \"There is no better time [to start a business],\" said Christopher Hanks, director of the entrepreneurship program at the University of Georgia. \"During a depression or recession, innovation always increases.\" The dorm is the new garage . While the founders of Google built success in their garages, these college students found it in their dorms. In addition to their course work, studying for midterms and balancing extracurricular activities, they wrote business proposals and figured out financing. \"From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., I am in chemical engineering classes, and from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m., I work on DropCard, so I don't get much free time,\" said Raviv, 22. Levitt and Shea said launching their shoe business was essentially nonstop, and the work didn't end on Friday. And for Calle, the compromises in his academic and social life weren't a burden. \"We enjoy ourselves,\" said Calle, 21. \"We don't see it as a sacrifice.\" Hanks said these attitudes are typical of student entrepreneurs. They don't have the pressure of supporting themselves -- their living expenses are usually being paid for -- and they have a wide support system. \"They certainly have their advantages ... their enthusiasm level is really high,\" Hanks said. \"They don't know what they don't know.\" Hanks added that the excitement of creating a business revs up the students even more than the chance of getting rich. \"They get excited about 'wouldn't it be cool if we did that' versus the money,\" said Hanks. \"The journey is not as much as about the money as about the challenge.\" Figuring it out . None of these students followed a set formula for starting their businesses. Levitt and Shea used Alibaba.com, an online trade portal, to pitch their idea to suppliers and dipped into their savings for start-up money. An investment firm helped Raviv, and Calle and Berlin found investors. Levitt and Shea, both 22, took \"less than $10,000\" from their savings to start CitiSoles in 2008. That covered the cost of the shoes and a Web site designer. From there, they worked with suppliers and factories in Asia to scope out which would be the best fit for their company. The pair conducted market research and found nothing similar sold in the United States. \"It was all done online,\" Levitt said. \"We became nocturnal.\" The shoes, made of imitation leather, come with a compact carrying case. A patent for the shoe is pending. When the first order for 1,000 pairs, weighing over 400 pounds, arrived at Shea's Long Island home unexpectedly, Levitt said they were overwhelmed. A few days later, an article about their company appeared in the New York Daily News, but they weren't ready for the onslaught of orders. They quickly set up a PayPal account. \"From there, we got on the phone to boutiques, sent out retail kits and samples ... and now there are 17 boutiques around the nation selling them,\" said Levitt, who is studying economics and will graduate this fall. Her partner, Shea, double-majored in finance and marketing and graduated in May. Last summer, Raviv, along with two of his friends, applied for funding for their e-business cards with DreamIt Ventures in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. DreamIt is a \"business incubator\" that helps entrepreneurs launch companies. Raviv, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a chemical engineering degree in May, was honest with the investment firm when it asked how his e-business cards would make money. \"I actually don't know,\" Raviv told them. \"They said 'Perfect. Thank you. We know there is no possible way to know right now.' \" Raviv said the lack of a detailed business plan helped DreamIt see how it could assist them. They received $20,000 from DreamIt. DropCard initially targeted technology companies but went after \"old-fashioned\" businesses like car dealerships that proved to be more lucrative. DropCard is currently in trials with four companies to see how they can tweak their business plan. Feedback is instrumental in DropCard's growth. \"We refine everything instead of sitting back and strategizing,\" Raviv said. \"Let our customers write our business plan.\" Calle, a senior at the University of Georgia who is pursuing a degree in business administration, launched SEC Excursions with a mix of investors and help from the Terry College of Business Entrepreneurship Program at UGA. Hanks helped Calle and Berlin in fleshing out their idea and making it potentially profitable. Started in July 2008, the company found success in a trial trip to Baton Rogue, Louisiana, for the UGA-Louisiana State University matchup. The first trip offered a two-night stay at a hotel, busing to the game and a tailgate party. The packages, which don't include tickets to the games, vary from $100 to $300 a person. The company has contracts with bus companies and various hotel chains. It has student reps at four college campuses and plans to add more. Calle said the company's \"most loyal customers are in the Greek systems,\" but it's open to all students who wish to purchase a package. \"The students really like it because everything is planned for them,\" Calle said. \"We've heard nothing but good things.\"","highlights":"Susie Levitt and Katie Shea created a foldable-shoe company called \"CitiSoles\"\nTal Raviv co-founded \"DropCard,\" a new take on the business card .\nJuan Calle and Adam Berlin created \"SEC Excursions,\" a travel agency .\n\"There is no better time\" to start a business, an entrepreneur expert says .","id":"ff6cc30dc8adc31341b4509c9d88ec4959fabbed"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian tourism authorities will be holding English classes for auto-rickshaw drivers in New Delhi as the city prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Auto-rickshaw drivers are being taught English ahead of the Commenwealth Games. More than 40,000 natural gas-fueled auto-rickshaws, or motorized three-wheeled taxis, run on the Indian capital's dilapidated roads, according to the city government statistics. The city is expected to host around 100,000 tourists during the Commonwealth Games scheduled from October 3-14 in 2010. About 9,000 athletes and officials of 52 Commonwealth countries are likely to participate. Some 8,000 auto-rickshaw drivers will be enrolled in the training program that will involve classes in yoga, life skills, first aid, spoken English and psychometric tests, federal Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee announced Tuesday. Each trainee will be paid Rs 200, or about $4, daily for attending the program spread over 200 sessions for a year. Indian auto-rickshaw drivers have often been accused of overcharging, refusing short trips and misbehavior. Traffic authorities have in the past opened a range of avenues for passengers to lodge their complaints -- such as on help lines, via text messages or simply calling a telephone number printed on the three-wheeled cabs. \"The India image that we strive to convey to a foreign tourist depends, to a large degree, on how good the taxi\/auto-rickshaw (driver) that he or she meets is in his demeanor and conduct,\" Banerjee remarked.","highlights":"More than 40,000 auto-rickshaws ply roads of Indian capital .\nCity expected to host 100,000 tourists during Commonwealth Games .\n8,000 auto-rickshaw drivers will be enrolled in training program .","id":"4fce0fe3d4c638306dfaa9f03713cee3183d40af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Obama administration announced this week it is sending hundreds of federal agents and crime-fighting equipment to the Mexican border to try to make sure violence from Mexican drug cartels doesn't spill over into the U.S. Author John Gibler says the \"war on drugs\" approach with Mexico policy has been an absolute failure. John Gibler, author of \"Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt,\" appeared Friday on CNN's \"American Morning\" to talk about U.S. border security efforts. Following is a transcript of his conversation with CNN's John Roberts: John Roberts: You spent so much time along the border area there, going back and forth. The last three years, you've been down there pretty intensely. What is the situation like? John Gibler: Right now, in Ciudad Juarez, as you probably know, more than 7,500 army soldiers have arrived in the city and actually taken over the municipal police force. And that has obviously dampened the amount of incredible violence related to drug trafficking in the city, but fears on the ground are that simply the warring cartels packed up and left town for the time being or [have] gone underground while the army is out in the streets, and that they will be back. Meanwhile, the army is doing all of the municipal police force jobs, so they're effectively writing traffic tickets and driving around in cop cars. Roberts: All right, so you know that earlier this week, Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, announced this $700 million program, put more border agents and more [Drug Enforcement Administration] agents on the border along with some high-tech surveillance equipment to try to combat the war on drugs there. How effective do you think that plan will be? Gibler: Sadly, I do not think it will be effective. We're talking about a $30 billion a year industry just moving the drugs across the border. That is way too powerful for three more helicopters or 400 more border agents to really try and address. I think it is a deeply embedded social and economic problem that will have to be addressed with social and economic policy. Watch Gibler give his views on U.S. security efforts \u00bb . Roberts: So the president has reserved this idea of putting some troops down on the border there. I know that Gov. Rick Perry in Texas says that he wants to put 1,000 along the border. However, there in El Paso, where you are this morning, the mayor says, \"Whoa, we don't need any troops. Things are great here.\" Who's right? Gibler: Well, really, the mayor is right in a sense. If you look at 2008, 1,600 people were assassinated in Ciudad Juarez, and there were about 15 homicides that same year in El Paso. So, this whole idea of the violence spilling over is really, I think, kind of malformed or a bit sensationalizing the violence in Mexico, which is very real but the violence already exists in the United States, even though there isn't a national kind of political understanding or consciousness, if you will, about how that violence is related to drug trafficking and drug distribution. amFIX: Can the US win the war on drugs? Roberts: You know, we had Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron earlier this week. And he was talking about this idea of legalizing all drugs as a way to combat the drug war there in Mexico. What do you think of that idea? Gibler: I think it's time to consider all options, and I think it's evident -- more than evident that the \"war on drugs\" approach has been an absolute failure. It hasn't in any way stopped the amount of drugs being consumed in the United States or the drugs flowing over the border or the violence related to the illegal drug-trafficking industry. ... It's not that radical of a proposal. Even The Economist magazine led with an editorial about a week and a half ago about legislating or regulating drugs. Three former presidents of Latin American countries, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, recently released a report arguing also for really taking on the debate of legalization.","highlights":"Mexico's huge drug industry is too powerful for U.S. border efforts, John Gibler says .\nAuthor says social, economic policies are needed to battle Mexico's drug problems .\nIt's time to consider legalizing drugs, Gibler says .","id":"3bb86704bfc2557b7485303d96e0352b1fdd451b"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Described as \"an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane,\" Hurricane Bill was churning closer to the Atlantic island of Bermuda on Wednesday, forecasters said. Most forecast maps show Hurricane Bill passing to the west of Bermuda. Although Bill is not expected to make a direct hit on the island, forecasters cautioned that the storm is large and will generate large swells on Bermuda as well as the islands of the northeast Caribbean Sea over the next day or two. Swells may also affect the eastern United States on Friday and Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said. CNN meteorologists said Bill could cause cause dangerous rip tides and some coastal flooding in the northeast United States and could move very close to or make landfall in Newfoundland, Canada, early next week. In addition, Bill may strengthen further over the next couple of days, forecasters said. As of 5 p.m. ET, Bill's center was about 335 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands and about 970 miles south-southeast of Bermuda, the hurricane center said. \"It's a little too early to evaluate what kind of direct impact Bill may have,\" said Jack Bevin, a senior hurricane specialist. \"Most of the computer guidance has the storm passing between Bermuda and the U.S. coastline, then turning northeastward.\" Other models show Bill turning more sharply out to sea and not affecting any areas, he said. Bill's maximum sustained winds were at 135 mph Wednesday afternoon. It was moving northwest at near 20 mph and was expected to continue that motion over the next day or so, turning north-northwest by late Friday. Five-day forecast maps show Bill passing to the west of Bermuda before turning to the northwest. \"Bill is a large tropical cyclone,\" the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 85 miles from its center, with tropical storm-force winds extending up to 230 miles out. CNN Radio's Andrew Spencer and Lee Garen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Storm is not expected to make a direct hit on Bermuda .\nBut island, eastern United States could see large swells .\nCategory 4 hurricane's maximum sustained winds are at 135 mph .","id":"08e69bba4044cceed0fd9c33acb9a722f469e868"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A suicide car bombing exploded outside the NATO headquarters in Afghanistan early Saturday, killing seven people and injuring 91 just five days before the country holds presidential elections, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. A car burns after the suicide blast outside NATO's Afghanistan headquarters. The massive bomb detonated near the main gate of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters. Among the wounded were several coalition service members, according to ISAF. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, an ISAF spokesman told CNN. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the front-runner in the polls, condemned the bombing. \"The enemies of Afghanistan, through such attacks in the run-up to the elections, want to spread terror among people, but they must know that Afghans are fully aware of the value of the elections and will cast their votes for the sake of security and peace in their country,\" Karzai said in a statement. But Ferishta, 21, who like many Afghans gives out only her first name, was deterred. \"After seeing today's events, I have no intention in voting,\" she said, wearing a blood-soaked shirt and connected to an intravenous drip. \"If we are not at peace, why should we vote, who should we vote for?\" One witness at the scene told CNN the explosion left a huge crater and damaged a coalition forces' vehicle. Billowing smoke rose over the city. \"The sound was like a very loud door banging right next to my ear,\" said CNN's National Security Analyst Peter Bergen. Watch Bergen describe blast . The attack occurred at 8:30 in the morning as people were heading to work and was particularly disturbing given the beefed-up security in Kabul ahead of the August 20 presidential and provincial elections, only the second since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. The area around the ISAF headquarters is heavily fortified with concrete blast barriers and extra security forces. Watch more on Saturday's explosion \u00bb . Security has been a key concern as Afghans prepare to go to the polls next week. The Taliban has vowed to disrupt the voting. \"This will make people living in Kabul perhaps think twice about going out in the next few days,\" Bergen said. Earlier this week, Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the Afghan elections were critical to quelling a resurgence of the Taliban. \"Holding an election in a wartime situation is always difficult,\" Holbrooke said. \"Holding one when the enemy has said they're going to try to disrupt it makes it even more difficult.\" Despite Saturday's attack, ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician told CNN that NATO-led forces in Afghanistan remain confident the elections will be credible. \"There is a very robust security system in place,\" he said. This summer has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, particularly in troubled Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. U.S., British and Afghan troops there have been fighting Taliban militants to help provide protection for the upcoming elections. Watch more on Afghan preparations for elections \u00bb . Kabul, however, had experienced relative calm in recent months. The last such attack in the Afghan capital was in January when a suicide bomb exploded near the German embassy. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that incident. CNN's Atia Abawi and Hugh Williams contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: At least 7 people killed, 90 hurt from blast in Afghanistan's capital .\nExplosion took place near NATO headquarters, U.S. Embassy .\nTaliban claims responsibility for explosion .\nBlast takes place just five days before presidential elections .","id":"b7bff42b228d060700cd3e06ff36edebed26a75a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection began Monday in Kentucky for the trial of a former high school coach charged with reckless homicide in the heat-exhaustion-related death of a player. Pleasure Ridge Park football coach Jason Stinson has pleaded not guilty to reckless homicide. A grand jury in January charged Pleasure Ridge Park football coach Jason Stinson in the death of Max Gilpin, 15, who collapsed during a practice in August 2008 and died several days later. Stinson pleaded not guilty and was released without bail. The school has reassigned him to non-teaching duties. The case has stirred strong feelings beyond the Louisville suburb where Gilpin died. Some say the teen's death was a tragic accident; others insist it was the result of a criminal act. \"The best example I can give you is like someone shooting into a building not knowing anyone is in there, then killing somebody,\" Commonwealth's Attorney R. David Stengel told CNN affiliate WHAS in January. \"They didn't know they were in there, but they should have known that shooting into a building where people normally are is something dangerous.\" Current and former students reacted with shock to the indictment of Stinson, a beloved coach and teacher. \"Coach is amazing,\" former player Casey Ford told WLKY earlier this year. \"Coach truly cares about his players.\" Stengel said investigators interviewed almost 100 players, eight coaches, school officials and bystanders before the grand jury convened earlier this year. A summary of the interviews was provided to the grand jury. The grand jury denied Stinson's request to give testimony. Questions surrounding the case include what school officials did before and after the high school sophomore collapsed. Craig Webb, the school's athletic director, said in a deposition obtained by WLKY that he witnessed the incident and went over to assess Gilpin's condition. \"He was breathing,\" Webb said during the deposition, WLKY reported. \"You know, he had a pulse. And we -- I automatically thought we might have had an exhaustion situation. He was sweating profusely.\" Gilpin's body temperature reached 107 degrees, officials say. Witnesses said Stinson had denied the student water on the hot August day, WLKY reported. Gilpin was taken to a hospital where he later died. The parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against six coaches at the school. The suit claims they were negligent in their actions and that more than 20 minutes passed between the time Gilpin collapsed and the time one of the coaches called paramedics, according to WHAS. Stinson is the only person who has been charged with a crime. Days after he was charged, Stinson told supporters, who had gathered on his lawn to pray, that his \"heart is broken.\" \"Part of my life has been taken away,\" he said, according to WHAS. \"I no longer teach, and I no longer coach at the school that I love. ... \"The one thing people keep forgetting in this is that I lost one of my boys that day,\" he said. \"It was a boy that I loved and a boy that I cared for and a boy that meant the world to me. That's the thing that people forget. And that's a burden I will carry with me for the rest of my life.\" Gilpin's parents have released a statement saying they hope they will gain access to details of the investigation, including information they believe school officials have withheld from them citing confidentiality, the affiliate said. \"We intend to closely monitor the prosecution and expect anyone responsible for Max's death to be held accountable,\" the statement said, according to WHAS.","highlights":"Former high school coach is charged with reckless homicide .\nPlayer Max Gilpin, 15, died of heat exhaustion .\nPlayer's body temperature hit 107 degrees at August '08 practice .","id":"c34ef0b68dff334acc44cade9623c97cc54d7c51"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini is a senior policy analyst in the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that seeks innovative solutions across the political spectrum. Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini says Americans have no choice but to increase the amount they save. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the economy slows, millions of Americans will cut their budgets to stay afloat. This generates conflicting impulses: If I skip that morning coffee and granola, will my thriftiness put my local coffee shop out of business? Will that force America's granola farmers to lay off workers? What's a budget-conscious, patriotic and hungry girl to do? Not to worry, saving a few dollars now will not prolong the recession. And, more important, spending all your discretionary income will not end the recession. It's true that John Maynard Keynes' \"Paradox of Thrift\" suggests that, even while saving is beneficial to an individual, too much aggregate savings could deepen an ordinary recession. But in these extraordinary times, where banks and not just businesses are in desperate need of cash, this economic rule may not fully hold. More important, individuals need savings to be prepared for unanticipated expenses and income losses, especially now. The reality is that there is no bailout coming to you. And those getting the bailout might not be willing to lend to you, anyway. So now is the time to save. The money you save is your own personal safety net, what you tap when you have an unanticipated expense like a car repair or when you're between jobs, as many Americans find themselves nowadays. The past decade has seen Americans saving at historically low levels; we've substituted plastic for the piggy bank. But the days of cheap and easy access to credit have come and gone. We all need to save not because we want to but because we have to. For decades, our country's economy has flourished, but it relied too heavily on debt-driven consumer spending to power its growth. Excessive household debt, coupled with stagnating incomes and little to no personal savings, now places America in a precarious position. Compared with the 19 other major industrialized economies, the United States ranks dead last for personal savings. That's right, in 2003, the United States was the least thrifty nation among the G-20. Why is it important that we save more as a nation? Savings offers us the protection we need to make it through hard or uncertain times and to pay for important future needs such as a home, education or adequate retirement. Savings also creates pools of capital for investment purposes (who will fund the next neighborhood coffee shop?) and to keep interest rates low. It appears the current recession has scared us back to saving; we are no longer spending all of our disposable income. To ensure that the hopeful trend continues, government and employers should adopt a new generation of savings policies that are both innovative and simple. Common sense, along with research from the emerging field of behavioral economics, tells us why we aren't saving more already: . 1) We like instant gratification . Whether it's iPhones or our paychecks, we want everything, and we want it now. We are so short-term-oriented that many of us would rather have a fatter paycheck now than set aside some of that happiness, even if the funds will be greater in the future. 2) We tend to procrastinate . Once we start something (or fail to start something), it's really hard to change course. And we'd prefer a hassle-free world. Who doesn't, right? When it's hard just to figure out how to start saving, most people won't. However, the flip side is that when it's easy to start saving, a lot more people will. Think about current retirement savings. How many of us would open an account and make regular deposits if an employer didn't take it right out of our paychecks? When it comes to savings, we need someone to save us from ourselves. Smart savings policies should be automatic and utilize smart pre-made choices, or defaults. It would require action to NOT save. Of course, this type of policymaking underscores the importance of making the default choice a good one (an adjustable-rate mortgage with no down payment would be an example of a bad default). Employers can easily help their employees save for a rainy day, leveraging the payroll system and direct deposit to automatically send a small percentage of their paychecks to a savings account. This type of unrestricted savings is especially valuable for individuals who have limited liquid assets and who may otherwise be forced to meet emergency cash needs with high-cost payday loans. A truly transformative savings policy to broaden the base of American savers would encourage it from birth with Children's Savings Accounts. These \"start in life\" accounts would be \"seeded\" up-front with a modest initial deposit ($500), progressively funded for children born into lower-income households and restricted for specific asset-building uses like higher education, purchasing a home or starting a small business. For the economic health of the next generation, the United States should join the U.K. and Singapore, and others who are offering such lifelong savings accounts, and get some skin in the thrift game, too. We know it's plenty hard to save; it feels a lot like we're taking away what we've rightly earned. Taking advantage of windfall payments such as tax refunds is important, and so is removing the temptation to spend all of that refund. Tax filers can pre-commit a portion of their refund before it reaches their pocket to up to three accounts (including savings accounts!) with IRS Form 8888. Having accessible savings is critical to our personal and economic security. We must reorient the savings policy discussion to include the needs of shorter-term savers and consider policy that would make savings automatic and universal at birth. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini.","highlights":"Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini: America saves less than nearly all big countries .\nShe says crisis is forcing an increase in savings by American families .\nLopez-Fernandini: Government, firms should automatically encourage saving .\nShe says you can designate part of a tax refund to go into a savings account .","id":"47c9735cdcbceb325ac68d76d5e2587280a289bc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Space shuttle Discovery is set to launch next week on a mission to the international space station, NASA's Flight Readiness Review team said Wednesday. The space shuttle Discovery is brought by crawler to its pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 4. Launch is scheduled for 1:36 a.m. ET Tuesday, NASA said. However, launches often are delayed because of inclement weather or technical concerns. Discovery will carry a crew of seven astronauts as it ferries equipment to the space station. One of the astronauts, Nicole Stott, will remain on the space station as a flight engineer, replacing astronaut Timothy Kopra, who will return home aboard Discovery as a mission specialist, according to the NASA Web page for the mission. Discovery will also be carrying the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) to the space station. The treadmill is named for fake newsman Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's \"The Colbert Report.\" Earlier this year, NASA conducted an online poll to name the space station's newest compartment, asking voters to choose one of four given options or offer their own suggestion. Colbert urged his viewers to suggest \"Colbert,\" which won. But Colbert and the space agency compromised to give the moniker to the treadmill instead. The new module was given the name Tranquility. \"I'm so proud my treadmill will be going into space to help trim down those famously fat astronauts. Lay off the Tang, Chubby!\" Colbert said in a statement. The mission will be Discovery's 37th to space, and the 30th shuttle mission dedicated to assembly and maintenance of the space station, NASA says.","highlights":"NASA: Discovery slated to lift off Tuesday on mission to international space station .\nShuttle will carry a crew of seven, ferry equipment to the space station .\nAstronaut Nicole Stott will remain on the space station as a flight engineer .\nShuttle to deliver treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert .","id":"cae3f0ebb33dfc6b80e889b7d55ef99ac31482a6"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A man distraught because he could not find work shot and killed his mother-in-law, his wife and three sons and then killed himself inside a home in an upscale San Fernando Valley neighborhood, police said. Police say Karthik Rajaram left suicide notes taking responsibility for the murders of his family. Authorities said the man had an MBA in finance but appeared to have been unemployed for several months and had worked for major accounting firms, such as Price Waterhouse. The two-story rented home is in a gated community in Porter Ranch, about 20 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The shootings were discovered after 8:20 a.m. Monday, after a neighbor called police to report that the wife had failed to pick her up to take her to her job at a pharmacy, Deputy Chief of Police Michel Moore said. Ed Winter, assistant chief from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, identified the suspect as Karthik Rajaram, 45. Winter said the victims included Rajaram's mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, and his 19-year-old son Krishna Rajaram, a Fulbright Scholar and honor student at UCLA. Watch police remove body from home \u00bb . Also dead were Rajaram's wife, 39, Subasari Rajaram, and their two other sons, 12 and 7. Some of the victims had been shot more than once, and their identities were not immediately confirmed, he said. \"Due to the nature of their injuries, it's been a little difficult,\" Winter said, adding that there were no signs of a struggle. Police first found the mother-in-law shot in her bed in a downstairs bedroom, Moore said. Upstairs, the couple's eldest son was shot in the master bedroom; the wife in another bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head; the two younger sons in the bedroom they shared, both shot in the head. The 12-year-old was on the floor and the 7-year-old in bed, Moore said. Watch more on what police had to say about tragedy \u00bb . The suspect was also in that bedroom, a gun still in his hand. The killings are thought to have occurred after 6 p.m. Saturday, when the man was last reported seen, Moore said. Inside the house, police also found three letters, one to law enforcement acknowledging responsibility for the killings, a second to friends and relatives and a third that appears to be the suspect's will, Moore said. \"He attests to some financial difficulties, and he takes responsibility for the taking of the lives of his family members and himself as a result of those financial difficulties,\" Moore said. Neighbors, family and friends told police that the suspect, who had not worked for several months, had said in recent days he was having had extreme financial difficulties, Moore said. One of the letters, intended for friends and marked \"personal and confidential,\" detailed his financial transactions that resulted in \"an unfortunate, downward spiral,\" Moore said. \"His narrative is one of talking about this tragedy befalling him and his contemplation of an available exit or solution,\" Moore said. \"One is taking his own life and the other is taking the lives of his family and himself. ... He talked himself into the second strategy, believing that was, in effect, the honorable thing to do.\" Moore said the several-page narrative appeared to have been written over a period of time. \"This was something that was not a spur-of-the-moment type of event,\" he said. Moore said it was clear to police that the family members were close and \"had an affection for each other.\" He said the parents had given up their master bedroom to their eldest -- who was spending the weekend home from college -- \"out of respect.\" \"This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair, somehow working his way into believing this to be an acceptable exit.\" No neighbors reported having heard gunshots, and there was no sign of forced entry at the house, Moore said. Rajaram was involved in a financial holding company as part owner \"at least,\" Moore said. There is no evidence he had had any history of mental difficulties, nor was there an indication he had sought counseling, Moore said. Neighbor Trish Harrison, who lives three houses from the crime scene, said the family had lived in the community for about a year, but kept to themselves and had little interaction with neighbors. The parents were from India, she said. The Los Angeles Unified School District was making arrangements for crisis counselors to visit the schools attended by the two younger sons. CNN's Stan Wilson contributed to this report.","highlights":"One of man's three sons was Fulbright Scholar and honor student at UCLA .\nOfficer speaks of man \"who just got stuck in ... absolute despair\"\nFather had MBA in finance but seemed to have been unemployed for months .\nPolice: Man left three letters, including one taking responsibility for shootings .","id":"9c31b082f00d80d335350dcff3d91b6a170d8fe1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department on Monday continued to publicly downplay the threat North Korea presents to the United States with spokesman P.J. Crowley telling reporters North Korea \"represents an infinitesimal threat to the United States directly.\" A North Korean soldier looks at the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone earlier this month. The spokesman's statement followed comments from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with ABC, broadcast Monday, in which she said the reason for the United States' low-key reaction to North Korea's recent missile test was that the United States wasn't \"going to give the North Koreans the satisfaction they were looking for, which was to elevate them to center stage.\" In that interview, Clinton said North Korea has a \"constant demand for attention,\" and she added, \"maybe it's the mother in me, the experience I've had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: Don't give it to them.\" After calling the direct threat to the U.S. \"infinitesimal,\" Crowley went on to say that \"North Korea, and its provocative actions, does represent a significant threat to the region and its actions recently have been unhelpful and potentially destabilizing.\" A senior U.S. official, who did not want to be identified, said there is a \"theoretical\" question of whether a North Korean missile could hit the United States. \"There's nothing in their recent development,\" he said, \"which would suggest that their technology is becoming more accurate.\" The United States says its primary concerns about North Korea's actions are its impact on security in the region and the risk of nuclear proliferation. Last week the United Nations imposed sanctions on a number of individuals, companies and goods connected with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. Taking aim at several key North Korean officials, it subjected them to a freeze on their assets and an international travel ban.","highlights":"State Department spokesman: Recent actions \"potentially destabilizing\" to region .\nSecretary of State Clinton: North Korea has \"constant demand for attention\"\nThat is why U.S. had low-key reaction to missile tests, Clinton says .","id":"a0492e3fad5d799453941ccd111e35016d4b39a5"} -{"article":"To: Interested Parties From: John King Re: Monday Memo . Egyptain President Hosni Mubarak will visit the White House on Tuesday. (CNN) -- Health care remains, without a doubt, President Obama's top priority, though the week ahead will bring more of a public focus on international and security issues. One key dynamic to keep an eye on is the reaction among leading House Democrats to the latest indication the White House is prepared to accept a health care bill that lacks a robust \"public\" or government insurance option. \"Not the essential element,\" is how Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius described the public option to us on CNN's \"State of the Union\" on Sunday.. \"Very difficult,\" is how veteran House Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas told us when asked how hard of a sell a health care bill absent a robust public option would be in among House Democrats. This might be a good time for Obama and former President Clinton to swap notes about 1993-94. Out of the box on Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, Obama addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention. It's a platform to share his views on the escalation of the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan just as U.S. forces begin to quicken their pace of withdrawal from Iraq. Back in Washington on Tuesday, a White House meeting with longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will turn attention to the Middle East, where the administration and traditional Arab allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are unhappy with the lack of discernible movement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And Thursday's national elections in Afghanistan will keep a spotlight on the international stage and the uncertainties facing the Obama administration. It's safe to say the White House has profound worries about President Hamid Karzai's commitment to fight corruption and lead aggressively, but it's also safe to say the White House expectation is another Karzai term. The market closed down at the end of last week because of doubts the worst was over. This week offers a few interesting tests: . \u2022 Earnings reports on tap from companies that offer key glimpses of consumer spending -- among them Home Depot, Lowe's Target and Hewlett-Packard. \u2022 The Labor Department's Producer Price Index is released on Tuesday, along with Commerce Department figures on new housing starts. \u2022 And the report on economic leading indicators comes Thursday morning. And, finally, a few political notes for the week ahead: . \u2022 Fred Thompson and Bill Clinton will be lighting birthday candles on Wednesday. \u2022 Southern governors gather in Williamsburg, Virginia, with the economy and health care topping the agenda. \u2022 Mike Huckabee's political action committee gathers this week, through a series of house parties.","highlights":"On Monday, President Obama will have chance to discuss Afghanistan at speech .\nOn Thursday, Afghanistan's elections will keep trouble nation on forefront .\nOn Tuesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will visit the White House .\nOn health care this week, watch how House Democrats react to latest moves .","id":"9f67cd5c3d03f3493a126fb6d9ef0813fd7b53f0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Classes resumed last Thursday at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, and by Monday 47 students had swine flu, a college official said. The CDC recommends someone sick with the virus remain out of class for 24 hours after fever has abated on its own. Although that's less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the 27,000-member student body, and no one has died or been hospitalized, the school has moved into action. \"The sanitizer's out,\" said Todd Cohen, director of university relations. The university sent e-mails to faculty members asking them to create contingency plans so that sick students are not required to go to class, and to commuter students and their parents warning them that the students may have to be isolated if they fall ill. That same message has gone to students in dormitories. Arrangements are being made to isolate anyone who's sick in their rooms by moving out their roommates and dropping off meals, Cohen said. None of the school's cases of swine flu -- also called H1N1 -- has proven fatal or resulted in a hospitalization, he said, and none of the reported cases has been confirmed. Public health officials are simply assuming that anyone with flu symptoms has swine flu, because it's the only form of the virus in circulation, he said. The school's health center can do little for those who show up for help. \"They're basically told to go home and rest and get better,\" Cohen said. Vaccines are unlikely to help much this year. Supplies are not expected until late October, and require some five weeks from the first inoculation -- two are required -- before they become effective. \"By then, it's December and the semester is almost over,\" he said. So public health officials are focusing on more basic medical efforts. Students already overloaded with information at the start of the semester are being urged to sneeze into their sleeves, wash their hands frequently and stay home if they get sick, Cohen said. \"It really comes down to them taking personal action,\" he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends someone sick with the virus remain out of class for 24 hours after fever has abated on its own. Firm figures on just how many people have the illness are tough to come by. Doctors are not required to report it to state or federal health officials, said Maggie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. \"We've stopped accepting tests from county health departments,\" she said. Instead, the department is focusing on a surveillance system that will test only those sites deemed representative. Otherwise, Thompson said, the state's laboratories would become overwhelmed. \"There are just too many numbers.\" The state stopped counting laboratory-confirmed cases at 324: \"But that is just a fraction of what we think is going on,\" she said. \"There could be as many as 10,000 cases in Kansas already.\" KU students are not the only ones catching swine flu, Thompson said: \"If you called any university of this size around the country it's probably going to be about the same.\" At Auburn University in Alabama, 10 cases have been reported among the 24,000 students who started classes last Monday, a spokeswoman said. \"So far, everybody seems to be recovering,\" said Deedie Dowdle. The school's emergency management team was meeting this week to decide how to handle larger-scale absences, she said. \"I'm getting lots of reports of outbreaks in the Southeast Conference,\" said Dr. James Turner, president of the American College Health Association. \"I'm anticipating several thousand cases among college students this fall.\" Among the preparations are plans for mass vaccinations, he said. But with school just beginning, much remains unknown, he said. \"We are just kind of hunkering down right now waiting to see where this goes.\" Turner is also executive director for student health at the University of Virginia, where classes are slated to begin Tuesday. \"We're kind of bracing for what the week brings,\" he said. Turner said 63 students came down with swine flu during the summer session, and \"they all did fine.\" Last week, the CDC released tips for school administrators to follow. \"We're hoping we're on track to be ahead of this virus, to get the college-age population vaccinated once it becomes available in mid-October, and to keep students as safe and secure as possible,\" Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters in a conference call. Some U.S. colleges began reporting cases last April, after students returned from spring break. The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, which reported one case of H1N1 last spring, is taking extra precautions ahead of the fall semester. \"We are attacking the disease, from each person taking the responsibility for good hygiene and healthy habits,\" said Ann Kleva, the university's director of health services. The University of California has been stocking up on supplies for each of its 10 campuses over the past several months, university system officials said. Since mid-April, when swine flu was discovered, the CDC has tallied 522 deaths in the nation. \"We do know that H1N1 flu is circulating in the country right now,\" said Lisa Barrios, of the agency's division of adolescent and school health. \"For the most part, it's sporadic and regional.\" But she said the agency is not advising any schools to close. \"What we're doing is keeping a very close eye on what's happening with the flu during the fall and the winter,\" she said. The swine flu virus has captured the attention of public health experts because they worry it could mutate into a far more lethal form. \"If that does happen, then we may recommend that schools close, but right now we are not doing that,\" Barrios said. \"It's important to balance the risks with the benefits of keeping kids in schools.\" CNN's Emily Sherman, Leslie Wade, Miriam Falco and Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this article.","highlights":"Five days into new year, U. of Kansas at Lawrence has 47 cases of swine flu .\nNo one has died or been hospitalized because of the illness .\nLast week, the CDC released tips for school administrators to follow .\nUniversities and colleges across the country are bracing for swine flu spike .","id":"508f1b0ab56b6a5d387eef49ed3b3d1fa70eb193"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Mississippi schoolteacher was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for shooting and stabbing to death her lover's pregnant fiancee in 2006. Carla Hughes met the victim's fiance at the middle school where she was a teacher. The same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of two counts of murder Tuesday for the death of Avis Banks spared her life, declining to impose the death penalty. Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives. Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest asked the panel of nine women and three men to sentence Hughes to death based on the gruesome nature of Banks' murder. Banks, 27, was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29, 2006, in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Keyon Pittman, the father of her unborn child. She was five months pregnant. She had been shot four times in the leg, chest and head, and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying, according to medical testimony. Prosecutors alleged that Hughes killed Banks so she could have Pittman, a colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, to herself. \"She took Avis Banks' life and the life of her unborn child because she wanted that life,\" the prosecutor said. The jury deliberated Wednesday for about an hour to decide on the sentence after hearing emotional testimony from seven defense witnesses, including her parents. \"Carla has been a kind, loving person all her life,\" said Carl Hughes, who adopted his daughter when she was 6 weeks old. \"I'm not asking you, I'm pleading with you, to spare my daughter's life,\" said Hughes, who is also a teacher. He said that the person portrayed by prosecutors as a cold-blooded killer was completely different from the accomplished honors student, equestrian and beauty pageant contestant that he knew and loved. Hughes' pastor and friends also took the stand to describe her work mentoring youths, volunteering at church and at the school where she met the victim's husband. Suspicion initially fell on Pittman, who admitted to having an affair with Hughes, a language arts teacher. A key prosecution witness, Pittman told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes' home and even went out of town together, but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex. Throughout the trial, defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman, portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood. Prosecutors alleged the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime. The defendant's cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Banks' death. Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Banks' body to the gun, which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police. None of Banks' relatives testified at the sentencing. Instead, the jury heard from a forensic pathologist, who described the nature of Banks' injuries. Madison County Deputy District Attorney John Emfinger urged the jury to look past Hughes' prior achievements and focus on the crime in rendering its sentence. \"In my mind, this overshadows everything else she's done in life. She took the lives of two people in that garage,\" he said in his closing argument Wednesday. \"When that door opened, (Avis Banks) was not met by a beauty pageant winner, she was not met by a member of the mayor's youth council, she was not met by a peacemaker. ... She was met by a stone-cold killer,\" he said. In Session's Jean Casarez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of murder declines to impose death penalty .\nProsecutors said gruesome nature of crime warranted death sentence .\nAvis Banks was five months pregnant when she was shot, stabbed multiple times .\nProsecutors alleged Hughes killed rival so she could be with Keyon Pittman .","id":"0d963f4512066b6c7e6c0a50fcb067eb4d02396e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than two dozen times in the past three years, authorities came to Phillip and Nancy Garrido's ramshackle home at 1554 Walnut Ave. in Antioch, California, a rural property where Jaycee Dugard is said to have been confined for 18 years. Jaycee Dugard was locked in a shed tucked under a blue tarp in her alleged captor's backyard. And each time, they left without learning of the secret shed where Dugard lived. The Garridos have pleaded not guilty to charges of abduction and forcible rape. They are being held without bail in the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez, California. After she was abducted in June 1991, at age 11, Dugard's disappearance spawned a massive search that continued, on and off, for almost two decades. Federal agents remained committed to the case, chasing thousands of leads. But they apparently never had the Garridos on their radar. The case of the missing girl evoked deep emotions that rippled across the South Lake Tahoe community. Strangers threw fundraisers and parades to raise money for search efforts. Friends and neighbors wore T-shirts bearing images of Dugard's smiling face to give the case exposure. Elementary school students toted signs that encouraged the community to stay committed to the hunt for their classmate. All they wanted was to find little Jaycee Lee Dugard. And for some of that time, authorities were visiting the home of the couple now accused of abducting her. Watch an FBI agent talk about why clues were missed \u00bb . Interviews with public officials show that parole officers, law enforcement officials and firefighters visited the Garrido household but left without realizing that the kidnapped girl had grown to adulthood and was living in a soundproof shed hidden in the backyard. Two Dozen Contacts . There were at least 16 visits from parole officers and seven by the fire department. There was also one by the sheriff's office responding to an allegation that people were living in the backyard. State and local authorities have now begun internal investigations to find out why none of these visits uncovered the existence of Dugard, now 29, and her children, Starlet, 15, and Angel, 11. Their makeshift home of tents, tarps and sheds was tucked behind a 6-foot wall at the rear of the Garrido property. \"I feel confident the sheriff will use this as an example of how to do things better,\" said Federal Glover, a district supervisor for Contra Costa County who also heads the community's public safety committee. \"From this lesson, we will not have this type of missed opportunity occur again.\" One of the first red flags authorities might have caught was in 1993, two years after the kidnapping. Garrido, who had been released from prison after serving 11 years for a 1976 kidnapping, violated his parole in April 1993. It is unclear what he did or how the violation was flagged. As a result, he was placed in federal prison for one month and then released on house arrest for three months. He returned to the Antioch home, where he lived with his wife and his elderly mother. Violation Wasn't Reported to Nevada . But the parole violation was never reported to the state of Nevada, where the first kidnapping and rape had occurred, said Gail Powell, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Public Safety. \"The state of Nevada would have taken some action,\" Powell said. \"I don't know what, but some action could have meant putting him back in prison, pulling him off parole.\" In 1999, the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections agreed to take responsibility and authority for supervising Garrido's parole because he resided in that state. Garrido's most recent parole agent visited the home at least twice a month since December, according to California corrections officials. Sometimes the visits were unannounced, said Gordon Hinkle, a department spokesman. Parole officers also checked on Garrido frequently before 2008, Hinkle said, but he did not know how often or how many parole officers visited Garrido's residence. The parole agent who most recently entered Garrido's backyard didn't notice any children's toys or items to indicate that minors were living in the house. The agent saw a shed but assumed it belonged to a neighbor. \"There was a deceptive false impression,\" Hinkle said. \"If you were to be on the property walking around, you would have seen a big fence.\" Parole Officers Carry Big Caseloads . Hinkle said the parole officer performed his duties appropriately. The parole officer was also responsible for raising suspicions when two University of California Berkeley officers notified him that Phillip Garrido came in with his \"daughters.\" The parole officer called the Garridos in for questioning. California has one of the highest parolee-to-officer ratios in the country. State budget cuts are expected to strain the department this year, which could mean reducing the number of parole officers, Hinkle said. The officer assigned to supervise Garrido was also responsible for 39 other sex offenders. As recently as June, two months before Dugard was discovered with the Garridos, Contra Costa County firefighters responded to a fire on the property. They doused a car engine that had exploded into flames at the rear of the property, said department spokeswoman Emily Hopkins. They spent two hours there and then left. They also visited Garrido's property in fall 2007, after a neighbor reported fire coming from the backyard. In addition, they responded twice in 2008 and three times in 2009 to medical emergencies involving Garrido's elderly mother, Patricia Franzen. Fire department officials weren't sure whether more visits were made to the home, because computerized records date only to 2006. Neighbors Steered Clear . Neighbors who had encounters with Garrido said they didn't take the time to get to know him. Some said they knew that he was a sex offender, so they steered away from his house. Others ignored him because they thought he was strange. Betty Unpingco invited the entire neighborhood to her son's graduation party in spring 2006. She said Garrido attended and brought speakers for the party. When Unpingco and several adults noticed him talking to the high school girls, they asked him to leave. Later that night, she said, when they saw him waiting outside his home to speak to the girls, the adults escorted them home. Feeling uneasy after the party, Unpingco checked the sex offender registry and found Garrido's picture. \"It was just so bizarre,\" said Unpingco, who has 10 children. \"I warned my children to stay away from him and to always walk in twos.\" She did not notify police. In November 2006, another neighbor did call police, saying she saw people living in tents behind the Garridos' house. Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said he didn't think the deputy who responded knew at the time that Garrido was a sex offender. The deputy spoke to Garrido in his front yard about the allegations, but Garrido convinced him otherwise.","highlights":"Officials visited Garrido home more than two dozen times in past three years .\nPhillip Garrido's parole officer checked up on him at least twice a month .\nGarrido violated parole in 1993, but offense wasn't reported to all the right agencies .","id":"98bc8795499626d7150002391aefd85c6e14e828"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Serving a 36-year-old government-issue cake at an Army retirement ceremony sounds like a classic bureaucratic mistake, but there was no mistake about it. Retiring Army Col. Henry Moak uses a vintage P-38 to break the seal on government cake saved since 1973. Retiring Army Col. Henry Moak served it up himself -- at his own ceremony. Moak had saved the cake since 1973, when he got it while serving in Vietnam, and had long-standing plans to open it upon his retirement. Pound cake served in a can was standard fare in military C rations back then. Moak said it was his favorite, and he could not get enough of it. \"I would eat it any chance I could get, but not all of the meals came with pound cake,\" he said before opening it. In front of friends and family who attended his retirement ceremony Friday at the Pentagon, Moak eagerly opened the can. Answering the question of whether the anticipation was the same now as back then, Moak said, \"Yes, even more!\" \"I won't eat it if it's black and moldy,\" he told onlookers. \"You can hear the pop of the air coming out,\" he said referring to the vacuum seal on the can. To most people's surprise, the opened can revealed a still-edible yellow cake. The ceremonial sword used to cut Moak's real retirement cake was also used to dig into the can and cut out the cake. Moak took a bite and put up his thumb, \"It's good, it's still kind of moist,\" he declared.","highlights":"Retiring Army Col. Henry Moak treats himself to pound cake saved from 1973 .\nMoak says he always liked the cake and \"would eat it any chance I could get\"\nHe saved the C ration goodie to have alongside traditional retirement cake .","id":"432eefb0ddd78dfc51701df259d933fc43cc9342"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Palestinians on Tuesday urged the United Nations to \"punish\" Israel as a scathing U.N. report accused the nation of war crimes during its military offensive in Gaza last winter. A Palestinian boy kicks a football outside damaged homes in northern Gaza in January 2009. But Israel rejected the investigation as one-sided and shameful. The report accused Israel of committing \"actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity\" during its military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18. Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who headed the U.N. investigation into the conflict, demanded that someone be held responsible for crimes committed during it. \"The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point,\" Goldstone said Tuesday. \"This is the time of action.\" He formally presented the report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday. It claims that the Israeli Defense Forces \"failed to take feasible precautions required by international law to avoid or minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.\" Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the United Nations, called the report professional and unbiased. \"This report should not be another report to just document and archive,\" said Khraishi. \"My people will not forgive this council if they let these criminals go unpunished.\" But Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, questioned the report in strong language Tuesday, calling it one-sided and shameful. \"This report is based on carefully picked incidents, cherry-picked for political effect,\" Leshno-Yaar said. \"The authors of this fact-finding report had little thought about finding facts.\" Israel did not cooperate in the U.N. investigation, calling it flawed and biased. There is an ongoing dispute about the number of people killed in the three-week military offensive which Israel called Operation Cast Lead. The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights put the death toll at 1,419 and said that 1,167 of those were \"non-combatants.\" The Israeli military released its own figures earlier this year, claiming 1,166 people were killed and that 60 percent of those were \"terror operatives.\" A separate report released earlier this month by Israeli human rights organization B'tselem put the death toll at 1,387, claiming that more than half of those killed were civilians. Israel has said it \"had both a right and an obligation to take military action against Hamas in Gaza to stop Hamas' almost incessant rocket and mortar attacks upon thousands of Israeli civilians and its other acts of terrorism.\" Hamas is the militant Palestinian movement which governs Gaza. It rejects Israel's right to exist. The U.N. report said Israel fired the chemical agent white phosphorus in civilian areas, intentionally fired upon hospitals using high-explosive artillery shells, and failed to provide effective warnings to civilians or U.N. workers before attacks, all of which can be war crimes. It also claims that Israel used Palestinian civilians as human shields and deliberately attacked Palestinian food supplies in Gaza. The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council require the government of Israel to launch appropriate independent investigations into the findings of the report within three months. The findings also recommend that the alleged Israeli war crimes be explored by the International Criminal Court. Israel has launched a number of its own investigations into the conflict. The findings also call on Palestinian leadership to investigate alleged war crimes, for militants to respect humanitarian law, and for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in 2006, on humanitarian grounds. Representatives from Russia, Cuba and Egypt applauded the Goldstone report. The U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, said some of the recommendations in the report were \"deeply flawed\" and called for Israel and Palestinian authorities to be allowed to finish conducting their own investigations before passing judgment. A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the Human Rights Council could draft a resolution on the issue by Friday. The group that prepared the report is called the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Its 500-plus page report was released earlier this month and presented formally on Tuesday. CNN's Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. group presents scathing report on Israel's conduct during Gaza offensive .\nPalestinians urge U.N. to address alleged crimes; Israel condemns report .\nReport accuses Israel of \"actions amounting to war crimes\" during offensive .\nReport finds Palestinian militants also committed war crimes .","id":"267232993e97e3a810937e094ebb85c1b3df62f5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key Senate negotiator said Sunday that President Obama should drop his push for a government-funded public health insurance option because the Senate will never pass it. President Obama at a town hall meeting earlier this week pushing his health care reform plan. Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said it was futile to continue to \"chase that rabbit\" due to the lack of 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster. \"The fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for a public option. There never have been,\" Conrad said on \"Fox News Sunday.\" His comment signaled a shift in the health care debate, with Obama and senior advisers softening their support for a public option by saying final form of the legislation is less important than the principle of affordable coverage available to all. At a town hall meeting Saturday in Colorado, Obama said the public option is just one of many issues critical to successfully overhauling the ailing health care system. \"All I'm saying is ... that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it,\" the president said. Asked Sunday if Obama would accept a bill lacking a public option, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president insists on more competition in the health insurance marketplace to offer consumers better choices. \"The bottom line ... is: Do individuals looking for health insurance in the private market have choice and competition?\" Gibbs said on the CBS program \"Face the Nation.\" \"If we have that, the president will be satisfied.\" Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius echoed Gibbs, telling CNN's \"State of the Union\" on Sunday that a final health care bill will include competitive choices for consumers in one form or another. \"There will be a competitor to private insurers,\" she said. \"You don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing. We need some choices and we need some competition.\" Opponents of overhauling the health care system argue the Democratic proposals under consideration by Congress go too far and will lead to a government takeover of the health care system. \"We have the best health care system in the world,\" Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"We need to expand it. We do not need to destroy it.\" At issue is how to provide coverage for an estimated 46 million uninsured people while reversing a climb in health care costs. Democratic proposals passed so far by House and Senate committees include a public insurance option, mandates for people to be insured and employers to provide coverage, and an end to insurance companies refusing to cover pre-existing conditions. Most Republicans oppose the public option and requirements for employers to provide coverage. They also call for limits on medical malpractice lawsuits -- something Democrats generally don't favor. However, the two parties generally agree on a number of provisions contained in the Democratic bills, including increased efficiency in Medicare and Medicaid and focusing on preventive health programs. Conrad is one of six Senate Finance Committee members -- three Democrats and three Republicans -- who are negotiating a compromise health care bill that would be the only bipartisan proposal so far. Instead of a public option, the negotiators are considering a plan proposed by Conrad to create nonprofit health insurance cooperatives that could negotiate coverage as a collective for their members. Conrad said such cooperatives would provide the competition sought by Obama and Democratic leaders to force private insurers to hold down costs and improve practices. The government would put up initial funding to provide required reserves but would have no other role, he said. \"It's not a public plan at all in terms of government running it,\" Conrad said. Shelby called the cooperative idea a \"step in the right direction\" and \"a far cry\" from other proposals, adding that Obama and Democratic leaders have \"read the tea leaves\" from town hall meetings around the country. However, Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas told CNN it would be \"very, very difficult\" to support a bill that lacked a public health insurance option. \"Without the public option, we'll have the same number of people uninsured,\" Johnson said in a \"State of the Union\" interview. \"If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people now, they'd be insured.\" She added that \"an option that would give the private insurance companies a little competition\" is \"the only way\" to be sure that insurance is available to low-income people and people without employer-provided coverage. Meanwhile, leaders of organizations representing America's doctors and senior citizens defended the proposed health care overhaul that their groups had opposed in past years. Dr. J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, and John Rother of AARP -- formerly the American Association of Retired Persons -- told \"Fox News Sunday\" a comprehensive overhaul sought by Democrats was necessary. \"There are some moving parts that if you just do one and don't do the other, you're going to have unintended consequences,\" said Rohack, head of the nation's largest doctors' advocacy group. Rother, executive vice president of policy and strategy for the largest senior citizens' advocacy group, said properly addressing excessive health care costs and waste requires addressing both health insurance coverage and how health care treatment is delivered. Both men rejected accusations that a health care overhaul would bring rationing of health treatment based on bureaucratic measures such as cost and economic productivity of patients. \"There's a myth that rationing doesn't occur right now,\" Rohack said, noting that some companies currently deny coverage for pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. \"That's why this bill is so important,\" Rohack said. \"It gets rid of rationing happening right now\" and leaves decisions to patients and doctors. Rohack also condemned claims by some Republicans that a provision in one House bill would lead to so-called \"death panels\" encouraging euthanasia of senior citizens. \"That's absolutely wrong, it's a falsehood,\" he said, adding that the provision was intended to provide government support for consultations between patients and their doctors. Spreading of the \"death panel\" rumor by some conservative commentators and some Republican politicians prompted emotional opposition at town hall meetings across the country. Senate negotiators on a compromise bill say they have dropped the provision from their proposal due to potential misinterpretation of the intent.","highlights":"Democratic senator from North Dakota: Not enough votes to filibuster .\nSen. Kent Conrad: President Obama should not \"chase that rabbit\"\nConrad, working on bipartisan proposal, suggests nonprofit insurance co-ops .\nObama has been campaigning for a government-backed health care option .","id":"79f9d948354998408411d1a2ae3518007fe17346"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The murder of rapper Dolla reverberated throughout the music industry on Tuesday as police sought a motive for the brazen killing. Rap artist Dolla was known as a nice guy who survived a rough childhood. The aspiring Southern hip-hop artist, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was gunned down in the busy parking lot of the upscale Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, California, on Monday afternoon. Police later arrested Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, at Los Angeles International Airport, a Los Angeles Police statement said. No other details were given about Berry. The 21-year-old rapper was based in Atlanta, Georgia. He was in Los Angeles to work on his debut album. Those who knew him said that despite coming from a rough background, Burton was extremely gracious and polite. \"Everything with Dolla was 'please' and 'thank you,' \" said Ant Rich, manager of A&R for Jive Records, who discovered the rapper for the label when Burton was 17 and helped sign him a year later. \"The streets did not define him at all. He was bigger than that.\" Dolla was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of singer Akon, who collaborated with him on his first single, \"Who the F--- is That?\" which also featured another high-profile artist, T-Pain. Another Dolla song, \"Feelin' Myself,\" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2006 movie \"Step Up.\" According to his official MySpace page, Dolla was born in Chicago, Illinois, and his family relocated to Los Angeles soon after. He was 5 years old when he and his older sister, Divinity, witnessed their father committing suicide. After that incident, their mother moved the family to Atlanta, according to his biography. The Burton family released the following statement on Tuesday: . \"First and foremost we, the family, would like to thank everyone for all their kind thoughts and prayers. Furthermore, the family would like to note that rumored details of the shooting on popular Web\/blog sites are false. \"Due to the circumstances of the situation, no other information will be released at this time. We are grateful for your continuous support and would be very appreciative if we could mourn this loss in private. \"Additionally, information released before and after this official statement are not confirmed nor should they be considered accurate.\" Rich said Dolla, who also did some modeling for P. Diddy's Sean John label, loved his family deeply. He was the guy with the great smile who would do things like offer to pick up the bill after a meeting with music executives, Rich said. \"You would tell him 'Look Dolla, you don't have to do that because we get reimbursed for this' and he would say 'No, no you got it last time, let me,' \" Rich said. \"The world lost a really good kid and he had the biggest heart.\" DeAngelo Jones books talent for BET and got to know Dolla after he performed at the network's \"Spring Bling\" event last year. He said the artist was humbled and grateful for the success he was starting to find in the industry. \"That energy was what drew me to him,\" said Jones, who stayed in touch with Dolla after the show and often ran into him at other events. \"A lot of times there are negative associations that go along with being a rapper, but he was not at all what the image of a rapper is portrayed to be.\" Jones said he was at the Beverly Center only a short time before the shooting occurred. Jones said it was unfortunate that Dolla's slaying is yet another incident that will link hip-hop with violence. \"Hip-hop gets such a bad rap, ever since the deaths of Biggie and Tupac,\" Jones said. \"[Dolla] just wanted to be successful, help other people and do the right thing. What's so hard for me is to see where his life was heading, because he was definitely on the right course.\" Jerry Barrow, senior editor for The Urban Daily, a publication devoted to African-Americans in pop culture, noted that it was unfortunate that Dolla is finding mainstream recognition posthumously. \"With his modeling and his music, he did more before the age of 20 than many people do,\" Barrow said. \"It's a shame that this is how many people are now discovering him and his music.\" Rashan Ali, a disc jockey with Atlanta's Hot 107.9 radio station, said the city has a thriving hip-hop community. Her station, which plays hip-hop, often has its lobby filled with aspiring artists trying to get their music heard. With the success of Atlanta-based artists like rappers T.I., Outkast, and Young Jeezy, more and more young people are drawn to the area to try and make the connections that will find them fame, Ali said. That Dolla was killed while pursuing his craft is especially sad, she said. \"[Dolla] was minding his business, in Los Angeles trying to record his music and this happens,\" Ali said. \"It's horrific and now a mother has to bury her child. It's senseless.\"","highlights":"Those who knew rapper Dolla mourn his loss .\nThe Atlanta-based rapper was killed at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles .\nFamily releases a statement asking for privacy to mourn .\nDolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was 21 .","id":"ecab7c8a66c148ef88709749799a6120fb7babac"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly 40 years after members of a U.S. cavalry unit put their lives in peril to save 100 fellow soldiers trapped under blistering enemy fire in Vietnam, they received the Presidential Unit Citation on Tuesday. Veterans watch Tuesday's ceremony, which recognized members of a U.S. cavalry unit. It's an honor their captain says is long overdue. President Obama awarded the citation for extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry to 86 members of the Army's Troop A, First Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. \"These soldiers defined the meaning of bravery and heroism,\" Obama said at a White House reception honoring the group's heroics. \"It's never too late. You can never say it enough. ... We honor your service, and America is forever grateful.\" On March 26, 1970, the 120-member Troop A volunteered to rescue an American infantry company surrounded by an overwhelming enemy force at a site on the Cambodian border called the Dog's Face. The enemy had survived hours of aerial and artillery bombardment and was expected to kill or capture the 100 American infantrymen in Company C within hours. The Americans were running out of ammunition and could not move because of heavy casualties. There were no available landing zones for medical and rescue helicopters to touch down. Alpha Troop heard of their plight on a radio and rode in with an infantry company to rescue their comrades. \"Troop A skillfully penetrated four kilometers of nearly impassable jungle terrain and unhesitatingly mounted a fierce assault directly into the heavily fortified North Vietnamese army position,\" the presidential proclamation states. When the battle was over, more than 70 Americans lay dead or wounded. For retired Capt. John Poindexter, who led the rescue, the award is for all Vietnam veterans, many of whom came home to an unwelcome and sometimes hostile reception. \"The veterans of Alpha Troop feel very strongly that we stand in the stead of all veterans of the war of Vietnam,\" Poindexter told CNN before the ceremony. \"The fact is that we're being singled out for a very distinct honor, a very rare one, but it is our conviction that on any day in any other jungle in Vietnam, nearly every Vietnam veteran would have been willing to assume the task that we assumed on March 26, 1970, when we earned the Presidential Unit Citation.\" Poindexter had been trying to gain recognition for his men for the past seven years. Initially, he felt deep disappointment. In 2003, he discovered that the men he had recommended for decorations for their valor had not received those citations. Eventually, 14 men received individual decorations. That was not enough. \"My role in obtaining the PUC [Presidential Unit Citation] -- or in helping to obtain the PUC -- among the 200 persons who were involved in this matter over a seven-year period, was to be in the unhappy position of discovering that the men who I had recommended for decorations had not been recommended, had not been awarded those decorations,\" the retired captain said. \"The result of that was that we got 14 men decorated for their valor, but 14 men out of more than 120 who were engaged in the battle on that fateful day were only a pittance, only a minority, of those who might have been honored. Only a unit citation could honor all equally and impartially, and it was that task we set ourselves on nearly seven years ago. \" He believes lack of popular support for the war had much to do with it taking so long for Alpha Troop to be recognized. \"There's little question in our minds that the unpopularity of the war in Vietnam is a major contributing factor to the reception these men received when they returned to the United States and a major factor, in my opinion, in the silence that most of them have assumed since then,\" Poindexter said. \"Why talk about something that most people don't have a very high opinion of in all likelihood? And if that isn't true, nevertheless, it's what most of these men think. They were engaged in an unpopular venture that has bedeviled them for much of their adult lives.\" Now, the circle has been closed. \"It's a very elevating experience to see the men that I have not seen for 40 years since War Zone C in Vietnam,\" the former captain said. \"These are persons who have had success in life, and some have not had a lot of success in life, and to see how they've turned out, how they look these days, and to know I'll be with them in the White House [Tuesday] is a very fulfilling sensation for me. \"For me, the sensation of being honored is one of having closed an important chapter on my life in a very fruitful and rewarding way.\" The Presidential Unit Citation is awarded to armed forces units of the United States and allies for extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy on or after December 7, 1941. The unit must display such gallantry, determination and esprit de corps under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions so as to set it apart from and above other units participating in the same campaign.","highlights":"86 in Army's Troop A, First Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment recognized .\nCavalry saved 100 fellow soldiers trapped under enemy fire in Vietnam .\nLeader of 1970 rescue says award is for all Vietnam veterans .\nPresidential Unit Citation recognizes extraordinary heroism against armed enemy .","id":"be2014662816631eb96149061c2e5fd64adcc57f"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Bill weakened Friday afternoon to a Category 2 hurricane, with its maximum sustained winds at 105 mph, forecasters said. Hurricane Bill is expected to pass between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast over the weekend. As of 11 p.m. Friday, Bill's center was about 180 miles west-southwest of Bermuda, and about 545 miles east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Its forward speed had increased to about 20 mph as it continued moving north-northwest, forecasters said. The storm was expected to gradually turn toward the north late Friday and into Saturday. See Bill's projected path \u00bb . If the storm follows its current track, it should pass over the open water between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast on Saturday, forecasters said. Earlier Friday, Bill's outer bands began producing rain in Bermuda as the storm neared the British territory, the hurricane center said. Forecasters expect Bill to pelt Bermuda with 1 to 3 inches of rain, although up to 5 inches is possible. iReport.com: Bermuda's preparations . The storm also was beginning to affect the U.S. East Coast, where dangerous rip currents and battering waves were developing, said CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. Rip currents form as wind and waves push water against the shore, where it is caught behind an obstacle such as a sandbar until it breaks free, sending a strong channel of water flowing away from the shoreline. The large swells are expected to affect most of the U.S. East Coast within the next couple of days, the hurricane center said. There were reports of waves at the center of the storm as high as 54 feet, Jeras said. With Bill advancing, the Bermuda Weather Service forecasts the storm tide will raise water levels by as much as 3 feet along the coast and produce large, battering waves. Large swells were affecting Puerto Rico, the island of Hispaniola and the Bahamas to the south, the agency said. Bermuda remained under a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch. The warning means winds of at least 39 mph are expected within 24 hours, while the watch indicates winds of at least 74 mph are possible within 36 hours. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 85 miles from the center and storm-force winds outward as much as 275 miles, the hurricane center said. Forecasters advised people along the New England coast and in the Canadian Maritime provinces to monitor Bill's progress.","highlights":"Hurricane Bill downgraded to Category 2 storm .\nHurricane expected to pelt Bermuda with 1 to 3 inches of rain .\nBattering waves developing on parts of U.S. East Coast .\nBill is expected to pass between Bermuda and East Coast .","id":"3dd66e07f601cd1e16f856737d334e647fccab50"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Pacific near American Samoa, triggering towering tsunami waves that gushed over the island and leaving at least 22 people dead. The tsunami wave hit right in the middle of the harbor of Pago Pago, the capital. American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono, speaking from Hawaii, said Tuesday's quake ranked \"right up there with some of the worst\" disasters on the island. He said about 50 people had been treated for injuries so far but he expected that number to rise. The quake hit the small cluster of South Pacific islands early Tuesday morning. By evening, Laumoli, standing outside the LBJ Tropical Medican Center morgue in the capital of Pago Pago, confirmed 22 deaths. \"I thought it was the end of the world,\" said Dr. Salamo Laumoli, director of health services. \"I have never felt an earthquake like that before.\" Laumoli feared more fatalities would turn up as rescue workers were still trying to access parts of the island severed by damaged infrastructure. Laumoli said people in outlying villages on one end of the main island have been cut off because the main bridge was washed away. \"Two or three villages have been badly damaged,\" he told CNN International. Listen to Laumoli speak about the impact of the quake and tsunami \u00bb . Tulafono cited extensive damage to roads, buildings and homes, and said he had spoken to the military about mobilizing reserve forces for assistance. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, canceled tsunami watches and warnings for American Samoa about four hours after the earthquake hit. However, a tsunami advisory is still in effect for for the coastal areas of California and Oregon. Watch report on end of tsunami warning \u00bb . The Japan Meteorological Agency also activated a tsunami advisory along its eastern coast. The precautionary alert means that the height of a possible tsunami wave would be less than a foot and a half. President Barack Obama \"declared a major disaster exists in the Territory of American Samoa\" late Tuesday and ordered federal aid to supplement local efforts. The declaration makes federal funding available to affected individuals. The tsunami waves hit right in the middle of the Pago Pago harbor, the capital, said Cinta Brown, an American Samoa homeland security official working at the island's emergency operations center. The water devastated the village of Leone. Watch a resident talk about what happened \u00bb . \"The wave came onshore and washed out people's homes,\" Brown said. The same happened on the hard-hit east and west sides of American Samoa, she said. The quake generated three separate tsunami waves, the largest measuring 5.1 feet from sea level height, said Vindell Hsu, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Preliminary data had originally reported a larger tsunami. Officials in the U.S. territory issued a clear call and were focusing on assessing the damage, Brown said. Reports of damage were still emerging, but a bulletin from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the waves \"may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts. Authorities should take appropriate action in response to this possibility.\" Tulafono, the governor, was on his way back home Tuesday night on one of two U.S. Coast Guard C-130 transport planes flying to American Samoa with aid. The Coast Guard also will transport more than 20 officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to American Samoa, said John Hamill, external affairs officer for FEMA in Oakland, California. The FEMA team will include a variety of debris experts, housing experts, members of the Corps of Engineers, and other disaster relief specialists, Hamill said. Tulafono told reporters Tuesday that it was hard being away from home when disaster came calling. It was a time, he said, for families to be together. Those who experienced the massive quake described it as a terrifying event. Brown was standing in a parking lot when her sports utility vehicle began rocking left and right. \"You could hear the rattling of the metal\" of a large chain link fence around the lot, Brown said. \"It shakes you because you know something else is coming,\" she said. CNN's Augie Martin, Mariano Castillo, Moni Basu, Tess Eastment and Nick Valencia contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: White House declares major disaster; orders federal aid .\nU.S. sending plane with aid, officials to help American Samoa .\nMagnitude-8.0 quake strikes near Samoan Islands early Tuesday .\nQuake struck at depth of 7.4 miles, triggered three 5-foot tsunamis .","id":"9382ff6ab711eba689a6687240a2481a06e40a8f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Swimming legend Michael Phelps struggled in his attempt to adapt to the old-style racing suits at the World Cup short-course event in Sweden on Tuesday. The 14-time Olympic gold medal winner qualified for finals in only one of three events in Stockholm, his best result being seventh of eight to go through in the men's 100 meter medley. Racing for the first time since winning five golds and a silver at the world championships in July, the American missed out on the 100m freestyle after qualifying in 16th of 23 competitors. His time of 47.77 seconds was 1.84 seconds slower than the leading mark set by Sweden's Stefan Nystrand. The 24-year-old, who was disqualified in the 100m backstroke, set a time of 53.13 seconds in the medley. The fastest man, South African Darian Townsend, came home in 52.48. Phelps was one of the few swimmers to revert to the old-style suits, which will become mandatory after January 1 as world ruling body FINA seeks to rein in the high-tech costumes which have sent records tumbling at an incredible rate in the past two years. He will swim in the 100m butterfly and 200m medley heats on Wednesday, and then head to the next leg of the World Cup in Berlin at the weekend. In Stockholm on Tuesday, Chinese swimmer Jing Zhao set a new world record in the heats of the women's 50m backstroke, clocking 26.08 seconds. She beat the mark of 26.17 posted by Australia's Marieke Guehrer in the previous meet of the series in Moscow on November 6. In the men's 50m butterfly, South Africa's Roland Schoeman was first in a new World Cup record of 22.29.","highlights":"Swimming star Michael Phelps struggles in old-style racing suits at World Cup short-course event .\nThe 14-time Olympic gold medal winner missed out on two of three finals in Stockholm .\nHe was one of the few to wear an old-style suit, which will be mandatory next year .\nPhelps has two more events on Wednesday before heading to the next leg in Berlin .","id":"fa7d5eb3a3735dba830fdad782f8a79b3fbc5c04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Singer Nelly Furtado is trying to cross over in a direction many artists don't ordinarily take. Singer Nelly Furtado says she enjoys diversity in music and broadening her fan base. With \"Mi Plan,\" the Grammy Award-winning singer is taping into a brand new market and fan base, almost a decade after she came to fame in 2000 with the single \"I'm Like a Bird.\" While the Canadian-born singer -- whose parents are Portuguese -- has sung in Spanish before, \"Mi Plan\" is the first time she has recorded an entire album in Spanish, a language she said she learned as a teen. It's seems like a natural progression for Furtado, an artist often noted for diversity in her sound. A few years after her breakthrough, Furtado teamed up with superproducer Timbaland for her 2006 album \"Loose,\" a collaboration that gained her scores of hip-hop and R&B fans as well, and spawned hits such as \"Promiscuous\" and \"Say It Right.\" \"Mi Plan\" pairs her with a few Spanish-language music artists, including Alex Cuba, Juan Luis Guerra, Julieta Venegas and La Mala Rodriguez, as well as English-language artist Josh Groban. The first single off the album, \"Manos Al Aire,\" made history as it marked the first time a North American artist reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart with a song that was originally written in Spanish, rather than a translated version of an English-language song. Furtado spoke with CNN about her passion for Spanish, why she feels like an artist reborn and the career path she hopes to take. CNN: What was the inspiration for the new album? Nelly Furtado: There were so many inspirations. The language was the biggest inspiration. I've sang so much in Spanish in the past, and also Portuguese. I get a lot of joy in singing in Latin languages. It expresses the Latin side of me. Watch Furtado talk about her new album \u00bb . My parents were born in Portugal and they raised us in Canada. We grew up speaking Portuguese and then I learned Spanish at the age of 14. I love being a multicultural artist, I love being a global artist. [The album] is almost like a literal reflection of that this time in the fact that it's all in Spanish and it's a completely original project written from scratch. CNN: So it's all new? Furtado: Yes. It feels like a rebirth of sorts. It's almost like a parallel world where I get to reinvent myself again as an artist, but in a very whole kind of way. It's been a lot of fun. CNN: You have such a loyal fan base. What do you hope they get from your latest project? Furtado: Just because I have collaborated with so many different people with so many different styles of music that I think my sort of goal or mantra my whole career has been to broaden the minds of my fan base. This album is just an extension of that. I'm an inclusive person and everyone is invited to the fiesta. I'm excited because I am meeting brand new fans for the first time who don't have any of my prior albums. Four albums in, it's a tough job to try to attract new fans and I think that's what I am doing with this new music. CNN: Did you consider it risky to do a Spanish-language album? Furtado: I like to take risks. I live for risk taking and challenges. I just find it so much more exciting and it keeps my job entertaining and interesting. Everyone is looking for that next challenge at work. Everyone wants that extra credential on their business card. If it's easy, it's not fun. CNN: How is performing in Spanish different? Furtado: When I express myself in Spanish or in Portuguese I feel very free. There are a lot of things you can say in a Spanish song that you can't say in an English song, especially from a feminine perspective. As a female, the moment you sing too passionately in English you are kind of labeled as an angry singer. In Spanish that doesn't happen. You can be dramatic as you want and it's accepted. So it's liberating. CNN: There are a lot of Spanish-speaking artists who want to cross over into the English-language market. How does it feel to be doing the reverse? Furtado: I think I'm capitalizing a little bit on the inroads I have already made in the Latin world through working with other established Latin acts. I dabbled in Spanish on my third album. I had two records on there in Spanish and I really enjoyed writing them and playing them live. I'm just going where my heart's at and following the passions. CNN: What's next for you? Furtado: It's interesting because when I got off the road from touring with my third album, \"Loose,\" I was exhausted. I tried to write some songs in English and no inspiration really came to me. Then I started writing songs in Spanish and it started flowing, so this album has been like a medicine of sorts. I'm so excited about music now. I can't wait to put out another project in English and further Spanish albums as well as Portuguese. The list is never-ending.","highlights":"Nelly Furtado's new album is sung completely in Spanish .\nThe singer worked with noted Latin artists on the project .\nFurtado, whose parents are Portuguese, finds performing in Spanish \"liberating\"\nFirst single made history on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart .","id":"337c470109da34a5bfd89847d0148779469b5b2a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The woman who made the 911 call that led to Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates' controversial arrest wasn't present at the so-called beer summit. Lucia Whalen, who called 911 to report a possible break-in, speaks to reporters Wednesday. But she got a shot of kindness and a taste of gratitude from Gates himself. Lucia Whalen received a bouquet of flowers at her office from Gates, according to Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy. \"She described them as amazing, and appreciated them very much,\" Murphy said of the bouquet. The attorney described the flowers as being a beautiful assortment of what she believed were different colored roses. There was a note included from Gates, the details of which Murphy would not divulge. She said the note characterized Gates's \"expression of gratitude\" for Whalen's action. An officer responding to a report of a possible break-in at Gates' Cambridge, Massachusetts, home arrested the professor on July 16 for disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped. The arrest sparked a national debate about race and police relations. Whalen said an older woman with no cell phone told her that she was worried someone was trying to break into the home, and decided to call 911. Whalen never referred to black suspects when she called authorities about the suspected break-in. On Thursday, President Barack Obama -- who had weighed in on the controversy, saying initially that police acted \"stupidly\" -- sat down for a beer at the White House with Gates and the officer who arrested him. The meeting has been called the \"beer summit.\" After the meeting, Obama said in a statement he was thankful to Gates and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley for joining him at for \"a friendly, thoughtful conversation. \"Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them,\" the president's statement said . Obama's initial comments on the incident drew criticism and later he softened his stance, saying, \"I could've calibrated those words differently.\" Murphy told CNN that Whalen has been receiving other apologies and accolades from people all over the world, but so far, no beer.","highlights":"Henry Gates sends flowers to office of woman who accidentally called police on him .\nLucia Whalen \"appreciated them very much,\" her secretary says .\nWhalen called 911 after woman told her she suspected break-in at Gates' home .\nWhalen drew criticism for making call; says she'd do it again .","id":"faae4c69ba594832e347a526e1e6acbb8f56ba21"} -{"article":"(Real Simple) -- Learn how to be plugged in without being impolite. (This is one user manual worth reading.) If you run into someone while you're listening to your iPod, remove both earbuds to talk to her, experts say. 1. You're walking down the street and listening to your iPod when you run into someone you know. Do you need to remove both earbuds to talk to her? Jodi R. R. Smith: If you're having more than a two-minute conversation, then, yes, both buds need to come out -- whether you turn off the device or not. And that goes for your Bluetooth earpiece, too. Jodi R. R. Smith is the president of Manner-smith Consulting, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the author of \"From Clueless to Class Act: Manners for the Modern Woman.\" Joni Blecher: Yes. People want to know that the person they're talking to is really paying attention to them. Joni Blecher is editorial director of LetsTalk.com. Her blog, Somethin' to Talk About, covers the latest technology. Sue Fox: Remember -- etiquette is all about making the other person more comfortable. How comfortable could your friend be trying to talk to you when you've got something in your ears? Sue Fox is the founder and president of EtiquetteSurvival.com, an etiquette consulting firm. 2. Is it rude to check your PDA at a friend's house? Blecher: A little bit. But if you arrive at a friend's home and explain that you need to check a few e-mails before you visit so you can give her your full attention, she will probably understand. Smith: It depends on how you're using it. If you're checking on something relevant to your visit, then no. If you find yourself perusing other e-mails, you will send the message that you're bored. Will Schwalbe: Think of your PDA as a crossword puzzle. Anywhere it's acceptable to work on a crossword puzzle, it's OK to check your PDA. Will Schwalbe is a coauthor of \"Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.\" Real Simple: Tips for dealing with obnoxious co-workers . 3. How quickly must I respond to an e-mail? Are the standards different for work e-mails versus personal e-mails? Schwalbe: It's all about consistency. If you're going to deviate from what you usually do, use your out-of-office assistant or automatic-response setting to let people know why they might not be hearing from you as quickly as they're used to. You don't want them to think they've insulted you somehow or that you are ignoring them. Judith Kallos: Not responding quickly -- within hours and certainly by the end of the day -- to any e-mail might make the other side feel as though she's being overlooked. It's particularly important to respond promptly to business e-mails because that is professional and courteous. Judith Kallos oversees NetManners.com, a Web site dedicated to the topics of e-mail and Internet etiquette. Anna Post: The sooner you can reply properly, the better. Never leave someone hanging. Anna Post is the resident technology-etiquette expert at the Emily Post Institute, in Burlington, Vermont. 4. If someone calls you, can you e-mail the person back or send a text message if you're not in the mood to talk? What if you text or e-mail someone and the person calls you back? Pier M. Forni: Unless the person has requested something specific or you sense a tinge of urgency, there's nothing uncivil about replying with a \"Can we talk later?\" text message. Pier M. Forni is the author of \"The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude\" and a professor of Italian literature at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. Schwalbe: Think about what is the best way to respond. If someone called you to get directions somewhere, for instance, reply via e-mail so you can send along a map. Blecher: If you text someone because you don't want to talk and the person calls back, don't answer. If you do answer, the other person will sense your foul mood immediately and might get offended. Just text back that you can't talk now but will call later. Your friend will thank you. Real Simple: 18 common phrases to avoid in conversation . 5. Is using BCC (blind carbon copy) on an e-mail considered sneaky? Schwalbe: Yes, and it's dangerous too, because your BCC can be exposed if the blind recipient hits Reply All or forwards the e-mail to someone else. To protect yourself from this, forward the message separately with an explanation. Kallos: Using it to make someone look bad or e-tattle on someone is not appropriate. BCC is best used to protect your contacts' e-mail addresses from being exposed to strangers. Smith: BCC can be sneaky but also useful. If you feel that an e-mail discussion you had could turn into a larger issue, you could BCC your boss to make her aware of the situation. Just don't inundate her with copies of every e-mail you send. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Remove iPod earbuds when you're talking to someone, experts say .\nAuthor: Anywhere it's OK to work on a crossword puzzle, you can check your PDA .\nThe sooner you can reply to an e-mail properly, the better, an etiquette expert says .","id":"f83aeeadd054db34d289e2e19026fe251f98d379"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sasha and Malia Obama had front row seats for Monday night's Kids' Inaugural Concert, but jumped on stage when the Jonas Brothers invited them up. Michelle Obama and her daughters pose with actress Keke Palmer at the Kids' Inaugural. Their mother -- incoming first lady Michelle Obama -- declared the show \"pretty cool.\" Thousands of kids -- mostly children of military families -- danced and yelled in Washington's Verizon Center as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Bow Wow, the Jonas Brothers and others performed. \"Are we fired up in here?\" Michelle Obama asked as she took the stage halfway through the two-hour show. \"Are we ready to go?\" Obama called on the young people to play a part in their country's future now, in activities such as volunteering at shelters for the homeless, visiting elderly neighbors or writing letters of support to troops overseas. \"We all have something incredible to contribute to the life of this nation,\" she said, adding, \"And kids, this means you, too, right?\" Sasha, 7, kept her camera ready, getting photos of her favorite teen stars. While the Obama daughters have met many of the stars along the campaign trail in the past year, it was their first time to meet singer-actress Keke Palmer, a presenter at the show. Palmer, 15, said Michelle Obama told her \"she was really proud of me.\" Most of their backstage talk was about Palmer's movies and TV show, she said. Like the Obamas, Palmer is a Chicago, Illinois, native.","highlights":"NEW: At concert, Michelle Obama urges young people to get involved now .\nConcert features the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Bow Wow and Demi Lovato .\nBilly Ray Cyrus, Keke Palmer and Usher make introductions .\nDid you miss the show? It's available later on Disney.com .","id":"bb267f4ad6fa9b005df2319e2c3fd568283eb488"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Florida court has approved the divorce of the father of Haleigh Cummings, a Florida girl who disappeared in February, and the girl's stepmother, a key witness in the case. Ronald Cummings divorced his wife, Misty, who was the last person to see his daughter, Haleigh. Ronald Cummings, 25, cites irreconcilable differences in ending his short marriage to his 17-year-old wife, whom he married more than a month after Haleigh went missing from her father's home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9. Cummings has made several public pleas for information in her disappearance. Misty Cummings, then known as Misty Croslin, was the last person known to have seen Haleigh the night she disappeared from the family's rented mobile home. The teenager said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. and went to sleep herself two hours later, but awoke at 3 a.m. to find the girl missing and a cinder block propping open a back door. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. Investigators have said they do not feel Misty Cummings has told them everything she knows. \"The police have been telling me that I've been keeping Misty under my wing and that's why she hasn't talked to the cops,\" Ronald Cummings told a HLN's \"Nancy Grace\" producer earlier in October. \"So now, here you go, I divorced her. So now go find my baby.\" The Putnam County Sheriff's office said in August that \"the evidence and investigatory effort has minimized the likelihood that Haleigh's disappearance is the work of a stranger.\" Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield, Haleigh's mother, are not considered suspects, police said. \"Investigators believe that Misty Croslin-Cummings continues to hold important answers in the case,\" the sheriff's office said in a written statement. \"She has failed to provide any sort of detailed accounting of the hours during the late evening and early morning of Haleigh's disappearance. Furthermore, physical evidence at the scene contradicts Misty's sketchy account of her evening activities.\" Croslin has not been named a person of interest or suspect in the case. In televised interviews, Croslin has said she does not know what happened to the little girl, while also saying she believed \"the other side of the family\" knows where she is. The couple lived together for about six months before marrying in March. Under the divorce settlement approved Thursday by a St. John's County court, both sides permanently and irrevocably waive any rights to alimony and other types of financial payments.","highlights":"Ronald Cummings, wife Misty finalize divorce after brief marriage .\nMisty Croslin was last person to see 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings .\nHaleigh Cummings disappeared from home in February while in Croslin's care .","id":"36baa799c873345dbe3cde64e2cb5682a3916eb9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The people who died Thursday at a spiritual resort in Arizona had spent time in a \"sweatbox\" similar to what Native Americans and other cultures have used for prayer and purification rituals throughout history. Two people died and were 19 injured after spending up to two hours inside this \"sweatbox\" at an Arizona resort. And those who use them say they can be dangerous if care is not taken. From Scandinavia to South America to Africa, people have come together in the sauna-like structures -- typically heated by pouring water on hot lava rocks -- for a variety of reasons, said Joseph Bruchac, writer and author of The Native American Sweat Lodge. He's part Abenaki, a tribe concentrated in the northeast United Staes, and part European. \"Each tribal nation has its own traditions, so one group might do it differently from another so you cannot generalize too much,\" said Bruchac, who runs an outdoor education center in Greenfield Center, New York. In North America, most Native American tribes use the term \"sweat lodge\" to refer to a dome-shaped structure where the intimate ritual of the sweat takes place, said Bruchac, who has his own sweat lodge on his property in the foothills of the Adirondacks. \"Sweat lodges are typically used for a ritual preparation, like before a hunt, or nowadays, people might do it before a wedding or dance or some kind of community event as a way of putting yourself in balance,\" he said. Bruchac noted that incidents like the one in Arizona tend to raise discussion in Native American communities over whether non-Natives should be allowed to adapt traditional ceremonies. \"It's a very meaningful ceremony. I can understand why people find it attractive,\" Bruchac said. \"But I consider it sacrilegious and foolish to do someone else's rituals without proper guidance or practice, especially in sweat lodges where you're raising people's body temperatures. With that many people, oxygen is going to be depleted, and if you have heart problems or breathing problems, you could faint or die.\" No information about the sweatbox at the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona could be found on the Web site Saturday. The two people who died and the 19 others who fell ill there were attending a program by self-help expert James Arthur Ray, authorities said Saturday. Authorities said between 50 and 60 people were in the structure for nearly two hours -- far exceeding the number who ordinarily would participate in a traditional sweat, according to Bruchac. In a typical ritual, the leader of the sweat gathers four to 12 friends, family members or guests inside the structure, usually made of willow and covered with blankets or canvas, he said. \"The person running the sweat has to be very aware of the people in the lodge because he takes control of them mentally, physically and spiritually,\" said Bruchac. \"The leader is responsible for them, so he has to be aware of their physical conditions and their motivations, their reasons for being there.\" After everyone is inside, a firekeeper heats stones, usually lava rocks, and brings them into the lodge, placing them in a hole in the ground and carefully pouring water over the stones to release steam. The technique of releasing the heat is done with great care so that no one is injured by the steam, which can burn skin or lungs if someone inhales it, said Father Raymond Bucko, Director of Native Studies at Creighton University. \"Nobody will make it so hot that no one can stand it,\" said Bucko. \"Religious leaders are very careful about people's health in the sweat. If they're not healthy, people can sit outside the sweat and pray and others can go in for them.\" A ritual of speaking or prayer may follow, depending on the group's intention for gathering. \"People talk and often there's lot of humor, but at any time if it's too hot, some one can say so and they will immediately open the door and people are encouraged to go out,\" he said. The Jesuit priest and cultural anthropologist participated in sweats with the Crow and Lakota people for nearly 30 years, until he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago. \"It's not about toughing it out or proving anything. It really is a beautiful experience of people coming together, of intense prayerfulness.\"","highlights":"Sweat lodges are used in prayer and purification rituals across globe .\nDeaths raise concerns over non-Natives trying to adapt traditional ceremonies .\nTypical Native American sweat lodge used in ritual of prayer and purification .\nFirekeeper heats stones, places them in hole in lodge, pours water over them .","id":"755c8b39393f5a39bd32253ceda74f2af8186ad0"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After a losing presidential campaign, it became clear to Edward \"Ted\" Kennedy that his true calling was to help shape the country's political future from the U.S. Senate. The turning point came in 1980 when Kennedy unsuccessfully challenged President Carter in the Democratic primaries. But Kennedy's loss was not necessarily such a bad thing, a top political historian notes. \"I think partly it related to that time when he, after 1980, he realized that he was not going to be president of the United States ... and that being a United States senator was a pretty important and powerful job in which he could do good,\" said Stephen Hess, author of \"America's Political Dynasties.\" Kennedy, 77, had represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate since his 1962 election when he was chosen to finish the unexpired Senate term of his brother, John F. Kennedy, who was elected president in 1960. The Massachusetts governor appointed Democrat Benjamin A. Smith to the seat following John Kennedy's presidential win. Political observers have said that Smith was a mere seat warmer until Ted Kennedy turned 30 -- the required age to become a U.S. senator. Watch how the youngest Kennedy brother carried on the family torch \u00bb . \"It's quite remarkable for a person who got there in 1962 at age 30 with no greater qualification for the office than his brother was president of the United States and the voters of Massachusetts respected that name,\" Hess said. And after nearly 50 years, Hess said Kennedy -- the patriarch of the first family of U.S. Democratic politics -- has truly \"made a substantial mark.\" Learn more about Kennedy's funeral arrangements \u00bb . Deemed by many as the \"Lion of the Senate,\" Kennedy was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades, especially in his ability to cross party lines to get legislation passed. In 2001, Kennedy helped President Bush craft and pass education legislation with the No Child Left Behind Act. While facing some criticism from his party, Kennedy pushed ahead on an issue close to his heart. \"Kennedy realized how much more you could do when you engaged the opposition party and wanted to make the compromises or the agreements that could keep the peace on legislation,\" Hess said. Kennedy, Hess added, was good at coalition building because he was an engaging person who \"owned the Senate.\" Ted Sorensen, a speechwriter for President Kennedy, said that Ted Kennedy's legacy in the Senate \"is comparable and consistent with the legacy of his entire family for generations.\" That legacy, in addition to popularity among fellow senators, might be the reason why he had major roles in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act and the Kennedy-Hatch law of 1997. In 1994, Kennedy was instrumental in helping the Clinton administration with its plan to overhaul health care. The legislation, maligned by Republicans and conservatives, later failed. Fifteen years later, he continued his fight for comprehensive health care alongside the nation's first black president, Barack Obama. Kennedy, an early supporter of Obama's presidential campaign, seemingly handed the torch down to Obama before the \"Super Tuesday\" Democratic primaries by likening the senator from Illinois to his brother, the late president. But the man who spent much of his career helping others to get better health care, civil rights and education, now faced his own personal medical struggle -- the Kennedy patriarch had brain cancer. As that news broke in 2008, his colleagues on both sides of the aisle not only prayed for his recovery but also honored Kennedy's legacy. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, released a statement saying, \"Ted Kennedy has spent his life caring for those in need. Now it's time for those who love Ted and his family to care for them and join in prayer to give them strength.\" Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that while he \"sparred a lot\" with Kennedy, he knew \"firsthand what a formidable fighter he is, and I know that he will do all he can to battle this disease.\" Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, called Kennedy \"a legendary lawmaker, and I have the highest respect for him. ... When we have worked together, he has been a skillful, fair and generous partner.\" iReport.com: Share tributes to Kennedy . McCain and Kennedy often worked together on legislation throughout the years -- most notably on overhauling the nation's immigration laws. Many observers said they believe legislation on the issue progressed as far as it did because Kennedy's name was on it. But it has not always been an easy political road for Kennedy. After a July 18, 1969, party for those who had worked on his late brother Robert's presidential campaign, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Although he managed to escape, his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy did not report the incident immediately and later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. The incident not only created a firestorm of controversy about the clout of the Kennedy family but also raised questions about the senator's honesty and judgment. The accident is something that opponents would use in future campaigns. But through it all, Kennedy survived politically and went on to become one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history.","highlights":"Edward \"Ted\" Kennedy had been U.S. senator from Massachusetts since 1962 .\nKennedy was considered one of the most effective legislators .\nA hallmark was the senator's ability to work across party lines, colleagues say .","id":"2d4c692ddf5728a993d48ebe04a0b3dd1e62e662"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Gosselin last appeared on Larry King Live on May 10. A little more than a month later, on June 22, she and her husband Jon filed for divorce and announced their split that same day in a special edition of their show. Kate Gosselin says she and her kids would like to continue their TV show, but admits it will be up to the network. Gosselin returned to Larry King Live on Tuesday to discuss her sextuplets, the future of her show and how she feels about Jon. The following is an edited version of the interview: . Larry King: How much do they know about what's going on? The 9-year-olds probably do, right? Kate Gosselin: They understand the process. They're working through it, the same that Jon and I are. They're doing remarkably well. This has opened up a lot of discussions between them and myself. A lot of questions come my way, and we're dealing with it. They're doing very well considering. Watch Gosselin discuss the split \u00bb . King: Why did you agree to do this reality show in the first place? Gosselin: In the very beginning, we started filming a one-hour special. It was a way to document what was happening in our lives. At that time, there was a lot of local news stories. There were a lot of people in the country and the world, believe it or not, pulling for us. As you know, sextuplets are not born every day, so there was a lot of interest. We did the one-hour special to show everyone. I always pictured like the little old lady that was sitting at home who was praying for us, rooting for us and needing to know what happened to those babies that were born. So we did it for that reason as well as to collect the memories for ourselves. King: Why did you agree to do a regular reality show? You could have said that's the special, here's my life, goodbye. Gosselin: I could have. At that point, the one-hour special was a very good experience. The network, TLC, we were on Discovery Health at that time. Now, TLC is wonderful, supportive, and it was a great experience for us. So we, you know, really moved forward because of that reason. It was healthy and safe and fun. King: Do the kids talk to you about divorce? Gosselin: They do. And as any child, you know, when their parents are divorcing, the goal is peace and we've achieved that numerous times. The Fourth of July we spent together as a family. My goal is, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what place, you know, one of us is in, my goal is really peace and the best that it can be for the kids. King: Do they get counseling? Gosselin: We have not started that process, but I feel like it is a very normal thing to do. And absolutely, when the time is right. King: Jon is quoted in the new \"Us Weekly\": \"I wish I had a 9 to 5 job instead of the nightmare I'm living. This is 24\/7. I don't even want to do taping the show anymore.\" What's your reaction to that? Gosselin: Jon's opinions and his goals are his. I know that, personally, for myself and the kids, this has been a good experience. It continues to be a good experience. And, you know, really the network has been extremely supportive, above and beyond, I feel, what they need to be. And I only experience good things. Everyone works. Everyone has a job. Everyone has what they're dealing with. And, generally speaking, this is the most flexible, workable, wonderful job for myself. King: How long have you been doing it now? Gosselin: We are in season 5. We started filming in August of 2005. King: Why is it such a good thing to have a private life public? Gosselin: It's been a source of huge -- for whatever reason -- inspiration for a lot of people. Many, many people -- many parents feel that their decisions are, maybe not, great decisions. Every parent has that, you know, parent guilt of my goal is to produce wonderful, productive individuals and put them out into society. That is the goal of a parent -- for us to show the world that we are not perfect, life is unpredictable, but life always goes on and there's always, always, always something to look forward to. And for me, that is raising my children to the best of my ability. King: But as an intelligent person, you also know to all good things, there are downsides. Gosselin: Absolutely. With every positive, there is a negative across the board in life. It's about choosing to see the positive and working with the negative. King: So what happens now? Are you and the kids going to do the show and Jon is out? Gosselin: I'm not the person to make that decision. I know that myself and the kids will continue the show. King: But if Jon says I don't want to do it anymore, I don't want to be part of it, I'm divorced, I don't need this, will the network say it's you and the kids? Gosselin: That would be a question for the network. King: Will the name of the show change? Gosselin: That would be a question for the network. King: And if they said forget it, that would be OK with you? If they said we'll continue, that's OK with you? Gosselin: That will be their decision. King: You've become famous worldwide over this. What's the downside of that? Gosselin: You know, I could really live without the following. King: Attention? Gosselin: Yes. I could live my whole life -- I would have to say that is absolutely the negative. I realize it comes with it. I know that it goes along with it. I'm smart enough to figure out that, you know, there's interest. It's going to be interest across the board. It's another learning lesson. King: You and Jon renewed your marriage vows a year ago this month in Hawaii. What happened? How do you go from renewing vows to filing for divorce in a year? Gosselin: It is a question I ask myself every day. I don't have the answer. King: But (Jon) made this decision? Gosselin: You know, it's just an issue that we discussed amongst ourselves. I don't feel like that is something that we need to discuss the details of. King: Yes, but when you get so famous, you and him and the kids, and then you leave out those details, don't you disappoint the audience that's come to expect more? Gosselin: My main concern is my kids. And I don't want them to see or hear anything on TV that I didn't discuss with them. And we discussed what they need to know at their developmental age groups. But I don't feel like I need to go any further than that at this time.","highlights":"Kate Gosselin says sextuplets are doing well despite parents' breakup .\nGosselin says she doesn't know what led to split with husband Jon .\nGosselin wants to continue TV show, but says it's network's decision .","id":"7b38456fbbce99581e86b4847826ec281c9cf4b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Author Frank McCourt, whose tragic childhood became creative grist for his first book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning \"Angela's Ashes,\" died Sunday, according to the Web site of his publisher, Simon & Shuster. He was 78. Frank McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for \"Angela's Ashes.\" McCourt taught creative writing to high school students in New York City for 30 years before achieving literary acclaim with the 1996 biography. \"Angela's Ashes,\" named after his mother, also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was translated and sold throughout the world. In the book, McCourt described a desperate childhood marked by severe poverty, malnutrition, neglect, infectious disease and loss. \"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood,\" he wrote. EW: A tribute to Frank McCourt . McCourt wrote the two other memoirs, \"Tis\" and \"Teacher Man,\" as sequels to \"Angela's Ashes,\" and penned the children's book \"Angela and the Baby Jesus.\" The author was born to Angela and Malachy McCourt on August 19, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrants. The family fled to Limerick, Ireland, four years later, during the Great Depression era, only to become mired in even more gut-wrenching poverty. Three of the couple's seven children died. Malachy McCourt, an alcoholic who managed to keep jobs only a few weeks at a time, left the family scrounging to survive. Yet, he also brought joy to his children, as the younger McCourt wrote in \"Angela's Ashes\": . \"Before bed we sit around the fire and if we say, 'Dad, tell us a story,' he makes up one about someone in the lane and the story will take us all over the world, up in the air, under the sea and back to the lane. Everyone in the story is a different colour and everything is upside down and backward. Motor cars and planes go underwater and submarines fly through the air. Sharks sit in trees and giant salmon sport with kangaroos on the moon. Polar bears wrestle with elephants in Australia and penguins teach Zulus how to play bagpipes.\" In October 2006, McCourt told the BBC that he saw his family's struggles as part of the human experience, without casting his father as a villain. He also expressed sorrow about his mother. \"First of all, I feel so sorry that I didn't understand more about her life and her misery and the deaths of three children,\" McCourt said. \"I had one daughter and if she had a cold, I was up all night. If she had the sniffles, I was running to her little crib or her bed. ... When I was growing up and as I grew to manhood, I really didn't understand my mother's pain.\" Asked about his Irish-American identity, McCourt told the BBC: \"I'm actually a New Yorker, because that's what I feel passionately about. ... New York is the place that gets me all excited.\" He returned to the United States at 19 and spent decades coming to grips with his youth. \"I dealt with my past, and my future and my present by writing about it. And it's really, it's a gift. I wish everybody had it, because it eases all kinds of distress,\" he told the BBC. McCourt is survived by his wife, Ellen, and other family members, including brother Malachy McCourt, who is an actor and writer.","highlights":"Publisher Simon & Shuster says the Pulitzer Prize-winning author has dead .\nMcCourt left the literary world riveted with his novel of growing up in poverty in Ireland .\nBefore literary fame, he taught creative writing to high school students in New York .\nDespite upbringing in Ireland, he said he felt like a New Yorker .","id":"ddcc91f199e2935f9e41a1a286c772aac6a55ac0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman to be caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, had her sentence postponed Monday until the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno's punishment is unique in that she has opted to go through with it. Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, from her father's house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the van turned around and brought her back. \"They sent her back to the house. They said the top official asked them not to bring her to Kuala Lumpur,\" said Kartika's father, Shukarno Abdul Muttalib. Authorities in Pahang said the delay would run until the month of fasting ends. Monday was the third day of Ramadan. An Islamic, or sharia, court in Pahang had fined Kartika -- a Muslim -- $1,400 (5,000 Malaysian ringgit) and sentenced her to six strokes with a rattan cane for drinking at a hotel bar two years ago. Kartika, a 32-year-old part-time model and mother of two, was visiting Malaysia from Singapore at the time. She pleaded guilty, paid the fine, and wanted her caning to be carried out in public. Watch more on Kartika's release \u00bb . She said she lost her job as a nurse in Singapore and took up part-time modeling to support her husband in raising their two children. Her son has cerebral palsy; her daughter a heart condition. \"I want to move on. This case has been hanging over me for a long time,\" she told CNN last week. On Monday morning, Kartika hugged her children, bade a tearful goodbye to the throngs of people gathered at her father's house, and boarded the van. She was to be taken to a prison on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The caning would have been carried out within seven days of that, making her the first woman to be caned in Malaysia under sharia law. Kartika's punishment is unique in that she has opted to go through with it. Two other Malaysians sentenced to the same fate have filed appeals, the Syariah (Sharia) Lawyers' Association of Malaysia said. The case drew widespread attention and condemnation, in and outside Malaysia. The moderate Muslim country has a dual-track justice system, in which Islamic courts operate alongside civil courts. Muslims -- who make up about 60 percent of the 28 million who populate the country -- are forbidden from consuming alcohol. Other religious groups are exempt. Though caning is used as a supplementary punishment in Malaysia for at least 40 crimes, such as rape or immigration violations, it is not meted out by Malaysia's civil court for alcohol consumption. But the country's civil system also cannot overrule a sharia court sentence. In this respect, Kartika would have been the first woman to be caned for violating the country's religious laws. \"Regardless of whether or not such penalties fall under Syariah law or civil law, we believe that these should be repealed, as they go against the fundamental human right to be free from torture and violence,\" said Haslinah Yaacob, vice president for the All Women's Action Society. CNN's Anna Coren in Sungi Siput, Malaysia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Kartika Shukarno, a model, has sentence delayed until end of Ramadan .\nKartika was set to be first woman to be caned in Malaysia for drinking in public .\nShe pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and wanted her caning to be carried out in public .\nIslamic law dictates caning Muslims seen drinking alcohol; case caused uproar .","id":"2a56bae805484252e2224f18c7a9e4f8c60daa03"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jeffrey Wright is a stage and screen actor who has won a Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe. Wright has appeared in \"Angels in America,\" \"Basquiat,\" \"The Manchurian Candidate,\" \"Syriana,\" \"W.\" and \"Casino Royale.\" Actor Jeffrey Wright says a nation that put a man on the moon should be able to take race out of policing. NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Obama expressed what many Americans feel regarding the recent arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis \"Skip\" Gates -- that the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police responded \"stupidly.\" Obama is catching some flak for that, but I applaud him for having had the courage to speak his heart and mind. I wonder if the president himself has ever experienced the blunt end of racial profiling, or if he personally knows of anyone other than Professor Gates who has. Among African-American males in this country, the small minority is those who have not or do not. Did some prior experience or knowledge inform his response about the Gates incident? I have no facts to back this up, but, to me, it seemed personal. If it was, I understand. I was arrested last July in Shreveport, Louisiana, outside a bar where dozens of members of the cast and crew of the movie \"W.\" and I had gathered to celebrate the end of filming. There was no bar brawl as widely reported -- nor even a pre-election political argument. Nine police cars and a fire engine responded; seven people were arrested. Two of the seven suffered minor head wounds at the hands of the Shreveport police. Josh Brolin and I were pepper sprayed by cops, and while face down in the street, I was made to feel the business end of a Taser. The truth of what led to the whole morass has never been accurately reported. I was asked to leave the bar by a white female bartender who took exception to a comment I made. As with Professor Gates, the police in my case backed unquestioningly the suspicion of a white woman that the black man she accused must be guilty of something. Once that die of accusation was cast, a ghost of racial bias, misperception, and the potential abuse of police authority was set free to make mischief. The bar was one of two places in downtown Shreveport that serves food after 10 p.m. A few nights before my arrest, I had gone there very late after work to grab a bite to eat. It was before closing, and there were a few customers and employees inside, but the door was locked. I knocked and asked, over the music streaming from inside, if I might buy a small pizza. The bartender insisted that they were closed. \"Whatever,\" I said with a shrug of resignation and walked back to my hotel room. Four nights later and in a festive mood, we gathered at this same establishment. Upon seeing the bartender who had a few nights before told me that the place was closed, I asked her for a drink, which she poured. I quipped, \"Ah you're going to serve me tonight!\" At that, she pulled the drink away and told me that I had to leave. I asked if she was kidding. She went on to say that if I didn't leave, she would call the police. As I stepped away to tell friends what had happened, a call was made to Shreveport police. Two cops, the first of many, arrived in minutes, and I was physically escorted outside although neither of them had the curiosity to ask what had transpired before they arrived. A mess ensued. To their credit, Josh and the others arrested followed me outside with a few others from our group. The cops physically released me and were seeming to be ready to let me go altogether when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw another member of the film crew driven headlong into the sidewalk by two newly arrived cops. Josh verbally objected to their actions, at which point a cop said to him, \"You too!\" I moved Josh away from the fray and held him. We were then pepper sprayed to separate us, after which Josh knelt in submission and was handcuffed. Disoriented and blinded by the pepper spray, I remained standing until I was kicked in the knee and forced to the ground. I did not completely relax one of my arms as it was twisted behind me, so I was tasered in the back of my ribs repeatedly, eventually handcuffed, left to lie in the street for several minutes, then arrested and hauled off to jail, and charged with impeding police. The six others were similarly charged -- and it all began with a joke. Nearly six months later, after a good-size storm kicked up in Shreveport over the incident, prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against all of us arrested that night. New Year's Day 2009 and the same week in which charges were dropped against us, in Oakland, California, Oscar Grant, a young father, was killed in a BART station, surrounded by cops and in the same position as I found myself down in Shreveport. It seems the BART cop may have pulled the trigger of his firearm thinking that it was his Taser. Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover is known as a law-and-order mayor. The day after the encounter, in the presence of his police chief, Glover apologized to me and privately acknowledged that while most Shreveport's cops were good, there were some \"devils\" among them. In public meetings regarding the \"W.\" incident, however, he held fast that the responding officers acted appropriately. Either Glover's public statement was dead wrong, or the joke was on us. Of course, public officials, particularly at the local level, are loathe to criticize law enforcement officers. On a certain level, it's understandable. Cops answer a noble and difficult calling. The pressure must be relentless, and I imagine a cop is largely underappreciated by most except those with whom he or she serves. A political pat on the back from the executive in charge must be a comforting thing in controversial times, and politicians prefer to duck behind the political safety of the blue wall of silence than upset the men and women who, like our nation's troops, are charged with placing themselves every day in harm's way to keep us safe. When he was mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani encamped himself behind that blue wall. After Amadou Diallo, living out the All-American, hard-working immigrant story, was brutally shot down on the steps of his Bronx apartment building, Giuliani refused to question the actions of the cops who fired 41 bullets in killing the unarmed young man. Is a politician's unwavering fidelity to law enforcement officers the best approach, or does it promote a police culture of impunity and retard progress on law enforcement issues? What if after the Diallo tragedy, political leadership in New York inspired the passage of serious legislation to keep in check the presumption of criminality that cops so often direct toward young men of color. What if that had led to similar acts nationwide around these issues? Gates might not be headline news today; Grant might not have died; and New York police Officer Omar Edwards, an African-American undercover officer shot down two months ago by a white fellow officer while chasing a suspect through a Harlem street, might be alive today to toss a football again with his son. iReport.com: \"Shame\" on Gates . I'm not presuming to blame Giuliani alone for what has become a systemic problem in our country -- that would be absurd, these issues predate him -- but when political leaders in this country express compassion only for those for whom they perceive it to be politically expedient or fail to challenge law enforcement and incarceration issues that cut to the core of the history and culture of race in America, they fail us all. They exemplify what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder meant when he spoke of the cowardice with which we as a society approach race dialogue in this country. These are messy, even bloody issues, but the cost of not addressing them is too draining of our societal health. Among other things it fosters a society in which too many young Americans internalize the aura of criminality that's projected onto them and handcuff themselves to self-imposed limitations that stifle us all. Going to prison rather than to college becomes a rite of passage. They wear their pants below their behinds in solidarity with their friends, brothers, uncles or fathers who aren't allowed belts while incarcerated, though perhaps the low-hanging pants are a defiant gesture to society at large for continually presuming them to be miscreant. This past week the Apollo 11 crew was at the White House welcomed by the president of a new generation of dreamers. Our great nation put a man on the moon, but it can't train its cops to distinguish between an ordinary brown-skinned brother and a criminal. At its least injurious, as with Gates and myself, this leads to bruised pride and reputation; at its worst, Grant or Edwards gets killed. President Kennedy famously said, \"We choose to go the moon ... and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.\" Maybe properly educating, screening and training our nation's police is one of \"the other things.\" My son is 7 years old. May our generation have accomplished this other thing before he's a young man, and before we've sent a man to Mars. The challenge is one that many Americans are willing to accept -- one, that for the sake of our children, all Americans should be unwilling to postpone. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeffrey Wright.","highlights":"Jeffrey Wright: President Obama catches flak for remarks on professor's arrest .\nWright applauds Obama for having courage to speak his mind .\nActor says he too was victim of arrest in which race played a part .\nHe says political leaders need to address race and policing .","id":"b8904dc43c7a7f4c2d99b53d6a6128424047efff"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Small cars continue to be hot sellers among buyers looking for fuel economy, style and all-around fun. See which cars are the winners in this list of best-selling small cars. The Honda Civic is popular for its fuel efficiency and affordability. 1. Honda Civic* . August 2008 Sales: 30,052 Change vs. Previous Year: 5.3% MSRP: $15,205 - $20,755 Invoice: $14,021 - $19,111 Fuel Economy: 34 mpg Hwy\/26 mpg City . The Honda Civic is one of the most reliable and popular economy compact sedans\/coupes in its class. For years it has set the quality and performance standard for the affordable, compact car market. *Includes Hybrid Model AOL Autos: Honda Civic . 2. Toyota Corolla* . August 2008 Sales: 29,443 Change vs. Previous Year: -3.4% MSRP: $15,350 - $18,860 Invoice: $14,198 - $17,067 Fuel Economy: 35 mpg Hwy\/26 mpg City . The new Toyota Corolla is among the best of the compact sedans: reliable and economical yet refined and comfortable. *Includes Toyota Matrix AOL Autos: Toyota Corolla . 3. Ford Focus . August 2008 Sales: 16,387 Change vs. Previous Year: 23.4% MSRP: $14,995 - $17,970 Invoice: $14,091 - $16,648 Fuel Economy: 35 mpg Hwy\/24 mpg City . Small, economical, and fun, the 2009 Ford Focus is a smart choice for those looking for a compact car. AOL Autos: Ford Focus . 4. Chevrolet Cobalt . August 2008 Sales: 15,281 Change vs. Previous Year: -26.6% MSRP: $15,010 - $22,775 Invoice: $14,184 - $21,522 Fuel Economy: 37 mpg Hwy\/25 mpg City . The Chevy Cobalt is available as either a two-door coupe or a four-door sedan, each available in three trims: the LS, the LT and the SS Turbocharged. AOL Autos: Chevy Cobalt . 5. Mazda3* . August 2008 Sales: 10,970 Change vs. Previous Year: 4.4% MSRP: $14,490 - $20,595 Invoice: $13,590 - $19,283 Fuel Economy: 32 mpg Hwy\/24 mpg City . The Mazda3 is a premium compact car, exciting to drive and look at, and equipped with unexpected luxury features, all at a reasonable price. *Includes MazdaSpeed3 AOL Autos: Mazda3 . 6. Hyundai Elantra . August 2008 Sales: 10,031 Change vs. Previous Year: 13.8% MSRP: $13,970 - $16,670 Invoice: $13,592 - $16,004 Fuel Economy: 33 mpg Hwy\/24 mpg City . The Elantra is an economic compact car with handsome styling and nice lines. It's renowned in two areas, interior space and standard safety equipment. 7. Toyota Yaris . August 2008 Sales: 9,474 Change vs. Previous Year: 20.5% MSRP: $12,205 - $15,125 Invoice: $11,473 - $14,217 Fuel Economy: 36 mpg Hwy\/29 mpg City . The Yaris manages to combine a well-tailored, roomy interior with agile performance and a fuel efficient engine in an entry-level car. 8. Nissan Sentra . August 2008 Sales: 9,207 Change vs. Previous Year: 1.4% MSRP: $16,140 - $20,570 Invoice: $15,275 - $19,181 Fuel Economy: 33 mpg Hwy\/25 mpg City . The Sentra front-wheel drive 4-door sedan is a practical, roomy and economical car with several trims available to suit a person's needs. 9. Nissan Versa . August 2008 Sales: 8,015 Change vs. Previous Year: -5.2% MSRP: $12,990 - $16,210 Invoice: $12,539 - $15,634 Fuel Economy: 31 mpg Hwy\/26 mpg City . The Versa is Nissan's entry-level car with the intention of attracting economy-minded buyers with its mileage, price and larger size than most other vehicles in its class. 10. Hyundai Accent . August 2008 Sales: 6,455 Change vs. Previous Year: 73% MSRP: $11,070 - $15,070 Invoice: $10,822 - $14,642 Fuel Economy: 33 mpg Hwy\/27 mpg City . The Hyundai Accent sedan and hatchback are exceptional economy cars that offer attractive looks and outstanding value in a price-sensitive market segment. Best-selling small cars is based on August national sales data .","highlights":"Small cars continue to be hot among buyers looking for fuel economy .\nHonda Civic is one of the most reliable and popular economy compact cars .\nSentra front-wheel drive 4-door sedan is practical, roomy and economical .\nYaris combines well-tailored, roomy interior with agile performance .","id":"3674e9831fa4a7161ca3eef671668b08d5820dc4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- One revolutionized women's hair in the 1960s. Another brought fear to Middle Earth. Another is a champion golfer who now designs courses all over the world. Christopher Lee is famous for playing Count Dracula and his roles in \"Lord of the Rings\" and \"Star Wars\" films. Vidal Sassoon, Christopher Lee and Nick Faldo are among those recognized this year on Queen Elizabeth's birthday honors list. Lee and Faldo will both receive knighthoods, meaning they can now be known as \"Sir Christopher\" and \"Sir Nick.\" Lee, 87, is famous for his portrayal of dark villains, starting with Count Dracula in a series of movies from the late 1950s until the 1970s. He gained a new generation of fans in in the past decade through is role as the bad wizard Saruman the White in the the \"Lord of the Rings\" trilogy, and as the evil Count Dooku in two \"Star Wars\" prequels. World-famous golfer Nick Faldo holds six major championship titles -- three from the British Open and three from the Masters. He has the record for the longest streak of majors played -- 48 -- dating to the 1987 British Open, according to the PGA Tour. Faldo is now almost as famous for designing golf courses as he is for playing the sport. He also serves as a television commentator. A knighthood is the highest honor, and recipients may use the title \"Sir\" before their names. The equivalent for women is to be awarded the title of \"Dame.\" They recognize a \"pre-eminent contribution\" in any field. Next come CBEs, or Commanders of the Order of the British Empire, which recognize contribution to a slightly lesser degree. Recipients may not use the title of sir or dame but may use the initials after their names. Sassoon will be awarded a CBE for his services to the British hairdressing industry. It recognizes a lifetime of achievement for Sassoon, who as a young boy spent years in a London orphanage after his father left and his mother could not afford to care for him. Later, after his mother dreamed of her son being in a barber shop, she apprenticed him to a local barber. That began a career that saw him develop two classic hairstyles of the Sixties -- the Bob and the even shorter Five-Point Cut -- along with an eponymous hair care line, range of hair care tools, and chain of salons. Also receiving a CBE is Jonathan Pryce, a Golden Globe-nominated actor who has had roles in the \"Pirates of the Caribbean\" movies, \"Ronin,\" and the James Bond film \"Tomorrow Never Dies.\" He won a best actor award in 1995 at Cannes for his part in the movie \"Carrington.\" Actor Alan Cumming will receive an OBE, or Order of the British Empire, awarded for notable achievement in any field. He was recognized for \"services to film, theater and the arts and to activism for equal rights for the gay and lesbian community.\" A large number of artists and others in creative fields are featured on this year's list. Andrew Motion, who was Britain's poet laureate until he stepped down this year, will receive a knighthood, and several names in fashion will also receive awards. Fashion designer Jeff Banks will receive a CBE; Frances Marie Corner, the head of the London College of Fashion, will receive an OBE; and MBEs will go to Christopher Bailey, the creative director at Burberry, and Natalie Massenet, the founder of online designer shopping site Net-a-Porter. Honors lists are published twice a year -- once on New Year's Day and once in June, to mark the queen's \"official\" birthday. The queen's actual birthday is in April but she celebrates it in June because the weather is better.","highlights":"Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, golfer Nick Faldo honored by UK's queen .\n\"Dracula\" star Christopher Lee knighted in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honors list .\nActors Jonathan Pryce and Alan Cumming also honored .","id":"b7c166beae09cbafde2b22d79cb70d9b3257e344"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- When I asked an old friend why she hadn't just broken up with her live-in boyfriend instead of beginning a messy affair with a married neighbor, she snapped, \"Don't be stupid -- nobody leaves a relationship without having another one in place.\" Overlappers refuse to end one relationship until they have another one in progress. Oh, please, I corrected her. Of course they do. People fall out of love or get angry and leave without a safety net all the time. But as I thought back, I realized that for as long as I knew her, she never had. Even when she pretty much hated the one she was with, she stuck it out until she'd lined up his replacement. I could never understand why. My friend is beautiful, successful and very smart; surely being single for a little while wouldn't end her world. Women aren't the only ones guilty of this. I know -- and have unfortunately dated -- plenty of men who careen from one girlfriend directly into another, often with a big fat overlap; connecting the two relationships like a murky Venn diagram. I understand that being single can be annoying and lonely sometimes, but there are plenty of good reasons not to be -- or date! -- an Overlapper. 1. Karma! While overlapping is definitely cheating, the difference is these types go into it with the sole purpose of transitioning into another relationship. But however you word it, Overlappers deceive one or both parties in order to get what they want. When you begin a relationship dishonestly, it usually comes back to bite you in the butt. At the very least, you will never be fully able to trust an Overlapper. Because -- as yet another cliche based in truth goes -- if he does it with you, he'll do it to you. 2. Drama! Breakups are never fun, however splits caused by infidelity are hands down the most explosive. If you're like my friend and her man (who, against all odds, actually left his wife), this means that instead of talking about hearts, flowers, and butterflies -- like other new couples -- you spend your nights plotting how to hide assets and whether or not your overpaid lawyer is enough of a shark. How romantic! 3. The Pressure! Though they may appear independent, people who can't be alone are that way because they need to see themselves reflected in someone else's adoring eyes. But when their mirror (aka, partner) develops a flaw (weight gain, job loss, etc.), their image of themselves reflects that. Being a narcissist, nothing less than perfection is acceptable, so they start looking for the next mirror. Got that, fatty? You'd better stay at the top of your game if you want to hang onto an Overlapper. 4. Not cute! \"I met my boyfriend when his puppy peed on my foot\" is the perfect example of a meet-cute story. It has all the key elements -- chance, humor, and, best of all, a cuddly puppy! \"I met my boyfriend because I was his kids' nanny and then his wife found out, which is how I got this black eye,\" is definitely not a tale you're going to want to share at parties. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Some people afraid to be alone are guilty of dating overlapping .\nThey cheat on both partners while transitioning between relationships .\nOverlappers can't be trusted -- they might do it to you .\nBecause they're narcissistic, they'll trade you in for better model .","id":"24a721d0a254310ed5bdd0baf532445056a298ba"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's mother fired the lawyers helping her fight for control of her son's estate, but her new lawyer missed a key hearing where the judge gave more power to the men she is opposing. Katherine Jackson, with Michael in 2005, is challenging the appointment of Michael's estate trustees. Katherine Jackson replaced lawyers Burt Levitch and Londell McMillan with Adam Streisand, a lawyer known for his expertise in Los Angeles probate cases. \"The family came to a decision before they called me,\" Streisand said. \"They felt they needed a different perspective and fresh look at how this case was being approached.\" But Streisand arrived at court Thursday minutes after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ended a hearing in which he granted a request from estate special administrators John Branca and John McClain for more authority to make deals on behalf of Jackson's estate. \"I want this estate to move forward and I want these creditors to be dealt with,\" Beckloff said. \"And while we are proceeding in this posture, I want Mrs. Jackson to have information about what is going on and I don't want to be in court all the time.\" The process of probate of Jackson's will, which named Branca and McClain as executors, has been slowed since soon after the pop star's June 25 death by numerous legal challenges filed by Katherine Jackson's lawyers, led by Levitch. Howard Weitzman, lead lawyer for the estate's administrators, expressed optimism that the two sides would be able to work better toward a settlement with Streisand in charge. The estate's administrators were able to make a series of deals expected to bring in at least $100 million to the estate this year, mostly through a documentary movie that premieres next week. Katherine Jackson's legal team has asked that a member of the Jackson family \"have a seat at the table\" as a third executor. They've also raised questions in sealed court papers about possible conflicts of interest that might prevent Branca and McClain from controlling the estate. Streisand said the Jackson family was frustrated with the inability \"to get this case going.\" He indicated Katherine Jackson still planned to challenge Branca and McClain's control of her son's wealth. Under the 2002 will, Michael Jackson's three children and his mother are the chief beneficiaries of his estate, while unnamed charities will share in 20 percent of the wealth. Streisand said when he met with Katherine Jackson and the children to discuss the case, they were united. He said Jackson patriarch Joe Jackson was not present at the meeting and he's never talked with him. Joe Jackson appeared frustrated earlier this month when he attended his first hearing in the probate process, suggesting the lawyers should be more aggressive in court. Streisand said the three Jackson children are doing \"absolutely wonderful.\"","highlights":"Katherine Jackson hires probate lawyer Adam Streisand .\nJackson has been fighting for more control over her son's estate .\nMichael Jackson made John Branca and John McClain his executors .\nStreisand misses hearing in which executors are given more control .","id":"acbb0b265e3b56c22307a1626d71aa545e4e7571"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jack Borden would like you to consider working well past retirement age. As a 101-year-old attorney, he has the credibility to encourage it. Attorney Jack Borden, 101, says he's never thought about not working. \"What would I do?\" he said. Borden, who has been practicing law for the better part of 70 years, still spends about 40 hours a week at his office in Weatherford, Texas, handling estate planning, probate and real estate matters. Retire? Not while he's able to help folks. \"As long as you are capable, you ought to use what God gave you. He left me here for a reason, and with enough of a mind to do what it is I'm supposed to be doing,\" said Borden, who also has been a district attorney and Weatherford's mayor. He arrives at the practice he shares with his nephew at 6:30 a.m. He goes home for lunch at 10:45 a.m., rests in bed for 45 minutes -- doctor's orders after pneumonia a few years back -- returns to work by 12:45 p.m. and stays until at least 4. Not everyone who works past 65 does so because they want to. In a survey completed last month, 38 percent of respondents working past the age of 62 said they may have to delay retirement even further because of the recession, according to the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project. But in answer to another question in the same survey, 54 percent of workers 65 or older said they're working now mainly because they want to. Seventeen percent said their main reason was money, and 27 percent said both factors motivated them. \"Some of them enjoy it, and some of them need the money. But even if they need the money, they also enjoy the work,\" said Cynthia Metzler, president of Experience Works, a nonprofit that helps low-income workers ages 55 and older acquire new job skills. The group, which operates in 30 states and also uses federal funds to pay participants a minimum wage to work community service jobs while they look for other work, last month named Borden as America's Outstanding Oldest Worker -- a title it bestows annually to a worker over 100. Last week, Borden was in Washington to participate in events the group was holding to mark National Employ Older Workers Week. When it comes to putting off retirement out of desire, Borden is hardly alone. Preston Brown, 70, is a police officer in Yakima, Washington. He's enjoying the challenges that come with patrolling streets full time, and the experiences are relatively fresh: The former marketing worker and real estate broker didn't join the force until he was 51. He was attracted to law enforcement as a teen but was told he was too short. The height requirements eventually changed, and after some friends persuaded him to go on a patrol ride-along, he began a process that landed him a job with Yakima police in 1990. Whatever is required, from report-taking to chases, he's up for it. \"From time to time there will be a physical confrontation ... and we can get involved in foot chases and vehicle chases. Usually the vast quantity is on night shift more than [my daytime shift], but still I'm involved in those,\" Brown said. Nineteen years later and still in good shape, he has no plans to stop. He likes the pay but he doesn't have to work: His wife of 53 years has a pension. He could be doing other things, such as playing racquetball and motorcycling with friends, but because he gets four days off after working five roughly 11-hour days, he already has time for that. \"When I wake up and prepare to leave for work, I'm looking forward to it,\" he said. \"It's challenging and exciting.\" In Anderson, South Carolina, customers at a Chick-fil-A restaurant might see 88-year-old Frank Childers fixing a door. His wife, Gertrude Childers, 88, might be carrying a tray to a table or refreshing someone's beverage. When Frank Childers retired from his insurance sales job in 1985, he looked forward to free time and fishing. \"I stayed retired for five years. I got tired of sitting around,\" he said. Frank Childers, who had some mechanical experience before working in insurance, took some jobs to stay busy. In 1998, Jon Holmes, the owner-operator of three Anderson Chick-fil-As, asked him to lead his maintenance staff, and Childers has been working there since. Gertrude Childers, a former mill worker, also was hired in 1998 to be a dining room hostess at one of the restaurants. She works 20 hours a week; her husband works about 30. They each said they enjoy the work and the people they've met. They don't have to work for the money, they said, but the pay doesn't hurt. \"It's nice to have your own money, because when I want to go shopping, I don't have to ask nobody,\" Gertrude Childers said, laughing. Experience Works says many low-income workers 55 and older need to find jobs but can't, in part because of the recession. It points to the age group's unemployment rate: It was 6.8 percent in August, up from 2.9 percent three years earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's still better than the rate for all age groups, 9.7 percent in August. Lynn Dusenbery, 62, faces many more years of work out of necessity. The Ashland, Wisconsin, resident sold her floral business four years ago to cover medical bills. Once hoping to retire at 65, she now has no savings, is uninsured, and -- living in a rural area with perennially high unemployment -- still hasn't found full-time work. \"I was a florist for 40 years. I came out with no skills that would get me by in the outside world,\" Dusenbery said. Dusenbery enrolled with Experience Works three years ago and has picked up computer skills and other training and part-time jobs with the group. She's looking for full-time work. As for Borden, work is still energizing and rewarding. \"If I were to quit, I might last a year, but probably not over six months,\" said Borden. \"I have to use a walker because of old age, so there's not much else I could do except sit in my house. Why do that when I can not only enjoy life, but help some people?\"","highlights":"Texas attorney Jack Borden, 101, still works 40 hours a week .\nGroup named Borden \"America's Outstanding Oldest Worker\" for 2009 .\n\"If I were to quit, I might last ... not over six months,\" Borden says .\nPolice officer, 70, didn't become cop until he was 51 .","id":"c4b8f1da99051580fa588c8ee0fbf992d8bd09ea"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- While some criticism targeting President Obama is racially motivated, the fight over health care isn't, former President Clinton told CNN. Former President Clinton says Democrats need to win the health care debate \"on the merits.\" \"I believe that some of the right-wing extremists which oppose President Obama are also racially prejudiced and would prefer not to have an African-American president,\" Clinton told CNN's Larry King in a wide-ranging interview that aired Monday evening. \"But I don't believe that all the people who oppose him on health care -- and all the conservatives -- are racists. And I believe if he were white, every single person who opposes him now would be opposing him then.\" Clinton discussed a variety of issues facing the Obama administration -- from health care to the war in Afghanistan -- on the eve of the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. Regarding race, the former president was referring to an outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, who shouted, \"You lie!\" at Obama during the president's recent joint address to Congress and also former President Carter's assessment that racism is an obstacle for the current president. \"While I have devoted my life to getting rid of racism, I think this [health care] is a fight that my president and our party -- this is one we need to win on the merits,\" Clinton said. Watch Clinton say he thinks a health care bill will pass \u00bb . On the Arab-Israeli conflict -- which Clinton tried to address while in the White House -- the former president said it's an issue that first has to be addressed by the Palestinians and Israelis. Obama has set up meetings with leaders from both sides this week as the U.N. General Assembly meets in New York. \"First, it's more up to them than it is to President Obama,\" Clinton said. \"I think if we can just get them to start talking again around the two-state solutions, around restoring a sense of normalcy and creating a Palestinian state ... I think you would be surprised how quickly at least they would come down to all the same issues that they were down to in 2000 when I made my proposal.\" In August, Clinton made headlines when he traveled to North Korea to gain the release of two detained U.S. journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. During his visit, Clinton met with reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, whose government is under U.N. sanctions for its efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program. Asked about how it felt to help the journalists, Clinton said, \"It was humbling, and it was a wonderful feeling. They're really fine young women.\" Clinton also discussed the conflict in Afghanistan, addressing top U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's report warning Obama that more troops are needed within the coming year or the nearly 8-year-old war \"will likely result in failure,\" according to a copy of a 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post. Obama has promised to ask \"tough questions\" before deciding whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, saying it was necessary to have a clear strategy in place before deploying resources. \"My guess is that he will say, 'You may be right, general, but we still have this ongoing election count, let's wait until that happens, let's see what the new government's going to be, let's see if both the top two finishers are going to be in the government, which is a possibility,'\" Clinton said. \"And if that means there's going to be more broad-based support because we got everybody together right after the election was over, then it's clear that more soldiers will be even more effective.\" Clinton, a New York resident, also touched on a New York Times report that Obama administration officials have urged New York Gov. David A. Paterson to withdraw from the 2010 race. White House officials acknowledged to CNN that aides have conveyed to Paterson's camp they are aware of the governor's unpopularity and the political troubles it could cause. \"Well, first of all, I have no direct knowledge of it,\" Clinton said, adding later, \"The truth is I can't criticize either one of them.\" \"I think Paterson is in a tough spot, but he's done a better job than he's gotten credit for,\" he said. \"So he's done some good things. I think that he will do what he thinks is right for the people of New York in the end and for himself. I think the president understandably wants to hold on to the governorship of the fourth biggest state of the country.\"","highlights":"Ex-President Clinton says race not behind health care opposition .\nBut some extremists opposing President Obama racially prejudiced, Clinton says .\nClinton: \"It was a wonderful feeling\" to help U.S. journalists in North Korea .","id":"06708d9632bee9cff3536e8a8571621194481ab3"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The incessant banging on the door finally roused Ted Jackson from a deep sleep. Floodwaters roar across the highway in Paulding County, one of the hardest-hit in Georgia. He hustled out of bed and rushed to the door. There were his neighbors, surrounded by floodwaters the neighborhood is supposed to experience only once every 100 years. Jackson raced to his basement and the water level -- submerging nine of the 13 steps to the floor -- filled him with dread. His dog, a 2-year-old pomeranian, slept in a kennel down there. \"My first initial thought was my dog is dead ... he didn't have a chance,\" said Jackson of Powder Springs, Georgia, where he and the rest of the residents in the metro Atlantan subdivision spent Monday stranded by acres and acres of water. The dog, named J.J., died in the flooded basement. Jackson is just one of thousands of Georgia residents trying to salvage their homes after days of rain rushed deadly flood waters to their part of the world. Counties west of Atlanta, including Douglas, Paulding and Cobb, were among the worst hit. The National Guard was poised to enter the area if necessary. See photo gallery of flooding \u00bb . Aerial video of Powder Springs, near the Paulding-Douglas county line, showed scores of homes swallowed by muddy waters as the rain refused to subside. In one Powder Springs neighborhood, a fire truck floated near a cluster of two-story homes, with the charred remnants of one house smoldering a few yards from the failed response. Watch home burn, surrounded by water \u00bb . Cars, trucks, buses and campers were flung into the currents, sinking near bent signs, fallen trees and downed power lines. Rescuers started rowing through affected areas in inflatable boats. After flying over the disastrous scenes in Paulding and Douglas counties, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency in those and 15 other counties hit by floods. At least five flood-related deaths were reported across Atlanta-area counties -- three fatalities in Douglas, one in Gwinnett and one, a child, in Carrollton. A Douglas County hospital reported no running water. Just across the line, in Cobb County, the entrance of Georgia's largest amusement park, Six Flags, was sitting in water. Watch the flooding in Georgia \u00bb . Powder Springs resident Kim Harp woke up at about 4 a.m. Monday as her brother bounded up the stairs from his basement room, reporting water spilling into the home. The family scrambled to save photo albums and other personal valuable, but the water reached a depth of 2 feet in the basement less than two hours later. \"It just came so fast,\" Harp said, adding that the water was at head-level by midday. \"It really terrified us.\" Harp, who lives next door to Jackson, said she and her husband, three children and brother went to bed Sunday after another day of Georgia rains with little worry. After all, she said, the family has a 7-foot retaining wall in the backyard, and it's never even come close to a breach. Watch flooding victims flee \u00bb . \"It really wasn't a concern,\" she said. Now, without flood insurance, Harp has only one thing on her mind: Clean up. Still, \"where do you start?\" she asked. \"Where does the family go from here?\"","highlights":"Powder Springs resident Kim Harp: \"It just came so fast. It really terrified us\"\nScores of homes swallowed by muddy waters as the rain refused to subside .\nEntrance to Six Flags, Georgia's largest amusement park, sitting in water .","id":"e460b3cac3f46452bda9c84e7087ad5547e01ebe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Watching the premiere of \"The Informant!\" -- the Matt Damon movie about a high-level FBI mole at a large multinational company -- was the mole himself, Mark Whitacre. Mark Whitacre, right, at the premiere of 'The Informant' with Matt Damon. The movie is a dark comic take on the three years Whitacre -- a former divisional president of Archer Daniels Midland, the US-based food additive giant -- spent working undercover to break a global price-fixing conspiracy. Whitacre recognized real episodes in his life on the big screen, such as trying to fix a hidden tape player during a meeting and his delusional belief he would be made CEO of the company as a reward for his undercover work. But what you won't see in the movie are the events of August 9, 1995, six weeks after an FBI raid blew the case into public attention. It was two days after ADM fired Whitacre and accused him of embezzling millions from the company. His FBI partners for the previous three years would no longer speak with him. On that day, Whitacre sat alone in his car with its engine running inside a closed garage and slowly lost consciousness. He was hoping to end his life as surely as he had ended his career. A gardener found him unconscious. Some scenes just can't be played for laughs. \"There was nothing comical in the reality of the story,\" said Whitacre, who eventually spent nearly nine years in prison for his role in the price-fixing scheme and revelations he siphoned off $9 million from the company while he was working for the FBI. For Whitacre, 'The Informant!' is a study in his own mental illness, as he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after hospitalization for his suicide attempt. His meeting with Damon at the premiere was the first time the pair met. Damon told him he hoped they portrayed his illness in a sensitive way, Whitacre said. \"He didn't want to talk to a 52-year-old Mark Whitacre while preparing for the role, the Mark Whitacre who went to prison, who has been treated for bipolar disorder, who is now COO of a company,\" said Whitacre, who is now an executive for a small food supplement maker. \"He wanted to portray the 35-year-old Mark Whitacre, otherwise it would make it difficult to portray the delusions I had at that time.\" The fix is in . For companies and regulators, the 1997 conviction of ADM was a landmark event, the first antitrust action in the United States since World War II and a case that has spurred price-fixing investigations around the world. \"As a result of this case, the Department of Justice and the FBI started looking around to see if they could find any other cases like this,\" said Dean Paisley, a retired FBI agent who supervised the undercover ADM work. \"This used to be relatively unusual until the (ADM) case came to light,\" said John Connor, a Purdue University researcher on cartel activity, who was an expert witness in the government's case against ADM. \"Back in 1993 you'd see maybe one or two global (price-fixing schemes) being discovered ... in the past three years or so, there are about 50 a year.\" Price-fixing schemes -- where a cartel of manufacturers inflate prices against market demand -- cost consumers untold millions each year. In the ADM case, it was found that in the three-year period of investigation the company's cartel activity with manufacturers in Japan and Korea inflated prices by at least $200 million. The ADM case resulted in a record $100 million fine in 1997 -- a figure long since dwarfed. Last month Japanese company Epson agreed to pay $26 million for its role in price-fixing LCD panels used in mobile phones in the U.S. Several other companies, including Sharp, LG and Hitachi, have already pleaded guilty in the case and paid fines of more than $600 million. Just last week, the Hungarian government fined Visa Europe, MasterCard and seven commercial banks a total of $10.4 million for price fixing bank fees (Visa and MasterCard are appealing that decision). Flawed heroes . A sign of cartel activity is usually a sharp and uniform increase in price with a contraction in demand. \"But, in fact, in the last 15 or 20 years (governments) have relied almost exclusively on whistle-blowers to make their cases,\" Connor said. And as Whitacre showed, whistle blowers often don't have noble motives. \"The movie should be taken very, very seriously,\" said Sam Antar, a CPA who turned government witness against his employer in the 1980's. \"In white-collar cases, the governments have to rely on informants ... in effect, relying on unsavory characters to make their case,\" said Antar, who now advises government agencies on white-collar crime. \"What happened in 'The Informant,' is he had an agenda to become head honcho of the company,\" Antar said. \"The mistake the FBI agents made in the movie is they fell in love with their witness. It turned out there was a dark side they didn't know about.\" Whitacre said he began stealing millions from the company while working for the FBI, in part, as a financial backstop in case things went wrong. \"I had this sense of false entitlement, like they owe me this ... after all, the company was stealing hundreds of millions.\" The stress of his double-life undoubtedly added to his mental woes, said Paisley, the original FBI supervisor in the case. He points out that undercover FBI agents receive surveillance training and are pulled for psychological evaluation once a year -- Whitacre received none of that. \"There were no provisions for similar checks and balances with Whitacre,\" Paisley said. \"He had no ideas what he was getting into when he agreed to cooperate ... we had no idea it would last three years.\" Although Whitacre has served his time, Paisley and other agents involved in his case are seeking a presidential pardon. \"He really screwed up by stealing,\" Paisley said. \"Be that as it may, how many hundreds of millions would have been stolen if (ADM) wasn't stopped by Mark Whitacre? He is a national hero, in my eyes.\"","highlights":"The ADM price-fixing case was a landmark in global antitrust prosecution .\nGlobal price-fixing investigations have skyrocketed since the ADM scam .\nThese investigations depend on whistle-blowers who often have dark motives .","id":"b19e549aba496d1478d8473d7104280ee709eace"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Determining the amount of troops necessary to win a war is never an easy decision for a commander in chief and his military commanders if history is any guide. The Obama administration is working on a strategic review of improving conditions in Afghanistan. And it's a dilemma President Obama faces as pressure mounts on him to decide what strategy will improve conditions in Afghanistan. The president and his top military, national security and foreign policy advisers are conducting an intensive strategic review of the U.S. military presence in the war-torn nation. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is calling for a counterinsurgency strategy that would add as many as 40,000 troops. But others in the administration want a different approach. Vice President Joe Biden has called for a counterterrorism strategy, which would focus on using special forces and technology to reduce the number of al Qaeda insurgents on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. If the president should listen to McChrystal and adopt a troop \"surge,\" the question remains: How many is enough? One expert said such a large number is needed to reduce violence throughout the country -- the 40,000 troops would allow the U.S. military to \"reverse the momentum of the insurgency, which has been on the rise,\" said Kimberly Kagan of the Institute for the Study of War, who has advised McChrystal on Afghanistan. That number, Kagan said, would help fill in gaps around Kandahar in the southern part of the country where Taliban forces have amassed. But she warned that eventually, troops would also be needed to tamp down the insurgency in other parts of the country. \"If we had 40,000 more troops, it is likely that the initiative would be wrested from the enemy, and the U.S. and coalition forces would be able to mount a counteroffensive that would proceed in stages over time,\" she said. Even with more troops, the fight will be a tough one if the last few weeks are any indication. Just last week, eight U.S. soldiers were killed in an intense firefight with hundreds of insurgents in Nuristan province, a remote area in northern Afghanistan. It was the second deadliest attack in a single day so far in the war, which recently entered its ninth year. Read soldiers' accounts from the battle . The White House is getting pressure from all sides of this issue. Many on the right have said the president should take the advice of the commanders on the ground. Sen. John McCain, a staunch supporter of the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, said Sunday that any added military deployment in Afghanistan smaller than 40,000 troops \"would be an error of historic proportions.\" Asked whether he thought the war in Afghanistan could be won with fewer troops, the Arizona Republican said, \"I do not.\" \"I think the great danger now is a half-measure, sort of a -- you know, try to please all ends of the political spectrum,\" McCain told John King on \"CNN's State of the Union.\" \"And, again, I have great sympathy for the president, making the toughest decisions that presidents have to make, but I think he needs to use deliberate speed.\" Democrats are split over increasing troops. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said U.S. troops would be put in \"jeopardy\" if Obama does not listen to McChrystal. \"I don't know how you put somebody in who's as crackerjack as Gen. McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you're not going to pull out,\" she said on ABC's \"This Week.\" But Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, who also appeared on ABC, said that enlarging the U.S. footprint in Afghanistan would be a mistake. Watch more on the varying advice Obama is receiving from lawmakers \u00bb . \"We need to come up with a strategy that includes an exit strategy, because it'll also put pressure on the government of Afghanistan to step up to the plate, which it has not done so far.\" McGovern said adding more troops and resources will make the country go \"bankrupt.\" \"We have wars in Iraq, in Afghanistan, hundreds of billions of dollars that are all going onto our credit card. Our kids and our grandkids are paying for this.\" But the troop number argument is nothing new for presidents and their defense secretaries. Criticism surrounded then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as conditions in Iraq deteriorated and insurgents increased attacks on U.S. forces. He was largely criticized for not sending enough troops early in the Iraq war. Rumsfeld's plan, observers have said, was to win the war in Iraq with smaller troop numbers and a large emphasis on technology, which would in turn let democracy take root. At the beginning of the war in 2003, troops quickly filled the country, took out Saddam Hussein's government and gained control of Baghdad, the capital. The force was small, and success came quickly. But three years later, civil war broke out, and U.S. forces struggled to maintain control of cities they had once secured. Rumsfeld admitted in a 2006 CNN interview that no one was well-prepared for what would happen after major combat ended. \"Well, I think that anyone who looks at it with the benefit of 20\/20 hindsight has to say that there was not an anticipation that the level of insurgency would be anything approximating what it is,\" Rumsfeld told CNN for the 2006 documentary, \"CNN Presents Rumsfeld -- Man of War.\" CNN's Tom Evans and Kate Bolduan contributed to this report.","highlights":"The war in Afghanistan passed the 8-year mark last week .\nObama and his national security team are working on a new strategy .\nHis top commander there has reportedly called for 40,000 more troops .","id":"6b90ab21896b418db26cf6289c3561cef60a3f18"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The World Health Organization cautioned that the swine flu outbreak could gain momentum in the months ahead, despite claims by the health secretary of Mexico -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- that the virus \"is in its declining phase.\" The number of confimed cases of the H1N1 virus continue to multiply. As of early Monday, Mexican health officials reported 568 cases and 22 fatalities linked to the flu. WHO says it has confirmed 506 cases and 19 deaths in Mexico. The world has 985 confirmed cases of the virus, known to scientists H1N1 virus, in a total of 20 countries, WHO said Monday. The United States has reported 226 confirmed cases in 30 states. The U.S. cases include one death -- a Mexican toddler visiting relatives in the United States. According to WHO, Canada has 85 confirmed cases; Spain has 40; the United Kingdom has 15; Germany has 8; New Zealand has 4; Israel has 3; El Salvador has 2; France has 2; and Austria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, South Korea and Switzerland each have one. The outbreak is only about 10 days old, and even if the illness is declining, it could return, said Gregory Hartl, the WHO spokesman for epidemic and pandemic diseases, at a briefing Sunday. \"I ... would like to remind people that in 1918 the Spanish flu showed a surge in the spring, and then disappeared in the summer months, only to return in the autumn of 1918 with a vengeance,\" Hartl said. \"And we know that that eventually killed 40 million to 50 million people.\" Mexican authorities believe the most active period of the virus in Mexico was between April 23 and April 28, and Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova described the outbreak as being in decline in his country. In China, officials have quarantined 68 people, including 13 crew members, who were passengers of a Mexico City to Shanghai flight, which carried a passenger who tested positive for the virus, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. None of the other passengers has exhibited any flu-like symptoms, one health official said. About another 110 people who were on the Aeromexico plane went on to other destinations, and may face quarantines elsewhere, the news agency said. Fifteen have been quarantined at a Beijing hotel. Shanghai's airport is now barring other Aeromexico planes from landing there, a representative of the airline told CNN. Aeromexico is suspending flights to Shanghai until May 15, the representative said. The airline does not fly to Hong Kong or Beijing. In the United States, New York has the most confirmed cases, with 63, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texas has 40; California has 26; Arizona 18; South Carolina 15; Delaware 10; Massachusetts and New Jersey each have seven; Colorado has four; Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin each have three; Connecticut, Kansas and Michigan each have two; Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah each have one. California officials suspended visitation and other \"nonessential activities\" at Centinela State Prison in Imperial County after an inmate was suspected of having swine flu. The case has yet to be confirmed with lab testing. On Sunday, health officials in North Carolina and Pennsylvania announced the first confirmed cases in those states, and Louisiana's governor said his state had seven confirmed cases. The cases from those three states were not immediately included in the CDC tally. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius, appearing on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" warned that even if the flu outbreak wanes, \"it could come back with greater force in the winter and fall, when we get into flu season.\" \"So, this is no time for complacency,\" she said. \"We want to stay out ahead of this.\" Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for public health, told reporters Sunday that she was \"heartened\" by Mexican authorities' reports but still is \"very cautious.\" \"I know that influenza can be surprising, and the time course here in the United States is later. We believe we're just on the upswing here, and in several parts of Mexico, cases began quite a while ago,\" Schuchat said. \"From what I know about influenza, I do expect more cases, more severe cases and I do expect more deaths,\" she added. \"And I'm particularly concerned about what will happen in the fall.\" Acting CDC Director Richard Besser, also speaking on \"State of the Union,\" said U.S. health officials are examining whether people who received flu shots for the swine flu in 1976 may have some level of protection from the current swine flu. \"That's going to play in very, very big as we move forward with our plans around vaccines, because that may help guide some of the issues around who is most at risk at getting this in the future,\" Besser said. Offering a general picture of the state of U.S. efforts to combat the virus, Besser said \"there are encouraging signs.\" \"We're not out of the woods yet,\" he said. \"But what we've learned about the virus itself -- it doesn't contain the factors that we know are seen in much more severe flu strains.\" While the new virus strain in the recent outbreak has affected humans, Canadian officials said it has shown up at a pig farm in Alberta, Canada. Officials said the pigs may have been infected by a Canadian farmer who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak. The pigs have since been quarantined. \"We have determined that the virus H1N1, found in these pigs, is the virus which is being tracked in the human population,\" said Dr. Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. iReport.com: How should H1N1 be handled? Evans and other officials said it is not uncommon for flu viruses to jump from humans to animals, and that it does not pose a risk for consuming pork. The number of pigs infected was not disclosed. The infected farmer had flu-like symptoms, but he is recovering, Evans said. Learn about the virus \u00bb .","highlights":"WHO has confirmed 985 cases of H1N1 virus worldwide .\nMexico says illness declining there; WHO warns it could return .\nMexico has largest number of confirmed cases, followed by U.S., WHO says .\nCanadian officials claim pigs at farm have been affected by virus .","id":"6fd73c491497ff187c370c61fe4f31f29f3ca74d"} -{"article":"CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNN) -- The girl sleeping in the bunk above me either had Swine Flu, SARS, Tuberculosis or some sort of perfect storm of all three, because she managed to hack and snort throughout the entire night in an almost exact pattern of: Hack. Hack. Hack. Snort. Snort. The sharks arrived and disappeared quickly. I only mention this because I had to be up at four 4 a.m. to get picked up for my day of shark cage-diving, and, clearly, I wasn't getting too much sleep. Not a good start. Nevertheless, I managed to get out of bed on time, and actually felt pretty decent as we drove two hours from Cape Town to some quiet fishing village where about 30 cold, tired backpackers squeezed onto an old boat and into the sea in search of great white sharks. Somebody had to say it: \"We're gonna need a bigger boat.\" But tight as it was on board, we survived, and soon found ourselves bobbing over the waves as small fish began to circle the chum. Eventually, the sharks came -- and they were amazing! More importantly, it was probably the closest I'll ever get to a great white without A) dying or B) soiling myself. See Jarrett's shark-diving adventure \u00bb . But just as quickly as the sharks arrived, they were gone. Cold and tired, an uncomfortable boredom overtook the tourists, interrupted only by the occasional roar of projectile vomit. As a scientific study, this symphony of motion sickness was about as fascinating as the sharks. As it turns out, the English seemed to be the ones most affected by the sea. Now, maybe this has something to do with their biology, or maybe this has something to do with England beating Croatia 5-1 in a World Cup qualifier the night before. Either way, I found it interesting that our friends across the pond were collectively becoming violently ill. One would have thought this would have attracted more sharks -- that fine, rich mixture of lager and pies -- but the seas remained great white-free. In all, it was sort of a bittersweet experience. Being that close to such spectacular sharks was a rare, lifetime opportunity, but of all my South African experiences, this was the most expensive and, in many ways, the least rewarding. Of course, I chalk this up mostly to the early start and cold weather, but, even at its best, I've definitely had better times in my life. That said, I'm glad I did it -- you know, before I die from a rare new strain of Swine-Flu-SARS-tuberculosis. Hack. Hack. Hack. Snort. Snort.","highlights":"CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini is traveling in South Africa .\nReaders chose his destination and can share their travel suggestions .\nBellini will provide updates from South Africa on CNN.com and CNN.com Live .","id":"0dc795d6056e3e2239030f8f778f5fab4cf9352a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists have discovered the first confirmed Earthlike planet outside our solar system, they announced Wednesday. An artist's impression shows what the planet may look like in close orbit with its sun. \"This is the first confirmed rocky planet in another system,\" astronomer Artie Hatzes told CNN, contrasting the solid planet with gaseous ones like Jupiter and Saturn. But \"Earthlike\" is a relative term. The planet's composition may be similar to that of Earth, but its environment is more like a vision of hell, the project's lead astronomer said. It is so close to the star it orbits \"that the place may well look like Dante's Inferno, with a probable temperature on its 'day face' above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) and minus-328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius) on its night face,\" said Didier Queloz of Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, the project leader. Hatzes, explaining that one side of the body is always facing the star and the other side always faces away, said the side \"facing the sun is probably molten. The other side could actually have ice\" if there is water on the planet. \"We think it has no atmosphere to redistribute the heat,\" Hatzes told CNN from Barcelona, Spain, where he is attending the \"Pathways Towards Habitable Planets\" conference. The astronomers were stunned to find a rocky planet so near a star, he said. \"We would have never dreamed you would find a rocky planet so close,\" he said. \"Its year is less than one of our days.\" The planet, known as CoRoT-7b, was detected early last year, but it took months of observation to determine that it had a composition roughly similar to Earth's, the European Southern Observatory said in a statement. Astronomers were able to measure the dimensions of the planet by watching as it passed in front of the star it orbits, then carried out 70 hours of study of the planet's effect on its star to infer its weight. With that information in hand, they were able to calculate its density -- and were thrilled with what they found, Hatzes said. \"What makes this exciting is you compare the density of this planet to the planets in our solar system, it's only Mercury, Venus and Earth that are similar,\" Hatzes, of the Thuringer observatory in Germany, told CNN. They were helped by the fact that CoRoT-7b is relatively close to Earth -- about 500 light years away, in the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. \"It's in our solar neighborhood,\" Hatzes said. \"The thing that made it easier is it's relatively close, so it's relatively bright. If this star was much much farther away, we wouldn't have been able to do these measurements.\" At about five times Earth's mass (though not quite twice as large in circumference), it is the smallest planet ever spotted outside our solar system. It also has the fastest orbit. The planet whizzes around its star more than seven times faster than Earth moves, and is 23 times closer to the star than Mercury is to our sun. The planet was first detected early in 2008 by the CoRoT satellite, a 30-centimeter space telescope launched by the European Space Agency in December 2006, specifically with the mission of detecting rocky planets outside the solar system. At least 42 scientists at 17 institutions on three continents worked on the project. They are publishing their findings in a special issue of the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal on October 22 as \"The CoRoT-7 Planetary System: Two Orbiting Super-Earths.\"","highlights":"The planet, known as CoRoT-7b, was detected early last year .\nIt took months to determine that it had a composition roughly similar to Earth's .\nThe planet is about five times more massive than Earth .\nAstronomer: It is so close to the star it orbits that it may \"look like Dante's Inferno\"","id":"bdc6804d3221dc174c9a9ef0762c8af402fdecd4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Facebook's user base is nearly as large as the U.S. population and, for the first time, the site has turned a profit. Facebook now has 300 million users -- almost as many as the population of the United States. That was the double-barreled announcement Tuesday from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who thanked the site's users for helping its online community cross the 300 million threshold. There are about 307 million people living in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. \"We're just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone,\" Zuckerberg wrote on the company's blog. \"Because we want to make it as easy and fast as possible for the world to connect, one of the things we think a lot about is how to make Facebook perform even faster and more efficiently as we grow,\" he wrote. \"We face a lot of fun and important challenges that require rethinking the current systems for enabling information flow across the Web.\" The social networking site, while popular with its exploding user base, has struggled to turn a profit. But Zuckerberg said the company became profitable last quarter, beating its goal of getting out of the red by the end of 2010. \"This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term,\" he wrote. In July, the California startup company announced it had hit the 250 million-user mark, which indicates it has grown by 50 million users in two months. That's more than 800,000 new users per day. About 70 percent of Facebook's users are outside the U.S., according to statistics posted by the company. The site started out as a portal for college students but has attracted the attention of baby boomers and older generations in recent years. Facebook says its fastest-growing demographic is people older than 35. Watch Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook's marketing team talk about the milestone \u00bb . Over the past year, the social network has seen a challenge from Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site. Many bloggers see recent updates to Facebook's interface as copied from Twitter's stripped-down design. As Facebook has grown, it also has drawn criticism from privacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which says people on Facebook unwillingly give up personal information to advertisers and Facebook application developers. In a video interview with Fortune, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook gives its users robust privacy controls. She also told Fortune that a new approach to online advertising has helped Facebook's revenue grow throughout the recession. \"Our advertisements are very much part of the user experience,\" she said. \"So the same way you can RSVP for an event on Facebook -- you know, a party your friend might throw -- you can RSVP for a movie premiere. And that's really a movie advertisement saying, 'Our movie is opening this weekend. Do you want to go?' \" After Zuckerberg's blog post went up Tuesday, more than 500 Facebook users commented, largely cheering him on. \"i [heart] facebook. mark, you are my hero!\" one user wrote. \"Today the Internet, tomorrow the world,\" said another. Technology blogs jumped on the news from Facebook, which was posted about 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. MG Siegler at the blog TechCrunch wrote that it was inevitable that Facebook would pass the 300 million mark but that its finance news was more significant. New technologies probably are helping Facebook keep its computer server costs down, which is important because Facebook stores a lot of data, he wrote. The site is effectively the largest photo-sharing site online, he said. John Paczkowski, a writer for the Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD blog, said Facebook's financial announcement indicates the startup isn't thinking about selling out. \"It would seem then that Facebook has no interest whatsoever in selling itself off to Google or anyone else,\" he wrote. \"It would much rather go public.\"","highlights":"Facebook announces it has 300 million users and has turned a profit .\nThat makes the social network roughly the size of the U.S. in population .\nCEO writes Facebook will be a \"strong independent service for the long term\"","id":"c7a05ec0e7a64c92bf4f5954a3ca8c6b8e37b36c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski has been arrested in Switzerland on a decades-old arrest warrant stemming from a sex charge in California, Swiss police said Sunday. Roman Polanski attends a film premiere in Paris, France, in June 2009. Polanski, 76, was taken into custody trying to enter Switzerland on Saturday, Zurich police said. A spokesman for the Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski was arrested upon arrival at the airport. He has lived in France for decades to avoid being arrested if he enters the United States and declined to appear in person to collect his Academy Award for Best Director for \"The Pianist\" in 2003. The director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl. But he fled the United States before he could be sentenced, and U.S. authorities have had a warrant for his arrest since 1978. Watch what happens now for Polanski \u00bb . Polanski was nominated for best director Oscars for \"Tess\" and \"Chinatown,\" and for best writing for \"Rosemary's Baby,\" which he also directed. He was en route to the Zurich Film Festival, which is holding a Polanski tribute this year, when he was arrested by Swiss authorities, the festival said. A provisional arrest warrant was issued last week out of Los Angeles, California, after authorities learned Polanski was going to be in Switzerland, Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, told CNN on Sunday. There have been repeated attempts to settle the case over the years, but the sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to return to attend hearings. Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man to go free who \"drugged and raped a 13-year-old child.\" The Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski was put \"in provisional detention.\" But whether he can be extradited to the United States \"can be established only after the extradition process judicially has been finalised,\" a ministry spokesman said in an e-mail. \"It is possible to appeal at the federal penal court of justice against an arrest warrant in view to extradition as well as against an extradition decision,\" the spokesman wrote. \"Their decisions can be taken further to the federal court of justice.\" Gibbons said the extradition process will be determined in Switzerland, but said authorities are ready to move forward with Polanski's sentencing process, depending on what happens in Zurich. Polanski was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and a sliver of a quaalude tablet and performing various sex acts, including intercourse, with her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. He was 43 at the time. Nicholson was not at home, but his girlfriend at the time, actress Anjelica Huston, was. According to a probation report contained in the filing, Huston described the victim as \"sullen.\" \"She appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between -- could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old scared little thing,\" Huston said. She added that Polanski did not strike her as the type of man who would force himself on a young girl. \"I don't think he's a bad man,\" she said in the report. \"I think he's an unhappy man.\" Polanski pleaded guilty to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. There have been repeated attempts to settle the case over the years, but the sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to return to attend hearings. Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man to go free who \"drugged and raped a 13-year-old child.\" Polanski's lawyers tried earlier this year to have the charges thrown out, but a Los Angeles judge rejected the request. In doing so, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza left the door open to reconsider his ruling if Polanski shows up in court. Espinoza also appeared to acknowledge problems with the way Polanski's case was handled years ago. According to court documents, Polanski, his lawyer and the prosecutor thought they'd worked out a deal that would spare Polanski from prison and let the young victim avoid a public trial. But the original judge in the case, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days. Polanski fled the United States for France, where he was born. In the February hearing, Espinoza mentioned a documentary film that depicts backroom deals between prosecutors and a media-obsessed judge who was worried his public image would suffer if he didn't send Polanski to prison. \"It's hard to contest some of the behavior in the documentary was misconduct,\" said Espinoza. But he declined to dismiss the case entirely. Legal experts said such a ruling would have been extremely rare. Polanski's victim is among those calling for the case to be tossed out. Samantha Geimer filed court papers in January saying, \"I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim, have surmounted and surpassed them with one exception. \"Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case.\" Geimer, now 45, married and a mother of three, sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement. She long ago came forward and made her identity public -- mainly, she said, because she was disturbed by how the criminal case had been handled. Following Espinoza's ruling earlier this year, Geimer's lawyer, Larry Silver, said he was disappointed and that Espinoza \"did not get to the merits and consider the clear proof of both judicial and prosecutorial corruption.\" He argued in court that had \"Mr. Polanski been treated fairly\" his client would not still be suffering because of publicity almost 32 years after the crime. Polanski's arrest Saturday came two days after one of his wife's killers died. The director's pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four others were butchered by members of the Manson \"family\" in August 1969. Polanski was filming in Europe at the time. By her own admission, Susan Atkins held the eight-months-pregnant Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, stabbing the 26-year-old actress 16 times. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, Brooke Bowman, Karan Olson and Ann O'Neill contributed to this report.","highlights":"In 1977 director Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl .\nHe has lived in France for decades to avoid arrest if he enters the U.S.\nOscar winner was arrested en route to Zurich Film Festival, which was honoring him .\nPolanski won Oscar for best director for \"The Pianist;\" did not collect it in person .","id":"5ae2a2c5d0b8fccb06a45b04abb98edc7bb31de9"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A baby made his way into the world this week in Indonesia at 19.2 pounds (8.7 kg) -- about three times the weight of an average newborn. The giant baby lies next to a more typically-sized newborn. Muhammad Akbar Risuddin, born Monday, is thought to be the heaviest baby born to date in Indonesia. \"I was very surprised. I thought it was twins,\" said Binsar Sitanggang, the lead doctor in the cesarean-section delivery at Abdul Manan Hospital in North Sumatra. \"It needed a longer time than normal to deliver this baby,\" Sitanggang said. \"He was hardly breathing when we took him out. But, thank God, he is healthy.\" His parents, Hananuddin and Ani, who like many Indonesians use only one name, have two other children. Both were big at birth but were not abnormally large. Their new addition is 24.4 inches (62 cm) long. \"We can compare this giant baby with a 9- to 10-month-old baby,\" Sitanggang said. \"Both his parents are tall and big, so there might be a genetic cause for this.\" Sitanggang said the baby has already developed a robust appetite, requiring instant milk as well as breast milk. The boy has become somewhat of a celebrity. Curious people streamed into the hospital Friday for a glimpse. Even the mayor came by and had the honor of naming the infant after himself. The world's heaviest baby was born in 1879 in Ohio and weighed 23.8 pounds (10.8 kg), but the baby died 11 hours later, according to Guinness World Records. The heaviest baby to survive was a boy born in 1955 in Aversa, Italy. He weighed 22.6 pounds (10.2 kg).","highlights":"Baby weighing 19.2 pounds (8.7 kg) born in Indonesia .\nBaby is three times the typical size of a newborn infant .\nDoctor who delivered baby: \"I was very surprised. I thought it was twins\"","id":"45e2b016d6c18bf8f7bd95057a6034595d62d2c2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's petite, she's middle-aged, she's bookish, and if she gets a chance, she'll knock you on your keister. Beth Hollis, second from left, is a librarian who's become a MegaBeth, a roller derby dynamo. By day, she's Beth Hollis, a 53-year-old reference librarian in Akron, Ohio. By night, she's MegaBeth, an ageless dynamo on the roller derby rink. \"All my life, when I tell people I'm a librarian, they say, 'You don't look like a librarian,' \" Hollis said. \"And now that I'm a roller derby girl, they say, 'You don't look like a roller derby girl, either.' So I don't know where I fit in.\" Hollis has been fitting in at the Akron-Summit County Library for 27 years. \"She's my hero,\" said Diane Barton, 48, who has worked with Hollis at the library for 18 years. \"I just think it's so cool she's doing something so different and so active and so aggressive. You know how we are. We're librarians, so we tend to have that meek and mild stereotype.\" Watch her in action as Beth and MegaBeth \u00bb . Before discovering roller derby, Hollis had been casting about for a hobby. \"I tried knitting and literally got kicked out of the knitting class for just not being able to get the hang of it,\" she chortled. \"I guess it was just too soon for me to try knitting. I needed something that maybe was a little bit more physical for a hobby.\" Boy howdy. She visited a Rubber City Rollergirls practice last winter after telling her husband, Warren, a retired high school math teacher, that she was going to an audition. \"At that point, I just said, 'I don't care that I have an AARP card in my wallet; I'm going to go for this,' \" she said. Roller derby is a real sport, having ditched the campy, WWE-like spectacle seen on TV in the early 1970s. The Rubber City squad practices six hours a week and competes against teams in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. A roller derby match, called a bout, consists of two 30-minute halves. Each team has four blockers and one player called a jammer, whose job is to get past the other team's blockers on a 235-foot oval flat track and lap them to score points. Both teams are on offense and defense simultaneously, and the action is fast and rough. \"I think she's awesome,\" coach Brian \"Coachise\" Phillips said. \"She is 53, so she is our oldest girl on the team, but she works every bit as hard as every other girl on the team, and she is in as good a shape if not better than every other girl on the team.\" And she's an inspiration to the other players. \"It makes me actually excited to think that I could play ... for another 30 years, and that's awesome for me, because this is like my favorite thing to do,\" said Barb \"Barbonic Plague\" Brown, who at 21 is the youngest player on the team. Hollis has earned the respect of her team captain, too. \"She's so tiny -- she's probably like 5 feet 4 and maybe 110 pounds or so -- but when she's out there, she's MegaBeth,\" said Tracy \"Eighty-SixHer\" Soulsby, 40. \"I wouldn't say she's a very hard hitter, but she's a good blocker. Her strength is getting in people's way and then keeping them behind her, not letting them get around her.\" The MegaBeth legend grew during a June bout with the Glass City Roller Girls, a team from Toledo, Ohio. Hollis found herself contending with a 6-foot-1, 220-pound foe who goes by the name Pamazon. \"Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her just take out this one girl, and I remember, the crowd just went wild. It was fantastic!\" Brown recalled. \"I think that might be the highlight of her season,\" Phillips said. For her part, Pamazon -- aka Pamela Keppler -- said she's never been knocked down in a bout. \"To be completely honest, I don't remember MegaBeth that well from the bout,\" she said. \"I do remember talking with her at the after-party. We were all pretty surprised by her age, and I remember her saying that I knocked the snot out of her.\" The team draws capacity crowds of 500 to 600 at its bouts, where admission costs $8.50 to $12.50 and concessions are sold. \"It really makes it exciting when you've got all those people cheering,\" Hollis said. \"And as we progress through the season, it's obvious that we've gotten better ... and the fan support has just gotten louder.\" But the glory comes at a cost. Two Rubber City Rollergirls have suffered broken legs -- in practice! -- and one is about to return after breaking her shoulder and nose in a bout. \"It's inevitable that you're going to get scrapes; you get rink rash and bruises,\" said Hollis, who wears number 796.21 -- the Dewey Decimal library index number for skating. \"I took a pretty tough fall to my hip that had me a little concerned. As I said to my teammates, at my age when you break a hip, it's the beginning of the end.\" Asked whether she has hurt anyone else, the mother of two college graduates replied furtively: \"I hope so.\" Librarian Hollis isn't the only player smashing stereotypes. Among her teammates are teachers, a Starbucks manager, an accountant, a nurse practitioner, a barmaid and a couple of waitresses, most of whom are on the small side, Soulsby said. \"It's not just rough-and-tough, big, burly gals out on parole,\" Hollis said. Perhaps just to keep it real, the team does include one former repo driver (Valcano) and a heavy-equipment operator (BulldozeHer Bo). Barton, her fellow librarian, says there's something different about Hollis since she laced up her skates. \"It may just be my imagination, but she seems more confident in a way,\" Barton said. \"It has to empower you somehow.\" Hollis says it's good for people to test themselves with change. \"I encourage people to pursue things -- something like this -- that they think might be fun, and not to let stereotypes get in the way of whether or not they think they're going to fit in,\" she said. \"Because you never know.\"","highlights":"Librarian Beth Hollis breaks stereotypes and, occasionally, bones .\nAfter failing at knitting, she tries her hand (and elbows) at roller derby .\n\"MegaBeth,\" age 53, is among the fittest players on the team, coach says .","id":"b09abd09040cb227e94b16ec18315e69e6c377f4"} -{"article":"RAJASTHAN, India (CNN) -- Some call him the River Maker, others the Rainman of Rajasthan. His real name is Rajendra Singh. His nicknames come from his self-imposed mission to solve his state's water problems, one raindrop at a time. Rajendra Singh is trying to solve water issues in Rajasthan -- one of India's driest states. \"Today with global warming and climate change so many things are going on. Yes, this is the global problem. This is the modern problem. The solution is indigenous water conservation,\" Singh says. Singh lives and works in Rajasthan, one of the driest states in India. It is the country's largest state in land mass but has only about one percent of the country's water resources. Singh has spent the last 25 years of his life practicing what he preaches there. His message is always the same. He says rainwater is a resource we cannot afford to waste, instead we should capture and utilize it. \"If the drops come from the cloud, we can catch it!\" He says with his hands stretched to the sky. \"And that drop go[es] into the under[ground] aquifer and fulfills the aquifer. If that drop comes back so [it will] make springs, make a river.\" We caught up with him in Rajasthan's Alwar district. One of India's so-called \"princely states\" once ruled by Indian royalty. Back in the 1980s the government declared the area a dark zone: An area villagers could no longer pump up clean water because the water table had gotten so low. \"When there was a famine there was a drought I had to leave.\" Farmer Narin Joshi told us who has lived in the area his whole life. \"I had to work as a laborer in Delhi to make ends meet. There was no way I could earn any money here. I had to go.\" That meant leaving his wife behind to raise their children and try to keep them fed. \"If there is a harvest we benefit from the farm.\" His wife Kalawati Devi his wife says. \"And if there is no harvest we get nothing.\" For 10 years Joshi worked as a snack seller in Delhi sending back money to help his family survive. He says that all changed after Singh and his organization Tarun Bharat Sangh showed up. The group came to teach the villagers something their forefathers once practiced: The building of traditional dams called Johads. The dams are made of earth and rock. They are fashioned to capture the rain so the water will trickle down and replenish the aquifer eventually giving rise to water in the wells and bringing dead rivers back to life. But the work takes a community effort. One family is not enough to get it done. Singh says his role is to teach and motivate the community. \"There are more than 10-thousand water harvesting structures we [have] made in last 25 years. And all these structures came through the community effort. I just motivate and realize to the community and [the] community joined hands with us and they made it!\" It is easy to see the result when water becomes available again. Everything from water buffalo to majestic peacocks. Water snakes gather at the watering holes. Over the years Singh says his organization and the villagers of Rajasthan have revived seven rivers across the state helping more than a thousand villages. Now instead of traveling long distances carrying heavy vats of water, or migrating to the cities to make a living, the villagers can stay put and begin to enjoy their surroundings more. The availability of water brought the Joshi family back together again because the husband could finally make a living here. \"I have planted many kinds of trees. For my livelihood I do farming.\" He says \"My family and I are leading very peaceful lives.\"","highlights":"Rajendra Singh has devoted his life to solving Rajasthan's water problems .\nRajasthan is India's largest state and also one of the driest .\nSingh says rainwater is a resource we cannot afford to waste .\nTen thousand water harvesting structures have been made in the last 25 years .","id":"2948b9b5d2cd7ab6d384ab5876ccd4ed33ee01f2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A North Carolina man accused of plotting to wage holy war overseas also planned to attack the U.S. Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, according to new charges announced Thursday. Daniel Boyd previously was charged with conspiracy to support terrorists and conspiracy to murder. The charge is one of three counts in a new indictment against Daniel Patrick Boyd, who authorities allege is the ringleader of a group of men charged with training in North Carolina for a \"violent jihad.\" Boyd and another man, Hysen Sherifi, are charged with conspiring to murder U.S. military personnel. \"Boyd undertook reconnaissance of the Marine Corps Base located in Quantico, Virginia, and obtained maps of the base in order to plan an attack on Quantico,\" the charges state. FBI agents found weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and $13,000 cash in Boyd's Raleigh-area home, an FBI agent testified at an August bond hearing for the men, who were arrested in late July. The original indictment says the men practiced military tactics in a North Carolina county that borders Virginia. The latest indictment also charges Boyd, Sherifi, and Boyd's son Zakariya with possession of weapons in furtherance of a crime of violence, while Boyd faces an additional charge of providing a rifle and ammunition to a convicted felon. Boyd and seven others already have been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people. One of the men is believed to have fled to Pakistan, and the remaining men are in custody. In August, a federal judge denied bail for the seven in custody, but expressed skepticism about the charges against them. Magistrate Judge William Webb said the defendants made a number statements espousing holy war, and said the statements could be interpreted in isolation as braggadocio. But he agreed to keep them in jail because some of them had amassed a large arsenal and engaged in firearms training.","highlights":"Daniel Boyd, another man charged with conspiring to murder U.S. military personnel .\nBoyd previously was charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists .\nAuthorities allege Boyd led group training for holy war overseas .\nBoyd was arrested in July .","id":"aeb478b15160c2ae49e202328f1424ba991c0df9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed a deeply personal side in an interview Thursday night, saying he loves Jesus Christ and would have liked to play Major League baseball in Yankee Stadium. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke highly of President Obama at the United Nations on Thursday. He also expressed a fondness for American people and culture, saying he likes the movie actor Charles Bronson and the poet Walt Whitman. He loves to sing, he said, though he does not do it well. And Chavez had kind words for the U.S. security detail protecting him during his visit to New York, saying he chatted with them while out walking and that they \"have been very gracious, very efficient and very attentive, very kind.\" In an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King, Chavez spoke at length about a host of issues: relations between Venezuela and the United States and his hopes for improved ties with President Barack Obama; Iran, Israel and those who deny that the Holocaust existed; efforts to overthrow him and have him assassinated; criticism that he is power hungry and trying to silence critics. Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist, spoke with King a few hours after giving a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, in which he praised Obama but criticized some U.S. policies. Watch Chavez speak at the U.N. General Assembly \u00bb . When asked whether he is misunderstood in the United States, Chavez seemed to turn reflective. \"I'm a man with many defects,\" he said. \"I love. I sing. I dream. I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother. My children, my two daughters are with me and I want a better world for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren. \"Now, they demonize me. But that's the start of these world campaigns to try to defend what you cannot defend -- a system that is destroying the world. ... I'm a Christian. I want the world of justice and equality. This is the only way to achieve peace.\" Chavez then talked about his religious upbringing and current faith. \"I was an altar boy,\" he said. \"My mother wanted me to be a priest. I am very Christian and Catholic. ... I'm very faithful. I believe in God, in Jesus Christ. I love Jesus Christ. I am a Christian. ... I cry when I see injustice, children dying of hunger.\" His comments were all the more remarkable because Chavez and the Catholic Church have been at odds since he came to power in 1999. The church has been one of his major critics, with Pope Benedict XVI and other church leaders expressing concern over what they see as attempts by Chavez to limit the church's influence. Chavez's efforts to change anti-abortion laws have been at the top of those concerns. Chavez, in turn, has referred to church leadership as a \"tumor.\" Speaking of other matters, Chavez said he hopes for improved relations with Obama, but \"we want relations based on respect, relations of peoples where we are respected.\" That has not been the case so far, he said. \"Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America,\" Chavez told King. \"They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations. It's enough. We want to be brothers and sisters. We want respect and equality.\" Chavez particularly criticized former President George W. Bush, whom he accused of orchestrating an assassination attempt on the Venezuelan leader during a short-lived coup in 2002. Chavez regained power within days. Watch Chavez discuss the alleged assassination attempt \u00bb . \"The Bush government toppled me,\" he said. \"They asked for my assassination. They disrespected us. ... I saw my assassins. ... I was a prisoner in Venezuela, being a president. They took me to the seaside. I was debating with those who wanted murder me. They received the order to kill me. However, at this very moment, a group of soldiers refused. They did not kill me, but I saw those who wanted to kill me, and the order came from the White House.\" Chavez also expressed concern that the United States, which he calls \"the empire,\" still would like to topple him. As he has numerous times in recent weeks, Chavez criticized U.S. plans to begin operating out of military bases in neighboring Colombia. The United States says it needs a presence in Colombia to fight drug traffickers. Chavez sees a sinister intent. When asked what country he fears would harm him, Chavez replied, \"The empire. The empire. Seven military bases ... in Colombia, that's a serious threat against Venezuela.\" Chavez also defended his relationship with Iran but denied having said that Iran would help Venezuela obtain nuclear technology. Iran has embarked on a nuclear program that the United States and other nations think will lead it to develop nuclear weapons before long. \"They have fooled you,\" Chavez said. \"I've never said that Iran is going to help us to have nuclear technology. ... That's a strategy to attack Venezuela and say that we are building an atomic bomb. That's the next accusation. And I'm going to say this now: Please, come on. That's crazy. That's crazy.\" Chavez said he does not agree with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contention that the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were killed during World War II, never existed. \"But there also was another holocaust in South America,\" Chavez said. \"I do not deny the Jewish Holocaust. And I condemn it. But in South America, when the Europeans arrived, there were close to 90 million Indians; 200 years later, we only had four million remaining. That was a holocaust. And the Europeans denied this holocaust.\" Israel came under criticism from Chavez, who called it a \"small country with atomic bombs, and very aggressive country. ... They have massacred entire families. It is a war-mongering country.\" Turning to the situation in his own country, Chavez denied that he is trying to shut down critical media, such as the independent Globovision TV station. Government officials have levied several charges against the station, saying that it is disseminating false information and trying to foment dissatisfaction against Chavez. The Chavez government has repealed licenses for other independent TV and radio stations, and has threatened to do so against Globovision. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter this week joined human rights groups and others who have expressed concern over what they see as Chavez becoming too authoritarian. Chavez dismissed the criticism. \"Never in Venezuela have we had so much freedom of speech as now,\" he said. Pressed by King about whether he is going to shut down Globovision, Chavez answered, \"I do not know. It depends on them. If they keep on sponsoring coup d'etats, if they keep on calling for my assassination, if they keep on breaching the law even as well, it is not Chavez that's going to close them. I want to apply the law. We need to respect the law. It is the law. It's out of logic, and it's pure logic.\" As to Carter, Chavez said, \"Yes, I read that and I regret for him, because I think he's totally confounded and lost. It's a long time since he visited us. I respect him enormously, but I think he is wrong. He's a victim of so much falsehood in the world.\"","highlights":"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he loves Jesus Christ, U.S. people, culture .\nChavez says he hopes for improved relations with U.S. President Barack Obama .\nHe denies he is trying to shut down critical media in Venezuela .\nHe denies Iran would help Venezuela obtain nuclear technology .","id":"95b215c8506c265cf0f79122fe7ff16647c36d17"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He's gone from being a backup dancer to the biggest thing in Asian pop culture, an actor and singer who has sold millions of albums. The 27-year-old South Korean has even faced down U.S. comedian Steven Colbert in a spoof dance-off. The comedy skit came about after Rain placed higher than him in Time Magazine's 2008 online poll of the 100 Most Influential People. As well as a sense of humor and dance moves that shook Colbert out of his satirical posture to praise, Rain is also known as one of the hardest working men in the entertainment business. Rain, real name Jung Ji-hoon, broke into the notoriously tough world of South Korean show business with JYP Entertainment when he was just 18 years old. He made his first mark in Hollywood last year with a role in \"Speed Racer\" appearing alongside Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox. As a singer with five albums to his name, he's faced thousands of screaming fans at concerts across the world, and recently he faced your questions. Watch the show and find out what makes Rain tick.","highlights":"Korean pop culture sensation will be on Talk Asia later this month .\n27-year-old has gone from backup dancer to appearing in Hollywood films .\nRain will be appearing with answers to your questions .","id":"49654512a36b27837b069fef447ebcc460b0c911"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A 92-year-old woman with cocaine strapped to her body flew all the way from Brazil to Spain before police arrested her, in a wheelchair, at Madrid's airport. A Civil Guard spokeswoman says the 92-year old was apprehended at Madrid's Barajas Airport. They found 4.3 kilos, or nearly 9.5 pounds, of cocaine packets strapped to her legs and torso, and also arrested a 44-year-old female companion, who tried to escape on another plane, a Civil Guard spokeswoman told CNN Tuesday. The two women, both from Uruguay, were arrested Friday after arriving in Madrid on a flight from Sao Paolo, Brazil. But officials did not release details about the case until this week, after a judge had arraigned the two on drug trafficking charges. The judge ordered the younger woman to prison but sent the 92-year-old to a senior citizens' home in Madrid. Due to her advanced age, \"it's practically impossible\" that she would be tried or face jail time, said the Civil Guard spokeswoman, who by custom is not identified. Police did not identify the two women. Civil Guards became suspicious when the younger woman repeatedly told the older woman -- who had asked for an airport wheelchair in Madrid to traverse the terminal -- that if they rushed, they would make their connecting flight to Spain's Canary Islands. The Civil Guards, who run customs controls at the airport, stopped the woman in the wheelchair. The younger woman immediately fled, first trying to make the connecting flight, which by then had closed its doors, and then attempting to leave the airport terminal for the street. But she was stuck in the \"satellite,\" or second building, of Terminal 4, which is connected to the main building and the street by an underground train. Police caught up with her before she left the satellite terminal. The two would-be smugglers probably expected a cash payment and return flight tickets to Brazil from their drug trafficking contacts, the Civil Guard spokeswoman said.","highlights":"Two women, both from Uruguay, arrested after arriving in Madrid on flight from Brazil .\nJudge arraigns two women, one a 92-year old wheelchair user, on drug charges .\nSpokeswoman: \"It's practically impossible\" wheelchair user would be tried .","id":"6f3e12375fc400cf9dc3ad77b8191226e740e293"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four police officers and a suspect were shot in a raid for firearms and narcotics early Thursday in central New Jersey, a local prosecutor's office said. The officers from the Lakewood Police Department's tactical unit were shot upon entering the property and returned fire, hitting suspect Jamie Gonzalez, said Ocean County Deputy Chief Prosecutor Michael Mohel. Gonzalez, 39, received multiple gunshot wounds and is in critical but stable condition, Mohel said. One officer was shot in the face and is being treated at an undisclosed hospital, the deputy chief prosecutor said. He's in serious but stable condition. Another officer was shot in the foot and is in stable condition. The other two officers sustained injuries after receiving gunshots to their bulletproof vests, Mohel said. Their names were not disclosed. The warrant for firearms and narcotics was served at 2:25 a.m. ET in conjunction with federal, state and local authorities. Lakewood is about 70 miles south of New York City. In July, another shootout in New Jersey left one police officer dead. Jersey City police officer Marc DiNardo died after being shot in the face in a raid. He was one of five officers injured in the shootout, and the two suspects involved were killed. CNN's Vanessa Juarez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police officers shot in raid for firearms and narcotics in Lakewood, New Jersey .\nSuspect also wounded after officers return fire, official says .\nLakewood is about 70 miles south of New York .","id":"2619a648cde2b1073fd111055ccd4b49977b3ba1"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- The governments of Armenia and Turkey will sign a peace agreement in Zurich on Saturday that would normalize relations after nearly a century of animosity between the neighboring nations, the Swiss government said Friday. The Swiss-mediated peace deal would also open the border between the countries, which has been shut since 1993. The signing ceremony comes more than a month after Armenia and Turkey announced they had agreed to start six weeks of \"internal political consultations\" on two protocols aimed at establishing diplomatic and bilateral relations. The Swiss-mediated peace deal would also open the border between the countries, which has been shut since 1993. The border was closed after Turkey objected to Armenia's war with Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabagh. Neither country has an embassy in the other's capital. Turkish-Armenian relations have often been overshadowed by the dispute over the massacre of ethnic Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, more than 90 years ago. Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing genocide, killing more then a million Armenians starting in 1915. Modern-day Turkey vehemently rejects the allegations. The proposed protocols for normalizing relations call for creating a committee of international experts to research archives and \"restore mutual confidence between the two nations.\" There is no mention of the disputed territory of Karabagh, which Armenian troops have controlled since the 1993 Armenian-Azerbaijan war. But the success of the protocols is still uncertain, as the parliaments of both countries still must ratify the agreement. A senior U.S. State Department official -- authorized to brief reporters without attribution because of diplomatic sensitivities -- said the situation remains \"difficult.\" \"There's opposition both in Turkey and in Armenia,\" the senior official said Thursday, \"but both governments realize ultimately it's in their interest to have normalized relations and an open border after years of tension and the economic isolation, particularly of Armenia.\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the signing, along with dignitaries from several other countries, including the European Union, according to the Swiss government.","highlights":"Swiss-mediated deal would normalize relations between rival nations .\nAccord also open the border, which has been closed since 1993 .\nAnimosity dates back to Ottoman Empire and massacre of ethnic Armenians .\nBoth countries still must ratify the protocols, and difficulties remain .","id":"a2c16997b0f312bed15a8e69b8197a5a768e5122"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Wendy Williams knows that her syndicated television show often provides fodder for jokes on E!'s \"The Soup.\" She's more than all right with that. Wendy Williams is hoping to attract a broad audience for her daytime talk show. \"I love it,\" she said, letting out a throaty laugh. Williams is not at all bothered if people poke fun, because at least they are talking about her new show. Long known to her radio fans for her outspoken nature and sometimes controversial interviews with celebrities, she is now navigating the switch from radio to television with \"The Wendy Williams Show.\" Williams' mix of celeb guests, \"Hot Topics\" and straight-forward advice to audience members led Entertainment Weekly's critic-at-large Ken Tucker to headline a recent blog item \"Are you watching 'The Wendy Williams Show'? You should be.\" The talk show host said she is settling comfortably into her new role. \"The radio was wonderful, and for 23 wonderful years, the radio served me, and I served it,\" said Williams, who is scheduled to be inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame this fall. \"The transition for me seems very natural and very easy.\" Her career has not always been so. A self-described \"Jersey girl,\" Williams was reportedly dumped from New York's Hot 97 radio station in 1998 after a run-in with a fellow on-air personality. She eventually found success with a syndicated radio show, \"The Wendy Williams Experience,\" which aired on WBLS in New York. In 2008, she and her radio show made news after a talent booker accused Williams' husband\/manager, Kevin Hunter, of sexual harassment, accusations Williams has dismissed as false in earlier interviews. Williams has also had several high-profile feuds with celebrities, notably Whitney Houston, who have been less than enthusiastic about her dishy gossip style and what they perceived as prying questions. In a 2003 interview with Houston, she tangled on-air with the singer about Houston's drug use in an exchange that resulted in Houston delivering an expletive-laced diatribe. But while Williams still asks the questions many fans want to know (and retains her catchphrase, \"How you doin'?\"), she said, her television show is different. \"It's more polished,\" she said. \"Four hours on the radio versus one hour on TV -- that means you that you have to have five words instead of 35 words to explain what you are talking about.\" That doesn't stop her from sharing everything from her love of wigs to information about her breast implants -- without which, she recently told viewers, she was \"naturally a long, floppy A [cup].\" Rob Dauber, executive producer of the show, said daytime television needs Williams' bluntness. \"Wendy Williams has a really unique, honest personality who audiences really relate to,\" he said. \"The daytime viewer, I think, is hungry for a personality who is not afraid to speak the truth, to tell her own truth and to kind of let it all hang out. \"Wendy's not hiding anything from anybody about herself, and she's not afraid to show all of her faults.\" During a recent phone interview, Williams, mother of a 9-year old boy, chatted easily while trying to get clothes in the washing machine and dinner on the table for her family. \"After the show, it's real life,\" she said. \"Last night was parent night at school, and I forgot to include the box of tissues, pens that erase and a few other things,\" Williams said. \"No one said anything about it, but I went back in his folder and looked and immediately started sweating and feeling inadequate.\" She thinks daytime television fans can relate to her, because ultimately she is a fan, too. She rattles off countless shows she enjoys including \"Ellen,\" \"Oprah,\" \"Judge Judy\" and \"Dr. Oz.\" Williams said she aspires to attract higher-profile guests on her talk show and hopes the audience will give her time to find her stride. \"I know that the show is messy, because I'm messy,\" she said. \"But I have a staff of very talented people working with me.\" She said she is grateful for her radio audience but hopes to branch out to more fans via television -- including men. She said she often observes them at her show, clearly annoyed that they have been dragged there by women. \"I see their faces dragging long when I first come out, and somewhere around the end of 'Hot Topics,' they are roaring with laughter,\" she said. \"At the end of the day, I just want people to laugh and have a good time.\"","highlights":"Wendy Williams has made the transition from radio to daytime television .\nFormer radio personality now hosts \"The Wendy Williams Show\"\nShe says she hopes the audience gives the show a chance .\nWilliams: \"I just want people to laugh and have a good time\"","id":"6c1c55fa8483532e361462c998095390f5dccef1"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- What did you do this summer? Flat World Knowledge stayed busy on campus and now has 40 times as many students and more than 10 times the colleges using their freemium, open-source digital textbooks as they did spring semester. And they did it the old-fashioned way -- one professor at a time. A company is offering digital alternatives to traditional college textbooks. After a sort of beta earlier this year, Flat World was set to announce Thursday that more than 40,000 college students at 400 colleges will use their digital, DRM-free textbooks fall semester, up from 1,000 in 30 colleges in the spring. Digital textbooks remain a nascent business and a tough market to enter. At an average cost of $100, textbooks command the highest cover prices in publishing, outside of only some art and coffee-table books. Demand is artificially inelastic as students are indentured to cost servitude at the whim of college professors who blithely assign titles a student must own if she hopes to do well in a given course. Now, multiply that by four, five or even six courses a semester and you are talking big bucks. By comparison, Flat World has a pricing scheme that starts at zero for online access using a browser, and $20 for a PDF, which they believe will be the most popular format. Printed versions of their textbooks cost up to $60. Perhaps best of all: Textbooks are available a la carte, chapter by chapter. But the key buy-in has been from teachers who make the assignments and who, in my college days, could not care less how much the textbooks cost. What's changed? \"There has been a mind shift,\" co-founder Eric Frank told Wired.com. A tipping point came a couple of years ago when faculty began to consider the financial burden on students because many of them (Frank estimates a third) didn't bother to get the textbook at all. Perhaps more to the point, open-source textbooks -- which are Creative Commons-licensed to allow unencumbered non-commercial use -- make it possible to graft supporting material to the curriculum, rather than the other way around. \"Faculty are notorious for wanting to do things their way,\" said Frank. \"But they always had to cut the foot to fit the shoe. Now, with open source, they can cut the shoe to fit the foot.\" There is virtually no friction involved. A professor can register on Flat World's site and let students know that the book is available there. No cooperation from a school district or college administration is required. \"Every single class is a fiefdom, and they are kings and queens of their domain,\" Frank jokes. Like any freemium retailer, Flat World depends on enough people buying something, because clearly the business cannot be sustained if everyone just opts for free web access. \"What we're counting on is that people will be willing to pay for different packaging.\" And it will come down to the price points, Frank acknowledges, even when the company develops formats for the Sony e-book reader and Amazon Kindle, as they hope to this year. It makes as much sense to equip students with a device that makes all their reference materials available on demand as to offer a casual reader a complete portable library -- perhaps more. This is a classic chicken-and-egg scenario in which a device-dependent culture needs to evolve alongside new content formats. For this and a variety of other reasons, including the cost of e-readers and for the media they serve up, Frank thinks the PDF will remain the format of choice for students for some time to come (and the ubiquitous and DRM-free Portable Document Format is readable on the Sony and Amazon devices, anyway). \"They'll move forward,\" Frank says of device-specific e-reader formats. \"But there is so much irrational pricing right now that they'll move forward much more slowly than they probably should.\" For now, expect a PDF revolution. And what better back-to-school present can you think of for 40,000 hard-up college students in the midst of a recession? Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Flat World Knowledge offers free access to digital textbooks online .\nThe company charges $20 for downloadable PDF-format books .\nInterest in the company is rising; the service will be at 400 colleges this year .\nStill, the digital textbook business remains in its infancy, author says .","id":"ffebd88d31beea9486784f65f9947464562d6f3a"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Were nine attractive young Turkish women duped and imprisoned in a villa by Internet soft-core porn peddlers? Or did they simply call in the police to help them break their contract with an Internet contest similar to the reality TV show \"Big Brother\"? A lawyer for the production company, Istanbul Group Electronic Trade Communications and Advertising A.S., is arguing the latter. In a written statement on the company's Web site, Hilmi Tufan Cakir denied reports published in the Turkish and international media, that nine women were trapped against their will in an Istanbul villa, while cameras sold their images on the Internet. \"My client organized a contest with reward money, contracts were signed with the contestant girls,\" the lawyer's statement said. \"In accordance with the contracts signed by the nine girls, this contest was to be broadcast on the Internet live.\" But on Friday, an officer with a Turkish gendarme unit, told CNN that security forces raided the reality show's villa earlier this week, after they received a complaint. \"We detained one person,\" said the gendarme officer, who asked not to be identified. \"There were eight or nine young girls, some younger then 18, who were returned to their families.\" Turkish television showed footage of gendarme officers raiding the villa and detaining a suspect earlier this week. The disputed Web-site is a page of hot pink graphics and photos of scantily clad young women, accompanied by throbbing dance music and the title, \"We Are at Home.\" It shows video of the villa and its pool, and flashes photos of the nine female \"contestants\" as well as a list of ratings for viewers, who can vote for their favorite lady via cell phone text message. Audience members were also encouraged to send \"virtual gifts\" to the contestants, like pink panties, beer, chocolate and a pearl necklace. Each resident of the house had their own introductory video. The women, dressed in mini-skirts and bikinis, pose by the villa's pool, dance around in revealing outfits, and introduce themselves to the camera. In one segment, a hostess named Zeynep Karacan, who wears a long dress with a plunging neck line, reads from cue cards, introduces viewers to the house and its residents, who enter one-by-one waving to the camera and carrying luggage. According to the Web site's rating system, the second most popular contestant was woman from the town of Kocaeli who went by the name \"Tugce.\" Text on the web-page said she was 18-years old, born on September 14th, 1990. But in her on-camera appearance, Tugce tells the audience \"I am 16.\" She wears a purple bikini by the pool and goes on to say \"I came here to be discovered. My biggest dream is to be a model.\" In Turkish press reports, the women said they signed contracts requiring them to pay fines of more then $30,000 if they left the show before it completed filming. This is not the first time scandal has rocked the booming reality TV industry in Turkey. In 2005, a male contestant from the hit show \"Would You Be My Bride?\" died of an apparent drug overdose after the season wrapped up production. On that show, mothers helped their sons choose a bride. The mother of the young man who killed himself, has since gone on to host another reality match-making TV show.","highlights":"Police: 8 or 9 young girls, some under 18, were returned to their families .\nTurkish television showed footage of gendarme officers raiding the villa .\nWomen were to take part in a Big Brother-style show on the Internet .\nReport: Women signed contracts requiring them to pay fines if they left show .","id":"083c4b341a77fecff47f2e0334a0368a5dc4048a"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In yet another blow to the already ailing soap opera world, Eric Braeden, the venerable star of CBS' \"The Young and the Restless,\" has exited the top-rated daytime drama after a nasty negotiation with Sony. Eric Braeden's last episode as Victor Newman will air on November 2. The production company wanted the popular actor to take a pay cut for playing mega mogul Victor Newman, but Braeden -- who's been on the soap since 1980 -- opted to leave instead. Barring any last-minute change, Braeden's final episode will air on November 2. Reps for Sony and CBS had no comment, though one insider indicated that no further talks are planned. EW talked with Braeden, 68, about Sony's decision to exercise a draconian clause in his contract (his deal that was set to expire in November 2010 can still be renegotiated every 26 weeks) and what it means to the future of daytime dramas. EW: Where do things stand? Did your representative counter Sony's offer and you have yet to hear an answer? Eric Braeden: Precisely. EW: As of today, are you willing to take what Sony offered? Braeden: No. There is no appreciation of the fact that I've been an important part of the show for 27 years that has been No. 1 in the ratings. That's extraordinary. So to be dealt with in a perfunctory matter as if you had just known these people for a few months is what is most offensive. This is a certain corporate culture now that is very deleterious. EW: Is it true you offered to take a pay cut before? Braeden: I was the first one [to offer] because I knew that if we all did it, we would insure the continuation of the show. I did it two years ago when I signed my last contract, which I thought would last until next November. EW: Did you say your on-set goodbyes? Braeden: I said this could be a long goodbye, and I may not see you for a long time. Who knows? I'm not saying I've been let go -- we're still negotiating. But it feels like that. EW: What does this say about the state of the industry when a production company is asking the star of the No. 1 show in daytime to take a pay cut? Should everyone be worried? Braeden: Yes, though it depends on what the star does. All options are open right now. What can I tell you? I know there are certain economic realities that dictate the actions they are taking right now, but the manner in which its being done is most insulting. EW: You taped your last episode on September 23. Was that the way you wanted Victor to go? Braeden: No. It was rushed. It was obviously meant to intimidate. It was obviously done with enormous forethought to coincide with the end of the 26-week cycle. Essentially that is what the business is doing now and has been doing for a while. And quite frankly, it's outrageous. When I sign a three-year deal, I'm obligated to fulfill that deal. The producers, however, can come to me after a half-year and say, \"We've changed our minds.\" Where in the world of business does this kind of contract exist? Do I blame the people for wanting to squeeze as much out of us as they can? I do not. The question is, when do you squeeze too much? EW: Would you do another daytime drama? Braeden: I doubt that. Never say never in this business or in life, but I doubt that. EW: Can you see the genre still existing in 10 years? Braeden: Yes I can. How many reality shows can you watch? They're so obviously phony. Our show deals with adult problems in a long continuous manner, and very much like the way things are dealt with in real life. In that sense I think there will always be a need for (soaps). They're almost novelistic in their approach. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Eric Braeden opted to leave the daytime soap instead of taking a pay cut .\nThe actor said he'd taken a pay cut two years ago when renewing his contract .\nBraeden: \"There's no appreciation that I've been an important part of the show\"\nBraeden's last episode will air November 2 .","id":"37a31ca6107578b8d7935eddbbe0898a051ea204"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just over a year ago, a U.S. staff sergeant in Iraq decided to practice his shooting skills. His target: the Quran, Islam's holiest book. Pvt. Nicole Wright, 20, learns cultural awareness by watching an interactive DVD. The military issued a formal apology, promptly dismissed the soldier from his regiment and reassigned him to stateside duty. But news of the shooting had already made its way onto YouTube, and a firestorm of outrage was ignited across the Islamic world. Protests turned deadly in Afghanistan. Back at the Army's Intelligence and Cultural Awareness Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, commanders knew they had a problem. In the 21st century, the Army was sending younger soldiers into an arena they had little cultural experience in, and at the same time, new social networking sites were poised to broadcast their mistakes to the world. Maj. Gen. John Custer, the leading officer at Fort Huachuca, knew that the Army not only needed trained linguists, but it also needed a new language of its own. \"The advent of social networking has changed the world. The soldiers who I see coming from basic to the intel center, what is the first question they ask? 'Are you Wi-Fi?',\" he said. Today, a third of the men and women the Army has deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are between the ages of 20 and 24, and Custer believes the military has now entered the age of the \"strategic private\" -- a young soldier reared on video games. And because of social networking, that private is now armed with the ability to severely cripple a mission and spark the kinds of reactions that the world saw after the Quran shooting. So Custer decided his young recruits needed some extra training in cultural awareness. For help, he turned to a group of former military men who also saw an opportunity to engage today's Iraq-bound soldiers. Russ Phelps spent a career in the Navy before starting a Denver, Colorado-based company called InVism, which combines live-action video and virtual-reality technology to create simulators that become learning tools for the military and other clients. \"I was watching the rise of the gaming world, and the impact and the power it was having over how people were interacting with information, and I thought there is something here,\" Phelps said. So Phelps, a trained Arabic linguist, worked with two other companies, Combat Film Productions and Quest Pictures, to help him create realistic, movie-like combat scenarios. Hollywood veterans shot the scenarios on an elaborate set in Southern California, adding real footage from Iraq whenever possible. The result: an immersive cultural simulation program that is part video game, part blockbuster Hollywood movie. Soldiers use computers to train on an interactive DVD that plunges them into a series of scenarios and presents them with choices, such as whether to accept a cooler full of drinks from an Iraqi youth. At the end of each scenario, the recruit clicks on his or her choice, then discovers whether it was the right one. (Hint: That cooler could contain a bomb.) In this way, the DVD becomes an immersive learning tool that trains soldiers in a way that lectures and textbooks cannot. Ken Robinson, an Army Ranger turned Hollywood guru, is the project's executive producer. He's convinced that by grabbing soldiers' attention with stunning graphics and compelling characters, and then engaging them in the decision-making process, the project will deliver the ultimate payoff. \"They're gonna live,\" he told CNN. \"They're gonna make choices on the battlefield that will prevent their first choice from being to use their weapon. They're gonna use their mind.\" Robinson believes the simulator program is more effective then a traditional video game because soldiers relate more to human characters than virtual avatars. \"Nobody cares about an avatar that gets killed. You just get another avatar,\" he said. \"It's a 'band of brothers' mentality,\" agreed Steve Wilson, Chief of Training at Fort Huachuca. \"You are building a camaraderie.\" Wilson hopes that the soldiers build enough of a bond with the characters onscreen that they will be able to sense the shock and stress that come with the life-or-death situations they'll soon be immersed in for real. But can a soldier really save a life, or multiple lives, just by using more cultural sensitivity? Does it really matter if a U.S. soldier knows the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni? Custer thinks so. \"If an untrained soldier walks through a market, he's gonna come back and tell you 'there are a lot of tomatoes here today,' \" Custer said. \"The guy who has cultural training is gonna come back and say, 'All the Sunnis in the market are talking about al-Dari, a meeting tonight.' \" Pvt. Nicole Wright, 20, who doesn't know yet when she'll be deployed, has found the training useful. \"I'm going to be a little more aware of what I'm looking for, the people and the environment,\" she said. Spc. Andrew Omernick, 23, who grew up playing video games, agrees. \"The format was a little bit different from most video games I've seen. It was intuitive,\" he said. \"I thought this training was a significant step forward.\" Every soldier who takes the DVD immersion course is given a pre- and post-training test to measure the change in their cultural acuity. But there is an even more immediate feedback about whether the Army has achieved its mission of connecting with its young soldiers. \"If it were a video game, I'd buy it,\" Omernick said.","highlights":"The U.S. Army is using interactive videos for soldiers' cultural sensitivity training .\nThe videos help recruits understand and adapt to Iraq and Afghanistan .\nSoldiers watch DVDs that plunge them into a series of wartime scenarios .\nRecruits face choices, click on options, then find out how they scored .","id":"957ba07ee08b39af6f493d26d7925a9825783146"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Since the revolution in 1959 Cuba has been many things to many people, but the collapse of the Soviet Union meant few have seen the island state as a vision of the future. But that could be changing -- at least in one aspect. Cuba experienced a reordering of its food production in the early 1990's. A boom for organic foods, but problems persist. As worries grow in developed nations about a future without plentiful supplies of oil, the communist republic is proving to be an increasingly popular example of how to cope when the spigots run dry, for the simple reason: they've already been there. With the loss of supplies from oil-rich Russia in 1991, and a U.S. embargo preventing imports from elsewhere, Cuba was plunged into a severe recession in the early 1990's, referred to as \"the Special Period.\" Suddenly society was faced with dramatically reduced amounts of hydrocarbon energy, and the result was a fundamental reorganization of food production, leading to a boom in urban organic agriculture, which requires fewer inputs than conventional farming. Despite the increase in organic production, problems remain for Cuba's agricultural system and ability to feed itself with local produce. \"Some estimates of the amount of food imports in Cuba go as high as 80 percent of domestic consumption,\" says CNN's Havana Bureau Chief, Morgan Neill. \"This isn't to say that small scale organic farmers couldn't learn for isolated growers, but Cuba's overall agriculture is one of the government's biggest problems.\" Cuba's organic example, however, has been a source for inspiration for many outside of the country, such as the UK-based Cuban Organic Solidarity Group (COSG). \"With the collapse of the Soviet Union Cuba was in a position where no-one thought it would survive -- they lost 80 percent of their trade overnight,\" says Wendy Emmett of COSG. \"As a result the priority given to food changed, and it was immediately seen as much more important.\" All over Havana small-scale organic gardens were started on roof-tops, backyards and in empty parking lots, spreading rapidly to other cities and urban centers. Farmer's markets known as \"Kiosks\" sprang up providing city-dwellers with access to locally-grown fruit and vegetables, cutting the use of oil in transporting food in from the countryside. In the countryside, oxen and horses replaced tractors. Manual labor replaced machines. A huge program of land re-distribution was instigated. Many of the vast collective farms beloved by communist planners started to look inefficient, and so were broken up into units more manageable without fleets of tractors. The process is still ongoing. In February 2009 the Cuban authorities announced that 1,827 square miles of state land would be given to Cubans with agricultural experience or other citizens. But this change wasn't easy. Prior to the \"Special Period\" Cuba had been a heavy user of oil-based chemical fertilizers, and much of the land was heavily degraded, requiring years of careful manuring to restore fertility. However, despite the obstacles, they did it. \"I was there in 1992, which was one of the most difficult years, and certainly people were moaning a lot, but they worked together, they still kept the milk coming for the schoolchildren,\" says Emmett. \"Throughout it all they didn't close any hospitals, they didn't close any schools; they kept going against the odds. In many ways they show us what is possible, what a community can achieve when they work together; the power of co-operation.\" A blue-print to cope with problems post-peak oil? Of course a powerful authoritarian state and strong central planning made such huge changes easier to implement; a similar process of development might be very different, and possibly lees successful, in the West. But as an increasing number of people believe we will soon face a major social and economic crisis as oil supplies dwindle over coming decades, many believe we have a lot to learn from the Cuban experience. \"The industrialized world can learn that its dependency on oil will eventually push it through similar experiences to that which Cuba had to face in the 1990's, and with similar outcomes,\" says Julia Wright, author of \"Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba.\" \"We can also learn that if we do not have the necessary capacities in place, our food production system will be caught short, as was Cuba.\" All over the world from New Zealand to the United Kingdom members of the Transition Town Movement, which aims to help communities prepare for the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change, hold regular screenings of the film, \"The Power of Community\", an upbeat documentary that explores the Cuban experience, alongside films about our oil addiction such as \"The End of Suburbia\" and \"A Crude Awakening.\" \"Cuba inspires groups overseas wanting to develop alternative, more sustainable farming and food systems, partly based on the myth that has built up around Cuba being organic,\" says Wright. \"Organic farming in Cuba only operates in urban areas, not rural... [but] the Cuban organic movement and the people within it are highly dedicated to their work and will continue to influence and be influenced by the organic movement overseas.\" The future is less clear. New allies are once again opening Cuba up to the outside world -- and providing fresh oil supplies. \"Hugo Chavez is supplying Cuba with increasing quantities of oil and agrochemicals, so Cuban agriculture -- and here I'm talking about rural farms which supply 95 percent of the nation's domestic food needs -- is becoming more industrialized, though it will not revert back to the extreme practices of the Soviet era,\" says Wright. \"Organic urban agriculture will continue and likely continue to expand out to peri-urban areas.\" But whatever the years ahead bring, Wright believes the experience of the \"Special Period\" has left its mark on Cuban society. \"The crisis that Cuba suffered has made it a better place in certain aspects, as people had to become more resilient and self-sufficient and less wasteful,\" says Wright. \"Although Cubans would certainly say that their food shortages and lack of inputs has been a hardship.\"","highlights":"Cuba's economic hardship in early 1990's led to reorganization of agriculture .\nUrban and organic farming implemented plus break up of inefficient large farms .\nSome see Cuba's experience as way to cope with problems of future oil crises .","id":"fb9d1dade8a45375f63c60aa35d6b07f258ee3f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A surveillance video of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27, shows the child in the mobile home park where she lives, skipping and happily swinging her arms on the day she disappeared in Tracy, California. A surveillance video shows Sandra Cantu skipping in the mobile home park where she lives. The grainy scene appears for about eight seconds before she disappears from view. Police Lt. Jeremy Watney showed the clip Saturday at a news conference, but offered no details. \"I can't get into specifics of where it came from. That's all part of the investigation,\" he said. \"The CD will show you exactly how she looked on that particular day when she went missing.\" In the video, the girl emerges from a pathway at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park into what appears to be an alley. To her right is the corner of what looks like a wooden deck; there seem to be deep shadows on the left. Watney said authorities initially thought Sandra was carrying a purse or backpack, but the images turned out to be shadows. He said authorities have \"hundreds of hours of videotapes\" in the case. The day the child disappeared, she came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives a couple of homes away. A short time later, she left that home to go to another friend's home, according to a spokeswoman for her family. She was reported missing about 8 p.m. Sandra was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings. Watney said the reward for information leading to her whereabouts has increased to $26,000, and authorities are following more than 800 leads. More than 300 trained searchers from 17 agencies were out on Saturday. A door-to-door canvass moved outside of the park Saturday afternoon as police continued to collect details from residents in the area. Watney said police executed search warrants on a home, a vehicle and a person Friday, but nobody has been detained in the case. \"It's just looking for clues and evidence\" he said of the warrants. Watney said the reward for information leading to her whereabouts has increased to $26,000, and authorities are following more than 900 leads. Over 300 trained searchers from 17 agencies were out on Saturday. On Monday night, Tracy police and FBI agents searched six locations, some in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park and some in Tracy. All of the places were connected to two men who live in the mobile home park, officials said. Authorities have not called the men suspects and have not named them publicly. They did not say how or if they might be related to the case. Police have said they do not believe Sandra ran away. The girl's aunt, Angie Chavez, told CNN Headline News' Nancy Grace that Sandra's father lives in Mexico and was not around the day she disappeared. Tracy is about 60 miles east of San Francisco.","highlights":"NEW: Video shows Sandra Cantu skipping near her home the day she went missing .\nNEW: Grainy, 8-second image of the 8-year-old was shown at a news conference .\nGirl had on a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings the day she disappeared .\nReward has increased to $26,000, and authorities are following more than 800 leads .","id":"359c7306983ab5f9cffd7ccb982a1d27b725cd38"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The world's tropical forests are disappearing, and one reason is simple economics: People, companies and governments earn more by logging, mining or farming places such as the Amazon jungle than by conserving them. Global climate change treaty, scheduled for completion in December, is designed to protect tropical forests. Efforts to halt rain forest destruction date back decades, but they so far have failed to tackle the issue on a scale commensurate with the challenge. Now there may be a remedy, and the reason is climate change. Increased awareness of the threat from global warming has prompted unprecedented international focus on how to combat it, as well as new appreciation for the vital role of tropical forests in the climate change equation. On Tuesday, world leaders gather at the United Nations for a special climate change summit, intended to build momentum for a new global climate change treaty being negotiated by almost 200 countries. The new treaty is scheduled to be completed in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. If eventually enacted, the treaty will include a revolutionary but little-known provision intended to protect remaining tropical forests. Known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in developing countries, or REDD, the provision is based on the knowledge that destroying tropical forests contributes to global warming. Rain forests absorb and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Burning or clearing the forests returns that stored CO2 to the atmosphere, where it can trap heat and gradually increase temperatures. Every year, tropical forests equal to an area the size of England are destroyed, contributing about 20 percent of total annual greenhouse gas emissions -- more than all the world's cars, trucks and airplanes combined. The idea of the proposed provision is to make the stored carbon dioxide in the forests a commodity that can be bought and sold on the global market. Polluters in the developing world would be able to offset their emissions by buying credits for stored forest carbon dioxide. The money from those purchases would go to developing world governments, international organizations, local communities and others involved in forest protection programs. For the first time, tropical forests would be worth money for simply existing. That could create an economic incentive to protect tropical forests, which also have biological value as the planet's richest storehouses of land species and spiritual worth as pristine natural landscapes. To longtime defenders of tropical forests, the proposal represents the final stage of a long and halting journey from the fringes of the environmental movement toward the mainstream of international policy. \"Done properly, this is our No. 1 hope,\" said Randall Hayes, who founded the Rainforest Action Network in 1985 with the goal of halting tropical deforestation. \"Other strategies have been heroic but insufficient.\" The system would let nations and industries that are the biggest greenhouse-gas emitters buy carbon credits in tropical forests in South and Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia and other equatorial regions. At the same time, investors could speculate on the price of carbon dioxide through credit trading. Private and public funds could invest in projects that protect forests to generate credits. Final details of the plan remain uncertain, such as how forest carbon credits would be verified and how the money paid for them would be handled and distributed. For developing countries, the idea represents a potential new revenue source. President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana, a leading proponent of the plan, has made trading carbon credits a central element of his Low-Carbon Development Strategy. The strategy \"is more about development than about the environment and it will help us to accelerate infrastructural development and fill the budget gap,\" Jagdeo said in an August 29 speech. The World Bank and partners have set up funds to help developing countries prepare for REDD and finance forest-protection initiatives. However, both funds are not fully capitalized, pending the successful conclusion of negotiations on the new global climate change treaty. \"Right now everybody is in a wait-and-see mode,\" said Benoit Bosquet, the World Bank's lead carbon finance specialist. \"Everybody seems interested, but the level of activity is still humble.\" Conservationists cite the environmental benefits of saving tropical forests, which provide essential resources and services -- such as fresh water, food, flood control and many others -- on which more than a billion people depend. Now, they say, conserving forests also can contribute to sustainable development, benefiting both nature and people. Yet several steps remain before the tropical-forest provision becomes reality on a large scale. First, the U.N.-led negotiations must agree on a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol -- the world's first global climate change agreement, which expires in 2012. The Kyoto treaty created a global carbon market -- but only the carbon storage of newly planted or replanted forests is eligible for credits. REDD also would protect standing forests, to prevent the absorbed carbon dioxide stocks from being released back into the atmosphere. Whether a new treaty will be completed in December is unclear. Negotiators have yet to set consensus targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and major disputes remain between industrialized powers such as the United States and emerging and developing economies including China and Brazil. The draft under negotiation includes REDD, but negotiations continue on how broad the policy would be. Advocates of a limited scope for REDD say areas with no history of deforestation should be excluded because protecting them won't reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In response, conservationists and developing nations warn against leaving out nations and regions -- including Jagdeo's Guyana, parts of Indonesia and Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and others -- that still have much of their tropical forest intact. They argue that halting deforestation in only some countries would cause the loggers, palm oil developers and other drivers of forest destruction to move to previously untargeted areas. \"If REDD mechanisms exclude any significant group of countries, REDD will fail,\" Jagdeo told U.N. negotiators in December. Critics, including some environmental groups, question how such a vast and complex system can be successfully implemented. A Greenpeace report issued in March said including REDD credits in carbon markets would create a glut and drastically cut the price of carbon, resulting in industrial polluters buying cheap credits for offsets instead of reducing their emissions. The report also warned of reduced investments in renewable energy technologies due to the lack of an incentive from the cheaper carbon credits. Others question whether REDD will be another scheme generated by industrialized nations to exploit resources of the developing world, and in particular, the indigenous forest peoples. Jagdeo, the president of Guyana, has said such critics should recognize the opportunity that a new climate change treaty could present. If it includes sufficiently robust commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he argues, that would create a strong demand for carbon credits. The deforestation provision of a climate change treaty could help stem deforestation while providing \"badly needed capital flows to some of the poorest countries in the world,\" he said. Yet even the idea's most ardent supporters recognize that it could take years for a global-scale program to become effective. While local projects exist in rain forest countries such as Madagascar, it would take time and money to expand them. \"If there is a deal in Copenhagen and if there is a signaling by industrialized nations that, yes, they will make money available, then you will see developing countries scaling up their readiness,\" said the World Bank's Bosquet. \"They will see that this is now real and it's the time to react.\"","highlights":"World leaders gather at the United Nations for special climate change summit .\nTreaty based on finding that destroying tropical forests adds to global warming .\nWith proposed provision, stored carbon dioxide in forests could be bought and sold .\nReduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation provision has critics .","id":"02510723978086825e670230d955102239f54547"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- They were crimes born of the Internet age -- romantic solicitations on popular Web site Craigslist that police say led to the fatal shooting of one woman and the robbery of another in Boston hotels this past spring. Internet forensic expert Mark Rasch used high-tech sleuthing to help police in Boston's Craigslist crimes. And it was high-tech, 21st-century sleuthing, along with some old-fashioned gumshoe detective work, that put police on the trail toward a suspect and eventually an arrest. On CNN's \"AC 360\" Randi Kaye recently took a behind-the-scenes look at how technology was used to lead police to 23-year-old medical student Philip Markoff, who has been indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Julissa Brisman, a model from New York who advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, was shot three times at close range and suffered blunt head trauma at the Marriott Copley Place hotel on April 14. And a 29-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada, woman was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards at the Westin Copley Place hotel, police reports said. Read the AC360 blog post . Investigators knew they had crimes born of the Internet on their hands, but how were they able to use that same technology to help them find a suspect who went to great lengths to hide his tracks? \"The figures involved communicated with each other [via] text and e-mail, and they only met at the very last minute,\" said special correspondent Maureen Orth, who investigated the story for Vanity Fair magazine. \"And then the way the police were able to solve the crime was going back, using the clicks and the Internet addresses.\" In Brisman's case, police knew she had communicated on Craigslist with a person calling himself \"Andy.\" Mark Rasch once headed the computer crimes unit at the U.S. Department of Justice. Now an Internet forensic expert, he helped Boston police track the alleged killer. \"The first thing you start with was the e-mail address. In this case, it's an e-mail address from Live.com, which is Microsoft,\" Rasch explained to CNN's Kaye. Watch Randi Kaye's full report \u00bb . Rasch showed Kaye the tracer program he used to help follow the e-mails from \"Andy.\" \"Trace Back does what it says -- traces the route that the e-mail took on its way from its origin to the destination,\" Rasch said. Rasch says police got the Internet protocol address for the e-mailer's computer. From there, investigators tracked down the company providing Internet service to the suspect, which told them that the subscriber lived in a Quincy apartment building, outside Boston. Even though police had what they believed was the killer's real name and home address, that still was not enough, Kaye reports. \"They have to validate and actually get this guy's fingers on the keyboard,\" Rasch said. \"So in the end, they reverted to the old gumshoe thing of a stakeout.\" Police zeroed in on Markoff. They'd seen a tall, blond male they believed was the killer on the hotel surveillance cameras. And they did what many people do on a daily basis -- they Googled him. Police learned their prime suspect was a medical student at Boston University. He was engaged to be married. Again, the Internet helped. They got a better look at him through pictures with his fiancee online. It's a piece of a digital trail criminals rarely think about, Kaye reported. \"As one of the law enforcement people told me, if you can see it, they can see it,\" Orth said. Markoff's cyber footprint was growing more clear to authorities every day. On April 20, six days after Brisman's slaying, detectives arrested him. They said he was carrying on him a New York driver's license with a photo of someone named Andrew or Andy Miller. Police say Markoff used that driver's license to purchase the gun that killed Brisman and that his fingerprints were on the paperwork. In June, Markoff pleaded not guilty to Brisman's death and the other charges against him. He remains in jail. CNN's Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Internet expert: Craigslist slaying suspect left a trail of clues behind in cyberspace .\nMark Rasch says he used a tracer program on e-mail sent to slaying victim .\nBoston investigators even used a Google search to help track down suspect .\nPhilip Markoff, a medical student, pleaded not guilty in death of Julissa Brisman .","id":"3971f1b87ff0d6962934cd2d14a8a896400a2cd5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It seems the world of the golf cart is changing if certain industry manufacturers are to be believed. By shedding their normal surroundings, improving their dowdy image and hitting the streets -- \"pimped up\" carts may increasingly be seen away from the course. Celebrities have been queuing up to jump on the buggy-wagon. The most recent purchase was by pop star Cheryl Cole, who bought husband and Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole a \"Mini-Hummer\" buggy as a gift, spending $8,000 customizing the cart with gold-plated hub caps, Swarovski crystals and a trunk for his golf clubs. Dominik Jackson, owner of Mini-Hummer says demand for the vehicles has rocketed since 2006: \"It started as a glorified golf buggy, but since adapting the look we've had demand from all over Europe and even from royal families in the Middle East.\" The carts are already on the roads in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and the company are planning to launch a new fully enclosed Mini-Hummer in London next year. While Europe is catching up with the trend, there has been a big market for \"pimped\" golf carts in the United States for some time. \"I'd say about 99% of our sales these days are for individual use,\" says Randy Hopper, owner of Sick 'N' Twisted Designs, one of the largest bespoke golf cart manufacturers in California. \"We build customized golf carts to the specific requirements of the customer - we pretty much do everything.\" And this really means everything. Modern carts are now built with leather seats, wooden dashboard, surround-sound systems, iPod players, lower lighting and air bags, in a variety of themes - street, lifted, off-road and even Limo carts. Sick 'N' Twisted customer Dave Johnson is having his golf cart pimped and modified to match the color of his boat: \"It's going to be burgundy with 12-inch wheels, full sound system and air-bags that adjust the height of the cart.\" Dave insists that in his neighborhood, golf carts are more of an everyday than a luxury item: \"They're practical, affordable and it's nice to cruise around and see your neighbors.\" So is this a case of keeping up with the Joneses? \"There's no official competition on our street, but people take notice of things like that. It's definitely seen as a status symbol.\" While the golf cart remains a staple on the fairways, the souped-up street version is no longer just par for the course.","highlights":"Adapted golf carts are growing in popularity across Europe .\n99% of sales are for individual use in the USA .\nModern carts built with leather seats, airbags and iPod players .\n'Pimped' golf carts are seen as status symbol .","id":"ed0c1728165a89521331c9415dae0f8ce4e45ab7"} -{"article":"Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has died, his family told CNN. He was 69. Wahid, affectionately known as Gus Dur, died Wednesday evening as a result of heart problems, his family said. A news conference was planned later. Wahid, who was also a popular religious leader, had been ill for several weeks and had been hospitalized a few days ago. He had been in frail health for many years and was partially blind and unable to walk. Before becoming Indonesia's fourth president, Wahid was the revered leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, with more than 30 million members. No one took Wahid seriously when he contested the presidential race in October 1999, mainly because of his poor health. He was seen, however, as a candidate of compromise, and the Central Axis, a coalition of Muslim forces, lobbied in his favor. However, Indonesians -- including his onetime supporters -- were frustrated by his erratic and chaotic leadership. He was at odds with the nation's parliament, which eventually forced him to step down. Wahid was known for injecting humor into his religious sermons and political speeches. CNN's Atika Shubert contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wahid was a popular religious leader .\nHe contested the 1999 presidential race .\nHe was known for injecting humor into his religious sermons and political speeches .","id":"c4574c7f2b16bcb2612124aa5c7c98bef3e5eae1"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- She refuses to dwell on the past and accepts that she can't control the future. Reese Witherspoon juggles her career, family and love life, yet still is able find time for herself . For Reese Witherspoon, it's all about living in the moment. And with a thriving career, two children, and a handsome boyfriend -- Jake Gyllenhaal -- who can blame her? On her divorce from Ryan Phillippe ... You have to keep it together for your kids and for yourself too. I'm trying to learn from the things that have happened in my life, live more in the moment, and have more fun. Someone told me recently to live in the present but make plans and take pictures. And I am. I'm writing more, I'm reading more. Going to more concerts. Jake and I went to Coachella this year. On being confident ... As you get older, you know what you like and what you don't like, and you're not apologetic about it... I used to judge myself so harshly. I think women in their 20s do. You're hard on your body, you're hard on yourself. But you start to realize that none of it is really all that important. As long as you're comfortable, the best parts of yourself come through no matter what. Your mother can tell you that a million times, but you don't understand it until you live it! On if she likes to cook ... I do. And Jake is a great cook, he does a lot. We spend the weekends outside L.A, in Ojai, where I have a farmhouse. We have chickens and we grow cucumbers and tomatoes. I love it. It reminds me of where I grew up in Tennessee. On working out ... I try to exercise every day. I like to run for about an hour, and I'm big into working out with girlfriends. It's an acquired skill, being able to discuss your love life, children and friends, all while you're running! But we have mastered it. On her new perfume ... I have a lot of favorite smells from growing up in the South that I wanted to capture in this scent. As a kid, I was always outside. There was a magnolia tree in the front yard that I think I spent most of first, second and third grade in. And there was the smell of honeysuckle from the creek that ran down by our house. Gardenias were important too, because every Mother's Day or on my birthday my father would buy small bouquets or corsages for my mother and me. While we were working on the perfume, Avon asked me if I could explore other notes, but I kept going back to white flowers! The packaging reminds me of my grandma's bureau, where she'd have little perfume bottles out. I love it. On her girlfriends ... There are three of us who wear pretty much the same size, so we'll get together on a Friday night and I'll bring clothes I want to trade and they'll bring theirs. We swap shoes and purses a lot. I wore my girlfriend's dress to a wedding recently. It's fun. On raising her kids, Ava and Deacon, far from home ... Sometimes it's really difficult for me, being far away from home. L.A. is where my job is and I have to be close, but I never imagined that my children wouldn't grow up next door to my brother's children. Or my mom and dad wouldn't constantly be around. You know, I had dinner every night with my grandparents as a kid, so I think missing out on that is a hard compromise. At least I have a lot of Southern friends in L.A. I gravitate toward them. I think of those people as a part of my family: They take care of me and I take care of them. On being a mom and a career woman ... I love my life without work and I love my life with work. My mom, who's a nurse, called me the other day when I was really stressed out from working a 15-hour day. And she was like, \"Yeah, but think of it as a part-time job.\" And I thought, that's actually right, it puts it in perspective. I work incredibly hard for three months, but then I get a break. It's about really enjoying my time off. Where do I relax the most? Where are my children happiest? My ideal scenario is to do one movie a year. But as an actor, I don't think you can do an awful lot of planning. In fact, my new philosophy in life is I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, as if I could magically predict it if I planned it enough. And then I realized, I can't. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Reese Witherspoon on divorce: \"You have to keep it together for your kids\"\nActress says she exercises for an hour a day .\nShe and boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal cook and grow cucumbers and tomatoes .","id":"b3fbfcdfe53d54fb8838bd8a11069c831a7d903e"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Tiger Woods has changed his cell phone number and is not talking to some of his famous friends, NBA legend Charles Barkley said, following Woods' sex scandal that erupted last month. Barkley and filmmaker Spike Lee talked about their concern for the golfer during the taping of a one-hour special -- \"With All Due Respect\" -- to air Sunday on HLN, a CNN sister network. \"I think when you have these fires in your life, as I call them, you need to talk to somebody else who is famous who [has] been through things in their life,\" Barkley said. \"I don't think you can talk about it to your family and friends, because your family and friends, they're not famous.\" Lee said he had hoped Barkley or retired NBA star Michael Jordan could counsel Woods on how to survive the crisis. \"He's insulated,\" Lee said. \"If Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan can't get to him, and those are his boys, then other people are making bad moves.\" Woods, in a written statement that acknowledged \"my infidelity,\" announced last week that he is taking \"an indefinite break\" from professional golf. The 33-year-old golfer, who tops the sport's world rankings, has been mired in controversy since he crashed his car outside his Florida mansion in late November. The crash prompted authorities to cite him for careless driving and fine him $164.","highlights":"Tiger Woods should lean on his famous friends, NBA legend and filmmaker say .\nBut Woods has changed his number and isn't talking, Charles Barkley says .\nBarkley: \"You need to talk to somebody else ... famous who [has] been through things\"\nGolf star, who acknowledged \"infidelity,\" is taking a break from the sport .","id":"3f7010d365fcb9d2afb15457a0edc219e8a9f541"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder fully expects to be leaving the Spanish giants next summer. Metzelder, whose contract is up at the end of the season, has played just one Spanish Primera Liga match all campaign. And the 29-year-old admits the Bernabeu giants are unlikely to offer him a new deal. \"All us players have hope but you also have to be realistic and I don't think the club will renew my contract,\" the Germany international told reporters. \"These have been two-and-a-half complicated years for me, but I don't want to talk about that. It is the coach who makes these decisions and as a player I have to accept it. \"I am professional and for that reason I will work until the end of the season and we'll see if I return to playing or not.\" Metzelder insists, however, that whatever happens he will not be leaving Madrid in the winter transfer window. \"I don't think it's the right date to change clubs,\" he added. \"Moreover, in Germany the teams will not pay a transfer for a player who five months later will be free. In any case, I am a player who always completes his contracts.\" Meanwhile, Real Madrid have denied they have received a mega-offer from Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan to buy them out. Reports in Spain suggested the Sheikh was set to shell out one billion euros for Madrid and was due to meet club president Florentino Perez early in the new year for discussions. However, Madrid insist the story is completely unfounded. \"Real Madrid wishes to inform that Real Madrid president Mr. Florentino Perez has had a great friendship for many years with his Highness, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan,\" read a statement on the club's official Web site. \"And that the so-called interest and the existence of any offer to acquire Real Madrid are false. \"His Highness has always shown tremendous respect for the club and understands that Real Madrid belongs to its members.\" Sheikh Mansour, who is reportedly a Real Madrid supporter, is president of Abu Dhabi's Al Jazira Club, where he set up a twinning agreement with the Spanish giants in 2005.","highlights":"Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder fully expects to be leaving the Spanish giants next summer .\nMetzelder, whose contract is up at the end of the season, has played just one match all season .\nReal Madrid deny they have received an offer from Manchester City owner to buy them out .","id":"92d2975058feb2b5b1b561ec912cbb1c670f0b19"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The allegation is shocking: an 8-year-old girl lured to a storage shed with the promise of chewing gum, pinned down and sexually assaulted by four boys, none of them older than 14. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has made cracking down on sex crimes a top priority in Liberia. The response from the girl's family sent a second and equally stunning shockwave through their Phoenix, Arizona, community: \"The parents felt that they had been shamed or embarrassed by their child,\" reported Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill. As a result, the girl was taken into custody by Arizona's child welfare agency. The prosecutor who charged the four boys called the crime \"heartrending\" and \"deeply disturbing.\" But to those familiar with Liberia, the west African nation where the families of all of the children are from, the crime and response are both part of a sadly familiar story. \"It's something that happens every day in every community in Liberia,\" said Tania Bernath, a researcher for the human rights group Amnesty International. The country was racked by a brutal civil war for most of 14 years. During that time, rape was used by fighters on all sides as a tool of war and a way to spread terror and demoralize enemies. A United Nations report in 2004, the year after much of the fighting stopped, estimated that 60 to 70 percent of all women in the nation had been the victims of sexual violence. A 2006 government report said that of 1,600 women surveyed, 92 percent reported some kind of sexual violence, including rape. \"They would have cases where they would rape the wife in front of the husband -- things like that, really breaking down communities,\" said Bernath, who spent several years in Liberia working for a relief organization. While no one yet knows whether the boys charged in the case were exposed directly to violence in their homeland, advocates say they fear that harmful attitudes toward rape in Liberia have followed some members of the tight-knit immigrant community to the United States. Watch a report on the allegations and cultural conflicts \u00bb . \"Things like gang rape were used so often during the war that I think, with kids, if they saw it and heard it or heard about it -- that's part of what you might wonder about [in the Phoenix case],\" Bernath said. \"It was sort of normalized.\" In the Phoenix case, a 14-year-old boy who police say was the ringleader is being charged as an adult. The other boys accused are 13, 10 and 9 and were charged as juveniles. Phone calls by CNN to the Maricopa County public defender's office, most recently on Wednesday, have not been returned. It's not known what, if any, exposure the boys or their parents had to the fighting in their homeland, where it was once commonplace for children as young as 7 or 8 to be forced into duty -- the boys handed rifles while the girls were made to perform chores or serve as sex slaves. A United Nations report estimates that about 70 percent of all fighters in the conflict were younger than 18, and former fighters have told U.N. and other researchers about the rapes they say they routinely committed. After the Phoenix attack, a 23-year-old sister of the victim told a reporter that her sister was \"bringing confusion\" after the assault was discovered by a neighbor. She said that she wanted the suspects to be released from jail because \"we are the same people\" and that her sister would be ostracized by others in the Liberian community for being a rape victim. It's a reaction that Beverly Goll-Yekeson knows all too well. A native of Liberia, Yekeson was a victim of sexual violence and now works as an advocate for other Liberian women. She says most families in Liberia condemn rape, but the crime is drastically underreported because of the stigma victims and relatives feel. \"There are a lot of social illnesses in the society; they are ashamed to come out,\" said Yekeson, president of the Liberia Crisis Center for Women and Children. \"Rape is not something that people just come out and say.\" Yekeson, who now lives and works in Maryland, said that refugees who have resettled in other countries, including the United States, often bring those attitudes with them. Her group, which runs a shelter for abuse victims in Monrovia, Liberia, also works with refugees. \"Reintegrating them into society, changing their mind-set -- that's where we have to go,\" she said. \"That's a bigger challenge. It's one thing to implement a rape law and another thing to change the mind-set of a people.\" In 2005, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became Africa's first elected female head of state. Shortly afterward, the country enacted a law making rape a crime for the first time. Before that, only gang rape had been explicitly outlawed, and advocates say anarchy in the country meant any law added to the books during the civil war wouldn't have been enforced anyway. Johnson-Sirleaf has made cracking down on rape and changing attitudes about it a top priority. She condemned the alleged attack in Phoenix and said defending rape is not a part of the nation's culture. \"Those parents should know that things have changed in Liberia,\" she told CNN last week. \"No longer do we tolerate this. This is not a question of shame on the family. It's a question of the assault of a young child, and that cannot be tolerated.\" Watch Liberia's ambassador, president react to the alleged rape \u00bb . The girl was taken into custody by Arizona's child welfare agency after the police accounts saying her parents were ashamed of her. Her father has since said he wants his daughter back and denied telling police that she brought shame to the family. A pastor working with the family has said he wants to investigate to find out if there was miscommunication between the family and police in the hours following the alleged assault. Johnson-Sirleaf said she hopes the alleged attackers will receive counseling in addition to any criminal sentence they may face if they are found guilty. Liberian refugees, and those still living in her country, need to be clear that the days of sex crimes being excused or swept under the rug are over, she said. \"[Rape is] something that is no longer acceptable in our society,\" she said. \"It is a problem, but it is [also] a crime, and people bear the brunt of the penalty for such crime.\" Under Johnson-Sirleaf's leadership in Liberia, bail is not available to those charged with rape, and a special court system has been set up to deal specifically with sex crimes. But even that system has problems that need reform, advocates say. Yekeson said an 8-year-old girl from her crisis center in Liberia was persuaded to press charges. But in the courtroom, she was made to testify while her accused attacker sat only feet away. \"You had the rapist right there, staring in her face,\" she said. \"That child was so traumatized, she ran away from the shelter and we had to look for her for days.\" But Yekeson and others remain hopeful that as the years since the fighting stopped tick away, attitudes about sex crimes in Liberia will continue to change. \"Because of the war, the social structure in Liberia, like any other war country, was destroyed,\" she said. \"Once the proper institutions have been put back into place, you will have more parents coming out and saying they are not ashamed.\"","highlights":"8-year-old girl sexually assaulted by fellow Liberia natives, police say .\nDuring Liberia's civil war, rape was used as a weapon by soldiers .\nU.N. report: 60 to 70 percent of Liberian women were assault victims .\nJohnson-Sirleaf, first elected female leader in Africa, makes stopping rape a priority .","id":"655ea5264031ea350298c7f7deab6c83ba23ccb7"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Veteran sports anchor George Michael died early Thursday after a two-year battle with cancer, according to his former TV station. Michael, 70, was known nationally for \"The George Michael Sports Machine,\" a syndicated TV show that ran nationwide for 27 years. He was a sports anchor on WRC-TV -- NBC's channel 4 in Washington, D.C. -- for more than 25 years. \"Michael was a prominent fixture, providing the most accurate and spirited sports news and highlights,\" Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said. \"He truly captured the hearts and minds of sports fans in the District and around the country.\" A statement issued by the station said \"George was a pioneer in sports broadcasting.\" \"He was a gifted interviewer, a master storyteller, and one of the hardest working journalists out there,\" the station said. Michael retired from broadcasting in March 2007. He is survived by his wife, Pat, and his daughter, Michelle Allen, the station said.","highlights":"\"The George Michael Sports Machine,\" a syndicated TV show, ran for 27 years .\nHe was a sports anchor for Washington's NBC affiliate for more than 25 years .\nStation: \"He was a gifted interviewer, a master storyteller\"\nSurvivors include his wife, Pat, and daughter Michelle .","id":"6a0280adc3deb7c9ea9479aaaacc0f0d88d18dff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Delaware pediatrician is facing numerous charges in the alleged sexual abuse of his patients, authorities said Wednesday, and there may be \"multiple victims.\" Dr. Earl Bradley, 56, who has had a practice in Lewes, Delaware, for more than 10 years, is charged with eight counts of first-degree rape; four counts of second-degree rape; 14 counts of sexual exploitation of a child; and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden told CNN. A prosecutor in Biden's office estimated that Bradley may have had as many as 100 victims. Biden stopped short of that, saying only authorities think there may have been multiple victims, and the investigation is ongoing. As of Wednesday, seven victims had been identified, said Jason Miller, spokesman for the Delaware Department of Justice. CNN affiliate WBOC-TV reported Bradley is being held in lieu of $2.9 million bond. Read local coverage from CNN affiliate WBOC-TV . He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in the Sussex County Court of Common Pleas, but his attorney requested that it be continued until January 14, Biden said. WBOC reported that concerns about Bradley's mental health prompted the postponement and said the doctor is under suicide watch at Sussex Correctional Institution. The charges against Bradley, and any additional charges that are filed, will be presented to a grand jury \"at some point,\" Biden told CNN. He would not give specifics of how Bradley came to authorities' attention \"over the course of recent months.\" Police believe the abuse goes back \"for several years,\" with victims as young as 2, he said. Additional charges were filed earlier this week after \"preliminary forensic investigation of a computer\" seized by Delaware State Police, authorities said in a release. Police said they have seized photographic and video evidence showing Bradley abusing victims, WBOC said. Court documents provide graphic details about the evidence, the station said. Bradley also has medical licenses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida. Biden said authorities in those states have been contacted. Biden urged parents or others who have concerns regarding Bradley to contact his office, where a hot line is staffed with people who can provide information including counseling referrals. \"We're taking this incredibly seriously,\" he said. CNN's Devon Sayers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dr. Earl Bradley is charged with eight counts of first-degree rape .\nOne prosecutor estimates Bradley may have had as many as 100 victims .\nThe charges against Bradley will be presented to a grand jury .\nPolice believe abuse goes back \"for several years,\" with victims as young as 2 .","id":"f174d234a430cb26be7d0ba8b301d69673d74d9f"} -{"article":"(CareerBuilder.com) -- 2009 has given employers and employees a run for their money -- literally. Budgets have been cut, layoffs made and furloughs instituted, and benefits and perks have evaporated. At the beginning of the year, 38 percent of employers said the economy would force them to make administrative cuts sometime during 2009, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com. Sixty-five percent of those employers indicated that they would cut back company social events, 61 percent anticipated curtailing business travel, 25 percent expected to scale back on health-care benefits and 11 percent planned to reduce wellness benefits. Other areas where companies planned to cut spending included special office perks, such as coffee, ice machines or discounted vending (34 percent), incentive trips (28 percent) and philanthropic activities (21 percent). Such perks and benefits being taken away make for a tough situation for employees. Not only are they working harder to keep their jobs, but workers have to do more for less. While some argue that it's hard to keep employees motivated in this situation, others say that they shouldn't focus on incentives, but rather think about the bigger picture. \"When perks and benefits are taken away, management often does this to allocate resources where they're needed, elsewhere. The money being saved by not buying bagels every Friday or purchasing Christmas gifts for employees may be going towards your salary,\" said Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of LaSalle Network, a staffing and recruiting firm. \"If you had to choose between taking a salary cut and not having free coffee versus being let go, most employees would likely take the former.\" Urmil \"Tracy\" Marshall, coordinator for the Office of Diversity and International Affairs at Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Georgia., agrees that it's important not to focus on what is being taken away. She said that due to budgetary constraints, furloughs were implemented at the school; but rather than get discouraged, she focused on the positive. \"I reminded myself how blessed I was to even have a job,\" Marshall said. \"We need to remind ourselves of our priorities in life, placing a greater emphasis on what we have -- not what we don't.\" Communication is key . Although it's understandable for employees to be upset, frustrated and discouraged when benefits or perks are taken away, Kevin Sheridan, founder and CEO of HR Solutions, which specializes in helping organizations to keep employees engaged, said that employees are less likely to be upset if management communicates with employees. In fact, 82 percent of employees surveyed in HR Solutions' International Normative Database say that it's important that their organization allow them to choose from a variety of benefits to meet their individual needs. The survey consisted of more than 3.3 million responses from 2,400 organizations. \"If an organization's leadership team simply decided amongst themselves which benefits would be best to cut, employees will commonly become upset and their engagement will be negatively affected,\" Sheridan says. \"Open communication is a key driver of engagement, and employees will immediately recognize the fact that they had no voice in the situation. If leadership had simply asked employees which benefits were important to them, this situation may be avoided.\" Attitude is everything . Despite having to deal temporarily with a few displaced benefits or perks, there are benefits to sticking around with your employer until those things are reinstated. \"It's a good time to remember that the perks were never the reason that you liked the job. No one gets up in the morning saying, 'I'm really excited to go to the office because there's free coffee,'\" said Paul Glen, author and management columnist. \"If people feel that the [cuts] are being made in a good-faith effort to save jobs, they will be even more loyal than before, since they believe that the company is working on their behalf -- not just for executives.\" Additionally, according to the HR Solutions survey, 37 percent of employees have thought of resigning in the last six months. Twenty-three percent said they thought about leaving because of pay; 18 percent because of a supervisor or manager; 15 percent because of career advancement; and 5 percent because of benefits. Thirty-nine percent considered it for other reasons. \"This statistic is especially important because many organizations have cut benefits over the last six months, and it illustrates that the majority of employees have not thought of resigning as a result of adjusted benefits,\" Sheridan said. \"These employees recognize the advantages of sticking around with a company, benefits or not, for advantages such as career development and compensation. Also, as soon as the economy picks up, many benefits programs will be re-evaluated; employees sticking around with these organizations will not remain without benefits forever.\" Workers should also remember that there could be consequences to abandoning a job just because you lost free coffee or a transportation reimbursement. If you're thinking about leaving your job for such reasons, make sure that your missing perks outweigh any possible career advancement or opportunities you would receive if you stayed. \"In this economy, it may be very hard to find another job, and there's no guarantee that one will have free coffee, either,\" Glen said. \"Also, at the new job, even if it is good, the employee will have less tenure and is more likely to be cut in future layoffs.\" If you've had benefits or perks taken away in recent months and need help staying motivated, remember these five tips from our experts: . 1. Get over it . \"The longer you talk about it to fellow employees, the longer you will have bad feelings, cause others to have bad feelings and be less productive yourself, which is not what will help the company be able to restore what has been taken away,\" said Aubrey Daniels, author of \"Oops! 13 Management Practices That Waste Time and Money (and What to Do Instead).\" 2. Find motivation . Sheridan encourages employees to find motivation through career planning with supervisors, interacting with co-workers or being proud of where they work. For example, an employee could volunteer to act as a sounding board for job candidates considering employment at the organization. 3. Create your own perks . Nancy Irwin, a motivational speaker and author, said employees can take turns bringing in coffee, bagels or potluck lunches to help fill the void of things that have been cut. 4. Understand what's still offered and take advantage . Darcy Eikenberg, president and chief creative officer of Coach Darcy LLC, recalls a client who didn't sign up for a course because she thought training costs had been eliminated. She realized that a co-worker was taking the course and getting it paid for from tuition reimbursement, an area that hadn't been cut. \"Do a deep dive into your company's programs, policies and even discounts because there's probably something you can use now,\" she said. 5. Focus on the solution, not the problem . Concentrate on actions today that will affect your organization's success and growth tomorrow, said Jonathan Berger, director of human resources at Direct Agents, an interactive advertising company. \"Take this time as an opportunity to offer new ideas to your managers and take an active and entrepreneurial role in helping your company overcome straining times. If you do a good job, you may be rewarded for your efforts when things improve,\" he said. \"In addition, by taking on new challenges and opportunities, you can further develop your skills and make yourself a more valuable asset to any organization.\" © CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority.","highlights":"In a survey, many businesses said they would have to make large cuts in employee benefits .\nManagement should communicate these issues to help employees adjust said, Kevin Sheridan .\nDarcy Eikenberg recommends for employees to dig deep and and find benefits still available .\nConcentrate on actions today that will help your organization succeed, said Jonathan Berger .","id":"0a3f2400ba4e5cdf4b3638ae6fb60fdfa12a2680"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed revenge on Pakistan, the United States and NATO forces for drone attacks along the Afghan border, two local journalists who attended a meeting with him told CNN. File picture taken on November 26, 2008 of Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud . Leader Hakimullah Mehsud met reporters Sunday in South Waziristan, according to the journalists, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the news media. Taliban commanders Wali-Ur Rehman and Qari Hussein, and spokesman Aazam Tariq, were at the meeting as well, the journalists said. Mehsud also vowed to avenge the recent death of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, they said. Officials think he was killed by a drone attack in August. The leader said the Taliban would not disarm as a condition for talks, and added that the militants' withdrawal from the Swat Valley was a strategic move and not a retreat or a defeat, the journalists said. South Waziristan is one of seven districts in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border. The Pakistani military is fighting Taliban militants in the country's north, and missile attacks from suspected U.S. drones have targeted militant leaders. The United States is the only country in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely. U.S. officials do not comment on suspected drone strikes, which have caused tension between Pakistan and the United States.","highlights":"Hakimullah Mehsud met reporters Sunday in South Waziristan .\nMehsud also vowed to avenge recent death of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud .\nU.S. the only country known to have ability to launch missiles from drones .","id":"bf45af9c61f872b0b7940396d77595321e1ea0b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roger Federer exclusively told CNN that the stunning shot he executed in his U.S. Open semifinal against Novak Djokovic was the best of his career. Roger Federer hailed his stunning shot against Novak Djokovic as the best of his career. The world number one produced a near-faultless performance to defeat fourth seed Djokovic in straight sets to reach his sixth consecutive U.S. Open Final at Flushing Meadows, but it was an outrageous shot to set up match point that will be most remembered. It came with Djokovic serving at 6-5 down in the third set. At love 30-0 up Federer dashed back to the baseline and hit a winner through his legs that flew over the net and past Djokovic into the corner for match point. \"I think it was the greatest shot I have ever hit in my life,\" Federer told CNN. \"I have hit some good ones over all the matches I have played, but I think this one, especially under the circumstances at love 30-up and with having chance to maybe clinch the match, was amazing. \"I got a standing ovation and people went crazy -- here in New York the crowds are fantastic -- as it was the perfect shot to hit, at exactly the right time, and I can't believe I pulled it off.\" Federer also revealed he is producing his best tennis because he is under less pressure than perhaps he was at the same time last year. At this stage in 2008 Federer had not won a grand slam but after winning the French Open and a historic 15th major at Wimbledon this time round he admitted he is more relaxed. \"I have a little bit less pressure to prove myself after reaching the 15 Grand Slams everyone was talking about and I also I won in Paris,\" he added. \"Getting through the pregnancy with my wife Mirka and having two beautiful daughters is also something that relaxes you for sure. But at the same time when you walk out on center court there will always be a certain type of pressure which will be there for the rest of my career. \"I just have to make sure I handle it correctly. I always play my best tennis towards the end of a tournament and I am happy that it is continued in this match after everything that has already happened this year.\" Federer will play Argentina's Juan Del Potro who reached his first grand slam final after he crushed Rafael Nadal in the other semifinal. The sixth seed blew Nadal away at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, taking two hours and 20 minutes to take a comprehensive 6-2 6-2 6-2 victory.","highlights":"Roger Federer hailed a shot against Novak Djokovic as the best of his career .\nThe Swiss world number one hit a stunning baseline winner through his legs .\nFederer is going in search of his sixth U.S. Open title at Flushing Meadows .\nArgentina's Juan Del Potro faces Federer in what will be a first grand slam final .","id":"407c5f6621bd0285f922a09b36914aaff0f999ca"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Fantastique France continues to make its heritage and culture easier for travelers to appreciate. Being up-to-date on changes for 2009 will help your visit go smoothly. The Eiffel Tower is planning to offer online reservations, allowing visitors to book an entry time and avoid a long wait. Due to a smoking ban, you'll enjoy fresh air in bars, cafes and restaurants throughout France. The smokers have scurried outdoors to sidewalk tables; many of those seats now come with space heaters in winter. If you're traveling in France by railpass, it's increasingly important to book trips on the TGV bullet trains in advance, as there's a strict limit on the number of seats allowed for railpass holders. And with high gas prices -- and the recognition among Europeans that rail travel is about as green as you can go -- trains are more crowded than ever. In Paris, the transit system has introduced a chip-card called the Passe Navigo Decouverte, but for most tourists, the \"carnets\" (packs of 10 individual tickets) are still the better deal. The new Passe costs about $27, runs strictly from Monday through Sunday, and requires a photo, which means it's not shareable. In contrast, a 10-ticket pack costs about $14, is shareable, and has no expiration date. Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral has a new modest-dress rule. The \"no shorts\" code is not strictly enforced, but inside you're expected to be quiet and respectful. A new online reservation system for the Eiffel Tower may debut in 2009, allowing Tour-Eiffel-ists to book a half-hour time slot and avoid the notorious lines. At the Army Museum nearby, the section on 19th-century French military history (\"Revolution to Napoleon III\") should reopen in the spring. The museum also has a new Charles de Gaulle wing, offering a 25-minute film, plus a high-tech display of photos tracing the life of France's towering 20th-century figure. Paris' market streets delight many visitors. While rue Cler (near the Eiffel Tower) has become quite touristy, rue des Martyrs (at the foot of Montmartre) is edgier and a great way to connect with workaday Paris. If you'd like to \"do the Time Warp again\" while ducking airborne \"French\" toast, you can enjoy the cult movie \"Rocky Horror Picture Show\" with a Parisian crowd Friday and Saturday nights in the Latin Quarter (www.rocky.fr). Travel Snapshots: Paris . The Palace of Versailles is undergoing extensive renovation so expect some closures. Repair projects may close its Opera House through June; the Petit Trianon may be closed or only partially open. Busy sightseers can save both time and money by visiting Versailles with the Paris Museum Pass. The pass covers most major sights in and around Paris, pays for itself in about three entries, and allows you to walk right by the long ticket-buying lines at places like the Louvre, the Orsay Museum, the Sainte-Chapelle chapel, and Versailles (www.parismuseumpass.com). However, everyone needs to wait through any bag-check security line. The charming city of Reims, rebuilt after World War I when Art Deco was the prevailing style, is now served by a speedy TGV train, making it an easy day trip from Paris. Reims is known for its champagne tours (Mumm, Taittinger and Martel), giant cathedral (with Chagall stained glass), and fascinating Museum of the Surrender (General Eisenhower's final World War II headquarters with stirring artifacts and the document of surrender that was signed by German generals right there). This year is the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy; prepare for big crowds -- especially from June 1 to 10. Also in Normandy, a museum has opened at Dead Man's Corner, a critical crossroads between Omaha and Utah beaches that saw five torrid days of fighting in 1944. This museum, south of Ste. Mere-Eglise, is a hit with enthusiasts as every display case shows incredible attention to detail. It also has a remarkable selection of D-Day paraphernalia for sale -- both original items and replicas. In Chinon (in the Loire Valley) the massive renovation project has nearly been completed at the medieval castle where Joan of Arc implored French King Charles VII to \"act like a man and fight the English.\" The castle is now connected to the old town by a snazzy glass elevator. Farther west, at Mont St. Michel, the first stage is under way of an ambitious project to make it a true island once again. On the French Riviera, Nice has dropped the entry fee for all city museums. Basically every sight in town -- except the Chagall Museum and the Russian Cathedral -- is free to enter. That's nice. Antibes, just a short hop away by train, has finally reopened its prized Picasso Museum after extensive renovation. No matter what changes, visiting France is always a pleasure, which is why it remains the No. 1 tourist destination in Europe. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c\/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020. Copyright 2009 RICK STEVES, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows .\nHis TV series, \"Rick Steves' Europe,\" airs on PBS stations .\nSteves' company, Europe Through the Back Door, conducts European tours .","id":"9ea89d7694e89fa59613fdca8b6b165dc4d3f3ea"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- When Eileen Mather lands in Mexico City on her way to Tapachula, Mexico, she learns her airline ticket isn't valid. Her airline forces her to buy a new one. Mather asks her online agency, Cheapoair.com, for a refund, but more than six months later, she's still out $879. Is she also out of options? Q: I need your help getting my money back for a plane ticket I had to pay for twice. Here's my story: I bought tickets online through Cheapoair.com from Philadelphia to Tapachula, Mexico. When we arrived in Mexico City, Aviacsa Airlines representatives told us that Cheapoair hadn't paid for the last leg of our trip. So I had to buy new tickets. Two members of our group also had to pay again. After I returned home, I faxed all of my documents to a supervisor at Cheapoair. That was six months ago. I've called her repeatedly and left messages, but no one has contacted me, and I'm out $879. Is there anything you can do? -- Eileen Mather, Glenside, Pennsylvania . A: You shouldn't have to pay twice for your airline tickets. But you also shouldn't be too quick to blame Cheapoair for the mix-up. A lot can go wrong when you're dealing with a flight schedule that involves multiple carriers. Reservations can be lost, paper tickets and boarding passes can be misread. And, of course, there's the language issue. When you're traveling internationally, something can easily get lost in the translation. Cheapoair may -- or may not -- have been responsible for your non-working tickets. But as your online travel agent, it was responsible for helping you fix it. That's why you buy from an intermediary and pay a booking fee: so there's someone to turn to when something goes wrong. The online agency shouldn't have kept you in a holding pattern for more than six months. Cheapoair's \"Golden Guarantee\" promises \"to provide all our customers with 24\/7 toll-free number support because we understand the importance of critical last-minute client\/traveler needs and requirements for changes to trips.\" I guess offering a toll-free number around the clock doesn't necessarily mean your questions will be answered quickly, but you can't blame me if I'm left with that impression. You could have avoided a lengthy dance with Cheapoair by taking this up with Aviacsa either when you were flying to Tapachula or returning home. If you had arrived at the airport a half-hour earlier, you might have been able to speak with a supervisor and straightened this out. Once you were home, and were running into a brick wall with Cheapoair's supervisor, I would have tried knocking on the front door again. Normally, starting a new query through an online form means your complaint will get reviewed again and may be assigned a new case number. A phone call doesn't work the same way. After you hang up, your case is basically closed. I contacted Cheapoair on your behalf. It apologized for the delay and said it contacted Aviasca, but couldn't determine why your ticket wasn't accepted. An airline representative told Cheapoair it would have to speak to the agent who was working at the ticket counter when you checked in, which was impossible. Cheapoair refunded the $879 you spent on your second ticket. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Customer booked an international flight through Cheapoair.com .\nTicket for one leg of her flight was not accepted, and she had to buy a new one .\nThe online agency did not know why her ticket was rejected .\nTroubleshooter contacted Cheapoair, and it refunded the customer's money .","id":"0032d07e91b8ce3d5f8ac313d799341df7556234"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Of all things, it was surfing that first led Sandow Birk to Islam. Illustration of Sura (chapter) 57 of the Quran is described by Sandow Birk as a triptych. The southern California artist rode the waves in Indonesia, India and Morocco, and on dry land, his curiosity piqued about the religion practiced there. He visited mosques and eventually, acquired a translated copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book. Then came the chilling attacks of September 11, 2001, and Birk realized that Americans knew very little about the teachings of the Quran. He embarked on a project to paint all 114 suras (chapters) -- but in a way that no one had done before. The 46-year-old painter re-imagined God's 7th-century revelation to the Prophet Mohammed in contemporary American context. Birk began transcribing the chapters, relating each to the things he knew best. So far, he has completed 60 chapters. \"American Quran\" is currently on display in two California galleries. \"The simple goal was to take text and make it more familiar,\" he said. So, the Quran's opening chapter, seven verses asking for God's guidance, often found displayed in Muslim homes, is bordered with arabesqing shapes that on closer inspection reveal objects essential to American home life -- spatulas, forks, toothbrushes, glasses, ladders, egg beaters, flip-flops. To illustrate a verse that speaks metaphorically about the thundering hooves of camels, Birk painted a stock-car race. How would Americans, after all, relate to camels? The red, white and blue hues of a political convention accompany verses on hypocrisy. Other scenes unfold in offices, suburban lawns and sushi bars. They show funerals, weddings and holidays. And then there is sura 44, called ad-dukhan (smoke). \"Therefore, watch for the day when the sky brings a profound smoke. It will envelope the people; this is a painful retribution,\" chapter 44 says. Birk pushes buttons with his interpretation: a diptych of a Manhattan street scene, smoke billowing from the World Trade Center. \"I knew I would have to bring up the Trade Center. Otherwise this project would have been disingenuous,\" Birk said. \"It was the crux of understanding of Islam for Americans.\" And the impetus for Birk's undertaking. San Francisco gallery owner Catharine Clark knew the Sura 44 panel had the greatest potential to offend. She said she worried about reaction to the piece, but said there was nothing malicious about Birk's intent. \"It was a tough piece,\" she said. \"But he's not intending to upset anyone.\" Birk says he is not a deeply religious person. He has, however, established a reputation for tackling projects of epic proportions, including work that explored the Iraq war and Dante's \"Divine Comedy.\" Clark said some Christian blogs have accused the artist of being an apologist for Islam. And Muslim reaction to his latest work has been mixed. Half of \"American Quran\" is at Clark's gallery. The other 30 chapters are on display at the Koplin del Rio gallery in Culver City. But four miles down Washington Boulevard, the reviews are not good. Usman Madha, a spokesman for the King Fahad Mosque, the largest in Los Angeles County, said he had no plans to see Birk's work. Madha could not even get past the title. \"American Quran is very misleading,\" Madha said. \"There is no such thing as an American Quran just as there is no European Quran or Asian Quran or Middle Eastern Quran. There is only one Quran. \"I am disheartened,\" he continued. \"It gives a wrong impression.\" Madha has heard about Birk's vivid imagery. He said he understood the artist had good intentions and he respected freedom of expression. But he could not accept the idea of an illustrated Quran. That, he said, goes against the grain of of his religion. \"In Islam, we don't have pictures. That becomes idolizing. And that is what we avoid,\" Madha said. Birk, however, does not plan to abandon his personal Quran project. He hopes to complete all 114 chapters by 2011, painstakingly transcribing by hand each chapter taken from a 1861 English translation of the Quran and painting with gouache on 16-by-24-inch paper. He said his panels are not literal illustrations but highly personal meditations on the messages in the Quran. It was important to him that Americans recognized that Islamic scripture was no more strange, poetic, violent or beautiful than any other religious text; that it was telling similar stories that are in the Bible. That's a message people expect from scholars, peacemakers, even theologians but not necessarily from a California surfer dude.","highlights":"Surfing waves in Indonesia, India, Morocco inspired Sandow Birk's interest in Islam .\n9\/11 attacks led Birk to realize Americans knew very little about the Quran .\nHe embarked on a project to paint all 114 suras (chapters)\nSo far, he has completed 60 chapters of \"American Quran\"","id":"9650355a55ce0838b08a9a62501168949d40ff74"} -{"article":"(Budget Travel) -- When you have beach on the brain, who wants to bother with a layover? Budget Travel has prepared the ultimate insider's guide to seven resort towns south of the border that are just one quick flight away. The Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Vallarta has attracted artists in recent years with its natural beauty and well-preserved colonial architecture. MAZATL\u00c1N . As resort towns go, Mazatl\u00e1n is one of Mexico's prettiest, with an assortment of 19th-century neoclassical, republican, and French baroque buildings in pastel colors. The best place for wandering is Old Mazatl\u00e1n, particularly the tree-lined streets around Plazuela Machado, where guitarists and singers roam from one sidewalk caf\u00e9 to the next. Eat Sample traditional Sinaloan dishes at Pedro & Lola, a restaurant with seating on the square that's known for its Mexican Molcajete, grilled beef served with cactus and onions (011-52\/669-982-2589, restaurantpedroylola.com, beef $14). Drink On nearby Belisario Dom\u00ednguez street, locals gather nightly for tequila and Pacifico beers at La Tertulia, a bullfighting-themed bar that's owned and staffed by actual bullfighters and has posters, costumes, and pictures of the sport's greats all over the walls (no phone, tequila from $2). BudgetTravel.com: Find a nonstop route to Mexico . Stay Among the hotel options in the area, the 72-room Best Western Posada Freeman Express has the most character -- it's in a renovated 1940s high-rise and has a rooftop pool with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean (011-52\/669-985-6060, book.bestwestern.com, from $80). Detour To lose the crowds, jump on one of Aqua Sport Center's boats to tiny, uninhabited Deer Island just off the coast. It has a white-sand beach, trails for hiking, and clear waters that are perfect for snorkeling (011-52\/669-913-3333, $12). IXTAPA-ZIHUATANEJO . The twin cities of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo are separated by just three miles, but despite that proximity, they don't have a lot in common. Zihuatanejo, which dates back to precolonial times, is a relaxed fishing town set on an enclosed bay with not a single high-rise hotel. Stay The 30 rooms at the Hotel Brisas del Mar are accented with Mexican tiles and have hammocks on the balconies (011-52\/755-554-2142, hotelbrisasdelmar.com, from $102). Ixtapa, in contrast, was built 36 years ago as part of a government effort to spur tourism development on the coast. Today, it has a gleaming strip of beachfront hotels, manicured lawns, and a wide range of restaurants, from local spots to large Mexican chains. Eat El Arbolito serves fresh seafood dishes, such as camaronillas -- shrimp and cheese in a fried tortilla -- and creative cocktails like the Black Banana, a mixture of Kahlua, coconut liqueur, and orange juice (011-52\/755-553-3700, entr\u00e9es from $8). Drink At Barcel\u00f3 Ixtapa Beach Hotel's Sanca Bar, bands play salsa and Cuban music on weekend nights (011-52\/755-555-2000, barcelo.com, beer from $3). Do Ixtapa has no shortage of beaches, but if you're in the mood for something more active, rent a bike at Xplora Adventours (011-52\/755-553-3584, $3 per half hour) and take a ride through Parque Ecol\u00f3gico Aztl\u00e1n, a forest teeming with native birds, turtles, and iguanas. BudgetTravel.com: Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo photos . ACAPULCO . Acapulco got its glamorous start in the 1950s and '60s, when celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Judy Garland turned the exclusive hotels on the rugged cliffs over the bay into their playground. Drink One of these spots, the 78-year-old Hotel el Mirador, is the place to go for a quintessential Acapulco experience: Watching cliff divers plunge 130 feet into the bay while having a watermelon daiquiri on the patio at the on-site La Perla bar (011-52\/744-483-1155, hotelelmiradoracapulco.com.mx, $24 drink minimum). For another side of the city's nightlife, find a dance partner and head to Ninas, a salsa and merengue club where bands play nightly (011-52\/744-484-2400, cover $24, with open bar). Stay Close to the city center, One Hotel Acapulco Costera has 126 rooms with simple, Scandinavian-style furniture (800\/343-7821, onehotels.com, from $75). Eat The open-air restaurant El Zorrito offers a wide range of regional Guerrero dishes, such as posole, hominy stew with chicken (011-52\/744-485-3735, posole $6). Detour Eight miles south of downtown Acapulco is one of the most secluded beaches around: Playa Majahua. Swim in the bay and then try the ceviche at one of the tiny shacks set up near the sand. BudgetTravel.com: Acapulco photos . PUERTO VALLARTA . Puerto Vallarta's art scene doesn't yet rival that of San Miguel de Allende, but it's well on its way: Painters, sculptors, and other artisans have moved to the Pacific-coast resort town in recent years, drawn by the natural beauty of the mountainous coast and the well-preserved colonial architecture in Old Vallarta. Shop The old town has a number of galleries and boutiques, such as Joyer\u00eda Yoler, which sells handcrafted silver jewelry (011-52\/322-222-8713), and Peyote People, a purveyor of Huichol Indian art (011-52\/322-222-2302). See Large bronze sculptures by Mexican artists adorn the city's Malec\u00f3n, the oceanfront boardwalk lined with dozens of restaurants and shops. Stay One of the best hotel options in the area is the Buenaventura Grand Hotel & Spa, which has more than 200 newly renovated rooms -- some with beamed ceilings -- and a pool overlooking Playa Camarones (011-52\/322-226-7000, hotelbuenaventura.com.mx, from $120). Eat Dine on a patio overlooking the beach at nearby El Barracuda, which specializes in seafood dishes like the Dynamite: shrimp, octopus, and tilapia served over rice (011-52\/322-222-4034, entr\u00e9es from $13). LOS CABOS . Wedged between granite peaks and the water on the tip of Baja California, Los Cabos has one of Mexico's most dramatic settings. But a less-than-thrilling 20-mile-long tourist corridor connects the towns of San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, making it all the more appealing to choose a town and stick with it. See In San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo's downtown arts district, galleries like Old Town show works by Mexican artists (011-52\/624-142-3662, oldtowngallery.net). Stay El Encanto Inn & Suites is decorated in Spanish-colonial style, with chandeliers in the entryway and a fountain in the courtyard -- plus, the 28 rooms all have balconies (011-52\/624-142-0388, elencantoinn.com, from $95). Eat Set in a hacienda in Cabo San Lucas, La Fonda serves dishes that chef Christopher Chong's grandmother used to cook, like empanadas with a red chili sauce (011-52\/624-143-6926, empanadas $11). Do At Playa M\u00e9dano in Cabo San Lucas, Andromeda Divers y Mas offers water sports such as sea kayaking and parasailing (011-52\/624-143-2765, scubadivecabo.com). Detour An hour's drive north of Los Cabos, eclectic shops and galleries have opened in artist-friendly Todos Santos, including the bookstore El Tecolote Libros (011-52\/612-145-0295) and Galer\u00eda de Todos Santos (011-52\/612-145-0500, galeriadetodossantos.com). BudgetTravel.com: Los Cabos photos . CANC\u00daN . Canc\u00fan may never shake its reputation as a rowdy college-party destination, but outside of spring-break season, the city is a surprisingly subdued place. The peninsula is where most of the major resorts are located, so if you're looking for character, it's best to head downtown on the mainland. Stay The boutique hotel Sol y Luna has 11 brightly painted rooms, mosaic-trimmed baths, and balconies overlooking Parque de las Palapas (011-52\/998-887-5579, solylunahotel.com, from $48). Eat The park is a popular gathering spot for musicians in the evenings; it's also where you'll find one of the city's best restaurants, Labn\u00e1, which serves Yucatecan dishes such as pibil, achiote-flavored pork wrapped in a banana leaf (011-52\/998-892-3056, labna.com, pibil $9). Drink The aptly named Bling Resto Bar, on the resort peninsula, is just what it sounds like; lounge on the patio with a grape mojito and watch the sun go down over the lagoon (011-52\/998-840-6014, blingcancun.com, drinks from $5). Detour Xcaret, a sprawling ecological and adventure theme park about 45 minutes south of Canc\u00fan, is an ideal spot for families. Activities here range from swimming through caves in an underground river to walking through a butterfly pavilion and watching monkeys, manatees, pumas, and jaguars in their natural environments (011-52\/998-883-0470, www.xcaret.com, from $69). BudgetTravel.com: Cancun photos . COZUMEL . Surrounded by vibrantly colored coral reefs, the island of Cozumel, 11 miles off the Yucat\u00e1n coast, has been attracting divers since Jacques Cousteau popularized it in the 1960s. The most central place to be situated for day trips around the island is the town of San Miguel, which has a number of reasonably priced guesthouses. Stay Las Anclas gets high marks not only for its seven bi-level suites and beautiful garden, but also for owners Pedro and Eyal, who are eager to offer up restaurant recommendations (011-52\/987-872-5476, lasanclas.com, from $95). Eat A local favorite is La Candela, which serves hearty dishes like chicken stuffed with ham and cheese, and jamaica, a cold tea made from hibiscus flowers (011-52\/987-878-4471, chicken $8). Do The tour operator Deep Blue arranges dive trips to some of the hardest-to-reach reefs around the island (011-52\/987-872-5653, deepbluecozumel.com, from $68). Or, you can take a boat ride through the mangroves in the Faro Celarain Eco Park for an adventure of a different sort: crocodile spotting (011-52\/987-872-1680, cozumelparks.com, $11). Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2008 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved. Note: This story was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.","highlights":"The island of Cozumel, 11 miles off the Yucat\u00e1n coast, is a diving hot spot .\nPuerto Vallarta has attracted painters, sculptors and other artisans in recent years .\nLos Cabos, on the tip of Baja California, has one of Mexico's most dramatic settings .","id":"54c0e752966996569cfd4a89926f6f43717032dd"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Steve Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and publishes The Washington Note, a popular political blog. Steve Clemons says the Nobel panel correctly decided Obama's approach to diplomacy holds great promise. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cynics will say that Oslo was jealous that Copenhagen, Denmark, scored a visit from President Obama, and giving him a Nobel was the only way to get him to Norway. But the Nobel Committee's decision to make Obama the only sitting U.S. president since Woodrow Wilson to receive the Nobel Peace Prize shows the committee's clear-headed assessment that Obama's \"unclenched fist\" approach to dealing with the world's most thuggish leaders has had a constructive, systemic impact on the world's expectations of itself. Obama has helped citizens all around the world -- including in the United States -- to want a world beyond the mess we have today in the Middle East and South Asia. They want a world where America is benign and positive, and where other leaders help in supporting the struggles of their people for better lives rather than securing themselves through crude power. Obama has found a way in this interconnected world of cell phones, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking to reach a majority of the world's citizens with his message of hope for a better world. He speaks past the dictators to regular people and has, on the whole, raised global political expectations about everything from climate change to nuclear nonproliferation in ways that no one in history has done before. Americans tend to look at everything from a U.S.-centric lens, and many woke up this morning shocked that Obama, who just saw a lot of his political capital wasted on trying to secure the 2016 Olympics for his hometown of Chicago, has gotten a fresh injection of sizzle to fill the Obama bubble. The world has been mesmerized by Obama since he started to run for the presidency. The battle between Hillary Clinton and Obama for the Democratic nomination did more to educate the rest of the world about real political choice -- and about a system in which no candidates had an automatic lock on victory -- than any USAID program could have achieved. Obama's decision to make the ulcerous Israeli-Palestinian negotiations one of the first foreign policy challenges of his administration, rather than the last, defied most seasoned analysts' expectations. His message to Iran's citizens, marking the Persian new year holiday of Nowruz, and his powerful and captivating speech in Cairo, Egypt, communicated to Muslims all around the world that their lives and their faith and their expectations for a better world were vital and as valid as any others. From his perch in the White House, Barack Obama affirmed the humanity of Muslims and told them that America does value Muslim lives. Obama's posture and rhetoric have reversed the collapse of hope and trust that the world's citizens had in America and stopped the degradation of America's image during the tenure of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Should a U.S. president get the Nobel Peace Prize if he's about to send more U.S. troops, armed drones, bombs, tanks and other military hardware into the war-ripped zones in Afghanistan? Or should Obama get the prize if he hasn't even succeeded in getting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations going? Or if he hasn't gotten Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions and to re-enter the international system on constructive terms? The answer is yes. I think that given how the odds were already so stacked against Obama on the global economic and security fronts, one can only be amazed at what this unlikely and fascinating president has done with \"optics.\" The night before Obama's inauguration, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel accepted my congratulations and responded, \"It's going to be tough, and right now we can only change the optics,\" meaning that political perceptions and appearances could be changed more quickly than hard realities. What is brilliant about Obama and why he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize is that he is a global leader who clearly saw the gains that could be made in changing \"the optics\" of the global order, upgrading the level of respect between the United States and other nations, making a point of listening to other leaders. Obama saw that before the world could move to a more stable and better global equilibrium, it had to believe it could -- and this is what Obama has done in ways that no other leader has in memory. Obama will still make mistakes. Leaders will still wrestle with him. Hard choices and the gravity of war will still generate challenges for Obama's leadership. But the Nobel Prize Committee has shrewdly given a key down payment for a kind of leadership it wants to see from the U.S. for many more years and given Obama another tool to help craft a new global social contract between the United States and other responsible stakeholders in the international system. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Steve Clemons.","highlights":"Steve Clemons: Many Americans shocked that Obama won Peace Prize .\nHe says the rest of the world sees how Obama has changed international tone .\nHe says Obama's rhetoric has \"reversed the collapse of hope\" in the world .","id":"d36c9e8657257a8e567ce10ae810d381939da8ff"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The call came over the radio. \"Shots fired.\" And then, even worse: \"Officer down.\" Billy Rhoads, chief of the Fort Hood Fire Department, grabbed a radio and donned his flak jacket. He jumped into his SUV and tore down the road. A dozen or so blocks away, at the Soldier Readiness Center, a gunman had opened fire on soldiers. Rhoads stepped from his truck. His department's motto is \"Protecting those who protect us.\" He hoped he was not too late for that. The scene was chaotic. Wounded and dead soldiers were everywhere. \"I was listening to people hollering for help, and I was trying to get in there to see what we had,\" Rhoads recalled three days after the November 5 attack. \"I assumed that we would have maybe several victims. I had no idea, I just could not fathom what we were going to encounter.\" Amid all the army uniforms, one dark blue uniform stuck out. It was Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who, officials say, shot the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, to end the rampage. She suffered three gunshot wounds. \"I broke and ran over to her,\" Rhoads said. \"I got over to her and began trying to talk to her.\" Rhoads and Munley had worked closely in the past. He considers her a friend. Army medics had fashioned a makeshift tourniquet on her leg. He bent down to comfort her. She was extremely weak and unable to speak loudly. \"I just kept reminding her of her daughter and that she needed to stay with us for the baby's sake,\" he said. \"She's a very tough cookie.\" Munley, 34, had served in the Army herself before becoming a police officer at Fort Hood. Her husband is a staff sergeant in the Army, and their daughter is 3 years old. Munley's neighbors have said she is so tough, she stopped burglars from entering her house last year. Said Rhoads of Munley: \"The old saying that dynamite comes in small packages is very true.\" Emergency personnel were flooding the scene, and helicopters were en route to evacuate the injured. Rhoads, who began as a volunteer firefighter 26 years ago when he was just a teen, took over the scene as incident commander. But first, he paused for a quick prayer. \"I just asked the Lord to be with me, to give me the strength and the courage I need to do my job wisely and keep my people safe.\" Even as the first responders worked on the dozens of wounded soldiers, they weren't certain whether there were other shooters on the post. \"The thought's always there on your mind that there could be another suspect in the area,\" Rhoads said. As for Hasan, the fire chief says that discussing the shooting suspect is too emotional. \"I saw the suspect from a distance, but I never got a look at him.\" Rhoads' prayers remain with the soldiers he tries to keep safe. \"It's very emotional for everybody when we lose our soldiers. But when we lose them here at home like this, it takes it to a different level.\" He says the department has arranged for counselors to be available for the firefighters as they process all they have endured. They've received phone and text messages from fire and police departments all across the country, offering support and prayer. But the main thing his firefighters have relied on, he says, is each other. \"Afterward, everyone started to console each other and talk to each other. It's a brotherhood.\"","highlights":"Fire chief came across officer, told her she \"needed to stay\" for her daughter .\nChief says people were hollering all over the scene: \"I had no idea\"\nBilly Rhoads began firefighting when he was a teen .","id":"88eb6be1c3ea758ba1eb375dec3b36775df1989e"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A key congressional committee opened its investigation Thursday into the November 5 Fort Hood shootings with a pledge to find out if authorities failed to \"connect the dots\" and could have prevented the attack. The head of the committee promised the inquiry would not interfere with a separate investigation into the shootings being conducted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder. \"Their investigation looks backward and is punitive. Ours looks forward and is preventive,\" said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, . Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, is accused of opening fire at a military processing center at Fort Hood Army Post, killing 13 people. Dozens of others were wounded. Hasan was shot and paralyzed during the attack and remains in a military hospital. Lieberman said the committee will carry out its investigation \"with respect for the thousands of Muslim-Americans who are serving in the American military with honor and the millions of other patriotic, law-abiding Muslims who live in our country.\" But, he added, \"we do no favor to all our fellow Americans who are Muslim by ignoring real evidence that a small number of their community have, in fact, become violent Islamists and extremists.\" Lieberman said the committee's investigation will focus on whether concerns raised by Hasan's colleagues about his \"mental stability and political extremism\" were dealt with appropriately by senior Army officials. Among other things, a memo reportedly written two years ago by Hasan's supervisor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center says Hasan demonstrated \"a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism\" during his residency at the hospital. CNN could not corroborate the authenticity of the memo, which was obtained by National Public Radio. Lieberman also said the committee will examine a lack of response by federal authorities after uncovering an exchange of e-mails between Hasan and a radical cleric accused of having ties to al Qaeda. The FBI has said it was aware of communication between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric who has promoted jihad against the United States and other Western countries. But investigators determined that those contacts were \"consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan.\" Also, Lieberman noted, the committee will look into whether information on Hasan gathered by a joint terrorism task force was shared with officials in the Army, the Defense Department or elsewhere. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the committee, said Hasan's case \"raises questions about whether or not restrictive rules have a chilling effect on the legitimate dissemination of information, making it too difficult to connect the dots that would have allowed a clear picture of the threat to emerge.\" But a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN that when Hasan first came to the attention of investigators because of his communications with al-Awlaki, officials looked at his military personnel file and nothing was found that raised suspicion. None of the items that have been reported since the shootings -- including the reported memo from his Walter Reed supervisor or a Power Point presentation arguing that Muslims in the Army should be given conscientious objector status -- were part of the file, the official said, but it was noted that Hasan had done research about Muslims in the military. Thursday's hearing included testimony from former Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane, Rand Corp. consultant Brian Jenkins and New York City Police Department intelligence analyst Mitchell Silber. \"At a glance, Maj. Hasan's rampage at Fort Hood looks a lot like what used to be called 'going postal,' \" Jenkins said. It was \"a deepening sense of personal grievance culminating in a homicidal rampage directed against co-workers -- in this case, fellow soldiers. \"For Hasan, 'going jihad' reflects the channeling of obvious personality problems into a deadly fanaticism,\" he said. The committee launched its investigation only hours before Gates announced a 45-day review of Pentagon policies to see if the Defense Department has fallen short in identifying service members \"who could potentially pose credible threats to others.\" The review will be led by former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Adm. Vern Clark, a former Navy chief. At the same time, the Army will conduct its own, more detailed review of its policies and whether they could have prevented the shootings at the post in Texas. And those will be followed by a four- to six-month study of \"systemic institutional shortcomings\" conducted by each of the armed services. The Fort Hood shooting has \"broader implications for society ... particularly in these lone wolf cases, which are the hardest,\" Lieberman said. \"When people hear people saying things that seem extreme ... respecting First Amendment rights, you've got to begin to reach out and see if you can stop somebody before they do something very harmful.\"","highlights":"Incident has \"broader implications for society,\" Sen. Joe Lieberman says .\nCongressional committee opens inquiry into massacre at Fort Hood, Texas .\nLieberman: Feds' lack of response after uncovering e-mails will be examined .\nAlso to be investigated is whether task force information about suspect was shared .","id":"d821af39d24c9b9cc340fa10609fe75e43ceffb5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Barack Obama was elected U.S. president he probably did not realize it would give him a chance to pick up tips on his backswing from the world's elite golfers. U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden make use of the White House putting green. Obama is the honorary chairman for the 2009 Presidents Cup which will be contested at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco this week where the top U.S. golfers take on the best players from around the world outside of Europe. As a golf enthusiast, and keen amateur player, the president will get the chance to pick the brains of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh on how to improve his game. But he is not the first to take to the greens while occupying the Oval Office with 15 of the last 18 U.S. presidents said to have played the sport while in power. Living Golf's gallery of presidential putters. \u00bb . Dwight Eisenhower is recognized as probably the most dedicated to the sport, and was often criticized by Democrats for spending too much time on the golf course. Eisenhower's solution? In 1954 he had a putting green installed at the White House a short stroll from the Oval Office to enable him to practice while at work which was regularly used by subsequent presidents and still exists to this day. The former five-star general was also a member at the Augusta National Golf Club where a overhanging tree on the 17th hole proved such an obstacle to the leader that it was dubbed the \"Eisenhower Tree.\" There is little doubt though that John F. Kennedy was the most talented presidential golfer, although he was reluctant to associate with the game. During his run for president in 1960, Kennedy did everything possible to keep his fellow Americans from discovering that he not only loved the game but was nearly as good as a club professional and was said to have had a beautiful natural swing. Throughout Eisenhower's two terms Kennedy had portrayed him as someone who cared more about lowering his handicap than improving the lives of ordinary Americans, so information about his passion for the links only really came out later. Lyndon Johnson is at the opposite end of the spectrum on the talent stakes and is reported to have taken up to 400 swings to get round an 18-hole course while Gerald Ford, who served as honorary chairman for the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, had a reputation for accidentally hitting the ball at spectators. In terms of sheer number of matches though even Eisenhower could not match Woodrow Wilson who was said to have played almost every day, apart from on Sundays, and even had golf balls painted red so he could play in the snow. Ronald Reagan was only an occasional player but Bill Clinton was renowned for an entourage featuring Secret Service agents, a police sniper, a man carrying U.S. nuclear codes, various aides and someone with a secure telephone so he could speak to world leaders on a typical round. George W. Bush still plays regularly with his father, and fellow former president, but Bush junior's contribution to golf will forever be immortalized in a short press briefing he gave from the course after being questioned on violence in the Middle East. \"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you.\" Bush said before he paused and told reporters: \"Now watch this drive!\" Obama therefore follows a healthy tradition of golfing presidents and he can relax safe in the knowledge that even if he cannot solve the world's problems while in the White House at least he can improve his short game.","highlights":"President Barack Obama is honorary chairman for the 2009 Presidents Cup .\nObama follows a tradition of recent U.S. presidents who are keen golfers .\nDwight Eisenhower had a putting green installed at the White House in 1954 .\nGeorge W. Bush and his father George H.W. are both enthusiastic golfers .","id":"a14018993a148b6c6f64f725eb1e5cbdb76c8ea5"} -{"article":"(Southern Living) -- For a heady dose of holiday spirit, dive into Opryland. Fifteen miles of green garland and 10 miles of hand-tied red ribbon festoon the property. I've heard that you can see the Great Wall of China from outer space. At Christmastime, I bet you can also see Gaylord Opryland. It sparkles with megawatts of lights, fun, and merriment. But you don't have to be shot into orbit to enjoy the view of this Nashville treasure. Make the easy drive to Middle Tennessee and delight in this perfectly luminous getaway. The one must-see . Many holiday activities raise your spirits; one really promises to chill you out. Most of you have read or seen \"How the Grinch Stole Christmas!\" But you haven't had the ultimate Dr. Seuss experience until you meet the green grump carved in ice. Put on a parka -- loaned to you upon admission -- and enter ICE!, a frozen world located in the Gaslight Theater. The attraction will be back next year, but this is the last time you'll see the Grinch and Who-ville, carved by Chinese craftsmen from huge, brilliantly hued blocks of ice. There are even frigid sliding boards to try. Afterward, leave the 18-degree area, and grab a cup of hot chocolate in the adjoining gift shop. Are you smiling yet? Special happenings . It's the 25th year the resort has provided a Santa's bagful of activities and entertainment. The decorations begin going up in July for A Country Christmas, and the festivities run from mid-November until the holidays end. During that time, enjoy delights such as carriage rides, photos with Santa, the Hall of Trees, and the Treasures for the Holidays Craft Show. Just admiring all the lights, poinsettias, and \"faux-piaries\" -- animal-shaped topiaries -- will get your inner Rudolph aglow. Southern Living: Tips from a repeat Oprylander . The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes high-kick from the Grand Ole Opry stage. Wear your Christmas sweater and jeans while you watch them -- everyone else does. For a memento of your visit, add glitter and sparkle to a fragrant miniature holiday house at Gingerbread Corner. Special events also include Louise Mandrell's \"Joy to the World Christmas Dinner & Show,\" as well as a Winter Wonderland that includes a train ride for little ones. Near the hotel, board the General Jackson showboat for a dinner cruise on the Cumberland River. SouthernLiving.com: Hot Spots for the New Year . Dining and shopping . You have many options for meals in the huge Gaylord Opryland complex. For a fine-dining experience, try Old Hickory Steakhouse. Indulge in a rich lobster bisque, perfectly cooked filet mignon, and cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e. Water's Edge Marketplace Buffet, located in the Delta Atrium, is a more casual venue. Graze among 60 different stations, filled with everything from pasta and salads to meats and vegetables. You can also grab a quick meal at Stax Burgers or Paisano's Pizzaria & Vino, both on the Delta Island. For a nighttime dose of high-octane fun, go directly to the new Fuse nightclub, with rave reviews and visiting luminaries such as Kid Rock and Kim Kardashian. If you need festive duds, check out the shopping at Gaylord Opryland, such as Amelia's or Savannah's, both featuring dressy and casual women's clothing. Opry Mills, the outlet mall just down the road, offers some of the best shopping opportunities, with winning Tennessee stores such as The Gibson Showcase and The Apple Barn Cider Bar & General Store. The Disney Store Outlet and Build-A-Bear Workshop also mesmerize, while standbys such as Nike, Gap Outlet, and Tommy Hilfiger Company Store are perennial favorites. The on-premises Rainforest Cafe or Johnny Rockets are ever popular refueling spots. If you go ... Gaylord Opryland Resort: www.gaylordhotels.com\/gaylord-opryland or 1-888-999-6779. Special holiday packages, including accommodations and tickets to several attractions, begin at $335 for a two-night stay. Try 2 FREE TRIAL issues of Southern Living - CLICK HERE ! Submit your favorite places to visit, stay, and dine in the South and enter to win a Caribbean Getaway - click here! Copyright SOUTHERN LIVING Magazine. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"ICE! in the Gaslight Theater includes an ice sculpture of the Grinch .\nThe decorations began going up in July for A Country Christmas .\nOpry Mills, the outlet mall just down the road, offers great shopping .","id":"70fa4fca96ae3a302391c53d4ea515b07751079e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. State Department said Sunday it was \"deeply disturbed\" at the deportation of 20 Uyghur asylum seekers from Cambodia back to China. The deportation \"will affect Cambodia's relationship with the U.S. and its international standing,\" said acting State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid in a statement. It occurred on Saturday at the request of China, the U.S. said. \"The United States is deeply concerned about the welfare of these individuals, who had sought protection under international law,\" Duguid said. \"We are also deeply disturbed that the Cambodian government decided to forcibly remove the group without the benefit of a credible process for determining refugee status and without appropriate participation by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.\" Kitty McKinsey, a coordinator with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees agency in Asia, told CNN on Saturday that the refugees had been seeking asylum. China's northwestern region was wracked by ethnic violence between Han Chinese and Uyghur Muslims earlier this year, and the Uyghurs fled to Cambodia to escape the unrest. McKinsey said the UNHCR considers the deportation a breach of international law, and Uyghur human rights activists have expressed concern about the move. The Uyghur American Association also expressed concern in a statement. The 20 were held in handcuffs and leg shackles and were not given any food to eat on Friday, according to the association. They were part of a group of 22 Uyghurs seeking refuge in Cambodia, all of whom were under UNHCR protection when taken into custody. \"The United States strongly opposed Cambodia's involuntary return of these asylum seekers before their claims have been heard,\" the State Department said. Duguid urged the Chinese government to \"uphold international norms and to ensure transparency, due process and proper treatment of persons in its territory\" now that the Uyghurs have been returned. Cambodian and Chinese officials could not immediately be reached for a response. But a Cambodian state media outlet, Agence Kampuchea Presse, reported that Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is to arrive in Cambodia on Sunday for a three-day visit.","highlights":"U.S. condemns deportation of 20 Uyghur asylum-seekers from Cambodia back to China .\nUyghurs fled to Cambodia to escape ethnic violence in China's northwestern region earlier this year .\nThe 20 refugees were held in handcuffs and leg shackles and not given food, said Uyghur American Association .","id":"ea80348887b737ff98968b85de3c6cc06e61c4fa"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It was one of the greatest humanitarian acts in history. Pondering an imaginary Yiddish-speaking place produced \"The Yiddish Policemen's Union,\" says Michael Chabon. At the beginning of World War II, as the Nazis tightened their grip on Europe, the U.S. government allowed millions of Jews to resettle from their homes in Poland and Russia to southeastern Alaska, along the panhandle. Two million Jews had died at the hands of the Nazi scourge, but millions more were saved as the Federal District of Sitka, Alaska, became the new Jewish homeland -- all the more important when the fledgling State of Israel went down to defeat in 1948. However, 60 years later, Sitka is about to be returned to local jurisdiction, and the island's Jews -- including a noted detective, Meyer Landsman -- are wondering where to go next. The Jewish people, forever rootless, will have to wander some more. Landsman's got other problems, too. He's rootless himself, biding his time in a seedy hotel. There's the body that turned up in a nearby room, a onetime chess prodigy who appears to have major connections with some big shots -- machers, in the local Yiddish lingo. There's his ex-wife, now his boss -- at least until the department is disbanded -- and his partner, a half-Jewish, half-Tlingit named Berko who's far more responsible than Landsman. And there are a host of old enemies with long memories, particularly when Landsman decides to root around the dead chess player's case. Landsman's world is fiction, of course, a product of Michael Chabon's imagination. Chabon's new book, \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" (HarperCollins), combines Landsman's hard-boiled detective's terrain with the landscape of alternate history, one in which world events take a startling turn. The story is rooted in fact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Chabon (\"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay\") observes. Chabon had written an article about the decline of Yiddish, and the reaction to the piece -- some of it very negative -- \"got me thinking about ... a possible, but nonexistent, imaginary Yiddish-speaking place in the modern world,\" he says in an interview at CNN Center. In the article, he noted an actual plan by Franklin Roosevelt's Interior secretary, Harold Ickes, to create a refuge for European Jews in Alaska, still 20 years from statehood. In reality, the plan was squelched thanks to the opposition of Alaska delegate Anthony Dimond, but in the \"Yiddish Policemen's\" world, Dimond is conveniently killed off and the plan goes forward. Chabon's Federal District of Sitka is a land of tall apartment blocks and grimy streets, as if \"Hong Kong had moved to the other side of the Pacific Ocean,\" he says. The novel is peppered with clever conceits. The book's black hats, as in villains, are actual \"black hats,\" a slang term for ultra-Orthodox Jews. The characters are fond of Filipino doughnuts, a twist on the Jewish taste for Chinese food. The place names of Russian Alaska are an apt companion to the Eastern European surnames of Chabon's Jews, and then there are throwaway bits -- such as in the Sitka of 2001, Orson Welles did release a version of \"Heart of Darkness.\" Doing a genre novel -- or several at once, as \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" is part detective story, part alt-history, part modern Jewish folktale -- isn't considered the natural turf for a so-called literary writer like Chabon, but the author -- who has been vocal in support of genre fiction -- makes no apologies for the work. \"I only ever try to write in genres that I love ... I love hard-boiled detective novels, I love fantasy, I love science fiction,\" he says. \"It feels like a natural impulse to want to integrate that passion that I have as a reader into my writing. I didn't see a good reason not to. ... And to say that there's something inherently inferior about the mystery genre is just silly.\" In writing \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union,\" Chabon says, the key was re-reading Raymond Chandler, creator of L.A. detective Philip Marlowe and a distinctive tough-guy style, as well as the Russian-Jewish short story writer Isaac Babel, \"whose use of simile and metaphor strangely echoed Chandler,\" he says. Babel also had a \"clear-eyed view of violence. ... There's a kinship there between Chandler and Babel, and that's what helped me kind-of forge the voice for this novel,\" Chabon says. But, he adds, \"the whole novel is itself a simile. It's setting up a series of semblances and mirrorings of the world we live in, so it seemed almost necessary, not just from a stylistic point of view but from a thematic point of view.\" Chabon's layered themes include reason's conflict with religious extremism, an idea that comes to the fore as the novel progresses. Holding a mirror to our world is a common theme of alternate histories, and Chabon says he is fond of the type in general. The noted comic-book fan -- he co-wrote \"Spider-Man 2\" -- cites two favorites: the \"what-if\" scenarios often proposed in the Superman comics, and an issue of National Lampoon that celebrated John F. Kennedy's fifth inaugural with the cover line, \"JFK's First 6,000 Days.\" \"I read and re-read that a dozen times,\" he says. \"It had an undertone of poignance. ... It was like a perpetual November 21, 1963. America never went through any of the turbulence of the '60s. ... It was the opposite of most counterfactual fiction, which tends to present the catastrophic -- what if the bad things happened. ... This was presenting an 'if only,' not a 'what if.' \" Which is not to say \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" is presenting a better -- or worse -- future. There is a darkness in the book, Chabon observes. But there's also the idea that millions of people were saved from the death camps. \"I'm certainly not presenting the world of this novel as 'it would have been better this way.' It's a dark world, and the Jews of Sitka are on the brink of the abyss,\" he says. \"But there is a certain 'if only' quality.\" \"The Yiddish Policeman's Union\" has earned mostly admiring reviews. \" 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union' builds upon the achievement of 'Kavalier & Clay,' \" wrote the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times. Reaction from the public has been positive and even put him on The New York Times' hardcover bestseller list, a rarified place for any author. \"I feel like the book has been embraced,\" says Chabon. Perhaps the only people concerned about the book's subject matter are some Jews, who have asked Chabon if the book isn't, well, \"too Jewish.\" \"It reminds me of when my first novel, 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,' came out ... and everybody in Pittsburgh said, 'Are you crazy? Why would you set a novel in Pittsburgh? Who's going to want to read a novel about Pittsburgh?' \" he laughs. \"The reason we read fiction is know what it would be like to really be someone else. ... That kind of transport across time and place is the magic of fiction.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"Yiddish Policemen's Union\" posits Alaskan Jewish homeland .\nAuthor Michael Chabon won Pulitzer for earlier novel .\nNew book inspired by thoughts of Yiddish, love of genres .","id":"207e204b58cf95f6a353ac3fd867f5234b154af6"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar is free to travel outside the country, Pakistan's government said Friday a day after blocking his departure and sparking a national incident. There are 53 Pakistani individuals reinstated to an Exit Control List this week which prevents them from leaving the country -- but Mukhtar is not one of them, the National Accountability Bureau said. The confusion stems from a list, dating back several years, that prevented some government officials facing corruption charges from leaving the country. In October 2007, the country passed the National Reconciliation Ordinance, which provided amnesty to about 8,000 people facing various offenses, said Mohammed Afzl Sindhu, Pakistan's minister of state for law and justice. Among them were about 30 politicians. Those who had been on the Exit Control List were given amnesty and could travel. On Wednesday, Pakistan's Supreme Court struck down the ordinance. The 17-judge court said the amnesty \"seems to be against the national interest\" and \"violates various provisions of the Constitution.\" Following that decision, the government restored the names of 53 people to the Exit Control List, said National Accountability Bureau spokesman Ghazni Khan. Mukhtar was among the officials protected by the ordinance -- but Pakistani officials say he was not among the 53 people on the Exit Control List. He was about to leave on an official trip to China on Thursday when immigration authorities told him he was on the Exit Control List. He said he raised the issue with the offices of the president and prime minister. \"It is clarified that the name of Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was not included in that list of 53 persons,\" Khan said Friday. The National Reconciliation Ordinance, passed under then-President Pervez Musharraf, covered alleged wrongdoing between 1986 and 1999. Among those protected by the order -- which expired last month -- were Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Also on the list were bureaucrats, bankers, retired military officials, and low ranking government officials, Sindhu said Friday. With the order lifted, corruption charges against some officials will now proceed, Pakistani authorities said. An accountability court in Karachi summoned Interior Minister Rehman Malik to appear on January 8, 2010 regarding an outstanding corruption case against him, said Malik's attorney, Khawaja Naveed Ahmed. Ahmed added that 51 others have been summoned to court in Karachi. Atiq ur Rehman, spokesman for the National Accountability Bureau in Lahore, said the cases of 80 people accused of corruption and misuse of power have been reopened and sent to accountability court for further processing. They include include Jahamgir Badar, who is the secretary general of the Pakistan People's Party, and Nusrat Bhutto, mother of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. CNN's Samson Desta contributed to this report.","highlights":"Defence Minister Mukhtar is free to leave Pakistan after initally being denied .\nMukhtar was wrongly put on an exit control list which prevented him from leaving the country .\nConfusion stems from a list that prevented officials facing corruption charges from leaving.","id":"bfb63355230ef2240d1d8f79cf5ddc9f137864de"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Poet and punk rocker Jim Carroll has died at age 60. Funeral arrangements are pending. Poet, punk rocker and author Jim Carroll performs at a 2002 benefit in New York. A respected poet and musician, Carroll also was the author of \"The Basketball Diaries,\" which was adapted into a 1995 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Carroll died Friday at his home in Manhattan after suffering a heart attack, said his former wife, Rosemary Carroll. In 1980, he released the popular album \"Catholic Boy,\" which, according to his fan Web site, expressed the \"[b]omb-fear anticipation, the optimistic nihilism and glittering darkness of the 1980s.\" The track \"People Who Died\" was one of the most-requested songs on FM radio at the time, and as Newsweek's Barbara Graustark noted then, \"it propelled [Carroll] from underground status to national attention as a contender for the title of rock's new poet laureate.\" The release of the song coincided with the death of John Lennon. The success of the album was attributed to the powerful combination of pure rock 'n' roll with Carroll's poetic sensibility and ability to write from his own experience. The fan Web site Catholicboy.com sums up Carroll's approach to music by quoting him as saying, \"There ain't much time left, you're born out of this insane abyss and you're going to fall back into it, so while you're alive you might as well show your bare ass.\" In addition to two follow-up albums, Carroll was a best-selling author of six books. \"He was a sweet, sweet man, and I'm going to really miss him,\" said Cassie Carter, a close friend for more than 20 years who operates Catholicboy.com. Carroll was born in New York in 1949 and spent his childhood living on the city's Lower East Side, attending Catholic schools, said Rosemary Carroll, whom he met in 1973. At 12, he began keeping a journal that eventually was published as \"The Basketball Diaries\" in 1978. In it, he recorded the highs and lows of his youth. He first experimented with drugs at 12 and soon was addicted to heroin, but he was able to kick that habit in the 1970s, his former wife said. He had just completed a novel, tentatively titled \"The Petting Zoo,\" which is about a young painter who experiences spiritual crises. The date of its release has not been set. Carroll is survived by a brother, according to his ex-wife.","highlights":"Poet and punk rocker Jim Carroll dies after heart attack at 60, ex-wife says .\nDrug addiction as teen chronicled in \"The Basketball Diaries\"\nBook made into 1995 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio .\nCarroll's 1980 album \"Catholic Boy\" featured popular \"People Who Died\" track .","id":"412c98ea21587396e9f30a45cbd2b20fc0fd3ccb"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An explosion outside the home of Afghanistan's former vice president killed at least eight people Tuesday, government officials have said. The explosion was near the Kabul residence of former vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters. Massoud was not harmed in the attack. Among those killed were one of Massoud's guards and an assistant, the former vice president's aide said. Forty others were wounded in the blast. The explosion broke windows in a hotel a few blocks away. Tuesday morning's explosion occurred as the Afghan president was at a nearby anti-corruption convention. Karzai issued a statement condemning the attack, calling it inhumane and cowardly. The president called for a full scale investigation. Massoud is a notable figure in Afghan politics. Not only was he a vice president of the county under Karzai, but his brother the late Ahmed Shah Massoud was heralded as a leader in the fight against the Taliban. Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance, the Taliban's main opposition, was killed September 9, 2001, by a bomb inside a video camera during an interview at his headquarters with Tunisian al Qaeda operatives posing as journalists. Meanwhile the International Committee of the Red Cross visited three Afghan security forces being held captive by the Taliban for the first time, the agency said Tuesday. The two visits occurred in late November in Badghis province in northwestern Afghanistan, the agency said. \"This is the first time since the beginning of the current conflict that the ICRC has visited people detained by the armed opposition,\" said Reto Stocker, head of the ICRC's delegation in Kabul. \"We plan to conduct and repeat visits in other regions, and hope to visit people held by other armed opposition groups, with the aim of ensuring that everyone detained in relation to the armed conflict is treated humanely.\" The ICRC says it regularly visits detained people in conflict zones to assess their conditions and treatment. The agency say it currently currently visits 136 places of detention in Afghanistan. -- CNN's Tim Schwarz and Fred Pleitgen contributed to this report .","highlights":"Dead included one of former Afghan VP's guards and an assistant .\nBlast hit as Afghan President Hamid Karzai at nearby anti-corruption convention .\nFormer Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud not harmed in the attack .\nRed Cross says it visited three captives of the Taliban in November .","id":"702ff9b9f315d4ebee61a00e27067bc7562cbfc8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Refugees at a settlement in southwestern Uganda have barricaded all roads into the camp to protest a food-aid disruption they say has caused the deaths of several children, refugee leaders said Tuesday. \"We have spent three months without any food supplies from government nor from any food relief or humanitarian agency,\" Congolese refugee leader Serugendo Sekalinda said by telephone. The protest began Tuesday after the deaths of three children Monday night, refugees said. Those were the latest of dozens of children who have died in the past two weeks due to hunger, refugee leaders said. But Needa Jehu Hoyah, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency, known as the UNHCR, told CNN by telephone from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that no children have died in the Nakivale settlement, which has tens of thousands of refugees. \"We have a malnutrition program [in Nakivale] for children, [but] no children have died of hunger there,\" she said. The UNHCR, along with the U.N.'s World Food Program and the Ugandan government, will deliver a food shipment to the settlement Wednesday, Hoyah said. Uganda's disaster preparedness and refugees minister, professor Tarsis Kabwejyere, told CNN that the refugees living in that camp -- most of whom fled fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- would have their full rations Wednesday. For a time they've been getting half rations, he said. \"By tomorrow there will be no food crisis at that settlement,\" Kabwejyere said. \"We do our best to make sure humanity survives, even in the hardships in refugee settlements, so people have a reasonable existence.\" The food shortage came about as a result of a disruption in the food supply chain and a shortage of money for food, the minister said. Hoyah agreed that there \"were issues with the food pipeline.\" Protesters at the Nakivale settlement, about 400 kilometers (248 miles) southwest of Kampala and 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the Ugandan border with Tanzania, gathered at the homes where the most recent deaths of children have occurred, Sekalinda said. \"We are demanding to be relocated to another country where we can be protected from death caused by hunger,\" he said. While the settlement's population is composed mainly of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, it also houses refugees from conflicts in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Kenya. Nakivale is the largest and oldest of the five refugee settlements in Uganda, having opened more than two decades ago. People living there are provided small plots of land on which to grow crops, and they often build huts made of mud, water and thatched grass. As many as 155,000 refugees live in all the camps in Uganda, according to the UNHCR. As of January of this year, there were also an estimated 853,000 internally displaced persons, or IDPs, the UNHCR says on its Web site. The IDPs were forced from their villages in the past decade by attacks from the Lord's Resistance Army, which wants to create a democratic government in Uganda based on the Bible's Ten Commandments. Last week, an African Union summit in Kampala endorsed a declaration to end the forceful displacement of people in all of Africa. Delegates to the poorly attended summit also pledged to aid refugees and IDPs by training them in vocational skills so they could find work during and after their forced displacement. Journalist Samson Ntale in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lack of food causing deaths of children, refugees at Ugandan settlement say .\nProtest began after three children died Monday, refugee leader says .\nUnited Nations refugee agency denies any child has died of hunger at Nakivale .\nBut agency acknowledges supply problem, says food coming Wednesday .","id":"ca6d33c75659bcfeb52b654992937b27f7354747"} -{"article":"GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- A radical Muslim sheikh's call for the creation of an Islamic emirate in Gaza sparked clashes with Hamas forces that left 21 people dead and injured at least 121 others. Members of Jund Ansar Allah surround Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi in Rafah on Friday. Hamas forces blew up the home of Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi, leader of the radical group Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Partisans of God, Hamas sources said. Al-Maqdessi, also known as Abdel Latif Musa, was among the 21 dead, a hospital spokesman told CNN. Friday's clashes were the latest between Gaza's Hamas rulers, who have said they are moderate Muslims pledged to the Palestinian cause, and more extremist Islamic groups. Jund Ansar Allah is part of the radical Islamist movement that follows the doctrines of the \"Salaf,\" or the predecessors -- referring to the early generations of Muslims. They reject all modern influences such as politics and government. In a televised statement, Hamas ministry spokesman Taher Nunu called al-Maqdessi's group \"outlaws\" and said they have been \"terrorizing the country and attacking civilians.\" \"We hold the group and its leader fully responsible for what is happening in Gaza and we offer our condolences to everyone who was killed during the clashes,\" Nunu said. \"No one is above the law and we urge everyone who is a member of this group to surrender himself to the authorities or they will be accountable for all of their actions.\" The gunfight erupted near a mosque in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the cleric delivered his sermon, the sources said. Hamas militants raided the mosque and seized control of it. Later, the fighting spread to al-Maqdessi's home, the sources said. Al-Maqdessi also called for a public meeting at the mosque, posting on the Jund Ansar Allah's Web site an invitation dubbed \"the golden advice to the government of (Hamas leader) Ismail Haniya.\" The group posted a statement on the Web site announcing the establishment of the Islamic emirate in Gaza and proclaiming al-Maqdessi \"the commander of the faithful.\" The statement declared that armed forces in Gaza should unite under him. It urged Muslims everywhere to support the \"young emirate\" by providing money, weapons and men because \"this is the hope of the Muslim nation in raising the banner of monotheism in Palestine and to liberate all the lands and purify Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the damned Jews.\" Al-Aqsa mosque is in Jerusalem. The group accused Hamas of not being Islamic enough, saying they care more about pleasing \"tyrants\" than \"obeying God.\" But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri dismissed statements about the establishment of an Islamic emirate as \"theoretical.\" \"It is not permitted to any party or individual to enforce their own laws because this is the responsibility of the security forces,\" he said. CNN's Talal Abu-Rahman in Gaza City, Gaza, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi killed in battle with Hamas forces, officials say .\nAl-Maqdessi was leader of Islamist movement that rejects politics, government .\nAl-Maqdessi had sought creation of Islamic emirate in Gaza .","id":"d94139d83ce6155e6454492aa1fd56b34973c4ff"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The death toll from an explosion in the central Pakistani city of Dera Ghazi Khan climbed to at least 25 on Wednesday, a senior government official said. Another 56 people were wounded in Tuesday's attack, according to Hassan Iqbal Khan. The blast ripped through a market located near the house of a senior adviser to the chief minister of Punjab province, said Mohammed Hasnain, a rescue official. The adviser, Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa, is a former provincial governor and a senior opposition party politician. He said he was the target of the attack, though police initially said he was not the intended target. Khosa told CNN that none of his family members were in the house when the attack occurred. He also said that he had never before received any threats against his life. The attacker detonated his car in front of the main gate at Khosa's house, said Hassan Iqbal, a senior government official. About 20 shops in the market were reduced to rubble. CNN's Samson Desta and journalist Umar Aziz Khan contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Attack on market in Dera Ghazi Khan leaves 25 dead, 60 wounded .\nAttacker detonated car in front of Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa's home .\nFormer provincial governor claims he was intended target of attack .","id":"95cef2156b00f061adecb3407cb2984e755b4a84"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Mindy Perlmutter was having a birthday party, but this was not just your garden variety, chocolate cake, two kinds of ice cream, balloons, and a pi\u00f1ata type soiree. No, this would be an affair to remember. Lisa Kogan has learned the hard way about when it's important to listen to loved ones. This would be even more fabulous than Alicia Mittenthal's tie-dye-your-own-pillowcase gala or Daisy Feng's macram\u00e9-your-own-bracelet bash. This was to be a build-your-own-terrarium shindig, complete with colored sand and plastic stones and an incredibly classy assortment of glass goldfish bowls. At the time (the time being about 34 years ago), it seemed like a very big deal -- I mean, let's be honest here, it would still be a big deal to go to a party where you get to build your own terrarium...in, you know, a kind of retro, '70s, ironic, hipster way. So there I sat, looking out the den window, which gave me a clear view to the driveway while I waited for my ride to come spirit me away. Actually, it hadn't been our den since my grandparents returned from their life in Miami Beach and my folks rented a hospital bed to turn the den into my grandmother's bedroom. I loved my grandmother, but I can't say I ever really got to know her. She was the lady who played bingo and walked with a cane and kept a plump red tomato pincushion next to the creaky old foot-pedal-powered Singer sewing machine. I remember that she put up her own pickles and draped strudel dough across the kitchen table, and I know that she learned to reupholster her own furniture and got her first driver's license when she was deep into her 50s, and I'm acutely aware that she spoke to my grandfather in a very stern Yiddish whenever he tried to convince me to watch \"The Lawrence Welk Show.\" My grandmother endured an awful lot from the man, but no grandchild of hers was going to be forced to watch Lawrence Welk so long as she still had breath in her body. Anyway, the sun was going down and my ride was running late and my grandmother started to talk. I thought she was going to warn me to be careful of something or other, because she was from the generation who believed that pigeons carry polio and she worried a lot, but if she was anxious about anything that night, she didn't show it. \"I used to love to go to parties,\" she told me. She might as well have said that she used to enjoy scaling Mount Everest in flip-flops and a tutu. I was pretty sure I'd heard all the stories from my grandmother's life -- and none of them involved a party. Oprah.com: How to write your own memoir . The talk I'd heard was always the same: She and her mother and her five brothers and sisters starving through the bitter Russian winters in a little village whose name sounded like a sneeze. I knew about the malnutrition, the crippling rickets, the father who slaved away for years in Detroit trying to earn enough money to bring his wife and children to America and how when he finally did manage to save enough, the man he entrusted with the job of bringing the family over disappeared with the money (was he killed? did he steal it?), leaving my great-grandfather to start all over again. I'd heard how my great-uncles Sam and Isadore would scrounge through fields looking for anything edible while my grandmother supported everyone with her job as a maid to the butcher's wife, and I knew by heart the story of how she lost that job because the woman caught her taking a sip of milk. I also knew how she met Arthur Levy, the love of her life, who my great-aunt Molly swore looked \"exactly like a young Perry Como,\" and that he died a few weeks after she married him, though she never stopped wearing his ring. I knew that the first son she had with my grandfather had died, and that on a Friday afternoon in 1939, her father, the man who worked so hard to bring the family here, died, too, after being pushed off the roof of a building in an anti-Semitic attack. And, of course, I knew that she worked nonstop to build a better life for her children. But I realize now that I only knew those stories because they were told to me by other people. The night of Mindy Perlmutter's terrarium party, my grandmother was telling me the things she wanted me to know. She talked about dances and boys and a silvery blue dress she'd sewn with her sisters. She told me about a time when all her friends were doubled over with laughter because...well, I'm not really sure what it was they found so funny. There was a honk and the glare of headlights, so I gave my grandmother a fast peck on the cheek and flew straight out the door. She went into the hospital the next morning, and she never came out. I sit playing Candy Land with the great-granddaughter Rose Kogan never got to meet. Julia Claire closes her eyes, blows on the dice, and whispers, \"C'mon, c'mon, Mama needs a pair of deuces.\" I have no idea why my 6-year-old sounds like Edward G. Robinson, but I make a mental note to quit letting her play blackjack with the doormen. She rolls \"snake eyes\" and becomes my little girl again. \"I want a do-over, Mommy.\" I start to explain that we don't really get do-overs in this world, that you kind of have to play it as it lays. I believe the parenting books call this a \"teachable moment,\" but my follow-through leaves much to be desired. I hand Jules the dice and say, \"Go for it, kid.\" The truth is, I want a do-over, too. I have ignored my instincts, I have embraced my neuroses, and there have been more than a few serious lapses in judgment over the years -- hell, I once painted my bathroom aubergine. But if I could get just one night back, it would be a chilly October evening when nothing mattered more to me than hanging with my friends in Mindy Perlmutter's basement. Oprah.com: One thing Lisa Kogan would never change . I would have taken off my coat and sat back down, only this time I'd have faced my grandmother instead of the driveway. I would have asked her if the good times outweighed the bad, if there were nights she'd do differently, if she'd ever felt like giving up -- or if that was even an option. I never told her how smart and talented and brave and lovely I thought she was. I never heard what was so great about Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver. I never found out what she did to make her skin so soft and her matzo balls so firm or if she'd have preferred it the other way around. And I never thanked her for being my go-to grandma in the unconditional goodness department. Julia and I finish the game and say our goodnights. I am eager to return a couple of calls, get her lunch packed for school, and watch the episode of \"Mad Men\" I've got waiting on our DVR. But my daughter is feeling chatty. \"Mommy,\" she begins, \"do you know why the Princess Barbie Musketeers have swords that match their ball gowns?\" Before I can answer, she announces, \"It's because they're royal squashbucklers.\" I tell her I'm pretty sure the word is swashbucklers, and she tells me she's pretty sure I'm wrong and goes on talking. She doesn't want to let go of the night, and so I nudge away two stuffed poodles and curl up beside her. The calls and the lunch and even Don Draper can wait, because I have learned the hard way that my job is to sit quietly in the dark and listen to whatever my daughter has to say. Oprah.com: What your children need the most . By Lisa Kogan from O, The Oprah Magazine, November 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Grandmother wanted to talk about dances, boys, silvery blue dress .\nBut Lisa Kogan had a party to got to and ran out the door .\nNow she wants that chilly October evening back to talk with her grandmother .\nSo when daughter wants to talk funny stuff, Lisa knows enough to listen .","id":"b494fc1ae7aa77392dfe5e7f395aeaa30d50c87e"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was blocked from leaving the country Thursday after Pakistan's Supreme Court struck down an amnesty that had protected politicians from corruption charges, state media reported. Nearly 280 government officials and ministers have been placed on an exit control list by the high court, said Wajid Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner in Britain. The 17-judge court invalidated the National Reconciliation Order on Wednesday, saying in its ruling that the amnesty \"seems to be against the national interest\" and \"violates various provisions of the Constitution.\" The order, passed in October 2007 under then-President Pervez Musharraf, only covered alleged wrongdoing that occurred between 1986 through 1999. The order, which expired last month, protected thousands of bureaucrats and politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari and his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, from corruption and criminal charges. Mukhtar, among the officials once protected by the order, was on an official trip to China when he was stopped at the Islamabad airport. Pakistan's Supreme Court said its ruling revived all cases that had been suspended or withdrawn under the amnesty. Zardari's government released a brief statement Thursday saying: \"The government respects the judgment of the Supreme Court and is awaiting the detailed judgment. However, the government has already started consulting the legal experts for its implementation.\" CNN's Nic Robertson and Arwa Damon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Supreme Court kills an amnesty protecting politicians from corruption charges .\nPakistani court rules amnesty \"seems to be against the national interest\"\nNearly 280 government officials, including defense minister, are on the court's exit control list .\nDefense minister taking official trip to China when he is stopped at Islamabad airport .","id":"2267a138782148734ffa02fa1f5f0b55084ba03d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He was a cold, calculating, \"morally depraved\" man who spent the last years of his socialite and megaphilanthropist mother's life bilking her fortune to line his pockets. That's one way to see Anthony Marshall -- and it's the only way, according to the prosecutors who secured a conviction against him for grand larceny and scheming to defraud his mother, Brooke Astor. Now as the 85-year-old son prepares to be sentenced Monday for his crimes, another portrait of him has emerged -- thanks to close friends and celebrity acquaintances (including Al Roker and Whoopi Goldberg) who sent letters to the court in hopes of saving him from a lengthy prison sentence. The man prosecutors described during the trial is apparently unrecognizable to many of Marshall's friends and acquaintances. He was a loyal churchgoing man, a Purple Heart recipient wounded in Iwo Jima during World War II and a son who tried mightily but could never live up to the high ideals of his socialite mother, according to letters friends submitted to the court. And now, they say he is a frail and sickly man who has faced extreme humiliation and would essentially be given a death sentence if a judge hands down the maximum sentence allowed. It will be up to Judge A. Kirke Bartley Jr. to decide how to reconcile the two portraits of Tony Marshall. He faces a minimum 1 to 3 years, or as much as 8 to 25 years in state prison. The drastically differing views have only further heightened interest in the case, which during the trial stage was a tabloid feeding frenzy, fostering headlines such as \"Bad heir day,\" \"Mrs. Astor's disaster\" and \"DA's kick in the Astor.\" The witness list was a virtual \"Who's Who\" of New York's social elite -- including Henry Kissinger, Graydon Carter, Barbara Walters, Vartan Gregorian and Annette de la Renta. During the case, prosecutors and witnesses portrayed Marshall as an only son preying on his physically and mentally ill 101-year-old mother. Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann called the case \"disturbing,\" and said the trial told the story of \"how a son, an only son, would stoop so low to steal from his own mother in the sunset years of her life in order to line his own pockets and the pockets of his wife.\" His only goal, they said, was to selfishly tap her fortune -- money that prosecutors said Astor intended to donate to ordinary New Yorkers who needed help after she died. He was convicted of the most serious charges against him -- first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud. One of the most serious convictions involved Marshall giving himself a $1 million-a-year raise for handling his mother's affairs, Seidemann said. During trial testimony, Marshall's lawyers called no character witnesses to come to his defense. So the new letters from friends are the first attempts by those who know him to share what they believe is his true character. Whoopi Goldberg told a judge in her letter that she met Tony Marshall and his wife Charlene 10 years ago when Goldberg moved into a building on the Upper East Side with Frank Langella. Unlike other residents who turned their nose up at her, Goldberg said she became quick friends with the Marshalls. Her interactions with Tony, she wrote, gave her an insight into his relationship with his mother, and in turn taught her about how fame can affect family dynamics. \"I also understand what it must be like for my own daughter to be around my fame,\" she wrote. \"I am not comparing myself to Mrs. Astor, but I've seen how you can be dismissed as not being good enough, or hip enough, and seeing it happen to Tony made me make sure that it didn't happen to my own daughter.\" The humiliation and ugliness of the trial was punishment enough and a prison sentence would be unjust, friends argued in the letters. Marshall's cardiologist, Kenneth W. Franklin, also wrote to urge the judge to consider his age and health in sentencing. A prison sentence \"will accelerate his deterioration from cardiac and neurologic disease and would result in his premature death due to medical complications,\" he wrote. NBC's Today show weatherman Al Roker came to Marshall's defense too, having met him at his church 10 years ago. He argued Marshall had suffered enough, paying a price greater than any sentence a judge could hand down -- seeing his son turn on him during the trial and being portrayed in a negative light each day. \"Given his advanced age and deteriorating health, justice may be better served by turning a compassionate eye towards this good son, father and patriot and finding it in your heart not to add 'prisoner' to Anthony Marshall's otherwise unblemished resume,\" Roker wrote in his letter to the court. Goldberg too, believed \"breaking this man\" by putting him in prison, was not the right punishment. \"Please don't put him in jail,\" she writes at the end of her letter. \"It would only amount to an unnecessary cruelty that would serve no real purpose. Hasn't Tony been through enough?\" CNN's Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Whoopi Goldberg, Al Roker among those asking for a compassionate sentence .\nTony Marshall convicted of bilking mom Brooke Astor of money before her death .\nHe faces a minimum 1 to 3 years, or as much as 8 to 25 years in state prison .\nFriends cite Marshall's age of 85, deteriorating health, among reasons for light sentence .","id":"a8de87166d246ccd0a5bd7b979ff17a8d5f55549"} -{"article":"Beijing, China (CNN) -- Five more defendants were sentenced to death for their roles in summer riots that killed around 200 people in western China, officials said Thursday. The five sentenced to death were among 22 defendants that went on trial this week by the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi, according to a local government statement. Along with the five people to be executed, another five were sentenced to death but the execution will be postponed for two years, the statement said. The others received sentences ranging from 10 years in prison to life in prison. This group is part of dozens of people who have put on trial for the alleged role in the violent ethnic clashes in China's Xinjiang autonomous region that broke out this summer. More than 20 people have received death sentences after being convicted of crimes related to the unrest. The riots in July were prompted by long-simmering resentment between minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese. The Uyghurs are mostly Muslims in Xinjiang. Some Islamists refer to the region as East Turkistan. Around 200 people were believed to have been killed in the riots. The unrest continued in August when Uyghurs were accused of attacking Han Chinese with syringes filled with different substances. In September, China sent 7,000 security personnel to Urumqi to ease tensions after Han Chinese protested the syringe attacks. China's constitution guarantees ethnic minorities equal rights. However, minority groups such as the Uyghurs say the Han discriminate and ethnic tensions run deep.","highlights":"More than 20 people have received death sentences after being convicted following riots .\nJuly riots prompted by long-simmering resentment between minority Uyghurs and majority Han .\nUnrest continued in August when Uyghurs were accused of attacking Han with syringes .","id":"75eb43ef2f7f7eff004e6fc1559f577cebb0fd02"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- There are certain families -- like, say, the Coppolas and the Gyllenhaals -- where coolness seems to be infused in the DNA. I'd like to add another to the list: the Reitmans. Papa Ivan is the producer behind flicks like \"Ghostbusters\" and \"Animal House,\" and son Jason grew up on his sets. \"I was on the set of 'Animal House' when I was 11 days old. It had a profound effect on me,\" Jason joked this week on \"Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.\" When he was in his early teens, Jason started working as a production assistant and his dad even cast him in a few small roles. \"I was 13 and my dad gave me a scene in 'Kindergarten Cop' kissing a girl -- and that was in fact my first kiss,\" said Jason. \"My first kiss was directed by my father. You don't know what it's like to have to do eight takes of your first kiss while Arnold Schwarzenegger's pointing a gun at you and your dad's like, 'Grab her a little more.'\" While Jason probably could have busted into filmmaking by birthright, he decided against directing \"Dude, Where's My Car?\" which he was offered, and instead worked on short films to gain clout. \"It's interesting because I avoided working with my dad for a while because I was so sensitive of being accused of the idea of nepotism,\" he said. \"I remember when I was 19 years old I started a desk calendar company to pay for my first short film just so I could say one day my daddy didn't pay for my first short film. And I really established myself through the film festival world, starting at Sundance and lots of film festivals and really took on a different style of film from my father.\" Soon, Jason directed \"Thank You For Smoking.\" Then the amazingness that was \"Juno.\" And now, of course, he is the Best Director\/Best Picture forerunner with his movie \"Up In The Air,\" which is getting all sorts of critical acclaim. \"Up in the Air\" is the first project the two worked on together. \"I love my father and we have such a strong bond and I look up to him as a filmmaker and a storyteller,\" said Jason. \"So it was great and when I see the credits and it says produced by Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, my heart swells. It's really, really cool.\" Ivan echoes that sentiment. \"It's great to be the producer of this kind of movie and sort of share in its success and the goodwill that comes with it,\" he said. \"But as a parent it's kind of this remarkable emotional moment that's kind of hard to describe.\" And it's not like Ivan's career is over -- he has a script in the works for \"Ghostbusters 3\" and the word on the street is that Bill Murray will be making a cameo in it as a ghost himself. Could this family be any cooler? TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Ivan and Jason Reitman are the father\/son tandem behind award darling \"Up in the Air\"\nThe father, Ivan was the producer behind \"Ghostbusters\" and \"Animal House\"\nThe son, Jason grew up on sets and directed \"Thank You for Smoking\" and \"Juno\"\n\"Up in the Air\" is the first movie the pair has worked on together .","id":"afec246f01ea28b877865c1dc4b001d5b3a902ae"} -{"article":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department is calling on Honduras' de facto president to immediately rescind an emergency decree that limits constitutional rights such as freedoms of expression, travel and public congregation. Robert Micheletti, de facto president of Honduras, says he'll repeal an emergency decree, but not immediately. \"The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people,\" said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in a statement late Monday night. Earlier Monday, Roberto Micheletti announced he would repeal the law, but it would not be immediately. The decree will undergo a legal review, he said. Still, Micheletti's announcement was an about-face. He had announced the policy less than 24 hours earlier in response to unrest that increased significantly after ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras on September 20 and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy. The 45-day decree announced Sunday night forbids any unauthorized public gatherings, allows officials to make arrests without a judicial order and lets the government close down news media that threaten \"peace and order.\" Micheletti said he would consult with the supreme court to repeal the decree, after a meeting with the leading presidential candidates. \"This decision was made because (Zelaya) was calling for insurrection ... but I'm going to listen to the other powers of the state and we're going to make the most wise decision in the interests of Honduras,\" Micheletti said, according to the newspaper La Prensa. Monday marked the three-month anniversary of Zelaya's ouster in a military-led coup on June 28. In the wake of Micheletti's decree, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the OAS, said the Canal 36 TV station and Radio Globo were reported closed. The owner of Canal 36, Esdras Amado Lopez, told CNN that 60 soldiers entered his station Monday morning to shut it down. They removed all of the equipment, he said. \"They say that we offended the dignity of the president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti,\" Lopez said, adding that he sees his station not as pro-Zelaya, but \"pro-people.\" Honduran soldiers were stationed in front of the shuttered TV and radio stations and would not allow anyone to enter. The United Nations, the OAS and the European Union have condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has vowed that Zelaya will never return to power and has said the deposed president will be arrested if he comes out of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital. Micheletti has accused Zelaya of using the embassy to instigate an insurrection and this weekend gave the Brazilian embassy 10 days to decide the ousted president's status. Brazil rejected the Honduran ultimatum. On Monday night, Zelaya addressed the United Nations General Assembly via a mobile phone that his foreign minister held up at the podium. A \"serious crime is taking place when the voice of the people is silenced and when the people who are being repressed are likewise silenced,\" Zelaya said. CNN's John Zarrella, Kim Segal and journalist Elvin Sandoval contributed to this report.","highlights":"Roberto Micheletti said he would repeal decree but not be immediately .\nDecree clamps down on public gatherings, lets government close news media .\nJose Manuel Zelaya was ousted as president of Honduras three months ago .\nZelaya has returned to Tegucigalpa and is holed up in Brazilian Embassy .","id":"964c2cbd65b59ec927a6358cd86505b37da8fcf3"} -{"article":"SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNN) -- You've got your spot on a lounge chair angled into the hot Caribbean sun, with tall, slender palm trees jutting out over your head. As you gaze at the calm turquoise waters and sip that refreshing rum drink, you may ask yourself, \"What more could I possibly want?\" Visitors can climb the tower at Fortaleza Ozama for a view over the rooftops and out to sea. For many travelers to the Dominican Republic, that chair -- usually secluded inside a mega all-inclusive resort complex -- is the sole destination. And don't get me wrong, it's a great one. The Dominican Republic's stretches of sand are some of the best on the planet. But if you never leave the high walls of your tourist compound, you're missing out on a gem of a capital city. Santo Domingo is the New World's first city, with 16th-century buildings, quaint colonial streets, romantic ruins and a lively atmosphere. All you need is a full day to experience the city's architecture, culture and food. Plus, it's only a $9 coach bus ride from Punta Cana. So when you begin to tire of the antics of the \"animation team\" at the resort, and the color of your skin starts to resemble the papaya or watermelon you're eating, consider a short trip to Santo Domingo. Founded soon after Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World, and run by his son Diego, the city became the colonial capital of the Americas and launch pad for further Spanish expeditions. Despite several raids by pirates, the oldest section of town remains largely intact. Known as the Zona Colonial, it contains many European \"firsts\" in the Western Hemisphere including the first street, cathedral, hospital and university. How to see it all in a day . Start at the heart of the zone, Parque Col\u00f3n, a square that borders the cathedral and is always full of life. You can sit and watch children chase pigeons as you gaze up at the simple beauty of the oldest cathedral in the Americas. Next, head over to the oldest fortress in the New World, Fortaleza Ozama, built in the early 1500s. There you can climb the tower for a view over the rooftops and out to sea. Back on street level, walk up a couple blocks to the expansive Plaza Espa\u00f1a, site of two museums and a hangout for locals, especially in the evening, when kids crisscross the square on scooters or fly kites, and couples sit quietly together. The Museo de las Casas Reales and the Alc\u00e1zar de Col\u00f3n -- Diego Columbus' palace -- show you how the wealthy Spanish lived when they came to the early colonies and provide some history of the island's colonization -- all for a buck or two. Next, head over to a pair of impressive ruins. Gaze up at the towering walls and arches of the Americas' first hospital, Hospital de San Nicol\u00e1s de Bari. Then, just up a picturesque bend in the road lined with colorful houses, you'll find the large ruins of Monasterio de San Francisco. Pirate attacks and earthquakes brought down the monastery. The hospital was merely abandoned in the 18th century, and later dismantled for safety. Now let yourself wander a bit through the streets, checking out the colorful surprises around every colonial corner. You'll discover the varied architecture of people's homes, and get a view into Dominican city life. In just a few blocks, I ran across a pickup game of baseball, the national sport and passion, in the middle of the street, with adults using just a broom handle and roll of tape; several \"kiddie\" pools in the streets, where both children and adults were cooling off in the afternoon heat; and a handful of corner parks alive with activity. After exploring, your final destination is the zone's main drag, Calle El Conde. This pedestrian-only street is the place to shop. You'll find street sellers hawking colorful artwork; music stores to pick up that merengue and bachata music you've heard blaring out of everyone's stereos; and jewelry shops featuring native amber and the sky-blue stone larimar found only in the Dominican Republic. By now, you've certainly worked up an appetite walking in the hot sun. Parque Col\u00f3n and Plaza Espa\u00f1a each have a row of chic sidewalk caf\u00e9s, although they're a bit pricey and touristy. Consider wandering a bit through some side streets to find a more local establishment, where you can feast on typical cuisine such as la bandera dominicana (a red beans and rice dish), several stews, fried plantains or yucca and delicious tropical fruits. And if you still feel like dancing the night away, hop in a taxi to the Malec\u00f3n, Santo Domingo's seafront boulevard, where the large hotels have popular dance clubs pumping merengue until the wee hours of the morning. The bus ride . Getting to the capital city from the beach areas is cheap and relatively easy. Expreso B\u00e1varo runs from the Punta Cana area for $9 in an air-conditioned and comfy coach bus. On your four-hour ride, you'll get a glimpse of some smaller Dominican towns, a towering modern cathedral, distant mountains and vast sugarcane fields. Metro and Caribe Tours provide similar services from the beaches on the north coast around Puerto Plata. The buses to\/from Punta Cana don't run long into the evening (they leave each side at 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.), so you'll want to make this an overnight trip. The Zona Colonial has several boutique hotels that are quaint, clean and reasonably priced. You could even arrange to fly out of Santo Domingo's Las Americas airport, rather than Punta Cana.","highlights":"Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's capital, was the New World's first city .\nExplore 16th-century buildings, colonial streets, romantic ruins and Dominican city life .\nCheap, comfortable buses connect to the city from beach areas .","id":"b6a43e00f90319c30aaf4c7d688e986d626fed8b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has been 20 years since best-selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell began work on her first novel in the series chronicling the cases of forensic analyst Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Now, both have found celebrity. Cornwell's latest novel, \"The Scarpetta Factor,\" places her enduring heroine in a role the author knows all too well, a pop culture celebrity sought-after for her expertise. In an interview with CNN.com, Cornwell discussed the challenges of staying fresh, the need for happy endings and the merits of the History Channel and the movie \"White Chicks.\" CNN: The title of your new book, \"The Scarpetta Factor,\" has many meanings. Can you tell me about some of them? Cornwell: On the one hand, it's a very direct reference to the fact she's the chief forensic analyst for CNN in this book. But while she's doing the on-air spots, they decide they want her to have her own show and that's what they call it, \"The Scarpetta Factor,\" which is a reference to a clich\u00e9 that's beginning to float around, that there's one element that she can add that will solve the case like she's Sherlock Holmes. This becomes very upsetting to her, first of all, because it's a clich\u00e9 and the scientist in her doesn't think she has a special factor, she's a scientist. It begins to pose problems for her because even some colleagues and friends start to wonder if she's begun to believe her own legend and make mistakes. With her years of experience and high level of visibility and exceptional grasp of the criminal world, she would be asked to be on major shows. When someone like Michael Jackson dies or Caylee Anthony disappears, that's the obvious thing that would happen. People would say, I wonder what Scarpetta has to say. I'm trying to put her in the world we live in. CNN: Why did you choose CNN? Cornwell: It would make perfect sense that she would sit on the set with Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blizter and be asked relevant questions from a hard news angle. It's one [network] she would go on and there's lots she wouldn't go on. CNN: How have things changed since you published your first novel? Cornwell: When I was shopping my first book around, it was rejected by the major publishing houses and that was because a lot of people didn't think morgues and labs were interesting, and that's a huge statement about how things have changed. I remember one time, I called my literary agent at that time, and I said I was in a toxicology lab, and she said, I hate talking to you because you're always in these awful places. Forensic science was not viewed as cool, as it is today. CNN: Are there any on-air personalities we might recognize in \"The Scarpetta Factor?\" Cornwell: When she is up at CNN for a scene when she's on a fictitious show, she walks past posters of Nancy Grace and Lou Dobbs and Wolf Blitzer because she's up on that floor, so I do make real references to people, but the characters, the producers, none are real and they're not based on anybody I met or know. CNN: How much of yourself do you see in Kay Scarpetta? Over the years, have you grown into her or has she grown into you? Cornwell: Only insofar as we have the same values and sensibilities and perhaps the same approach to solving cases. I'm imposing the way my mind works in terms of connecting the dots, but beyond that, there are huge differences between us. She's a standalone character. I would feel very self-conscious and bored if she was a projection of me. I have certain things in common with all my characters. Like Marino, I can be a slob and sometimes say stupid things and rush to judgment. CNN: You're known for doing a lot of research on the ground to give your stories depth and realism. Where did your research for \"The Scarpetta Factor\" take you? Cornwell: I've certainly been in the CNN studios so that's helpful. When I was there over in the last year, I made a mental note of everything I saw while walking around so I could create the studio in the novel. I also spent lot of time with the NYPD, their bomb squad, their emergency unit, the Real Time Crime Center, so I could describe the amazing way computers are used to transmit data to police responding to a call. I spent time at the NYPD crime lab, the New York Medical Examiner's office, so I can show Scarpetta actually working there. The scene in the elevator in the beginning and the way people ID loved ones is based on what happens. Even the technology of the electronic nose, the mechanical sniffer that takes the place of cadaver dogs, is based on things I've seen. My research also included looking into the methods and means criminals are using, like TracFones, spoofcards and the different ways to disguise IP addresses. CNN: How has the CSI factor affected your research for your books? Cornwell: I think people are so inundated with this sort of detail that I don't want to make the story just about forensics. The people and their relationships are the heart of my books, the forensics are something they wear like an old pair of shoes. I'll always show you the latest and greatest forensic science and technology, but I can't show it all, so it's very important that I make things interesting in different ways. In the early to mid-'90s, up to the late '90s when I was coming out with new books, I was the only show in town and all of the sudden now they're everywhere, and I don't have any problem with that because I don't own forensics or forensic pathology. CNN: In your opinion, what has been the greatest change in forensic science since Scarpetta started out? Cornwell: DNA has changed our lives forever, just like the Internet has changed our lives, there's no going back to pre-DNA or pre-Internet. I would say both of those. The Internet has dramatically changed everything because it's creating a whole new wave of crimes that our laws and the courts don't know how to deal with. DNA analysis and the ultra-sensitivity of it: When you're dealing with some types of DNA, you only need three or four human cells to get a DNA profile, which is something that can't even see with the naked eye, so that helps investigators but it also creates a whole other set of problems. They're saying there will be a point when you can get DNA just from someone walking in the room, and you can see the problems if you have 20 people walk into a room and only one did something bad. Defense lawyers are going to have a field day with that. CNN: What do you want people to take away from this novel? I'd like them to take away an idea of how someone like Scarpetta deals with being in the same world you and I wake up to. Now she has a BlackBerry and she has to deal with it, which poses as many problems as it offers benefits. I want people to feel happy ending the book. We need to feel good right now, there's a lot to feel bad about and that's something I decided with the last book, I didn't want people to be depressed when they finished it. I used to write very dark books but we lived in happier times. Now, the goal is to scare you, lead you into suspense but when you finish, I want you to feel happy. CNN: What current cases in the news fascinate you? How much attention do you pay to crime and justice news? Cornwell: I'm fascinated by the Michael Jackson situation and the people who disappear and get abducted, all of it fascinates me in terms of the psychology involved and what science might tell us. I'm always frustrated because I love to know what's behind the scenes. I've been following Michael Jackson because it seems so unnecessary, an example of people who should've said no and not taken it upon themselves to solve a problem. I've also been interested in the case in Italy with the American on trial for murder. That is intriguing from a forensic standpoint because I think all of us would like to know more about the evidence and what's there to piece together that could tell us what happened. I'm afraid that because of how much time has passed and how the case was handled that a lot of the answers are gone and the kind of evidence that was collected could have been handled differently, . CNN: What do you like to watch? Cornwell: I don't watch crime dramas. I don't want to subconsciously get ideas from their shows. I try to keep my mind blank, and keep the influence of my own research, so I don't tend to watch crime dramas or crime movies. I rarely read crime novels because my work is so steeped in nonfiction, so I try to keep my mind free of those ideas. What I watch is the nonfiction, documentary type things, shows that depict real crimes that happened. I like the History Channel and I will watch reruns of \"The Sopranos\" until I'm 90 years old. I like comedy, stuff that's mindless. I don't watch stuff that scares me or makes me sad. There's enough of that in real life. CNN: What's the last movie you saw? Cornwell: The last movie I saw was a rerun of \"White Chicks.\" How's that to people who think I have this very esoteric repertoire? I think it's a hilarious movie. ... Will Ferrell, I love his stuff, Ben Stiller, I really enjoy comedy, especially stuff that's kind of warmhearted in its own way. I don't like stuff that's really scary. I've seen so much stuff that's real. Blood is always real to me. If they ever make a real movie of Scarpetta, I may not be able to watch it.","highlights":"Author Patricia Cornwell talks about Kay Scarpetta, fame and forensics .\nIn latest book, Scarpetta is CNN's chief forensic analyst .\nCornwell says she works hard to keep up with scientific advances .\nShe says she doesn't watch crime shows or scary movies .","id":"7c52867be2f99295337fe104d0464cf315217839"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On the last episode of reality ... \"Guiding Light,\" a mainstay of CBS' daytime schedule for decades, airs its final episode Friday. Jon left Kate and his eight children and took up with the party girl Hailey. Audrina got a restraining order against an alleged stalker. NeNe got into an argument with Kim during a photo shoot. And Rachel was attacked -- yet again -- by one of the city tabloids. With plot points like this, who needs soap operas? Certainly not most of America. In the past decade, the audience for soap operas has dwindled, as has the number of what broadcasters call \"daytime dramas.\" Younger viewers, in particular, have gravitated toward reality shows, which feature the melodrama and outsized characters of soaps; it's perhaps no coincidence that the co-creator of MTV's \"The Real World\" and several other reality shows, Mary-Ellis Bunim, started as a soap writer and producer. The latest soap victim, CBS' \"Guiding Light\" -- a show that began on NBC Radio in 1937 -- went out Friday after 72 years on the air. Watch how \"Guiding Light\" became an institution \u00bb . On the final episode, long-entwined characters Reva Shayne and Josh Lewis decided to \"go on an adventure\" together, in Lewis' words. Other characters also received their moments. Fans have lamented the passing of the show, which has followed the Springfield clans of the Bauers, Spauldings, Coopers and Lewises for decades. \"I've been watching 'Guiding Light' for the past 20 years,\" says Ashley Dos Santos, an account executive and pop culture expert with the Washington-based public relations firm Crosby-Volmer. \"I think it's really, really sad.\" Gallery: Stars who started on soaps \u00bb . But, as a (well) realist, she adds, \"not surprising.\" She knows the trends, and the trend for soap operas is going in the wrong direction. Read a short history of soap operas . \"It's very difficult to see how it could have survived,\" she says, noting that even she's ceased to follow \"GL\" in the past few years. With the multichannel universe, particularly the alternatives of talk shows, judge shows and reality shows, \"I feel that a lot people, if they have to make a choice, they'd rather see 'Ellen.' \" Michael Sands, a Southern California-based media consultant, is blunter. \"Soaps are passe ... old-fashioned,\" he says. \"They're boring and stale. The public thrives on real-life drama. I'm surprised soaps lasted this long.\" Not so long ago, such a dismissal would have been unfathomable. In the three-network arrangement that dominated for decades, soaps ruled daytime -- there were 19 in 1969-70 -- and even spawned prime-time variations, such as \"Peyton Place\" and \"Dallas.\" \"The 1960s and '70s were an unmatched era for soaps, with women at home and just three or four [network] choices,\" says Sam Ford, an analyst with the communications firm Peppercom. He has a book on the genre due out next year. Soaps developed a formula: slow-moving, multiple plotlines; multigenerational casts, gathered in seaside towns or local hospitals. Some even broke ground, airing taboo subjects -- abortions, homosexuality, marital rape -- before prime-time shows. But events have conspired to kill off daytime dramas. With more women in the workplace, there are fewer at home to watch the soaps. The genre was slow to adjust to new technologies; even now, with the SoapNet cable channel and Internet streaming, effective promotion is lacking, says Dos Santos, who observes that soaps fly under the radar compared to reality shows. \"The networks aren't trying hard enough to make [soaps] relevant,\" she says. There's also the loss of family watching, a handoff from mother to daughter to granddaughter, that used to assure a continuity of viewers. Dos Santos watched with her mother; Ford's mother and grandmother were fans. But the fall-off in soaps tends to boil down to two limited resources: time and money. \"We don't have the time to invest in soaps as they exist now,\" says Mimi Torchin, a TV columnist and the founding editor of Soap Opera Weekly. \"Even with alternatives to TV viewing ... it's still five hours a week. In the old days, you could miss two or three days and it was easy to catch up. They don't do that anymore.\" Moreover, a soap opera is a big investment, like any scripted show. Bob Boden, now the vice president of programming for the Fox Reality Channel, was at CBS' daytime division in the '80s and '90s. \"The decline of the soap opera as is much a factor of the business model as it is of the creative,\" he says. \"It was designed to be 52 weeks a year of original product, no repeats. In today's business model for network television, that's not an efficient model anymore.\" To begin a soap, a producer has to put together performers, a writing staff, a bible of characters and plots -- and has to plan things out for months or years, as opposed to a handful of weeks. \"That's not really the mentality of network programming anymore,\" Boden says. \"I think a lot of it is about quick fixes, and about maintaining an ever-shrinking audience, and giving them something unique, and attracting a younger demo[graphic].\" Increasingly, the \"quick fix\" -- particularly for cable channels looking to hook viewers -- comes in the form of reality programming. There are a number of similarities in the forms: melodrama, over-the-top characters, extreme situations. But reality shows can have a limited run -- soaps are open-ended by design -- and offer a voyeuristic thrill soaps can't provide, creating new celebrities in the process, something the news media has seized upon eagerly. \"People like to emulate people on TV,\" says Sands, who has advised some reality stars. And, he adds, \"people get to feel superior\" to misbehaving reality show stars. Torchin, however, can't stand reality shows. \"They're voyeurism of the lowest order,\" she says. Soaps, she believes, offer some of the art that writing and acting can provide: \"They have adventure and heart,\" she says, singling out \"GL's\" \"compelling characters.\" \"They're more real than what reality shows can do.\" She's aware that soaps have been criticized for far-out plot devices, such as evil twins, long-lost children and bizarre coincidences. On \"Guiding Light,\" a character drove her car off a bridge; a few years later, she turned up alive, little worse for the wear. \"Some of those outlandish things hurt the genre,\" she says, noting that bringing back characters was a way to placate upset audience members, who were known to fire off angry letters to networks and sponsors. \"I always felt that convention [of restoring \"dead\" characters] always hurt soaps, because you were never invested in an event that should have been of great poignancy.\" Soaps aren't dead, of course. Even with \"GL's\" demise, there are still seven soaps on the air, each with passionate fans. Also, the elements of the genre are plainly visible in prime-time dramas such as \"Grey's Anatomy\" and \"Desperate Housewives.\" \"Everything is a soap now,\" says Torchin. \"The secret of a show that works is that you're involved with the characters, you're in their lives. Everything else is just diversion.\" Dos Santos believes that shrewder marketing -- helped by new media -- can help the genre make a comeback. And, indeed, Torchin observes that a \"GL\" star, Crystal Chappell, is launching a Web soap, \"Venice,\" in November. The Internet program is an outgrowth of the popularity of a \"GL\" storyline featuring Chappell's character in a lesbian relationship -- a relationship that many fans felt was handled poorly by the broadcasters. Watch Chappell go over her plans \u00bb . \"I think the ratings will be better than cable,\" says Torchin. Is she correct? Will soaps live to rise again? Will reality shows conquer daytime and nighttime? Tune in tomorrow.","highlights":"\"Guiding Light\" goes off the air Friday after 72 years on radio and TV .\nSoaps in general are declining; other genres, such as reality shows, have taken over .\nSome observers hopeful soaps will cross to the Web and have success .","id":"c8685e38369975669446656ee5819a6f0c39b5a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Back in his native South Korea, the Korean Foreign Ministry nicknamed him \"Ban-chusa,\" meaning \"the Bureaucrat\" or \"the administrative clerk.\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has focused on global warming policy by world governments. While Ban Ki-moon was known for his attention to detail and administrative skill, he was also seen by some as lacking in charisma and subservient to his superiors, while the Korean press called him \"the slippery eel\" for his ability to dodge questions. But on October 13, 2006, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly. Following up on a campaign aiming to bring out his charismatic side, Ban surprised the audience of a UN Correspondents' dinner that December by singing \"Ban Ki-moon is coming to town\" on the melody of \"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.\" Ban was born on 13 June 1944. He received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970, and a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1985. He and his wife, Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, whom he met in high school in 1962, have one son and two daughters. In addition to Korean, Ban speaks fluent English and is studying French. Ban was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea from January 2004 to November 2006. His tenure included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C. and Vienna, while he was responsible for a variety of portfolios such as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President, Chief National Security Adviser to the President, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General of American Affairs. Throughout this service, his guiding vision was that of a peaceful Korean peninsula, playing an expanding role for peace and prosperity in the region and the wider world. Ban had long been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. In 1992, as Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, he served as Vice Chair of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission following the adoption of the historic Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, as Foreign Minister, he played a leading role in bringing about another landmark agreement aimed at promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula with the adoption at the Six Party Talks of the Joint Statement on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. In January 2007 Ban succeeded Kofi Annan and has since pushed the Sudanese government to allow peacekeeping troops in Darfur and focused on global warming policy by world governments.","highlights":"Ban Ki-moon elected eighth U.N. Secretary-General in October 2006 .\nBan has pushed Sudan on peacekeepers in Darfur and focused on climate change .\nBan was Ban was South Korea's Foreign Minister from Jan. 2004 to Nov. 2006 .\nHe has long been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations .","id":"02377b6c36b250e3d1ce666fc495f1066999e67d"} -{"article":"Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book, \"Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought\" and writes a daily blog titled The Kitchen Table. Melissa Harris-Lacewell says Eric Holder's speech fell short of calling for real action against racism. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder marked Black History Month with an address at the Department of Justice. Holder clearly and courageously acknowledged the history of American racism. He forthrightly argued that, \"to get to the heart of this country, one must examine its racial soul.\" Because public officials so rarely discuss race, Holder's was an unusually bold statement. But ultimately, Eric Holder's discussion of race in America was a failure. It failed because Holder spoke more like a grade school principal than like the attorney general of the United States. He framed our nation's continuing racial work as a struggle to feel comfortable, be tolerant, and have \"frank conversations about racial matters.\" I appreciate the sentiment, but I would prefer Holder use the Department of Justice to sue those who illegally discriminate against racial minorities rather than holding encounter sessions in the lunchroom. February's celebration of black history is important because it reminds us that America's bitter racial legacy is not about name calling and hurt feelings; it is about structures of inequality codified in law and supported by government action. Black men and women risked their lives to gain the right to vote, to live where they chose, to educate their children in the best public schools, and to end segregation in transportation and public places. Black political history is the story of a battle against structures. Unfortunately, too many of those structures still exist. As attorney general, Eric Holder is charged, in part, with eliminating those violations of law that still create systematic racial inequality. In Holder's optimistic portrayal of modern America, we are a nation fundamentally altered by Brown v. Board of Education; a country that has \"done a pretty good job melding the races in the workplace;\" and a nation whose biggest racial obstacle is making our weekend socializing as congenial as our workweek happy hours. Maybe Holder doesn't realize that in many cities and towns the public schools are more segregated today than they were 40 years ago. A recent report from the Chicago Urban League found that African-American children in the city are almost exclusively educated in schools that are more than 85 percent black. These vastly predominantly black schools have fewer resources, fewer extracurricular activities and fewer experienced teachers than their white counterparts. Children from these schools are more likely to drop out or end up incarcerated than to enroll in college. Segregation is no longer the law of the land, but America's children continue to be educated in separate and unequal schools. We can't talk our way out of unequal schools. Holder's perspective that black and white workers get along easily in the workplace reflects a shocking disregard for contemporary employment realities. African-Americans continue to suffer from extraordinary employment discrimination at every stage of hiring and promotion and in every sector of the job market. For example, my Princeton University colleague, sociologist Devah Pager, has demonstrated that white men with criminal records are more likely to be considered for a job than black men with no criminal past. I am deeply concerned that the leader of the Department of Justice seems to believe that our workplaces need dialogue, discourse, and understanding rather than fair hiring practices, equal pay, and transparent promotion procedures. We can't talk our way out of employers who refuse to interview a job candidate if the name on the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 \"sounds black.\" Holder discussed weekend segregation as if it is just a matter of personal recreational choice: White folks go off to NASCAR and black people prefer to watch basketball. But the reason Americans do not share racial vocabulary or opportunities for interracial dialogue is because of deeply entrenched racial residential segregation. We don't spend our weekends together because we don't live in the same neighborhoods. Housing segregation is not just a matter of personal choice. Some real estate agents steer black families away from predominantly white neighborhoods. Some property owners refuse to rent to black families. Both of these acts are illegal. In fact, the National Fair Housing Alliance documents hundred of thousands of acts of housing discrimination each year and has repeatedly criticized the Department of Justice for failing to adequately pursue and prosecute the vast majority of these cases. We can't talk our way out of residential segregation. As a teacher, I am deeply committed to interracial dialogue. I try to use my classroom as a site of conversation, deliberation, and debate about race. I do this because, as a teacher, dialogue is the most powerful weapon I have in the fight to build a better America. Eric Holder has something more. He has the law. I don't want my attorney general to scold me about having conversations; I want him to tell me the lawsuits he plans to file against those who continue to practice educational, employment, and housing discrimination. I appreciate Attorney General Holder for taking up a conversation on race, but it is not enough. The time for talking may come, but today is a day for action. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Melissa Harris-Lacewell.","highlights":"Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Eric Holder's speech was ultimately a failure .\nShe says it was courageous for the attorney general to talk about race .\nRather than seek racial dialogue, she says, Holder should have called for action .\nHarris-Lacewell: Discrimination is rampant and needs to be addressed .","id":"2c06d1d87b7995c7655bd2271669961794c0c1a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic intends to skip the start of his war crimes trial because he says he has had too little time to prepare, a spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Thursday. Radovan Karadzic wrote to the court to say he would not attend the trial. The trial is still expected to begin on Monday despite Karadzic's intended absence, which he announced in a letter to the court, the spokeswoman said. \"The tribunal judges control court proceedings. They are the only relevant body that can make a decision about the readiness of the case for trial,\" she said. Karadzic, who is defending himself, faces genocide charges and nine other counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbian civilians during the brutal and bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The conflict introduced the phrase \"ethnic cleansing\" into the lexicon describing war crimes, as different factions in multi-ethnic Yugoslavia sought to kill or drive out other groups. Karadzic was arrested last year after more than a decade on the run and was found to have been living in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and practicing alternative medicine in disguise. In a letter dated Wednesday and made public Thursday, Karadzic complains that he has not been given the relevant case material on time -- and he says the volume of material would have been too much to go through even if he had received it promptly. \"I ask Your Excellencies -- why and how is it possible that the prosecution is allowed to literally bury me under a million of pages, only to start disclosing relevant material many months after my arrest?\" he writes. \"Why and how is it possible that the prosecution is allowed to file its final indictment against me on the eve of the planned trial date?\" Karadzic says he should not be penalized for representing himself. \"No lawyer in this world could prepare defense within this period of time,\" he writes. \"I hereby inform you that my defense is not ready for my trial that is supposed to begin as scheduled, on the 26th of October, and that therefore I shall not appear before you on that date.\" He promised to continue his preparations in \"the most intensive way\" and inform the court when he is ready. The genocide charges against him stem partly from the most notorious massacre of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, once a part of Yugoslavia. More than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed at Srebrenica when ethnic Serb troops overran a U.N. \"safe area\" in July 1995. It was the worst European massacre since World War II. Prosecutors at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague accuse Karadzic of responsibility. \"On 8 March 1995, Karadzic instructed Bosnian Serb forces under his command to create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival for the inhabitants of Srebrenica, amongst other places,\" the tribunal said in a statement this month. The Hague indictment also says Karadzic committed genocide when forces under his command killed non-Serbs during and after attacks in more than a dozen Bosnian municipalities in the early stages of the war. Karadzic, who faces life in prison if he is convicted, denies the charges. The court cannot impose the death penalty. When he was arrested in July 2008, Karadzic had grown a large white beard and let his famous steel-gray hair grow long and turn white. He had spent more than 13 years in hiding, during which he practiced alternative medicine at a Belgrade clinic. Karadzic's arrest leaves his former military commander, Ratko Mladic, as the highest-ranking fugitive still being sought by the war crimes tribunal. Prosecutor Alan Tieger told the court in July that the case against Karadzic would take approximately 490 hours. That means prosecutors are likely to need more than a year to lay out their evidence, a court spokeswoman said. The 1992-95 Bosnian war was the longest of the wars spawned by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Backed by the government of then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnian Serb forces seized control of more than half the country and launched a campaign against the Muslim and Croat populations. Karadzic was removed from power in 1995, when the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war barred anyone accused of war crimes from holding office. Milosevic died in 2006 while on trial at The Hague.","highlights":"Karadzic says he is skipping the start of his war crimes and genocide trial .\nFormer Bosnian Serb leader accused over atrocities during Balkans conflict .\nThousands died during the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1990s .","id":"64ba26757a7da832195392dc965816207a5546cb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mexican and Colombian officials working with U.S. agents have seized about $41 million in cash hidden in shipping containers, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Monday. Colombian authorities seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency in Buenaventura, Colombia, on September 9. The U.S. agency, commonly called ICE, says the seizures were made September 9-18. It called them the largest seizure of cash ever found in shipping containers destined for Colombia and the largest for the agency since its inception. According to ICE: . \u2022 On September 9, Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian national police, acting on intelligence reports, seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in two shipping containers. The containers were aboard a vessel that sailed from the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was headed to Buenaventura, Colombia. Colombian customs inspectors said it was the most cash ever seized by police at a port in the nation. \u2022 On September 10, a second seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11.2 million also was made at the Buenaventura port. \u2022 On September 11, a shipment of $11 million was discovered hidden inside two shipping containers at the Port of Manzanillo. \u2022 On September 14, ICE special agents, along with Colombian authorities, discovered three additional shipping containers in Buenaventura containing about $5 million in $100 and $50 bills. These shipping containers also originated in Manzanillo. \u2022 On September 18, authorities seized $2.15 million in $100 bills concealed inside two containers aboard a vessel that arrived in Manzanillo. \"This seizure represents a bad day for organized crime,\" ICE Director John Morton said at a Monday news conference in Washington. \"Forty-one million dollars is not a rounding error. The loss of that kind of money hurts.\" All of the money was concealed in sacks of fertilizer chemicals in containers transported on commercial ships, Morton said. Watch investigators uncover cash \u00bb . \"When it's packed in very large containers, it's extremely difficult to probe; it's extremely difficult to X-ray. And so it was a very good means of concealing currency,\" he said. The ports of Buenaventura and Manzanillo are key points along a well-known route used for smuggling cocaine northward to Mexico and then on to the United States, and for sending cash back into Colombia, where most of the cocaine originates, ICE said in a news release. Morton called the smugglers \"very, very sophisticated,\" saying they were using the lawful shipping trade to send drug profits from the U.S. through Mexico to Colombia. Morton said the money will be forfeited in accordance with the laws of the nations where it was seized, with Colombia keeping $28 million and Mexico getting $13 million. \"None of these monies will be forfeited to the United States,\" he said. While large, this month's cash seizure is not a record. In March of 2007, officials in Mexico officials confiscated $207 million in cash in what was then called the largest drug-related cash seizure in history. ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, investigating financial crime, trade fraud, narcotics smuggling and cash smuggling, the agency said. ICE was established in 2003 after the Homeland Security Act of 2002. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Joint operation nets about $41 million in cash hidden in shipping containers .\nMexican, Colombian authorities working with U.S. agents seize money in 2 ports .\nU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement calls ports key points in drug trade route .","id":"7cc93b9973ef34eded9db3b862120f516079a208"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- As the man in the Dodgers jersey walked quickly around the perimeter of the infield, fans poured down from the bleachers begging for autographs. Pitbull says he learns from setbacks: \"Usually the negatives turned out to be the most positive for me.\" No, it wasn't home run king Manny Ramirez. It was Armando Christian Perez, the Cuban-American rapper better known as Pitbull. In five years, he's gone from a mouthy Miami street hustler to a chart-topping hip-hop star whose infectious Caribbean beats have enticed crossover audiences to swing their hips and sing along -- even taking on some of the words in Spanish. His fourth studio album, \"Rebelution,\" debuted in the Top 10 on the mainstream Billboard chart. But Pitbull's growing profile means nada as he takes the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game. \"I'm the only Cuban who never picked up a baseball in his life,\" he said, preparing. He awkwardly winds up and releases the pitch. It falls short, bouncing on the ground before reaching the plate. \"One more try!\" he signals. The second attempt is closer to the mark. It's symbolic of Pit's career. \"It's not how you start. It's how you finish it,\" he likes to say. Watch how Pitbull leads his \"Rebelution\" \u00bb . Tommy Lasorda, the legendary Dodgers manager, is waiting to bust his chops as he leaves the infield. Later, we get the scoop on the conversation. (By the way, the Dodgers won that game.) CNN: Tommy Lasorda was out there giving you a little bit of grief. Pitbull: Tommy Lasorda told me, \"It was the worst throw I've ever seen in my life!\" I said, \"Well, I'll throw you in the studio. You rap, I'll play baseball.\" He goes, \"I'll rap a whole lot better than that throw!\" (Laughs) CNN: How much do you deflect things with humor? Pitbull: [Humor is] everything. Everything. Usually the negatives turned out to be the most positive for me. In the music industry, any other artist would have looked at the situation I was in and thought, \"Oh man, this is not for me.\" I looked at it more like [Darwin exploring] the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands. You know -- survival of the fittest. CNN: Were you a troublemaker growing up? Pitbull: Not a troublemaker. I'm sharp. Slick, if you want to call it. What the street taught me how to do is how to hustle. How to make something out of nothing. CNN: In the music industry, street cred may help an artist. Pitbull: Anybody who's made it out of the street -- they want to do this (places index finger over his lips). Shh. CNN: Even though some of the struggles are similar, there doesn't seem to be a lot of crossover between African-American hip-hop artists and Latin-American hip-hop artists. Pitbull: You can't get a Diddy or Jay-Z to speak to the Latins. It's not gonna happen. There's a force field where they said, \"OK, we're going to let you here -- but that's it.\" Diddy got the closest. Why? Because he had J. Lo. The only reason my grandmother knows Puff Daddy is because of J. Lo. But he couldn't cross that barrier. So as far as myself -- I guess I'm their role model. CNN: How much do you want to cross over? Pitbull: I have respect for Jay-Z and Diddy for what they did in the hip-hop game. But I want to be Celia Cruz. I want to be Gloria Estefan [both were born in Cuba]. I want to enterprise -- open clubs and restaurants. They've done it also -- but those are who I look up to. CNN: Your parents were both born in Cuba. Pitbull: They didn't want to leave Cuba! They would have stayed in Cuba. They didn't want to get out of there. There were forced out of that country. CNN: How did they come to Miami? Pitbull: My grandmother fought in the [Cuban] revolutionary war actually with Castro, because everybody thought that Batista was corrupt. I'm not saying that he wasn't, but it's almost like the lesser of two evils. [When she became disillusioned with the Castro government], my mother and my aunt got sent off in an operation called Peter Pan without their parents. She didn't see her mother for seven years. As far as my father -- he came over also. He didn't come in the Peter Pan, but they fled the country. CNN: Would you ever go to Cuba and play a concert there? Pitbull: No way. I'd never go to Cuba and play a concert. [I'd consider playing there] as soon as I know that it's confirmed that Castro's out of there. I mean, if you ask me, I think Castro's been dead for years. He handed power to Ra\u00fal, and he slips pictures here and there. He keeps giving these pictures to the media with the same shirt on -- same jacket, same everything. CNN: How do you feel about other artists of your generation who feel compelled to go and perform in Cuba as kind of an olive branch? Pitbull: Juanes just did it. Papa, you can't change Cuba. History will tell you that you can't change Cuba. I respect him as an artist -- he's like U2, the Bono of Spanish. I don't respect his decision. Maybe he doesn't really understand it at the end of the day because he's not Cuban. [Juanes is Colombian.] . But to each his own. There's too much suffering, too much pain from people who left that island, that have come over here and tried to change their life. CNN: Even though you were born in America, how much are you influenced by your Cuban roots? Pitbull: My mother, she's like, \"Look, you're American, son. You were born here in the States.\" My father? My father said, \"You're Cuban-American.\" My mother would call me Chris, because my middle name's Christian. My father would say, \"No, your name's Armando.\" But in my blood, what it tells me is, \"You're Cuban-American.\" The music is what makes you, the food is what makes you, the way you've been taught mentally.","highlights":"Pitbull has had some crossover success; his new album debuted in Top 10 .\nHip-hop artist has Cuban heritage, has balanced that with American upbringing .\nHe says he's not fazed by failure: negatives can lead to positives, he says .","id":"bd5cb61e90af79a8e3ac5140fe5a56c9b869302f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Public Utility Commission of Texas will review the case of a cancer patient fighting to keep her electricity on to power her oxygen machine, the commission told CNN on Wednesday. Mable Randon, who has stage 4 cancer, was denied help paying for electricity, which she needs to power her oxygen tank. CNN affiliate KHOU of Houston, Texas, said calls poured in from as far away as Connecticut after the station aired its story on Mable Randon, a stage 4 cancer patient who received a cutoff notice after she fell behind on her bills. \"I'm on a set income,\" she told KHOU. \"My husband lost his job. He finds a little work every now and then, but it's hard.\" She applied to CenterPoint Energy's Critical Care Program which helps maintain service for people who depend on electric-powered life support systems, but she was rejected. \"I'm fighting for my life, and I thought people at the power company would help me,\" said Randon, who uses a wheelchair. \"I just thought they'd make some kind of exception for me.\" Randon's power will stay on until the commission examines the facts in the case, said Terry Hadley, spokesman for the commission. CenterPoint told Randon she failed to meet the criteria. Spokeswoman Alicia Dixon told KHOU that Randon could have bought a battery-powered oxygen machine. The critical care program has thousands of applicants, and only 300 of them have been accepted, she said. \"This program is a communication program, not a guarantee of uninterrupted power, even to customers who are on the list,\" she said. Since the rejection, Randon said she is \"up and down all night,\" partly because she is worried about whether the power will be on when she wakes up. \"They have no consideration for life,\" she said. \"It's just like they don't care.\" CenterPoint spokeswoman Leticia Lowe said the company does not send electric bills; it merely owns the wires and poles and is directed to disconnect power by retail electric providers. Randon's electric company is Freedom Power, she said. CNN's attempts to contact Freedom Power were unsuccessful Wednesday. As of Tuesday, CenterPoint had not received a notice from Freedom Power to disconnect Randon's service, Lowe said. Following the KHOU report, CenterPoint received calls from viewers, she said. But the company can do nothing since they don't bill Randon. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mable Randon, a stage 4 cancer patient, got a cutoff notice after falling behind on bill .\nShe applied for critical care program, was told to buy battery-operated oxygen tank .\n\"I'm fighting for my life, and I thought people at the power company would help me\"\nPublic Utility Commission of Texas reviewing Randon's case .","id":"241bd3c28c849baae34b4bd9917d31f06f8e9a00"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The rules governing air traffic over New York's Hudson River need to be rewritten to prevent another mishap like this month's fatal collision of a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter, federal safety investigators said Thursday. The wreckage of a plane that collided with a helicopter is lifted this month from the Hudson River. The recommendation comes three weeks after nine people were killed when the two aircraft collided in the congested airspace bordering Manhattan. The recommendation is noteworthy both because of its sweeping nature and its timing. Ordinarily, the National Transportation Safety Board makes recommendations at the conclusion of its investigation, which typically take a year. But in a letter to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said that based on preliminary findings, the safety board is concerned about the \"safety of flight\" over the Hudson River. She outlined a series of changes, among them requiring that helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft fly at different altitudes over the river. She made specific reference to \"the performance of air traffic controllers\" at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, who were monitoring the plane's flight during the August 8 collision. \"The NTSB is concerned with the complacency and inattention to duty evidenced by the actions of the [Teterboro] controller and the supervisor during the events surrounding this accident,\" Hersman wrote. Hersman said the pilot of the aircraft requested permission to climb to 3,500 feet minutes before the crash. But because there was no coordination between controllers at Teterboro and Newark airports, controllers did not grant the request, increasing the risk of a collision in Hudson River low-altitude airspace known as the \"exclusionary zone,\" she said. Pilots in the exclusionary zone are not separated by air traffic controllers, and instead use visual \"see and avoid\" tactics. The Teterboro controller was making a personal phone call and \"was not fully engaged in his duties\" in the minutes leading up to the accident, Hersman said. His supervisor, meanwhile, had left the building on a personal errand without informing the controller. The air traffic controller's inappropriate phone call \"likely would not have been permitted\" if the supervisor had been in the tower, Hersman said. The FAA on Thursday did not comment on the NTSB recommendation, but said a task force studying flight operations above the Hudson River will soon submit its findings. And the air traffic controllers union defended its member, saying he had handed off the plane's pilot to another radar tower before the helicopter appeared on his radar scope. \"The NTSB again has rushed to wrongly blame the air traffic controller in this incident,\" said Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. \"The bottom line here is that the controller is not responsible for contributing to this tragic accident. ... We cannot provide traffic advisories to aircraft we are not talking to, cannot see on radar or are not a factor at all.\" Forrey said the NTSB \"inexplicably\" made its recommendations before the FAA task force had finished its job. \"The task force is due to release its report next week. So why the rush?\" Forrey said. In its letter, the NTSB asks the FAA to establish a special flight rules area, or SFRA, for the class B exclusion areas near New York City; require vertical separation between helicopters and airplanes in these SFRAs; require pilots to complete specific training on the SFRA requirements before flight within the area; and conduct a review of other airspace configurations where specific pilot training and familiarization would improve safety.","highlights":"NTSB advises rule changes over Hudson River after August 8 crash .\nNine people were killed when helicopter, small plane collided .\nOne proposal: Make helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft fly at different altitudes over river .\nNTSB makes recommendation before end of crash probe -- a rare move .","id":"22bc5c4024249d0649ee8cd81818b75ec480aa44"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Going to the beach has become a lot like looking for hotel accommodations: If it has a one-star ranking, you know you're in for nothing but trouble. A new report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council ranked the water quality of 200 U.S. coastal beaches using a five-star guide, and the results are far from a day at the beach. Laguna Beach in Orange County, California, is one of the NRDC's five-star beaches for water quality. \"Nationwide, 7 percent of beach water samples are so contaminated with human or animal waste that they're not conducive for swimming,\" said Nancy Stoner, co-director of the NRDC's water program and lead author for the report. \"For the fourth year in a row, NRDC found that there were more than 20,000 beach closings last year because of human or animal waste in the water.\" Pollutants found in beach water are frequently the result of storm water or sewage overflow, and it's not something to take lightly, especially if small children, pregnant women or the elderly are spending time in the surf. Swimming in polluted water can lead to ear infections and stomach viruses, as well as more serious diseases like meningitis and hepatitis, Stoner said. The Environmental Protection Agency sets a standard for beach water quality, and when water quality tests reveal that pollution has exceeded that standard, the beach is closed. \"The problem,\" Stoner said, \"is that it does take 24 hours or longer to produce test results,\" meaning if the beach was contaminated on Thursday, you won't know about it until Friday. And once those results are produced, there's no guarantee that the cause is identifiable. While storm water and sewage are often the culprit for closures, for 62 percent of the 20,000 beach closures that occurred last year, the cause of the pollution was unknown. But with precious few weeks of beach season left, now is not the time to avoid sand and surf like the plague. Thankfully, not all beaches are polluted equally -- the NRDC hands out five stars to beaches that meet health standards more than 95 per cent of the time and quickly notify beach goers with signs and Internet alerts when there's a potential problem. Standout states include Delaware, New Hampshire and Virginia, which boast having pristine, nearly pollution-free shores. Virginians however should take note: Fairview Beach in King George County is certainly not one of those. According to Stoner, this beach is considered to be one of the worst offenders, particularly because it consistently fails more than 25 percent of its water quality tests. Hands down, one of the best beaches is Ocean City, Maryland, which does well year after year because of its clean water and strict water quality monitoring, two factors that earned the popular East Coast beach five stars. In nearby Delaware, Dewey and Bethany beaches also earned a stamp of approval from the NRDC. Newport Beach and Laguna Beach are two of California's five-star beaches, but stay away from Doheny Beach and Avalon Beach, which both failed more than 25 percent of their water quality tests in 2008. If you're in the Great Lakes region and looking for quality beach time, strongly consider booking a trip to one of the coasts. \"From 2005 to 2008, the Great Lakes consistently tested the dirtiest. In 2008, 13 percent of beach water samples violated public health standards,\" Stoner said. But no matter which beach you frequent, five-star or not, you should always take precautions by avoiding beaches with obvious sources of pollution, like nearby open pipes and trash. Wait at least 24 hours after a heavy rain before hitting the waves again, allowing potential pollutants to dissipate. To see how your closest beach stacks up, visit http:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/.","highlights":"New study ranked 200 U.S. beaches according to water quality tests .\nDelaware, New Hampshire and Virginia have the cleanest beach water .\nOcean City, Maryland, consistently ranks as one of the best for water quality .\nFairview Beach in Virginia consistently ranks as one of the worst .","id":"811846da19bee354612d23499076d465f78c3391"} -{"article":"DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) -- Irish voters are going to the polls again Friday -- to vote on a treaty they rejected just over a year ago. Prime Minister Brian Cowen gets out the 'vote yes' message in Tullamore. But this time round, opinion polls indicate the \"yes\" campaign to adopt the Lisbon Treaty and its rules for governing an expanded European Union will be successful. The EU has made assurances to Ireland that the Lisbon Treaty will not affect the country's abortion laws or its neutrality and that Ireland will keep a European Commissioner. In the weeks leading up to the vote, Dublin was awash with posters for both sides of the emotional argument. \"Yes\" posters reminded voters how much Ireland has benefited financially from being inside the European Union. \"No\" placards questioned whether Ireland will lose its military neutrality, its anti-abortion laws and its minimum wage despite the EU assurances. Just more than half -- 53 percent -- of Irish voters said \"No\" to the Lisbon Treaty in June 2008, throwing the future structure of the European Union into doubt as all member states have to ratify the treaty before it can be adopted. Lisbon is the plan to modernize the EU's structure after it expanded to 27 members, with most of the new member states coming from Eastern Europe. Ireland has just one percent of the EU's population but its \"no\" vote effectively stopped adoption of the Lisbon Treaty across the continent. So, the Dublin government is holding another referendum Friday in the hope of this time getting a \"yes\" vote. No other EU citizens have been allowed to vote on the treaty as national parliaments have ratified the treaty. And to date only Poland and the Czech Republic governments have held up the final passage of the treaty in their own countries. But Ireland's constitution mandates citizens must be allowed to vote on any major changes to its own governmental structure. A handful of Dublin taxi drivers told CNN they would vote no because they see no reason to give to Brussels the powers that Ireland fought hard to wrestle away from Britain. \"No\" campaigner Brendan Young, from a group called People Before Profit, put it bluntly: \"People having had experience of benign British presence don't want to be going fighting Britain's wars, or anybody else's.\" But the \"no\" campaign is a rag bag of groups that have little in common. Young says he is pro-Europe but does not want Irish tax money to pay for Europe's military structure. To illustrate the diverging political viewpoints in the \"no\" campaign, Young was not happy that the United Kingdom Independence Party was in Dublin and on his side. UKIP is an anti-European Union, British party and it finds itself on the same side as Sinn Fein, the anti-British, nationalist party. Conservative anti-abortion catholic groups also press the \"no\" case. \"When I see the UK Independence Party join up with Sinn Fein and religious extremists, I must be on the right side,\" laughed Michael Wall, a \"yes\" campaigner. He said he volunteered to hand out leaflets because he says last year the pro-Lisbon Treaty lobby took a \"yes\" for granted. He says by talking about what is actually in the treaty -- a document most people last time round admitted they had not read -- he has changed minds. \"I have met a lot of people on the campaign who voted no the last time. Voted no out of anger, voted no because of the arrogance of politicians who put their faces on the posters when the issue wasn't about, say, local elections,\" Wall said. \"A lot of people have changed their mind and I think they should be given that opportunity\" by getting to vote a second time. But Ireland is going through one of the worst recessions of any developed nation since the 1930s. There are no green shoots on the emerald island. Property prices have collapsed, unemployment doubled in a year and for the first time in nearly 20 years, emigration is back. The government is very unpopular and the business community worries this will influence voting. \"The biggest concern is that it will be a \"no\" on the basis of people's anger about domestic policy issues rather than the treaty itself,\" says Patricia Callan, of the Small Firms Association. Business is at the fore of the \"yes\" vote this time around. At the U.S. tech giant Intel, Jim O'Hara, its General Manager of Ireland, said he had to persuade his boss this vote was critical. \"I had to go and convince the Intel Corporation,\" he said. \"And quite frankly Paul Otellini, when I spoke to him, the CEO, wasn't that particularly interested in the issues. I convinced him that it was good for Ireland and good for our business in Ireland.\" Results are not expected until Saturday.","highlights":"Ireland votes on treaty covering expansion of European Union .\nVoters rejected treaty in 2008 but have new EU assurances this time .\nA 'no' vote would delay, and possibly kill, implementation of the treaty EU-wide .\nOpinion polls indicate the 'yes' campaign will succeed this time .","id":"24e44440753094022b9e0bb0b5849f3b3f19a1bf"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- When Max Records auditioned for the \"Where the Wild Things Are\" (out Friday) role of Max, the precocious boy in a dirty white wolf suit who sails to an island full of fearsome horned monsters and becomes their even more fearsome king, he arrived with one advantage -- and it wasn't his first name. Max Records plays Max in the film adaptation of the children's book \"Where the Wild Things Are.\" \"I had memorized all the lines,\" the now-12-year-old acting novice from Portland, Oregon, told EW earlier this year. \"I was totally obsessed with the book, like from the age of half a year old to, like, 4. So I was really familiar with it.\" (Ah, the perspective of youth.) Of course, Maurice Sendak's 1963 kid-lit masterpiece is a picture book containing just 10 sentences. But Records clearly has a deep feel for the material. \"It's not moralistic or patronizing. It's not 'Johnny did something bad and had to apologize.' It's about being a kid. It's just real.\" Spike Jonze, the auteur behind \"Adaptation\" and \"Being John Malkovich,\" told EW he initially balked when offered the project more than a decade ago -- by no less than Sendak himself. \"I felt it was just so perfect in the form in which it already existed,\" said Jonze. \"I didn't know what more you'd add to flesh it into a movie, or even why you would want to add to it.\" He's reluctant to share too many details, but says his live-action adaptation elaborates on the world of the wild things as well as Max's relationship with his mom (Catherine Keener) and her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo). Jonze began shooting in 2006, but by 2008 the movie was not yet finished and there were reports that Warner Bros. wanted the whole thing reshot. Not true, says Jonze and producer Vincent Landay, though both admit the production was a long, challenging process -- from finding a naturalistic way to depict the fantasy world (\"I wanted everything to feel like it had really happened, not fabricated with CGI,\" says Jonze) to filming in the remote wilderness of Australia to getting emotionally resonant performances from Records, the puppet monsters, and the voice cast (including James Gandolfini and Forest Whitaker). Laughs Jonze, \"We made it really, really hard on ourselves.\" Here are more EW Picks for the week of October 11: . Movies . \"The Stepfather\" (out Friday). The original 1987 \"Stepfather\" -- about a seemingly kind man who marries a vulnerable widow and then reveals himself to be a murderous psychopath -- spawned two sequels, launched the career of future \"Lost\" star Terry O'Quinn, and then pretty much disappeared. Now, like a horror-movie baddie you were sure was dead, \"The Stepfather\" is back for more. This remake stars \"Gossip Girl's\" Penn Badgley as a teen who returns from military school to find that a suspicious new guy (Dylan Walsh) has moved in with his divorced mom (Sela Ward). \"Dylan looks so accessible and sincere and warm,\" says Ward. \"I guess Ted Bundy did too.\" Okay, now we're creeped out. \"Law Abiding Citizen\" (out Friday). Gerard Butler goes from family man to the meanest vigilante since Charles Bronson matching with Jamie Foxx in this action-thriller from director F. Gary Gray (\"The Italian Job\"). TV . \"Hell's Kitchen\" season finale (8 p.m., Tuesday, Fox). What \"Hell's Kitchen\" lacks in substance, it makes up for in style, and its slickly edited season finale is a sizzling nail-biter. Kitchen newbies will have no trouble following along as the three remaining chefs -- egotistical Kevin, coolheaded Ariel, and \"one-armed bandit\" Dave -- battle for Gordon Ramsay's foulmouthed approval. \"The Newlywed Game\" (6 p.m., Tuesday, GSN). George Takei and Brad Altman compete tonight, marking the first time a gay couple has ever been on the game show. \"30 Rock\" (9:30 p.m., Thursday, NBC). \"30 Rock\" is back? We want to go to there. NBC execs and Jay Leno, however, might not be so eager to visit, as Tina Fey kicks off season 4 with a barbed broadside against network programmers: When Jack (Alec Baldwin) forces Liz (Fey) to add a mainstream-friendly cast member to broaden her show's audience, Tracy Morgan's Tracy sweats his appeal to the common man, while Jenna (Jane Krakowski) gives herself a heartland-pandering country makeover. The satire on play-it-safe execs is wickedly droll. Also make sure to stay till the end to see Fey and Baldwin give a bitchy, meta \"welcome\" to their lead-out, Leno, whom Fey already jabbed at the Emmys by thanking NBC for keeping \"30 Rock\" on even though it's \"more expensive than a talk show.\" Music . \"Christmas In the Heart,\" Bob Dylan (out Tuesday). What's that blowin' in the winter wind? Sounds like holiday cheer. Profits go to the hunger-relief charity Feeding America. \"Crazy Love,\" Michael Bubl\u00e9 (out Tuesday). Due, no doubt, to the success of his adult-contemporary smash \"Home,\" the neo-Rat Pack crooner makes a few too many soft-rock concessions on his new studio disc. Covering the Eagles, as Bubl\u00e9 does with a hokey version of \"Heartache Tonight,\" seems way beneath a singer with his level of style. Still, there's no denying the sexy-jerk swagger Bubl\u00e9 brings to \"Cry Me a River,\" which here sounds like a Bond-movie theme, or to \"Baby (You've Got What It Takes),\" a funky duet with Brooklyn soul sister Sharon Jones. \"Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates,\" Hall & Oates box set (out Tuesday). Collecting the best of the blue-eyed soul smoothies, and making fans' dreams come true. EW recently asked Daryl Hall to fill us in on his personal favorites; for the record: \"She's Gone,\" \"Sara Smile,\" \"Every Time You Go Away,\" \"You Make My Dreams,\" and \"One on One.\" DVD . \"The Proposal\" (out Tuesday). Yes, it's a rip-off of 1990's \"Green Card.\" And sure, you can see every plot twist driving down Fifth Avenue. So the fact that \"The Proposal\" winds up as breezy and entertaining as it does qualifies as some sort of Hollywood miracle. Sandra Bullock plays an icy book editor about to get deported back to Canada unless she can find an American husband, stat. Ryan Reynolds is her long-suffering assistant, who conveniently happens to be single. Sham nuptials ensue. As the groom's dirty-bird grandma, Betty White is a hoot -- and frankly, the ho-hum extras (director's commentary, lame outtakes) could've used more of her. \"Drag Me to Hell\" (out Tuesday). Welcome back, Sam Raimi! The Spider-Man director returns to his delirious \"Evil Dead\" roots for \"Drag Me to Hell,\" a kick-ass ghost story about a bank officer (Alison Lohman) who denies a loan to the wrong gypsy woman. There are curses, maggots and -- thanks to this unrated version -- lots more gore and goo. Extras include a fantastic production diary. Books . \"Nine Dragons,\" Michael Connelly (out Tuesday). Michael Connelly writes fast-paced best-sellers that critics praise for their sharp characterizations and fluid storytelling. The appearance of a third Connelly title in a year would be excellent news if \"Nine Dragons,\" his latest offering, didn't read like it had been scribbled during a red-eye from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, the two cities where the slapdash action unfolds. \"Chronic City,\" Jonathan Lethem (out Tuesday). Lethem's latest novel follows the blank, descriptively named former teen actor Chase Insteadman as he floats, increasingly disoriented and adrift, between two New York worlds: one glamorous and social, the other bohemian and intellectual. Thick with paranoia, pot smoke and pop culture references (both real and made-up), \"Chronic City\" is a feverish portrait of the anxiety and isolation of modern Manhattan, full of dark humor and dazzling writing. The book's zonked philosophizing about the nature of reality wears a little thin, but Lethem's claustrophobic vision of a world where everything is connected and nothing is as it seems proves both funny and frightening. For pop culture picks for today, click here, plus see what's new this week in movies, music, TV and more. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Entertainment Weekly's top pick of the week: \"Where the Wild Things Are\"\nEmmy-winning \"30 Rock\" returns Thursday with a poke at network execs .\nUnusual music release: Bob Dylan's Christmas album .","id":"a28dac0f65d437701a18bb17cd997105d9ca9863"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of the Internet's great promises is that it's the ultimate democratizer. It's open to everyone and allows all people to communicate. Facebook and Google have added new translation tools, but they take different approaches. But, so far, there have been several hitches in that plan. Not everyone has access to a computer and a broadband connection. Some governments still censor the Internet. And of course, we don't all speak the same language. For the World Wide Web to be truly global, shouldn't Chinese speakers be able to chat online with people who only speak Spanish? And why should an English speaker be barred from reading blogs written in Malagasy or Zulu? Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. are two Web companies trying particularly hard to make this happen, and they've released a number of updates to their translation services in recent weeks. The two online giants are going about the process in different ways. Facebook aims to translate the Web using an army of volunteers and some hired professional translators. Meanwhile, Google plans to let computers do most of the work. Which method will ultimately prevail remains to be seen. But for now, here's a look at the latest language features from both companies, and some background on how their translation services work. (Feel free to add your own Internet translation tips -- and fun translation bloopers -- in the comments section at the bottom of the story): . Facebook's human translation . Many tech bloggers think Facebook's method of human translation seems promising. After all, the American-born social networking site introduced non-English languages for the first time only in January 2008. Now about 70 percent of Facebook's 300 million users are outside of the United States. How it works: Real people are at the heart of Facebook translation plan. They suggest translated phrases and vote on translations that others have submitted. These crowd-sourced edits -- which work kind of like Wikipedia -- make Facebook's translation service smarter over time. Go to Facebook's translation page to check it out or to participate. Size: More than 65 languages function on Facebook now, according to Facebook's statistics. At least another 30 languages are in the works, meaning Facebook needs help working out the kinks on those languages before they're put to use. What's new? Facebook announced in a blog post on September 30 that the social network has made its crowd-sourced translation technology available to other sites on the Web. The update allows sites to install a translation gadget on their sites through Facebook Connect, a service that lets Facebook users sign in on other Web pages. Facebook also added some new languages, including Latin and \"Pirate,\" which translates the Facebooky word \"share\" as \"blabber t'yer mates!\" Pros and cons: People are good at knowing idioms and slang, so Facebook tends to get these right, but there are limited numbers of multi-lingual volunteers who want to spend time helping Facebook translate things. Also, Facebook's site is available in many languages, but its human translators don't touch wall posts, photo comments and other user-submitted items, which is a big con if you want to have friends who don't share a common language with you. People who use Facebook Connect to translate their sites can choose which text they want users to help translate, according to Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich. Craig Ulliott, founder of whereivebeen.com, said he's excited about Facebook's translation application, but it would be too much to ask his site's users to translate user-submitted material. Google's 'mechanical' translation . Google uses mathematical equations to try to translate the Web's content. This fits in line with the company's mission, which is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to all. How it works: Google's computers learn how to be translators by examining text that's already on the Web, and from professional Web translations posted online, said Franz Och, a principal scientist at Google. The more text is out there, the more Google learns and the better its translations become. The search-engine company currently translates documents, search results and full Web pages. Size: Google claims to be the largest free language translation service online. It covers 51 languages and more than 2,500 language pairs. The site's interface has been translated, with the help of Google users, into 130 languages. What's new?: Google recently created a widget that any Web developer can put on his or her page to offer up Google translations. So, say you're a blogger who writes about music. You might get some Brazilian readers if you offered up a button to translate your site into Portuguese. Google also recently unveiled a translation service for Google Docs, which lets anyone upload a document to the Web and have it translated into a number of languages for free. And there's a new Firefox add-on from Google to help people translate the Web more quickly. Och said real-time translation of Internet chats is on the horizon, as are more languages and increased quality as Google's computers get smarter. Pros and cons: Google's computerized approach means it can translate tons of content -- and fast. But computers aren't quite up to speed with ever-evolving modern speech, so reports of translation errors are fairly common. On the plus side, the service has been vastly improved in the last five years, Och said. Also, Google lets people spot translation errors, suggest new wordings and translate its interface into languages Google's computers don't speak just yet.","highlights":"Facebook and Google are finding new ways to translate the Web .\nFacebook favors human translation; Google leans on its computers .\nGoogle claims to be the largest translation service online, with 51 languages .\nFacebook announces a new service to let Internet users help translate sites .","id":"08378e23091638db1e704ac45d95ba18dfbd9e3f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What appears to be the outline of a child in a fetal position can be seen in a photograph of the trunk liner from the car driven by Casey Anthony, a Florida woman charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter, according to documents released in the case. Caylee Anthony's skeletal remains were found near her family's home in December. \"A very interesting photo exists of the trunk liner ... which highlights the very large stain,\" FBI Intelligence Analyst Karen Cowan writes to a colleague in a September 2008 e-mail contained among nearly 1,000 pages of documents released Tuesday. \"If you look closely at this photo, there appears to be the outline or silhouette of a child in the fetal position. You can make out what may be the back, bottom and legs most clearly.\" An FBI supervisory photographic technologist replied in a later e-mail, \"We do not report conclusions about what may or may not have left any marks or impressions in cases like this -- it is too speculative. Others can draw their own conclusions about that.\" Watch Nancy Grace report on the documents \u00bb . Anthony, 23, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her daughter, Caylee Anthony. Prosecutors have said they are seeking the death penalty against her. The child's skeletal remains were found in December in a wooded area about a half-mile from the home where Caylee and her mother lived with Casey Anthony's parents. The cause of Caylee's death is homicide by undetermined means, authorities have said. Police released documents this year showing they believed that Caylee was slain within days of the time she was last seen and that her body was in the trunk of her mother's car for \"a period of time.\" An attorney for Casey Anthony's parents, Brad Conway, released more documents Wednesday, according to CNN affiliate WESH. Among them were results of an FBI test that show fibers taken from duct tape found across Caylee's mouth do not match similar fibers from tape that was found on a gas can in the Anthonys' garage, the station reported. \"It was easy in the beginning to say, 'Well, you know, the duct tape on the gas can and the duct tape at the crime scene, they're similar,' and people draw conclusions from that,\" Conway said. \"Now we have an FBI report that says they're dissimilar, that they're not matched. Now I think the view of the land is a little bit more accurate than it was six months ago.\" In a May interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" George and Cindy Anthony said they believe that their daughter is innocent. Other documents released Tuesday by authorities show that: . \u2022 Unidentified female DNA found on the duct tape on Caylee's mouth was matched to a female FBI agent involved in processing the site where the remains were found. \u2022 A hair found in the trunk of the car is consistent with that being from a dead body, although authorities cannot say that for sure. The hair is also consistent with that taken from Caylee's hairbrush and is different from Casey Anthony's hair. An FBI agent says in an e-mail that it would be good to have more than one hair showing decomposition, if others are found, because there could be some \"random possibility of why one hair would look like that.\" CNN's Natisha Lance contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI intelligence analyst speculated on photo in September 2008 e-mail .\n\"We do not report conclusions ... in cases like this,\" supervisor replied .\nCasey Anthony is charged with murder in death of 3-year-old daughter .\nPolice believe that Caylee's body was in mother's car trunk .","id":"b38849a4198db972896a14d9e1608592dd7781c8"} -{"article":"YORK, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The city of York is steeped in history. The central Pennsylvania town was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and it was even, briefly, the nation's capital. A week of race riots in York, Pennsylvania, left two dead 39 years ago. Sen. Hillary Clinton's rally here Saturday, on the corner of Market and Beaver Streets, was down the block from a local landmark that touches on a less-heralded chapter in the city's history: the site of the monument that wasn't. A few months ago, Mayor John Brenner and others pushed for a memorial at the corner of George and Market Streets, in the center of town, that would remind York residents of a deadly week of race riots 39 years ago. The violence claimed two victims: police officer Henry Schaad, and minister's daughter Lillie Belle Allen, in murders that went unsolved for decades. Schaad was white, Allen black. But disputes over nearly every aspect of the project brought emotional responses that seemed to split along racial lines, including disagreements over inspiration, location and design. The process stalled entirely a few weeks ago, as organizers went back to the drawing board. This dispute is emblematic of the divide facing both Democratic candidates in next Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary. \"The issue of race has touched this community, much more deeply than it has in other places. It's not in the forefront, it's not usually discussed, but that issue has been very important to people here,\" said local NAACP chapter president Eric Kirkland, in a row house just off George St., the main drag that bisects the city's downtown. \"Historically, this has been a very racially hostile area. Race relations have always been strained here. There's an old guard, and they have those old ideas,\" he said. But the face of York itself has changed. A decade ago, the town was 70 percent white. City officials say black and Latino residents now make up roughly 45 percent of the population of 41,000. Sen. Barack Obama is expected to win the overwhelmingly Democratic town, locals say, and Clinton has the edge in York County, an area dominated by white, working-class, conservative voters -- a group that has largely backed the New York senator this year. But presidential loyalties here this primary season don't fall neatly along racial lines -- York's residents are split between the two candidates in patterns that defy traditional assumptions. Neatly manicured lawns in some of the city's mostly white suburbs are dotted with Obama signs. In the city, a restaurant window near Newberry Street -- where Allen was killed nearly four decades ago -- has a Clinton sign taped to the inside glass. Seven years ago, the town's mayor and several other white men were arrested for Allen's 1969 murder. In the shadow of a pending indictment, Mayor Charlie Robertson -- up for re-election -- won the Democratic primary in 2001. He later stepped down. Eventually, he was acquitted by a local jury. Two others were convicted of murder and others took plea deals. In the wake of the trials, the city became a magnet for outside hate groups, who clashed with anti-racist demonstrators in the center of town. In the years since, the most public division in York has been the measure of progress. Some, including Kirkland, say race is still a central issue here. Others -- including many resentful of the city's national notoriety after Robertson's arrest -- say it is not. But most residents fall somewhere in between, caught in a decades-long conversation that moves in fits and starts, spurred along by activists and city officials. The national dialogue may have turned to race this campaign season -- but in York, where the discussion has been on the agenda for years, many say they're all talked out. \"Race is here. It's an undercurrent,\" said York Mayor John Brenner, an Obama supporter. \"I do think in places like York that actually had civil unrest in the 1960s, I think we have more work to do. And we've done a lot of work in recent years. Most of our voters, I think, have moved on.\" Many of those voters -- among them Harley-Davidson factory workers, waitresses and home health aides -- echoed Brenner, saying their top concern had nothing to do with race, but with how they were going to pay their rent or afford health care. \"A few years ago, all those satellite trucks were parked out front for the trial, all those outsiders came to town for a week, and they had the story in their heads before they even got here,\" said mechanic Mike Davis, just outside the city's Central Market. \"You didn't see anyone from around here at the courthouse, except the families. But that case is all most people know about York. I know that's what they care about. But I have bigger things to worry about. Like my next mortgage payment.\" York has been slightly better off than many of Pennsylvania's hard-hit industrial areas, thanks to a more diverse local economy and an influx of new residents from neighboring Maryland that have made it one of the commonwealth's fastest-growing counties. But residents say that thousands of jobs have disappeared -- and with them, a way of life. \"I know we had that working-class tradition. I'm a product of it,\" said Brenner, whose father was a union electrician. \"I think York County has changed. That whole blue-collar model of the past just doesn't work anymore. It's still here, but it's not as strong as it used to be.\" Kirkland, who opposed Brenner's favored proposal for a race riot memorial, agrees with the assessment. \"There should be a memorial [to the victims of the riots]. But those are symbols. The reality is, the fundamental standard of living for people in this city has gotten worse, it's gotten much worse, since the trials. There are not enough jobs for people who need jobs. A monument isn't going to change that,\" he said. Kirkland is skeptical the city has truly moved beyond its headline-grabbing past. But he says the campaign, no matter who wins, has revealed a level of local progress on that front that has surprised many York residents. \"You travel the county, you travel the city, you travel the townships and most of the people want the same thing,\" he said. \"They want good jobs, a good education. They want to make sure they have decent health care. There's not a whole lot of difference there in terms of what people's needs are and wants are and desires are. \"I think things may be changing here, in the process of changing. It's like a lightbulb going on.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"York, Pennsylvania, was the site of deadly race riots in 1969 .\nIssue of race has touched the community, says local NAACP president .\nPresidential loyalties in York don't fall neatly along racial lines .\nSome skeptical the city has truly moved beyond its headline-grabbing past .","id":"7f09d75d0ac0d61057f42b517ad9e9150c6468fc"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- For the past three weeks in a row, Michael Jackson's \"Number Ones\" has been the biggest-selling album in the country. For the first time in a month, the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 is actually the No. 1 selling album. Each time, it's been disqualified from Billboard's flagship Billboard 200 chart, along with all Jackson's other releases, due to its age. That unusual run of asterisked Billboard 200 chart-toppers is now over. Which artist put an end to Jackson's posthumous flummoxing of the Billboard rules, you ask? The answer is Chris Daughtry, whose \"Leave This Town\" bows atop the chart with a very nice 269,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's actually a bit of a drop-off from the 304,000 that the first album from American Idol alum Chris Daughtry's band sold when it hit shelves in 2006, but it's more than anyone else could muster in this sales frame -- yes, even Michael. And so for the first time in a month, the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 is actually the No. 1 selling album in the U.S., no tricks, no fooling. (\"Number Ones,\" meanwhile, sold another 192,000 this week, landing it handily atop the Top Comprehensive Albums chart, which counts catalog albums alongside new ones. So don't think that MJ's sales have dried up just yet.) Other Billboard 200 debuts this week came from the Dead Weather's \"Horehound\" at No. 6, demonstrating that at least 51,000 devotees can be counted on to buy any side project Jack White dreams up. R&B singer Joe, shows up at No. 7 after signing over 49,000 units of his \"Signature\"; Twista fast-talked his way into 45,000 sales and a No. 8 bow; and Christian power-pop teens pureNRG squeak in at No. 20 with 22,000 copies sold. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Daughtry's \"Leave This Town\" tops chart with 269,000 copies sold .\nIn past weeks, Michael Jackson's \"Number Ones\" has been biggest-selling album .\nDaughtry's first album sold 304,000 when it was released in 2006 .\nOther top albums this week are from Dead Weather, Joe and Twista .","id":"21085ce7100c790cc3cc8166048ac75b44c850e3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An employee of a luxurious New York hotel has been arrested in connection with the slaying of a woman in one of the hotel's residential condominiums, police say. The Jumeirah Essex House is a landmark on Central Park South in New York. Derrick Praileau, 29, faces second-degree murder charges in connection with the death of Andree Bejjani, 44. Police said Bejjani, who was originally from Lebanon, had moved to New York from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and had been staying in a residential condominium at the Jumeirah Essex House since August. Bejjani's nude body was found Saturday afternoon on the 10th floor of the hotel on Central Park South. Her throat was slashed, authorities said. Police have not revealed a suspected motive for the slaying. \"This incident occurred in one of the private condominiums at The Essex House complex,\" the hotel said in a statement provided to CNN. \"Our sincere condolences go out to the victim's family and we have offered our full support during this difficult time.\" The statement continued: \"We understand that a hotel employee has been arrested pending charges in conjunction with this incident. We continue to fully cooperate with the police throughout their investigation.\" A message left with Praileau's defense attorney was not returned. The hotel referred to Praileau only as an employee, but the New York Daily News said he was its housekeeping manager, citing Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The 44-story Essex House opened in 1931, a landmark Art Deco building. It recently underwent a $90 million renovation. The hotel has more than 500 luxury rooms and suites, along with several privately-owned residences. One six-room unit is currently on the market for $8.25 million.","highlights":"Lebanese native Andree Bejjani, 44, found dead in condo Saturday .\nDerrick Praileau, 29, faces second-degree murder charges .\nPolice commissioner tells newspaper that Praileau was housekeeping manager .\nAuthorities have not revealed suspected motive .","id":"bc771c9621ce0f7aae5c7a8eb1cd7c46ce0f655b"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- A 17-year-old said Tuesday he is \"blessed\" that prosecutors dropped a murder charge against him in the beating death last month of a Chicago honors student. Derrion Albert, 16, was beaten to death September 24. His death was captured on video. \"I'm just happy to be out,\" Eugene Bailey said, a day after authorities announced they were dismissing the charge against him in the September 24 death of Derrion Albert. Police said Albert, a 16-year-old honors student, was an innocent bystander who ended up in the middle of a street fight between two factions of students from Christian Fenger Academy High School. His beating death was captured on video, which shows him being hit by a person wielding a piece of a railroad tie. Bailey said he considered Albert a \"good friend\" and approached police offering to help in their investigation. When police told him he appeared on the video, he said, he told them, \"No, that can't be me.\" Authorities searched his mother's home and found he did not own clothing and shoes like that seen on the participant thought to be him, he said. \"I'm just blessed to have my freedom,\" he said, adding that what happened to Albert \"shouldn't happen to anyone.\" Cook County prosecutors issued a statement Monday saying, \"While the charge against Bailey was brought in good faith based on witness accounts and identifications, additional information has developed during the ongoing investigation that warranted dismissal of the murder charge against Bailey at this time.\" \"I was kind of overwhelmed,\" said Bailey's mother, Ava Greyer. \"They wouldn't listen to me.\" She said she received an eviction notice after her son's arrest, but has since received a letter of apology. She said she didn't think that was right, however: \"You are innocent until proven guilty.\" \"I didn't raise no murderer,\" she said. \"He didn't murder nobody.\" \"We all talk about what is what out here and point fingers at one another. ... These kids need something to do,\" Greyer said. \"It's not gang-related. They get out of school -- once they're in school it's cool. Once they get out of school, the school says 'Forget 'em.' That's wrong. Get them some after-schooling programs, some recreation centers 20 hours a week.\" She said, \"That was sad, that was wrong what happened to Derrion. I wish that upon no one. But at the same time, we need to sweep around our doorsteps and see what we can do as a community to keep this from happening to somebody else's child.\" Prosecutors said that when school let out on September 24, Albert was on his way to a bus stop when two groups of students converged on the street and began fighting. Albert was approached by two members of one faction and struck in the head with a long piece of a wooden railroad tie, and then punched in the face, Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutors, has said. After being knocked out for a brief period, Albert regained consciousness and tried to move from the fight, but was then attacked by members of the opposing faction, Simonton said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Albert's death remains under investigation, prosecutors said Monday. Three other individuals still face murder charges: Silvanus Shannon, 19, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Riley, 18. All three appeared in court for a preliminary hearing Monday, but their cases were continued to Friday. Albert's death prompted President Obama, a former Chicago resident and Illinois senator, to send Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder to Chicago earlier this month. The two met with the city's mayor and community leaders to discuss possible remedies for violent youth crime. Albert's death was not an isolated incident: More than 30 youths suffered violent deaths in Chicago last year. \"We shouldn't have to worry about walking down the streets,\" Bailey said. \"We all live amongst each other.\"","highlights":"Eugene Bailey, 17, freed of charge in Derrion Albert's beating death .\nBailey says he was Albert's friend, approached police with offer of help .\nPolice say Albert was bystander who was caught in middle of gang fight .\nBeating was videotaped and police thought Bailey was in video .","id":"d09640b9db0d74244fde85e7983ff1a3aa00591e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman put on trial for wearing clothing deemed indecent by Sudanese authorities was jailed Monday for refusing to pay a court-ordered fine, her lawyer said. Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein was facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers. Lubna al-Hussein had faced 40 lashes for wearing pants deemed too tight and a blouse considered too sheer. The threat of lashes was dropped when a court found her guilty but ordered instead that she pay a fine. \"She is now in jail,\" her attorney Nabil Adib told CNN. \"She refused to pay the fine as a matter of principal.\" Al-Hussein will appeal her verdict in an effort to have the conservative Muslim government's decency law declared unconstitutional, Adib said by phone from Khartoum. Watch what outfit brought the charges \u00bb . \"We intend to file an appeal within the next three days, but we do not know how long it will take the court of appeals to decide on the case,\" Adib said. \"We expect it will happen in the next two to three weeks.\" He said al-Hussein could be in jail for a month unless her verdict is overturned. Al-Hussein, who was arrested in July, pleaded not guilty during her one-day trial Monday, he said. She was not allowed to call defense witnesses or present a defense case, he added. She was sentenced to pay 500 Sudanese pounds ($209) or face a month in prison, starting immediately, the lawyer said. \"She thinks that she did not have fair trial and a conviction was wrong so she did not want to pay the fine nor let anyone else pay on her behalf,\" Nadib said. Al-Hussein, a journalist who worked in the media department of the United Nations mission in Sudan, resigned from her U.N. position in order to waive her immunity as an international worker and face trial. Police lobbed tear gas at people outside the courthouse Monday, and closed roads leading to the courthouse before the trial began, al-Hussein told CNN before the hearing. Sudanese security forces roughly handled scores of al-Hussein supporters, injuring some and detaining 47 women, according to an eyewitness who spoke to CNN by phone. A Sudanese official accused \"the West\" of interfering in the case. Mohammed Khair, the information attach\u00e9 at the Sudan Consulate in Dubai, said the international campaign surrounding the case \"proves the West contributes only toward deepening (the) crisis.\" The human rights organization Amnesty International had previously called for the charges to be dropped. \"The manner in which this law has been used against women is unacceptable, and the penalty called for by the law -- up to 40 lashes -- abhorrent,\" Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa program, said in a statement. Al-Hussein was arrested along with 18 other women on July 3 at a Khartoum restaurant when police burst in and checked women for their clothing. \"I don't think she was targeted specifically,\" Adib said. \"They attack public and private parties and groups. They are called 'morality police' and she was just a victim of a round-up.\" Put your questions to Dutch activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali here . At the time of her arrest, she said, she was wearing pants, a blouse and a hijab, or a headscarf worn by Muslim women. Scores of protesters gathered outside the courtroom in Khartoum to support al-Hussein in early August, when she was last scheduled to be tried. The demonstrators carried banners and wore headbands with the messages, \"No return to the dark ages\" and \"No to suppressing women.\" Others demanded an amendment to the country's public order law that human rights activists say is vague on what constitutes indecent dress. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he is concerned about al-Hussein's case. \"The United Nations will make every effort to ensure that the rights of its staff members are protected,\" Ban said in July. \"The flogging is against the international human rights standards. I call on all parties to live up to their obligations under all relevant international instruments.\" In addition to the group of lawyers defending her, al-Hussein was also represented by two Egyptian defense attorneys, she said. CNN's Raja Razek and Elham Nakhlawi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman tried for wearing clothing deemed indecent jailed for refusing to pay fine .\nSudanese court spared female journalist lashing for wearing tight trousers .\nShe faced up to 40 lashes for wearing pants considered too tight .\nResigned U.N. position to avoid immunity afforded international workers .","id":"647e820b3ef154fa0cd83584f178e9b197917326"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service has just entered \"The Twilight Zone.\" \"The Honeymooners\" is one of 20 classic TV stamps that will soon find its way on the corner of envelopes. The classic show appears on one of 20 stamps released this week, featuring 1950s hit television shows. The first-class stamps include images of \"Dragnet,\" \"The Ed Sullivan Show,\" \"The Honeymooners,\" \"I Love Lucy,\" \"Lassie,\" \"The Lone Ranger,\" \"Ozzie and Harriet\" and \"Perry Mason.\" \"All of the classic television shows represented on these stamps represent the collective memory of a generation well deserving of entertainment,\" said James C. Miller III, a Postal Service board member. \"It was a generation that survived the Great Depression and fought World War II. They were pioneers -- creative geniuses -- who brought television shows of the 1950s into our homes, breaking new ground to provide entertainment for everyone.\" The retro-style stamps, featuring black-and-white images of the shows, were designed by Carl Herrman, an artist from Las Vegas, Nevada. The Postal Service releases several commemorative stamps annually. This year's releases have included civil rights pioneers, President Abraham Lincoln and author Edgar Allan Poe.","highlights":"New postage stamps will commemorate \"Golden Age of TV\"\n\"The Honeymooners,\" \"I Love Lucy\" among 20 classic TV shows honored .\nRetro-style stamps were designed by artist Carl Herrman .","id":"f353844408236550da154b6b173965ed659280e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A huge water main burst under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk, Maryland, Friday, sending muddy water erupting over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. Muddy water envelops the community of Dundalk, Maryland, on Friday. Many were left without power. The 72-inch main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Baltimore County Chief Executive Jim Smith told CNN. No injuries were reported, Smith said, but he urged residents to \"shelter in place\" and not to go into the knee- to chest-high water under any circumstances. \"This is not a game,\" Smith warned. Authorities set up a command center near the site of the break and swift-water boat rescue teams were standing by, he added. See water main break damage \u00bb . Resident David Johnson said he felt helpless as he stood outside his house and watched the dirty brown water creep up his lawn and approach his front door. It stopped inches away and his basement stayed dry. The worst part now, Johnson said, is the smell. \"Like sewage,\" he said. Shannon Woerner was at home in nearby Essex, Maryland, when he heard the news about the water main break -- and the call for boats. He loaded his kayak in his truck and headed to the scene. \"I just wanted to see if I could help,\" he said. Woerner said he assisted by ferrying car keys and other items across flooded streets to people who were cut off from their homes by the water. Standing at the corner of Court and McShane streets, Mike Pell, 34, watched the water slowly recede after the main was shut. Water covered the wheels of his pickup truck. \"My basement's done,\" he said, pointing to his shoulder to show the height of the water inside, where he and his fianc\u00e9e had their bedroom. \"All of our clothes are ruined,\" he said. He managed to get his two children, ages 2 and 3, to a dry area on the first floor of the house. \"Now I wonder who's going to pay for this. We don't have flood insurance -- this area doesn't flood,\" Pell said, shaking his head. Samantha Hansley, 21, could only watch from a dry hill and wonder if her truck would survive the deluge. It sat a block away in 2 feet of water. Hansley and her boyfriend had been driving out of the floodwaters when they stopped to try to help some stranded drivers. \"Our truck just died,\" she said. A manager at the Box and Save grocery store not far from the break site said the entire parking lot was flooded. Cathy Geisler said customers were still in the store Friday afternoon when police came to tell everyone to evacuate, except for essential personnel. \"We had customers, we were still doing business, then the electricity went out and we escorted everyone out of the store,\" Geisler said. She and another manager stayed behind in a building with no power. As she spoke on the phone with CNN, Geisler said police had come back to tell them to leave immediately and she abruptly hung up the phone. Aerial video from CNN affiliates WMAR and WBAL showed a collapsed roadway with massive amounts of water exploding over the area. Entire neighborhoods had flooded streets, and many residents were evacuated, authorities said. Eric Braughman, who lives on one of the flooded streets, told CNN he had \"thought something was up\" with the water Thursday when his faucets discharged brownish-orange water. \"My wife didn't give the baby a bath because it didn't look safe,\" Braughman said. Nearly 1,000 customers were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Company's Web site. The main break is part of a larger issue with failing infrastructure in many U.S. cities, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's Department of Public Works. Kocher cited two other huge main breaks in the Maryland and Washington D.C. area that were started from the same type of pipe that burst in Friday's incident. \"This is a national infrastructure crisis,\" Kocher said. CNN's Alec Miran in Dundalk, Maryland, contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Residents say water has damaged vehicles, homes and left sewage smell .\n72-inch main shut down after about two hours, county official says .\nCNN affiliate video shows collapsed roadway, massive amounts of water .\nNearly 1,000 were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric .","id":"baf1865dcec0ec55235d8f1a5eeeb888b7b76791"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 63-year-old bearded fireplug of a man erupted in tears, pulled a white handkerchief from his back pocket, carefully unfolded it and pressed it into his eyes, pulled it away, pressed it again to his eyes, this time with more force, pulled it away again just long enough to take a sip of water, then rubbed them again. Lula da Silva gets a kiss from bid committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman after the announcement Friday. \"I've never won a gift before,\" Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters. \"The first gift I ever had in my life I had to buy. It was an old bike with a broken belt and I had to fix it. Today, people who don't even know me gave me the greatest gift that a president could have: to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Rio deserves this because Rio is a city that has suffered.\" For Lula da Silva, Friday's announcement in Copenhagen, Denmark, that Rio de Janeiro will host the 31st Olympiad in 2016 signified a major achievement not only for his hemisphere (no city in South America has ever before hosted the games) but for him -- a former autoworker and union organizer who defied dizzying odds to become president. Lula da Silva was born to a peasant family in one of northeastern Brazil's most impoverished areas and migrated as a young man to a city near S\u00e3o Paulo, where he worked as a metalworker, losing his left pinky finger in the process. In the 1970s, he became a union leader, said Luiz Valente, chairman of the department of Portuguese and Brazilian studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. During the years of military rule from 1964 until 1985, the government cracked down on unions. But Lula da Silva acquired a reputation as a public figure by leading a successful strike in S\u00e3o Paulo, Valente told CNN in a telephone interview. \"He was able to negotiate a favorable contract for his union but, from a political standpoint, he demonstrated that worker strikes were possible again in Brazil,\" Valente said. During the early 1980s, as the military rulers' grip on control loosened, Lula da Silva helped found the leftist Workers' Party. In the late 1980s, he ran for Congress and won, but he chose not to run for re-election. Instead, he set his sights on the top job, waging a losing presidential campaign in 1989, the country's first presidential election since 1960. Successive tries in 1993 and 1997 were unsuccessful, but in 2001, he won and quickly surprised many observers. \"When he began, he was perceived as someone very much on the left,\" said Valente. \"He was perceived as being a socialist. However, he has not governed as a socialist. Instead, his economic policies were a continuation of the previous administration's.\" In fact, Brazil's economic policy has been \"pretty much middle of the road, some people would say pretty conservative,\" said Valente, who added that he has never voted for Lula da Silva. But Lula da Silva has worked to help the country's poor, introducing populist measures intended to lower the incidence of poverty and making other moves, Valente said. \"As a union leader during the military dictatorship, he learned how to negotiate with the so-called enemy,\" Valente said. \"So Lula is going to try to reach some kind of consensus, and he did. What he did was not a product of ideology but of a pragmatist attitude of the government of Brazil.\" Lula da Silva's moderate modus operandi has gained him popularity at home, where he has made no moves toward abolishing the term limits that preclude his running for a third term next year, Valente said. That pragmatism has served him well on the international front, where he is on good terms with the leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador as well as with the United States and the European Union. \"Lula knows how to play the game,\" Valente said. Like Brazil's president, Rio did not succeed on its first try, having been rejected in an earlier bid -- which inspired planners to be meticulous, Valente said. \"They were very well-prepared,\" he said. Indeed, the city two years ago hosted the Pan-American Games, which officials looked on as a trial run for the Olympics, he said. \"Everything ran without a hitch,\" said Valente. \"It was just a beautiful event.\" Lula's waterworks were no surprise to his countrymen, the professor said. \"He's a very emotional guy and Brazilians tend to be emotional. They're certainly not ashamed of showing their emotions ... It's not unusual for Brazilian men to cry in situations like that. Brazilians actually like to see men cry. They think it's good to show your emotions.\" Watch the reaction as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is named host city for the 2016 Olympics \u00bb . \"He always cries when he talks of his mother, who never saw him become president,\" said Fabiana Frayssinet, CNN's correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. \"He's a man who cries, who gets mad. He's an emotional man who says what he thinks whenever he wants.\" Emotions were on display Friday on Copacabana beach in Rio, where thousands of people flocked on the first sunny day after two weeks of rain and atypically cold weather. \"It was a mix of the end of a football championship with a ... carnival and all the Brazilian festivals,\" Frayssinet said.","highlights":"Lula da Silva calls announcement \"the greatest gift that a president could have\"\nBrazil's president rose from metalworker to union organizer to politician .\nHis election to the presidency in 2001 came after three unsuccessful tries .\nRio's hosting the Pan-American Games was seen as a trial run for the Olympics .","id":"fa469d977b9d0ccea99b565cc93977421824a9fd"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have launched a massive crackdown on terror groups that they say were planning numerous suicide attacks, including in the country's largest city of Karachi. Pakistan security officials show seized weapons and ammunition in Karachi on Sunday after the arrest of seven alleged militants. At least 13 suspects were arrested Sunday and Monday, including three people carrying suicide jackets and explosives inside a bus station, a police official said. The three were seized early Monday after police raided a bus station in Sargodha, a city located about 120 miles (190 km) south of Islamabad in Pakistan's Punjab province. The suspects were plotting to attack two Shiite mosques, police stations, and a Norwegian telecommunications company in Punjab, according to district police officer Usman Anwar. Three other suspects linked to the plot were arrested hours later in Sargodha, he said. Those arrested early Monday included the Pakistani Taliban's chief in Punjab, according to Anwar. The Taliban in Punjab have direct ties to Baitullah Mehsud, the former head of the Pakistan Taliban, and have been accused of sectarian murders in Punjab. Pakistan and U.S. officials contend Mehsud was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan at his father-in-law's house. The Taliban claim Mehsud is alive but ill. Hakeemullah Mehsud has been selected as the new head of the Pakistani Taliban, a Taliban commander said Saturday. Pakistani authorities also said they thwarted planned attacks in the southern port city of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and the capital of Sindh province. Seven members of a banned militant group with strong ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban were arrested Sunday along with suicide vests and a large quantity of ammunition, according to the city's police superintendent Mohammed Fayyaz Khan . The group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was planning to conduct attacks in Karachi, according to Karachi Police Chief Waseem Ahmad. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, and was banned by then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2001. It is described as Pakistan's \"most extreme and feared militant group\" by IHS Jane's, a provider of defense and security information. The banned Sunni militant group, which began in the 1990s, is a \"key ally\" of the Taliban and al Qaeda, according to Jane's. \"However, many of its leaders and members have been killed or jailed in recent years and there is little evidence that it remains a coherent organization with centralized structures,\" Jane's said in an assessment released earlier this month. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is blamed for the attempted assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999, and the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. The group also has also been linked to the March attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore. The recent arrests in Karachi and in Punjab are part of a broader crackdown on terror groups that have extended their reach outside Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province and adjacent tribal regions. That is where Pakistani security forces continue to battle a strong Taliban presence. Taliban militants maintained strongholds within 100 miles of the capital, Islamabad, before Pakistani security forces pushed them back this year. A month ago, Pakistani authorities unraveled a militant plot to target government buildings in Islamabad with suicide attackers, according to Interior Minister Rehmen Malik. Three bombers were detained, and along with them suicide vests packed with complex explosives surrounded by ball bearings that would kill anyone within 50 to 100 meters. \"They had the live jackets ... they were staying in one house and they had hidden the suicide jackets not far from that (house) in the hills,\" Malik told CNN. \"Obviously they had a plan in Islamabad because Islamabad is the icon of the country.\" He said they first planned to target parliament, then move on to other prominent government buildings in the capital city. Hitting back at the government would seem to be a high priority for the newly appointed leader of the Pakistani Taliban. Said to be a brazen and young commander, Hakeemullah Mehsud has been linked to past attacks on NATO troops along the Afghan-Pakistan border who are battling a resurgent Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Malik said the government is \"not interested\" in trying to establish a cease-fire with Taliban commanders during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began this weekend. Past cease-fire agreements between the Pakistani government and tribal leaders negotiating on behalf of the Taliban have failed. \"They are at the weakest moments and everybody knows -- even a child of Pakistan knows about it -- that their back is broken,\" Malik said. \"They are no more powerful ... so we won't give them any time to get energized.\" CNN's Samson Desta contributed to this report.","highlights":"Arrests averted attacks on Karachi, police chief says .\nLashkar-e-Jhangvi linked to Bhutto assassination, attack on Sri Lanka cricket team .\nPolice: Three suspected Pakistan Taliban members also arrested with suicide vests .","id":"66eacc6e17c3a85e882bd2b6933857dfff4f242a"} -{"article":"(WASHINGTON) -- The Federal Aviation Administration ordered U.S. airlines Thursday to replace a part that has come under suspicion in the crash of Air France Flight 447. U.S. air safety authorities have ordered the replacement of a part on A330 planes following the crash of Air France Flight 447. The FAA gave airlines 120 days to replace devices that could be giving false airspeed indications. All 228 people on Air France Flight 447 were killed when the Airbus A330 plane crashed June 1 en route to Paris, France, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The U.S. air safety watchdog agency bypassed the usual process which allows for public comment on its orders. It said it could expedite the process because of the limited number of planes involved -- only 43 in the United States -- and because they say it is prudent to make the change as quickly as possible. At the same time, it said it did not feel the risk warranted grounding the fleet of aircraft. US Airways, one of only two American carriers who fly planes affected by the order, said Thursday they had already replaced the part. \"The work was completed last week. We are scheduled to take delivery of three new ... A330s by year's end and those three will not require any ... changes,\" a US Airways spokesman told CNN via e-mail. Northwest is the other U.S. carrier that operates A330s, the FAA said. A spokeswoman for Delta airlines, Northwest's parent company, said affected Northwest planes are getting new parts. \"We are well under way working closely with Airbus and Goodrich to install the Goodrich pitot tubes within the required timelines,\" Ashley Black told CNN. The devices under suspicion are the Thales Avionics pitot probes on some Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft. They measure \"ram air pressure,\" the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed. The FAA order requires aircraft operators to replace certain Thales pitot probes with certain Goodrich or newer-design Thales pitot probes. The FAA says the order is intended to \"prevent airspeed discrepancies, which could lead to disconnect of the autopilot and\/or auto-thrust functions and consequent increased pilot workload.\" French authorities are still investigating the cause of the Air France crash. But tests conducted since the crash have brought into question the performance of the pitot tubes and authorities say there have been reports of other malfunctions on flights. No U.S. operator flies A340s. There are 302 of the aircraft worldwide. The FAA action follows an announcement by European air safety authorities earlier this week to require pitot tube replacements by September 7.","highlights":"NEW: Work \"well under way,\" Northwest parent company spokeswoman says .\nFAA orders U.S. airlines to replace part under suspicion in Air France crash .\nThe devices could be giving false airspeed indications .\nNorthwest and US Airways are only U.S. carriers that fly affected planes .","id":"cc6e921ba683b6e3daa576c40f747c583c59cbcb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A pilot who parachuted from his disabled Marine Corps jet last year said he was horrified to see it smash into a California home, newly released documents say. A firefighter walks past as flames rise from the wreckage of a military jet crash in California. Marine Corps Lt. Dan Neubauer's statements, describing the December crash that killed four family members in a San Diego home, were released Tuesday by military officials. The four-page document details in technical terms several attempts Neubauer made to keep his crippled F\/A-18D from crashing. When it became apparent that the plane was going down, Neubauer parachuted out. \"I looked down to see where my plane had crashed and saw that it had gone right into a house. I screamed in horror when I realized what had just happened,\" Neubauer said in the document. Neubauer landed in the backyard of another home and was not injured. The pilot had been trying to reach the nearby Marine Corps Air Station Miramar when he started having problems with his fighter jet. See satellite photo of crash site \u00bb . The jet crashed into Dong Yun Yoon's house, killing his wife, his two young children and his mother-in-law. An unoccupied house was also destroyed. Days after the incident, Yoon said he did not blame the pilot. \"Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident,\" Yoon said. \"I don't blame him. I don't have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could.\"","highlights":"Pilot horrified after seeing disabled jet crash into California home .\nCrash killed four people in home, including two children .\nRelative of four killed says he doesn't blame pilot for crash .","id":"8f436aa76856ff1ad2c43e3d73a1ea099f2adeee"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian paramilitary police carried out massive arrests Tuesday against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, \"decapitating\" the organization's leadership structure, the head of the city's carabinieri said. Members of the caribinieri outside their Palermo HQ Tuesday following raids against Sicilian mafia suspects. More than 1,200 Italian carabinieri, backed by helicopters, took part in the operation and arrested 89 suspects, added Colonel Teo Luzzi, the head of the carabinieri in the regional capital Palermo. The operation began at 3:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. ET Monday) and was still going on at midmorning. Palermo officials said charges would include association with the mafia, extortion, and arms and drug trafficking. \"Their aim was to reconstitute the Sicilian mafia's decision-making body, known as the \"commissione,\" which was disbanded in the early 1990s following the arrest of the top boss Toto Riina,\" Luzzi said. The commissione was the executive body of the mafia, uniting the most powerful bosses of the mafia clans operating in Sicily. It was the commissione that decided to carry out the killings of Italy's top anti-mafia magistrates in May and July 1992. The high-profile killings prompted the Italian government to deploy the army in Sicily to fight the mafia, and Toto Riina was arrested in January 2003. \"Since then the mafia didn't really have a decision making body,\" Luzzi said, \"and with these arrests we decapitated the top brass of the Palermo mafia.\" Luzzi also said that Sicily's most wanted Mafioso, Matteo Messina Denaro -- who has been on the run for more than a decade and leads a clan in nearby Trapani in western Sicily -- is not among those arrested. \"But those whom we did apprehend were associated with him and were trying to create a new decision-making body at his request,\" Luzzi said. Arrest warrants were also issued against several suspects in Tuscany, Luzzi said.","highlights":"More than 1,200 Italian carabinieri arrest 89 suspects in Palermo, Italy .\nCharges include association with the mafia, extortion, arms and drug trafficking .\nPolice: With these arrests we decapitated the top brass of the Palermo mafia .\nArrest warrants were also issued against several suspects in Tuscany .","id":"2e47c39b1373b476fefddd7ec7dd621f6656e936"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has been a piece of Berlin history for 80 years, a symbol of Nazi power but also of Germans' desire for freedom after World War II. The giant Tempelhof Airport in Berlin will shut it doors for good on Friday. Friday, Berlin's Tempelhof Airport will shut its doors for good. Tempelhof was where American and British pilots touched down after the war when Soviet Forces blockaded West Berlin. The allied pilots flew in millions of tons of food, fuel and medication for an ailing population, earning themselves the title \"candy bombers,\" for dropping candy as they flew over the city. \"Through Tempelhof, we stayed alive,\" said Hedi Koenig, 83, who lived near the airport in West Berlin after the war. Without the air drops, she said, the people would have starved to death. The airport rapidly became Berlin's only hub for supplies, eventually carrying almost 2.5 million tons of goods into the city. Tempelhof's massive main building -- originally designed to represent Nazi Germany to visitors -- remains one of the largest structures in the world. The U.S. Army later built a basketball court and firing range at Tempelhof, and hid an entire command center in the vast network of tunnels under the buildings. These days, however, its runways are too short for most modern civilian aircraft. City officials said the airport was not profitable and needed to be shut down as Berlin builds a major new airport, Berlin-Brandenburg International. Moves to close Tempelhof have sparked protests from residents and aviators who thought more should have been done to preserve such an important part of the city's history. See archive photos of the airport . \"The people want it, private enterprise wants it, all national arguments are in favor of it,\" Friedbert Pflueger, a local opposition leader, said last year. More than 100 private pilots staged a \"fly-in\" in September 2007 to protest the plans. Koenig said Berliners were still angry with city officials who allowed the closure. She blamed business leaders for putting pressure on the city to close the airport by arguing it cost too much and didn't make enough money. \"For business people, the airport doesn't mean anything,\" said Koenig. She said they were too young to remember how important Tempelhof has been for the city. Koenig is among many who believe the airport should be turned into a cultural memorial. A memorial already exists outside the airport to remember the candy bombers, dozens of whom died flying in during bad weather or after being harassed by Soviet fighter planes. \"The success of the airlift made sure that the communist ideology lost its impetus, lost its thrust, because people began to realize that democracies can defend their way of life,\" said Helmut Trotnow of the Berlin Allied Museum. The allied pilots, Koenig said, were responsible for saving the city amid the Russian blockade. \"The Russians tried with all their might to break us,\" she said. Koenig snuck into West Berlin from the East after the war. That meant she didn't have a visa and couldn't receive official food rations, so she literally scraped by during her night job at a bakery. Koenig said she cleaned the pans and would try to scratch off whatever food remained stuck to the sides. Her boss would check to make sure she wasn't eating any of the remnants, but Koenig said she did it anyway, whenever her boss wasn't looking. Tempelhof's beginnings date to September 4, 1909, when American aviation pioneer Orville Wright flew an engine-powered plane for a few minutes on the airfield there. It ushered in the era of aviation in Germany, and Tempelhof eventually became Berlin's central airport and the biggest hub in Europe. The airport also became the home of Lufthansa, which was founded in Berlin in 1926. Civilian traffic declined during the second world war and the Soviet Army occupied the airport. The Americans took it over in July 1945. The Soviet blockade of West Berlin began in May 1948 as an attempt to force the Western Allied powers out of that part of the city. They cut off rail and road links to the West, and West Berlin -- isolated in the middle of the new East Germany -- found itself isolated even more. In response, the Allies imposed counter-blockade measures which included cutting off East German communications and an embargo on Eastern bloc exports. The moves forced the Soviet Union to eventually lift the blockade a year later, in May 1949. The last flights from Tempelhof will fly just before midnight Thursday, the airport authority said. One will be a special Lufthansa flight aboard a Junkers Ju-52, a post-World War II transport aircraft. The other will be a DC-3 -- the same type of plane flown by the candy bombers from Tempelhof some 60 years ago. With the closing of Tempelhof, the city has two remaining airports -- at Schoenefeld and Tegel. All flights from Tempelhof will move to Tegel. Eventually, Schoenefeld will become the new Berlin-Brandenburg International, or BBI. It is scheduled to open in 2011, after which Tegel will close. CNN Berlin Bureau Chief Fred Pleitgen and CNN's Carolin Fiehm in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"The giant Tempelhof Airport, once a symbol of Nazi power, is to close .\nAirport was also used by British and Americans to break Soviet blockade .\nPilots flew in millions of tons of food, fuel and medication for ailing population .","id":"dd8fa70beea111a0f501210db219a482d900ffc8"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Something is stirring within the Hamas body politic, a moderating trend that, if nourished and engaged, could transform Palestinian politics and the Arab-Israeli peace process. There are unmistakable signs that the religiously based radical movement has subtly changed its uncompromising posture on Israel. For example, in the last few months top Hamas officials have publicly stressed that they want to be part of the solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, not part of the problem. What is happening inside Hamas' mosques and social base shows a concerted effort on the part of its leadership to re-educate its rank and file about co-existence with the Jewish state and in so doing mentally prepare them for a permanent settlement in the future. In Gazan mosques, pro-Hamas clerics have begun to cite the example of Salah al-Din al-Ayubi, a famed Muslim military commander and statesman, who, after liberating Jerusalem from the Western Crusaders, allowed them to retain a coastal state of their own. The moral lesson of the story is that if the famed leader could tolerate the warring, bloodthirsty Crusaders, then today's Palestinians should be willing to live peacefully with a Jewish state in their midst. This story is important because it provides Hamas with religious legitimacy and allows it to justify and explain its change of direction to followers. As an Islamic-based movement, Hamas' very raison d'etre rests on religious legitimization, and its leaders understand that they neglect that at their peril. Hamas' recent narrative marks a pronounced departure from the past in which Hamas moderates called for a minor or long-term truce. Now Hamas leaders appear to be going further by laying the ground for a shift in their position by educating their social base about the requirements of permanent peace -- recognition of the Jewish state. Although the evolution of Hamas' stance on the peace process has been slow, gradual and qualified, in the last three years many of its leaders repeatedly have said they wanted a two-state solution. Pressed by an Australian journalist on policy changes that Hamas might make to any new order, Khaled Meshaal, the top Hamas leader and head of its political bureau based in Syria and considered a hard-liner, asserted that the organization has already shifted on several key points: \"Hamas already changed -- we accepted the national accords for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, and we took part in the 2006 Palestinian elections.\" Over the years, I have interviewed more than a dozen Hamas leaders inside and outside the Palestinian territories. Although, on the whole, Hamas' public rhetoric calls for the liberation of all historic Palestine, not only the territories occupied in 1967, a healthier debate occurs within. My recent conversations with Hamas' rank and file suggest that the militant organization has evolved considerably since the group unexpectedly won power in Gaza in free elections in 2006. Before then, Hamas was known for its suicide bombers, not its bureaucrats. But that had to change. \"It is much more difficult to run a government than to oppose and resist Israeli occupation,\" a senior Hamas leader told me while on official business in Egypt in 2007. \"If we do not provide the goods to our people, they'll disown us.\" Ironically, in spite of the West's refusal to regard this government as legitimate, the democratic demands for governance from within Gaza are themselves driving change within Hamas. What is striking about Hamas' recent shift of opinion toward the peace process is that it has come at a trying time for the Islamist organization which, in the last two years, has faced critical challenges from al Qaeda-like jihadist groups, a low-intensity civil war with rival Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, and a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Last summer a militant group called Jund Ansar Allah, or the Warriors of God, one of a handful of radical al Qaeda-inspired factions, declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Gaza, a flagrant rejection of Hamas' authority. Hamas security forces struck instantly and mercilessly at the Warriors, killing more than 20 members, including the group's leader, Abdel-Latif Moussa. In one stroke, the Hamas leadership sent a message to its foes and friends that it will not tolerate the existence of global jihadist groups such as al Qaeda: Hamas will not allow al Qaeda-inspired factions to turn Gaza into a theater to wage transnational jihad. However, the challenge to Hamas' authority persists. Israel's punishing siege of Gaza, in place since 2007, along with the suffering and despair it has caused to its 1.4 million inhabitants, has driven hundreds of young Palestinians into the arms of small Salafist extremist factions that accuse Hamas of forfeiting the armed struggle and failing to implement Quranic or Shariah law. Operationally and ideologically, there are huge differences between Hamas and al Qaeda and its various inspired factions, and a lot of bad blood. Hamas is a broad-based religious\/nationalist resistance whose focus and violence is limited to Palestine\/Israel, while al Qaeda is a small, transnational terrorist group that has carried out attacks worldwide. Thus Hamas, unlike al Qaeda and other fringe factions, is not merely an armed militia but a viable social movement with a large popular base that has been estimated at more than half a million supporters and sympathizers. Hamas also has shown itself to be sensitive and responsive to Palestinian public opinion. A further example of its political and social priorities is Hamas' decision to engage seriously with an Egyptian-brokered deal that sketches out a path to peace with rival Fatah. Despite its reactionary rhetoric, Hamas is a rational actor, a conclusion reached by former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, who also was Ariel Sharon's national security adviser and who is certainly not an Israeli peacenik. The Hamas leadership has undergone a transformation \"right under our very noses\" by recognizing that \"its ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future,\" Halevy wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth a few months ago. His verdict is that Hamas is now ready and willing to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state within the temporary borders of 1967. Yet if Hamas is so eager to accept a two-state solution, why doesn't it simply announce that it recognizes Israel's existence and promise to negotiate a peace deal that allows the two countries to coexist? In interviews with Hamas officials, they stress that their organization has made significant concessions to the so-called Quartet's three conditions, though the Quartet (the United Nations, Russia, United States and European Union) has not lifted the punishing sanctions against Hamas nor has it effectively pressed Israel. Hamas' diplomatic starting point will be to demand that Israel recognizes the nationalist rights of the Palestinians and withdraws from the occupied territories, but it will not be its final position. There could be no viable, lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians if Hamas is not consulted about peacemaking and if the Palestinians remain divided with two warring authorities in the West Bank and in Gaza. Hamas has the means and public support to undermine any agreement that does not address the legitimate rights and claims of the Palestinian people. Its rival, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, lacks a popular mandate and the legitimacy needed to implement a resolution of the conflict. President Mahmoud Abbas has been politically weakened by a series of blunders of his own making and by pressure by the U.S., compromising his moral authority in the eyes of a sizable Palestinian constituency. If, instead of ignoring Hamas or, worse yet, seeking its overthrow, the United States and Europe engaged the Islamically based organization, diplomatically and politically, and encouraged it to continue moderating its views, the West could test the extent of Hamas' evolution and find out if the organization is willing to accept a settlement based on the two-state solution. So far, the strategy of isolating and militarily confronting Hamas pursued by Israel and the Bush administration has not appeared to weaken the organization dramatically. If anything, what success this strategy has had in undermining Hamas has been counterproductive, since it has radicalized hundreds of young Palestinians who have joined extremist al Qaeda-inspired factions and reinforced the culture of martyrdom and nihilism. To break this impasse, and prevent further gains by more extremist factions, the U.S. and Europe should support a unified Palestinian government that could negotiate peace with Israel. The ongoing Egyptian-brokered truce deal between Hamas and Fatah is an opportunity that may be built on to repair and strengthen intra-Palestinian governing institutions that have been frayed as a result of intense rivalry in the last two years. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Fawaz A. Gerges.","highlights":"There are signs Hamas is taking new stance on Israel, Fawaz A. Gerges says .\nHe says pro-Hamas clerics are preparing people for coexistence .\nHamas is fighting groups inspired by al Qaeda, Gerges says .\nHe urges West to test Hamas' willingness to engage in Mideast peace process .","id":"6390895126471a970b9eeb099f1c1a0c2930a2fa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military did major damage to the site of one of the wonders of the ancient world while converting it into a base, the United Nations said in a new report. An U.S. soldier looks over the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq in 2004. The site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was converted into Camp Alpha shortly after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. The troops and their contractors caused \"major damage\" by digging, cutting, scraping and leveling while they were revamping the site to meet military standards, the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, said in a report. \"Key structures that were damaged include the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way,\" the report added. The Ishtar Gate, an entrance to the northern part of the city, is decorated with animals that portray the symbol of the god of the city of Babylon. \"Damage to the gate includes smashed bricks on nine of the bodies of the animals adorning the gate,\" according to the report. A military official said she had not seen the U.N. report, but added that one of the reasons troops set up a base at the site was to safeguard it. \"Coalition forces first occupied the Babylon site in April 2003 during the ground campaign of Operation Iraqi Freedom with a purpose, among others, of protecting the ruins from looting after the provincial museums in Babylon and Kufa were robbed of their entire contents,\" said Lt. Col. Tamara Parker, a spokeswoman. \"U.S. forces respect historical sites in Iraq,\" she added. The United Nations lists additional damage to the site, including trenches used as firing positions and barbed wire secured to various spots. The stakes used to set up the barbed wire damaged walls, according to the report. Babylon, an hour's drive south of Baghdad, dates to ancient Mesopotamia. The city on the banks of the Euphrates River was the home of Hammurabi and later Nebuchadnezzar, who built the famous gardens for his wife. Alexander the Great wished to make Babylon his capital, but died before realizing his plan. During colonial times, archaeologists hauled off Babylon's artifacts to Europe. Some of those artifacts can be seen in a museum in Berlin, Germany. The site was occupied by Camp Alpha from September 2003 till December 2004, the report said. The United States has agreed to pay $800,000 to help rehabilitate the Babylon site, an Iraqi official said. \"We were very disappointed when multinational forces took over these ancient sites as bases although they knew how important these sites are to Iraqis and to the entire world,\" said Abdulzahra al-Talaqani, spokesman for the ministry of tourism. Plans are under way to clean up the area in August with the help of hundreds of volunteers, according to al-Talaqani. The U.N. report noted that U.S. troops were not solely responsible for ruining the 4,000-year-old city. Before their arrival, local residents had contributed to the damage, mostly through development, the report said. \"The features of the western side of the city of Babylon disappeared many years ago due to encroachment by agriculture and development on the archaeological zone,\" the report said.","highlights":"U.N. report claims U.S. troops damaged city of Babylon during Iraq invasion .\nCamp Alpha was built on site of Iraq's historic Hanging Gardens .\nReport cites extensive damage to Ishtar's Gate, Processional Way .\nUnited States to pay $800,000 to clean Babylon site .","id":"b0046d3a7d9d60efb95d8dfd9c7228336cdc74a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italy's Valentino Rossi gave his bid to seal a seventh Moto GP world title at the Malaysian Grand Prix a boost after qualifying for the race in pole position. The defending champion set a name lap-record time of 2 minutes 00.518 seconds despite sweltering conditions on Saturday. The time smashed Casey Stoner's 2007 lap record of 2 minutes 02.108 seconds. The Yamaha rider celebrated his seventh pole of the season by pulling a wheelie as he drove into the pit lane at the Sepang circuit. The 5.5-kilometer track that is situated south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, is a notoriously tought test for rider and machine alike with its combination of tight corners, long straights and tough high-speed bends. The 30-year-old currently leads the world championship by 38 points, a position that means a top-four finish at Sepang would seal the title on Sunday. Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo qualified in second place, just 0.569sec behind -- a result that prompted Rossi to pay tribute to the hard work of his team. \"The team worked well, the bike performed well, hence I was able to go faster. \"Starting from pole is important since the (first) corner is far away,\" he added. Spaniard Dani Pedrosa (Honda) was 0.736sec behind Rossi while Australian Stoner was fourth at 0.937sec. Ducati rider Stoner, who finished ahead of Rossi in last weekend's Australian Grand Prix to take the win, is third in the world championship standings, with Pedrosa fourth on a Honda.","highlights":"Italy's Valentino Rossi qualifies in pole position for the Malaysian Moto GP .\nThe 30-year-old's fastest time smashed the lap record at the Sepang circuit .\nRossi currently leads the world championship by 38 points with two races left .\nThe defending champion can clinch his seventh title with a top-four finish .","id":"70c5e32c433c37a38bef174bf18df59b42b2e24f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Asa Hill was 7 years old when he died. Although the boy was pulled out of a burning car alive in a horrific accident on the Niagara Thruway on Thursday, his injuries proved critical, and he passed away the following night. Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatzion hug at their son's funeral, which ended with their wedding. The Buffalo, New York, community, shaken, turned out in large numbers at his funeral Monday to support his parents, Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatzion, and were pleasantly surprised when the couple ended the service with a wedding ceremony, a fulfillment of their son's wish. The Rev. Joel Miller of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Elmwood, where the service was held, was unsure at first when the idea of a wedding was proposed by the couple and their family. \"I asked twice, 'We're doing a wedding?' This was new for me. I never did a funeral service and a wedding ceremony at the same time, and normally wouldn't, but they have known each other since they were teens,\" Miller said. \"And they had been providing for Asa, and they made a home together for all of Asa's life. ... It was clear they were following through on something they had been talking about for some time.\" Watch the funeral and wedding ceremony \u00bb . Hill and Ghirmatzion have been best friends since they were 15 and have been together for almost half of their lives. After Asa was born, marriage had always been something that they considered but, according to Hill, both felt that a wedding was \"superficial and not necessary.\" Asa, however, was insistent that they make their union official. \"Asa really wanted us to do it, and every time he would ask us we would say, 'Yes, we'll get married,' \" said Hill. But the couple never did get around to figuring out the logistics for a ceremony. While holding his lifeless son in his arms at the hospital, Hill was moved to finally officially propose to his lifelong partner. \"Rahwa was overwhelmed at that moment and just looked at me. When the family sat down to plan the funeral service, she said 'Let's get married.' And everyone broke down at the table,\" he said. The marriage took place after a service filled with African drums, dancing, sermons and family and friends sharing memories of Asa, all in celebration of his life. Miller said about 1,100 people attended the service, with hundreds overflowing onto the church lawn, where sound systems were set up so they could hear the service. When the wedding was announced, there were shocked cheers and applause from those in the church pews. \"We wanted it to be a surprise,\" Hill said. \"We knew it would be a joyous moment. You could see how it lifted them, and we figured, why not make it a surprise at the end.\" The Unitarian Universalist Church was chosen because its non-denominational tradition would welcome all the diverse groups of the Elmwood community, Hill said. The family has strong ties to the community and, according to Miller, who had known Asa since he was 5, Asa embodied this. \"He was a powerful presence: direct, smart, and had a way of bringing people together,\" Miller said. \"When you met him, you knew you met someone. We all didn't know each other, but we knew Asa and his family.\"","highlights":"7-year-old Asa Hill had asked his parents over and over to get married .\nThe boy died last week after being injured in traffic accident .\nAs parents dealt with his death, they decided to marry at the end of his funeral .\nWedding came as a joyous surprise to mourners who filled the church .","id":"a6f70f23b716e1cc705ccd766d1ba057b54b8cb1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour has broadcast from some of the world's most challenging locations. Here, we bring together links to her documentaries and exclusive web-only footage. Generation Islam (2009) Christiane gives viewers a look inside the battle for the hearts and minds of youth in the Muslim world and travels to two of the places where the fight is most intense -- Afghanistan and Gaza. - Generation Islam . - Video: The would-be suicide bomber . Buddha's Warriors (2008) Christiane meets the Dalai Lama and spends time with his flock for CNN's 2008 special, \"Buddha's Warriors,\" where she explores how people whose religion commits them to love, kindness and non-violence confront severe political oppression. - Behind the scenes: Buddha's Warriors . - Interview with the Dalai Lama: On China | A moment of karma | On reincarnation . Notes from North Korea (2008) Christiane travels to North Korea as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra makes a historic visit to one of the world's most closed societies. She examines the tense standoff with the U.S. over nuclear weapons and provides a rare look inside a notorious, top-secret nuclear facility. - Notes from North Korea: Part 1 | Part 2 . - Yongbyon tour: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 . - Behind the scenes: Amanpour's notes . Scream Bloody Murder (2008) Christiane reports from the world's killing fields, where genocide has raged as the world watched -- and traces the personal accounts of those who tried to stop the slaughter. - Scream Bloody Murder . God's Warriors (2007) Christiane travelled to eight countries over eight months to examine the impact of the rise of religious fundamentalism as a powerful political force in three faiths: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. - God's Warriors . - Video: Rev. Jerry Falwell's final interview . Revolutionary Journey (2000) Christiane, who left Iran at the start of the Islamic Revolution, returns to the country of her birth for an inside look at a country that after years of conservative Islamic rule, voted to keep President Khatami in office and his democratic reform efforts alive. - Revolutionary Journey: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 .","highlights":"CNN Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour presents \"Amanpour.\"\nSee her award-winning documentaries and exclusive web footage here .\nIn \"Scream Bloody Murder\" Christiane reports from the world's killing fields .\n\"Revolutionary Journey\" sees Christiane return to Iran to explore her birth country .","id":"a11dfb5d813bdf69fb4af4422b7b40f19f46fde0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United are given more injury-time at the end of matches to equalize or score winning goals than their English Premier League rivals, a study has revealed. Owen's 96th minute winner at Old Trafford left Manchester City livid. As the row over the near seven minutes of added time accorded to United to win the Manchester derby with a last-gasp Michael Owen goal continues, the Guardian newspaper probed the official injury-time statistics. They looked at league matches at United's Old Trafford ground since the start of the 2006-07 season and revealed that, on average, there has been over a minute of extra time added by referees when the English champions do not have the lead. This is compared to when they are in front, but United have a reputation for scoring late goals on their ways to claiming three straight Premier League crowns. In 48 games when Alex Ferguson's men were in front, the average amount of stoppage time was 191.35 seconds. In 12 matches when United were drawing or losing there was an average of 257.17 seconds. In mitigation, the study revealed that the average stoppage time added at Old Trafford is below that at the home grounds of top four rivals Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. United's is 205 seconds, compared to Liverpool's 210 seconds, 224 seconds for Arsenal and Chelsea's 229 seconds. But it is the disparity between the time added on when United are winning or losing which appears to assert the popular assertion that referees allow the match to continue until the Red Devils either equalizer or score the winner. Manchester City manager Mark Hughes raged over the extra time in the 4-3 thriller on Sunday, speaking of feeling \"robbed\" as Owen slotted home his winner. The 2007-08 season shows the greatest difference, with an average of 178.29 second added when United were winning, with official stats from Opta showing 254.5 seconds added when they were not. The trend has continued in the first three United home games of the season. In the two matches United have led they have played an average 304 seconds of injury time. On Sunday, referee Martin Atkinson allowed the game to go on for another 415 seconds, despite his fourth official initially indicating 240 seconds should be added.","highlights":"Official statistics show referee add more time when Man Utd trailing at home .\nStudy conducted over the last three seasons shows disparity of over a minute .\nMan City manager Mark Hughes furious over amount of added time in 4-3 loss .","id":"0971ad16e3d219391a0691623e80d2abf1c4cfae"} -{"article":"SLEEPY EYE, Minnesota (CNN) -- A 13-year-old Minnesota boy whose family has rejected chemotherapy to treat his cancer is with his mother near Los Angeles, California, and they may be planning to travel to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday. Doctors say Daniel Hauser's lymphoma responded well to a first round of chemotherapy in February. Brown County Sheriff Rich Offmann cited \"reliable information\" in making the announcement to reporters, adding that Colleen Hauser may be seeking treatment for her son's lymphoma just south of San Diego, California, in Mexico. \"I'm confident we will find them,\" Offmann said. \"I'm hoping for Daniel's sake we will find them.\" Anthony Hauser, Colleen's husband and the boy's father, has been cooperating with law enforcement, Offmann said. Earlier Wednesday the boy's father said he believed his son and his wife had already left the country. \"I will say this: I have left a call to where I think they could possibly be,\" Anthony Hauser said from his home in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, about 85 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Asked whether he believes that they have gone to Canada, he said, \"I'm not saying it's Canada. You know, that isn't where I left my call.\" He made his comments a day after a Minnesota judge issued an arrest warrant for Colleen Hauser, who failed to appear with the boy at a court hearing. A judge scheduled the hearing to review an X-ray ordered by the court to assess whether Daniel Hauser's Hodgkin's lymphoma was worsening. A doctor testified at the hearing that the X-ray showed \"significant worsening.\" In a news release, the Brown County Sheriff's Office said the father had been \"cooperative\" in helping them find his son but added, \"the investigators cannot speculate on the sincerity of the information that Anthony Hauser has provided.\" The sheriff's office has been in touch with the FBI, and the boy has been entered in the Missing and Exploited Children network, it said. Anthony Hauser testified at the hearing that he last saw his wife at the family's farm on Monday night, when she told him she was going to leave \"for a time.\" He later said he would like his wife and son to return. \"I'd like to tell them, you know, 'Come back and be safe and be a family again,' \" he said. \"That's what I'd like to tell them.\" Watch father urge the pair to come back \u00bb . District Judge John R. Rodenberg of Brown County, Minnesota, said the boy's \"best interests\" require him to receive medical care. His family opposes the proposed course of treatment, which includes chemotherapy. \"It is imperative that Daniel receive the attention of an oncologist as soon as possible,\" the judge wrote. During Tuesday's hearing, Dr. James Joyce testified that he had seen the boy and his mother on Monday at his office. He said the boy had \"an enlarged lymph node\" near his right clavicle and that the X-ray showed \"significant worsening\" of a mass in his chest. In addition, the boy complained of \"extreme pain\" at the site where a port had been inserted to deliver an initial round of chemotherapy. The pain was \"most likely caused by the tumor or mass pressing on the port,\" testified Joyce, who called the X-ray \"fairly dramatic\" evidence that the cancer was worsening. Watch CNN's Dr. Gupta discuss Daniel's chances \u00bb . Rodenberg ordered custody of the boy transferred to Brown County Family Services and issued a contempt order for the mother. Philip Elbert, Daniel's court-appointed attorney, said he considers his client to have a \"diminished capacity\" for reasons of his age and the illness and that he thinks Daniel should be treated by a cancer specialist. Elbert added that he does not think Daniel -- who, according to court papers, cannot read -- has enough information to make an informed decision regarding his treatment. Daniel's symptoms of persistent cough, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes were diagnosed in January as Hodgkin's lymphoma. In February, the cancer responded well to an initial round of chemotherapy, but the treatment's side effects concerned the boy's parents, who then opted not to pursue further chemo and instead sought out other medical opinions. Court documents show that doctors estimated the boy's chance of five-year remission with more chemotherapy and possibly radiation at 80 percent to 95 percent. But the family opted for a holistic medical treatment based upon Native American healing practices called Nemenhah and rejected further treatment. In a written statement issued last week, an attorney for the parents said they \"believe that the injection of chemotherapy into Danny Hauser amounts to an assault upon his body, and torture when it occurs over a long period of time.\" Medical ethicists say parents generally have a legal right to make decisions for their children, but there is a limit. \"You have a right, but not an open-ended right,\" Arthur Caplan, director of the center for bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said last week. \"You can't compromise the life of your child.\" CNN's Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Police think mom, son may be headed toward Mexico .\nDad says he called where he thinks they could be, won't say if it's Canada .\n\"Come back and be safe and be a family,\" Anthony Hauser urges wife and son .\n13-year-old needs chemotherapy, doctors and court say .","id":"64fcbca6ab2d0b7525ed98174508ef76dce8f09f"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose new book is \"Late Edition: A Love Story.\" Bob Greene says discussion of ballplayer Ted Williams' corpse is a shameful way to remember the superstar. (CNN) -- \"I was scared,\" Ted Williams said. He was talking about his lifelong fear of not being good enough -- of coming up short. \"I was always afraid I might fail,\" he said. \"I was pictured as being so cocky -- I might have been cocky to some people, but not in my heart. All the time, I was just hoping to make whatever league I was in.\" I am thinking about a long conversation I had with Williams toward the end of his life. I'm thinking about it because of the unconscionable thing that is being done to him now that he is gone, now that he is without any defenses. You may have heard about a new book that makes some cruel and repugnant allegations about the mistreatment of his remains. What has been done to Williams' good name since his death at age 83 in 2002 is heartbreaking. First there was the very public battle within his family about what to do with his body; when it was entrusted to a facility that specializes in cryonics -- freezing -- there were tasteless gags all over television. Now there is the nauseating voyeurism surrounding these new allegations. They are unspeakable, and I will not repeat them here. He has been made a joke. It is as if there has been a conscious effort to rob him of his humanity. As if he is a punch line, as if he was never a person with thoughts and feelings. No one deserves this, and certainly not Ted Williams. A magnificent 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox; twice the winner of baseball's triple crown; the last ballplayer to hit .400 in a season; two tours of duty in the military in World War II and the Korean War ... This is the man whose right to rest in respectful peace is being stripped from him. It is a crime. And because he can no longer speak for himself, I will share with you his voice from a time when he could. \"I can't believe how well people have treated me, how nicely,\" he told me. He had suffered a series of strokes; he knew there wasn't much time left. I was writing a monthly column for Life magazine, and he had agreed to talk with me. I told him that there was something striking about his voice: He sounded just like John Wayne. \"John Wayne sounded like me,\" he said, not kidding. When he told me about his fear of failure, it was in the context of always being fixated on his own shortcomings. \"The only time I could savor an evening is if I had done something well,\" he said. \"My most disappointing things all my life were always related to baseball. I didn't feel good because I did something successfully; I felt bad if I failed to do something that I was expected to do.\" As a young ballplayer, he supposedly said, \"All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street, people will say, 'There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.' \" It happened. That was what people said about him. Did it satisfy him? \"I would slide down in my seat a little bit when I heard someone say that,\" he told me. \"Because I wanted people to believe it, but I didn't believe it myself. I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now. Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron -- they were so good. When I would be at a dinner and someone would say I was the best, I would want to hide out of sight and sink into the floor.\" At the height of his talent, he stepped away from baseball to fly Panther fighter jets in Korea. He was a United States Marine pilot; often he would go out on two-plane missions flying side-by-side with a young Marine hotshot by the name of John Glenn. Talk about two Americans you can count on in a pinch.... I asked Glenn about Williams once. \"He was just great,\" Glenn said. \"The same skills that made him the best baseball hitter ever -- the eye, the coordination, the discipline -- are what he used to make himself an excellent combat pilot.\" This is the man who is being degraded today. This is the man who is being treated, in death, as if he is in a carnival sideshow. As I spoke with Williams, with his eyesight failing and his body inexorably shutting down, I asked him: If he could change one thing in his life, what would it be? He said that this, more than anything else, is what he wished for: the ability to \"run like a deer.\" I thought he was talking about wishing he could have his youth back -- wishing, in his old age, that he could stand up and run again. But that wasn't it. He said he wished that, back when he was a player, he was just a little faster. \"I would run to first,\" he recalled of his years with the Red Sox, \"and there would be that boom-boom.\" The sound of being called out at first base, the ball hitting the fielder's glove just before Williams's foot hit the bag. \"If I could have run a little faster ... how many at-bats did I have?\" he asked me. \"Seven thousand?\" I told him it was 7,706. With 2,654 hits. \"If I could have run just a little faster, I bet you I could have had 50 more hits,\" he said. He paused. There was wistfulness in his voice. \"Maybe a hundred,\" he said. A man seeing death just up the road, still dreaming of excellence. That is the man whose dignity we have treated with such awful indifference. Shame on us. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Bob Greene: Discussion about Ted Williams' remains is distasteful .\nHe recalls superstar player as a man who always strove to do his best .\nWilliams was baseball's last .400 hitter and a veteran of two wars .","id":"dce41205657433f9929b7e2b21cfe55e780c28eb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States temporarily closed its government facilities in South Africa on Tuesday after a \"possible threat\" to its embassy, the U.S. State Department said. The U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, is among the American facilities closed Tuesday. The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria and other government offices in South Africa will remain closed Wednesday as the security threat is being monitored, embassy spokeswoman Sharon Hudson-Dean said. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the action was a precaution. \"We are ... notifying the American community in South Africa to remain vigilant,\" Kelly said. \"We are also maintaining close contact with South African authorities on this issue.\" He had no further details on the \"possible threat\" to the embassy in Pretoria. A note on the embassy's Web site said all U.S. government facilities in South Africa were temporarily closed following \"information recently received\" by regional security officials. Kelly said the embassy's Emergency Action Committee met and is formulating an appropriate course of action. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, other offices will be closed additional day .\nU.S. State Department spokesman calls temporary closings a precaution .\nAmericans in South Africa told to remain \"vigilant\"","id":"087580dde25db95baafbff9b308a8a994f028d23"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Renault Formula One team have commenced legal proceedings against former driver Nelson Piquet Junior over allegations made by the Brazilian that he was asked by the team to deliberately crash his car in last year's Singapore Grand Prix. Renault boss Flavio Briatore has issued a statement confirming legal proceddings against Nelson Piquet Jr. It has been claimed that Renault boss, Flavio Briatore, in order to maximize the chances of Fernando Alonso winning the 2008 race, planned the crash of teammate Piquet Jr. Renault have hit back against the allegations concerning the event made by Piquet Jr in an official statement on their Web site. \"Managing Director Flavio Briatore personally wish[es] to state criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior [have commenced] in France concerning the making of false allegations,\" the statement read. The statement added the three-times former world champion and his son had also attempted to \"blackmail the team\" into allowing Piquet Jr to continue to drive until the end of the 2009 season. Renault, who dismissed Piquet Jr as their driver in August, confirmed they have referred the matter to the British police. The French car constructor face being thrown out of Formula One if the allegations are proved by an investigation being conducted by the governing body of world motorsport, the FIA. The team will go before the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Paris on September 21 to hear the findings of the probe. Double world champion Alonso won the race -- the first for Renault in two years -- despite starting from 15th on the grid. Intriguingly, Renault ran a light fuel load on Alonso's car -- thereby increasing the driver's speed. Just two laps after Alonso came in early to take on more fuel, Piquet's crash forced the deployment of the safety car and the subsequent pit stop of nearly all other drivers, an action that promoted Alonso to fifth from where he went onto to secure victory. Piquet attributed the crash to a simple error at the time. Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone recently warned \"there is going to be a lot of trouble\" if the allegations are found to be true. The FIA proved with the spygate saga only circumstantial evidence is required for them to impose strict penalties. On that occasion they fined McLaren $80 million for breaching the same article that is now now faced by Renault.","highlights":"Renault commence legal action against Nelson Piquet Jr over race-fixing claim .\nTeam boss Flavio Briatore also accuses driver of \"blackmailing\" Renault .\nAllegations refer to Fernando Alonso's 2008 Singapore Grand Prix victory .\nRenault to face findings of FIA investigation into incident on September 21 .","id":"79dcbc39d83ea0464210d1471376c8f3224d0bbf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California voters on Tuesday appear to have approved Proposition 8, a measure banning same-sex marriage in the state. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin says the U.S. Supreme Court may have to rule on the issue of same-sex marriage. California's secretary of state late Tuesday released semi-official results showing Proposition 8 had passed 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent. CNN has not officially called the result one way or the other. On Wednesday protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles to voice their opposition to the potential ban. And there are at least three legal challenges to it now pending in court. Kiran Chetry of CNN's \"American Morning\" spoke Thursday with the program's legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, about the issue. Chetry: California's attorney general says that the constitutional amendment is not retroactive, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says he will continue to marry people until someone sues him to stop. So what does Prop 8 mean first of all to people who want to get married in the state of California? Hostin: Well, we already know in Los Angeles they are no longer issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. So in Los Angeles, it's a no go. In San Francisco, as you mentioned, the mayor is saying, \"We're still going to be doing it.\" So for people that aren't married yet, it's really legal limbo. Chetry: All right. And what about people who from the time that they allowed same-sex marriage, this was in May until November, some 18,000 couples decided they were going to do it. What happens to them? Is their marriage still valid? Hostin: It's still valid right now. But really they are also in a legal limbo. The bottom line it's all over the place. The law is really unclear here. Last night, I was poring over these legal papers. I was also discussing this with a lot of law professors, a lot of different lawyers, and everyone is all over the place. Some folks said, you know, the bottom line is when you look at the language of Proposition 8, it is very clear that it was meant to be retroactive and that means that all the marriages will be invalidated. Then another law professor that I spoke to said that is absolutely fundamentally ridiculous. The bottom line is this is a fundamental right that was given to couples and this is a right that is not going to be given away. I think we're going to see a lot of litigation here, Kiran, and the bottom line is everyone is in a legal, legal limbo. Chetry: It's very interesting the grounds for which they are challenging. At least in one of these lawsuits they said that it was a constitutional revision rather than an amendment. And that means it would need two-thirds approval of the House in the legislature. So do we think it could go to the state house in California as well as being fought in the courts? Hostin: I really think this is going to be a legal issue. I think this is going to go before the California Supreme Court. And we already know as you mentioned that there are three cases pending before the California Supreme Court. And what is interesting to note is that it's the very same court that allowed these marriages in the first place. And so, my guess is that that court is going to weigh in, probably reinstitute the right to marry for same-sex couples and then that's going to be likely based on the U.S. Constitution and our Supreme Court is going to weigh in. What is I think extremely interesting here is that we now know that we have a president-elect, Obama. He's going to get the opportunity likely to appoint Supreme Court justices. So we don't even know which type of court or the makeup of the court that will hear this. But I think the Supreme Court will likely weigh in on this issue. Chetry: This was such a hot button issue in the state. More spending on either side, $35 million, $37 million on both sides. Hostin: Yes. Chetry: It was the highest funded campaign on any state ballot. Hostin: That's right. Chetry: They say it trumped every other campaign except the presidential. Hostin: People care about this issue. I mean, they're talking about discrimination, equal protection. It's an issue that's a hotbed issue. We also know, Kiran, that in Arizona and Florida that this ban was implemented. And so, you know, it's all over the place. People care about this issue, and this is an issue that is really present. And I think that it's something that, we, of course, have to watch because we're talking about equal protection, we're talking about discrimination. People care about these issues. Chetry: Sunny Hostin, great to see you. Thank you. Hostin: Thanks. iReport.com: Did you vote on a same-sex measure?","highlights":"California voters appear to have approved a ban on same-sex marriage .\nAt least three court challenges have been filed against ban .\nCNN legal analyst says opinions on ban's legality are \"all over the place\"\nAnalyst says U.S. Supreme Court will likely be called upon to decide issue .","id":"3fa9418555b17c9338a6d3f0d5e00e7ae64c7359"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel defeated her foreign minister Sunday to win another four-year term, according to exit polls reported by German television network NTV. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, vote Sunday in Berlin. NTV reported Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party received 33.7 percent of the vote, based on exit poll projections. The polls show Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's center-left Social Democrats received 23.4 percent, the network reported. \"Not only are you happy, I am very happy as well,\" Merkel told cheering supporters at her headquarters. \"We've accomplished something great. We've done it. We've reached our election goal, to retain a stable majority in Germany and a new government with a new coalition.\" The crowd chanted, \"Angie, Angie, Angie.\" Steinmeier, meanwhile, conceded what he called \"a bitter defeat\" for the Social Democrats. \"The voters have decided, and the result is a bad day,\" Steinmeier said in a speech to supporters. He thanked those who helped lead his campaign and those who supported him. The two parties currently are in a coalition, with Steinmeier as foreign minister. Few doubted that Merkel's party would receive the most votes. The question was what kind of coalition will be formed -- another broad centrist one, across the political divide, or a more right-leaning one. Merkel favors cutting taxes to spur growth, while Steinmeier opposes tax breaks. The country is deep in debt. What's at stake in the German election \u00bb . Voters chose members of the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, who will pick the head of government. Each German had two votes -- one for a member of parliament representing a district and another for a political party. The election Sunday followed release of a threatening videos from al Qaeda and the Taliban warning Germans not to vote for leaders who want to keep the country's troops in Afghanistan. Security was tightened at airports and train stations, and authorities on Saturday banned all flights over the Oktoberfest beer festival until it ends on October 4. The annual event attracts about 6 million people. About 62 million people were eligible to vote, out of Germany's population of 82 million. CNN's Fred Pleitgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Chancellor Angela Merkel defeats her foreign minister, exit polls indicate .\n\"This is a bitter defeat,\" says challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier .\nMerkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union got 33.7% of vote, TV reports .\nSteinmeier's center-left Social Democrats received 23.4 percent, network says .","id":"99a567b3bf9f177971dd95600ea1effa60f0bcb7"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Anna Nicole Smith's bizarre introduction of rapper Kanye West at the 2004 American Music Awards took center stage on the first day of a preliminary hearing for three people facing charges stemming from her death. Anna Nicole Smith's death on February 8, 2007, was ruled to be from \"acute combined drug intoxication.\" Prosecutors said they wanted Judge Robert Perry to see how the former Playboy model and reality TV star was affected by what they alleged was an illegal conspiracy to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to an addict. Howard K. Stern, Smith's lawyer and companion, and co-defendants Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor each entered not guilty pleas in Los Angeles County Superior Court in September. The preliminary hearing, which lawyers said could last three weeks, is an opportunity for the defense to \"lock in\" the testimony of prosecution witnesses, one defense lawyer said. It is not expected to result in any charges being dropped, he said. The lawyer for Stern, who faces 11 felony counts, said to prove a conspiracy, the prosecutor would have to show Stern knew it was illegal to use fake names to obtain narcotics for Smith, which he said was to protect her privacy. \"He has no reason to believe that there was anything improper in what was going on,\" defense lawyer Steve Sadow said. \"He honestly believed that if the doctor said he could do it this way and, in fact, did it, then it was legitimate and lawful.\" Smith's death in a Hollywood, Florida, hotel on February 8, 2007, was ruled to be from \"acute combined drug intoxication,\" the Broward County, Florida, medical examiner said. Smith's introduction of Kanye West -- projected on a courtroom screen -- was a brief respite from a mostly tedious hearing spent shuffling through prescription records. \"Like my body?\" a slim and busty Smith asked as she showed off her tight-fitting gown. Smith slurred much of her speech as she tried to read from a teleprompter. \"Make some noise for my boy, Kanye West,\" Smith finally yelled. Sadow said the video should be viewed in the context of the medical problems Smith was suffering at the time. \"We all have bad days, and she suffered from seizures and she had medical problems,\" Sadow said. \"So, if she's on medication for that, [it] would explain her activity.\" Stern sat with his head in his hands at times while the government's lead investigator described what happened the day Smith died at the Hard Rock Hotel. Danny Santiago, special agent for the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, said investigators found 12 types of prescription drugs, including dangerous opiates, in the hotel room. Seven of them were prescribed using Stern's name, although spelled \"Stearn,\" he said. Two of the drugs apparently were for treatment of \"flu-like symptoms\" Smith was suffering when she arrived at the hotel three days before her death, he said. A hotel employee who saw Smith and Stern arrive told investigators she \"wasn't her normal vivacious self,\" Santiago said. Another hotel worker who had closely assisted Smith during several earlier stays said she was not allowed contact with Smith, which she said was \"very unusual,\" Santiago testified. The workers said they were told Smith was suffering from \"flu-like symptoms.\" The autopsy revealed Smith had a bacterial infection, Santiago said. When Stern left the hotel on the morning of February 8 to shop for a new boat, he asked Tasma Brighthaupt, a registered nurse who is married to Smith's bodyguard, to watch over Smith, who he said was sleeping, the investigator said. Brighthaupt sat next to the bed, surfing the Internet with a laptop and talking on her cell phone, believing Smith was sleeping, he said. Finally, Brigette Neben, described as a friend of Smith's, noticed her lips were turning blue and her skin was pale, he said. When the nurse was unable to find a pulse, she called her husband, Maurice Brighthaupt. He then called the hotel desk, where an employee called for paramedics. CPR efforts by the bodyguard and paramedics failed to revive Smith, who was then taken to Hollywood Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the investigator said. A series of affidavits used by state investigators to obtain search warrants in their 2\u00bd-year investigation was unsealed last month, revealing many details, including an account of one witness who told investigators she saw Stern inject Smith with drugs. Other affidavits included a medical expert's conclusion that Smith, whose real name was Vickie Lynn Marshall, was given drugs in \"excessive amounts\" and a pharmacist who said he had refused to fill a prescription for a long list of strong narcotics.","highlights":"Video played at preliminary hearing on reality star Smith's death .\n3 charged with conspiracy to prescribe, administer and dispense drugs .\nHoward Stern, Khristine Eroshevich, Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty .","id":"22c8ea1be06e6791b27f43b2059c6149a8dcf7a0"} -{"article":"Click here for video . Thursday, August 20, 2009 . 8:13 PM ET - Gruesome details emerging from Buena Park police in the brutal death of 28 year old Jasmine Fiore. Not only was Fiore stuffed in a suitcase and thrown away in a dumpster, but we learn Fiore's teeth and fingers were removed. Authorities believe the murder suspect, Ryan Jenkins, is armed with a handgun, still on the run, most likely in Canada. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 7:24 PM ET - Moments ago Buena Park, California police announced that as of this afternoon an arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Jenkins in the murder of 28 year old swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore. Jenkins is officially a fugitive. Although Jenkins' black BMW has been located in Washington State, Fiore's white Mercedes is still missing. Authorities do believe Jenkins has crossed the border into Canada and they are now working with Canadian Royal Police to apprehend Jenkins. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 6:23 PM ET - Major developments right now! The Orange County DA's office confirms they will file murder charges against reality TV star Ryan Jenkins in the brutal death of swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore. A news conference is set to take place any moment, standby for more details. We will also bring you all the latest developments on the show at 8pm EST for the full hour tonight. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 3 PM ET - Is a reality TV star wanted for questioning in the murder of swimsuit model 28 year old Jasmine Fiore on the run? LA cops have been unable to get in touch with Ryan Jenkins since Jenkins reported her missing and cops discovered the gorgeous model dead inside a suitcase dumped inside a Buena Park apartment complex dumpster. The last reported sightings of Jenkins were in San Diego alongside Fiore, before her death and within the last 48 hours near a Washington state marina. Jenkins' car and empty boat trailer discovered at that marina alongside the US-Canadian border. The Buena Park police are set to hold a news conference shortly. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 1:41 PM ET - Investigators confirm a reality TV star they want to question in connection with the murder of swimsuit beauty Jasmine Fiore may be heading for the border. A car and empty boat trailer belonging to Ryan Jenkins was discovered at a marina in Washington State, a few miles from the Canadian border. Authorities say Jenkins most likely walked across the border to British Columbia. LAPD wants to question Jenkins as a person of interest in Fiore's death because he was one of the last people to see her, reported her missing hours before the model's body was found, then took off. Jenkins has a criminal domestic violence record and was best known for his appearance on VH1's \"Megan Wants a Millionaire\". In light of the investigation, VH1 has shut down airing any more new episodes. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) Wednesday, August 19, 2009: 7:28 PM ET - Preliminary reports are the swimsuit model found dead in a suitcase inside a Buena Park, California dumpster was strangled. Jasmine Fiore had signs of physical trauma when her body was discovered Saturday morning. The shocking discovery came just hours after her husband, reality TV star, Ryan Jenkins reported Fiore missing. The pair was last spotted in San Diego at a poker game Friday night. And the skeletons are already flying out of the closet for Jenkins. We've just received a criminal report stemming from a 2005 assault case in Calgary, Alberta involving Jenkins and a woman who was not Jasmine Fiore. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer) 5:36 PM ET - A reality TV star is making headlines at this hour for something other than appearing on the airwaves on VH1's \"Megan Wants a Millionaire.\" Police want to question 32 year old Ryan Jenkins in connection with the brutal death of a young, gorgeous swimsuit model. 28 year old Jasmine Fiore vanished after a poker tournament in San Diego. Fiore was allegedly there with Jenkins and reports are the two were husband and wife, secretly married in Las Vegas. Police confirm Jenkins was the one who reported Fiore missing Saturday night, just hours after her body was discovered in a bloody suitcase, thrown away like trash at a Buena Park apartment complex dumpster...but then Jenkins went missing. There are two vehicles of interest in the search for Jenkins...Fiore's white 2007 Mercedes CL S550 and Jenkins' black BMW X5. Police say Jenkins could be behind the wheel of either car. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer)","highlights":"Jasmine Fiore, 28, was found choked to death and stuffed in a suitcase .\nHer husband, reality star Ryan Alexander Jenkins now a murder suspect in the case .\nJenkins reported Fiore missing last Saturday night .","id":"89b91c07752726e41e63ee8b6c5b3094f046be24"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Salvadoran immigrant suspected in the 2001 slaying of Washington intern Chandra Levy told at least two people he killed her, according to an affidavit filed in the case. Ingmar Guandique is serving a 10-year sentence for two assaults in the park where Chandra Levy's body was found. Ingmar Guandique, 27, also kept a magazine photo of Levy in his prison cell, stated the affidavit detailing evidence supporting a warrant for his arrest for first-degree murder. Guandique is in prison in California for two assault convictions. Guandique boasted of his ties to the violent Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and told witnesses that he was known as \"Chuckie\" -- the name of a demonic doll in a series of horror movies -- because he had a reputation for \"killing and chopping up people,\" the affidavit states. D.C. Metro police and federal prosecutors released the affidavit on Tuesday, announcing they would charge Guandique with first-degree murder in the Levy case. He has not been charged with any other slayings. Watch the police announce arrest \u00bb . The affidavit revealed that Levy, 25, fought for her life, scratching her attacker on his face and giving him a \"fat lip.\" Guandique said he received the injuries in a fight with his girlfriend. But the girlfriend later told police that while Guandique struck and bit her at times, she never hit him, the document says. Guandique is serving concurrent 10-year sentences in connection with attacks on two other joggers in the park during the summer of 2001. He told probation officials the attacks were motivated by robbery, but no valuables were taken from either victim. Guandique was arrested after the second attack -- exactly two months after Levy's slaying. D.C. Metro police began to take a hard second look at him in 2008, the affidavit shows. He has repeatedly denied to authorities that he killed Levy, and his public defenders have cautioned against a rush to judgment, citing what they called flaws in the investigation. The affidavit details a case built largely on circumstantial evidence collected over the eight years since Levy disappeared, apparently while jogging along the Western Ridge trail in Washington's Rock Creek Park. It portrays Guandique as an opportunistic attacker who came up behind female joggers, grabbing them as they were tiring and becoming winded. The affidavit includes highlights from interviews with a dozen witnesses, who are not identified by name and are instead given numbers. One witness, who frequently exchanged letters with the suspect, told police Guandique had told him as early as 2003 that he killed a young woman in the park. During a taped 2008 phone conversation with the witness, \"Guandique acknowledged that he had told W9 about the 'girl who's dead,''' the affidavit says. Another witness told police that Guandique said he and two male teenagers were sitting on a bench in a park smoking marijuana laced with cocaine when a woman with dark, thick hair jogged by. The witness said Guandique thought she \"looked good\" and told the two teens that he was going to \"get her.\" Guandique told the witness that the three followed her along a path, then grabbed her and forced her off the trail. When she started screaming, he grabbed her by the neck and choked her to death, so that other people in the park would not hear her cries for help. It is not clear from the affidavit whether the two teens Guandique said were with him actually exist. Police have said no other arrests are imminent, but the investigation is continuing. Timeline of Levy's disappearance \u00bb . Levy's skull was found in the park on May 22, 2002 -- more than a year after she disappeared. A search turned up other remains, as well as clothing later identified as hers strewn down the side of a ravine. Her running shoes were unlaced. He clothes were turned inside out, the pants knotted in tight restraints around her legs. \"It appears that Guandique wanted Ms. Levy naked and incapacitated,\" states the affidavit, signed by D.C. Metro Det. Todd Williams. Also among the witnesses are two women who were attacked in Rock Creek Park during the summer of 2001, along with a woman who narrowly escaped her attacker at about 2 p.m. on May 1, 2001 -- about the same time Levy is believed to have been jogging in the park. All three identified Guandique from photographs as the man who stalked them in Rock Creek Park. \"I do not doubt that he purposely stalked me as a hunter tracks his prey,\" one of the victims told police, according to the affidavit. The other victim described him as \"a bold and practiced attacker,\" the affidavit said. \"He waited until he thought I was fatigued from jogging up a hill and purposefully selected a secluded spot right next to a deep ravine. I fear for other women who may appear to be more vulnerable than I did.\" Guandique also allegedly described his methods to one of the witnesses in whom he confided, according to the affidavit. \"Guandique said he would hide on a dirt path and wait for the girl to walk by. He would then lasso the girl around the neck and tie her hands and feet together behind her back to prevent her from scratching or kicking him,\" the affidavit quotes the witness as saying. It continues: \"After the girl was tied up, he would rape her. Guandique admitted that he did not always know whether his victims were still alive at the end of the attack, but that it did not matter, because they would be eaten by the animals, like coyotes and vultures.\" Police visited Guandique at a federal prison in California in November, according to the affidavit. They found him to be heavily tattooed, with multiple MS-13 gang tattoos, as well as \"Chuckie\" tattoos and a devil tattooed on his head. One tattoo on his back depicts the \"Chuckie\" movie character holding a knife, according to the affidavit. Guandique learned last week from media reports that he would be arrested in the Levy murder case and, according to a witness, responded with an expletive. \"They got me now. What am I gonna do?\" the witness quoted Guandique as saying, according to the affidavit. He vowed that he was not \"going to go out alone,\" telling the witness he planned to set a fire with a battery and tissues, then use a homemade handcuff key to escape. He said he would kill the detectives with \"shanks,\" or weapons made in prison. A search of his cell on February 26 turned up the items he described to the witness, the affidavit says. They included an AA battery, several tissues, a toenail clipper fashioned into a sharp piece of metal, and a device made of a razor blade. Authorities said Guandique will be brought to Washington in the next 45 to 60 days and formally charged, ending a chapter in one of Washington's most notorious cold cases. Although the case's notoriety was fed by news reports linking Levy to a married congressman, U.S. Rep. Gary Condit's name does not appear at all in the affidavit supporting the case against the man police want to charge with her murder.","highlights":"NEW: Affidavit says suspect kept a magazine photo of Chandra Levy in prison cell .\nNEW: Witnesses say suspect known as \"Chuckie,\" like demonic movie doll .\nAn arrest warrant for Ingmar Guandique was signed Tuesday .\nLevy disappeared in May 2001; her body was found a year later .","id":"f34e064288a13b96831c7d390fb24071daae3800"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A man police believe shot and killed two people at a California toll plaza during the height of evening rush hour Tuesday was taken into custody early Wednesday, authorities told CNN affiliate KTVU. Police say Nathaniel Burris, 46, was arrested just after 3 a.m. on Interstate 80 near Baxter, California. Nathaniel Burris, 46, was arrested just after 3 a.m. on Interstate 80 near Baxter, California, by the California Highway Patrol, Richmond, California, police Sgt. Bisa French told KTVU. The shooting happened at 5:55 p.m. at the entrance to the 7.5-mile Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, which links Contra Costa and Marin counties, California Highway Patrol spokesman Sam Morgan told CNNRadio. Deborah Ross, 51, was killed inside one of the toll booths, the California governor's office said. The other person killed was a man shot while sitting in his vehicle, which was parked in a lot at the toll plaza, Morgan said. KTVU identified the man as Ersie \"Chuck\" Everett, 58. Both people were shot with a shotgun, authorities said. The suspect drove off in a white 2005 Ford van with \"Western Eagle Shuttle\" printed on it in orange and blue letters, Morgan said. Richmond police said the deaths appeared to stem from a domestic dispute, KTVU said. French told the station Burris was in a \"dating relationship\" and lived with Ross. Aerial footage showed traffic backed up after the shooting, with cars being ushered through the far-right toll lane. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement expressing shock and sadness over Ross' death. The statement said Capitol flags would be flown at half-staff in her memory.","highlights":"Woman shot inside one of the toll booths; another victim shot inside his vehicle .\nNathaniel Burris of Richmond, California, accused of rush-hour slayings .\nPolice say deaths appeared to stem from a domestic dispute .","id":"751ff631c751e20472f057d7b904feb0d4c0c42a"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian authorities Tuesday filed a police complaint against Continental Airlines for frisking a former president of the country as he was to travel to New York in April. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials said. Civil aviation officials in New Delhi accused Continental of gross violation of Indian security rules that prohibit pre-embarkation body checks on certain dignitaries like a former president. The police complaint followed a probe that had established that APJ Abdul Kalam was subject to frisking before he boarded a flight from New Delhi to New York on April 21, the Indian civil aviation ministry said in a statement. The ministry also alleged the airline did not respond to its show-cause notice in connection with Kalam's body checks. In its police complaint, Indian civil aviation authorities accused the airline staff of \"willful violation\" of their directions on exemptions from pre-embarkation frisking. Continental, however, insisted it followed standard American air-safety procedures. \"TSA (Transportation Security Administration) requirements impose a final security check in the aerobridge just before boarding the aircraft. \"This procedure is followed by all carriers flying to the U.S. from most of the countries in the world and there is no exemption to this rule,\" it said in a statement.","highlights":"Indian authorities file complaint against Continental for frisking former president .\nFormer president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials say .\nContinental, however, insists it followed standard U.S. air-safety procedures .","id":"de81650d45e3854f3069076350745fd784c1f864"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man who was raised at Camp Lejeune told lawmakers Thursday that he blames contaminated water at the U.S. Marines training base for his breast cancer. Government records show decades of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Michael Partain, who was diagnosed two years ago at the age of 39, told the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs that his parents were stationed at the base in North Carolina when he was born. At least 40 former U.S. Marines or sons of Marines who lived at Camp Lejeune have been diagnosed with the cancer that strikes fewer than 2,000 men a year, compared with about 200,000 women. The committee hearing was focused on exposure by military personnel to hazardous materials in the United States, Japan and Iraq, including toxic smoke from burn pits in Iraq and contaminated water. Partain said that during his mother's pregnancy, the family was exposed to high levels of tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, dichloroethylene, benzene and vinyl chloride in the tap water at the military base. \"I am one of about 40 men who share this unique commonality of male breast cancer and exposure to contaminated tap water [at] Camp Lejeune,\" he told the committee. The Marines with breast cancer served or lived at Camp Lejeune between the 1960s and 1980s. Government records show that the camp's water was contaminated for three decades. Although the Marine Corps contends that two independent studies have found no link between water contamination and later illnesses, the men facing a debilitating and possibly lethal disease don't believe it. Partain said his illness has been been a \"traumatic, emotional and physical\" ordeal for his family. Two North Carolina senators -- Richard Burr, the ranking Republican on the committee, and Kay Hagan, a Democrat who is not a panel member -- are pushing legislation that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover the medical costs of Marines and their families who were exposed to the contaminated water. The provision, which has passed the Senate, would amend the Defense Appropriations Bill to prohibit the Navy from \"disposing of water-contamination claims before critical scientific studies can be completed.\" According to Hagan, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is conducting human health and water modeling studies to determine whether the toxic water contributed to health problems at the base. Some of the water was contaminated with toxins at concentrations up to 280 times what is currently considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, Hagan said. The bill covers the period between 1957 and 1987. \"I think it should be our mission to give these families complete answers,\" she said. \"They can't get closure until the remaining CDC studies, which are in progress, are complete.\" Sen. Roland Burris, D-Illinois, added, \"I am deeply concerned about possible environmental hazards in places where we are fighting two wars.\" He and other senators agreed that current military personnel and veterans should not have to battle red tape to get health care and benefits. Russell Powell, a medic with the 1092nd West Virginia Army National Guard, said that from April 2003 to June 2004, the unit was assigned to the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in Basra, Iraq, to provide security for contractors with KBR, an engineering and construction company hired by the Defense Department to provide services in Iraq. When the platoon reached the plant, they found it in disarray and coated with orange-colored dust, he testified. Large bags of the dust had been ripped open, and frequent dust storms blew through the facility, he said. At no time were the security guards offered protective clothing, masks or respirators, Powell said. After a few weeks, several soldiers began getting lesions on their hands, arms, faces and nostrils. \"As a medic, I felt very concerned for the safety and health of persons exposed. I questioned one of the KBR workers, and he told me that his supervisors told him not to worry about it, that we were allergic to sand and dust,\" according to Powell. When he went to a military doctor with his symptoms, the physician prescribed Motrin and Tylenol. Soon after, Powell began coughing up blood and was hospitalized. His face and lips were burned, and he could barely swallow, he said. Powell left Iraq in April 2004, still suffering symptoms, he said. Doctors didn't know what it was. This year, he said, he received a letter from the West Virginia National Guard that said he and others may have been exposed to sodium dichromate. The medic said he's aware that research is being done. Sodium dichromate is a poisonous red-orange crystalline compound. Another witness, Stacy Pennington, cried in the hearing room as she described the agony her brother suffered before he died. Army Staff Sgt. Steven Ochs was 27 when he was deployed to Iraq in 2003, she said. He was assigned at one point to Balad Air Base in northern Iraq, where there was a large burn pit: a junk pit where plastics, food, medical waste and, Pennington said, possibly even body parts were burned. The toxic smoke wafted over the area. Dr. Bill Halperin, who heads a subcommittee of the Defense Health Board, an advisory committee to the Secretary of Defense, said in a presentation last year that before three incinerators were installed, the burn pit received as much as 500,000 pounds of waste a day. After Ochs returned from his third Iraq tour, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, his sister said. He spent 10 months at Duke University Hospital, where doctors, she said, told him that his aggressive form of the disease was \"definitely chemically induced\" by exposures to toxic materials in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Ochs also had served.","highlights":"NEW: National Guard medic testifies about exposure in Iraq .\nMan tells Senate panel that his family was stationed at base when he was born .\nHe was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago at age 39 .\nFamily was exposed to chemicals in tap water during mother's pregnancy, he says .","id":"545befab509b2fc12bfc309bd19e2ffd6171a2d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After a weekend of rumors, it's finally official: Heidi Klum and Seal are now the proud parents of a baby girl, Klum's representative confirmed. Heidi Klum met Seal in 2004, and the couple married a year later. The \"Project Runway\" host gave birth Friday night. Klum and Seal named their new bundle Lou Sulola Samuel. The couple, who married in 2005, have been busy babymaking ever since. Lou Sulola is the youngest of four: Henri, 4, Johan, 2 and Leni, 5, whom Klum had from a previous relationship. \"It's difficult to imagine loving another child as much as you love your existing children,\" Seal said of the birth in a statement Tuesday. \"Anyone who has a family will tell you this. Where will one find that extra love? If you love your existing children with all of your heart, how then can one possibly find more heart with which to love another?\" The answer to that question, the Grammy-winning singer said, \"came in the form of our fourth child and second daughter. \"Lou Sulola Samuel was born, and from the moment she looked into both of our eyes, it was endless love at first sight. She is beautiful beyond words, and we are happy that she chose us to watch her grow over the coming years,\" he said.","highlights":"Heidi Klum and Seal have confirmed their daughter was born Friday .\nThe couple named her Lou Sulola Samuel .\nShe has three siblings: Henri, Johan and Leni .\nSeal said when Lou Sulola was born, it was \"endless love at first sight.\"","id":"4943a7e26f8525bd179b5f33d2371dd5ae0b7a1c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Search teams have found the flight data recorder from the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed off the Comoros Islands in June, killing 152 people, the chief investigator said Friday. Search parties continue their operation to locate the Yemenia Airbus A310 off the Comoros Islands in July. An operation to retrieve the recorder has begun, said a statement from investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed. The Airbus 310 crashed into the Indian Ocean, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members. It originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and went down just miles from Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands. One person, a 13-year-old French girl, survived. The recorder could contain information to help determine what caused the crash. The plane had tried to land at the airport in Moroni, then made a U-turn before it crashed, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said soon after the accident. A French official said that country had banned the plane after it failed an aviation inspection in 2007, but Yemenia Airways was not on the European Union's list of banned airlines. Passengers on the flight included 66 French citizens, 54 Comorians, one Palestinian and one Canadian, according to Yemeni and French officials. The crew was made up of six Yemenis, two Moroccans, one Ethiopian, one Filipino and one Indonesian. The Comoros Islands are between the east African country of Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar.","highlights":"Comoros Islands lie between east African and the island nation of Madagascar .\nRecorder could contain information to help determine what caused the crash .\nThirteen-year-old French girl was the only person to survive plane crash .","id":"b972885703d53745148d8ce847ce3267fe66f834"} -{"article":"During CNN's \"Going Green: Green Light for Business\" coverage, we've asked businesses to tell us how they balance the imperative for profit with environmental concerns. First up is the co-founder of Hong Kong-based DIAZ Fine Jewelry, Salina Khan Fuchigami, whose business packages cubic zirconia diamonds in an environmental wrapping. Growing up surrounded by generations of jewelry wearing tradition, I was drawn to the brilliance and transparency of diamonds from an early age. Later, it was the fact that diamonds are a unique resource, evoking beauty and eternal love that lead me to found DIAZ Fine Jewelry. Salina Khan Fuchigami co-founded DIAZ Fine Jewelry with her husband Takashi. However, as I began to learn beyond the basics and beauty of diamonds, I began to discover the many environmental and ethical issues related to them. And the once simple wish to create a line of exquisite diamond jewelry grew into a mission -- to create an ecologically and ethically correct jewelry brand. I was one of many who were understandably concerned to learn that jewelry they had as a symbol of love may have come at a terrible human and environmental cost. Although the social and ethical issues associated with conflict diamonds were the impetus at the core of the DIAZ philosophy, the serious environmental impacts of the diamond industry could not be ignored. There's an undeniable link between the degradation of our global environment and consumer culture. The trouble is that these days, things are so nicely packaged, presented and displayed that we hardly ever question how the raw materials used to produce the goods are extracted and processed. We rarely think of how it all affects the environment and humankind. It's impossible to assess exactly how much devastation one single diamond could have caused before it was cut, polished, set and sold at a high-end retailer. It's hard to imagine what a diamond mine looks like by looking at the \"stunning sparklers\" that are neatly displayed in shop windows. Somewhere along the way it became irrelevant to question the true cost of the stones. Diamond mining practices are not without huge ecological impacts. Whether extracted from a large-scale diamond mine using modern, clinical mining methods, or through small-scale artisanal alluvial diamond digging, the diamond industry faces environmental challenges just as with any mineral extraction. Land disturbance, which involves the shifting of large quantities of soil from the earth, is interlinked with issues of waste and water pollution as well as huge impacts on biodiversity. Through my company, I knew I could offer an alternative to mined-diamond jewelry of equal beauty and quality -- using lab-created jewels and meticulous craftsmanship -- jewelry that evoked beauty and eternal love, and that was truly transparent. As with any environmental or ethical issue, education, knowledge and action are the keys to ending unnecessary harm. So, as the business grew, we made sure each of our customers received an info-leaflet with every purchase. We began donating proceeds from our sales to grassroots organizations that ran mine-reclamation projects promoting organic farming and biodiversity in mining towns in Sierra Leone, a country devastated by civil war that was fueled by diamonds and now has a landscape scarred by indiscriminate alluvial diamond mining. We began monitoring the working conditions at our workshop, and looking for more sustainable methods of packaging and delivering our jewelry. We found that our customers were happy to be a part of a solution and not the problem. The economic downturn, combined with an increasing awareness of the ecological and ethical facts surrounding diamonds, has meant an increase in customers who appreciate affordable luxury without any attached guilt. There's no doubt that the choices we make and the actions we take today affect the fate of our planet and in turn our well being. With shifting consumer behavior and a changing economic and environmental climate, the time has come where being environmentally conscious is an imperative for all individuals and businesses alike.","highlights":"CNN has asked businesses to explain their concept of \"Going Green\"\nJeweler Salina Khan Fuchigami uses cubic zirconia instead of diamonds .\nKhan Fuchigami: \"Diamond mining practices have huge ecological impacts\"\nBlog series is part of CNN's \"Going Green\" coverage from June 15 to July 10 .","id":"432986f7670e5fa46f4c2d46e696f8957d0fb8de"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Phillip Garrido was registered as a sex offender, regularly visited by parole officers and fitted with an ankle bracelet to track his movements -- but nothing prevented him from being around children, according to a victims' advocacy group. Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, was arraigned in California on Friday. Garrido is charged with kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, when she was 11, and raping her over the course of years. Police say Dugard lived in a huddle of tents and outbuildings hidden behind Garrido's home, and gave birth to two daughters, now 11 and 15, fathered by Garrido. Garrido and his wife Nancy were arrested last week. Both have pleaded not guilty. \"Here we have a guy who is essentially under every kind of supervision we allow. Law enforcement had every tool available to them, and [the tools] failed,\" said Robert Coombs, spokesman for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Gordon Hinkle, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said a parole officer visited Garrido at his home, sometimes unannounced, twice a month. Garrido was also required to go to the agent's office once or twice a month, Hinkle said. Garrido wore a GPS anklet, and his movements were tracked passively, Hinkle said, meaning parole officers checked his location after the fact, as opposed to active monitoring, which involves watching parolees' comings and goings in real time. Despite the tight supervision, Garrido \"was technically allowed to be around minors,\" Coombs said, because his parole stemmed from the November 1976 rape of Katie Callaway Hall, who was 25 at the time of the assault. He was sentenced in 1977 to 50 years at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, for kidnapping, because he abducted Hall in California and transported her across the state line to Reno, Nevada, where he raped her in a warehouse, according to court documents. A Nevada court separately sentenced him to five years to life for the rape conviction, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. While in prison in 1978, Garrido sent a handwritten letter to Judge Bruce R. Thompson, saying he was recovering from seven years of LSD use and progressing well. \"I am so ashamed of my past. But my future is now in controle [sic],\" he wrote. Court documents show Garrido requested that his 50-year sentence be reduced to 25, making him eligible for parole in eight years, \"where he could be released to the state of Nevada as an educated person and being a rehabilitated person.\" According to a 1978 court transcript, attorney Willard Van Hazel Jr. told a judge, \"Without the influence of any of this drug involvement, I think Mr. Garrido would pause before carrying out sexual fantasies.\" After more than a decade at Leavenworth, Garrido received a federal parole but was sent to Carson City, Nevada, in January 1988 to serve his rape sentence. However, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, he was automatically eligible for state parole because of the time served in federal prison. The Nevada Offender Tracking Information System indicates he appeared four times before the parole board, which granted his request in August 1988, about 11 years after he was incarcerated. He moved to Antioch, California. Three years later, 11-year-old Dugard was abducted from her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, about 100 miles northeast. \"He served about 20 percent of his sentence, and it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out if he served only one-third of his sentence, Jaycee Dugard doesn't end up in the predicament that she's in,\" said Andy Kahan, a crime victims' advocate in Houston, Texas. Citing revised federal sentencing guidelines, Kahan and Illinois defense attorney Stephen Komie concur that this is not something that could happen today. \"If he got 50 years, say, he would have 600 months. He would only get 50 months off. He would do 550 months,\" Komie said. \"So this would not be repeated in the federal system again.\" Added Kahan, \"You're going to have to do at least a minimum of half of your term without any good time credits before you can even see the light of day or say hello to a parole board member.\" In 1993, five years after his release from a Nevada prison, Garrido was jailed on a parole violation, but it's unclear what that offense was. Tom Hutchinson, spokesman for the U.S. Parole Commission, said documents have been requested and should be available later this week. Garrido was released later that year. California took over his parole supervision in 1999, Hinkle said, but regular visits did nothing to unearth Dugard's abduction or Garrido's backyard secrets. Another visit by law enforcement was the direct result of a 2006 call a neighbor made to 911, reporting that women and children were living in tents behind Garrido's house. Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said he didn't think the deputy who responded knew at the time that Garrido was a sex offender and the deputy spoke to Garrido in the home's front yard. \"We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two,\" the sheriff said. \"We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation.\" Hinkle acknowledged that neighbors called police again with a similar complaint in 2008. To his knowledge, Hinkle said, the deputy didn't contact Garrido's parole officer in either instance. Even if the deputy had made contact, there is no guarantee the parole officer would have found the compound. It was that well-hidden, Hinkle said. \"If you were to walk in the backyard, you would see a fence that ran from one end to the other,\" Hinkle said, describing how the fence created the illusion of a \"false backyard.\" \"It would not be immediately apparent that [the tents and outbuildings were] back there,\" he said. Kahan partially blames the economics of the criminal justice system -- not just in California, but nationwide -- and said Garrido likely became less of a priority as the time since his crimes passed. Despite the heinous nature of Garrido's 1976 crime, it paled in comparison to allegedly holding a young girl hostage and raping her for 18 years, Coombs said. \"Nothing in this guy's case history indicated he was capable of such evil, if you will,\" he said. \"It was so far out of the picture, they didn't even look for it.\" Rather than there not being enough money to fund the proper supervision of parolees, it's more a matter of priorities, Coombs said, citing the GPS device Garrido wore on his ankle. Although CALCASA has no official tally, it estimates California has spent roughly $500 million on GPS devices for 6,600 of the state's sex offenders. Garrido was fitted with a device after 2006 when voters OK'd a law requiring felony sex offenders to wear tracking devices for life. \"We know where this guy is, so we think we're safe,\" he said, \"but the place where we knew he was was the place where he was offending. GPS just tells you where they are. It doesn't tell you what they're doing.\" Each dollar spent on GPS equipment \"is one dollar you're not spending on real, traditional parole techniques, like talking to collateral contacts and neighbors,\" he said. Coombs also criticized the lack of communication across jurisdictions. Had Garrido's parole officer received a call from police and spoken to the neighbor who made the 911 call in 2006, authorities might have found Dugard three years earlier, Coombs said. Hinkle said the officer who flushed out Garrido's alleged crimes had only been supervising him since December. When the officer learned from campus police that Garrido had 11- and 15-year-old girls in tow while proselytizing at the University of California-Berkeley, he called Garrido in for a meeting. Garrido arrived with his wife, Dugard and the two girls. Hinkle would not provide details of the conversation -- it could affect the investigation and prosecution, he said -- but he did say Garrido and his wife were not forthcoming about Dugard's and the girls' identities. It was the parole officer's diligence that ultimately yielded the Garridos' arrest and Dugard and her daughters' freedom. Said Hinkle, \"They were coming in being elusive and deceptive about their identities, and the agent would not let go.\" CNN's Mallory Simon, Irving Last and Kiran Chetry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Parole officer may have seen \"false backyard,\" suspected nothing, official says .\nNEW: Spokesman: Deputy didn't call parole officer after 911 calls about Garrido .\nGarrido was released from prison early after saying he had drug use under control .\nGarrido likely became lower priority as time since his crimes passed, expert says .","id":"ffbd623d043e1aedd1d2602d642f22ae497fb907"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Dan Brown's \"The Da Vinci Code\" has spawned a raft of imitators, most of which pale in comparison; the latest, \"The Lost Symbol,\" is by Brown himself. Dan Brown's \"The Lost Symbol\" is his first novel since the blockbuster \"The Da Vinci Code\" in 2003. Once again, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to the scene of a gruesome attack, joins forces with an attractive and erudite love interest, and speeds around a world capital chasing clues, solving puzzles, and risking his life while dropping cocktail parties' worth of scholarly minutiae. Even the setting, though new, will be familiar to most readers: Washington, D.C. This time, Langdon is lured to the Capitol to save his mentor, Peter Solomon, a prominent member of the Freemasons who's been kidnapped by a cryptic, heavily tattooed, Homer-reading psycho calling himself Mal'akh -- a vicious fellow even less plausible than the albino monk in \"The Da Vinci Code.\" Our hero is also in possession of an ancient Masonic artifact whose clues lead him on a treasure hunt to various D.C. tourist spots as he searches for a secret long hidden by the brotherhood. Watch the frenzy surrounding \"The Lost Symbol\" \u00bb . That secret, of course, is one giant MacGuffin -- though Brown is the rare thriller writer who seems to lavish as much attention on the object that sets his plot in motion as he does on the action itself. But for thriller fans, it's the chase that really matters. Especially since the secrets of Freemasonry just aren't as compelling as, say, a controversial theory about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Luckily, Langdon remains a terrific hero, a bookish intellectual who's cool in a crisis and quick on his feet, like Ken Jennings with a shot of adrenaline. The codes are intriguing, the settings present often-seen locales in a fresh light, and Brown mostly manages to keep the pages turning -- except when one of his know-it-all characters decides to brake the action for another superfluous, if occasionally interesting, historical digression. (Did you know there's a carving of Darth Vader on the National Cathedral?) Even after the book's climactic showdown, you must slog through another 50-plus pages of exposition that Brown couldn't cram into the main narrative. Sometimes it seems that authors, like their villains, don't know when to leave well enough alone. EW Grade: C+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"EW: Dan Brown's new novel, \"The Lost Symbol,\" doesn't equal \"Da Vinci Code\"\nBook concerns the death of a Freemason that puts Robert Langdon back in action .\nBrown offers plenty of minutiae, but not all of it's interesting .","id":"56a1d687af9fda0ea9403b9b5670ced4e1ca10ee"} -{"article":"LITHIA SPRINGS, Georgia (CNN) -- As Zack Stephney stepped into the floodwaters last week, history washed over him. Thirty years after his father drowned in a rescue attempt, Zack Stephney helped save a woman whose car sank. The youngest of five children, he was only 8 when his father died. For three decades, he'd carried with him mere snapshots of memories: Family time at Christmas. Riding on the back of Dad's motorcycle. Tommie Stephney's love for drag-racing. But as the 37-year-old Douglasville, Georgia, man set out September 22 to try and save a woman whose car was swept away by rushing waters, he thought of his father's drowning. He, too, had fought to rescue people struggling against currents. That was in 1979. Tommie Stephney, a City of Atlanta employee, dove into the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, Georgia, to save canoeists who'd flipped their boat, his son said. He safely brought two to shore. The third, he said, panicked -- forcing them both under. It would be a week before his father's body was found. Dying in the massive floodwaters couldn't be Zack's fate. Certainly not this day. It was his mother Eva's 72nd birthday. Lord knows she didn't deserve news like that. 'All in a blink of an eye' Melissa Brooks was heading east en route to Dunwoody, Georgia, for an important morning meeting with her boss. She doesn't know why, but it simply didn't register with the Douglasville woman that she was the only one traveling along that stretch of I-20. No signs or barriers told her she shouldn't be there. The water up ahead? It simply looked like a puddle, albeit a big one, the kind that would send a huge spray flying. \"I got halfway through it, and it took control of my car. It started taking me backwards -- all in a blink of an eye,\" she said Tuesday. \"I knew I was in serious trouble.\" The Atlanta-area terminal for Werner Enterprises, a large trucking company off I-20 on Blairs Bridge Road, was abuzz that morning. Floodwater from nearby Sweetwater Creek had taken over a large swathe of the property, worse than they had ever seen. Nearly 30 mechanics had scrambled down to the lower lot to move about 100 semis, the water topping their tires. Some guys, including Stephney, a shop foreman who's been with Werner for nearly 19 years, looked out in wonder at the green space next to the lot, which had turned into a wide moving river. When they first saw the silver Mazda coming through the trees from the interstate, they laughed, thinking it had been carried out of someone's driveway. But after it hit a submerged fence and spun around, they spotted Brooks, 40, frantically waving. \"My eyes zoomed in to see her fear,\" said Stephney. And as the car started to go under, he thought, \"This woman is going to drown in front of us.\" Taking charge . Brooks thought back to the movies she'd seen, kept the car running and hit the power button to lower the window before it was too late. She was a good swimmer, she knew that much, and with this knowledge -- and purse in hand, of course, she would recall with a laugh -- Brooks pushed herself into the torrent. The current, however, was stronger than she was. It pulled her where it wanted. She grabbed on to what appeared to be a small tree. \"Hold on! Hold on!\" Brooks heard their voices and held herself together. She wasn't crying, but she was scared for her life. The tree branches began breaking. Stephney had taken off running, back up to the parts room to grab a spool of 1,000-foot yellow nylon rope, the sort used to tie tarps over flatbeds. He threw on a fluorescent safety vest, so the men on shore could easily spot him in the filthy water. Bigger men, including 265-pound Chris Mayfield, were ready to jump into the water. But Stephney, 100 pounds lighter, was laying out a plan in his head. Pulling him out would be easier, he told the men. Why make the job harder with a heavier man? \"He took charge like he'd done this a hundred times,\" Mayfield, 24, said. Maybe it was his training in the U.S. Army Reserves after high school or his father's experience, but keeping everyone calm, warding off panic, was top of Stephney's mind. More than 25 men stationed themselves on two points around the water as he waded in, and fed out the rope tied around him. He worked his way along the 6-foot-high, nearly submerged fence topped with barbed wire, struggling against the current to get close to Brooks, whose car had jumped the fence. The depth of the water worried him. Weeds tugged at his feet and legs. \"'What's your name?'\" Brooks remembered him asking calmly, his eyes locked on hers. Then, he said, \"'Melissa, everything's going to be OK.' And I believed him.\" She called Stephney the \"leader of the pack,\" and remembered him shouting to the others, \"Guys, let's pull this together. If we don't pull this together, we're going to lose her.\" On the other side of the fence was a stranger, Doug Weghorn. That morning, he'd been checking out the damage to his neighborhood when he came upon the mess abutting Werner Enterprises. Weghorn, 45, was now in the water as well. With a rope in his hand, unknowingly fed to him by Stephney's team, he snatched Brooks from the tree. It wasn't until Stephney was out of the water that he knew, for certain, that he and Brooks had made it. The 'what ifs' The first call was to his wife, Leaquarius, the mother of his three children. She didn't believe him when he told her what had happened. \"I kid you not,\" he told her. \"You want to smell me?\" He took a shower at work, scrubbed every inch of himself with a whole bottle of Clorox and joked that he was surprised his hair didn't turn white. He showered again, stepped into spare clothes and put in a full day on the job. It would be at least a few hours before he could call his mother. He knew she might get upset. A week later, the death toll in Georgia from the floods was 10. Standing along the fence still tangled with weeds and debris, Stephney peered down at Brooks' mucked-up car, knowing that number could have been higher. \"It could've happened to me the same way it did my dad,\" he said. The \"what ifs\" keep spinning through his head: . What if her window hadn't been down? What if they 'd never spotted her? What if she'd failed to stay calm? Mixed in are thoughts about his father, a man he in many ways struggles to remember. What Stephney did was not unlike the countless heroic efforts that played out in disaster areas during the flood. First responders and regular citizens risked their own lives to save others. But he had something else pushing him, the kind of inspiration rooted in family legacy. And without a doubt, Tommie Stephney would have been proud of his boy.","highlights":"Man enters flood to rescue woman, 30 years after father drowned saving others .\nWoman's car washes off I-20 in Georgia, 'in a blink of an eye,' she says .\nCo-workers hold rope while he goes in, trying to keep everyone calm .\nThoughts of his father and the 'what ifs' stay with him .","id":"a209d869530f2044ee041b5cd29b2afb9a2a91be"} -{"article":"The Hague, Netherlands (CNN) -- After Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic's failure to appear at the start of his trial on genocide and war crimes charges CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson explains what happens next. Q: How does the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) differ from the International Criminal Court (ICC)? A: The ICTY was set up by the United Nations in 1993 specifically to try people for crimes committed during the break up of the former Yugoslavia. The ICC is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court established to prosecute the most serious crimes of concern to the global community including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Q: Why did Karadzic fail to show up in court on Monday? A: Karadzic failed to show up because he wrote to the court several weeks ago telling judges he had not had sufficient time to prepare his defense. He is a \"self-representing accused,\" meaning he is defending himself. But he is backed by a large number of lawyers supported by a bevy of interns from U.S. law schools. Despite all this legal support, Karadzic says there has been too much evidence for him to go through. Prosecutors say they have 490 hours of evidence to present. The judge wrote back to Karadzic last week telling him he doesn't need to present his defense yet, he can do it after the prosecution. But Karadzic still refused to show. The court cannot compel him to come even though he is held in a detention facility about seven minutes drive from the court run exclusively for those awaiting or on trial at the tribunal. The detention facility is a lot more comfortable than a conventional jail. Karadzic will be able to watch TV when he wants, he has access to books and can mix with other defendants. Indeed, detention facility staff report that members of all three ethnic groups -- Serbs, Croats and Bosnians -- mingle freely, even playing games together. Q: Can the trial proceed without a defendant in the dock? A: The trial can go ahead without Karadzic present because there is no legal reason that says he needs to be there, even though he is defending himself. But the court is bound to give him a fair trial so if the prosecution begins without him the judges may give Karadzic a video feed so he can watch proceedings unfold. Q: How long is the trial expected to last? A: The trial could last at least two years and possibly three. The court allows at least one year for the prosecution and one year for the defense as a minimum. Q: What measures have been put in place to prevent a repeat of the delays and obfuscation seen during the trial of the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic? A: Milosovic's trial dragged on because he defended himself, refused to accept the legitimacy of court and because of the complexity of the case and lengthy charge list -- 66 counts -- against him. Karadzic's case is less complex and this is one of the lessons prosecutors have learned from the Milosevic trial: make cases simpler and only go for those that can be readily proved. But with Karadzic defending himself and refusing to accept the court's legitimacy, the judges are still struggling to figure out how to deal with tactics designed to delay the trial. They are likely to be less lenient than they were with Milosevic.","highlights":"Karadzic says he has not had sufficient time to prepare his defense .\nCourt cannot compel Karadzic to attend bur could put video link in cell .\nCourt has simplified case against Karadzic to avoid repeat of Milosevic trial .\nStill, trial will last at least two -- and possibly three -- years .","id":"904f238bab1156fb0f6aa43d0e224fc5bfcf4d5b"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Air India took two pilots and two cabin crew off-duty over allegations that they had a fist fight during an international flight with 106 passengers aboard, the state-run airline said Monday. Faced with tough competition from private carriers, Air India has struggled with financial and image crises. The scuffle allegedly took place on flight from the United Arab Emirates to New Delhi, while the plane flew over Pakistan. An investigation had been launched into what Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava called \"charges and counter-charges.\" In a police complaint made on landing Saturday, a 24-year-old flight attendant alleged a molestation attempt. But pilots Ranbeer Arora and Aditya Chopra alleged that the molestation claim was an attempt to deflect attention from misbehavior by a male purser. Have you ever experienced poor crew behaviour on a flight? \"All the four have been de-rostered and an inquiry committee is examining versions of each of them,\" Bhargava said. Faced with tough competition from private carriers, Air India has struggled with financial and image crises. Rats have been spotted on two Air India international flights in less than a month, according to news reports. An investigation in May revealed that the carrier had loaded a flight three passengers beyond capacity. Several employees were de-rostered as a result. \"Privatize Air India before it's too late,\" warned a column in the Hindustan Times newspaper Sunday. \"As long as the government runs Air India, it will continue to strangle it,\" columnist Vir Sanghvi wrote.","highlights":"Scuffle allegedly took place on flight from United Arab Emirates to New Delhi .\n24-year-old flight attendant alleged a molestation attempt, which pilots refute .\nAir India has struggled with financial and image crises .","id":"26d1f5003fad83713666368af9f0380e442ab350"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The oldest-known hominid skeleton was a 4-foot-tall female who walked upright more than 4 million years ago and offers new clues to how humans may have evolved, scientists say. This sketch shows what a 4 million-year-old hominid, nicknamed Ardi, may have looked like. Scientists believe that the fossilized remains, which were discovered in 1994 in Ethiopia and studied for years by an international team of researchers, support beliefs that humans and chimpanzees evolved separately from a common ancestor. \"This is not an ordinary fossil. It's not a chimp. It's not a human. It shows us what we used to be,\" said project co-director Tim White, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed \"Ardi,\" is a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Aramis, Ethiopia. That makes Ardi more than a million years older than the celebrated Lucy, the partial ape-human skeleton found in Africa in 1974. Ardi's 125-piece skeleton includes the skull, teeth, pelvis, hands and feet bones. Scientists say the data collected from Ardi's bone fragments over the past 17 years push back the story of human evolution further than previously believed. \"In fact, what Ardipithecus tells us is that we as humans have been evolving to what we are today for at least 6 million years,\" C. Owen Lovejoy, an evolutionary biologist at Kent State University and project anatomist, said Thursday. Analysis of Ardi's skeleton reveals that she weighed about 110 pounds, had very long arms and fingers, and possessed an opposable big toe that would have helped her grasp branches while moving through trees. Ardi's brain was believed to be the size of a chimp's, but she also had many human-like features, such as the ability to walk upright on two legs. Her \"all-purpose type\" teeth indicate that she probably ate a combination of plants, fruits and small mammals, scientists say. \"The anatomy behind this behavioral combination is very unexpected and is certain to cause considerable rethinking of not only our evolutionary past, but also that of our living relatives: the great apes,\" said Alan Walker, professor of biological anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. Many scientists hypothesize that humans took a different evolutionary trajectory from those of chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. Ardi's findings help challenge earlier beliefs that humans evolved from chimpanzees, their closest genetic relatives, scientists say. Researchers are still trying to pinpoint when the two lineages -- chimps and humans -- split from their common ancestor. Digging up the past has not been easy. Scientists stumbled upon the Ardipithecus fossil in 1994 when a graduate student found a single upper molar tooth. The rest of Ardi's fossilized bones, sandwiched between layers of volcanic rock, took three years to be recovered and many more to be analyzed. \"In many ways, the discovery of Ardipithecus has been like a marathon,\" White said. \"Ardipithecus ramidus and its prevailing anatomy revolutionize the way most of us understood the earlier part of our evolutionary history,\" said team member Yohannes Haile-Selassie, paleontologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The Ardi findings are the work of 47 paleontologists and geologists representing 10 countries. The results will be published Friday in 11 articles in a special edition of the journal Science. Until now, Australopithecus, nicknamed \"Lucy,\" was the oldest fossil studied by scientists seeking to explain human evolution. Lucy is believed to have lived about 3.2 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. Many scientists credit Ethiopia with taking the lead in helping the world better understand the origins of humans. \"This finding points to a deeper sense of our [humans'] interconnectedness,\" Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian ambassador to the United States, said Thursday. \"We are all Ethiopians at heart.\" Ardi's skeleton resides in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.","highlights":"Researchers have unveiled a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton of a hominid female .\nThe fossil, nicknamed Ardi, may be the oldest hominid skeleton ever found .\nIt replaces Lucy, a much-publicized skeleton that dates back about 3 million years .\nScientists: Ardi suggests humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor .","id":"f563a13982783d4cbf87ea5966acf433990374e4"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Security forces patrolled the streets of the eastern Pakistan city of Gojra on Sunday, one day after seven people were killed and 20 injured when Muslim demonstrators set fire to houses in a Christian enclave and fighting broke out, authorities said. Pakistani human rights activists in Lahore protest on Saturday over the anti-Christian violence in Gojra village. Police said Muslims were enraged over an alleged desecration of pages in the Quran at a Christian wedding last Saturday, and held a rally to protest such an act. The Quran is the Muslim sacred text. Shehbaz Bhatti, federal minister for minorities, told CNN that four women, two men and a child, all Christians, were either killed when their houses were burned or were shot to death. Some 50 houses were burned down and more than 100 were looted by the protesters, Bhatti said. The incident occurred in Gojra City, 160 kilometers or around 100 miles southwest of Lahore. No violence was reported Sunday, Punjab Provisional Minister Rana Sana Ullah told CNN. There was a demonstration by about a thousand Christians who refused to bury their dead until the government registered a criminal case against those they alleged to have carried out the attacks. The government would register a criminal case, Sana Ullah said. Registering a case means a criminal investigation will be opened. Sana Ullah added that the government strongly condemned the incident. He said the attack was not a sectarian issue, but rather terrorism. He blamed the incident on attackers with ties to militants in Northwest Pakistan, where the government is carrying out an offensive against Taliban groups. On Thursday, 15 Christian houses in the region were also torched. Pakistan is predominantly Muslim but has a small Christian community. Meanwhile, police in Islamabad reported the Friday arrest of an al Qaeda member thought to be involved in several attacks. Bin Yamin, a senior police official in Islamabad, identified the militant as Rao Shakir Ali. He is suspected of being involved in strikes on several targets, such as the Danish Embassy, police and a hotel, and is also suspected of targeting a rally for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chauhdary, authorities said. The suspect is a resident of Sargodha, which is 165 kilometers (more than 100 miles) northwest of Lahore and has a house in Rawalpindi that has been used to facilitate insurgent acts, police said. CNN's Tim Schwarz and Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fighting broke out as Muslims torched 40 to 50 houses in Christian enclave .\nMuslims enraged over an alleged desecration of Quran at a Christian wedding .\nMuslims burned 15 Christian homes on Thursday .\nPakistan predominantly Muslim, but has a small Christian community .","id":"8237a8edb29ed0d894aaf41e372eb5e403d4f6c0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- TV dance judge Mary Murphy said singer Chris Brown's attack on his girlfriend, Rihanna, prompted her to talk publicly about spousal abuse that she says she suffered first as a teenage bride three decades ago. Mary Murphy says she was abused by her ex-husband during their nine-year marriage. Murphy -- the vivacious judge on Fox TV's \"So You Think You Can Dance\" -- told CNN's Larry King that she wants other victims to learn from how she endured, but escaped, domestic violence. Discovering her talent with dance eventually changed her life and helped her flee the relationship after nine years, she said. Her ex-husband strongly denied that he ever physically or mentally abused Murphy, whom he married in 1978 soon after they met as teenagers in college. \"I did just tuck it away and just buried it and went on with my life and I thought that, you know, I could leave it there and I wanted to leave it there until my father died a couple years ago,\" Murphy said. Watch Murphy discuss abuse in her marriage \u00bb . Discussions with her dying father led to him apologizing for not being \"my knight in shining armor\" by intervening, she said. But Murphy said seeing a photo of singer Rihanna's bruised face, taken soon after Brown's admitted attack last February, convinced her to go public with the story. \"I still had no intention to talk to anybody until I saw Rihanna's face and seeing that just brought it all up.\" \"Abuse, it just survives and thrives in silence,\" Murphy said. US Weekly magazine's current issue offers a detailed version of Murphy's revelations in its cover story. Murphy tells the magazine about a whirlwind romance that began in 1977 when she was a 19-year-old Ohio State University student -- swept off her feet by an 18-year-old who was \"extraordinarily handsome.\" She told King that the marriage began \"getting out of control\" after just three months when her husband's jealously triggered fights. \"It increased until we started to have just horrible fights,\" she said. \"And then at the time, after a fight in which I didn't want to have sex, it just escalated to the point that he literally had to rape me in order for me to have sex.\" When a neighbor called police to her home, Murphy said she was too frightened to press charges. \"I looked at him and with the look on his face, I said 'absolutely not' and went back in my room and just laid there and cried,\" she said. Murphy said she left her husband several times over the nine-year marriage, but \"there weren't the shelters that there are today.\" \"I did try to leave, and I was having a hard time making it, and he would sweet talk me and I would go back\" she said. \"It was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And I don't feel really proud of that.\" Murphy discovered her talent and love of dance several years into the marriage when she took a summer job at a dance studio while her husband was away for several months running the family's business in the Middle East, she said. \"It made me feel beautiful instead of how I was probably really feeling inside, totally ashamed and dirty,\" she said. Their marriage ended only after she and her husband renewed their vows in a wedding ceremony in front of his family and friends in Amman, Jordan, in 1985. She learned he had a girlfriend -- to whom he was engaged -- in the Middle East. It was his infidelity that convinced her to divorce him, she said. Her former husband -- who spoke to Larry King off the air -- said he was \"totally shocked\" by Murphy's account of their marriage. \"I never harmed her,\" he said. \"If all of these allegations are true, she could have had me deported,\" he said. He is not a U.S. citizen. He questioned if her motivation was \"more fame or sympathy.\" Still, he said he is \"very, very proud\" of her. Murphy told King his response is what she expected. \"I think a lot of men out there, by the way, that when they do get married they feel like this is their right to do whatever they want to do, and it's not,\" she said. \"And I was a scared, frightened person.\" Murphy said she is still afraid of her former husband. \"I'm not going to lie to you that he still scares me,\" she said. \"I still live in fear that he will do something to me, that I will go missing.\" Fear of not being able to make it on her own still drives her today, she said. \"I put this behind me, went out and worked like I've never worked before,\" she said. \"And I still work today like I could still be homeless.\"","highlights":"\"So You Think You Can Dance\" judge says she was abused teenage bride .\nMary Murphy says 18-year-old husband's jealousy triggered fights .\nMurphy divorced after nine years in troubled marriage .\nChris Brown's abuse of Rihanna prompted her to talk, Murphy says .","id":"612a2aa39c7e8685aff7c4efb0d67d721f882dd6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world.\" Mother Teresa, pictured in 1997, lived and worked in Kolkata from 1931 until her death. That's how Mother Teresa chose to describe herself in life. In death, however, her words will probably do little to settle a diplomatic squabble over her remains. The Albanian government wants to receive her remains before her 100th birthday next year. Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said his nation plans to open a museum in Mother Teresa's honor and has planned commemorative events. But more important, Berisha said, Mother Teresa should rest next to her mother and sister, who are buried in a cemetery in the Albanian capital, Tirana. \"She missed them very much all her life,\" he said. \"My request is a very human one. \"She told me that she prayed every day for her family and her country. That's why I think both governments should talk about [this] and find a solution,\" Berisha said. Then there is Macedonia, the nation where Mother Teresa was born and raised. It, too, may stake a claim on the woman who is well on a path to sainthood. But India, the land where she made her life's work, has made it clear that Mother Teresa, buried in the heart of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), will not be leaving her final resting place. \"Mother Teresa was a citizen of India,\" said Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for the country's external affairs ministry. Though she arrived as a foreigner, Mother Teresa came to be cherished in her adopted home. In billboards and booklets, the city of Kolkata proudly claims her as one of its most famous citizens. She was a devout Catholic who transcended religion, inspiring a nation of millions of poor people, mostly Hindus and Muslims. She is buried in the courtyard at the nondescript Missionaries of Charity compound in central Kolkata, a site visited by residents and tourists alike. People stream in from the bustling streets to the serenity of Mother House to pay their respects -- and find strength in her presence. They wander among her order of nuns in their simple blue-bordered white cotton saris. On the second floor is the small and sparse room that belonged to Mother Teresa. \"She has become part and parcel of our national life,\" said Father Babu Joseph, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India. \"She built a strong bond with India,\" he said. \"People of all religious groups here rather consider her an inalienable part [of India] and therefore we would strongly want the remains to be in India.\" Mother Teresa was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to ethnic Albanian parents in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910. At 18, she left home and joined the Sisters of Loreto, arriving in India in 1931. Moved by staggering poverty and human suffering, she started the Missionaries of Charity, dedicating her life to helping those in need. She became a fixture on the streets of Kolkata, often picking up the sick and hungry, and giving them food, shelter and love. When she accepted her Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she asked that the gala dinner be canceled and the money be sent instead to help Kolkata's destitute. Mother Teresa was 87 when she died in 1997, the news eclipsed by Princess Diana's death several days earlier. Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa in 2003 and she could be canonized by her centennial birthday next year -- a saint in the heavens whose resting place on Earth remains a devilish debate.","highlights":"Mother Teresa lived, worked mostly in Kolkata but was ethnically Albanian .\nAlbania wants her body repatriated in time for 100th anniversary of birth in 2010 .\nMother Teresa currently buried in Missionaries of Charity compound in Kolkata .\nMother Teresa, who died in 1997, beatified in 2003; could be canonized next year .","id":"f4362e1a8632ca6f26188f5bc6d24842e3ca9191"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The recession means competition in pro football this year isn't restricted to the gridiron. The National Football League and its 32 teams also are battling for the consumer's discretionary spending dollars. Less-established NFL teams, such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, face special challenges in the recession. And just like on the playing field, some teams are having an easier time scoring an economic touchdown than others. \"Overall ticket sales are very positive but difficult in these challenging times,\" NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement. He did not provide overall ticket sales numbers for the current season. The league is coming off a year that saw overall attendance drop slightly, 0.7 percent, from 2007 amid the start of the economic slowdown. Bill Prescott, a Jacksonville Jaguars vice president and the team's chief financial officer, said the team started to see the impact of the recession last year, when single-game ticket sales and concession revenue dropped as the season progressed. Heading into this season, he said, sales are off even more than the team expected -- new ticket sales are down 75 percent from last year and season ticket renewals are down 10 percent. No Jaguar games are sold out, despite a recent survey by The Media Audit that found 76 percent of adults in Jacksonville, Florida, regularly follow the Jaguars -- the fifth-best percentage of any NFL market. \"The economy is having that impact on us,\" Prescott said. \"As a very small market, I think we're feeling it more than some of the other teams in the league.\" The Minnesota Vikings also have yet to sell out any of their games, though the team expects that could change with the recent high-profile signing of quarterback Brett Favre. Within a day of Favre's signing, the Vikings had sold an additional 3,000 season tickets and 10,000 single-game tickets. \"The economy's affecting all professional sports teams,\" said Steve LaCroix, the Vikings' vice president of sales and marketing. \"We're not only competing for people's time and money, but trying to keep the fans in the stadium on game day as opposed to watching on TV.\" LaCroix said there weren't a large number of cancellations in season ticket holder accounts. However, some fans did trim down the number of seats in their respective accounts. LaCroix added some are coming back on board as the season approaches. The Cincinnati Bengals are getting nationwide exposure through the HBO reality series \"Hard Knocks,\" which chronicles the team's training camp and preparation for the upcoming season. However, the Bengals' streak of 44 straight sellouts, a franchise record, is at risk, according to spokesman Jim Brennan. The Bengals' September 13 home opener against Denver is not sold out yet. Some teams, however, are more than holding their own as far as ticket sales go despite the nation's fiscal woes. The Denver Broncos are sold out for the 40th straight year -- dating back to the first game of the 1970 season, according to spokesman Jim Saccomano. And Chicago Bears spokesman Scott Hagel says the team is sold out for the 25th straight season. He adds the season ticket renewal rate is well over 90 percent, on par with the prior decade. According to league spokesman McCarthy, 24 of the NFL's 32 teams did not raise ticket prices from last year. One of the teams that did is the Indianapolis Colts, which bumped up the cost of 10 percent of its season ticket holder seats, according to team spokesman Craig Kelley. All games are sold out. Two factors working in the Colts' favor -- they have a new stadium that opened last season and the team has been a perennial contender for the past decade. In order to try and offset the impact the economy has on the game, McCarthy said teams have created more options and flexibility for fans in order to help them afford tickets. Among those options are half-season ticket plans, such as the ones offered by the Jaguars and the New York Jets. \"We knew some season ticket holders because of the economy wouldn't be able to afford to come to all 10 games (including the preseason),\" said the Jaguars' Prescott. The half-season plan has been very popular, he said. \"We wanted to make as many products available to them whether they could come to one game, two games or with the half package we've bundled five games in each package so they can come for half a season.\" Prescott said the team is also considering introducing a package where fans can purchase tickets for a few games of their choice. David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute, thinks the best way for teams to limit the recession's impact on ticket sales is to offer exemplary customer service. \"These fans need to feel as though they're having a great time and they're getting value for their money,\" said Carter. \"If they're able to do that, they will justify continuing to spend on the NFL, because every game matters. They want to be part of the continuity of the NFL season.\" Carter believes the league has to fight the recession on two fronts. He says the first is the pricing of seats to everyday fans -- especially those in markets where the demand isn't as keen as the NFL would like. The second challenge is corporate resistance. \"You have those that have traditionally purchased seats or acquired sponsorships taking a long look at whether they want to be involved this year or not, and a lot of corporate budgets are already in bed for the rest of the year,\" explained Carter. Still, Carter believes the NFL may be well-equipped to weather the economic storm, thanks in large part to timing. \"There's a general feel that things are picking up in the economy, and I think that's going to bode well for them over time. They may have survived this downturn a little better than the other leagues.\" Matt Gonter has been a Washington Redskins season ticket holder for the past five years. He said he briefly considered whether to cancel his subscription heading into this year but decided against it -- citing the team's long waiting list to get season tickets. \"I swore to myself if I ever got Redskins season tickets, I'd do everything in my power to keep them,\" Gonter said. However, he did turn down an option to upgrade to different seats and a parking pass, saying he would have considered it in years past but not under the current economic climate. He also might sell his tickets for certain games online. \"I'm thinking of going on StubHub and selling a couple of tickets. I eat so much of the cost for the preseason tickets, because you have to pay full price for those,\" Gonter said. One ticket for an NFL game this year on the secondary ticket seller goes for an average of $151, compared with $156 at this time a year ago. Four-year Cleveland Browns season ticket holder Zeke Paster held on to his subscription and plans to make cutbacks instead when it comes to concessions and tailgating costs. However, he may get rid of some of his tickets before the season is over. \"If they're not doing well, I would maybe try to sell the tickets for some of the cold weather games,\" Paster said. Paster and Gonter admit surrendering their season ticket packages for good would be a painful decision. \"The atmosphere is unmatched,\" Paster said. \"There's nothing like being in the stadium or in the parking lot when the Browns are doing well.\" Gonter says the camaraderie is worth the cost. \"I just like the experience of sitting in the parking lot under a tent, tailgating, drinking beer and then going to the game and having a good time watching the Redskins.\"","highlights":"For Jacksonville Jaguars, ticket sales off more than expected .\nCincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings also looking to score more sales .\nDenver Broncos and Chicago Bears holding the line despite recession .\nSports expert says NFL's best weapon would be exemplary customer service .","id":"7cf02e252b7dbcb2168559b04b7a7791bef27b07"} -{"article":"CNNU campus correspondent Brandon Gates is a junior at University of South Carolina. CNNU is a feature that provides student perspectives on news and trends from colleges across the United States. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CNN, its affiliates or the schools where the campus correspondents are based. Some of the students killed were affiliated with the Delta Delta Delta sorority, whose house is pictured above. COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- At the University of South Carolina, the campus is quiet, but students were still heading to their classes after six students were killed in a beach house fire during the weekend. The school is planning a short ceremony Monday evening to honor the six students who were killed Sunday morning in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. A seventh person killed is believed to be a student at Clemson University. Their identities had not yet been released Monday afternoon. The USC students were affiliated with the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. \"The fraternities are praying for them and their families for the loss. It's something we're all affected by,\" Jay Laura, student president of the USC chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. In a later news conference, Laura said the outpouring of condolences was a testament to the character of the fraternity brothers who died. He also said he was proud of the way the university was coming together to support each other. Lauren Hodge, the chapter president of Delta Delta Delta, said the sorority would have ministers and counselors at the sorority house to help USC students. \"We're trying to everything we can right now to help people cope,\" she said. \"We've spent a lot of time (counseling) with the students from the sorority and fraternity,\" said Dennis A. Pruitt, the vice president for student affairs. \"We encourage any student who is just learning of the situation and is a member of Tri-Delta or SAE to contact their parents and let them know they're OK.\" The school decided against canceling classed on Monday. \"Going back to normal, everyday activities may be the best way for some to mourn and grieve,\" Pruitt said. A weekly concert that is typically a well-attended event failed to bring out students on Monday. Most students appeared to be spending time in their dorm rooms where counseling was offered. \"I feel shocked that something like that could happen here. You always see stuff like that happening at other schools, but you never it can happen to your school,\" said Artifa Ricks, a sophomore majoring in broadcasting. Six other University of South Carolina students were treated for injuries at a local hospital and released, the school said. The university is providing counseling and assistance to students who have requested it. \"When any one member of our family is lost, every one of us is diminished. I'm profoundly saddened, as are all members of Gamecock Nation, by these tragic deaths,\" said Dr. Andrew Sorensen, the university president. The students were on a weekend getaway at Ocean Isle Beach, a popular resort destination along the southern coast of North Carolina. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"University to hold ceremony honoring the six USC students .\nSorority to have ministers and other counselors available .\nGroup urges members to make sure families know they're OK .","id":"2e725fec180514125e5c940a65d35f307d880a06"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Last week's \"balloon boy\" incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, an agency representative said Tuesday. The Heene family -- including Falcon, second from right -- on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" last week. Richard and Mayumi Heene, whose son Falcon was thought for several hours to have flown away in a homemade balloon, are facing a number of local charges, a Colorado sheriff said this week. The Fort Collins couple could be charged with conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempting to influence a public servant, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said Sunday. The family also probably will be charged with filing a false police report, which is a misdemeanor, Alderden said. Their lawyer, David Lane, said the sheriff was overreaching and that the family deserves the presumption of innocence. Watch the Heenes' friends talk about the incident \u00bb . FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere confirmed Tuesday that the agency was \"investigating the circumstances\" of the incident, in which police and military scrambled to rescue the 6-year-old boy, who later turned out to be hiding in his family's attic. A source familiar with the investigation said no record has been found indicating that Richard Heene called the FAA. The agency does not record all of its calls, and the search for a record of any call is continuing, the source said. The Heenes may have violated FAA regulations barring people from flying balloons or kites within 5 miles of an airport, an FAA official said. The official declined to be named because the case is under investigation. The giant silver balloon was apparently not visible on radar, the official said, and the FAA is relying on pilot reports to determine its approximate flight path during the roughly three hours it was aloft Thursday. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers in Washington contributed to this story.","highlights":"Federal Aviation Administration looking into \"escaped balloon\" story .\nBalloon's owners already facing several local charges .\nHeene family deserves presumption of innocence, lawyer says .\nNo proof that Richard Heene called FAA when balloon set off, source says .","id":"948752b358c609cf3d9855d0cf96312ce1558885"} -{"article":"CALAIS, France (CNN) -- French authorities on Tuesday dismantled a makeshift camp dubbed \"the Jungle,\" which housed illegal migrants fleeing dangerous homelands to seek a more prosperous life in Europe. After being forced from their makeshift home, occupants of \"the Jungle\" were driven away in buses for processing. French police broke up protests by refugee rights advocates and began clearing the squalid camp. The French government said it was targeting human smuggling and did not say where the migrants would be relocated. Police arrested 276 migrants, 125 of whom were minors, said Calais prefecture official Catherine Mande. See photos of police clearing the camp \u00bb . A statement from the French immigration minister's office said the \"illegal encampments\" would be destroyed and then three bulldozers, a dozen trucks and a logging company would return the land to its natural state. Watch a report on the camp's closure \u00bb . The statement said the goal was to destroy the Jungle and other migrant shanties, \"which have become the main launch pad for clandestine immigration into the United Kingdom.\" Was the French government right to demolish the illegal migrant camp? Aided by smugglers, many of the migrants in coastal northern France attempt to make it into Britain, hiding in trucks that cross the English Channel. France and Britain signed an agreement in July to crack down on illegal immigration, including dispersing the migrants at the Jungle. British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he was \"delighted\" to hear that France was honoring the agreement. \"The measures that we have put in place are not only there to prevent illegal immigration but also to stop people trafficking,\" he said. \"We are working with the French not only to strengthen our shared border but that of Europe as a whole.\" Johnson said both nations were committed \"to helping individuals who are genuine refugees.\" Others who don't need protection were expected to return home, he said. The Jungle -- shanties cobbled from cardboard, plastic tarpaulins and scraps of wood -- housed as many as 1,000 men from nations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. Camp resident Mohammed Bashir escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan and made a new home in a tent here, among the heaps of garbage, sand and bramble on the outskirts of the French port city of Calais. Sometimes, eight men shared the tent. \"I never lived in such a condition like this back home, but right now we don't have any other choice,\" said Bashir, 24, who left behind his family. \"It's very difficult, very hard for a person who has children and parents.\" Desperation filled the air in the Jungle. Many residents survived arduous and illegal treks from their homelands. Some held ambitions to keep going another 20 miles, across the water to Britain. Others hoped to realize refugee status in France. See a map of the region \u00bb . But Tuesday, they were forced to put their plans on hold as they were evicted from the Jungle. Refugee advocates circled the migrants and scuffled with police to keep them at bay. But eventually, the protests were broken up, the migrants were taken away and the shanties started coming down. The French government's decision drew criticism from humanitarian workers who don't think that demolishing the camp will help resolve illegal immigration issues. They say moving the migrants is simply displacing the problem. \"We don't know where they're going to go,\" said Matthieu Tardis, an advocate for asylum seekers. \"We don't know what the government plans to do. We are not respecting human rights here, for sure.\" The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees sent staff to Calais earlier in the summer to counsel people about asylum procedures in France and Britain. According to the U.N. agency, most of the illegal migrants enter Europe through Greece and often fall victim to smugglers who turn a profit by helping migrants reach their destinations. The camp residents who fled Afghanistan told CNN they had paid smugglers large sums. They were promised much more than the filthy camp, they said. Bashir said he had no choice but to flee his home after Taliban militants accused him of spying. \"When they don't need you, they just slaughter you,\" he said. \"They threatened me that [I would] be slaughtered.\" Bashir's future remains uncertain as ever. He is sure only of one thing: He cannot go home.","highlights":"French police arrest 276 migrants at \"Jungle\" camp, 125 were minors .\nMigrants had been living in makeshift tents made from cardboard, plastic sheeting .\nRefugee advocates circled the migrants, trying to keep police at bay .\nThe French government has not said where the migrants would be relocated .","id":"8187a762d268f60eb1a0b78ee5241869b69fc163"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The announcement that Chicago, Illinois, will not host the 2016 Olympic Games took the hopeful wind out of many in the Windy City. Dreams of hosting the 2016 Olympics were dashed for many Chicagoans. But for others, the news was welcome. But for almost half of the city's dwellers, the International Olympic Committee's decision was winning news. A spokeswoman for No Games Chicago, a grass-roots organization opposed to hosting the Olympics, said she was \"relieved\" by the vote Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark. Chicago's Olympic fever, spotty as it was, broke abruptly when the city was the first of four final contenders to be knocked out of the running. The prospective host cities had been whittled down to four finalists -- Chicago; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tokyo, Japan; and Madrid, Spain. The bid went to Rio de Janeiro, making it the first South American city to host the Olympic Games. Chicago had been seen as a front-runner in recent days, especially after it sent to Copenhagen America's biggest guns -- President Obama and his popular wife, Michelle -- for a last-minute sales pitch. But a poll taken by the Chicago Tribune and CNN affiliate WGN revealed in early September that 45 percent of the city residents didn't want the Olympic Games. And 84 percent of Chicagoans objected to the idea of public money being used to support the effort. Earlier this week, about 250 Olympic-bid protesters gathered in front of City Hall, WGN reported. A sign in the crowd read: \"Have the audacity of nope.\" Many who gathered for the bid slapdown were affiliated with No Games Chicago, which sent three delegates to Copenhagen to state their case. After the vote, however, spokeswoman Francesca Rodriguez said No Games Chicago is \"in no way taking any pleasure in this\" and feels \"sympathy\" for those who are disappointed. \"In reality, Chicagoans who were for the Games and those who were against them were committed to the same goal: Working hard for what they thought would be best for the city of Chicago in the coming decades,\" she said. \"We're glad that the city won't now be burdened by the distraction of the Olympics at the expense of improving Chicago's schools, transportation, parks and the numerous other public policy initiatives on which the city needs to be focused.\" Those who believe the Olympics can bring lasting change to a city -- beyond the spike in economic activity during the event -- are often misguided, suggested economist Rob Baade of Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. \"There is no reason to expect that the Olympics, or any mega-event, is going to induce a sustainable boost in the economy,\" he said. \"The cost overruns are pretty legendary. Costs are generally understated and the gains overstated.\" One Web site set up to rally against bringing the Olympic Games to town relied as much on humor as it did reason. Its name: Chicagoans for Rio 2016. The site showcased unflattering head-to-head comparisons, such as \"Naked people dancing\" vs. \"Chubby people eating.\" The increasing budget deficit in Chicago was contrasted with a $0 total for Rio. \"If you're a Chicagoan, Rio's budget deficit does not matter,\" the site said. \"It would be exciting to host the Olympics here in Chicago. But you know what would be even better? Rio de Janeiro,\" the site announced. \"Just let Rio host the 2016 Olympics. We don't mind. Honest.\" Wish granted.","highlights":"For about half of Chicago's dwellers, losing out on the Olympics is welcome news .\nOlympic opponents prefer the city's focus to be on schools and other needs .\nAbout 250 anti-Olympic protesters rallied outside Chicago's City Hall this week .\nRio de Janeiro, Brazil, wins bid, making it the first South American host city .","id":"a249ae0b96b24ecd921086fc6966d479002fd399"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Nell Minow is editor and chairwoman of the Corporate Library, an independent research company, and was named one of the 20 most influential people in corporate governance by Directorship magazine and \"the queen of good corporate governance\" by BusinessWeek Online. She has co-written three books. Nell Minow says AIG's board must be held accountable for the $160 million in bonus payments. (CNN) -- The stories about the outrageous $160 million bonus payments at AIG have all omitted the most important names. They are the members of AIG's Board of Directors Compensation Committee. These people should have been on the hot seat before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, alongside CEO Ed Liddy. Although there is a lot of blame to go around, ultimately the buck stops -- or, I should say, the bucks should have stopped -- with them. Why haven't we learned that it is the boards who are responsible for the massive failures of strategy and risk management at these companies? Regulators, journalists, securities analysts and investors routinely ignore the most obvious indicators of investment risk that are presented by bad boards of directors. This is particularly obvious in the case of AIG, which has been a serial offender in corporate governance, especially in executive compensation. Those of us who remember former CEO Hank Greenberg's departure from AIG in 2005, after a corporate governance meltdown that included excessive compensation, appreciate the irony of his comment to ABC News that the retention bonuses were \"mind-boggling.\" Mr. Kettle, Pot is on line 1. Compensation committees are not responsible for individual pay packages below the CEO, but they are responsible for determining their overall structure -- and for making sure that the CEO's job includes effective management on compensation issues. Retention of employees may be a legitimate goal of a compensation program, but it can be accomplished in a way that is both effective and credible by being tied to performance goals and by delaying vesting until after the bailout funds are returned to taxpayers. The Corporate Library released a report in February about the boards of the bailout companies, many of which were outliers in their governance and compensation practices. Some of these were clear indicators of investment and liability risk. In several cases, we found individuals who not only sat on more than four corporate boards but also sat on more than one of these particularly troubled boards during this period. Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, for example, served on the boards of Morgan Stanley, General Motors and Wachovia -- and at various times was also a director at Merck, VF Corp., Krispy Kreme and Cousins Properties. Several other directors from these troubled boards also sat on either five or six boards altogether. We call the phenomenon of directors who serve on four or more corporate boards \"overboarding.\" Overboarding can limit the time and attention a director has for each board. It can also be an indicator of -- or a contributor to -- so many relationships and connections that it makes it more difficult to provide the respectful skepticism necessary for independent oversight. In all, 11 of the 27 companies we identified as \"troubled\" had at least one overboarded director. Six had more than one; at Merrill Lynch, there were five. By comparison, fewer than 30 percent of S&P 500 companies have even a single overboarded director, and fewer than 5 percent have more than one. Another key finding from our analysis: Shareholders at these companies were well aware of the relative weakness of these boards and had expressed their dissatisfaction by withholding votes from many of these individuals the year before these companies collapsed. At least 13 individual directors, all of whom sat on at least three corporate boards during this period, had received a 13 percent or higher negative vote. The highest of these was a 38.58 percent negative vote received by Sir Winfried F.W. Bischoff at McGraw-Hill, where he sat on the compensation committee. Bischoff also served on the boards at Citigroup (as chairman and interim CEO), Eli Lilly and Prudential. Although the businesses of these companies do not overlap enough to impair Bischoff's designation as an \"independent\" director or to create legal conflict of interest concerns, it is relevant that McGraw-Hill owns ratings agency Standard & Poor's, which not only rates the other companies for which he was a director but also issues ratings on which the other companies rely in their assessment of risk. Because of the extensive involvement that financial services companies have in many different aspects of the business of large public corporations, directors of those companies in particular should be especially cautious about overlaps and conflicts. Badly designed compensation is an indicator of poor corporate governance, and poor corporate governance is an indicator of investment risk. Instead of trying to tax the bonuses at AIG, the government and the shareholders should insist on new directors. The company's Web site says the compensation committee has five members. The two longest serving ones are James F. Orr III, who joined the committee on May 17, 2006 and Virginia M. Rometty, who joined it on January 17, 2007, according to the company's 2007 proxy statement. The committee's charter says its responsibility include making recommendations to the full board regarding AIG's compensation programs and reviewing and approving any hiring, severance or termination payments. People say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. In this case, insanity is allowing the same people to continue to serve on the board after massive failure and expecting them to produce a different result. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nell Minow.","highlights":"Nell Minow: People often overlook crucial role of company board of directors .\nShe says AIG's board is ultimately responsible for the firm's mistakes .\nMinow: Compensation committee members should be held to account .\nShe says many finance firm board members are too busy on other boards .","id":"05c372457d894731ad168117b9c823a69e2379c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Twenty-three suspects, including nine American Airlines employees, were arrested Tuesday for allegedly transporting nearly $20 million worth of cocaine on flights into and out of Puerto Rico, federal authorities said. Manuel Santiago-Alvarado, an American Airlines control crew chief, is among the suspects arrested Tuesday. Most of the commercial flights carrying suitcases stuffed with illicit drugs came into San Juan, which was a transshipment point for drugs bound for cities on the U.S. mainland, authorities said. The drug trafficking organization headed by defendant Wilfredo Rodriguez Rosade had been operating since 1999, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, which participated in the long-running investigation. In a September 9 indictment unsealed Tuesday, Justice Department officials also moved to seize $18 million worth of property owned by the suspects, including seven homes, three businesses and an apartment complex. All but one of the arrests occurred in Puerto Rico. The lone arrest on the U.S. mainland was in Miami, Florida. Drug Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena said the airline industry cooperated in the investigation. \"By denying the drug traffickers alternate smuggling routes, we disrupt the flow of drugs into Puerto Rico and discourage the use of the island as a transshipment point in the Caribbean,\" he said in a news release. The agency said that if they are convicted, the defendants taken into custody would face sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison and personal fines of up to $4 million. American Airlines issued a statement confirming some employees had been arrested, but could not confirm the number because of its privacy policy, spokesman Tim Wagner said in an e-mail. The airline has been working with authorities, he said. \"As a company, we hope that the actions of a few employees don't reflect negatively on the tens of thousands of ethical American Airlines employees who work hard to serve the public daily,\" Wagner wrote.","highlights":"9 airline employees among those accused of smuggling $20 million in cocaine .\nMost of flights were into or out of San Juan, Puerto Rico .\nDEA and FBI say operation had been running since 1999 .\nJustice Department moves to seize $18 million in property .","id":"f86ec18903f4df98891df668cb48647f3f931b48"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The girlfriend of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair had grown frustrated with their relationship and was struggling with financial difficulties in the days before she killed him and herself in July. Steve McNair, former NFL quarterback, was a married father of four when he was killed last summer. Details of their relationship were revealed in a case summary released by Nashville police Monday. McNair, 36, and Sahel Kazemi, 20, were found fatally shot in a condominium in downtown Nashville on July 4. Police have since ruled their deaths a murder-suicide. \"My life is just s--- and I should end it,\" Kazemi said the night before the couple were found dead, according to Sonya New, her shift manager at a Dave & Busters restaurant. New also said Kazemi was not her usual self and seemed down. Though McNair was a married father of four, he was seeing Kazemi and at least one other woman, Leah Ignagni, according to Nashville police. McNair had spent the night at Ignagni's apartment on July 2, two nights before he was killed, Ignagni told police. On the morning of July 4, Kazemi texted McNair, saying she was stressed and needed money to pay bills. \"Baby I might have a break down im so stressed,\" Kazemi said in one text message. \"baby i might need to go to the hospital. baby whats wrong w(ith) me i can hardly breath(e).\" Chris Wall, who provided security for McNair and his family, told police he knew about McNair's relationship with Kazemi. McNair was tired of her calling when he was with his family, Wall said. Kazemi continued to text McNair throughout the day, asking for money and when she could see him next. \"baby what are u doing,\" Kazemi asked. \"At the pool with the kids. I got the guy transferring the money,\" McNair replied. At 4:04 p.m. on July 3, Kazemi said, \"baby I have to be w(ith) u 2nite. I dnt care where.\" The messages continued for more than eight hours before McNair said he was on his way to the condo. He had told Kazemi earlier that he wouldn't leave the house \"til the kids fall asleep.\" McNair and Kazemi exchanged a final series of messages early July 4, when he asked her to leave the front door to the condo open for him. A final message, sent at 1:14 a.m., simply said, \"its open.\" About 12 hours later, a friend of McNair's found their bodies.","highlights":"McNair and Sahel Kazemi were found fatally shot in a Nashville condo on July 4 .\nText messages show Kazemi's financial stress, desperation .\nLast message said door was open; hours later, the pair's bodies were found .","id":"44c625b2e1484030042388119362dd19f46bd7a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Afraid that her husband will leave her for a younger woman, a 107-year-old Malaysian woman is looking to marry again -- for the 23rd time. Wok Kundor: \"I am an aged woman. I don't have the body nor am I a young woman who can attract anyone.\" Wok Kundor has been happily married for four years to her husband, a man 70 years her junior. But since he left their village in northern Terengganu state for a drug rehabilitation program in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, Wok has had a gnawing feeling. \"She said that she has been feeling insecure lately and she needs to find out whether he still loves her or not,\" said R.S.N. Murali, a reporter for The Star. The English-language Malaysian daily was among several local media outlets reporting on the lifelong romantic. \"She is worried he might not come back after his program and find himself a younger wife,\" Murali said. If so, Wok has her eyes set on a 50-year-old man, but hopes it does not come to that. \"I realize that I am an aged woman. I don't have the body nor am I a young woman who can attract anyone,\" she told the newspaper. \"My intention to remarry is to fill my forlornness,\" particularly during the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, she said. Malaysian media, which has previously reported on the woman, said Wok has been married 22 times. That would make her marriages last an average of four years. Wok would not discuss past relationships, Murali said. \"Some of her better halves have passed away or have divorced, but she doesn't want to talk about them or her children,\" he said. Wok and her current husband, Mohammed Boor Che Musa, hail from the same village and met there. Muhammad, 37, was quoted in an earlier report as saying the couple fell for each other because it was \"God's will.\" On Monday, he told The Star that he is still very much in love with his wife and cannot dream of life with someone else. But Wok wants to hear him say it, Murali said. Soon, the centenarian plans to make the journey to Kuala Lumpur -- if she can find a neighbor to drive her there.","highlights":"107-year-old Malaysian woman fears husband will leave her for younger woman .\nWok Kundor married to her husband, a man 70 years her junior, for four years .\nMalaysian media says Wok has been married 22 times .","id":"03b5d68aed17c4b05bcf511b4e294e91a4e59a17"} -{"article":"ACCRA, Ghana (CNN) -- Ghanaians clad in the national colors of red, gold and green celebrated long into the night on Friday as excitement over the national team's penalty shootout victory over Brazil in the final of the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt brought the West African nation to a standstill. Ghana's players celebrate their victory over Brazil. Ghana's victory, 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw which they had survived since the 37th minute with 10 men, was the first ever by an African side in the tournament. Earlier, many football fans had converged in churches hours before the game to pray for divine intervention. But the triumph, coupled with Nigeria's disappointing performance in the tournament, may be the clearest signal yet that the balance of power in West Africa may have tilted from Nigeria to Ghana once again. Last month Ghana's Black Stars, featuring players like Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien and Inter Milan's Sulley Muntari, became the first African side to qualify for South Africa 2010 World Cup. Nigeria are in danger of missing the World Cup for the second time running. The Super Eagles trail Tunisia by two points in Group B ahead of their last group qualifying matches on November 11 when both countries face tricky away fixtures. Until 2006, Ghana was regarded as the continent's sleeping giants, having dominated African football in the years after it became the first independent sub-Saharan African country over five decades ago. By contrast, it took Nigeria -- Africa's most populous country -- another three decades to establish itself among the continent's top national sides. It was not until Ghana's first appearance at the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006 that the four-times winners of the African Cup of Nations regained some of their lost glory. It signaled not only Ghana's long-awaited arrival at football biggest global gathering but also a fulfillment of a prediction in 1990 by Cameroon legend Roger Milla that the world had not seen the best of African football until the Black Stars made it to the World Cup. As continental champions in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982 and with Ghanaian legends including three-times African footballer of the year Abedi Pele and former Eintracht Frankfurt and Leeds United star Anthony Yeboah both rated in their time among the world's best players, Milla knew Ghana had the qualities to match some of the world's best. Youth success at the FIFA under-17 championship in 1991 and 1995, two appearances in the final of the under-20 championship in 1993 and 2001 and an Olympic bronze medal in Barcelona in 1992 emphasized Ghana's abundance of talent and unfulfilled promise at the highest level. At Germany 2006, Ghana became the only African survivor after the preliminary round, surprising the bookmakers with victories over the Czech Republic and the U.S. before losing 3-0 to Brazil in a match that was closer than the scoreline suggested. Ghana's squad for next year's World Cup in South Africa will likely include the cream of the team that impressed in Germany, including Essien and Muntari, as well as some of the brilliant youngsters who sparkled this month World Youth Championship in Egypt; notably Golden Ball and Golden Shoe winner Dominic Adiyiah, Ransford Osei and Andre Ayew, the son of Abedi Pele. Following the side's masterful display in Egypt and relatively easy World Cup qualifying campaign, the Black Stars will carry both Ghanaian and African expectations on their shoulders as they bid to improve on the quarterfinal places achieved by Cameroon and Senegal in 1990 and 2002 respectively. With a population of around 140 million and a reputation for producing stars such as Austin Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Chelsea's John Obi Mikel, the outstanding qualities of Nigerian football are beyond question. But African football observers believe poor administration by the Nigerian Football Federation and the resultant instability in the technical direction of the team has undermined the development of Nigerian football and resulted in its dwindling fortunes at the world stage. Nigeria emerged as West Africa's leading side in 1980 by wining the African Cup of Nations, a feat they repeated 14 years later in Tunisia. The Super Eagles made their World Cup debut in the U.S. in 1994 and qualified for both France 1998 and Japan\/South Korea 2002. Like Ghana, Nigeria has shown promise at youth level, winning U-17 World Cup titles in 1985, 1993 and 2007, and winning Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. As host of this year's FIFA Under-17 championship, Nigeria will be hoping to draw inspiration from Ghana's performance in Egypt to retain the title on home soil next month. At continental level, the once powerful Super Eagles are anything but super. Since reaching the final of the 2000 African Nations Cup, Nigeria has failed make any meaningful impact despite parading highly-talented squads. For three successive tournaments Nigeria finished in third place before crashing out at the quarterfinal stage of the 2008 edition in a 2-1 defeat by Ghana. Kwesi Nyantakyi, the 39-year-old president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), believes the country is reaping the dividends of a professional approach through the implementation of a five-year business plan, which has attracted massive injection of cash through corporate sponsorship from kit sponsor Puma and mining, banking, brewery and telecommunication firms. \"When we took over in 2005 we realized that one of the biggest problems we faced was the availability of timelines of funds needed to prepare the teams adequately, provide the necessary incentives for the players and numeration for the technical staff,\" Nyantakyi says. \"The availability of funding timely and an autonomy for the federation has helped us execute our plans effectively and this is showing in our recent impressive performances.\" Beyond monetary considerations and administrative stability, Ghana is also reaping the rewards of years of investment in youth football which has produced players like Essien and Muntari -- and now new kid on the block Adiyiah and others. For now, the country seem to have regained bragging rights as the superpower in West Africa.","highlights":"Ghana becomes first African nation to win football's Under-20 World Cup .\nResult part of shift in balance of power in West Africa from Nigeria to Ghana .\nGhana has stars including Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Dominic Adiyiah .\nNigeria has star players but national team struggles with poor infrastructure .","id":"78554ce64b0f4b979d0ddafb65527ac35b096df5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In trendy neighborhoods of Tokyo customers are lining up for vitamin injections that promise to improve health and beauty. A Japanese woman receives an intravenous vitamin supplement at the Tenteki Cafe in Tokyo. These intravenous vitamin \"drips\" are part of the latest quick-fix, health fad catching on in Japan: the IV cafe. Each drip pack contains saline solution and specific vitamins and minerals to target a particular health ailment or beauty concern. \"I used to take vitamin supplements, but changed to the IV drip because I feel the effects more quickly,\" a 20-something woman at the Tenteki 10 Caf\u00e9 told CNN. She said she receives specific injections to get better skin, burn fat and boost her energy. There are 10 different varieties to choose from at Tenteki. The \"orange\" variety touts anti-aging properties, loaded with antioxidants. The \"placenta pack\" is said to help rejuvenate and ease muscle stiffness. Prices range from $20-$30 per injection, and nurses see about 30-40 people each day. Their most common patients are Japanese businessmen who work in the same office building. \"I see a lot of businessmen who say they don't have time to sleep. They can't take a break from working and get the vitamin drip for an extra kick of energy,\" a Tenteki nurse told CNN. \"Blue\" is the most requested vitamin pack among these men: a concoction of B1 and vitamin E that claims to offer relief from exhaustion. Registered nurses and doctors administer the drips at Tenteki, but there's no conclusive medical evidence to back up the health claims. Many nutritionists actually caution against using injectable vitamin supplements because the quantities are not regulated. \"More is not necessarily better...some vitamins and minerals can be toxic in high doses,\" particularly the fat-soluble ones which the body stores like Vitamins A, D, E and K, explained Claire Williamson, Nutrition Scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. In Europe and the United States vitamin shots are popular among celebrities with hectic lifestyles and little time to sleep, particularly vitamin B 12. Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and singer Robbie Williams have both confirmed they've used the shots as part of their diets to maintain stamina during tours. Dermatological injections of Vitamin C are also popular among women hoping to keep their skin looking young. Former supermodel Cindy Crawford has admitted using such injections to keep her skin firm and wrinkle-free. According to Williamson, it does not matter if supplements are injected into the vein or into the skin. \"At the end of the day it will go into the blood stream,\" she said. Most of these nutrients we can get sufficient from foods, nutrients tend to be better absorbed by the body if they are consumed in foods.\"","highlights":"Intravenous vitamin boosts are the latest health fad in Japan .\nVitamin injections target specific health aliments and beauty concerns .\nNutritionists warn of vitamin overdose from high quantities of supplements .\nVitamin injections are popular among celebrities and businessmen for fatigue .","id":"866fd53d950795b6bfd67201bcbfc71b2fc0760e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A coalition of top musicians, including R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, want to know if their music was used by the U.S. military as part of controversial interrogation methods at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ruhal Ahmed, left, shown at a 2007 news conference, says he had to listen to hours of music at Guantanamo. The artists have endorsed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, which were filed Thursday morning, asking the U.S. government to declassify documents that would reveal which artists' work was used on detainees at U.S. prison facilities and military detention centers, including the one at Guantanamo Bay. The National Security Archive, a Washington-based independent research institute that advocates \"for the right to know,\" filed the requests on behalf of the Close Gitmo Now campaign, which launched this week, the archive's senior analyst Kate Doyle said. The multimillion-dollar national grassroots Close Gitmo Now campaign is aimed at pressuring members of Congress to support President Obama's endeavor to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. It is supported by a coalition of retired generals and liberal activists. The requests are based on the testimony of former Guantanamo prisoners and guards, as well as declassified documents, that identified music from 35 artists -- ranging from AC\/DC tunes to the theme from Sesame Street -- used in the interrogations of detainees, Doyle said. See a list of bands and songs involved (PDF) \"We do know that songs and bands' work has been used to abuse detainees, we know that,\" she said. She added that any information that the National Security Archive obtains \"will add to the profile of this case.\" The requests are being filed with \"a dozen different agencies and components of the Department of Defense,\" Doyle said. They ask for any documents \"concerning the use of loud music during detention and\/or as a technique to interrogate detainees at U.S.-operated prison facilities used in its War on Terror at Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan during 2002-the present,\" according to a copy of the FOIA request obtained by CNN. It is unclear if any of the artists plan to pursue legal action, but Doyle said she'd be \"surprised if some of them weren't thinking about it.\" Many of the artists supporting the campaign are no strangers to political activism, but this cause has hit close to home for some of them. \"We have spent the past 30 years supporting causes related to peace and justice. To now learn that some of our friends' music may have been used as part of the torture tactics without their consent or knowledge is horrific,\" the American rock band R.E.M. said in a statement posted on CloseGitmoNow.org. \"It's anti-American, period.\" Several former Guantanamo detainees have filed lawsuits against the U.S. government, saying they were tortured with numerous techniques, including loud music. \"It's very scary to think that you might go crazy because of the music, because of the loud noise,\" said Ruhal Ahmed, one of the former detainees who has filed a lawsuit. He said he had to listen to hours of headbanging music while held prisoner at Guantanamo in 2003. The Pentagon has not responded directly to the allegations of torture involving music, but it has said that its policy has always been to treat detainees humanely. Loud music has not been used at Guantanamo since the fall of 2003, following a Department of Defense review of detention operations and interrogation techniques, according to Maj. Diana Haynie, a Joint Task Force Guantanamo spokeswoman. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has asked a federal prosecutor to examine whether the interrogations violated the law, and the White House said Obama will leave any decision on charges to the Justice Department. And the Obama administration announced it would put the FBI in charge of a special unit set up to question suspected terrorists under White House oversight. CNN's Tricia Escobedo contributed to this report .","highlights":"Freedom of Information Act requests seek to reveal what music used at facility .\nFormer prisoners say heavy metal, rock, children's tunes were part of interrogations .\nNumerous artists endorse \"Close Gitmo Now\" campaign, FOIA requests .\nTo learn friends' music was used in such a way is \"horrific,\" rock band R.E.M. says .","id":"6f2dacafdb625a4915d391cada764888889b6b63"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- People in big cities walk past them every day -- street performers, or buskers. Some are talented, some are not, and most aren't performing for a cause greater than themselves. But on Monday, 12-year-old Abby Miller was. Abby Miller sings for her friend Taylor Love outside Washington's Union Station on Monday. She was performing outside Washington's Union Station to help her 4-year-old friend, Taylor Love, who is suffering from cancer. Abby sat in front of the station with a couple of her friends, singing songs and strumming a guitar. Passers-by seemed to notice the girl's singing talent, stopping to listen in the chilly weather, with a few putting money in a bucket at Abby's feet. Abby said the money will help support Taylor's family. A few more stopped to write messages on \"Love Notes,\" little cards designed to encourage Taylor Love through the tough time. \"Her mom reads them to her before she goes to bed at night,\" Abby said. \"Taylor gets excited for them and she loves getting them read to her because she likes knowing that people are supporting her and people are actually thinking of her.\" Taylor has neuroblastoma, a cancer that affects the nervous system. According to her Web site, she is in remission, but this type of cancer has a high risk of recurrence. There has been little research on the illness, of which there are about 650 new cases in the United States each year. Mike Gillette, a family friend of both Taylor and Abby, brought the two girls together. While raising money and support for Taylor is important, he said, he thinks Abby's outreach can help bring more critical awareness for the devastating disease. \"She really wanted to reach people all over the country,\" he said. Gillette said he has taken Abby to do similar performances in the District of Columbia, New Jersey and Virginia, and estimates they've raised thousands of dollars and have gotten people to write several hundred \"Love Notes.\" Abby does more than just raise money and awareness for her friend. Taylor's mother, Aimee, said that although Abby is eight years older than Taylor, the two see each other often and have a special connection that helps her get through her daughter's illness. \"I think it's amazing for a 12-year-old Abby to be drawn to my daughter, who is 4 and wants to inspire other children,\" Aimee Love said. \"The joy I see in Taylor when she sees Abby brings a light into my life.\" Taylor's family said her treatments are terribly painful. But Abby said Taylor has enormous character. \"She's the most happy girl in the world, which I think is just incredible,\" Abby said. \"She's so much fun to be around. She's a little 4-year-old girl but she's got a heart of like a thousand grown adults.\" Aimee Love said her daughter feels the same way about Abby. \"It gives her someone to aspire to, someone to be inspired by,\" she said.","highlights":"Abby Miller sings, plays guitar to help 4-year-old friend with cancer .\nAbby collects donations, has people write notes of support for Taylor Love .\nTaylor has neuroblastoma, a cancer that affects the nervous system .","id":"3d43e04c56a139663a96b2fabfa438d63d4ad28d"} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Leaders of the G-20 economic summit will announce Friday that the group will become the new permanent council for international economic cooperation, senior U.S. officials told CNN Thursday. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says signs of optimism for a global economic recovery can be seen. The move comes in the wake of a major push by President Obama, the officials said. The G-20 will now essentially eclipse the G-8, which will continue to meet on major security issues but carry much less influence. \"It's a reflection of the world economy today and the players that make it up,\" said one senior official. Nations like China, Brazil and India -- which were locked out of the more elite G-8 -- will be part of the larger group. The Group of 20 -- leaders of 20 countries representing 90 percent of the world's economic output -- are meeting in Pittsburgh for a two-day summit, focusing on the financial crisis and how to avoid a future repeat. The gathering is Obama's first time hosting a major international summit. \"We're meeting at a time where, for the first time since London, certainly for the first time in a year, we're seeing the first signs of optimism about prospects for global recovery,\" U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters Thursday. \"I think the broad consensus of private economists and businesses are that we're beginning to see growth in the United States, and around the world we see exports rising and forecasts for growth are being revised upwards.\" \"This is encouraging,\" he said, \"but we have a ways to go.\" He said the leaders are \"going to keep working to sustain the progress we've seen. And I can say with confidence, based on my discussions with finance ministers and central bank governors from around the world, there is a common, shared commitment to make sure we're working together to sustain these early signs of recovery and growth.\" One of the key goals is preventing such a crisis from occurring in the future, he said. \"In the run-up to this crisis, many of the world's largest economies depended on the American consumer to buy their exports to drive growth, and we made it easy; for too long, Americans were buying too much and saving too little,\" Geithner said. \"And that's no longer an option for us or for the rest of the world. And already in the United States you can see the first signs of an important transformation here as Americans save more and as we borrow substantially less from the rest of the world.\" \"I think we all recognize that we need to act before the memory of the crisis fades and before the impetus for reform recedes,\" he said. \"And we're trying to bring greater urgency and commitment to the need to act together.\" The tightening of global financial regulations was expected to top the summit's agenda and comes as some major economies are beginning to recover. Germany, France and Japan have announced that they have emerged from recession, prompting hopes that the worst of the financial crisis may have passed. G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed at a meeting this month not to start cutting back just yet on stimulus efforts. They fear it would put economies at risk for plunging back into recession. However, the economic outlook has improved enough that countries are being encouraged to start working on exit strategies, which will vary by nation. The economic summit marks the third time in a year that the world's top industrial powers have gathered. They met in November in Washington and followed up with an April session in London. A number of protesters gathered in the area, tracked by police. At one point, riot police used pepper spray or tear gas on the protesters. CNN's Brian Todd was one of the people affected by the spray or gas. See iReport photos of police and protesters \u00bb . \"It really drove the protesters back,\" Todd said. \"It drove us back. It burned our eyes. It really burned our throats for a while. It got pretty dicey there.\" Watch Todd's report \u00bb . After that, Todd said, the protesters dispersed somewhat, but police were keeping an eye on the remaining protesters. iReport.com: Pittsburgh braces for protests . Among the protesters was a group of several hundred wearing T-shirts reading, \"G20: Free Tibet Before Free Trade.\" The crowd marched about eight blocks before police blocked their path. Officers allowed the protesters to chant in the street for more than an hour before they walked away. There were no arrests. Others chanted pro-marijuana slogans behind the riot police, and another group took up the stadium chant of \"Let's go Steelers.\" CNN's Steve Brusk and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"G-20 would essentially eclipse the more elite G-8 .\nG-8 would continue to meet on major security issues but carry less influence .\nGroup of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh for economic summit .\nU.S. Treasury secretary: Signs of optimism for recovery can be seen .","id":"4d25d1ffad08573cef3aae31799bc630c934a982"} -{"article":"UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Drawing on 2006 remarks in which he compared former U.S. President George Bush to the devil, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the United Nations Thursday, said, \"It doesn't smell like sulfur anymore.\" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke highly of President Obama at the United Nations on Thursday. In a rambling speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Chavez spoke highly of current President Obama, saying he is an \"intelligent man\" and comparing him to President John F. Kennedy. \"I hope God will protect Obama from the bullets that killed Kennedy,\" he said. \"I hope Obama will be able to look and see, genuinely see, what has to be seen and bring about a change.\" Three years ago, Chavez spoke at the gathering the day after Bush spoke, and said the lectern \"still smells of sulfur.\" But on Thursday he looked around the podium and said, \"It doesn't smell of sulfur. It's gone. No, it smells of something else. It smells of hope.\" He did, however, criticize some U.S. policies, questioning whether there are \"two Obamas.\" Watch Chavez speak at the U.N. General Assembly \u00bb . Chavez accused the Pentagon of being behind the ousting of Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya in a military-backed coup in June. \"American soldiers knew about the coup and supported it,\" he said. \"Hence the contradiction that Obama has to face. Are there two Obamas? Obama spoke here yesterday. Does he have a double? ... Let's hope the one we heard yesterday will prevail. Let us hope. That's what the world needs.\" The United States and Brazil have said they support dialogue between Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti, centered on the San Jose Accord brought about through the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the Organization of American States mission. That deal calls for Zelaya to be restored to office. \"The U.S. government, and this is strange, has not recognized the fact that a military coup d'etat has occurred,\" Chavez said. \"There is some friction between the State Department and the Pentagon.\" He said the coup was engineered by the Honduran bourgeoisie, \"four or five wealthy, powerful families.\" Chavez also called for the United States to lift what he called the \"savage, murderous blockade\" on Cuba, and was critical of plans to open U.S. military bases in Colombia, saying what the nation needs instead is aid to lift itself out of its civil war. In addition, Chavez criticized capitalism and extolled the virtues of socialism, saying it is \"the road to salvation for this planet.\" He spoke for almost exactly an hour, less than the hour and 36 minutes Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi used on Wednesday. The Venezuelan president joked that he would not speak as long as Gadhafi, but said he planned to speak as long as Obama. Asked to expand on his \"two Obamas\" comment at a news conference after his speech, Chavez said, \"I think that one of the serious failures of the United States has been that, for a long time, it has underestimated and undervalued Latin America and the Caribbean. ... I hope that Obama turns around the vision of the White House and the Department of State of Latin America. They cannot continue to mistreat us.\" He said one Obama spoke about peace in addressing the General Assembly, yet has seven U.S. military bases in Colombia. \"There's a double somewhere,\" he said. Asked by a reporter about the closures of television stations in Venezuela, Chavez said it was \"a big lie\" and asked her to provide an example. She asked about RCT, or Radio Caracas Television. Chavez told her the station broadcasts every day, but that a contract, or concession, had expired for its \"open signal\" and was not renewed. \"Never in Venezuela do we have as much freedom of expression as we do now,\" he said. But, he asked, \"What would happen here in the United States if CNN and other stations supported a coup? Not only would they be shut down, but their owners would have been taken to the electric chair.\"","highlights":"Three years ago, Chavez said it \"still smells of sulfur,\" referring to President Bush .\nChavez spoke highly Obama, saying he is an \"intelligent man\"\nChavez said Pentagon behind ousting of Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya .\nChavez called for U.S. to lift \"savage, murderous blockade\" on Cuba .","id":"78d71e8e687837d49a8a89416feb3eb9409c3460"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- A post on the Facebook developer blog announces the big application program interface (API) update from the social network that was first reported on Sunday night, which it's calling the Open Stream API. The \"Open Stream API\" was front-and-center with Facebook's controversial redesign earlier this year. It's the first major implementation of an emerging (read: brand new) open standard called Activity Streams, on which Facebook has been collaborating with developers for the past few months. Basically, what it means is that third-party developers will have access to a feed of all content posted to news feeds--notes, photos, videos, links, \"likes\" and comments, and activity from other applications built on the social network's platform. \"We've officially moved away from the Web of just blog posts, which a lot of these formats were originally designed for,\" said open-source developer and advocate Chris Messina, who has been spearheading the development of Activity Streams for about a year now. \"Over time, what I think will happen is (that) you'll see something toward the type of cleverness and ingenuity that has surfaced around the Twitter community, but in a way that is even more expressive and rich,\" Messina said. \"In the case of Twitter, you're just talking about status updates; in the case of Facebook you're talking about a lot of different activities.\" Previously, only status updates--the most Twitter-like part of Facebook--were accessible to developers. That's why this announcement likely makes the biggest difference to the creators of social feed aggregation applications like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop. But because Activity Streams is an open standard, other social-networking and media-sharing applications will be able to use it too. This means that there could be, say, an Adobe Air-based desktop application that brings in updates across photo-sharing applications like Facebook, Flickr, and Photobucket. Facebook is also targeting different types of developers -- specifically mobile and desktop -- rather than strictly the Web app developers whose creations made Facebook's platform such a wild success when it debuted two years ago. \"One of the most important stories to tell here is this is the first time that we've ever opened the core Facebook product experience, which was previously called the 'feed' and which we're now calling the 'stream,'\" Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin explained to CNET News. \"We're especially excited to see the types of desktop applications and the types of mobile applications which developer are going to build for the stream. We've sort of never really allowed this before, so we're pretty excited to see what developers come up with.\" Facebook will be holding an event on Monday afternoon in Palo Alto, California, to introduce developers to the new API. Presenting at the event will be representatives from Adobe, which is building a Facebook application in its Air runtime environment, and Microsoft, which is doing the same in Silverlight; contact management system Plaxo and third-party app Seesmic Desktop (which already has unveiled its support for the Open Stream) are also presenting. The \"stream\" took front-and-center with Facebook's controversial redesign earlier this year. Inspired by the likes of Twitter, the revamped design marked a shift in strategy for Facebook from static profiles to a real-time flow of information. At the same time, it proved unpopular among some users. But Facebook isn't the only big social-networking player to be implementing Activity Streams. The emerging standard was behind the upgrades to MySpace's MySpaceID product that the News Corp.-owned service launched in March at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. \"It was sort of one of the earlier opportunities we had to take a nascent spec and see it all the way through to launch,\" MySpaceID product lead Max Engel told CNET News, adding that his team first started working on Activity Streams last September. It's what powers a new MySpace \"gadget\" for Google as well as its feeds' presence on the upcoming Yahoo homepage redesign. \"It's getting where we need it to be, which is like e-mail: where you can write a POP client and know (that) it works,\" Engel said. \"It's not even a full standard yet, so it's sort of exciting to see so many people get behind something so quickly, and it's definitely indicative of the general momentum of people who are saying we'd rather work open than work closed.\" \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"A post on the Facebook developer blog announces the Open Stream API .\nThird-party developers will have access to feed of all news feed content .\nPreviously, only status updates were accessible to developers .\nBlog: API users will be able to use applications to interact with their stream .","id":"677980d84fbd26a9422afe06f7027eb508adb5e0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year. And more than half of those attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates, an international maritime watchdog group said Wednesday. The increase in attacks has forced many countries to patrol pirate hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden. \"The increased activity in Somalia is the major reason for the spike,\" said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, the Bureau said. Of the incidents this year, Somali pirates accounted for 54 percent: they launched 168 attacks. Most of them took place off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. They successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight others were wounded, four more killed and one is missing, the Bureau said. Somali pirates are still holding four ships for ransom with 80 crew members as hostages. Somalia's transitional government, which has a tenuous grip on power, has been unable to stop the pirates -- many of whom are based in the port cities. This has prompted Europe and other Western countries to step up maritime patrols. \"In the Gulf of Aden, the number of attacks have gone up. But because of the presence of naval vessels, the success rate of the pirates have decreased,\" Mody said. \"The navies are responding very very effectively.\" Today's pirates are a far cry from the eye-patched, peg-legged swashbucklers of Hollywood. They don night-vision goggles, carry rocket launchers and navigate with global positioning devices. Many pirates are trained fighters; others are young thugs enlisted for the job. Experts say they often sail out to sea in a mother ship and wait for a target. When they find one, the pirates board smaller boats and move in, typically with five to seven armed hijackers per boat. Two recent trends have led to a rise in piracy: access and opportunity. As global commerce picks up, more and more of the world's fuels, minerals and other crucial commodities travel by ship. Ninety-five percent of America's foreign trade, for instance, moves by water, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. That cargo is an easy target for robbers in countries that lack the resources to secure their shorelines, such as Somalia. Those who have tracked pirate activity say it started in Somalia in the 1980s, when the pirates claimed they were aiming to stop the rampant illegal fishing and dumping that continues to this day off the Somali coast. Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. With the ransoms they collect, pirates can earn up to $40,000 a year, analysts say. That's a fortune for someone from an impoverished country. Some analysts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the piracies. \"Yes, the ransoms have probably caused the piracy to become a bit more rampant. But at the same time, from the owner's point of view, there is no other way currently to secure the safe release of the vessel along with the crew and the cargo,\" Mody said. \"It's basically a cycle.\" Other trouble spots this year were waters off Nigeria, with 20 attacks; Malaysia with 14; and Bangladesh with 12.","highlights":"Somali pirates accounted for 54 percent of all attacks this year .\nMost of them took place off east coast of Somalia and in Gulf of Aden .\nSomali pirates are still holding four ships for ransom .\nOther trouble spots were waters off Nigeria, Malaysia and Bangladesh .","id":"f4691156efa8f43fb0e87a7b053a53e9200c1fe4"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Why would an award-winning singer, songwriter, producer and single mother want to tack reality TV star onto her long list of accomplishments? Kandi Burruss says she is happy to join the \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\" cast. For Kandi Burruss, the newest member of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, the answer is simple: \"I was a fan last year. I love the show.\" The second season of Bravo's hit show is set to premier on Thursday with Burruss replacing cast member DeShawn Snow. Burruss is well-known in the music industry as a former member of the platinum-selling R&B girl group Xscape and co-writer of such hits as Destiny's Child's \"Bills, Bills, Bills\" and TLC's \"No Scrubs,\" for which she won a Grammy. The Atlanta native almost ended up on another reality show with former group mate and writing partner Tameka \"Tiny\" Cottle, who is the fianc\u00e9e of rapper T.I. and now stars on BET's \"Tiny & Toya\" alongside Antonia \"Toya\" Carter, the ex-wife of Lil' Wayne. The deal for that show didn't work out and Burruss said she was more than happy to sign on with Bravo's wildly successful southern edition of the \"Housewives\" franchise, which chronicles the lives of a group of affluent African-American women in the ATL. Burruss was already friendly with cast mate Lisa Wu Hartwell, whom she met through their mutual friend Cottle. Having watched the show -- which last season enraptured viewers with a mix of constant infighting, lavish lifestyles and a healthy dose of drama -- Burruss said she was more concerned with being thrust into the public eye than she was with getting along with the cast. \"The only thing that made me hesitant about wanting to be a part of the show is the fact that people are so critical of the show,\" she said. \"Just dealing with people on the outside judging you. That part is going to be something that I am going to have to get used to.\" The artist has already had to get acclimated to people smearing her personal life on the Internet. Watch Burruss discuss her time on the show \u00bb . Newly engaged to a father of six children, Burruss has watched him get attacked in blogs and is protective of the man who she said even her mother isn't thrilled about her marrying. \"[The show] has been very, very stressful on the relationship,\" she said. \"I guess [people] couldn't find anything bad [to say] about me, so they wanted to go in on my fianc\u00e9.\" Her caring nature and laid-back personality make Burruss special in the industry, said rapper Rick Ross. \"She's a very humble person, maybe one of the most humble people among the biggest songwriters in the industry,\" said Ross, who collaborated with Burruss on a track for a new solo album she has in the works. \"It's good to be around the greats and she most definitely is one of the greatest in the industry.\" Her home music studio attests to that. The walls are covered with gold and platinum records for her work with several high-profile artists including Alicia Keys, *NSYNC, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Being part of a girl group helped prepare her for the drama of dealing with the other housewives' personalities, Burruss said, though she admitted clashing with outspoken cast mate NeNe Leakes during filming. \"I was a fan of hers last year,\" Burruss said. \"All that wild and crazy stuff she says to people, when you're watching it, it's funny, it's hilarious... but when it's directed at you, it's not funny anymore.\" Burruss got along better with aspiring singer Kim Zolciak, who Burruss will assist in achieving her dream of breaking into the industry. Last season, fans of the show -- and some of the other housewives -- slammed Zolciak for her less-than-stellar voice. \"Everybody loves to hate on Kim. But what I have to say is that Kim is actually cooler in person than she came off on the show,\" said Burruss, who in 1999 won top songwriter of the year from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. \"I wanted to help her out because I love helping the underdog.\" The busy artist said she has no idea if she will be invited back for another season. Appearing on the show, which Burruss said is not scripted, was fun, but she is busy with an upcoming album and with caring for her daughter, Riley, she said. She doubts she will be addicted to appearing on reality TV like she is addicted to music, Burruss said. \"It's just another way for people to get to know you and hopefully they see me in a good light,\" she said. \"You always hope that it doesn't backfire.\"","highlights":"Kandi Burruss is the newest member of Bravo's \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\"\nAn accomplished singer\/songwriter\/producer, she was a fan last season .\nBurruss confirms she and cast mate NeNe Leakes didn't get along .\nThe single mother hopes fans will see her in \"a good light\"","id":"37fb626aa249a99bacd464899f670d9571f57906"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The guitarist stands in front of a mirror messing with his mohawk. The drummer strikes a wild tempo. The singer rips off his T-shirt and begins to scream the lyrics. Basim Usmani is bassist for The Kominas, a group that blends traditional sounds with punk rock beats. They're young. They're punk. And they're rocking both their Muslim and American worlds with their music, lyrics and style. \"A lot of times people say, 'Oh wow, look, brown people playing music' [but] it's more than that,\" said 25-year-old Pakistani-American Shahjehan Khan, the lead singer for a Muslim punk band, The Kominas. The Boston-based band is one of a handful of Muslim punk bands that emerged in the United States in the past few years. The members of this four-person rock group with South Asian roots hold varying views on religion. One says he's an atheist; three others identify as Muslims -- both practicing and non-practicing. For them, punk music is a way to rebel against their conservative cultural upbringing and the frustrations of growing up a young Muslim in America. \"We aren't [just] some alternative to a stereotypical Muslim. We actually might be offering some sort of insights for people at large about religion, about the world,\" said 26-year-old bassist Basim Usmani. Blending traditional South Asian rhythms with punk rock beats, they sing in both English and Punjabi. (Kominas means \"scum-bag\" in Punjabi, according to the band.) Their songs can be at once political, serious, satirical and insinuating. Audio slide show: On tour with Muslim punk rockers \u00bb . Their risqu\u00e9 lyrics and provocative song titles such as \"Sharia Law in the USA,\" \"Suicide Bomb the GAP\" and \"Rumi was a Homo\" -- a protest song against homophobia in the American Muslim community -- have drawn the attention of Muslims, non-Muslims, fans and critics alike. \"You sort of have to throw it in peoples' faces and be shocking in order to give people a different way to think about stuff,\" said Usmani. \"These punk, metal and rap scenes - so-called extreme music scenes -- are addressing issues that mainstream music doesn't,\" said Mark LeVine, a professor of Middle Eastern history at University of California, Irvine, who is also a musician and author of \"Heavy Metal Islam.\" \"[Punk] allows them to rebel against society and their own culture at the same time,\" he said. iReport: Is Islam at odds with American values? Before the Islamic punk movement in North America had a voice, it had a story. The Muslim punk scene began to gel in 2003 when novelist and convert to Islam, Michael Muhammad Knight self-published his book, \"The Taqwacores\" about a fictional Muslim punk scene in Buffalo, New York. The book opens with a poem called \"Muhammed was a Punk Rocker\" and describes both conventional and unconventional characters including a Shi'ite skinhead, a conservative Sunni Muslim, a burka-wearing feminist punk and a Sufi who sports a Mohawk and drinks alcohol. \"The punk rock kids I would hang out with weren't even Muslim,\" 31-year old Knight recalls. \"They were so fiercely individualistic -- I wish that I could be a Muslim in that way: not be ashamed of my confusion, not be ashamed of my doubts. Just be myself and be proud of who I am.\" The novel's title, \"Taqwacore,\" is a hybrid word stemming from the Arabic \"taqwa,\" meaning \"god consciousness,\" and \"core\" referring to \"hardcore\" -- a genre of punk music. It's now a general term for Muslim punk rock. The popularity of the book, which Knight said was born out of a search to find his identity as a Muslim-American, grew in underground youth circles and online. It didn't take long before real-life \"taqwacore\" bands like The Kominas began blooming across the country. \"It makes sense why punk has been the music of choice for young, politically active Muslims who are musical,\" said LeVine. \"The straight edge movement in punk which was about no drugs, no alcohol, was clean yet very intense and political. It's a way for them to rebel against their families in some extreme ways yet still be ritualistically, 'good Muslims.' \" \"Taqwacore\" gave voice to many young Muslim-Americans who felt muted by circumstances and created an opening for bands like Al-Thawra, Vote Hezbollah, and Secret Trial Five -- an all-girl punk band out of Vancouver, Canada. In the summer of 2007, five of the taqwacore bands organized a \"taqwa-tour\" of the northeastern United States. They played in city after city, traveling in a green school bus with TAQWA painted on the front bought by Knight for $2,000 on eBay. This summer, The Kominas continue to strike a chord with audiences around the country, hitting cities from San Francisco to New York on a multi-city tour. The taqwacore movement has also inspired two upcoming films - a dramatic feature film based on the book and a documentary. Many conservative Muslims may peg young taqwacores as heretic for their suggestive and irreverent lyrics. But the musicians say they are just trying to show both cultures how broad the spectrum of belief can be. Like many young adults balancing their religious beliefs with American culture, some young Muslims in the United States say it's a constant struggle to be accepted in both worlds. \"I had a lot of conflicted feelings growing up a Muslim in America,\" said 25-year-old Kominas drummer Imran Malik. \"It was hard not being able to do the same things that everyone else around you is doing without feeling guilty about them.\" Knight, who grew up with a Catholic mother and white supremacist father, converted to Islam when he was 16. He said his message is not one of blasphemy but rather an extension of his discontent with the rigid etiquette that dictates certain practices within Islam and the stereotypes of Muslims in American. \"Muslims haven't been fully accepted as Americans but the American experience hasn't been accepted as something that can contribute to the Muslim world,\" said Knight. Knight said writing the book helped him and others connect through shared experiences. \"When I first wrote it, I felt like there would never be a place for me in the Muslim community and that has really turned around a lot,\" he said. \"The book gave me the community I needed, it connected me to all these kids that were also confused and who also went through the things that I went through.\" That connection is vital to taqwacore music, bassist Usmani said. \"The music is great, but the conversation is the key to all of this. The dialogue that we have inspired is really invaluable.\" \"I don't think Islam is ever going to go away, I'm just trying to see how it best fits in my life.\"","highlights":"A handful of Muslim punk bands have emerged in the last few years .\nA fictional portrayal of a Muslim punk scene helped set the real-world stage .\nSome conservative Muslims disapprove of the suggestive and irreverent lyrics .","id":"d2a910d51699dd13fcf538a490ddedcefb69ebba"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The number of dead in devastating floods triggered by torrential rains in India has risen to at least 271, and about a million people have fled their homes, officials said Monday. An aerial view of a flood-affected area in Bijapur district in North Karnataka, India. At least 192 people have died in the southern state of Karnataka, its disaster-management secretary H.V. Parshwanath told CNN. More than 450,000 people there have been housed in 1,330 relief camps as authorities completed rescue operations in most of the flooded zones in the state, he said. \"The focus is now mainly on relief,\" Parshwanath said, adding that rains have now eased in Karnataka. In neighboring Andhra Pradesh, authorities put the death toll at 51. Some 531,000 people have been evacuated to safety, with more half of them now sheltering in relief camps, said Dinesh Kumar, the commissioner of the state's disaster-monitoring department. India has deployed the military to help with relief and rescue in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. More than a dozen teams of naval divers have been sent to the two flood-hit states, the country's defense ministry said. Air force planes and helicopters have also been dropping food packets in the submerged regions. The military has been able to rescue 1,336 people so far, it added. Flood waters were now receding in two of the five worst hit districts of Andhra Pradesh, disaster official Kumar said. But floodwaters from a local river might submerge the remaining three, he warned. Flooding also killed at least 25 people in Maharashtra state, officials said. Three others died because of lightning strikes, said S.C. Mohanty, director of Maharashtra's disaster-management department. About 3,000 people have been displaced because of flooding, he told CNN. Thousands of people die each year in India during seasonal monsoon rains. More than 1,100 had been killed in monsoon-triggered flooding in different parts of the country as of last month, according to the disaster-management division of the federal home ministry.","highlights":"Death toll from floods in India has now reached 271 .\nOver a million people have been forced to flee their homes .\nOver 450,000 people in southern state of Karnataka housed in 1,330 relief camps .","id":"9ec063a917ef74acc8c0c2a6401fabacee72ef06"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- A brain surgeon performed what he called a \"life-saving\" surgery on a teenager by removing a large brain tumor using a method he read about on CNN.com just three days earlier. Dr. Thomas Ellis is a senior neurosurgeon at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Dr. Thomas Ellis, a senior neurosurgeon at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, the United States, said he had become \"very demoralized\" after an unsuccessful six-hour operation to remove a tumor from a 19-year-old named Brandon. \"I had had to give the boy's mother the bad news and that is not something I am used to. She was crying and it was very hard. Your story truly came at the perfect time,\" Ellis said. \"I am inclined to believe that it is the work of God that I came across your article that very night,\" the surgeon told CNN. The article was about the \"Omni directional dielectric mirror,\" a pen-shaped fiber-optic tool that allows surgeons to carry out minimally invasive surgery on areas too difficult or delicate to access. That night, Ellis contacted the neurosurgeon quoted in the story who put him in touch with Omni Guide, the Boston, Massachusetts-based company that manufactures the handheld device. It was originally devised for the U.S. military, and rolled out for surgeries three months before Ellis read about it. The tool allows surgeons to easily manipulate a CO2 laser and bend it to reach almost any tissue in the body, particularly in cases where scalpels may pose a danger. \"Seventy-two hours later I held the device in my hands,\" Ellis explained. \"Omni Guide sent someone to do a demo. I was extremely impressed and excited and very quickly I pretty much got the hang of it.\" Ellis added: \"I think it's an amazing story because it's yet another demonstration of how interconnected we've become in this world. \"You have a CNN reporter in London, who writes a story about a neurosurgeon in Chicago, who's using a device that was invented in Massachusetts. That story is read by a different neurosurgeon in North Carolina, and all within 72 hours, we have the device in North Carolina. \"We have the patient lined up for a surgery, and in the span of just a few days we perform really a life-saving operation on this patient.\" Ellis first met Brandon on December 17, 2008, when his mother took him to the emergency department at Wake Forest Hospital suffering from what Ellis calls, \"an extremely rapid decline in basic functions.\" \"While he had been suffering from minor symptoms for about a year, he suddenly acquired terrible headaches and became very confused.\" Ellis ordered an immediate MRI scan of Brandon's skull and found an extremely large tumor, known as a teratoma, in the middle of his brain. Read an explainer about teratomas . He operated two days later, but despite spending six hours in the operating room and going through half a dozen scalpels, he only managed to remove 20 percent of the tumor. \"In 15 years of doing neurosurgery, it really was the most difficult tumor that I ever encountered. It was very rubbery and hard to debulk,\" he said. \"I wish I could demonstrate the firmness of the tumor that we were dealing with but it really was the case that after trying to dissect the tumor just five minutes with each scalpel, the scalpel would be dull and I would have to move on to use another scalpel. \"I went through at least a half-dozen of them, and even after many, many hours of operating on this tumor with multiple scalpels with multiple microsurgical-dissecting tools, I couldn't remove very much of this tumor.\" Ellis advised the boy's mother, Tania, who asked we only give her first name, that her son would have to go through radiation treatment. Unlike chemotherapy, which involves the use of anticancer drugs, radiation treatment employs high-energy rays and particles to kill cancer cells. \"Radiation therapy is a difficult process, especially for such a large tumor,\" Ellis said. He explained that he was feeling despondent about the patient's condition when he got home after the operation that night. \"Being the father of four children myself, just the thought of having to go through something like this with one of my own children is just beyond words,\" he said. \"As I do every night, I read CNN online and immediately saw on the front page that there was an article in the health section entitled, From military device to life-saving surgical tool. ... Read the original CNN.com story . \"I finished the rest of the story and my first thought was: I would have given anything to have this tool available six or seven hours ago based on the description in the story. \"Lasers have long been abandoned in neurosurgery,\" he said, \"because they were too cumbersome to use. But CNN spoke of a brain operation performed by a Dr. Bernard Bendok in Chicago with CO2 laser and this new easy-to-use, perfect mirror tool.\" The following day, on Christmas Eve, Ellis along with Dr. Tamir Wolf, a physician OmniGuide sent to assist, brought Brandon back to the operating room. \"After only 30 minutes, it was clear this laser device, as simple to use as a scalpel, was successfully debulking the tumor.\" Ellis operated on Brandon for four hours and managed to remove the remaining 80 percent of the tumor by vaporizing it from the inside with the laser and then excising it. \"The boy was then extubated [removing the tube to his airway] after about 30 minutes and that same evening he was eating normally,\" Wolf said. Brandon has recovered his basic functions and is behaving normally. \"I am very optimistic and so is his mother, although we still have to be careful and do regular check-ups to look for possible spreading of the tumor,\" Ellis said. He believes that \"at the least, this device will become a valuable new tool for surgeons. But it may actually usher in a new generation of neurosurgeons who do microsurgery very differently.\" \"Either way, this type of success story is what we neurosurgeons live for.\"","highlights":"Surgeon unsuccessfully attempts to remove patient's brain tumor .\nLater that day, he reads CNN.com story on a groundbreaking new surgery tool .\nHe contacts makers of the tool that could help in removing his patient's tumor .\nThree days later, the patient is operated on again and all the tumor is removed .","id":"db4ceeba30b762ab5b7dc800699c213264cac301"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It certainly isn't your average help wanted ad. A publication in Denver, Colorado, is looking for a journalist to review marijuana dispensaries. \"Do you have a medical condition that necessitates marijuana? Do you have a way with words? If so, Westword wants you to join the ranks as our freelance marijuana-dispensary reviewer.\" The local \"burgeoning medical marijuana scene\" in Denver, Colorado, is growing and the weekly publication Westword wants to be on the forefront, said Joe Tone, the paper's Web editor. \"We want someone who can get in and relay to our readers what it is like inside these dispensaries.\" It's not exactly like a food critic job. The online-only reviewer won't be showing up anonymously and sampling the wares. \"They are to review the places, not the weed,\" Tone said. \"We can't have our reviewer be stoned all the time,\" he quipped. But, he said, the ideal applicant should have \"the ability to write and be in the position of holding a state medical marijuana card.\" The reviewer, he said, should know his or her way around dispensaries and be \"passionate about the issue of medical marijuana.\" Colorado is one of 14 states where medical marijuana is legal by state law -- federal law still bans its use. But this week, the Obama administration announced a new policy loosening the rules regarding prosecuting criminal activity associated with medical marijuana. The Justice Department now says that prosecutors can go after traffickers but not medical marijuana patients and their caregivers. Though Westword is no longer accepting applicants for its dispensary reviewer position, they are actively working through the 120 they received and have culled the list down to under 20. The applicants run the gamut of 20-something stoners to well-educated engineers in their 50s. Some have even offered to work for free, Tone said, adding \"We won't accept that.\" The pay is \"meager,\" he said, but it's legitimate.","highlights":"Weekly publication Westword in Denver, Colorado, marijuana-dispensary reviewer .\nPaper wants to cover \"burgeoning medical marijuana scene\" says Web editor .\nColorado is one of 14 states where medical marijuana is legal by state law .\nFederal law still bans its use .","id":"752097ee4a746341fd22575c88bc75b2dda34902"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Energetic, infectious and combative, the music of Nigerian musician Femi Kuti has moved audiences around the world. But the man is just as passionate about getting people to change their world as much as move their feet. Son of Afrobeat pioneer and political activist Fela Kuti, Femi inherited his father's zeal for both music and activism. Kuti was signed to Motown Records in 1994 and his music blends Afrobeat with more current soul, R&B and jazz. He's worked with rappers Mos Def and Common and continues to explore his music and collaborations. While the music matters, the man himself remains just as politically motivated as his father. Kuti's nightclub in Lagos, the New Afrika Shrine, had become a Mecca for West African music and creative expression, until it was closed by the authorities earlier in the summer. It was also homage to his father and continued his legacy of using music to inspire, change and motivate. Kuti recently told a reporter for All Africa Global Media that the Shrine was a place of worship where people can honor \"great black people, who fought for the emancipation of Africa through music.\" Freeing the \"Shrine\" from being under lock and key is just one of his crusading missions, as with his band, The Positive Force, Kuti remains outspoken about Nigeria, corruption and the positive changes that Africa can achieve. Watch Femi Kuti on African Voices on Saturday, October 31, 12.30 and 18.30 GMT; Sunday, November 1, 18.00 GMT.","highlights":"Nigerian musician Femi Kuti is son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti .\nInherited his father's passion for music and political activism .\nNightclub in Lagos recently closed by authorities; remains politically outspoken .","id":"d2f04f50e0b1be673f47585b118b712cca950c3d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A new smartphone application allows users to carry out a virtual dissection of a human body. The iPhone app, \"Anatomy Lab,\" allows the user to move between 40 body layers to enable dissection. The iPhone app, called \"Anatomy Lab,\" has been developed by researchers from the University of Utah and provides images of a real human cadaver. Utah professor Mark Nielsen told CNN that the application is aimed at medical and anatomy students who might not have the opportunity to dissect a real human body, but it's also proving a hit with medical practitioners. \"A lot of medical professionals, especially in physical therapy and rehabilitative medicine, are using it to educate patients and show them the body parts they're discussing,\" Nielsen told CNN. \"Anatomy Lab\" lets the user move between 40 separate body layers, zoom in to view different structures and rotate them to get different view points. It started out as a computer program showing the dissection of a cadaver, beginning with the skin and moving on to subcutaneous tissue, nerves, veins, and muscles. See some of the best health monitoring apps \u00bb . Nielsen said the iPhone's touch screen is perfect for the interactive nature of the application. \"The program's so logically set up for the iPhone -- you can pinch the screen to rotate and enlarge, and tap on things to identify them,\" he said. Nielsen's son, Scott Nielsen, a physics major at the University of Utah, wrote the code for the iPhone version, which has so far sold more than 3,000 copies. The app also comes in a cheaper, scaled-down version called \"My Body,\" aimed at the curious amateur. \"Anatomy Lab\" is the latest in a line of iPhone apps either aimed at medics, or with health benefits.","highlights":"\"Anatomy Lab\" iPhone app allows users to dissect a virtual cadaver .\nResearchers say app is aimed at medical and anatomy students .\nThe app has so far sold more than 3,000 copies, and is a hit with doctors too .","id":"b69eedb05cf2556b1a450c6d017fcf1fff26ec97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A call for Smurfs brought together 1,253 dressed-up-in-blue people in County Monaghan, Ireland. A 4,703-pound cheesecake rolled out in Mexico City. A 7-year-old Michigan boy made a ball of plastic wrap that's 11 feet across. Anthony Victor of India has hair measuring 7.12 inches sprouting from the center of his outer ears. Meanwhile, in Ellensburg, Washington, 13-year-old Brenden Adams is having a hard time fitting into cars. At 7 feet 4.6 inches, Adams -- who as a kindergartner was taller than his teacher -- has made it into the Guinness World Records 2010 book, released Thursday, as the tallest teenage boy. It's a stature he said was earned simply because his 12th chromosome split in half. And while the height has its perks -- \"You don't get picked on as much\" -- he wishes strangers wouldn't stare. \"I'm another person, just like everybody else,\" said Adams, who doesn't play basketball -- two knee replacements insured that -- and prefers to hang out with friends, camp and ride dirt bikes. The tallest teenage boy is one of about 4,000 records listed in this year's book -- a number that accounts for a mere 10 percent of all the mind-blowing stats that make up the Guinness World Records database, said Stuart Claxton, a spokesman for the organization that began publishing feats in 1955. See more world record holders . From the obscure (Most balloons inflated with a nose? 308) to the old standbys (Lucia Zarate, who died in 1890, still holds the record for lightest adult at 4.7 pounds), it's the reference-book gift that keeps on giving. So why would someone set out to spend the most time in a bumper car (record: 24 hours), or solve the most Rubik's Cubes in one hour (record: 185)? \"It's an innate part of our psyche as human beings to explore how far we can push the boundaries,\" said Claxton, who's been with Guinness World Records since 2000. \"We're intrigued by extremes in our daily life\" and by \"the things we're not familiar with.\" iReport.com: Follow updates on \"Le Grande Bebe\" Jake Lonsway of Bay City, Michigan, was only 6 when high school students in his area set out to assemble the largest group of people wearing Groucho Marx glasses. A snowstorm killed the attempt, but the idea of setting a record became an obsession for the young boy, his mom Julie Grames said. \"I told him, 'We'll get a bunch of books, and we'll see if there's anything we can do,' \" she said. Building a ball of plastic wrap was where they landed. And what started with a softball-sized ball grew and grew and grew into a 281-pound monstrosity, earning Lonsway, now 9, a spot in this year's record book. \"It does take up a nice corner of the garage,\" Grames said with a laugh. And when people comment on how \"cool\" it is, she said her husband's response is always the same: \"You want it? Take it.\" iReport.com: Massive chess board with human pieces . Claxton, of Guinness, has seen everything from the innocuous to the extreme and dangerous. He's watched a motorcycle rider crash -- and survive -- trying to outdo the ramp-to-ramp distance jump, just one of the \"pushing the envelope\" moments that helped him \"realize just how out there the world of record breaking can be,\" he said. Some images might be hard to take in at first. \"Over 1,000 piercings in the human body is something you have to get used to looking at,\" Claxton said. And while the most tattooed man -- 99 percent of his body is covered -- \"may not be my cup of tea,\" he said that when it comes to categories there's something for everyone. Lee Redmond, 68, of Salt Lake City, Utah, earned the top berth for longest fingernails after not cutting them from 1979 onward. As of the last record-setting measurement, her nails were 28-foot long in total, the longest being her left index fingernail that came in at 3-foot, Claxton said. But a car accident in February of this year left her nails broken and her hands much freer, the Guinness spokesman said. iReport.com: World's largest rocking chair? \"They were such a part of her,\" he said, before describing Redmond's attitude as \"very stoic,\" and her take on the broken nails this way: \"If something like that had to happen, it had to happen. Someone somewhere had decided enough is enough.\" This year's book release includes a look at the top 100 records of this century's first decade, Claxton added, as well as beefed up offerings on the Guinness World Records Web site, which is also where wannabe record holders can find out how to compete and get recognized -- if not now, then in the next book's edition. Since the current record-holding Smurfs gathered in Ireland and after the 2010 book went to press, for example, 2,510 ambitious blue ones amassed in a nightclub in Wales. iReport.com: Large gathering of \"Waldos\" Does Claxton have his own eyes on a record prize? \"I want to spin a quarter for the longest time possible,\" he said, adding that the current record is 19.34 seconds. \"That's the one I want to get.\"","highlights":"1,253 Smurfs gather in Ireland, find place in Guinness World Records 2010 book .\nReleased Thursday, the record book lists 4,000 eyebrow-raising tidbits .\n\"I'm another person, just like everybody else,\" tallest teenage boy says .\nWoman who grew fingernails for about 30 years loses them in car accident .","id":"388a2a88c89dab958c35035c57fc2f030e5fb978"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A lot of people have been outraged by the gender verification testing that South African athlete Caster Semenya has been put through, and have been trying to be supportive of her; but in doing so, they often further prejudice against the very thing which she appears to be: intersex. Hida Viloria says she looks forward to a day when intersex conditions like hers are widely accepted. Intersex people (formerly known as hermaphrodites) are those born with bodies that are difficult to classify as either \"male\" or \"female.\" Since results of Semenya's tests were apparently leaked, it seems that her body doesn't conform to the definition of \"female\" as one who has ovaries. I'm intersex because, while I have ovaries, menstruate and can get pregnant, my genitalia is somewhat male-looking (simply put, I have a clitoris that's much larger than average.) Throughout my childhood, I never thought I was anything other than \"female\" because that's what I was labeled and raised as. While I felt more aggressive than other girls, I didn't think that anything other than male and female could exist. So I just thought of myself as a \"different kind of woman.\" Ultimately, my assessment was pretty accurate. I was raised in a strict Catholic home, where nudity and sex talk was unheard of, so having no one to compare my genitals to, I was unaware that mine were different. I'm very lucky to have escaped the \"corrective\" surgeries and\/or hormone treatments that are the norm for intersex infants, because my father went to medical school before these practices began (in the mid-late '50's), and knew that you shouldn't operate on a baby unless it's absolutely necessary. Later, when he wanted to give me estrogen pills at puberty to ensure that my body \"feminized\" (he told me that the pills were to make me grow taller), my mother objected, saying it was experimental and that I didn't need it. Thankfully, she won out. Thus, no one ever told me there was anything wrong with my body (that didn't happen until a gynecological visit when I was twenty), and I grew up loving it just the way it is. I still do. While many doctors would refer to my clitoris as \"grossly enlarged,\" I have to tell you, having an overabundance of the only organ in the human body whose sole purpose is pleasure is far from a negative thing! I came of age sexually with my second boyfriend in high school. I broke up with him because I knew that I preferred girls, but I couldn't act on it yet. Once I did, in college, it confirmed that girls were what I'd always longed for, and it was then that I realized how much my body differed from theirs.' Still, I had no name for my difference. At the age of twenty-six, I finally discovered I was \"intersex\" from a newspaper article. Fortunately, it was not about me specifically but about intersex in general, and I'm glad that I, unlike Semenya, had time to process the information and come out about it when I was ready to. I still had other issues I was dealing with -- namely: racism and homophobia -- so it took a year for me to embrace this additional minority status. Once I did, it was a positive turning point. I'd always felt strongly masculine and feminine, and now it made sense why these two presumably \"opposite\" traits existed, in me, side by side. I didn't think being intersex was a bad thing to be. I'd already learned that people can be prejudiced against things they're unfamiliar with, or are taught to dislike, and that we shouldn't take on their bigotry. On April 19, 2002, I appeared on the television news program \"20\/20\" with a prominent urologist and \"expert\" on intersex conditions. When asked why he supported \"corrective surgeries\" he answered, \"Society can't accept people of different colors, and now we're supposed to accept somebody with genitalia that don't match what their gender is? I do not believe this society is ready for it.\" Intersex folks are not some new invention that people need to be \"ready for:\" we exist and always have. Resistance to accepting us has created the mess that Semenya now finds herself in. If medicine had been more upfront about intersex conditions rather than pretending they're just male and female as usual, they could have avoided ruining the career of some athletes. Whichever condition Caster Semenya has, she shouldn't be made to suffer for others' mistakes. Since infancy, she's been legally labeled, raised, and accepted as female. To be told that she can't compete as one now would be like being a U.S. citizen all your life, but being suddenly denied a passport because somebody decided that the city you were born in is actually, sorry, on the wrong side of the border. For thirteen years I've been outing myself as intersex just to let folks know we exist, and I'm happy to say I've seen progress. I look forward to one day telling my god-daughter about how it used to be for us, and to hearing her say, \"Wow, I can't believe some people had problems accepting intersex. Humans can be so weird.\"","highlights":"Intersex writer Hida Viloria shares her experience of growing up intersex .\nViloria: I found out at age of 26 I was intersex, I think I'm a different kind of woman .\nViloria: Since then, I've been outing myself as intersex just to let folks know we exist .","id":"09ab915592bb10e8c85787af30c7342afccb9662"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- We remember Henry Ford as the automotive magnate who perfected assembly line technology, but he also dabbled in ambitious social programs, including one in which he hired ex-convicts straight out of Sing Sing to staff his factories. Henry Ford, pictured in 1942, unsuccessfully attempted to increase the rubber supply with a plantation in Brazil. Although many of these efforts were successful, Ford's ill-fated foray into the Brazilian jungle was a notable and fascinating exception. The plan . If you're going to make millions of cars, you're going to need an awful lot of rubber. In 1927, Ford came up with a novel plan: He'd solve his rubber problem and test out his lofty theories about social planning. If everything went well, he could craft both a utopia full of healthy, productive workers and a direct pipeline of coveted rubber to Detroit. Ford approached the task with characteristic zeal. He talked the Brazilian government into granting him 10,000 square kilometers of land in the Amazon rain forest -- a plot that was nearly twice as big as the state of Delaware -- in exchange for a 9 percent cut of the plantation's profits. In theory, this setup seemed like one of Ford's ideas that would shake out pretty well, and in 1928, Ford sent a barge full of supplies from Michigan down to his new plantation town, which was dubbed \"Fordlandia.\" Growing rubber in the jungle . Unfortunately for Ford's stockholders, though, the captain of industry didn't always have a great eye for detail. (One famous story about Ford was that he disliked accountants so fiercely that he never had his company audited. By the end of his tenure, the Ford Motor Company allegedly had no idea exactly how much it cost to build a car.) Ford didn't check to see if the plantation was suitable for growing rubber. According to Greg Grandin, author of \"Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City,\" Ford never consulted any sort of expert on rubber cultivation; he just sent a bunch of supplies and managers into the jungle hoping to grow some rubber. Mental Floss: Henry Ford and others who survived bankruptcy . Ford was legendarily contemptuous of experts, but he could have saved some serious dough if he'd just hired a consultant to tell him that the plantation wasn't at all suitable for growing rubber. The land wasn't very fertile, but that wasn't the main problem. The real difficulty was that it's practically impossible to farm rubber in a plantation setting in the Amazon rainforest. To grow the trees on a commercial scale, you've got to pack them in fairly close together, and at that point they become incredibly susceptible to blight and insect attacks. Fordlandia's trees were no exception, and caterpillars and blight quickly decimated the fields. Not exactly a worker's paradise . Obviously, the rubber production part of the Fordlandia got off to a rocky start. How was the \"worker's paradise\" part of things going, though? Even more abysmally. The American managers and their families that Ford imported from Michigan weren't accustomed to the sweltering Brazilian heat and headed back north with an alarming frequency. The heavy machinery used on the plantation left deep ruts in the soft soil, which collected stagnant water and became breeding grounds for malaria-ridden mosquitoes. Ford had attempted to design Fordlandia like any American town, complete with schools, restaurants, a golf course, and shops. The catch here, though, was that the indigenous Brazilians who farmed the rubber weren't used to living in a stylized American community. Worse still, the plantation's workers were expected to work a strict shift from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., whereas normal harvesting practices in the region saw workers hit the fields before dawn, take a long break, and then head out again at twilight to save themselves the misery of working in the tropical midday heat. Food fights . Ford's influence extended all the way down to the residents' diets, and while the indigenous workers weren't crazy about having to eat American foods, they were livid about having to eat in a cafeteria setting rather than enjoying the homestyle meals to which they were accustomed. Eventually, the workers decided they'd had enough of the affront of cafeteria dining and rioted during a meal. Mental Floss: Three historical food fights . As the American managers fled to the safety of boats, the workers destroyed their mess hall and continued to riot until Brazilian soldiers came in to suppress violence. Another sticking point for the workers was Ford's insistence that his model community be entirely free of alcohol and tobacco. Although Prohibition wasn't exactly an unqualified success at home, and although alcohol was still legal in Brazil, Ford stayed firm on his booze ban. Workers who needed a drink were forced just outside the city limits to buy a bottle of cachaca; enterprising liquor salesman could simply paddle by on the river and unload their wares. Mental Floss: Why is the drinking age 21? End of the road . Eventually, even though Henry Ford steadfastly insisted that the community could thrive and help introduce American-style industrialization to the rest of the world, it became abundantly clear that the noble Fordlandia experiment was a flop. After the perfection of synthetic rubber in 1945, Ford sold the plantation at a $20 million loss and left Brazil. Just how much of a fiasco was the Fordlandia experiment? Although Ford spent 17 years trying to produce rubber on the plantation, no Ford car ever rolled off the assembly line with a single bit of Fordlandia's rubber in it. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The auto magnate set up a plantation in the Amazon rain forest to produce rubber .\nHe didn't research the land and found out to late it wasn't suitable for growing rubber .\nBrazilian workers rioted against U.S.-style mess hall, ban on alcohol .\nFord ultimately sold the plantation at a $20 million loss .","id":"1f73e94da798b2aa2270265444db0bf276ec6843"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A handful of people rallied outside the Japanese Embassy on Saturday to show support for an American man who is jailed in Japan, accused of trying to kidnap his own children. Amy Savoie calls on Japan to release her husband during a rally outside the Japanese Embassy in Washington. During the demonstration, Christopher Savoie's wife, Amy, along with others from the Children's Rights Council of Japan -- a group that advocates visitation for both parents in divorce cases, and which organized Saturday's event -- called for Savoie's release. \"It makes me feel wonderful to know that these people are calling him a hero, saying he's brave, and I just hope he can come home and say thank you to all these people who've supported him,\" Amy Savoie told CNN. Christopher Savoie, 38, a Tennessee native and naturalized Japanese citizen, allegedly abducted his two children -- 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca -- as his ex-wife walked them to school Monday in a rural town in southern Japan, police in Japan said. With the children, Savoie headed for the nearest U.S. consulate in the city of Fukuoka to try to obtain passports for them, screaming at guards to let him in the compound. Savoie was steps away from the front gate but still standing on Japanese soil when Japanese police arrested him. Amy Savoie said the separation is taking a toll on her. \"I just wish I could talk to him, but I am forced to live with the fact that I can't talk to him. So I have to soothe myself and comfort myself with what he would say right now, and I just hope he's doing well,\" she said. Christopher Savoie and his first wife, Noriko Savoie, were married for 14 years before their divorce in January. The couple, both citizens of the United States and Japan, had lived in Japan but moved to the United States before the divorce. Noriko Savoie was given custody of the children and agreed to remain in the United States. Christopher Savoie had visitation rights. During the summer, she fled with the children to Japan, according to court documents. A U.S. court than granted Christopher Savoie sole custody. Japanese law, however, recognizes Noriko Savoie as the primary custodian. The law there also follows a tradition of sole-custody divorces. When the couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children. Complicating the matter further is the fact that the couple still are considered married in Japan because they never divorced there, police said Wednesday. And, police said, the children are Japanese and have Japanese passports. A 1980 Hague Convention standardized laws on international child abduction, but Japan is not a party to that agreement. If a child in Japan is taken against the wishes of the recognized Japanese parent, Japanese law considers the person who took the child an abductor. Christopher Savoie will be jailed for at least 10 days while Japanese prosecutors sort out details of the case.","highlights":"Christopher Savoie's wife, Amy: \"I just wish I could talk to him\"\nSavoie in jail in Japan after trying to get kids back from his ex-wife .\nJapanese custom, law on custody differ sharply from those in U.S.","id":"d0cb87b95516b4d2513529e0378b6e4781d3cec1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tennis officials reacted with disappointment on Wednesday to Andre Agassi's revelation that he had used a banned drug and then lied about it to avoid a ban. Agassi's admission that he took the stimulant crystal meth in 1997 will come in a soon to be published autobiography which is being serialized by The Times of London. He avoided a three-month suspension by claiming in a letter to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) that he failed a doping test because a drink had been 'spiked' with the crystal meth. Under today's anti-doping rules, the American legend could have faced a two-year ban from the circuit. The ATP issued a statement Wednesday in which it said that an independent panel would make the final decision on a doping violation. \"The ATP has always followed this rule, and no executive at the ATP has therefore had the authority or ability to decide the outcome of an anti-doping matter,\" the statement read. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey said they could not take retrospective action against the eight-time grand slam winner because of its eight-year statute of limitations, but demanded the ATP investigate fully. \"WADA would, however, expect the ATP, which administered its own anti-doping program at that time, to shed light on this allegation,\" Fahey said in a statement. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) took over responsibility for the ATP's doping program in 2006 and its president Francesco Ricci Bitti said that Agassi's revelations showed that a tough anti-doping program was needed. Agassi did find strong support from Nicolas Hayek, chairman of Swatch Group, for whom Agassi acts as an ambassador. He told CNN that his company would stick with the 39-year-old Agassi in his current role. \"He's admitted a mistake and it's fine with us,\" he said.","highlights":"Tennis governing bodies to consider Andre Agassi's doping revelations .\nATP say an independent panel would consider the issue .\nWADA cannot take action under eight-year statute of limitations .","id":"61d61125115679f9d3b3880a96688ae995e18d97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In just a few short weeks, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach could wake up at his home in Englewood, New Jersey, with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi camped a few feet from his front lawn. Gadhafi may be staying in a tent on the front lawn of a New Jersey house owned by the Libyan Mission. The authoritarian ruler of Libya is rumored to be planning to stay in an air-conditioned tent on the front lawn of a house owned by the Libyan Mission when he attends the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September. Members of the predominately Orthodox Jewish Englewood community are less than enthused about a visit from a leader who has made anti-Zionist statements in the past. The recent release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber to Libya has heightened the animosity. On Monday, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, called for the U.S. Department of State to restrict Gadhafi's travel to the area around U.N. headquarters in New York City, saying in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he \"was particularly concerned by news reports indicating that [Gadhafi] plans to stay in New Jersey, where the families of many Pan Am 103 victims reside.\" A representative from the Libyan Mission in New York would not confirm Gadhafi will stay in Englewood, only that he is scheduled to come to New York. Gadhafi has a history of setting up his extensive tent when visiting other countries, including Russia and France. Media reports have said that his request to pitch his tent in Central Park had been denied, and the New Jersey property was a likely second choice. Boteach said he had previously been willing to approach Gadhafi's rumored visit with an open mind, but he backtracked after the Lockerbie bomber's release. \"Judging by his actions, he hasn't changed one iota,\" Boteach said. \"He loves terrorists and welcomes them as heroes and speaks with a forked tongue. As soon as he had the opportunity he lionized people who committed murderous acts. Gadhafi is a fraud. I don't want him or his security team near my home.\" Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes said he was not informed of plans to erect a tent on the property, and no special permissions were requested from the zoning department. Only through neighborhood residents and media coverage was he alerted to construction on the house that, according to Boteach, began around three months ago. The mayor said he was \"mortified as a Jew and embarrassed as an American that a financier of terrorism is on U.S. soil. [Gadhafi] is someone who has embraced terrorism and has not changed his spots.\" Wildes said the Libyan Mission has \"not paid a nickel\" on taxes for the property, and said he would only be \"willing to sit down with him if he brings a check to cover years of back taxes and overtime pay for the additional police forces needed for his stay, and apologizes to the Jewish residents and the Lockerbie victims' families of New Jersey.\" Boteach, in a piece posted Thursday on The Huffington Post, where he is a regular contributor, said the residence had been left \"derelict and neglected\" for many years until the recent construction. In opposition to Gadhafi's possible visit to Englewood, Boteach said he plans several steps, including legal action, which he said would be in response to construction workers knocking down his fence and cutting down his trees. \"My plan is to sue them, extract as much money as possible and use Libyan money for planting trees instead of buying bombs,\" he wrote in another Huffington Post piece Monday. Boteach and Wildes also are planning a protest at the construction site on Sunday.","highlights":"Gadhafi travels with air-conditioned tent which he stays in .\nRumored to be planning to pitch tent on front lawn of Libyan Mission house .\nMembers of mostly Orthodox Jewish Englewood are less than enthused .\nMayor \"embarrassed as an American that a financier of terrorism is on U.S. soil\"","id":"f5e254db6f97fc416517614acfe32322c060a7da"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police have arrested a man whose DNA linked him to the bodies of nine women killed over 21 years, officials said at a news conference Monday night. Walter E. Ellis, 49, was arrested after police matched a DNA swab taken from him last week to the victims. Walter E. Ellis, 49, was arrested after police matched a DNA swab taken from him last week to DNA left on the bodies of nine women killed since 1986. Police said eight of the women were prostitutes and one was a runaway involved with drugs. They were all killed within a 3-square-mile area of Milwaukee's north side. \"This case was solved with shoe leather and science,\" Milwaukee Police Chief Edward A. Flynn said. \"Continuing advances in DNA technology have enabled us to link these homicide cases, and it was good police work pursuing numerous leads that led to the arrest of a suspect.\" The homicides occurred between 1986 and 2007, police said. See where the bodies were found \u00bb . Ellis was charged Monday with two counts of first degree murder relating to two of the deaths: 41-year-old Joyce Mims, who was killed in 1997, and 28-year-old Ouithreaun Stokes, who was killed in April 2007. Police said more charges are likely. It wasn't immediately clear whether Ellis had obtained an attorney. Police said other victims linked to Ellis through DNA were: Tanya L. Miller, killed in 1986; Deborah L. Harris, killed in 1986; Sheila Farrior, strangled in 1995; Florence McCormick, strangled in 1995; Irene Smith, killed in 1992; Carron D. Kilpatrick, killed in 1992, and Jessica Payne, killed in 1995. Flynn told CNN it was hard for investigators to discern a geographic pattern for the homicides. In the 20-year period, more than 2,000 slayings occurred in Milwaukee, he said -- 200 of them in the same area where the bodies were found. Another challenge investigators faced was the developing technology of DNA evidence. The technology in 2009 far exceeds that available in 1986 or even 2002, he said. It was only this year that police were able to link the nine homicides with the same DNA pattern. Even then \"we did not have anyone to match our DNA profile against, until we were able to get [Ellis'] toothbrush,\" he told CNN. A Wisconsin law passed in 2000 mandated the DNA collection from convicted felons. Ellis was released from prison in 2001 without having his DNA sample collected, Flynn said. Because his name had surfaced in the investigation and because he was also listed in two FBI databases, authorities decided to investigate him further and were able to obtain the search warrant that allowed them to collect his DNA from his toothbrush, the police chief said. News of Ellis' arrest shocked those who knew him. \"That was just my ex-boyfriend,\" his former girlfriend, Chanita, told CNN affiliate WISN-TV. She asked that her last name not be used. \"I didn't know nothing about nothing like this. I'm getting shivery now cause you're talking about some strangling stuff. Lord have mercy on me. I'm just a wreck right now. I can't believe this. I'm trembling in here. I'm shakin'.\" Chanita said she dated Ellis for four years. \"I can't believe it. This is a shock,\" she told WISN. \"I got like goose bumps on my arms instantly when you told me that. I'm like no way -- not Walter -- I can't see him hurting nobody.\" For relatives of the victims, the news brought mixed emotions. \"I knew they was gonna get him, I knew it,\" Patricia Donald, best friend of victim Deborah Harris, told WISN. \"Finally he can't hurt nobody anymore.\" For her and others, like Sandy Farrior, whose daughter Sheila was linked to Ellis, it was news that helped bring closure. \"Late justice is better than no justice,\" he told WISN. In addition to advances in DNA technology, officials attributed the break in the case to the repeated investigation of cold cases by the Milwaukee Police Department's Homicide Task Force Cold Case Unit. Although Mims and Stokes were strangled about a decade apart, similar DNA on their bodies helped lead police to a suspect. Watch where cops got DNA sample \u00bb . Mims was found strangled and lying on her back wearing only socks on June 20, 1997, in a small closet near a living room in Milwaukee, according to court documents. Police found DNA on her body, but there were no matches in the system, the court documents show. On April 27, 2007, Stokes was found strangled, partially clothed and lying face down in a living room in Milwaukee, according to court documents. When lab technicians tested the DNA found on her body, they found it directly matched the DNA found on Mims. On August 29 of this year, armed with a search warrant, police took a toothbrush and razor from Ellis' home. Testing showed the DNA found on Mims and Stokes was a match to Ellis, according to court documents. Ellis has been charged at least 10 times with varying offenses ranging from violent crimes to property crimes between 1981 and 1998, though some of the charges were dismissed, online court records in Wisconsin show. He was sentenced to five years in state prison after he pleaded no contest to a reckless injury charge in 1998. None of the victims linked to Ellis was killed during the time he was in jail. However, two men were charged in slayings later linked to Ellis, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Curtis McCoy was charged in October 1994 with killing Kilpatrick, but he was later acquitted by a jury, the newspaper reported. It also said Chaunte Ott, who was convicted of killing Payne, served 13 years in prison before being released in January, after DNA analysis showed semen found on the girl's body was not his. CNN's Gabriel Falcon contributed to this report.","highlights":"DNA found on bodies of nine women matched to Walter E. Ellis, police say .\nEllis charged in two killings and more charges likely, police say .\nPolice chief hails arrest: \"This case was solved with shoe leather and science\"\nThe women were killed between 1986 and 2007 .","id":"bdc18ba3006e7bc2e31be27adbd5cf281d67722c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics indicates about 1 percent of children ages 3 to 17 have autism or a related disorder, an increase over previous estimates. Children at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, Georgia, receive instruction on March 5, 2009. \"This is a significant issue that needs immediate attention,\" Dr. Ileana Arias, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. \"A concerted effort and substantial national response is warranted.\" The study used data from the federal government's 2007 national survey of children's health. The survey of parents was conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are based on a national telephone survey of more than 78,000 parents of children ages 3 to 17.iReport.com: How has autism affected your family? In the study, parents were asked whether a health care provider had ever told them their child had an autism spectrum disorder. ASD is a group of brain disorders comprising autism and two less severe disorders: Asperger's disorder and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. Children with the disorder show impairment in social interaction and in their ability to communicate. They often display repetitive behavior. Watch families discuss autism \u00bb . The investigators also asked a follow-up question: Were the children considered to have ASD now? Nearly 40 percent of the parents and guardians said no. That finding led the authors to question whether some of the children originally diagnosed as having ASD may have been improperly diagnosed, since the disorders are not considered curable. But Kogan said the two surveys cannot be compared because the earlier investigators did not ask the follow-up question about whether the children were still considered to have the disorder. Still, based on the findings, lead author Dr. Michael D. Kogan of HRSA's maternal and child health bureau estimated the prevalence of ASD among U.S. children ages 3 to 17 at 110 per 10,000 -- slightly more than 1 percent. Boys were four times as likely as girls to have ASD, and non-Hispanic black and multiracial children were less likely than non-Hispanic white children. He estimated that 673,000 children have ASD in the United States. Monday's findings of nearly 1 in 100 appear to indicate an increase from the average of 1 in 150 that was reported in 2003, the researchers said. The researchers urged caution in interpreting the change, noting that an increase in diagnoses does not necessarily mean that more children have the disorder. It could simply reflect a heightened awareness of the disorder. \"We don't know whether the change in the number over time is a result of the change in the actual condition, in the actual number of conditions or in part due to the fact that the condition is being recognized differently,\" Arias said. She said that preliminary results from a separate, CDC-funded study she is working on also indicate that about 1 percent of children in the United States are affected by ASD. That study is to be published later this year, she said. \"This is a behavioral diagnosis, and it's difficult to make, and it's difficult to make at young ages,\" said Dr. Peter van Dyck, HRSA's associate administrator for maternal and child health. Half of the cases were considered mild by their parents, the study reported. The results underscore the importance of creating policies that will result in early identification and intervention, the officials said. The reports raise \"a lot of questions about how we are preparing in terms of housing, employment, social support -- all the issues that many of these people are going to need,\" said Dr. Tom Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. \"It also raises questions about how well we're prepared in the educational system to provide for the special needs of many of these kids.\" Insel said the federal government is beefing up the resources it is mobilizing to address autism and related disorders, with $85 million being appropriated by the National Institutes of Health and $48 million for next year by the HRSA.","highlights":"Study indicates about 1% of children 3 to 17 have autism or related disorder .\nResults based on national telephone survey of more than 78,000 parents .\nCDC official: \"This is a significant issue that needs immediate attention\"\nResearchers saying finding could reflect heightened awareness of disorder .","id":"7067f6794e54522cba1ce4906e07ffe89a231540"} -{"article":"Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of the forthcoming book, \"The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin\" and of two other books, \"Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith\" and \"Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America.\" Visit his Web site for more information. Roland Martin says conservative critics are wrong to chortle at the defeat of the Chicago Olympic bid. (CNN) -- Whenever President Obama has traveled overseas and offered pointed and direct assessments of the United States, some of them critical, Republicans have ripped him for criticizing America, saying a president should always defend the United States. So I want to hear the explanation by these so-called patriots of their giddy behavior over the United States losing the 2016 Olympic Games. Yes, the United States. The bid that was rejected Friday by the International Olympic Committee was not a Chicago, Illinois, bid. It was the official bid submitted by the United States Olympic Committee and was representative of the nation. Tokyo's bid was that of Japan; Madrid's was that of Spain; and Rio de Janeiro's was that of Brazil. Republicans want to spin the decision as a massive loss by President Obama and the Democrats who have always controlled Chicago politics. \"Hahahahaha,\" wrote Erick Erickson on the conservative \"RedState\" blog, \"I thought the world would love us more now that Bush was gone.\" What the critics don't see is that Obama's loss on the Olympics is America's loss. Any red-blooded American who loves to see the American flag raised and the national anthem played when one of our own wins a gold medal should blast the Republicans' giddiness over the loss. I can recall crying along with millions of Americans when our hockey team beat the Russians and won the hockey gold in 1980. Where were those games? Lake Placid, New York. Euphoria spread all across the nation, not only because we beat the mighty Russians, but also because it took place on American soil. When Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton dominated the 1984 Olympic Games, we all beamed with pride because they represented the United States on American soil in Los Angeles, California. And when Michael Johnson stormed around the track to obliterate the world record in the 200-meter dash (since broken by Jamaica's Usain Bolt), we relished the win as he took a victory lap around the stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Americans love home field advantage, and we always desire to show the rest of the world what we are made of. I don't care if Republicans want to rip President Obama over going to Copenhagen, Denmark, to pitch for the games. This isn't about politics. It's not about ideology. This is about America. OUR pride. Our chance to shine. Our loss of the games. So, to all the critics happy about us losing the 2016 games, turn in your flag lapel pins and stop boasting of being so patriotic. When an American city loses, like New York did in the the last go-round, we all lose. And all you critics are on the same level as the America haters all across the world. You should be shouted down for not backing your own country. The next time any of you bang out a press release about \"Buy American\" or \"Support our troops,\" remember this moment when your cynical, callous and small-minded brains happily rejoiced when America lost the 2016 Olympic Games. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland Martin.","highlights":"Roland Martin: The Chicago bid was made on behalf of the whole country .\nHe says conservatives boast of being patriots but are applauding a U.S. defeat .\nHe says Americans love to cheer on their Olympic athletes on home soil .","id":"c3dc2a617f07db375a12bd45d7a8e144b0c8ad1e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least nine people were killed in Somalia's war-torn capital Mogadishu when mortars slammed into a home for disabled veterans, according to journalists and witnesses. Al Shabaab fighters display two bodies of Somali police officers during a battle August 12 in Mogadishu. At least 27 people were wounded in the Friday night incident, when Muslim militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port and struck a residential area. The mortars hit a home for former national army officers who were disabled in a late-1970s war with Ethiopia, the sources said. Insurgents from the Al-Shabaab militant group have been fighting to topple Somalia's government. Its fighters have frequently shelled the city's airport and seaport, which are controlled by the African Union and government forces. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al Shabaab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year.","highlights":"Sources: Militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port, struck residential area .\nMortars hit home for disabled national army officers .\nAt least 9 dead, 27 wounded in attack in war-torn capital .","id":"c218f3d6eb9df2e6fc57d41c6694e2425b7170cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Heavy rain that began pounding California on Tuesday threatened to unleash dangerous floods and mudslides, especially in areas ravaged by wildfires. Residents of La Canada Flintridge, California, fill sandbags to prepare heavy rains in the fire-affected area. \"Very heavy rain is likely over the Sierra Nevada and foothills from later today through Wednesday morning as a strong and very moist Pacific storm moves into the region,\" the National Weather Service said. Up to 8 inches of rain could fall in areas above 4,000 feet, it said. Forecasters described it as the first major storm of the season. The Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services issued a mandatory evacuation order for 60 homes in a section of Davenport, an unincorporated community north of Santa Cruz along the state's central coast. The San Lorenzo Valley high school, middle school, and elementary schools are closed, the county said. Many roads were flooding in Santa Cruz County, emergency management officials said. The area burned in the summer's Lockheed fire, increasing the chances of mudslides in the current storm. Wind gusts above 50 mph were reported from automated observation sites at high elevations, and rainfall was heavy over the Santa Cruz Mountains, the weather service said. Gusty winds were reported in the San Francisco Bay Area, but heavy rain there was expected to end by early evening. \"Although it has been very dry for a lengthy period of time, excessive amounts of rain of this magnitude may produce flooding in locations that normally do not flood during an early autumn rainfall,\" the weather service said. California's Emergency Management Agency was conducting conference calls with the National Weather Service to stay abreast of the latest reports, spokesman Greg Renick said. The agency had advised other agencies to make emergency preparations, he said. Sandbags have been positioned at vulnerable locations. \"We have activated the state Operations Center in Sacramento and also activated the centers in Los Alamitos and Oakland,\" Renick said. One major area of concern is the land burned by the Station wildfire in August and September, forecasters said. That 160,000-acre fire destroyed about 80 homes in Los Angeles County. \"The heavy rain will create favorable conditions for mud and rock slides over burn scars,\" said the weather service, which issued numerous flood watches and warnings. Forecasters said debris flows also were possible in or near areas burned by blazes such as the Big Meadows Fire in Yosemite National Park, the Power Fire in Tulare County and the fire in San Bernardino National Forest.","highlights":"Evacuations ordered, schools closed near Santa Cruz .\nStorm is expected to dump as much as 8 inches of rain .\nStorm could hit parts of Southern California that the Station wildfire burned .\nResidents filled sandbags to prepare for flooding .","id":"3112c2b4eeb9b3901c84aab5d16beb7a8fcea17c"} -{"article":"OKAZAKI, Japan (CNN) -- At Spencer Morrey's home, there are two constant sounds: his dad, Craig, murmuring, \"You're okay, Spence. You're okay, buddy,\" and the sound of a machine clearing the toddler's airway. Spencer Morrey, pictured with his father Craig, has severe cerebral palsy and requires 24-hour medical care. Both sounds come every few minutes, in between hugs, tears and kisses. Spencer has severe cerebral palsy and requires constant, 24-hour medical care. In Japan, a country that lacks sufficient medical services for disabled children, the only person to care for Spencer is his father. Morrey says his wife left, overwhelmed by the strain of their son's medical condition. That would be pain beyond what most parents could imagine. But Spencer's mother fled while pregnant with Morrey's daughter, Amelia. In more than a year, Morrey says he has only seen his daughter four times. \"She wouldn't recognize me,\" Morrey said, with Spencer propped on his lap. \"She wouldn't call me daddy. She's just starting to talk now. But she's not going to know who I am. I think she deserves my love. And I think she deserves to be with Spencer and Spencer deserves to be with her.\" Morrey, a native of Chicago and a U.S. citizen, was married to a Brazilian woman of Japanese descent. They divorced in a Japanese court. Under Brazilian law, Morrey would likely have joint custody and guardianship of both children. What do you think about Spencer's case? Have your say . But in Japan, where only one parent gets custody of a child in a divorce, the family courts have left the case in legal limbo for a year because they have not decided which parent legally has custody of the children. Typically, the parent with physical custody of a child retains custody. Morrey has stayed in Japan the last year, trying to get the courts to recognize that he has joint custody of the children in Brazil (he has not yet applied for such custody under U.S. law). Watch Kyung Lah's report on the case \u00bb . He is afraid that if he heads home for the U.S. with Spencer without that, he could be subject to international child abduction laws, and he also fears such a move could hurt his chances of getting the Japanese family court to give him joint custody of his daughter. Morrey has been forced to quit work to care for Spencer. The financial strain of living off his credit cards is adding to the stress of caring for a disabled child alone in a foreign country. Despite his pleading with court mediators and repeated court filings claiming that joint custody is the law in both the U.S. and Brazil, Japan's slow and antiquated family courts have let the case languish. \"Kids need both parents,\" Morrey said. \"Whether the parents are married or not is irrelevant in my mind. The Japanese courts, and I realize you're going against years and years of cultural differences and everything else, but they don't care about the welfare of the child. \"In Japan, it's considered too messy. It's too complicated. It deals with personal feelings, so they don't want to deal with it. So the best way is to not deal with it.\" CNN contacted Morrey's ex-wife four times by telephone and once by fax. She declined to discuss the case. The International Association for Parent and Child Reunion believes there are an estimated 100 American families in situations like Morrey's in Japan and dozens involving those from Britain, France and Canada. One of those cases is that of American Christopher Savoie. Savoie, 38, a Tennessee native and naturalized Japanese citizen, was arrested on September 28 in Yanagawa, Japan, for attempting to abduct his two children, eight-year-old Isaac and six-year-old Rebecca. Watch more about this case \u00bb . Savoie drove his children to the nearest U.S. consulate in the city of Fukuoka to try and obtain passports for them. Steps away from the front of the consulate, Japanese police arrested him. Savoie is now in jail, awaiting a decision by prosecutors on a possible indictment. Savoie and his first wife, Noriko Savoie, were married for 14 years before their bitter divorce in January. According to court documents, she fled with the children to Japan in the summer. A U.S. court then gave Christopher Savoie sole custody of the children. But Japanese law recognizes Noriko Savoie as the sole custodian, despite the U.S. order. \"It's like a black hole,\" Morrey said. \"If you go through a divorce, there's this joke. If you have an international marriage with a Japanese, don't piss them off because you'll never see your kids again.\" Not seeing his daughter Amelia again is what is keeping Morrey in Japan. He has been selling off everything he owns, trying to keep himself and Spencer afloat, hoping the Japanese court will bring him some legal connection to his child. He is stuck choosing between caring for his son, who needs the better resources of the U.S., and hoping to be a father to his daughter. \"How do you make that choice? It's not -- once you're a dad, you're always a dad.\"","highlights":"Craig Morrey's wife left him to care for their disabled son, Spencer, alone .\nHis wife has sole custody of the daughter she had shortly after .\nUnder Japanese law only one parent gets custody of a child in a divorce .\nUnder U.S. law Morrey would likely have joint custody of both children .","id":"d973dfe8be9f3abffe7939b641ea3f0099f8844f"} -{"article":"YANAGAWA, Japan (CNN) -- Wearing a Nashville School of Law T-shirt, Christopher Savoie walked into a second-floor police interrogation room. In one corner, a stopwatch was running to hold him to the 15 minutes allotted for the interview. A Tennessee court awarded Christopher Savoie custody of his son, Isaac, and daughter, Rebecca. \"I'm so scared,\" he said. Savoie chose his words carefully, lest police Officer Toshihiro Tanaka cut short the rare interview Savoie was granted with CNN on Thursday. There were so many rules: No recording devices. No tough questions. Speak only in Japanese. \"I want Americans to know what's happening to me,\" Savoie continued in Japanese. \"I didn't do anything wrong. Children have the right to see both parents. It's very important for my children to know both parents.\" But Japanese authorities disagree. They have charged Savoie, 38, a Tennessee native and naturalized Japanese citizen, with kidnapping his two children -- 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca -- as his estranged wife, Noriko, was walking them to school Monday in Yanagawa, a rural town in southern Japan. Watch what else Savoie had to say \u00bb . He headed for the nearest U.S. consulate, in the city of Fukuoka, to try to obtain passports for the children, screaming at the guards to let him in the compound. He was steps away from the front gate but still standing on Japanese soil. Japanese police, alerted by his estranged wife, arrested him. The Savoies were divorced in Tennessee in January after 14 years of marriage. Christopher Savoie had visitation rights with his children, but after he returned from a short summer trip, his estranged wife fled to Japan with the children, according to court documents. A United States court then granted sole custody to Savoie. Watch why the case is complicated \u00bb . Japanese law, however, recognizes Noriko Savoie as the primary custodian, regardless of the U.S. court order. The law there also follows a tradition of sole custody divorces. When the couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children. Complicating the matter further is the fact that the couple is still considered married in Japan, because they never divorced there, police said Wednesday. And, police said, the children are Japanese and have Japanese passports. A 1980 Hague Convention standardized laws on international child abduction. But Japan is not a party to that agreement. Savoie was out of luck. If a child in Japan is taken against the wishes of the recognized Japanese parent, the person who took the child is considered an abductor. \"Japanese people think she's the victim here,\" Savoie said. \"In the States, my ex-wife is the one who's in the wrong.\" U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley recognized this case as a difficult one. Even though the United States has strong ties with Japan, on this particular issue, the two nations' points of view could not differ more, he said. In Yanagawa, those who have heard about the abduction case tend to side with the woman. \"They belong with their real mother,\" said one woman, herself a mother of two children. But most have not heard of the case, because it has not been reported in local newspapers or on television. Savoie's attorney, Tadashi Yoshino, knows the cultural divide will be hard to overcome. \"He technically may have committed a crime according to Japanese law but he shouldn't be indicted,\" Yoshino said. \"He did it for the love of his children.\" Savoie, a law student who already has a Ph.D. and a M.D., will spend 10 days in jail while Japanese prosecutors sort out the details of the case. In the interrogation room, Savoie appeared exhausted. Tears welled in his eyes. He glanced over at the police officer, then paused to regain composure. \"I love you, Isaac, Rebecca,\" he said. \"Your daddy loves you forever. I'll be patient and strong until the day comes that I can see you both again. I am very sorry that I can't be with you.\" He was grateful be able to get the words out. Moments earlier, the interview had almost ended after Savoie blurted out in English: \"I love you,\" a message intended for his current wife, Amy, in Nashville. Then, as is Japanese custom, he bowed. And from the other side of the glass barrier, he gave a thumbs up, mouthing the words, \"Thank you.\"","highlights":"Man charged with abducting his own children denies committing breach .\nJapanese custom, law on custody differ sharply from those in U.S.\nJapan is not party to 1980 convention that standardized abduction laws .\nAll parties in current case are Japanese citizens .","id":"7216b39d36fc8f54b4cf2308eb02dad766d34b35"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- As the man in the Dodgers jersey walked quickly around the perimeter of the infield, fans poured down from the bleachers begging for autographs. Pitbull says he learns from setbacks: \"Usually the negatives turned out to be the most positive for me.\" No, it wasn't home run king Manny Ramirez. It was Armando Christian Perez, the Cuban-American rapper better known as Pitbull. In five years, he's gone from a mouthy Miami street hustler to a chart-topping hip-hop star whose infectious Caribbean beats have enticed crossover audiences to swing their hips and sing along -- even taking on some of the words in Spanish. His fourth studio album, \"Rebelution,\" debuted in the Top 10 on the mainstream Billboard chart. But Pitbull's growing profile means nada as he takes the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game. \"I'm the only Cuban who never picked up a baseball in his life,\" he said, preparing. He awkwardly winds up and releases the pitch. It falls short, bouncing on the ground before reaching the plate. \"One more try!\" he signals. The second attempt is closer to the mark. It's symbolic of Pit's career. \"It's not how you start. It's how you finish it,\" he likes to say. Watch how Pitbull leads his \"Rebelution\" \u00bb . Tommy Lasorda, the legendary Dodgers manager, is waiting to bust his chops as he leaves the infield. Later, we get the scoop on the conversation. (By the way, the Dodgers won that game.) CNN: Tommy Lasorda was out there giving you a little bit of grief. Pitbull: Tommy Lasorda told me, \"It was the worst throw I've ever seen in my life!\" I said, \"Well, I'll throw you in the studio. You rap, I'll play baseball.\" He goes, \"I'll rap a whole lot better than that throw!\" (Laughs) CNN: How much do you deflect things with humor? Pitbull: [Humor is] everything. Everything. Usually the negatives turned out to be the most positive for me. In the music industry, any other artist would have looked at the situation I was in and thought, \"Oh man, this is not for me.\" I looked at it more like [Darwin exploring] the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands. You know -- survival of the fittest. CNN: Were you a troublemaker growing up? Pitbull: Not a troublemaker. I'm sharp. Slick, if you want to call it. What the street taught me how to do is how to hustle. How to make something out of nothing. CNN: In the music industry, street cred may help an artist. Pitbull: Anybody who's made it out of the street -- they want to do this (places index finger over his lips). Shh. CNN: Even though some of the struggles are similar, there doesn't seem to be a lot of crossover between African-American hip-hop artists and Latin-American hip-hop artists. Pitbull: You can't get a Diddy or Jay-Z to speak to the Latins. It's not gonna happen. There's a force field where they said, \"OK, we're going to let you here -- but that's it.\" Diddy got the closest. Why? Because he had J. Lo. The only reason my grandmother knows Puff Daddy is because of J. Lo. But he couldn't cross that barrier. So as far as myself -- I guess I'm their role model. CNN: How much do you want to cross over? Pitbull: I have respect for Jay-Z and Diddy for what they did in the hip-hop game. But I want to be Celia Cruz. I want to be Gloria Estefan [both were born in Cuba]. I want to enterprise -- open clubs and restaurants. They've done it also -- but those are who I look up to. CNN: Your parents were both born in Cuba. Pitbull: They didn't want to leave Cuba! They would have stayed in Cuba. They didn't want to get out of there. There were forced out of that country. CNN: How did they come to Miami? Pitbull: My grandmother fought in the [Cuban] revolutionary war actually with Castro, because everybody thought that Batista was corrupt. I'm not saying that he wasn't, but it's almost like the lesser of two evils. [When she became disillusioned with the Castro government], my mother and my aunt got sent off in an operation called Peter Pan without their parents. She didn't see her mother for seven years. As far as my father -- he came over also. He didn't come in the Peter Pan, but they fled the country. CNN: Would you ever go to Cuba and play a concert there? Pitbull: No way. I'd never go to Cuba and play a concert. [I'd consider playing there] as soon as I know that it's confirmed that Castro's out of there. I mean, if you ask me, I think Castro's been dead for years. He handed power to Ra\u00fal, and he slips pictures here and there. He keeps giving these pictures to the media with the same shirt on -- same jacket, same everything. CNN: How do you feel about other artists of your generation who feel compelled to go and perform in Cuba as kind of an olive branch? Pitbull: Juanes just did it. Papa, you can't change Cuba. History will tell you that you can't change Cuba. I respect him as an artist -- he's like U2, the Bono of Spanish. I don't respect his decision. Maybe he doesn't really understand it at the end of the day because he's not Cuban. [Juanes is Colombian.] . But to each his own. There's too much suffering, too much pain from people who left that island, that have come over here and tried to change their life. CNN: Even though you were born in America, how much are you influenced by your Cuban roots? Pitbull: My mother, she's like, \"Look, you're American, son. You were born here in the States.\" My father? My father said, \"You're Cuban-American.\" My mother would call me Chris, because my middle name's Christian. My father would say, \"No, your name's Armando.\" But in my blood, what it tells me is, \"You're Cuban-American.\" The music is what makes you, the food is what makes you, the way you've been taught mentally.","highlights":"Pitbull has had some crossover success; his new album debuted in Top 10 .\nHip-hop artist has Cuban heritage, has balanced that with American upbringing .\nHe says he's not fazed by failure: negatives can lead to positives, he says .","id":"b655b49e042aa916bb92f7e8d077b0ea0daecbad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A single-engine airplane made an emergency landing on a California highway Sunday morning, though no major injuries were reported, authorities said. The Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101. The Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101 just outside Santa Barbara and a few miles from the airport, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer James Richards. The plane's engine quit, and as the pilot descended, he lost control of the plane and landed in the southbound lane facing oncoming traffic. The plane struck two vehicles while landing, then spun and hit another one with its tail, Richards said. One vehicle passenger was treated for minor injuries, he said. No other injuries were reported. The landing happened at 10:36 a.m. (1:36 p.m. ET) and held up traffic for less than two hours, Richards said. He added that the plane had departed Temecula in southwestern Riverside County, California, and was destined for the airport in Santa Barbara, a flight of about 180 miles. The pilot told authorities that he attempted to switch fuel lines during the flight, but was unable to restore power to the plane. He said he alerted a tower at the airport that a landing on the highway was imminent, Richardson said.","highlights":"Piper Comanche 260 carrying a married couple landed on U.S. Highway 101 .\nPlane's engine quit, pilot lost control; landed in south lane facing oncoming traffic .\nPlane struck two vehicles while landing, then spun and hit another one with its tail .","id":"f897ed619d56491bd48d435e69fbf2bb60a7c2f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalia said a senior al Qaeda operative tied to several attacks in East Africa was killed Monday in a U.S. strike in southern Somalia. Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan, pictured on the FBI's Web site, reportedly was tied to al Qaeda's East Africa operations. Intelligence sources have confirmed to the Somali government that Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan was killed, Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said Tuesday. \"We welcome that attack because those people targeted were murderers, and they are unwanted and unwelcome in Somalia,\" Gelle said. Nabhan's death will have \"a major impact\" on al Qaeda's operations in the Horn of Africa, according to one regional analyst. U.S. special operations forces used a helicopter to fire on a car Monday in southern Somalia, killing several people, including one they believed was Nabhan, U.S. officials told CNN earlier. Nabhan, 30, was born in Kenya and had been tied to attacks that included the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, according to the sources. More than 200 were killed, and 4,000 wounded in those attacks, most of them Kenyans. The United States targeted Nabhan in an airstrike in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border in March 2008, U.S. officials said at the time. In February 2006, the FBI announced that Nabhan was wanted for questioning in connection with the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and the unsuccessful attack on an Israeli charter jet in Mombasa, Kenya. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis -- including two children -- were killed when three suicide bombers detonated a car bomb outside Mombasa's Paradise Hotel in November 2002. The bombing took place within minutes of an unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli charter jet, which was taking off with 261 passengers and 10 crew members. President Obama signed off on Monday's operation, a senior U.S. official said. The United States had been monitoring the situation for days and had intelligence that Nabhan was in the area, the U.S. officials said. The officials who talked to CNN are familiar with the latest information on Monday's strike but did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The U.S. helicopter flew from a U.S. Navy warship offshore, while the ship kept watch on the operation, one of the sources said. The warship was ready to rescue the American troops if they got into trouble. Farmers in the southeastern town of Barawe, Somalia, said they witnessed the assault. They said helicopters attacked a car and its occupants and that at least two people died. The witnesses said some helicopters landed and that some of the injured or dead were pulled into at least one helicopter. A U.S. official said the troops landed to take away the body believed to be that of Nabhan for positive identification. Nabhan is believed to be an associate of al Qaeda member Harun Fazul, who was indicted in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies. The U.S. military has long sought Nabhan because he is believed to be deeply involved in al Qaeda's East African operations, a senior U.S. official said last year. \"He was certainly one of the leading al Qaeda figures in East Africa,\" said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst for the International Crisis Group, an independent advisory and analysis organization. Nabhan \"has been living in the shadows\" in Somalia and not much is known about his recent activity, Abdi said. \"The fact that he is now out of the picture will have a bigger impact on al Qaeda than on Al-Shabaab,\" he said, referring to the Islamist militia in Somalia that has ties to al Qaeda. \"He is a man with an important organizational memory, and if a key figure like him is killed, it always has a major impact.\" Al-Shabaab is waging a bloody battle against Somalia's transitional government and is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations because of its al Qaeda ties. There are growing concerns that Somalia could be the next base for al Qaeda as U.S. forces pound their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA Director Leon Panetta recently said the intelligence agency is keeping tabs on the region as a possible destination for fleeing al Qaeda operatives. Journalist Mohammed Amiin Adow and CNN's David McKenzie, Barbara Starr and Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Analyst calls operative \"one of the leading al Qaeda figures in East Africa\"\nAl Qaeda operative Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan killed, Somali official says .\nU.S. special operations forces fired on car from chopper in Somalia, U.S. officials say .\nOfficials: Man tied to 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania .","id":"e6aaeae558da241f28c7fa6b64686c39c14529cc"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man dubbed \"the Field Marshal\" by one advocacy group for alleged third-world arms dealing has been arrested on charges that he conspired to illegally export U.S. F-5 fighter jet engines and parts to Iran. An Iranian F-5 fighter jet lands in southern Iran during a military exercise on June 23, 2009. Jacques Monsieur, 56, a Belgium native who currently lives in France, was arrested Friday in New York, officials said. An indictment also charges Dara Fotouhi, 54, an Iranian living in France, with participating in the alleged crime. Fotouhi remains at large, official said. Monsieur pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Wednesday in Mobile, Alabama, where he is being held. He and Fotouhi are charged with conspiracy, money laundering and smuggling, as well as violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. According to the indictment and an affidavit filed in the case, both are experienced arms dealers who have been actively working with the Iranian government to procure military items. The F-5 Freedom Fighter, also called the Tiger, is built by Northrop and is used by the U.S. military for training. It is also sold overseas as a combat aircraft. The F-5 engine and parts are listed on the U.S. Munitions List and may not be exported from the United States without a license from the State Department, said John Morton, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and they can not be exported to Iran without a license from the Treasury Department. In a 2002 report by the Center for Public Integrity, a citizen advocacy group, Monsieur was nicknamed \"the Field Marshal\" for allegedly acting as a middle-man in numerous arms deals with war-torn countries. The center's report said Monsieur is \"believed to be among the biggest arms traffickers in Europe\" and said he \"violated a United Nations embargo by shipping arms to Bosnia and Croatia during the long, bloody conflict in those countries, with the approval, he later claimed, of both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the ... French domestic intelligence service.\" Morton said his agency launched an investigation in February when Monsieur contacted an undercover federal agent and indicated he wanted to buy engines for F-5 or C-130 aircraft for export to Iran. In subsequent e-mails to the agent, Monsieur requested engines for F-5 jet fighters. Officials said the engines could be used as replacements in fighters sold to Iran by the United States before the imposition of sanctions in 1995. In March, Monsieur met with the undercover agent in Paris and again requested engines and parts, the indictment alleges. They met again in May in London, where Monsieur introduced Fotouhi as a business associate and again discussed the export of F-5 engines to Iran, according to the indictment. During this negotiation, it says, Monsieur and Fotouhi asked the agent if he could use U.S. shipping or export authorization documents that falsely indicated the items were going to Colombia. In July, Monsieur and Fotouhi wired about $110,000 from a bank in the United Arab Emirates to one in Mobile, Alabama, the indictment says. \"The two believed the funds would be used for the purchase of F-5 aircraft parts,\" Morton said. Monsieur indicated he would deposit an additional $300,000 as a down payment for the purchase of two jet engines. \"This is part of our long-standing efforts to ensure that sensitive military equipment is not exported in violation of U.S. law and against the international interests of the United States,\" Morton said.","highlights":"A man dubbed \"the Field Marshal\" allegedly tried to get F-5 engine parts for Iran .\nF-5 built by Northrop; used by U.S. military for training; used overseas for combat .\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement launched investigation .\nArrest part efforts to stop improper export of sensitive military equipment .","id":"485ee2d25b2badd979d5d601ce636aa8def39060"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration is working on a substantial sanctions package against Iran in case current diplomatic efforts to curb its nuclear program fail, top officials told Congress on Tuesday. Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levy also developed some of the existing financial sanctions against Iran. Under Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Levy, who developed some of the existing financial sanctions against Iran under the Bush administration, said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the \"comprehensive\" plan would target \"key vulnerabilities and fissures\" in Iran to show Tehran that it would face \"serious costs\" for thwarting international demands. \"It takes into account that no single sanction is a 'silver bullet'; we will need to impose measures simultaneously in many different forms in order to be effective,\" Levy said. He stressed, however, that the United States would be mindful of actions that would harm the Iranian people or undercut the opposition battling the Iranian government. The hearing comes as some members of Congress push for tougher U.S. sanctions on the Iranian regime in light of the recent revelation that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility near Qom, a dramatic development that jacked up tension between Iran and international powers. During talks last week in Geneva, Switzerland, between Iranian officials and representatives of the so-called P5+1 -- the United States, Britain, France, German, Russia and China -- Iran agreed to admit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Qom facility. Tehran also agreed \"in principle\" to ship its low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to third countries for further enrichment for a nuclear reactor used for medical research. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told the panel Tuesday that one reason for the Obama administration's engagement toward Iran was to secure international support for sanctions if Iran continued to defy international demands. Last week's talks, he said, shined a \"spotlight\" on Iran that makes inaction more costly. Levy also stressed that an international coalition was key to keeping pressure on Iran. \"Because financial measures are most effective when imposed as part of a broad-based effort with support of the largest possible international coalition, we are working closely with our allies as we put together this strategy,\" he said. \"The less united we are in applying pressure, the greater the risk our measures will not have the impact we seek.\" Several lawmakers expressed doubt that Iran would negotiate in good faith and threatened legislation to impose tough new sanctions against Tehran. Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, said he planned to move forward this month on a proposal to expand financial restrictions, impose new sanctions on Iran's oil and gas sectors and ban both the export of refined gasoline products to Iran and the import of Iranian goods. Steinberg said the United States and its allies will judge Iran's seriousness about the talks by whether it makes good on its commitments to ship the uranium out of the country and admit the IAEA inspectors, who are expected to visit the Qom facility October 25. \"By the end of the month, we will have some very clear indications of what their intentions are,\" he said.","highlights":"\"Comprehensive\" plan would target \"key vulnerabilities,\" official says .\nBut U.S. would be mindful of actions that would harm Iranian people, he says .\nInternational coalition is key to keeping pressure up, diplomat says .","id":"a8c40ca9cffd2f9dfcfe8af3eeda54f5cf9758bd"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Last weekend at a party, I noticed a toad-like man attaching himself to a beautiful, talented friend of mine. Not only was she way out of his league, looks-wise, but as I eavesdropped I discovered he was one of those dudes who delivers endless monologues instead of engaging in actual conversations. Too many women are afraid to say, \"No,\" says author. Ladies, I think we've all been stuck with that guy. Now it was my friend's turn. I could tell by her stunned look of horror that she wanted nothing to do with him, but she seemed frozen. My pal Ivan and I tried to intervene. \"Let's go get some cake,\" we suggested, physically pulling her from his side. Her relief was short-lived as he tracked her down and reattached himself to her hip. Watching her go through this made me think back on how many times I've been afraid to say no. Maybe \"afraid\" is the wrong word, but I've spent hours worrying about offending men who would've had no problem offending me if the situation were reversed. So I was thrilled when a copy of the hilarious book, \"The Power of NO: How to Keep Blowhards and Bozos at Bay\" landed on my doorstep. As the title suggests, TPON is about learning to not only say no, but to embrace no, something women seem to have an inexplicably harder time doing than men. I shot off an email to author Beth Wareham asking her why we womenfolk find it so painful to blow-off a troll. \"The psycho-sexual-societal bulls--t that makes women be such wimps in the face of an odious man is in our DNA. And young women often make the dreadful mistake of thinking everyone has to like them,\" she fired back. The Frisky: 13 Woman you're dating is a loser . \"I believe that some dumb guy bugging you is a great moment to really march out a lie,\" she continues. \"I mean, really, who goes around harassing strangers? Say, 'I have herpes.' Say, 'I am a hermaphrodite.' Say any damn thing you want to say but get him out of your face. You have ONE LIFE. Don't give chunks of it to this kind of dude!\" The Frisky: I'm just not that into anyone anymore . But for some guys -- and, let's face it, girls, too -- the word \"no\" can have an opposite effect, acting as an aphrodisiac. Wareham says, \"Human beings want what they do not and cannot have.\" But sometimes you mean it! In that case, a persistent leghumper should be ignored, or reported to the cops if he gets stalky. \"Don't answer. It's your door, your cell. And, if it gets too bad, try 911,\" she advises. \"You wouldn't let anyone else harass you like that, would you?\" The Frisky: Are these dating habits cute or crazy? Okay, so how about the Ambiguous Dater -- the cute guy who wants to \"hang out,\" but never seems to make any plans. \"No hanging out, ever,\" Wareham insists. \"If the guy can't think up an interesting date and find $40.00 bucks for a burrito and movie, no go. Dating should never be 'hanging out.' Save that for marriage.\" The Frisky: How to deal with ambiguous dater . How about dumping someone, I asked. How do you do that nicely? \"I am not the woman to ask if you want kindly, \" Wareham replied. \"But, I do know this, keep the tone friendly. The less you imbue language with strong emotion, the better. I once said, 'Dude, it was way fun and I learned lots. But you yelled Mommy! during sex.' That happened to me, by the way.\" Hey, wait a minute . . . I once said yes to that guy too! The Frisky: How to know when it's time to dump him . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Women hesitate to say no out of fear they will offend men, columnist says .\n\"The Power of NO: How to Keep Blowhards and Bozos at Bay\" has tips on saying no .\nAuthor: The word \"no\" can act as an aphrodisiac for some men .\nWhen saying, 'No\" keep the tone friendly, but emotion-free, writer says .","id":"69d4ffbf7ed51d1dacb6662ed6aa12db96c57258"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Climate change is happening faster than previously predicted according to a new World Wildlife Fund report. The WWF say climate change threat has worsened in the 15 months since the IPCC last reported. Bringing together some of the most recent scientific reports and data, \"Climate change: faster, stronger, sooner\" reveals that global warming is accelerating more rapidly than the predictions made in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007. One of the most concerning aspects of recent data is evidence that, in some places, the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice 30 years ahead of current IPCC predictions. Summer sea ice is now forecasted to completely disappear in the summer months sometime between 2013 and 2040 -- something which hasn't happened for over a million years. The report's author, geoscientist Dr Tina Tin told CNN: \"Arctic sea ice is melting much faster than everybody had been expecting. Why? Well, maybe it's because the positive feedback mechanisms have kicked in much quicker than we have been able to quantify.\" Positive feedback mechanisms amplify changes occurring in the climate. In the case of the Arctic region there is a sort of vicious circle of warming occurring. White ice sheets perform an important function in moderating global temperature by reflecting heat from the sun back into space. But they have begun to melt as the earth has warmed. The result is more dark sea water which absorbs heat, which in turn warms the earth more and encourages further melting. Globally, sea levels are now expected to rise more than double the IPCC's most recent forecast of 0.59 meters before the end of the century. This will put millions of people in coastal regions at risk. World food production is also feeling the heat as yields of wheat, maize and barley had dwindled in recent months. In Europe, ecosystems in the North and Baltic Sea are believed to be experiencing their warmest temperatures since records began. And the Mediterranean is likely to experience an increased frequency of droughts. The WWF report also highlights a 2007 study conducted by the British Antarctic Survey. \"Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula\" concluded that floating tide-water glaciers on the peninsula are losing ice faster and making a greater contribution to global sea level rise than was previously thought. Earlier this month, the WWF highlighted the impact that global warming is likely to have on Antarctic penguin colonies. According to Dr Tin, more Antarctic data is due to be published next year when the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research publish their findings. Scheduled for release in spring 2009 the \"Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment\" is expected to reveal more evidence of damaging climate effects on the continent. While Dr Tin says that it is true that parts of the Antarctic are not warming or perhaps even cooling, the Western Antarctic Peninsula has experienced some of the most rapid increases in warming. \"Over the past 50 years, it has warmed more than four times faster than the average rate of Earth's overall warming,\" Dr Tin said. But Dr Tin remains unsure whether this most recent climate data represents the beginning of a tipping point. \"We think there are possibly tipping points ahead and some scientists, in terms of the Arctic sea ice, think we have probably gone past the tipping point. But it's very difficult to get a strong handle on,\" she said. Nevertheless, she describes her report as a \"sobering overview\" which \"comes at a critical time during the political negotiations of the European Union's climate and energy package\". Newly elected Vice Chair of the IPCC and climate scientist, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele endorsed the WWF publication. \"It is clear that climate change is already having a greater impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it's vital that international mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious,\" van Ypersele said.","highlights":"World Wildlife Fund report says climate change is happening faster than predicted .\nDr Tina Tin: \"Arctic sea ice melting much faster than everybody had been expecting\"\nIPCC Vice Chair: \"climate change is already having a greater impact than predicted\"","id":"5f476780664876b38e1c1feac49ac95371aad0e7"} -{"article":"ASUNCION, Paraguay (CNN) -- The World Health Organization plans to send 2 million vaccines to Paraguay by Sunday after yellow fever emerged there for the first time in 34 years. Anxiety has gripped the South American nation of 7 million since authorities confirmed the first cases of yellow fever there last month. The disease has killed seven people and prompted the government to declare a three-month state of emergency. The government's health ministry is scrambling to find doses for a massive vaccination campaign. Nearby Brazil already has sent 1 million vaccines. The World Health Organization's shipment of 2 million doses is scheduled to arrive on Saturday or Sunday, according to a report Friday in the Paraguay's national news agency, Jakueke. Protesters have closed roads and started fires amid news reports that health workers were vaccinating certain politicians in their homes. \"I categorically reject these kinds of irresponsible allegations,\" said Health Minister Oscar Martinez Doldan. Meanwhile, some people have endured long waits for vaccines in sweltering heat. \"Citizens pay taxes for our health and education, but there are no vaccines here,\" Cynthia Shaerer, told CNN. \"We don't need speeches here. We need vaccines.\" \"I want the president to tell me,\" another said. \"If we are going to die, who is responsible?\" People contract yellow fever from the bite of an infected mosquito. The disease causes fever, muscle pain, headaches, shivering, nausea and vomiting, the World Health Organization says. Most people improve after three or four days, but some enter a second \"toxic\" phase that causes fever, jaundice and blood in the vomit, the health organization says. About half of the people who enter the second phase of yellow fever die within 10 days. There is no treatment, so medical authorities recommend vaccinations. Yellow fever typically is found in tropical regions of Africa and Latin America. Most of the seven deaths in Paraguay happened in the town of San Lorenzo, about 12 miles (20 km) from the capital city of Asuncion. The public-health crisis comes two months before scheduled elections in Paraguay. Some analysts say it presents a delicate situation for the ruling Colorado Party, which has held power for 60 years. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"W.H.O., nearby nations, rush vaccines to Paraguay after yellow fever outbreak .\nIllness, which causes fever, muscle pain, headaches, has killed 7 so far .\nProtests amid claims that politicians have been given vaccines in their homes .\nOutbreak, first in 34 years, comes two months before scheduled elections .","id":"3396de5958fc7bc0c8ca74c6a6272245a8d833c4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A pharmacist testified that he warned Anna Nicole Smith's doctors and boyfriend that a list of medications intended for Smith a week after her son's death could be \"pharmaceutical suicide.\" Anna Nicole Smith, with Howard K. Stern, was found dead in her hotel room in February 2007. The former Playboy model and reality TV star died five months later of what a Florida medical examiner ruled was from \"acute combined drug intoxication.\" Ira Freeman, the chief pharmacist at Key Pharmacy in Los Angeles, testified on the seventh day of a preliminary hearing for Howard K. Stern -- Smith's lawyer and companion -- and co-defendants Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor. The three are charged with an illegal conspiracy to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to an addict. Stern faces 11 felony counts, and the doctors were charged with six each. They are not charged in her death. Smith's death in a Hollywood, Florida, hotel on February 8, 2007, came just five months after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn, and the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, on September 10, 2006. Freeman testified that Kapoor faxed to him a list of six drugs that Eroshevich wanted to be sent to the Bahamas, where Eroshevich was treating Smith for anxiety and depression in the days after her son's death. \"The more I thought about it, the more concern I had that if she got hold of those medications, it could have fatal consequences\" Freeman said. The pharmacist said the dosages of the drugs were \"not appropriate.\" Freeman said he consulted Dr. Greg Thompson, a pharmaceutical expert, who agreed with him and who offered to talk with Eroshevich about the dangers. Freeman said Thompson later told him that he found Eroshevich, a psychiatrist, to be \"way out of her league\" in her requests for strong drugs for Smith. At the time, Smith was holed up in her home in the Bahamas mourning her son's death. Her bodyguard said in earlier testimony that the home was under siege by photographers, keeping Smith inside with her windows covered. Thompson recommended to Eroshevich that she \"forget the paparazzi and get her to a hospital\" if she needed all of those drugs, Freeman said. Freeman said the stress of the publicity after Smith's death affected his own health, especially after the celebrity Web site TMZ.com published a copy of the faxed list of medications in question. Under questioning by the defense, Freeman said that over the previous five years he had filled prescriptions for Smith, he never saw any \"red flags\" that she was getting dangerous amounts of drugs. Charges against the three defendants also include the use of false names on prescriptions. Freeman said he always understood that prescriptions written under the pseudonym \"Michelle Chase\" were intended for Smith. It was a practice begun in 2001, three years before Kapoor or Eroshevich began treating her, to prevent \"trouble for her in terms of her celebrity status,\" Freeman said. After the preliminary hearing, which could last about three weeks, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry will decide whether a trial will be held. In earlier testimony, Smith's part-time bodyguard Maurice Brighthaupt said \"she just didn't want to deal with life after the death of her son.\" Brighthaupt described Smith as \"manipulative\" when she wanted something. \"She manipulated Dr. Eroshevich,\" he said. Eroshevich, a Los Angeles psychiatrist, traveled to the Bahamas five or six times in 2006 to attend to Smith, he said. They had a mother-daughter friendship, not a doctor-patient relationship, Brighthaupt said. The doctor sometimes substituted placebos for the tray full of pills Smith regularly took for her complaints of pain and depression, he said. \"She was very concerned that we needed to wean her off the medications,\" Brighthaupt said. California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement Special Agent Danny Santiago testified that investigators found 12 prescription drugs, including dangerous opiates, in Smith's hotel room after her death. Seven of them were prescribed using Stern's name, although spelled \"Stearn,\" he said. A series of affidavits used by state investigators to obtain search warrants in their 2\u00bd-year inquiry was unsealed last month, revealing many details of the prosecution's case.","highlights":"Testimony given at preliminary hearing for model's doctors, lawyer .\nPharmacist says he was faxed list of drugs that doctor wanted for Smith .\nHe found dosages \"not appropriate,\" he testifies .\nPharmacist says expert thought one doctor was \"way out of her league\"","id":"0b12bdde83d956a46e14e00552818157b162d624"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda's second-in-command called on Pakistanis to back Islamic militants in the country's tribal areas against what he called an ongoing assault by American \"crusaders\" and the Pakistani army. Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri appears in a video released on September 2, 2006. Punishment from God was promised for Muslims who did not follow the words of Ayman al-Zawahiri in a video that appeared on radical Islamist Web sites Thursday. \"The war in the tribal areas and Swat [Valley] is an inseparable part of the crusaders' assault on the Muslims the length and breadth of the Islamic world,\" al-Zawahiri said in the video, titled \"Path of Doom.\" \"This is the battle, briefly and plainly; and this is why anyone who supports the Americans and Pakistan army -- under any pretext, ploy or lie -- is in fact standing with, backing and supporting the crusaders against Islam and Muslims.\" The Pakistani military is fighting Taliban militants in the country's north, and missile attacks from suspected U.S. drones have targeted militant leaders -- one of them killing Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. Reports from the region suggest government troops have dislodged the Taliban from many areas of the North West Frontier Province, but militant attacks continue daily. In the video, Al-Zawahiri suggested that the United States has wider goals in the region. \"They want to eliminate the Mujahedeen (Islamic militants) in the tribal areas so they can seek to smother the Jihad in Afghanistan,\" he said. NATO-led forces are battling the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan as well. U.S. and British forces launched offensives in Helmand province this summer. Al-Zawahiri warned Muslims that they have a religious duty to support the jihad, or struggle, or face punishment from God. \"No people abandons Jihad without Allah giving them a general punishment,\" he said, quoting the Quran. Al-Zawahiri also prayed for the annihilation \"the Americans and Jews\" and anyone who might help them.","highlights":"Al Qaeda's second-in-command calls Pakistanis to back Islamic militants in video .\nThe Pakistani military is fighting Taliban militants in the country's north .\nVideo, in which Ayman al-Zawahiri speaks, appeared on radical Islamist Web sites .","id":"a7c3c642d1c5bf77006e06149eaffa093089a035"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The National Organization for Women has sharply criticized comedian David Letterman, accusing him of promoting a hostile, uncomfortable work environment. David Letterman's behavior with employees has created \"a toxic environment\" in the workplace, NOW says. \"The latest Letterman controversy sheds new light on the widespread objectification of women in the workplace,\" NOW said in a statement Tuesday. \"Most women can attest to the fact that many workplaces are plagued with inappropriate behavior by men in power.\" The \"Late Show With David Letterman\" host admitted last week on his CBS program that he had sex with unnamed employees and had testified about those liaisons before a New York grand jury as part of an alleged extortion attempt. A CBS producer, Robert \"Joe\" Halderman, is accused of threatening to go public with embarrassing information about Letterman's private life unless the 62-year-old funnyman ponied up $2 million. Watch NOW's president slam Letteman, CBS \u00bb . Letterman made a public apology Monday to his wife, Regina Lasko, who, he said, had been \"horribly hurt by my behavior.\" He said he is trying to repair that relationship. \"Either you're going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you're going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed, so let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me,\" Letterman told the audience Monday night. Letterman married Lasko in March, and they have a 5-year-old son together. All the affairs took place before the marriage, Letterman's production company has said. One of the women who engaged in a sexual relationship with Letterman was identified as Stephanie Birkitt, an assistant to the talk show host and also a former live-in girlfriend of Halderman. Letterman spokesman Tom Keaney said that Birkitt is on a paid leave of absence from the show. NOW said Letterman's behavior was inappropriate in the workplace, saying all employees should be respected for their talent and skills. \"Recent developments in the David Letterman extortion controversy have raised serious issues about the abuse of power leading to an inappropriate, if not hostile, workplace environment for women and employees,\" NOW said in Tuesday's statement. Men such as Letterman make decisions on hiring and firing, who gets raises, who advances and who does entry-level tasks, NOW said. \"As 'the boss,' he is responsible for setting the tone for his entire workplace -- and he did that with sex. In any work environment, this places all employees -- including employees who happen to be women -- in an awkward, confusing and demoralizing situation,\" the group said. \"The National Organization for Women calls on CBS to recognize that Letterman's behavior creates a toxic environment and to take action immediately to rectify this situation. With just two women on CBS' board of directors, we're not holding our breath.\" Those board members are Shari Redstone, vice chairwoman of the board and president of National Amusements Inc., which operates motion picture screens, and Linda Griego, president and chief executive of Griego Enterprises Inc., a business management company. CBS airs \"Late Show With David Letterman,\" which Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants Inc., produces.","highlights":"NOW calls David Letterman's behavior inappropriate in the workplace .\nLetterman on air admitted to sex with employees, apologized to wife .\nFeminist group urges CBS \"to take action immediately\"\nCBS producer accused in extortion plot against talk-show host .","id":"ca18c4de32fecd81447d0d6d2c6ce8ce1dbf51c0"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday urged stiff punishment for those who \"orchestrated and provoked\" the \"painful\" unrest after the June 12 presidential election, according to Iran's state-run Press TV. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there is no evidence that would undermine the election results. \"I call upon security and judicial officials to decisively and mercilessly act with those who committed inhumane acts in the guise of the friends (of the establishment) since they inflicted damage on people and tarnished the image of the establishment, security and police forces,\" said Ahmadinejad, who made the remarks in a pre-sermon speech to Friday prayers. The government declared Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner in the disputed June 12 election. The protests sparked a government crackdown that led to thousands of arrests, scores of injuries and at least 30 deaths. Judiciary officials say most of those arrested were released, though several dozen face charges as part of the mass trials. In his remarks Friday, Ahmadinejad said there has been no evidence found that would undermine the election results and he criticized Western nations for interfering in Iran's internal affairs before and after the election.","highlights":"Urged stiff punishment for those who \"orchestrated and provoked\" unrest .\nAhmadinejad declared the overwhelming winner in the disputed June 12 vote .\nProtests sparked a government crackdown that led to thousands of arrests .","id":"623b812973ea4ba47131e75c2716068ac3e9f5d2"} -{"article":"BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Seth Barrett really enjoys his work. \"I love the variety of projects,\" he says. \"I love a new puzzle every day.\" Seth Barrett is surrounded by scores of projects in his shop, \"Village Green Renewal.\" He's at his workbench, chisel in hand, shaving bits of wood from one of several chairs brought into his repair shop by a customer. \"She asked me to give them some attention and get them to stay together,\" Barrett says. His shop, \"Village Green Renewal,\" will fix almost anything that can fit in the front door, as long as it doesn't require any kind of special licensing or permits. Barrett hopes that by getting people to repair items instead of replacing them with new ones, it will mean less trash heading for the landfill. \"The aim of the business is really about bringing back a traditional approach to conservation,\" says Barrett, \"because, clearly, the single best way to be green is to re-use the things that we already have.\" Watch Barrett in his shop \u00bb . His small shop is tucked into a corner of a building in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston. Old glass doorknobs, brass curtain rings and even a 1930s stove are some of the many functional and non-functional items that decorate the walls, cases and every corner. From his workbench, Barrett has a clear view of the pedestrians who pass by. \"Everybody who walks past the window smiles, without fail,\" he says, and customers seem to be responding to this unique and somewhat old-fashioned business. \"I think people are really excited too about the prospect of being able to repair these things that have been sitting in their basement forever that were once really special to them, and are, now, almost a sore spot, because it's just getting dusty and getting no attention.\" A customer enters. \"I found another chair for you,\" says Beth Harris, hoisting a black and white chair into the shop. She has an old house and if she's not bringing in a set of chairs that need mending, she might be in looking for an unusual hardware item that Barrett probably has. \"It's great to have a resource that's right in the neighborhood,\" Harris says. Toasters, chairs and lamps are some of the things Barrett commonly fixes. But, occasionally, an odd item like a fancy purse or an old typewriter comes in. \"The more interesting the item is, the more time I'll spend on it off the clock,\" Barrett says. If he's really intrigued by the repair, he says, \"I sit and keep playing with this thing because it's cool.\" What would be the most unusual request? \"The pigs win it, hands down,\" Barrett says, referring to a pair of leather pigs that needed some serious stitching up. He worked on them for many more hours than he actually billed because he enjoyed figuring out how to do it. Besides, as Barrett points out, \"How often do you see two giant leather pigs?\" For years, Barrett worked in large construction projects, renovating houses and building additions, but there was something about it that bothered him. \"I've always been made upset by all the bits of construction that go in the trash, and all the interesting stuff is overlooked because it takes time,\" he says. \"Large-scale construction is fraught with tremendous waste and no time to attention and beauty.\" That's what draws him to these small, simple projects -- not only is he providing a service, but he also is an integral part of the community he grew up in, his home being about 700 feet away from the shop. Barrett feels a bond with many of his customers, because every item that comes in has a story that comes with it, and he's more than happy to hear that story. He enjoys working with the small details and says his job is very peaceful. \"I'm not trying to change the world. I'm just trying to bring something beautiful to my little corner of it.\"","highlights":"\"Village Green Renewal\" aims to fix most anything that is brought in .\nShop owner says repairing items will result in less junk for landfills .\nEvery once in a while, odd items -- like leather pigs -- are brought in .\nItems that arrive at the shop are often accompanied by a story .","id":"5b6b8224c274f8dc426f750d64c428515643b45f"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Stalinist North Korea deployed new medium-range ballistic missiles and expanded special forces training during 2008, South Korea's defense ministry reported. North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il . The missiles can travel about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles), possibly putting U.S. military bases in the Pacific Ocean territory of Guam within striking distance, the Ministry of National Defense said in its 2008 Defense White Paper, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Monday. The paper, published after weeks of delay, calls the North's 1.2 million-strong military an \"immediate and grave threat,\" according to Yonhap. The report adds that the North has recently bolstered its naval forces, reinforcing submarines and developing new torpedoes, in addition to increasing its special forces training after reviewing U.S. military tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tension between Pyongyang and Seoul has increased in recent weeks, with North Korea announcing it would scrap peace agreements with the South, warning of a war on the Korean peninsula and threatening to test a missile capable of hitting the western United States. U.S. and South Korean officials have said that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2. Pyongyang tested one of the missiles in 2006, but it failed 40 seconds after launch. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers), which if true, could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii. North Korea has been involved in what is known as the six-party talks with the United States, Japan, Russia, South Korea and China, which is an effort to end the nation's nuclear program, which the U.S. says is linked to nuclear weapons. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who returned from Asia on Sunday after her first overseas trip in the post, recently called North Korea's nuclear program \"the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia.\"","highlights":"New missiles can travel about 3,000 kilometers .\nWeapons could reach Alaska or U.S. bases on Guam .\nTensions on Korean peninsula running high .","id":"37bf029b86ae51e2042e2e8174bcb478089e6b7a"} -{"article":"MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A Somali teen who left Minnesota to return to his native country last November has been reported killed. The 17-year-old, who was not named, was reportedly killed Friday in artillery fire in the violence-ravaged nation's capital of Mogadishu, said the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The center is asking federal officials for help in bringing the teen's body back to the United States for burial, executive director Omar Jamal said. The teen was among a group of young Somali-American men who left Minneapolis last year and were feared recruited by the extremist group, al-Shabaab, that has ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department. Al-Shabaab is blamed for a surge of violence in Somalia, as insurgents group fight the government to implement sharia, a stricter form of Islamic law. The rebel group has said it has recruited many fighters in its battle. Al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement, was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008. In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota, traveled to Somalia and blew himself up and 29 others. The incident, the first-ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen, raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. Somalis began arriving in the United States in significant numbers after the U.S. intervention in Somalia's humanitarian crisis in 1992. The Somali-American population is now concentrated in clusters primarily in Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle, Washington and San Diego, California. The potential recruitment of young Somali-American men has been made possible by \"a number of factors that come together when a dynamic, influential and extremist leader gains access to a despondent and disenfranchised group of young men,\" Andrew Liepman, deputy director for intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center, said earlier this year. Many refugees, he said, \"lack structure and definition in their lives\" and are \"torn between their parents' traditional tribal and clan identities, and the new cultures and traditions offered by American society.\" CNN's Chris Welch in Minneapolis contributed to this report.","highlights":"17-year-old who left Minnesota to return to Somalia feared killed in Mogadishu .\nGroup of Somali men left state in 2008, feared recruited by al Qaeda-linked group .\nSomali Justice Advocacy Center asks feds for help to get body returned for U.S. burial .","id":"dfdba79af47d3ecdbf7828724c43bf03999ee5cd"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The number of people killed in a car bombing in Afghanistan's capital rose to 26, including six Italian soldiers, Afghan authorities said Saturday. The coffins of six Italian soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Kabul return to Rome. Sixteen people died in the blast Thursday, and at least 55 Afghan civilians were wounded. Ten have died from their injuries since the bombing. The explosion Thursday targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul, a witness said. The bodies of the Italian soldiers killed in the blast returned to Italy Sunday, their coffins draped in the red, green and white Italian flag. Dignitaries, relatives and row upon row of uniformed troops stood on the airport tarmac as the coffins were carried off the plane, television pictures from the scene showed. Watch more about Italy in mourning \u00bb . Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano gently touched the caskets perched on the shoulders of grim-faced soldiers at Rome's Ciampino military airport. Nearby, a woman shook uncontrollably as a baby sported a maroon beret -- the kind worn by the paratroopers killed in the Kabul attack. The six deaths marked largest number of Italians killed in a single day in Afghanistan. Watch more about Italy's Afghan mission \u00bb . Before the remains left for Rome, the Italian military, international troops and dignitaries held a service in the Afghan capital. \"It's a tragedy for us,\" Lt. Col. Renato Vaira of the Italian military said at the Kabul service. \"But this is a point to continue our mission.\" \"We'll miss them. They're not the first. I hope it will be the last,\" said Maj. Gen. Tommaso Ferro of the Italian military. The arrival of the soldiers' remains was televised nationally in Italy. The bodies were taken for an autopsy. A day of mourning is scheduled in Italy on Monday, the same day as the burial service. After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it would be \"best\" for the country's troops to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. Berlusconi gave no timeline for a withdrawal, but said any pullout would have to be coordinated with allies. The 500 troops Italy sent to Afghanistan this summer will be home by Christmas, Ignazio La Russa, Italy's defense minister said. The troops were sent ahead of the Afghan presidential election August 20. The rest of Italy's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan will withdraw only when NATO calls for it, La Russa said.","highlights":"Explosion targeted a mostly residential area near the Supreme Court in Kabul .\nBodies of six Italian soldiers who died returned to Italy Sunday .\nItalian Prime Minister says it would be \"best\" for country's troops to leave Afghanistan .\nDeaths were the highest single-day death toll for Italy in the Afghan mission .","id":"29d9f10d9b93ef64dcc5ea7fd1779344e18a9dc8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stringer is dead. Omar is dead. And soon, \"The Wire\" will be, too. Sonja Sohn, Wendell Pierce and Dominic West discuss matters on the \"Wire\" finale. The show, broadcast by HBO, which -- like CNN -- is a division of Time Warner, created complex storylines weaving together the lives of Baltimore's cops, drug dealers, politicians, port workers, schoolchildren and educators and now journalists. It also created a devoted fan base, including CNN staffers Jo Parker, who coincidentally worked at The Baltimore Sun for 13 years, and Rachel Clarke. Both are veteran watchers of previous seasons who have lapped up this year's story, where events on the street and inside the murder squad become ever more entwined with politics and news, complicating everything they touch. Here, they talk about whether the keenly awaited finale matched expectations. Clarke: Were you satisfied? Parker: No. I expected \"The Wire\" to startle me and make me think right up until the series finale, but in the end it felt too networky. Yes, the storylines were completed and there was a resolution of sorts for each major character, but it all seemed to be too neatly tied ... red ribbon, anyone? Gallery: Get to know the characters of \"The Wire\" \u00bb . Clarke: Yes, I'm all for schmaltz, but that's not why I watched \"The Wire.\" In previous seasons, the show has had me sobbing (Bodie's killing), screaming blue murder (Bubbles' suicide attempt) and spiraling downward as I awaited the really bad things that had to happen (the parting of the ways between Stringer and Avon was never going to go well). This time, I had the familiar sinking feeling about some characters and plot lines as they played out, but this time, the writing didn't have the same killer instinct. Or maybe \"The Wire\" has just given me a really dark view of the world, of Baltimore, of humanity, and I should lighten up. Parker: I did experience one shocker during the finale involving a longer-term character. I'm surprised now that I didn't see it coming any more than the character did! Clarke: I know what you're talking about. Sure, there was a moment where I gasped. And there were other vintage \"Wire\" themes and moments. The questions over a moral code, how it's rarely if ever black and white and how real life and real people are just too complicated to fall into that simple \"good or bad\" template. \"Good\" people do bad things and \"bad\" people do good things. And circumstances and the bigger picture will often intervene to steer even the best from the path of the angels. But that's where this season as a whole hasn't matched the other four. The newspaper characters were simply good or evil. But you worked at The Baltimore Sun, so maybe that's true to life?! Parker: There were definitely some folks I'd consider good or evil at The Sun, but none who flat-out grew horns like Templeton, Whiting and Klebanow. (OK, maybe the Templetonesque dude.) I worked there for 13 years and left during \"The Wire's\" run. So I know creator David Simon peripherally and some of the situations he alludes to this season fairly well. I expected this season to be even more compelling to me, if that was possible. Instead, I found the new characters too one-dimensional. I didn't emotionally bond with any of them -- even though some bore the names of my real former colleagues -- so I really didn't care what happened to any of them in the finale. Clarke: Me too, but then I'm still mourning Stringer from season three when good and evil were mixed so well and you could happily cry over the comeuppance of a calculating, cold, murderous drug dealer. There are a lot of old memories from earlier seasons in the finale, but that just made me nostalgic for the earlier stuff. Parker: No, no! Don't talk about \"nostalgia\"! That word is ruined for me now! Clarke: For all the delight I got at various lines and shots, I thought some of the last episode was just trying to be too clever. Still, I'll be watching the finale all over again on Sunday. Will you? Parker: I wanted different endings for some characters, but I'm not the one cashing HBO's check. Despite my quibbles at the last season and the finale, I'll be watching it again and mourning its passing. It was a complete treat. Although I'm still ticked off. Clarke: True that. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Finale of \"The Wire\" to air Sunday night .\nThis season hasn't measured up to previous ones, say CNN reviewers .\nFinal show has a couple of surprises, but is too neatly tied up .","id":"4e96787a914fa2aa6f5fe591f76488a45874296d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Since it was founded in 1994, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been instrumental in encouraging innovative research that will combat the biggest health issues affecting the developing world. One Gates Foundation grant aims to help reduce malaria among Nigeria's nomads. The foundation has pledged $100 million in grants to get new scientific research off the ground, as part of Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE). On Tuesday, GCE launched its latest round of grant applications, open to anyone with a unique approach to solving problems in the developing world. The idea is to develop creative thinking from people who may not have traditionally taken part in health research. Begun in 2008, current projects receiving GCE funding include work in Hong Kong to develop flu-resistant chickens and efforts to prevent the transmission of HIV through breast milk. To speed up the grant allocation process, applicants only need to fill in a two-page form and submit it online. Successful applicants get a $100,000 grant and the chance to receive more than $1 million in future grants. The latest round of GCE grants invites applicants to focus on four areas: new technologies for contraception, new ways to induce and measure mucosal immunity, low-cost diagnostics for priority global health conditions, and new ways to protect against infectious disease. Click on the \"Explainer\" tab above to take a look at some of the groundbreaking research being funded by GEC.","highlights":"The Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million towards health research .\nThe latest round of research grant applications has just been opened .\nOne project receiving funding is working to develop flu-resistant chickens .","id":"8cd517aa11d8e6fbceca1c9134aaf66c56e5cbf2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- This year is the 50th birthday of the Copa Libertadores, South American football's equivalent of Europe's Champions League. Argentina's Boca Juniors salute their fans before a Copa Libertadores match against Uruguay's Defensor Sporting. The Libertadores is the most prestigious tournament in South American club football, seeing the best 32 teams in the continent battle for supremacy. It may not get as much attention as the Champions League, but for South American teams there is no bigger trophy. The tournament has reached semifinal stage, where Gremio and Cruzeiro from Brazil will clash with Argentina's Estudiantes and Uruguay's Nacional - a team captained by former Inter Milan star Juan Sebastian Veron. So with the action reaching a crescendo, it's high-time Fanzone explored what makes the compeition so great. History . The competition was first held in 1960, its name referring to the \"liberators\" who led South American countries in their wars of independence. For years it was dominated by Argentina, with a team from the country making it to every final between 1963 to 1979, and Buenos Aires team Independiente winning six times in that period. Since the early '90s, it's been the Brazilian clubs that have excelled. Brazil has provided 10 Libertadores finalists in the last 10 years, but since the tournament's inception, every country except Peru and Mexico has supplied a winner. Qualification . Under current quotas Brazil and Argentina both supply five teams for the tournament, while Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela are each represented by three teams, with the previous year's winner also qualifying. Each country has different qualifying criteria for its clubs but essentially, the winners of South America's top domestic leagues, as well as some runners up, qualify for the Libertadores. They are joined by three teams invited from Mexico (which is not a member of CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation). Better than Europe? In terms of football quality, most would agree that the Libertadores struggles to match the Champions League and the reason is simple -- South American clubs simply don't have the money to hold onto their best players. Despite this, the Libertadores is still the place where some of the world's best players cut their footballing teeth. The likes of Ronaldinho and Carlos Tevez once shone in the Libertadores, as did past masters like Pele and Zico. Which do you think is better, the Copa Libertadores or the Champions League? Sound Off below. While the tournament may lack big-name players, in other ways the Libertadores is as every bit as tough as the Champions League. Alexander Bellos is the author of \"Futebol: the Brazilian Way of Life.\" He told CNN that in the Libertadores, teams often have to travel huge distances for away matches. It can take a Brazilian club 24 hours to get to a match in Mexico, leaving little time for pre-match preparation or training. Some teams play their matches at high altitude, which can be a grueling experience for visiting teams not used to the thin air. Bellos says these factors can combine to make the Libertadores less predictable than the Champions League, as can the fact that clubs regularly lose their best players to Europe, meaning their squads can change drastically from one season to the next. As in the Champions League, big clubs, like Argentina's Boca Juniors and Brazil's Sao Paolo, usually make the final stages, but last year's winners were unheralded Ecuadorian club LBS Quito.","highlights":"This year is the 50th birthday of South American football's Copa Libertadores .\nThe competition has been dominated by Argentine and Brazilian teams .\nLiberdatores tends to be less predictable than Europe's Champions League .\nThis year's semi finals include teams from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay .","id":"7a3fa1a23eb9553df939bd6b3aa69000e7a8525d"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A funeral procession for a senior Iraqi Shiite leader wound through the streets of Tehran, the Iranian capital, on Thursday. Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, seen in a 2007 photo, was an ally of both the U.S. and Iran. Mourners turned out to say goodbye to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who spent 20 years in exile in Iran before returning to Iraq after U.S.-led forces toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The funeral procession started at the Iraqi Embassy in Tehran, said Haitham al-Husseini, a senior official with al-Hakim's office and one of his advisers. Iraqi and Iranian government officials attended the procession with senior religious figures and some members of the Iraqi parliament. Another funeral procession is scheduled to be held Friday in Baghdad, Iraq, before the casket travels to several parts of southern Iraq with large Shiite populations. Authorities are concerned about security since Sunni insurgents have targeted large Shiite gatherings in the past. The Iraqi government announced the start of three days of mourning on Thursday, according to state television in Iraq. Al-Hakim died Wednesday in Tehran after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 59. He will be buried in his hometown of Najaf, one of the holiest cities for Shiite Muslims, al-Husseini said. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, described him as \"a national hero\" in a joint statement that expressed sadness over the death. \"Throughout his life, His Eminence demonstrated courage and fortitude, contributing to the building of a new Iraq,\" the statement said. \"We offer our sincere condolences to his family and colleagues. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also offered condolences, saying al-Hakim was \"like an old brother.\" Al-Maliki credited him for being a \"strong supporter during the phase of fighting the ousted regime and a key figure in the process of building the new Iraq.\" Watch how al-Hakim helped shape Iraq's future \u00bb . \"His death at this critical stage that we are passing through is a great loss for Iraq,\" al-Maliki said. Al-Hakim ended his exile in Iran in 2003 when he returned to Iraq after Hussein and his regime were toppled. \"It was very emotional for me to meet with my people after Saddam fell,\" al-Hakim said in a 2006 interview. \"I was longing to see them, my goal in this life is to serve those great people and I am very proud to be a part of them.\" Iraqi Shiites were suppressed under the Hussein regime, which favored the country's minority Sunni Muslims. Al-Hakim played a central role in shaping Iraq's future following his return. During his exile, which began in the early 1980s, al-Hakim commanded the Badr Brigades, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI. SCIRI -- a religious opposition movement to the Hussein regime -- was led by al-Hakim's brother until he was assassinated in August 2003. Al-Hakim himself was also the target of assassination attempts. He took over as the head of SCIRI and began his ascent to power as the Badr Brigades became the bulk of the Iraqi security forces in Iraq's predominantly Shiite south. SCIRI changed its name to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) in 2007 to remove the word \"revolution,\" in an effort to reflect the situation in Iraq. Al-Hakim had always propagated a message of peace, calling on Iraqis to stop taking part in the bitter sectarian conflict that followed the fall of Hussein. But despite his desire for a secular democracy in Iraq, he wanted a country that recognized the importance of religion, religious institutions and its authorities. Al-Hakim successfully harnessed the fervor generated from emotional religious rituals like Ashura, a national day of fasting, and turned them into a powerful political platform. That ability led some to consider him Iraq's most powerful man. His political bloc won the most seats in the Iraqi Parliament in 2005. And although al-Hakim never held a government position, he commanded respect from those who did. Government ministers would meet with him at his office, not theirs, and he was often seen in the company of former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. And when talks on Iraq's constitution stalled, former President George W. Bush called al-Hakim, not the Iraqi prime minister or president. He visited the United States three times during the Bush administration to address the situation in Iraq. But al-Hakim remained artfully vague about Iran's influence in Iraq, saying its role was a positive one -- in direct contradiction to the U.S. government, which raised concerns about what it called Iran's \"meddling.\" He said the two predominantly Shiite Muslim countries shared border, historical and cultural relations, and emphasized the desire for strong ties. Al-Hakim died at a time of violent political turmoil in Iraq. The power of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) party he leaves behind is just as uncertain as the nation he wanted to serve. Al-Hakim was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007 and was first treated in the United States, then later in Iran. When he returned to Iraq later that year, he told CNN that he felt good. But it was around that time that it became apparent he was grooming his son, Ammar al-Hakim, to take over as head of ISCI. It was once Iraq's most powerful Shiite political party, but ISCI lost much of its influence following elections in January when politicians allied with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki won control of most of Iraq's provincial councils. CNN's Arwa Damon, Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Funeral procession for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim in Tehran; another set for Baghdad .\nIraqi Shiite leader spent 20 years in exile in Iran; returned after fall of Hussein .\nAl-Hakim headed Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, helped shape Iraq's future .\nHe never held public office but was one of Iraq's most powerful, respected leaders .","id":"70908387382ea05f63153929d767ebf70cbf5110"} -{"article":"URUMQI, China (CNN) -- Several hundred people staged a new protest in Urumqi on Tuesday, demanding the release of relatives detained in connection with weekend demonstrations by ethnic Uyghur residents in China's far western Xinjiang region. Ethnic Uyghur women grab the arm of a policeman as they protest in Urumqi on July 7. The crowd of 200 to 300 -- mostly women and elderly -- quickly formed as local authorities were taking members of the media on a tour of a neighborhood that was heavily damaged during riots over the weekend, witnesses said. Riot police quickly moved in to defuse the standoff as the demonstrators shouted the names of family members they wanted released. The protest is the latest sign that tensions are still simmering in the Xinjiang capital, where violent demonstrations have left 156 people dead and more than 1,000 injured, according to the regional public security department. In southern China, police have detained 15 suspects in connection with an incident that may have spurred the deadly rioting in Urumqi, state-run media reported. There is speculation that Sunday's protest, which took place in the predominantly Uyghur-populated Bazaar district, may have been a reaction to ethnic violence in southern China. The violence took place late last month at a toy factory in Guangdong province, where many migrants, including Uyghurs, have moved in search of work. A massive brawl reportedly broke out between workers of Uyghur and Han nationalities. Two Uyghurs reportedly died. The unrest in Urumqi had been brought under control with a massive presence of soldiers and anti-riot squads, the government said Tuesday. Curfews were in force in major districts of the capital. At least 1,434 suspects had been detained by Tuesday morning, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing government officials. \"The police have started interrogations with the suspects,\" said Li Yi, a spokesman for the Communist Party in Xinjiang. Those convicted would be dealt with severely, he said. Watch more on violence in Xinjiang \u00bb . In a rare public display of dissatisfaction, thousands of Uyghurs -- many of whom feel they are treated as second-class citizens by the majority Han Chinese -- took to the streets Sunday chanting and screaming, prompting a police lockdown of the city. State-run media reported that protesters attacked passersby, burned public buses and blocked traffic. The report did not say how many people took part or what their grievances were. But a witness in Urumqi told CNN that, soon after the protest started about 5 p.m., hundreds of demonstrators \"grew into easily over 1,000 -- men, women and children, all ethnic Uyghurs -- screaming and chanting.\" Police arrived quickly and tried to control the swelling crowd by erecting barriers in the street, but \"people pushed them over,\" the witness said. \"They were throwing rocks at passing cars and buses.\" As the violence escalated, hundreds of riot police arrived, the witness said. \"They used tear gas and fire hoses to disperse the crowd. I saw fire trucks, ambulances, armed personnel carriers and what looked like tanks. I heard random gunshots.\" iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video, commentary . Late Sunday, the witness said, Urumqi was in a lockdown, with hundreds of People's Liberation Army soldiers in the streets. He reported seeing riot police chasing protesters into alleys and rounding up many of them. Xinjiang is home to many Uyghurs. China's constitution guarantees ethnic minorities equal rights and limited autonomy. However, ethnic tensions run deep. Minority groups such as the Uyghurs complain that they are subjected to discrimination by the majority Han. See a map of Xinjiang \u00bb . Tensions also ran high in Han communities in the capital on Tuesday as neighbors organized to protect themselves and their businesses. Groups of men carrying pipes, sticks and cleavers milled in front of shops before police dispersed them. \"The Uyghurs will attack any Han they see,\" one man said. The World Uyghur Congress, a dissident Uyghur group based in Munich, Germany, condemned the crackdown on what it described in a written statement as Sunday's \"peaceful protest\" by Uyghurs. \"The Chinese authorities should acknowledge that the peaceful protest was sparked by the unlawful mob beating and killing of Uyghur workers at a Guangdong toy factory more than a week ago,\" it said. \"The authorities should also acknowledge that their failure to take any meaningful action to punish the Chinese mob for the brutal murder of Uyghurs is the real cause of this protest.\" It accused the Chinese authorities of having \"used tear gas, automatic rifles and armored vehicles to disperse the Uyghur protesters. During the crackdown, some were shot to death, and some were beaten to death by Chinese police. Some demonstrators were even crushed by armored vehicles near Xinjiang University, according to eyewitnesses.\" Watch victims describe the riots in Urumqi \u00bb . The government in Xinjiang blamed \"foreign forces\" for Sunday's rioting. \"The violence is premeditated, organized violent crime,\" said Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the equivalent of a governor. \"It was instigated and directed from abroad and carried out by outlaws in the country.\" Bekri accused the World Uyghur Congress of spreading rumors and inciting anger that led to the rioting, in a speech carried by Xinjiang television. The World Uyghur Congress denied the charge. It is led by Rebuya Kadeer, a businesswoman of Uyghur ethnicity who was detained in 1999 and accused of harming China's national security. She was freed on bail in 2005 and was allowed to leave for the United States for medical care. Bekri accused Kadeer of instigating the unrest via the Internet and said the fight at the Guangdong toy factory was exploited to incite ethnic strife. Internet service was hard to come by in Urumqi on Tuesday. Reporters' BlackBerries could not send and receive messages. Computers could not access the Web at their hotels.","highlights":"Hundreds protest mass arrests following ethnic unrest in China's Xinjiang region .\nProtesters -- mostly women and elderly -- shouted names of relatives being held .\nAt least 1,434 held by Chinese police following weekend Uyghur protests .\n156 people killed and more than 800 others injured in violence .","id":"e2504f405b5491c46eb61643b856334a8d962d98"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Derek Mears has a big hockey mask to fill. Derek Mears arrives on the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the new \"Friday the 13th\" movie. Mears was cast as the iconic boogeyman Jason Voorhees in the new \"Friday the 13th\" movie. A remake of the original 1980 film, the new movie aims to breathe life into the former franchise about a psychopathic killer who preys on a group of young people at the fictitious Camp Crystal Lake. Mears is no stranger to the horror genre, having co-starred in \"The Hills Have Eyes II.\" His career is extensive and includes stints as a stuntman in two of the popular \"Pirates of the Caribbean\" films. He recently spoke to CNN about taking a turn as the ultimate evil, the thrill of continuing a slasher legacy and why he's really not that bloody nice. CNN: You aren't that scary in person, so what made you think you could be that scary on camera? Derek Mears: I've got a lot of issues. I've got a whole lot of daddy issues. No, I sound like a basket case. It's funny with acting -- we all wear masks in our normal life. Not to sound like a weirdo in the hockey mask, but like right now I'm really excited about the film and excited about playing the character, and I will start to speak faster. That's kind of what's coming over me: \"Oh you're, you're really nice,\" but ... on the other side of me there are other Dereks that are angry, and like I said before, have a little bit of issues. CNN: Tell me a little bit about how you were approached. Did you know they were making it before they came to you? Was it kind of a shock? Mears: It's so weird. There's two different versions. There's my version of how it went about, and there's the producer's version. I'll tell the producer's version because my version is really, really long. The short version of my version was I heard they were doing a new \"Friday the 13th,\" and I've never tried to pursue a role before and I went, I really want to do this. So when I heard they were doing it, before I even had an audition, I started training for it. I found out a little about what they wanted for the character -- that he wasn't going to be super, you know bulky or big, that he's more functional. He's still big, but he's lean. So I started training that way and trying to do what I could just to get an audition. On the other end, on the producer's end, they asked a bunch of different industry professionals. They said, \"Hey, were doing a new 'Friday the 13th.' Who do you think would be a great new Jason?\" And my name kept popping up, which I'm blown away by. They brought me in for an audition, and I met with them. and they called me the next day and went, \"OK, you're the guy.\" And I still don't believe it till this day. I'm blown away. CNN: How did you keep it light on the set? Mears: Believe it or not, all the actors ... got along so well. I have never been so close to a cast before on set. We were just goofing around and playing, but then when it's time to work and get serious with certain scenes, we'd all switch over and do our job and get to the point where we needed to. CNN: Had you seen any of the original \"Friday the 13th\" movies? Mears: Oh yeah. I mean, I'm a fan. I consider myself a fan of the series. I already knew all of the originals. I had them all on DVD, and when I first met with Platinum Dunes [the production company behind the new movie], I told them, \"Hey look, I'm a fan of the series first and foremost. If I'm right for the part, fantastic. If I'm not right for the part, that's OK, too. I, just as a fan, want to see a good 'Friday the 13th' film. I want to see the series continue so if I can help it, awesome, but I just want to see something good.\" CNN: Did you try to model your character after previous Jasons, or did you try to kind of take it and make it your own? Mears: Definitely make it my own. I used the script that Mark Swift and Damian Shannon wrote as a blueprint -- like you would for any acting role where I knew the other guys who've played \"Jason\" before, and what they've done, but you kind of shove that away somewhere deep in your brain and build your character from the new script. And there are times in the film here and there where I would do little tips of the hats or little homage for the guys who have played him before. CNN: It's kind of a dream come true. Mears: Yeah, that's why I keep saying the words this whole interview like \"unbelievable,\" unbelievable because I don't believe it. CNN: Which is funny. You don't usually think of such happiness and glee [on a horror movie set]. Mears: And trust me, you won't see that in the final product. CNN's Brittany Kaplan contributed to this article.","highlights":"Actor Derek Mears takes on role of Jason in new \"Friday the 13th\"\nActor heard from producers that he was a popular casting choice .\nOf iconic role, Mears says he tried to \"definitely make it my own\"","id":"9be3f97d892d66b7fbbe999e8e328eb839f1de7a"} -{"article":"Beijing, China (CNN) -- China and the United States, the largest producers of greenhouse gases, will team up to fight climate change and create clean energy, their leaders said Tuesday. Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Obama said their nations will cooperate to advance technologies and work toward a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions. \"As the two largest consumers and producers of energy, there can be no solution to this challenge without the efforts of both China and the United States,\" Obama said. \"That is why we've agreed to a series of important new initiatives in this area.\" What would you ask Obama? Share your question for CNN's interview . After Tuesday's meeting, Hu told reporters, \"We agreed to expand our cooperation on climate change, energy and environment,\" which includes developing a China-U.S. clean energy research center. The declaration by Hu and Obama comes ahead of next month's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, and follows recent acknowledgment by the world's top economic powers, including the U.S., that there's no hope of a major breakthrough on climate change by year's end. The U.S. president said the two leaders want to accelerate the world toward a pact to cut greenhouse gases. The leaders did not offer a time frame, however. \"Our aim ... is not a partial accord or a political declaration,\" Obama said, \"but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations and one that has immediate operational affect. \"This kind of comprehensive agreement would be an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution to our climate challenge.\" Instead of reaching a final deal in Copenhagen, a strategy dubbed \"one agreement, two steps\" was unveiled at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit over the weekend in Singapore. The aim is to produce a pact over a longer period. The first step would be to have all 191 countries involved in the Copenhagen summit signing on to a framework that includes key ingredients, such as how to finance the coordinated effort to battle climate change. The second step, a binding deal on cutting carbon emissions, would be hashed out in further negotiations. \"Opportunity is knocking. It is up to you to open the door,\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Monday. \"We must seize this opportunity to create a safer and more prosperous future for all, to reduce the emissions that are causing climate change and to help the most vulnerable adapt to impacts that are already under way.\" Like the United States and China, APEC and Group of 20 leaders -- the world's leading economies -- have pledged to drive toward a climate-change agreement in Copenhagen. The conference, set to begin December 7, aims to strike a deal on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 pact that has legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The United States never ratified it, though more than 200 other nations did.","highlights":"President Obama, Chinese leader pledge to work to reduce carbon emissions .\nMove comes before U.N. Climate Change Conference in Denmark .\nChina and U.S. are largest producers of greenhouse gases .\nObama, Chinese President Hu Jintao don't offer a timetable .","id":"943a2079b41df8409e1502912c9403a24734195c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Back in his native South Korea, the Korean Foreign Ministry nicknamed him \"Ban-chusa,\" meaning \"the Bureaucrat\" or \"the administrative clerk.\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has focused on global warming policy by world governments. While Ban Ki-moon was known for his attention to detail and administrative skill, he was also seen by some as lacking in charisma and subservient to his superiors, while the Korean press called him \"the slippery eel\" for his ability to dodge questions. But on October 13, 2006, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly. Following up on a campaign aiming to bring out his charismatic side, Ban surprised the audience of a UN Correspondents' dinner that December by singing \"Ban Ki-moon is coming to town\" on the melody of \"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.\" Ban was born on 13 June 1944. He received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970, and a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1985. He and his wife, Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, whom he met in high school in 1962, have one son and two daughters. In addition to Korean, Ban speaks fluent English and is studying French. Ban was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea from January 2004 to November 2006. His tenure included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C. and Vienna, while he was responsible for a variety of portfolios such as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President, Chief National Security Adviser to the President, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General of American Affairs. Throughout this service, his guiding vision was that of a peaceful Korean peninsula, playing an expanding role for peace and prosperity in the region and the wider world. Ban had long been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. In 1992, as Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, he served as Vice Chair of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission following the adoption of the historic Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, as Foreign Minister, he played a leading role in bringing about another landmark agreement aimed at promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula with the adoption at the Six Party Talks of the Joint Statement on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. In January 2007 Ban succeeded Kofi Annan and has since pushed the Sudanese government to allow peacekeeping troops in Darfur and focused on global warming policy by world governments.","highlights":"Ban Ki-moon elected eighth U.N. Secretary-General in October 2006 .\nBan has pushed Sudan on peacekeepers in Darfur and focused on climate change .\nBan was Ban was South Korea's Foreign Minister from Jan. 2004 to Nov. 2006 .\nHe has long been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations .","id":"f9155d16c51d80eb0dc823827be57d2c66689970"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Henry Gibson, who played roles ranging from loopy poets to vengeful Illinois Nazis and cranky judges during a 40-year film and television career, has died at age 73, his representatives said Wednesday. Henry Gibson had a role as a neo-Nazi in the cult movie classic \"The Blues Brothers.\" Gibson was a regular on \"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In,\" where he was known for popping up to read short, humorous poems during the show's 1968-71 run. He was a frequent guest star on television shows from the 1970s through the mid-2000s, with a recurring role as a judge on ABC's \"Boston Legal\" as late as 2008. His movie roles included turns in two of director Robert Altman's 1970s films, \"Nashville\" and \"The Long Goodbye,\" and as the neo-Nazi leader pursuing John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in \"The Blues Brothers.\" No details of his death were immediately available, said Peter Gross, a spokesman Talentworks LA, which represented Gibson. CNN's Doug Ganley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Gibson was known to \"Laugh-In\" audiences for reading short, funny poems .\nHe was in two Robert Altman films and recently played judge on \"Boston Legal\"\nNo details of his death were immediately available .","id":"913bf684c2648d8c758444ad8c2a09fdb1205d0d"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nineteen U.S. troops were killed in Iraq in May, the fewest killed in any month since the war started. Baghdad saw a lull in violence in May, as a cease fire agreement has so far been maintained. The second-lowest month for American deaths was in February 2004, when 20 were killed. May's toll was a significant decrease from April, when 50 were killed -- the highest monthly figure since September. The U.S. military death toll spiked last year as the U.S. troop escalation, dubbed the \"surge,\" was unfolding. In 2007, there were 104 deaths in April, 126 in May and 101 in June. Numbers began dropping when the \"surge\" strategy took hold and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suspended the activities of his militia, the Mehdi Army. There were 78 American deaths in July, 2007; 84 in August; 65 in September; 38 in October; 37 in November; 23 in December; 40 in January; 29 in February; and 38 in March. May's death numbers appeared to support Senate testimony last month from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Petraeus said recent operations in three Iraqi cities have \"contributed significantly to the reduction in violence.\" The month of June may not bring such optimistic news. A suicide car bomb struck an Iraqi police checkpoint outside police headquarters in Mosul on Monday, killing nine people, including four police officers, and wounding 46 people, a Mosul police official said. Eight of the wounded were police officers, the official said. The incident took place in southern Mosul's Dawasa commercial area at about 7 p.m. the official said. Mosul is about 260 miles (420 km) north of Baghdad.","highlights":"19 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq in May, the fewest killed in any month of the war .\nDeath toll spiked in 2007, with 104 deaths last April, 126 in May, 101 in June .\nNumbers dropped after the \"surge\" strategy took hold .\nA suicide car bomb struck an Iraqi police checkpoint Monday killing nine people .","id":"ff0b5a900ad2b7fb3917029e480fbaf878ed5a35"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- For most people life can be boiled down to a few major decisions and a list of truly memorable events. Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams hope love conquers all in \"The Time Traveler's Wife.\" Typically, these are first words, first steps, graduations, births, weddings and -- of course -- marriage proposals. More than a few of these milestone moments take place in the new romantic drama \"The Time Traveler's Wife.\" Of all of them, perhaps the most memorable is a scene in which Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) asks Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams) to be his wife. It's a complicated request because Henry, a kind man, also has the uncanny and often unfortunate ability to be transported suddenly and unexpectedly from one time period to another, leaving Clare on her own. It's a peculiar set of circumstances that would give most women understandable hesitation when contemplating a marriage partner. But Clare is a woman in love, an emotion that tends to trump all others. Watch how Bana and McAdams found humor in the scene \u00bb . Bana and McAdams sit down with CNN to discuss this scene, its comedic elements and what it means to both their characters.","highlights":"Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana star in \"The Time Traveler's Wife\"\nIn a key scene, Bana asks McAdams to get married .\nThe performers says they tried to put a little humor in situation .","id":"db2afeab6cf37053c58e90f7d13414696930bb78"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Marine Corps has sacked four top officers of a California-based fighter squadron over the December crash of a fighter jet that slammed into a San Diego neighborhood, the service announced Tuesday. Grace Yoon, 15 months, was killed after a military jet crashed into her home. Deferred maintenance and faulty decisions by the pilot and squadron members with whom he was communicating on the ground contributed to the crash, a Marine Corps investigation concluded. The commander of the squadron involved, its top maintenance officer and two others have been relieved of duty as a result of the investigation, and nine other Marines have received other disciplinary action, Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles said. The jet crashed in the University City neighborhood of San Diego, about three miles short of the Miramar airfield. Two adults and two small children from a Korean immigrant family were killed when the jet slammed into their house. Watch what pilot said as plane had trouble \u00bb . The F\/A-18 Hornet crashed after \"a succession of emergencies\" that began with oil-pressure problems in its right engine during a flight off the Southern California coast, said Marine Col. John Rupp. That left the jet relying on its other engine, which previously had been giving mechanics electronic indications of a problem with its fuel-flow system, Rupp said. Learn more about the jet \u00bb . Maintenance rules don't require immediate repairs for the problem, he said, but the squadron flew the jet 146 times before it eventually crashed because its left engine was starved for fuel. \"The end result was that the squadron elected to fly an aircraft that had a degraded fuel system on the left side of the aircraft,\" Rupp said. \"This is a critical point, and this was collectively questionable judgment on the part of the squadron's maintenance department.\" The investigation criticized the pilot, who was being trained on the F\/A-18, for not consulting a pocket checklist that outlined emergency procedures. While controllers aboard the aircraft carrier that launched the jet urged the pilot to land at a nearby Navy airfield at North Island, squadron officers relied on \"incorrect assumptions and inaccurate data\" to guide him back to the plane's base at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. \"No one in the ready room stated or understood the severity of the low fuel emergency at this time,\" Rupp said. \"This is a critical moment, and this is collectively bad decision-making by the duty officer, by the operations officer and by the squadron's commanding officer.\" The pilot waited \"until the last possible moment\" to eject from the plane, bailing out at an altitude of just 400 feet, and attempted to steer away from homes on the ground before the crash, Rupp said. The pilot, whose name has not been released, is grounded pending further review, which Marine officers said was routine. Alles said the officer was an \"above-average\" pilot who \"just made a poor decision.\" Dong Yun Yoon lost his wife, children and mother-in-law in the crash and another unoccupied house also was destroyed. Yoon said the victims were his daughter Rachel, who was born less than two months before the accident; his 15-month-old daughter Grace; his wife, Young Mi Yoon, 36; and her 60-year-old mother, Suk Im Kim, who he said had come to the United States from Korea recently to help take care of the children. In an emotional press conference in December, Yoon said he did not blame the pilot and urged the public to pray for him. \"I don't blame him. I don't have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could,\" Yoon said at the time. \"Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident,\" Yoon said as he fought for composure. \"He is one of our treasures for the country.\"","highlights":"NEW: \"Succession of emergencies\" with aircraft preceded fatal San Diego crash .\nNEW: Squadron officers relied on \"inaccurate data\" to direct pilot to return to base .\nNEW: Pilot criticized for not consulting pocket checklist of emergency procedures .\nMan's wife, children, mother-in-law killed were killed in crash .","id":"10373e0ea2d7822975bebf45d37946775abce2b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For those of us who remember a time when many families didn't have color TV, a remote control or even video games, hearing the theme song from \"The Patty Duke Show\" -- \"They're cousins \/ Identical cousins, all the way\" -- takes us back to black-and-white television sets and split-screen special effects. Patty Duke says she has many fond memories of working on \"The Patty Duke Show.\" \"Back then it was very crude, how we did split-screen,\" star Patty Duke said of playing the dual roles of Patty and Cathy Lane in the show, which was developed specifically for her. \"Now with all-digital applications, it looks antique. But the show's values are still what we want to impart on our children.\" The first complete season of \"The Patty Duke Show,\" from 1963 to 1964, is now out on DVD. Duke told CNN that she's excited her five granddaughters will finally be able to see what \"Nana did when she was a teenager.\" \"I am tickled, just tickled,\" she said. In the sitcom, which ran for three seasons on ABC, Patty was a rambunctious teenager who always managed to find herself in some kind of trouble; cousin Cathy was a demure, worldly Scottish teenager who came to New York to live with the Lane family to finish her schooling. Duke, who was not quite 17 when the series began, says it took a lot of energy to play two different characters. She preferred the quieter Cathy, \"because I thought she was dignified and gentle and rational. When it was time to be Patty, I would have to deal with my embarrassment of her stupidity.\" Duke was already a successful actor by the time the sitcom debuted, winning an Oscar for 1962's \"The Miracle Worker\" just months before the show premiered. But she describes herself as sheltered. \"I was a very isolated teenager. When it came time to do some of the school dances [on the show], they had to bring in real teenagers to teach me how,\" she says. \"I didn't know the dances, didn't know the music.\" She says, however, the show was a relief during what were troubled times for her. She wrote about her tormented childhood in her autobiography, \"Call Me Anna,\" discussing her struggles with mental abuse at the hands of her managers, which she says led to alcohol and drug addiction. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she now helps others who have the disease. \"I believe that show [gave me] the tools that helped me survive through my youth until I got my diagnosis,\" Duke said. \"I think 'tormenting' is one of the most perfect words for what you feel [with bipolar disorder], because you have no control over it. I did occasionally, very occasionally, hear voices, but mostly my instincts were messed up: If it was dangerous, then I should do it.\" The show, she said, \"was where I went for safety.\" \"It was a troubled time on the personal level, but the show was never troubled,\" she said. She speaks fondly of her co-stars, especially William Schallert, who played her father, Martin Lane. \"He has always been able to make me laugh until I had to spit up,\" she said of the now 87-year-old actor. \"He was also a solid, solid figure to me and still is. To this day, the relationship has grown, and he is always there for me.\" She remains close to the other surviving members of the cast, including Paul O'Keefe, who played her brother. Jean Byron, who played mother Natalie Lane, died three years ago. Duke was able to transition from child star to adult actor of stage and screen, and she even had a hit single, 1965's \"Don't Just Stand There.\" After \"The Patty Duke Show,\" she played a drug-addicted alcoholic singer in \"Valley of the Dolls\" and won an Emmy for the TV movie \"My Sweet Charlie.\" To date, Duke has won one Academy Award, three Emmys and two Golden Globes. Duke is also acting onstage in the musical \"Wicked\" in San Francisco, California. She plays the witch Madame Morrible, and though she finds the energy for eight shows a week a challenge, she loves the theater. \"To me, it is almost a religious experience, the exchange between those strangers out there in the dark and us,\" she said. \"To me, that's communication at its best, and that's really what I enjoy.\" Duke says she lets little faze her. \"I've gotten to the age where I'm comfortable with just about everything -- except getting old!\" she said. Even there, she's willing to look at the situation without blinking. She teamed up with the Social Security Administration to do public service announcements encouraging seniors to sign up online -- using her old \"Patty Duke Show\" characters. \"On a positive side, I know about acceptance,\" she says. \"What's negative for me is all very superficial. The incredible lines in my face.\" But she says the wisdom that comes with aging -- and, of course, maintaining a sense of humor -- helps her deal with that. \"Without a sense of humor,\" she said, \"I would have been gone a long time ago.\" Patty Lane works for CNN Radio -- and yes, that is her real name.","highlights":"First season of \"The Patty Duke Show\" out on DVD .\nIn program, Duke played identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane .\nDuke remembers show as haven during tough times as teenager .\nActress later was diagnosed as bipolar; she now helps people who have disease .","id":"3b8668d5cd33f142cdc2f0b22b28b834920bae4a"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A New York Times reporter who was kidnapped last week was freed Wednesday in a pre-dawn military raid in Afghanistan that left a British commando, an Afghan journalist and several others dead. New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was abducted Saturday while covering a NATO airstrike in Afghanistan. Stephen Farrell was rescued by NATO's International Security Assistance Force, known as the ISAF, the British Foreign Office said. A British commando died in the operation, the country's Ministry of Defense said without offering further details. Sultan Munad, an Afghan journalist accompanying Farrell, also was killed in the raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. Crossfire during the raid also killed a woman and a child, said Abdel Wahid Omar Khil, governor of Kunduz district, in Kunduz province, where the rescue took place. Armed gunmen kidnapped the journalists Saturday while they were covering a NATO airstrike on Taliban forces the day before that killed at least 90 people in the northern Kunduz province. Neither CNN nor the Times had reported Farrell's kidnapping for security reasons. \"We feared that media attention would raise the temperature and increase the risk to the captives,\" the paper quoted Executive Editor Bill Keller as saying Wednesday. Farrell called the newspaper's foreign editor before dawn and said he was \"extracted\" in a commando raid after a fierce firefight, according to a report on the Times Web site. \"There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices,\" Farrell, a 46-year-old dual Irish-British citizen, told the paper. Farrell and Munadi ran outside during the firefight. At the end of a wall, Munadi went forward, shouting: \"Journalist! Journalist!\" but dropped in a hail of bullets, Farrell said. He didn't know whether the shots came from allied or militant fire. \"I saw him go down in front of me. He did not move. He's dead,\" Farrell told the paper. \"He was so close, he was just 2 feet in front of me when he dropped.\" Farrell's citizenship played a role in the British decision to stage the rescue, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. Watch a former British commander on the difficulty in rescuing hostages \u00bb . \"The obvious link for us is that Farrell is a British national. We want to safeguard the life of one of our citizens,\" the spokesman said, declining to discuss operational details of the rescue mission. \"We don't comment about the actions of British Special Ops forces.\" Local Afghans provided information and helped the commandos locate where Farrell was being held, said another British official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. He said the judgment to proceed with such an operation \"is always a difficult one, but we think it represented the best chance to save his life.\" Brown offered condolences to the families of Munadi and the British commando. Of the commando, Brown said, \"His bravery will not be forgotten.\" The operation to rescue the hostages happened after extensive planning and consideration, Brown said. \"Those involved knew the high risks they were running. That they undertook it in such circumstances showed breathtaking heroism,\" Brown said. \"Hostage-taking is never justified, and the U.K. does not make substantive concessions, including paying ransoms. But whenever British nationals are kidnapped, we and our allies will do everything in our power to free them.\" Ten weeks earlier, another Times reporter escaped after months in Taliban captivity. David Rohde, a local reporter and a driver were kidnapped November 10 outside Kabul. The two reporters escaped on June 19 by climbing over a wall in the compound where they were held for seven months in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. The driver did not escape, the newspaper said. The death toll in the Kunduz airstrike, which Farrell was covering when he was kidnapped, has varied, depending on the source, but local Afghan officials have said at least half of those killed were civilians. The NATO commander in the area called in the strike Friday as Afghans tried to siphon fuel from two tankers hijacked by the Taliban a day earlier. The Taliban allowed villagers to drain the tankers carrying fuel earmarked for the NATO-led force after they became stuck in the mud when the militants tried to drive them through the Kunduz River. The military thought there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack, the ISAF's Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said. Farrell, who joined The New York Times two years ago, also was briefly kidnapped in April 2004 in Falluja, Iraq. At the time, he was on assignment for The Times of London. In a separate incident Wednesday, a suicide attack killed at least two civilians and injured several others, including NATO personnel, near the main British military base in southern Afghanistan, the ISAF said. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest near a crowd of civilian truck drivers near the entrance of Camp Bastion in volatile Helmand province, the ISAF said. The injured civilians and ISAF personnel were treated at Camp Bastion, which is in Washir District. The casualty count is unclear as an investigation continues. CNN's Ingrid Formanek and Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Local Afghans helped British locate abducted journalist, official says .\nNew York Times reporter Stephen Farrell freed in commando raid .\nAfghan journalist killed in raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says .\nBritish commando also killed during raid; woman, child die in crossfire .","id":"0317abf1a788b51d50bfd64b17320587835ba367"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shortly after McDonald's celebrated its 30-year presence in France, the fast-food chain is conquering one of the country's most valued cultural institutions --the Louvre. McDonalds' burgers and fries will be available under the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre. The restaurant will be serving its fast burgers in the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall which lies under the main entrance of the museum and which still contains an ancient wall that was discovered during construction works. McDonald's' plans seem to have caused more media attention abroad than in France, but for some French outlets, the idea of combining fast food and ancient art is stomach churning. The Parisian Web site \"Louvre pour tous\" (Louvre for everyone) describes McDonald's' decision to open a restaurant in the prestigious museum as \"bad taste\" and blamed the Louvre's directors for failing to prevent what could result in \"fragrances of fries drifting under Mona Lisa's nose\". A spokeswoman for the museum told CNN it was not their decision and declined to comment further on the issue. The Carrousel du Louvre mall is managed by Unibail-Rodamco, Europe's largest property company, and not the museum itself. The mall, which is situated next to the most visited museum in the world, counts 8.3 million visitors a year and enjoyed a total gross sales of $75 million in 2008. Le Parisien, a daily newspaper described the difference between McDonald's and the Louvre by comparing Ronald McDonald, the restaurant's clown character, to Venus de Milo, the famous ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite, which is on display at the Louvre. Should McDonald's be in the Louvre? Tell us what you think in the Soundoff box below. Museum lovers in France are shocked about the news, but not surprised. \"Museums have to offer services like restaurants and boutiques, it's completely normal,\" Jean-Michel Raingeard, President of the Federation of French Friends of Museums told CNN. What worries him, however, is the choice of shops. \"Museum directors seem to care more about the number of people they attract rather than the quality of people. Should a museum be a museum or an amusement park?\" asks Jean Michel Raingeard, who is also the European vice president for The World Federation of Friends of Museums. McDonald's sees the opening of its new restaurant next to the home of Mona Lisa as something completely normal. \"There are already many other restaurants in the mall, so we will only be one of the many restaurants that offer visitors their products.\" says a spokeswoman for McDonald's in France. \"There's even a Starbucks,\" she added. Criticism, though fierce, has not been successful: the construction work will start soon and the restaurant should be open \"by the end of the year.\" In spite of its location, the menu will very likely stay the same. \"McDonald's functions the same way in all of France, so there will probably be no special menus,\" the spokeswoman said.","highlights":"McDonald's to open restaurant in the mall of the world's most visited museum .\nDecision has attracted criticisms there will be 'unpleasant smells' in the museum .\nThe restaurant is not only fast food joint in the shopping mall .","id":"840db2f25fc68a3c9b7b3c85b73005349adf1d59"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It was against the terms of the Russia\/Georgia cease-fire, brokered by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. It was directly in contravention of the request not to do it from President George W. Bush of the United States. But Russia's President Dimitri Medvedev has gone and done it anyway. He has made Russia the first country to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says it has recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. So does that, as some of the more fevered commentators are suggesting, amount to a new Cold War? It certainly ratchets up the East-West tension still further. It breaks the terms of a cease-fire which insisted Georgia's territorial integrity should be respected. Russia's announcement that it will station troops in the two territories to ensure their \"security\", a word others might spell as \"subservience\", is a direct provocation. It is, says Georgia, an illegal \"annexation\". Other European nations have hastened to condemn it as an unacceptable rewriting of borders by force. What do you think of Russian recognition? U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, currently in the Middle East, points out that it is in contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions that the Russians have accepted. Sarkozy has called a meeting of EU leaders for Monday to look at Georgia and at future relations with Russia. But before we start talking about a new Cold War -- and Western leaders from Bush down are being careful not to do so-- we should examine the context. After the military action initiated by Georgia early in August, there never was a chance that South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which have in effect been independent since the early 1990s, would return to control by Tblisi. Applying a blowtorch isn't necessarily the best way of settling what had become known as \"frozen conflicts\". Russia has long been in a position to bully and has now been given the excuse to do so. For years the two disputed territories have survived on Russian military and economic assistance. Although Abkhazia seeks fuller independence, a large number of South Ossetians, perhaps 70 or 80 per cent of them, have Russian passports and would vote for membership of the Russian Federation. Both disputed territories use the rouble. But this isn't, and never has been, just about Georgia. It is about the reassertion of regional power by a country which had smarted for years over the collapse of the Soviet Union and the eastward march of NATO, swallowing up former members of the Warsaw Pact. What we are seeing is a resurgent Russia currently prepared to strut the beach kicking sand in everybody's eyes and defying any affronted party to take them on. When NATO leaders met in the wake of the invasion of Georgia and came up with nothing more concrete than the \"suspension of normal relations\", the weakness of a divided West was all too obvious to Putin and Medvedev. They have now taken the next step down the line of provocation. \"Scrap the NATO-Russia Council altogether and see if we care!\" is the message. And, playing as the back-beat sub-theme through all this is the question of Kosovo, a question which looks very different according to whether you are seated in Moscow, Belgrade, Brussels or Washington. \"If it was right for the Kosovar Albanians to be given the right to declare independence from Serbia, then why shouldn't the people of South Ossetia be allowed to choose separation from Tblisi?\" demand the Medvedev-Putin supporters in the Russian Parliament. \"Ah yes,\" some say, \"but what about those threats from Moscow to turn Russian missiles against Poland now that the Poles have agreed to host the anti-missile batteries for the US missile defense plan? Isn't that a dangerous new escalation?\" Again, it depends where you are sitting. \"How would Washington like it if the Russians were to stage anti-missile batteries in Mexico?\" is Moscow's answer. What seems to be forgotten amid the current rhetorical battle is that the threats to make Poland a target for Russian missiles are nothing new. Before the G8 summit back in 2007, Putin got the world in a tizzy with precisely the same threats, at that stage being used to stir Polish domestic opposition to the idea of hosting the missile battery. In October 2007, Putin said the missile plan risked becoming a new Cuban missile crisis, probably the closest the world ever came to a nuclear war. Then, during an election, he threatened to point missiles at western Europe, walk away from a 1980s treaty limiting missiles and scrap a treaty limiting conventional forces in Europe (which Russia has since done). First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, then seen as Putin's potential successor, threatened to site cruise missiles in Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania. General Nikolai Saltsov, then in charge of Russia's ballistic arsenal, said last December: \"I do not exclude the missile defense shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic being chosen as targets for our intercontinental ballistic missiles.\" The big problem for the West (and especially next Monday's meeting of EU leaders, who need to make a more effective job of it than NATO's foreign ministers did last week), is just how to respond to Russia's current bout of strutting without making things worse-- and how to do it without cutting off their own noses in the process. They could agree to make it harder for Russia to join the World Trade Organisation. They could even threaten to eject Russia from the G8. But what do they gain by doing so, especially those of them in the EU who depend on Russia for a hefty chunk of their energy supplies? For years the West has been trying to draw Russia in, not push it further out into the cold. They need Russia's cooperation on climate change, on fighting terrorism, on achieving peace in the Middle East and on curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. And, let it not be forgotten, in keeping open NATO's supply routes for its mission in Afghanistan. The West is not ready to go to war over Russia's neighbors (or \"near abroad\" as Moscow terms it) but it does still have a role to play in the Russian economy. The EU may be dependent on Russian energy but it is also Russia's biggest customer. It should use the economic levers it has, refuse to allow the Russians to pick off individual members with bilateral deals and learn to use its collective strength in demanding common standards of its fellow G8 member. The worst thing it could do is to utter threats which it will not, or cannot, follow through.","highlights":"Russian president signs order recognizing independence of Georgian territories .\nWest opposes the decision, says that it impinges on Georgian international borders .\nOvershadowing the issue is the West's recognition of Kosovo independence .\nAnalysis: The worst the West could do is to utter threats it does not follow through .","id":"ab08c51a7fe9baa340b9eb341389f03bbaa9fdbb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security and FBI have issued security bulletins to raise awareness regarding \"terrorist interest\" in attacking sports and entertainment venues as well as luxury hotels. The bulletins, which were sent to law enforcement Monday, said that authorities did not know of any credible or specific terrorist plots to attack U.S. stadiums, arenas or luxury hotels. However, it said that terrorist groups such as al Qaeda view crowded stadiums and arenas as potential targets. It said hotels are also attractive targets for terrorists. The Department of Homeland Security said it released the notes to assist law enforcement partners as they go about their daily duties. \"While DHS and FBI have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity,\" the department said. The bulletins did not mention the recent arrest of three men in connection with what the Justice Department has said was a plot to detonate bombs in the United States. The men are charged with lying to federal agents during the probe of the alleged plot. The bulletin on stadiums and arenas said that previous attacks against crowd gatherings have included improvised explosive devices and car bombs, \"tactics that are also applicable to many stadiums and arenas. ... \"Detained terrorists have also discussed the use of aircraft and chemical weapons to attack stadiums and arenas. \" It said the al Qaeda training manual lists \" 'blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality and sin ... and attacking vital economic centers' as a key objective.\" The bulletins on luxury hotels said analysis of previous attacks abroad and thwarted plots showed that terrorists have used paramilitary and \"small unit\" tactics, explosives, improvised explosive devices and car bombs. It said hotel owners can protect their properties by installing fencing or walls around the buildings and populated areas; implementing random screening of people and their possessions; and training security staff.","highlights":"Department of Homeland Security and FBI issue security bulletins .\nNo credible or specific terrorist attack threats at this time, agencies say .\nCrowds at stadiums, hotels generate terrorist attention, agencies say .","id":"9a1b680addd15627de47e3018001842f9dd1b5ed"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- An Al Qaeda-linked militant group waging war against Somalia's fragile government is becoming an increasing threat to Western ally Kenya and could potentially destabilize the region with dire consequences for global security, officials and analysts warn. Al-Shabab fighters count their bullets in neighborhood of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab, one of the strongest Islamic militias battling for control of Mogadishu, has gained ground in recent weeks, according to officials, and has started to flex its muscles beyond Somalia's border with terror strikes, kidnappings and recruitment drives. They warn that unless the world takes action the group, which wants to impose an extreme type of Islamic sharia law, could extend its grip across parts of East Africa to gain control of a region that flanks busy shipping routes already plagued by Somali pirates . Appeals by Somalia's government for international help to unpick its long-running civil conflict have escalated Al-Shabaad's threats with the group behind warnings of an attack on the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. And, say experts, the group is being backed by foreign fighters -- some said to have links to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network -- a situation that draws direct comparisons with the group's influence in pre-9\/11 Afghanistan. \"Al-Shabaab is a threat to the whole world,\" Somali Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamoud told CNN. \"First to Somalia, to the neighborhood, and to everywhere they have disagreed with.\" Watch more on Somalian threat \u00bb . Mohamoud, whose transitional government has largely failed in its long-term goal of reconciling Somalia's militias, concedes Al-Shabaab is making major gains on his administration and says the global community must act to prevent their threat escalating. \"Somalia's problems are not for Somalia alone to solve. Not only for the African Union to solve. It is a global and regional issue. We are very appreciative that the international community understands that, but they need to act now, rather than later.\" \"The issue is not Somalis taking over from other Somalis. But the issue is foreign jihadists imposing their ideas into the region. So Somalia can be a launching pad for a greater and wider jihadist issue.\" Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua told CNN his country did not yet fear direct attacks from Al-Shabaab but said it was becoming increasingly alarmed about its activities and its links to foreign networks. Despite the concerns, Mutua said the problem was nothing new and while his country struggled to exert control over its porous border with Somalia, it was taking steps to limit the danger. But he warned the threat was not limited to Kenya and could have global reach. \"We do believe that Al-Shabaab poses a threat, not only to Kenya, but to all neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea,\" he said. \"It is not just a problem that we foresee in Kenya, just because we are neighbors to them, it is a problem that we foresee that may occur to a lot of countries and also poses a threat to outside even this region,\" he added. \"Our concern is not limited to Al-Shabaab. We know that Al-Shabaab are not able to do it without foreign intervention in terms of money and weapons that they are getting from other countries.\" Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told CNN that while Al-Shabaab had whipped up concerns with headline grabbing acts such as the recent kidnap of two French citizens in Mogadishu and three aid workers on the Kenyan side of the border, countries such as Kenya should pay heed. \"I think that Kenya could do a much better job. There is always the possibility that someone could sneak across the border and launch an attack against a soft target. Obviously Kenya has been the target of attacks in the past that are very, very challenging to prevent.\" But, says Hogendoorn, with an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia proving largely ineffective, and Ethiopian military presence withdrawn in January ahead of an Al-Shabaab push, Kenyan military involvement was unlikely to offer any quick fix. \"The problem is once [Kenyan troops] are on the ground they open themselves up to guerrilla style attacks and suicide attacks that could lead to significant loss in life.\"","highlights":"Experts, officials warn of growing threat from Somali militant group .\nAl-Shabaab is one of strongest Islamic militias battling for Mogadishu .\nKenya says danger is to region and world despite threats on Nairobi .","id":"ab5618c6a891ce9963a40f692d817da40ba25078"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Investigators searched the Las Vegas home and office of Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, on Tuesday morning, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman said. Investigators arrive at the Las Vegas, Nevada, home of Michael Jackson's personal physician. Los Angeles police and DEA agents, carrying search warrants, were \"looking for a lot of things,\" said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Mike Flanagan. Aerial cameras showed investigators leaving Murray's home, three hours after they entered, carrying several containers. The searches came a day after a source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed to CNN that Murray administered a powerful drug that authorities believe killed the singer. Flanagan said that while he could not disclose details of the search warrants, because a judge had ordered them sealed, he confirmed they were looking for documents and computer records. Murray's attorney, Ed Chernoff, issued a statement saying that officers from the DEA, Los Angeles police and \"various local agencies\" executed a search warrant at Murray's home and office beginning about 8 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) Tuesday. \"The search warrant authorized investigators to look for medical records relating to Michael Jackson and all of his reported aliases,\" the statement said. \"Dr. Murray was present during the search of his home and assisted the officers.\" Investigators left Murray's home about noon, he said, taking cell phones and a computer hard drive. \"As of 2 p.m., the search at Dr. Murray's office continues,\" the statement said. Murray, a Texas-based cardiologist, allegedly gave Jackson the anesthetic propofol -- commonly known by the brand name Diprivan -- in the 24 hours before he died, said the source, who asked not to be named because the individual was not authorized to speak to the news media. Watch a profile of Murray \u00bb . In a statement Monday, the doctor's attorneys said they wouldn't comment on \"rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources.\" In the past, they have said Murray never prescribed or administered anything that could have killed Jackson. Watch CNN's Ted Rowlands report on drug allegation \u00bb . Last week, Texas authorities searched Murray's Houston medical office and storage unit, looking for \"evidence of the offense of manslaughter,\" according to court documents. Among the items removed from Murray's office were a computer; 27 tablets of phentermine, a prescription-strength appetite suppressant; 1 tablet of clonazepam, an anti-anxiety medication; and some Rolodex cards. From Murray's storage unit, authorities removed two computer hard drives; an \"important contact list\"; a suspension notice from Houston's Doctor Hospital; notices from the Internal Revenue Service; and a laundry list of medical and hospital documents. Chernoff, a Houston lawyer hired by Murray soon after Jackson's death, confirmed at the time that Los Angeles police detectives and federal DEA agents used a search warrant to enter Murray's office in northeast Houston on Wednesday morning. Chernoff said members of Murray's legal team were at the medical office during the search, which he said \"was conducted by members of the DEA, two robbery-homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department and Houston Police officers.\" Police have interviewed Murray twice since Jackson's death. A third interview was scheduled for July 24, but was postponed after the search warrants were executed. It's unknown when the next interview will take place. Among those who have indicated that Jackson may have been using dangerous prescription medication are nutritionist Cherilyn Lee, who said Jackson pleaded for the powerful sedative Diprivan despite being told of its harmful effects. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County coroner's office continues to investigate the cause of Jackson's death on June 25. It has been waiting on toxicology lab results, but a final autopsy report is expected as soon as this week, a coroner's spokesman has said. CNN's Ted Rowlands and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Doctor was \"present during the search of his home,\" attorney says .\nInvestigators search Dr. Conrad Murray's Las Vegas home, office .\nMurray allegedly gave Jackson propofol in the 24 hours before death, source says .\nSource close to family says doctor administered drug believed to have killed singer .","id":"b46b163ef3aa79a0e3cf20c14f45b41d0f8282e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A strong earthquake jolted the southern Philippines on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The 6.2 magnitude quake struck at 11:20 a.m. local time (10:20 p.m. ET). There were no immediate reports of injuries and a tsunami warning was not issued, said Jane Punongbayan of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. \"That was enough to cause panic in some people,\" Punongbayan said. \"Some people in the mall ran out of the mall, but according to initial reports it was not strong enough to cause damage.\" The quake struck 55 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of General Santos in the island of Mindanao or 1,095 kilometers (680 miles) south-southeast of Manila and at a depth of 207 kilometers (129 miles), USGS said. The Philippines is located on the \"Ring of Fire,\" an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning for the quake.","highlights":"NEW: No immediate reports of injuries from the 6.2-magnitude quake .\nQuake struck some 1,100 km (680 miles) south of Manila, the USGS says .\nPhilippines is located on the quake-prone \"Ring of Fire\"\nPacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning .","id":"bd3ff614d6cec85b16c89ef85038c8198fae8820"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you sell it, they will come. Prices are expected to grow for Michael Jackson autographs like the one he gave this young fan in 2002. That's the hope at least for many offering Michael Jackson related merchandise and memorabilia, including autographed items and domain names, in the wake of his surprising death. Almost 20,000 items were up for sale after his death on the popular auction site eBay, where collectors could snap up everything from the rare to the ridiculous. Among the many T-shirts, record albums, DVDs and posters, there were also magazines about Jackson, dolls and copies of newspapers announcing his death. There were Michael Jackson gloves (sparkly, of course), masks, wigs, sunglasses and fedora hats. Anyone in the mood for some senior soda could try and win an auction for an unopened six-pack of Pepsi from the 1984 Jacksons world tour. For those seeking to establish Web sites, domain names were available including \"ILoveYouMichael.com,\" which was selling for the \"buy it now\" price of $5,000. Officials at eBay said that compared with the daily average of the week prior, Thursday's gross merchandise volume for Jackson memorabilia increased by 275 percent and sold items increased by 210 percent. New listings were up 61 percent, while the average selling price of items had increased by 31 percent. Online merchant CafePress also offered a variety of items, including mugs, \"R.I.P. Michael Jackson\" magnets and dozens of T-shirt designs, including one screened with a drawing of tennis legend Billie Jean King and the words \"not my lover.\" Some of the hottest items may turn out to be the ones bearing Jackson's signature. On eBay, bids for what the buyer claimed was a signed Michael Jackson guitar had reached almost $1,300 by Friday afternoon. Jerry Ohlinger, owner of Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Material Store in New York, predicted that although Jackson was generous in giving autographs, the price for a legitimate autograph probably will at least double from the $150 to $300 range it was prior to his death. \"He would sign autographs whenever he appeared in person,\" Ohlinger said. \"For instance, he visited our store at least three times, and he signed autographs for all of the employees.\" As a comparison, Ohlinger said, an autograph for the late actress Marilyn Monroe, who also was known to sign a great deal during her lifetime, sells for about $5,000 because of great demand. As of Friday, items purported to be autographed photos of Jackson were ranging in price from just over $5 to several thousand dollars. There is no way to predict whether there will be a sudden influx in demand for Michael Jackson memorabilia and merchandise, Ohlinger said. All of the hoopla would probably tickle the pop icon, who Ohlinger said was himself a fan of star items. Whenever Jackson would visit Ohlinger's Manhattan store, he would shop for vintage photos of some of the legendary ladies of cinema, including his very dear friend Elizabeth Taylor, Ohlinger recalled.","highlights":"NEW: Sold Jackson items on eBay increase 210 percent compared to last week .\nPlenty of Michael Jackson merchandise goes on sale .\nOnline auction site ebay boasts thousands of items from T-shirts to soda .\nMemorabilia expert predicts Jackson autograph to at least double in price .","id":"74b6f013a753810dc74ab1bf501dd9609937cc3d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN. King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia hosted meetings between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a source says. The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved in four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source. The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies. They also mark a sidestepping of key \"war on terror\" ally Pakistan, frequently accused of not doing enough to tackle militants sheltering on its territory, which has previously been a conduit for talks between the Saudis and Afghanistan. According to the source, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- high on the U.S. military's most-wanted list -- was not present, but his representatives were keen to stress the reclusive cleric is no longer allied to al Qaeda. Details of the Taliban leader's split with al Qaeda have never been made public before, but the new claims confirm what another source with an intimate knowledge of the militia and Mullah Omar has told CNN in the past. The current round of talks, said to have been taken two years of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations to come to fruition, is anticipated to be the first step in a long process to secure a negotiated end to the conflict. But U.S.- and Europe-friendly Saudi Arabia's involvement has been propelled by a mounting death toll among coalition troops amid a worsening violence that has also claimed many civilian casualties. A Saudi source familiar with the talks confirmed that they happened and said the Saudis take seriously their role in facilitating discussions between parties to the conflict. A second round of talks is scheduled to take place in two months, the Saudi source said. The Afghan government believes the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, and the Taliban believe that they can't win a war against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, the Saudi source said. The involvement of the Saudis is also seen as an expression of fear that Iran could take advantage of U.S. failings in Afghanistan, as it is seen to be doing in Iraq. Several Afghan sources familiar with Iranian activities in Afghanistan have said Iranian officials and diplomats who are investing in business and building education facilities are lobbying politicians in Kabul. Learn more about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia \u00bb . The Afghan sources wish to remain anonymous due to their political roles. Coalition commanders regularly accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, and Western diplomats privately suggest that Iran is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan, making it harder to bring peace. Saudi sources say perceived Iranian expansionism is one of Saudi Arabia's biggest concerns. Watch CNN's Nic Robertson report on the meeting \u00bb . The talks in Mecca took place between September 24 and 27 and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahadeen commander and U.S. foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others. King Abdullah broke fast during the Eid al-Fitr holiday with the 17-member Afghan delegation -- an act intended to show his commitment to ending the conflict. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Learn more about Ramadan \u00bb . Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban leadership during its rule over Afghanistan in the 1990s, but that relationship was severed over Mullah Omar's refusal to hand over bin Laden. During the talks, described as an ice breaker, all parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan's conflict is through dialogue, not fighting. Further talks are expected in Saudi Arabia involving this core group and others.","highlights":"King Abdullah hosted talks in city of Mecca at end of September, source says .\nSaudi Arabia has generally dealt with Afghanistan through Pakistan .\nTalks are the first aimed at bringing a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict .\nAll parties agreed only solution to Afghan conflict is dialogue, not fighting .","id":"04cbf2ddbd72de6930f27b529a8a015b1e4b6617"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Los Angeles Times' headquarters aptly sits where the U.S. Army corralled camels during the Civil War, when Southern California was a desert with no natural resources. A new film on PBS explores how the Chandler family helped develop Los Angeles through their newspaper. Los Angeles' development from an arid wasteland to a world metropolis and cultural capital is closely linked to the newspaper's rise under the ownership of one family. \"It would still be a desert,\" documentary filmmaker Peter Jones said, if Gen. Harrison Gray Otis didn't arrive in the 1880s to take over the bankrupt Los Angeles Times and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, wasn't there to follow him. Jones' documentary is a saga of four generations of the region's most powerful family shaping Los Angeles as they pursued their own civil agendas -- and accumulated wealth. \"Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times\" premieres Monday on PBS. Historian David Halberstam said in the documentary that the Chandlers dominated Southern California as no other family has dominated any major region of the United States. \"They did not so much foster the growth of Los Angeles as invent it,\" said Halberstam, who died in 2007. Harrison Gray Otis, Harry Chandler, Norman Chandler and Otis Chandler succeeded each other at the helm of the Los Angeles Times over a span of 100 years. The city grew from a small desert town to the nation's second-largest city, while the family became one of the nation's wealthiest. The Chandler family dynasty ended when the general's great-grandson Otis Chandler was ousted as chairman of the Times board of directors in 1985. The family eventually sold its Times-Mirror Company to Chicago's Tribune Company -- which is now in bankruptcy. Each man's personality and strengths were tailored for what was demanded of their time, said Jones. \"For each era, they were up to that particular era,\" he said. \"You couldn't actually rearrange them,\" said Harry Chandler's namesake and the great-great-grandson of the general. \"You couldn't have a General Otis in late 20th-century America,\" Chandler told CNN, referring to the dynasty's founder who served as an Army general in the Philippine-American War before taking over the Los Angeles Times. \"His character was one of the period. 'I have a vision and everything I touch needs to support that vision and damn the consequences.'\" Otis used his newspaper to scare the public about the threat of drought, drumming up support for a 230-mile aqueduct -- one of the modern engineering marvels -- to divert water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles, Jones said. He was part of a syndicate that bought vast tracts of barren land in the San Fernando Valley with the inside knowledge the Los Angeles Aqueduct would bring water there. The scandal later inspired Roman Polanski's award-winning film \"Chinatown.\" Otis also used the Times to influence the federal government's decision to build the Port of Los Angeles, Jones said. \"He had the foresight to say 'We have to build a man-made harbor here in Los Angeles if we want to become a major port of trade,' and today the Port of Los Angeles is the busiest port in the United States,\" Jones said. The general and his successor son-in-law promoted investment in and migration to the Los Angeles area with stories of sunshine and opportunity. More people moving in meant more readers for their newspaper and demand for the real estate empire they were building. Harrison Gray Otis and Harry Chandler used their newspaper to create a vision of Los Angeles as \"America's Great White Spot\" -- free of crime and communism. They fought a decades-long battle against labor unions -- a battle that included the 1910 bombing of The Los Angeles Times headquarters. The Los Angeles film, aviation, high technology, shipping and oil industries grew from the Chandlers' influence, Jones said. As a conservative Republican family, they helped launch Richard Nixon's political career in post-World War II California. The story is not all about the men. Dorothy Chandler -- the strong-willed wife of Norman Chandler -- waged a relentless campaign to turn Los Angeles into a world-class cultural center, Jones said. She led a campaign to raise money to save the Hollywood Bowl and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In doing so, she brought together the Westside Jewish community with the white Protestant establishment based in Pasadena, Harry Chandler said. Tom Johnson, who became first nonfamily publisher of the Times in 1980, said one of Dorothy Chandler's \"most remarkable\" contributions was the successful effort to make sure her son Otis succeeded her husband as publisher in 1960. \"The very new approach that Otis took and his leadership of the newspaper was just astounding,\" Johnson said in an interview with CNN. Otis Chandler gave reporters editorial independence, opened news bureaus around the world and strengthened the paper's coverage of the suburbs, Johnson said. Under Otis Chandler, it rose from being one of the worst major papers in the country to being one of the top three, Johnson said. \"It was his goal to make the Los Angeles Times one of the best newspapers, and he did it in 20 years, being the right publisher at the right time,\" Johnson said. But Otis Chandler's transformation of the Times from a conservative newspaper into a Pulitzer Prize-winning rival to the New York Times and Washington Post angered many Chandler family members. \"Some Chandlers were members of the John Birch society; his paper did an expose on it,\" Johnson said. Otis Chandler's newspaper looked closely at the Los Angeles Police Department, \"which had a reputation to shoot first and ask questions,\" Johnson said. The deep family rift eventually led to the sale of the Times-Mirror Company to the Tribune Company -- and the end of the dynasty. Johnson, who left the newspaper in 1989 and later became chairman of CNN, said the paper declined in the years since because \"rather than going for people who were superb newspaper people, they went outside to pick people who, in my opinion, blew the place apart.\" Some Chandler family descendants cooperated with Jones' efforts to explore the Chandler family's dealings. \"He doesn't whitewash, but he doesn't dig into the dark side and linger too long,\" said Harry Chandler, the son of Otis Chandler. The documentary is \"on whole, a very balanced, very accomplished, incredibly well researched\" documentary, Chandler said. Jones said he avoided judging the motives of Gen. Otis and his successors. \"When these guys were going about building the city, sometimes they did things, I wouldn't say in an underhanded way, but in a very private way,\" Jones said. \"How do you ascribe motives to people who did things 100 years ago? Was it for greed, avarice and duplicity? History in general is this tangled web of good and evil.\"","highlights":"\"Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times\" premieres Monday on PBS .\nHistorian: Chandlers not only dominated Los Angeles, they invented it .\nLos Angeles grew from small desert town to nation's second-largest city .\nThe Chandler family newspaper dynasty ended in 1985 .","id":"58d6e08c32c0c510aff4ee45bba9231b0a8f8b97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actor Edward Norton already wanted to be in better shape for his 40th birthday than he was on his 30th when the idea hit -- why not join members of an African tribe famous for its runners and run the New York marathon? \"Incredible Hulk\" star Edward Norton, second from left, has trained for a marathon with Maasai tribesmen in Kenya . Before he knew it, the star of \"The Incredible Hulk\" and \"Fight Club\" had signed on to the effort, despite never having run a marathon before. \"The idea picked up traction pretty quickly,\" said Norton, who turned 39 in August. \"Then, I was like, 'Wait a minute. What have I just done?'\" The run is a benefit for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, an organization working to promote sustainable development while protecting the east African grasslands that the Maasai tribe calls home. Both the traditional tribe's way of life and its environment have been threatened by rapid industrial development. Norton discovered, and became a supporter of, the trust about 10 years ago during his first visit to Kenya, where he met founder Luca Belpietro. \"I was impressed at the way he was really genuinely working with the community to create value out of being good stewards of the land,\" Norton said. Belpietro will be one of nearly 30 runners joining Norton on the Nov. 1 marathon. Also running will be magician David Blaine and three Maasai tribesmen. The Maasai are at the heart of Kenya's long tradition of distance running. Norton said one of the runners, safari guide Parashi Ntanin, is so fast he could probably leave the rest of the group behind and run the race in less than 2\u00bd hours. Norton said he's run as much as 15 miles twice during his training for the 26.2-mile marathon and that despite some leg and knee pains, he's confident he'll finish the endurance race. \"I'm really enjoying it,\" he said after a workout Wednesday in New York. \"I'm enjoying having a goal.\" A competitive rower at Yale, Norton said he's experienced the so-called \"runner's high\" during his training, which fans can follow on his Twitter account, @EdwardNorton. \"Running in the park, I got a taste of what people say about the New York marathon. There were people of every shape and size out there,\" he said. \"I really got a lift out of it.\" Norton's latest film, the independently produced \"Leaves of Grass,\" is set to premiere this week at the Toronto International Film Festival and his company's \"By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama,\" a documentary about President Obama's historic campaign for the White House, debuts on HBO on November 3.","highlights":"Actor on marathon decision: 'What have I just done?'\nNorton's New York run will benefit Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust .\nTraining runs have hit 15 miles for Nov. 1 race .\nMaasai tribesmen, magician David Blaine also part of running group .","id":"35718325bc9ab86dd91f6e1f2b067a1961d96b04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Formula One cars are a marvel of modern engineering, so much so, that many manufactuers who compete in the sport do so in order to benefit from the technical innovations race-honed research and development creates. Car builders such as Renault, Ferrari, BMW, Toyota and McLaren have used technology -- developed to make single-seater race cars as competitive as possible -- to enhance their road-car products. And who can blame them if you consider the performance such a machine can deliver to a driver? The average F1 car can reach 160km\/h in under six seconds according to the official Formula One Web site and have top speeds in the region of 370 km\/h. Going fast is one thing, stopping is another, and controlling such velocity requires carbon brakes which, in any given race, will have an operating temperature that is over 600 degrees Celsius. In general, the cars weigh around 600 kilograms in race trim, including the addition of KERS that some constructors use to increase performance. This system stores energy normally lost through braking and reuses it for speed boosts during the race. Watch out for KERS powered cars -- including the Mclarens, BMW Saubers and Renault -- using their boost as the lights go green to start this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.","highlights":"A Formula One car can reach 160km\/h in under six seconds .\nF1 car brakes operate at a temperature over 600 degrees Celsius .\nIn general, the cars weigh around 600 kilograms in race trim .","id":"c42317b2b75403f880f0046da27a773a77f86418"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- The X-ray machine was Wednesday named the most important scientific invention, in a poll marking the centenary of the Science Museum in London. Almost 50,000 people voted in the museum or online on a shortlist of ten discoveries and inventions from past centuries in science, technology and engineering. The X-ray machine, which was discovered in 1895 and revolutionized how doctors detected disease and injury, struck a chord with most voters who singled it out for having made the greatest impact on the past, present and future. It gathered one fifth of the votes( 9581 votes) followed by the discoveries of penicillin and the DNA double helix structure. Katie Maggs, associate curator of medicine at the Science Museum, told CNN that she was \"pleasantly surprised\" with the results, saying she \"wondered whether the therapeutic benefit of penicillin might just edge in front -- or perhaps the Apollo 10 capsule as visitors find space travel so inspirational as the ultimate test of technology.\" Maggs attributed the X-ray machine's popularity to the wide impact it has on people's everyday life, from the very first steps of a medical diagnosis to security control at airports. \"People are just fascinated with seeing inside their bodies --- even today. It has fundamentally changed the way we see and understand our world -- but particularly our bodies. \"But I also think visitors are aware of the immense and various benefits x-rays have brought -- revolutionizing medical diagnosis and therapy but also astronomy and material and chemical science -- it was x-rays that enabled us to discover the structure of DNA after all!\" X-rays were discovered in November 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm R\u00f6ntgen. The Science Museum also houses the Reynolds machine, which was built by a father and son John and Russell Reynolds, months after R\u00f6ntgen announced his discovery. They were so inspired by the news that they started constructing the equipment in their own home.","highlights":"The X-ray machine was voted the most significant scientific invention, in a poll by the Science Museum in London .\nOut of almost 50,000 votes cast, one in five people selected it as the object they believed it had the greatest impact on the past, present and future .\nX-rays were followed by the discoveries of penicillin and the DNA double helix structure .\nThe public vote began on 10 June this year as part of the Science Museum's events to mark its centenary .","id":"b28d47fd1a20256dcac167195a090afcb6bee853"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Virg Bernero is the mayor of Lansing, Michigan and chairman of the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition (MMAC). He is one of the mayors of U.S. cities appearing on \"American Morning\" this week. Mayor Virg Bernero says the American worker has been sold out by backers of free trade. (CNN) -- While America reels from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is time that we take a deeper look at the root causes of our current predicament. The cold, hard truth is that the unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street has sold out the American worker and exported our standard of living. Driven by the insatiable greed of Wall Street profiteers and accelerated by the false promise of free trade, our manufacturing base has been chased out of this country and along with it the livelihood of millions of hard-working Americans. It's fashionable these days among the politicians, pundits and so-called experts to claim that free trade is actually good for us. They say it enables us to buy cheaper goods made with cheap foreign labor and this, in turn, raises our standard of living. With all due respect, the free traders need to ask themselves a more fundamental question: how will Americans buy those goods when they don't even have a paycheck that covers their mortgage, much less the college tuition for their children? Watch Mayor Bernero speak to American Morning's John Roberts \u00bb . More than one pundit has told me I need to take a broader view. As the mayor of one of America's countless manufacturing communities, the only view that matters is the one my citizens see every day: Record job losses, home foreclosures and, thanks to the Wall Street wizards, a credit crunch so severe that it is nearly impossible to finance a new car. This isn't a predicament faced just by Michigan or the Midwest. This is the story of America, told in thousands of desperate households from Connecticut to California. The pundits claim our manufacturing sector is a relic of the old economy. We're told that we just can't compete anymore. We're told that our future is in the service economy, that jobs in health care and finance and knowledge-based industries will recreate the prosperity our nation once knew. The truth is that our industrial heritage is an example of everything that was right with our nation's economy. Good jobs with good benefits created the middle class in this country, and now it is being systematically dismantled under the banner of free trade and globalism. Those who continue to espouse free trade ominously warn that protectionism is the wrong path for our nation; that challenging the holy doctrine of free trade invites a global trade war. Yet we already face rampant protectionism across the globe. Pursuing a free trade agenda in a protectionist world is tantamount to unilateral disarmament. Our trading partners routinely employ taxes, tariffs and subsidies that underwrite their exports and restrict American products from entering their home markets. They use currency manipulation to reduce the relative cost of their goods here in the USA. The fact is we're not competing against other companies; we're competing against other countries. I've toured the Hyundai plant in Asan, Korea. The Koreans are wonderful people, but their technology isn't any better and they're not working any harder than Americans. The difference is that Hyundai doesn't have to pay legacy costs. The Korean government takes care of their retirees. Hyundai doesn't pay health care costs because they have national heath care. If you don't think that's an unfair advantage, you're kidding yourself. Many Americans are unaware that China sold 10 million cars last year -- more than General Motors or Toyota. I can assure you the Chinese government is part and parcel of that success. They're involved in their industry. The Korean government is involved in their industry. If we are going to have any chance to compete globally, our government must get involved in our industry and help us rebuild America's industrial might before it is too late. There's no question that we need this stimulus package. We need the reinvestment in America's infrastructure and in the working people of this country. We need tax cuts delivered directly to the American worker. We need education and retraining for the \"green collar\" jobs of the future. But we need more than a short term shot in the arm. We need a long-term strategy to rebuild the American economy that provides jobs and economic security to the millions of hard-working American families who have been sold down the river by unfair trade policies. We need fair trade agreements so that the most productive workers in the world -- American workers -- can put their skills to work and compete in the global economy. We recently watched our athletes successfully compete in the Olympics against nations of the world. When the playing field is level, Americans can compete against the best from any nation. With fair trade instead of free trade, American workers can once again bring home the gold. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Virg Bernero.","highlights":"Virg Bernero: Washington and Wall Street have sold out the American worker .\nHe says we must rebuild America's industrial might before it is too late .\nBernero: Free trade in protectionist world is like unilateral disarmament .","id":"fa994804ebf588c818c17cf07f151dc2fb22face"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama spoke with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday about the violence in Gaza, which has left as many as 225 people dead, two transition aides told CNN. Barack Obama's approach to the Middle East as president will be the subject of much scrutiny. \"The president-elect appreciated the call and the information from Secretary Rice,\" one aide said, adding that Obama initiated the eight-minute phone call. \"He will continue to closely monitor these and other global events.\" Israeli airstrikes pounded targets in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday and continued into the night, retaliating against Palestinian militants who have been escalating rocket attacks against southern Israel. The fighting ignited eight days after a six-month Egypt-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israel expired. Obama has pledged to make Middle East peace a priority from the beginning of his presidency. Arabs are calling for a more even-handed approach than the Bush administration, but Israel is expecting Obama to stay true to the pro-Israel posture he showed during the campaign. But one analyst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cautioned against putting \"dangerously high\" expectations on the incoming administration. \"I think the tone of American politics will change: You're going to get a serious effort on behalf of the new administration,\" said Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center and a former adviser to six secretaries of state on Arab-Israeli relations. But, he told CNN, \"the fact is that unless the Israelis and Palestinians are prepared -- which they're not right now -- to take the political decisions required to overcome the gaps and to sell an agreement to their respective constituents, there's not much a new president, no matter how bold or charismatic he may be, is going to be able to do about that.\" CNN's Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"President-elect initiated eight-minute call with secretary of state .\nObama \"will continue to closely monitor\" Middle East events, aide says .\nHe has promised to make peace in the region a priority .","id":"2f6ecc26fd700e9dfbf1dc622b69fc51b5b7de19"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Flooding and resulting landslides killed 137 people Thursday and Friday in this nation's northern provinces, including Baguio City, Benguet Province and Mountain Province, the Office of Civil Defense in Cordillera said Friday. A boatman transports three empty wooden coffins on the edge of Laguna Lake east of Manila on Thursday. Another 43 people were missing and 45 were injured, it said. Landslides blocked traffic along the Marchos Highway, Naguilian Road, Kennon Road and Ambuklao Road, cutting access to Baguio City, Benguet Province and Mountain Province, it said. The floods were unleased by tropical depression Parma, which had been downgraded from a typhoon. Earlier reports from Rocky Baraan, provincial administrator of Pangasinan, said flooding had inundated 32 towns and two cities, Dagupan and Urdaneta. Some 35,000 people had fled to evacuation centers, the official Philippines News Agency reported, citing the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council. The worst-hit areas included Bayambang, Alcala and Basista, the news agency reported. People clambered onto rooftops as floodwaters rose, calling and texting for help. Rescue trucks were hampered by floodwaters that reach the roofs of single-story houses, Baraan said. About 16 rubber rescue boats had been deployed. Since the rains started in central Luzon, three dams in the Pangasinan area have been releasing vast amounts of water -- up to 10 million cubic meters per hour at one dam, dam officials said. Water passing through the three dams -- the Ambuklao, the Binga and the San Roque -- is rushing into the Agno River, which has been swollen since Thursday and affects seven towns in eastern Pangasinan, dam officials said. Water released from the San Roque dam has contributed to the flooding in eastern Pangasinan, acknowledged Alex Palada, division manager for flood forecasting and warning of the National Power Corporation. Dam officials had no choice but to maintain safe water levels, he added, noting that he alerted Pangasinan Governor Amado Espino. The governor started to evacuate residents Thursday when the Agno River started to rise, Palada said. In the last several days, water has become the Philippines' biggest enemy, as Parma, locally known as \"Pepeng,\" dumped as much as 36 inches (91.4 centimeters) of rain in some parts of the nation of islands, compounding misery in areas already flooded by earlier storm Ketsana. Parma was forecast to have winds of no greater than 39 mph (63 kph) by Friday. The U.S. Navy was expected to join rescue operations in Pangasinan, according to the agency. Journalist Lilibeth Frondoso and CNN's Judy Kwon contributed to this report.","highlights":"137 people dead in provinces, including Baguio City, Benguet and Mountain .\nFloods were unleased by tropical depression Parma .\nReport: Worst-hit areas in Pangasinan province are Bayambang, Alcala and Basista .","id":"913d6933eced023f5f937c8ce799a4da52f7a94b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Graffiti artist Banksy, famed for infiltrating museum collections without their knowledge and spray-painting public buildings around the world, is holding his first major exhibition in years. A Banksy painting of the British House of Commons at England's Bristol museum. This time, however, the anonymous artist worked in tandem with the director of Bristol museum in the UK. CNN's Max Foster got a preview of his largest project to date. The artist's anonymity gained him notoriety and he became one of the art world's biggest names with his works selling at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The exhibition's range, while very varied, remained true to Banksy form with his usual unconventional take on art. See pictures from Banksy's exhibition \u00bb . \"I think we might have dragged them down to our level rather than being elevated to theirs\" Banksy, who is thought to be from Bristol, said about the museum. He filled three stories of the building with his art in 36 hours under tight security, as only a few museum staff were aware of the shows' imminent arrival. His work is hidden among the museum's usual exhibits and is split into different rooms, including installations, paintings and sculptures. In one of the paintings, a character has been cut out and is instead sitting on the painting's frame, perhaps taking a break from posing? Another piece, which at first glance, looks like a copy of an ancient classical statue, is in fact a woman over-loaded with countless shopping bags as she browses for yet another item. Perhaps the most controversial, yet equally light-hearted piece, is a painting of the British Parliamentary House of Commons, filled with chimpanzees who are looking surprisingly \"ministerial.\" \"You paint a hundred chimpanzees and they call you a guerilla artist,\" Banksy said. While one of the more poignant installations is that of Tweety, the Warner Bros. animated character famous for his upbeat personality and energy, looking old and life-less. \"This show is my vision of the future,\" the artist said . Banksy is unlikely to show up at the exhibition as he attempts to retain his anonymity. But while we may never know his identity, with this latest show, Banksy has definitely shown yet another facet of his personality. CNN's Max Foster contributed to this report .","highlights":"Banksy, the world-famous British graffiti artist will unveil his largest project to date .\nA surprise show is held from June 13 until August 31 at the Bristol museum, UK .\nBanksy has remained true to form with his unconventional take on art .","id":"3b287e6061cec1eb4c40fc7e6936c0742df7cbcd"} -{"article":"GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- Palestinian militants declared Sunday that they would stop attacks on Israel for a week, a statement that came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral cease-fire in the country's assault on Hamas in Gaza. An Israeli soldier holds up an Israeli flag after leaving Gaza on Sunday. The Palestinians demanded that Israel remove all troops from Gaza within the week, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said from Egypt. The agreement appears to cover all Palestinian armed factions, not only Hamas. \"We in the Palestinian resistance movements announce a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip,\" Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official in Syria, said on Syrian TV. \"And we demand that Israeli forces withdraw in one week and that they open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods for our people in Gaza.\" There is no mutual agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians -- each side has made its own unilateral declaration of a cease-fire. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, called for the cease-fire to hold so aid could get into Gaza. Watch how a family in Gaza is coping with the violence \u00bb . \"We hope that it continues and that the situation calms down and that humanitarian aid delivery begins immediately to our people,\" he said at a summit in Egypt. Watch how a reporter finds Gaza in chaos \u00bb . During 22 days of fighting, more than 1,200 people have died, all but 13 of them Palestinians. Watch clean-up efforts in Gaza City \u00bb . The Palestinians and Israel continued to skirmish for several hours Sunday after Israel said it was stopping its offensive against Hamas. Palestinians fired at least 19 rockets into Israel on Sunday -- including at least two after the Palestinian cease-fire declaration, according to Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. At least three people were lightly wounded. Israeli military aircraft retaliated, firing missiles and destroying a rocket launcher, a military spokesman said. Shortly before the rocket attacks, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli forces in northern Gaza, the military said. Troops returned fire. Separately, Palestinian medical sources said 23 bodies were pulled from rubble in Gaza. Watch doctors tend to wounded civilians \u00bb . Olmert said Sunday the Israeli offensive had achieved its goals but that the Israel Defense Forces reserved the right to respond to any Palestinian violence against Israelis. \"IDF forces are in the Gaza Strip and many other units, which are surrounding Gaza from all sides, are closely observing every corner and listening to every whisper, ready for any response that they might receive from their commanders if and when the violations continue, as they have this morning,\" he said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, before the announcement of the Palestinian cease-fire. Israel pulled some troops out of the Palestinian territory as it called a halt to its operation against Hamas, but others remained. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN they would be there for a matter of days, not weeks. International leaders are in the region for talks on the crisis. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted a summit Sunday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bringing together leaders from Europe and the Middle East. Olmert told the gathering that, if the cease-fire holds, \"the government of Israel has no intention to stay in the Gaza Strip. We are interested in leaving Gaza as soon as we can.\" He said Israel would \"continue to do whatever is possible to prevent the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,\" and expressed sorrow for the deaths of innocent civilians. \"It wasn't our intention to fight them or to harm them, to hurt them or to shoot at them,\" he said. German Premier Angela Merkel underscored the international community's preferred outcome in a news conference in Egypt: \"The two-state solution is the only solution we have.\" Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, later in Jerusalem. A top aide to Barack Obama said the president-elect would move swiftly to work on the Middle East after he is sworn in on Tuesday. \"The events around the world demand that he act quickly, and I think you'll see him act quickly,\" David Axelrod told CNN. But he refused to promise Obama would name a Middle East special envoy \"on day one.\" Israel said it launched the offensive in Gaza to stop the firing of rockets -- primarily the short-range homemade Qassam rockets -- from the territory into southern Israel by Hamas fighters. \"We welcome any alleviation of violence, with cautious optimism and hope that these declarations of cease-fire will lead to the end of fighting,\" said Charles Clayton, national director of World Vision Jerusalem, an aid group. \"We call on all parties to stop attacks, including Hamas' rocket strikes against Israel, and refrain from further hostilities.\" He called for \"unhindered and safe humanitarian assistance to the desperate civilian families of Gaza who have lost their homes and businesses and are struggling amid shortages of food, supplies, healthcare and fuel.\" He further called for an end \"to the 18-month blockade of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza,\" saying it has \"devastated the economy, halted services, and rendered the people of Gaza entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.\" CNN's Arie Bell and Karl Penhaul contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Israeli prime minister says no intention to hurt civilians .\nPalestinians fire two rockets after cease-fire declaration .\nPalestinian Authority president calls for aid into Gaza .\nCease-fire covers all armed Palestinian factions, CNN reports .","id":"1eacfb65d7eddc1062313f202cab01df2f6893d3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a U.S. economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said. Ra\u00fal Castro says Cuba is willing \"to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners.'' \"We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss,\" Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela. The response came days after President Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of American citizens to visit relatives in Cuba as well as to send them remittances. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will remain in place. This week's move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. The U.S. government instituted the embargo three years after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. In Mexico City for meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama offered a carrot and a stick to Havana. \"What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted,\" he said. \"And if there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we can see a further thawing of relations and further changes.\" Obama's gesture precedes a trip this week to Trinidad and Tobago for a key meeting of hemispheric powers -- the Summit of the Americas. Watch how Obama likely will hear about Cuba at the summit \u00bb .","highlights":"Cuba's president responds after President Obama eases some travel restrictions .\nIsland nation has long been the object of a U.S. economic blockade .\nObama says U.S. is looking for signal of \"changes in how Cuba operates\"\nCuba-U.S. relations likely will be an issue at the Summit of the Americas .","id":"56d2496de48fb9ac93084f72c9c84b2c4cfaaa0b"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Layoffs for sea lions? Furloughs for frogs? Is there no job security, anywhere? State budget cuts mean New York's 76 zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums will lose $9.1 million in funding. The recession may be coming to a zoo near you. State budget cuts mean many zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens will lose crucial state funding for their exhibits. New York's 76 zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens will lose $9.1 million in state funds next year. \"We're faced with this very difficult problem of firing the animals, as it were,\" said Steve Sanderson, the CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium. They will lose $3 million to budget cuts. The Bronx Zoo has made a short video posted on its Web site www.bronxzoo.com\/ to draw attention to the cuts. In the video, the zoo director fires a porcupine and a frog. \"I am sure you have heard that Gov. [David] Paterson's proposed budget will mean severe cuts here at the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium,\" the zoo director says. \"Next year, all 76 zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums in the state will lose all of their state funding. There is no easy way to say this: Even though you bring record numbers of people to New York and help the economy, we are going to have to let you go.\" Firing a porcupine and a frog may be a cute way to get publicity for their budget woes, but it's a serious matter and zoo officials say the recession will certainly affect the animals. Zoo officials say some collections with \"short life cycles\" will not be replaced when they die, and other animals could be sent to other zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. The state of New York funds just 2.7 percent of the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium's budget, but zoo officials say it will be difficult to make up. Between the state budget cuts, the loss in the value of their endowment and fewer people renewing memberships -- times are so tough for the zoo and aquarium -- they say they may lay off 120 to 130 people. \"Two-thirds of our budget is people, and so two-thirds of the cuts will come in cutting positions,\" Sanderson said. \"And we'll also cut back what we provide in the way of education and entertainment and nature experiences for people. So it affects everything.\" Zoo officials questioned the state's priorities. But just about everybody getting taxpayer funds has to cut back. Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the New York State Budget Office told CNN the cuts are regrettable but necessary considering the state's current financial crisis. Citing a \"dramatic reduction in revenue,\" Gordon said, \"Every entity that receives state funds must do what the state has done, which is to review its operations and identify ways to operate at lower costs.\" The Bronx Zoo isn't the only one affected; cutbacks are happening everywhere. The Los Angeles Zoo in California stopped work on its $42 million elephant exhibit last year, and there are big budget cuts for zoos in Maryland, Missouri and North Carolina. There's no relief for the zoos in the $819 billion economic stimulus package. Section 1109 of the stimulus bill which passed this week in the House forbids the use of federal taxpayer money to plug the budget gaps. Taxpayer watchdog groups lobbied to keep zoos, aquariums, swimming pools, golf courses and casinos out of the stimulus, arguing that there are higher priorities for Americans' money during a recession.","highlights":"State budget cuts threaten funding for zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens .\nNew York's 76 zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens will lose $9.1 million .\nBronx Zoo: Some animals won't be replaced; others may go to zoos, sanctuaries .\nZoos in Florida, Maryland, Missouri and North Carolina face budget cuts .","id":"a2bc3e17e362f182f98196e5d6712c2305d5871f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of a shipping company recently victimized by pirates off the Somali coast told lawmakers Tuesday that U.S. cargo crews should be allowed to arm themselves in response to the rising hijacking threat. In April, pirates attacked The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, but were unable to board. Philip Shapiro, head of Liberty Maritime Corp., told a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee that the owners of U.S.-flagged \"have done all they can within the law to protect our crews.\" Unfortunately, he said, U.S. vessels are still largely at the mercy of pirates in shipping lanes around the heavily trafficked Gulf of Aden. \"In light of the recent threats to U.S. merchant mariners, we respectfully request that Congress consider clearing the obstacles that currently block ship owners from arming our vessels,\" Shapiro said. Pirates unsuccessfully attempted to board the Liberty Sun, a cargo vessel owned by Shapiro's company, near the Somali coast on April 14. The ship was on a humanitarian relief mission at the time, carrying 47,000 tons of food to Mombassa, Kenya. Pirate leaders later said the attempted hijacking was carried out as revenge after the U.S. Navy killed three pirates involved in a failed attack on the cargo ship Maersk Alabama. The slain pirates were holding Capt. Richard Phillips, who was in charge of the Alabama when it was boarded April 8. \"We've heard some suggestions that U.S.-flagged ship owners have not done enough to protect their vessels,\" Shapiro said. \"That view ... is flat wrong. Our company adopted every measure recommended by the international maritime organizations and required by the Coast Guard's approved security plan for making the vessel a difficult piracy target -- and more.\" Merchant vessels don't usually carry firearms, he said, but the \"Maersk Alabama incident constitutes a game changer. ... Self-proclaimed pirate leaders have now issued direct threats of violence against American merchant mariners.\" Shapiro said that U.S. crews have a right to self-defense under U.S. laws dating back to 1819, but \"recently enacted State Department arms export regulations effectively prohibit the arming of vessels.\" He also said that ship owners are at risk of \"being second-guessed in U.S. and foreign courts for self-defensive measures that were common in 1819.\" Shapiro urged congressional leaders to help \"bring U.S. law up to date and give us the legal framework we need to be able to protect ourselves.\" Until then, he said, U.S. naval escorts or government security teams will be required for U.S. vessels on high-risk transits. Shapiro was joined at the committee hearing by Phillips, who said the most desirable response would be the establishment of U.S. military escorts as well as military detachments. Phillips repeated an assertion he made before a separate Senate committee last week that arming vessels' crews could provide an effective deterrent -- but only under certain limited circumstances. \"Unless the root causes of piracy are addressed [on land], piracy will continue to expand and evolve into an even greater threat for American and foreign seamen,\" Phillips said. A Transportation Department official testifying at the hearing noted that the ships most vulnerable to attack are those built low to the water with insufficient top speeds. Ships need to be able to accelerate to \"a high rate of speed [for] aggressive maneuvering\" and should have high walls that are tough for pirates to scale, said Undersecretary of Transportation Roy Kienitz. He recommended that ship owners mandate a range of \"best practices,\" including having fire hoses to spray water over the side of a ship and extra manning for watches during dawn and dusk, when attacks are tougher to detect. Shapiro said that the crew of the Liberty Sun was able to fend off the pirate attack in part by rigging fire hoses to cover the stern of the vessel and \"create a virtual flood wall of water coming off the ship.\" Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, applauded the efforts of the crews on both the Alabama and the Liberty Sun. \"These bandits have to be stopped,\" he said at the opening of the hearing. \"Violence and lawlessness will not be tolerated whether on land, in the sky or at sea. We have a duty to protect the ships that proudly fly America's flag.\"","highlights":"Liberty Maritime Corp. chief speaks before U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee .\nHe says U.S. vessels are at mercy of pirates around the busy Gulf of Aden .\nPirates tried, failed to board one of his company's cargo ships, the Liberty Sun .\nRichard Phillips, the hijacked Maersk Alabama captain, joined him at the hearing .","id":"43d482b6c8b000b9ba40685ad0a8aa6e4221b798"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Miriam Brown has always wanted to visit Cape Cod, but when she recently began to plan a trip and found out she would have to pay $200 or more a night for lodging, her dream vacation seemed out of reach. Miriam Brown and her husband bartered their services for room and board on Cape Cod. Brown, who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, is an accountant. Her husband is a home renovations contractor. Like many people dealing with a soft real estate market and high food and gas prices, they just don't have that kind of extra cash for a trip. \"I have traveled a lot in prior years, but after [Hurricane] Katrina, there's just no money for traveling,\" Brown said. So she still plans to go, but she won't spend any cash at all on lodging. Brown has joined the growing ranks of Americans who are bartering -- trading goods and services without exchanging money -- as a way to cope with tough economic times. Brown posted an ad in the barter section of the online community Craigslist last month, offering to trade her accounting skills and her husband's knack for home repairs in exchange for room and board on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She has lots of company. There were some 142,000 listings in the barter section of Craigslist in July, or almost double the number posted during the same month last year, according to Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best. \"When the economy turns unfriendly, Craigslist users become far more creative to get their everyday tasks done,\" Best said. Swapping 'to get by' Other Web sites that put Americans in touch with like-minded people who are willing to trade everything under the sun have also seen a boost in traffic. SwapThing, which lists almost 3.5 million \"things\" available for trade, reports its customers are bartering for different reasons than before. \"I think a few years ago it was more for fun,\" said Jessica Hardwick, SwapThing founder and CEO. \"But we've seen a real shift in the last year, and especially an increase in the last few months, where I think people are really doing it to get by.\" Some of the most popular items to trade for late this summer were school uniforms, which some parents found they could not afford to buy for their children, Hardwick said. Experts aren't surprised Americans are becoming more financially creative during an economic downturn. \"Historically, when times get tough, you see a 50 percent-plus increase in bartering as a way for people to be able to buy things or get things and do it economically,\" said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group. The company talks with thousands of consumers every week to gauge their spending habits and attitudes. A couple of years ago, many Americans had $500 to spend at the end of the month, but that money has evaporated because of rising prices, Beemer said. \"We've never had a time, at least in my lifetime, where you have food and fuel going up at the same time. So it isn't a question of buying things, it's a question of buying nothing,\" Beemer said. Breast implants and a horse . Businesses have long recognized the benefits of bartering, and there are hundreds of barter networks set up across the country to fill their needs. They use barter credits as currency, so a plumber in need of a filling doesn't need to search for a dentist's office with plumbing problems to make a deal. He can fix a leaky pipe for one member of a network and use the credits he earned for that job at any other. Since all kinds of companies are members, the trades can be all over the map, said Michael Krane, president of Green Apple Barter Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His company has brokered everything from breast implants to college tuition to a horse. \"Really, there are no limits to it. We trade for just about anything you can think of,\" Krane said. Bartering on this scale is also robust in tough economic times. Krane said his exchange has seen a 20 percent rise in barter transaction volume in the first six months of this year. A longtime client is Thomas Forrest, an orthodontist in suburban Pittsburgh who barters his services for everything from office improvements to stationery. His practice hasn't been affected by the economic downturn, Forrest said, but some of his patients seem glad to be able to visit him under the barter arrangement. \"I think if you have a business owner who has children in need of braces, I sense a gratitude that that's available,\" Forrest said. Barter exchanges must carefully document all trades, since the Internal Revenue Service considers income from bartering as taxable. However, a barter exchange \"does not include arrangements that provide solely for the informal exchange of similar services on a noncommercial basis,\" according to the IRS. In New Orleans, Brown and her husband are getting ready to go to Cape Cod after finding a taker for her bartering offer on Craigslist. The couple will work five hours a day in exchange for staying in \"a beautiful three-bedroom house right in the center of it all,\" Brown said. \"We can do a lot more if we don't have to pay for room and board,\" she added.","highlights":"Many Americans are bartering as a way to cope with tough economic times .\nBartering involves trading goods and services without exchanging money .\nResearcher: Bartering activity rises dramatically during economic downturns .\n\"We trade for just about anything you can think of,\" barter network president says .","id":"a22e705de584dbea1a8e8f3b02234c451a604028"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement closed a sex-related criminal probe of former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley on Friday without filing charges, authorities said. \"There is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges,\" said Gerald Bailey, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Authorities were investigating whether the Florida Republican, who resigned in September 2006, might have used congressional computers to engage or solicit minors in any illegal activities. Officials said they were hindered by refusal from Foley and the House of Representatives to allow inspection of the computers. \"FDLE conducted as thorough and comprehensive investigation as possible considering Congress and Mr. Foley denied us access to critical data,\" Bailey said in a written statement. \"Should additional information arise which is pertinent to this case, we will ensure it is appropriately investigated.\" Foley is \"relieved\" that no probable cause was found to charge him with a crime, his lawyer, David Roth, told reporters Friday evening. But in a statement Roth read on behalf of the former congressman, Foley added, \"I however recognize that while my behavior was not illegal, it does not by any means make it proper or approriate. To the contrary, I am deeply ashamed of my conduct, which was wrong and without question inappropriate.\" Foley said he takes full responsibility for his actions and apologized, particularly to the recipients of the e-mails or instant messages. \"I continue to pray for forgiveness from those I have disappointed\" and emotionally harmed, Foley said in the statement. Foley entered treatment for alcoholism on October 1, 2006, he said in his statement, and has been clean and sober since the day he resigned from Congress. Roth has denied that his client engaged in sexual activity with minors. \"He is absolutely, positively not a pedophile,\" attorney David Roth said previously. \"He is apologetic for the communications he made while under the influence of alcohol, which he acknowledges are totally inappropriate.\" Those communications included scores of e-mails and instant messages that were given to investigators by former House pages. The exchanges -- in which Foley used the screen name MAF 54 -- were published in a House ethics committee report in December 2006. Roth told reporters Friday that Foley has no intention of re-entering politics and is focusing on his recovery. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement put the price tag for the nearly two-year investigation at about $37,800. Foley entered a treatment facility for alcoholism shortly after resigning, saying he is gay and was molested by a priest when he was between the ages of 13 and 15. A Catholic priest living in Italy admitted in a TV interview that he molested Foley when he was a teenager. \"Once maybe, I touched him or so, but I didn't -- it wasn't -- because it's not something you call, I mean rape or penetration or anything like that, you know. We were just fondling,\" said the priest, Anthony Mercieca. The ethics committee's probe concluded that House GOP leaders were negligent in not protecting male teenage pages from possible improper advances by Foley. But the panel said there were no violations of the House Code of Official Conduct and decided no one would be reprimanded. A Justice Department report issued a month later said the FBI should have notified the House or other officials when members first learned of the inappropriate e-mails. The FBI acted within its \"range of discretion\" when it initially decided not to open a criminal investigation in the case, the Justice Department said. But the internal watchdog's investigation concluded that simply filing away the complaint from a public interest group was an inadequate response. The FDLE's investigative summary notes that the U.S. House's clerk of courts took possession of two computer hard drives from Foley's two district offices in Florida and the computer from his Washington office, along with backup material. The department said it did not seek a search warrant for the drives because it failed to turn up probable cause of a crime with a Florida connection. The department report said that Foley's attorneys voluntarily worked with the Justice Department to review computer data, but the FDLE failed to work out a similar review with Foley's attorneys. The department said it was given no indication from the FBI or the Justice Department that there was any non-congressional data in the material that would violate Florida law. CNN's Kevin Bohn and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former lawmaker accused of sending suggestive messages to House pages .\nFlorida agency won't file charges against ex-Rep. Mark Foley, official says .\nFoley, Congress blocked access to \"critical data,\" agency says .\nFoley did not engage in sexual activity with minors, his attorney says .","id":"3d51f0f53c2dc8791268d5d350e2c2dda3ced1ac"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The number of movies nominated for the best picture Oscar will double next year, a move apparently aimed at bolstering sagging ratings for the Academy Awards broadcast. Danny Boyle exults in an Oscar win for \"Slumdog Millionaire\" earlier this year. \"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,\" Sid Ganis, president of the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said. Doubling the nominations would make it more likely a viewer's favorite movie is in the running for the top honor, which may make them want to watch the show, said Steve Pond, author of \"The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards.\" \"This clearly is a reaction to declining ratings,\" Pond said. \"Even though this last show the ratings were up ... over the last 10 years or so the ratings have been down.\" Oscar producers realized they \"can juice the show up all you want, but people watch the Oscars when there are movies competing that they have an interest in,\" Pond said. The best picture nominations often consist of movies that \"the vast majority of people have not seen,\" he said. The problem \"came to a head with 'The Dark Knight,' \" which sold more than $1 billion in tickets worldwide, but was snubbed by the academy in the best picture category last year, he said. The Batman sequel won best movie at the MTV Movie Awards and was chosen favorite movie by the People's Choice Awards. It also made many critics' top 10 lists. If the nomination field had been expanded last year, the film might have made the best picture list, \"which clearly would have been some kind of bump in the ratings,\" Pond said. This would also counter the impression among TV viewers that the awards show is \"for movie snobs who don't like the movies I like,\" he said. The decision to double the number of features films nominated is a return to the way the Oscars were awarded in its early decades, when as many as 12 movies were considered in the field of finalists, Ganis said. \"After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,\" Ganis said. \"The final outcome, of course, will be the same -- one best picture winner -- but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.\" Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced on February 2, 2010. The awards show is set for March 7 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. A best picture nomination often serves as a marketing boost for films, driving DVD sales for those films no longer in theaters.","highlights":"NEW: Nominating more films \"a reaction to declining ratings,\" says expert .\nAcademy Awards to nominate 10 best picture possibilities next year .\nAcademy has been nominating just five films for more than six decades .\n\"The Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots,\" says its president .","id":"56d5ea013d49890eee2d2f9d21e87618e2225aff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On \"Amanpour\" this Thursday, Christiane Amanpour sits down for an exclusive live interview with the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe talks to CNN's Christiane Amanpour Thursday. In Mugabe's first interview with a major Western network in years, Christiane will explore the historic power-sharing agreement with the unity government there, and get the president's thoughts on the highly-emotive issue of land redistribution. As Mugabe prepares to take center stage at the United Nations on Friday, Christiane will take the opportunity to ask if the power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe is really working, if international sanctions are responsible for his country's economic and political turmoil, and what kind of engagement he is looking for from the international community. In this rare interview, Christiane will also address signs of optimism emerging in Zimbabwe; sky-rocketing inflation stabilizing, basic goods returning to store shelves, and a loosening of restrictive media laws. \"Amanpour\" is CNN International's new live global interview program, which launched on September 21, 2009 as the centerpiece of its new evening line up. Live interview airs 2100 CET Thursday 24 September.","highlights":"Christiane Amanpour to interview Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe .\nInterview will be Mugabe's first with a major Western network in years .\nPolitical turmoil, Western sanctions and power-sharing deal up for discussion .\nWatch \"Amanpour\" weekdays: ET: 1500, 0800; CET 2100, 1400; HK: 2000, 0300 .","id":"34de2757974b95e40e3b8eceb8e04437f54786db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Polish president on Saturday signed his country's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, aimed at streamlining the workings of the European Union. Polish President Lech Kaczynski holds the EU's Lisbon Treaty in Warsaw on October 10. President Lech Kaczynski's approval of the treaty leaves the Czech Republic as the lone country that has not ratified the document. Kaczynski signed the treaty at a ceremony attended by EU officials in Warsaw. He had refused to sign the document until it was ratified by Irish voters in a referendum. They backed it by a wide margin on October 2. \"I am certain that the union will function even better with the treaty of Lisbon,\" Kaczynski said Saturday, in an excerpt of his remarks provided by the Swedish presidency of the EU. The treaty would create an EU president and foreign minister and introduce rotating representatives for member countries in the EU Commission, the union's executive branch. All member states have to ratify the treaty before it can be adopted. \"The Czech Republic must conclude their ratification process by the signature of President Klaus. Europe is waiting impatiently,\" Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said, according to the Swedish presidency. The Lisbon treaty is undergoing review in a Czech court, which will determine in a few weeks whether it is compatible with the nation's constitution. Czech President Vaclav Klaus must also sign it. On Friday, Klaus outlined his objections to the treaty, saying at a news conference that \"the Lisbon Treaty constitutes a fundamental change for the Czech Republic. \"As you know, I have always considered this treaty a step in the wrong direction,\" he said. \"It will increase its democratic deficit, worsen the standing of our country and expose it to new risks -- among other things also because it endangers the legal status of the citizens and the stability of property rights in our country,\" he said. He said he was particularly concerned about one section of the treaty, called the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which concerns fundamental human rights, including property rights, for EU citizens. \"On its basis, the Luxembourg Court of Justice of the EU will assess whether the legal provisions, customs and practices of the EU member countries comply with those of the charter,\" Klaus said. \"The charter makes it possible to reexamine even those decisions of the Czech courts that are legally binding,\" he said. He said he feared the treaty would make it possible to raise property claims related to the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia following World War II. The last Czech government did not pay enough attention to this possibility, he said, and did not negotiate an exemption from the charter, which Poland and the United Kingdom have, he said. \"Before the ratification, Czech Republic must at least ex post negotiate a similar exemption,\" he said. \"I think this exemption can be solved quickly.\" Klaus spoke with Reinfeldt by phone on Thursday about the treaty. \"This sends the wrong message at the wrong time,\" Reinfeldt said afterward, his spokeswoman, Roberta Alenius told CNN. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said in a Friday statement that he had seen Klaus' concerns, and said that he regretted that the president did not consult with the government beforehand. \"I remain convinced that the Czech Republic will bring the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty to a successful conclusion, so that it can enter into force by the end of the year,\" he said.","highlights":"Treaty undergoing review in a Czech court to determine its compatiblity .\nCzech president raises fears over property claims relating to World War II .\nSwedish presidency of EU calls on Czech Republic to clarify ratification comments .\nOnly Czech Republic left to sign treaty that would reform the European Union .","id":"d55c463ba6d313cb99329adc7637e861e60d1438"} -{"article":"IN THE FLORIDA KEYS (CNN) -- In the early morning darkness of the Florida Keys, the low hum of the Mystic I is hardly enough to disturb the slumber of the tourists in their hotel rooms. A lobster fisherman holds two spiny tail lobsters caught during the Mystic I's trip off the Florida Keys. From the wheelhouse, Captain Karl Lessard steers his boat into the darkness toward the fertile fishing grounds off the small Island of Marathon, Florida. This is a ritual that Lessard has done thousands of times. \"I've been fishing for 38 years, my family has been fishing since the 1820s, there are a lot of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-generation fishermen that are here in the Keys,\" Lessard says. At dawn he reaches a spot that holds a special meaning for him. \"I pass where my mother's and father's ashes are scattered. Just around sunrise, it's a very spiritual place for me.\" In the light of a spectacular sunrise, Lessard plots his course on the open waters. \"I fish for the freedom,\" he explains. \"It's good for the soul. It's a fantastic way to make a living, coming out here in God's glory every day.\" He adds with a laugh that fishing also \"gets me away from the house. I hate those 'honey-do's.' \" It's spiny tail lobster season in the Florida Keys, and that is what Captain Karl and his three-man crew are on a quest for today. \"I am hoping to catch between 300 and 400 pounds, with the new moon that slows fishing down,\" the skipper says. They travel 20 miles offshore to where they have put out their traps. They hope to find them filled with the clawless crustaceans that live in these shallow waters. \"In the Keys, people really started fishing for lobster in the 1930s,\" Lessard says. \"Before that there was very little market for them.\" Lobster fishermen in years past worried more about the impact of things like hurricanes, but these days they have other concerns, namely the price they can get for their catch. \"This ... economy that we are in is not really promoting the sale of our product,\" Lessard says. \"Lobster is going from eight dollars a pound to three dollars a pound. We are basically in survival mode at the present time, but it is still a wonderful way to make a living.\" As a mate hooks the buoys and throws the line in the winches, the traps break onto the surface. As they are hoisted on deck the captain smiles at what he is seeing. \"We got some nice lobsters today, some grandes,\" he says. Watch the skipper at work on the water \u00bb . Lessard navigates his boat along his strings of traps as his crew pulls them, repeating the motion some 480 times. Two dolphins play off the bow. \"This is the most beautiful office that anyone could have in the world,\" the lobster fisherman says. \"If you feel the calling, there is no better way to make a living. It's something I've wanted to do since I was a child, and I'm blessed to have been able to do what I wanted to do in life, and have the freedom to do it. \"I hope my family can do it for another hundred years.\" As the afternoon wears on, the traps rise out of the ocean and fall back to the seabed, and a constant flow of lobster fills up the boat's holding tanks. The catch seems to be better than expected. \"Sometimes if you are lucky, it's better than being good. And if you're good and lucky, that's even better,\" Lessard jokes. With the last trap dropped back into the water, Lessard and the crew of the Mystic I head back to the dock, where they will place the day's catch onto the scales to see how good the sea has been to them. \"Today we caught 476 pounds. I didn't expect to do this well with the phase of the moon,\" Lessard says. Tomorrow morning the captain will rise again in the darkness and answer the calling that he and his family have heeded for generations. \"My family is out here, and I plan on being out here and joining them someday,\" Lessard says, \"although I would like it to be a long time from now.\"","highlights":"Lobster fisherman's family has been working the waters since the 1820s .\nCrew off the Florida Keys is on a quest for spiny tail lobster .\nBoat skipper laments the economic tailspin, falling price of lobster .\n\"This is the most beautiful office that anyone could have\"","id":"8dc950f045bfde503ba264e4057d5445e08efc94"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jay Leno says immediacy is key to his new show, and he should have plenty of it for his prime time premiere Monday, when Kanye West is a musical guest. Kanye West, center, with girlfriend Amber Rose and actor Tracy Morgan at the 2009 MTV VMAs. The rapper created a fan and artist uprising Sunday night when he jumped onstage at MTV's Video Music Awards to hijack singer Taylor Swift's acceptance speech. Leno could reprise his 1995 ratings-grabbing moment when he asked actor Hugh Grant, \"What the hell were you thinking?\" Grant had been arrested two weeks earlier for public lewd conduct with a Hollywood hooker. West placed a written apology on his Web site -- \"I'm sooooo sorry\" -- but \"The Jay Leno Show\" could be the place and time for a more personal and public mea culpa. Watch the details on West's appearance \u00bb . Leno's publicist confirmed Monday that West was still booked for the NBC show, which tapes just three hours before it airs in the eastern United States at 10 p.m. West was booked by Leno weeks ago to perform with two other hip-hop superstars: Rihanna and Jay-Z. Some drama may center around how West and Jay-Z get along onstage. Jay-Z's wife, singer Beyonce Knowles, was perhaps the most embarrassed by his outburst. Swift, a 19-year-old country-pop singer, was in the midst of her acceptance speech for the Best Female Video award when West rushed onstage and took her microphone. He then let loose an outburst on behalf of Beyonce, who was one of several artists who lost out to Swift. Although Beyonce appeared stunned as she watched from the front row, she gracefully recovered near the end of the show, when she was onstage to accept an award of her own. \"I remember being 17 years old, up for my first MTV award with Destiny's Child, and it was one of the most exciting moments of my life,\" she said, referring to the girl group with which she had her start. \"So I would like for Taylor to come out and have her moment.\" West's online apology appeared soon after. \"I'm sooooo sorry to Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom,\" the message said in all caps. \"I spoke to her mother right after and she said the same thing my mother would've said. She is very talented! ... I'm in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment!\" MTV said the West-Swift incident was not planned, a point it had to stress after a walkout by singer Eminem at last year's event turned out to be staged. Staged or not, apologies from celebrities behaving badly have been good for Leno's ratings. When Grant told Leno \"I did a bad thing,\" it gave Leno's \"Tonight Show\" a viewership bump that has been credited with solidifying his lead over rival David Letterman in the late-night ratings war. This is just the kind of \"immediacy\" Leno was talking about in a call with reporters last week. \"The idea here is that we'll tape a new, fresh show every single day, talking about the events that happened that day that night,\" Leno said. West, Rihanna and Jay-Z will debut Leno's new approach to musical guests. They will be limited to one song, and most nights they'll share the stage with other stars. \"What we're trying to do is put together acts that you don't normally see together or don't normally perform together,\" Leno said. Jerry Seinfeld will also appear on Leno's premiere Monday.","highlights":"Rapper Kanye West scheduled to appear on \"The Jay Leno Show\"\nLeno's new show set to premiere Monday night .\nLeno could reprise famous Hugh Grant moment in questioning West .\nWest made news and angered fans by interrupting Taylor Swift during speech .","id":"0b9fe18e86bec24f58b35d1a70c99d78ff821b1e"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top Obama administration officials outlined several new initiatives to safeguard the country's food supply Tuesday, saying the recent spate of food-borne illnesses is unacceptable. Recent salmonella outbreaks, including one at Nestle, were called unacceptable by federal officials Tuesday. The FDA intends to issue new guidance over the next three months regarding steps the entire food industry can take to more quickly detect contamination sources and remove the unsafe products from stores. A new position at the agency -- deputy commissioner for foods -- will be created for the sole purpose of overseeing food protection. The commissioner will be part of a \"unified incident command system\" established to address contamination outbreaks and facilitate responses at the federal, state, and local levels, officials said. In addition, they said, food safety information will be more effectively communicated to the public through a revamped Web site: www.foodsafety.gov. The announcement was made near the White House by Vice President Joe Biden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. \"There are few responsibilities more basic or more important ... for the government than making sure our families in America eat food that is not contaminated,\" Biden said. Dozens of people have become sick in recent weeks due to a nationwide E. coli outbreak linked to tainted Nestle cookie dough. Spinach, peanut products, pistachios, peppers, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts, have also been recent culprits, noted Sebelius. An estimated 5,000 Americans die annually after consuming contaminated food and tens of millions fall ill, she said. J.D. Hanson, a policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, called the initiatives a good first step. \"They are the kinds of things we have been calling on previous administrations to do, and we're glad this administration is moving fairly quickly on these issues,\" he told CNN. Hanson praised the creation of the position of deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, saying it should have happened long ago. \"You'd think an agency called 'Food and Drug' would have made food a priority a long time ago. They didn't until today.\" But he said the government still isn't tough enough with the food industry. \"Their goal of 90 percent compliance with their new guidelines is not good enough. It needs to be very close to 100 percent compliance.\" And he said bureaucracy stands in the way of improvement. \"Right now there are 13 federal agencies that deal with food safety. We would pull all of those functions into one agency.\" Making eggs safer . New safeguards to protect against salmonella contamination of eggs alone should cut the number of food-borne illnesses every year by roughly 80,000, and generate an annual savings of over $1 billion, according to Sebelius. \"Salmonella enteritidis is a major cause of food-borne illness in the United States and eggs are a significant source,\" Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told reporters in a telephone conference call. The $81 million program will translate into less than a penny per dozen eggs and will yield $1.4 billion in annual public health benefits, the agency said. In all, more than 79,000 of the 142,000 cases of sickness and 30 deaths associated with tainted eggs each year will be prevented, it predicted. Under the rule, egg producers must buy their chickens and hens from producers who monitor for salmonella bacteria, said Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. If salmonella bacteria or its derivatives are detected, a sample of eggs from the facility must be tested over eight weeks, he said. If any test positive, the producer must process the eggs to destroy the bacteria or divert the eggs to non-food uses. In addition, henhouses must be tested and those that test positive must be cleaned and disinfected, he said. Under current law, eggs do not have to be refrigerated until they are packed for the ultimate consumer, said Nancy Bufano, a food technologist at the agency. \"What's new here is requiring now that eggs must be refrigerated on the farm and during transport and storage beginning no later than 36 hours after the time they're laid,\" she said. A key part of the plan to reduce salmonella enteritidis is the requirement that producers institute rodent-control programs, said Darrell Trampel, a poultry veterinarian at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. \"Mice are notorious carriers of [salmonella enteritidis] and, in the fall when it starts getting cold, the mice start looking for a warmer home and some of them make their way into chicken houses, and then they leave their droppings behind in the feed and so the chickens pick it up in that manner.\" Producers will have to pay more to comply with the testing requirements, \"but I don't think this should put anybody out of business,\" he said. The rules go into effect within a year for producers with more than 50,000 hens, which produce approximately 71 percent of eggs sold to consumers, the FDA's Sundlof said. Those with fewer than 50,000 hens have three years to comply; those with fewer than 3,000 hens or those that sell directly to consumers are exempt. About 1 in 200 eggs in flocks of fewer than 3,000 hens test positive for salmonella and derivatives, Sundlof said. Until now, egg quality assurance programs have been voluntary, Sundlof said. \"So the fact that they will now be required really gives us greater assurance.\" Industry supports the requirements, though many of them have long been complying voluntarily, said Howard Magwire, director of government relations for United Egg Producers, a trade association. \"Our egg farmers have always done everything they could to provide a safe, affordable, high-protein product to consumers and for years we have been supportive of the concept of an egg-safety rule to address the salmonella enteritidis problem,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"Do we go out and do a pep rally for more regulation? No, but at the same time, we understand why the industry has been moving that way.\" CNN's Tom Watkins and CNN Radio's Matt Cherry contributed to this report.","highlights":"Department wants better control of salmonella in eggs, turkey and poultry .\nControl E. coli outbreaks by issuing new instructions regarding beef production .\nFDA will release new safety standards to help prevent the contamination of produce .\nSalmonella safeguards in eggs alone to cut food-borne illnesses by 80,000 a year .","id":"8d6ab5fb34ae7d65b3f6d44ce890d161f3fa4980"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Diprivan is a powerful I.V. anesthetic drug used for patients undergoing certain surgeries and diagnostic procedures. Patients undergoing surgery may receive Diprivan to keep them sedated during the procedure. The drug is making headlines with the claim from a nurse who worked for pop icon Michael Jackson that the singer, who died June 25, had repeatedly asked her about the drug. Nurse Cherilyn Lee told CNN that Jackson had brought up Diprivan about three months ago, saying he needed it for insomnia and that his doctor said it was safe. \"He said, 'I am so sleepy. I cannot sleep. I want to have at least eight hours of sleep,'\" Lee told CNN's Anderson Cooper. The medication, whose generic name is propofol, renders the patient unconscious for as long as doctors deem necessary. The patient wakes up almost immediately after the infusion is stopped, experts say. But treating sleep disorders is not an approved use of the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says Diprivan should be given only by people trained in the administration of general anesthesia and who are not involved in the conduct of the surgery or diagnostic procedure. Watch Dr. Gupta explain when and how propofol (Diprivan) is used \u00bb . The general anesthetic has the effect of making patients feel well-rested when they wake up from it, said Dr. Hector Vila, chairman of the Ambulatory Surgery Committee for the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Vila gives the drug to all of his patients who are getting office procedures in areas such as urology, dentistry and gynecology. It is also the most common anesthetic for colonoscopies, he said. \"I have never heard of anyone using it for the treatment of a sleep disorder,\" he said. There have been cases of health care professionals self-administering the drug and abusing it, however, said Vila, who has examined deaths from Diprivan in Florida. Other deaths from the drug have occurred when administered by non-anesthetist professionals, in settings such as ophthalmology, gynecology and plastic surgery, he said. Diprivan appears white and milky, and is usually run as an I.V. drip. In addition to surgical applications, it can be used in the intensive care unit for someone who may be intubated on a ventilator. The drug itself does not provide pain relief, experts say. The principle risks of Diprivan come from improper monitoring of the patient's breathing, Vila said. When a person's breathing slows down, not enough carbon dioxide gets removed from the body, and not enough oxygen enters. This could lead to cardiac arrest, he said. Still, when used properly, Diprivan is not a dangerous drug, he said. \"It's very safe in a properly trained physician's hands.\" The drug has been used in the past to treat prolonged epileptic seizures. A small MayoClinic study in 2008 found that Diprivan was associated with a higher risk of cardiac arrest and deaths in patients with a condition called refractory status epilepticus. Side effects of Diprivan may include dizziness and lightheadedness. Balance, coordination and judgment may be affected for up to 24 hours, so patients should not drive cars, play sports or sign contracts in that period, Vila said. Patients may also experience a euphoric feeling upon waking up, Vila said. This is distinct from older anesthetics, which caused nausea and vomiting, he said. The FDA also issued a warning to health care professionals in 2007 about patients who experienced chills, fever and body aches shortly after receiving the drug for sedation or general anesthesia. Doctors consider sedation a continuum, where relaxation is on the mild side and general anesthesia is at the other extreme. There may be complications of Diprivan if the patient is also taking prescription pain medications, experts say. Patients should tell their health care providers about any allergies they have before taking this drug, doctors say, including eggs, soy products, sulfite, benzyl alcohol and any medications. CNN's Stephanie Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Diprivan renders the patient unconscious for as long as doctors deem necessary .\nFDA has not approved it for treating sleep disorders .\nThe drug has the effect of making the patient feel well-rested upon waking up .\nPeople with food or drug allergies should alert their doctor before taking it .","id":"e4d403bd93f645b7ba6994000c0982fb6d1a3fd8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A militant Islamist group associated with al Qaeda has for the first time threatened to attack Israel, far from its normal base of operations in Somalia. Al-Shabab, which is fighting to control the east African country, accused Israel of \"starting to destroy\" the Al Aqsa mosque, where standoffs have taken place recently between Israeli police and Palestinians. The mosque is part of the complex that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif. \"The Jews started to destroy parts of the holy mosque of Al Aqsa and they routinely kill our Palestinian brothers, so we are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers,\" said Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, a prominent Al-Shabab commander. His threat was part of a series of fiery sermons delivered after Friday prayers in Baidoa in southwest Somalia. Al-Shabab controls the region, which is part of a country that has been without an effective national government for nearly 20 years. Other leaders of the group also threatened Israel, the first time the group is known to have done so. \"We will transfer and expand our fighting in the Middle East so we can defend Al Aqsa mosque from the Israelis,\" Al-Shabab commander Abdifatah Aweys Abu Hamza said in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. He is apparently the leader of a new Al-Shabab armed group calling themselves \"Mujahedin Al Aqsa,\" or \"Al Aqsa Holy Warriors,\" which they said is assigned to attack Israel. It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel. But Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group, speaking last week before al-Shabab issued its threats against Israel, warned that the group should be taken seriously. \"We should not underestimate the capacity of Al-Shabab,\" he said. \"This is a deadly organization, a formidable foe.\" Abdi said the group had been mutating from a nationalist group into a terrorist organization more like al Qaeda, which was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. \"If you look at the rhetoric and language and if you look at the Web sites, if you hear their preachers or their scholars speak, it is completely indistinguishable from al Qaeda leaders,\" Abdi said. The group has also become more vicious in Somalia, a local human rights expert said. \"The most gruesome and gross violations of human rights are committed by Al-Shabab,\" activist Hassan Shire Sheikh said. \"They have also instilled fear. They just shoot, they kill, they maim and they lash.\" The group also threatened African neighbors on Friday, including Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan and Uganda. They have in the past threatened African nations that provide peacekeeping troops to the war-torn country. The U.S. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism from April lists Al-Shabab as a terrorist organization and blames it for shootings and suicide bombings inside Somalia. It does not list the group as having carried out violence outside Somalia, but says some members of the group have trained and fought alongside al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting. The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by Islamist groups like Al-Shabab that have seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south. CNN's David McKenzie in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Al-Shabab accuses Israel of \"starting to destroy\" the Al Aqsa mosque .\n\"We are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers,\" Al-Shabab commander says .\nIt is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel .\nSomalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew its dictator .","id":"c4e7d4952c1bef5f1a4cc71610b48341691348fa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jurors spared the life of a former Canton, Ohio, police officer who killed his pregnant girlfriend and tearfully asked them for mercy. A judge then sentenced him Wednesday to 57 years to life in prison. Bobby Lee Cutts Jr. stared straight ahead as the jury announced its recommendation to spare him. Bobby Lee Cutts Jr., 30, will be 87 by the time he becomes eligible for parole. He stared straight ahead as the jury of six men and six women recommended that his life be spared. He and his lawyer teared up as the jurors were polled about their decision. Watch Cutts react \u00bb . Judge Charles E. Brown added to the sentence, taking other counts into consideration after hearing victim impact statements from the parents and sisters of victim Jessie Marie Davis. She was 26 and nine months pregnant when she disappeared last June. Her body, and that of her unborn child, were found 10 days later at a state park in northeastern Ohio. Whitney Davis, Jessie's sister, directed her anger and grief at Cutts. \"You got rid of someone that was an inconvenience. I hate you.\" Watch Davis' family lash out at Cutts \u00bb . She continued: \"\"You used and manipulated her over and over and still you sit there and you are not crying. I don't believe that you are sorry for what you did. I believe that you are sorry that you got caught up in all your lies. I don't know that you would know the truth.\"Watch sister tell Cutts she hates him . Cutts took off his eyeglasses as Davis' father, Ned, addressed him: \"Don't even look at me.\" \"Your honor he violently murdered her,\" the anguished father continued. \"Five-foot-four, nine months pregnant, that baby could have been delivered.\" And, tears rolled down Cutts' face as Davis' mother, Patricia Porter, spoke of her grief. \"There are mornings I have to cover her picture up, when I can't get out of bed.\" She continued, \"I serve an amazing God, Bobby. A God that forgives and heals and restores people. And all I know today is that I do forgive you, and I know it is only through him that I am able to do that.\" But she turned the other cheek: \"I may not have family to go home to after this, but I pray that you make a way for him to get out of there and begin a new life, and to be able to hold his son.\" Porter, who is raising Blake, told Cutts the child \"knows what you did. You would not believe the stories he has told us.\" When his time came, Cutts offered no statement, no testimonials to his character. On February 15, the same jury found Cutts guilty of murdering Jessie Davis and their baby, who was to be named Chloe. It was Chloe's death that made Cutts eligible for the death penalty. Jurors convicted him of two counts of aggravated murder -- for terminating a pregnancy and taking her life during the commission of a felony. All the members of the jury are white, as was Davis. Cutts is black. Cutts, who has maintained Davis' death was the result of an accidental elbow to the neck, asked the jury to spare his life and offered a tearful apology at his sentencing hearing Tuesday. Watch Cutts' tearful plea \u00bb . \"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm asking you to spare my life,\" he said. \"To imagine that I was responsible for the death of Jessie, the mother of my children and my unborn daughter, is beyond any words that I can express,\" Cutts added, reading from a handwritten statement. \"Words cannot bring them back, nor can they erase the pain I've caused, but I want to apologize,\" he said. Cutts' lawyer, Fernando Mack, had urged jurors to recommend the lowest available penalty -- 25 years to life -- to allow him to play a limited role in his other children's lives. Mack acknowledged that many of the jurors might still be angry with Cutts for leaving his 2\u00bd-year-old son, home alone for more than a day while his mother lay dead in a field. But sentencing Cutts to death hurts Blake even more, he argued. \"That is still Blake's father, like it or not. The prosecutor here wants you to kill Blake's father, so now he'll have no parents.\" Stark County Assistant Prosecutor Dennis Barr attacked Cutts' character and his sincerity on the stand. A police officer should have known better, he said. \"Bobby Cutts took an oath to serve and protect,\" the prosecutor argued. \"But on June 14, 2007, Bobby Cutts did not serve and protect. He destroyed.\" According to testimony, Cutts rolled Davis' body in a comforter and dumped it in a park, leaving toddler son Blake in the house alone at the crime scene in a soiled diaper. \"Mommy's in the rug,\" Blake told police, according to testimony. Prosecutors charged during the trial that Cutts buckled under the financial pressure of additional child support, killed Davis, and then created a cover story to try to get away with it. After the sentencing, prosecutors -- no longer restricted in their comments by a gag order -- told reporters Cutts led authorities to Davis' body, but no deal was made in return. Davis' father, Ned Davis, told reporters, \"Our family, in one sense, was fortunate that we had some legal resolution because I know along with this, there are families out there that don't ever get an answer. It doesn't make it any less painful, but at least this part of it is resolved.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Judge gives Bobby Cutts Jr. the maximum life sentence .\nJury recommended life, with no parole eligibility for 30 years .\nCutts Jr. convicted of murdering girlfriend, unborn child .\nHe apologized for killings and asked jurors to spare his life .","id":"ff2e335b040f81e4f81d935fdb76705e3c475b27"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Some Florida amusement park visitors may enjoy space-themed roller-coasters, but the first vehicle they board at Orlando International Airport may be the most futuristic ride of their vacation. Four hydrogen shuttle buses are part of the fleet at the Orlando International Airport. The airport is testing four Ford shuttle vans equipped with internal combustion engines modified to run on hydrogen instead of gasoline. \"It's quiet, it doesn't shake like diesel, it doesn't have that diesel smell,\" said Rafael Sanchez, who has been driving the vans for a year. The quieter engine makes conversation inside the bus easier than in conventional vehicles. \"Hydrogen is one of the many technologies we are exploring, trying to become more of a green airport,\" said Ronald Lewis, director of airport operations. Vehicles powered with hydrogen engines are different from the many vehicles across the nation that run with the help of hydrogen fuel cells -- which are the gold standard of green machines. The use of hydrogen in internal combustion engines is far less efficient than in the fuel cells. The modified engines aboard the Ford E-450 shuttle buses are 6.8 liter V-10s. The airport's fleet also includes three gas-electric hybrid vehicles and 24 biodiesel buses. The facility also powers its maintenance equipment -- such as lawnmowers and tractors -- with biodiesel. But like many experiments with alternative fuels, the price is very high and the long-term outcome is unknown. Proponents of hydrogen technology have long had a chicken-and-egg dilemma over whether to build million-dollar fueling facilities or to wait until more vehicles are in use. Energy companies are reluctant to pour money into expensive fueling stations without a lot of hydrogen vehicles around, but consumers are not likely to buy a vehicle without adequate places to fill up. \"It is clear nothing is going to displace gasoline or diesel for 20, 30, maybe 40 years,\" said John Lapetz, who has been working on alternative fuels at Ford for more than 20 years. The Orlando project has several goals: To get average consumers acquainted with hydrogen and to acquire data on the buses' performance in a setting where they are in use almost nonstop. Lapetz said it's an effort to use a technology that customers take for granted (the internal combustion engine), while preparing for the day when drivers can complete the divorce from fossil fuels. At the Boggy Creek Hydrogen Fueling Station in Orlando, the hydrogen is produced on-site. \"We are doing a process called steam methane re-forming, which is natural gas to hydrogen,\" said Puneet Verma, manager of biofuels and hydrogen at Chevron Technology Ventures, one of the players involved in the project. During a careful fueling process, technicians check for leaks of the highly flammable hydrogen -- leaks both in the bus and the fuel pump. Because a fossil fuel, methane, is used to make the hydrogen, the buses are about 12 percent cleaner than gasoline or diesel when their entire carbon footprint is measured. \"We view the hydrogen efforts as a technical success,\" said Verma. \"This is the first time we have been able to demonstrate actual production of hydrogen at the station. It's not necessarily an economic success yet.\" \"The ultimate goal is hydrogen fuel cell cars,\" Verma said. \"The hydrogen internal combustion engine buses are much less expensive to manufacture, but they consume a lot more hydrogen.\" Verma said the buses are \"valid transition technology\" aimed at quickly building significant demand for hydrogen, which would then justify an expensive infrastructure. The hydrogen test project also includes the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Ford Motor Company, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Progress Energy and SeaWorld. Hydrogen buses began shuttling SeaWorld employees in February from the park's outer parking lots to their workplaces. \"The environment is really an important part of SeaWorld's culture here,\" said Kelly Bernish, director of environmental health and safety at Busch theme parks SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica. Bernish described the venture as another opportunity for \"employees to feel like they can impact the environment by using this kind of vehicle, that will lessen our footprint on the world.\" SeaWorld's Discovery Cove animal training supervisor Jay Tacey said \"somebody has to get the ball rolling. Until somebody takes that first step, there's always going to be the 'what if?' \" Airport Operations Director Lewis said being in on the hydrogen experiment early could pay off in the long run. \"We are hopeful that since they built the facility here, the only one in the southeast United States, that there will be a long-term usage for it.\"","highlights":"Orlando airport tests cleaner hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines .\nSmoother, quieter engines require million-dollar fueling stations .\nTesters hope to learn more by gathering data from nonstop shuttle usage .\nHydrogen engines cheaper than hydrogen fuel cells, but they use more hydrogen .","id":"adb15422e0d0db50a48ff7fe9c2ba4c0bee87e7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. military said it is investigating claims from Syria that U.S. helicopters based in Iraq killed eight people and wounded another Sunday in an attack inside Syria's territory Sunday. A U.S. army Apache helicopter flies over southern Baghdad, Iraq. Syria's state news agency SANA said four U.S. helicopters crossed the border and struck a farm about 8 kilometers (5 miles) inside Syria before returning to Iraqi airspace. The raid occurred about 4:45 p.m. (1345 GMT). The helicopters hit a civilian building under construction on the farm, killing a father and his four sons, a married couple and another man, SANA said. Syria's deputy foreign minister contacted the U.S. embassies in Damascus and Baghdad, SANA said. Military officials are investigating the claims, Sgt. Brooke Murphy, a U.S. military spokeswoman, told CNN. \"Unfortunately, we cannot confirm anything at the moment,\" she said. The attack occurred near the town of Al-Bukamal, which is home to a Red Crescent camp for Iraqi refugees. The town is across the border from the Iraqi city of Qaim, which has been a major route for Sunni Arab fighters battling U.S. troops in Iraq. Watch CNN's Cal Perry explain the implications of the possible attack \u00bb . Syria has said it has made efforts to secure the 600-km desert border, which is marked largely by a sand wall. But Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the U.S. commander in western Iraq's sprawling Anbar province, told reporters last week that much of the border remains \"uncontrolled.\" \"We still have a certain level of foreign fighter movement, not much, through Anbar, because of our activities out there,\" Kelly said. But he said Iraqi intelligence believes al Qaeda operatives and others \"live pretty openly on the Syrian side, and periodically we know that they try to come across.\" Syria demanded Iraq's government \"immediately investigate this serious violation\" and bar U.S. forces from striking Syria from its territory. The Syrian government summoned U.S. and Iraqi diplomats to the Foreign Ministry in Damascus to condemn the attack, SANA reported. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report, Nada Husseini, Mike Mount and Cal Perry contributed to this report.","highlights":"State news agency says 3 men, 1 woman, 4 children killed near Iraq-Syria border .\nSANA says 4 helicopters from Iraq crossed border about 5 miles into Syria, hit farm .\nSyrian government summons U.S., Iraqi diplomats to Foreign Ministry in Damascus .\nU.S. Military says it is investigating claims, cannot confirm anything right now .","id":"a041374e53d00b79e827564c0425d01a3acc9657"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- In a tough job market, MBA graduates seeking top-tier jobs are turning to a career networking site created by and catering to young professionals. Doostang gets its name from the Latin for \"reaching for talent.\" Doostang is an online community that seeks to match the brightest new grads with what it says are the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of positions in finance, consulting and tech. Exclusivity is the cornerstone of this network, which connects graduates from elite schools with top employers. The site offers its members access to selective jobs that are not really available on the open market, according to founder Mareza Larizadeh. It's able to do that because recruiting managers are drawn by the caliber of its members, which includes students from the top business schools, he says. Schools like The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business have formed partnerships with Doostang that enable their students to access the network's premium job listings for free. \"Our goal is to get great jobs in front of relevant people and relevant candidates in front of hiring managers,\" Larizadeh tells CNN. Larizadeh never intended to launch a career start-up. He was completing his MBA at Stanford University in 2005 when he got the idea for Doostang, which is a modified version of \"reaching for talent\" in Latin. Classmates were exchanging emails about career advice, and \"I thought, why don't we give this some structure?\" he recalls. Four years and a round of venture capital funding later, what started as a hobby designed to help friends share career information has turned into a network with approximately 600,000 members. Larizadeh estimates that roughly a dozen of the top 20 MBA programs have signed partnership deals with Doostang. While mostly U.S. focused, Doostang is also becoming more international and recently sealed a deal to provide job opportunities to INSEAD. In an age where social networking sites abound, Doostang sets itself apart by taking closely knit relationships developed offline in B-school and leveraging them online to make a better job searching experience, Larizadeh says. A member applying for a job at McKinsey, for instance, is able to connect with members of his or her Doostang network that may have a McKinsey link to gain an insider's perspective. Larizadeh believes it isn't just the quality of people and jobs that distinguishes Doostang from other careers sites like LinkedIn and executive search service The Ladders. Doostang is also distinctive in that it caters specifically to students in their 20s and 30s with most of the positions advertised geared towards people at the beginning or middle of their careers. Employers advertising positions on the site range from white shoe firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to Silicon Valley titans Google and Facebook. Users initially had to be invited to join the network, but now Doostang is open to everyone. Members, however, have to pay for access to the most exclusive job postings. This helps keep the membership selective, Larizadeh said. Generally, people won't pay for membership if they aren't qualified for the jobs being advertised, he explained. The fee for premium services, which gives access to the more exclusive job postings, ranges from $25 to $40 a month. The site, which has always featured jobs at hedge funds, private equity firms and investment banks prominently, experienced a surge when the financial crisis kicked off last fall. \"Even though the economy is not as bad as it used to be, we are still seeing a good uptake. Our traffic is still going strong,\" Larizadeh says.","highlights":"Doostang is a career networking site geared towards 20 and 30-somethings .\nSince it was founded in 2005, its membership has grown to 600,000 .\nBusiness schools like Wharton and INSEAD have partnered with Doostang .","id":"838611590c6fe13aa51cbbcdc7fee4207ff889ef"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian militant groups including the armed wing of Hamas are committing war crimes when they fire rockets into Israel, according to a report by campaign group Human Rights Watch. Palestinian militants from the al-Ahrar Brigades march during a rally in Gaza City in July. Three Israelis have been killed and dozens more seriously injured in Palestinian attacks since November 2008 with rockets striking populated areas up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) inside Israeli territory and putting 800,000 Israelis in danger, the report said. Two Palestinian girls died in Gaza when a rocket fell short of its intended target while the attacks have also put Palestinian citizens at risk from Israeli counterstrikes, it added. Human Rights Watch urged Hamas, which controls Gaza, to hold those responsible for the attacks accountable. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union. Hamas militants have cut down on rocket strikes in the past few months, but the group has not denounced those targeting Israeli civilians, nor has it tried those behind the attacks, the New York-based watchdog said. \"Hamas rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians are unlawful and unjustifiable, and amount to war crimes,\" said Iain Levine, program director at Human Rights Watch. \"As the governing authority in Gaza, Hamas should publicly renounce rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centers and punish those responsible, including members of its own armed wing.\" A spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, criticized the report, claiming Palestinians had the right to defend themselves against Israeli military operations. \"The report is not fair,\" he said. \"It should condemn the (Israeli military) crimes instead of condemning people who defend themselves. \"The international law gives them the right to defend themselves because they are occupied. We have the right to defend our land.\" During Israel's offensive into Gaza during December and January, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants claimed to have fired 820 rockets at Israel, the report said. Human Rights Watch said the use of homemade Qassam and Soviet-designed Grad rockets to strike at densely populated areas amounted to indiscriminate attacks on civilians because the weapons cannot be aimed with any reliability. The watchdog found no evidence that Palestinian armed groups had deliberately used civilians as shields in rocket attacks. But it said militants took insufficient precautions to avoid putting civilian lives in danger. \"Hamas forces violated the laws of war both by firing rockets deliberately or indiscriminately at Israeli cities and by launching them from populated areas and endangering Gazan civilians,\" Levine said. Human Rights Watch has also documented war violations by Israeli forces during its three-week offensive into Gaza. While Israeli military operations had been more harmful, killing hundreds of civilians with airstrikes, tank shelling and other assaults, \"violations by one party to a conflict never justify violations by the other,\" it said. \"Attacks targeting civilians are never permitted under the laws of war, which require armed forces to target only military objectives, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians from harm, regardless of the reasons for resorting to armed conflict.\" The United Nations is investigating violations by both sides and is due to report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in September.","highlights":"Human Rights Watch: Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel are war crimes .\nHRW urges Hamas, which controls Gaza, to bring those reponsible to account .\nHamas spokesman: Palestinians have right to defend themselves .\nTwo Israelis killed, dozens injured in rocket attacks since last November .","id":"8d18f348cbcbbd22c27df5242da57789db8ece62"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Striker Carlos Vela has signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal, the English Premier League club have announced on their official Web site. The Mexican international signed for Arsenal after coming through the youth ranks at Guadalajara and has subsequently had loan spells at Spanish sides Celta Vigo, Salamanca and Osasuna. The 20-year-old made his Arsenal debut last season, bursting onto the scene with a Carling Cup hat-trick against Sheffield United in September 2008. Manager Arsene Wenger told the Web site: \"We're delighted that Carlos Vela has signed a new long-term contract with the club. Carlos is a fantastic talent and we have already seen glimpses of this during his performances.\" The Frenchman continued: \"Let's remember, he is still only 20-years-old, so there is still a huge amount to come from this boy. \"We have invested a lot of time in Carlos, as we put him in Spain for two years to get some good experience. \"Now he's back with us, we're working hard with him every day and he is a very exciting player. \"We're looking forward to seeing Carlos score many goals in an Arsenal shirt for a long time to come.\" Vela said: \"I'm very happy to sign a new contract and I'm very excited to be spending more years with Arsenal Football Club. \"I just want to work hard and help this great club win trophies. I want to stay here for a long time and it's a great responsibility. I will keep working hard to show the boss and all the fans why I'm here.\" Vela played against Olympiacos in the Champions League on Wednesday but he was one of the biggest culprits as Arsenal squandered a number of chances. He is the 11th first-team player to commit his long-term future to Arsenal since the end of last season. Vela, Eduardo, Sanchez Watt, Alex Song, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere have all recently signed new long-term extensions with the club.","highlights":"Mexican striker Carlos Vela has signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal .\nThe 20-year-old made his Arsenal debut last season, bursting onto the scene with a Carling Cup hat-trick .\nHe is the 11th first-team player to commit his long-term future to Arsenal since the end of last season.","id":"0f6c9c8c65f401879f69260333455de9f5a8b37a"} -{"article":"(InStyle.com) -- Daring in her fashion choices and her roles -- this summer she plays Agent 99 in \"Get Smart\" -- Anne Hathaway is the perfect candidate to answer questions about developing your own unique personal style. Anne Hathaway wears a Valentino satin coat and La Crasia leather gloves at an InStyle photoshoot. Curvaceous and kooky, interesting and interested, Hathaway is a multidimensional gal. In an age of nonstop tabloid exhibitionism, she stands out as a beacon of confident allure. Within a short period of time, the young actress has graduated from fashion ing\u00e9nue to a woman who navigates the designer realm with intrepid spirit and lashings of wit. Now that she has her bearings, Hathaway is ready to express her individuality. Watch how Anne Hathaway changes her style \u00bb . She arrives for our meeting looking well scrubbed, bohemian and totally incognito: Her navy jacket is from Et Vous in Paris; the jeans, True Religion; the flats, Lanvin; and the bag, Anya Hindmarch. An Yves Saint Laurent lapis lazuli ring and Ugandan handcrafted beads from Beadforlife.org are all the embellishment she needs. It seems to me that nowadays some stars confuse being stylish with dressing really slutty. What's your take? I've always been on the conservative side when it comes to showing skin. I'm from that school where you show one part of your body, not all of it. So compared to the girls you're talking about, I'm quite prim... [But] sometimes you just make mistakes. I once wore a see-through dress to an event, but I had absolutely no idea ... You didn't do the lighting test! And I have never not done the lighting test after that. At the end of the day, you have to dress in what you're comfortable in. If you're at ease in a bikini top and a miniskirt -- though I certainly wouldn't be -- go for it. Can you talk about your style philosophy? If you're going to be glamorous, it has to be tempered with eccentricity so that it incorporates your own personality. Dressing up is great, but you need a twist. And one of my biggest style influences has been Rachel Zoe, who introduced me to glamour. Now I'm kind of pushing her a little bit to explore the eccentric side. Lately, I've been having a lot more fun with how I dress. I am braving the idea of ending up on a worst-dressed list, but I'm also a lot happier with what I wear. What's the most tragic thing you wore in high school? So many things! I was still recovering from Clueless when I was in high school, so probably one too many baby-doll skirts with baby Ts, knee socks, mary janes and barrettes. Maybe the occasional pair of flannel pajama pants during finals week. I don't let myself get that slobby these days. What does the word \"chic\" mean to you? I instantly think of Audrey Hepburn -- she could do no wrong. Her style was revolutionary. She was ladylike without being stuffy. And I also love Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett and Selma Blair, who is so fabulous. Any other Hollywood icons lurking in your closet? I'm currently having a Gwen Stefani moment. I just bought some beautiful shorts from her fashion line, LAMB. Do you enjoy the whole red-carpet circus? For a while it was very new and very frightening, and I would just work myself up so in all my photos I looked like I was staring down the barrel of a gun. I don't beat myself up about it anymore. Did you care when the tabloids ragged on your white Valentino dress with the black bow at the 2007 Oscars? I consider it a good sign when you end up on best- and worst-dressed lists. If you're universally best, then you've been quite boring. Let's talk about \"Get Smart\": Is it retro, or did they update the groovy sixties vibe of Agent 99's look? It's groovy in a different way. There are some things that are very mod, but we're not making Austin Powers 4 -- it's not a spoof. It's more like a comedic Bourne Identity. Watch Hathaway, other stars talk about movie \u00bb . I wore a few body-hugging dresses, which was so fun since I'm not used to them. I did inherit 99's Chanel bag addiction, and I was very happy about that. I have a ton of action sequences, and I had to be able to fight in every single outfit. Beyond swinging a Chanel handbag, did you do anything in particular to get into shape for this role? I started working out about three months before the film began. I wanted to be curvy and muscle-y. I took my body inspiration from Jessica Biel. I didn't quite get those results, but she's great. David Kirsch, my trainer, has made sure that I am no longer self-conscious about my thighs. Eventually my knees are going to be all wrinkly and I'm not going to be able to wear things like short skirts, so I take pleasure in wearing them now. Next you play a bridezilla opposite Kate Hudson in \"Bride Wars.\" Did you get to wear show-stopping bridal gowns? I really can't say too much, but there's a fantastic scene where we're both in our dresses and we do absolutely terrible things to each other. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Anne Hathaway plays Agent 99 in the movie \"Get Smart\"\nThe actress says she's more conservative than most in her style .\nAudrey Hepburn and Gwen Stefani are among her style icons .\nHathaway started working out three months before filming the movie .","id":"6c318c458b20a253cf9ca12adcf69105916a6239"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- Malaria is one of the world's worst health problems and one of its biggest killers, with half a billion people affected every year, according to the Roll Back Malaria partnership. Around half a billion people are infected with malaria every year. Ninety percent of those cases are in Africa. Saturday marks World Malaria Day, when the world commemorates global efforts to eradicate the disease. Below CNN's Vital Signs has produced a complete A - Z guide to how malaria spreads, the symptoms to look out for and how to protect yourself. A is for Anti-malarial drugs The history of anti-malarial medicine has been marked by a constant struggle between evolving drug-resistant parasites and the search for new drugs. Currently, anti-malaria experts are focusing on therapies that combine several drugs for better effects. B is for Blood stream Once a mosquito has bitten and the malaria parasites reach the liver, the parasites divide and create thousands of mature parasites. These are released into the blood and infect red blood cells. At that point, typical malaria symptoms such as fever and anemia develop. C is for Chloroquine Until recently, Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, was the first option for many people because of its relatively low price and effectiveness. However, resistance to Chloroquine in many parts of the world has rendered the drug ineffective. D is for Diagnosis After noting your symptoms and travel history, your doctor will likely obtain a sample of your blood for observation. Two blood samples, taken at six- and 12-hour intervals, can usually confirm the presence of the malaria parasite and its type. It is possible to be infected by more than one parasite at the same time. E is for Epidemic According to the World Health Organization (WHO), large and devastating epidemics can occur when the mosquito-borne parasite is introduced into areas where people have had little prior contact with the infecting parasite. These epidemics can be triggered by wet weather conditions and further aggravated by floods or mass population movements driven by conflict. F is for Fever The most common symptom of all types of malarias is high fever, which is why doctors often misdiagnose malaria for flu. The fever is a reaction to toxins in the blood. It is therefore advised to tell your doctor you have been to a malaria affected zone, even if symptoms arise months after the trip. G is for Genome In 2002, -- hundred years after it was discovered that mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite -- the complete genetic codes of both the human malaria parasite and the mosquito that spreads it was cracked. This development brought scientists a step closer to developing drugs and vaccines to fight the disease, Nature magazine reported. H is for Hotspots Most cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, many of them occurring among children. However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Europe are also affected. In 2006, malaria was present in 109 countries and territories. I is for Immunity Travelers from malaria-free regions such as Europe and the United States, with little or no immunity, who go to areas with high disease rates, are particularly vulnerable. It is essential to take precautions by taking anti-malarial drugs prescribed by your doctor. J is for Julius Wagner-Jauregg Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a Viennese doctor, was the first to intentionally infect syphilis patients with malaria parasites. By controlling the subsequent malaria-related fever with an anti-malaria drug, the effects of both syphilis and malaria could be minimized. Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927. K is for Killer Malaria is a life-threatening disease but it is preventable and curable if the right steps are taken. Education in recognizing the symptoms has reduced the number of cases in some areas by 20 percent. Recognizing the disease in the early stages can stop the disease from becoming a killer. L is for Laser gun U.S. scientists say they are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes. The laser fires at mosquitoes once it detects the audio frequency created by the beating of wings, the lead scientist on the project told CNN. The project is being funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. M is for Mosquitoes Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquitoes. The mosquitoes bite between sunset and sunrise and parasites from the mosquito are then injected into the person's skin and transported to the liver. About 170 species of such parasites exist, but only four cause malaria in humans. N is for Nets The distribution of mosquito nets with insecticide is a very effective method of malaria prevention, and it is also one of the most cost-effective methods. These nets can often be obtained for around $3. Earlier this month, actor Ashton Kutcher won a Twitter race against CNN to reach 1 million followers. Kutcher had pledged 10,000 mosquito nets to charity if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same. O is for Obstacles In many endemic areas, access to health facilities, as well as drug costs, still present major obstacles. Humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres estimates that the cost of treating a malaria-infected person in an endemic country was between $0.25 and $2.40 per dose in 2002. P is for Pandemic For malaria to become a pandemic (plague) in an area, several factors have to be present: high human population density; high mosquito population density; high rates of transmission from humans to mosquitoes and from mosquitoes to humans. Q is for Quinine Quinine was the first effective treatment for malaria in the 17th century. Since the 1940's, many other anti-malarial drugs have appeared on the market and have taken precedent over quinine. But quinine is still being used to treat malaria in some cases. R is for Repellent The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says inspect repellents with DEET (most common active ingredient in strong insecticides) in them should be used on exposed skin and flying-insect spray can be used to kill mosquitoes in the sleeping area. DEET may be toxic, however and should be used with care. S is for Symptoms Fever is not the only symptom of malaria. Other symptoms can include shivers, headaches and nausea. Sweating and exhaustion is also common and in some cases, it can affect the brain or kidneys. T is for Tablets Malarone is a common anti-malaria drug among many travelers. It is said to have a 97 percent efficacy with relatively few side-effects. It can be given just one day before arrival in a malaria endemic country and only needs to be taken for another week after leaving. U is for Unborn child According to the WHO, pregnant women are at high risk of contracting malaria. The illness can result in high rates of miscarriages and cause more than 10 percent of maternal deaths annually. This figure can rise to 50 percent in cases of severe disease. V is for Vaccine Despite intensive research, no effective malaria vaccine has been developed to date. But according to a report in April's New Scientist journal, a unique vaccine taken from the saliva of infected mosquitoes has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be tested in people. W is for World Malaria Day April 25 has become World Malaria Day to provide a global effort to control malaria around the world. The international malaria community only has two years left to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon. X is for X-ray X-ray microscopes are used to find the presence of malaria in red blood cells and see how they interact with healthy cells. One of the advantages of this type of microscope is that it produces very-high-resolution images of the cell structure. Y is for Yellow fever Yellow fever is another disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Some countries, such as Peru, require a certificate showing yellow-fever vaccination before you can travel there. Z is for Zanzibar Zanzibar, part of the African republic of Tanzania, has had relative successes in combating malaria; Africa's biggest killer according to the New Scientist journal. The achievements are due to the widespread use of treated bed nets, along with the switch to new anti-malarial drugs instead of Chloroquine in 2004.","highlights":"World Malaria Day on April 25 highlights the danger of malaria and calls for action .\nAccording to the WHO there were 247 million cases of malaria in 2006 .\n880,000 people died of malaria in 2006, a preventable and curable disease .","id":"ddd2c82e73bb6e11ba93babccc3585476114305c"} -{"article":"NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Ron Hassell stares at one really worn-out brown leather loafer. Ron Hassell has seen his share of heels. And soles. His grandfather taught him the shoe-repair trade. \"This is a shoe I don't want to tackle,\" he grimaces as his finger traces holes on the bottom. \"I tried to talk the guy out of fixing it, believe it or not.\" The cobbler grabs a tool to rip off the entire sole. \"Some guys get a favorite pair of shoes. ... as you can tell, this guy wore this one to death.\" He brings one of the shoes to a grinder that files down the last of the old sole and heel. \"It'll look brand new when I'm done,\" Hassell says. Hassell's shoe repair business, tucked into the corner of a three-story building in downtown North Attleborough, Massachusetts, is a trade and a tradition. The shop he now owns, North Shoe Repair, once belonged to his grandfather, who taught him everything he knows about being a cobbler. \"He was one of the best,\" Ron says, and he knows this because that's what all the salesmen -- the ones who sold products to all the local shoe repair shops -- would tell him. There are not a lot of cobblers left in the area, but Hassell's business has been steady and has even picked up in the last year. He sees the economy as one reason. It's far more economical to spend $12.50 on a pair of $125 shoes than to buy new ones. Hassell, however, sees another reason for being busy. With few young people entering the trade, customers seek out cobblers when theirs retire. \"I used to be the youngest that I knew of, because I started when I was twenty. Of course I'm close to fifty now, and I'm still probably one of the youngest around here.\" Watch the craftsman at work \u00bb . He continues to work on the really beat-up pair he didn't want to face. He uses special cutting and sewing machines to attach new leather to the bottom. Glue is pasted onto parts and the grinding machine is visited several times, both to sand off rough edges and later to polish them to a shine. He'll go back and forth to the various shoes that have been brought in and stop to wait on people bringing in his next challenge to repair. His customers seem satisfied with the results they get, and some have been loyal to his business for years. \"I came when his grandfather was here,\" says Inez Cavallaro, who had come to the shop to pick up a pair of sandals Hassell had fixed. \"I hope he always stays here, because he's great. \"He has done some magical things for me.\" The comments don't go unnoticed by Hassell. \"You know, what's pretty cool is, customers, they get pretty happy. You get that all the time, and it makes you feel good.\" Using an old shoe brush to polish what had started the day as a hopeless pair of old shoes, Hassell puts the final touches on what now look like shoes just bought from a store. \"Better than I thought they were going to come out,\" he says, looking them over one last time. Hassell says he enjoys his craft because he knows what he does is appreciated. As one customer leaves his shop and says goodbye, she stops in the door and turns around. She looks back at Hassell and says, \"Don't go out of business, now!\" As long as he can, that's something Ron Hassell has no intention of doing.","highlights":"Shoe-repair business is a trade and a tradition in small Massachusetts shop .\nRepairman cites economic downturn as factor in current uptick in his trade .\nIt's far more economical to have shoes repaired rather than buying new ones .\nSome customers have been coming to shoe-repair shop for years .","id":"9f805eca405cf70a168d03495b286715a0bb5f68"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- One summer night in 2004, 3-year-old Riley Fox lay asleep on a couch not far from her 6-year-old brother on a chair in the living room. Their father was sleeping in a nearby bedroom. The FBI joined the search for the killer of 3-year-old Riley Fox last month. Just before 8 a.m., Kevin Fox was awakened by his son. The boy told his father that Riley was missing from the sofa. Fox searched for his daughter for 40 minutes inside and outside their Wilmington, Illinois, home and then called police, according to authorities. His wife, Melissa, was in Chicago participating in a charity walk, and when she found out, she rushed home. Nearly 500 volunteers, along with police and family, searched for the little girl. Her body was found later that day in a river in Forked Creek, Illinois, just 4 miles from the family's home. She'd been bound and gagged with duct tape, raped and drowned, according to the Will County Sheriff's Office and the coroner's report. It was June 6, 2004, the start of a horrific ordeal for the family. Fox was arrested and charged with the killing, only to be exonerated by DNA evidence. More than five years later, authorities have yet to capture Riley's killer. Kathleen Zellner, Fox's attorney, said that the crime scene was brutal and that the theory is that Riley was snatched from her home, sexually assaulted and then thrown from the bridge overlooking the river where she drowned. Because her hands were bound and her mouth covered with duct tape, she was unable to swim or save herself, Zellner said. According to Zellner, Fox says that the night his daughter disappeared, he had gone to a street fair while the children's grandparents looked after them. On his way home, about midnight, Fox picked up his two sleepy children from their grandparents and put them to bed in the living room of the 500-square-foot cement box family home. Riley often fell asleep on the sofa and her 6-year-old brother on the chair near her while watching TV, Zellner said. Fox has said the front door was wide open when he awoke, Zellner said, as was the back door. He has said he locked the front door before he'd gone to bed. The back door's lock had been broken weeks ago; they typically propped a stack of laundry baskets against it to keep it shut. According to the family, those baskets had been removed and placed on top of the laundry machine by someone other than family members. \"From the beginning, we believed that someone was already inside the house waiting when Kevin got home with the kids that night, \" Melissa Fox said. \"But it was clear that police were looking at Kevin suspiciously.\" Indeed, five months later, Will County sheriff's officers arrested and charged Kevin Fox with the sexual assault and murder of his daughter. Zellner says the arrest came after authorities coerced a confession from him after 14 hours of relentless questioning. Fox spent eight months in jail, but DNA evidence from the rape kit conducted on Riley's body finally exonerated him. There was no semen found during the autopsy, Zellner says, but saliva of an unidentified male was found on the duct tape covering Riley's mouth and elsewhere on her body. In late 2007, the family won a $15.5 million wrongful-arrest suit against the sheriff's detectives. The Foxes believe that the perpetrator was someone in the community who had been watching and targeting their daughter for some time. \"For weeks before her disappearance, I couldn't shake a feeling of uneasiness, strange noises at night outside our house, as if someone were lurking and watching us,\" Melissa Fox said. Zellner believes that another big clue was a red car similar to a Chevrolet Cavalier parked outside the Fox home that night, before Kevin Fox and his children returned home. \"It's only been in the last few weeks that investigators have actively begun pursuing this case again,\" Zellner said, \"even though Kevin was cleared nearly four years ago.\" Last month, the FBI joined the investigation at the request of Will County State Attorney James Glasgow. FBI agents combed Riley's neighborhood and talked with neighbors and other potential witnesses. \"The FBI is bringing unprecedented resources and expertise to this investigation,\" Glasgow said in a statement. \"We cannot allow this horrific crime against an innocent child to remain unsolved.\" The family is offering a $100,000 reward, and the FBI is offering $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Riley Fox's death. Anyone with more information is urged to call the FBI's Chicago office at 312-421-6700.","highlights":"FBI joins investigation into death of 3-year-old Riley Fox, slain in 2004 .\nRiley was reported missing from home; her body was found that day .\nAuthorities initially charged father in the killing, but DNA exonerated him .\nAttorney for family blasts law enforcement for lack of progress on case .","id":"12d0816cd35e654752cf27892217ed9af425e6f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An audio message purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has accused President Barack Obama of being unable to fulfil his election pledge to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. Osama bin Laden is seen in an image taken from a videotape that aired on Al-Jazeera in September 2003. The tape emerged on radical Islamist Web sites, just two days after the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. \"To the American people, this is my message to you: a reminder of the reasons behind 9\/11 and the wars and the repercussions that followed and the way to resolve it,\" the message said. \"From the beginning, we have stated many times ... that the cause of our disagreement with you is your support of your allies, the Israelis, who are occupying our land in Palestine. Your stance along with some other grievances are what led us to carry out the events of 9\/11.\" The video plays the audio over a undated photograph of bin Laden. The video also shows a banner with the American flag as the backdrop and an image of the New York City skyline with the twin towers of the World Trade Center -- destroyed in the 9\/11 attack -- still standing, said terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield. CNN could not independently authenticate bin Laden as the speaker in the 11-minute video posted on Sunday by As-Sahab Media -- al Qaeda's production company. Watch CNN's Octavia Nasr's analysis of the message \u00bb . Obama was \"a vulnerable man who will not be able to stop the war, as he promised, but instead he will drag it to the maximum possible extent,\" the message said. Though U.S. troops no longer patrol Iraq's major cities and a large number have left, tens of thousands remain in the country and are expected to stay for years to come. The message claims that the Obama administration is under the influence of the Republican White House it replaced, pointing out that the president kept Robert Gates as defense secretary -- a holdover from the Bush administration. \"Prolong the wars as much as you like. By God, we will never compromise on it (Palestine), ever,\" the message continued. Mansfield noted that the video brings no new images of the elusive bin Laden, who was last seen in footage two years ago on the sixth anniversary of the terror attacks. Bin Laden has released audio messages since then, most recently on June 9.","highlights":"Obama is \"vulnerable man who will not be able to stop the war as he promised\"\nMessage: \"By God, we will never compromise on it (Palestine), ever\"\nCNN could not independently authenticate bin Laden as the speaker in the video .\nAl Qaeda's production company, As-Sahab Media, posts the 11-minute video .","id":"6d5bddc3d5d679f35466d622375a5be8956871d3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- US Airways Capt. Chesley \"Sully\" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles were reunited in the cockpit Thursday for the first time since Sullenberger safely landed a disabled passenger plane in the Hudson River in January. Thursday's flight was Chesley Sullenberger's first in his new role as an active management pilot for US Airways. \"It was great to fly with Jeff again. Being back in the cockpit felt very familiar. It was like coming home,\" Sullenberger said of the flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina. \"Even though several months had past since I've flown, it would seem like I had never left.\" It was the first time Sullenberger had flown the New York to Charlotte route since the water on landing on January 15. A bird strike in the engines forced Flight 1549 to make an emergency landing in the icy waters between New York and New Jersey. The landing made heroes of Sullenberger and the flight's crew, who managed to lead passengers to safety with only a few minor injuries. Watch Sullenberger talk about the flight \u00bb . Sullenberger has been honored with numerous awards, appeared on the \"Late Show With David Letterman,\" spoke before a joint session of Congress and even went to the Super Bowl. Sullenberger said that, after the incident, he wanted to be reunited in the cockpit with Skiles and complete the flight. Cheers filled the cabin when Sullenberger introduced himself, adding he had \"learned to wait\" for applause to die down before giving preflight announcements. Four passengers from Flight 1549 returned for Thursday's trip, putting their lives once again in the hands of the man they affectionately call \"Sully.\" Christie Spears, who survived the \"miracle on the Hudson,\" reserved the same seat for today's trip. \"What better flight to be on? What better captain to fly with? I wouldn't choose any other one,\" she said. Barry Leonard, a regular commuter on the New York-Charlotte route, said the flight was a healing process for him. Other passengers said they felt like they were taking part in a historic event. With \"Sully\" at the controls, Pat Martinez said she felt like she won the lottery. \"It was a smooth, calm flight -- just what you would expect from Sully.\" Thursday's flight also was Sullenberger's first in his new role as an active management pilot for US Airways. In addition to his flying duties, Sullenberger will join the airline's flight operations safety management team, which helps airlines assess potential risks and act to mitigate them, US Airways said. Both men took time off before returning to the cockpit, US Airways said, during which they completed requalification training. Skiles returned to work in April, US Airways said. Since then, he has flown more than 60 flights. Sullenberger completed his training September 11, and since the crash, he has flown two flights between Charlotte and Atlanta. Sullenberger said he plans to step back from his flying duties while he goes on a book tour in two weeks and starts teach other pilots at the flight training school. Skiles said that even after eight months away from the controls, Sullenberger did everything perfectly, even reaching over to his radio to change the frequency. Sullenberger said the clear skies and nice weather made Thursday's flight go smoothly. \"It was a beautiful day to fly,\" he said. \"This flight today was a lot longer than that one in January, and I was able to give [CEO Doug Parker] back his airplane without getting it wet first.\" CNN's Adam Reiss contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Four passengers from ill-fated flight in January make trip on same route .\nNEW: Passenger reserves same seat she had on Flight 1549 for Thursday's flight .\nSullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles reunite in cockpit .\nSullenberger: \"Being back in the cockpit felt very familiar. It was like coming home\"","id":"46875bcb726495b0bb95f6cab48bee84cc570cd7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dismissed questions about whether President Obama is being overexposed with his recent media blitz, saying Tuesday that the American people want to hear what Obama is doing about a struggling economy. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says President Barack Obama is using the media to keep citizens informed. Speaking to CNN's Larry King moments after Obama finished a prime time news conference, Emanuel said people are talking about issues like jobs, education and health care, and want to know where their president stands. \"You can say maybe there's overexposure,\" Emanuel said. \"I think if you watch and see, there have been greater audiences for the shows he has been on to answer these questions, because these are the questions the American people are asking around their kitchen tables.\" In the past week, Obama has appeared on CBS' \"60 Minutes\" and NBC's \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,\" the first appearance by a sitting president on a late-night talk show. He fielded questions for an hour at Tuesday's news conference and also appeared last week on ESPN filling out his bracket for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Some analysts say the president risks diluting his message in the public's mind by being visible so frequently. Some Republicans and other critics have accused Obama of maintaining a campaign mentality when he needs to be governing. But Emanuel said a public anxious about the economy has largely rejected those notions. \"I think in this troubled time ... the American people expect the president to talk to them, walk them through his thinking -- why he makes the decisions he makes, what are the tradeoffs to those decisions -- and carry them through this process,\" he said. \"I think they're very engaged in this conversation. If you look at the data, they are involved in this conversation and interested in this dialogue and appreciate an adult conversation with them about the changes they're making and the changes their government and their elected leaders are making on their behalf.\"","highlights":"Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says president using media to spread message .\nEmanuel says Obama wants to keep Americans aware of his economic plan .\nSome say president risks diluting his message by being visible so frequently .\nEmanuel: In troubled time, Americans \"expect the president to talk to them\"","id":"71cf227dea20a1abd05baf69b2fad4b4b6fbba78"} -{"article":"Editor's note: David B. Givens is Director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Washington. He is the author of \"Love Signals: A Practical Field Guide to the Body Language of Courtship\" (St. Martin's, New York, 2005), \"Crime Signals: How to Spot a Criminal Before You Become a Victim\" (St. Martin's, 2008), and the forthcoming \"The Body of Work: Sightreading the Language of Business, Bosses, and Boardrooms.\" His online Nonverbal Dictionary is used around the world as a reference tool. Barack and Michelle Obama celebrate winning the Democratic nomination with a fist bump in 2008. SPOKANE, Washington (CNN) -- The H1N1 swine flu virus is putting our most familiar gesture of greeting -- handshakes -- at risk. As an anthropologist who watches people for a living, I can tell you that human beings touch their own faces with their own fingertips hundreds, if not thousands of times a day. Repeated face touching -- especially finger contact with eyelids, lips, and nostrils -- is as predictable as blinking. You'll observe hand-to-face gestures in every culture and society, as well as in our closest primate relatives, the monkeys and apes. There's nothing wrong with face touching. Nothing, that is, unless you're afraid of germs. And today, many of us around the world are terrified by these tiny organisms, especially ones that cause swine flu. Merely by shaking the hand of someone infected by the swine-flu virus, we risk infection each time we inadvertently reach up and touch our faces. Physicians urge that we wash right after shaking hands. But since the anthropologist in me knows that, as a primate, you'll touch your face before washing, germs will inevitably visit unsuspecting lids, lip, and noses. The human handshake itself, meanwhile, is a widespread gesture used for meeting, greeting, and sealing a deal. It's a ritualized gripping of another's hand, with one or more up-and-down (or, in Texas, sideways) motions followed by a quick release. Since the fingertips and palm of the hand are exquisitely sensitive, the shake itself can be deeply personal. We instantly feel the warmth or coolness, dryness or moistness, and firmness or weakness of another's grip. Sensory input from a hand's thermal and pressure receptors to the brain's sensory cortex and then to deeper, emotional brain areas can be intense. If you travel to France, be prepared to shake hands dozens of times a day. Office workers in Paris, for example, may shake in the morning to greet, and in the afternoon to say goodbye, to colleagues. Outside vendors and technicians will handshake with everyone present when they enter or leave an office. The risk of hand-carried flu virus is thus greater here than it is in the United States, where handshaking is far less frequent. Contrast this to the Japanese practice of giving fewer handshakes, still, in favor of polite bows of the head. In all three nations, casual face touching is frequent, but germs in Tokyo are less apt to spread through handshakes. In Islamic nations, it is strictly taboo for men to shake hands in public with women. So, Muslim couples are less likely to exchange swine-flu germs through manual contact than are business men and women in, say, Seattle, Washington. Since in much of the world a handshake is both a visual and a tactile index of your concern for other people, it's hard to hold one back. In North America, Latin America, and Europe, when someone holds out a hand, it's difficult not to just take a step forward and shake. You don't want, after all, to seem rude. In Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, handshaking may be more nuanced than in the West, or even absent. An Asian namast\u00e9, with your palms and fingers pressed together in front of your chest, given with a slight bow -- or a Muslim salaam, in which your right hand touches your forehead, also given with a slight bow, may be proffered instead of a handshake. While you'll see the same incidence of facial touching -- to wipe a lip, relieve tension, or scratch an itch -- the fingertips themselves won't carry germs born of handshakes. So, what are we face-touchers in the rest of the world to do? Are we doomed to spread flu germs through our practice of ritually of gripping each other's hands? The short answer is no. Thanks to a pair of the planet's most well known human primates, we now have a healthier hand sign with which to meet and greet. Since the Obama-Lama \"fist bumps\" have been so well publicized of late, I'm sure you've seen it in newspapers and magazines and on Web sites and TV. Primates are the most imitative of all of Earth's animals, so don't be surprised if you find yourself bumping fists -- a lot -- in the weeks and months ahead. On September 22, 2009, the Dalai Lama was welcomed to Memphis, Tennessee, not with a handshake but with a fist bump from interim Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader balled up his fist and reached it forward to make friendly contact with the mayor's own proffered balled-up fist. From his smiling face, I could tell the Dalai Lama enjoyed his new greeting ritual. It looked as if he were playing with the cue. Though it was unclear if either of the fist-bumpers had flu phobia, that they touched with the knuckles instead of the fingertips rendered disease transmission far less likely. A year earlier, on June 3, 2008, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama tenderly fist bumped with his wife Michelle, in what The Washington Post called \"the fist bump heard 'round the world.\" That a U.S. president publicly performed the fist bump -- a gesture that originated partly from the sportsman's palm high-slap of victory and partly from the Black Power fist of the 1970s -- has given the gesture staying power, even though some people were critical of its use. It will last considerably longer than Andy Warhol's \"15 minutes of fame.\" Thanks to Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, and the swine flu, the fist bump will surely show up at a greeting near you. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Givens.","highlights":"David Givens: H1N1 flu is prompting focus on how we greet each other .\nHe says handshakes create risk of spreading the flu virus .\nFist bumps are a less risky way of greeting people .\nGivens: Obamas and Dalai Lama have popularized the fist bump .","id":"c17c83d0bbb1e71ff8d3a16b3427bb306c6b00bf"} -{"article":"San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Investigators don't know if the massive fire at a fuel storage facility near San Juan was deliberately started or was an accident, the agent in charge of the FBI's San Juan office said Monday. The blaze, which started with an explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility in Bayamon municipality early Friday, was extinguished Sunday, firefighters said. Some of the tanks continued to smolder and crews stood ready to fight any flare-up. \"We don't know if it's a crime scene,\" said FBI Special Agent Luis Fraticelli. \"We don't know if it's an accident, so we're not making any determinations at this point until our experts do their work, do their analysis and then provide input to us as to what they feel happened here.\" Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. The FBI is investigating graffiti found on two San Juan tunnels that referred to a fire, Special Agent Harry Rodriguez said Friday. A spray-painted message on the tunnels, less than three miles apart, said: \"Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF.\" Caribbean Petroleum owns the Gulf Oil brand, but Rodriguez said he did not know what ACNF referred to. Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze, which began with an explosion early Friday morning. That explosion shook the ground with the force of a 2.8-magnitude earthquake, authorities said. Flames shot into the air while plumes of thick, black smoke hovered over the region. Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigating to determine whether the explosion was an act of sabotage or an accident. Seventeen tanks were destroyed by flames and the initial explosion. Puerto Rico's governor, Luis Fortuno, said the main priority of his government is to counter any long-term effects of air and water pollution caused by the disaster. Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency have been checking air quality near the fire. \"We're not finding levels that would be of concern,\" said Bonnie Bellow, EPA spokeswoman. She said the fire had been so intense because it was \"burning off chemicals that are part of the fuel.\" About 600 displaced people stayed in shelters on Sunday night, but many were being sent home. Dr. Lorenzo Gonzalez, Puerto Rico's health secretary, tests conducted on the air and water showed no reason for concern. Because they were placed in close proximity in the facilities, everyone in the shelters and all the emergency personnel were vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus as a precaution, Gonzalez said. President Obama declared an emergency in Puerto Rico, which frees up federal aid. Fortuno said the blaze has cost the island at least $6.4 million. The governor sought to allay fears over gasoline supplies. Caribbean Petroleum owns 200 gas stations in the island and several inland distribution facilities, and supplies much of the island's fuel. Puerto Rico will receive 3.6 million gallons of regular gasoline, more than 1 million gallons of premium gasoline and more than 1 million gallons of diesel fuel to help make up for what may have been lost, Fortuno said. The company has been cited for violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the main law in the United States that deals with the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, according to EPA spokeswoman Bellow. Caribbean Petroleum is under a corrective-action plan, she said. CNN's Rafael Romo and Arthur Brice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Blaze started with massive explosion early Friday .\nGraffiti found in two San Juan tunnels made reference to fires .\nPuerto Rico to receive fuel imports to make up for what burned .","id":"79ee9c80ae25793942c8b9f1bd1ba9fb478a52fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What's it really like to be a new member of the world's most powerful legislature? Two new U.S. representatives are teaming up with CNN.com to report their \"Freshman Year\" experience through videos and commentaries. Jason Chaffetz and Jared Polis are taking video cameras with them as they negotiate their way in the 111th Congress, both inside and outside Washington. They both won convincing victories in November in neighboring states, yet they are world's apart. Utah's Chaffetz is a conservative Republican married father of three who is sleeping on a cot in his congressional office to save money. Democrat Polis from Colorado is a former Internet entrepreneur who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and the first openly gay male to be elected to the House of Representatives as a freshman. You can follow their stories regularly on CNN.com. Watch the action in Congress from the point of view of the Congressmen \u00bb . Here are their biographies: . \u2022 Jason Chaffetz . Rep. Jason Chaffetz is a freshman Republican congressman representing the 3rd District of Utah. He was elected in November, winning two-thirds of the vote against a Democratic challenger. Chaffetz, 41, got the Republican nomination in an upset victory over Rep. Chris Cannon. He ousted the six-term incumbent in a low-budget campaign in which he said Cannon was not conservative enough for the district, particularly in fighting illegal immigration. Chaffetz grew up in California, Arizona and Colorado and was recruited to Brigham Young University to be a placekicker by football coach LaVell Edwards. He set two school records as the starting placekicker and earned a degree in communications. After college, Chaffetz joined the local business community and worked as a spokesman for Nu Skin International. Chaffetz stayed at Nu Skin for nearly 11 years, as managing director of marketing and product development and general manager for Australia and New Zealand. Watch the reports from Week One \u00bb . Chaffetz managed Jon Huntsman Jr.'s campaign for governor of Utah and after Huntsman took office in 2005, he became his chief of staff. He has been married to Julie Johnson for 18 years and they have three children. \u2022 Jared Polis . Rep. Jared Polis is a freshman Democratic congressman representing the 2nd District of Colorado. He was elected in November to the seat held by Mark Udall, who ran and won for U.S. Senate. Polis defeated his Republican opponent, gaining 62 percent of the vote. His campaign stressed environmental issues, education reform, withdrawing troops from Iraq and repealing Bush administration tax cuts for the highest-income earners. He is the first openly gay male to be elected to Congress as a freshman. Polis, 33, was born in Boulder, Colorado, and grew up in Colorado and Southern California. He was a student at Princeton University when he co-founded a company providing Internet access and Web hosting. Growing up in his family's Boulder-based greeting card and publishing business, Blue Mountain Arts, he succeeded his grandmother as sales manager in 1996 and helped start bluemountainarts.com, an online greeting card Web site. In 1998, he launched ProFlowers.com, a Web company to sell flowers direct from growers to consumers; its parent company was sold to Liberty Media Corporation in 2006. Jared won statewide election in 2000 to the Colorado Board of Education and served for six years. He started a foundation and two charter schools to support improvements in education and received numerous awards for his philanthropic work. Immediately before running for Congress, Polis served as superintendent of New America School, a charter school he founded to help 16-21-year-old new immigrants learn English and gain a high school diploma.","highlights":"Two freshman representatives document their experience for CNN .\nRep. Jared Polis is a Democrat representing Colorado's Second district .\nRep. Jason Chaffetz is a Republican representing Utah's Third district .","id":"e38b930ff3770ef03e720bce376fd8af780a9fb5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal officials will travel to Standish, Michigan, on Thursday to tour a state prison that could be used to house terror suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. government officials said Wednesday. The prison in Standish, Michigan, is slated for closure but would stay open if Guantanamo detainees are sent there. Among those who will check out the facility, the officials said, will be representatives from the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons. One administration official stressed no decision has been made about where to relocate Guantanamo detainees. Multiple options are under consideration. That official added Thursday's visit is simply to gather information about the prison. The prison in Standish is a maximum security facility slated for closure. Some local officials would like to see Guantanamo prisoners brought there as a way to keep the prison open and preserve jobs in an area with more than 20 percent unemployment. Jerry Nelson, mayor pro tem of Standish, told CNN earlier this month that the area would lose 350 jobs if the prison closes. \"I think most people are for this,\" Nelson said. \"Anything to keep the prison open.\" Another location often mentioned for housing Guantanamo prisoners is a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and other officials vehemently oppose placing prisoners there. \"This local community has spoken loud and clear repeatedly,\" Brownback said in a news conference in Kansas this month. \"They don't want the detainees here.\" Administration officials have said they are looking at installations that could hold courtrooms for federal criminal trials as well as military commissions. President Obama announced plans early in his presidency to close the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay by January. The center has 229 detainees.","highlights":"Michigan prison seen as place where Guantanamo detainees could be relocated .\nOfficial: No decision on where to move Gitmo detainees has been made .\nMayor of Standish, Michigan: Move would keep prison open, keep jobs in area .\nPresident Obama aims to close Guantanamo detention center in January .","id":"7ca50eb942dab3192920db028bea21c0fe47e310"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Clouds of black smoke from burning plastic hang over the sites of Nigeria's vast dumps, as tiny figures pick their way through slicks of oily water, past cracked PC monitors and television screens. Toxins from dumped electronics in developing countries has been seen as a growing problem. But it isn't just a cut from broken glass these mainly young scavengers are risking. Much of the discarded electronic kit contains tiny -- but valuable -- quantities of aluminum, copper, cadmium and other minerals, all of which can be sold on, if they can be recovered. However they also contain highly toxic materials, which have been linked to reproductive problems and cancers. \"People living and working on and around the dump sites, many of whom are children, are exposed to a cocktail of dangerous chemicals that can cause severe damage to health, including cancer, damage to the nervous system and to brain development in children,\" Kim Schoppink, Toxics Campaigner at Greenpeace, told CNN. \"The open burning creates even more hazardous chemicals among which are cancerous dioxins.\" No studies have been done on the extent of the chemical pollution of such sites in Nigeria, but in 2008 a Greenpeace report on similar dumps in nearby Ghana confirmed that high levels of lead, phthalates and dioxins were present in soils and the water of a nearby lagoon. A Chinese academic report published in \"Environmental Health Perspectives\" in 2007 confirmed that children living in the same area had higher levels of toxic metals in their blood than other children living nearby. There is increasing evidence that this new health and environment problem is arriving in shipping containers from Western countries. Nigeria is one of the principal global destinations for \"e-waste\" -- the catch-all term for discarded consumer electronics. Some of this may have been legitimately handed in to be recycled in an EU or U.S. city, but lax enforcement, vague legislation and a lack of political will has meant that it instead passes through a network of traders keen to profit from developing countries' hunger for hi-tech and a burgeoning second hand market. According to the United Nations Environment Program around 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are generated worldwide each year. In 2008 a Greenpeace study, \"Not in My Backyard\", found that in Europe only 25 percent of the e-waste was recycled safely. In the U.S. it is only 20 percent and in developing countries it is less than one percent. Extrapolating out from these figures the report concluded that a massive 80 percent of e-waste generated worldwide is not properly recycled. Some is burnt in Western incinerators or buried in landfill sites. But much is exported to developing countries including India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana. When it arrives, a further percentage may be repaired and sold on to populations desperate for affordable technology. But anything beyond the skills of local traders will end up dumped. It's a profitable business, and is already attracting the attention of organized crime. A report issued by the United Nations in July said that the criminal gangs behind much of the drug trade in West Africa were becoming involved with e-waste trading. The volume of material on the move is staggering. In 2005, more than 500 containers full of e-waste entered Nigerian ports every month, according to the Basel Action Network, a U.S. NGO campaigning on issues surrounding toxic waste. Each one contains 10 to 15 tons of e-waste, totaling 60,000 to 90,000 tons per year. These figures are likely to have increased in recent years. There seems little doubt that much of this waste is finding its way to Africa from Western countries. The Basel Action Network and Dutch NGO Danwatch have traced equipment from Europe to Nigerian dumps and earlier this year Greenpeace placed a radio tracking device in a broken TV handed in for safe recycling in the UK, but followed it to a Nigerian market. \"Greenpeace is disappointed especially by U.S. and EU authorities,\" said Schoppink. \"It is toxic waste from the U.S. and EU countries that is causing serious environmental and health problems in Nigeria, a country without the means to deal with this problem. \"The U.S. and EU must play the biggest role in stopping the spread of e-waste; they are most responsible for the problem and have the resources to tackle it. The export of e-waste from the EU is illegal under the Basel Convention and the Waste Shipment Directive, but the laws are not being sufficiently implemented. In the U.S., there is no such law banning this practice. \"In Nigeria the government is talking about stopping imports, but there has been no progress on this to date.\" Signs of progress . There are calls from environmental groups likes Greenpeace for electronics producers to do more to phase out their use of hazardous substances, and there are some signs of progress. Several electronics companies already make products using fewer hazardous substances, and others, including Nokia, Philips and Samsung are setting up voluntary collection and recycling systems in countries where they are not legally obliged to. Apple claims its products are now almost entirely free of the worst toxic chemicals. \"If producers continue to use hazardous chemicals in their electronics and to fail to take responsibility for the safe disposal of their products, e-waste will continue to be dumped in developing countries,\" said Schoppink. \"The pollution and related health problems in countries where e-waste is dumped will increase massively as the amount of electronics used worldwide is growing exponentially and the number of countries used as dump sites will grow.\" But while the developing world needs the U.S. and EU to take responsibility for their waste, it also needs their discarded computers to train and build a 21st century workforce. \"Nobody is arguing that Africa should be denied access to computers,\" said Tony Roberts, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Computer Aid International, a charity licensed by the UK Environment Agency, which provides recycled computers to developing countries to improve education and healthcare. \"Technical colleges and universities are always short of resources. It is, of course, essential to developing economies escaping poverty to have access to affordable modern technology.\" Computer Aid works to close the digital divide between the north and southern hemispheres and offers corporations, including Coca Cola, as well as individuals, a positive way of disposing of electronics. They also believe learning about responsibility for that technology is a crucial part of the exchange. \"Computer Aid argues that, in addition to the PCs, it is essential to also build the skills, knowledge and operating capacity in every country to manage responsible re-use programs and environmentally sound end-of-life recycling.\" In the end, this is about everyone involved -- particularly the developed nations -- taking responsibility for their waste. \"It is clear that companies have a moral obligation to treat Africa in exactly the same way that they do, say, Germany,\" said Roberts. Until then, toxic black smoke will continue to cast a shadow over lives across the developing world.","highlights":"Export of electronic products for recycling creating health and environment problems .\nDeveloped nations that export e-waste criticized by many for lack of responsibility .\nStudy from Greenpeace suggest only around 20 percent recycled safely .\nOrganized crime involved in e-waste trading according to UN report in July .","id":"5481bfdc9f8413507a2bea733ca957fe8063c983"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Lance Arneson, who helped trigger the global phenomenon of role-playing games as co-inventor of \"Dungeons & Dragons,\" has died at the age of 61. A statement on the game's official Web site, wizards.com, said Arneson died Tuesday evening \"after waging one final battle against cancer.\" Arneson \"developed many of the fundamental ideas of role playing: that each player controls just one hero, that heroes gain power through adventures, and that personality is as important as combat prowess,\" the statement said. The game's co-creator, Gary Gygax, died last year. In 1974, Arneson and Gygax created \"Dungeons & Dragons,\" which allowed players to assume roles in a magical world. They could be fighters or wizards, elves or dwarfs. \"As characters journey through various lands, they search for hidden treasures while battling menacing monsters with their own brains and brawn,\" a description on wizards.com says. Some games would last days or weeks -- or even longer. \"Game campaigns are as limitless as the player's imaginations,\" wizards.com says. What began as a hand-assembled print run of 1,000 games quickly sold out. Young people all over the world started buying up the game. By 1982, sales broke the $20 million mark. Arneson filed a series of lawsuits against Gygax insisting he was not being given credit or proper royalties for his work creating the game. The suits were settled. \"Dungeons and Dragons\" spawned video games, novels, a cartoon, and a movie. The franchise saw a surge this decade after \"The Lord of the Rings\" and \"Harry Potter\" movies took off.","highlights":"David Lance Arneson has died at the age of 61 .\nHe helped trigger phenomenon of role-playing games .\nStatement: Arneson died \"after waging one final battle against cancer\"\n\"Dungeons and Dragons\" spawned video games, novels, a cartoon, and a movie .","id":"7b8c17376f8fd4796bf76c66b3ea47ebd0ff713a"} -{"article":"ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- There was no trauma visible on the \"completely skeletonized\" remains of slain toddler Caylee Anthony, but there were overlapping pieces of duct tape over her mouth, according to the autopsy report released Friday. Caylee Anthony was last seen June 16, 2008. Her mother, Casey Anthony, is in jail awaiting a murder trial. The tape was still attached to head hair, and the skull was separate from the other body parts, said Dr. Jan Garavaglia, chief medical examiner for Orange County. \"This duct tape was clearly placed prior to decomposition, keeping the mandible in place,\" she says in the report. Garavaglia said animals had scattered the bones after decomposition began. The cause of the child's death is listed as \"homicide by undetermined means.\" Caylee Anthony's remains were found in December in woods less than a mile from her grandparents' home. Her mother, Casey Anthony, is charged with murder. She could be sentenced to death if convicted. The mother was arrested July 16, 2008, while Caylee was still missing. Earlier Friday, a judge denied a request from the child's grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, to keep the autopsy report from the public. Last week, their attorney filed a motion saying the report should be sealed because its release would cause the family great anguish. Holding back tears, George Anthony on Friday asked the judge not to release the report until Casey Anthony's trial. \"Our family's memory of precious Caylee Marie is all we have left of her,\" he said as his wife appeared visibly shaken. Judge Stan Strickland said George Anthony's testimony was not lost on him, but according to the law he had no choice. \"Their pain means a great deal to me. I don't like the ruling I'm making, but it's one that I legally have to make,\" he said. George Anthony, angry after the ruling, left the courtroom before the hearing ended. The autopsy report contains no X-rays or photos of the remains. Watch Nancy Grace's take on the coroner's findings \u00bb . According to Garavaglia, intermixed with Caylee Anthony's skeletal remains were two plastic garbage bags, a canvas laundry bag and a baby blanket with a Winnie the Pooh print. A pair of partially decomposed, multi-colored shorts were among the clothes, the doctor said. Two sets of cloth letters were found intermingled with plant material and debris. Garavaglia said the first set spelled \"big\" and the second group appeared to spell \"trouble.\" \"The roots growing into the vertebrae and bags indicate the body was placed there months prior to being found,\" Garavaglia said. \"There is nothing inconsistent with the body being placed there soon after the date of [Caylee] being last seen alive.\" George Anthony said he saw his granddaughter leave his house with her mother for the last time on June 15, 2008. Officials allege Caylee was killed by her mother a short time later. Since her arrest in July, Casey Anthony, 23, has remained behind bars in Orlando. The search for Caylee ended December 11, when a meter reader brought out a bag containing a skull from the woods. He said he had contacted police three times in August to report a suspicious bag in the area. A deputy was ultimately fired for not properly searching the area. The remains were confirmed through DNA testing to be those of Caylee Anthony. CNN's Natisha Lance and John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Autopsy report, released Friday, says remains of slain toddler \"skeletonized\"\nCause of death listed as \"homicide by undetermined means\"\nJudge denied grandfather George Anthony's request not to release report .","id":"213d5a14544e83a2396f384d8cf77f8fc23c5e41"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Two hundred thousand boats sat idle in Japan, as fishermen across the nation took to the streets on Tuesday to protest skyrocketing fuel prices. Fishermen rallied in Tokyo on Tuesday against skyrocketing fuel prices. The strike -- the first ever by the country's fishermen -- hopes to convince the government that without its intervention, rising fuel costs will kill the fishermen's businesses. Across Japan's fishing ports, fishermen simultaneously blew their whistles in a symbol of solidarity, and operations ground to a halt. Thousands of others rallied in downtown Tokyo, marching in circles around the fisheries ministry and chanting, \"We're dying,\" through bullhorns. The protesting fishing unions say fuel once accounted for 10 percent of a business' operating cost. It now accounts for 30 to 50 percent. Watch the unions protest in the streets \u00bb . They want the government to provide subsidies to make up for the price hike. The demonstration was the latest in a wave of protests around the world over fuel prices. Masatoshi Wakabayashi, the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, told reporters Tuesday morning that he \"understands the frustration of the fishermen.\" He urged reforms within the fishing industry to decrease its reliance on oil, adding it would be \"difficult to compensate them for the hike in the price of oil.\" The deep-sea tuna fishermen's association told CNN it might suspend operations for two to three months later this year, due to fuel price hike. Marine life has long been a staple food source in Japan. Last week, nearly 400 taxis brought traffic to a halt in Berlin, Germany, as drivers drove through the city in a protest over high fuel prices. Truckers in Vienna, Austria, also staged a protest last week. And earlier this month, hundreds of British truckers drove past Parliament to voice their anger about the high cost of fuel. India, France, Spain and South Korea have had similar protests.","highlights":"Thousands in Tokyo marched in circles around the fisheries ministry .\nFishing unions want the government to provide subsidies to make up for price hike .\nMinister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries says he \"understands the frustration\"\nDemonstration is the latest against fuel prices around the world .","id":"92314feb008694ddfe377eb1d6f78ba7a3295e8d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A store owner in New York who is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a 4-year-old boy from a burning building said he plans to visit the child in the hospital Friday. Horia Cretan climbed up a fire escape and helped save a boy through the window of a burning building. Horia Cretan, who owns an electronics store in the Bronx structure where the fire broke out, also hopes to meet Christopher's parents for the first time, he told CNN's \"American Morning.\" The boy is expected to recover, Cretan said. The child was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where a nurse said she couldn't provide his condition. Cretan, who moved to the United States from Romania 15 years ago, said he was inside his store Wednesday when he heard a child's screams. It was about 4 p.m., he said, about the time children play outside after getting out of school, but he said the screams he heard were \"totally different.\" He reached a fire escape and climbed to the fourth floor, where a firefighter handed the boy to him through a smoke-clouded window, video from the scene shows. \"What I was worried about is, is he still alive? Because his head just dropped, and he wasn't helping himself or helping me,\" Cretan said. \"He just couldn't hold his weight and he was unconscious.\" While the firefighter was handing over the boy, other crew members were trying to get into the building's main entrance to make their way to the apartment where the fire was, the store owner said. Cretan covered himself and the boy with a blanket or curtain to shield themselves from falling debris and glass, which cut the boy on the leg. Watch Cretan describe the rescue \u00bb . During the rescue, the boy's brother stood below, yelling, the rescuer said. Christopher was given oxygen on the ground and taken to the hospital. Cretan said it wasn't the first time he rescued someone. He said he rescued his sister from a fire in Romania that killed their father. The 33-year-old Cretan said he was 12 years old at the time. \"It was a sad story, a tragic moment at the time,\" he said, referring to the Romanian incident. \"And you know, it had an impact on people around the neighborhood like it does right now. It's amazing. This just skyrocketed.\" Cretan said he's received messages across the globe about the Bronx incident. \"This has become famous because somebody happened to be on the corner with the camera pretty much. You don't do things like this for merit. The merit in itself is you save somebody,\" Cretan said. \"And the whole community's just being great. Adopting me like a son, and I'm a part of a big family and I'm happy to have them in my life.\"","highlights":"Horia Cretan says he was working in his store when he heard a child's screams .\nThe boy is expected to recover, says Cretan, who plans to visit the child .\nHe says he has received messages from around the world .\nCretan says at 12 he rescued his sister from a fire in which his father died .","id":"a6b396bb53003b5b38150f89a9b0f69228e73ef5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The French spend more time eating and drinking than anyone else among the world's wealthy nations, a new study reveals. The study, by the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), found that the average French person spends nine hours sleeping every night, and spends two hours a day eating. On the other end of the spectrum, the average Japanese gets seven hours of sleep and also spends longer at work -- and getting to work -- than on leisure activities. And when it comes to food, Mexicans spend the least time: just over an hour a day. The survey looked at 18 countries among the organization's 30 members to see how people use \"that most fundamental of resources:\" time. The results were released Monday. Among the organization's findings: . The lowest obesity rates? South Korea and Japan with less than 4 percent of the population exceeding a BMI of more than 30.","highlights":"Average Japanese spends longer at work and getting to work than on leisure .\nSouth Korea and Japan have the lowest obesity rates .\nSurvey looks at 18 countries among OECD's 30 members to gauge use of time .","id":"232a64803e44f27fadc5fb58ae8cb9b722868c98"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- One of America's pre-eminent political power couples made a rare joint appearance Friday, when Bill and Hillary Clinton took the stage at the former president's Clinton Global Initiative conference. Bill Clinton says his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the \"best public service our family has ever produced.\" \"I want to begin by expressing my extreme indebtedness to the Clinton Global Initiative, to all of you who participated, for giving me the first chance I have had in a week to see Hillary,\" Bill Clinton told the audience of social activists and business leaders at the closing session of CGI, a week-long conference designed to find solutions to global problems through public and private partnerships. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at the session to unveil a new State Department initiative on food security. As he introduced her, the former president was effusive in his praise for his wife, saying that her approach to food security -- helping farmers around the world grow their own food to earn income and alleviate poverty -- was much smarter than the decades-long policy of simply giving humanitarian aid and food to countries. Watch Clinton pay tribute to his wife \u00bb . \"It was a wrong-headed policy. It persisted through Democratic and Republican policies alike, including mine. We were all wrong, and she is determined to reverse it,\" Bill Clinton said. Watch portion of Anderson Cooper's interview with former President Clinton \u00bb . \"Most of what I know about what I do today, I learned from her and she has become the best public servant our family has produced,\" he added. \"I am very proud of her and honored that she came here.\" Hillary Clinton, who received a standing ovation, had equally kind words for her husband. \"It won't surprise you to hear that I am very proud of my husband, and I think what he has invented and brought to life here is extraordinary,\" she said, adding that the new State Department food initiative, in part, was an idea she developed by seeing the kinds of partnerships the Clinton Global Initiative produced. The Clintons posed for a photo-op with State Department officials and executives from General Mills and other organizations, who pledged at the conference to start a program to help farmers around the world. And then, for fans of the former first couple, a rare treat. As she walked off the stage, Bill Clinton drew some more cheers when he gave his wife a kiss. Bill Clinton continued to read off the million-dollar commitments he received at the conference for additional social programs. Hillary Clinton left to meet with 15 ministers from the Caribbean.","highlights":"Bill Clinton praises wife's approach to food security at global issues conference .\nHillary Clinton wants farmers worldwide to grow own food to earn income .\nClinton admits \"wrong-headed\" policy toward humanitarian aid .","id":"104271621fc146a195e3114f272e185439a2b510"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- When I try to explain my ardor for HBO's trashy-fabulous soap opera \"True Blood\" to my dude friends, they either shrug and change the topic, or question whether I've been writing for ladyblogs for too long and am suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Dudes just don't dig bloodsuckers, since vampires pretty much look like girls. We prefer zombies, because we love chainsaws, flamethrowers, and samurai swords. And because, on some level, we know that besides being vehicles for sperm, our other important, if lesser, genetic imperative is to defend our loved ones from hordes of unthinking, flesh-eating metaphors for current social anxieties. To most guys, vampires are the monster movie equivalent of that sensitive man-sponge in college who plays acoustic guitar in order to seduce chicks. They're what you get when you cross your average Renaissance Fair enthusiast with a mosquito. And what's with their greatest weaknesses being most kinds of Italian food, Sunday school, and the sun, which helps flowers grow? Really? Why women find date-rapey parasites who wear capes compelling must have something to do with deeply primal fears. A vampire is a monster, who looks, acts, and talks like a man. Who is passionate, romantic, and tortured. To surrender to this character is to play with fire. The vampire, in many ways, is the prototype of the bad boy. Women love bad boys - they're exciting, and the chance to change him, to break him like a horse, must be an irresistible challenge. If self-destruction weren't seductive on some superficial level, then no one would ever need rehab. But I am like most guys in that I am a fan of zombie flicks. \"28 Days Later\" may possibly be my favorite movie ever. I'm also a fan of alien and robot movies, but more often than not, it seems women are more adept at dispatching those. Zombie movies indulge male power-fulfillment fantasies. We enjoy pretending to be dragon-slaying knights or bad-guy-perforating cowboys or Bruce Willis, saving our ex-wife from a skyscraper full of terrorists. The Frisky: Compliments guys take as insults . Before any feminist blood vessels burst, let me explain that this fantasy goes hand-in-hand with a male-specific fear that speaks to ancient genetic programming. That for all our swagger, testosterone, and machismo, we cannot protect those we love. The disaster call for women and children to evacuate first isn't chivalry, inasmuch as it's evolutionarily smarts. The women and children will continue the species; the men are disposable. We fear being useless, especially once we have issued forth our baby-making essence. The Frisky: Where all the good guys are . In \"True Blood,\" the vampire Bill has decided to change himself, to fight his ferocious nature. He struggles to be a better, um, corpse. He rejects the cold, bloodthirsty vampirism of his peers, and tries to embrace those human virtues he once had: selflessness, mercy, kindness, and justice. In some ways, he's less a vampire and more a superhero. Then he falls in love with someone he is told he shouldn't. And his love for Sookie, a human woman, is a choice he has made, regardless of the scorn heaped upon him by the undead and the living alike. He protects her, despite his fears that he is completely impotent, powerless to defend her from a world that despises them both. And she returns the favor, despite her fears that underneath sweet words and passion is an animal waiting to pounce. A little bit for men and women. The Frisky: Ways men try to impress women . I watch \"True Blood\" because chicks will dig it when I can talk about Eric and Maryann and Action Stackhouse; it's how I \"open\" a pick-up artist-style \"set.\" My knowledge of \"True Blood\" will help me convince turbo-hotties to come back to my sweet fourth-floor walk-up in Queens, where I will love them forever, or until I have to call the unemployment office at 10 a.m., whichever comes first. Sigh. Oh forget it. I love this show, without condition. I love that Alan Ball followed up his twee meditation on mortality, \"Six Feet Under,\" with a show that's just about hot sexing and gratuitous gore. It's a soft-core comic book, nothing more, nothing less. I fully accept that there's a part of me that will always be a pear-shaped teenage goth girl. I mean, I'm reading the \"True Blood\" books, for the love of Godric. Horror movies, books, and television shows reflect our collective fears, and \"True Blood\" is awesome because it sneaks male fears into a female-oriented program. Also: because all the women are hot and sometimes they show their chest. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Writer says the vampire, in many ways, is the prototype of the bad boy .\nWomen love bad boys and the chance to change him, writer says .\nZombie movies indulge male power-fulfillment fantasies, columnist says .\nWriter says av ampire is a monster, who looks, acts, and talks like a man .","id":"696edf2b1fb84e662b9037faaee72472ea0f89bb"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- About a year ago, a group of my closest friends got together in a basement apartment in Queens. It was a Saturday night in the dead of winter, and most of us were broke (the economy was crashing) and lazy (we didn't feel like trekking to a bar in the city). As we cracked open a bottle of wine and ate fresh-baked zucchini muffins, one of my friends decided to play us some records on the record player he had recently inherited from his parents. It turned out to be one of the best nights of our lives. In sharing great music, great food and great fun, a tradition was born: Record Party. The New York Times is finally catching on to something my friends and I discovered that night; vinyl is back in a major way. The stats say that CDs are becoming just about as obsolete as cassettes and 8-tracks. Sure, iPods are fun if you're on the go, but really the only way to devour your favorite music (other than to hear it live) is to listen to it on vinyl. It's like hearing the music again for the first time -- rich and layered. Mike Jbara, a bigwig at Warner Music Group, said, \"It is absolutely easy to say vinyl doesn't make sense when you look at convenience, portability, all those things. But all the really great stuff in our lives comes from a root of passion or love.\" [New York Times] . That's what Record Party is really all about. But don't take my word for it. Here are five tips for throwing your own rocking Record Party. \u2022 Yes, you need a record player. I know you're thinking, \"Where on earth do I get a record player? The antique shop?\" Try eBay or Craigslist. There are so many used record players that need a good home. From bottom of the line models to high-end turntables, you wouldn't believe how many people have record players. If you're an electronics idiot like me, you may want to consult a knowledgeable person. I always ask my super-geeky musician friends about makes, models and features. If you don't have a music nerd in your life, do a little research online or find a specialty store in your area. Also, don't forget to get some great speakers so you can hear all the natural flava of your records. \u2022 Starting a record collection isn't as hard or as expensive as you think. It's always fun to go to a local record store and pick out some delicious vinyl. Many record stores have used records, which can save you some money. Take the record out and make sure that it's the right record -- one time I got \"A Chorus Line\" record in a \"Stevie Nicks\" jacket. Also, make sure that the record is not terribly scratched. If you're a bargain hunter like me, go to your local thrift store and pick through. You may have to search for a while, but it's not uncommon to find some $1 gems. Also, flea markets are a great place to find some hot, cheap vinyl. \u2022 Keep the guest list small. The best thing about Record Party is reveling in your favorite music and breaking out your finest dance moves. This is always most fun with close friends who have similar tastes in music. But part of the fun is also learning about new music, so you may want to require guests to bring some records of their own. \u2022 Food and drinks are a must. It's hard to throw a great record party without food and beverage. Have everyone contribute. Snacks and drinks will be much appreciated when guests step off the makeshift dance floor. \u2022 Establish some rules and traditions. At our Record Party, we've established a couple of rules in order to keep the good times rolling: 1. Everyone must write all requests down on our request list. 2. No more than two songs played at one time per person. After everyone has put in a request, the cycle starts over. 3. Everyone gets one \"Yoinx\" per night. A \"Yoinx\" is when you have a great song that you feel like you need to push to the top of the list. Develop your own rules and traditions to ensure that everyone is able to share in the music. Enjoy. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Record Parties are a great way to get together with friends .\nInstead of an iPod, get better sound with a record player, available on eBay or Craigslist .\nRecords can be inexpensive: $1 gems aren't too rare to stumble upon .\nBring snacks and a playlist .","id":"2691f270e3e2bc945c678713bde07e19a1e2902f"} -{"article":"MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Chaos and death on the streets of Mogadishu: unfortunately, it's nothing new in the Somali capital. Casualties are taken into Mogadishu's hospital on stretchers. Government forces are fighting against insurgents on this day in September in a bloody battle that leaves 30 dead. Dozens of wounded Somalis are taken out of the danger zone, some of them in the back of insurgents' pick-up trucks. One of the trucks races through the streets, zig-zagging to the echoing booms of the ongoing shelling. The truck comes to an abrupt halt, stopping at a rare sight in the Somali capital -- an ambulance, waiting at the heart of the chaos to ferry the dead and the injured to the hospital. The wounded are transferred onto the ambulance. People shout and run as the mortar attacks continue. One woman screams over and over for her son. The ambulance is one of seven medical vehicles paid for with donated funds from local and expatriate Somalis. Residents can simply call for the ambulances without charge, and the vehicles will be dispatched to the scene. \"It is amazing,\" said Rufai Salad, one of the founders of the ambulance service in the Somali capital. \"We have this toll-free number, 777, that you dial. Someone is giving you a free call and then coming and giving you free help. \"People here find it hard to believe it is real.\" Life Line Africa, a local Somali charity, started its ambulance service in Mogadishu in December, bringing a small amount of order to the lawless country that is in the midst of a brutal Islamist insurgency. Apart from the short-lived rule of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006, there has been no genuine central authority in Somalia since the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's repressive regime in 1991. Now, the United States and other Western powers are propping the U.N.-backed transitional government forces in their attempt to fend off the insurgency, particularly Al-Shabaab -- a Somali militant group that has ties to al Qaeda. Watch Nima Elbagir's report on the humanitarian crisis in Somalia \u00bb . Basic amenities in Somalia, like electricity, water and sanitation - and even luxuries such as wireless Internet facilities -- are provided by enterprising businessman, which is partly how the ambulance service came to life. In the Somali equivalent of a public-private partnership, clan elders and local businessman donated the money to fund the ambulance service, helping fulfill a crucial need. The ambulance drivers are well compensated, earning about U.S. $200 a month in a country where the average yearly income is $130, according to the United Nations. Life Line Africa's monthly budget for its Mogadishu ambulance service is $3,200, including fuel, running costs and the salaries of the 10 drivers. They hope to increase their driving staff to 14. Salad, 24, is an information technology officer for the Somali president's office, but volunteers his time to help keep Life Line Africa running. His enthusiasm about the ambulance service obscures the very real danger he and his drivers face. Part of the problem, he explains, is trying to stay neutral in a war zone. \"We did have one driver killed by Al-Shabaab,\" he admits. \"They told us that it was because we were carrying government soldiers to hospital. But I said to them that this is what we do - we are working for all of you.\" And it's not just the insurgents that Salad and his drivers fear. \"We had to take the body of a Syrian ship captain who had been killed by pirates to the airport,\" he said. \"The government and African Union soldiers opened fire on the ambulance. We were later told they'd received information that the insurgency was planning on using an ambulance to stage a suicide attack.\" \"But what can you do?\" he asks. \"Our driver ran away and then later was allowed to come back for his ambulance.\" Salad says the relatively high pay is not the real reason his drivers are willing to take the risks they do. \"If you go to the area of the fighting then the combatants [from both sides] say 'You must carry us to the hospital or we will kill you,'\" he says. \"It is so dangerous but when we see the problems of the people, we're trying to find a way somehow, to keep on working.\"","highlights":"Volunteer ambulance service ferries wounded civilians and fighters to the hospital .\nDrivers face problems from both sides of the conflict in the capital, Mogadishu .\nAmbulance drivers earn $200 a month; national average annual salary is $130 .\nU.N.-backed transitional government forces are fighting Islamist insurgents .","id":"64b10a0cd03d9ee503192cc15d935e5ed2e0b80c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Happy birthday, Catherine Zeta-Jones. You are turning 40 this month, joining an exclusive club of women in show business who are marking the same milestone this year. Catherine Zeta-Jones arrives at a Hollywood event earlier this year. She turns 40 on September 25. Think big names like Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Aniston, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and Cate Blanchett. It's a birthday many actors -- but especially female stars -- in Hollywood would once dread, hide and agonize over. At an age where men could comfortably play heroes and lovers in the prime of their life -- and could do so for many years to come -- women often found themselves starting to be cast in different roles. (One example: \"The Graduate,\" where 36-year-old Anne Bancroft played a frustrated \"older woman\" trying to seduce Dustin Hoffman, who was just six years younger than she at the time.) No wonder some stayed mum about their age, but this generation of 40-something female entertainers is different. They're holding birthday bashes, embracing the big four-oh and staying as busy and famous as ever. Their faces grace magazine covers, their bodies are the envy of women decades younger and their careers seem to be going strong. See photos of stars who are 40 and still hot \u00bb . Zellweger herself has said she hasn't noticed good parts getting scarce. \"I don't see it. I don't know. I'm so spoiled with respect to the experiences I've had and the opportunities I've had that I don't see it,\" she said, according to published news reports. So has anything changed for women hitting 40 in a business obsessed with youth? Industry observers say stars like Zeta-Jones, Zellweger and Aniston have more options than ever to have long, distinguished careers thanks to independent films and television, but opinions are mixed on whether they can sustain a big Hollywood presence. \"These women are still among the most bankable, biggest stars in the industry and turning 40 isn't going to change that,\" said Kathy Heintzelman, entertainment director for More, a magazine geared toward women over 40. Watch a report on the most rich and famous women over 40 \u00bb . Importance of box office . But others argue that the opportunity to land lead roles in major studio films for actresses like Aniston, Zeta-Jones and Zellweger is running out. It's all about the global box office for Hollywood, which right now is most interested in making comic book movies or big-action, special-effect films in which women are mostly decorative, said Leah Rozen, film critic for People magazine. That often leaves few lead roles in big-budget Hollywood films for established female stars as they get older. \"They're going to work, but the entire movie will not be built around them. It will not be a Renee Zellweger vehicle or a Catherine Zeta-Jones vehicle, unless it's an indie film,\" Rozen said. \"I'm not saying anything about the quality of the movies they're making or their validity as actresses,\" Rozen said. \"I am saying that viewed as box office -- or can they open a movie? -- the answer would be no right now.\" Zellweger's most recent project, \"My One and Only,\" which Rozen called a \"very sweet little film,\" has grossed less than $1 million since it premiered last month (it opened in wide release last Friday.) Earlier this year, her film \"New in Town\" grossed about $16 million domestically, according to Boxofficemojo.com. Zeta-Jones' last big Hollywood role was in the 2007 movie \"No Reservations,\" which earned $43 million in the United States. Aniston has had a better run. Last year's \"Marley & Me\" took in $143 million domestically and more recently, \"He's Just Not That Into You\" earned $93 million. Men are viable as box office leads far longer than most women, Rozen said. Think Harrison Ford, who was still the action hero at 66 in last year's \"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull\" (which earned $317 million domestically) or Sean Connery, who at 69 was paired with a then-30-year-old Zeta-Jones in 1999's \"Entrapment\" ($87 million domestic gross). A big exception to this trend has been Meryl Streep. Watch a report on women over 40 who make us laugh \u00bb . Streep, 60, has a great track record at the movies with films including the recent \"Julie & Julia\" and last year's \"Mamma Mia!\" She's part of a very successful run of female-centric movies that have starred women over 40, said Jane Fleming, president of the nonprofit organization Women In Film. \"That proves if you have an audience base that wants to see you, they're going to keep coming out to see you regardless your age,\" Fleming said. \"What's been nice about the last two years is that there's been economic proof that that audience exists and that given the right form of entertainment, it will be very lucrative for the studios.\" Fleming believes this is a good time to be turning 40 in Hollywood, with popular films like \"Sex and the City,\" \"Marley & Me\" and \"The Proposal\" starring 40-and-over actresses. Watch a report on women over 40 who rock \u00bb . TV, indie films offer new options . It may be a big improvement over the options available to female stars not too long ago. \"There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and 'Driving Miss Daisy,'\" Goldie Hawn's character famously exclaimed in the 1996 comedy \"The First Wives' Club.\" Actresses like Sandra Bullock are redefining those stereotypes by playing lead roles in romantic comedies well into their 40s, sometimes paired with younger men. Just this year, Bullock, 45, has starred in \"The Proposal\" and \"All About Steve.\" Watch a report on women over 40 who've had work done \u00bb . Many actresses over 40 are also finding a new home on television, where there are many complex characters to choose from. Glenn Close, 62; Kyra Sedgwick, 44; and Holly Hunter, 51, are just some of the stars who have made the move from the big screen to the small screen, earning critical and popular success. \"Cable has opened up enormous possibilities. In feature films, you're still lucky if you're not the girlfriend or the wife,\" Katey Sagal, 55, who stars in the TV series \"Sons of Anarchy,\" recently told Oprah.com. But she was also glad to note that there are more opportunities in general for female stars over 40. \"I don't know why it's changed, but I'm really grateful it has. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we're all living longer and suddenly it's OK to get older. Maybe there's a broader audience for these characters. The stories you can tell about older women are deeper,\" Sagal said.","highlights":"Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Aniston, Cate Blanchett have turned 40 this year .\nStars appear to be going strong in an industry famously obsessed with youth .\nSome doubt Hollywood is interested in making 'vehicles' for top female stars .\nTelevision, independent films offer more options than ever for actors .","id":"368e5f34583daa178a8516c0c0fb62c3240bdaa3"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly 130 people were killed and more than 400 wounded early Tuesday when a string of five suicide car bombings hit government buildings, a neighborhood and a commercial district in Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said. Iraq's Finance and Labor ministries and a courthouse were the targets of three of the terror attacks, which shattered a two-month period of relative calm in the capital. By evening, Interior Ministry officials put the toll at 127 dead and 448 wounded, the worst since twin car bombings killed and wounded hundreds of people in late October. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks were aimed at undermining Iraq's upcoming elections, now set for March after a lengthy impasse in the country's parliament. \"The timing of these cowardly terrorist attacks in Baghdad today, after the success of Iraqi Parliament in overcoming the last obstacle in the election procedures, shows that the enemies of Iraq and its people are aiming to create chaos in the country and prevent any progress in the political process and to disrupt the procedures of the coming elections,\" he said. The first of the vehicles blew up in southern Baghdad's Dora district at about 10 a.m. (2 a.m. ET), followed by four more car bombs about half an hour later. Three of the explosions struck at the heart of the Iraqi capital, detonating a few minutes apart. One hit the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, while another hit the new site of the Ministry of Finance near al-Qashla Square. The ministry's former building was destroyed in a bombing in August. Another bomb exploded in the busy commercial district of Nahdha, and the fifth bomb blew up outside the Karkh Civil Court in western Baghdad's Mansour district. The sounds of sporadic gunfire and emergency sirens could be heard immediately following the attacks, and smoke from the blasts billowed into the morning sky. Suicide bombers carried out the five attacks, Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, told CNN. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks and offered his \"heartfelt condolences\" to the families of those killed, according to a statement from his office. \"The Secretary-General appeals to the people of Iraq to remain steadfast in the face of these attacks and to continue their determined efforts to achieve national reconciliation,\" the statement said. \"The United Nations remains committed to supporting them.\" And the human rights group Amnesty International said there was \"absolutely no justification\" for the bombings, noting that indiscriminate attacks on civilians are war crimes under international law. Suicide bombers were also blamed for the two bombings October 25 in Baghdad, which killed 160 people and wounded 540. Those bombs detonated in quick succession at mid-morning on a Sunday, the first day of the workweek in Iraq, in the Salhiya district of central Baghdad. The location was close to the Foreign Ministry. Government officials, including Baghdad's governor, questioned how the bombers were able to penetrate the area's security, which was supposed to have been improved in the months leading up to the attacks. Authorities subsequently detained more than 60 people responsible for security in the district where the bombings took place. And Tuesday's attacks sparked debate among Iraqi lawmakers about the capability of the country's security forces. Noor Aldeen al-Haiali, a member of Iraq's parliament from the country's largest Sunni Arab party, said al-Maliki's government \"failed in taking the measures to protect the targeted Iraqi citizens, who are shocked and getting slaughtered on a daily basis.\" Ali al-Adeeb, a senior member of the prime minister's Dawa party, said security has improved in recent years. But Kurdish lawmaker Mahmood Othman told CNN that more attacks could be possible \"because the people against the political process, against the elections and against stability in Iraq\" will try to disrupt the elections. And he said stepped-up security measures won't be enough to deter them. \"There should be some political stability, political reform, reconciliation,\" he said. \"These are also very, very important to provide security.\" CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four car bombs explode in central Baghdad, killing nearly 130 and wounding hundreds .\nFirst of the vehicles blew up in southern Baghdad's Dora district .\nThree other car bombs struck at heart of Iraqi capital, detonating a few minutes apart .\nFifth bomb blows up outside the Karkh Civil Court in western Baghdad's Mansour district .","id":"9df210fb421bd3e071618376bb6ad4d0bd5208ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For most Americans, mosquitoes are pests whose bites leave behind itchy bumps. But in other parts of the world, mosquitoes carry a disease called malaria that kills more than a million people each year. Mosquitoes, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, may transmit malaria to humans. A new malaria vaccine that's about to begin human clinical trials is dependent on mosquitoes -- a whole lot of them. Bioengineers have been growing millions of mosquitoes in a sterile environment, letting them feed on malaria-infected blood, irradiating the bugs, extracting the disease-causing parasites and storing them for use in vaccines. The announcement of the Food and Drug Administration's approval for clinical trials comes just days before World Malaria Day, which is Saturday. Check out the World Health Organization's site about malaria goals worldwide . The vaccine is unique among other candidates in that it uses the entire parasite and not just parts of it, said Dr. Stephen Hoffman, chief executive and scientific officer at Sanaria Inc., the Maryland-based biotechnology firm developing the vaccine. This technique was first shown to be effective in the 1970s, but the technology didn't exist to mass-produce it for the millions of people who need it, said Dr. Kirsten Lyke, principal investigator in the clinical trial site at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. At that time, people were immunized by being bitten by the irradiated mosquitoes. \"That is the only effective vaccine that anyone has ever really developed that works and does complete protection,\" said John Dame, chair of Infectious Diseases and Pathology at the University of Florida, who is not involved with the Sanaria trials. The vaccine takes the same basic approach as standard vaccines in use for diseases such as measles and polio. In those vaccines against viruses, weakened bacteria is injected, creating an immune response without causing illness. In the Sanaria vaccine, the body recognizes the malaria parasite as a foreign material, Lyke said. It goes to the liver, where a lot of the immune response is generated, but does not develop into a disease because the mosquito was irradiated, she said. Clinical trials will begin in May, Hoffman said, and will include 80 immunized individuals and 24 controls. About 3,000 mosquitoes were used to produce the vaccines for the first clinical trials, he said. If these trials are successful, researchers will initiate trials on adults in Africa, and then children. Among other vaccines in clinical trials currently, the one that is furthest along is RTS,S, developed by GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The company announced in December that this vaccine, based on a recombinant protein that uses part of the malaria parasite, was safely administered to African infants, with an efficacy of 65 percent in a three-month follow-up. Both the Sanaria and the GlaxoSmithKline projects receive support from the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a program at the nonprofit PATH established through an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dame, who used to be involved with the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, said he would guess the Sanaria vaccine will be more effective, but clinical trials will provide more information. He also noted that mass distribution to developing countries would require appropriate infrastructure, and may be more difficult depending on how long the immunization lasts. Each year, 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most people who die from the disease are young children in Africa south of the Sahara. Symptoms of malaria include fever, chills and flu-like illness, the CDC said. Although preventive measures exist, such as insecticide-treated nets and medications, there is no licensed vaccine on the market. Moreover, effective treatments are largely too expensive for the people who need them in poor countries. The parasite has become resistant to cheaper treatments, Lyke said. \"Individuals living on $1 or $2 a day can't even afford $8 medication,\" Lyke said. The U.S. military also has a keen interest in a malaria vaccine. The antimalaria drugs available have side effects such as stomach aches, said Dr. Tom Richie, director of the Navy component of the U.S. military malaria vaccine program, who provides oversight to the clinical trials. \"Malaria has been one of the most significant infectious threats to our military personnel when we deploy to tropical areas,\" Richie said. The disease was the leading cause of casualties in the South Pacific theater during World War II, and also a major problem in the Vietnam War, he said. There are five species of the malaria parasite known to infect humans. One called Plasmodium falciparum causes the vast majority of cases. Malaria was eliminated in the United States in 1951, but there are still cases in the country, mostly from people who acquired it in high-risk countries. In 2002, there were 1,337 cases of malaria in the U.S., and all but five had been acquired abroad. An international team at the Malaria Atlas Project recently published what researchers say is the most comprehensive map ever illustrating global malaria risk. Researchers told CNN the map offers hope that it is possible to eradicate the disease in many parts of the world. Hoffman, former head of a U.S. Navy malaria vaccine team, started the Sanaria effort himself in the breakfast room of his house in 2003. The company now has a more official corporate headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. \"I thought that the world needed a malaria vaccine, there was no question this was the best way to make one,\" he said.","highlights":"Sanaria Inc. is developing a malaria vaccine that uses the whole parasite .\nConcept is akin to live virus vaccines, such as those for polio and measles .\nThe method had been tried in the 1970s but wasn't feasible on mass scale .\nThe most advanced malaria vaccine, by GlaxoSmithKline, has been tested in Africa .","id":"4bc1feff154ea28967d70cbf92707d804c7444d4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A soldier who reported for duty with her children in tow has been granted her request for a discharge, her lawyer said Monday. Lisa Pagan was recalled to the Army after being honorably discharged four years ago. Lisa Pagan, of Davidson, North Carolina, reported for duty Monday morning at Fort Benning, Georgia, with her two preschool children. She had been honorably discharged from active duty at the rank of specialist nearly four years ago but was recalled as part of the Individual Ready Reserve program. The former Army truck driver asked for a reprieve from deployment because her husband travels for business and they would have no one to care for their children if she was sent overseas. Until Monday, her request had been denied. Late Monday afternoon, Pagan's lawyer told CNN the Army would grant her request and begin the process of discharge again, this time for good. \"We are definitely heading in the right direction for Lisa and her family and her children,\" said Mark Waple, Pagan's attorney. \"She has been told by her chain of command they plan on doing everything they can within reason to do this as expeditiously as possible.\" Pagan enlisted in 2002 and was honorably discharged from active duty in June 2005. She was never deployed. Before she left for Fort Benning, Pagan, 27, told CNN affiliate WCNC that her relatives weren't able to care for her children for various reasons, including her relatives' health. She said her family couldn't afford having her husband give up his job. They would lose their house, she told the Charlotte, North Carolina-TV station. \"I'm a human being. I need to take care of my children. They don't have anybody else,\" Pagan told WCNC. Since September 11, 2001, the Army has recalled about 25,000 soldiers. Nearly half requested a delay or a full exemption. Some just wanted to finish their school semester before reporting. Others had financial or medical problems that made it difficult to report for duty. The Army says it granted nearly nine out of 10 delay requests and six out of 10 requests for exemption.","highlights":"Soldier reported for duty in Georgia on Monday with her two preschool children .\nShe had been discharged four years ago, but was recalled .\nLisa Pagan argued no one would be able to care for kids if she was sent overseas .\nLawyer: Army granted request for reprieve, and she will be discharged for good .","id":"ecb913720a8246ed20658de2299afe941bb3b293"} -{"article":"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Saad Hariri, the leader of Lebanon's Sunni-dominated \"March 14 coalition,\" claimed victory hours after the polls closed in Sunday's crucial election. \"March 14\" coalition leader Saad Hariri claims victory after polls close Sunday. Results were not expected until midday Monday. \"What happened today proved again that Lebanon is doing well,\" said Hariri in a televised victory speech. \"The Lebanese proved again that they are holding on to their freedom and the democratic system, so congratulations to Lebanon, congratulations to freedom and to every voter who participated in this election. In this election, there is no winner or loser, democracy won today and the biggest winner is Lebanon.\" Hezbollah officials did not challenge Hariri's speech. Al-Arabiya television network cited Hezbollah sources as predicting Hariri's March 14 coalition would win 70 seats, and that the Hezbollah-dominated \"March 8 alliance\" would win 58 seats. The election -- with 128 seats in parliament at stake -- was crucial in determining whether the Arab nation, scarred by war and political instability, picked the coalition led by Hariri or an alliance backed by the militant group Hezbollah. Watch Hariri's victory speech \u00bb . Turnout was high among the country's 3 million registered voters during the 12 hours that polls were open Sunday. About 50,000 troops were on the streets, but the run-up to the balloting had been free of violence. Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jimmy Carter on Sunday said the United States should work with whichever coalition wins -- even though it considers Hezbollah, supported by both Syria and Iran, to be a terrorist organization. Carter was in Beirut as part of more than 200 international observers monitoring the election. Two senior Obama administration officials -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden -- have visited Lebanon in recent months, signaling concerns over a possible Hezbollah victory. Hezbollah grew in popularity after its militant wing claimed victory over Israel after a 34-day military conflict in 2006. Since then, it has been more widely perceived by its supporters to be the \"defenders\" of Lebanon. In Lebanon's unique power-sharing government, the presidency is reserved for Maronite Christians, the speaker of parliament is always a Shia Muslim, and the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim. The law was created to balance power among Lebanon's three main religious groups. Resident Georges Azzi, who cast his ballot early Sunday morning, hoped the elections bring about a smooth and healthy transition to a new government and the continued support of the West -- whatever the results. \"I think it would be seen as a punishment to everybody if it doesn't,\" Azzi said. \"We should accept the results whatever they are. That's how democracy works.\" CNN's Cal Perry and Saad Abedine contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Hezbollah officials did not challenge Hariri's victory speech .\nResults not expected until midday Monday .\nAt stake were 128 seats in parliament .\nCarter in Beirut as part of more than 200 international election observers .","id":"8b95e380a530ed50b4b238b3a2e62dbfb41c221a"} -{"article":"Newark, New Jersey (CNN) -- A Transportation Security Administration officer has been reassigned after Sunday's security breach at Newark's Liberty International Airport, according to the TSA. \"The TSA is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident, and we are making an assessment as to what disciplinary action will be taken against [the] officer posted at the exit in question,\" TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said. \"For now, that officer is performing non-screening duties while we look at what happened.\" Davis confirmed Monday that the TSA had not been able to locate the individual who breached security, but there was no indication that the individual presented a serious threat, she said. \"We were able to eliminate that he was a risk to the airport by rescreening everyone and re-combing the airport to make sure he didn't introduce anything to the environment or hand anything off to anyone,\" she said. The incident Sunday evening forced the closure of a terminal for hours while authorities rescreened thousands of passengers. The security breach happened about 5:20 p.m. at Terminal C when a man walked through an exit on the public side to the secure \"sterile\" side for passengers who had cleared screening, according to the TSA. All passengers had been rescreened by early Monday, according to the TSA. Flights from Terminal C were grounded until the process was completed. Authorities reviewed video from airport cameras but were not sure whether the man was once on the sterile side and went back or whether he never went through screening, Davis said. The incident caused arrival delays and mainly affected Continental Airlines, which is the airport's largest tenant. iReport: Passenger photographs massive crowd . CNN's Alina Cho, who arrived at the airport Sunday night on a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, described a hectic scene, saying many passengers who had boarded outgoing flights had to get off planes to be rescreened. \"I just saw one woman pleading with a gate agent, saying that she had two small children and a heart condition -- that she simply could not take this,\" Cho said. \"But of course, there will be no exceptions.\" Newark Liberty International Airport, about 15 miles from Manhattan, is the second-largest hub for Continental. The airport handles approximately 35 million passengers a year. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Ross Levitt and Jamie Guzzardo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Security breach Sunday evening forces closure of Terminal C for hours .\nOfficer posted in area that was breached has been reassigned .\nMan improperly skirted security screening; he was never found .","id":"fa447ba74dd72dcc0776ce5fae836df2f002d028"} -{"article":"Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- The leaders of Lebanon and Syria vowed to improve cooperation between their two countries Sunday, tying up a meeting aimed at thawing frozen relations. \"We want to open new horizons between the two states,\" Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said at a news conference at the end of the two-day meeting, which happened in Damascus, Syria. \"We had good and excellent discussions based on mutual clarity and honesty,\" he added. \"We are betting on a better future for both countries and peoples, in economy, trade as well as all other levels.\" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not at the news conference. Official Syrian news agency SANA reported that both al-Assad and Hariri \"saw the visit as a starting point to restore cooperation between the governments of Syria and Lebanon.\" \"Both sides agreed that the institutions and ministries in both countries directly coordinate and communicate to remove all obstacles to the cooperation on all levels,\" SANA reported. Hariri has previously blamed Syria for the 2005 assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese leader who was a prominent figure opposing Syria's continuing presence inside Lebanon. A United Nations investigation found indications of Syrian involvement, but Syria denies responsibility. A U.N.-backed tribunal has been created to investigate the killing. The two leaders did not discuss that issue or the assassinations of other anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon, Hariri said Sunday. They also did not discuss requests by a Syrian court to question Lebanese officials. Asked whether any guarantees were exchanged regarding the Lebanese-Syrian relationship, Hariri responded, \"I don't want to go into details.\" He added that the meeting proves \"a relationship is being built in both countries' interest and in the benefit of future openness.\" A popular uprising after the elder Hariri's killing in 2005 helped lead to the withdrawal of Syrian forces after almost 30 years of military and political domination of Lebanon. Under international pressure, Syria opened an embassy in Beirut almost a year ago, and a Lebanese ambassador arrived in Damascus a short while later. It was the first time the two foes established diplomatic ties since their independence more than six decades ago. The United States, which also accused Syria of involvement in Rafik Hariri's assassination, withdrew its ambassador four years ago. President Obama decided to make an effort toward reconciliation and announced earlier this year that he was returning a U.S. diplomat to Damascus.","highlights":"NEW: Lebanese leader: \"We are betting on a better future for both countries and peoples\"\nLebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria .\nRelations between neighboring Arab nations collapsed after 2005 assassination of Hariri's father .","id":"9a07f91e92102706fb96887ef76ea399ea3ed479"} -{"article":"LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- More than 400 people have been killed in a spate of violence in northern Nigeria, the president of a human rights group said Tuesday. More than 150 alleged militants were arrested by Nigerian police after clashes. The violence has pitted Islamic militants against government police and troops in the north-central part of the nation, officials said. Attacks continued Tuesday in the suburbs of the northern city of Maiduguri, said Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organization based in northern Nigeria. People there are seeking refuge in police and military barracks and in hospitals, he said. Police and troops were dispatched to the militants' hideouts after they began attacks on government establishments Sunday, said police spokesman Moses Anegbode. As authorities exchanged fire with the militants, 41 people, including a soldier and a policeman, were killed, Anegbode said Monday. In addition, some 176 people were arrested in Bauchi, he said. Besides Bauchi, militants also staged attacks on the nearby states of Yobe and Borno on Sunday and Monday, said Emmanuel Ojukwu, spokesman for the national police. Yobe's police commissioner, Alhaji Muhammed Abbas, said that 23 suspected militants were arrested in connection with a bomb attack at a police station in Potiskum that killed a policeman and a civilian and wounded seven people. The official News Agency of Nigeria reported that as many as 100 members of a religious sect led by Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf may have been killed in a confrontation with police. In Borno, police spokesman Isa Azare said that two policemen were killed in an attack on police headquarters late Monday. \"The religious fanatics took the police unawares,\" Azare told the government-affiliated New Nigerian newspaper. \"That was why they succeeded in killing all the officers on night duty.\" Panicked residents stayed inside in all three states, and businesses shut down, even though officials said the situation was under control. The militants used guns, bows and arrows and machetes in the attacks, officials said. The militants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam in the region, maintaining that the government allows itself to be influenced by Western values, and have been attacking government offices and Islamic clergy. There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria, where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001. The human rights organization alleged last week that police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year. Most of the victims were young Muslim men, often unarmed, the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report. More than 700 people died in the violence, the organization said, citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide. CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"As many as 400 people killed in Nigerian violence, group says .\nMilitants disagree with the government's teaching of Islam .\n176 people also arrested, according to police .","id":"9811ec35f96bd18f48346e9a3c0fbe20d7cd9834"} -{"article":"SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Steroid test results and notes and calendars from his then-trainer are among the evidence federal prosecutors have amassed in their perjury case against baseball home-run king Barry Bonds, according to documents unsealed Wednesday. Barry Bonds, shown at his most recent court appearance, is accused of lying to a grand jury. The 223-page stack of documents unsealed by a federal judge represents much of the government's case against Bonds, who is accused of obstructing justice and lying to a grand jury investigating the use of steroids in professional sports. Prosecutors say the test results show Bonds was using performance-enhancing substances -- including a then-undetectable designer drug -- at a time he denied knowingly using any. Bonds' attorneys are seeking to keep much of that evidence out of court. The 44-year-old former San Francisco Giants slugger holds Major League Baseball's single-season and all-time home-run titles, but his achievements have been shadowed by allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds pleaded not guilty to the perjury and obstruction of justice charges and has been free on $500,000 bond. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday. The charges stem from his 2003 appearance before a federal grand jury probing the distribution of steroids by the San Francisco-area Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO. Bonds told the grand jury that his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, gave him a cream that he said was flaxseed oil to use on his arm in 2003. Anderson spent three months in prison after admitting distributing steroids and was later jailed for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors. The case against Bonds will include calendars kept by Anderson that prosecutors say were used to keep Bonds and other athletes on a doping regimen -- an assertion expected to be bolstered by the testimony of other athletes, they said. Evidence will include a recording of a phone conversation with an associate in which Anderson \"describes injecting the defendant, having the ability to obtain and utilize inside information about MLB's random drug testing to the defendant's benefit and the undetectable nature of what Anderson had been doing,\" according to documents. Bonds won seven National League MVP titles during his 22-year career, 15 years of which was spent with the Giants. The team released him after the 2007 season, just weeks after he broke Hank Aaron's career home-run record.","highlights":"NEW: Bonds' attorneys are seeking to keep many of the documents out of court .\nNEW: Evidence will include phone conversation about \"injecting the defendant\"\nNEW: Hearing in the perjury case is scheduled for Thursday .\nSteroid test results and notes from ex-trainer among documents unsealed .","id":"7725386be50e432c4a787e692bc71064942da992"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bronze statue of Helen Keller was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as lawmakers praised her as a trailblazer and an inspiration for those with disabilities. The Helen Keller statue depicts the moment when Anne Sullivan spelled \"W-A-T-E-R\" into the child's hand . \"Some are still dismissed and cast aside for nothing more than being less than perfect,\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said at the unveiling ceremony. \"The story of Helen Keller inspires us all.\" The statue shows Keller -- who lost her sight and hearing to illness when she was 19 months old -- standing at a water pump as a 7-year-old, a look of recognition on her face as water streams into her hand. It depicts the moment in 1887 when teacher Anne Sullivan spelled \"W-A-T-E-R\" into one of the child's hands as she held the other under the pump. It's the moment when Keller realized meanings were hidden in the manual alphabet shapes Sullivan had taught her to make with her hands. \"W-A-T-E-R,\" said Alabama Gov. Bob Riley. \"Five simple letters that helped rescue 7-year-old Helen Keller from a world of darkness and a world of silence. \"It is this defining moment that we celebrate today. And in time, this moment so vividly depicted by this statue helped the world to understand that all of us, regardless of any disability, have a mind that can be educated, a hand that can be trained, a life that will have meaning.\" Keller learned to speak and earned a degree from Radcliffe College and the women's branch of Harvard University. She traveled the world as an adult, wrote 12 books and championed causes including women's suffrage and workers' rights. Carl Augusto, president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, told the crowd he thinks Keller, who worked for the foundation for the last 44 years of her life, \"would have loved this impressive statue of herself and the symbolism attached.\" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and others assisted Augusto as he ran his hands over the statue. The foundation, Augusto said, still considers Keller \"our guiding light. She embodies the American spirit of limitless possibility ... her biggest desire was to leave the world a better place than she found it, and ladies and gentlemen, that's the legacy she leaves all of us.\" More than 40 of Keller's descendants attended the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. Students from the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind sang a medley of patriotic songs. The statue, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, will \"always remind us that people must be respected for what they can do rather than judged for what they cannot.\" The statue is also the Capitol's first depicting a child, Riley's office said. Since 1864, each state has been allowed to place two statues in the Capitol. In 2002, Congress changed the law to allow states to change their statues. Riley, then a U.S. representative, suggested the state place a statue of Keller, and the state Legislature passed a resolution asking Congress to accept a statue of Keller as a gift. A committee with Alabama first lady Patsy Riley serving as honorary chairwoman raised private donations and selected Utah bronze sculpture artist Edward Hlavka to create the piece. The 600-pound statue is made of bronze with a base of Alabama marble, Riley's office said. In 1997, a Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial that opened near the National Mall drew complaints from disability advocates because the statue of the president, who suffered from polio, did not show him in a wheelchair. In 2001, President Clinton unveiled an addition to the memorial including a new statue of the four-term president sitting in a wheelchair. \"By placing this statue in the Capitol, we appropriately honor this extraordinary American, and will inspire countless children who will come to understand that with faith and with courage, there truly are no limits on what can be accomplished, and there is no obstacle that can't be overcome,\" Riley said. Keller's statue will replace one depicting Jabez Curry. Curry, who has represented Alabama in the Capitol since 1908, was a Georgia native who served as president of Howard College, which later became Samford University in Birmingham. The Curry statue is being sent back to Alabama for display at the university. The other statue representing Alabama is of Joseph \"Fightin' Joe\" Wheeler, a Confederate general during the Civil War who, three decades later, volunteered to serve in the Spanish-American War at age 62 and attained the same rank in the U.S. Army, the only one of 425 Confederate generals to do so, according to a biography of him posted on the Fort Sam Houston Museum's Web site. His statue was donated by the state in 1925, Riley's office said.","highlights":"Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing to illness when she was 19 months old .\nStatue depicts when teacher Anne Sullivan spelled \"W-A-T-E-R\" into the child's hand .\nShe traveled the world, wrote books, championed women's and workers' rights .","id":"da905878309e1dd9cd65352551ef55d42a20108b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Singapore-flagged container ship hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia was released Monday, according to the European Union Naval Force Somalia. The Kota Wajar, with a crew of 21, was the second hijacked ship released in as many days. A Chinese bulk carrier, the De Xin Hai, and its crew of 25 were released on Sunday, NAVFOR said. Both ships were hijacked in October. NAVFOR said the De Xin Hai and its crew were in good condition and \"heading to a safe port.\" The Chinese carrier was hijacked about 350 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles, NAVFOR said. The Kota Wajar was hijacked about 300 nautical miles north of the Seychelles. Regarding the Kota Wajar, NAVFOR said it was \"monitoring the situation.\" The Canadian warship HCMS Fredericton was providing medical and logistical assistance to the ship, it said. NAVFOR did not say how either ship was released, but the Chinese Marine Search and Rescue Center said the De Xin Hai and crew were rescued, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The ship is under the protection of a Chinese naval escort fleet, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told Xinhua Monday. The De Xin Hai was carrying about 76,000 tons of coal from South Africa to India when it was hijacked. NAVFOR is \"a military operation to help deter, prevent and repress acts of piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia,\" according to its Web site.","highlights":"Hijacked Chinese bulk carrier De Xin Hai released off coast of Somalia .\nSingapore-flagged Kota Wajar also released .\nThe De Xin Hai, with crew of 25, was hijacked in October by pirate group in Indian Ocean .","id":"e468919a95a62ce8ba9415b9ba8d72b1ac2dc5f9"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- African-Americans are extremely supportive of President Obama, but their enthusiasm appears to have dramatically dropped from earlier this year, according to a new national poll. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey, released Tuesday, also indicates that Obama's presidency appears to have made blacks more optimistic about race relations, but less than one in five believe the new president has ushered in a new era of race relations in the country. More than nine in 10 blacks questioned in the poll approve of the job Obama's doing in the White House, far higher than 42 percent of whites who approve of his performance as president. But when asked how they personally feel about Obama's presidency, only 42 percent of black respondents say they're thrilled, with nearly half of those questioned saying they are happy but not thrilled. The 42 percent who are thrilled is down from 61 percent in January, when Obama was inaugurated. \"African-Americans are still big fans of the first black president in U.S. history, but the thrill is gone,\" said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. According to the poll, 51 percent of African-Americans say Obama's presidency has brought some improvement in race relations in the U.S., but only 18 percent feel it's the start of a new era. Another 23 percent say they've seen a real change in race relations over the past 11 months and 7 percent say things have gotten worse. The survey indicates that three-quarters of blacks believe race relations will improve eventually, which is up from 49 percent of blacks who felt that way a year before Obama was elected. \"Whites take a dimmer view of Obama's effect on race relations, with a third believing that the new presidency has not changed race relations in the country and 15 percent of whites saying that Obama has made race relations worse,\" Holland added. \"Not surprisingly, whites are less supportive of Obama, although for a notable number of whites, their negative view of the president is due to the perception that he's not been liberal enough.\" The CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted December 16-20, with 1,160 adult Americans, including 259 African-Americans and 786 whites, questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points and plus or minus 6 percentage points for the African-Americans sample. CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this story .","highlights":"CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. Poll released Tuesday .\nPoll: More than nine in 10 blacks approve of the job Obama is doing .\nBlack respondents saying they're \"thrilled\" down 19 points from January .\nApproval rating more than twice as high among blacks than among whites .","id":"11d6d31e659bcca3affaeb59e3804eff7eca1a89"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The wife of al Qaeda's second-in-command has purportedly issued a message urging women to raise their children to love holy war and defend Muslim lands. The message from Omaima Hassan Ahmad Mohammad Hassad, wife of Osama bin Laden advisor Ayman al-Zawahiri, said that since women could not fight, they should dedicate themselves to so-called holy warriors, or mujahedeen. \"I ask you to raise your children to obey Allah and love jihad [holy war] and to defend the Muslim lands,\" she said, in a message released by As-Sahab Media -- al Qaeda's production company. \"Fighting is not easy for women because they need a male guardian by their side. ... But we can place ourselves in service of the mujahedeen and do what they ask of us. We can help by supporting warriors with money or information or even by a martyrdom operation.\" CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the document, which appeared on multiple radical Islamist Web sites. Hassan also asked that Allah grant her and her Muslim sisters \"patience and persistence until death,\" especially in the Palestinian Authority, and in Iraq, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Somalia. CNN's senior editor for Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, said it is not a usual practice for women linked to al Qaeda to release messages. \"It signals that al Qaeda seems to be aggressively reaching out to the female population, whereas in the past their focus was mainly on men,\" she said.","highlights":"Omaima Hassan Ahmad Mohammad Hassad is wife of Ayman al-Zawahiri .\nPurported message says women should not fight, but encourage their children .\nMessage from woman would be unusual move for al Qaeda, CNN analyst says .","id":"53ed301546bac29bae89ecc2b0f34047d02a0fa5"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Washington Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas admits he drew guns in the team locker room in a highly publicized December 21 incident, but says he was only kidding around. \"I took the unloaded guns out in a misguided effort to play a joke on a teammate,\" Arenas said in a statement released Monday. \"Contrary to some press accounts, I never threatened or assaulted anyone with the guns and never pointed them at anyone. Joke or not, I now recognize that what I did was a mistake and was wrong.\" Citing NBA sources last month, the New York Post reported that Arenas and Javaris Crittenton both brandished firearms in the team's locker room. Authorities continue to investigate the incident. Crittenton's agent, Mark Bartelstein, told CNN Monday that his client \"hasn't done anything wrong. I'm extremely confident he'll be exonerated.\" Asked if Crittenton brought a gun into the Verizon Center that day, Bartelstein said, \"I'm not going to get into details.\" He said Crittenton has not met with authorities, nor has such a meeting been requested or scheduled. Arenas, a three-time NBA All-Star, spent Monday afternoon in a voluntary meeting with federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington and with D.C. metropolitan police about the incident, according to his attorney, Kenneth L. Wainstein. \"From the outset of this incident, Mr. Arenas has been fully cooperative with the investigation,\" Wainstein said in a statement, noting that Arenas relinquished the guns to Wizards security officers and met with authorities to \"tell the full story.\" \"Over the course of a two-hour interview this afternoon, Mr. Arenas answered every question asked of him,\" Wainstein said in Monday's statement. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on Arenas' statement, citing the ongoing investigation. Arenas said he told authorities that he stored four unloaded guns in his locker the Verizon Center to keep them away from his children. Arenas said he told authorities that he stored four unloaded guns in his locker the Verizon Center to keep them away from his children. \"I brought them without any ammunition into the District of Columbia, mistakenly believing that the recent change in the DC gun laws allowed a person to store unloaded guns in the District,\" he said in the statement. He offered a public apology to the league, his teammates and his fans, saying, \"I promise to do better in the future.\" NBA spokesman Tim Frank declined to comment on Arenas' comments, deferring to an earlier statement: \"There is an active investigation by DC law enforcement authorities, which we are monitoring closely. We are not taking any independent action at this time.\"","highlights":"New York Post: Washington Wizards teammates drew guns on each other .\nGilbert Arenas, Javaris Crittenton argued over gambling debt, paper says .\nAuthorities say they are investigating incident but gave no details .","id":"6b8be9e4a4de8304a8cdf0dc39c816ce9dbcb755"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Commercial office space, warehouses or factory facilities are not required to launch a successful business. At-home enterprises have turned many business people into full-fledged celebrities. Grammy award-winning musicians OutKast started in a basement recording studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Apple, Google and Microsoft all were born at home-based facilities. See more famous businesses that started at home \u00bb . Culinary queen Paula Deen started her media empire by making bag lunches in her own kitchen.","highlights":"At-home startups prove commercial facilities aren't required for success .\nOutKast, Google, Microsoft, Spanx and other famous names started in homes .\nPaula Deen's kitchen bag-lunch operation led to her media empire .","id":"c6d0128c7d00349795ed27e33220d389951ce0e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel will bring a \"tough-minded\" and \"pragmatic\" approach to the White House when he becomes President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, according to people who know the Chicago, Illinois, native. Rep. Rahm Emanuel has experience in the White House, on Wall Street and on Capitol Hill. Emanuel, a former top aide to President Clinton, has accepted the position in the new administration, Obama confirmed in a statement Thursday. \"I announce this appointment first because the chief of staff is central to the ability of a president and administration to accomplish an agenda,\" Obama said. \"And no one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel.\" In the job, Emanuel would oversee the White House staff. The chief of staff is usually involved in all the major decisions that the president makes and is responsible for making sure the administration carries out the president's wishes. Watch Emanuel call himself \"fortunate\" \u00bb . The chief of staff also often is involved in negotiations with congressional leaders when major legislation is under consideration. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called Emanuel: \"An excellent choice.\" \"Rahm knows the Hill. And he knows the White House. He is a brilliant strategic thinker and someone who knows how to get things done,\" Manley said. Manley also rejected the idea that Emanuel is a true partisan that could not work with Republicans. \"That's ridiculous. Rahm understands politics is the art of compromise. He's got a deeply held set of views but he also understands to get things done you have to compromise,\" he said. After leaving the Clinton White House, Emanuel, 48, was an investment banker on Wall Street and later was elected to the House of Representatives in 2002 from a heavily Democratic Chicago district. He quickly rose to become the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House. Watch what Emanuel brings to the White House \u00bb . It is Emanuel's combination of experiences -- plus his strong personal relationship with Obama -- that would make him a strong chief of staff, said CNN political analyst Paul Begala, a fellow Clinton veteran. \"He has spent more time in the White House than President-elect Obama has. That matters a lot. It is a special place with its own rhythms,\" Begala said. See who Obama may be considering for his Cabinet \u00bb . \"But, maybe most importantly, he's got the relationship. He has known Barack and Michelle Obama for a number of years.\" Before reports emerged that he had accepted the position, Emanuel told WLS-TV in Chicago that he had to consider the possible impact on his family. Watch how Obama is starting his transition \u00bb . \"I have a lot to weigh: the basis of public service, which I have given my life to, a career choice. And most importantly, what I want to do as a parent,\" Emanuel said in an interview that aired Wednesday. Emanuel added: \"This is not a professional choice. This is a personal choice about what my wife and I want to do for our family, as much as what to do with my career.\" Emanuel's at-times blunt approach would ensure the White House runs smoothly for the new president, said Mack McLarty, Clinton's former chief of staff. Watch as McLarty calls Emanuel an \"excellent choice\" \u00bb . \"Rahm is high energy. He's direct. He's a tough-minded pragmatist. So I think the years have been good to him in that regard,\" McLarty said. \"I think the high-energy directness will serve him well. \"Rahm, like a lot of us, made mistakes, but he quickly corrected them.\" However, the lawmaker's direct style has ruffled a number of feathers in Washington, and Emanuel is known as one of the toughest partisan fighters on Capitol Hill. After reports that Emanuel had agreed to be Obama's chief of staff on Thursday, the top Republican in the House, Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, questioned the president-elect's pick. Election T-shirt: Obama inspires historic victory . \"This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil and govern from the center,\" Boehner said. According to a 2006 profile of Emanuel in Fortune magazine, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma warned his fellow Republicans of Emanuel's ferocity in a letter two years ago. \"He's dangerous,\" Cole told Fortune then. \"He has a closing intensity. When he's got a political kill in sight, he's absolutely relentless.\" But David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst who has worked in five administrations, said the contrasting styles between Obama and Emanuel could help the new president get things done in Washington. \"They are obviously setting up a good cop\/bad cop routine in the White House. ... Barack Obama can be the good guy,\" Gergen said. iReport.com: Who should be in Obama's cabinet? Emanuel has made a career of being the tough guy. In the 2006 Fortune profile, Begala described Emanuel's aggressive style as a \"cross between a hemorrhoid and a toothache.\" \"I love Rahm, but that's a small group of us,\" he told Fortune. CNN's Ted Barrett and Don Lemon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Rahm Emanuel will be White House chief of staff, Barack Obama says .\nEmanuel's direct style has ruffled some feathers on Capitol Hill .\nHouse minority leader calls pick \"ironic\" for candidate who ran on change .\nEmanuel is a veteran of Clinton White House, Wall Street and Congress .","id":"0a3f567efff9f0748b2758c9e8c17dc66beade04"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Billionaire oil man T. Boone Pickens is shelving plans to build the world's largest wind farm. T. Boone Pickens says the capital markets will not support his plans to build the world's largest wind farm. The chairman of BP Capital Management announced Tuesday that his plans for the Pampa Wind Project, designed to generate 4,000 megawatts of electricity using thousands of wind turbines, is on hold. \"I had hoped that Pampa would be the starting point, but transmission issues and the problem with the capital markets make that unfeasible at this point,\" Pickens told CNN's Ali Velshi. \"I expect to continue development of the Pampa project, but not at the pace that I originally expected.\" The Pickens Plan was an attempt to wean the United States off foreign oil and switch to wind and natural gas. The project was to be set in four Texas Panhandle counties. Pickens said he faced hurdles in routing the power from Texas to a distribution system. His plans were also stymied by a plunge in natural gas prices and a tightening credit market. \"The capital markets have dealt us all a setback, and I'm less aggressive with the Panhandle project than I have been,\" Pickens said. Watch Pickens respond to criticism that the U.S. can't shake it's oil addiction \u00bb . He said he was still committed to 667 wind turbines that he has already ordered and would find homes for them. The Texas billionaire pushed The Pickens Plan in television commercials and lobbying efforts that started last summer. Pickens had hoped to complete his $12 billion plan in 2014 and provide enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes. Renewable energy is the source of only a small portion of electricity used today, but in 2008, the United States became the world's leading provider of wind power. Pickens, 81, made his fortune in oil production and trading and is listed in Forbes magazine as the 117th richest person in the United States with a net worth of about $3 billion in 2007.","highlights":"T. Boone Pickens shelves plans for building world's largest wind farm .\nPampa Wind Project in Texas Panhandle was to have powered 1.3 million homes .\nPickens says transmission issues, capital markets make project unfeasible .\nIn 2008, United States became world's leading provider of wind power .","id":"4d2c21b20909bfe465ec9a968bec3e10a6ca25fe"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian forces that seized an Iraqi oil well have withdrawn from the installation but remain on Iraqi territory, a top Iraqi official charged Sunday. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government deployed more troops to Maysan province where oil well number 4 is located, Iraqi security officials said. They said workers returned to the well Sunday morning, escorted by the Iraqi army. Negotiations to resolve the diplomatic standoff are ongoing, said Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi. Iran, however, dismissed Iraq's allegations of the takeover. \"Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran,\" the armed forces command said on the Web site of Iran's state-run Arabic-language Al-Alam TV. The Iraqi government had issued a strong statement deploring the act after al-Maliki attended an emergency meeting of Iraq's National Security Council to discuss the situation. Iraq demanded the Iranians withdraw remove an Iranian flag hoisted from the well tower in the takeover on Thursday night. Senior Iraqi government sources initially referred to the Iranians as security forces, but the official Iraqi government statement later called them an armed group. Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, also rejected Iraqi allegations, blaming the international media for distributing propaganda intended to harm relations between Iran and Iraq. Drilled in 1979, the well near the city of Amara is within the province's Fakka oil field, which includes a number of wells, the Iraqi government said. The diplomatic scuffle, a manifestation of existing tension between the two neighbors, prompted discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari on Saturday, Iran's state-run Press TV reported. Iraq and Iran share a long border, and high-ranking committees from both countries handle all border matters, an Iranian Embassy official said. Political, economic, cultural and religious ties between Iran and Iraq, which are both majority Shiite Muslim nations, greatly improved after the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. At the same time, there has been widespread concern among Iraqi and U.S. officials that Iran has been providing Iraqi insurgents with material for roadside bombs during the Iraq war. And Iraq and Iran fought a bloody eight-year war that ended in 1988 in a cease-fire with no clear victor and parts of the border under dispute. The report of the oil-well incident comes just after the oil ministry's two-day auction of oil fields. Aimed at increasing Iraqi oil production, deals were struck for seven of the 15 fields offered. Iraq, however, was forced to halt its exports from northern oil fields due to an attack -- the fourth in two months -- on a main pipeline Saturday about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Baghdad, Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said.","highlights":"Iranian forces that seized Iraqi oil well withdraw from facility but remain in Iraq, says Iraqi official .\nIran, however, dismissed Iraq's allegations of takeover, saying well is in Iranian territory .\nNegotiations to resolve diplomatic standoff are ongoing, says Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister .\nThe two countries fought 8-year war that ended in 1988 with parts of border under dispute .","id":"92054eb4758186ab8645f80c0e146cd546936f5b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Benjamin Wallen, self-proclaimed biggest fan of HBO's \"The Wire,\" thought it was well worth a $300 flight home to watch the highly anticipated series finale of the acclaimed crime drama with his best friends -- and fellow series diehards -- Sunday night. The finale of \"The Wire\" has raised intense interest -- all the more so because it's not available on demand. Though the season finale is not scheduled to air nationally until Sunday, HBO has made episodes of the series available through certain cable providers' on-demand feature up to a week before their national air dates. But when Wallen and his friends huddled around the television and switched on the cable box at 12:03 a.m. Monday, their hearts sank: The new episode wasn't listed. They tried an old trick, turning the cable box power switch on and off, hoping the episode would eventually appear. Finally, something did show up -- but not the finale. In the place where the show should have been, Wallen, 24, and his friends found a one-minute preview of the finale that ended simply with a title screen bearing the date \"March 10,\" the day the show will be available on demand. Like thousands of other \"Wire\" fanatics who had similarly flocked to the presumed early screener Sunday night, the group sat stunned. \"It completely killed the whole weekend,\" Wallen said. \"We are diehard fans who have watched it every week -- a week early. We didn't think this week would be any different.\" The finale of \"The Wire\" has earned intense interest from fans who have followed the Baltimore-set show zealously since its premiere in 2002. The critically lauded show has never matched the audience of other HBO programs, such as \"The Sopranos,\" but its viewers are a particularly passionate lot, following the show's motley crew of cops, drug dealers, struggling children, politicians and journalists with deeply probing blogs and running commentary. Gallery: Get to know the characters of \"The Wire\" \u00bb . They want to delve deeper into the show's portrayal of what creator David Simon has described as \"what it feels like to live in the American city.\" Monday morning, the official HBO Web site confirmed that the series finale would not be made available early, but would premiere during its regularly scheduled 9 p.m. Sunday time slot. While the decision to not release the show early was a surprise to fans, it was one made back at the beginning of the final season at the urging of Simon, executives at HBO said. HBO vice president Dave Baldwin said that in seasons past, spoilers about season finales and the episodes themselves had leaked onto the Web, so Simon requested a change in the schedule. Baldwin acknowledged that there were many angry fans -- some of whom are calling HBO liars -- but attributed their rancor to their passion for the show. But what could he say? \"Forgive us, we thought we were doing the right thing,\" Baldwin said. \"And anything else that a husband would say to his wife [in] begging for forgiveness.\" The curtain of secrecy around \"The Wire\" finale is one Simon intends to keep tightly drawn until the show begins Sunday night. Aaron Barnhart, TV critic for The Kansas City Star, found out just how tightly guarded Simon intended to keep it when he posted an entry to his blog about the advance copy of the finale he received. Barnhart told CNN he intended not to spoil the show for fans, only discussing small details of the finale. But what Barnhart thought was a small detail -- the finale's closing song -- turned out to be otherwise for Simon. Less than three hours after the blog entry was posted, Barnhart received a voice mail from someone identifying himself as Simon, imploring him to take the post down, because there is a great deal of anticipation and betting on what the song will be. Barnhart said he had no idea the closing segment was such a big deal, saying it hadn't made a big impact on him in the past, but he realized that doesn't mean it isn't a huge deal to other fans. \"I think it is a token of the strong bond that this show has to its small niche of fans,\" he said. \"[Simon] wants to reward the devotion of those fans with a moment like that. He's decided it's important, and the fact that it's not important to me doesn't entitle me to spoil it.\" While some \"Wire\" fans who were duped out of an early release ranted on HBO message boards, Facebook and MySpace, Wallen said he and his friends decided to find the positive in it all. \"I guess the consolation is that we have five extra days to be excited and talk about the show before it's over,\" he said. HBO is a division of Time Warner, as is CNN. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"\"The Wire\" has been available on demand, but not Sunday's finale .\nShow has a hard-core audience of passionate fans .\nHBO show, set in Baltimore, wraps up five-season run Sunday .","id":"3e4e9e9cbd63628a3992bee959a1499cdfcc7f08"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday admitted he made a mistake in handling the nomination of Tom Daschle as his health and human services secretary, saying Daschle's tax problems sent a message that the politically powerful are treated differently from average people. President Barack Obama is interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. Daschle, the former Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, withdrew earlier Tuesday as news that he failed to pay some taxes in the past continued to stir opposition on Capitol Hill. \"I think I screwed up,\" Obama said in a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. \"And I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again.\" Daschle had apologized Monday for what he said were honest mistakes, calling them an embarrassment. The series of errors included improperly reporting $15,000 in charitable donations, failing to list $80,000 in lobbying income due to what Daschle said was a paperwork error, and not reporting as income a car and driver loaned to him by a friend and business associate. Watch Obama admit mistake \u00bb . Daschle recently filed amended tax returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest for 2005 to 2007. Those tax issues, as well as questions over whether work he did after his stint in the Senate amounted to lobbying, gave critics ammunition to question Obama's call for a change of culture in Washington. \"Ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics,\" Obama said. \"And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards -- one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes.\" Watch the full interview with Anderson Cooper \u00bb . Obama defended Daschle's original appointment, saying \"nobody was better-equipped to deal both with the substance and policy of health care.\" \"He understands it as well as anybody, but also the politics, which is going to be required to actually get it done,\" Obama said. Earlier, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted Daschle's decision to withdraw was made on his own, not as a result of any prodding from the administration. In a written statement, Daschle acknowledged the political problem he had created for the administration. Still, Obama insisted the mistake was his. Read how CNN analysts assess the situation \u00bb . Obama also said he's going to crack down on businesses using taxpayer money to excessively pay executives. He plans a Wednesday announcement of mechanisms to keep that from happening. \"I'm going to be talking about executive compensation and changes we're going to be making there,\" he said. \"We've now learned that people are still getting huge bonuses despite the fact that they're getting taxpayer money, which I think infuriates the public.\" Watch Obama discuss getting tough on executives \u00bb . The president also spoke about the struggling economy, the use of the label \"war on terror,\" and lighter topics, including the family dog and his efforts to stop smoking. Thinking about the nation's faltering economy keeps him up at night, Obama said. He also addressed criticism that there is too much spending in the current stimulus package bill written by House Democrats. iReport.com: Was Daschle properly vetted? \"Look, the only measure of my success as president when people look back five years from now or nine years from now is going to be, did I get this economy fixed. I have no interest in promoting a package that doesn't work,\" Obama said. Cooper also asked Obama about reports that he is not using former President Bush's phrase, \"war on terror,\" to refer to the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan. \"Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we're going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds,\" Obama said. \"I think it is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations, but that those organizations aren't representative of a broader Arab community, Muslim community.\" Watch Obama talk about the phrase \"war on terror\" \u00bb . Moving on to lighter topics, the president said the first family hasn't decided what type of dog to get, but will wait until spring. Obama, an intermittent smoker, also said he has not smoked on the White House grounds. \"Sometimes it's hard. But, you know, I'm sticking to it,\" Obama said. iReport.com: 'People should give him some slack' Asked about the greatest lesson he'd learned about the presidency from studying about Abraham Lincoln, Obama said: . \"You know, when I think about Abraham Lincoln, what I'm struck by is the fact that he constantly learned on the job. He got better. You know, he wasn't defensive. He wasn't arrogant about his tasks. He was very systematic in saying, 'I'm going to master the job, and I understand it's going to take some time.' \"","highlights":"Obama tells CNN's Anderson Cooper: 'I take responsibility for it'\nPresident says message was sent that the politically powerful are treated differently .\nDaschle apologizes for what he says were honest mistakes involving taxes .\nObama also discusses declining economy and fight against terrorist groups .","id":"5173af17f05d8c364199b2066433f4c38bdd02ad"} -{"article":"(Sunset) -- An insider shares five top experiences in Sausalito, California, you won't read about in guidebooks. Waldo Point Harbor is one of several scenic houseboat communities in Sausalito. Off-the-path pier . You'll want a bike or a car to get to the Fort Baker fishing pier, which sits in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge and has unbeatable views across the bay to San Francisco. In summer, foghorns bellow loudly from here, but in December, fishermen and pelicans are more the order of the day. A short walk north is eco-luxe Cavallo Point: The Lodge at the Golden Gate, which was big news in town when it debuted last summer. Even if you don't stay there, stop for a glass of wine in the clubby Farley Bar. Locals' beach . Schoonmaker Beach is a bit farther from downtown, but still doable on foot and well worth finding. My son and I have whiled away many sunny mornings here, wading in the bay and watching sailboats. The beach bumped up to our number one favorite in April with the addition of Le Garage, a French bistro steps from the sand and, hands down, the best new restaurant in town in ages. Grab a seat next to the roll-up glass garage door and definitely try the mussels Proven\u00e7ale. Sunset.com: 20 perfect summer trips . Undiscovered hike . You can't spend time in Sausalito and not make it to the Marin Headlands, just a mile outside town -- it'd be like going to Yosemite and missing Half Dome. So join the parade of cars winding up twisty Conzelman Road to Hawk Hill, but don't stop there. Drive a bit farther to the beach parking area on your left, and you'll see signs for the trail to Black Sands Beach. The 0.75-mile hike down (slightly rickety) steps is sure to put the rosy in your cheeks, and the narrow strip of beach is windy, wild and stunning. My secret? Instead of starting from the beach parking area, I like to drive past the Marin Headlands Visitor Center, turn right on Bunker Road, and start at the historic rifle range. It's worth the extra 1.5 miles over the ridge for the views you'll have all to yourself. Sunset.com: Our amazing national parks . Best shopping street . There's more to Sausalito shopping than the chintzy souvenir shops that line the main drag downtown. Just a 10-minute walk north of the waterfront lies leafy Caledonia Street, home to several locally owned galleries and framing shops, plus Flying Oliver Books, where we always find deals on used cookbooks. I love to look at the black-and-white photography at Sausalito Picture Framing and pick up letterpress holiday cards and fashionable ribbons and papers for present wrapping at Pinestreet Papery. And one block to the east on Bridgeway is McCloud Design, with streamlined modern container gardens, handcrafted fountains and outdoor furniture. Sunset.com: Outdoor dining rooms . Hidden harbor . Sausalito wouldn't be Sausalito without its houseboats. Among several houseboat communities in town, Waldo Point Harbor stands out for its hilarious, only-in-Sausalito message board at the harbor entrance. On my all-star list: \"Lost: Plywood dinghy, battered blue\" (alongside a charmingly rakish drawing of the poor lost boat) and \"Want to exchange your houseboat with mine in Paris for a week?\" Impressive feats of container gardening -- succulents, roses, lemon trees -- line the boardwalk, and residents are often out watering plants in the early morning. Truth be told, I did once catch a minibus of Japanese tourists being let off in this area, but that was in the height of summer, and they seemed to walk right past Issaquah Dock, our favorite spot. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2004-2009 Sunset magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Wade in the bay and watch sailboats at Schoonmaker Beach .\nStroll through Waldo Point Harbor, one of Sausalito's houseboat communities .\nShop Caledonia Street, a 10-minute walk north of the waterfront .","id":"c4239cb9dac0e0257ce5467860762dc128141c10"} -{"article":"Editor's Note: The following story contains spoilers regarding the show \"House.\" If you'd rather not know what happens, stop reading now. Kal Penn, left, with Peter Jacobson on \"House,\" is joining the Obama White House. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- When Dr. Lawrence Kutner killed himself on the latest episode of \"House: MD,\" it was the beginning of a new career for actor Kal Penn. The demise of Penn's character cleared the way for the actor to move on to another \"House,\" the White House. Penn, 31, will be an associate director for the Obama administration's Office of Public Liaison. \"It seemed like something I would enjoy doing,\" Penn said. \"I figured it was something to do.\" He's not retiring from acting, just pursuing a longtime desire for public service that was rekindled when he campaigned for Barack Obama's election, Penn said. Penn played a teen terrorist on Fox's \"24\" before joining the network's \"House\" two years ago. He's also known as Kumar Patel in the \"Harold & Kumar\" movie series. The White House job likely ends his Kumar roles, he said. In fact, he will not consider any acting jobs until he leaves the Obama administration, he said. Penn will take a big pay cut to work for the government, but he has committed to at least one or two years in the job, he said. His focus will be as a liaison for the arts community and the Asian-American community, he said. He filled a similar role in the Obama presidential campaign, he said. \"We want to make sure that everyone's concerns are heard and they are familiar with the president's plans and proposals,\" he said. Penn said he spoke briefly with Obama after the election about \"trying to find the right fit\" for him in the administration. He said he has bittersweet emotions as he leaves Hollywood to search for an apartment in Washington next week. The writers' decision to have Dr. Kutner commit suicide ensures Penn will not return to the show, although he said he leaves on good terms. He felt \"more than a little bit of shock and loss\" to learn that his character would die in his final episode. Even though he spoke no lines in the episode -- and only his legs are seen when his body is found -- he was on the set for the filming, he said. CNN's KJ Matthews contributed to this story.","highlights":"\"House\" actor Kal Penn is leaving the show to join the Obama White House .\nPenn will become part of Office of Public Liaison .\nActor says working on campaign last year re-ignited desire for public service .","id":"4de4d5c40ce40f30c1fe4621622916402bec405d"} -{"article":"Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court convicted 11 Islamic militants Monday of membership in a terrorist group, but acquitted them of a \"specific\" conspiracy to carry out an attack on Barcelona's metro subway system, as prosecutors alleged. The court instead said there was a more general decision by the group, linked to al Qaeda, to use explosives against Barcelona's metro, but that a specific date and place had not been determined, nor had a sufficient amount of explosives been assembled, according to a copy of the sentence viewed by CNN. The judges ruled the alleged Barcelona plot had \"not advanced sufficiently\" to constitute a crime of conspiracy under Spanish law. The alleged plot in January 2008 had raised alarm bells in Europe because Spanish authorities said there were to be a series of attacks, starting with suicide bombings on the Barcelona metro, and then other attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and Great Britain, if successive demands from a Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda were not met. The trial against 10 Pakistani men and an Indian national was held last month. All proclaimed their innocence and many refused to answer prosecutors questions. The three-judge panel at the National Court ruled on Monday that all 11 belonged to a terrorist group. Two of the 11 also were convicted of possession of explosives, but nine others were acquitted on that charge. The 11 face prison terms of eight to 14 years. But Jose Maria Fuster-Fabra, a private prosecutor representing victims in the case, told CNN the sentence sets a precedent in Spain because the 11 defendants were convicted for terrorist group membership almost solely on the basis of a key police informant, known as F1 to protect his identity. F1 testified he was selected by the group's leader to be a suicide bomber, and that he quickly made a secretive call from a bathroom at a Barcelona mosque to warn a friend in France about an impending terrorist attack. Hours later, police swooped to make arrests in January 2008 in Barcelona. The protected witness denied on the stand that he worked for French or any other secret service. Defense lawyer Jacobo Teijelo, on the team representing all 11 defendants, said the sentence lacked judicial merit and he vowed to appeal to Spain's Supreme Court. About 30 members of Barcelona's large Pakistani community watched the trial almost daily in a bulletproof basement courtroom at the high-security National Court in central Madrid. A community leader told CNN the defendants were innocent and that the Pakistani community in Barcelona was hardworking and law-abiding. More than 300 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in Spain since the Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 on March 11, 2004, Spain's interior minister has said.","highlights":"Court convicts 11 Islamic militants of belonging to terrorist group, but acquits them of conspiring to attack Barcelona's metro .\nJudges ruled alleged Barcelona plot not advanced to constitute crime of conspiracy .\nAlleged plot in January 2008 raised alarm bells with Spanish authorities fearing series of attacks across Europe .","id":"891bb085682fdac7c42f35599207de67bae6a98c"} -{"article":"PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- For Pittsburgh International Airport, the Group of 20 summit is like the Sunday after Thanksgiving: the busiest flying day of the year, with world leaders instead of holiday travelers. Officials greet Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, left, on Wednesday at Pittsburgh International Airport. After weeks of logistics and planning, the airport and the adjacent Air Force Reserve Base will see 23 heads of state arrive in the space of a few hours. President Obama is hosting the G-20 summit -- a two-day meeting of representatives of the world's largest economies -- Thursday and Friday in Pittsburgh. \"This is unprecedented,\" Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said. \"We've never seen anything like it.\" The county runs the airport and coordinated the arrivals along with the White House, U.S. State Department and law enforcement officials. The arrivals will take place away from the commercial passenger terminals on the huge airport property. With different areas being used, some of the presidents and prime ministers will show up at the same time. Watch Pittsburgh's security preparations for protesters \u00bb . \"It is all scheduled. No one will be sitting out\" on the tarmac waiting, Onorato said. There are no welcoming ceremonies planned at the airport. The leaders quickly will get into separate motorcades and be whisked to downtown Pittsburgh. A formal greeting will take place Thursday evening at a conservatory in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. The heads of state invited to Pittsburgh include the leader of the European Union and the prime ministers of the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Many leaders are bringing hundreds of delegates and support staff with them as well. At least two countries are bringing jumbo jets into the airport. Members of Saudi Arabia's delegation landed Wednesday evening. The leaders are arriving from New York, where they attended the U.N. General Assembly. Airport officials say the VIP landings will not mean delays for passengers, though they warn trips to and from the airport could take extra time because of road closings for motorcades. It's Obama's second trip to Pittsburgh in nine days. He addressed the AFL-CIO Convention on September 15 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where the G-20 summit also is being held. This time, Air Force One will have plenty of company.","highlights":"Representatives of world's largest economies meeting for two days in Pittsburgh .\nTwenty-three heads of state arriving in the space of a few hours at airport .\nLeaders' arrivals will take place away from commercial passenger terminals .\nDelegates and support staff also on hand; airport says there won't be any delays .","id":"b47bcba17f298952e935c4cae00a0c32b6b7650a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Being the leader and second-richest person in one of the most beautiful and cultured nations on Earth might sound cushy, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is having a rough year. Already the subject of intense criticism over his personal life and management style, Berlusconi took another blow Sunday when a man police are calling \"mentally unstable\" smacked the Italian prime minister in the face with a souvenir replica of a cathedral. Berlusconi, 73, who was in his hometown of Milan stumping for a political ally, suffered broken teeth and a fractured nose. His alleged assailant, Massimo Tartaglia, is being held by Milanese authorities, who believe he acted alone. As he has done in the past after nonphysical attacks, Berlusconi blamed political opponents. \"What I can tell you is that there has been such a buildup of hatred toward the premier, and this is not good,\" Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Buonaiuti said. \"This campaign of hatred has been building quite rapidly recently, and I am not surprised that what happened tonight took place.\" The prime minister scores highly in polls gauging Italian popular opinion, though he has been tried on various charges 17 times since taking office in 1994. The charges include corruption, false accounting and tax fraud. Berlusconi has said he did nothing wrong and accused magistrates of conducting a witch hunt. He also noted that he has never been convicted. In some cases, he was found guilty but won on appeal. Berlusconi was elected to his third term as premier in April 2008, about two months after his trial on corruption charges was postponed until after the election. His ability to maneuver through political crises has prompted a prominent journalist to liken him to a puppeteer, saying he is popular because he's a skilled populist. Berlusconi is \"a man who pulls the most elementary strings of the public opinion -- a public opinion, which in Italy in these times, prefers simple paths,\" said Giulio Anselmi, chairman of ANSA, Italy's leading news wire. Even by Berlusconi's standards, 2009 has been a tumultuous year, as his second wife has filed for divorce and allegations of corruption and infidelity continue to surface. This month's Rolling Stone Italy cheekily declared him \"Rock Star of the Year.\" Editor Carlo Antonelli released a statement saying the prime minister made rockers Keith Richards and Rod Stewart look like \"schoolboys.\" \"This year the choice was unanimous for his obvious merits due to a lifestyle for which the words, rock 'n' roll, fall short,\" Antonelli's statement said. Watch how Berlusconi was hit at a rally . The prime minister's second wife, Veronica Lario, whom he married in 1990, filed for divorce in May after news reports that he attended a birthday party for 18-year-old Neapolitan model Noemi Letizia, with whom he was accused of having an improper relationship. Berlusconi called the allegations \"slander\" and the girl's family, longtime friends of the prime minister, also deny there was anything improper. Lario, the mother of three of Berlusconi's five children, is asking for about $70 million a year from the prime minister, whom Forbes magazine ranked this year as No. 70 on its list of richest people, with an estimated net worth of $6.5 billion. More allegations followed the divorce filing, including claims that women were paid to attend parties at the prime minister's various homes. Berlusconi denied those allegations, telling the Italian magazine \"Chi\" he would never pay for sex because it would dampen the \"the pleasure of the conquest.\" In June, he went to court to block the publication of hundreds of photos from his seaside villa in Sardinia, saying they posed \"an aggressive intrusion into my private life.\" A Spanish paper ran some of the photos, showing scantily clad women at Berlusconi's villa and reporting that the premier was the subject of an investigation into whether he used official Italian aircraft to ferry guests to his villa. Berlusconi admitted using government airplanes to ferry guests, but an investigation found no wrongdoing on the premier's part. In October, old allegations of political scandal re-emerged when Italy's Constitutional Court overturned a law that shielded presidents, prime ministers and the leaders of both houses of parliament from prosecution. The court said the constitution requires all Italians to be equal before the law. Berlusconi had pushed for the immunity law after his 2008 re-election, and the court's action opened Berlusconi to prosecution on allegations that he paid British tax attorney David Mills $600,000 to provide false testimony in two court cases in the 1990s. Mills was convicted, but is appealing. The Constitutional Court's ruling also lifted Berlusconi's immunity from prosecution on charges that his company, Mediaset, failed to pay $45 million in taxes between 2000 and 2003. The latter case was postponed until January because the prime minister was unable to attend hearings, but Berlusconi has been outspoken in his defense against all of the allegations. He said he believes he is on trial for political reasons and has called magistrates \"communist bullies.\" He also has declared himself the most persecuted man \"in the entire history of the world.\" The Italian leader has often blamed Italy's ills on the left wing. He doesn't enjoy leading the country, he said, \"because very often there is a lot of dirty dealing.\" He leads out of a sense of sacrifice and duty and because he is the \"only leader able to hold the center-right together,\" he has told CNN. But Berlusconi seems aware that his popularity and populism allow him to continue to hold sway in this nation of about 58 million. Though his popularity recently has seen a slight dip among women, he routinely garners approval ratings of 50 percent or higher. \"When I go around, it's embarrassing to see the affection showered upon me,\" Berlusconi told CNN in October. \"I know that people can change their opinions ... but I must say that I just note the fact that I am close to the heart of many Italians and they show this to me very often.\"","highlights":"Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has blamed political opponents for physical, nonphysical attacks .\nRolling Stone Italy: PM makes rockers Keith Richards, Rod Stewart look like \"schoolboys\"\nDivorce sought, corruption and infidelity alleged as court lifts immunity from prosecution .\nSpokesman says he's not surprised PM was attacked amid \"campaign of hatred\"","id":"a891c756994519a6b7c7d3539782d12dcc99eb52"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tenants of apartments in Pacifica, California, were under evacuation Thursday after erosion threatened the cliff on which their building sits, a city official said. Authorities have been watching the seaside building for years and were waiting for the erosion to reach a 12-foot safety zone behind it, said Doug Rider, a building official for Pacifica. The problem has reached that zone, he said, so officials notified the building's management and tenants began evacuating. The building is stable, so tenants are able to remove belongings from the apartments, Rider said. Police, fire and other local authorities are assisting residents, along with the city's Building Department, he said. All residents of the 12-unit building must be out by 5 p.m. PT Thursday, he told CNN affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco, California. KGO reported a large chunk of land fell from the cliff into the Pacific Ocean about 5:30 a.m. PT Thursday. Two nearby buildings also face questions about their structural reliability but are not being evacuated, the station reported. Pacifica is about 15 miles southwest of San Francisco. CNN's Sara Pratley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Residents of 12-unit building must be out by Thursday afternoon, CNN affiliate reports .\nChunk of land fell from cliff into Pacific Ocean earlier, TV station says .\nBuilding is on seaside cliff in Pacifica, California, near San Francisco .","id":"965099233c9ea039c64c266cd668deab170ec829"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- An Amtrak train traveling from New York to Washington struck and killed a 14-year-old girl Tuesday morning, the rail operator said. Details on how the accident occurred were not immediately available, and the girl was not named. Baltimore County Police Lt. Robert McCullough said there were other children at the scene who knew the victim. Nearly two hours after the fatality occurred, emergency management officials in Washington announced that one out of four railroad tracks between Washington and Maryland had been \"cleared for reduced speed service.\" Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said trains were traveling in both directions but had to take turns using the single set of tracks. Amtrak halted all trains through the area near Essex, Maryland, to give investigators access to the scene. Authorities said the teen was hit at 9:02 a.m. ET. Connell said the incident occurred 11 miles north of the Baltimore, Maryland, rail station. Both Baltimore County Police and Amtrak were investigating.","highlights":"14-year-old struck by train headed from New York to Washington .\nAll trains halted throughout area during investigation .\nOne track was reopened at 10:45 a.m.","id":"be043911a5d30f72d7724cf1c493b79ab9d8ba14"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama's transition team announced several key appointments to his communications team Saturday. Robert Gibbs will have one of the most highly visible roles in the Obama administration. Robert Gibbs, an Obama campaign spokesman who also has acted as spokesman for the transition, will become Obama's press secretary, one of the most highly visible roles in the administration. Gibbs, an Auburn, Alabama, native who has worked for Sen. Fritz Hollings, the Democratic Senatorial Committee and Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign, was communications director and then a senior strategist for the Obama campaign. Ellen Moran, executive director of EMILY's List, will serve as Obama's communications director. Moran worked for the AFL-CIO, coordinating \"Wal-Mart corporate accountability activities,\" before returning to EMILY's, an organization dedicated to helping Democratic women get elected to office. It had endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president. See who's on Obama's short list for cabinet posts \u00bb . Dan Pfeiffer, current communications director with the transition team, will be Obama's deputy communications director. He began work with the Obama campaign in January 2007 as traveling press secretary before returning to Chicago, Illinois, to work as communications director. Unlike Gibbs and Pfeiffer, Moran is not already on Obama's communications team. \"These individuals will fill essential roles, and bring a breadth and depth of experience that can help our administration advance prosperity and security for the American people,\" Obama said in a written statement. \"This dedicated and impressive group of public servants includes longtime advisors and a talented new addition to our team, and together we will work to serve our country and meet the challenges of this defining moment in history.\" On Friday, sources indicated that some of Obama's Cabinet posts were close to being filled. Two sources close to the transition team said New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner is \"on track\" to be offered the Treasury secretary post. Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper discuss Obama's choices \u00bb . Transition officials told The Associated Press on Saturday that Obama planned to announce Geithner's appointment on Monday, along with that of Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council. Summers is a former president of Harvard University and served as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Two sources said Friday that Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico is a serious contender for commerce secretary but that he could be chosen for another senior post. Geithner has played a large role in the government's efforts to wrangle the credit crisis, which has damaged markets and economies worldwide. Although a number of those efforts have been controversial, Geithner remains a well-regarded figure from Wall Street to Washington. Geithner began working with the Treasury Department in 1988 in the International Affairs division. In 1999, he became under-secretary of the Treasury for international affairs. Geithner would be charged with restoring stability to the financial markets, the banking system and the housing sector through oversight of the controversial $700 billion financial rescue package, of which about half is still available for use at the discretion of the Treasury secretary. Watch CNN's John King discuss the posts with panelists \u00bb . The Dow Jones industrial index staged a late rally Friday after traders heard news of Geithner's possible appointment, rising by almost 500 points shortly before the market's closing time. The two sources close to the transition team said they do not consider Richardson's appointment to the Commerce Department to be a done deal. Richardson, 61, was a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Currently in his second term as New Mexico's governor, he served as ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration. Richardson is also considered to be a possibility for the secretary of state post. Also Friday, Sen. Hillary Clinton's camp shot down reports that she had agreed to accept the secretary of state position. \"We're still in discussions, which are very much on track,\" said Philippe Reines, Clinton's senior adviser. \"Any reports beyond that are premature.\" The New York Times reported that Clinton would give up her Senate seat and accept the Cabinet post, citing two confidants, who said the decision was made after further consultation with Obama about the nature of her role and his foreign policy plans. A senior Obama aide told CNN there has been no development on a possible Clinton appointment since they informed CNN Thursday that she is \"on track\" to be nominated for secretary of state. Obama's transition team also appears close to choosing a national security adviser to the White House. Retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones has emerged as the president-elect's leading choice for the position, two sources close to the Obama transition team say. The sources said Jones has been given the impression by Obama that the job is his if he wants it. But the officials said that private discussions are under way and that no final decision has been made. The discussions are focused on precisely how much power Jones will have in the staff job, since he is used to being in a command role. Among his many posts, Jones served for several years as the operational commander for NATO.","highlights":"NEW: Timothy Geithner to be announced as Treasury pick, AP reports .\nRobert Gibbs, an Obama campaign spokesman, will be press secretary .\nEllen Moran, EMILY's List executive director, will be communications director .\nDan Pfeiffer named Obama's deputy communications director .","id":"04548a388181e65c7fd67d9822540841cfcc26ae"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Every year, I take at least one vacation out of the country to get my international travel fix. And this time, I'm taking you with me. The travel bug is a forever-itch that leaves you longing to wake up in a foreign country, Jarrett Bellini says. No, not literally. Sit down. This year, YOU can weigh in on where I go and what I do once I get there. We're calling it: Let's Ruin Jarrett's Vacation! By adding your comments below or sharing your ideas on CNN.com Live's Facebook page, you can send me to either Argentina, Greece, South Africa or Turkey. The destination that gets the most positive response is where I'll go. And to make it more fun, I won't even find out where I'm heading until I actually get to the airport this Sunday, August 30. There, I will tear open an envelope, read the results for the first time, and then head to my departure gate -- hopefully with at least a few articles of appropriate clothing. Once I get to wherever it is you send me, I'll be blogging on CNN.com and and checking in from time to time on CNN.com Live. By sharing your ideas on Facebook, you'll be able to guide many aspects of this vacation. You call the shots. And I'll cry myself to sleep at night wondering why I agreed to work on vacation and let other people plan it. I suppose, now, you might want a little background on why I'd actually want to do this. I mean, besides the fact that clearly, I'm a glutton for punishment. Really, though, I think I just like a challenge. In the fall of 2003, after an entire month of fruitlessly waiting by my phone to hear back about an entry-level position with CNN, I finally gave up hope and took my apparent job snub as some sort of cosmic sign from the Slacker Gods. I decided, then, that the only reasonable course of action was to buy a plane ticket to Europe to spend the next three months running around with my backpack, trying -- again, quite fruitlessly -- to meet foreign chicks. Though not quite a rucksack Casanova, I did come back from these magical three months with a far greater ability to entertain myself in a completely new place among absolute strangers. (Granted, for me, this can be accomplished by the presence of shiny objects.) Amazingly, the day after I returned from Europe, CNN called and offered me the position. It took four long months, but the timing was remarkable and I couldn't have been happier. But, as I started my new professional life, I was sick. I had the travel bug. Now, this is not to be confused with bed bugs, which, FYI, I painfully fell victim to in Copenhagen at a horrible, bomb-shelter-of-a-hostel they call Sleep in Heaven. Apparently, Heaven smells like mildew and leaves you with a rash. No, this was the travel bug -- the forever-itch that leaves you longing to wake up in a foreign bed in a foreign country, rising to face new ideas and new people beneath an unfamiliar sky. Of course, that's just my poorly poetic way of saying: The world is huge and amazing. It's so good! Once it hits your lips, it's so good!","highlights":"Jarrett Bellini offers readers opportunity to decide where he's going on vacation .\nReaders can choose either Argentina, Greece, South Africa or Turkey .\nBellini will blog on CNN.com and appear on CNN.com Live from the country .\nBellini says he has the \"travel bug\" for international vacations .","id":"8330676848ac033dac07aaaeac1becf389623835"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate confirmed by unanimous consent retired Adm. Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence Wednesday. Retired Adm. Dennis Blair answers questions at his confirmation hearing last week. The confirmation followed the resignation of former director Michael McConnell, who left the post Tuesday after nearly two years on the job. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama nominated Blair to be chief of intelligence. McConnell had been expected to remain as DNI until Blair was in place, but a delay in Blair's confirmation prompted him to announce his resignation sooner than that. Blair's confirmation hearing was held last week. The retired admiral will continue to advise Obama, however, having agreed to serve on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. The defense consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton announced Tuesday that McConnell will return to the company as a vice president. He left the firm in February 2007 to become the nation's second director of national intelligence. In a farewell letter obtained by CNN, McConnell thanked his colleagues for their hard work and touted some of the accomplishments during his tenure. At the top of his list: passage of legislation revising the law governing intelligence community eavesdropping and updating the presidential order that outlines the power and authorities of the community. \"These documents lay a foundation to provide the IC the structure and the tools needed to continue our work, while expanding privacy and civil liberties protections to all Americans,\" wrote McConnell. The office was created in late 2004 as part of the effort to improve intelligence gathering after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks on the United States and the faulty intelligence on Iraq weapons of mass destruction.","highlights":"Retired Adm. Dennis Blair confirmed by unanimous consent .\nConfirmation comes after previous director Michael McConnell resigned .\nEarlier this month, President Obama nominated Blair as chief of intelligence .","id":"69e770407ba8d06e8cd9abda0aca1066d106f28b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The search for two missing hikers on Oregon's Mount Hood has moved from a search operation into a recovery operation, authorities said Wednesday. \"It was our hope that we might get a window today to take a last look,\" Clackamas County, Oregon, Sheriff Craig Roberts told reporters. \"Unfortunately, that hasn't happened.\" Anthony Vietti, 24; Luke Gullberg, 26; and Katie Nolan, 29, set out about 1 a.m. Friday on what was to have been a fairly easy \"semi-technical\" hike in which they would have descended the south side of the mountain, Sheriff's Deputy Scott Meyers has said. Gullberg was found dead Saturday from hypothermia. Authorities said Tuesday they were suspending the search, citing the threat of avalanches. Roberts said Wednesday the mountain was experiencing 60 mph winds and the weather is not expected to clear anytime soon. However, the Sheriff's Office will continue to monitor weather conditions and will launch an organized recovery mission when conditions improve, he said. \"God has given me a peace about Katie,\" Nolan's father, David Nolan, told reporters Wednesday. \"He's given me strength.\" \"I think there needs to be a time of meeting with my family, and we're going to talk, and we're going to cry, and we're going to hug one another, and then we're going to turn around and praise God that we know Katie is in heaven,\" he said. \"We are confident ... she has led a life that's been exemplary.\" \"This has not shaken our faith,\" said John Vietti, Anthony Vietti's father. \"This has strengthened our faith.\" On Tuesday, authorities said there was little hope the two would be found alive. \"Could they be alive? Yes,\" said Dr. Terri Schmidt, physician supervisor for American Medical Response in Clackamas County. \"Is it very likely? No.\" A specialist in emergency medicine, Schmidt noted that \"at about 48 hours -- two days -- the chances of finding somebody alive after that go down to about 1 percent.\" Operations coordinator Nate Thompson hypothesized that the hikers may have been involved in an accident and that Gullberg, the most experienced of the three, may have broken away from the others and begun to backtrack in an effort to seek help. Above his body rescuers found a water bottle, a helmet, a harness, a camera and camera case and a mitten belonging to Nolan. \"Maybe Katie lost a mitten in an accident,\" Thompson said. If Gullberg did indeed seek to return for help and Nolan lost one of her mittens in an accident, he may have left his gear, his pack and his supplies and gloves with her, taking the lone mitten, he said. But descending can be more difficult than climbing in some places. \"If there was some form of an accident and Luke did downclimb, this is a much more difficult descent,\" he said. Vietti's home is Longview, Washington; Nolan's is Portland, Oregon. Gullberg was from Des Moines, Washington. Mount Hood rises 11,239 feet above sea level, with a base that stretches across 92 miles (148 km). It is the highest mountain in Oregon, a dormant volcano with steam constantly spewing from holes, according to the Web site mthood.org.","highlights":"\"Could they be alive? Yes,\" expert says. \"Is it very likely? No\"\nAnthony Vietti, Luke Gullberg, Katie Nolan, started hike about 1 a.m. Friday .\nGullberg was found dead Saturday from hypothermia .\nHe may have been trying to get help for others after an accident, searcher says .","id":"c01ed40846cd927100fdb1ca1dcc2b6dc006f3e1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Walk into any sleek West Elm store, and the first thing you're likely to see is a giant red banner emblazoned with a white peace symbol. Peace is pretty. Browse Pottery Barn Teen, and you'll be dazzled by backlit peace signs and multicolored peace-sign bedding. Peace is cool. Visit the ubiquitous Gap store and find peace within reach on T-shirts and bracelets. Peace is accessible, at least as an accessory. Where are the protesters passionately waving hand-drawn peace signs at marches, calling for an end to war? What happened to \"Give peace a chance\" rather than \"Give peace a place in your wardrobe\"? The notion of peace has been corroded to the point that it's as fragile as a Christmas ornament. Or as dubious as a prize doled out to a president at war. Fittingly, President Obama's Nobel speech acknowledged the paradox of being honored for contributing to world peace while sending more young Americans to kill and die in Afghanistan. Rationalizing the contradiction, he apologetically characterized humanity as caught in the throes of our own evolution, from who we are to who we ought to be. But what will spark that progress, from waging war to living peace? It's difficult to expect peace to take root beyond symbols and words if the symbols lose their meaning and the words ring hollow. How will we ever evolve if we always choose pragmatism and fear over idealism and hope? When will peace truly have its season? For starters, we must know what peace is and what it's worth. And we must practice it rather than wait for its miraculous arrival. We must stop viewing \"peace\" as the cry of the weak and \"war\" as the act of the strong. We must not envision peace as isolationist inaction or the mere absence of conflict. Peace is a proactive choice we make in our personal lives every day. We must do the same as a nation. In order to embrace peace, we must believe it's worth doing so. Ponder all the lives lost at war. Consider the sacrifice endured by our brave soldiers and their families. Weigh the enormous cost to our struggling economy. Not only would thousands of lives be spared by peace, but millions more would benefit by the constructive use of the vast resources squandered on war. Diseases might be cured. World hunger might be eliminated. Prosperity and fulfillment might replace poverty and suffering around the globe. Peace is worth it. And it's certainly not for the weak but rather for those courageous enough to take a risk. Evolution begins with one mutation that turns out to be better, higher, smarter, stronger. Making the leap requires faith in our own ability to lead the world by example through this evolutionary process. Peace is a bold but calculated risk, a brave and noble choice. Gandhi said, \"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.\" Pacifist A.J. Muste once declared, \"There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.\" Martin Luther King Jr. said, \"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal.\" What I take from these wise thinkers is that peace starts with us and our actions. Peace is not passive. It's not something we can put off forever. We must practice peace in order to attain it. As citizens, we must demand it. Only then will elected officials -- and others around the world -- follow our lead. So when we purchase peace signs, let's honor their meaning: . The peace symbol, created in 1958 by designer Gerald Holtom, combines the signals in semaphore for the letters \"N\" and \"D,\" standing for nuclear disarmament. By the 1960s, it was adopted by anti-war protesters of the baby boom generation, perhaps explaining its now nostalgic allure in boomer-frequented retail establishments, where the only conflict is whether to pick a throw pillow in sage, cranberry or chartreuse. Just as we must not allow peace to become a meaningless trinket, we mustn't allow the prize to become a parody. Instead, we must remember the passion with which that peace sign was first hoisted at marches on capitols and on campuses. We must recall the fervor and nobility with which Nobel laureates like Gandhi and King gave their lives pursuing nonviolent solutions. And we must stand for peace, in our actions, in our expectations of our leaders, and in our votes. We cannot simply consume peace as an illusion. We must stop talking about peace in terms of who we ought to be and start making it who we are. Because the day we stop fighting for peace is the day peace will be ours. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz.","highlights":"Rudy Ruiz writes that \"peace\" has been reduced to meaningless symbol .\nPeace is not for weak; not just isolationist inaction or absence of conflict, Ruiz says .\nHe writes that peace is noble, contagious action practiced by those with higher purpose .\nRuiz says Americans must stand for peace in actions, in expectations of leaders, in votes .","id":"e7e1a72aa4c7d64e1631a3f35b23d8bd31803425"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Al Qaeda in Iraq is trying to foment sectarian tensions by attacking and killing Iraqi civilians, a government spokesman said Monday. Iraqi women gather near the site of an attack in the village of al-Khazna, near Mosul, on Monday. Explosions across the country have killed 50 and wounded 231 others, most of them civilians in Shiite areas, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf. \"Most of the terrorist attacks carried out by al Qaeda in Iraq were against civilians and not Iraqi security forces,\" Khalaf said. \"This is an indication that al Qaeda in Iraq cannot face the Iraqi security forces.\" Monday's deadliest attack happened near the northern city of Mosul when two truck bombs destroyed 32 homes, killing 30 people and burying others in the rubble, officials said. The bombs targeted al-Khazna village, which is inhabited by a Shiite Shabak ethnic group. The village is an area disputed between Kurds and Arabs. Car bombings and a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed 18 others on Monday, most of them Shiites. \"This is the card that al Qaeda in Iraq is now playing by targeting mostly Shiite areas and neighborhoods to agitate the sectarian violence,\" Khalaf said. \"But this will not happen because Iraqi security forces and Iraqi people in general are aware of this losing game and they will not fall into this trap.\" On Monday afternoon, two children -- brothers aged 5 and 9 -- were killed when a roadside bomb detonated near them as they played in a yard in northern Tikrit, about 99 miles (160 km) north of Baghdad, a police official said. The attacks come after a series of bombings in Iraq on Friday, mostly aimed at Shiite targets, which killed 50 and wounded 154 others. Friday's deadliest attack happened when a suicide car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque where a funeral was taking place, killing 38. Last week's attacks occurred at the end of a Shiite Muslim celebration marking the birthday of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi, the last of 12 historic imams revered by Shiites. Pilgrims participating in such celebrations have been the target of similar attacks by Sunnis. The bombings sparked fears of sectarian violence and called into question the ability of Iraqi forces. The United States pulled back its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns on June 30, leaving security responsibilities to the Iraqis and remaining only in a training and advisory capacity. The U.S. military continues to conduct combat operations in areas outside cities and towns. Khalaf said the recent attacks are part of \"an escalation of violence\" over the past two months ahead of national elections in January. \"The enemy of Iraq wants to bring down political progress in the country,\" he said.","highlights":"Dozens dead, 231 wounded, houses destroyed from bombings .\nSeries of bombings appears to target mostly day laborers .\nMost of attacks scattered across Baghdad; two truck bombs reported in Mosul .\nAttacks fuel fears sectarian violence could re-ignite in Iraq .","id":"f270437b48111237b370ed847c61a7f97f3b4ce8"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Global warming concerns took center stage Monday as two organizations held rallies to draw attention to an issue that President Barack Obama has promised to place near the top of his agenda. Demonstrators stand outside the Capitol Power Plant in Washington on Monday to protest the plant's use of coal. A group of young protesters gathered in front of the Capitol to rally on behalf of legislation to reduce carbon emissions, decrease dependence on coal and oil, and speed a national drive toward \"clean\" energy. Later Monday, hundreds of representatives of a coalition of environmental, public health, social justice and other advocacy organizations marched around Capitol Hill and encircled a Washington coal-fired power plant to highlight the issue of climate change. The group, protesting the Capitol Power Plant's use of coal, stood in front of the plant's gated entrances. The plant powers the heating and cooling systems in the Capitol, as well as roughly a dozen other federal office buildings on Capitol Hill. \"The Capitol Power Plant, sitting just blocks from Capitol Hill, symbolizes the stranglehold coal has over our government and future,\" the group said on its Web site. \"It's not the largest or the dirtiest power plant in the country, but as the plant that is actually run by and for Congress it serves as an incredibly iconic symbol of what is wrong with our country's energy and climate policy.\" No arrests were made as a result of the protest, which \"didn't affect the operations of the power plant,\" Capitol police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released a letter Thursday calling for the plant to convert to 100 percent natural gas by the end of 2009. \"Taking this major step toward cleaning up the Capitol Power Plant's emissions would be an important demonstration of Congress' willingness to deal with the enormous challenges of global warming, energy independence and our inefficient use of finite fossil fuels,\" they wrote. Several members of Congress and environmental leaders addressed the earlier rally, which was held at the conclusion to Power Shift '09, a four-day environmental summit organized by the Energy Action Coalition. The coalition describes itself as an umbrella organization of 700 groups fighting for \"clean energy solutions and the creation of a new green economy.\" It's time to \"turn up the political heat in Washington so we can turn down the heat on Mother Earth,\" Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, told the crowd. \"The science tells us that the time for talking about this problem is over. The time for action is now.\" The concept of \"clean coal\" is a \"dirty lie,\" added environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy. \"The most important thing you can do is not to change your light bulb but to change [members of Congress who have been] corrupted by ... dirty, filthy industry.\" America needs to be freed from the \"carbon cronies,\" who are part of the \"biggest threat to civilization,\" Kennedy said.","highlights":"Two protests on global warming issues hit Washington .\nGroup rallies for legislation to reduce carbon emissions, back \"clean\" energy .\nSeparate group protests Capitol Power Plant's use of coal .\nGroup: Plant \"symbolizes the stranglehold coal has over our government and future\"","id":"71d6daf5748a20eabdeaa3978b4764e60e68f859"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This week on Inside Africa . It's one of the most sacred acts of the Zulu people. We take you inside an ancient wedding ceremony played out in modern times. Africa gains two seats on the United Nations Security Council, but should those seats be permanent, and what will Nigeria do with this two-year opportunity? Plus, Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys takes us on her eye-opening trip to Africa and talks about how the experience changed the way she wrote her next album. Alicia Keys in Africa . She's traveled the world on tour but for singer Alicia Keys nothing spoke to her like a visit she once took to Africa. It moved her to help create a charity and influenced her next album. CNN's TJ Holmes sat down with the singer to find out what caused the profound effect. Liberia Photo Exhibit . Tim Hetherington is a photographer who has witnessed the violent life behind rebel lines in Liberia's 2003 civil war. He takes us through photos he took during his time there, now on display in London. World Food Prize . There is a weed so powerful in sub-Saharan Africa that it can destroy hundreds of thousands of hectares of crucial crops. It's a problem that has puzzled researchers for ages. But now, thanks to one man, a breakthrough is on the horizon. We reveal why Dr. Gebisa Ejeta is the recipient of this year's World Food Prize. Interview with Ojo Maduekwe . The United Nations has recently voted in its newest members to the Security Council, the new five out of 15 who will serve for the next two years. Nigeria and Gabon received the two African seats, making this the third time Gabon has served on the council and the fourth time for Nigeria. CNN's Isha Sesay spoke with Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe about what he'd like to accomplish in the next two years and how it felt to be the one to bring this success to Nigeria. Traditional Wedding . A view of ancient times. These were images sent in by an iReporter of one of the most sacred acts of the Zulu people: a traditional wedding. Our correspondent Errol Barnett caught up with the iReporter behind these photos.","highlights":"Inside Africa reports on Africa's seats in the United Nations Security Council .\nCNN's TJ Holmes sat down with Alicia Keys to talk about her visit in Africa .\nPhotographer Tim Hetherington shows us his Liberia photo exhibit .\nPlus, World Food Prize and Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe .","id":"7b3d8f345fe6274df31c38cdd442e21a6ec81533"} -{"article":"Pago Pago, American Samoa (CNN) -- When an earthquake-triggered tsunami cascaded into this tiny island in late September, the result was 34 lives lost and untold millions in property damage. But a CNN investigation to air on tonight's \"AC 360\" has uncovered an array of unsettling facts that point to a single conclusion: this natural disaster was in many ways a man-made tragedy. Public records show that the Department of Homeland Security had awarded millions of federal dollars in grants for disaster preparedness here, including the construction of an island-wide siren warning system. But all the federal funding was frozen in early 2007 after DHS inspectors found that the local American Samoan government had been diverting millions of those dollars for its own uses. Birdsall Alailima, director of American Samoa's territorial office of Homeland Security from 2003 through 2007, now lives in southern Illinois, not far from St. Louis, Missouri. He showed CNN on a map exactly where on the island the sirens were to have been placed. Thirty towers in all, he said, with 30 sirens that could have been activated by the push of a single button. \"You're saying that the systems should have been in place?\" CNN correspondent Drew Griffin asked him. \"Absolutely,\" Alailima said. \"And people died as a result?\" \"Yes.\" He's not the only one who thinks so. Federal sources told CNN they believe that had the warning system been built, the death toll would likely have been lower. In American Samoa, however, territorial Gov. Togiola Tulafono, told CNN that he knew of no viable plan for the siren system. \"There was a study, I believe, but never a plan for a system,\" the governor said. \"I was trying to get verification of what happened to that system, but I could not get the definite information.\" Alailima said he was fired by the governor when the federal funding was frozen, and that the governor was aware of the preparations. \"I'm not going to fault them for freezing the funds,\" Tulafono said. \"These are federal funds that they have oversight responsibility for and they saw fit to freeze the funds.\" The governor told CNN he had tried to correct the problem by firing his entire homeland security staff. But, he said, that failed to solve the problem. \"All I'm saying is we have tried to work with them and have tried to get partial releases (of the money), and so far that hasn't happened.\" A federal official calls the governor's statement \"nonsense.\" American Samoa would have access to the frozen funds if it had agreed to pay back even some of the money it misused, said the official. The government and the governor refused, and the tsunami siren system was stopped, according to the official. A spokesman for the governor's office later declined comment on the nature of the negotiations. American Samoan government officials said they purchased another warning system -- radios that would have triggered alarms across the island. But during the CNN interview, Tulafono conceded that the system \"was not in place\" when the tsunami struck. CNN has learned that the FBI is now conducting an investigation into exactly what did happen to the federal preparedness dollars sent to American Samoa. It was launched, sources tell CNN, by the Interior Department as its Insular Affairs office has federal administrative responsibility for the island. The FBI investigation is only the latest and most recent attempt by the federal government to try to track what one federal official told CNN was \"endemic\" corruption on the island. Here are only a few instances of the alleged corruption: . \u2022 Both the current Samoan lieutenant governor and a former state senator are under federal indictment on allegations of fraud, bribery and conspiracy. A trial is pending in Washington because there are no federal courts on the island. Attorneys for both men have refuted the indictment in court filings and say their clients are innocent of all the charges. \u2022 An inspector general's report by the Department of Homeland Security issued in May 2007 cites numerous examples of American Samoan officials misusing federal grant money. The report's findings include the purchase of six flat-screen televisions for more than $25,000; purchase of executive leather chairs for $4,000; spending $77,000 on equipment no auditor could find; and extensive travel and entertainment charges, including money spent in Las Vegas, Nevada, by a Samoan official for a conference he was scheduled to have attended in Colorado. \u2022 The DHS letter freezing its funding was sent on January 12, 2007. The action was taken because \"we have found that Homeland Security Grant funds have been diverted to uses by State government offices for other than the intended use of Homeland Security funds. This is not only in violation of public trust but In Lieu of agreement as well.\" In the Samoan villages destroyed by the tsunami, stories of corruption are not new. \"The government here gets a lot of money from the U.S. federal government,\" Heinrich Tavai told CNN as he watched members of his Lofatonoa Pentacostal Church help in the clean up. \"Every year, they get millions and millions of dollars. As you see, we look like a Third World country when we should be looking more like a U.S. territory.\" In half a dozen villages either wiped out or badly damaged by the tsunami, CNN could find no visible evidence of local government assistance. Workers from a tuna fish processing plant were helping in one village; in another, students from an island community college were dredging rubbish out of a stream. Red Cross officials distributed tents in other villages. Children in another village were hauling furniture on their backs to help clear the debris. When asked about the seeming lack of local government assistance, the governor told CNN, \"Our departments are out there working and working very hard, and to say they haven't seen any assistance is totally false.\" Since 1995, American Samoa has received nearly $2 billion in federal grants from nearly every federal agency. On average the 65,000-population -- the size of a typical American suburb -- receives about $250 million in federal money each year. Congressional sources tell CNN that oversight has always been a problem because of Samoa's isolation and the expense involved in even mounting an investigation. \"They can do half a dozen investigations in Wyoming or California for the amount just one investigation would cost in Samoa,\" a source told CNN. Federal sources said they don't believe any official is getting rich off the U.S. Treasury. Instead, they said, federal funds -- including disaster-preparedness money that was to have gone to the warning system -- were instead used to create local government jobs in an economy almost totally dependent on U.S. federal grants. Moreover, the source added, each federal agency may have many employees whose jobs are to allocate federal funds, but only a relative handful whose jobs are to \"manage\" or account for that money. In an e-mail to CNN, an Interior Department spokeswoman said that in previous administrations \"there were real issues of neglect and failed oversight that must be addressed quickly, thoroughly and responsibly.\" \"We will help the islands rebuild and recover,\" said Kendra Barkoff, \"but taxpayer dollars will be invested with strong oversight and full accountability.\"","highlights":"34 people died in last month's tsunami that smashed into American Samoa .\nDHS inspectors say funds for a warning system were improperly diverted .\nInvestigators: Some funds used to pay for flat screen TVs and trips to Las Vegas .\nThe results of this special investigation on AC 360\u00b0, 10 ET tonight .","id":"76bd018831ee6592a1d957215d9505b471637a77"} -{"article":"KANDARA, Kenya (CNN) -- Daniel Mungai's family keeps him locked in a room in a wooden shack that is just big enough to fit a bed, a cupboard, Daniel and his wheel-chair. His clothes and bed are soaked with his own waste -- and he's been living like this for 15 years. Daniel Mungai is kept locked away in a small wooden shack and has been for 15 years. Daniel, 35, started having seizures at a young age. He is sometimes given medicine for epilepsy and spent time at a mental hospital but his parents say they simply cannot afford to maintain proper care -- they are struggling to cope. Both his parents are also now too old to help him properly. They live in the same compound in Kandara, Kenya, but in a different building. His father, Ndung'u Joroge, said: \"We don't lock him out of bad will. We lock him up because people have become very bad. He may come out here and then he is caught by young men, that is why we lock him in the house.\" The desperate measures Daniel's family has resorted to are not rare. African health services are often underfunded and overwhelmed -- no more so in the field of mental health. Watch more about the story \u00bb . CNN visited rural Kenya -- a country where less than one percent of the health budget is allotted to mental health -- to investigate the extent of the problems. Edah Maina, who runs the Kenya Society for the Mentally Handicapped, says the mentally disabled in Kenya have few options for long-term care and support. \"The entire family is affected and especially when the mother sort of loses hope and resorts to locking up the child because they have to go out and earn a living or they have to chain them up because they might hurt themselves,\" said Maina. Social workers in Kenya searching for those in desperate need found a mother and child on the floor of a squalid kitchen hut. John is 17 and severely handicapped. He cannot speak and cannot properly hold his head up. He has been living like this his whole life. When CNN met with him, he and his mother were lying on a thin, filthy blanket. His mother, Jane, is mildly mentally disabled. She does what she can for her son, but John spends so much time on his side that he suffers from severe bedsores. They depend on help from their impoverished family and they haven't eaten for days. Maina said: \"I think that some of these social needs are beyond the family capacity to handle the normal day to day life needs, and as you can see the burden of disability increased for this particular family when the son to this girl with mental disabilities was also born with mental disability and then the severity of mental disability of the son became more severe because the mother ... is herself with mental disability.\" She added: \"First and foremost, nobody would want to live like this, it's inhumane, it is not what we want to see people live, it is not the lifestyle that anybody would want. What I am saying is that this home is suffering.\" Maina said that even with years of experience working with the vulnerable, the cases still shock her. Her poorly funded charity does what it can, sometimes acting on the tips of neighbors. The Director of Mental Health in Kenya told CNN that they were trying their best to help the mentally disabled and mentally ill, but that the needs were 'enormous' -- and the funding was far too little. Dr. David Kiima told CNN there are only 50 active psychiatrists in the country to serve a population of more than 30 million. It is hard to believe that 15-year-old Joseph could hurt himself or anyone else. But he is on powerful anti-psychotic drugs and his mother and grandmother struggle to handle him. Grandmother Prisca Njeri said: \"When the drugs finish he beats himself and he bites himself when the drugs finish.\" She does not know what they will do when Joseph gets bigger and they have no access to proper care. When his family leaves to work on their small patch of land, they lock Joseph up in a dark room. Here, too, the place reeks. They are a loving family and are conflicted about what they have to do. \"He is afraid of entering that room. We put him in when we want to leave to go to the farm because he will get lost if we leave him outside,\" Njeri said. Like so many families with limited means in Kenya, they feel compelled to make this awful decision: locking their loved ones away from society just to keep them safe from themselves and those who would do them harm.","highlights":"Mental health patients in Kenya find themselves locked in shacks by their families .\nRelatives struggle to cope and get little government assistance .\nLess than one percent of Kenya's health budget is allotted to mental health .\nSenior health official says there's only 50 active psychiatrists in the country .","id":"3fe1640eac578b06ddb3ffdd1f3c3bbce9e105f2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Organizers of a tennis tournament in Dubai, criticized for banning an Israeli player, said Tuesday they were trying to protect the woman from anti-Israel protests. Shahar Peer told CNN she learned of her visa ban Saturday, just before her scheduled flight to Dubai. \"The Tournament respects Ms. Shahar Peer as a professional tennis player on the Tour and understands her disappointment,\" the organizers wrote in a statement. \"Ms. Peer personally witnessed protests against her at another tournament in New Zealand only a few weeks ago. \"We do not wish to politicize sports, but we have to be sensitive to recent events in the region and not alienate or put at risk the players and the many tennis fans of different nationalities that we have here.\" Peer was scheduled to fly to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, but was informed on Saturday night by telephone that she would not be granted a visa. Watch Peer describe her disappointment \u00bb . This sparked a response from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour that it could drop Dubai from the World Tennis Tour calendar. \"I am confident that the Tour will take appropriate actions to ensure that this injustice is not allowed to occur in the future, and that the Tour will make sure I will not be further harmed in the short and long term,\" Peer said in a statement on Tuesday. \"There should be no place for politics or discrimination in professional tennis or indeed any sport.\" Peer has experienced a \"tremendous outpouring of support and empathy\" from fans, friends and fellow players, but agrees with the Tour decision to go ahead with this week's Dubai Open. WTA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Scott had said: \"The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking.\" Scott noted this is not the first time Dubai has taken this type of action. Last year an Israeli men's doubles team was denied entry while Andy Ram, a member of Israel's Davis Cup team, is scheduled to compete in next week's men's competition. World No. 6 Venus Williams told The New York Times: \"All the players support Shahar. We are all athletes, and we stand for tennis.\" On Tuesday in Dubai, Venus rushed to a 6-0 6-1 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova whose Russian compatriot and second seed Dinara Safina suffered a shock exit against Virginie Razzano, of France, 6-2 6-4. Top-seeded Serena Williams came from behind to oust Italian Sara Errani 4-6 6-2 6-0 and Serbian third seed Jelena Jankovic beat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3 6-2 in an earlier second round encounter.","highlights":"Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer denied entry for Dubai tournament .\nShahar Peer told night before tournament she would not be granted visa by UAE .\nTournament organizers: Player faced protests against her in New Zealand recently .\nWe have to be sensitive to recent events in the region, organizers add .","id":"8a964d813e567ab0eb263329ecf203719862e547"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Two newlyweds are fighting for the dismissal of the justice of the peace who refused them a marriage license because they are of different races. A Louisiana justice of the peace refused to perform a marriage for Beth and Terence McKay. \"We've retained an attorney, and we're in the process of taking the next steps in order to make sure that (the justice of the peace) loses his job,\" Beth McKay told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Monday. She and her husband, Terence McKay, stepped into the national spotlight when Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, refused them a license. They ultimately got a marriage license from another justice of the peace in the same parish. Despite a national uproar and a call by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for him to lose his license, Bardwell, 56, said he has no regrets. \"It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong,\" he told CNN affiliate WAFB on Saturday. He insisted he is not racist and does not treat black people differently. He said he does not perform mixed-race marriages because he is concerned about the children of such marriages. Bardwell did not return calls from CNN. Beth McKay, 30, said she was speaking with Bardwell's wife by phone about getting a marriage license and was \"shocked\" to be asked whether they are an interracial couple. Watch how justice's decision shocked couple \u00bb . \"She said, 'Well, what's the deal? Is he black, or are you black?' And so I answered her question, and then she just said, 'Well, we don't do interracial marriages.'\" Terence McKay, 32, told CNN, \"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but he's absolutely wrong on all aspects of his stance.\" McKay added, \"If it wasn't for interracial couples today, we wouldn't have our president. So for him to take that outlook, that's still like 1800s or something.\" \"A lot of people have come up to us and said, 'You know, we're in interracial relationships as well,' not just black and white, and just encouraged us to stand up for our rights and to speak out against things like this,\" Beth McKay said. The incident \"caught us completely off guard,\" said Terence McKay, \"and we're just trying to live our lives.\" The National Urban League called for an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, saying in a statement that Bardwell's actions were \"a huge step backward in social justice.\" The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out race-based limitations on marriage in the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. In the unanimous decision, the court said that \"Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.\"","highlights":"Couple were denied marriage license because they are of different races .\nJustice of Peace Keith Bardwell said he was concerned for kids of biracial marriages .\nLouisiana couple eventually got married by different justice of the peace .\nBeth, Terence McKay hire lawyer, want judge to lose job .","id":"b18f5c532055a81939230002627746464d158602"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It was the kind of phone call military families dread receiving from Iraq and Afghanistan -- not from Texas. Peggy McCarty's daughter called Thursday afternoon to say she had been wounded by a gunshot in her left shoulder. Keara Bono, 21, assured her mother that she was OK, but McCarty's heart skipped. She knew she had much to fear when Bono, an Army specialist, arrived at Fort Hood to prepare for an early December deployment to Iraq. But McCarty never thought she would have to worry about her child getting wounded on American soil. \"I thought I was more worried about her going over to Iraq than here, just doing training in Texas. She just got there yesterday,\" McCarty told CNN affiliate KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. Bono was one of 30 people hurt when a soldier opened fire on a military processing center at Fort Hood, the place where soldiers report before they head to war. They get medical and dental checkups there. They settle finances and even make out their wills. Thursday, the center turned into a killing field, and 13 lives were abruptly cut short. America watched in horror the news of the shootings, the deadliest ever on a military base. Some of the victims, such as Bono, were preparing to head to Iraq or Afghanistan. They were felled instead in the place they called home. When the shouts of \"Shots fired! Shots fired!\" started, one soldier pushed and shoved people to get out the back of the readiness center. And run. The soldier, who did not want to be identified, heard more screaming. Soldiers were dragging bodies away from the shooter. They snatched tablecloths off tables, cut up their own sage-green digital combat uniforms, even their tan undershirts, and turned them into tourniquets and pressure bandages. Everyone tried to render CPR and medical aid. Some were medical personnel. Others were simply friends helping friends. They were soldiers, after all, and trained as combat lifesavers, though they could not have imagined having to use their skills at home. But soldiers never abandon wounded comrades on the battlefield. Most of the injured were awake and alert, witnesses recalled. They just weren't talking. About a mile away at Darnall Army Medical Center, Army medic Spc. Eric Blohm waited for mass casualties. If the emergency rooms filled up, Darnall would put victims in rooms where usually babies are brought into the world. It felt too much like Blohm's tour of Iraq. \"I'm pretty shocked and bewildered,\" he told CNN's Anderson Cooper. \"Going to war and experiencing combat overseas and then ... to have your sense of security shattered, that's just kind of unreal.\" Watch Blohm describe the scene . The shooting suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was a psychiatrist who had an office at Darnall. Now, the hospital was taking in the doctor's alleged victims. Sirens, installed after the September 11, 2001, attacks, sound routinely at Fort Hood during emergency drills. Pam Stephenson, the wife of a Judge Advocate General officer, was used to the blaring noise. Early afternoon, she was about to make a quick trip to the grocery with Megan, her 5-year-old who stayed at home sick on Thursday. But then she heard the whirring of choppers overhead and warnings on the loudspeakers: \"Take cover. Stay away from windows. Lock your doors.\" Her husband called and told her not to leave the house. She turned on the television and learned the grim news. The gunman, she discovered, was a soldier. \"When you hear it's soldiers gone crazy -- you don't know what kind of ammunition or guns they have,\" she said. She wanted to fetch Patrick, 2, stuck at day care, but the sprawling post was under lockdown. No one knew then if there were killers on the loose. The streets were deserted. A mass of cars, waiting to get out, piled up at the gates. Loved ones waited on the other side, desperate for news of their soldiers. Stephenson checked Facebook and read a message from a military friend serving overseas. Deployed soldiers from Fort Hood were in a panic not knowing whether their families were safe. She checked on the soldier's wife and worried about Patrick. Finally, at 7:15, she was able to see her baby. Many miles away in Punta Gorda, Florida, Roxanne Johnson was chitchatting with her son, Justin, on the phone. He was a young track vehicle mechanic who was heading to Afghanistan come January. Mother and son joked and laughed, like they always did. And then she heard a strange noise: \"Dosh, dosh, dosh.\" What was that? she wondered. \"At first I thought he was just kidding around and turning up the video game, and then I said, well, maybe it's a training exercise,\" Johnson told CNN affiliate WINK News in Fort Myers, Florida. She pressed the phone to her ear and listened. She heard the screams and the crying. Wow, she thought. It sounds so real. Her son's voice was gone. She refused to hang up until she could hear Justin again. She heard people shuffling about and muffled voices. Where was Justin? Had he been hurt? What was going on? \"Justin, call home!\" she said aloud. Hours passed before Johnson learned the fate of her son. He was one of the shooting victims. But Justin Johnson was one of the lucky ones. He underwent surgery and was recovering Thursday night. Roxanne Johnson breathed a sigh of relief and was able finally to disconnect her phone.","highlights":"Parents worry about dangers overseas, not in Texas .\nSoldiers use battlefield medical training on home soil .\nMother worries about son in day care as post is locked down .\nWatch a CNN investigation on the shootings at Saturday 8 p.m. ET on CNN TV .","id":"4f17622f0acda1b4bfc9fb66dff7abaf7891a9a5"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Coagulated sheep's blood. Pig knuckles. Snake bile. Fried crickets. Sound like ingredients you might see bubbling away in a caldron, right? Zane Lamprey raises a toast to alcoholic beverages the world over. Well, these are just some of the unusual items Zane Lamprey has eaten -- yes, eaten -- during the course of his day job. No, he's not a human garbage disposal. Lamprey is a comedian who hosts a TV program about drinking, \"Three Sheets.\" The show follows him all over the world as he samples local libations. Lamprey also claims to be in search of the ultimate hangover cure, which is why he's often called upon to ingest the indigestible. Not that the drinks are any better. Anyone for a shot of Belize rum that's had a dead snake fermenting in it for about a year? If the locals drink it, so will Lamprey. \"I'll try anything once,\" he said, adding that \"there's certainly a lot that I won't drink twice.\" Watch Lamprey use sword to open champagne \u00bb . Gross stuff aside, Lamprey has what many consider to be a dream job. And although he occasionally gets a little bleary-eyed, the Californian maintains that it's not a show about getting inebriated. \"I drink to try new things, to learn about drinking cultures or new drinks,\" Lamprey said. \"Sometimes levels of inebriation are the by-product of my job, but I'm certainly not going out looking to do that. If I did I think I'd be the wrong person for the job.\" We caught up with Lamprey in New York's Bubble Lounge, where he was preparing (soberly, mind you) to use a sword to lop off the end of a champagne bottle, glass neck and all. It's a ritual he says started in the Napoleonic era as a way to celebrate victories at battle. While Lamprey might not be as battle-scarred as Napoleon's men, he does have a victory to celebrate: \"Three Sheets\" has a new home after being put in limbo for several months after its original network went off the air. The show now airs on the Fine Living Network, which has just popped the cork on \"Three Sheets' \" fourth season. New episodes air Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET and repeat throughout the week. Besides demonstrating how one sabers champagne, Lamprey talked to CNN about dealing with thumping hangovers, staying in shape and other challenges of hosting a TV show about alcohol. The following is an edited version of the transcript. CNN: Do you consider yourself a professional drinker? Zane Lamprey: I get paid to drink. If I got paid to play baseball, I'd be a professional baseball player, right? Yeah. So I guess I am a professional drinker. CNN: By now you must have discovered a cure for a hangover. Lamprey: There is no cure. Actually, there's two. Either don't drink, or don't stop. Once you break one of those, you get into trouble. We've found remedies, things that'll make it a little easier. I've jumped in freezing water, I've done just about everything, and nothing has wiped out my hangover. CNN: Where were you when you had your worst hangover? Lamprey: Oddly enough, I was in a place that I was promised by several people I would not get a hangover: Champagne, France. They said if you drink good champagne, you can drink as much as you want, and you won't get a hangover. So I put it to the test, and the next day, I had the worst hangover yet. It was horrible. Oh. So bad. CNN: In Iceland, you drank something called \"Black Death,\" the same name given to the pandemic that nearly wiped out Europe centuries ago. Taste good? Lamprey: I'm sure it tasted better than the plague, but not by much. It tasted like something that people shouldn't want to drink, like vodka mixed with black licorice and dirt. When I stepped off the plane, I was dying to try it. Then once I tried it, I was dying to drink something to get that taste out of my mouth. CNN: You've said that one of the worst things you've had to drink was viper rum in Belize, which had a dead snake soaking in it. What does a snake taste like? Lamprey: A dead snake tastes like what a dead snake smells like. When I actually had to smell the shot, which I was told not to do, I almost hurled. I managed to get it down, and I think I chased it with a piece of watermelon rolled in sugar. CNN: What does your doctor say about the state of your liver? Lamprey: I have one. It's sitting on my counter at home, and it's completely fine. ... When I finished this last season, I did go and get a full checkup, and I'm completely fine. CNN: How do you stay in shape while shooting \"Three Sheets\"? Lamprey: I don't. Go look at a clip of me doing the show. I'm probably about 23 pounds heavier. I have taken my shirt off, and when I watch that sometimes I get a little, \"Oh, God.\" But that makes me an everyman. People want to see an everyman. They don't want to see some guy who's all put together, which clearly I'm not. I don't profess to know anything about booze. I learn it from the people that show me. CNN: Do you find that generally everybody's attitude toward drinking is the same the world over? Lamprey: Absolutely. Everyone drinks to enjoy themselves. Everyone goes out with their friends because they're looking to have a good time. That's the same everywhere. CNN: You spend all this time in bars around the world ... your crew must be tempted to drink. Lamprey: Tempted to drink? Fact: I cannot keep up with my crew. CNN: So your camera operator has shot you drunk? Lamprey: I would say yes. CNN: That explains why sometimes you look blurry. Lamprey: I'm generally a very blurry-looking person.","highlights":"Zane Lamprey hosts \"Three Sheets\" on Fine Living Network .\nOn show, Lamprey drinks things like \"Black Death\" and viper rum .\nFor all that, his liver's in good shape, says Lamprey .","id":"f91da14d526fad3b92ccec811bc0fac5dd276de6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A wildfire in Yellowstone National Park has grown to 9,300 acres and closed a section of the main road through the park, but Yellowstone is still open and National Park Service officials said Monday there was no danger to travelers. Lightning started the fire on September 13. Snow could fall this week at Yellowstone, which sprawls across parts of three states, and end the park's fire season, officials said. National Park Service officials said the lightning-sparked wildfire started on September 13, but wasn't noticed until 10 days later in the Arnica Creek area east of Old Faithful, the geyser that is the park's main attraction. Last week the fire increased in size and by this weekend had charred 6,500 acres. National Park Service spokeswoman Linda Miller said there was no danger for guests. \"We don't anticipate it affecting any buildings,\" she said. Miller said Monday that 90 percent of the fire was in Wyoming, with the remainder in park areas in Idaho and Montana. Facilities at Yellowstone were open Monday, and Miller said visitors were still welcome. \"But there's going to be smoke,\" she said. \"Where there's smoke, there's fire. The vistas won't be as clear as even just a week ago.\" Still, she said, \"We don't want to scare people into not coming.\" Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Yellowstone National Park Lodges, said the fire was causing cancellations at the parks. But he said \"some tourists already in the park are are just changing their plans and working around it.\" He said the fire is more of an inconvenience than a danger. \"It's a natural part of this environment. It's part of the ecology and it's a natural attraction for some people,\" Hoeninghausen said. The Arnica fire has closed Grand Loop Road, the main road through Yellowstone. Visitors wanting to get from one end of the wilderness area to the other will have to take a 280-mile detour. Yellowstone National Park has nine lodges and about 2,200 hotel rooms. At least two of those facilities close each year after Labor Day. Hoeninghausen said the fire \"may be a little disconcerting for East Coasters not used to wildfires, but travelers and tourists can call the park and check the Web sites for updates on the fires.\" A Park Service press release cautioned that \"the smokey conditions are affecting air quality in the park.\" \"People with weakened immune systems and those with heart and lung conditions may have trouble breathing,\" the press release said. The Arnica fire was becoming more active Monday as gustier winds and low humidity fueled the flames, said Tom Kempton, fire information officer for the park service. The National Weather Service in Wyoming predicted snow would fall by Wednesday morning. Kempton said 230 firefighters, 15 fire engines and five helicopters were helping keep flames away from any historic structures at Yellowstone. Lightning starts an average of 22 fires every year in Yellowstone, according to the park service. Most of the naturally started fires in the 2.2 million-acre park extinguish on their own. Yellowstone is a fire-adapted ecosystem, and fire plays a major role in maintaining the health of the area's wildlife and vegetation by clearing old underbrush and allowing for new growth.","highlights":"NEW: Fire no danger to visitors, but they'll notice smoke, park service says .\nThe Arnica fire started September 13, wasn't noticed until 10 days later .\nFire has prompted closure of main road through park .\nLightning sparked fire, officials say .","id":"8011a7318ae3810782b2ad17da43816864d51764"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Afghan government will change a law that critics say legalizes rape within marriage for Shia Muslims, President Hamid Karzai told CNN Thursday. Critics had feared that Afghanistan's new Shiite law would set the nation backward. Karzai told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he and others were unaware of the provision in the legislation, which he said \"has so many articles.\" Karzai signed the measure into law last month. \"Now I have instructed, in consultation with clergy of the country, that the law be revised and any article that is not in keeping with the Afghan constitution and Islamic Sharia must be removed from this law,\" Karzai said. The president's comments came one day after several hundred demonstrators faced off over the law, which critics say prevents women from declining their husband's request for sexual intercourse and essentially legalizes marital rape. The measure applies to the 20 percent of Afghans who are Shia Muslims. It was part of a nearly 270-page piece of legislation that was written to solidify the identity of the Shia minority in Afghanistan. The bill languished in the country's parliament for a year-and-a-half before it was recently pushed through in what one legislator called a \"chaotic\" vote. Women from various parts of Afghanistan marched in the capital Wednesday to protest the law, which has also been criticized by human-rights groups and Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama. Watch Karzai react to controversial law ahead of Thursday's comments \u00bb . When the demonstrators reached a mosque housing a school run by a conservative Shia cleric who helped implement the law, students came out yelling and cursing and pelted the women with gravel, said Fawzia Koofi, a female member of the Afghan parliament. Koofi said police did little to protect the women, but a spokesman for the country's interior minister disputed that. \"Police played a completely neutral role,\" said spokesman Zamarai Bashiri. \"The police were able to control the demonstrations very well.\" About 300 to 500 women protested the law while 600 to 700 demonstrators marched in support of it, he said. The marchers who opposed the law included several female members of Afghanistan's parliament. \"Both sides were able to express their thoughts and expressions,\" Bashiri said. The law has drawn much criticism. Watch a report on the law \u00bb . \"I think this law is abhorrent,\" Obama said recently. \"We think that it is very important for us to be sensitive to local culture, but we also think that there are certain basic principles that all nations should uphold, and respect for women and respect for their freedom and integrity is an important principle.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also weighed in. \"We very much hope that the draft piece of legislation is to be withdrawn,\" Merkel has said.","highlights":"Afghan law appears to let a man to have sex with his wife even when she says \"no\"\nKarzai tells CNN he, others unaware of the provision due to the amount of legislation .\nComments came one day after several hundred demonstrators faced off in Kabul .\nMany Western leaders, including U.S. president, have criticized the planned law .","id":"b0f1e142f17fefbcd7720e459a50f33cb4bcea02"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A State Department employee who resigned last month in protest over America's war in Afghanistan said Friday he has received an outpouring of support from Afghan-Americans and U.S. active-duty military. \"I've had a lot of Afghan-Americans contact me and say, 'Matt, you get it,' \" Matthew Hoh told CNN. \"You understand -- yes, there is a civil war going on. You understand how Afghan society works. You understand this split within the Pashtuns. You understand valley-ism, or whatever you want to call it.\" The 36-year-old former Marine Corps captain resigned on September 10 over what he termed a \"cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure.\" Since then, even active-duty military have supported his decision, he said on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS,\" scheduled to air at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on CNN. \"I have received many many e-mails from active-duty military and some guys who just separated from the service,\" Hoh said. \"Some guys are here in the States. I've gotten many e-mails from guys in Afghanistan. Some are people I know. But a lot are people I do not know. Men and women who are saying, 'Thanks for doing this. Keep it up. We don't know why we're here. We're not sure why we're taking these casualties. We don't know what it's accomplishing.'\" In his letter, the senior civilian representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, said he was resigning because \"I fail to see the value or worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war.\" He concluded the letter by saying that he had \"lost confidence\" that the \"dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished and promised dreams unkept.\" \"I believe that the people we are fighting there are fighting us because we are occupying them,\" Hoh told CNN earlier this week. \"Not for any ideological reasons, not because of any links to al Qaeda, not because of any fundamental hatred towards the West. The only reason they're fighting us is because we're occupying them.\" After Hoh submitted his resignation, Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special representative in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, made a plea for Hoh to change his mind. Hoh refused. \"The offer was to join his staff and be put in a position where I could continue to write and try to influence policymakers from within the administration,\" Hoh said Friday. \"Two things: One, if I believed in the mission, if I believed it was worth our guys dying for, if I believed that 60,000 troops in Afghanistan would defeat al Qaeda somehow -- which it won't -- I would have stayed in Zabul Province,\" he said. \"However, the other part of it, too, was that I realized that the administration was going to make its decision shortly and then I would be stuck. And if I don't believe in it, if I don't believe this cause is right, if I don't believe it's justified, then there's no reason to take that position.\" CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen disagreed with Hoh's assessment of Afghanistan. \"It's not that our presence there is causing the problem,\" he said. \"Quite the reverse: It is that we are not doing what we said were going to do, which is bringing a measure of security and a measure of prosperity.\" But Afghanistan's lack of infrastructure and \"human capital\" make it an especially difficult mission, said Hoh, who served two tours in Iraq as a Marine. \"In Iraq, even though it was stuck in the '80s, it had infrastructure, it had human capital,\" he said. \"It had doctors and lawyers and educators. And they had an established system of government, they had an infrastructure we could build on. Afghanistan has none of that.\" In his letter, Hoh -- who signed on in March for a yearlong, noncareer position with the State Department -- said the cost of a war with no end in sight and no clear mission was too much to bear. \"I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. military has received in Afghanistan,\" Hoh wrote. News of Hoh's resignation came as the administration continues to deliberate whether to change course in an eight-year conflict once dubbed a \"war of necessity\" by President Obama. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, reportedly has submitted a request for as many as 40,000 additional troops. McChrystal's request is being weighed against a backdrop of spiraling U.S. military fatalities. There have been 58 American military fatalities in October, making it the deadliest month for U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan since the war began in October 2001. More troops is not the way to go, Hoh said Friday. \"Increasing troops is only going to fuel insurgency. We need to stop our combat operations in areas where we are fighting people only because they are fighting us. Otherwise, it's going to be 2013, we're going to look back four years and we're going to say, \"What did we accomplish? What did we get? What was this worth? What did we get out of this?\" State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the administration respects Hoh's decision. \"We take his opinions very seriously,\" Kelly said. \"Senior officials on the ground in Afghanistan and here in Washington have talked to him, have heard him out. We respect ... his right to dissent.\"","highlights":"Matthew Hoh says Afghan-Americans, active-duty military members have shown support .\nHoh resigned after saying he didn't believe in the war, which was essentially a civil war .\nHoh believes increasing troops is only going to fuel insurgency, not help the problems .\nHoh says he believes insurgents are fighting U.S. because we are occupying their land .","id":"d5a20f61b0972d0f6073415658de11ded1e82bd0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Torrential rains and flooding since June have affected 600,000 people in 16 West African nations, the United Nations reported Tuesday. People walk in the flooded streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, last week. The worst hit have been Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana and Niger, said Yvon Edoumou, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. So far, 159 people have died, he said. Sierra Leone has also been hard hit, according to the U.N. Edoumou said removing water from flooded areas is a top priority, but powerful pumps are in short supply. \"Some people refused to leave their homes so they are living in floodwaters,\" he said. The United Nations has not yet received reports of waterborne diseases, but Edoumou said a real threat exists of diarrhea or, worse, cholera. The U.N. World Food Programme said Tuesday it has begun distributing food to tens of thousands of homeless flood victims. WFP has set a goal of feeding 177,500 people, mainly in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where 150,000 people have been affected and key infrastructure -- including a central hospital, schools, bridges and roads -- has been damaged. The flooding in Burkina Faso is the worst in 90 years, WFP said. Many of those in Ouagadougou most needing help were already receiving aid from WFP, but those rations were lost in the floodwaters, the U.N. reported. \"It is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from floods like these as their few remaining assets are swept away, leaving them hungry and destitute,\" WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said. Roads and buildings have been ruined from Mauritania to Niger, the U.N. reported. In Agadez, Niger, a town about 458 miles (738 km) north of the capital, Niamey, close to 988 acres (400 hectares) of vegetable crops and hundreds of livestock were washed away. Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of OCHA in West Africa, said natural disasters have a lasting effect that unravels years of progress against poverty. \"The situation is very worrying,\" he said in an OCHA statement issued Tuesday. The rainy season in West Africa begins in June and continues through late September. In 2007, 300 people died and 800,000 were affected by the storms. This year, fears abound that more heavy rain will fall in already waterlogged areas. Despite the misery, Edoumou said the rains are a mixed blessing for countries dependent on agriculture. The harvest this year will be more bountiful, he said.","highlights":"U.N. begins distributing food to tens of thousands of homeless flood victims .\nU.N. says 159 have died due to flooding; key infrastructure damaged .\nWaterborne diseases like cholera are a concern, U.N. official says .\n\"It is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from floods,\" official says .","id":"887bddac517992e12e601139f157d89abe7d546d"} -{"article":"Fred Hassan is chairman of the board and CEO of Schering-Plough Corporation. Fred Hassan, chairman of the board and CEO of Schering-Plough . Prior to joining Schering-Plough in April 2003 and assuming his current position, Hassan was chairman and CEO of Pharmacia Corporation. He joined the former Pharmacia & Upjohn in May 1997 as CEO and was elected to the Board of Directors. In February 2001, Hassan was named chairman of the Board of Pharmacia, the company created through the merger of the former Monsanto and Pharmacia & Upjohn companies. Previously, Hassan was executive vice president of Wyeth, formerly known as American Home Products, responsible for its pharmaceutical and medical products business. He was elected to Wyeth's Board of Directors in 1995. Earlier in his career, Hassan spent 17 years with Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (now Novartis) and headed its U.S. pharmaceuticals business. Hassan received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Hassan is the past chairman of the Board of Directors of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and is the immediate past chairman of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey. He is currently president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of Avon Products, Inc. (www.schering-plough.com) E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Hassan was the former chairman and CEO of Pharmacia Corporation .\nHe was responsible for Wyeth's pharmaceutical and medical products business .\nHe is former chairman of HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, PhRMA board .","id":"482d64a8c2dba3fe5f8110bd3fd082ae9a79e393"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Move over, Edward Cullen. Tell those bayou bloodsuckers from \"True Blood\" to step aside, too. More than 112 years after he first climbed out of the coffin, the world's most famous vampire is back -- and he's bloodier than ever. \"Dracula the Un-Dead,\" released this month in the United States, is a sequel to Bram Stoker's 1897 classic written by Dacre Stoker, the original author's great-grandnephew. The book, co-written by Dracula historian Ian Holt, picks up 25 years after the Victorian-era monster is supposedly killed in the original and is based in part on 125 pages of handwritten notes that Bram Stoker left behind. But while many of the original characters are here -- troubled couple Jonathan and Mina Harker and vampire hunter Van Helsing among them -- the horror has gotten a 21st-century update. The sex and violence that Stoker deftly alluded to in the original are, at times, front and center in his descendant's sequel. \"You've got to keep in mind the perspective,\" said Dacre Stoker, a native of Montreal, Quebec, now living in Aiken, South Carolina. \"The degree of sex and violence he had, in this very stuffy and conservative Victorian society, was cutting edge at the time. Even the exposure of a woman's flesh, the piercing of the flesh, was a metaphor for the sex act.\" And with authors from Anne Rice and Charlaine Harris to Stephen King and Poppy Z. Brite having crafted their own, sometimes lurid, reworkings of the vampire legend, Stoker said he knew that the new book couldn't just be a straight continuation of the first. \"We've got to keep up with what other people are doing,\" he said. \"Otherwise, our story would be toast.\" Of all the books, movies and other tales to use Dracula's name throughout the decades, the novel is the first since the 1931 Bela Lugosi movie to have the Stoker family's endorsement and input. After Bram's death, his widow, Florence, sold the story's rights, and eventually, the most iconic character in the history of horror slipped into the public domain. Dacre said that before now, the only thing he'd ever received for his ancestor's work was the occasional Halloween wisecrack. \"We knew of the legacy of Bram Stoker, but as kids growing up in Montreal, it wasn't that big a deal,\" he said. \"Every now and then at Halloween you'd get joked: 'Is it safe to come to the Stoker house? Are we going to get candy or bitten in the neck?' \" It was a college writing project that revived his interest in his novelist ancestor, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who'd moved to London, England, by the time the book was written. Then, he was contacted by Holt in 2003. The historian said he wanted to work on a sequel and wanted to have a member of Stoker's family involved. Along the way, they uncovered a rare find at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Bram's own notes. It wasn't a plot outline, Dacre said, \"but what I did was find information, characters, little ideas -- plot threads that he had in mind 112 years ago that didn't make it into his story.\" Among the seeds for new plotlines was Bram's mention of a police investigator who plays prominently in \"Dracula the Un-Dead.\" Dacre said he'd always wondered at how the first book was full of murder but no police were involved. The notes also prompted the inclusion of Jack the Ripper, whose gruesome exploits gripped London around the time the elder Stoker was writing his novel and who is believed by some historians to have helped shape its plot. True fans of the vampire genre will find another historical figure they're likely familiar with gracing the book's pages and an even more unlikely appearance: Bram Stoker himself. \"Part of our plan was to paint a realistic picture of Bram Stoker,\" Dacre said of the author, who spent time as a reporter, theater critic and manager of London's Lyceum Theater. \"Everybody knows Dracula. Not many people know Bram Stoker.\" Response to and reviews of the book have been largely positive. \"This daring sequel captures the essence and gothic glory of the original,\" USA Today's Carroll Memmott wrote. Dacre, who is touring the United States in support of the release, said he was prepared for the inevitable backlash from pure-blood purists who don't think the original should be sullied with a follow-up. \"I have heard just a bit of it,\" he said. \"People say it's better to leave some of these mysteries alone; let's not solve them all. Believe me, when you read our story, you'll know we don't solve them all.\" And he has some other advice for those diehards: Lighten up. \"This is entertainment. Go with it,\" he said. \"If you don't want to read it, you don't have to.\"","highlights":"\"Dracula the Un-Dead\" written by Bram Stoker's descendant Dacre .\nVampire tale is more overtly violent, sexy than the 1897 original .\nBook has prompted good reviews, handful of bitter purists .\nJack the Ripper, Bram himself incorporated into new story .","id":"8135217f4100e5adf05de97f25a441fac733f3a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jury selection was under way for a second day Tuesday in the trial of a man accused in the rape and beating death of an Arkansas television anchor a year ago. Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, would face the death penalty if convicted of charges including capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft in the October 2008 death of Anne Pressly, 26. He has pleaded not guilty. Pressly, the morning news anchor for Little Rock, Arkansas, television station and CNN affiliate KATV, was found badly beaten and unconscious in her home and died five days later. Vance was linked to the killing through DNA, and police told CNN last year they are \"110 percent\" sure he killed Pressly. Vance has given several statements to police, including one saying he was at her home and another admitting to her slaying. Defense attorney Steve Morley told CNN affiliate WREG that such evidence presents an obstacle for them to overcome, but he said he hopes an emotional closing argument will persuade jurors to spare Vance's life. \"Literally, you can affect an individual, and by affecting that individual you affect the outcome,\" Morley told the station. Pressly's mother, Patti Cannady, told NBC last year her daughter fought for her life -- so much so that her left hand was broken. \"I found my daughter beyond recognition with every bone in her face broken, her nose broken, her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it; I actually thought that her throat has possibly been cut,\" Cannady said. \"Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke.\" DNA evidence has also tied Vance to a rape in April 2008 in Marianna, Arkansas, about 90 miles east of Little Rock, police said in December. Police have said they found no previous link between Vance and Pressly and do not believe her being on television played a role in the slaying. \"I think he saw her someplace, probably followed her home with the intention of robbing her,\" Lt. Terry Hastings, spokesman for Little Rock police, told CNN in December. \"And then went from there.\" Pressly's purse was taken, police have said. Parties in the case are hoping to finish jury selection Tuesday, according to the Pulaski County Circuit Court clerk's office.","highlights":"Man accused in rape, beating death of Anne Pressly, 26, a year ago .\nCurtis Lavelle Vance, 29, has pleaded not guilty, would face death penalty if convicted .\nVance was linked to killing through DNA, has given conflicting statements to police .\nParties in the case hope to finish jury selection Tuesday, county circuit court clerk's office says .","id":"9ac5d52063678f343de2a7a8383189dbb4be7478"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Organized crime gangs are exploiting a new target for illegal profit: Medicare and Medicaid. Experienced in running drug, prostitution and gambling rings, crime groups of various ethnicities and nationalities are learning it's safer and potentially more profitable to file fraudulent claims with the federal Medicare program and state-run Medicaid plans. \"They're hitting us and hitting us hard,\" said Timothy Menke, head of investigations for the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. \"Organized crime involvement in health care fraud is widespread.\" One hot spot for health care fraud is Los Angeles, California, where Russian, Armenian and Nigerian gangs have been caught by federal agents. Recent cases include crime boss Konstantin Grigoryan, a former Soviet army colonel who pleaded guilty to taking $20 million from Medicare. Karapet \"Doc\" Khacheryan, boss of a Eurasian crime gang, was recently convicted with five lieutenants of stealing doctor identities in a $2 million scam. Two Nigerians, Christopher Iruke and his wife, Connie Ikpoh, were charged October 15 with bilking Medicare of $6 million dollars by fraudulently billing the government for electric wheelchairs and other expensive medical equipment. The two, allegedly members of an organized crime ring, entered pleas of not guilty and are being held in a federal detention center. \"They deny any allegations of wrongdoing,\" said their attorney, James Kosnett. Defrauding government-run health care programs involves stealing two types of identities: those of doctors, who bill for services, and patients, whose beneficiary numbers entitle them to medical care and necessary equipment. Criminals are expert at collecting both. Watch doctor tell what happened when his identity was stolen . \"That information is very, very valuable to these crooks. And the doctor may work at one clinic but he won't know about the second and third clinic that they've already set up using his identification,\" said Glenn Ferry, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles region for the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. \"They are definitely well-organized, well-schooled on how to commit Medicare fraud.\" Dr. Gianfranco Burdi had his identity stolen when he was recruited to join what appeared to be a new medical practice near Koreatown in Los Angeles. After the managers failed to show a business license and proof of malpractice insurance, Burdi pulled out. Two years later, the FBI came calling. Agents questioned Burdi, a psychiatrist, about whether he had prescribed $800,000 worth of electric wheelchairs for Medicare patients. \"I said no. I am a psychiatrist. Why would I prescribe an electric wheelchair?\" said Burdi. \"It was shocking.\" A jury found Leonard Uchenna Nwafor guilty of using Burdi's identification to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment. \"I was naive enough to provide them my medical license, my other data,\" said Burdi. Patient beneficiary numbers are easy to buy along Los Angeles' Skid Row. Impoverished residents of shelters there tell CNN they've accepted cash from recruiters -- known as \"cappers\" -- to go to bogus medical clinics where they share what they call their \"red, white and blue\" -- the tri-colored Medicare card that has a beneficiary number for billing the government. \"People down here need to eat. Somebody who comes up on a quick hustle, quick money, they going to jump on. I'm one of them, I will,\" said a man who identified himself as Scott. \"They're just defrauding the patients, defrauding the government.\" Jimmy Rodgers of San Bernadino, California, tells CNN he went to a clinic three times a week, receiving $100 per visit but little medical care. \"This is just like Carte Blanche,\" said Rodgers, holding his Medicare card. \"Matter of fact, better than Carte Blanche. Carte Blanche has limitations on it.\" The clinics, he concedes, were clearly fronts for collecting beneficiary data. \"They were no doctors. They were just somebody who had their hand out,\" said Rodgers, who later cooperated with federal investigators. \"And they just ripping the system off and using me as a means to rip the system off.\" Once criminals have doctor and patient identification numbers, they begin filing false claims. The Khacheryan gang told Medicare that health services were being provided on the 10th floor at 754 South Los Angeles Street. But there is no doctor's office in that decrepit industrial building -- only a mail drop, where the Khacheryan group collected checks from the U.S. government for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The inspector general's office of the Department of Health and Human Services estimates it is on track to recover about $4 billion this year by breaking up health care fraud schemes perpetrated by all types of criminals, from organized rings to corrupt doctors. That amount, though, is only about 5 percent of the annual health care fraud cost in the United States, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. Because government health programs operate on the honor system, law enforcement officials say it's easy for organized crime rings and average criminals to cash in at the taxpayer's expense.","highlights":"Gangs make millions by getting ID numbers of doctors, patients .\nThen they file fraudulent Medicare, Medicaid claims for care that never happened .\nOne doctor had his ID stolen, learned it was used to bill $800,000 for wheelchairs .\nGovernment to recover $4 billion this year -- but that's just 5 percent of fraud cost .","id":"88042bf7c231500e145d0030cbf566be730cb64d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee told Ling's sister they were treated humanely in North Korea, and they believe they weren't sent to hard-labor camps because they have medical conditions, Lisa Ling said Friday. Lisa Ling, left, and her sister, Laura, center, speak to their father Wednesday after Laura arrived in California. The sister, speaking on CNN's \"American Morning,\" did not elaborate on the medical conditions, but said her sister will soon tell her story. \"Laura is eager to tell the story about what happened. I want to let her do so, but right now, she's really getting reacclimated. The processes are slow. She's very, very weak,\" Lisa Ling said, adding that the stories she's heard so far are \"jaw-dropping.\" Laura Ling and Lee were working for California-based Current TV, a media venture of former Vice President Al Gore, when they were arrested in March for crossing the border between China and North Korea. Watch Lisa Ling share her sister's story \u00bb . Lisa Ling said that before they left the United States, the pair never intended to cross into North Korea. They have acknowledged that they briefly did, however, and they were convicted of entering the country illegally to conduct a \"smear campaign\" against the reclusive Communist state. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, pardoned the women Tuesday after meeting with former President Bill Clinton. They arrived home the following day. Lisa Ling said her sister was allowed to call the family on four occasions during her five months in captivity. On the last call, Laura Ling specifically requested that Clinton intervene. \"She said that in her opinion -- quote, unquote -- it would have to be President Clinton. It could only be President Clinton to secure the release of herself and Euna. We immediately jumped into action and alerted Vice President Gore,\" Lisa Ling said. When their release was secured, they promptly boarded a plane home. Clinton wanted them to rest because they were clearly tired, \"but the two of them were chatting away and comparing their experiences,\" Lisa Ling said. Laura Ling and Lee went to see doctors Thursday, the sister added. Laura Ling is \"doing well,\" and Lee is \"skinny,\" Lisa Ling said, joking that her mother tried to force-feed Lee on Thursday \"because she's just become so diminutive.\" The women also are slowly working to assimilate to their freedom. They were kept at opposite ends of the same North Korean detention facility, and though Laura Ling had two guards in her room at all times, she would sometimes go weeks without talking to anyone. Watch as Lisa Ling describes the pair's condition \u00bb . \"So even communicating is a challenge because she sometimes yesterday was even having a hard time getting full sentences out, so it's a slow adjustment,\" Lisa Ling said. On Thursday, Lisa Ling told CNN that her sister was \"incredibly emotional\" and didn't want to be left alone after months of \"relative isolation.\" \"Yesterday, she was so exhausted and she wanted to take a quick nap. She kept asking me: 'Are you going to be here when I come back?' \" the sister said Thursday. Emotions have run high in Lee's home as well, Lisa Ling said. Watch the journalists' family reunions \u00bb . \"I hear from Euna's husband, Michael, that Hana, their 4-year-old daughter, has not wanted her mother to leave her sight,\" she said. \"She just keeps following her around from room to room because she doesn't want her mom to leave.\" Lee and her husband went to Laura Ling's house Thursday night for their first pizza since being released, Lisa Ling said Friday. \"The thing that was so wonderful to see was little Hana,\" she said. \"I have never seen her so happy, and we all sort of remarked that it was just a beautiful thing.\" Lisa Ling said her sibling will soon share her \"powerful\" story, perhaps in an op-ed piece, but she needs space right now. Lisa Ling, meanwhile, is elated that her sister and Lee are safe. She said she always knew they would come home. \"I believe in the fundamental goodness,\" she said. \"I knew in my heart that at some point, Laura and Euna would be returned back to us. I didn't know when it would happen, but I never lost that hope.\"","highlights":"NEW: Sister: Euna Lee \"skinny,\" Laura Ling struggling to talk because of isolation .\nNEW: Laura Ling told family, \"It would have to be President Clinton,\" Lisa Ling says .\nLaura Ling plans to detail what transpired, sister says .\nEuna Lee's daughter keeps following her, Lisa Ling says .","id":"6518b24247f5bde66296fe17abd95677af576735"} -{"article":"LONDON, England -- A new drug for melanoma has been shown to rapidly shrink malignant tumors in an early trial at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York. New drug inhibits BRAF, the main driver of mutation in over 50 percent of melanomas. Among 27 patients whom the experimental new drug was tested on, \"19 showed a 30 percent or greater reduction in tumor size,\" Dr. Paul Chapman, the lead researcher told CNN from a cancer conference in Berlin. Melanoma develops in cells that produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color, and is the most serious type of skin cancer. Currently the standard treatment for metastatic malignant melanoma is chemotherapy, which has only a 15 percent success rate, Chapman explained. In his trial using PLX4032 over 70 percent of patients had a response to the drug. \"Without reservation we can say this is a breakthrough in melanoma. We haven't seen a major breakthrough in this disease in the last 40 years,\" said Professor Alexander Eggermont, President of the European Cancer Organization. Seventy-five percent of the patients who were treated with PLX4032 had already received multiple treatments of other cancer drugs, all of which had failed. Two-thirds of those patients also already had what Eggermont described as \"very widespread metastatic disease.\" \"There were patients who were on oxygen or on continuous morphine who were off the morphine after one or two weeks of treatment,\" Eggermont told CNN. Two patients, he said, even showed complete remission, such that all detectable melanoma \"melted away.\" The other two major benefits of PLX4032 are that it can be taken orally as a pill and seems to have very mild side effects. The PLX4032 complex works by blocking the activity of cancer-causing mutation of the BRAF gene, which is implicated in more than half of all melanomas. Eggermont praised the drug for being highly-selective unlike traditional \"dirty\" cancer drugs that have a wide range of side-effects. \"The side effect profile looks very mild and we think it's because it's such a clean, super selective molecule and it's an oral drug, and that's a great asset,\" he said. Peter Hirth, CEO of the drug's maker Plexxikon explained that it is because PLX4032 is such a highly selective compound that \"doctors can adjust the dosage to really shut down tumors,\" whereas other cancer treatment drugs are frequently limited from working to their full potential because patients cannot tolerate their toxicity levels. PLX4032 is not a cure, but offers hope for alleviating symptoms and extending life. \"I've never seen this before in melanoma,\" Chapman said referring to the successful findings. \"One thing we don't know is how long these response are going to last,\" he added. The next step will now be to test the drug in a larger trial of almost 700 people, scheduled to begin this month and to be completed by the end of the year. Then a randomized test comparing chemotherapy treatment with PLX4032 therapy will need to occur before. Currently that is slated to take place across North American, Europe and Australia in the first quarter of 2010. \"We are working to make sure that within the shortest time possible we will satisfy the needs of FDA to get this drug available to melanoma patients as quickly as possible,\" Eggermont said. Early responses from peers have been supportive. In a statement Dr. Kat Arney said that \"Cancer Research UK and others have been investigating drugs that can block faulty BRAF, so it is interesting to see the results from a small-scale trial of such a drug. Melanoma is a very difficult cancer to treat and the results of this early-stage trial are promising, but larger trials need to be done before we know for sure how effective this treatment is.\"","highlights":"Experimental new skin cancer treatment shows 70 percent effectiveness .\nPLX4032 inhibits BRAF, the driving mutation in more than half of melanomas .\nUnlike chemotherapy the drug can be taken orally and has mild side effects .\nLarger trials are needed to confirm results and test safety .","id":"71919bcfa9867246c8dc0d1028e095db6ddbe5c1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He would surely make history. But would Sen. Barack Obama's election as America's first black president transform the nation? Obama says yes. \"The day I'm inaugurated, the country looks at itself differently. And don't underestimate that power. Don't underestimate that transformation,\" Obama told the crowd Friday at the National Urban League convention in St. Louis, Missouri. The Democrat from Illinois was answering a question about the racial polarization in America. Obama said \"race is still an enormous factor in our society. But economics can overcome a lot of racial division.\" The Democratic presidential hopeful also said that action, rather than high-minded discussions, is the way to end racial inequality. Obama said \"if we're doing the right thing and making sure that our young people are going to school, that they're getting good jobs, that they're starting businesses, that they're living in thriving neighborhoods and communities, that will do more to lessen racial tension, division and conflict than any set of roundtables and blue ribbon commissions are going to do.\" Two of Obama's main Democratic rivals, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, and former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, also spoke about racial inequality during the Urban League convention. Clinton told the crowd that she rejects \"a conversation about 1.4 million young men as a threat, as a headache, or as a lost cause. I reject the conversation about 1.4 million disappointments, failures, and casualties of a broken system. That is not who these young men are. I believe it is long past time for a new and different conversation. It is time for America to begin a conversation about 1.4 million future workers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers, community leaders, business executives.\" Edwards addressed affirmative action, saying \"I would ensure that my administration was a representation of what affirmative action can be. I would make sure that my administration looks like America, and I mean, from the top to the bottom, all the way through the administration.\" Edwards continued, saying \"I would ensure that judges that I appointed to the federal bench and justices nominated to the United States Supreme Court believed in real equality and believed in the concept of affirmative action.\" Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, also spoke at the National Urban League convention, but no Republican candidates came to the presidential forum. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee met with members of the league at a gathering Thursday night. This is the second forum with a large African-American crowd that the Democratic candidates attended this month. All of the Democrats showed up in Detroit on July 12 for the presidential forum at the NAACP convention. Black voters are crucial to the Democratic Party. \"Nearly nine in 10 blacks vote Democratic, making them the most reliable Democratic voting block in the country\" said CNN Pollster Keating Holland. And they'll play an important role in picking the next Democratic presidential nominee, especially in South Carolina and Florida, two early primary states. In CNN's most recent polls, Clinton and Obama are running neck and neck among black voters nationally, though Clinton was well ahead in South Carolina. But it's still early and many voters haven't made up their minds. \"I'm not feeling that at this point either candidate would be that much of a difference\" says Amy Johnson, an undecided black voter in New Orleans, Louisiana. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Barack Obama: \"The day I'm inaugurated, the country looks at itself differently\"\nIllinois Democrat would be first black president if elected .\nHillary Clinton and Obama neck and neck in polls of black voters .","id":"c78d2973a47f1404484d046679a81d86728360d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The music of Woodstock was a draw that attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the festival. Similarly, the name of Ang Lee is a draw that attracted a number of actors to his new film, \"Taking Woodstock.\" From left, \"Taking Woodstock's\" Emile Hirsch, director Ang Lee and Demetri Martin at the movie's premiere. \"Taking Woodstock,\" which is out August 28, features performers who were either not born or very young when the monumental festival occurred in 1969, but many were enticed to join the movie because of Lee's involvement. \"I'd read the Sunday paper for Ang Lee. I'd do anything. He's a filmmaker I've always admired and [was] sort of eager to work with,\" said Liev Schreiber, who plays a transvestite. \"So when he approached me, you know: Dress, shmess, I'll do whatever you want.\" Lee's work, which includes the renowned films \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon\" and \"Brokeback Mountain,\" has garnered him three Oscar nominations. The lighthearted \"Taking Woodstock\" is a mild departure for a man whose films tend toward serious drama. The film's plot concerns Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), son of the owners of a fading Catskills hotel, who helped attract the Woodstock festival to the area. It's based on Tiber's memoir. The film also stars Emile Hirsch, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy. The 36-year-old Martin, who is best known for his standup, his contributions to \"The Daily Show\" and hosting \"Important Things with Demetri Martin,\" might have benefited the most from working with Lee. \"Taking Woodstock\" is his first film as star, and he's made only a handful of others. \"Ang is not really going to hold your hand and reassure you through the whole thing. He's going to be more like a sensei, kind of a tough-love thing,\" Martin said. \"He's like, 'Punch this wall,' and you'll be like, 'Why?' and he's like, 'Punch the wall, and do it.' \"And then it's like, 'Oh, good performance, great. I'm glad I punched the wall,' and you don't understand, but it's really a lesson in trust,\" he added. Jonathan Groff also came to \"Taking Woodstock\" with limited big-screen experience and was excited to work with Lee. \"He's your fearless leader. He's everything that you want to be when you grow up,\" Groff said. Woodstock may have been 40 years ago, but it's recent enough that a number of the principals are still alive. Groff had the opportunity to meet Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang, whom he plays in the movie. Lang opened his memories to Groff and also visited the set. \"He came to the first day on set, and that was a little nerve-wracking, but it then became comforting because as we would be between takes he would, you know, be giving you a little thumbs-up,\" Groff recalled. \"I'm sure it must have been a little out-of-body. I mean, I can't imagine watching someone playing me in a movie, from 40 years earlier.\" The 24-year-old Groff thinks Woodstock resonates today. \"Coming from my generation and looking back and seeing such innocence and seeing such passion and seeing such faith in each other, and the ability to come together and actually make something huge happen, is really inspiring,\" he said. Although there haven't been similar watershed events since, Schreiber and Groff said that the most similar event could be the 2008 election campaign, during which many young people rallied behind Barack Obama. \"Well, I gotta say that there is an air of optimism and potential in the election of Barack Obama,\" Schreiber said. \"I certainly feel a return to that sense of optimism and patriotism that I think people felt at perhaps the election of Kennedy and the beginning of the civil right's movement in America and the sexual revolution. ... It did feel somewhat timely.\" The movie also tested Hirsch's and Schreiber personal boundaries: In addition to Schreiber's dress, Hirsch was naked for one scene. \"It wasn't just photographed. I was filmed!\" Hirsch said. \"What was fun about it is it was kind of like this liberating [situation], but that's what Woodstock was.\" As for Schreiber, when his children saw him in a dress, they were \"terrified,\" and his partner, actress Naomi Watts, was \"pretty mortified.\" \"I think that was sort of the point. I think the message is one of acceptance,\" Schreiber said. Scaring the kids is one thing, but what about wearing the dress on the set in front of the cast and crew? \"It was exhilaratingly humiliating,\" Schreiber said. \"I think that's generally how men feel when they put on dresses. That's why they do it so often.\" CNN's Katie Walmsley contributed to this story.","highlights":"\"Taking Woodstock\" stars Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber and Eugene Levy .\nThe film tells the story of how Woodstock festival came to fruition .\nThe actors said election of Barack Obama shares similiarities with Woodstock .\n\"Taking Woodstock\" is due out August 28 .","id":"f24081c943f7c5bd5e07940ddd16d69705fc4efd"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China is shutting down a pair of smelting plants suspected of sickening several thousand children with lead poisoning, according to state-run media. A Chinese boy gets treated for blood poisoning in Shaanxi province Aug. 15. At least 851 children living near a plant in northwestern China's Shaanxi province were found to have excessive lead levels in their blood, according to the Xinhua news agency. The Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. would cease operations no later than Saturday, Xinhua reported Wednesday, citing local authorities. County officials had agreed to relocate residents who live within 1,640 feet (500 meters) of the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in three years, but the relocation is behind schedule, Sun Hong, the company's general manager, told Xinhua. The local government has pledged to speed up the relocation, Xinhua reported this month. A second smelter also was closed Wednesday in central China and two of its executives detained, a local official said, according to Xinhua, . Initial tests showed more than 1,300 children in the Hunan province town of Wenping have excessive lead in their blood from the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant. A second round of testing has been ordered to confirm the results. The plant opened in May 2008 without gaining the approval of the local environment protection bureau, said Huang Wenbin, a deputy environment chief in Wugang City, Xinhua reported. The plant was within 500 meters (about a quarter mile) of three schools. The poisonings have occurred against the backdrop of China's rapid industrialization, which has produced economic success and wrought environmental havoc. Hundreds of millions of Chinese lack access to uncontaminated drinking water, and air pollution is blamed for myriad deaths and illnesses every year. Toxic air enshrouds cities across the country, one of the most polluted in the world. The government has stepped up anti-pollution efforts in recent years, but many companies flout such campaigns and laws.","highlights":"A pair of plants suspected of sickening thousands of children is closed.\nAt least 851 children in Shaanxi province found to have lead poisoning.\nIn Hunan province, 1300 children near another plant were poisoned.","id":"c19989cbc7d1b5b31cb76edbf2a3e2d50455773a"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- Practicing the clarinet may be beyond tedious for teenagers forced into music lessons by their parents but for 70-year-old Joe Pedlosky it's a labor of love. Saxophonist Jerry Hendricks from Olympia, Washington, practices in Cambria, California, in March 2006 . \"From the time I was a little kid, I always wanted to play clarinet,\" says Pedlosky, a retired scientist in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. \"But we didn't have the money. Then ... I decided it was now or never.\" Pedlosky, who plays with a local band, is one of many seniors picking up a musical instrument late in life. Many can thank New Horizons International Music Association, which sponsors senior bands and orchestras in the United States and Canada. The group was founded by Roy Ernst, professor emeritus at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. When he formed the first senior-only band in 1991, it was a radical notion. \"It was widely believed that the window of opportunity for learning music was childhood,\" Ernst says. \"If you didn't learn then, you missed your chance.\" The senior bands prove otherwise. As a matter of fact, these novice musicians give new meaning to the conductor's command, \"Once more, with feeling.\" \"I remember conducting at a senior band camp in California, and we played an arioso by Bach,\" recalls Ernst. \"The second time through, two people were crying, they were so touched by the music. \"High school kids could never do what we do, because they haven't lived enough, they haven't seen enough joy or sorrow. We have a special ability to play music expressively and with feeling.\" Ernst, who sometimes refers to himself as the Johnny Appleseed of senior bands, made it his goal to bring seniors to music. From just one band in Rochester, New Horizons has grown to more than a hundred bands, plus offshoots from brass quintets to swing ensembles. Music for body and soul . Ernst's passion moved Professor Don Coffman of the University of Iowa to create his own senior band -- and to conduct research into how music can benefit older musicians. His findings: Benefits include social, emotional, physical and even spiritual growth. In part, Coffman found, seniors benefit from being part of a group that works together toward a significant goal. Other plusses can include better ability to focus, increased lung capacity and improved fine motor skills. Dinny Stamp would agree. She'd played trombone in high school; after retiring, she attended a performance of Coffman's Iowa City band and thought, \"I can do that!\" Playing in the band \"has been one of the most rewarding experiences of not only my retirement, but my life,\" says Stamp, who turns 78 this month. \"It's a joy to make wonderful music with new friends and to share this music with the community.\" Judy Schroeder, 62, another member of the Iowa City band, took up the oboe about three months before retirement. \"I find that playing music really keeps your mind agile ... and our band director wants to challenge us to do well, think hard, try hard. It's just so much fun.\" She's enjoying herself so much that she has taken up the bassoon as well. Getting started . If you're interested in getting involved with instrumental music, look for a band in your area on the New Horizons Web site. If there's no senior band available, or if you're interested in learning on your own, most teachers are willing to take on an older student. Pedlosky advises searching for the right kind of person so you're not quickly turned off. \"It's important, if you're going to start cold, to really find a good teacher -- someone who sets standards for you but is also mature enough to understand that it's unusual for an older person to take up something about which they know nothing.\" There are real differences between younger and older learners. \"Adults are often more analytical about their learning and more persistent, so some display more rapid growth than would a 10-year-old beginner,\" Coffman explains. \"On the other hand, the physical demands of some instruments may lead to a plateauing effect for adults.\" Some seniors, for example, may not be able to sustain high notes on a trumpet. Which instrument should you choose? If you've always had a passion for one instrument, Ernst says, go with your heart. But if you're not sure, ask for suggestions from the band director. \"If the group doesn't have a tuba player, you'd be quite the hero if you became one,\" he says. Who knows? You might even become a bit of a hero to yourself. \"Music is so demanding and compelling that once you start playing, everything else flies out the window,\" Pedlosky says. \"It gives you a deeper appreciation of music and musicians. And sometimes my music sounds really good to me, and that's wonderful.\" Roy Ernst: Saxophonist Jerry Hendricks from Olympia, Washington, practices with other band members at a New Horizons band camp in Cambria, California, in March 2006. Many of the musicians did not take up an instrument until retirement. Jon Beringer: Dinny Stamp, 78, played the trombone in high school. She took it up again when she joined a senior band in Iowa City, Iowa. E-mail to a friend . LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Lisa Jo Rudy is a freelance writer based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her credits include books as well as print and online articles.","highlights":"More seniors are making music in their golden years .\nThey play an instrument they learned before or pick up new one .\nGroup sponsors senior bands and orchestras in U.S.\nBenefits: Social, emotional, physical -- even spiritual growth .","id":"a24b841d6edc3b5f6202bb7311aef74caf4343d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The commissioner of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police department said Thursday he \"deeply regrets\" the arrest of prominent black Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., but stands by the procedures followed by his department. Sgt. Jim Crowley said he has nothing to apologize for in regards to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. \"I believe that Sgt. [James] Crowley acted in a way that is consistent with his training at the department, and consistent with national standards of law enforcement protocol,\" Commissioner Robert Haas said, referring to the officer who made the July 16 arrest at the professor's home. \"I do not believe his actions in any way were racially motivated,\" Haas said at a news conference. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct after an exchange with the officer, who was investigating a report of a possible break-in at the house. The police department will create a panel of \"independent, notable professionals\" to provide an analysis of the incident, he said. The controversial arrest of Gates was criticized Wednesday by President Obama, who said the Cambridge police department \"acted stupidly.\" \"My response is that this department is deeply pained and takes its professional pride very seriously,\" Haas said. Cambridge authorities dropped the charges against Gates on Tuesday. In a statement, the International Association of Chiefs of Police expressed disappointment in Obama's remarks. \"Police chiefs understand that it is critically important to have all the facts on any police matter before drawing conclusions or making any public statement,\" said Russell B. Laine, association president and chief of the Algonquin, Illinois, police department, in the statement. \"For these reasons, the IACP was disappointed in the president's characterization of the Cambridge Police Department.\" Haas' comments followed a statement earlier Thursday from Crowley, who said he would not apologize for his actions. \"That apology will never come from me as Jim Crowley. It won't come from me as sergeant in the Cambridge Police Department,\" Crowley told Boston radio station WEEI. \"Whatever anybody else chooses to do in the name of the city of Cambridge or the Cambridge Police Department, which are beyond my control, I don't worry about that. I know what I did was right. I have nothing to apologize for.\" The mayor of Cambridge said she will meet with the city's police chief to make sure the scenario that led to Gates' arrest does not happen again. \"This suggests that something happened that should not have happened,\" E. Denise Simmons, Cambridge's mayor said on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"The situation is certainly unfortunate. This can't happen again in Cambridge.\" Obama defended Gates Wednesday night, while acknowledging that he may be \"a little biased,\" because Gates is a friend. \"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3 ... that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.\" The incident, Obama said, shows \"how race remains a factor in this society.\" Crowley also said he is exercising caution and his previous actions clearly show he is not a racist. In fact, Crowley taught a racial profiling course at the Lowell Police Academy, said Deborah Friedl, deputy superintendent of the police department. Last year was his fifth year as a co-instructor of the course, Friedl said. \"He seems to be a highly regarded \u00a3instructor at the academy. He consistently received high praise from students,\" she said. Gates told CNN Wednesday that although charges had been dropped, he will keep the issue alive. \"This is not about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America,\" Gates told CNN's Soledad O'Brien. Gates said the Cambridge mayor had called him to apologize about the incident. Simmons, Cambridge's first black female mayor, confirmed to CNN that she apologized to Gates. Gates said he'd be prepared to forgive the arresting officer \"if he told the truth\" about what the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research said were \"fabrications\" in the police report. iReport.com: Join the conversation on racial profiling . Crowley wrote in the Cambridge police report that Gates refused to step outside to speak with him, and when Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, \"Why, because I'm a black man in America?\" The report said Gates initially refused to show the officer identification, but eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police. \"While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me,\" Crowley said, according to the report. Gates was arrested for \"loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space\" and was released from police custody after spending four hours at the police station. He said Wednesday that he and his lawyers were considering further actions, not excluding a lawsuit. Gates said that although the ordeal had upset him, \"I would do the same thing exactly again.\"","highlights":"Officer: \"I know what I did was right. I have nothing to apologize for\"\nSgt. James Crowley said he was exercising caution during professor's arrest .\nCrowley tells newspaper he's not a racist, did CPR on black basketball star .\nCharges were dropped against professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.","id":"a065926962ac486d89602e4e7d774f471dd692e0"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Watching the Dave Matthews Band moments before they take the stage is like watching a football team bursting out of the locker room before a big game. Dave Matthews says he bellieves strongly in the power of community. They slap hands. Bump fists. Jump up and down, exclaiming \"Feel the love, feel the love!\" The energy in the air is electric. And when they walk out on stage, the energy explodes into thousands of shining faces. People dance in the aisles. Others sing every word to every song. A few share funny cigarettes. For more than three hours, the jubilant atmosphere creates a sense of community between an amphitheater filled with strangers and the ethnically diverse musicians leading the charge on stage. But then DMB is all about community -- creating its own and giving back. BAMA Works Fund -- the group's charitable foundation -- has handed out $5 million in grants to worthy causes, including schools and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Watch Matthews sound off on the album -- and racism \u00bb . And despite the unexpected passing of saxophonist LeRoi Moore due to complications from an ATV accident last summer, the band members seem to be recharged. In June, DMB notched its fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard chart with \"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.\" We caught up with Matthews just as news hit the Web that former President Jimmy Carter believed racism was the root of some of the negativity directed toward President Obama in recent weeks. The 42-year-old singer-songwriter offered a unique perspective, as a man who split his childhood between the United States and South Africa during apartheid. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: President Carter said he thinks that a lot of the animosity directed toward President Obama is race related. Dave Matthews: Of course it is! I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here -- I just see it everywhere. There's a good population of people in this country that are terrified of the president only because he's black, even if they don't say it. And I think a lot of them, behind closed doors, do say it. Maybe I'm paranoid about it, but I don't think someone who disagreed as strongly as they do with Obama -- if it was Clinton -- would have stood up and screamed at him during his speech. (Shakes his head) I don't think so. CNN: Everything has gone to such a frenzied pitch. Matthews: I think a lot of it has to be on the press. We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten. There's no way that Walter Cronkite, as a young journalist, no way Ed Murrow would be hired to do news today. Not a chance. CNN: Because they're too low-key? Because they're not bombastic? Matthews: Because they're thoughtful, and they're patient, and they're tying to tell you a truly balanced story. They're trying to impart information. I don't think that's the goal [now] because it's not a good business plan. ... Everyone's outraged all the time. Why are you outraged? There's war -- there's always been war, as long as most of us have been alive. There have always been people being abused, there's always been horrible things in the world. Why are we outraged? We should just be quiet and figure it out, and work it out together. ... There's no solution in Washington as long as people are shouting like that. CNN: Before you went on stage at the Greek Theatre (in Los Angeles), we were talking to the crew -- and they couldn't wait to tell us how well they're treated by the Dave Matthews organization. ... It's like your own minicommunity out there. You even print your own tickets, right? Matthews: We have kept everything in-house. The core crew guys are the same guys we had when we were driving in a van, so they can always call \"bull\" on us if we start acting like prima donnas. It keeps a sense of community going when you travel a lot. There's a good vibe. ... I have friends who are famous, and friends that are not famous -- but there are those who stick out to me. Willie Nelson is one -- a really genuine person -- or Neil Young. Adam Sandler ... people who really try and keep a sense of unity, and camaraderie and equality around them. That's essential. That's it for me. I don't think socialism, and I don't think warmness and respect are necessarily bad words. CNN: Do you think you're competitive? A perfectionist? Matthews: I'm a very vicious critic of myself. CNN: So what do you think of this record (\"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King\")? Matthews: I think that's a really good record. (Laugh) Our first three records were really good. We made good records after those first three -- really good records -- but I don't think they were necessarily the spirit of the band. I think this is the greatest record that we've ever made, and it captures the band like none of our records have. ... CNN: Before this album, weren't you burned out a little bit? Matthews: I insisted upon taking as much time to make this as I needed. And my manager would call -- my manager who I love, who's a dear friend of mine -- he'd call and say, \"Are you going to have it finished by the summer?\" \"No.\" \"Are you going to have it finished by Christmas?\" \"No.\" I practiced \"no.\" I need to work on \"no\" still, but I got better at it. CNN: What other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Matthews: I want to figure out a way to not be stupid with money, then make a whole bunch of it, then I want to move to Outer Mongolia. I want to milk a yak. Maybe I'll just settle for a cow. Can you milk a bison? I have fantasies about being a farmer. I always wanted to be a fireman, but who didn't want to be a fireman? I just wouldn't tell anyone. I'd just go \"poof!\" Sometimes I like that idea. CNN: You don't tell people about a lot of things you do. There's no press release that goes out saying, \"Dave Matthews Band just donated $5 million to this cause or that cause.\" Matthews: We definitely use our fame and our celebrity to raise money for things we care about. ... What a luxury to be able to just do a show, and then look -- pow! ... I don't want to become a poster child. That's a whole different thing. I don't want to be the face on it.","highlights":"Dave Matthews: \"I just see [racism] everywhere\"; not surprised at anger at Obama .\nNews media adds to anger, he says, in that it focuses on \"loudest\" messages .\nDave Matthews Band aims for community, active with charitable efforts .\nMatthews calls \"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King\" their greatest record .","id":"5179ee17fad0f9b298b53e86aceffd9fb860c917"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The National Archives -- a repository of important government documents, including the U.S. Constitution -- has lost a computer hard drive containing large volumes of Clinton administration records, including the names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers of White House staff members and visitors. The National Archives has lost a hard drive containing large volumes of Clinton administration records. Officials at the Archives say they don't know how many confidential records are on the hard drive. But congressional aides briefed on the matter say it contains \"more than 100,000\" Social Security numbers, including one belonging to a daughter of then-Vice President Al Gore. It also contains Secret Service and White House operating procedures, the staffers said they were told. The hard drive was last seen in the National Archive's complex in College Park, Maryland, sometime between October of last year and the first week of February. It was discovered missing in late March, prompting a thorough search for the small, 2.5 pound device, the Archives said. When it could not be located, the inspector general's office opened a criminal investigation. On Wednesday, the Archives announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to its return. The Archives said no national security information is on the hard drive, nor any original documents. But they said it does contain \"personally identifiable information,\" and they take the loss \"very seriously.\" U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, whose staff was briefed on the matter, said the House will hold a hearing Thursday on the incident. \"If they [the National Archives' staff] can't handle a hard drive that may be sensitive properly, we need to ask the question, will they handle the most secret materials properly?\" Issa said. The Archives Wednesday gave the following account of the disappearance: . Last October, the hard drive was moved from a \"secure\" storage area to a workspace where it was being used for routine recopying to ensure preservation of the records. But work was halted last year because archivists \"wanted to investigate using automated tools to generate inspection reports.\" Staffers were moved to other projects until an automated tool was found in mid-March -- that's when they found the hard drive was missing. The device is described as a two terabyte Western Digital MY BOOK external hard drive, measuring 6.5 x 2.1 x 5.4 inches. More than 110 4-millimeter tape cartridges were copied onto the hard drive. The records included records from the Clinton Administration Executive Office of the President. The archives said no original records have been lost, and the Archives has a backup hard drive that will enable them to determine what information is on the missing device. The inspector general said at least 100 people had access to the area where the hard drive was left unsecured, and that janitors, visitors and others also passed through the area. The Archives said it is reviewing the data on a copy of the missing hard drive and compiling a list of people whose personal information may be compromised. It will notify individuals of the potential breach and will provide them with a year of credit monitoring, the Archives said. \"Because of the extremely large volume of data on the drive, we do not know yet the number of individuals whose privacy has been affected,\" the Archives said Wednesday. \"As individuals are identified, they will be notified.\" The Archives also said it has taken steps to improve security, including both physical control of records and the treatment of personal information.","highlights":"Officials say they don't know how many confidential records are on the hard drive .\nCongressional aides say \"more than 100,000\" Social Security numbers on drive .\nArchives announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to its return .","id":"50dea28cd54e44ed6d4d5468de034cc8030b5890"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Queen Latifah has been on the hip-hop scene for so long that she has seen artists come and go and trends change. Queen Latifah remains one of the few female rap artists who garner attention in the music industry. But there has been one development that she said has disappointed her tremendously -- the lack of female rap stars. \"There are not enough female rappers out there right now,\" she said. \"The voice of the female is not strong enough in the game at all right now. It's almost nonexistent.\" While artists like Beyonce, Ciara and Rihanna have thrived in R&B and pop, high-profile success for female rap artists has been more elusive in recent years. From the beginning hip-hop has been viewed as a man's world, and discussions of sexism and inequality within the genre have come up often. In fact, many times such disrespect was the subject of the female rappers' tracks. Today, with the music industry struggling, there is a particular dearth of female rap artists taking center stage. It was a different hip-hop landscape when Queen Latifah first burst on the scene in the late 1980s. The all-female rap crew Salt-N-Pepa (whose DJ was also a woman) scored some hits. The arrival of Queen Latifah helped usher in artists such as Monie Love. Rapper MC Lyte was a teenager when she emerged, along with Queen Latifah, as one of the genre's first female superstars. Check out some of the more successful female hip-hop artists \u00bb . MC Lyte said the music industry is so focused these days on the bottom line that there is little emphasis on cultivating female talent. \"When you have this major business that has been kind of taken over by corporate hands, it's like, how necessary is the black woman's perspective?\" she said. \"Not unless she is talking about being that kingpin's main girl and she's wearing next to nothing and she's talking about nothing that is really going to nurture the people the way we are known innately as black women being able to do, there's really no space for that type.\" Alonzo Williams agrees. A founding member of the West Coast rap group the World Class Wrecking Crew, which also featured Dr. Dre of the group N.W.A., Williams said many female rappers are finding it hard to navigate today's industry. \"It's a lot of women trying to get into it, but most young women don't know what direction to take,\" Williams said. \"They don't know whether to be a gun moll for a gangster or a mother and they are confused as to what role they should take.\" Artists like Queen Latifah and MC Lyte have served as role models to rappers that came after them, Williams said. Having successful women in the industry also allowed for the rise of artists like Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown, who express their sexuality with hardcore lyrics. But all of the dialogue about misogyny in rap, coupled with music executives' hesitancy to spend money grooming new artists, has left some female rappers floundering, he said. \"It can be hard for women to find an image that is street-marketable as well as radio-marketable,\" Williams said. \"For the most part, men can get away with a whole lot more because of the double standard that exists among the sexes, and so it's difficult for women to find a niche.\" Not that the talent isn't out there. MC Lyte said she has encountered several accomplished female lyricists on the Internet and through her work with Hip Hop Sisters, a network she founded. And to help women gain more exposure in the industry, Queen Latifah is going to the grass roots, as she returns to her musical roots. Her new album, \"Persona,\" marks her return to rap after having focused on her singing career for the past few years. Latifah, along with CoverGirl, for which she serves as a spokesperson, is sponsoring a contest titled \"Ignite Your Persona.\" Contestants can submit brief videos of themselves rapping, singing, dancing and\/or performing as well as a short essay. A finalist from each city along her tour will be selected to open for her, Queen Latifah said. \"Hopefully I will be able to discover some new talent that I can bring to the forefront,\" she said. \"I feel like I have been so fortunate with hip-hop providing a door for the many opportunities I have had, and I want to give that to other women. Because when there are not enough females [in the industry], the balance is off.\"","highlights":"Female rappers finding it difficult to break through in music industry .\nIn recent years few successful female artists have emerged in hip hop .\nRapper MC Lyte says business model doesn't support cultivation of talent .\nQueen Latifah using new album launch to discover new artists .","id":"44de3bdf1f544f102152a8bfe61117a405315dff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary American boxer Muhammad Ali has visited the birthplace of his ancestors in Ireland, prompting thousands of well-wishers to line the streets of the town. Muhammad Ali on a nine-day visit to Europe that included a stopover to his ancestral home in Ireland. The scenes were reminiscent of a presidential visit as the 67-year-old former three-times world heavyweight champion traveled to Ennis, County Clare to see the hometown of his forebear. The visit was commemorated by the town council with the unveiling of a plaque at the home of his great-grandfather and by making Ali the first honorary \"freeman\" of the town. Abe Grady -- the grandfather of Ali's mother Odessa Lee Grady -- lived in the town of Ennis, before emigrating to the United States in 1860 where he married an African-American emancipated slave. Watch as Muhammad Ali visits Ireland \u00bb . Ali -- who was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated in 1999 -- had his Irish heritage uncovered by genealogists in 2002. \"Now that we know Muhammad is an Ennis man, we will be back,\" Ali's wife Lonnie told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. The small County Clare town of 23 thousand put on an open-air concert, closed schools early and had special screenings of the Ali versus George Foreman documentary \"When We Were Kings\" to welcome the \"Louisville Lip.\" Ali -- who has been a Parkinson's Disease sufferer since 1984 -- did not speak to those who had gathered but shadow-boxed to spectators and cameras before meeting his distant relatives. \"It was incredible. We've had so much rain, and yet today it was beautiful. The rain held off wherever Muhammad Ali went,\" Frankie Neylon, the town's mayor said. Ali fought in Ireland only once during his career, beating Al Blue Lewis in a non-title bout at Dublin's Croke Park in 1972. The visit to Ireland was part of a nine-day tour of Europe that Ali had undertaken to raise money to fight Parkinson's Disease and for the Ali Center.","highlights":"Muhammad Ali visits his ancestral home of Ennis, Ireland .\nThe 67-year-old former world heavyweight champion unveils plaque in town .\nAbe Grady, Ali's great grandfather, emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in 1860 .\nLonnie, Ali's wife, says the former champion will return to Ireland again .","id":"50caa82b665248c19b8faa5b827a3b79867481ce"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Like all zombie movies, \"Zombieland\" has hundreds of zombies doing awful things, such as attacking and eating humans, but you could argue it's not a zombie movie. Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson find themselves battling the undead in \"Zombieland.\" Zombie hordes do chase the main characters in a post-apocalyptic world, but the focus is on the comedy's stars, including two Oscar nominees -- Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin -- along with Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone. (Spoiler alert: A third Oscar nominee makes a remarkable cameo appearance, but this story will avoid spoiling the surprise by naming him.) \"We wanted to make a cool, kick-ass road movie about a dysfunctional family traveling across the country and zombies provide us the antagonists, the threat that our characters need to come together,\" said Paul Wernick, who wrote the screenplay with partner Rhett Reese. In fact, Wernick had only seen one zombie film before writing this script. Reese, who is a fan of the genre, kept the story on a track that would feed zombie fans' hunger for blood-and-guts action. \"[The] zombie genre is so well traveled, there is really no reason to get into it unless we could do it in a fresh, different way,\" Reese said. \"We were almost forced to think outside the box to make it an entertaining zombie movie.\" \"Zombieland\" is set in the United States months after a fast-moving virus begins turning most people into flesh-eating zombies. A handful of survivors come together to fight back. Wernick and Reese literally rewrote the rules for zombie films in this movie. Eisenberg's character is an obsessive-compulsive man who developed 47 rules -- such as \"fasten your seat belt\" -- designed to help him survive in Zombieland. While Eisenberg journeys to find his parents, he joins Harrelson, a zombie killer who is searching for the last Hostess Twinkie before its expiration date. Stone and Breslin play sisters who survive on their con artist skills. Their goal is to reach a California amusement park, which they think could be free of zombies. The cross-country trip these four characters share resembles \"National Lampoon's Vacation\" -- if written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Watch the stars of the film talk about zombie fans \u00bb . Wernick said they wanted to be \"very freewheeling.\" The movie \"gives the audience the thrill of the journey,\" he said. \"We wanted to take some wild turns.\" \"The rules that we lived by when writing this is in fact that there are no rules,\" he said. \"Zombieland\" may be to zombies what Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds\" is to Nazis. Wernick and Reese, who have been close friends since high school, often finish each other's sentences as if they were an old married couple. \"When we were trying to get 'Zombieland' off the ground back in the early days, we ...\" Wernick said. \"... assaulted Tarantino at an awards show, to try to get him to read the script,\" Reese said. \"That didn't work out,\" Wernick said in conclusion to their joint thought. \"He thought we were zombies coming after him.\" \"Zombieland,\" directed by Rubin Fleischer, offers many of the same elements as a Tarantino film. \"[Tarantino] is all about dialogue, character, irreverence, pop culture and we love all those things over the years,\" Reese said. \"We have always been inspired by him.\" The writers had to run through a number of actors before finding the person for the 10-minute cameo. Among them was Patrick Swayze, the writers' first choice. Swayze, who died just two weeks before the movie's release, turned down the role because of ill health earlier this year. Also asked: Joe Pesci, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson, Matthew McConaughey, Mark Hamill, Kevin Bacon and Sylvester Stallone. They were asked, but either didn't want the role or were not available, according to Wernick and Reese. With just a few days before filming the scenes, they asked Harrelson to look in his cell phone for names and numbers. He came up with a man who's been an Oscar nominee and Emmy winner. And now, he's got a key role in a zombie film.","highlights":"In new movie \"Zombieland,\" focus is on the stars and the comedy .\nMovie's performers include Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin .\nOne of film's writers had seen just one zombie film in his life .\nAmong movie's surprises: a cameo from an Oscar-nominated actor .","id":"31fb0cb11d772716b3f14eb7895518fd8160beec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The father of Haleigh Cummings, a Florida girl who disappeared in February, plans to file for divorce from the girl's stepmother, a key witness in the case, his attorneys told HLN's \"Nancy Grace.\" Ronald Cummings plans to divorce his wife, Misty, his attorney says. The move follows weeks of reported tension between Ronald and Misty Cummings during the search for Haleigh, who was 5 when last seen. In papers expected to be filed Tuesday, Ronald Cummings, 25, cites irreconcilable differences in ending his short marriage to his 17-year-old wife, said Terry Shoemaker, Ronald Cummings' attorney. Haleigh went missing from her father's home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9. Cummings has made several public pleas for information in her disappearance. Misty Cummings, then known as Misty Croslin, was the last person known to have seen Haleigh the night she disappeared from the family's rented mobile home. The teenager said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. and went to sleep herself two hours later, but awoke at 3 a.m. to find the girl missing and a cinder block propping open a back door. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. Investigators have said they do not feel Misty Cummings has told them everything she knows. \"The police have been telling me that I've been keeping Misty under my wing and that's why she hasn't talked to the cops,\" Ronald Cummings told a \"Nancy Grace\" producer Tuesday. \"So now, here you go, I divorced her. So now go find my baby.\" Watch Ronald Cummings speak to Nancy Grace \u00bb . The Putnam County Sheriff's office said in August that \"the evidence and investigatory effort has minimized the likelihood that Haleigh's disappearance is the work of a stranger.\" Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield, Haleigh's mother, are not considered suspects, police said. \"Investigators believe that Misty Croslin-Cummings continues to hold important answers in the case,\" the sheriff's office said in a written statement. \"She has failed to provide any sort of detailed accounting of the hours during the late evening and early morning of Haleigh's disappearance. Furthermore, physical evidence at the scene contradicts Misty's sketchy account of her evening activities.\" Shoemaker said his client told Misty Cummings he wanted a divorce on Sunday, and that the a divorce agreement was drawn up Monday. The agreement was sent to Misty Cummings' lawyer for her signature. \"He really didn't come to us and say, 'I want to file for divorce,'\" said another of Ronald Cummings' attorneys, Brandon Beardsley. \"My understanding is that this is something that he and Misty have been discussing for the last few days and they're contemplating it because they ultimately feel that it is in the best interest for both of them.\" Misty Cummings' attorney, Robert Fields, told CNN he has not talked with his client and doesn't know her thoughts regarding the divorce. Fields said he had received the papers via e-mail but had not had a chance to review them. Asked what he thought the divorce would mean for the search for Haleigh, he said, \"Probably nothing.\" \"You have to understand that ever since Haleigh went missing, they have been scrutinized,\" Beardsley said of the Cummingses. \"They can't go out to dinner, can't even go to the convenience store to get a drink. ... The pressure of everything that is going on, the allegations and speculation, has been a stress on the relationship. The two lived together for about six months before marrying in March. The divorce agreement provides no financial terms, according to Shoemaker. On Monday, Misty Cummings left Satsuma to stay with a friend in Orlando, 50 miles south, Shoemaker said.","highlights":"Haleigh Cummings' father plans to file for divorce from the girl's stepmother .\nHaleigh went missing from father's home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9 .\nMisty Cummings was Ronald Cummings' girlfriend when Haleigh went missing .\nInvestigators said they think Misty Cummings has not told them everything .","id":"957a8894f6809515e5d77000d2ae15061ac127cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- People who go to Daytona Beach, Florida, by car this weekend will probably wish they hadn't -- they'll definitely stand out in a crowd. Bobby Mitchell, left, and Sheila Justin enjoy Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida. The city is being taken over by half a million motorcycle enthusiasts enjoying Bike Week, which began Friday and will end Sunday. The economy may be in a recession, but bikers aren't passing up the chance to soak up some sun and rev up their engines for a few days in Florida for the biggest motorcycle event in the country. \"Every indication we've had so far is that this year's going to be a good one,\" said Kevin Kilian, senior vice president of the Daytona Beach\/Halifax Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is the managing arm of the city's involvement in Bike Week, a 10-day event that Kilian said takes an entire year to prepare for. Events like Bike Week and its little brother, Biketoberfest, are what keep Daytona Beach running, Kilian said. With 8.5 million visitors each year, special events bring in about $1.3 billion. The two biker events alone generate $650 million of that, he said. The festival didn't always pack in a half-million people, though. In 1988, said Paul Crow, the Daytona Beach police chief at the time, the event had morphed into something very different from what it was when it started. He said he had to battle what he called \"the 1 percent problem\" -- the small group of gangs whose viciousness and threats against outsiders had allowed them to take over Bike Week. He decided he wouldn't have any more of their troublemaking, Crow said, so he created a task force that evolved into the office of special investigations for the Daytona Beach Police. Its specific purpose was to deal with the problem. Today, Bike Week has been restored as family-friendly event. The event has even drawn in other nearby Central Florida communities -- including Ormond Beach in the north and Port Orange and New Smyrna in the south -- giving bikers more events to attend and places to go. Bike Week caters to a wide demographic of people. \"These are people with a lot of disposable income,\" Kilian said. \"They can afford a $30,000 toy.\" Factors like the economy and this year's long hard winter probably got people more excited about Bike Week because it's a chance to get away, he said. \"Everybody needs a break.\" Ken Logan, 50, a radio producer from Orlando, Florida, has been going to Bike Week for four years. He said he goes to \"keep updated on motorcycle stuff as far as styles, what's done to them, meet people who enjoy bikes, to get patches and all the toy stuff, so to speak, and enjoy other people who enjoy the same thing.\" The ride from Orlando is only 35 minutes, and he said that's half the fun. \"Everybody should go -- whether you have a bike or not -- at least once, just to take it in and see what it's about,\" Logan said. Bobby Mitchell, 52, also a radio producer in Orlando, grew up in Daytona Beach and has been going to Bike Week his entire life. He said it's been more fun in recent years, though. \"It's more fun when you actually have a motorcycle,\" he said. \"You get out there and ride alongside people. You're part of the roar, the noise.\" Not only is Bike Week becoming more family-friendly, but it's more diverse as well, with more women participants, said Kathleen Tolleson, president and CEO of Roar Motorcycles. There's even a \"sisterhood bikeride\" in which 35 to 50 women ride together. Daytona Beach-based Roar Motorcycles specifically markets accessories and motorcycles for women. This year, Tolleson said, the company is unveiling a new motorcycle designed by women and made specifically for women and their needs. \"It's becoming more culturally acceptable, so more and more women are riding.\" she said. The bike has a lower seat so that a woman can use her legs and hips when picking the bike off the stand, and can put her feet firmly on the ground when stopped. Most bikes are designed for men, who have more upper body strength and longer limbs. \"Women,\" she said, \"need a lower center of gravity.\" The company is taking orders now, and the bikes will be available in six to nine months.","highlights":"Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida, began Friday and ends Sunday .\nBike Week caters to a wide demographic of people .\nBike Week and Biketoberfest generate $650 million, official says .","id":"74c5d63b6f2f373561c3da4bf9b5aac87cd2abd7"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson fans will get their first peek at the behind-the-scenes documentary of the pop star's final three months Sunday evening during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, MTV said. Michael Jackson died in June at the age of 50, amid preparations for his This Is It tour. Janet Jackson \"will help open the entire show to honor Michael's celebrated career,\" the network said. No other details about her \"special appearance\" were released. The debut of the trailer for \"Michael Jackson's This Is It\" will come about four weeks after concert promoter AEG Live handed over to Sony Pictures about 100 hours of video captured between April and June, when Jackson was preparing for his concert comeback. Fans who miss the MTV show, which will air live at 9 p.m. ET Sunday, can preview the documentary at www.thisisit-movie.com beginning Sunday night, the network said. The trailer makes its big screen debut September 18 with the Sony Pictures Animation release of \"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.\" The Jackson documentary will run in theaters worldwide for just two weeks starting October 28, Sony Pictures said. Tickets will go on sale September 27. \"Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect and genius as he creates and perfects his final show,\" Sony said. Kenny Ortega, who was working with Jackson to create the This Is It concert, is also directing the documentary. \"As we began assembling the footage for the motion picture, we realized we captured something extraordinary, unique and very special,\" Ortega said. \"It's a very private, exclusive look into a creative genius's world.\" Ortega said Jackson's This Is It \"may go down as the greatest concert that no one got a chance to see,\" as the pop singer died June 25, three weeks before it was to debut in London, England's O2 Arena. \"But with this film, we get a rare portrait of Michael as he prepares for his final curtain call and what I believe was going to be his master work.\" Watch Jermaine Jackson talk about tributes to his brother \u00bb . A Los Angeles Superior Court judge last month approved allowing the special administrators of Jackson's estate to sign a contract with Sony and AEG Live to clear the way for the production. AEG Live also will conduct a three-city tour of a Michael Jackson memorabilia exhibition to coincide with the film's release. The cities have not been named.","highlights":"Star's sister Janet will help open MTV awards show, in celebration of his life .\nFans can also preview documentary online .\nFilm will be shown worldwide for two weeks starting in October .","id":"450da0cc0175af3b268d047deb8e6ca6299ee2fd"} -{"article":"WESTERN DESERT, Iraq (CNN) -- The hot wind swirls around the human bones and cracked skulls that litter the forsaken desert lands in Western Iraq. The entrance to the bunker complex where al Qaeda terrorized enemies in Iraq. We are standing in the middle of what was an al Qaeda execution site, just outside an intricate bunker complex that the organization used to torture and murder its victims, the bodies left to rot or be eaten by animals. From the back of the police truck the opening to the first bunker is barely discernible in the distance. \"Al Qaeda came in as a massive force\" one of the officers says as we bump along the harsh terrain. \"They stole our cars, our personal cars. They kidnapped two of my brothers. They blew up the house over there.\" In the distance we can see his village -- a set of sand colored homes surrounded by parched farmlands. As we approach grubby children chase the truck and then stand to the side, despondent, as the officer points to their home. \"Their father was killed by al Qaeda,\" he says. In 2007 the U.S. military launched a series of airstrikes that drove out al Qaeda. As we enter the first bunker Captain Khaled Bandar tells us they found the floor littered with bodies. A gaping hole is evidence of the U.S. firepower. Insurgents used the layered and intricate labyrinth of passageways and hatches to carry out summary trials and executions. The police show us clothing and shoes, saying they are leaving them in place in case the families of the victims decide to come back. The stench of decay still lingers. Al Qaeda has been on the defensive in recent years, notwithstanding spectacular attacks attributed to the group like last week's blasts in the capital, including suicide truck bomb attacks on the ministries of foreign affairs and finance. At least 100 people were killed and more than 500 wounded. But the concerted security campaign against the group has forced it to change its structure and strategy. According to one man who has close connections to al Qaeda in Iraq and asked not to be identified, the group lost support because it lost the protection of the people. \"There is an old saying about the basics of war. Whoever wins the people wins the war. So when al Qaeda didn't win the people over, it lost its battles,\" he explains. \"Al Qaeda's strategy of taking control of areas has been abandoned for now. Their method is propaganda, instilling fear, terrorizing.\" He adds that the group stopped recruiting over the last six months because of a shortage in funding and increased infiltration. \"Al Qaeda is moving towards selecting the elite and condensing its forces rather than expanding. The Americans nearly defeated al Qaeda by cornering it and reducing its operations,\" he says. But those operations are still deadly, and the war is by no means over. \"No, the war is not over in Iraq, a type of battle is over, but there are new battles cloaked in politics. Now politicians try to pay militias, al Qaeda, or armed factions ...in order to eliminate political foes,\" the man with knowledge of al Qaeda says. And al Qaeda is still able to send a message to those who dare oppose them. The police officers show us blood stains in the desert near the bunkers and tell us how they found two beheaded bodies just a month ago. They were identified as being the brothers of two police officers from another city, Ramadi. Meanwhile, al Qaeda's global war has sifted to a place it believes it can still win -- Afghanistan. \"Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is made up of true believers, those who believe in jihad and fighting, and that's why they joined,\" the man with connections says. \"As for most of al Qaeda in Iraq's members, they are just looking to benefit themselves, or they join out of resentment for a certain sect or to avenge their families.\" As for Iraq's longterm stability, that very much still hangs in the balance. He says: \"Peace will not be achieved by a magic wand or the rhetoric of a politician. Peace will be accomplished through the will of the Iraqi youth. We have to wait for this generation to change ... so that a generation that hates (the violence) will emerge.\" Yousif Bassil and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Abandoned al Qaeda in Iraq bunker base littered with bones of its enemies .\nU.S. bombed bunkers in 2007 but stench of decay remains in desert base .\nSource close to al Qaeda says it lost in Iraq as it lost support of the people .\nHe says al Qaeda's focus is now Afghanistan .","id":"1d6b9f5560dc74067893ed76caf47e63a46223da"} -{"article":"Cristiano Ronaldo is in the running to win the FIFA World Player of the Year for a second successive year after being named on a 23-man shortlist for this year's award. The Portuguese winger, who joined Real Madrid this summer from Manchester United for a world record transfer fee, heads a familiar cast of football's biggest names ahead of the annual gala in Zurich, Switzerland, on December 21. Champions League holders Barcelona boast six nominees -- defender Carlos Puyol, midfielders Andres Iniesta and Xavi, and strikers Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Former Barca star Samuel Eto'o, now playing for Inter Milan, also joins the nominations list. Spain's La Liga boasts 11 nominees altogether, in addition to the Barcelona contingent there is Valencia's David Villa, Sevilla's Luis Fabiano and Real Madrid's Kaka and Iker Casillas. The English Premier League follows with eight nominees; England internationals Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are among those up for the award. Nominees list: . Michael Ballack (Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain),Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Diego (Brazil), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Ghana), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Steven Gerrard (England), Thierry Henry (France), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Kaka (Brazil), Frank Lampard (England), Luis Fabiano (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Carles Puyol (Spain), Franck Ribery (France), Wayne Rooney (England), John Terry (England), Fernando Torres (Spain), David Villa (Spain), Xavi (Spain).","highlights":"FIFA announce list of nominations for the World Player of the Year award .\nThe annual ceremony takes place in Zurich, Switzerland on December 21 .\nReigning holder Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid nominated once again .","id":"5d3dc2346a4916903fc01ff5556e2be1a5730503"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea fired several short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan on Saturday, an act that the U.S. watched closely and South Korea called provocative. N. Korean army soldiers, back, look at a S. Korean soldier, center, in the demilitarized zone in June. Pyongyang fired six short-range missiles in less than seven hours, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said. The missiles were apparently Scud-type, estimated to have a range of about 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. South Korean intelligence estimates that North Korea has about 700 such missiles in its arsenal. Pyongyang test-fired four such missiles off the east coast Thursday, Yonhap reported. South Korea called the launches a provocative act, according to a government statement. North Korea had issued a warning to mariners to avoid an area in the Sea of Japan at certain times between June 24 and July 9 because of a \"military firing exercise,\" according to a U.S. military communication about the warning provided to CNN. The recent firings come amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea conducted a nuclear test in May, fired test rockets and threatened U.S. and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. Watch S. Korea confirm firing of missiles \u00bb . The first two missiles were fired about 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., Yonhap reported. Another missile was launched about 10:45 a.m., the agency reported. A fourth one came some time after that. The U.S. Navy and other U.S. officials said they are ready to track any missiles. \"The United States is aware of possible missile launches by North Korea. We are closely monitoring North Korea's activities and intentions,\" a U.S. official said. \"This type of North Korea behavior is not helpful. What North Korea needs to do is fulfill its international obligations and commitments.\" Earlier this week analyst Daniel Pinkston said the reported test might be training for a future test but it could also just be a routine military exercise. \"It is worrisome to some degree, but it is different from a ballistic missile launch,\" said Pinkston, of the International Crisis Group in Seoul, South Korea. \"It's part of military training, but there seem to be no movements of troops or anything that would suggest preparations for military operations. \"So yes, people are watching it, the military is watching it here, but I don't think it's related to any plans or operations to attack anyone.\" CNN's Sohn Jie-Ah in Seoul, Korea, and Charley Keyes in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report .","highlights":"North Korea five Scud-type missiles Saturday that can reach 400 to 500 km .\nSouth Korea has called the launches \"a provocative act\"\nU.S. diplomat: \"This type of North Korea behavior is not helpful\"\nPyongyang test-fired four such missiles off the east coast Thursday .","id":"e4a186c4590ba156eb3e45862c2a5b4181e2fab3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The world's largest, fastest fully solar-powered boat is being built in preparation for a round-the-world challenge. 'Planet Solar' would be the world's fastest fully solar-powered boat and is projected to cross the Atlantic in two weeks. The futuristic-looking \"Planet Solar,\" which is 100 percent powered by sunlight, is the brainchild of Swiss engineer Raphael Domjan, a former paramedic with a passion for innovative design and renewable energies. The 30-meter vessel is currently being built in Kiel, Germany, and will be finished early next year. If all goes according to plan, the boat will begin sailing summer 2010 -- first in European waters and then around the world. The boat can travel at up to 14 knots (26k\/m) and would be the first solar-powered boat to travel at such high speeds. It is projected to be able to cross the Atlantic in just two weeks. Domjan hopes his ambitious, $11.5 million (\u20ac8 million) project will prove that boats can travel at high speeds without emitting any carbon dioxide. \"[I] want to show that we can change, that solutions exist and that it's not too late,\" Domjan writes on his Web site. \"Using technology and our knowledge to better promote renewable energies is the way towards a lasting world.\" Planet Solar will be covered in 470 square meters of solar panels -- the equivalent of two tennis courts. This means it will have particularly high energy absorption. See more images of the solar-powered boat \u00bb . Twenty-three percent of absorbed sunlight will be converted into energy that the boat can run on, compared with 17 percent for average panels, according to Planet Solar's project manager, Danny Faigaux of Grand Chelem Management. \"The first man sailed around the world 500 years ago and Raphael thought it was about time we did it in a different way,\" Faigaux told CNN. But relying purely on solar energy may prove difficult in areas of the world where bad weather prevents sunlight from penetrating the clouds. Batteries on Planet Solar will be able to store enough energy gathered from the sun to allow the boat to sail in poor conditions for three days, said Faigaux. If cloudy weather persists for more than three days, the vessel will run into real difficulties. To avoid this eventuality, the team has partnered with the French meteorological institute, \"Meteo France.\" The institute will update Planet Solar's skippers on which routes to avoid. Famous French sailor Gerard D'Abouville will skipper the boat alongside Domjan. D'Abouville is the first man to have rowed across both the Atlantic and the Pacific and has long been involved with sustainable development. In April 2011 after a short tour of Europe, Planet Solar will embark on a round-the-world tour, stopping in dozens of cities along the way. Wherever the boat goes, Domjan hopes to teach people about alternative ways of consuming energy. At each port-of-call he plans to set up a portable \"educational village\" made from inflatable material. Up to 500 people at any one time will be will be able to visit the village's three inflatable \"spheres\" to learn more about Planet Solar, ecology and economy. \"This situation is also an opportunity,\" said Domjan. \"The dilution of our resources and fossil fuels and climate change forces us to rethink our societies.\"","highlights":"World's largest, fastest fully solar-powered boat is attempting round-the-world tour .\n\"Planet Solar\" has 470 square meters of panels -- equivalent to two tennis courts .\nVessel can travel at up to 26 k\/h and is projected to cross Atlantic in two weeks .","id":"15f446a48bb7997cc0d2dfa34dff916858eb7f85"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Edwin Salau knew coming back would be hard. But he had to do it. The retired U.S. Army first lieutenant needed to know that his sacrifice was worth it. Retired Army 1st Lt. Edwin Salau says he sees progress in Iraq since he left five years ago. \"I wanted to make sure I didn't bleed in vain for the Iraqi people,\" Salau said. \"And what I found is I did not. I see the progress over five years. I see free Iraqis doing what Iraqis want to do in their country, and I see the U.S. taking a back seat.\" Salau left the battlefield in November 2004, after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire during an ambush close to the town of Tuz. Those injuries cost him most of his left leg; it was amputated above the knee and he now wears a prosthesis. Recently, he and seven other wounded American veterans returned to Iraq so they could heal emotionally. It was part of a nonprofit pilot program called Operation Proper Exit, an initiative started a little over a year ago by the Troops First Foundation, based in Maryland. The USO supports the mission. Watch Salau describe his feelings on returning \u00bb . Rick Kell, head of Troops First, traveled to Iraq with the soldiers and said the idea came from American troops. \"After spending much time at Walter Reed and Brooke Army medical centers, inevitably in any conversation, something reminds somebody that they want to go back. And the soldiers don't hesitate to tell you that,\" Kell said. \"They are soldiers and they want to come back primarily for several reasons, but they want to come back and let the troops here on the ground know that they are still part of them, they support them, and they would very much like to be with them, although they can't.\" It's an emotional journey for the returning veterans, a chance to visit bases where they were stationed, and, in some cases, the sites where they were wounded. Though other programs have allowed wounded American soldiers to return to the scene of their service and sacrifice, this is the first to allow them to do so while a war is still being waged. All in all, 13 soldiers have participated in the program so far -- eight this trip and five on a previous trip, which took place in June. The earlier trip was kept quiet because of fears that the experience would be too overwhelming for the participants. According to Kell, he encounters many soldiers who would like to return, but those who are selected are chosen carefully. \"Well, first of all, when we come in contact with someone who wants to come back -- and that's somebody who is thriving, that is mentally and physically moving forward in their life, they've demonstrated that they have a plan for what's next and they've begun to implement that plan,\" he said. \"So we feel pretty good about this person being squared away. And there are concerns, but it's a very personal decision. We only ask for one of three answers: yes, no or not now.\" Salau, who now works with other wounded soldiers at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, thinks he's become an ambassador for them. When Salau departed Iraq the first time, he couldn't do it on his own. That's why this trip was so important to him. \"My purpose for this trip was for my soldiers to have that last memory of me in Iraq walking out of here on my own power,\" he said. \"And I achieved that and it was closure.\" Salau and Kell think the program has been a success so far. According to them, the main reason for that is the support they've gotten from the military command in Iraq, particularly Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander there. Odierno's experiences with his son, who lost his arm in Iraq, helped the general better understand these soldiers' plight, Kell said. \"He has insight and perspective that a lot of leaders don't, thank goodness,\" Kell said, calling Odierno a very compassionate man. \"Gen. Odierno is ... he's a soldier's general,\" Salau said. \"He understands. It was clear when I met him the first day of our trip that he knew what the results would be at the end of our trip. I thank them for letting us come back.\" Whether the program will help the wounded soldiers psychologically has yet to be proven. Also in question is whether more soldiers will be able to participate. Troops First would like to include as many soldiers as possible, Kell said, but U.S. troops will not be in Iraq for much longer. \"We've got a short window,\" he said. \"We've got a formula down. We can only do six to eight on each trip, so we can make it a very personal experience and have it be meaningful.\" For Salau, it was extremely meaningful. Now he can go home on his own terms. \"Today, I packed my stuff and I dressed in a uniform ... and then I'm going to undress at home and not Walter Reed,\" he said. \"That feeling, it can't completely be put into words. I'm gonna get greeted at the airport by my wife and children. I'm not gonna be greeted at Walter Reed. And I'm gonna keep on living the dream.\"","highlights":"Eight wounded U.S. veterans return to Iraq through \"Operation Proper Exit\" program .\nVeterans want troops on the ground to know they're still part of them, organizer says .\nRetired lieutenant says progress in Iraq shows he didn't \"bleed in vain\"\nProgram is run by Troops First Foundation, backed by USO .","id":"69f88d63e51cacbedf6c28d2d7bb46edecc51120"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Heavy rains triggered by El Nino weather patterns could potentially prove devastating for east African nations that have been water-starved for months, the United Nations has warned. A Turkana boy holds an empty cup in a village in northwestern Kenya. Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda are facing mudslides, crop destruction, waterborne diseases and disrupted road networks, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday. Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia could also be affected. The effects of flooding are expected to be exacerbated because so much greenery has disappeared in the drought. \"More than 23 million people in pastoral, agricultural and suburban communities, as well as internally displaced people and refugees in the region, are reeling from the impact of water and food shortages, pasture scarcity, conflict and insecurity,\" said John Holmes, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs who is coordinating emergency relief operations. \"While we cannot prevent these climatic shocks, we certainly can mitigate their disastrous effects through forward planning and the right funding from the donor community,\" he said. Uganda, hit by El Nino a decade ago, is planning to apply some of the lessons learned this time around, said Fred Opolot, a government spokesman. \"The government has allocated funds and resources to areas that will be affected,\" he said. \"Our disaster preparedness department is using press briefings, among other ways, to inform the public.\" Though the department is not very well-funded, he said, the government is working with groups such as the United Nations and international aid agencies to prepare for floods. \"It is a multifaceted effort ... we want to ensure citizens are sensitized to the dangers of El Nino and things such as bridges are in good condition.\" The rainy season begins in the Horn of Africa in mid-October and runs through the end of the year. Meteorologists have forecasted that this year's rains will be more intense than usual because of the El Nino phenomenon, caused by a rise in temperature in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Aid agencies are already buckling under the weight of helping millions of people who have suffered through months of failed crops, drought and erratic rains caused by climate change. In Somalia, 450,000 people in the Juba and Shabelle river basins could suffer, the United Nations estimates. In neighboring Kenya, some 750,000 people -- 150,000 of whom are refugees -- could be affected. The Turkana, a pastoral tribe in northeastern Kenya, is already reeling from a severe drought that has left scores of people dead and remains of skeletal cows strewn across the flat, arid land. The remote region has no access to resources, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods. CNN's Moni Basu and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.N. humanitarian agency: East African nations facing flooding, mudslides .\nWarning comes after months of drought in region which has decimated greenery .\nRainy season in Horn of Africa usually begins in mid-October, runs to end of year .\nKenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia set to be affected .","id":"7a6da0be5aab120c1f02268a518a445e0b8e16a4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four men gathered in a parking lot were shot and killed Sunday in Mount Airy, North Carolina, and a warrant was issued for a suspect, police said. \"We don't feel that this was a random event, if that does help put the community at ease,\" Mount Airy Police Chief Dale Watson said at a news conference Sunday night. He refused to elaborate or identify the victims except to say, \"We do have an idea why they were there.\" Watson described the victims as \"four Hispanic males, all shot,\" from the surrounding Surry County area. He said two died at the scene while the other two were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Read local coverage from CNN affiliate WXII . The shooting occurred shortly after 2 p.m. ET in the parking lot of a store that sells satellite dish and cable TV equipment in the town, about 50 miles north of Winston-Salem. Watson said an arrest warrant charging four counts of murder was issued for a suspect he identified as Marcos Chavez Gonzalez, 29. He said police believe the suspect fled the Mount Airy area in a pickup. Watson said local and state authorities were searching for the suspect, who was considered \"armed and dangerous ... he may be in the possession of an assault rifle.\"","highlights":"Four men gathered in a parking lot shot and killed Sunday in Mount Airy .\nPolice Chief Dale Watson: \"We don't feel that this was a random event\"\nArrest warrant issued for a suspect identified as Marcus Chavez Gonzalez, 29 .\nWatson said all four shooting victims were Hispanic males .","id":"72304e8deaf0b3d95376abfd94309690bd2e14e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Australian cruiser met the disguised German vessel in the waters off western Australia two years after the two became enemies in World War II. The gun turret of the Sydney II was discovered with the rest of the vessel in March 2008. The Australian ship approached, trying to determine whether the vessel was friendly. It wasn't. What resulted was Australia's worst naval disaster: the sinking of the Australian ship and the loss of its entire crew of 645. The wreckage wasn't found until last year, leading to decades of conspiracy theories about what actually happened. On Wednesday a long-awaited report on the sinking of the Sydney II ended the mystery that began when it met its fate, November 19, 1941. Made to look like a cargo ship, the German vessel was in fact a military raider that fired on the Australians when they got close. The Sydney fired back and, in the end, both ships went down. More than 300 of the sailors on board the German vessel, the Kormoran, survived. But because they were the only witnesses to the disaster, some doubted their accounts, leading to various theories about the real fate of the Sydney. After the wrecks of both ships were located in March 2008, an Australian commission began an inquiry to formally close the book on the loss of the Sydney. The results confirm the accounts provided by the German sailors. They said the Sydney closed in on the Kormoran until it was parallel with the German ship, little more than 1,000 yards away. \"Sydney obviously thought the ship was friendly and was taken by surprise when, after she asked what she believed to be (a friendly ship) to give her secret call sign, the response was a number of salvos that destroyed Sydney's bridge and amidships superstructure and a torpedo strike that crippled the ship and her forward guns,\" the report said. The Sydney had given up its tactical advantage of speed and armaments by getting so close to an unknown vessel, the report said. While that may have been an error of judgment by the Australian captain, Joseph Burnett, the report accepted that other factors -- which may never be known -- influenced his decision. \"It can never be known what matters were, in fact, operating in Capt. Burnett's mind when he decided to take the Sydney to the position described. Nor can it be known what advice, if any, he sought from or was given by other officers on the bridge,\" the report says. \"What is known, however, is that, in trying to identify the sighted ship, Capt. Burnett was performing his duty as a commanding officer.\" The German ship inflicted \"enormous damage\" on the Sydney during a battle that is believed to have lasted about 35 minutes and left 70 percent of the Sydney's crew dead or incapacitated, said Cmdr. Jack Rush, the lawyer who presented the evidence gathered by investigators to a commission of inquiry led by a retired judge. It is likely that Burnett, the navigator, and all of the Sydney's senior officers were taken out on the first salvo, Rush said. A torpedo tore into the Sydney's bow, flooding the forward end of the ship, while the Kormoran fired an estimated 87 rounds from its 15-cm (5.9-inch) guns into the Australian cruiser. The Sydney limped away and sank sometime between 2 hours to 4 1\/2 hours later, Rush said. During the battle, however, the Kormoran itself was hit by an Australian shell that damaged its engines and set the vessel ablaze. With hundreds of mines aboard, its captain ordered the crew to abandon ship, fearing the fire would set those off. Charges were set and the ship was scuttled. About 80 of the Kormoran's crew of nearly 400 were lost. A search began only five days after the battle, when the Sydney failed to return to port in Fremantle. And an 11-day delay by Australia's government in announcing the ship's loss fueled what a 1999 parliamentary report called \"a proliferation of theories\" about the fate of the crew -- that the ship was actually sunk by a Japanese submarine, that survivors were machine-gunned in the water or that the government hid bodies after they washed up on the beach. The commission thoroughly investigated all the theories and speculations surrounding the disaster and found no substance in any of them, said Terence Cole, president of the commission. Researchers found the Sydney's wreckage in the Indian Ocean, about 207 km (128 miles) off Australia's west coast. The commission was appointed in May 2008 and began its inquiry in January. \"For a long time our nation has struggled to understand how our greatest maritime disaster occurred. The unanswered questions have haunted the families of those brave sailors and airman that never came home,\" Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the chief of the Australian Defence Force, said in a written statement.","highlights":"Finding: Sydney's captain, senior officers likely to have died in first salvo .\nSinking of Sydney II and loss of crew of 645 was Australia's worst naval disaster .\nGerman vessel, the Kormoran, was made to look like a cargo ship .\nBoth ships went down; more than 300 on Kormoran survived; wrecks found last year .","id":"941c67b57d783ba00992afd5cf5abc6a6e1134ce"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A former U.S. government scientist who served in sensitive positions on classified aerospace projects pleaded not guilty to attempted espionage Thursday. He will be held without bond pending a jury trial. Stewart David Nozette, 52, appeared in U.S. District Court wearing a prison uniform with bold, horizontal black and white stripes. He smiled as his defense attorney greeted him, and he seemed relaxed during the proceeding. In arguing against bond, prosecutors played what they call an undercover videotape of a conversation just 10 days ago between Nozette and an agent. Nozette, sitting back in a chair or sofa at what appears to be a hotel room, is heard negotiating for a false passport and a means to get to a country with no extradition policy with the United States. \"I like the idea of an invisible identity,\" Nozette was heard saying in the recording. \"Can you actually get me that, that artificial name and stuff?\" He discussed gift cards under an alias, and a \"kitty\" that he could use for expenses. Prosecutors Thursday initially said they would present a witness to authenticate the videotape. But the judge accepted the government's claim and a transcript and allowed the eight-minute recording to be played. Authorities have said in a criminal complaint that Nozette, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, tried to deliver classified information to someone he thought was an Israeli intelligence official but who was actually an FBI undercover agent. Nozette, responding on the videotape to the agent's suggestion that arrangements would involve \"a lot of work,\" told the agent, \"This isn't just, you know, a few documents. ... I'm making a career choice.\" The camera in the undercover video is positioned over that agent's right shoulder, looking directly at Nozette. When the agent asked whether the negotiations were only for himself, Nozette said yes, and suggested his wife would not accompany him. \"She would ask too many questions,\" Nozette said. The wife, Wendy McColough, was not seen in the courtroom Thursday, but had been in the spectator gallery October 20 when her husband made his initial appearance. A transcript of the undercover video came out just hours before Thursday's proceeding. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Asuncion has said evidence will show Nozette disclosed to investigators information that was \"top secret, related to our national defense, that would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security\" if revealed to a foreign country. In an affidavit, the FBI sets out the case against Nozette, who received a doctorate in planetary sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nozette had a \"top secret\" clearance and served at the White House on the National Space Council for President George H.W. Bush, the affidavit says. Later, from early 2000 to early 2006, he did research and development for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Naval Research Laboratory, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, it says. The document says Nozette also acted as a technical consultant from 1998 until early 2008 \"for an aerospace company that was wholly owned by the government of the state of Israel.\" The company consulted with Nozette monthly, getting answers to questions, and he received total payments of $225,000, the affidavit says. In early September, Nozette was contacted by phone by an individual purporting to be an Israeli intelligence officer, but who really was an FBI undercover agent, the document says. They met in downtown Washington in front of a hotel, and over lunch, Nozette \"demonstrated his willingness to work for Israeli intelligence,\" it says. The undercover agent engaged in a series of meetings with Nozette, and eventually Nozette allegedly deposited \"secret\" information in a \"dead drop\" post office box. Some of the information, the affidavit says, was classified as secret. The criminal complaint does not accuse the government of Israel of any violations of U.S. law. Nozette next has a status hearing November 10 at U.S. District Court, before Judge James Robertson.","highlights":"Stewart David Nozette appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court .\nJudge denied bond after seeing undercover video of Nozette and agent .\nNozette may have planned to leave wife behind if he fled the U.S.\nNozette willing \"to work for Israeli intelligence,\" complaint states .","id":"c2baa4a3e7de5719c69933b82c052d745da77c6f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mountainous terrain and harsh weather in remote parts of Afghanistan have proven a deadly combination for the U.S. military in its push to reduce mounting violence in the country. CNN obtained this photo of a U.S. helicopter above Forward Operating Base Keating in the Nuristan province. On Saturday, Taliban militants attacked American and Afghan troops in the Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan. Eight American troops and two members of the Afghan national security forces were killed, according to the Pentagon. It was the largest number of Americans killed by hostile action in a single day since July 13, 2008, when nine troops died, according to CNN records. The fighting was so fierce that at one point U.S. forces \"had to collapse in on themselves,\" a U.S. military official with knowledge of the latest intelligence reports on the incident told CNN. These revelations about the battle that engulfed Forward Operating Base Keating are a further indication of how pinned down and outmanned the troops were. Watch more on the attack in rural Afghanistan \u00bb . The base was scheduled to be closed in the next few days, CNN has learned. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, wanted to cede remote outposts and consolidate troops in more populated areas to better protect Afghan civilians. It's a point he reiterated over the summer. \"Practically speaking, there are areas that are controlled by Taliban forces,\" he told the Los Angeles Times in late July. Over time, McChrystal said, the command would \"reduce\" those areas, but the first priority will be to make sure populated areas are free of insurgent influence. The deadly attack over the weekend and the July 2008 attack in Wanat, just 20 miles away, serve to underscore, some say, that the reduction isn't happening. View an interactive map of the two attacks \u00bb . It's an assessment that one veteran military observer discussed in a column earlier this year. \"Screwups are inevitable in war. But there are serious questions to be addressed,\" Foreign Policy magazine's Tom Ricks wrote in a January 2009 online article. \"As one Army source put it to me, 'The paratroopers sent to Wanat knew they were in big trouble. ... [The soldiers] ran out of water and had little material to build up their defensive positions,' \" Ricks wrote. Peter Bergen, a CNN terrorism analyst, called the repetition \"a huge problem.\" \"It is suposed to be a lessons-learned exercise,\" Bergen said. \"And then, exactly 20 miles away from the event about a year ago, exactly the same kind of attack happened.\" In the Wanat fight, 49 U.S. troops were attacked by nearly 200 Taliban fighters, and the base was later abandoned. \"So, you have to ask yourself, what were the lessons learned? Or were the lessons not implemented? And these remote combat outposts, you know, are obviously sitting ducks,\" Bergen said. The Nuristan and Wanat fights add to the growing list of problems facing the Obama administration. The White House is in the midst of a comprehensive review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. McChrystal, who took over four months ago as the top U.S. commander in the country, has submitted an assessment in which, sources have told CNN, calls for additional forces to carry out a successful counterinsurgency strategy. But some in the administration, including Vice President Joe Biden, are advocating a counterterrorism strategy focusing on combating al Qaeda and the Taliban through the use of unmanned drones and special forces without involving additional troops. Watch more on the varying advice Obama is getting \u00bb . Others believe that a broader counterinsurgency approach -- requiring a larger military operation in the country -- is needed. Several top military leaders and opposition Republicans are pressing Obama to act quickly to increase the present 68,000-troop level by as many as 40,000. In March, Obama announced a plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to the country to provide security for a national election. \"If we don't add more troops, you're going to see more of what happened yesterday,\" Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said on \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"The security situation's going to get worse. And any hope of better governance is lost, and the Taliban will re-emerge.\" Despite criticism, Obama said Tuesday that U.S. efforts in Afghanistan have had a major impact. \"Al Qaeda and its allies have not only lost operational capacity, they've lost legitimacy and credibility,\" he said. \"We're making real progress in our core mission: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and other extremist networks around the world.\" Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that the Taliban currently has the momentum in the country. He warned that a Taliban takeover of the country would empower the al Qaeda terrorist network. Watch more of Gates' remarks \u00bb . \"Because of our inability and the inability, frankly, of our allies to put enough troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban do have the momentum right now,\" he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour and former CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno in a panel discussion that included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Gates said an eventual Taliban victory would provide \"added space\" for al Qaeda to set up in the country and enhance recruiting and fundraising, bolstered by the perception that, having driven out the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Muslim forces have won a second victory over a superpower. CNN's Barbara Starr, Atia Abawi and journalist Matiullah Mati contributed to this report.","highlights":"8 U.S. soldiers, two Afghan soldiers killed in attack in Nuristan province .\nSource: Fighting so fierce that U.S. forces \"had to collapse in on themselves\"\nAnalyst says lessons haven't been learned in operating in rural Afghanistan .","id":"38f8ea133172fd17a0526246cf085614eca50c64"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty Thursday to a weapons charge stemming from a shooting incident at a nightclub last year, the Manhattan district attorney said. Former NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress will serve two years in prison after pleading guilty to weapons charges. Burress, 32, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon and will serve two years in prison, according to Alicia Maxey Greene, spokeswoman for district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau's office. Two years of supervised release will follow his jail term, she said. Burress is free on bail and will be sentenced September 22. A grand jury indicted the former New York Giants football player earlier this month on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and a single count of reckless endangerment in the second degree. He pleaded not guilty to those charges earlier this year. Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg November 29, 2008, with a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol he was carrying in the waistband of his jeans. The incident occurred in the VIP area of the Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan. A teammate who was with Burress, linebacker Antonio Pierce, drove him to a hospital and arranged to have the pistol delivered to Burress' New Jersey home, according to an August 3 statement from the district attorney's office. The district attorney also sought charges against Pierce, but the grand jury did not indict him. Burress was not licensed to carry a pistol in either New York or New Jersey. No one, including employees of the New York Presbyterian Hospital and the NFL, called the police to report the gunshot wound, as required by law. One of the hospital workers was suspended after the incident. Burress became a hero to New York Giants fans in the 2008 Super Bowl when he caught the game-winning touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning with 35 seconds remaining in the game. In the following year, however, Burress' career with the Giants was marred by a series of incidents in addition to the shooting. He was suspended from the team in early October for missing a practice, and later that month the NFL fined him $45,000 after he argued with a referee and threw a football into the stands during a game. Burress was suspended from the Giants immediately after the shooting incident. The team released him in April. CNN's Chloe Melas contributed to this report .","highlights":"Former wide receiver pleaded not guilty to other charges earlier this year .\nPlaxico Burress will serve two years in prison, two years supervised release .\nEx-New York Giant accidentally shot himself in the leg November 29, 2008 .\nBurress was not licensed to carry a pistol .","id":"562a96b7a77931e60f0a96ee004c4314734326a3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amid international condemnation after security forces reportedly attacked demonstrators at a peaceful rally, reportedly killing nearly 160 people, the Guinean government said Tuesday most of the victims were crushed in the crowd. Police arrest a protester on Monday near a stadium in Guinea's capital Conakry during a protest. Reports put the death toll at 157, with more than 1,200 people injured, U.S. State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement Tuesday. Earlier, the United Nations, citing media reports, said at least 58 people died Monday when security forces opened fire to disperse a demonstration at a stadium in the capital, Conakry. \"The United States condemns the Guinean military's brazen and inappropriate use of force against civilians,\" Kelly said. \"The military also stands accused of carrying out brutal rapes and sexual assaults on women demonstrators and bystanders during its rampage.\" On Tuesday, the African Union expressed its \"grave concern\" about the situation. \"The [AU] Commission strongly condemns the indiscriminate firing on unarmed civilians, which left dozens dead and many others injured, while serious other violations of human rights were committed,\" the AU stated. Tens of thousands of people were protesting the rule of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. The United States demanded the immediate release of opposition leaders and a return to civilian rule, the State Department statement said. Human Rights Watch also condemned the violence against \"generally peaceful demonstrators\" and urged the government \"to hold accountable the security forces.\" It quoted victims and witnesses who said security forces sexually assaulted women at the demonstration and also attacked demonstrators with knives and bayonets. \"Women were raped by soldiers in the stadium. I saw them,\" former Guinean Prime Minister Sidya Tour\u00e9 told the French newspaper Le Monde. Tour\u00e9 led the country from 1996-1999 and was participating in the peaceful demonstration. The government maintained in a statement that \"according to preliminary investigations, most of the innocent victims died as a result of being crushed in the crowd.\" And it blamed \"certain political leaders\" for staging the demonstration despite being asked not to do so and warned that security could not be guaranteed for the gathering. The leaders stormed the stadium, \"breaking down doors and the main entryways, causing much violence that left dozens of victims, including 53 who died by suffocation and four killed by ricocheting bullets, which were recorded that day by authorities working with the Guinean Red Cross and verified by hospital officials,\" the government said. It accused the leaders of looting two police commissaries before the demonstrations, letting prisoners out of jail and stealing weapons. The government said it condemns \"these deliberate acts in violation of the law, and are working to find and bring to justice those responsible for these reprehensible acts.\" The AU noted the violence comes amid serious uncertainties and setbacks in the effort to restore constitutional order to Guinea after the December coup. The AU urged the coup leaders to stick to their vow not to run for office in the January presidential election. The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, also condemned the actions of security forces in Conakry on Monday. Solana called \"for the immediate release of the arrested political leaders\" and asked authorities to \"exercise maximum restraint and ensure a peaceful and democratic transition.\" Guinea was thrown into turmoil in December after the death of President Lansana Conte. He was one of only two presidents to rule Guinea, after it gained independence from France in 1958. Conte came to power in 1984, when the military seized control of the government after the death of the first president, Sekou Tour\u00e9. Following his death, Camara seized control in a bloodless military coup and declared himself president of the National Council for Democracy, which he called a transitional body that would oversee the country's return to democracy.","highlights":"NEW: Guinean government says most victims were crushed in the crowd .\nUnited Nations, citing media reports, said at least 58 people died .\nAfrican Union expressed its \"grave concern\" about the situation .","id":"6afe7b5c03972be1d5c47b32d5bc513660573b2a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, met while he was in a federal prison serving time for abducting a different woman from South Lake Tahoe, California, and holding her captive in a storage unit, Nevada probation and parole officials said Friday. Phillip and Nancy Garrido face 29 felony charges relating to the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Durgan. Details of Phillip Garrido's past began to emerge after he and his wife were charged with crimes relating to the abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and her captivity in a hidden shed-and-tent compound in the couple's backyard in Antioch, California. Phillip Garrido, 58, and Nancy Garrido, 54, face 29 felony charges relating to Dugard's kidnapping. They both pleaded not guilty. Garrido's record as a registered sex offender began with a 1977 conviction on charges of kidnapping and rape of a South Lake Tahoe woman, the Nevada Department of Public Safety's Division of Parole and Probation said in a press release. The victim was found with Garrido inside a mini warehouse, a type of small storage facility, in Reno. Nevada, according to court documents from Garrido's appeal. She was raped inside the storage unit, according to the documents. The woman, a 25-year-old casino worker, picked up Garrido at a supermarket near Lake Tahoe on Nov. 22, 1976, after he asked her for a ride. The documents state that when she stopped the car to drop him off, Garrido handcuffed her, bound her legs and neck with a leather strap, and drove off with her to Reno. Watch more about the psychological effects of being held captive \u00bb . Garrido, then 25, \"told the victim it wasn't intentional that he had taken her, but that it was her fault because she was attractive,\" according to the documents. Garrido served 11 years of a 50-year sentence in Levenworth, Kansas. Parole officials said he met his wife, Nancy, while he was in prison, but they didn't give details. Garrido's life began to spiral downward in high school, his father, Manuel Garrido, told CNN. \"He had a motorcycle accident and got on LSD and he's not in his right mind,\" Manuel Garrido said. \"He was in a bad accident and hit his head and then got on LSD in high school. That was the end. He went to selling dope. He went crazy.\" Though he hasn't spoken to his son for 20 years because they \"didn't get along\" and has never been to the home where his son is accused of holding Dugard, Manuel Garrido said he wasn't surprised to hear about accusations. \"I wasn't surprised because I know he's out of his head for God's sakes,\" he said. \"He was an angel when he was young and it's a damn shame.\" Phillip Garrido's father also said his son believes \"he talks to God and he can do things.\" And Garrido apparently maintained a blog where he discussed talking to God and also claimed he could control sound with his mind. Watch more about the blog \u00bb . The blog now has profanity-laced responses from people outraged over Phillip Garrido's alleged actions. Garrido's blog entries are posted by \"THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND.\" He refers to \"God's Desire,\" which is a church based out of his home in Antioch, according to CNN affiliate KCRA of Sacramento. In a post on August 14, he writes that during a \"powerful demonstration\" in July in Pittsburg, California, \"the Creator has given me the ability to speak in the tongue of angels in order to provide a wake-up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world.\" \"You too can witness what the world believe's [sic] is impossible to produce!\" he writes, providing an e-mail address. \"DON'T MISS OUT!\" Several news outlets, including The New York Times, have reported on the blog since the case started making international headlines Thursday. In another blog posting last year, Garrido claims to have a \"new insight that has the potential of helping people who hear voices to possibly stop and re-examine their thinking before committing a violent act on themselves and\/or others.\" CNN's Irving Last, Dan Simon and Randi Kaye contributed to this report.","highlights":"Phillip Garrido was convicted of abducting woman, keeping her in storage unit .\nOfficials: Garrido and his wife Nancy met while he was in federal prison .\nPhillip Garrido's dad not surprised about charges: \"He's out of his head\"\nMan accused of abducting girl, 11, in 1991 apparently maintained blog .","id":"33472ded217c329f7d449994c01f5b8d8a11c69f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- No major security problems were reported at Michael Jackson's public memorial service on Tuesday in Los Angeles, California, according to police. Police gather Tuesday morning in Los Angeles for Michael Jackson's public memorial. The only controversy concerned the issue of who ultimately would pay for the city's efforts to heighten security as thousands of people from around the world flooded the city to say farewell to the pop icon, who died of unknown causes on June 25. A budget crisis pushed the city to ask the public for help in paying for security at the memorial. It set up a Web site where fans can donate. The city is hoping to recoup some of the estimated $2 million to $4 million it cost to have thousands of police and firefighters on hand in case of an emergency. Matt Szabo, spokesman for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said providing security at the event was the city's \"obligation\" and its \"No. 1 priority.\" But the city does need help, he said. \"Nothing could tarnish this event more than having a public safety disturbance of any kind,\" he said. \"We're working to make sure that doesn't happen. And we're asking Michael Jackson fans to help contribute.\" Visit the donation Web site . Los Angeles faces a budget crisis and has amassed $530 million in debt. The state of California's budget deficit has climbed to $24 billion. \"Even though we're the entertainment capital of the world, we're not immune to the recession,\" Szabo said. Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry said last week that the city would pay for the security efforts. But there remains some dispute. Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine on Monday called for AEG, the company that owns the Staples Center, to cover all costs of the memorial, arguing the public should not foot any of the bill, according to the Los Angeles Times. The city provided security downtown, where the public memorial for Jackson was held, and also at the Jackson family's private service earlier in the morning. Police said crowds outside the public memorial were not as large as they had anticipated. Between 5,000 and 15,000 people without tickets showed support for the pop star by waiting outside the Staples Center during the service, said Jim McDonnell, an assistant Los Angeles police chief. An exact count was not immediately available. Some 11,000 members of the public got free tickets to attend the memorial in the Staples Center after being chosen through a lottery. Another 6,500 were ticketed to watch it on a screen at the nearby Nokia Theater. About 1.6 million had vied for those tickets online. See performances from the memorial \u00bb . Police asked members of the public without tickets to stay home. Before the memorial began, Police Chief William Bratton said he expected a security effort not seen in decades, calling Jackson's memorial the \"largest event we've planned for since the 1984 Olympics.\" About 3,000 police officers were on hand to ensure the Jackson events proceeded smoothly, McDonnell said. By comparison, about 2,000 officers were deployed for last month's parade and celebration at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Los Anegeles Lakers, who had won the NBA championship. By 1 p.m. local time, no police reports had been filed in relation to the event, said Richard French, a police spokesman. Police closed a several-block area outside the Staples Center and closed highway exits near downtown Los Angeles during the event. People without tickets or media passes were not allowed in that closed zone, said Earl Paysinger, an assistant police chief in Los Angeles. Helicopters flew overhead, and sheriff's deputies strolled through with bomb-sniffing dogs. But the security did not seem to affect the reflective and at times festive mood at Jackson's remembrance, according to CNN correspondents.","highlights":"NEW: City of Los Angeles taking donations for security efforts via its Web site .\nCrowds do not meet police expectations; as many as 15,000 wait outside .\nSecurity at the event is expected to cost from $2 million to $4 million .\nNo police reports were filed in relation to the service, police say .","id":"349ab45f9ef5e736c7a71d163a48de3ffe9fddba"} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- He lies in a bed on a balloon-type mattress, to reduce pressure on his burned body. He is covered with bandages; a ventilator breathes for Michael Brewer because he can't do it for himself. He's hooked up to the marvels of modern medicine that are trying to give the 15-year-old burn victim a chance to be a kid once again. Sixty-five percent of his body is covered with second- and third-degree burns. \"People are writing horror stories ... but people just can't imagine the kind of sickness we're talking about,\" said Dr. Nicholas Namias, medical director of the University of Miami\/Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center in Miami. \"I've been to movies like everyone else, and Hollywood hasn't even thought of something like this,\" Namias said. Brewer is heavily sedated, and the ventilator does not allow him to speak. His open wounds are covered by bandages, which are changed daily. It's a four-hour process. He has not been able to speak with police since his desperate fight for life began October 12, when police say five teenage friends, including a 13-year-old, doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire. The attack occurred after Brewer reported to police that one of the youths had stolen his father's bicycle. Police say the bicycle was stolen because Brewer did not pay one of the boys $40 for a video game. According to police, witnesses said the teens called Brewer \"a snitch\" as they used a lighter to set him ablaze. Namias explained how Brewer's organs are not functioning the way they should be, but that is expected at this early stage of recovery. \"He's still on the ventilator and advanced modes of mechanical ventilation. We are breathing for him. His contribution to the breathing is trivial,\" Namias said. Namias also explained that in burn cases, words must be chosen carefully when talking about patients and their condition because so much is at risk and so much can change quickly. \"When you say he's doing OK, in this situation it means he's alive and responding to treatments,\" Namias said. \"We're still dealing with the respiratory failure. We're dealing with infection now and the need to supply the massive amount of nutrition that this person needs to survive.\" On Monday, the five teens who are accused of taking part in the attack appeared separately before judges in Broward County, Florida. State prosecutors were granted additional time to build their case. Formal charges are expected later this month. For now, all five teens are being held in custody. Four of the boys, all 15 years old, could be charged as adults. The 13-year-old also could be charged as an adult but under Florida law only if Brewer dies. Michael Brewer's parents, Valerie and Michael Brewer Sr., issued a written statement through the hospital last week. They are not granting interviews. \"The recovery process will be baby steps, but eventually he will be whole again,\" they wrote. But their son's injuries enter the realm of medicine and science that has no guarantee. \"There's no evolutionary mechanism to survive a 65 percent burn,\" Namias said. \"Surviving is a miracle of modern medicine and about the technology and the things we do. This is not like a gunshot and you come out of the [operating room], and say everything's going to be OK,\" he added. \"We never give up, and we never predict it. ... Our expectation is survival.\" Across the hospital floor in the burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital, six other people's lives also are at stake: all victims of various accidents, all with burns similar to Michael Brewer's. They, too, are trying to regain at least a part of what they used to have. \"It's understandable that people can be burned in accidents,\" Namias said. \"But this was no accident. This didn't have to happen at all.\"","highlights":"Police say teens doused Michael Brewer, 15, with rubbing alcohol and set him ablaze .\nAttack came after Brewer reported that one boy had stolen his father's bicycle .\n65 percent of Brewer's body is covered in second-, third-degree burns .\nTeen suspects appeared before judges Monday in Florida .","id":"4620621f8509a5b548bf4a2eec0d9b82458886d5"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani forces in the last month foiled a planned attack on the parliament building, the intelligence agency and other federal institutions, the country's interior minister told CNN Sunday. Pakistan's parliament building was one target of a planned attack, an official says. In the last four weeks, authorities arrested three men with suicide vests who were plotting to carry out the attacks, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Malik would not say exactly when the men were caught. Pakistan is in the midst of an intense military offensive against Taliban militants. The militants are suspected of launching attacks inside Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan from their haven in the mountainous tribal region along the northwestern border. On Sunday, a suicide bomber in volatile northwestern Pakistan killed at three people and wounded 15 others, police said. The bombing rocked the Pakistani city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. The incident took place when police approached a man acting suspiciously. The man ran away, police chased him and a gunfight ensued. The man ran out of bullets and blew himself up. Two women and seven children were among the injured. Remains of the alleged attacker were found, police said. Five houses were destroyed. The incident follows a car bombing on Saturday in Peshawar that killed two people, including the spokesman for an extremist group called Ansar ul Islam. Two suspects are in custody. Malik said Sunday the government's anti-Taliban operations will continue during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month considered to be a time of peace. Militants in North Waziristan, part of the tribal region, have said they will observe a unilateral ceasefire throughout the month. \"There will not be a ceasefire during Ramadan. We are not interested in a ceasefire,\" Malik said. \"They haven't kept their commitment in the past. We will continue targeted actions against the Taliban.\" Malik also said the Taliban killed the father-in-law of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and several other relatives, accusing them of leaking information about his whereabouts. Pakistan and U.S. officials contend Mehsud was killed in an August 5 drone attack in Waziristan at his father-in-law's house. The Taliban claims Mehsud is alive but ill.","highlights":"NEW: Suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan kills at least three, authorities say .\nNEW: Suspect blew himself up after running out of bullets in gunfight, police say .\nPakistani authorities say they stopped plot on government buildings .\nThree men plotted to carry out attacks, says Interior Minister Rehman Malik .","id":"6e7b485e5aaf8b87d893c9a6b26fb12545295e59"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The legal battle between Miss California USA pageant officials and former beauty queen Carrie Prejean ended Tuesday with an agreement to drop their claims, according to a pageant spokesman. The pageant has dropped its lawsuit filed last month demanding Prejean repay $5,200 given her for breast implants, publicist Kenn Henman said. Prejean, in exchange, withdrew her suit accusing the pageant of violating her privacy by confirming to reporters that her breasts were fake, he said. Details of the agreement were not immediately available, he said Tuesday afternoon. \"We are moving forward from the past and looking towards the crowning of two winners and the new look of the upcoming Miss California USA pageant,\" pageant Executive Director Keith Lewis said in a written statement. The public fight began last April when Prejean, 22, stepped into controversy by declaring her opposition to same-sex marriage while answering a judge's question at the Miss USA pageant. Prejean finished as first runner-up. While state and national pageant officials publicly supported her initially, their opinions eventually changed after she continued to make public statements about same-sex marriage. She held onto her crown through May -- despite a series of questionable photos that emerged on gossip Web sites. She was dethroned in June by Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump amid growing complaints by state officials that she was uncooperative and not meeting her contractual obligations. Prejean filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in August, claiming that her firing was religious discrimination because of her stand against same-sex marriage. The pageant's countercomplaint said Prejean's belligerent behavior, lack of cooperation and contract breaches caused her firing, not her opposition to same-sex marriage. Prejean also claimed pageant officials violated her privacy by acknowledging to reporters that her breasts were fake. The truth about Prejean's breasts \"ceased being private during the swimsuit competition of the nationally televised Miss USA pageant, in which Ms. Prejean walked the stage in a bikini,\" pageant lawyers said in their countersuit filed in October. State pageant officials say they loaned the money for the breast surgery under an oral agreement with Prejean and she never repaid them. The group also asked a judge to give them any profits from Prejean's tell-all book due out this month, which they claim was written in violation of her pageant contract. One thing they all agreed on was that Prejean needed bigger breasts if she was to be competitive in the national pageant in April, the pageant's filing said. \"Ms. Prejean disclosed that she had been thinking about and wanting to have breast augmentation surgery for some time, but did not have the money to pay for it,\" the filing said. \"She felt that if she had the surgery, in her opinion, she would be more competitive for the Miss USA pageant.\" After pageant officials agreed to loan her the money, Prejean underwent breast augmentation in January, the pageant filing said. The court documents gave an inside look at the hostile relationship between Prejean, California pageant officials and Trump. After the Miss USA pageant, \"With her new-found notoriety, an inflated sense of self, and the lure of financial gain available to her, Ms. Prejean turned even further against the Miss California USA organization, abandoned her obligations as the Miss California USA titleholder, and violated multiple provisions of the contract which governed her reign,\" the pageant filing said.","highlights":"Pageant dropped lawsuit demanding Carrie Prejean repay $5,200 for her breast implants .\nPrejean, in exchange, withdrew suit accusing pageant of violating her privacy .\nSuit had said Pageant confirmed to reporters that Prejean's breasts were fake .","id":"8053e97f21bef791d118189fbb94a888532f8ee6"} -{"article":"Unheralded American Doug Barron has become the first player to be banned by the PGA Tour for taking performance-enhancing drugs. The 40-year-old has been given a one-year suspension. He is the first professional to fail a drugs test since the PGA and European Tours began their anti-doping programs in July 2008. \"I would like to apologize for any negative perception of the Tour and its players resulting from my suspension,\" Barron said in a statement on the PGA Tour official Web site www.pgatour.com. \"I want my fellow Tour members and the fans to know that I did not intend to gain an unfair competitive advantage or enhance my performance while on Tour.\" In common with their policy, the PGA Tour did not release details of the drug taken by Barron to fail the test. Barron, who turned professional in 1992, was a PGA Tour regular for eight seasons, with his best finish a tie for third at the Byron Nelson Classic in 2006. He has won over $3 million but campaigned in recent seasons on the second-tier Nationwide Tour, playing just one event on the main tour this year. He is also reported to have had health problems. The last time Barron captured the headlines was in very different circumstances at the 2006 Transistions Championship in Florida, where he removed his shirt to play a shot out of the water on the 16th hole at Innisbrook. The incident was captured on television and was greeted with amusement by his fellow players. Neither the PGA Tour or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have yet to comment further on the suspension. Golf bowed to pressure from WADA to introduce drug testing in the sport last year. PGA Tour testing is administered by The National Center for Drug Free Sport every week of the season, with all samples analyzed by WADA-accredited laboratories.","highlights":"Doug Barron becomes the first golfer to be banned for doping by PGA Tour .\nBarron gets one-year ban for taking unspecified performance-enhancing drug .\nBarron, 40, has won over $3 million prize money since turning pro in 1992 .\nPGA and European Tours introduced anti-doping programs in 2008 .","id":"b50f14526c26fb9f5f2a684380472f0ac6b59871"} -{"article":"QINGDAO, China (CNN) -- Another round of toasts and exclamations of \"hajiu\" sounded out around me. I took a sip and set down my small glass of Tsingtao beer as my new friends downed theirs and refilled. Our seafood dinner, perched on the single cluttered table of a tiny antique shop, was punctuated regularly by such moments. A worker operates the giant fermentation units at the Qingdao Brewery plant in Qingdao. I joined in happily, although somewhat bemused, at each increasingly beery celebration of our host, the worldly Captain Jau. My company, a gathering from four regions of China, was engaging me in Chinese drinking etiquette, in the city of Qingdao. A few drinks in the People's Republic of China led me to discover European delights and other unexpected finds in this modest city. You'd be forgiven for not knowing where Qingdao (pronounced Chingdao) is. The Chinese city in Shandong province doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as Beijing, Shanghai, or even Xi'an. The 2008 Olympics gave it a place on the map as China's sailing hub; no longer a secret that holiday-making officials could keep for themselves. But my American spell-check doesn't recognize it (which says more about my spell-check), and you can still find pre-Cultural Revolution manhole covers. So what is it about this city that seduces the unassuming traveler? Nestled on the coast of Shandong province, almost exactly halfway between its big sisters, Beijing and Shanghai, Qingdao features as a handy pit-stop on East coast itineraries. It boasts great infrastructure, a charming climate, alfresco eateries, good coffee, sandy beaches, German history, international hotels, a brand new airport and even a famous brewery. Qingdao could pass itself off as a miniature Seattle if it weren't for the fact that pretty much no one outside of the five-star hotels speaks English, and that communism still articulates itself through the tourist beaches, stoically named Number One to Number Six. \"In mainland China, Qingdao's history is uniquely international; in fact, more of the city's cultural identity is wrapped up in its German colonial past than even its prominent role in the emergence of Daoism\" said Eric Blocher, editor of the English-language magazine Red Star. \"The local culture bureau once joked to us that Qingdao is a 'cultural desert', because it doesn't have the dynastic lineage of Nanjing or Xi'an, or opera for that matter,\" Blocher said. \"But that's not what makes a city livable, or even fun -- if your office is in downtown, you're never more than five minutes from a protected beach; there's always excellent seafood close at hand; you can buy China's best beer fresh, for 10 cents a pound, and walk around drinking it out of a plastic bag.\" Following this key advice, I visited Qingdao during the International Beer Festival in late August, an event aimed largely at a domestic Chinese market. The West knows beer. China does not. The annual Beer Festival aims to change this. While the bright lights and myriad beers flowed, one thing was obvious: this was for the tourists. True Qingdaonese people are fiercely proud of Tsingtao beer, produced just down the road on Beer Street, and little else is drunk here in homes or bars. Pijiu, beer in Mandarin, is hajiu in Qingdaonese, the regional dialect. When in doubt, this does as well for a toast as anything else. Indeed, there is no better way of celebrating an occasion than by toasting the guest of honor with a bag of fresh beer. If I was the guest of honor at Captain Jau's table, I certainly wasn't living up to expectations. Particularly not for my self-appointed etiquette guardian and \"pure Qingdao boy,\" Loukas. As I raised my glass for a sip and Loukas jumped to toast the good weather for the nth time, it all became clear. In Qingdao, a beer glass is never raised without a toast. This serves three (frankly ingenious) purposes; beer is drunk in unison; beer isn't consumed too rapidly, since constant toasting would ruin conversation; and everyone finds ways to honor each other for the purposes of toasting. Captain Jau was particularly in favor of the latter as our eccentric host was made subject of most cheers, likewise teaching us the salutations he had learned from the many foreign guests he had cooked for. From the French \"salut!\" to the German \"prost!\" to the Turkish \"serefe!\" Most popular of all was homegrown \"hajiu!\" Alcohol is enjoyed throughout China. Microbreweries are yet to catch on here like they have in Japan and Singapore. For now Tsingtao holds the monopoly, and Qingdao's people aren't complaining. The Tsingtao Brewery, founded in 1903 by German settlers, confiscated by the Japanese in 1915, turned over to state ownership in 1949 and finally privatized in the early 1990s, has witnessed a colorful history. The largest stakeholder, Anheuser-Busch, recently sold majority ownership to Japanese Asahi Breweries. Residents are the first to introduce you to their biggest export. Outside every shop is a barrel or two of Tsingtao, with a ream of clean plastic bags ready to be filled with cheap 3.5 percent beer. Tsingtao beer tastes crisp and sweet (most likely from rice mixed in to cut down on the cost of barley. It is bought by the pound and weighed to prevent gaseous volume manipulation. A pint, when sold in this method, costs around 1.5 renminbi, or 22 U.S. cents. Beer is a way of life here and has been ever since the Germans arrived and erected tree-lined avenues, red-roofed houses and a brewery. The Germans are gone but the beer stayed. And with it, three hajiu-loving generations tell you about their happy memories. \"When I was little, buying beer was one special job I did for my dad every summer day,\" explained Irene Cheung over a fresh bag of beer. \"I was the little girl proudly and carefully carrying the plastic bag home.\" It is easier to identify Qingdao by what it is not -- smoggy, crowded Beijing, or nightlife hub Shanghai -- than what it is or hopes to be. This may be the very reason why Qingdao remains largely unvisited by the West. And while there may not be much more than good weather, food and beer to keep you content, that may just be enough to hop on the three-hour flight from Hong Kong, or the one hour 20 minute-journey from Beijing or Shanghai. Following Olympic-based investment, more than 3,000 factories have sprung up in the airport suburbs. You can source anything from shoes to jewels to Durex condoms among the largely Korean-owned industries. If these things aren't up your street, head elsewhere; like functionally named Beer Street, Bar Street, or my personal favorite, Coffee and Tea Craft Street. \"We used to have to put on parties so that there would be material to justify an English-oriented lifestyle magazine,\" editor Blocher said. \"Now we have trouble keeping track!\" Check out English-language newspaper Red Star, for informative listings and an insight into the growing English-speaking population that has stumbled upon and stayed in Qingdao.","highlights":"Qingdao is located in northeast China, north of Shanghai .\nThe city hosts a beer festival and is home to distinctive European architecture .\nThe Tsingtao Brewery was founded in 1903 by German settlers .","id":"47fe6eedb9a815bb9bf970cfc5bddd434e19a5ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- What can 40 goats and 20 cows buy a Kenyan man? Chelsea Clinton's love, if you ask Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor. Hillary Clinton says she would let her daughter Chelsea know about a Kenyan man's unique marriage offer. The Kenyan man first offered the dowry nine years ago to then-President Bill Clinton in asking for the hand of his only child. He renewed it Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the proposal at a Nairobi town hall session. CNN's Fareed Zakaria, the session's moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor's dowry was \"not a bad offer.\" However, Clinton said her daughter was her own person. \"She's very independent,\" she said. \"So I will convey this very kind offer.\" Watch Clinton's response to dowry offer \u00bb . The audience laughed, but Clinton's comments were no joke to Chepkurgor, who described the younger Clinton as a \"beautiful, disciplined and well-natured woman.\" \"Of course I have never met her, but I like her family and how they stick together,\" Chepkurgor told CNN. \"I've waited for a long time. I'm still waiting to meet her and express my love for her.\" Chepkurgor operates a small electronics and computer shop in Nakuru, a major city northwest of Nairobi. He may still be waiting for Chelsea, but he's not exactly single. He married his wife Grace, a college classmate, in 2006. \"My wife has no problem with this,\" he insisted. \"She listened to the answers given by Hillary and did not complain.\" Polygamy is legal in Kenya, so Chelsea would be Chepkurgor's second wife. \"Is that allowed in your side of the world?\" he laughed. In Kenya, a man proposes with dowry for the prospective bride, Chepkurgor explained. He said he stands by his initial livestock offer until someone makes a counteroffer. Chepkurgor, now 39, first made his intentions known when all three Clintons visited East Africa in 2000. He wrote a letter to the former president, offering himself as his only child's suitor. He said he had not expected the secretary of state to address the issue during her visit to Kenya this week. However, he admits his chances might be rather slim. \"Unfortunately, I don't have their contact information,\" he said. \"I just want to convey my message of goodwill to the Clintons,\" he said. \"And to all of America.\"","highlights":"In 2000, Kenyan man offered cows, goats for Chelsea Clinton's hand in marriage .\nIn recent town hall meeting, Hillary Clinton says she would convey offer to daughter .\nGodwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor is already married, says wife wouldn't mind .","id":"795758abe182dd5eba889e2bd526f338b072dc56"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Financing for DreamWorks Studios' partnership with one of India's richest men was finalized Monday, giving Steven Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider money to resume making movies. From left to right, Steven Spielberg, Anil Ambani, Stacey Snider and Amitahb Jhunjhunwala. The deal with Anil Ambani, chairman of India's Reliance BIG Entertainment, provides Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios with $875 million, coming from Ambani, the Walt Disney Co. and loans made by a syndicate of banks. Disney will distribute and market about six DreamWorks Studios films around the world each year, with the exception of India, where Reliance will have those rights. Spielberg and Snider found themselves in need of financial partners last year when he cut ties with Paramount Pictures and began rebuilding DreamWorks into an independent studio. Although the deal, which was announced last year, has been characterized in some reports as \"Hollywood meets Bollywood,\" Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider will have creative control over productions. \"This will allow us to move ahead quickly into production with our first group of films,\" Snider and Spielberg said in a joint statement. Reliance BIG Entertainment is part of the Reliance group controlled by billionaire Ambani. \"Our partnership with Stacey and Steven is the cornerstone of our Hollywood strategy as we grow our film interests across the globe,\" Ambani said. \"Given our faith in the business plan that they presented to us and despite the current economic climate, we were always confident that this day would come. Now Stacey and Steven can focus on producing more of the great films for which they are renowned.\" Ambani, whose company owns hundreds of theater screens across South Asia, has also invested development money this year with other Hollywood production companies, including those owned by actors Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Jim Carrey. A DreamWorks announcement said that J.P. Morgan brought together the syndicate of banks to provide about $325 million in funding. The banks include Bank of America, City National Bank, Wells Fargo, Comerica, Union Bank of California, SunTrust, California Bank & Trust, and Israel Discount Bank. One of the first movies to go into production will be \"Harvey,\" an adaptation of the play that won a Pulitzer for playwright Mary Chase. The tale about a man and his invisible bunny friend was first made into a movie, starring Jimmy Stewart, in 1950. Spielberg's long career as a screenwriter, director and producer has included classic blockbusters \"E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,\" the \"Indiana Jones\" series and \"Saving Private Ryan.\"","highlights":"Steven Spielberg finalizes partnership with Indian tycoon, gets cash infusion .\nPartnership with Anil Ambani provides $875 million for DreamWorks .\nSpielberg's first film planned: remake of classic \"Harvey\"","id":"de349be415a9d99fac1af40a62893bd53d1b4afe"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- More than 80 years after his family was ordered from the country, the grandson of one of the last Ottoman sultans was buried Saturday as hundreds of admirers looked on. Relatives carry the coffin of Osman on Saturday after his funeral ceremony in Istanbul. Ertugrul Osman, grandson of Sultan Abdulhamid II and heir to the Ottoman throne, died this week in Istanbul of kidney failure at the age of 97, after having lived most of his life in exile in a humble third-floor walk-up apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Osman's funeral in the garden of the mammoth Sultanahmet Mosque was attended by Turkish state ministers, artists and media glitterati. They lined up to pay their respects to Osman's widow, Zeynep Osman, herself a descendant of the royal family of Afghanistan. One woman pressed her forehead to Mrs. Osman's hand in a traditional Turkish show of respect, saying \"I'm just an ordinary person, but I would like to kiss your hand.\" \"His death marks the passing of an era,\" wrote Jason Goodwin, author of \"Lords of the Horizons,\" which tells the history of the Ottoman Empire, in an e-mail to CNN. \"Osman himself was born into a family that still ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean. He was named after the founder of his dynasty, who lived seven centuries ago.\" During annual campaigns at the peak of its power, the Ottoman Sultan's army of Janissaries struck fear into the hearts of European monarchs. For 400 years, the Ottomans declared themselves the \"caliphs\" -- spiritual leaders -- of the Muslim world. But the empire declined during the 19th century, eventually suffering a humiliating defeat and partition at the hands of Allied armies during World War I. In 1922, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, sent the last Ottoman sultan packing aboard a British warship. Two years later, Ataturk banned the caliphate, declaring Turkey a secular state. Ertugrul Osman, who had played as a boy in the imperial palaces of Istanbul, was sent with the rest of his family into exile. He lived for decades in Europe, then moved after World War II to the United States. Friends say he ran a successful mining business in Chile. They described Osman as a polyglot Renaissance man with a passion for politics and opera and a taste for evening cocktails. Over the years, Osman told reporters he had no interest in assuming the Ottoman throne. In the early 1990s, after more than half a century outside the country, Osman returned to Turkey at the invitation of a Turkish prime minister. Friends say that, prior to getting a Turkish passport in 2004, he traveled using documents identifying him as an Ottoman citizen. The hundreds of mourners at Saturday's funeral stunned other surviving members of the Ottoman royal family. One man rushed Bulent Osman, a tall, elderly French-born nephew of the deceased, kissing his hand and crying in Turkish? \"My prince, we are guilty for how we treated you!\" \"I am not a prince,\" Osman later explained to a reporter in French-accented English. \"I am quite surprised. It is the first time I have seen such an outpouring.\" The royal family seems to be especially revered by devout muslim Turks, who see the sultan's descendants as a link to the abolished Islamic caliphate. \"They are our grandfathers,\" said a young man named Fatih, who wore the long beard, turban and robes of a fundamentalist Islamic sect. \"They glorified our religion and brought it to the highest level.\" The funeral was attended by an eclectic mix of mourners -- stylishly dressed members of the royal family who grew up in Europe alongside fervent Islamists, some of whom pushed through the crowd ordering women to move to the back to pray. Hundreds of police officers blocked traffic as Osman was buried in a garden filled with the gravestones of Ottoman pashas and viziers, beside the ornate tombs of his grandfather Sultan Abdulhamid II and another ancestor, Sultan Mahmut II. Osman's death serves as a reminder of Turkey's recent, yet often forgotten Ottoman history, said historian Jason Goodwin. \"His funeral may be a catalyst for modern, republican Turkey to overcome its historical amnesia, and come to terms with its own past,\" Goodwin said.","highlights":"Grandson of one of the last Ottoman sultans was buried Saturday .\nErtugrul Osman died this week in Istanbul of kidney failure at the age of 97 .\nOsman's funeral attended by Turkish state ministers, artists, media glitterati .","id":"1154a968e79e9d78c995913218b7d9cd6ca0bb69"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The global economic crisis has caused a spike in world hunger that has left more than a billion undernourished, United Nations agencies said in a new report. The report says the stabilization of financial markets has meant less investment in agriculture, food distribution. \"It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry,\" said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme. \"At a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory.\" The report by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization was released Wednesday, ahead of World Food Day on Friday. Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries, according to the report. An estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific. An additional 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa while 95 million come from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Near East and North Africa. The final 15 million live in developed nations. Should developed economies be doing more to eradicate hunger, poverty? The number of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold and governments pumped resources into stabilizing financial markets. The move meant smaller investments in agriculture and food distribution. \"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis, and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty,\" said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO. \"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable.\" The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises. \"We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs -- we just need the resources and the international commitment to do the job,\" Sheeran said.","highlights":"World Food Programme: One in six of world's population is now going hungry .\nNearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries .\nNumber of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold, report says .\nCalls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger .","id":"dac087b1a38d6cb2bcffe3718500e6cdc6c4c4c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Emma Watson may have wanted to just blend in when she started her freshman year recently at Brown University, but it seems not everyone has the same idea. \"Harry Potter\" actress Emma Watson is an incoming freshman at Brown University in Rhode Island. The actress, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the \"Harry Potter\" films, showed up last week at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, where new students were treated to orientation activities before the official start of classes on Wednesday. Watson was photographed looking very relaxed in jean shorts and a white T-shirt, but reports are that her introduction to academia has been less than low-key, with much excitement being stirred by her presence. The blog Just Jared reported that while the British actress visited the campus on Friday with her mother and her boyfriend, Jay Barrymore, Twitter user @cupcakenar sent out the following tweet: \"My dad made Emma Watson mad by taking a photo of her going inside the Financial Aid office at Brown. She was with her mom & boyfriend.\" Celebrities furthering their education are not new, but with the advent of social networking sites, stars' every move can be tracked and reported. When actor James Franco apparently fell asleep during a lecture at Columbia University in New York City earlier this year, a photo snapped by a classmate made the rounds online and prompted many a tweet. Franco, who has appeared in films such as \"Spiderman\" and the critically acclaimed \"Milk,\" was reported to be taking classes at Columbia and New York University while also writing a book. Paparazzi were on high alert when Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen began attending classes at NYU in 2004. Photos appeared constantly of the tiny twosome -- often with bodyguards in tow -- on their way to and from class after they moved from Los Angeles to New York City for school. Stars such as Julia Stiles, who enrolled in Columbia, and Natalie Portman, who attended Harvard, have tried to be as under the radar as possible while pursuing their education. According to a 2003 article about Portman in the university's Harvard Crimson newspaper, the \"Star Wars\" actress lived on campus her freshman and sophomore years while pursuing a degree in psychology. Portman told the college publication that she was able to enjoy her time as a student, despite her celebrity status. \"At the beginning of college I was talking to people who were actors who had gone to college, and I heard awful stories about people getting 200 visitors a year knocking on their dorm room, or having awful stalker issues,\" Portman said. \"But I've not been bothered once, and that's also thanks to the police here, who have been really wonderful.\" Watson also has been quoted as saying she just wants to be treated as a regular student. \"I do hope that it will be only a short time before I am known as Emma Watson the student from the UK, rather than Emma Watson who starred in the 'Harry Potter' films,\" Watson said. The \"Harry Potter\" actress isn't the only famous student taking her seat at an Ivy League school this year. The Boston Globe reported that actress Ashley Judd has enrolled in Harvard's Kennedy School's Mid-Career Master in Public Administration program and asked officials to take additional measures to ensure her privacy. The paper reported that school officials complied, including having the registrar put a privacy block on Judd's file to prevent information about the actress from being made public and arranging to have Harvard police present during the program's coffee breaks. In speaking with the Boston Globe, Brown University's director of communications Mark Nickel declined to confirm that Watson was a student there, but he did say the school might take extra precautions to protect a young wizard. ''We do whatever we need to do to ensure safety and privacy, and that applies pretty much to all students,\" Nickel said.","highlights":"British actress Emma Watson participated in freshman orientation at Brown .\nThe \"Harry Potter\" actress' enrollment at the university has sparked interest .\nStars such as James Franco and Natalie Portman have also gone Ivy League .\nBoston Globe reports actress Ashley Judd asked Harvard to protect her privacy .","id":"e49fa305e7bf60be40071f42ea925a6a4274050d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A judge has ruled in favor of two Florida school administrators who faced contempt charges for saying a prayer at a school luncheon, according to a group that helped represent them. Rep. Mike McIntyre is one of three members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus backing the school officials. U.S. District Judge M.C. Rodgers ruled Thursday in favor of Frank Lay, principal of Pace High School in Pace, Florida, and school athletic director Robert Freeman, the Liberty Counsel said. Lay and Freeman could have faced up to six months in prison and fines if convicted. They were accused of violating a consent decree banning county school employees from initiating prayers during school events. Ahead of the court proceedings, hundreds of supporters lined the streets outside the federal courthouse in Pensacola, Florida. Many of them carried signs and some sang songs. \"It is ridiculous that these men even had to think twice about blessing a meal,\" Liberty Counsel founder Matthew Staver said in a written statement. \"To criminalize the prayer conflicts with our nation's founding and guiding principles and goes directly against our constitutionally protected rights.\" But the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the consent decree, has maintained students have a right to be free from administrators who foist their personal religious beliefs on them. Still, an ACLU representative has said the organization \"never suggested\" people should go to jail for violating the decree, and the organization was not involved in the criminal proceedings. The ACLU filed suit last year against the district on behalf of two Pace students who alleged that \"school officials regularly promoted religion and led prayers at school events,\" according to an ACLU statement. Lay was a party in the initial lawsuit, and his attorney was among those approving the consent decree, according to the organization. In addition, the court required that all district employees receive a copy. But on January 28, \"Lay asked Freeman to offer a prayer of blessing during a school-day luncheon for the dedication of a new field house at Pace High School,\" according to court documents. \"Freeman complied with the request and offered the prayer at the event. It appears this was a school-sponsored event attended by students, faculty and community members.\" Attorneys from Liberty Counsel have said that attendees included booster club members and other adults who helped the field house project -- all \"consenting adults.\" The case caught the attention of members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, including the caucus' founder, Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Virginia. He and two other lawmakers, Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-North Carolina, and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, also members of the caucus, wrote a letter in support of the two school administrators, saying that \"many of America's Founding Fathers were resolute in their faiths, and the impact of such is evident in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and many of their writings.\" It added, \"The tradition of offering prayer in America has become so interwoven into our nation's spiritual heritage that to charge someone criminally for engaging in such a practice would astonish the men who founded this country on religious liberty.\"","highlights":"Two Florida school administrators accused of violating consent order on prayer .\nThey faced possible sentence of up to six months in prison, fine .\nACLU sued district on behalf of students who alleged prayer held at school events .\nParties agreed to consent decree in January; ACLU not part of criminal proceedings .","id":"06dbe0b5a4d314e8f59551a448b47ea99b16ee56"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Rev. Franklin Graham has arrived in North Korea bearing a gift for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday. The Rev. Franklin Graham reportedly will oversee the delivery of $190,000 in equipment for a dental school. Graham handed the present, which was not identified, to a high-ranking official Wednesday to give to Kim, the Korean Central News Agency reported. Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the president of Samaritan's Purse, arrived Tuesday in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, KCNA said. On its Web site, Samaritan's Purse said Franklin Graham was to meet with high-level government officials and to inspect medical facilities that the organization has installed. \"I believe it is important to make visits like this to help improve relations and to have a better understanding with each other,\" Graham said, according to the Samaritan's Purse Web site. The group said Graham will visit a hospital and also will oversee the delivery of $190,000 in equipment to outfit a dental school that can train up to 70 dentists per year. KCNA reported that Graham said he hoped he could act as a bridge for better relations between the United States and North Korea. The visit marks Graham's third trip to North Korea. His father visited the country in 1992 and 1994 and met with President Kim Il Sung, Samaritan's Purse said. His mother, the late Ruth Bell Graham, attended a mission school in Pyongyang in 1934, the organization said. Later this week, Graham is scheduled to travel to China, where he'll dedicate a clinic that Samaritan's Purse built, visit a city destroyed by last year's earthquake and speak at churches, the organization said.","highlights":"The Rev. Franklin Graham makes third trip to North Korea .\nGraham aims for better ties between North Korea and U.S., news agency says .\nSon of evangelist Billy Graham to meet with top officials, visit medical facilities .\nFranklin Graham also set to travel to China .","id":"f7950370bc9993ebe81eecec5f8d3c6838e45096"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It seems no-one in South Africa can fail to be gripped by World Cup football fever. The running, tackling, shooting, offside-appealing proof comes with a clutch of grannies who have been playing in a fiercely competitive league around the Nkowankowa township, 600 kilometers north of Johannesburg. A squad of 35 nans down domestic duties twice a week to take to the field for their team Vakhegula Vakhegula, and compete against seven other teams in the region. Some of them even credit the beautiful game as having turned their lives around. \"I like to play soccer because it helps,\" said Nari Baloyi, who at 47-years-old, clocks in as one of the youngest players. \"We were sick, but now our temperatures, our blood pressures... have gone down ...even our doctors are amazed when we go for a check-up.\" One of the more elderly members, Nora Makhubela, is convinced that football has given her a new lease of life following the setback of suffering six strokes. \"My life has really changed...if I were to run with you I would beat you even though I'm much older,\" she said, throwing down the gauntlet to the likes of Ronaldo, Messi et al. \"My life has improved because of the football. I wish God could bless the person who came up with this great idea.\" The women contribute around $1 a month each for footballs, kit, and travel to the bi-annual regional tournament. Dozens of noisy fans cheer on the players, with the distinctive sound of the vuvuzelas -- a South African trumpet -- creating an atmosphere that would be welcome at any European Champions League tie. Makhubela is hoping her new-found love of the game extends long enough for her to be able to watch some of the matches when the World Cup begins in June. \"I pray every day to God to keep me alive until 2010. I would really love to watch the games,\" she said. The team was formed three years ago to offer older women a chance to exercise and come together as a group, says community worker Beka Ntsanwisi. \"Some of them couldn't even walk properly and if they did something in their free time they would be knitting or sewing and sitting all the time...here they run, shout, fight with you...it keeps them young,\" she said. David Maake said his job coaching the team is the best he's ever had. \"With young boys you need more money to achieve many things...here, I may come with my stress...but I will laugh so much until I forget everything,\" he said. The team have even suggested they play a curtain raiser for the main event itself, a brainwave the footballing authorities have said they will give serious thought to. If the women do manage to take part as an hors d'oeuvre to the World Cup proper one thing is for sure, what they lack in skill they will make up for in enthusiasm.","highlights":"Grannies in a South African township have taken up football .\nThe women have been inspired by World Cup fever in the country .\nSome women have reported improving health as a result of playing the game .\nThe grannies may play a match as a curtain raiser to the tournament .","id":"9c8c061899756b3127cec4070bba5aa978e2c3a3"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Seydi Burciaga just finished her overnight shift at Sam's Club, where she worked for the past 10 years. She made her way through the pouring rain in her minivan and turned onto her cul-de-sac in suburban Atlanta. Seydi and Pedro Burciaga were married for 14 years with two children. \"She was a very loving mother,\" he said. She was three-tenths of a mile from home. The mother of two young children never made it. Floodwaters from a swollen creek swept her Nissan Quest from Desiree Drive around 5 a.m. Monday. On a normal day, the creek is only a few feet wide. But days of nonstop rain turned the seemingly harmless waterway into a raging river. It sits at the bottom of a steep hill on a street with no lights. It would've been nearly impossible to see the swift-moving water or how deep it was in the pre-dawn darkness. Her car was picked up and carried behind an elementary school and lodged in trees. Water was coming in fast, she told a 911 dispatcher. Listen to the frantic 911 call \u00bb . \"Please, come help me,\" she says, her voice cracking. \"Please.\" The 911 dispatcher draws silent for a moment. \"Alright, ma'am. Just stay as calm as possible.\" During the next 12 minutes, the dispatcher would try to reassure Burciaga as she elicited clues as to the caller's exact whereabouts. It was a neighborhood Burciaga knew well. She'd lived there for the past decade. She was known as the neighborhood mom who would take anyone who needed help to the dentist or the doctor. Fluent in Spanish, she would often act as translator. \"She was a very loving mother, a good wife, a strong woman,\" said Pedro Burciaga, her husband of 14 years. \"She liked helping everyone, and overall she worked very hard. ... She always had a smile for everyone.\" As her life teetered in the balance, she described being near a yellow house and tried to give other details of where her vehicle was. The 911 call was one of more than 400 before daybreak Monday that sent rescue crews through the floodwaters of Gwinnett County, a large suburban county northeast of Atlanta. \"My car is turning. Now the wheels is getting up, and I'm going to drown,\" Burciaga says. A fire rescue team was at the scene by 5:09 a.m. Police arrived at 5:13 a.m. She was still on the phone with dispatch. The entire roadway was submerged by 5 or 6 feet of water. Nearby parked vehicles were nearly covered by the rushing water. An outbuilding had been carried from its foundation. Watch how to escape from a sinking car \u00bb . \"Listen to me. You're not going to drown. Roll down your windows, if you're able to, and get out of your vehicle,\" the 911 dispatcher says. \"I'm in the back of my car. I don't know if I can break it,\" Burciaga says. \"Ma'am, if you can break it, break it. Do whatever you can to get out of your vehicle.\" \"Yes, please, but my car is --\" \"It doesn't matter about your car,\" the dispatcher says. \"What matters is your life. We're going to save your life.\" A few moments later, the waters intensify. \"It's taking me down now,\" Burciaga says, crying. \"It's taking you down,\" the dispatcher repeats. \"Just stay on the phone with me. I'm right here. I'm gonna stay with you.\" \"Please! It's going to drown --\" \"OK, listen, you're not going to drown. We're going to be there for you. Just stay with me, OK?\" \"OK, OK,\" Burciaga says. Moments later, she shrieks, \"Oh my God!\" Her voice grows more concerned. Her cell phone goes out at 5:16 a.m. According to a police report, rescue crews tried to swim into the water to find her, but the waters were moving too fast, and they couldn't spot her. After about an hour, the waters receded. Her vehicle was 300 yards away. She was found across the back seats of her minivan. She was dressed in blue jeans, a green shirt and gray tennis shoes. Burciaga, a Mexican immigrant, was to turn 40 on November 18. She was the mother of a 9-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Her ritual every night was to tuck them in bed before heading off to work. \"She would give them a blessing, a kiss,\" her husband told CNN. Burciaga's death was one of at least nine in severe flooding that has shut down roads across north Georgia and caused gridlock on Atlanta's already congested highways. See flood photos across the Southeast \u00bb . Her death troubled even the most veteran law enforcement personnel. \"There's really no words to describe it,\" said Gwinnett County police spokesman David Shiralli. \"We're here to save lives when we can. When we do everything in our power and we still fail at it, it makes us feel bad.\" On the quiet street where Burciaga lived, residents made a makeshift memorial at the small bridge over the creek. Flowers were placed at the foot of the street; an angel figurine stood with her hands clasped in prayer. Nearby, shrubbery was flattened, possibly from her vehicle. The creek was back to being a tiny waterway. Residents said it floods often during rainstorms, but they'd never seen anything like Monday. \"At night when it's dark and water is covering the road, you can't really see it. It's not the first time it has overran, but it's never been that high before,\" said Nathaniel Knight, who lived next door to Burciaga for the past five years. Knight was still shaken by her death. \"She's just a really nice person, a woman that works the night shift. Just so nice.\" He said he felt for her husband: \"This just has to be horrible, just devastating for him.\" A viewing for friends and relatives was held Tuesday evening. In nearby Duluth, her colleagues at Sam's Club were beginning their night shift, minus their colleague of the past decade. \"We've lost a valued member of our family, and we will always remember her smile,\" said store manager Annette Gillespie. \"She was an outstanding associate and hard worker, but most importantly, she was our friend.\" Her husband struggled for words. His favorite memory: \"Her smile, how she was with my children. She loved them a lot. She gave them lots of love.\" How so? \"With kisses, hugs,\" he said, gently. \"Now I'm destroyed because I'm going to miss her a lot.\" CNN's Mallory Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mother of two gets swept away in floods, pleads for help in 911 call .\nRescuers were on the scene as she spoke but couldn't locate her .\nCalm 911 dispatcher: \"What matters is your life. We're going to save your life.\"\nWoman was to turn 40 in November; she had worked at Sam's Club for 10 years .","id":"4461292bec9bd974c0d5dcd40bf437219d0e1a67"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Google said Tuesday's widespread Gmail outage occurred when the company took some servers offline to perform routine maintenance, causing its remaining routers to become overloaded with traffic. Many Gmail users encountered this error message when trying to access their e-mail Tuesday. \"We know how many people rely on Gmail for personal and professional communications, and we take it very seriously when there's a problem with the service,\" wrote Ben Treynor, a Google vice president of engineering, Tuesday in a 9:59 p.m. ET post on the Gmail blog. \"Thus, right up front, I'd like to apologize to all of you -- today's outage was a Big Deal, and we're treating it as such,\" Treynor wrote. Gmail, Google's popular free e-mail service, was inaccessible to many of its tens of millions of users for about 100 minutes Tuesday afternoon, prompting widespread chatter on Twitter and other social networks. Gmail's problems were a top trending topic on Twitter, with users trading updates and posting links to blogs such as Mashable, which published a post called, \"5 Things to Do While Gmail is Down.\" (No. 1: \"Immediately flood Twitter with tweets alternately proclaiming 'Gmail is down!' and inquiring 'Is Gmail down?' \") \"When something like this used to happen, you would wonder if it was just you,\" Rachel Sklar, editor-at-large of Mediaite.com, told CNN. \"Here, it was immediate that you knew what was going on because of Twitter, and you knew that everyone had the same problems.\" People couldn't access Gmail via the Web interface Tuesday because their requests couldn't be routed to a Gmail server, Treynor explained. He said Google's engineers are compiling a list of things they intend to fix or improve as a result of their investigation into the outage. \"We've turned our full attention to helping ensure this kind of event doesn't happen again. Some of the actions are straightforward and are already done -- for example, increasing request router capacity well beyond peak demand to provide headroom,\" he wrote. Gmail had 36.9 million U.S. users in June, according to ComScore, a company that measures Internet use. Gmail remains the third-most popular Web-based e-mail service, after Yahoo! Mail and Microsoft's Hotmail. CNN Audience Interaction Producer Eric Kuhn contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Gmail outage occurred when some servers were taken offline for maintenance .\nNEW: Google says its remaining routers became overloaded with traffic .\nGoogle's free e-mail service suffered widespread outage Tuesday afternoon .\nGoogle said Gmail outage lasted about an hour and 40 minutes .","id":"f1ea3cf588cc7dd1c7947aac3cb2cfd259bf29da"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Every day, tens of thousands of fertilized hen eggs are delivered to Sinovac laboratories in Beijing. Each egg is infected with the H1N1 virus, then incubated for three days. White-coated employees examine every egg individually before the virus is extracted and used to make a vaccine. Vials of H1N1 vaccine before they are labeled and packaged. Sinovac Biotech Ltd. was the first company in the world to successfully complete clinical trials for an H1N1 vaccine. It was also the first company approved by the Chinese government to produce millions of doses for the public. China is set to become the first country to begin mass inoculations sometime around the beginning of October. According to Sinovac CEO Yin Weidong, the secret lies in years of vaccine research and development. Sinovac was the first and only company ever to create a vaccine for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the worldwide pandemic that left almost 350 people in China dead. The SARS vaccine was never used. By the time it was discovered, the outbreak had subsided. However, the breakthrough has enabled Sinovac to stay ahead of the curve. Watch as the H1N1 vaccine is produced \u00bb . \"The SARS vaccine helped us achieve the H5N1 (bird flu) vaccine, which helped us get the H1N1 vaccine,\" says CEO Yin Weidong. \"That's why we could be so fast and be the first.\" Since Sinovac's success, at least two other Chinese companies and several around the world have also produced H1N1 vaccines. China has reportedly ordered 3.3 million vaccines from Sinovac, 4 million from Hualan Biological and another 3 million from the Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences. According to Yin, the main challenge for China will be providing enough vaccines for everyone. \"A country with 1.3 billion people needs 1.3 billion vaccines,\" he says. Watch report on China's inoculation preparations \u00bb . The Chinese government has long warned an outbreak of H1N1 could be catastrophic in a massive country with an underdeveloped health system. In recent weeks, the instances of H1N1 infections have risen dramatically throughout the mainland. There have been more than 9,000 cases of the H1N1 virus in China so far, and more than half of them have happened in the last few weeks alone. \"It's basically affected all provinces of China and we're worried because of the sheer number of people involved,\" says Vivian Tan, communications director for the World Health Organization in China. \"It's moving from the urban and coastal areas into more rural remote areas.\" According to the WHO, the rapid acceleration of H1N1 is occurring in part because flu season is starting, the weather is cooling down and school is back in session. More than 80 percent of China's swine flu cases have occurred in schools or due to school-related activities. China has had perhaps the most extreme and active response to the virus than any other country in the world. For months, masked Chinese officials have boarded international flights upon arrival, checking all passengers' temperatures and administered health surveys before granting entry. Thousands have been quarantined, including entire flights and school groups. Health authorities have heavily publicized the risks posed by the virus and rolled out a Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment plan, as an alternative to the vaccines produced by Sinovac and others. Yet, some Chinese citizens remain skeptical that a vaccine is even necessary in the first place. \"It doesn't seem like my baby is going to catch the swine flu,\" says one mother at a hospital in central Beijing. \"And what if it affects his health in the future? I'm just going to avoid crowded areas.\" Like any vaccine, the WHO has warned the H1N1 vaccine may have negative side effects. Sinovac plans to track and test patients for several years after vaccinations are administered to determine if there are any dangers. Ultimately, in China, the central concern remains that the H1N1 virus itself could expand and spin out of control. According to Tan of the WHO, \"I think one of our biggest fears is that (the H1N1 virus) could re-assort with the H5N1 avian flu virus that's out there, to create this 'superbug' which is both easily transmissible, quite lethal and quite deadly.\"","highlights":"Inside the Chinese lab that has created world's first H1N1 vaccine .\nSinovac Biotech Ltd is first company approved by the Chinese government .\nThe company will now produce millions of doses for the public .\nSinovac got headstart after creating a vaccine during SARS pandemic .","id":"5dfd315b8986f1cd27e6a874cad994b4ba843bf5"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Even if you're not going to Fiji or the Maldives, accidentally ending up in a popular honeymooning spot while not actually on your honeymoon is easier than you think, especially with the abundance of all-inclusive deals online. Just because your hotel mates are on a romantic getaway doesn't mean they're not open to company. If watching smooching couples while chilling out with your friends makes you want to puke, no worries. You can still have a blast, even if you're not traveling with your newly committed soul mate. Relax . You probably chose the fantastic place because you found a great deal to an amazing destination (much like your cuddling neighbors), so take advantage. Hit the spa, do some yoga, swim or make time for the mellow activities that are tough to fit in back home. While you probably won't meet the guy of your dreams lying motionless in a mud wrap, you'll be Zen enough to have a new outlook once your return home. Don't underestimate the locals (or the ex-patriot) There's nothing better than getting to know a place by hanging out with people who can tell you more than a guidebook about the area's culture and hidden gems. Have a glass of wine and chat up the bartender (or the person with the best English if you're abroad) or find out about an area of town where the ex-patriots live. Especially if you've been away from home for a long time, an American omelet or bagel can keep you smiling. Make friends . Just because your hotel mates are using the vacation as a romantic getaway doesn't mean that they are not open to meeting others on their travels. There's a chance you'll end up chatting with a couple who bores you with the details of their wedding, but you might luck out and make a few friends (who perhaps will save you seats at the breakfast buffet the next morning). Plan activities . Jet skiing, para-gliding, R.V. treks -- take advantage of all the offerings, that way you'll have fun and burn some of the calories you've packed on by sipping cocktails on the beach all day. Besides experiencing new things, you may run across others who have unknowingly booked the same Travelocity deal without any romantic intentions. Come prepared . With portable board games, books, cards and an unlimited amount of iPod-fueled music, keeping busy in a honeymoon spot can seem a bit like summer camp (but with booze). Use the time a couple might spend in their room getting busy to work on your Scrabble skills, or catch up on all the new music you've downloaded but have yet to hear. And if you forgot your iPod, don't like spas, and can't find anyone in the entire city who isn't newly married and in love, you and your travel-mates can always place bets on which honeymooning couple will be the first to break up. TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"It's easy to accidentally wind up in a popular honeymoon spot while traveling .\nHit the spa, do some yoga or swim, author suggests .\nThere's nothing better than getting to know a place by hanging out with locals .\nAuthor: Come prepared with board games, iPod music, etc.","id":"1ea94800f13a5d5483ee91c8839809eb41b45afb"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An investigation commissioned by the city of New York found private gun vendors selling weapons to buyers who admitted not being able to pass background checks, breaking federal law, a report released Wednesday says. It is illegal for unlicensed sellers to sell a gun if there is reason to think the buyer would fail a background check. The sales were made at seven gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada, the report says. Hired investigators with hidden cameras were able to purchase guns from private sellers after announcing to the vendors they could not pass a background check, it says. Nineteen of the 30 private sellers the undercover investigators dealt with failed the integrity test, according to the report. The law does not require private unlicensed sellers at gun shows to do background checks on their customers. However, it is a federal felony for unlicensed sellers to sell a gun if they have a reason to believe the buyer would fail a background check. There were no arrests and no lawsuit were filed. \"Closing the gun show loophole has nothing to do with the Second Amendment,\" Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference Wednesday. \"It is basic law enforcement, plain and simple.\" He said he does not want to shut down gun shows but to change the law. He cited a 2000 study from the then-Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms saying 30 percent of guns involved in federal illegal gun trafficking investigations are connected in some way to gun shows. The figure is disputed by gun proponents. \"We believe anyone who breaks the law should be arrested, prosecuted and punished,\" the National Rifle Association said in a statement supplied to CNN. \"Instead of working with law enforcement to bring those who may have broken the law to justice, Mayor Bloomberg chose to use this information for a press conference. Bloomberg's priorities are clearly media first, justice later.\" But Bloomberg has support from some in Washington, including Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey. \"This investigation reveals how easy it is for criminals and even terrorists to purchase firearms at gun shows and is further proof that we must close the gun show loophole,\" Lautenberg said in a written statement.","highlights":"Sales made at gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee, Nevada, report says .\n19 of 30 private sellers in sting failed the integrity test, according to the report .\nClosing gun-show loophole \"is basic law enforcement,\" NYC mayor says .\nIt \"has nothing to do with the Second Amendment,\" said Mayor Michael Bloomberg .","id":"849f83fda2d691db9cddfd84058a17f4ec824080"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary Austrian skier Hermann Maier has ended his illustrious career at the age of 36 despite having recovered from knee surgery. Hermann Maier is known for his spectacular all-action style -- and crashes -- on the piste. The two-time Olympic champion, winner of three world titles and four World Cup overall crowns, has fought back to full fitness after his operation at the end of March, but decided he was ready to bow out after a 13-season career. \"I have decided that I will draw a line and end my career as a ski racer as of today,\" Maier told reporters in Vienna on Tuesday. \"My big goal was to get back in shape physically, and I have achieved exactly that. \"With regard to my future life, my health was paramount for me and that's why I'm calling it quits now.\" Maier, who won gold in the super-G and giant slalom events at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, is known for his spectacular crashes on the piste -- and he overcame a near-fatal motorcycle accident in August 2001 which ruled him out of skiing for a year. He bounced back to win a World Cup event two weeks after his return in January 2003, and the next year reclaimed his super-G and overall World Cup titles. Nicknamed \"The Herminator\" for his physical, all-action style, Maier is the second-most successful male skier after Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark with 54 World Cup race victories to his name. He won two world titles in super-G and downhill at Vail, Colorado in 1999, and claimed gold in the giant slalom in Bormio, Italy in 2005.","highlights":"Legendary Austrian skier Hermann Maier ends his illustrious career at age of 36 .\nTwo-time Olympic champion has recently recovered from knee surgery in March .\nHe says he wanted to quit while still in good physical condition .\nMaier is second-most successful male skier ever with 54 World Cup race wins .","id":"de0017d45b1b5ccbc9b9b958c1591ca119575a25"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The longest solar eclipse of the century cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the celestial spectacle. A woman looks through a refractor telescope with a solar filter on top of the roof of a school in Hong Kong. Day turned into night. Temperatures turned cooler. The total eclipse could be seen starting in India on Wednesday morning and moving eastward across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, China and parts of the Pacific. Millions cast their eyes towards the heavens to catch a rare view of the sun's corona. Cloud cover in some areas prevented people from fully savoring the phenomenon. Still, many were awed. Tim O'Rourke, a 45-year-old freelance photographer from Detroit, Michigan, lives in Hong Kong but traveled up to Shanghai -- touted as one of the best spots to watch the eclipse. . Watch the scene in Shanghai as day turns into night \u00bb . \"It was pitch black like midnight,\" said O'Rourke, standing in People's Square with what appeared to be a crowd of thousands. Read blog on CNN reporter's first eclipse experience . \"Definitely not disappointed we came. Of course it would have been much better with nice weather, blue skies. But still it was a great experience, it was a lot of fun.\" he said. Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth's orbit. Wednesday's event lasted up to more than six minutes in some places. Send us your photos of the eclipse . Generally considered an inauspicious day in India, thousands took a dip in the Ganges River in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi to cleanse their souls, CNN's sister station CNN-IBN reported. It was sunny skies in Hong Kong, where students, parents and the elderly flooded a primary school to watch the eclipse in the southern Chinese enclave. The local astronomy society gave a presentation on how an eclipse happens and children climbed up ladders to look through two large telescopes on the school roof -- packed with skygazers -- to catch a glimpse of the moon moving across the sun. Read blog on Mother Nature conducting grand eclipse show Others looked through binoculars covered with solar filter paper or through a large rectangular block labeled \"Large Solar Filter,\" where they could take pictures of the moon moving over the sun. Astronomy enthusiast Louis Chung, 13, brought his teacher to the school to witness the eclipse. \"City folks wouldn't usually be able to see this. Nature is wonderful. It is awesome to know that nature can provide such spectacular sights,\" said Chung, a member of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society. \"Nature is incredible, and there is too much we don't know about,\" said another Hong Kong local, Yee Ping, a journalist for a financial newspaper. \"We try to know more and see by our own eyes so we can feel the power of nature.\" Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the total eclipse will first be visible at sunrise in India and about four hours later just east of Hawaii. A partial eclipse will be visible as far south as northern Australia and as far north as Siberia, he said. In some cultures, legends and folklore surrounds eclipses. Watch as eclipse-watchers head to China \u00bb . In India, an eclipse is considered inauspicious. Women forbid pregnant daughters-in-law from going outside out of the belief that their children could be born with marks. Some temples won't offer any prayers on the day of an eclipse -- such as the one next to the planetarium in Mumbai, which said it won't even light a stick of incense. In Chinese tradition, there is a story about a heavenly dog eating the sun. As the story goes, people would make noise to scare off the dog and rescue the sun, said Bill Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society. \"In ancient China, we shared the same impression with our Indian friends that a solar eclipse was not a good thing,\" he told CNN. Read blog on how eclipse-chasers are gambling on weather . Some of the more unusual ways to see Wednesday's eclipse include a cruise ship that will travel along the centerline off Japan and from aboard a 737-700 chartered plane in India. More conventional viewing parties in Shanghai had been planned along the beach, in a park and in skyscrapers. A music festival has been organized in Japan's Amami island, with more than 6,000 people expected, and Japanese television has shown rows of tents set up on Akusekijima island. The witnesses of the eclipse will range \"from the farmer who only knows legends of eclipses and may not know this is happening at all to the world's experts who have come specifically to the Shanghai region to make the most detailed scientific analysis possible,\" added Binzel, the MIT astronomer. CNN's Emily Chang, John Vause, Nishi Kumar, Yoko Wakatsuki, Stephanie Akiko Haschke, Harmeet Shah Singh and Mallika Kapur contributed to this report.","highlights":"Event is longest of 21st century, astronomers predict it would last over 6 minutes .\nPeople in parts of Pacific Ocean, China and India able to get full view .\nChinese city of Shanghai touted as one of the best spots to watch the eclipse .\nSome unusual watching events include a cruise, plane trip and a music festival .","id":"2abb24b032c45266fb0abf78fb09e11ebfc18150"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday proposed fines against two of the nation's largest airlines, saying the airlines flew planes on hundreds of occasions in violation of FAA or airline safety standards. US Airways says the problems are in the past. United notes it self-reported its problem. The FAA is seeking a $5.4 million fine from US Airways and a $3.8 million fine from United Airlines for unrelated violations. Both airlines issued statements Wednesday assuring the public of their commitment to safety. US Airways blamed its problems on the difficulties of merging US Airways and America West maintenance operations in 2007. United, meanwhile, said it self-reported the incident leading to its proposed fine and has since taken steps to ensure that safety standards are met. The US Airways case involved the greatest number of planes -- eight. The FAA alleges US Airways operated the eight aircraft on a total of 1,647 flights last fall and winter while the planes were in a potentially unsafe condition. Three of the planes were flown while not in compliance with FAA rules known as Airworthiness Directives, or ADs. The FAA issues ADs when it discovers a potentially unsafe condition on a type of aircraft, and it wants airlines to inspect their fleets or conduct preventive maintenance. The FAA said it issued an AD requiring airlines to inspect Airbus A320 aircraft for possible cracking of a landing gear part. But US Airways operated two Airbus A320s on a total of 43 flights without complying with the ordered inspection. The airline also operated an Embraer 190 aircraft on 19 flights without performing an inspection to prevent a cargo door from opening during flight, according to the FAA. The remaining five cases involve the airline's failure to follow its own maintenance procedures, the FAA said. In a letter to its employees, US Airways Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom called the FAA announcement disappointing. \"It is important to remember that today's announcement references situations that are in the past, and in several cases, date back to two years ago,\" he wrote. \"Our team has worked cooperatively with the FAA to investigate and correct any discrepancies to the FAA's satisfaction.\" The United Airlines case involves one aircraft, a Boeing 737. According to the FAA and the airline, a pilot noticed a low fuel pressure indication while on a flight from Denver, Colorado, on April 28, 2008. The pilot shut down an engine and returned to the Denver airport. United mechanics who inspected the engine found that two shop towels had been used to cover openings in the oil sump area, instead of protective caps. The FAA said the aircraft had flown more than 200 times in the unsafe condition before the problem was discovered. A United spokeswoman said the airline reported the incident to the FAA and has taken several measures to prevent a recurrence, including additional training of maintenance workers. Both airlines have 30 days to respond to the FAA's proposal for fines. In March, Southwest Airlines agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a complaint that it flew unsafe planes.","highlights":"FAA seeks a $5.4 million fine from US Airways, $3.8 million fine from United Airlines .\nAirlines issue statements assuring public of their commitment to safety .\nUS Airways case includes planes not complying with Airworthiness Directives .\nUnited plane flew with shop towels covering openings in oil sump area .","id":"d14c2cfc9d43e494ec541e608466931ea4ce3f04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After hours of back and forth between members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided Friday evening to accept noncelibate clergy members and lay leaders who are in \"lifelong\" and \"monogamous\" same-sex relationships. Previous Evangelical Lutheran Church policy allows gay and lesbian clergy, lay people to serve only if celibate. One of the country's largest Protestant denominations, the Lutheran church approved four recommendations to its ministry's policies that underscore a new approach to homosexuality. While the recommendations passed at the weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, do not address recognizing same-sex marriage or civil unions, they do allow congregations to support same-sex relationships among their members and allow individuals in same-sex relationships to hold clergy positions. The previous policy of the 4.6-million member church allowed gay people to serve as members of professional rosters only if they were celibate. Some members argued prior to the vote that the change would fly in the face of religious teachings. \"Brothers and sisters, I ask you, before you dig yourselves deeper into this hole, if you are so absolutely certain that these behaviors are not sinful that you are willing to place yourselves and this church at the spiritual risk that comes from encouraging sin,\" said the Rev. Steven Frock of the Western Iowa Synod. Among those on the other side was Alan Wold of the Northern Illinois Synod. \"If according to some I am going to be in err for supporting this... Let me err on the side of mercy, grace, justice, and love of neighbor. Let me err on the side of gospel, which makes all things new.\" Many feared the emotional debate could tear at the unity of the church. So the members voted to re-order their resolutions -- moving to the top a resolution that the church \"commit itself to bear one another's burdens, love thy neighbor, and respect the bound consciences of all.\" It passed with overwhelming support. Other religious denominations, including Episcopalians and Unitarians, have made moves to accept gay clergy, and Evangelical Lutherans would not be the first to accept those openly in same-sex relationships, said David Masci, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But ELCA would be the largest to make such a move. The church is the third largest Protestant denomination, representing 2 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Forum. The battle Friday was the latest in what Masci said many \"socially moderate\" denominations, including those in Judaism, are grappling with: balancing the growing acceptance of same-sex relationships with traditional teachings. As some have moved toward accepting same-sex relationships, within those same denominations \"you see more conservative wings that are pushing back against it,\" said Masci. On hand for Friday's debate were hundreds of \"interested parties\" -- including some people who are not members of the church, said John Brooks, ELCA spokesman. When asked whether there had been protests or rallies on either side outside the convention site, he responded, \"Interestingly, no.\" In the convention hall, Brooks said, \"The debates haven't been rancorous or mean-spirited in any way. They've been quite civil. But people have been passionate with their feelings.\" The Rev. Terri Stagner-Collier of the Southeastern Synod said a vote in favor of the resolutions would cause members of her own family to leave the church. Her sister \"felt her church was being ripped away from her,\" Stagner-Collier said tearfully, adding, I urge you not to do this to all of those people in the pew and in my family.\" Sara Gross of the Oregon Synod said some \"dear members\" of the church will be lost if the resolution passes. But, she said, \"A vote to reject this recommendation sends a message to the world saying 'not all are welcome.'\" In a \"changing world,\" Gross argued, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America \"needs to be a voice that stands up and says 'yes.'\" CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this report.","highlights":"Evangelical Lutheran Church to accept gay clergy in lifelong relationships .\nNew policy would allow them to serve if in monogamous relationships .\nPrevious policy allows gays, lesbians to serve as clergy, lay leaders if celibate .","id":"a5345c3f5ea38a657797e6f22d4ad39265ccbc12"} -{"article":"MAMONI VALLEY PRESERVE, Panama (CNN) -- A famed primatologist says the plight of chimpanzees helped inspire Michael Jackson to write the song \"Heal the World.\" Michael Jackson loved chimpanzees, said Jane Goodall: \"They made him smile.\" But the theme and the lyrics of the song turned out to be about a better world for humanity. \"He wrote what he told me he thought was his most powerful song ever, but it didn't end up for animals,\" Jane Goodall said in a CNN interview Thursday night. Goodall spoke exclusively to CNN in a Panamanian rain forest where she is exploring a partnership on behalf of Roots & Shoots, her global youth education program. The interview comes as a new version of the song, first released on Jackson's 1991 \"Dangerous\" album, is being recorded by a collection of artists for release in late October. Goodall became friends with Jackson about 20 years ago when he invited her to his Neverland Ranch, where \"he talked about his dreams for the place to have animals running, looking free like they would in the wild. ... It was just a very charming day, very low key, nobody else was there,\" she said. Goodall, famous for her 50 years of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Africa, said Jackson invited her because \"he loved what I did.\" \"He loved chimpanzees,\" she said. \"He loved to watch them feeding. He liked their faces. They made him smile.\" Years later, she met Jackson's chimp, Bubbles, and has visited him at his retirement refuge in Florida, she said. \"He's extremely handsome,\" she said. \"He's a beautiful, beautiful chimp. So, he was rescued in time from this life of being inappropriately dressed up and carted around like a little symbol.\" Goodall, whose life has been spent understanding chimpanzees, said she found Jackson to be \"a sad person.\" \"In some ways, he was like a child, and a very sweet and gentle child, and he wanted me to tell him many, many stories,\" she said. \"Stories about the chimpanzees, the forests, animals, anything. He told me he liked the way I told stories.\" Goodall, who travels the world to promote protection of endangered chimps, said she had hoped Jackson would help get her message out. \"I said to him, 'You know, Michael, if you want to help, you could do a concert and give us a percentage. Or much better, write a song,' \" she said. Jackson asked her for tapes of animals in distress because \"he wanted to be angry and cry\" as he wrote the song, which became \"Heal the World,\" she said. The original CD cover notes credited Goodall for inspiring the song, she said. But, she added, the Jane Goodall Institute never saw any money from the song. Jackson later created the \"Heal the World Foundation,\" which he funded with a series of concerts. The group delivered millions of dollars of relief to children around the world.","highlights":"Jane Goodall says Michael Jackson loved chimpanzees .\nJackson wrote \"Heal the World\" to call attention to chimpanzees' problems .\nSong became a call to peace for humanity .\nGoodall said she found Jackson to be a \"sad person\"","id":"73e46a462d8265aa6a377d5f0627b4665140fe91"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Last month, when Zack Ajmal was planning a vacation to Italy, he set out to find the first thing that a traveler would need in a foreign land: a map. But digital maps of Rome and Venice for his Garmin GPS device cost almost $100. So instead, Ajmal turned to OpenStreet Map, a community-driven maps database. A user-edited map of cycling routes in Perth, Australia, available on OpenStreetMap's site. \"It worked out pretty well,\" the Atlanta-based engineer says. \"I found Open MTB, which had outdoor hiking and cycling maps with not just roads information, but also trails, short cuts and little known routes.\" Ajmal is among roughly half a million users who are eschewing proprietary maps information from GPS companies and instead going with crowdsourced versions, which they then load onto their GPS devices and smartphones. The key to these map hacks is OpenStreetMap. Founded in 2004, OSM is to maps what Wikipedia is to encyclopedias. The site offers maps that can be edited, customized and loaded on to devices for free. Want to go whitewater rafting but need to know where the rapids are? There's a map for that. Or to know all the interesting points along the river Nile? There's a map for that. And it's all based on the OpenStreetMap data. \"The value is that it is a richer map with more up-to-date information because anyone can fix things,\" says Steve Coast, one of the founders of OpenStreetMap. \"Users get access to the underlying data and not just a picture of the maps.\" Consumer map data is currently a duopoly split between two mapping providers: Nokia's Navteq and TomTom's Tele Atlas. The two provide the mapping data that powers almost all commercial map applications and devices. But maps from these providers are extremely restrictive in how they can be used. Want a map of the best hiking trails in the country or a walking tour of Rome? Traditional GPS services can't offer that. For adventurous geeks that calls for a DIY fix. \"OSM maps are a little new on the scene,\" says Rich Owings, who runs the GPStracklog.com website and is the author of the book GPS Mapping. \"Most people in the U.S. were not using them until recently, but now there are iPhone apps based on it.\" Getting OpenStreetMap is easier on some devices than others. In Garmin systems, it's as simple as taking one of the available maps and dropping it into a folder on the device. \"It's really hard to mess up your GPS doing this,\" says Owings. \"And if you have questions you can always ask the community to help you out.\" Owings says he loaded maps of Ecuador on his Garmin unit in about 30 minutes. \"It's not as clean of a map as one you can get from the Garmin store but they are pretty wonderful and have very good coverage.\" For TomTom systems, getting OpenStreetMap can be a more difficult process. TomTom uses a proprietary mapping format, says Coast. That means a tricky process of converting OpenStreetMap into a TomTom-compatible format. OpenStreetMap has also been used to create iPhone apps such as MotionX, which is targeted at hikers, skiers and bikers; B.iCycle, a cyclometer that shows burned calories, trip distance and trails; and ATM@UK, which shows all ATM locations in Great Britain. The OpenStreetMap project is a cartographer's dream come true, says Randal Hale, who has a GIS consulting business. Hale has created custom maps for a few clients using OpenStreetMap and has put OSM-generated maps on his Garmin unit. \"With the professional mapping software, I have to purchase a license to use their version, which is expensive and I can't use the data for analysis,\" says Hale. \"With OpenStreetMap, I download it, make cartographic edits and hopefully I have made it better for the next user.\" Meanwhile, traditional navigation companies are also reaching out to users for help on data. For instance, Nokia kicked off a pilot project at the University of California at Berkeley to collect traffic information through GPS-enabled cellphones. Users could download the software for free and use it to check on road conditions on their phones. At the same time, the software would report data about its users' positions to a central database, enabling the researchers to assemble traffic data in real time. Google has also said it will add nationwide real-time traffic data to its maps by collecting anonymous location data from Google Maps users. Still, community-created maps and navigation information remains a small niche, appealing only to \"GPS techies\" who are willing to take risks, says Owings. \"There's not a lot of public awareness because many people don't even know they can do this with their Garmin or cellphone,\" he says. But if you are planning to go to Berlin later this year, take a look at the OpenStreetMap site. Germany is expected to become the first country in the site's database to be fully mapped by contributors. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"About half a million users are embracing crowdsourced versions of digital maps .\nOpenStreetMap offers maps that can be customized and loaded to GPS devices .\nCrowdsourced maps can show hiking trails, whitewater rapids and other features .\nDevelopers are creating iPhone applications based on these maps .","id":"7965f65fc6a5c4bd80b2808d238da1807fa50c72"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama said Friday he spoke with the police officer who arrested a Harvard professor and told the officer he did not mean to malign the Cambridge Police Department when he said police acted stupidly. President Obama on Friday explains to reporters the details of a phone conservation with Sgt. James Crowley. The president acknowledged that his words \"helped to contribute to ratcheting\" up the situation when he criticized the manner in which Sgt. James Crowley arrested professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. \"I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically,\" Obama told reporters. \"I could have calibrated those words differently, and I told this to Sgt. Crowley.\" Watch Obama describe talk \u00bb . Obama spoke about two hours after police unions in Massachusetts called on him to apologize. He did not apologize for his remark but repeated that he believed his choice of words was unfortunate. He reiterated his assertion that he believes police overreacted, but said Gates \"probably overreacted as well.\" \"My sense is you have got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved,\" he said. Obama also spoke briefly with the arrested professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is a friend of the president, the White House reported. He and Gates had a \"positive discussion\" about his call to Crowley on Friday afternoon, the White House said. Obama also invited Gates \"to join him with Sgt. Crowley at the White House in the near future.\" In an e-mail Friday to CNN's Don Lemon, Gates wrote, \"I was very pleased that the president called me today, and I was pleased that he proposed that I meet with Sgt. Crowley at the White House, since I had offered to meet with him since last Monday. \"I am eager for this to be used as a teaching moment to improve racial relations in America,\" said the e-mail. \"This is certainly not about me.\" His attorney, Charles Ogletree, told Lemon that he applauds Obama's intervention and \"I look forward to working this out with all parties amicably.\" Asked if he plans to file suit, Ogletree said, \"It depends on the response from everyone involved as to how we'll proceed.\" Earlier Friday, police unions said Obama should apologize to members of the Cambridge Police Department for saying they acted stupidly, the president of a city police union said. Watch African-American colleagues defend Crowley \u00bb . Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, also took aim at Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who reportedly has characterized the arrest as \"every black man's nightmare and a reality for many black men.\" Echoing the words of Crowley, O'Connor said he was dismayed that the president and governor would opine on the issue without all the details. \"It's noteworthy that both qualified their statements by saying they did not have all the facts,\" O'Connor said as members of his and another police union stood behind him. \"Usually, when one hears those words, one would expect the next words to be 'so I cannot comment.' Instead, both officials, both admitted friends of professor Gates, proceeded to insult the handling of this case.\" He further said Cambridge police resent the implication they allowed race to dictate their actions in the situation. \"We hope that [Obama and Patrick] will reflect upon their past comments and apologize to the men and women of the Cambridge Police Department,\" O'Connor said. Steve Killian, president of the Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association, also called on Obama to apologize to \"all law enforcement personnel throughout the entire country that took offense to this.\" Crowley previously said Obama had offended police in Cambridge and elsewhere. \"I was a little surprised and disappointed that the president, who didn't have all of the facts by his own admission, then weighed in on the events of that night and made a comment that really offended not just officers in the Cambridge Police Department but officers around the country,\" Crowley told CNN affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston. Obama said earlier he was \"surprised by the controversy surrounding\" his comments. \"I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home,\" Obama told ABC's \"Nightline.\" Watch Crowley's boss defend the arrest \u00bb . When Obama waded into the story by answering a question about it during his news conference Wednesday night, he admitted that he \"may be a little biased\" because Gates is a friend. \"I don't know all the facts,\" he also conceded. He said he did not know what role race played, but \"the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.\" iReport.com: Arrest sparks debate . But during his Friday remarks, Obama said he hoped the controversy surrounding Gates' arrest provides Americans with \"a teachable moment\" on how they can improve \"relations between police officers and minority communities.\" Crowley, in the police report about the incident, said Gates refused to cooperate with him and repeatedly accusing him of racism when he went to Gates' home following a report of a possible break-in July 16. Crowley said he tried to determine whether there was someone else at the home and wanted to ensure Gates' safety. Gates, however, told him \"that I had no idea who I was 'messing' with\" and was being so loud, the sergeant said, that he could not give pertinent information to the department when he was calling in. Authorities have said they may release tapes of the officer calling in, in which Gates is heard in the background . Crowley's report said that when he asked to speak with Gates outside, the professor at one point responded, \"I'll speak with your mama outside.\" Watch Crowley's response \u00bb . Gates' attorney, Charles Ogletree, said the professor never made such a remark. The full story will show that Gates did nothing wrong -- and that Crowley did not identify himself at first, Ogletree said. Gates said Wednesday he would listen to Crowley \"if he would tell the truth about what he did, about the distortions that he fabricated in the police report. I would be prepared as a human being to forgive him.\" Crowley has said he will not apologize. The police incident report states that Crowley twice provided his name to Gates, who subsequently asked for it two more times. Gates ultimately was arrested for disorderly conduct, but the department later dropped the charges. Cambridge police Commissioner Robert Haas said he \"deeply regrets\" the arrest but stands by the procedures his department followed. \"I trust [Crowley's] judgment implicitly. He is a stellar officer,\" Haas said. Haas added the department is \"very proud about its diversity within this community and how hard we've worked over the years to build a strong, solid relationship [between] the department and the community.\" Haas said he agreed with Crowley about Obama's remarks. \"I have to tell you the officers take that very personally and basically feel hurt by that comment. We truly are trying to do the best service we can to the community and sometimes we make mistakes. We're human. But we learn from those mistakes and we move on,\" he said. Black in America 2: Does racial profiling still take place? Numerous police officers, including African-Americans, have spoken up on Crowley's behalf and portrayed him as a good and fair officer. Crowley, who is white, had once been chosen by a black police officer to teach a police academy course on ways to avoid racial profiling. Obama said he had heard of Crowley's record, saying, \"I don't know all the extenuating circumstances, and as I said, I respect what police officers do. From what I can tell, the sergeant who was involved is an outstanding police officer, but my suspicion is probably it would have been better if cooler heads prevailed.\" Gates' legal team argues that authorities are misrepresenting the professor and the officer, and Gates has said he is determined to keep the issue alive despite the charges being dropped. \"This is not about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America,\" he said this week. Ogletree said Gates may bring forward people who say they've had similar experiences with Crowley. When asked for examples, Ogletree said only that they may come out in time depending on how the police department handles the situation moving forward. \"I think you will be hearing much more complex and different perspective on him [Crowley] in the coming days and weeks,\" Ogletree said, alleging that Crowley \"is well-known among people, particularly young people, for some of his police practices.\" Gates has no immediate plans to file a lawsuit against the department, the attorney said. Ogletree had said earlier Gates might sue the police. CNN's Joe Johns and Don Lemon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gates eager for incident to be \"teaching moment\" to improve racial relations .\nPresident says he hopes incident provides \"a teachable moment\"\nAttorney says professor has no immediate plans to sue Cambridge police .\nUnion asked Obama to apologize to \"all law enforcement personnel\" offended .","id":"e483ad70b03bb9184f105b5b1ce4a63b2b462320"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Lust, love and like. A healthful, happy love relationship serves up three out of three. A healthful, happy love relationship is a passionate best friendship. Modern women could learn a few things about love and seduction from Scheherazade. Many women think men only care about the lust angle -- finding a hot bod for hot sex. Unfortunately, there are many men who do only care about this. In my book \"Prince Harming Syndrome,\" I explain how relationships that are too focused on sex wind up being what my favorite philosopher buddy Aristotle called a relationship of pleasure -- where you find a sex-mate or a relationship of utility -- where you find an ego-mate or wallet-mate. However, a healthful, happy love relationship is what Aristotle calls a relationship of shared virtue -- when you find a soul mate. Where you each get one another at your core, inspire and support each other to grow into your best possible selves. A relationship of shared virtue is where you feel the whole triumvirate: lust, love and like. Meaning? If you want to fully seduce a man, then you've got to know how to grab a man by more than his you-know-what. You must truly turn on a man's soul! Oprah.com: 5 things that make you sexy . If you sleep with a man before you feel safe knowing you connect on a soul-to-soul level, the relationship might start off hot -- but like steam into air, it will rise quickly then -- pfffft -- vanish into vapor. Or worse, you'll wind up getting burnt. This is so important to prioritize, that I'm repeating this reminder in bold italic letters: If you can't stimulate a man in more areas than from the waist down, you will only be attracting a relationship of pleasure or a relationship of utility. And this man will not remain your man for long. One of my favorite quotes about love comes from the book \"The Little Prince\": \"It's only with the heart that one can see rightly; what's most important is invisible to the eye.\" I love that the Little Prince recognized that the heart (another metaphysical word for soul) is the best lens for love -- making this Little Prince a major Prince Charming. Seduction Tip 1 (in bold italics so you recognize it is crucial to remember): If you want to be a man's Princess Charming, you MUST do more than work on tightening your buns or boosting up your boobs! You MUST tap into what I call \"The Scheherazade Effect.\" Oprah.com: What to do before you can find love . Remember the tale of Scheherazade and her 1,001 nights? Scheherazade was absolutely a Princess Charming who knew how to grab and stimulate her king's soul. Voil\u00e0! The CliffsNotes on Scheherazade: . There once was a king who got very bored with the women in his life very quickly. He would marry a new virgin, \"shtup\" her, then send her pretty self away pretty much immediately... to be beheaded. Talk about a bad breakup, huh? And talk about a King Harming, huh? Anyway, this king killed thousands of women by the time he finally met the enchantingly different Scheherazade. What made Scheherazade enchantingly different? Scheherazade loved to read books and had lots of fascinating ideas and interests to share. Wisely educated in morality and kindness, she had a passion for poetry, philosophy, sciences and arts. She kept the king on the edge of his bed -- not with mere alluring sexual positions -- but with alluring stories to be told, each more exciting than the next. And so the king kept Scheherazade alive -- eagerly anticipating each new tale -- until, lo and behold, 1,001 adventurous nights passed -- along with three sons -- and the king not only learned to love Scheherazade, but he made her his queen. Talk about living happily ever after, huh? The lesson learned? It's very seductive to a man when you, as a full-bodied and full souled woman, have passions in your life you can share to keep him inspired, titillated, growing and thriving. Seduction Tip 2 (again in bold italics so you recognize it is crucial to remember): The more passions you have in your life, the more passion your man will have for you! Oprah.com: 4 steps to finding your passion . My friend David told me he fell in love with his wonderful wife of 13 years because he adored her \"world lens\" -- all the interesting perspectives she shared about life, all her passionate insights and enthusiastic talents. David's idea of love is being turned on by how his paramour looked at the world, instead of simply focusing on how she looked to the world. Which is why David is a 3-D Prince Charming who's found his Scheherazade. Unfortunately, I believe too many women feel that the best way to catch a guy is with the bait of their (to word it politely) \"vajayjay.\" But if that is the main lure for love, then why aren't little \"vajayjay icons\" found on Valentine's Day cards? I'm kidding -- but I am serious! If you sleep with a man too soon, you risk being dizzied by an \"oxytocin high,\" and you will not know until you're already emotionally entrenched if the two of you have a true soul-nurturing connection. Plus, even in this modern world, you also risk the man respecting you less if you give sex away too quickly. It's timeless psychology. The harder you are to win, the bigger your estimated prize value. Many men do not want to belong to a club that has touched their members too quickly. It's the ol' Dr. Ejaculate\/Mr. Hide Syndrome. As soon as the man comes, he'll want to go. Seduction Tip 3 (back to bold italics one last time for good measure): If you ever wanna hear \"I do,\" you have to start off saying a lot of sexual \"I don'ts.\" For this reason, I recommend to the women I coach that they do not drink alcohol on dates. Staying alcohol-free will help ensure you clearly \"hear\" who a guy is, not simply \"see\" who he is. You don't want to be hypnotized by superficial qualities, like his looks and wealth. Plus, being alcohol-free will help make sure you don't move too swiftly forward physically (a.k.a. it will ensure you keep your vajayjay in your skirt!). Meaning? My overall big seduction tip for luring in healthful, happy relationship is to STOP trying to be seductive! If you focus too much on seducing a man with your body and beauty, you will only be luring in a man with your body and beauty. If you want to wisely be in a lust, love and like relationship of shared virtue, it's far more important that you excite a man's soul. Oprah.com: How to get lucky in love and life . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Scheherazade kept her head on her shoulders by keeping her king interested .\nHer 1001 stories seduced his mind and soul .\nRelying on physical seduction often leads to heartbreak than happiness .\nExpert: If women want to hear \"I do\" they need to say \"I don't\" many times .","id":"b6b6301878feb6dc69f9466333e0642c4fdb7cfd"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British soldier Phil Packer was told a year ago that he would never walk again, but on Saturday he finished the London Marathon. Londoners applaud Maj. Phil Packer, who was told he'd never walk again. He completed the race 13 days after it started, walking on crutches for two miles a day -- the most his doctor would allow -- in order to raise money for charity. Flanked by cheering soldiers and supporters, an obviously emotional Packer had defied medical opinion after his lower spine was badly injured in the aftermath of a rocket attack on his base in Basra, Iraq, in February 2008. The attack sent a vehicle rolling down a sand bank, striking Packer \"head on\" and dragging him under it. The 36-year-old was left with no feeling or motor control in his legs, and no bladder or bowel control. Watch more on soldier's battle \u00bb . Packer was in hospital for more than four months and it was then he decided to complete three challenges to help raise \u00a31 million ($1.5 million) for Help for Heroes, a British charity supporting wounded veterans. In February he rowed the English Channel, and next month he plans to climb El Capitan -- one of America's iconic mountaineering sites -- a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in California. Packer, who was met at the marathon finish line by British Olympian Steve Redgrave, said that he was \u00a3370,000 ($558,000) short of his goal but he was hoping for more donations. Dressed in a white charity T-shirt and desert fatigues, he was emotional. \"It's looking after our injured servicemen,\" he said. \"There's a lot of people that can't do this, so this is for them.\" Earlier this week he told CNN that he \"wanted to be able to move on in life.\" \"I wanted to do something for other personnel who had been wounded. \"I don't want to be helped. I want to help other people. Not that I'm not grateful, but... you know... I really want to be able to help people.\" He attributed being back on his feet to \"fantastic medical support\" from Britain's Ministry of Defense and National Health Service. \"So many improvements are being made\" in medicine, he said. \"It's an evolving process.\" Watch more on Phil Packer \u00bb . However, he did not know whether he would be able to walk without crutches. \"I gotta see how it goes. Take every improvement as it comes.\" Packer is far from alone; the six-year war in Iraq has disabled thousands of people. Britain's Ministry of Defense did not respond to a CNN question about how many service members had been permanently disabled in the war. In the United States, the Congressional Research Service reported in March that 31,131 troops had been wounded in Iraq. That figure is for battlefield injuries; many more veterans were later diagnosed with some sort of traumatic brain injury, but it is difficult to determine an exact number because of how the data is kept. It's not clear how many of the injuries are permanent because the Department of Veterans' Affairs does not classify some disabilities that way until 10 years after the injury, said Ryan Gallucci of AmVets, a veterans' service organization. Statistics for Iraqis are even harder to come by. Estimates of the number of wounded range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Iraq's Ministry of Heath says one in four wounded Iraqis have lost at least one limb. Britain's Prince Charles is among those who have expressed support for Packer. \"You are, if I may say so, a credit to the Royal Military Police and to the British Army as a whole,\" the heir to the British throne wrote in a letter posted on Packer's Web site, http:\/\/www.philpacker.com\/. Packer is still on active duty and intends to remain so. \"I've still got a career in the armed forces. I'm going to go back to it.\" He has 16 years of service under his belt, including time as an enlisted man before he went to officer training school and is, he noted with a rueful laugh, 20 years from retirement. He's been asked to be an ambassador for Prince Charles' charity, the Prince's Trust, which focuses on helping young people, in addition to his life in what he calls \"the disability community.\" After his two-week effort, Packer was asked whether he would be relaxing in a warm bath. No, he said, \"I'm going to have a drink.\" And with that, the army major lifted a shot glass and toasted his supporters. CNN's Richard Greene contributed to this report.","highlights":"Phil Packer, 36, was wounded in the aftermath of a rocket attack in Iraq .\nHe walked on crutches for two miles a day to finish the London Marathon .\nHe finished the marathon Saturday, 13 days after everyone else .","id":"cb4a7c01f5a4851f0322bf4afb82e5a9de47b13f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four months after he was escorted in his pajamas onto a military plane and flown out of the country, ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya could return to power within days, analysts said Friday. Negotiators for Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, the politician who was appointed president hours after Zelaya's June 28 removal, reached an agreement late Thursday to form a government of national reconciliation. The nation's congress, in consultation with the supreme court, must approve Zelaya's return to power. The reconciliation government would rule until a new president, to be chosen in November 29 elections, takes office in January. Micheletti announced the agreement in a televised speech to the nation Thursday night. Zelaya said Friday his return to the presidency is \"imminent\" and should occur within days. He has been staying at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, since secretly returning to the country September 21. \"At this moment we are trying to reach a consensus so we can reconstruct democracy,\" he told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol on Friday. Although Zelaya's return to the presidency is not guaranteed in the eight-point pact, several analysts say they expect the congress will approve the measure. \"If Micheletti came forward with a public announcement, the odds of this being approved by congress are pretty good. It's a done deal,\" said Kevin Casas-Zamora, a senior foreign policy fellow at the non-partisan Brookings Institution and a former vice president of Costa Rica. \"It would be a horrible letdown if congress did not approve the agreement.\" Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute, also believes \"they'll go ahead and vote for it.\" Said Larry Birns, director of the liberal Council on Hemispheric Affairs: \"There seems to be no other way.\" The United States played a key role in the accord after weeks of stalemate. Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, and two other high-level U.S. officials arrived Wednesday and met separately with Zelaya and Micheletti. An agreement appeared possible Thursday when Shannon announced at a news conference that the U.S. delegation would stay another day. A delegation from the Organization of American States had visited Honduras in early October but failed to obtain an agreement. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias had held consultations with both sides but did not get them to agree on a solution. The OAS, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States condemned the military-backed coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. The United States and others imposed economic sanctions, which some analysts say have started to hurt Honduras. \"The dark secret here is that the Honduran economy has been devastated,\" Birns said. \"Huge numbers of Hondurans have crossed over into Mexico and are desperate for jobs.\" Crumbling economic conditions left Micheletti little choice, Birns said. \"All along Micheletti was holding a diminishing deck,\" he said. \"Not only the poor were being hurt. The cutoffs were hurting the nation's economic elite. So there was a very strong economic motive to reach a solution.\" There also was a strong political motive, Hakim said. \"The candidates for president, the people looking forward, wanted to see the elections on November 29 as being legitimate,\" he said. Birns agreed that \"the candidates wanted a resolution because of legitimacy.\" The United States and many other nations had said the elections would be considered illegitimate if held under Micheletti's rule. \"By far, the most important thing right now is not whether Zelaya will be reinstated, but that the U.S. is going to recognize the elections,\" said Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm. \"The next president will be able to receive diplomatic recognition and much-needed access to international aid and financing, which will be crucial given the weakness of the economy and the fact that the government is running out of money,\" she said. Zelaya also appeared to have little choice but to accept the pact, even though it does not automatically return to him to power, as he had demanded all along. \"He didn't have many options, did he?\" said Casas-Zamora of the Brookings Institution. \"He was never able to mobilize people in the numbers he claimed to have. He didn't have much clout, frankly. Holed up in the Brazilian Embassy he became much more marginalized. That's as good as it gets for him.\" The president's four-year term -- whether it's Zelaya or Micheletti -- ends January 27, when the new head of state will take over. Berkman believes Zelaya heard the clock ticking. \"Zelaya probably accepted this agreement because he was running out of time and leverage, and he may have thought that going through congress was his best bet at getting an agreement in his favor,\" she said. Birns sees it as a face-saving move. \"The only thing Zelaya gets out of this is the dignity of serving out his complete term,\" Birns said. \"He will be a president without any authority. Basically, he's been rendered into a figurehead president.\" In addition to the formation of a reconciliation government, the pact also stipulates -- at Zelaya's insistence -- that there will be no amnesty for those involved in his ouster. Micheletti said in an interview Friday evening with CNN en Espa\u00f1ol that he's certain Zelaya will try to prosecute him. Just a few weeks ago, it was Micheletti who was saying Zelaya would be prosecuted if he left the Brazilian Embassy. \"Yes, we are certain that there will be persecution,\" Micheletti said Friday. \"But I am not afraid. What we did was within the constitution.\" Micheletti has insisted Zelaya was removed through constitutional means, not a coup. Some analysts say legal proceedings might not be the best course. \"Any attempt to seek revenge here is going to be costly and inefficient and conflictive,\" said Birns, head of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. The pact also calls for the creation of a \"truth commission\" to investigate the events surrounding Zelaya's ouster; the formation of a \"verification commission\" to ensure that the agreement is adhered to; and a solicitation to the international community to lift economic and diplomatic sanctions. The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's plan to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution to allow longer terms for the president. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. Zelaya has said since his ouster he would not try to revive the issue if returned to power. That's a good thing, Hakim said. \"The most important thing,\" he said, \"are the assurances that Zelaya will be limited in his powers.\"","highlights":"Negotiators for President Manuel Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti reach deal .\nTwo sides to form a government of national reconciliation that could reinstate Zelaya .\nZelaya forced out of country in June 28 coup, replaced by legislative leader Micheletti .\nCrisis stems from Zelaya's referendum plan that may have given president longer term .","id":"f0466c7943c9a8f272bb439c9abc1b53692ee4d8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Michaelis' new biography of Charles M. Schulz explores the man behind \"Peanuts,\" the comic strip that has delighted readers for decades. CNN.com appealed to fans out there to say what Linus, Lucy and Charlie Brown meant to them. Joy Hernandez has collected stuffed Snoopys since she was young; her dog, Dottie, is a Snoopy doppelganger. Readers responded with tales of bonding with family members while reading \"Peanuts,\" even meeting Schulz and finding inspiration and companionship in the strip's characters. Below is a selection of responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity: . Elise Marrion of Midland, Texas My grandmother always loved \"Peanuts,\" and across the generations, that was one of the things we shared. When I was 7 years old, I spent a summer with her in Denver and every morning, I raced to find \"Peanuts\" in the comics section. A retired teacher, Grandma always made me read at least one front-page news story before I was allowed to read the comics. That task turned into a great love of newspapers, and it inspired me to pursue a career in journalism. Sadly she passed away before I received my degree, but I still keep her Peppermint Patty doll to remind me of her and our times reading \"Peanuts\" together. Kimberly Mercier of Santa Rosa, California The \"Peanuts\" characters were more like friends, when I was growing up. Woodstock and Snoopy were always my favorites, even today. I spent many years ice skating in Santa Rosa as a child and would often see Charles Schulz there at his favorite table in the Warm Puppy Cafe in front of the fireplace. Sometimes, we got to watch him and his \"senior\" team play broomball on the ice. They enjoyed themselves so much. Mr. Schulz was always kind and friendly to me, and when I became an adult with sons of my own, he treated them with equal kindness, a warm smile and hello. We have the loveliest memories of the \"Peanuts\" characters and their creator, a beloved man in our town. Susan Clifton of Chalfont, Pennsylvania This is more a comment on Mr. Schulz than the \"Peanuts\" characters. I was in my early teens and a huge hockey fan. I loved the \"Peanuts\" programs and coloring books and my parents told me that Charles Schulz was a big hockey fan, too. I wrote him a letter telling him of our shared interest, and before I knew it, I received a personalized letter, along with two cartoons with the \"Peanuts\" gang playing hockey -- each signed with a little note. I treasured that letter and personalized cartoons so much and always loved him for the fact that he would take the time to send them to me. It pains me beyond words that those pieces got lost along the way and are gone forever. Zac Davis of Blue Springs, Missouri My favorite \"Peanuts\" strip shows Snoopy typing on his typewriter a statement that details a struggle in many men's lives (apparently even Schulz's own): \"Girls and root beer are not the answer.\" Brian Heraty of Chicago, Illinois I remember snippets of the \"Peanuts\" gang throughout my childhood. ... From \"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown\" and Christmas specials to \"Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,\" memories of Charlie Brown and the gang abound. In all that time, there were always two answers that eluded me: Why are all the boys bald or balding, and what's the deal with Peppermint Patty? Pedro Valle of San Juan, Puerto Rico My favorite \"Peanuts\" character has always been Linus Van Pelt. His view on humanity is unique, like an outsider looking in. In fact, my favorite \"Peanuts\" moment ever is when Charlie Brown challenges Linus' dream to become a little country doctor. He asks Linus how he could become a doctor if he can't deal with humanity. The very wise Linus responds: \"I love humanity; it's people I can't stand.\" That sums up my own feelings to the letter. Vicki Boston of Tucson, Arizona I always love watching Charlie Brown and his \"Peanuts\" gang on the holiday specials. I see myself as a Marcie or Peppermint Patty type. I even played Peppermint Patty in grade school when we did two Charlie Brown skits, and I loved it. Melanie Taylor of Manchester, England I am 33 years of age and still enjoy watching the \"Peanuts\" cartoon shows. The Charlie Brown Christmas special would be, to this day, my ultimate favorite. As a kid, I hated being bullied, put down, let down, always had very few true friends who never passed judgment on me. In that, Charlie was \"me.\" Linus would be my best friend Tammy, and no matter what, through thick and thin, Tammy was by my side, no matter how cruel the world was around us. We both had a true friendship bond back then. She is someone I wish I knew where she was. I would call her this instant if I knew how or where to find her. I would be calling her up and telling her that \"our show is on.\" Shannon Brady of Austin, Texas I remember having \"A Charlie Brown Christmas\" when I was very little. I used to watch that thing about 50 times a day till it finally died. Charlie Brown was the greatest. Kat Smith of Fort Washington, Maryland I have been a fan of \"Peanuts\" since I was a young girl. My aunt was a fan, and through her I too became a fan. There are so many quips and strips to choose from, but my all-time favorite quotes come from Linus. One came about during breakfast with his sister, Lucy, and some dialogue about snicker-snacks (the cereal they were eating). I don't remember all of it, but Linus told Lucy, \"My heart bleeds for the snicker-snacks company.\" And of course there is the strip where Snoopy sent a sincere letter to the IRS asking it to please remove him from its mailing list. ... I've often wondered if I could do the same. Classic. Mark Eustace of Burlington, Ontario The greatest moment was in \"A Charlie Brown Christmas\" when Linus walks on stage with a single spotlight and explains the true meaning of Christmas. At my house you could hear a pin drop during that scene. Cassey Pelkey of Birmingham, England The most touching strip was the one printed just after Charles Schulz's death. I have been a \"Peanuts\" since I was 2 years old, and absolutely love them all. I think we can all see a little bit of Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Pigpen, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus ... in ourselves if we reflect on it. That's what makes it endearing. ... It's about Everyman. Kelly Cromwell of New York I have been a \"Peanuts\" fan since a young child. Drawing Snoopy and collecting comic books were an obsession when growing up. So when I decided to get a tattoo at age 28, I could think of nothing better than a dancing Snoopy. Ten years later, it still makes me smile. Joe Keilholz of Apex, North Carolina I have loved Charlie Brown since I was a kid. There isn't a single holiday that doesn't feel complete without watching any of the animated series, and not a day goes by without reading the classic strip. I've even gone so far as to try and get a tattoo with my face caricatured on Charlie Brown's body. The ring tone on my cell phone is Linus and Lucy, the e-mail address I send to everyone is Charlie Brown and my login names on almost every site are Charlie Brown-related. I can actually go on a bit more than this, but feel I should stop here. Needless to say, I feel very much like I'm a real life Charlie Brown. As to a catchphrase, of course the classic \"Good Grief\" is among the leaders. Grace Cavanaugh of Novato, California I have loved Snoopy and the gang for as long as I can remember. My first boyfriend gave me his Snoopy collection when he found out how much I loved the beagle. I still have it all. I think that Peppermint Patty would be the \"Peanuts\" character that I most identify with. She is bold but sometimes just so unsure of herself that it hits the right cord. Jacquelyn Bradley-Petersen of Ontario, California You can never get enough of the \"Peanuts\" gang. I always try and read the comic strip, but constantly watch the show, old videos and every special on every occasion. I will always love Charlie Brown. Watching it makes me smile and get into a zone where I forget about the day and everything else around me. Complete fun and goodness, serenity. Everyone can relate to one of the characters, especially Charlie Brown. At least I can. Thank you for talking about this and letting me relive some memories and have a nice moment. Long live the \"Peanuts\" gang, Charles Schulz and good old Charlie Brown. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"New biography of Charles M. Schulz reveals details of his personal life .\nBook says Schulz played out his personal problems in the \"Peanuts\" characters .\nCNN.com asked readers to share their memories of the \"Peanuts\" strip .\nI-Report: Share your \"Peanuts\" memories, memorabilia .","id":"5cc51e348579ac1cc83b89ddc46ec9f7424bb9ca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A strong earthquake struck off the south coast of Japan on Sunday night local time, \"jolting Tokyo and wide areas of eastern Japan,\" the country's Kyodo news agency reported. The 7.1 earthquake hit 200 miles (320 kilometers) south-southwest of Tokyo at 7:55 p.m. (6:55 a.m. ET), the United States Geological Survey reported. Its epicenter was 188 miles (303 kilometers) deep, the USGS said. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported its magnitude as 6.9, Kyodo said. There were no immediate reports of damage, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning.","highlights":"Tremor hits south of island, \"jolting Tokyo,\" Kyodo news agency reported .\nUnited States Geological Survey measures quake as 7.1 magnitude .\nPacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami alert .","id":"abe07b0f2a5dca8df4bfcf9ec47f4eb90335c1a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A week before 9-year-old Michaela Garecht was kidnapped in Hayward, California, in 1988, she wrote a poem about people who had been abducted, her mother said Tuesday. Cases of missing girls Ilene Misheloff, left, and Michaela Garecht now linked to Garrido investigation. \"She sat down at the coffee table and wrote a poem about people behind the doors of steel, an amazing poem for a 9-year-old, ... and a week later she was kidnapped,\" Michaela's mother, Sharon Murch, said. \"It seems to me ... like it must be some sort of a prophesy or premonition, and I keep hearing the words that she said -- 'It's about people who were kidnapped and are being held captive, not people who were kidnapped and were killed.'\" Her comments came as authorities looked into whether Michaela's abduction and other unsolved kidnappings in the region are in any way related to Phillip Garrido, who was arrested last week for the kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old girl just three years after Michaela was taken. That girl, Jaycee Lee Dugard -- now 29 -- was found alive last week, living in a tent and shelter compound in Garrido's back yard in Antioch, California -- 30 miles from where Michaela was kidnapped. The discovery raised Murch's hopes that her daughter might also be safe. \"My husband told me (about Dugard's discovery) at 5 in the morning. He woke me up and told me he had heard it on the news,\" Murch said. Watch how case raises mother's hopes \u00bb . \"And I leaped up yelling, 'Oh, my God. I was, of course, joyful for Jaycee herself, but my first thought was 'please God, let Michaela be with her.'\" Murch said she feels there is a \"strong possibility\" that the two cases are linked. A bone fragment found near Garrido's home was being analyzed to determine whether it is was human and whether it connects Garrido to any other crimes, authorities said. The bone fragment was found on a neighbor's property in an area that Garrido had access to, they said. Watch how bone fragment may offer clues \u00bb . Murch said police have approached her in the past five days to ask what Michaela was wearing on the day of her abduction. \"They apparently found a lot of stuff there,\" she said, referring to the Garrido property search. Police in several other San Francisco Bay Area agencies are also investigating possible ties between Garrido and other missing persons' cases. In Dublin, about 25 miles east of Oakland, police were looking into whether Garrido was connected to the 1989 disappearance of Ilene Misheloff. She was 13 when abducted, investigators said. Antioch -- where Garrido is accused of holding Dugard -- is about 40 miles east of Oakland and about 165 miles southwest of Dugard's hometown, South Lake Tahoe. Contra Costa County sheriff's Lt. Steve Simpkins said police in Antioch and neighboring Pittsburg were searching Garrido's property \"for evidence relating to open cases.\" Murch says the kidnappings of her daughter and that of Dugard have several similarities. \"The method of kidnapping was the same. They were both dragged into cars. The description of the cars was very similar. The girls looked very much like each other. There have been points in the past where the investigations have crossed with the same suspects, and Jaycee was found very close to home here.\" Hayward Police Lt. Chris Orrey said both girls were abducted in daylight, and a sketch of a suspect resembled Garrido, she said. Orrey said there were differences as well, though she would not elaborate. But she confirmed that Hayward police had been in contact with Michaela's family and witnesses since Dugard was found alive. Murch said a neighbor who witnessed her daughter's kidnapping called her on the phone when she saw Garrido on television and commented on a car removed from the Garrido property. \"That car looked like the car that Michaela was kidnapped in,\" Murch quoted her as saying. According to Murch, her daughter and a friend rode their scooters to the neighborhood market on a Saturday morning. \"They left the scooters outside the door. When they came out, one of the scooters was not where they left it. Michaela spotted it in a parking lot next to a car and went to get it, and when she bent over to pick up the scooter, a man jumped out of the car, grabbed her from behind, threw her into the car and took off with her.\" That car was described as a tan color, possibly with some primer on it. \"Even before this (Dugard's reappearance) came up, I really had a feeling that perhaps my daughter might still be alive and might come home. And this has just heightened my hope for that,\" Murch said. She said she keeps busy by writing on her daughter's Web site. \"In some ways, it's a lot easier to continue to live without hope than to get your hopes raised again. Living with hopes not fulfilled is one of the hardest things, I think. \"If Michaela is out there and can hear me, I want her to know that I would like her to come home, that nothing that's transpired over the last 20 years can change the love we have for her. There's nothing that we can't overcome.\"","highlights":"Michaela Garecht, 9, kidnapped three years before Jaycee Dugard .\nA week before her abduction, Michaela wrote poem about kidnapping, mother says .\nGirls' kidnappings seem similar, Sharon Murch says .\nPolice also looking for links into 1989 kidnapping of Ilene Misheloff .","id":"83059363b4410c96c59c37d99c3f99db8762687c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Catherine Zeta-Jones is limbering up for her Broadway debut. Catherine Zeta-Jones will make her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's \"A Little Night Music.\" The Oscar-winning star of \"Chicago\" will appear alongside Angela Lansbury in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical \"A Little Night Music,\" according to an announcement from the show's producers. The production is set to open December 13 at the Walter Kerr Theater in New York's theater district. Previews begin November 24. Zeta-Jones will play the lead role of Desiree Armfeldt in the production directed by Trevor Nunn, with Lansbury cast as her mother, Madame Armfeldt. \"I'm honored that Trevor Nunn and Stephen Sondheim asked me to make my Broadway debut in this beautiful production,\" Zeta-Jones said in a statement. \"I look forward to starting rehearsal with this extraordinary group of people and working with the incomparable Angela Lansbury, whose work I've long admired.\" Lansbury returned the compliment, describing Zeta-Jones in a statement as a \"lovely young actress.\" The 83-year-old Lansbury first appeared on Broadway more than 40 years ago and has claimed five Tonys during her stage career. Her most recent Tony came this year for her work in the revival of the Noel Coward play \"Blithe Spirit.\" \"A Little Night Music,\" with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, debuted on Broadway in 1973. It's based on the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film \"Smiles of a Summer Night.\" The 1973 production ran for 601 performances and won six Tonys, including best musical. The score features \"Send in the Clowns,\" one of Sondheim's best-known songs, as well as \"A Weekend in the Country,\" \"Liaisons\" and \"Every Day a Little Death.\" The producers have not announced ticket prices for the revival. Tickets go on sale October 17 for the general public.","highlights":"Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury co-starring in revival of \"A Little Night Music\"\nBroadway show will be Zeta-Jones' first on the Main Stem; Lansbury a veteran .\nStephen Sondheim show is famous as source of \"Send in the Clowns\"","id":"1648620a7ee2d1f34ade78f9ad5e867c5af26bf8"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Bigfoot in the freezer is made of rubber, a Web posting asserted Tuesday. The frozen creature reputed to be Bigfoot turned out to be made of rubber, an enthusaist reports. The initial promoter of two hikers' claim that they found the body of Bigfoot in Georgia said he has determined that the discovery was a hoax. The body turned out to be rubber, and the two men who claimed that they found it, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, have admitted that it was a costume, said a posting Tuesday on the Web sites of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. and Squatchdetective. The posting purportedly was written by Steve Kulls, who maintains the Squatchdetective Web site and hosts a similarly named Internet radio program, where the find was announced weeks ago. In addition, Stanford University anthropologist Richard Klein said Monday that he was not aware he had been identified as participating in the project and would not be involved in any effort to examine the purported Bigfoot carcass. Whitton and Dyer announced last week that they had found the body of a 7-foot-7-inch, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature while hiking in the north Georgia mountains in June. They said they put the carcass in a freezer and had spotted about three similar living creatures. \"We were not looking for Bigfoot,\" Whitton, a Clayton County, Georgia, police officer, said Friday during a news conference. \"We wouldn't know what we were doing if we did.\" He and Dyer insisted that scientific analysis would bear out their claim. The hoax was discovered after an \"expedited melting process,\" Kulls wrote. \"A break appeared up near the feet area ... as the team and I began examining this area near the feet, I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot.\" Kulls said he contacted Tom Biscardi, the self-described \"Real Bigfoot Hunter\" who has been searching since 1971 for the creature of legend and appeared alongside Whitton and Dyer at the news conference. \"Later that day, Tom Biscardi informed us that both Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer admitted it was a costume,\" the posting said. Whitton and Dyer reportedly agreed to sign a promissory note and an admission of the hoax and meet with Biscardi at their hotel on Sunday. But when Biscardi went to the hotel, the two had left, Kulls wrote. \"At this time, action is being instigated against the perpetrators,\" the posting said, adding that the motives behind the claims were unknown. iReport.com: Do you believe in Bigfoot? The posting said Biscardi's organization, Searching for Bigfoot Inc., \"is seeking justice for themselves and for all the people who were deceived by this deception.\" Kulls did not immediately return a call to the Squatchdetective contact number. A woman answering the phone at Searching for Bigfoot Inc. said Biscardi had been ill and said she was not sure when he would be returning calls. A number listed as belonging to Matthew Whitton was disconnected as of Tuesday. Efforts to locate a phone number for Dyer on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Dyer and Whitton failed to show up Monday for a scheduled appearance on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Kulls said that at the time he first interviewed Dyer on July 28 for the radio program, he suspected the duo's motive was financial. On August 12, he said, the two \"requested an undisclosed sum of money as an advance, expected from the marketing and promotion.\" Two days later, after signing a receipt and counting the money, Dyer and Whitton showed the Searching for Bigfoot team the freezer containing what they claimed was the body: \"something appearing large, hairy and frozen in ice,\" Kulls wrote. Dyer, he said, insisted on holding the news conference and told Biscardi he would not release the body unless the briefing was held Friday. On Sunday, the research team was able to extract some hair and burn it. The hair sample \"melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair,\" Kulls wrote. Biscardi then gave the group permission to expedite the melting process, and the rubber foot was discovered, Kulls wrote. Meanwhile, Klein, the Stanford professor, said Monday that he was \"sorry that my name and Stanford's name have been brought into this.\" Klein's name was mentioned Friday as one of four scientists, two of them Russian, who would analyze the corpse. Klein said he was unaware that Biscardi had identified him. He said he had been contacted by Biscardi in the past and responded to a request to examine bones that were identified as coming from a deer. \"He seems like a nice enough guy,\" Klein said, \"but I can't imagine why anyone would devote their lives to proving the existence [of Bigfoot]. Anything has a remote chance of being true, but there is virtually no prospect of this animal being real.\" CNN's Peter Dykstra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hikers' discovery made of rubber, Web sites say .\nMen who made claim didn't show up for CNN's \"American Morning\"\nStanford professor says his alleged participation in project is news to him .\n\"There is virtually no prospect of this animal being real,\" professor says .","id":"f7135b0d3d76d152d63eca1c8b2dbef69f47fb0a"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A Bangkok Airways plane crashed at an airport at a resort island in Thailand, killing the pilot and injuring 37 people Tuesday, aviation officials said. Rescue workers inspect the Bangkok Airways plane at Samui airport on Thailand's Ko Samui. The plane carrying 68 people and four crew members skidded and then crashed after landing at Koh Samui airport, officials with the civil aviation department said. The ATR-72 turboprop had taken off from the town of Krabi on the west coast Thailand for its trip to the resort island of Koh Samui. Air traffic control warned the pilot of volatile winds before the plane landed, aviation officials said. Seven people were seriously injured and emergency officials were working to free the plane's co-pilot who was trapped in the plane, officials said. CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials: Plane skidded and then crashed after landing at Koh Samui airport .\nBangkok Airways ATR-72 turboprop carrying 68 people, four crew members .\nAir traffic control warned the pilot of volatile winds before the plane landed .","id":"fafd89b36bc417ca242d666a8d9cfd5e77bab922"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Italian giants Juventus and Roma have suffered blows with the news that star strikers Vincenzo Iaquinta and Francesco Totti have both undergone knee surgery. Junventus revealed that tests on 29-year-old Iaquinta's left knee have revealed damage to his meniscus. \"The tests done have indicated the need for the player to undergo surgery,\" read a statement on the club's official Web site. Iaquinta sustained the injury during training on Saturday and was forced to sit out Sunday's 1-0 victory at Siena. The Italy international, who has scored four goals in eight appearances for the Bianconeri this season, could be sidelined until next year. Meanwhile, Roma captain Francesco Totti has undergone surgery on his right knee. The 33-year-old missed Roma's last two Serie A matches and also their draw with Fulham in the Europa League last week. The club confirmed Totti will start his rehabilitation on Tuesday, but it is not yet known when he will be ready to return to action. A statement on Roma's official Web site read: \"The surgery was necessary after the player had problems during training. \"In the course of the surgery, no problems of any other nature were found. The player will be discharged and will now begin his rehabilitation. A return date will be determined depending on the player's condition.\" Roma currently lie 12th in the Serie A table with 11 points from their opening nine matches.","highlights":"Vincenzo Iaquinta and Francesco Totti have operations on knee injuries .\n29-year-old Juventus striker Iaquinta, 29, undergoes surgery on left knee .\nRoma captain Francesco Totti has undergone surgery on his right knee .","id":"9a059695db585d62896ba28134ae047b5e2fc0b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1 million babies born prematurely die each year before they are a month old, the March of Dimes said Sunday in the first comprehensive global report on premature births. A premature baby rests at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in October 2007. The organization suggested the situation could worsen if the rate of premature births increases. Each year, 12.9 million infants -- or nearly 10 percent of the annual worldwide birth total -- are born before 37 weeks of development in the womb, the organization said. More than 85 percent of the premature births occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia. \"Premature births are an enormous global problem that is exacting a huge toll emotionally, physically and financially on families, medical systems and economies,\" March of Dimes President Jennifer Howse said in a statement. \"In the United States alone, the annual cost of caring for preterm babies and their associated health problems tops $26 billion.\" The March of Dimes report, which used data collected by the World Health Organization, breaks down premature birth rates by continent. The highest premature birth rate is in Africa, where 11.9 percent of births each year are preterm, with more than 4 million premature deliveries annually. In populous Asia, although the preterm birth rate is lower at 9.1 percent, the number of premature births is higher, at nearly 7 million a year. While North America -- consisting of the United States and Canada in this report -- counts fewer than 500,000 premature births a year, its preterm birth rate is close to that of Africa, at 10.6 percent of all births, according to the report. The rate is the world's second highest. In the United States, the rate of preterm births has increased 36 percent in the past 25 years, with births between the 34th and 36th week of gestation accounting for the majority of the increase, the organization found. Much of the hike in preterm births is linked to more pregnancies after the age of 35 and the use of fertility treatments that can lead to multiple births. \"Wherever trend data are available, rates of preterm birth are increasing,\" the report said. Infants who survive premature birth face lifelong health risks, including the possible development of cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, learning disabilities and other chronic conditions, according to the March of Dimes. \"Preterm birth is a global problem that needs greater attention by policymakers, researchers, health care providers, the media, donor organizations and other stakeholders,\" the report said. \"The marked disparities in preterm birth along racial\/ethnic lines in many high-income countries and the concentration of preterm births in Africa and Asia also clearly indicate that addressing preterm birth is essential for reducing the pronounced inequities in neonatal health and for the world to achieve,\" it added. The March of Dimes, a nonprofit agency engaged in pregnancy and baby health research, said some premature births can be prevented by addressing risk factors in mothers, including diabetes, high blood pressure, nutrition, body weight and tobacco and alcohol use. Women who earlier gave birth to a preemie face a greater risk of having another. While doctors know some of the health and behavior factors in mothers that increase the risk of preterm births, doctors have yet to identify a reliable remedy to prevent early labor, said Christopher Howson, vice president for global programs of the March of Dimes. \"While much can be done right now to reduce death and disability from preterm birth even in low-resource settings, we need to know more about the underlying causes of premature birth in order to develop effective prevention strategies,\" Howson said.","highlights":"March of Dimes: Nearly 10 percent of world's births are premature .\nMore than 85 percent of premature births are in developing parts of Africa, Asia .\nBut North America has world's second-highest premature birth rate .\nDoctors have yet to identify a reliable remedy to prevent early labor, group says .","id":"6c07dd8dfbfc6c9904735903c3cb7d934473c7b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The label on the package claimed that it contained T-shirts and baby toys. When customs officials in Sydney scanned the parcel, they found five pythons and two venomous tarantulas. But when customs officials in Sydney X-ray scanned the parcel, they found instead five pythons and two venomous tarantulas. On Tuesday, authorities raided the house in Sydney to which the parcel had been addressed. Officials seized evidence but expect to file charges later, the customs agency said. Importing live animals without a permit is illegal in Australia and can yield a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of 110,000 Australian dollars ($92,000 U.S.). The parcel was sent from the United States last week, but officials would not say specifically where it had been mailed from. The snakes were wrapped within white calico bags and the spiders were packed in clear plastic containers, the customs agency said. The creatures were later killed because they posed a quarantine risk, the agency said in a press release. It titled the press release: \"Spiders and snakes on a plane.\"","highlights":"Customs officials in Australia find pythons and tarantulas in package .\nThe parcel had been sent from the United States .\nThe creatures were later killed because they posed a quarantine risk .","id":"1a403f2be92a82223a88151b2b1fe688ae3713b3"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea will open its market to most U.S. beef, a senior government official said Thursday, according to state media. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the South Korean capital in protest at the deal . South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef in 2003 amid concerns over a case of mad cow disease in the United States. The ban closed what was then the third-largest market for U.S. beef exporters. It resumed limited imports last year -- allowing boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age -- but that re-opening was subject to interruptions and closed altogether in October 2007. A deal that South Korea and the United States struck last month bans the import of high-risk materials, like tonsils, brains, spinal cord marrow and a section of the small intestine, Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun said Thursday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. These parts pose the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans. The ban will be lifted within a few days, once the government's new import rules have been published. The pending resumption of U.S. beef imports hasn't been without political costs for President Lee Myung-bak. He apologized to the nation last week for failing to fully understand concerns about mad cow disease. In downtown Seoul, thousands of people have regularly staged protests, chanting \"We don't want crazy cows,\" since the deal to revive beef imports was announced. And the main opposition party has taken up the fight. \"We will be forced to make a critical decision if the government pushes through its plan to announce resumption of beef imports,\" said Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, Yonhap reported. \"If the government and the ruling party ignore this warning, we will come up with every possible measure to stop them.\" The opposition has already filed a suit to suspend implementation of new beef import terms, according to Yonhap. Lee's ruling Grand National Party (GNP) is working to soothe tensions, saying that American beef is safe to eat and that adequate safety precautions have been taken. \"The government has tried its best to free the public from unnecessary concerns, and sufficient countermeasures have been prepared,\" said Lee Hahn-koo, the party's chief policymaker, Yonhap reported. When South Korea and the United States reached the deal in April to re-open the South Korean market, they removed the major obstacle to U.S. congressional approval of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Lee urged the National Assembly this month to ratify the agreement as soon as possible to provide fresh impetus to the sluggish Korean economy, saying it will create 300,000 jobs. But the opposition has promised to fight the FTA until the beef pact is nullified. In 2003, the United States exported $815 million pounds of beef and beef variety meats to South Korea. The U.S. beef industry has lost up to $4 billion since the market closed, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation.","highlights":"South Korea to open market to most U.S. beef says government official .\nBan began in 2003 amid concerns over a case of mad cow disease in the U.S.\nNew agreement bans the import of high-risk materials, like tonsils and brains .\nThousands of S. Koreans have regularly staged protests against U.S. beef imports .","id":"f0afe6d1fc5a72020cd1ee5890fe2c3af6708222"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- They are some of the biggest names in Hollywood, but even Susan Sarandon, Ethan Hawke and Dustin Hoffman have had their fair share of casting calamities they would rather forget. Mike Myers sabotaged some auditions for parts he didn't want. \"Why not be nude even if it is a children's theatre?\" CNN's The Screening Room has managed to persuade the cream of Hollywood to confess their tales of audition woe. The stars shudder at the memory of waiting in line, frantically trying to memorize lines handed to them moments before, all the while being assessed by critical strangers. Benicio del Toro recounts attending 50 or 60 auditions before getting a part and Quentin Tarantino told Eli Roth he \"blew it\" when he first auditioned for \"Inglourious Basterds.\" While Catherine Keener remembers a cutting personal assessment: \"You're not pretty enough.\" Here are some of their worst moments: . Bill Nighy \"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.\" \"Love Actually\" \"There was one that started out terrible, which was where I had to go to a disused tax office in Harrow [near London, England] very early in the morning and put on very tight velvet flared loon pants and a pair of crocodile four-inch- heeled platform shoes, and wear a sort of very small top that didn't meet my trousers, hair extensions and I had to karaoke to 'Smoke on the Water' by Deep Purple. It's a very lonely place. And I was 45 at the time...\" Ethan Hawke \"Before Sunset,\" \"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead\" \"I have had so many bad auditions. I have fallen on my ass. I have made a complete fool of myself. I auditioned for Robert Redford once and I was so starstruck I couldn't even speak. I had a mic wire at a screen test clipped to me and then I got kind of nervous and I paced in a circle and then took a step and tripped and fell on my face. You just have to forgive yourself and keep going on.\" Mike Myers \"Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,\" \"Shrek\" \"I've had some bad auditions for some TV movies that were shooting in England where I just didn't want to be in them and offered them more obtuse [performances] ... I like to think of it as performance art. I didn't sabotage it, I was just woefully inappropriate, you know? I just thought, 'Why not be nude even if it is a children's theatre?\" Catherine Keener \"Being John Malkovich,\" \"Synecdoche, New York\" \"You wouldn't believe some of the comments, assessments. But, they're really not meant personally. Like for example, 'You're not pretty enough.' For them it's just a fact. But for you it's like, 'Oh my God! I have to live with this.' You get a thicker skin about it, which you should because it isn't meant personally, but it's such a personal profession that you kind of have to get used to getting critiqued on things that you shouldn't even care about.\" Dustin Hoffman \"Marathon Man,\" \"Meet the Fockers\" \"The most famous casting director from New York, I was lucky enough to get an audition with her in the '60s. She did all the plays, all the Broadway plays. She is sitting across the desk saying her lines, and I am saying mine, and she stops and says, 'Come here. Bring your chair here, right next to me.' And I say, 'Why?' And she says, 'Because I can't hear you, and you have never been on the stage or on Broadway, and you are going to have to reach the last row.' I said, 'Yeah, I know. I have been studying acting for about seven years now, but I'm not on Broadway now, I'm just sitting in front of you.' So, she said, 'I know, but I couldn't hear you. That's why I asked you to sit next to me.' I said, 'Okay. Can you hear me now?' I was getting so angry. Well, at that point she said, 'Speak up,' and I screamed as loud as I could, every line after. She called my agent and said, 'If you ever send that maniac around here again I will never see another one of your clients.' I really lost it. Eli Roth \"Death Proof,\" \"Inglourious Basterds\" \"I left the casting of 'Hostel: Part II,' which Quentin [Tarantino] was a producer on to go and audition for his movie ['Inglourious Basterds'] and it was just a room with a camera. He wasn't even there and I was like, 'Where's Quentin?' They go 'He didn't leave his house today.' Anyways, I blew it. I did terribly and Quentin called me and starts making fun of me. He was like,'You were so bad in your audition, but I'll give you a callback. Come on.' Demi Moore \"A Few Good Men,\" \"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle\" \"I auditioned for 'A Few Good Men' with Tom Cruise and Rob Reiner and when I went into that audition I was eight months pregnant ,so there is always kind of a lasting impression that I was playing this military officer with this gigantic belly. Obviously, it turned out well because I got the role but there was something quite odd about it.\" Roger Moore \"Octopussy,\" \"Curse of the Pink Panther\" \"I remember auditioning for one play, and the girl was awfully short and we were holding the book in our hands and I almost couldn't see her. I knew I wasn't going to get that part, I tried to make myself smaller and smaller so I could be closer her size and that didn't happen.\" Ramon Rodriguez \"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, \"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3\" \"I met ['Transformers' director] Michael Bay in his office in Santa Monica for an hour and a half he had me running, jumping and diving all over his office and his furniture freaking out like I was reacting to robots, which is the strangest audition I have had by far. I left the room completely drenched in sweat and all I could say was, 'I better get this part.' It worked out and the stuff we did in the room was the stuff we did on set.\"","highlights":"Stars confess their casting calamities and tales of audition woe.\nDustin Hoffman remembers how he \"lost it\" and screamed at a casting agent .\nEthan Hawke confesses to falling \"on his ass\"\nEli Roth \"blew it\" when he first auditioned for \"Inglourious Basterds\"","id":"411fb71ad1d405ee0fc2f0efba85cedde3bd5bb2"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Dan Neumann was a 14-year-old struggling against cancer when he came across an unexpected ally in his battle. Cancer survivor Dan Neumann plays Re-Mission and is helping create the game's next edition. He was receiving treatment for leukemia at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in 2004 when he saw a flyer inviting teenage cancer patients to test a new video game. A self-described gamer, Neumann says he was immediately drawn to the posting. He signed up to try it and was won over by the game, which simulated what goes on inside the bodies of cancer patients. \"When you go through cancer treatment, chemotherapy becomes something you dread,\" Neumann, now 19, recalled. \"But with the game you're actively playing something and shooting cells.\" That game eventually became Re-Mission, a video game that's helping teenagers around the world in their fight against cancer. Since its release in 2006, more than 145,000 free copies have been distributed, and now a new version of the game is in the works. See what it's like to play the game \u00bb . Pamela Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, came up with the idea for the game. A former lab technician and avid video game player, she thought kids could learn a lot by experiencing the treatment process in a vivid way. That led her to launch HopeLab, a non-profit that took Re-Mission from the drawing board to an actual product. The organization, which focuses on using technology to create positive health outcomes in kids, was recently recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama for its innovative approach to tackling health challenges. Players control a tiny robot who travels through the human body to destroy harmful cancer cells. Along the way, she breaks down complex medical terminology and explains what's going on when the body undergoes treatment like chemotherapy. By making cancer a visible foe, Re-Mission gives kids a different mental view of who their enemy is, said Dr. Steve Cole, vice president of research at HopeLab. That's something that teenagers around the world can benefit from. Video games like Re-Mission transcend national boundaries and cultures, he told CNN. \"Everybody wants to beat death.\" Re-Mission has been distributed to 81 countries, and patients anywhere in the world can download it for free online. According to Cole, providing an opportunity to experience the positive emotions that come from treatment can change the behavior of young patients and can make a real difference in their health. A study he conducted that was published in 2008 showed that patients who played Re-Mission took their medication more consistently and learned more about their disease than those who didn't. \"What this game is really built to do is help teenagers be better participants in their own medical care enterprise,\" said Cole. \"It gives them a real opportunity to affect their own health outcomes.\" Neumann says when he was in the hospital, doctors walked him through pamphlets describing the chemotherapy process. But it was the game that ultimately made him feel better about his treatment. \"There's a lot of complex medical terminology, which is hard to digest at that age,\" he said. \"Re-Mission encourages you to learn that your chemotherapy is doing something.\" Now in remission, Neumann is helping HopeLab develop the next edition of the game. In the early stages of development, the new product is expected to be released in 2012 at the earliest. He's been providing feedback on his experience as a cancer survivor and gamer to help developers understand what patients personally get out of playing Re-Mission. He wants other teenagers to experience the game, and says they shouldn't shy away even if they've never played video games before. \"Re-Mission is an excellent game for any cancer patient, regardless of whether they're a gamer,\" he said. \"It really makes you feel like you're engaging in your treatment.\"","highlights":"Re-Mission video game helps patients visualize battle against cancer .\nNon-profit organization HopeLab is planning new version for 2012 .\nCancer survivor says game helped change his attitude towards treatment .\nTeenagers around the world can benefit from game, HopeLab says .","id":"aedf1a41e3610ede2fda39725c81fd8c9f2fde8c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Naval forces from several countries were searching Tuesday for a British couple and their missing yacht, which may have been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Africa, military sources told CNN. European Union anti-piracy forces may have spotted the missing vessel Tuesday, a spokesman told CNN. \"One of our helicopters spotted a yacht approximately 200 nautical miles from the Somali coast, towing two skiffs of the type normally used by pirates,\" Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Auwermann told CNN. The yacht has not been identified, and the EU helicopter could not make contact with it, he said. Paul and Rachel Chandler set off from the Seychelles for Tanzania on October 21, according to their blog. They have not been heard from since, but a distress beacon was activated October 23, according to naval officials. International military forces are treating the case as a \"potential hijacking,\" Lt. Ian Jones of Britain's Royal Navy told CNN. \"We have no confirmation that anything has been pirated,\" he added. There are many possibilities, he said, adding that he was aware of the reports of piracy but that hijacking was \"far from certain.\" The weather in the area is quite good, he said. Before setting off, the Chandlers said that the journey could take as long as two weeks and that they would be out of contact for part of the voyage. \"We probably won't have satellite phone coverage until we're fairly close to the African coast, so we may be out of touch for some time,\" they wrote before setting off in the Lynn Rival, a 38-foot yacht. Britain's Foreign Office issued a statement saying it is \"extremely concerned for their safety,\" while pointing out that it had not confirmed reports they were taken captive. Pirates have been active off the east coast of Africa in the past several years, operating out of lawless Somalia. Two vessels were attacked the day after the Chandlers set sail. One of them -- a cargo ship -- was successfully boarded and seized off the Seychelles, while the other fought off its attackers near the Kenyan coast. Attacks in the region have significantly increased this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. But successful attacks have decreased as a result of a strong presence of international monitors. The first nine months of this year have seen more pirate attacks than all of last year, the bureau reported October 21. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, it said. More than half of this year's attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. Out of those attacks, Somali pirates successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight people were wounded, four were killed and one is missing, the bureau said. CNN's Adam S. Levine contributed to this report.","highlights":"European Union forces may have spotted couple's yacht off Somalia .\nYacht was towing two skiffs of type used by pirates .\nBritish couple left Seychelles for Tanzania on October 21 .\nYacht's distress beacon activated October 23 .","id":"78992580b3892cea94b4e3232ff9899af220501c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Whenever you speak with Carlos Santana, you pretty much know what you're going to get: lots of talk about love and light. spiritual analogies, name-dropping of people like Marvin Gaye and Mother Teresa. Carlos Santana will start a 72-show residency in Las Vegas in May at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. It may take a moment to enter the humble headspace of the 61-year-old guitarist legend, but once you're there, you realize that this is a man who acts with his heart instead of his head. Somehow, he's managing to live out his 1960s ideals in 2009 -- and he wants fans to experience a piece of that with his new Las Vegas, Nevada, show, \"Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits.\" The 72-show residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino launches May 27, with 36 concerts this year and 36 in 2010. As with all his events, a portion of the cost of each ticket will be donated to the Milagro Foundation, the charitable organization founded by Santana and his family to benefit children around the world. Watch Santana get into the groove \u00bb . Santana talked to CNN about the Vegas show and his beliefs. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: Your Vegas show sounds like it's your greatest hits mixed with a little bit of Carlos Santana spirituality. Carlos Santana: They're inseparable at this point. We're very different than a lot of bands. A lot of bands concentrate on show business and entertainment. We focus on light and touching people's hearts. We really believe that by coming to Las Vegas, it gives us an opportunity to take ourselves and the people who come to listen to us into a place where people are free from thinking they're sinners or unworthy. There's something really wonderful about music when music makes men and women dance, laugh and cry at the same time, because they're receiving like a Holy Ghost thing. CNN: Ticket prices range from $79 up to $299 -- which is a lot of money for some people in this economy. Santana: I have no clue about that. I'm more with, \"This finger goes onto this note and it makes juicy sounds, and I'm going to make people dance and laugh.\" It's not like I don't care or I'm ignorant. It's just that I'm not wired to have that insignificance on me other than what I'm going to get to give back to other people. And other than that, I trust that the people around me -- which is my sister and my brother-in-law -- will take care of all of those dimensions. We don't like to gouge people, but we do like to be realistic that you do need to pay the rent ... and stuff like that. But other than that, since I was a child, I really don't put that much focus or significance into it. CNN: You're well-loved by mainstream audiences, and the Latino audience has been really supportive, too. Do you think this is opening up the door to perhaps invite the Latino audience to Vegas? Santana: They're already there. They're washing dishes and folding sheets -- I'm serious. The Latin community is there. It's just that we don't see them. ... I don't belong to just Latinos just because I speak Spanish. We go to Ireland, and if we go to Pakistan, or Istanbul or Malaysia, we're part of the family. We just did a tour in South America, and I have never seen so many children come to our concerts in my life -- and I've been doing this since '67. CNN: You were born in Mexico, and President Obama will be heading there to talk about the war on drugs. [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton recently made some remarks that United States drug consumption is partially to blame for this problem. Do you agree with that? Santana: Totally. I think that the solution to all of this stuff would be to legalize it, decriminalize it, reinvest all that money into teachers in schools. ... If we would teach in schools the incredible sensation of climax that it feels to be of service to other people -- like Mother Teresa, or Desmond Tutu or the Dalai Lama -- smoking pot, and drinking tequila, and watching porno or whatever people do, it pales in comparison when you actually wake up to be of service to people. To go back to the question -- I think we should legalize marijuana. I think Barack Obama should bring the brothers and sisters home -- the soldiers. If I was to see him, I would go, \"Listen to Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' and John Coltrane, and bring the boys home from the war now, like we did with Vietnam.\" They're not going to come here. People in Vietnam did not come here to attack us after we left them alone. So let's get rid of that fear, that fantasy, that stuff. Let's get rid of the bogeyman, because the bogeyman is us looking in the mirror of each other. CNN: What about when people don't get it, Carlos? What if they're listening to you and thinking, \"He sounds like one of those New Age Californians, and I really don't get what they're doing out there.\" Santana: Well, they don't get it because they're stuck in something that is not working. Like, for example, a lot of people are stuck with certain parts of the Bible, believing that God is vengeful and jealous. That's Godzilla! I'm not stuck with a God like that. I'm stuck with a God that's all love, all compassion, all light, and he only sees you with purity and innocence, like the brand-new eyes of a child that's just been born. ... A lot about Las Vegas is illusion. It's entertainment and show business. We don't know none of that. We only know to go into your heart and help you remember that it's there. I know a lot of rich millionaires who are not happy, and you're only happy when you're doing something. CNN: Are you happy? Santana: I'm very, very happy because I'm grateful. My priorities finally have been crystallized. I started washing dishes, and now I do this. And this is a lot of fun.","highlights":"Carlos Santana will be opening \"Supernatural Santana\" in Las Vegas May 27 .\nGuitarist says band focuses \"on light and touching people's hearts\"\nSantana believes in legalizing marijuana, wants to emphasize teaching service .","id":"a6be77462cf96b7d6c83855e2ef3c3f0c4533ef4"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brandon Boyd blends into his Venice, California, neighborhood like any other resident. Brandon Boyd, front man for Incubus, is going on the road with the band in July. He surfs. Shuns Starbucks in favor of the local smoothie shop. Walks his French bulldog, Bruce. Oh, he also paints and makes music with his multiplatinum rock band, Incubus. The quintet hits the road on a North American summer tour in July, and just released a greatest hits collection called \"Monuments and Melodies.\" The packaging features artwork by Boyd, who held his first solo art exhibit at Mr. Musichead Rock Art Gallery in Los Angeles last fall. The showroom is on the Sunset Strip, a stone's throw from the clubs that were host to Incubus' first gigs. The most spectacular paintings are large, fantasy-inspired pieces drenched in burgundy or aqua. Usually, the artwork springs to life in a corner of the singer's kitchen, where an easel permanently resides. It's a zen-like space, with high ceilings, glossy concrete floors and warm, burnished wood. But instead of the requisite Buddha statue, there's a rubber rabbit's head for inspiration. The muse seems ironic and appropriate, especially since Boyd swears his home was a brothel back in the 1900s. CNN talked to Boyd about collaboration, the fulfillment of art and finding the perfect wave. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Isn't it ironic that you had your first solo art show before your first solo album? Brandon Boyd: I've actually thought very little about solo work up until just very recently. Most of it is because in my band, Incubus, it is very much a collaborative effort. I do what I do in the band, and everyone plays their respective parts, but in the end, we are sort of a democratic process. We meet in the middle for a lot of the songs, and I think that's why we sound the way we do -- because it's sort of five minds meeting in the middle. With my art thing, it's completely self-indulgent. Watch the singer discuss his art \u00bb . CNN: So what does art fulfill in you that you don't get out of music? Boyd: To me, it's like the difference between a pen and a paintbrush. Music draws from almost the identical place as art does, which really is that intangible -- it's like you're pulling from the ether. I don't know where it comes from. Nobody really does. It sort of arrives when it wants to. ... I've been painting and drawing and taking pictures as long as I've been writing music -- and I've actually been drawing longer than I've been writing music. I didn't go around looking for it. It kind of found me. CNN: Your parents always encouraged you to explore your artistic side. Boyd: My parents are wonderful, and I'm really lucky -- but my mom has always been almost exclusively a right-brained person. She goes completely on her feelings of things, on her intuition, and so she instilled that in my brothers and I. And she also instilled in us from a very young age the importance of visualization -- visualization as a tool towards manifestation in your life. And so, from a very young age, if I didn't feel well, she's like, \"Well, draw what's happening and draw a solution.\" If I had a stomach ache, I would draw a picture of my stomach, and I would draw what I thought the bad germs looked like -- and, you know, they had little robber masks on and stuff. And then I would draw a good germ, and of course it had a cape, and some tights, and he had a washcloth in his hands, and he could fly around and clean up the bad germs. And for some reason, I would always feel better afterwards. CNN: Did you ever visualize and draw what you wanted to achieve in terms of your music career, too? Boyd: Sometimes, yeah. But the guys in the band -- we kind of grew up together, and when they were like, \"We want to play music, let's start a band. You should be the singer,\" I was like, \"OK.\" I'd never written anything before, I had never even really sang, but they knew that I knew how to draw, so it seemed logical that maybe I could write lyrics or carry a tune. So I always just sort of visualize lines, I would visualize a melody, and then sound it out to them, and they would help me sort of guide it through the instruments. And eventually, I got good enough at it that I was able to do it completely on my own. CNN: When you finish a painting, is it very much like finishing a song or finishing an album? Boyd: Yeah, there is definitely a sense of accomplishment. Very rarely is there any confusion as to when a painting or a song is finished. You just know when it's done. Someone wise once said when they were asked the question, \"How do you know when you're done with a painting?\" And they said, \"How do you know when you're done making love?\" I always thought that was a great analogy. CNN: Did you ever think, \"I need a fall-back job, like being an accountant, or a lawyer, or someone who works for IBM?\" Boyd: I feel very blessed, but no. I knew from a very young age that these were the things that I was supposed to do, and I actually made some very adult decisions when I was a teenager based on the knowledge that this is what I was going to do. There was really no question about it. CNN: What else do you want to do? Boyd: Painting and art are obviously in my focus, but I dream about getting a really big tube at the Bonsai Pipeline sometime in the near future.","highlights":"Incubus' Brandon Boyd has been indulging in a love of painting .\nBand has new greatest hits album out, will hit the road in July .\n\"These were the things I was supposed to do,\" says Boyd .","id":"59a59d58eefa7f6c3c7ceedb292fc059a172385c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A global commodities trading company says it is considering a settlement to legal claims that it is responsible for the deaths of 15 people and thousands of illnesses after 500 tons of toxic waste were dumped in the African nation of Ivory Coast. Signs such as this were still up in \"toxic zones\" around Abidjan, Ivory Coast, a year after the waste dumping. The Dutch company Trafigura said studies by 20 experts it has hired conclude that the chemicals did not harm anyone. \"In view of that expert evidence, and the fact that claims are not being made in this litigation for deaths, miscarriages, still births, birth defects and other serious injuries, the parties are exploring the possibility of compromising the claims which have been made,\" Trafigura said in a release Wednesday. \"A global settlement is being considered by the parties and it currently appears that this settlement is likely to be acceptable to most, if not all, of the claimants.\" A United Nations report also released Wednesday said Trafigura did cause death and injury when the cargo ship Probo Koala dumped 500 tons of toxic waste belonging to the company at sites around Abidjan, the West African nation's largest city. The incident happened in August 2006. \"According to official estimates, 15 people died, 69 people were hospitalized and over 100,000 others, complaining of nausea and vomiting after inhaling fumes, sought medical treatment after the incident,\" said the report by Okechukwu Ibeanu, an unpaid investigator for the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council. \"We still don't know -- and we may never know -- the full effect of the dumping. But there seems to be strong prima facie evidence that the reported deaths and adverse health consequences are related to the dumping of the waste.\" Ibeanu, who visited Ivory Coast and the Netherlands during his investigation, urged all parties to take steps \"to address possible long-term human health and environmental effects of the incident.\" According to a U.N. statement, Ibeanu said last month that the areas where the toxic waste was dumped still have not been decontaminated and continue to threaten residents' health. Many people, he said, are still reporting headaches, skin lesions, digestive difficulties and nose, throat and lung problems. Trafigura noted in its release Wednesday that it initiated a plan two years ago that would compensate, without any admission of liability, any claimants who could demonstrate any injury caused by exposure to the waste, which the company calls \"slops.\" \"The company has always maintained that the Probo Koala's slops could not possibly have caused deaths and serious or long-term injuries,\" Trafigura said. \"Independent expert witnesses firmly support Trafigura in this stance.\" Trafigura also maintains it \"sought to comply with all relevant regulations and procedures concerning the offloading of the Probo Koala's slops in Abidjan.\" The company denies that the ship went to Ivory Coast solely to dump the toxic waste. \"Trafigura has consistently stated that the Probo Koala was returning from a routine commercial voyage to deliver a gasoline cargo in Lagos, Nigeria, when it stopped in Abidjan,\" the company statement said. \"Consequently, any suggestion that the vessel was sent to West Africa solely for the purpose of offloading its slops is entirely inaccurate.\" As one of the largest independent companies trading commodities, Trafigura has 1,900 employees in 42 nations, the company's Web site says. \"We handle every element involved in the sourcing and trading of crude oil, petroleum products, renewable energies, metals, metal ores and concentrates for industrial consumers.\" the company says. Ivory Coast, a former French colony with a population of 20 million, is also known as Cote d'Ivoire.","highlights":"Dutch firm Trafigura: Toxic dumping didn't harm anyone, according to experts .\nU.N. report: Fifteen people died, 69 were hospitalized, and thousands were treated .\nToxic waste areas still have not been decontaminated, U.N. statement says .","id":"79a421182db411a0feda92ea3b570491f1723a69"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Rudy Ruiz founded RedBrownandBlue.com, a site featuring multicultural political commentary, hosts a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show; and wrote a guide to success for immigrants (\"\u00a1Adelante!\" published by Random House). He is co-founder and president of Interlex, an advocacy marketing agency based in San Antonio, Texas. Rudy Ruiz says people hold on to their views despite the evidence for fear of being labeled a flip-flopper. SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- As people shout over each other and tune out diverging views in town hall meetings, the health care debate is proving to be symptomatic of a major ailment threatening our nation: . A contagious culture of closed-mindedness threatens to suffocate our progress as a society. Why has it become so difficult to even consider changing our minds about important issues? Here's my diagnosis. Increasingly, the willingness to change one's position on political issues has been misread as a mark of weakness rather than a product of attentive listening and careful deliberation. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, the successful branding of John Kerry as a flip-flopper doomed his bid. Fear of \"flip-flopper syndrome\" is apparently catching like the flu, because today politicians are not alone in their determination to adhere to partisan positions despite the changing needs of our nation. Nearly everyone's so reluctant to appear wishy-washy that they stand firm even when the evidence is against their views. Three factors exacerbate this paralysis by lack of analysis: labels, lifestyles and listening. First, the labels ascribed to many potential policy tools render sensible options taboo, loading what could be rational, economic or social measures with moral baggage. This narrows our choices, hemming in policy makers. Any proposal including the words \"government-run\" elicits cries of \"socialism\" and \"communism.\" Any argument invoking the words \"God\" or \"moral\" sparks accusations of \"right-wing extremism,\" \"fascism,\" or \"Bible-thumping.\" Instead of listening to each other's ideas, we spot the warning label and run the other way. Second, our lifestyles favor knee-jerk reactions. The way we think, work and live in the Digital Age demands we quickly categorize information without investing time into rich interaction, research and understanding. We're hesitant to ask questions because we don't have time to listen to the long, complicated answers that might follow. And we lack the time to fact-check competing claims. In our haste, it's easier to echo our party's position than drill down, questioning whether party leaders are motivated by our best interests or the best interests of their biggest contributors. Third, we tend to listen only to like-minded opinions as media fragmentation encourages us to filter out varying perspectives. If you're a liberal, you avoid FOX News. If you're a conservative you revile MSNBC. The dynamic is even more pronounced online, where a niche media source can be found for any outlook. This silences the opportunity for meaningful dialogue and deliberation that might lead to reformulating positions, forging sustainable compromises, and developing consensus crucial to moving our nation forward on complex issues. So how can we overcome this challenge, starting with the health care debate? How do we open our minds to the possibility that we could actually learn from somebody else? Here's my prescription. For starters, we should eschew the notion that changing our minds is a character flaw. To the contrary, experts believe it's a manifestation of higher intelligence. Renowned psychologist Stuart Sutherland wrote in \"Irrationality,\" his seminal 1992 book: \"The willingness to change one's mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness.\" To further free our minds, we should aggressively treat the three Ls: . Let's lose the labels: from \"flip-flopper\" to \"commie,\" from \"fear-monger\" to \"right-wing nut job.\" Trash the diatribe; mull the ideas. Let's engage in some constructive lifestyle management, slowing down to ponder -- and make independent decisions -- as enlightened people. We cannot allow the technological evolution to rob us of the intellectual strides of the American Revolution. We must value the art of listening, reflection, comparative analysis, and civil discourse if we're to make the most of our democracy. In the process, we should signal to leaders that we're willing to expand our horizons beyond party lines. Maybe they'll get in front of our parade, collaborating for a change. Let's request a second opinion and listen to each other. Switch channels. Visit different Web sites. Read a newspaper, while we can still find one. How about stepping into a town hall with an open mind, prepared to converse with people hailing from diverse circumstances? A range of perspectives enriches our viewpoint, empowering us to craft nuanced responses to complex situations. Ultimately, we must stop thinking that the only thing to think is what we've thought all along. As we learn more about multifaceted matters, our positions should evolve accordingly. Let's accept that it's OK to change your minds. In the end, opening our minds can only enhance the prognosis for our most cherished patient: America. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz.","highlights":"Rudy Ruiz: It's become unfashionable to have an open mind about issues .\nHe says labels like \"socialism\" and \"fascism\" obscure the real choices .\nHe says it's a sign of rationality to be open to the evidence .\nRuiz: Let's listen to each other and take into consideration wider range of viewpoints .","id":"51b03821a3c48aa207d9264683ccd7b80fc7bf08"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An infant falls to his death from a second-story window while his parents are making love. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe star in the Lars von Trier drama \"Antichrist.\" The mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is consumed with grief and guilt. She's hospitalized and sedated for days and weeks before her husband (Willem Dafoe), a therapist, insists she return home. He gets rid of all her medications. He will be her partner and her grief counselor, and he will see her through this, if only she will place her trust in him. Not a good idea for either of them, as it turns out. Halloween is nearly upon us, but \"Antichrist\" is a mighty strange kind of horror movie, a wrenching psychodrama for two-thirds of its running time before collapsing into a steaming heap of deranged sadism and supernatural symbolism in the outrageous third act. The movie's peculiarity can be accounted for in three words: Lars von Trier. The Danish provocateur twice won prestigious honors at the Cannes Film Festival (with \"Breaking the Waves\" and \"Dancer in the Dark\") and re-energized European art cinema in the 1990s with the Dogme movement's so-called \"Vows of Chastity.\" It's not often that an art-house director takes up the implements to make a horror film, and for a while, \"Antichrist\" compels with its anguished intensity and audacious stylistic choices, not least the severity that keeps the focus exclusively on this man and woman, neither of whom is named. The prologue -- the child's death -- is a luxurious, slow-motion rhapsody of explicit sex, black-and-white photography and baroque music, commingling with the infant's almost ersatz tragedy and finding perfunctory counterpoint in banal close-ups of the family's washer-dryer. (There may be a deliberate echo here of the famous sex scene in Nicolas Roeg's \"Don't Look Now,\" a far more keenly calibrated examination of grief succumbing to the supernatural.) Dafoe and Gainsbourg are riveting as the ill-matched couple. He's an implacable rationalist, urging her to confront her fears and venture into the darkest recesses of her psyche. She's not sure he's ready to share that torment with her. Their bitter, sometimes sourly funny back-and-forth fleetingly echoes the railing, pugnacious and remorseful men and women we find again and again in Strindberg and Bergman. Of course, when those great Scandinavian dramatists wanted to shock us with the ferocity of the battle of the sexes and show a married couple going at it tooth and nail, their only weapons were words. Mindful that he's up against \"Hostel,\" \"Saw\" and the like, Herr von Trier ups the ante considerably. Hiking to a log cabin in the mountains to uncover the apex of his wife's fears (it could be anywhere, but let's imagine we're in the neighborhood of Burkittsville), the doctor's little experiment in exposure therapy ends in crushed genitals and, uh, worse. Much worse. It's safe to say von Trier knows this climax is over the top: \"Chaos reigns!\" announces a fox, in perfect English, just as the movie goes off the deep end. Chaos reigns all right, and Gainsbourg's traumatized mom is transformed nonsensically into a raving psycho witch-bitch. This director has often been accused of misogyny for the punishments that befall his heroines -- spuriously, in my opinion. But this time the boot is on the other foot, and for once the charge seems to stick; no matter that the first half of the movie suggests Dafoe's smug therapist is due for a comeuppance. Apparently someone had a seizure when the movie showed at the New York Film Festival recently. When I caught up with it at the Vancouver International Film Festival two weeks ago, the screening was punctuated with the single loudest shriek I've ever heard in the theatre -- that would have been when Gainsbourg gets out the scissors for a spot of ad hoc auto-surgery. There also was a very vociferous walk-out: a gentleman who fairly barked \"You get what you pay for, folks\" as he made for the exit a full 20 minutes before the end. That unhappy camper had a point. Either von Trier is barking up the wrong tree, or he's pandering to the basest instincts of an audience that's seen it all before and still demands more, more, more. Beautifully shot by Anthony Dod Mantle and acted with raw conviction, \"Antichrist\" is a calamitous atrocity from a major filmmaker, nothing more and nothing less. If you don't believe me, go ask the talking fox. \"Antichrist\" is not rated and runs 104 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"Antichrist\" has met with vitriolic reaction at film festivals .\nLars von Trier film stars Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg as troubled couple .\nHorror goes from moody to over-the-top and graphic .\nTo CNN.com's Tom Charity, the film is a \"calamitous atrocity\"","id":"ed6758af7def6067dae93746d2c8e6e6eba7db6b"} -{"article":"CIMA, California -- Driving along a pockmarked road amid rocks and Joshua trees in a lonely southern California desert, religious controversy might be the last thing you'd expect to encounter. A judge ruled the Mojave Cross must be covered until a First Amendment issue can be resolved. And if you don't look too closely, you're likely to zip right past the focus of a hotly contested Supreme Court battle. A federal judge has ordered the Mojave Cross, a war memorial erected by a veterans group 75 years ago, to be covered. It's boxed in plywood. The issue is less about what the cross symbolizes and more about where it sits: In the middle of the Mojave National Preserve, which is government land. The high court on Wednesday will consider whether the display violates the First Amendment's provision for a separation of church and state. Watch details of the cross case \u00bb . More specifically, does an individual who protests the cross have legal standing to take the case to court? Do congressional efforts to minimize the appearance of a constitutional violation carry any weight? View details on other cases awaiting the Supreme Court \u00bb . \"Religion is always very hard fought in the Supreme Court, and this is no exception,\" said Thomas Goldstein, a Washington appellate attorney and co-founder of scotusblog.com. \"A single cross on a single plot of land has given rise to this huge constitutional controversy. The court will look at whether Congress, with a kind of wink and a nod, (can) say that this governmental cross is now on private land or are we (going to) say, no this is a governmental war monument and it has a religious symbol on it.\" Riley Bembry, who served as a medic in World War I, helped erect the cross in 1934. It sits on a 4,000-foot plateau and was a place of reflection for many vets who retreated to the desert in part to recover from severe lung diseases caused by mustard gas attacks during the Great War. An annual Easter service is held there, but until recently only locals knew about it. The site is not on any maps. Watch a video about the Mojave monument \u00bb . Bembry never got permission from the government to erect the cross, but for decades nobody seemed to care. He was the caretaker of the memorial for five decades until he died in 1984. In 1994, 1.6 million acres of desert -- including the land with the cross on it -- was transferred to the National Park Service. A few years later, a resident wanted to put up a Buddhist shrine near the cross. The request was denied. Frank Buono, a former deputy superintendent of the preserve, filed a lawsuit with the help of the ACLU, claiming federal officials were acting unfairly. \"He thinks that the government is in effect misappropriating this sacred symbol and trying to give it just a secular meaning,\" said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney of the ACLU of Southern California. \"It strikes me as sort of odd that it just happens to be in that shape,\" Eliasberg said. \"If what they really wanted to do was have a war memorial, there are hundreds of other shapes that it could be in. ... Mr. Buono does not have an objection to the government having a war memorial there that's in the shape of a soldier, or that's in the shape of the Vietnam memorial.\" A federal court ordered the cross removed earlier this decade. A judge ruled that until the dispute is settled the cross had to be covered. In 2001 Congress got involved. Lawmakers prohibited the Park Service from spending federal dollars to remove the display. A year later, they designated the site a national memorial similar to the Washington Monument and Mount Rushmore. More importantly, the Republican-led Congress agreed to transfer one acre of land around the cross in exchange for five private acres inside the preserve. A San Francisco, California-based appeals court turned that offer down, saying it failed to satisfy Constitutional concerns. The land swap \"would leave a little donut hole of land with a cross in the midst of a vast federal preserve\" the court said. The Supreme Court has traditionally taken a case-by-case approach to similar First Amendment cases. Among other things, it has upheld tax exemptions for churches and the mention of \"God\" on U.S. currency. Test your Supreme Court knowledge \u00bb . At the same time, it has banned government-sponsored school prayer and imposed limits on public aid to parochial schools. In 2005, a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas Statehouse grounds was allowed to stand because it was surrounded by historical markers. But the same day, the placement of Ten Commandment parchments in two Kentucky county courthouses was ruled unconstitutional. The high court called them \"a governmental effort substantially to promote religion.\" Earlier this year, the justices ruled that a small religious group could not erect a granite monument in a Utah park next to an existing Ten Commandments display. This time, the Obama administration will argue in favor of keeping the cross and allowing the land transfer. The implications of the case could extend beyond the Mojave Cross. Individual gravestones are not at issue, but war memorials have long featured religious imagery. \"There are 5 million veterans that we represent ... would be quite shocked and horrified to know that those memorials and the symbols chosen by vets 75 years or 100 years ago would suddenly have to be torn down by a bulldozer,\" said Hiram Sasser, attorney for the Liberty Legal Institute. Wanda and Henry Sandoz have been taking care of the memorial since Bembry passed away. They shake their heads over the legal fight that will take them to Washington. \"I hope it won't be too long before we can look at the cross again without that stupid box,\" Wanda Sandoz said. \"Yep, really. We'll repaint it,\" Henry Sandoz said. \"I already bought some white paint,\" Wanda Sandoz said. CNN national correspondent Kate Bolduan contributed to this report .","highlights":"A war memorial erected in the shape of a cross was covered by plywood .\nThe cross is located on government property .\nJustices will decide whether the display violates the First Amendment .\nIt's \"sort of odd that it just happens to be in that shape,\" said an ACLU attorney .","id":"624f63401d765f9d98ac09131e021a39a37962f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Wu-Tang Clan -- the New York hip-hop supergroup that spawned millions of album sales, nine solo acts and a few acting careers -- almost never was. If RZA, left, had been jailed or Method Man killed, Wu-Tang may have never formed, RZA says. Method Man, the group's most recognizable voice, was nearly killed before the band formed, Wu-Tang's chief producer, RZA, writes in his forthcoming memoir. Meth was walking to buy marijuana at 160 Park Hill Avenue in Staten Island -- the house in Wu-Tang's \"Protect Ya Neck\" video -- when RZA saw him across the street, he writes in the book. \"Come over here, yo!\" RZA beckoned, according to \"The Tao of Wu\" (Riverhead). \"He stopped and came running over. A few seconds later -- pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! -- a guy started shooting up the front of 160. A buddy of ours, Poppy, an innocent, school-going, nice guy -- he was shot and killed right there.\" Interactive: Where's the Wu been? \u00bb . It wasn't the only close call RZA said could have snuffed the band that rewrote the rule book for hip-hop acts. The year before the group formed in 1993, RZA was acquitted on an attempted murder charge that could have put him behind bars for eight years, he writes in \"The Tao of Wu,\" out Thursday. Expanding on the book's anecdotes in an interview with CNN, RZA explained that if he had been imprisoned or if Method Man, aka Clifford Smith, had been killed, the band never would have come to fruition. RZA, whose real name is Robert Diggs and whose stage name is pronounced \"Rizza,\" also talked about his role in the death of his cousin, Russell Jones, better known as Ol' Dirty Bastard or ODB. Two days before his 36th birthday in 2004, ODB died in a New York recording studio from an overdose of cocaine and painkillers. RZA writes in the book that he once witnessed ODB force his own son to watch him do drugs. RZA tried to leave, he writes, but ODB wouldn't let him. Now, RZA told CNN, he wishes he would've been tougher with ODB about his drug problem. Following are excerpts from the interview, which has been edited for language, flow and length: . CNN: Could your imprisonment or Method Man's death have derailed Wu-Tang's formation? RZA: Either one of those incidents could definitely have derailed it. Of course, myself being the abbot, the one who came with the idea, if I wouldn't have made it out of that tumultuous time -- it seemed like I wasn't going to make it out of it; there was a lot of odds against me -- but we stood strong, and self-defense made sense to the jury. We beat that ... It was the victory over that incident that made me change my whole direction. In a way, it's double-edged in that incident. One, if I would've lost that, yeah, Wu-Tang wouldn't have happened, but also it's the victory of it that inspired me and gave me the drive also to go and really get serious about Wu-Tang and the things I was dealing with. Same thing with Meth, he always brings it up ... that that day saved his life. He actually said, if it was anybody else calling him, he wouldn't have came. CNN: In the book, you cite lessons from Eastern religions, Christianity, Islam, [Nation of Islam offshoot] Five Percent, numerology, comic books, kung fu, chess. What would you say to someone who says it's difficult to reconcile these dogmas? RZA: Like it says in the Bible, \"In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh\" -- if we go to the root of the word, we will find that, yeah, everything is similar. Everything is teaching us all the same path. It's just that one religion was good for these people because of their living conditions. In the Quran, they mention paradise being filled with wells, wells of water, and if you're in the desert and you've got a chance to get water and gardens -- as they describe paradise in the holy Quran -- if you're going to get gardens, that's the paradise that fits your situation. ... Everything they're saying relates to the people they're talking to. ... You remove the messenger and take the message. CNN: You say in the book that your penchant for violent lyrics in your younger years \"was a product of my history and environment\" and that it no longer represents you. But you also say you won't repudiate violence. Why not? RZA: One reason I haven't repudiated it is because when it's necessary, it's necessary. [The Bible's] Ecclesiastes tell us there's a time for everything -- a time for war, a time for peace -- so in times for war, there's time for violence. Then in [the Hindu scripture] Bhagavad Gita, it says Arjuna was talking, Arjuna didn't want to commit violent acts against an army that was attacking him. He couldn't find it in his heart to do it. It was people he loved. He didn't want to get into violence, but Krishna had to point out to him, \"Your duty is your duty.\" ... So, to me, violence in the light of justice is still violent, but I don't see it the same. It's because of justice that I don't repudiate violence because justice must be served somehow. CNN: ODB was a product of his environment as well. To what degree were you and other Wu-Tang members responsible for his death? RZA: The guys would say it's more me than them because they say that's my cousin and I was right there. If you let a man that you love or anybody -- man, woman or child that you love -- sit there and destroy themselves in front of you, you're neglecting them ... Everybody let him do what he wanted to do. ... There were times when I took his drugs and threw them down the toilet. When I do that, he would get so pissed off I don't see him for weeks after that. ... So it got to a point, I was like, \"[expletive] it, let him do his drugs\" just to have him around me, just to keep him there. ... But it's still neglect, yo. CNN: You say you ran Wu-Tang like a dictatorship in its first five years. I know you and Raekwon have had creative differences and Ghostface Killah is suing you over royalties. Ever regret the dictatorship approach? RZA: I don't regret it because it got us to the power we are. ... To me, in the beginning, the dictatorship led us to such a strong foundation that even though Wu-Tang seemed to be crumbling, it didn't fall because of the root foundation of one man's idea. But now as it's coming back together -- we're living in the twilight age of it right now -- it's still surviving because of the democracy of it. CNN: Wu-Tang is still around, but nothing like the heyday of the 1990s. Will we ever see a renaissance? RZA: Well, to me, Wu-Tang is beyond Wu-Tang Clan. ... It's just like hip-hop is beyond Grandmaster Flash, but Grandmaster Flash was one of the first guys to hit those turntables like that. ... The same thing with Wu-Tang. You'll see the difference in hip-hop from the moment we came in to before we came in. We changed it. We changed the whole structure. CNN: Have you accomplished everything you've set out to accomplish? RZA: I'm me and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing. I'm grateful for what I've accomplished. I'm grateful for anyone who thinks I accomplished something and says, \"Well he did this; he did that.\" I'm proud to be accepted, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface for some weird reason. CNN's Kyle Almond contributed to this report.","highlights":"Wu-Tang producer: Attempted murder conviction also could have derailed band .\nRapper\/producer\/actor RZA talks of forming Wu-Tang Clan in upcoming memoir .\nRZA: Ol' Dirty Bastard made son watch him do drugs before 2004 fatal overdose .\nBook cites lessons from Christianity, Islam, numerology, kung fu, chess .","id":"71d91b5a77a53fcc7ffb7fb613ebd84c25b308a8"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- With strong sales and equally powerful praise, the July issue of Italian Vogue can be judged a resounding success. Chanel Iman is one of several models of color featured in the \"Black Issue\" of Italian Vogue. Dubbed the \"Black Issue,\" the magazine celebrates models of color from the past and present, including Donyale Luna, Liya Kebede, Naomi Campbell, Iman and Chanel Iman. Within 72 hours, the magazine sold out in the United States and Great Britain. Blog posts and e-mails about the beauty and historical significance of the issue began to flow -- and industry insiders were equally pleased. Praising renowned photographer Steven Meisel, who shot most of the issue's fashion pictures, The New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn gushed, \"I think they are some of the best he's done. ... They are crazily, softly beautiful, plainly the work of someone who knows women and fashion.\" See what all the fuss is about \u00bb . Another 40,000 copies of the \"Black Issue\" were recently reprinted to meet the still strong demand. But will the all the hoopla translate into tangible change for black models in the fashion industry? Will more color be seen on the runway and in magazines? Many observers have their fingers crossed. \"All the agents were happy about the issue because it gives us hope that other people will catch on and decide that it's OK to use more black girls,\" said Carlos Ojeda, an agent at New York Models. \"It's OK to have more than just one, and she doesn't have to always be Naomi.\" \"Italian Vogue is very influential around the world on an artistic level,\" said Constance White, style director at eBay. \"That is the book that all the art directors, the photographers, any fashion editor looking for inspiration turns to ... and always has. It has always been the trendsetter, so hopefully people will look at it and say using black models is both relevant and right and will start doing it too.\" Bethann Hardison, a legendary model agent-manager, said she has noticed a shift in the industry since she began holding town hall meetings last September to address the lack of diversity in fashion. The packed-to-the-rafters events quickly became the talk of the industry, and Hardison is widely credited with sparking the current movement. \"I started seeing more black models on the runway back in February,\" she said, pointing to the shows of designers like Diane Von Furstenberg and Michael Kors as examples. \"I have already seen change, and I know that I will continue to see change.\" Not all are nearly as optimistic, and fear the diversity issue will become as passe as the skinny-model debate of a few years ago. \"I hate to sound cynical, but by January, I feel like it will be back to business as usual,\" Ojeda said. \"I want to be hopeful and positive, but a part of me does not want to get my hopes up.\" \"Let's see if Italian Vogue is going to be able to live up to the standards that they've now set,\" added one prominent New York-based stylist. \"You can't have an issue with all black girls, pat yourself on the back and say 'that's it for the year.' \" Hardison is working hard to make sure that doesn't happen. She's already scheduled another town hall meeting for September, and she's also planning a mixer to introduce fledgling models of color to industry players. \"We just have to keep the bar high,\" Hardison said, \"and keep showing beautiful women and pictures.\" Lola Ogunnaike is the entertainment correspondent for CNN's American Morning.","highlights":"Italian Vogue recently ran \"Black Issue\" highlighting women of color .\nIssue was huge success -- sold well, earned great reviews .\nObservers wonder if impact will last .","id":"266de30f696185a62da21ca708ec7596482766f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Enough Afghan opium to supply world demand for two years has effectively gone missing, with the Taliban suspected of stockpiling supplies in a bid to corner the market, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has revealed. Pakistani customs officials destroy contraband narcotics on the border with Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the world's leading narcotics supplier. Earlier this month, a U.N. study revealed Afghanistan's opium production had dropped dramatically this year partly because of new aggressive drug-fighting tactics in the country. According to the UNODC report, production dipped by 10 percent this year while cultivation fell by 22 percent. However, a senior U.N. spokesman warned that this positive news should be treated with caution. \"We figure the world needs around 4,000 tons of opium a year for licit and illicit purposes,\" Walter Kemp of the UNODC told CNN. Has enough empasis been placed on drug trafficking? \"But this year around 6,900 tons was produced, with 7,700 tons delivered last year and more than 8,500 the year before that. Map showing where Afghan opium is going \u00bb . \"So if the world only needs around 4,000 tons of opium and a further 1,000 is seized, where is the rest of it going?\" According to Kemp, world demand for opium remains stable yet prices are not crashing, which suggests a large amount of opium is being withheld from the market. \"Our guess is that around 12,000 tons of opium has been stockpiled somewhere -- not all in one place but in and around Afghanistan,\" he added. \"So while production might be coming down -- mostly because of market reasons -- there's still a lot of product around to satisfy demand for about two years.\" It is unclear exactly who is responsible for this but there's growing evidence, according to the U.N., that the Taliban are becoming increasingly involved in the industry and could be sitting on huge stockpiles of opium to use as credit for financing their activities. \"Farmers will be keeping small amounts back as credit for things such as a dowry or buying livestock,\" said Kemp. \"But they won't have the means to store supplies in the kind of quantities we're talking about here. \"It's probably in the hands of people with the ability to store it underground and to keep people away from it through corruption or force.\" Hakan Demirbuken, a research expert on the U.N.'s Afghan Opium Trade Program, said Taliban involvement in the drugs trade is not limited to taxing Afghan opium farmers and traders in return for their \"protection.\" He told CNN: \"Last year we estimated that Afghan poppy farmers earned around $730 million, while traders who take the product on to the border earned around $3.4 billion.\" \"From this lucrative business the Taliban took around $125 million in tax. \"But according to U.N. figures they need around $800 million per year for their operational needs.\" However, most of the trade is controlled by organized criminal groups from outside Afghanistan. Therefore Demirbuken believes groups such as the Taliban and al Qaeda will be forging links with criminal gangs in order to become more involved in the production and trafficking stages. In addition to the increased revenue greater involvement would provide, he said groups such as al Qaeda \"will have noted the destabilizing effect this industry -- and the sums of money it generates -- can have on more vulnerable countries with weak governments.\" In October last year, the United States told NATO members that the drug trade was a threat to coalition troops because there was a direct connection between it and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. \"There is what we call a nexus of insurgency. There's a very broad range of militant groups that are combined with the criminality, with the narco-trafficking system, with corruption, that form a threat and a challenge to the future of that great country,\" then-U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. David McKiernan told reporters. As a result NATO combat forces have now been actively attacking militants, drug laboratories and buildings connected to insurgents with ties to drug lords for the first time since the start of the Afghan conflict in 2001. Meanwhile, international law enforcement organization, Interpol, believes there has been a change of tactic involving Afghanistan's opium, with much more of it being turned into heroin within the country and stockpiled or couriered out, primarily through Iran. Historically Afghanistan has been responsible only for cultivating raw opium, with the conversion into a final product taking place across the border in Pakistan or in Iran and Turkey, according to the UNODC. Producing heroin in Afghanistan makes it easier to conceal and transport than the bulkier raw opium.","highlights":"Recent study revealed Afghan opium production has dropped dramatically .\nU.N. says this should be treated with caution as country has been over-producing .\nTaliban suspected of stockpiling large amounts of opium \"as credit\"\nU.S. has warned of growing link between Taliban and the drug trade .","id":"0435b7db7b56b36291aa5d0b826aaa09c070edeb"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When they set sail from harbor most yachtsmen leave only their worries behind. But when Hilary Lister goes out to sea, she sheds an entire way of life. Hilary Lister says she feels \"a thousand times\" more free when she sails. The 36-year-old Briton is a quadriplegic who can only move her head, eyes and mouth and needs to rely on carers for almost every need. In spite of these restrictions she became the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain Monday scoring a victory against the rare degenerative illness she has suffered from since age 11. The inventive technology behind her voyage is called \"sip and puff\" -- a system of three pneumatic straws positioned near Lister's mouth that allow her to control the boat through a series of semaphore-like commands she can give by either blowing or sucking through the straws. Developed by a Canadian engineer, the system let Lister alter course and trim the sails of her 20ft long keel boat to complete the record-breaking trip over two summers. Lister's passion for sailing is all-consuming and, considering what it has given her, unsurprising. \"When you leave the quayside, you leave behind the stresses of everyday life,\" she told CNN. \"Any sailor will tell you that. \"If you multiply that sense of freedom a thousand times, that's how I feel. I leave behind my wheelchair, a team of carers and suddenly it's just me.\" An Oxford University graduate and talented sportswoman in her youth, by 2003 Hilary's illness had laid her so low she was a virtual recluse, never leaving the home she shared with her husband Clifford, and by her own admission deeply depressed. A friend suggested she go to Westbere Sailing. The center specializes in helping disabled people on to the water, but Hilary almost never made the 20-minute trip from her home near Canterbury in southern England. \"I was ill and running a temperature and I was about to cancel it, but something stopped me from backing out,\" she said. She credits the decision to go to the center with saving her life. \"[The staff]treated me like an intelligent, capable person and not like an object to be pitied,\" she said. Her illness is called reflex sympathetic dystrophy. It makes it difficult for her to breathe -- the media interviews she has done since her latest achievement have exhausted her, she said. It also puts her in near-constant agony, a situation that is only manageable with the use of powerful drugs. Despite these hardships, or perhaps because of them, Hilary has no fear when she is out at sea. Her aim is to help other disabled people feel empowered in the same way and to that end she has set up her own charity, Hilary's Dream Trust. The charity exists to provide assistance to disabled and disadvantaged adults who dream of sailing. \"It is difficult to do all the press, my diaphragm is in a bad way and I get tired easily with the interviews. But I want people to know my story because it's important they realize disabled people can accomplish anything, given the right tools.\" Her own accomplishment she began last summer with the help of a support boat and a specially adapted motor home that she returned to after each day's sailing to recuperate. Last August she was forced to abandon the attempt due to bad weather and strong winds. She took up the gauntlet again in May and was rewarded with some transcendent moments. \"When I was in the Irish Sea I saw something that looked like a blow hole on my starboard side,\" she said. \"I wasn't sure what I'd seen then suddenly out of the water this huge whale emerged like an Exocet missile. Next thing a pod of them -- we think they were humpbacks -- were all around my boat. \"I remember thinking, 'I wonder if this is safe' but I was enjoying the moment so much. It was so exhilarating.\"","highlights":"Hilary Lister has become the first disabled woman to sail around Britain .\nShe navigated with a special technology using only her mouth and a straw .\nHilary suffers from a rare degenerative disease that has made her paraplegic .\nShe wants to help other disabled sailors through her charity Hilary's Dream Trust .","id":"5e29765d4cf984572102cd6c7d9e98fc58032102"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Seven emergency medics in England have been suspended from work for playing an Internet game that involves being photographed lying down in unusual places. The lying down should be as public as possible and as many people as possible should be involved. Bosses at a hospital in Swindon, western England, were angered after photographs of the doctors and nurses lying face down on resuscitation trolleys, ward floors and an air ambulance helipad were posted on social networking site Facebook. The photographs have been removed from the site and the members of the hospital's accident and emergency staff now face a disciplinary hearing. Partipants in the \"lying down game\" must lie face down with the palms of their hands against their sides and the tips of their toes touching the ground. Should the medics have been suspended? Send us your views . There are two aims to the challenge: that the lying down should be as public as possible and that as many people as possible should be involved. But Dr. Alf Troughton, medical director of Great Western Hospital NHS Trust, was unamused by the alleged incident, which he said took place during a night shift last month. \"This did not involve patients and we are satisfied that at no time was patient care compromised,\" Dr. Troughton said in a statement. \"The Great Western Hospital sets high standards for staff behaviour at all times and therefore takes any such breaches extremely seriously. It is important to reassure patients and our workforce that this was an isolated incident and staff cover was maintained at all times. \"The allegations have been thoroughly investigated and seven members of staff remain suspended pending formal disciplinary hearings.\"","highlights":"Seven medics in England suspended for playing \"lying down game\"\nInternet game involves being photographed lying down in unusual places .\nMembers of hospital's accident and emergency staff await disciplinary hearing .\nThey were allegedly photographed lying on trolleys and emergency helipad .","id":"4b237a74fb0f482004004a56ed04f75d485cb580"} -{"article":"LEONE, American Samoa (CNN) -- Another earthquake struck Wednesday near the Samoan islands, an area already devastated by earthquake and tsunami damage which killed more than 130 people. A traditional Samoan fale is destroyed Wednesday in the devastated village of Leone. The 5.5-magnitude earthquake occurred at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday evening (1:13 a.m. Thursday ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake's epicenter was 10 km (6 miles) deep in the Pacific Ocean about 121 miles (194 km) from the city of Apia, Samoa. The quake did not trigger a tsunami warning, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. It followed an 8.0-magnitude earthquake which hit the small cluster of Samoan islands early Tuesday triggering a tsunami. At least 139 people are confirmed dead as a consequence of Tuesday's quake and tsunami. They include 22 people killed in American Samoa, 110 in Samoa and seven in Tonga, according to officials on the islands. A huge emergency effort was continuing late Wednesday in the Samoan islands and officials warned that the death toll could rise as rescue workers start to reach outlying villages and discover new casualties. Watch the tsunami take over the street \u00bb . Survivors like Ropati Opa were trying to find ways to cope. The massive waves had destroyed his home, store and gas station in the village of Leone on the southwest coast of American Samoa. With tears in his eyes, he said \"I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I don't have money. I lost everything yesterday. But thank God I am alive.\" iReport.com: Witness describes tsunami hitting land . U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the disaster at an event Wednesday in Washington. \"To aid in the response,\" he said, \"I've declared this a major disaster to speed the deployment of resources and FEMA ... is working closely with emergency responders on the ground, and the Coast Guard is working to provide immediate help to those in need. \"We also stand ready to help our friends in neighboring Samoa and throughout the region, and we'll continue to monitor this situation closely as we keep the many people who have been touched by this tragedy in our thoughts and in our prayers,\" Obama said. Journalist Jeff DePonte contributed to this report.","highlights":"Latest death toll from Tuesday's quake, tsunami stands at 139 .\nSecond quake -- magnitude 5.5 -- shook Samoan islands region Wednesday .\nQuake does not trigger a tsunami warning, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says .\nHuge rescue effort under way in Samoan islands amid fears death toll could rise .","id":"287e5e90d652be781825f8b9325925db46e12dbd"} -{"article":"Aboard the Tea Party Express (CNN) -- From the stage, Deborah Johns is the angry conscience of the tea party movement. A protester uses a Nazi swastika to make a point at a Tea Party Express stop in Dallas, Texas. \"Question everything your government is doing,\" she tells a crowd of about 100 from the bus's stage in the parking lot of the Winners casino in Winnemucca, Nevada. Under a setting sun on the steps of the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas, Johns says: \"Our men and women took an oath when they put on the uniform to defend and protect this country from enemies both foreign and domestic. I think we've got some domestic enemies in the White House.\" On a sunny afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, Johns works the crowd of about 2,000 into a frenzy. \"The men and women in our military didn't fight and die for this country for a communist in the White House,\" she says, and the crowd erupts in a chant of \"U-S-A, U-S-A!\" Watch rally participants converge on Washington \u00bb . On the bus, Johns slips off her heels and slips on a pair of ankle socks. She curls up under a quilt her grandmother made. She favors skirts and cardigans -- a pit bull in cashmere. She leads the rallies in each city with Mark Williams, a former talk radio host who now writes books and makes the rounds on cable TV chat shows. Both work for Our Country Deserves Better, the conservative political action committee sponsoring the Tea Party Express bus tour. The tour concluded Saturday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington after a 34-stop tour that began August 28 in Sacramento, California. Williams is the showman of the bunch. His signature line when he gets the mic goes like this: \"You can have our country when you pry it from our ... cold ... dead ... fingers!\" Again the crowd erupts. Watch scenes from Tea Party Express rallies \u00bb . Seldom seen on stage are the two gurus of the tea party movement, veteran politico Sal Russo and his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Joe Wierzbicki. They are charged with turning the passion on display at the tea parties into political action. They have three goals: Defeat President Obama's health care reform efforts, win back the House and Senate in 2010 and take the White House in 2012. Russo grew up in a house full of working-class Democrats in Monterey, California, and nearly gave his father a heart attack when he became a Republican. His first paid gig in politics was working for Ronald Reagan's 1966 California gubernatorial campaign, and he has worked in conservative politics ever since. Russo often watches the raucous tea party events from his perch in the bus. Besides Johns and Williams each event features several musical acts and featured speakers. The crowd is its own sideshow. Tea partyers are a creative lot, and many in the crowd express themselves by way of their clothing and signs. See some of the getups and signs \u00bb . \"Obamacare Condense Cream of Crap soup\" reads a sign in Sparks, Nevada. In Dallas, Texas, a darker mood prevails. A homemade sign with \"Obama Lies\" features a bold, black swastika. As the tour moves on, Nazi imagery becomes more prominent -- and sometimes confused. One sign at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, has Obama's portrait sandwiched between pictures of Adolf Hitler and communist philosopher Karl Marx. In Canton,Ohio, Obama and Hitler adorn a sign reading \"Hitler made great speeches, too.\" In Elko, Nevada, over a Basque supper of oxtail, lamb and sweetbreads, Russo assesses the tea party movement. \"There are some people who are mad at everyone,\" he says, \"but there are others who say, 'How do we move beyond this and turn it into action?'\" Rare is the conversation with Russo in which he doesn't bring up the name of his idol and one-time boss, Ronald Reagan. But if there is a Reagan out there to take the reins of the tea party movement, Russo doesn't know who that person is. \"It's opened for a leader. I don't see anyone out there that can grab it,\" he says. \"I'll be surprised if someone emerges. I don't see who that is.\" Many in the crowd hope former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will emerge as the leader of the movement, \"but she has so many negatives,\" Russo says. If the tea party movement has an architect, it is Joe Wierzbicki. Unassuming in wrinkled khakis and a polo shirt, he is in near perpetual motion. Hands gesturing wildly through the air, he describes his plan. \"There are going to be stops along the way. The first stop is going to be the health care reform act,\" he says. If the tea partyers can play a part in stopping the president's health care efforts they will be poised for a much bigger challenge: taking control of Congress from the Democrats, he says. \"Those politicians that aren't responsive to this message are going to face a lot of trouble in their re-election bids in 2010,\" he says. That the tea party movement has no leader at this point is just fine with Wierzbicki. He says right now the movement is centered on a few key issues: taxes, expansion and distrust of Obama. \"If there was a leader there might be a divisive factor,\" he says. In Wierzbicki's plan, the movement doesn't need a leader until after the 2010 election. \"From then to 2012 is probably the period of time when you'll find a big national leader that will emerge that the majority of the people in this movement will feel comfortable following,\" he says. No one on the tea party express seems concerned with the vocal fringe of the crowds that come with offensive signs -- besides Nazi imagery, a poster of Obama as an African witch doctor has become popular -- or the numerous conspiracy theories that float around most tea parties. In Battle Creek, Michigan, a woman in her 60s says, \"I really don't want to be a guinea pig for the experiment they have with the population control.\" In Canton, Ohio, a woman argues with an Obama supporter: \"He's going after our kids to try to indoctrinate them into a national defense army.\" The Tea Party Express tour has been free of violence, but occasional outbursts of vitriolic hatred toward the president combined with some menacing outward appearances often overshadow the more moderate tea partyers. iReport.com: Weigh in on health care . In Louisville, Kentucky, two young men in camouflage fatigues roamed the crowd trying to recruit new members for their militia called the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters. They bear signs reading \"AK-47s: today's pitchfork\" and \"Quit worrying. Start your militia training today.\" In Jackson, Michigan, a young man didn't need a sign. He was carrying the real thing: A loaded AK-47 assault rifle and two loaded handguns. \"I don't want a revolution. I don't want a civil war,\" he said. \"But it is a possibility. It's there as an option, as a last resort.\" From the stage, Deborah Johns and Mark Williams never interact with most of these characters. Russo shrugs it off, saying that the early stages of every political movement have people like this. To Wierzbicki these troubling elements are just part of the price of a grassroots movement. He is convinced they will not derail the movement. \"The message will be moderated by the time it gets to 2010,\" he says.","highlights":"Tea Party Express bus tour concludes Saturday at U.S. Capitol .\nFury at Obama, government in general apparent at rallies along route .\nTwo operatives organize tour, seek ways to turn passion into action .\nClear leader, moderated message eventually will emerge, organizer says .","id":"99889d51e96e7baad2f107a8a82dc390f5963f7b"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It may look like an air mattress you might see lying around next to a swimming pool but in reality its function couldn't be less trivial. The Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin could play a major role in saving lives in the developing world. The Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin (SWDT) -- a new portable water purifier -- could be a major step forward in the fight against disease and mortality in the Third World. Eric Olsen, a San Francisco-based architect and the inventor of the SWDT believes the product could help eradicate the scourge of polluted water which the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate claims over 1.5 million lives every year. Not only does it purify water -- up to 20 liters -- it makes it more portable in large quantities -- a vital dual role in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Central Asia where access to clean water is often scarce. \"There are lots of products that do one or the other,\" Olsen told CNN. \"There's a really interesting product that's been around for 10 or 12 years called the Hippo Water Roller -- a 20 gallon drum with a handle attached that allows people -- mostly women -- to transport a week's worth of water back home\". Olsen also points to another product developed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) that has successfully tackled water impurities. According to Eawag SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection Process) is already used by more than two million in over 30 countries. \"The idea of SWDT,\" he says, \"is to combine these two products and make them into something that can do both roles effectively\". Made out of a top layer of recycled low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and a bottom layer of durable rubberized nylon, the SWDT is both flexible and robust. Its design was morphologically inspired by the saguaro cactus and is adaptable to a variety of situations -- as a wrap to carry or placed on the roof of a mud hut -- and is easy to store. The SWDT uses passive solar radiation -- a water sterilizing method approved by WHO -- which disrupts the reproduction of microorganisms. Heat and UVA radiation from the sun pass through the LDPE layer and into the water cavity and are reflected back by the bottom layer of nylon. On a sunny day purification takes five hours. Olsen admits that its performance is hampered by its low density -- scratches to the surface mean it doesn't transmit the sun's rays as effectively -- but he is confident that this can be overcome with more research. Production using a Radio Frequency Welding equipment may be relatively expensive but Olsen says that the raw materials are cheap and the labor is inexpensive. \"We are trying to imagine ways that this thing can be made and repaired by people where it is most needed,\" he said. \"We are working on a sheet welding process which is much lower tech, inexpensive and also capitalizes on the handcraft skills of local people\". What started out as a solo effort a little over a year ago has gradually grown into a collaborative project. Olsen's students at the California College of Arts, where he currently teaches -- he moves to a new post at Woodbury University this fall -- have lent their enthusiasm and experts from the bioscience and textile industries are increasingly coming on board. Olsen's efforts have already been recognized. The SWDT won first prize in the 2008 Next Generation Design Competition run by Metropolis Magazine -- netting him $10,000 -- and he is waiting for conformation that the invention has been selected for Wired Magazine's Next Fest show which takes place in Chicago later this year. So what next for Olsen and his invention? The aim is to adapt the original design and turn it from a water carrying wrap into a fully fledged coat and he's also looking at ways the material might be redrawn as a tent. He's currently in the process of trying to qualify for non-profit status. And with the likes of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other institutions out there, he thinks the prospects for funding development and deployment look promising.","highlights":"The Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin aims to reduces disease and death .\nThe award-winning design by Eric Olsen is portable as well as a being a purifier .\nFlexible and robust the design is morphologically inspired by the saguaro cactus .","id":"f40f10e54e3ec432dedc9f7d5358b408e7f88f3f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fires in central and southern California raged Saturday as triple-digit temperatures mixed with dry conditions continued to fuel the flames, torching thousands of acres and threatening scores of homes. Firefighters look on as fire rages near Ocean View Drive in Los Angeles on Saturday. Authorities confirmed three civilian injuries from a growing blaze known as the Station fire burning through the Angeles National Forest-La Canada Flintridge. The blaze nearly quadrupled in size from 5,500 acres Friday to more than 20,000 acres, officials said. The blaze, which grew to more than 20,100 acres, was 5 percent contained early Sunday, officials said. It was upgraded to type 1 brush fire -- the most severe classification. \"Today what happened is what I called a perfect storm of fuels, weather and topography coming together ... essentially the fire burned at will,\" Mike Dietrich of the U.S. Forest Service said Saturday. Authorities consider the Station fire an anomaly, as it is not driven by strong winds as most California wildfires. Watch CNN's Reynolds Wolf explain what's driving the fire \u00bb . \"The fire has been very active on all fronts,\" U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Randi Jorgensen said. The fire threatened about 10,000 homes in Los Angeles County and 900 homes were evacuated, she said. Watch close-up views of the fast-moving fire \u00bb . \"Basically, all the homes that back up to the National Forest in the La Canada-Flintridge are in danger from the fire,\" Jorgensen said, adding that fire officials have told residents to be prepared for possible evacuation orders. The Station fire disrupted power to 750 homes. More than 750 workers have been dispatched to control the blaze, which started Wednesday afternoon. Watch iReport images and descriptions of the fire \u00bb . Jorgensen confirmed one injury involving heat exhaustion. A wildfire also hit San Bernardino National Forest, burning 2,200 acres, fire officials said. The blaze, called the Cottonwood fire, started Thursday afternoon about 10 miles from the southern California city of Hemet, officials reported. That blaze was about 10 percent contained Friday evening. Hemet is about 85 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Firefighters fully contained another fire that torched 230 acres about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles on Friday. The blaze, called the Palos Verdes fire, forced 1,200 people to evacuate and destroyed five homes and two other buildings. Another fire in the Angeles National Forest had burned more than 2,100 acres. The blaze, called the Morris fire, started Tuesday. That fire was about 85 percent contained Friday evening, officials said.","highlights":"The Station fire \"very active on all fronts,\" U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said .\nThe Cottonwood, Palos Verdes and Morris fires were all ablaze late Friday .\nHomes in the Angeles National Forest-La Canada Flintridge area in danger .","id":"17b1605fc59f43259b8e2b4ae46c160561eb95e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Villagers march more than 300 kilometers from northwest Cambodia to ask the prime minister to save their homes from developers. Some 400 families in the country's south learn their farmland had been given to developers only when bulldozers arrive. Villagers in northwest Cambodia set court documents on fire in protest over a land dispute. Such examples of forced evictions and land conflicts are cited by the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) in a report, \"Losing Ground,\" released Thursday. The report was a collection of voices from people rarely heard and \"present a painful look into the lives of people affected by forced evictions and intimidation, mainly the rural poor,\" said CHRAC, a network of 21 non-governmental organizations. \"The voices in the report belong to Cambodians who have been or are facing eviction. Most have insisted that their names and photographs be used, believing that openness will bring justice and appropriate solutions,\" the group said, adding that such trust is \"the springboard for the next stage of Cambodia's recovery from decades of civil strife.\" An estimated 150,000 Cambodians live at risk of forced eviction, Amnesty International said in its 2008 report on the country. Read about AIDS patients who were resettled to an isolated area . Beng Hong Socheat Khemro, deputy director general of Cambodia's Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the government was committed to finding the best solutions for not just squatters, but the entire population, and that it is drafting legal guidelines on squatter resolution. He also said the government rejected the term forced evictions, saying that meant people were forced off land they legally owned. He noted that various factors affect land use and ownership in the country: The 1970s ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime abolished all legal and regulatory documents regarding land, strong economic growth has contributed to demand for land, particularly in urban areas, and the pace of urbanization has stepped up in recent years. \"Many people illegally occupy land that does not belong to them,\" he said, later noting: \"What has happened now with the resettlement, or the relocation, of people is the fact that the government is implementing the law.\" \"I am very sure that those who claim to be on the land before the legal land owner, most of them do not have any proof at all,\" he said. \"Most of the cases that people -- illegal squatters, settlers -- have claimed that they have been on that land since, let's say 1979, are not true. If you study the legal development of Cambodia, you will understand, and not many people understand, including the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) themselves.\" Amnesty said poor Cambodians share the plight of many impoverished people around the world. The group cited the forced evictions of thousands in Angola, violence and insecurity in Brazil's shantytowns, and social services denied to Roma in Italy. \"There are more than 200,000 such communities, home to 1 billion people around the world,\" the group said. \"In Cambodia for the last two years, Amnesty International has been focusing on forced evictions as one of the country's most serious human rights violations today,\" Amnesty said in a statement on CHRAC's report. \"The increasing number of land disputes, land confiscations, and industrial and urban redevelopment projects hurt almost exclusively people living in poverty.\" People fighting evictions \"experience harassment at the hands of the authorities or people hired by private businesses. The rich and powerful are increasingly abusing the criminal justice system to silence communities taking a stand against land concessions or other opaque business deals affecting the land they live on or cultivate,\" Amnesty said. CHRAC said development of Cambodia, recovering from the Khmer Rouge genocide and ensuing decades of conflict, \"must not negatively affect\" people's lives. \"Our communities are losing land and natural resources. These are the resources that people have depended on for generations,\" CHRAC said. The report details evictions across the country. One group of villagers walked from the rice bowl of Battambang in the northwest to Phnom Penh to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen, seeking help in two long-running court fights with businessmen who claim to own a total of 200 hectares of their land. \"We didn't have enough money to get the bus to Phnom Penh. We had to walk. It was our last hope. We had to see Hun Sen or we would lose our land,\" said Chim Sarom, 45. They delivered their letter, but Sarom said they were unsure whether he ever got it. She said authorities gave them money to go home and were told an official would visit them. \"No government official ever came to our village. If we have to, maybe we will walk again,\" she said.","highlights":"Cambodian human rights network releases report on forced evictions .\nAmnesty: Evictions one of Cambodia's most serious human rights violations .\nGroups: Mainly the rural poor affected; people intimidated, harassed .\nOfficial: Government committed to finding best solutions; no forced evictions .","id":"b76adf6e6feb61a1e43ee20366ead170aa54efa0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jody Powell, who served as press secretary for President Jimmy Carter, has died, a spokesman for the Carter Center said. He was 65. Former White House Press Secretary Jody Powell died Monday. Powell, who served in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981, died Monday of an apparent heart attack, Carter Center spokesman Tony Clark told CNN. Carter said he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter \"share a great personal loss today in the passing of Jody Powell.\" \"From the time he began, as a young graduate student, as my volunteer driver during my 1970 run for governor, no one worked more closely with me than Jody,\" the former president and former governor of Georgia said in a statement. \"Jody was beside me in every decision I made as a candidate, governor, and president, and I could always depend on his advice and counsel being candid and direct.\" Robert Gibbs, press secretary to President Barack Obama, said he was \"deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Jody Powell.\" \"As press secretary to President Carter, Jody served his country during a difficult time, and he always did the job with grace and good humor,\" Gibbs said in a statement. \"When I needed advice at the start of my own tenure as press secretary, he was always generous with his time and wise in his counsel. I'll miss his support and encouragement, and I'll be keeping him and his family in my thoughts and prayers,\" he said. After his press secretary stint under Carter, Powell headed a Washington public relations firm, Powell-Tate, partnering with Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, Sheila Tate.","highlights":"Carters \"share a great personal loss today in the passing of Jody Powell\"\nCarter: \"Beside me in every decision I made as a candidate, governor, and president\"\nPowell also headed Washington PR firm with Nancy Reagan's ex-press secretary .","id":"63d50e275b1fe7bf856d824ab7ddffe26906665c"} -{"article":"THE EVERGLADES, Florida (CNN) -- Joe Wasilewski drives along a narrow stretch of road through Florida's Everglades. The sun is setting, night is coming on quickly, and Wasilewski is on the prowl for snakes -- and one snake in particular. Reptile expert Joe Wasilewski holds a Burmese python he found in the Florida Everglades. \"The next 10 miles seem to be the hot spot for Burmese pythons,\" he said. Wasilewski is a state-sanctioned snake-hunter who regularly scours this area for the reptiles. The Everglades, known as the River of Grass, has the perfect space and climate for pythons to hide and breed. And breed they do: The largest clutches found in the Everglades have contained 83 eggs. They are also speedy travelers, able to move across 1.6 miles of land every day, experts say. The travel lets people like Wasilewski hunt the snakes from the driver's seat of his truck. But it also means that the problems created in the local ecosystem by the non-venomous snakes are spreading. \"It's a large predator, and they're eating basically everything in sight. That's the problem,\" Wasilewski said of the Burmese python. Volunteers like Wasilewski, happy to grasp the problem and the snakes with both hands, are not the only troops in Florida's war on the invading pythons. A \"Python Patrol\" was launched in the Florida Keys, south of the Everglades, by Alison Higgins of the Nature Conservancy. Her program uses utility workers, wildlife officials, park rangers and police to keep an eye out for snakes and trains them to capture any they find. \"The Burmese pythons that are coming out of the Everglades are eating a lot of our endangered species and other creatures, and we want to make sure they don't breed here,\" said Higgins, the conservation manager for the Keys. It is believed that the problem originated when reptile-breeding facilities near the Everglades were destroyed during Hurricane Andrew. Compounding the problem is the release of these snakes by pet owners. \"These pets were released by owners that do not understand the threat to the ecosystem,\" Everglades National Park spokeswoman Linda Friar said. She said the pets, which can grow to 200 pounds and live for 30 years, often get too big for owners to handle. The state has a pilot program with several volunteer snake hunters such as Wasilewski. Twenty years ago, no Burmese pythons were found in the Everglades, park statistics say. Now, there could be 100,000 snakes in the River of Grass, but no one knows for sure. What Wasilewski, an expert on reptiles, is sure of is that night is the best time for his hunting, as that is when the snakes tend to be on the move. When he finds his prey, he puts the snake in a bag, deposits it in a crate and delivers it to biologists for the Everglades National Park, where the snake can be studied and\/or destroyed. On one recent evening, the pickings were slim, and after two hours of driving back and forth along the two-lane Tamiami Trail, Wasilewski's crate was empty. He saw a python on the road, but it was dead, and the other small snakes and a baby alligator in the area did not interest him. Finally, Wasilewski, an environmental and wildlife consultant, spotted something. \"Yeah, baby! Hee ha! Look at the size of this one,\" he exclaimed from the front seat of his truck. He got out and picked up the brownish-green snake, which immediately coiled around his arm. \"This isn't a big one,\" he said, but as he got a closer look, he did not deny that it was a good one: \"At least 12 [feet.]\" Wasilewski has a soft spot for these species, and one of the reasons he volunteers for the snake hunt is to learn more about them. He says it is not the snakes' fault that they ended up in the Everglades, but he acknowledges the problems they are causing on the Florida ecosystem and the need to do something. \"One down, 100,000 to go,\" he said.","highlights":"Florida Everglades are perfect place for Burmese pythons to live and breed .\nHuge snakes breed quickly and travel quickly .\nOne reptile expert patrols the area for snakes to capture .","id":"6c377c3b67532b72a36c98d4d7cd5e3822d85d7e"} -{"article":"Editor's note: We asked readers to weigh in on CNN.com Live producer Jarrett Bellini's vacation destination, and you chose South Africa. Check back for updates on his trip. Giraffes are a common sight in Kruger National Park. KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa (CNN) -- I spent two nights sleeping under a full-moon sky, nestled in my trusty hammock at Kruger National Park. Our guides provided us with tents, but I figured I wouldn't have too many opportunities in my life to slumber in the open bush on the African continent. Thus, I rested more or less exposed throughout the night, hoping that a lion wouldn't figure that he wouldn't have too many opportunities in his life to maul a sleeping American tourist in the open bush on the African continent. Needless to say, I survived, and it was magnificent. Visually speaking, I wasn't sure what, exactly, to expect from a South African safari, for my complete mental database of safari images spanned a wide variety of distinct landscapes, and most were cartoonishly obstructed by rich, middle-aged tourists covered head to toe in unnecessary beige safari gear. However, Kruger National Park seemed to fit, quite perfectly, my idea of the African savannah. Arid and brown from the winter dry season, it was a forever-long expanse of low trees and dusty earth, the kind that somehow allows the early sun to reflect that perfect glow of stunning reds and oranges. See the animals \u00bb . Our guide was a self-proclaimed African bushman named Elson, who seemed to have an amazing one-ness with both the land and the animals. We'd be driving down one of the many nondescript dirt roads at a fairly fast pace, only to have him hit the brakes of our jeep, slam into reverse and point out a leopard 200 yards away. It would take the rest of us a fair bit of time to finally see what he noticed at a mere passing glance. He knew the land, and he knew the animals -- a talent that proved helpful for finding the less common residents in the savannah. The other creatures carelessly came into view as though the roads and cars were just a natural part of their habitat, a mild annoyance at worst. iReport.com: Share your South Africa experiences and suggestions . Kruger National Park is roughly the same size as Israel, and here, many animals roamed right along the roadside, gnawing on whatever vegetation remained until the rainy season would flourish the plants anew. Seemingly endless miles of terrain, and there they were just feet away from us. If you didn't know you were in a national park, you might think you were in a zoo. That's how close the animals came to our jeep. Only, here, they weren't in separate enclosures, wandering aimlessly within an artificial terrain. This was truly their home, and we were only passing guests. Giraffes tore away at high branches. Elephants walked fearlessly, one-by-one across the road. Rhinos ... well, the rhinos pretty much just sat there looking stupid. But the zebras frolicked. The hippos splashed in the water. And the baboons stopped at nothing to make me laugh. Of course, the rare lions and leopards pretty much just shaded themselves under distant trees, and the crocs swam silently through the bog. But they were there. And we were there. And it was beautiful. And just as soon as it began, our time in the South African bush was over. A couple of giraffes and elephants met us by the roadside to bid our group farewell as we drove out of the park. The preserve faded silently behind us, and the road ahead paved my way to Swaziland for a short stopover before continuing to the second part of this South African journey.","highlights":"CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini is traveling in South Africa .\nReaders chose his destination and can share their travel suggestions .\nBellini will provide updates from South Africa on CNN.com and CNN.com Live .","id":"8da0c72f27a899a71b60958934ef3668fc00577f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- While President Obama takes plenty of heat over his plans to overhaul domestic policies, critics have also taken aim at his foreign policy approach, particularly as it relates to human rights around the globe. Human Rights Watch advocacy director Tom Malinowski says Obama should have met with the Dalai Lama. Human Rights Watch advocacy director Tom Malinowski said Wednesday that while the administration appeared to have \"gotten the balance right\" on Myanmar, the military junta-ruled Asian nation formerly known as Burma, by starting a dialogue while maintaining sanctions, \"China is a different matter.\" \"And that's where we've seen the tension play out in the most acute way, with several signals that have been sent suggesting that the administration is putting human rights issues to one side,\" Malinowski said on CNN's \"Amanpour.\" \"And most recently, the, I think, symbolic mistake of the president declining to meet the Dalai Lama before his own visit to China later next month.\" Watch the discussion \u00bb . The Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 and established a government in exile there, visited the United States earlier this month. China considers Tibet a renegade province and accuses the Dalai Lama of inciting violence. The timing of a presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama is considered largely symbolic, and Malinowski said the president's delay \"sent a message to the Chinese government that perhaps this isn't as high a priority for the United States as it has been in the past.\" Malinowski also criticized the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. J. Scott Gration, who had suggested wooing the Sudanese government with \"cookies\" and \"gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement\" to change its attitude about Darfur, where genocide and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people. \"It's a really dumb thing to say,\" said Malinowski, who previously served in the administration of President Clinton. \"Governments like this, they are not children, and they do not react to cookies and gold stars,\" he said. \"They act on their interests, and historically, as you know from Bosnia, to all the places where we have successfully defeated this kind of violence, governments respond to pressure.\" Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a candidate for re-election next year, has been indicted on war-crimes charges by the International Criminal Court. Despite Gration's comments, the Obama administration has not yet articulated a Sudan policy. But Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group and a former U.N. human rights commissioner, told \"Amanpour\" that talking rather than pressuring governments over human rights can be beneficial. \"If you have a policy of engagement, which I think very much is the one put forward by the Obama administration, you may give an impression that you're softening,\" said Arbour, who is also a former war crimes prosecutor. \"It's very easy to look tough, right? You don't talk to anybody, you repudiate everything, you slam all the doors and you accomplish nothing, or very little. And we have a lot of precedence for that. \"When you have a policy of reinforcing diplomatic initiatives, engagement, it may look soft, because you have to put on the table a multiplicity of issues, not just a single one. But on balance, I think there's more chance on some of these ... all important initiatives than just by looking tough and achieving nothing.\" Arbour added, however, that the engagement approach to human rights abuses will not create fast change from the abusive regimes. Noting the glacial pace of transformation in Myanmar, where democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been held under house arrest for nearly two decades, Arbour said \"it's going to be very slow.\" \"You can't have 20 years of extremely adversarial, confrontational posturing, and then say, well, we're ready to talk and be friendly, and assume that the other side's going to roll over,\" she said. \"It's just not going to work that way.\" \"There have to be very slow processes, but I think Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been encouraging more engagement. She wants to have contact with the junta and with foreigners, and it's happening. These are small steps. They're certainly in the right direction.\"","highlights":"Good start in Myanmar, China problematic, says Human Rights Watch official .\nHe also criticizes the U.S. special envoy to Sudan for \"dumb\" remarks .\nEx-U.N. official says Obama's strategy has more chance of accomplishment .","id":"6f89368c84a9b6012c95e51ed428de2be86e185c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A videotape on a Russian Web site allegedly showing a State Department employee having sex with a prostitute is a \"smear campaign\" meant to discredit the man, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. The State Department has said the tape allegedly showing an employee having sex with a prostitute is a fake. The employee, Brendan Kyle Hatcher, denied any encounter with a prostitute to his superiors at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, another State Department official said. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, \"supports\" Hatcher, who remains at his job at the embassy. Hatcher had previously worked in the sensitive area of religious and human rights in Russia, the spokesman said. \"Mr. Hatcher ... enjoys the full confidence of Ambassador Beyrle and fully intends to serve out the rest of his tour in Moscow,\" Kelly said at an afternoon briefing at the State Department. The United States \"deplores this type of campaign and use of the Internet to smear a foreign service officer of good standing,\" he added. Watch why the U.S. says the tape is doctored \u00bb . Beyrle was unequivocal in expressing his support in an interview with ABC News. \"Kyle Hatcher has done nothing wrong,\" he said. \"Clearly, the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated.\" A senior State Department official said, \"It's a doctored tape and a set-up designed to implicate someone working as a liaison with religious and human rights groups in Russia.\" The official said Hatcher, who is married, \"was approached by Russians; they tried to blackmail him, but he did everything correctly,\" reporting the incident to his supervisors at the Embassy. The tape then appeared on the tabloid newspaper Web site Compromat.ru and was picked up by other outlets. Diplomatic sources who declined to be named said Compromat.ru has a history of ties to Russia's security services. Russia's Foreign Ministry had no comment when asked about the video. Another senior State Department official, who has seen the video, said \"it's clear to me that it's him,\" referring to portions showing Hatcher alone in the hotel room. \"But then the lights go down,\" and the footage from there on is faked, that official said. The video of Hatcher in the hotel room was taken last year, \"somewhere in Siberia,\" said the senior State Department official who watched the video. It was shot in a hotel that Hatcher visited, the official said. When questioned about the possible motivation for creating the video, the official said it's presumed \"it was done because of his human rights work,\" in Russia. The official doubted the incident will have any effect on U.S.-Russian relations and noted that the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have both been \"very cooperative\" in the months since the footage came to light. \"The vast majority of people there are working toward better relations,\" the official said. Another official said Hatcher is a \"great officer\" who, until last summer, was a political reporting officer focusing on religious freedom issues in Russia. The assignment lasts two years: one year in that specialty and a year on the visa-issuing line at the embassy. Last year, this official said, Hatcher was the lead officer compiling the State Department's Religious Freedom report and was given an award for his work by the ambassador. Another official confirmed that Hatcher received a meritorious honor award in 2009 and a group award in 2008. Hatcher, one official said, worked with religious groups that are considered \"outside the mainstream\" in Russia, such as Protestants and non-Christians. Such faiths often face official and unofficial discrimination in the largely Russian-Orthodox society. Another senior State Department official said, \"there is a lot of inertia\" among some special security services in Russia. \"They are pretty much unreconstructed,\" he said. The security services may have wanted to compromise Hatcher's ability to work with religious groups, he says, \"or they may have wanted to throw a stick into the spokes\" of the U.S.-Russia relationship. \"Some in Moscow,\" he said, \"are looking to integrate with the West, and others are trying to stop that.\" The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow and Paul Courson in Washington contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Russian officials are being \"very cooperative,\" U.S. official says .\nRussian site allegedly shows State Department employee having sex with prostitute .\nU.S. ambassador says video clips \"clearly fabricated\"\nOfficial: Tape meant to discredit employee working in religious and human rights .","id":"1576bd646278ec005c269934262b0ad51328fc81"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Academy-Award winning British producer and (briefly) Columbia Pictures head David Puttnam used to have a placard on the wall of his office. It read: \"Hello, he lied.\" In \"The Invention of Lying,\" Ricky Gervais plays a \"loser\" in a society that tells only the truth. Lies are second nature in Hollywood, or maybe even first nature, so it's not surprising that the breathtakingly simple but bewilderingly original idea underpinning the new movie from \"The Office\" creator Ricky Gervais came from an industry neophyte, Gervais's co-writer and co-director, Matthew Robinson. The idea? In a world in which everyone always speaks the truth -- in which no one has ever so much as considered deceit, flattery, hyperbole, hiring an illegal maid or under-declaring their taxable returns -- what status, fame and fortune would fall to the first man to realize the power of fabrication? Appropriately, Gervais' character, Mark Bellison, works in the film biz as a screenwriter. But this being a society in which fiction has yet to be invented, his job consists of penning historical lectures that will then be read aloud to the moviegoing public by the on-screen narrator. Mark has drawn the short straw with the 14th century (no one wants to hear about the Black Death), and he's about to be fired, as his secretary (Tina Fey) is eager to tell him. She's never liked him anyway; she tells him that, too. An honest world can be a brutal place for a short, fat loser, which is all that Mark is. After all, everybody says so. The movie never surpasses the gleeful hilarity of the first 25 minutes, when it allows us to imagine just how crushing and soulless this nakedly Darwinian universe would be. The high point comes early, with Mark's dispiriting blind date with the beautiful Anna (Jennifer Garner), who is scrupulously frank about her first impressions and his long-term prospects, which are nil. She's searching for a fiscally well-endowed, genetically attractive mate, and Mark ain't him. Watch Gervais explain why Garner came cheap \u00bb . Gervais has made similar, self-deprecating remarks about the chances of a chubby Brit like him making it in Hollywood -- a line he repeated at the Emmys recently -- though it must be said, so far, Hollywood seems to be welcoming him with open arms. \"The Invention of Lying\" is loaded with celebrity cameos from the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and Christopher Guest. Gervais should relax: Clowns don't have to be Cary Grant. Funny-looking is fine for a funny man. Meanwhile Mark's obsession with the unfairness of it all smacks of self-pity. It doesn't seem to have occurred to the filmmakers that his attraction to Anna is based entirely on her looks. Garner's role cries out for grace notes -- a kind word, a quip, an insight, some flash of warmth -- Garner can only hint at. Provocatively, the big lie that changes everything is the promise of an afterlife Mark gives to his mother on her deathbed. The word soon gets out, and Mark is forced to spell out the tenets of the world's first religion, as dictated to him by \"the man in the sky.\" Or so he says, and who should doubt it? You have to admire the audacity of such sacrilegious mischief-making, but truth be told, the movie loses its way the longer Gervais spins out this anti-parable. His false prophet acquires fame and fortune but still struggles to convince the girl that he's a better bet than Rob Lowe in the genes department. The ending's uncertain mixture of cynicism and sentimentality doesn't feel entirely plausible, and between them, Gervais and Robinson can't smooth over the story's bumpy patches. At times, the energy just seeps out of the film. But that doesn't mean \"The Invention of Lying\" isn't the funniest movie around right now. At its best, it's inspired. It's just that Ricky Gervais still has a ways to go before his filmmaking reaches the sustained pitch of his TV work. It should be fun seeing him figure it out. \"The Invention of Lying\" is rated PG-13 and runs 100 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"The Invention of Lying\" has moments of inspired comedy, says Tom Charity .\nMovie is about man who learns to lie in truth-telling society .\nFilm is flat at times, but star Ricky Gervais helps carry it over weak spots .","id":"357685e309cac41d4916088fbdb6cc27126f1baf"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sunday night's \"2009 MTV Video Music Awards\" will feature a personal tribute from Janet Jackson to her late brother, MTV said. Michael Jackson receives the Legend Award during the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. Michael Jackson fans also will get their first peek during the MTV show at the behind-the-scenes documentary of the pop star's final three months, the network said. MTV announced this week that Janet Jackson \"will help open\" its video music awards show Sunday night with a tribute to her brother. No other details about her \"special appearance\" were released. The trailer for the upcoming documentary \"Michael Jackson: This Is It\" will also debut on the MTV show. It comes a month after concert promoter AEG Live handed over to Sony Pictures about 100 hours of video captured between April and June, when Jackson was preparing for his concert comeback. Fans who miss the MTV show, which will air live at 9 p.m. ET Sunday at New York's Radio City Music Hall, can preview the documentary online at www.thisisit-movie.com beginning Sunday night, the network said. See guests arrive to awards show \u00bb . British comedian Russell Brand will return to host Sunday's Video Music Awards for the second straight year. It will be the first time the awards show has aired from New York since 2006.","highlights":"MTV says Janet Jackson will give tribute to her late brother .\nAlso promised: First look at documentary of pop star's final three months .\nThe show airs live starting at 9 p.m. ET Sunday .","id":"2efa04a16070fae224349079750baab5221ed5f8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Typhoon Morakot dumped heavy rain on Taiwan early Saturday and threatened to further soak the recently drought-stricken island. A man fights against strong winds in Hsintien, Taipei county, Taiwan, on Friday. As of 3 a.m. local time, the storm's eye was over the northern part of the island, CNN forecaster Kevin Corriveau reported, although he noted that slow-moving Morakot is so large it encompassed the entire island. Journalist Andrew Lee in Taipei, citing local media, said the storm had blown off roofs and washed out some bridges. Corriveau said the island has received more than 39 inches (99 centimeters) of rain from the storm, which he said was expected to dump another 39 to 47 inches (99 to 119 centimeters) of rain on Taiwan. The storm made landfall carrying winds of up to 92 mph (148 km\/h), with gusts up to 115 mph (185 km\/h), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. iReport.com: See balcony view of heavy rains . Corriveau said the storm was expected to linger over the island for several more hours, and the southern portion of Morakot would likely be passing over Taiwan for hours after that. The storm's impact had already been felt by Friday morning, with mudslides and landslides occurring on the island. The area has been severely affected by drought in recent months, leaving the ground so hard that it does not absorb the rainfall, Corriveau said. Taiwan's Central News Agency, acknowledging the drought, cited the Water Resources Agency as saying that the storm had replenished the island's reservoirs and would put an end to water rationing in several areas. Watch more about the typhoon's impact \u00bb . The storm prompted airlines to cancel flights. Schools and government offices were closed ahead of Morakot's arrival, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. Trading at the Taiwan Stock Exchange was also postponed until Monday, the news agency reported. In China, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that governments in coastal provinces were readying themselves for the storm and had ordered fishing boats to seek shelter before Thursday night. In Fujian province, about 8.4 million text messages had been sent to citizens warning them to prepare for the typhoon, Xinhua reported. More than 900 people, including Chinese and foreign tourists, have been evacuated from the resort of Nanji Island off east China, the news agency reported. CNN's Brandon Miller contributed to this report.","highlights":"Island gets more than 39 inches of rain; 47 inches more possible .\nAirlines cancel flights; schools, government offices, stock exchange closed .\nMore than 900 people evacuated from resort of Nanji Island off east China .","id":"e63bc2948fdb1719ec35ab2645514b11c4aaaa09"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Amid turmoil over the treatment of post-election detainees and controversy over the mass trials of political figures, Iran's supreme leader on Saturday appointed a new judiciary chief, Iranian media reported. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during the announcement that Sadeq Larijani, right, will head Iran's judiciary. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tapped Sadeq Larijani -- brother of Iran's powerful parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani -- to replace Hashemi Shahroudi, a vocal hardliner against the opposition movement, who finished his 10-year term, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. Another brother, Mohammad Javad Larijani, is the secretary-general of the judiciary's human rights office. The development is significant in that the two brothers now head two of the three branches of Iran's government, and tensions between Ali Larijani and hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have emerged as the president tried to assemble his Cabinet for his second term. Sadeq Larijani makes the transition as a third round of detainees arrested in the aftermath of the Islamic republic's disputed presidential election were scheduled to appear in court Sunday, the semi-official Fars news agency said. The mass trial of about 100 Iranians is being held in the Revolutionary Court. Reformist politicians, lawyers and journalists are among those accused of protesting in an attempt to overturn government leadership. More than two dozen detainees were scheduled to be on trial Sunday, according to media reports, although it is not clear whether it will be the defendants' first appearance in court. Among the defendants who have been on trial this month are Seyyed Mohammad Abtahi, a former Iranian vice president; Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian reporter for Newsweek magazine; and Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar. Street protests and a brutal government crackdown followed the June 12 presidential election, leading to the arrests of more than 1,000 people. The official death toll from the post-election unrest is 30, although opposition leaders reportedly have said it's more than twice that figure. The new judiciary chief's brother, Ali Larijani, spent the last week dismissing allegations by Iran's opposition that post-election detainees were raped while in custody, according to state-run media. Larijani said that a special panel of Iran's parliament, or Majlis, conducted a \"precise and comprehensive inquiry\" into the treatment at Tehran's Evin and Kahrizak prisons, and found \"no cases of rape or sexual abuse,\" government-funded Press TV reported. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry also denied that prisoners had been tortured. \"What kind of talk is this? There was never any pressure used against these people,\" Hassan Qashqavi said Monday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. They were responding to accusations made by opposition candidate Mehdi Karrubi who, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election. Iran's election authority declared Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner of the race, sparking hundreds of thousands of Iranians to take to the streets in protest. Iranian opposition figures, including Karrubi, have compared the treatment of the detainees to the abuse of political prisoners under the \"oppressing regime\" of the shah, who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In an open letter to former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani posted Saturday on his party's Web site, Karrubi says an \"impartial committee\" is needed to \"investigate these tragedies with transparency until they are resolved.\" \"Some of the former detainees have told of such brutal and violent, repeated rapes of the young women [in detention] that have caused irreparable damage to their reproductive systems,\" Karrubi says in the letter. \"Others have raped our detained young men with such brutality that they [the victims] have been afflicted by depression and are no longer speaking with anyone and refuse to leave the dark corners of their houses.\" Larijani on Wednesday challenged Karrubi to \"present evidence of such outrages\" for the Majlis to investigate, according to Press TV.","highlights":"Iran's supreme leader picks brother of parliamentary speaker to head judiciary .\nSadeq Larijani replaces the outgoing Hashemi Shahroudi, a vocal hardliner .\nMedia reports: More than two dozen detainees were to be tried Sunday .\nLeadership denies claims that arrested dissidents have been raped in custody .","id":"418573b7632a8756b53a868342945ea54afc2958"} -{"article":"PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) -- The first school assembly since the earthquake was charged with emotion and grief. Students gather for the emotional assembly at their school in Padang, Indonesia. Students at SMA1 High School in Padang have been arriving amid the ruins of their classrooms hoping life will get back to normal quickly. They still don't know how many pupils were victims of the earthquake. Only half the 800 students turned up Monday. But there was a gasp of shock as the vice principal informed them that one member of staff had been killed in the quake. As prayers and a lament were sung in the yard, the emotion was too much for one teacher who fainted and was carried away. Many students have stories of narrow escapes and cheating death by seconds. Haria Fitri told me she was taking a shower when suddenly the bathroom started shaking violently. She grabbed a towel and ran downstairs and jumped out of a window, just as her house collapsed behind her. Many are clearly traumatized by what happened, mentioning how scared they are that another quake will again turn their world upside down. The teachers too seem stunned by what's happened. Most of the classrooms here are full of rubble and lessons are now being conducted in a tent outside, provided by United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF. 17-year-old student Harris Putrareza, said: \"When I see my school, very big destruction, I get a little sad, but I am very happy to be back to my school.\" The school's English teacher, a warm, animated woman called Gustina said: \"They feel very sad, they can't control their emotions, what pity our school is broken.\" In some ways the very spirit of the school has been damaged. It was built in 1917 during the Dutch colonial period and has survived numerous earthquakes down the years. But this one ripped the place apart, leaving mountains of red bricks lying on the desks and huge gaping holes in the ceiling. One building is simply too dangerous to enter and may have to be torn down. Everywhere there are little reminders of the day the earth shook so violently: the trophy cabinet full of toppled sports awards, the covered walkways choked with smashed stone pillars. The senior students are already wondering how they will cope when it comes to their important mid-term exams next week. The principal has announced a postponement, while they find a suitable room. Slowly the students at this highly-acclaimed school will refocus on their studies, but no one will forget that day at the end of September when everything changed in Padang.","highlights":"Death toll from two powerful earthquakes that struck Indonesia has risen to 608 .\n343 are still missing officially, although the number could be closer to 1000 .\nStudents at SMA1 High School in Padang said prayers for dead and missing .\nMany students have stories of narrow escapes and cheating death by seconds .","id":"338cfb94f864418e8b3411cbabff0772b660230d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English Premier League side Chelsea have said they will mount the \"strongest appeal possible\" following the transfer ban placed on the club by world football's governing body FIFA. English Premier League side Chelsea have been banned by FIFA from signing any new players until 2011 . The punishment, which would prevent any new member joining the squad until 2011, was dished out after the club were found to have \"induced\" Gael Kukuta to breach his contract in a transfer from French league side Lens in 2007. In a statement on their official Web site, Chelsea announced their plan to: \"Mount the strongest appeal possible following the decision of FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber over Ga\u00ebl Kakuta. \"The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed. We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision,\" the statement concluded. The ruling came after Lens complained to FIFA that Chelsea had acted improperly over the transfer of 18-year-old left-winger Kakuta two years ago. The complaint was referred to the body's Disciplinary Resolution Chamber (DRC) who decided to impose a ban on any further player recruitment by last season's Champions League semifinalists. Have FIFA made the right decision? Sound Off below. A statement on FIFA's official Web site read: \"The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. \"Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such a breach. As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of \u20ac780,000 ($1.1 million), for which the club, Chelsea, are jointly and severally liable, and sporting sanctions were imposed on both the player and Chelsea in accordance with art. 17 par. 3 and 4 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.\" Kakuta, who was voted the side's academy player of the year in his first 12 months with Chelsea, received a personal suspension of four months as a result of the ruling. \"Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision.\" The first football transfer window in Europe runs from January 1-31 in 2010; the second from the end of the current season until August 31 in Europe, and September 1 in Britain next year. Chelsea were also ordered to pay Lens \"training compensation\" of \u20ac130,000 ($185,000), in a decision the club could appeal at the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Football governing bodies have intervened on two previous occasions in recent times regarding the acquisition of new players by Chelsea. In 2005, Nigeria midfielder Jon Mikel Obi was ordered by FIFA to return to Norwegian club Lyn Oslo to see out his contract before eventually joining Chelsea, after protracted transfer negotiations had led to disagreement with Manchester United who also claimed they had signed the player. Chelsea were also fined \u00a3300,000 ($490,000) by the English Premier League over the capture of England defender Ashley Cole from Arsenal in 2005. The club were found guilty of breaking rule K3, which forbade them approaching Cole, who still had two years left on his Arsenal deal, \"by any means while under contract.\" Watch a former Chelsea manager discuss the ban \u00bb . The Blues were also warned they could face being docked points if a similar offence occurred during the 2005\/2006 season. It is the second time FIFA have handed out a transfer ban on a club. The transfers of Switzerland's FC Sion were frozen until the end of the 2010 season after they attempted to sign Egypt's Essam El Hadary before the goalkeeper's contract with Al-Ahly had expired.","highlights":"Chelsea to mount the \"strongest appeal possible\" following the club's ban .\nChelsea prevented by FIFA from signing any new players until 2011 .\nClub found to have \"induced\" Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with Lens .\nHave FIFA made the right decision? Sound Off below .","id":"80150292358e425e41d30673f808faf5f652dac9"} -{"article":"YANAGAWA, Japan (CNN) -- Wearing a Nashville School of Law T-shirt, Christopher Savoie walked into a second-floor police interrogation room. In one corner, a stopwatch was running to hold him to the 15 minutes allotted for the interview. A Tennessee court awarded Christopher Savoie custody of his son, Isaac, and daughter, Rebecca. \"I'm so scared,\" he said. Savoie chose his words carefully, lest police Officer Toshihiro Tanaka cut short the rare interview Savoie was granted with CNN on Thursday. There were so many rules: No recording devices. No tough questions. Speak only in Japanese. \"I want Americans to know what's happening to me,\" Savoie continued in Japanese. \"I didn't do anything wrong. Children have the right to see both parents. It's very important for my children to know both parents.\" But Japanese authorities disagree. They have charged Savoie, 38, a Tennessee native and naturalized Japanese citizen, with kidnapping his two children -- 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca -- as his estranged wife, Noriko, was walking them to school Monday in Yanagawa, a rural town in southern Japan. Watch what else Savoie had to say \u00bb . He headed for the nearest U.S. consulate, in the city of Fukuoka, to try to obtain passports for the children, screaming at the guards to let him in the compound. He was steps away from the front gate but still standing on Japanese soil. Japanese police, alerted by his estranged wife, arrested him. The Savoies were divorced in Tennessee in January after 14 years of marriage. Christopher Savoie had visitation rights with his children, but after he returned from a short summer trip, his estranged wife fled to Japan with the children, according to court documents. A United States court then granted sole custody to Savoie. Watch why the case is complicated \u00bb . Japanese law, however, recognizes Noriko Savoie as the primary custodian, regardless of the U.S. court order. The law there also follows a tradition of sole custody divorces. When the couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children. Complicating the matter further is the fact that the couple is still considered married in Japan, because they never divorced there, police said Wednesday. And, police said, the children are Japanese and have Japanese passports. A 1980 Hague Convention standardized laws on international child abduction. But Japan is not a party to that agreement. Savoie was out of luck. If a child in Japan is taken against the wishes of the recognized Japanese parent, the person who took the child is considered an abductor. \"Japanese people think she's the victim here,\" Savoie said. \"In the States, my ex-wife is the one who's in the wrong.\" U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley recognized this case as a difficult one. Even though the United States has strong ties with Japan, on this particular issue, the two nations' points of view could not differ more, he said. In Yanagawa, those who have heard about the abduction case tend to side with the woman. \"They belong with their real mother,\" said one woman, herself a mother of two children. But most have not heard of the case, because it has not been reported in local newspapers or on television. Savoie's attorney, Tadashi Yoshino, knows the cultural divide will be hard to overcome. \"He technically may have committed a crime according to Japanese law but he shouldn't be indicted,\" Yoshino said. \"He did it for the love of his children.\" Savoie, a law student who already has a Ph.D. and a M.D., will spend 10 days in jail while Japanese prosecutors sort out the details of the case. In the interrogation room, Savoie appeared exhausted. Tears welled in his eyes. He glanced over at the police officer, then paused to regain composure. \"I love you, Isaac, Rebecca,\" he said. \"Your daddy loves you forever. I'll be patient and strong until the day comes that I can see you both again. I am very sorry that I can't be with you.\" He was grateful be able to get the words out. Moments earlier, the interview had almost ended after Savoie blurted out in English: \"I love you,\" a message intended for his current wife, Amy, in Nashville. Then, as is Japanese custom, he bowed. And from the other side of the glass barrier, he gave a thumbs up, mouthing the words, \"Thank you.\"","highlights":"Man charged with abducting his own children denies committing breach .\nJapanese custom, law on custody differ sharply from those in U.S.\nJapan is not party to 1980 convention that standardized abduction laws .\nAll parties in current case are Japanese citizens .","id":"0ed7f79d2c4d9135f8b6cfc6835b034b1350c9ab"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Apple is the exclusive gatekeeper to its iPhone App Store, able to reject apps at will -- as it did July 28 with Google Voice. Some would-be iPhone developers, rejected by Apple, are turning to an unauthorized app store called Cydia. But some developers aren't taking the rejection lying down: They're turning instead to an unauthorized app store called Cydia, where forbidden wares continue to exist -- and even earn developers some money. That store is operated by Jay Freeman, more fondly known in the iPhone \"Jailbreak\" community as Saurik. Only five months old, his app store Cydia specializes in selling apps that Apple would reject or ban (or already has). To use Cydia or the apps available through it, customers need to jailbreak their phones -- hack them to work around Apple-imposed restrictions -- a process that Apple claims is illegal. Indeed, you can even get a Google Voice app, GV Mobile, through Cydia. After Apple pulled the app from its App Store, developer Sean Kovacs (who is not affiliated with Google) made it available for free through Cydia. It's difficult to get accurate data on how many customers have jailbroken their iPhones. But based on the number of unique device identifiers tracked on his server, Freeman claims that about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia. On a recent day, he said 470,000 people were connecting to the Cydia store, up from 350,000 per day just a few months ago. Among many free apps, there are also 15 paid apps in Cydia, and the store has earned $220,000 in overall sales in just five months. \"People are so annoyed by Apple and their s---, and if you give them opportunity to go around it, then they'll even pay for it,\" said Kim Streich, a developer whose app 3G Unrestrictor earned $19,000 in sales in just two weeks through Cydia. Though Cydia is relatively young, the underground \"Jailbreak\" community has existed since the first iPhone launched in 2007. That year, Apple didn't yet have an app store for its iPhone, stifling the true potential of the device. This limitation inspired digital rebels to hack away at the iPhone's closed platform in an effort to free its mind. The result? An app called Installer, opening a door for early iPhone owners to add games, utilities and other third-party software coded by developers. It wasn't until 2008 that Apple offered a software development kit for third-party coders to make programs for its iPhone. That led to the opening of the official App Store in July 2008. Apple's store grew rapidly, accumulating 65,000 apps and serving over 1.5 billion downloads to date. Many developers abandoned Installer for the more popular App Store, leaving behind an underground space where unauthorized wares could continue to exist. Installer died and became reborn as Cydia, which evolved from an app library into a store in March 2009. To gain access to Cydia, iPhone owners must jailbreak their smartphones using some freely available tools courtesy of the hacker group iPhone Dev-Team. Given the nature of this procedure, it's clear Cydia's primary audience consists of nerdy rebels wishing to utilize the full power of their iPhones, restriction-free. Cydia's numbers appear small compared to the rare stories we hear about developers turning into millionaires with hot sales of their iPhone apps in the App Store. But the idea behind a store like Cydia is that you don't have to be huge to make money. With a smaller market, fewer competitors and a reasonably large customer base, each developer has a higher chance for making a quick buck, Freeman said. Plus, you get more personal attention: Developers submitting their app through Cydia need only contact Freeman, and their app can be made available almost immediately. That's an enticing alternative to Apple's approval process, which can take months and is notoriously opaque: Some App Store developers have faced difficulty getting answers to simple questions from Apple about their apps. It's obvious what's driving iPhone customers toward Cydia: Apple's rejections and restrictions of major iPhone apps. Most notably, Apple recently banned apps supporting Google Voice, the search giant's internet-based phone enhancement service that can provide cellphone users with free text messaging and transcribed voicemail. Angry consumers and developers theorize that Apple banned the Google Voice apps so as not to detract business from its partner AT&T's phone services. The incident has brewed so much controversy that even the Federal Communications Commission has gotten involved, sending letters to AT&T, Apple and Google inquiring about the reasons for the rejections. \"Looks like Apple and AT&T pissed off a lot of people,\" Kovacs wrote in a July 28 blog post. \"I'll be releasing GV Mobile v1.2 on Cydia for free today or tomorrow.\" Another high-profile App Store regulation involves SlingPlayer, an app that enables iPhone users to stream video from a Slingbox device hooked up to a TV. When Sling originally submitted the app, it was capable of streaming over both Wi-Fi and the cellular 3G connection. However, Apple requested Sling to modify the app to work on Wi-Fi only. AT&T said this was a necessary move to prevent congestion on its 3G network. That restriction spawned the most successful Cydia app to date, 3G Unrestrictor, developed by Streich. 3G Unrestrictor, a $2 app that has sold 9,500 copies, allows the iPhone to circumvent any network limitations imposed by Apple. For example, the app enables SlingPlayer users to stream TV over 3G as well as Wi-Fi; and when using the VOIP app Skype to place phone calls, customers can also use the cellular connection, whereas normally the app only enables users to dial over Wi-Fi. \"It's just amazing what you can do on such a little cellphone, and Apple just forbids customers from doing these things, and it's just a shame,\" Streich said. \"That's why I'm so happy there's a Cydia store.\" Another developer who reports positive experiences with Cydia is Jonathan Zdziarski, who said he has made more money through the unauthorized store than Apple's App Store. In February, his app iWipe sold 694 copies in Cydia, compared to 91 copies of iErase in the App Store. \"I guess you could say the App Store is kind of like Wal-Mart, with more crap than you'd ever want to buy,\" Zdziarski said. \"And Cydia is like the general store that has everything you want and need, from fresh cuts of meat to those homemade cookies you can't get anywhere else.\" Though some developers say they're having better experiences selling apps through Cydia, it's unlikely they will succeed on a longer term, said Rana Sobhany, vice president of Medialets, an iPhone app analytics company. She said the average consumer would prefer to purchase apps through a well trusted source such as Apple. \"There have been all these apps downloaded in the App Store because it's easy for consumers to find, download and pay for apps,\" Sobhany said. \"This model is new because Apple has been training people how to download music to their iPods for years.\" However, even in the case of the App Store, developers who strike it rich still face challenges recreating their success, said Phillip Ryu, co-creator of the e-book reader Classics, which has sold over 400,000 copies to date. \"If you're hoping to reach the mainstream, the best you can hope for is your app catches on fire and charts high enough for you to make a windfall,\" Ryu said. \"Essentially you aim for the jackpot, and if you don't hit that, it's not going to make you a living.\" Freeman said it was too soon to tell whether Cydia would provide developers stable incomes, but he recommends they give it a try, considering the successes some are experiencing. He admits, however, he isn't making much money as the creator of Cydia: Like Apple, he takes 30 percent of each app sale to cover taxes. \"I don't make much money off this project, but I value the community, and I look forward to how this changes the device landscape,\" Freeman said. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Some would-be iPhone developers are turning instead to an unauthorized app store .\nThe new store, Cydia, specializes in selling apps that Apple would reject or ban .\nTo use Cydia or the apps available through it, customers must jailbreak their phones .\nCydia operator: Too soon to tell whether store could earn developers stable incomes .","id":"279e955a0e3800800d439a9ce9a683a017730d2c"} -{"article":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York (CNN) -- Two years ago, Dawn Warfield was drowning in debt. Dawn Warfield sold one of her two video stores to help reduce her debts. The average American household has $8,329 in credit card debt, according to the Nilson Report, a credit industry newsletter. Warfield had nearly 10 times that amount. At its worst point, her debt totalled nearly $80,000. She had 17 credit cards and admits that living beyond her means was part of the problem. \"I'll own up to that,\" she said. \"There is always unforeseen expenses, and when you are making the minimum payments on these credit cards, when you think you can't afford to make more than that, they don't go down.\" But Warfield's spending was not the only factor working against her. Watch Warfield describe how the debt piled up, and how she started paying it off \u00bb . She was in the middle of an expensive divorce and had been charging business expenses to her personal credit cards when she opened a second location of her video store. \"Every month I was writing out 17 checks,\" she said. \"And the interest rates ranged from like 6 percent to 33 percent. So it was impossible. \"I was transferring balances from one card to another, and every time I got a card to a decent interest rate, I felt like one of the cards would come off the promotional interest rate, and I was just never catching up.\" So Warfield took matters into her own hands. She sold the second location of her video store, stopped using her credit cards and decided it was time to get help. \"I sat down one day and I called each credit card one by one, and I asked each one to work with me ... to lower my interest rate.\" The credit card companies did not respond to her plea. Instead, she was directed to the debt management program of the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service, part of Money Management International. Counselor Eric Jackson helped Warfield analyze her bills and expenses and created a plan to help her get lower interest rates. Now she makes a single monthly payment. \"I don't even have to think about it, which makes it a lot easier for me, because when you have a lot of debt, it's not just financial, but it's emotional, you know, even physical,\" Warfield said. \"You think about it all the time.\" Adds Jackson: \"She's making her payments on time, they're posting to her creditor accounts, she has very low interest rates -- that was one of the benefits -- and she's definitely doing well. \"She is on track to get all her debts paid off in full within the five years.\" Today, Warfield is less than $40,000 in debt. \"I'm about halfway,\" she said. \"It hasn't been easy, but we're getting there.\" Are you fighting the recession, using innovative techniques to stay ahead in this economy or overcoming financial adversity? Share your story with us by sending an e-mail to realstories@cnnmoney.com , and you could be profiled in an upcoming segment on CNN.","highlights":"Two years ago, Dawn Warfield had $80,000 in debt on 17 credit cards .\nThe video store owner was facing a divorce and expanding her business .\nShe also admits that living beyond her means was part of the problem .\nNonprofit counseling service is helping her get lower rates and pay off her debts .","id":"472714309449278285cdcd05b3358e291841a402"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- U.S. officials urged American citizens in Germany to keep a low profile and remain wary of their surroundings after the terrorist organization al Qaeda posted a video message threatening attacks in the country. German special police patrol in Berlin last month during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu. A State Department travel alert, issued Wednesday, remains in effect until November 11 -- two weeks after Germany holds its federal elections on Sunday. Al Qaeda posted its video threat on the Internet on September 18, vowing attacks if the elections do not come out the way it wants. The same day, the German government reacted to the video by raising its own alert level and heightening security. The British Foreign Office has also issued an advisory to its citizens living and traveling to Germany. The State Department travel alert asks Americans to keep abreast of news reports and consider the security procedures in place when they visit public places or pick hotels and restaurants. Germany's interior ministry said earlier this month that the country has noted an increase in threats by al Qaeda and other Islamist groups since the beginning of the year. In the nearly 26-minute video statement, a man identified as Bekay Harrach, using the pseudonym Abu Talha and speaking in German, said that, if the September 27 elections vote into power parties that do not pledge to pull German troops from Afghanistan, there will be a \"rude awakening.\" The speaker called on Muslims living in Germany to stay away from public life during the first two weeks after the elections, implying that any attacks would take place then. The speaker repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also criticized Merkel's rivals, the Social Democrats, but offered the possibility of a \"peace offer.\" \"If the German people vote for peace, then the Mujahedeen will choose peace with Germany as well,\" he said. \"And with the withdrawal of the last German soldier from Afghanistan, the last Mujahed will also leave Germany. Al Qaeda gives you their word.\"","highlights":"Al Qaeda terror group posts video message threatening attacks in Germany .\nU.S. officials urge their citizens in Germany to keep low profile and be wary .\nGermany's interior ministry report increase in threats by al Qaeda this year .\nMessage criticizes Chancellor Merkel over wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .","id":"9142e35b152f2d67048b5544ffd723712df1af05"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The reaction to Mackenzie Phillips' detailed account of her sexual relationship with her father, John Phillips, has been explosive, and some of the strongest statements have come from her family. Chynna Phillips said she doesn't think anyone could make up having a consensual incestuous relationship. But as the former actress and musician talked with Oprah Winfrey for the second time this week -- this time about the firestorm that erupted from her hour-long interview Wednesday -- she said she doesn't regret writing her memoir, \"High on Arrival.\" \"I understand this is a difficult thing for my family,\" Phillips told Winfrey via satellite Friday, \"but nobody's talking about this, and if I've started a national dialogue, then I'm forever grateful.\" Phillips said she has gotten letters and Facebook messages from incest survivors, thanking her for coming forward. \"It's been heartening and heartbreaking at the same time,\" she said. John Phillips died in 2001. Two of his former wives, however, have vehemently denied Mackenzie Phillips' accusations. In an statement to CNN, Michelle Phillips, an original Mamas & Papas bandmate who divorced John in 1970, called the situation \"very hurtful.\" \"Mackenzie's drug addiction for 35 years has been the result of many unpleasant experiences,\" Michelle Phillips said. \"Whether her relationship with her father is delusional or not, it is an unfortunate circumstance and very hurtful for our entire family.\" She spoke more strongly to The Hollywood Reporter's Roger Friedman, telling him, \"Mackenzie has a lot of mental illness. She's had a needle stuck up her arm for 35 years. ... She did 'Celebrity Rehab,' and now she writes a book. The whole thing is timed.\" Genevieve Waite, who married John Phillips in 1972, told Winfrey in a statement that \"John was a good man who had a lot of problems, [but] he was incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, to have sexual relations with his own child.\" The fallout from Phillips' decision to reveal her family's secrets has been heartbreaking for her sister Bijou as well. Bijou Phillips supplied a statement to Winfrey stating that Mackenzie told her about the incestuous relationship with their father when Bijou was 13 but later denied it. \"This news was confusing and also scary, because I'd lived alone with him since I was 3,\" she said. \"[John Phillips] was Mr. Mom, loving and encouraging; the man who raised me would never be capable of such things.\" She also questioned why Mackenzie would leave her alone with their father if he'd molested the elder sister. Still, Bijou Phillips showed signs of measured support. \"I understand Mackenzie's need to come clean, but it hurts because the man in question isn't here to defend himself,\" she said. \"I hope she can come to terms with this and find peace.\" Mackenzie Phillips told Winfrey that her family's disbelief and anger saddened her, especially since she and Bijou Phillips have been very close. Phillips recalled the way Bijou immediately came to her aid when she was arrested last year for cocaine and heroin possession. \"I love my baby sister, and I miss having contact with her,\" Mackenzie said. \"By the time Bijou was living with my father, I felt she was safe. I did take her out of there if I felt like she wasn't being watched properly,\" she said in her defense. But she added that Michelle Phillips' statements weren't as surprising. \"When Michelle found out I was writing this book, she vowed to do everything to discredit me,\" Mackenzie told Winfrey. \"She's having a textbook reaction, trying to sweep it under the rug. It seems so unkind and ungenerous to lash out in this way; I don't have a history of mental illness. I have a history of drug addiction.\" Chynna Phillips, who also sat down with Winfrey on Friday, said she believes that her mother, Michelle, made those statements out of anger and that she does still love Mackenzie, even if she doesn't admit it. \"I think the most devastating thing is when people are in denial and don't want things on a public platform, it's not something everyone wants to share with the world,\" Chynna Phillips said. \"It's not something my mom wants plastered all over the papers.\" Chynna told Winfrey that she'd known about her sister's history with her father for about 12 years and believes that no one would go out of their way to admit having a consensual incestuous relationship. She's also not the only one who thinks Mackenzie is telling the truth. Jessica Woods, the daughter of former Mamas & Papas band member Denny Doherty, also wrote in to Winfrey and said her father knew about everything. \"I just watched your show,\" Woods wrote, \"and everything she said is true. My dad told me the awful truth, and he was horrified at what John had done.\" Chynna, who grew up with her mother, said that although she didn't spend a lot of time with John Phillips, the memories she had of him were positive, in spite of the heavy drug use she witnessed. \"He was a very charismatic man,\" she said. \"He was a very talented man and a very loving man in many ways.\" Now one half of the Christian music duo Chynna and Vaughan, Chynna said that her relationship with Mackenzie has grown over the past six months and that she's proud of her half-sister for having the courage to talk about her past. \"The thing is, who among us haven't done something that we're highly ashamed of in our lives?\" she said to Winfrey. \"Who are we to cast the first stone? In my faith, as a Christian, God told me I need to forgive. Am I happy that she put me in this position? No, I'm not. But I have to forgive. It's 13 years later, and I still haven't digested this information.\" Chynna added that she hopes her sister will take her experiences and use them to help others, offering one piece of advice: \"Get the Lord on board, because you'll need it.\"","highlights":"Mackenzie Phillips talks about family's reaction to her claims of incest .\nSister Bijou called experience hurtful but hopes Mackenzie finds peace .\nJohn Phillips' ex-wives don't think Mackenzie's story is valid .\nChynna Phillips believes Mackenzie, hopes she uses her experience to help others .","id":"5ebe3a8dc9bf85152fee59a6ca9b94e2f703efb6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Josh Rouse is a chameleon. And a busy one, too. Josh Rouse has made his name with well-crafted songs in a variety of styles. Listeners to his first album, 1998's \"Dressed Up Like Nebraska,\" may have lumped him into the alt-country movement. Aside from Rouse's rough, intimate voice, that album sounds little like 2003's \"1972,\" which features songs such as \"Love Vibration\" and \"Comeback (Light Therapy)\" and has a funkier, more upbeat production to match. The 36-year-old singer's willingness to follow several paths may have come from moving around as a child. Rouse was born in Nebraska and grew up around the West and the South. \"It really shaped me as a person,\" he told the Toronto Sun. \"There's an openness to the sound that I think I got from moving to, say, a big city in California to a Wyoming town of five or six hundred.\" Though he has yet to have a breakthrough single in the United States, his music has appeared in the movie \"Vanilla Sky\" and TV shows including \"Dawson's Creek\" and \"Party of Five.\" He's also admired by fellow songwriters. In 2004, the Australian newspaper The (Melbourne) Age noted Rouse was going to have dinner with Edie Brickell, the \"What I Am\" singer who is married to Paul Simon. \"She called me and said, 'I love \"1972,\" ' and I was like, 'I was listening to you when I was 16 -- and you're married to Paul Simon!' \" Rouse told the paper. On the business side, he's marching to his own drummer. On joshrouse.com, Rouse's Web site, he sells his \"Bedroom Classics\" -- dozens of songs Rouse recorded live or in random locations (hotel rooms, apartments) available to fans. For those who like a more traditional medium, the CD, Rhino Records recently compiled a two-disc set of Rouse's material -- including several demos and outtakes -- for \"The Best of the Rykodisc Years,\" which covers the first seven years of Rouse's career. \"Listening to this collection of tracks taken ... it's plain that Josh Rouse arrived fully formed,\" writes Allmusic.com's Tim Sendra. \"From his first release ... he was already a thoughtful writer with a heartbreakingly intimate voice and the unfailing ability to wrap his melancholy in warm and sweet melodies.\" Rouse answered several questions via e-mail for CNN.com. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Your music showcases a number of styles -- the fairly basic sound of the early records, the early-'70s infused stuff from \"1972,\" and then there are songs like \"Miserable South\" that would sound comfortable coming from Otis Redding or Al Green. So, though it's a clich\u00e9, what are your influences? Josh Rouse: Anything that is soulful and honest is an influence. There are too many musicians\/writers to name. CNN: Are you surprised that Rhino put together a \"best of\"? Rouse: No, I was aware that they were planning on doing it. It's nice to reflect on the body of work I've created. CNN: One of your songs, \"Directions,\" was on the \"Vanilla Sky\" soundtrack. What effect, if any, did this have on your career? Rouse: Well, I got to meet Cameron Crowe, and he seemed nice. I'm sure it exposed my music to some people who might not of heard it otherwise. However, it did not have a Zach Braff effect on my career. CNN: With all the material on the Web, as well as your albums, you're obviously a prolific songwriter. Has it been helpful to put all that out there, or have some people criticized you for releasing too much, as Ryan Adams has been criticized? Rouse: More than being criticized for releasing a lot, I think it's more difficult to receive a lot of attention for one specific record. Sometimes [the] press doesn't want to write on a songwriter they just wrote about a year or two ago. I think my fan base is grateful. CNN: Which of your songs are among your favorites, and why? Which would you like to have back -- or rework? Rouse: \"1972\" is a beautiful song all the way around. I don't think I ever want to rework anything. I'm constantly trying to move forward. Sometimes you say, \"I wish that was faster, etc.\" but it I'm not going to go back and re-record it. CNN: In the album notes, you mention that you write best when you're in motion -- getting ideas for melodies in taxicabs, for example. How do you hold on to those? Rouse: If they're good, I can usually remember them. I also have a variety of small handheld recorders. CNN: You've got songs referring to Nebraska, the Hamptons, Nashville ... have you thought of pulling a Sufjan Stevens and profiling a state? Rouse: No, and I'm not sure half of those Sufjan songs are profiling a state. However, it makes for a great marketing tool. CNN: You say you feel as if these albums are your \"first stage.\" What's next? Rouse: I'm currently working on an Afro-Brazilian record in Spanish.","highlights":"Josh Rouse has fans among other songwriters .\n\"Love Vibration\" singer has no hits, but songs in TV shows, movies .\nWhat's next? \"Afro-Brazilian record in Spanish\"","id":"554971bad5ac22f246d5ed7996175854eb882419"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- By the end of World War II in April 1945, with about two-thirds of European Jewry wiped out, Jewish survivors stepped out of the darkness in search of a place to call home. Bestselling author Anita Diamant releases her latest historical novel, \"Day After Night.\" About 250,000 were considered displaced persons, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. A growing number of Jews -- before, during and especially after the war -- dreamt of helping to build a Jewish homeland in what was, at the time, British-controlled Palestine. \"Getting out of Europe, for a lot of people, felt like getting out of a graveyard,\" said bestselling author Anita Diamant, whose newest book focuses on this period. \"Palestine was like over the rainbow, practically. It was somewhere that they knew they were wanted, at least by the Jewish community in Palestine, and it was a way to start over again in a completely new world.\" Immigration quotas, however, meant that the more than 100,000 Jews who arrived between 1945 and 1948, when Israel was declared a state, did so illegally. Most of those who were captured were sent to internment camps in places like Cyprus. But some Jewish prisoners ended up at a camp in Palestine called Atlit, located on the Mediterranean coast near the city of Haifa. Living in barracks and peering through barbed wire, these Holocaust survivors lived in limbo between their past and their future. \"Nobody else wanted them, so they wanted to go to Palestine,\" Diamant said. \"There was this bottleneck. It was a big problem for the British, and it was also a public relations nightmare for the British.\" Watch Diamant talk about her new book \u00bb . One night in October 1945, members of the Palmach -- an underground Jewish fighting force originally created to help the British fight the Nazis -- broke into Atlit and helped more than 200 prisoners escape. Central in this charge was Yitzhak Rabin, who would go on to be Israel's prime minister, and who was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995. Diamant, author of \"The Red Tent,\" among other books, delves into the lives of four women who were part of this experience in her latest historical novel, \"Day After Night.\" Carrying with them different wartime experiences, they are: a Polish partisan fighter, a Parisian woman who was forced into prostitution, a Dutch Jew who was in hiding, and a concentration camp survivor. CNN sat down with Diamant, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, to talk about her latest book, the reason this story is relatively unknown and her attempt to stay out of Middle East politics. CNN: How did you decide to focus on this specific story? Diamant: The story found me, the way I think all of my novels found me. My daughter was in Israel on a semester program when she was 15, in 2000, and my husband and I went on the parents' trip. So we were on and off the buses with the kids as they did their field trips, and one of the field trips was in Atlit. We were given the tour, and we were told the story of this escape and about these so-called illegal immigrants. And I thought there's a novel. CNN: This isn't a piece of Israel's history that many seem to know about. Why is that? Diamant: American Jews, even people who know Haifa well, who know Israel well, it comes as a surprise to them. It's not one of the big bloody chapters. It was early in the conflict in terms of Jewish resistance. After this they started bombing train tracks and doing more overt military resistance to the British occupation, as it was known then. Part of the reason we don't know about it is that I think the Holocaust is still such a huge shadow, and it's still something we focus on. This is a relatively tender interlude. It's not the founding of the state, and it's not the Holocaust. CNN: Are the characters based on real women you learned about in your research? Diamant: No, they're my girls. I invented them based on some stories that I had heard and read. ... There were women partisan fighters. I know that women were forced to do things against their will to survive. A lot of people were in hiding. It's sort of based on common knowledge about what happened during the war but at the same time trying to flesh out women's stories which I still think are under-told. CNN: What was the central struggle facing these women and the people in Atlit in general? Diamant: It's the struggle to continue after great loss, great pain and great suffering. How do you cope with those memories? Where do you put them? How do you carry them with you into the future? How much do you have to forget in order to live, to continue? ... We are a resilient species. Life moves on and they fall in love. And they're coming back to life, their bodies are coming back to life. A lot of marriages happened in displaced persons camps and camps like this, and a lot of babies were conceived in places like this, too, because life demands that we continue. But that can feel also like a betrayal of all the people you lost, so it's a painful tension -- the past and the future. CNN: Politically, everything that involves Israel is so loaded. Did you worry about this? Did you factor in how history unfolded after this? Diamant: I focused it very narrowly on this one little window of history. For it to have integrity, telling the story of that period, you can't know what happens next. So I really focused on their stories, their personal stories. Maybe that's a cop-out? But in writing a historical novel, you can't go outside of the box. I don't think I can. Although...a couple characters say, \"They told us there was nobody here. There are all these Arabs here.\" There was a slogan: \"People without a land, and a land without a people.\" That was the slogan in Europe that was used to drum up Zionist support. But in fact there were people in the land, and they got there and they went, \"What? No one told us.\" Jews have been grappling with that fact from before the founding of the state. So it's acknowledged in here, but it's not the center of the book.","highlights":"After Holocaust, before Israel became a state, 100,000 survivors immigrated illegally .\nSome were imprisoned in British-controlled Palestine and later freed in breakout .\nBestselling author Anita Diamant explores this chapter in new book, 'Day After Night'\nCharacters face question: 'How much do you have to forget in order to live?'","id":"f48b582e9930d3e7feee6f84910d73dfb80eb13c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Leslie Sanchez, a Republican who was director of the White House Initiative on Hispanic Education from 2001 to 2003, is the author of a forthcoming book, \"You've Come a Long Way, Maybe: Sarah, Michelle, Hillary and the Shaping of the New American Woman.\" Sanchez is CEO of the Impacto Group, which specializes in market research about women and Hispanics. Leslie Sanchez says Michelle Obama's fashion choices have helped create a positive image for the first lady. (CNN) -- In just 200 days, Michelle Obama has put her own stamp on one of America's most unusual political positions -- the unelected, undefined job of being first lady. And the way she's done it? It's largely through the fashion choices she's made. Each of her predecessors has brought a unique perspective and personality to the east wing of the White House, helping to shape how the nation views the president and how the world views the nation. The use of fashion and image as a political strategy is an underrated factor. While Washington's political cognoscenti debate the successes and failures of the young Obama presidency, one half of Washington's newest power couple fine tunes fashion as a political strategy -- and it's working for her. See photos of Michelle Obama's fashion \u00bb . The fashion authorities who are gathered this week in New York for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, more than seven months into the Obama presidency, are watching Michelle Obama's redefinition of the role of first lady with professional and personal interest. The contemporary standard for the job was set decades ago by Jacqueline Kennedy, who had both a high sense of fashion and the style to pull it off. Carl Sferrazza Anthony, the historian at the National First Ladies' Library, points out that Mrs. Kennedy wanted to be well-dressed, liked European style and had American designers copy it. She even went as far as to personally design her own outfits on three important state occasions, including her famous White House dinner for Nobel laureates, while letting other designers take the credit. The comparisons between Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Obama are as apt as the comparisons between their husbands. Michelle Obama comes across as feminine yet strong, professional and, unlike Mrs. Kennedy, approachable. She's a thoughtful presence on the national stage, but it's a very different kind of style from what we associate with Jackie Kennedy, who displayed a style of wealth, youth and glamor to an adoring middle class. Mrs. Obama, on the other hand, is portrayed as a take-charge woman who is sensitive to today's economic realities. Not stylish in her own right, she blends advice from her noted advisers to appear independent and progressive, yet \"in touch.\" But while Jackie was high fashion, Michelle Obama is trendy but traditional. And that approachability extends to her personal style as well, her advisors having absorbed the lesson that the first lady's style is all too easily linked to her husband's presidency. Ronald Reagan's opponents used his wife Nancy's interest in fashion and her intent to look like the wife of a president, rather than mimic the school-marmish attire of her predecessor, as a gateway through which to attack the president. Mrs. Reagan's wardrobe choices, especially her designer Adolfo dresses, were used to make her husband seem insensitive to the poor and hungry. Mrs. Obama has avoided making the same mistake during the worst economic times in recent memory. She seems to have made a calculated decision to avoid that trap by focusing on emerging designers, like Jason Wu for her inaugural gown or choosing to wear trendy, off-the-rack clothes like the J. Crew gloves, sweater and skirt she chose for her husband's inauguration. And whatever the style mavens have to say about that, it produces political benefits. J. Crew's shares jumped 10 percent within 24 hours after the nation saw her in its clothing, which prompted NBC's Conan O'Brien to suggest the president consider wearing a Buick. As Women's Wear Daily media reporter Stephanie Smith says, this child of Chicago's South Side has become \"the biggest celebrity in the world.\" Forbes lists her among the \"Most Powerful Women,\" and there's no doubt she's expanding the boundaries of perceptions surrounding the role of a \"traditional\" first lady, balancing her visits to homeless shelters and military bases with taking part in her children's soccer games. As The New York Times reported, Mrs. Obama \"pointedly controlled her look on the covers of People, Essence, More and O, Oprah Winfrey's magazine. Editors at Essence, who suggested colors, styles and accessories, said her staff did not call to acknowledge their overtures. ... Lesley Jane Seymour, the editor-in-chief of More... said Mrs. Obama refused to wear anything other than her own clothes for their October cover. 'She wanted none of that. She was creating the cover. She was creating the image. There's definitely a will of steel there.'\" According to Anthony, the general public's fascination with Michelle Obama spills over and helps the administration. To him, everything the media and the public criticize or praise is visual. \"It's not anything she's saying or doing. That's perhaps somewhat tactical. If she's unpopular based on her clothes choices, the White House can say it's really not of importance.\" IMG executive Fern Mallis, the creative inspiration behind New York's Fashion Week, says \"most first ladies have always been on a pedestal of expensive, elegant clothing, of couture evening gowns. It's something that people can't really relate to.\" This was especially true during the Kennedy years. Even if most American women wanted Jackie's dresses, Anthony points out, they could not buy them. These clothes were not only too expensive -- they weren't even available at the high-end stores. They were one of a kind. Mrs. Obama, because she has made fashion \"more democratic,\" says style expert Robert Verdi, has made her own impact on a world full of elites and -- let's face it -- snobs. Mrs. Kennedy, he says, \"was very contemporary and up-to-the-moment in fashion. But fashion at that time as not democratic. There was no Zara, no J. Crew, no Banana Republic. It was not accessible; it was exclusively aspirational.\" On balance, though, Michelle Obama has shown a feminine but bold approach to her style by rattling the image of what a \"Washington\" first lady must look like. For other professional women and moms, the impact may not be purely imitation, as was the case with Jackie Kennedy, but rather the timely embracing of a new image of a modern, professional woman. Whatever it is, it's clearly by design. The push-pull of knowing fashion and appropriately wearing fashion may take Mrs. Obama longer to manage. Though a risk-taker and eager to highlight the equivalent of \"mom and pop\" designers, she, like many women, is still safely wearing styles others create rather than something new we could aspire to. Still -- whatever the implications for fashion -- on a political level, the first lady's approach is working. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Leslie Sanchez.","highlights":"Leslie Sanchez: Fashion choices are important strategy for a First Lady .\nShe says Michelle Obama has wisely chosen image of a modern professional .\nShe says other First Ladies have communicated an elite and expensive image .\nSanchez: Michelle Obama's style fits the times Americans live in .","id":"2d144b8ad28627de8447097efd73677267de91f7"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A store owner in New York who is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a 4-year-old boy from a burning building said he plans to visit the child in the hospital Friday. Horia Cretan climbed up a fire escape and helped save a boy through the window of a burning building. Horia Cretan, who owns an electronics store in the Bronx structure where the fire broke out, also hopes to meet Christopher's parents for the first time, he told CNN's \"American Morning.\" The boy is expected to recover, Cretan said. The child was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where a nurse said she couldn't provide his condition. Cretan, who moved to the United States from Romania 15 years ago, said he was inside his store Wednesday when he heard a child's screams. It was about 4 p.m., he said, about the time children play outside after getting out of school, but he said the screams he heard were \"totally different.\" He reached a fire escape and climbed to the fourth floor, where a firefighter handed the boy to him through a smoke-clouded window, video from the scene shows. \"What I was worried about is, is he still alive? Because his head just dropped, and he wasn't helping himself or helping me,\" Cretan said. \"He just couldn't hold his weight and he was unconscious.\" While the firefighter was handing over the boy, other crew members were trying to get into the building's main entrance to make their way to the apartment where the fire was, the store owner said. Cretan covered himself and the boy with a blanket or curtain to shield themselves from falling debris and glass, which cut the boy on the leg. Watch Cretan describe the rescue \u00bb . During the rescue, the boy's brother stood below, yelling, the rescuer said. Christopher was given oxygen on the ground and taken to the hospital. Cretan said it wasn't the first time he rescued someone. He said he rescued his sister from a fire in Romania that killed their father. The 33-year-old Cretan said he was 12 years old at the time. \"It was a sad story, a tragic moment at the time,\" he said, referring to the Romanian incident. \"And you know, it had an impact on people around the neighborhood like it does right now. It's amazing. This just skyrocketed.\" Cretan said he's received messages across the globe about the Bronx incident. \"This has become famous because somebody happened to be on the corner with the camera pretty much. You don't do things like this for merit. The merit in itself is you save somebody,\" Cretan said. \"And the whole community's just being great. Adopting me like a son, and I'm a part of a big family and I'm happy to have them in my life.\"","highlights":"Horia Cretan says he was working in his store when he heard a child's screams .\nThe boy is expected to recover, says Cretan, who plans to visit the child .\nHe says he has received messages from around the world .\nCretan says at 12 he rescued his sister from a fire in which his father died .","id":"9f1ca018fc40bf053eed47d930220b6d6c9297b0"} -{"article":"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Kenya needs $230 million over the next six months to feed millions affected by drought, the United Nations said in a new report. Farmers carry food handouts from the World Food Programme at a distribution spot near Nanyuki. The three-year failure of annual rains has reduced crop output, the main source of food for the country of 37 million. The drought has also affected water production and prompted power rationing in the east African nation. Kenya gets most of its energy from hydro-generation. About 3.8 million Kenyans need emergency food aid, and conditions are expected to deteriorate in the next few months, the United Nations World Food Programme said Wednesday. The rate among children under 5 suffering malnutrition has gone from 15 to 20 percent in some cases, the report said. \"People are already going hungry, malnutrition is preying on more and more young children, cattle are dying -- we face a huge challenge and are urging the international community to provide us with the resources we need to get the job done,\" said Burkard Oberle, Kenya director of the World Food Programme. The organization said it is helping about 2.6 million people in Kenya affected by drought while the government is supporting 1.2 million more until the end of October. \"In order to feed all 3.8 million people for the next six months, WFP and the Kenyan government will require strong support from donors in the weeks ahead,\" the report said. More than 17 million people across the Horn of Africa need help from the United Nations, which is battling funding shortfalls. Some of the most dire nations include Somalia and Uganda, which need $164 million and $96 million respectively.","highlights":"U.N.: Kenya needs $230 million to feed millions affected by drought .\nThree-year failure of annual rains has hit crops that feed country of 37 million .\nAbout 3.8 million Kenyans need emergency food aid; conditions set to worsen .","id":"9527fec4eeb6f22266c7a800ea349d644749eb72"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to seek out covert items at fast food chains around the country. Not all food items are always listed on restaurant menus. Be warned, this mission includes very real dangers such as hardening arteries and skyrocketing cholesterol. We've compiled a list to get you started. 1. If you're at Starbucks and in need of just a little caffeine, don't worry -- there's a tiny option for you. It's the Short size, and they don't advertise it. It's like a little baby cup of coffee. It also comes in handy when you're scrounging for change and don't have enough for a tall (not that that has ever happened to me). 2. It's a good thing we don't have Jamba Juice here in Iowa, because I would be all over candy-based smoothies. Because it's considered a health-food chain, Jamba Juice doesn't officially list these on their in-store menus, but the Web site Mighty Foods assures us that the secret flavors exist. The ones they confirmed with the company's headquarters include Strawberry Shortcake, White Gummy Bear, PB&J, Various flavors of Starbursts, Fruity Pebbles, Push-Up Pops, and Skittles. Other tantalizing flavors that are rumored to exist: Chocolate Gummi Bear, Apple Pie, Sourpatch Kid, Tootsie Roll, and Now and Later. 3. This one might be my favorite. At Fatburger, you can order a Hypocrite -- a veggie burger topped with crispy strips of bacon. 4. Chipotle has a whole secret menu that is limited only by your imagination -- they have a store policy that says that if they have the item available, they will make it for you. Things that have been tested include nachos, quesadillas, taco salads and single tacos. Some stores are testing out quesadillas as a regular menu item, however, so maybe someday soon you won't need a super-secret handshake to order one. Mental Floss: 7 food promotions gone horribly wrong . 5. If you're at Wendy's and you're really hungry -- like, three-patties-just-won't-cut-it hungry -- go ahead and order the Grand Slam, which is four patties stacked on a bun. This option is only available at select Wendy's, and it's also known as the Meat Cube. 6. Several places, including McDonald's and In-N-Out, will serve you the Neapolitan milkshake. It's just what it sounds like -- chocolate, vanilla and strawberry shakes layered in a cup. 7. In-N-Out Burger's \"secret menu\" isn't so secret these days -- in fact, they've posted it on their Web site. But in case you're not in the habit of surfing fast food Web sites, here's the skinny on their rather un-skinny items: ordering something \"Animal Style\" at In-N-Out means you're going to get it with lettuce, tomato, a mustard-cooked beef patty, pickles, extra spread (it's sort of Thousand-Islandy) and grilled onions. You can even get your fries Animal Style. Mental Floss: Why is it called \"Thousand Island\" dressing? \"Protein Style\" is a burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun. A Grilled Cheese is two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato and spread on a bun (grilled onions if you so choose). And you can get just about any combo of meat and cheese that you want if you order it like you're ordering lumber: 3\u00d73 gets you three beef patties and three slices of cheese, 4\u00d74 gets you four of each, and so on. According to photos posted at SuperSizedMeals.com, one gluttonous patron requested and received a 100x100 at a Las Vegas store a few years ago. One item not listed on the Web site secret menu: the Flying Dutchman, which is two slices of cheese sandwiched between two patties, hold the bun. 8. Feeling a little health-conscious at Popeye's? If you are, you really should have gone somewhere else. But there's a little hope for you -- ordering \"naked chicken\" will get you breading-free poultry. The word is that this is on the menu at some Popeye's, but not all of them, although it is an option at all of them. 9. Like Chipotle, Taco Bell will make you just about anything within reason as long as they have the ingredients for it. Since most of the food at Taco Bell is made out of the same basic items, that means you can probably ask for most discontinued items and get them. One \"secret,\" though, is that they have a not-advertised green chili sauce at most locations, and apparently it's excellent. 10. Some Subways will still make you the popular pizza sub from the 1990s. Once the chain decided to make their focus healthy eating, the pizza sub disappeared from the menu in most places (the word is that Canadian and Mexican Subways still offer them on a regular basis). But if you ask, lots of places will still make it for you. Be warned, though -- Jared would not approve of the nine slices of pepperoni and copious amounts of cheese slathered in marinara sauce. Mental Floss: Brief history of dubious dieting . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Some fast food outlets have not-on-menu items you can get if you ask for them .\nFatburger's Hypocrite is bacon-topped veggie burger; Popeye's offers naked chicken .\nSome Subways will still make the popular pizza sub from the 1990s .\nWendy's offers the Meat Cube; McDonald's has a Neapolitan milkshake .","id":"9626f79aa09a63cb8241ee4f883075da21f8e0b3"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Monstrosities, eyesores, nightmares of architecture -- call them what you like, ugly buildings are sadly all around us. Worst in Britain: The Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham was voted as the country's ugliest building. And you cannot simply define one category of hideous architecture. There is ugly, and then there is Ugly. The latter often open in controversial circumstances: There may be protests from local residents, and there can even be calls to knock them down. Yes, these are the world's ugliest buildings. From the divisive Millennium Dome (02 Arena) in London, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and the incomplete Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea -- we have compiled a gallery of ten of the world's ugliest buildings for your viewing displeasure. Although the buildings shown are scattered across the globe, they share several things in common. All of them had big budgets, most were attempts at creating contemporary or futuristic styling, and they have all divided opinion among local residents, architects, and the general public. \u2022 Click here to see photos of the world's ugliest buildings \u00bb . And these largely unpleasant buildings should not be treated as a joke. Sometimes the architecture can have a grave impact on the perception of a city or region. Birmingham, in the Midlands of the United Kingdom, for example, was recently voted the ugliest city in the country through a national poll. This came after the city's Bullring Shopping Centre and the Birmingham Central Library were named as the number one and two ugliest buildings in the country. And far from it being a case of the rest of the country bashing the area, in a local poll some 40 percent of local residents agreed that their city was home to the single ugliest building in the country. Do you have any ugly buildings you would like to name and shame? Let us know what you think of the buildings in our photo gallery and tell us some others that could make it by posting a comment in the Sound Off box below. We'll publish the best.","highlights":"The 02 Arena in London was the world's ugliest building on the Forbes list .\nBirmingham's Bullring shopping Center was voted as Britain's ugliest building .\nNorth Korea's Ryugyong Hotel has been criticized by many people .","id":"ac714c9d3a95be64b24a3a7fc19c3460128d950c"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese leaders Monday mourned the death of Zhuo Lin, wife of former national leader Deng Xiaoping. Zhuo Lin, center, mourns at husband Deng Xiaoping's funeral in 1997. Zhuo, a former consultant of the Central Military Commission General Office, died July 29 at age 93 and was cremated Monday, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. She was \"an excellent Communist Party of China member and time-honored loyal communist fighter,\" the party said in a written statement. Zhuo stood by Deng through decades of what CNN once described as \"amazing comebacks\" from \"political purges.\" Though a committed Communist revolutionary, Deng also was a chief architect of some key reforms that reshaped China's economy. Zhuo met Deng in 1939 when they were young revolutionaries. She became his third wife and mother of his two sons and three daughters. When Deng rose to prominence as the most powerful leader of China, the family became China's \"first family.\" Zhuo and Deng remained together until his death in 1997. Part of their story includes time spent together in exile. In 1966, Deng proposed major reforms including free markets for farmers and incentive bonuses. He was quickly denounced as a \"capitalist roader,\" a Maoist term used for people embracing capitalist ideals. He was under house arrest for two years, paraded in a dunce cap through the streets of Beijing and forced to wait tables at a Communist Party school. In 1969, Deng, Zhuo and several of their children were exiled to Jiangxi province in southeastern China. Deng later said only a personal security team supplied by Chinese leader Mao Zedong protected him from being killed. As Xinhua reported, Zhuo was Deng's companion \"through thick and thin.\" When he ascended to power in 1978, Deng argued that \"poverty is not socialism\" and encouraged the creation of a market economy and capitalist-like enterprises. By the early 1990s his reforms had helped lift an estimated 170 million peasants out of extreme poverty. But he refused to abolish the power of the Communist Party over the lives of China's citizens. And he apparently approved the brutal suppression of unarmed demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. The remarkable ups and downs of Deng Xiaoping's long political career took a dramatic toll on Deng and Zhuo's children, CNN reported in 1999, \"leaving one son crippled from an attack during the Cultural Revolution but, in more recent years, enabling all five Deng heirs to succeed in business, government or the arts.\" The Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao in 1966 to purge reformists and return the country to his style of communism. Zhuo took on various roles in the Chinese government. In 1978, she was appointed a consultant of the Central Military Commission General Office, Xinhua reported. \"She served as a deputy to the fourth and fifth National People's Congress and was awarded the Independence Merit Medal from the People's Liberation Army in 1988,\" the news agency said. \"My father and mother did not just share a family, they shared political ideals and life pursuits,\" said Deng Rong, in a Xinhua report. According to Xinhua, several leaders and former statesmen attended Zhuo's cremation ceremony, including President Hu Jintao, former President Jiang Zemin, legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao. \"To complete the last trip with her beloved husband, Zhuo chose to have her ashes scattered at sea as her husband's were,\" Xinhua reported.","highlights":"Chinese Community Party calls her \"time-honored loyal communist fighter\"\nZhuo Lin, wife of Deng Xiaoping, died July 29 at the age of 93 .\nChild says mother, father \"shared political ideals and life pursuits\"\nNews agency: Zhuo wanted her ashes spread at sea, just as Deng's were .","id":"97b1af335ee9dbb3849698d47a4767a525fd96fb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Obama administration has unveiled a government \"app store\" designed to push the federal bureaucracy into the era of cloud computing. The Obama administration is pushing for the government to use cloud-computing technologies. The change means some federal employees will begin using services like YouTube, Gmail and WordPress, which store data on private Internet servers instead of on those paid for with public money. The process will start small but will ramp up quickly, Vivek Kundra, the U.S. chief information officer, said in a blog post on Tuesday. \"Our policies lag behind new trends, causing unnecessary restrictions on the use of new technology,\" Kundra writes in the post on WhiteHouse.gov. \"We are dedicated to addressing these barriers and to improving the way government leverages new technology.\" The app store is designed for federal employees doing official government business and is not intended for use by the public. Also on Tuesday, Google announced the creation of a \"government cloud,\" in which public data will be stored on Google computer servers by 2010. According to a Google blog post, this dedicated space will serve the needs of federal, state and local governments. With \"cloud computing,\" users access applications that exist online instead of on their computers' hard drives. Both projects are designed to save the government money and to give government employees access to tools sometimes used in the private sector. The measures fall in line with the Obama administration's efforts to get the federal government up to speed with the latest technologies. Kundra wrote that the cost savings could be significant. The federal government spends $75 billion per year on data storage and other information technology costs, he wrote. A video on the new app store Web site also says government servers that host government Web sites and infrastructure often waste energy and money because they duplicate the efforts of the private sector. The app store, which is online at apps.gov, is essentially a compilation of Web programs, tools and services available to some government employees. A social media page, for instance, explains the possible uses of Web sites like YouTube, TwitVid and Flickr. People using the site have to log in and submit requests for approval before gaining access. Many of the applications, such as those mentioned, are free. Other business software in the government app store requires payment. \"With more rapid access to innovative IT solutions, agencies can spend less time and taxpayer dollars on procedural items and focus more on using technology to achieve their missions,\" writes Kundra. Ben Parr, associate editor at the social media blog Mashable, said it's smart for the government to turn to third-party tech companies that know their stuff better than federal bureaucrats. \"I'm a fan of it, because in most circumstances government is inefficient and this is a big way to really bring government up to speed in terms of computing,\" he said. \"There are a lot of places where the government is far behind.\" Some privacy experts are concerned about the fact that some public data could end up on private-run computer servers, however. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said people are required to submit information to the government and their data should be protected. \"We're not against the cloud computing model but there are real concerns here, both about privacy and security online,\" he said. He questioned whether Google, for example, would be able to use keywords from heath records to push pharmaceutical company ads at the American public. The details of government agreements about cloud computing need to be more public to ensure proper encryption techniques are taken and privacy laws are upheld, he said. \"I think it might make people wonder why government data is being commercialized in this way,\" he said. Parr said most government data is public anyway. \"So I definitely don't expect to see the CIA posting private documents on Scribd,\" he said, referring to the site where people can publish documents and other writing.","highlights":"The \"app store\" would be for federal workers doing government business .\nThe site, at apps.gov, seeks to offer and explain cloud computing programs .\nThe administration says such programs could save the government money .\nGoogle also announces a \"government cloud\" where public data may be stored .","id":"b629379f57879a9f9406219e6e37ba648071b763"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the late Sen. Edward Kennedy was growing up, there was a family edict: Kennedy men don't cry. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, left, and Ted Kennedy Jr. appear on \"Larry King Live\" on Monday evening. On \"Larry King Live\" Monday night, the senator's sons -- Ted Kennedy Jr. and Rep. Patrick Kennedy -- said times have changed, and that includes the no-tears rule of an earlier generation. In a wide-ranging interview, they also discussed the moment of their father's passing, how their mother, Joan, was handling her ex-husband's death, the legacy of Chappaquiddick, the Kennedy \"curse\" and their impressions of their dad's memoir, \"True Compass.\" The 77-year-old senator died August 25 after a battle with brain cancer. \"You know my father was very good at overcoming his own kind of old, traditional sense of not talking about your feelings, not really expressing a lot of emotions,\" Patrick Kennedy told King. The family has had plenty of moments over which to shed tears. King asked Ted Kennedy Jr. if there was crying when he lost his leg to cancer as a boy. \"Absolutely,\" he replied. Ted Kennedy Jr. said his father's memoirs explore his father's emotional tribulations. \"[It talks] about the very difficult things that he had to do, for example telling my grandfather that my uncle Jack had been killed.\" Both sons said their father's last year was a gift to them and the family. His brothers -- President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy -- had their lives cut short by assassinations in the 1960s. Watch sons tell of their last year with their father \u00bb . \"He also was able to enjoy a lot of accolades, not just from obviously his natural constituencies in the Democratic Party, but ... quite moving testaments from many of his Republican colleagues,\" Teddy Kennedy Jr. said. \"It was really wonderful to see my father actually be able to revel in a lot of those compliments that people had to say about my dad.\" \"The really beautiful part about having that extra year with him where he didn't have to traipse all around the world and all around the country was that he was able to spend time with us, and we were able to be there for him emotionally and physically,\" Patrick Kennedy said. Despite their many family tragedies, they debunked the so-called \"Kennedy curse.\" \"You don't buy the idea of a curse?\" King asked. \"No. No. Obviously my dad had a sense of spirituality that transcended his ability to face these problems, you know, in a way that would have otherwise paralyzed the normal person,\" Patrick Kennedy said. Ted Kennedy Jr. added, \"The Kennedy family has had to endure these things in a very open way. But our family is just like ... every other family in America in many ways.\" He also described the moment of his father's passing. \"I was there, Larry. It was very peaceful. ... He was suffering in those last few weeks [so] it really did take the sting out of his final passing. ... And it was a very peaceful, extremely spiritual thing.\" The sons elaborated on how their mother, Joan, has handled being divorced, her ex-husband's death and their thoughts on their stepmother. \"My dad was and remains a central figure in her life. Obviously, they both shared so much of their lives together,\" Patrick Kennedy said. \"The fact is that my dad and Vicki [Sen. Edward Kennedy's second wife] were so gracious. In all of the holidays, my mom was included. There wasn't any of this bitterness and everything. ... And I really am so grateful to Vicki for that, to my dad for that. \"Vicki was such a great sense of support to my dad at the end. \"My mom has been such an inspiration to me,\" Patrick Kennedy went on. \"She has struggled, as we talked about in an earlier program, with this disease called alcoholism, which I suffer from as well. She's been so public in her fight on this that she's inspired so many people and inspired me.\" The sons also talked about their father's memoirs, including the now-infamous episode at Chappaquiddick. After a July 18, 1969, party for those who had worked on Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Although he managed to escape, his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy did not report the incident immediately and later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. \"Years ago, he spoke to me about exactly what happened that night,\" Ted Kennedy Jr. told King.\"And I knew how sorry my father has been each and every day of his life for what happened that night. If he could undo that moment, he would give anything to have been able to do so. \"And in this book ... he doesn't make an excuse -- any excuses. He accepts responsibility for what happened. But ... it's what you do with these tragic events that happen in your life that's really the measure of the person.\" They said they drew a lot of inspiration from reading \"True Compass.\" \"I feel like this book ... is a gift. It's a gift to me and my children who of course knew him as a grandfather but never really knew him as a man in the fullest sense of the word,\" Ted Kennedy Jr. said. \"I was a little worried when I first opened up the pages because even though he'd been talking about it and even though I'd heard many of these stories before, I really didn't know what to expect. And what I found was ... a riveting, riveting two-day read.\" \"Many people castigated him and attacked him and made him a caricature where he actually was a very real person as we've seen in this book,\" Patrick Kennedy told King. \"There wasn't a better politician around. My dad had the ability to just connect with anybody.\"","highlights":"Sons of late Sen. Edward Kennedy say dad learned to embrace emotional side .\nThey say they don't believe in the so-called \"Kennedy curse\"\nTed Kennedy Jr. says moment of his father's passing was peaceful, spiritual .\nOn Chappaquiddick: He accepted responsibility for what happened, sons say .","id":"9c64900f4d31571c306faae47e78f508369ee0aa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Just three weeks after Jon and Kate Gosselin announced their separation, there is speculation of a new plus-one in the mix for \"Jon & Kate Plus 8.\" Jon Gosselin, here with his sons, was photographed on vacation with another woman. Fans of the show are buzzing about photos of Jon Gosselin apparently on vacation in Saint-Tropez, France, with a young woman who is definitely not his wife and reality TV co-star. People.com identified her as Hailey Glassman, the daughter of Dr. Lawrence Glassman, a surgeon who famously performed a tummy tuck on Kate that was documented for the Gosselins' hit TLC show. Gosselin and Glassman appeared to be the guests of designer Christian Audigier, creator of the Ed Hardy line, and the pair was spotted holding hands, smoking together and lounging aboard Audigier's yacht. The Gosselins' marriage became the focus of their reality show -- which had followed the adventures of the pair raising a set of twins and sextuplets -- amid allegations that Jon was cheating on Kate with 23-year-old teacher Deanna Hummel. Jon repeatedly denied that he had strayed. But after much speculation and tension on the show, the couple announced in June that they had separated. The same day, Kate filed for divorce. Given the media spotlight, dating coach Patti Feinstein said, it's not a good idea for Gosselin to be out with another woman so soon after the marital rift. \"You need to take a little time off from dating, because there is this rebound period,\" Feinstein said. \"He's probably feeling that he wasn't getting enough attention from his wife, so he's all lonely, and he needs to be stroked up. \"Once he gets the feeling that 'I'm loveable; I'm worthy; someone loves me for me and wants to put me first,' \" Feinstein theorized, \"then that person he is dating, either he will dump her, or she will dump him.\" Relationship expert Nancy Slotnick said the unfortunate ones in the high-profile tabloid fodder are the Gosselin children: 8-year-old twins Cara and Mady and 5-year-old sextuplets Aaden, Collin, Joel, Alexis, Hannah and Leah. \"Their whole TV show is based on them being parents and caring for all of these kids they have, and both of them seem totally wrapped up in themselves,\" Slotnick said. \"It's strange that [Jon] feels like he has to deny the whole thing, then at the same time he is flaunting it.\" Psychotherapist M. Gary Neuman advises that parents should wait about a year after a separation before introducing a relationship to their children. \"Children need about a year at least to adjust to the new sense of family and to develop individual relationships with each parent,\" said Neuman, the author of \"Helping Your Kids Cope With Divorce the Sandcastles Way.\" \"When Dad has a girlfriend, then kids can see that as an intrusion on their time and their situation.\" Neuman, whose Sandcastles program for children of divorce is mandatory through the court system in several states, said children go through a great deal of emotional turmoil in the wake of a broken marriage. Couples should wait at least six months to even let their kids know that they are actively dating, Neuman said. \"It is hurtful to children to think that their parents are dating when it is done so soon after a separation,\" Neuman said. \"Because what it says is that it is minimizing the marriage, and the marriage is crucial to children because they came from this union, and they want to know that their parents were in love when [the children] were born. \"The idea that there could be such a quick move to dating that the children are aware of could devalue their parents' relationship and therefore themselves.\" Neuman noted that parents going through a divorce can date privately but said they should also consider counseling before entering another serious relationship to guard against the high divorce rate for second marriages. Jon Gosselin hasn't commented on the seriousness of his apparent relationship or even confirmed that it is a relationship. He told People that he felt \"very relaxed\" during his time away, though he added: \"I keep thinking about the kids and missing them.\"","highlights":"Speculation arises about possible girlfriend for Jon Gosselin .\nReality star is photographed with another woman in the South of France .\nGosselins announced three weeks ago that they are divorcing .\nDating coach: \"You need to take a little time off from dating\"","id":"13b2fec466834fd68c3dddd4cf2ab1a12a927e10"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel is eyeing a new coalition to replace the \"grand coalition\" her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party shared with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the previous parliament. Angela Merkel has pledged to be \"a Chancellor for all Germans\". If, as expected, Merkel forms a new coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FPD) it will have wide-reaching implications for Germans. The FPD are more economically liberal than Merkel's previous partner, the SPD. According to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, the FPD led by Guido Westerwelle will push for control of some key positions in the new government, including perhaps the finance ministry. Pleitgen believes that economic policy is likely to change dramatically. \"This means a whole lot more pro-business politics for Germany than in the past. You'll probably see tax cuts and it will probably mean smaller government than seen in the past four years,\" he said. Speaking at a post-election news conference on Monday, Merkel said that the result is an opportunity to build a smaller government. \"If one looks at the majority relationships, we will be dealing with a smaller partner, the FDP,\" she said. \"We are happy to use this chance in very difficult economic times to secure jobs, create new ones and drive growth more decisively.\" Merkel also pledged to be \"a Chancellor for all Germans\". The election was disastrous for her rival, foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the SPD who saw their vote fall 10 percent from 34.2 percent in 2005 to 23 percent. The result is the SPD's worst result since World War II. The results leave the CDU as the strongest party in the German parliament with 27.3 percent of the popular vote -- slightly down on the 27.8 percent it achieved four years ago. Despite being the biggest party in the Bundestag, the vote marked one of the CDU's poorest showings in an election. But its traditional coalition with the Christian Social Union -- who won 6.5 percent of the vote -- means that the CDU\/CSU bloc won 33.8 percent of the vote. The biggest winners on election night were the Free Democratic Party (FPD) whose share of the vote rose nearly five percent from 9.8 to 14.6 percent.","highlights":"Angela Merkel is elected German chancellor for a second time .\nRival Social Democratic Party suffers worst election night since WWII .\nMerkel expected to form coalition with economically liberal Free Democratic Party .","id":"3ca79c2ac1f11c05006e2be8fb9e646ec749bfb1"} -{"article":"(REAL SIMPLE) -- The summers of my youth were filled with the kinds of activities that were common to every kid in the 80s but are considered almost death-defying these days: tree climbing, bike riding without a helmet, and daylong road trips spent in the backseat of the family car, where we bounced around like Super Balls, nary a seat belt in sight. Kate Simonson and her dad, Mike Fieseler, at her home in Iowa. Still, my mother was safety-obsessed about some things, like swimming lessons. Year after year, she forced me to take them at our local pool in Iowa City. Having to go against my will seemed all the more unfair to me, since my mother could not swim and was actually afraid of the water. But my mother reasoned that if water came between her children and their safety, she would be helpless. \"I can't save you,\" she would calmly state in answer to my pleas to bow out of the lessons. \"So I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure you can save yourself.\" Real Simple: Mother-daughter relationships . It's no wonder she embraced this philosophy of self-reliance. She knew how unexpectedly life can rob you of someone you care about. My parents adopted me as an infant and went on to have a biological child -- my brother, Jason -- a couple of years later. My dad was an electrician, and he died in an accident on the job when I was three. After his death, my mother had to raise us alone, and she was acutely aware that she was truly on her own, with no backup plan. She was fiercely strong and yet constantly fearful. I have almost no memories of my father. Instead I remember Mike Fieseler. He was a former industrial-arts teacher whom my mother dated off and on for much of my childhood. Jason and I weren't his biggest fans. He was a man of strict rules, while my mom's approach could be more properly deemed overindulgent leniency. iReport.com: Share your bonding with dad memories . We resented having to share the spotlight with him -- a sentiment that was particularly strong every Christmas morning, when we had to wait for him to arrive before we could open gifts. (There is little a man can do to endear himself to children less than delaying Christmas-morning gratification.) And when they stopped dating, when I was 15, I wasn't unhappy to see him go. Real Simple: Small, helpful gestures with big impact . Then, on February 18, 1991, when I was 17, my mother suddenly died of a brain aneurysm. One minute she was laughing with friends, enjoying an evening out; the next, she was unconscious on the floor. She never woke up. Just 19 hours later, she was dead, leaving my 15-year-old brother and me orphans. In the moments of shock and horror that followed, my relatives all gathered in the hospital, and I went home with only a close friend for company (Jason followed a while later). We spent that night on our own. I was numb; it had all happened so fast. I could barely think beyond the immediate moment. The next morning, my grandfather, aunts, and uncles were still immersed in their own mourning. Shell-shocked as I was, I knew I had to let people know what had happened. I saw my mother's address book lying where she had set it only days before and started dialing. One of the phone numbers I found was Mike's. Even though he lived about an hour away, it felt like he was there in an instant. As soon as he walked in, he took charge -- and took care of Jason and me. Among other small kindnesses, he gave me a credit card and said, \"Why don't you buy something to wear to the funeral?\" He gave me permission to be a 17-year-old -- to focus on the more mundane issue of what I was going to wear instead of weighty adult concerns. Real Simple: Father's Day gift ideas . Generally, when children are orphaned, a family member comes forward to take them in. This didn't happen in our case. Everyone had a good reason, I suppose. My mom's father was too old to assume responsibility for us; my mother's sister and her husband had three kids of their own and weren't able to take in any others; her other two siblings were both single and worked long hours. The guardian named in my mother's will was a babysitter that none of us had seen in 15 years. But I can tell you this: Abandonment, even for very good reasons, feels awful. It was heartbreaking and terrifying to have lost the person we loved most and then to be set adrift. Months passed and it felt like our relatives could offer no reassurances. The only news we got was that if Jason and I remained without a guardian, we would have to enter foster care. Our mother was gone, and there was nothing we could do to save ourselves. And, once again, there was Mike. After the funeral, he was a constant presence. He made sure that food filled the cupboards, the bills were paid, and the lawn was mowed. (Mike's adult daughter, Linda, pitched in and took care of his house.) He made sure I went back to school even when it was the last thing I wanted to do. His overbearing personality -- the trait I had hated the most -- is what comforted me the most and got me through those difficult days. Mike says that Linda came up with the idea to make his role with Jason and me official -- he could become our guardian. He was on board right away. Mike still says he never considered not doing it; caring for us was simply the right thing to do. One day he made us his offer. In a moment where the grief of loss and the pain of being unwanted threatened to capture my very breath, this man, whose only tie to us was having dated my mother, said he would be honored to take us in. From that moment on, everything was different. His girlfriend, Patty, threw us a \"guardian party\" when the paperwork became official. It was just a small gathering, but it made us feel special. I received a key chain with my initials, and I remember thinking that the idea behind it was so lovely. Over the years, Mike has become not merely a legal guardian but a real father to me. When I fell into depression in college, unable to get past thoughts of my mother and all I had lost, he was there to listen. When my husband, Eric, and I bought our first house, Mike spent weekends installing insulation and repairing our gutters. He never wrote me off as a good, mature kid who could handle everything herself. He walked the line between trusting me and recognizing when I might need help. And what more could you want from a father than that? His was an unconventional path to parenthood, to say the least. It is not by birth or adoption that I consider this man to be my father; it isn't even through his presence in my childhood. It is rather by sheer good luck on my part. Before he made that generous offer, I felt as though I had lost my mooring and the waters were flooding in; afterward, I simply felt rescued. If my mother had taught me to be strong and depend on myself, Mike imparted his own lesson -- that the world will provide for you, even when you least expect it. Eight years after Mike stepped forward, he walked me down the aisle. Four years after that, I gave birth to his first granddaughter, Emily Michl Simonson. (Mike's legal name is Michl.) The name is a reminder of my saved past and a promise for the future, and I hope one day Emily will see that as well. Because as much as I plan to teach her to swim (indeed, she's now six and enrolled in lessons), I also want her to know this: No matter how fast the waters rise, no matter how hard it may be to keep her head above the waves, someone will throw her a line. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Kate Simonson wasn't so fond of Mike Fieseler when he was dating her mother .\nAfter her mom died, Mike came for the funeral and helped Kate and her brother .\nHe eventually adopted the kids, helped Kate get through college .\nKate considers Mike her father and he walked her down the aisle at her wedding .","id":"74f2a1f339133495a676acdbdc9b8b9cd2f21026"} -{"article":"TAMPA BAY, Florida (CNN) -- Judging by her proud expression as she left the parking lot in her 1991 Honda Accord for the first time, Jessica Ostrofsky could have been driving a brand new sports car. Susan Jacobs' Wheels of Success program helps low-income workers get their own cars. \"I'm so happy,\" she said with a laugh. \"Having this [car] is going to change my life drastically because it's going to make me totally independent.\" Ostrofsky, 31, a single mother of three, had been leaving her house before dawn -- toting a stroller, car seat, diaper bag and purse -- to catch a bus. She would go first to her children's baby sitter and then to work. The trip took up to three hours. But on Labor Day, the St. Petersburg, Florida, resident and 19 others received their own cars, thanks to Susan Jacobs' Wheels of Success program. Since 2003, Wheels of Success has refurbished 280 donated cars for low-income individuals and families and helped another 280 clients with vehicle-related services. \"Receiving ... the car is more than just the car,\" said Jacobs. \"People literally see how it's going to change their life\" by knocking down an obstacle that had gotten in their way due to lack of transportation. Jacobs would know. The 59-year-old Tampa resident lost access to reliable transportation more than a decade ago when she ended a relationship and left her car behind. While staying with a friend who lived far from a bus line and across town from Jacobs' evening job, she had to hitch rides to work. That did not last long, Jacobs said, thanks to a used car dealership owner who loaned Jacobs three clunkers while she saved the money to buy her own car. But soon she saw others in a similar predicament. In 2000, as the manager of a staffing agency, Jacobs was struck by the high number of clients who lost jobs in which her office had placed them because they couldn't always get there. Others turned down positions and promotions because limited public transportation kept them from early or late shifts. Jacobs was laid off from her job at the staffing firm in 2001 and turned it into an opportunity to figure out how to \"keep working families working.\" She founded Wheels of Success in 2003 with two donated cars. The organization gives low-cost, donated and refurbished vehicles to qualified full-time workers or those with job offers. Employers or social service agencies refer the applicants to the group. Once they receive their vehicles, they must make low monthly payments based on their personal budgets. Those contributions average $40 and go toward repairing cars for other recipients. \"These are used cars. They're not going to last forever,\" said Jacobs. \"What I tell people is, 'This probably isn't your dream car, but hopefully it's going to get you to your dream.' \" Jacobs' group is able to restore donated clunkers to roadworthy operation by partnering with local companies and corporations that help provide auto body work at significantly discounted rates. Wheels of Success cars come with a free, one-year membership to the American Automobile Association. The organization also helps clients with ongoing repair, licensing, insurance and replacement of a car when it dies. Watch how Jacobs and her group provide working wheels for families \u00bb . Clients are required to complete a car maintenance class and donate three volunteer hours to Wheels of Success per month. This helps the group serve more clients and gives each recipient the ability to \"pay it forward,\" said Jacobs. On any given day, Jacobs reports about 100 qualified recipients on the waiting list for vehicles. About 60 new requests come in every other month. \"We would like nothing better than for there not to be a need for us,\" she said. \"But that isn't realistic in the near future and might not be realistic even long-term for people who have three children and day care.\" And recipients agree. \"Susan Jacobs is actually saving my life [because] she's saving my job,\" said Ostrofsky, who had been consistently late arriving to work because of the inconsistency of her bus's arrival. \"In turn, she saves my apartment and saves me taking care of my children.\" Watch Ostrofsky receive her Wheels of Success car \u00bb . For Jacobs, seeing the results of her work inspires her. \"I love what I do,\" she said. \"My life has made a difference.\" Want to get involved? Check out Wheels of Success and see how to help.","highlights":"Susan Jacobs created Wheels of Success to help low-income workers get cars .\nThe organization gives donated, refurbished vehicles to qualified applicants .\nLack of transportation often gets in the way of people making a living, Jacobs says .\nThe top 10 CNN Heroes will be announced on October 1 .","id":"fc1e09afb6451d9e61812224f449a0653dc10eee"} -{"article":"MIAMI BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- On the grainy, silent black and white video, it's hard to tell exactly what happened the night of June 14 in Miami Beach. But one thing is certain: A tourist, Husien Shehada, can be seen falling to the ground, shot by a police officer. Shehada, 29, later died. Husien Shehada, at left with his brother, Samer, was shot dead by Miami Beach police on June 14. Four nights later, again in Miami Beach, Lawrence McCoy allegedly pistol-whipped a cab driver and led police on a chase. Police say shots were exchanged. McCoy, also 29, was killed. Officer Adam Tavss, a 34-year-old former history teacher with three years on the force, was involved in both police shootings, the first in Miami Beach since 2003. Although it is not yet clear whether Tavss fired one of the shots that killed McCoy, questions are being raised as to whether the officer was cleared for patrol duty too soon after the first shooting. Police and the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office are investigating the shootings. The inquiry is expected to last several more months. All the records and reports have been sealed. Watch surveillance video of the first shooting \u00bb . The families of Shehada and McCoy are asking the Justice Department to investigate. Tavss, who is now assigned to desk duty, declined through his attorney to speak with CNN, citing the ongoing investigation. Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega has defended both shootings. \"It is important to note that the subjects in both cases had exhibited aggressive, violent, non-compliant and criminal behavior,\" the chief said in a statement to the media. Noriega added that officers \"are required to make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors and cannot afford to hesitate or be wrong.\" The Miami Beach department's standard operating procedure for use of force, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, states that any officer involved in a fatal shooting must be assigned to administrative duties for at least 72 hours. The department also mandates psychological support. Tavss was removed from duty for 72 hours, evaluated and then cleared by Noriega to return to patrol, which is departmental policy. On his first day back out on the street, Tavss was involved in the second shooting. Each of the nation's 20,000 police departments sets its own policy for police involved in shootings and fatalities. Some departments keep the officers off the streets for a week or longer. In virtually all cases, psychological evaluation and counseling are mandatory. Watch CNN's report on the shootings \u00bb . Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and an expert on police use of force and stress management, said she had never heard of an officer being involved in two shootings within four days. \"I think it's a gross error of judgment for any police department to maintain a rule that allows an officer who was involved in a fatal shooting to be back on the streets four days after the incident,\" Haberfeld said. A study by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice found that officers involved in fatal shootings can be affected for months afterward. \"In the days, weeks and months that follow a shooting, officers may suffer adverse reactions such as sleep interruption, anxiety and depression,\" a report on the study said. Officers \"experienced a range of psychological, emotional and physiological reactions that distorted time, distance, sight and sound,\" the study concluded. In some cases, the study found, officers could not recall firing their weapons. But even experts are undecided on just how much time off the street is enough, because every incident and every police officer is different. \"It's hard for me to estimate whether it's weeks or a little bit more, but certainly not days; certainly not hours. It's just too irresponsible toward the officer and toward the society the officer needs to serve,\" Haberfeld said. Police officers across the country train on how to make difficult split-second decisions on the use of deadly force. The sheriff in neighboring Broward County uses an interactive video screen that places officers into scenarios they might face while on patrol. \"In less than half a second, your pulse may go from 60 to 160, 170, and your heart's beating out of your chest, and you have to make a split-second decision,\" Broward Sheriff's Sgt. Bill Pennypacker said. Witnesses, police and surveillance video obtained by CNN provide the following, sometimes conflicting, accounts of what happened during the two Miami Beach shootings: . Husien Shehada and his brother, Samer, had come from Virginia to spend a long weekend with their girlfriends in Miami Beach. Early on Sunday, June 14, they got into a scuffle with another group of men, who intervened after Samer Shehada allegedly assaulted his girlfriend. Investigators said they believe that the two brothers were looking for revenge against those men when somebody called 911, reporting that two men were walking down the street and that one of them might be carrying a machine gun. The callers said they could see the outline of a large gun underneath his white shirt, and he was carrying it in his left hand. In a color security camera tape released by the Miami Beach Police Department, it appears that one of the brothers was carrying something under his shirt, holding it with his left hand. Tavss and other officers approached the brothers in front of Twist, a popular South Beach nightclub. A grainy black and white videotape shows the brothers together and Husien Shehada falling to the ground. A police officer can then be seen approaching. Samer Shehada said he and his brother were cooperating. \"His hands were up for a good two seconds, three seconds,\" Samer Shehada said. \"He wasn't in the process of raising his hands. His hands were up.\" One witness told CNN that when Tavss approached the brothers with his gun drawn, the brothers were belligerent. The witness, Derek Reynolds, was working security at the club that night. He said the two men cursed at police and wouldn't put their hands up. \"It got intense. ... They weren't cooperating,\" he said. \"One guy reached behind him, and he got shot.\" Law enforcement sources say a coat hanger and a bottle were found at the scene, but no gun was found. Samer Shehada said that neither he nor his brother was carrying a coat hanger, much less a gun. After the shooting, Tavss was relieved of duty for 72 hours, per department policy. When he returned to street patrol, he was one of several officers who responded to a 911 call reporting that that a taxi driver had been pistol-whipped and his cab stolen. Police confronted Lawrence McCoy on a Miami Beach causeway. According to police, McCoy ran and fired at the officers. McCoy was shot dead by police. It is not yet known whether Tavss fired any shots. John Contini, an attorney representing the families of both men shot by police, said McCoy was shot nine to 11 times. No weapon was found on McCoy. Police found a gun several days later in Biscayne Bay, but they say they don't know if it belonged to McCoy. Lawrence McCoy Sr. said his son's civil rights were violated. \"Michael Vick was convicted and put in jail for two years for killing dogs -- for killing dogs. I want justice for my son,\" he said. Contini said Tavss should be in jail. He also questioned the policy that allowed him back on the street so quickly. \"In fairness to the officer, you don't put him on the street, with a gun and a badge, to be in this situation without allowing for a period of decompression -- for the officer's sake, to get some help,\" Contini said.","highlights":"Miami Beach police officer Adam Tavss is involved in two police shootings .\nSecond shooting happened on his first day back on street .\nQuestions are being raised as to whether he was cleared for duty too soon .\nMiami Beach police chief decides when an officer is ready to return .","id":"076c5ae5abca3f8fa9f20cc36c96fb5a3e3b0c0c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Although Elizabeth Woodville lived centuries ago, author Philippa Gregory believes women today will find they have a commonality with her. Philippa Gregory took years to research and write \"The White Queen.\" Gregory's new novel \"The White Queen\" focuses on the life of Woodville, who was Queen consort to England's Edward IV, and the events that came to be known as the Wars of the Roses. Gregory is herself often referred to in majestic terms as the \"queen of historical fiction.\" She has enjoyed international success after a series of best-selling novels, including \"The Other Boleyn Girl,\" which was made into a feature film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. The new book, which was years in the making, has Gregory departing from the exploits of the Tudor family and delving into the lives of their predecessors, the Plantagenets. Woodville, a commoner, captured the heart of England's King Edward IV. She was also the mother of Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, who came to be known as the \"Princes in the Tower.\" Their disappearances, and presumed deaths, have long been an enduring mystery. That intrigue, and Woodville's fascinating life, appealed to the historian in Gregory. The British author talked to CNN about her new direction, why Americans can't get enough of historic kings and queens and why she loves living in the past. CNN: Your Tudor series has been so successful. What took you in this direction? Philippa Gregory: I think I felt like I had written a lot on the Tudors and although they are such fascinating characters and [there are] still some I would like to write about, I just got so interested in the back-story, the family that was there before the Tudors, and I thought I'd see if I could take the audience with me. I knew I wanted to do it so I thought I would take the chance. CNN: What drew you to Elizabeth Woodville? Gregory: She is, herself, such an extraordinary character and a spectator of extraordinary times. And, of course, she is the mother of the Princes in the Tower which is possibly the greatest mystery in English history. Watch Gregory talk about her new novel \u00bb . CNN: Why do you think people are still so fascinated with the princes? Gregory: I think because it involves two completely innocent young boys. It really focuses on the absolute wickedness of Richard III, and of course that is debatable, so you've got some controversy there to start off there. It's very much about could Elizabeth have protected them or should she have done so. In a sense, it questions her as a mother and a queen. I think the debate about Richard III is probably the key thing. CNN: Do you think modern-day women will be able to relate to Elizabeth? Gregory: Oh yes. What we see in Elizabeth and what we see in some of the other historical heroines are women who are in an appalling situation. They have no legal rights, they have no financial rights, they have no security and the likelihood of them dying in childbirth was always very, very high. You were talking about a terribly dangerous life for women. Although women today have fantastic rights in comparison, I think we still often have a sense of being in a man's world and having to play by men's rules. I know women identify with that because they often write to me and say they draw great strength and courage from these women who are, in a sense, our heroines. CNN: You have such a huge fan base in the United States. What do you think it is about Americans which draws us to royalty? Gregory: I don't know that it's royalty. I thing a lot of people have a great deal of interest in the royal family, but in a sense the Tudors or even Plantagenets are so far from the modern royal family that I don't think it's that sort of snobbery. I think actually that a lot of American women find it quite hard to fit into modern, American society. They find the conflicts and difficulties of the past a very fruitful escape, so it's lovely just to stop worrying about now and go to somewhere else, but I think women also use the books as a type of role model of how to cope. The Plantagenet women, Elizabeth Woodville the White Queen, they are fighting mythic, epic battles to survive. We fight much more ordinary battles, but sometimes you need the same courage. CNN: What do you enjoy about writing historical fiction? Gregory: I love the research. I am a historian by profession so that's probably the biggest thing for me. The reason that I write historical fiction is so that I can set the story in the past and explore the past. I like the form of it as well. I'm quite a technical writer. I think about how it works and I think the challenge of making the past come alive for the reader is a huge one. CNN: Having had a book made into a film, does that affect your writing at all? Are you thinking about the fact that a new novel might become a movie? Gregory: No. One of the funny things is that getting the history right, doing intense amounts of research, trying to make the characters come alive, living with the characters and putting it all in first person, present tense which is technically quite challenging, all of that keeps me busy enough. I don't even think about the readers. I just think about how the novel is working as a novel. I never think about what will happen with it after I am done.","highlights":"Philippa Gregory has found fame writing historical fiction .\nHer new novel, \"The White Queen,\" is set during the Wars of the Roses .\nGregory believes modern-day readers will be able to relate to the protagonist .\nStory tells perspective of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort to Edward IV .","id":"3afce08c5e1bafbf978831c0b751281a30c9fbc1"} -{"article":"PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (CNN) -- President Obama said Sunday the 34-nation Summit of the Americas was a \"very productive\" meeting that proved hemispheric progress is possible if countries set aside \"stale debates and old ideologies.\" President Obama addresses reporters before leaving Trinidad for Washington on Sunday. Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the summit, Obama cited a potential thaw in relations between the United States and longtime adversaries Cuba and Venezuela, but said the ultimate test \"is not simply words, but deeds.\" Leaders did not \"see eye to eye\" on some important issues, but the meeting proved it is possible to \"disagree respectfully,\" the president said. Obama highlighted the importance of using American diplomacy and development aid in \"more intelligent ways.\" Watch Obama talk about summit \u00bb . He reached out to the Cuban government before the summit by lifting all restrictions on U.S. citizens wishing to visit or send remittances to relatives in Cuba. Cuba was not represented at the summit, but Obama noted that the leaders of other countries highlighted Cuba's program that sends \"thousands of doctors\" throughout the hemisphere. A number of countries depend heavily on Cuba's medical assistance program. \"It's a reminder ... that if our only interaction with many of these countries is drug interdiction -- if our only interaction is military -- then we may not be developing the connections that can over time increase our influence and have a beneficial effect,\" he said. Obama called Cuban President Raul Castro's recent indication of a willingness to discuss human rights issues \"a sign of progress.\" But he said the Cuban government could send a much clearer, more positive signal by releasing political prisoners or reducing fees charged on remittances that Americans send to relatives in the country. Change in Cuba will not come quickly, but it is good for other countries to see that \"we are not dug in into policies that were formulated before I was born,\" Obama said. U.S. policy on Cuba has remained largely unchanged since 1962, when the U.S. government imposed a trade embargo. Turning to Venezuela, Obama conceded Washington has vast differences with that country's president on economic and foreign policy issues. But he said the strategic interests of the United States would not be endangered by having a \"more constructive relationship\" with the oil-rich nation. Asked what an \"Obama doctrine\" would be, he declined to give a specific answer, but he outlined broad principles such as the importance of listening to other countries. The United States, Obama said, remains the most powerful nation in the world but cannot solve problems such as climate change, drugs and terrorism on its own. \"If you start with that approach, you are inclined to listen, and not just talk,\" he said. Obama, who was set to return to Washington on Sunday, added that the United States is at its best when it stands \"for universal ideals [such as] freedom of speech and religion.\" \"If we confess to having strayed from [our] values, it strengthens our hand [and] allows us to speak with greater moral force and clarity,\" he said. The president was criticized over the weekend by several leading Republicans and former CIA director Michael Hayden for releasing four Bush-era memos outlining terror interrogation methods used against suspected al Qaeda operatives. Read about Hayden's criticism . When he released the documents Thursday Obama said the United States needs to \"right its course in concert with our core values.\"","highlights":"Obama cites potential thaw in U.S. relations with Venezuela, Cuba .\nObama: Cuba's apparent willingness to discuss human rights \"a sign of progress\"\nCuba was topic at weekend summit, though not represented there .\nObama: Using diplomacy, development aid in \"more intelligent ways\" important .","id":"128038b622c181b7238c3a5b25b16d851e618042"} -{"article":"GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A large explosion late Tuesday at a wedding party for relatives of a Fatah leader injured at least 50 people in Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said. A bomb Tuesday injured relatives of Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser. Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, the uncle of the groom, did not attend the wedding, according to witnesses. The cause of the explosion, which occurred at 11:10 p.m. in Khan Younis, was not known. Dahlan is the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser. Details of Tuesday's explosion were not immediately clear. Dahlan's associates in recent years have been targeted by Hamas as tensions between the militant group and rival Fatah -- the Palestine Liberation Organization's largest faction -- escalated. In January 2007, Hamas gunmen tried to kill Dahlan's bodyguard. Dahlan was not present at the time of the attack. In that month alone, Fatah and Hamas militants abducted more than 50 members of their rival groups -- most of them in the West Bank town of Nablus -- according to Palestinian security sources. Dahlan's nephew was kidnapped the next month amid a fragile cease-fire between supporters of Hamas and Fatah. In late December 2006, Hamas accused Dahlan of orchestrating an assassination attempt on its leader Ismail Haniya. Haniya's son was injured in the attack. Dahlan has described himself to CNN in the past as being involved in directing Fatah's military response to Hamas' military \"provocation.\" Dahlan is particularly disliked by Hamas because during his leadership of the Preventive Security Forces in the 1990s, Hamas members were apprehended and tortured. After a series of suicide bombings in Israel in 1996, Dahlan took a major part in the Palestinian Authority's effort to crack down on Hamas. CNN's Talal Abu-Rahma in Gaza City contributed to this report.","highlights":"Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan is uncle of the groom .\nDahlan did not attend the wedding in Gaza .\nThe cause of the explosion is not known .\nHamas says Dahlan has sought to assassinate its leader Ismail Haniya .","id":"b497b789786c40b685f15735900b4552b3c1a0e2"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- The U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately. The Marine Corps fears that social media sites such as Facebook could pose a security risk. \"These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,\" reads a Marine Corps order, issued Monday. \"The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel... at an elevated risk of compromise.\" The Marines' ban will last a year. It was drawn up in response to a late July warning from U.S. Strategic Command, which told the rest of the military it was considering a Defense Department-wide ban on the Web 2.0 sites, due to network security concerns. Scams, worms, and Trojans often spread unchecked throughout social media sites, passed along from one online friend to the next. \"The mechanisms for social networking were never designed for security and filtering. They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users,\" a Stratcom source told Wired.com. Yet many within the Pentagon's highest ranks find value in the Web 2.0 tools. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on Twitter. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed with social media tools. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook. Top generals now blog from the battlefield. \"OPSEC is paramount. We will have procedures in place to deal with that,\" Price Floyd, the Pentagon's newly-appointed social media czar, said. \"What we can't do is let security concerns trump doing business. We have to do business... We need to be everywhere men and women in uniform are and the public is. If that's MySpace and YouTube, that's where we need to be, too,\" Floyd said. The Marines say they will issue waivers to the Web 2.0 blockade, if a \"mission critical need\" can be proven. And they will continue to allow access to the military's internal \"SNS-like services.\" But for most members of the Corps, access to the real, public social networks is now shut off for the next year. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"U.S. Marine Corps bans Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites .\nOrder, issued Monday, states that information on the sites poses a security risk .\nThe Marines' ban is effective immediately and will last a year .\nU.S. Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook .","id":"53563f4d65c8cbecfa9b5429861fecb529a683c0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Richard Strandlof said he survived the 9\/11 attacks on the Pentagon. He said he survived again when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq, killing four fellow Marines. He'd point to his head and tell people he had a metal plate, collateral damage from the explosion. Richard Strandlof says he didn't mean to cause harm when he lied about being a military veteran. None of it was true. On Friday, the FBI arrested him on the rare charge of \"stolen valor.\" Strandlof, 32, was held \"for false claims about receipt of military decorations or medals,\" an FBI news release said. Charges had been filed in Denver, Colorado, the week before, the bureau said. \"The penalty for his crime is up to one year incarceration and a $100,000 fine,\" it said. Before his deception was revealed, crowds ate up his story. He canvassed Colorado appearing at the sides of politicians. Inspiring and seemingly authentic, he spoke on behalf of veterans at the state Capitol. He formed a group called the Colorado Veterans Alliance. The whole thing was a lie, he admitted to CNN's Anderson Cooper earlier this year. Watch Strandlof discuss case in June. \u00bb . He wasn't at the Pentagon. He was never a Marine. He never served his country. He never graduated from the Naval Academy. He claimed his real name was Rick Duncan. Where was he on 9\/11, the day he said he witnessed heroism firsthand? \"I was in San Jose, California, watching it in horror on TV with a few other people,\" Strandlof told CNN. He was at a homeless shelter at the time. Strandlof denies being a pathological liar. He says he suffered from \"some severely underdiagnosed mental illness\" and he got caught up in the moment around \"people who are passionate and loved what they did.\" He told CNN he had put on a \"production, which I'm sorry for.\" \"Hopefully the people that I hurt can in some way gain closure from that, and I myself don't know what I can do, short of leaving them alone and not being in their lives, to make that happen,\" Strandlof said. He said he's not sure exactly how he's hurt people. \"It's not for me to say, and time will tell,\" he said. Hal Bidlack, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, is one of those people. He ran for Congress as a Democrat and had Strandlof appear with him. Bidlack -- who lost to incumbent Republican Doug Lamborn -- isn't too happy. \"Once one lie fell apart, the whole series of things ... just cascaded into an ocean of lies,\" he said. Bidlack was at the Pentagon when it came under attack on September 11, 2001. He now realizes that Strandlof stole portions of his own story. \"Now that we know he's a lying fraud,\" Bidlack said, \"I think he was just parroting my own story back to me.\" \"There are an awful lot of things that he kept straight to try to fool an awful lot of people for an awful long time.\" Doug Sterner has catalogued hundreds of people claiming to be military veterans who never served in the military. He says it's typical for those perpetuating the hoaxes to claim mental illness. \"I don't buy that,\" Sterner said. \"What he was doing was looking for a cause to promote himself. I see this repeatedly. I've had a hundred cases just this year like Rick Strandlof's. ... What they're doing is building a kingdom of self and feeding their own ego.\" Sterner has pushed for a federal database listing the names and citations of all decorated military veterans to help put an end to such cases. He said Strandlof has robbed true veterans of their veracity. \"Doing good does not take away from the bad that he did,\" he said. \"Because of Rick Strandlof, the next global war on terrorism veteran that speaks in a school or talks to the media or gets involved in politics is going to be questioned.\" Ryan Gallucci, a spokesman for AMVETS, agreed. \"Strandlof's actions dishonor the actual sacrifices of veterans,\" he told CNN Monday. \"Second, by commissioning his own advocacy group, Strandlof diverted philanthropy dollars for legitimate causes within the veterans community,\" Gallucci said. \"Personally, it just sickens me,\" Gallucci added. \"As a veteran of the war in Iraq, it's unfathomable that someone would propagate such a lie at a time when American men and women are actually putting their lives on the line, and American families are coping with the loss of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.\" According to the Denver Post, Strandlof came to authorities' attention first in 1997, when he was sentenced to five years on forgery and bad-check charges. The FBI was investigating him for fraud when he spoke to CNN -- a charge he denied. \"We did not take money to use on non-veterans projects. I did not enrich myself on this. I did not gain any money from this,\" he said. He has not been charged with fraud. That's not the point, said Sterner. \"The one thing he robbed from every veteran that comes out now is credibility.\" Gallucci called Strandlof a \"con man\" and the case \"morally repugnant.\" \"Strandlof's actions are exploitation plain and simple, and AMVETS is eager to see justice served,\" Gallucci said. CNN's Joe Johns contributed to this report.","highlights":"Richard Strandlof said he survived 9\/11 Pentagon attack, Iraq bombing .\nIn June, Strandlof admitted he lied .\nPenalty for stolen valor is up to one year in jail, up to $100,000 fine .\nStrandlof formed Colorado Veterans Alliance .","id":"217a844f1c4cf382f826039cc619c743c8e7c35c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hidden under a quaint resort 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, lies a treasure trove of potential energy that's free and available 24\/7. \"Imagineer\" Bernie Karl and his wife, Connie, own Chena Hot Springs Resort near Fairbanks, Alaska. Alaskan entrepreneur Bernie Karl has pioneered modern technology to tap into one of Earth's oldest energy resources: hot water. Karl, 56, likes to call himself an \"imagineer.\" Using imagination to fuel his engineering ambitions, this tenacious thinker and self-starter has figured out a way to generate electricity using water that's the temperature of a cup of coffee -- about 165 degrees Fahrenheit. \"There's more opportunity now than there has ever been in the history of man, but we have to reinvent ourselves,\" Karl said. Karl was determined to reinvent the way he consumed energy after he and his wife, Connie, purchased the Chena Hot Springs Resort from the state of Alaska in 1998. \"After we purchased the hot spring, I couldn't believe it, the swimming pool and the hot spring were being heated by diesel fuel, 1,000 gallons every month!\" Karl said. To slash costs and to use resources that were right under his nose, Karl invented a portable geothermal power plant. In a little more than three years, Karl and his wife have severed the facility's dependence on diesel fuel and have saved $625,000, he said. Karl's partnered with the Department of Energy to fund half of a $1.4 million exploration project to find and characterize the geothermal resources at Chena Hot Springs. \"It's a model for what you can do,\" said Karl. Karl developed his tenacity from growing up as the sixth child of 16 siblings on a farm outside of Peoria, Illinois. He said his parents taught him hard work, how to recycle his clothes and shoes, and how to compost food and farm wastes. In the late 1970s, Karl was active in gold mining in Alaska's Central District, and he established the state's largest recycling facility in 1984, he said. Many of his ideas stem from finding alternative ways to use and reuse resources he already has at his fingertips. After acquiring the 400-acre resort, Karl began trapping water from the underground hot springs, which produce enough power to heat the facility's greenhouses year-round. Most recently, Karl has turned his invention into a separate business by contracting with Peppermill hotel and casino in Reno, Nevada, to build a similar system there. His portable geothermal generator units cost from $350,000 to $375,000, each with the potential to generate enough power for 250 average American homes per year. 'Hot taps' His energy-generating machine lies on a flatbed truck and can be hooked up to oil and gas wells or other heat-emitting sources to generate electricity. Karl adds a branch connection to an oil or gas pipeline, and the process begins when he \"hot taps\" into waste water coming through the pipes. The hot water enters the tubes of an evaporator encased in a common refrigerant found in many air conditioning systems. As the hot water passes through the evaporator, it begins to boil the refrigerant in the casing surrounding the tubes. The heat given off by the boiling refrigerant then causes an attached turbine to spin, which jump-starts a generator, producing electrical power. Next, cooling water enters from another source, recondensing the vapor refrigerant into a liquid. A pump pushes the liquid refrigerant back to the evaporator, so the cycle can start again. The difference in temperatures drives the entire \"binary system.\" This setup works exactly the opposite of a refrigerator. \"Chena Hot Springs is home to the lowest-temperature geothermal resource to be used for commercial power production in the world,\" Karl said. \"Oil companies don't drill wells for water, but they have some 5,000 kilowatts of geothermal power at their disposal in unused oil wells. Let's pick the low-hanging fruit and use the wells we have for oil for geothermal power,\" he said. Citing a 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, Karl said harnessing just 2 percent of Earth's internal energy could provide 2,000 times more energy than the entire planet currently consumes -- all free of polluting greenhouse gas emissions. \"Everything goes back, there is no pollution, no smokestack,\" he said. \"We are going to go recycle oil wells and recycle water and put it back in the ground.\" Sizzle from the center of the Earth . Though Karl's lower-temperature approach is new, for more than a century, people have been trying to generate electricity from the heat that sizzles from the center of the Earth -- using it to cook, bathe and for electricity. In fact, the word \"geothermal\" comes from the Greek words geo (Earth) and therme (heat). \"We've determined that heat mining can be economical in the short term, based on a global analysis of existing geothermal systems, an assessment of the total U.S. resource and continuing improvements in deep-drilling and reservoir stimulation technology,\" said MIT professor Jefferson W. Tester. In a 2007 study, professors at MIT found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact. \"... if we just drill deep enough, most of the U.S. can be transformed into a huge geothermal power zone while drastically reducing the nation's carbon footprint,\" the MIT report said. Widespread geothermal power fuels electricity in a couple dozen countries, with the small island nation of Iceland leading the pack. An unusual abundance of geothermal sources creates 30 percent of Iceland's energy, according to its National Energy Authority. \"Imagination is so important,\" said Karl, whose resort houses 65 employees and can house 210 guests at maximum capacity. \"If Bernie Karl, one of the smallest mom-and-pop operators in the world, can do these things, then why can't all of us?\"","highlights":"Resort owner makes electricity with water the temperature of a cup of coffee .\nAlaskan entrepreneur goes from diesel to geothermal, saving $625K in 3 years .\nHe invented portable geothermal generator that he says can power 250 homes .\nMIT: Most of U.S. can be transformed into a huge geothermal power zone .","id":"8e82a0163692513d97ae165bdb07937580300df1"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion. Surveillance video shows storekeeper Mohammad Sohail holding a robber at bay with a shotgun. Storekeeper Mohammad Sohail was closing up his Long Island convenience store just after midnight on May 21 when -- as shown on the store's surveillance video -- a man came in wielding a baseball bat and demanding money. \"He said, 'Hurry up and give me the money, give me the money!' and I said, 'Hold on',\" Sohail recalled in a phone interview with CNN on Tuesday, after the store video and his story was carried on local TV. Sohail said he reached under the counter, grabbed his gun and told the robber to drop the bat and get down on his knees. \"He's crying like a baby,\" Sohail said. \"He says, 'Don't call police, don't shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.' \" Amidst the man's apologies and pleas, Sohail said he felt a surge of compassion. He made the man promise never to rob anyone again and when he agreed, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. \"When he gets $40, he's very impressed, he says, 'I want to be a Muslim just like you,' \" Sohail said, adding he had the would-be criminal recite an Islamic oath. \"I said 'Congratulations. You are now a Muslim and your name is Nawaz Sharif Zardari.'\" When asked why he chose the hybrid of two Pakistani presidents' names, the Pakistani immigrant laughed and said he had been watching a South Asian news channel moments before the confrontation. Sohail said the man fled the store when he turned away to get the man some free milk. He said police might still be looking for the suspect but he doesn't intend to press charges. \"The guy, you know, everybody has a hard time right now, it's too bad for everybody right now in this economy,\" said the storekeeper.","highlights":"Long Island storekeeper Mohammad Sohail faces man wielding baseball bat .\nSohail grabs shotgun; stunned man begins to cry, says he has no food at home .\nMan's story tugs at Sohail's heartstrings, and he offers man money, bread, milk .\nAfter act of compassion, man says he wants to become a Muslim like Sohail .","id":"f085e25e1b25861448039701a5cfe6f64c6d396b"} -{"article":"FORT HOOD, Texas (CNN) -- Families of tens of thousands of soldiers based at Fort Hood have one military wife to thank for a more normal routine at the base. A blunt conversation with an Army wife started Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch on the path toward his family-first policies. When Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch first took over as commander of the largest Army base in the United States, a soldier's wife approached him and gave him a talking to about how soldiers don't \"really\" get to spend time at home when they come home from war. \"She said 'General, don't talk to us about dwell time. Because my husband might as well be in Iraq,'\" Lynch told CNN last week. \"'He comes home after the kids go to bed, we never see him on weekends and you take him away to train all the time.'\" Lynch said that woman's comments \"really hit me in the gut.\" In response, Lynch made \"focus on the family\" a key part of Fort Hood's environment. He insists that every soldier on a day schedule leave work in to be home for dinner by 6 p.m. On Thursday, many are told to leave by 3 p.m. so they can have the afternoon with the family. And no one at Fort Hood works weekends unless Lynch signs off on it. He likes to point out that when a soldier deploys overseas, the only thing he can't get is time with his family, so it's important to get it between deployments -- what the military calls \"dwell time.\" Lynch's \"home by dinner\" order creates a daily traffic jam on the base in Killeen, Texas, as tens of thousands of soldiers leave at once. Master Sgt. Guadalupe Stratman enjoys Fort Hood's family-first attitude. She has a husband and three sons. When she's not cooking dinner after leaving the base, she's helping with homework or \"just watching them grow.\" It's not just about keeping military spouses and children happy, it's about creating a more resilient soldier; one less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, injure or kill himself in a traffic accident or fall to suicide, Lynch says. It's working. No soldier has been killed on the roads around Fort Hood in more than 200 days. And although the base has seen two suicides since the start of the year, that is much less than some other major Army bases. Lynch is taking other steps to battle stress and suicides at Fort Hood. He's opened a soldier \"Resiliency Campus\" -- a city-block-sized collection of buildings with programs and activities aimed at improving a soldier's mind, body and spirit. And there is a weekly meeting of the base's \"suicide prevention board,\" which Lynch usually chairs. This isn't to say that all the soldiers at Fort Hood are completely well-adjusted and ready for their next deployment. CNN spoke to one squad of soldiers who'd returned from a deployment to Fort Hood just a week before our visit. One soldier said he has \"anger issues. I get angry over a lot of little things.\" Others are bothered by crowds or just driving around town. But even those young veterans, for whom the stress of being in a war zone continues after their return to their home base, have found ways to cope. The spend their off-hours together playing video games or just remembering what they went through together. \"Some of the roughest times we've had, we sit back and laugh,\" Pfc. Keven Abbott said. \"We are very well together -- you cannot bring us down.\" Watch CNN's Barbara Starr report on sorrows and joys of returning home \u00bb . The successful fight against stress at Fort Hood is getting noticed at the Pentagon. Among others, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has praised Lynch's programs. But just after CNN's visit to Fort Hood, the Defense Department sent out a news release announcing that Lynch would be moving on to his next job in the Army. What remains to be seen is whether his ideas about putting families first and creating \"resilient soldiers\" will carry on at Fort Hood after he leaves.","highlights":"Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch at Fort Hood had blunt conversation with Army wife over priorities .\nHe instituted a family-first program, including orders to be home for dinner by 6 .\nFewer accidents, stress and suicides at largest Army base in U.S. now reported .\n\"Suicide prevention board\" meets weekly; Lynch usually chairs .","id":"2d6f3bd8af741372acfdf95c9feb10df3d0236c2"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- At least 21 people were killed and more than 80 others injured during three days of rioting here last week, a police spokeswoman said Monday. Ugandan police ride past a burning barricade in the Natete suburb of Kampala on Friday. Police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said 663 people had been arrested and 86 people had been injured. President Yoweri Museveni is to address the violence in a speech to parliament slated for Tuesday afternoon. Though the mood on the streets in the capital city was calm Monday, tensions between Museveni and the Buganda kingdom -- headed by King Ronald Mutebi II, the ruler of the Baganda tribe -- have intensified in recent years. They erupted into violence last Thursday, when the government said it would not allow the king to travel to an area inhabited by a renegade rival group. Kings in the east African nation are limited to a ceremonial role overseeing traditional and cultural affairs. Government officials and the Buganda kingdom have been at odds for years, sparring over land, sovereignty and political power. After the travel ban, mostly young Bagandans took to the streets, stealing ammunition from a police station and confronting officers, accusing them of harassment. \"The government is wrong to undermine cultural institutions, which are the backbone of Uganda's heritage,\" said Mzamiru Balidha, a resident of Kampala. \"Cultural leaders must be left alone since they are not interfering in politics.\" Rioters burned tires and cars, set buildings afire and looted stores. Streets in the capital were strewn with debris over the weekend, including torched cars and burned tires. By Sunday, police and the army were patrolling deserted streets as residents tried to return to normalcy after the protests. \"I'm happy to see that there is peace now,\" said Harry Sagara of Kampala. \"Now people can return to work.\" A government official said Sunday that the two leaders have pledged to meet and address their differences. \"Both the central government and the king are still working out details of the meeting,\" said Daudi Migereko, the minister of parliamentary affairs. In Washington, the U.S. State Department cautioned Americans in Uganda about the potential for more violent demonstrations this week. \"U.S. citizens should be aware that even peaceful gatherings and demonstrations can turn unexpectedly violent,\" the State Department travel alert states. Bagandans are the dominant ethnic group and one of four ancient kingdoms in the nation. Journalist Samson Ntale in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ugandan president to address parliament Monday on deadly riots .\nNEW: Death toll from three days of rioting rises to 21; 86 injured, 663 arrested .\nU.S. government warns Americans in Uganda of potential danger of more violence .\nRioting sparked by central government's travel ban on a tribal king .","id":"67ed842fbe8b3a07d821b34e70430540e32d7772"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British military marked a grim milestone Friday as the number of troops killed in Afghanistan surpassed the death toll in Iraq. A British Marine is shown in Arbroath, Scotland, last year on the eve of a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. An especially bloody 10 days in Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province claimed 15 British lives, putting the total number of dead in that conflict at 184, the Defense Ministry said. The British military has lost 179 soldiers in Iraq. Five soldiers were killed Friday in two explosions that rocked the same patrol near the town of Sangin in Helmand province, where British troops are based. The Defence Ministry earlier announced the deaths of three other soldiers in Helmand. British troops have joined with roughly 4,000 U.S. Marines and sailors, and several hundred Afghan security forces, in Operation Khanjar, a drive to secure Helmand before Afghanistan's presidential elections in August. See a map of Helmand province \u00bb . Britain's Chief of the Defense Staff, Jock Stirrup, issued a video statement in which he mourned the latest losses. Watch profiles of six British soldiers killled in Afghanistan on the same day \u00bb . \"It's important we also remember why our people are fighting in Afghanistan and what they're achieving through their sacrifice and their courage,\" Stirrup said. \"The mission in Afghanistan is about supporting the delivery of governance in order to reduce the opportunities for extremist terrorist groups who are a direct threat to the United Kingdom, its citizens, and their interests.\" Results are starting to emerge, he said, but the military still has a long way to go. \"It's tough going because the Taliban have rightly identified Helmand as their vital ground,\" he said. \"If they lose there, they lose everywhere, and they're throwing everything they have into it. But they are losing.\" Watch a gallery of Britain mourning its fallen in Afghanistan \u00bb . British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke about the military casualties while at the G8 summit in Italy on Friday, calling it a \"very hard summer\" so far for British forces. \"Our resolution to complete the work that we have started in Afghanistan and Pakistan is undiminished,\" he said. \"We knew from the start that defeating the insurgency in Helmand would be a hard and dangerous job, but it is vital.\"","highlights":"UK military deaths in Afghanistan now at 184, five more than in Iraq .\n15 British lives lost in past 10 days in Afghanistan's Helmand province .\nUK forces have joined with U.S., Afghan troops in offensive in Helmand .\nDrive in Helmand is part of effort to secure country before August elections .","id":"592fb316393b328e91fb1bf57b8700c7aa266dd0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- English rugby coach Dean Richards has been banned from coaching for three years for his part in masterminding a fake blood injury to one of his players. English rugby coach Dean Richards admitted asking his player to fake an injury using artificial blood. In a scandal dubbed \"bloodgate\" the 46-year-old admitted to getting one of his players to use fake blood to feign injury in order to make an otherwise impossible substitution happen at a crucial time in a European Cup quarterfinal between his side Harlequins and Leinster. Sport is littered with competitive personalities, but some are prepared to go further than others in order to achieve victory. Do you agree with CNN's list of sport's top ten notorious rulebreakers? 1. Diego Maradona, football - For years Maradona shared the credit for his most remembered goal with a higher being. \"A little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God\" was his account of how he scored the opener in Argentina's 2-1 victory over England during the 1986 World Cup semi-final. However, in 2005 Maradona admitted that it was less divine intervention than retribution that was behind the now infamous goal. Referring to the British control of the Falkland Islands which lie just off Argentina and were the scene of a bitter war in 1982, he said: \"I don't for a second regret scoring that goal with my hand.. whoever robs a thief gets a 100-year pardon.\" 2. Rosie Ruiz, the marathon - After taking gold-medal in the 1980 Boston Marathon and setting the third-fastest time ever recorded for a female runner in the process, many spectators noticed how remarkably sweat-free and relaxed the 23-year old Ruiz appeared as she took to the winner's podium. Race officials were also dismayed by the jubilant victor's absence from the numerous photographs taken during the competition, and none of the checkpoint monitors or fellow runners were able to recognize the young champion after the 26-mile race had ended. It was not long before a few members of the crowd came forward to reveal that they had seen Ruiz simply jump in during the last half-mile, where she duly sprinted to the finish line. 3. Carlos \"Panama\" Lewis, boxing - In the early 1980s \"Panama\" was regarded as one of the most formidable boxing trainers of his time. These days he is typically regarded as one of the sports murkiest operatives. Panama's lowly stature was secured during the 1983 fight between his boxer Lewis Resto and Billy Collins Jr. Before the fight Panama had soaked Resto's hands in plaster of Paris and removed the padding from his gloves. Resto punched Collins Jr to a pulp and, nine months later, Collins Jr - suffering from depression caused by the fight - died in a car accident that many believe was suicide. Diego Maradona scores against England for Argentina using what he called the \"hand of God.\" 4. Spain's 2000 Paralympic team, basketball - The 2000 Sydney Paralympics witnessed the basketball team from Spain take the gold medal in the \"intellectual disability\" category. However, soon after Carlos Ribagorda, an undercover journalist, revealed that the players on Spain's team had not actually undergone the testing required to prove mental deficiency. It turned out that ten of the twelve players on the Spain basketball team had no such disability. The International Paralympic Committee subsequently decided to scrap the category due to the difficulties of assessing the disabilities of performers. 5. Michel Pollentier, cycling - In 1978 the Belgian rider was ahead of the rest of the field after the mountain stage of the Tour de France. He submitted a urine sample which came back clean from drugs, the only problem was it wasn't his urine! It transpired that Pollentier had used a sample given to him by his teammate that was delivered via a plastic pipe concealed in his shorts, he was subsequently thrown from the Tour. 6. Dwain Chambers, athletics - The British sprinter had high hopes of taking on the world's elite after showing early potential but his career was derailed when he tested positive for the banned substance THG in 2003. Slapped with a two-year suspension and lifetime ban from the British Olympic Association (BOA) Chambers later revealed he was taking a cocktail of seven different drugs. 7. Boris Onishchenko, fencing - As a fencer for the Soviet Union, Boris Onishchenko performed unbelievably for his nation's modern pentathlon team at the 1976 Olympics. And there was good reason as the British team, who complained to the organizers, suspected. It turns out the wily athlete used an illegal switch to trigger the system that registered a hit from his foil on his opponents, which guaranteed him victory. The illegal switch on his grip was discovered resulting in his disqualification from the Games. The British sprinter Dwain Chambers admitted to taking a cocktail of seven different drugs while competing. 8. Dora Ratjen, high jump - In the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Adolf Hitler was determined to prove his philosophy about the Aryan race -- that meant winning at any cost. Ratjen, who was known for her low voice and reluctance to share the shower room with the other female athletes, was the German entry for the women's high jump. After setting a new world record, Britain's Dorothy Tyler, the former holder, suggested to officials that Ratjen was a man. After some research Ratjen was found serving as a waiter called Hermann. Dora, born Hermann Ratjen, had in fact been a member of the Hitler Youth and said that the Nazis had made him participate as a woman. 9. Fred Lorz, the marathon - In the burning heat of the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, only 14 of the 32 starting marathon runners made the finish line. All the more credit then to Fred Lorz, the New Yorker who burst through the white tape after three hours and 13 minutes, to be announced the winner. Having bagged a photograph with the Alice Roosevelt, daughter of the President of the United States, Lorz was on his way to collect an apparently well-deserved gold medal. However, word soon spread that the American had spent nearly half the marathon sitting down...in a car. Despite claiming it was just a practical joke, Lorz received a lifetime ban. 10. Ben Johnson, 100 meters - Having taken gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and slicing four-hundredths of a second off the world record, Canada's 100m sprint champion took to the mic: \"I'd like to say my name is Benjamin Sinclair Johnson Jnr and this world record will last 50 years, maybe 100.\" Only hours after the race had ended, a urine sample belonging to the sprinter was found to contain the anabolic steroid stanozolal resulting in the time being scrapped from the record books. Johnson protested his innocence but, after a two-year suspension, he was banned in 1993 for testing positive again - and this time it was for life.","highlights":"English rugby coach Dean Richards banned for role in \"bloodgate\"\nCoach asked player to use fake blood to feign injury in order to be replaced .\nRichards is not the first sports person to break the rules in order to win .\nSound Off: Do you agree with CNN's list of sport's most notorious rulebreakers?","id":"67d8cc3869d171790660c4eedeb5382ab00d5cf3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Dominick Dunne, the former Hollywood producer and best-selling author known for his Vanity Fair essays on the courtroom travails of the rich and famous, died Wednesday in New York city after a long battle with bladder cancer. Dominick Dunne wrote five best selling books and covered high society crimes for Vanity Fair. Dunne, who described himself as \"a high-class Zelig,\" was 83. Called \"Nick\" by his friends, Dunne was putting the finishing touches on his final novel, which he said he planned to call \"Too Much Money,\" when his health took a turn for the worse. He flew to Germany earlier this month for another round of stem cell treatments at the same Bavarian clinic where the late Farrah Fawcett was treated. He was hospitalized upon his return to New York, then sent home. As a correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, Dunne was a fixture at some of the most famous trials of our times -- Claus von Bulow, William Kennedy Smith, the Menendez brothers, O.J. Simpson, Michael Skakel and Phil Spector. He discovered his magazine writing career in his 50s, through personal tragedy -- his daughter's murder. He vented his anger at the legal system in \"Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of his Daughter's Killer,\" following the murder trial of John Sweeney, the estranged boyfriend who strangled 22-year-old Dominique Dunne, in 1982. Sweeney spent fewer than three years in prison. Dunne's article was published by Vanity Fair and he accepted then-editor Tina Brown's offer to write full-time for the magazine. Calling himself a \"diarist,\" Dunne dropped bold-faced names as he spilled behind-the-scenes nuggets gleaned from courtrooms and dinner parties alike. \"It is fair to say that the halls of Vanity Fair will be lonelier without him and that, indeed, we will not see his like anytime soon, if ever again,\" said editor Graydon Carter in a tribute posted on the magazine's Web site. He bristled at one writer's oft-repeated description of him as \"Judith Krantz in pants.\" He preferred to be known as a crime victim's advocate and frequently spoke at events sponsored by victims' groups. The fact he personally knew many of the people he wrote about set Dunne apart from other crime writers. Dunne wrote that he met music producer Phil Spector for dinner three times during the Simpson murder trial. \"He knew every detail of the trial and story,\" Dunne wrote. \"He carried a gun when we saw each other, but he never pulled it on me.\" Spector later became a defendant in a trial Dunne covered. He spoke to CNN in June, while promoting the DVD release of a documentary of his life called \"After the Party.\" At the time, he said he was feeling well, happy, and hopeful the treatments were working. \"I'm pro stem cell,\" he said. But even then, he seemed to know he was in a race against time. \"I want to have one more best seller, before I cool,\" Dunne said. \"It's wonderful to have a best seller.\" He said his personal story puts the lie to the claim by another high society writer, the late F. Scott Fitzgerald, that there are no second acts in life. \"This is the third act,\" Dunne said. \"I have a novel coming out. I finally got it finished in the clinic ... I'm calling it 'Too Much Money.' That's a hooking title.\" Dunne looked back on his life during the hour-long lunchtime phone chat. He said he had just one regret -- his failed marriage to his wife, Lenny, who died in 1997. The couple never formally divorced. \"I loved that marriage,\" he said. \"Lenny was the love of my life. And yet I ruined it. I wasn't formed yet. The regret is that I hurt her.\" Marc Juris, truTV's executive vice president, recalled Dunne as \"a master storyteller ... who always kept his eye on the human story behind the crimes.\" Besides hosting his own show on truTV, Dunne appeared frequently on CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" \"Dominick Dunne was one of the finest people I've known,\" King said. \"He was a terrific writer, a raconteur, and a familiar face on 'Larry King Live' for many years. He was a wonderful human being.\" In court, Dunne always dressed impeccably, wearing dark jackets and gray flannels, sharply starched shirts complete with cufflinks and club-style ties. He used a fountain pen to jot notes in small bound notebooks. He was unabashedly pro-prosecution, although he said he \"lost no sleep\" over Robert Blake's acquittal on a charge of killing his wife, and was troubled by Martha Stewart's conviction on lying to investigators about a stock deal. When Simpson's acquittal was announced in 1995, Dunne's jaw dropped and the courtroom cameras caught his expression. It became an iconic image. Simpson later was found liable in a wrongful death suit and ordered to pay more than $33 million to the victims' families. Dunne had been battling cancer for several years -- a fight that became widely known when he collapsed in court last year while covering Simpson's Las Vegas armed robbery trial. He wasn't in court to see Simpson sentenced to prison. Dunne's life story reads like one of his novels. He was born to a well-to-do family in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1925; his father was a cardiac specialist. Dunne attended preppy Williams College, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, winning the Bronze star. He later found work in New York as a stage manager for \"The Howdy Doody Show,\" a popular kids' show when television was in its infancy. He moved to Hollywood, rubbing elbows with the biggest names in show business during the 1960s, and became a movie producer. But he soon became addicted to alcohol and drugs, hit bottom and became his own worst nightmare -- a nobody. He sobered up and retired to a one-room cabin in Oregon to write his first novel, then headed back to New York with just a suitcase and his typewriter. In 1985, Dunne wrote his first best-seller, \"The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,\" loosely based on a society killing. That success was followed by \"People Like Us,\" \"An Inconvenient Woman,\" \"A Season in Purgatory,\" and, following the Simpson trial, \"Another City, Not my Own.\" His brother, the late John Gregory Dunne, was an accomplished author and was married to Joan Didion, a wit and famous writer. In fact, Dunne has said, he was so daunted by their talent that it probably delayed the start of his own writing career by decades. Asked if he believed in past lives, Dunne, ever the firm believer in second acts, said: \"I believe in future ones.\"","highlights":"Dunne had been receiving stem cell treatments in Europe for bladder cancer .\nHe was working on his final novel, due out in December .\nDunne covered the trials of the wealthy and notorious for Vanity Fair .\nHe also wrote best-sellers and hosted a show on truTV .","id":"b0312e46a33892115f5afa666cd2c03fc71968fe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Around 1,000 people accused of being witches in Gambia have been locked up in secret detention centers and forced to drink a dangerous hallucinogenic potion, according to human rights organization Amnesty International. Amnesty claims Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, pictured in 2006, invited \"witch doctors\" to the West African nation. At least two people have died after drinking the liquid while many more have suffered serious kidney problems. Others suffered injuries as a result of being severely beaten, Amnesty said Wednesday as it called on authorities to \"put an immediate stop to the witch-hunting campaign.\" Amnesty claimed Gambian President Yahya Jammeh had invited \"witch doctors\" -- believed to be from neighboring Guinea -- to the West African nation following the death of his aunt. Jammeh, a former soldier who has ruled Gambia since leading a military coup in 1994, is reported to believe that witchcraft was involved in her death, according to Amnesty. CNN contacted State House, the presidential residence in the Gambian capital, Banjul, but no-one was available to comment. \"I have no information,\" a woman told CNN. Victims and their relatives tell Amnesty that \"witch doctors\" accompanied by police, soldiers and security forces have been visiting villages and seizing people accused of being witches by force and at gunpoint. Members of Jammeh's personal guard, known as \"green boys,\" are also alleged to have taken part in the campaign. In the most recent incident on March 9, 300 people from the village of Sintet were forced to go to a farm owned by Jammehk, Amnesty said. One of those seized said he had been held for five days and forced to drink \"dirty water\" containing poisonous herbs which caused instant diarrhoea and vomiting. \"I experienced and witnessed such abuse and humiliation. I cannot believe that this type of treatment is taking place in Gambia. It is from the dark ages,\" the victim told Amnesty. Hundreds of Gambians have also fled to neighboring Senegal following attacks on their villages, according to Amnesty. It also said it was concerned that a prominent opposition lawmaker, Halifa Sallah, who was arrested earlier this month after investigating the witchcraft claims for a newspaper, could be at risk of being tortured while in custody. Halifa, a former presidential candidate, heads the People's Democratic Organization of Independence and Socialism and is minority leader in Gambia's national assembly.","highlights":"Amnesty International: 1,000 seized in Gambia in \"witch-hunt\" campaign .\nVictims forced to drink dangerous hallucinogenic potion; at least two have died .\nAmnesty says Gambian President Yahya Jammeh is behind the campaign .\nJammeh reportedly believes witchcraft involved in aunt's death, Amnesty says .","id":"9c6c18f9702ac47dd914ad0126adc5aade5c24eb"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Caring for a car has you a befuddled. The honeymoon's over, and bureaucratic tasks are beating out bliss. You're meeting with a prospective babysitter or housekeeper, a stranger you'll entrust with much of your life. Rory Tahari, with son Jeremey, hopes to make life's to-do's more manageable with a new book and iPhone app. How do you know what to do? Where should you go and when? What should you ask these people? You need a list! If figuring out the answers to these kinds of questions leaves you loopy, Rory Tahari has a new book that may have your name on it. \"Lists for Life: The Essential Guide to Getting Organized and Tackling Tough To-Dos\" is just what it says it is: a compilation of lists to help readers navigate everything they might need for weddings and funerals, household maintenance and vacations, divorces and diaper bags. Watch Tahari discuss the book \u00bb . Along the same lines, she's behind a new iPhone application -- a travel packing list, available through the iTunes store -- that she said has been downloaded in about a dozen countries. \"It's just how my brain is wired. It's part of my DNA,\" said Tahari, vice chairwoman and creative director of Elie Tahari, the fashion design house bearing her husband's name. \"I don't know how to operate other than to make a list.\" CNN sat down with Tahari to discuss when her list-making started, what she's passed on to her children (son Jeremey, 8, weighs in) and how being stuck in a snowstorm inspired her. Here are excerpts from that interview. CNN: You've earned the nickname \"The List Mistress,\" but when did this, dare I say, obsession start? Tahari: From a very young age, I was a compulsive list-maker. I was always organizing something or doing some kind of list. The first list I really remember making was taking an inventory of every piece of clothing in my closet and seeing how many different outfits I could make. I think I came up with 112 combinations. CNN: The book covers such a wide range of topics: weddings, the home, pregnancy, travel, medical, emergencies, divorce and more. How many of these lists are or were based on your own organizational needs? Tahari: Ninety percent of the book came from actual experiences I've lived through myself. The other 10 percent, I basically did the research. [She has a degree in journalism and is a former TV producer.] . I fell off a horse two years ago, and I broke my back. I'd never been hospitalized before, so I never knew what it was like to be hospitalized. If you have a friend or family member who's in the hospital, bring them a blanket. They're always going to be cold, and the blankets they give you in the hospital don't cut it. And the nurses? You need them; they don't need you. A little batch of cookies or brownies goes a long way with the nurses. And you know what? You'll have a lot better hospital stay. CNN: Some of these to-do lists seem more fitting and standard than others. How did you decide what would go in the book? Tahari: People say, \"Why the emergency chapter? If you're in the middle of an emergency, you're not going to grab the book.\" Obviously, you're not going to have the book with you in the middle of the emergency. ... But I lived through at least three tornados in Atlanta [Georgia], one terrorist attack in New York and one blackout in New York. And after the blackout, I realized my family doesn't have a plan. I wanted to at least stimulate the idea of having a plan. CNN: Can you give me an example of a topic you had to research? Tahari: Cars. I had to have help with cars. Although, in fourth or fifth grade, there was some crazy snowstorm in Atlanta [where she grew up]. I was stuck in carpool on the way home from school with eight people for eight hours. I had one Tootsie Roll in my backpack, and let me tell you, a Tootsie Roll between eight people did not go far. So I decided in the car section that I wanted to have an emergency road list, a check list of things to have in the car. I was stuck in the car for eight hours, starving to death. CNN: You've used list making to help friends figure out practical things they need to do, but do the lists you've made over the years ever venture into the emotional or psychological -- say, for example, pro-con lists for staying in a relationship? Tahari: This book is not an advice guide. It's a to-do list. There's not a lot of prose in the book. I just want to be told what to do. I don't really want to hear advice. I don't need to hear the story. Just tell me what to do. CNN: So, Jeremey, how organized are you? Jeremey: In school, I don't have such an organized desk because I'm always busy and don't have time to clean up. But I do make some kinds of lists. I sort of have a list in my head. I memorize it. CNN: How about when you go on a trip, Jeremey? Are you a good packer or unpacker? Jeremey: I would write down stuff on paper and then stick it on the drawers in the hotel [so he knows where everything is]. My dad, when he's packing, he just takes all the clothes and goes like this [imitating his dad's voice], \"Jeremey, help me throw in the clothes.\" I try to fold them up and put them in. I'm like, \"Dad, you're not supposed to do that.\" Tahari: I definitely think he is taking after me.","highlights":"Figuring out to-do lists of life made easier with new book and iPhone app .\nRory Tahari, wife of fashion designer Elie Tahari, has kept lists since childhood .\n\"It's just how my brain is wired. It's part of my DNA,\" she says .","id":"a960eaa273fbc769172d3e14bdb9c20b566f7cf1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Typhoon Morakot bore down on Taiwan Friday, packing 89 mph (143 kph) winds and threatening to soak the entire island when it makes landfall Saturday morning, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. A man fights against strong winds in Hsintien, Taipei county, Taiwan, on Friday. As of 10 a.m. Friday (2 a.m. GMT), wind gusts were reaching 112 mph, and Morakot, a medium-strength typhoon, was moving west-northwest at 14 mph en route to landfall, the agency said. Already, mudslides and landslides were occurring on the land, as airlines canceled flights, and government offices, schools and the Taiwan Stock Exchange closed for the day, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. The storm was centered about 124 miles (200 km) southeast of Taipei and could wind up directly over the capital, said CNN meteorologist Kevin Corriveau. He predicted its impact would be massive. \"This storm has already dumped about 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain in the central and southern part of the island, and they're still expecting another 500 (20 inches) to 800 millimeters (32 inches) of rain over the next 24 to 48 hours,\" he said. Watch how the storm is affecting life on the island \u00bb . Drought in recent months has severely affected the area, leaving the ground so hard that it cannot absorb the rainfall, Corriveau said. However, the island tends to prepare well for typhoons, Corriveau added. \"They take it very seriously,\" Corriveau said. \"Just like Cuba is very good at handling hurricanes, Taiwan is very good at handling typhoons.\" On Thursday, Taiwanese Premier Liu Chao-shiuan examined the island's emergency operation center and asked all personnel to stay on high alert over the next day, with the typhoon forecast to \"affect all regions of Taiwan,\" according to CNA. Taiwan and eastern China are particularly vulnerable to flash flooding and mudslides because of the proximity of the mountains to the sea. Once it hits land, Morakot is expected to weaken to tropical storm strength, the Central Weather Bureau reported.","highlights":"NEW: Storm about 200 km (124 miles) southeast of Taipei, CNN meteorologist says .\nNEW: Mudslides and landslides occur already Friday morning .\nNEW: Airlines cancel flights; schools, government offices, stock exchange closed .\nTaiwan is vulnerable to flash flooding, mudslides because mountains are near sea .","id":"a7a635e158bfca40cef52162292651812dc72f66"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Landslides unleashed by tropical depression Parma across the Philippine province of Benguet have killed at least 122 people and left 31 missing, officials said Friday. A boatman transports three empty wooden coffins on the edge of Laguna Lake east of Manila on Thursday. Four people had been found alive in debris, and at least 22 had been injured by landslides that started Thursday afternoon and continued all night, affecting several municipalities, said Elmer Foria, police senior superintendent. Parma, which had been downgraded from a typhoon, poured more rain onto sodden and already weakened ground. Flooding had inundated 32 towns and two cities, Dagupan and Urdaneta, according to Rocky Baraan, provincial administrator of Pangasinan. Some 35,000 people had fled to evacuation centers, the official Philippines News Agency reported, citing the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council. The worst-hit areas included Bayambang, Alcala and Basista, the news agency reported. People clambered onto rooftops as floodwaters rose, calling and texting for help. Rescue trucks were hampered by floodwaters that reach the roofs of single-story houses, Baraan said. About 16 rubber rescue boats had been deployed. Since the rains started in central Luzon, three dams in the Pangasinan area have been releasing vast amounts of water -- up to 10 million cubic meters per hour at one dam, dam officials said. Water passing through the three dams -- the Ambuklao, the Binga and the San Roque -- is rushing into the Agno River, which has been swollen since Thursday and affects seven towns in eastern Pangasinan, dam officials said. Water released from the San Roque dam has contributed to the flooding in eastern Pangasinan, acknowledged Alex Palada, division manager for flood forecasting and warning of the National Power Corporation. Dam officials had no choice but to maintain safe water levels, he added, noting that he alerted Pangasinan Governor Amado Espino. The governor started to evacuate residents Thursday when the Agno River started to rise, Palada said. In the last several days, water has become the Philippines' biggest enemy, as Parma, locally known as \"Pepeng,\" dumped as much as 36 inches (91.4 centimeters) of rain in some parts of the nation of islands, compounding misery in areas already flooded by earlier storm Ketsana. Parma was forecast to have winds of no greater than 39 mph (63 kph) by Friday. The U.S. Navy was expected to join rescue operations in Pangasinan, according to the agency. Journalist Lilibeth Frondoso and CNN's Judy Kwon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three dams in Pangasinan area release vast amounts of water, officials say .\nDeath toll rises .\nFlooding inundates 32 towns, two cities, says Pangasinan administrator .\nReport: Worst-hit areas in Pangasinan province are Bayambang, Alcala and Basista .","id":"6848ba38721c4c5fe73ca2b9a0db850c6fbeb94a"} -{"article":"UTTAR PRADESH, India (CNN) -- An Indian police office grabs two fists-full of a suspect's hair; twists and then lifts until the suspect's feet dangle off ground. The suspect: A 6-year-old girl accused of stealing 280 rupees or about 6 dollars. The incident resulted in one officer being fired, another suspended. Charges against the girl were dropped. It was all caught on tape in February of this year. Harcharand Singh and his wife. Mr Singh says their son, accused of thief, died in police custody. Two years earlier in another Indian state another caught on tape moment. A police officer watches as a crowd beats an accused thief. Then the policeman binds the suspect and ends up dragging him behind a motorcycle leaving large raw patches of skin on the suspect's body. The accused survived the thrashing. Two officers were fired in the incident but were later reinstated by a panel that blamed the crowd. Brutal police tactics are all too common in India according to the latest report by Human Rights Watch in India. Naureen Shah with Human Rights Watch says the report is based on interviews with 80 police, 60 alleged victims and other experts. \"The police are taking the law into their own hands.\" Shah says. \"They are acting as a vigilante force and they're saying this is a bad guy instead of building a case against him we're going to kill him, we're going to take these harsh measure cause it has to get done.\" \"Police administration are meant to protect, but they are becoming predators.\" Harcharand Singh says. He is the father of a suspect he says died in police custody. Singh and his wife are dirt poor and partially blind. They sit on a bed with tears in their eyes as they speak about losing their son Pradeep. They say police hauled Pradeep away one night accusing him of being involved in a car theft and shooting. Days later they say he died in police custody. Police refused to comment on the case or the report. \"We are scared.\" Mother Ram Vati Singh says through tears. \"What else can we do? We have no money so that we can leave or put up a fight with the police.\" The case was one of dozens highlighted in the Human Rights Watch report used as yet another example of what they say is out of control police behavior. Watch a report on abuse cases \u00bb . But the report also revealed something else. The terrible conditions police work and live in. Many live in police stations for days even months at a time unable to go home to see their families because they are expected to be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Some work and live in tents in scorching temperatures. Their bathroom facilities are often wretched. Their cooking facilities sometimes made up of bricks with fire wood. The number of cases and pressure to solve them is intense. Police also say they are short staffed. One police official told us in his jurisdiction there are 70 police for a population of 250-thousand people, something CNN is unable to independently confirm. There are no computers for reports so police officers fill everything out by hand. Some departments even run out of paper to write the reports according to the Human Rights Watch report. Former Delhi Police Commissioner Ved Marwah says the conditions are dire. \"The policemen are treated very inhumanly and that's why he gets desensitized and brutalized by his living and working conditions an by his interaction with the common citizen and with his superiors and that desensitization is reflected in the way an average policeman deals with the public at large.\" Marwah says. Marwah says there is also interference from politicians in police investigations. \"Politics plays a very negative role.\" He says. Today's politicians, every politician there are good politicians and bad politicians, every politician looks upon it as a profession and he's there to make a quick buck and when he gets that control over the police, he uses an misuses not to ensure that the police enforces the rule of law, but to see that the police commits or doesn't commit a particular action to help him in his personal ends.\" Efforts to reform police activities were ordered by India's supreme court three years ago. Marwah and Human Rights Watch both agree the ruling was never implemented. However the current government is promising changes. But Marwah says until it really happens, the abuses by and to police will continue unabated. \"Because ultimately the police, unlike the army, is absolutely under political control. He says \"If those who control the police have no will to reform it, then nothing is going to happen.\"","highlights":"Video shows girl being physically abused by police, rights group says .\nHuman Rights Watch says some police are becoming vigilantes .\nReport also shows poor conditions that police are expected to work under .\nThe government has promised changes .","id":"7f7162552d7cfa903cd44a7681d3aee059c5fad7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Aerosmith announced the cancellation of the remainder of its summer tour Thursday, more than a week after the band's lead singer tumbled off stage in South Dakota. Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler fell off stage August 5 while dancing to \"Love in an Elevator.\" \"Due to injuries Steven Tyler sustained last week when he fell from the stage during a concert in Sturgis, South Dakota, doctors have advised the lead singer to take the time to properly recuperate from the accident that resulted in a broken shoulder and stitches to his head,\" the band said in a statement. The accident happened August 5 during a concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in western South Dakota. Tyler was dancing during \"Love in an Elevator\" when he fell. He was airlifted to a local hospital for initial treatment before returning to Boston, Massachusetts, for treatment with his own doctors. \"Words can't express the sadness I feel for having to cancel this tour,\" said guitarist Joe Perry. \"We hope we can get the Aerosmith machine up and running again as soon as possible.\" \"We never anticipated this tour coming to such a swift and unfortunate ending,\" guitarist Brad Whitford said. \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Steven for a speedy recovery and return to good health.\" Tyler's fall was the second mishap for the lead singer during their tour with ZZ Top. Five shows were postponed in July after Tyler sprained his leg. The band said refunds will be issued for all canceled shows.","highlights":"Lead singer Steven Tyler fell off stage during South Dakota show last week .\nHe broke his shoulder and received stitches to his head; doctors advise rest .\nFall was second mishap for Tyler during Aerosmith's tour with ZZ Top .\nBand says refunds will be issued for all canceled shows .","id":"6d089fc7a1a4d6a39f75f7f73c4ff5b18cc3a5a8"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Ameneh Bahrami is certain that one day she'll meet someone, fall in love and get married. But when her wedding day comes, her husband won't see her eyes, and she won't see her husband. Bahrami is blind, the victim of an acid attack by a spurned suitor. Ameneh Bahrami said her attacker pestered her with marriage demands. If she gets her way, her attacker will suffer the same fate. The 31-year-old Iranian is demanding the ancient punishment of \"an eye for an eye,\" and, in accordance with Islamic law, she wants to blind Majid Movahedi, the man who blinded her. \"I don't want to blind him for revenge,\" Bahrami said in her parents' Tehran apartment. \"I'm doing this to prevent it from happening to someone else.\" Bahrami says she first crossed paths with Movahedi in 2002, when they attended the same university. She was a 24-year-old electronics student. He was 19. She never noticed him until they shared a class. He sat next to her one day and brushed up against her. Bahrami says she knew it wasn't an accident. \"I moved away from him,\" she said, \"but he brushed up against me again.\" Watch Bahrami return to the attack scene for the first time \u00bb . When Bahrami stood up in class and screamed for him to stop, Movahedi just looked at her in stunned silence. He wouldn't stay silent for long. Bahrami said that over the next two years, Movahedi kept harassing her and making threats, even as he asked her to marry him. \"He told me he would kill me. He said, 'You have to say yes.' \" On a November afternoon in 2004, Movahedi's threats turned to violence. That day at 4:30 p.m., Bahrami left the medical engineering company where she worked. As she walked to the bus stop, she remembers sensing someone behind her. She turned around and was startled to see Movahedi. A moment later came the agonizing pain. Movahedi had thrown something over her. What felt like fire on her face was acid searing through her skin. \"I was just yelling, 'I'm burning! I'm burning! For God's sake, somebody help me!' \" The acid seeped into Bahrami's eyes and streamed down her face and into her mouth. When she covered her face with her hands, streaks of acid ran down her fingers and onto her forearms. Watch how the still-pungent acid destroyed Bahrami's clothes \u00bb . Two weeks after the attack, Movahedi turned himself in to police and confessed in court. He was convicted in 2005 and has been behind bars all along. Bahrami's lawyer, Ali Sarrafi, said Movahedi had never shown any remorse. \"He says he did it because he loved her,\" Sarrafi said. Attack victims in Iran usually accept \"blood money\": a fine in lieu of harsh punishment. With no insurance and mounting medical bills, Bahrami could've used the cash, but she said no. \"I told the judge I want an eye for an eye,\" Bahrami said. \"People like him should be made to feel my suffering.\" Watch how the acid destroyed Bahrami's eyes (includes graphic content) \u00bb . Bahrami's demand has outraged some human rights activists. Criticizing acid-attack victims is almost unheard of, but some Internet bloggers have condemned Bahrami's decision. \"We cannot condone such cruel punishment,\" wrote one blogger. \"To willingly inflict the same treatment on a person under court order is a violation of human rights.\" Late last year, an Iranian court gave Bahrami what she asked for. It sentenced Movahedi to be blinded with drops of acid in each eye. This month, the courts rejected Movahedi's appeal. Bahrami's lawyer, Sarrafi, said the sentencing might be carried out in a matter of weeks. He said he doesn't think Bahrami will change her mind. Neither does Bahrami. \"If I don't do this and there is another acid attack, I will never forgive myself for as long as I live,\" she said. Bahrami is largely self-sufficient despite not being able to see. She can make a salad, prepare tea and walk up the five flights of stairs that lead to her parents' apartment. She has undergone more than a dozen surgeries on her badly scarred face, but she says there are many more to come. She can't afford to pay for her medical care, so she's using the Internet to raise money. She's lost her big brown eyes, but she likes to smile, especially when she imagines her wedding day. \"I always see myself as someone who can see and sometimes see myself in a beautiful wedding gown, and why not?\"","highlights":"Woman blinded, disfigured by acid wins case to have attacker also blinded by acid .\nAmeneh Bahrami wants \"eye for an eye\" punishment to be deterrent to others .\nCourt-ordered blinding of Majid Movahedi may happen within weeks, lawyer says .","id":"a4b659e3d58de4a4a6ede5167567c28b3476c1b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama's decision to grant some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees is seen by some as his attempt to extend an olive branch to the gay and lesbian community, but critics say it's \"too little, too late.\" Some critics say President Obama has let the gay community down. \"It seems to me at least to be a nice gesture, but a disappointment,\" said Richard Kim, a senior editor at The Nation magazine. The memorandum Obama signed Wednesday is not expected to grant health and retirement benefits to same-sex partners, as that is prohibited under the Defense of Marriage Act. \"It will absolutely be seen as something good -- but I think, for example, it not including full health insurance -- that is going to put a real microscope on that question. You know, why not?\" Kim said, adding that the memo applies only to federal employees, so most people will not be affected by it. Charles Moran, the spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans, said the lack of full benefits in Thursday's memorandum shows a lack of commitment to the gay community. \"That's the part that just shows that the Obama administration really isn't serious about their promises to the gay and lesbian community. Things like the health benefits, things like retirement benefits and coverage for spouses. These are the core issues,\" Moran said. \"Why start the marathon if you're not serious about ending the race?\" he added. White House officials involved in discussions with gay-rights advocates say that Obama favors extending full health care benefits to same-sex couples but that will take legislation to accomplish. Moran said Obama has had multiple opportunities to fulfill his promises to the gay and lesbian community -- including by repealing the military's \"don't ask, don't tell\" policy and standing against the Justice Department motion filed last week in support of the Defense of Marriage Act. \"Here we are, several months after he's been inaugurated, and we've gotten basically nothing. So it is too little, too late,\" Moran said. White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will keep his word. \"[Extending benefits to same-sex couples] is a matter of fairness. The president is committed to ensuring that fairness as well as working on and fulfilling other promises that he has made in the campaign around things like 'don't ask, don't tell,' \" Gibbs said. The president has faced sharp criticism over the Justice Department's filing in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which opposes same-sex marriage. The act used the government's interest in opposing incestuous marriages to support its position against same-sex marriage. Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank said the Obama administration made a \"big mistake\" and is calling on the president to clearly explain his views on the matter. \"The wording they used was inappropriate,\" the Massachusetts Democrat told the Boston Herald in an interview published in the paper's Wednesday edition. Many gay activists have called on Frank and other gay members of Congress to speak out against the recent Department of Justice brief. The rancor threatens to disrupt a big Democratic National Committee gay fundraiser in Washington next week. Vice President Biden is the guest at next Thursday's DNC's LBGT Leadership Council 10th Annual Dinner in Washington. Critics are calling for Frank and other gay congressional leaders to boycott the dinner, for which tickets go for $1,000 to $30,000 a plate. Activist David Mixner and blogger Andy Towle, two well-known gay rights advocates, announced that they were pulling out, citing disappointment with the Defense of Marriage Act brief. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama and same-sex marriage . The president also rankled gay advocates before his inauguration when he named megachurch pastor the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his swearing-in. Warren, in an interview with Belief.net, likened homosexuality to bestiality and incest. He also supported California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in that state. During the Warren controversy, Obama -- who frequently spoke in favor of gay and lesbian rights during the campaign but has said he opposes same-sex marriage -- declared himself \"a fierce advocate for gay and lesbian Americans.\" Given the support Obama received from the gay community during the campaign season, Kim said so far, the Obama administration has let gay and lesbian rights activists down. Obama got 70 percent of the vote from those who identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to CNN exit polls. \"I think there is an overwhelming feeling that he has not lived up to expectations on these matters,\" he said. But, he added, \"there's some sympathy for him -- there's the worst recession since the Great Depression, troops are in two different countries in the Middle East -- so there's a lot on his plate.\" Kim said Obama's full agenda, however, shouldn't be used as an excuse to delay action on gay rights issues. If the administration waits until there is a news hole, then the issues will be subject to a lot of debate, he said. \"In the middle of the health care debate, saying we're going to do health care, we're going to fix the economy and then this other [gay rights] stuff -- of course it's right. It doesn't require a national debate,\" he said. \"This is stuff that's been debated forever. America does not need a huge national debate on some of these issues,\" Kim said. Kim said while Obama has disappointed the gay community, he still has some time to make good on his campaign promises. \"I think people will wait through the first two legislative sessions, but then after that some of this stuff does need to move to the front,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: White House officials: Obama favors full benefits, but legislation is needed .\nObama expands some benefits to same-sex partners, but not health care .\n\"Nice gesture, but a disappointment,\" says Richard Kim, senior editor of The Nation .\nSome critics show discontent by pulling out of DNC gay fundraising dinner .","id":"cbe06e14cfc17dcacbeb7ed9160f0f8e0cf7a44c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will include rugby union sevens, a shortened version of the 15-player game, and golf as sports, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced. The IOC announced Rio's successful bid for the 2016 Olympic Games last week. Two months ago the IOC's executive board voted to include the sports in the program, a proposal that was ratified by the body's members at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday. Rugby sevens, a sport played with exactly the same rules as the regular version -- just with less players, garnered 81 votes in favor while eight were against and one abstained. Golf was voted in with 63 votes to 27, with two abstentions -- it means the number of \"Olympic\" sports has reached the IOC's stated maximum of 28. Blog: Money, money, money should be new Olympic motto. The vote was delayed as some IOC members cast doubt on the selection process that had seen the two sports put forward, but on announcing the result IOC president Jacques Rogge said: \"Time will show your decision was very wise.\" The two disciplines will be part of the 2016 and 2020 Games as a result of the vote, a move that prompted IRB president Bernard Lapasset to tell reporters: \"This is an historic moment for our sport and for the global rugby community, who were united in their support.\" Rugby's world governing body, the IRB, has promised to end its World Cup Sevens event in order to allow 12 men's and women's teams to take part in the competition. Similarly, the International Golf Federation (IGF) has said that of the 60 players who will compete in the men's and women's tournament over 72 holes, the world's top stars will all be present. The executive director of the IGF's Olympic Golf Committee, Ty Votaw, was equally delighted. After coordinating the successful Olympic bid of his sport, he said: \"We are elated the IOC membership has accepted golf as an Olympic sport, and look forward to seeing the world's best golfers compete for gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.\" Softball, squash, baseball, karate and roller sports all bid to be accepted as Olympic sports but were turned down by the executive board two months ago. Golf previously featured at the Paris Games of 1900 and in St Louis in 1904, while Olympic medals could be won by rugby players who contested the 15-a-side format from 1900-24. Meanwhile, Rogge has been re-elected unopposed as president. The Belgian will serve his final four years, which takes him through the London 2012 Olympics before stepping down in 2013, after being re-elected by 88 votes to one.","highlights":"The IOC have voted rugby union sevens and golf into the 2016 Olympic Games .\nRugby sevens garnered 81 votes in favor of their inclusion with eight against .\nGolf was voted into the Olympics with 63 votes to 27 with just two abstentions .\nThe Olympic Games in 2016 will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil .","id":"ec962a53b664db6b5a7fed3a59e3a248fc04e28c"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Explosions tore through two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least eight people, a presidential spokesman said. Counter-terrorist police commandos secure the damaged Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta on Friday after the blasts. The number of injured was in the 40s, said Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They were taken to area hospitals. Hours later, local television reported a car bombing in north Jakarta, but that report was immediately contradicted by various other media sources. Police sealed off the area around both hotel blasts, one in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the other at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, about 50 meters away. Djalal said the attacks were coordinated. Forensics experts are collecting evidence at the \"disturbing scene,\" Djalal said. He said he had few details about the blasts, which occurred about 7:45 a.m. (8:45 p.m. Thursday ET) on Friday, Islam's holy day. \"What I can say is one of the most damaged areas that we looked at, where the bodies were, was a lounge area in the Marriott near the lobby,\" he said. \"That seems to be the epicenter of the bomb.\" \"This is a blow to us, but I don't have any doubts that we will be able to uncover and find out the perpetrators,\" Djalal said. Police said the bomb at the Marriott likely came from the basement beneath the coffee shop on the ground floor, which would have been busy at breakfast time. In a Twitter post four hours after the blast, Marriott said: \"Police responded immediately, sealed off the area. Guests @ both hotels have been evacuated & have been moved to a secure location.\" At the Ritz, windows were blown out on the second floor, as though the blast occurred from inside a hotel restaurant that would also have been crowded with a breakfast crowd, said witness Greg Woolstencroft. Another witness counted four foreigners among the wounded, according to state-run Antara New Agency. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel was to have accommodated soccer players from Britain's Manchester United, who were expected to arrive in Jakarta on Sunday. Watch a report on suspects behind the blasts \u00bb . U.S. Embassy Press Attache Paul Belmont told CNN no U.S. casualties have been confirmed and that the embassy was monitoring the situation closely. The death toll may be higher than reported, said CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director of international operations. He said two U.S. businessmen were treated for minor injuries. \"There was a boom and the building shook, and then subsequently two more,\" said hotel guest Don Hammer, who was leaving his room in the Marriott when the blast occurred. \"The shocking part was entering the lobby, where the glass at the front of the hotel was all blown out and blood was spattered across the floor, but most people were leaving calmly.\" Woolstencroft had just walked past the hotels and had gone to his nearby apartment when he heard an explosion. \"I looked out my window and I saw a huge cloud of brownish smoke go up,\" he told CNN in a telephone interview. \"I grabbed my iPhone to go downstairs ... and then the second bomb went off at the Ritz-Carlton, so I then ran around to the Ritz-Carlton and I was able to find that there had been a massive bomb that went off in this ... restaurant area and the explosion had blown out both sides of the hotel. \"I found inside the body of what appears to be a suicide bomber, it looked like someone who had been a suicide bomber or someone who had been very, very close to the explosion. Watch an eyewitness report of the blasts \u00bb . \"I also noticed that there were a number of injured people being taken off to hospital, but I only noticed one dead person at this point and time, that's all I saw. There has been extensive damage to both buildings, and at this point and time of course all the authorities are blocking up all the area and starting an investigation.\" He added, \"It's obviously targeted establishments where there are Westerners and expats ... I can only assume it's something to try and send a message.\" The television executive said he had lived at the Ritz for a year before moving to his nearby apartment and had been impressed by the facility's security. \"I just don't know how someone could get in there with a bomb, given the level of security and screening that people have to go through,\" he said, citing armed guards at checkpoints and thorough searches of people, bags and vehicles. The Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people. In that attack, an explosives-laden vehicle pulled into the motor lobby of the Marriott and exploded at the height of the lunch hour. Friday's attack \"was not nearly as bad,\" said John Aglionby, a reporter for the Financial Times who was at the site of both blasts. Former CNN producer John Towriss, who has spent many years in Jakarta, said the Marriott and Ritz often share employees and an underground passageway connects the two buildings that sit across the road from each other. Towriss said the Marriott has beefed up security since the 2003 attacks, making it impossible for people to drive up to the hotel in cars. Both hotels set up metal detectors and thick concrete barriers to prevent car bombers. \"I always thought I was safer at the Marriott because I thought it had already been bombed once,\" Towriss said. \"I thought that another hotel would be targeted.\" CNN's Andy Saputra in Jakarta and Miranda Leitsinger in Hong Kong. contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll rises to eight, a presidential spokesman says .\nExplosions hit Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta .\nAt the Ritz, second floor windows blown out, as though blast occurred from within .\nThe Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people .","id":"13741cb129fe26d78203814c9254a70a45e15013"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- George Lucas didn't get to be a billionaire by delegating. George Lucas says he was \"completely surprised\" by \"Star Wars in Concert.\" Holding fast to his vision -- and his marketing rights -- for the \"Star Wars\" empire has made it the biggest franchise in history, and made Lucas one of the most powerful people in entertainment. But while he's enthusiastic about the new touring show \"Star Wars In Concert,\" it wasn't his idea, and when I talked with him before the first Los Angeles performance this week, he kept giving the credit to others. \"Star Wars In Concert\" is built around John Williams' well-known scores from the films, performed by a symphony orchestra and choir, and accompanied by specially edited clips from all six movies, displayed on a mammoth LED screen. Watch Lucas rave about the show \u00bb . Anthony Daniels, who has played and voiced the golden protocol droid \"C3PO\" in every film and most of the spinoffs, provides live narration -- and another reason for the \"Star Wars\" fans in the audience, especially those waving lightsabers and dressed as everything from sand people to Imperial stormtroopers, to cheer mightily, as they did the night I interviewed Lucas. iReporter praises the 'Force' of the show . George Lucas: I've seen some presentations of, you know, live orchestras with \"Star Wars\" clips, and that sort of thing. But this is so much more than that -- it's so much more emotional, because what they've done is taken the emotional content of the score ... one is obviously the Imperial March, one is obviously romantic ... and then they've cut all the pictures around that from all the movies, so that you get this really wide range of visuals going with the music, and it really is quite powerful when you see the depictions of all of the various Imperial shenanigans that were going on over the Imperial March. CNN: Obviously, when John Williams did the music for the original film, neither of you could have guessed your association would last so long, or that you'd be so identified with each other. How did he get involved originally? Lucas: What I did was, I was doing this space opera, and I was talking to Steve Spielberg and I said, \"Look, I've got to get somebody who really knows the old-fashioned music score, I really am doing some giant romantic action adventure, you know, throwback to the '30s, and who do you know that can do that?\" And he said, \"Oh, there's only one person who can do that and that's John Williams -- he did 'Jaws' and he's perfect.\" And I said OK, and I met him, and we hit it off, you know, perfectly, and doing the first film was such a great experience -- he's so wonderful to work with -- that, you know, I'll never let him go. And Steve won't let him go either! CNN: How did this show come together? Lucas: Howard! [Lucas calls over Howard Roffman, the president of Lucas Licensing.] You're the man who did the whole thing -- I've got nothing to do with it. ... We would kid him about how his concert was going and he had to get Johnny [Williams] to buy in and me to buy in. Howard Roffman: Well, he always got it from the beginning, so he was an easy sell. CNN: But what was it he \"got\"? How did you sell him on a new concept for his franchise? Roffman: I think he understood that the music was so powerful and the images are so powerful that when you put that together with a live orchestra on a big venue, I mean, who would not be thrilled to see that? CNN: It's a very different experience, being live. Lucas: It's very powerful. I was completely surprised by it. And I've seen other live orchestra performances with \"Star Wars\" images, but nothing like this -- I mean this really works, because it was edited specifically to bring out the emotion.","highlights":"\"Star Wars in Concert' features John Williams' music and scenes from films .\nGeorge Lucas supported idea, though he's quick to give credit to others .\nEffect of the arrangement? \"It's very powerful,\" says Lucas .\n\"Star Wars\" remains a tremendously successful franchise .","id":"bb7b8b00673879bf81abad1539b96fa1f20f7f02"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- An imperial \"dragon\" throne owned by a Chinese emperor set the world auction record for Chinese furniture Thursday, selling for about US $11 million. Nicolas Chow of Sotheby's, pictured, said mainland Chinese buyers were \"ready to pay the premium.\" There was frenzied bidding among mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan collectors at the Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong. Thirty-six bids came in 10 minutes, with tension building as a new telephone bidder jumped into the competition. \"These mainland (China) buyers, mainland collectors are ready to pay the premium it takes to secure an object of this quality,\" said Nicolas Chow, international head of Chinese ceramics and art at Sotheby's. The winning bid of US $11,068,193 (HK $85,780,000) was by a private Shanghai businessman. It was nearly triple the estimate of US $3.9 million (HK $30 million), Sotheby's said. Watch why the throne is so prized \u00bb . \"This is the place from which the emperor conducted his stately affairs and received foreign envoys and basically, this is a seat of power,\" Chow said. \"No one else should have sat down in this place.\" The throne belonged to Emperor Qianlong, who ruled from 1736-1795. The 4.6 foot-long (140 centimeters) piece is considered rare and prized because of the zitan wood from which it was carved. It also features carved panels, curved legs and an elaborate \"Five Dragon\" carving on the front and back. The number five represents the \"five blessings\" of old age, wealth, health, virtue and peaceful death, according to Sotheby's. Other pieces that sold Thursday included a celadon ground butterfly vase. The Qianlong period piece sold for US $2.74 million (HK $21.3 million). CNN's Pauline Chiou contributed to this report.","highlights":"Private Shanghai businessman puts forth winning bid of US $11,068,193 (HK$85 M)\nFrenzied bidding occurs among mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan collectors .\nThrone has carved panels, curved legs and a \"Five Dragon\" carving on front and back .\nIt belonged to Emperor Qianlong, who ruled from 1736-1795 .","id":"a4bbb7014bd3aedb1199d26c87462521113fd773"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The man charged with murder in the shooting death of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was denied bail Wednesday and will undergo psychiatric testing against his will. \"Your Constitution guarantees me a speedy and fair trial,\" James von Brunn said from his wheelchair. James von Brunn ignored the advice of the judge and his defense attorney and addressed the court during a hearing to fight any delays as prosecutors press their case. \"Your Constitution guarantees me a speedy and fair trial,\" he said from his wheelchair during the hearing before U.S. District Judge Reginald Walton. But Walton granted the defense request for a mental evaluation, which will take place within the next 30 days at a facility in Butner, North Carolina. Von Brunn, a self-avowed white supremacist, will remain in custody after the judge said there were no conditions for release that would protect the public. Federal prosecutor Nicole Waid said von Brunn is \"dangerous because this defendant has nothing to lose,\" and that he wants to be \"a martyr for his cause.\" Von Brunn's attorney, public defender A.J. Kramer, did not challenge the government's request to deny bail, saying \"we don't have any evidence to offer at this time.\" Kramer also convinced the judge to order a competency exam, which will include observations as to whether von Brunn understands the charges and can assist in his own defense. Prosecutors said four of the charges in the indictment are capital offenses and could mean the death penalty if he is convicted. Waid told the judge the government's evidence is \"overwhelming\" and includes security camera video from the June 10 attack, in which von Brunn is seen raising a gun and shooting guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, who had opened the door for him. As Johns stumbled back mortally wounded, Waid said, \"you can see the defendant fire two more times,\" before he is shot and wounded by other guards. Also seen on the tape is the weapon being taken from von Brunn's hands, the prosecutor said. During the discussions about psychiatric testing, von Brunn looked at spectators in the courtroom and shook his head as if to say \"no,\" when it became clear he would not be arraigned on the charges unless he is deemed competent. \"Mr. von Brunn, I advise that you not speak,\" the judge said, explaining that his attorney can best represent him. But von Brunn ignored his advice. \"I'm a United States citizen, and as a U.S. Naval officer, I swore to protect my country,\" he said. \"I take my vows very seriously.\" The 89-year-old World War II veteran did not explain his remarks.","highlights":"NEW: Bail denied for accused Holocaust Memorial Museum shooter .\nDuring hearing, James von Brunn says he doesn't want a psychiatric evaluation .\nU.S. District Court judge orders an evaluation anyway, within 30 days .\nVon Brunn is charged in the death of Holocaust museum guard Stephen Johns .","id":"720bf04049dbbac2d6a61f84c2cda1953958c320"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- To hear some Guatemalans tell it, three coordinated attacks that killed four prison officials in five hours Monday hardly raised anyone's pulse. Police arrests two suspects in one of the three attacks. They're used to this level of violence, said Fernando Carrera Castro, director of the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies in Guatemala City. Although what happened is normal in Guatemala, Carrera said, that's not to say that citizens are not concerned. \"We're as scared as ever,\" he said Tuesday. Heather Berkman, a Central America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm, also has come to expect the violence. \"What else is new?\" she said when asked about the killings. Samuel Logan, an expert on Latin American gangs, said all of Central America is under attack from organized crime cartels because the region is pinched between Colombia and Mexico, the two biggest sources of drugs in the area. U.S. interdiction efforts that have targeted the flow of drugs through the Caribbean Sea also have forced cartels to travel through the Central American isthmus, Logan said. Within Central America, he said, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have the worst problems. Among those three nations, Guatemala stands out. \"When you talk about a country being hollowed out by organized crime, Guatemala is at the top of the list,\" Logan said. There are two main reasons, he said: geography and an incompetent and corrupt government. \"Guatemala bunches right up against Mexico,\" Logan said. \"Any spillover effect is almost certainly going south.\" Said Berkman, \"The narcos are coming down from Mexico.\" In addition, Logan said, the federal government is not able to control large segments of the country. For example, Peten state in northern Guatemala, bordered on two sides by Mexico, is lawless, he said. Berkman made the same point. \"The narcos control about 40 percent of the territory down there, which is pretty amazing,\" she said. Berkman also pointed out that the government has reduced anti-crime spending in the 2010 budget because of the nation's dire economic situation. \"If you don't have resources, you can't pay for troops and supplies and intelligence,\" she said. Logan, who just wrote a book on the Mara Salvatrucha gang of Central America, said there are two main criminal elements in Guatemala: drug cartels that deal in large-scale exportation and street gangs that sell drugs at the retail level and are involved in other crimes, such as robbery and extortion. In some cases, they work together. When those criminals get arrested, they continue their activities on the inside. \"The prisons, in general, are centers of corruption,\" Carrera said. \"From inside prison, they direct kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking.\" Monday's attacks on the prison officials resulted from efforts to weed out corruption in the nation's prisons, Carrera said. Officials have been clamping down on what goods inmates can receive and the use of cell phones within prison walls. They also are transferring some top-level criminals to high-security prisons. \"What happened is a reaction from gangs who want control of the prisons,\" Carrera said. \"They're trying to show strength through force. To generate fear.\" Interior Minister Raul Velasquez was quoted in several newspapers Tuesday as saying the attacks were in retaliation for the recent transfer of several gang leaders to high-security prisons. Two arrests have been made in Monday's shootings and the investigation continues, said Rudy Esquivel, spokesman for the Guatemalan prison system. \"This was a very structured job; very well-defined,\" Esquivel said from Guatemala City, the nation's capital. Killed were a prison assistant director, a warden and two guards. One guard and a shooting suspect were wounded, as were three citizens. One of the wounded was a woman in the eighth month of pregnancy, news accounts said. According to published reports in the Prensa Libre, La Hora, El Periodico de Guatemala and Siglo 21 newspapers, this is what happened: . The first attack occurred around 7 a.m. Monday in Guatemala City when two gunmen on a motorcycle fired an AK-47 assault rifle at three guards who were transporting a prisoner. One of the guards was killed and another wounded. A national civil police unit driving in front of the prison detail gave chase and captured the suspects, one of whom suffered a serious leg injury. The second attack happened 10 minutes later, when the warden at the prison in the city of Guastatoya, in central Guatemala, was gunned down while he ate in front of the Hospital General San Juan de Dios. The warden, Felix Gabriel Garcia Reyes, was at the hospital to pick up the body of a prisoner who had died after surgery. Two men and a pregnant 19-year-old woman were wounded in the attack. Witnesses told police four men in a green vehicle fired and fled. Authorities found an abandoned Mitsubishi nearby that matched the description. Inside, they found a 9 mm pistol and ammunition for other weapons. The third attack occurred around noon on the Inter-American Highway near the city of Chimaltenango, where Javier Bac Tzul, 40, was the prison's assistant director. He and his 31-year-old driver were killed as they returned to the prison after a trip to Guatemala City. Authorities said they found AK-47 shells at the scene. Chimaltenango Gov. Hector Lopez said a prison director and two assistant directors already have been killed in the state, Prensa Libre reported. Analyst Berkman sees little hope. \"It's a lose-lose situation, no matter how you look at it,\" she said.","highlights":"Four killed in three orchestrated attacks, local papers say .\nAnalysts blame attacks on flow of drugs through country .\nGuatemala on route from Mexico to Colombia, two biggest sources of drugs in area .\nAnalysts also blame Guatemalan government they say is incompetent and corrupt .","id":"c9d145da02bb83c25aaf14c79c741b2d3ce35c1b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Twenty-three suspects, including nine American Airlines employees, were arrested Tuesday for allegedly transporting nearly $20 million worth of cocaine on flights into and out of Puerto Rico, federal authorities said. Manuel Santiago-Alvarado, an American Airlines control crew chief, is among the suspects arrested Tuesday. Most of the commercial flights carrying suitcases stuffed with illicit drugs came into San Juan, which was a transshipment point for drugs bound for cities on the U.S. mainland, authorities said. The drug trafficking organization headed by defendant Wilfredo Rodriguez Rosade had been operating since 1999, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, which participated in the long-running investigation. In a September 9 indictment unsealed Tuesday, Justice Department officials also moved to seize $18 million worth of property owned by the suspects, including seven homes, three businesses and an apartment complex. All but one of the arrests occurred in Puerto Rico. The lone arrest on the U.S. mainland was in Miami, Florida. Drug Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena said the airline industry cooperated in the investigation. \"By denying the drug traffickers alternate smuggling routes, we disrupt the flow of drugs into Puerto Rico and discourage the use of the island as a transshipment point in the Caribbean,\" he said in a news release. The agency said that if they are convicted, the defendants taken into custody would face sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison and personal fines of up to $4 million. American Airlines issued a statement confirming some employees had been arrested, but could not confirm the number because of its privacy policy, spokesman Tim Wagner said in an e-mail. The airline has been working with authorities, he said. \"As a company, we hope that the actions of a few employees don't reflect negatively on the tens of thousands of ethical American Airlines employees who work hard to serve the public daily,\" Wagner wrote.","highlights":"9 airline employees among those accused of smuggling $20 million in cocaine .\nMost of flights were into or out of San Juan, Puerto Rico .\nDEA and FBI say operation had been running since 1999 .\nJustice Department moves to seize $18 million in property .","id":"955e377eb00825eebaa202203611a560b86d7c75"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Beginning Saturday, many air travelers will be asked their birth dates and genders when making airline reservations. The new travel rules are the latest \"visible\" expansion of the Secure Flight program. It's the latest \"publicly visible\" expansion of Secure Flight, a program that transfers responsibility for checking air passengers' identities from the airlines to the federal government, the Transportation Security Administration said. The change keeps the agency on track to assume responsibility for ID checks on all domestic flights by early next year, according to the TSA. Currently, the airlines check passenger identifications against lists of suspected terrorists. But the 9\/11 Commission said the job was better suited for the federal government, which compiles the \"terror watch lists.\" Government control increases security, according to the TSA, while reducing the number of instances in which innocent people are mistakenly confused with possible terrorists having similar or identical names. In May, the federal government began the first public phase of \"Secure Flight\" when four small airlines began asking passengers to provide their names, as the names appeared on the government-issued IDs they would be traveling with, when making reservations. Since then, additional airlines have begun asking for full names, TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne said, though she declined to say how many airlines are participating for security reasons. The new change requires travelers to provide three pieces of information when making reservations: the passenger's full name as it appears on the government-issued ID they will be using, their birth date and their gender. The airline will transmit that information to the TSA, which will compare it to a \"no-fly\" list of people prohibited from flying or a list of \"selectees\" who can fly after they pass additional physical screening. If passengers are not asked for this addition information, they should not be concerned, as it will not affect their travel, the agency said. Early efforts to create the Secure Flight program were beset by problems, including program delays and complaints of privacy breaches. Finally, in 2006, after the TSA spent more than $130 million and four years on the system, then-TSA Director Kip Hawley ordered a complete overhaul of the program and dropped plans to check passengers' names against commercial databases, one of the most contentious features of the program. \"Secure Flight is a key tool in confirming that someone identified as a 'No Fly' does not receive a boarding pass,\" TSA acting Administrator Gale Rossides said in a statement Wednesday. \"Secure Flight will make travel safer and easier for passengers.\" The TSA says it plans to vet 100 percent of passengers on all domestic commercial flights by early next year and 100 percent of passengers on all international commercial flights by the end of 2010.","highlights":"Many travelers will be asked for birth dates, genders on reservation .\nFederal government taking over responsibility of checking identities .\nTSA expects to check all domestic passengers by early next year .\nIf you aren't asked for information, agency says, don't be concerned .","id":"46b5b6aa3045a57aba3f0a4c81fee8515a5bdf97"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hurricane Felicia had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph Thursday, but forecasters predicted the storm, which is heading toward Hawaii, would weaken in the Pacific later in the day. Forecasters predict Hurricane Felicia will weaken as it moves over colder water. The Category 4 storm's reduction in intensity was expected to come as it moved over cooler waters, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Felicia could reach Hawaii on Tuesday morning, according to forecast tracks, but by that time the storm will have weakened to a tropical depression with winds of about 35 mph, the center said. As of 8 a.m. local time, Felicia's center was about 1,510 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California and 1,545 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii. Hurricanes 101: How hurricanes are classified \u00bb . The storm was moving northwest near 10 mph, and a gradual turn to the west-northwest was expected over the next 48 hours. \"If anything, it will be a rain-making system over the (Hawaiian) islands,\" said Richard Knabb, deputy director of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Knabb said there are no real storm preparations under way in Hawaii, but officials are keeping an eye on the storm \"just in case.\"","highlights":"Hurricane Felicia reaches Category 4 status on Wednesday .\nStorm expected to weaken before it hits Hawaii on Monday .\nHurricane season runs through November 30 .","id":"b932efe19b1204dcd54221072f203fdab6f76f5c"} -{"article":"Editor's note: On CNN's \"State of the Union,\" host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on issues affecting communities across the country. Pope McLean Jr. tells CNN's John King that a lot of farms are hurting because of the global recession. LEXINGTON, Kentucky (CNN) -- Crestwood Farm is tucked into the rolling hillsides of Kentucky's legendary bluegrass country. Kipling and Unbridled Energy are among the stallions critical to the reputation -- and the bottom line -- of the McLean family business. And just how do the stallions prove their value? \"When their progeny does well on the race track,\" Pope McLean Jr. said. \"Can't bluff that. That's when they prove what they are worth.\" Pope McLean Sr. got into the horse business in college and took over Crestwood Farm in 1970. His son worked on the farm while growing up. After college he took a job in the financial sector, but in 1991 he returned to Crestwood. His brother Marc returned a few years later, and their younger sister Grandison joined after she graduated from college. \"It's been pretty much a family business since that point,\" Pope McLean Jr. said during a tour of the 1,000 acre property. Kentucky is to horse racing what Michigan is to the domestic auto industry. Racing and breeding thoroughbreds is a multibillion-dollar business in the state and the source of some 100,000 jobs. But \"The Sport of Kings\" is hardly exempt from these painful economic times, and in fact is taking a severe blow in the global recession. \"It's truly an international industry, so we have people, a lot of buyers, from Europe come in. And they have dialed back,\" McLean said. \"Domestic buyers have dialed back their participation, as well. The good horses are still bringing decent money, but everyone has to lower their expectations.\" At this year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, which McLean calls the horse industry's version of the NBA draft, the gross was down more than 41 percent from last year, the largest year-to-year drop in the 66-year history of the auction. \"The prices are down, and our production costs increased with commodity prices going up and so forth, so it definitely puts a squeeze on commercial breeding operations,\" McLean said. \"A lot of farms are hurting. And then you have the credit squeeze that has hurt a lot of farms, too.\" McLean sees another lean year next year, and then hopes for a rebound because of an odd twist to the laws of supply and demand. In 2008, when the stock market was plummeting, 30 percent fewer mares were bred, so the supply of horses available at auction the year after next will be smaller. \"I think people just decided to pull back,\" McLean said. \"So the supply of horses available at auction will be reduced and that should start to help market conditions.\" At Crestwood, McLean predicts an \"about even\" year. \"We're down at bit,\" at the moment, he says. \"I feel pretty sure there will be quite a few farms that will go out of business.\" Out of business is an all too common theme in Hazard, a coal country town in Eastern Kentucky's Appalachia region about 120 miles away from Lexington and horse country. Statewide, the unemployment rate in Kentucky is 11.1 percent. Hazard is the county seat in Perry County, where the jobless rate has been on a steady climb and is 12.7 percent. On Main Street, a clothing and novelty store is closing down, along with an adjacent print and copying shop. Fallout, locals say, from the closing of a uniform plant that had employed more than 140 people, and then a Weyerhaeuser lumber facility that employed 180. Joanne Caron knew there were problems when Weyerhaeuser canceled weekend shifts, \"but we didn't think it would be that drastic.\" The bad news came suddenly in March when workers were told their jobs were being eliminated immediately. \"They called us in the conference room and said due to market conditions, you know, they had to shut us down.\" Caron has been looking for work for seven months. Nothing. Her unemployment check is $746 every two weeks. She cashed in her Weyerhaeuser 401(k) and, despite the long-term risks, allows herself a small slice of that money every month, as well. \"My daughter likes to eat, and she likes clothes,\" Caron said with a shrug. \"And we like heat and air conditioning. That's the choices we have to make.\" Her 19-year-old is enrolled at the local community college, where Joanne also plans to take classes in hopes of improving her job prospects. Two older daughters completed college over the past two years, one in Florida and other here in Kentucky, but neither has been able to find work. \"So everything I told them as they were growing up: go to college, get a degree so you can get a good job, it's just not working out that way.\" Caron tries to keep her spirits up, dryly joking that \"you get to see everybody during the day because nobody's at work.\" But the long search can be demoralizing. \"I worked all my life and now I'm collecting an unemployment check. I feel real uncomfortable about that, but there's no jobs available.\" When Caron returned to the Weyerhaeuser plant for the first time, it made her feel sad. \"The last shift I worked was 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Twelve hour shifts,\" she said as she looked through the fence, chained and padlocked shut. \"Sad to see it like this,\" Caron said. \"I made a lot of good friends working there. We had good times working in there. It wasn't a glamorous job, but we had fun and we got along, and I miss seeing those people every day.\"","highlights":"Horse racing industry is the source of some 100,000 jobs in Kentucky .\nDomestic and international buyers have dialed back participation, horse farmer says .\nUnemployment rate in Kentucky is 11.1 percent .\nKentucky resident jokes, \"You get to see everybody ... because nobody's at work\"","id":"abc432350a8cd86e7517fe6c68661dbd9f69d853"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The world's top pound-for-pound fighter, Manny Pacquiao, will attempt to win a world title in a fourth division by taking on three-time world champion Miguel Cotto in his next bout. Manny Pacquiao will take on Miguel Cotto in his next fight scheduled for Novermber 18. The Filipino boxer will fight the 28-year-old Puerto Rican for the WBO welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, America on November 14 it has been confirmed. Promoter Bob Arum, who represents both fighters, announced that although contracts still need to be signed, verbal agreements have been given: \"I'm very excited about this because it's a good fight for boxing [and] it wasn't difficult to do, because they both wanted the fight,\" Arum told the Los Angeles Times. Pacquiao is a national hero in the Philippines but has seen his popularity grow around the world since his comprehensive victory over British fighter Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas. The man dubbed the \"National Fist\" is currently rated by The Ring, the sport's most respected trade magazine, as the best boxer in the world. His career earnings stand at an estimated $50M and he stands to bank further millions with the Cotto fee, however, Arum has yet to announce how the purse will be split. Pacquiao has been in devastating form in recent times, racking up a string of victories in four different weight divisions. Mexico's super-featherweight Juan Manuel Marquez was dispatched by the \"Pac Man\" before the 30-year-old secured further wins against America's David Diaz (lightweight) and Oscar de la Hoya (welterweight) before a devastating show of force against British light-welterweight Ricky Hatton. Cotto survived a recent split decision result against Ghana's Joshua Clottey despite suffering a bad cut over one of his eyes during the bout and has only lost once in his career thus far to 31-year-old Mexican Antonio Margarito. Arum said a press tour with the fighters will start Sept. 9 in Los Angeles.","highlights":"Manny Pacquiao will fight Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto in his next fight .\nThe Filipino will be aiming to win the WBO welterweight title .\nThe bout will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 14 .\nThe \"Pac Man\" is currently rated the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world .","id":"cf165f7e9f03b7ec88e90ddef78cc994a952a923"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This is an excerpt from Jane Velez-Mitchell's new book \"iWant\" published by HCI Books. Velez-Mitchell anchors \"Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell\" on HLN nightly at 7 p.m. ET. Jane Velez-Mitchell writes about her journey from addiction and overconsumption to a simpler, honest life. This is the story of my ch . . . ch . . . changes, which took me from insanity to clarity, from egocentricity to altruism, from alcoholism to activism. These changes have marked an evolution in what I want from this life. I am what I want. What I seek to consume, possess, and achieve is a mirror that reflects my lusts and cravings, values and priorities, and moral boundaries or lack thereof. I am happy to say that what I want today is much less toxic and self-centered than what I used to want. It's taken decades of self-examination to peel back the layers and figure out what really makes me happy. And while I'm still searching for my ultimate bliss, I know for sure it's not what I once thought it was. It's not alcohol, cigarettes, money, food, sugar, or status symbols: I've consumed all of those in massive quantities, and they've just made me miserable. Now, I want what can't be tasted, smoked, worn, seen, or counted. It's the opposite of material. As sappy as it might sound, what I want is spiritual. Watch Jane talk about her new book \u00bb . The shift from material to spiritual is a particular challenge in our culture. We have allowed ourselves to be defined by our consumption, instead of by our ability to move beyond it. To keep consumers consuming, the corporate culture has brainwashed us into thinking we can change ourselves by changing what we buy, which pills we pop, what type of booze we swill, what gated community we join, what kind of golf clubs we swing, and what kind of cancer sticks we dangle between our lips. We've been told that certain consumer choices say a lot about us, that they reveal our character. If we've stepped up to a more prestigious brand, we've changed for the better. Nonsense! We cannot consume our way into personal growth. Yet, millions of us have bought into this cynical concept of faux identity. If you keep buying the \"latest and the greatest\" but feel like you're stuck in the same place, you're just changing labels, and that's not changing. That's rearranging. Real change occurs on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual levels, not in a shopping mall, a car dealership, online, at the drugstore, at the liquor store, or at the fast-food joint. For too long, we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated by forces whose sole purpose is PROFIT and POWER. We have given advertisers leave to claim that inanimate objects have spiritual qualities. One ad, in perhaps the world's most prestigious newspaper, urges us to buy an expensive diamond by insisting that such a purchase will feed the soul, lift the spirit, and increase our resolve to achieve whatever we wish. Really? How exactly does a diamond feed the soul? It's absurd! This is false advertising. Today, as a culture, we are awash in false advertising. As a society, we've lent legitimacy to these patent lies by literally buying into them. As a result of this unnecessary, self-indulgent consumption, we've gone a long way toward destroying our natural environment with our waste. Perhaps most important, by obsessing about material things, we've cheated ourselves out of the most fundamental aspect of the human experience: real experiences that result in real growth. Unlike diamonds, meaningful experiences can actually feed the soul, resulting in self-development and self-knowledge. Authentic change has allowed me to gradually learn why I'm here experiencing this existence as well as what I am destined to contribute during my lifetime. For me, meaningful change has been about getting sober, becoming honest, and adopting a new attitude. Sobriety has allowed me to shift the criteria I use for all the decisions I make from an ego-based formula of what's in it for me to a more evolved formula based on compassion for other people, other living creatures, and our environment. It's an ongoing struggle, and there are many times when I fail. But I keep trying. This book is my story of how I've progressed from self-obsession to a life that I hope will count. In the tradition of the Twelve Steps created by Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm going to lay out what it was like, what happened to change me, and what it's like now. For thirty years as a television news reporter, I've been recounting other people's mostly sordid stories. Frankly, the prospect of airing my own dirty laundry scares the wits out of me. The very thought of this sparks a flood of memories, primarily featuring the many stupid and embarrassing things I've done over the years, especially before I got sober. My face burns at the prospect of sharing some of these memories with you. I know we're all only as sick as our secrets. By pouring out the intimate details of my personal history, I am trying to get healthier through honesty. Still, I can't help but wonder if you really have to know every single one of my secrets. Is that what is meant by \u00adrigorous honesty? These thoughts swirl through my mind as I \u00adhuddle under my covers unable to sleep... ...There's so much to tell. But would you want to know everything about my personal struggles? You may simply be reading this book because you're interested in my life, and for that I thank you. But if you identify with my story, then we will both learn from my experience. That is the essence of all recovery programs. Many of the battles I'm fighting, the compulsions I'm struggling to conquer, are the same as those experienced by many of my friends, relatives, co\u00adworkers, and neighbors. Some struggle with overeating, with alcohol or drugs, with workaholism, with codependency, with compulsive spending, with gambling, with sex addiction, or with facing the truth about themselves -- whatever that truth may be. And virtually everyone I know, including myself, suffers from generic overconsumption -- a chronic craving for more of everything that is poisoning our lives, not to mention our oceans, skies, and forests. My friend once called himself a tornado of consumption. That description fits most Americans. Sadly, we're a nation of addicts. For a multitude of reasons -- our health, our finances, and our environment, among them -- we need to take immediate action to reduce our collective consumption levels. Unfortunately, addicts don't respond to reason or rationality. Just as you can't reason with a drunk who is on a binge, we are not going to lecture our way out of America's consumption mess. Fortunately, there are proven recovery methods out there that can help us get a handle on our addictive consumption. I've used them to deal with my plethora of addictions, and I will share these techniques with you while I tell you my story. From IWANT by Jane Velez-Mitchell. Available wherever books are sold. Copyright \u00a9 2009 Jane Velez-Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Jane Velez-Mitchell writes of her journey from addiction to a simpler, honest life .\nShe says it's taken decades of self-examination to find out what makes her happy .\nVelez-Mitchell: \"Change occurs on the emotional, psychological, and spiritual levels\"","id":"266f41a280d70511d8bf6ee8415a019fb7ab4424"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian tourism authorities will be holding English classes for auto-rickshaw drivers in New Delhi as the city prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Auto-rickshaw drivers are being taught English ahead of the Commenwealth Games. More than 40,000 natural gas-fueled auto-rickshaws, or motorized three-wheeled taxis, run on the Indian capital's dilapidated roads, according to the city government statistics. The city is expected to host around 100,000 tourists during the Commonwealth Games scheduled from October 3-14 in 2010. About 9,000 athletes and officials of 52 Commonwealth countries are likely to participate. Some 8,000 auto-rickshaw drivers will be enrolled in the training program that will involve classes in yoga, life skills, first aid, spoken English and psychometric tests, federal Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee announced Tuesday. Each trainee will be paid Rs 200, or about $4, daily for attending the program spread over 200 sessions for a year. Indian auto-rickshaw drivers have often been accused of overcharging, refusing short trips and misbehavior. Traffic authorities have in the past opened a range of avenues for passengers to lodge their complaints -- such as on help lines, via text messages or simply calling a telephone number printed on the three-wheeled cabs. \"The India image that we strive to convey to a foreign tourist depends, to a large degree, on how good the taxi\/auto-rickshaw (driver) that he or she meets is in his demeanor and conduct,\" Banerjee remarked.","highlights":"More than 40,000 auto-rickshaws ply roads of Indian capital .\nCity expected to host 100,000 tourists during Commonwealth Games .\n8,000 auto-rickshaw drivers will be enrolled in training program .","id":"69c981a547be454580014ea9065ec2f3b3b593cc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was Thursday found not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo by a U.N. tribunal. Milan Milutinovic had was cleared of war crimes in Kosovo. Five other former high-ranking Serb officials -- Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic, Nebojsa Pavkovic, Vladimir Lazarevic and Sreten Lukic -- were found guilty on all or some of the same charges. The judgment was the first by The Hague, Netherlands-based tribunal for crimes by the former Yugoslav and Serbian forces during a military campaign against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians in 1999. Their crimes took place during a Serb-led military campaign against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population during the first six months of 1999 before a NATO bombing campaign forced a halt to the operation. Sainovic, former Yugoslav deputy prime minister and Pavkovic, a former Yugoslav army general were each sentenced to 22 years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Watch Milutinovic receive not guilty verdict \u00bb . Lazarevic, another ex-general and Ojdanic, who was chief of general staff, were each sentenced to 15 years on charges of forced deportation of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had heard during the two year tribunal how military forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia waged a campaign of terror against Kosovo Albanians. The court said Milutinovic didn't have \"direct individual control\" over the army and that \"in practice\" then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic \"exercised actual command authority\" over the army during the NATO campaign. Milosevic eventually surrendered to Serbian authorities in 2001 and had been extradited to The Hague, where he was on trial between 2002 and 2006 for the alleged offences in Kosovo and for alleged crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He died from natural causes in March 2006 before the trial ended and before a judgment was made. He was the first sitting head of state to be charged for war crimes when he was indicted in 1999. Kosovo's government declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008 after being administered by the United Nations since 1999. The U.S., Britain and France have recognized Kosovo's independence, but China and Russia joined Serbia in opposing the move.","highlights":"U.N. tribunal clears ex-Serb President Milan Milutinovic of war crimes .\nMilutinovic, 4 other top Serbs officials face charges of crimes against humanity .\nAllegations centered on Serb-led campaign in Kosovo in 1999 .","id":"4e062cfdc06f9bc8c20dc99b3a37ffd41fc09a14"} -{"article":"Editor's note: We asked readers to weigh in on CNN.com Live producer Jarrett Bellini's vacation destination, and you chose South Africa. Check back for a wrap-up of his trip. Jarrett Bellini explores South Africa's Cape of Good Hope. CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNN) -- The very best travel days often happen when good karma and perfect timing collide. And, somehow, on this morning, it also took a bit of tequila. Of course, normally, the latter ingredient tends to be counterintuitive. But not here. I arrived at the reception desk-slash-bar of my hostel, Long Street Backpackers, at 8:40 in the morning to be picked up for a full day of shark-diving. Fun. Productive. Presumably safe. However, it was then that I learned that the seas were deemed too rough, and the tour was cancelled. Bugger. Next thing I know, a glass of tequila is slammed in front of me with a bit of sage bartender advice, \"Might as well.\" Normally, one would simply decline and go about attempting to have a relatively human-like existence on planet Earth. But at this place, there's really no backing out. In fact, unless you like spontaneous hat parties and have a thing for sleeping under tables, it's best not to hang out in the reception room. Fortunately, I'm a rather strong-willed individual, free-thinking and confident. So, naturally, I buckled under the pressure. What can I say? I like these people. They wear funny hats. But as I was sitting there with a few other hostel folks who, apparently, also found it completely fit to begin ruining their day before nine, a Dutch kid came into the room and offhandedly mentioned that he and two Dutch girls had a car and were driving out to the Cape of Good Hope. My ears perked up. \"Can I come?\" And just like that, I was rescued from the gates of hell. I love you, Holland! The Cape of Good Hope is the southwestern-most point of the African continent, and it's an absolute thing of beauty. Panoramic views paint the sky as waves crash against the rocky shore. Here, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans become one. But not really. A decorative sign in the gift shop boasts: Where Two Oceans Merge. However, the real currents actually come together a little farther east. It's still amazingly beautiful, so, you know ... whatever. And after a full day of hiking and exploring the Cape with my new friends, we arrived back at the hostel to find our other friends right where we left them. Their heads turned as I entered, and one of them yelled out, \"Jarrett! Shots!\" Might as well.","highlights":"CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini traveled to South Africa .\nReaders chose his destination and shared their travel suggestions .\nA chance meeting provided a spectacular day at the Cape of Good Hope .","id":"9d1831d14b823f2293b25b980a0dd8c1988e5c4b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Union workers armed with an estimated 1.5 million signatures converged on Washington on Wednesday, demanding that Congress pass their highest-priority legislation. Union chief Andy Stern wants workers to have another way to organize besides relying on a secret ballot. They are lobbying for the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation would allow a company's employees to openly sign a card demanding a union and then, if a majority sign, the company involved would have 90 days to negotiate. The act would also stiffen federal laws that bar employers from intimidating or firing workers who try to bring in a union. But while the battle is just beginning on Capitol Hill, business owners like Dave Bego have been in the center of the fight for some time. Bego, of Indianapolis, Indiana, is the owner of EMS, a company that provides janitors to businesses around the country. The family-owned company has been under fire by one of the nation's most powerful labor organizations, the Service Employees International Union. The 1.8 million-member SEIU argues that EMS intimidates, harasses and violates the rights of workers wanting to unionize. It has made the company a target of repeated protests for about three years. But Bego said the claims are unfounded, and it's the union that has harassed him. Watch how company, union are at odds \u00bb . He said the union has sent his clients threatening letters for using his company, staged noisy protests, confronted employees, blocked building entrances and released balloons in a client's building to disrupt business. He said his workers don't want a union, because they make more in pay and benefits without having to pay SEIU's labor dues. \"We have several hundred people working for us in Indianapolis [alone],\" Bego said. \"They've been after us for almost three years, and they've got only about 10 or 12 people interested in what they said. If our people really needed protecting, don't you think they'd be out in mass droves in the street with the union protesting EMS? Do you think we'd still be in business? I don't think so.\" But union workers CNN talked to said EMS employees are afraid to speak publicly because they might get fired, as Shaneka Brown said she was. She said EMS fired her after she complained about what she said were unsafe conditions. \"We're not the only ones,\" Brown said. \"There are millions of other janitors and millions and millions of other companies that are going through same similarities or different similarities, but they're going through things that are not right and not safe.\" That's why she supports the Employee Free Choice Act, she said. \"When polls show that 60 percent of the workers in America want to organize, yet only 7 percent belong to unions, you know something's broken,\" one of the bill's sponsors, Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, told Wednesday's union rally in Washington. The option to vote by secret ballot would still be available. But critics say the measure -- dubbed the \"card check\" bill by its opponents -- would effectively eliminate union elections, removing a fundamental hard-earned right of workers and forcing some workers into unions they don't want to join. \"Card check is real simple,\" Bego said. \"They want to eliminate the secret ballot election. And that is kind of like saying, 'We're going to elect the president of our country by signing cards. We're going to go door to door and you're going to sign a card for who you want to be president.' \" Bego said if his employees want a union, they should be able to secretly vote for one. He offered to hold union elections at his company, but only if they were monitored by the National Labor Relations Board and involved secret ballots. He said the union did not respond, but continued the protests. He took out an ad in the Indianapolis Star, challenging SEIU to \"fish or cut bait.\" Andy Stern, president of the SEIU and a major supporter of President Barack Obama, said the legislation provides employees who have been intimidated by their employers an opportunity to freely and openly support a union. \"This isn't necessarily an election,\" Stern said. \"This is people wanting to start an organization.\" \"This is workers' choice,\" Stern said. \"They can have a secret ballot, or they can legally affirm by a majority of them signing cards.\" Stern would appear to have the muscle to push the legislation through Congress. The SEIU was the largest contributor to Democratic campaigns this election, pumping $85 million into campaigns and get-out-the-vote drives. The union said 2,000 members temporarily gave up their jobs to work for Obama's election, and Stern said politicians who made the unions promises during the campaign now need to keep them. \"We can lobby, we can petition, we can use the same things we use in the electoral process to un-elect people,\" he said. Asked if elected officials should be afraid of him, Stern replied, \"Everyone should be scared\" of not living up to promises. CNN's Marcus Hooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bill would let employees openly sign a card demanding a union .\nIf a majority sign, company would have 90 days to negotiate .\nCurrent method of deciding whether to organize -- secret ballot -- would still be option .\nUnion workers give Congress estimated 1.5 million signatures backing bill .","id":"43ea34812d831353ab0dbc3fda3299b522bcd107"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The archbishops of Canterbury and York are recommending that churches stop sharing the chalice at communion over swine flu fears, the Church of England said Thursday. The Church of England's leaders are recommending parishoners don't share the chalice. The archbishops wrote a letter to all Church of England bishops with the recommendation. It follows government advice not to share \"common vessels\" for food or drink so as not to spread the virus. In the Anglican Church, worshippers commonly drink from the same chalice during communion. The chalice is wiped before the next person drinks from it. For churches that still wish to offer both bread and wine, the archbishops recommend the priest dip communion wafers in the chalice before handing them out to those taking communion. \"The Department of Health have recently advised us that 'in a pandemic it makes good sense to take precautions to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink,'\" the archbishops write in the letter. \"In the light of this advice, we recommend those presiding at Holy Communion suspend the administration of the chalice during this wave of pandemic flu. For those who still wish to offer in both kinds, we recommend the practice whereby the presiding minister, whose hands should have been washed with the appropriate alcohol-based rub before handling the elements and the vessels, personally intincts all wafers before placing them in the hands of communicants.\" Watch more on Australian vaccine trial \u00bb . The archbishops note that this practice is widely observed in Anglican churches throughout Africa. \"Communicants receiving in this way need to be confident that the clergy and all assistant ministers follow the relevant guidance on hygiene,\" they write. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Church, the second-largest Christian denomination after the Roman Catholic Church.","highlights":"Archbishops of Canterbury and York recommend churches stop sharing chalice .\nFollows government advice not to share \"common vessels\" for food or drink .\nChurch says move is to help stop spread of swine flu .","id":"d0a54ae35c327d907b506200daca2f88df959d2a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From the time she was an 11-year-old, blue-eyed, freckle-faced blonde until she was a 29-year-old woman with two children, Jaycee Dugard was kept locked away in a backyard compound of sheds and tarps by a couple who police say abducted her. Jaycee Dugard was locked in a shed tucked under a blue tarp in her alleged captor's backyard. She was more than 160 miles from home, and her family had no idea where she was. Nobody else knew she was there except the couple who snatched her off the street in front of her house in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991, and took her straight to the soundproof shed, police said. Dugard's pocket of Phillip and Nancy Garrido's backyard in Antioch, California, was so overgrown no one even knew it existed. The details about Dugard's time in captivity emerged Thursday after one of Northern California's most enduring mysteries was solved and the Garridos were arrested and accused of her kidnapping. Anyone who came across the couple's backyard, littered with garbage cans and a dishwasher, would assume that it ended at a 6-foot fence. Watch aerial images of the backyard compound \u00bb . \"You could walk through the backyard and never know there was another set of living circumstances,\" said Fred Kollar, undersheriff of El Dorado County. \"There was nothing that would cause you to question it. You can't see it from either adjoining property. It was presumably well arranged.\" But tucked away beyond the tangle of bushes, high grass and trees was a blue tarp that concealed the only world Dugard had known since her abduction. Kollar said the property had \"a hidden backyard within a backyard.\" It included several sheds no taller than 6 feet, two tents and several outbuildings, \"where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives.\" It also held a vehicle that matched the description of the car used in Dugard's kidnapping, Kollar said. The \"secondary\" backyard was inside the first and was \"screened from view.\" One of the sheds was soundproof, he said. In it were sheds and tarps, a makeshift bathroom and shower, along with electricity supplied by extension cords. Kollar compared the primitive conditions to camping. Dugard lived for several years there by herself. The sheds were locked from the outside. She grew up and had her captor's children there, and raised them there. \"None of them have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor,\" Kollar said. \"They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will, at the rear of the house,\" he said. \"They were born there.\" The children, both girls, are now 15 and 11. \"They are all in good health,\" Kollar said in response to a question about how Dugard and her children are doing. \"But living in a backyard for the last 18 years does take its toll.\"","highlights":"Jaycee Dugard locked in soundproof sheds in alleged captor's backyard for 18 years .\nCompound of sheds, tarps equipped with makeshift bathroom and shower .\nDugard also had two children with her captor, gave birth and raised them there .\nAuthorities: \"They were kept in complete isolation in this compound\"","id":"ce8fb30a358441136789600ef818d6b34e7af0aa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 1,100 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it emerged in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. A young girl wears a mask at a hospital in Hanoi. Vietnam reported its first death from swine flu this week. As of July 31, the total number of victims killed by the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, stood at 1,154 -- an increase of 338 since WHO's previous update on July 27. The virus has spread around the world with unprecedented speed, spreading as widely in six weeks as common influenza viruses spread in the six months, according to WHO. WHO data showed the total number of laboratory confirmed cases at 162,380, but the number could be higher since individual cases no longer have to be tested or reported. The total number of countries and territories reporting at least one case of infection now stands at 168, with new cases reported in Azerbaijan, Gabon, Grenada, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Monaco, Nauru, Swaziland and Suriname. In the United States, federal health officials are worried about the upcoming flu season. They say nearly 160 million Americans may need to be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, but it won't be as simple as a single shot. In a background briefing with reporters on Tuesday, two senior administration officials said the vaccine, which is still in clinical trials, would require two shots. The first shot would be followed by a second shot three weeks later. Immunity to the virus would finally kick in two weeks after that. That means someone who is vaccinated by the time the program is expected to launch in late October won't get protection until late fall. On Tuesday, British-based pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline announced it had signed contracts with nine governments to provide 96 million doses of a H1N1 vaccine and was in ongoing discussions with governments to provide further supplies. GlaxoSmithKline has already signed deals worth $250 million in total to provide 195 million doses and plans to donate 50 million doses to the World Health Organization. \"First supplies of the vaccine will be available to governments from September onwards, with shipments expected in the second half of 2009 and early 2010,\" GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement. \"The exact pace of delivery will be dependent on capacity and the yield of the influenza strain.\" Details of the immunization program were revealed as part of the government's overall plan to deal with what is expected to be a difficult flu season. The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last week issued sweeping guidelines for a vaccination campaign against the swine flu strain, identifying more than half the population as targets for the first round of vaccinations. The priority groups include pregnant women, health care and emergency services personnel, children, adolescents and young adults from six months to 24 years of age, household and caregiver contacts of children younger than six months and healthy adults with certain medical conditions. The symptoms of swine flu are similar to that of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, aches and runny nose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A significant number of infected people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting.","highlights":"WHO: Swine flu deaths up 338 in recent days to 1,154 in total worldwide .\nWHO: Virus spreads in 6 weeks as far as most viruses spread in 6 months .\nU.S. plans to vaccinate nearly 160M Americans ahead of winter \"flu season\"\nGlaxoSmithKline has signed deals to provide 291 million doses of vaccine this year .","id":"da754df9e68afe17481dfc3a61ea5f1e897f32e3"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Holly Williams is one of the only artists in country music male or female who doesn't have a stylist. But then again, she might be the only entertainer in Nashville who owns a clothing boutique. Holly Williams is daughter of musician Hank Williams Jr. and granddaughter of musician Hank Williams Sr. The chic women's store is named H. Audrey after her maternal grandmother, who was the first wife of the late country music icon Hank Williams. Holly's father is Bocephus -- the legendary hellraiser and three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year otherwise known as Hank Williams Jr. She got her height from him. With heels on, she's about 6-foot-3 -- all tanned legs and long, blonde hair. She looks like a star. And at 28, she wants to earn the right to be one. Williams just released her sophomore album, \"Here With Me\" (Mercury Nashville). Most of the 11 tracks are self-penned, and she sings them with emotional honesty in a smoky, soulful voice. The characters in her lyrics are friends, family and lovers from the past. She also has a man in her present: On July 24, she became engaged to Chris Coleman, the drummer in her band. Watch Williams show off her talents \u00bb . Williams spoke with CNN about her new album and her family's legacy. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Your new album was released the same day as your dad's new album. Was that planned? Holly Williams: It wasn't planned at all. About three weeks before my release, I was looking over to see who else was coming out that day, and it said, \"Hank Jr.\" -- and I'm going, \"Is this something my manager planned?\" And it's just so random, because out of the 52 weeks of the year, it just happened. CNN: What did he think about the album? Williams: Well, this is embarrassing, but I haven't sent him a copy yet! I need to. He's heard two of the singles. He's always been a huge supporter of the songwriting, and just been a great encourager with me. CNN: What was it like when you were growing up? Williams: Well, my mom raised my sister and me. [My parents] split when we were 3 and 5, and he was touring 300 nights a year. We'd see him every few months when he was off the road, and we'd go up there and hunt and fish and be on the farm. But my mom did all the rules and curfews and all that. CNN: Your mother doesn't seem jaded by the music industry at all. Williams: Oh, she doesn't at all. They split in '83, so when they first got married in '77, he was still a struggling artist and doing small theater shows. My single out right now is called \"Mama\" that I wrote ... is kind of a thank-you song, because she was always the most positive influence -- had so much light. My dad always talks about what a great mom she was, and they're still close friends. CNN: What was it like for you going into the music industry? Was there a lot of pressure? Williams: The songwriting hit me at a very young age. Eight, 9, 10 is when I started writing. Went away from it for a few years, and at 17 picked up a guitar and it was just on from there. I'm 28 now, and I've been doing it for 10 years nonstop. I put out an EP myself when I was 20, and paid 200 bucks for my Web site, and traveled over in the U.K. alone with a backpack. And in the U.S., I just took my mom's Suburban and followed everyone from Train, John Mellencamp, Billy Bob Thornton -- everyone's bus -- and just did any show I could, whether they paid or not. Just played, played, played. CNN: Do you remember the first song you wrote when you were 8? Williams: I do. The first song I wrote was called \"Who Am I,\" and it's funny because it was very serious. I had a very happy childhood, but it was very introspective about this broken marriage, and I wanted Tiffany or Debbie Gibson to cut it. I remember just telling my mom, \"Just please call the publishing company. ... \"I was so ambitious. I remember making cassette tapes and mailing them to Music Row. CNN: What was the reaction from those tapes? Williams: I'm sure there was never any response. I'm sure people just laughed. I was not as talented as Taylor Swift when I was 15, 16. I could write a decent song, but I couldn't sing that well at that age. CNN: You have a love for rock 'n' roll. Why did you go into country with this album? Williams: Growing up in my house, you would assume I was growing up around country music with my dad being Hank Williams Jr. But he did not bring music home. He always said, \"I'm not Bocephus to you. I'm Daddy.\" So I was really left to my own devices to find music on my own. And I really fell in love with the singer-songwriters of the '70s -- Tom Waits, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Carole King -- that whole era really struck me. And when I heard Hank Williams Sr.'s name mentioned from those people -- from Leonard Cohen to Bruce Springsteen -- that's what really brought me back around to learning more about my grandfather. My music is still based in that singer-songwriter tradition. Adding a fiddle and steel guitar makes it more country, and adding blazing electric guitars makes it more rock. I'm on a country label now. CNN: You also own a clothing boutique in Nashville called H. Audrey. Williams: Everything I have on, except my shoes, is from there. ... It's a struggle in this economy, but we make enough to pay our payroll and buy the clothes. And it's nice to fold jeans every now and again, and get my mind out of myself. CNN: When you're writing down your goals on your wish list, what is it you really want? Williams: I would love to sell a million records. I would love to play in arenas -- but what I really want to build is a core fanbase, and just hopefully build a place in the Williams family.","highlights":"Country music scion Holly Williams has new album out, \"Here With Me\"\nWilliams is daughter of Hank Jr., granddaughter of Hank Sr.\nWilliams sings country, but influenced by '70s singer-songwriters .","id":"165abdcf120b51cb1f013138cc783f1754f70ca5"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The United Nations has condemned Friday's rocket attack on Israel from southern Lebanon, and urged both sides \"to exercise maximum restraint.\" Italian soldiers with UNIFIL and Lebanese security forces inspect a rocket site in Qlayleh, Lebanon, on Friday. Israel's military fired between 12 and 18 artillery shells into southern Lebanon Friday shortly after the rocket attack on northern Israel, according to the Israeli military and a Lebanese army official. There were no casualties in either incident. Rockets fired from Lebanon struck open spaces in the western Galilee region of northern Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said. There were no reports of damage. Israel retaliated by firing toward the source of the rocket fire, the IDF spokesman said. The shells landed near the southern Lebanese village of Qlayleh around 3 p.m. (8 a.m. ET), a Lebanese army official said. The IDF spokesman said the Israeli military considers the rocket-fire incident to be serious and holds Lebanon's government and military responsible. Israel Radio reported one rocket struck near the northern town of Nahariya and another landed near Gesher Haziv, a kibbutz, or collective community. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said residents near Nahariya heard several explosions, and the remnants of at least one rocket were found. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement through his spokeswoman, condemning the attack. He said the United Nations mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, \"is investigating the circumstances of the incident in close cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces.\" There are an estimated 30,000 rockets in southern Lebanon, all under the control of Hezbollah militants. Israel fought a war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon three years ago that is widely regarded as having empowered the Shiite militia. CNN's Michal Zippori in Jerusalem and Nada Husseini in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: It urges Lebanese, Israelis \"to exercise maximum restraint\"\nIsrael says rockets fired from Lebanon struck open spaces in northern Israel .\nIsrael says it fired 12 to 18 artillery shells into southern Lebanon in retaliation .\nThere have been no injuries, and no one has claimed responsibility for rocket attack .","id":"8ad0564e810e827009602353d880d96c55f7bfcf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kate Hudson's ex, Black Crowes rocker Chris Robinson, is going to be a dad again, a representative for the band confirmed in a statement Tuesday. Chris Robinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges will be having a child in early 2010. Robinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges, who have been dating for two years, are expecting their first child in early 2010, the statement said. The baby will be the 42-year-old frontman's second child --\u00ad he and Hudson have a 5 1\/2-year-old son, Ryder Russell, together. Hudson and Robinson were married for six years and their divorce was finalized in October 2006. They were granted joint custody of their son. Robinson and his brother Rich formed the band that would eventually become the Black Crowes in the 1980s. The Crowes' new album, \"Before the Frost . . . Until the Freeze,\" is in stores now.","highlights":"Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson having baby with girlfriend .\nRobinson and girlfriend Allison Bridges have been dating for two years .\nHe and ex Kate Hudson have a 5-1\/2-year-old son, Ryder Russell, together .","id":"97dc2dc43f207b61fd6e44d44096df464e511513"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For the first time since September 11, 2001, the rich chords of a chapel organ damaged in the terrorist attacks echoed through New York City's historic St. Paul's Chapel. Organist Marilyn Haskel rehearses for Easter services at St. Paul's Chapel in New York. In the months following the attacks, the chapel became a makeshift bunker for recovery and relief workers. Working round the clock, hundreds of volunteers transformed St. Paul's into a place for rest, meals, prayer and counseling for city firefighters, police and construction workers clearing the rubble just blocks away at Ground Zero. When St. Paul's Chapel reopened to the public on August 25, 2002, the organ was clogged with debris and could not be played. Organist Marilyn Haskel's rehearsal on Friday for Easter Sunday services marked the instrument's triumphant return to functionality after Mann & Trupiano organ builders of Brooklyn removed 2.5 gallons of dirt and debris in a thorough \"resuscitation.\" \"When a pipe sounds we say that it 'speaks.' And if it doesn't 'speak' clearly, then the sound isn't as interesting and colorful,\" Haskel told CNN Friday morning. With its airways clear, \"This one is exactly right,\" she said. Haskel rehearsed two pieces: \"God's Paschal Lamb is Sacrificed for Us\" and \"Good Christians All Rejoice and Sing.\" Watch and listen to the rehearsal \u00bb . Built in stages between 1764 and 1796, the chapel is Manhattan's oldest continuously used public building. Designed in Georgian Classic-Revival style, it boasts handmade woodwork, carvings, and door hinges as well as 14 Waterford chandeliers installed in 1802. The chapel's original organ was built in London. In the years since, a number of instruments have called St. Paul's Chapel home. The 1,680-pipe instrument currently housed within the chapel's elaborate original 200-year-old mahogony case was built in 1964 by of Schlicker Organ Co. of Buffalo, New York. The chapel now serves as host to a series of 9\/11 memorial exhibits. As Haskel played Friday morning, tourists from around the world browsed the displays. A man from the Bronx who assisted the New York Fire Department in the months after the attacks remembered a time when the chapel \"closed its door to souls and opened it to bodies\" and the organ fell silent under the clamor of refuge-seeking firemen, police officers and other workers. He said he was attending Friday morning's rehearsal to hear the organ played for the first time. \"The organ was not usable then,\" Haskel said of the months following the 9\/11 attacks. \"For me, in being able to be here -- and meeting people who were here during 9\/11 -- to be able to play organ music that should be happening in this room is a great honor,\" she said.","highlights":"Organ in St. Paul's Chapel in New York had been silent since September 11, 2001 .\nThe instrument's builders removed 2.5 gallons of dirt and debris left by 9\/11 attacks .\nOrganist's Good Friday rehearsal marks instrument's return to functionality .\nAfter attacks, historic chapel was makeshift bunker for recovery and relief workers .","id":"2b4cbf60d4c149fc8b30f47a185cf2af237dc22d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A model who was slammed with derogatory terms by an anonymous blogger has the right to learn the identity of her online heckler, a judge ruled. Google complied with the court's ruling, submitting the creator's IP address and e-mail address. In August 2008, a user of Blogger.com, Google's blogging service, created \"Skanks in NYC,\" a site that assailed Liskula Cohen, 37, a Canadian-born onetime cover girl who has appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines. The blog featured photos of Cohen captioned with terms including \"psychotic,\" \"ho,\" and \"skank.\" On Monday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ruled that Google must hand over to Cohen any identifying information it possesses about the blog's creator. Steven Wagner, Cohen's attorney, said Google complied with the ruling Tuesday evening, submitting to his legal team the creator's IP address and e-mail address. Only a valid e-mail address is required to register for a blog on Blogger.com. Wagner said that once his legal team tracks the e-mail address to a name, the next step will be to sue Cohen's detractor for defamation. He said he suspected the creator of the blog is an acquaintance of Cohen. The blog has not been operational for months. The unidentified creator of the blog was represented in court by an attorney, Anne Salisbury, who said her client voluntarily took the blog down when Cohen initiated legal action against it. Salisbury suggested that Cohen is more interested in attracting publicity than restoring her reputation. She contended her client's blog would have languished harmlessly in obscurity had Cohen not filed suit. The site had negligible traffic and only five posts on it, all written on a single day, she said. In her ruling, the judge quoted a Virginia court that ruled in a similar case that nameless online taunters should be held accountable when their derision crosses a line. \"The protection of the right to communicate anonymously must be balanced against the need to assure that those persons who choose to abuse the opportunities presented by this medium can be made to answer for such transgressions,\" the judge said, quoting the Virginia decision. Cohen's attorney said he was \"happy that the court recognizes that the Internet is not a place where people can freely defame people.\" But the blogger's attorney strongly disputed the judge's reasoning. Salisbury asserted that her client's invective was not unusual for the Internet, and that hyperbolic online name-calling is so rampant -- \"in comments sections, on Twitter, on blogs\" as to practically be part of the Web's DNA. She warned that Monday's ruling has \"potentially damaging implications for free speech on the Internet.\" After the ruling, a Google spokesman expressed sympathy for targets of Internet insult-slinging, but said the company divulges user information only when ordered to do so by a court. \"We sympathize with anyone who may be the victim of cyberbullying. We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order,\" Google's Andrew Pederson said.","highlights":"Judge orders Google to hand over blogger's identifying information to woman .\nBlogger had anonymously slammed model Liskula Cohen .\nJudge: Anonymous online taunters can be held accountable .\nCohen's legal team intends to sue the blogger .","id":"3ebffef06e4dd76fac8fa9e162962fd541160f65"} -{"article":"HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- An imperial \"dragon\" throne owned by a Chinese emperor set the world auction record for Chinese furniture Thursday, selling for about US $11 million. Nicolas Chow of Sotheby's, pictured, said mainland Chinese buyers were \"ready to pay the premium.\" There was frenzied bidding among mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan collectors at the Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong. Thirty-six bids came in 10 minutes, with tension building as a new telephone bidder jumped into the competition. \"These mainland (China) buyers, mainland collectors are ready to pay the premium it takes to secure an object of this quality,\" said Nicolas Chow, international head of Chinese ceramics and art at Sotheby's. The winning bid of US $11,068,193 (HK $85,780,000) was by a private Shanghai businessman. It was nearly triple the estimate of US $3.9 million (HK $30 million), Sotheby's said. Watch why the throne is so prized \u00bb . \"This is the place from which the emperor conducted his stately affairs and received foreign envoys and basically, this is a seat of power,\" Chow said. \"No one else should have sat down in this place.\" The throne belonged to Emperor Qianlong, who ruled from 1736-1795. The 4.6 foot-long (140 centimeters) piece is considered rare and prized because of the zitan wood from which it was carved. It also features carved panels, curved legs and an elaborate \"Five Dragon\" carving on the front and back. The number five represents the \"five blessings\" of old age, wealth, health, virtue and peaceful death, according to Sotheby's. Other pieces that sold Thursday included a celadon ground butterfly vase. The Qianlong period piece sold for US $2.74 million (HK $21.3 million). CNN's Pauline Chiou contributed to this report.","highlights":"Private Shanghai businessman puts forth winning bid of US $11,068,193 (HK$85 M)\nFrenzied bidding occurs among mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan collectors .\nThrone has carved panels, curved legs and a \"Five Dragon\" carving on front and back .\nIt belonged to Emperor Qianlong, who ruled from 1736-1795 .","id":"4fcc34809bfc31daab27a1853dcd92698c1bfaac"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An angry, naked man commandeered a school bus full of teenage students Thursday in Atlanta, police said. The man drove the bus for less than a mile before a student confronted him and the bus crashed into a wall off the road, according to police. The incident started Thursday afternoon when the bus stopped to let students out, said Atlanta police officer James Polite. Arris Pitmon, 23, darted toward the bus and hoisted himself in through an open window, Polite said. Pitmon took control of the bus as the frightened driver ran to the back of it, the officer said. While the bus was moving, the man abandoned the steering wheel and walked toward the back of the bus, Polite added. A student then ran toward the steering wheel, prompting the man to fight the student. The unmanned bus continued until it left the roadway and crashed. Students fled the bus, many using the back door emergency exit, and onlookers subdued the man until police arrived. Some students were taken to area hospitals. Their conditions weren't available Thursday night. Chiquita Rogers told CNN affiliate WXIA that the man had tried to hit some of the students, including her 16-year-old, Donte. \"He pushed my son, and that's when my son hit him. I guess everybody started swinging, and everybody just started out the back door, jumping. I'm just grateful that my son is still alive, because it could have been worse.\" Onlooker Corey Turner told WXIA, \"Children were jumping out the emergency door ... jumping off the bus. ... They were saying, 'Help, help, help! ... Somebody hijacked the bus.'\"","highlights":"Police: Arris Pitmon ran toward the bus and climbed in through an open window .\nPitmon took control of the bus then abandoned it while it was moving, police say .\nThe bus crashed and some students were taken to area hospitals .","id":"22f491f91026011b19345e5120c06c58db5e05d4"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the most unexpected controversies of the Obama administration came to a head Tuesday as the president delivered a hotly debated back-to-school speech to students across the country. President Obama speaks to students Tuesday at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Many conservatives expressed fear over the past week that the president's address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. Obama, however, avoided any mention of political initiatives. He repeatedly urged students to work hard and stay in school. \"There is no excuse for not trying,\" he told students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Watch Obama speak to the students \u00bb . \"This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.\" Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf) Several Cabinet officials are slated to deliver similar messages at various schools across the country throughout the day. In the past week, news of Obama's speech had upset some parents. \"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me,\" suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH last week, before the text of the speech was released. \"I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.\" But Amy Veasley, a parent from the Dallas, Texas, area, said Monday that she was surprised by the controversy. \"The president of our country wants to call our students to action. I'm not sure why parents wouldn't want their students to hear out the leader of our country,\" she said. A Baltimore, Maryland, teacher who asked not to be identified bemoaned the fact that the country has \"become so polarized that we believe that our president is an enemy and not our leader.\" During George W. Bush's presidency, she said, \"whether I disagreed or not, I still saw him as a leader.\" iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Obama's speech . White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that \"it's a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an 'Animal House' food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school.\" Some school administrators had decided to show the president's speech, but others decided against it. And others were leaving the decision in the hands of individual teachers. One school district in Toronto, Ohio, decided to air the speech live for students in the third grade and up but not show it to younger children, according to CNN affiliate WTOV. Nine out of 550 students attending the Toronto schools showing the speech chose not to watch it, WTOV noted. Toronto Superintendent Fred Burns said the parents of the nine children were concerned that the speech was too political. Watch students respond to Obama's speech \u00bb . \"It's a very charismatic speech,\" Burns told WTOV. \"It's very much a speech to help kids get involved in education and finish school.\" Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Sunday that Obama's speech could disrupt an already-hectic first day of school for many students. \"I think there's concerns about the disruption,\" he said on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" calling the scheduling of the speech a \"little ham-fisted\" by the White House. Watch CNN's Ed Henry talk about school speech uproar \u00bb . Education Secretary Arne Duncan, however, noted that Obama's speech was not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students from a Washington school in fall 1991, encouraging them to say no to drugs and work hard. In November 1988, President Reagan delivered more politically charged remarks that were made available to students nationwide. Among other things, Reagan called taxes \"such a penalty on people that there's no incentive for them to prosper ... because they have to give so much to the government.\" Some of the controversy over Obama's speech involved a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing \"what they can do to help the president.\" The letters \"would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals,\" the plan stated. After pressure from conservatives, the White House distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can \"achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.\" Duncan said Sunday that the passage was poorly worded. Some politically conservative figures said they had no problem with Obama speaking to students about education. \"I think there is a place for the president ... to talk to schoolchildren and encourage\" them, former first lady Laura Bush told CNN Monday. Parents should follow Obama's example and \"encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the dream that they have,\" she added. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on \"Fox News Sunday\" that Obama's speech was a good idea if the message is a positive one about completing school. \"It is good to have the president of the United States say to young people across America, 'Stay in school, study, and do your homework,' \" Gingrich said. Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer accused Obama last week of trying to \"indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.\" \"Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything,\" he said Monday. After reading the text, he said, \"My kids will be watching the president's speech, as I hope all kids will.\"","highlights":"President Obama speaks to students about education's importance .\n\"There is no excuse for not trying,\" Obama says .\nSecretary of Education Arne Duncan says speech not unprecedented .\nSome school administrators did not show speech; others let teachers decide .","id":"bbed1595ca73b98f90c85c1202d385f331473f0c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hot dogs? Check. Fireworks? Check. Big Ben? Wait a minute... The American Society of Sydney, Australia, helps put together a July Fourth celebration on Sydney Harbour. There may not be international landmarks at your neighbor's Fourth of July barbecue, but for Americans living abroad, they're the perfect backdrop when celebrating independence. To global Yanks, it's just as important -- if not more so -- to throw an Independence Day party that feels just like home. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Rome, Italy, Fourth of July soirees are happening on Saturday in nearly every corner of the world. So if your globetrotting lands you in one of these cities over the weekend, consider squeezing an Independence Day celebration into your itinerary. July Fourth, eh? Canada Day occurs a mere three days before the Fourth, and our neighbor to the north lights up the sky for both. Held on the shores of Lake Ontario at the amusement park Ontario Place in Toronto, the Grand Finale for the Canada Dry Festival of Fire is an extensive fireworks display that draws between 15,000 and 20,000 people each year. Choreographed to a surprise playlist, \"the fireworks actually detonate to the beat of the songs, which are voted on by the listeners of [local radio station] CHFI,\" said Ontario Place spokesman Nick Kondrat. Tickets include an all-day pass to the park, so be sure not to miss the eclectic entertainment, like \"Salsa at Ontario Place,\" featuring live salsa music, dance competitions and lessons. Fireworks begin at 10:30 p.m. Visit the park's Web site for tickets. Americans in London Town . Time Out London lists this event as a \"must-do\" for Independence Day. Standing out from a slew of holiday gatherings, the 7th annual Fourth of July picnic, hosted by the American expatriate community, begins at 2 p.m. at London, England's, Battersea Park. To keep the kids happy, there will be red, white and blue bouncy castles as well as balloons and face-painting, according to the group's Web site. For the adults, plenty of barbecue will be available for purchase in addition to two fully stocked cash bars. Between softball games and paddleboat rentals at the nearby lake, there's plenty to do for the whole family. For a grand finale, a laser fireworks display starts at 9:45 p.m. Even better: Admission is free all day. When In Rome . A blowout event planned a year in advance, the American International Club of Rome's 20th celebration is a patriotic tribute: potato sack races for the kids, swing-dancing lessons with live music and all the s'mores, hot dogs and hamburgers you can stand, said the club manager and event coordinator, Nina Farrell. \"When you're away from home, it's really nice to get together and celebrate and be a little bit American,\" Farrell said. The celebration will kick off at 5 p.m. with Americans and Italians alike at Marymount International School, ending at midnight with the crackling of sparklers. (Sorry, no fireworks allowed on the school grounds.) For tickets, visit the AICR's Web site at http:\/\/www.aicrome.org\/. Red, white and blue down under . Mary Botto believes it's the little things that help a person become acclimated, and the Fourth of July celebration the American Society of Sydney, Australia, helps pull together is one of them. Botto, the society's president, said this year's party will be held at the Hunters Hill Sailing Club, right on Sydney Harbour. The organization stays true to an American theme, from the food to the fireworks. The one piece of American tradition Botto's group can't replicate is warm weather: July is winter in Australia, so most of the festivities are indoors, except the fireworks, which start around 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome, and locals take part in the fun. \"Australia Day here is huge and I think Australians really respect the fact that we still celebrate even though we're not in our home country,\" Botto said. Tickets can be purchased at moshtix.com.au. Independence in Argentina . It doesn't take a bartender to know that beer is a top seller on Independence Day, and that's not just in the United States. Crack a cold one in Buenos Aires, where a burgeoning pub crawl is poised to take over the Paris of South America. Between the drinks, a diverse group of participants and the four frat boys from Georgia running the show, you'll feel right at home. The company, 12th Gate Inc., has spent the past two years rounding up tourists, expatriates and the stray 70-year-old into one big, pub-crawling group. Saturday marks their first Fourth of July event, and they've pulled out all the stops. \"We've been living here for awhile, and we miss home,\" said marketing and events planner Will Aquino. \"We have the means to throw a great party, and we are.\" Instead of the usual pizza, the owners have upped the ante to provide more festive fare: hamburgers, hot dogs and red, white and blue Jell-O shots. You can even get a commemorative T-shirt with the $13 ticket price, which covers an hourlong open bar, food and transportation to three bars throughout the city. There won't be any fireworks, but participants will be supplied with sparklers and American flags. To secure a reservation, head to the 12th Gate Web site.","highlights":"Americans abroad organize July Fourth celebrations in their adopted homes .\nIn London, the American expat community is putting on a picnic .\nA less traditional July Fourth pub crawl will take place in Buenos Aires .","id":"7339f6238128bc3fd2df66e460b86de6d5c95708"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, Verizon Wireless said Thursday. An Obama spokesman said the transition team was told Verizon Wireless workers looked through billing records. \"This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account,\" Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless president and CEO, said in a statement. \"All employees who have accessed the account -- whether authorized or not --- have been put on immediate leave, with pay.\" The Obama transition team was notified Wednesday by Verizon of the breach, said team spokesman Robert Gibbs. He said the president-elect no longer uses the phone. McAdam said the device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services, so none of Obama's e-mail could have been accessed. Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, has launched an internal probe to determine whether Obama's information was simply shared among employees or whether \"the information of our customer had in any way been compromised outside our company, and this investigation continues,\" McAdam said in an internal company e-mail obtained by CNN. \"Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action,\" McAdam said, \"up to and including termination.\" The company has alerted \"the appropriate federal law enforcement authorities,\" McAdam said. Gibbs said that while the Secret Service has been notified, he is not aware of any criminal investigation. He said he believes it was billing records that were accessed. Gibbs said that anyone viewing the records likely would have been able to see phone numbers and the frequency of calls Obama made, but that \"nobody was monitoring voicemail or anything like that.\" CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Internal Verizon e-mail says no e-mail accessible on phone .\nObama spokesman says Verizon Wireless employee accessed billing records .\nSpokesman says the phone is old and Obama no longer uses it .\nNo indication any calls were monitored or voicemails improperly accessed .","id":"784843bcf6b867f081d110b794f9c9d8242447b0"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Ivan Watson is CNN's correspondent based in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bamiyan Valley is a visually and archaeologically stunning part of Afghanistan. The region hopes to build its tourism industry. (CNN) -- Thursday is \"Chinese night\" at the Hotel Silk Road in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province. Hungry guests sip cans of Coke and nonalcoholic beer and pick at a buffet that includes General Tsao's chicken, egg drop soup and slices of sweet green melon grown in nearby fields. When a vegetarian diner arrives, the hotel's Japanese owner, Hiromi Yasui, runs back to the kitchen to whip up a dish of spinach, garlic and steamed rice. \"This is the most clean kitchen in Bamiyan,\" she boasts in heavily accented English, as she directs her staff of Afghan assistants in fluent Dari. Yasui proudly points to an electric dishwasher, perhaps the only one of its kind in this battle-scarred Afghan province. The Hotel Silk Road has been open for less than two years. The green concrete walls of this compound jar somewhat with the brown, mud brick architecture of Bamiyan Valley. But the hotel is probably the largest foreign private investment in Bamiyan's fledgling tourism industry since the overthrow of the Taliban eight years ago. See photos of the Bamiyan Province \u00bb . Aid workers say tourism is one of the greatest economic hopes for reviving this isolated, yet visually -- and archaeologically -- stunning part of Afghanistan, a region that has seen little infrastructure development over the last eight years, even though Bamiyan is one of the safest parts of the country. Tour the Bamiyan Valley's caves \u00bb . \"The natural resources and cultural resources here are probably the single best place for economic development to happen, around revitalizing the tourism industry here,\" says Bob Thelen, the representative for the Aga Khan Development Network in Bamiyan. The nonprofit organization has been working with the government of New Zealand to distribute $1.2 million over a three-year period to develop eco-tourism as an industry in Bamiyan. Bamiyan first attracted widespread international attention in 2001, when Taliban militants spent weeks blowing up two giant statues of Buddha. For more than 1,500 years, these colossal figures -- one was 53 meters (174 feet) high, the other 35 meters (115 feet) -- stood like sentries overlooking this alpine valley. Today, the massive caves where the Buddhas once stood are huge, empty pockets carved into cliffs that dominate the countryside. Despite the loss of these archaeological treasures, the cave network of monasteries that honeycomb the cliffs, as well as Bamiyan's breathtaking mountains and alpine lakes, continue to attract a trickle of both Afghan and foreign tourists. Hotel Silk Road owner Yasui spotted Bamiyan's potential when she first traveled here as a photojournalist in 1996. \"Before the war, this was a touristic place,\" she says. \"More than 7,000 cars a day visited here.\" In the '60s and '70s, Afghanistan was a Central Asian stop on the Hippie Trail, a destination favored by hash-smoking Western visitors driving Volkswagen vans. But the Soviet invasion of 1979 plunged the country into a decades-long spiral of conflict. Bamiyan became the site of horrific massacres during the civil war of the 1990s and the subsequent rise of the Taliban. The Taliban's overthrow in 2001 seemed to open the door to new opportunity. In 2002, with the help of her Afghan husband and a Japanese investor who fronted hundreds of thousands of dollars, Yasui purchased a plot of land next to a bend in the river that runs through the valley. The couple then spent the next five years building their hotel. \"I like Afghanistan, I like Bamiyan,\" Yasui explains. \"[But in the past,] I didn't want to stay more than three days, because there was no shower, no place to sleep.\" Yasui's hotel opened in 2007. Rooms cost $100 a night, pricing them far out of the range of most Afghans. Guests must remove their shoes at the entrance and wear slippers, in accordance with Yasui's strict standards of hygiene. \"The furniture has all been imported from Pakistan,\" Yasui said. \"I bought the water glasses from the PX [American military supermarket] in Kabul.\" Yasui is not the only hotelier in Bamiyan. In 2003, an Afghan businessman named Raziq got a jump-start on the local tourism industry, when he and several partners rented a house on a plateau offering a spectacular view of the Buddha cliffs. The building had been housing American special forces soldiers. Raziq and his partners rechristened it the Roof of Bamiyan Hotel. Raziq, an ethnic Hazara who learned American-accented English catering to foreigners on Kabul's touristic Chicken Street, says he got his inspiration to open a hotel after he saw female Western backpackers paying to sleep on the floor of a grimy tea shop in Bamiyan's dusty bazaar. Over the last year, the Afghan government declared Bamiyan's Band-i-Amir lake, which sits 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) above sea level, the country's first national park. The New Zealand-funded eco-tourism project, in conjunction with the Aga Khan Foundation, also recently trained 22 young male and female Afghans to be professional tour guides. The three-month course included \"the relevant topics for this area, geology, archaeology, history, hospitality, English, communication skills,\" said Thelen, of the Aga Khan Development Network. One of these guides is former Roof of Bamiyan employee Jawad Wafa. Though only 23 years old, this ambitious young Afghan plans to launch a tourism and logistics company, complete with a fleet of rental vehicles and guides. \"The first thing we need to have more tourists in Bamiyan, we need security and peace. The second one is roads,\" Wafa says. Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban, the entire province of Bamiyan has barely 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) of paved roads. Travel here from Kabul requires at least seven hours driving on a bone-jarring dirt track. But even this isolated oasis is feeling the threat of the mounting violence spreading across the country. \"Every time there is a bomb in Kabul, visitors cancel reservations,\" says Raziq, operator of the Roof of Bamiyan Hotel. And in recent months, troops from New Zealand have documented a spike in insurgent attacks, mostly along Bamiyan's border with Baghlan province, a region where Taliban insurgents have grown increasingly active. \"As much as on the one hand you can promote Bamiyan and other pockets throughout Afghanistan as secure and peaceful, there's always the very real threat of violence,\" Thelen said. Tour operators saw a dramatic drop in foreign visitors this summer, due to the uncertainty and violence surrounding the August 20 presidential elections. In fact, the handful of people seen touring the remains of the Buddha statues last week were mostly American aid workers. They were sent by their organizations from less secure parts of Afghanistan, to take temporary shelter within the mountain walls of Bamiyan Valley.","highlights":"Bamiyan is one of the safest parts of Afghanistan .\nSince the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, hotels have opened in the region .\nColossal Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban once towered over the valley .\nStunning terrain and a cave network of monasteries draw tourists .","id":"2aa5e922df3bd578f3358bef0337771f142c2091"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A soldier who survived a Taliban attack that killed nine U.S. troops in Afghanistan last month described a scene of \"pure chaos\" in which he watched buddies die. Army Spc. Tyler Stafford is recovering from wounds he suffered in the July 13 attack. Army Spc. Tyler Stafford and fellow soldiers in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team were establishing an outpost near the village of Wanat when about 200 Taliban militants attacked July 13. \"They had 200-plus guys all shooting at us -- I mean, pure chaos,\" Stafford said. \"You could hear guys screaming.\" Nine Americans were killed and 12 -- including Stafford -- were wounded in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years. Afghan sources said that up to 100 militants were killed in the attack. Stafford, who is recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said he and his fellow soldiers were facing Taliban fighters on three sides when the attack began. The Americans were outmanned and outgunned. A NATO spokesman said the defense of the outpost was \"heroic.\" Once he was wounded, Stafford called out to his friend, Cpl. Matthew Phillips. \"I yelled to him, I was like, 'Phillips, man I need help. I'm hit.' ... I looked at him and I called him about four or five times. I was like, 'Phillips. Phillips. Are you all right, Phillips?' And he never moved. \"That's the first one of my buddies I've ever seen die.\" A short distance away was Cpl. Jonathan Ayers. \"He never once stopped shooting,\" Stafford said. \"I thought that was completely amazing. He never, I mean, he finally was killed by [rocket-propelled grenades] and gunfire, but he never once stopped shooting back at them.\" Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and Cpl. Jason Hovater were killed when they ran through a hail of Taliban gunfire in an attempt to carry more ammunition to their fellow soldiers, Stafford said. \"They knew our guys were in trouble, and when the Airborne's in trouble, you don't leave them to die; you go help them,\" Stafford said. \"They brought what they could.\" The Americans were running low on ammunition, and some of them were so badly wounded they were unable to move, Stafford said. Help did not come for an hour, he said. Stafford eventually was helicoptered to safety. He said he looked back at the scene below while aboard the chopper. \"It's like one of the those movies out of like Vietnam that you see with all these special effects and everything's on fire,\" he recalled. \"Smoke in the air, and that's all you see is tracer rounds going back and forth ... just, 'boom, boom, boom.' \" The other Americans who died were Sgt. Israel Garcia, Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling, Spc. Sergio Abad, Cpl. Pruitt Rainey and Cpl. Jason Bogar. \"The way they served each other -- you're fighting for the guy on your back, the guy that's in the foxhole next to you, when that kind of stuff happens. We all love each other very much,\" Stafford said.","highlights":"Survivor of attack that killed nine U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan recalls \"chaos\"\nArmy Spc. Tyler Stafford, wounded in July 13 attack, says he watched buddies die .\nSoldier recalls calling out to friend during battle, not knowing friend had died .\nIncident was deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years .","id":"cee250ca20f4fc90696a081ea6cc6f38ec8a33b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Allies of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday defeated an attempt by opposition leaders to impeach her on large-scale corruption charges -- the fourth such attempt in four years. Protesters display slogans in front of the House of Representatives in Manila on Tuesday. The House Justice Committee dismissed the impeachment complaint by 42-8 votes, saying that it was \"insufficient in substance,\" the state-run Philippines News Agency reported. The complaint alleged that Arroyo and her husband were directly involved in an Internet broadband deal with a Chinese firm. The deal was ultimately scrapped amid allegations of corruption. \"I'm not saying that there is no substance (to the complaint), but it was insufficient,\" Deputy House Speaker Pablo Garcia told the committee before the vote. \"The allegations are not allegations of fact. They are conclusions, opinion, inferences, and even arguments,\" Garcia said, according to the news agency. Arroyo first took office in 2001. Since then, she has survived four impeachment attempts and periodic rumors of coup. She won re-election in 2004, but opposition parties called into question the legitimacy of that race. During the vote count, Arroyo was tape-recorded talking to a senior election official, which opposition leaders charge is evidence she manipulated the outcome. The president has denied any wrongdoing. The first of the impeachment charges were brought against Arroyo in 2005 for vote-tampering. Congress rejected the charges. The opposition then tried to impeach Arroyo in 2006 and 2007 -- and Congress dismissed those attempts as well. Her six-year term ends in 2010.","highlights":"Complaint alleged that Arroyo and husband were involved in deal with Chinese firm .\nFirst of impeachment charges brought against Arroyo in 2005 for vote-tampering .\nOpposition parties called into question legitimacy of Arroyo's 2004 re-election win .","id":"1214c6f407f390304f0d6e71b377cecbf35c533e"} -{"article":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- The government of de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti is not ready to sign a proposed agreement to end the country's ongoing political crisis, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said in Honduras. Interim President Roberto Micheletti is reaching out to Costan Rican President Oscar Arias for a solution. His remarks came on Tuesday at the conclusion of a two-day visit by a delegation of the Organization of American States. \"Although the commission concludes that progress was made during its visit, it must recognize that there still no disposition toward full acceptance of the San Jose Accord on the part of Mr. Micheletti or his supporters,\" Stagno said. The proposed San Jose Accord aims to resolve nearly two months of political turmoil that Honduras has faced following the June 28 coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. The delegation, which consisted of seven foreign ministers and included the participation of OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, met with representatives of all branches of government, presidential candidates, the military, clergy, businessmen and representatives of various sectors of Honduran society. \"The majority of the actors expressed their conformity with the foundations of the San Jose Accord, although many of them expressed concerns about the same,\" Stagno said. The biggest obstacles were two points in the proposed agreement: one calling for Zelaya's return to power, and another calling for a temporary political amnesty for both sides. The delegation also spoke with Zelaya supporters, including his wife, who said that the ousted president was willing to accept the San Jose Accord and abide by it immediately. Originally, Zelaya's negotiators had walked away from the proposal, offered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, citing the intransigence of Micheletti's team. In support of the OAS delegation, the United States announced Tuesday that many visas for Hondurans would be suspended. The United Nations and the European Union have condemned the coup and have refused to recognize the provisional government led by former congressional leader Micheletti. Micheletti has insisted that Zelaya was not overthrown but instead was replaced through constitutional means. The Honduran political crisis stems from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have led to extending term limits by changing the constitution, even though the country's congress had outlawed the vote and the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled it illegal.","highlights":"Proposed San Jose Accord aims to resolve nearly two months of political turmoil .\nDelegation spoke with Zelaya supporters, representatives of Honduran government .\nUnited States announces that many visas for Hondurans would be suspended .\nMicheletti insists Zelaya was replaced through constitutional means, not overthrown .","id":"e76914e66403d296853a22728266bdb8d85737f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 61-year-old pastor who was killed in a rural Oklahoma church was found lying behind the altar with her arms outstretched, a source close to the investigation told CNN. Carol Daniels, a 61-year-old pastor, was found nude behind the altar of a church in Anadarko, Oklahoma. It was one of the latest details to emerge in the killing of Carol Daniels, whose nude body was found in the Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko, Oklahoma, in a crime scene the district attorney described as \"horrific.\" Her clothes were taken from the scene, and a dissolving agent had been sprayed around her body, the source said. An FBI profiler was brought in during the weekend to assist investigators, Steve Neuman, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Monday. Authorities also have increased to $15,000 a reward for information. Daniels, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was found inside the church August 23. She died from \"multiple sharp-force injuries,\" according to a preliminary autopsy report obtained by CNN. Sharp-force injuries mean cuts or stab wounds. Diagrams in the autopsy notes show Daniels suffered injuries to the side and back of her neck, her back and her left breast. She also suffered wounds to her hands, a typical spot for defensive wounds resulting from attempts to ward off an attack. In addition, the autopsy notes say a portion of Daniels' hair appeared singed or burned. The medical examiner classified her death as a homicide. Daniels' son, Alvin Daniels, told CNN that she traveled many Sundays to Anadarko, about 50 miles southwest of her home, to the church \"in case people came to worship.\" Watch what the son has to say to Nancy Grace \u00bb . District Attorney Bret Burns has called the crime scene the worst he'd seen in 17 years as a prosecutor but gave no further explanation. Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation, said last week the body was \"staged\" after the killing, but declined to elaborate. Meanwhile, Neuman said, video surveillance from a convenience store near the church is being analyzed, a process that started Friday. He declined to comment on the condition of Daniels' body when found. Alvin Daniels told HLN's \"Nancy Grace\" that his mother was \"always joking with us and always taking care of us, even giving her last dollar, even if she didn't have it.\" He said she took precautions at the church. \"She was very cautious for the most part, and she would usually leave the door open in case people came to worship,\" he said. The death has unnerved religious leaders in Anadarko, said Ted Mercer, pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship, which is about three blocks from the church where Daniels' body was found. CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pastor Carol Daniels' clothes were removed from the crime scene, source says .\nSource: Dissolving agent had been sprayed around her body .\nFBI profiler brought in during the weekend to help with investigation .\nAuthorities have increased to $15,000 a reward for information .","id":"f3ce74600e11b325bfef59542e7db2ba0fdee7e9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nancy Reagan, wife of the late President Ronald Reagan, is hospitalized in California after suffering a broken pelvis, according to spokeswoman Joanne Drake. Former first lady Nancy Reagan is shown at an event in the nation's capital in September. Reagan, 87, is in the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Drake said in a written statement Wednesday. The former first lady fell last week at her home, Drake said, but admitted herself to the hospital only after experiencing \"persistent pain.\" Tests revealed a fractured pelvis and sacrum -- the triangular bone within the pelvis. Reagan will remain hospitalized for a few days until \"doctors are satisfied with her progress,\" Drake said. Reagan's anticipated recovery time is six to eight weeks, including physical therapy and a modified schedule. \"Mrs. Reagan is in good spirits, especially comforted to be receiving care from talented doctors in a world-class hospital named in honor of her late husband,\" the statement said. She previously was hospitalized for two days in February following a fall at her home in suburban Los Angeles. President Reagan died in June 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Since his death, Nancy Reagan has remained involved with the national Alzheimer's Association and its affiliate, the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute in Chicago, Illinois. However, she has appeared in public only rarely in recent years.","highlights":"NEW: Nancy Reagan reported \"in good spirits\" at hospital .\nFormer first lady, 87, falls at her California home, breaks pelvis .\nNancy Reagan being treated at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center .","id":"a45b7e5c1ce2997764e979764f7caede125f65e2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The battle raging over President Obama's health care plan has spread from across the aisles in Congress to across the country. A Tampa, Florida, health care reform meeting sparks noisy exchanges between attendees. Senators this week joined their colleagues from the House at town hall meetings as they spent their August recess in their home districts. But disruptive protests are turning town hall meetings into shouting matches and drowning out discussion over what is and isn't in health care plans in the House and Senate. Videos of the protests have been circulating on the Internet, showing raucous crowds heckling their congressmen, and carrying posters with devil horns drawn on lawmakers' heads, swastikas or Obama with Adolf Hitler's mustache. Read more about the proposed plans \u00bb . Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, who had a town hall meeting disrupted by angry protesters earlier this month, said he had never experienced such emotion in his 15 years of holding such forums. Democratic Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina even had a death threat phoned into his office. A caller said that if Miller supported Obama's plan, it could cost him his life, Miller told CNN. \"Of course we want a full debate. Of course we want people who have dissenting views from the administration and Congress to have a full hearing. But that's not what this is about. That's not the intent of most of these people. It's not the way the press is covering it,\" Mark Halperin, editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME magazine, said on CNN's \"Reliable Sources.\" The protesters' gimmicks, Halperin said, are grabbing the public and media's attention, and valid arguments over the cost and content of the proposals are being put on the back burner. \"There needs to be a debate in America on whether we should have universal health care. There needs to be a debate on the president's ideas. If these protesters have ideas, great. Let's hear them. But if they're just stunts to cause a disruption that gets the media tripped in every time, again, I think it's bad for the country whether you want the president's plan or not,\" he said. Watch what Halperin says about the town hall turmoil \u00bb . Obama's health care battle has been compared to former President Bill Clinton's failed effort more than 15 years ago, but CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said the climate toward health care reform was actually more negative back then. Clinton's plan had less public support than Obama's, and Clinton himself was less popular than Obama, Schneider said. Clinton's plan also barely got off the ground when it went to Congress, and Obama's proposals have already been through a few congressional committees. So why didn't lawmakers experience the same backlash during the Clinton years? \"Three reasons,\" Schneider said. First of all, \"the calendar.\" Clinton proposed his plan in September 1993, and by the time Congress went on recess in August of the following year, the plan was dead. Learn more about global health care systems \u00bb . Secondly, people didn't use the Internet the way they use it today, \"so you didn't have the viral communications that rally people to attend town halls.\" And finally, experience. \"Conservatives are emboldened by what happened to the Clinton plan. They want to relive 1994,\" Schneider said. Democrats have accused conservative groups of manufacturing the outrage, while others say the uproar is a reflection of the opposition to Obama's plans. \"These are average Americans that are concerned about this long litany of borrowing and spending and bailouts and government takeover of one industry after another. And this government takeover of health care is just the last straw for many Americans,\" Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, told \"Fox News\" on Monday. As the emotion has intensified, misinformation has spread about what is and isn't in current health care proposals. \"People are just getting information that's flat wrong,\" Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, told CNN on Monday as a town hall meeting she held came to an end. One of the allegations that picked up traction in recent days is that Obama's plan encourages euthanasia. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fueled the charge on her Facebook page Friday, writing that \"the sick, the elderly, and the disabled\" would suffer as doctors have to \"ration care.\" In her post, the former Republican vice presidential candidate said Obama's health care plan would create a \"death panel\" that would weigh whether her parents or son Trig were \"worthy of health care.\" Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told CNN on Sunday that Palin had deliberately fabricated the charges. \"About euthanasia, they're just totally erroneous. She just made that up,\" he said. \"Just like the 'Bridge to Nowhere' that she supposedly didn't support. \"There's nothing like euthanasia in the bill. I practiced medicine for a long time, and of course you have to have end-of-life discussions -- the patients want that. ... Euthanasia's not in this bill.\" McCaskill said she hoped Monday that she was able to correct some of false information out there. \"The notion that I would ever, or that our government would ever do anything to cut short or dismiss the quality of life for our seniors is so offensive to me as an American. ... There's no rationing of health care that's being proposed for our elderly,\" she said. \"Hopefully, I was able to reassure people that -- not in America. That's not going to happen.\" In his weekend radio address, Obama sought to dispel what he called \"the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care. That's simply not true.\" The White House on Monday launched what it calls a Health Insurance Reform Reality Check Web site designed to combat what the administration considers misinformation about the issue. The Web page features Obama aides discussing various aspects of health care reform.","highlights":"Town hall meetings across the country have turned into shouting matches .\n\"Stunts\" are taking the focus off the real debate, Mark Halperin says .\n\"People are just getting information that's flat wrong,\" Sen. McCaskill says .\nOthers defend outbursts as indication of opposition to Obama's plan .","id":"32c7e34bee05a6c41a462ab9b76832d65d94004f"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Dolores O'Riordan is singing \"Linger\" while playing a gleaming white guitar that's almost half her size. Dolores O'Riordan says the Cranberries are planning a tour, scheduled to begin in November. As the diminutive musician hums her way through the song's familiar intro, she smiles and nods her head a little as though she's just remembered an important kiss or something sweet one of her children told her. We weren't expecting her to play \"Linger,\" arguably the Cranberries' most beautiful hit and the one that gave the Irish rock band its leg up to global stardom in the early '90s. In truth, we weren't expecting O'Riordan to perform anything at all, but when somebody shows up for an interview handling a guitar, you've got to ask for a tune. Come on! So when O'Riordan, 37, started to pluck away at that spine-tingling song that harks back to her days as the moody-cum-boisterous 'Berries lead singer -- wait, she didn't want to play something from her brand new solo album instead? -- I almost tripped over in my haste to get out of the way so our cameraman could capture the moment. O'Riordan's nostalgia, it turns out, has a purpose. Watch O'Riordan talk about the chills she had making her album \u00bb . During our interview, which took place the same day O'Riordan's second solo disc \"The Baggage\" was released in the U.S., she officially shared the news that the Cranberries are to regroup. Technically, she says, they never split up and have merely been on hiatus since 2003. But there's no need to let that linger. Here's what you need to know, berry by berry (sorry): . The weight of \"No Baggage\" Some might argue that solo Dolores sounds no different from front woman Dolores, but being in control of all her material allows O'Riordan to get personal as she does on \"No Baggage\" (Rounder Records). The song \"Skeleton\" deals with not being able to outrun the skeletons in your closet. \"Lunatic\" addresses the hassles of fame. Give lead single \"The Journey\" a spin, and check out the music video to see some lovely scenery from the Emerald Isle. It was filmed around Dublin Bay on a chilly, windy day. When she takes off her musician hat ... O'Riordan has four kids and divides her time between her homes in Dublin, Ireland, and Ontario, Canada (check out the \"No Baggage\" album cover for a peek at the lake outside the latter residence). She's been married to her manager, Don Burton, for 15 years, and in that time has never taken off her wedding ring. Even if she wanted to she couldn't. It's stuck on her finger. She also wears ... Funky shoes. In the '90's, O'Riordan was known for her chunky Doc Marten boots, but she showed up to our interview in sequin and gem-encrusted Converse sneakers (\"They're deadly, aren't they?\"). She bought them on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, which she says is one of her favorite places to shop. TV isn't normal ... She's relaxed and goofy in interviews, though she admits that live television gives her the willies. The Cranberries went on hiatus because ... Says O'Riordan: \"We all had little children. We all had personal challenges going on in our life. I wanted to know who the heck I was if I wasn't in a Cranberry.\" She wants to be \"in a Cranberry\" again because ... A performance with fellow 'Berries Noel and Mike Hogan at an event in Dublin in January proved to be a bit of a wake-up call: \"It made me realize that I actually feel really comfortable with them, more so than anyone.\" The Cranberries will ripen ... The Cranberries tour is slated to kick off in November in North America. But it won't be an all-out greatest hits fest. Expect O'Riordan to mix her solo work into the set list. The band plans to work on a new album together in 2010. Oh, and did you know ... ? O'Riordan was only 18 years old when the Cranberries found success with their debut album \"Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?\" Brothers Mike and Noel Hogan were 16 and 17, respectively.","highlights":"Singer Dolores O'Riordan says Cranberries were on hiatus .\nO'Riordan just released new solo album .\nNew footwear for Doc Martens-wearing singer: gem-encrusted Converses .","id":"3a2ce38a607f329dc69c0c4f8377145c324c690d"} -{"article":"Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. (CareerBuilder.com) -- If you love the nightlife, and, perhaps more importantly, you like to boogie, why wait until the weekend? If you thrive on meeting new people and being in-the-know about the latest events and products, with the right training and experience, you could get paid to play. Check out five jobs that let you do just that: . Media Specialists . What they do: Media specialists serve as advocates for professional organizations or individuals by developing plans to establish or build a client's public reputation. They send out press releases and maintain relationships with members of the media to keep the public informed about their clients' activities. Why they party: They are often called to arrange and make appearances at public events to maintain contact between their clients and the public, so depending on the client, these events could be everything from political rallies to swanky product launch parties. How to break in: Media specialists often hold degrees in public relations and start their careers as interns. Jobs often come through networking and making industry contacts through public relations and media organizations. What they get paid: $86,292 (average annual salary) Radio\/TV Announcers . What they do: Radio or television announcers' jobs can range from interviewing guests to moderating panels to providing commentary for occasions such as parades and sporting events. Why they party: Well-known among radio and television audiences, announcers are often called on to make promotional appearances at public events. They could be at a neighborhood music festival one day and the launch of a trendy new bar the next. How to break in: Because competition for network employment is intense and employers look for college graduates with extensive experience, many announcers start at stations in small cities before advancing to a job that reaches a larger market. What they get paid: $35, 755 (average annual salary) Event Photographers . What they do: Photographers produce and preserve images that paint a picture, tell a story, or record an event. Why they party: Shooting on location can mean exclusive invitations to wedding receptions, parties, galas, fundraisers, and all sorts of celebrations where music, food, and the occasional, responsibly-handled drink are plentiful. How to break in: Building a good portfolio is essential to landing jobs in this field. If you don't have a degree in photography, take some classes and try to land a job as a photographer's assistant. Many photographers develop contacts in the field by subscribing to photographic newsletters and joining camera clubs. What it pays: $27,850 (average annual salary) Social Columnists . What they do: Social columnists gather information to write about local, state, national and international social happenings and report on the actions of noteworthy public figures at these events. Why they party: Like photographers, these members of the media also get exclusive access to fabulous parties and social celebrations. How to break in: Like many of these jobs, columnists often start small as general assignment reporters or copy editors at smaller newspapers before working their way up. What it pays: $44,419 (average annual salary) Promotion Models . What they do: Promotional models help create public interest in buying products such as clothing, cosmetics, food items and housewares. They answer questions and provide product information to potential consumers. Why they party: Demonstrations and product promotions are conducted in places that the products are most likely to sell, which can mean appearances at clubs, premiere parties and festivals if the product is right. How to break in: Oftentimes, good communications skills, an outgoing personality and pleasant appearance trump education and experience when it comes to getting hired. What it pays: $23,104 (average annual salary) E-mail to a friend . Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority .","highlights":"Radio and TV announcers often make promotional appearances at events .\nSocial columnists get exclusive access to parties and celebrations .\nMedia specialists are often at public events to maintaining a clients' profile .","id":"9290518734dfc2ffb8b809169e52028e3cfbeaa1"} -{"article":"Editor's note: We asked readers to weigh in on CNN.com Live producer Jarrett Bellini's vacation destination, and you chose South Africa. Check back for updates on his trip. CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini tours vineyards outside Cape Town, South Africa. CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNN) -- I'm not a wine drinker. Before today's excursion, in fact, I could only tell you that on the face of the planet there existed three types of wine: red, white and Carlo Rossi. The reds are good with meat. The whites go with fish. And, according to what I learned from my dad, Carlo Rossi goes with a glass of ice. So, exploring South Africa's wine country, just a short drive from Cape Town, seemed like a perfect educational way for me to spend my day. I mean, it was that or go to a museum. Our guide, Jack, was amazingly knowledgeable about the subject, but without being a pretentious jerk. Really, as far as he is concerned, the best wine in the world is whatever wine you enjoy. I didn't ask, but was curious if that applied to Boone's Farm? Throughout the day, we hit four wineries, tasting 23 bottles in all. I know because I kept hash marks on my hand. I'm pretty classy. Now, despite the outstanding info we received from our guide as we sipped and swirled and spat, I can't say that I'm any better at understanding the finer points of wine than I was this morning when I woke up. However, I did manage to get a solid buzz. And that should be worth something. Even without the wine, a visit to South Africa's vineyards is a great addition to a traveler's to-do list. It's not far from the city and the scenery is beautiful. If you need an added incentive, there are even a few cheese farms in the area where you can really crank the whole experience up to 11. I personally thanked one of the goats for his contribution. He didn't seem to care. He also didn't seem physically capable of producing anything that might actually turn into cheese. But I thanked him anyway. What can I say? I'm not a wine drinker.","highlights":"CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini is traveling in South Africa .\nReaders chose his destination and can share their travel suggestions .\nBellini will provide updates from South Africa on CNN.com and CNN.com Live .","id":"e7809716cfc362bdcc69468fcc51790b0e627e41"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In 1994, universal health care was a key policy plan for then-President Bill Clinton. It eventually failed. In 1993, President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton listen to a man's story about health care problems. Now, 15 years later, another Democratic president is taking on the challenge, but facing an uphill battle from not only from Republicans, but from members of his own party. Will failing to reform health care have the same consequences for Obama's administration as it did for Clinton's? Like Obama, Clinton came into office with reforming the nation's health care system as one of his top priorities. Then-first lady Hillary Clinton, who headed the administration's task force on reforming the system, delivered a 1,000-page plan that was dubbed \"Hillary Care,\" which required Americans and permanent resident aliens to enroll in a health plan. Other provisions included Americans below a certain income level paying nothing for care. Republicans decried the plan as overcomplicated and used it to tag the administration as big government-loving, tax-and-spend liberals. The plan's failure emboldened Republicans and led to huge Democratic losses in the 1994 midterm elections, allowing the GOP to take control of Congress and stymie other Clinton initiatives. Now, 15 years later, Obama potentially faces a similar fate. Obama seeks the overhaul to ensure that health insurance is available to the 46 million Americans currently without coverage while preventing costs to both the government and individuals from continuing to climb. Watch more on the health care debate \u00bb . The president had set a deadline for passage of a bill before the August congressional recess, but in an interview Monday with PBS's Jim Lehrer, the president said that if Congress tells him it's \"going to spill over by a few days or a week,\" that's fine. iReport.com: Weigh in on the health care debate . A senior White House official adds that while there is a \"long way to go\" in coming up with legislation, there is a true effort being made to devise a bipartisan plan. See how the plans compare \u00bb . \"[The Senate] is working in a bipartisan way and despite all of the cacophony of attacks you've heard from some Republicans, I think you've got to give some credit to the Republicans on the finance committee who are making right now a good faith effort, despite pressure, probably from their own party, to work with Democrats to try to come up with something that people can get behind,\" said White House Communications Director Anita Dunn on Wednesday. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, says in order for health care reform to get passed, it will take a well-coordinated bipartisan effort. \"I think the president is right. He really does want a bipartisan effort. And that's what it's going to take for it to be for the American people. But the approach to it is kind of like a doctor practicing bad medicine where you fix only symptoms and don't treat the disease. ... the disease is only going to get worse.\" But the battle over health care reform is weighed down by complex problems, competing interests, a $1 trillion price tag, conservative Democrats in sticker shock and Republicans sensing an opportunity to regain some of the power they lost in the 2006 congressional elections. Conservative Bill Kristol wrote in his blog that there is an opportunity to inflict political damage to the president and that opponents shouldn't compromise: . \"My advice, for what it's worth: Resist the temptation,\" Kristol wrote. \"This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill.\" The White House has so far resisted another idea for raising revenue -- creating a tax on the medical benefits provided by employers. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said he likes the idea, but Obama said it could be too disruptive to a system in which 180 million Americans have health coverage provided by their employers. But while Obama has remained mostly popular in national polls so far, support for his health care plan has begun to wane. A CNN Poll of Polls released Wednesday indicates that less than half the country approves of how he's handling the issue. Forty-seven percent in the poll approve of how the president is dealing with health care reform, with 44 percent disapproving. The poll averaged the three most recent national surveys that asked about Obama's performance on health care: USA Today\/Gallup (July 17-19); ABC\/Washington Post (July 15-18) and CBS News (July 9-12). Meanwhile, Coburn -- a fierce opponent of the current plans being worked up in Congress -- says that Congress needs to slow down. \"Getting this right is better than meeting a political deadline ... I want him to back off the timeline,\" he said. \"Let's start over ... let's fix it all and do it in a way that the American people won't charge it to their grandkids.\" CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, who has worked under several administrations, including Clinton's, says there's is concern that Obama may be trying to ram health care legislation through Congress as he did with the economic stimulus plan. \"And they [Americans] don't have a lot of confidence in the past effort in the stimulus plan to put together something comprehensive and -- 'here we go again' ... something that looks like it's being thrown together to many people in the public. So they're not confident that they want it. And Coburn's argument -- along with nearly all congressional Republicans' -- could pose a risk to Obama's political capital with Americans. Gergen agrees. \"I think he's got two other problems: One is that he doesn't have a firm plan to sell. ... Second thing is, from his point of view, there are many in the public that'd like to hear from him and also like to see just how he's negotiating the plan,\" he said. \"What they look for is a leadership that says, 'Here's where we're going to go,' not a leadership that says, 'I'm urging Congress to make more progress' \" Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who Obama had tapped to be Health and Human Services director and the point person on health care reform before tax problems derailed his nomination, said getting health care reform passed now will be a major factor in defining Obama's presidency. \"Because he's made it such an issue, and because he has invested so much personal time and effort, this will, more than stimulus and more than anything he has done so far, be a measure of his clout and of his success early on,\" Daschle was quoted in the New York Times. \"And because it is early on, it will define his subsequent years.\" CNN's Dana Bash, Paul Steinhauser and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama is urging Congress to come up with a health care reform plan .\nCNN analyst sees similarities between Obama's push and Clinton's in 1994 .\nObama and top Democrats are seeking coverage for 46 million Americans .","id":"84c6cb2cc439cb2082f79f7cb084dd289130ac02"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- She stood by her husband throughout the contentious 2008 presidential campaign and during heated health care reform debates during his presidency. First lady Michelle Obama listens to remarks during a health care forum at the White House on Friday. Now, as the debate is reaching a fever pitch, first lady Michelle Obama is weighing in on the issue by focusing on how health care can affect families. \"What she's doing is putting a personal and human face on the issue ... there's nothing more crucial,\" said Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn. \"Everybody gets sick, and everybody has someone in the family that gets sick.\" \"I think if you can humanize it and personalize it, it suddenly brings it home to people -- especially those who are screaming and yelling about the government taking over,\" Quinn said. On Friday, the first lady, a former hospital administrator, spoke about the issue to a crowd at the White House, highlighting her own family's experience with health care. In one touching moment, Obama recalled when daughter Sasha exhibited signs of potentially deadly meningitis when she was 4 months old. \"We didn't know what, but he [the doctor] told us she could have meningitis, so we were terrified. He said get to the emergency room right away,\" she said. \"Fortunately, things worked out.\" \"But it is that moment in our lives that flashes through my head every time we engage in this health insurance conversation. It's that moment in my life, because I think about what on earth would we have done if we had not had insurance.\" Mrs. Obama not only faced the issue as a mother, but also as a daughter. \"My father has multiple sclerosis. He contracted it in his 20s. ... He was able to get up and go to work every day, even though it got harder for him as he got sicker and more debilitated. And I find myself thinking what would we had done as a family on the south side of Chicago if my father hadn't had insurance.\" Watch more of Michelle Obama's message \u00bb . Quinn says that personal story is critical in the health care debate -- something that has been lacking in the president's message so far, which has often been deemed by pundits as too policy-oriented and too surgical in nature. \"What she's doing is she's humanizing the issue. And I think that has been missing in their [White House] campaign,\" she says. \"He's been so focused on the details and the strategy and the money that the individual problems and issues have seemed to have gotten lost in the fray.\" Gloria Borger, a CNN senior political analyst, agreed. \"I think she's always been a great asset to him,\" she said. \"She can help in this health care debate by not getting involved in the minutiae of the bills, but essentially emphasizing the reason we need health care reform. And that's what she will stick to.\" Michelle Obama was a lightning rod -- both good and bad -- throughout her husband's presidential campaign. Now, in her role as first lady, she has garnered greater support among American voters from both parties. A national survey by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press in April found that the first lady's positive ratings have increased since her husband took office. The poll found that 76 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of her, which is up from 68 percent in January. \"Much of the change has come among Republicans, especially Republican women,\" the organization noted. \"About two-thirds of Republican women [67 percent] have a favorable impression of Michelle Obama, a gain of 21 points since January.\" But a first lady's involvement in health care reform is nothing new. In the early '90s, first lady Hillary Clinton spearheaded the Clinton administration's push for reform, holding meetings, testifying before congressional committees and, in general, taking charge of the issue. \"Hillary Clinton was the architect of health care reform,\" Borger said. As for whether Michelle Obama is mirroring Clinton's role, the answer from both Borger and Quinn is absolutely not. \"I don't see any parallels at all. ... The Clintons came in, and they had run on the platform of buy one, get one free, a co-presidency and all of that. And she took over this huge thing herself. Bill wasn't doing it,\" Quinn said. She said the president, not Michelle Obama, was the was the one who pushed health care reform in his early domestic agenda. \"He promised in his campaign, and then he's the one that did it. This is not Michelle's plan. She hasn't been doing the town meetings and the national press conferences,\" she added. Borger said that the first lady is playing a completely different role. \"It's a much more supportive role, and it's a role out of the policy arena, but more in the arena of just why we ought to think we need reform.\"","highlights":"First lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks on health care reform Friday .\nObama recalls personal health stories about her daughter and father .\nAnalysts say her personal touch on the thorny issue could help her husband .","id":"3e718ba8bbc51fc19b19c3623614c3219acad953"} -{"article":"HOHENWALD, Tennessee (CNN) -- A pair of African elephants tramps through lush vegetation, stopping to scoop dust with their trunks and toss it onto their backs for protection from the summer sun. Tarra, who was a year old when Buckley met her, was the inspiration for The Elephant Sanctuary. Meanwhile, two others submerge their massive forms to splash and dip in the waters of a muddy pond. It's a scene that could have been pulled from a nature documentary. But it takes place in an unlikely spot: a 2,700-acre sanctuary in rural Tennessee. It's not where nature intended the animals to be, roaming free in the vast expanses of subtropical Africa and Asia. But for most of them, it's a life far apart from the ones they once lived. Tarra lived in the back of a truck at a tire store. Shirley performed at a circus until she broke her leg on a chain. Then, she was moved to the freak show. And Sissy was treated like a killer. She crushed a handler in her enclosure at a Texas zoo where video shows she'd been beaten into submission with ax handles. \"We consider all of these elephants to be rescue elephants, because they are taken out of that environment that is not healthy for them,\" said Carol Buckley, co-founder of the Elephant Sanctuary. Founded in 1995 on 112 acres about 30 miles southwest of Nashville, the sanctuary is now the largest natural refuge of its kind in the United States. Twenty-four elephants, most of them sick, old or abused, have lived at the sanctuary; it is currently home to 15 African and Asian elephants. It's a place where elephants can roam freely, largely feed and shelter themselves and interact with others, often after years living alone in captivity. But Buckley and Scott Blais, the nonprofit sanctuary's co-founder, are very clear about what it's not. The sanctuary is not a zoo. Visitors aren't allowed onto the property to view the elephants, and only a handful of media members are able to visit each year, in an effort to make the animals' lives as natural as possible. \"In order to accommodate the public, you would have to take away from the elephants,\" Buckley said. \"People have their own emotions, that energy,\" Buckley said. \"If you feel fear and they get close, they're going to get hit with your energy. For Buckley, the journey to running the sanctuary -- which operates on private donations and corporate sponsorships -- started with Tarra. Studying to be a circus trainer, she bought the elephant, then just a year old, and trained her to perform. But as the years passed and the relationship between animal and trainer strengthened, Buckley came to believe that captivity, particularly in a traveling circus, was no life for an elephant. \"I didn't realize that elephants in captivity were suffering and that to train and dominate an elephant was really breaking their spirit,\" she said. \"When you come to love elephants, when you really come to understand them and love them, you want more for them. \"And when you learn how elephants live in the wild, it just makes sense that you would want to create a space that resembles that so elephants can just be elephants.\" From years in the circus and in zoos, Buckley and Tarra made their way to a breeding program at a Canadian wildlife safari, where they met Blais. It was then that the idea for the Elephant Sanctuary was born. \"We started talking about elephants in captivity and what we could do and what we should be doing for them, what they truly deserved,\" Blais said. At the preserve, the elephants feed themselves primarily by grazing -- the Asian elephants eat as much as 100 pounds of grass a day -- supplemented with grains and vitamins from the staff. They share space with deer, wild turkey, raccoons, skunks and other native Tennessee animals. Life in a circus, and in most zoos, is abusive to elephants, highly intelligent and social animals who, in the wild, may roam dozens of miles in a single day, the pair said. Research has shown that elephants, like humans, can suffer post-traumatic stress disorder after living in harsh or abusive conditions. Watch more on life at the Elephant Sanctuary. \u00bb . \"Typically, when elephants are in captivity, they're under a lot of stress,\" Blais said. \"Their entire life is abnormal; it's unnatural, and that can often lead to aggression. \"Some will resign themselves and just kind of end up in this blank space, and others will act out, just venting their frustrations, but it's because of what captivity offers or what captivity doesn't offer them.\" The elephants generally arrive at the sanctuary in one of two ways: Either the government finds that an owner is abusing the animals and seizes them, or the owners approach the sanctuary on their own, wanting a better life for the animals. In their 14-year history, Blais and Buckley say, they've been able to raise enough funds to keep expanding the sanctuary and its facilities. But tough economic times are taking a toll this year, and for the first time, they are nervous they'll bring in less money than they spend. But the mission of providing a home for the elephants they love will continue, they say. \"We feel incredibly fortunate to be doing what we do,\" Buckley said. \"It's hard work, it's long days, it's long weeks, but you're not going to hear us complain about it, because we're fortunate, and we know that. \"This is the most amazing work to do in a person's lifetime.\"","highlights":"The Elephant Sanctuary takes in old, injured, abused animals .\n2,700-acre facility is largest of its kind in the United States .\nSite closed to the public to make elephants' lives closer to in the wild .\nDonations have always exceeded needs, but economy not keeping up this year .","id":"ca1f28840734f754d83b72620fc5a1b41d862fd3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Television pioneer and longtime CBS executive Don Hewitt, the creator of \"60 Minutes,\" has died, the network said Wednesday. He was 86. Don Hewitt joined CBS News in 1948. Hewitt, who had been battling pancreatic cancer, died at his home in Bridgehampton, New York, surrounded by his family, CBS said. The winner of eight Emmy and two Peabody awards, Hewitt began working for CBS News as an associate director in 1948. He was executive producer of \"60 Minutes\" when it premiered on CBS on September 24, 1968. Hewitt stepped down in June 2004, but the program remains on the air and is the number-one news program, according to CBS News' Web site. \"In the history of journalism, there have been few who were as creative, dynamic and versatile as Don Hewitt,\" said CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves. \"The depth and breadth of his accomplishments are impossible to measure, because since the very beginnings of our business, he quite literally invented so many of the vehicles by which we now communicate the news.\" Watch how Hewitt innovated television news \u00bb . \"He was bursting with passion for what we do: telling stories,\" said Jon Klein, president of CNN, who previously worked at CBS and oversaw \"60 Minutes.\" Klein recalled his first day on the job as a 37-year-old, when Hewitt took him to lunch and told him, \"Listen, kid. It's very simple. I have 10 ideas a day. Nine of them are terrible. Your job is to tell me which one is great.\" \"Don Hewitt didn't need a boss,\" Klein said. \"What he needed was somebody to bounce ideas off of.\" \"It is a sad and difficult time for all of us who work at '60 Minutes,' \" Jeff Fager, the program's current executive producer, said in a CBS statement. \"Don was a giant figure in our lives and will always have an impact on this broadcast -- there's a part of him in every one of us, and it affects every decision we make. He will be remembered as a brilliant editor and storyteller, an irrepressible force who changed journalism forever.\" Born in 1922 in New York, Hewitt started his career in newspapers. \"His picture experience prompted a friend in 1948 to tell him about television, where CBS News had a job opening,\" according to a CBS statement. He told reporters years later his response was: \"Whatavision?\" He directed the first television network newscast on May 3, 1948, featuring Douglas Edwards, the network said. In 1960, he was named executive producer of \"The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite,\" a position he held for five years. In 1963, the Cronkite broadcast became the first to go to a half-hour format. Hewitt's innovations included the use of cue cards for news readers -- an early version of the electronic teleprompter that is used today, CBS said. In addition, he was the first to use \"supers\" -- captions and other written information superimposed on the lower third of the television screen, Klein said. And he was the first to use the film \"double\" -- cutting back and forth between projectors, CBS said. Hewitt also produced and directed coverage for the three main television networks for the first-ever televised presidential debate in 1960 between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. \"Critics have long maintained that Kennedy won the debate because he looked better,\" CBS said. Hewitt recalled that he offered makeup to Kennedy first, but he refused, and Nixon followed suit. \"But the suntanned Kennedy was a vigorous contrast to Nixon, whose pasty complexion put his five o'clock shadow in high relief,\" CBS said. In hindsight, Hewitt recalled the incident as \"the first step in the dangerous dance between politicians and the special interests that provide the big money to buy the now-crucial political television advertising,\" CBS said. Hewitt was removed from his post at \"The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite\" after what CBS refers to as \"the NBC playbook incident,\" according to CBS. Hewitt found a lost copy of NBC's coverage playbook at the 1964 Republican Convention and pocketed it, intending to use it to scoop his competitors. He gave it back \"after an NBC producer, it is said, threatened to throw him out a hotel window,\" CBS said. Following his removal from the news program, Hewitt \"knew he was off the frontlines,\" according to CBS News. \"Exiled with time on his hands, Hewitt then slowly emerged with the idea for what would become the most successful television program in history.\" Hewitt has publicly said that the lowest point for \"60 Minutes\" was the Jeffrey Wigand story -- an interview with the highest-ranking tobacco executive to become a whistleblower. The interview was held back by CBS management out of fear of a $10 billion lawsuit that could bankrupt the company, according to the network statement. \"The initial spiking of the interview, in which Wigand revealed tobacco executives knew and covered up the fact that tobacco caused disease, led to an unusual '60 Minutes' segment,\" CBS' statement said. \"A portion of it, with Wigand disguised, was broadcast, followed by an unprecedented rebuke of management read on the air by Mike Wallace.\" The interview was aired in its entirety a few months later, in February 1997. A movie about the incident, \"The Insider\" was made the following year. Hewitt said he felt he had no choice but to comply with management, opting to \"fight another day\" instead of quit, CBS said. But he later acknowledged in a documentary he was not proud of his actions at the time. He often told reporters inquiring about the secret of \"60 Minutes\" that it was four words every child knows: \"Tell me a story.\" Hewitt authored two books -- \"Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years,\" and \"Minute by Minute.\" Hewitt won every major award in television journalism and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1990. After leaving \"60 Minutes\" in 2004, Hewitt was named executive producer of CBS News, where his duties included brainstorming ideas for television news and working on specials, the network said. As recently as 2007, Hewitt was executive producer of the first-ever network television special coverage of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show on NBC. Hewitt is survived by his wife of 30 years, Marilyn Berger, along with his children and grandchildren, CBS said. His funeral will be private.","highlights":"Television news pioneer, 86, was battling pancreatic cancer .\nHewitt innovated cue cards and captions, created \"60 Minutes\" in 1968 .\n\"60 Minutes\" executive producer: He was a \"force who changed journalism forever\"\nAward-winning journalist inducted into Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1990 .","id":"1d47e96ea19b29de49a2bb7e7cf28cc98a94351f"} -{"article":"SANTIAGO, Chile (CNN) -- Arrest warrants for more than 120 former soldiers and agents of Chile's National Intelligence Directorate were issued Tuesday for alleged human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, CNN Chile reported. Nearly 2,300 people disappeared during the rule of Augusto Pinochet, 1973-1990, say government reports. The scale of the order by Judge Victor Montiglio makes this the largest human rights prosecution case in Chile's history. The Pinochet dictatorship ruled from 1973-1990, after which Chile returned to civilian rule under a democratically elected government. Government investigations conducted after Pinochet left power say nearly 2,300 people disappeared during the dictatorship and another 30,000 were tortured. At least 51 of the warrants were in connection with a disinformation campaign in the 1970s known as Operation Colombo that historians say was aimed at hiding human rights abuses. Other warrants were linked to Operation Condor, which involved a network of secret police agencies in the region that targeted political opponents in the mid- and late-1970s, and a plot against communist leaders known as the Calle Conferencia case. About half of those named in the warrants were facing charges related to the Pinochet regime for the first time. The warrants included former military and police officers who were members of Pinochet's feared intelligence service, known as DINA.","highlights":"Arrest warrants for more than 120 former soldiers and agents issued Tuesday .\nWarrants for alleged human rights violations during rule of Augusto Pinochet .\nPinochet dictatorship ruled from 1973-1990 .\n2,300 people disappeared during Pinochet's rule, say government reports .","id":"ef321bc5712f3f81f99888c5da7820cf9c380da7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspect in the killing of Yale pharmacology graduate student Annie Le appeared in court in New Haven, Connecticut, Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, his attorney told CNN. Raymond J. Clark III appears in court Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut, where he is charged with murder. Raymond Clark III, 24, a lab technician at Yale, is charged with murder in Le's death. Tuesday's scheduled hearing was continued until October 20. It is standard procedure for defendants in murder cases not to enter a plea until a later stage in the case, public defender Beth Merkin told CNN. Clark eventually will plead not guilty, she said. Clark, of Branford, Connecticut, is being held in lieu of $3 million bail. The body of Le, 24, was found inside a wall of a Yale lab building on September 12 -- the day she was to be married. She had been strangled, the Connecticut medical examiner's office determined. Clark is not a Yale student, but has worked as a lab technician at the university since 2004. He lived with his girlfriend, who also is a Yale lab technician, according to New Haven police. Follow a timeline of the case \u00bb . A Yale faculty member described Clark's job as maintaining colonies for animals used in research. The lab is in the basement of the building where Le's body was found. A motive in Le's killing was unclear, but police said they were treating the case as workplace violence. Yale has announced a memorial service for Le on October 12. The university is also establishing a scholarship in her memory. Le was buried in California on September 26. \"You were born in my loving embrace,\" said Le's mother, Vivian Van Le, reading a poem she'd written in Vietnamese to those gathered for the funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills. Her son and Annie Le's brother, Chris Le, provided a translation. \"The most wonderful gift that God had sent to me. ... You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things. All the dreams and hopes of your future gone with you to your resting place,\" Vivian Van Le said, according to her son.","highlights":"NEW: Yale employee Raymond Clark defers plea, attorney says .\nNEW: Deferring plea is common practice in similar cases, lawyer says .\nClark and victim Annie Le were co-workers at university laboratory .\nLe's body was found in wall of lab building on day she was to be married .","id":"0c7729725a22acd3d7430a84f487b7933717f33d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You can't get through a conversation with Jesse Dayton without hearing a reference to Texas at least once. Musician Jesse Dayton has branched out to a new fanbase by collaborating with Rob Zombie. He wears the name Beaumont, his birthplace, like a badge of honor and he rolls through a set list of stories about his musical collaborations in the Lone Star state with humble pride. Dayton has earned a hard core following in Texas. But his recent collaborations with rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie have earned him an unexpected fan base -- among horror movie fans. Most recently, Dayton joined Zombie to record a soundtrack for the movie \"Halloween II\" as Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures -- a gig that also earned him some time on screen. Watch Dayton discuss his new project \u00bb . Dayton spoke to CNN recently about his career and newfound fan base. The following is a portion of that interview: . CNN: You have a lot of appreciation for Waylon Jennings. Dayton: I was actually on a talk show in Nashville [Tennessee] and Waylon was cooking with his wife, Jessi Colter. They were watching the show I was on because Kris Kristofferson was on. They saw me and called me the next morning and said, \"Waylon cut his finger. He wants you to come down here.\" So it was a total fluke. Waylon was like my Elvis, especially growing up. My earliest memories were my mom's 8-track in the parlor listening to Willie [Nelson] and Waylon. CNN: You are not really part of the Nashville music scene. Why? Dayton: I'm not intentionally staying away from what's going on in Nashville. I'm just being myself. Texas is like a whole other planet. Bob Wills got kicked off the Grand Ole Opry. Willie Nelson didn't get on the radio until he left Nashville. There's a long history of that. I don't put down Nashville. They're just doing what they're supposed to do, which is sell as many records as they can. But we've just learned that there's a whole crowd of people out there that love Johnny Cash but aren't into what they're playing on country radio. That's been the crowd we're attracting. The cool thing we love about having a cult following is that radio and record companies can never take that away from us. It's something we went out and earned one fan at a time. I love looking out in the crowd and seeing one guy with a cowboy hat on, one guy with long hair from the Rob Zombie camp and maybe some rockabilly kids. CNN: What is the story behind your collaboration with Rob Zombie in 2005? Dayton: He said, \"Hey man, we're making the ultimate white trash horror movie called 'The Devil's Rejects.' We think your music would be perfect for it\" which is kind of a left-handed compliment, I guess. CNN: Now you're appearing in \"Halloween II\" and recorded a soundtrack for the movie? Dayton: It's really fun for me. We're taking on this whole identity of this band. The record's going to be called \"Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures.\" [Zombie] would call me and say, \"Hey, I got this idea for this song called 'Doctor Demon and the Robot Girl' \" or [he would ask me to write] a sort of '60s country thing-meets Tom Jones. CNN: Are you a good actor? Dayton: Elvis said, \"The only thing worse than seeing a bad movie is being in one.\" I think the only thing worse than watching a bad actor is being one. I don't take it seriously at all. I'm just a musician who's there for color. If I can show up and be myself and not have to act? Perfect.","highlights":"Country musician Jesse Dayton has gained fans among lovers of horror films .\nDayton has been collaborating with rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie .\nPair recorded \"Halloween II\" soundtrack and Dayton does some acting in movie .","id":"b32b89ff36bf6aeaabcf9f7cd7f8d590020a3aec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It may have a fairy tale ending -- a story of perseverance and second chances that's playing out live on the public stage of online networking. Brianna Karp's trailer now sits outside a friend's home near Los Angeles . But 24-year-old Brianna Karp's story started as a nightmare. In a rocky economy, Karp was laid off from her Irvine, California, job as an executive assistant in July 2008. She got by for a while on temp jobs and unemployment benefits. But when her savings dried up, she was no longer able to afford her rent. The only answer she saw then was a trailer she'd inherited from her father -- a man she barely knew who had recently committed suicide. \"I was left with a truck and this camper, which I was going to sell but coincidentally this happened to me,\" she said. \"I thought, 'Well, I have this.' \" Karp, who writes that she is also estranged from her mother, ended up camped in a Los Angeles-area Walmart parking lot. \"The first night, I think, in the Walmart parking lot was the scariest,\" she told CNN. \"I was panicking, and I was just afraid.\" For comfort, she had her mastiff named Fezzik. And she had her laptop computer. As she spent five months looking for jobs and blasting out resumes, often spending hour after hour at a coffee shop to take advantage of its free Wi-Fi connection, she also started blogging. The result, the Girl's Guide to Homelessness, chronicled the ups and downs of her new life. She reminisced about adopting her dog, named for a character from the movie \"The Princess Bride,\" and mulled the pros and cons of having a pet while homeless. She recounted details from failed job interviews and offered tips for other homeless women. \"I was trying to stay positive and cheerful,\" Karp said. \"I started writing the blog in a tongue-in-cheek way to kind of laugh about my circumstances, keep them chronicled. I didn't think anyone would actually read it.\" Watch CNN's Ted Rowland's report on Brianna. \u00bb . But people did, including Matt Barnes, formerly homeless himself and running a Web site about his own homelessness issues in Scotland. He asked her to write for his site and would eventually become Brianna's boyfriend. Another big break came through a shot at the weird world of reality television. Karp applied for a show that would offer contestants the chance at a job with Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. She was granted an audition for the show and, by her own account, totally botched it. \"I went back and blogged about bombing the interview and made fun of myself,\" she said. On a lark, she then wrote to Carroll via her column. \"Dear E. Jean: I'm currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot,\" her e-mail began. \"I'm educated, I have never done drugs and I'm not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I'm rocking it as best as I can.\" She told Carroll about her poor interview for the show and finished the note with the question, \"How does one get another shot when one screws up a job interview? -- Homeless, but Not Hopeless.\" Carroll said she was floored by the note. \"[The phrase] 'I'm living in a Walmart parking lot' hooked me,\" she said. \"I thought, she's so ready to work, obviously she can write, she's got some skills.\" Her response appeared in the August issue of Elle -- she offered Karp an internship and a chance to write a fashion blog for the magazine. \"I think she's a new voice,\" Carroll said. \"She's a voice we haven't heard, and I'm excited for her future.\" Not that all of her troubles were instantly over. Last month, she wrote, Walmart finally had her trailer towed, and she has now parked her mobile home at a friend's house outside Los Angeles. She's also still seeking that elusive full-time job, while hoping her newfound high profile will help spread the word about homelessness, and how it can happen to the most unlikely people. \"If you saw me walking down the street, you wouldn't assume I live in a parking lot,\" she writes on the blog. \"In short, I am just like you, except without the convenience of a permanent address.\" CNN's Doug Gross contributed to this report.","highlights":"24-year-old went from being executive assistant to homelessness after layoff .\nKarp lived in Walmart parking lot, and her blog started grabbing attention .\nElle columnist: \"I'm excited for her future\"\nKarp hopes blog will educate people about homelessness .","id":"f05838711d8ba0643a6cdc6fc9858a3e6381515c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California corrections officials released a startling new prison mug shot of Grammy-winning music legend Phil Spector, convicted last month of second-degree murder and serving 19 years to life in prison. Phil Spector's prison mug shot, taken June 5, shows him without a hairpiece. Spector, 69, is being held at North Kern State Prison, where he is being evaluated before receiving a permanent prison assignment, corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle said. The process could take up to 70 days. The mug shot, which shows a bald-pated Spector, was taken on June 5 as part of the routine intake process. California prison inmates are not permitted to wear wigs under Title 15, Article 5, Section 3062 of the state's prison regulations, which addresses inmate hygiene. Corrections officials also are concerned that wigs can be used to hide contraband. A judge in Los Angeles sentenced Spector last month to the maximum sentence for second-degree murder in the February 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector, 69, won't be eligible for parole until he is 88 years old. Clarkson, 40, was found dead, slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector's Alhambra mansion with a gunshot wound through the roof of her mouth. View a timeline of the case \u00bb . Spector's retrial began in October and ended in April. It took jurors 30 hours to convict him. His first murder trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial when the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction after 15 days of deliberations. Clarkson starred in the 1985 B-movie \"Barbarian Queen\" and appeared in many other films, including \"Deathstalker,\" \"Blind Date,\" \"Scarface,\" \"Fast Times at Ridgemont High\" and the spoof \"Amazon Women on the Moon.\" She was working as a VIP hostess at Hollywood's House of Blues at the time of her death. At both trials, Spector's attorneys argued Clarkson was depressed over a recent breakup and her flagging Hollywood career. They said she grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and killed herself while at Spector's home. But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace. Five women took the stand and testified he threatened them with firearms. His driver testified he heard a loud noise and saw Spector leave the home, pistol in hand, saying, \"I think I killed somebody.\" Spector's professional trademark was the \"Wall of Sound,\" the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label, named for Spector and his business partner, Lester Sill, in the early 1960s. CNN's Alan Duke contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Newly released photo taken at state prison intake center on June 5 .\nMusic producer serving 19 years to life for 2003 slaying of Lana Clarkson .\nActress was found shot dead in foyer of Spector's California mansion .\nJury deadlocked at first trial, Spector convicted of second-degree murder at retrial .","id":"7d1c55571dc1c66164e3cfd69ffb3be78b00d626"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A proposed health-care compromise by the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee lacks a government-run insurance option favored by Democrats and would tax the most expensive health insurance plans, a source close to the discussions told CNN Monday. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, is the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. As expected, the proposal from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, excludes the public insurance option to compete with private insurers. However, it would allow for the creation of nonprofit health care cooperatives -- an idea that some moderate Democrats and Republicans have expressed possible interest in supporting. The potential compromise proposal was sent to key Finance Committee negotiators Saturday night. It is considered a last-ditch effort to secure Republican votes for a health-care bill as President Obama pushes the issue with a planned speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. So far, none of the three Republican senators involved in talks with Baucus on the compromise have indicated whether they support the version he is proposing. Congressional liberals are pushing strongly for inclusion of a public option; conservatives are sharply opposed. Obama has said he supports a public option but has not clearly indicated he will veto a bill that fails to include it. On Monday, Obama reiterated his support for a public option in a Labor Day speech to a union gathering in Cincinnati. He outlined Democratic health-care proposals that include a public option as part of a menu of insurance choices, including private health-care plans, that the legislation would create. \"I continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs,\" Obama said to loud cheers. The president also indicated he would push hard for the House and Senate to move forward on passing health-care legislation in his upcoming address to Congress. \"The Congress and the country have been engaged in a vigorous debate for many months,\" Obama said. \"And the debate has been good, and that's important because we have to get this right. \"But every debate at some point comes to an end,\" he continued, to growing applause. \"At some point, it's time to decide. At some point, it's time to act. And Ohio, it's time to act to get this done.\" Baucus' bill would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years, according to the source who spoke to CNN. The price tag is at least $100 billion less than any other health-care reform bill under consideration by Congress, the source said. As with other reform proposals, the bill would bar insurance companies from dropping a policyholder in the event of illness as long as that person has paid his or her premium in full. It adds new protections for people with pre-existing conditions and establishes tax credits to help low and middle-income families purchase insurance coverage, the source noted. It creates health insurance exchanges to make it easier for small groups and individuals to buy insurance. The bill would be paid for, in part, by a new tax on health insurance companies that provide high-end \"Cadillac\" insurance plans, the source added. Supporters of such a tax -- initially proposed by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats several weeks ago -- say will it help curb the cost of health care by discouraging employers from offering such plans. They also argue that consumers, in turn, will be discouraged from overusing the health care system. Watch senators discuss health care talks \u00bb . Critics claim the new tax will cause insurance companies to raise rates on all of their customers, even those without more expensive plans. The so-called \"Gang of Six\" Senate negotiators -- a group of three Democrats and three Republicans on the Finance Committee -- is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the proposal. The source, while stressing that the proposed bill is not a final product, said it closely reflects the group's work and areas of agreement. Obama's planned speech to Congress reflects how overhauling the nation's ailing health-care system has become his top domestic priority. He laced his speech Monday with references to health care costs rising at three times the rate of wages, and insurance industry practices that deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or prevent people from obtaining coverage if they lose their jobs. Multiple sources told CNN Friday that the administration is preparing for the possibility of delivering its own legislation to Capitol Hill sometime after the president's address. One source called the possibility of new legislation a \"contingency\" approach if efforts by Baucus to craft a deal fall through. A big open question is whether two Republican members of the Gang of Six -- Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming -- will support the bipartisan proposal. White House and Democratic leadership sources have said for some time they do not think Grassley and Enzi will sign on. A source close to the White House said Friday that the administration is leaning toward dropping the public option, and continues to zero in on trying to convince moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, another of the Senate Finance Committee negotiators, to come on board. Snowe and the White House have been discussing a trigger provision that would mandate creation of a public health insurance option if specific thresholds for expanded coverage and other changes are not met. Support by Snowe would improve the chances of the Senate's Democratic majority to compile the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster against a health care bill. The Senate Finance Committee is the last of five congressional committees needed to approve health-care legislation before it can be taken up by the full Senate and House of Representatives. Different forms of the legislation proposed by Democrats have already cleared three House committees, as well as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. CNN's Ted Barrett and Dana Bash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Compromise lacks a government-run insurance option favored by some Democrats .\nMax Baucus' proposal to negotiators would allow nonprofit cooperatives instead .\nSource says bill would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years .\nSome funding would come from new tax on companies with high-end plans .","id":"eb5edae75bd90fc6f61c6640a3037354cb1d1151"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Vera Lynn, who made her name entertaining troops in World War II after recording her first song 70 years ago, has become the oldest living artist to have a number one album. At 92, Vera Lynn is the oldest person to have a number one album. The 92-year-old's album \"We'll Meet Again -- The Very Best of Vera Lynn\" took the top spot in the British charts on Sunday, even outselling much-hyped re-mastered versions of the Beatles' back catalogue, according to the UK's Official Charts Company. The previous oldest living artist to top the charts was Bob Dylan, who at 67 saw his album \"Together Through Life\" become number one in the UK earlier this year. \"I am extremely surprised and delighted, and a big 'thank you' to all my fans for putting me there,\" Lynn said, according the UK Press Association. During the war, Lynn was known as the \"Forces' Sweetheart\" for hits such as \"The White Cliffs of Dover\" which struck a chord with British soldiers fighting overseas and audiences at home. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II awarded the veteran singer the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1959 and in 1975 made her a dame. According to the Official Charts Company, the reissued Beatles albums took in the fifth, sixth, ninth, 10th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 31st, 33rd, 37th and 38th spots.","highlights":"Vera Lynn is oldest living artist to have a number one album .\n92-year-old made her name as \"Forces' Sweetheart\" during World War II .\nHits include \"We'll Meet Again,\" and \"White Cliffs of Dover\"","id":"90a180a9a9f7b74c7ac332237b5faca34daf107d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Claudette is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle by early Monday, and the storm's outer bands already were pounding the area with heavy rain Sunday evening. Tropical Storm Claudette is seen off the coast of Destin, Florida, on Sunday afternoon. Claudette appeared on track to hit somewhere between Destin, Florida, and Panama City Beach, Florida, late Sunday or early Monday before moving through the panhandle and into southern Alabama, CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said. Heavy rain from Claudette was hitting some of the Florida Panhandle counties Sunday, and some coastal areas there had the potential for localized flooding, said John Cherry, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. \"What we're just mainly asking is residents to stay off the roads tonight, and if you do approach a flooded area on a roadway, turn around,\" Cherry said. Shortly before 11 p.m. ET, the center of Claudette, with maximum sustained winds near 50 mph, was in the Gulf of Mexico about 25 miles west of Panama City, Florida, and about 70 miles east-southeast of Pensacola, the National Hurricane Center said. It was moving northwest at about 12 mph. A tropical storm warning was in effect from the Alabama-Florida border east to the Aucilla River. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected in the warning area in the next 24 hours. The storm could bring 3 to 6 inches of rain, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches, across portions of the Florida Panhandle, central and southern Alabama and extreme southwestern Georgia. Storm surges and isolated tornadoes also were possible across portions of North Florida. Authorities urged voluntary evacuations in the low-lying Alligator Point area of Florida's Franklin County because of concerns about possible flooding, said Mike Stone, spokesman for the Florida Emergency Operations Center. He said he knew of no other evacuations in the state. Mariners in the Panhandle and Big Bend areas of Florida should stay at harbor, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said in a statement. Meanwhile, two other severe storms were in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. Tropical Depression Ana, which was downgraded from a tropical storm Sunday afternoon, was moving across the Leeward Islands late Sunday, while Tropical Storm Bill was gaining strength as it followed behind Ana. iReport.com: Are you in Claudette's path? Ana was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Guadeloupe shortly before 11 p.m. ET Sunday. It was expected to enter the northeastern Caribbean Sea and weaken as it approaches the Dominican Republic on Monday, the center said. It was moving east near 26 mph, and its maximum sustained winds were close to 35 mph, the center said. Tropical storm watches were in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, St. Barthelemey, and part of the Dominican Republic. Ana was expected to drop 2 to 4 inches of rain over the Leeward Islands, with isolated maximum amounts of 6 inches possible over mountainous terrain, the hurricane center said. Tropical Storm Bill -- which is forecast to become a hurricane on Monday -- was in the Atlantic heading west-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. The storm's center was about 1,320 miles (2,120 kilometers) east of the Lesser Antilles shortly before 11 p.m. ET Sunday.","highlights":"Tropical Storm Claudette expected to hit land by Monday morning .\nStorm's maximum sustained winds near 50 mph .\nVoluntary evacuations urged in part of Franklin County, Florida, for flooding concerns .\nTropical Storm Bill forecast to become a hurricane Monday .","id":"b3c52d26cff6006f6439842b6f53fd258adb953f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman who said she had a mother-daughter relationship with slain model Jasmine Fiore told CNN's Larry King on Thursday night that Fiore never informed her that she had been married. An arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, wanted in the death of ex-wife Jasmine Fiore. Gwendolyn Beauregard said Fiore was a close friend of her two sons, and she met the future model when Fiore was just 11. Despite the close ties -- \"she called me mommy and she was my daughter\" -- Beauregard was in the dark about Fiore's marriage to Ryan Jenkins. The marriage reportedly was annulled a few weeks after their Las Vegas, Nevada, wedding. An arrest warrant for murder has been issued for Jenkins, a reality TV contestant. Authorities believe he's fled to Canada. Fiore's body was found Saturday, stuffed into a suitcase and left in a Dumpster in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim in Orange County, California. Interviewed from San Francisco, California, Beauregard told King all she knew about Jenkins was his initial meeting with Fiore. \"She didn't tell me that she married him. She told me [about] the day that they met, which was St. Patrick's Day,\" Beauregard said. \"She called me the day after and she said: 'Mommy, I met the most perfect guy in the world and -- and his name is Ryan.' And she just went on and on and on about Ryan and how perfect he was. And that was all I knew.\" Beauregard told King she's never met Ryan Jenkins. Mike Fleeman, the West Coast editor of People.com, described more details of Fiore's whirlwind courtship with Jenkins to King. \"They met in Las Vegas. Two days later [in March], they got married at the Little White Wedding Chapel. That's, of course, where Britney Spears got married,\" Fleeman told King. \"It was a quickie wedding. We today talked to somebody who was at the wedding. One of the witnesses was an employee of the chapel. A lot of people were shocked that both of them were married. They kept it under wraps. And the marriage had a lot of problems almost from the very beginning,\" Fleeman said. Fleeman told King that Jenkins was arrested and charged with domestic assault against Fiore in Nevada in June and that Jenkins was supposed to go to trial in December. Beauregard told King that Fiore, who was 28 when she died, started modeling in her early 20s. Despite their deep bond, Beauregard said Fiore had ties with her biological mother, Lisa Lepore. \"She was close to her mother, as well, but it was a different type of closeness.\" Adding to the horror of the slaying was that Fiore's teeth had been extracted and her fingers removed. Criminal profiler Pat Brown told Larry King that act provided key crucial evidence early in the investigation. \"It was very clear from the very beginning, when they found her body in a piece of luggage, that we weren't dealing with a serial killer. I knew it was somebody who knew her and [that her killer] wanted to make sure that she was not identified,\" Brown said. \"This is why he [the suspect[ ended up cutting off her fingers ... taking out her teeth. He even got smart. He watched too many crime shows and thought he would get rid of all ID, took away her clothes, put her in the luggage, probably because it's one way to get her of an apartment. And throw it a Dumpster and hope that time will take care of it, she'll decompose, they'll never be able to identify her,\" Brown said. Jenkins has appeared on VH1 shows \"Megan Wants a Millionaire\" and \"I Love Money 3.\" \"This is a very arrogant man,\" Brown said. \"Megan said it right on the show. She said he's a manipulator. He is. He has evidence of psychopathy there.\" The brutality of the crime has hit Fiore's circle of friends hard. \"Ryan Jenkins is an animal,\" said Robert Hasman, a family friend who said Fiore had been his girlfriend for 2 1\/2 years. Watch Hasman speak out \u00bb . \"What he has done to Jasmine is unspeakable. It's just not right.\" He described her as \"a beautiful person who was a very caring individual.\" Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said on \"Larry King Live\" that Jenkins is the only suspect. \"There is no indication that anybody else might be involved,\" he said. \"We believe he's armed because there's a handgun missing from his apartment, which is the last place he was before ... he fled. So it appears that he's armed. And he's certainly dangerous because he's desperate,\" Rackauckas said.","highlights":"Gwendolyn Beauregard says she had mother-daughter relationship with slain model .\nBeauregard says Jasmine Fiore kept her in dark about marriage to Ryan Jenkins .\nJenkins, Fiore got annulment; he's the suspect in her gruesome slaying .\nCriminal profiler says slaying's details showed this was not act of serial killer .","id":"0b4c40a243f1ed165bedca8d942a1476c836ad77"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of people attending Comic-Con in San Diego, California, will transform into zombies on Thursday. A \"zombie walk\" at Comic-Con will promote the upcoming \"Zombieland\" movie. They'll converge in a \"zombie walk\" through the San Diego Convention Center to promote Woody Harrelson's upcoming post-apocalyptic comedy, \"Zombieland.\" Comic-Con is an annual gathering of 125,000 people whose interests include comic book and science fiction film and TV, anime, toys and video games. Major movie studios and TV networks use the convention to launch their latest productions. Zombie movies have been on the rise in recent years, and the type of zombies on the big screen has been evolving with the times. George Romero's 1968 film \"Night of the Living Dead\" -- followed by \"Dawn of the Dead\" -- popularized zombies \"based on the original Haitian voodoo kind of zombie, the supernatural being, the walking dead or the undead,\" said \"Zombieland\" director Ruben Fleischer. Zombie films made \"a seismic shift in zombies with Danny Boyle's film '28 Days Later,' where it became a more viral-based thing, a diseased population, as opposed to from the grave,\" Fleischer said. In \"Zombieland,\" living people are infected by a fast-spreading virus that turns them into \"this other being\" that is fast, ferocious and flesh-eating, he said. \"These modern zombies are reflective of some of the perils of what can happen with overpopulation and disease control and how quickly things can spread and become a problem.\" iReport.com: Going to Comic-Con? Fleischer, along with screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, consulted a disease expert \"to get to the bottom of what the modern pandemic would be,\" he said. \"When swine flu happened, it was after we finished shooting, but it just really reminded me of how these things can spread so quickly and a whole population can be devastated,\" he said. While about 500 extras were hired to be zombies in Fleischer's movie, even more Comic-Con participants could take part in Thursday's zombie walk. Sony has hired professional makeup artists to get them ready. Fleischer said those portraying a modern zombie should think like \"a rabid dog.\" Don't lumber along like Frankenstein's monster, but move with \"a real furious anger and intensity\" and \"a lot of grunting and snarling and growling,\" he said. \"Zombies don't talk.\" Hunger is a modern zombie's chief motivation, he said: \"I think that they're definitely cannibalistic. They want to eat people.\" What does a modern zombie wear? Fleischer's zombies come as they are, whether in a work uniform or dressed for the mall. \"It's as if you were at the mall and some zombies attacked and everyone there got turned into a zombie,\" he said. \"They'd be wearing the same clothes that they had before. They'd be dressed in the same way.\" Fleischer developed a list of 150 types of zombies for his film, including construction workers, moms, a punk rocker and preppie zombies. \"They're just people who got infected, like a modern pandemic,\" he said. \"Zombieland\" -- which hits theaters October 9 -- brings out the humor in killing zombies, which is Harrelson's specialty. \"They're not easy to kill, so sometimes you've got to get them more than once,\" Fleischer said. \"You've got to make sure you get them because they'll keep coming if you don't.\" Harrelson blamed post-traumatic stress from filming for his scuffle with a TMZ photographer at an airport the day after shooting wrapped in Georgia in April. \"With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie,\" Harrelson said. While Harrelson will be at Comic-Con to promote the movie, it was not known if he would be kept away from Thursday's zombie walk.","highlights":"Some Comic-Con attendees will become zombies to celebrate new film .\n\"Zombieland,\" starring Woody Harrelson, to debut in October .\nComic-Con draws more than 100,000 fans annually .","id":"25c60f2d74eeab2737d19aa870c7802b58c660e3"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A European Union delegation met Saturday with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who said the parties had established a \"good rapport.\" President Mugabe and his wife, Grace, arrive for a ZANU PF party youth conference on Friday. \"There was no animosity, it was quite friendly,\" Mugabe said. Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish minister for International Development Cooperation, said the parties \"definitely made some progress.\" \"Of course we didn't agree with everything Mr. Mugabe said, but it was a correct meeting and we exchanged views,\" Carlsson, who is heading the mission, told CNN's Rosemary Church. The delegation met with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai later on Saturday. Carlsson spokesman Peter Larsson had said earlier that \"there was no sense of any hostility from Mugabe.\" Larsson was referring to remarks the Zimbabwean president made Friday, when he condemned \"bloody whites\" for meddling in his country's affairs. Carlsson is heading the mission to Zimbabwe. \"Sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours,\" .Mugabe told his ZANU-PF party's youth conference in Harare on Friday. \"Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say, down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that,\" he said. The European Union imposed travel bans on Mugabe and his representatives in 2002. The bans were imposed after accusations of human rights violations and election fraud. In addition to travel restrictions, the European Union has frozen the assets of more than 200 Zimbabweans for allegedly violating human rights, according to Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU this year. On Saturday, Mugabe again addressed \"sanctions,\" saying he was dismayed that they were not lifted after meeting with the EU delegation. \"I have always been disappointed with sanctions on Zimbabwe,\" he said, adding that the EU delegation \"thought things were not working, yet we did all the things we were asked to do\" under a power-sharing agreement signed in September last year. Larsson said there was no discussion about the restrictions at the meeting. Under the agreement, which was to end months of turmoil and violence that followed the country's March 2008 presidential elections, Mugabe retained his office, and opposition leader Tsvangirai became prime minister. The agreement -- the Global Political Agreement-- spelled out a number of fundamental democratic reforms, but so far there has been no progress toward them, Carlsson said in a statement ahead of the meetings with Mugabe and Tsvangirai. \"There have not yet been clear positive developments in all areas. I am still concerned at the lack of democratic development,\" she said then. After meeting with Tsvangirai, Carlsson told CNN that \"Tsvangirai's government is working hard towards the implementation of the political agreement.\" She added, \"After such a long time of oppression, it is of course hard to move forward and change will take some time. But the EU is committed to follow up on this progress and encourage change.\" CNN's Per Nyberg in London, England, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Of EU meeting, Mugabe said \"there was no animosity, it was quite friendly\"\nEU officials in Zimbabwe to ease relations, push progress on political reforms .\nEuropean Union imposed travel bans on Mugabe, his representatives in 2002 .\nPresident Robert Mugabe says West tries to impose its rules on Zimbabwe .","id":"927843b69bca2ad83e75e421590d814179e4e86c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released Monday by a presidential advisory panel. The report urges speedier production of the H1N1 vaccine and the availability of some doses by September. The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu virus, could infect between 30 percent and 50 percent of the American population during the fall and winter and lead to as many as 1.8 million U.S. hospital admissions, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported. The report says 30,000 to 90,000 deaths are projected as part of a \"plausible scenario\" involving large outbreaks at schools, inadequate antiviral supplies and the virus peaking before vaccinations have time to be effective. Up to 40,000 U.S. deaths are linked to seasonal flu each year, with most of the fatalities occurring among people over 65. With seasonal flu and H1N1, this fall is expected to bring more influenza deaths and place \"enormous stress\" on intensive care units nationwide, which normally operate near capacity, the report says. An H1N1 resurgence may happen as early as September, at the beginning of the school year, and infections may peak in mid-October, according to the report. However, the H1N1 vaccine isn't expected to be available until mid-October, and even then it will take several weeks for vaccinated individuals to develop immunity, the report says. Watch more on H1N1 predictions for this fall \u00bb . The potential \"mismatch in timing\" could significantly diminish the usefulness of the H1N1 vaccine, the report says. \"Even with the best efforts, this will cause some illness, some severe illness and unfortunately, some deaths,\" Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday. \"But a lot so far has gone remarkably right,\" Frieden said. \"There's a vaccine well on its way to being distributed, diagnostic tests available in well over 100 laboratories, treatments pre-positioned around the country ... and guidance issued for health care providers, schools, businesses and other communities.\" Among the report's recommendations are for government agencies to: . \u2022 Prepare several \"planning scenarios\" to determine demand for supplies and care. \u2022 Set up surveillance systems to track information about influenza-like illnesses. \u2022 Develop plans to protect the public's most vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and those with pre-existing medical conditions. \u2022 Speed up the production of the H1N1 vaccine and have an initial batch -- enough to vaccinate up to 40 million people, especially those who are at risk of serious disease -- by mid-September. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the government's preparation and guidance for the public was based on the need to strike a balance \"on a continuum of being paralyzed with fear versus complacency.\" So far, clinical trials for the H1N1 vaccine have not indicated adverse side effects beyond what are experienced with the seasonal flu vaccine, Sebelius said. However, there would be no formal decision to launch a vaccination campaign until those trials were complete, she said. That decision would be hers, she said, and she emphasized that any vaccination program would be strictly voluntary. Pregnant women, health care workers and parents or guardians of infants under 6 months of age are among the most vulnerable segments of the population, Sebelius has said. Adults under the age of 65 with an underlying health condition -- such as asthma -- are also considered to be more at risk from the H1N1 virus. H1N1 preparation guidelines for the nation's businesses and school systems were released three weeks ago. The plans are available at the Web site www.flu.gov. The H1N1 vaccine would require two shots, the second three weeks after the first. Immunity to the virus would not kick in until two weeks after the second shot. The World Health Organization declared the H1N1 virus a global pandemic on June 11. More than 1,490 people around the world have died from the virus since it emerged this spring, a WHO official said last week. CNN's Caleb Hellerman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Panel: Up to 50 percent of U.S. population could be infected this fall, winter .\nH1N1, plus seasonal flu, could place \"enormous stress\" on hospitals .\nVaccine expected in mid-October, but too late to help many, panel says .\nPanel urges availability of some doses by mid-September .","id":"5abe1604bc12032d18d2c4401650e5d2dbbb9c78"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- The lower house of Argentina's Congress has approved a controversial media law that spells out media ownership rules and calls for the creation of a regulatory agency. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has blamed Grupo Clarin for her low approval ratings. The measure passed Thursday by a vote of 147 to 4, but the wide margin does not reflect the heated debate over it. Lawmakers opposed to the measure protested by walking out of the chamber and not voting. Some even threatened to turn to the courts to challenge the legitimacy of the vote. The goal of the so-called Audio-Visual Communication law is to regulate television and radio broadcasters and increase competition in the media industry, according to a draft of the bill. Opponents say it targets media critical of the current government and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, especially the media giant Grupo Clarin. This bill is \"for everyone who wants to live in a more democratic and more pluralistic Argentina,\" Fernandez de Kirchner said in a speech last month. The newspaper Clarin has been highly critical of her leadership and that of her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner. Although the proposed legislation would not affect newspapers, Grupo Clarin's other business interests in cable, television and radio would be forced to be sold off or restructured. \"[Cristina] Kirchner saw [Clarin] as a limit to her power, and this was the origin of the conflict,\" Argentine political analyst Rosendo Fraga said. Argentina's case is just one of a number of fights between the presidency and the media in Latin America. \"At this moment, in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, the presidents have conflicts with the private media and seek to dominate them, although each country is a different case,\" Fraga said. Among the changes proposed in the bill, a company that owns a cable business would not be allowed to own any over-the-air broadcast channels. Also, the owner of a cable company would be allowed to have only one channel on that system. In its current form, Grupo Clarin would be in violation of both limits, among others. \"It hits other media groups, but Clarin is the one it hurts,\" said Daniel Kerner, an analyst at Eurasia Group. The reform would also redistribute broadcast frequencies into thirds: one-third for private media, one-third for the government and one-third for nongovernmental organizations and other civil groups. \"More control of the media by the government, this is the main motivation,\" Kerner said. Journalism advocacy groups have raised concerns, focusing on a proposed requirement that broadcasters renew licenses every two years. \"We are extremely concerned at the opportunity created under the current draft legislation for political pressure on broadcasters,\" International Press Institute Director David Dadge said in a statement. \"We urge Argentinean legislators not to pass this bill in its current form.\" If anyone is applying unfair pressure, it is monopolistic media companies, Fernandez de Kirchner said. \"Freedom of expression cannot turn into freedom of extortion,\" she said during an August 27 speech. \"The right to information means the right to all information, not to the concealment of part of the information and the distortion and manipulation of the other part.\" Grupo Clarin has about two-thirds of the cable market in Argentina, but its other products don't come close to monopolistic figures, Fraga said. Both Kirchners have blamed Clarin's critical reports for their low approval ratings. The ruling party was dealt a strong defeat during recent midterm elections. In response, Fernandez de Kirchner has come out swinging at the Clarin newspaper and its parent company, observers said. Last month, the government pushed the nation's soccer association to rescind a contract it had with Clarin to broadcast games. The government reached into its coffers and offered the association double what Clarin was paying for rights to broadcast the games. This month, 200 tax agents made a surprise raid on the newspaper's offices, ostensibly to check employment records, editor Ricardo Kirschbaum said. But the agents left after three hours, empty-handed. \"Their real mission was to intimidate,\" Kirschbaum said. The editor bristles at the characterization of the bill as part of conflict between his newspaper and the government. The Kirchners \"have a hostile stance, not just against Clarin but against all the press,\" he said. \"They are the proponents of 'democratizing' the media through this law, and this is how they regard the media? It's paradoxical.\" CNN en Espa\u00f1ol's Guillermo Fontana contributed to this report.","highlights":"Measure passes 147 to 4, but wide margin belies heated debate .\nOpponents protest by walking out of chamber, not voting; some threaten challenge .\nOpponents say bill targets media critical of the government -- especially Grupo Clarin .\nLatin America has seen many fights between media, presidents .","id":"418902b941cea89b18986b489e67d844ccf9fc2e"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's the year 2000, and Eric Olsen is a medieval knight sheathed in armor with sword in hand. Tracey and Mac Carlson were married in January after meeting at the 2006 Dragon*Con. The 27-year-old is waiting in a line at Dragon*Con, an annual science fiction costume and convention extravaganza that appeals to comic book nerds, horror movie buffs and anyone with a liking for the fantasy side of pop culture. He spots a red-headed princess in a blue ball gown, reminiscent of a Walt Disney fairy-tale, about 15 feet behind him. She is stunning. Is she single? Will she talk to me? What do I say? By the time Olsen rationalizes his jittery thoughts, he has already asked the princess, Sandra Frazer, 19, out to breakfast. Forget about the drunken bar scene or painful blind dates. As Dragon*Con concludes this week, some single attendees are finding themselves coupled with someone who understands their passion for science fiction and fantasy. Watch Dragon*Con participants talk romance \u00bb . When Olsen and Frazer finished their first date, the seeds of love had already been planted. They dated long distance for a year before Olsen proposed the following year at a Dragon*Con costume competition. Frazer, in a leather Catwoman jumpsuit, accepted the ring. \"I've never cared about football or any of the normal guy stuff,\" said Olsen, a home health care director who enjoys obscure sci-fi television shows and elaborate costuming. \"I met someone who shared my same geeky interests, and that's hard to find.\" Pat Henry, chairman for Dragon*Con, said his staff sees romances blossom at the convention each year. Hundreds of proposals have occurred at the event since it began two decades ago. Requests roll in by phone several times a month from couples eager to hold their weddings at Dragon*Con, their meeting place. Share your sci-fi convention love story with CNN.com . The likelihood of finding a partner who enjoys alien movies or X-men comics isn't bad: Dragon*Con has evolved from a small gathering of a few thousand participants to a legendary event that reels in about 35,000 people from all over the world. It's one of the largest science fiction, fantasy and cult media conventions in the world. \"The chances are in favor of the females,\" joked Henry, who noted the convention participants are mostly men, though the number of female participants has increased over the years. \"The other thing is if you marry a geek, you know you can keep them at home with the latest science fiction books or video games.\" The convention -- four days of panels, events and parties -- offers bountiful opportunities to let the singles mingle. It's an adult playpen where geekiness is revered. The panels debate the science of Michael Crichton books and dissect the \"Star Wars\" scripts. Parties include a Buffy Prom for fans of the 1990s Joss Whedon television teen drama \"Buffy the Vampire Slayer\" and the Miss Klingon Empire Beauty pageant themed after \"Star Trek\". Perhaps the best-known event is the Dragon*Con parade, a Halloween party for grownups, some of whom have spent the entire year preparing their costumes. At this year's spectacle, a gray Saturday morning was lit up by a colorful throng of fairies with pink wings, elves in spandex, pirates in corsets and Jedi soldiers flashing lightsabers. What better way to strike up a conversation than while people are watching together? \"You can't settle,\" said Dragon*Con attendee Dino Andrade, who created Soulgeek.com, a dating Web site for fantasy convention attendees and sci-fi nerds. \"You can't be with somebody who's going to hope that someday you're going to grow out of this.\" Three years ago at Dragon*Con, Tracey Carlson was smoking outside one morning in her Batman pajamas when her future husband approached her. During their first dinner date at the convention, the two slipped into a deep discussion about \"Babylon 5,\" a sci-fi television series by J. Michael Straczynski. \"I've had friends set me up with total strangers, but it's hard to keep the conversation going if the person isn't into what you are,\" said husband Mac Carlson. They were married in January and their reception cake depicted Tim Burton's \"The Nightmare Before Christmas,\" one of Tracey Carlson's favorite movies. But romance at Dragon*Con can be short-lived and have downsides, said Kelly Rowles, a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania who runs a blog called Convention Fans. Attending her fifth Dragon*Con this year, Rowles has noticed the convention is more likely to produce hookups than serious relationships, and some participants meet compatible singles who live hundreds of miles away. Accountant Petrona Zickgraf, 43, of New Jersey, understands the long distance challenge. She met her boyfriend at a movie screening at Dragon*Con last year, and he lives 250 miles from her in Virginia. They visit each other regularly to share their affinity for science fiction, but they also share other interests such as hiking and visiting museums. \"Let's just say one of us will move soon,\" said Zickgraf, who was outfitted as comic book heroine Vampirella in a revealing pleather jumpsuit. She and her boyfriend, arms wrapped around each other, were celebrating their one-year anniversary at Dragon*Con this weekend. Sometimes, all it takes to meet your soul mate is the right rooming situation. Katie Marcinkowski, a high school English teacher from New York, attended for the first time last year because she enjoyed science fiction novels. She filed a request for roommates on a Dragon*Con LiveJournal Web page, a popular choice among attendees who want to save money by splitting a hotel room. Assigned to her room was 23-year-old Kellan Potts of Tennessee, who has since become her boyfriend. They share a fondness for \"Torchwood,\" a British sci-fi show about extraterrestrials. \"You don't meet the kind of people who like the same kind of stuff out in the real world,\" said Marcinkowski, dressed in a suede warrior woman costume and holding hands with her boyfriend at the convention this year. \"I can't go up to guys and say I like sci-fi and fantasy. They will look at you and say, 'You're weird.' \"","highlights":"Romance blooms each year at Dragon*Con, a convention for sci-fi fantasy geeks .\nOfficials get dozens of wedding requests from couples who met at event .\nThe annual event attracts about 35,000 people from all over the world .\nLong-distance relationships can be challenge for couples who meet at event .","id":"67531910b49b35ad8f10ab5da0b8967e53ba249f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Kenneth Bacon, a former reporter and Pentagon spokesman who later served as a top advocate of displaced people all over the world, died Saturday, according to Refugees International. He was 64. Kenneth Bacon was \"one of the great voices in humanitarian advocacy,\" says Joel Charny of Refugees International. Bacon had served as the president of Washington-based Refugees International since 2001, the group said in a statement Saturday. The former Wall Street Journal reporter died Saturday morning from an aggressive melanoma that spread to his brain, the statement said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Bacon, who was Pentagon spokesman during the Clinton administration, a \"great humanitarian leader.\" \"Most Americans remember Ken as the unflappable civilian voice of the Department of Defense, where he served with distinction as spokesperson for many years,\" Clinton said in a statement. \"But for millions of the world's most vulnerable people -- refugees and other victims of conflict -- Ken was an invaluable source of hope, inspiration and support. Refugees International credited Bacon for doubling the group's size under his leadership and helping it get increased protection and assistance for displaced people in Sudan's Darfur region, Iraq, Pakistan and other troubled areas. In the last months of his life, Bacon shifted his focus toward the issue of climate displacement, the group said. \"Ken would walk the corridors of power one day and then meet with refugees in the most remote areas of Darfur the next. His unique mixture of expertise in the media, military affairs, and U.S. government policy, added to his compassion for vulnerable refugees, made him one of the great voices in humanitarian advocacy,\" said Joel Charny, acting president of Refugees International. \"Ken always saw the best in people. His ability to connect with nearly everyone he met made it possible for him to convince officials at the highest levels of government and the United Nations to make the necessary changes to save lives and protect people from harm.\" In 1994, Bacon became the Defense Department's assistant secretary of public affairs and Pentagon spokesman. He was known for his no-nonsense manner and his signature bow ties. \"I first got to know Ken Bacon several years ago when he was the chief Pentagon spokesman. Ken did the job the way its supposed to be done: holding press conferences, answering questions, providing facts, information and context,\" said CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. \"I know he was often bemused to watch the new era of spin and message, since he so passionately believed that facts stand on their own merit. \"Later, Ken became an extraordinary advocate for refugees and displaced persons around the world,\" she added. \"I could ring him up to ask a question about any remote area of the world where people were suffering and he could explain with breadth and depth what was going on.\" Before working at the Defense Department, Bacon for more than 25 years served as a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal, where his assignments included the covering the Pentagon, the newspaper reported. \"He came to the Journal in 1965 and scored a rare (for an intern) page-one story about an automated car-repair system that one overheated mechanic described as 'the greatest thing since girls,' \" the newspaper said in a story posted on its Web site. He is survived by his wife, Darcy, two daughters, two grandchildren, his brother and his father. Refugees International said a memorial service would be held in September.","highlights":"Bacon, 64, died from an aggressive melanoma that spread to his brain .\nHe was Pentagon spokesman during the Clinton administration .\nBacon also had been president of Refugees International since 2001 .\nBefore going to Pentagon, he was reporter and editor at Wall Street Journal .","id":"216558f2fb3e918840acc2fca7c81f27c7a80e3f"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- Got a few grand to spare for a $3,000 phone? Yeah, we didn't think so. Nobody does -- and that's a problem for the makers of luxury phones, such as Motorola, Bang & Olufson, LG and Vertu. Vertu makes phones starting at $6,000 and going up in price. After years of chasing the ultra-wealthy with exclusive devices that carry designer logos and promise craftsmanship from materials such as sapphire and stainless steel, luxury phone makers are now pulling back. \"The culture has shifted away from conspicuous consumption, so if you are going to have a super expensive product this may not be the time for it,\" says Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis. Motorola has already gotten the memo. Earlier this week, the company reportedly canceled the Ivory E18, a device tentatively priced around $3,000. The phone had met with lack of interest from telecom carriers. Motorola declined to comment. If that sounds like an obvious outcome, perhaps it shouldn't. In the last few years, luxury phones had turned into an attractive new business, as designer houses rushed to get a foothold in the tech sector. Prada collaborated with LG to launch two LG Prada phones in Europe and Asia. Last September, Samsung launched the M75500 Night Effect phone, which carried the Emporio Armani insignia. A month later, Motorola offered a $2,000 phone, called the Aura, which was fashioned out of stainless steel and sported a 62-carat sapphire crystal lens. And then there's Vertu, a company that makes true luxury phones, the cheapest of which costs about $6,000. The recession put a spoke in those plans. And it's not just the 401Ks of middle-class Americans that have been in peril. In Russia, many newly-minted billionaires saw their fortunes slip away with falling oil prices. By the first quarter this year, the U.S. economy had shrunk 5.5 percent. Even 50 Cent has complained about losing more than a few Benjamins on the stock market. And just like that, the crystal dominoes started to fall. Last October, Bang & Olufsen, whose phones retailed in Europe for more than $1,500, shuttered its cellphone business as it decided to trim its costs and get out of non-profitable ventures. Motorola is the latest to pull back its luxury line. Luxury phones have never been a big phenomenon in North America, says Greengart. Their manufacturers have had better luck in emerging markets. But now even in those countries, where once 8 percent GDP growth seemed conservative, wealthy consumers are feeling the pinch. \"Super expensive, bling bling phones are big in markets where conspicuous consumption is a way to tell your countrymen you have arrived,\" says Greengart. \"But now, it's a very different economy for everyone.\" Many of the troubles that the uber-expensive phones face are because they are created by companies whose main expertise is in targeting a mass market, says Frank Nuovo, former chief of design for Nokia and current head of Vertu. \"I didn't start this business to soak the phones in diamonds and jewels,\" says Nuovo. \"The concept is same as a fine watch or a fabulous car. To be a true luxury product, you have to look at making something that doesn't have an 18-month shelf life.\" True luxury, as Nuovo defines it, doesn't apply to a mere $2,000 phone: A Vertu device, soaked in platinum, can run up to $70,000. The company's one-off phones, designed in collaboration with luxury jewels house Boucheron, cost even more. Nuovo may have inadvertently hit on the real problem with luxury phones: Phones are still a very feature-driven products. They are products where the rapid advances in technology can rend older models obsolete very quickly. \"Phones aren't like a handbag where the fundamental utility remains the same and the design changes all the time,\" says Greengart. But Nuovo isn't convinced. \"Take watches and cars,\" he says. \"They all run the same but everyone has a unique way of delivering them stylistically. We can do the same with phones.\" Despite the bumps on the road now, Nuovo says the luxury phones will bounce back and find an audience. \"It is no different than a fine watch or a car,\" he says. \"If you take people who value something that is made extraordinarily well there will always be a group interested in it.\" Vertu is determined to prove that. It will launch its latest handset the Carbon Fibre Ascent Ti in August. The phone is made of high-gloss carbon fiber and has a sandblasted titanium surface. The price tag? $9,800. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"The luxury phone market is in decline because of the recession .\nUber-high-end phones are more popular outside the U.S.\nVertu makes luxury phones that start at $6,000 and go up in price .\nSome phones pair with designer brands or are made from rare materials .","id":"87b9b70f3ab5a398497a00c2e885f669ec9d8757"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Legendary American boxer Muhammad Ali has visited the birth place of his ancestors in Ireland, prompting thousands of well-wishers to line the streets of the town. Muhammad Ali on a nine-day visit to Europe that included a stopover to his ancestoral home in Ireland. The scenes were reminiscent of a presidential visit as the 67-year-old former three-times world heavyweight champion traveled to Ennis, County Clare to see the hometown of his forebear. The visit was commemorated by the town council with the unveiling of a plaque at the home of his great grandfather and by making Ali the first honorary \"freeman\" of the town. Abe Grady -- the grandfather of Ali's mother Odessa Lee Grady -- lived in the town of Ennis, before emigrating to the United States in 1860 where he married an African-American emancipated slave. Watch as Muhammad Ali visits Ireland \u00bb . Ali -- who was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated in 1999 -- had his Irish heritage uncovered by genealogists in 2002. \"Now that we know Muhammad is an Ennis man, we will be back,\" Ali's wife Lonnie told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. The small County Clare- town of 23 thousand put on an open-air concert, closed schools early and had special screenings of the Ali v George Foreman documentary \"When We Were Kings\" to welcome the \"Louisville Lip.\" Ali -- who has been a Parkinson's Disease sufferer since 1984 -- did not speak to those who had gathered but shadow-boxed to spectators and cameras before meeting his distant relatives. \"It was incredible. We've had so much rain and yet today it was beautiful. The rain held off wherever Muhammad Ali went.\" Frankie Neylon, the town's mayor said. Ali fought in Ireland only once during his career, beating Al Blue Lewis in a non-title bout at Dublin's Croke Park in 1972. The visit to Ireland was part of a nine-day tour of Europe that Ali had undertaken to raise money to fight Parkinson's Disease and for the Ali Center.","highlights":"Muhammad Ali visits his ancestral home of Ennis, Ireland .\nThe 67-year-old former world heavyweight champions unveils plaque in town .\nAbe Grady, Ali's great grandfather, emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in 1860 .\nLonnie, Ali's wife, says the former champion will return to Ireland again .","id":"c96a9f176c526ee47d91337354bd857653a239a2"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- The minute you walk into Mustang Barbers you immediately smell the scent of aftershave lotion and your grandfather's cologne. Mustang Barbers in Dallas, Texas, is usually buzzing with hair-cutting activity. The sounds of hair clippers buzzing and hair dryers blowing fill this hardwood-floor barber shop. Mustang Barbers is an old-fashioned barber shop. Men come from all walks of life to get their haircuts from one of Mustang's 10 barbers. While some men wait their turn in the barber's chair, they get a shoeshine and read the morning newspaper. The old saying \"the more things change, the more things stay the same\" couldn't be more true at Mustang Barbers. The shop has been around this Dallas neighborhood for 40 years. Its owner, Phil McAllister, has been cutting hair for more than 35 years. He comes from a family of barbers. His father, A.E. McAllister, was a barber for 61 years and worked at Mustang Barbers into his 90s. Phil's son, Wes McAllister, 28, also works there. \"Once my wife lets me retire,\" says Phil McAllister, \"my son will take over the business.\" Barbering has been around for centuries, and this old profession doesn't seem be going away anytime soon. The barbers at Mustang Barbers really enjoy cutting hair and making small talk with their customers. Straight-razor shaves also are available. \"My clients are my friends,\" say McAllister. Fathers bring their sons, and sons come with their grandfathers. This American career has been passed from generation to generation. \"I've cut grandfather's hair, his son's hair and his grandson's hair,\" says barber Carolyn Wilson, who has been cutting hair for 17 years. \"Some ladies want to just cut women's hair, but I just want to cut men's hair,\" says Wilson. \"I just like to make them feel good about themselves.\" Watch the comings and goings at the shop \u00bb . Todd Blalock, 36, has only been cutting for five years. \"I'm gonna do this forever,\" he says. Blalock was a musician and a Mustang Barbers customer for years. Then he decided to change careers and become a barber. He is glad to see young people decide to become barbers. \"There's opportunity for youth to revitalize barbering, to show it's strong and still here.\" Barbering is not for everyone. \"You have to be thick-skinned,\" says McAllister. \"There's lots of teasing.\" If want to know the latest talk of the town, a dirty joke or just the hottest sports opinion, this barber shop is the place to visit. \"We pretty much rake [each other] over the coals all day long,\" says Blalock. Mustang Barbers has stayed in business by keeping it simple for 40 years. \"The techniques are all the same,\" McAllister explains. \"Once you know the basics, you go from there.\" In a fast-paced world of ever-changing technology, Blalock is glad that places like Mustang Barbers are still around. \"Everything in the world changes so quickly, there's something about a place that has stayed the same,\" he says. Wilson agrees. \"Barbering will never go away,\" she says. \"It's been around forever and always will be.\"","highlights":"Hair clippers buzzing, hair dryers blowing at old-fashioned barber shop .\nShop has been passed down through the generations .\nMustang Barbers is place to go to hear latest joke, sports opinion .\n\"Once you know the basics, you go from there,\" barber says .","id":"8db5993245e7c1dd9771bc4f909fdfeadc9d1d4a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Van Jones defies environmentalist stereotypes. He's not the earthy-crunchy, Birkenstock-wearing type. Nor is he a contemporary and corporate version -- a hedge fund-fueled entrepreneur looking to make millions by building wind farms and solar-powered corporate headquarters. \"We want to bring green jobs to people who don't have hope,\" says Van Jones, the president's \"green jobs\" chief. The new special adviser for \"green jobs\" -- those jobs that help reduce energy consumption and lessen environmental impact -- at the White House Council on Environmental Quality is in some ways like President Obama himself: an African-American community activist and organizer who has rocketed to the highest levels of government. Jones says it was death, of all things, that set him on his current career path as a green-jobs guru. In describing his turn from social activist to environmentalist, Jones recounted his experiences with young people in Oakland, California. \"I got involved in this work because I got tired of going to funerals. I got tired of seeing young people without any hope,\" Jones told CNN. \"I wanted them to have a better future. I said, 'Why don't we get these young people trained in green jobs so they can be a part of all these companies that are getting started?' \" So Jones, a Yale Law School graduate and longtime community activist, started an organization called \"Green For All\" in Oakland. The mission was to figure out how to train underprivileged young people in green-jobs skills, such as installing solar panels and retrofitting houses to make them more energy efficient. Watch more on Van Jones' career \u00bb . \"People talk about global warming. ... I want to cool the Earth down. I also want to calm the block down,\" said Jones. Jones' efforts earned him national recognition and grabbed the attention of Obama's advisers. Now, he is the president's pitchman for green jobs, helping to coordinate government agencies focused on delivering millions of green jobs to the ailing U.S. economy. \"I see myself as the green-jobs handyman. My job is to make sure that the president's desire that we have literally millions of green jobs in our country actually turns into reality,\" said Jones. Yet even in places like Michigan, where unemployment is a whopping 15 percent -- well above the national average of 9.5 percent -- Jones understands there's skepticism about his message. CNN followed Jones on a recent visit to Lansing, Michigan, where he told attendees at a green-jobs conference that saving the planet and saving jobs can go hand in hand. \"You say, 'Oh no, oh no -- you're gonna talk about the caulking gun. Oh no!' \" Jones joked with the crowd. Critics, though, have serious concerns about the \"green collar\" agenda. They argue that those green jobs -- retrofitting homes to make them more energy-efficient, for instance -- will be mostly low-level and low-paying. Jones dismisses that. \"You take somebody and maybe this summer they're putting up solar panels,\" Jones said. \"Well guess what, this is a growing part of our economy -- the next summer they can be a manager, the next summer, maybe they can be an owner, an investor, an inventor.\" While Jones tries to spread his green message, he's also trying to practice what he preaches. That means taking public transportation, including a bus and train ride, to get to his office just across the street from the White House. He says those rides give him valuable opportunities to hear unvarnished views. Describing his work as a member of the executive branch, Jones said, \"Everybody that comes talk to us, they've already got an agenda, they've got their game face on. [On] public transportation, people are themselves.\" As for who Jones is, he gave CNN a brief look at his new office at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. On the walls hang pictures of his heroes, each Jones described with a different strength. Basketball legend Michael Jordan: dedication and commitment. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali: fighting spirit. Finally, pointing to a picture above his desk, Jones' tone grew softer. \"This is Bobby Kennedy the day before he was killed. In Watts, talking to some of the poorest people in California. And look at him. I mean, he's just present,\" Jones said, his eyes focused on Kennedy's image. \"We want to bring green jobs to these kind of folks. We want to bring green jobs to people who don't have hope.\"","highlights":"Van Jones says death set him on career path: \"I got tired of going to funerals\"\nHe worked as a social activist before becoming \"green-jobs\" guru .\nHe advises president on jobs that help cut energy use, don't harm environment .\nJones: \"I see myself as the green-jobs handyman\"","id":"264995bb34c55d5b3a071a0298e3593e05032f23"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Jared L. Cohon is president of Carnegie Mellon University. Jared Cohon says Pittsburgh shows the power of education and innovation to revive an economy in crisis. (CNN) -- This week the international community is converging on my chosen hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as heads of state gather for the G20 summit. Pittsburgh may seem like an unlikely choice for such a high-profile event, but a closer look shows why this city personifies the transformative power of education and research, and how the practical application of innovation can drive growth and improvement in quality of life the world over. Pittsburgh is a city that was largely written off as a rusted industrial center. But as heads of state from around the world tour the city this week, they will see running trails replacing former industrial railways and they will find green hotels and LEED-certified buildings rising where abandoned steel mills once stood. These changes are creating jobs, bringing new commerce and making Pittsburgh the most livable city in the United States, according to the Economist magazine. President Obama has praised our city as a \"bold example\" of the new green economy. A significant part of Pittsburgh's renaissance can be attributed to its two major research universities: Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Having one such institution is an advantage in today's global economy; having two (very close to each other) puts Pittsburgh in a very small group of American cities. The shape of today's research university, with its heavy dependence on federally sponsored research, can be traced to World War II and its immediate aftermath, with a major boost a decade later when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. But what began as a response to national security threats has turned into the engine of America's -- and the world's -- prosperity. As my colleague, the Dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering, Pradeep Khosla has written, the industries that have fueled economic growth have come out of the American research university enterprise. Biotechnology, nanotechnology, digital communications, and computers and software that have improved our quality of life and economic standing all have their origins in research universities. The companies that apply this research create jobs and fuel economic growth and wealth generation in ways that the world has never before experienced. According to one report prepared for the White House, 50 percent of the growth in the American economy in the last 40 years has been due to investments in research and development. Obviously, the private sector is a major driver of R&D, but federally funded research at universities throughout the United States plays a key role. The presence of a major research university does not, by itself, guarantee economic progress beyond the direct jobs that the university creates. Realizing the full potential of a university depends on effectively tapping into the brilliance and ingenuity of its faculty and students and the innovations they create. Technology commercialization -- shaping a bright idea into a commercially successful product -- has been described as a \"contact sport\". It requires an innovative and entrepreneurial campus culture and an ecosystem surrounding it that supports technology-based economic development with facilities, money and people who know how to take ideas to the market. More than a decade ago, Carnegie Mellon embraced Pittsburgh's economic development as one of its institutional strategic priorities. We changed our technology transfer policies to make it easier and faster for our faculty and alumni to create local companies based on our technology. We joined forces with the University of Pittsburgh and partnered with state and local government and industry to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem on which we all rely. Today, there are more than 200 Pittsburgh companies commercializing Carnegie Mellon technology. Our economic development efforts have also included company attraction. With state and local government support, we built a building on campus for global technology companies, which see value in being so close to our faculty and students. There are now hundreds of new jobs in that building, created by Intel, Google and Apple. Disney set up their first research lab here, but they're across the street -- the new building is full. The success of the American research university has been, and continues to be, studied by many developing and developed countries that want to advance technology, secure a stronger position for themselves in global markets and raise the standard of living for their citizens. It is clear that the U.S. model must be replicated in many countries in order for the world to be a better place. During the last decade, in pursuit of another of our strategic priorities, Carnegie Mellon has partnered with several countries, including Qatar, Portugal, Greece, Australia and Japan, among others, to establish high-caliber education and research programs. Countries that can successfully replicate the U.S. research university enterprise will secure for themselves a strong position for the future, for they will be the source of the next wave of economic expansion in the world. We are living in one of the most intellectually exciting eras in history. From medicine to energy, to robotics and computing, many fields of science are experiencing a revolution that will change our understanding of what is possible. These revolutions are occurring on the campuses and laboratories of research universities every day around the world. As world leaders arrive here in Pittsburgh, they must keep in mind the importance of research and education, historically and in addressing today's most challenging issues. As they contemplate stimulus plans and regulation of the financial industry, and enjoy Pittsburgh's beauty and impressive progress, they must also resolve to sustain and, in most countries, grow their systems of higher education, including and especially their research universities. Research universities are at the heart of Pittsburgh's transformation, and they are a key to our collective future. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jared L. Cohon.","highlights":"Jared Cohon: Pittsburgh economy has been reinvented through innovation .\nHe says universities have played a key role in economic revival .\nHe says G-20 meeting focuses attention on role of universities .\nCohon: Nations must focus on key role of education and research .","id":"d113c4683959beecd4bcad53c04d9c62317085ed"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North and South Korea will hold three days of talks on reunions for families torn apart by the Korean War and divisions between the two countries, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Tuesday. North Korean Yun Young-Seob hugs his South Korean sister Yun Bok-Seob at a 2007 reunion in North Korea. The talks, which begin Wednesday, will be the first on the subject in almost two years. The International Red Cross said it was sending delegates to mediate the talks, which will be held at the Mount Keumgang resort in North Korea. North Korea was also to schedule an early-October reunion for families across the peninsula who where separated in the aftermath of the Korean War, KCNA reported earlier this month. Rapprochement talks between the two sides have hit a wall since conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a tougher stance toward the North than his liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-Hyun. Tuesday's announcement was the latest sign of potential thawing in the icy relationship between the two Koreas, which have technically remained in conflict since the Korean War ended in 1953. The Korean conflict ended in a truce, but no formal peace treaty was ever signed. Lee met last week, prior to the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dai-jung, with a visiting North Korean delegation, who delivered a message from Kim Jong Il expressing hopes for improved relations between the two countries. Although the president reiterated his firm stance on North Korea, South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek met with North Korean unity leader Kim Yang Gon on Saturday. The meetings between officials of the two Koreas are in stark contrast to the tense public statements they made about each other earlier this year. Tensions between the two were heightened in July when North Korea launched seven short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan. The launches came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and threatened the United States and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. South Korea condemned the action, calling the launches \"provocative\" and \"unwise.\" South Korea is expected to make a second attempt to launch its first satellite later Tuesday after aborting a launch last week when a piece of equipment malfunctioned minutes before launch. Earlier this month, South Korea responded positively, but cautiously, to a joint agreement announced Monday between North Korea and the South's Hyundai Group to resume cross-border tourism, ease border controls and facilitate cross-border family reunions. Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said that the two sides needed to reach an agreement through direct talks. A Hyundai subsidiary handles all tourism and business projects between the Koreas. The announcement of the agreement followed a weekend meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Hyundai chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun. Under the agreement, South Korean tourists would again be able to travel north across the border to Mt. Keumgang, a popular resort in the communist nation, North Korea's state-run KCNA reported. Tours to Keumgang were halted in July 2008 after North Korean soldiers killed a South Korean tourist who strayed into a restricted area. CNN Correspondent Sohn Jie-ae contributed to this report.","highlights":"North and South Korea to hold three days of talks on reunions for families .\nFamilies were torn apart by the Korean War and divisions between the two countries .\nTalks to be the first on the subject in almost two years .\nIRC sending delegates to mediate the talks to be held in North Korea .","id":"f55e71f9d21ef26015cc618e41f3248d710d8a41"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's mother and his three children receive an allowance totaling more than $86,000 a month, according to court documents released Thursday. Michael Jackson's estate provides $86,000 a month for Katherine Jackson and her grandchildren. The money given them by the Michael Jackson estate is in addition to the maintenance of the home -- which is owned by the estate -- in Encino, California, where Katherine Jackson lives with her grandchildren, the papers said. The Los Angeles County judge overseeing the probate of Jackson's will ordered that the petitions for their monthly allowance be made public -- although with some details removed. Those papers were released Thursday. Katherine Jackson was granted custody of her son's three children soon after Jackson's June 25 death. She and the children were named beneficiaries, along with unnamed charities, in Jackson's 2002 will. Control of the estate's assets, however, was given to lawyer John Branca and John McClain, a former music industry executive. Jackson named them as trustees in his will. The petitions filed by Branca and McClain in July, and later approved by Judge Mitchell Beckloff, outlined $26,804 in monthly expenses for Katherine Jackson. The largest amount from that, $4,722, pays for an assistant for her. Another $3,500 each month is budgeted for clothing for Katherine Jackson, who is 79 years old. She's also given $2,000 each for a housekeeper and driver. She has a $1,500 entertainment allowance each month, the documents said. The details of the children's budget are mostly blacked out at their lawyer's request. Margaret Lodise told the judge there was concern someone could use the financial information to pose as one of the children online. She told CNN the family was aware of people posing as Jackson children with Twitter accounts. The documents did reveal the three children get a combined $60,000 a month from their father's estate. They pay $14,600 a month for salaries and payroll taxes for people who take care of them, according to the petition. Michael Jackson's children get $13,260 each month for entertainment and related expenses, the papers said. The petition estimated Michael Jackson's estate is worth at least $500 million and is growing. Major deals have been reached in the past month that are expected to add tens of millions of dollars to the estate, including a movie and music deal with Sony.","highlights":"Money from Jackson estate is in addition to the maintenance of the home .\nL.A. County judge ordered petitions for their monthly allowance be made public .\nPetitions approved by Judge Mitchell Beckloff, outline $26,804 per month for mom .\n$13,260 for each child's monthly \"entertainment and related expenses\"","id":"842b7bcf1ee938606b50e4d7edaf666785dd6232"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A pint-sized version of the Tyrannosaurus rex, with similarly powerful legs, razor-sharp teeth and tiny arms, roamed China some 125 million years ago, said scientists who remain startled by the discovery. An adult Raptorex was about 9 feet tall and weighed about 150 pounds, scientists say. The predator, nicknamed Raptorex, lived about 60 million years before the T. rex and was slightly larger than the human male, scientists said. The findings, to be released Friday in the journal Science, are based on fossilized remains discovered in lake beds in northeastern China. They show a dinosaur with many of the specialized physical features of Tyrannosaurus rex at a fraction of its size. \"The most interesting and important thing about this new fossil is that It is completely unexpected,\" said Stephen Brusatte, co-author of the article, in a conference call with reporters. \"It's becoming harder and harder to find fossils like this that totally throw us for a curve,\" added Brusatte, a paleontologist with the American Museum of Natural History. Scientists who have studied the fossilized animal, which was 5 to 6 years old when it died, believe it was an ancestor of the fearsome T. Rex. \"Raptorex really is a pivotal moment in the history of the group where most of the biological meaningful features about Tyrannosaurs came into being,\" said lead author Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago. \"And the surprising fact is that they came into being in such a small animal,\" he added. Based on estimates of other similar-sized theropods, or \"beast-footed\" dinosaurs, Sereno and his colleagues estimate an adult Raptorex was about 9 feet tall and weighed about 143 pounds. By contrast, the Tyrannosaurus rex, which topped the prehistoric food chain until dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago, was believed to weigh at least five tons. Scientists hypothesize that Raptorex ran its prey down, using its enlarged skull, powerful jaws and sharp teeth to dispatch animals much larger than itself. Like the T. rex, the Raptorex also had tiny forelimbs, they said. \"We can say that these features did not evolve as a consequence of large body size but rather evolved as an efficient set of predatory weapons in an animal that was 1\/100th the size of Tyrannosaurus rex and that lived 60 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex,\" Brusatte said. After the remains were discovered, they were smuggled out of China and into the United States, where they were eventually purchased by a Massachusetts collector, Henry Kriegstein, who donated them to science. Sereno was later asked to identify the fossil. \"I hope that this is a pathway that other important specimens that do find their way out of the ground in the dark of night do not get lost to science,\" Sereno said. The Raptorex fossil will eventually be returned to China, where it will be put on display near the excavation site, scientists said.","highlights":"Scientists discover a fossil they believe was a tiny version of the T. rex .\nThe predator, nicknamed Raptorex, lived about 60 million years before the T. rex .\nScientists: An adult Raptorex was about 9 feet tall and weighed about 150 pounds .\nFossilized remains were discovered in northeastern China .","id":"221310dba06730c1936bc2f1b87ed28d787e7c8d"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The days are getting shorter, the nights colder, but that doesn't mean that your electricity bill needs to go through the roof. In a unique experiment, the residents of Britain's Scilly Isles are hoping to show that reducing your electricity consumption doesn't have to be difficult. The Isles of Scilly is switching off power to promote energy efficiency. As part of E-Day, homes, schools and businesses on the Scilly Isles are switching off all non-essential electrical equipment to promote energy saving. The results of the experiment are being posted online in real-time. E-Day organizer, Matt Prescott said: \"The Isles of Scilly are like a miner's canary for the rest of the UK, because of their vulnerability to sea level rise, to violent storms rolling off the Atlantic and to any major changes in the Gulf Stream.\" The islands, which lie 28 miles off Land's End, the UK's most westerly point, are connected to the UK mainland by a single electricity cable which means that power usage in the experiment can be measured efficiently. All of the 2000-strong community who are spread across five islands have been encouraged to join in. The energy savings made will be compared against the previous day's usage with updates appearing online regularly. The E-Day Web site keeps track of costs and kWh usage providing up-to-the-minute information about how much electricity is being used in island-wide as well as individually monitoring Five Islands School on St Mary's Island and the electricity consumption of one family. \"We've fitted the family and the school with special energy monitors so they can accurately monitor what appliances use the most electricity,\" Prescott told CNN. Studies suggest that families who use these sorts of energy monitors can cut their electricity bills by up to 20 percent. At the time of writing, the family's consumption had dropped dramatically, down 35 percent on the previous day, which Prescott estimates is a saving of around \u00a3300 ($475) on their annual electricity bill. Sadly the figures for the school and the island as a whole weren't quite so impressive. The school was up six percent on the previous day, while the island as a whole saw a two percent rise in usage. Prescott put these small rises down to the notoriously fickle British weather. \"Yesterday was lovely and sunny,\" he said. \"So far, today it has been rainy.\" The damp and gloom have meant more lights being switched on but despite these meteorological setbacks, Prescott remained upbeat about the success of the experiment. \"Before the family left home this morning they turned off everything they could, so their reduction in usage is a fantastic result,\" he said. Visitors to the the E-Day Web site can also play the\"5 Things\" game to find out what all sorts of household appliances cost to run and how much they cost you and the environment. \"The E-Day experiment will hopefully prove that the small things can make a big difference, especially when we work together and try to save energy,\" Prescott said. Prescott is also the founder of \"Ban the Bulb\" -- an energy efficiency campaign which is helping phase out the use of incandescent light bulbs in 30 countries. The event has been organized as part of a four-day Earth Summit event which has seen the Isles of Scilly play host to fellow islanders from Samoa, The Galapagos Islands, Madagascar and the Carteret Islands -- whose inhabitants are some of the first people being displaced by rising sea-levels.","highlights":"UK's Scilly Isles take part in a day-long experiment monitoring electricity consumption .\nIslanders being encouraged to switch off all non-essential electrical appliances .\nE-Day is the culmination of a four-day long Earth Summit on the islands .","id":"806e040becb2447dd9a71937a3a92c90e953b65d"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesia is no stranger to bombings such as the one that rocked two luxury hotels in Jakarta on Friday. Indonesian counter-terrorist police commandos secure the damaged Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta. As authorities sift through the rubble of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which were struck by bombs that killed at least eight people, some could not help but think about past bombings in the Southeast Asian country. In 2002, a bombing at two night clubs on the island of Bali killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. More than 300 people -- many of them young Australians on vacation -- were wounded by the massive blasts in the town of Kuta. Dozens of victims were burned beyond recognition or blown to pieces. The bombing was blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah -- a terror group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network. The group is suspected in other bombings. Many of those convicted in the plot were sentenced to death or life in prison. In August 2003, the same JW Marriott Hotel that was attacked Friday was bombed, killing 12. The Australian Embassy in Jakarta was targeted in 2004. A powerful car bomb shook Jakarta's central business district, blowing a hole through the embassy's security gate, killing at least eight people and wounding about 168. A year later, three suicide bombers targeted two tourist spots on the resort island of Bali. The bombings -- two at the cafes near Jimbaran Beach and one at a restaurant in Kuta's main square -- killed 19 people and wounded at least 132, according to hospital officials. Despite the string of bombings, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said Indonesia has made strides in addressing terrorist groups. Watch an eyewitness report of the blasts \u00bb . \"We have made significant progress in curbing the activities of terrorists,\" the spokesman said. Watch a report on suspects behind the blasts \u00bb . \"In recent years, we have several preventative successes in arresting terrorist cells just before they were able to make their attacks. And we have not had an attack since the Bali bombing several years ago. But this is a blow. This is a blow to us. But we will find out the perpetrators.\"","highlights":"In 2002, a bombing at two night clubs on the island of Bali killed 202 people .\nBombing blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a terror group with ties to al Qaeda .\nIn 2003 , the same JW Marriott Hotel attacked Friday was bombed, killing 12 .\nPresidential spokesman says Indonesia has made strides in addressing terrorism .","id":"cf61f7e1d5cea903742a9305628f1fa34e792fd5"} -{"article":"San Diego, California (CNN) -- President Obama deserves an A+ for his agenda for education reform. His decision to nominate Arne Duncan as U.S. education secretary was inspired, and his comments on holding the system accountable are honest, refreshing and insightful. Obama showed that again this week with a powerful speech at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin. He announced that, in the coming weeks, states would be able to compete for their share of more than $4 billion in funding through the administration's Race to the Top initiative. But in order to do that, he said, the states have to demonstrate that they're serious about increasing accountability by doing things like tearing down \"firewall laws\" that prevent districts from factoring in student performance when evaluating teachers. That sinister brainchild was brought to you by politically influential teachers' unions who make it their solemn mission to protect their members from the scrutiny and standards that everyday people have to put up in their jobs. Obama's not having any of it. \"If you are committed to real change in the way you educate your children,\" he told his audience, \"if you're willing to hold yourselves more accountable, and if you develop a strong plan to improve the quality of education in your state, then we'll offer you a big grant to help you make that plan a reality.\" Like no president in recent memory -- except maybe George W. Bush, who diagnosed that schools are often afflicted with \"the soft bigotry of low expectations\" -- Obama gets it. What Obama \"gets\" is that America's public schools often underperform and help cheat students out of brighter futures for three main reasons: . 1) There are low expectations, not just for students but also for parents, schools and whole communities that are written off as not able to compete academically. Too many educators let themselves off the hook by telling themselves that poor kids from struggling backgrounds are somehow incapable of learning as well as kids from wealthier communities. 2) Too many educators and politicians treat public schools as if they exist for the benefit of the adults who teach there rather than the kids who are supposed to learn there. Because teachers have unions and students don't, everything -- including the length of the school year -- is geared for the convenience of the work force and not the clientele. 3) Those intent on preserving the status quo resist tooth and nail any attempt to hold them accountable by linking teachers to the performance of their students or, in an idea that Louisiana is trying and that Duncan smiles upon and would like to see spread to other states, tracing back teachers to the schools of education that produced them. Obama understands all that. And, it seems, the president learned it during his stint as a community organizer in Chicago, Illinois. It was there that he went to bat for low-income black parents who, like scores of parents who send their kids to underperforming schools throughout America, are caught in a frustrating and almost comical paradox. They're turned away, shunned, treated with condescension and even insulted by self-serving public school \"edu-crats\" who treat these institutions like their own private offices where they don't want to be bothered by anyone who doesn't have a teaching or administrative credential. Then, incredibly, the parents are blamed for not participating and involving themselves more in that hostile environment and when many of them thought that teaching their kids was the job of, well, teachers. It's been my experience that many teachers don't really care whether parents go to the PTA or help their kids with homework. They just want a constant foil, someone to blame when students flounder and the schools underperform. And, when that happens, in any public school in America, suddenly there's not a mirror to be found. It's always someone else's fault. I know what you're thinking. Teachers love to portray columnists, analysts and pundits as clueless about the real world of teaching unless we've actually taught in the classroom. Been there, done that. Before I ever started writing a column, I taught for nearly five years in a poor farming town in central California where most of the students were the children of Mexican farm workers. And I learned more about education there than I did from taking graduate courses at Harvard. I bet that a lot of public school teachers -- many of whom, according to exit polls, vote Democratic -- are already missing the Bush administration. At least when they were battling the accountability law known as No Child Left Behind, they could say it was someone else's idea put in place by a president who other people elected. Now, they must confront the unpleasantness that comes with a reform effort being pushed by an administration that many of them support. One way to square that circle is try to make Duncan out to be the problem, as if the education secretary has gone rogue. Recently, I heard from a professor of education at a state university in San Diego who bristled at the former college basketball player's call for reforming teachers' colleges. \"Mr. Obama,\" she wrote, \"please fire Arne Duncan and let him go back to the basketball court.\" Cute. Smug but cute. Trouble is, this week, Obama made clear that, when it comes to fixing our schools, he and the education secretary are on the same team. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette Jr.","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette says Obama targets \"firewall laws\" with school funding initiative .\nObama understands school underperformance, he writes .\nLow-income parents are caught in frustrating paradox, Navarrette says .\nMany teachers just want someone to blame, he says .","id":"0ef4e102755499a629614d29e90311bd6abb5aba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday for their World Cup qualifier against Cyprus next week, despite being under the cloud of a drug test controversy. Fabioo Cannavaro's proudest moment came in 2006 when he led Italy to World Cup glory. It was revealed on Thursday that the 36-year-old Juventus defender recently failed a drug test after taking a medicine that contained the banned substance cortisone. Cannavaro was interviewed by the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri on Thursday night in Turin but national coach Marcello Lippi does not expect his star to be absent from the squad. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" Lippi told reporters. \"Will he be here with us on Sunday? Of course he will. \"I have not spoken to Cannavaro,\" added national team doctor Enrico Castellacci. \"But he is calm and serene. This is just a bureaucratic case.\" Juventus claimed the defender needed cortisone treatment for an insect sting in August. The player requested an exemption from taking drugs tests on the grounds of having taken a medication in an emergency situation but his request did not include a document necessary to complete the application. While awaiting a decision, Cannavaro took an anti-doping test after a Serie A game at Roma which returned a positive result. \"When he came to the national team, after the Roma game, he told us what had happened and he told us that without the medicine that contained cortisone he would have had a reaction, an anaphylactic shock,\" Castellacci said. \"We asked Juventus for all the necessary documents regarding the medicine taken by Cannavaro and all the communication is in our possession.\" Cannavaro will not travel to Dublin for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Ireland as he serves a one-match ban, but is expected to lead the Azzurri in Wednesday's qualifier against Cyprus in Parma.","highlights":"Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italian national squad on Sunday to face Cyprus .\nCannavaro tested positive for cortisone after having treatment for an insect bite .\nThe 36-year-old Juve defender has an allergy to insect bites which can be fatal .\nDefender was interviewed by Italian Olympic Committee anti-doping prosecutor .","id":"bd0b6f6a17d95d815c52b1b90d89f1d236a956b3"} -{"article":"(Parenting.com) -- A dad looks at how long it really takes a kid to sleep alone: . Getting the baby to sleep is a challenge for many parents. 1:28 a.m. Every couple of hours, Jack (2 weeks) cries. My wife feeds him, then hands him to me to change his diaper. It's an equitable division of labor, but I wish I could sleep. 2:15 a.m. Jack (1 month) is sleeping between me and my wife because this way she can nurse while she dozes. I'm happy, but so tired. He's on his back, and there are no pillows or blankets around him, but I'm wide-awake, thinking about SIDS. He's like a little hot-water bottle. His breath is sweet and milky against my face. 10 p.m. I'm lying on a tiny crib mattress on the floor next to the crib. We're trying to get Jack (9 months) to sleep through the night. His mother and I take turns lying next to him on the floor and holding his hand through the slats. I miss my wife. 1:36 a.m. Jack (12 months) is sleeping in between us, again. Lying next to his crib didn't work -- Jack kept crying, waking both of us. This way, we all get some sleep. Parenting.com: Dad's in charge? Uh oh. 4:27 a.m. I'm wide-awake because Jack (15 months) kicked me in the groin. I have to get up to drive my wife to New York, then turn around and drive back home with Jack, all on about three hours of sleep. I decide that while his mother is gone, I will Ferberize him. Parenting.com: Ferberizing is not what you think it is . 9:13 p.m. Jack (15 months and a day) is in his crib, crying, crying, crying. 10:11 p.m. Jack (15 months and a week) is in his crib, alone and asleep. Ferberizing worked. Suddenly I have a great idea -- let's have another baby! But this would require that my wife and I stay awake for longer than ten seconds once our heads hit the pillows. 12:02 a.m. In bed with my wife, I'm feeling romantic, but then Jack (18 months) cries out. He has a fever. We give him kids' Motrin and bring him back into bed with us. He's burning up. 11:21 p.m. Jack (18 months and a week) is no longer sick, but now he's back in our bed, every night. It's once again the only way he'll go down. 7 a.m. I realize that for the first time, Jack (22 months) has finally slept through the night. Now we have to get him out of diapers and back in his own room. 11:41 p.m. We are lying in an H formation. Jack (2 years) is nestled into his mother's chest, perpendicular to us, with his feet lodged against my throat, trying to push me off the bed. Freud was right about Oedipus. Parenting.com: Why good dads make moms jealous . 4:25 a.m. Jack (3 years) has kicked the covers off me again and I wake up, shivering. I pull the covers up. He kicks them off. I pull them up. He kicks them off. I go downstairs, turn on the TV, and fall asleep on the couch. 2:15 p.m. I'm sound asleep, dreaming. Unfortunately, I'm at work. Tomorrow is Jack's fourth birthday. Last night in bed, he said, \"Hey, why do I have to sleep in the middle?\" 7:30 p.m. I am lying in the new twin bed we bought Jack (4 1\/4 years), to show him how it works. We made a big deal of it, his very own Big Boy Bed, and we let him pick out the dinosaur sheets and the dinosaur comforter. All is ready. 12:05 a.m. I'm in this big empty bed, alone. We told Jack that on his fifth birthday he'd have to sleep in his own bed, because that's what big boys do, and he agreed. He wants very much to be a big boy. On his birthday, my wife lay down with him at 8:30 and fell sound asleep. 5:02 a.m. I get up and peek in on Jack (5 1\/2). He's been sleeping alone in his room for almost a month now. I get back into bed with my wife and snuggle up next to her. At least I think it's her -- it's been a while. She feels good against my skin, but now I miss Jack. I miss getting kicked in the throat. I miss getting the covers pulled off of me. Where's my little boy? How did he grow up so fast? 9:42 p.m. Hearing a noise, my wife and I go upstairs to check on Jack (6). He says he was having a bad dream. We lie down with him, three of us in a twin bed. It's crowded, but if we brought him into our bed again, we'd never get him out. His breath is still sweet and milky on my cheek. How could this not be okay? This is my family. Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.","highlights":"Dad recalls stages of son's sleep -- and his own not sleeping .\nInfant son's crying or dad's fear of smothering kept him awake .\nChild has fever, parents put him in their bed. Child refuses to sleep in crib .\nDad misses boy who now sleeps alone in his big boy bed .","id":"0574557a949a767f8e1aaf7600bb4fd6d43ff8da"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Script didn't follow the script. The Script includes, from left to right, Glen Power, Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan. In the standard showbiz treatment, a group -- say, three plucky, working-class music-mad young men from Dublin, Ireland -- travel to the grand shores of the U.S. of A. They form a band, grab the ear of a noted producer and, with a lucky break or two, are soon opening for the stars who inspired them so many years before. If the story needs a rousing climax, they return as conquering heroes to their homeland, pick up the local paper and find that their new single has gone straight to No. 1. Applause, joyful tears, roll credits. Well, it wasn't quite like that. In the case of The Script -- vocalist\/keyboardist Danny O'Donoghue, multi-instrumentalist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power -- O'Donoghue and Sheehan traveled to the States and spent several years as struggling writers and producers. Drummer Power, another Dubliner, had bummed around music scenes for years; he'd met O'Donoghue and Sheehan not long before the pair packed it in and returned to Dublin, plying their trade and looking for breaks. Descriptions of the trio as \"an overnight success\" thus leave them skeptical. If that's the case, said Sheehan before a concert at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia, \"It was the longest night of our lives.\" Watch an interview with The Script \u00bb . On the other hand, when success did strike, it struck hard and relatively quickly. When O'Donoghue and Sheehan returned to Dublin, they decided to form a band. They recruited Power, noting their \"great strength together\" -- in Power's words -- after jamming together. The Script's first single, \"We Cry,\" hit the UK Top 20 in the spring of 2008, and the second, \"The Man Who Can't Be Moved,\" hit No. 1. The group's self-titled debut came out in August 2008 in Britain. In December 2008, they played the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, and, in March of this year, opened for U2. (Their album was finally released in the U.S. that same month.) They've spent this summer as Paul McCartney's opening act, which was what brought them to Piedmont Park. Touring with the former Beatle \"feels like a master class for us,\" said Sheehan. The three, all around 30, finish each other's sentences like the old friends they are and display a savvy about the music business. That's only fitting, as O'Donoghue and Sheehan spent their years in America learning the trade alongside producers such as Teddy Riley and the Neptunes. Sheehan says the group is looking for the sweet spot between the \"rock climate\" they grew up in and the hip-hop and R&B sounds that dominate American popular music. \"[With our experience,] we're hashing it out, and I think we've found it,\" he said. (Asked about their own influences, they rattle off hip-hop artists such as Missy Elliott, Jay-Z and Kanye West.) The Script appears to have a happy ending, just as an old tale of rising stars would have it. But the three are quick to point out that aspiring musicians should, well, write their own story. \"If there's a message to younger musicians, to me, it's 'don't give up,' \" says O'Donoghue. \"Magic can happen.\"","highlights":"Musicians spent several years as struggling writers and producers in the U.S.\nThey decided to form a band when they returned to Ireland .\nThe group's self-titled debut came out in August 2008 in Britain .\nThis year, the band has been the opening act for U2 and Paul McCartney .","id":"91a6873e8b51c859ddec7c383913c234c25297ed"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In what feels like a box-office weekend from \"The Twilight Zone,\" a low-budget and critically acclaimed movie with no stars and an unknown director managed to top the charts. \"District 9,\" the alien action pic produced by Peter Jackson, crushed the competition grossing $37 million. \"District 9,\" the alien action pic produced by Peter Jackson and directed by the 29-year-old Neill Blomkamp ? who shot the film in Johannesburg, South Africa, of all places -- crushed the competition by grossing $37 million, according to early estimates. Audiences clearly enjoyed what they saw too: \"District 9\" has already soared to No. 78 on IMDb's top 250 movies list, although it'll obviously drop some as the initial euphoria wears off. Second place went to \"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,\" which dropped 59 percent in its second weekend but still managed to recruit $22.5 million. The $175 million action movie should pass $100 million domestically by Monday. \"The Time Traveler's Wife\" materialized into third place with $19.2 million in its debut weekend, proving that there is a market for watching Eric Bana disappear. Rounding out the top 5 were \"Julie & Julia\" (No. 4 with $12.4 million) and \"G-Force\" (No. 5 with $6.9 million), respectively. Also opening wide was a trio of movies that failed to make a significant dent on the box office. \"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,\" a cars-salesmen comedy starring Jeremy Piven, barely registered on the mercury thermometer by earning $5.4 million. \"Ponyo,\" the 10th film by Japan's animation auteur Hayao Miyazaki, grossed $3.5 million on 927 screens. While that amount represents Miyazaki's best opening weekend in America, it's still fish feed compared to \"Ponyo's\" worldwide gross of $187 million. The music comedy \"Bandslam\" won't be getting any requests for encores after making only $2.3 million from more than 2,000 screens ? even the promise of seeing the \"Taylor Lautner takes off his shirt\" trailer of The \"Twilight\" Saga: New Moon couldn't save the Vanessa Hudgens movie. In limited release, the Jimmy Page\/The Edge\/Jack White music documentary \"It Might Get Loud\" opened promisingly, grossing $101,000 from just seven theaters. And \"500 Days of Summer\" continues to cement its title as \"the indie breakout of the summer\" by charming $3 million more from moviegoers, bringing its total to $18 million so far. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"District 9,\" the alien action pic, crushed the competition grossing $37 million .\n\"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra\" dropped 59 percent, bringing in $22.5 million .\n\"The Time Traveler's Wife\" materialized into third place with $19.2 million .\nCheck out which other movies made this week's top ten list .","id":"61223cd34569bb0a08c56340cdca6698c568f717"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Two sentences inscribed above the refurbished entrance hall of Moscow's Kurskaya metro station are causing great agitation for survivors of Russian labor camps.Yuri Fidelgoldsh, who had five ribs removed after imprisonment six decades ago, is one of the offended survivors. This slogan at a Moscow metro station has stirred controversy: \"Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people.\" \"Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people,\" says the inscription above the pristine marble floors of the metro station. \"He inspired us to labor and to heroism.\" Fidelgoldsh, now 82, doesn't use the metro station much, but he has been there to see the restoration. When he invokes the name \"Stalin,\" he gets angry. \"For people who were imprisoned, punished and whose parents were killed, this is still in their hearts,\" Fidelgoldsh says. Kremlin critics are outraged by the restored motto at the station. They say it's the latest attempt by the government to rehabilitate the image of Joseph Stalin, the late Soviet leader largely responsible for the division of Europe, the deaths of nearly 20 million people and the creator of the Eastern Bloc. \"I have no positive emotions towards Stalin,\" Fidelgoldsh adds. \"He's a college dropout who went into politics and became a leader of a party which fit his needs. He didn't exactly impress me with his 'great' mind.\" Watch report on the rehabilitation of Stalin's image \u00bb . The phrase at the metro station came from the original Soviet national anthem, written in 1944 by Sergey Mikhalkov. During the de-Stalinization process that began under Nikita Khrushchev after Stalin's death in 1953, statues and other vestiges of his immense cult of personality were removed. In 1977, Mikhalkov rewrote the anthem to delete references to Stalin, and the metro station removed the original inscription of his words. The entrance hall to the station underwent extensive renovation over the past year, complete with new columns and polished marble floors. It's located on the main metro line around the city's center, through which tens of thousands of commuters pass every day. On a recent day, a woman named Nadia said she had no problem with the slogan honoring Stalin. She grew up after the fall of the Soviet Union and during the prosperous Putin years. \"I think we shouldn't be ashamed because this is a part of our history. We have to somehow accept the history,\" said Nadia, who didn't want to give her last name. The Kremlin declined comment for this story. Pavel Suharnikov, the press director for Moscow Metro, said, \"We do not wish to discuss this matter anymore, but I will say that I don't see any political motivation behind the restoration of Kurskaya.\" Travelers at the metro station first saw the words hailing Stalin at the start of 1950, when the station opened as one of the grand post-World War II constructions. It was contracted by Stalin himself. \"This metro station was built by prisoners of gulags who were in there for no reason, just because. They were the ones building this station. I think all of this is simply wrong,\" says Valeri M. Shevchenko, a musician, whose father suffered at the hands of Stalin's regime. \"They came in the morning, Stalin's police, took everyone outside and shot my grandfather in front of his family. My grandmother and her eight children, including my father who was 8 at the time, were sent to work camps. Only three children survived.\" As Shevchenko looks around the metro station today, he shakes his head. Irina Sherbakova, Moscow director of the Russian-based International Memorial Society, says this new \"re-Stalinization\" is a step back for democracy in Russia. \"It's clear that our nation has declined to accept democracy and individual freedoms, as a principle.\" The Memorial Society is a community of dozens of human rights organizations in different regions of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Georgia that formed in 1990. It is responsible for preservation of the societal memory of the severe political persecution of the Soviet Union. The return of the anthem line at Kurskaya may prove to be culturally dividing. According to the Memorial Society, more than 40 percent of citizens favor Stalin's rehabilitation. \"That means people don't care about what was happening to their ancestors. There are no plaques on our buildings and in our schools. It's not at all about restoration and preserving the memory,\" says Sherbakova. Fidelgoldsh, the gulag survivor, was arrested by Stalin's militia on the streets of Moscow in 1948. A friend of his had admitted under questioning -- with a promise to be released -- that they had privately criticized Stalin's regime. The two, along with another friend, were charged with anti-Soviet agitations and forming an anti-Soviet group. They were sent to a labor camp near Magadan, in eastern Russia. Fidelgoldsh was imprisoned for eight years. The friend who turned him in spent the next 30 years in various camps and prisons, where he eventually died. Fidelgoldsh shows a picture of himself at the time of his illness, which was taken by camp authorities and sent to his mother to show that her son was alive and well. He looks weak and pale. \"I nearly starved a few times. They gave me a small loaf of bread daily, but I couldn't survive on that, and quickly became too thin and weak to perform,\" Fidelgoldsh says. \"Eventually, I became sick with tuberculoses and spat blood.\" Sherbakova, the Kremlin critic, says it's a slippery slope when a nation like Russia appears to be rewriting history. \"No matter what our politicians may say and do, unless they are willing to accept the past for what it was and treat it properly, the current generations, who are growing up with World War II as a thing of the past, are under threat of repeating the same tragic mistakes,\" Sherbakova says. Joseph Stalin became the general secretary of the Communist Party in 1922. When Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Stalin essentially installed himself as the Soviet heir. Stalin purged the party of \"enemies\" in what was known as the Great Terror of the 1930s. Tens of thousands of people were executed and millions were forced into the gulag labor system. CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.","highlights":"Newly restored slogan at Moscow metro station hails Stalin, draws criticism .\nGulag survivor: \"For people ... whose parents were killed, this is still in their hearts\"\nGroup says 40 percent of Russians are in favor of rehabilitation of Stalin's image .\n\"That means people don't care about what was happening to their ancestors\"","id":"08b46544bf8c6aebdccbfbb007393ed74e2d32af"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- You don't need to be a teenage boy to realize how scary girls can be. Girls know it too. Megan Fox plays a demonic cheerleader in \"Jennifer's Body,\" written by Diablo \"Juno\" Cody. Certainly Diablo Cody does. The Academy Award-winning \"Juno\" scribe proves as much in her second screenplay, a horror comedy about BFFs Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried). These bosom buddies have a relationship that stretches back to the sandbox. They're inseparable opposites: Jennifer is a babe, head cheerleader and a bit of a snot. Needy is nerdy, conventional and a soft touch. Except that when we first meet her, she's locked up in the local mental hospital, kicking back at the guards and muttering darkly about the murders that put her here. Looking back, she dates this disastrous turn of events to the day Jennifer talked her into seeing an up-and-coming indie band at the roadhouse. The gig ends in a deadly inferno that claims the lives of several schoolmates, then Jennifer drives off with the band for an al fresco after-party involving satanic rites and virgin sacrifice. She survives on a technicality, but shows up later that night at Needy's place covered in blood, barfing blue goo and craving fresh flesh. In the days after the tragedy the entire school seems to be suffering from post-traumatic stress. Only Jennifer seems unfazed by the community's second sucker punch: the gruesome fate of the star quarterback in the woods. What's a girl to do if her best friend turns into a heartless boy-eating demon? Needy cleans up the mess and hopes it's just a phase. The last time a horror flick tried for a distinctly female point of view the result was \"Twilight,\" which was more of a wan gothic romance than a chiller. Directed by Karyn Kusama, who made \"Girlfight\" and \"Aeon Flux,\" \"Jennifer's Body\" isn't anything like that. It's a much edgier, snappier, bloodier film, aimed primarily at young hipsters and horror fans -- plus anyone else curious to see Megan Fox get nasty. (That's got to include a sizable chunk of the audience, surely?) So smoldering hot that at one point she coolly sets fire to her tongue, Fox makes a convincing vixen, callously picking up victims whenever her luster begins to fade. It's not hard to imagine she can have anyone who takes her fancy -- even Needy is not immune to her charms. Ironically, though, Jennifer is really the needy one here, while her friend eventually finds the self-possession to stand up to her. Similarly, you might come for Fox, but it's Amanda Seyfried's expressive range and toughness that leaves a more lasting impression. The \"Mamma Mia\" starlet is destined for good things. iReport.com: Share your review of \"Jennifer's Body\" The bitingly smart, funny teen-speak is carried over from \"Juno,\" along with sharp pop culture references and a sassy feminist attitude, but the million-dollar question has to be: Is it scary? Only occasionally, I'm afraid. The gore scenes come with weird little flourishes: Jennifer's mounting body count attracts a crowd of curious woodland creatures, sounding a sweetly sick echo of \"Bambi,\" and a climactic showdown is set in a spectacularly fetid abandoned swimming pool (don't they drain those things?). But the jokiness does tend to undercut the terror. I suspect the film will prove too freaky for \"Juno\" boosters, and could have used more straight-ahead scares and sustained suspense to appease the hardcore horror geeks. That said, this entertainingly oddball offering does twist fresh kinks into a genre that's always crying out for new blood. \"Jennifer's Body\" is rated R and runs 102 minutes.","highlights":"\"Jennifer's Body\" is a horror winner with doses of comedy, says Tom Charity .\nFilm stars Megan Fox as a cheerleader who turns demonic .\nAmanda Seyfried, playing Fox's friend, provides movie's standout performance .\n\"Jennifer's Body\" was written by \"Juno's\" Diablo Cody .","id":"d924d722150e64da61fce36f37bd4eeb6960d90b"} -{"article":"If you want to know where American food traditions are headed, look back. Many of today's most healthful eating trends bear a strong resemblance to yesterday's: Nearby farms offering nutritious, peak-of-season produce; slow-cooked dinners that foster leisurely family meals; an emphasis on meatless dishes and minimally processed foods. Sales of organic food have risen more than 20 percent per year since the 1990s, the USDA says. \"It used to be that packaging and convenience were all the rage. But today, food lovers also want to know where their food comes from and how to prepare it in the simplest, most natural way possible,\" says Fern Gale Estrow, M.S., R.D., a community nutritionist based in New York City. \"People still want and need to save time in the kitchen, but they're not willing to sacrifice taste and nutrition to get it.\" Fortunately, these five food trends provide exactly that -- flavorful, nutrient-rich meals that are easy to prepare and can help you fulfill many of your dietary requirements. Flexitarianism . Like vegetarians, \"flexitarians\" eat a primarily plant-based diet composed of grains, vegetables, and fruits, but they occasionally obtain protein from lean meat, fish, poultry, or dairy. A quarter of Americans fit the description, consuming meatless meals at least four days a week, according to the American Dietetic Association. Why it's here to stay: Flexitarianism is exactly what dietitians, nutritional researchers, and public health advocates have been recommending for years. \"It's about eating a varied diet that's low in saturated fat and high in fiber,\" says Milton Stokes, M.P.H., R.D., chief dietitian at St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City, and an ADA spokesperson. Because the emphasis is on produce rather than protein, flexitarians are more likely than most Americans to meet the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables and the vitamins and minerals they contain. CookingLight.com: Take our quiz on correct serving sizes . What it means for you: Studies show that people who follow this approach to eating generally weigh less and have lower rates of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer. In one large study from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, researchers tracked the eating habits of more than 9,600 people over a 19-year period and found those who consumed fruits and vegetables at least three times daily lowered their risk of stroke by 42 percent, and their risk of cardiovascular disease by 27 percent. Locally grown foods . As people seek fresher foods, they have begun to connect with local family farms. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs and farmers' markets give consumers direct access to produce, meats, cheeses, breads, honey, and other foods that are produced in nearby communities. In the past 10 years, the number of local farmers' markets has more than doubled -- it is up from 1,755 to 3,706, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service. Why it's here to stay: Because they are so fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables often have a nutritional edge over produce raised on \"factory\" farms. The latter, which constitutes most of the produce grown in the United States, is picked about four to seven days before it arrives on supermarket shelves, and shipped for an average of 1,500 miles before it's sold, according to Local Harvest, a nonprofit agricultural research group. All that downtime takes a toll. USDA researchers have found that if it's not handled properly, produce can lose up to half its nutrients in transit. Water-soluble nutrients such as vitamin C are particularly vulnerable. What it means for you: \"Buying food from local vendors gives you input,\" says Gail Feenstra, R.D., food systems analyst at the University of California at Davis' Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. \"You can find out how things were grown. You can also request varieties of fruits and vegetables that wouldn't be available elsewhere.\" And then there's the most important reason of all: Because of its freshness, locally grown food tastes better than produce designed to be shipped. \"Growers' priority is on taste and texture versus transportation,\" Feenstra says. Functional foods . Functional foods are enriched with nutrients that may not be inherent to a given food. Familiar examples include orange juice fortified with calcium or milk fortified with vitamins A and D. As sales of these foods have soared in recent years, more functional foods have reached the market, such as eggs and pastas with omega-3 fatty acids, sterol-fortified chocolates and high-fiber, high-protein flours. Why it's here to stay: These foods help many people fill nutritional gaps. \"For example, if you're lactose intolerant, you might find it difficult to meet your calcium quota,\" Stokes says. \"Calcium-fortified juice eliminates that problem, especially if a glass is already part of your daily diet.\" Likewise, if you dislike seafood, you can obtain extra omega-3s from eggs or pasta. CookingLight.com: Remembering real portion sizes . What it means for you: Functional foods are one helpful element in maintaining a balanced diet, not a substitute for it. \"Calcium-fortified orange juice won't supply other nutrients that a dairy source would provide, like protein,\" Estrow says. \"That's why it's best to rely on whole foods, which provide multiple nutrients that act synergistically.\" In the end, it's fine to reap added nutrients from a functional food, but remember to fulfill the majority of your needs with naturally rich sources. Organic food . These are foods produced following a government-regulated practice of growing and processing that minimizes exposure to pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals used in traditional farming. Organic food is one of the country's fastest-growing market segments; sales have risen more than 20 percent per year since the 1990s, according to the USDA's Economic Research Service. Why it's here to stay: Some organic foods may provide a nutrition boost. A research review of 41 studies conducted by the University of California at Davis found that, on average, organic produce contains as much as 27 percent more vitamin C, 21 percent more iron, and 29 percent more magnesium compared with traditionally grown foods. The kinds of packaged organic foods that now fuel the category's growth, such as cookies, baked goods, and boxed meals, also benefit from a similar perception of healthfulness. What it means for you: \"An organic stamp isn't necessarily a guarantee of nutritional quality, but it is a sure sign that the food is less adulterated,\" Stokes says. An organic cookie, for example, may have just as many calories and grams of saturated fat as a nonorganic cookie. But in the case of produce crops that are commonly treated with high concentrations of pesticides, such as peaches, apples, and strawberries, choosing organic can minimize your exposure to these chemicals, according to tests conducted by researchers from the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C. CookingLight.com: All-star foods that fight for health . Slow food . Launched in Italy 20 years ago by restaurateur Carlo Petrini, \"slow food\" was originally designed to protest the encroachment of fast food on the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle. The trend's principles -- choosing locally grown and produced items, preparing them in traditional ways, and eating with friends and family -- celebrate a relaxed approach to living that provides a welcome contrast to the fast-paced, eat-on-the-run lives many people lead. Why it's here to stay: As with locally grown food, freshness is a key component of the slow food trend. \"Investing the time to choose what's fresh that day will ensure that night's meal will be at its peak nutritionally,\" Stokes says. This principle applies whether you're making a family recipe or dining in a restaurant where the chef selects ingredients based on their seasonal availability. Family togetherness is also an important aspect of the trend. \"Slow food is all about cherishing the eating experience and getting back to what food used to be: a vehicle for drawing people together,\" explains Sara Firebaugh, assistant director of Slow Food USA. What it means for you: Healthful whole foods are a great start, but slow food goes a step beyond good nutrition -- and it's a difficult one to quantify. No scientific studies have conclusively proven that friends and family make better dinner companions than televisions, but the benefits are clear. \"Slow food embraces the psychological component in food choices, meal preparation, and the act of eating,\" Estrow says. \"A healthful diet isn't just about what you eat but how you eat it.\" E-mail to a friend . For more tips on making healthy taste great, try Cooking Light - CLICK HERE . Copyright 2009 Cooking Light magazine. All rights reserved. Health and nutrition writer Maria Condo is a frequent contributor to Cooking Light. She lives in New York City.","highlights":"\"Flexitarians\" eat a mostly plant-based diet but sometimes add animal protein .\nThe number of local farmers' markets has more than doubled in the last decade .\n\"Functional foods,\" those enriched with extra nutrients, can fill dietary gaps .\nStudies: Organic produce contains more nutrients than traditionally grown foods .","id":"26827f0c72d531ce979ef6ccea79a8b7b50d6db7"} -{"article":"MIAMI BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- On the grainy, silent black and white video, it's hard to tell exactly what happened the night of June 14 in Miami Beach. But one thing is certain: A tourist, Husien Shehada, can be seen falling to the ground, shot by a police officer. Shehada, 29, later died. Husien Shehada, at left with his brother, Samer, was shot dead by Miami Beach police on June 14. Four nights later, again in Miami Beach, Lawrence McCoy allegedly pistol-whipped a cab driver and led police on a chase. Police say shots were exchanged. McCoy, also 29, was killed. Officer Adam Tavss, a 34-year-old former history teacher with three years on the force, was involved in both police shootings, the first in Miami Beach since 2003. Although it is not yet clear whether Tavss fired one of the shots that killed McCoy, questions are being raised as to whether the officer was cleared for patrol duty too soon after the first shooting. Police and the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office are investigating the shootings. The inquiry is expected to last several more months. All the records and reports have been sealed. Watch surveillance video of the first shooting \u00bb . The families of Shehada and McCoy are asking the Justice Department to investigate. Tavss, who is now assigned to desk duty, declined through his attorney to speak with CNN, citing the ongoing investigation. Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega has defended both shootings. \"It is important to note that the subjects in both cases had exhibited aggressive, violent, non-compliant and criminal behavior,\" the chief said in a statement to the media. Noriega added that officers \"are required to make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors and cannot afford to hesitate or be wrong.\" The Miami Beach department's standard operating procedure for use of force, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, states that any officer involved in a fatal shooting must be assigned to administrative duties for at least 72 hours. The department also mandates psychological support. Tavss was removed from duty for 72 hours, evaluated and then cleared by Noriega to return to patrol, which is departmental policy. On his first day back out on the street, Tavss was involved in the second shooting. Each of the nation's 20,000 police departments sets its own policy for police involved in shootings and fatalities. Some departments keep the officers off the streets for a week or longer. In virtually all cases, psychological evaluation and counseling are mandatory. Watch CNN's report on the shootings \u00bb . Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and an expert on police use of force and stress management, said she had never heard of an officer being involved in two shootings within four days. \"I think it's a gross error of judgment for any police department to maintain a rule that allows an officer who was involved in a fatal shooting to be back on the streets four days after the incident,\" Haberfeld said. A study by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice found that officers involved in fatal shootings can be affected for months afterward. \"In the days, weeks and months that follow a shooting, officers may suffer adverse reactions such as sleep interruption, anxiety and depression,\" a report on the study said. Officers \"experienced a range of psychological, emotional and physiological reactions that distorted time, distance, sight and sound,\" the study concluded. In some cases, the study found, officers could not recall firing their weapons. But even experts are undecided on just how much time off the street is enough, because every incident and every police officer is different. \"It's hard for me to estimate whether it's weeks or a little bit more, but certainly not days; certainly not hours. It's just too irresponsible toward the officer and toward the society the officer needs to serve,\" Haberfeld said. Police officers across the country train on how to make difficult split-second decisions on the use of deadly force. The sheriff in neighboring Broward County uses an interactive video screen that places officers into scenarios they might face while on patrol. \"In less than half a second, your pulse may go from 60 to 160, 170, and your heart's beating out of your chest, and you have to make a split-second decision,\" Broward Sheriff's Sgt. Bill Pennypacker said. Witnesses, police and surveillance video obtained by CNN provide the following, sometimes conflicting, accounts of what happened during the two Miami Beach shootings: . Husien Shehada and his brother, Samer, had come from Virginia to spend a long weekend with their girlfriends in Miami Beach. Early on Sunday, June 14, they got into a scuffle with another group of men, who intervened after Samer Shehada allegedly assaulted his girlfriend. Investigators said they believe that the two brothers were looking for revenge against those men when somebody called 911, reporting that two men were walking down the street and that one of them might be carrying a machine gun. The callers said they could see the outline of a large gun underneath his white shirt, and he was carrying it in his left hand. In a color security camera tape released by the Miami Beach Police Department, it appears that one of the brothers was carrying something under his shirt, holding it with his left hand. Tavss and other officers approached the brothers in front of Twist, a popular South Beach nightclub. A grainy black and white videotape shows the brothers together and Husien Shehada falling to the ground. A police officer can then be seen approaching. Samer Shehada said he and his brother were cooperating. \"His hands were up for a good two seconds, three seconds,\" Samer Shehada said. \"He wasn't in the process of raising his hands. His hands were up.\" One witness told CNN that when Tavss approached the brothers with his gun drawn, the brothers were belligerent. The witness, Derek Reynolds, was working security at the club that night. He said the two men cursed at police and wouldn't put their hands up. \"It got intense. ... They weren't cooperating,\" he said. \"One guy reached behind him, and he got shot.\" Law enforcement sources say a coat hanger and a bottle were found at the scene, but no gun was found. Samer Shehada said that neither he nor his brother was carrying a coat hanger, much less a gun. After the shooting, Tavss was relieved of duty for 72 hours, per department policy. When he returned to street patrol, he was one of several officers who responded to a 911 call reporting that that a taxi driver had been pistol-whipped and his cab stolen. Police confronted Lawrence McCoy on a Miami Beach causeway. According to police, McCoy ran and fired at the officers. McCoy was shot dead by police. It is not yet known whether Tavss fired any shots. John Contini, an attorney representing the families of both men shot by police, said McCoy was shot nine to 11 times. No weapon was found on McCoy. Police found a gun several days later in Biscayne Bay, but they say they don't know if it belonged to McCoy. Lawrence McCoy Sr. said his son's civil rights were violated. \"Michael Vick was convicted and put in jail for two years for killing dogs -- for killing dogs. I want justice for my son,\" he said. Contini said Tavss should be in jail. He also questioned the policy that allowed him back on the street so quickly. \"In fairness to the officer, you don't put him on the street, with a gun and a badge, to be in this situation without allowing for a period of decompression -- for the officer's sake, to get some help,\" Contini said.","highlights":"Miami Beach police officer Adam Tavss is involved in two police shootings .\nSecond shooting happened on his first day back on street .\nQuestions are being raised as to whether he was cleared for duty too soon .\nMiami Beach police chief decides when an officer is ready to return .","id":"945a761bab91b809a116d9f2abdfdf1c9b0aaff6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nigeria's state oil company rejected criticism from a leading human rights group Wednesday, calling an Amnesty International report \"inaccurate.\" File image of Shell's oil and gas terminal on Bonny Island in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta. \"We have issues with the report,\" said Levi Ajuonoma, a spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Amnesty said Tuesday that pollution and environmental impacts from the oil industry in the Niger Delta are creating a \"human rights tragedy\" in which local people suffer poor health and loss of livelihood. Governments and oil companies are failing to be accountable for the problems, Amnesty said in its report, called \"Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta.\" But the state oil company said it was local communities who cause much of the environmental damage by vandalizing pipelines for monetary gain. \"We take environmental damage very seriously,\" Ajuonoma said. \"Pipeline damage is a major cause of pollution,\" he argued, blaming \"communities who... vandalize pipelines and make claims on the oil company operating in the area.\" Amnesty leveled a wide range of charges in its report. \"People living in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with and wash in polluted water,\" said Audrey Gaughran, who co-authored the report. \"They eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins -- if they are lucky enough to be able to still find fish. The land they farm on is being destroyed. \"After oil spills, the air they breathe smells of oil, gas and other pollutants. People complain of breathing problems and skin lesions, and yet neither the government nor the oil companies monitor the human impacts of oil pollution.\" The report looks at oil spills, gas flaring, waste dumping and other environmental impacts from the oil industry. The majority of the evidence in the report relates to Shell, the main oil company operating in the region. \"Despite its public claims to be a socially and environmentally responsible corporation, Shell continues to directly harm human rights through its failure to adequately prevent and mitigate pollution and environmental damage in the Niger Delta,\" Gaughran said. A Shell spokesman said the company shares Amnesty's concern for the people in the Niger Delta but disputes the group's assessment of its corporate accountability. \"We feel that the root causes of the Niger Delta's humanitarian issues are poverty, corruption, crime, militancy, and violence. This report does not acknowledge these issues to any substantive degree, but concentrates on oil and gas issues in isolation, and as such, its value is limited,\" said a spokesman at the company's headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, who asked not to be identified per company policy. \"This report brings no new insights or analysis to help oil companies such as SPDC improve managing the issues of the Niger Delta,\" the Shell spokesman said. \"Instead, in parts it draws wide-ranging and superficial conclusions from a number of these deeply complex issues, offering little underlying analysis to support those conclusions.\" SPDC is the Shell Petroleum Development Company, the national oil and gas company in Nigeria. Shell owns a 30-percent stake in the company while the Nigerian government owns 55 percent. The Niger Delta is a region in Nigeria consisting of nine oil-producing states. It has a land area of about 46,500 square miles (75,000 square km) -- about the same size as the Czech Republic or the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). An area of rich biological diversity, the region contains the world's third-largest wetland with the most extensive freshwater swamp forest, according to the UNDP. More than half the area contains creeks and small islands, while the rest is rainforest, the UNDP says. At the same time, the Niger Delta produces the oil wealth that accounts for the bulk of Nigeria's foreign earnings, the UNDP says. Amnesty says the majority of people living in the Niger Delta depend on the natural environment for their food and livelihood, particularly through agriculture and fisheries. Shell said it is not responsible for some 80 percent of the pollution in the oil-rich area, because that pollution is the result of attacks and sabotage of Shell operations in the Niger Delta. \"Over the past four weeks alone we had eight attacks,\" he said. \"These attacks had a substantial impact on the environment, and assets, and most importantly for the people that live and work there.\" About 85 percent of the oil spills from Shell operations are the result of attacks and sabotage, he said. Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on the region's oil infrastructure in recent months. MEND said Sunday it had attacked an offshore facility and that it was engulfed in flames. Last week, the group said it had destroyed a pipeline owned and operated by the Italian gas company Agip. Also last week, MEND claimed to have destroyed Shell's main trunk line in Bayelsa state and a Chevron oil station in the region. MEND demands that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be invested in the Niger Delta instead of enriching those whom the militants consider to be corrupt politicians. Last year, a series of MEND attacks forced Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as much as 40 percent. Amnesty's report acknowledged that armed groups and communities have worsened the pollution problem by vandalizing oil infrastructure or stealing oil, but it said the scale of the problem is not clear. Shell said plans are under way to deal with the problem of gas flaring, which happens when crude oil is brought to the surface along with the large volumes of gas that have been trapped with it. The gas used to be burned off safely in a process called flaring, but that process is now considered a waste of resources and revenue for the government, Shell says. A $3 billion program to reduce the gas flares has already been able to cut them by 30 percent, the company said. The Amnesty report also pointed the finger at governments and said they have failed to be held accountable for the situation of the people. The Niger Delta covers 185 different local government areas, according to the United Nations Development Program. \"The government must address the human impact of oil industry pollution,\" said Gaughran, of Amnesty. \"They have a duty to protect their citizens from human rights abuse or harm by businesses and they are failing in that duty.\" Shell supports \"collaborative solutions\" between communities, governments, corporations and non-profit groups as the only way to address the problems listed in the Amnesty report, the spokesman said. \"The SPDC definitely shares Amnesty International's concern that the people in the Niger Delta haven't benefited from the extraction of the oil and gas as they should,\" the spokesman said, \"but this has been the opinion of the SPDC for a number of years.\" CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Amnesty: Oil industry in Niger Delta creating \"human rights tragedy\"\nPeople living in Niger Delta have to drink, cook, wash in polluted water, it says .\nNigeria's state oil company: Local communities causing much of the damage .\nNiger Delta a region in Nigeria consisting of nine oil-producing states .","id":"f70681433b976c2cbed9dcaaaeb5e87274372642"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian officials on Monday located a Russian cargo ship that has been missing for more than two weeks after it was believed to have been hijacked, a top official said. The Arctic Sea had been missing since July 31. The Arctic Sea was located 300 miles (483 km) from Cape Verde, an island nation a few hundred miles from the coast of western Africa, said Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. The crew \"is alive and well,\" he said. \"The crew members have been moved to our anti-submarine warfare ship Ladny where they are answering questions,\" Serdyukov said. \"The questioning aims to clarify all circumstances of how the ship disappeared and why did it not send any [emergency] signals.\" The Arctic Sea, which sails under a Maltese flag, had not been heard from since July 31. It was carrying a 6,500-ton cargo of timber from Finland to Algeria when it reported trouble on July 24 off the coast of Sweden. It was scheduled to arrive in North Africa on August 4. On Friday, the ship was reported to be in international waters north of Cape Verde. The news came from Portugal's state news agency, which quoted Cape Verde's defense director, Pedro Reis. The U.S. military also had a report last week that the ship had been seen a few hundred miles from Cape Verde, two military sources told CNN, but the United States had no independent verification of those reports. The U.S. military was not involved in the search. At the time, Russia's ambassador to Cape Verde, however, denied that the Arctic Sea had been spotted near the island nation. On July 24, the ship's 15-member crew had told authorities that eight to 12 people armed with guns and pistols boarded the vessel about 3 a.m. that day, masked and wearing uniforms with the word \"police\" written on them, the Malta Maritime Authority said. \"During [the attackers'] stay onboard, the members of the crew were allegedly assaulted, tied, gagged and blindfolded and some of them were seriously injured,\" the maritime authority said in a written statement. Swedish police reached the ship by phone on July 31 and spoke with someone they believe to be the captain, police spokeswoman Maria Lonegard said. It was the last known communication with the vessel, which was believed to be off the coast of France at that time. On Saturday Finnish police told CNN that a ransom demand had been issued to the ship's owners, Solchart Management, for the return of the vessel.","highlights":"Missing cargo ship Arctic Star found weeks after disappearing .\nCrew safe, transferred to Russian naval vessel, ship's owners tell CNN .\nShip was carrying timber cargo from Finland to Algeria .\nShip believed to have been hijacked off Swedish coast on July 24 .","id":"0d2e478318180170a36ebd81a6df7aab7b0c223b"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Gunmen shot and killed 17 patients and wounded two others in a drug rehabilitation center in northern Mexico late Wednesday, the mayor of Ciudad Juarez said Thursday. Police gather at the rehab facility where 17 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, late Wednesday. Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said authorities believe a rival drug gang attacked the men at the El Aviane rehab facility. \"At the very least, it was one organized crime group thinking that another group was operating in that place,\" Reyes told CNN. Wednesday night's shootings, he said, are similar to an attack at a drug facility in March that left 20 patients dead. A Mexican civic group said last week that Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, had the most slayings per capita in 2008 of any city in the world. Watch scene at rehab center after shootings \u00bb . More than 1,420 people have been killed in Juarez this year, Reyes told CNN on Monday. About 1,600 people were killed in Juarez in 2008, Reyes said. The latest Juarez killings came on the same day that gunmen shot dead the No. 2 security official and three others in Michoacan, the home state of Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Jose Manuel Revuelta Lopez, the deputy public safety secretary of Mexico's Michoacan state, was killed in a shootout that also claimed the lives of two of his bodyguards and a bystander caught in the crossfire, said Jesus Humberto Adame Ortiz, spokesman for the state. Revuelta was leaving his office at 5:15 p.m. in the state capital, Morelia, when the shooting occurred, Adame said. An unprecedented wave of violence has washed over Mexico since Calderon declared war on drug cartels shortly after coming into office in December 2006. More than 11,000 people have since died, about 1,000 of them police. The offensive against the government has been especially fierce in Michoacan. In July, La Familia Michoacana drug cartel was accused of assaults in a half-dozen cities across the state and of torturing and killing 12 off-duty federal agents and dumping their bodies on a remote road. That violence was thought to have been retaliation for the arrest of a La Familia leader. In Juarez, much of the violence is being committed by the rival Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels, which are fighting for lucrative routes into the United States as well as local street sales, Reyes said. The deportations of thousands of Mexicans who have served time in U.S. jails into Ciudad Juarez are adding a deadly ingredient to an already volatile state of security, he said. In the past 45 days, 10 percent of those killed in Juarez had been deported from the United States in the past two years, Reyes said. \"We don't have the statistics to know if they were criminals from the United States or not,\" he told CNN. \"We know they were deported from the U.S. Most of them come from U.S. jails. They end up in the city of Juarez, and that's a problem generated for us, but also for the United States.\" Most deportees are simply Mexicans who crossed the border illegally, but some hardened criminals get involved with the gangs, which have networks in the United States, Reyes said. According to a report released last week by the Mexican Citizens Council for Public Security watchdog group, Juarez had an estimated rate of 130 killings per 100,000 people. The city has a population of around 1.5 million. By comparison, the homicide rate in New Orleans, Louisiana, the deadliest city in the United States in 2008, was 64 homicides per 100,000 residents, based on preliminary FBI figures. CNN's Arthur Brice and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Ciudad Juarez mayor says authorities believe drug gang attacked rehab center .\nSlayings add to grim statistics for Juarez, ranked deadliest city in the world .\nOn same day, No. 2 security official in Michoacan state, 3 others, shot to death .\nMexico has seen wave of violence since president declared war on drug cartels .","id":"706f47285f49967837e1220cf87c3cb9e9e525ee"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fate, police say, saved baby Grace from being tossed out with the trash. Baby Grace was born aboard a Pacific Blue flight to New Zealand from Samoa. Were it not for a cleaning lady who chanced upon the newborn waving a feeble arm from a blue trash bag in an airplane bathroom, Grace would have met the fate her mother apparently intended for her, authorities said. On Wednesday, police in New Zealand charged the 29-year-old woman with abandonment and assault -- for giving birth to the child on an international flight and then leaving her, without alerting anyone, in a toilet bin amid bloodied paper towels. The woman, whose name was not released, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. The case has made headlines in the island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The woman is a kiwi fruit picker who was returning from Samoa when she walked off a Pacific Blue flight in Auckland on Thursday, reported the New Zealand Press Association, a cooperative of the country's newspapers. Watch more on incident . About 20 minutes later, a cleaning lady discovered the baby in a restroom inside the Boeing 737. Her fellow custodians wrapped the baby in a blanket and handed her to authorities. About the same time, police spotted the mother in the airport, \"looking pale and bloodstained\" after she said she had mislaid her passport, said TV New Zealand, a CNN affiliate. Su'a William Sio, a Kiwi lawmaker of Samoan descent, said cultural stigma and the shame of bearing a child out of wedlock were two reasons why a mother might abandon her child. \"This is mostly derived firstly by fear,\" he told the New Zealand Herald newspaper. \"Fear that they've done something wrong and fear of shame of the 'unmarried' mother bringing to the family.\" Grace did not suffer significant injuries or long-term damage, police told reporters. She is in the care of government officials who are looking at long-term arrangements that would be best for her.","highlights":"Woman, 29, gave birth to the baby girl on a flight from Samoa .\nShe left her in a toilet bin amid bloodied paper towels, without alerting anyone .\nPolice charged the woman with abandonment and assault .\nBaby Grace did not suffer significant injuries or long-term damage, police said .","id":"a17dd6951c171d886b4df69707311bc6228e48c1"} -{"article":"NAZARETH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Traveling through the rolling hills of Pennsylvania's farmland, one can almost hear the music of days gone by. The factory of C.F. Martin Guitars in Pennsylvania produces instruments used all over the world. The sounds of an old guitar seem fitting for the rustic buildings and small towns that you pass through. It's almost as if you're being drawn in, closer and closer to where the sound originates: C.F. Martin Guitars in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Walking through the front doors of the factory, nicely tucked into a residential neighborhood, the floors are shiny, the smell of \"newness\" in the air, but somehow it feels old. It feels like you're stepping into a part of history. And you have. Martin Guitars was established in 1833 when C.F. Martin, along with his family, immigrated to New York from Germany. Upon visiting some friends in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, the Martin family decided to trade in the hustle and bustle of New York for the open space and German heritage of rural Pennsylvania. The story of Martin Guitars is not just one of building acoustic instruments, but also one of family. The company has passed the business down from one Martin to the next. While many guitar makers have been sold to corporations, Christian Martin IV, the company's current owner, speaks of the responsibility he feels as the fourth-generation family owner. \"Although other guitar makers may have the name, and they certainly do appreciate the history and the heritage, in my case, it's in my blood.\" Chris Martin describes the business as \"focused on one thing, and we don't get distracted easily.\" The one thing is perfecting the art of guitar making, and, musicians say, Martin Guitars has done it better than most. Christian Martin says that what makes his family's line of guitars so popular is the firm belief that the \"guitar is really meant to complement the singer, not to overshadow the person playing it.\" This idea has been the catalyst for some of America's most beloved singer\/songwriters for choosing Martin Guitars. Among the artists who have chosen Martin Guitars as their \"tool\" are Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, David Crosby and John Mayer. Country music icons Hank Williams and Johnny Cash also were Martin men. \"You never know if six months from now Eric Clapton or somebody will be playing the guitar you just worked on,\" says George Molchany, a final inspector at Martin Guitars. Watch how the guitars are crafted \u00bb . A tour of the new 84,000-square-foot factory is overwhelming, to say the least. Each stop on the tour is a mix between old and new, hands-on craftsmanship and machined process. The hand sanding of the body of a guitar has been replaced with a belt driven sander; the cutting of the edges of the guitar is done with a router that fills the building with so much noise it is often hard to hear the person talking right next to you. It's a sign that Martin Guitars has changed with the times. Automation has provided the company with more productivity, but if you look in certain corners of the factory, it is still a very hands-on process. \"It's tedious. Very much so,\" says Willard \"Buddy\" Silvius, a neck fitter at Martin who has been with the company for more than 43 years. \"You have to get the feel of the wood. You have to know exactly how much you have to chisel off to get the neck to where you want it to fit.\" Chris Martin says that although the plant has been modernized to produce more guitars, \"there are factories in Asia that make as many guitars in one month as we do in one year.\" According to Chris Martin, the reason that Martin Guitars has been able to hold off the effects of the troubled economy is because of detailed records that date back nearly two centuries. \"Every time we celebrated a 25th anniversary, within a year or two, the economy was in shambles. I use that as a way to communicate with my colleagues to say that 'the odds are that we're going to survive this one, too, because we've survived all the others.'\" Martin Guitars celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2008. He jokingly adds that \"within a year or two of our 200th anniversary, the economy's going to be in shambles.\" There is a sense of community within the walls of the factory. Each station that you visit is one in which pride is a shared commodity mostly due to the fact that Martin Guitars employs more than 500 people locally. It's a place where it's hard to find someone who doesn't know your name and, furthermore, exactly what part of the guitar you're building. Perhaps it is that sense of heritage and community that makes Martin Guitars one of the premier guitar builders. It could be the responsibility of the family name, the desire for perfection on every instrument. What Chris Martin will tell you is that each instrument that comes out of the factory is unique. \"People choose Martins because they're reliable, they're durable, they have a richness of sound that most other guitars do not. I can't tell you the number of people that tell me the Martin guitar that they own is the best one we ever made.\"","highlights":"C.F. Martin Guitars has been producing instruments since 1833 .\nGuitars have been played by icons from Hank Williams to Eric Clapton .\n\"You have to get the feel of the wood,\" veteran employee says .\nOwner says that each guitar coming out of the factory is unique .","id":"793908f23b1b93374842cf1ede7548bdb07bac7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The United States will withdraw another 4,000 troops in Iraq by the end of October, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said in prepared testimony for a congressional hearing Wednesday. The top military commander in Iraq says the U.S. is on track to end its combat mission in Iraq by next year. U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno is expected to tell the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that there has been a significant drop in violence in Iraq recently, according to the statement obtained by CNN. President Obama has said the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010. Obama also said he plans to keep a range of 35,000 to 50,000 support troops on the ground in Iraq after combat troops are out. \"We have approximately 124,000 troops and 11 Combat Teams operating in Iraq today. By the end of October, I believe we will be down to 120,000 troops in Iraq,\" Odierno said in the remarks. Odierno said statistics show violence has dropped in Iraq. \"Overall attacks have decreased 85 percent over the past two years from 4,064 in August 2007 to 594 in August 2009, with 563 in September so far,\" Odierno said. \"In that same time period, U.S. military deaths have decreased by 93 percent, Iraqi Security Force deaths have decreased 79 percent.\" Odierno said there were still security questions. \"Although security is improving, it is not yet enduring. There still remain underlying, unresolved sources of potential conflict,\" Odierno said. Odierno pointed to the August 19 bombings in Baghdad that targeted the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs that killed more than 100 people as an example of ongoing challenges in Iraq. However, Odierno gave a vote of confidence to the Iraqi forces who had taken over security for Baghdad after U.S. forces handed over control. \"The Iraqis wanted to be in charge; they wanted the responsibilities; and they have demonstrated that they are capable,\" he said.","highlights":"Thousands more troops in Iraq expected to return to U.S. in October .\nU.S. Gen. Ray Odierno to tell House panel Wednesday violence has dropped in Iraq .\nPresident Obama had said U.S. combat troops would leave in August 2010 .","id":"a5b383eb30a0d031b3d03bee307f73262f3348c1"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The person who leaked British lawmakers' controversial expense claims earlier this year, triggering a national scandal, was motivated by outrage at apparent equipment shortages for British troops, a newspaper said Friday. The mole was angry at apparent equipment shortages for British troops deployed around the world. The mole was one of 20 people employed to process and censor the expenses claims before their scheduled official release in July, according to The Daily Telegraph. The man leaked the claims to the Telegraph, which printed them in a series of front-page articles in May. The articles brought public embarrassment to Parliament and even forced some lawmakers to resign. The 20 employees going through the claims were guarded by British soldiers to ensure nothing was leaked. The soldiers were working there in between tours of duty in order to earn extra money to pay for badly needed military equipment, the Telegraph said. One of the soldiers had taken on the temporary work to earn enough money to buy a lightweight Kevlar protective vest similar to the ones used by U.S. troops, while another soldier was trying to earn money for desert boots, gloves, and sunglasses, the Telegraph said. Hearing the soldiers' stories while at the same time looking through what were revealed as excessive claims made by lawmakers, prompted the mole to take action, the newspaper said. \"It's not easy to watch footage on the television news of a coffin draped in a Union Jack and then come in to work the next day and see on your computer screen what (members of Parliament) are taking for themselves,\" the mole told the Telegraph. \"Hearing from the serving soldiers about how they were having to work there to earn enough money to buy themselves decent equipment, while the MPs could find public money to buy themselves all sorts of extravagances, only added to the feeling that the public should know what was going on.\" Watch report on what prompted outrage \u00bb . The Telegraph does not name the man who leaked the claims. He tells his story in a book, \"No Expenses Spared,\" released Friday about the scandal written by two Telegraph reporters. Speaking in the book, the mole says he is \"bloody glad\" he released the information, but is disappointed in the reaction from lawmakers so far. Controversial claims detailed by the newspaper included thousands of dollars' worth of interest on a mortgage that had already been paid, money spent to clean a moat on a country estate, and more than $1,000 spent on a small house on a pond for ducks. More than a dozen members of Parliament caught up in the scandal promised to step down in the next election. It led Prime Minister Gordon Brown to reshuffle his Cabinet and forced the speaker of the House of Commons to resign, the first time that had happened since 1695. Claims for allowances for second homes -- which most lawmakers have because they need to be in London for parliamentary business -- were a big point of controversy. The Telegraph exposed how some lawmakers \"flipped\" the designation of their main and second homes to avoid taxes or make big allowance claims. Many lawmakers defended their claims as being within the rules. But even where that was the case, the public criticized lawmakers for greed and for taking advantage. The reports forced the government to release the claims in June, a month earlier than planned. But unlike the information revealed by the Telegraph, the officially released documents were redacted, with key details blocked from view. Parliament said the edits were made to protect the security and privacy of lawmakers, their staffs and third parties. The issue of equipment shortages for British troops has been simmering for years. Some relatives of fallen soldiers have blamed their loved ones' deaths on a lack of proper gear in the battlefield. This month, the widow and father-in-law of Sjt. Paul McAleese, killed by a bomb in Afghanistan, said the soldier had voiced concerns about safety conditions at his base in Wishtan. The father-in-law, Stephen Minter, wrote a letter to Brown detailing what he believed to be a lack of equipment for British troops. In July, Sasha Buckley, the childhood sweetheart of Rifleman Daniel Hume, who was killed in Afghanistan, voiced the same concerns to the Daily Mail newspaper. \"The real tragedy is that he won't be the last soldier killed out there,\" she told the paper. \"There will be many more coming home unless the government give them the support they need. That means more equipment now -- soldiers like Dan deserve better.\" The Ministry of Defence has maintained that soldiers are properly equipped. In a statement Friday, a ministry spokesman said providing the best equipment for British troops is the top priority. \"Every soldier who deploys to Afghanistan receives Osprey body armor and a Mark 6a helmet,\" the spokesman said in a statement. \"They also receive a black bag containing all their operational requirements. Valued at \u00a33,500 ($5,600), it contains everything a soldier will need from boots and socks to camel backs (strap-on water bottles). Commanders now have a variety of helicopters, protected patrol vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and other key equipments at their disposal, and we are committed to ensuring that their needs are met, both in the short and long term. Since 2006, we have delivered equipment valued at more than 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) to the armed forces.\"","highlights":"Mole one of 20 people employed to process and censor MPs' expenses .\nSoldiers guarding them did so to earn extra cash between tours of duty .\nMole became angry at MP claims as soldiers saved to buy essential equipment .\nClaims included thousands of dollars' worth of interest on mortgages already paid .","id":"4fcbd3606a7c070406ddaf0f9c67bfbb5e95324e"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sunday night's \"2009 MTV Video Music Awards\" will feature a personal tribute from Janet Jackson to her late brother, MTV said. Michael Jackson receives the Legend Award during the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. Michael Jackson fans also will get their first peek during the MTV show at the behind-the-scenes documentary of the pop star's final three months, the network said. MTV announced this week that Janet Jackson \"will help open\" its video music awards show Sunday night with a tribute to her brother. No other details about her \"special appearance\" were released. The trailer for the upcoming documentary \"Michael Jackson: This Is It\" will also debut on the MTV show. It comes a month after concert promoter AEG Live handed over to Sony Pictures about 100 hours of video captured between April and June, when Jackson was preparing for his concert comeback. Fans who miss the MTV show, which will air live at 9 p.m. ET Sunday at New York's Radio City Music Hall, can preview the documentary online at www.thisisit-movie.com beginning Sunday night, the network said. See guests arrive to awards show \u00bb . British comedian Russell Brand will return to host Sunday's Video Music Awards for the second straight year. It will be the first time the awards show has aired from New York since 2006.","highlights":"MTV says Janet Jackson will give tribute to her late brother .\nAlso promised: First look at documentary of pop star's final three months .\nThe show airs live starting at 9 p.m. ET Sunday .","id":"a94802555098c2d71e68cedfbead6621d728b19f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader on Sunday blasted U.S. plans to overhaul the setup for a missile defense shield in Europe, calling the Obama administration's intentions \"anti-Iranian,\" state-run media reported. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the U.S. president is following \"anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian\" policies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also called Western concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions -- which Tehran says are only for energy purposes -- \"purely a fabrication by the United States,\" according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. \"This is something that is in the doctrine of anti-Iranianism, since the policy and the 30-year-old history of the Islamic Republic has proven that Iran wants to live in peace and under the spirit of equality and fraternity, with its Muslim neighbors and the rest of the world,\" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. On Thursday, President Obama said the United States is significantly overhauling Bush-era plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, based partly on the latest analysis of Iran's offensive capabilities. The \"new missile defense architecture in Europe\" will be ready faster, work with existing technology and provide better missile defense than the program proposed by former President George W. Bush, Obama said. Obama said the change of gears was based on an \"updated intelligence assessment\" about Iran's ability to hit Europe with missiles. The Islamic republic's \"short- and medium-range\" missiles pose the most current threat, he said, and \"this new ballistic missile defense will best address\" that threat. Khamenei, speaking on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, a festive end to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, countered by comparing Obama to his predecessor. \"America, under its former president, spared no efforts against the Muslim world as well as against Iran,\" Khamenei said. \"Even the current administration -- with the apparently friendly words and messages -- follows that same anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian policy of the past.\" The Bush-era proposal called for the United States to set up a radar site in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland to counter the threat of Iran launching long-range missiles at America's allies in Europe. The new system will have \"hundreds\" of missile interceptors instead, a Pentagon official said last week. It also will have mobile radars, including some in space, \"that can move to wherever the threat actually emanates and wherever we feel we need to defend ourselves,\" said Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.","highlights":"New U.S. plan is \"anti-Iranian,\" Khamenei says, according to state-run media .\nObama: Change was based on updated assessment of Iran's missile capabilities .\nIRNA: Khamenei says Western concerns over nuclear program \"fabrication\" by U.S.","id":"c2254fe718fecd300c46d065f44556f9e40ac323"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian mafia boss used his pet crocodile to threaten people and extort money, authorities said. The caiman was 1.1 meters long (3.6 feet), the Italian Forest Service said. Antonio Cristofaro kept the 40-kilogram (88-pound) reptile on a terrace of his home near Naples and fed it live rats and rabbits, according to LAV, an Italian animal rights group. Authorities discovered the animal during a search for weapons at Cristofaro's home, LAV said. The crocodile was found on September 18 but the news was only made public Wednesday, the group said. The crocodile was 1.1 meters long (3.6 feet), the Italian Forest Service said, and was capable of pulling off a man's limb with one bite. It lived atop Cristofaro's condominium in Caserta, less than an hour northeast of Naples, the Forest Service said. Cristofaro used the crocodile to intimidate people, notably entrepreneurs, to pay him more money, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. The crocodile is of a type known as a caiman, commonly found in Latin America. It is protected under the Washington Convention, which regulates the international trade of endangered animals, and is considered too dangerous to own as a pet, the Forest Service said. Police charged Cristofaro with illegal possession of animals, ANSA said. It was not clear whether he had been arrested. The Forest Service is now holding the reptile at an animal center near Rome, ANSA reported. Cristofaro, who the Forest Service said comes from a mafia family, already had a criminal record for weapons-related charges, resisting police, and extortion, ANSA reported. Authorities found a flak jacket during a search of Cristofaro's house, the Forest Service said. It was not the first time the Forest Service discovered an illegal crocodile at someone's home, the Forest Service said. In August 2008 in Naples, authorities found a 2-meter-long (6.5-foot-long) crocodile at the home of a man known for drug dealing, they said. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"Italian mafia boss kept 40-kg reptile at his home near Naples to threaten people .\nAuthorities found animal in search for weapons at Antonio Cristofaro's home .\nPolice charged Cristofaro with illegal possession of animals .","id":"97bc318dbf99dadb331b517a7fd76ad196463888"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Claudette was gaining strength Sunday as it churned in the Gulf of Mexico toward the Florida Panhandle, the National Hurricane Center said. A satellite image from 2 p.m. ET Sunday shows a tropical storm nearing the Florida Panhandle. At 2 p.m. ET, Claudette's winds had picked up to near 50 mph, based on observations by an Air Force reconnaissance plane. The center of the storm was about 40 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida, and about 160 miles from Pensacola, the center said. It was moving at about 14 mph, putting it on course to hit land by Sunday evening. A tropical storm warning was in effect from the Alabama-Florida border east to the Suwannee River. A tropical storm warning means that weather conditions will likely deteriorate in the next 24 hours. The storm could bring 3 to 5 inches of rain, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches, and storm surges across portions of North Florida. Meanwhile, two other tropical storms were in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. Tropical Storm Ana was moving west but losing strength, forecasters said, while Tropical Storm Bill was gaining strength as it followed behind Ana. Ana was about 240 miles (385 kilometers) east of Dominica at 2 p.m. ET Sunday. It was expected to arrive at the Leeward Islands by late Sunday or early Monday, the center said. It was moving about 25 mph, and its maximum sustained winds were close to 40 mph, the center said. Tropical storm watches were in effect for Dominica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemey. Tropical Storm Bill -- which could become a hurricane on Monday -- should be watched closely as it heads west-northwest in the Atlantic, possibly toward Florida, CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said. The storm was 1,555 miles east of the Lesser Antilles at 11 a.m. ET Sunday. Bill may reach Category 3 status as it bears down on the Leeward Islands Wednesday or Thursday, he said.","highlights":"Tropical Storm Claudette's winds pick up to 50 mph .\nThe storm, which formed overnight, is expected to hit land by Sunday evening .\nTropical Storm Bill is could become a hurricane by Monday .","id":"e65fde4fb5f5397b0d2c45d40b3be014793d0a0e"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A series of bombings rocked Iraq's capital within one hour Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 563 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. People gather outside the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Wednesday in a residential area in Baghdad. The six explosions marked the country's deadliest day since the United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns nearly two months ago and left security in the hands of the Iraqis. In one attack, a truck bomb exploded outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The blast blew through the front of the building, sending some vehicles flying and leaving others in mangled twists of metal in the area, which is just outside the restricted International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Nearby, Iraqi security forces stood with shocked expressions as ambulances screamed past. More photos of Baghdad's deadly day \u00bb . Another truck bomb went off outside the Ministry of Finance building. In central Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded on Kifa Street, and another bomb exploded in the Salhiya neighborhood, where on Tuesday security forces had avoided injuries by successfully defusing a truck bomb. Wednesday's other two bombs exploded in eastern Baghdad's Beirut Square, officials said. \"The terrorism attacks that took place today require, without a doubt, the re-evaluation of our plans and our security mechanisms to face the challenges of terrorism,\" Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a written statement. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, issued a joint statement condemning the bombings. \"The horrific injuries and loss of life witnessed in Baghdad today are terrorist attacks that serve no legitimate purpose,\" they said. The attacks \"will not deter Iraqis from continuing their efforts to build a peaceful and prosperous society and engage the international community, nor will they weaken our resolve to help them in their efforts,\" they added. Two people believed to be connected to the bombings have been arrested, an official with the Iraqi army told CNN. The two suspects were driving in a car rigged with explosives before they were arrested by Iraqi Security Forces, the official said. The two suspects were believed to be al Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders, the official said. The United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns on June 30, leaving security responsibilities to the Iraqis. The U.S. military remains in a training and advisory capacity in those areas and continues to conduct combat operations outside cities and towns. Since then, al-Maliki has ordered his government to remove the concrete blast walls that line Baghdad's streets and surround whole neighborhoods. The order does not cover the Green Zone -- which houses Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. Embassy -- or military installations, government institutions, hotels and some private companies. The government has also removed some checkpoints, including one on the road where the bombing near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs occurred. That checkpoint had contained bomb-detection equipment. Major incidents of violence in Iraq since 2008 include: . CNN's Arwa Damon and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqi prime minister says attacks require \"re-evaluation\" of security plans .\nDeath toll from six Baghdad blasts rises to 95; hundreds injured .\nAttacks make Wednesday the deadliest day since Iraqis took charge of security .\nTwo men believed to be al Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders arrested, official says .","id":"393a733f9de03f4e75182aab00be57cb5a2ed203"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The expulsion of a U.N. official from Sri Lanka is final and he has to leave the country by September 21, the government has told the agency. James Elder, spokesman for UNICEF in Sri Lanka has until September 21 to leave the country. Officials with the United Nations Children's Fund met with Sri Lankan officials on Monday in hopes of keeping James Elder inside the country. But Sri Lanka stood firm in its decision, and has issued UNICEF an expulsion notice for Elder, said Sarah Crowe, the agency's spokeswoman for South Asia. The Sri Lankan government has accused Elder of spreading propaganda supporting Tamil rebels. Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director, said the agency was \"extremely concerned and disappointed\" with the decision. \"Through Mr. Elder, UNICEF has consistently spoken out against the suffering of children on both sides of the intense hostilities earlier this year and called for their protection. UNICEF unequivocally rejects any allegation of bias,\" she said in a statement Monday night. Elder has often spoken to the media about the agency's concerns about children caught up in the country's civil war and the conditions they endure at camps for the displaced. \"Mr. Elder's role for UNICEF was to reflect how the conflict gravely impacted upon children,\" Crowe said. \"He did this based on concrete information that the United Nations attained and verified.\" Crowe called Sri Lanka's allegations regarding Elder \"outrageous\" and \"contradictory.\" \"They are bordering on the ludicrous,\" she said. The Sri Lankan military finally defeated the Tamil Tigers earlier this year, after a conflict that began in 1983. The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- were waging war for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka. As many as 70,000 people were killed in the conflict. In February, Elder told CNN that children as young as 4 months old were being treated in hospitals for shrapnel injuries and other wounds of war. The fighting created a \"nightmarish\" situation for civilians in the conflict zone, Elder said at the time. CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report.","highlights":"UNICEF's South Asia spokesman order to leave Sri Lanka by September 21 .\nSri Lankan government accuses James Elder of spreading propaganda .\nElder has often spoken about UNICEF's concern for children in Sri Lanka .","id":"4e6c385a259661e2d6afbcb68291c9f4d0d99211"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 40 people died and 20 were injured early Thursday morning when a bus plunged into a ravine in a mountainous region near Cuzco, Peru, authorities said. The bus crashed about 5:30 a.m. near the town of Espinar, Peru, Lt. Edilberto Tunquipa of the Espinar fire department said. Interviews with survivors pointed to driver fatigue as one of the possible causes of the crash, Tunquipa said. The bus had left the city of Arequipa about seven hours earlier, heading to the town of Santo Tomas in the mountains, he said. The poor conditions of the road were another possible factor, he added. No international tourists were believed to be on the bus, though authorities could not confirm that, Tunquipa said. The 20 people injured were in hospitals, their injuries ranging from severe head and back injuries to minor scrapes, he said. Most of the victims were believed to be locals who work in Arequipa and were returning home to their small towns for Christmas, he said. The exact number of people on the bus remained unknown. The bus holds 52 people, Tunquipa said, but it was overcrowded, with people standing in the aisle. CNN's Mariano Castillo and Esprit Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Driver fatigue, poor road conditions may have been factors .\nThe bus had left the city of Arequipa about seven hours earlier .\nInjuries range from severe head and back injuries to minor scrapes .\nThe tour bus plunged into a ravine in a mountainous region near Cuzco .","id":"b6060c602d01643adc500128eba223dfbbc57c14"} -{"article":"The company that owns a cash depot targeted in a daring helicopter raid this week said Friday it is offering a reward of more than $1 million for information about the heist. A police Swat team enter a G4S cash depot in Vastberga, Stockholm. G4S said it is offering up to 7 million Swedish kronor ($1.01 million) for information leading directly to the arrest and conviction of the offenders or the recovery of the stolen money. G4S also said the circulation of cash in Stockholm would not be adversely affected by the heist, which occurred just days before Sweden's monthly payday, when the depot would have been rife with cash. The company did not disclose how much money had been lost, but the thieves could have gotten as much as the equivalent of several millions of U.S. dollars, according to CNN affiliate TV4. A group of heavily-armed thieves used a helicopter early Wednesday to land on the roof of the cash depot in Vastbarga, Stockholm, which serves automatic teller machines all across the capital, TV4 reported. They used explosives to get into the building, witness Bjorn Lockstrom told TV4, and later hoisted bags of money to the waiting chopper. TV4 later reported that the blueprints of the building were public documents which anybody could request to see. G4S had never asked for the blueprints to be classified. The helicopter had been stolen earlier during the night, police said. The thieves had also placed a bag marked \"bomb\" outside the police heliport, meaning Swedish police couldn't immediately pursue the thieves because they had to first deal with the bag. TV4 later reported that the bag never contained a bomb. The thieves had also blocked the roads around the cash depot with metal spikes, TV4 reported. No one was hurt during the heist, police said, even though several employees had been in the building when the robbers entered. Stockholm police said the heist had been elaborate. \"The robbery was very well planned. They brought a lot of firepower with them, among other things automatic weapons,\" Anders Bjargard from the Stockholm police, told TV4. Two people have been questioned in relation to the heist, but no one has been arrested. Police are still hopeful they will find the perpetrators. \"We have a lot of traces after the perpetrators, both where the robbery took place and where we found the helicopter,\" Bjargard said. The investigation is the biggest operation the Swedish police have mounted since the murder of Sweden's then-Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003. \"It's an enormous piece of puzzle, and we don't want to miss anything,\" Anders Buren, head of police operations, told TV4. Since the heist, Swedish police have been criticized for storing their helicopters at an unguarded heliport in the Stockholm archipelago, which enabled the thieves easily to put the police helicopter out of commission. Swedish media also criticized police for not shooting at the thieves as they escaped in their helicopter. But Bengt Svensson, the head of Swedish police, defended the police officers' actions. \"Just because we now have criminals who act like they do in the movies doesn't mean that we can do it as well,\" Svensson told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.","highlights":"Owners of Swedish cash depot offer \u00a31M reward for information on heist .\nThieves believed to have stolen the equivalent of several million dollars .\nArmed thieves used a stolen helicopter during the raid .","id":"267c91b0b3e9e7658749b687da10cc10884f7e2a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The America's Cup is the oldest sporting trophy in the world, first held in 1851, forty-five years before the incarnation of the modern Olympic Games. The \"Auld Mug\" as it is known in the sport of sailing has attracted some of the world's most powerful men to create teams and invest millions to try and get their hands on the trophy. This month on MainSail, Shirley Robertson takes the viewer inside the world of the America's Cup, looking back to when it all started and meeting some of the major names associated with the Cup. This includes the two most successful skippers ever to compete, America's Dennis Connor and New Zealand's Russell Coutts. She also has an exclusive one to one with U.S. billionaire Larry Ellison, the man in charge of the American team, BMW Oracle Racing, who is plotting and planning how to bring the Cup back to the U.S., the nation that won every edition of the Cup from 1851 to 1983. The next America's Cup final is scheduled to be held in 2010, with Ellison and his team taking on the Defenders of the Cup, European team Alinghi. But this Cup has been a battle in the New York courts and all teams who want to compete have been locked out of the game until the head-to-head between the U.S. and Europe has been settled -- a compelling story even before the first match between the two teams has been held. When the first match takes place, it will be in the two fastest, most extreme boats ever to have competed in the America's Cup. Having already sailed the European Alinghi entry, Shirley Robertson becomes the first person in the world to have sailed both boats, as she joins the BMW Oracle Racing team in San Diego on board their spectacular multihull, and heads out for a Pacific Ocean training session.","highlights":"This month, the America's Cup -- the oldest sporting trophy in the world .\nInterviews with America's Dennis Connor and New Zealand's Russell Coutts .\nAn exclusive one-to-one with U.S. billionaire Larry Ellison of BMW Oracle Racing .\nPresenter Shirley Robertson sails on BMW Oracle Racing team's multihull yacht .","id":"3b225b81dc3093763448f25c267ae55417988faf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somalian supermodel Waris Dirie has graced the pages of glossy magazines and starred opposite 007 as a Bond Girl. Face for change: Dirie is a tireless campaigner against FGM. But her glamorous appearances on catwalks and in magazines and films belies the personal battles Dirie has had to overcome. Dirie is a leading voice against forced circumcision and female genital mutilation (FGM) and struggled to overcome her own circumcision at the age of five. The forthcoming film, \"Desert Flower\", based on her biography, tells her story. Yet it is through her charitable foundation that Dirie hopes that the practice still common in traditions in parts of Africa, the Middle East, South American and Asia will not create more cases similar to her own. Growing up with a nomadic family in Somalia she was one of 12 children. She fled to the London, where one of her uncles was working in the Somali embassy, to avoid an arranged marriage with an older man. She was just 13-years-old at the time. After working as a housemaid and in a McDonald's restaurant she was spotted by chance by fashion photographer Terrance Donovan and became the covergirl for the 1987 Pirelli calendar. Becoming the face of beauty products and design houses, her successful modeling career has given her a life far removed from her childhood. Yet for Dirie more importantly it has created a platform to campaign against FGM. In 2002 she created the Waris Dirie Foundation and has been given a number of honors in recognition of her work.","highlights":"Somalian supermodel and human rights activist .\nCampaigns against female genital mutilation; suffered circumcision age just five .\nFled from Somali to UK as a teenager; spotted by fashion photographer .\nSet up Waris Dirie Foundation in 2002; received numerous award for her work .","id":"1be76c53b888e062b552870453a0b9a2c420b090"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- At least three horses -- two yearlings and a mare -- were among the victims of the flood that inundated much of Georgia Monday. Floodwaters hit the ranch of Ed and Nancy Wellham on Monday. At least three horses died there. Jerrie Self said she called her parents, Ed and Nancy Wellham, on Sunday night to warn them to prepare their 13 horses housed in two barns and pastures on their 60-acre ranch in Powder Springs, Georgia, half an hour northwest of Atlanta. \"I told them, 'You might want to start getting your stuff out of the barns; I think it's going to get bad,\" the 40-year-old construction finance manager told CNN in a telephone interview. \"They had no idea how fast it was gonna come.\" On Sunday night, Self's parents, Ed, 60, and Nancy, 59, made sure the horses were in the barns or on high ground and then went to sleep, she said. At 3 a.m. Monday, the storm awakened their son-in-law, who lives in an apartment in one of the barns. After he opened the door and 3 feet of water flooded into the apartment, he called the Wellhams and told them the horses needed to be moved. See photos of flooding in Georgia \u00bb . The family scrambled, putting two horses into a trailer and hauling it to the house, then leading several show horses onto high ground behind the house, Self said. The other horses remained on two acres of unflooded pasture near Sweetwater Creek, and the family went back to the house, she said. \"They thought they'd be fine till daylight,\" she said. But when they looked out again when it was light, the horses were in neck-deep water trying to swim to safety, Self said. A neighbor said the creek had risen at the rate of 1 foot every 20 minutes. \"We all got here and we swam out the ones that could swim out,\" she said. Though they got two horses out that way, \"we thought all five babies and three mares were lost,\" she said. That turned out not to be the case. At noon Monday, they found that two of the mares had swum through the woods and made it to high ground. But they found the dead body of one of the mares and two yearlings floating in the water, and three other yearlings are unaccounted for, she said. The Wellhams, who moved to the area in the early 1980s, use their land to grow and sell hay and breed horses. Ed Wellham also owns a car-repair shop. \"My dad has lots of equipment: tractors, hay balers,\" Self said. \"Until the water goes down, we don't know what's salvageable and what isn't.\" She said her parents had tried to buy flood insurance years ago, but were denied, since their land is on a flood plain. Self said her grandmother's home, which is also on the property, flooded so much that it is a total loss.","highlights":"Georgia couple put their 13 horses were in barns or on high ground before flooding .\nCouple scrambled to move some horses as barn flooded early Monday .\nBy daylight, other horses in neck-deep water; family helped two swim away .\nThree horses later found dead; three others unaccounted for .","id":"d1011f214edd185be85b66bcd8385acbc872ba96"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama said he wouldn't pat himself on the back for his first year in office, but said Wednesday he showed he can make tough decisions that were unpopular. In a year-end interview with PBS, Obama said he was \"entirely dissatisfied\" with the high unemployment rate still facing Americans as the economic recession ends. \"I don't pat myself on the back,\" Obama said. But his administration deserved credit for making good decisions on major problems it inherited, including the recession, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other issues, he said. Without specifying any issue, Obama said he demonstrated that his administration was willing to face tough decisions. \"I think I've shown this year that I can make hard decisions, even when they're not popular,\" the president said. Last month, Obama decided to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to bolster the counterinsurgency strategy favored by military commanders on the ground. The move was criticized by some fellow Democrats and favored by most Republicans. Obama also moved forward on plans to shut the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility and bring some suspected terrorists held there to a U.S. prison in Illinois. The plan has been heavily criticized by Republicans. In addition, the president made health care reform his domestic priority for 2009 and endorsed sweeping provisions contained in a bill passed by the House and on the verge of final passage by the Senate. Republican opposition to the health care legislation has been almost unanimous, and concessions made during the Senate debate have caused some Democrats to question the value of the measure scheduled for a final vote on Thursday. Obama rejected criticism from some liberals that a final bill would be too watered down, saying in the PBS interview that the bill delivered most of the benefits he listed when the debate began back in January. \"This notion that somehow this health care bill that's emerging should be grudgingly accepted by Democrats as half a loaf\" is wrong, Obama said. \"This is 95 percent of the loaf.\"","highlights":"President Obama looks back on first year in office .\nHe says he's not satisfied with high unemployment .\n\"I don't pat myself on the back,\" Obama says .\nBut, he says, \"I can make hard decisions, even when they're not popular\"","id":"e5e6e7d99aa6f722f18d14b675a029046126b3d1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Grammy-winning rapper Coolio was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday on suspicion of possessing illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia, according to a spokeswoman for the airport. Coolio's \"Gangsta's Paradise\" was used in the movie \"Dangerous Minds.\" Coolio, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was taken to the Van Nuys Division station for booking, the spokeswoman said. A source at the airport's public relations division confirmed the arrest but declined to be named. Coolio is best known for his 1995 hip-hop hit \"Gangsta's Paradise.\" Efforts to reach his publicist were unsuccessful.","highlights":"Grammy winner held at Los Angeles International Airport .\nHe is accused of possessing illegal drugs, paraphernalia .\nHis best-known hit is \"Gangsta's Paradise\"","id":"59da58dd64db6def67b55cc98056f4914e205e77"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- In a sound-bite sure to be re-watched in years to come by the eight kids Jon and Kate Gosselin have brought into the world, Jon Gosselin told Good Morning America, \"I despise her.\" Jon Gosselin speaks out about his bitter break-up with his wife in a new television interview. Kate, said Jon, \"beat me down... like a lame fish.\" Speaking to interviewer Chris Cuomo, Gosselin, always the less voluble of the couple and recently better known for pictures of his post-separation partying than his pithy statements, let loose. \"Stop feeding into the frenzy,\" he responded when Cuomo asked if he had a message to Kate. Jon was referring to Kate's continuing public profile, such as her recent Larry King Live interview. Watch Gosselin let loose on wife \u00bb . Even Cuomo seemed taken aback by Jon's vehemence. When Jon used the word \"despise,\" Cuomo warned him gently to be careful, that the \"tit-for-tat\" sniping might be harmful. Jon just piled on more. \"Our relationship will never be fixed,\" he said flatly. Asked why he doesn't still wear his wedding ring, as Kate wears hers, he said, \"She took my ring.\" When Cuomo looked skeptical, Jon said, \"Who else would take it?\" He added he'd looked under his kids' pillows for it, so I guess he considered them no longer suspects. Cuomo said the interview lasted three hours. Depending on your point of view the good news or the bad is that it's been edited down to just enough to fit in to tonight's one-hour ABC show \"Primetime Family Secrets,\" at 10 p.m. ET. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Our relationship will never be fixed,\" Jon Gosselin says in a television interview .\nJon and Kate Gosselin have been going through a bitter break-up .\nThe pair star in the reality TV show \"Jon & Kate Plus 8\"","id":"5a33e07dc8e7e88d32aef75649afc3cae8c73576"} -{"article":"Asuncion, Paraguay (CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo underwent prostate surgery early Friday, his spokesman said. The surgery, which was performed at the Italian Hospital in Asuncion, had been scheduled for weeks, spokesman Augusto dos Santos told reporters. The procedure was performed under local anesthesia, the spokesman said. Lugo's doctor, Nestor Martinez, said the operation was a transurethral resection, a surgery in which an instrument is inserted into the urethra to remove a section of the prostate that is blocking urine flow. Enlarged prostates are common among men as they get older. Lugo is 58. The surgery involved nine doctors and three nurses and took about an hour, Martinez said at a news conference. Lugo arrived at the hospital at 4 a.m. ( 2 a.m. ET), was wheeled into surgery at 5 a.m. and was in the recovery room by 6 a.m., Martinez said. The Paraguayan president's office released post-surgery photos of an alert-looking Lugo chatting with doctors and nurses while lying in a hospital bed. Lugo is a former Roman Catholic bishop who has been involved in several paternity controversies in the past year. He is expected to remain in the hospital until Saturday afternoon and then recuperate for three to four days in the presidential residence, spokesman dos Santos said. Lugo will carry on a restricted agenda while recuperating, the spokesman said . Journalist Sanie Lopez Garelli contributed to this report.","highlights":"Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo underwent prostate surgery Friday .\nLugo will remain in the hospital for a few days and then recuperate in the presidential residency .\nLugo is a former priest who has been involved in several paternity controversies in past year .","id":"d2dfff1e649dc1d6e59ddf9a4e1f6e9cc7c8c311"} -{"article":"GAALKACYO, Somalia (CNN) -- The U.S. government is delaying \"tens of millions\" of dollars in crucial humanitarian aid over concerns that the money is being diverted to a notorious militant group, a senior U.N. official said. Al-Shabaab militants ride through Mogadishu, Somalia, after a religious gathering in September. The U.S. government, concerned about the challenges in delivering assistance in a country wracked by civil war, says allegations that Al-Shabaab is stopping aid from reaching the people are under review. Although one U.S. government source said aid continues to flow to Somalia and hasn't been suspended, another said aid might not reach \"some parts of the country\" because of Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked terror group that is trying to overthrow the government. Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia has long been a lawless, war-ravaged nation. The United Nations says that nearly half the population is dependent on humanitarian assistance, and one in five children are acutely malnourished. Somalia has suffered through five consecutive seasons of drought, and the ongoing conflict has caused more than a million people to be displaced. Kiki Gbeho, head of office for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia, said the United States is reviewing whether its aid helps fund Al-Shabaab. The U.N. office, in a report issued in September, said the U.S. delay in reaching a decision on humanitarian funding \"is already impacting on many agencies and their programmes.\" The United Nations estimates that 60 percent of the people it needs to reach with emergency assistance live in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab. \"According to humanitarian principles, we have to serve people and need to deal with those in charge,\" Gbeho said. Peter Smerdon, chief spokesman for the World Food Program, the agency responsible for delivering aid to Somalia, would not comment on the U.S. funding controversy but said investigations into whether Al-Shabaab is assisted by U.N. aid assistance are \"ongoing.\" Food supplies could run out for millions of Somalis in the next few weeks, according to the United Nations. The U.S. government is traditionally the biggest donor for food assistance. The issue of breakdowns in humanitarian aid in Somalia has long concerned the United States. A senior administration official and an administration official spoke about the issue on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The senior U.S. administration official said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Transitional Federal Government President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed discussed in August how the \"delivery of services\" to the Somali people be broadened. Clinton said publicly in Nairobi that the United States continues to provide \"humanitarian assistance to the Somali people where delivery is feasible and effective.\" The administration official said that the aid has never stopped, adding that food bound for the World Food Program in Somalia is on a vessel and should arrive in a few weeks. The senior administration official said, \"We are working with groups there to ensure that we can deliver assistance without having to pay off Al-Shabaab in the process. It does mean that aid may get to certain parts of the country but not others.\"","highlights":"Washington reviewing claims that money is being diverted to militant group .\nU.N. estimates 60 percent of people who need aid live in militant-controlled areas .\nMillions could run out of food in the next few weeks, U.N. says .","id":"7cbf653ed16c88dee74a8b0ebcc3556c31d1faa9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man who told Maryland State Police that his wife was killed by a carjacker early Friday morning has been charged in her death. Ryan Holness, 28, was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of Serika Dunkley Holness, 26, according to Maryland police. Her body was found about 6 a.m. Friday in a field in Crumpton, Maryland, police said. Holness was arrested after inconsistencies surfaced in his story, according to investigators. Holness said that he and his wife were carjacked by a man armed with a knife and a gun on the New Jersey Turnpike while returning to Maryland from New York on Thursday night, police said. \"He told investigators that he was assaulted by the suspect and forced to drive to Crumpton,\" said Gregory Shipley of the Maryland State Police. \"He said the suspect bound his feet and hands with duct tape before attacking his wife who had tried to flee the scene.\" Police interviewed various people and launched a nationwide search for the carjacker and Holness' 2007 blue Honda Accord, Shipley said. \"Information provided by Holness throughout the day Friday did not match information developed through witnesses and evidence at the scene,\" Shipley said. Shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, Holness' car was located by a D.C. police officer on a Washington street. \"Maryland State police homicide detectives have taken custody of the car,\" Shipley said. State police are not yet sure how the car got to Washington.","highlights":"Police arrest man who blamed carjacker for wife's death .\nRyan Holness told police he and wife were assaulted on trip to Maryland .\nPolice say information Holness provided did not match witness statements, evidence .","id":"923a41b27dd1e4ddad19585383df7e03d1710c0c"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Moroccan man wanted for links to the Madrid train bombings in 2004 was brought to Spain from France on Wednesday, a Spanish police statement said. A photograph showing Moroccan-born suspect Said Rehou. The suspect, Said Rehou, 27, born in Casablanca, Morocco, allegedly held indoctrination sessions for Islamic militants at his former Madrid home, the statement said. \"Various individuals who participated in those meetings later were implicated directly or indirectly in the Casablanca attacks of 2003 and the March 11, 2004, attacks in Madrid,\" the statement said. The Madrid train bombings -- coordinated attacks on four morning-rush commuter trains -- killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. Spanish courts have convicted 14 Islamic militants for their roles in the Madrid bombings, along with four Spaniards, the latter for trafficking in explosives used in the attacks. Seven other prime Islamic suspects killed themselves in an explosion as police closed in on their hideout in a Madrid suburb three weeks after the bombings. The Casablanca bombings in May 2003 killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers. Rehou is wanted in Spain for belonging to a terrorist group, and is thought to have formed part of a cell created in Spain in 2002, with the aim of recruiting fighters to carry out attacks in Morocco, Spain and other countries, the police statement said. The meetings at his home lasted six to eight hours, with the screening of videos that included sermons and scenes promoting holy war, the statement said.","highlights":"Suspect Said Rehou allegedly held indoctrination sessions .\nMadrid bombings killed 191 people in March 2004 .\nCasablanca bombings in 2003 killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers .","id":"12ce9072610bbba5625fd367b06ca295c40a1048"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama built his push for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system on the premise that reform is essential for economic recovery. President Obama has said overhauling health care is a key part of economic recovery. But with some economists saying the recession shows signs of ending, will that weaken Obama's argument? \"If the economy is picking up, then more people are going to get jobs and more people are going to have health insurance, and so they are going to be less concerned with health care reform because they will figure, 'I'm taken care of,' \" said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. But Julian Epstein, a Democratic strategist, said a recovering economy will help Obama's push for health care legislation because \"it will be a huge shot in the arm for Obama's political capital.\" \"It lessens people's anxieties that are being stirred up by the opponents of health care reform. It gives credibility to the argument that government has an appropriate role to play in solving the nation's problems,\" Epstein said. Obama ran on a campaign to fix the health care system, and since taking office, the president repeatedly has tried to show how this overhaul fits into his broader economic strategy. In a speech in June before the American Medical Association, Obama warned that inaction could have dire consequences. \"Make no mistake: The cost of our health care is a threat to our economy. It is an escalating burden on our families and businesses. It is a ticking time bomb for the federal budget. And it is unsustainable for the United States of America,\" he said. While the president has said health care is his top domestic priority this year, the public seems to disagree. Eighty-three percent of people are satisfied with their current health care, and 74 percent are satisfied with their health insurance, according to a CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll released last week. \"Health care reform has not been the top priority for voters. No. 1 is jobs. No. 2 is the deficit and government spending. Health care is third,\" said Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst. But Diana Owen, an associate professor of political science and director of American studies at Georgetown University, said the public isn't as concerned about the economics-driven case to overhaul health care. \"I personally think that the vast majority of the public doesn't get that connection between the economy and health care. I think they're seeing it more as a personal issue -- something that could affect them, their families, their friends,\" she said, noting that because people have an emotional involvement in the debate, the public is not likely to let it drop. That personal anxiety has manifested itself at town hall meetings across the country, where, angry protesters and other citizens have showed up to voice their doubts to their lawmakers. Voters have asked their lawmakers what reform means for them -- and how they can be assured that Obama's proposals are good ideas. The August congressional recess, however, could end up being a blessing in disguise for Democrats, Epstein said. \"It may persuade enough of them that they do need to be more moderate and incremental in the approach, and they may actually come up with a package that is even more popular than what would have otherwise been, had they tried to get the bill through before August,\" he said. If the economy recovers, plenty of Republicans and even a few Democrats will remind voters that Obama was wrong about the importance of reform to economic recovery, Schneider said. \"What will Obama say? That the recovery cannot be sustained over the long term without health care reform.\" Obama sent a similar message in his radio address last weekend, citing the slightly better than expected job numbers as \"a sign that we've begun to put the brakes on this recession and that the worst may be behind us.\" \"But we must do more than rescue our economy from this immediate crisis; we must rebuild it stronger than before. We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a new foundation is health insurance reform -- reform that we are now closer to achieving than ever before,\" he said. But even if the effort does take on a lower profile, it could still have real consequences for Democrats, as it did 15 years ago, Schneider said. President Clinton's push to overhaul health care failed, and the issue faded from the agenda as the economy recovered, but the ramifications were felt in the next election cycle. \"Clinton had to scale back his agenda. His big ideas for health care reform turned into protecting 'the safety net.' And, of course, the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years, and it took them another 12 years to get it back,\" Schneider said.","highlights":"President Obama says health care overhaul, economic recovery go hand in hand .\nEconomists point to some signs economy is recovering .\nBetter economy may ease push to overhaul health care, some observers say .\nHealth care failed under President Clinton in '90s, took back burner on the agenda .","id":"9e07045668586b9f5c1ca4531030f97aa2ff382d"} -{"article":"Harare, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Nestle, one of the world's largest food companies, has reopened its factory in Zimbabwe after receiving assurances from the government that its business will not be interfered with again, an official with the Swiss-based company said Tuesday. The company shut its Harare factory last month, complaining of harassment by authorities after it refused to take milk supplies from a farm that had been taken over by President Robert Mugabe's family as part of his controversial land reform program. \"On the basis of the written assurances given by the Minister of Industry and Commerce of Zimbabwe to guarantee the security of Nestle management and staff and not to interfere in the company's operating processes, Nestle decided to restart the activities at its Harare factory,\" said Brinda Chiniah with Nestle Equatorial African Region's corporate communications department. \"The company reiterates its commitment to source milk exclusively from its contracted farmers,\" Chiniah's statement added. Minister of industry and commerce of Zimbabwe, Welshman Ncube, confirmed that he held meetings with Nestle management. \"I was assigned by my superiors to have meetings with them, and I assured them that their concerns will be addressed. We cannot afford to lose investors at this stage when we are rebuilding the economy,\" Ncube said. The Nestle shutdown was seen by many as a setback to the country's efforts to attract foreign investors to help shore up its battered economy. Operations were under way as normal at the Nestle plant in Harare on Tuesday. Nestle said last month its decision to shut the facility was prompted by an unannounced visit from government officials and police December 19, after which the firm was forced to accept a milk delivery from non-contracted suppliers. Two of its managers, including expatriate managing director Heath Tilley, were questioned by police and released without charge the same day. Chiniah said Nestle had been in Zimbabwe for 50 years and employs more than 200 people in the southern African nation, adding that the company was \"working with the population of Zimbabwe and striving to maintain a long-term viable operation in often challenging conditions. \"We operate in Zimbabwe, as we do in every country, through good times and bad. We work for the long-term, in a way which has positive impact on our consumers, employees and suppliers,\" Chiniah said. Nestle stopped buying milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate, owned by Mugabe's family, in October, following international criticism of a deal it had agreed to earlier in the year to use the farm as a supplier. The farm had been seized under Mugabe's controversial land reform program, which targets mainly the properties of white farmers. Critics say Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms to resettle landless black Zimbabweans -- who have no farming experience -- has ruined the country's once-prosperous economy. Mugabe, in power since independence from Great Britain in 1980, denies the charge, and says the economic crisis is due to sanctions imposed by Western nations in response to his land reform.","highlights":"Factory had refused to take milk from Mugabe family farm .\nNestle says Mugabe government has pledged not to interfere with business .\nFactory employs more than 200 people .","id":"3efc54831c48aa00c8eaf2f35536a9258b652761"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They might make you punch the air or bring a tear to your eye: this month on the Screening Room, we've picked our top ten life-affirming moments from the movies. Our number one: Jimmy Stewart discovers life is sweet in \"It's A Wonderful Life\" From heartwarming classics to instant blockbusters, these are the on-screen scenes that never fail to fill you with joie de vivre. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Post your comments to the Screening Room blog and we'll publish the best. Read other CNN viewers' favorite life-affirming movie moments, and tell us yours >> . 1. It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) \"Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.\" Perennial Christmas favorite \"It's A Wonderful Life\" sees habitual do-gooder George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) pulled back from the brink of despair by wannabe angel Clarence. As Bailey embraces his life with joy, it's his friend's final sign-off that draws a sentimental tear from even the most stone-hearted viewer. 2. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) After the battle, Crassus (Laurence Olivier) promises to spare the rebel slaves' lives if they give up Spartacus (Kirk Douglas). In a stirring response, knowing that they are condemning themselves to death by crucifixion, they each rise with a cry of \"I am Spartacus!\" One moment's freedom has never tasted so sweet. 3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) A tense frisson of resentment ripples through Rick's Bar as the boorish Nazi officers strike up in patriotic song. But a command from Lazlo (Paul Henreid), a nod from Rick (Humphrey Bogart), and a rousing chorus of the Marseillaise sees the hated occupiers put firmly back in their place. 4. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994) In the harsh conditions of Shawshank Penitentiary, Andy (Tim Robbins) seizes an opportunity to lock himself in an office and broadcast a Mozart aria over the PA system. The heavenly voices shine light into the darkest depths of despair, bringing humanity to a place where there is none. 5. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) \"James -- earn this. Earn it.\" As the gunfire pauses, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) implores Private Ryan (Matt Damon) -- and, by proxy, us -- not to waste a drop of life: the greatest of gifts is too precious to be frittered away. 6. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Roy the replicant's deep humanity comes to the fore as his last moments slip away. Rutger Hauer's lines on life's fleeting nature -- \"lost in time like tears in the rain\" -- are both provocative and poignant: has he become more human than the people who seek to hunt him down? 7. American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999) \"It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world.\" Kevin Spacey's closing speech inspires us to look at the world around us with fresh eyes, from the flaws in our loved ones to plastic bags caught in the wind. 8. Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) \"Take good care of the forest, Huey.\" Renegade botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) blasts the world's last remaining plant life into deep space, with only a robot to tend to it. A timely reminder of how one man's actions can preserve life and hope. 9. Dead Poets' Society (Peter Weir, 1989) Mr Keating (Robin Williams) inspires his young charges to seize the day and throw off the shackles of their privileged yet stuffy school. We challenge you not to feel a lump in your throat when Todd (played by a young Ethan Hawke) and his classmates stand on the desk in spirited tribute to their disgraced teacher. 10. Victory (John Huston, 1981) \"Come on lads, we can win this one!\" Ludicrous yet rousing, \"Victory\" pitted plucky British footballers, led by Michael Caine and fortified by Pele and Sly, against a dastardly German team in a high-profile game that's weighted against them. Their plot? To escape during half time. But who wants to flee midway when there's a match to be won? \"Victoire! Victoire!\" chant the crowd. Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Sound off and read others' thoughts in the Screening Room blog. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Films full of life-affirming moments include \"Casablanca,\" \"Silent Running\"\n\"It's a Wonderful Life\" tops list from \"The Screening Room\"\nList by no means complete; send us yours .","id":"9094b997642c33043857cab0711e7ad7deab536e"} -{"article":"To: Interested parties From: John King, CNN chief national correspondent Re: Monday Memo . Should the U.S. expand its forces in Afghanistan? That will be the debate this week. (CNN) -- What you'll see in Washington in this week is a White House focus on health care and jobs. What you won't see -- or see much of, at any rate -- is just as critical a challenge for the administration. On Wednesday and then again on Friday, President Obama will meet with his national security team to continue deliberations about Afghanistan strategy, including whether to commit as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops to what not too long ago was \"the forgotten war\" but is now front and center. \"Ideally, it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command,\" National Security Adviser James Jones told us Sunday when asked whether the very public request for more troops from the commanding general in Afghanistan had complicated the White House deliberations. Significantly, Jones, a retired Marine Corps general, offered what sounded like a more optimistic asssement of the security challenges in Afghanistan than the commander asking for more troops, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. \"I don't foresee the return of the Taliban,\" Jones said. As for al Qaeda and its strength within Afghanistan, Jones added: \"Very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 reported operating in the country. No bases. No buildings to launch attacks on either us or our allies.\" His comments left little doubt Jones is not only less than thrilled about McChrystal's public appeals, he also is among those skeptical of sending more troops. Suffice to say those private strategy meetings warrant considerable attention. Easier to see will be presidential and vice presidential events pushing health care reform and promoting the administration's stimulus plan as, contrary to what Republicans say, a cushion keeping a sluggish economy from taking an even bigger toll on American workers and families. Obama will make a new health care push Monday from the White House, joined by doctors from around the country. Vice President Joe Biden continues his role as stimulus cheerleader, from Connecticut on Monday. Also of note: . \u2022 The first new Supreme Court term of the Obama presidency kicks off, and Sonia Sotomayor gets down to official business as the nation's first Hispanic high court justice. \u2022 The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday discusses potential new sanctions against Iran, proof of congressional skepticism even though Iran over the weekend agreed to let international inspectors visit its recently disclosed uranium enrichment plant. \u2022 Wednesday is the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. \u2022 Wednesday also brings the Federal Reserve's latest report on consumer credit. Enjoy the week.","highlights":"Obama to meet with national security team Wednesday, Friday on Afghanistan .\nMilitary officers have varying assessments on whether more U.S. troops needed .\nPresident will make a new health care push Monday from the White House .\nThe first new Supreme Court term of the Obama presidency kicks off .","id":"980ee1fca26dff0e70aeb57f3a26d7f974d419aa"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A new Taliban military \"code of conduct\" calls for restrictions on suicide attacks aimed at avoiding the killing of civilians, but U.S. and Afghan military officials dismissed the document as propaganda, calling it hypocritical. A Pakistani looks at a bus set on fire by Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan in June. The booklet, obtained by CNN in northwestern Pakistan, has emerged during a crucial moment in the fight between troops and militants in Afghanistan, where battles are raging in the country's Helmand province and troops work to establish stability for the upcoming presidential elections. \"Suicide attacks should be at high value and important targets because a brave son of Islam should not be used for low value and useless targets,\" the code of conduct said. \"In suicide attacks the killing of innocent people and damage to their property should be minimized.\" It also says \"all mujahideen must do their best to avoid civilian deaths and injuries and damage to civilian property.\" And it says that mujahideen \"should refrain\" from disfiguring of people, such as the severing of ears, nose and lips. \"Mujahideen must be well behaved, and treat the people properly, in order to get closer to the hearts of civilian Muslims,\" the code said. Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, saidit was notable that the document is intended to be \"prescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves.\" Watch why Taliban have brought out new code of conduct \u00bb . \"Their day to day actions contradict everything in it,\" Sidenstricker said. \"The long and the short of it is, they don't operate in accordance to their code of conduct.\" She said more than 60 percent of civilians killed have been killed by the Taliban, and since January, more than 450 innocent Afghans have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been injured. Watch why Taliban are proving hard to uproot \u00bb . Also, half the casualties resulting from roadside bombs were civilians. \"The booklet also says suicide attacks should always be done against high-ranking officials. In reality, they have killed more then 200 Afghan civilians,\" she said. Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Azimi said the code is \" propaganda\" and that the Taliban \"will never implement that.\" He cites a recent beheading of a retired Afghan soldier as a clear example of the group's real behavior. \"It was against all the laws of war,\" Azimi said. As far as the upcoming election, Azimi said, the Taliban has tried its best in the past \"to disrupt the normal process of peace and security, and they will try their best to disrupt the peace and security process in the future.\" The code of conduct is dated as coming into effect on May 9, 2009. It is similar to a previous document that emerged in 2006 and covers many topics. For example, it says \"kidnapping for ransom is strictly prohibited.\" As for prisoners, the code says \"it is strictly prohibited to exchange prisoners for money. Killing can only be decided by the Imam or his deputy. No one else has the right to do so.\" It says an imam or his deputy are on the only ones to make decisions on whether to kill, release of exchange a captured \"military infidel.\" Further, it says the practice of taking weapons from people by force \"is no longer permitted.\" \"But people may hand over their weapons voluntarily,\" it said. And it says that the \"mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate should not collect donations forcibly\" and that \"people should be free to choose who they want to give to.\" It said mujahideen shouldn't search peoples' homes. \"If there is a need to do this, they should get permission from authority and the search should be done in the presence of the imam of the local mosque and two elders.\" The code said mujahids aren't permitted to smoke and that \"a male who has not yet grown a beard may not stay in a common sleeping area with other men.\" CNN's National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said the militants \"clearly\" are aware of the need to win \"hearts and minds\" and are trying to rectify the \"mistakes\" of al Qaeda in Iraq. \"They have their own counter-insurgency strategy in winning hearts and minds,\" Bergen said. \"This is a corrective, absolutely.\" He said \"there's a window for both sides to make some progress\" and the Taliban want to exploit the moment. \"The Taliban believe they are either winning or not losing. If you are an insurgent not losing is important,\" he said. CNN's Ivan Watson, Tim Schwarz and Joe Sterling and journalist Janullah Hashimzadeh contributed to this report .","highlights":"Taliban issues a new code of conduct to show it is a disciplined force .\nCode outlines rules to limit suicide attacks and civilian casualties .\nU.S. and Afghan officials dismiss rules as propaganda and hypocritical .","id":"f7ea73ebf5699cddb1888e2eb50f41a01e91be73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Another band of frigid weather will blanket the eastern two-thirds of the nation Wednesday, battering states already dealing with record-low temperatures that have been blamed for at least five deaths. The system will bring blistering cold weather and winds across the country, including many states not used to such temperatures. In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency because of the threat to the state's lucrative crop industry. His order aims to help farmers across the state salvage what they can by lifting weight limits on trucks and allowing them to get already harvested crops out of the cold. In other areas of the country, low temperature records are being broken and are likely to continue to fall. Later this week, the temperature could drop below zero for the first time in St. Louis, Missouri, since 1999, according to the National Weather Center. Little Rock, Arkansas, could see an actual temperature of 10 degrees and wind chill of 20 below zero on Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The high temperature will be in the 20s on Thursday and Friday in Dallas, Texas, where consecutive days that cold have not happened since 1998, the weather service said. The northern Plains could see wind chills of 20 to 30 below zero through Wednesday, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. \"Some locations could see temperatures 30 to 40 degrees below normal\" on Thursday across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said. By Friday morning, afternoon highs will struggle to make it above zero, he said. \"What's unusual about this is the length of the cold snap,\" CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said. \"Typically across the South, you'll get a two- to three-day cold snap, and then temperatures will moderate,\" he said. \"But we're getting reinforcing shot after reinforcing shot, and that pattern doesn't look like it wants to break down until at least next week.\" Some states were still dealing with the aftermath of the first cold snap. In Atlantic, Iowa, a record set in 1958 was broken when the temperature dropped to minus 29 degrees Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Share your photos, video of winter weather near you . Safety officials in Virginia warned children and adults to stay away from frozen ponds and streams. A homeless man was found frozen to death in Kansas City, Missouri, where the temperature was 1 degree Tuesday morning, and Salvation Army officials said they desperately need donations of hats, gloves and socks, CNN affiliate KCTV reported. The temperature is not expected to rise above zero in Kansas City on Friday. A winter storm watch is in effect for Kansas City, where 2 to 4 inches of snow and near-blizzard conditions will be possible on Wednesday afternoon, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said. A winter storm watch has also been issued for Memphis, Tennessee, where 2 to 4 inches of snow will be possible from late Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. The northern Plains could see wind chills of 20 to 30 below zero through Wednesday, Myers said. \"Some locations could see temperatures 30 to 40 degrees below normal\" on Thursday across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley, Morris said. A winter storm warning for moderate to heavy snowfall was in effect into Tuesday afternoon in parts of northwestern Washington state, northern Idaho, Montana and northern Wyoming, the weather service said. Moderate to heavy snowfall also is possible in much of North Dakota from Tuesday to Wednesday, the weather service said. A dusting of snow will be possible in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Morris said. At least four cold-related deaths have occurred in Tennessee. One was an 81-year-old Alzheimer's patient who apparently wandered outside during the night wearing nothing but a bathrobe, police said. John Anderson's body was found in his driveway Monday morning. The Salvation Army shelter in Lubbock, Texas, is making room to let more people in out of the cold, CNN affiliate KCBD reported. Shelters in Jackson, Mississippi, were reaching capacity, CNN affiliate WLBT reported. New Jerusalem Church in Jackson was opening its doors to help the homeless. \"We had one of the gentlemen tonight who lives under the bridge. ... He's never been to a shelter, and he said, 'You know, Miss Liza, my bones can't handle it anymore,' \" New Jerusalem Church spokesperson Eliza Garcia told WLBT. The frigid air reaches all the way south, jeopardizing berry and citrus crops in Louisiana and Florida. Watch how berry farmers are trying to save their plants . Some hard freeze warnings were also in effect in Louisiana and parts of the state could see temperatures drop into the 20s, some of the coldest weather in the area since 1996, CNN affiliate WWL in New Orleans, Louisiana, reported. Supplies for protecting pipes from freezing were disappearing from area stores, CNN affiliate WDSU reported. It forced some to discuss other options -- like wrapping pipes in newspaper and covering it in plastic, WDSU reported. Hard freeze warnings were in effect Tuesday morning for much of northern Florida and parts of other Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service. \"For Florida, they're going to see the coldest stretch in 15 to 25 years,\" Marciano said. \"They get freezes like this, but they don't get them for this length of time, and that's the danger that will probably wear the farmers out.\" In Winter Park, Florida, some students found themselves unable to escape the elements even once they got to school -- a faulty air handler left Aloma Elementary School without heat, CNN affiliate WKMG in Orlando reported. Growers are spraying water on their trees to form a protective coating of ice, said Andrew Meadows, spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade group representing about 8,000 growers. As long as temperatures don't drop below 28 degrees for more than four hours, damage should be minimal, he said. However, forecasters say colder air is on the way. \"Tonight's going to be another anxious night,\" Meadows said. \"I'm sure a lot of growers will be pulling all-nighters.\" Farmers in Louisiana such as Eric Morrow told CNN affiliate WDSU in New Orleans they were also waiting anxiously, hoping their strawberry crops don't get destroyed at the height of the growing season. Charlotte County, Florida, planned to open a cold weather shelter Tuesday evening, CNN affiliate WINK reported. Other counties were taking similar steps. Shoppers at clothing stores were were clearing racks of warm coats, CNN affiliate WKMG in Orlando, Florida, reported. The cold can be lethal to Florida's tree-dwelling iguana population, too. The reptiles fall into a sort of suspended animation that mimics death when the temperature drops below 40, but they could indeed die if it stays below 40 for more than three days, according to CNN affiliate WFOR. Lows reached the teens Tuesday morning in parts of Alabama, according to the weather service. Record lows were expected in many areas across the South, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. The Weatherization Trust, a nonprofit group in Omaha, Nebraska, stepped in to help a family whose furnace quit in the midst of the freeze, CNN affiliate KETV reported. Tracy O'Boyle and her family have been using an oven to stay warm, but the nonprofit group has procured a replacement furnace, to be installed by the end of the week, KETV reported. \"We're just grateful we're going to get the furnace in a few days,\" O'Boyle told KETV. \"We've already lasted more than a week without one and it's been really cold.\" CNN's Jim Kavanaugh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Florida governor declares state of emergency to protect crops .\nAtlantic, Iowa, breaks record low set in 1958 with minus 29 degree temperature .\nHomeless man found frozen to death in Kansas City, Missouri .\nWinter storm warnings north, hard freeze warnings south .","id":"c9e54303cd3bac4d133ba601c8ef16b43226ec40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- William Searing is an Eagle Scout who loves hiking, adventure, art and sports. At age 19, he's in an education program that bridges the gap from high school to getting a job. Wil has autism. Doctors diagnosed Wil Searing, 19, with autism when was 18 months old. The neurological disorder was diagnosed when he was 18 months old. Mia Newman's epilepsy and autism weren't diagnosed until she was almost 3 years old. Now 9, she and her family still face many challenges in coping with her conditions. It's been a year since the first U.N.-declared World Autism Awareness Day. In those past 365 days, nobody has discovered the cause of autism, which the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest affects one in 150 children. Nor has a cure been found. However, new research and major court decisions have emerged to explain further what may contribute to the developmental disabilities of the brain known as \"autism spectrum disorders\" or ASDs. One thing that has been known for a while is that there is not one type of autism, but rather several types under the autism umbrella, including Asperger's syndrome, classic autism and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). More and more doctors and researchers are referring to autism as autisms (plural) because each child's case is different, as are the causes, helpful therapies and potential future cures. iReport.com: Does autism touch your life? While the past year hasn't yielded definitive answers, new information about what may or may not cause autism, prevalence and accompanying issues like paying for treatment have made headlines. Here are just a few: . Do vaccines cause autism? In 1998, a theory emerged that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism, the theory being that the vaccine lingered in the gut, causing gastrointestinal problems, and that those GI problems led to autism. A few years later, the very small study that was the basis of this theory was debunked and discredited. However, this did not quash the belief among many parents that vaccines caused autism, leading them to stop or delay immunizing their children. Since the first World Autism Awareness Day last year, a couple of studies and a major court decision declared definitively that vaccines do not cause autism. In September, researchers in the United States and Europe re-created the original 1998 study, even using one of the same laboratories to analyze their results. The study authors concluded that \"no evidence\" linked the MMR vaccine to autism or the GI problems. While many experts said this study is conclusive and \"puts the issue to rest,\" some groups that hold to the belief vaccines are the cause of autism called the research flawed. Another study, published in the March 2009 issue of Pediatrics, provided an explanation of why the MMR vaccine does not cause GI problems and autism. Daniel Campbell, a researcher at Vanderbilt University, suggested that he has found a reasonable explanation for why many children also have GI problems. According to his research, a genetic variation of a protein called MET contributes to both autism and GI problems, rather than GI problems causing autism. In addition, a decision inside a courtroom rather than a laboratory drew the conclusion that the vaccines do not cause autism. On February 12, a special vaccine court ruled in three test cases, representing more than 5,000 families, that the \"combination of the thimerosal-containing vaccines and the MMR vaccine are not casual factors in the development of autism.\" It's probably still too early to tell whether these rulings changed anyone's opinions. \"I don't think they were important from the standpoint of changing the minds of those with firmly held beliefs regarding vaccines,\" said Dr. Bryan King, director of child psychiatry at Seattle Children's Hospital. He said that it will not be until we find credible causes for autism that people can leave this debate behind. \"We still support research that would potentially identify small groups with underlying medical or genetic conditions who may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of vaccines,\" said Dr. Geraldine Dawson, the chief science officer of Autism Speaks, the nation's largest advocacy group. \"For the vast majority of kids, vaccines are safe and we support vaccine programs,\" Dawson said, adding that more research into vaccines is needed. Are autism rates going up? Using data from 2000 and 2002, the CDC released a report two years ago with the statistic that one in 150 8-year-olds have autism, up from the previous estimate of 1 in 166. What remains unclear is if the numbers really went up or if counting these children differently led to the increase. According to a study done by the MIND Institute at the University of California-Davis and published in January, \"The incidence of autism rose seven- to eightfold in California from the 1990s through the present.\" \"The incidence of autism has not yet plateaued,\" said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, lead author of the study. \"We don't know the reason for the increase.\" But she said that expanding the definition of autism and greater awareness and diagnosis alone can't account for the increase. \"Looking at the environmental cause of autism is the next logical step\" to find more answers, she said. A Danish study from December seems to suggest the opposite. It concluded that the shift in age at diagnosis, \"especially the earlier diagnosis at younger ages, artificially inflated the observance of autism in younger children.\" Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a child neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, has been treating children with autism for more than 30 years. He said he's still not quite convinced that the incidence is going up either. One explanation is that the way autism cases were counted in the CDC study and in the California study are not the same. \"We need to investigate if there's a true rise,\" Wiznitzer said. What are environmental factors? In the past year, more has been said about exploring how environmental factors, in addition to genetic factors, may contribute to autism. Hertz-Picciotto said environmental factors include anything that's not in the child's DNA, from viruses and bacteria to chemicals in the brain or personal care products. She said more research needs to be done. CDC epidemiologist and autism researcher Diana Schendel said that any nongenetic factor, including a mother's illness during pregnancy or treatment of a baby in the hospital during or after birth, are other possible environmental factors. The CDC is conducting a five-year study at six sites looking at genetic and environmental risk factors for autism. Autism Speaks also said studies should look more closely at environmental factors. \"Everything from vitamin D to folic acid, a mother's health condition or pesticides\" may play a role, said Dawson. Her organization recently announced it is investing $5 million to fund studies on genetic and environmental risk factors for autism. How to afford therapies? Another issue that has gained momentum in the past year is how to pay for the therapies and treatment for children with autism and the now growing numbers of adults with autism. Elizabeth Newman, Mia's mother, is helping raise $10,000 for five families in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, because she knows how difficult it is to pay for treatments that helped her daughter (more information at http:\/\/www.livingthemosaic.com\/ ). Wiznitzer said that one of the ongoing issues for the parents of the children he treats is \"What will we do with them as adults?\" He said there is an urgent need for developing programs for adults with autism to be productive rather than putting them in institutions. Most of the 8-year-olds who were counted in the CDC study in 2000 are now becoming young adults. However, there are few programs to help them when they are too old to receive therapies through the educational system. Dawson said she's encouraged to see the Obama administration earmark $211 million for autism research and more. According to the 2010 federal budget proposal, \"the president is committed to expanding support for individuals, families, and communities affected by ASD.\" \"One of the things that Obama featured in his plan is money toward adult services,\" Dawson said. Wil's mom wants her adult son to be the best he can and the happiest he can -- but she also wants him to be a productive citizen. \"I want to get a job,\" Wil said. \"I want to be a designer -- I will have to learn how to be a designer.\" He hopes to go to a college with special programs for students with disabilities. He's already designed business cards for a few people; his mom hopes this might be something he could do professionally in the future. Aside from doing the morally right thing, Jane Searing said, funding more programs for adults with autism makes economic sense. \"If you get them employed, you won't have to pay for them forever,\" Searing said, adding it's much better to \"turn these people into taxpayers instead of tax takers.\"","highlights":"Thursday is second World Autism Awareness Day .\nIn last 365 days, no cause or cure found, but baby steps made along the way .\nSpecial vaccine court ruled in three test cases, found no link with autism .\nResearchers look to environmental causes; parents look for insurance coverage .","id":"ecc920c017bb7d3f671b5a3a3c0ed84f831c9c33"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- September 23, 2009 . Quick Guide . Leaders Talk Climate Change - Discover some of the topics addressed by the U.N. General Assembly. Southeast Flooding - Witness the impact of severe flooding across the southeastern U.S. Troops in Afghanistan - Consider different opinions on how to fight the war in Afghanistan. Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: The U.N. General Assembly is in session, and so is this edition of CNN Student News. Bringing you today's commercial-free headlines, I'm Carl Azuz. First Up: Leaders Talk Climate Change . AZUZ: First up, representatives from nearly 200 countries come together in New York to talk about global issues. This is called the United Nations General Assembly, and the decisions and resolutions that it makes set the agenda for a lot of what the U.N. works on throughout the year. One of the biggest focuses for this gathering is climate change. Secretary General Ban ki Moon calls it one of the most important issues of the 21st century. He's hoping that countries will work on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists believe contribute to climate change. During speeches yesterday, President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who lead the countries that give off the most greenhouse gases, pledged to try to reduce them. Neither leader offered a specific timeframe for this, but both said they plan to cut greenhouse gases and increase the use of clean energy sources. President Obama also touched on another controversial issue yesterday: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Peace talks between the two groups have fizzled out recently, but Obama is urging both sides to come back to the negotiating table and work on a permanent solution. He met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday in an effort to restart discussions between these two. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Despite all the mistrust, we have to find a way forward. We have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering. Spoken Word . SONNY PERDUE, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA: This has been a 48-hour ordeal that people had been, stayed here and to care for the safety of people. I just want to thank them. I want to thank those firefighters and first responders all across Georgia, from the east and Stevens county, to the west in Paulding and Carroll and Douglas, and in Cherokee in northwest Georgia. This has been a huge effort. Southeast Flooding . AZUZ: Okay, that was Georgia's Gov. Sonny Perdue there, talking about severe flooding that has led to at least eight deaths. Noting that nearly all of those were from drivers and passengers who were swept away by floodwaters, Gov. Perdue pleaded with residents to stay off the roads until the waters recede. Yesterday, he planned to ask President Obama to declare a federal emergency in order to free up money that would help with the relief efforts. With flash flood watches stretching across parts of the southeastern U.S., Rob Marciano examines the impact of this severe weather. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's a cruel irony. After months of drought, heavy rains spawning deadly floods. Across much of the southeast, streets are covered. Homes are destroyed. Tranquil creeks now on a rampage. In some places near Atlanta, nearly two feet of rain fell. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the highest water that I've seen, and I've been living around here all my life. MARCIANO: This couple was rescued by boat in the pitch black. They had to use flashlights to see. And the only thing they could bring with them: their dog and a few family treasures. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are my wedding pictures. MARCIANO: But they were luckier than others, others who lost something so much more dear. In Georgia, right now, 17 counties under a state of emergency. Officials say they're in rescue and recovery mode, but those rescues, especially around Atlanta, have been slow and difficult. Pictures showing just how crippled some areas of the city are. In the western suburb of Powder Springs, a house is left to burn. Next to it, a fire truck stranded, helpless in the rising floodwaters. These two men had to get around on inflatable mattresses, and so many people are stunned by what they're seeing. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, shock. I don't think it's really set in that this is real. This is, we're flooded out. We don't have a home. MARCIANO: Rob Marciano, CNN, Austell, Georgia. (END VIDEO CLIP) AZUZ: For another perspective, look at this! This is the amusement park, Six Flags over Georgia and under water. It's located west of Atlanta, and what you're seeing here is a coaster called the Scream Machine. I think I've ridden this thing every time I've been to Six Flags. From the looks of it, I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Amazing pictures. Impact Your World . AZUZ: Obviously, the relief efforts are going to be going on for a while. Several organizations are already at work. To find out how you can take part, head to the Spotlight section on our home page and click on the \"Impact Your World\" link. I.D. Me . MICHELLE WRIGHT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm a Central American nation located between Guatemala and Nicaragua. I gained my independence from Spain in 1821. My capital city is Tegucigalpa. I'm Honduras, and I'm home to about 7.8 million people. Ousted President . AZUZ: Political turmoil has led to clashes in that capital city, all based around Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya. He was actually removed from office back in June and faces charges of violating the country's constitution. Zelaya, who's in the white hat in the middle of your screen here, returned to Honduras Monday. He took up refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. If he leaves, the Honduran government says it will arrest him. The Brazilian embassy isn't considered part of Honduras, so Zelaya can't be arrested as long as he stays inside. Police and soldiers positioned outside the embassy clashed with Zelaya's supporters before clearing the area yesterday. The situation has led the U.S. to close its embassy in the Honduran capital. Troops in Afghanistan . AZUZ: Meantime, the president of Afghanistan says he supports a top U.S. commander's call to increase the number of U.S. troops in the Asian country. President Hamid Karzai called it \"the right approach.\" But it's certainly not the only one. As Barbara Starr explains, there are several ideas on how to fight the war in Afghanistan, and who that war should be against. (BEGIN VIDEO) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As violence increases daily in Afghanistan, some are calling for a major troop build-up. The president signaling when he ordered a review of the Afghan war, he wasn't anxious to quickly send tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency. OBAMA: Let's do a soup-to-nuts re-evaluation, focusing on what our original goal was, which was to get al Qaeda, the people who killed 3,000 Americans. STARR: Attacking al Qaeda is fundamentally a counter-terrorism strategy, requiring a limited number of new troops. It's the \"Plan B\" advocated by some in the White House, according to a senior Pentagon official. But Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander, is still calling for a counterinsurgency strategy to strengthen Afghanistan to the point the Taliban have no safe haven there. That could take tens of thousands of more troops beyond the 68,000 now planned. Retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs says it's a must. GEN. MONTGOMERY MEIGS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: If you're going to get the tribes over on your side and the side of government, you have to have enough people there to make things happen for them, economically, socially and in terms of security. STARR: Could the Pentagon put U.S. firepower, such as fighter jets and drones, in neighboring countries to reduce the U.S. presence inside Afghanistan? MEIGS: My point is, if you don't have the kind of intelligence you need to make those systems effective, you are going to swing and miss a lot. STARR: The powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Service committee says more U.S. troops right away are not the answer for another reason. SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I've been recommending to the president that, first of all, before any consideration is made of additional combat forces, that we get the Afghan army bigger, better equipped. STARR: The new bottom line? Support for the war in Afghanistan is declining, and the president and his commanders will have to make the case for whatever comes next. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon. (END VIDEO) Promo . AZUZ: Afghanistan, Honduras, the southeastern U.S.: Today's show is all over the map. But we've got a way to help students pinpoint locations that are in the news: our downloadable maps! These geographic guides offer some perspective on exactly where these headlines are happening. You'll find the free resources every day at CNNStudentNews.com. Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, we've got a tale of true sportsmanship. At the end of a recent high school game in Missouri, Matt Ziesel took a handoff and hightailed it all the way to the end zone, scoring his team's only touchdown of the day. So, why is this noteworthy? Well, Matt has Down Syndrome, a genetic disorder. He's always dreamed of scoring a TD. So, with the clock winding down and his team down 46-0, Matt's coach wanted to give him that chance. He talked to the other team's coach, who agreed to give up the shutout and let Matt score. Goodbye . AZUZ: Great story. We'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Would you give up a shutout to help someone out? Would you have done it for Matt Ziesel? Head to our blog at CNNStudentnews.com and share your opinions. We'll look forward to reading them, and we'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow for more CNN Student News.","highlights":"Discover some of the topics addressed by the U.N. General Assembly .\nWitness the impact of severe flooding across the southeastern U.S.\nConsider different opinions on how to fight the war in Afghanistan .","id":"a1f6823de52877e8240452bce385d05564ffc6f6"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Retired Army Spc. Scott Winkler had many scary encounters while serving in Iraq, but they were nothing compared with his recent experience at the world's largest aquarium: swimming alongside a massive whale shark. Ret. Army Spc. Scott Winkler, 35, was paralyzed five years ago during an accident in Iraq. The fact that Winkler, 35, of Augusta, Georgia, is a paraplegic made the once-in-a-lifetime experience even more challenging. \"It's like you're in space,\" Winkler said. \"It's like you're an able body again. It makes you feel so free.\" Winkler was paralyzed five years ago during an accident while unloading ammunition in Tikrit, Iraq. He is one of more than two dozen disabled veterans who have participated in the Fish Wish program at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta during the past two months. A separate swim and dive program is open to the public, but the waiting list is nearly full until the end of the year. The experience isn't cheap. A half-hour dive costs $290. The veterans swam for free. Therapeutic recreational specialist Susan Oglesby helps train safety divers at the aquarium to assist swimmers with disabilities. She explained there are very few limitations in the tank. Watch more on veterans swimming with sharks \u00bb . \"The water is the great equalizer. Once you get in, you're floating, you're weightless, and everybody becomes equal,\" Oglesby said. Winkler was outfitted in a wet suit and snorkeling gear. He rolled his wheelchair down a long ramp to a dock floating in the 6.3 million-gallon tank of salt water. After sliding out of the chair, he took a deep breath and pushed himself into the water. \"It is so amazing, he said. \"It's like you don't have a disability, because you're just floating around with everybody else. ... The fish are just swimming by. It's a total other world.\" In addition to four 23-foot-long whale sharks, Winkler gazed on a manta ray, hammerhead sharks, goliath grouper and sawfish. He used his arms to move his body around the football-field-size tank. Swimming next to him were two safety divers and Orlando Perez, another young veteran from Augusta. \"It's beautiful down there!\" Perez exclaimed. \"It's peaceful, and you just forget that you're in a wheelchair. You're one with the fish.\" Perez, 33, a retired Army private first class, suffered a spinal cord injury during basic training 13 years ago. Like Winkler, he is confined to a wheelchair. Perez likened the swim experience to floating on air. \"I never thought being disabled would bring me to do something so amazing,\" he said. \"I think it's about overcoming the disability and not letting the disability overcome you.\" Both Perez and Winkler admitted they were nervous when they first entered in the water. They settled down after being brushed by one of the passing whale sharks. Winkler had a big grin on his face as he talked about the benefits of taking part in the program. \"Mentally, you're actually taking a stress break from life itself,\" he said. \"Physically, it's great rehabilitation. Emotionally, your spirit is lifted, and you're able to enjoy yourself for once.\"","highlights":"Fish Wish program allows veterans with disabilities to swim with sharks .\nProgram is open to the public, but waiting list is long and cost is $290 .\nVeterans report feeling \"equal\" in the weightless environment of water .","id":"05c540c527d2373b919bf6b7ec0103b3e9d6da82"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's the middle of the night and Steven Ford is wide awake. Insomniac Steven Ford says he needs to find a better way to wind down after a long day on the job. \"I toss and turn and watch the clock, sometimes at 3 in the morning, 2 in the morning,\" lamented Ford, 44, a commercial sign installer in Atlanta, Georgia. Valerie McCloskey, a 42-year-old mother of two from Grand Rapids, Michigan, complained of a similar problem. \"My husband is sound asleep next to me and I'm thinking about everything that I'm worried about.\" McCloskey and Ford are among a huge group of Americans who suffer from some type of insomnia. \"Sleep problems are very, very common,\" explained Dr. David Schulman, director of the Sleep Laboratory at Emory University in Atlanta. \"They affect more than a third of Americans in a given year.\" Health Minute: Watch more on sleep disorders \u00bb . Sleep problems may be common, but Schulman stressed that insomnia is not normal if it lasts more than a month or two. He said most adults need about eight hours of sleep a night. In reality \"the average American sleeps just under seven hours,\" he said. \"That's a problem.\" A persistent lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can leave you feeling exhausted when you wake up. \"These folks are walking zombies,\" Schulman said. \"They are out there with four or five hours of sleep a night.\" Long-term sleep problems also may exacerbate other chronic medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension, experts say. Before you can treat the problem, you probably need to figure out what kind of insomnia you're dealing with. The condition is classified as primary or secondary. The latter means that a patient may be having trouble sleeping because of a health condition or medication. Primary insomnia is not related to any side effects. It is considered its own disorder that can be broken down into two groups: sleep-onset insomnia and sleep-maintenance insomnia. Like its name, the sleep-onset version occurs in the beginning of the night when someone tries to fall asleep and can't. \"Sleep-maintenance insomnia is much less common,\" Schulman said. \"It occurs when somebody can go to sleep, but wakes up once or several times throughout the night and has difficulty resuming sleep.\" Stress, anxiety and depression may be some of the causes of chronic insomnia. Before he prescribes medications, Schulman typically suggests that his patients try a number of things to regain control of their sleep cycle. First, he said, don't stay in bed for longer than 20 to 30 minutes if you can't fall asleep or fall back asleep. \"If you accustom your body to being in bed for hours at a time unable to fall asleep, that behavior to some degree becomes subconsciously ingrained,\" he said. Avoid caffeine within 8-10 hours of bedtime. Studies show that \"if you take caffeine at noon it's still in your system at 8 or 10 at night,\" Schulman said. Don't eat or exercise within three hours of bedtime. Schulman said both detract from sleep. He also suggested avoiding alcohol before bedtime because it might trigger a lighter sleep and make it more likely you'll wake up in the middle of the night. Finally, he recommended finding light, relaxing activities that will induce sleep, such as reading or listening to soft music. He cautioned insomniacs to avoid bright light before bedtime. He also warned against watching television and using video games and computers before turning out the lights. Cooling off might help. \"One of the ways you can fool your body into thinking it is cooling off is to heat it up just before bedtime,\" Schulman said. \"Take a warm bath or shower 30 to 45 minutes before going to sleep. As your body cools off afterwards, it is very sleep-inducing.\" Steven Ford admitted he needs to find a better way to wind down after a long day on the job. He doesn't consider his problem to be serious enough yet to see a doctor, adding \"I'm too manly to try to look for help. I just deal with it, go to work and wait for the weekend.\"","highlights":"Sleep problems affect more than a third of Americans in a given year, expert says .\nIf you drink caffeine at noon, it's still in your system at 8 or 10 p.m., studies say .\nAvoid eating and exercising three hours before bed if you have sleep problems .\nLong-term sleep problems may exacerbate other chronic medical conditions .","id":"3bc041c928f3d92a6772df8bd2bd18c83bb652a3"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- All Lyle Petersen wanted to do was get his mail. Lyle Petersen, a CDC expert who was infected with West Nile virus, says, \"it will ruin your summer.\" In the time it took him to walk down his driveway in Fort Collins, Colorado, chat briefly with a neighbor and return to his house, Petersen got infected with a potentially serious mosquito-borne illness called West Nile virus. Within hours of being bitten, he said, he began to feel symptoms he recognized. And how was he sure so quickly? Petersen, as director of the division of vector borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is one of the foremost experts in the world on the condition. A blood test confirmed his suspicion. \"From my own experience, I can tell you it's not a very mild illness,\" Petersen cautioned. \"It will ruin your summer.\" Experts are expecting another epidemic of the disease this summer. The incidence of West Nile virus has remained the same for the past four years, and Petersen says he doesn't expect this year to be any different. It should reach its peak between mid-July and mid-September. Health Minute: More on West Nile virus risk \u00bb . \"People tend to discount this as a significant problem,\" Petersen said, \"but more than 1.5 million people have been infected so far in the United States, and about 300,000 have had West Nile fever.\" West Nile virus emerged in the U.S. nine years ago. The virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes contract the illness by feeding on infected birds. The CDC reported that in rare cases, West Nile virus has spread through blood transfusions, organ transplants and breastfeeding. The disease is not spread through casual contact. The symptoms range from mild to severe and typically develop between three and 14 days after a person is bitten. Explainer: West Nile 101 \u00bb . Debbie Koma, a 50-year old hairdresser from Atlanta, Georgia, developed West Nile virus two years ago. She described it as \"unlike anything that I ever had before. I was sick as a dog.\" She recalled being hospitalized for three days with a high fever, a horrible headache and body aches. After 14 days, she was strong enough to get out of bed, but she says her strength didn't fully return for three months. Petersen had a similar experience when he was stricken five years ago. \"I discovered I had West Nile virus because I am a long-distance runner,\" he said. \"About halfway through one of my runs, I felt terrible. Within a couple of hours, I was lying in bed with severe headaches, eye pain, muscle pain and fever, which lasted about a week. I basically couldn't get out of bed for a week.\" It wasn't just Petersen who became sick, but his daughter and the neighbor were complaining of West Nile virus symptoms hours after being swarmed by mosquitoes at the mailbox. A medical doctor, Petersen actually tested his own blood in the laboratory and diagnosed his own illness. Like Koma, he was sick for a couple of months. His chief symptom: severe fatigue. \"I could barely walk up the stairs,\" he said. \"This is not a mild illness, and people should try to avoid it.\" Petersen mentioned that some patients with West Nile virus can develop a severe neurological disease that can be fatal. There is no effective treatment for the virus. In more serious cases, the CDC recommends that patients be hospitalized so they can receive supportive care with intravenous fluids. Researchers are working to develop a vaccine, but Petersen notes that it will be years before it is available to humans. The best way to stop the spread of West Nile virus is through prevention, he said. \"Wear mosquito repellent, especially around dawn and dusk, which are peak mosquito biting times,\" Petersen suggests. He says bug sprays that contain concentrations of the chemical DEET up to 50 percent work the best. Be sure to read the label or check with a doctor regarding the acceptable concentrations for children. Spraying repellent that contains permethrin on clothing is another option. Experts caution not to put the chemical directly on exposed skin. Petersen added that a natural product such as oil of lemon eucalyptus CQ may also be effective. The CDC says vitamin B and ultrasonic devices do not work in preventing mosquito bites. Another way to reduce the risk of getting bitten by a mosquito is to get rid of standing bodies of water around the house, Petersen said. \"The mosquitoes that spread West Nile virus often breed around people's homes in small containers like flower pots, rain barrels and bird baths,\" he explained. Even by taking precautions, Petersen concluded, the disease won't be eradicated in the U.S. anytime soon. \"I think West Nile virus is here to stay, and I can't tell you how many cases will occur this summer, but there will be epidemics.\"","highlights":"More than 1.5 million people have been infected in the U.S.\nSymptoms typically develop between three and 14 days after being bitten .\nHigh fever, headaches, body aches and severe fatigue are a few symptoms .\nBest way to stop the spread of West Nile virus is through prevention .","id":"64c98bf8f315a4174974045589af95ab79f3470f"} -{"article":"LOGANVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- The crowd cheered as Morgan Lawless faced her first pitch of the fall baseball season. Morgan Lawless, who has cerebral palsy, plays baseball at Bay Creek Park near Atlanta, Georgia. The 14-year-old middle-school student clenched her teeth as she swung the bat into a single. Instead of running to first base, Lawless zoomed over in her motorized wheelchair. Lawless has cerebral palsy. She's among nearly 300 children who play in a special-needs baseball league at Bay Creek Park in the Atlanta, Georgia, suburb of Loganville. \"It's actually fun because we get to be kids and we can play like regular people,\" Lawless said. What's different about this ballpark is that the field is made of a rubberized material that allows for easier movement in wheelchairs. \"We started out on a dirt field,\" said league founder Cathy Smith. \"But power wheelchairs and dirt don't mix.\" Smith helped raise some of the half-million dollars in private and county funding needed to build the field in 2004. She said she gets goosebumps whenever she watches the young players come across home plate. \"The grin and smile on their faces just says it all.\" Coach Tom Estes joined the program eight years ago with his now-15-year-old son, Justin, who has cerebral palsy. Estes noted that some of the players, like his son, use a wheelchair, but others with autism, Down syndrome and multiple sclerosis are ambulatory. Health Minute: Watch more on special needs baseball \u00bb . During a game, the children are paired with young helpers from another local baseball league. No special skills are required to participate, Estes said. \"If we have to help them hit, help them run, help them catch, we are simply here to let them play baseball.\" The coaches have taken extra precautions to make sure no one gets hurt. The players wear batting helmets, and a coach feeds large, softball-sized rubber balls into a pitching machine to control the direction. There are no umpires, and no one really keeps score. \"We have a lot of tie ball games,\" Estes chuckled. The games are short, just two innings, but everyone gets to play. \"It's not about competition as much as it is about the ability to just do what other kids do,\" said Mike Lawless, Morgan's father. He said his daughter looks forward to the games all week. So does Estes' son. \"Until you get involved, you don't realize the closed life they live,\" Tom Estes said. Being part of the team gives the players a sense of independence and self control and gets them outside in the fresh air, he said. \"They're out here doing the same thing as the other kids. They really don't do that on a normal basis.\" The weekly games also give the kids something to brag about in school on Monday morning, Estes said. \"They hear everyone else talking about it...and my son can say, 'Yeah, I hit a home run yesterday, too. It was great.' \" Justin Estes seemed to take all the attention in stride. And what does he think is the best part about playing baseball? Pointing past his wheelchair to the smooth surface of the field, he said simply, \"No ruts.\"","highlights":"Special-needs baseball league near Atlanta has nearly 300 children .\nSome players use a wheelchair, but others are ambulatory .\nField is made of a rubberized material that allows wheelchairs to move more easily .\nThere are no umpires, and no one really keeps score .","id":"c274e151dcc5025854539614b2c6e331a29d3d0b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama has ordered a review of security screening processes after Friday's botched terror attack on a U.S. airliner, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday. Appearing on the ABC program \"This Week\" and the NBC program \"Meet the Press,\" Gibbs said Obama is receiving regular briefings by his national security staff on the incident in which a suspect allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, making its final approach to Detroit, Michigan. The suspect, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was on a broad watch list of 550,000 names since last month, Gibbs said. That list does not automatically bring tighter screening of individuals, Gibbs said, and Obama has ordered a review of the procedures for determining which people on the list undergo more stringent checking. Obama also called for \"a review to ... figure out why an individual with the chemical explosive he had on him could get on a plane in Amsterdam and fly into the United States,\" Gibbs said on NBC. \"The president is very confident that this government is taking the steps that are necessary to take our fight to those who seek to do us harm,\" Gibbs said on the ABC program. Authorities on Sunday focused their investigation on how a lone traveler smuggled explosives aboard the Northwest Airlines flight and who might have helped him. Abdulmutallab, who had a multiple entry visa to the United States, was charged Saturday in a federal criminal complaint. Q&A: Why did security checks fail to spot explosives . People on the flight described a chaotic scene that began with a popping sound followed by flames erupting at Abdulmutallab's seat. Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch passenger on the flight from Amsterdam, leaped across the aisle to grab the suspect, who according to authorities suffered burns on his legs. Schuringa told CNN he saw that Abdulmutallab was holding a burning object between his legs. \"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away,\" Schuringa said. He said he heard fire extinguishers as he pulled Abdulmutallab out of his seat and dragged him to the front of the plane. In Nigeria, Abdulmutallab checked no baggage on his trip that originated in Lagos on a KLM flight to Amsterdam, where he changed planes to the Northwest flight, according to Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority. The suspect had a shoulder bag and went through the normal check-in process with his passport and U.S. visa scanned, Demuren said Sunday. The multiple-entry U.S. visa was issued in London, England, in June 2008 with an expiration date of June 2010, Demuren said. Abdulmutallab then passed through a walk-through metal detector and put his shoulder bag through an X-ray screening machine, Demuren said. He also said the suspect underwent secondary screening at the boarding gate for the KLM flight, according to officials of the Dutch airline. The father of the suspect recently contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria with concerns his son was planning something, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday. The father -- identified by a family source as Umaru Abdulmutallab -- contacted the embassy \"a few weeks ago\" saying his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had \"become radicalized,\" the senior administration official, who is familiar with the case, told CNN. A family source told CNN that the elder Abdulmutallab -- who recently retired as chairman of First Bank PLC, one of Nigeria's premier banks -- had contacted the embassy in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, and various other security agencies earlier than the timeline provided by the administration official. The family source said Abdulmutallab went to those agencies about three months ago after receiving a text message from his son. The source, who lives at the family home in Kaduna in northern Nigeria, said the son informed his family in the text message that he was leaving school in Dubai to move to Yemen. He implied that he was leaving \"for the course of Islam.\" The family member said Abdulmutallab \"had no family consent or support,\" adding he \"absconded to Yemen.\" Abdulmutallab's information about his son was forwarded to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, and Abdulmutallab was added to a general watch list, a senior administration official said. But the official said \"the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list.\" In addition, the official said there was \"no derogatory information that would have prevented him from getting a visa\" back in June 2008. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation into Abdulmutallab said investigators are still trying to trace his past travels. \"Investigators are looking into any al Qaeda connections and whether he had help and training from Yemen,\" the law enforcement official said. A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device on the plane contained PETN, also known as Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, a highly explosive chemical compound. In addition, FBI agents recovered what appear to be remnants of a syringe near Abdulmutallab's seat, believed to have been part of the device. The family source said Abdulmutallab received a college degree at the University College London, where spokesman Dave Weston said a man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was enrolled in the mechanical engineering department between September 2005 and June 2008. When Abdulmutallab returned to Nigeria from London, he told his family he wanted to get a second college degree in Cairo, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, the family source said. The family refused because they were worried that he may have developed ties to some dubious people. He went to Dubai instead, the source said, where he sent a text message saying he had gone to Yemen to start a new life and that it would be difficult for anyone to reach him because he had thrown away his SIM card. Abdulmutallab's father notified the U.S. Embassy with information on his son, saying the family feared he went to Yemen to participate in \"some kind of jihad.\" A federal security bulletin obtained by CNN said Abdulmutallab claimed the explosive device used Friday \"was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.\" Yemeni authorities have yet to receive official information on the terror attempt, according to a Yemeni official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. But, the source said the country's government will take immediate action once the attempted bombing suspect's alleged link to the country is officially identified. Earlier Saturday, the Netherlands' national coordinator for counterterrorism told CNN that Abdulmutallab had gone through \"normal security procedures\" in Amsterdam before boarding the flight and those were \"well-performed.\" The initial impression is that the suspect was acting alone and did not have any formal connections to organized terrorist groups, a U.S. administration official said. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the attempted act of terrorism would be the focus of an oversight hearing next month. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, also said his Senate Commerce Committee would hold a hearing on the incident. In Nigeria, the government said Saturday that it \"received with dismay the news of attempted terrorist attack on a U.S. airline\" and has ordered its security agencies to investigate the incident. Officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Washington have flown to Michigan \"to gain Consular access\" to Abdulmutallab, the embassy said in a statement Saturday. The embassy said it plans to cooperate with U.S. authorities. An official with the Transportation Security Administration told CNN there will be increased security measures taken on international flights to the United States. The official advised travelers to allow for extra time before the flight. There will be no change in the number of carry-on bags allowed. CNN's Elise Labott, Jeanne Meserve, Carol Cratty, Richard Quest and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama calls for review on how chemicals got on plane .\nSuspect had shoulder bag, went through normal check-in process in Nigeria .\nFarouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had his passport and U.S. visa scanned .\nHis bag went through X-ray screening machine, and he was checked at gate .","id":"9afcefd2944149fff4d5b74f5b26a39288b7cd59"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday extended permission for hundreds of pilots to carry firearms -- just hours before their certification to carry the weapons was to expire, according to an organization which represents the pilots. \"A few hundred\" Federal Flight Deck Officers -- or FFDOs -- were to lose their certification to carry firearms effective midnight on New Year's Eve, said Mike Karn, executive vice president of the Federal Flight Deck Officer Association. The loss would have come at a time of heightened concern about air security because of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day. But Karn said the DHS's Federal Air Marshal program notified him Thursday afternoon that the pilots' certification would be extended. A Transportation Security Administration official confirmed that certifications had been extended for six months \"in light of recent events.\" The official said that \"due to an internal miscommunication, scheduled notifications to these officers were prematurely issued,\" but he offered no further explanation. FFDOs are commercial pilots who volunteer to undergo training so they can carry weapons to protect their aircraft. They undergo initial training at federal law enforcement training academies and must re-qualify with firearms every six months, and undergo a two-day recurrent training every three to five years. \"I'm grateful [for the extension] because that will keep the most cost-effective last line of defense [of aircraft] in place,\" Karn said. \"But I'm still concerned that such a limited budget has been approved for this program, and volunteers who want to protect the American public will be turned away.\" Karn said the budget for the program has not increased since 2003, effectively capping the number of armed pilots. The exact number of FFDOs is classified, but government officials have said in the past the number greatly exceeds the number of federal air marshals -- plain-clothed officers who fly in the cabin of the plane to protect aircraft. Several FFDOs contacted by CNN said DHS has made getting recurrent training onerous for pilots, limiting the number and sizes of classes. Pilots also must pay for their own hotels and food during training -- \"our own time and our own dime,\" said one pilot -- placing a further burden on them. Had the loss of certification occurred, it would not have affected the pilots' flight clearance, only their ability to carry weapons.","highlights":"Federal Flight Deck Officers were to lose certification effective midnight tonight .\nCertifications have been extended for six months \"in light of recent events,\" official says .\nOfficials have said there are more FFDOs than federal air marshals, number is classified .\nPilot organization concerned that limited budget will deter pilots from volunteering .","id":"ffcc2bca117221d3d8d277fe0181f97e46401832"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the second such incident in three days, fighter jets escorted a diverted commercial flight on Friday after an unruly passenger caused alarm onboard. The military sent up two F-16s in response to reports of an unruly passenger aboard AirTran Flight 39, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement. The passenger had become belligerent and refused to leave the restroom, airline spokesman Tad Hutcheson told CNN on Friday. The passenger appeared to be intoxicated, he said. The flight, bound for San Francisco, California, left Atlanta, Georgia, at 9:48 a.m. ET, according to AirTran's Web site. NORAD dispatched the fighters at 1:44 p.m. ET, escorting the aircraft to a safe emergency landing in Colorado Springs, Colorado, officials said. The passenger was detained there and FBI agents from Denver, Colorado, were called to question passengers, Hutcheson said. The other passengers were scheduled to continue their trip at 4:30 p.m. ET, he said. On Wednesday, NORAD escorted a Hawaii-bound plane back to its origination city of Portland, Oregon, after a passenger gave a flight attendant a note that was interpreted as being threatening, the federal complaint and supporting affidavit said Friday. The passenger, Joseph Hedlund Johnson, 56, told the FBI he hadn't intended to scare anyone with the note, which began, \"I thought I was going to die,\" and referenced the television show \"Gilligan's Island.\"","highlights":"NORAD: Two F-16s dispatched Friday on reports of unruly passenger aboard AirTran flight .\nPassenger was belligerent, wouldn't leave bathroom, airline spokesman says .\nAtlanta-to-San Francisco flight was diverted to Colorado Springs, Colorado .\nFighters escorted jet bound for Hawaii back to Oregon on Wednesday in similar scenario .","id":"55bc20945f0452219d8a4500581d0a632c187f71"} -{"article":"ALPHARETTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Soft music filled the room as waiters served white wine and hors d'oeuvres. Two dozen well-dressed women chatted in small groups. Mary Johnson, 56, who lost most of her lashes during chemotherapy, was excited to give Latisse a try. But, this was no ordinary cocktail party. The setting was the lobby of the OH2 Medical Spa in Alpharetta, Georgia. The women were on hand to take part in a new beauty treatment hitting the United States: the promise of better looking eyelashes through a prescription drug called Latisse. \"It's the latest, the greatest,\" exclaimed the party hostess, Christine Glavine, wife of Major League Baseball pitcher Tom Glavine. She invited a group of friends to meet with local plastic surgeon Dr. Randy Rudderman to get a dose of the new FDA-approved medication. Glavine didn't have to do much convincing. Tammie Wilson, 43, of Roswell, Georgia, said she was motivated to try the product because \"I want to be able to look like I have on makeup when I don't.\" Watch more on the marketing of Latisse \u00bb . \"I have blond hair and blond lashes. I have to put on three coats of mascara,\" complained her friend Jennifer Altmeyer, also 43 and from Roswell. Altmeyer, who is hoping to be able to skip mascara altogether, was the first to line up at Rudderman's exam room. The drug is available only through a doctor; it is approved to treat hair loss on the lash line. The product maker, Allergan, says Latisse will thicken, darken and lengthen inadequate or skimpy eyelashes in as little as eight weeks. But, here's the catch: Doctors report it takes up to 16 weeks to see maximum eyelash growth. If you discontinue Latisse, your lashes will go back to their original state in a few months. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for better living . Oh, and by the way, the drug isn't cheap. It costs about $120 for a 30-day supply. Latisse was discovered almost by accident, Rudderman said. The product contains a compound that is also found in medication that decreases eye pressure in glaucoma patients. \"A significant number of those patients started having a side effect of increased growth of eyelashes,\" said Rudderman. Women like Altmeyer are clamoring to give Latisse a try. Rudderman's assistant first removed Altmeyer's eye makeup and then applied a drop of Latisse to a small applicator. The wand was then swiped across her top lashes. Rudderman advised Altmeyer to apply the drug once a day before she goes to bed and not to apply Latisse to lower lashes because they come in contact with the medicine on the top lashes during blinks. Rudderman said Latisse comes with several warnings: It is approved only for those over 18 and is not recommended for pregnant women, people with pre-existing eye conditions or those with allergies to the ingredients. Rudderman said some of the most common side effects are itchy and red eyes and hyper-pigmentation, or darkening along the eyelash base. Dr. Pradeep Sinha, a plastic surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia, started working with the glaucoma version of the medication two years ago on an off-label -- or trial -- basis, before it was approved specifically for eyelash thickening. While he said his patients were happy with the results, Sinha noted another unpleasant side effect if the user is not careful while wielding the applicator. \"One patient was messy and grew small, fuzzy hair on her eyelid,\" Sinha said. He instructed the woman to stop using the product, and the unwanted hair eventually fell out. Some women, like Mary Johnson, a 56-year-old breast cancer survivor, are willing to take their chances. After undergoing chemotherapy last year she lost a lot of eyelashes. \"That was really devastating for me,\" she said. She said she could put a wig on her head, but for the rest of her face she had to \"fake it\" by drawing in a lash line and eyebrows with cosmetics. Johnson tried some over-the-counter lash products, but she said none of them worked. She was smiling as she received her first dose of Latisse from Rudderman. \"Until you have lost your eyelashes, you don't really realize how hard it is to put eye makeup on,\" she said. \"When you lose your eyelashes you just don't look the same.\"","highlights":"Newly FDA-approved Latisse promises to thicken, darken and lengthen lashes .\nLatisse contains compound also found in glaucoma medicine .\nPatients using that medicine had increased eyelash growth .\nDrawbacks include dry and red eyes, darkening around lash line and high price .","id":"4db83bed0820c33ab7bd0bd8cddec247aeb5f20f"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Sada Jacobson may be a world champion fencer with three Olympic medals, but dressed in a T-shirt and sweats, she looked like any other student getting a lesson at the gym. Olympic medalist Sada Jacobson says \"a little hard work, a little luck and some guidance\" makes a champion. She grabbed her saber, pulled down her mask and started sparing with her long-time coach, Arkady Burdan, at the Nellya Fencers facility in Atlanta, Georgia. \"I've been doing this for 10 years,\" remarked Jacobson, 25, a first-year law student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. \"I never anticipated that this is where my life would take me, and it has been an amazing trip.\" This year alone, that trip has taken her to competitions around the world from Algiers, Algeria, to Havana, Cuba, and eventually to Beijing, China, where she claimed two Olympic medals. Watch Sada Jacobson on the move \u00bb . About a dozen young fencers gathered around her during a break from their own lessons to take a close look at Jacobson's silver and bronze medallions. She passed around another bronze medal that she earned at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Jacobson isn't one to brag, but she's happy to serve as a role model for the next generation of competitive fencers. She said all it takes to be a champion is \"a little hard work, a little luck and some guidance.\" Jacobson was inspired to pursue fencing by her own father. David Jacobson was a member of the 1974 U.S. National Fencing team. Her mother and two younger sisters also participate in the sport. She blushed when her father stepped into the group of children admiring her medals and reminded them that Sada \"started out just like you guys.\" Sada Jacobson played down her abilities. \"The beauty of this sport is that anyone can do it,\" she said. \"It's such a mental game that you can use any kind of physical attribute to your advantage.\" There are three types of fencing: epee, foil and sabre. Jacobson specializes in sabre. \"Sabre is analogous to a sprint,\" she explained. \"It's very fast, very powerful. It's over very quickly, and you have to put a ton of energy into changing your momentum.\" While preparing for the Olympics, Jacobson spent countless hours cross training and working on agility exercises. Unlike other sports, Jacobson called fencing an asymmetrical workout. \"You are constantly in an unnatural body position,\" she said. \"It's very lower-body specific, so you need really strong legs, but you also need to be very quick and light on your feet,\" she noted. The physical preparation was only part of her focus. She also studied countless videotapes of her opponents in competition in an effort to mentally outsmart them. Burdan, her coach, described the sport as a form of \"physical chess.\" He said that Jacobson has outstanding technical skills but that she's also one of the best fencers in the world because she uses her brain to strategize during a match. That's helped her during the past five years as she captured medals in more than two dozen World Championship, World Cup and Grand Prix competitions. She arrived at the Beijing Olympics ranked No. 1 in the world. When she returned to Atlanta after the Olympics, the entire team from the Nellya club was there to greet her at the airport. Seeing that kind of hometown support \"was a truly amazing feeling,\" she said. One of her admirers is Matthew Tennant, 12, a budding fencer. He knows that it is going to take a lot of hard work and practice to match Jacobson's accomplishments. \"It's kind of cool that she's been in the Olympics,\" he said. \"You know, it's not every day you get to meet a famous person.\" Jacobson may be famous but not enough to forget where she got her start or to know when it's time to hang up her saber. \"I'm retiring,\" she announced. \"My coach thinks I'm going to make a comeback, but I'm committed to doing some other stuff.\" The other \"stuff\" includes plans to get married next year and finishing law school. \"I enjoy coming back and seeing everyone and fencing for fun,\" she said. \"But I think this is it for me.\"","highlights":"Sada Jacobson, world champion fencer, is happy to serve as a role model for kids .\nJacobson: Fencing is an asymmetrical workout, with body in unnatural position .\nFencing is \"physical chess\" where brain must strategize during a match .","id":"5868949dddaee2a1a774f970071a8ed5528bc634"} -{"article":"KENNESAW, Georgia (CNN) -- Singing \"Frosty the Snowman\" and \"Jingle Bells\" may not seem like a big deal to most third-graders, but for Joey Finley, 8, doctors say it's a miracle. Joey Finley, 8, suffers from a rare condition that can prevent people from speaking normally. The blond, freckle-faced boy was unable to speak in a normal voice until about a year ago. \"I thought I would sound bad,\" he said. Joey suffers from a rare virus that can get into the cells of the voice box. \"He has a condition called recurrent papillomatosis,\" explained Dr. Steven Sobol, director of pediatric otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. \"It causes growths like warts that you would see in other parts of the body.\" Watch and hear Joey sing \u00bb . Sobol said lesions in RRP (for the condition's full name, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis) are caused by the human papilloma virus, or HPV, the same condition that causes cervical cancer. An estimated 20,000 children and adults in the United States suffer from the disease. Not only can RRP rob patients of their ability to speak normally, it can create serious breathing problems if left untreated. \"It can be rapidly fatal for somebody who completely blocks off their airway,\" Sobol said. \"Try to imagine breathing through a coffee stirrer. That's what those children breathe like when they first come to our attention,\" Sobol described. Experts aren't sure exactly why some people contract the virus, but Sobol believes that \"it's a combination of genetic factors and exposure either in utero or during early childhood.\" Joey's symptoms surfaced during infancy. His mother, Melanie Finley, recalled that when Joey was a year old, he would strain his neck muscles every time he tried to talk. She took the child to several doctors before they finally met with Sobol, who diagnosed the condition. Finley was relieved to get some answers, but Joey's medical journey was just beginning. Sobol reported that from the age of 4, Joey endured 16 surgeries to remove the growths from his vocal cords. \"When I first met Joey ... he couldn't breathe,\" Sobol recalled. Treating the boy took time, the doctor explained. \"Even though you remove the parts of the virus that you can visually see ... the virus will tend to regenerate the growths, so over time ... days or months, it will cause the growths to reoccur and obstruct the airways.\" RRP is not passed through casual contact, and there is no cure. Sobol is hopeful that one day, a vaccine may be used to help prevent the development of the disease. He said Gardasil, a series of three shots offered to adolescent girls for the prevention of cervical cancer, may be one of the drugs used to stop the spread of RRP. Ear, nose and throat specialists end up spending a lot of time with their patients with this condition, Sobol said. \"I tell my parents once we diagnose a child, 'We're going to get to know each other really, really well. Coming to see me is like going to the dentist.' \" But there's an obvious difference between removing laryngeal warts and cleaning teeth. \"Certain children have a very tough time with this,\" Sobol acknowledged. \"They're in the operating room every two weeks to save their life. ... Then, there are children like Joey who have the disease when they're very young and grow out of it by the time they are older adolescents or teenagers.\" Though he's required fewer operations during the last couple of years, the surgeries altered Joey's voice. He used to joke with his doctors that he had \"frogs\" in his throat. Between all the procedures that caused him to miss school and his shyness about his voice, Joey was reluctant to socialize. His mother said he was teased by his preschool classmates. \"There is nothing worse than being different,\" she stated. Joey's outlook started changing shortly after he was assigned to work with Edie Hapner, a speech language pathologist at Emory University School of Medicine. \"When Joey came in, he was using compensatory muscles to make his voice,\" Hapner said. \"He had had so many surgeries on his vocal cords, he didn't even know how to use them anymore.\" It took a little over a year, but Hapner is credited in part with giving Joey his voice back. She taught him how to imitate funny sounds. \"Things like lip trills and tongue trills,\" Hapner said. \"Silly little motorboat and car noises that physiologically and comfortably help people get their voice.\" Hapner said it didn't take long in their few first sessions together before Joey was able to make normal sounds. \"I heard a sweet little high-pitched voice, not that 80-year-old man voice in a 5-year-old body,\" she said. Melanie Finley remembered: \"I bawled when I heard his real voice.\" Hapner called Joey's recovery a miracle. \"To see someone like Joey, who every day is getting in trouble for talking or singing and is now participating in after-school activities that he would not do before because of his voice, it's incredible.\" And what's it like to sing Christmas songs with classmates? \"I usually was afraid to sing, and now I'm not,\" Joey said. \"You actually get to have fun and use your voice.\"","highlights":"8-year-old left unable to speak normally by a rare virus in his voice box .\nLesions in a condition called recurrent papillomatosis are caused by HPV .\nAn estimated 20,000 children and adults in the U.S. suffer from the disease .\nThe condition can create serious breathing problems if left untreated.","id":"4a265bb18f6ae79101ed22d04c1de01424f340ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Amanda Wagner and Jessica Tuttle turn 50 this year, but they're not letting age hold them back from their favorite exercise: running. They've been lacing up their running shoes since their teens and show few signs of slowing down. Research on older runners suggests they may not have to. Jessica Tuttle, 50, left, and Amanda Wagner, 49, have been running for more than 30 years. \"It's a little bit harder, but that's part of the challenge I think,\" says Wagner. When she isn't traveling for her job at a pharmaceutical company, Wagner tries to get together with Tuttle for 45-minute pre-work runs three to five days a week. Tuttle, who is a medical epidemiologist at the Georgia Health Department, feels that running gets her day off to a good start. \"It really wakes me up in the morning,\" says Tuttle. \"It gives me an edge when I go in to work.\" Conventional wisdom holds that the pounding from years of running leads to excessive wear and tear on the body as we age, resulting in joint injuries, knee replacements or arthritis. So-called weekend warriors -- people who aren't in the type of shape needed to safely run sprints, dive for passes or make cuts on the basketball court -- add to this misconception when they hobble into their doctors' office after an injury. But a study out of Stanford University that looked at healthy aging runners found that running did not damage joints or leave runners less able to exercise. Researchers discovered that if you're healthy and generally free of injury, there are few reasons to put away your running shoes, even into your 70s and 80s. Watch more on running as you age \u00bb . \"Moderate [running], three to five miles at a time, three times a week will actually help your joints to be more resilient and function a little bit better,\" says Dr. Amadeus Mason at Emory Sports Medicine Center in Atlanta, Georgia. But he stresses that keeping the joints healthy in the first place may be the key to running longevity. That includes not running through pain, and resting if you have an injury, something Tuttle takes seriously. \"I try to rest maybe if I'm having some specific pain that seems to be over a couple of days,\" she says. Mason also warns against running if you suffer from a chronic knee injury. In this case, the continuous pounding could accelerate damage and lead to arthritis. Instead, choose joint-friendly exercises such as swimming, walking or a workout machine such as the elliptical. Even if you have remained healthy, as Wagner and Tuttle have, don't get overzealous and overdo it. \"The biggest risk that runners will face as they age, with regard to injury, is overtraining, by far,\" says Mason, who recommends giving yourself a day of rest between runs, or cross-training on the non-running days. In addition, Mason advises wearing the proper footwear and making sure to stretch before and after a run. Beyond the good news about aging joints, the Stanford researchers also discovered some surprising overall health benefits for senior runners when they compared them with non-runners of the same age: Those in the running group were less likely to die from heart trouble, stroke, cancer, neurological diseases or infection. Watch Dr. Gupta explain the study findings \u00bb . \"The survival rate of the runners was again twice that of the controls,\" study author Dr. Eliza Chakravarty says. She says the findings were a surprise to the researchers. Additionally, runners enjoyed a better day-to-day quality of life in old age than their more sedentary peers. \"Members of the running group, it took them 16 years longer to reach certain levels of disability,\" says Chakravarty. \"Running is not the only thing that's going to make you live longer and be healthier; it's actually probably engaging in any kind of exercise that people enjoy,\" notes Chakravarty. \"It's never too late to start incorporating regular exercise into your routine ... health benefits can last for decades.\" But running is still the exercise of choice for Wagner and Tuttle, who have remained relatively injury-free throughout their 30-year running careers. The women don't plan to hang up their running shoes any time soon. \"I really can't imagine not running; it's that much a part of my life,\" says Wagner. \"And I do expect and hope to be running when I'm 60 and when I'm 70 -- I truly do.\"","highlights":"Stanford University study finds that running did not damage joints in aging runners .\nRunners still need to take precautions: Don't run with injuries, wear proper shoes .\nAging runners less likely to die from certain ailments, study says .","id":"16a3d34d25b082a66aa649859463e2d4830aa932"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An enormous Asian elephant stepped out from behind a big red curtain at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Atlanta, Georgia. Eli Hummer, 3, gets to try out an oversized motorbike at the circus. An audience of 20 pre-schoolers clapped and squealed as the elephant was handed a tiny harmonica and started playing. But, instead of sitting far away in the stands, the children, all visually impaired, were just a few feet away from the action. Among them was 3-year-old Eli Hummer. \"He doesn't see, so to learn about it, he has to touch it and be close to it,\" explained his mother, Martha Hummer. She said being able to use the sense of smell, touch and sound helps her son understand the concept of a circus. Every year as it tours the country, Ringling Brothers sponsors a \"Blind-Touch Tour\" in about a dozen cities. During a stop in Atlanta, Georgia, children from the Center for the Visually Impaired got more than a front row seat. After the show, they were invited into the circus ring to interact with performers and try out some of their props. Watch more on the \"Blind-Touch\" tour \u00bb . Eight stations were set up where children could touch and try on circus costumes, play with giant umbrellas and butterfly wings and sit on an oversized motorcycle. Clowns roamed the ring juggling and trying to make the children laugh. One clown dressed in a polka dot shirt and checkered pants took Eli's little hand and asked the boy if he wanted to touch the red clown nose. Watch some of the sights and sounds of the circus \u00bb . Eli responded by trying to pull off the ball-like prop. His teacher, Joyce Burnett, who is also visually impaired, spent two weeks before the circus visit preparing the kids in the classroom for the unique experience. \"We had clown shoes, a nose and a wig and we tried all of those on,\" Burnett said. She said the students also listened to elephant sounds and drew the outline of the animals with chalk. \"Eighty to 90 percent of early learning comes through vision,\" Burnett said. \"Our children are not using vision or (have) very little vision, so all of the other senses will make their world real.\" Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection for better living . Michelle Singleton, mother of 4-year-old Miya, said the experience is something the kids can't get anywhere else. \"The fact that she's on the floor now, she is really excited. She wanted to see the elephants so she's happy now,\" Singleton said. Four-year-old Kristina Masta was fascinated with a trapeze swing that was hanging low to the ground. One of the performers helped the girl climb on while her mother, Michelle Masta, stood nearby. \"Because of her visual impairment anything that is highly tactile and brightly colored helps out a lot,\" Masta said. Her daughter weighed 1 pound, 1 ounce at birth and suffers from retinopathy of prematurity, a disease in which the small blood vessels in the back of the eye grow abnormally. Masta said other people may not realize the limitations and challenges of having a visually impaired child. \"Everything is ten times harder,\" she said. Masta smiled as her daughter handed her a rainbow-colored lollypop to unwrap. \"The kids feel special because they get to actually do something that the other kids don't do, and it is a real treat,\" Masta said.","highlights":"Ringling Brothers' \"Blind-Touch Tour\" gives visually impaired kids circus experience .\nChildren get close-up performance, chance to try out costumes and equipment .\nParents say it helps the kids understand and enjoy the circus .","id":"4e7dc6bdb460ff8b7c0b309fda7f58dcc2c8c01a"} -{"article":"SMYRNA, Georgia (CNN) -- A week before the start of the new school year, principal Denise Magee roamed the hallways of Campbell Middle School in Smyrna, Georgia, preparing for battle. Middle-school principal Denise Magee says a best-case scenario would be a school year without bullying. The adversary? Preteen and teenage bullies. Toting anti-bullying posters and masking tape, Magee was determined to let students see from Day One that she had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to that kind of harassment. \"Middle-school kids are just cruel to each other,\" Magee said. \"They speak their minds, so you see bullying in the form of teasing, taunting, social isolation and name calling.\" The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 30 percent of all children in grades six through 10 have been bullied or have bullied other children during a school year. Clinical psychologist Mark Crawford of Roswell, Georgia, called the statistics unacceptable. \"Bullying is not a rite of passage,\" he said. \"It always has a bad outcome.\" Crawford said several times a month he hears complaints from young patients who are victims of bullies. And he worried about the consequences. \"Kids who are bullied are at greater risk of physical symptoms, physical complaints, emotional problems and academic underachievement.\" Parenting expert Stacey DeBroff, author of \"The Mom Book,\" cautioned that bullying often occurs in places that aren't monitored by adults, such as a walking route to and from school, a corner of a playground and the Internet. She warned mothers and fathers to be on the lookout for signs a child is being bullied. \"When you see signs of being anxious, sad and withdrawn, of having a kid move off their typical personality, it alerts you that something is going on.\" Crawford noted that some of those symptoms can be attributed to typical adolescent behavior, but he added, \"When you see a real change in a child's personality or their normal routine, it's a bad sign.\" Health Minute: Watch more on defeating bullies \u00bb . He also conceded that some children won't open up to their parents about bullying. \"One of the reasons kids don't tell their parents they are being bullied is the fear that their parents will run in and do something about it and they think that will make it worse.\" DeBroff agreed that it is tempting for some parents to rush in to solve the problem by calling the bully's parents. \"You often know them, your kids have been in school together, you feel like calling them up...so they're on the defensive and really it's never a point of resolution.\" Crawford said that it's important to do your homework before attempting to resolve the situation. He encouraged parents to talk with their child first and get them to open up about what's happening. \"You need to find out when it is happening, where it is happening and exactly what is going on,\" he said. When elementary age children are involved, Crawford recommended parents intervene more quickly. \"Younger kids have a limited arsenal from which to draw,\" he said. \"They don't necessarily know how to be more assertive.\" Middle-school students may want to have some control over the situation, according to Crawford. In that case, he said it might be a good idea to go over possible scenarios and options that will help them put a stop to the bullying. DeBroff said it is important to ask for help from a teacher or school administrator. \"They want to know about it because it ripples into the classrooms and places that aren't visible to them.\" Magee, the middle-school principal, agreed. \"I do not want parents to leave us out of the scenario,\" she said. \"I want them to immediately contact us.\" But be judicious, she urged. Some parents can inflame the situation. \"You will encounter situations where parents will tell their kids, 'If you are hit, I want you to hit back.' \" Experts point out it is important for parents to keep emotions in check and to not encourage a child to hit back or retaliate. Instead, DeBroff suggested parents become strategic advisers to their child and help them avoid bullying situations. In a couple of weeks, after her students get settled, Magee plans to hold grade-level meetings about her school's anti-bullying policy. In the meantime, she remained optimistic and hoped this school year will be different. \"The best-case scenario as local school principal? We are bullyproof, fully free of any bully incidents, that we are truly here with academic focus, no fighting, no teasing, no name calling, none of that. We're here to learn.\"","highlights":"HHS estimate: 30 percent of all kids grades 6-10 are bullied or have bullied annually .\nBullying usually occurs in places not monitored by adults .\nSymptoms: personality changes, especially anxiety, sadness, withdrawal .\nExpert: Calling the bully's parents \"never a point of resolution\"","id":"4a9f648053a9b94ce00082a550d44604ddda15ad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A conservative billionaire businessman and a former center-left president will face off in a runoff election in Chile's presidential race, based on official early results released Sunday. With more than 98 percent of polling stations counted, billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera led ex-president Eduardo Frei with 44 percent of the vote to Frei's 30 percent, Chile's interior ministry reported. \"This is a victory for all the Chileans who want change,\" Pinera said Sunday night. Frei began campaigning for the second-round immediately, asking in a speech for the supporters of the two other candidates who had their presidential ambitions dashed to join his cause. Frei said if he is elected, women and young people will have an important role in his government. He explicitly asked for those who voted for Marco Enriquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate, who were eliminated in Sunday's ballot, to vote for him in the runoff. In a concession speech, Enriquez-Ominami said that he would not endorse either candidate. The winner will follow the footsteps of a very popular president, Michelle Bachelet, who will be leaving office with high approval ratings for steering the country through the global economic downturn, and promoting progressive social reforms. Under Chile's constitutional term limits, a president cannot run for a second consecutive term. Bachelet endorsed Frei, a member of her same left-leaning coalition, but another leftist candidate who ran as an independent -- Enriquez-Ominami -- made an impressive run, pulling in 20 percent of the vote and splitting votes for the ruling party. Those who voted for him, \"have affirmed the desire for Chile to move forward and toward the future,\" he said. If Pinera triumphs in the expected January runoff election, it would mark the first time since the fall of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship that a conservative wins at the polls. In the 19 years since Pinochet's fall, all the presidents have come from the left-leaning coalition. Pinera, 60, is one of the country's wealthiest businessmen who previously served as a senator and president of the National Renovation party. Since completing one term as president, Frei returned to politics as a Christian Democrat senator who has campaigned on continuing Bachelet's policies. While Frei and Pinera were household names before the election, it was the 36-year-old Enriquez-Ominami who made a political name for himself in this presidential election. He worked as a television director before being elected as a congressman for the Socialist party in 2005. The son of a guerrilla leader from the 1970s, Enriquez-Ominami forged his own political path, breaking from the leftist coalition and running on his own. A fourth candidate, Arrate of the Communist Party, garnered 6 percent of Sunday's vote, according to the early vote figures.","highlights":"NEW: Sebastian Pinera, Eduardo Frei will face off in a runoff in Chile's presidential election .\nNEW: With over 98 percent of polling stations counted, Pinera held 44 % of vote to Frei's 30% .\nNEW: Enriquez-Ominami got 20 percent of the vote, splitting votes for ruling party .\nCandidate Jorge Arrate of the Communist Party, garnered 6 percent of Sunday's vote .","id":"e05948a66089c5accb9f645885112ca664f0be82"} -{"article":"It was hard to miss the bright yellow Student Driver bumper sticker on the back of the car driven by Tosha Mulligan. Tosha Mullgian, 19, has attention deficit disorder. She says her mind wanders when she drives. Getting a driver's license is a rite of passage for many teenagers, but the process was a bit more challenging for 19-year-old Mulligan of Acworth, Georgia. She has attention deficit disorder. When she gets behind the wheel, she said, \"Sometimes my mind wanders off.\" She's not alone. Researchers reported driving can be a serious problem for teens with ADD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Motor vehicle accidents already are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Experts such as Russell Barkley say ADD and ADHD compound the problem. Barkley, a psychiatry professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, is a widely recognized expert on ADD and driving. He has investigated the topic for 15 years and conducted a half-dozen studies, some of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Teen drivers with ADD or ADHD \"are impulsive, highly distractible and clumsy, can't pay attention to the roadway and they get bored easily,\" he said. Health Minute: More on teens driving with ADD\/ADHD \u00bb . Mulligan's driving instructor, Jerry Thielemann of Freedom and Mobility Driver Training and Evaluation in Marietta, Georgia, experienced that firsthand. He works with teenagers with ADD three to four times a week. \"A person with ADD pays attention to someone walking down the street rather than a car coming toward them,\" Mulligan said. \"They don't know what to focus on.\" Barkley sees speeding as a key problem. \"In general, people with ADHD speed four times more often than those without ADHD,\" he said. His research shows that those with ADD or ADHD are two to three times more likely to have an auto accident, three times more likely in the first five to eight years of driving to have their licenses revoked and five times more likely to get a parking ticket. In all three instances, Barkley pointed to the impatient and impulsive nature that is common among people with ADD or ADHD. Chris Zeigler Dendy, author of \"Teenagers with ADD and ADHD,\" raised a son and a stepson with the condition. \"We were worried sick about our kids when they started driving because both had ADHD,\" Dendy recalled. \"They both started getting speeding tickets and having car wrecks. One of them even had his license suspended.\" That was nearly 20 years ago. Today, Dendy said, she understands what was behind their troubles. \"I think the good news is that parents today are so much better informed than we were, plus laws have tightened up so you get one ticket or step out of line and your license is gone,\" she said. Dendy credited proper medication with helping get her sons back on track. \"Research tells us that with medication they are more likely to pay attention to road signs and less likely to have road rage,\" Dendy explained. She worried about parents who may not be as vigilant when it comes to monitoring their teen's driving behavior, especially during high-risk times. \"One is after school from 3 to 6 and the other is on weekend evenings,\" she said. She mentioned those are often the hours when medication starts to wear off or when teens may be more likely to skip a dosage. Barkley acknowledged the parents who decline to medicate their children who have ADD or ADHD, but he believes \"Medication is more effective than any other treatment.\" Barkley also cautioned that people with ADD are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol and are unable to drive safely after drinking. He told teens to put away their cell phones, MP3 players and other items that might distract them while driving. Barkley suggested parents closely monitor their teenagers and provide sign-in and sign-out sheets in the garage to track their whereabouts. Dendy eventually drew up a contract with her children, spelling out specific rules and expectations for driving the family car. Dendy and Barkley both recommended that teenagers with ADD or ADHD stay in a learner's permit program longer, at least a year, and put off getting their license until they have more experience behind the wheel. That's what Tosha Mulligan did. She finished her last driving lesson the day before she left for her freshman year in college. She passed her driver's test on the first try and got her license. She said waiting to get her license made a big difference. She said \"It kept me focused.\" She reported no wrecks, no tickets and no problems so far.","highlights":"ADD and ADHD compound the problem of teen car accident deaths, experts say .\nDrivers with ADHD have a greater tendency to speed .\nPeople with ADD are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol .\nADD or ADHD teens should stay in a learner's permit program longer, experts say .","id":"712a67c07eab6cece84a77f6cc010d66a876a5e8"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- You wouldn't know it by looking at her, but at any given moment Dana Poole hurts all over. Dana Poole, left, feels aches all over at any given moment from a condition called fibromyalgia. \"It's kind of like a burning, but an ache. It's almost like you have the flu,\" said Poole, 31, a receptionist from Canton, Georgia. Poole is one of almost 6 million Americans who suffer from a chronic condition called fibromyalgia. In addition to widespread pain, patients may complain about fatigue and sleep disturbances, depression, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and heightened sensitivity. \"Dana is typical of a lot of fibromyalgia patients,\" said Dr. Jefrey Lieberman, an Atlanta, Georgia-based rheumatologist. \"She came into my office complaining of a lot of diffuse pain all over her body and fatigue. She really didn't know why she was getting it.\" That's part of the frustration of having fibromyalgia. Experts aren't sure what causes it, but many believe many factors are involved. Some think the condition, which is not progressive or life-threatening, may be triggered by an emotional or traumatic event. Lieberman believed it is related to a disordered sleep pattern and poor exercise. \"It appears to be more of a neuro-chemical process,\" he said. \"In other words, there really is no inflammation in patients with fibromyalgia.\" Health Minute: More on identifying fibromyalgia \u00bb . Getting a proper diagnosis can sometimes be just as frustrating as finding out what's behind the disease. \"Fibromyalgia is to some extent a diagnosis of exclusion,\" Lieberman said. \"There are lot of things it can be confused with such as thyroid disorders, metabolic disorders and certain rheumatologic inflammatory conditions.\" For almost five years, Poole jumped from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what was causing her symptoms. \"They were constantly saying I'm a tall, thin female. 'You're getting older -- your body is going to change,' and it was frustrating.\" Lieberman understood Poole's frustration. \"Sometimes fibromyalgia is used as a wastebasket term if a patient has pain and they don't know what it is from,\" he said. \"It is frequently misdiagnosed. In fact, it is overdiagnosed and it is underdiagnosed.\" Specialists such as Lieberman can make a proper diagnosis based on criteria set by the American College of Rheumatology. \"Those criteria are diffuse pain in three or more quadrants of the body and the presence of what are called tender points in the body,\" Lieberman explained. \"There are 18 total tender points, and by definition we like to see 11 of those tender points being present.\" It's estimated that up to 90 percent of patients are women. Most of them start feeling symptoms in early and middle adulthood. Poole remembered that the pain first started when she was 20. It wasn't until she met Lieberman about five years ago that she got some relief. She took part in a drug study for Cymbalta, one of two medications approved for the management of fibromyalgia. The other drug is called Lyrica. \"Both of them are geared toward the patient's well-being as well as improving their pain,\" Lieberman said. He also encouraged Poole to control her condition through a healthy diet, stress reduction, getting enough sleep and regular low-impact exercise. \"We think that aerobic exercise helps to stimulate endorphins and enkephlins from the body which are your own natural pain relievers,\" Lieberman said. The doctor is quick to point out that even with proper medication and adequate exercise, fibromyalgia has no cure. Although Lieberman said some of his patients report the symptoms tapering off in their mid-50s and -60s, others are faced with years of managing the condition. \"For most of my patients, I tell them that I can get you 50 to 75 percent better and many of those patients will jump at that,\" he said. Poole is one of them, but knowing that she'll need to follow a careful daily regimen can be daunting, she said. \"It wears you out, mentally, physically and emotionally.\"","highlights":"Nearly 6 million Americans suffer from a chronic illness called fibromyalgia .\nSymptoms include fatigue, sleep disturbances, depression and headaches .\nExperts aren't sure what causes it; often misdiagnosed .\nIt's estimated that up to 90 percent of patients are women .","id":"729beb914352218eb4a4f51d6492dcc6c57d2dbc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has revealed that he believes seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher will come out of retirement and join the new Mercedes team. The German has been a consultant with Ferrari, for whom he won five of his drivers' crowns, since he ended his career in 2006. He almost got back behind the wheel for the Italian marque this year as a replacement for the injured Felipe Massa, but his comeback was cut short due to the lingering effects of a neck injury suffered in a motorbike accident. However, the 40-year-old is now reportedly ready to return alongside compatriot Nico Rosberg for 2010 with German manufacturer Mercedes, who took a controlling interest in 2009's double world champions Brawn. Di Montezemolo told reporters at Ferrari's Christmas lunch in Fiorano that Schumacher was close to sealing a deal, the UK Press Association reported. \"I hadn't spoken to him since Abu Dhabi but I spoke to him on Wednesday,\" Di Montezemolo said. \"He phoned me and he told me that there is a very, very, very strong possibility [of joining Mercedes]. \"Having said that, it is not 100 percent decided. But that is what he said.\" Schumacher is poised to end a 13-year association with Ferrari if he joins Mercedes. \"The real Schumacher, the one I know, will remain forever part of the Ferrari family,\" Di Montezemolo told Ferrari's official Web site. \"I said it in Monza and I repeated it in Abu Dhabi, but, it seems he has a twin brother, identical in every way, who seems to have it in his head to go and race in Formula One with Mercedes. \"I don't know him personally, but it seems we have nothing to offer him -- we have two young drivers in Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, on whom we are counting to deliver a lot next year. \"I think that, this summer, when I asked him to stand in for Felipe, after the terrible accident in Budapest, he suddenly rediscovered the desire to race and the fact he was unable to follow through with that, left him a void that we are unable to fill. \"I remember how despondent he sounded on the evening of August 9, when he called me to say that the problem with his neck meant he could not race in Valencia. \"We have tried to move forward with the idea of running a third car, but for the moment, that is not possible. I don't know what he will decide for the future, but I extend to him, and indeed his twin brother, my very best wishes.\"","highlights":"Ferrari believe F1 legend Michael Schumacher will come out of retirement .\nPresident Luca di Montezemolo says seven-time world champion will join Mercedes .\nThe 40-year-old was unable to make comeback with Ferrari due to neck injury .\nThe German told Di Montezemolo there is a strong chance he will sign for Mercedes .","id":"9c9b7e1831ea54995442f47080dae9faa8d07c1e"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Investigators are reviewing the flight data recorder from American Airlines Flight 331, the plane that overran a runway this week near Kingston, Jamaica, and crashed into a fence. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said Thursday that the recorder arrived in the agency's Washington laboratory overnight. Crews continue to look for the cockpit voice recorder. The flight originated from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, and landed in Miami, Florida, before heading to Jamaica, the airline said. It had been raining Tuesday when the plane failed to stop and ran into a fence past the end of the runway, Radio Jamaica reporter Kirk Abraham said. Ninety-one people were taken to three area hospitals, where most were evaluated and released, an American Airlines spokesman said. Ten were admitted, he said, and five remain hospitalized Thursday afternoon. The flight was carrying 148 passengers and six crew members when it landed in Kingston, the airline said. CNN's Jim Barnett contributed to this report.","highlights":"American Airlines plane overran runway, crashed into fence near Kingston, Jamaica .\nNational Transportation Safety Board investigators are reviewing flight data recorder .\nFive people remain hospitalized after accident .","id":"bb1240255a526c671a500310b7bda6513f2bc84f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- New Zealand maxi Alfa Romeo took advantage of a break in light weather conditions to steal a march on its rivals in the annual Sydney-Hobart yacht race off the south-east coast of Australia on Sunday. Skipper Neville Crichton's 100-foot vessel has led since leaving Sydney Heads, and moved more than 10 nautical miles ahead at the halfway stage in the evening. Second-placed British entry ICAP Leopard and Australia's four-time line honors winner Wild Oats failed to catch an early breeze, giving Crichton the edge with more patchy weather predicted ahead in the 628 nautical mile event. Leopard skipper Mike Slade told the race's official Web site that Alfa Romeo made a break at around 9 a.m. near Gabo Island after hours of frustratingly light winds. \"We were all just splashing about, there was no breeze whatsoever, and it's always the case that someone will get that little extra puff,\" Slade said. \"Alfa Romeo was in the right place to get it. We didn't get it, Wild Oats XI didn't get it, and Alfa put 10 miles on us both very quickly.\" Wild Oats set the race record of one day, 18 hours and 40 minutes in 2005, but that mark is almost certain to still be standing at the end of the 65th staging of the event, with the winner expected to cross the line on arrival at the island state of Tasmania on Monday night. \"We were unfortunate to get into a hole. We could see Alfa when she got her nose into the new breeze,\" skipper Mark Richards told rolexsydneyhobart.com. \"These things happen. There is always an element of luck, and things went his way. It's one of those frustrating things -- a role reversal of 2005.\" However, with conditions uncertain there is still a chance that 2002 winner Crichton could yet be denied a first victory in a yacht that was launched in 2005 and has 143 line honors triumphs to date. \"The big guys will have some running in Bass Strait, but there are still a lot of potholes between that and the finish,\" yachting forecaster Roger Badham told the Web site. \"Anyone of the three could finish first.\" Noel Cornish's Sydney 47 St Jude is a surprise leader in the handicap standings, while the Sydney 38 Mondo became the fifth entry to retire and leave the fleet reduced to 95. The race, first held in 1945, has been hit by severe weather conditions in recent years. In 1998, six competitors died and several boats were lost during a fierce storm on the first night. Two years ago the fleet was also hit by similar conditions, and eight yachtsman had to abandon a sinking craft.","highlights":"New Zealand maxi Alfa Romeo extends lead in Sydney-Hobart yacht race on Sunday .\nSkipper Neville Crichton takes advantage of a break in light weather conditions in morning .\nSecond-placed ICAP Leopard and Wild Oats XI fail to catch breeze in 628 nautical mile event .\nAustralian record-holder Wild Oats bidding for fifth straight line honors victory .","id":"b8fb696a305206d6f582e51373651a9e3a8b1a15"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Simon Cowell's stranglehold on the British Christmas record charts looks as though it might be coming to an end. The talent show judge's latest protege and winner of British TV talent show \"The X Factor,\" Joe McElderry is currently lagging behind heavy-rock group Rage Against The Machine in the battle for the UK Christmas number-one slot. With just over two days to go before the winner is announced, Rage Against The Machine's re-release of their 1992 song \"Killing in the Name\" is narrowly beating \"The Climb,\" McElderry's cover of a Miley Cyrus hit. The winner of \"The X Factor\" -- which Cowell produces and judges -- has held the top spot over the festive season in the UK for the past four years. The popularity of the talent show -- this year's final was watched by around 20 million viewers -- has meant the race to the number-one slot in recent years has been, in effect, a non-contest because of the publicity the \"X Factor\" winner has enjoyed. But a campaign on the social networking site \"Facebook\" to make the U.S. rock group number-one ahead of \"The X Factor\" winner has received massive support from the British record buying public who have been snapping up \"Killing in the Name\" in their thousands. Whoever ends up on top of the UK charts this Christmas, the Rage\/Cowell battle has enlivened what has become a rather dull and predictable procession to the top of the charts by the winner of the UK talent show. In an appearance on BBC radio station \"5 live\" Thursday, Rage's front man Zach De La Rocha swore several times during a live performance, forcing the BBC to issue an apology to listeners. And on Friday, Sir Paul McCartney, came out in support of the U.S. rock group, despite performing on the final show of \"The X Factor\" this year. Speaking to Sky News McCartney said: \"It would be kind of funny if Rage Against The Machine got it.\" Meanwhile, Simon Cowell has been raging against, well, just about anyone in defense of McElderry telling the UK tabloid newspaper \"The Sun\" that \"musical snobs have ganged up against Joe.\" He also called the Facebook campaign \"a huge hate mob\" -- a claim which the Facebook group have denied. All will be revealed this Sunday when the final UK singles chart before Christmas is announced. Will the talent judge be celebrating his fifth \"Christmas Cowell\" in a row or will he be overcome by Rage? We'll have to wait and see.","highlights":"Rage Against The Machine heading for UK Christmas number-one .\n1992 song \"Killing in the Name\" set to beat Simon Cowell's latest protege .\nPaul McCartney says U.S. rock group chart success \"would be funny\"","id":"5513efe209622bed129b7c6d36f5916b823db100"} -{"article":"Paris, France (CNN) -- Former French President Jacques Chirac has been placed under investigation for allegations stemming from his time as mayor of Paris, his office said Friday. A judge in Nanterre, near Paris, questioned Chirac Friday morning over the employment of seven people who were hired by the city of Paris in the early 1990s. The suspicion is that the employees were working for Chirac's right-wing political party, RPR, which no longer exists, while on the city payroll. Chirac, 77, was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995, the year he became president. The case in Nanterre is similar to but separate from another investigation in Paris, in which Chirac is accused of using 21 city employees to work on his presidential campaign. In a statement released by his office Friday, Chirac pointed out that he had \"already answered all the questions related to this investigation regarding the seven jobs in July 2007 and that no new facts have surfaced since then.\" Chirac could face a five-year sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros ($107,500) if found guilty of using the employees to work for his party. The former president denies the accusations. \"On the investigation itself, President Chirac repeats that no such 'system' has ever existed in the Paris city hall,\" the statement said. \"He is determined to demonstrate this through the procedure which was started by being placed under investigation.\" The former French head of state also said he \"wishes the investigation to progress as quickly as possible to establish once and for all that he is beyond reproach.\" Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe was already sentenced in December 2004 for his role in the affair, but Chirac benefited from presidential immunity at the time. After Chirac left office in May 2007, he made it known he was available to answer any questions on the matter. Current Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe had no comment about the investigation, according to officials with the city of Paris, which lodged the initial complaint against Chirac. The former president remains popular in France. A survey released Thursday, conducted by the opinion research company IFOP for Paris Match magazine, showed that 78 percent of French people have a positive opinion of Chirac -- making him the highest-rated politician since the survey began in November 2003. CNN's Luc Lacroix contributed to this report.","highlights":"Authorities are investigating Jacques Chirac over alleged corruption charges .\nOfficials believe the alleged charges stem from his time as Mayor of Paris .\nChirac could face a five-year prison sentence and a $107,500 fine .\nThe former president denies the allegations .","id":"f26220c86b309f3189abb62fb1f62cdc4a71ab94"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rangers restored their four-point lead over Celtic despite conceding the fastest goal in Scottish Premier League history on Sunday. The Glasgow side went behind after only 12.4 seconds as Hibernian striker Anthony Stokes surpassed the previous mark set by Saulius Mikoliunas for Edinburgh rivals Hearts back in 2006, but bounced back to register a 4-1 away victory. Scotland striker Kenny Miller scored in each half, while goals from fellow frontmen Kris Boyd and Nacho Novo ensured that third-placed Hibs' unbeaten run of 13 league games came to an end. Celtic had closed the gap to one point after beating Hamilton Academicals 2-0 on Saturday. Rangers, meanwhile, expect to have Madjid Bougherra available for Wednesday's home clash with fourth-placed Dundee United, but the Algeria defender will leave for African Nations Cup duty in Angola before next Sunday's Old Firm derby showdown with Celtic. \"That's the way it's looking at the present moment,\" manager Walter Smith said. Smith will also be without United States winger DaMarcus Beasley for the next few weeks after he suffered an injury in training before the Hibs game. \"He has a tear in his thigh. I'm not sure how long that will keep him out -- two or three weeks maybe,\" Smith said. \"It's disappointing in the sense that he is just back in the team and doing exceptionally well, so it was disappointing it happened.\" However, Beasley's international teammate Maurice Edu boosted his chances of playing at next year's World Cup finals in South Africa after making his first appearance this season. The midfielder, who suffered a serious knee injury in the final SPL game of last season, came off the substitutes' bench for the final 15 minutes at Easter Road.","highlights":"Rangers four points clear despite conceding fastest goal in Scottish Premier League history .\nAnthony Stokes puts Hibernian ahead after 12.4 seconds but Rangers still win 4-1 .\nRangers defender Madjid Bougherra will miss derby with Celtic due to African Nations Cup .\nUnited States winger DaMarcus Beasley out with thigh injury but Maurice Edu makes comeback .","id":"7400a06ec0fbd453b3cf925b75dc1469b74991bd"} -{"article":"Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned participants in the climate change conference in Copenhagen that they are \"running out of time\" to reach an agreement on what to do about global warming. Critics say those attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which began December 7, have made little or no headway toward developing a plan. U.S. officials in Copenhagen and at the White House confirmed that talks broke down Wednesday after the Chinese rejected American demands that they commit to transparency regarding their emissions reductions. Without mentioning China by name, Clinton said their continued refusal would be \"kind of a deal breaker for us.\" The uncertainty over whether a deal could be reached before talks end Friday led to speculation that President Barack Obama might not travel to Copenhagen as planned, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters he would leave Thursday evening. \"We all know there are real challenges that remain in the hours left to these negotiations,\" Clinton said. \"And it is no secret that we have lost precious time in these past days. In the time we have left here, it can no longer be about us versus them. \"We all face the same challenge together,\" she added. \"We're running out of time. It's unfortunate that there have been problems with the process, difficulties with certain parties being willing to come to the table, all kinds of discussions and disagreements, sometimes about the past rather than about the future.\" Without mentioning China by name, Clinton said that nation's continued refusal to come to the table would be \"kind of a deal breaker for us.\" Gibbs said the Chinese \"balked\" at the \"strong transparency requirement,\" and he \"hoped they would reconsider.\" \"The president is going to travel in hopes of making progress for a strong operational agreement,\" Gibbs said. \"There are no changes in the president's plans.\" The agreement Obama is hoping for out of Copenhagen would not be a treaty, nor would it be legally binding. Gibbs acknowledged it would be \"a political agreement that would lead to a treaty\" later. The last time the president traveled to Copenhagen -- in October to try to win the 2012 Olympic bid for Chicago -- he came back empty-handed. \"Coming back with an empty agreement would far worse,\" Gibbs said Thursday. Clinton said the United States is concerned about the ability of needy nations to do their part. The United States is willing to work with other countries to raise $100 billion by 2020 to address the climate-change needs of developing nations, she said. She told delegates that the United States already has joined an effort to provide more immediate funding that would reach $10 billion in 2012. \"After a year of diplomacy, we have come to Copenhagen ready to take the steps necessary to achieve a comprehensive and operational new agreement that will provide a foundation for long-term, sustainable economic growth,\" Clinton said. \"We have now reached the critical juncture in these negotiations. I understand that the talks have been difficult. I know that our team, along with many others, are working hard and around the clock to forge a deal,\" she said. \"But the time is at hand for all countries to reach for common ground and take an historic step that we can all be proud of.\" Clinton's announcement was \"enormously encouraging,\" Tim Flannery, an internationally known zoologist, conservationist and explorer, said on CNN's \"Amanpour.\" Clinton proposed several core elements that should be included in any plan: decisive national actions; an operational accord \"that internationalizes those actions\"; technical and other assistance for needy nations that are \"the most vulnerable and least prepared to meet the effects of climate change; and standards of transparency that provide credibility to the entire process.\" \"The world community should accept no less,\" she added. Kandeh Yumkella, director-general of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, said on \"Amanpour\" he is optimistic that leaders can strike a deal before the conference ends. \"Compared to yesterday, what we have now is that the negotiators have hunkered down,\" he said. \"They're actually in drafting committees.\" Flannery agreed. \"If the U.S. can commit to another couple of percent in terms of cuts (in emissions), if the Chinese can increase their efficiency gains by 5 percent, that'll probably be enough to bring the Europeans on board for a 30 percent target, and then we'll be there.\" Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who suggested the initial estimate of about $100 billion a year by 2020 to reduce emissions, urged leaders Thursday to reach an agreement that would limit \"long-term, global temperature increases\" to no more than 2 degrees. According to the 10 Downing Street Web site, Brown told the conference that wealthier countries must commit to provide immediate funding for developing countries to reach such a goal. He recommended that financing start in January, with nations providing $10 billion a year by 2012. He called on developing countries to commit to ambitious mitigation actions to handle climate change. \"To the developed world I say: Environmental action is the most powerful engine of job creation in an economy urgently in need of millions of new jobs. \"To the developing world I say: The technology now exists to gain the dividends of a high-growth economy without incurring the damage of a high-carbon economy. \"And to all nations I say: It is not enough for us to do the least we can get away with when history asks that we demand the most of ourselves.\"","highlights":"U.S. joins an effort to mobilize \"fast-start\" funding for developing counties.\nTalks intended to agree a global limits on carbon emissions to replace Kyoto .\nU.S. President Barack Obama is expected to join the talks Friday .\nJapan, EU pledge more than $20 billion in climate aid to developing nations .","id":"eec25f8a047994c9636c026cf02c72642b353182"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The chief justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in favor of an American father in an international custody battle. The ruling by Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes will reunite a 9-year-old boy with his father, David Goldman, who has been locked in a custody battle with the family of the boy's deceased mother. Last week, a lower court unanimously upheld a decision ordering that Sean Goldman be returned to his father in New Jersey. David Goldman arrived in Rio de Janeiro to reunite with his son, but one Supreme Court justice issued a stay, ordering Sean to remain with his Brazilian relatives until the high court could consider the case. Mendes' decision lifted the stay, paving the way for Goldman to be reunited with his son. Sean's grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, was expected to immediately file appeals to Tuesday's ruling. In a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bianchi said that the legal process was overlooking the boy's own desires. \"I feel threatened by losing my grandson Sean because of international pressures that don't consider the interest of a 9-year-old child who passionately desires to remain among those that gave him comfort in the mother's death,\" the letter states in part. \"They allege that the Hague Convention determined to hand him over immediately. I am not a lawyer. But what I know is that the Convention establishes as priority the interest of the child, and the child wasn't heard.\" The custody battle began in 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their then-4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and retaining custody of Sean. She died last year in childbirth. Goldman has argued that as the sole surviving parent, he should be granted custody. The Bianchi family argues it would traumatize Sean to remove him from what has been his home for five years. The custody battle garnered much media attention and spilled over into the political arena as well. U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, had placed a hold on a trade bill that would have benefited Brazil to the tune of $2.75 billion, but he lifted it on the court's ruling, spokesman Caley Gray said. The bill in question, which sailed through the Senate after the senator dropped the hold, would provide export tariff relief to 130 countries, of which Brazil would be the fifth largest recipient, Gray said. Lautenberg's hold was designed to exert additional pressure on Brazilian authorities to abide by the court order to return Sean to his father, he said. While the chief justice was still studying the case, Brazilian Attorney General Luis Inacio Adams said the executive branch sides with Goldman. \"Once we stop cooperating and start breaking our treaties and international obligations, Brazil risks the chance of not having its own requests in the matters regarding international judicial help granted, based on the principle of international reciprocity,\" Adams said Monday. \"Not releasing the minor into the custody of his father could bring sanctions against Brazil,\" he added. \"It could damage Brazil's image before the international community.\" CNN's Mariano Castillo and Adam Reiss contributed to this report.","highlights":"Supreme court lifts restraining order keeping boy in Brazil .\nDavid Goldman has been locked in a legal battle over his 9-year-old son, Sean .\nGoldman's wife took Sean from New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for two weeks, never returned .\nBruna Bianchi remarried, later died in childbirth; Sean has lived with her family since 2004 .","id":"c0e2d00bcef18a3aba83c7b7d6aef31ac2db6d06"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Eurostar is running tests to try to figure out what caused an \"unprecedented\" six trains to break down, forcing the company to cancel all services this weekend, a spokeswoman said Sunday. The company announced later that Monday service will be halted as well to allow for more test runs. The cancellation of the England-to-France express train service stranded thousands of passengers on both sides of the English Channel on the weekend before Christmas. \"We sincerely regret having to take this decision and we understand how frustrated and disappointed travelers will be,\" Eurostar said on its Web site Sunday. Five trains with about 2,000 passengers stopped running Friday night inside the Channel Tunnel, also called the Chunnel, which runs between Britain and France. A sixth train broke down Saturday after Eurostar tried to run four trains from London to the continental mainland to prepare for the resumption of normal service. About 700 people were aboard when that train stopped in the Ebbsfleet area of Kent. Eurostar is making an effort to get about 500 people in \"emergency situations\" out of London, a spokesman said. They are being put on a regular train to the coastal town of Dover, England, taken across the English Channel by ferry and then by bus to Brussels or Paris, said the spokesman, who declined to be named. Eurostar is conducting a series of test trains Sunday \"to better understand the problems that have been occurring,\" the company said. \"We are committed to restoring our services as soon as possible but our key priority is the safety and comfort of our customers,\" the statement said. Those passengers affected by the breakdowns are being offered a full refund, another return ticket and 150 pounds in compensation. About 25,000 people should have been traveling on Saturday, Eurostar said. The company is not taking any new bookings until after Christmas, it announced, and is urging people not to come to the station Sunday. \"We strongly recommend that travelers whose journeys are not essential change their tickets for travel on a later date or have their tickets refunded,\" Eurostar said on its Web site. The trains became stuck in the tunnel because the air inside was much warmer than the air outside the tunnel entrance in France, Eurostar spokeswoman Amelle Mouhaddib said. \"It's a bit like taking a bottle of beer out of the fridge into a warm room -- within minutes it's covered in condensation,\" said Eurostar CEO Richard Brown. \"We think that was the principle cause of the electrical failures on the trains.\" Brown called the number of breakdowns \"completely unprecedented.\" Eurotunnel, which operates the Channel Tunnel, said it evacuated all 1,364 Eurostar passengers who were stuck Friday after the trains \"lost traction,\" but one of the five trains remained in the tunnel and was blocking part of it, according to a Eurotunnel spokeswoman who asked not to be named, in line with policy. The train that broke down Saturday was being towed back to the tunnel entry so passengers could be removed and transferred, Eurostar said. The problems started after 9 p.m. Friday when the first of the five Eurostar trains became stuck. It was helped out of the tunnel by a Eurotunnel locomotive, which took it all the way to London with passengers still on board, the Eurotunnel spokeswoman said. Passengers on the second and third trains to fail were evacuated via the service tunnel to a Eurotunnel train, which brought them to the exit, she said. One of the failed trains was pulled out of the tunnel, but authorities were having difficulty removing the other, she said. The fourth and fifth trains were running close together when they failed, so Eurotunnel locomotives coupled them and either pushed or pulled them to the English side of the tunnel, the spokeswoman said. Passengers from the fifth train boarded the one in front, and Eurotunnel locomotives then towed that train to London, she said. The Chunnel is two tunnels separated by a third and smaller service tunnel, so the train that remained stuck inside did not mean the entire tunnel was blocked, the Eurotunnel spokeswoman said. The Chunnel is 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) long, 38 kilometers (23 miles) of which are underwater. Brown said keeping passengers on the trains is the quickest and safest evacuation method. \"Because there were five trains, it took us ... longer than we would wish to get those trains out and those passengers on their way home,\" he said. Despite the stoppage of service Saturday, noncommercial vehicles, including cars, motorbikes, and camper vans, were still able to travel through the tunnel. CNN's Paula Newton and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eurostar trying to get about 500 people in \"emergency situations\" out of London, spokesman says .\nTests Sunday are \"to better understand problems that have been occurring,\" company says .\nEurostar not taking any new bookings until after Christmas, company announced .\nCancellation of England-to-France express train service stranded thousands .","id":"6d132e19242bcc5d25032d6a726486970190d059"} -{"article":"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- An American man fighting for custody of his 9-year-old son has been invited to spend Christmas with the boy's Brazilian family, the family's attorney said Friday. David Goldman has been locked in a legal battle over custody of his son, Sean Goldman, with the family of the boy's deceased mother. The family's attorney, Sergio Tostes, said Friday that the legal battle had gone too far. \"It is about time that Sean's family, and I mean all Sean's family, get together. I am authorized by Mrs. Silvana Bianchi to invite you, Mr. Goldman, to spend Christmas night at her house,\" Tostes said, referring to Sean's maternal grandmother. \"This will be a long awaited family reunion\" \"I hope you can accept and we can talk logistics,\" he said, with the boy's grandmother standing next to him. Tostes also said that the family would consider allowing the boy to go to the United States, perhaps for the holidays, if Sean wants to go. However, \"Sean must be heard in court,\" he said. There was no immediate response from Goldman. Earlier Friday, Goldman slammed a decision by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice Thursday that prevented the boy's return to the United States. That decision had \"nothing to do with the merits\" of the case, he said. On Wednesday, a lower court unanimously upheld a decision ordering that Sean be returned to his father in New Jersey. That decision was made in accordance with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abductions. \"Every day that my son is under that roof, he is being severely psychologically damaged,\" Goldman said. He insisted that there is the \"utmost urgency\" for Sean to be reunited with him. \"My son is suffering, and he's losing the innocence of ... a child,\" Goldman said. The family argues that it would traumatize Sean to remove him from what has been his home since 2004, when his mother took him to Brazil on what she said would be a vacation. The family said Sean screamed with joy when he found out Thursday that he would not have to leave with his dad. The custody battle began in 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their then-4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and retaining custody of Sean. She died last year in childbirth. Goldman has argued that as the sole surviving parent, he should at last be granted custody. Instead of traveling to Brasilia, where the high court is, Goldman planned to stay in Rio de Janeiro on Friday, where he is just miles from Sean. He hasn't seen his son since February. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, who is traveling with Goldman, said three court-appointed psychologists tasked with determining the boy's emotional and psychological well-being had unanimously concluded that he is being hurt emotionally \"by the continuance of this abduction.\" Smith said Sean was previously put in front of a video camera as adults asked questions. The boy made remarks in that video that members of his mother's family suggest indicate he should stay in Brazil. If the court allows a child's drawings or such a videotape to be used as evidence in a courtroom, Smith said, \"every kidnapper everywhere in the world -- every child abductor in the world\" would have the children make such things. Goldman also addressed the videotape: \"What is he going to say? 'No, I hate it here,' knowing he'll go back up under their roof? What do you expect? He is an innocent, helpless, vulnerable, defenseless child that needs to be freed from this circumstance.\" Smith called on Brazil's full Supreme Court to \"vacate this illogical and unjust stay on the rightful return of Sean Goldman to his only dad.\" If the court does not do so, Smith said, he and Goldman hope Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes will. Smith also said Brazil's Central Authority, which represents interests of the International Court of Justice in the country, planned to appeal to get the justice's stay lifted. Brazil's Central Authority did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday. Goldman described how he longed to bring his son home in time for Christmas, to play with him in the yard, to go to movies and eat popcorn. Smith said that all the \"surveillance\" present at the time of the February visit -- including a psychologist that the family had \"almost right next to David and Sean the whole time\" -- made it \"an oppressive situation.\" \"David ought to be with his son, not on a visit but permanently,\" Smith said. The family has said Goldman can visit his son. \"It's not about going to a compound with a man standing over us, intimidating my son\" and \"making him nervous,\" Goldman said. He added that when his son \"was abducted,\" he would cry, \"I want to be with my dad.\" In separating the child from him, \"You poison the child's mind,\" he said. The case has drawn attention worldwide. Smith called it a \"major embarrassment to the Brazilian government.\" Goldman said he holds out hope that he will be able to take Sean home so the two \"can go on with our life as father and son.\" \"I'm ... begging for justice, begging,\" he said. \"Why is it so hard? Why?\" CNN's Adam Reiss contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Boy at center of custody dispute may be allowed to go to U.S., family says .\nU.S. lawmaker says man plans to appeal ruling to Brazil's Supreme Court .\nEx-wife took son to Brazil in 2004, never returned him to New Jersey .\nShe died in childbirth; boy's stepfather says he should stay in Brazil .","id":"15aeafafbf97b55fea2653871ccdd2b59576417b"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Two men who worked as security contractors for the company formerly known as Blackwater have been charged with murder in the killings of two Afghan men, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Christopher Drotleff and Justin Cannon are charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder each in connection with the May shootings in Kabul. The 12-count, 19-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia also includes weapons charges against the two men. The indictment was returned Wednesday but unsealed Thursday. Both men were in Afghanistan working for the security company Paravant, a subsidiary of Xe, the military contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide. FBI agents have arrested both men, the Justice Department announced. Drotleff, Cannon and two other contractors, Steven McClain and Armando Hamid, were involved in the May 5, 2009, shooting that left two Afghan civilians dead and another wounded. The men had been hired by Paravant to help the U.S. Army train Afghan troops. The contractors said they were driving their interpreters on a busy Kabul street called Jalalabad Road at around 9 p.m. when a car slammed into one of their two cars. \"I immediately thought we were under attack,\" McClain said in May. The contractors got out to help their colleagues, and the vehicle that had struck the car did a U-turn and headed back at them, the men said. The contractors fired at the oncoming vehicle. \"The car was coming at us,\" Cannon said in May. \"At that point we attempted to stop and immobilize the vehicle and we engaged it in small arms fire. And the car didn't stop, it just kept going.\" The incident spotlights the issue of the role and conduct of U.S. security contractors in Afghanistan. A similar issue arose in Iraq after a September 2007 confrontation involving then-Blackwater contractors that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. Blackwater lost its contract there after Iraq's government refused to renew its operating license. The company then changed its name to Xe, and it continues to receive multimillion-dollar contracts in Afghanistan. In the wake of the shooting, all four men lost their jobs with Paravant for violating the company's alcohol policy. The contractors said they had not been drinking and had not had a drink since their arrival in November. \"We feel that Blackwater wanted to shift the blame from Blackwater itself to these men as if they were acting on a lark,\" attorney Daniel J. Callahan said in May. \"Off duty, with weapons, weapons of their own, and while drinking. And I think the intent is to use these men as scapegoats.\" Callahan, who has advised the men but has not been formally retained by any of them, did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment on the charges. In a written statement Thursday, Xe said it had \"immediately and fully cooperated with the government's investigation of this tragic incident and terminated the individuals involved for violating company policy.\" Also Thursday, Xe announced it has settled seven lawsuits that accused it of crimes in cases not related to the Afghanistan shooting. The lawsuits accused Blackwater security guards of widespread illegal activity, including fostering \"a culture of lawlessness\" among its guards. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Susan Burke, said neither she nor anyone else involved in the settlement was allowed to discuss it publicly. It was not clear how much the settlement was for. One lawsuit, filed by Burke in 2007 on behalf of families of several Iraqis killed or wounded in the September 2007 shooting in Baghdad, Iraq, said that a quarter of Blackwater security guards in Iraq use steroids and other \"judgment-altering substances.\" The lawsuit also accused the company of war crimes, wrongful death, assault, negligent hiring and emotional distress. The plaintiffs included two wounded survivors of the Baghdad shooting and the families of five people killed in the incident. Blackwater denied the accusations. Last week, a federal judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater security guards involved in the killings, finding that prosecutors wrongly used the men's own statements against them.","highlights":"Christopher Drotleff, Justin Cannon charged with murder, attempted murder .\nCharges relate to two shooting deaths in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May .\nDrotleff, Cannon were security contractors for company formerly known as Blackwater .\nMay 5 incident began with auto collision; men say vehicle then aimed for them .","id":"841484cec618f463d723db3d5e97814ecc614938"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Passengers on Monday vented their fury at Eurostar management as train services between England and France were canceled for a third day, leaving thousands stranded. The cross-Channel operator said a partial train service would resume Tuesday but that was little comfort to many. \"It's shameful, they gave you 36,000 incorrect pieces of information to get us to leave,\" one passenger named Catherine told Agence France-Presse. \"Each time you speak to someone from Eurostar, they tell you something different.\" Catherine was one of roughly 75,000 passengers stranded on either side of the English Channel on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. \"We have to do everything ourselves, we have to pay for everything and hope we will be reimbursed, but some could not get the money together,\" 27-year-old Deborah told AFP. Tell us about wintry weather near you . Government officials in both France and the United Kingdom also criticized Eurostar. British transport minister Sadiq Khan called the experience terrible for thousands of passengers. \"I am angry that passengers have still not been told what is going on and I have told Eurostar this morning that they must tell the public immediately what their plans are,\" Khan said. \"This has been a terrible experience for thousands of passengers, both those stranded on the trains and at the stations.\" French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the disruptions \"unacceptable.\" There was some good news though for stranded passengers, as Eurostar said they would resume a partial service Tuesday. \"We're planning on running at two-thirds our normal service tomorrow and we'll take it from there,\" a Eurostar spokesman told CNN. Eurostar runs the high-speed rail service directly linking London to Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. A later statement from Eurostar said tests on winter weather devices on trains had been successful and that if further trials went well Monday the operator hoped to have 26,000 seats available. However, Nicolas Petrovic, Eurostar chief operation officer said a full service would not resume until after Christmas, according to AFP. Eurostar rail services remained suspended for a third day on Monday as the operator worked to fix a fault that caused a series of breakdowns blamed on winter weather. Following a series of test runs on Sunday, the company said work was under way to \"enhance the snow screens and snow shields in the power cars of the trains.\" \"We now understand the cause of the disruption over the weekend and have identified the modifications that are required. As we suspected, the acute weather conditions in northern France have caused the disruption,\" Eurostar said. \"We sincerely regret having to take this decision and we understand how frustrated and disappointed travelers will be, particularly those who have been waiting to travel for the last two days,\" Eurostar said. Five trains with about 2,000 passengers stopped running Friday night inside the tunnel. A sixth train broke down Saturday in Kent, southern England, with about 700 people aboard. \"We were prisoners in this train for like 18 hours,\" one passenger told CNN. The trains that broke down in the tunnel malfunctioned because the air inside was warmer than that outside the tunnel entrance in France, Eurostar spokeswoman Amelle Mouhaddib said. \"It's a bit like taking a bottle of beer out of the fridge into a warm room -- within minutes it's covered in condensation,\" said Eurostar CEO Richard Brown. \"We think that was the principle cause of the electrical failures on the trains.\" Brown called the number of breakdowns \"completely unprecedented.\" Passengers affected by the breakdowns are being offered a full refund, another return ticket and \u00a3150 in compensation. The company is not taking any new bookings until after Christmas. The Channel Tunnel is two tunnels separated by a third and smaller service tunnel, so the trains that remained stuck inside did not mean the entire tunnel was blocked. It is 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) long, 38 kilometers (23 miles) of which are underwater. CNN's Paula Newton, Melissa Gray and Phil Han contributed to this report.","highlights":"Passengers angry as train services between England and France canceled for third day .\nThousands stranded in England and France after services under English Channel suspended since breakdowns Friday .\nCompany hopes to resume two-thirds service Tuesday .\nWork under way to \"enhance snow screens, snow shields in power cars\"","id":"067882c406e8f245cae144a9f7b39b86d124e843"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A sign synonymous with the Nazi work camps of World War II was stolen overnight from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp memorial in Poland, police said Friday. Police were \"alerted at 5 a.m. local time on Friday by museum guards\" that the infamous sign reading \"Arbeit Macht Frei\" -- \"Work Sets You Free\" in German -- was stolen, according to police spokeswoman Agnieszka Szczygiel. The heavy iron sign \"was removed by being unscrewed on one side and pulled off on the other,\" Szczygiel said. \"It is also believed that this was a planned event and that several people were involved as the sign was at remarkable height.\" Police have launched an investigation. The chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, called the theft shocking. \"While we don't yet know exactly who stole the sign, the theft of such a symbolic object is an attack on the memory of the Holocaust, and an escalation from those elements that would like to return us to darker days,\" said Avner Shalev. \"I call on all enlightened forces in the world -- who fight against anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia and the hatred of the other -- to join together to combat these trends,\" he said. More than 1 million people died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex; about 90 percent of the victims were Jews. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, called the sign \"the defining symbol of the Holocaust\" and urged authorities to intensify their investigation. \"Everyone knew that this was not a place where work makes you free, but it was the place where millions of men, women, and children were brought for one purpose only -- to be murdered,\" Hier said. \"The audacity and boldness of this crime deserves the full attention of the Polish government.\" The center calls itself one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations. CNN's Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police are searching for a sign that was stolen from Auschwitz .\nThe sign read \"Work Sets You Free\" or \"Albeit Macht Frei\"\nPolice believe this was a planned theft that required several people .","id":"47bab8eb9a684a4f9e8c87af240adc2ee7cb8806"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ferrari driver Felipe Massa will be in Brazil for his home Formula One grand prix on October 18 -- as a special guest to wave the chequered flag. Felipe Massa is still hopeful of competing in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November. Massa is currently on the road to recovery after requiring life-saving surgery towards the end of July following his accident in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. After completing two days in the Ferrari simulator this week, the 28-year-old is scheduled to drive a 2007-spec car on Monday after undergoing a medical check-up in Paris on Friday, with governing body the FIA in attendance. Massa, who has not ruled out the prospect of driving in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 1, will then return to Brazil for the penultimate round on the calendar. Massa will become the third celebrity to wave the chequered flag at Interlagos in the past eight years, following in the footsteps of Pele and model Gisele Bundchen. Hopefully, Massa will at least have his eyes on the conclusion of what could be the title decider, unlike Pele, who famously failed to carry out his duty. The legendary footballer was looking the other way when Michael Schumacher beat his brother Ralf by half-a-second in 2002.","highlights":"Felipe Massa will be in Brazil for home Formula One grand prix on October 18 .\nThe Ferrari driver is a special guest to wave the chequered flag at Interlagos .\nMassa is recovering from surgery after accident in qualifying for Hungarian GP .","id":"3aa1767270af7aa07d37de5be651cf8bd0097fef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a state of national calamity because so many citizens do not have food or proper nutrition. Sisters Vidalia, left, and Maribel Agustin, who suffer from malnutrition, sit at a shelter in Guatemala in August. Speaking in a nationally televised address late Tuesday, Colom said his declaration will make it easier to get food to the thousands of Guatemalan families who are in dire need. \"This will help us access resources from the international community that are generously offered for this type of situation and to mobilize national resources more rapidly,\" he said. The United Nations' World Food Programme says Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean. Chronic undernutrition affects about half of the nation's children under the age of 5, the U.N. agency said. Colom said the nation's food problems are the result of a drought this year, global warming and the effects of the international economic crisis. He also cited the Central American nation's \"history of unfairness that has made Guatemala live since long ago with high and shameful poverty levels, extreme poverty and undernutrition.\" According to the World Bank, about 75 percent of Guatemalans live below the poverty level, which is defined as an income that is not sufficient to purchase a basic basket of goods and basic services. Almost 58 percent of the population have incomes below the extreme poverty line, which is defined as the amount needed to purchase a basic basket of food. \"This is the cause of the food and nutritional crisis that this country is going through,\" Colom said. \"There is food. What we don't have are the financial means so that those who are affected can buy the available food. ... Let's not wait until we have a famine to act.\" Poverty is more pronounced among indigenous populations and those who live in rural areas. In the nation's highlands, where many indigenous people live, seven of 10 children under age 5 are malnourished, the World Food Programme says. About 40 percent of the nation's more than 13.2 million citizens are indigenous Mayans, according to the CIA World Fact Book.","highlights":"Declaration will make it easier to get food to those in need, president says .\nPresident Alvaro Colom says Guatemala welcomes aid from international community .\nGuatemala has highest rate of malnutrition in Latin America, U.N. says .\nColom blames food problems on drought, global warming, economic crisis .","id":"5d34668e915cd0ae52cdc1822c7b4ff97039c37c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistan's Supreme Court declared on Wednesday that an amnesty that had protected politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, from corruption and criminal charges, was unconstitutional. The 17-judge court invalidated the National Reconciliation Order, saying in its ruling that the amnesty \"seems to be against the national interest\" and \"violates various provisions of the Constitution.\" The order, passed in October 2007 under then-President Pervez Musharraf, protected thousands of bureaucrats and politicians, including Zardari and his wife, late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, from corruption and criminal charges. It expired last month. The supreme court said its ruling revived all cases that had been suspended or withdrawn under the amnesty. There was no immediate response from Zardari's government to Wednesday's ruling. However, as president, Zardari still has immunity from prosecution. Although he was never convicted, Zardari spent 11 years in jail on corruption allegations that he called politically motivated. Bhutto had faced corruption charges in at least five cases, but was not convicted. Before her return to Pakistan to take part in the elections in 2007, she had been in self-imposed exile for eight years after being convicted on money-laundering charges. When Bhutto was prime minister, frequent accusations of corruption against her husband, Zadari, of stealing from government coffers and accepting kickbacks, prompted many Pakistanis to derisively label him \"Mr. 10 Percent.\" He became the Pakistan People's Party head after Bhutto was assassinated during a campaign rally in December 2007, and he became president eight months later. The PPP had tried in October to extend the amnesty ahead of its deadline, but faced strong protest from opposition parties in parliament. A day ahead of the amnesty's expiration, Zardari told Pakistan's Express News that he still had immunity as president and wasn't concerned about the reopening of cases against him. The president's spokesman echoed that sentiment in November. \"The president is absolutely not concerned,\" presidential spokesman Farhatullah Baber told CNN. \"It's whatever the courts decide. We will cross that bridge when it comes,\" Baber said.","highlights":"Pakistan's Supreme Court declares amnesty protecting politicians is unconstitutional .\nPoliticians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, were protected from corruption, criminal charges .\nAmnesty, passed in 2007 under then-President Pervez Musharraf, expired last month .\nAs president, Zardari still has immunity from prosecution .","id":"fcef480b7623a29556013afe6aa971c2a65fb051"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Investigators believe the suspected gunman in last week's massacre at Fort Hood acted alone, but his communications had been flagged by U.S. intelligence agencies in late 2008, the FBI said Monday. The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, remained in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. In a statement issued Monday night, the FBI said its investigation so far \"indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.\" Thursday's shooting left 13 dead, 12 of them U.S. soldiers, and 42 wounded. Read more about the victims . Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He was promoted to major in May and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan sometime soon, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military. A Muslim, he had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In August, he reported to police that his car was keyed and a bumper sticker that read \"Allah is Love\" was torn off. A neighbor was charged with criminal mischief after that complaint. But the FBI disclosed that Hasan came to its attention as part of an unrelated terrorism probe in December 2008, when agents reviewed \"certain communications between Maj. Hasan and the subject of that investigation.\" The intercepts \"raised no red flags,\" with no mention of threats or violence that would have triggered a U.S. terrorism investigation, senior investigative officials said Monday. Hasan, 39, was wounded several times during the attack. Though still in intensive care, his ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterwards, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. Federal agents attempted to interview Hasan on Sunday, but he refused to cooperate and asked for an attorney, the investigative officials said. U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb. Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged. Military officials told CNN on Monday that intelligence agencies intercepted communications from Hasan to al-Awlaki and shared them with other U.S. government agencies. But federal authorities dropped the inquiry into Hasan's communications after deciding that the messages warranted no further action, one of the officials said. According to the FBI, investigators from one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces determined \"that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center [in Washington].\" Hasan was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed before moving to Fort Hood. \"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Maj. Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning,\" it said. FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered a review of the matter, the FBI said. The independent commission that investigated the 9\/11 attacks found al-Awlaki was a \"spiritual adviser\" to two of the hijackers in that plot, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, while al-Awlaki was at the Virginia mosque and earlier, in San Diego. The commission report said it was not clear whether the imam knew al-Hazmi and al-Midhar were involved in the hijacking plot, but security experts have described him as a radical Islamic fundamentalist who was \"very supportive of terrorists in the past,\" former White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend told CNN. An online post attributed to al-Awlaki praised Hasan as a hero for the Fort Hood attack, saying he \"could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.\" But the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque denounced al-Awlaki's remarks, and its current imam said he was stunned to hear Hasan was the suspect in the rampage. \"The quiet, very peaceful person coming in and out of the mosque, I couldn't believe he could have done this,\" Sheikh Shaker Elsayed told CNN. Three senior investigative officials, who insisted they not be identified by name because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing federal investigation, told reporters in Washington that Hasan was never nominated to be on a watch list. He was able to purchase weapons legally and had done nothing to justify even a preliminary investigation, they said. In addition, Hasan had a security clearance at the \"secret\" level and received good performance reviews, they said. Nonetheless, they continued to examine his communications with the cleric in Yemen for several months as a precaution. Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack. But at Fort Hood the post commander told reporters he has ordered his officers to \"immediately take a hard look and make sure if there's anybody out there struggling.\" \"Hasan was a soldier and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has,\" Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said. \"We have to look across our entire formation, not just in a medical community but really look hard to our right and left. That's the responsibility for everybody from the top to the bottom to make sure we're taking care of our own.\" Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about Hasan's motive, warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers. But several witnesses, like Pvt. Robert Foster, who was wounded in the hip during the attack, reported Hasan shouted \"Allahu Akbar\" -- Arabic for \"God is great\" -- which Islamic terrorists have used as a battle cry. \"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allah Akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire,\" Foster, 21, said Monday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" The Army leadership at Fort Hood will \"take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this,\" Cone said Monday. \"I think what we're looking for are sort of people with overwhelming personal problems and patterns of behavior that are not at all related to religion,\" Cone said. No charges have been filed against Hasan. The investigative officials who briefed reporters said he was likely to be charged in the military court system. President Obama will speak at Tuesday's memorial service for the shooting victims at Fort Hood, and will meet with victims' families, his spokesman said. \"The president will meet with families of those that lost a loved one last week, as well as speak to the larger memorial that will take place at the base,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his daily briefing Monday. First lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president on the trip, Gibbs said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will also participate in the memorial service, but he will not speak, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. CNN's Brian Todd, Pam Benson, Mike Mount and David Mattingly contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: FBI: Probe so far shows Fort Hood attack wasn't part of a broader terrorist plot .\nInvestigators check link between suspect, ex-cleric at Virginia mosque .\nOnline post attributed to cleric praised Hasan as a hero for the Fort Hood attack .\nMaj. Nidal Malik Hasan awake, says spokesman at hospital where he's being treated .","id":"1f9e2ec0b4462d76efa767f93a3285b210462c9b"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of investigations of online child sexual exploitation and child pornography have been significantly delayed by backlogs at FBI cybercrime labs, according to a Justice Department report released Friday. FBI Inspector General Glenn Fine says processing time for digital evidence can take up to nine months. An audit conducted more than a year ago by the department's inspector general found 353 requests awaiting digital evidence analysis. FBI computer forensic personnel on average took about 60 days to examine evidence needed by investigators, the report says. \"The processing time for the digital evidence in some cases could take up to nine months, which we concluded was too long,\" Inspector General Glenn Fine said. The digital evidence involves online communications in which potential child predators and sex offenders target juveniles for sexual exploitation or produce cyber-based child pornography. The FBI acknowledged the challenge of keeping up with the growing problem, but said it has made improvements since the audit was conducted. \"The pervasiveness of the Internet has resulted in the dramatic growth of online sexual exploitation of children, resulting in a 2,000 percent increase in the number of cases opened since 1996,\" FBI Executive Assistant Director Stephen Tidwell said. From 2003 to 2007, the number of crimes against children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's hot line rose from 7,038 to 20,760, the report states. Since its inception in 1995, the Innocent Images Unit has investigated more than 20,000 online cases resulting in 7,000 convictions. Tidwell said the FBI has begun implementing a series of procedural and technical recommendations made by the inspector general to reduce the lab backlogs and improve efficiencies in other programs designed to combat crimes against children. The other programs include wide-ranging investigations of child abductions and kidnappings by parents as well as strangers. The report says the largest number of missing children cases involve runaways from juvenile homes. The most recent government study says 99.8 percent of children reported missing were located or returned home alive. The number of child abductions investigated by the FBI during this decade has topped 2,000. Abductions by strangers amount to only a fraction of 1 percent of total kidnapping cases.","highlights":"Audit finds 353 requests awaiting digital evidence analysis .\nProcessing time in some cases is up to nine months, FBI Inspector General says .\nFBI's Innocent Images Unit has handled more than 20,000 online cases since 1995 .\nFBI acknowledges problems with caseload, says improvements are in place .","id":"6ddc7be07d21ccec66b3b3cc4fb2d156a458f6c8"} -{"article":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- A mother whose daughter and granddaughter attend Oprah Winfrey's school in South Africa considers the talk-show host heaven-sent, despite allegations of abuse being investigated there. Oprah Winfrey cuts the ribbon at the opening in January of her Leadership Academy in South Africa. \"Oprah is an angel, she is God-sent,\" Masechaba Hine said Wednesday from her small home in gritty Soweto township. \"She came to my rescue when my husband was not working.\" Hine's daughter Palesa and her granddaughter Alebohang, both 14, were among the 152 students chosen to be the first class to attend the high-tech, high-profile Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls when it opened in January. Her faith remains unshaken by the news that South African police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that a dorm parent mistreated students at the school. Hine said her children \"have no problems about the school, they are happy about everything.\" Investigators declined to provide details of the alleged abuse, but the academy's CEO, John Samuel, said in a statement issued earlier this month that an internal inquiry was launched based on a claim of misconduct involving a dormitory parent. Watch why school is being investigated \u00bb . According to an article in The Cape Argus, a Cape Town newspaper, the dorm parent allegedly grabbed a pupil by the throat and threw her against a wall, the girl claimed. Girls at the school also claimed that the matron swore and screamed at the girls and assaulted them, the newspaper reported Saturday. The newspaper said one of the pupils ran away from the school, blaming the alleged abuse. Winfrey personally selected the school's students, all of them straight-A students from underprivileged backgrounds. The students get free tuition, free uniforms, free accommodation and free meals at the school in Henley-on-Klip, near Johannesburg. In Hine's case, her children's status as the \"poorest of the poor\" that the school aims to serve was clear-cut: Hine supports the five people who live in her small two-bedroom Soweto home on the $50 a week she makes from a fruit and vegetable stand. Hine also is caring for two other orphans -- a niece and a younger granddaughter -- as well as Palesa and Alebohang, whom Hine took responsibility for when her own mother died of AIDS. Along with the money she scrapes together, the family survives on food baskets they receive once a month from a charity. Hine attended an emergency meeting with Winfrey when the talk-show host came to the school two weeks ago. \"She was emotional, she was crying when she was talking about her daughters. It is not our daughters anymore, it is Oprah's daughters,\" Hine said. Winfrey did not give the parents details of the allegations other than to say that the dormitory parent \"didn't treat the girls the way she likes,\" Hine said. She said parents were told at the start of the meeting that Winfrey \"does not want the thing to be in the media. It was a private meeting.\" The controversy that now surrounds the school now offers a sharp contrast to the glitter and air of limitless hope when Winfrey brought a gaggle of Hollywood stars with her to officially open the well-appointed school. The criminal probe was opened after a team of three American experts hired by Winfrey gave police the results of their initial investigation, police said. \"We came to the conclusion that there were criminal elements and then we opened the case for investigation,\" said Police Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini. Dlamini told CNN that the team of U.S. experts hired by Winfrey to conduct the internal investigation included Robert Farley, a retired Cook County, Illinois, detective. He said two American social workers were also on the team. Previously, Winfrey -- who has spoken publicly about the abuse she suffered as a child -- issued a statement on October 17 saying, \"Nothing is more serious or devastating to me than an allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy.\" In the statement, Samuel said South African child protection services were notified and the dorm parent was removed from the campus. \"We have engaged professional investigators of the highest standing from South Africa and the United States to conduct a fair and impartial inquiry into these claims,\" the statement said. The school's head has agreed to take a paid leave of absence pending the results of the investigation, although she is not the subject of the allegation, Samuel said. The national prosecuting authority is deciding whether criminal charges will be filed. In an October 23 statement, Samuel referred inquiries to the South African Child Protection Services Unit. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Dorm parent accused of abuse at Oprah Winfrey's South African school .\nOne mother of student supports Winfrey: \"Oprah is an angel\"\nAllegations under investigation by Americans, South Africans .","id":"b4cc1622ccf8a61c19c78c35adb10d92668fe337"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Evangelist Tony Alamo is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after an Arkansas judge sentenced him to 175 years Friday on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex, according to prosecutors. A jury convicted Alamo in July on 10 federal counts covering offenses that spanned 11 years and dated back to 1994, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Alamo, the 75-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, will serve the sentences on each count consecutively, for a total of 175 years in prison, prosecutors said. In addition to his sentence, Alamo was fined $250,000, court documents showed. His lawyer filed an appeal Friday. Christopher Plumlee, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, welcomed the sentence. \"Given the number of victims and the difficult type of testimony they had to provide in order to get to trial, it's gratifying for them to see him get this sentence,\" he said. \"Not only did they entrust their lives to him, he did it in the name of God. And he betrayed their trust.\" Authorities in September 2008 arrested Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas. An indictment released in November 2008 accused Alamo of transporting five girls across state lines for sex. The criminal complaint included accounts from three girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was released last year, and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them. In a phone interview last year with CNN, Alamo called the accusations a hoax. \"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will.\"","highlights":"Charges included taking minors across state lines for sex .\nAlamo, 75, is founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries .\nCharges stem from 2008 raided of 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas .","id":"721a859e94460276623a37632436aa06a68fd616"} -{"article":"JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, warned Thursday of an indication of an attack to Bali on New Year's Eve. The Embassy said the warning initially came from the Bali governor, Mangku Pastika, and that it passed on his alert verbatim. The governor, however, said there was no information about a new terrorist threat. \"We never release(d) any warning related to terror on New Year's Eve,\" the governor's office said in a statement after the Embassy released the warning. \"We however encourage both domestic and foreign tourists to be cautious,\" the governor's office said. \"The terrorists hit Bali twice. Who knows what they will do next.\" Pastika's office said there was only a general alert on the island because of the holiday. Terrorist groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah, have carried out repeated attacks in Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia since 2002. The Embassy did not elaborate on the governor's message, but the United States has a standing warning to U.S. citizens in Indonesia that extremists may target both official and private interests, including hotels, clubs, and shopping centers. \"In their work and daily living activities, and while traveling, U.S. citizens should be vigilant and prudent at all times,\" the U.S. State Department warning states. \"We urge U.S. citizens to monitor local news reports, vary their routes and times, and maintain a low profile. U.S. citizens must consider the security and safety preparedness of hotels, residences, restaurants, and entertainment or recreation venues that they frequent.\" Unknown attackers shot at foreigners in Banda Aceh, in northern Sumatra, last month, wounding a European development worker, the Embassy said. The attackers also targeted a house occupied by American teachers, but no U.S. citizens were hurt, it said. The most major recent attack was in July, when suspected Jemaah Islamiyah elements bombed two western hotels in Jakarta. The blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people -- including at least two presumed suicide bombers -- and wounded more than 50, including U.S. citizens. Also in July, armed assailants in Papua killed several people, including security personnel and one Australian national, the Embassy said. Jemaah Islamiyah, said to have links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, is blamed for the 2002 Bali bomb attacks in which 202 people, mainly foreign tourists, were killed. More than 300 people -- many of them young Australians on vacation -- were wounded by the massive blasts in the town of Kuta. Dozens of victims were burned beyond recognition or blown to pieces. The bombing was blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah. The group was also said to be behind an attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004 in which nine people died, and an attack on the same Marriott hotel that killed eight the same year. -- CNN's Atika Shubert in Bali and Andy Saputra in Jakarta contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, warns of an indication of an attack on Bali on New Year's Eve .\nEmbassy said warning initially came from Bali governor .\nTerrorist groups have carried out repeated attacks on Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia since 2002 .","id":"7d3718d9ae1c7c7515579fb91843db27add28d3b"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Computer technicians have recovered about 22 million Bush administration e-mails that the Bush White House had said were missing, two watchdog groups that sued over the documents announced Monday. The e-mails date from 2003 to 2005, and had been \"mislabeled and effectively lost,\" according to the National Security Archive, a research group based at George Washington University. But Melanie Sloan, executive director of the liberal-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it could be years before most of the e-mails are made public. \"The e-mails themselves are not what we're getting,\" Sloan said. Documents related to the handling of e-mail under the Bush administration and subsequent information regarding how White House e-mails are currently archived will be released under a settlement with the Obama administration, which inherited a lawsuit the groups filed in 2007. But the National Archives must sort out which documents are covered by the Freedom of Information Act and which ones fall under the Presidential Records Act, which means they could be withheld for five to 10 years after the Bush administration left office in January, Sloan said. \"The National Archives will sort this out,\" she said. The e-mail controversy dates back to the Bush administration's 2006 firing of the top federal prosecutors in nine cities. After congressional committees demanded the administration produce documents related to the firings, the White House said millions of e-mails might have been lost from its servers. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive sued over the issue in 2007, arguing the Bush administration violated federal laws that require presidential records to be preserved. Court records have shown that the Bush administration knew about the e-mail problems as far back as 2005 and did nothing to fix them, Sloan said. \"They never made an effort to restore them,\" she said. But Scott Stanzel, a former deputy press secretary in the Bush White House, said the group \"has consistently tried to create a spooky conspiracy out of standard IT issues.\" \"We always indicated that there is an e-mail archiving system and a disaster recovery system,\" Stanzel said. \"We also indicated that e-mails not properly archived could be found on disaster recovery tapes. There is a big, big difference between something not being properly archived and it being 'lost' or 'missing,' as CREW would say.\" Monday's settlement allows for 94 days of e-mail traffic, scattered between January 2003 to April 2005, to be restored from backup tapes. Of those 94 days, 40 were picked by statistical sample; another 21 days were suggested by the White House; and the groups that filed suit picked 33 that seemed \"historically significant,\" from the months before the invasion of Iraq to the period when the firings of U.S. attorneys were being planned. Also requested were several days surrounding the announcement that a criminal investigation was under way into the disclosure of then-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. That investigation led to the conviction of White House aide I. Lewis \"Scooter\" Libby on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents investigating the leak. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington represented Wilson and her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in a lawsuit over her exposure, which they argued was in retaliation for his accusation that the Bush administration over-hyped the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. A federal judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds in 2007, but Sloan said the missing e-mails raise the \"strong possibility\" that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald never received all the documents he requested during the leak investigation.","highlights":"White House had said that about 22 million Bush administration e-mails were missing .\nE-mails involve Bush administration's 2006 firing of top federal prosecutors .\nWhite House said during congressional hearings they might have been lost .\nSuing watchdog groups will settle lawsuit with the Obama administration .","id":"0d37991539a42114a3ebc31d0852a2ab0843979c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Local and state authorities in Northampton, Massachusetts, are investigating nine suspicious fires that have killed two people and left residents shaken, officials said Sunday. In just over an hour early Sunday, five structures -- including a single-family residence -- burned, in addition to \"numerous cars,\" District Attorney Betsy Scheibel told a news conference that included fire and police officials and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. The fires were reported between 2 a.m. and 3:15 a.m., Scheibel's office said. Two people were found dead on the first floor of a residence, Scheibel said. Identities of the victims are being withheld pending autopsy results. \"We know this community is deeply shaken by this series of suspicious fires,\" Patrick said. \"I want the public to know that every resource at the local [and] at the state level is being applied to deal with this to bring comfort and safety to the community\" and to find the individual or individuals responsible. A joint task force of local, state and federal fire officials has been formed to investigate the circumstances under which the fires started, Scheibel said. All of the blazes have been extinguished.","highlights":"Officials in Northampton, Massachusetts, say 9 fires have killed 2 people .\n5 structures, \"numerous cars\" burned early Sunday, district attorney says .\nFires reported between 2 and 3:15 a.m., DA says .\nTask force of local, state, federal fire officials investigating .","id":"c4aa8756085c841503e7648e573ead311ee387d7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Erroll Southers In the aftermath of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253, it is likely the Senate will move to confirm the embattled nomination of Southers as head of the Transportation Security Administration when it returns from its winter recess. Objections to Southers' confirmation were first made by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina over the potential unionization of TSA employees. Southers is the Los Angeles International Airport's assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence. The airport's police department, which Southers has helped manage since early 2007, is the largest such operation in the country, with approximately 1,200 employees. Southers is also associate director at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events at the University of Southern California. The former FBI special agent served as a deputy director of homeland security for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. CNN Political Ticker: DeMint defends blocking appointment . Miriam Siefer The attorney who will defend the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up Northwest Flight 253 is no stranger to terrorism cases, according to The Detroit News. Miriam Siefer, chief federal defender with the Federal Defender Office in Detroit, Michigan, represented James Nichols when he was a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. His brother Terry Nichols was convicted for that act of domestic terrorism. Siefer is now the lead attorney for Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who is accused of hiding explosive materials sewn into his underwear that could have brought down the airplane. \"She's one of a handful of people who is universally respected and admired by people in the U.S. Attorney's Office,\" said Alan Gershel, the former head of criminal prosecutions in Detroit who now is a law professor at Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Detroit News: Suspect's lawyer old hand at terror cases . Micah Fialka-Feldman A U.S. district judge has ruled that Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, violated a federal law by refusing to allow Fialka-Feldman, a disabled student, to live in a campus dorm and now must make a room available for him. The Detroit News and NPR report that Fialka-Feldman has a mild cognitive impairment that hinders his ability to read and write. But the university said because he was in a special program and not a full-time student, he couldn't live on campus. It took him two buses and two hours to get to campus from his parents' home. The judge ruled that Oakland University had discriminated against Fialka-Feldman, who says he will hang a poster in his room with quotes from civil rights leaders. One says: \"A community that excludes one member is not a community at all.\" NPR: Intellectually disabled student wins dorm suit . Detroit News: Student wins housing fight . William Koch The Palm Beach, Florida, billionaire says that a 1787 Lafite Bordeaux with Thomas Jefferson's initials etched into the bottle is fake. \"I thought that I had a piece of history, a piece of America's most important history,\" Koch told the Los Angeles Times. So Koch sued the seller and has filed four other lawsuits. He says there are more to come. His goal is to clean up an industry where a single bottle can go for more than $100,000. In 1989, Koch purchased the Lafite and three other bottles of Bordeaux, also purported to be Jefferson's, for about $500,000. In the federal lawsuit he filed in New York against the wine supplier, Koch claims Jefferson's \"initials\" were etched into the bottle with modern-day power tools. Los Angeles Times: Wine collector sues over alleged fakery . Michael Landers This 15-year-old 10th-grader from Old Westbury, New York, is the youngest player to win the men's national singles championship in table tennis, or pingpong. In a New York Times profile, Landers says his training can last 30 hours each week. For 14 months, Goran Milanovic, a former Serbian discuss thrower, has been putting him through 90-minute workouts two or three times a week. NY Times: The ping-pong prodigy . What makes a person intriguing? There are people who enter the news cycle every day because their actions or decisions are new, important or different. Others are in the news because they are the ones those decisions affect. And there are a number of people who are so famous or controversial that anything they say or do becomes news. Some of these people do what we expect of them: They run for office, pass legislation, start a business, get hired or fired, commit a crime, make an arrest, get in accidents, hit a home run, overthrow a government, fight wars, sue an opponent, put out fires, prepare for hurricanes and cavort with people other than their spouses. They do make news, but the action is usually more important than who is involved in the story. But every day, there are a number of people who become fascinating to us -- by virtue of their character, how they reached their decision, how they behaved under pressure or because of the remarkable circumstances surrounding the event they are involved in. They arouse our curiosity. We hear about them and want to know more. What they have done or said stimulates conversations across the country. At times, there is even a mystery about them. What they have done may be unique, heroic, cowardly or ghastly, but they capture our imaginations. We want to know what makes them tick, why they believe what they do, and why they did what they did. They intrigue us.","highlights":"Nominee for TSA chief held up by South Carolina senator .\nLawyer for terror suspect familiar with terrorism cases .\n10th-grader is youngest player to win national table tennis championship .","id":"cd515531b5ced52b5cd815ab9bc5cd03828c2392"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Tyra Smith's boyfriend, Chris Lewis, first suggested they be guinea pigs in a H1N1 vaccination study in August, she wasn't so crazy about the idea. But then she warmed to it: While she doesn't like needles, she thought she'd help out because she knew H1N1 was a serious virus. To cut your risk of catching a bug, doctors say wash your hands and avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes. \"I heard people might die from it,\" Smith said. \"So I think it's a good idea to help people, by being involved.\" Lewis and Smith, both from Baltimore, Maryland, were among the first Americans to receive H1N1 flu shots. As part of a trial of 2,400 people, they gave blood samples and kept diaries of their symptoms, all in an effort to get an H1N1 vaccine ready for the fall. Now that the results from this and other trials are in, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the FDA has approved applications from four manufacturers to make H1N1 flu vaccine, which should be ready for high-risk patients by October 15. She said there will be enough vaccine available for everyone eventually. And that's just in time. With fall in the air and old man winter right around the corner, seasonal flu and the common cold are sure to follow -- and H1N1 is here; in its most recent H1N1 update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 21 states are reporting widespread flu activity. This cold and flu season could star a cornucopia of viruses. Doctors say they worry the two flu strains (H1N1 and seasonal) could combine, further complicating the situation. Mix in colds, which are prevalent this time of year, and the immune system of Americans could be dealt a one-two punch. So, how can someone tell if those sniffles they're having is something to be concerned about? Infectious disease experts say people need to be aware of the symptoms. Dr. Shmuel Shoham, an infectious-disease specialist at Washington Hospital Center, says the common cold, seasonal flu and H1N1 are all respiratory illnesses, but they're caused by different viruses. Symptoms of the cold are more common, and can make the patient miserable for three to five days. A patient usually has a stuffy nose, congestion, some body aches and a growing cough. According to the CDC seasonal flu and H1N1 symptoms consist of fever, more painful body aches, dry cough, diarrhea and severe fatigue. It's hard, without testing, to tell apart the seasonal strain of flu from the H1N1 variety. Watch more on cold, flu and H1N1 symptoms \u00bb . \"People need to take notice when they begin to feel bad. If they start to have respiratory problems, or are dehydrated because of a bug, they should go to the doctor. It could be H1N1 or seasonal influenza,\" says Shoham. \"Some people with influenza can get very sick and could end up in the hospital if it's not taken care of.\" People at greatest risk for catching H1N1 include young people ages 6 months to 25 years, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease. The CDC recommends that these groups -- as well as health care workers -- get vaccinated first. The seasonal influenza vaccination is especially important for people at high risk of serious flu complications, according to the CDC, including children ages 6 months to 18 years, people with immune system problems, women who plan on being pregnant during the flu season, those 50 years and older and health care workers. But if someone doesn't fall into these categories, it doesn't mean he or she should skip vaccinations altogether. Experts say everyone should get both flu shots. \"It's the best way to protect yourself,\" Shoham says. Other than flu shots, are there other ways to stay healthy and avoid all of these bugs? Doctors say wash your hands and keep your fingers away from your mouth, nose and eyes. If you sneeze, sneeze into your elbow so as not to transfer your germs to your hands -- and everything else around you. As for the myth about avoiding cold drafts -- forget it. \"It doesn't seem to play out that sleeping with the window open, going out with your hair wet in the cold affects your immune system,\" Shoham says. Also, keep your immune system healthy. That translates to eating well, getting enough sleep and staying active. If you become ill and experience severe symptoms, see your doctor. Your physician may recommend antiviral drugs that can treat the flu. Antiviral drugs are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaled powder) that fight the flu by keeping the virus from reproducing in your body. Above all, stay away from others. If you have the flu, the CDC recommends you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone. It's the best way to keep others from getting infected.","highlights":"Seasonal flu, H1N1 and common cold will all be around this flu season .\nWithout testing, a person can't tell seasonal flu from H1N1 flu .\nThe symptoms of both are more severe than cold symptoms and include fever .\nExpert: If you are having respiratory problems or are dehydrated, see your doctor .","id":"8d4bb9888a3c4a587c30001e9cdf1a942bf20b1d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Alaska judge has denied Bristol Palin's request that her court fight with ex-boyfriend Levi Johnston over custody of their son be kept private to avoid a \"media circus.\" The daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is seeking full custody of 1-year-old Tripp, contending that Johnston is too immature to be a responsible father and that his mother's felony drug conviction makes her a danger to the child. Bristol Palin filed for full custody in November, but Johnston is seeking shared custody. Both parents are 19. Their teenage relationship fell under an intense public spotlight after Sen. John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate in August 2008. Court documents, now unsealed, were published online Monday by the Anchorage Daily News. Johnston joined the family at the Republican National Convention after the campaign confirmed that Bristol, then 17, was five months pregnant with his child. The couple broke off their engagement about two months after their son's birth in December 2008. Johnston has asked that the case conducted in public to protect himself from Sarah Palin, whom he said was \"powerful, politically ambitious and has a reputation for being extremely vindictive.\" But Bristol Palin's request that the case be sealed said public proceedings \"will turn this custody case into a media circus which is not in Tripp's best interest.\" \"In this day and age of the Internet, media stories remain available for years, even decades, after they are first published, and anything printed in the media (whether it is true or not) will be available to Tripp when he is old enough to read,\" Palin said in a sworn affidavit. She said Johnston wanted a public case so he could \"continue to make a spectacle of this custody dispute for his own self-promotion.\" Johnston was set to take part in a reality show in Alaska, she said. \"I do not believe that it would be in Tripp's best interest for Levi's reality show to be filming this case as it unfolds, or for Levi Johnston to be capitalizing off of this custody case through his reality show,\" Palin said. Johnston's sworn statement said he feared what Sarah Palin might do against him if the case were kept secret. \"I really think that closing the court could make this matter very uncivil and potentially open the door for poor influences on Bristol and her attorney that may be extremely inappropriate and potentially harmful to Tripp,\" he said. While Johnston said his former girlfriend would never be malicious toward him, \"her mother is powerful, politically ambitious and has a reputation for being extremely vindictive.\" \"So, I think a public case might go a long way in reducing Sarah Palin's instinct to attack and allow the real parties in this litigation, Bristol and I, to work things out a lot more peacefully than we could if there is any more meddling from Sarah Palin,\" Johnston said. Bristol Palin's affidavit said her mother is not involved in the custody case, except as a grandmother. But Johnston's lawyer, Rex Butler, said in his own affidavit that his client does not trust closed proceedings because \"Sarah Palin is known to deal forcefully with those she perceives as political enemies.\" \"He feels Sarah Palin, through her lawyer, under the guise of Bristol Palin's name, would run roughshod over his very bones,\" Butler said. The judge's ruling, signed last week, concludes that Bristol Palin \"failed to demonstrate that this case involves 'matters of a sensitive and highly personal nature' of such a magnitude that 'protection of the party's name outweighs the public's interest in disclosure.' \" Her filing for full custody argued that Levi was \"not ready for the demands of parenthood and the sacrifices that would entail to a 19-year-old aspiring actor\/model.\" \"Levi remains without a regular job or steady source of income,\" the petition states. While he's not enrolled in school \"to learn a trade or earn a degree,\" he has made money by selling stories about his son and the Palins to news outlets and engaged in \"risque modeling for Playgirl magazine,\" it states. The photos published last month showed Johnston in semi-nude poses, not with the full frontal nudity that's Palin's filing cited. The petition cited a series of messages posted on the online social network Twitter.com as evidence that Johnston \"may have substance abuse issues, based on statements he has made about seeking 'weed.' \" Johnston's response said he does not have a Twitter account \"and has made no such statements about the use of marijuana.\" But Palin's harshest attack was on Levi's mother, Sherry Johnston, who pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge earlier this year. Palin asked that the paternal grandmother be barred from having any unsupervised visitation with Tripp. Her petition said she \"may re-offend, keep medications around the house which could be accessible to the baby, have illegal drug users come to the house (or she could take the baby in her car during a drug sale).\" Palin also said that since Sherry Johnston \"could fall asleep or be too drowsy to appropriately monitor the baby.\" \"She is also a chronic pain patient and undergoes daily, regular and sustained narcotic infusions,\" Palin's petition said. Johnston's response said his mother's \"chronic pain condition is currently being managed in coordination with the Department of Corrections.\" \"Sherry Johnston will not be left to take care of the minor child alone, but will simply be there to assist to the best of her ability,\" Johnston's filing said. She was released from an Alaska prison last week to serve the remainder of her three-year sentence under house arrest at her home in Wasilla, Alaska. She must wear an ankle bracelet for electronic monitoring, Corrections Department spokesman Richard Schmitz said.","highlights":"Levi Johnston is seeking shared custody of Tripp Palin, now a year old .\nBristol Palin requested that proceedings be closed to prevent a \"media circus\"\nJohnston wanted case kept public to protect himself from ex-fiancee's powerful mom .\nUnsealed court documents were published online by the Anchorage Daily News .","id":"0a05b14962b2e73bbff82086762e0e23d32b359f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama won Guam's Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday by just seven votes, according to a Guam election official. Voters line up Saturday in Dededo, Guam's largest village. With all 21 precincts reporting, Obama finished with 2,264 votes, or 50.1 percent. Sen. Hillary Clinton got 2,257 votes, or 49.9 percent. Each candidate picked up two delegates. The presidential candidates were battling for Guam's four pledged delegate votes. Eight delegates will be elected, each with half a vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, this summer. According to CNN's latest estimate, Obama now has a total of 1,736 delegates (1,493 pledged delegates, 243 superdelegates). Clinton has a total of 1,599 delegates (1,334 pledged delegates, 265 superdelegates). The Democratic contest moves to North Carolina and Indiana, which hold their primaries Tuesday. Also on the ballot Saturday was the race for chairman and vice chairman of the U.S. territory's Democratic Party. The winners of that race will serve as superdelegates. According to the election official, the slate of Pilar Lujan and Jaime Paulino leads the slate of Joseph Artero Cameron and Arlen Bordallo. Lujan remains uncommitted in the race for president, but running mate Paulino has endorsed Obama. Both Cameron and Bordallo have endorsed Clinton. Incumbent Chairman Tony Charfauros and running mate Mary Ann Cabrera are in third place. Neither has endorsed a presidential candidate. Although called \"caucuses,\" Saturday's event in Guam functions more like a party-run primary. Voters cast secret ballots in polling places as opposed to publicly aligning themselves in presidential candidate preference groups, as in more traditional caucuses, such as in Iowa and Nevada. Polls closed in Guam at 6 a.m. ET. Guam is 14 hours ahead of Eastern time. Cathleen Moore-Linn stood in line for more than an hour outside the old police precinct in Dededo, Guam's most populated village. Despite the 90-degree tropical heat and a lack of air conditioning at the polling site, she said, \"Nobody left. A lot of manamko' [elderly people] came out to vote. And people were filling out the forms to join the Democrat Party.\" At villages in the southern end of the island, which is far less populated, election committee member Nancy Weare says the voting is running smoothly. \"There's a constant flow of traffic and good voter turnout.\" Vying for Guam's delegate and superdelegate votes in their tight race for the nomination, the two remaining Democratic presidential hopefuls have inundated the island with radio and TV advertisements, each promising long-awaited political gains: the ability for Guamanians to be able to vote for president, lifting the territory's cap on Medicaid and, perhaps the most coveted prize of all, war reparations in the form of more than $120 million. A war reparations bill, sponsored by Bordallo, would issue payments to the survivors of Japan's control of the island during World War II and would create educational and research programs about the occupation. The legislation is stalled in the U.S. Senate. CNN Research Director Robert Yoon, CNN Political Producer Ed Hornick and special contributor Jayne Flores contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Obama gets 50.1 percent of the vote .\nAt stake Saturday were four pledged delegates .\nAlso on ballot: chairman and vice chairman of Guam's Democratic Party .","id":"88c5bee10a89123a91f21c51683ec03d8626d0c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Militants who control parts of Somalia's capital city are beating women in broad daylight for violating their radical brand of Islamic law, according to local officials and witnesses in Mogadishu. \"Just today, Al-Shabaab dispatched men with whips to the streets around Bakara market and they are flogging any woman who is found not wearing socks,\" according to a female maize trader at the Mogadishu market, who spoke Thursday. She did not want to be named for security reasons. In the past two days, more than 130 people, including women who were not wearing headscarves and men chewing dried khat leaves, have been detained for violating Al-Shabaab's interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, according to witnesses and officials. Hooded Al-Shabaab gunmen rounded up 50 women on Wednesday from Mogadishu's Bakara market for not wearing the veil that is required for women under some interpretations of Islamic law, according to the maize trader. \"Most of these women were vegetable traders, so they are poor and can't afford to buy veils for 600,000 shillings [about $23 U.S.],\" she said. She said she saw more women being detained Thursday. Another 80 Somali civilians were detained in the southwestern town of Luuq, near the Kenyan and Ethiopian border, \"because they turned deaf ear to orders we imposed on the town,\" said the local Al-Shabaab commander Sheikh Hussien al-Iraqi. Al-Shabaab is considered a terrorist organization by the United States because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. It has been imposing stricter rules on Somali civilians living in the areas it controls. Earlier this month, Al-Shabaab militants whipped women for wearing bras in an area of northern Mogadishu that they control, shocking residents who have been besieged by the ongoing insurgency. The militants believe the female undergarments are a deception to men.","highlights":"Militant group Al-Shabaab imposes strict interpretation of law in areas it controls .\nWomen violate law by not wearing socks, headscarves and by wearing bras .\n\"Al-Shabaab dispatched men with whips to the streets,\" witness says .\nAl-Shabaab is considered a terrorist organization by the United States .","id":"244b2d12f92f4081549ec1a9a81f03684a3f4294"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A tip from a television viewer led to the arrest of a Florida man accused of killing four of his family members on Thanksgiving Day, authorities said early Sunday. Paul M. Merhige is accused of fatally shooting his twin sisters, a 6-year-old cousin and a 79-year-old aunt at a family home in Jupiter, Florida, on November 26. One of his sisters was pregnant. Authorities say Merhige also wounded two other family members. A viewer of \"America's Most Wanted\" recognized descriptions of Merhige and his car, authorities said at a news conference early Sunday. Officers immediately responded to the tip late Saturday, surrounding a small motel in the Middle Keys, part of the Florida Keys. Merhige, who had apparently been at the Monroe County motel since December 2, did not resist apprehension by U.S. marshals, authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether he was armed when marshals burst into his motel room, more than 200 miles from Jupiter. Merhige made a first appearance in a West Palm Beach, Florida, court later Sunday morning in a hearing that lasted only minutes, according to CNN affiliate WPTV. He is charged with four counts of premeditated murder and attempted first-degree murder. Asked by the judge if he had anything to say, Merhige declined comment, WPTV said. His next court appearance is scheduled for February 1. He will be held without bond at the Palm Beach County jail. Jim Sitton, father of 6-year-old Makayla, who was killed, told CNN affiliate WPTV late Saturday that he would \"sleep a little better tonight.\" \"I won't be patrolling my house with a shotgun, looking for the monster. ... I've been in protective mode,\" he said. \"This doesn't bring Makayla back. I'm not jumping for joy. Her room is still empty. But the monster is in a cage now.\" The \"America's Most Wanted\" tipster told authorities that Merhige had checked into the Edgewater Lodge motel under the name John Baca and provided an address in Homestead, Florida, according to a news release from police in Jupiter, Florida. No one at the motel was immediately available for comment, but its Web site included photos of waterfront rooms, efficiencies and townhouses starting at $89 a night. Merhige had paid cash at least two weeks in advance, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release. He was on a computer when marshals burst into his second-story room. Merhige had tried to disguise his 2007 Blue Toyota Camry with a car cover and had switched its vehicle tag with one from another car he'd owned, the statement said. He also had shaved his head in an attempt to disguise his identity, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said. Last month, the marshals added Merhige to their list of the Top 15 most-wanted fugitives. A total of $100,000 was offered as a reward for information leading to Merhige's arrest, the sheriff's office said, and the tipster may be entitled to it. The agency also released some distinguishing characteristics about Merhige, saying he was known to either fake or display symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, such as frequent bathing and shaving, and difficulty making decisions. He also had faked or displayed symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, and taken several prescription drugs for the ailments, the agency said.","highlights":"Viewer tip led to arrest of man suspected of fatally shooting four relatives on Thanksgiving .\nPaul Michael Merhige arrested late Saturday at Florida motel .\nTipster told authorities Merhige had checked into motel under assumed name .","id":"3e63f30df0b4f43fe59eb8802814ac6524ebb69b"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama should end a longstanding policy of not writing letters of condolence to families of troops who commit suicide, dozens of lawmakers urged him in a letter Wednesday. The lawmakers warned that \"our armed forces are in the midst of a suicide epidemic.\" U.S. Army statistics show that more than 200 troops have killed themselves this year, more than in 2008, which was a record year. \"By overturning this policy on letters of condolence to the families of suicide victims, you can send a strong signal that you will not tolerate a culture in our armed forces that discriminates against those with a mental illness,\" the lawmakers wrote. The White House has begun a review of the condolence policy, which the 46 members of Congress said should be completed as soon as possible. They also argued the policy of treating suicides differently from deaths in action flew in the face of military funeral procedure, which treats both the same. Service members who kill themselves get \"a full military burial, complete with flag-draped coffin and 21-gun salute. We have not heard of any reports that military morale and discipline have waned as a result,\" they wrote. They also argued that letters of condolence are \"as much about respect for the personal loss that a family experiences as it is about an acknowledgment by our nation that we have lost a soldier.\" The White House said two weeks ago its review of the policy should \"hopefully\" conclude shortly. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president himself asked for the review. \"If the president didn't care, the policy would remain unchanged and unexamined,\" Gibbs said at a December 9 news conference. Despite this year's rise in suicides, Army officials said a recent trend downward could signal progress in programs intended to reduce the problem. Between January and mid-November, 140 active-duty soldiers killed themselves, as did 71 Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers. That's a total of 211 as of November 17, when Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, briefed reporters about the problem. But he said the monthly numbers are starting to slow down as the year nears its end. \"This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way,\" Chiarelli said. For all of 2008, the Army said 140 active-duty soldiers killed themselves, while 57 Guard and Reserve soldiers committed suicide, totaling 197. While the lawmakers cited attitudes toward the mentally ill, the Army is still trying to tackle why soldiers are killing themselves. \"We still haven't found any statistically significant causal linkage that would allow us to effectively predict human behavior. The reality is, there is no simple answer -- each suicide case is as unique as the individuals themselves,\" Chiarelli said. He also said there were troubling new statistics showing an increase in suicide rates among young soldiers who have never deployed, another factor puzzling Army researchers. CNN's Adam S. Levine, Larry Shaughnessy, Mike Mount and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.","highlights":"Forty-six members of Congress ask President Obama to revise policy .\nWhite House does not send condolence letters to families of suicide victims .\nObama asked for review of policy, spokesman says .\nPolicy stigmatizes mental illness, lawmakers say .","id":"dadbcc0001ffb570e2976205079040f7d13ac65e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Let me tell you a little about me.\" \"Farouk1986\" introduced himself to a Muslim online community with these words in February 2005. \"My name is Umar but you can call me Farouk,\" the poster continues, detailing biographical information that appears to match the life of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of attempting to detonate an explosive on an international flight into Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day. The failed terror plot put airports on high alert and refocused American attention on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attempted attack. Internet postings for Farouk1986 -- apparently a combination of his name and birth year -- reveal a young man who fought feelings of loneliness and struggled with balancing his life as a Muslim with the temptations of the secular world around him. He wrote about his desire to attend university, possibly in the United States, and his thoughts on love and marriage. Officials have not confirmed that Internet postings by Farouk1986 were made by AbdulMutallab, but the many detailed biographical points made by the poster match what has been reported about AbdulMutallab's life. \"I will describe myself as very ambitious and determined, especially in the deen,\" Farouk1986 wrote in February 2005, referring to the Islamic way of life. The poster writes about being in boarding school, with possibilities of attending Stanford University or the University of California-Berkeley. Eventually, AbdulMutallab studied mechanical engineering at University College London. Besides being ambitious, Farouk1986 also described himself as lonely. \"First of all, I have no friend[s],\" he wrote in another online post with informal, imperfect grammar. \"Not because I do not socialise (sic), etc but because either people do not want to get too close to me as they go partying and stuff while I don't. or they are bad people who befriend me and influence me to do bad things. \"i have no one to speak too, no one to consult, no one to support me and i feel depressed and lonely. i do not know what to do.\" Somewhere along the way, AbdulMutallab turned toward Islamic extremism. An FBI official said AbdulMutallab was included in the U.S. government's Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, after his father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria of his son's hard-line beliefs and possible ties to militant Islamists. But his name was not pulled from that database and included on lists barring him from U.S.-bound aircraft. Part of the explosive device that failed to take down last week's flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, was sewn into AbdulMutallab's underwear, authorities said. A preliminary FBI analysis found the device contained pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an explosive also known as PETN. Investigators were having trouble determining what the accelerant AbdulMutallab allegedly tried to use to light the explosives because \"the syringe was pretty much destroyed,\" a law enforcement source told CNN. All 300 passengers and crew onboard the Christmas Day flight have been interviewed by authorities, the source said, adding that he expected no one else to be held or charged in connection with the incident. Farouk1986's online posts show that as early as 2005, he had a serious view of his religion. One of his struggles, the poster wrote, was that the \"loneliness leads me to other problems.\" Farouk1986 said after fasting, \"I felt a shield that prevented evil thoughts coming into my head. I felt closer to Allah.\" Being lonely awakened sexual desires that he struggled to control, he said, sometimes \"leading to minor sinful activities like not lowering the gaze.\" His religion instructed him to fast to avoid such temptation, but it didn't seem to be working, Farouk1986 said. In another online post soon afterward, though, he took his comment back. CNN's Alden Mahler Levine and CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.","highlights":"Biographical details in posts by \"Farouk1986\" match reports of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab's life .\nPosts reveal young man who struggled to balance Islam with temptations of the secular world .\n\"i have no one to speak too, no one to consult, no one to support me...i do not know what to do\"\nAbdulMutallab is accused of attempting to detonate explosive on flight to U.S. on Christmas .","id":"047c86eb405ce7d29eef0558192cf171b4e9de1f"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Hurricane Gustav didn't pack the wallop of Katrina three years earlier, officials said Monday, but they urged almost 2 million evacuees to stay away from the Gulf Coast for another day. A man walks past a storefront that collapsed as Hurricane Gustav passed through Lafayette, Louisiana, on Monday. \"Tomorrow is not a day to start coming back to the city of New Orleans,\" Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday night. \"Power lines are down all over the city; there's a significant number of homes and businesses that are without power,\" Nagin said. Still, he said, Gustav didn't do the damage feared a few days ago, a possible repeat of 2005's Hurricane Katrina. \"I'd probably call Gustav, instead of the mother of all storms, maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms,\" Nagin said. Across Louisiana, more than 800,000 people were without electricity, and some may not see it restored for two weeks or more, Gov. Bobby Jindal said. At a news conference with Jindal, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged Gulf Coast residents who evacuated to stay away until damage could be assessed. But even those who fled faced hardships. About 2,700 people who took up short-term residence Monday in the Louisiana State University Agriculture Center in Alexandria were told that the buildings generator power was not reaching the plumbing system, meaning no showers and no flushing toilets, said John Barnett, head of the facilities. \"It's really crowded, and everybody's just trying to do their best,\" said Kesha Harlow, who was there with her daughter, 8, and her son, 2 months. \"We're just waiting for the storm to blow over.\" Gustav roared from the Gulf of Mexico into southern Louisiana on Monday as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph, bringing fierce winds and heavy rains from the Alabama-Florida border west into Texas. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, two people were killed when a tree fell on the house where they were staying after they had come from farther south to escape the storm, officials said. A man was killed in a similar incident in north Lafayette, Louisiana, officials said. Four hospice patients died while waiting for air ambulances to evacuate them from southern Louisiana, according to Richard Zuschlag, chairman and CEO of Acadian Ambulance. Gustav was blamed for more than 60 deaths in the Caribbean, including 51 in southwestern Haiti. At 10 p.m. CT, Gustav was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 60 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. In New Orleans, Gustav drove sheets of water over the protective levees around the Industrial Canal early Monday afternoon, but the walls appeared to hold up under the onslaught as the winds faded. Up to 6 feet of water spilled into an industrial park in the Upper 9th Ward late Monday morning, pouring through small gaps in the concrete flood walls before receding in the afternoon. Watch water spill over the levee \u00bb . But as the storm eased, inspectors from the Army Corps of Engineers and parish levee boards went out to check on the earthen walls and have found nothing to raise alarm, said Col. Craig Gunter, a Corps of Engineers spokesman. iReport.com: See one reader's footage of the levee . \"The levees all held up,\" Nagin said. \"I was hoping that this would happen, that we would be able to stand before America and before everyone and say we had some success with the levee system.\" With the water level in Lake Pontchartrain north of the city rising, the Army Corps of Engineers closed flood gates on the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal, two areas that caused some of the more severe flooding during Katrina. Official feared late Monday afternoon that a private levee south of New Orleans was in danger of failing, but water levels receded, and sandbagging efforts appeared to have paid off. \"We have stopped the bleeding, and I am very encouraged by what we are seeing,\" Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said of the levee in Braithwaite. Gustav made landfall Monday morning near the coastal town of Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans. iReport: Watch winds rip New Orleans rooftop . The storm's eastern bands, which generally pack the most powerful winds, also hammered Mississippi as Gustav moved to the west of New Orleans. In Biloxi, Mississippi, iReporter Kevin Wise, who lives two blocks from the beach, said Gustav had pushed the Gulf waters into a highway about 100 yards from the normal shoreline. \"On the beach, it was blowing hard enough that you had to squat down to take a picture; it could pretty much throw you around,\" he said. Wise said he and his wife ignored mandatory evacuation orders for his area. Almost 2 million residents evacuated the Louisiana coast, but some in New Orleans opted to brave the storm. \"It really didn't look as vicious as, obviously, Katrina did,\" Jack Bosma said. Watch gales batter home, reporter \u00bb . He said the wind scattered his back gate across his yard, but his power was on, and neighbors had been congregating on his porch. \"It's really, quite honestly, basically, just like a bad storm. It doesn't seem that drastic at all,\" he said. iReport.com: Did you stay? Share your story . Property damage from Gustav could total $8 billion, just 25 percent of Sunday's estimate, according to a federally supported computer projection issued Monday morning. See damage map \u00bb . Meanwhile, forecasters said late Monday that Hurricane Hanna was nearly stationary in the Bahamas. At 11 p.m. ET, Hanna had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, making it a Category 1 storm. Hanna could make landfall Friday near the Georgia\/South Carolina border, possibly as a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph. And in the far eastern Atlantic, Tropical Storm Ike formed Monday with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. It was headed toward the Bahamas . CNN's Kathleen Koch, Jeanne Meserve, Mike Ahlers, Morgan Neill, Matt Sloane, Susan Roesgen, Chris Lawrence and Ali Velshi contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Gustav downgraded to tropical storm .\nNEW: About 2 million evacuees urged to stay away while damaged assessed .\n800,000 lose electricity, may take weeks to restore, Louisiana governor says .\nWatch breaking hurricane news live on CNN.com .","id":"9a3addb5cfa20aabf64893627e20dcdb79e9c427"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- President Obama said Thursday that watching the arrival of 18 flag-draped cases containing bodies of Americans killed in Afghanistan was a \"sobering reminder\" of U.S. sacrifice as he prepares to decide on sending more troops there. At a brief media appearance with visiting Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Obama was asked whether his unannounced appearance at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the pre-dawn dignified transfer of the bodies would influence his decision on troop levels in Afghanistan. \"Obviously, it was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day,\" the president said. Obama said the burden of war on U.S. troops and their families will \"bear on how I see these conflicts.\" \"It is something I think about each and every day,\" he said. Also in attendance for the transfer of the bodies were Attorney General Eric Holder and Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The bodies included three DEA special agents and 15 U.S. troops who died in Afghanistan this week. The agents were killed Monday as they returned from a raid on a compound believed to be harboring insurgents tied to drug trafficking. Seven U.S. troops also died when their helicopter went down in western Afghanistan. The military transport that landed in Delaware also included the bodies of eight U.S. soldiers killed Tuesday when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs in two incidents in southern Afghanistan. The soldiers were from the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Washington. The DEA identified the agents killed Monday as Forrest N. Leamon, 37, of Woodbridge, Virginia; Chad L. Michael, 30, of Quantico, Virginia; and Michael E. Weston, 37, of Washington. Leamon and Michael were members of the DEA's Foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Teams, and Weston was assigned to the agency's Kabul office. CNN's Carol Cratty contributed to this report.","highlights":"President Obama was on hand as bodies of soldiers who died in Afghanistan returned home .\nDEA agents, U.S. troops were recently killed in helicopter crash .\nEight U.S. soldiers also killed by roadside bomb in Afghanistan .","id":"cc4dc62df97695195e1d7e812e290aaa2268409f"} -{"article":"Vero Beach, Florida (CNN) -- Louis Schacht's family has been growing citrus in Vero Beach, Florida, for 60 years, contributing to a multibillion-dollar industry. But this year, he's worried. The winter weather blasting much of the country has made it to Florida, and the cold front now moving through is expected to last longer than usual. That could prove disastrous for Schacht and his fellow growers at the peak of the picking season. A chill can enhance the taste of the oranges and grapefruit that the Schacht family business grows and ships around the world. But if the temperature drops to 28 degrees Fahrenheit or below and stays there for four hours, fruit across Florida could be frozen and the crop destroyed. \"If it stays just above freezing, it can really help sweeten the fruit, but it's a fine line to walk. If it gets too cold, you can definitely have some damage,\" Schacht said. He has flooded his 280-acre grove in a bid to protect his fruit, as have larger growers across the state. \"What that does is create a little layer of warmth, usually about 20 to 25 feet from the surface, which is all we really need,\" Schacht said. And Schacht said that's just about all he can do. He said the fate of his fruit is now out of his hands. \"We've basically done what we can do,\" he said. \"You say a prayer and go to bed.\" CNNMoney.com: Will prices rise for orange juice? Schacht ships directly to customers around the world. \"As a small grower, you try to sell everything that you can, direct to the consumer,\" he said. His crop contributes to Florida being the No. 1 producer of oranges in the country. \"The citrus industry has a 9 billion-dollar annual economic impact,\" says Florida Citrus Mutual spokesman Andrew Meadows.","highlights":"Citrus grower says fate of his fruit is out of his hands .\nCold snap now chilling state is forecast to be unusually long .\nLouis Schacht fears oranges and grapefruit could freeze and be ruined .","id":"36171b3054885df4cf9ed97c5e7879bc3ed48a76"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities do not consistently offer the level of services and infrastructure necessary to properly treat the growing number of female veterans, a government investigation concludes. One official says the VA can offer women better medical care than they would get in private practice. The report by the Government Accountability Office found wide variation in the medical centers' facilities and programs for female veterans. Investigators visited 18 veterans' facilities and found that basic services, like pelvic examinations, were being provided and that patients had access to female providers for gender-specific care. But the facilities were lacking in some simpler accommodations, such as the configuration of exam rooms and privacy in check-in areas. The department says it is taking comprehensive steps to improve, including programs for primary care and mental health care for female veterans, along with having a female veterans' program manager in each of its medical facilities. But Veterans Affairs faces hurdles in its efforts to improve its services and facilities, the department's chief consultant for women's medical care testified before Congress on Tuesday. \"Moving to a more comprehensive primary care delivery model could challenge VA clinicians, who may have dealt predominantly with male veterans and sometimes have little or no exposure to female patients,\" said Patricia Hayes of the department's Women's Veterans Health Strategic Healthcare Group. Only one-third of veterans' facilities offer a separate space for women to receive gynecological, mental health and social work services, according to Hayes. There is a goal to have a gynecologist available at every facility by 2012, she said. And Dennis Cullinan, national legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, noted that Veterans Affairs has contracted out to provide female veterans care in the facilities where there are not in-house providers. He said the department is fighting an aging infrastructure that is making it tougher to improve facilities. \"The facilities to provide the level of care and privacy just aren't there,\" he said. \"The VA is pursuing this. They are absolutely not dodging it.\" There are more than 1.8 million female veterans in the United States, 8 percent of the veteran population. In 2008, more than 281,000 female veterans received care from Veterans Affairs, according to the department's statistics. The number of female veterans enrolled for medical care with the department is expected to increase by 30 percent in the next five years, it predicts. The median age of female veterans is much lower than their male counterparts: 47, compared with 61, according to Veterans Affairs data. Hayes said the department can offer female veterans better care than they would receive in private practices. \"Women are screened for unique health concerns like cervical cancer or breast cancer at higher rates than non-VA health care programs,\" she noted. While noting that the department has taken steps to upgrade its services and facilities to meet the needs of female veterans, investigators found that it stumbled on some more basic elements. None of the facilities visited was fully compliant with the department's standards for privacy, investigators found, including privacy in the check-in area. \"In most clinical settings, check-in desk or windows were located in a mixed-gender waiting room or on a high-traffic public corridor,\" the report explained. In a majority of the clinics, \"check-in desk were located in close proximity to chairs where other patients waited for their appointment.\" In one facility, it said, investigators observed other patients lining up immediately behind the patient trying to check in. The government investigators also found that exam tables were not oriented away from the door or shielded properly by curtains, as is required, and there was a lack of toilets near the facilities where gynecological examinations were conducted. And only two of the facilities provided sanitary napkin dispensers in at least one public restroom for women.","highlights":"GAO report finds centers lacking in simple accommodations .\nVeterans' agency says it is working hard for improvement .\nAging infrastructure expected to complicate efforts .\nNumber of women enrolled for care expected to rise 30 percent over five years .","id":"cf827b692b65dff6979247414f339b64ebe72bcb"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Joan Baez is in a celebratory mood. And rightly so: She's survived 50 years in show business. Joan Baez says that her new Steve Earle-produced album was meant to sound like a throwback to the folk era. The legendary singer, who rose to fame during the folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s, is marking the occasion with a new album called \"Day After Tomorrow.\" Produced by Steve Earle (whom Baez likes to call \"Mister Gruff\"), it's a collection of bluegrass-tinged songs reminiscent of her early repertoire. \"We were looking for songs that feel like now but sound like back then,\" she said. Earle penned one of the album's standout tracks, \"God Is God,\" which he describes as \"recovery speak.\" Baez also covers \"Scarlet Tide,\" a song written by Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett for the 2003 film \"Cold Mountain.\" At 67, Baez finds her voice may not have the sheer power it did in her 20s, but her political spirit is intact. She passionately expressed her support for Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, the first time the self-described pacifist has taken sides in party politics. \"I haven't heard an orator like that since King,\" she said. Baez knew the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and famously sang the protest song \"We Shall Overcome\" to a massive crowd at the Lincoln Memorial during King's 1963 March on Washington. Baez spoke to CNN about sustaining her voice and finding happiness in her 60s. The following is an edited version of that interview, which was conducted before Tuesday's election. CNN: What did Steve Earle bring to the table with your new album? Joan Baez: Oh, everything but the voice. Spirit, some songs. His gruffness to my non-gruffness. He worked fast, really fast, and I like that. And he brought the musicians. I don't know who to choose for musicians. We were a good match. CNN: Is there a song on the album that speaks to you more than others? Baez: I guess the ones I go back listening to are \"God Is God\" and \"Rose of Sharon.\" \"Rose of Sharon\" sounds exactly like an old folk song. I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that it's contemporary. CNN: How does it feel to be embarking on a new tour at such a politically charged time? Baez: I've never seen this country this politically charged. I realized something this morning. I was watching Obama on TV and I thought, \"I really love this guy.\" I love what he's capable of, I love that he's genuine. He's a statesman, and he's brilliant. People say do you think he can change America? He already has. ... And I know most of the things he'll have to do I would battle him to the death. He's going to be commander in chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and I'm a pacifist [laughs]. CNN: So you would almost prefer that he didn't run for president, that his talents could be applied in other ways? Baez: Yeah. I've thought that, yeah. Part of me wishes very strongly that Obama would be outside the system and his hands would be less tied. CNN: In the '50s and '60s, you lived and breathed the causes you rallied behind. When you look at young musicians today, do you feel they're attaching themselves to charities or causes because it's hip, rather than meaningful? Baez: I think it's probably a combination of things. I think people are afraid of risk so they'll [only] go so far. But I don't think people have felt the urgency that we felt in the '60s. But it's there. The urgency is there. There's a need for community, but we don't feel it. CNN: Why is that? Baez: That we don't feel it? Because we live more and more separately. Kids are walking down the street plugged in [to personal electronics]. The only place there's community really is in the ghetto, where they need each other and they know it. We need each other, and we don't know it. CNN: You look back at all the causes you've rallied behind, and there have been so many. ... Baez: It makes me dizzy. CNN: [Do] you feel emotionally wrung out? Baez: No. It's the opposite. What happens is it starts generating energy for myself. There's some part of me that's wiped out. I feel that sometimes. CNN: Do you find you have to work harder to keep your voice in shape? Baez: Oh God, yeah. It was very humiliating to find out that I was like everybody else in the world and that I had to get coaching. And now it's a real issue. I have to do [vocal exercises] every day, especially on tour. It's pretty exhausting. CNN: Would you say that life in your 60s is easier than life in your 20s and 30s? Baez: Oh God, yes. ... I was a highly neurotic kid, not particularly happy, which probably accounts for all those beautiful songs, those beautiful sad ballads. I found my home there. And as the years went by and as the therapy went on I was holding together. And then at around 50, I decided to fall apart and find the pieces and put them back where they should've been. And I did. And I did what I thought was impossible, which was really drag the stuff up, look at it, go through all that and then each time I did that ... it became a daily thing with the therapist ... to find out something huge. Go through the terror, go through all of it and then by the end of the week something had changed a little bit. This went on for a number of years. So I am now in a stage nothing like where I was before then. There's no stage fright now. Just the joy of singing. CNN: You're happy being single, aren't you? Baez: Yeah. After all I've been through, I don't want to risk [pats her heart]. I mean I feel so extraordinary, so much better. And you know if something walked into my life that feels right ... the question is, am I ready to see it or not? I'm sure it's wandered by me a few times. But at some point maybe I'll be ready to see that in which case it would be a good thing. ... [In] Buddhism there's no real happiness without the struggle. But the struggle has to defeat you in a way [before] you get to be like the Dalai Lama. You know those monks all giggle? All the time! They've got it figured out. Because things are what they are on Earth, and you be as good as you can, and you die, it's the next life. So what's the big f****** deal?","highlights":"Joan Baez has new album, \"Day After Tomorrow,\" produced by Steve Earle .\nBaez says causes generate energy, don't leave her wrung out .\nSinger says she was unhappy in 20s and 30s, only recently has no stage fright .","id":"4b0f33c05d5000eedc9b996b203d418b8d38ee20"} -{"article":"AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Garry Mauro will never forget that night in 1972 when he says Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham ignored the post-election party surrounding them, instead preferring to huddle in a corner and talk about changing the future. Hillary and Bill Clinton worked on George McGovern's 1972 campaign in Texas before they wed in 1975. The young then-unmarried couple, attending Yale Law, weren't interested in letting off steam with their Democratic colleagues in Austin, Texas, according to Mauro, who's now a strategist with Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The three were among a group of Young Turk Democrats working that summer to register voters in Texas. The Clintons had just started dating, said Mauro, who years later became Texas land commissioner. \"They obviously had a lot of respect for each other, and they would spend hours talking to each other.\" More than 35 years on, Hillary Clinton has returned to Texas -- running a hard-fought campaign of her own and telling voters about her days there in the '70s. Mauro recalls the night it was all over in 1972, after Democrat George McGovern lost to Republican Richard Nixon. He says he and the Clintons decided to let loose in lively Austin, paying $1.50 to see a Texas singer by the name of Willie Nelson before rambling back to a colleague's tiny apartment. \"It was 2 o'clock in the morning, and everybody else had probably had too much to drink, except for Bill and Hillary -- who were drinking [soda] and having this intense discussion about the issues,\" said Mauro. \"I'm absolutely certain that 99 percent of what they were talking about was changing things in the future.\" Mauro's story underscores how Sen. Clinton's lifelong political journey has come full circle in Texas. With the March 4 primary just days away, the place where the New York senator got her first job in presidential politics may become her launching pad to the White House -- or perhaps one of her final battlegrounds. Clinton and her Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama have been dueling in the state for weeks, as polls show the candidates locked in a razor-thin race to win the biggest share of 193 Texas delegates, who are crucial to sewing up the party nomination. Another key state, Ohio, also holds its primary March 4 to allocate 141 delegates. Former officials from Clinton's husband's administration have openly discussed the challenges Clinton faces from Obama, who has defeated the New York senator in the past 11 contests. Exit polls after previous primaries show Obama is cutting into Clinton's base by gaining support among blue-collar workers and Latino voters. Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers called Texas a \"do-or-die test.\" President Clinton's former strategist James Carville said if the New York senator fails to win Ohio or Texas, \"This thing is done.\" And the former president himself said if voters in Texas don't deliver, \"I don't think she can be\" the party's nominee. Mauro underscored the historic importance of the '08 election. \"We couldn't have conceived of a woman running for president in 1972,\" said Mauro. \"It never would have occurred to people that you'd have a presidential race between a woman and an African-American.\" Obama leads Clinton in the crucial delegate count -- 1,369 to 1,267, according to CNN calculations. The count includes superdelegates who have publicly declared their support for one of the candidates. Superdelegates consist of elected and party officials who are allowed to vote at the Democratic National Convention. They are free to vote for any candidate and are not bound by primary or caucus results. To win the nomination, 2,025 national convention delegates are needed. Neither candidate is expected to garner enough delegates in the remaining primaries and caucuses to take the nomination outright, and the roughly 800 superdelegates are likely to be the deciding factor. Mauro and the Clintons cut their political teeth in Texas during the 1972 election, knocking on doors and registering people -- many of them minorities -- to vote. Texas election workers often looked with suspicion at the so-called \"out-of-staters.\" \"Most of them had a funny accent and really didn't know how to talk to people,\" Mauro said. \"That was not the case with Hillary Clinton. She always established a rapport with the local officials she was working with -- even the ones that started out being aggressively negative. And she would always seem to move the ball forward.\" Like other places in the South at the time, Texas still had pockets of racial segregation, Mauro said, and it reminded them how much work needed to be done. \"Sometimes we forget how far we've come. In this city there were still bathrooms and water fountains that were segregated. There were lots of places African-Americans and Hispanics were not welcome and were not allowed.\" When the Clintons, Mauro and their colleagues needed to let off steam in Austin, the town's traditional watering holes filled the bill, places such as Armadillo Headquarters and the century-old Scholz Garten -- a German beer garden with an outdoor patio set under spreading oaks. See photos of Clinton through the years \u00bb . \"Clinton acquitted!\" screams a framed 1999 headline from The Washington Post on the wall at Scholz. Other items adorning the walls feature former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. Watch storied nightspot where Clintons hung out \u00bb . When Bill Clinton returned to Texas for his own presidential run, they frequented Guero's Taco Bar in Austin's funky South Congress Avenue neighborhood, which trendsetters like to call SoCo. The friendships and alliances Sen. Clinton made during those days sowed the seeds of a statewide grassroots network of supporters that she's counting on to win in 2008. \"We're going to use those spurs to help her get elected,\" said Mauro. In general, said Mauro, a national election campaign is grueling. \"Most people only have a few good elections in them,\" said Mauro. \"It's really hard work. It's grunt work.\" For that reason, he said, \"That's a pretty remarkable person to keep that enthusiasm and drive and continue to have that grit 30 years later.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Longtime Clinton pal recalls boozy post-election party in '72 .\nNewly dating Clinton and Rodham display early political intensity .\nWill Texas rev up Clinton's White House bid -- or end it all?\nEx-Clinton official Dee Dee Myers calls Texas \"do-or- die test\"","id":"29c696f93c23ef72e8537d88a3b19637dd8b36e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The bodies of three students at a North Dakota university who had been missing since Sunday were found Tuesday in a vehicle submerged in a pond near their school, police said. The discovery came Tuesday afternoon after a search team found tire tracks leading to a stock pond for cattle five miles northwest of Dickinson, North Dakota, Lt. William Leach of the Stark County Sheriff's Office told CNN. The investigators found a white 1997 Jeep Cherokee with California tags containing the bodies, he said. Foul play is not suspected, he said. The Dickinson State University softball players -- Kyrstin Gemar, 22, a senior who owned the car; Afton Williamson, 20, a junior; and Ashley Neufeld, 21, a senior -- had last been reported seen about 10:45 p.m. Sunday, according to CNN affiliate KXMB. At 11:18 p.m. and 11:19 p.m., teammates received two distress calls from the women during which they mentioned water and a lake, said Connie Walter, Dickinson director of university relations. After the calls ended abruptly, the teammates contacted law enforcement and the search began. At 12:07 a.m. Monday, a \"ping\" on a tower from one of the students' cell phones was traced to a cell tower five miles northeast of Dickinson and authorities concentrated their search in that area, officials said. Watch the women's coach recall \"awesome person\" Authorities have not identified the owner of the pond, which is 25 yards by 25 yards in area. It was not known how the students ended up in the stock pond, which is on private property and is part of a farm and cattle operation, Walter said. Dickinson Police Officer Thomas Grosz told ABC's \"Good Morning America\" that authorities believed the women may have gone out to a lake to stargaze. That would not have been unusual, Gemar's father, Lenny, told ABC. Dickinson, he said, is a \"pretty small town\" without an active nightlife. He said the women routinely drove to a lake to stargaze and chat. Williamson and Gemar were from California, while Neufeld was from Canada, according to KXMB. Dickinson is almost 100 miles west of Bismarck, North Dakota.","highlights":"Police find women in car submerged in pond .\nFriend says the missing women called her, were hysterical, mentioned water .\nThe three students were known to stargaze at lake, father of one tells ABC .\nKyrstin Gemar, Afton Williamson and Ashley Neufeld were last seen Sunday night .","id":"86777e3812117006bb140039905326ecddbe15bb"} -{"article":"Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia are the blind husband and wife team from Mali who first gained widespread international attention in 2005 with their album \"Dimanche a Bamako\". Amadou and Mariam have made the crossover to find international pop success. After writing and performing together since they met at Institute of Young Blind of Bamako in 1977, their international break-through came when world music heavyweight Manu Chao produced their commercial hit album. With a more pop-friendly sound but with the couple's positive and mesmeric vocals and Bagayoko's guitar playing, the duo have been feted by musicians across the world; the played opening sets for the Scissor Sisters and will be the opening act for Coldplay on their latest tour. Having made the transition from world music to international pop sensations the couple talk to African Voices about their journey through music, coping with the setback of blindness and how their careers are on a high over 30 years after they began singing. Watch the show on CNN on Saturday July 25, 12.30, 21.30 GMT and Sunday July 26, 18.00 GMT.","highlights":"Blind husband and wife team from Mali have become international music stars .\nMet at Institute for Young Blind in Bamako in 1977, married three years later .\n2005 album brought them crossover fame; opening act for Coldplay before solo tour .","id":"0eceb74253cbb01c34167d38fa9845c44b1d3af7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to take in 17 Chinese Muslims held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the country's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday. The map shows the Pacific island nation of Palau in relation to China. Details of the transfer are still being worked out, Ambassador Hersey Kyota told CNN. But Kyota said his country, a former U.S. Pacific trust territory, has agreed to take in the ethnic Uighur detainees \"for humanitarian reasons\" and because of the \"special relationship\" between Palau and the United States. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly would not comment on the announcement, telling reporters, \"We're still involved in ongoing discussions.\" The agreement includes some U.S. aid for Palau, Kyota said, but he said those details remained to be worked out as well. The country, with a population of about 20,000, is about 1,000 miles southeast of Manila, Philippines, and about 4,600 miles west of Hawaii. Palau has received nearly $900 million in U.S. aid since independence in 1994, according to congressional auditors, and depends on Washington for defense. The \"Compact of Free Association\" between Palau and the United States is up for review, but Kelly said any additional aid offer \"is not linked to any other discussions we may be having with the government of Palau.\" The Uighurs were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan. Some of the prisoners have been cleared for release from the Guantanamo Bay facility since 2003, but the United States would not send them back to China out of concern that Chinese authorities would torture them. A federal court ordered the men released, but an appeals court halted that order. China has said no returned Uighurs would be tortured, but it has warned other countries against taking the men. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu told reporters in February that the men \"must be handed over to China and brought to justice.\"","highlights":"Country's ambassador to U.S. says agreement includes some aid to Palau .\nUighurs are native Chinese Muslims .\nPalau agrees to take 17 Uighurs from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba .\nU.S. wouldn't send Uighur detainees to China due to torture concerns .","id":"3b13ed020e933739ef2a2988475fc86cf16684e3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The head of Iran's soccer federation issued a public apology and a member of his staff resigned after the federation mistakenly sent a New Year's greeting to its counterpart in Israel, Iranian officials announced Sunday. \"It was a big mistake sending an e-mail to Israel's football federation,\" Ali Kaffashian, president of the Iran Football Federation, said in a statement carried by the semi-official Mehrs News Agency. \"However, I am sure the director of the foreign relations office didn't do it on purpose.\" Kaffashian said Iran's soccer league routinely sends New Year's greetings to all members of FIFA, the sport's global federation, except for Israel. Iran does not recognize Israel, which it dismisses as the \"Zionist entity,\" and the two countries' teams do not meet in international competitions. Mohammad-Mansour Azimzadeh Ardebili, the head of the league's foreign relations office, resigned over the matter, Kaffashian said.","highlights":"New Year's e-mail to Israel was a mistake, Iranian officials say .\nIran doesn't recognize Israel .\nIran's soccer federation usually sends greetings to all FIFA members except Israel .\nHead of the Iranian federation's foreign relations office resigns .","id":"9c9e77e832a796a75c6df451270f0e6261636299"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Two Washington Wizards basketball players drew guns on each other during a heated Christmas Eve gambling debt dispute, the New York Post reported Friday. Law enforcement authorities said they were investigating an incident but gave no details. Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton both brandished firearms in the team's locker room, the Post reported, citing NBA league sources. The dispute erupted when Arenas, a three-time NBA all-star, refused to pay up on a debt owed to Crittenton, the Post stated, citing an anonymous league source. Multiple sources said Arenas drew his gun first, the Post reported. Arenas denied the charge, saying he never pulled a weapon. Neither Arenas, 27, nor Crittenton, 22, could be reached for comment Friday. The incident, according to the Post, occurred during a Wizards practice day at the Verizon Center, the team's arena in downtown Washington. It is unclear whether any other Wizards players witnessed the alleged confrontation, the Post said. NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Friday that there is \"an active investigation\" being conducted by Washington law enforcement authorities. \"We are not taking any independent action at this time,\" he said. The Wizards also released a statement Friday saying that the team takes \"this situation and the ongoing investigation very seriously. We are continuing to cooperate fully with the proper authorities and the NBA.\" A Washington Metropolitan Police Department statement earlier in the week said local law enforcement was assisting the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia \"with an investigation into an allegation that weapons were located inside a locker room at the Verizon Center.\" \"There are a lot of rumors going around,\" Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Friday. \"We need to get it right.\" CNN's David Close and Rick Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"New York Post: Washington Wizards teammates drew guns on each other .\nGilbert Arenas, Javaris Crittenton argued over gambling debt, paper says .\nAuthorities say they are investigating incident but gave no details .","id":"4872125bdb96f745b14fea0f09c3f3773e2fe551"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The attack on a Danish political cartoonist \"runs totally against the teachings and values of Islam,\" the umbrella organization representing Muslim countries has said. If the attack was a reaction to Kurt Westergaard's drawing of the Muslim prophet Mohammed with a turban shaped as a bomb, \"then it should be rejected and condemned by all Muslims,\" the Organization of the Islamic Conference said in a statement Sunday. An ax-wielding Somali man is accused of trying to break into Westergaard's home Friday and was charged the next day with attempted assassination. Intelligence officials linked the suspect to an East African Islamist militia allied with al Qaeda. The suspect tried to kill Westergaard and an on-duty police officer, the Danish Intelligence and Security Service said. Danish police shot the 28-year-old suspect Friday night as he tried to enter Westergaard's home in the city of Aarhus. The suspect was shot in the right leg and left hand. He was hospitalized after the incident. Video showed him appearing at court strapped to a stretcher. Authorities did not identify him because the judge decided it would be illegal to disclose his name, said Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen with the East Jutland Police. They said he has legal residency in Denmark and lives in Sjaelland, near Copenhagen. The judge ordered the suspect held for four weeks while the investigation proceeds. Madsen said the man is currently the only suspect in the case, and he would not say whether police were investigating anyone else. Al-Shabaab, the militant organization with alleged ties to the suspect, is waging a bloody battle against Somalia's transitional government and is currently on a U.S. government list of terrorist organizations. At a news conference in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said, \"We are very happy with the Somali national who attacked the house of the Danish cartoonist who previously insulted our prophet Mohammed. This is an honor for the Somali people. We are telling that we are glad that anyone who insults Islam should be attacked wherever they are.\" Police had no indication that an attack was being planned on Westergaard, Madsen said, though the intelligence service said the suspect had been under surveillance because of his alleged terrorist links. Police said the suspect wielded an ax and a knife and managed to crack the glass front door of Westergaard's home. A home alarm alerted police to the scene, and they were attacked by the suspect, authorities said. Westergaard, who was home with his 5-year-old granddaughter at the time of the break-in, hid in a \"panic room\" when he realized what was happening, Madsen said. Westergaard is ordinarily accompanied by bodyguards when he leaves his home, but nobody was on guard at the house Friday, the Security and Intelligence Service told CNN. Police said Westergaard was \"being taken care of\" after the break-in, but wouldn't reveal his new location. The incident \"once again confirms the terrorist threat that is directed against Denmark and against cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, in particular,\" said Jakob Scharf, spokesman for the Danish Security and Intelligence Service. Westergaard's caricature of Mohammed -- showing the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse -- was first published by the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. It sparked an uproar among Muslims in early 2006 after newspapers reprinted the images in support of free speech. At the time, Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terrorism. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist. Over the years, Danish authorities have arrested other suspects who allegedly plotted against Westergaard's life. After three such arrests in February 2008, Westergaard issued a statement, saying, \"Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me. However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness.\" Scharf said authorities have taken measures to ensure Westergaard's safety, and that the protection has \"proven effective.\" -- CNN's Per Nyberg and reporter Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"Organization of the Islamic Conference condemns attack on cartoonist .\nSomali man attacked home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard .\nWestergaard known for controversial cartoons of prophet Mohammed .","id":"65a6a8babd6ac5f7f53aaf7a299f19484bd3c1e5"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- YouTube this week announced the biggest viral video sensations of 2009, with Scottish singer Susan Boyle topping the list. The most pressing question for aspiring video creators: How do you repeat that kind of success? Value in views . Topping the YouTube charts brings significant value -- Boyle's clip had more than 120 million views on the site. Had the parties involved negotiated an ad revenue split (they initially did not), a not-inconceivable $10 cost-per-thousand-impressions would have yielded revenue in excess of $1 million. When a clip has a commercial purpose, the brand value may be significantly higher: Evian's Roller Babies ad ranked fifth, with more than 27 million views, and the company says the campaign's success slowed its sales decline. A commercial impact was also felt in the case of the JK Wedding Entrance Dance (more than 33 million views). The clip, which features a wedding party dancing down the aisle to Chris Brown's \"Forever,\" sent the track rocketing up the iTunes charts. What are the commonalities here, and is there a formula for viral video success? A definitive answer is infuriatingly absent. The cute factor . The cute factor is perhaps the most prevalent trend among popular YouTube videos. In YouTube's most-viewed videos of all time, you'll find such adorable clips as a boy biting his brother's finger (140 million views), a baby laughing hysterically (100 million views), a sneezing panda (46 million views) and even the Evian ad. The explanation is simple: When a clip makes us happy, we feel compelled to share that sentiment with others. Humor . If our willingness to share is based on our emotional reaction to a clip, it follows that humor ranks highly on YouTube. From Jeff Dunham's ventriloquist act \"Achmed the Dead Terrorist\" to the obscure humor of \"Charlie The Unicorn,\" laughter is a common theme. In some cases, humor is not the intent: Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain has surpassed 45 million views, our amusement (and discomfort) deriving from Zonday's utterly bizarre performance. Comedy has geographical limitations however: What's funny in one country may be unfathomable in another. This perhaps explains why laughing babies consistently outrank standup comedians: funny doesn't travel. Emotional response . Not every popular clip evokes laughter -- performances from Susan Boyle and Paul Potts tug at the heartstrings. So too does the Free Hugs campaign -- a music video featuring an Australian man giving out \"Free Hugs\" to strangers in public places has received more than 53 million views. Music . Music videos are by far the most viewed content on YouTube. Had YouTube not created a second list to highlight top music videos on the site, these would have dominated the rankings for 2009. The knowledge that best-selling artists rank highly on video sites may be of little utility to aspiring YouTube stars -- except to note that dancing videos and \"lip dubs\" have proved popular. With 132 million views, Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance is a breakout success. Cumulative advantage . Is the quality of the clip the only factor affecting its success? Or could it be that the rich get richer, even in the seemingly egalitarian world of YouTube? Since most YouTube users head straight to the site's \"Popular\" page, clips that show early promise may continue to gain momentum for weeks and years. This process of cumulative advantage may help to explain why one laughing baby shoots to the top of the charts and another giggles in obscurity. No formula? It may be the case that there's no simple formula for YouTube popularity. In fact, it may be that the only true guarantee of success is novelty. The unexpected, the bizarre, the humorous, the offbeat, the emotionally affecting -- these authentic elements are hard to bottle, and fakes are easy to spot. What will be YouTube's breakout video of 2010? We'll know it when we see it.","highlights":"Mashable's Pete Cashmore ponders what makes a YouTube video a viral smash .\nTopping the YouTube charts brings significant value to advertisers and video producers .\nWhy \"cute\" works: When a clip makes us happy, we want to share that feeling with others .\nThe only guarantee of success may be novelty: the unexpected, the bizarre .","id":"42ce6c45ce733f296789b7265b3e11d1fbe12646"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In an effort to alleviate problems facing the company, Starbucks announced that it will close 600 company-run U.S. stores over the next year. Most of the stores are near another Starbucks and aren't profitable. Nancy Blomquist moved from Georgia to Arizona and sent friends this photo of her first 'houseguest' -- Starbucks. CNN.com asked iReporters to respond to the news that the coffee giant, known for its saturation of the market, is shuttering some retail locations. iReporter mattwilliams says he's happy to see some Starbucks go, opening the market for independent coffee shops. Rusty1978 says he can't imagine how Starbucks is in financial trouble, given that his local store is always packed. Cval predicts more people will give up their lattes as the economy tightens. Below are a selection of iReport responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Starbucks here . Stefan: Starbucks Coffee, no doubt, has been a powerhouse phenomenon in the American barista world. The coffee super-giant has not only introduced, but set a national trend in coffee drinking for years to come ... they have created a culture. Everywhere you look, from street corners, to bookstores and now even supermarkets, there is a Starbucks coffee shop or stand. So what will we do if we no longer have our daily dose of super-charged joe? Go somewhere else. Since they started becoming a national chain, there has been a rush of smaller coffee shops trying to duplicate the relaxing, welcoming feel of Starbucks, and some do well and even exceed the patron's expectations, offering sofa's, tables, background music and even free internet. But what about the coffee? As for those specialty drinks, many small coffee shop owners have started sending their employees to barista school, where they learn how to make the \"perfect\" cup of coffee \/ espresso with those perfect little beans. ... It is possible we may see a new coffee shop in town; and maybe, just maybe, the \"next big thing\". FlashBauer38: I am glad to see Starbucks finally realized you only need one store per city block. I personally do not like or go to Starbucks. I normally get my coffee from Dunkin Donuts on the way to work or buy grounds from them to make at home ... for a reasonable price. I already have to spend $4 a gallon on gas, why would I spend $4 for 12 oz of coffee? cval: You're kidding me, right? Anyone heard of the Mr. Coffee machine? You can get one for $15, and set it to have your coffee ready for you when you roll out of bed, then it turns off an hour later so as not to burn your house down should you forget to turn it off. Starbucks has always been a luxury item, when people need to get back to basics to survive. Maybe people are just realizing this, and it is way overdue if you ask me. It's as expensive as smoking, think of all the money you can put into savings if you brew your own coffee. Johnmcook: \"My Starbucks\", in the Uptown section of West Village is much more than a place to get a cup of java. It is a real part of the community, a busy, urban, somewhat trendy area near downtown Dallas. I know each employee by name and they know me. I keep track of their progress through college, another's budding music career, and will attend another's wedding. When on the patio with my Chihuahua, they bring him water to help beat the heat or whipped cream as a treat ... If you have ever spent time in the UK... you understand the social importance of meeting at the local pub... my Starbucks is the equivalent of that. You come there to get your favorite coffee but you leave with and come back for ... so much more. rusty1978: Well, amongst all the Starbucks frowners around, I must say it's strong coffee and that's how I like it. I've got a Starbucks in commercial space in my building -- so convenient. I love the Verona, Gold Coast and Kenya blends. I just can't believe they're not doing good business as most every store is always packed with people -- and they've even raised their prices last year, so I can't understand the closings at all. Someone please explain. Yes, I prefer strong Starbucks coffee in the morning! mattwilliams: Could I live without Starbucks? The answer is a resounding YES! I live in a small tourist town on the coast of Georgia. Our many different local restaurants provide unique dining experiences with their atmospheres and menus. This is something I fear is being lost because of big chains like Starbucks coming in and replacing local, unique businesses with the same atmosphere and dining experience one could have in Anytown, USA. So rather than make every little getaway town in this country the very same one Starbucks at a time, I say boycott them all and shut them all down! That won't happen because Starbucks has become part of a routine for so many people. What would be nice is for the average American consumer to wake up and try to have a unique experience in his or her hometown. Rather than going to that same Starbucks that is so convenient with its drive-thru and perfect location on the way to one's destination, why not take a detour and find a mom-and-pop coffee shoppe, like our own Palm Coast Coffee or Daddy Cate's, and support their brave attempt at making the landscape of where one lives unique. Nblomq: Definitely a Starbucks Junkie! I moved from Georgia to Arizona last fall, and the first digital picture I sent my girlfriends once I arrived in Tucson was a picture of my first official visitor to my new home ... a Starbucks Chai! grdpxjmpr: I absolutely could live without Starbucks. Reason 1: I don't like the taste of Starbucks coffee, especially since they had their closure back in February to make their coffee shop more like a coffee shop. The coffee they have started using since then is terrible. 2. If the Starbucks chain would close some stores, it would allow mom-and-pop-type places to get a footing in the market or allow local smaller chains to expand. 3. Buying beans for home and making your own coffee is substantially less expensive than getting coffee every day from Starbucks. In this economy, being able to pinch pennies helps. MrRealtor: I hate to say this, but I just like a good ole cup of coffee, and that cannot be found at a Starbucks. Even their most mild coffee is terribly bitter. Will I miss them? No. I would miss a 99-cent cup of coffee from 7-11 worse than a $4.50 cup of yuck from Starbucks. Blueken: In my entire life, I have had exactly one coffee from Starbucks. Nothing special. I'm not a coffee snob, of course, but I do like a pure Kona roast. I get my caffeine fix at the local gas station. Fresh brewed, $1.49. I predict overpriced microbrew beer is the next to take a hit as the economy gets real. IchDenke: Yep, Starbucks is too pricey, too burnt and too mega for me! Gimme a hometown-y joint that ain't too expensive and supports our veterans like Just Plain Joe's, and I'm OK! :)","highlights":"The Starbucks coffee chain announced Tuesday it will shutter 600 stores .\nCNN readers respond to the news, exchange divided opinions of the coffee giant .\niReporter FlashBauer58 says as gas prices climb, pricey drink purchases will fall .\niReport.com: Love Starbucks? What about the chain? Share your opinion .","id":"267f864f41aae1399a5d7522e729fb6ae0d60007"} -{"article":"She told stories, flirted outrageously with boys and was constantly changing her hairstyle. Anne Frank hid with her family in a secret room at her father Otto Frank's office in Amsterdam. It could be the description of almost any young girl growing up in Europe. But this is how Eva Schloss remembers her childhood friend Anne Frank, who had she not died in a Nazi concentration camp, would have celebrated her 80th birthday this week. Schloss described Frank, whose account of hiding from Jewish persecution in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam is one of the world's mostly widely-read books, as a spunky young schoolgirl with a passion for storytelling that often got her into trouble. \"She got her diary in 1942, so obviously her father knew she was interested in writing and I know she told stories,\" said Schloss. \"She talked a lot and she was called Mrs Quack Quack. Very often she used to write hundreds of lines [at school] of 'I'm not going to talk so much,' and so on -- but obviously she had a lot to tell.\" In some ways the two friends lived parallel lives -- but tragically they had very different outcomes. Watch more about Schloss' story \u00bb . Schloss and Frank both came from Jewish families who fled to Holland to escape the wave of anti-Semitism spreading across Europe as the Nazis rose to power in Germany ahead of the Second World War. But while Schloss was more of an introvert, Frank loved the limelight. Schloss said: \"I was actually quite shy and she was the center of attention. We had steps where we sat, and she had a crowd of children around her. \"She was a big flirt -- she loved boys. She was always showing us who was her boyfriend at that particular time. She was always interested in her clothes. Her style, she always changed it. Sometimes she had curls, then she had straight hair.\" Schloss says they were unaware of the full scale of what was going on around them as war escalated across Europe, placing their lives in increasing jeopardy. \"Our parents really protected us so there was no talk about the horrendous things which happened. \"You couldn't go out anymore after 8 o'clock, but for a 11 to 12 year old it didn't matter so much. Or not going to the cinema -- we were upset about those little things which we couldn't do, but we really didn't really take it seriously at that time.\" Like Frank, Schloss was also forced into hiding when the Nazis took control of Holland. Frank hid with her family in a secret room at her father Otto Frank's office. But Schloss and her family had to split up. Schloss stayed with her mother while her father and brother hid elsewhere. She and her mother moved around, staying in seven different hiding places over a two-year period. Eventually both families were betrayed and were sent to concentration camps, where Frank died at the age of 15. Schloss said: \"My father and brother were betrayed by a Dutch nurse who was a double agent, and all four of us were arrested and taken to the headquarters to be interrogated. \"I didn't know anything, which was a good thing. So eventually they realized this and they gave up torturing me. Within two days we were put on a transport to Auschwitz.\" Of her family, only Schloss and her mother survived Auschwitz, one of the most notorious concentration camps, located in southern Poland. Today Schloss, who has just celebrated her own 80th birthday, has a husband, three daughters and five grandchildren. Schloss says it took her decades to rebuild her life, with the help of Frank's father Otto, who also survived incarceration in a concentration camp. She met Otto in August 1945, when he showed her Frank's diary. Schloss said: \"He read a few passages but he always burst into tears. It took me 20 years. I was really unhappy, but it was Otto who came to our apartment to talk to us, and he helped me a lot. He had lost everybody. \"Her book, she [Frank] made people aware of what happened. There are many messages. She believed in the goodness of mankind. \"People always ask me, what she would have done. I guess we will never know. But I guess she would have gone into politics -- she was a fighter. It's a pity, but also -- maybe her diary would have never been published.\" CNN's Don Riddell contributed to this story.","highlights":"Anne Frank would have celebrated her 80th birthday this week .\nFrank, 15, died at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland .\nHer diary is one of the world's mostly widely-read books .\nLike Frank, Eva Schloss and her family fled from Nazi persecution of the Jews .","id":"bcdfc30ff1f373230c2caf3524076530105dd71f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Flannery O'Connor did not expect to become the subject of a biography. She thought the narrow borders of her life -- lived \"between the house and the chicken yard\" -- wouldn't give a writer much to work with. Author Flannery O'Connor (here with two of her peacocks) remains a subject of fascination for many. It would therefore come as a surprise (and probably secretly please her) to learn she is the focus of at least three. The latest is \"Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor\" (Little, Brown) by Brad Gooch, an exhaustively researched exploration of O'Connor's unlikely journey from shy, sarcastic and \"contrary\" Georgia girl to acerbic literary treasure. That she suffered from lupus and died before the age of 40 is well-known to fans of O'Connor. But Gooch uncovers much that even ardent followers of the author will find revealing, including details of her college career as a cartoonist, and her time in Iowa City at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. The book manages to synthesize what seems difficult to reconcile: how such a chaste, religious person could produce stories that are bitingly funny and filled with shocking violence. Watch O'Connor's fascinating story \u00bb . Gooch spoke with CNN about his experience researching the biography. What follows is an edited version of the interview. CNN: When did you first discover Flannery O'Connor? Brad Gooch: I first read her stories in my 20s and loved them, and then a little later, the [collected] letters came up, \"The Habit of Being.\" And I'd had a few hunches about her from reading the stories, which were a little mysterious. ... And then when I read the letters, a lot of those hunches seemed true. ... Trying to put the life of this woman together with the stories became as interesting as the stories to me. CNN: She wasn't always known as Flannery O'Connor. Gooch: Her name was Mary Flannery O'Connor, and her mother and everyone in Milledgeville (Georgia), where she lived most of her life, continued to call her Mary Flannery. But when she went to Iowa City -- the Iowa Writers' Workshop -- early on, she decided she wanted to be a writer, and she decided on the name Flannery. She later said, \"Who would want to buy these stories of an Irish washerwoman named Mary O'Connor?\" Partly, I think she wanted to lose the Southern-ness of \"Mary Flannery.\" ... Also, Flannery was a gender-neutral name. ... Her initial rejection letters were actually addressed to \"Mr. Flannery O'Connor,\" and I think she kind of liked that neutrality. CNN: What did you find most remarkable about her? Gooch: I think the discipline of her writing becomes ... almost inspiring. She developed lupus when she was 25, she lived until she was 39. And in that period, she kept up this regimen that she had begun at the Iowa Writers' Workshop of writing every morning for three hours, even if it meant sitting in front of a blank page. ... [Near the end of her life] she was editing her final stories and hiding them under the pillow in the hospital from the doctors so that she could go on. She was still working on her last story after she had last rites. ... All of that is a sort of [a] level of commitment that is startling and unmatched. CNN: Her stories are often funny, yet disturbing. Gooch: Her style goes under these names, like grotesque or gothic, but she was really crossing these two wires of humor and almost this kind of dark theological writing that had never been put together before. ... [In \"A Good Man is Hard to Find\"] a family on vacation ... meets someone named the Misfit, this ex-con in the woods. ... And he winds up shooting the entire family while spouting existentialist, nihilist philosophy. And in that story, there's always a point where you keep laughing past this line, and suddenly someone's being shot and you're laughing and then [readers] get very uncomfortable. They can't tell whether this is supposed to be funny or not, and I think that O'Connor definitely works in that territory, where you can't tell if she's being funny or tragic and serious. CNN: The titles of her stories and novels are so wonderful -- \"A Good Man Is Hard to Find,\" \"Everything That Rises Must Converge,\" \"The Life You Save May Be Your Own,\" \"The Violent Bear It Away.\" Gooch: \"A Good Man is Hard to Find\" was a Bessie Smith song; \"Everything That Rises Must Converge\" she got from Teilhard de Chardin, a favorite Catholic theologian of hers. You see in a way how sophisticated she was in her approach to her writing. I think sometimes when people read the stories, they confuse O'Connor with the character in her story, and they think she is some Grandma-Moses-crazy-folk-artist, but actually she was an incredibly educated artist who had read everything, including a lot of theology. ... The titles ... are attracting and punchy, but you also see that she's working kind of consciously with these reverberating references. CNN: What do you make of her fascination with birds? Gooch: When she was forced by lupus to move back to the South and live on a dairy farm with her mother in Georgia, one of the first things she did besides getting very serious about working on her stories was to order a peacock. And eventually she had 39 peacocks. ... And I think that she was very conscious that the peacock was this gawky, comic bird. I think she identified with the peacock for that reason. The peacock squawked all night and annoyed people, ate her mother's flowers, and yet, at this certain willful moment, opened its tail and revealed what she called this \"map of the universe.\" So, I think it really stood in a way for this kind of transfiguration that would take place for her spiritually but also in the beauty of her writing. ... She definitely made an effort to make the peacock her own personal logo. CNN: What is her literary reputation 45 years after her death? Gooch: She seems to be ever more popular. When she died she was considered almost a minor writer. Her second volume of stories hadn't even come out; her \"Collected Stories\" was published in the early 1970s and got a posthumous National Book Award. It seems that every decade, interest in her grows. When the Library of America put out her collected works 10 years ago, she outsold Faulkner. So she has this popularity and interest. And [she] increasingly shows up in funny pop culture ways. I think in the last episode of \"Lost\" the character was reading \"Everything That Rises Must Converge\" in the last scene. So, counterintuitively, she's only growing in importance. CNN: It's amazing that she had a literary career at all, given how debilitating her illness was. Gooch: What became inspiring to me, unexpectedly, writing this book [was how she dealt] with her illness, and that she finally was nobody's victim. ... Everything we think of as a Flannery O'Connor story came after she had been diagnosed as having lupus and settled in to life in the South. You get the sense that this was almost a magical thinking, where she thought that writing these stories was keeping her alive.","highlights":"New biography of Flannery O'Connor offers insights on Southern author .\nBiographer Brad Gooch: O'Connor's discipline was \"inspiring\"\nAuthor suffered from lupus, was dead by 39, but left brilliant body of work .","id":"71faabb9c7a373c3d0ff1af2f4ca67e371a8356d"} -{"article":"Newark, New Jersey (CNN) -- A security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday evening forced the closure of a terminal for hours while authorities rescreened thousands of passengers. The incident happened at about 5:20 p.m. at Terminal C, when a man walked through an exit on the public side to the secure \"sterile\" side for passengers who had cleared screening, according to the Transportation Security Administration. \"Rescreening began after the Port Authority Police and TSA swept each of the concourses in the terminal with negative findings,\" said Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman. \"The man in question was never located; however, TSA's rescreening effort will ensure that every passenger boarding an aircraft tonight out of Newark's Terminal C has been fully screened.\" Watch more about the situation in Newark . All passengers had been rescreened by early Monday, according to the TSA. Flights from Terminal C were grounded until the process was completed. iReport: Passenger photographs massive crowd . Authorities reviewed video from airport cameras but were not sure whether the man was once on the sterile side and went back or if he never went through screening, Davis said. The incident caused arrival delays and mainly affected Continental Airlines, which is the airport's largest tenant. CNN's Alina Cho, who arrived at the airport Sunday night on a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, described a hectic scene, saying many passengers who had already boarded outgoing flights had to get off planes to be rescreened. Flying Continental? Important company notice . \"I just saw one woman pleading with a gate agent, saying that she had two small children and a heart condition -- that she simply could not take this,\" Cho said. \"But of course, there will be no exceptions.\" Newark Liberty International Airport, which is about 15 miles from Manhattan, is the second-largest hub for Continental. The airport handles about 35 million passengers a year. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Security breach at Sunday evening forces closure of Terminal C for hours .\nMan improperly went through security screening; he was never found .\nCNN's Alina Cho describes a hectic scene as passengers were rescreened .","id":"b837832ce00cd8d9f6deb66920a4a3a89e7e7e0c"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Foreign nationals who are HIV-positive will find it easier starting Monday to visit the United States. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from the list of diseases that prevent non-U.S. citizens from entering the country. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus -- the virus that causes AIDS. Advocates for HIV-positive people said the new policy was long overdue, calling it \"a significant step forward for the United States.\" \"The end of the HIV travel and immigration ban is the beginning of a new life for countless families and thousands who had been separated because of this policy,\" said Steve Ralls, spokesman for Immigration Equality, a national rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive individuals. \"This is a new beginning for them.\" The final rule was approved in November and went into effect Monday. The new regulation takes HIV infection out of the category of \"communicable diseases of public health significance,\" the CDC said. It also removes required testing for HIV infection from the U.S. immigration medical screening process and eliminates the need for a waiver for entry into the United States. U.S. laws and regulations enacted since 1952 have made persons \"who were afflicted with any dangerous contagious disease\" ineligible to receive a visa to enter the country. People infected with HIV have been restricted since 1987, when Congress directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add HIV to its list of diseases of public health significance. The United States Global Leadership Against HIV\/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, which President Bush signed on July 30, 2008, removed the statutory requirement that mandated the inclusion of HIV on the list of diseases of public health significance that barred entry in the United States. The legislation did not, however, automatically change the existing regulations, administered by HHS, that continued to list HIV as a \"communicable disease of public-health significance\" and required the more cumbersome visa process. The United States was one of 13 countries that restricted entry of HIV-positive visitors, according to amfAR, an AIDS research foundation.","highlights":"Travel and immigration ban on HIV-positive travelers lifted .\nAdvocates for HIV-positive people say the new policy was long overdue .\nHIV-infected visitors previously had to get a special waiver to obtain a visa .","id":"ad96ebe4072a41f69d46bb22eac83c3a23df5335"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the southern Baja California peninsula Monday in preparation for Hurricane Jimena, a powerful Category 4 storm with winds near 155 mph (250 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters expect Hurricane Jimena to approach the southwestern tip of Baja California's peninsula Tuesday. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. The storm could bring as much as 2 feet of rain to the area, along with dangerous, battering waves, forecasters said. Jimena was centered about 285 miles (460 km) south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, according to the hurricane center. It was traveling northwest near 10 mph (17 kph) but meteorologists expect Jimena to pick up speed in the coming day. Forecasters expect the storm to continue in a northwest motion and approach the southwestern tip of Baja California Tuesday, forecasters said. \"It's not expected to change in strength very much during the next day or so,\" said Daniel Brown, a hurricane specialist at the center. See the storm's projected path \u00bb . \"It may begin to weaken a little as it approaches the Baja peninsula, but it's expected to remain a very dangerous hurricane, perhaps a Category 3 as it approaches that area.\" Jimena is the 10th named storm of the Pacific season. Residents in spots expected to be hit by Jimena should prepare for potentially rough conditions, Brown said. Tropical Storm Kevin is also making its presence felt in the Pacific Ocean, just to the west of Jimena, but it is weak and is not expected to do any damage, according to Brown. \"For the eastern Pacific, it has been about a near-normal season. It has gotten much busier here during the month of August,\" Brown said. CNN's John Lorinc contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Hurricane warning issued for the southern Baja California peninsula .\nThe Category 4 storm is centered off Cabo San Lucas, traveling northwest at 10 mph .\nJimena's sustained winds near 155 mph, but forecasters expect it to pick up speed .","id":"1092715ee86b649913fcc9ba352aedf8f330a33b"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran plans to launch satellites into orbit early in the new year, its defense minister told the semi-official Fars news agency Wednesday. \"This satellite, which was built by Iranian scientists, is a big step for the continued presence of Iran in space and for taking advantage of the opportunities offered in this field,\" Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said. The launches of the Tolou satellites -- which means \"sunrise\" in Farsi -- are scheduled to take place in February and March, according to Fars. Iran launched its first satellite, Omid, in February, an event that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed at the time as a \"source of pride\" for the Islamic republic. The U.S. State Department expressed \"grave concern\" over the launch. \"Developing a space launch vehicle that could ... put a satellite into orbit could possibly lead to development of a ballistic missile system,\" State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. \"So that's of grave concern to us.\" The Pentagon called the February launch \"clearly a concern of ours.\" \"Although this appears to be satellite, there are dual-use capabilities that could be applied to missiles, and that's a concern to us and everybody in region,\" Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said at the time. For Iran, the planned launches are an important step for its military. \"Using these modern technologies, Iran's armed forces are capable of catching the enemies off guard, identifying their software and hardware potential and depriving the enemy of movement and maneuverability,\" Vahidi told Fars. The development comes as the international community considers additional sanctions against Iran should Tehran not answer questions about its nuclear program. Western powers fear Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran denies.","highlights":"Iran reportedly plans to launch Tolou satellites into orbit in February and March .\n\"This satellite ... is a big step for the continued presence of Iran in space,\" defense chief says .\nU.S. State Department had \"grave concern\" about Iran's first satellite launch this year .\nU.S. official: Sateliite launches could lead to development of ballistic missile system .","id":"03843e6113b084b645223150e2d3594f0a381987"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- A controversial British Muslim cleric is threatening to stage a march through the town that receives the bodies of British war dead as a protest against the war in Afghanistan, drawing fury and outrage. Anjem Choudary has accused soldiers of \"murderous crimes,\" and said the United States and United Kingdom are seeking to \"establish their own military, economic, strategic and ideological interests in the region.\" British and American troops are suffering \"depression\" as they realize \"there is no real moral or ethic (sic) reason for them to murder innocent men, women and children to fulfill their politicians (sic) agenda,\" the preacher says. His organization proposes to parade empty coffins through the streets of the English town of Wootton Bassett, where the bodies of British war dead are traditionally brought when they return to the country. Relatives and friends line the streets of the town along with local residents as hearses carry the flag-draped British remains, in scenes of public mourning widely reported by British media. Choudary has not announced a date for his planned march and local police said Saturday he had not contacted them about it, as people planning marches are required to do before staging a demonstration. But the threat itself prompted more than 215,000 people to join a Facebook group opposing the march as of Monday, a day after he posted a letter online justifying it. \"The highway for heroes & wonderful people of WB do not deserve this march to happen,\" the group's home page says. \"This group can march anywhere it wishes in the country but have chosen WB to cause outrage & offense. Islam4UK is an extremists (sic) Islamic group & does not represent the Muslim community in this country.\" Choudary's open letter, \"To the Families of British Soldiers who have died or who are currently in Afghanistan,\" appeared on the Web site of his organization, Islam4UK, on Sunday. The group had announced its intention to stage the protest earlier in a short statement on its Web site. \"The procession in Wootton Basset (sic) is therefore an attempt to engage the British publics (sic) minds on the real reasons why their soldiers are returning home in body bags and the real cost of the war,\" Choudary wrote. \"The parades, the speeches about soldiers doing their duty and the feeling of patriotism has obfuscated the reality of the conflict and the murderous crimes being committed by the occupiers and their agents. The British public is blissfully unaware of what is being done in their name,\" Choudary wrote. \"Afghanistan is not a British Town near Wootton Basset (sic) but rather Muslim land which no one has the right to occupy, with a Muslim population who do not deserve their innocent men, women and children to be killed for political mileage and for the greedy interests of the oppressive U.S. and UK regimes,\" he said. Choudary signs himself \"UK Head of Al-Muhajiroun,\" a banned British group which supports al Qaeda. Choudary spoke positively of Osama Bin Laden in the letter and in interviews with British media on Monday. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Sunday that there would be \"no support\" for the march or Choudary's \"perverted view of Islam.\" \"I think most people in the Islamic community believe that those people who have adopted a perverted view of Islam to justify murder as terrorism are outside the traditional elements of what is a peaceful faith,\" he said. \"The vast majority of the Muslim population in this country and other countries agrees with my view on this,\" Brown said. Police in Wiltshire, the county where Wootton Bassett is located, said they had the authority to control the terms and conditions of the march or even to apply to ban it if Choudary took steps towards staging it. \"If the march or procession is believed to be likely to result in serious disorder, disruption or damage, then the police can impose conditions upon the organizer,\" the police said in a statement. \"In exceptional circumstances, the police may apply to the Local Authority for an order prohibiting such a march.\" \"To date there has been no contact from Islam4UK or any other group wishing to arrange such a march in Wootton Bassett,\" they said.","highlights":"Anjem Choudary accuses soldiers of \"murderous crimes\" in Afghanistan .\nHe proposes to parade empty coffins through the streets of Wootton Bassett .\nEnglish town is where the bodies of war dead are traditionally brought when they return to the UK .\nBritish Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there would be \"no support\" for the march .","id":"dfaf329bcdb43027c5ce21dfdfb7bba2f607d2b4"} -{"article":"CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CNN) -- Hurricane Jimena weakened to a Category 3 storm Tuesday afternoon, but remained dangerous as it bore down on the Mexican peninsula of Baja California, with the resort town of Cabo San Lucas in its path. Jimena bears down Tuesday evening on Baja California, with the resort town of Cabo San Lucas in its path. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday, east of the northern Leeward Islands, the National Hurricane Center said. Jimena's maximum wind speed dropped from 125 mph to 120 mph (195 kph), according to the U.S. National Weather Service's 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) update. \"A gradual weakening is forecast during the next 24 to 48 hours,\" the weather service said. \"However, Jimena could be near major hurricane strength when it makes landfall.\" The storm's center is forecast to come ashore on Thursday morning, but the weather service warned that \"because it will be moving parallel to the coastline, any slight change in direction could have a huge impact in the location and timing of landfall.\" Mexico's government extended a hurricane warning for most of the southern half of the Baja peninsula -- from Punta Abreojos on the peninsula's west coast to Mulege on its east coast, according to the National Weather Service. See the storm's projected path \u00bb . A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area in the next 24 hours and people should quickly prepare \"to protect life and property.\" \"A dangerous storm surge along with battering waves will produce significant coastal flooding along the Baja California Peninsula,\" NWS said. On its current track, Jimena's center will approach the peninsula's southern portion later on Tuesday and central Baja California peninsula by Thursday, the weather service said. In addition to damaging winds, the storm could bring as much as 15 inches of rain, forecasters said. Jimena -- the 10th named storm of the Pacific season -- was centered about 85 miles (135 km) west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, according to the weather service. It was traveling north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph). On Tuesday, the skies in Cabo San Lucas were overcast and gusts of wind began to pick up. There were good waves for surfing, but popular beaches were devoid of tourists. Red flags warned people to stay out of the water, in case they needed any reminding. The day before, airlines offered extra flights to leave the area. Lionel Alvarez, who runs a resort hotel called \"Las Ventanas al Pariaso\" in the town of San Jose del Cabo, found a silver lining to the coming storm. \"The wind is refreshing a little bit because of the high temperatures we've gone through in the past few days,\" he said. But Alvarez, like other locals, had work to do in preparation of Jimena. \"We protect the property by dismantling all that could be dangerous, fly or can be broken,\" he said. Authorities had asked about 10,000 people to evacuate the area, but many had decided to wait out the storm. Cuauhtemoc Morgan, a local resident of Los Cabos who sent videos to to CNN's iReport, said residents had protected every home in his neighborhood, fortifying windows with masking tape. Lines at supermarkets were long with worried residents preparing for the storms, Morgan said. See iReport videos . Authorities were setting up shelters in schools and trying to devise a plan to protect the homeless, he added. The Pacific isn't the only place seeing action. As of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, tropical storm watches were issued for the Caribbean islands of St. Maarten, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy by the governments of France, the Netherlands Antilles, and Antigua and Barbuda, according to the hurricane center. A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph, are possible within 36 hours. See Erika's projected path \u00bb . Interests in the northern Leeward Islands, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico should monitor Erika's progress, forecasters advised. Erika's center was about 390 miles (625 km) east of the northern Leeward Islands, the hurricane center said. Its maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph (80 kph), with higher gusts. While Erika meandered Tuesday afternoon, it was expected to start moving west-northwest at about 9 mph during the night. \"Some slow strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days,\" forecasters said. Tropical-storm force winds extended outward up to 105 miles (170 km) from Erika's center. The storm was moving west-northwest at near 9 mph (15 kph), and was expected to continue doing so for the next couple of days, the hurricane center said. Tracking maps put the storm east of the Bahamas by Sunday. On the forecast track, Erika should remain northeast of the Leeward Islands, forecasters said. CNN's Betty Nguyen and CNN Radio's Matt Cherry and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hurricane Jimena downgraded to Category 3, hurricane center says .\nJimena's maximum winds fall to 120 mph, but storm could strengthen .\nHurricane warning covers most of the southern half of the Baja Peninsula .\nTropical Storm Erika forms in eastern Atlantic, National Hurricane Center says .","id":"6d0dab8b95b4fae676d87763a10e9044ef58f442"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Union officials were going to court Thursday in London to try to stop British Airways from imposing contractual changes on its 14,000-member cabin crew. The Unite union said it wants the High Court to issue an injunction against the British carrier to stop \"unfair and unworkable\" changes to cabin crew contracts. It was unclear when the court would rule in the case. Among the changes BA wants to impose is a reduction in the number of crew members on flights, Unite said. BA plans to impose the changes starting November 16, according to Unite. Thursday's court action is separate from union plans to ballot its members about whether to strike over the Christmas holiday period, a Unite spokeswoman said. Unite still plans to hold the strike ballot, possibly as early as next week, regardless of how the High Court rules, she said. The contractual changes are part of the strike ballot, but other issues include jobs and pay, she said.","highlights":"Union Unite says it is taking British Airways to court over working changes .\nBA wants to impose is a reduction in the number of crew members on flights .\nBA plans to impose the changes starting November 16, according to Unite .","id":"d9c5b55da8f636a208b01d994c9d007b2add39d1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Yemen, which was closed over the weekend because of security concerns, reopened Tuesday, a day after Yemeni forces conducted successful security operations. A statement posted on the embassy's Web site said \"successful counter-terrorism operations\" conducted by Yemeni security forces on Monday, north of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, addressed \"a specific area of concern and have contributed to the Embassy's decision to resume operations.\" Yemen's state-run news agency, SABA, reported Monday that two al Qaeda suspects were killed and two others were injured in clashes with a Yemeni anti-terrorism unit . However, Mohamed Ahmed al-Haniq, the al Qaeda unit's leader, and an unknown number of his \"companions\" were able to escape during the clashes, SABA reported, citing Yemen's Interior Ministry. The U.S. Embassy said the threat of terrorist attacks against American interests in Yemen \"remains high,\" and it urged American citizens in the country \"to be vigilant and take prudent security measures.\" Yemen fertile ground for terror groups . A senior State Department official, who did not want to speak on the record because of the sensitive nature of the information, said Yemeni authorities have helped the United States with additional security precautions at the embassy site. The United States' decision to close its embassy came after intelligence suggested that four al Qaeda operatives were planning an attack on the compound, a senior administration official said Monday. The official said the United States had information that a group of eight terrorists had been planning an attack. Yemeni forces killed three in recent days and another was captured wearing a suicide vest, but the other four were believed to be at large, the official said. It was not immediately clear if the same al Qaeda members in Monday's clashes were among the group of eight suspected terrorists. U.S. lawmakers have highlighted what they say are the threats posed by terrorists in Yemen. \"As we commit ourselves to the fight in Afghanistan, some of the what I'll call the enemy forces, the extremist forces, move to new bases of operation such as Yemen, from which they strike us,\" said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, at a news conference with Sen. John McCain in Iraq Tuesday. \"I've been quoting something that was said to us by an American working in Yemen when Sen. McCain and I visited in August, which was perhaps a bit overstated but it makes a point. He said to me: 'Iraq was yesterday's war. Afghanistan is today's war. And if we do not act preemptively now, Yemen will be tomorrow's war.'\" McCain noted that on the visit he had a \"very strong impression\" about the nation's difficulties, particularly the presence of al Qaeda. \"The government of Yemen is going to need our help in combatting al Qaeda,\" McCain, R-Arizona, said. \"There needs to be significant effort made in improving their economy, and we cannot allow Yemen to be a base for al Qaeda to mount attacks on other countries in the region as well as the U.S.\" On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the situation in Yemen a possible threat to regional and global security, but commended Yemen for taking action against al Qaeda networks. The United States and Britain closed their embassies Sunday. Britain's Foreign Office also cited security concerns and its embassy remained closed Tuesday. \"The British Embassy in Yemen will remain closed to the public today,\" a statement from the embassy said. \"Some embassy personnel will be in and whoever needs to contact the embassy can do it via the phone or e-mail but people won't be able to walk into the embassy.\" Several other nations also made changes at their Yemen-based embassies Monday, including Japan, France, Spain and Germany. Each cited the need for increased security measures. France closed its embassy to the public, although French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Tuesday that embassy employees will continue their work. Valero said the embassy will reopen once work to secure the site, already in progress before the latest threat, is finished. Spain also restricted public access to its embassy, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said, adding that the embassy continued to function \"normally.\" Japan halted service at the consulate section of its embassy. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the decision was based on the threat of terror, not a specific threat. Germany said that while its embassy remained fully operational, security measures were increased. The German Foreign Ministry said fewer visitors were allowed into the embassy compound. The wave of concerns follow last month's alleged attempted terrorist attack by a Nigerian man who boarded a flight in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and allegedly tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear as the flight approached Detroit, Michigan. The attempt failed, and other passengers and crew grabbed the suspect. The Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day plot. U.S. President Barack Obama has also linked the suspect, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, to the group, which is a combination of al Qaeda networks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The AQAP group in Yemen has said that the attempted attack on the airliner was in retaliation for airstrikes against it on December 17 and 24. However, Yemen has said that AbdulMutallab purchased his ticket on December 16. The U.S. Embassy in Yemen has come under attack numerous times in recent years. In September 2008, 10 people were killed -- among them police and civilians, but no embassy employees -- when insurgents opened fire and set off explosions outside the compound.","highlights":"U.S. Embassy in Yemen reopens after being closed due to threats by al Qaeda .\nU.S. Secretary of State calls Yemen situation a possible threat to regional, global security .\nGreat Britain closed its embassy in Yemen .\nFrance, Spain, Japan and Germany made changes to enhance embassy security .","id":"cd6b63cad6e289cce68c1bbaf4e8317ccc206793"} -{"article":"OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- As you walk down Prince Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, it may be easy to forget that it's 2009. Music preservationist Curtis Blues works the streets of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. You might find a wooden-wheeled carriage rolling by, drawn by a mule. Holding the reins and telling the history of the town is a woman dressed in clothing of an era long past. Gas lanterns burn and adorn intricate woodwork on townhouse entrances. Cobblestone streets preserving the past lead the way to the waterfront, where the old Torpedo Factory lies. And if you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of the past echoing in the alleys and old tunnels. The sounds come courtesy of musician Curtis Blues. \"This is a one-string diddley bow,\" Blues says as he picks up a crude, homemade instrument constructed from items you might find in any kitchen. \"They used to tie a wire on a barn door and amplify it with a metal jar top.\" He picks up the portable version of the diddley bow and plucks the one string. He uses a metal slide to change the pitch and creates a rather unique musical sound. Although Blues hadn't yet begun performing, a crowd of curious tourists gathers to watch. Blues is a Mississippi Delta Blues preservationist. He owns a plethora of instruments that were used by delta musicians starting around the turn of the 20th century. He picks up his harmonica and begins to play. Powerful bending notes fly from it as he demonstrates how his heroes used the shape of their mouths to create a louder, richer sound that would reach more people on the streets. Blues started playing blues harmonica when he was 14 years old, and he has been studying, learning and performing blues music ever since. \"This acoustic style of music, I grew up with on the folk circuit. So I was exposed to some of the old blues men, and I fell in love with it,\" Blues says. \"My mission is to preserve it as the acoustic form it was before it went to Chicago and became electric band music.\" He adds: \"So it's a preservation of an era, a moment in history, and a style of performance. One of the aspects of my preservation work is to preserve the voice of these unique instruments of this era.\" Watch Blues ply his trade \u00bb . For the past 14 years, Blues has had a one-man-band blues show that he performs in the shadow of the Old Torpedo Factory, located on the boardwalk in the heart of Old Town. His show finds him with a bright silver metal resonator guitar, a harmonica mounted around his neck, and a bass drum with cymbals. \"They performed in settings just like this on the side of the river,\" Blues says of the old-time blues musicians. \"So when I'm playing out here I'm really stepping into their shoes. But there's no assumption that anyone has to pay me at all. The term in Europe is called 'busking.' The idea behind busking is that you're turning a stranger into a paying customer in just a few seconds.\" One of Blues' \"busking\" techniques is to get the kids involved. \"Would you like to be part of my band?\" he asks a shy little red-haired girl hiding behind her mother's leg. \"I could use a pretty girl like you in my band! Come on up here and grab a maraca.\" Blues soon has a small percussion section to his right, and each child has a parent holding a dollar for the children to place into his tip box after the song in appreciation of the fun that has been added to their day. Near the end of the song, Blues lowers the music and addresses the crowd. \"Now if you're thinking of tipping me today and I hope you are, please consider my huge family!\" And he gestures to the several children next to him holding colorful plastic maracas. \"And that little one there,\" he goes on, \"he eats the most out of all of them.\" The crowd laughs, and dollars pile into his tip box. Later in his show, Blues picks up a cigar-box banjo. It is literally a wooden cigar box that is attached to a long wooden neck with four strings fastened at either end. He describes the instrument to a few very interested onlookers. He stands up and sings a classic blues song called \"Turkey-Legged Woman\" and begins to engage the crowd face to face. \"Part of my job out here is not only to perform the art, but to educate the public to support the art,\" Blues explains. \"This idea of live music, that when they bring their kids by and they come across a person performing outdoors without a microphone, that this is something of value that we should treasure, and that we should support.\" \"The future of the blues is very bright,\" says Blues, \"because the human spirit always resonates and relates to the blues.\" The sun begins to set. The crowd slowly changes from shorts and flip-flops to skirts and heels. Blues says he will play on the street \"as long as there are people here to stop and listen.\" Then he runs his slide up the neck of his steel guitar.","highlights":"Sounds of the past echo through streets of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia .\nCurtis Blues is a music preservationist, plays instruments of a past era .\n\"Busking\" is \"turning a stranger into a paying customer in just a few seconds\"\nHuman spirit always relates to the blues, music preservationist says .","id":"1afa4088ffe321922cac777c45f3840f4993e779"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- International aid groups were feverishly trying to get supplies into quake-ravaged Haiti on Thursday to prevent the situation from going from \"dire to absolutely catastrophic.\" The search-and-rescue efforts are the top priority. \"The ability to get people out of that rubble is paramount,\" said Jonathan Aiken, a spokesman for the American Red Cross. \"You have a very limited time to accomplish that before people die and before you start to get into issues of diseases.\" Behind the scenes, a massive coordination effort involving dozens of aid groups, the Haitian government, the United Nations and the U.S. military was under way to get food, water, tents and other supplies to survivors of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Ian Rodgers, a senior emergency adviser for Save the Children, said aid efforts were at a \"tipping point.\" \"People are without water; children are without food and without shelter,\" he said. \"What we will see with the lack of water is the possibility of diarrheal diseases and, of course, that can kill children in a matter of hours if not tended to appropriately. \"It is very possible,\" Rodgers said, \"that the situation can go from dire to absolutely catastrophic if we don't get enough food, medicine and work with children and their families to help them.\" In the United States, President Obama promised the people of Haiti that \"you will not be forsaken.\" \"Today, you must know that help is arriving,\" Obama said. Precise casualty estimates were impossible to determine. Haitian President Rene Preval said Wednesday that he had heard estimates of up to 50,000 dead but that it was too early to know for sure. The Haitian prime minister said he worries that several hundred thousand people were killed. The country's infrastructure has been devastated, the scope of the calamity enormous. \"The government personnel that would normally lead these types of responses, they themselves have been affected,\" Rodgers said. The Haitian government stopped accepting flights Thursday because ramp space at the airport in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, was saturated and no fuel was available, said Federal Aviation Adminstration spokeswoman Laura Brown. Meanwhile, the pier used for delivery of cargo to Port-au-Prince was \"completely compromised\" by Tuesday's earthquake, said CNN's Eric Marrapodi. Three ships filled with medical supplies, food, clothing and water were turned away, he said. Roads leading into the city from the dock were bucked about 5 feet high by the earthquake, he said. Relief agencies are focusing on food, shelter, medical care and communications, all of which will help establish a sense of security, Aiken said. \"The people will at least know that the world is paying attention to them.\" Supplies and security . A bottleneck of supplies has built up while authorities have tried to get Haiti's main airport functioning. Rubble-strewn roads, downed trees and a battered communications network have hampered humanitarian efforts. Aftershocks continue to jolt the region, causing further fear and panic among residents. \"We're going to have to wait for this pipeline of aid coming in from various places around the world to be set up and put into full gear before Haitians can get all the help that they need,\" Aiken said. \"You're going to start seeing some progress on that today.\" While planes were able to bring in the first round of supplies, the question became, Aiken said, \"how do you get it to the folks who need it?\" Impact Your World: How you can help . Haiti isn't accustomed to quakes and doesn't have the heavy equipment or specialized machinery to help clear the rubble, Aiken said. Aid groups and government agencies are coordinating to get the equipment in. \"It's basically a matter of clearing out the rubble, making sure that areas are workable, that you have security that can protect these supplies and that you have security in place to help people,\" Aiken said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a contingent of 2,000 U.S. Marines will help the international peacekeeping and police force established after the 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. \"We'll try to support them as they re-establish authority,\" Clinton said. The American Red Cross emptied a warehouse in Panama that had been filled with everything from cooking kits to toiletries to medical supplies and tents. That load of supplies is likely to make it into Haiti on Thursday, Aiken said. \"Our effort is immediate relief and supplies.\" \"The needs are overwhelming at this point in time,\" Rodgers said. \"We are going to be doing our best to respond to that, but obviously that's a big task at hand.\" Medical emergency . Hospitals in Port-au-Prince have collapsed, and the few facilities still open can't handle the needs of the injured. The United States and other countries were dispatching medical supplies, facilities and personnel. People who suffered broken bones from falling debris have been unable to get treatment; there's simply too many of them. \"We need medical help,\" Haitian President Rene Preval said. \"Some of the hospitals, they collapsed. The hospitals, they are full, and they put people in the outside.\" Clinton said, \"Just getting to people to provide the medical assistance they need is proving to be very difficult.\" See CNN's complete coverage of the quake . Barbara DeBuono, the former commissioner of health for New York state, said the coordination between the U.S. military and groups like the Red Cross is essential to treating the sick and injured. \"Making sure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing is really, really critical here, so that there isn't further chaos and confusion.\" Aiken said officials would assess the situation on the ground and coordinate medical efforts. As the days go by, health concerns will grow about diseases, like cholera and tuberculosis, from the thousands of corpses on streets and in the rubble. The bodies also can affect the water supply and sanitation. \"You can have airborne diseases,\" Aiken said. \"You can have animals carrying [diseases] feeding off these corpses.\" Haiti could also have a humanitarian crisis since tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed, forcing residents onto residents. \"There needs to be a place to put people and to set up a structure like a refugee camp,\" Aiken said. \"That's all part of this.\" But he said, for now, the priority is to rescue as many people as possible -- and get supplies in as quickly as possible.","highlights":"Pipeline of aid backed up as Port-au-Prince airport reopens .\nTop priority is to get to survivors and get supplies in as soon as possible .\nAid worker: \"The needs are overwhelming at this point in time\"\nHealth concerns grow as bodies begin piling up; tens of thousands left homeless .","id":"ac71df24148735f30df9b681bc4be2d7a6caffe1"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- People who knew and studied Maj. Nidal Hasan say he was a loner who had no luck finding a wife, and a criminal profiler said the Fort Hood shooting suspect fits the profile of a mass murderer better than that of a terrorist. Investigators are searching for any missed \"red flags\" that might have prevented last week's fatal shooting, which left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and 40 other people wounded. However, the FBI has said its investigations indicate the \"alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.\" \"A lot of people are jumping to the conclusion because this man spouted violent Islamic ideology that this is a terrorist attack,\" criminologist Pat Brown said. Brown, who profiles killers, said Hasan's profile is that of a loner. \"He was simply a lone guy who had issues, problems, psychopathic behaviors that escalated to the point where he wanted to get back at society, and he took it out on his workmates like most of them do,\" he said. A cleric at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, where Hasan attended when he lived in the area, said Hasan seemed to become \"somewhat withdrawn\" after the death of his mother in 2001. \"Some individuals said that their experience with him, that he changed after his mother passed away,\" Imam Johari Abdul-Malik said. Another cleric there, Shaikh Shaker Elsayed, said efforts to find a wife for Hasan were unsuccessful. \"Well, we were not successful in matching him with somebody,\" he said. Hasan, a 39-year-old psychiatrist, came under investigation last year when his communications with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki were intercepted by terrorism investigators who were monitoring al-Awlaki, a federal law enforcement official told CNN. But an employee of the Defense Department's Criminal Investigative Services, assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, decided to drop the investigation after reviewing the intercepted communications and Hasan's personnel files. A senior Defense Department official said the task force's ground rules prevented that information from being transmitted outside the task force, although others disputed that. \"I find it hard to believe that they would just say, 'OK, we're not going to share any of this information with the military,' \" HLN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks said. \"I mean, that's why you have a person from the military, from different military branches, on the task force to be the liaison.\" A former counterterrorism official said the information about Hasan's communications with the imam should have been shared with the military unless the FBI specifically forbade it. Still, one source familiar with the investigation said Hasan's communications with al-Awlaki appeared innocent in nature. Another federal source familiar with the investigation said Hasan's actions give no indication he was following the guidance in al Qaeda's terrorist handbook in the weeks before Thursday's attack. That handbook directs jihadists to conceal their religion, mask their beliefs and blend in. Instead, Hasan frequently appeared in public in traditional Muslim clothing and prayed daily at the local mosque, making no attempt to hide his religion or conservative beliefs, the source said. Hasan remained hospitalized Wednesday in stable condition and has not been formally charged with any of the 13 deaths in last week's shooting. His civilian attorney, retired Army Col. John Galligan, said he has spoken with his client, but that he was heavily sedated. \"I think the closest thing that indicates that there's a court-martial in the works is last night about 8 I did receive an e-mail from the prosecutor at Fort Hood indicating to me that the pass privileges and leave privileges of Maj. Hasan had been revoked,\" Galligan said. CNN's Drew Griffin, Elaine Quijano, Carol Cratty and Brian Todd contributed to this report.","highlights":"Profiler: Hasan fits profile of mass murderer better than that of terrorist .\nMaj. Nidal Hasan accused of fatally shooting 13, wounding 40 at Fort Hood .\nCleric at mosque Hasan once attended: He was withdrawn after mother's 2001 death .","id":"15e9e1f85b03dbba4051d9fec1b7ff69aa7f0bd3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The man identified as the double agent who killed eight people at a U.S. base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian doctor recruited as a counterterrorism intelligence source, a senior Jordanian official said Tuesday. A former U.S. intelligence official identified the suicide bomber Monday as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. The Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities in Jordan arrested al-Balawi more than a year ago \"for some suspicious information related to him\" but released him because of a lack of evidence. \"After few months, he got in touch with us through the Internet and sent us several e-mails that include very important and rather dangerous information that might affect the security and stability of the country,\" the official said. \"We kept in touch with him through e-mails in order to get more information and also trying to bring him over to be able to get more information. We shared and exchanged the information he gave us with some other friendly countries that are involved in countering terrorism.\" The official said Jordan could not confirm that al-Balawi was the bomber, \"because we are not on the ground.\" \"But we are not denying that if he is the one, then he is the Jordanian doctor,\" the official said. The December 30 blast at a U.S. base in Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan, killed seven CIA operatives including two from private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater. The eighth victim was Jordanian Army Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a cousin of Jordan's King Abdullah II. U.S. sources said bin Zeid was the Jordanian operative working closely with al-Balawi, who was from the same hometown as the onetime leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Jordanian and U.S. intelligence agencies apparently believed that al-Balawi had been rehabilitated from his extremist views and were using him to hunt Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 figure, the former intelligence official said. In a posting on its Web site last week, the Taliban in Afghanistan claimed that the bomber was an Afghan National Army soldier. On Sunday, however, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud said in an e-mail that his arm of the Islamic movement carried out the attack, using a Jordanian national. Mehsud's message predicted, \"This will be admitted by the CIA and the Jordanian government.\" The attack was \"a huge blow, symbolically and tactically,\" because it eliminated such a large number of CIA officers, who can require years to become ingrained in the region, said Reva Bhalla, director of analysis for the international intelligence firm STRATFOR. In addition, the attack showed the ability of the Taliban to penetrate perhaps the most difficult of targets: a CIA base, she said. Former CIA official Robert Richer called it the greatest loss of life for the agency since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed eight agents. An American intelligence official vowed last week that the United States would avenge the attack.","highlights":"Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi identified as bomber .\nOfficial: Authorities in Jordan recruited al-Balawi as counterterrorism intelligence .\nBlast at U.S. base in Afghanistan killed seven CIA operatives, Jordanian military officer .","id":"f1deb2560c3ee32b6363402c8b22e19c552ece53"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- In the wake of the suicide bombing at Forward Operating Base Chapman, new security guidance has gone out to U.S. bases across Afghanistan, U.S. military officials said. The December 30 suicide attack killed seven CIA officers and contractors, along with a Jordanian military officer who was the attacker's handler. Former CIA official Robert Richer called it the greatest loss of life for the agency since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed eight agents. A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN on Wednesday the attack was believed to have come on orders from \"the highest levels\" of al Qaeda. Bruce Reidel, a former CIA officer who has advised President Obama on al Qaeda, said the attack showed the capacity of terrorists to strike at U.S. targets remained \"very significant.\" \"It's a very, very sophisticated operation,\" Reidel said. \"It must have taken a long time to plan and to set up.\" In response, U.S. military officials said they were changing procedures. \"Suffice it to say that after any serious incident we evaluate the circumstances, think through the threat implications given our current practices and disseminate guidance to the field if adjustments are necessary,\" a senior military official said. The official would not describe the new security procedures because \"we don't broadcast the specific changes we've made to security postures or our intelligence procedures.\" A second U.S. military official said the guidance is meant to adjust procedures as quickly as possible on a large scale. \"We don't want just the military intelligence guys looking out for specific things. We need MPs and ground forces to be aware,\" the official said. The official said the security guidance is meant to be disseminated to as wide a group as possible, while more specific guidance on intelligence operations is kept to a much more limited, restricted distribution. The officials had not seen specific guidance on handling sources, but both noted only one week has passed since the incident, and the investigation may not have progressed far enough to produce formal recommendations in that area. One official said the intelligence officers on the ground now know enough details to \"self-correct\" procedures. According to sources, the Jordanian suicide bomber was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a one-time militant who then appeared to be helping the United States. Al-Balawi was offering information on the possible whereabouts of Ayman al Zawahiri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden, the sources said, and was picked up outside the base and driven into it without being checked. The sources said al-Balawi detonated the bomb shortly after arriving. The attack shed light on the role of Jordan as a previously covert partner in the U.S. hunt for bin Laden and Zawahiri. \"The Jordanian intelligence service is the best intelligence service in the Middle East and South Asia, bar none,\" Reidel said. \"They are far more effective in working against jihadist groups like al Qaeda in Iraq like the al Qaeda core in Pakistan than any other intelligence service.\" CNN's Barbara Starr and Pam Benson contributed to this report.","highlights":"Senior official: \"After any serious incident we evaluate the circumstances\"\nNew security guidance has gone out to U.S. bases across Afghanistan, official says .\nIntelligence official: Attack believed to come from \"the highest levels\" of al Qaeda .\nGuidance meant to adjust procedures quickly on a large scale, official says .","id":"f46521c0b6b0b5b6c7adb7cf586947125a642136"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Captain Graeme Smith ground out a potentially match-winning century to put South Africa on top in the third cricket Test against England at Newlands on Tuesday. The left-hander was unbeaten on 162 at stumps on the third day, having added a record 230 for the second wicket with Hashim Amla (95) as the home side reached 312-2 in Cape Town's intense heat. England struggled from the outset, losing two wickets in the day's opening over and added just 32 runs to their overnight total of 241-7. That gave the Proteas a first-innings lead of 18 runs, and it looked like the home side might also find batting difficult when makeshift opener Ashwell Prince continued his miserable series, falling leg before wicket to spinner Graeme Swann for 15. But Smith and Amla set about the English attack, who gained no profit from a controversial incident when seamer Chris Broad stood on the ball with his studded boots before lunch when it was still relatively new. Smith survived a series of close calls and decision referrals as the duo set a new Test highest mark for the second wicket at the venue. The opener thought he was out soon after reaching his 19th century in the five-day format, but England wicketkeeper Matt Prior admitted that the edge off seamer Graham Onions had not carried. Amla finally fell to a bat-pad catch by Alistair Cook off Swann, falling five runs short of his eighth Test ton as he hit 14 boundaries off 156 deliveries. First-innings centurion Jacques Kallis was unbeaten on 20 at stumps, with Smith having plundered 22 boundaries in his 243 balls at the crease. Earlier, Morne Morkel (5-75) took two wickets in two balls to put England on the back foot, with Swann caught at slip by Smith for five from a fierce rising delivery and James Anderson following in identical fashion. Prior, who was 52 overnight, hit out to get England close to parity before dragging a short ball from Dale Steyn (4-74) onto his wicket to be last out for 76. England coach Andy Flower said Wednesday's morning session would prove vital for his side, who lead 1-0 after winning the second Test. \"We have got to attack with the new ball. We have seen wickets fall early on all the days so far. We have definitely got to attack early,\" the former Zimbabwe international player said. \"The first two days produced very difficult batting conditions, today was easier. We don't know what sort of conditions are going to arrive tomorrow. If it plays as easy as it has today, we have got a chance.\"","highlights":"South Africa captain Graeme Smith scores potentially match-winning unbeaten 162 .\nHosts reach 312-2 at stumps on third day of third Test against England at Newlands .\nSmith adds 230 for second wicket with Hashim Amla (95), a record for the Cape Town venue .\nEngland were earlier bowled out for 273, a first-innings deficit of 18 runs .","id":"d31eea81a96e05ae01e40dbd84ed7af9937f1204"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The chairman of India's fourth-largest software-services provider resigned Wednesday after confessing to inflating the company's profits for years with \"fictitious\" assets and non-existent cash. Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju . The news sent stocks of the Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services into free fall. Stocks plummeted more than 70 percent within hours after the revelation. The major stock index in India -- the BSE SENSEX -- fell 7.3 percent Wednesday. Satyam employs 53,000 people, operates in 65 countries and serves almost 700 companies, including 185 Fortune 500 companies. More than half of its revenue comes from the United States. Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju said the balance-sheet padding began several years ago to close \"a marginal gap\" between actual operating profit and one reflected in the company's accounting books. It continued through the years, he said. \"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,\" Raju said in a letter to the company's board of directors. Raju said no board member was aware of what he was doing and he did not profit from the inflated accounts. The deception came to light after Raju tried to plug the hole by getting Satyam to buy his son's construction companies. The acquisition was \"the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones,\" he wrote in his letter. The deal would have cost Satyam $1.6 billion -- but the company's board vetoed it. Stocks fell following the botched deal. Soon afterward, Raju came clean, saying he was doing so \"with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience.\" Analysts say Satyam is ripe for a takeover, and the government is expected to submit a formal report on the matter Thursday. -- CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report.","highlights":"News sent stocks of Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services plunging .\nSatyam employs 53,000 people and operates in 65 countries .\nChairman B. Ramalinga Raju said balance-sheet padding began years ago .\nRaju said no board member was aware of what he was doing .","id":"4f2a1a1c87eafee21ad6c3ad854e13c66ff43658"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Defending World Cup champion Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria claimed the second leg of the famous Four Hills ski-jumping tournament at Garmisch on New Year's Day. Schlierenzauer could only finish ninth in the first event at Oberstdorf on Tuesday, but made no mistake with leaps of 136.5 and 137.5m and good style marks for a total of 277.7 points. It gave him a comfortable advantage over fellow Austrian Wolfgang Loitzl, who twice jumped 135m for 272.5 points. Switzerland's double Olympic champion from 2002 in Salt Lake City, Simon Ammann, showed he is running into form for Vancouver next February, after jumping 132 and 143.5m for 272.4 points and third place. Austrian Andreas Kofler, who won at Oberstdorf, maintained the overall lead in the four-event competition as he came in fourth with leaps of 136 and 137m for 271.9 points. Finland's five-time Four Hills champion Janne Ahonen, second at Oberstdorf on his comeback from retirement, finished sixth after jumps of 129.5 and 137m gave him 259.2 points. Kofler leads the standings with a 20-point lead over Loitzl with Ahonen third ahead of the next competition at Innsbruck on Sunday. The Four Hills concludes in Austria, at Bischofshofen on January 6. Ammann still leads the overall World Cup standings with Schlierenzauer closing up in second place and Kofler third. In other pre-Olympic news, leading U.S. snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered serious injuries in training for the halfpipe event in Utah. Reports said Pearce hit head on the halfpipe while attempting a complex move and was taken to a hospital in Salt Lake City. He was among the favorites for gold at the 2010 Vancouver games having beaten 2006 Olympic gold medallist Shaun White in recent competitions.","highlights":"Gregor Schlierenzauer wins Garmisch round of Four Hills ski-jumping tournament .\nAustrian Andreas Kofler, who won at Oberstdorf, maintains the overall standings lead .\nU.S. snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffers head injuries in training accident for halfpipe event .","id":"2c1e89099b04e5975d35965499f712da08d4a051"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Director Barry Levinson is the star of his new film. Well, almost. Director Barry Levinson sizes up politics and media in his new film, \"PoliWood.\" In the Academy Award-winning filmmaker's new documentary \"PoliWood,\" Levinson takes a look at the world of policymakers and screen actors and ends up voicing his own ideas in the process. \"The fact that my voice is in it always scares me to death, because I never like to be on camera, period,\" Levinson said. (The \"Rain Man\" director has appeared in a handful of films, notably the Robert Redford-directed \"Quiz Show.\") In \"PoliWood,\" Levinson follows a group of politically active actors to the Democratic and Republican conventions as they take in the theater of it all. The journey leads to President Obama's inauguration. \"PoliWood\" also explores the idea that the media have become confusing catalysts that blur the lines of reality and myth. Television, which was once a romanticized invention that brought entertainment and public service announcements into our homes, is now a portal for manipulating what we see, feel and think, in the film's presentation. CNN talked to Levinson about the politics of the media, Hollywood actors supporting candidates and \"PoliWood.\" CNN: Tell me about the celebrity-politician-media link. Barry Levinson: Well, I think what happened is, you have this television screen, and everything has to go through that screen -- and at a certain point, I don't think that we can tell the difference between the celebrity and the politician. They both have to entertain us in some fashion. That's why I think, in second half of the 20th century, you saw this kind of change where John F. Kennedy was probably the first television politician. He came across, he was good-looking, he was great in the way he spoke; he had a certain sense of humor. Then you had Reagan. Someone looked at him giving a speech for Goldwater and said, you know, he could be a politician. Two years after that, he became governor of California. So anyone that is pleasant enough on television suddenly gets credentials, whether they have earned it or not. And there's that blurring of it between celebrity and politics and everything else. CNN: Do you think that most celebrities have a good understanding of the politicians they support, or do some just jump on the bandwagon? Levinson: I think \"PoliWood\" shows it in some ways and talks about it. But basically, to be honest, there is no upside for any actor to be politically involved other than the fact that they are concerned citizens. It doesn't benefit their career at all. The term \"celebrity\" is sort of a bogus term, though, in a lot of ways. CNN: Why? Levinson: Well because Paris Hilton and Susan Sarandon, they're both celebrities, but Paris Hilton hasn't ever really done anything, in a way. Susan Sarandon has been an actress whose done a lot of different roles, been around a long time, has been politically active, extremely smart and knowledgeable about that. But there's two women, they get exposure, but there's a huge difference between that. Some have earned it; some get that attention just by the way they look or the way they have carried on in public. CNN: There's a scene in \"PoliWood\" where actors sit down with regular people, and they talk about relating to one another. Levinson: Well, how is that so-called celebrities -- how would they possibly relate to the ordinary person? But 90 percent of them come from those families -- they come out of the Midwest or the South or the Northeast. They come out of working-class families primarily. And because of the nature of America, that if you have certain dreams, and ultimately those dreams can in fact come true, they benefited by the society that they live in. But their roots come from all these small towns around the country, so of course they can relate. CNN: Do you think the Democratic and Republican conventions are pure theater? Levinson: Oh, absolutely. There's no political content that takes place at a political convention. It used to be that they would hammer out a platform. You know, there's all kind of back-room meetings, so now it's a show. It is a show both places. CNN: What do you think of President Obama? Levinson: He obviously is great on TV, and he is extremely smart, and so what we're gonna see as it goes down the road, what changes does he actually bring about? How does he work with Congress? All of those particular issues. He understands TV, and he's a great communicator. Now, will he be good or bad? We'll see what happens in a four-year period from someone who has great capabilities -- where does it all go? It's too early to determine that. CNN: Do you watch much television, or do you have a cynical view about it? Levinson: I try to watch TV like anyone else. I like to tune in just to see what new shows are out there. And then there are certain shows that I just get infuriated over. And then there are so-called political shows that I have a difficult time with. And sometimes I sit, and images are flying by so fast in some of these pieces, I'm going, \"What is that about?\" I've no idea. It looks like a collision of images on the screen.","highlights":"Barry Levinson's new film looks at how TV has influenced politics .\nLevinson: Hard to tell politician and entertainer apart on television .\n\"Rain Man\" director observes celebrities, ordinary people try to relate .","id":"c92f5b4110ae1d43a0c273909569e0995e66932a"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- A strike that would have crippled British Airways over Christmas and New Year's Day cannot go ahead, a judge ruled Thursday. Judge Laura Cox issued an injunction blocking the planned 12-day strike, which was set to start December 22 and could have affected up to 1 million passengers. The airline immediately issued a statement saying it is \"delighted for our customers. \"There was never any need for a strike and we hope that Unite will take this opportunity to reflect before deciding its next steps,\" BA said, referring to the union that planned the strike. \"Our customers do not believe that old-style trade union militancy is relevant to our efforts to move British Airways back toward profitability.\" But Unite joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley called it \"a disgraceful day for democracy when a court can overrule such an overwhelming decision by employees taken in a secret ballot. \"This dispute is not settled. Passing the buck to the courts to do management's job for them was never going to be the answer,\" they said, warning they could vote again to strike. \"BA must accept that there can be no resolution except through negotiation, failing which there will inevitably be a further ballot for industrial action.\" Unite has been engaged in a bitter dispute with British Airways management. \"I'm not disappointed for the people that can get away at Christmas,\" Simpson told CNN. \"It was never our desire to hurt those people. What we wanted to do was force a negotiated settlement.\" He said he is concerned the decision has \"hardened management's attitude\" toward negotiation. The union is unhappy with the airline's plans to change cabin crew conditions. Unite says working hours will be extended and crew levels will be cut, changes that will damage customer service and hit the British Airways brand. The airline says the changes will save the carrier $665 million. BA has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter this year. Cabin crew staff voted overwhelmingly in favor of the strike. But the airline argued in court that some of the workers who cast ballots had already taken voluntary redundancy -- or buyouts -- from the airline. Some 10,288 workers voted, of about 14,000 cabin crew staff overall. The airline's legal counsel, Bruce Carr, told the presiding judge that the balloting process contained \"serious and substantial irregularities.\" Carr called the union's action in choosing to strike over Christmas \"willfully disproportionate and clearly unlawful.\" He referred several times to the serious disruption that would be felt by the airline's passengers, saying some \"ordinary people will find it very difficult to understand.\" Simpson said management imposed terms on the union members without agreement, and when Unite asked a court to stop it, the court did not. The fact that the court has now blocked the union from striking \"shows an imbalance in employment law,\" he said. Travel experts have said around 1 million British Airways passengers could have been affected by the strike, finding themselves stranded and unable to rebook their tickets during the busy travel period. Thursday brought disruption to thousands of passengers on another airline, one run by the small Scottish charter company Globespan. The company announced on its Web site that it has gone into administration and that all flights on its airline, Flyglobespan, have been canceled. Further travel headaches are in store for passengers of other airlines at Heathrow and Aberdeen airports next week. Unite said baggage handlers and check-in staff at the two airports plan a series of three separate walkouts starting next week in a dispute over pay and pensions. The strike is not related to the British Airways dispute. The baggage handlers and check-in staff are employed by SAS Ground Services UK Ltd. The strike will affect travelers on Turkish, Emirates and Thai airlines at Heathrow and passengers on KLM, Air France, Wideroe and Atlantic at Aberdeen, Unite said. The walkouts are scheduled for December 22-24, December 26-27 and January 3-4. Those passengers hoping to avoid air travel in Europe and take the train instead faced uncertainty after British-based drivers of the Eurostar train announced a series of two strikes starting this weekend. The drivers said they will strike Friday and Saturday, and again December 26 and 27. Eurostar, however, said service would not be affected, because drivers from France and Belgium would be used. The train line provides service between London and both Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium. The union representing the drivers, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, said talks with Eurostar \"concerning international allowances\" broke down. The dispute is over how much drivers' meal allowances should be when they are in Paris and Brussels. A Eurostar spokeswoman said it offered the drivers what it believes is a reasonable amount, but the drivers rejected the offer. She would not divulge specifics of the offer, saying only that it was \"enough for a good meal.\" --CNN Business Correspondent Jim Boulden contributed to this report.","highlights":"High Court issues injunction stopping planned BA holiday strike .\nAirline issues a statement saying it is \"delighted for our customers\"\nTravel experts say around one million passengers would be hit by strike .\nTwelve-day strike was due to start Monday, disrupting holiday season travel .","id":"b0a4154e5134e678bafbedae71e1a174c408a113"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Dozens of flights were delayed at India's New Delhi airport Monday after lizards, birds and jackals strayed on to a runway to seek refuge from the monsoon rains. Kids play cricket through a downpour in New Delhi as monsoon rains came early to the area this week. Animal rescuers rounded up the critters and moved them to habitats outside airport property. But the operation delayed several flights and shut down the runway for some time, airport spokesman Arun Arora said. Kartick Satyanarayan of the conservation group Wildlife SOS said the animals descended on the runway in search of dry ground. His group works with the airport to move wildlife from airport property to a sanctuary on the outskirts of the capital. \"It's been raining cats and dogs the last two days. And when it rains like this, water goes in and fills the burrows of these animals,\" he said. \"The runway,\" he added, \"is the only safe area. So they come out.\" While monsoon rains typically sweep across the subcontinent in early June, they usually do not reach the capital city of New Delhi and other regions in northern India until early July. Watch how Indians cope with monsoon waters \u00bb . They came about two weeks early in the northern part of the country this year, killing at least 20 people in landslides, home collapses and floods. The airport sits on more than 2,000 acres that, over the years, have become home to jackals, porcupines, dogs, cats and a variety of birds. Arora would not say how many flights were delayed during the rescue operation. The airport handles 13,000 domestic and 9,500 international passengers a day. \"(The) numbers are speculative as it is difficult to attribute delays to bad weather, strong winds, birds or animals,\" Arora said. In the past, animals on the runway have disrupted flights at the airport -- particularly during the monsoon season, Satyanarayan said. \"The monitor lizards -- they look frightening but they are harmless animals,\" he said. \"But they can grow about three to four feet long. And at the velocity a plane lands, the [lizards] can still cause damage.\"","highlights":"Jackals, monitor lizards and birds descend on runway at New Delhi airport .\nAnimal invasion delays flights as wildlife group comes to the rescue .\nAnimals take to runway to dry off and warm up after monsoon rain .","id":"3f5e71a04151d56e985566d8c34149a7e2c6808a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- American driver Robby Gordon won the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally by just one second from Stephane Peterhansel, who extended his overall lead to more than seven minutes in South America on Tuesday. NASCAR star Gordon claimed his first victory of this year's race, and his third overall, as he snatched the quickest time on the shortened 163 kilometer stage from Fiambala in Argentina to Copiapo in Chile. It was cut by 40km as some competitors arrived late following Monday's leg. He clocked one hour, 40 minutes and 21 seconds in his Hummer to head off BMW's Peterhansel, who has won three car titles and six on bikes. The Frenchman now leads Carlos Sainz by seven minutes and 36 seconds, with the former world rally champion finishing fourth behind Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah. Defending champion Giniel De Villiers gave Volkswagen with three drivers in the top five, but is still way back in 20th due to his problems on Monday. Gordon was left eight overall, more than an hour off the pace, while his compatriot Mark Miller is fourth in another Volkswagen after placing sixth on Tuesday. \"Today's special stage was perfect for us with a lot of camel grass. It's on this type of terrain that the Hummer is doing great,\" Gordon told the race's official Web site. \"I am glad we managed to recover from yesterday. I got stuck twice yesterday and the engine overheated. We lost one hour. It's sad but the race is still long. We've only had four days of raid so far. A stage victory means nothing to us. It's the final victory we are in for.\" In the bikes, defending champion Marc Coma bounced back from losing moer than 40 minutes over the last two days to win the stage. The Spaniard was left in sixth overall, 38 minutes and 50 seconds behind Frenchman Cyril Depres, who was third on the stage also riding a 690cc KTM machine. His compatriot David Casteu, riding a smaller 450cc Sherco machine, was runner-up to retain second overall -- almost nine minutes behind with 10 stages left.","highlights":"Stephane Peterhansel extends lead in Dakar Rally cars section in his BMW .\nFrenchman is more than seven minutes ahead of second-placed Carlos Sainz .\nAmerican driver Robby Gordon wins the fourth stage to be eighth overall .\nIn the bikes, Frenchman Cyril Depres leads by almost nine minutes after placing third .","id":"18984b5575a226d1d391be2b3788a0ccb794011e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Researchers announced this week that they've found a new gene, ALS6, which is responsible for about 5 percent of hereditary Lou Gehrig's cases. The discovery of a new gene mutation may allow those with ALS in their family to be tested. It's being called a \"momentous discovery\" by the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association. Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts and Kings College in London found the mutation by doing detailed sequencing of the genes in several families with an inherited form of ALS. The findings are published in the February 27 issue of the journal Science and were partially funded by the ALS Association. ALS, a disease of the nervous system, impairs muscle movement and eventually results in total paralysis. It was brought to national attention in 1939, when famed Yankee baseball player Lou Gehrig's illness was diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Today, the disease is most commonly known by his name. ALS6 is a protein normally found inside a cell's nucleus, but in patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, it is found outside the nucleus and sometimes forms unusual clumps. ALS researchers are unsure why this occurs but believe this finding, combined with a gene they discovered last year, TDP-43, may lead them to a firmer idea of what causes this deadly disease. Both genes help in building and transporting proteins and making sure they're in the right place in cell structure -- a process called RNA processing. Lucie Bruijn, senior vice president of research and development at the ALS Association, likens this process to building an engine: If there are parts missing or placed in the wrong place or in the wrong way, the engine doesn't work right. \"Everything has an exquisite role and has to be in the right place, and any imbalance ... can cause things to go awry,\" Bruijn said. \"It's exciting because what it's starting to tell us now is that we might be starting to get an underlying theme,\" Bruijn said. \"We now have two genes with similar function strengthening the idea that alterations in RNA processing is important in ALS. A completely new direction and also involved in many other neurodegenerative diseases.\" She believes this gives researchers \"huge\" potential to develop new therapies. And new therapies are needed. There is no cure and only one treatment for ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that seems to progressively attack the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. These attacks can cause symptoms such as muscle weakness, twitching, cramping and thick speech, eventually leading to paralysis. According to the ALS Association, the disease strikes a little more than 5,600 people every year, and about 10 percent of those cases are hereditary. The discovery of this new gene mutation will also allow those with ALS in their family to be tested for another gene (this makes three genes). Bruijn says a test \"will be possible; however, currently, it is not widely accessible\" and \"it would only be used in familial ALS patients.\"","highlights":"Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association calls ALS gene discovery \"momentous\"\nTwo genes discovered in last 12 months could hold key for new therapies .\nGenetic testing useful only for those with hereditary ALS .\nALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, strikes a little more than 5,600 people every year .","id":"49d090119c623b2776dc93ce8ba8a822880f50e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australian hurdler Jana Rawlinson has had her breast implants removed to boost her chances of winning a medal for her country at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The 27-year-old Rawlinson, whose private life has often made headlines in Australia, said she enjoyed having larger breasts but did not want to \"short-change Australia\". \"I absolutely loved having bigger boobs, but finally I've grown up enough to know myself -- to be honest about who I am when I look in the mirror,\" Rawlinson told the Woman's Day magazine. \"I don't want to short-change Australia either -- I want to feel the most athletic I can, to know that I'm standing on the track in London the fittest I can be.\" The double 400 meter hurdles world champion, who reportedly plans to remarry her estranged British husband and fellow-athlete Chris Rawlinson, told the magazine she had the implants because she was unhappy with her athletic figure. \"When I looked in the mirror I just saw muscled arms, broad shoulders and big, strong legs,\" she said. \"These are assets I need to run well, but they didn't make me feel like an attractive woman. \"There are a couple of girls -- who I won't name -- in world athletics who are Olympic champions, but they look like men and I don't want to be like that.\" Rawlinson won the 400m hurdles at the 2003 Paris world championships and four years later in Osaka, Japan.","highlights":"Australian 400m hurdler Jana Rawlinson has had her breast implants removed .\nThe 27-year-old hopes to boost her chances of winning a medal at the 2012 Olympic Games .\nRawlinson won the 400m hurdles at the 2003 Paris world championships and four years later in Osaka.","id":"11e5d72c376ff56d0ab0a317292c06828a71b39e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kim Clijsters defeated fellow comeback queen Justine Henin in the final of the Brisbane International on Saturday, saving two match-points and wasting three as she won an epic clash. Henin, playing her first tournament since May 2008, fought back from a set and 4-1 down against her fellow Belgian before losing 6-3 4-6 7-6 (8-6) in almost two and a half hours. However, Henin sustained an injury to her left leg and later confirmed on her Web site that she will miss next week's Sydney Invitational, where she faced a possible second-round clash with Serena Williams, in order to recover in time for the decade's first Grand Slam event, the Australian Open. Clijsters, who made history in September as the first unseeded player to win the U.S. Open in her third event back on the WTA Tour following her own short-lived retirement, took control as she won eight straight games. But fellow former world No. 1 Henin dug deep to level the match and then take a 3-0 lead in the deciding set. The 26-year-old Clijsters battled back to tie it up at 3-3, and then both players squandered potentially match-winning break opportunities to ensure a tie-break. Clijsters raced to a 5-1 lead, helped by her first ace of the match -- coming off a second serve -- but then missed three match-point chances at 6-3. Henin again fought back to level at 6-6 but then her 11th double-fault gave Clijsters the chance to finally close out for victory, her 11th in 23 meeting between the two players. Clijsters clinched her 36th WTA Tour title, leaving Henin stuck on 41. \"What a match!\" Clijsters said. \"I think we set the bar pretty high for ourselves for the rest of the year. Justine played at a really high level for the whole tournament, so congratulations.\" Meanwhile, top seed Andy Roddick will play defending champion Radek Stepanek in Sunday's men's final at the Pat Rafter Arena. Roddick came from behind to beat Stepanek's fellow Czech Tomas Berdych in the semifinals on Saturday, with the American winning 1-6 6-3 6-4 despite being broken for the first time in the tournament in his opening service game. Second seed Stepanek won 6-2 6-1 against Frenchman Gael Monfils, who was struggling with a shoulder problem. The world No. 13 told the tournament's Web site that he was unsure if he would take part in next week's Sydney International. In New Zealand, third seed Yanina Wickmayer shrugged off her difficult end to 2009 by winning the ASB Classic in Auckland on Saturday. The 20-year-old Belgian, who won her appeal against a one-year ban for failing to report her whereabouts for doping tests, defeated top seed Flavia Pennetta 6-3 6-2 to clinch her third WTA Tour title.","highlights":"Kim Clijsters beats fellow comeback queen Justine Henin in final of Brisbane International .\nClijsters wins 6-3 4-6 7-6 (8-6), saving two match-points and wasting three .\nFormer world No. 1 Henin suffers a leg injury and will miss next week's Sydney event .\nTop seed Andy Roddick faces defending champion Radek Stepanek in men's final .","id":"3ed68b828de00b44bc921db53a65a7e27ebba8f2"} -{"article":"Suzanne Simons is an executive producer at CNN as well as author of the book \"Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War\" (Collins, June 2009). Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, is pictured in Afghanistan in November 2007. (CNN) -- The private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater has held classified contracts with the Central Intelligence Agency for nearly a decade, but an allegation that the contractor was part of a secret CIA program to kill al Qaeda operatives -- if true -- would take the relationship to a whole new level. The CIA hired the private security firm Blackwater USA in 2004 to work on a covert program aimed at targeting and potentially killing top al Qaeda leaders, a source familiar with the program told CNN. Former company executives deny knowing about the program. Current leaders of the company did not return calls to CNN. The CIA won't comment on classified contracts. The classified program, canceled by CIA director Leon Panetta earlier this year, was part of a broader effort inside the CIA to develop the capacity to conduct training, surveillance and possible covert operations overseas, according to the source. The program was outsourced to contractors to \"put some distance\" between the effort and the U.S. government. Other contractors were brought in for other parts of the program, another source said, and Blackwater's involvement ended by mid-2006. But one thing is clear: The company that renamed itself Xe earlier this year in an effort to escape controversy surrounding a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead has had a long relationship with the world's most famous spy agency. When Erik Prince first opened his Blackwater training facility in the late '90s, his clients included special forces teams and law enforcement agencies from around the country. Prince had expressed frustration with the training facilities he visited during his time as a Navy SEAL, and a sizable inheritance allowed him the financial freedom to retire from the military and try his hand at creating a better facility. His first clients were indeed SEAL teams. But they also included teams from other government agencies, including the CIA. Case officers and protection details, the people generally accustomed to working in the shadows, began showing up for training on the shooting range or the driving track in a rural part of North Carolina. When then-CIA Executive Director Alvin \"Buzzy\" Krongard, whose own son was a Navy SEAL, visited the facility, former Blackwater President Gary Jackson suggested he meet with Prince, who worked out of an office in the Washington area. The two had lunch and Krongard immediately took a liking to the man who would later lead the world's most notorious private contracting company. At the time, contacts like these were essential to building the business, so when terror struck the heart of America in September 2001, Prince called up his new friend Krongard and offered to help. Sources inside the agency at the time say that Krongard in fact, was pushing hard for Blackwater to be given the first urgent and compelling, no-bid contract to protect CIA facilities in Afghanistan. The military, it seems, wasn't up to the task of staffing such an effort. Once awarded the initial contract, Prince maintained a close relationship with Krongard, and made trips to Afghanistan to make sure things were going smoothly. The idea that the agency came to Blackwater for help on any other contracts, including one with the overall goal of locating and assassinating al Qaeda operatives, wouldn't come as a huge surprise, particularly since so much of the intelligence budget is spent on private contractors. But with investigations under way into just what was done and by whom at the CIA under the Bush administration, people are remaining tight-lipped. Especially under the threat of possible prosecution, should it go that far.","highlights":"Relationship between Blackwater and CIA goes back almost a decade .\nRecent allegation says contractor was part of CIA program to kill al Qaeda operatives .\nBlackwater was given contract to protect CIA facilities in Afghanistan after 9\/11 attacks .\nThe private contractor renamed itself Xe earlier this year .","id":"b8dd71d1a8291af503336c91d845f34e0b5419db"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Human error and system lapses, rather than deliberate concealing of information, allowed a terror suspect with explosives to board a U.S.-bound airplane on Christmas Day, President Obama's terrorism czar said Sunday. John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said on CNN's \"State of the Union\" that the security breakdown in the failed bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight was different from the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. \"It's not like 9\/11,\" Brennan said, adding that the \"system didn't work as it should have\" due to \"lapses\" and \"human error.\" \"There wasn't an effort to try to conceal information,\" he said, referring to the well-chronicled competition and turf wars among security agencies prior to the 2001 attacks, which was later blamed for the failure to prevent them. \"There is no smoking gun piece of intelligence out there,\" Brennan said of the failed Christmas bombing, allegedly planned by a Nigerian man who boarded the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, with explosives in his underwear. Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration announced Sunday new security measures to be implemented by domestic and international air carriers on flights bound for the United States, effective Monday. The suspect's father, a leading banker in Nigeria, warned U.S. authorities before the attack that his son might be involved with Islamic extremists. Brennan said the father's information was part of \"bits and pieces\" of information that were never connected by intelligence officials to properly target the suspect. \"That was certainly an alert that came to our attention,\" Brennan said of the father's warnings. \"He said, 'He's consorting with extremists in Yemen.'\" However, Brennan rejected another potential warning sign -- that the suspect purchased the airline ticket with cash in Ghana before traveling to Nigeria for the first leg of his journey. \"A lot of people buy their tickets in Africa with cash. That is the way, in fact, things are done, because there's so much fraud there. So that wasn't a necessary [warning] bell,\" Brennan said. \"People in the Amsterdam airport didn't even know that he had bought the ticket for cash. He did bring on carry-on luggage. So there were a lot of things that were out there.\" At the same time, Brennan conceded \"there was information that was in the system that should have allowed us to stop it.\" \"A number of pieces were out there that weren't brought together,\" Brennan said. On the same program, however, the Republican chairman of the 9\/11 commission said Brennan was \"wrong when he says this wasn't like 9\/11.\" Thomas Kean, a former governor of New Jersey, said both events occurred because the U.S. intelligence community failed to piece together various bits of information it already possessed in the weeks and months prior to the attacks. If the information had been properly shared and analyzed, \"then this guy would've never have gotten on a plane\" on Christmas Day, Kean said. In announcing the new security measures Sunday, the TSA stressed in a statement that \"effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders.\" As a result, any individual flying into the United States who is \"traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening,\" the statement said. \"The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on U.S. bound international flights.\"","highlights":"John Brennan: \"System didn't work as it should have\" due to \"lapses\" and \"human error\"\nSuspect's cash payment for airfare \"wasn't a necessary [warning] bell,\" says Brennan .\nThomas Kean of 9\/11 panel says Brennan \"wrong when he says this wasn't like 9\/11\"\nCNN iReport: Tell us about your airport security experiences .","id":"13c2cd1ad338bfb28c6a243e497d3ed2494ae44c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Major conflict could return to southern parts of Sudan unless international action bolsters a faltering peace accord, ten aid agencies said in a report released Thursday. A resumption of conflict between north and south in Sudan, meanwhile, would make a sustainable peace impossible in Darfur, a region of western Sudan that has been the scene of what the U.S. calls genocide, the aid groups said. \"It is not yet too late to avert disaster, but the next 12 months are a crossroads for Africa's largest country, \" said Maya Mailer, policy advisor for Oxfam International and the report's co-author. The warnings were underscored by news Thursday of a clash that killed scores in Southern Sudan, the latest instance of tribal violence among southerners that has alarmed the United Nations. Locals said fierce fighting in Warap State, one of the most remote regions of the south, killed 140 people, wounded 90, and led to the theft of tens of thousands of cattle early this month or in late December, the United Nations said. \"The human toll is massive -- hundreds if not thousands displaced. The death toll is massive,\" said Lisa Grande, a top U.N. humanitarian official in Southern Sudan. \"These attacks are a matter of great concern.\" Resurgent tribal violence in the south also concerned the 10 aid groups. They released their report, \"Rescuing the Peace in Southern Sudan,\" two days before the fifth anniversary of a 2005 peace deal that ended a grinding war between the Sudanese government and southern rebels in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. They said that peace deal is \"on the brink of collapse.\" That war pitted a northern government of Arab Muslims against southern blacks who follow Christianity and traditional African religions. It killed 2 million people and forced several million others from their homes. The peace deal conferred limited autonomy on southern Sudan and ended one of Africa's longest and deadliest wars even as a separate conflict that erupted in 2003 raged in Darfur, killing roughly 200,000, the United Nations says. Despite the peace deal, violence in the south increased last year, Mailer said, and it could escalate further to become one of the biggest emergencies in Africa this year. About 2,500 people were killed and 350,000 fled their homes in southern Sudan last year, the aid agencies said. Many died in tribal violence between southerners. Outside countries have ignored the problem and have not provided sufficient help, the agencies said. The United Nations says more people have been killed in southern Sudan in 2009 than in Darfur, where a separate conflict drew international attention, prompted charges of genocide and led the International Criminal Court to indict the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for war crimes. Some southerners blame their former enemies in the north for instigating violence in the south. As the south plans to participate in national elections in April, many southerners say the north has hindered access to registration materials, logistical support and voter education, the United Nations said. The north denies those charges, but they're among the reasons that analysts worry about an outbreak of north-south violence in a region already buckling under the weight of corruption, cattle rustling and revenge attacks. Sudan needs diplomatic involvement from neighboring countries and the international community to help secure the 2005 peace agreement, said Paul Valentin, international director of Christian Aid, one of the agencies that produced the report. \"A return to war is by no means inevitable, but it depends whether the world heeds the warning signs of the past year and has the political will to save the peace,\" Valentin added. Other agencies that produced the report include the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and World Vision. The report urges the U.N. Security Council to ensure that protecting civilians becomes a core priority for a peacekeeping force in Sudan. The agencies also called on the international community to mediate between the northern and southern parties before the national elections -- the country's first multi-party elections in 24 years -- and before a referendum on independence, which is scheduled for early next year. Southern Sudan is roughly the size of Texas but has only 30 miles of paved roads and few health facilities. It is so underdeveloped that the U.N. says a 15-year-old girl in the south is more likely to die in childbirth than finish school. \"After five years of peace, southern Sudan remains one of the poorest regions on earth. People hoped the peace would bring economic benefits and development, but this has happened far too slowly and in some areas not at all,\" said Francisco Roque, country director of Save the Children in South Sudan. \"We are very worried about children who seem to be increasingly targeted in attacks on villages,\" he said. \"International donors and the government must urgently improve aid to these areas.\"","highlights":"Aid groups: Peace deal signed in 2005 \"on the brink of collapse\"\nAid groups: About 2,500 people killed, 350,000 fled in southern Sudan last year .\nU.N.: More people killed in southern Sudan in 2009 than in Darfur .\nReport: Protecting civilians should be core priority for U.N. peacekeepers .","id":"1ea3274b8978bc3bc97d06e8035b11c608662e58"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Any kid can dream up a roller coaster. But those who visit a new exhibit at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park can actually take a ride on their fantasy creations. An artist's rendering of the \"Sum of All Thrills\" interactive ride, opening Wednesday at Disney World. Epcot on Wednesday opened a new attraction called \"Sum of All Thrills,\" which lets kids use computer tablets to design a virtual roller coaster, bobsled track or plane ride. After inputting their designs, kids climb into a robotic carriage that uses virtual-reality technology to help them experience the ride they've created. \"This is really the next generation -- where there's a lot more personalization involved\" in the amusement-park experience, said Eric Goodman, Disney's lead project manager on the ride. This make-your-own-ride approach appears to be a growing trend in the world of amusement parks and museums. Taking cues from the video game industry, park and ride designers have realized that people -- especially young ones -- want to interact with and even design their own thrill rides. In addition to the new Epcot ride in Orlando, Florida, two Disney theme parks feature a ride called \"Toy Story Mania,\" which lets riders shoot at targets as they roll down the track and, in doing so, shape their own ride experience. Another Disney attraction, CyberSpace Mountain, caters to adults and kids by letting them customize their own virtual ride from a menu of drops, loops and other features. Universal Studios in Florida opened a roller coaster in August called the \"Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit,\" which lets people create their own personal musical soundtrack for their ride. Interactive rides are in the \"baby stages\" so far, since roller coasters and theme-park attractions are so expensive to build, but interaction and personalization promise to be running themes in the industry, said Bob McTyre, president of Apogee Attractions, which has has helped design rides for Disney, Universal Studios and others. McTyre was not involved in the new ride at Epcot. He said theme park designers frequently bring up ideas such as roller coasters with three possible endings, allowing riders to choose which path to take. But those big ideas quickly hit a roadblock: the high costs of implementing such a project, he said. Shawn McCoy, vice-president of marketing and business development at Jack Rouse Associates, another amusement-park design firm, said this desire for interactivity in amusement parks takes its cues from video games. \"There's also a definite need to compete with video games or the gaming industry -- where [players] have control over all of the elements, from the environment to the players' movement,\" he said, noting that museums and zoos also are taking notice of the trend. The \"Sum of All Thrills\" ride at Epcot employs a robotic arm -- more commonly seen assembling cars at an auto plant -- to let kids experience their roller coaster creations. Sitting in a carriage with their legs and arms outside the ride, kids watch a video version of their ride while the arm moves them from side to side and up and down to simulate the feeling of a real roller coaster. Fans blow air at the riders at various speeds to give people the sensation that they're moving forward. Goodman, the Disney designer, said the robotic arm and carriage come \"pretty darn close\" to replicating the real roller coaster experience. Kids design their experience on touch-screen computers, using a digital ruler and pre-selected track options to construct their rides. If a person tries to build something physically impossible -- a hill that's too steep for the cars to climb, for example -- then they're asked to retool their ideas. Disney hopes the interactive nature of the Epcot ride also helps kids learn that math and science can be fun. \"I think it's really empowering for the kids to realize that the math doesn't control them. They get to control the math,\" Goodman said. The Raytheon Company, a maker of weapons and defense systems, said it sponsored the exhibit as a way to get middle-school aged kids more interested in careers in math and engineering.","highlights":"Disney opens an exhibit where kids create roller coasters -- and ride them .\nTheme parks are trying to make their rides more interactive, taking cues from gaming .\nThe \"Sum of All Thrills\" ride opens Wednesday at Epcot Center in Florida .\nKids design their rides on computers, ride them in a stationary robotic carriage .","id":"728fc29369d27a9f7bc9a7f945d16176cc288d39"} -{"article":"BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- Dr. Carnell Cooper, a Baltimore surgeon, is saving lives inside and outside the operating room. Dr. Carnell Cooper's Violence Intervention Program provides training and support to trauma victims. Since becoming a trauma surgeon 16 years ago, he has dedicated himself to treating the many young African-American men who've been shot, stabbed or beaten, only to see them return to the ER with another severe injury just months later. But when one of his patients was readmitted with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in 1996, it changed Cooper's life. \"The night that we pronounced that young man dead and my colleagues said there's really nothing we can do in these situations. ... I just didn't believe that,\" said Cooper, 54. \"From that day forward, I said, 'Let's see what we can do.' \" Cooper created the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) at the Shock Trauma Unit of the University of Maryland Medical Center, the state's busiest hospital for violent injuries. It became one of the country's first hospital-based anti-violence programs. \"We approached this problem like any public health crisis, like heart disease or smoking,\" he said. \"We tried to work on the root causes.\" Since 1998, VIP has provided substance abuse counseling, job skills training and other support services to nearly 500 trauma victims. \"Using that scalpel blade to save their life is the first step,\" Cooper said. \"The next step is to try to keep them from coming back.\" A 2006 study by Cooper and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Trauma, showed that people in the program were six times less likely to be readmitted with a violent injury and three times less likely to be arrested for a violent crime. The issue hits close to home for Cooper. Born to unwed teenagers in Dillon, South Carolina, he grew up in a neighborhood where violent crime was commonplace; he had friends and relatives who ended up dead or in jail. But his grandparents made sure he stayed on the right path. As a straight-A student, he attended a prestigious high school in Massachusetts, then Yale University and Duke University School of Medicine. But while Cooper rose above his circumstances, he felt sympathy for the young men who rotated in and out of his operating room. \"They could be my friends, my family,\" he said. Cooper's program attempts to help patients from the moment they arrive because victims of violence face a greater risk of receiving another violent injury. Everyone treated for violent wounds at the hospital is seen by a VIP case worker, often at bedside. For Cooper, approaching patients at this early stage is crucial. \"We may get them in a moment when they are thinking, 'I just almost died,' \" he said. \"We say, 'We're going help you find a way to get out of the game.' \" Watch Cooper talk to a victim of violence at his bedside \u00bb . VIP helps connect its members with additional support services, such as GED classes, conflict resolution, mentoring and parenting skills. A peer support group also meets at the hospital once a week. The success of Cooper's program has made it a model for others around the country and inspired the doctor to develop a larger initiative, the Violence Prevention Program, which includes other hospital-based efforts targeting young people in at-risk communities. Howard McCray, 29, turned his life around with help from VIP. He joined the program in 2001 after he was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the arm. Nicknamed \"Pooh\" for his resemblance to Winnie the Pooh, McCray's demeanor and lifestyle were once vastly different from the storybook bear's. \"Before, I was into shooting people, robbing [them],\" he recalled. \"I've been in many gunbattles and been through the ER many times.\" Through VIP, McCray earned his GED and received job training and a driver's license. The program also helped him learn about budgeting money and paying child support. Today, McCray is an outreach worker for VIP, visiting patients at their bedsides and encouraging them to join the program. \"I'm a changed man,\" McCray said proudly. \"Dr. Cooper ... he saved me.\" Watch McCray describe how Cooper's program changed his life \u00bb . Helping people like McCray inspires Cooper to continue his work. \"There are some individuals who we are not going to save, who are just immersed in the culture, but that's not the majority of folks,\" he said. \"The majority of folks deserve a chance.\" Cooper believes it is all part of his responsibility as a doctor. \"Every physician's goal is to save lives,\" he said. \"This is another step in that process. In my mind, it's just what I should be doing.\" Want to get involved? Check out the Violence Intervention Program and see how to help.","highlights":"Dr. Carnell Cooper's Violence Intervention Program helps trauma victims .\nThe program aims to break the cycle of violence by targeting its root causes .\nStudy: Participants are three times less likely to be arrested for a violent crime .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"2436eafd9ddb3c5b7b4352dcbf8555642f931df7"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Washington police were investigating on Sunday whether an off-duty officer drew his gun in the midst of a snowball fight involving a couple hundred people. The Metropolitan Police Department said video from a local media outlet at the scene Saturday did not show the officer with his weapon drawn. However, authorities have since received \"additional images and statements that would seem to support the allegation that the off-duty member did pull a gun,\" a police statement said. About 200 people from a D.C. neighborhood had gathered Saturday to brave a snowstorm for a massive snowball fight, CNN affiliate WJLA reported. \"It was pretty fun,\" one unidentified participant told WJLA. \"And then, you know, when the gun came out, uh, it just changed the tone of the thing a little bit.\" The off-duty, plainclothes officer was driving in the area of the snowball fight when several snowballs hit his vehicle, police said. The officer exited the vehicle and yelled at the crowd, WJLA reported; witnesses accused that officer of drawing his gun. A uniformed police officer who subsequently arrived was holding a gun at his hip, but he eventually returned it to his holster, video from WJLA shows. MPD Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said the uniformed officer was responding to a 911 call that someone -- apparently the plainclothes officer -- had a gun, according to WJLA. The uniformed officer holstered his weapon when he recognized the plainclothes officer, Newsham said, according to WJLA. The police statement said \"there is no evidence that [officers] pointed any weapons in the direction of the crowd or at any individuals.\"","highlights":"Plainclothes police officer accused of drawing gun at snowball fight in Washington, D.C.\n\"Images and statements ... would seem to support the allegation,\" police say .\nAbout 200 people were in snowball fight when officer's vehicle was hit, police say .\nPolice: Separate, uniformed officer held a gun while checking report of armed person .","id":"0e901383a9b4beb65706cf6efdc54dcaee252725"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fort Hood, Texas, is -- for all intents and purposes -- a city. With as many as 30,000 residents, it has all the trappings of an American metropolis: malls, softball fields, subdivisions and as many as nine schools. But in other ways, Fort Hood is like no American city. It is a transition point for troops who have served overseas, soldiers who have seen the worst that war has to offer and are returning to life at home. At least 13 people were killed and 30 wounded in shootings on the post Thursday, officials said. The alleged gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was wounded. Some of those killed or wounded were at the Readiness Center, a soldier's last stop before deployment, said Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone. It is also one of the first places a soldier goes after returning from war. Officials: Gunman opens fire at Fort Hood . Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who served at Fort Hood in the late 1990s, said the nearly eight years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq have created difficulties for the U.S. armed forces. \"This is a very complex situation, a situation we have not dealt with in the Army before. We have never been at war this long before in modern history,\" he said. \"And many of these soldiers have been deployed multiple times, so this has put a lot of stress on these soldiers and their families. \"One of the biggest things on re-entry that the Readiness Center does is to help those soldiers cope with being back home and dealing with the extremes of [post-traumatic stress disorder],\" Honore said. It is also where soldiers \"do everything from finalizing your next of kin, inspect your immunization record, as well as make a will,\" he said. Fort Hood is the largest U.S. military installation in the world by size, and on any given day, it is home to 25,000 to 30,000 people, according to an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. The post also houses the families of service members and other civilians. iReport.com: Are you there? Send pics, video . \"Some of these soldiers have lost some of their closest friends, seen some of the horrific things associated with warfare including these roadside bombs,\" Honore said. \"They've seen and experienced -- many of them -- some very horrific events.\" Services and programs offered on the post range from helping troops who are leaving the armed services find employment or pursue education to helping soldiers deal with combat-related illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder. One such program, called the Warrior Stress Reset Program, is \"designed to help address those common and normal reactions to war experiences,\" says a military Web site. \"It is well documented that participation in a major conflict ... has a way of leaving its mark on the psyche of our soldiers,\" the Web site reads. The program lasts three weeks and provides counseling and treatment. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said the post has a robust support system for families of deployed troops, which would help troops and civilians there handle Thursday's violence. \"The people who are there will surround the families and take care of them, the ones who have had loved ones who were killed,\" she said. The Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command, are based at Fort Hood. Fort Hood measures about 340 square miles across and is approximately 160 miles south of Dallas\/Fort Worth, Texas. CNN's Barbara Starr, Adam Levine, Mike Mount and Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"General says ongoing wars have put stress on troops and their families .\nFort Hood is largest U.S. military installation in the world by size .\nOn any given day, there can be at least 25,000 to 30,000 people .\nIt is also a transition point for troops returning to civilian life .","id":"10eb16b5f53366595e01cafb344f31f0d90cbf59"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Drumsticks in hand, Derrick Tabb has found a way to transform New Orleans children from troublemakers to tuba players. Derrick Tabb's program provides free tutoring, instruments and music instruction to more than 100 students. Tabb, wearing a gold chain and a baseball cap, doesn't look the part of a typical band teacher. But every weekday evening in the French Quarter, he beats out the rhythm on his music stand as students play their chosen instruments. In doing so, he gives them an alternative to New Orleans' rough streets. \"I tell everyone I'm competing with the drug dealers,\" said Tabb, 34. His program, The Roots of Music, offers free tutoring, instruments and music education to more than 100 students. Vote now for the CNN Hero of the Year . Reformed class clown Terrence Knockum credits Tabb with changing his life. The 15-year-old tuba player joined the band eight months ago, when he was failing in school and \"heading up the wrong road,\" said Tabb. Today, Knockum is the band captain. He hopes to make music his career and teach it himself one day. \"Before, I was getting in trouble,\" Knockum said. \"Now ... when I come here, I'm learning how to play the horn, be disciplined and, you know, just work hard.\" Tabb can relate. During a rebellious phase in junior high, his band teacher became his mentor and helped him get back on track. \"He saved my life,\" recalled Tabb, a professional drummer with the Rebirth Brass Band, one of the city's most popular acts. Now Tabb, a New Orleans native, strives to keep young people on the straight and narrow in the city with the nation's highest murder rate, according to FBI statistics. \"When all you've seen is the drug dealers and the killing, you know, they think that's cool,\" said Tabb, adding that many young people wind up in trouble because they have nothing else to do. The type of music support systems that helped Tabb years ago have been struggling since Hurricane Katrina; musicians scattered after the storm and budget cuts ended many school music programs. As a result, Tabb chose to target 9- to 14-year-olds with his program. \"That's just the most vulnerable time of your life,\" he said. \"If I catch them now, I can hold onto them for at least four or five years and guide them the way that we want to guide them.\" Students meet from 4-7 p.m. every weekday, year-round. They work with tutors on schoolwork, practice their music and eat a hot meal before heading home. Through funding from donations and sponsors, Tabb's group is able to provide bus transportation, instruments and food for free. He calls it his \"no excuse\" policy -- \"you don't have no excuse why you're not here,\" Tabb said. With a 90 percent attendance rate, his formula seems to be working. Watch Tabb and The Roots of Music program in action \u00bb . Tabb attributes the success in part to the nature of music. \"You're constantly learning something new,\" he said. \"That's what keeps the kids coming back every day.\" Since getting underway last year, The Roots of Music has already exceeded Tabb's expectations. The band marched in five Mardi Gras parades this season. The program also helped students improve their academic performances, with 85 percent having raised their grades in at least one class; some D and F students have become A students. And there are more than 400 children on the waiting list. Tabb said he's assembled a \"dream team\" of musicians to help teach the students, and he personally works with all the beginners. No previous musical experience is necessary -- many students don't even know the names of the instruments when they start -- but youngsters like 9-year-old Lauren Washington, who plays the flute, learn fast. \"It's kind of hard to play, but I sound good,\" she said proudly. \"It's fun!\" Watch Washington and other students demonstrate their talents \u00bb . But the program isn't only about fun. \"Music is about discipline,\" said Tabb. He insists on good behavior and keeps kids in order with threats of sit-ups, pushups or tasks like picking up grains of rice -- but these measures aren't just punishment. \"We wear them out so they don't have any time or energy to get mixed up in anything on the street,\" he said. Discipline aside, Tabb wants young people to realize that music can help them build a better future. \"I don't say that I'm saving lives,\" he said. \"I say I'm giving life -- a whole different life of music.\" Want to get involved? Check out The Roots of Music and see how to help.","highlights":"Derrick Tabb started The Roots of Music to help the city's young people .\nThe program provides free instruments, instruction, tutoring and food .\nStudents have marched in Mardi Gras parades, improved grades .\nVote now for the CNN Hero of the Year at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"1e7620c8157dd9bdd83f485e065f6dddbe7af4b9"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama paid tribute Wednesday to those who have lost their lives in the nation's wars as well as to the men and women who currently serve. \"There's no tribute, no commemoration, no praise that can truly match the magnitude of your service and your sacrifice,\" he said in a speech at Arlington National Cemetery on a rainy, overcast Veterans Day. \"We call this a holiday, but for many veterans, it's another day of memories that drive them to live their lives each day as best as they possibly can,\" he said. \"For our troops, it is another day in harm's way. For their families, it is another day to feel the absence of a loved one and the concern for their safety. For our wounded warriors, it is another day of slow recovery. And in this national cemetery, it is another day when grief remains fresh.\" He vowed that \"America will do right\" by its troops. \"To all who served in every battle in every war, we say that it's never too late to say thank you.\" Earlier Wednesday, the president and first lady Michelle Obama also walked through Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, CNN's Jill Dougherty reported. The section is where service members from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. There, the Obamas stopped to talked to relatives and friends of those who have died. Skip and Rhonda Rollins of New Hampshire were visiting the gravesite of their son, Justin, who was killed in Iraq in 2007. He would have turned 25 on Tuesday. The couple said they were \"extremely surprised\" to see Obama \"take the time to speak with the families\" in Section 60. Although he said he generally holds different political views from those of the president, Skip Rollins said that supporting American soldiers, both living and dead, \"should always be a nonpartisan issue.\" He added, \"It was extremely nice of him to take this time out to come down here and do this.\" The couple said they make the trip to their son's grave each year around this time for their son's birthday and for Veterans Day. \"It's not just my son that I mourn for; when I see all the others' stones, the ages of the soldiers, and you know they've given the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. And you know it's hard for me to leave, to leave my son,\" Rhonda Rollins said. Earlier Wednesday, the president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in the cemetery. He then stood solemnly as a bugle played taps. Some onlookers watched from under umbrellas. Veterans Day comes a day after Obama addressed 15,000 people at a memorial service at Fort Hood Army Post, where 13 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in a shooting last week. The president told the families of those killed that \"no words can fill the void that has been left,\" adding, \"your loved ones endure through the life of our nation.\" The suspected gunman in the attack is a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who remains in intensive care at an Army hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Later Wednesday, Obama discussed with his war council scenarios to move forward in Afghanistan. One scenario, a senior administration official and U.S. military official independently confirmed, calls for sending about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Other nations honored those who sacrificed their lives in wars on Wednesday, in many cases for the first time without any surviving veterans of World War I. Services took place around the world to mark the 91st anniversary of the armistice signed between Germany and the Allies on November 11, 1918. Depending on where it is celebrated, the day is known as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, Poppy Day or Veterans Day. In Britain, Queen Elizabeth led Remembrance Day ceremonies in Westminster Abbey, a service also attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other senior politicians and military leaders. In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a ceremony under the Arc de Triomphe. Australians observed one minute silence at 11 a.m. in memory of those who died or suffered in all of the nation's wars and armed conflicts. \"Their loss is a reminder that there is nothing glorious about war. Those called upon to fight know that better than anyone,\" said Gen. Peter Cosgrove, chairman of the Council of the Australian War Memorial. CNN's Leslie Bentz contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"No praise ... can truly match the magnitude of your service,\" he tells veterans .\nAmerica will do right by its troops, Obama promises .\nNations around the world take day to honor fighting men and women .","id":"bc8a541bb14c78af985e297c1264e809a6d379f0"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The office of a reformist Iranian member of parliament burned Tuesday night, and a reformist Web site said the act was the work of extremists. Mir Hossein Moussavi, an opposition candidate in the disputed June 12 presidential election, blamed the fire at the office of Nasrollah Torabi on plainclothes militia on Moussavi's Facebook Web site, where he also posted photos. The photos showed heavy damage, with charred furniture, peeling wallpaper and floors strewn with broken glass, debris and ashes. Parleman News, a newsgathering organization for the Path of the Imam Khomeini faction of parliament, said the office was vandalized before it was torched. Khomeini was the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Torabi, who represents the southwestern province of Cahar-Mahal Bakhtiari in parliament, told Parleman News that he was awaiting the outcome of an investigation. The office is in the city of Shahr-e Kurd. Torabi urged people not to react to the incident, according to Parleman News. He said intelligence agencies and the Interior Ministry must investigate the fire and punish those responsible. The lawmaker said that after he gave a speech in parliament criticizing the government, he came under heavy criticism from government supporters, Parleman News said. No date was given for the speech. \"After that speech in the meeting of the Planning Council for Cahar-Mahal Bakhtiari [Province], we witnessed the anger of the province's governor-general,\" Torabi said. Investigators \"must not allow some people to use force, scare tactics and oppression to bring the three principles of independence, freedom and Islamic Republic under question,\" he added, according to Parleman News. Torabi said that after he gave the speech, banners condemning him were distributed throughout Shahr-e Kurd, with the backing of the governor's office. According to Moussavi, Torabi told the news organization: \"In the middle of the night some made their last pathetic attempt and set the office of a representative of the people on fire with the aim of silencing the members of the parliament.\" Moussavi called the fire an attempt at intimidation. Opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have held sometimes-violent protests after he was swept into office for a second term despite accusations of election fraud. The latest protest occurred Sunday on the Shiite Muslim holy day of Ashura, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, as a martyr. A prosecutor said seven people died, including Moussavi's nephew, in the demonstrations.","highlights":"Reformist lawmaker Nasrollah Torabi's office burned Tuesday .\nOpposition figure Mir Hossein Moussavi says fire caused by extremists .\nTorabi says he was under pressure after he criticized government in speech .\nTorabi urges people not to react to incident, according to Parleman News .","id":"4001f382a8cbac055de3233786a15e248409eb8b"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- With a simple, declarative statement, the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs announced his ambitious goal to eradicate one of the country's most shameful problems. \"My name is Shinseki, and I am here to end veteran homelessness,\" VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said Tuesday in a speech to the National Summit on Homeless Veterans. But Shinseki indicated the challenge in meeting his goal by adding, \"I learned long ago there are never any absolutes in life, and a goal of zero homeless veterans sure sounds like an absolute.\" The plan unveiled by Shinseki includes trying to leverage existing education and jobs programs, boosting the ability of veteran-owned businesses to compete for federal contracts and spend an additional $3 billion on medical services and homeless programs. An estimated 131,000 veterans are homeless, according to the VA. That is an improvement from 2003, when the number was as high as 196,000. But the secretary warned that given the ailing economy, the number could increase by as much as 10 percent to 15 percent in the next five years. The VA plans to focus its new efforts on preventing the problem. \"Our plan enlarges the scope of VA's efforts to combat homelessness,\" said Shinseki in a news release. \"In the past, VA focused largely on getting homeless veterans off the streets. Our five-year plan aims also at preventing them from ever ending up homeless.\" The department plans to expand the recently passed educational grants program for veterans who served after September 11, 2001, to include not just college but vocational programs as well, according to VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts. \"Not every veteran wants to spend four years pursuing a college degree, but they might be interested in learning a trade that would get them into the taxpaying work force sooner,\" Shinseki said. The VA will also try to win more federal contracts for veteran-owned businesses, encouraging other agencies to exceed the minimum goal of 3 percent of contracts to veteran-owned small businesses. The increase, the VA believes, will also help employ more veterans since \"veterans hire veterans,\" Shinseki said. In addition, it is increasing the amount of vouchers for public-financed housing, adding 10,000 more vouchers in 2010. The plan also calls for more programs to aid transition from prison and psychiatric facilities, as well as a renewed call to treat veterans' psychiatric conditions. Read more about the VA's ambitious goal . Veterans' groups contacted after the speech were generally pleased that the secretary was focusing the attention but unsure how he would achieve such an ambitious goal. \"General Shinseki is a soldier and treating this like a military operation and in the military you have to have hope for your missions,\" said Justin Brown of Veterans of Foreign Wars. Shinseki was a four-star general in the Army. Brown said he thought Shinseki's aim to get better coordination between the VA and federal departments, including Labor and Health, was a good start. But others were more pessimistic that Shinseki could change the VA bureaucracy. \"This secretary is going to be a good leader, but we don't think he or the president has quite gotten a hold of how intractable the bureaucracy is inside the VA,\" said Rick Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America. Weidman said one problem not mentioned Tuesday that would help, more than many of of the other programs, is reducing the backlog in processing veterans' claims that delays much-needed medical and other benefits. The VA recognizes backlogs are a problem, said spokeswoman Roberts. \"The backlog is a top priority at the VA and at the forefront of the secretary's mind,\" she said. Toni Reinis at the Los Angeles organization New Directions said the announcement Tuesday showed that Shinseki had \"real leadership,\" but she worried that lack of funds and leadership at the local level would make instituting change difficult. The problem, she said, is sometimes not in the VA's control. Reinis said her group's center, which helps 700 homeless veterans a year gain employment, housing and proper medical and psychiatric care in a residential setting, has lost a lot of money because of state budget cuts. The county cut the center's mental health funding by 55 percent, which is a \"significant\" amount, Reinis said. Efforts to expand have been met with opposition, as in the case of a seven-year effort in California's San Fernando Valley to build a new treatment center that has been opposed by local communities. \"The VA was behind it, but the neighbors don't want those people in their neighborhood,\" Reinis explained.","highlights":"VA Secretary Eric Shinseki says, \"I am here to end veteran homelessness\"\nAn estimated 131,000 veterans are homeless, according to the VA .\nOne observer worries Shinseki doesn't realize how \"intractable\" VA bureaucracy is .\nBacklogs in veterans claims is cited as a major problem .","id":"ff0e56f0be51bc47d57b7e162711eef48e43a1b3"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Taliban in Pakistan have released a second audiotape purportedly containing the voice of their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who sources say was wounded in a suspected drone strike this week. The group also released an audiotape Friday, though CNN could not confirm that the voice on either tape belongs to Mehsud. It was unclear whether the first tape was recorded before or after Thursday's drone strike, but the voice on the second tape announced the date as Saturday. \"Let me say this briefly, that I, Hakimullah Mehsud, today, on the 16th of January, with central spokesman Azam Tariq and Umar Khittab, want to give this message to all mujahedeen: that by the grace of Allah, I, Hakimullah Mehsud, am alive and in good health. Neither have I been martyred in a drone attack nor injured,\" the voice says on Saturday's tape. Tariq, a Taliban spokesman, denied Thursday and again Friday that Mehsud was hurt. Tariq said Mehsud had left the site of the attack -- a converted religious school -- before the missiles struck. He dismissed reports of an injury to Mehsud as propaganda. However, other Taliban and intelligence sources said doctors were treating Mehsud for wounds he sustained in the drone strike. Tariq delivered both audiotapes to local journalists. On the tape released Friday, the voice says, \"The media right now is also part of the war. The enemy through the media wants to demoralize the Taliban. At times they spread the propaganda in the media that 'We have martyred Hakimullah.' At other times they say, 'We have completed the operation in South Waziristan,' but this will never happen.\" The drone strike hit a madrassa, or religious school, that local officials said had been converted into a militant training camp. Ten people were killed in the strike, Pakistani intelligence and local officials said. In the Friday tape, the speaker warns of what will happen if the drone strikes continue. \"I want to inform the Pakistani people that the drone attacks that take place in the tribal areas endanger the politics, well-being and sovereignty of Pakistan,\" the speaker says. \"From today onward, for any dangerous step that the Pakistani Taliban will take in Pakistan, those responsible will be Pakistan's rulers, not the Taliban. This is because the Pakistani rulers want to spill the blood of the innocent [tribesmen] in exchange for dollars.\" The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported attacks by drones, or unmanned aircraft. The United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from remote-controlled aircraft. Last week, the Taliban released a video showing Mehsud sitting next to Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the man who killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian army captain at an eastern Afghan base December 30. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. It was carried out out to avenge the death of Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, who died in a suspected U.S. drone strike last year, according to al Qaeda's commander of operations in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu Yazid. Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud are from the same tribe, but not from the same family. CNN's Pierre Bairin contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Taliban in Pakistan issue another tape they say is by Hakimullah Mehsud .\nNEW: Speaker declares he is \"alive and in good health\"\nReports conflict over whether Mehsud was injured in a drone strike this week .\nLast week Taliban released video of Mehsud with the man who killed seven CIA employees .","id":"d184bdaf2c5b38cd5fd5df25867f0b24791e6aee"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Military divers have found the body of a U.S. paratrooper who went missing last week in a river in western Afghanistan. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said the soldier was found close to where he disappeared November 4. Officials are continuing their search for a second paratrooper lost at the same time. Both men -- from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division -- disappeared in the Morghab River near Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan. The men were on a routine resupply mission, the NATO group said. Family members identified the recovered body as that of Benjamin Sherman, 21, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. They said he jumped into the river when he saw a fellow soldier struggling in the water. \"I know that day he jumped into the river to try to save his comrade was because he didn't just see another soldier in the water; he saw his brother,\" said Sherman's sister, Meredith, in a statement to CNN affiliate WCVB in Boston, Massachusetts. \"He didn't jump in because he was trained to but because that's what his heart told him to do.\" Sherman's mother, Denise, said the family called him \"the unstoppable one.\" \"I raised him with the understanding that when you choose to do something, you do it to the best of your ability,\" she said in a statement to WCVB. \"He was powerful, ingenuous and determined.\" CNN's Thomas Evans contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two U.S. soldiers went missing in Afghan river on November 4 .\nBoth lost in Morghab River near border with Turkmenistan .\nFamily identifies recovered body as that of Benjamin Sherman of Plymouth, Massachusetts .\nSearch continues for the other paratrooper .","id":"fffcaffda91f80b841efaefe04704e0357e4276c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Dozens of suspected terrorists released by the United States from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are believed to have returned to terrorism activities, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon officials say 61 former Gitmo detainees have committed or are suspected of returning to terrorism. Since 2002, 61 former detainees have committed or are suspected to have committed attacks after being released from the detention camp, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said at a briefing Tuesday. The number is up since the Pentagon's last report in March 2008 when officials said 37 former detainees had been suspected of returning to the battlefield since 2002. Since 2007, more than 100 detainees were released, significantly more than in previous years, according to Pentagon officials. According to the statistics, of the 61 former detainees that are believed to have returned to fighting, 18 have been officially confirmed while 43 are suspected, Morrell said. The 18 were confirmed through intelligence, photographs, fingerprints and other information, Morrell said. Of the 43 other detainees suspected of taking part in terrorist attacks, only \"plausible reporting\" on their activities indicated some kind of involvement, according to Morrell. Officials would only identify one of the confirmed attackers, Adballah Salih al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti man released from U.S. custody at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in 2005. Pentagon officials said Salih al-Ajmi blew himself up in a suicide attack in Iraq in April 2008. Since 2002, the Pentagon has released about 520 detainees to their home countries or counties that agreed to take them. Some have been released in full by those countries while others are still being held. \"There, clearly, are people who are being held at Guantanamo who are still bent on doing harm to America, Americans and our allies, so there will have to be some solution for the likes of them,\" Morrell said. About 250 detainees remain held at Guantanamo and about 60 of those detainees have been cleared for release by the Pentagon, but their home countries will not take them or the U.S. believes they could be harmed by their governments if returned. President-elect Barack Obama has said he intends to shut down Guantanamo. Earlier this week, two sources close to the Obama transition team said he could issue an order to do so as early as his first week in office, saying that Obama believes \"the legal framework at Gitmo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists.\"","highlights":"61 former Gitmo detainees still involved in terror acts, according to Pentagon .\nSince 2002, nearly 520 detainees have been released from detention facility .\nPresident-elect Barack Obama wants to shut down Guantanamo upon taking office .","id":"90a9c813505adc8e91c2941b076a08d8ced1443f"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An attack in which the Taliban claimed to have infiltrated key government sites in downtown Kabul killed at least five people Monday morning, hospital and government officials said. Among the five were two policemen and one national security staff member, Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said at a news conference. Seventy-one others were injured, 36 of whom were police or security officers, he said. His report of the death toll conflicts with those of Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi, who said 13 died, and the Taliban, which claimed even more were slain. Seven attackers' bodies were recovered, with two or three of them burned beyond recognition, Azimi said. The Taliban said only five were killed. Four explosions and gunfire shook downtown Kabul about 9:15 a.m. Monday, with the Taliban saying it was conducting a militant operation. The attack started as 14 members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet were to be sworn in, said Parliament member Fawzia Koofi. About 20 Taliban insurgents entered the presidential palace; the ministries of Finance, Mines and Justice; and the Serena Hotel, said spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. NATO-led forces said \"several small explosions\" and gunfire were reported near the Feroshgah e Afghan Shopping Center and the Serena Hotel, and later added that \"numerous\" suicide bombers had attacked government buildings close to the presidential palace and the Ministry of Justice. Atmar said that the coordinated attacks struck the city over a span of two hours and 45 minutes and that they targeted civilians. And the threat continued at 1 p.m., when three attackers took over Bayman Hotel, Atmar said. More than two hours later, Afghan security forces killed the men, he said. At least two insurgents were killed at the shopping center, NATO-led forces said in a news release, which also said that Afghan national police had secured all roads in the area. A separate news release condemned the attack, which NATO-led forces said took place amid many civilians. Atmar, the Minister of Defense and chief of the National Security Department also condemned the violence. The Taliban claimed that they killed 31 officials and injured 31 people. Their account could not be immediately independently verified. The terrorist group also disputed the government on the number of its militants killed. Five militants had died and 13 had returned to their safe houses, the Taliban's Mujahid said, adding that two were still fighting. But Zmaray Bashari, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said security forces had restored Kabul to normalcy by Monday afternoon. Monday's assault followed weekend violence that killed at least three international troops and 14 militants in Afghanistan, authorities said. CNN's Dan Rivers and Atia Abawi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Five people killed; two insurgents dead at shopping center, NATO-led forces say .\nTaliban insurgents enter presidential palace, ministry buildings, government says .\nKarzai Cabinet members were to be sworn in, Parliament member says .","id":"e7c80653a0f9250779961ee2e501cd73f5042302"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A woman who was beheaded near Buffalo, New York -- allegedly by her husband -- may have been on the phone with her sister when she was killed. Muzzammil Hassan has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan. Asma Firfirey of suburban Cape Town, South Africa, told the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger that she was on the phone with her sister, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, last week when she heard Hassan tell her husband to calm down. She said she heard Hassan say the two could talk about their impending divorce the following day. Then she heard something that sounded like her sister struggling to breathe, she said. \"I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died,\" Firfirey said in the interview, reported in English by South Africa's News 24. Police have charged Hassan's husband, Muzzammil Hassan, with second-degree, or intentional, murder in the death of his wife, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office. Her decapitated body was found at the offices of Bridges TV, the television network where Muzzammil Hassan was chief executive officer and Aasiya Hassan was general manager. Hassan told Orchard Park police his wife was dead, led officers to her body and was arrested Thursday, said Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz on Tuesday contradicted a CNN report that quoted him as saying Hassan confessed to the crime. A Buffalo attorney told CNN on Tuesday that he expects to represent Hassan but declined further comment, saying details had not yet been worked out. Hassan came to America from Pakistan 25 years ago and became a successful banker, but he and his wife were troubled by the negative perception of Muslims, Voice of America reported in 2004. Speaking in December 2004, Hassan said his wife, then pregnant, was worried about that perception and \"felt there should be an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling really strong about their identity as an American Muslim.\" \"So she came up with the idea and turned to me and said, 'Why don't you do it?' \" he said. \"And I was like, I have no clue about television. I'm a banker. ... And her comment was, 'You have an MBA. Why don't you write a business plan?' \" Bridges TV began as a television network for Muslim-Americans, aimed at overcoming the negative stereotypes associated with the religion. \"There should be a Muslim media,\" Muzzammil Hassan told VOA, \"so that Muslim children growing up in America grow up with the self-confidence and high self-esteem about their identity both as Americans and as Muslims.\" In the past few years, according to a former employee who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, Bridges TV transformed itself into more of a cross-cultural network seeking to bridge the gap between all cultures. Most of their employees were not Muslim, the former employee said, and Muzzammil Hassan himself was not devout. Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce February 6, police said, and Muzzammil Hassan was served with divorce papers at the station. That night, he showed up at the couple's home, she notified authorities and he was served with a restraining order. Police are not commenting on details of the crime, except to say the woman's body did not appear to have been moved. They also would not divulge what Muzzammil Hassan told police or the suspected motive. The law firm representing Aasiya Hassan refused to comment, only confirming that she had filed for divorce. Benz told CNN on Tuesday that police had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's address, but no one was arrested. Firfirey, as well as a Pakistani woman identifying herself as another of Aasiya Hassan's sisters, characterized her as living in fear. Firfirey said the last time she saw her sister was in May 2008, when she visited South Africa. When she arrived, she was badly injured, and Firfirey's family paid the equivalent of about $3,000 for her to be treated, she said. Aasiya Hassan returned to America, she said, because she wanted to complete her MBA degree and \"didn't want to leave her children with that monster.\" She said she calls Muzzammil Hassan \"the fat man with evil eyes.\" Aasiya Hassan would have graduated March 6, Firfirey said. A woman in Pakistan using the name Salma Zubair posted on a blog that she is the sister of \"this brutally murdered woman.\" \"She lived her 8 years of married life with fear in heart,\" Zubair wrote. \"He had already frightened her enough that she couldn't muster up her guts and leave him, and when she finally did gather that much strength he killed her so brutally. She lived to protect her children from this man and his family and she died doing so.\" She said Aasiya Hassan \"had always been a very loving person, not even one person in this world can say a small wrong word about her ... she had always dreamed a life of a happily married family, which she did her best to achieve.\" Both women said they were worried about the couple's children, ages 4 and 6. Firfirey said they were being cared for by a colleague of the couple. Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children from a previous marriage. Members of Muzzammil Hassan's family did not return calls from CNN on Monday. The former employee told CNN that Aasiya Hassan was popular at the station and was very kind. Muzzammil Hassan was known among employees for having a temper -- he sometimes would yell at and demean his wife, but at other times appeared to be a loving husband and father, the former employee said. Bridges TV released a statement Monday saying its staff was \"deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya Hassan and the subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the families of the victim.\" Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, said Aasiya Hassan's death serves \"as a wake-up call to call of us, that violence against women is real and cannot be ignored ... the Muslim community is not exempt from this issue. We, the Muslim community, need to take a strong stand against domestic violence.\" CNN's Mary Snow contributed to this report.","highlights":"New York man charged with second-degree murder after wife found beheaded .\nPolice: Woman's decapitated body found at TV station where she, husband worked .\nReport: Sister says she may have been on phone with victim when she was killed .\nAasiya Zubair Hassan had filed for divorce from Muzzammil Hassan days earlier .","id":"902967c907393bc17954ce40b776defe8d0a3b07"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Ibrahim Hooper knows the drill. When news first broke Thursday that a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, killed and injured U.S. soldiers, the national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote a statement of condemnation. He only sent it out later, when reports emerged that the alleged shooter's name was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. \"As soon as we saw what appeared to be a Muslim name, we issued our statement,\" Hooper said. \"Until that time, we were praying that no Muslim would be involved.\" That's the reality of crisis management for the Muslim-American community, said Hooper, who handles communications for the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. Even without confirmation that the alleged gunman was Muslim -- there was no immediate determination of any religious affiliation for Hasan -- the mere reporting of a possible Muslim name required an immediate comment, he said. \"That's unfortunately the world we live in nowadays,\" Hooper said. \"So often, Muslims are accused of not condemning these kind of acts.\" The CAIR statement said: \"No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer Army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.\" In a separate statement, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles, California, condemned what it called the \"heinous incident.\" \"We are in contact with law enforcement and U.S. federal government officials to gain more facts from this tragic incident and work together in dealing with its aftermath,\" the group said. Its statement called on \"all members of American Muslim communities to be in contact with local law enforcement for the safety and security of their communities and their institutions.\" The Islamic Information Center also issued a statement \"in conjunction with all the major Muslim organizations nationwide\" that condemned the attack. \"While several news reports have cited one of the gunmen to be Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, IIC strongly emphasizes that this attack and its perpetrator are in no way representative of the Muslim people or the peace-loving religion of Islam,\" the statement said. \"The individuals who perpetrated this attack blatantly acted against the teachings of Islam and humanity,\" it added. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Muslim-Americans reported increased attacks and threats by revenge-minded non-Muslims. \"We've seen this before,\" Hooper said of a possible backlash. \"Whenever there's an incident of this type, there's always the possibility this will happen.\" Even non-Muslims could be targeted, he said, noting that Sikhs who wear turbans or Hispanic-Americans can be mistaken as being of Middle Eastern descent. On Thursday night, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told a news conference the alleged Fort Hood attacker's motive remained unknown. \"We urge all Americans to remain calm in reaction to this tragic event and to demonstrate once again what is best about America -- our nation's ability to remain unified even in times of crisis,\" Awad said. \"We urge national political and religious leaders and media professionals to set a tone of calm and unity. \"Unfortunately, based on past experience, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash.\"","highlights":"Slain Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan accused in Fort Hood shootings .\nHis religion, if any, isn't known, but American Muslims condemn his actions .\n\"American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens,\" one group says .\nSome fear backlash against Muslims and people who are thought to be Muslim .","id":"a8c857c0dabbb90b5bec503f4a7a0e368a234c69"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rangers kept their stranglehold on the Scottish title as a Lee McCulloch equalizer earned them a 1-1 draw against closest rivals Celtic in the Old Firm derby on Sunday. It leaves the defending champions seven points clear of Celtic, having played a game more, with the season at the halfway point. Ranger manager Walter Smith admitted his team had been fortunate to escape with a point at Parkhead with Celtic wasting a string of chances before Scott McDonald came off the substitutes' bench to head a 79th minute opener. The Australian international converted from an Aidan McGeedy cross, but two minutes later saw McCulloch rise superbly from a corner to earn his side a valuable point. Rangers have 44 points from 19 games and Celtic 37 from 18, but Celtic manager Tony Mowbray remained optimistic, saying that their city neighbors had denied them the title last term after coming from seven points behind. \"Undoubtedly, it's less of a task than they had last year,\" he told reporters. The other game on a crucial Sunday in the championship race saw Hibernian and Hearts draw 1-1 in a bad-tempered Edinburgh derby which saw both teams end with 10 men and crowd trouble. Gordon Smith gave Hearts the lead on the stroke of halftime but one of their fans was ejected after a flare was thrown as the players left the field at the interval. Anthony Stokes leveled for the home side in the 54th minute, but three minutes later Ruben Palazuelos of Hearts and Hibernian's Darren McCormack were shown red for head-butting each other. Hibernian stay third with 33 points and Hearts are fifth.","highlights":"Rangers and Celtic draw 1-1 in the Old Firm derby in Scotland .\nRangers stay seven points clear of Celtic at top of Scottish standings .\nHearts and Hibs draw 1-1 in bad-tempered Edinburgh derby with two men sent off .","id":"aface4f5f10af60100688d485f19f55cdec686d0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A snowstorm that could last up to 18 hours was on its way to southern New England, and Boston, Massachusetts, could be snowed under with up to 15 inches, the National Weather Service said Sunday afternoon. A snowstorm is threatening parts of the Northeast with as much as 15 inches of snowfall. Monday's commuters in the region could face a nightmare with blowing and drifting snow, freezing temperatures, gusty winds and periods of sleet. Flight delays and cancellations were likely, the weather service said. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a snow emergency starting 10 p.m. Sunday in anticipation of the storm, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. Boston public schools will be canceled on Monday. At 2:15 a.m. Monday, light snow was starting to fall, WCVB reported. Winter storm warnings straddled Interstate 95 from Maine to the Carolinas, and they also were issued in parts of Georgia and Alabama. Delta Air Lines canceled 300 flights, most of them to or from Atlanta, because of snowy weather, spokesman Brian Kruse said Sunday. It was snowing in Atlanta, where Delta is based, and 2 to 4 inches was expected. David Spear, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, expected traffic chaos. \"People tend to get a little animated out here at the sight of snow,\" he told CNN. \"Our concern is going to be -- as we move into the evening hours and the temperature drops -- that that slush becomes ice and then we have a real situation for our morning commute tomorrow.\" He said about 200 DOT trucks were deployed to help make roads safe for motorists. In northern Connecticut, southern New Hampshire and most of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a winter storm warning was to be in effect from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Monday, the weather service said. Such a warning is issued when winter weather conditions are expected to make travel dangerous. As the storm continued its northward trek late Sunday, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina was closed at 9 p.m. for snow removal from runways, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Farther north, Richmond International Airport in Virginia was closed at 10:45 p.m. for the same reason, the FAA said. Both airports were expected to reopen before midnight. The heaviest snow, up to 15 inches, was forecast for the heavily populated I-95 corridor between Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, northeast Connecticut and north into the Merrimack Valley in northeast Massachusetts, the weather service said. As much as 3 inches per hour could fall between 10 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Monday. In Washington, Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency Sunday afternoon, meaning any street designated as \"snow emergency route\" by signs would be cleared of any parked vehicles, towed if necessary, so snow plows could work unimpeded. Watch report on the storm system \u00bb . \"It is important that our crews have access to the roads from curb-to-curb in order to plow the snow,\" said Fenty, whose city was expected to get up to 8 inches of accumulation Sunday night and early Monday with accumulations up to 10 inches by Monday night. \"This is one of the first plow events we have had this season, and we want to ensure we are able to maintain clear and safe roadways as we move into Monday morning,\" Fenty said. Forecasters said as many as 14 inches of snow could pile up in Philadelphia and New York City, starting Sunday night. Lesser amounts of snow were reported as far south as Alabama, although Charlotte, North Carolina, could see up to 8 inches. Watch snowfall in Georgia \u00bb . In Memphis, Tennessee, CNN iReporter George Brown said Sunday that forecasters had predicted \"Teflon snow,\" which wouldn't stick to the ground. But the snow that fell was much heavier, he said. iReport.com: Share photos of icy, snowy weather in your town . \"We were getting an inch or more an hour,\" he said. \"Some roads are impassable because the folks here aren't use to dealing with slick streets. Many cars are off the interstate, and hotels are packed,\" Brown said. Watch winter storm cause accidents \u00bb . Snow in Germantown, Tennessee, was more than 5 inches deep by Sunday afternoon, forecasters said. \"I talked with our maintenance director, Bill Hazlerig, who tells me he hasn't seen snow like this in West Tennessee in many years,\" Julie Oaks from the Tennessee Department of Transportation told CNN. Watch the situation in Tennessee \u00bb . Tennessee called in 260 employees in the western portion of the state alone to salt and plow roadways through the night, she said. By Sunday afternoon, about 45 cars and semi-trailers had pulled over on the shoulder of Interstate 40, Oaks said. Watch the snow come down in Memphis \u00bb . Rebecca Horsley, an iReporter from Pelham, Alabama, near Birmingham, said snow began falling there Sunday at 6 a.m., interfering with her planned birthday celebration. \"It looks like we may have to reschedule,\" she said. CNN's Sean Morris, Lee Garen and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Winter storm warnings issued from New England south to Georgia, Alabama .\nWashington declares snow emergency, could get 10 inches by Monday night .\nHeavy snow could make for nightmarish Monday commute in parts of New England .\nSnow falls in South; Georgia-based Delta Airlines cancels 300 flights .","id":"9537f8cfa3989db553b054a4579db89e1166256c"} -{"article":"JACKSON, Tennessee (CNN) -- Tornadoes and storms in the mid-South have killed 55 people since Tuesday evening in the deadliest tornado outbreak in the United States in more than 20 years. A police officer walks past destroyed cars on the Union University campus in Jackson, Tennessee, Wednesday. The storms ripped apart homes and trapped residents of university dorms and a retirement home in debris. The trail of death stretched across four states, with four people killed in Alabama, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and 31 in Tennessee. In some cases, there was almost no warning before the severe weather hit. James Baskin of Jackson, Tennessee, was driving a car when a twister \"just picked us up and threw us,\" he said. Everyone in the car was injured, including his daughter's friend, who suffered a broken collarbone. \"We'll get through it. Nobody's dead. That's the biggest thing,\" Baskin said. The storm system was becoming less intense as it moved east Wednesday, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said, but the National Weather Service issued tornado and severe storm warnings and said extreme weather still was possible. President Bush said Wednesday he had called the governors of the affected states to offer help and to tell them that \"the American people hold those who suffered up in prayer.\" The Federal Emergency Management Agency was deploying teams to the area, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. \"We're going to keep watching this,\" he said. See map of where storms hit \u00bb . In Sumner County, Tennessee, two victims were found outside a house that had been blown away by the storm, said Jay Austin, the county's primary death investigator. Elsewhere in the area, a mother was found dead in a creek bed about 50 yards from where her house stood. Her baby was found alive 250 yards away. The child was taken to a local hospital, Austin said. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Highway Patrol reported looting in hard-hit Macon County, CNN affiliate WSMV reported. Macon County Mayor Shelvy Linville told CNN Thursday that the death toll in the county had risen to 13. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who flew over the disaster area Wednesday, said he was stunned by the storm's power. Watch Bredesen describe a 'nightmare' \u00bb . \"I don't think that I have seen, since I've been governor, a tornado where the combination of the intensity of it and the length of the track was as large as this one,\" Bredesen said. \"That track had to be 25 miles long. [The twister] didn't skip like a lot of them do. ... It's just 25 miles of a tornado sitting on the ground.\" In Jackson, Tennessee, a tornado trapped Union University students and retirees in collapsed buildings, said Julie Oaks, a spokeswoman for the state's Emergency Management Agency. Watch how the tornado devastated the campus \u00bb . \"It looks like a war zone,\" said university President David Dockery. \"Cars and trucks thrown from one side of the campus to the other.\" Dockery said the women's dorms were destroyed, along with two academic buildings. Many other school buildings received lesser damage. See photos of chaos left by storm \u00bb . Classes were canceled at least until February 18, he said. Nine students were hospitalized overnight, but there were no life-threatening injuries, according to university spokesman Tim Elsworth. To the west, a tornado swept through the southeastern section of Memphis in Shelby County. The storms yanked the roof off a hangar at Memphis International Airport, the National Weather Service said. Oaks said one person was killed at the Hickory Ridge Mall in Shelby County. Company officials believe a tornado hit a compressor station for the Columbia Gulf Transmission company in Hartsville, Tennessee, about 40 miles northeast of Nashville, setting off a spectacular natural gas fire. Watch flames leap hundreds of feet \u00bb . The blaze could be seen in the night sky for miles around, with flames shooting \"400, 500 feet in the air,\" said Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Donnie Smith. The station was damaged significantly, but there were no reports of injuries or fatalities, said Columbia spokesman Kelly Merritt. \"We would not have had any employees there [overnight].\" The blaze was put out early Wednesday morning, he said. The tornado cut a wide swath near the facility, flattening the home of Dara Reasonover. \"It just took the house and everything and my horses and my dog,\" a shaken Reasonover said, as the glow of the fire lit the sky behind her. \"I don't know if they're alive or dead, but we'll make it.\" In Arkansas, the storm killed 13 people in six counties, the state Emergency Management Agency said. In the city of Atkins, a man, woman and child in the same family were killed, county Judge Jim Ed Gibson told CNN. The storms overturned trucks and other vehicles along Interstate 40, closing the highway briefly, he said. Storms also ripped through Kentucky, killing at least seven people. A state of emergency was declared in Muhlenberg County, and Kentucky National Guard troops were deployed, state emergency spokesman Buddy Rogers said. In Alabama, the storms killed four people, three in Lawrence County and one in Jackson County, officials said. Resident Roger Riddle said that when he heard the tornado siren, he rounded up his children and took them to a community storm shelter. When he emerged, he saw the twister traveling away from them and \"total destruction.\" \"We've got things tore up, and the house across the road from us is completely gone,\" Riddle said. In Mississippi, the director of the state's Emergency Management Agency, Mike Womack, estimated that 20 to 30 tornadoes pounded the state in areas above the state capital of Jackson. \"We have no reported fatalities, and that is extremely fortunate,\" he said, given the havoc the storm caused elsewhere. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saeed Ahmed, Mark Bixler and Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Death toll rises to 55 with report of a 13th death in Macon County, Tennessee .\nTornado outbreak was deadliest in the U.S. in more than 20 years .\n31 people killed in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, 7 in Kentucky, 4 in Alabama .","id":"4b964621a4d0a48bfb273badbade7f6dcb066365"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Clouds of black smoke from burning plastic hang over the sites of Nigeria's vast dumps, as tiny figures pick their way through slicks of oily water, past cracked PC monitors and television screens. Toxins from dumped electronics in developing countries has been seen as a growing problem. But it isn't just a cut from broken glass these mainly young scavengers are risking. Much of the discarded electronic kit contains tiny -- but valuable -- quantities of aluminum, copper, cadmium and other minerals, all of which can be sold on, if they can be recovered. However they also contain highly toxic materials, which have been linked to reproductive problems and cancers. \"People living and working on and around the dump sites, many of whom are children, are exposed to a cocktail of dangerous chemicals that can cause severe damage to health, including cancer, damage to the nervous system and to brain development in children,\" Kim Schoppink, Toxics Campaigner at Greenpeace, told CNN. \"The open burning creates even more hazardous chemicals among which are cancerous dioxins.\" No studies have been done on the extent of the chemical pollution of such sites in Nigeria, but in 2008 a Greenpeace report on similar dumps in nearby Ghana confirmed that high levels of lead, phthalates and dioxins were present in soils and the water of a nearby lagoon. A Chinese academic report published in \"Environmental Health Perspectives\" in 2007 confirmed that children living in the same area had higher levels of toxic metals in their blood than other children living nearby. There is increasing evidence that this new health and environment problem is arriving in shipping containers from Western countries. Nigeria is one of the principal global destinations for \"e-waste\" -- the catch-all term for discarded consumer electronics. Some of this may have been legitimately handed in to be recycled in an EU or U.S. city, but lax enforcement, vague legislation and a lack of political will has meant that it instead passes through a network of traders keen to profit from developing countries' hunger for hi-tech and a burgeoning second hand market. According to the United Nations Environment Program around 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are generated worldwide each year. In 2008 a Greenpeace study, \"Not in My Backyard\", found that in Europe only 25 percent of the e-waste was recycled safely. In the U.S. it is only 20 percent and in developing countries it is less than one percent. Extrapolating out from these figures the report concluded that a massive 80 percent of e-waste generated worldwide is not properly recycled. Some is burnt in Western incinerators or buried in landfill sites. But much is exported to developing countries including India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana. When it arrives, a further percentage may be repaired and sold on to populations desperate for affordable technology. But anything beyond the skills of local traders will end up dumped. It's a profitable business, and is already attracting the attention of organized crime. A report issued by the United Nations in July said that the criminal gangs behind much of the drug trade in West Africa were becoming involved with e-waste trading. The volume of material on the move is staggering. In 2005, more than 500 containers full of e-waste entered Nigerian ports every month, according to the Basel Action Network, a U.S. NGO campaigning on issues surrounding toxic waste. Each one contains 10 to 15 tons of e-waste, totaling 60,000 to 90,000 tons per year. These figures are likely to have increased in recent years. There seems little doubt that much of this waste is finding its way to Africa from Western countries. The Basel Action Network and Dutch NGO Danwatch have traced equipment from Europe to Nigerian dumps and earlier this year Greenpeace placed a radio tracking device in a broken TV handed in for safe recycling in the UK, but followed it to a Nigerian market. \"Greenpeace is disappointed especially by U.S. and EU authorities,\" said Schoppink. \"It is toxic waste from the U.S. and EU countries that is causing serious environmental and health problems in Nigeria, a country without the means to deal with this problem. \"The U.S. and EU must play the biggest role in stopping the spread of e-waste; they are most responsible for the problem and have the resources to tackle it. The export of e-waste from the EU is illegal under the Basel Convention and the Waste Shipment Directive, but the laws are not being sufficiently implemented. In the U.S., there is no such law banning this practice. \"In Nigeria the government is talking about stopping imports, but there has been no progress on this to date.\" Signs of progress . There are calls from environmental groups likes Greenpeace for electronics producers to do more to phase out their use of hazardous substances, and there are some signs of progress. Several electronics companies already make products using fewer hazardous substances, and others, including Nokia, Philips and Samsung are setting up voluntary collection and recycling systems in countries where they are not legally obliged to. Apple claims its products are now almost entirely free of the worst toxic chemicals. \"If producers continue to use hazardous chemicals in their electronics and to fail to take responsibility for the safe disposal of their products, e-waste will continue to be dumped in developing countries,\" said Schoppink. \"The pollution and related health problems in countries where e-waste is dumped will increase massively as the amount of electronics used worldwide is growing exponentially and the number of countries used as dump sites will grow.\" But while the developing world needs the U.S. and EU to take responsibility for their waste, it also needs their discarded computers to train and build a 21st century workforce. \"Nobody is arguing that Africa should be denied access to computers,\" said Tony Roberts, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Computer Aid International, a charity licensed by the UK Environment Agency, which provides recycled computers to developing countries to improve education and healthcare. \"Technical colleges and universities are always short of resources. It is, of course, essential to developing economies escaping poverty to have access to affordable modern technology.\" Computer Aid works to close the digital divide between the north and southern hemispheres and offers corporations, including Coca Cola, as well as individuals, a positive way of disposing of electronics. They also believe learning about responsibility for that technology is a crucial part of the exchange. \"Computer Aid argues that, in addition to the PCs, it is essential to also build the skills, knowledge and operating capacity in every country to manage responsible re-use programs and environmentally sound end-of-life recycling.\" In the end, this is about everyone involved -- particularly the developed nations -- taking responsibility for their waste. \"It is clear that companies have a moral obligation to treat Africa in exactly the same way that they do, say, Germany,\" said Roberts. Until then, toxic black smoke will continue to cast a shadow over lives across the developing world.","highlights":"Export of electronic products for recycling creating health and environment problems .\nDeveloped nations that export e-waste criticized by many for lack of responsibility .\nStudy from Greenpeace suggest only around 20 percent recycled safely .\nOrganized crime involved in e-waste trading according to UN report in July .","id":"c38cbaa56e0652695ec6cac676366a38450cfdd0"} -{"article":"Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood gunman and a psychiatrist who worked in a hospital at the base, is blamed for the deaths of 12 soldiers and one Army civilian employee, and for wounding at least 38 others. If convicted, Hasan will join an infamous list of Americans who have committed acts of mass murder. Since 2005, there have been at least 11 other incidents where gunmen have opened fire on groups of victims.","highlights":"Since 2001, Hasan had been unable to leave the military, a family spokeswoman said .\nShe said he told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks in 2001 .\nThe police officer who shot Hasan, ending the massacre, was among the wounded .","id":"517fdfc88bd790a84e7369778d4b17948b5e36ff"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Two people without invitations crashed President Obama's first White House state dinner, the U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday. The Secret Service confirmed a Washington Post report that the couple who crashed Tuesday night's dinner were Tareq and Michaele Salahi. The Post described the couple as polo-playing socialites from northern Virginia. A Secret Service checkpoint \"did not follow proper procedures\" to determine if the two were on the guest list for the dinner, said Edwin M. Donovan, a Secret Service special agent, in a statement. Playing down any security threat, Donovan's statement said: \"It is important to note that these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of security, as did all guests attending the dinner.\" The incident represents a security breach for the White House at the Obama administration's biggest social event to date. More than 300 guests, including Cabinet members, diplomats and Hollywood celebrities, attended the dinner in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. \"The Secret Service has tasked our Office of Professional Responsibility with conducting a comprehensive review of the incident,\" Donovan's statement said. Video footage of the dinner showed the couple walking past journalists into the event. On Wednesday, Michaele Salahi's Facebook page included photos of the couple at the dinner, including two pictures with Vice President Joe Biden and another with Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who was identified on the page as \"Ron\" Emanuel. The couple's names did not appear on the guest list distributed Tuesday by the White House. In an e-mail to CNN, Mahogany Jones, who identified herself as a publicist for the Salahis, said the couple had \"full clearance to attend the state dinner.\" Fran Townsend, a homeland security adviser to former President George W. Bush, said the incident likely involved a breakdown at the \"perimeter\" security for the event, which is the first checkpoint that guests encounter. Lying to the Secret Service could bring a felony charge, Townsend said.","highlights":"Secret Service: Tareq and Michaele Salahi attended state dinner without invitations .\nMichaele Salahi's Facebook page shows pictures of couple with vice president .\nCouple are polo-playing socialites from northern Virginia, Washington Post reports .","id":"151696d797697d13b50c48292af516dab88d2086"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl on the campus of Richmond High School in Northern California while 10 or more witnesses, most of them students, looked on has sparked familiar questions: \"Why are our kids so messed up?\" \"Why didn't these students try to stop the crime?\" \"What's happening in our schools?\" These are fair questions, and commentators in the media have provided familiar answers. The purported rape is another sad example of today's self-absorbed and uncaring youth. It was the media's glorification of violence that caused it. The horrific act shows how sociopathic brains develop. But it seems as if the majority of commentators have settled on the idea that the Richmond students did nothing because of the \"bystander effect\": The more people involved in a criminal incident, the less likely any one of them will intervene to do something about it. Unfortunately, this \"What's wrong with our children?\" approach leads to a dead end, because it results in a sweeping moral condemnation of the schools, families and students in this community. These perpetrators committed a heinous act that should be widely condemned. But a discussion that focuses exclusively on the immorality of these deviant young men does not provide solutions that prevent gang rape from happening. Talking only about the bystander effect wrongly suggests that the vast majority of teens would not call for help. Take Richmond. Claims of depraved acts by a few kids have served to demonize an entire student community. Rather than demonize all teenagers in Richmond High School, we should be asking another question: \"What can we do to prevent such heinous acts from happening?\" The answer to that question leads to a wholly different kind of dialogue, one that may surprise. It is primarily students, the reputed problem, who can best prevent acts of violence on campus. Make no mistake about it. The alleged two-hour-long gang rape on October 24 was an extreme form of school violence. It unfolded not far from the gym where the school-sponsored homecoming dance, supervised by school staff and police officers, was being held. And students, police say, largely perpetrated it. Research since the massacres at Columbine High School (1999) and Virginia Tech (2007) has taught us a lot about how to prevent such school violence. Chief among them is that school staff and security should patrol campuses, especially violence-prone areas, during and after school events. According to a CNN report, a friend of the alleged victim saw blatant failures in safety precautions. She said, \"I looked outside of the gym, and I saw 12 to 15 guys, sitting there, with no IDs. The officers -- not only did they not check the IDs of those students or men sitting outside of of our campus, but the security officers who are employed here did no job of checking either.\" Virtually all students and teachers at a school can identify these dangerous hot spots. At Richmond High School, one such spot is \"a dark alley near the back side of the school,\" the site of the purported rape. As CNN reported, school officials had even requested that video cameras and more lights be installed in the area, but they were never installed. The alleged rapists and student bystanders probably knew that no one would be patrolling the area. As important as campus patrols are in reducing campus violence, the most powerful form of prevention is believing that students can help stop crime from happening. They didn't stop the purported rape at Richmond, a skeptic might say. A possible reason is that they were not educated on how to stop it. . Research shows us that students often know ahead of time when and where violence will flare up on campus. Strong social networks and the widespread use of cell phones and text messaging rapidly convey such information. This dynamic can fuel violence, as officials say it did at Richmond High School. It can also prevent violence. Thousands of potential school crimes, including violent ones, have been averted on campuses across the country because students alerted school officials before the crime occurred. Students and families using a hot line in Colorado were credited with preventing more than 206 incidents of school violence from 2004-06. As of summer 2009, this one hot line fielded 1,687 reports that resulted in crime prevention or intervention. Alert students have also helped prevent replays of the tragedies that occurred at Columbine and Virginia Tech by tipping off school officials. Several years ago, student reports stopped a Columbine-style massacre plot, employing bombs, napalm and automatic weapons, at a high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This year, tips from students and alert teachers and police disrupted a student-massacre plot, featuring pipe bombs and firearms, at Hillside High School in San Mateo, California. Since Columbine, school shootings have been averted in New Bedford, New York, and Covina, California, to name some others. And at Richmond, it was an 18-year-old bystander, overhearing others talking about the incident, who reported the crime. Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware of these frequently heroic acts by high school students and their teachers because they don't often get national media attention. That lack of information has helped obscure the important roles that students and their responsive teachers play in preventing school violence. But the evidence is clear. Students who know what to do when they witness school violence, or when they have a strong sense of impending violence, will become anonymous heroes. But they need to be taught what to do, which phone numbers -- including hot lines -- to call and which school officials or police department can be trusted to act on their reports. Students also need to feel confident that they can report trouble without fear of retribution from their peers or being called a snitch. It is up to the teachers and administrators who run schools to teach their students these procedures. They need to convince students that they will listen and respond consistently to their reports of violence or possible violence. Yes, local police need to develop trusting relationships with students and the overall community, or nothing will be reported. But the job of preventing violence on campus belongs primarily, if not solely, to the schools. Rather than wring our hands about the so-called immorality of today's students, we should embrace them as full partners in the prevention of violence on campus. Morality is not the issue. If students are educated on what to do when the threat of violence arises and are encouraged to follow the procedures, they can be trusted to do the right thing. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ron Astor.","highlights":"Commentators focused on why students didn't report alleged rape, Astor says .\nStudies of school violence show ways it can be prevented, he says .\nAstor: Training can prepare students to alert police and avert violence .","id":"6d25e8b485c99383341d5c3915b54c52806107a1"} -{"article":"Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- Candles in hand and singing hymns, hundreds of Cleveland residents stunned by the discovery of 11 bodies in a local home gathered outside the house Sunday night to remember the victims. But Inez Fortson, whose daughter Telacia was among the dead, said she could barely stand to look at the home. \"It's hard, because I want to burn it down,\" she said. \"I know my baby was in there, and she got killed in there,\" Fortson added. \"I know what other people feel like when they lost a child. I didn't, but I do now. That was my only daughter.\" Telacia Fortson, 31, had three children, ages 2, 4 and 6, her mother said. She had last been seen in June. Her body was among the first identified in the home of Anthony Sowell, who is now facing five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths. All of those found dead were African-American women. A Cuyahoga County judge has set bail at $5 million for Sowell, a registered sex offender who served 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape case. He was released from jail in 2005. \"Whenever I see him on TV or think about him, I have to pray,\" Fortson said. \"Because I believe that one day, I'll have to forgive him for what he's done. But right now, I can't, because I'm numb.\" About 500 people joined the march, which followed a packed memorial service at the neighborhood's Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church. The turnout \"means that people do care,\" Fortson said. \"There is a little compassion in the world.\" Mount Olive pastor Larry Harris Sr., who led the memorial service, called the Sowell home a house of \"horror.\" \"It brings trembling to the bones to think about what all went on right here,\" he said. Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to Sowell's public defender Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after the case goes before a grand jury, the next expected step in the case. Police recovered the first bodies after they went to Sowell's home to follow up on a rape accusation. Last month, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor, but no charges were filed. Neighbors called 911 after the October 20 incident. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. The woman told officers that she was at the home and \"partying,\" when she fell off the roof. Allen Sowell, the suspect's half-brother, told CNN he last saw his brother more than 20 years ago. Their stepmother, who lived in the house after Anthony Sowell got out of prison, said she knew of nothing odd going on at the time, Allen Sowell said. The stepmother tried to get Anthony Sowell evicted from the house in 2007 because he wasn't paying rent, Allen Sowell said. Anthony Sowell said he shouldn't have to pay rent on a house that belonged to his father, who died in 2004, and remained in the house when his stepmother had to be hospitalized in 2007, his half-brother said. Agents from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit are assisting Cleveland police, Cleveland FBI spokesman Scott Wilson said. The agents are preparing a profile of Sowell for police, tracing his life and habits, and his DNA will be entered into a national database to see whether it can be linked to any unsolved crimes. Allen Sowell said he was aware of his half-brother's prison record, but \"just couldn't fathom\" the accusations now facing him. \"I didn't think he was in that bad of a mental state,\" Allen Sowell said. \"You never think it would happen to your family. It's a horrible feeling.\" At 66, Allen Sowell is 16 years older than his half-brother, and the two didn't meet until Anthony Sowell was 9. He added, \"He deserves whatever he gets from the justice system.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.","highlights":"After vigil, ministers walk to Anthony Sowell home, where 11 bodies were found .\nSowell is on suicide watch in jail; charged with murder, rape, other felonies .\nSeven of 11 bodies have been identified; all were African-American women .","id":"adabd458fe83b7ad71935e18aa9c53863e674e6c"} -{"article":"(CareerBuilder.com) -- Baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are nearing retirement age. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are 78.2 million boomers, and that every hour, 330 of them turn 60. That means an entire generation of workers might leave the work force in the coming years. But they might not. Many baby boomers are choosing to postpone retirement and stay at their current jobs or find new ones. Some can't afford to retire, but many want to explore new avenues. After decades of working in jobs that paid the bills but didn't fulfill them, they're moving to different industries. For their book \"225 Best Jobs for Baby Boomers,\" authors Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin decided to comb through data to discover what the best jobs are for baby boomers. They looked at salaries, projected job growth and the number of openings to calculate which jobs have the most promise. Farr and Shatkin break down their findings in more than 70 lists, ranging from the best-paying jobs to the best jobs for boomers age 45-54. Whatever your criteria are, Farr and Shatkin have the job for you. Below you'll find the list for the 25 overall best jobs for all baby boomers: . 1. Management analysts What they make*: $67,005 Projected annual openings**: 78,000 . 2. Teachers, post-secondary What they make: $68,456 Projected annual openings: 216,000 . 3. Logisticians What they make: $44,563 Projected annual openings: 162,000 . 4. General and operations managers What they make: $93,594 Projected annual openings: 260,000 . 5. Registered nurses What they make: $66,427 Projected annual openings: 215,000 . 6. Anesthesiologists What they make: $310,132 Projected annual openings: 38,000 . 7. General internists What they make: $351,307 Projected annual openings: 38,000 . 8. Obstetricians and gynecologists What they make: $285,254 Projected annual openings: 38,000 . 9. Family and general practitioners What they make: $198,221 Projected annual openings: 38,000 . 10. Psychiatrists What they make: $191,080 Project annual openings: 38,000 . 11. Surgeons What they make: $322,281 Projected annual openings: 38,000 . 12. General pediatricians What they make: $181,764 Projected annual openings: 38,000 . 13. Medical and health services managers What they make: $94,269 Projected annual openings: 33,000 . 14. Financial managers, branch or department What they make: $101,963 Projected annual openings: 71,000 . 15. Treasurers, controllers and chief financial officers What they make: $172,946 - $240,588 Projected annual openings: 71,000 . 16. Chief executives What they make: $382,705 Projected annual openings: 63,000 . 17. Government service executives What they make: $167,766 Projected annual openings: 63,000 . 18. Private sector executives What they make: $169,570 Projected annual openings: 63,000 . 19. Pharmacists What they make: $108,499 Projected annual openings: 23,000 . 20. Lawyers What they make: $116,810 Projected annual openings: 53,000 . 21. Education administrators, elementary and secondary school What they make: $150,467 Projected annual openings: 31,000 . 22. Administrative services managers What they make: $86,666 Projected annual openings: 40,000 . 23. Sales representatives, agricultural What they make: $53,034 Projected annual openings: 44,000 . 24. Sales representatives, chemical and pharmaceutical What they make: $88,049 Projected annual openings: 44,000 . 25. Sales representatives, electrical\/electronics What they make: $51,105 Projected annual openings: 44,000 . *Salary figures based on data from CBsalary.com, powered by SalaryExpert.com . **Projected annual openings figures based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. © CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority.","highlights":"Census: Every hour, 330 of the 78.2 million baby boomers turn 60 years old .\nMany will retire in the coming years, but some may continue working .\nAuthors Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin detail best jobs for boomers .\nSchool administrators, doctors, teachers and sales representatives in top 25 .","id":"906de008adbb09633f32a82d8a77273c2769b105"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan has a unique r\u00e9sum\u00e9: he served two tours in the country as a general, training Afghan police and troops, before trading his uniform for a diplomat's business suit. His career history may give Karl Eikenberry's word particular weight as President Obama struggles to come up with a way forward in Afghanistan. Eikenberry sent private cables to Obama last week, urging the president not to rush to send more troops to Afghanistan -- although the top U.S. military commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, wants 40,000 more pairs of boots on the ground. Initial reports about the cables sent by Eikenberry appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. All three newspapers attributed the reports to senior U.S. officials, without identifying them. Two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that Eikenberry sent two cables to Washington expressing reservations about troop increases amid uncertainty over President Hamid Karzai's government. Neither Eikenberry nor the White House would comment on the contents of private advice between the envoy and the president, but the reports alarmed Karzai enough that his office sought confirmation from the U.S. Embassy about them, a Karzai spokesman told CNN. Karzai's office did not get the information it sought, the spokesman said. Whatever Eikenberry told the president, the ambassador is unusually well versed in the military problems facing Afghanistan. He retired from the Army after nearly 40 years of service with the rank of lieutenant general on April 28 -- one day before he was sworn in as ambassador, according to his State Department biography. His long military career included time in Kabul as U.S. security coordinator and chief of the Office of Military Cooperation. \"Afghanistan has been at the center of my career since 9\/11, when the terrorist-commandeered aircraft crashed into the Pentagon just below the office in which I was working,\" Eikenberry said at his Senate confirmation hearing in March. \"There is no silver bullet and no quick, cheap or easy solutions. There is no substitute for more resources and sacrifice,\" he said then. But, he added: \"There is no exclusively military solution to the issues we and our partners confront in Afghanistan.\" He also advised the U.S. secretary of defense on China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia, and was deputy director for strategy, plans and policy on the Army staff. But he's not new to embassy life, having served as defense attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. Eikenberry has a master's degree in east Asian studies from Harvard, an advanced degree in Chinese history from Nanjing University in China, and is a certified translator from Mandarin Chinese. He's also clearly attached to his wife, Ching, insisting in his Senate confirmation hearing that she accompany him to Kabul even though State Department rules barred spouses because the country is so dangerous. He prevailed. He and his wife are hosting a dinner Saturday night in Kabul for a visiting U.S. lawmaker.","highlights":"Eikenberry retired from the Army after nearly 40 years of service .\nMilitary career included time in Kabul as chief of Office of Military Cooperation .\nHe advised U.S. secretary of defense on China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia .","id":"8053603889acb76f9b51e5ec6cb1fb106583ab38"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Army Secretary John McHugh ordered a new investigation into poor record keeping and other problems at Arlington National Cemetery even as a separate investigation ended without an absolute answer to who is buried in a grave marked \"Unknown.\" \"As the final resting place of our nation's heroes, any questions about the integrity or accountability of its operations should be examined in a manner befitting their service and sacrifice,\" McHugh said in a statement after signing the order directing the Army's Inspector General to begin an investigation into allegations regarding cemetery operations. The Army IG is already in the middle of an investigation ordered by the previous secretary of the Army to review management of the cemetery. In recent years, the cemetery -- where President Kennedy and thousands of fallen U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are buried -- has had a number of embarrassing problems. In 2008, the cemetery discovered that workers inadvertently buried cremated remains at a grave site already in use. Those remains were moved to another grave site. In 2003, as workers were digging a grave for a new burial, they discovered a casket already buried there. There was no headstone or grave marker to indicate who. Only recently, after a report by a journalist at Salon.com, did the Army take action on the problem. Over the summer, the cemetery put up a headstone on the mystery grave that reads \"Unknown.\" As McHugh ordered the new investigation, the Army released results of a separate investigation of problems at the cemetery. That investigation focused on the discovery of the \"Unknown\" grave. A spokesman for the Military District of Washington, which conducted the review, said \"Cemetery records, the MDW investigation, and the non-invasive geophysical analysis of the grave sites strongly indicate that a husband and wife, who died years apart and should have been buried in the same grave site, were instead buried in adjacent graves.\" A DNA test of the remains in the two adjacent graves could prove conclusively that is what happened, but the family of the husband and wife did not wish for their remains to be disturbed. The MDW said the Army will abide by the family's wishes and has ordered a headstone to properly mark the wife's grave. One of the problems discovered by the MDW investigation was a possible lack of adequate staffing at the cemetery. Last year Arlington conducted 4,377 burials, up more than 21 percent over the past 10 years. During that same period the number of civilian staff members has dropped nearly 19 percent. Currently the cemetery has four employees to schedule 135 to 150 funerals a week as well as maintain all grave records. Arlington, which sits on a hill across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, has been the final resting place for America's military heroes since the Civil War, when the Union seized the estate from the family of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. McHugh hopes this new investigation will \"ensure America's confidence in the operation of its most hallowed ground.\"","highlights":"Army Secretary John McHugh orders inquiry into poor record keeping .\nPrevious investigation sought to identify remains in grave marked \"Unknown\"\nIn recent years, the cemetery has had a number of embarrassing problems .","id":"6057b1db2dcd6e1d3f8192d75ebf749f01908cc9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At an auction at a gallery in New York recently, a piece of artwork sold for a higher price than had been anticipated by the auctioneers: $4,080. It wasn't a very big piece of art -- just 8-by-10 inches. Technically, it wasn't even art. It was a glossy black-and-white photograph. It had a slight imperfection: there were staple holes in the upper left-hand corner. Someone had written all over the front of the photograph. The person who had scrawled on it was, in fact, the subject of the photograph. He had written: . \"To Patricia Keating, with very best wishes, John Kennedy\" That is what made the photo so valuable to someone: Kennedy had held it in his hands, had run his pen over it. The owners of Swann Galleries, where the signed photo was auctioned, believe that Kennedy had autographed the picture in 1956, when he was a United States senator. The picture itself wasn't worth much; but his signature, personalized to Patricia Keating. ... \"As far as we know, she wasn't anyone famous,\" Rebecca Weiss, a Swann Galleries employee, told me on the day after the auction. \"There's no particular significance to her name.\" Then why would someone pay more than $4,000 for the photo? Weiss told me that the identities of the buyers and sellers at Swann auctions are kept confidential, so she could not disclose who had consigned the photo for sale, or who had purchased it. But she said there is a pretty safe rule of thumb about the sale of autographs of renowned men and women: . \"What people are buying is the mystique. They are taking home the autograph knowing that this person once actually touched this item, this person once actually left this imprint, this signature.\" She clearly knows what she is talking about; just this weekend, it was announced that another auctioneer had sold what is purported to be perhaps the last autograph Kennedy ever signed: a copy of the Dallas Morning News that he reportedly signed for a woman upon his arrival in that city on November 22, 1963. A man in California purchased it for $39,000. In our digital age, in which images and data are transferred from person to person with the tap of a key, it would seem to be an anachronism: the idea of placing enormous monetary value on pieces of paper upon which prominent individuals once wrote their names. But that personal touch seems to have remained precious; Weiss said that many, if not most, purchasers of autographed items display them as if they were rare paintings: framed and mounted in places of honor. She didn't have to convince me. I have only two pieces of art hanging in my home, and neither would qualify as art in the conventional sense. But I wouldn't trade them for Picassos or Van Goghs. The first is an original theater lobby poster for the greatest movie about newspapers ever made: 1952's \"Deadline -- U.S.A.\", starring Humphrey Bogart. The other piece of art is an autograph -- actually, an entire (if brief) handwritten letter. It is a thank-you note. A thank-you note written to a laundry. At the top of the piece of paper, embossed in the italics\/script font style of 1950s suburban-housewife stationery, are the words: . \"From the home of ... Elvis Presley\" And beneath it, in blue ballpoint pen: . \"I should like to commend your Laundry for doing a fantastic job on my clothes, you show esceptional care. Sincerely E.P.\" That's just how, while living in a house on Audubon Drive in Memphis, Tennessee, in the years before he moved to Graceland, he wrote it. \"Laundry\" capitalized in the middle of the sentence; a comma instead of a period after \"clothes\"; \"esceptional\" instead of \"exceptional.\" I can't imagine a more wonderful or telling artifact from Presley's life. Who writes thank-you notes to their laundries? The young Elvis, that's who. There's such an essential sweetness to it -- to the very fact of the letter, to the formality of his introduction (\"I should like to commend...\"), to the adjective he chose (\"a fantastic job on my clothes\"). I purchased the letter from a gallery two decades ago (for a price that made me bite the inside of my mouth), and I would rather own it than the Mona Lisa. I was about to say that I would never part with it, but in fact I once did, for several months. An exhibit called \"American Originals: Treasures from the National Archives\" was touring the country, and was scheduled to make a long stop at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Included in the exhibit were the original Louisiana Purchase Treaty, Thomas Edison's 1879 patent application for the electric lamp and the instrument of surrender of the German High Command during World War II. I thought Elvis belonged there, and persuaded the curators of the museum to accept his thank-you letter on loan. The National Archives said they would not object, so long as Elvis' note was not in the same room with the more austere documents. It worked out fine; I thought Elvis would like it that way. He always was proud to be an outsider. In the hallway adjacent to the entrance to the main exhibit -- visitors saw it right as they walked in -- was Elvis' handwritten letter, in a display case, with a plaque that read: . \"This note, written by Elvis Presley when he was on the verge of becoming a star, provides an example of how seemingly trivial documents can increase in value and cultural significance as a result of historic events. It also shows that despite his growing fame in the early 1950s, Presley cared about the feelings of others.\" Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? I can fully understand why someone in New York the other day would purchase the photograph that John Kennedy once signed for Patricia Keating, whoever she may have been. You don't have to be Patricia Keating to comprehend the value of that picture, just as you don't have to be Elvis' laundry to comprehend the value of that thank-you note. Great art, like great beauty, is where you find it. It is, as they say, in the eye -- or the laundry bag -- of the beholder. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.","highlights":"Photo signed by JFK recently sold for $4,080, Greene notes .\nIn the digital age, the idea of valuing names on paper seems odd, he says .\nBut autographs allow an admirer to make a connection to a hero, he says .\nThat makes some autographs more precious than fine art, he says .","id":"dfad0c468081e3d206c536e51f4343714c461b31"} -{"article":"Singapore (CNN) -- While economists fret whether the sharp \"V\"-shaped drop of the financial crisis will turn into a double-dipped \"W\" recovery, Tan Pheng Hock is most worried about the \"P\" word: Protectionism. His Singapore-based ST Engineering builds aerospace and transport systems and control centers. Most of the group's $3 billion in revenues come from exports. \"When you have protectionism it breeds like a disease whereby people become so dependent on it,\" Tan said. \"The moment you remove it you get lots of resistance.\" As the business and government leaders gather for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Tan has good reason to be concerned. Few economies have borne the brunt of the financial crisis -- or the \"financial tsunami,\" as many Asian nations call it -- as has export-driven Singapore. The city-state's economic output took a record fall, with its GDP dropping 9.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to government statistics. Singapore lives and dies by the global economy. With no natural resources and a small domestic market, in a generation the city-state transformed itself from the third world British colony into a first world economic power by building its economy on exports and business services. While Singapore's economic health is quickly rebounding -- second quarter GDP was down only 3.5 percent, the best performance since the financial crisis exploded in September last year -- protectionist winds threaten to shatter any nascent recovery. \"With the crisis we've been through there have obviously been some protectionist tendencies beginning to rise, particularly in the Western world,\" Tan said. \"I hope we will see those quashed during the course of this week (at APEC).\" Although APEC was built as an avenue to promulgate freer trade among Pacific Rim economies, the first salvos of trade disputes between China and the U.S. have many concerned. In September, the U.S. placed tariffs on Chinese made automobile tires; China responded by cutting off imports of poultry parts (including chicken feet, a delicacy in China) and auto parts. More recently, China has begun an investigation whether Washington bailouts of U.S. carmakers constitutes unfair government supports of U.S. cars sold in China. The fact that the leaders of the two nations will be gathering here on Saturday ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to China puts implicit pressure to reduce the protectionist rhetoric, said Tan Khee Giap, chairman of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. \"At least they have to say that they will resist any form of protectionism at meetings like this,\" Tan said. Whether words will match deeds remains an open question. A survey of 400 business leaders released Wednesday by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council found a majority of those polled believe protectionism is likely to increase if the global recovery stalls. CNN's Andrew Stevens and Kevin Voigt contributed to this story.","highlights":"Singapore's 2Q GDP down 3.5 percent, best performance since crisis hit .\nPerformance follows 1Q GDP drop of 9.5 percent .\nTrade disputes between China, United States have many concerned .\nAPEC meeting may help reduce protectionist rhetoric, observer says .","id":"e0b05adc5a3f5df4b0f234c37c365ffb466e66b7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The New Zealand All Blacks gave their nation double reason for cheer with a 20-6 win Italy before a massive crowd at the San Siro in Milan. With their football counterparts qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals with a win over Bahrain earlier on Saturday, it was left to Graham Henry's men to complete the double. But they were given a tough fight by underdogs Italy, who were inspired by an 80,000 crowd in a stadium normally reserved for Serie A giants Inter and AC Milan. Henry fielded a largely second-string team after last week's 19-12 defeat of Wales in Cardiff. Italy briefly led as former Australian rugby league international Craig Gower kicked a penalty. But New Zealand pulled ahead with two Luke McAlister penalties and Corey Flynn put them further ahead with the only try of the game after 25 minutes. McAlister landed another penalty before halftime to send the visitors into the break with a 14-3 lead. After the interval he kicked two further penalties with Gower getting his second for Italy. The All Blacks next play England, who saw off Argentina 16-9 at Twickenham in a poor quality match in difficult conditions. A late try by Matt Banahan gave Martin Johnson's men the edge and his sixth win from 13 games in charge. Fly-half star Jonny Wilkinson provided all of England's points in the first half, with a drop-goal and two penalties as the scores were tied at 9-9 at the half. Center Martin Rodriguez, one of a trio of Argentina debutants, kicked three penalties from five attempts to keep them level until the late home try. In other international action, former England coach Andy Robinson led his new Scotland team to a 23-10 win over Fiji. Johnnie Beattie and Graeme Morrison went over for tries for Scotland at Murrayfield. On Friday night, France shocked world champions South Africa 20-13 in Toulouse. The Tri-Nations champions paid the price for ill-discipline as Julien Dupuy kicked four penalties and Morgan Parra one. Winger Vincent Clerc capped a fine performance for the home side with a try. South Africa's points came from Morne Steyn with a penalty and drop-goal as well as converting a fine try by captain John Smit.","highlights":"New Zealand All Blacks beat Italy 20-6 in rugby union international .\nA massive crowd of 80,000 watched the game in San Siro stadium .\nEngland and Scotland register wins over Argentina and Fiji .\nFrance score superb win over world champions South Africa .","id":"cb0d5e14eba53ed77f4842cf5a1dc74774754839"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This Twitter thing has been coming on like gangbusters. The messaging site has been around for a couple of years, but its popularity seems to have exploded just recently. A self-admitted tech geek, Chris Pirillo is president of Lockergnome.com, a blogging network. Everyone from BarackObama to John Cleese to NASA to the consulate of Israel has a Twitter account. Heck, even yours truly does! Do you? Follow me and I'll follow you back. Twitter is really more of a social commons than a full-blown social network like MySpace or Facebook. It pretty much does one thing: allows people to \"tweet\" what they're up to (or what they're thinking about) in 140 characters or less. Call it micro-blogging, if you will, but it's about as close to the \"Keep It Simple, Stupid\" (K.I.S.S.) ideal as it gets. People can follow your tweets and you can follow theirs -- that's pretty much it. There are some third-party apps out there that can help you organize and seek out the information flying around out there in the Twittersphere, but it all pretty much stays in the nutshell. With the overwhelming amount of widgets and gadgets and gizmos and doohickeys and whatnots attached to every other social network out there, isn't it nice to be able to get away with plain ol' simple every now and again? Since we're sticking with the \"less is more\" aesthetic, I'm just going to give you 10 Twitter tips instead of the 20 I could have stretched this into. You're welcome! 1. Be yourself, but beware. Say whatever you feel like saying, but remember that whatever you write could exist in the digital universe forever. Proceed with extreme caution. 2. Don't be afraid to interact with others. If you like something they say, reply by clicking the little grey arrow that appears when you hover over one of their tweets. You can also simply type in @username (replacing \"username\" with whatever their username happens to be on Twitter). This is the formal way to address someone on Twitter. iReport.com: Do you agree with these tips? Share some of yours . 3. Follow celebrities. They may never interact with you, but at least you can interact with them. It's no longer a question of who is on Twitter -- but who ISN'T on Twitter. 4. Use Twitter from your desktop. Twitter has something called an API (Application Programming Interface), which allows programmers to create experiences around Twitter for the community. Because of this, there have been an amazing array of applications released that will allow you to manage your Twitter account easily. There's Twitterrific, TweetDeck, and Twhirl -- just to name a few. 5. Find friends fast. If you're looking for new friends, a quick search for some of your favorite things on search.twitter.com will quickly reveal who you should be friending on Twitter. Maybe they'll follow you back? 6. Follow government officials. If your elected official isn't on http:\/\/tweetcongress.org, then they're behind the times. Heck, even the Library of Congress is on Twitter! 7. Crowdsource. If you have an idea, or a question, don't hold it in -- let it be known to all! Who knows -- someone just may answer your call for help. 8. Tweetups. Keep your eye out for these things. They're meetups for people on Twitter, and there's likely one happening regularly in your neck of the woods. I've taken to hosting one monthly in the Seattle area, as a matter of fact. Meet Twitter people -- tweeps, tweeple -- in meatspace! 9. Retweet. If you like something that someone else has tweeted, you can \"RT\" (retweet) it. This gives the original person credit, and also lets your followers know what you like. That's community! 10. Go with the flow. If you think you know better than everybody else, you're wrong -- the same netiquette rules apply on Twitter as well as on the rest of the Internet. Do you have any Twitter tips to pass along? You could even share the link to this article on Twitter and it might become the most popular story today!","highlights":"CNN tech columnist Chris Pirillo offers 10 tips on how to be a good Twitterer .\nSay whatever you feel, but also remember that it could exist on the Web forever .\nCrowdsource. If you have an idea, or a question, don't hold it in -- let it be known!\nKeep your eye out for Tweetups, which are meetups for people on Twitter .","id":"6836747df99bd1dd3e23ba23836b53a61443ca5a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Suspected Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier Wednesday with 22 crew members aboard, according to the European Union's Naval Force for Somalia. MV Filitsa was seized in the early morning about 460 miles (740 kilometers) northeast of the Seychelles as it headed toward Durban, South Africa, according to a news release from EU NAVFOR Somalia. The Marshall Island-flagged carrier -- with three Greek and 19 Filipino crew members -- \"has now turned around and is heading north,\" it said. The bulk carrier has a deadweight of more than 23,000 tons. There have been more than 100 pirate attacks and at least 39 hijackings off the east Africa this year, according to EU NAVFOR. In late October, Somali pirates seized a private yacht in the Indian Ocean, taking Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage. They have demanded a $7 million ransom for the British couple's release, but the government has refused to pay as a matter of long-standing policy. Two vessels were attacked the day after the Chandlers set sail. One of them -- a cargo ship -- was successfully boarded and seized off the Seychelles, while the other fought off its attackers near the Kenyan coast. Pirates are still holding a Spanish fishing boat, the Alakrana, which they seized on October 2 off Somalia's coast. Days later, they transferred three of the fishing boat's 36 crew members to land. Two pirate suspects had left the Alakrana in a small vessel heading toward land, authorities said, and the Spanish military swooped in to stop them on the high seas. They were later brought to Madrid, where a judge has charged them with piracy and kidnapping. The pirates holding the crew have demanded Spain release the two suspects. Spain is part of the European Union task force against piracy in the Indian Ocean off Somalia. The Spanish parliament last January agreed to increase Spain's presence with up to 395 troops and assets, including a frigate and aircraft. CNN's Al Goodman contributed to this report .","highlights":"22 crew aboard Greek-owned bulk carrier MV Filitsa .\nShip changed directions, now heading north European Union Naval Force says .\nMore than 100 pirate attacks off East Africa this year .","id":"39fc21ab92ed93fcadd20da0df209ca22bfbe1fa"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Snow and ice dealt a major blow to U.S. air travel Thursday, while much of the nation shivered from record low temperatures. At least 400 flights at Chicago, Illinois', O'Hare International Airport were canceled. Arriving flights were being delayed an average of 45 minutes and outgoing flights about 30 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Chicago's Midway Airport and Newark International Airport in New Jersey also reported delays. Those bottlenecks were affecting flights at many other international airports. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service was keeping an eye on a dangerous mix of ice and snow expected in the Southeast, where temperatures have dipped between 10 to 35 degrees below normal for the past two weeks, said CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines offered to issue winter weather travel waivers to Delta and Northwest passengers on flights to, from or through five states. Travelers can change their schedule without fees until Saturday if their routes include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi or Tennessee. The arctic blast that began last weekend has been blamed for at least seven deaths across the nation. Share your photos, video of winter weather . Record-breaking lows were forecast for two-thirds of the country, for most areas east of the Rockies. For some regions, even lower temperatures are on tap through the weekend, forecasters said. \"But the brunt of the cold air will ride down the Mississippi River,\" said CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, reporting from Memphis, Tennessee. Marciano said temperatures have been the lowest there in more than a decade. \"You have people not used to this weather, and homes are not built for this weather. Yesterday alone, the city [Memphis] went around to turn on the heat for homes when people have not been able to pay [their utility bills].\" Alabama issued a warning to drivers Thursday night, urging them to stay off icy roads as driving conditions were \"becoming dangerous\" with numerous accidents reported. Trooper Curtis Summerville with the Alabama State Patrol said the biggest problem on the roads was black ice on overpasses and bridges. But, he said football was helping keep people at home as University of Alabama fans cheered on their team in the National Championship Game against the University of Texas. A wind chill advisory was in effect until Friday in Arkansas, where readings were expected to drop below zero with winds of over 30 mph. A dusting of snow in Atlanta on Thursday night left roads slick after two weeks of below normal temperatures. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers noted that it was warmer in Fairbanks, Alaska, than it was in Atlanta on Thursday morning, calling the cold front sweeping the nation one that \"we probably haven't seen for 15 years.\" 29-car pileup near Atlanta airport . In the Deep South, Florida was under a state of emergency because of the threat to the state's lucrative citrus and vegetable industries. Gov. Charlie Crist issued an order Tuesday aimed at helping farmers salvage what they can by lifting weight limits on trucks so already-harvested crops can more easily reach markets. Also suffering in the cold: sea turtles. Florida Fish & Wildlife officers have rescued 120 sea turtles after water temperatures in the 40s shocked their tropically inclined systems, according to CNN affiliate WPBF. \"Their bodies are shutting down because they're too cold,\" Karrie Minch of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge told WPBF. \"If we don't rescue them, they'll end up expiring.\" Elsewhere Thursday, the high in Bismarck, North Dakota, was around 11 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of minus 35. Forecasters said the wind chill could dip to 52 degrees below zero overnight. Snowfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches were forecast Thursday for the upper Plains to the Northeast and as far south as Kentucky and Tennessee. Up to 7 inches fell in parts of Illinois. School districts in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, called off classes Thursday and city governments reported burning through their entire snow removal budgets with a full two months of winter left. Jeras said the long stretch of cold weather in the South is \"extremely unusual.\" Dallas, Texas, where it was 24 on Thursday, has been experiencing the longest stretch of cold weather in more than a decade, she said. The Southeast is expected to see lower temperatures by Saturday. CNN's Jim Kavanagh, Craig Johnson and Ed Payne contributed to this report.","highlights":"About 400 flights at Chicago O'Hare International Airport canceled .\nExpected high in Bismarck, North Dakota, minus 11, wind chill as low as minus 35 .\nAt least 7 deaths attributed to deep freeze, which is reaching record lows in some areas .\nIn Memphis, Tennessee, city officials turn on heat for those who can't pay utility bills .","id":"dc9dfc4a0dd29ec36f02d1a78ce421d041063012"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.N. Council for Human Rights began debate Thursday over whether to adopt the recommendations of a controversial U.N. report examining the three-week winter war between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza. An Israeli soldier sits on a tank on the Israel-Gaza border just before fighting began in December 2008. The report, based on a fact-finding mission led by former South African jurist Richard Goldstone, was released last month and concluded that Israel and Hamas had both committed \"actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity.\" Speaking at the start of the meeting, Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno Yaar blasted the United Nations for even holding the special session. Yaar said it \"had nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with Palestinian politics.\" He said adoption of the \"biased\" recommendations of the Goldstone report, which calls for further action by the General Assembly and Security Council if both sides do not conduct credible investigations, would constitute a \"reward for terror\" that \"will set back hopes for peace in the region.\" Previously, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Palestinian Authority that pushing action on the Goldstone report would deal \"a mortal blow\" to the peace process. The council received the report September 29 but took no action, after a request by the Palestinian Authority to defer discussion for six months. The Palestinian Authority government of Mahmoud Abbas came under withering domestic criticism for the move and was accused of succumbing to Israeli and American pressure to drop the issue. Abbas reversed course Sunday and in a televised address told Palestinians that he was seeking immediate debate within the Human Rights Council and vowed to work \"to punish everyone who was responsible for the hideous crimes committed against our children, our men and women -- especially in our dear Gaza.\" Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, said Israel had rebuffed the Palestinian Authority's conciliatory move to defer debate on the report and instead had answered \"with even more grave violations of the rights of Palestinians\" in the form of restrictions of movement and housing demolitions in East Jerusalem. The 47-member Human Rights Council is expected to vote on the resolution on Friday. The draft resolution goes beyond the Gaza conflict. It \"strongly condemns\" measures taken by Israel limiting Palestinians' access to their properties and holy sites \"on the basis of national origin, religion, sex, age or any other discriminatory ground.\" It further condemns \"Israeli violations of human rights in Occupied East Jerusalem, particularly the confiscation of lands and properties, the demolishing of houses and private properties, the construction and expansion of settlements, the continuous construction of the separation wall, changing the demographic and geographic character of East Jerusalem, the restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Palestinian citizens of East Jerusalem, as well as the continuous digging and excavation works in and around Al-Aqsa mosque and its vicinity.\" There is an ongoing dispute about the number of people killed in the three-week military offensive that Israel called Operation Cast Lead, which began December 27 and ended January 18. The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights put the death toll at 1,419 and said 1,167 of those were non-combatants. The Israeli military released its own figures earlier this year, saying that 1,166 people were killed, 60 percent of whom were \"terror operatives.\"","highlights":"Report says both Israel and Hamas took \"actions amounting to war crimes\"\nFact-finding mission looked at the three-week war last winter in Gaza .\nReport calls for further action by U.N. unless both sides conduct investigations .\nIsrael blasts the report; Palestinians call for immediate U.N. debate .","id":"2dc19898b3efbd088bc63252e01557fa535b14df"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A suspect has been arrested in the slaying of a 19-year-old Puerto Rican man found Friday decapitated, dismembered and partially burned, police said Tuesday. Members of the U.S. gay community are asking authorities to investigate whether the slaying was a hate crime because the victim, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, was gay, said Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. \"The brutality of the slaying and the fact that he was openly gay leads us to believe it was very possibly a hate crime,\" Serrano said. Authorities are investigating whether the killing involved sex, Guayama police Commander Hector Agosto Rodriguez told CNN affiliate WLII TV. Guayama prosecutor Jose Bermudez identified the suspect as Juan A. Martinez, 26. Police had earlier described him as a 27-year-old man from the interior Puerto Rican town of Cayey. Martinez was scheduled to attend a court hearing Tuesday night at which charges would be lodged, said Luis Bernier, a spokesman for the Guayama police district, which has jurisdiction in the case. The hearing was postponed several times throughout the day. Officials were waiting for a prosecutor from a nearby district, causing the delay, Bernier said. The FBI was not directly involved in the investigation Monday, said FBI Agent Harry Rodriguez of the San Juan office. \"The FBI is monitoring this investigation by police in Puerto Rico,\" Rodriguez said. \"Any assistance that the police requests or requires, we would be more than happy to provide.\" Puerto Rican authorities may ask for help with forensics or other advanced investigative tools the FBI could provide, Rodriguez said. The U.S. attorney's office, in consultation with local officials and other agencies, would determine if the slaying was a hate crime, which is a federal offense. \"It's at a very preliminary stage,\" said Lymarie Llovet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, which means federal agencies have jurisdiction. \"There's the potential for a federal investigation,\" Rodriguez said. The suspect was arrested Monday around 11:30 p.m. AST (10:30 p.m. ET) at his home in the Mogote de Cayey neighborhood, said Wilson Porrata Mariani, another spokesman for the Guayama police district. Police impounded two cars and also are investigating a home in another neighborhood, Huertas del Barrio Beatriz de Cidra. Lopez Mercado's body was found on Puerto Rico Road 184 in another part of town, Barrio Guavate de Cayey, police said. The slaying has reverberated throughout the gay and lesbian community in the United States, where supporters started a Facebook page called \"Justice for Jorge Steven Lopez -- End Hate Crimes.\" The group demands an investigation by Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno and prosecution of the slaying under the Federal Hate Crimes Law. The law was enacted in 1969 to guard the rights of U.S. citizens engaged in any of six protected activities, such as voting, going to school, applying for a job or attending a public venue. Last month, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends federal protection against illegal acts motivated by a person's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Gay activist Serrano said he does not believe anti-gay sentiment is any stronger in Puerto Rico's Latin culture than anywhere else. \"That's a long-debunked myth, that our culture is more homophobic,\" Serrano said. Instead, he attributed any ill will toward gays to \"hate rhetoric\" by some religious and political leaders. One politician, he said, recently referred to gays as \"twisted and mentally ill.\" \"That's the kind of rhetoric that incites violence against gays,\" Serrano said. Equality Forum, an international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights organization, asked for a federal investigation. \"Equality Forum calls on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to have the FBI investigate,\" said former federal prosecutor Malcolm Lazin, the group's executive director. \"The Matthew Shepard Amendment empowers and requires the federal government to prosecute this horrific murder.\" Serrano said Lopez Mercado was a \"very, very dear friend\" he had met through a mutual acquaintance. \"Jorge was a person who you only needed one minute to fall in love with,\" Serrano said. Lopez Mercado often volunteered for gay causes, Serrano said. The teen's family is coping, considering the circumstances. \"It has been horrible, but they are very grateful that it has come to a quick resolution,\" Serrano said.","highlights":"NEW: Activist attributes ill will toward gays to some religious, political leaders' \"hate rhetoric\"\nPuerto Rican gay community wants police to see if slaying was a hate crime .\nFBI is monitoring investigation and is prepared to offer help, agent says .\nSuspect, 27, was to attend Tuesday court hearing, which was postponed several times .","id":"e125ec74910bf9979f938c46b51ff48eb4453b35"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Tyrese Gibson is far from the first singer to make the transition from music to movies. However, the \"Transformers\" star is blazing a whole new trail with his latest crossover venture. Tyrese Gibson voices \"Mayhem,\" a hero described as the \"embodiment of raw justice and vengeance.\" The actor\/singer\/model has partnered with Apple to develop his own comic book series called \"Mayhem,\" and he's doing it in a very nontraditional way -- digitally. \"There was an experience that I felt was pretty limiting as far as the comic book experience itself on paper,\" says Gibson, who stresses that he did not grow up reading comic books and is not a comic book veteran. \"[So] I set up this technology with my team and this is the first-ever digital comic book [on iTunes] in the history of comic books.\" The third issue of \"Mayhem,\" which is downloadable from iTunes, is the first to go digital. It features an interactive version of a comic book with sound effects, page turns and even voiceover. Gibson himself voices the title character, a masked, dagger-hurling hero described as the \"embodiment of raw justice and vengeance.\" Gibson's new hobby is another example of Hollywood's love affair with comic books. Just last month, Walt Disney Studios acquired Marvel Entertainment -- and all 5,000 of the comic book company's characters -- for $4 billion in cash and stock. With the success of action films based on comic book notables, including \"Batman,\" \"Iron Man\" and \"Wolverine,\" it's not a stretch to think that Gibson might be strapping on the \"Mayhem\" costume for a summer blockbuster in the future. But for now, Gibson is focused on the early stages of his new venture. Although he would not provide details on sales figures, he did say that worldwide sales of \"Mayhem\" would \"knock your socks off.\" The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: What turned you on to comic books? Tyrese Gibson: I went out to Comic-Con about a year or so ago to promote the film \"Death Race.\" When I was out there, I really got to know some of the fans and I was just asking questions like, \"Look at you, you've got a full on Superman costume on or Batman costume,\" and they were just like, \"I just love comic books.\" It was the first time I was ever exposed to that much selfless passion, to the point to where you don't care how silly you may look -- you don't even consider it silly. ... That really did something for me, because I'm motivated by passion. I thought ... I want to figure a way to be a part of this world, and that's when \"Mayhem\" was born.\" CNN: Where did the story of \"Mayhem\" come from? Gibson: Me and my partner Mike Lee and Will Wilson all got together, we started brainstorming about different concepts and different directions we could send this character in and we came up with something pretty unique. It's an ongoing series and so as soon as you think you've got it figured out, there's a cliffhanger that makes you want to read the second issue and the third issue. CNN: You're a newcomer to this genre. What's been the feedback from the comic book community? Gibson: In everything you do, there's gonna be cynics and those folks questioning what your motivation is behind getting into anything. I dealt with it when I went from one career move to the next: \"Man, stick to singing; stick to acting.\" I dealt with a lot of that from certain folks in the comic book world. ... They wrote these long e-mails and [started] on a smear campaign. I came into this whole thing very innocent. I discovered my love for comic books and I want as many people as possible to experience my comic book. There's this digital revolution that's out there but the comic book world has not embraced this digital revolution on a level that it should be embraced on. And so I reached out to my contacts and I set up a meeting ... and this is my baby. CNN: Artist Jim Lee is very big in the comic book world. How did he get involved in this project? Gibson: I found Jim Lee on Twitter ... and we just kind of took it from there. CNN: What did you learn from him? Gibson: So much, so much. He basically made me aware of all of the big players in the comic world like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. He just painted this picture about who's who in the comic book world and he schooled me on that level. CNN: A lot of comic book characters become heroes on the big screen. Does \"Mayhem\" have a future in film? Gibson: Right now, there is no conversation on any level about \"Mayhem\" becoming a film. We've been approached a few times but my mind state is this: You can't expect to sell out the Staples Center until you sell a bunch of records. So we're really trying to establish the fan base for \"Mayhem\" before we try to turn it into film. There's still plenty of time for that.","highlights":"Tyrese Gibson, who starred in \"Transformers,\" has created comic book superhero .\nGibson's character is called Mayhem, \"embodiment of raw justice and vengeance\"\nGibson has no comic book background; he was impressed by passion of devotees .\nComic book is available digitally on iTunes as an LP .","id":"882f655052ced42c6f1d3077c74a6d6515752e61"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia is planning a \"comprehensive rearmament\" of its military, President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday. A Russian T-90 tank rolls through Red Square during 2008's Victory Day parade. The announcement comes amid concerns in Moscow over the performance of its forces during last year's invasion of Georgia, an expert on the Russian military told CNN. Christopher Langton, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the campaign against the former Soviet republic had revealed significant weaknesses within Russia's armed forces. \"The Georgia thing was a wake-up call on a number of fronts,\" said Langton, a former British military and defense attache in Russia. \"Things they expected to perform well didn't -- communications, the air force. It took five days, which is quite a long time, to suppress another country's air defenses, quite a small country's.\" Medvedev said the \"most important task is to re-equip the [Russian] Armed Forces with newest weapons system,\" in televised remarks to defense ministry officials. He said the process had already begun and would accelerate through 2011. Medvedev insisted that falling prices for oil and gas -- which contribute significantly to Moscow's budget -- would not force him to scale back on plans to modernize the military. The defense budget has \"virtually remained the same as was planned,\" Medvedev said, \"despite our current financial problems.\" The country will aim for 70 percent of its weaponry to be \"modern\" by 2020, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said, according to RIA-Novosti, the state-run news agency. Russia invaded Georgia, to its south, in August of last year -- the first time Russian military forces had engaged in an offensive outside their borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The conflict strengthened the hand of Medvedev, who favors reform, against generals who oppose it, Langton, the military analyst, told CNN. \"It gave Medvedev a chance to reply to opponents in Ministry of Defense: 'We need much more mobile forces, better weaponry,'\" Langton said. But Langton pointed out that Russia has been talking about modernizing its army almost since the end of the Cold War nearly two decades ago. Former President Boris Yeltsin announced in the early 1990s that Russia would replace its conscript army with a professional force by 2010, Langton said -- a target it has come nowhere close to meeting. Modernization foundered on Russia's need to bring in money by exporting arms, rather than using the products of its military-industrial complex itself; opposition from entrenched interests in the Ministry of Defense, which opposed downsizing; and in the face of a national security strategy that focused on conflicts like the two Chechen wars. Former President Vladimir Putin staked his popularity in the late 1990s on winning the second war with the restive Chechnya, Langton observed. Medvedev, too, wants to promote pride in the country's military, the analyst said, but has a \"more nuanced approach\" than his predecessor, who remains influential as prime minister. Langton said Medvedev believes Russian forces should be capable of operating alongside Western forces. But, he added, \"Some of the generals don't agree with him.\"","highlights":"Russia planning \"comprehensive rearmament\" of its military, Moscow announces .\nAnalyst: Last year's invasion of Georgia revealed Russian military weaknesses .\n\"Large-scale rearmament\" to begin in 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev says .\nRussia aiming for 70 percent of its weaponry to be \"modern\" by 2020 .","id":"86adf9d9437db54b725934d30fea1d9997fd2138"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 7-year-old boy from El Paso, Texas, was gunned down across the border in the violent city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office told CNN Tuesday. Raul Xazziel Ramirez had been visiting his father in Juarez on Friday evening when unknown gunmen fired on their vehicle at a roundabout, spokesman Arturo Sandoval said. At least 18 rounds from a 9 mm weapon were shot at the white 2000 Geo Tracker driven by Ramirez's dad, Sandoval said. The father, Raul Ramirez Alvarado, 35, died in the driver's seat. The younger Raul escaped from the vehicle, but was apparently shot in the back, Sandoval said. The boy's body fell forward in front of the vehicle. The shooting happened just before 8 p.m. Friday. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday, the spokesman said. Raul Xazziel Ramirez was a third-grader at Glen Cove Elementary School in El Paso, Ysleta Independent School District spokeswoman Patricia Ayala told CNN. \"It's a senseless tragedy that we're trying to come to terms with,\" she said. According to El Paso County records, Raul was just three weeks shy of his eighth birthday when he was killed. The boy lived with his aunt and uncle in El Paso, Ayala said. It was the first semester that Raul was registered with the district. Raul's classmates were spared the details of his death, but the school was nonetheless shocked at the boy's passing. Grief counselors were made available for both students and teachers, Ayala said. More than 2,200 killings have been recorded this year in Ciudad Juarez, out of a population of approximately 1.5 million people. A bloody turf war between warring drug cartels that started last year has made the city one of the most violent in the world. According to statistics from local prosecutors, Ciudad Juarez records about 10 murders a day. The bloodiest month this year has been September, with 476 killings reported. The violence has not spilled over significantly across the border to El Paso, but as Friday's shooting showed, the pain of one of the sister cities is shared by the other. Because of the ongoing investigation, Sandoval declined to say whether drug cartel activity was suspected in the killings of Raul and his father, but added that at least 90 percent of the city's homicides are drug-related. Raul was not the youngest victim slain this year. In early 2009, a 3-year-old girl was killed together with her father inside a vehicle that was targeted, Sandoval said.","highlights":"NEW: Raul Xazziel Ramirez was just three weeks shy of his eighth birthday, records show .\nRamirez was killed Friday along with his father in Ciudad Juarez.\nThe boy managed to escape the vehicle but was shot in the back, police say .\nMore than 2,200 slain this year in Juarez; Ramirez was not the youngest .","id":"cdea01734c85668ca98441bd0ad5d78325d77107"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As thousands gathered Sunday in Washington for a march and rally focused on gay rights issues, lawmakers showed that some of the demonstrators' key goals face major obstacles ahead. President Obama speaks to a major gay-rights group Saturday night in Washington. Even with President Obama pushing Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act -- a stance he highlighted to one of the nation's leading gay-rights groups Saturday night, to huge applause -- members of his own party told CNN they're not in lockstep. \"I've said in the past I don't think that's the way to go,\" Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, told CNN's John King. He added, \"We can move forward on a lot of measures, but I'm not sure there's the support yet for that.\" Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, noted that her state is one of many that has a law prohibiting same-sex marriage. \"So I think, for a number of us, that becomes a challenge,\" she said. Stabenow would not say whether she would vote to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. The law, signed by President Clinton in 1996, defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, and ensures that states do not have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Clinton has since changed his mind, and said he no longer opposes same-sex marriage. Obama does not support same-sex marriage and has said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He does, however, support civil unions for same-sex couples that offer similar rights and protections. The two Democratic senators on Sunday expressed support for the president's stances on several other key issues regarding gay rights, including legislation expanding the definition of hate crimes to include attacks based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill passed the House last week. Both also expressed support for the president's efforts to end the military's \"Don't ask, don't tell\" policy. On NBC's \"Meet the Press,\" Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, said he thinks the president will succeed on that front. \"I think he will and he can, but it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible,\" Levin said. \"Other militaries in the West -- the British and other Western armies -- have ended this discriminatory policy. We can do it successfully, but it ought to be done with thoughtfulness, with care and with a buy-in from the military.\" Retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, \"Gays can serve in the military; they just can't do so openly. And they do, and there are lots of them, and we're the beneficiary of all that.\" Myers did not weigh in on whether the change should happen, but said he agreed with Levin that the \"senior military leadership needs to be part of this, the Pentagon needs to be part of this.\" But retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey disagreed. \"There's no question that it's time to change the policy. The key to it isn't buy-in from the military; it's for Congress to change the law. They ought to do so, and I'm confident that the military will move ahead on it,\" he said. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, rejected McCaffrey's suggestion. \"It's my belief that if you don't have buy-in from the military, that's a disservice to the people in the military. They should be included in this. I'm open-minded to what the military may suggest, but I can tell you I'm not going to make policy based on a campaign rally,\" Graham told NBC. \"If this policy about 'Don't ask, don't tell' changes, it should be done based not on politics, but on reason.\" In his speech Saturday night to the Human Rights Campaign -- the nation's largest gay rights group -- Obama praised the gay community for making strides in equal rights and pledged to deliver on major campaign promises that critics say he's left on the back burner. \"For nearly 30 years, you've advocated for those without a voice,\" Obama said. \"Despite the progress we've made, there are still laws to change and hearts to open.\"","highlights":"Some Democrats cautious about Obama's pledge to end Defense of Marriage Act .\nSome say they think he'll succeed in ending military's \"Don't ask, don't tell\" policy .\nOthers debate whether military \"buy-in\" is necessary to end that policy .\nThousands of gay and lesbian rights supporters hold rally in Washington on Sunday .","id":"8d1c5dbd3ac10034b32990b8cfc5dd50e895558b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Imagine taking the best characters and elements of your favorite fictional universe and weaving them into a new story that captures the imagination of fans. In the dark, cinematic \"Batman: Arkham Asylum,\" Batman must escape from a spooky psychiatric hospital. That's what Emmy-winning TV writer Paul Dini did in creating \"Batman: Arkham Asylum,\" a video game coming out in late August. Buzz is building online for the dark, cinematic game, which reimagines a brooding Batman and his most notorious nemesis, the Joker, for an experience that's reminiscent of \"The Dark Knight\" blockbuster movie. You want mayhem, insanity and brutality? Get ready for all of it. \"This is the Batman movie I would have liked to have written,\" said Dini, who was scheduled to discuss the game during a panel Saturday at Comic-Con International, the huge celebration of comic-book culture in San Diego, California. \"This is him with all the good stuff.\" The atmospheric game pits Batman against Joker in a battle of wits and brawn after the Clown Prince of Crime traps the Caped Crusader inside Arkham Asylum, Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. After the trap is sprung, the Joker releases the inmates, including some of Batman's most ferocious enemies: Bane, Harley Quinn, Mr. Zsasz, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc. Batman has appeared in video games since 1986, but none as ambitious or complex as \"Arkham Asylum,\" which draws much of its inspiration from the character's comic mythology. The game will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. It's being developed by Rocksteady Studios and will be published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics. (Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment is a division of Time Warner, which owns CNN.) As the lead writer for the game, Dini said he was given a clean slate to work from. Because there was no movie, graphic novel or comic tie-in to follow, he was able to create an original story. Dini's familiarity with the main character may help win the hearts and wallets of gamers. Winner of five Emmy awards, Dini has worked on Batman comic books and written episodes of \"Batman: The Animated Series\" and later, \"Batman Beyond.\" Dini, who has also written for the ABC-TV hit \"Lost,\" said he was influenced by Batman lore from character creator Bob Kane, the Batman comics of the 1960s and the Dark Knight graphic novels of Frank Miller. In creating his story's look and tone, Dini said he chose his favorite elements from different incarnations of Batman. For example, the game emphasizes Batman's intellect and use of technology by solving puzzles with the help of such tools as X-ray scanning and a pheromone tracker. \"Detective work is a crucial game element,\" Dini said. \"There are a lot of forensics aspects to the story.\" If you're expecting a Heath Ledger-like Joker in \"Batman: Arkham Asylum,\" you may be disappointed. With his less-smudgy makeup, spiky green hair and maniacal cackle, Dini's creation looks and acts more like earlier versions of the iconic villain. Kevin Conroy voices Batman in the game, while the Joker is voiced by Mark Hamill, known to millions as Luke Skywalker in the \"Star Wars\" movies. Conroy and Hamill were scheduled to join Dini at Comic-Con this weekend. Both actors also did the voices in \"Batman: The Animated Series,\" making the game feel very familiar. Sterling McGarvey, a senior editor for G4TV, said the game's developers were smart to rely heavily on the animated TV series. \"An entire generation of Batman fans grew up with the animated Batman,\" he said. \"It is a beloved, storied franchise with very few good games.\" The Internet is full of videos showing glimpses of the game, including movie-like trailers, demo gameplay, characters and layouts of Arkham Asylum. Among Batman fans and gaming reviewers, early reviews have been strong. Brian Crecente, editor-in-chief of Kotaku.com, said he likes the way the developers combined elements to create the ultimate Batman from the fans' perspective. \"Part dark, broody Batman, part serious crime fighter, but also part detective,\" Crecente said. \"Batman has this huge universe. Why not cherry-pick the best stuff and put it in the game?\" A key character in the game is Arkham Asylum itself, with its spooky corridors and Gothic architecture. Dini loves its \"mix of dark, creepy, steam punk and Victorian\" and calls it the perfect location in Gotham City for the gameplay. \"It is a totally over the top mansion with gargoyles on the inside,\" added Crecente. \"Very cool.\" Dini heaped praise on how the developers made his story come to life. He hopes fans who know Batman will love how familiar it feels, while gamers will love the action. \"Fans of the canon will be happy,\" McGarvey agreed. \"But the game was designed more for the Batman fan than a hardcore gamer.\" Crecente describes the game's combat as fluid and quick, with a martial arts feel. Acting as Batman, players will be able to hide in the shadows and stealthily take out their enemies. All the gaming mechanics in the world won't save Batman unless fans get drawn into the story. Remember Lego Batman? But Dini seems confident that gamers will respond to his vision. \"Nobody loves a good Batman story more than I do,\" he said.","highlights":"Online buzz is strong for upcoming \"Batman: Arkham Asylum\" video game .\nLead writer Paul Dini and others discuss the game at Comic-Con this weekend .\nThe game reunites a brooding Batman and his most notorious nemesis, the Joker .\nThere's no movie or comic tie-in to follow, so Dini could create an original story .","id":"55e36521ef1cd28dcfe4119bdebc7ced67ebe0f3"} -{"article":"Alexandria, Virginia (CNN) -- Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on 11 counts of corruption. Jefferson was also ordered to forfeit more than $470,000 after his conviction for using his office to solicit bribes. He will also have to pay $1,100 in special assessments. The case against the former nine-term Louisiana Democrat included allegations of influence-peddling and the discovery of $90,000 in cash in his freezer. Judge T.S. Ellis will determine at a hearing next Wednesday whether Jefferson will remain free pending appeal. Until then, he is free. \"The court's sentence today reaffirms the principle that all people -- no matter what their title or position -- are equal before the law,\" said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman in a statement. \"In a stunning betrayal of the public's trust, former Congressman Jefferson repeatedly used his public office for private gain. The lengthy prison sentence imposed on Mr. Jefferson today is a stark reminder to all public officials that the consequences of accepting bribes can and will be severe.\" Jefferson's family was in the courtroom when District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. He had faced up to 150 years in prison. \"This sentence should be a clear signal that our society will not tolerate bribery,\" U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in a written statement. \"It's not just another cost of doing business in government. \"Mr. Jefferson's repeated attempts to sell his office caused significant damage to the public's trust in our elected leaders. This sentence will begin to repair that damage and to restore that trust. \"Mr. Jefferson is well-known for the $90,000 found in his freezer. It is our hope that he will now be well-known for the tough sentence handed down today, showing that no one -- including our elected officials -- are above the law.\" Jefferson, of New Orleans, still faces the forfeiture of nearly $500,000 -- money a jury said is linked to criminal activity for which he has been convicted. On August 5, a jury found Jefferson guilty on four bribery counts, three counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering. He was acquitted on five other counts, including wire fraud and obstruction of justice. He had remained free prior to Friday's sentencing. Jefferson was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 4, 2007, about two years after federal agents said they found the money in his freezer. Authorities said the cash was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on video. The trial was delayed while it was resolved whether an FBI search of Jefferson's congressional office was constitutional. Defense attorney Robert Trout had asked the judge for leniency, citing Jefferson's personal history of humble beginnings and long-standing public service. Prosecutors, in turn, filed a response saying Jefferson deserved no preferential treatment since he \"still chose to cheat, steal and lie.\" \"Congressman Jefferson has still not accepted responsibility for his own criminal conduct,\" prosecutors wrote. He \"still rationalizes his own unethical, illegal and immoral conduct.\" CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Jefferson remains free at least until Wednesday hearing .\nEx-Rep. William Jefferson gets 13 years in prison, 3 years' supervised release .\nThe former Louisiana Democratic congressman faced up to a 150-year sentence .\nIn August, Jefferson found guilty of bribery, money laundering, wire fraud, racketeering .","id":"fe9caf5f15f2b13fa402978b36e548635114168c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A newborn infant, who was abducted Tuesday from his home in Tennessee, has been found alive in Alabama, according to authorities. Yair Anthony Carillo is reported to be in good health since being recovered. Yair Anthony Carillo was found Friday night in a home in Ardmore after an intensive three-day search, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Tammy Renee Silas, 39, was taken into custody for allegedly stabbing Maria Gurrolla at her Nashville home and then stealing the baby just four days after he was born. Gurrolla told police a woman posing as an immigration worker attacked her and took Carillo. A break in the case came when investigators were able to track down a Kia Spectra that was photographed in a Wal-Mart parking lot shortly before the attack. Authorities determined that Silas rented the vehicle from the Nashville airport, Gwyn said. My Harrison, of the FBI's Memphis office, praised all of the investigators who worked on the case. \"We reunited a family,\" she said. \"It doesn't always turn out this way.\" There is no word on a possible motive or what charges Silas will face. Carillo, who is reported in good health, will be reunited with his family after a routine medical examination, Harrison said.","highlights":"Yair Anthony Carillo found safe after being abducted days after birth, authorities say .\nChild's mother says woman posing as immigration worker stabbed her, took boy .\nTammy Renee Silas taken into custody; no word on possible motive .","id":"08e1e07152fba05aa789a5f36664d6531ffb284b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal have confirmed that striker Robin van Persie will be out of action for \"approximately six weeks\" after suffering ankle ligament damage during the Netherlands' international friendly against Italy on Saturday. Initially it had been feared the Dutch forward -- who has scored eight goals in 15 games in all competitions this season and emerged as one of the Gunners' key figures -- could be set for a much-longer spell on the sidelines. Van Persie, 26, will return to London later this week to continue his rehabilitation but is set to miss key clashes with Premier League leaders Chelsea at the end of the month, the trip to Liverpool on December 13 as well as the rest of the hectic Christmas schedule. An official Arsenal club statement read: \"Following the care given to van Persie by the Dutch FA, he will travel back to London this week and continue his treatment with the Arsenal medical team. \"Van Persie will be out of action for approximately six weeks.\" Although van Persie could be back for what is likely to be a season-defining few weeks when Arsenal host Manchester United on January 31 before games against Chelsea and then Liverpool, the loss of the player could not have come at a worse time for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner (groin) and England forward Theo Walcott (knee) are already out until early December, so Croatian international Eduardo da Silva is likely to take van Persie's place in the Gunners side. Van Persie suffered the injury to his right leg in the 10th minute of Saturday's goalless draw against Italy in Pescara. He was carried off on a stretcher following a heavy challenge from Azzurri defender Giorgio Chiellini and tests showed partially torn ligaments in his right ankle. Meanwhile, France defender Eric Abidal will miss the second leg of the World Cup playoff against the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday night due to a thigh injury. The Barcelona full-back played the full 90 minutes of Saturday's 1-0 win in Dublin but sustained the problem in his left leg and will not be available for the return at the Stade de France. Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan has also been ruled out, as he has not yet recovered from a hamstring injury.","highlights":"Arsenal reveal that striker Robin van Persie will be out of actionfor six weeks .\nThe Dutchman suffered ankle ligament damage against Italy at the weekend .\nCroatian striker Eduardo da Silva is expected to replace van Persie in the Arsenal line-up .","id":"79cb11709ab82460f0fa90c9f1d3c9113d38d55a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ten-man Ghana overcame Brazil 4-3 on penalties in the Under-20 World Cup final in Cairo to become the first African side to win the tournament. Daniel Addo (left) is sent off but Ghana still became the first African side to win the U-20 World Cup. Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu scored the winning penalty after Brazil's Maicon had fired over the bar when a successful spot-kick would have handed Brazil the title for a record fifth time. In a match of few chances, Ghana, who are also African champions, defied the odds to take the trophy out of Europe and South America for the first time ever after Daniel Addo was sent off in the 37th minute for a late tackle on Alex Teixeira. Goalkeeper Daniel Aygei kept Ghana in the game earlier in extra-time with a point-blank save from Maicon, who had been teed-up 10 yards out by Alex Teixeira's cut-back. Douglas Costa twice went close in the additional 30 minutes, while Aygei was also called into action to save from Wellington Junior. Meanwhile, penalties were also needed to separate Hungary and Costa Rica in the third place playoff earlier in the day, but it was the European nation who eventually triumphed after the match ended 1-1 in 90 minutes. Despite being outplayed for the majority of the game, Costa Rica went ahead with nine minutes remaining when Marcos Urena was allowed to run at the Hungarian defence before cutting inside and firing a right-footed shot which left goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi with no chance. However, with the match entering injury time, Hungary were awarded a penalty when Jose Mena fouled Krisztian Nemeth in the box. Vladimir Koman made no mistake from the spot to take the match into a shoot-out. Liverpool's Gulacsi was the hero of the hour -- keeping out efforts from Cristian Gamboa, Esteban Luna and Adam Simon while Nemeth and Roland Varga both scored to hand Hungary a 2-0 victory on penalties.","highlights":"Ghana become the first African country in history to win the U-20 World Cup .\nThey beat Brazil 4-3 in a dramatic penalty shoot-out after the match ends 0-0 .\nHungary take third place after defeating Costa Rica also in a penalty shoot-out .","id":"12a7479e8400c475d0ec89927072be1f8a51d2f6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In staging their Fourth of July fireworks show, authorities in Ocean City, Maryland, have faced challenges in recent years from Mother Nature. Fireworks light up the sky over Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the city's 2008 Fourth of July festivities. In 2005, thick fog veiled the celebration. Spectators couldn't see the detailed patterns and colors of the fiery blasts -- they only saw the clouds and haze get brighter. Thunderstorms erupted the next two years, delaying the show in 2006 and then forcing its cancellation in 2007. That year, storms brought winds that were just too strong. \"We start taking a hard look at the direction and speed of the wind when it gets to 15 or more knots [about 17 mph],\" said Ocean City Fire Marshal Sam Villani. \"At 20 knots, we consult the shooters ... to see if our perimeter is safe for the crowds. Twenty-knot [23 mph] sustained winds would probably be our cutoff.\" As millions gather across the United States on Saturday to celebrate America's birthday with fireworks displays, fire officials will be watching weather forecasts and preparing to make sure revelers are as safe as possible. They often start by banning spectators from a safety zone, or perimeter, around the launch site to protect them from drifting embers that can get as hot as 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. For that reason, fireworks launches over harbors, rivers and other bodies of water can often be larger in scale. \"For a venue like New York Harbor, it is common for [launch] barges to be located on the water, well away from land,\" said Guy Colonna, division manager with the National Fire Protection Agency. \"Even if the winds increase, it's possible...[for] the safety of the display not to be compromised.\" Fireworks shows originating on land have stricter standards for the size of the perimeter, depending on wind speed, because spectators are generally closer to the explosives, Colonna said. Strong winds can make safety trickier. According to the Boston Globe, hundreds of people at a 2005 Fourth of July fireworks show in Canton, Massachusetts were accidentally showered with glowing embers when winds shifted about 10 minutes after the event began. High winds can even cancel a fireworks celebration. Rain, however, will not necessarily stop a show, said Philip Butler of Fireworks by Grucci, a Long Island, New York-based fireworks production company that has choreographed shows for presidential inaugurations and the Olympics. Fireworks don't extinguish in the rain, and as long as operators \"keep the powder dry,\" they will explode, Butler said. Moisture can cause them to change colors, though. \"A brilliant blue may appear as a royal blue,\" he said. Weather challenges are nothing new for Grucci. In preparing for a large show in Dubai, the production company once faced 105-degree heat and a sandstorm. \"They told us to simply kneel down and cover our heads with our capes and ride it out,\" Butler said. Ideal conditions for fireworks are calm winds, comfortable temperatures and clear night skies, Butler said. \"When the sky is black and clear, it's like a painter's canvas for us.\" Some commonly asked questions about fireworks: . Do fireworks still work when it snows? Yes. For many New Year's Eve celebrations in cold-weather states, it's often snowing during fireworks shows. Fireworks production companies say the snow acts as a prism, reflecting and shifting the colors. What's the biggest danger that spectators face from fireworks? Statistics show the vast majority of fireworks-related injuries are caused by over-the-counter fireworks instead of burning debris from public fireworks celebrations. The risk of fireworks injury is 2\u00bd times higher for children than for the general population, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. The biggest culprit? Sparklers. The National Fire Protection Agency advises against using your own fireworks. \"Leave it to the professionals.\" For a Fourth of July weather forecast for your area, visit CNN.com\/weather.","highlights":"High winds and rainstorms can pose serious challenges to fireworks shows .\nSevere weather affected fireworks three of past four years in Ocean City, Maryland .\nWinds can cancel a fireworks celebration, although light rain often will not .\nOne fireworks company weathered a sandstorm before a show in Dubai .","id":"5cb2e161b5492ed25cc2fffd3534aa7fb818c4d8"} -{"article":"Orlando, Florida (CNN) -- A former astronaut who was accused of assaulting a romantic rival in the parking lot of the Orlando airport will avoid prison after pleading guilty to lesser charges as part of a plea agreement. Citing Lisa Marie Nowak's lack of a criminal history, Orange County Circuit Judge Marc Lubet sentenced her to a year of probation. She was given credit for the two days she served in the county jail after her arrest. Nowak, 46, must also perform 50 hours of community service and have no contact with the victim in the case, former Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. She must also send Shipman a letter of apology within 10 days, \"a sincere letter of apology, not one of these vanilla things that I see from other defendants,\" Lubet told Nowak. \"It's been almost three years since the events took place that caused this nightmare for Ms. Shipman, and you are 100 percent responsible.\" In addition, Nowak must complete an eight-hour anger management course within her first 30 days of probation, Lubet said. Nowak told the judge she had undergone counseling for 1\u00bd years and the counseling is complete, so the judge said he would not order more. Lubet said he was treating Nowak as any defendant would be treated, saying he doubts any judge would send a defendant to prison on a first offense. Shipman delivered an emotional victim statement before Nowak's sentencing, telling the court she remains convinced Nowak planned to kill her. \"Shortly after I turned 30 years old, Lisa Nowak hunted me down and attacked me in a dark parking lot,\" she said, adding that she is \"still reeling from her vicious attack\" and attempting to piece her life back together. \"The world as I knew it before Lisa Nowak is gone,\" Shipman said. \"Every stranger I see is a potential attacker. Going out in public is exhausting.\" She said she has undergone nearly three years of counseling, but suffers from nightmares, anxiety and health problems such as high blood pressure and chest pains because of the incident. Nowak initially was charged with attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, battery and burglary of a vehicle using a weapon. If convicted, she could have faced a sentence of up to life in prison. Prosecutors accused Nowak of driving nearly 900 miles from Houston, Texas, to Orlando -- wearing NASA diapers to cut down on the number of stops she needed to make -- and donning a disguise before following Shipman from the airport's baggage claim to the parking lot in February 2007. Nowak's attorney, Don Lykkebak, has denied that she wore the diapers. Nowak has said she went to the airport to talk to Shipman, who had begun dating Nowak's former love interest, Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein. But Shipman, in her comments Tuesday, called that claim \"at best, ridiculous,\" saying that Nowak, whom she did not know, had ample opportunity to talk to her, as she \"stealthily followed me for hours.\" \"I'm a very friendly person, your honor,\" Shipman said, adding that she would have welcomed Nowak's company \"over some hot chocolate, while I was waiting for my suitcase to arrive.\" She recounted the incident and her terror as she realized Nowak was following her in the dark parking lot, as she could hear the swishing of Nowak's pants as she walked. She said she sprinted to her car, and Nowak attempted to open the car door and beat on her window, then spun a tale of being a helpless traveler who was afraid of being in a dark parking lot. Shipman said she cracked her window, and Nowak sprayed her in the face with pepper spray. \"She blasted me with what felt like acid,\" Shipman said. \"... I stomped on the gas and wondered if there was a gun pointed at my head.\" At a hearing in November 2007, Orlando Police Detective William Becton testified that in a search of Nowak's car, he found maps showing how to reach the airport and its layout, a buck knife and papers, including a letter Nowak appeared to have written to Oefelein's mother. He testified he found used and clean diapers in the car. Police previously had said they also found a BB gun, a steel mallet, a 4-inch knife and rubber tubing in the vehicle. Shipman said Tuesday she thought she had escaped a carjacking. \"I had no idea that a highly paid, high-ranking military officer had just attacked me.\" When she found out she had been attacked by a \"sister in arms,\" she said, she was heartbroken. Shipman said the resulting media attention and scrutiny has placed additional stress on her and her family. Before sentencing, Nowak turned to Shipman and apologized. \"I am sincerely sorry for causing fear and misunderstanding and all of the intense public exposure that you have suffered,\" Nowak said. \"I hope very much that we can all move forward from this with privacy and peace.\" Lubet said he accepted her apology as sincere, but in sentencing her he noted that he was certain her conviction would affect her Navy career and retirement. Still, the judge told Nowak, \"you brought this on yourself, and I don't have any sympathy for you in that respect.\" Shipman has left the military and Oefelein has left the astronaut corps, and the two live in Anchorage, Alaska, where they run a company called Adventure Write as freelance writers and photographers. People.com reported in July the two were engaged. Lubet also ordered Nowak to stay away from Oefelein after Shipman alleged in her remarks she found a book with suggestive notes inside that Nowak had sent Oefelein after the incident despite a no-contact order. \"No books, no messages, no poems, nothing,\" Lubet said. \"It's not a problem,\" Nowak responded. CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.","highlights":"Lisa Marie Nowak, a former astronaut, accused of assaulting a romantic rival .\nFlorida judge sentences Nowak to year on probation, community service .\nProsecutors say she drove 900 miles in diapers, wore disguise, followed woman through airport .","id":"e607c86308738751bbc1358e31e743b9c4377d31"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Dry skies greeted Georgia for a second day Wednesday, giving residents a chance to mourn, recover and repair after devastating floods killed nine people earlier this week. Douglas County, Georgia, emergency managers provide water Wednesday to residents without treated water. Water was beginning to recede in many areas, and some roads, including Interstate 285 and Interstate 20, were reopening. Several others remained closed, state authorities said. As of Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of people were still in shelters, with more than 250 people in the Cobb County Civic Center, according to the Red Cross. There are cases where people have lost everything, spokeswoman Lisa Matheson said Tuesday. Before they were evacuated, Cordell Albert and her husband, Christopher, moved their valuables to the second floor of their Powder Springs home, CNN affiliate WGCL reported. \"I feel lost,\" she said, according to the affiliate. \"I feel homeless.\" Watch more about the flooding aftermath and cleanup \u00bb . Gov. Sonny Perdue has declared a state of emergency in 17 flood-stricken counties, and State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine estimated that the flooding has caused an estimated $250 million in losses. Watch where the flooding hit hardest \u00bb . \"Many of the homeowners afflicted by this event don't have flood insurance,\" he said in a written statement. Georgia's flood-related death toll has reached nine, authorities said, with six deaths alone in Douglas County, west of Atlanta. To the north, one person was missing and presumed dead in Chattanooga, Tennessee. See photos of the flooding \u00bb . Perdue spoke to President Obama on Tuesday night about the flooding, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. The president \"expressed his condolences for the loss of life and his concern for the citizens of Georgia amidst the ongoing flooding,\" Shapiro said. Perdue updated Obama on the situation, and the two discussed the response to the crisis, Shapiro added. The president also assured the governor that his request for federal aid would receive prompt attention, the spokesman added. Parts of northwest and south-central Georgia, as well as the metro Atlanta area, were still under flood warnings Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, students from three of metro Atlanta's four largest school districts were returning to classes after flooding caused school closings the day before. Watch what caused such torrential rain \u00bb . But CNN meteorologists said rain was not likely for much of the state Wednesday, although isolated thunderstorms in north Georgia were possible. Georgia may also see rain this weekend, CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said. \"Of course, we're not expecting another foot of rain,\" she said, \"but we could pick up an inch or two.\" iReport.com: Horses pulled to safety from flooded creek . On Tuesday, Perdue pleaded with residents to stay off flooded roads, noting that nearly all the fatalities in the state were drivers and passengers swept away by floodwaters. CNN's Carolina Sanchez, Shawn Nottingham and Samuel Gardner contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Georgia insurance commissioner estimates $250 million in losses .\nPresident, Georgia governor discuss aid; Obama expresses condolences .\nDeath toll from floods: at least nine in Georgia; one person missing in Tennessee .\nAs of Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of people were still in shelters in Georgia .","id":"8a3d652f12aa174bb79c1105db75c187860ab379"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities plan to ask new questions of the family at the center of the balloon drama that captured the world's attention Thursday, as a comment in a CNN interview and other concerns raised speculation that the incident may have been staged. Parents Mayumi and Richard Heene discuss the upheaval in their lives Friday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"We feel it's incumbent on us as an agency to attempt to re-interview them and establish whether this is in fact a hoax or actual event,\" Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden said at a news conference Friday. \"We believe at this time that it's a real event.\" Investigators with expertise in spotting deceptive behavior interviewed the family Thursday and believe they were not lying, Alderden said. His office is being flooded with calls and messages from people insisting it must be, and putting \"a lot of pressure\" on authorities to charge Richard and Mayumi Heene, he said. The sheriff's office said it was conducting background checks on the Heenes. A giant Mylar balloon took off from the backyard of the Heenes' northern Colorado home Thursday. The couple said they were terrified their 6-year-old son Falcon may have been on it. They couldn't find him. In audio from 911 calls released Friday, the parents sounded emotional and desperate. When the balloon finally landed, Falcon was not on board. Later, he came out from hiding in an attic over the home's garage. \"I'm feeling very, very grateful that Falcon is among us,\" Richard Heene told CNN's \"American Morning\" on Friday. \"We went through so many emotions yesterday.\" On CNN's \"Larry King Live\" Thursday night, the Heene parents asked Falcon why he had not come out from hiding when they were calling for him. \"You guys said we did this for the show,\" he said. Watch the boy's remarks \u00bb . The family chases storms and takes videos of some. The Heenes also were featured in March on the ABC program \"Wife Swap.\" After the Hollywood gossip Web site TMZ.com reported that the Heenes had been \"pitching a reality show about the wacky family,\" one of the networks mentioned, TLC, which produces \"Jon and Kate plus 8,\" said \"they approached us months ago, and we passed.\" Two other production companies, Reality Real and RDF, which produces \"Wife Swap,\" did not immediately respond to CNN's queries. They family had a video camera recording as the balloon took off Thursday. Alderden said that was because the family planned an experiment in which the balloon was to rise 20 feet off the ground. Richard Heene said his son was confused when he made the show remark. There were media assembled on the front lawn, asking all sorts of questions, and that's what Falcon was referring to, Heene said Friday morning. Heene, a meteorologist who takes his family along to chase storms, said he was concerned when the balloon took off because \"the project was pretty much down the tubes.\" Then their son Bradford said he thought Falcon was inside, sparking the family's terror -- and the world's response, as people tuned in to live TV coverage of the balloon, which looked like a cross between a mushroom and a flying saucer. Alderden told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday that, based on reports that the parents \"took these children into potentially dangerous situations\" with tornado chases, the experimental balloons and other activities, it would be \"appropriate to involve child protection [services] to at least see what the family situation is and whether the children are in a safe condition.\" Earlier, Alderden told reporters that his department has contacted the child protection officials but asked them not to contact the family until investigators have had a chance to re-interview them. Alderden, at Friday's news conference, said he did not believe Falcon could have been following instructions by going into hiding. \"I just can't see this particular boy being told go sit up there for five hours and be quiet. I just don't see that, as hyperactive as he is,\" the sheriff said. He also called it unlikely that the other two brothers, ages 8 and 10, would have pulled off such a hoax. If it were determined that the incident was a hoax, \"the only thing we have is them making a false report to authorities, which is a Class 3 misdemeanor,\" Alderden said. But, he said, authorities could seek to recoup the money spent. \"If there is criminal conduct, we certainly would seek restitution,\" he said. The balloon landed in a plowed wheat field, and the owner could seek compensation from the family, Alderden added. Asked whether the parents would not have checked the whereabouts of their three children before allowing the device to take off and why the system to tether it was not stronger, Alderden responded, \"You raise some very valid points that we are considering.\" Watch as home video shows the balloon take off \u00bb . Alderden also said his office had contacted an expert at Colorado State University during the incident to make sure that the dimensions of the balloon were adequate to handle a child of Falcon's weight, he said. The sheriff also sought to defend his department. Authorities had been at the house and had conducted searches for the boy three times during the incident. \"Obviously it wasn't as thorough as we would have liked it to be,\" he said, \"because the boy was hiding in the attic in the garage.\" Investigators had seen the rafters in the garage, but there was no ladder to get up there. \"Our personnel just didn't think it possible that a 6-year-old boy would be able to get up into that space, so they didn't look there,\" he said. Falcon was not in a box as Alderden had originally reported. Instead, he had apparently crawled on a box in order to enter the attic area, Alderden said. Watch how the events played out \u00bb . Despite numerous conspiracy theories flying around on the Internet, Alderden emphasized that authorities have not seen suspicious behavior by the Heene family. \"They appropriately expressed statements, nonverbal communication, body language and emotions during this event that were entirely consistent with the events that were taking place,\" he said. \"Certainly, people are free to speculate, they're free to be skeptical about it,\" Alderden added. \"But those of us in the law enforcement profession have to operate on facts and what we can prove.\"","highlights":"Boy's remark on CNN, \"We did this for the show,\" sparks speculation about stunt .\nSheriff: \"We believe at this time that it's a real event\"\nFather says boy was confused about scores of reporters outside house .\nMillions feared boy was inside balloon as it floated over Colorado countryside .","id":"bf1895b4fe2806fa6b8ae68347c6b84e4667ca12"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- When Robert Byrd came to Congress from West Virginia, a postage stamp cost 3 cents and kids were clamoring for a new toy called Mr. Potato Head. On Wednesday, almost 57 years later, Byrd became the longest-serving member of Congress in history. Two days before he turns 92, the eloquent legislator known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Senate rules and history surpasses Carl T. Hayden, the Arizona Democrat who served a total of 20,773 days in the U.S. House and Senate. With his 20,774th day representing West Virginia -- six years in House and then nearly 51 years and counting in the Senate -- Byrd sets a record for longevity unlikely to be broken as the political climate turns toward term limits and growing public dissatisfaction with Congress. In a statement issued by his office, Byrd expressed his gratitude to \"the people of the great State of West Virginia\" for their long-standing confidence in him. His only regret, he said, was that his wife, Erma, who died in 2006, would not be with him. \"I know that she is looking down from the heavens smiling at me and saying congratulations my dear Robert -- but don't let it go to your head,\" Byrd's statement said. In a career representing the West Virginia coal-mining country from which he emerged, Byrd has cast more Senate votes (18,000-plus) and held more leadership positions (including two stints as majority leader) than any other senator. He has never lost an election. He was raised by an aunt and uncle after his mother died when he was a year old, and he did not graduate college until he received a degree in 1994 from Marshall University. In a sign of his Appalachian roots, Byrd was an avid fiddle player and appeared twice on the television program \"Hee Haw.\" He gave up playing in the 1980s because of a tremor in his hands. His early political years displayed some of the deeply rooted racism of the American South. Byrd was a member of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the early 1940s, and later called it \"the most egregious mistake I've ever made.\" In 1964, he voted against the Civil Rights Act pushed by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. But Byrd later followed a more traditional Democratic path. An ardent foe of President George W. Bush's policies in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Byrd opposed creating the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 and called Bush \"dangerous, reckless and arrogant\" in February 2003, six weeks before the Iraq war started. Three months later, he criticized Bush's landing a jet on the USS Abraham Lincoln to signal the end of the Iraq war as \"flamboyant showmanship.\" On June 12, 2006, Byrd became the longest serving senator in history, and was re-elected to his ninth consecutive Senate term five months later. Things have changed since he arrived in Washington as a new congressman in 1953, along with the first Eisenhower administration. Gas cost 20 cents a gallon then, and the average annual salary was less than $4,000. Ten presidents later, Byrd is known for his devotion to his state and constituents. \"His number one priority has always been the people of West Virginia,\" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, says in a statement on Byrd's Senate Web site. \"It has been a great example for all of us to never lose sight of the fact that you are elected by the people from your state and the people in your state should have first priority.\" Byrd's statement marking Wednesday's achievement reflected that thinking. \"Although we are marking a longevity milestone, it has been the quality and dedication of service that has guided me over the years,\" Byrd said in his statement. \"I have strived to provide the people of West Virginia the best representation possible each of the 20,774 days which I have served in the Congress of the United States.\" He thanked his constituents for their support and for \"putting their trust and faith in me.\" Slowed by illness in recent years, including a six-week hospital stay this year because of a staph infection, Byrd concluded his statement with typical bravado. \"The only way for me to close on this historic day is to say that I look forward to serving you for the next 56 years and 320 days,\" he said. \"Thank you and may God bless you.\"","highlights":"Sen. Robert Byrd logs his 20,774th day -- almost 57 years -- in Congress .\nByrd is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Senate rules and history .\nWest Virginian says joining Ku Klux Klan in 1940s was his \"most egregious mistake\"\nWhen he arrived in D.C. in 1953, gasoline costs 20 cents a gallon, a stamp was 3 cents .","id":"db55c4380f73423764589a4c0d8612bbc107b3b6"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Increased fighting in Afghanistan has caused a drop in morale among U.S. soldiers while the reduction in combat in Iraq has bolstered morale, according to a new U.S. Army report released Friday. The report summarizes two surveys of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan taken earlier this year. New statistics from the Army also show suicides are up in the entire service. Produced every two years by the Army's Mental Health Advisory Team, this latest report comes just over a week after a U.S. soldier went on a shooting rampage at a U.S. Army base in Texas and possibly just days or weeks from an announcement from the Obama administration to send more troops to Afghanistan, where fighting has gotten more intense in recent months. Authorities have not determined a motive for the shooting. The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan but had told his family that he wanted to get out of the military. \"Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face stress from multiple deployments into combat but report being more prepared for the stresses of deployments,\" Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army Surgeon General told reporters Friday. Not surprisingly, the report showed that soldiers with multiple deployments, three or four tours of duty to Iraq or Afghanistan, had much lower morale and more mental health problems than those soldiers who have one or two combat deployments. Increased time at home, however, resulted in improved morale among troops sent back to the field. The updated survey of soldiers in Afghanistan found post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression in soldiers at the same levels of the survey in 2007, but still about double that of the 2005 survey results: 21.4 percent in 2009, 23.4 percent for 2007 and 10.4 percent in 2005, according to the report. In Iraq, where the survey has been done every year, lower numbers were attributed to the decrease in combat action there. The 2009 numbers showed 13.3 percent of soldiers suffering from mental health problems, compared to 18.8 percent in 2007 and 22 percent in 2006. Army officials said that with the push of more than 20,000 additional troops into the Afghan theater of battle over the last few months, there have been fewer mental health professionals in the field to help. Army officials said the ration was about one mental health professional for every 1,120 soldiers. To combat the falling morale and lack of mental health professionals in the field, Army officials said the service needs to more than double the number of mental health providers and hopes to have at least 65 more of those providers in the field by December, making the ratio one for every 700 soldiers. The mental health assessment teams also conducted interviews with soldiers and found a drop in unit morale in Afghanistan to about half of what it was in 2007 and 2005, when about 10 percent surveyed gave top ratings to unit morale. In 2009, that number was 5.7 percent. The report also showed soldiers are seeing more difficulty at home with an increasing number reporting they are getting or considering getting divorced, according to the report. The overall report was based on almost 4,000 soldiers who filled out anonymous surveys in Iraq and Afghanistan between December 2008 and June 2009. In Iraq, 2,400 soldiers were randomly selected and the results were studied by a mental health assessment team in the combat zone. About 1,500 troops in Afghanistan took the survey, Army officials said. The survey was different from previous years when all types of soldiers were surveyed together. The 2009 survey questioned combat troops and support troops separately, though Army officials said there were few differences in the results. On Friday, the Army also released its latest suicide statistics. They show an increase in the number over this time last year. The Army reported 133 suspected suicides as of October; there were 115 as of October 2008. Of the 133, 90 have been confirmed, and 43 are pending confirmation, according to an Army press release. Last year the Army totaled 140 suicides in its ranks, the highest the service has recorded. \"Stigma continues to be one of the most difficult challenges we confront,\" said Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, the director of the Suicide Prevention Task Force for the Army. \"The more we educate our Army community about the need to get help, the need to get it early, and that a full recovery is often possible, the less stigma we'll see.\" The Army has implemented a number of suicide prevention programs over the past year, including training, a suicide prevention task force and a day off official duties to focus on suicide prevention.","highlights":"Report summarizes 2 surveys of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan taken this year .\nResults attributed to increased fighting in Afghanistan, less in Iraq .\nArmy hopes to increase number of mental health providers in the field .","id":"6963971357560d82656287eed9969d91fdcc4d4d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For Morris Murenzi, a visit to his native Rwanda always includes attending a gacaca court -- a local tribunal of villagers set up to try suspects in a 1994 genocide that killed 800,000. The gacaca courts, as seen here in 2003, are inspired by old village tribunals used to settle disputes. At the proceedings, he sits with his countrymen. Some tearfully confront their attackers and testify against them, their scars from the genocide still visible. Others -- like him -- quietly listen, their emotional scars invisible. They wait and hope for answers about how their relatives died as a nine-member panel questions suspects. \"Some of the witnesses who ask questions are disfigured, others are disabled,\" said the Dallas, Texas, resident whose last gacaca trial was in Kigali two years ago. \"The attackers have no place to hide. They are forced to address what they have done to the victims.\" Murenzi is one of thousands of people who attend gacaca courts all across Rwanda on any given day. Hearings are held in open fields in neighborhoods where the attacks occurred. There are no lawyers and no judges in robes. A panel of local villagers with no legal experience conducts the proceedings. \"For me, gacacas help me find closure and healing,\" Murenzi said. \"I am able to see up close how remorseful the attackers are. ... You never see that in real court.\" Gacaca courts were introduced in the central African nation after the April 1994 genocide, which raged for 100 days. The victims were mostly from the Tutsi ethnic minority, who were targeted by Hutus over a rivalry that dates to colonial days. Some moderates from the Hutu majority who support Tutsis were also killed. Murenzi, a Tutsi from the capital, Kigali, lost most of his extended family in the genocide. During the attacks, he was in neighboring Uganda with his parents, where he attended school at the time, the 37-year-old said. \"My mom's sisters, brothers, my uncles, they were all killed and buried in mass graves,\" he said. The gacacas were originally formed to resolve minor disputes among villagers but were reinvented to hand out justice to the perpetrators of the genocide and help fast-track reconciliation efforts in the broken nation. \"You had about 130,000 people in jail. And there were many more outside,\" Rwandan President Paul Kagame said recently on CNN's \"Fareed Zakaria GPS.\" The nation's justice system and the International Criminal Tribunal set up to try genocide suspects were overwhelmed, and handling all the cases in those courts would have taken hundreds of years, according to the president. Watch Kagame justify gacacas \u00bb . \"If you went technically to try each one of them, as the law may suggest, then you would lose out on rebuilding a nation, on bringing people back together,\" he said. \"That's why we had to say, let's categorize responsibilities.\" The leaders and masterminds of the genocide are tried in ordinary courts, and civilians who contributed to attacks or loss of life directly or indirectly go to gacacas, Kagame said. The tribunals are lacking and fraught with problems, critics say. \"We've had serious concerns about the gacaca process and whether it meets international fair trial standards,\" said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch, which has offices in Rwanda. Some witnesses have been targeted for revenge after testifying, and due process falls short, Gagnon said, adding that the organization has suggested changes to the system to ensure basic human rights are met, but they have not been enforced. \"It is time for the process to end. And there needs to be a frank announcement on whether it has led to reconciliation,\" she said. Paul Rusesabagina, whose effort to save hundreds of Tutsis was featured in the 2004 movie \"Hotel Rwanda,\" calls gacacas \"the worst idea ever.\" \"Gacaca traditionally means justice on the grass. Elders sitting on the grass, handing justice to someone who stole a neighbor's goat,\" Rusesabagina said. \"Judges are people who never went to school ... who do not know anything about law.\" Today, this justice is dealing with people who have committed a genocide, which is a much bigger issue, he said. There have been calls to abolish the tribunals, which have tried about 1.5 million cases since they started in 2001, according to the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a U.N. agency. The government in June postponed plans to close gacacas. Some analysts say the system has its advantages, by reducing congestion in prisons and allowing survivors to hear first-hand what happened to their loved ones. Murenzi said he does not have all the answers about his relatives' deaths, and he plans to attend more gacacas -- including during a trip to Rwanda at the end of the year. Despite the lack of information, he said, watching suspects struggle to come to terms with the attacks has brought an unusual form of comfort. \"They will never know peace. They have to live with the fact that they killed their neighbors for the rest of their lives,\" Murenzi said. \"While the survivors can move on, they (attackers) probably never will.\"","highlights":"Hearings held in open fields in neighborhoods where the attacks occurred.\nHearings have tried about 1.5 million cases since they started .\nVictims of 1994 genocide were mostly from the Tutsi ethnic minority .\nGacacas originally formed to resolve minor disputes among villagers .","id":"2c704e69206042e3d4c69bb5f2c23f72315de481"} -{"article":"SICHUAN, China (CNN) -- Li Yunxia wipes away tears as rescue crews dig through the ruins of a kindergarten class that has buried her only child -- a 5-year-old boy. Other parents wail as soldiers in blue masks trudge through the mud, hauling bodies from the rubble on stretchers. \"Children were screaming, but I couldn't hear my son's voice,\" she says, sobbing. This grim ritual repeated itself Thursday across southwestern China, as thousands of mothers and fathers await news about their sons and daughters. Watch parents' anguished vigil \u00bb . The death toll from Monday's massive earthquake could be as high as 50,000, according to state-run media. Map \u00bb . The grief is compounded in many cases by a Chinese policy that limits most couples to one child, a measure meant to control explosive population growth. As a result of the one-child policy, the quake -- already responsible for at least 15,000 deaths -- is producing another tragic aftershock: . Not only must thousands of parents suddenly cope with the loss of a child, but many must cope with the loss of their only child. China's population minister recently praised the one-child rule, which dates to 1979, saying it has prevented 400 million children from being born. Some wealthy families ignore the order, have more children and pay a $1,000 fine. In rural areas -- like earthquake-devastated Sichuan province -- families can petition for an additional child, but there's no guarantee the authorities will approve the request -- they usually don't. That reality has cast parents like Li into an agonizing limbo -- waiting to discover whether their only child is alive or dead. Thousands of children were in class when the temblor hit Monday afternoon. Many of their schools collapsed on top of them. In Dujiangyan City, more than 300 students were feared dead when Juyuan Middle School collapsed with 900 students inside. A similar number died at the city's Xiang'e Middle School. See images and video from the quake zone \u00bb . Now parents cluster outside collapsed school buildings, held back by soldiers in some cases as rescue crews search for signs of life. \"Which grade are you in?\" a rescuer asks a trapped child in Beichuan County. \"Grade 2,\" comes the answer. \"Hang on for a while,\" he says. \"We are figuring out ways to rescue you.\" Watch children rescued from the rubble \u00bb . The child is pulled from the rubble a short time later. For every child saved, though, many more are lost. Many are missing at a middle school in the city of Qingchuan. The scene is devastating at Juyuan Middle School, where sorrow seems endless. See photos of rescue efforts \u00bb . \"There were screaming parents, and as the bodies would come out they were trying to identify whether it was their child or not,\" said Jamil Anderlini of London's Financial Times. \"And once they -- the parents -- realized it was their child, obviously they collapsed in grief.\"","highlights":"NEW: Death toll could reach 50,000, according to state-run media .\nChina's one-child policy, implemented in 1979, has blocked 400 million births .\nMany parents in limbo as they wait to learn whether their sole child is dead or alive .\nSchools collapsed on thousands of children Monday when the quake hit .","id":"d017b37d1cffb494a581e45c5fc19ac0b41f8242"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Kandi Burruss, the newest cast member of the reality show \"The Real Housewives of Atlanta,\" was mourning the death Saturday of her fianc\u00e9, who died after a fistfight the night before. Kandi Burruss, at right with co-star NeNe Leakes, appeared at the BET Awards in June. The fianc\u00e9, 34-year-old Ashley \"A.J.\" Jewell, also appeared on the show. A spokeswoman for Burruss said the actress was \"devastated\" by the news. \"She has no statement to make at this time and asks for privacy,\" Tresa Sanders said. She said the two planned to marry, even though the relationship had ups and downs. In late August, Burruss told WVEE Radio in Atlanta, \"We're on hiatus,\" and she told Essence.com last month that the two were taking a break from each other. Police said they contacted Burruss after Jewell's death. Jewell and another man fought Friday night in the parking lot of the Atlanta strip club Body Tap, police spokesman Officer James Polite said. Jewell was taken to a hospital, where he died of blunt force trauma to the head, Polite said. Fredrick Richardson was arrested on a charge of voluntary manslaughter after witnesses identified him and he was interviewed by police. He was treated at a hospital. Police tentatively described the men as club managers, although Jewell claimed on Twitter that he owned the establishment. Polite said police don't know why the fight started. Sanders said Burruss was doubly saddened because she is mourning the death of her uncle, Ralph Leslie, whose funeral is Saturday. The reality performer posted messages about Jewell's death on Twitter. \"im just in one of those moods where i dont wanna talk, i dont wanna b held & told its gonna b ok. i just wanna cry myself 2 sleep, alone,\" she says. \"i could never n a million years imagine this happening. please pray for AJ's children. that's who im the most concerned 4.\" \"im bout 2 giv my swollen eyes sum rest now. i just wanted to say thanks 2 every1 for their prayers.\" Burruss is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and former member of the 1990s R&B group Xscape.","highlights":"NEW: Both men said to be managers of strip club where fight occurred .\nAshley \"A.J.\" Jewell dies after fistfight outside Atlanta club, police say .\nJewell was fianc\u00e9 of Kandi Burruss of TV show \"Real Housewives of Atlanta\"\nSuspect charged with involuntary manslaughter after questioning by police .","id":"f3f934ef7f19642d44da7678c06a859f103363b1"} -{"article":"London (CNN) -- Debate is rife in Australian political circles about whether carbon trading is the way forward for climate change abatement. Carbon trading is said to be one way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is looking to introduce a mandatory carbon trading system by 2010 which will cap the amount of pollution industry can release. The proposed Australian system will be similar to the European Union emission trading system which was established in 2005. With Phase 1 of the European system complete, there are a few lessons about carbon trading that Australia -- and other countries looking to go down this path -- could benefit from. So what is carbon trading? Carbon trading -- also known as \"cap and trade\" -- is a system designed to cut the carbon emissions which contribute to global warming. Generally in a market-based cap and trade system, a central authority -- such as a government or international body -- sets a limit on the amount of carbon which can be emitted and then divides this amount into units which are allocated to different groups. These units can then be traded as any commodity would. Carbon trading can occur both between countries and amongst industries within countries. A second approach to carbon trading involves a country or business generating carbon credits by investing in \"green\" projects -- usually in developing countries -- that are said to reduce emissions. Why is it necessary? According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) there is unequivocal evidence that human activities have contributed to a gradual warming of the planet which has resulted in a change in climate. The IPCC report provides scientific evidence of change including to the duration of seasons, rainfall patterns and an increased frequency of extreme weather events. Industrialization is recognized as a key factor in the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere and according to the IPCC the world has warmed by an average of 0.74\u00b0C in the past 100 years. The IPCC predicts that if GHG emissions continue to rise at their current rate, this century will see a further 3\u00b0C rise in the average world temperature. While the consensus of the scientific community (via the IPCC) is that action must be taken to avert the worst impacts of climate change, economic arguments about the cost of climate change abatement -- advanced by countries like the U.S. and at one time Australia -- have in the past proved an impediment to action. A carbon trading system is said to be one way that countries can look to make greenhouse gas emissions cuts with minimal economic impact. Do you think carbon trading is the way to reduce greenhouse emissions? What trading systems exist? Established in 2005, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the largest multi-national, multi-sector CO2 trading system in the world. The ultimate aim of the system is to ensure that EU Member States are compliant with their Kyoto Protocol commitments and to do this the most energy-intensive industries are allocated carbon permits by Member States which allow them to emit a certain amount of CO2. If these companies want to emit more CO2 than their permits allow for, they are able to buy them from more efficient companies with spare permits. The EU ETS takes in around 12,000 installations which account for around 50 percent of EU greenhouse gas emissions from industries such as power, steel and cement manufacture. According the World Bank, the EU ETS contributed $50 billion of the $64 billion traded in the carbon market in 2007. The second largest carbon trading system exists under the United Nations Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol -- which sets binding emission targets for 37 industrialized countries -- permits emissions trading in order to help countries meet their agreed upon targets. Countries have agreed to an average 5 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 1990 levels, by 2012 and carbon trading is one way to meet this quota. By December 2008, the EU ETS will link up with the UN trading system to create a more global scheme. The Clean Development Mechanism is a further carbon trading mechanism of the Protocol which allows industrialized nations to claim emission credits from investment in clean technologies which will \"offset\" carbon in developing countries. Developed nations can also finance emission reduction projects in developing countries through Joint Implementation in exchange for emission credits. New Zealand has established a mandatory carbon trading system this year and Australia has also committed to expanding the pioneering New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme to a national market by 2010. New mandatory systems are being considered for Japan and Canada. Voluntary carbon markets also exist, with the Chicago Climate Exchange one of the more established ones. What do permits cost? The cost of a carbon permit is dictated by the market forces of supply and demand. In 2007, one European Union Allocation (for one ton of carbon) was trading at $30 to $35. What industries are subject to trading? Under mandatory schemes like the EU ETS, it's the most energy-intensive industries within Member States which are subject to carbon trading. This includes industries like power installations, steel and cement manufacture and the construction industry. The commercial aviation industry -- which accounts for 3 percent of EU emissions -- could be brought into the EU ETS by 2011. Currently personal or household emissions and the public sector and transport industry emissions are not included in any carbon trading system. Has emissions trading been successful? Yes and no. The introduction of mandatory systems which cap emissions like the EU ETS is a step in the right direction for trying to cut emissions without a major cost to business. However, critics such as Carbon Trade Watch argue that the current carbon trade systems are flawed because there is a tendency for the biggest polluters to be over-allocated permits. This was clearly evident with Phase 1 of the EU ETS when the market virtually collapsed in 2006 because too many allowances were allocated. Market analyst Franck Schuttellaar estimated that the United Kingdom's most polluting companies made windfall profits of around $1.7 billion as a direct result of generous carbon credit allocation under the EU ETS. Questions have also been raised about whether carbon trading systems actually reduce GHG emissions. Independent UK think-tank Open Europe reported that between 2005 and 2006 emissions from industries covered by the ETS actually rose in UK by 3.6 percent and by 0.8 percent across the whole of Europe. Auctioning off carbon credits at the outset -- rather that simply allocating credits to business for free -- is one way that has been proposed to help the system make a real impact on emissions. Certainly, increasing the scarcity of carbon credits would help ensure that businesses commit to genuine low-carbon alternatives. While carbon emissions account for around 70 percent of greenhouse gases, they are not the sole cause of climate change and it would seem a safer bet to reinforce a carbon trading system with other legislative measures aimed at reducing emissions.","highlights":"Carbon trading is said to be one way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions .\nExisting carbon trading systems have had limited impact on emissions to date .\nThe European experience serves as a good lesson for new trading systems .","id":"e9c97928fcfe64844f31ed7d403826a1c65b9f86"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One hundred twenty African refugees -- most of them fleeing war-torn Somalia -- were forced overboard at gunpoint off the coast of Yemen, leaving at least 26 dead and 20 missing, the United Nations' refugee agency said Wednesday. A Somali refugee walks past the United Nations-donated tents at a refugee camp west of Aden. Seventy-four survivors made it to the beach Tuesday and were taken to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees center in Ahwar, Yemen, according to UNHCR. Some told the United Nations that they were waiting on their boat for a smaller vessel to take them ashore when the smugglers operating the boat forced them overboard. Some were pushed and beaten, and others were shot and killed, for not complying, they said. The smaller boat never arrived, they said. Heavy fighting in Somalia's capital and a widespread drought has led to a dramatic increase in Somalis making the sometimes deadly journey by sea to Yemen, according to UNHCR. Nearly 26,000 refugees have arrived on Yemen's shores this year from the Horn of Africa -- almost three times the number of refugees to make the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden last year, according to UNHCR. Yemen is a common destination for Somalis fleeing economic hardship and war because of its proximity. It is also an attractive location because Somalis receive automatic refugee status in the fellow Muslim country. New smuggling routes, including some based out of Djibouti -- which lies north of Somalia and is much closer to Yemen -- have also led to the increase in refugees, according to the UNHCR. Refugees pay as much as $150 to get to Yemen on small fastboats, while others pay between $50 and $70 for a ride on larger and much slower vessels, the agency said. Earlier this year, Yemen's coast guard stepped up patrols of its coastline in an attempt to deter the smugglers. Some of the smuggling boats are seized by Yemen's coast guard and given to Somali fishermen who suffered losses in the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As part of a $19 million operation, UNHCR operates shelters and reception centers for the refugees in Yemen and has increased its efforts to discourage people from making the illegal crossing to Yemen. It has also sponsored training programs for coast guard personnel and other officials.","highlights":"74 survivors made it to the beach and were taken to Ahwar, Yemen .\nSome told U.N. smugglers operating the boat forced them overboard .\nFighting in Somalia's capital led to increase in Somalis making journey to Yemen .\nUNHCR: Nearly 26,000 refugees arrived in Yemen this year from Horn of Africa .","id":"62e20598b119ab8ee075363a42bd3f7c230870a7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four senators pushed for a bill Wednesday to ban texting while driving, a day after a study found that drivers who text while on the road are much more likely to have an accident than undistracted drivers. A law that went into effect January 1 in California makes it illegal to send text messages while driving. Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-New York; Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana; and Kay Hagan, D-North Carolina, unveiled the ALERT Act, which would ban truck and car drivers and operators of mass transit from texting while driving. The proposed legislation would prohibit any driver from sending text or e-mail messages while driving a vehicle, said an earlier news release from the senators. If the bill passes, the Department of Transportation would set the minimum standards for compliance. States that do not enact text-banning laws within two years of the bill's passage could lose 25 percent of their federal highway funds, Schumer said in a news conference announcing the legislation. The noncompliant states could recuperate that money once they meet the text-banning standards, Schumer said. CTIA, a cellular phone industry group, said that it supports legislation that addresses text messaging while driving. \"CTIA and our member companies continue to believe text messaging while driving is incompatible with safe driving,\" said a statement on CTIA's Web site. Fourteen states, including the home states of three of the bill's sponsors, and the District of Columbia already have laws barring texting while driving: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Interactive map: See state-by-state policies on distracted driving \u00bb . New York does not ban texting while driving but has barred the use of handheld phones while driving, according to the Governor's Highway Safety Association. Schumer said New York's legislature has sent Gov. David Paterson a bill to ban texting as well. \"The legislation will send an important message to drivers across the country: Get your hands off the cell phone and back on the wheel,\" Schumer said. The senators cited a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study that found that truck drivers who texted while driving were 23 times more likely to crash or get into a near-accident than undistracted drivers. Watch more on the dangers of driving and texting . When compared with dialing, talking, listening or reaching for an electronic device, texting posed the greatest accident risk, the study found. It attributed the increased risk to the almost five seconds it found that the driver's eyes were off the roadway while texting, said Rich Hanowski, the director of the Center for Truck and Bus Safety at the transportation institute. \"Not having [a cell phone] in your hand while driving could be the difference between life and death,\" Menendez said. In September, a commuter train engineer missed a stop signal while trading text messages with a friend, leading to a collision with a freight train that killed 25 people in California, according to federal investigators. The accident also injured 101 people. In May, 62 people were injured when one trolley struck another in Boston, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said. In July, the operator of one trolley was charged with gross negligence after he admitted to texting seconds before the accident with the other trolley, according to the Suffolk County district attorney and a National Transportation Safety Board official. CNN Radio's John Lisk contributed to this report.","highlights":"14 states and the District of Columbia have banned texting while driving .\nFour senators push for a bill that bans the practice nationwide .\nNew study finds drivers who text while driving more likely to have an accident .\n\"Get your hands off the cell phone and back on the wheel,\" one senator says .","id":"edf22a8baae25301968593b064a4c3787b661f31"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Don't confuse Katey Sagal for Peg Bundy -- it's a common mistake. Katey Sagal says being a mother has been her greatest teacher -- for all her roles. While her infamous alter ego was uneducated, Katey is thoughtful and well-spoken; Peg's fashion is time-warped (hello, bouffant!), Katey's is earthy; for every ounce of laziness in Peg's body, Katey has a multitasking one to match. It may have taken years for the actress to shake her TV counterpart, but watch Katey as fierce matriarch Gemma Morrow on FX's motorcycle drama \"Sons of Anarchy\" (which was released on DVD Tuesday), and you'll start to wonder, \"Peg who?\" Rachel Bertsche: You're known for playing three very different mothers -- \"Married with Children's\" Peg Bundy, Kate from \"8 Simple Rules\" and now Gemma. Plus, you have three kids of your own, two teenagers and a 2 1\/2-year-old. Given all that on- and off-screen mothering experience, is there any universal quality that you would say all moms have? Katey Sagal: Being a mother has been my greatest teacher and also the most self-sacrificing thing I've ever done. I've never loved anybody the way I love my children. It's an experience I was surprised by. You have your boyfriend, your husband, your friends, but it's a different thing. It's deeper, and it's a fantastic -- and risky -- commitment to love that deeply. I think the characters I've played all have that quality, even Peg Bundy. She was devoted and loyal to her children in her own wacky way. But Gemma is intensely dedicated to her family and would do anything to protect her son and her extended family, which is the club. In my personal life, I don't know that I would go to the lengths for my kids that Gemma does, but close. Bertsche: You were Peg Bundy before you were actually a mom. Once you had your first child, id having firsthand experience change the way you played her? Sagal: Well, I've always been a maternal type, but yes, everything was different once I had kids. Your whole perspective on the world changes -- I love how I wasn't so self-obsessed anymore! I can't say my characterizations of Peggy necessarily changed much. I just understood more what I was doing. Bertsche: You mentioned your husband, Kurt Sutter, who is also the creator of your show. What's it like to mix family with business? Sagal: Most of the time it's super great. There are moments when it's not, of course, but most of the time it's nice because we actually get to see each other. His job is intense, so he doesn't get a day like I have today where he can stay home from work. When I'm there, we can sometimes have lunch together, stuff like that. The hard part gets to be like \"OK, maybe we should talk about something else.\" It becomes the constant topic of conversation, the show and the kids, and we have to make a conscious effort to say, \"Let's not talk about it tonight.\" Bertsche: People used to say that women of \"a certain age\" -- over 40 -- couldn't find any roles in Hollywood. That's certainly not true anymore, especially on cable, and you might be playing one of the toughest women out there. Why do think that has changed? Sagal: I don't know why it's changed, but I'm really grateful it has. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we're all living longer and suddenly it's okay to get older. Maybe there's a broader audience for these characters. The stories you can tell about older women are deeper. Plus, cable has opened up enormous possibilities. In feature films, you're still lucky if you're not the girlfriend or the wife. But I just read yesterday that Dianne Keaton is going to be on television now, she's doing a series with HBO, so TV is where our stories are being told. Bertsche: Gemma's a pretty controversial character. How do you feel about her? Sagal: I really like her. I like that she's flawed but she doesn't think that she is. She's survived a lot, and people like that tend to live in a lot of denial. She knows how to get through life in her way, and she doesn't question it. It's just, \"This is how it is.\" For instance, I don't think Gemma's ever been to therapy. She's not that girl. What you see is what you get. Bertsche: What's on tap for her this season? Sagal: Something very dark happens. The club is going to go through some turmoil -- when you live an outlaw lifestyle, that's the risk you take. As my husband says, this season is all about loyalties. Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin are on the show this year, and they ... well, I don't want to say too much, but they're not really good guys. Bertsche: I promised a co-worker I'd ask you about \"Lost.\" She's dying to know if your character, Helen, is really dead. Even though we saw the grave, she doesn't believe it's the full story. Got anything on that? Sagal: I was just reading an article this morning at the gym about how they were going to bring back people who were dead on \"Lost,\" and they didn't mention me! Nobody tells me anything. I'm always thinking that Helen should come back and show up on the island, but as of today, no one's sent me a plane ticket to Hawaii. So I don't think it's going to happen, but I don't know. They're very close to the chest with all that stuff. Oprah.com: Get up close with all the hottest celebrities! Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Katey Sagal's series about cyclists, \"Sons of Anarchy,\" is out on DVD .\nSagal says being a mother has given her insight into her major roles .\nShe hears rumors about \"Lost,\" but nobody's told her anything personally .","id":"d590f2cc413ea3745c11e08ae0ae1afed58bc094"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- Gunshots rang out in Uganda's capital Saturday in a fresh burst of unrest after loyalists of a traditional kingdom battled with government forces for a third day. Residents of the Kasubi suburb, west of Kampala, try to flee from violence as a soldier takes photos. Local media reports put the death toll at 13 since the rioting started, but attempts by CNN to confirm with local authorities were unsuccessful. An uneasy calm had swept over Kampala early in the day as police and the army patrolled the city in military convoys. By midafternoon, witnesses reported gunshots and isolated cases of riots. The unrest Saturday started after rumors circulated by text messages that the king of the Buganda kingdom had been detained, said Judith Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman. But a Buganda kingdom official refuted the rumor. \"It is not true -- the king has not been arrested, \" David Mpanga said. Tensions between the Buganda kingdom -- headed by King Ronald Mutebi II -- and President Yoweri Museveni have intensified in recent years. The two sides spar over land, sovereignty and political power. Kings in the east African nation are limited to a ceremonial role overseeing traditional and cultural affairs. Museveni has accused the Buganda kingdom, which is made of of Bagandans, of receiving foreign funding to carry out a hate campaign against the government. Bagandans are the dominant ethnicity and one of four ancient kingdoms in the nation. Violence flared Thursday when the government said it would not allow the Buganda king to travel to an area inhabited by a renegade rival group. The president said he tried to contact the king to discuss the issue as \"mature people,\" but he could not reach him by phone. After the travel ban, young Bagandans took the streets, stealing ammunition from a police station and confronting officers, whom they accused of harassment. Police and army officers were injured, and at least four people were killed, the nation's police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura said Friday. Rioters also burned tires and cars, set buildings on fire and looted stores, according to witnesses. The streets in the capital were strewn with debris Saturday, including torched cars and burned tires. \"Soldiers are walking in a single file, waiting for rioters and ready to confront them,\" said Allan Mugabi, a resident of Kampala. Journalist Samson Ntale contributed to this report .","highlights":"Local media put death toll from riots at 13, CNN unable to confirm figure .\nViolence flared Thursday after government imposed travel ban on Buganda king .\nWitnesses say young Bagandans burned tires, cars and looted stores .\nTension between splintered kingdom and Uganda's president has been on rise .","id":"5d9da47786a84347e34f0de90ddce3179ae85663"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A man brutally beaten in New York City was targeted because he is openly gay, the New York Police Department said Monday. Two men shouting \"anti-gay remarks\" viciously beat Jack Price, 49, as he left a 24-hour deli on College Point Boulevard in Queens early Friday morning, police said. No further details where available about the attack. Price is being treated at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, where \"he is in fair condition and his vital signs are stable,\" said hospital spokeswoman Camela Morrissey. Police arrested Daniel Aleman, 26, and charged him with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime. \"When someone is attacked for being who they are, and for being proud of who they are, there is no other explanation for that attack than hatred and bigotry,\" said New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay speaker of the city council. \"I know the Queens community is outraged that hate has tainted their streets, and I know they will join with us in helping the local authorities find the second suspect.\" The police department's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident. No court date has been set for Aleman.","highlights":"Jack Price, 49, who is being treated at New York Hospital, \"is in fair condition\"\nDaniel Aleman, 26, is charged with aggravated assault as a hate crime .\nSecond assailant sought; Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating .","id":"3277672574a7fd311dee0c1482b9faa8c0d36941"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Cool suit? Check. Edgy spectacles? Check. Warm vocal chords? Check. Gary Go uses iPhone apps to help him compose new material -- and provide instant accompaniment. Instrument? Powering up iPhone ... These days, British singer Gary Go might reach for his iPhone before his keyboard when hammering out a tune. He says applications such as Chordica and Beatmaker allow him to compose material and provide instant accompaniment for those spontaneous moments when he feels the need for a good sing (during the interview, Go broke into song every five minutes). Go's gadget of choice even doubled as a \"fifth member of the band\" during his July performance in front of 70,000 at London's Wembley Stadium. He hooked it up to an amplifier and tapped out drum beats on the little screen. Watch Go in action with his iPhone \u00bb . Luckily, he said, his \"mum'\"didn't call him mid-show to tell him his dinner was ready. (\"That would be a bit embarrassing. Thank goodness for airplane mode.\") While the iPhone might be a handy tool for musicians (a couple of months ago, I watched as rock 'n' roller Rhett Miller tuned his guitar using an app called Power Tuner), Go says he's still a fan of old-school methods. The Londoner used real instruments when making his self-titled debut album, out this week in the U.S. (Decca). Lead single is \"wonderful\" That's actually the song title: \"Wonderful.\" It dips and soars in all the right spots like any good Coldplay-esque pop song should. It had a good run on iTunes as the service's single of the week and is worth checking out if you like a good chorus that sticks in your noggin for a few days. Twitter-lyrical ... Go was intrigued by a heart-shaped balloon he saw entangled in a tree outside his home, so he posted a picture of it on the social networking site Twitter. He then enlisted his followers to suggest lyrics based on the pic, and wrote and recorded a song incorporating their comments: \"Love, I'm caught by the wind, I've lost all control, 'cause you caught my heart string ...\" So the followers are entitled to royalties? Not so fast! Because the piece was offered up as a charity song to aid the British Heart Foundation last month, there won't be royalties. Gaga and Go-Go . A fan of singer Lady Gaga, Go likes to perform a cover of the flamboyant star's hit \"Let's Dance.\" He was also Gaga's supporting act during the European leg of her tour earlier this year. It's time to get things started ... Creativity runs in Go's family. His father worked as a producer for Jim Henson's \"The Muppet Show.\"","highlights":"British singer Gary Go uses his iPhone for musical accompaniment .\nOn Go's self-titled album, he stuck with old school, playing real instruments .\nGo used Twitter to send a photo to fans; he used comments to write a song .","id":"4c76b655f645eb856a691e48befd44277c16b4f5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nanci Griffith wanted to look on the bright side. Nanci Griffith, who says she's \"fed up with negativity,\" was revitalized by the election of Barack Obama. And who could blame her? In the past decade, Griffith -- perhaps best known for her Grammy-winning 1993 album, \"Other Voices, Other Rooms\" -- had faced a political climate she didn't agree with, as well as recovery from thyroid and breast cancer, which she was diagnosed with in the late '90s. Songwriting had become a struggle for the singer with the gentle, crystalline voice. \"It was ... horrific,\" she said simply. However, with her latest album, \"The Loving Kind\" (Rounder), Griffith is as focused and passionate as she has been in years. Sparked by the changes in her life and American politics, she said, music has been vital to her personal resurgence. \"It was nice to focus on things outside of my body. Music has always done that for me,\" she said. Describing herself as someone who was \"fed up with negativity,\" Griffith was equally inspired by her fellow countrymen. \"[The] American people will not let this country collapse,\" she said. The idea motivated her to look at her country's dark path of injustice not so long ago, stories that worked their way into her songwriting. \"In some ways, I'm just a journalist. I [want] my audience to hear these stories,\" she said. CNN spoke with Griffith from her home in Nashville, Tennessee. CNN: Being a folk singer and your views being what they are, was it tougher or maybe easier to write songs from 2000 to 2008? Nanci Griffith: It was very difficult for me. I was hurt by the direction my country was going in. And then, after [the 2008 election], everything came spilling out. Things came along like the Mildred and Richard Loving case (\"The Loving Kind\"), where Mildred died, and I read her obituary. [The Lovings were a couple whose interracial marriage was against the law in Virginia at the time.] That was such an inspiration. ... Just wondering why I never knew about this and how important that case is currently with equality in marriage. Little things. Bit by bit, my heart started to open up again, and I could write! CNN: Had you ever gone through that before? Griffith: No, never in my life. I've always been a very prolific writer. CNN: Now, what about writing in the age of Obama? Griffith: (laughs) It feels great! People may be down on their luck, financially. But I see so much optimism about the direction of the country and [general] openness. CNN: Now, in addition to \"The Loving Kind,\" there are other songs based on actual events on this record. Tell me about \"Not Innocent Enough.\" Griffith: That's based on Philip Workman's case in Memphis [Tennessee]. He was robbing a Wendy's -- was a heroin addict -- and police came in, and an officer was killed. Now, Workman didn't kill him; it was friendly fire. Workman was convicted anyway and executed. I'm a total abolitionist when it comes to the death penalty, but this case really stunned me, because I feel like this country has evolved enough to where we shouldn't have to live with the death penalty. CNN: Is it hard as a writer\/musician to inhabit those songs, knowing that they are actual events? Griffith: Not really. I feel like, in some ways, I'm just a journalist. I don't express my opinion [in the songs], necessarily. But it's important to me that my audience hear these stories. I want as many people to know about Loving v. Virginia as possible. CNN: Do you feel like it's a more palatable way to become aware of a story like that when a song is attached to it? Griffith: I do. I've been informed many times through music. Pete Seeger, Odetta, Dave Van Ronk, Bruce Springsteen ... so many folk songwriters. It's all around you. CNN: The song \"Still Life\" -- I suspect that's about President George W. Bush? Griffith: It's about people like him. This country is full of them, and especially my home state of Texas. It's a [perspective on] people who go through life getting away with everything. CNN: Do you feel a sense of vindication with President Obama's election, or at least a sense that things are moving in a direction you're in favor of? Griffith: I hope so. Right now, he is my hero. So is his wife. CNN: What in your past steered you into a topical songwriter? Griffith: I was always more interested in story songs, things with a point of view ... and things that informed me. CNN: Is there a different process of writing those topical songs versus a song like \"Up Against the Rain,\" which is clearly more personal? Griffith: There is a burden to writing [those topical songs]: You better have your facts straight. When you're writing a personal song like \"Rain,\" it's straight from your heart and seems to just flow. CNN: \"Sing\" seems like it would fit that description. Does that song sum up your life in a way? Griffith: Many have asked that, but I was actually inspired to write that by watching an interview with Shania Twain where she said it would not have mattered if she remained a lounge act for her whole career. It's not something you choose. It's just what you do.","highlights":"Nanci Griffith's new album is \"The Loving Kind\"\nGrammy-winning singer with crystalline voice had long dry stretch in '00s .\nElection of Obama, better health has her in upbeat mood .","id":"04c1b8300f95b6cbf192df4eb5c893b9090b6394"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- The Turkish military said Friday it is weighing bids from American, Russian and Chinese defense contractors as it seeks to buy at least $1 billion worth of long-range missile defense systems. The Turkish military says a missile defense deal could include U.S. Patriot missile systems. Among the missile systems Turkey is considering are U.S. Patriot missile systems, the military said. \"We will purchase four batteries,\" Turkish armed forces spokesman Metin Gurak announced at a weekly press briefing in the Turkish capital, according to the state news agency, Anatolian. \"The actual figure will be determined during the bidding process, but the cost is expected to be around $1 billion.\" The news contradicts earlier reports in the Turkish and American media that the Turkish military was considering purchasing as much as $7.8 billion worth of Patriot missiles from the United States. Turkish diplomats and military commanders have denied speculation that the Patriots could be used as part of U.S.-backed missile defense shield against its eastern neighbor, Iran. \"It is wrong to draw links between the Patriot and Iran,\" Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN's sister network, CNN Turk, Friday morning. \"We neither have a perception of threat from any of the neighboring countries, nor have any military or security related preparation against them.\" Thursday, the Obama administration announced it was scrapping a missile defense program for Eastern Europe, after years of angry objections from Russia. The White House has said the program was aimed at protecting allies from Iran, not from Russia. Read the story . Russia is Turkey's largest trading partner. Meanwhile, relations have warmed considerably between the Iranians and the Turks in recent years. The Turkish government is putting itself forward as a neutral party, offering to host talks between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China on Iran's controversial nuclear program. But Turkey is also a member of the NATO military alliance, and it has long had close military ties with Washington. During the first Gulf War, Patriot missile batteries were temporarily stationed on Turkish territory. Turkish officials say the missile defense batteries it wants to buy would be part of a larger, long-term program to modernize the country's military. Prominent Turkish intellectuals have questioned the purchase. \"Does Turkey really need these missiles?\" asked Lale Kemal, a columnist who writes about military affairs for Turkey's Zaman newspaper. \"Turkish military acquisition projects are not going through parliamentary or government scrutiny. We don't have a transparent military procurement system. So how can I or anyone say that Turkey needs them?\" Defense contractors have until Oct. 13 to submit bids for the missile defense package.","highlights":"Turkey considering bids to supply at least $1 billion worth of defense systems .\nCountry's military says potential deal includes U.S. patriot missiles .\nSome question whether Turkey really needs to purchase extra missiles .\nObama scrapped U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe .","id":"62eb143f67342570cf7a971d4cf821600cd5998c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elmo and Gordon want you to wash your hands so you don't catch the flu. Smokey Bear, the Ad Council's most famous icon, has moved from 1940s posters to his own Facebook page. The \"Sesame Street\" stalwarts star in a series of public service announcements to teach children healthy habits in the face of the H1N1 flu virus. The Muppet and the man (actor Roscoe Orman) are the latest in a long line of characters -- human and not -- to star in public service announcements co-sponsored by the Advertising Council. The Ad Council, the charitable arm of the advertising industry, employs the same top-flight talent that creates ads for Budweiser, Coca-Cola and other familiar brands. Watch Elmo and Gordon give the pitch \u00bb . Growing beyond its early \"Buy War Bonds\" posters and Smokey TV spots, today's Advertising Council is moving into social media \"in a very big way,\" said Peggy Conlon, the organization's CEO. \"There's all kinds of ways the Advertising Council finds its target audience on the web,\" she said, noting that the group has its own YouTube channel. A marketing executive endorses the approach. \"If your target is young people, television really doesn't make a lot of sense now if they're spending hours on the Internet, hours in social media,\" said Ben Kunz, director of strategic planning for Mediassociates, a media planning and Internet strategy firm. \"You need to find a way to reach them in the media that they consume.\" The \"holy grail\" is to go viral, as people pass the message around because they like it or think it's important, Kunz said. A gory, four-minute British PSA on the dangers of texting while driving has received nearly 600,000 views on YouTube in less than two weeks, fueled in part by Facebook and Twitter links. Watch how the PSA has changed minds \u00bb . \"If you can leverage these new human networks using mobile and Facebook and Twitter and blogs to disseminate your message, that's the real home run,\" he said. \"But the only way to do that is to give people a real reason to become engaged.\" One campaign that tries to do that is called Boost Up, aimed at encouraging students to complete high school. Louis Caldera, who at the time was secretary of the Army, initiated the project with a call to the Ad Council because of a lack of qualified recruits. \"There was a disconnect between the societal message that said, 'Go to college,' and [the Army's] message, which said, 'Don't go to college, join the military,'\" Caldera, a West Point alumnus, told CNN. Caldera wanted people to think of the Army as a leader in education issues, not an alternative to schooling, and he sought the Ad Council's help. \"We absolutely did not want people to think this was about recruiting,\" he said. The council put together a campaign intended for all students, with a particular goal of reaching Latinos, for whom dropout rates are higher than for other groups. \"It really encourages people -- both adults and their peers -- to give these kids the encouragement that they need to really reach within themselves and find the personal resolve that they need to overcome life's difficulties and graduate from high school,\" Conlon said. \"It's a really smart campaign. I think it's very genuine, and it resonates really well with kids.\" Although dropout rates generally and among Latinos remain high, \"I think this is making a contribution to creating the environment in which more students can be successful,\" said Caldera, now a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. President Obama will appear in the latest series of Boost Up PSAs, to begin airing next week. The Ad Council and its partners measure a campaign's success by how much donated media a campaign attracts. Media outlets will run an ad more if it helps them retain audiences, Conlon said. The Ad Council receives $1.8 billion a year in donated media, she said. Watch some notable Ad Council PSAs \u00bb . The council also measures response to phone numbers or Web sites promoted in the ads and tracks awareness through before-and-after surveys, Conlon said. \"We can watch the needle move over time,\" she said. \"It's very scientific; it's very empirical.\" But not every campaign is a home run, Conlon admitted. \"We kind of laugh about the Gerald Ford 'Whip Inflation Now' with his big WIN buttons,\" she said. \"The Advertising Council did that campaign, and for many reasons that were mostly cultural, it completely bombed.\" And then there are those campaigns that get mixed reviews. \"The 'Just Say No' campaign was probably the biggest success,\" Kunz said. \"I think it led to something like the creation of 5,000 clubs around the country, and there was a definite decline in drug use.\" Conlon laughed. \"It was a terrible campaign,\" she said. \"And the reason was not because we shouldn't be telling young people not to use drugs, but it's just not as simple as that. It stripped it down to such a simplistic message that it had terrible reaction on the part of kids.\" Campaigns are about educating the public on the facts of an issue, Conlon said. \"You have to get their attention, and that's where the creativity comes in,\" Conlon said. \"It can't be just lecturing or just exposing the message to people. In this cluttered media environment, you really have to have something that breaks through.\" One creative spot that has broken through on an emotional level depicts a grown man practicing cheerleading moves on a sidewalk. The humorous ad promotes fathers' involvement in their children's lives. \"Being a good dad sometimes requires shamelessness,\" said Bill Ludwig, creative director at the Campbell Ewald ad agency in Detroit, Michigan, which created the spot. \"The idea is that the smallest moments can have the biggest impact on a child's life. Just spend a little time with your kid.\" The father-daughter message touched Facebook user Jessica Gonzales, a graduate student in San Diego, California. \"There's plenty of ads telling us what to buy, how to look, etc., but few remind us how to just be ... and how to be good to one another,\" Gonzales said. \"The ad's tagline is 'Take time to be a dad,' but that message could be easily translated to so many other roles: Take time to be a friend, a mentor, a positive influence.\" That's the kind of response the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is hoping to get from co-sponsoring the \"Sesame Street\" flu campaign. \"We are doing everything we can to protect public health and teach children how they can stay healthy and safe,\" said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. \"Elmo, Gordon, Sesame Workshop and the Ad Council are delivering an important message to our kids.\"","highlights":"Elmo and Gordon of \"Sesame Street\" join long line of public service spot stars .\nCharitable arm of advertising industry adapts to changing times, tech .\nMedia evolve from WWII posters to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube .\nCreative minds that make best commercials also create service spots .","id":"229bb833713171315264427ba986cf2992ca031c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ford is the only major U.S. carmaker that is getting by without U.S. taxpayer money. Mark Fields of Ford says consumer confidence is key to getting the auto industry back on track. GM and Chrysler, on the other hand, have been told the Obama administration they will receive operating funds for several weeks in return for undergoing significant restructuring. Mark Fields, executive vice president of Ford, spoke to CNN's Kiran Chetry Tuesday on \"American Morning\" about the company's plans and whether it will be able to continue without financial aid from the government. Kiran Chetry: So, Mark, your company is the one that's gotten by without federal money. Will you be able to continue that? Mark Fields: Well, our position hasn't changed. We're in a different position than some of our competitors, and we're not seeking emergency taxpayer assistance. Chetry: Right, but I'm saying in the future, how are you guys guaranteeing that you won't need to go to the federal government like your two competitors have and ask for some help? Fields: Well, we're going to continue executing our plan, which really involves decisive actions around transforming the business, but also bringing great high-quality, fuel-efficient vehicles into the marketplace. And we've been working this plan over the last three years, and we've been making progress. Clearly it's a tough time in the economy, but we are really focused on bringing these great cars and trucks to customers, getting our cost structure right. We've come to new agreements with our UAW partners. We're working through reducing our debt. So we're going to continue working through that, and we don't expect to take taxpayer assistance from the emergency funds. Watch Fields discuss Ford's future \u00bb . Chetry: You say it's been tough times, and certainly for you guys, it has -- 2008 the worst annual loss in Ford's 105-year history. You guys can restructure. You can work out new deals with the unions. But in the end, if people aren't buying cars or they can't get credit, how do you remain viable? Fields: Well, consumer confidence is the biggest issue in the marketplace right now. The good news is, our new cars and trucks that are coming into the marketplace are being well-received. Our retail market share has been up three of the last four months. We expect the month of March our retail share to be up again. But getting that consumer confidence is really important. And that's why today we're announcing our Ford advantage plan, and it's for any customer who buys a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury product, when they come into the showroom and buy their product, if that customer loses their position, we will pay their car payments up to 12 months while they're unemployed, to give them that peace of mind. Post your comments on AMfix . Chetry: You're also offering some zero percent financing. I'm sure that you're trying to do that as well because of the frozen credit in a lot of instances. I want to get your take on this, though. President Obama announced yesterday he's giving ... Chrysler a month, basically, to submit a reorganization plan that the administration finds acceptable. The Obama administration also of course forced General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner out. Was that the right move, in your opinion? Fields: Well, what we are supportive of is that the president is committed to a vibrant U.S. auto industry. As we mentioned, Ford is in a different position. We're not asking for the emergency taxpayer assistance. But what we are focusing on is taking decisive action to streamline our business, but more importantly win new customers with the great set of products we're going -- we're coming out with over the next couple of months. Chetry: You know, there is some unprecedented government intervention going on right now in the U.S. auto industry at your competitors. They're getting billions of dollars in taxpayer money. They're being forced to restructure, as we talked about. They actually were forced to fire their CEO. And right now, it seems that, you know, they're on a different level than you guys are. Is there some sense that perhaps there's an unfair advantage, that they're getting a lot of government help, whereas you guys are sort of on your own. Does that concern you? Fields: Well, we don't feel we're being disadvantaged, because we have been restructuring our company over the past three years. We have been investing in high-quality, fuel-efficient vehicles over the last couple of years, which are just starting to come to the marketplace. So our approach is continue to work this plan, continue to make sure that Ford remains competitive both today and in the future and continue to work with our stakeholders to make sure that happens.","highlights":"Ford exec says company has been restructuring over last three years .\nWe're in different position that competitors, says Ford executive vice president .\nRetail market share has increased in last few months, says Mark Fields .\nConsumer confidence is biggest issue in marketplace, Fields says .","id":"fe8e8217bf73d73de39897aafd0ce700ad8bf405"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- California legislators plan to keep trying to find consensus on a controversial proposal that would release at least 27,000 inmates from state prisons. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, and officials tour a prison last week in Chino after a riot there. The California Assembly on Monday delayed a possible vote on the plan. Lawmakers likely will take up the proposal Wednesday or Thursday, said Shannon Murphy, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. \"When we arrive at a responsible plan that can earn the support of the majority of the Assembly and make sense to the people of California, we will take that bill up on the Assembly floor,\" Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, said in a statement. Bass said legislators continue to meet with each other and law enforcement authorities to try to craft a plan that increases public safety, improves the state corrections department and reduces costs. As part of the negotiations, a provision that would set up a 16-member sentencing commission -- which would put new sentencing guidelines in place by 2012 -- was stripped from the bill, Murphy said. But \"it's not as if we're giving up on that notion,\" she said. The sentencing commission is a priority for Bass, she said, but the speaker believes she will have more success if she introduces a separate bill to create it. A panel of three federal judges has ordered California to reduce its prison population by about 40,000 by mid-September. The judges acted on the grounds that overcrowded prisons violate inmates' constitutional rights. The state Senate voted 21-19 Friday to release several thousand inmates early. That vote came after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, assured senators the public would be protected from the most violent offenders. \"Of course, we want to keep violent criminals off our streets and out of our communities, and this reform package is a necessary step to do that because it concentrates our incarceration efforts on the violent criminals and ensures that nonviolent offenders have more contact with parole officers,\" Steinberg said Friday. All 15 Senate Republicans voted against the bill, arguing that it undermines public safety. Democrats control both houses of the California Legislature. \"California's prison system is in a state of crisis,\" Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last week while touring the California Institution for Men in Chino. Some 250 inmates were injured this month at the facility in a riot that officials said was ignited by racial tension. Fifty-five inmates were taken to hospitals with serious injuries, including stab wounds and head trauma. Schwarzenegger said the riot was \"a terrible symptom of a much larger problem. ... Our prisons are overcrowded and endangering the staff and the inmates.\" The governor noted he had signed a budget that mandates $1.2 billion in cuts to the state corrections system. \"We must be measured and smart about how we go about and create those reductions,\" said Schwarzenegger, a Republican. \"We must find a way to cut costs and relieve overcrowding but without sacrificing public safety.\" Steinberg said the bill under debate would save the financially strapped state some $524.5 million. Coupled with budget revisions made in July, the savings would total the entire $1.2 billion, he said. Republicans said the bill would lead to the release of about 27,000 prisoners, while Democrats estimated it would reduce the prison population by 27,300 in the 2009-10 fiscal year and 37,000 during fiscal year 2010-11. But Steinberg said the measure also would reduce the ratio of parolees to parole officers to 45-to-1. Currently, one parole officer is responsible for about 70 parolees, many of whom commit new crimes and return to custody; the state has a 70 percent recidivism rate.","highlights":"California Assembly delays vote on plan to release at least 27,000 inmates .\nProvision setting up sentencing panel stripped from bill, spokeswoman says .\nState Senate voted last week to release several thousand inmates early .\nJudges order state to reduce prison population by about 40,000 by mid-September .","id":"9b03baf23c4d5e31e229c9582062295796900ac3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An extradition hearing is expected in Spain this week for one of two pilots arrested recently on charges they participated in \"death flights\" in which more than 1,000 prisoners were thrown out of planes during Argentina's \"dirty war\" in the 1970s and 1980s, officials said. Hebe de Bonafini, left, and members of Madres de Plaza de Mayo hold a demonstration in 2006. Former Navy Lt. Julio Alberto Poch, who has been held in Spain without bail since his arrest in Valencia in late September, will have a hearing before a high court in Madrid, a judge in Valencia ruled. An Argentine judge has asked that Poch be sent back to face long-standing charges from the 1976-83 right-wing dictatorship. In Argentina, police arrested former Navy Capt. Emir Sisul Hess last week in the town of Bariloche, near the border with Chile. An initial hearing for Sisul Hess was held Friday, federal court official Cecilia Brizzio told CNN. Poch and Sisul Hess are accused of piloting aircraft from which drugged and blindfolded prisoners were hurled to their deaths in the Atlantic Ocean or the Rio Plata. The prisoners included students, labor leaders, intellectuals and leftists who had run afoul of the dictatorship because of their political views. Most were dragged off the street or otherwise summarily arrested and held without trial in secret prisons where many were tortured. Sisul Hess, accused in more than 900 deaths, has denied the allegations, said Argentina's government-run Telam news agency. According to Telam, both men were arrested after they told colleagues or friends about their alleged involvement. Up to 30,000 people disappeared or were held in secret jails and torture centers during the dictatorship. Argentine human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini, who lost two sons and a daughter-in-law in the \"dirty war,\" said Monday she found no joy in the arrests. \"You can never take back the horror,\" she said. \"In no way am I happy.\" Bonafini is president of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers whose children disappeared during the war. She urged the government to continue looking for war crime suspects. Speaking of the pilots, she said, \"There are several. They are not the only ones.\" Poch, a commercial pilot for the Dutch airline Transavia.com, was arrested September 23 when his flight made a stopover in Valencia, Telam said. He was wanted on an international arrest warrant. Poch had been a navy pilot from 1976 until late 1980, Telam said. Upon leaving the navy, he moved to Holland and had been living there ever since. Argentine federal Judge Sergio Gabriel Torres is pursuing the extradition of Poch and handling the arrest of Sisul Hess. Torres traveled to Holland to question Poch's colleagues and others, Telam said. An aviator told Torres that Poch had said at a restaurant in Indonesia in December 2003 that there were occasions in which people were thrown out of helicopters and airplanes because the armed forces were dealing with \"terrorists,\" Telam said. The aviator, identified as Tim Eisso Weert, told the judge that Poch said it was a humane way to execute people because they were drugged, the government news agency reported. A co-pilot told the judge that Poch had said they \"should have killed all\" the subversives, Telam reported, and that he admitted \"some responsibility\" because \"when you fly persons on board the responsibility lies with the pilot.\" Sisul Hess is similarly said to have implicated himself, telling friends that the prisoners \"did not suffer because they were drugged, falling like little ants,\" Telam said. Sisul Hess served as a helicopter pilot in 1976-77 and retired as a captain in 1991, the news agency said. He was arrested September 29 and transferred to Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital. Judge Torres was not available Monday to take three phone calls from CNN, aides said. Nor were any documents on the cases available, the aides said. CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report .","highlights":"Former Navy Lt. Julio Alberto Poch faces charges from the 1976-83 dictatorship .\nIn Argentina, police arrested former Navy Capt. Emir Sisul Hess last week .\nPair accused of piloting aircraft from which prisoners were thrown to their deaths .\nPrisoners include those who had run afoul of the dictatorship over political views .","id":"88bb44df3e8d17d1754b84ce4ac5520ed2c8e5a1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama will place tariffs on imports of some Chinese tires for three years in an effort to curb a surge in exports that has rocked the U.S. tire industry. The White House announced plans to impose tariffs on some tires entering the United States from China. The new tariffs will be on passenger car and light truck tires, the White House said in a statement Friday night. \"The president decided to remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry based on the facts and the law in this case,\" the statement said. The tariffs will start at 35 percent in the first year, then would decline to 30 percent in the second year and 25 percent in the third. Chinese leaders have in the past expressed displeasure about a possible tire tariff. \"We hope the U.S. government will refrain from taking action, for the long-term healthy and stable development of U.S.-Chinese relations,\" Fu Ziying, China's vice commerce minister, told local media in August. \"The case is neither supported by facts nor does it have valid legal grounds,\" he added.","highlights":"U.S. to impose tariffs on some passenger car and light truck tires from China .\nSurge in exports has hurt the U.S. tire industry .\nChinese leaders have strongly opposed possible tire tariffs .","id":"0a64e134f8f636a8309af1e9049983a38c4a18bb"} -{"article":"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An archaeological dig in Jerusalem has turned up a 3,700-year-old wall that is the largest and oldest of its kind found in the region, experts say. The wall is built of enormous boulders, confounding archaeologists as to how ancient peoples built it. Standing 8 meters (26 feet) high, the wall of huge cut stones is a marvel to archaeologists. \"To build straight walls up 8 meters ... I don't know how to do it today without mechanical equipment,\" said the excavation's director, Ronny Reich. \"I don't think that any engineer today without electrical power [could] do it.\" Archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority added, \"You see all the big boulders -- all the boulders are 4 to 5 tons.\" The discovered section is 24 meters (79 feet) long. \"However, it is thought the fortification is much longer because it continues west beyond the part that was exposed,\" the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a news release. It was found inside the City of David, an archaeological excavation site outside the Old City of East Jerusalem on a slope of the Silwan Valley. The wall is believed to have been built by the Canaanites, an ancient pagan people who the Bible says inhabited Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East before the advent of monotheism. Watch report on the discovery of the ancient wall \u00bb . \"This is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David,\" Reich and Shukron said in a joint statement about the find. It marks the first time \"that such massive construction that predates the Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem.\" It appears to be part of a \"protected, well-fortified passage that descends to the spring tower from some sort of fortress that stood at the top of the hill,\" according to the joint statement. The spring \"is located in the weakest and most vulnerable place in the area. The construction of a protected passage, even though it involves tremendous effort, is a solution for which there are several parallels in antiquity, albeit from periods that are later than the remains described here.\" Such walls were used primarily to defend against marauding desert nomads looking to rob the city, said Reich, a professor at the University of Haifa. \"We are dealing with a gigantic fortification, from the standpoint of the structure's dimensions, the thickness of its walls and the size of the stones that were incorporated in its construction,\" the joint statement said. Water from the spring is used by modern inhabitants of Jerusalem. \"The new discovery shows that the picture regarding Jerusalem's eastern defenses and the ancient water system in the Middle Bronze Age 2 is still far from clear,\" Reich said. \"Despite the fact that so many have excavated on this hill, there is a very good chance that extremely large and well-preserved architectural elements are still hidden in it and waiting to be uncovered.\" CNN's Kevin Flower contributed to this report .","highlights":"Made of boulders weighing 4 to 5 tons, the 3,700-year-old wall is 26 feet high .\nArchaeologist: \"I don't know how to do it today without mechanical equipment\"\nThe wall appears to have been used to defend path that led to spring .\nWall is believed to have been built by Canaanites .","id":"99aeca9898a935a2c206271ae10012a3a71c4d97"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Obama mixed policy discussion with personal reflections on his daughters and, yes, a few jokes in an appearance on CBS' \"Late Show With David Letterman.\" President Obama jokes with David Letterman in New York in an interview taped Monday afternoon. It was the first time a sitting president has been a guest on the popular late-night entertainment show, according to the CBS Web site. It was taped Monday afternoon. After taking the stage to a huge ovation, Obama teased Letterman about being surprised to see the event on his daily schedule, saying: \"That's one of those where you ask your advisers, 'Who's responsible for this?' \" Later, when talking about summer activities of daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, Obama said that they \"goofed off,\" which he added was something he couldn't do. Letterman quickly quipped: \"Well, others have,\" prompting a big laugh from both the audience and the president. On topical issues, Obama promised to ask \"tough questions\" before deciding whether to send additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, saying it was necessary to have a clear strategy in place before deploying resources. Watch Obama talk with Letterman \u00bb . He said his \"No. 1 job\" is to make sure the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks can never harm the United States again. Asked about the economy, Obama called the $787 billion economic stimulus package passed in his first month in office a \"tourniquet\" that prevented the recession from getting worse. Complete economic recovery will take time, he warned, but added that the situation appeared to be getting better. On the hostile debate over his push to overhaul the nation's health care system, Obama disagreed with the analysis by some that the public anger against him is fueled by racism. He drew a big laugh by pointing out he was black before he became president, then noted that his election by the American public \"tells you ... a lot about where the country is at.\" \"I think that what's happened is that whenever a president tries to bring about significant changes, particularly during times of economic unease, then there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up,\" Obama said. Previous presidents including Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan also generated emotional opposition, Obama said. \"This is not untypical,\" he said. \"One of the things you sign up for in politics is, folks yell at you.\"","highlights":"President Obama's visit first time a sitting president has been \"Letterman\" guest .\nObama says he'll ask \"tough questions\" before sending more troops to Afghanistan .\nPresident says he doesn't think racism fuels opposition to health care overhaul .\nWhat did daughters Malia and Sasha do this summer? They \"goofed off,\" he says .","id":"117cceead5468de681b370e596c9317dec601daa"} -{"article":"ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Greece's opposition Socialist party on Sunday defeated the incumbent center-right government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, as Socialist leader George Papandreou promised to chart a new course for an economic comeback. Socialist George Papandreou is set to become Greece's next prime minister. \"On this course, nothing is going to be easy -- it will take work, hard work,\" Papandreou said in his victory address. \"And I will always be honest with the Greek people so that we may better solve the problems of the state.\" Sunday's national elections were held two years before originally scheduled. Karamanlis called the elections in response to pressure from Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece, which threatened to block the election of a president in February if no general election was held. The Greek constitution requires the two major parties to agree on the election of a president, giving either party an effective veto. Karamanlis' term was not due to expire until September 2011. But Papandreou insisted on new elections before the end of President Karolos Papoulias' term as president. The country's ailing economy was the focus in the run up to the elections, as both candidates offered conflicting prescriptions to revive it. While Karamanlis called for cuts in spending, Papandreou proposed a massive stimulus. Karamanlis, of the New Democracy party, congratulated Papandreou in a nationally televised concession speech. \"And like every Greek, I hope that he succeeds at the big challenge of facing up to the economic situation,\" Karamanlis said. \"Because this challenge, I have said many times, is a national issue.\" It was unclear whether Karamanlis would step down as New Democracy party leader, as the elections marked the worst defeat the party has seen in more than 20 years. According to figures posted on the Interior Ministry's Web site, the Socialist party received 44 percent of the vote, compared wotj New Democracy's 34 percent, with 87 percent of votes counted. The margin is the largest seen in a Greek vote in decades. The Socialist party will receive an estimated 160 seats in Greece's 300-seat Parliament, officials said, compared with New Democracy's 93 seats. Greek state television ERT showed cheering, flag-waving crowds surrounding Papandreou as he made his way to party headquarters. \"All of the opinion polls are suggesting that Greek voters are becoming more frustrated with (Karamanlis') governance, more frustrated that after two parliamentary terms some of the objectives which he'd set have not been achieved,\" Kevin Featherstone, director of the London School of Economics' Hellenic Observatory, told CNN. However, Papandreou's stimulus plan is also under scrutiny, with critics wanting to know more details, such as how it would be funded. In addition, problems such as corruption have long plagued the Greek government, Featherstone noted. \"These are systemic problems. These are problems which have been in Greece for generations. Over the last 20 years, we've had a succession of governments coming into power promising to clean up, promising to tackle waste, promising to reform the public administration, promising to be more transparent and clean,\" he said. \"By and large, voters have been disappointed or there has been some fair degree of frustration and disappointment.\" \"Tackling the problem, these endemic problems, really requires major efforts to reform public administration to tackle corruption and to change the culture of expectations,\" he said. Karamanlis' conservative New Democracy party suffered a sharp setback in European elections in June, when the Socialists matched New Democracy's tally of eight seats, with 36 percent of the vote. That election was seen as a litmus test for Karamanlis at a time of political and economic uncertainty with the economy shrinking and the country staring at a recession after nearly 15 years of high-profile growth. Nearly 10 million Greeks are registered to vote. CNN's Christine Theodorou and Journalist Anthee Carrasava contributed to this report.","highlights":"87% of votes counted; Socialists to get about 160 seats in 300-seat Parliament .\nSocialist leader George Papandreou to Greeks: \"I will always be honest\"\nDuring campaign, Papandreou proposed massive stimulus for weak economy .\nSunday's national elections were held two years before originally scheduled .","id":"14f42d116b19157349d07a9bc31e30eec28a56e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A soldier who had been slated to begin serving at Fort Campbell in Tennessee was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of killing his wife, police said. Jonathan Downing was found in a wooded area 20 miles from the home where his wife was found slain, police say. Jonathan Clyde Downing, 31, was being held without bond and will be tried in civilian court in the killing of 25-year-old Sena Marie Downing, said Jim Knoll, public information officer for police in Clarksville, Tennessee. Police officers went to the couple's Clarksville home shortly after 3 a.m. after receiving notice of a possible shooting, Knoll said. \"When the officers responded, the door was ajar; they went in and found her inside of the garage, and she had been shot,\" Knoll told CNN in a telephone interview. A few hours later, officers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Robertson County Sheriff's Office located Downing's vehicle about 20 miles away in Robertson County and found Downing in woods nearby, Knoll said. \"That's where he finally gave up,\" Knoll said. \"It took them almost two hours to convince him.\" Downing, who had recently served at Fort Knox in Kentucky, was taken into custody shortly before noon and was charged with criminal homicide.","highlights":"Jonathan Downing arrested hours after police found his wife slain at home .\nDowning, 31, was found in woods about 20 miles from the home, police say .\nDowning to be tried in civilian court, police say .","id":"c0b66ef9bc81c93a04833b03154fd0352c3f0406"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Spongy red balls wait in a queue, separating two teams wired to smack their opponent. Within seconds, the players dip and dive like dolphins until one player stands alone, relishing in victory. An adult plays in a dodge ball league organized by the . City of Sparks Parks and Recreation in Nevada. It's the classic game of dodge ball, but these aren't fifth-graders during PE class in Sparks, Nevada. The childhood sport of dodge ball made a comeback four years ago in this bedroom community among adults in their 20s and 30s -- and even a few players who reached retirement. Now, hundreds of working professionals, doctors, lawyers and teachers congregate at the local recreation center for a dose of dodge ball on Sunday nights. \"I think a lot of it goes back to trying to stay young,\" said Tony Pehle, recreation supervisor in Sparks, who started the dodge ball program after being inspired by the 2004 Ben Stiller movie \"Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.\" \"They might be adults, but they still like to play and have fun.\" Has Peter Pan syndrome come to stay? From playing dodge ball to jumping double Dutch and competing in rock-paper-scissors, adult men and women, from urban nests to rural towns, are reveling in games and activities once thought to be child's play. The 2009 World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando, Florida, this weekend (August 13) is all grown up, attracting more than 150 adult competitors, who can showcase dizzying tricks with the flick of a finger. Later in the month, hundreds of adults outfitted in pirate and animal costumes will race their homebuilt vehicles for Oregon's annual Portland Adult Soapbox Derby, a crafty activity that began for youths in the 1930s. \"Once a year, I get to build something for the kid in me,\" says Jason Hogue, a 41-year-old carpenter, who has participated in the race for eight years. Last year, he constructed a car shaped like a hammerhead shark. \"We get to use our creativity and get excited with our friends.\" Whether they're done to seek refuge from the daily grind or to provide nostalgia for youthful days -- or they're a product of what some experts say is a generation that can't grow up -- these juvenile pastimes are getting more popular. For example, adult viewership of the Nickelodeon show \"SpongeBob SquarePants\" swelled by 51 percent from 1999 to 2009, officials say. The World Adult Kickball Association, one of the largest kickball organizations, has spread its tentacles to 33 states as well a soldier division in Iraq. WAKA Kickball began as a casual game between a few young single friends in their 20s in Washington, D.C. Now, the games appeal to tens of thousands of adults, many of them yuppies wanting a quick escape from the stresses of their first 401(k), mortgage and job. \"I played soccer growing up, and I like competition,\" says avid kickball player Marlon LeWinter, 28, of New York City. LeWinter, a public relations executive, usually plays the position of center with a bunch of producers, writers and analysts in their late 20s. They named their team Chipwich Nation after they scarfed down the cookies-and-ice cream treat at a bar after a game one night. \"Sometimes when it's [the score] two to one in a kickball came, I get the jitters,\" he says. The economic bind also creates a favorable environment for adults to latch onto simple children's games and sports. With players who are trapped in a world of layoffs and job freezes, these adult leagues, contests and tournaments are the equivalent of sandbox time for children. They can make new friends and go for a beer after the game. These activities are also budget-friendly, costing less than $100 to join for several months of play -- much less than a golf club membership. Since the recession, Duncan Toys, one of the biggest yo-yo manufacturers in the United States, has seen sales spike. A company official noticed many of the adults who purchased yo-yos tried to get the same models they owned as kids. \"Nowadays, everything is taken so seriously that people revert to something like playing with a yo-yo,\" says Mike McBride, a 34-year-old multimedia designer who picked up the activity shortly after college. McBride, who will compete in the Orlando World Yo-Yo contest, says the activity helps him relieve stress. \"There's no pressure.\" In 2006, Christopher Noxon, in his book \"Rejuvenile,\" explored why adults fancy childhood pursuits like kickball, cartoons and cupcakes. Beginning with Generation X adults in the 1990s, the group began to shift from the norms of the hierarchal corporate ladder, and the age of marriage began to steadily climb. Soon, juvenile activities that had been regarded as silly became hip. Quirky became cool, and more organized teams, groups and competitions for playground sports and childlike hobbies emerged. \"Our whole idea of adulthood has changed,\" says Noxon. \"We value flexibility and creativity, and these are things kids are good at. It's brought us back to what we had as children.\" But it isn't just the younger generations that clutch leftovers from their youth or become interested in child-like activities. Grandparents in their 70s and 80s still collect roomfuls of model train sets, romanticizing the days when the only way to travel was by choo-choo. Women in their 40s acquire American Girl dolls that stir fond memories of reading the novels during childhood. Psychology experts say it shouldn't be a surprise that the affinity for childhood hobbies and activities extends across generations. After all, Americans have long had an obsession with youth. To be young is associated with being fun, vibrant and active. In the Internet age, finding one's inner child has never been easier, with the proliferation of social networks such as Facebook or Web sites like Meetup.com, where users can create groups and meeting times for activities. On the site, groups of adults organize scavenger hunts in Atlanta, Georgia, and action figure discussions in New York City. \"This is a generation of people who are far less homogenous and more niche-oriented,\" says Judith Sills, a clinical psychologist who works with young adults. \"They can bond around their quirky differences. Ten years ago, you couldn't have easily found another kickball player, even if you wanted to play.\"","highlights":"WAKA Kickball started more than a decade ago by a few friends is now in 33 states .\nThe 2009 World Yo-Yo Contest will attract more than 150 adults this year .\nHundreds of adult soapbox racers will wear costumes to race in Portland, Oregon .\n\"Rejuvenile\" author Noxon says childhood pastimes are becoming more acceptable .","id":"37c9d33d6eb34c7accdb01fe4357a593766a1f55"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's a familiar scenario: A major crime is committed. Police investigate possible leads while the media asks for information. Soon, authorities say they have a \"person of interest.\" Raymond Clark was named a person of interest, and then charged with murdering Yale grad student Annie Le. But what does this term mean? \"The 'person of interest' tells you nothing,\" says Cynthia Hujar Orr, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. \"They are suspicious of that person, but the police don't have the evidence they need.\" Investigators named Raymond Clark a \"person of interest\" after 24-year-old Yale University graduate student Annie Le was found dead in the basement of an off-campus lab. Officer Joe Avery, of the New Haven Police Department, said Clark was a \"person of interest\" because he worked in the same highly-secured lab where Le was last seen. Authorities detained Clark, 24, on Tuesday, took his DNA and searched his home. They released him, and his lawyer said Clark was fully cooperating with authorities. Then, on Thursday, Clark was arrested and charged with Le's murder. Watch police announce the arrest \u00bb . But not everyone who is called a person of interest becomes a suspect. In the last decade, law enforcement authorities have increasingly used the phrase -- but the label didn't necessarily mean the person would be charged. According to one analysis of 40 cases, half of the \"persons of interest\" were released without charges. The exact origin of the phrase \"person of interest\" is unknown. But several criminology professors and attorneys who spoke with CNN said they believe the phrase became widely used after the 1996 Olympic Park bombings in Atlanta, Georgia, when media outlets called security guard Richard Jewell a suspect. Jewell was never charged, and was eventually cleared. Several years later, Eric Rudolph was arrested and convicted for the crime. Jewell died in August 2007. Jewell sued the FBI and several media organizations -- including CNN, NBC and the Atlanta Journal Constitution -- for libel and slander. The CNN and NBC suits were settled. The U.S. Attorney's Office gave him an unprecedented government acknowledgment of wrongful accusation. Law enforcement officers and the media began using the term \"person of interest\" as a shield against civil litigation. But some attorneys, criminologists and media experts say using the loose term \"person of interest\" can tarnish the person's reputation, mislead the public, and possibly hurt the investigation. Using the phrase is a way for authorities to draw attention to the person without formally accusing them, they say. Watch a discussion of the phrase 'person of interest' \u00bb . \"It's a really bad term to use, because the public reads 'suspect,' \" said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, a national journalism training institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. Donna Shaw, a journalism professor at The College of New Jersey, said she believes federal law enforcement officials invented the phrase in the mid-1990s to satiate journalists hounding them for information. Soon, local law enforcement officers began to pick up on the phrase. Shaw studied a year's worth of stories with the term \"person of interest\" in 2006, interviewing representatives from local police departments on why the term was utilized. \"Some of the police told me, ' We don't know what it means but it makes reporters happy,' \" Shaw said. Her research found that fewer than half of the people identified as \"persons of interest\" were ever charged with the crimes, yet their stories remained ingrained on the Internet after their exoneration. In the U.S. Attorney's Manual, a guidebook used by federal criminal prosecutors, the phrase \"person of interest\" doesn't exist. It is not a legal term used by attorneys. Police are trained to use lingo like \"suspect,\" \"subject\" and \"target.\" James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said the expression \"person of interest\" is closest in meaning to the word \"subject\" but doesn't necessarily mean that person is a \"suspect.\" A subject is a police term used to describe someone who appears suspicious for circumstantial reasons. Common \"subjects\" could be a victim's husband or boyfriend, Fox said. In the case of graduate student Annie Le, Raymond Clark worked in the same lab. In contrast, a suspect is someone against whom police have specific evidence leading investigators to believe the person committed the crime and will likely be charged, he said. In some instances, as in Clark's case, a \"person of interest\" can eventually become a suspect, who is then arrested and charged. \"Any particular crime will have several 'people of interest,' \" Fox said. \"But much of the time a person of interest is just that, once the police investigate and find out they have an alibi.\" Steven Hatfill, a former U.S. Army bio-weapons scientist, found his reputation destroyed after Attorney General John Ashcroft named him a \"person of interest\" in the 2001 anthrax attacks. In the investigation that followed, Hatfill was never charged. He was never named a suspect. \"The government failed us, not only by failing to catch the anthrax mailers but by seeking to conceal that failure,\" a lawyer for Hatfill said in 2008 after winning a $2.8 million settlement of an invasion of privacy lawsuit against the Justice Department. \"Our government did this by leaking gossip, speculation and misinformation to a handful of credulous reporters,\" the lawyer added. The man whom authorities eventually blamed for the anthrax attacks, Bruce Ivins, committed suicide in 2008 as federal agents were closing in on him, police said. Officials at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Washington, D.C., said authorities who use the phrase \"person of interest\" can confuse the person who is in custody. A person who is labeled a \"person of interest\" might not seek out an attorney under the mistaken belief he or she is simply a witness, and the vague term can make it easier for police to get a confession, they said. Clark, the technician labeled a \"person of interest\" in the Yale student's slaying, answered some questions and then obtained an attorney, police said. Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, said the imprecise phrase can help law enforcement to establish credibility among the public by suggesting that they are making progress in a case. By saying you have a suspect, he explained, \"You are putting your nickel down and saying we think we have the guy.\"","highlights":"Police began widely using \"person of interest\" after 1996 Olympic Park bombing .\nIt does not mean the same thing as \"suspect\"\nExperts say the phrase came into use to reduce media pressure .\nIt can deceive the subject of an investigation, expert says .","id":"566497ebde2a52c86eb8846cb371130e570b34c7"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Nancy Grace is the host of \"Nancy Grace\" on HLN nightly at 8 and 10 p.m. ET. Read an excerpt from her new novel \"The Eleventh Victim\" published by Hyperion. Nancy Grace found it challenging to complete her first novel, \"The Eleventh Victim.\" (CNN) -- Readers of Nancy Grace's debut novel, \"The Eleventh Victim,\" would be forgiven if they assumed the main character is based on Grace. After all, the heroine of the novel becomes an Atlanta, Georgia, district attorney after her fianc\u00e9 is murdered and later relocates to New York for a fresh start. But Grace said there are some differences between her and her protagonist. \"Hailey is a much better person than I am,\" Grace said. The tough-as-nails anchor of the HLN show that bears her name was driven to complete her first book of fiction, which she said has been in the works for almost a decade. The novel centers on the character of Hailey Dean, a psychology student who becomes a prosecutor after the tragic murder of her fianc\u00e9 just weeks before their wedding. The mystery takes flight when Dean, having relocated to Manhattan and trained as a therapist, discovers that her patients are being murdered in a copycat style of an Atlanta serial killer from her past. Grace -- who is also the author of the nonfiction book \"Objection!\" -- recently spoke to CNN about the challenges of giving birth to both twins and a thriller, who might die in her next novel and what she thinks about television shows like \"Saturday Night Live\" parodying her. CNN: You are a working mother of two year-old twins. How in the world did you find time to write a book? Nancy Grace: It was hard work. I had done \"Objection\" and I had an idea for a second nonfiction. I went back to my editor and I said \"Here's an idea for another nonfiction.\" She said \"Yeah, it's OK, you got anything else?\" I said \"No, but I do have an old manuscript I've been working on for a long time, a murder mystery.\" I told her it's not finished yet, I have about 300 pages. I took it over that day and the next day they told me they wanted a two-book series on Hailey Dean. Then I thought \"Oh Lord, now I've got to finish it.\" That happened around the time I got pregnant. Watch Nancy discuss her new book \u00bb . I had a difficult pregnancy. I was in a wheelchair, I threw up every day, I broke my foot during the pregnancy, so a lot of crazy things happened. Finally, after the twins came, the deadline came. I literally had to sit in the bed with the computer and force myself to finish it. I knew what was going to happen in each of the four storylines, but I had to get there. I would be up sometimes until 3 or 4 in the morning. The twins, one would wake up, by the time I would get that one fed and down, the other one would wake up and then it was time to get up at 5:30. CNN: You said you knew who did it in terms of the mystery early on in the writing. So how did the book change during its development? Grace: The characters really developed. It's like getting to know a person. Read an excerpt from the novel . There are certain things Hailey simply would not do. You get to know your characters and they become richer and more intricate because you get to know the character. I would not do anything that was out of character for them. CNN: The plot and the settings sound very familiar to your own life. How much of you is in Hailey? Grace: Hailey is a much better person than I am, I can tell you that much. She's very brave. She thinks her way out of difficult and almost impossible situations, she's courageous and she's witty. I would say it's loosely based, but she's a much better heroine than I could ever be. CNN: What is more difficult, writing nonfiction or fiction? Grace: It is definitely harder to write fiction. With nonfiction you deal with facts already in existence, but with fiction you have to create everything. Details like what color somebody's hair was to how hot it was that day. A lot of ideas for the book would come to me in the middle of the night and I forgot some of them so often that I now sleep with my two BlackBerrys near the bed. I've learned my lesson the hard way, so I will now write myself my book notes in the middle of the night. CNN: Is there anything that didn't make it into this book that you wished had? Grace: Yes, but don't worry because I saved it for the next book, which will be set in the television industry. There's going to be a lot of dead TV executives (laughing). CNN: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so what are your thoughts on having been parodied? Grace: It's funny to me. Everything from YouTube to \"Boston Legal\" and \"Saturday Night Live.\" It's very flattering that they would think enough to make fun of me. I want [rapper] Eminem to make fun of me, but I don't think it would be very nice (laughing).","highlights":"Nancy Grace's debut novel, \"The Eleventh Victim\" has a story similar to hers .\nGrace says main character \"is a much better person than I am\"\nThe thriller was almost a decade in the making .\nBook first of two planned about prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean .","id":"56be56c87c3c93960b1db37a1850e1d193ed0a6e"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Soon after I first came to visit China in the autumn of 1971, I saw a contingent of militia soldiers doing marching drills in Tiananmen Square. I was told they were rehearsing for the annual National Day parade on October 1, which people eagerly awaited. Mao Zedong proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 1949. Weeks later, however, I was informed that the civilian and military parade had been cancelled in the spirit of \"simple-living and hard struggle,\" as Chairman Mao decreed. The real reason: Lin Biao, then defense minister and Mao's anointed successor, had reportedly died in a plane crash while attempting to flee the country after a failed coup attempt. China's achievements in the last 60 years have come in zigs and zags. The best place to look back at what China went through in the past six decades is Tiananmen, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Behind it lies the Imperial Palace, or Forbidden City, where China's Emperors used to live. The emperor is now history, but Tiananmen remains Beijing's political center. It was on the Tiananmen rostrum where Chairman Mao formally proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic. \"The Chinese people have stood up!\" he declared in a shrill Hunanese accent. For decades, the whole nation followed Mao loyally. He emphasized political mobilization of the common man, especially the peasantry. In Mao's ideology, the Chinese people found hope in a New China, wherein citizens would always have a bowl of rice to eat and clothes to wear. Mao proved to be good at fighting but poor at governing. He pushed sweeping socio-economic initiatives and strident ideological campaigns, often with disastrous results. During two political campaigns in the late 1950s, over 550,000 \"rightist\" intellectuals were persecuted and imprisoned. The Great Leap Forward led to widespread famine and the deaths of an estimated 30 million Chinese. In the late 1960s, Mao would again stand in the Tiananmen rostrum to launch the Cultural Revolution. There, he rallied hundreds of thousands of young Chinese -- the radical Red Guards -- who lionized him like a demi-god. \"To rebel is justified!\" they proclaimed. They rebelled against everything and wreaked havoc everywhere. For ten years, China was condemned to political turmoil and economic malaise. Perhaps the only factor that kept the country from total collapse was the people's incomparable resilience and their ability to \"chi ku\" (eat bitterness, or bear hardship). Mao's reign is also credited for positive changes. He banned child brides and polygamy, built Beijing's first subway line and started a space program with China's first satellite launch. In 1972, the People's Republic of China replaced the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the United Nations. Still, for three decades under Mao, China tried to break out of its backwardness and isolation but only met modest success. Mao died in 1976 and his remains are kept in a mausoleum in Tiananmen Square. Take an audiovisual tour of Mao's hometown \u00bb . Soon enough, Deng Xiaoping emerged as the new paramount leader. Deng overturned most of Mao's policies and embarked upon reforming the economy and opening up the country to the outside world. His quest for stability and prosperity took off in the early 1990s, propelled by his pragmatic policies to entice foreign investments and build China's private sector. Just south of Tiananmen, one landmark stands as a symbol of Deng's bold open-door policy. In the early 1980s, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opened in Beijing, just a stone's throw away from Mao's mausoleum. Today, the fast food chain still does brisk business, with a large portrait of founder Colonel Sanders hanging on the three-story building. Not every Chinese embraced Deng's reform and open-door policy. Old Guards and conservatives in and outside the communist party accepted Deng's reform policies, but with a great deal of misgiving. The backlash came to a boil in 1989, when Tiananmen witnessed an outpouring of support for the students who called for freedom and democracy, and more reform. After six weeks of heady demonstrations, the Tiananmen movement was brutally suppressed. See landmark moments in China's 60 years \u00bb . China has returned to world prominence through a 20-year economic boom, the speed and breadth of which is unparalleled in the history of mankind. China went from global economic irrelevance to the third largest economy in the world. The People's Liberation Army, no longer a \"junkyard army,\" has emerged as a formidable military power capable of launching a human being into space and shooting down satellites. Take a look inside China's space program \u00bb . The People's Republic of China marks its 60th anniversary on Thursday with 300,000 participants and 60 floats to highlight the country's achievements in various sectors of the society and economy. See anniversary preparations in photos \u00bb . A military parade will feature goose-stepping troops marching down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Modern military hardware -- tanks, armed personnel carriers, missiles, helicopters and fighter jets, all made in China -- will be on display. Fireworks will cap the festivities. See how China has changed over 60 years \u00bb . But pomp and pageantry aside, China's phenomenal economic growth over the decades has triggered unintended consequences: rising unemployment, growing income gaps, endemic corruption, rising criminality, environmental degradation and social malaise. Millions of Chinese live on less than $1 a day, and social tension sometimes boil over into violent clashes. Chinese president Hu Jintao is pushing to promote democracy in the party, curb corruption and seek a harmonious society. \"To build a well-off society for 1.3 billion people and a democratic, civilized, harmonious and modernized country,\" he recently told a communist party meeting, \"China must firmly push reform and opening up and stick to its own path.\" Meet some of China's young communists \u00bb . Like the cutting-edge CCTV tower intended to formally open this year but didn't after a celebratory fireworks display went awry and caused a fire, China's great achievements stand side by side with daunting challenges.","highlights":"Mao proved to be good at fighting but poor at governing .\nMao pushed sweeping socio-economic initiatives, strident ideological campaigns .\nHis successor Deng Xiaoping embarks upon reforming the economy, opening China .\nChina gains world prominence via 20-year economic boom, but has consequences .","id":"0a1ad82d161d90d758240407cb8c8fcebff4a212"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ryanair on Monday rejected strong criticism from Britain's top business regulator, who accused Europe's largest airline of \"puerile\" tactics in the way it adds credit card fees on to advertised fares. John Fingleton, head of the UK's Office of Fair Trading watchdog, said the no-frills carrier was playing a \"funny game\" by imposing fees for anyone not using an obscure credit card. Fingleton, speaking to the UK's Independent newspaper, expressed dismay that the airline was able to advertise credit card fees as \"optional\" through its acceptance of a pre-paid MasterCard. \"Ryanair has this funny game where they have found some low frequency payment mechanism and say: 'Well, because you can pay with that [the charge is optional]',\" he said. \"It's almost like taunting consumers and pointing out: 'Oh well, we know this is completely outside the spirit of the law, but we think it's within the narrow letter of the law'.\" Ryanair, which outlines its credit chard charges on its Web site, rejected Fingleton's comments, accusing the business regulator of trying to detract from its failure to tackle other issues facing the country's aviation industry. \"Ryanair fails to understand why it was singled out for these inaccurate criticisms by Mr. Fingleton, when its charges policies are copied by high fare UK airlines,\" it said in a statement.","highlights":"UK business regulator says Ryanair playing a \"funny game\" over booking fees .\nOffice of Fair Trading head John Fingleton says airline is \"almost taunting\" customers .\nRyanair says it is being unfairly singled out for \"inaccurate\" criticism .","id":"baf3b7aa98133daba661c8bfa0414dea84654b9b"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Kraft's fresh bid for suffered a double blow Tuesday as the improved offer was dismissed by the British candy company and criticized by billionaire investor Warren Buffett who controls an influential stake in the U.S. food giant. Buffett said he had voted against Kraft's plan to issue new shares as part of a cash and stock offer worth approximately $16 billion, warning it would hurt shareholders, Fortune reported. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company owns 138 million Kraft shares, making it the largest shareholder in the foodmaker with a 9.4 percent stake. But in a statement, he warned Kraft's move for Cadbury risked undervaluing Kraft stock. \"Kraft stock, at its current price of $27, is a very expensive 'currency' to be used in an acquisition,\" Buffett said. \"In 2007, in fact, Kraft spent $3.6 billion to repurchase shares at about $33 per share, presumably because the directors and management thought the shares to be worth more.\" Earlier, Illinois-based Kraft said it would use the proceeds from the sale of its U.S. pizza business to Nestle to increase the cash element of its Cadbury offer. Under Kraft's offer of a partial cash alternative, Cadbury shareholders could receive cash as well as Kraft shares if they accept Kraft's deal. \"Kraft Foods is doing this because of the desire expressed by some Cadbury security holders to have a greater proportion of the offer in cash,\" Kraft said in a statement. The maker of Jell-O, Cool Whip, Oreo cookies and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese also extended the Cadbury offer to February 2. The original bid had expired Tuesday. Cadbury, which rejected Kraft's previous two deals, rejected the new offer Tuesday. \"Kraft has once again missed the point,\" a Cadbury spokesman told CNN. \"Despite this tinkering, the Kraft offer remains unchanged and derisory, with less than half the consideration in cash.\" There had been rumors that Swiss firm Nestle, which already has a chocolate and confectionery unit, would step in and make its own offer for Cadbury. But Nestle put an end to those rumors Tuesday by issuing a statement saying it had no intention to make an offer for the British company. Instead, Nestle said it had bought Kraft's frozen pizza business in the United States and Canada for $3.7 billion. The unit includes brands like DiGiorno, Tombstone, and California Pizza Kitchen. \"The acquisition brings leadership in the frozen pizza category, where Nestle only had a minor presence until now, and builds on Nestle's existing pizza know-how and operations in Europe,\" Nestle said in a statement Tuesday. \"It is a natural fit with Nestle's focus on delivering convenient, premium, wholesome and nutritious frozen food for consumers around the world.\" Nestle already had a presence in American frozen food aisles with ready-meal brands like Stouffer's, Lean Cuisine, and Hot Pockets. The proceeds from the sale allow Kraft to offer more cash to Cadbury shareholders -- an additional 60 pence (96 cents) per share, Kraft said. Kraft originally offered Cadbury shareholders 300 pence ($4.81) and 0.26 Kraft shares for each share of Cadbury they own. Kraft said it will announce more detailed terms by January 19.","highlights":"Kraft raises offer, extends deadline in takeover bid for Cadbury .\nKraft shareholder Warren Buffett says he voted against Cadbury offer .\nIllinois company sells U.S. pizza business to Nestle to fund revised offer .\nUK candy maker Cadbury rejects offer, says terms remain \"unchanged, derisory\"","id":"d2266b125f2c689f47a47d8ecad546e00b6ba48b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Salvador Cabanas remains in a critical condition in hospital as doctors admit they are having difficulty treating the Paraguay international due to increased swelling on his brain. The Club America striker was shot in the head in Mexico City during the early hours of Monday morning after an incident in a city bar. Cabanas was transported to an intensive care unit at a local hospital and was rushed into theatre where doctors made an attempt to remove the bullet lodged in his skull before deciding it would be too dangerous. Doctors revealed he showed favorable signs when they attempted to bring him out of an induced coma but have now been forced to increase the sedation as the swelling on his brain worsens. \"Salvador remains clinically stable, nevertheless we have had certain problems because the excess accumulation of water on his brain has grown,\" Ernesto Martinez Duhart, who operated on Cabanas, told reporters. \"We will have to keep him sedated a bit more to protect and improve cerebral function. It could get worse, he continues to be in the same serious condition. The risk of death has not yet passed.\" Cabanas is one of Paraguay's top players and was part of their World Cup squad in Germany four years ago. The 29-year-old is a prolific goalscorer and was expected to lead Paraguay's attack in South Africa this summer. He has scored over 100 times in the Mexican top flight and has netted 18 goals in 24 matches this season. Around 10,000 Paraguayan fans gathered at the the Estadio Defensores del Chaco, the country's national stadium in Asuncion, to hold a vigil for Cabanas on Tuesday evening.","highlights":"Paraguay international striker Salvador Cabanas remains in a critical condition in hospital .\nDoctors admit they are having difficulty treating the player because of swelling in his brain .\nThe Club America striker was shot in the head in Mexico City during the early hours of Monday morning .","id":"8f8a77911f7b5274425b9faad89c7cf3f0c953c9"} -{"article":"Japan has long been the world leader in robotics research, but in recent years it's also been leading the way when it comes to cutting-edge medical technology. A prototype \"Finger Rehabilitation Glove,\" designed to aid recovery from paralysis. From robot nurses that can lift hospital patients in and out of their beds, to intelligent toilets that can dispense medical advice, Japanese researchers are developing radical new approaches to health care. While many of these technologies are still at the prototype stage, it may not be long before they turn up in a hospital near you.","highlights":"Japan is leading the way with advances in cutting-edge medical technology .\nResearchers have developed nurse robots that can assist in hospitals .\nThe \"Intelligent Toilet\" can test blood pressure and give health advice .","id":"e25212f027aab549fb961726008c0d632504461f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Waller has some simple advice for anyone looking to improve morale at their organization -- even if it's not the easiest advice to follow. IAEA deputy director David Waller calls Nobel \"a bolt of lightning\" for his staff . \"I say to them, jokingly, 'Why don't you try winning the Nobel Peace Prize?' \" he said. Waller, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, knows what he's talking about. The organization, based in Vienna, Austria, and dedicated to the safe and peaceful use of nuclear power, was awarded the prize in 2005. President Barack Obama was the surprise winner Friday of this year's peace prize. But for most of this week's other winners, the honor marks a leap from relative obscurity to a spot in the international limelight. Waller said the scientists, authors, activists and others receiving Nobel honors this week should be prepared for an experience that will change their lives in the months and years that follow. \"The day that it was announced that we were winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I can assure you that it was like a bolt of lightning that went through this place in terms of energizing staff and giving people a sense of self-worth,\" he said. \"It was absolutely remarkable.\" In all, 172 people and 33 organizations were nominated for the peace prize-- although the Oslo, Norway-based Nobel committee had not announced who its finalists were. The peace prize is one of five awards handed out annually by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The other four prizes are for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. Starting in 1969, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel also has been awarded. The peace prize is the last of the awards to be announced this week and the Riksbank prize will be awarded Monday. Even for an organization like the IAEA, a United Nations affiliate that traces its roots back to 1957, things were never the same after receiving the revered award, Waller said. \"Many, many things changed,\" he said. \"The number of applications we had for positions here, which was already high, skyrocketed. People returned phone calls very quickly. The whole spectrum of things of that nature changed.\" Elizabeth Dobie-Sarsam, a media specialist with the agency, remembers the day it received the Nobel -- she was on vacation and asleep on her sister's floor in Canada when it was announced. \"For three years running, we had been sitting on the edges of our chairs hoping that we won,\" she said. \"That year, for some reason, we thought, 'Oh, forget it. We're not going to get it.' \" The trip back to Vienna would have taken her too long to handle the initial rush of attention, so she finished her vacation, with family members introducing her as \"the Nobel Peace Prize winner\" for the rest of the week. Months later, Dobie-Sarsam said, she was still working to keep up with a flood of media interest in the agency spurred by the award. She said that, four years later, the award still contributes to a feeling of unity among the agency's more-than 2,000 employees who come from over 100 different countries. \"That flush of excitement, unfortunately, it goes away with time,\" she said. \"[But] you do get reminded. You walk through the corridor and you see that certificate hanging -- it's acknowledgement that what we do is incredibly important.\" The Nobel recipient receives a prize of 10 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.4 million, another life-changer for many recipients. But Waller said it's the recognition of what the Nobel panel called the \"incalculable value\" of his agency's work that helps when employees are having a hard time with their sometimes slow, frustrating work. \"I think it's a continuing energizer for our staff,\" he said.","highlights":"Deputy director says Nobel was \"bolt of lightning\" for staff .\nNobel foundation named Obama the 2009 peace prize winner Friday .\nRecognition, applications will rise with announcement, winners say .\nInternational Atomic Energy Agency won in 2005 for work in nuclear field .","id":"5daa60b042064cbf85c889785daf8b4ceb3c3ec3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The mother of a Virginia Tech junior who disappeared Saturday night during a Metallica concert says she helped her daughter choose an outfit for the show that same morning. Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, disappeared at a Metallica concert Saturday night. Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old education major, went to the concert at the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville with several girlfriends but disappeared from their sight around 8:40 p.m., according to police, who are calling it a missing person case. \"She was excited about the concert and she brought home three outfits that she tried on for me,\" Gil Harrington, said Tuesday on HLN's \"Nancy Grace.\" \"We chose one and she said, 'Mama, it is a rock concert so it is probably not what you would choose, but is this one OK?'\" Harrington said she told her daughter, 'That will do fine.' \"You know you have to give your kid wings,\" Harrington said. Watch mom describe daughter's excitement \u00bb . Morgan Harrington had been so excited about the concert, according to her mother, that she posted the tickets on the refrigerator six months ahead of time. Metallica posted a message about Harrington's disappearance on their Web site under the heading \"One of our fans is missing.\" \"We are deeply concerned about the disappearance of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington, who was last seen while attending our concert at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA, on Saturday night,\" the message said. The message described Harrington and asked that anyone with information contact Virginia State Police or University of Virginia police. \"Our thoughts are with Morgan and her family for her safe return,\" the message concluded.\" Harrington, who lives off-campus, was reported missing Sunday afternoon when she did not show up at her parents' home to study for a math exam with her father. \"It's important to us as police officers to realize that people do come up missing,\" said Lieutenant Joe Rader of the Virginia State Police in a news conference on Monday. \"However, it's very, very unusual that we have not heard anything, either, from her friends or from her family regarding her whereabouts. That is the biggest concern currently -- her whereabouts and her welfare.\" Harrington is 5'6\", 120 pounds, has blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing a black Pantera T-shirt, black mini skirt, black tights and black boots.","highlights":"Student was last seen at Metallica concert Saturday night .\nHarrington is 5'6\", 120 pounds, and was wearing a black Pantera T-shirt .\nMetallica posted a message about Harrington's disappearance on their Web site .","id":"6c95679d894b387823aee98881d307d7fced1931"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Thousands of people were pushing for rescue efforts in Haiti to continue Sunday, after a 24-year-old man was pulled alive from the ruins on Saturday, 11 days after the nation's devastating earthquake. The Haitian government says it will be switching from a search and rescue operation to a search and recovery mission. But families of Americans who were staying at the leveled Hotel Montana are fighting that, and started an online petition Saturday in an effort to continue search efforts there \"until all the survivors are accounted for.\" As of Sunday morning, 2,395 people had signed the petition and sent 6,216 messages to the Senate, Congress and the White House, said Sue Keller, a friend of a family whose relatives are among the missing. The families hope to have at least 5,000 signatures by Monday, she said. The Haitian government has said more than 111,000 people died in the January 12 quake, which registered 7.0 in magnitude. But on Saturday, a French rescue team was able to save one life as they pulled Wismond Jean-Pierre from the rubble of the Hotel Napoli Inn in Port-au-Prince. According to his brother, Jean-Pierre worked in the hotel's grocery store and survived his week and a half in the rubble by consuming cookies and beer. Dehydrated but apparently without injury, Jean-Pierre was even talkative as he was placed in an ambulance and driven to a hospital. Lt. Col. Christophe Renou, a French rescuer briefly overcome with emotion, called the three-hour effort \"a miracle.\" Other members of the team -- assisted by American and Greek workers -- were seen weeping after Jean-Pierre was freed. Rescues like Jean-Pierre's, and others that have happened in the week following the disaster, sparked hope among families of the missing. But the emotional rescue came on a day when much of Haiti was mourning as operations largely shifted from rescue to recovery, and the country's president attended the funeral of an archbishop who was one of the victims. A Mexican rescue team had pulled the body of 63-year-old Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot from ruins near the national cathedral, which he oversaw as archbishop of Port-au-Prince. The cathedral was destroyed. At the funeral, President Ren\u00e9 Pr\u00e9val was asked to respond to criticism that he has not shown strong public leadership and has been largely unseen in the aftermath. \"This is not about politics today,\" he said. CNN iReport: Looking for loved ones in Haiti . The most recent death toll is the worst caused by an earthquake since the 2004 Asian tsunami that resulted from a temblor, and the second-highest death toll from an earthquake in more than three decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. \"Rescue teams continue to work in Port-au-Prince, we continue to hope that they will be able to find people still alive, but as time passes, we must gradually shift our resources from rescue to recovery,\" Nick Birnback, spokesman for U.N. peacekeeping operations, said Saturday. International search teams have rescued at least 132 people since the quake struck, the U.N. said. Birnback said the priority now is to remove bodies and clean up affected areas to avoid health hazards and the spread of disease. He said the United Nations will start bringing in heavier equipment, which will allow teams to move concrete and damaged homes. More than 600,000 people have also been left homeless in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Interactive map of where to find aid, hospitals in Haiti . Meanwhile, up to 140 flights a day are regularly arriving at the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport, compared with 25 in the immediate aftermath of the January 12 quake, OCHA said Saturday. To relieve congestion at the airport, humanitarian cargo is being moved to a forward dispatch area at one end of the runway. The Las Americas airport in Santo Domingo, in neighboring Dominican Republic, is starting to report congestion as it becomes increasingly used as an alternative airport, OCHA said. It will now be open overnight to accommodate the extra traffic. Those managing the land transport of supplies from Santo Domingo will need fuel, and OCHA said there is enough in Haiti to last an additional 18 to 19 days. But it said it expects no shortage of fuel because supplies of fuel will be able to enter the port during that time. One concern with cross-border traffic is the unauthorized departure of Haitian children, OCHA said. Charities and aid groups have said in recent days that they are concerned about the danger of child trafficking after the earthquake. Groups including Save the Children and World Vision have called for a halt to adoptions, saying many children may appear to be orphaned but have simply been separated from their families. \"If children must be evacuated from Haiti because their protection needs cannot be met in country, the evacuation must be carefully documented, the children must be registered with the proper authorities and all efforts must be made to reunify them with family before any adoption proceedings are considered,\" the U.S.-based Women's Refugee Commission said. The number of unaccompanied children needing support is greater than the capacity to respond, OCHA said. Authorities are working with unaccompanied children who are being released from hospitals, it said.","highlights":"24-year-old pulled from hotel ruins 11 days after quake offers hope more are alive .\nMore than 111,000 have died since the January 12 quake, the Haitian government says .\nFamilies are protesting the switch from search\/rescue to rescue\/recovery .","id":"d19b7bdcdf66e53183741517ad7c16a9b1727622"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Troops with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan have seized more than 6,000 pounds of illegal drugs, the force said. Troops found more than 5,300 pounds of processed opium, more than 1,000 pounds of wet opium paste, approximately 50 pounds of heroin, and multiple firearms with ammunition were found in the truck, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. Authorities arrested two people and destroyed most of the drugs, though they kept some narcotics to analyze. The confiscation took place Wednesday in southern Afghanistan -- in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province -- after troops stopped a \"suspicious\" truck. Afghan opium kills 100,000 people a year worldwide -- more than any other drug -- and the opiate heroin kills five times as many people in NATO countries each year than the total number of NATO troops killed in combat in Afghanistan, a recent U.N. report said. About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market for the drug and also fueling terrorism and insurgencies. The Taliban raised $450 million to $600 million over the past four years by \"taxing\" opium farmers and traffickers, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a report last autumn. Not all the money is going into the pockets of rebels or drug dealers, though. Some Afghan officials are making money off the trade as well, he said.","highlights":"NATO-led troops in Afghanistan seized more than 6,000 pounds of illegal drugs .\nHaul included more than 5,300 pounds of processed opium .\nTroops stopped a \"suspicious\" truck in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province .\nAfghan opium kills 100,000 people a year worldwide -- more than any other drug .","id":"a693f402cf9db47461adfffedcd8c63e84552a37"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 3,000 U.S. troops scheduled to deploy to Iraq won't go after all, as the military tries to draw down troop levels in the war-torn country, a Pentagon spokesman said Saturday. U.S. troops speak to an Iraqi child in Baghdad on Monday. The 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division will not replace a North Carolina National Guard unit already in Iraq, Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh told CNN. The 3,500-troop combat team, based in Fort Drum, New York, was to leave in January, he said. \"[The cancellation] reflects a thorough assessment of the security environment in Iraq and continued improvement in the ability of the Iraqi security forces to safeguard Iraqi citizens and institutions,\" Butterbaugh said. The National Guard unit is still on schedule to return home, which will speed up the drawdown of forces, he said. The troop withdrawal in Iraq coincides with a debate in the Obama administration on whether to send as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. As of Friday, 250 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, according to a CNN tally based on Pentagon numbers. The United States plans to withdraw all its combat troops from Iraq by August, leaving 50,000 in advisory roles. Those advisers are to leave by the end of 2011. Concerns that a delay in the upcoming Iraqi elections could put a dent in scheduled withdrawals was rejected Friday by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill. \"As for our schedule of troop withdrawal, we've been pretty clear about when the troops would be withdrawn,\" he told CNN. \"So our plan is to draw down the troops as we've said we're going [to] do.\" The polls are scheduled to open January 16, but both the United States and the United Nations are worried because Iraq still has no election law. If a new law isn't adopted, the government may have to change the election date or rely on the law used in the 2005 elections, some officials say. A vote on the new law is expected Monday. Pentagon officials also must weigh the impact of continuing violence in the country. Hill said the violence is a concern, as are insurgent efforts to undermine attempts at reconciliation in the divided country. \"Reconciliation is a tough business. I mean I've been in some of these meetings with people, you know, they don't like each other, you have to get them to work together, get them to understand their futures are together, and then you get a bombing, which makes it even tougher,\" Hill said. \"Again, I think the Iraqi people have really signaled that they are really sick and tired of this stuff.\" Meanwhile, violence continued in Iraq on Saturday. Four soldiers were killed and 10 people, including civilians and security forces, were wounded when a bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint exploded in Falluja, an Anbar province town, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Elsewhere in Anbar, a suicide truck bomb hit a police checkpoint on a bridge west of Ramadi, wounding a police officer. The blast badly damaged the bridge, which carries a highway linking Iraq with Jordan and Syria, the official said. Traffic had to be rerouted to an another road. Anbar province, a massive region populated mostly by Sunni Arabs, had been a major front in the Iraqi war. The al Qaeda in Iraq militant group once held great sway in Anbar, but its influence lessened with the advent of U.S.-backed groups called Awakening Councils. CNN's Scott Spoerry and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cancellation reflects improved conditions in Iraq, official said .\nIraqi elections won't delay scheduled withdrawals U.S. says, Ambassador Chris Hill .\n\"Our plan is to draw down the troops as we've said we're going [to] do,\" says Hill .\nThe United States plans to withdraw all its combat troops from Iraq by August .","id":"ed679c7265f5dfa878be19369ea236267e2edec5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- More than 200 former fighters and other members of the Maoist People's Liberation Army -- including minors -- were discharged from a Maoist camp Thursday in line with Nepal's ongoing peace process, officials said. Those being discharged were part of a group deemed \"disqualified\" by United Nations findings in 2007, which identified at least 4,008 such combatants -- including 2,973 minors. The \"disqualified\" status applied to anyone under the age of 18 who was serving in the liberation army, and those who joined the Maoist group after its 10-year insurgency to abolish the country's monarchy ended in 2006. More than 15,000 died in the fighting and more than 100,000 people were displaced, according to the United Nations Web site. Nepal became a republic in 2008 following elections in which the people voted to abolish the monarchy. \"Those who left the Sindhuli camp today are no more members of the [Maoist] People's Liberation Army,\" Nanda Kishore Pun, commander of the Maoist People's Liberation Army, told CNN in a phone interview from Sindhuli, about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Kathmandu. The discharge process is expected to end in about a month. As part of the rehabilitation package for the disqualified combatants, the United Nations has offered to provide vocational skills training and education up to high school to those who want such opportunities, but Pun said that these offers are still being discussed. The process of the discharge is seen as in important part of the Nepal's ongoing peace process. The Maoists and other political parties in the country are discussing ways to integrate the 19,602 verified Maoist combatants into Nepal's security forces -- a move that made up part of the peace deal signed in 2006 to bring the peace process to a conclusion. Once the minors remain out of the command and control of the Maoist military structure for six months to a year, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) can be considered for removal from the list of parties that recruit and use children, which is included in the annual U.N. Secretary-General's report on Children and Armed Conflict. As the discharge and rehabilitation process began, about a dozen of the disqualified combatants were listed as being under the age of 16 and about 500 were under the age of 18. Though called combatants, the United Nations said the minors were used as messengers, cooks and porters during the fighting.","highlights":"More than 200 people were discharged from Maoist camp in Nepal .\nThey are former fighters and other members of the Maoist People's Liberation Army .\nPart of a group deemed \"disqualified\" by United Nations findings in 2007 .\nTheir discharge is seen as in important part of the Nepal's ongoing peace process .","id":"9fc0b9ca7138272093f4c03354685970a9c38dc2"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Watch the full interview with Serena Williams on \"Your $$$$$\" Saturday at 1 p.m. ET and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on CNN. Serena Williams says she believes she apologized for her actions promptly and completely. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Serena Williams just wants to move on. But the controversy around her obscenity-laced tirade at a line judge at the U.S. Open continues. Williams, 27, said she was \"in the moment\" and doesn't really remember her now-famous outburst at a line judge who had called a foot fault. It was a 12-second verbal attack that has played over and over for three days. \"It was a really tough point in the match and it was really close and got a really tough call that wasn't the correct call, and, you know, things got a little heated and I had a conversation with the line judge that didn't go so well,\" Williams said. Williams, ranked No. 2 in the world by the Women's Tennis Association, said she does not recall moments of Saturday's incident but believes she apologized for her actions promptly and completely. Watch Williams talk about call \u00bb . \"I couldn't apologize any sooner, and then also I learned from my mistakes ... I was talking to [former Giants defensive end] Michael Strahan earlier today and he said how, when he's out there you're so intense. Obviously, when you get a bad call, it's like 'What's going on?' So when you're in the moment, you are just there. You don't really quite remember exactly what's going on,\" Williams said. Williams found herself explaining her outburst while promoting her recently published memoir, \"On the Line,\" in which she details growing up the youngest of five sisters, her struggles on the court and off, and her positive messages of inspiration, especially to her younger fans. \"Those kids probably just need to know it's great to be a competitor, how passionate someone is, and just making the right decisions at the right time -- realizing that, hey, everyone falls, 'Wow, she's human, she made a bad decision, a bad choice.' \" Williams added, \"I am not a robot. I have a heart and I bleed.\" In the aftermath of Saturday's match, tournament officials fined Williams $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $500 for smashing a racket during the same event. So far, no suspensions have been served, but the United States Tennis Association has said that it has launched an investigation into the incident.","highlights":"Tennis star's obscenity-laced tirade at the U.S. Open stays in the spotlight .\nShe's fielding questions about it as she promotes new book .\nWilliams says she was \"in the moment\" and doesn't remember all that was said .\nHer young fans can now see \"she's human, she made a bad decision,\" she says .","id":"7a03dec49c4dedcf9e968d83aefde3eeca51780f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Afghanistan last month that killed seven CIA employees and contractors and a Jordanian military officer, according to a statement posted on Islamist Web sites. Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's commander of operations in Afghanistan and its No. 3 man, said the attack avenged the death of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Taliban in Pakistan who was killed in a missile strike last August, and al Qaeda operatives Saleh al-Somali and Abdullah al-Libi. The December 30 blast at a U.S. base in Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan, killed seven CIA operatives including two from private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater. The eighth victim was Jordanian Army Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a cousin of Jordan's King Abdullah II. A former U.S. intelligence official identified the suicide bomber as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor who acted as a double agent. He was recruited as a counterterrorism intelligence source, according to a senior Jordanian official. U.S. sources said bin Zeid was the Jordanian operative working closely with al-Balawi, who was from the same hometown as the onetime leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Jordanian and U.S. intelligence agencies apparently believed that al-Balawi had been rehabilitated from his extremist views and were using him to hunt Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 figure, the former intelligence official said. The al Qaeda statement posted Wednesday identified al-Balawi as Hamam Khalil Mohammed Abu Malal, who used the name Abu Dujana Khorasani. It said Abu Dujana was a well-known Islamist author and a preacher on jihadi Web sites, an immigrant for his faith and a fighter who sacrificed himself and his money for his God and belief. \"May God accept him as a martyr who was able to infiltrate the Americans' forts,\" the statement said. \"We ask God to bless the people who follow your path, Abu Dujana,\" it said. \"Let them know that your brothers are following your path and they will not have peace of mind until they slaughter the Americans and let the Islamic nation be proud for having men like you among its sons.\" Several groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the worst blows ever to America's intelligence community. Some analysts said that militant groups may be competing for credit to spread the word and attract fresh donations and recruits. In a posting on its Web site last week, the Taliban in Afghanistan claimed that the bomber was an Afghan National Army soldier. On Sunday, however, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud said in an e-mail that his arm of the Islamic movement carried out the attack, also citing the reason as revenge for Baitullah Mehsud's killing.","highlights":"Al Qaeda claims responsibility for last month's Afghanistan bombing, say Islamist Web sites .\nSuicide bombing killed seven CIA employees and contractors and a Jordanian military officer .\nAl Qaeda says attack avenged deaths of leader of the Taliban in Pakistan and operatives .\nSeveral groups have claimed responsibility for the attack .","id":"9b70778d74a19bdb2f2a6feceb7024b0790482c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- French police were searching Friday for a Degas painting stolen from a Marseilles museum a day earlier. \"Les Choristes,\" or \"The Chorus,\" is worth about \u20ac800,000, or $1.15 million, Marseilles Police Commissioner Xavier Claudel told CNN. The 1877 pastel was on loan to the Musee Cantini from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris for an exhibition, Claudel said. It was discovered missing when staff opened the museum Thursday, he said. Investigators were going through surveillance camera footage for clues, but Claudel said he could not offer any more information about the case. Edgar Degas was a prominent member of the the Impressionists and produced a vast amount of artwork before his death in 1917 at age 83. His style, subject matter and artistic sensibility set him apart from his contemporaries, according to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.","highlights":"The 1877 pastel was on loan to Musee Cantini from Musee d'Orsay in Paris .\nInvestigators going through surveillance camera footage for clues .\n\"The Chorus,\" is worth about \u20ac800,000, or $1.15 million .","id":"6b00aa99b90f8676a50e6742b9e6874d4aa33064"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Snow and freezing temperatures hit large parts of Britain Wednesday, forcing airports and railway lines to close down, and forecasters warned that more bad weather was on the way. Most of Britain was covered in snow, with 20 to 30 centimeters (nearly 8 to nearly 12 inches) of snow in the southern parts, and up to 15 feet in the Pennines, the mountain range that runs from northern England north to Scotland. Four airports, including London's Gatwick, were shut down because of snow and ice. Gatwick said 84 flights were canceled, mainly on British Airways and EasyJet. Bristol, Blackpool, and Exeter airports were also closed. iReport: A snowy day in Chertsey, Surrey . British Airways was forced to cancel \"dozens\" of flights in and out of London's Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 due to snow and ice, a spokesman told CNN Wednesday. Both incoming and outbound flights were experiencing significant delays, the spokesman said. BA operates about 400 flights a day in and out of Terminal 5, the airport's newest wing. According to BAA Limited, the company that operates the British airports, Heathrow \"overall is fine,\" as the facility was alternating runways to keep cancellations to a minimum. Stansted Airport in north London was briefly closed but reopened at midday. Still, it reported 27 flight cancellations. Manchester Airport, which was shut Tuesday, was reopened. Officials said snow was unlikely to affect flights, but warned travelers to expect delays because of Tuesday's flight cancelations. All major train lines were open, but some train operators were running restricted services because of the weather. They included South West Trains, which runs services between London and some of the hardest-hit areas, such as Hampshire, Surrey and Wiltshire, and Chiltern Railways, which runs between London and Birmingham. Virgin Trains said it planned a regular service, but it warned of the risk of delays and cancelations on routes between London and Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland. Trains in northern England and Scotland were suffering because of the snow. There were no services between the Scottish cities of Inverness and Perth, National Rail said, and no trains between the English cities of Sheffield and Leeds. Frigid temperatures batter the U.S. south . Britain's Highways Agency warned of difficult driving conditions in central southern England and the north of the country. It urged drivers to delay non-essential trips. Dozens of cars were left sitting on the side of the road in Southampton, near England's southern coast, after drivers became stuck in snow. The Highways Agency warned drivers to avoid the nearby A3 highway, which runs between London and Portsmouth, because of weather conditions. The agency said it was doing continuous salt treatment and snow plowing on major roadways in England. Schools were closed across the country because of the heavy snowfall. Officials said 176 schools were shut in Buckinghamshire and 164 were closed in Oxfordshire just to the northwest of London. About 330 schools in Gloucestershire, 200 in Somerset, and 143 in Wiltshire were closed because of snow, officials said. Hundreds of schools were also closed in Kent, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Coventry, Bath, Windsor, Maidenhead, Liverpool, and Brighton, officials said. Let us know how you are coping with the cold weather? The Met Office, Britain's weather service, said more snow was expected Wednesday for southern and northeast England. It warned of \"very heavy snowfall\" in southwest and southeast England and London, with up to a foot of snow possible. CNN's Laura Perez Maestro and Phil Han contributed to this report.","highlights":"Severe weather brought parts of the UK to a virtual standstill because of heavy snow .\nFour airports are shut and others are warning of delays and cancellations .\nHundreds of schools across the the UK have closed their doors .\nForecasters are warning of more snow .","id":"cc1ea9b242db216f09516e0eb183af4fe173127f"} -{"article":"In Fad-Free Nutrition, exclusively on CNN.com, the editors of Cooking Light help you digest the latest diet and food news and trends. The recent recall of industrial peanut butter and products that contain it sparked nationwide concern about the safety of eating many popular snack products. That's understandable, considering the average American consumes 3.3 pounds of peanut butter each year, according to USDA data. Pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, and others can be made into tasty spreads and put in recipes. While consuming with caution is always prudent, it's important not to give up on nuts and peanuts (which are actually legumes) entirely. They offer numerous health benefits and can even help dieters stay on track. Consuming just one ounce of nuts -- of any variety -- up to five times a week in place of other calories consumed is likely to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Although nuts are high in calories, they contain heart-healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats, and they're jam-packed with nutrients such as vitamin E, folate, niacin, copper, magnesium, and potassium. Plus, they have some protein and fiber to help keep you feeling satisfied. Learn more about the health benefits of nuts (plus recipes that use them) at CookingLight.com. Tips on smart snacking . If you are worried about buying peanut butter based on the recent salmonella scare, try these tasty and nutritious alternative ways to snack safely: . 1. Make your own spread. Although major national brands of jarred peanut butter have not been recalled, it's a fun and nutritious option to make your own. At certain grocery stores, such as some locations of Whole Foods Market, you can grind peanuts to make fresh peanut butter. In less than one minute, you have a fresh, peanutty spread without preservatives or added sugar. You can also make fresh peanut butter at home; all you need are plain roasted peanuts and a food processor. Put \u00be cup plain roasted peanuts in a food processor; process two minutes or until smooth. See our staff's tips on making homemade nut butters on our blog, Test Kitchen Secrets. 2. Get creative. Use fresh peanut butter to upgrade homemade versions of snacks that may have been recalled. For example, spread a teaspoon of peanut butter on a whole-grain cracker instead of purchasing ready-made peanut butter crackers. You might surprise yourself by creating a better-for-you treat, such as our lightened peanut buttery Swag Bars. 3. Branch out beyond peanut butter. Almond, cashew, macadamia, walnut, and hazelnut butters are unaffected by the recall. They all offer a strong nutrition profile. For example, 2 tablespoons of almond butter (one serving) provide the following: . \u2022 Almost half your daily needs of the antioxidant vitamin E with 6.5 milligrams . \u2022 About one-third of a day's worth of magnesium (97 milligrams), a mineral that supports muscle function and bone tissue . \u2022 243 milligrams of potassium (about five percent of one day's allotment), which helps keep your blood pressure levels steady . Visit CookingLight.com to learn more about other nutritious nut butters made from cashews, almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts -- including how to make them, and healthful recipes that put them to delicious use. For more tips on making healthy taste great, try Cooking Light - CLICK HERE . Copyright 2009 Cooking Light magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Peanut product recall putting a damper on American snacking habits .\nUSDA: Average American consumes 3.3 pounds of peanut butter each year .\nAlternatives include snacks made with almond, cashew, macadamia, walnut butters .","id":"6213103cf14a2c8778a9f3e8e7e209bf5301a005"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four people died and another three were missing Monday after two avalanches in the Swiss Alps, Bern police said. The avalanches occurred at 11:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. ET) and about noon Sunday in the Diemtigen Valley, 34 miles (55 km) south of Bern, said Thomas Jauch, a spokesman for police in Bern County. In the first incident an avalanche buried one person who was with a party of eight cross-country skiers, Jauch said. A nearby party of 25 skiers joined in the search and a physician, who was a member of a ski rescue team, was dropped into the area by one of two helicopters called in to help. As they were searching for the missing skier, a second avalanche buried 10 to 12 of them, Jauch said. Nine were found alive, one was dead, he said. Three of the survivors died later in hospital, he added. The doctor was among the dead, he said. It was not clear whether the original skier who was buried was among the survivors. \"It was not a high-risk day; not a high-risk situation,\" Jauch said. Search efforts were suspended Monday because of the weather in the mountains. \"There could be another avalanche,\" the police spokesman said.","highlights":"Avalanches occurred Sunday in the Diemtigen Valley, 34 miles (55 km) south of Bern .\nIn first incident an avalanche buried one person who was with a party of eight cross-country skiers .\nSecond avalanche hit as rescuers searched for victims, burying 10 to 12 of them .","id":"ced8a51ab6878e9c1a551b8898129bf14b256008"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Irish bishop resigned Wednesday following a government report into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy -- the second to do so. Bishop Jim Moriarty was not directly criticized in the Murphy Report, but was a member of the Dublin archdiocese leadership for more than a decade before it put proper protections for children in place, he said. Moriarty said he \"should have challenged the prevailing culture\" of protecting the church rather than children when he was an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1991 to 2002. \"I know that any action now on my part does not take away the suffering that people have endured,\" he said in a written statement. \"I again apologize to all the survivors and their families. I have today offered my resignation as bishop of Kildare & Leighlin to the Holy Father. I hope it honors the truth that the survivors have so bravely uncovered and opens the way to a better future for all concerned.\" The Vatican had no immediate comment on the resignation. Moriarty has been a priest for 48 years, he said in the statement. \"I fully accept the overall conclusion ... that the attempts by church authorities to 'protect the church' and to 'avoid scandal' had the most dreadful consequences for children and were deeply wrong,\" Moriarty said after the government report came out last month. Bishop Donal Murray, the bishop of Limerick, resigned on December 17. Murray was named in the 720-page report that found the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Catholic Church authorities in Ireland covered up clerical child abuse from 1975 to 2004. Child sexual abuse was \"widespread\" then, the report found. The report by the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, which was set up in March 2006 to look into the abuse allegations, did not say Murray was guilty of abuse but that he failed to report it. Murray was \"aware for many years of complaints and\/or suspicions of clerical child sexual abuse in the archdiocese,\" the report found. It said he dealt \"badly\" with a number of complaints and suspicions of abuse, and that his failings in at least one instance were \"inexcusable.\" Murray resigned under a canon law that requires bishops who have become unsuited for the fulfillment of their office to resign, the Vatican said. Pope Benedict XVI met with senior Irish bishops at the Vatican a week before Murray's resignation and said he was \"deeply disturbed and distressed\" by the report's findings. He promised that the Catholic Church would try to develop strategies to make sure the abuses don't happen again. CNN's Hada Messia in Rome, Italy, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Irish bishop resigns after government report on sex abuse of children by Catholic clergy .\nBishop Jim Moriarty was not directly criticized in the Murphy Report .\nHe was a member of Dublin archdiocese leadership before it put proper protections in place .\nDonal Murray, Limerick bishop, resigned in December after being named in abuse cover up .","id":"f45bbb7d76a0e5bc4e9fb8004a9d20a1dedcf0a0"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One of the things I find frustrating about modern American life is we wait for someone else -- anybody else -- to solve whatever problem it is that's out there. Clark Howard says Best Buy should have lauded employees who ran after a shoplifter, not fired them. We see something and feel like it's not our job. It's the \"not in my silo\" mentality found in corporate America. But there are times we wait for help to arrive when we're the help we seek. Unfortunately, this mentality has seeped beyond corporate America into normal earthlings. Have you heard the story about Jared Bergstreser and Colin Trapp? These two Best Buy employees tackled a shoplifter they saw busting out of their Denver, Colorado-area store with stolen electronics. They wrestled the suspect to the ground at great personal risk. The perpetrator pulled out a knife and cut a manager before ultimately escaping, according to The Wall Street Journal. Bergstreser had been a three-year employee, while Trapp was on the job for less than a year. What did Best Buy do for these employees who showed such extreme loyalty? They fired them. A spokeswoman for Best Buy said the company won't comment on the terminations. However, she said the company's employees are aware of a policy of not pursuing shoplifters. Best Buy says the policy is in place for the safety of its employees. Watch Clark reveal a Vegas vacation scam \u00bb . This case is not unusual. I am privy to a story about a separate incident that happened with a discount retailer. Again, a couple of guys I know who were employees tackled a shoplifter. The suspect then pulled out a gun and tried to shoot them. They managed to disarm the shoplifter after he fired and he was taken into custody. Did they get a reward or bonus from their employer? No, they were canned. I got some interesting reactions when I discussed these two stories in a pre-show meeting with my team. Somebody immediately piped up saying, \"Of course they have to fire them because of liability.\" Liability?! One of my producers even called me a vigilante. After all, I'm the guy who chased down my own mugger on a Madrid subway train during a staff trip to Spain. In retrospect, what I did was really stupid because I could have gotten injured or worse. But my natural instinct just took over and I successfully recovered my wallet. The idea that we're supposed to stand by idly and allow people to steal from us or steal from an employer is something that I just cannot support. I think we have a responsibility to get involved. Otherwise, if you let a small number of lawbreakers get away with it whenever, then they get away with it over and over and over again. I could understand if Best Buy were so cowardly and afraid of a lawsuit that they felt these two employees should be sent to \"Best Buy re-education camp.\" Fine. But to fire them for trying to stop a brazen criminal who was armed and dangerous and busting out of the store with electronics? I just don't get it. And remember, when Bergstreser and Trapp went after this person, there was no benefit for them, unlike my experience being mugged in Madrid. They were putting themselves in danger to protect their employer. You should be, if not rewarded for that, then at least not punished! I believe Best Buy is sending a terrible message by firing them. What do you think?","highlights":"Howard says there are times we wait for help to arrive when we're the help we seek .\nBest Buy employees tackle shoplifter and get fired as a result .\nHoward says incident is not unusual but sends a terrible message .","id":"7a5340a9249a5ca510e7ce0cef049b668b3d61ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Florida authorities were searching Sunday for a 33-year-old man after his wife and five children were found dead in their Naples home. Mesac Damas pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor battery against Guerline Damas in June. The bodies of Guerline Damas, 32; Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 11 months, were discovered Saturday, Rambosk said. Authorities have been unable to locate Mesac Damas, who possibly left the country Friday morning and may be in Haiti, Capt. Chris Roberts of the Collier County sheriff's department said Sunday at a news conference. \"We don't see at this point any indication of an individual out in the neighborhoods committing additional crimes or homicides, but certainly we will look at every opportunity,\" Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said at an earlier news conference. There had been a \"handful\" of domestic disturbance calls to police since 2000 involving the Damas couple, with the latest resulting in the arrest of Mesac Damas in January, Roberts said. Mesac Damas pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor battery against Guerline Damas in June, and Roberts said he does not think Mesac Damas served any jail time for the crime. \"We are still talking to people that knew the family and obviously the ultimate information we need is not so much what happened in the past but what happened when these people died,\" Roberts said. The six bodies were found Saturday at about 6:30 p.m., a day after police had visited the home to check on the family, Roberts said. Watch why authorities are looking for Damas \u00bb . When a family member had not heard from a resident at the home, the family member asked authorities on Friday to do a welfare check on the house, Roberts said. Responding police knocked on the door but got no answer, he said, but officers saw no indications to arouse their suspicions. The following morning, the family member became more concerned and filed a missing persons report, which authorities took, Rambosk said. Later, authorities requested from property management a key to the house and an authorization to enter. \"When we did, we found the bodies of the individuals,\" he said. \"I can tell you that in no uncertain terms this is the most horrific and violent event this community has ever experienced. This is the worst of the worst.\" He would not release the manner of death. Rambosk said authorities had recovered Mesac Damas' vehicle at Miami International Airport, and they believe that he left on a flight to Haiti on Friday. Roberts said collecting and processing evidence can take \"several days, if not weeks.\"","highlights":"Police believe Mesac Damas, 33, boarded a flight to Haiti on Friday morning .\nBodies found in home Saturday after relative asked police to check, sheriff says .\nSheriff: \"Some previous domestic violence,\" but Damas not called a suspect .","id":"5cc7b8eccf5bc197f2fc10caa379989ed5464761"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant were investigating what caused a weekend radiation leak that resulted in 150 workers being sent home, officials said Sunday. An airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded about 4 p.m. Saturday in the Unit 1 containment building, according to a statement from Exelon Nuclear, which operates the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. The unit had been shut down since October 26 for refueling, maintenance and steam generator replacement, the company said. \"A monitor at the temporary opening cut into the containment building wall to allow the new steam generators to be moved inside showed a slight increase in a reading and then returned to normal,\" the company said. \"Two other monitors displayed normal readings.\" Three Mile Island was the scene of the worst U.S. nuclear accident, a partial meltdown in 1979 that resulted in the plant's second reactor being shut down permanently. Tests showed the contamination in Saturday's incident was confined to the building itself, and none was found outside, Exelon said. There was no threat to public health and safety, but the workers were sent home because they could not continue until the area was cleaned, Bill Noll, Exelon vice president, said in the Saturday statement. One worker was found to have received 16 millirem of exposure, and others received lower levels of contamination. The annual occupational dose limit for workers at Exelon plants is 2,000 millirem, the statement said. Radiation exposure from a chest X-ray is about 6 millirem, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Although Noll said it was hoped work would resume at Unit 1 on Sunday, Exelon spokeswoman Beth Archer told CNN on Sunday it had not resumed, as the cause of the leak was still under investigation. Two radiation specialists from the NRC were scheduled to investigate Sunday. \"Numerous work activities were going on in the building at the time the alarm sounded, and Exelon engineers are working to determine the cause of the incident,\" the statement said. The March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island brought the nuclear industry to a standstill. The partial meltdown of Unit 2's nuclear core resulted in no injuries to plant workers or nearby community members, but it triggered changes in nuclear power plant operations and emergency planning and led to tighter oversight of the industry by the NRC. The Unit 2 reactor is permanently shut down and defueled, the NRC said. In 2001, FirstEnergy acquired it and contracted its monitoring to Exelon, which owns Unit 1. The companies plan to keep Unit 2 in \"long-term, monitored storage\" until the Unit 1 operating license expires, at which time both plants will be decommissioned, the NRC said. A new generation of nuclear reactors is being considered in the United States as environmental concerns have intensified about coal-fired power plants. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded at 4 p.m. Saturday .\nRadiation was confined to a single building and no one was in danger, company says .\nIn 1979, Three Mile Island was the scene of the worst U.S. nuclear accident .","id":"99ec617d81f254eae740b7aa595c54b06183cd07"} -{"article":"KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Tibet's exile government said the death toll from protests in the Himalayan region over the past two weeks has reached about 140, but Chinese government restrictions have made it difficult confirm the number killed. People walk past burnt-out buildings in Lhasa on 16 March, 2008, after violent protests broke out. Chinese authorities have issued a much lower death toll and said most of those killed were \"innocent\" ethnic Han Chinese targeted by rampaging Tibetans. The Tibetan exiles published a list of 40 Tibetans they said are confirmed dead. Meanwhile, Tibetan exiles and monks protested for a second day outside of China's embassy visa office in Kathmandu, Nepal on Tuesday, resulting in 73 protesters arrested, Nepalese police said. Although police said they did not use force, protest organizers said as many as 12 people were hurt when police charged them with bamboo sticks. Watch demonstrator in tears as monks arrested \u00bb. Protests involving Tibet also dogged the Olympic flame, which was lit in a ceremony Monday in Olympia, Greece. The torch is scheduled to be carried to sites around the world on its way to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, and Tibetan activist say they plan anti-Chinese protests along the way. Another group of about 50 Tibetan exiles in India began their own torch relay Tuesday with a symbolic \"Olympic\" flame that will end in Tibet on the day of the Summer Games' opening ceremonies in Beijing, The Associated Press reported. On Monday, Greek police arrested some of the protesters along the first miles of the torch relay, but the demonstrations were peaceful and police reported no injuries or scuffles. At one point, a Tibetan woman covered herself with red paint and lay on the ground, forcing the torchbearer to weave around her as other protesters shouted \"Flame of shame.\" Students for a Free Tibet, a Tibetan exile group, said its protesters would challenge police as the flame moves through 23 cities on five continents before passing throughout China. Tibetan activists will follow it through \"London, Paris and everywhere else China's stained Olympic Torch goes,\" the group said. The group said the Chinese government \"will pressure other governments to silence peaceful protesters who expose the truth behind China's Olympics propaganda campaign.\" \"The Chinese government's long arm has already extended to San Francisco, where Tibetans are being told they cannot protest along the Torch Relay route,\" the group said in a news release. Also Monday, five Tibetans were arrested for deadly arson attacks stemming from the anti-China riots that erupted this month, China's government announced. A Chinese Ministry of public security official said the suspects have confessed to two arson incidents that killed 10 people in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua. Ministry spokesman Shan Huimin said three female suspects were detained for a March 14 fire at a shop, in which five female sales assistants were burned to death, Xinhua reported. In the second case, two males were detained for setting fire to a motorcycle shop on March 15, which resulted in five deaths -- including an 8-month-old boy and his parents, according to Xinhua. Shan said the violence in Lhasa between March 14 and 15 also injured 242 police officers, according to Xinhua. However, Shan added, peace has been restored to the area. Clashes between anti-Chinese protesters in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and other cities broke out earlier this month, and Chinese officials blamed the Dalai Lama's followers for the violence. The Tibetan government in exile said at least 80 people were killed by police, but Chinese officials put the death toll at 13. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Manesh Shrestha in Nepal contributed to this report .","highlights":"Tibet exile government claims death toll from unrest now 140 .\nChinese authorities say toll much lower, says victims are \"innocent\" Chinese .\nChinese restrictions mean it is difficult to confirm the figures .","id":"fdcd4dbbe4f912515dc577b13bc6f7fc7f582693"} -{"article":"BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's foreign minister Wednesday rejected criticism of its human rights record, accusing the United States of \"clinging to a Cold War mentality\" and \"practicing double standards.\" Workers at the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Fast Railway, a key project associated with the Beijing Olympics. Yang Jiechi was responding to questions about a State Department report released a day earlier that characterized China's human rights record as one of the most repressive in the world. The report was released five months before the Summer Olympic Games kickoff in Beijing. Although he chided the United States and other critics of its human rights record as \"making confrontation,\" Yang stressed that China is \"ready for dialogue with the United States, as long as it is done in an environment of respect and fairness.\" Despite rapid economic growth and social change in China, the report said the \"authoritarian\" Chinese government \"continues to deny their citizens basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.\" It also said there was an increase in forced relocations in Beijing, with people being thrown out of their homes to make way for Olympic projects. \"China's overall human rights record remained poor in 2007,\" it stated, citing tightening controls over religious freedom in Tibet and the Uyghur population. China announced Sunday that militants in Xinjiang's Uyghur Autonomous Region had planned to carry out two terror attacks, including one targeting the Olympics set to begin on August 8. China said it successfully thwarted both attacks. The autonomous region is home to about 19 million people, most of whom are Muslims and other minorities. Many of them oppose Beijing's rule. The State Department report also said China has increased its efforts to \"control and censor the Internet, and the government tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and the domestic press\" and bloggers. It cited a 20 percent increase over 2006 in convictions of citizens under what it called China's overly broad state security law that is often used to silence government critics. \"The government continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison journalists, writers, activists, and defense lawyers and their families, many of whom were seeking to exercise their rights under law,\" the report said. \"Individuals and groups, especially those deemed politically sensitive by the government, continued to face tight restrictions on their freedom to assemble, their freedom to practice religion, and their freedom to travel.\" The report, issued annually, surveys the human rights record of more than 190 countries around the world. In rolling out the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: \"No corner of the Earth is permanently condemned to tyranny. Change may take time, but change will come.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott in Washington and Beijing Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz contributed to this report .","highlights":"China's FM rejects U.S. attack on human rights record, says \"double standards.\"\nYang Jiechi says China ready \"for dialogue with the United States\"\nU.S. State Dept. report comes five months before the Beijing Olympics .\nReport emphasized forced relocations, human rights abuses, control of Internet .","id":"e9c130b212b01b3bb1f3e0de87ce9aa45d1318ec"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- What's hot off the presses this week? Want an out-of-print book? With the help of Google, a machine may be able to print one for you. Any one of the more than 2 million books old enough to fall out of copyright into the public domain. Over the last seven years, Google has scanned millions of dusty tomes from deep in the stacks of the nation's leading university libraries and turned them into searchable documents available anywhere in the world through its search box. And now Google Book Search, in partnership with On Demand Books, is letting readers turn those digital copies back into paper copies, individually printed by bookstores around the world. Or at least by those booksellers that have ordered its $100,000 Espresso Book Machine, which cranks out a 300 page gray-scale book with a color cover in about 4 minutes, at a cost to the bookstore of about $3 for materials. The machine prints the pages, binds them together perfectly, and then cuts the book to size and then dumps a book out, literally hot off the press, with a satisfying clunk. (The company says a machine can print about 60,000 books a year.) That means you can stop into the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and for less than $10, custom-order your own copy of Dame Curtsey's Book of Candy Making, the third edition of which was published in 1920 and which can only be found online for $47.00 used. Dane Neller, On Demand Books CEO, says the announcement flips book distribution on its head. \"We believe this is a revolution,\" Neller said. \"Content retrieval is now centralized and production is decentralized.\" Neller said the deal was clearly about the long tail of books, a reference to Wired magazine's Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson's theory that hits become less important when distribution costs drop. One of the main benefits, according to Neller, is letting local book stores compete with Amazon.com by reducing their need to have expensive inventory. Other current retailers include the University of Michigan Shapiro Library Building in Ann Arbor; the Blackwell Bookshop in London; the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt; the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton, Canada; and Angus & Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, Australia. The company hopes to sell 60 more printers in the next year, bringing the number of machines globally to about 90. On Demand Books suggests that book stores price the books at about $8, leaving retailers with a $3 profit after both Google and On Demand Books collect a buck-a-book fee. Google plans to donate its share to a yet-unspecified charity, which might be a reaction to its messy legal and public policy fight over a copyright settlement that covers books that are still in copyright. (All the books that are being added to On Demand Books repertoire in this agreement are out of copyright in the country where it will be printed.) Starting Sept. 29, Bostonians can stop in the privately owned Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and have their books printed in front of them. Or they can order it over the phone and have the store deliver it -- by bicycle. There's a certain irony to that, too, according to Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson, since the bookstore is right next to Harvard's library, one of the libraries that partnered with Google to turn its millions of books into an online library of the future. \"Most people can't get into the Harvard Library, but you can print their books next door,\" Johnson said. Or put another way, On Demand Books is betting that in the future, every old book will have 15 readers. What's of interest in these old books? Plenty, according to Google. One knitter discovered a long-lost book about knitting, and recreated the heirloom pieces and even built a loom from a long-lost design. Another reader, who works with subsistence farmers in Africa, currently uses PDFs of old farming techniques to teach still-relevant skills. Google already uses the public-domain books in search results, and users can read those books in full online and even download them as PDFs for free. Neither Neller or Johnson cared to speculate on how many of these books they expect to sell, but Johnson says some 80 percent of the public-domain books are looked at in a given month. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the number of public domain books will grow larger anytime soon, since Congress added two decades to existing copyright protection in 1999. Copyright, which originally lasts about 14 years, now extends to the life of an author plus 70 years for newly created works. As for their quality? They feel like a typical paperback, and are printed using typical 20- or 24-pound paper, with heavier stock for the inkjet-printed cover, which currently all share one design. While turning bits back into paper seems a bit of a stretch for Google, Johnson said it fits with the company's goal of organizing the world's information. \"We think people should be able to find and read these books,\" Johnson said. \"We don't care how people end up reading them.\" Neller said he'd love to see the day when Google Book Searchers can press a button next to a search result and find the closest local printer, but Google says that's a long way off. So for now, book buyers of the future who want to buy books from the past will need to walk to a bookstore -- or get Harvard Bookstore to use the bicycle, a 19th-century invention, to bring them a book printed with 21st-century technology. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Google Book Search is letting readers turn digitized texts back into paper copies .\nGoogle scans millions of books and turns them into searchable documents .\nBooks can be printed on demand by a special machine in about 4 minutes .\nThe machine is only in a few dozen bookstores so far .","id":"d8f887ffe9c05885d0526bca44fcedc43b6c3a13"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Historical tensions and overreaction on the part of both Russia and Georgia contributed to a five-day conflict between the two in 2008, a European Union fact-finding mission concluded in a report released Wednesday. South Ossetian mourners at the grave of a relative killed in the conflict on the first anniversary in August 2009. \"The conflict is rooted in a profusion of causes comprising different layers in time and actions combined,\" said the report from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia. \"While it is possible to identify the authorship of some important events and decisions marking its course, there is no way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone. They have all failed, and it should be their responsibility to make good for it.\" Georgia launched a campaign against South Ossetia, a Russian-backed separatist Georgian territory, on August 7, 2008. The following day, Russian tanks, troops and armored vehicles poured into South Ossetia and another Russian-backed breakaway Georgian territory, Abkhazia, advancing into Georgian cities outside the rebel regions. A total of about 850 people were killed on all sides, the report said, and untold numbers of others were wounded or went missing. About 100,000 civilians fled their homes, and about 35,000 have been unable to return. \"The fighting did not end the political conflict, nor were any of the issues that lay beneath it resolved,\" the report said. \"Tensions still continue. The political situation after the end of fighting turned out to be no easier and in some respects even more difficult than before.\" Russia and Georgia each blamed the other for starting the conflict, and accused each other of a variety of offenses leading up to and during the fighting, including ethnic cleansing. Moscow has since recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent regions. But relations between Georgia and Russia are at an \"all-time low,\" the report notes. After five days of fighting, a peace deal was brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, acting on behalf of the EU. An implementation effort followed on September 8. The report noted that the actions \"stood in contrast to the failure of the international community, including the U.N. Security Council, to act swiftly and resolutely enough in order to control the ever-mounting tensions prior (to) the outbreak of armed conflict.\" Georgian armed forces shelled the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali the night of August 7. While that action was seen as the start of the armed conflict, \"it was only the culminating point of a long period of increasing tensions, provocations and incidents,\" the fact-finding report said. \"Indeed, the conflict has deep roots in the history of the region, in peoples' national traditions and aspirations as well as in age-old perceptions or rather misperceptions of each other, which were never mended and sometimes exploited.\" Any evaluation of the conflict should take that into account, along with mounting tensions in the months and weeks leading up to it, the report said, as well as \"years of provocations, mutual accusations, military and political threats and acts of violence both inside and outside the conflict zone. \"It has to consider, too, the impact of a great power's coercive politics and diplomacy against a small and insubordinate neighbor, together with the small neighbour's penchant for overplaying its hand and acting in the heat of the moment without careful consideration of the final outcome, not to mention its fear that it might permanently lose important parts of its territory through creeping annexation,\" the report said. The fact-finding mission was established in December by the EU to investigate the conflict. It was headed by Heidi Tagliavini, a former United Nations special representative for Georgia. The EU said in a statement it welcomed the report and hopes its findings can contribute to future international efforts at \"preventive diplomacy.\"","highlights":"Report: A total of about 850 people were killed on all sides in five-day conflict .\nAbout 100,000 civilians fled their homes, about 35,000 unable to return .\nReport: \"No way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone\"\nRussia and Georgia each blamed the other for starting the conflict .","id":"1f3be469bfa43efe002e002baa2226d425040259"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's bad enough to be sick and miserable. But adding insult to injury for many a patient is having to hack through a veritable jungle of often-confusing paperwork to make health insurance claims. Dr. Val Jones is part of a practice in Virginia that has lowered its fees and quit taking insurance. Consumers' frustrations with health insurance paperwork are well-known. But it's also a frustrating tangle for doctors and their staffs. AC360\u00b0 correspondent Tom Foreman has a report about one innovative practice that has decided to take on the insurance paperwork monster -- by completely avoiding it. Dr. Val Jones joined a small practice, DocTalker Family Medicine in Vienna, Virginia, where the doctors do not even take insurance. They charge a simple, relatively low fee for each service. That's it. The doctors at DocTalker grew tired of seeing patients struggle with baffling insurance paperwork while both their health and wealth were on the line. \"They don't know why they're getting these questions asked,\" Jones said. \"They don't know what the forms mean. And ... their compensation is dependent on it.\" This innovation has been good news for Carol \"Yogi\" Yogan of McClain, Virginia. She said she broke her wrist ice skating, and her insurance company initially told her that her injury would not be covered. After persistent effort, she eventually convinced them otherwise. The company paid. But Yogan is certain without her dogged efforts, her claim would have been forever lost in the \"paperwork jungle\" of the insurance trade. Watch Yogan's struggle with bureaucratic red tape \u00bb . Yogi Yogan has pretty much lost all faith in insurance companies. She has enough insurance to cover a catastrophic illness, but for routine care, she's now going to that nearby fee-for-service medical office where Jones works. \"It's seamless,\" Yogan said. She knows precisely what she is getting and what it costs. Jones does not believe the insurance industry set out to cultivate the paperwork jungle. She thinks it just grew over time. But now that it is there, she suspects they are making so much money off of it, that there is no real incentive to clear it up. Former insurance industry executive Wendell Potter agrees. He said one way insurers make money is by allowing confusion to reign. \"And people often just give up,\" Potter said, \"and don't pursue payment when a claim has been denied or been paid inappropriately or not adequately. And the same is true with doctors and hospitals.\" He believes billions of dollars are at stake. The insurance industry, while acknowledging the existence of the paperwork jungle, denies it is a trap for extra profits. Robert Zirkilbach is with a national trade association for insurers called America's Health Insurance Plans. \"The health insurance industry is one of the most regulated industries in America, and particularly at the state level there are all kinds of requirements of information that needs to be provided to patients in paper and through the mail,\" Zirkilbach said. But he adds, insurers are just as worried as customers about the confusion that causes. \"We agree that reform is needed. In fact, that's why we've been working very hard to develop reforms to make the system more efficient,\" Zirkilbach said. AC360\u00b0 correspondent Tom Foreman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Practice in Virginia has lowered and simplified its fees and quit taking insurance .\nPatient frustrated with insurance paperwork thrilled with new method: \"It's seamless\"\nEx-insurance industry executive says confusion, paperwork help generate profit .\nIndustry spokesman counters that they're trying to make system more efficient .","id":"284ee987014f286cf54410358bd218d97b30ac58"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian and British ships repelled a pirate attack on a Danish ship in the Gulf of Aden, the Russian navy said Wednesday. Pirates have caused havoc off the coast of Somalia, hijacking 33 ships this year. Elsewhere, pirates hijacked a Turkish-flagged ship carrying 4,500 tons of chemicals and 14 crew off Yemen's coast. The pirates hijacked the ship, Karagol, near Yemen as it traveled to Mumbai, India, semi-official news agency Anadolu Ajansi reported, citing a written statement from the Turkish Maritime Agency. Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the Russian patrol ship Neustrashimy and a British frigate, HMS Cumberland, successfully rebuffed pirate attempts to seize the Danish ship Powerful off Somalia. The British and Russians used helicopters to counter-attack the pirates, who had opened machine gun fire on Powerful and twice tried to seize it, Dygalo said. It was not immediately clear when the incident occurred. When asked about the incident, the British Ministry of Defense said a crew from the Cumberland had boarded a small boat on Tuesday that \"they ... believe had been involved in an attack on the Danish-registered MV Powerful earlier in the day.\" Ahead of boarding the small boat, or dhow, the British crew members tried several ways to stop it, \"but they were unsuccessful,\" the Ministry of Defense's statement said. The Cumberland then launched boats to circle the dhow, in another attempt to halt it. People aboard the dhow opened fire at these boats, and the Cumberland's crew members returned fire, the statement said. Two alleged pirates were killed during the shooting. A third person, a Yemeni national, died later from injuries, despite care from the Cumberland's doctor, the Ministry said. \"It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the firefight or a previous incident.\" The Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, has become a treacherous stretch for ships, particularly along the Somali coast. There have been 84 attacks and 33 successful hijackings off Somalia's coast this year. Meanwhile, the Karagol is owned by Istanbul-based Y.D.C. Denizcilik, A.S. The company confirmed its ship had been hijacked, but could not provide any details. The Karagol is the second Turkish ship in two weeks to be hijacked. On October 29, pirates in the same area off Yemen commandeered the Neslihan, a Turkish-owned freighter, carrying 77,000 tons of iron ore from from Canada to China, the ship's owner, Ya-Sa Shipping Industry and Trading, S.A., said. CNN's David McKenzie and Andrew Carey contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian and British ships repel pirate attack on Danish vessel .\nBritish say three pirates died after an exchange of fire .\nElsewhere, a Turkish ship with 14 crew has been hijacked off Yemen .","id":"8bcbe8768b22dc6dbd836a6216d25b4c2ac116f8"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A judge has ordered the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to meet in their capacity as the sole shareholders of the corporation that manages their iconic father's estate. Dexter King has denied taking \"substantial funds\" from his parents' estates. King's children were in Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court Monday in a dispute over their parents' estates. Two children of the civil rights icon are suing their brother, accusing him of wrongfully taking money from their parents' estates. The Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III allege Dexter King took \"substantial funds\" out of Coretta Scott King's estate and \"wrongfully appropriated\" money from their father's estate. Dexter King has publicly denied the accusations. It was unclear what outcome having a shareholder meeting for the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., Inc. would have on the dispute. The three siblings have not held such a meeting since 2004, corporation attorney Luke Lantta said. The removal of Dexter King as the estate's administrator is unlikely because that would require a meeting of the board of directors. Judge Ural Glanville on Monday also ruled in favor of dismissing some of the allegations against Dexter King, but left the question of whether he failed to act in the best interest of his father's incorporated estate to a jury. A trial on the allegation of breach of fiduciary duty could happen as early as next month. The lawsuit reveals a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King were in the courtroom Monday, but Dexter King was not. He had been injured in an accident in California and did not make the trip to Georgia. Dexter King had filed a counter claim against his sister, asking the court to force her to hand over to the corporation some items that belonged to Martin Luther King Jr. In a special hearing Monday, the court ruled that the items, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize and his love letters to Coretta Scott King will be turned over to the court to hold until a resolution is reached. The courtroom was packed with supporters of the King family. Among those in attendance were the Rev. Joseph Lowery and former Ambassador Andrew Young, friends of Martin Luther King Jr. who worked with him during the civil rights movement. CNN's Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two of King's children accuse third of wrongfully taking money from estates .\nDexter King has denied claims by Bernice King, Martin Luther King III .\nCivil rights icons at courthouse to support family .","id":"6ee59193f085158b3ad22201adf29e0877425c7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI ended 2009 much as he began it -- with a major gaffe that angered Jews. He started the year by welcoming a Holocaust-denying bishop back into the fold, and ended it by putting the controversial World War II-era Pope Pius XII one step closer to sainthood. Both caused uproars. \"It seems that the pope doesn't always know what's going out under his name, or the impact of what's going out under his name, which is very strange to observe because John Paul II was so media-savvy,\" said Ruth Ellen Gruber, a Jewish journalist and author who has long been based in Rome. The Pius XII episode \"seems to be yet again a case where they didn't estimate what the response would be,\" Gruber said. In both cases the pope quickly found himself having to explain and clarify. He lifted the decades-old excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson in January, part of an effort to reconcile an ultra-conservative movement with the Vatican. Three other bishops associated with the Society of St. Pius X were un-excommunicated at the same time. The excommunications were not related to Williamson's Holocaust denial. But it was Williamson who caused outrage, not only among Jews but also among German Catholic bishops and politicians, because the bishop had been filmed denying that the Nazis systematically set out to murder Jews in the Holocaust. The video was freely available on YouTube -- and by March, the pope was admitting the Vatican should have Googled Williamson before letting him back into the church. The excommunication's remission caused \"a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time,\" Benedict XVI wrote in an open letter to bishops in March. \"I have been told that consulting the information available on the Internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on,\" the pope acknowledged. \"I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news.\" He made his first visit as pope to Israel in the wake of the controversy -- a visit planned long before the Williamson uproar erupted -- and delivered a clear message: \"Every effort must be made to fight anti-Semitism wherever it is found.\" But fresh controversy blew up this month when he issued a decree proclaiming the \"heroic virtues\" of Pope Pius XII. Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, is perhaps the most controversial pope of modern times, accused by detractors of not speaking out against the Nazi persecution of Jews. (John Cornwell titled his book about Pius XII \"Hitler's Pope,\" just to make his point perfectly clear.) Israel Meir Lau, a former chief rabbi of Israel and himself a Holocaust survivor, said it would \"shame\" the Vatican to declare Pius XII a saint. \"Especially not now, when many survivors are still alive. It will hurt them deeply to know that the man who could save [them], could do much more and did not do it,\" he said. \"It is not a good education for generations to come.\" Even as the Holocaust was going on, the United States was pushing Pius XII to act. \"At the time of the Holocaust, questions about Pius XII's public silence were raised by Myron Taylor, the U.S. representative to the Vatican, and Taylor's assistant, Harold Tittman, who requested that the Holy See speak out on the issue,\" the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum said Monday. \"The opening of the post-1939 archival material is essential to a proper assessment of Pius XII. Only then will a sound and accurate portrait of his moral leadership during the Holocaust be possible,\" the museum argued. Benedict's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, called Pius XII an \"important pope that we know was guiding the church in very difficult times.\" The Vatican has long argued that Pius did more behind the scenes to help Jews than he gets credit for -- but has not produced proof. It says it will open the Vatican archives from Pius XII's era to scholars, but not for several more years, blaming the delay on the length of time it takes to catalogue and prepare the materials. But by Wednesday, Lombardi was backpedalling on the wartime pope. First, he said, Benedict XVI had merely ratified a decision which the Vatican committee that evaluates candidates for sainthood had already made about Pius XII. Further, the pope's declaration was about Pius XII's \"intense relationship with God and continuous search for evangelical perfection ... and not the historical impact of all his operative decisions,\" Lombardi said in a written statement. The decree \"is in no way to be read as a hostile act towards the Jewish people, and it is to be hoped that it will not be considered as an obstacle on the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church,\" Lombardi said, looking ahead to the pope's planned visit to the main synagogue in Rome in January. The visit will be the first time a pope goes to the synagogue since John Paul II did in 1986, and is meant to be a major symbol of good relations between the two faith communities. Benedict is a German -- in fact, he was forced as a young man to join the Hitler Youth -- and an accomplished musician who relaxes by playing piano. So why does he have such a tin ear when it comes to the Holocaust? Gruber suspects that different factions within the Vatican may be competing for influence. She noted that both the Williamson and Pius XII controversies blew up \"soon before what were expected to be major advances in Catholic-Jewish relations\" -- the trip to Israel and the synagogue visit. The Italian Jewish community, for its part, seems to understand the competing pressures on the pope, she said, citing a cartoon in the Jewish monthly Pagine Ebraiche showing Benedict walking across Rome's Tiber river towards the city's main synagogue -- on a tightrope. He holds a pole for balance, with a flag on one side saying \"dialogue\" and the other saying \"conversion.\" \"It's a very sympathetic cartoon for the pope, surprisingly sympathetic,\" said Gruber, the author of \"Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe.\" Whatever gaffes may cause problems between the Vatican and the Jewish community, Gruber said, there is little chance of a complete rupture in relations. \"Dialogue with the Jews is now embedded in Vatican doctrine,\" she said. \"It's a loud dialogue. There's shouting. But if you don't have opposing views, it's not dialogue -- it's an echo chamber.\" CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pope Benedict XVI in trouble for praise of World War II-era Pope Pius XII .\nPius is accused by critics of failing to speak out against Nazis and Holocaust .\nVatican says Benedict was just agreeing with panel considering Pius for sainthood .\nBenedict angered Jews in January with support for Holocaust-denying bishop .","id":"a00724eb742803e9944e6098dba56903a7549bbc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- British singer Leona Lewis was \"understandably shaken\" after a man attacked her during a book signing in central London Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for her record label said. Leona Lewis was signing copies of her book \"Dreams\" when a man assaulted her, police say. A 29-year-old man was arrested after he punched Lewis at the Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly Circus at 4:36 p.m. (10:36 a.m. ET), according to a Scotland Yard statement. She was signing copies of her new autobiography \"Dreams\" when the \"unprovoked attack\" happened, said Sarah Weinstein Dennison of the RCA Music Group. \"The police were called immediately, and medical attention has been sought,\" Dennison said. \"Leona is understandably shaken and apologizes to the fans she was unable to meet and complete signings.\" There was no information released on how seriously she was hurt. The police statement said the man was arrested on \"suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.\" \"He is currently in custody at a central London police station,\" police said. Lewis, 24, got a career boost when she won the music talent competition on British television show \"The X Factor\" in 2006. She got three Grammy nominations last year based on her debut album, \"Spirit.\" Her second album, \"Echo,\" is set for release next month, according to her Web site.","highlights":"British singer was signing copies of her book at London store .\nA man is accused of punching her, police say .\nLewis won Britain's \"X Factor\" show in 2006; her new album is out next month .","id":"3432439109b7981e28888ee431457ae5edc92bbd"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Food and Drug Administration approved a second vaccine intended to protect against cervical cancer. GlaxoSmithKline has manufactured a vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer. Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved Friday for prevention of cervical cancer and pre-cancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18. The vaccine is approved for use in girls and women ages 10 to 25 years and is to be administered in three doses. After the initial shot, the second and third doses are to be given within six months. \"The licensure of Cervarix adds another option in the prevention of cervical cancer,\" said Dr. Karen Midthun, acting director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. \"It has the potential to save lives from cervical cancer as well as reduce the need for biopsies and invasive procedures associated with the necessary follow-up from abnormal Pap tests.\" According to GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine is 70 percent effective against pre-cancerous lesions, regardless of HPV type. \"The vaccine contains two HPV types (16 & 18) responsible for the majority of cervical cancers in North America,\" said Sarah Alspach, a GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman. \"But approximately 25 percent of cervical cancers are caused by other cancer-causing HPV types. Cervarix has been shown to reduce the incidence of pre-cancers resulting from cancer-causing virus types beyond 16 and 18.\" The vaccine will be available this year, according to GSK, which did not divulge the price. Cervarix will be competing with Merck & Company's Gardasil, the first cervical cancer vaccine, which won FDA approval in June 2006. Gardasil, for girls and women ages 9 to 26, prevents against cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and protects against HPV types 11, 16 and 18. Gardasil's approval has been broadened by the FDA to include an indication for boys and young men ages 9 through 26 for prevention of genital warts caused by HPV types 6 and 11. \"This vaccine is the first preventive therapy against genital warts in boys and men ages 9 through 26, and, as a result, fewer men will need to undergo treatment for genital warts.\" Midthun said. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the nation. More than 40 types of HPV can infect genital areas, according to the disease agency. But because many of them are not visible to the naked eye, most people who become infected don't know it.","highlights":"FDA approves GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccine .\nCervarix is designed to help prevent cervical cancer .\nDrug will compete with another HPV vaccine Merck & Company's Gardasil .\nCervarix will be available later this year, according to GlaxoSmithKline .","id":"61a435fdd3524d7c9af0edb198e564a218389ec0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bea Arthur, the actress best known for her roles as television's \"Maude\" and the sardonic Dorothy on \"The Golden Girls,\" has died of cancer, a family spokesman said Saturday. Bea Arthur, right, with \"Golden Girls\" co-star Rue McClanahan in June 2008. She was 86. Spokesman Dan Watt said that Arthur died Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles, her family by her side. She is survived by her sons Matthew and Daniel and grandchildren Kyra and Violet, he said. No funeral services are currently planned, Watt said, adding that the family asked that donations be made to either the Art Attack Foundation or PETA in lieu of flowers. Arthur's opinionated Maude first appeared on Norman Lear's \"All in the Family\" as Edith Bunker's cousin, and was so popular that Lear created a spin-off series. In the '70s, \"Maude\" was ahead of the social curve, tackling hot topics not usually mentioned on situation comedies -- pornography, race relations and, in an episode titled \"Maude's Dilemma,\" abortion. That episode spawned demonstrations and generated hate mail for Arthur -- when Maude and husband Walter (Bill Macy) decided on that episode they were too old to raise a child. But many saw Maude as an enduring icon for women's liberation -- a big deal for the shy, Jewish girl born Bernice Frankel in New York City. During the Depression, Arthur's family left the Big Apple and opened a clothing store in Cambridge, Maryland. By the time she was 12, Arthur was nearly 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and self-conscious about her height. But she masked her insecurity with comedy and eventually returned to New York to study acting. Along the way, she had a short-lived marriage she never spoke about, but she kept the last name -- Arthur. The young Bea Arthur earned a living singing and doing stage work on Broadway and off-Broadway. Critics delighted in her haughty, serpent-tongued deliveries. Her first television appearance came in 1951 in a long-forgotten series called \"Once Upon a Tune,\" but she quickly made a name for herself with appearances on \"Studio One,\" \"Kraft Television Theatre\" and \"The Sid Caesar Show.\" Arthur drew attention in \"Threepenny Opera\" on Broadway with Lotte Lenya, but she really turned heads in 1964 originating the role of Yente the Matchmaker in \"Fiddler on the Roof.\" In 1966, Arthur won a Tony Award for the caustic Vera Charles in the play \"Mame,\" playing opposite Angela Lansbury in the title role. Eight years later, she reprised the role in the film version opposite Lucille Ball, but by then she was already well-established as Maude. Arthur left \"Maude\" in 1978, making television and some film appearances afterward. She starred in a short-lived series, \"Amanda's,\" in 1983 and then joined the cast of \"The Golden Girls\" in 1985 with Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty. Her role as Dorothy Zbornak gave Arthur her other major television success as one of four older women living together in Florida. (Getty played Arthur's mother). The role earned Arthur a second Emmy -- the first was for \"Maude.\" Arthur left the show after Dorothy remarried at the end of the 1991-92 season. White, McClanahan and Getty continued for another season on the show, renamed \"The Golden Palace,\" but the show lasted only one season without Arthur. Arthur entered semi-retirement after the show ended in 1992, returning to television in sporadic guest appearances and appearing at several celebrity roasts. In the early part of this decade, Arthur appeared in several one-woman shows. Her last stage appearance was in 2006. Her last television appearance was on \"The View\" in 2007.","highlights":"Actress Bea Arthur dies of cancer at age 86, spokesman says .\n\"Maude,\" \"Golden Girls\" star was at home with family in Los Angeles .\nArthur is survived by two sons and grandchildren .","id":"125434d4e636e31a189f842ab236acc74d3b2ab6"} -{"article":"ACCRA, Ghana (CNN) -- President Bush sought Wednesday to dispel rumors that the U.S. plans to bring \"all kinds of military to Africa,\" saying that is \"simply not true.\" President Bush shakes hands with Ghanian President John Kufuor in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday. He said the United States has no plans to add new bases in Africa but may open an office somewhere on the continent as part of its plans for Africom, a new U.S. military command that will focus on Africa. The president did not elaborate on the size of such an office but took pains to say it would not be a military base in the traditional sense. \"The purpose of this is not to add military bases,\" Bush said. \"I know there's rumors in Ghana -- 'all Bush is coming to do is try to convince you to put a big military base here.' That's baloney. Or as we say in Texas, that's bull.\" Watch what gifts Bush brought to Ghana \u00bb . The president of Ghana, John Kufuor, said he welcomed Bush's comments. \"I am happy for the president's dispelling any notion that the United States of America is intending to build military bases on the continent of Africa,\" he said. The U.S. military divides the world into regions and has a \"command\" for each region. The U.S. Central Command, for example, focuses on U.S. military concerns and activities in much of the Middle East and South Asia, while the U.S. Southern Command focuses on Latin America. The new command established last year, Africom, will be based in Stuttgart, Germany \"for the foreseeable future,\" the U.S. military says. \"Now, that doesn't mean we won't develop some kind of office somewhere in Africa. We haven't made our minds up,\" Bush said Wednesday. \"I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is, you know, bringing all kinds of military to Africa. It's just simply not true.\" About 1,800 U.S. troops are stationed in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa, as part of the U.S. fight against Islamic extremists. Bush said Africom will \"provide military assistance to African nations so African nations are more capable of dealing with Africa's conflicts, like peacekeeping training.\" \"The whole purpose of Africom is to help leaders deal with Africa's problems,\" he said in a joint news conference with Kufuor. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ed Henry and Tim McCaughan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bush says U.S. has no plans for military bases in Africa .\nOffice in Africa is possible as part of new Africom command in U.S. military, he says .\nAfricom, established last year, focuses on Africa but is based in Germany .\nGhanaian president welcomes Bush comments on base rumors .","id":"4f92eecff2c577498a73e7ceb7f8a22772ac61eb"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The funeral of a Chicago teenager whose beating death was caught on video was attended Saturday by scores of family members, officials and community leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson. A funeral for Derrion Albert, a teen who was fatally beaten last month, was held Saturday on Chicago's South Side. Authorities say Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old honors student, was an innocent bystander who ended up in the middle of a September 24 street fight between two factions of students from Christian Fenger Academy High School. \"The killings keep coming -- one need not to be guilty to be killed in this war zone,\" Jackson told reporters before the service Saturday at the Greater Mount Hebron Baptist Church in South Side Chicago. \"We must declare a state of emergency. We have an obligation to prepare for our children safe passage.\" Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis was among the Chicago officials who filed into the church as the the victim's mother, An-Janette Albert, wept in the arms of loved ones. Watch friends, dignitaries attend funeral \u00bb . \"I can't believe I'm here and he's not with me,\" An-Janette Albert told CNN in an interview earlier in the week. \"I can't talk to him.\" Four suspects have been charged with first-degree murder in Derrion Albert's killing, and police say they are looking for three more people in connection with the beating. Video footage of the incident shows Albert being hit by a person wielding a railroad tie. President Obama, a longtime Chicago resident, is sending Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder next week to talk with officials from the school, the students and the community about school violence, the White House said. Albert's sister, 11-year-old Rhaea, told CNN on Thursday that she looked up to her big brother, and now wants to be an even better student in his honor. But his death haunts her. \"I'm kind of nervous to go outside these days because of what happens to kids now,\" she said. \"Kids around my age ... they could still get hurt, no matter what.\" Watch slain teen's mother talk about her feelings \u00bb . When school let out at 2:50 p.m. on September 24, Albert was nearly six blocks away -- on his way to a bus stop -- when two groups of students converged on the street, said Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor. The factions -- one that lived near the Altgeld Gardens housing development and one in an area known as \"The Ville\" -- began fighting after an earlier shooting that police called gang-related. According to Simonton, Albert was approached by two members of \"The Ville\" faction and struck in the head with a long wooden railroad tie, then punched in the face. After being knocked unconscious for a brief period, Albert regained consciousness and tried to move from the fight, but was then attacked by a second group of five members from the opposing faction, Simonton said. Albert was taken to Roseland Community Hospital and then to Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.","highlights":"Rev. Jesse Jackson: \"Killings keep coming ... we must declare a state of emergency\"\nAlbert's mother, earlier in week: \"I can't believe ... he's not with me\"\nDerrion Albert, 16, was beaten to death September 24; beating was recorded .\nPolice still seeking other suspects related to Albert's death .","id":"641de600e51b97f1bbd23999b39d28a2d7a92c63"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- For almost a century, the old dog has traversed landscapes across the United States, with weary, budget-conscious travelers peeking out of its windows. Greyhound bus services will run from London to cities such as Portsmouth and Southampton. Now, the iconic Greyhound is taking to the road in Britain. The company will run hourly bus services from London to select cities, starting Monday. In contrast to its U.S. services, however, the buses are glitzier and more luxurious. \"The UK service will have wireless Internet, spacious leather seats, more leg room and free newspapers,\" said Alex Warner, managing director of Greyhound UK. \"Obviously, we wanted our services to reflect the nature of UK passengers.\" For inaugural Greyhound service in Britain, the company aimed to start with the best the United States has to offer, Warner added. In North America, the same services are available from New York and Washington to select cities such as Boston and Toronto, Canada. \"There are plans to expand that. Americans should watch closely. We will introduce more of these services based on how well they are received in the UK,\" Warner said. Despite the added benefits, fares will still target the budget-conscious traveler in Britain, according to Warner. The service starts with a few cities -- from London to Portsmouth and Southampton, he said. The approximately 120-kilometer (80-mile) trip will cost \u00a31 ($1.60) if a ticket is bought in advance, Warner said. Prices will go up to \u00a34 or \u00a35, depending on time of purchase. \"We are planning to keep the prices within that range,\" Warner said. Greyhound Lines is owned by British transport company FirstGroup, which bought it from its U.S. parent in 2007. It was founded in 1914, and has services in Mexico and Canada, according to its Web site. In a nod to its cameos in American movies and songs, such as the 1969 film \"Midnight Cowboy\" and Simon and Garfunkel's 1972 hit \"America,\" Greyhound plans to keep at least one tie to its U.S. origins. Buses in Britain will be named after classic American songs. The names include \"Sweet Caroline\" and \"Good Golly Miss Molly,\" Warner said. CNN's Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Greyhound Lines to run services from London to Portsmouth and Southampton .\nBuses are glitzier and more luxurious than U.S. services .\nGreyhound Lines is owned by British transport company FirstGroup .","id":"e7aabb248bd5bdf1f182c83fc1336ff71e694b3a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mourners gathered Saturday in a California church to remember slain Yale graduate student Annie Le, 24, whose body was found on the day she was to be married. Yale student Annie Le's family said in a statement that \"her laughter was infectious.\" \"You were born in my loving embrace,\" said Le's mother, Vivian Van Le, reading a poem she'd written in Vietnamese to those gathered for the funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills, California. Chris Le -- her son and Annie Le's brother -- provided a translation. \"The most wonderful gift that God had sent to me. ... You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things. All the dreams and hopes of your future gone with you to your resting place,\" Vivian Van Le said, according to her son. Le, a pharmacology graduate student, was last seen alive on September 8, the day she appeared in a surveillance video as she entered the four-story lab at 10 Amistad St., about 10 blocks from Yale University's campus. Her body was found inside the basement wall of the building on September 12, the day she was to be married. Authorities have charged Yale lab technician Raymond Clark, 24, with Le's murder. Bond has been set at $3 million, according to police. See timeline of case \u00bb . Vivian Van Le addressed her daughter's fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, on Saturday at the funeral, saying, \"Even now, Annie is gone. But I still have you and love you very much, like my son, Christopher.\" Widawsky is a graduate student in physics at Columbia University, according to Yale. Watch loved ones say goodbye to Le \u00bb . Monsignor James C. Kidder told the mourners that \"the worth of Annie's life was not its length, it was its intensity of love.\" Yale released a statement Friday, saying that a university memorial service would be held on October 12. The university is also establishing a scholarship in Le's memory. It released a statement from her family, saying \"Annie was loved by everyone who knew her and special to all those who came in contact with her. ... Her laughter was infectious and her goodness was ingenuous. ... We will always remember her beautiful smile, her fun-loving spirit, and the joy that she brought to us all.\"","highlights":"Mourners gather in a California church to remember slain Yale student .\nLe's mom: \"You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things\"\nAuthorities have charged Yale lab technician Raymond Clark with Le's murder .","id":"ad7f6321e2cb2d4ccc93f87987dd5ba202998490"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For nearly 20 years Jennifer Schuett has held onto every memory of the night she was abducted from her bedroom, raped and left for dead. Jennifer Schuett remembers small details of the night she was abducted, raped and her throat slashed at age 8. It was August 10, 1990. Schuett was 8 years old and lived alone with her mother in the first floor of an apartment complex in Dickinson, Texas. The bedroom windows faced the parking lot. Investigators were never able to identify a suspect, but new DNA testing may change that. CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett wants to go public with her story-- and her name-- to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker. \"It's not about me anymore,\" she explained. \"It's about all the little girls that go to sleep at night. I know there are so many girls out there who have been raped and hurt. You have to fight back.\" For that, Schuett, 27, is relying on her voice, her memory and advances in DNA testing. \"I remember everything; I've always wanted to remember everything, so I can find the person that did this,\" Schuett told CNN during a phone interview. \"If I had blocked this out of my memory, the investigation wouldn't have come this far. I'm a fighter.\" Schuett says she was alone in her bed when a man came creeping in through the window. She remembers waking up in a stranger's arms as he carried her across a dark parking lot. \"When I opened my eyes, his face was the first thing I saw and he covered my face and mouth,\" she said. \"He ran with me to his car. He told me he was an undercover cop and that he knew my family. He seemed calm -- not nervous, not aggressive.\" After they left the parking lot, he drove her through the streets of Dickinson, Texas, pulling into a mechanic shop next to her elementary school. \"Watch the moon. The moon will change colors and that is when your mom will come to get you,\" she recalled him saying. \"Oh, it looks like she is not coming.\" Schuett said he drove her to an overgrown field next to the school and raped her. \"He had a knife to my throat and touched my face and offered me Reese's pieces,\" she said. \"I was scared but I knew I couldn't be fast enough to get away. Cars would drive by but I couldn't get away to get help.\" She believes she passed out. \"I woke up to him dragging me by my ankles,\" she said. \"I felt thorns ripping the skin off my back. I would see him turn to look at me and I would play dead.\" She passed out again, and awoke at daybreak. \"I remember feeling dew around me and I couldn't figure out why when I screamed I couldn't hear myself,\" said Schuett. She lay naked on top of an ant hill with her throat slashed from ear to ear, and her voice box torn. Much later, she said, \"I heard children playing hide and seek. That is when one of the kids tripped over my foot,\" said Schuett. She was found at 6 p.m. on a hot August day. She had been lying in the field for nearly 12 hours. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. \"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description. The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong,\" said Schuett. She believes she got her voice back so she could tell her story. \"I never wanted to play the victim role. I wanted to be a strong survivor,\" she said. But the attack left its mark. \"For the first two years, I had nightmares and was scared,\" she said. \"But I never wanted sympathy. ... If I had given up, he would have won, and I wanted to show him: 'You didn't win.' \" Shuettt said she is now \"on a manhunt.\" Houston FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison is one of the lead investigators in the case, along with Dickinson police Detective Tim Cromie. Both men were discussing the case, when Rennison received a memo from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) Team, saying they were looking for cold child abduction cases that could be retested for DNA evidence. The Schuett case was one of the cases selected. Rennison, who has 10 years of experience in child abduction cases, said he has never seen a case like Schuett's. \"This is the only one that I can think of that the victim has suffered some traumatic injuries and survived,\" he said, \"The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive. In cases of child abduction it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently you recover a body and most times you never find them.\" Schuett is a living witness who can help put the pieces together. The investigators found evidence collected 19 years ago, which can be retested. It includes the underwear and pajamas Schuett was wearing, as well as a man's underwear and T-shirt, which were found in the field where Schuett was left for dead. The clothes were tested in 1990, but the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But now, modern techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell. Once they get back the DNA results -- \"any time now,\" Schuett said -- they will run them through the FBI's criminal database and see if they get a match. The FBI has also offered a $10,000 reward for information that could lead to a break in the case. And last weekend Schuett appeared in \"America's Most Wanted,\" which resulted in several leads from viewers who called in with information. \"Someone might remember something about that night,\" Schuett said. \"Dickinson is a really small community. Everybody knows everybody. I know someone in town knows something.\"","highlights":"Jennifer Schuett was grabbed from her bedroom and attacked at age 8 .\nShe was raped, her throat was slashed and she was left for dead .\nShe is publicly talking about the attack in an attempt to catch the man .\nThe FBI is investigating and advanced DNA tests are due back any day .","id":"38ba1fa40c9faee3316e6a8289c137bd0d63625d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama will meet with top congressional leaders from both parties Tuesday to discuss a war in Afghanistan that now appears to be at a potential tipping point. The meeting on the war comes as the Obama administration conducts a review of its Afghan strategy. Obama will be joined by, among others, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the heads of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees in the House and Senate, two Democratic officials said. The meeting comes amid the Obama administration's comprehensive review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Several top military leaders and opposition Republicans are pressing Obama to act quickly to increase the present 68,000-troop level by as many as 40,000. \"There's no doubt that, particularly on funding, it's not going to happen until Congress signs off,\" White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday. \"They're an important part of this, and the president wants to hear from them.\" In March, Obama announced a plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to the country to provide security for a national election. That move followed what Obama and others called years of inadequate resources in Afghanistan because of the Bush administration's focus on Iraq. The Obama strategy was based on a counterinsurgency mission intended to defeat terrorists based in Afghanistan while winning local support and helping with development. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took over four months ago as the top U.S. commander in the country, has submitted an assessment in which, sources have told CNN, he says he needs additional forces to carry out the counterinsurgency strategy successfully. Otherwise, McChrystal reportedly warns, the mission could fail, bringing a return of power to the Taliban. \"We need to reverse the current trends, and time does matter,\" McChrystal said last week in a speech in London, England. \"Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely.\" U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, appeared to push back Monday against those who are loudly urging a rapid troop increase. It's \"important that we get it right,\" he told a U.S. Army audience. Gates said that it's also \"important that all of us ... provide the best advice to the president candidly but privately.\" Gen. George Casey, chief of staff of the Army, echoed Gates' view, telling reporters that he would be sharing his views \"in private\" and that they'd be \"the second to know.\" Obama has yet to respond to McChrystal's report, prompting opponents to accuse him of indecisiveness and playing politics that puts U.S. soldiers on the ground at risk. Watch more on the debate over the best way forward \u00bb . National Security Adviser James Jones Jr. on Sunday cited three developments since March that have led the White House to reconsider its overall Afghanistan strategy: . \u2022 Questions about the legitimacy of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's election victory. \u2022 McChrystal's conclusion that the Taliban is stronger than previously thought. \u2022 Neighboring Pakistan's improved efforts to change the overall dynamic of the border region. \"The key in Afghanistan is to have a triad of things happen simultaneously,\" Jones said on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" listing improved security, economic development and \"good governance and the rule of law.\" Jones said Karzai's government \"is going to have to pitch in and do much better\" than it has to improve the governance situation after the elections, widely considered as tainted by vote fraud in some areas. Some in Obama's inner circle, including Vice President Joe Biden, are advocating a counterterrorism approach that focuses on combating al Qaeda through the use of unmanned drones and special forces without involving additional troops. Others, especially McChrystal, are strongly advocating the broader counterinsurgency approach, which requires a much larger U.S. military footprint in the country. See who has Obama's ear on Afghanistan \u00bb . Sen. John McCain of Arizona and other Senate Republicans -- as well as other advocates of an increase in troop levels -- are pushing for McChrystal to testify before Congress about his assessment. Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan, rejected their request nearly two weeks ago, calling it \"premature.\" Eight American troops and two Afghan security force members were killed Saturday when militants opened fire on an outpost with rockets, mortars and heavy-caliber machine guns, according to an initial U.S. military report on the battle. The bodies of four of those U.S. soldiers -- Army Sgt. Joshua Kirk, of South Portland, Maine; Specialists Michael Scusa of Villas, New Jersey, and Christopher Griffin, of Kincheloe, Michigan; and Pfc. Kevin Thomson, of Reno, Nevada -- are scheduled to be brought back to the United States on Tuesday, the Pentagon said. It was the largest number of Americans killed by hostile action in a single day in Afghanistan since July 2008, according to CNN records. CNN's Ed Henry and Laurie Ure contributed to this report.","highlights":"Heads of Armed Services and Foreign Relations panels in Congress will attend .\nMeeting comes amid comprehensive review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan .\nU.S. commander reportedly has warned the mission could fail without more troops .\nSome advisers advocate counterterrorism approach without adding troops .","id":"23436c55f0bf93cd126f8f89e402237cf9886eaf"} -{"article":"NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Yale University lab technician was arrested Thursday and charged with murder in the slaying of a graduate student whose body was found in the basement wall of an off-campus medical research building, police said. Raymond Clark, 24, was arrested and charged with murder, police said. His bond was set at $3 million. Raymond Clark was apprehended about 8:10 a.m. ET at a Super 8 motel in Cromwell, Connecticut, where he had spent the night after being released Wednesday following his submission to DNA testing. Bond for Clark has been set at $3 million, New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said. Hours after his arrest, Clark appeared in court and did not enter a plea. Standing with chains on his ankles and his palms on a table, he looked only at the judge and spoke only to acknowledge that his rights were read to him. A court date of October 6 was set. Lewis described the killing as an instance of \"workplace violence\" but did not elaborate. Watch chief, acquaintances talk about Clark \u00bb . Annie Le's body was found in the basement wall of an off-campus medical research building Sunday. She had been strangled. Le, 24, a pharmacology student, was last seen alive September 8, the day she appeared in a surveillance video entering a four-story lab at 10 Amistad St., about 10 blocks from the main campus. Her body was found on what was to have been her wedding day. Lewis said the arrest \"went smoothly.\" Watch the police chief announce the arrest \u00bb . He could not release details about the charges or whether DNA results led police to arrest Clark, who initially was described as a person of interest in the case. \"This arrest warrant has been sealed, so no further information can be released in order to comply with this court order,\" Lewis said. Clark could have been arrested Wednesday if he had declined to provide DNA samples and allow police to search his home, but he was released after complying, New Haven city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said. Police had been monitoring the motel where Clark was staying. When asked about the arrest, Clark's attorney David Dworski referred CNN to the statement he released earlier: \"We are committed to proceeding appropriately with the authorities with whom we are in regular contact.\" Two other search warrants also were executed Wednesday -- one on property belonging to Clark that was not named in the first warrant and a second for Clark's vehicle, which was being processed Wednesday evening, Lewis said earlier. He said Clark is a technician who does \"custodial-type\" work at the building. Clark answered police questions for a while but later retained an attorney and stopped, Lewis said. Yale President Richard Levin said while the school's administration is \"relieved\" by the news of Clark's arrest, \"we must resist the temptation to rush to judgment.\" Clark, a lab technician at Yale since December 2004, had nothing in his employment history that \"gave an indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible,\" Levin said in a statement Thursday. Lewis said Clark and Le worked in the same building and passed in the hallway, but he refused to comment further on whether they knew each other. Investigators have collected about 250 pieces of evidence, Lewis said. Watch police discuss the investigation \u00bb . Lewis earlier said police had reviewed about 700 hours of video and interviewed more than 150 people, some more than once. Watch a timeline leading up to Le's death \u00bb . Authorities have not released information on what DNA evidence may have been found, although investigators said earlier that bloody clothing was found hidden above tiles in a drop ceiling in another part of the building. Police have not described the clothes that were found, nor said to whom they might have belonged. Teams of investigators at a Connecticut State Police lab worked through the weekend processing and examining the bloodstained garments. But Thomas Kaplan, editor in chief of the Yale Daily News, said a Yale police official told the college paper that the clothes were not what Le was wearing when she entered the building. Lewis said Wednesday that processing of the building was nearing completion and police would probably clear it Thursday morning. Watch a report on the police saying the killing was no random act \u00bb . Le was to have been married Sunday on New York's Long Island to Jonathan Widawsky, a Columbia University graduate student. Le was from Placerville, California, and seemed to have been aware of the risks of crime in a university town. In February, she compared crime and safety at Yale with other Ivy League schools for a piece for B magazine, published by the medical school. Among the tips she offered: Keep a minimum amount on your person. When she walked over to the research building last week, she left her purse, credit cards and cell phone in her office. CNN's Tom Foreman, Mary Snow and Shirley Zilberstein contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Suspect appears in court, doesn't enter plea; October 6 court date set .\nBond for Raymond Clark set at $3 million, police say .\nPolice chief describes crime as a case of workplace violence .\nLe's body was found on what would have been her wedding day .","id":"66fb5ec58884813ca54ad2242f38ddd57c00c423"} -{"article":"BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A hoax video purporting to show Michael Jackson hopping out of a coroner's van alive was produced by a German television station as an experiment, the broadcaster told CNN Monday. Michael Jackson was found dead on June 25. He had been preparing for a comeback. It was made to show how easy it is to spread rumors online, said Heike Schultz, a spokeswoman for RTL, the leading private broadcaster in Germany. \"We sent out a press release before we did the video to alert everyone that it was fake, but once posted it spread really fast,\" she said. More than 880,000 people have clicked on the most popular version of the video on YouTube, posted by a user using the name \"michaeljacksonhoax\" under the title \"Michael Jackson alive?! Seen coming out of coroner's van!\" Nearly 3,600 people have commented on the video. \"All the moves, his posture, the stepping out of the van, looks like MJ. He steps out very cautious, like a moonwalk. Also the slowly walking is just like Michael did,\" one user wrote. \"I really hope he's still alive....I could never forgive him for scaring me like that, but I could never hate him... :),\" another said. Watch video of the hoax \u00bb . Not everyone was fooled. \"I would forgive Michael for anything because he is so super sexy but seriously guys he has passed,\" one user wrote. \"MJ has passed so leave him alone this movie is fake. R.I.P. Michael I love and miss u.\" A second version of the video, posted and annotated by \"MUZIKfactory2\" to show inconsistencies, has been seen more than 329,000 times. Both versions were posted on August 25. RTL produced the video for its daily magazine \"Explosive\" to tell people not to take information at face value, the station's representative said. \"This was so obviously fake, in the case of Michael Jackson, it just was not possible,\" Schultz said. According to Schultz, some viewers have been happy that the magazine showed them how easy it was to fake information online. Others who were Michael Jackson fans have told RTL that this was the wrong topic to do this kind of experiment on. \"It was not a bad thing, since it was so obviously a fake. But it is now in our poison wardrobe and it won't be revived again,\" Schultz said. RTL said it removed the video from the Internet, but it can still be seen on YouTube. News of Jackson's death on June 25 sparked something of a feeding frenzy on the Web, as many news Web sites struggled to cope with the sheer volume of traffic. With that came rumors that dragged in other celebrities completely unconnected to the \"King of Pop's\" death. One Wikipedia prankster wrote that Jackson had been \"savagely murdered\" by his brother Tito, who had strangled him \"with a microphone cord.\" Soon rumors spread online that movie star Jeff Goldblum had fallen from the Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand while filming his latest movie. On several search engines, \"Jeff Goldblum\" soon became the only non-Jackson-related term to crop up in the top 10. The rumors forced Goldblum's publicist to issue a statement to media outlets, saying: \"Reports that Jeff Goldblum has passed away are completely untrue. He is fine and in Los Angeles.\" At the same time, Harrison Ford was also rumored to have fallen from a yacht off the south of France. CNN's Per Nyberg in London, England and Frederik Pleitgen in Berlin, Germany, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Video purportedly showed Michael Jackson hopping out of a coroner's van .\nRTL spokesperson: Video made to show how easy it is to spread rumors online .\n880,000 people clicked on the most popular version of the video on YouTube .\nRTL: Video intended to tell people not to take information at face value .","id":"4d7b826fb705023ef8eb47bc3c886d2ca45a9f7d"} -{"article":"MEDELLIN, Colombia (CNN) -- This city's drug underworld is littered with \"poseurs\" -- lowlife triggermen pretending they're the real hard cases. Samir Romero, wanted by police for two murders, was killed in August. He was shot 13 times. But a longstanding and trusted source, with intimate knowledge of Medellin's violent subculture, assured me the two men I was about to meet were the real deal. My destination: a single-story home in the city's notorious \"Commune 13\" district where I had set up a meeting with two hit men, who have for years hired their lethal services out to the cocaine cartels. Inside the house, a man called \"Red\" sat on a couch toying a fully loaded 9mm Ruger pistol. \"This will stop somebody nicely,\" he said, as I glanced at it. His face and arms were covered in burn marks. He said it was a testament of the day a barrel of acid spilled onto him as he was working in a clandestine cocaine processing lab in northern Colombia. Red explained that after the accident, the lab foreman tossed him out, half-dead, into a jungle clearing. What little strength he had left, he said he used to bat away vultures. And, against the odds, he made his way to safety and slowly recovered. When Red left the clinic months later, he said he went straight back to the drug lab and gunned down the foreman and three of his henchmen. That wasn't his first killing though, he told me. When he was just 11 years old, Red recounted, he took a razor to the throat of a neighborhood drug pusher who had been molesting his little sister. The other man, \"C\", sat quietly as I listened to Red. Like Red, my source told me, \"C\" was also the so-called \"chief\" of a number of neighborhoods -- running local drug-peddling operations, extortion rackets and organizing hits for a big cartel boss he simply referred to as \"El Cucho,\" or \"The Old Man.\" It was a hot morning and he was shirtless. His chest was branded with a tattoo of the Virgin Maria Auxilatrix, known in Colombia as the \"Virgin of the Assassins.\" Hitmen, or \"sicarios\" as they call them here, revere her and pray to her for protection against arrest or death and for help to carry out their killings. Watch as Medellin law enforcement moves from killing to killing \u00bb . During our time with the hit men they offered a fascinating insight into their violent world -- from how much they get paid to what their mothers think of their lifestyle: . Penhaul: Why are Medellin's drug bosses and the street gangs in a war right now? \"RED\": \"These problems come about because they're looking for a good man to run things. We have to find him and, in order to find him, what's happening right now has to run its course.\" \"C\": \"Medellin has exploded right now because different groups want to control it and earn money and gain territory. The authorities locked up, extradited, or cut cooperation deals with the big guys, the ones who controlled all this. Those were the ones people respected. Now there's no respect and anybody who has a bunch of money is grabbing a few kids from a poor neighborhood and putting them to work.\" Penhaul: What are the cartel bosses paying for a contract killing now? \"C\": \"If you're talking about a contract hit then right now you can get four or five million pesos (between US$2,000 and $2,500) to kill some idiot slimeball. Then of course there are bigger hits where you can earn 15 (million) or 20 million (between $7,500 and $10,000). Some of those hits pay pretty well. There's a lot of people around here with a lot of money and they're using it for bad things. Sometimes even the politicians will pay for a hit to get somebody out of their way.\" Penhaul: Why did you get into this lifestyle? \"Red\": \"People need to eat and there's a lot of hunger. We don't just want the crumbs. That's the big problem. There's a lot of idle hands around here and many people think they have a chance if they have a gun in their hand.\" \"C\": \"I grew up in a slum and every time I stepped outside the door there were guys from the local gang smoking (marijuana) joints. They had guns, the best motorbikes and money so I started running errands for them.\" Penhaul: Didn't you have any big dreams when you were kids? \"Red\": \"I always said when I grow up I would build a house for my old lady with a cement roof and plaster and paint on the walls. I dreamed I'd be able to give her money to go to the supermarket every week.\" \"C\": \"I dreamed of being a professional soccer player. I was pretty good. But I never got the chance.\" Penhaul: Do you think you've made your mothers proud by killing people? \"Red\": \"I once gave my mum a wad of cash after I did a job. She took the wad and slapped me in the face and told me not to bring that cursed money into the house. She begged me to get out of that life. She was afraid they would kill me.\" \"C\": \"My mum knows nothing about this. I guess she imagines because she tells me to take care otherwise I'll wind up dead. But she doesn't know for sure.\" Penhaul: What did your first contract hit feel like? \"Red\": \"You kill the first one and you panic for a few days. You're nervous. But then you kill the second one and that's a kind of a medicine. It takes the pain away that you were feeling after the first killing.\" \"C\": \"The first time is really f***ed up. I nearly went mad. You see a cop and think he's going to arrest you. I was 16 or 17. That was my first time. I hardly even wanted to eat. But then you carry on and kill this one and that one. You earn money. After I killed somebody the first time I bought my first decent pair of sneakers. \"It's not so tough now. Sometimes you kill somebody and you know they were going to kill you. It's not a question of conscience. It's a question of kill or be killed.\" Penhaul: Don't you feel any remorse? \"C\": You know you messed up when you go to the wake and see people crying and you know it's your fault. But I don't back down from a killing because I know if somebody comes after me they won't back down.\" \"Red\": \"I've got feelings and sometimes you sit down and think what a shame. But the person who's trying to shoot you isn't going to think the same. You're not killing somebody for the fun of it. If you don't mark your territory then you're a nobody.\" Penhaul: So, apart from the money, why do you do it? \"C\": \"To gain respect round here you have to be a mother f***er. You've got to be a bastard so people respect you. If you're quiet and respectful everybody takes advantage. But if they know you're a mother f***er who'll bust their ass at the first sign of trouble then they respect you and your family.\" Penhaul: Are you killing innocent people? \"C\": \"I never kill somebody who doesn't deserve it. Sometimes I'll hunt down a \"patient\" for a week just so that I don't make any mistakes. You can't go and kill somebody just because you want to. You have to ask for permission from the big guys who control us. You explain to the \"old man\" and he gives the final word.\" Penhaul: Are you ever on the receiving end of bullets? \"Red\": \"They once shot me four times at point blank range. I heard them laughing as they walked away and one came back and kicked me in the head for good measure. When I got better he was the first one I killed. I've been shot 17 times. Well let's call it 19 if you count the ones that just graze you. They say some bodies have divine protection. Let's hope mine is one of them.\" Penhaul: Why don't normal citizens just turn you in? Because they're afraid? \"C\": \"The community collaborates with us. We give them food parcels and we throw parties for them and give toys to the kids. We don't mistreat everybody, just the ones who deserve it. We don't kill innocent people.\" Penhaul: Do you want to get out of this life? \"C\": \"I know you should pay what you owe. But I don't want to pay for all those deaths. I'll be absolutely f***ed if I have to pay. I want to get out of this but I want a clean slate. If I pay my debt to the law then that means jail and if I pay on the street then that means death. I don't want to go to jail or to die.\" Penhaul: Do you see any quick end to the current cartel violence in Medellin? \"C\": \"We've survived one war, then another and now this one. I can't see it all ending. I don't think that will happen. If you kill two or three people there's four or five more behind him who want to kill you.\"","highlights":"Colombian hitmen talk about their careers to CNN .\nOne says a kill costs between $2,000 and $10,000 .\nSecond hitman: After the first kill you panic, the second is a medicine .\nThey live in Medellin, the Colombian city in the middle of a drug war .","id":"2ff2a1326985d2a052e20cf25e5c3b3cf7a45d48"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The father of Haleigh Cummings, a Florida girl who disappeared in February, plans to file for divorce from the girl's stepmother, a key witness in the case, his attorneys told HLN's \"Nancy Grace.\" Ronald Cummings plans to divorce his wife, Misty, his attorney says. The move follows weeks of reported tension between Ronald and Misty Cummings during the search for Haleigh, who was 5 when last seen. In papers expected to be filed Tuesday, Ronald Cummings, 25, cites irreconcilable differences in ending his short marriage to his 17-year-old wife, said Terry Shoemaker, Ronald Cummings' attorney. Haleigh went missing from her father's home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9. Cummings has made several public pleas for information in her disappearance. Misty Cummings, then known as Misty Croslin, was the last person known to have seen Haleigh the night she disappeared from the family's rented mobile home. The teenager said she tucked Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. and went to sleep herself two hours later, but awoke at 3 a.m. to find the girl missing and a cinder block propping open a back door. Ronald Cummings called police and reported his daughter missing when he returned from work at dawn. Investigators have said they do not feel Misty Cummings has told them everything she knows. \"The police have been telling me that I've been keeping Misty under my wing and that's why she hasn't talked to the cops,\" Ronald Cummings told a \"Nancy Grace\" producer Tuesday. \"So now, here you go, I divorced her. So now go find my baby.\" Watch Ronald Cummings speak to Nancy Grace \u00bb . The Putnam County Sheriff's office said in August that \"the evidence and investigatory effort has minimized the likelihood that Haleigh's disappearance is the work of a stranger.\" Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield, Haleigh's mother, are not considered suspects, police said. \"Investigators believe that Misty Croslin-Cummings continues to hold important answers in the case,\" the sheriff's office said in a written statement. \"She has failed to provide any sort of detailed accounting of the hours during the late evening and early morning of Haleigh's disappearance. Furthermore, physical evidence at the scene contradicts Misty's sketchy account of her evening activities.\" Shoemaker said his client told Misty Cummings he wanted a divorce on Sunday, and that the a divorce agreement was drawn up Monday. The agreement was sent to Misty Cummings' lawyer for her signature. \"He really didn't come to us and say, 'I want to file for divorce,'\" said another of Ronald Cummings' attorneys, Brandon Beardsley. \"My understanding is that this is something that he and Misty have been discussing for the last few days and they're contemplating it because they ultimately feel that it is in the best interest for both of them.\" Misty Cummings' attorney, Robert Fields, told CNN he has not talked with his client and doesn't know her thoughts regarding the divorce. Fields said he had received the papers via e-mail but had not had a chance to review them. Asked what he thought the divorce would mean for the search for Haleigh, he said, \"Probably nothing.\" \"You have to understand that ever since Haleigh went missing, they have been scrutinized,\" Beardsley said of the Cummingses. \"They can't go out to dinner, can't even go to the convenience store to get a drink. ... The pressure of everything that is going on, the allegations and speculation, has been a stress on the relationship. The two lived together for about six months before marrying in March. The divorce agreement provides no financial terms, according to Shoemaker. On Monday, Misty Cummings left Satsuma to stay with a friend in Orlando, 50 miles south, Shoemaker said.","highlights":"Haleigh Cummings' father plans to file for divorce from the girl's stepmother .\nHaleigh went missing from father's home in Satsuma, Florida, on February 9 .\nMisty Cummings was Ronald Cummings' girlfriend when Haleigh went missing .\nInvestigators said they think Misty Cummings has not told them everything .","id":"e188ddcadd4f1627c42c8ee8352686ef4d9a2c93"} -{"article":"KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) -- Malaysia defended on Friday its practice of caning criminals after a disturbing video of a prison-yard caning session burst onto the Internet, reigniting criticism from lawyers and human rights advocates. In the video, a naked man is shown strapped to an upright wooden frame, his rear exposed to a uniformed official who lifts a meter-long rattan stick above his head before bringing it down on the prisoner's buttocks, tearing the flesh with each strike. The video, in which the moaning and shaking prisoner is struck six times, has spread quickly across the Internet, capturing headlines in the Web sites of some European newspapers and forcing the Malaysian government on to the defensive. \"The government at this stage has no plans to abolish the cane as part of punishment,\" Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow told Reuters by telephone. He said the video was an official recording that had been leaked onto the Internet. The video had been produced for deterrent purposes, with excerpts shown during anti-narcotic education sessions to would-be drug dealers, he added. \"This video was taken officially by us for a demonstration purpose, but it is not supposed to have the victim's face identified. Somehow somebody must have taped (copied) it.\" Malaysia is not alone in caning criminals, which critics say breaches human rights norms, including the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Neighboring Singapore also wields the rattan stick and caused a U.S. outcry 13 years ago when it caned an American teenager, Michael Fay, four times for vandalism. But Malaysia's Bar Council, which represents about 12,000 lawyers, recently called for a ban on caning, saying the \"cruel\" practice was rising in Malaysia, especially on illegal immigrants after hasty hearings arranged at crammed detention centers. \"They have started imposing the caning sentence in a more rigorous way and it can affect anyone who comes in (to Malaysia) without a passport or papers, so it happens to asylum-seekers and refugees,\" said Latheefa Koya, of the council's Legal Aid Center. The government denied use of the cane was widespread against illegal immigrants and Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu said it was reserved mainly for the traffickers of illegal immigrants in addition to drug-traffickers and violent criminals. Fu said the government also faced calls from victims of crime for the use of the cane to be maintained or even increased for some serious crimes \"in view of the crime rate in Malaysia\". Crime is seen as a major electoral issue in the run-up to a possible early general election, expected early next year. \"We respect the view of the Bar Council but there are many other views from the people and also from the victims of crimes that there should be an increase (in caning),\" Fu said. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"Malaysia defends caning of criminals after video hits Internet .\nClip shows naked man strapped to wooden frame being punished .\nMeter-long rattan stick strikes prisoner's buttocks, tearing the flesh .","id":"fc0b3815ee470441231ef90a20a726b412bb4abb"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Angry workers beat to death a human resources vice president after he laid off 42 employees at an auto-parts manufacturing company in southern India, police said Wednesday. Roy George was vice-president for human resources at Pricol, the auto-parts company. Some four to five workers, belonging to a union not recognized by the company, barged into his office and beat him up with iron rods, said N. Kannan, a police superintendent of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu state. George, 47, died from his head injuries Tuesday, Kannan told CNN. Police have arrested nine people and are expected to round up more. Last year the Indian head of an Italian company died after allegedly being beaten by a mob of sacked employees. More than 60 people were charged with the murder of the chief executive of Graziano Transmissioni near New Delhi. Earlier this month, India's Jet Airways had to cancel hundreds of flights after pilots struck work over the sacking of two of their colleagues in August. Companies in the South Asian nation, despite its rapid economic growth in recent years, have often been faced with tough labor issues because of archaic laws and company policies on hiring and retrenchment. Business consultants in India blame such labor standoffs on what they call lack of transparency in retrenchment or layoff policies. Hiring and firing conditions are often not explained to workers by their companies, said Rajeev Karwal, founding-director of Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions. Issues could spiral out of control if the businesses and bureaucrats are seen in a \"corrupt nexus\" by the employees seeking reprieve from labor authorities, he said.","highlights":"Roy George was vice-president for human resources at Pricol auto-parts company .\nPolice: Four to five workers barged into his office and beat him with iron rods .\nPolice have arrested nine people and are expected to round up more .","id":"21853eeefffa2ddc78b1f69f91e93f028291128c"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Kanye West may be able to take time off to think about his life after all now that his concert tour has been canceled. Kanye West has canceled his \"Fame Kills\" tour with Lady Gaga. It was announced two weeks ago. Concert promoter Live Nation said Thursday that West's concert tour with Lady Gaga, titled \"Fame Kills,\" has been canceled just two weeks after it was announced. The reason for the cancellation was not revealed. West told NBC's Jay Leno last month, before the tour was officially announced, that he planned \"to take some time off\" in the aftermath of his MTV Awards show embarrassment. The three-month, 34-show tour across the United States and Canada was to start next month. Tickets went on sale last week. Live Nation said people who bought tickets could get refunds at the point of purchase. Tickets purchased online and on the phone will be refunded automatically, the promoter said. West caused a ruckus at the MTV Awards last month when he put down his bottle of cognac, jumped on the MTV Music Video Awards stage and grabbed the microphone from singer Taylor Swift as she was giving an acceptance speech. West, who apologized the next day on \"The Jay Leno Show,\" seemed to blame his erratic behavior on the lack of time he had to grieve his mother's death two years ago. \"I deal with hurt and, you know, so many, you know, celebrities, they never take the time off, and I've never taken the time off to really, you know, I just, music after music and tour after tour on tour,\" West told Leno. CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Kanye West's tour with Lady Gaga canceled two weeks after being announced .\nThree-month, 34-show tour across U.S. and Canada was to start next month .\nWest told Jay Leno he was planning to take time off in wake of MTV embarrassment .\nConcert promoter Live Nation says refunds will be given .","id":"eb1068c36b11955320e60abe2c511554ddc9418d"} -{"article":"Prague, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Fireworks and rock 'n' roll echoed across central Prague on Tuesday as thousands of marchers commemorated the 20th anniversary of the \"Velvet Revolution\" that toppled Communist rule. The peaceful 1989 uprising began with a student march to mark a 1939 clampdown on opposition in what was then Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. It drew 15,000 people -- students as well as teachers, professors and ordinary Czechs who had grown weary of state control. Ivan Pilip, one of the students who took part, said the march \"was very different\" from previous demonstrations he had joined. \"There was a different group of people,\" he said. \"We feel that people that participated in such events before had come, and they're ready to do something. And it was more and more visible every minute.\" The protest was held a week after the opening of the Berlin Wall, as pressure was building on the Communist governments of Eastern Europe. When the demonstrators tried to divert the march to central Prague's Wenceslas Square, they were attacked by police -- a response that led tens of thousands more people to join mass demonstrations that lasted another 10 days. \"My kids cannot understand today what was moving our minds and hearts that day 20 years ago,\" Pilip's wife, Lucie, said Tuesday. \"We watched television today to show them what we had come through these 20 years, and I think it's an enormous success.\" The protests led to talks between government officials and the Civic Forum, a group of dissidents led by playwright Vaclav Havel. The Communist Party ceded power in December, and Havel became president. \"Many of our citizens who took part in the democratic changes died already with a feeling that they contributed to something that meant a lot,\" Havel said Tuesday. \"In our ordinary, daily lives, we tend to forget our friends of that time -- our comrades, free-thinking individuals.\" The anniversary march was capped by a concert that featured dissident musicians of the day, along with American folk singer Joan Baez. Havel himself appeared onstage with a guitar, but told the crowd, \"Don't worry, the guitar doesn't mean I'm going to play today.\" Musicians, actors and other artists played major roles in the protests. Michael Kocab, now the Czech Republic government's human rights minister, was a rock singer who became the revolutionaries' key negotiator. \"In the beginning there was many times this idea, 'What am I doing here,'\" Kocab told CNN recently. \"I knew in the future I'd get used to it. And five or 10 days later, I forgot I was a musician and I submerged myself in political negotiations. And I liked it.\" The celebration was organized by Opona, a nonprofit group established to observe the milestone anniversary of the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. \"Our inspiration to do this was from our memories -- we still remember the times that preceded the events,\" said David Gaydecka, one of the organizers. \"We believe that the changes in those 20 years have been positive despite all those maladies which came along with the freedom.\" -- CNN's Phil Black and Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report.","highlights":"Czech students take to the streets to mark 20th anniversary of fall of communist rule .\nStudent clashes with police in 1989 triggered events that rid then-Czechoslovakia of totalitarianism .\nThe march in 1989 was in memory of the students who perished under the Nazis .","id":"4ecc129fd7231a641a2b545ecb5f667e94df6b66"} -{"article":"NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- The accused came from all walks of life: Retirees, dads and twentysomethings. An engineer, a business owner and an auto worker. A man in a wheelchair. Men in need of Spanish or Farsi translators. Brett Beasley, with Nashville's Health Department, educates men arrested for trying to buy sex about STDs. About 40 men somberly entered a classroom on a recent Saturday morning. About half of them wore shiny wedding bands. All had tried to buy a prostitute's services and were caught by police. It was their first offense, and a county court referred them to a one-day program called the John School. It's a program run by volunteers and city officials in conjunction with Magdalene House, a nonprofit that works to get prostitutes off the streets. \"Prostitution doesn't discriminate,\" said Kenny Baker, a cognitive behavioral therapist who is the program's director. \"Most of these men don't have a prior criminal history, so our goal is to help these folks understand why they put themselves in a bad position, to prevent it from happening again.\" Set in a church in Nashville, Tennessee, the John School is led by former prostitutes, health experts, psychologists and law enforcement officers who talk to -- and at times berate -- the men about the risks of hiring a prostitute. Prostitution is based on the law of supply and demand. The thinking is: Women won't stop selling sex until men stop buying. So Nashville and a growing number of cities are shifting their focus from locking up suppliers to educating buyers. Across the country, about 50 communities are using John Schools. Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, are among dozens more cities that plan to launch similar programs by the end of the year. See where the John Schools are \u00bb . \"It will make them [offenders] see that this is not a victimless crime, and they are contributing to the exploitation of women,\" said Stephanie Davis, policy adviser on women's issues at the mayor's office in Atlanta. \"It's hurting them, the man, and it's hurting their families and its hurting the community.\" No comprehensive effort has been made to track the numbers, but experts estimate 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States. The FBI's 2007 Uniform Crime Report lists about 78,000 arrests for prostitution and commercialized vice, but experts say those numbers are extremely conservative because many sex workers and johns aren't caught. Experts add that easy accessibility to prostitutes and pornography on the Internet are feeding the problem. In most communities, prostitution has been a one-sided battle focused on the women who offer sex. Their customers, when they are arrested, are usually cited for a misdemeanor and fined. By comparison, prostitutes are often charged with more severe sentences and jailed for months, depending on the offense. But in Nashville, the johns' faces are shown on a police Web site. For decades, Nashville battled prostitution by arresting women on the streets and through stings. Still, the problem persisted, irritating business owners and residents. In the early 1990s, Nashville's mayor helped launch the John School with the help of the Magdalene House, public defenders, prosecutors and police officers. Nashville became one of the first major cities in the U.S. to focus on the customers, predominantly men. Only first-time offenders who solicit an adult are eligible for John School. Johns who pick up minors are not eligible and face much tougher sentences. \"If you get caught again and you get me, I will guarantee to put you in jail,\" warned Antoinette Welch, a local prosecutor, in speaking to the men in the class. \"I've had men cry to me that they will lose their jobs or their wives, but you're all grown up and you make your own decisions.\" The men listened carefully as Welch talked about their records; many had not yet told their wives or significant others about their arrest. If the john pleads guilty, pays a $250 fee and completes the course without re-offending, the charge can be dismissed after a year. The money paid by the john goes to Magdalene House; the program doesn't cost taxpayers any money. John School models in other communities may differ. A woman who called herself Alexis, a 35-year-old former prostitute with dark hair and bright blue eyes, spoke to the men as the class came to an end. Four years ago, she left the streets and now works at a factory. By the age of 10, Alexis had learned to barter with sex with her stepfather. In her 20s, she found herself hooked on drugs and selling her body. She was arrested more than 80 times. She was hospitalized after someone shot her on the job. As she told her story, the men were silent. A few blushed, while others stared at the floor. \"These gentlemen are no different than I was on the streets,\" she said. \"I think everyone has to look at the void they are trying to fill.\" One john, a father of two with salt-and-pepper hair, found himself near tears after Alexis spoke. In July, he tried to pick up a prostitute through Craigslist. He said he was depressed and having problems with his wife. \"I'm so embarrassed,\" he said. \"These girls are somebody's daughters. I have a daughter.\" Some evidence suggests that John Schools are working. A study released in 2008 by Abt Associates Inc. for the federal government looked at the John School program in San Francisco, California. It's one of the largest programs in the country; more than 7,000 johns have attended since 1995. According to the study, the re-arrest rate fell sharply after the school was launched, and stayed more than 30 percent lower for 10 years afterward. But critics call John School a slap on the wrist. On Saturday, one john abandoned the classroom. Carol Leigh, a member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, a group that promotes decriminalizing prostitution in California, said she doesn't believe the program is an effective deterrent. \"John School doesn't do that much,\" said Leigh, who has worked as a prostitute. \"The reality is they aren't spending that much time on the johns and they will just go to other venues. This also doesn't target the violent offenders who are the real problem.\" Melissa Farley, head of the nonprofit group Prostitution Research and Education in San Fransisco, believes johns deserve stronger punishment like longer prison sentences. A recent study by the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation conducted among johns in Chicago, Illinois, found that 41 percent of them said John School would deter them from buying sex, compared with 92 percent who said being placed on a sex offender registry would scare them from re-offending. Nashville officials said they haven't tracked recidivism rates in their city, but the school's program director said it's probably deterring a third of the offenders in each class. At least one college educated, 47-year-old john's attitude appeared to change on a recent Saturday. After class he wrote, \"There is no good part. I would rather be with my wife. This was quick but it wasn't worth it.\"","highlights":"Experts say about 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States .\nAbout 50 communities have programs that focus on deterring johns .\nNashville's program includes a speech from a former prostitute .\nThe Internet is making it easier for people to buy prostitutes, experts say .","id":"a30d0d14e357c0d51a93e495a4b6eb22429ca5d9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- For 13-year-old Brandon Marti, the intranasal vaccine felt \"good,\" \"cold\" and \"watery\" at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York, on Tuesday. Brandon Marti, 13, receives a dose of the intranasal vaccine for the novel H1N1 flu Tuesday. Marti, among the first to get vaccinated against the novel H1N1 influenza virus this week, said he would tell his friends and classmates that \"the swine flu vaccine is good, and protects me from getting the swine flu.\" New York has received a shipment of 68,000 doses of the FluMist variety vaccine. This form was made available before the injectable kind because it was ready first, said Thomas Skinner, spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As states across the country receive and distribute the vaccine, questions still linger about who should get it and why. Here are some guidelines: . Where is the vaccine? The campaign to inoculate millions of Americans against H1N1 flu began Monday. Every state is developing a vaccine delivery plan, according to the CDC. How much do you know about H1N1? Take our quiz. \u00bb . All states in the United States have ordered vaccine, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, at a briefing Tuesday. Each Friday, the CDC will provide information about how much vaccine is available to states and how much has been ordered. So far, about 2.2 million doses out of the available 2.4 million have been ordered, he said. Learn more from your state. The vaccine is being made available as soon as it comes off the production line, Frieden said. This week the intranasal mist variety, called FluMist, became available, and next week the injectable form will made available, he said. iReport.com: Are you getting the H1N1 vaccine? Frieden acknowledged that these first few weeks will be \"bumpy\" in terms of distributing the vaccine, and that demand is currently greater than supply. However, he expects that supply will soon outstrip demand. \"It will take some time to get the whole system, from the manufacturer through the distributor to the providers and to people who want to get vaccinated, up and running,\" he said. Who should get it? The CDC recommends that specific groups of people get vaccinated first, but there are no rankings within the priority groups, Frieden said. The nasal spray version of the vaccine should be used only in people 2 to 49 and who do not have an underlying health problem, Frieden said. The priority groups for it include health care workers, children and people who care for infants, he said. Pregnant women should not have the FluMist version because it contains the live virus. Kathleen Sebelius and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta discuss H1N1 vaccine \u00bb . Ashley Marti, 9, sister of Brandon, also got her H1N1 vaccination Tuesday. Health care and emergency medical services personnel should be in the priority group because vulnerable patients could potentially contract the flu from them, the CDC said. Already, infections among health care workers have been reported, and the health care system capacity could become significantly lowered if large numbers of these workers are absent, the CDC said. Once the injectable shot becomes available, all priority groups should be vaccinated, the CDC said. These include pregnant women, because they are at higher risk of complications and may be able to provide protection to unvaccinated infants. People from 6 months to 24 years old should also receive the vaccine, and people from 25 to 64 should get it they have a chronic health disorder or a compromised immune system, the CDC said. According to a CNN\/Opinion Corp. poll in late August, two-thirds of Americans said they plan to be vaccinated against H1N1 flu. Does anyone have to get it? There are no formal penalties for those who do not get the vaccine, but people in the military are required to receive it, according to the American Forces Press Service. The state government of New York has said that health care workers must get the vaccine, although no law outlines penalties for noncompliance. Still, some workers fear they'll lose their jobs if they don't get vaccinated. How many doses do you need? For people 10 and older, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of one dose of the vaccine. For children 9 and younger, two doses may be required, Frieden said. The CDC recommends that three to four weeks pass between the first and second dose. What if the virus mutates? Nathan Stein, 7, participated in a clinical trial for the H1N1 vaccine over the summer. The virus has not changed much since the spring, Frieden said. In fact, the part of the virus that determines whether it's very deadly is different from the part that determines whether the vaccine will fight against it, he said, meaning that vaccination will still most likely offer protection even if the H1N1 flu becomes more deadly. Why should you get it? Frieden said the flu can range from mild to severe. It can make a person sick for one, two or three days, leading to absence from school or work, and some people may even need hospitalization. \"Tragically, some people may die from it,\" he said. Still, it is not a disease that sends a lot of people to the hospital, he said. The vaccine is also safe, Frieden said. The novel flu vaccine is made in the same production facilities by the same companies with the same methods as the seasonal flu vaccine, and it is the same kind of vaccine that has been given each year, he said. His own children will get it, as will the families of other public health experts, he said. Some people are concerned that it is too late to get vaccinated against the novel virus, but Frieden also dismissed this. \"It's too soon to say it's too late because we don't know what the rest of the season will bring,\" he said. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this report.","highlights":"CDC: About 2.2 million doses out of the available 2.4 million have been ordered .\nIntranasal spray version of vaccine should be given to people 2 to 49 .\nPregnant women and children younger than 2 should not get the FluMist version .\niReport.com: Are you getting the H1N1 vaccine?","id":"56c5d0a9a059bbdaadc27f7cf59145c005b238b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A recall has been issued for enoki mushrooms produced by Phillips Mushroom Farms in Pennsylvania. The recall covers 3.5-ounce packages of enoki mushrooms bearing UPC 33383 67540. The mushrooms were packed in clear plastic bags with blue or green graphics and sold from January 13 to 30. Enokis are long, thin white mushrooms, often used in Asian cuisines. Preliminary test results showed potential listeria contamination, but no illnesses have been reported, according to Phillips Mushroom Farms. Listeria can cause flu-like symptoms, including fever and muscle aches, and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It affects primarily the elderly, pregnant women, newborns and people with weakened immune systems. Retailers are asked to remove the mushrooms from their shelves, pending further instructions. Consumers are asked to return the mushrooms to the place of purchase for a full refund. Visit http:\/\/www.phillipsmushroomfarms.com\/ or call 800-722-8818 for more information.","highlights":"Recall covers 3.5-ounce packages of enoki mushrooms bearing UPC 33383 67540 .\nMushrooms in clear bags with blue or green graphics; sold from January 13 to 30 .\nEarly test results show potential listeria contamination; no illnesses reported .\nListeria can cause flu-like symptoms and sometimes nausea or diarrhea .","id":"c35e355db457b14690d77949fcee5f8090baac0f"} -{"article":"(CNN Student News) -- November 19, 2009 . Download PDF maps related to today's show: . \u2022 Afghanistan \u2022 Iran \u2022 Kenya . Transcript . THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: One ship, two pirate attacks, different outcome this time around. You'll see it in today's show! I'm Carl Azuz. CNN Student News starts right now! First Up: Senate Health Care Plan . AZUZ: First up, the Senate has come up with its plan to reform the U.S. health care system. The proposed bill, released last night. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it would give health insurance to 30 million more Americans and would cost an estimated $849 billion over the next 10 years. Some senators now opposed to the bill are concerned about what it covers and how much it costs. Republicans have threatened to try and block the legislation from being passed. Debate on it could start as soon as Saturday. Afghan Inauguration . AZUZ: Hamid Karzai is scheduled to be sworn in today for his second term as the president of Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says this is a \"critical moment\" for that country, because it's a chance for Karzai to show what kind of government he'll lead. Clinton is visiting Afghanistan right now. She's scheduled to meet with Karzai while she's there. The Afghan president, under pressure to clean up corruption in his government, and Secretary Clinton is expected to talk with him about some guidelines that Afghanistan will have to meet in order to continue getting aid from the U.S. Clinton says that America wants to be partners with Afghanistan and with the Afghan people, and that is why President Obama has been reviewing the U.S. approach to the country. Nuclear Fears . AZUZ: No deal! That's what Iran seems to be saying about sending some of its nuclear materials to other countries. This plan was worked out at a meeting last month. Iran would send raw nuclear materials to other nations who would make it into nuclear fuel, and then that would go back to Iran to be used in medical facilities. But now, instead of sending out materials and getting them back later as fuel, one Iranian official is saying the country will only swap raw materials for already processed fuel, and the trade would have to happen in Iran. All this is part of the ongoing tension over the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program. Iran says it's only being used for peaceful reasons. But other countries believe Iran may be trying to build nuclear weapons. Terror Trial Debate . AZUZ: Well, there has been a lot of back-and-forth about the Obama Administration's decision to try a group of suspected 9\/11 terrorists in a civilian court in New York City. A lot of people spoke out about this on our blog and in Congress, where Attorney General Eric Holder, who made the decision, talked about it yesterday. Samantha Hayes has our report on that. (BEGIN VIDEO) SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a move that's sparked a raging debate. ALICE HOAGLAND, MOTHER OF 9\/11 VICTIM: I think I can speak for many 9\/11 families when I say that we are heartsick. HAYES: On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder defended his decision to try five suspected 9\/11 terrorists -- including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- in a civilian court, not a military tribunal. ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It was a decision that was case-driven. It's a decision based on the evidence that I know, that frankly, some of the people who have criticized the decision do not have access to. HAYES: Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee led the intense criticism of Holder's decision. SENATOR JON KYL, (R) ARIZONA: How could you be more likely to get a conviction in federal court when Khalid Sheik Mohammed has already asked to plead guilty before a military commission and be executed? HAYES: But Democrats who support the move expressed confidence in the court system and the ability of the city of New York to handle the trials, even though it was the epicenter of the 9\/11 attacks. SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CALIFORNIA: I happen to believe that New York City is able to handle this in a very professional and definitively legal manner. HAYES: And Holder said it in no way undermines the administration's commitment to fighting terror. HOLDER: We are at war, and we will use every instrument of national power -- civilian, military, law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic and others -- to win. HAYES: Holder also told the panel that he is not concerned that a federal court could find the suspected terrorists not guilty. He said he has told prosecutors that these are cases that must be won. For CNN Student News, I'm Samantha Hayes. (END VIDEO) Shoutout . MICHELLE WRIGHT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mr. VandenHeuval's social studies classes at Dos Rios Elementary School in Tolleson, Arizona! Who is the longest-serving member in the history of the U.S. Congress? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Robert Byrd, B) Strom Thurmond, C) Harry Reid or D) Ted Stevens? You've got three seconds -- GO! Today is Senator Robert Byrd's 20,775th day serving in Congress. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Congressional History . AZUZ: Six years in the House of Representatives; elected to the U.S. Senate nine terms -- only person ever to do that -- it makes Sen. Byrd's total time representing residents of West Virginia 51 years so far. Plus, he's turning 92 tomorrow. As he became the longest-serving member of Congress yesterday, Byrd's years of service were praised by Democrats and Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell talked about Sen. Byrd's love for both the country and the Congress. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted that many of Byrd's records will never be broken. Somalia Pirates . AZUZ: Deja vu in waters off the coast of the African nation of Somalia, when pirates tried to hijack a ship called the Maersk Alabama. If that sounds familiar to you, it's because that was the same ship that was hijacked back in April. A Navy operation rescued the crew members in that incident. And yesterday, a private security team on board the Maersk kept the attempted hijackers from taking over. When we talk about pirates, we don't mean \"of the Caribbean.\" These are very dangerous people with guns; they hold ships for ransom; they're very active in this part of the world. Is this Legit? MATT CHERRY, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Is this legit? The African elephant is the largest animal on land. This one's true. These animals can grow to be 9 tons; that's 18,000 pounds! Elephant Orphanage . AZUZ: Okay -- that's the full-grown version, but even the babies are huge! African elephants can still weigh around 220 pounds at birth! But big doesn't necessarily mean safe. They're losing their habitat; they're being hunted by poachers: Baby elephants can face a lot of threats in the wild, and not having a mother around doesn't make it any easier. David McKenzie examines a program in Kenya that's trying to help orphaned elephants. (BEGIN VIDEO) DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They grow up to be one of Africa's giants, but like all creatures, they start off pretty small. Dwarfed by their keepers, each orphaned elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has a tragic tale. This is Sala. She's 6 weeks old. They say her mother died because of starvation in the Kenyan drought. The person who found her gave her cow's milk, which is extremely harmful to elephants because of the fat. Sala wandered into a tourist camp in Kenya's Sala National Park, alone and confused. The orphanage scrambled a plane to rescue her. Carefully strapped in and traumatized, they evacuated Sala to Nairobi. For weeks, she was too sick to stand. Three days ago, she started walking again. If she makes it, she won't be alone. Drought, poaching and shrinking habitats have decimated elephant herds across East Africa. And the orphanage is fuller than it's been in 30 years. Still, Dame Daphne Sheldrick will take more. DAME DAPHNE SHELDRICK, DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST: Whatever comes in, we have to make space. MCKENZIE: It takes years to rehabilitate and reintroduce the orphans into the wild. For the keepers, it's not just a 9 to 5 job. EDWIN LUSICHI, CHIEF KEEPER: But after working with these elephants, it's no longer just a job. It is from inside your heart, the love that you have for these animals. MCKENZIE: Every three hours, day and night, the keepers mix fortified soy milk for the elephants. It costs $900 a month to care for each orphan, so the elephants have to earn their keep. With a slap of sunscreen to protect their sensitive skin, the babies go on parade. They slush and slide for the throngs of tourists who see the fun, but not the heartbreak. MCKENZIE: So, they hope to lead these infants through their most fragile stage. It could take years before Sala joins a family of wild elephants. In the care of her human family, she might just make it. David McKenzie, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya. (END VIDEO) Impact Your World . AZUZ: Helping elephant orphans, providing aid to victims of natural disasters, finding ways to clean up the environment: There are a lot of ways to impact your world. Head to CNN.com\/impact and check out the resources to find out how you can make a difference. Before We Go . AZUZ: Before we go, it's crazy what you'll find on the side of the road. Like a turkey, for example. Actually, this fearless fowl's walking right through the middle of traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. Highway workers say Tammy -- Tammy the Turkey -- has been hanging out for about a year. Why did the turkey cross the turnpike? Who knows -- it's a turkey. But she does get a lot of looks from people driving by, and she seems to enjoy it! Goodbye . AZUZ: In fact, you could say Tammy's gobbling up all the attention. That's where today's show hits the road. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.","highlights":"Listen in on a debate in Congress about the trial of 9\/11 terror suspects .\nLearn about the tenure of the longest-serving member of the U.S. Congress .\nTravel to Kenya to see how a program aims to help orphaned baby elephants .\nUse the Daily Discussion to help students understand today's featured news stories .","id":"e2730a7ce323f158d4ee672bb52f1214244fbad7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Shel Israel is not the kind of person you'd expect to find on Twitter all day. He's 65. Shel Israel, author of a new book on Twitter. He says the micro-blogging service changed his life. But Israel has been using the micro-blogging service longer than most. In fact, he gave up his lifelong habit of reading the newspaper every day about four years ago and turned exclusively to social media. He now knows how to use Twitter, how not to use it, and how to benefit from it, and he says Twitter has changed his life. The social-media journalist and public speaker is the author of a new book, \"Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods.\" The book shows how Twitter flattens geographical boundaries and helps people connect with others around the world who share their interests. To Israel, it's the mundane details of one's life, shared through tweets and status updates, that matter. He believes that tweeting about what you had for lunch can actually help build a meaningful personal or business relationship. Israel also says that who you follow on Twitter is much more important than the number of people who follow you. That's because the people you follow become \"your newspaper -- the way you get the information that you see, that you digest, and that you use.\" Here is an edited version of the conversation. CNN: Your timing in writing this book seems perfect -- Twitter just blew up. Did you see this boom coming? Israel: Yeah I did, but not with this great prescience. I just thought it was going to get bigger and bigger, and I thought there was a value to Twitter that no other social media tool had. See part of our chat with Israel here \u00bb . What are those values you mentioned that only Twitter has? There are two values and they're closely intertwined. The first is that Twitter lets people behave online more closely to how we behave in real life than anything that ever preceded it in history. It's kind of past now, but there was this whole wave of admonition of nobody cares what you had for lunch, and to be honest that's absolutely false. If I said that I was in a restaurant in Atlanta, [Georgia,] you'd say, \"Oh, where did you go? You didn't by chance try the...\" and we have a conversation that way. We care about the details of life. When you bring this into business, I don't think many members of your audience ever bought or sold anything from a conversation that starts with, \"Are you going to buy something?\" It begins with small talk. And that brings us to the second point. The brevity creates an interaction that no other media tool allows. Until now most social media is I write or create something, and you read it and comment back. In Twitter, it's so brief that no one is the lead conversationalist, really. And it isn't about what you post in 140 characters, it's about the number of spoonfuls of content that you feed people who are interested in eating it. Why are you so fascinated by Twitter? Most people your age don't use social media at all. I was born too soon? (Laughs) I don't know what it is about me, but it's what drew me to Silicon Valley in the first place -- I just get turned on by new ideas and new trends. I am extremely curious by nature. I like meeting people who think and act differently than I do. And that I think keeps me young, along with the fact that I spend much of my time with people younger than me. And they seem to value the fact that this older guy has some wisdom, but they don't understand how much I'm learning from them. You tell a lot of specific Twitter anecdotes in your book. Do you have a favorite character? I have a few real favorites. [One is] Janis Krums, who was the 23-year-old guy taking a ferry to New Jersey when a funny thing happened -- the US Airways flight 1549 landed [on the Hudson River] a couple of football fields away from him. He whips out an iPhone, uses a 30-day-old product called Twit Pic, and takes a picture. Twenty-seven minutes later he's on national TV, the photo he took is the backdrop, and his voice is being heard nationally through the iPhone that he used. I asked him how his life had changed by becoming the most famous citizen journalist of at least 2009. And his answer to me was, \"You know, I didn't plan to be a citizen journalist, I just wanted to go to New Jersey.\" And that might have been my single favorite answer to any question. You also describe why certain strategies work for particular organizations in your book. Are there Twitter marketing strategies that wouldn't work for some companies? Yeah, I talk a lot about changing of eras. We're going [away] from the broadcast era -- that's when content is sandwiched by messages to pay for the experience, and those messages are in the form of advertising or PR or other marketing tactics. And most people don't like them anymore, and we use our Tivo and our spam filters to avoid as many of these messages as possible. In social media, if companies come up and try to treat [Twitter] as just an extension of their marketing solutions, they will fail. What they need to do in social media is join the conversation rather than start the conversation, and not make it about themselves. They need to tell what they're doing rather than sell what they're doing. And that's a fundamental change. We're going into a conversational era, which is bi-directional. What would you say to employers who don't let their employees use social media like Twitter and Facebook during work hours? Whenever something new comes into the marketplace, there are companies that are really in love with the way it's always been done. When you start banning things, you're showing a natural distrust of your employees, which is, even in tough times, not an intelligent way to treat your employees. And the second thing is they're banishing the state-of-the-art communications tool. What's the future of Twitter, in your opinion? A year from now, Twitter will be more of an everyday experience -- the need to meet up, to talk will move on to something that we don't know about yet. My vision for Twitter is that employees of your age coming into the workplace will be shown a desk, a computer ...[and set up their social media accounts] and then be told to go to work and use [Twitter] how they see fit to get the job done.","highlights":"Shel Israel is the author of a new book about how to get the most out of Twitter .\nIsrael says tweeting about mundane details can help build meaningful relationships .\nWho you follow on Twitter is more important than who follows you, he says .\nIsrael: Twitter is ushering in a two-directional, conversational era of marketing .","id":"3cde8eed0dced258cec792ddf88a986e9fcfb39d"} -{"article":"HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, New York (CNN) -- In 2002, Pam Koner was flipping through the The New York Times when a photograph stopped her in her tracks: an 8-year-old girl laying across her torn, barren mattress in Pembroke, Illinois, forking pasta and a boiled chicken bone into her mouth. The girl's image signified the deep-rooted poverty in her rural community. Pam Koner is combating hunger by connecting sponsor and recipient families. The picture moved Koner to tears and inspired her to take action. \"When I read about a community so profoundly poor that women and children were not eating the last week of the month, I walked into my living room where my daughters were and said, 'We're going to do something as a family,' \" recalls Koner, a 57-year-old single mother of two living in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. In the seven years since, Koner's determination to help families in Pembroke led to the creation of Family-to-Family, a nonprofit that connects more than 600 sponsor and recipient families in 13 communities nationwide. Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes. The project began with Koner contacting an outreach worker in Pembroke, who told her the town needed food more than anything else. Koner enlisted help from her neighbors and parents of children in her childcare business; the group began sending monthly boxes of food and basic household items to the neediest families in the Illinois town. \"People were excited to be a part of something,\" says Koner of her donor community. \"Something so little as shopping, packing and sending a box.\" Through monthly food donations, Koner's organization has provided nearly 800,000 meals to struggling families across the country. For privacy purposes, she says, the group makes sure donor and recipient communities are at a distance, such as an Atlanta, Georgia, chapter helping a community in Kentucky or a Florida family helping a Navajo family in New Mexico. In addition to providing basic essentials, families exchange letters, swap photographs and share stories about cultural traditions and family events. \"There's a shared learning experience,\" says Koner. \"When a sponsoring family reads about a Navajo family lifestyle -- barren landscape, a trailer home with no electricity and no running water -- children get a profound, firsthand look at differences. Knowing that each other exists changes the way we look at the world.\" Watch Koner describe how the communities connect with each other \u00bb . The economic downturn has prompted Koner's group to broaden its outreach and sponsorship methods. Bedford-Stuyvesant, a community in Brooklyn, New York, of predominantly working-class African-Americans, is the group's only urban sponsored community. It is also one of the organization's cyber-adoption sites, where sponsor families participate through Paypal, an online money exchange tool. A food pantry buys and boxes up the food to give directly to the families. Koner also learned of families in her own Hastings-on-Hudson community in need of help. \"I was quite surprised,\" Koner says. \"Hastings is probably middle-class to upper-middle-class. It's not a showy community, but this was a community of families who were not in need of help before.\" Her community has eagerly embraced its neighbors in need, she says, but unlike traditional sponsored families at a distance, Hastings-sponsored families presented privacy concerns. \"That there could be a child who was going to school with my child who I was helping ... we felt that was too personal and private. To respect the individual family in need [was] important for us since we live so close together,\" says Koner. To help maintain their anonymity, donations for the 11 sponsored families in Hastings are labeled by letters of the alphabet, so sponsor families have no identifiable information about who they're helping. Watch how kids in Koner's town are helping to feed far-away families \u00bb . Despite economic challenges, Koner says she's noticed growing enthusiasm among families to become sponsors in her own community and beyond. \"I anticipated that we would really be affected, people would drop out. But that hasn't happened. We've actually launched new chapters of sponsoring families.\" Koner attributes the outpouring of generosity to a heightened awareness for how tough times present a new outlook on giving. Watch Koner and some sponsor families in action \u00bb . \"There are plenty of communities where families are struggling themselves, but will keep this as part of their budget,\" she says. \"We're all affected. No one knows what's going to happen tomorrow. We need to be there for each other and we need to share. We're meant to be connected.\" Want to get involved? Check out Family-to-Family and see how to help.","highlights":"Pam Koner's nonprofit connects sponsor and recipient families .\nFamily-to-Family has provided nearly 800,000 meals to those in need .\nFamilies also connect on a social level, exchanging letters, photos, stories .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"ed85fb8c6c41b84ba6f250906800d8c8f18b422a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal safety investigators said Tuesday they fear flaws found in Washington's Metro subway system after a deadly crash this summer may endanger other transit systems, and they sent out an urgent recommendation asking that other rail operators check for similar problems. Investigators are shown at the crash scene in Washington. Nine people were killed in the June 22 wreck. In letters to federal regulators, the National Transportation Safety Board said \"all rail transit operators and railroads should be informed\" about system flaws that could cause a track circuit to fail to detect a train. It was not clear how many rail systems have similar train detection systems. Neither the NTSB nor the Federal Transit Administration had a list of systems that use the \"audio frequency track circuits\" that are the focus of the probe. But an FTA spokesman said that because it doesn't know how many operators use the systems, \"we are sending today's urgent recommendation to all rail transit operators, and will identify the pertinent operators through a later survey.\" Meanwhile, the Federal Railway Administration, which regulates Amtrak and more than a dozen commuter rail systems, said it also will follow the NTSB guidance but believes the number of impacted systems will be \"limited.\" Nine people were killed and 52 taken to hospitals June 22 when a southbound Metrorail train struck the rear end of stopped train just north of the Fort Totten station. Investigators say an automatic train protection system did not detect the stopped train, so the moving train did not receive a command to slow or stop. The NTSB said it is continuing its investigation into the precise causes of the crash, but it said the investigation has raised concerns that the track circuit is susceptible to errant signals. In its letter to regulators, the NTSB said it discovered one circumstance in which an unintended signal path could be created, resulting in a track relay remaining energized even though a stopped train was occupying the circuit. \"After only three months, this complex investigation is far from complete, so we are not ready to determine the probable cause of the [Metro] accident,\" NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman said. \"However, our findings so far indicate a pressing need to issue these recommendations to immediately address safety glitches we have found that could lead to another tragic accident.\" The NTSB sent letters to Metro, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and Alstom Signaling Inc., which acquired General Railway Signal, the manufacturer of some of the equipment.","highlights":"NTSB, investigating fatal D.C. train crash, cites flaw in train detection system .\nNTSB tells other transit systems to look for flaw .\nIt's not clear how many rail systems have this type of detection system .\nCauses of June 22 D.C. Metro crash still under investigation .","id":"66bb60410b303cdcb88bd14803a98fe27004ad9f"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Race and politics are a combustible combo that explodes into headlines when an ex-president lights the fuse, as Jimmy Carter did recently. President Obama during the 2008 campaign faced questions over race and politics. \"When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds,\" the Democrat told students at Emory University on Wednesday. \"I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African-American,\" he added. The controversy erupted this week when Carter first raised the race issue to NBC. \"An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,\" he said. Bill Cosby, a black comedian and actor, said Wednesday in a written statement that he agrees with Carter. \"During President Obama's speech on the status of health care reform, some members of Congress engaged in a public display of disrespect,\" he said. CNN contributor David Gergen said that some of the allegations of race-baiting might have some weight among Democratic voters. \"Jimmy Carter, I'm afraid, is not alone in his views,\" he said. But Gergen warns that the racists tend to be on the fringes of the right and do not reflect on the greater field of opponents to Obama's ideology. \"But I think it's wrongheaded, and I think it's unfair, and I think it's indeed a libel upon many of the opponents, most of the opponents of health care reform, to say that they're racist,\" he said. \"Seven previous presidents have tried to bring health care reforms of this kind. All seven have failed. And, as I recall, all seven were white.\" Carter's comments, though, are the kind that raise people's defenses. In particular, they turn off independents, who by nature tend to hate the hard edges of politics. The White House, for its part, wants no part of the Carter controversy. \"The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin,\" said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. As a candidate, Obama understood the political danger in letting his race become a major topic. He largely avoided it when he could, but race was always a subtext, as it is now in his presidency. \"But I can also say, frankly, that this White House and even his campaign were very afraid to even go down this road dealing with anything with race,\" said CNN contributor Roland Martin. Carter also told NBC that there is an \"inherent feeling among many people in this country that an African-American ought not to be president and ought not to be given the same respect as if he were white.\" Framing criticism as racism cropped up several times during the campaign. When Geraldine Ferraro, a Clinton supporter, said during the 2008 Democratic primaries that Obama would never have gotten as far as he had if he had not been black, candidate Obama pointedly left race out of it. \"I think that her comments were ridiculous,\" Obama said at the time. But Ferraro blamed Obama supporters for her hate mail, saying \"I have been called all kinds of names. And the attacks are ageist. They're sexist. They're racist.\" iReport.com: Freedom from speech? And the topic of race even came to haunt Bill Clinton, the so-called first black president. Before the New Hampshire primary in January 2008, Clinton told an audience that \"there's no difference in [Obama's] voting record and Hillary's ever since. Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen.\" Some interpreted that as belittling Obama's campaign. After much criticism, Clinton later said he was talking about Obama's opposition to the war in Iraq, not his campaign. But those two words -- \"fairy tale\" -- launched weeks worth of accusations, sometimes on the front page of The New York Times, that the Clintons were playing the race card. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on race and politics . Some observers said Carter's statement was far too broad, and that many of the attacks on Obama are about policy, not race. \"I don't think one can paint a broad brush in saying that all of these folks who have criticism, anybody who criticizes the president ... is based upon the issue of race,\" Martin said. Mary Matalin, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist, said Carter's criticism is \"absurd.\" \"It's very dangerous politics,\" she said. \"Barack Obama got, in the last election, more white male voters than any of his predecessors. ... Republicans and conservatives and Democrats and liberals, the whole country felt very good putting -- setting aside policies after his election.\"","highlights":"Former President Carter says criticism of Obama is largely based on race .\nObama doesn't believe criticism is based on color of his skin, spokesman says .\nCNN contributor: Carter shouldn't paint such broad strokes on racism .\nGOP strategist says all the racism controversy is \"absurd\"","id":"2c9e8a42334465fa9f06829078aa2fad027f7144"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House refused to indicate Monday whether President Obama will issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion convicted in 1913 for dating a white woman. Jack Johnson's 1910 defeat of Jim Jeffries, the \"Great White Hope,\" sparked riots. The House of Representatives on July 29 unanimously passed a resolution urging Obama to grant a pardon; the Senate passed a similar measure by a voice vote on June 24. The push for a rare posthumous pardon has been spearheaded for years by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Rep. Peter King, R-New York, two of Congress' top boxing enthusiasts. \"It is our hope that you will be eager to agree to right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison,\" they wrote Friday in a letter to Obama. Johnson, the first African-American to win the heavyweight title, was convicted for violating the Mann Act, which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for \"immoral\" purposes. He served 10 months in prison on charges \"brought forward clearly to keep him away from the boxing ring, where he continued to defeat his white opponents,\" McCain and King said. Almost a century after Johnson's conviction, his compelling saga has continued to capture the interest of sports writers, civil rights activists and historians. It provides, they agree, a unique window into American politics and culture at a time when Jim Crow-style racism reigned supreme. Johnson was first arrested for breaking the Mann Act in 1912, four years after winning the heavyweight crown. That case fell apart, but investigators soon after charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier. Justice Department lawyers argued it was a \"crime against nature\" for him to have a sexual relationship with a white woman. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, later to become the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, set Johnson's bail at $30,000, the equivalent of more than $660,000 today. When a bail bondsman showed up, Landis jailed him, too, according to an account that filmmaker Ken Burns relays in his documentary \"Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.\" An all-white jury convicted Johnson in less than two hours. \"Mr. Johnson was perhaps persecuted as an individual, but ... it was his misfortune to be the foremost example of the evil in permitting the intermarriage of whites and blacks,\" one of the prosecutors later said. Johnson's real crime, in the eyes of many, was committed on July 4, 1910, when he successfully defended his boxing title against Jim Jeffries, a white boxer who came to be called the \"Great White Hope\" because many white fans saw him as the best chance to wrest back a boxing title from the African-American champ. Johnson beat Jeffries, who had come out of retirement for the fight, before a stunned, almost entirely white crowd in Reno, Nevada. Race riots followed. More than 20 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Most victims were black. So when they \"couldn't beat him in the ring, the white power establishment decided to beat him in the courts,\" Burns said in his documentary. Johnson fled to Europe in 1913 while free on appeal. But after years of fights overseas, including the eventual loss of his title in Havana, Cuba, in 1915, Johnson came home. He turned himself over to U.S. authorities at the Mexican border in 1920 and served 10 months in prison. He died in a car wreck in 1946. \"Back then, if you were black and you were told that you did something wrong, you really had no recourse,\" Linda Haywood, Johnson's great-niece, recently told CNN. \"You just accepted what was done because black people were basically powerless and voiceless. Jack may have been a rich boxer, but he couldn't fight the system.\" McCain and King introduced resolutions calling for a presidential pardon in 2005 and last year. McCain, who says he made a mistake by once voting against a federal holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., sees the pardon as a way to right an old wrong. \"The Jack Johnson case is an ignominious stain on our nation's history,\" he said on the Senate floor in the spring. \"Rectifying this injustice is long overdue. [The resolution recognizes] the unjustness of what transpired, and sheds light on the achievements of an athlete who was forced into the shadows of bigotry and prejudice.\"","highlights":"Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion, convicted in 1913 .\nSen. John McCain, Rep. Peter King back posthumous pardon .\nResolutions passed House and Senate this summer .\nJohnson served 10 months in prison for dating a white woman .","id":"ecf14b8e8984ba06abb6aa8ab318640e3e73edc1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Much has been written about the Obamas' marriage. The president and first lady have attested to the long and hard work it takes to stay involved and connected to each other while maintaining their separate identities. Undoubtedly, sustaining a marriage is sometimes hard, as the first lady noted. But the Obamas are an excellent example of how the fruits of marriage can be realized by those who are committed to reconciling their differences and \"toughing it out.\" The problem is that, today, too few couples are willing to make such a commitment. Ever since California became the first state to sanction no-fault divorce law 40 years ago, with every state in essence following suit -- some with certain stipulations -- the most fundamental thread in the fabric of our American values, the institution of marriage, has been unraveling. Before I retired from the bench a few months ago, it was my job as a judge to sort through all the issues rising, in part, from the growing lack of reverence many Americans have for marriage. In court, I often saw humanity's worst behavior. I also dealt with teenage mothers, absentee fathers and parents who have never been married, often by choice. I saw parents who didn't seem able or willing to connect their children's problems with their own failure to provide their children with the necessary road map to self-sufficiency and productivity. And these families didn't just show up in my courtroom. They exist everywhere. The U.S. Marriage Index shows a dramatic decline in the health of marriage in recent decades. America is a society that requires its citizens to make choices and penalizes them, often harshly, for the wrong ones. As a child grows up, the guideposts should be: finish school; become a productive citizen; marry a person you want to spend your life with; and, if you want, have children. In that order. But many Americans are failing their children because they have already failed themselves. They often enter the court system with domestic problems and low-wage jobs, slim educational credentials and no life partners. It broke my heart to see so many children raising babies before they are ready: young people who made no connection between the poverty and chaos in their lives and the choices they had made. My options in addressing these problems from the bench were limited. The courtroom is seldom the stage at which social change takes place. By the time these cases appeared in court, so much damage had already been done. What our society needs is a solution on the front end. We should begin by considering six points: . Let's stop glorifying single parenthood. Celebrity unwed parents like \"Brangelina,\" Halle Berry and the late Michael Jackson make matrimony seem unimportant and suggest that having a baby as a single parent is \"cool\" and even easy. Our children need a reality check. Many young people think that having a child means that they will finally have someone who will unconditionally love them. They don't consider, however, that babies do not and cannot love anyone but themselves, and they also take a tremendous amount of time, attention and resources. Memo to single mothers by choice: When you decide to have a child alone in order to fulfill your deep need to parent, you may be deliberately substituting your emotional loss for that of your child, who will have to grow up without a father. We need to respect the role of men as husbands and fathers when they do right by their families. Boys and girls need their fathers to love them and to model the sacrifice and commitment that bonds a married couple. Men who \"man up\" like this need our support and encouragement. Our state legislatures should revisit no-fault divorce laws that allow one party to a marriage to opt out of it too easily. Change now can result in change in the future. Although there are many success stories, children who grow up in single-parent families are less likely to enjoy the financial security, educational success and social skills of children living with their married parents. This only continues to fuel poverty and inequality in our country. By the way, I'm neither a strait-laced goody-two-shoes nor Archie Bunker in heels. I would never condemn anyone who has had a child out of wedlock or who has gone through a divorce. I was a divorcee, and with two children, I was also a single mom. So I know that these things happen. Indeed, sometimes they must happen. And because they do, we need to respect every family form. But I've been around long enough to know that as marriage goes, so go our children. And with them goes the future of our country. Consequently, everyone -- rich or poor, single or married or divorced, gay or straight, all races and colors, from the first family to the single-parent family -- benefits from a vibrant marriage culture. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Leah Ward Sears.","highlights":"Leah Ward Sears: Couples unwilling to make commitment to rewarding marriage .\nSears: Obamas exemplify good marriage, committed to reconcile differences and tough it out .\nSears' order of priorities: School, work, marriage with goal of spending life together, children .\nAdvice: Stop glorifying single parenthood; support dads and husbands; revisit divorce law .","id":"fd5b59139ca4c1c640a4b80151d8b75f3cc6ffa6"} -{"article":"MEXICO City, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican federal authorities have arrested 124 law enforcement officials in Hidalgo state on suspicion of being linked to the Zetas drug cartel, considered the nation's most ruthless and dangerous crime syndicate. Mexican police, shown here last month awaiting transport of a cartel suspect, have cracked down on drug trafficking. Most of those arrested were municipal police officers, but there also were some high-level state and federal officials, according to the Mexico attorney general's office. Among them were Juan Antonio Franco Bustos, chief of coordination for Hidalgo state security; Jul\u00f1io Cesar Sanchez Amador, head of public security in the city of Mineral de la Reforma; Mario Hernandez Almonasi, director of the auto theft unit for the state ministerial police; Raul Batres Campos, regional chief for the Federal Investigation Agency; and Jose Esteban Olvera Jimenez, a deputy director with the state security service, the attorney general's office said. Hidalgo is in central Mexico. Los Zetas was formed about 10 years ago by Mexican army commandos but now consists mainly of former local, state and federal police. \"The Zetas have obviously assumed the role of being the No. 1 organization responsible for the majority of the homicides, the narcotic-related homicides, the beheadings, the kidnappings, the extortions that take place in Mexico,\" said Ralph Reyes, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's chief for Mexico and Central America.","highlights":"Those arrested include police officers, high-level state and federal officials .\nZetas \"No. 1 organization\" for narcotic-linked homicides, DEA chief says .\nZetas drug cartel considered nation's most dangerous crime syndicate .","id":"dcced83ef88e124b25764138fc75b2026544d5c2"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a new national poll. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday morning indicates that 38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. In May, 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll, 27 percent now blame the Democrats for the recession, up 6 points from May, and 27 percent now say both parties are responsible. \"The bad news for the Democrats is that the number of Americans who hold the GOP exclusively responsible for the recession has been steadily falling by about two to three points per month,\" said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. \"At that rate, only a handful of voters will blame the economy on the Republicans by the time next year's midterm elections roll around..\" Thirty-six percent of people questioned said that President Obama's policies have improved economic conditions, with 28 percent feeling that the president's programs have made things worse, and 35 percent saying what he's done has had no effect on the economy. One reason for that, Holland said, may be the growing federal budget deficit: Two-thirds say that the government should balance the budget even in a time of war and recession. The survey indicates that only 18 percent said the economic conditions in the country today are good, down 3 points from August. Eighty-two percent said economic conditions are poor. \"Some economic indicators may suggest that the economy has turned the corner -- but try telling that to the American people,\" Holland said. The number of Americans who said the economy is in good shape -- a number that grew steadily through the spring and summer -- has now stalled, with fewer than one in five expressing a positive view of current conditions. More than eight in 10 say that economic conditions are in poor shape, with 43 percent calling them very poor. The CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted November 13-15, with 1,014 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"38 percent blame Republicans, 27 percent blame Democrats .\nIn May, 53 percent blamed Republicans for economic mess .\nRising federal deficit may partly explain shift, CNN polling director says .\nOnly 18 percent say economic conditions are good .","id":"3eba518b1822e9cc8bc59317a1d3b749386adf43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They kept their bodies alive with rationed crackers, bubble gum, beer and three gallons of water. But spiritually, the three men lost at sea for eight days had something else to keep them going. The family of the missing boaters put these photos on flyers shortly after they went missing. \"We just kept praying, and we kept hope alive,\" rescued boater Tressel Hawkins told CNN on Monday. \"Even though hope had managed to thread down to a little bitty string, I mean, that little bitty string could be just as strong as the rope you hung on to the first time you got started.\" What was supposed to be a fishing expedition to catch swordfish and marlin became instead a test of survival. Hawkins, 43, and his fellow boaters, Curtis Hall, 28, and James Phillips, 30, set out on August 21 from Matagorda Bay in Texas and went about 100 miles south. Their first night in the Gulf of Mexico almost proved fatal. While Hawkins was sleeping, he said, he felt the bean bag he was resting on floating. He awoke to find water in the 23-foot catamaran knee-high. The water extractor had malfunctioned. He woke up Hall and Phillips and they tried to stop the flooding but it was too late, Hawkins said. Watch CNN's Fredricka Whitfield talk to Hawkins \u00bb . As Hall had the radio in his hand to call for help, the boat capsized, Phillips told CNN affiliate KHOU-TV. They were \"shocked,\" Phillips said. Hall was responsible for rationing the food they had on board and the fresh water that sat in a tank on the boat, Hawkins said. They didn't like it, but they had to follow his rules to survive, he said. \"And being that you don't really know when you're going to get rescued, you have to ration it down to the bare essentials, and he stuck to his guns on that,\" Hawkins said. And with only those bare essentials, they waited and they prayed but they didn't give up. The three had lifejackets, flares and handmade flags. They used T-shirts and railing they ripped off the boat to create the flags, Hawkins said. They waved at boats and helicopters they saw, but the pilots didn't see them, Hall said. Watch two other fishermen describe ordeal \u00bb . \"We tried flaggin' everybody we could, but I guess it was not our time to go home yet. They'd come straight at us, we'd be like 'Hey,' and there they'd go,\" Hall told KHOU. \"I was like, well, you know the good man above, either he's teaching us a lesson or showing us something. And finally, when that boat came, it was just ... I don't know.\" \"It was a miracle,\" Phillips said, finishing Hall's sentence. One day after the Coast Guard called off a weeklong search for the men, the trio spotted a private vessel in the distance. They waved their flags and this time they were seen, Hawkins said. The Coast Guard said it combed more than 86,000 square miles looking for the men . When the crew of the private boat found the three sitting on top of their capsized catamaran, they were about 180 miles from Port Aransas, Texas, which is at the entrance to Corpus Christi Bay. None of the men suffered serious injuries despite all they had endured. In fact, Hawkins said he wouldn't be against going fishing again very soon. \"I would love to do it this weekend, but we made a pact when we made it back to the house that we're going to put the poles down for the rest of the year and try to do something else, maybe go deer hunting or something like that.\"","highlights":"Three fishermen spent week on on capsized boat in Gulf of Mexico .\nMen rationed water, crackers, beer to live .\nBoater spotted fishermen about 180 miles from coast of Port Aransas, Texas .\nCoast Guard had called off search for men on Friday .","id":"b11be4dcb3358f37d4a1f218630b8ce7362976ab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The driver of a charter bus that overturned on a Minnesota freeway, killing two women, may have had a medical emergency, a spokesman for the State Patrol said Thursday. \"One factor being considered is whether the driver suffered a medical episode while behind the wheel,\" Patrol Capt. Matt Langer said. The driver, 52-year-old Edwin Erickson of Elgin, was hospitalized in serious condition, authorities said. Langer said he had a valid driver's license. The women who died, both from Minnesota, were identified Thursday as Rhonda Hill, 52, of Plainview and Pamela Holmquist, 56, of Kasson. The accident happened Wednesday after the bus left a casino in Rochester, Minnesota, headed for Northwood, Iowa, Langer said. Watch video of tour bus crash site . Erickson and 21 passengers were injured when the bus went out of control outside Austin, Minnesota, authorities said. They said two people were in critical condition, and one person was unhurt. Andy Skoogman, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said the bus was eastbound on Interstate 90 when it veered across a median and westbound lanes before overturning and landing in a ditch on the side of the road. The wreck happened three miles west of Austin. No other vehicles were involved. Authorities said weather conditions didn't appear to be a factor in the accident.","highlights":"Charter bus overturned on Minnesota freeway, killing two women .\nDriver hospitalized in serious condition; officials looking into possibility of \"medical episode\"\n22 people were aboard bus en route to Iowa casino; only one unhurt .","id":"94b1cc7850eb5ea956de80f7e089c62754e6236c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Conan O'Brien suggested in a statement Tuesday that he will not accept NBC's proposal to move him and \"The Tonight Show,\" which he's hosted for seven months, to 12:05 a.m. ET. NBC has proposed moving \"The Tonight Show\" from its traditional 11:35 p.m. slot so that the show's former host, Jay Leno, could host a half-hour show then. \"My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of 'The Tonight Show.' But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction,\" O'Brien said. \"Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn't matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more. \"There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.\" Read O'Brien's full statement . After Leno left \"The Tonight Show\" last year -- as part of an agreement reached six years ago giving it to O'Brien -- he began hosting \"The Jay Leno Show\" for NBC in the fall, airing at 10 p.m. ET. But ratings for the 10 p.m. show were low, and on Sunday, NBC announced that it was taking Leno out of the prime-time slot because the show \"didn't meet affiliates' needs\" despite performing at acceptable levels for the network. The last show will air February 11 to make way for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which airs starting February 12. Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, said the plan was for Leno to host a new, half-hour show at 11:35 p.m. ET, followed by \"Tonight\" with O'Brien at 12:05 a.m. and Jimmy Fallon's \"Late Night\" show moving to 1 a.m. As of Sunday, NBC was still negotiating with the three hosts over the proposed lineup. iReport: Share your view on the late-night shakeup . O'Brien, in his statement Tuesday, said the plan wasn't acceptable. \"For 60 years the 'Tonight Show' has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying 'The Tonight Show' into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting,\" O'Brien said. \" 'The Tonight Show' at 12:05 simply isn't 'The Tonight Show.' \"Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the 'Late Night' show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.\" Fox's president of entertainment, Kevin Reilly, told reporters on Monday that his network may be interested in O'Brien should he leave \"Tonight.\" \"I love him,\" Reilly said at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California. \"It's a very compatible fit for our brand. He is one of the few guys in the planet who has demonstrated he can do one of these shows every night.\" In monologues on their respective shows on Monday, Leno and O'Brien had zingers about the looming shakeup. \"NBC said the show performed exactly as they expected it would and then canceled us. Don't confuse this [with] when we were on at late night and performed better than expected and they canceled us. That was totally different,\" Leno quipped. O'Brien had the following to say on his show Monday: . -- \"Good evening, I'm Conan O'Brien, the new host of 'Last Call with Carson Daly.' \" -- \"This weekend no one was seriously hurt, but a 6.5 earthquake hit California. The earthquake was so powerful that it knocked Jay Leno's show from 10:00 to 11:35.\" -- \"On the positive side, I have learned a valuable lesson from all this: Never sign a contract that ends with the word 'NOT.' \"","highlights":"Conan O'Brien: Moving 'Tonight Show' would damage greatest franchise in TV history .\nO'Brien says he wants resolution with NBC quickly .\nO'Brien says he has no offers from other networks on the table .\nFox's president of entertainment has expressed interest in O'Brien .","id":"9873d22aa44d73f15141ad3c09cd71ca5fdbdf2e"} -{"article":"(Southern Living) -- You don't have to stay at these tony hotels to experience the best of their lobbies. The Round Robin Bar at the Willard InterContinental is a great place to eavesdrop. The Willard InterContinental . What to expect: A throwback to grand hotels of the 19th century near the White House. It's where powerful people still go to make powerful decisions. Crowned heads rest on the Willard's pillows. Where to spend your dollars: Sip a mint julep or sample a single malt whiskey in the Round Robin Bar and Scotch Bar alongside power brokers. It may not be polite to say so, but this is a great place to eavesdrop. \"The next day's work starts between 6 and 8 p.m.,\" says Jim Hewes, bartender there for 22 years. \"The Round Robin gets a drift on tomorrow's news.\" The inside story: D.C. insiders strut the lobby's Peacock Alley where you people-watch while nibbling on tea and scones ($39). 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.; washington.intercontinental.com or 1-800-327-0200. SouthernLiving.com: D.C. Travel Planner . The Hay-Adams . What to expect: Formal and classic yet balanced with a boutiquish and intimate atmosphere. Walk out the front door to see Lafayette Park and the White House. Where to spend your dollars: The basement bar, Off the Record, attracts politicos from the White House and the nearby World Bank. \"Always sit at the bar,\" says John Boswell, the friendly 12-year veteran bartender. \"The half-moon shape tends to get people into conversations.\" Patrons stick to the classics -- martinis, Manhattans and wines. The inside story: The Sunday morning talk show hosts and hotel guests rub elbows at the extravagant late-morning brunch in The Lafayette dining room ($65, reservations required). 16th and H Streets NW.; www.hayadams.com or (202) 638-6600. SouthernLiving.com: Cheap eats in D.C. St. Regis . What to expect: A meeting of the old and new: luxe gilt lobby with endless Italian marble floors vs. leather-and-chrome restaurant bar helmed by celebrity chef Alain Ducasse. Where to spend your dollars: Settle into the purple Bar at St. Regis. Populated by admiring foodies, the bar pours the coolest drinks. \"Our Trial by Berry (Champagne, house-infused vanilla and nutmeg vodka, muddled blackberries) is the favorite,\" says Marianna Alfa, restaurant director. \"The chef's slider duo -- two burgers, one beef, the other boudin -- is our rock and roll item.\" The inside story: Mixologist Mia Baila creates D.C.'s most unusual drink: Champagne adorned with pearls of Cointreau and gold flecks. 923 16th and K Streets NW.; starwoodhotels.com\/stregis or (202) 638-2626. SouthernLiving.com: Best things about the mall in Washington D.C. Park Hyatt . What to expect: A sleek Euro feel of glass, natural fibers and golden-hued wood. A favorite among world travelers who trust the Park Hyatt brand and prefer the energy at the cusp of Georgetown. Where to spend your dollars: Cozy in at the Tea Cellar, presided over by tea expert Marie Hatakeyama. Those seeking a sturdier drink slip into glass-enclosed booths at the bar. \"It's like having a private conversation on display,\" says frequent visitor Chris Gieckel, adding that the pear martini is a house favorite. \"I'm not known for having girly drinks, but I'll order a second one.\" The inside story: Purchase your favorite tea from the tasting to prepare at home, including vintage brews. 24th and M Streets NW.; parkhyattwashington.com or (202) 789-1234 . Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright 2009 Southern Living magazine. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Sip a mint julep at the Willard InterContinental's Round Robin Bar .\nJoin White House politicos for a drink at Off the Record in the Hay-Adams hotel .\nTry a custom cocktail at Bar at St. Regis .","id":"5f8b7f2d6cec3e628f443e4498fddc053d6cc6fb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held talks with Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Beijing Tuesday, as the two countries agreed to bilateral economic and trade deals worth $4 billion, Chinese state media reported. Wen hosted a welcome ceremony for Putin at the Great Hall of the People at the start of a three-day visit, before their private talks and a larger session involving ministers from both sides, Xinhua said. \"Russia and China have become genuine and comprehensive strategic and cooperative partners in recent years,\" Putin was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Bilateral relations have become stable and mature since the forging of diplomatic ties 60 years ago and particularly the establishment of the Russia-China strategic cooperative partnership in 1996, Wen told reporters. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said the deals included two $500-million-dollar banking deals -- one involving Russia's Vnesheconombank (VEB) and the China Development Bank and the other between Russia's VTB bank and the Agricultural Bank of China, Agence France-Presse reported. Chinese and Russian negotiators also met Tuesday \"to exchange views on China-Russia energy cooperation,\" according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement. In April, the two countries signed agreements on oil cooperation, while a memorandum of understanding on natural gas cooperation in followed in June. But negotiations over the pricing of the gas have reportedly remained a major obstacle to a final deal, AFP said. However, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, who met with Zhukov at a joint economic forum earlier Tuesday, told reporters that the China-Russia oil pipeline project was going smoothly and the loan China pledged to Russia had been implemented, Xinhua said. The construction on the China section of an oil pipeline from Siberia started in May. The 1,030-kilometer (640-mile) pipeline runs from Skovorodino, Russia, to the city of Daqing in northeastern China. It is expected to go into operation by the end of 2010 and carry 15 million tons of crude oil annually from Russia to China from 2011 to 2030, Xinhua added.","highlights":"China's premier Wen Jiabao meets Vladimir Putin in Beijing .\nThe two leaders agree multi-billion dollar trade, cooperation deals .\nTwo sides also negotiating over energy cooperation .\nWork started in May on oil pipeline supplying China from Russia .","id":"2b547b9b100d5517356000dde60a69a22669b805"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Demonstrators entered their third day of a building takeover at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday in protest of a tuition increase, an undertaking that a school spokesman called futile. The occupation of Kerr Hall is just one of several demonstrations across University of California campuses this week after the regent's board approved a 32 percent increase in tuition Thursday. University officials said the $505 million to be raised by the tuition increases is needed to prevent even deeper cuts than those already made due to California's persistent financial crisis. Protesting students said the increase will hurt working and middle-class students who benefit from state-funded education. On the Santa Cruz campus, where building occupations began last week with a library sit-in, about 100 students staged a sit-in in the second-floor lobby of Kerr Hall soon after hearing that the tuition increase had been approved, according to UC Santa Cruz Provost David Kliger. The students made a list of 20 \"demands\" detailing how they want the administration to increase funding, spokesman Barry Shiller said. But the school has no plans to negotiate the demands with the student body, he said. The school just doesn't have the money, he added. School officials hope the students realize that their demonstration is \"not accomplishing anything\" and is \"just a disruption\" to administrative duties on campus, he said. The administration will continue to wait out the takeover, but Shiller said he is unsure of how long it will last. The school hopes the students will leave voluntarily, he said. Are you there? Share your story, video . Meanwhile, uprisings on other campuses have quieted since earlier mass demonstrations. At UC Berkeley on Friday night, 41 protesters occupying a building were arrested. Authorities decided to cite them for trespassing and release them rather than take them to jail, per an agreement with student leaders, school spokeswoman Claire Holmes said. Three students were arrested there Friday morning. Fifty-two students were arrested at UC Davis late Thursday after they refused to vacate the school's administration building. And UCLA's Campbell Hall was occupied for several hours Thursday evening. The angry students are condemning a nearly $2,000 tuition increase. The first change, which takes effect in January, will raise undergraduate tuition to $8,373. The second increase kicks in next fall, raising tuition to $10,302, university spokeswoman Leslie Sepuka said. Students who live on campus could pay an estimated $17,200 in additional fees that include the annual cost of books and housing, according to the system's July 2008 finance guide. The January increase of about 15 percent is more than double the average public university tuition increase last year. On average, tuition and fees at four-year public universities nationwide increased 6.5 percent, or to $7,020, since the previous school year, according to data from College Board. Students eligible for financial aid and whose families make less than $70,000 will have their tuition covered, the university said.","highlights":"Students continue to occupy UC-Santa Cruz hall in protest of fee increases .\nUniversity officials say they need to raise $505 million to avoid further cuts .\nStudents issue demands to administration; official says there will be no negotiations .","id":"fc25b416b543cd89422f16de940b87c40b9d78eb"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence. Ben Freeth's farm was gutted by fire, as was his father-in-law's. The power-sharing agreement included an undertaking by both parties to ensure property rights are upheld but farm attacks and invasions continue unabated in Zimbabwe. Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks. \"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear,\" Lock said. Since 2000, Mugabe's controversial land reform program has driven more than 4,000 commercial farmers off their land, destroying Zimbabwe's once prosperous agricultural sector. \"When the land reform program began, we decided we were not going to have a confrontational attitude; that we would actually go along with this program because it was the only way that this whole thing would be sorted out. So I voluntarily gave away my own farm and moved onto my father-in-law's farm,\" Lock said. That was in 2002. A year later the government came knocking on his door again, he said, demanding more land. Lock told CNN he eventually gave up 70 percent of his father-in-law's farm, which he then owned. Now an army general is demanding Lock's remaining 30 percent. When Zimbabwe's new unity government was formed -- with Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change -- in February this year, the general allegedly posted soldiers on Lock's farm. The farmer said he stopped farming and trade at gun point. When CNN visited Lock's farm this month, workers were standing idle. Maize and tobacco, which Lock said is worth more than U.S. $1 million, lay in storage. \"They've switched off our irrigation system, taken out keys and stop our trucks if we want to deliver maize,\" he told CNN. So Lock had to sneak into his own property like a thief by cutting open the gate leading to his store room. He took a few valuables from his workshop suspecting that his whole place will soon be looted. With the formation of a unity government farmers were hoping for some protection but Lock said: \"Nothing is happening here. There is no land audit happening, no one comes out here to check, to see. We are just left vulnerable.\" On another farm, Ben Freeth's fight for his land has just escalated to another level. Freeth has been repeatedly beaten, arrested and harassed. Now his farmhouse and that of his father-in-law have been gutted by a mysterious fire. See the destruction the fire caused . Freeth could not say for sure that this is arson but told CNN that the group of ZANU-PF youths who have occupied his farm have repeatedly threatened to burn his house. \"One time they came round with burning sacks at night and they started making a huge noise and ringing a great big bell and shouting and screaming. They were going underneath the thatch saying we are going to burn your house down if you don't get out,\" he said. Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell are among a group of Zimbabwean farmers who won the right to remain on their land at a southern African tribunal. But Mugabe has declared the ruling null and void and pulled out of the tribunal. Farmers cannot contest land issues in Zimbabwe and approaching international courts has thus far not worked either. When CNN interviewed Mugabe's minister of state, Didymas Mutasa, about the disregard for human and property rights on the farms, he blamed the farmers for the violence, saying landless blacks are getting frustrated with their refusal to relinquish their land. \"Human rights are beginning to be seen now because they benefit the whites, and when they were affecting blacks badly as they did the likes of us, it didn't matter and nobody raised anything about those human rights. \"And sometimes we say, good heavens, if that is the kind of human rights you are talking about, you better keep them away from us; we don't want to see them,\" he told CNN. But it is black farm workers who are caught in the cross fire. They continue to bear the brunt of the land reform program by repeatedly being beaten and intimidated. Some have even been killed. Tractor driver William Kale said it is farm laborers working for white farmers who are targeted. \"They actually say you the workers, you are ones that are supporting the white farmer. That is why he is carrying on farming and we refuse to go because we have nowhere to go,\" Kale told CNN. Many farmers and farm workers we spoke to say they are in a worse position now under the unity government than they were before. Lock said: \"When ZANU-PF was in power, you had hawks and doves in government and the doves were approachable and often helped us. But now that these positions are being shared with Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC, Mr. Mugabe has only appointed hawks to his cabinet who insist on continuing the land reform program. And when it comes to the MDC, the land issue seems to be a hot potato they do not want to touch. I have asked Mr. Tsvangirai to intervene but nothing is happening.\" Prime Minister Tsvangirai refuted that. \"That is not true,\" he said. \"We initiated to find out who is being affected, the few remaining white farmers. Let's be frank here, we are talking of farmers as being white, but to me any destruction of farm production affects the whole viability of agriculture. There should be no disruption of any farm activity.\" To those under siege these words are little comfort as they continue to fight a battle they are unlikely to win.","highlights":"Zimbabwe white farmers battle continuing policy of land redistribution .\nOne farmer shows CNN his fire-destroyed farmhouse .\nControversial policy gives white-owned farms to landless blacks .\nSince 2000, more than 4,000 commercial farmers driven off their land .","id":"640f5abb7f1acb33150552cd9f0bcac846ce6948"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A backlog in processing education benefits has forced the Department of Veterans Affairs to authorize millions of dollars in emergency funds for veterans who need the cash to pay for school. The Veterans Affairs department will give up to $3,000 to students who haven't received funds from education bills . The department announced Friday that it will issue up to $3,000 to students who have yet to receive the funds that the VA's various education bills -- including the recently passed Post-9\/11 GI Bill -- provide to help veterans pay for college. \"This is an extraordinary action we're taking,\" VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement. \"But it's necessary because we recognize the hardships some of our Veterans face.\" The VA estimates there are 75,000 veterans eligible for the emergency funds, including 25,000 veterans who have served since September 11. VA statistics show more than 27,500 vets have already received benefits for housing or books under the new Post-9\/11 GI Bill, and hundreds of thousands more have gotten benefits under its other programs. The delay in processing the benefits has created much consternation among veterans, with some worried they would have to drop out of school because of a lack of funds. The lag was caused because some schools have not yet filed for the tuition and because of a backlog at the Veterans Affairs offices, according to a department official. Any money given to eligible veterans will be deducted from the education benefits they are scheduled to receive and can be used for housing and books. The VA has been speaking to schools to ensure that veterans do not get kicked out if their tuition has not yet been paid, said VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts. \"Veterans were having a lot of financial issues, and we needed to address them,\" she said. To help with the influx of applications, the department has hired more than 700 extra processors. Veterans groups said the emergency funds were much needed. \"AMVETS is very happy with the swift action taken by the secretary. We suggested a similar solution earlier this month so we are happy to see they're listening,\" said Ryan Galluci, a spokesman for AMVETS, a veterans' service organization.","highlights":"Backlog in tuition payments forces VA to authorize millions in emergency funds .\nVA estimates 75,000 veterans are eligible for the emergency funds .\nDelayed payments makes vets fear they may have to drop out of school .","id":"fedfa1462a587b60ffd3554baad1d82da99ef960"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Intensifying violence, food shortages and widespread drought are driving an increasing number of Somalis to seek asylum in Yemen, the United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday. A man brandishes a knife while others carry old notes during a demonstration against record-high inflation. More than 15,000 refugees have arrived in the Yemeni port city of Aden since January, compared with 7,166 people in the first four months of 2007, according to a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Many of those seeking asylum brave treacherous boat trips across the Gulf of Aden. Consequently, the number of boats landing in Aden has jumped from 60 to 361 since January while the number of fatalities has remained constant, according to UNHCR. The agency attributed the surge to strife in Somalia, where riots continued in the capital city of Mogadishu for the second day Tuesday. According to news reports, Somali soldiers killed at least two people Monday during the protests over rising food prices. Watch protesters take to the streets \u00bb . Somali refugees pay as much as $150 to cross the Gulf of Aden in search of asylum. Because of its proximity to the war-torn country, Yemen is a common destination for Somalis fleeing economic hardship, famine and war. Yemen is also an attractive location because Somalis receive automatic refugee status in the fellow Muslim country. New smuggling routes across the Red Sea have also led to increased numbers of refugees in Yemen, according to the UNHCR. Refugees often die before reaching Yemen because of dangerous sea conditions and overcrowded vessels. Others die at the hands of their smugglers, who order the passengers to jump overboard when the Yemeni coast guard approaches the vessel. Yemen's coast guard stepped up patrols of its coastline this year in an attempt to deter smugglers, according to the UNHCR, which operates shelters and reception centers for refugees in Yemen. The coast guard has also seized boats and given them Somali fishermen affected by the 2004 tsunami.","highlights":"Agency attributes surging number of refugees in Yemen to unrest in Somalia .\nMore than 15,000 refugees have come to port city of Aden since January .\nNew routes across the Red Sea to Yemen also contributing to increase .","id":"61b54af8fb7be5b59081db7b56554ee568a59f52"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met Monday night with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House announced. It was the ninth meeting of the president's war council to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, as requested by the U.S. commander on the ground there. The White House made no statement after the meeting ended at 10 p.m. ET (0300 GMT). The meeting included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, Afghanistan commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and other senior officials, the White House said earlier. At the last war council meeting -- on November 11, Veteran's Day -- Obama pushed for revisions in proposed plans for troop increases to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government. Obama would seek answers to the questions he posed on November 11 about \"not just how we get people there, but what's the strategy for getting them out,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said before the meeting. No matter what happened at the meeting, Gibbs said, Obama will not announce a decision on troop deployment until at least next week. One option calls for sending about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in addition to the 68,000 already committed to the country, with other options involving variations of that plan, sources told CNN. Before the November 11 meeting, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, told CNN that the decision-making process was approaching completion. Petraeus emphasized the need to focus on the mission of ensuring that Afghanistan \"does not once again become a sanctuary or safe haven for al Qaeda and the kind of transnational extremists that carried out the 9\/11 attacks.\" The Obama administration has expressed concerns about Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's viability and has ratcheted up pressure to end corruption in order to combat an intensifying Taliban insurgency. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a trip to Afghanistan last week to attend Karzai's inauguration after his recent re-election, reiterated the U.S. concerns in a dinner meeting with Karzai and encouraged him to seize the \"clear window of opportunity\" before him at a \"critical moment\" in Afghanistan's history. The United States and other countries are increasing their civilian presence in Afghanistan to bolster efforts to stabilize the country, the the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters on Monday. Asked about the corruption problem, Holbrooke noted that some Afghan government ministers have \"extraordinary records\" of accomplishment. The United States will work with those ministers, while recognizing that years of civil war and social woes have weakened overall leadership capabilities in Afghanistan, he said. \"This is one of the main reasons we're increasing our civilian role,\" Holbrooke said. \"And it's extremely delicate to get the mix right. We want to help the Afghans help themselves. We do not want to replace a sovereign government with internationals.\" Republican opponents are pushing Obama to quickly agree to McChrystal's reported request for up to 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan as part of a counterinsurgency strategy. \"This won't be perfect or easy, but it will allow America's fighting men and women to leave Afghanistan with honor, and it will enable Afghans to build a better, more peaceful future,\" said a letter to Obama from 10 Republican senators sent on Veteran's Day.","highlights":"NEW: White House makes no statement after meeting ended .\nObama will not announce decision until at least next week .\nMeeting included Biden, Gates, Mullen, McChrystal, Eikenberry, White House says .\nObama wanted clarification on how, when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility .","id":"781f3753c1f20ff3b1f6e35283d328167374b70d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian authorities on Thursday ruled the death of former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti a suicide, according to local media reports. Arturo Gatti was found dead on July 11 in a rented condo in Brazil, where his family was vacationing. Gatti's death initially had been investigated as a murder. The boxer's widow, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, who had been arrested as a suspect, was released from jail Thursday, the newspaper O Diario de Pernambuco reported. Her lawyer, Celio Avelino, argued that it \"would have been impossible for her to suspend and hang a man of that size\". Gatti was found dead on July 11 in a rented condo in Brazil, where he was taking a vacation with Rodrigues and their young child. Police found strangulation marks on Gatti's neck and a blood-stained purse strap at the scene. The public safety ministry of the northeastern Pernambuco state said investigators determined that Gatti hanged himself in a stairwell, the newspaper O Globo reported. Police official Paulo Alberes said Gatti used the purse strap to end his life, O Diario de Pernambuco reported. The 37-year-old Canadian, who was born in Italy and made his name as a fighter based in New Jersey, was staying in the northeast seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas. Gatti made his reputation in his renowned trilogy of fights against \"Irish\" Micky Ward, losing the first but triumphing in the other two. He was a former International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-featherweight champion and World Boxing Council (WBC) light-welterweight champ. Gatti retired in 2007 after suffering a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez, ending with a record of 40 wins and nine losses, 31 by knockout. He grew up in Montreal, Canada, after leaving Italy at an early age, and returned to the city after his retirement. Gatti's suicide came less than two weeks after another world champion boxer took his own life. On July 1, three-time world boxing champion Alexis Arguello, who was the mayor of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, was found dead in his home from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was 57. A third boxer, former welterweight champion Vernon Forrest, died last week after being shot multiple times in a neighborhood southwest of downtown Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"Gatti's death initially investigated as a murder .\nHis wife, arrested as suspect, freed on Thursday, newspaper says .\nGatti was a junior lightweight champ and a junior welterweight champ .","id":"6b2de0bbc7a8a5853bcb53920c6b88a198335a0a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Khloe Kardashian and her new husband, basketball player Lamar Odom, have found themselves a newlywed love nest. Kardashian, star of the E! network's reality show \"Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami\" and Odom, a forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, have purchased a seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion in Tarzana, California, for nearly $4 million. The pair, who married after a two-month-long courtship, have been looking for a place to call their own since their September 27 wedding. Finding a home was one of the stipulations Kardashian, 25, wanted met before the couple started thinking about growing a family. \"I would be over the moon if I was having a baby, but right now, our focus is on finding a house. They say it's a buyers' market, but no one is selling, and I think it would be very stressful to have a baby in a condo downtown,\" Kardashian told CNN earlier this month. When asked by talk show host Chelsea Handler earlier this month if Khloe is pregnant yet, Odom, 30, responded, \"Soon.\" And when Handler pushed and asked, \"You planning on having a baby soon? You want to do that right away?\" Odom responded, \"I do.\" Kardashian was even more candid with CNN, saying, \"We are not planning to have a baby, but we're not doing anything to not have a baby right now.\"","highlights":"Khloe Kardashian and husband Lamar Odom have purchased a home .\nThe seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion cost nearly $4 million .\nFinding a home was one of the stipulations Kardashian had before starting a family .","id":"fabbf6332c23c50a7c5c77d4ae646ab1599a81ce"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rapper and actor Clifford Smith, better known to fans as Method Man, was arrested Monday and faces charges of failing to pay taxes, the district attorney in Richmond County, New York, said. Clifford Smith, better known as Method Man, failed to file tax returns and owes $33,000, authorities say. Smith, 38, owes the state nearly $33,000 for New York State income tax returns that he did not file between 2004 and 2007, district attorney Daniel Donovan Jr. said in a statement. The Grammy-winning rapper, an original member of the Wu-Tang Clan, was arrested at his home on Staten Island. He faces a felony charge of repeated failure to file taxes and a misdemeanor charge of failure to pay tax. The felony carries a sentence of up to four years in prison. Smith was to appear at an arraignment in Staten Island Criminal Court on Monday. Smith's attorney Peter Frankel was not immediately available to comment.","highlights":"Clifford Smith, aka Method Man, didn't file state income tax returns, authorities say .\nState of New York says he owes $33,000 for 2004-2007 .\nFelony charges carry four-year prison sentence .","id":"9063d35d9a8e4683a1db4c772275d5fcb57aa4a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iranian authorities confiscated the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize given to human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, Norway said Thursday. \"The medal and the diploma have been removed from Dr. Ebadi's bank box, together with other personal items. Such an act leaves us feeling shock and disbelief,\" Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a written statement. Norway did not explain how it had learned of the alleged confiscation, and there was no immediate reaction from Iran. Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a written statement that it \"has reacted strongly\" and summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires on Wednesday afternoon to protest the move. During the meeting with the Iranian charge d'affaires, State Secretary Gry Larsen also expressed \"grave concern\" about how Ebadi's husband has allegedly been treated. \"Earlier this autumn, he [Ebadi's husband] was arrested in Tehran and severely beaten. His pension has been stopped and his bank account has been frozen,\" the statement from Norway said. Store said in the statement that it marked the \"first time a Nobel Peace Prize has been confiscated by national authorities.\" The peace prize is one of five awarded annually since 1901 by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The other four prizes are for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. Starting in 1969, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel also has been awarded. While the other prizes are awarded by committees based in Sweden, the peace prize is determined by a five-member panel appointed by the Norwegian parliament. Ebadi received the prize for her focus on human rights, especially on the struggle to improve the status of women and children. A statement from the Nobel committee at the time said, \"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, and far beyond its borders.\"","highlights":"Shirin Ebadi received prize for focus on human rights, especially women and children .\nNorway did not explain how it had learned of the alleged confiscation .\nThe medal and the diploma have been removed from Dr. Ebadi's bank box, say officials .","id":"b0d9fbe5b5fb219fd6c906a15d0d42567bd53634"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Kevin Garibo hasn't known life outside a hospital. Born three months ago with respiratory issues, he needed a procedure to breathe on his own. Nurses prod at him, medical machines hum around him and tubes are more present than teddy bears. But in the arms of Chris Haack, who strokes his cheek and speaks in a soft whisper while rocking him in a chair, little Kevin is one blissed-out baby. Haack, a retired nurse from Roswell, Georgia, is a trained volunteer with \"Baby Buddies,\" a program in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. As nurses race around administering medical care, she can comfort the tiny patients and stand in for parents who can't be there all the time to give the positive attention -- not the attention associated with pain or discomfort -- that is key to a baby's development and integral in forming trust. \"They need to be touched, they need to be loved, and that face -- that's why I do it,\" Haack says, peering down with a smile at Kevin, whose eyes are locked on hers. \"I get more out of it than I probably give.\" Studies show that giving, which extends beyond packages wrapped in ribbons, does a person good. In this holiday season, CNN introduces with this story a special series we're calling \"Giving in Focus: The 12 Days of Goodness,\" in which we'll highlight acts of kindness and generosity that we hope will inspire. Has someone done a good deed for you? Share your story . One person who can attest to the power of giving is Cami Walker, a 36-year-old woman who received a prescription to give when her multiple sclerosis, a diagnosis she got at age 33, left her a physical and emotional wreck. She could barely get out of bed, and yet Mbali Creazzo, a friend and spiritual mentor, single-handedly killed Walker's pity party. She said, \"'Cami, you really need to stop thinking about yourself. ... You're feeding this disease,'\" Walker remembers. \"She said, 'I have a prescription for you. Give away 29 gifts in 29 days.' \" Creazzo, a South African born medicine woman who lives in Oakland, California, explained that the idea, rooted in indigenous practices, was taught to her, although the number of days prescribed may have been different. \"Altruism has been going on for thousands of years,\" said Creazzo, 58. \"Why it's so powerful at this moment is because of what's happening in the world today. People are looking for that place inside of them where they are of some use.\" Walker, who lives in Hollywood, California, dismissed Creazzo's suggestion at first but came back to it when she realized she had nothing to lose by trying. What followed made her a convert to the idea. Whether she simply called a friend to offer support or bought iced-tea for a homeless guy on a hot day, the simple actions made a difference. She said her mood lifted, her ability to get around improved and the progression of the disease stopped. \"I don't see it as a cure. I still have MS,\" said Walker, who went on to write the best-seller \"29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life\" and create an online community at 29gifts.org, where Creazzo is also involved. \"I really don't think about the limitations of my disease. I wake up more focused on what I'm capable of.\" A long list of scientific and widely accepted studies point to the benefits a giver gets, said Stephen Post, author of \"Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.\" One study looked at preteens who'd first been surveyed in the 1920s in Berkeley, California. Those who displayed generosity and a giving attitude grew up to have lower rates of heart disease and depression, said Post, a professor of preventive medicine and director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University in New York. A study done at Harvard showed the strength of immune systems grew among students who watched a film about Mother Theresa, he said, and stayed high among those who were asked to continue thinking about giving. MRI devices have illustrated that the part of the brain that releases \"feel-good chemicals,\" he said, lights up when giving's on the mind. Post, who's also the president of The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, said hormone levels tied to serenity, trust and compassion rise when people exhibit generous behaviors. Those same feelings, he added, have long been known to help wounds heal more quickly. Another study, one he's involved with now, has shown that people who go through Alcoholics Anonymous and then help other alcoholics have a 40 percent rate of recovery, while those who don't help other alcoholics recover at a rate of 22 percent, he said. \"Kitchen table wisdom says it's good to be good,\" and giving is \"part of every moral and spiritual tradition,\" said Post, whose own mother used to tell him to \"go out and do something for someone\" whenever he got pouty. \"It turned out there actually is pretty good science about this.\" For Azim Jamal, a motivational speaker and co-author of the best-seller \"The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All,\" the excitement about this topic is rooted in the possibilities of what might be -- the ripple effect. If everyone gave time, money, talents or passion, what could that mean for individuals, communities, even the world? \"The power of giving is instantaneous, continuous and eternal,\" he said. \"When you die, you don't take what you have. You take what you gave.\"","highlights":"Nurturing hospitalized babies serves patients as well as volunteers .\nAuthor says 29 days of giving changed her life, made MS more bearable .\nScientific studies show physical and mental benefits of giving attitudes .\nRipple effect of giving can affect individuals, communities and world .","id":"ba79120697f54fe3720adc8f2249783cd5d31f7e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Leading figures from Poland to the United States have been paying tribute to Marek Edelman, the anti-Nazi resistance fighter and Solidarity movement supporter who died Friday. Marek Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in World War II. Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, \"the largest, symbolically most important Jewish uprising\" against the Nazis during World War II, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk both issued statements mourning Edelman. Tusk called him an \"exceptional man,\" saying \"his bravery was a testament to the courage of the fighters of the Jewish Fighting Organization,\" as the largest Jewish resistance movement in the ghetto was known. The prime minister also praised him for standing up against the Polish Communist government's anti-Semitic campaign of 1968, and hailed him as an example for free, democratic Poland. The U.S. State Department saluted \"his life dedicated to the defense of human dignity and freedom. The United States stands with Poland as it mourns the loss of a great man.\" Edelman is thought to have been the last surviving commander of the uprising, in which Jews fought Nazi efforts to send them to concentration camps. Armed with pistols, some rifles and automatic weapons, and hand-made grenades, the resistance fighters attacked the Germans and their allies when they tried to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943. The Nazis had planned to round up all the ghetto's Jews in three days, but in the end it took them more than a month -- longer than some countries held out against Hitler's armies. The Nazis reduced the ghetto to rubble in the process of flushing resistance fighters out of their bunkers. Edelman was in one of the last groups to hold out in the headquarters of the Jewish Fighting Organization at 18 Mila Street. In the final days of the uprising he was able to sneak out of the ghetto by way of the city's sewers, he wrote after the war. He went on to fight in the Warsaw Polish Uprising, a two-month battle against the Nazis in 1944, undertaken primarily by non-Jewish Poles. After the war, Edelman became a cardiologist. In the late 1940s, he published a short history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Polish, Yiddish, and English, called \"The Ghetto Fights.\" In it, he described the creation of the ghetto by the Nazis. \"In November 1940, the Germans finally established the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jewish population still living outside the 'Seuchensperrgebiet' ('Quarantined Zone') was brought inside the special area. Poles living within the designated ghetto boundaries were ordered to move out,\" he wrote. \"Beginning with November 15, no Jew was allowed to leave the Jewish precincts. All houses vacated by Jews were immediately locked by the Germans and then, with all their contents, gratuitously given to Polish merchants and hucksters ... . The walls and barbed wire surrounding the ghetto grew higher every day until, on November 15, they completely cut off the Jews from the outside world.\" Hunger and disease were rife in the ghetto, he wrote. \"People began to die of hunger in the streets. Every morning, about 4-5 a.m., funeral carts collected a dozen or more corpses on the streets that had been covered with a sheet of paper and weighted down with a few rocks. Some simply fell in the streets and remained there,\" Edelman remembered. Jews organized a local government and Socialist unions, but conditions became progressively worse in the ghetto, with the Nazis summarily executing people. Nazis then began deporting Jews to concentration camps -- sometimes with the help of Jewish collaborators in the ghetto -- Edelman wrote. By that time, many in the ghetto knew the Nazis were systematically murdering Jews in the camps, he recalled. He describes in detail the spring 1943 uprising, a street-by-street battle that ended with the ghetto in ruins. Edelman's history finishes simply, listing the handful of survivors of the hundreds who fought back. \"Those who had gone over to the 'Aryan side' continued the partisan fight in the woods. The majority perished eventually. The small group that was still alive at the time took an active part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising as the 'ZOB Group.' At present the following of our comrades are still among the living: Chajka Betchatowska, B. Szpigel, Chana Krysztal, Masza Glejtman, and Marek Edelman.\" During the early 1980s Edelman was active with Solidarity, the Polish trade union movement that opposed the Communist government. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner awarded him the Legion of Honor in 2008, on a visit to Poland marking the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Edelman was born in 1921, according to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. He was buried in Warsaw's Jewish cemetery on Friday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported .","highlights":"Marek Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising .\nBoth Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk pay tribute .\nEdelman is thought to have been the last surviving commander of the uprising .\nDuring early 1980s Edelman was active with Polish trade union movement, Solidarity .","id":"499add4068e9be03185ee89ae56e1eafb09746a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sonia, a single mother with HIV in Brazil, travels four hours to reach a government-run health facility that provides her with free drug treatment. Brazil's response to the HIV\/AIDS fight has been widely praised and adopted as a model around the world. The journey is long, she told CNN, but it's a small price to pay for the government-provided drugs that have helped keep her out of the hospital for the past 11 years. Sonia is just one of the many Brazilians who have benefited from the country's novel approach to fighting the HIV\/AIDS epidemic. Brazil jolted the global health community in 1996 when it began guaranteeing free anti-retroviral treatment to HIV\/AIDS patients. For Sonia, government-funded treatment comes in the form of 20 pills. Taken daily, the anti-retroviral medicine has helped keep her HIV at bay. Coupled with government-supported prevention efforts and aggressive public awareness campaigns, the so-called Brazilian response has been hailed as a model for developing countries. Watch a report on Brazil's pioneering response to HIV\/AIDS \u00bb . Prevention campaigns, which often take the forms of candid public awareness ads with slogans like \"Be good in bed, use a condom,\" have resulted in widespread knowledge of HIV. According to a recent study conducted by the country's Ministry of Health, Brazil boasts one of the highest rates of knowledge globally when it comes to HIV avoidance and transmittal. Brazil was \"the first country to realize there is no separation between prevention and treatment,\" Mauro Schechter, professor of infectious diseases at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told CNN. Schechter, who has studied the HIV\/AIDS epidemic since 1989, said it took the rest of the global health community some 15 years to realize that the two go hand-in-hand. Other countries that have adopted the Brazilian model \u00bb . The comprehensive response has extended the lives of tens of thousands of Brazilians and saved the government billions, researchers estimate. A recent study published by researchers from Brown University and the Harvard School of Public Health said that Brazil has saved $1 billion alone by producing its own generic versions of HIV\/AIDS medicines and negotiating discounts for imported drugs. Those drug savings come on top of the estimated $2 billion the program has saved Brazil in hospital costs between 1996 and 2004. Brazil's efforts to reverse the tide of the AIDS epidemic have become the object of admiration in the global health community, but the trailblazer is encountering new challenges. When Brazil decided to guarantee free anti-retrovirals, there were 10,000 people being treated and it was organized as a program to treat a small amount of people for a limited amount of time, according to Schechter. Patients are living longer and oftentimes able to get their disease under control, thanks to combination therapies, better known as drug cocktails. But that means they also require drug treatment for a longer period of time. Furthermore, as HIV has evolved from an acute illness into a chronic disease, patients have also become vulnerable to other health risks and medical conditions. Valdileia Veloso is the director of the Institute of Clinical Research at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a public health research institution in Rio de Janeiro. She told CNN patients are presenting with complications of chronic HIV and AIDS, which requires new treatment. \"It's a new challenge for us,\" she said. Heart disease is one of the big problems that doctors are encountering. While there's a system in place to prevent people from dying from HIV, preventable causes like heart conditions are causing deaths. \"These people are dying from preventable causes,\" Schechter told CNN. While Brazil has shown that providing universal access to treatment can be achieved, it needs to modify its approach to treat the evolving disease, he said. \"If the epidemic changes face, you need to adapt.\"","highlights":"Brazil has been hailed as a leader in the fight against the HIV\/AIDS epidemic .\nGovernment started offering free anti-retroviral treatment to its citizens in 1996 .\nAs more people live longer with HIV\/AIDS, Brazil faces new challenges .\nPatients of the chronic illness susceptible to new health risks, doctors say .","id":"b419fc35e2fc189fd02e100ccbbe3e62bff9d423"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- A long-awaited inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war got under way Tuesday -- a process that could determine whether former Prime Minister Tony Blair misled his country over the 2003 invasion. The inquiry is expected to be the most thorough investigation yet into the decisions that led up to the war and governed Britain's involvement, analysts said. It is not a court of law, so the inquiry cannot find anyone criminally responsible or even apportion blame. But inquiry members will be able to judge the legality of the conflict. \"The Iraq Inquiry was set up to identify the lessons that should be learned from the UK's involvement in Iraq, to help future governments who may face similar situations,\" inquiry Chairman John Chilcot said at the opening of the hearings Tuesday. \"To do this, we need to establish what happened.\" Chilcot, a senior civil servant, said on the eve of the hearings that the committee is \"completely determined\" to write the full story of Iraq war decision-making by the British government using all the evidence it can get. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who announced the inquiry in June, has promised the committee will have access to the full range of information, including secret documents, in order to identify lessons that can be learned from the war. The inquiry officially began July 30, but Tuesday was the first day of hearings, which are expected to last into the new year. The hearings were initially going to be held behind closed doors, but after criticism the government decided to allow the hearings to be public and televised. The committee has said it will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to keep the hearings private when discussing sensitive or classified information. Blair will be called to testify, Chilcot said earlier this year, and the former prime minister has said he will appear. Other witnesses will be key decision-makers involved in Iraq, Chilcot has said. Chilcot has said the panel members plan to visit Iraq as part of their work, as well as hold discussions with Iraqis outside of the country. Top officials from the British and U.S. governments also might be called on for evidence, he said. Britain has already held four hearings about the Iraq war. But because all were held before the end of 2004 -- so close to the start of the war -- they were hampered by limited information, political analyst Glen Rangwala of Cambridge University told CNN. \"They didn't manage to achieve anything like a comprehensive understanding of the paths that led the UK to support the United States in the invasion,\" he said. \"This will be the first to look at political decision-making that led to the British invasion of 2003, with the potential to tell a full story.\" People involved in those decisions are more likely to testify now than they were a few years ago, Rangwala said. That partly because British troops are no longer involved in combat in Iraq, but also because the war there is no longer the politicized issue it was when Blair was in power, he said. \"The sort of political sting has been taken out of it, and people who are presenting their evidence to the (inquiry) won't feel quite so constrained by the political line, or the party line, than they would have a few years ago,\" he said. Britain's first two inquiries were held by government committees in 2003. The House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs examined whether Britain's Foreign Office gave accurate and complete information to Parliament in the run-up to the war. It found the government exerted no improper influence on the drafting of the dossier given to Parliament on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. The Intelligence and Security Committee then examined whether intelligence about Iraq and its weapons was properly assessed and accurately reflected in government publications. Its findings were mixed. The next two inquiries had narrow mandates, looking at specific aspects of the war. The Hutton report from January 2004 investigated the death of David Kelly, a leading microbiologist and former U.N. weapons inspector who committed suicide months earlier. Kelly had worked for the British Ministry of Defence, advising it on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but was later found to be the source of a BBC report that said the government had exaggerated evidence to justify war on Iraq. Following that came the Butler inquiry, which looked at the accuracy of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and elsewhere. It found some of the intelligence sources were \"seriously flawed,\" but that there was no evidence of deliberate distortion or culpable negligence by spy agencies.","highlights":"Hearings begin in UK Iraq Inquiry to determine legality of the Iraq War .\nPromised to be the most thorough investigation into Britain's involvement in the war .\nHearings will be televised after initial plans for closed-door sessions were criticised .\nFormer Prime Minister Tony Blair will be called to testify .","id":"b53bf5c8488999a5b6f21fabb2a91fe439604726"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Billy Ray Cyrus may be a country boy at heart, but he is also pretty savvy when it comes to navigating Hollywood. Billy Ray Cyrus has a full plate with acting, touring, composing and being a dad. When others wrote him off as a novelty act after the 1992 hit \"Achy Breaky Heart,\" Cyrus kept making music and eventually turned to acting. It was a decision he said came after some well-timed fatherly advice. \"In the mid-'90s, my dad said to me 'Son, you've got all of your eggs in one basket and you are living and dying by music,' \" Cyrus recalled. \"He said 'I want you to have a career like Kenny Rogers.' \" Cyrus said his dad suggested he branch out into acting. Cyrus eventually auditioned for and won a role in what appeared to be an unlikely vehicle -- David Lynch's 2001 film \"Mulholland Drive.\" After Lynch, known for such works as \"Blue Velvet\" and \"Twin Peaks,\" suggested that Cyrus should continue to pursue the craft, he went on to star in the television drama \"Doc,\" which also helped spur the career of Cyrus' greatest production -- \"Hannah Montana\" star, and Cyrus' daughter, Miley Cyrus. Now, with the release of \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" on Blu-ray and DVD, a music tour and an upcoming role in a film featuring comedian George Lopez and martial arts expert Jackie Chan, Cyrus is staying busy. He recently took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk to CNN about how he keeps it all together, how he manages raising a family full of performers (son Trace is a member of the band Metro Station, daughter Brandi performs with the band Frank and Derol and also acts, as do younger children Braison and Noah) and what makes him a good fit for Hollywood. CNN: What do you like about \"Hannah Montana: The Movie?\" Billy Ray Cyrus: I think it's got a certain amount of realism to it with art imitating life imitating art. It certainly parallels a lot of things in mine and Miley's real world and real lives. I wrote the song \"Back to Tennessee\" and as I read the script for the movie, \"Back to Tennessee\" became a cornerstone of the film and the title track off the album. The realism of the film translates into the music, and I think vice versa. CNN: The film speaks to never losing touch with your roots. How important is that to you? Cyrus: Extremely. My dad told me as a kid to always be aware of where you are, always have a vision for your future, but never forget where you came from. CNN: You've had careers in both music and acting. Do you still feel a bit like a fish out of water dealing with Hollywood? Cyrus: I love Hollywood as far as being an actor. Getting to work with Jackie Chan and George Lopez in this new film we have coming out in January [\"The Spy Next Door\"], working with Heather Locklear and Patricia Neal in the Lifetime movie \"Flying By\" and Brooke Shields, who has appeared as my deceased wife on \"Hannah Montana.\" I look back at it now and think that I may fit in more to the film community than I do Nashville, to tell you the truth. I love what I do. CNN: Do you have a preference, then, for acting over music? Cyrus: My preference is to find projects that can combine the two. I also love to write scores. I wrote a lot of the scores for \"Doc\" and I love to write scores for other projects. CNN: How do you balance being a star with being a dad? Cyrus: The very best I can. I just take it one step at a time and do the best I can. My dad was to me what I try to be to Miley, which is somewhat of a best friend. I try my best to be a good daddy and if she wants to talk about business or music I try my best to be a good manager. I try to be all of those things because that's what my dad was to me. Unfortunately, my dad passed away four years ago from mesothelioma, but I feel like in some ways my dad is looking down on me and smiling. His name was Ronald Ray Cyrus and a lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces. CNN: So will Miley ever remake \"Achy Breaky Heart\"? Cyrus: I doubt it, but anything is a possibility. In 1991 I recorded \"Achy Breaky Heart\" and we are not too terribly far away from the 20-year anniversary, and there are some major stars who want to re-do that song. I'm flirting with the idea. There's one cat in particular that if I told you who it was, it would blow your mind. But I've got to keep it under my hat right now.","highlights":"Billy Ray Cyrus has worked steadily since 1992's \"Achy Breaky Heart\"\nSinger turned to acting on advice of father and director David Lynch .\nSays he prefers working on projects that combine acting and music .\nHe won't reveal the big-name artists he says want to remake his hit .","id":"a683f1ad2696ed527a78582e687a28fad0c786b1"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former U.S. government scientist who served in sensitive positions on classified aerospace projects was willing to sell \"some of our most guarded secrets\" a prosecutor alleged Tuesday. Stewart David Nozette of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was taken into custody Monday by FBI agents. Stewart David Nozette, 52, who is charged with attempted espionage, appeared in U.S. District Court Tuesday afternoon. Authorities said in a criminal complaint that Nozette, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, tried to deliver classified information to someone he thought was an Israeli intelligence official, but who was actually an FBI undercover agent. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Asuncion said Tuesday that evidence will show Nozette disclosed to investigators information that was \"top secret, related to our national defense, that would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security\" if revealed to a foreign country. He said the FBI made videotapes of Nozette indicating he was \"willing to sell some of our most guarded secrets.\" The prosecutor noted that the charges carry a possible life sentence. Nozette answered in the affirmative when Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson asked him whether he understood the seriousness of the charges against him. Other than that, Nozette, who was arrested Monday, made no statements at his initial court appearance. Defense attorney John Kiyonaga did not immediately oppose the government's request to hold his client without bond, and said his client agreed to waive a deadline for a formal detention hearing. Nozette, who remains in custody, will appear in court again on October 29 for detention and preliminary hearings. In an affidavit, the FBI sets out the case against Nozette, who received a doctorate in planetary sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The FBI document, signed by Special Agent Leslie G. Martell, says that Nozette in January 2009 told a colleague \"that if the United States government tried to put him in jail\" on an unrelated matter, Nozette would move to Israel or another unidentified foreign country and \"tell them everything\" he knows. Nozette had a \"top secret\" clearance, and served at the White House on the National Space Council for President George H.W. Bush, the affidavit says. Later, from early 2000 to early 2006, he did research and development for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Naval Research Laboratory, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, it says. The document says Nozette also acted as a technical consultant from 1998 until early 2008 \"for an aerospace company that was wholly owned by the government of the state of Israel.\" The company consulted with Nozette monthly, getting answers to questions, and he received total payments of $225,000, Martell's affidavit says. In early September, Nozette was contacted by phone by an individual purporting to be an Israeli intelligence officer, but who really was an FBI undercover agent, the document says. They met in downtown Washington in front of a hotel, and over lunch, Nozette \"demonstrated his willingness to work for Israeli intelligence,\" it says. The undercover agent engaged in a series of meetings with Nozette, and eventually Nozette allegedly provided \"secret\" information in a \"dead drop\" post office box. Some of the information, the affidavit says, was classified as secret. The criminal complaint does not accuse the government of Israel of any violations of U.S. law.","highlights":"Sewart David Nozette, 52, appeared in U.S. District Court on Tuesday .\nAuthorities said he tried to give classified info to FBI undercover agent .\nCharges carry a possible life sentence, prosecutor said .\nNozetta showed \"willingness to work for Israeli intelligence,\" complaint states .","id":"9eedb9052e4124e30ae2a9503ad4dacb5c26abf6"} -{"article":"NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) -- A quiet rendition of \"Amazing Grace\" capped an emotional candlelight vigil Monday night for slain Yale University student Annie Le, whose body was found on what was to have been her wedding day. Students at Yale attend a candlelight vigil for Annie Le Monday night. Several hundred people turned out on the Yale campus for the vigil, crying and hugging each other. Le's roommate, Natalie Powers, said the 24-year-old graduate student in pharmacology \"was as good a human being as you'd ever hope to meet.\" \"She was also really tenacious and had a sense of humor that was never far away, and she was tougher than you'd think by just looking at her,\" Powers said. \"That this horrible tragedy happened at all is incomprehensible. But that it happened to her I think is infinitely more so. It seems completely senseless.\" Connecticut state medical examiners announced Monday that the body found in a Yale medical research building over the weekend was that of Le, who had been missing for nearly a week. Her body was found Sunday hidden in a basement wall. Bloody clothes were found hidden above tiles in a drop ceiling elsewhere in the same building, investigators said. Le was last seen entering the building Tuesday morning. Thomas Kaplan, editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News, said Le \"really had everything going for her.\" \"She was a top scholar. She was very outgoing, a warm person,\" Kaplan said. \"You know, she was diminutive in stature, but certainly not in personality. And that's what I think just makes this so sad for everyone, regardless of whether you knew her. It's just a tragedy.\" Le's death is being investigated as a homicide, but Connecticut medical examiners released no further information beyond the identification. A candlelight vigil in her honor was scheduled for Monday evening on the campus. A Yale professor said on Monday that the building has good security and only certain people can enter, let alone access certain areas. Professor Gary Rudnick, who interviewed Le when she applied for admission to the graduate program in pharmacology, said it gives him the sense that there could be a \"murderer among us.\" No suspects are in custody, but investigators are questioning several people in the case, New Haven Police spokesman Joe Avery said. Watch a report about the case \u00bb . Kaplan said Le's killing has left Yale students shocked and wary. \"Only Yalies had access to that basement, and that seems to point to someone in our community being involved in this,\" Kaplan said. \"That's what is so frightening.\" Authorities have not described the clothes that were found, nor said to whom they may have belonged. Teams of investigators at a Connecticut State Police lab worked through the weekend processing and examining the blood-stained clothes. Kaplan said a Yale police official told the newspaper the clothes were not what Le was wearing when she entered the building. At a meeting Monday for members of the campus community, Yale officials discussed security and provided an update on the investigation. A faculty member and a student who attended the meeting told CNN that Yale officials said police have narrowed down suspects. Security cameras captured video of Le as she entered the four-story lab building at 10 Amistad Street, about 10 blocks from the main campus, six days ago. After poring over hours of surveillance tapes, authorities said they had not found images of her leaving the building. Rudnick described security in the building as \"very good.\" It had restricted access, and simply having a Yale ID card was not enough to get in, he said. Within the building, one had to have special access to enter certain areas, he said. Le was to be married Sunday on New York's Long Island to Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student at Columbia University. \"Annie has been planning this wedding for over a year with John, and she was very excited. She's been doing a countdown to her wedding day,\" Jennifer Simpson, a friend in Sacramento, told the CBS \"Early\" show. \"She was doing weather patterns to make sure that the weather would be perfect on her wedding day. She just wanted everything to be perfect, everything down to table napkins, to flowers. Annie was very, very excited about this day.\" Investigators searched a waste facility Sunday that normally handles garbage from the Yale lab, said William Reiner of the FBI's New Haven office. The search took place at the Resources Recovery Authority landfill in Hartford, near New Haven. \"In a situation like this, it's common for us to follow the trash,\" Reiner said. Yale University President Richard Levin, in a statement to the campus community, said, \"Our hearts go out to Annie Le's family, fianc\u00e9 and friends.\" The school sent out information Monday from Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer saying, \"We are cooperating in all possible ways with the police to ensure they find every shred of physical evidence in the building so they can solve this horrible crime without delay. When the building does reopen, there will be extra security both inside and outside the facility for the foreseeable future.\" Lorimer added, \"To augment the substantial security already in place at the Medical School, Yale moved last week to increase security and police patrols on the streets in the area and to add a new bicycle patrol. Yale also added security personnel inside Sterling Hall of Medicine, where Annie Le had her lab.\" The school has made grief counselors available, as well as a 24-hour help line number. \"The university chaplain's office is available to offer pastoral counseling and can put members of the community in contact with those of many faiths and denominations,\" the message from Lorimer said. Le, a resident of Placerville, California, seemed to have been well aware of the risks of crime in a university town. In February, she compared crime and safety at Yale to other Ivy League schools for a piece for B magazine, published by the medical school. Among the tips she offered: Keep a minimum amount on your person. And she practiced what she preached, Simpson told the \"Early\" show. \"Annie always made sure she was safe,\" Simpson said. \"She doesn't walk around at night by herself. If she had to work late, she would make sure someone could come pick her up or walk with her.\" When she walked over to the research building on Tuesday, she left her purse, credit cards and cell phone in her office. Vanessa Flores, Le's former roommate, wondered whether the magazine article had something to do with Le's death. \"The only thing I can possibly think of right now is maybe a psychopath, an antisocial person who -- I don't know -- maybe got upset about what she wrote about back in February about not being safe, and just kind of wanted to prove her wrong.\" Le, originally from California, graduated from Union Mine High School in 2003, where she was named \"Best of the Best,\" and \"Most Likely To Be The Next Einstein.\" \"She was very smart, well-rounded, liked by peers and very involved in school,\" high school principal Tony DeVille told CNN affiliate WFSB. Le set the bar high for herself, writing in her profile for the National Institutes of Health that she was interested in studying and researching regenerative medicine and hoped to remain working at at NIH or become a professor. Her friends remembered her as one of the nicest people they had ever met. Laurel Griffeath, a high school friend, told NBC's \"Today\" show in Le had a beaming personality matched with impressive intelligence, a girl who \"had it all.\" \"Annie was just an amazing person, and I know that when tragedies happen, people always say that, but she truly was,\" Griffeath told the \"Today\" show. \"She was probably the most brilliant person I've ever met in my life, but what made her more amazing was that there was an intersection of intelligence and personality and ability and she worked hard and she was great with people and she cared about people and she was funny and she didn't sacrifice one part of her life for another like a lot of people kind of seem to. \"She just really kind of had it all. She was really amazing.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti, Mary Snow and LaNeice Collins contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Roommate says horrible tragedy is \"incomprehensible\"\nGrad student Annie Le's remains found Sunday in basement wall in building .\nLe, 24, was last seen entering the building Tuesday morning .\nPolice: No suspects in custody, but investigators questioning several people .","id":"ce60e601346cec5610389a7d3d6604175df003a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi court that sentenced a journalist to 60 lashes for her work on a controversial television show has summoned a second woman affiliated with the TV station. The Saudi information ministry said Sunday that a Jeddah court has asked the second journalist to appear because of her work as a coordinator with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. The woman was set to appear on Monday, but the hearing has been postponed because she is ill, said a ministry official, who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The show in question, \"A Thick Red Line,\" explores social taboos. In one episode, a Saudi man, Mazen Abdul Jawad, bragged about his sex life. Saudi authorities put him on trial and sentenced him to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Soon afterward, the court sentenced journalist Rosanna Al-Yami who worked as a coordinator and guest-booker for the show. In addition to the 60 lashes, Al-Yami is banned for two years from traveling outside Saudi Arabia. While the charges against her include involvement in preparing the program, she was not involved in setting up the episode in which Abdul Jawad appeared, said his lawyer Suleiman Al-Jumeii. Al-Jumeii said that Al-Yami has opted not to appeal the court's verdict. Al-Jumeii doesn't represent the journalist, but said he is keeping tabs on cases dealing with \"A Thick Red Line.\" The lawyer is attempting to pursue an appeal for his client and get his case heard in a special court that only deals with media matters. CNN has attempted to get comments from Al-Yami and her attorney. Abdul Jawad, 32, an airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly on the show about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14. That episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle. Saudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after the interview aired a few months ago. Abdul Jawad was arrested shortly after the program aired and charged with violating Saudi Arabia's crime of publicizing vice.","highlights":"Second journalist summoned over controverial Saudi television show .\nSaudi court sentenced journalist another woman, Rosanna Al-Yami, to 60 lashes for her role .\nMan's sexual boasts on show led to five-year prison sentence .\nSaudi authorities shut down network's offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after interview aired .","id":"f83d5319ee3afac359bf50ae31d146ce876446d5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man died after his car plunged 600 feet off the edge of the Grand Canyon's South Rim, authorities said Tuesday. About 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona each year. The Arizona park's regional communications center received several reports of a car driving off the edge about 6 a.m. Monday, according to a written statement. \"Upon arriving at the scene, investigators found tire tracks leading to the edge behind the Thunderbird Lodge and received reports of a single occupant in a blue passenger car driving over the edge,\" the statement said. Rescue personnel descended on ropes and found the vehicle about 600 feet into the canyon. The man's body was recovered shortly afterward, the statement said. The incident occurred near the El Tovar hotel in a village on the canyon's South Rim, park spokeswoman Shannan Marcak said. Authorities have not ruled the death a suicide, she said. \"It has not been ruled anything at this time.\" The statement said the National Park Service is investigating. Typically, Marcak said, such investigations take at least a few days. The man has not been identified, she said. Marcak said that within the past five years, she knows of only one other time a car was driven off the edge of the canyon. The Monday statement said plans were being made to retrieve the vehicle and the body. The Grand Canyon, a world famous landmark, receives close to 5 million visitors yearly, according to the National Park Service Web site.","highlights":"Reports say car drove off South Rim of canyon about 6 a.m. Monday .\nIncident occurred near El Tovar hotel in village .\nNational Park Service is investigating .\nOfficials aren't sure that incident is a suicide .","id":"2a511cf895fa909529ce6278200bb4f069e21658"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The head of a leading Russian human rights group accused the presidents of Russia and Chechnya of complicity in murdering their top activist in Chechnya. Natalya Estemirova, pictured in 2007, had been openly critical of Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov. \"I am confident about who killed Natalya Estemirova. We all know this person. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Chechen republic,\" Oleg Orlov, the chairman of the Russian human rights group Memorial said on the group's Web site Thursday. \"Ramzan was intimidating and insulting Natalya, and considered her his personal enemy. We don't know whether it was him personally who ordered her [murder] or it were his aides who wanted to please their boss. As far as [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev is concerned, it seems that he doesn't mind having a murderer as head of one of the Russian regions.\" Estemirova, 50, was kidnapped outside her home in Chechnya Wednesday, Orlov said, citing eyewitnesses, and found dead in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia later the same day. Her body was riddled with bullets, Russian prosecutors said -- several shots to the abdomen, and one to the head. The winner of three international human rights awards, she was a leading activist in the North Caucasus area who had been openly critical of Kadyrov and his methods. Kadyrov vowed Thursday that he would personally oversee the investigation and assure her killers were punished. \"She couldn't have had enemies among reasonable people,\" he said in a statement on the Chechen government Web site. \"Those who took away her life have no right to be called humans, they don't deserve any mercy, and should be punished as the most cruel criminals. \"I have no doubts whatsoever that those who ordered and conducted this crime will face trial,\" he said. \"That is the very least that the government and society must do in commemoration of Estemirova.\" Medvedev said Thursday the murder was \"a very sad event,\" adding it was \"absolutely clear... her murder is linked to her professional activities. \"Her type of professional activity is needed by any normal state. She did very useful things. She spoke the truth. She openly, sometimes harshly assessed some types of processes that occurred in our country, and this is the value of human rights workers, even if they are not comfortable,\" Medvedev said Thursday on a visit to Germany. His host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warned the killing could affect Russian-German relations. \"This is an unacceptable event, and especially if we want to intensify the relations between our two countries, it cannot remain unsolved,\" she said in a joint appearance with Medvedev. Medvedev had earlier condemned the murder and said her killers should punished to the full extent of the law, his office said. Estemirova shouted that she was being kidnapped, as she was forced into a white Lada automobile that had stopped on the road in front of her house on Wednesday morning, Orlov said. An unidentified man grabbed her and shoved her into the car, Orlov told CNN. Estemirova had spent years investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya, the restive Russian republic where Russian forces have fought two conflicts against separatists since 1991. Russia officially ended its military mission in Chechnya in April of this year. The activist told CNN in 2007 she was investigating dozens of abductions and murders that had become the norm in Chechnya, where security forces were fighting a dirty war against separatist rebels. She joins a growing list of journalists and activists killed after criticizing the Russian authorities, many of whose murders remain officially unsolved. Top United States and European officials condemned the murder of Estemirova and demanded that the killers be brought to justice. \"Such a heinous crime sends a chilling signal to Russian civil society and the international community and illustrates the tragic deterioration of security and the rule of law in the North Caucasus over the last several months,\" U.S. National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement. \"How many more Natalya Estemirovas and Anna Politkovskayas must be killed before the Russian authorities protect people who stand up for the human rights of Russian citizens?\" Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis demanded, referring to the Russian investigative journalist who was killed in 2006. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a written statement that Estemirova had \"uncovered massive, ongoing human rights violations in Chechnya by the federal and regional authorities.\" \"The killers of this courageous reporter, one of the few left in Chechnya, must not be allowed to walk free like so many before them,\" CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney said. She won three international awards for human rights activities -- including the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya Award, named for the murdered journalist with whom she often worked. Estemirova was Politkovskaya's \"most frequent companion during travel and investigations in Chechnya,\" the organization Reach All Women in War said in announcing the prize for Estemirova. \"They investigated a number of cases together -- about which Anna wrote for (the newspaper) Novaya Gazeta and Natalya wrote for Memorial's Web site and for local newspapers.\" Estemirova studied history at Grozny University, then taught history before turning to journalism and human rights in 1998, Memorial said. She joined the organization in March 2000. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance, Maxim Tkachenko and Mike Sefanov in Moscow, Russia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Estemirova was abducted outside her home in Grozny, Chechnya .\nRights group Memorial says Chechen president involved in murder .\nLeaders of Russia and Chechnya condemn the murder .","id":"f5508ad9ae3ceb523ac38169afc83b2bb7d01c2d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States fears recent weapons purchases by Venezuela could fuel an arms race in South America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday. Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez met and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Tuesday. \"They outpace all other countries in South America and certainly raise the question as to whether there is going to be an arms race in the region,\" Clinton said about Venezuela's arms deals, after a meeting with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez. The Russian government Monday extended $2.2 billion in credit to Venezuela to finance arms purchases, including 92 Soviet-era T-72 tanks and short-range missiles with a reach of 55 miles (90 kilometers). Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also said his nation will purchase an anti-aircraft weapons system with a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers). The planned arms purchases come at a time when Venezuela is at odds with neighboring Colombia over negotiations that would give U.S. troops access to Colombian military bases. Chavez has said his military buildup is in response to the growing U.S. presence in the region, which he calls threatening and dangerous to Latin America. The United States is also concerned about deepening ties between Venezuela and Iran. In addition to ongoing military cooperation, Chavez said in Tehran last week that the Iranian government would help Venezuela develop nuclear technology. In exchange, Venezuela has offered to export gasoline to Iran, which would give Tehran an out if Western nations impose petroleum sanctions over Iran's nuclear program. Senior administration officials say Venezuela's attempt at \"sanctions busting\" is alarming. Clinton urged Venezuela to be transparent about its weapons purchases. Venezuela, she said, \"should be putting in place in procedures and practices to ensure that the weapons they buy are not diverted to insurgent groups or illegal organizations like drug trafficking gangs and other criminal cartels.\" Vazquez voiced concern that an arms race in South America would divert funds from badly needed development in poor countries. \"We should devote our energies and resources to fight against the real scourges of our societies ... such as drug trafficking and terrorism,\" he said. \"Instead of spending it in weapons, spending it in housing, good housing for our people, and to further deepen investment, especially in the field of education.\"","highlights":"Russia extends $2.2 billion in credit to Venezuela to finance arms purchases .\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton worries about arms race in South America .\nRelations tense between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia, a U.S. ally .\nWashington worries about Hugo Chavez's deepening ties to Iran as well .","id":"87b924f8df499f5e1e5c9f2d6412b6b523d53ba5"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Samar Saed Abdullah's entire body trembles as she speaks about her impending execution. She thinks of the gallows room, the noose around her neck and that moment when she will take her final breath. Samar Saed Abdullah is sentenced to die by hanging in connection with the killing of three relatives. \"My life is meaningless,\" she said, choking on her tears. \"I can't think of anything else. The other women, we try to help each other, but we cannot escape the reality that we are on death row and they can take us at any second.\" The 27-year-old Iraqi woman is sentenced to die in connection with the slayings of three relatives in January 2005. She looks pale and frail, her face sallow, her eyes bloodshot. She shakes with each sob, anxiously twisting a tissue in her hands. We first met Samar in spring 2007, at al-Kadhimiya Women's Prison in Baghdad. She had been on death row for about two years, and she was terrified. Watch a tearful plea from death row \u00bb . \"I don't sleep at all on Wednesdays,\" she said then. \"I stay up from morning until night, because that's the day they pick for executions.\" Samar was sentenced to death by hanging for being an accessory to murder in the killings of her uncle, aunt and cousin -- slayings that she says were carried out at their home by her husband-to-be, who remains on the loose. She maintains that she is innocent, and there are disturbing questions about her conviction. Samar has now been moved a step closer to death: to Baghdad's maximum-security prison, where there are more than 500 prisoners waiting to be executed. It's the same facility where Saddam Hussein was hanged in December 2006. CNN was not allowed to film her face inside the prison. During the interview, the wardens also seemed to make motions to try to stop CNN from broaching the subject of her allegation that she had only confessed under torture. The day of the killings is seared into her mind. \"I think about it every day, every hour. I wake up with it in my head,\" she said. \"It's the reason I am here.\" There was a point in time when Samar was happy, when her life had meaning and joy. She had a fianc\u00e9, Saif Ali Nur, in winter 2004. \"I was so happy at the time, when he asked for my hand in marriage,\" she remembered bitterly. \"I thought that he was honest, that he did not lie to me. It all happened in just two months.\" At first, her family didn't approve of the romance, but they eventually relented. One day, she says, Saif duped her into taking him to her wealthy uncle's house. He locked her in the kitchen and, she says, shot her uncle, aunt and cousin. Then, he turned the gun on her. Samar says he stole less than $1,000 after threatening to kill Samar and her family if she went to the authorities. The Iraqi police picked Samar up the next day, after Saif dumped her in front of her house and disappeared. \"There was nothing that made me suspect that this was a guy who would do something like this,\" she said. She's filled with regret that she fell in love with him. \"And now I am here in prison, and he is out on the streets, happy.\" Her parents sold everything to pay for her defense. They swear she's innocent. She says she was tortured by the police into confessing that she went to her uncle's house with the intent to steal. \"They kept beating me, and they told me, 'Say whatever we want you to say, and do not say anything else, and say yes, I was an accomplice to this crime.' Although I had nothing to do with it. Finally, they made me sign a blank piece of paper, and they filled it out afterwards.\" She was tried and convicted in a single day: August 15, 2005. Court documents obtained by CNN read that \"the court discussed the case file with her and she said that all that she had confessed came as a result of duress and torture.\" Under Iraqi law, the court should have investigated her claim that she confessed under torture. But it did not. After learning of Samar's case from CNN, former Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said Tuesday he spoke with the Iraqi Presidency Council, which promised to look into the matter. He also said he had spoken separately with top Iraqi officials, including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and urged for a new trial. Human rights groups say Samar's case is just one of many in which justice has failed. And they say that what makes implementing capital punishment even more disturbing is that the Iraqi judicial system does not guarantee a fair trial. Amnesty International issued a report Tuesday saying that at least 1,000 prisoners sit on Iraq's death row and that Iraq now has one of the highest execution rates in the world. The report says Iraq's court system does not meet international standards and that authorities \"provide very little information on executions, and some have been carried out secretly.\" According to a Western official with in-depth knowledge of the Iraqi judicial system, Iraq's judicial failures are \"rooted in the legal culture rather than the law. ... The entire legal culture remains heavily confession-based, a situation exacerbated by the frequently imperfect investigative skills of the police, judicial investigators and investigative judges.\" In his years in Iraq, this official says he observed judges taking payments in exchange for certain decisions and the physical abuse of suspects, either as an end in itself or to \"encourage\" confessions. \"It is my firmly held opinion that Iraq should immediately reinstate the moratorium on executions,\" the official said. \"There are serious problems plaguing the administration of justice in Iraq in criminal cases, and this fact is widely acknowledged by the Iraq judges, prosecutors and defense counsel.\" The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority abolished capital punishment in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. But the death penalty was reinstated in August 2004, shortly after the government was handed back to Iraqis. Iraq's Ministry of Justice maintains that the judicial system is \"fair and just.\" Local organizations like the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq have for years been fighting to get the death penalty abolished in Iraq, especially when it comes to flawed trials and women being put to death. But they struggle against a government that turns a deaf ear. \"I wish there was some kind of response. But the response is totally passive. We've reached a degree of despair,\" said Yanar Mohammed, founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. \"As a human rights organization in Iraq, we find that we need some backup from abroad to put pressure on our government as a first step to stop the executions of these women, some of whom we know are innocent.\" But even as doubts surface about many convictions in Iraq, there are signs that the pace of executions is picking up. Over the past two months, Mohammed's group says, between two and four women were executed. \"They were taken out of the extreme-protection prison,\" Mohammed said. \"It is a very scary story for us, because if it starts with a few women in a jail cell ... it could happen to hundreds, thousands of people later on.\" As for Samar, she doesn't sleep, haunted by the image of her body that could be hanging lifeless -- plagued by the gut-wrenching fear of death that consumes her nights and most of her days. \"Every night, I stay up thinking that if tomorrow comes, who will be next? Me? Or my friend sitting next to me?\" She sobbed. \"I will never trust a man again. I will never love anyone again. I just want to stay with my parents.\" Samar feels betrayed, both by the man she once loved and by a judicial system that is about to send her to her death. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.","highlights":"Woman sobs about impending execution: \"I can't think of anything else\"\nSamar Saed Abdullah, 27, was convicted as accessory to murder of 3 relatives .\nShe says police coerced and tortured her into confessing .\nMinistry of Justice maintains that judicial system is \"fair and just\"","id":"896feee1842982cacfa0a022b5901a6a2d64ef68"} -{"article":"Fort Lauderdale, Florida (CNN) -- A 13-year-old who witnessed another teen being set on fire last month apologized Tuesday, saying he is praying for the boy's recovery and he is sorry for what happened. Reading to reporters from a statement, Jeremy Jarvis -- whose older brother has been charged in the incident -- said that victim Michael Brewer is in his prayers. \"I want to read something I wrote last night,\" Jarvis said. \"I want to express my deepest sympathy to Mikey and his family. I will pray for Mikey to grow stronger every day and for Mikey's speedy recovery.\" Brewer, 15, remains in guarded condition at the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center. He suffered third-degree burns over 65 percent of his body in the Deerfield Beach, Florida, incident October 12, authorities have said. Police have been able to interview Brewer for the first time since the incident, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said. Hospital officials have said Brewer can communicate only in one- or two-word answers. \"The more information we have, the better position we are in to make the right decision\" as far as charges and how to proceed, said Maria Schneider, a prosecutor with the state attorney's office in Broward County. \"I would say he [Brewer] needs a little more time to be fully prepared to provide a detailed account of the incident.\" \"It was difficult. It was difficult for him to talk about. Difficult for us to listen to,\" she said of the interview. \"Just difficult all around, heart-wrenching. He's doing so much better, but it's such a terrible situation.\" Jeremy Jarvis was arrested as a juvenile after Brewer was burned and spent about 30 days in juvenile detention. However, prosecutors have not filed charges against him. He still could be charged, as prosecutors have 90 days from his arrest to decide whether to move forward with the case. He has not been interviewed by police or prosecutors, Schneider said. \"He has invoked his rights to counsel and has invoked his rights to silence.\" His brother, Denver, 15, is among three teenagers charged as adults with one count of attempted second-degree murder in the attack. He has pleaded not guilty. \"I want to tell my brother D.C. I love and miss him,\" Jeremy Jarvis told reporters Tuesday. \"I just hope and pray we all get through this.\" The boy's attorney, Stephen Melnick, would not allow reporters to ask him questions. The extent of Jeremy Jarvis' involvement remains under investigation, Melnick said, adding that police took a statement from Brewer on Monday. \"As far as we know, he [Jeremy Jarvis] just followed and watched what happened,\" he said. Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, also 15, are accused along with a third teen, Jesus Mendez, 16, of being in a group that poured alcohol over Brewer and set him ablaze in a dispute over $40, a video game and a bicycle. All three pleaded not guilty in an appearance last week in Broward County Circuit Court. If convicted, they would face a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Detectives say eyewitnesses told them that Mendez used a lighter to set fire to Brewer after Denver Jarvis allegedly poured alcohol over him. Bent allegedly encouraged the attack, police said. Brewer jumped into a pool at his apartment complex to put out the flames. Authorities have said Mendez admitted setting Brewer on fire. According to an arrest transcript, the boy said he made a \"bad decision.\" Dr. Michael Brannon, a court-appointed forensic psychologist, interviewed both the Jarvis brothers. \"I can describe both of them as being afraid, being fearful,\" he told CNN earlier this month. \"I can describe both of them as being tearful at various times during the interview, especially when talking about the specific incident which led to the injuries of the victim.\" The Jarvis family met at Melnick's office Tuesday, shortly before the boy read the short written statement to reporters. He took no questions. During the meeting, Jeremy Jarvis played with Melnick's dog. Although the state can still file charges against him, \"it didn't matter to him,\" Melnick said. \"It was important to say how this really bothers him and how much he loves his brother and how much he hopes Michael gets better.\" He said Brewer is a close friend of Jeremy Jarvis, and the boy is troubled by Brewer's injury as well as by his brother facing criminal charges that could land him in an adult prison if convicted. Doctors had planned to perform skin graft surgery on Brewer last Friday, but decided to wait and let him heal a bit more first, hospital officials said. His doctor has said he faces several more months in the hospital and will need multiple skin grafts and surgeries. Melnick would not say whether Jeremy Jarvis is cooperating with prosecutors, but said he didn't believe the boy's apology would affect whether charges are filed. \"It's something he's been wanting to say from the start,\" he said. \"He's been asking every day if he could say something.\" Broward County schools expelled the seventh-grader after his arrest, Melnick said. He is being home-schooled, and his family is exploring alternative education arrangements. Jeremy Jarvis turned 13 about a month ago, but \"he understands what's happening,\" Melnick said. \"He spent 30 days in a jail.\"","highlights":"Jeremy Jarvis, 13, who saw teen set on fire, apologizes, says he's praying for recovery .\nAuthorities say police have been able to interview victim for first time since incident .\nVictim, Michael Brewer, 15, is in guarded condition at University of Miami hospital burn center .\nJeremy Jarvis not charged; extent of his involvement under investigation, attorney says .","id":"f2429c002a1ea249a58d2fd6ebdeab845eca7c89"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In trendy neighborhoods of Tokyo customers are lining up for vitamin injections that promise to improve health and beauty. These intravenous vitamin \"drips\" are part of the latest quick-fix, health fad catching on in Japan: the IV cafe. Each drip pack contains saline solution and specific vitamins and minerals to target a particular health ailment or beauty concern. \"I used to take vitamin supplements, but changed to the IV drip because I feel the effects more quickly,\" a 20-something woman at the Tenteki 10 Caf\u00e9 told CNN. She said she receives specific injections to get better skin, burn fat and boost her energy. There are 10 different varieties to choose from at Tenteki. The \"orange\" variety touts anti-aging properties, loaded with antioxidants. The \"placenta pack\" is said to help rejuvenate and ease muscle stiffness. Prices range from $20 to $30 per injection, and nurses see about 30 to 40 people each day. Their most common patients are Japanese businessmen who work in the same office building. \"I see a lot of businessmen who say they don't have time to sleep. They can't take a break from working and get the vitamin drip for an extra kick of energy,\" a Tenteki nurse told CNN. \"Blue\" is the most requested vitamin pack among these men: a concoction of B1 and vitamin E that claims to offer relief from exhaustion. Registered nurses and doctors administer the drips at Tenteki, but there's no conclusive medical evidence to back up the health claims. Many nutritionists actually caution against using injectable vitamin supplements because the quantities are not regulated. \"More is not necessarily better...some vitamins and minerals can be toxic in high doses,\" particularly the fat-soluble ones which the body stores like Vitamins A, D, E and K, explained Claire Williamson, Nutrition Scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. In Europe and the United States vitamin shots are popular among celebrities with hectic lifestyles and little time to sleep, particularly vitamin B 12. Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and singer Robbie Williams have both confirmed they've used the shots as part of their diets to maintain stamina during tours. Dermatological injections of Vitamin C are also popular among women hoping to keep their skin looking young. Former supermodel Cindy Crawford has admitted using such injections to keep her skin firm and wrinkle-free. According to Williamson, it does not matter if supplements are injected into the vein or into the skin. \"At the end of the day it will go into the blood stream,\" she said. Most of these nutrients we can get sufficient from foods, nutrients tend to be better absorbed by the body if they are consumed in foods.\"","highlights":"Intravenous vitamin boosts are the latest health fad in Japan .\nVitamin injections target specific health aliments and beauty concerns .\nNutritionists warn of vitamin overdose from high quantities of supplements .\nVitamin injections are popular among celebrities and businessmen for fatigue .","id":"e5e7b83b09ea20057d374ef714db07d6be04c4c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's not quite the achievement of a lunar landing, but astronaut Mike Massimino made Twitter history with a 139-character post to the micro-blogging site -- the first person to do so from space. A seven-member crew aboard space shuttle Atlantis is headed to the Hubble Space Telescope to make repairs. \"From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!\" he wrote at 4:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. With the tweet, Massimino kept his promise to file updates from the space shuttle Atlantis as it readies to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino began tweeting in early April as he prepared for the mission. By early Wednesday, his Twitter feed, astro_mike, had more than 241,000 followers. Atlantis launched Monday afternoon with Massimino and six other crew members. It is NASA's fifth and final repair visit to the Hubble. The crew was expected to arrive at the space telescope on Wednesday. Watch Atlantis launch for Hubble mission \u00bb . \"I'm going to put my spacesuit on, next stop: Earth Orbit!!\" Massimino posted on Twitter on Monday morning before the launch. Ironically, another Twitter user, astromike, has tweets that are more down-to-earth: \"House-cleaning day. I dusted everything that has a horizontal surface,\" and \"Will make \"blender waffles\" when the girls wake up. From whole wheat kernels to waffles in 10 minutes!\" Another astronaut, Mark Polansky, is posting Twitter updates as he prepares for the next planned space shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Polansky, who is tweeting as astro_127, will be the commander of the mission, scheduled for June.","highlights":"Astronaut becomes first person to post to Twitter from space .\nMike Massimino tweets \"the adventure of a lifetime has begun\"\nMassimino, six others headed to Hubble Space Telescope to make repairs .","id":"b69d59e81f3be9353c4d8cd94193943597b95ebe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Juventus have sacked coach Ciro Ferrara after a string of poor results and have installed Alberto Zaccheroni in the hot seat until the end of the season. Ferrara's position has been threatened after a dismal run which has seen them slip out of contention in the Serie A title race as well as being eliminated from the Champions League at the group stages. Thursday's 2-1 Coppa Italia defeat to Italian champions Inter Milan proved the final straw and the club released a statement to confirm his departure and Zaccheroni's arrival. \"Zaccheroni will take over the team immediately and will guide this afternoon's training session in Vinovo before being officially unveiled to the media,\" it read. Ferrara joined Juve late last season and steered the Turin powerhouses to second place in Serie A behind Inter. But his first full campaign in charge proved challenging after a promising start to the season. The Bianconeri have lost five of their last six games in Serie A and have slumped to sixth in the standings, four points behind Napoli, who hold the last Champions League qualifying spot. Zaccheroni will hope to get them on track with his first game against Lazio on Sunday. The 56-year-old has coached at a number of leading Serie A clubs and helped AC Milan to the 1999 Italian title, but it is his first job since being sacked by Torino in February 2007. Ferrara, a former Italy international and Juventus defender, was given the reins despite his lack of experience, succeeding current Roma coach Claudio Ranieri, who was fired. Zaccheroni's appointment ends, for now, media speculation that Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez would take charge at Juve, but the short-term nature of his contract until June raises questions about the permanence of his stay. Benitez acknowledged the speculation in his weekly press conference on Friday. \"I am focused on preparing my team for the game against Bolton. I know they (Juventus) were interested, that is part of the game now in football, but I am not ready to talk too much because I don't want to lose my focus. \"When you are a manager and you have clubs asking (for you), you have to be proud because they are a top side in Europe, but I am really happy here and want to do my job as best I can.\"","highlights":"Juventus sack coach Ciro Ferrara after a string of poor results in Serie A and Europe .\nFerrari replaced by former Milan coach Alberto Zaccheroni until the end of the season .\nJuventus have slipped to sixth in Serie A after losing five of their last six games .\nLiverpool manager Rafael Benitez has also been linked to the Turin giants .","id":"108e22ec1fb34fd1f2be738793e85bac933623bf"} -{"article":"Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- European Union leaders named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first \"president of Europe\" Thursday, edging out former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a still-vaguely defined job. \"I did not seek this high position, and I didn't take any steps to achieve it,\" Van Rompuy said in accepting the job. \"But tonight, I take on this task with conviction and with enthusiasm.\" Van Rompuy, a 62-year-old, soft-spoken fan of Japanese poetry, will become the face of European Union and represent its 27 member nations at summits overseas. His conservative government took office in December 2008. The Belgian is \"well known as a consensus builder,\" said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who added the selection was unanimous. And Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission -- the executive arm of the EU -- called Van Rompuy's selection \"a tribute to Belgium,\" the EU's host country. \" I think the European Union also expressed its gratitude for the work of Belgium and the constant support that this country at the heart of Europe has given to our common project,\" he said. In his speech, Van Rompuy pledged to lead the EU through a process of \"dialogue, unity and action.\" \"A negotiation that ends with a defeated party is never a good negotiation,\" he said. \"As president of the council, I will listen carefully to everyone, and I will make sure that all deliberations turn into results for everyone.\" The presidency was created by the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, which came into force this month after years of torturous negotiations. Van Rompuy will serve a two-and-a-half-year term, replacing the six-month presidency of the bloc that rotated among the heads of its member states. But while the EU prides itself on being a club of democracies, the process of choosing its new leader was far from transparent or open. The people of Europe are getting no say, not even through their parliamentarians. Van Rompuy's new job was announced after a closed-door dinner for the EU's heads of state and government. The Belgian defended the process, telling reporters the selection was made by leaders \"who were all democratically chosen.\" \"I was chosen on the basis of a treaty,\" he said. \"The treaty stipulates the procedure. The treaty was democratically approved by 27 member states.\" The EU leaders also named Catherine Ashton, a British trade commissioner and member of the House of Lords, as the union's High Commissioner -- its equivalent of a foreign minister. Unlike Van Rompuy, who was chosen by leaders of the EU's member states, Ashton must be confirmed by the European Parliament. Blair, who led Britain from 1997 to 2007, is currently the EU's Mideast envoy. He had been the early favorite for the presidency in recent weeks -- but Brown, his successor, realized that he lacked support among key decision-makers for new post, a Brown representative told CNN earlier. According his backers, who at first included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was just the sort of world-renowned figure to win attention for the EU and enable it to exercise its weight in world affairs. One Indian official told CNN before the announcement, \"If the EU chooses as its worldwide representative the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg, I am not sure our leaders will have the time to meet him.\" But others were soon arguing that Blair's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and his close alliance with former U.S. President George W. Bush made him a divisive figure in Europe. And as the one man who might have been able to take Britain into the European single currency, he had not even attempted to do so while he was Britain's prime minister. Public backing from Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, a joke figure to much of Europe and another Bush ally, did not help. Brown had realized earlier that Blair did not have enough support among key decision-makers to snag the new post, a Brown representative told CNN earlier. CNN Political Contributor Robin Oakley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy appointed first \"president of Europe,\" British PM Gordon Brown says .\nTony Blair ruled out after his successor as UK PM realized Blair had insufficient support .\nPresident of EC will be first permanent chief of the European Council of Ministers .\nSelection conducted by heads of state and government, not by Europe's parliamentarians .","id":"65f1110c4060f78a14b9b206eef4ead7d7e80404"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Muslim woman and the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations sued a judge Wednesday for allegedly ordering the woman to remove her hijab, or religious head covering, in court. Raneen Albaghdady, of Wayne County, Michigan, contends that Judge William Callahan told her to remove her hijab on June 16 when she was petitioning for a name change, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in a U.S. district court in Michigan. Wayne County is also listed as a defendant in the suit. Callahan and the 3rd Circuit Court of Michigan said in a written statement that they had not seen the complaint and could not comment on the lawsuit. However, they said that Albaghdady did not object to removing her head covering and that she had not informed the judge that she wore it for religious reasons. The lawsuit says Callahan \"insisted\" that Albaghdady, a naturalized citizen, remove her hijab and that she eventually complied. It says the judge denied Albaghdady's petition for a name change, saying that she had filed her petition five days too early. No further details were offered. The lawsuit seeks an order declaring the practice of \"forcing Muslim women to remove their hijab as a precondition to appearing in court\" unconstitutional and illegal. It asks that the judge and Wayne County not be allowed to \"take similar unconstitutional actions.\" The Michigan Islamic relations council released a partial video of the incident Tuesday on YouTube. In the 30-second video, the judge can be heard saying, \"The head piece? No hats allowed in the courtroom.\" The statement from Callahan and the 3rd Circuit said that the YouTube video was \"missing some critical footage.\" \"In response to Judge Callahan's direction, 'No hats allowed in the courtroom,' Ms. Albaghdady responded, \"Okay, it doesn't matter,' and immediately removed her head covering, without protest or explanation,\" the statement said. \"Judge Callahan and the court have the greatest respect for spiritual practices and all religious preferences. Had he been informed that the head covering had some religious significance, the judge would have permitted Ms. Albaghdady to continue wearing it in court,\" it said. The suit comes a day after the state's Supreme Court issued an order allowing lower state courts to \"exercise reasonable control\" over the appearance of witnesses and parties to lawsuits, a rule change that had been proposed after a Muslim woman refused to remove an Islamic garment in a small claims court. The order allows courts \"reasonable control over the appearance of parties and witnesses\" so as to \"ensure that the demeanor of such persons may be observed and assessed by the fact-finder and ensure the accurate identification of such person.\" The order, which amends a rule of the Michigan Rules of Evidence, is effective September 1. The justices had voted earlier this summer to change it. The amendment was prompted by a 2006 small claims case in Michigan filed by Ginnah Muhammad, who wore a niqab -- a garment that covers the entire face and head, except for the eyes -- to court, the order said. The judge asked her to remove her niqab, saying he needed to be able to see her face to tell whether she was telling the truth, according to court documents. Muhammad refused, saying she was a practicing Muslim and would take off the veil only in front of a female judge. The judge said a female judge was not available and told Muhammad she could remove the niqab or have her case dismissed. She chose the latter, according to court documents. She sued the judge in federal district court, which declined to exercise jurisdiction over the case. Muhammad has since appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to court documents. Michigan is home to about 600,000 Muslims, and close to 500,000 live in the southeastern part of the state, according to the Michigan office of the American-Islamic relations council. The Detroit area, in Wayne County, ranks fifth nationwide for the number of Muslims, it said. Last month, the Judicial Council of Georgia adopted a policy allowing religious head coverings in the state's courtrooms. Daniel Mach, the director of litigation for the American Civil Liberties Union's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said Wednesday the issue has \"come up in a variety of states.\" \"We are concerned about the growing number of incidents restricting religious expression in the courtroom,\" he said. \"... This is an issue that affects a variety of religious faiths and others.\"","highlights":"Lawsuit claims naturalized citizen was forced to remove religious head covering .\nAmerican-Islamic relations group seeks order declaring the action unconstitutional .\nJudge: Woman didn't protest, never said it was a religious garment .","id":"6bfb5c4921e554f187d68ef3119a4cb8e59898f4"} -{"article":"(The Frisky) -- Who was the first person you called the day your ex dumped you? Or that time you found a weird bump? Or the day you stumbled across that pair of barely worn Christian Louboutins at the Goodwill? You need to break connections with \"friends\" who only bring negative things into your life. If you're like me, you called a girlfriend. While I love my man, and adore my cats to what some might consider a scary degree, the relationships I have with my girls is on an entirely different plane. They're the funniest, smartest, weirdest (in a good way!) gaggle of broads I've ever met and I feel lucky every day to have them around. It wasn't always this way. I've had to prune my posse (please note that I've also been kicked out of people's lives as well) and have discovered some types to avoid. Drama queen . The Drama Queen isn't happy (and \"happy\" is a relative term here) unless she's freaking out. Little things us boring normals would shrug off -- like a missed bus or parking ticket -- become monumental shriekfests. She doesn't get the flu, she gets oh-my-god-I-think-it's-cancer! Everything is a crisis, and she demands constant handholding and attention. The Frisky: 13 signs she's a loser . Luckily, these types can't help but reveal their true colors pretty quickly and unless you're content to be cast as an extra in your own life, you'll banish her from the set. Nurse Betty . There is nothing that makes this one as happy as a friend in need. This may seem like a good quality (and often is -- for a while), but once you've got your butt back in gear, she either loses interest or, worse, reminds you constantly of how bad things once were, in the hopes that you'll fall back into feeling like crap so she can \"save\" you again. The Frisky: Is it evil to talk a friend out of getting married? You have two choices with this type -- either arrange it so you're constantly in crisis, or pretend you're problem-free so she gets bored. Better yet, introduce her to the drama queen --they'll be very happy together. Lady-hater . \"I don't have female friends because all the women I meet are jealous of me.\" Yes, someone actually said this to me. Instead, this person prefers her friends to be of the male variety -- ideally hopelessly in love with her and willing to do her bidding. The Frisky: How do grown women make friends? You don't really have to worry about ditching this snot because she doesn't want anything to do with you in the first place. The critic . Also known as the frenemy, the critic is chockfull of helpful suggestions. For instance, you know your favorite dress? Well, it makes you look kind of fat. No offense. Speaking of which -- have you gained a little weight? Or are you pregnant? Are you sure? Well, never mind, you can have some of her old \"fat\" clothes since she has no use for them anymore. Understandably, Critics have a fairly high turnover rate in the friend department. I unfriended one such mean girl only to have her show up at a mutual friend's birthday party -- for the sole purpose of telling the birthday girl exactly what was wrong with her! \u00a1Feliz Cumplea\u00f1os! The leg humper . Do you know what it's like to walk into a bar and find one of your closest friends making out with the guy you've had a crush on for an entire year? I do! Granted, that's nowhere near as bad as my friend Melissa who discovered her husband was schtupping her BFF, but still. It stung. And sure, nobody forced Melissa's husband to be a cheating jerk, but a good girlfriend never would've gone there with him. The Frisky: Why you should not pursue a taken man . You'll know when you're in the presence of one of these bottom-feeders by the way you become invisible the second there's a guy in the vicinity. So yeah, I had to learn the hard way. But having been put through the wringer by these types of lady-scoundrels makes me doubly appreciate the awesome dames I still have in my life. The Frisky: When good friends go bad . TM & \u00a9 2009 TMV, Inc. | All Rights Reserved .","highlights":"Your friends are people you want with you in good times and bad .\nThe critic and nurse Betty friends will like you when you feel bad .\nThe drama queen and lady-hater will never let you have center stage .","id":"81332cfe717982d0ed20dfc36b6005d463e13c30"} -{"article":"BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has been hospitalized with fever and fatigue, the royal palace said Sunday. King Bhumibol Adulyadej attends a celebration of his 81st birthday in Bangkok on December 2, 2008. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, was admitted to a Bangkok hospital on Saturday night. Doctors are monitoring his condition while administering antibiotics and intravenous fluid, the statement from the Royal Household Bureau said. The statement was carried by Thai News Agency and other local media. The king was formally crowned on May 5, 1950. Watch why king's health is big issue \u00bb . Thailand abolished absolute monarchy in the 1930s, so the king wields little power although he last month appealed for unity amid Thailand's four-year-long political crisis. He remains a deeply revered figure and enjoys immense popularity. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters on Sunday that the king visited hospital on doctors' advice. \"There is no problem with His Majesty's conditions. From my chats with doctors, there is nothing to be concerned about,\" Abhisit said after signing a visitors' log book at the hospital, according to Reuters.com.","highlights":"Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej is hospitalized with fever and fatigue .\nKing Bhumibol Adulyadej is world's longest-reigning monarch .\nKing wields little power but is deeply revered and enjoys immense popularity .","id":"cf394245ae2838893c64a0648828ba26dc27978c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening \"a new chapter\" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station. The discovery was announced by project scientist Anthony Colaprete at a midday news conference. \"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount\" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers. The find is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole. After the satellite struck, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water and providing a host of other data, Colaprete said. The project team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the best information about the presence of water, Colaprete said. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb. Although the goal of the $79 million mission was to determine whether there is water on the moon, discoveries in other areas are expected as studies progress, Colaprete and other scientists said at the briefing at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California. \"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,\" the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began. Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system. He listed several options as sources for the water, including solar winds, comets, giant molecular clouds or even the moon itself through some kind of internal activity. The Earth also may have a role, Wargo said. \"If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data,\" NASA said in its statement. \"In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.\"","highlights":"NASA: Discovery could allow for development of lunar space station .\nInformation comes from satellite mission to moon last month .\nSpokesman: \"Indeed, yes, we found water\"\nDiscovery \"opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,\" agency says .","id":"5e8eecc09a533bf95ce46fc2b15a253904dbc2c4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Security was tightened in and around Kabul on Sunday with 7,000 additional police officers deployed ahead of Monday's 89th observance of Afghanistan's independence from Great Britain. An Afghan policeman stops a vehicle at a checkpoint in Kabul, where security has been tightened. Police were seen at newly established security checkpoints looking at every passing vehicle Sunday. Increased foot patrols were also apparent. An Interior Ministry official said it was the biggest police operation in Kabul in several months. Also on Sunday, dozens of Taliban militants were killed after they ambushed a convoy carrying supplies for NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said. Five security forces who worked for a private company were killed in the attack, in Zabul province, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, the deputy governor. After the ambush, Afghan army forces were called in, Alikhail said. Alikhail put the militants' death toll at 32. On Saturday, a roadside bomb killed 10 Afghan police officers in Kandahar province, according to Police Chief Matiullah Khan. Khan blamed the Taliban and their al Qaeda associates for the attack. \"Who else is conducting this kind of cowardly acts except for the Taliban and al Qaeda people,\" he said.","highlights":"Extra police deployed around Kabul ahead of independence celebrations .\nDozens of Taliban militants killed Sunday after convoy ambushed .\nRoadside bomb kills 10 Afghan police officers in Kandahar province .\nOfficial blames Taliban and al Qaeda associates for attack on police .","id":"c4c04273b8e4204fabdf16580d41fdaa19d759bf"} -{"article":"BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Everyone knows Boston is a city steeped in history, but on a steamy hot summer day, one of the best places to experience the city is from the ocean or the harbor. Codzilla boats zip passengers around Boston's inner harbor. A new high-speed thrill ride called Codzilla -- a 70-foot turbocharged boat that makes 180-degree turns at close to 40 knots (43 mph) -- takes passengers out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic. White-knuckled riders are tied down with seat belts but still hold on to the railings with one hand and cling to their belongings with the other so they don't fly overboard. Teenage boys like Ben Whatley from Michigan think Codzilla is \"pretty cool.\" Younger brother Jeremy agrees while huddling with his grandmother. If you want both history and a boat ride, take one of Boston's famous Duck Tours. Operated on amphibious vehicles from World War II, the tours take you through downtown historic Boston. Then the bus becomes a sea-going vessel, settling into the harbor for a short cruise. It's a great way to see both sides of the city. When you get back on land, the New England Aquarium awaits with a \"Sharks and Rays\" exhibit that wraps up September 1. It includes a large touch tank where visitors can pet stingrays and small sharks. Megan Moore, a visitor program specialist at the aquarium, is excited to teach people that most sharks are not scary. Out of the 900 different species of sharks and rays, Moore says, only 10 to 15 have ever been known to attack a human, mostly because they confuse people with food. Sea dragons, jellyfish and harbor seals are among the other sea creatures on display at the aquarium. If you'd rather see animals in their own habitat, you can board a whale watch tour at the harbor just outside the aquarium. Tours take about three hours on a high-speed catamaran to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. It's been a protected area since 1992 and is a rich feeding ground for all kinds of marine life. Tour operators guarantee whale sightings on every excursion. Visitors this year are seeing large numbers of humpback, fin and even endangered right whales. There are also lots of dolphins, seals and sea birds. Finally, to experience Boston in a historic way, head to the Public Garden and take a peaceful 20-minute glide in a Swan Boat. The boats have been an important part of the garden every spring and summer since 1877. Operator and owner Lyn Paget's great-grandfather got the idea for the first boat from the opera Lohengrin, in which a prince rescues his princess in a boat drawn by a swan. Paget calls the experience \"magical\" because the world speeds ahead but the Swan Boats never change. \"We have generations of people that have passed through here. When you come down with a friend, or child or a grandchild, their experience is going to be the same that it was for you, and there aren't too many places where you can do that anymore,\" Paget said. Fran Fifis is a senior producer who has worked in CNN's Boston bureau since it opened in 1998.","highlights":"Boston's harbor and ocean attractions are great choices for summer visitors .\nCodzilla turbo boat rides take passengers out of the inner harbor into the Atlantic .\nSwan Boats have been operating in Boston Public Garden since 1877 .","id":"d44b2ef589684f7017f4e169b84e04bbf2366ade"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House released the text Monday of a controversial back-to-school speech to students from President Obama. The uproar over President Obama's back-to-school speech led the White House to release the transcript Monday. Many conservatives have expressed a fear that the address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. In the text of the speech, however, Obama avoids any mention of controversial political initiatives. He repeatedly urges students to work hard and stay in school. \"No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it,\" he says. \"This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.\" The text of the 18-minute speech was posted on the White House Web site so people can read it before its scheduled Internet broadcast to schoolchildren Tuesday. Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf) Some of the president's critics have been adamantly opposed to the idea of an address by Obama to children. \"The president's speeches tend to be [about] what's wrong with the country and what can we do to fix it,\" said Bill Hogsett, a parent from Dallas, Texas. \"I believe this is the greatest country on Earth, and I try to teach that to my children. ... I don't want them hearing that there's a fundamental flaw with the country and the kids need to go forward to fix it.\" Hogsett, who spoke Monday shortly before Obama's remarks were released, said he wanted to read the speech before making a final judgment. Amy Veasley, another parent from the Dallas area, said she was surprised by the controversy. \"The president of our country wants to call our students to action. I'm not sure why parents wouldn't want their students to hear out the leader of our country,\" she said. A Baltimore, Maryland, teacher who asked not to be identified bemoaned the fact that the country has \"become so polarized that we believe that our president is an enemy and not our leader.\" During Bush's presidency, she said, \"whether I disagreed or not, I still saw him as a leader.\" On Sunday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that parents who are threatening to keep their children home Tuesday to avoid Obama's speech were being \"silly.\" Appearing on the CBS program \"Face the Nation,\" Duncan emphasized that it is up to school officials whether to include the speech in the day's activities and that the message of the speech is simply to encourage children to finish school. \"That's just silly,\" he said of anyone planning to have their kids stay home because of the speech. \"They can go to school. They can not watch.\" The speech is about \"the president challenging young people,\" Duncan asserted. Some school administrators have decided to show the president's speech, but others will not. Watch CNN's Ed Henry talk about school speech uproar \u00bb . Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Sunday that Obama's speech would disrupt an already-hectic first day of school for many students. \"I think there's concerns about the disruption,\" he said on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" calling the scheduling of the speech a \"little ham-fisted\" by the White House. Watch school reject Obama's speech on education \u00bb . \"There [are] also concerns about is this going to be done in an appropriate manner. I trust and hope that the White House will have a content that is not political and they're not using the public school infrastructure for that purpose.\" Duncan, however, noted Obama's speech is not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students from a Washington school in fall 1991, encouraging them to say no to drugs and work hard. Read text of Bush's speech to students (pdf) In November 1988, President Reagan delivered more politically charged remarks that were made available to students nationwide. Among other things, Reagan called taxes \"such a penalty on people that there's no incentive for them to prosper ... because they have to give so much to the government.\" Read text of Reagan's speech to students (pdf) Some of the controversy over Obama's speech involved a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing \"what they can do to help the president.\" The letters \"would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals,\" the plan stated. After pressure from conservatives, the White House distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can \"achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.\" Duncan said Sunday that the passage was poorly worded. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told \"Fox News Sunday\" that Obama's speech is a good idea if the message is a positive one about completing school. \"It is good to have the president of the United States say to young people across America, 'Stay in school, study, and do your homework,' \" Gingrich said. Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer last week accused Obama of trying to \"indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.\" \"Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything,\" he said Monday. After reading the text, he said, \"My kids will be watching the president's speech, as I hope all kids will.\" CNN's Lauren Kornreich and Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this story.","highlights":"Speech posted on Web site Monday for parents, pundits to view .\nObama says, \"No matter what you want to do ... you'll need an education\"\nSecretary of Education Arne Duncan: \"Silly\" of parents to keep kids out of school .\nMinnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: Speech could cause first-day \"disruption\"","id":"99e9c8c4252f744a939955c483fe6ce9f6b25e45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Campus police at the University of South Florida were questioning two men in connection with back-to-back incidents on the school campus Monday. Police take a man into custody at the University of South Florida after receiving reports of a person with a bomb. Investigators were questioning one man following a report of an armed intruder, USF police Lt. Meg Ross said. And a second man was also being questioned following a report of a man carrying a large hunting knife and a puppy, she said. USF police asked the Tampa police's bomb team to respond to the campus regarding a backpack belonging to man in the first incident, said Ross. No one was hurt, she said, and no shots were fired. \"We have someone we think may have been involved,\" Ross told CNN, \"but we have to investigate fully.\" \"We have not looked in his backpack,\" she added. \"We have the bomb squad on their way to look at that.\" Police received a report that a person armed with a bomb and a gun was in the area of the university's library. Authorities later received a report of a subject on a bus in the area of the university's Parking and Transportation Services, Ross said. \"We checked the area at the library, did not locate him, but then received a subsequent report of a subject on a bus,\" she said. The campus stayed on lockdown after police received a report almost immediately after taking the first man into custody of a man wearing a black tank top and a cowboy hat, carrying a knife and a black puppy. \"We're questioning him,\" Ross said. \"We do not believe he is related to the first incident with the backpack.\" Text messages were sent out to 13,000 employees and 45,000 students to warn them after the first incident, and emergency sirens on campus also were activated, officials said. But Ross said that the campus had been given the all-clear, except for the shuttle-bus area -- where the first subject was taken into custody -- while Tampa Police examined the backpack. CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"Campus police question 2 men after incidents on school campus Monday .\nReport of armed intruder on the University of South Florida campus in Tampa, Florida .\nPolice received a report of person armed with bomb, gun near the library .\nUSF police say no one was hurt, no shots were fired .","id":"2d7b477592a0bbbd6b66c74161ca330de97a81d8"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- A woman's body was found in a river in Wales, police said Tuesday, the second death from severe flooding that has hit England and Wales since late last week. The body of the woman, who was not named, was found in the River Usk near the village of Talybont, in mid Wales close to the coast, Brecon police said. Search teams had been looking for her since Sunday. Talybont is about 250 miles south of Cockermouth, England, which has experienced some of the worst flooding seen in decades. Friday, parts of Cockermouth were under several feet of water after heavy rainfall the night before. The town sits at the intersection of two rivers, the Cocker and the Derwent, both of which burst their banks and raged through the town. By Tuesday, the flood waters had receded and the clean-up and damage assessment was well under way. But rain was still falling over the entire region, raising fears of further flooding in some areas. Britain's Environment Agency said river levels across the county of Cumbria remained high but are unlikely to rise to levels seen last week. Twenty road bridges in Cumbria were closed Tuesday, including seven that collapsed in the floods, Cumbria County Council spokesman Gareth Cosslett told CNN. Also shut were eight footbridges, which are an essential means of connecting residents in riverside towns. In Workington, where Cumbria Police Constable Bill Barker died in the floods last week, the two sides of the town are cut off from each other because all bridges were either washed away or closed for safety reasons. \"We're hoping to get a temporary road bridge installed in Workington,\" Cosslett said, describing it as the council's first priority. \"We haven't yet confirmed what we're going to do or when that's going to happen, but in all likelihood we're looking at a single-lane temporary bridge with traffic lights on either side.\" Cosslett had no estimate on when the bridge could be complete, but he said such a project may take more than a month. The worst weather Tuesday was in Cumbria, where the Met Office, the UK's weather service, predicted heavy and persistent rain and accumulations of 1.2 to 2.4 inches (30 to 60 millimeters). Rain and strong gusts were also forecast for Wales on Tuesday, the Met Office said. The rain was expected to move through the region by Wednesday, but more was set to return by Thursday, according to Met Office forecasts. Sixty-eight flood watches and warnings were in place across England and Wales on Wednesday, the Environment Agency said.","highlights":"Woman's body found in the River Usk near the village of Talybont, in mid Wales .\nTalybont 250 miles south of Cockermouth, England, which has also been badly hit by flooding .\n20 road bridges in the region were closed Tuesday, including seven that collapsed in floods .\n68 flood watches and warnings were in place across England and Wales Wednesday .","id":"6350c0e460ded2f2ad07e38014e841fa9a2e4eaa"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Prodding Israel and the Palestinian Authority to restart talks aimed at a permanent resolution of their decades-old conflict, President Obama dropped a demand for an Israeli settlement freeze, U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Benjamin Netanyahu, left, President Obama and Mahmoud Abbas. \"Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations. It is time to move forward,\" Obama told reporters before a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. \"It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and sense of compromise that is necessary to achieve our goals,\" Obama said. Obama first met separately with Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in what he called \"frank and productive\" talks. The session was the first among the three leaders since Obama took office in January. George Mitchell, Obama's envoy for the Middle East, attended Tuesday's talks. He said the talks were \"at all times cordial,\" but \"direct\" and sometimes \"blunt.\" Obama told Abbas and Netanyahu that, \"The only reason to hold public office is to get things done,\" and that everyone \"must take risks for peace,\" Mitchell said. Mitchell told reporters the U.S. is \"not identifying any issue as being a precondition or an impediment to negotiation.\" But the United States and Israel have publicly disagreed on Israeli plans to build more housing on land the Palestinians regard as theirs. Previous Obama administration demands for a freeze have been ignored by the Netanyahu government. Watch Netanyahu address peace, settlements \u00bb . Abbas has so far rejected resuming talks with Israel until the Jewish state halts all settlement building in the occupied West Bank and in predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem. Arab states also have balked at the U.S. request to take confidence-building measures toward Israel until Israel freezes settlement construction. Sitting with Netanyahu and Abbas, Obama softened his regular language on a settlement \"freeze,\" saying that Israel has had meaningful discussions about \"restraining\" settlement activity. \"But they need to translate these discussions into real action on this and other issues,\" he said. \"Obama told Abbas that he couldn't get the settlement freeze and promised to keep trying, but that it shouldn't be a condition for talks and it was time to move on,\" one Palestinian aide to Abbas said. Several U.S. officials said that Obama told Abbas that although the U.S. believe a settlement freeze would create a better atmosphere for talks to begin, the lack of one should not be used an as excuse not to talk. \"Let's not have the perfect be the enemy of the good,\" Obama told Abbas, according to the officials. Watch Obama: 'We have to find a way forward' \u00bb . \"It's been apparent for some time that the Israelis were going to fall short of what is necessary on the settlement freeze,\" one senior U.S. official said. \"But our view is let's get to negotiations and settlements will be addressed within those final status issues\" A senior Israeli diplomat said Israel agreed to not building any new settlements, no outward expansion of existing growth and to only build for \"natural\" growth within existing settlements. He said Israel also agreed not to encourage Israelis to move to settlements, which would increase the population. \"A complete settlement freeze wasn't physically or politically possible, especially in the absence of any Arab or Palestinian concessions,\" the Israeli diplomat said. \"There was a time the gaps had significantly narrowed, but now they were starting to widen. The administration recognized, rather than have them widen further, we should start negotiating.\" The Palestinian aide to Abbas said Obama's failure to secure a settlement freeze has weakened him in the eyes of the Palestinian delegation, because it casts doubt on his ability to move Israel during final status negotiations. The Palestinians did win an important point, however, with Obama making clear that the peace talks would not start from scratch, which Netanyahu had favored. Rather the talks would take into account progress made in previous negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, the sources said. The Israeli diplomat said that Israel would \"take into account\" the previous negotiations, but stressed his country's longstanding position that \"nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.\" Obama also addressed Abbas' desire to have the terms for negotiations more clearly defined, asking Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to come to Washington next week for further talks. Next week's talks, to be led by George Mitchell, will center on what issues will be addressed at negotiations, which will present the U.S. with its next big challenge. Palestinians want negotiations to resolve the \"final status\" issues of the conflict, such as borders, Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Israel wants to begin with talks on a \"provisional\" Palestinian state.","highlights":"NEW: Israel agrees to some limits on West Bank settlement growth .\n\"It is past time to talk about starting negotiations,\" President Obama says .\nObama meets separately, then jointly, with Netanyahu and Abbas .\nMeetings come as hopes for renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks have dimmed .","id":"b015f04e346a7feacdf8844c75c2eeaef531eae4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Who would open one of the world's biggest casinos in the depths of a global recession? Big city dreams: Lawrence Ho's business portfolio in Hong Kong and Macau is growing. Answer: Lawrence Ho, the scion of a casino business mogul who has clearly inherited his father's love of a calculated risk. Ho's father Stanley is a man synonymous with the creation of Macau as the world's biggest gambling destination. \"Over the past 40 years he has put his thumbprints all over Macau. I think if you look at the major infrastructure projects, whether it's the airport, the ferry terminals, he was involved in building up a lot of those,\" Lawrence Ho told CNN. But in opening City of Dreams in Macau earlier this year, Ho is trying to carve his own niche and continue to build up his own business empire. \"I think gone are the days when you can open a property and 'Bang!' you would steal significant market share from others,\" he told CNN. \"Before we opened we were, like the rest of the world, a little bit wary of the timing, but I think in hindsight the world economies are doing a lot better and Macau has seen its first year-on-year increase in July and August was a booming month. So I think all in all we couldn't be happier.\" Ho's company, Melco-Crown Entertainment, is independent from his father's huge portfolio of businesses and the multibillion dollar City of Dreams project is a partnership with Australian James Packer, himself the son of a media tycoon. Ho is respectful of his ailing father's achievements and the advantages that the family name has given him, but also the desire it fostered to forge his own success. \"The bigger the shadow the more we can feel the underdog syndrome. ... being his son opened many doors, but at the same time I grew up in a very big family with our own issues, but all in all certainly being his son has helped a great deal,\" he said. There are no worries about interference from the mainland -- \"I suspect that China definitely wants [Macau and Hong Kong] to do well\" -- and Ho remains positive that Asia will see the quickest recovery from the downturn. \"A lot of the Asian countries and economies have handled the [economic] crisis this time a lot better than the Asian financial crisis 10 years ago,\" he said. \"So I think, all in all, Asia has managed to come out of this much quicker than the rest of the world. And really when people are feeling better they travel and they spend more, and you know we are in the business of providing leisure and entertainment.\"","highlights":"Son of Stanley Ho, business tycoon who built up former-Portuguese colony of Macau .\nLawrence Ho recently open multi-billion dollar City of Dreams complex in Macau .\nBelieves he can carve a slice of action from the Asian gambling city .","id":"a7ef473e655e4cd860150ba26716be419307619a"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- The teen who mysteriously turned up in New York with apparent amnesia emptied her bank account and left behind \"everything\" before she left her home in Washington, police told CNN. The woman, now identified as Kacie Aleece Peterson, 18, of Hansville, Washington, withdrew about $400 from her Bank of America account, said Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office in Washington. But Peterson \"left everything,\" including her wallet, identification, cell phone, clothes and even her bike, which was secured outside a Wal-Mart, Wilson said. Police still do not know how Peterson traveled cross-country to New York City. The woman mysteriously turned up in Manhattan two weeks ago, claiming to have no memory of her family, her home -- or even her own name. There's no indication that she's feigning her memory loss, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department. At the same time, because Peterson is an adult, authorities have not ruled out the theory that she left home to re-establish herself elsewhere, Wilson said. The teen's father, Henry Peterson of Colville, Washington, told Kitsap County authorities his daughter had occasional memory lapses, Wilson said. In May, Kacie Peterson was found lying on the ground next to a creek at the family farm, Wilson said. She had blacked out and did not remember who she was, he said. Kacie Peterson was briefly hospitalized after the incident, he said. Her father also told investigators that in another incident his daughter was found unconscious on her bedroom floor, Wilson said. Henry Peterson reported his daughter missing on October 2, Wilson said, after the family friend she lived with told him that the last time she saw Kacie Peterson was September 30. Kacie Peterson moved in June from eastern Washington with her father to western Washington to live with a friend of her mother, who died when she was 7, Wilson said. Henry Peterson told police he agreed to the transition, Wilson said. The teen's father described their relationship as \"difficult\" and \"that he had put too much pressure on his daughter to do well and get good grades,\" Wilson said. Kacie Peterson, a high school senior, started anew at Kingston High School in Kingston, Washington, but only attended for three weeks, said Chris Case, director of community relations for North Kitsap school district. Enrolled in the Running Start program there, Kacie Peterson had two advanced placement classes at the school and also classes at Olympic College in Poulsbo, about 10 miles away, Case said. Kingston high school officials said Kacie Peterson was quiet, shy and that \"she had no friends,\" Wilson said. The last time she showed up for class was on September 29, Case said. The next time some employees of the school saw the student she was sporting a new look. \"The school here is telling me she had long hair past her shoulders,\" Case said. In the photo New York police showed of the teen during their investigation to identify her, Kacie Peterson had hair that looked only about a couple of inches long on top and tapered low on the sides. Police asked for help identifying the teen after she was found in midtown Manhattan around 12:30 a.m. on October 9 outside the Covenant House youth shelter. The organization had said she was not a resident at the time and did not appear as if she intended to seek refuge at the facility. A security guard for the shelter noticed her walking around on the sidewalk near Covenant House and approached her. Finding her unresponsive, he called police. Officers interviewed her, but it became clear that she couldn't provide authorities with any information about herself. A photo of the then-unidentified woman aired on CNN, and a viewer in Maryland who was familiar with Kacie Peterson alerted authorities. Police established a positive identification. Police say they do not know how she lost her memory. She is still in New York and receiving care from the city agency, Browne said. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Khadijah Rentas, Erica Hill and Melanie Whitley contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Jane Doe\" identified as Kacie Aleece Peterson, 18, of Hansville, Washington .\nPolice tell CNN she got $400 from bank, but left wallet, ID, cell phone, clothes .\nPolice still do not know how Peterson traveled cross-country to New York City .\nHer father says Kacie has suffered from memory problems before .","id":"254f55b22d8b87e1cb14da99d818d56dde0a81a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arsenal and Hull City were charged with failing to control their players by the English Football Association (FA) on Wednesday after their fiery Premier League match on December 19. The match at the Emirates Stadium, won 3-0 by title-chasing Arsenal, became heated just before halftime when Arsenal's Samir Nasri clashed with Hull's Richard Garcia. Stephen Hunt then had a confrontation with Nasri and a mass brawl ensued, with home goalkeeper Manuel Almunia running the length of the field to get involved. Referee Steve Bennett had to battle to get things under control and then showed yellow cards to both Hunt and Nasri. The clubs have until January 13 to launch any appeal. In other Premier League news on Wednesday, Liverpool could give Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani his full debut for the crucial Boxing Day clash with Wolves. Aquilani, a big summer signing from AS Roma, has yet to start a league game for Liverpool, having battled to recovery from an ankle injury. Manager Rafael Benitez has been criticized for his reluctance to play Aquilani, but with the player recovering from a calf injury which kept him out of last weekend's match all the indicators are that he will take his place at Anfield. Premier League champions Manchester United have been clearance to play Senegal striker Mame Biram Diouf after he was granted a work permit. United signed Diouf from Molde in July before loaning him back to the Norwegian club. He scored 16 goals in 29 games in Norway and with Senegal failing to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, United have pressed to get him the proper clearances.","highlights":"Arsenal and Hull City face FA charge of failing to control their players in December 19 match .\nMass brawl marred clash at the Emirates which Arsenal won 3-0 .\nManchester United get work permit clearance for Senegal striker Mame Biram Diouf .","id":"61417af00631b43447625d3bffc7c6702eaa7d42"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In trendy neighborhoods of Tokyo customers are lining up for vitamin injections that promise to improve health and beauty. These intravenous vitamin \"drips\" are part of the latest quick-fix, health fad catching on in Japan: the IV cafe. Each drip pack contains saline solution and specific vitamins and minerals to target a particular health ailment or beauty concern. \"I used to take vitamin supplements, but changed to the IV drip because I feel the effects more quickly,\" a 20-something woman at the Tenteki 10 Caf\u00e9 told CNN. She said she receives specific injections to get better skin, burn fat and boost her energy. There are 10 different varieties to choose from at Tenteki. The \"orange\" variety touts anti-aging properties, loaded with antioxidants. The \"placenta pack\" is said to help rejuvenate and ease muscle stiffness. Prices range from $20 to $30 per injection, and nurses see about 30 to 40 people each day. Their most common patients are Japanese businessmen who work in the same office building. \"I see a lot of businessmen who say they don't have time to sleep. They can't take a break from working and get the vitamin drip for an extra kick of energy,\" a Tenteki nurse told CNN. \"Blue\" is the most requested vitamin pack among these men: a concoction of B1 and vitamin E that claims to offer relief from exhaustion. Registered nurses and doctors administer the drips at Tenteki, but there's no conclusive medical evidence to back up the health claims. Many nutritionists actually caution against using injectable vitamin supplements because the quantities are not regulated. \"More is not necessarily better...some vitamins and minerals can be toxic in high doses,\" particularly the fat-soluble ones which the body stores like Vitamins A, D, E and K, explained Claire Williamson, Nutrition Scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. In Europe and the United States vitamin shots are popular among celebrities with hectic lifestyles and little time to sleep, particularly vitamin B 12. Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and singer Robbie Williams have both confirmed they've used the shots as part of their diets to maintain stamina during tours. Dermatological injections of Vitamin C are also popular among women hoping to keep their skin looking young. Former supermodel Cindy Crawford has admitted using such injections to keep her skin firm and wrinkle-free. According to Williamson, it does not matter if supplements are injected into the vein or into the skin. \"At the end of the day it will go into the blood stream,\" she said. Most of these nutrients we can get sufficient from foods, nutrients tend to be better absorbed by the body if they are consumed in foods.\"","highlights":"Intravenous vitamin boosts are the latest health fad in Japan .\nVitamin injections target specific health aliments and beauty concerns .\nNutritionists warn of vitamin overdose from high quantities of supplements .\nVitamin injections are popular among celebrities and businessmen for fatigue .","id":"9614d59a6d00d2ab2cf9af9ad24cc0754a7f1a9d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was the U.S. government's version of the ticker in New York's Times Square, blasting Havana's main seaside strip with anti-Cuba slogans in 5-foot high crimson letters. It symbolized the tit-for-tat diplomatic row between Washington and Havana. Cuban flags flutter in front of the U.S. interests section building in Havana in 2007. But the ticker at the top of the U.S. interests section in Cuba has gone blank, yet another signal the past half-century of animosity between the two countries is easing. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the ticker was turned off in June because it was not considered \"effective\" as a means of delivering information to the Cuban people. The scrolling electronic sign, fitted across 25 windows of the U.S. interests section, ran quotes from American heroes, such as Martin Luther King's \"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up,\" and Abraham Lincoln's \"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.\" It also streamed news and political messages that blamed Cuba's everyday problems on the communist regime led by Fidel Castro and the island's socialist economy. The island's transportation woes, for example, were the topics of jabs such as, \"Some go around in Mercedes, some in (Russian-built) Ladas, but the system forces almost everyone to hitch rides.\" The sign -- erected in 2006 by the Bush administration and billed as a way to circumvent censorship and, the administration said, offer hope and freedom to Cubans oppressed by a brutal regime -- fueled a propaganda war with Fidel Castro, who referred to the U.S. interests section as \"the headquarters of the counterrevolution.\" Calling the ticker an assault on Cuba's sovereignty by an imperialist bully, an infuriated Fidel Castro marched 1 million Cubans past the interests section in protest, dug up the U.S. mission's parking lot and blocked the ticker by erecting anti-U.S. billboards and 138 huge black flags to commemorate victims of so-called U.S. aggression. He promised there would be no contact between U.S.-based diplomats in Havana and Cuba's foreign ministry until the sign came down. Fidel's brother Raul Castro, who now rules Cuba, took down the anti-U.S. billboards this year as ties between the two countries improved. In April, President Obama lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans traveling to the island and sending remittances to relatives there. And this month, U.S. and Cuban diplomats held their first talks since 2003 on Cuban migration to the United States. The State Department's Kelly acknowledged most Cubans couldn't read the ticker because of the counter-propaganda erected by the Cubans. The \"dueling billboards,\" Kelly said, were not promoting a productive U.S.-Cuba relationship. Kelly said measures also announced by Obama in April to allow U.S. cell-phone networks and other telecommunication technology to operate on the island would do more to allow a free flow of information to the Cuban people.","highlights":"Sign's deactivation comes as relations between U.S., Cuba improve .\nElectronic sign was put on U.S. interests section building in Havana in 2006 .\nSign ran quotes from U.S. heroes, blasted Cuban government's policies .\nCuba erected billboards to block the sign; billboards were taken down this year .","id":"e8a88c513261b58b198008d5838f4bdfb2415ce0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The city of New Haven, Connecticut, will promote 14 firefighters who were involved in a workplace discrimination case that worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The firefighters were among the New Haven 20 -- one Hispanic and 19 white firefighters -- who fought the city after it threw out the results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam that left too few minorities qualified for promotions. A U.S. District Court issued a judgment finding the city violated the civil rights of a group of the white firefighters when it threw out the exams in 2004, according to Jessica Mayorga, city spokeswoman. The Tuesday decision follows a court action by seven black New Haven firefighters seeking to delay the promotions. \"Yesterday, the court entered an order that provides the City of New Haven with the legal sanction necessary to move forward and promote the fourteen plaintiffs in the Ricci case entitled to promotions,\" the city said in a statement. \"As a result, we intend to do so as soon as practicable.\" The firefighters will be promoted to either lieutenant or captain. Mayorga said the other six involved in the lawsuit were not eligible for promotions that were available at the time the exams were given. She said the court's order only addresses 14 of the 20 plaintiffs. If the exams had been certified in 2004, the other six plaintiffs would not have been promoted. The case was the center of attention during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that backed the city in the case. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually overturned the appeals court ruling 5-4 earlier this year when the justices ruled that the city improperly threw out the results of the promotion exams. Key plaintiff Frank Ricci and others took promotion exams in 2003 for lieutenant and captain positions that had become available in Connecticut's second-largest city. New Haven's personnel department had contracted with a private firm to design the exams. When the results came back, however, city lawyers expressed concern about the results because none of the black firefighters and only one Latino who took the exam scored high enough to be promoted. The city said that under a federal civil rights law known as Title VII, employers must ban actions such as promotion tests that would have a \"disparate impact\" on a protected class, such as a specified race or gender. The group of firefighters, claiming they were wronged by the city's action, then sued, calling themselves the \"New Haven 20.\"","highlights":"Firefighters fought city after it threw out the results of a promotion exam .\nTest left too few minorities qualified for promotions, New Haven lawyers said .\n14 of 20 firefighters will get promoted .","id":"ea0b343f4a8c6d6336dcb5723b76649afbac9b87"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Floyd Mayweather Jr will have to pay Juan Manuel Marquez a reported $600,000 after weighing in two pounds too heavy ahead of Saturday night's welterweight showdown in Las Vegas. Floyd Mayweather Jr, left, faces off with Juan Manuel Marquez ahead of Saturday night's fight. Fight promoters Golden Boy confirmed after Friday's weigh-in that there had been a contractually agreed weight of 144 pounds for Mayweather's comeback bout, and that the American would pay a stipulated -- but undisclosed -- amount for every pound over that amount. As it was, Mayweather tipped the scales at 146 pounds and Mexican Marquez, whose usual weight is around 135 pounds, was weighed at 142 as he stepped up from lightweight for the fight. The maximum for a welterweight is 147 pounds. \"The fight was contracted as a welterweight fight with an agreed upon weight of 144 pounds. However, there were pre-negotiated weight penalties built in,\" Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com. The website also reported sources who stated that each extra pound would cost Mayweather $300,000, thus giving Marquez an additional $600,000 on top of his $3.2 million guarantee for the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The 32-year-old Mayweather, who returns to the boxing ring for the first time since December 2007 when he beat Ricky Hatton to retain his WBC world welterweight championship, has a reported minimum guarantee of $10 million before pay-per-view TV revenues are added. Mayweather is undefeated with a career record of 39-0, while the 36-year-old Marquez, who holds the WBA and WBO world lightweight belts, has 50 victories from 55 fights, 37 by knockout. Meanwhile, Nikolai Valuev will defend his WBA heavyweight title against British boxer David Haye in Germany on November 7. The fight, originally announced in July, had been in doubt as American John Ruiz lodged a legal challenge claiming that he was the giant Russian's mandatory challenger. However, the 36-year-old's promoters have clinched a deal with Ruiz, meaning the bout can go ahead as planned at Nuremberg's Arena Nurnberger Versicherung, where Valuev beat Sergei Liakhovich in February 2008. The 7' 1\" Valuev, the tallest and heaviest boxing champion of all time who has a record of 50 wins from 52 fights, will dwarf the 6' 3\" Haye, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion.","highlights":"Floyd Mayweather weighs in at 146 pounds, Juan Manuel Marquez at 142 .\nMayweather had agreed to pay the Mexican for every pound over agreed 144 .\nReports say that the American will have to stump up an extra $600,000 .\nMayweather has $10 million guarantee, Marquez has $3.2 million for fight .","id":"68067aad905c29ec9f85e483459a99327ccf9ef7"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced 11 people to death after convicting them of participating in post-election riots, state media reported Thursday. Two of the sentences have been carried out; the rest are under appeal, the Iranian Students News Agency said, quoting a court official. These are the first executions known to be related to the post-election violence that erupted across Iran in June and has continued since, Amnesty International said in a statement condemning the hangings. But a lawyer for one of the men executed on Thursday disputed a key part of the official report. \"Both of these men were arrested two months before the elections and they were in prison until their sentences were carried out. So how can someone who's in prison take part in protests?\" asked Nasrin Sotoudeh, a Tehran-based human rights lawyer who represented Arash Rahmanipour, one of two men hanged Thursday. Full coverage of the protests in Iran . His father had been scheduled to visit Rahmanipour on the day of the execution, and learned only from a TV report that his son was dead, Sotoudeh said, describing the family as \"extremely upset and shocked.\" \"Arash called his home two nights ago (Tuesday night) -- two nights before the sentence was carried out, and at that point Arash had no idea that his sentence was about to be carried out,\" she said. She said the hanging violated Iranian law. \"The entire process, the investigation, the trial, the handing down of the sentence and the carrying out of the sentence, were done illegally and in secret,\" she told CNN by phone. \"Arash's family and I did not have his case file. A sentence must first be announced to the defendant and his lawyer and only then can it be carried out, but this sentence was never announced to Arash or myself.\" She said he had been forced to confess. \"He told me his pregnant sister had been arrested, too,\" she said. \"In two sessions where he was interrogated, they placed his sister in front of him and told him if he wanted to see her free he had to admit to things he didn't do.\" Rahmanipour's sister was later released from prison but lost the baby due to stress, Sotoudeh said. Rahmanipour, 20, was charged with being a mohareb, or enemy of God, and being a member of Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran (API), a banned anti-regime monarchist group, his lawyer said. Amnesty International condemned the execution of Rahmanipour and the other man executed Thursday, Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani. \"These men were first unfairly convicted and now they have been unjustly killed. It is not even clear they had links to this group, as their 'confessions' appear to have been made under duress,\" said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa deputy director. The court said the defendants were convicted of \"waging war against God, trying to overthrow the Islamic government\" and membership in armed and anti-revolutionary groups. Anti-government demonstrations began after the disputed June 12 presidential vote, which re-elected hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over main opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. Late December marked the deadliest clashes in Iran since initial protests broke out in the summer. At least seven people were killed and hundreds were arrested, witnesses said, as they took to the streets on Ashura, which occurred on December 27. The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone and has blamed reformists for the violence.","highlights":"Eleven rioters sentenced to death for post-election riots, according to Iranian press .\nTwo of the sentences have been carried out; the rest are under appeal, ISNA said .\nAnti-government demonstrations began after the disputed June 12 presidential vote .\nWitnesses said hundreds of protesters were arrested on the Ashura holy day on December 27 .","id":"ba567f56824711d985c0bca2ea86a45989f50654"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four U.S. soldiers have been charged with cruelty and maltreatment of four subordinates in Iraq after a suicide investigation brought to light alleged wrongdoing, the military said Friday. There is no confirmed evidence that the suicide, which involved a fifth subordinate in the unit, was a result of any mistreatment, said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a spokesman for Multi-National Division-South, who said the military is looking into that possibility. Charges were brought Wednesday against three sergeants and a specialist with the 13th Cavalry Regiment out of Fort Bliss, Texas, accusing them of engaging in \"verbal abuse, physical punishment and ridicule of subordinates,\" according to Olson. He described the physical punishment as falling into the category of \"undue calisthenics.\" \"Accusations of cruelty and maltreatment are taken very seriously, and we will investigate this isolated incident thoroughly,\" said Brig. Gen. David Elicerio, deputy commanding general for Multi-National Division-South. Olson said the Army does not believe the maltreatment of subordinates went beyond the soldiers' unit. The four were identified as: . All four soldiers have been removed from their unit. Olson said Army officials have spoken to the four subordinate soldiers and are offering them any help they need. The suicide investigation began on August 4, Olson said. On that day, a Defense Department news release said that Pvt. Keiffer P. Wilhelm, 19, of Plymouth, Ohio, died in Iraq of injuries sustained from a noncombat-related incident. He was assigned to a unit from the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, the release said.","highlights":"Suicide probe uncovers alleged wrongdoing in Iraq, U.S. military says .\nFour soldiers charged with cruelty and maltreatment of four subordinates .\nSpokesman says there's no confirmed evidence alleged actions led to suicide .\nAllegations include verbal abuse, physical punishment .","id":"128c8f2da44f02d6402820c8dbbb0a0b30a81eef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least nine people were killed in Somalia's war-torn capital Mogadishu when mortars slammed into a home for disabled veterans, according to journalists and witnesses. Al Shabaab fighters display two bodies of Somali police officers during a battle August 12 in Mogadishu. At least 27 people were wounded in the Friday night incident, when Muslim militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port and struck a residential area. The mortars hit a home for former national army officers who were disabled in a late-1970s war with Ethiopia, the sources said. Insurgents from the Al-Shabaab militant group have been fighting to topple Somalia's government. Its fighters have frequently shelled the city's airport and seaport, which are controlled by the African Union and government forces. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al Shabaab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power later that year.","highlights":"Sources: Militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port, struck residential area .\nMortars hit home for disabled national army officers .\nAt least 9 dead, 27 wounded in attack in war-torn capital .","id":"d9ea64de844086c1430636ce80cd2849e3fb25e7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On February 12, 2009, Christopher Savoie received an e-mail from his ex-wife that he had feared would come. Christopher Savoie is in jail in Japan after trying to get back his son, Isaac, and daughter, Rebecca. About a month after their bitter divorce, in which Noriko Savoie promised as part of the agreement she wouldn't return to Japan with their children to live, she threatened to do just that. \"It's very difficult to watch kids becoming American and losing Japanese identity,'' Noriko Savoie wrote her ex-husband in the e-mail, according to Tennessee court documents. \"I am at the edge of the cliff. I cannot hold it anymore if you keep bothering me.'' Now she is in Japan with the children. Christopher Savoie sits in a Japanese jail accused of trying to kidnap them. He practically predicted it would end this way. The couple, citizens of the United States and Japan, were married for 14 years and lived in Japan. But they came to the United States with 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca. They divorced in January 2009 after Christopher Savoie was unfaithful. Noriko Savoie was given custody of the children and agreed to remain in the United States. During the divorce, Christopher Savoie was concerned that his ex-wife would move to Japan with the children. After receiving the threatening e-mail, he went to court to try to prevent that. He pleaded with a judge in March to stop Noriko Savoie from being able to travel to Japan for summer vacation. He knew if she took the children to Japan to live the deck would be stacked against him. Japanese law would recognize Noriko Savoie as the primary custodian and he might never see his children again. Noriko Savoie told a judge the words in her e-mail were in the heat of the moment; she was angry that her ex-husband had just married the woman who caused their marriage to end. \"I was very, very -- at the peak of my frustration ...\" Noriko Savoie told a judge, according to court transcripts. \"He actually married three days before that e-mail. He remarried the person -- a woman whom he was having affair [with], so I was very depressed and -- but also angry.\" Noriko Savoie was asked repeatedly in court if she would try to take the children and flee to Japan. Her answer was always no. \"I have never thought about taking children away from their father, never,\" she told the judge. Christopher Savoie didn't believe her. Their divorce had been rocky, both of them said. The court documents reveal bitter fights and mediations during the divorce. The two accused each other of sending harassing e-mails. They also fought over sending the kids to baseball, Scouts and other activities. Noriko Savoie accused him of not giving her enough money to take English language lessons or go to school so she could get a job. He accused her of not trying hard enough to enroll or find a place to live. Dad paid ex-wife $800K in divorce \u00bb . Despite those issues, Christopher Savoie said his only concern was making sure he wouldn't be separated from his children. He knew trying to get the kids back would be \"a futile effort\" if Noriko Savoie did flee with the children, according to court documents. He laid out in court a scenario similar to what he is facing. \"If she were to go to Japan with the children and with primary custodial rights, there's pretty much no doubt that I would have a very difficult time enforcing my rights to visitation should Noriko decide not to let the children see me,\" he said. He said he'd have a hard time paying expensive legal fees because most of his money was tied up in his house, car and 401(k) after he gave Noriko Savoie more than $700,000 as part of the divorce settlement. With that money, he feared she'd be able to move and hide the children from him. When appointed parental coordinators asked her if she planned to take the children to Japan, she hesitated and simply answered \"I think the kids will be happy if I'm happy.\" The judge asked Noriko Savoie rhetorically whether she would be willing to put up money, essentially a bond, to ensure she'd return from Japan. She agreed, but was never asked to do so. Judge James G. Martin III warned Noriko Savoie she would lose her alimony, education funds and other money if she fled with the children, before ruling that he believed she wouldn't abscond with them and allowed her to travel to Japan. Noriko Savoie followed the court's rules and took the children on vacation and returned during the required time to the United States. But days later, she took the children back to Japan. The court in the United States granted Christopher Savoie full custody after Noriko Savoie fled the country. But that court order means nothing in Japan, where courts generally favor mothers in custody disputes. The couple is also still considered married in Japan, because they never divorced there, Japanese police said Wednesday. And, police said, the children are Japanese and have Japanese passports. A 1980 Hague Convention standardized laws on international child abduction, but Japan is not a party to that agreement. Christopher Savoie knew all this when he decided this week to go to Japan to get his children back. He took the children as Noriko Savoie walked them to school Monday in Yanagawa, a rural town in southern Japan. He headed for the nearest U.S. consulate, in the city of Fukuoka on the Southern island of Kyushu, to try to obtain passports for the children, screaming at the guards to let him in the compound. He was steps away from the front gate but still standing on Japanese soil when he was arrested. Christopher Savoie, who will be in jail for the next 10 days while Japanese officials sort out the situation, told CNN's Kyung Lah that he was scared and just wanted to see his children. \"I love you, Isaac, Rebecca,\" he said. \"Your daddy loves you forever. I'll be patient and strong until the day comes that I can see you both again. I am very sorry that I can't be with you.\" Though he had warned everyone this was going to happen, this time he could speak in certainties. He said that though he knows it might be a tough battle, it's one he will continue to vocalize. \"I want Americans to know what's happening to me,\" Christopher Savoie said in Japanese. \"I didn't do anything wrong.\"","highlights":"After bitter divorce, Noriko Savoie threatened in e-mail to take kids back to Japan .\nDad pleaded with judge not to allow ex-wife to go to Japan, fearing she might stay .\nNoriko Savoie said repeatedly in court she wouldn't take kids away from dad .\nChristopher Savoie now in jail in Japan after trying to get kids back from mother .","id":"8a19d432a2f601b9554a14900bf14ade6c813337"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson hailed his side's rollercoaster 4-3 victory over neighbors Manchester City at Old Trafford as the \"best derby of all time.\" Ferguson and substitute Gary Neville celebrate Owen's late winner. Ferguson made the claim while ruing his side's sloppy defensive play which allowed City to claim three equalizing goals before Michael Owen's clinical winner deep into injury time on Sunday. \"It could have been an embarrassment, 6-0 or 7-0, if we defended our proper way,\" claimed the legendary Scot. \"We could have won by a big score but by making mistakes, which was the essence of the game, we probably were in the best derby game of all time. \"What do you choose? Win the best derby game of all time or win 6-0? I'd probably pick 6-0.\" Was this the greatest derby ever? The build-up to the match had been marked by a war of words between Ferguson and City manager Mark Hughes, who has been handed a massive transfer budget by his side's Abu Dhabi owners. Ferguson had branded them \"cocky\" and did little to dampen down the rivalry with his post match comments. Blog:Should referees also keep time? \"Sometimes you have a noisy neighbor. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy,\" he said. \"You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder. \"Today the players showed their form. That is the best answer of all.\" By contrast, City manager Mark Hughes was furious with referee Martin Atkinson for the amount of added time played, with Owen scoring in the 96th minute. \"We need an explanation because I don't know why the referee has added that amount of time on,\" said Hughes. \"We just feel a little bit aggrieved that they were given that time.\" It was a heartbreaking finale for his team with Bellamy's magnificent second goal after a mistake by Rio Ferdinand appearing to give his up and coming side a share of the spoils. \"We're disappointed, we put in a hell of a shift today,\" said Hughes. \"Craig Bellamy scored two magnificent goals. He didn't deserve to be on the losing side,\" added Hughes. Ferguson, who has used free transfer signing Owen sparingly this season, said the England striker showed his true quality. \"His positional play, first touch and finish were absolutely superb. World class.\" The victory took United to second place in the English Premier League behind pacesetting Chelsea with City suffering their first defeat of the season.","highlights":"Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson hails 'best derby of all time'\nUnited beat rivals Manchester City 4-2 with Michael Owen injury time winner .\nCity manager Mark Hughes furious about amount of extra time added .","id":"d6bbfb65d279035b20e36aefc209ff6ee9dbf52e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I think it's fair to say that most of us have been absolutely horrified by the plight of tens of thousands of Haitians this month. A massive earthquake is always devastating, but for such carnage and misery to be wrought upon a people who already had nothing seems especially cruel. It was 0100 GMT when I went on air, the aftershocks were both frequent and significant, and from the Tweets I read there was a sense of utter panic and fear on the streets. The pictures have been absolutely heartbreaking, and the stories our crews have reported from all over the country have been terribly moving. I wanted to do something to help. For some reason I was especially moved when Anderson Cooper dragged that bleeding boy out of the street - a young boy who was stunned and panicked and terribly vulnerable - and I realized that I had something I could contribute. Click here to place a bid on the Open flag . (Item number: 250569560734) Years ago, when I was the Living Golf anchor, I was looking to collect something unusual for a charity auction. As it happens, the auction was cancelled and since then I had largely forgotten that I had something of value and unique at the back of my wardrobe. The British Open, one of golf's most illustrious competitions, is never more special than when held at St Andrews, the so-called \"home of golf.\" Every professional wants to be \"Open Champion\" and of the last seven tournaments to be played up there, many of the champions have been legends of the sport. Jack Nicklaus won it twice, as did Tiger Woods. Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo complete the roll-call of champions who have already made it into the pantheon of greats. It struck me that to get all four to autograph a replica flag from the 2005 Open would be pretty special. Seve (1984 winner) obliged me in Tenerife later that year, with a signature as flamboyant as many of his shots. Tiger (2000 and 2005 winner) added his name when we met in Dubai the next year. Faldo (1990 winner) and I live in the same town but our paths never seemed to cross when they needed to and so I posted the flag to his management company and from somewhere on his global travels he obliged. My colleague Justin Armsden interviewed Nicklaus (1970 and 1978 winner) at The Old Course and, though Jack hadn't bargained on signing any autographs that day, Justin's producer Andrea Mortensen bagged the all important tag. So, just to recap, some of the greatest names in golf have signed this unique memento. Also up for auction are the Xeroxed scorecards of all four players when they last all played the St Andrews Open in 2000. They are perfectly reproduced. You'll see Tiger's winning round, counter-signed by another Open Champion David Duval and another card is counter-signed by a man who wasn't yet a major winner, Angel Cabrera. You'll note the meticulous nature of Faldo's game, every hole is neatly ticked off and appropriately, there's even a squiggle and a correction on the card of American John Daly, the only Open champion at St Andrews since 1970 that I was unable to persuade to sign the flag. But maybe his autograph absence and messy scorecard are in keeping with the erratic character we have come to know and love! This year just so happens to be the 150th anniversary of The Open at St Andrews and so it's appropriate to auction the flag and the cards in 2010. But Haiti is the true motivation for the sale. It is right because they desperately need help. All proceeds of the sale will go to a charity called Plan International, who have been working in Haiti for over thirty years. The donation will support their emergency relief and recovery work there with children and their communities; helping the most vulnerable and the very people who are the country's future. I hope you will bid on the flag, and if not please help spread the word of the sale so that we can get a really good price for it. It deserves a good home, and the auction will help ensure a brighter future for many children in their darkest hour.","highlights":"CNN's Don Riddell persuaded the greats of golf to sign a replica flag from the St. Andrews British Open of 2005 .\nThe flag, signed by Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo, is to be auctioned on eBay .\nRegister your bid to help raise money for those in need in earthquake-hit Haiti .","id":"76b0b0810f038fffcf5bb0b2faed833d08004ae5"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- Four years ago, when Oprah managed to get down to a trim and fit 160 pounds, she thought she'd hit on a foolproof formula for permanent weight loss. Then life --in the form of a thyroid problem and a killer schedule-- intervened. Last year she was back up to the 200-pound mark and knew something had to change. After a desperately needed time-out to reflect and recharge, here's what she's learned, what she's doing differently, and what's next. Oprah Winfrey attends a gala on December 3, 2008 in New York City. You know how bad you feel when you have a special event, a reunion, a wedding, a bar mitzvah, and you wanted to lose that extra 10 to 40 pounds, and you didn't do it? So the day comes and now you've got to try to find something to wear that makes you feel halfway decent, and you have to figure out how to hold in your stomach all night and walk backward out of the room so no one sees that your butt keeps moving even when you stop. Multiply that feeling by a million -- make that more than 2.4 million for every O reader -- and you'll know how I've felt over the past year every time I had to shoot a cover for O. If you're a regular subscriber, you'll notice you've not seen a head-to-toe shot all year. Why? Because I didn't want to be seen. \" In 1992 I reached my heaviest, 237 pounds. I was 38. Then, four years ago, I made it a goal to lose weight, and I appeared on the January 2005 cover at a toned 160 pounds. I thought I was finished with the weight battle. I was done. I'd conquered it. I was so sure, I was even cocky. I had the nerve to say to friends who were struggling, \"All you have to do is work out harder and eat less! Get your 10,000 steps in! None of that starchy stuff!\" Bam! Karma is a bear of a thing. So here I stand, 40 pounds heavier than I was in 2006. (Yes, you're adding correctly; that means the dreaded 2-0-0.) I'm mad at myself. I'm embarrassed. I can't believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I'm still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, \"How did I let this happen again?\" Oprah.com: How to prevent weight gain relapse . It happened slowly. In February 2007, at 53, I started to have some health issues. At first I was unable to sleep for days. My legs started swelling. My weight started creeping up, first 5 pounds, then 10 pounds. I was lethargic and irritable. My internal clock seemed totally out of whack. I began having rushing heart palpitations every time I worked out. Okay, I've never loved daily exercise, but this was different. I actually developed a fear of working out. I was scared that I would pass out. Or worse. I felt as if I didn't know my own body anymore. After many trips to various doctors, I received a diagnosis. I had hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid that can speed up metabolism and cause weight loss -- but of course didn't make me lose a single pound) and then gradually started moving into hypothyroidism (a sluggish metabolism that can cause fatigue and weight gain). My doctor prescribed medication and warned me that I must \"learn to embrace hunger\" or I would immediately gain weight. Believe me, no part of me was prepared to embrace hunger. It seemed as if the struggle I'd had with weight my entire adult life was now officially over. I felt completely defeated. I thought, \"I give up. I give up. Fat wins.\" All these years I'd had only myself to blame for lack of willpower. Now I had an official, documented excuse. The thyroid diagnosis felt like some kind of prison sentence. I was so frustrated that I started eating whatever I wanted -- and that's never good. My drug of choice is food. I use food for the same reasons an addict uses drugs: to comfort, to soothe, to ease stress. I switched doctors and still gained weight. At one point I was on three medications: one for heart palpitations, another for high blood pressure, another to moderate my thyroid. Who knew this tiny butterfly gland at the base of the throat had so much power? When it's off, your whole body feels the effects. I followed my doctor's orders to the letter (except for the part about working out). I took the prescribed medication religiously at the same time each day. Oprah.com: The truth about your thyroid . Being medicated, though necessary, made me feel as if I were viewing life through a veil. I felt like an invalid. Everything was duller. I felt like the volume on life got turned down. I realized this to some extent, but I wasn't fully aware of the effect of the medication until I had a conversation with my friend Bob Greene. He'd given up lecturing me about working out and eating well, but we were walking together one day and he said, \"I think something's wrong. You're listless. Your movements are slower, even when you're just doing normal stuff. Twice I've told you something and you don't remember it. There's no sparkle in your eyes. I think you're in some sort of depression.\" Greene talks about Oprah's struggle \u00bb . Me -- depressed? I hadn't thought I was, but definitely something was off. I felt like the life force was being sucked out of me. I always had an excuse for being tired. It took extra effort to do everything. I didn't want to go anywhere, and I didn't want to be seen any more than I had to. I could oversee a show and a magazine that tell people how to live their best lives, but I definitely wasn't setting an example. I was talking the talk, but I wasn't walking the walk. And that was very disappointing to me. Immediately after that conversation with Bob, I called my doctor. \"All this medicine is making my life feel like a flat line,\" I said. So my doctor slowly weaned me off it, except for one aspirin a day. (By the way, never suddenly stop taking prescribed medication, especially heart and blood pressure medication, without checking with your physician.) That choice was the beginning of my road back to health -- and back to myself. Oprah.com: Oprah's Best Life Week begins January 5 . By Oprah Winfrey from \"O, The Oprah Magazine\", January 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Oprah Winfrey has launched series to help you live your best life .\nA thyroid problem lead to a weight gain and other health problems, she writes .\nShe says her stress and frustration led to more eating .\nAfter a friend pointed out her depression, she took positive steps .","id":"8b07ba94f7245f53cdd02f47991bfce42558dcb9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There's something lurking in the depths of Loch Ness, Scotland and it has nothing to do with monsters. Footage from the Loch Ness submarine search showing two golf balls submerged in silt. On a recent expedition to try and find evidence of the Loch Ness monster, U.S. research teams came across something quite unexpected -- not a prehistoric creature of the deep but thousands of plastic covered golf balls. Mike O'Brien of SeaTrepid explains: \"At first we thought they were mushrooms, there were so many. But when we lowered the camera, we were surprised to see that they were in fact, golf balls.\" The smattering of balls were found roughly 300 yards from the beach and 100 yards from the shore where it is thought locals and visitors have been using the loch to practice their driving skills for quite some time. One witness, conservationist Adrian Shine, told CNN he had seen locals launching balls almost 300 feet into the waters. Watch a video of balls being found at the bottom of Loch Ness. \u00bb . However, Shine doesn't believe this to be an environmental threat: \"Certainly it's undesirable, but I don't think it will have a significant environmental impact on the loch.\" It seems missing and discarded golf balls may not be bad news for all concerned. David Roston has built a career out of wading through rivers and diving in lakes to collect and re-sell discarded golf balls. His online company www.lakeballs.co.uk have been retailing \"lake balls\" for almost 10 years, but even his powers of retrieval would be challenged by the monstrous task of recovering balls from the bottom of the loch. \"I've dived in various lakes and found 10 to 15 thousand golf balls at a time, it's incredible -- but we've never attempted to clear a loch!\" Bobbing along at a depth of 754 feet, it is unlikely these balls of Loch Ness will ever see the light of day again. To watch the remarkable footage shot by the SeaTrepid underwater robotics team, click on the link to see the \"Outland 1000\" in action.","highlights":"Thousands of golf balls have been found at the bottom of Loch Ness .\nGolf balls found 300 yards from beach and 100 yards from the shore .\nConservationists say the golf balls are not an environmental threat .","id":"4132f714ee49bc09f88cdaff9138a091164da116"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- American Lindsey Vonn suffered a pre-Olympic scare after taking a crashing fall in the World Cup giant slalom in Lienz on Monday. Vonn, who is a medal favorite in several disciplines for February's Winter Games in Vancouver, damaged her left arm after sliding out on the first run, losing her balance on a bump after a sharp left turn before thumping into a gate. She received lengthy medical treatment on the slope with initial fears that she had broken the arm. But scans at a local hospital showed only severe bruising and the 25-year-old may even compete in Tuesday's slalom at the same venue, U.S. team medical director Richard Quincy told reporters. Vonn's arm has been placed in a splint to speed recovery and she was said to have been in considerable pain. \"Hurting my arm is way better than hurting one of my legs,\" Vonn was quoted on her personal Web site www.lindseyvonn.com. Her crash overshadowed a fine victory for Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany, who led after the first run and posted a combined time of two minutes, 16.61 seconds with Manuela Moelgg of Italy just 0.05 seconds back in second. Taina Barioz of France occupied the final podium position. Vonn retains her lead in the overall standings with 581 points ahead of second-placed Maria Reisch, who appeared distracted by her friend's crash and also skied out first time down. The German is 50 points adrift as Vonn looks to defend her overall crown. Vonn suffered an unusual injury setback at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France earlier this year. Celebrating a medal success, she sliced her thumb open on a champagne bottle and competed for the rest of the season with heavy strapping. Vonn's appearance in Vancouver is being heavily plugged by sponsors and television rights holders, but she is still seeking her first Olympic medal after missing out in Salt Lake City and Turin. Austria's Kathrin Zettel, who led the GS standings going into the race but was overtaken by Hoelzl, was 0.95 seconds behind the German after skiing off-course in her first run and finished fifth. Hoelzl takes the lead in the giant slalom discipline standings, leapfrogging Kathrin Zettel of Austria, who finished fifth.","highlights":"World Cup overall leader Lindsey Vonn crashes out of giant slalom in Lienz .\nVonn severely bruises her left arm as MRI scan reveals no break .\nShe retains lead in the overall World Cup standings as nearest rival Maria Riesch also went out .","id":"9996eabb34d47a50d0067e009d77e725bb5207c3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman Loera, a 54-year-old drug cartel leader whose nickname means \"Shorty,\" is the most wanted man in Mexico. He's also one of the most wanted men in the United States. Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman Loera leads the Sinaloa cartel, which is battling for turf along the border. For five years, the State Department has kept a $5 million bounty on his head, calling Guzman a threat to U.S. security. Guzman, who leads the Sinaloa cartel, is a key player in the bloody turf battles being fought along the border. He recently upped the stakes, ordering his associates to use lethal force to protect their loads in contested drug trafficking corridors, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cartel's tentacles and those of its chief rival, the Gulf cartel, already reach across the border and into metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charlotte, North Carolina, Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Arabit told a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in March. \"No other country in the world has a greater impact on the drug situation in the United States than Mexico does,\" said Arabit, who heads the DEA's office in this year's border hot spot, El Paso, Texas. See where Mexican cartels are in the U.S. A December 2008 report by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center revealed that Mexican drug traffickers can be found in more than 230 U.S. cities. So far, the U.S. has largely been spared the violence seen in Mexico, where the cartels' running gunbattles with police, the military and each other claimed about 6,500 lives last year. It was a sharp spike from the 2,600 deaths attributed to cartel violence in 2007. Once again, drug war casualties are mounting on the Mexican side at a record pace in 2009 -- more than 1,000 during the first three months of the year, Arabit said. See who the key players are \u00bb . The violence that has spilled over into the U.S. has been restricted to the players in the drug trade -- trafficker-on-trafficker, DEA agents say. But law enforcement officials and analysts who spoke with CNN agree that it is only a matter of time before innocent people on the U.S. side get caught in the cartel crossfire. \"It's coming. I guarantee, it's coming,\" said Michael Sanders, a DEA spokesman in Washington. Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman's shoot-to-kill instructions aren't limited to Mexican authorities and cartel rivals; they also include U.S. law enforcement officials, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources and intelligence memos. The move is seen as dangerously brazen, the newspaper reported. In the past, the cartels have tried to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. law enforcement. U.S. officials are trying to stop the violence from crossing the border. The Obama administration committed to spending an additional $700 million to help Mexico fight the cartels and agreed to double the number of U.S. agents working the border. But $700 million pales in comparison with the wealth amassed by just one target. Guzman, who started in collections and rose to lead his own cartel, is said to be worth $1 billion after more than two decades in the drug trade. He made this year's Forbes list of the richest of the rich, landing between a Swiss tycoon and an heir to the Campbell's Soup fortune. Popular Mexican songs, called narcocorridos, embellish the myth of the poorly educated but charismatic cartel leader. \"Shorty is the Pablo Escobar of Mexico,\" said security consultant Scott Stewart, invoking the memory of the colorful Medellin cartel leader who also landed on the Forbes list and thumbed his nose at Colombian authorities until he died in a shower of police bullets in December 1993. Stewart, a former agent for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, gathers intelligence on the cartels for Stratfor, a Texas-based security consulting firm that helped document Guzman's worth. Just a decade ago, Mexican smugglers worked as mules for Colombians, moving their cocaine by land across the U.S. border when the heat was on in the Caribbean. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's campaign of arrests and extraditions made ghosts of the Medellin and Cali cartels. The mules stepped into the power vacuum and never looked back. Now they buy cocaine from the Colombians and take their own profits. Mexican cartels now bring in about 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, according to the DEA. Mexico also is the top foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine. Marijuana became the cartels' biggest revenue source for the first time in 2007, bringing in $8.5 billion. Cocaine came in second, at $3.9 billion, and methamphetamine earned $1 billion, a top U.S. drug policymaker told a group of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials last year. Watch how marijuana became the cartels' top cash crop \u00bb . The Mexican government recognizes seven cartels, but the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are the major players along the U.S. border, according to the DEA agents, local police officials and security analysts who spoke with CNN. The cartels' enforcers -- Los Negros for Sinaloa, Los Zetas for Gulf -- are believed to be responsible for most of the violence. The status and alliances of the players continue to shift. Although the DEA and some analysts disagree, others say the Zetas, a paramilitary group of turncoat soldiers and anti-narcotics police, are now running the Gulf cartel. \"From what we've seen, the Zetas have taken over the Gulf cartel,\" analyst Stewart said. \"In violent times, soldiers tend to rise to the top.\" These soldiers are incredibly well-armed, police learned after a November raid that resulted in the arrest of top Zeta lieutenant Jaime \"Hummer\" Gonzalez Duran. It was the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history -- 540 rifles, including AK-47s; 287 grenades; two rocket launchers; and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. At the very least, the Zeta enforcers now have a seat at the table. The DEA's Arabit testified that the Gulf cartel is now run by a triumvirate. Included is Los Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, a former military man who is also known as \"El Lazco,\" or \"The Executioner.\" The past year witnessed unprecedented bloodshed as the two cartels battled for control of the border's lucrative drug-trafficking corridors. The cartels are fighting over control of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas; Sonora Nogales, across from Nogales, Arizona; and Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California. Two years ago, the turf battle was over Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. It's all about the highways that help move the drugs. Nuevo Laredo is close to the Interstate 35 corridor, and Juarez has easy access to I-10, a major east-west interstate, and I-25, which runs north to Denver, Colorado. Tijuana is also conveniently near I-10 and I-5, which heads north all the way to the Canadian border. Some of the battles are internal, Arabit said. Some are with other cartels. And some, he said, can be attributed to the cartels' \"desperate\" attempt to resist Mexican President Felipe Calderon's unprecedented attack on drug traffickers. As soon as he took office in January 2007, Calderon called out the cartels. He has deployed about 30,000 troops to back up and, in some cases, do the job of local police. Mexico also has extradited about 190 cartel suspects to the United States since Calderon took office. The violence involves beheadings, running gunbattles and discoveries of mass graves and huge arms caches. Police and public officials have been gunned down in broad daylight. The cartels' enforcers boldly display recruitment banners in the streets. \"The beheadings started at the same time the beheading videos started coming out of Iraq,\" analyst Stewart said. \"It was simple machismo. The Sinaloa guys started putting up videos on YouTube of them torturing Zetas.\" When Mexicans first stepped into the role of Colombians in the mid-1990s, the Juarez and Tijuana cartels were dominant, beneficiaries of their location. Today, they are shadows of their former selves, weakened by the deaths and arrests of their leaders. Juarez cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes died of complications from plastic surgery in 1997. Known as \"The King of the Skies\" for his fleet of cocaine-carrying planes, he was said to be undergoing liposuction and other appearance-altering procedures to avoid arrest. Three of his doctors were charged with killing the cartel leader with an overdose of anesthetic during his surgery. Two of them later were killed. His death, along with the 2003 arrest of Gulf cartel founder Osiel Cardenas Guillen, set the stage for the ongoing turf battle. When Cardenas was extradited in 2007, Guzman set his sights on controlling Juarez as well as Nogales. Cardenas is awaiting trial in October in federal court in Houston, Texas, where he is accused of drug trafficking and attempting to kill two federal agents and an informant on the streets of Matamoros, Mexico. Arrests and extraditions crippled the Arellano-Felix Organization in Tijuana, and last year, Guzman made a move on that plaza as well. \"Right now, they are fighting to survive much like Pablo Escobar,\" said the DEA's Elizabeth Kempshall, who heads the agency's office in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix has become the nation's kidnapping capital, largely because of the cartels' increasing presence. Kempshall said that cartel leaders fear nothing more than extradition: \"That is the worst thing for any cartel leader, to face justice in the United States.\" CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this story .","highlights":"Sinaloa, Gulf cartels battle for control of drug routes across U.S. border .\nThe turf war has spurred record death tolls with gunbattles, beheadings .\nU.S. is doubling number of agents at border, spending $700 million .\nAgents, analysts compare situation to '90s battle against Colombian cartels .","id":"ac63976c42516d2846b53d3e44728e2c1533d45e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Justine Henin booked her place in the third round of the Australian Open after she claimed a 7-5 7-6 (8-6) victory over fifth seed Elena Dementieva in Melbourne on Wednesday. The Belgian, who won the tournament in 2004, came through an enthralling clash which lasted two hours 50 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena. Henin, who is playing in her first Grand Slam event since she ended her 20-month retirement from tennis, took the first set but Russian Dementieva hit back in an enthralling second set to take a 4-2 advantage. Wildcard Henin then broke back to take the next three games and the match went to tie-break but Dementieva was unable to take the match into a third set as Henin clinched victory with a fierce volley. After the match Henin admitted it was exactly the kind of match which vindicated her decision to return to competitive tennis. \"It's great feeling. It's magical to win this kind of match in this kind of atmosphere,\" Henin told reporters in the post-match press conference. \"It was a great match. It was very emotional for me on the court at the end because there was so much intensity. To play this kind of match in the second round, for me, after two years off in a Grand Slam, it's just the kind of situation that I needed, . \"The crowd gave me so much. So respectful at the end. It was a special night tonight. That's why I probably came back on the tour, was to live this kind of matches.\" Blog: Belgians lead the way in Melbourne . Henin will now play another Russian in 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova with a potential quarterfinal on the horizon against compatriot Kim Clijsters who came through in straight sets - 6-3, 6-3 - against Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn. Fellow Belgian Wickmayer continued her recent good form by knocking out Italian 12th seed Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7-2) 6-1. Elsewhere, third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova recorded a 6-2 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova while Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki overcome a nervy first set against Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak to win 6-4 6-2. Seventh seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus cruised to a routine 6-2 6-0 victory over France's Stephanie Cohen-Aloro while Russian Vera Zvonareva eased past Slovakian Kristina Kucova by the same margin.","highlights":"Justine Henin booked her place in the third round of the Australian Open after she claimed a 7-5 7-6 (8-6) victory over fifth seed Elena Dementieva.\nFellow Belgian Kim Clijsters came through in straight sets - 6-3, 6-3 - in her clash with Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn.\nThird seed Svetlana Kuznetsova recorded a 6-2 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.","id":"40e1a51cb55e59dce9e0bb57d3072ebfea892a33"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Why leave home when you can send out a sexy, stylish robot version of yourself to do anything you tell it? In \"Surrogates,\" lifelike robots take the place of humans in day-to-day life. That's the world of \"Surrogates,\" a film starring Bruce Willis that opens Friday. Willis plays an FBI agent who investigates the first murder to occur in years in a world where no one worries about crime or pain, because their robots self-heal with a quick reboot. Far-fetched science fiction? Sure. But scientists and the movie's makers say the technology might not be as far away as most people think. Armies use remote-controlled robots to attack enemies and destroy land mines. Emerging technology for the disabled allows users to operate robotic limbs and control computer cursors without touching a keyboard. And emerging \"telepresence\" technology is letting people see, hear and, increasingly, walk, talk and gesture using human-sized robots a world away. \"There are a lot of real-world components to this,\" said robotics expert and author Daniel H. Wilson, whose books like \"Where's My Jet Pack?\" and \"How to Survive a Robot Uprising\" explore the intersections between science fiction and real science. \"Clearly, there are not fully functional humanoid robots ... but there are a lot of components to telepresence that already exist.\" \"Surrogates\" director Jonathan Mostow, whose film credits include 2003's \"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,\" said he was drawn to the concept of surrogate robots as an extension of current technology. And, he said, as he met with scientists, he became convinced that something approaching the concept could one day be a reality. \"To me, it's not even a question of the technology. Technology always catches up,\" he said. \"The question is, is some universal human urge being met by this invention? It seems to me we have a fundamental human desire to be lazy, to sort of not have to do things in person and to do it remotely. \"That began with the telegraph and the telephone and has morphed into the Internet.\" The first steps down the road are being taken at Anybots, a Mountain View, California, company founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell. The company offers, for about $30,000, a 5-foot-tall, 35-pound robot that allows the user to remotely travel, see, hear and talk. It hopes to release its latest version of the robot at a more affordable price. The robot's vaguely humanoid curves, roughly adult height and ability to move around using technology similar to that of the Segway are important steps up from current teleconferencing technology, Blackwell said. Anybots in the development phase are being designed to run, jump and climb stairs, and they come equipped with fully articulated hands designed to perform increasingly human-like tasks. Blackwell said he's not sure the technology will ever advance to the level imagined in \"Surrogates\" -- but that may have as much to do with desire as ability. \"I don't know if we'll ever get quite to that level, of being that realistic,\" he said. \"Most of the time, you're not trying to fool people; you're just trying to make something human enough so people can relate to it.\" Wilson, who said he appreciates \"Surrogates\" because it avoids sci-fi's traditional \"man vs. machine\" dynamic, also imagines social reasons for not pursuing such technology. \"Would humans stand in line at the grocery store behind a robot? Would I let my children play outside if I knew there were robots outside walking dogs?\" he said. It's more realistic, Wilson said, that a humanoid robot could be created to remotely perform tasks that would be too dangerous for the machine's operator to do. although NASA employs robots in space, the highly technical work often required for space walks still requires a human touch -- at least for now. Plus, he said, making robots that look and act like us would help them function better, he said. \"Another major reason to create humanoid robots is, they can use all of our tools,\" Wilson said. \"Human beings have taken large chunks of the planet and completely transformed the environment to support our embodiment. Doorways are a certain width all over the world because human beings are about the same size. All our tools are similar because we've all got hands and thumbs.\" For Mostow, the movie also reflects technological advances that, for better or worse, exist as the world of online networking continues to grow. \"You can do your shopping. You can get your news. You can let everyone know what you're up to,\" he said. \"For those who telecommute, you don't even have to put your clothes on to go to work. \"This idea basically just takes that to its logical conclusion.\"","highlights":"In \"Surrogates\" sexy, stylish robots live life for their owners .\nScientists say \"telepresence\" with robots is real, will improve .\nCalifornia company Anybots developing robot that can jump, climb stairs .\nDirector: Androids are \"logical conclusion\" of technology that already exists .","id":"01fea1ba2ef913cd9615aba30df76c77719ecf85"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Five people arrested after street disturbances erupted in Tehran during the recent Ashura holy day could face the death penalty, an Iranian semi-official news agency reported Thursday. The Iran Labor News Agency reported that the five will be tried for Moharebe, or waging war against God -- a charge that could be punishable by execution. ILNA attributed the information in its report to the Iranian judiciary. The case will be tried \"soon\" with defense lawyers and a prosecutor-general representative present at proceedings. \"Confessions of the accused and the investigations of the authorities\" will be considered, ILNA said. Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, prosecutor for the Public and Revolution Courts, had stressed that people who created disturbances on the Shiite Muslim holy day of Ashura \"by setting fire to public property and other similar crimes\" were engaging in acts \"tantamount to Moharebe,\" ILNA said. In-depth coverage of the protests in Iran . \"The judiciary will severely confront those people based on the law,\" the report said. Anti-government demonstrations began after the disputed June 12 presidential vote, which re-elected hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over main opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. But late December marked the deadliest clashes since the initial protests broke out this summer. At least seven people were killed and hundreds arrested, witnesses said, as they took to the streets on Ashura, which occurred on December 27. The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone and has blamed reformists for the violence. At times, video has shown protesters apparently turning on security forces.","highlights":"ILNA reports five protesters will be tried for waging war against God .\nThe charge, called \"Moharebe\" carries possible death penalty .\nThe case will be tried \"soon,\" according to Iranian press .\nWitnesses said at least seven people were killed and hundreds arrested during protests on December 27 .","id":"39088d700fcb5cd7d4763809578ed8a9c0267132"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Nearly 90 professors at Iran's oldest and largest university signed a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticizing the government's violent handling of student protesters. \"The issue that has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the devout Muslim and patriots of this land is the violent and above the law [illegal] encounters, particularly with University students and faculty members of this land,\" says the letter, which was posted on the reformist Web site \"Rahesabz,\" or \"Green Path.\" \"In fact, the nightly attacks on the dormitories and living quarters of innocent students and daily assaults on them ... are not testaments to the power of the system, just as the violent beatings and imprisonments are not testament to its faith and piety.\" The professors ask Khamenei to order revolutionary guards, government-sanctioned militiamen and others who have engaged in campus violence to vacate the university. The letter also calls for official apologies for beatings of university members and the unconditional release of detained students and faculty. There was no immediate government response to the letter. The 88 professors -- all of whom are considered employees of the Islamic republic -- who signed the letter are \"risking their jobs and God knows what else,\" said Ali Alfoneh, a research fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute who has researched the relationship between Iranian civilians and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. \"Some of them may end up arrested,\" he added. The letter, posted on a reformist Web site Monday, is a rare and significant showing of discontent among Tehran University's academics. Student unrest has only increased since thousands of protesters turned out on the streets of Iran to oppose the country's disputed presidential election, in which hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner. \"Unfortunately and sadly; all of this takes place under the veil of safeguarding Islam and the representation of the supreme leadership and, even more sadly, no institution or organization accepts responsibility for this savagery!\" The anti-government demonstrations began following the disputed June 12 presidential vote, which re-elected hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over main opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. Last month marked the deadliest clashes since the initial protests broke out this summer. At least seven people were killed and hundreds arrested as they took to the streets on Ashura, a Shiite Muslim holy day. One university researcher told CNN he was one of many beaten by police, struck with a baton 11 times. Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa-Mohammad Najjar warned Saturday that the government will not show leniency to protesters in the future. \"It doesn't surprise me that professors wrote this letter, because universities have been one of the first victims of increased government pressure,\" Alfoneh said. In the aftermath of the election, Tehran University and other institutions quickly became hotbeds of violence, with members of the government's Basij militia attacking young protesters on campus, including dormitories. In August, Khamenei addressed a group of university professors from all over, noting that academics would be held to a higher standard of accountability -- especially after the elections. \"Naturally, the expectations that we have of the professors and faculty is much greater than what we expect from the students,\" Khamenei was quoted by Iranian media as saying on August 30. \"The students are the young officers on the front lines of this war and the professors are the commanders [against] this 'soft war' -- the professors who can fulfill this role will be worthy of the Islamic republic.\" The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone and has blamed reformists for the violence. At times, video has shown protesters apparently turning on security forces. Still, the letter serves as another blow to Iran's Islamic leadership, which reformists say has lost credibility in its handling of the post-election unrest. Several critics, including cleric and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi have compared the tactics of the current government to those of the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown by the same fervent followers of Islam more than 30 years ago. Alfoneh noted that numerous petitions were drafted and published in the days leading up to the overthrow of the Shah, who was also slammed with allegations of injustice and human rights violations under his watch. He said it's no surprise that academics today are taking a similar approach as it becomes increasingly harder to teach amid the violence. \"The opposition and even ordinary citizen are trying to duplicate the events of 30 years ago -- they're trying to play to the memory of the public,\" Alfoneh said. CNN's Samira Simone contributed to this report.","highlights":"Nearly 90 Tehran professors sign letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei .\nLetter criticizes government's violent handling of student protesters .\nLetter seeks apologies for beatings of university members and release of students, faculty .\nAnti-government demonstrations began following the disputed June 12 presidential vote .","id":"07ecb59767f10217e2d684e697195fb5021781f8"} -{"article":"(Real Simple) -- Visit a bathroom in a home in the Netherlands and you might find a good idea staring you in the face: a list of birthdays important to your host posted opposite the toilet. Why in that spot? To assure that it's viewed regularly. While you may not want to sacrifice your bathroom aesthetics for the sake of remembering key birthdays, the more often you see the dates, the more likely it is you'll remember them. As founder and \"Exalted Queen Mother\" of the Red Hat Society, an international network of women over 50, Sue Ellen Cooper chooses to keep her long list of reminders in the kitchen. \"I have a list of every significant birthday taped to the inside of my pantry door,\" she says. \"It's impossible not to see those dates every time I open the pantry.\" Whether it's inside a cabinet, on the refrigerator, or bookmarking a page in the novel you're reading, place your list in a spot where you are likely to view it every day and you'll always be aware of an impending birthday. Real Simple: How to handle a milestone birthday . Use a perpetual calendar to remember birthdays . Traditional calendars are less than ideal for keeping track of birthdays, as they require you to pencil in all your important dates each year. A perpetual calendar solves that problem by charting the months without naming the day of the week for each date. Find 5-by-14-inch calendars for $10 at www.galison.com. You can also download a printable perpetual birthday-reminder calendar (for free) at Hallmark.com, or use the Real Simple: Birthday reminder worksheet. Similar to a perpetual calendar but used exclusively for birthdays, a birthday book allows you to jot down birthdays without having to rewrite each date yearly. Keep it somewhere visible, though, such as on top of a coffee table or on your desk, as opposed to placing it on a bookshelf, where it may get lost amid your Steinbecks and Angelous. The 2 3\/4-by-4 1\/4-inch pocket birthday organizer from Fred Flare ($8) will fit in your handbag, so you can commit dates to memory as you wait for your latte. Track birthdays in your day planner . For some, a day planner or a Filofax is preferable to a wall calendar because it's portable. Erica Ecker, a.k.a. \"The Specialist,\" is a New York City-based organizational specialist who recommends writing birthdays in a day planner with a colored marker. \"Pick a unique color,\" she says, \"so that when you go to rewrite the dates for the next year, the birthdays stand out.\" Ecker also inserts mini Post-it notes as \"birthday alarms.\" Insert one in the planner a few days ahead of the first birthday for which you would like to send a card. This way, you'll get the card in the mail on time. Once you've done that, move the Post-it ahead in the book to a few days before the next important birthday. If rewriting birthdays feels like too much of a chore, jot down birthdays on the tabbed section dividers before each month in your day planner. Then you can simply pull out the dividers the following year and place them before each month in your new planner. Real Simple: Look great in your birthday photos . Remember birthdays with computer reminders . With a free membership at Yahoo!, you can take advantage of the site's calendar feature, which allows you to schedule all kinds of appointments with alarms sent to your Yahoo! Messenger account, mobile device, or e-mail address. If you choose to share your calendar with friends and family, they can view your dates and add their own. Cost: Free. BirthdayAlarm.com . This service features an easy interface, e-mail or text-message reminders, a selection of e-cards, and an option to send flowers. BigDates.com . BigDates will remind you of a birthday via a cell-phone text message or an e-mail with suggestions for cards and gifts. You can even sign up for a service that will send a paper card to someone through the U.S. Postal Service ($3, plus postage). The downside is that it's slightly impersonal; you don't get to compose the message in your own handwriting. HappyBirthday.com . Boasting a tasteful, simple, and thoughtful interface, this site assigns each member her own Web page so she can direct friends and family there to input their birthdays, rather than having to collect the information herself. BirthdayPal.com . Birthday Pal keeps track of as many birthdays as you like and will send up to four different reminders per birthday. It also automates the process of birthday collection by sending an e-mail to friends requesting their dates. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"The more often you see the dates, the more likely it is you'll remember them .\nA specialist recommends writing birthdays in a day planner in bright colors .\nBirthdayAlarm.com, BigDates.com and BirthdayPal.com are other helpful sites .\nRemember birthdays on your computer calendar for easy changes .","id":"a66f068a18007a5a77bae85d04fbb790b3032a77"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Shweta Gupta knows exactly what kind of groom she wants: he should be educated, well settled and live in a good location --- one that must be in India. Indian brides and grooms from the Adivasi tribe take part in a mass marriage ceremony. Love may be recession proof in India, but arranged marriages are not. One of the casualties of the global economic slowdown is the Non Resident Indian (NRI) groom. They were once considered premium marriage material. After all, these were the men who had typically studied hard, gotten top jobs in the West, earned big bucks and could whisk their wives away to better opportunities in the West. Not anymore. \"Yeah, I hate to say it but the NRI man seems to be out of favor with the Indian woman,\" said Gaurav Rakshit of Shaadi.com, a matrimonial search engine used by 14 million people globally. He has seen demand for NRI grooms drop by around 20 to 30 percent since the recession hit. Why? Shweta Gupta, a 23-year-old student, has an answer. \"Many Indians working abroad have come back due to recession hitting foreign countries and I don't think recession has affected India that much,\" said said. She believes there is greater job security in India, so would prefer her husband to be based here. Her mother, who is involved in finding a suitable man for her daughter, agreed. \"Suppose there is no job security, then again he would have to come to India, then again he would have to find a job for himself, so I would prefer both of them to be here. Plus, I want my daughter to be close to me,\" said Shraddha Gupta. Arranged marriages are still the norm in India and parents play an active role in choosing a life partner for their children. Traditionally, parents will let friends know that they are on the lookout for a partner for their child. Sometimes, they go to a marriage broker -- a middleman who keeps a stash of resumes and photos of eligible men and women whose families have registered with them. As Indians get more tech savvy, more people are taking their search for partners online. Matrimonial Web sites are popular since they offer a much bigger pool of potential life partners. Shweta Gupta is currently pursuing an MBA in Mumbai and is confident of getting good job offers in India --- another reason she would not want to risk that by going abroad. \"As the woman finds her voice in Indian society, a part of the trend is defined by her unwillingness to compromise on where she grew up, the kind of person she wants to be with, the value system she wants to associate with,\" Rakshit said. Women in India are comfortable with the opportunities they have at home and don't feel they need to go abroad to have a better life. As a result, NRI men are out. So, who is in? Well, government employees, who are typically thought to hold more stable jobs. Shaadi.com said demand was up around 45 percent since last year for men with these jobs. Also in favor now: working wives --- a departure from the tradition of Indian men choosing only homemakers. Anish Sapra, 27, has been looking for a bride for around ten months --- and he wants a working woman. \"It will be a help -- more than a help -- to have a working partner,\" he said. \"Not just for financial reasons,\" he added noting that he believes he would have more in common with such a wife. A wife with a job could help pay off some of the wedding bills, too. Indian marriages are typically large and flamboyant affairs, though the slowdown means they are somewhat subdued these days. That is one tradition Shweta Gupta won't give up. She is holding out for a grand wedding with lots of singing and dancing -- she just has to find Mr. Right. \"My marriage should be fun, it should be remembered by all people,\" she said.","highlights":"Arranged marriages are still the norm in India .\nTypically families sought Indians working overseas as good marriage material .\nWith recession hitting the West hard, Indians are looking inward for suitors .\nWomen in India are more comfortable today with the opportunities they have at home .","id":"6002d3704ea91ca68b4e7c51243602835aca5ad5"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Inauguration revelry began Sunday afternoon as thousands of people packed the National Mall in Washington for a free concert featuring big stars. Thousands gather Sunday afternoon on the National Mall in Washington. President-elect Barack Obama addressed a roaring crowd after 90 minutes of high-energy acts such as U2, Mary J. Blige, Usher and Beyonce. \"Welcome to this celebration of American renewal,\" he said. \"In the course of our history, only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now.\" \"I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure,\" Obama said. \"That it will prevail; that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.\" Watch Obama address the crowd \u00bb . Obama spent the morning visiting Arlington National Cemetery and attending church before heading to the \"We are One: Opening Inaugural Celebration\" at the Lincoln Memorial. It was nothing but good vibes -- a brief respite for an incoming president who will face huge problems after he takes office Tuesday. Bruce Springsteen opened the concert with his song \"The Rising,\" singing, \"How far I've gone\/How high I've climbed\/On my back's a 60 pound stone\/On my shoulder a half mile line.\" Along the National Mall, between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, people watched the concert on massive screens and sang along with \"America the Beautiful\" and \"This Land is Your Land.\" During U2's performance of \"Pride (In the Name of Love),\" a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., frontman Bono referenced the civil rights leader's \"I Have a Dream\" speech, saying that it was also, \"an Irish dream, a European dream, and African dream, an Israeli dream, and a Palestinian dream.\" Watch performances from the concert \u00bb . Obama mentioned the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and also referred to King's \"I Have a Dream\" speech, which took place in the same spot where he was standing. \"Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character's content,\" he said. Obama said what gives him \"the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us, but what fills the spaces in between. It is you -- Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there.\" Vice President-elect Joe Biden also spoke, pointing to those \"marble domes\" and towers of Washington surrounding the crowd which represent the \"majesty of a great nation -- all built stone by stone by American men and women.\" Work is about \"dignity\" and \"respect,\" he said, praising the ethic of hard-working Americans. \"We owe them the chance to go to work each day knowing they have the thanks of a grateful nation.\" Comedians and actors such as Steve Carell and Jamie Foxx brought some comic levity to the inauguration of a president who will face some serious problems in just a few days. Foxx, always the showman, urged \"Chi-town\" to \"stand up!\" Joined by his wife Michelle and their children, the President-elect stood up, laughing and clapping. Foxx did an impression of Obama's speech election night, as Obama laughed. Stevie Wonder belted out \"Higher Ground\" with Shakira and Usher. Herbie Hancock backed Sheryl Crow and will i. am. as they sang Bob Marley's \"One Love.\" Garth Brooks sang the 1971 folk rock classic \"American Pie\" followed by a choir-backed version of \"We shall be free.\" Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jack Black and Rosario Dawson also addressed the crowd. The celebration caps Obama's shortened version of President Abraham Lincoln's 1861 rail trip to Washington. Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president in Washington on Tuesday. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday morning suggests most Americans see Obama's inauguration as a chance for a divided America to unify. \"You know the country is in the middle of a honeymoon when 6 in 10 Republicans have a positive view of Obama,\" said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. CNN's John King interviewed Obama this week in Ohio. King noted that Obama will take the oath of office on the steps of a Capitol built on the backs of slaves and live in a house built on the backs of slaves. \"This has to be incredibly overwhelming,\" King said. Watch Obama's interview with King \u00bb . Obama replied, \"The notion that I will be standing there and sworn in as the 44th president, I think, is something that hopefully our children take for granted. But our grandparents are still stung by it and it's a remarkable moment.\"","highlights":"President-elect Barack Obama speaks at inaugural concert .\nObama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden visit Tomb of Unknowns .\nThe concert is being streamed live for free on HBO.com .","id":"438c7f5cf143c1bce391a85b28acf07a6f931909"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Wisconsin man accused of poisoning his wife with antifreeze and convicted of murdering her was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with no chance of parole. Mark Jensen's chin quivers as a letter from his sons is read in court Wednesday before his sentencing. Mark Jensen, 48, was found guilty Thursday in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, of killing his wife, Julie Jensen, in 1998. The prosecution said the murder culminated years of torment. \"Your crime is so enormous, so monstrous, so unspeakably cruel that it overcomes all other considerations,\" Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder said before pronouncing the sentence. Watch the judge lower the boom \u00bb . Prosecutors contended that Jensen poisoned his 40-year-old wife with antifreeze and then suffocated her in 1998, but the defense argued that Julie Jensen was a depressed woman who killed herself and framed her husband. Julie Jensen had given a neighbor a letter pointing an accusing finger at her husband should anything happen to her. She also made foreboding comments to police and to her son's teacher, saying she suspected her husband was trying to kill her. Her letter, read aloud in court, said in part: \"I pray I'm wrong + nothing happens ... but I am suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors + fear for my early demise.\" Read the letter \u00bb . The case turned on the admissibility of the letter, which would have been considered unusable \"hearsay\" evidence if Schroeder had not ruled that it was a \"dying declaration.\" In such cases, the defendant has no opportunity to face his accuser. After the verdict, jurors told reporters that the letter gave them \"a clear road map\" to conviction, as one female juror phrased it. Another female juror said he believed Mark Jensen was trying to push his wife over the edge. \"He tortured Julie hoping she could be classically diagnosed as a nutcase,\" she said. Several of the jurors were in the court gallery for the sentencing hearing Wednesday. Jensen, dressed in blue jail fatigues, sat stoically while Julie Jensen's four brothers asked for the harshest possible sentence. \"I hope the court shows the same mercy and compassion that the defendant showed our sister,\" Patrick Griffin, the victim's youngest brother, said. Watch brothers demand justice \u00bb . But Jensen's chin quivered and his eyes watered when his attorney read a letter from Jensen's two sons, David and Douglas. \"He never failed to support us throughout this ordeal,\" the sons wrote in requesting mercy for their father. \"... If anyone in this world is the epitome of loyalty, it is our dad.\" E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mark Jensen sentenced for poisoning wife with antifreeze .\nVictim's posthumous letter led jurors to verdict .\nDefense portrayed victim as depressed wife who committed suicide .","id":"de9c125135a4386014725b01fe8abb646646a25c"} -{"article":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- When Susana Trimarco's daughter Marita Veron was 23, she vanished from their hometown in Argentina, a suspected victim of a human trafficking and prostitution ring with links throughout Latin America and Europe. Marita Veron, who is missing, hugs her daughter Micaela. Police believe Marita was forced into sexual slavery. Trimarco, 54, has spent the past 6\u00bd years searching for her daughter, often putting herself at risk. While chasing down leads on Marita's whereabouts, she's entered dark and dangerous brothels and confronted pimps and politicians who, she says, are complicit in her daughter's disappearance. She has won accolades throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States for her work. But Marita is nowhere to be found. \"Marita is a wonderful and caring girl. My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe,\" Trimarco said. On April 3, 2002, Veron left her house in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman early for a doctor's appointment. She was wearing a turquoise shirt, blue jeans and old white sneakers. As she left the house, she told her mother, \"Don't worry. I'll be back soon.\" Those were the last words the two exchanged. The investigation that has followed has led police and Trimarco to believe that she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution, either in rural Argentina or Spain. So far, a series of random clues has failed to provide any concrete information on Marita's whereabouts. Now, art is imitating life on Argentina's airwaves. Trimarco's story has become the basis of one of Argentina's most popular nighttime soap operas, \"Vidas Robadas,\" or \"Stolen Lives.\" Watch art imitate activism \u00bb . The program premiered in March on Telefe, one of Argentina's largest television networks, to a lukewarm response. But as the storyline and characters evolved and word started to spread, the audience grew, and it became water-cooler television. \"Stolen Lives\" attracts more than 2 million viewers nightly, a considerable feat considering Argentina's population is only 40 million. The show's plot centers on widowed anthropologist Bautista Amaya (played by Facundo Arana) and Rosario Soler (Soledad Silveyra) -- the mother of a young kidnapped girl, based on Trimarco -- who team up to unravel an underground prostitution ring. \"With every performance, I try to display the inner feelings of this woman who is suffering, to transmit her grief,\" Silveyra said. \"As an actress, I feel an enormous responsibility.\" The usual telenovela themes of love, passion and revenge are ever present in \"Stolen Lives,\" but the show strives to expose an issue that has remained in the dark in Argentina until recently. Human rights groups in Argentina estimate that 800 women have gone missing at the hands of human traffickers since 2007. Worldwide, about 800,000 people are trafficked across borders annually, according to the U.S. State Department. \"I am delighted that the show has been able to bring this topic to light, because no one ever talked about human trafficking in Argentina before,\" Trimarco said. \"Stolen Lives\" is the latest in a series of recent Argentine telenovelas that dissect important social issues while also aiming to entertain. One of the most important was the 2006 hit \"Montecristo,\" which examined crimes against humanity committed by Argentina's military during the 1970s and 1980s. Local versions of \"Montecristo\" are produced in nine countries around the globe, including Turkey, Portugal, Mexico and Russia. \"With these types of telenovelas, we are able to bring something entirely new to the public debate. And because we take a fictional and not a journalistic approach, we are able to attract and keep more viewers,\" Telefe programming director Claudio Villarruel said. \"Montecristo\" helped reunite children of Argentina's Dirty War who \"disappeared\" with lost family members. The Dirty War happened from 1976-83, when the government carried out a secret campaign to purge the country of those it considered to be dissidents. \"Stolen Lives\" is making a similarly strong impact. Trimarco established a foundation in her daughter's honor, Fundacion Maria de los Angeles, last year in Tucuman. It counts U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Earl Wayne and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner among its supporters. According to Trimarco, the foundation has rescued 360 women and children from trafficking networks, and leads on missing people continue to pour in. Argentina passed its first national law against human trafficking this year, a law that Trimarco lobbied hard to get passed. Meanwhile, praise rings from home and abroad. In May, \"Stolen Lives\" was declared a show of \"social interest\" by the Buenos Aires City legislature. In 2007, Trimarco received the U.S. State Department's \"International Women of Courage Award\" from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a ceremony in Washington. Later this year, Trimarco will travel to Spain to speak about human trafficking with lawmakers from the European Union. \"It's just like Condoleezza Rice told me: My screams are being heard all over the world,\" she said. Trimarco travels around Argentina constantly, educating people about human trafficking, and following up on clues about Marita. She is also raising Marita's daughter, Micaela, 9. With all the publicity surrounding the case and the success of \"Stolen Lives,\" Trimarco has herself become a target. Her accusations of political and police involvement have led to death threats, she says. Still, she remains committed to the cause and says that collaborating with the producers of \"Stolen Lives\" to tell her story has helped give her the strength to continue searching for her daughter. \"I'm content, because my pain is now serving a purpose,\" she said.","highlights":"Argentine woman vanished in 2002; it's believed she was forced into prostitution ring .\nArgentine soap opera, based on Marita's mother's search, probes human trafficking .\nMom: \"My life will be completely absorbed with this fight until she is back and safe\"\nMother Susana Trimarco's foundation tries to save women, children from sex slavery .","id":"2d64e96d5e0a37cb20d99065493c82a4bea0cfcf"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A team of experts gathered Friday on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula to decide how to deal with marauding bears that reportedly have killed two people recently. As many as 12,000 bears live on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The bears are blamed for the deaths of two guards at a geological station near a platinum mine on the peninsula in far eastern Russia. Russian media reports cite local law enforcement officials as saying the remains of the two men had been \"gnawed on.\" Groups of bears have been reported in the region since the deaths, and many people have refused to work at the mine, saying they are afraid. Three hunters and a representative of Koryakgeoldobycha, employer of around 400 people at the mine, will evaluate the danger and decide whether killing a few animals is necessary, said Vladimir Rudeyev of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry in Kamchatka. \"All decisions are made locally,\" he told CNN. \"No licenses [for shooting bears] have been issued yet. Reports came out that they were, but that's incorrect.\" Hunters might need to kill only the most aggressive bears, he said. Generally, bears are timid animals and need only to be scared off. Exterminating wild bears that are not afraid of humans is relatively common in Canada and the United States. Trouble in northeastern Kamchatka began when the two unarmed geological station guards were found dead July 17. More than 93 miles (150 kilometers) away, about 20 bears came into another station several days later. Then, dozens more wild bears were seen 25 to 50 miles (40 to 80 kilometers) away, around various stations and villages in the area. \"Bears came out to where they used to live before,\" Rudeyev said. \"It constantly happens on the Kamchatka Peninsula, on various rivers, places where people work.\" Humans are to blame because they attract the animals by leaving out trash or they frighten bear cubs, turning them into aggressive grown-ups, he said. Laura Williams, senior adviser for the World Wildlife Fund in Russia, also said it's the search for food that probably drives bears close to human camps. Kamchatka bears are used to feeding on salmon in the summer, but there have been fewer of the fish in local rivers this year because of overfishing, contamination or natural causes. \"When [bears] don't have salmon, they go into some of the settlements, creating bad situations both for themselves and people,\" Williams said. \"When you're in bear country, it's important to know how to act when you meet a bear.\" The Kamchatka Peninsula has long been known for its brown bear population, estimated at 8,000 to 12,000. In some areas of the peninsula, the population density is the greatest in the world. Human deaths from bears are rare, and Williams said it would be an overstatement to say the situation this year is out of hand. CNN's Mike Sefanov contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two guards killed July 17 near platinum mine, apparently by bears .\nGroups of bears seen in other parts of Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia .\nOfficial says it may be necessary to shoot some bears to protect people .\nExperts say salmon shortage is driving bears into closer contact with humans .","id":"1bd29a919ffe8acf02580628a0c84d1084ba250a"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The 2009 presidential inauguration is looking to be historic and, frankly, headache-inducing for the throngs of people descending on the nation's capital to watch Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president. Workers are putting the finishing touches on the innaugural stage on the steps of U.S. Capitol. CNN has compiled a list of frequently asked questions and answers. Q: How crowded will Washington be, and how will I get around? A: Think Times Square on New Year's Eve. Throw in tight security, then multiply that by 12. At least, that's how it will most likely feel. Nearly 2 million people are expected to hit the streets of the nation's capital January 20. Police will be shutting bridges across the Potomac River into Washington, along with a huge chunk of the downtown area. Two of the major routes coming into the city -- Interstates 395 and 66 -- will be closed to inbound traffic, at least for private vehicles. And for those coming from Virginia, all of the bridges between the state and Washington are going to be shut. In order to get in: walk or take public transport, such as the metro area's subway system. Amtrak says that it has increased the number -- and length -- of trains running to Washington on Inauguration Day and that tickets are still available but are going fast. iReport.com: Are you going to the inauguration? Security officials also say charter buses, taxis and car services will be another option for those attending. Q: What can't I bring? A: There are several obvious items that are prohibited, according to the U.S. Secret Service, including: . \"Firearms, ammunition, explosives, weapons of any kind, aerosols, supports for signs and placards, packages, coolers, thermal or glass containers, backpacks, bags exceeding size restrictions, laser pointers, animals other than helper\/guide dogs, structures, bicycles and any other items determined to be a potential safety hazard.\" Items surrendered to security officials will not be returned. Other items that are being banned include baby strollers and umbrellas. Read more about Secret Service traffic, security plans (PDF) Q: When do the festivities start? A: Saturday, January 17. Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will begin their whistlestop-like train tour, stopping in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; and then making a stop for an event in Baltimore, Maryland, before pulling into Washington. That evening, Michelle Obama, Jill Biden and their families will hold a free \"Kids' Inaugural\" concert to honor military families. Sunday, January 18 . Obama will kick off the schedule of official inaugural activities in Washington, D.C., with a welcome event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The event will be free and open to the public. HBO will exclusively broadcast the event from 7 to 9 p.m. ET. The event will be televised by HBO on an open signal accessible to all U.S. viewers with access to cable, telcos or satellite television. It will also be a star-studded affair, with Beyonc\u00e9, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder -- among many others. The Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopal bishop, will deliver the invocation. Monday, January 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) Obama and Biden will honor King's legacy by urging supporters to participate in activities dedicated to serving others in communities across Washington, according to the Obama transition Web site, Change.gov. On Monday night, Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Rockefeller Foundation will present \"A Celebration of America\" at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The event -- marking King's legacy and the 56th inauguration -- will be broadcast live on CNN. Special guest stars will be announced shortly. Tuesday, January 20: Inauguration Day . The order of events, according to the Presidential Inauguration Committee, include: . \u2022 Musical selections: The United States Marine Band, followed by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus . \u2022 Call to order and welcoming remarks: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California . \u2022 Invocation: Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback megachurch in Orange County, California . \u2022 Musical selection: Aretha Franklin . \u2022 Vice President-elect Biden will be sworn into office by John Paul Stevens, associate justice of the Supreme Court . \u2022 Musical selection: John Williams, composer\/arranger, with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill . \u2022 Obama will then take the oath of office, using President Abraham Lincoln's inaugural Bible, administered by John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States . \u2022 Inaugural address . \u2022 Poem: Elizabeth Alexander . \u2022 Benediction: The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery . \u2022 The national anthem: The United States Navy Band \"Sea Chanters\" According to Change.gov, after President Obama gives the inaugural address, he will escort outgoing President George Bush to a departure ceremony before attending a luncheon in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. The 56th Inaugural Parade will then make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, with groups traveling from all over the country to participate. iReport.com: Sneak peek of inauguration parade stand . Wednesday, January 21 . Obama -- as the new president -- will take part in a prayer at the National Cathedral in northwest Washington. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, the general minister and president of the 700,000-member Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), will be the first woman to deliver the sermon at the traditional inaugural event. Q: What's the dish on the inaugural balls? A: There will be 10 balls throughout Washington on Tuesday night. They include: . \u2022 Commander-in-Chief Ball, which is dedicated to military personnel and their families. \u2022 Five regional balls dedicated to each section of the United States. Only those invited may attend. \u2022 Neighborhood Ball, which will be open for Washington, D.C., residents who paid for tickets in advance. Both Obamas will attend the ball, which will be broadcast live on ABC and over the Internet. \u2022 Youth Inaugural Ball at the Washington Hilton. It is reserved for those between the ages of 18 and 35. Tickets are relatively cheap: $75 a pop. MTV will broadcast the event live. \u2022 Obama Home States Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center, includes invited guests from Illinois and Hawaii. \u2022 Biden Home States Inaugural Ball also at the Washington Convention Center, includes invited guests from Delaware and Pennsylvania. For a full listing of the balls, log on to Pic2009.org. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers contributed to this report.","highlights":"Barack Obama to be sworn in as president January 20 .\nSeveral million are expected to descend on Washington .\nCNN has your guide to all things Inauguration 2009 .\nActivities begin January 18 with an Obama-Biden whistlestop-like tour .","id":"c2ded8261aacb03abfe38470644dcbcace39c238"} -{"article":"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Omar became a major Category 3 storm Wednesday night as it barreled toward the Virgin and Leeward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center said. A man watches waves crash into the shore Tuesday at Club Nautico in Falcon state, Venezuela. Omar is expected to continue gathering strength as it passes east of the Virgin Islands in the next few hours and makes its way to the northern Leeward Islands Thursday morning, the hurricane center said. At 11 p.m., Omar was moving northeast at about 20 mph with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. The hurricane's center was about 30 miles (45 km) southwest of St. Croix and about 105 miles (165 km) southwest of St. Martin. A hurricane warning --meaning winds of 74 mph and higher are expected within a day -- is in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands, the islands of Vieques, Culebra, St. Martin, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Barthelemy, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla. See where Omar is headed \u00bb . Puerto Rico is under a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch, as are St. Kitts and Nevis, the hurricane center said. As Omar approached, Hovensa, a 500,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery on St. Croix, began shutting down all processing and auxiliary equipment \"except those necessary to maintain power supply in the complex,\" refinery spokesman Alex Moorhead said in a statement. Watch Venezuelans try to save homes, dogs \u00bb . The move was to ensure the safety of employees and the operation of the refinery, which is jointly owned by Hess Corp. and Venezuela's state oil company. The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Christiansted Harbor, where the refinery is located, on Tuesday, and it will remain closed until the order is lifted, Moorhead said. \"Once Hurricane Omar has passed, we will conduct an inspection of our facilities as soon as it is safe to do so. If no damage is found that would impact safe operation of the refinery, the start-up of processing units will begin in sequential order,\" Moorhead said. Puerto Rico and some portions of the northern Leeward Islands, which includes the Virgin Islands, could get up to 20 inches of rain, according to the forecast. \"These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,\" the hurricane center warned. Also, the storm could produce large swells affecting the western and southern coasts of the Lesser Antilles, the Caribbean islands that stretch from the Virgin Islands southward to the islands off Venezuela's coast. The swells could cause beach erosion and damage coastal structures, the hurricane center said. Antigua, Barbuda and Montserrat are under a tropical storm warning, meaning they could experience tropical storm conditions over the coming 24 hours. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Guadeloupe. The storm's forecast track shows it heading into the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean after crossing over the Virgin Islands and sweeping past Puerto Rico, but hurricane tracks are subject to variation, and such long-range predictions can change. Omar formed Tuesday in the eastern Caribbean. It is the 15th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends November 30.","highlights":"NEW: Omar becomes Category 3 hurricane as it approaches Leeward Islands .\nU.S. Coast Guard shuts down Christiansted Harbor, where refinery is .\nParts of Puerto Rico could see 20 inches of rain, mudslides, flash floods .\nOmar is 15th named storm of hurricane season, which ends November 30 .","id":"c685945ce74013e04daedb587ae6f42c94d96a54"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A long line of hospital staff wraps around the corridor outside a small conference room in New York to catch a glimpse of the precious cargo. A worker looks at the mummified skull of King Tut in November 2007. Inside are the three frail bodies in open wooden crates causing all the commotion. Another body -- a prince no less -- is a few rooms down in a computer tomography scanner. The bodies are part of the Brooklyn Museum's collection of 11 Egyptian mummies, transported to the North Shore University Hospital to be scanned. The goal: Find out who they are, how they might have died and establish a chronology of advances in ancient Egypt's mummification techniques. The process is not necessarily new. Egyptian mummies have been exposed to radiographic study since 1896 and CT scans, which conducts imaging by sections, for more than two decades. Perhaps the most famous of them, King Tutankhamun (c. 1355-346 B.C.), was scanned in 2005 right outside the vault that holds his sarcophagus. The scan resulted in more than 17,000 images that were analyzed by an international team of radiologists, pathologists and anatomists, led by the world-renowned Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The scope and ability of CT scan technology are proving invaluable in learning more about the funeral rituals of ancient Egyptians and the mummies themselves. Whereas conventional X-rays cannot clearly distinguish soft tissue from bone and can see only two planes, CT scanning can differentiate among the various types of bone and soft tissue, and reconstruct three-dimensional images that \"show fine detail inside coronary arteries down to 0.6 millimeters\" said Amgad Makaryus, director of cardiac CT and magnetic resonance imaging at North Shore, providing a better chance at diagnosis and differentiation among diseases. \"CT has proved to be exceptionally well-suited for studying the fragile, wrapped figures of Egyptian mummies, especially those still contained within their decorated plasterlike shells, or cartonnages,\" according to an article by a team of eight researchers, led by Derek N.H. Notman, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology. CT scanning is fast and non-invasive, Makaryus agrees. A scan of one of the four bodies brought to North Shore quickly revealed that the mummy named Lady Hor was actually a man. The body never had to leave its cartonnage for the procedure. In the case of King Tut, initial X-rays of his mummy decades ago showed fragments of bone inside his skull, causing speculation that he might have been killed by a blow to the back of the head. The scan immediately revealed that his skull was intact; and the team found no other indication of foul play, according to its report. \"King Tut is the icon of Egyptian history, but he is only one of thousands of mummies we can study. Through CT scans, we can, in a way, bring the dead back to life,\" Hawass told National Geographic magazine. In another famous case, a CT scan helped identify the mummy of the Pharaoh Ramses I (1293-1291 B.C.) in 2000. It had been bought from a Canadian museum by the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Heidi Hoffman, a former radiology resident at Emory now practicing in Chicago, Illinois, and part of the team of scientists who analyzed the pharaoh's body, was able to observe a type of bone erosion, and \"coalescence of air cells can be seen in cases of chronic mastoiditis,\" an inflammatory condition usually due to chronic ear infections. Though easily treatable with antibiotics today, the pharaoh's untreated ear infection could have spread and caused his death. At North Shore, Jesse Chusid, director of Imaging Informatics at the Department of Radiology, said the 64-slice CT scanner takes 0.6 mm-thick sectional scans and combines and magnifies them to provide extraordinary detail. Curators of the Brooklyn Museum reached out to North Shore for the first time in 2007, to scan Demetrios, a 2,000-year-old mummy, before he was to join a traveling exhibit called \"To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures From the Brooklyn Museum,\" opening at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, in October. Demetrios is called a \"red shroud mummy\" because of unusual red pigment in his linen shroud. Another red shroud mummy is in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. There, CT scans revealed the remains of a mummified ibis, a bird sacred to Egyptians, wrapped inside. Curators of the Brooklyn Museum wanted to find out whether Demetrios had his own ibis, thought to be a sacrifice to the god Toth, whose head was an ibis. Demetrios did not have one. Still, Dr. Lawrence Boxt of North Shore University Hospital told The New York Times in 2007 that Demetrios either \"had an easy life or was carried around a lot. He certainly didn't do much heavy lifting during his lifetime.\" The same was true for the mummy of the royal prince Count of Thebes, Pa-seba-khai-en-ipet. Edward Bleiberg, curator of Egyptian, classical and ancient Middle Eastern art at the Brooklyn Museum, said initial findings of his scan reaffirmed his high status: A small incision to the side of the abdomen to remove the organs, while carefully leaving the heart in place, then filling the body with embalming liquids -- all indicated a high-quality mummification process. Why the heart? In ancient Egypt, the heart was considered the thinking organ -- the center of the soul and the source of knowledge, Bleiberg said. \"The heart knows what a person thinks and feels,\" he said. \"It is supposed to be left in place during mummification so that it could be weighed against the feather of truth in the final judgment.\" The images produced on the latest mummies at North Shore will have to be studied for months before researchers gain new insight into ancient Egyptian funeral practices. In the meantime, some revelations brought to light by the scans beg more questions yet: Pa-seba-khai-en-ipet seems to have a tube lodged inside him, running from his mouth through his esophagus and into the top of his chest. Bleiberg said he and Makaryus are pretty certain that was not the cause of death, and that it was inserted post-mortem. Purpose? That might be lost to the ages.","highlights":"Radiologists at NY hospital analyze Egyptian mummies .\nCT testing allow radiologists to study mummies without doing damaging procedures .\nRecent CT scan reveals Egyptian mummy named Lady Hor was actually a man .","id":"754ddbba7fff60474c40efa5a876519472aed5da"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Authorities on Sunday released the name of a woman who turned up in New York this month saying she had no memory of her name or family. She is Kacie Aleece Peterson, 18, of Hansville, Washington, according to Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department. Police a day earlier said a CNN viewer in Maryland identified the woman, who was found in Midtown Manhattan on October 9 outside a youth shelter. A photo of Peterson, who had been referred to as Jane Doe, was circulated by police and aired on CNN this week. Authorities didn't release Peterson's name until Sunday. Browne said Peterson's mother is dead and that her father is heading to New York. CNN affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle, Washington, reported that her father went to New York on Sunday to bring her home. The family said it's not the first time she disappeared and then later was found with apparent memory loss, the station reported. Peterson is from Colville in eastern Washington, KOMO reported. She had been living with a friend in Hansville and attending Kingston High School. The father said the daughter had gone to live temporarily with a friend of her late mother, the station reported. Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, said Peterson was reported missing by her father on October 1, KOMO reported. Detectives later discovered bank activity and other evidence that she was alive, he said. The woman was found outside Manhattan's Covenant House youth shelter around 12:30 a.m. October 9. The organization said that she was not a resident at the time and did not appear as if she intended to seek refuge at the facility. A security guard for the shelter noticed the woman walking on the sidewalk near Covenant House and approached her. Finding her unresponsive, he called the New York City Police Department. Police officers interviewed the woman, but it became clear that she couldn't provide authorities with any information about herself. Police said she was wearing military green camouflage pants, a black shirt and a pair of black sneakers when she was discovered. The CNN viewer who identified her was familiar with her situation and knew she had been missing this month, police said. Police said they do not know how she lost her memory. \"I just want to know who I am and what happened to me,\" the young woman said in a statement previously released by the New York City Administration of Children's Services. Evan Buxbaum, Susan Candiotti and Vanessa Juarez contributed to the report.","highlights":"KOMO-TV: Family says this isn't first time woman found with apparent memory loss .\nKacie A. Peterson, 18, was found outside Manhattan youth shelter October 9 .\nPolice: Woman claimed not to know her name, family .\nCNN viewer in Maryland identified the woman, police say .","id":"f216ea70c38db012dae8cd56562bb362f1e0f2fe"} -{"article":"(LifeWire) -- Nancy Dunetz, who teaches English as a second language in New York City, sat down in the school staff room to check her e-mail. One of the messages in her inbox was from an acquaintance she'd been corresponding with since their 50th high school reunion last year. In a survey of 4,000 people, about a third said they had accidentally sent an e-mail to the wrong person. But this e-mail last June didn't contain chummy banter or reminiscences. It simply included a lewd photo of a partly unclothed young man. The file name of the picture was \"Mid East Hottie.\" \"I was shocked!\" says Dunetz, 68. She hastily closed the e-mail and tried to erase the image from her mind. Later that day, the sender e-mailed an apology to her and two dozen others who had received the e-mail. He explained he'd been experimenting with his new computer and was trying to figure out how to add attachments to an e-mail, Dunetz says. In doing so, he attached an image from his desktop and tried to send it to himself. Instead, the e-mail program automatically filled in an entire group from his address book -- something he apparently didn't realize until after he hit the \"send\" button. \"I felt terrible for him,\" Dunetz says. \"I could imagine just how mortified he must have been.\" With some 55 billion e-mails being sent daily (not including spam), according to e-mail archiving company The Radicati Group, misdirected e-mails have become the online equivalent of a wrong number. They're unavoidable, annoying -- and often embarrassing. The 'uh-oh' e-mail . In a recent online survey conducted by AOL, 32 percent of the 4,000 respondents have at one time or another mistakenly forwarded an e-mail to an unintended recipient. And often, it's something not so nice. Karla Comer, an account executive at an ad agency in Greensboro, North Carolina, knows just how embarrassing that can be. In 2004, Comer met a guy at a concert and went out with him a few times, but ultimately realized she wasn't interested. \"He was just awkward and clumsy. And sometimes I'd catch him staring at me, which really creeped me out,\" she says. She tried to end the relationship by simply not returning his phone calls. \"But then he e-mailed and casually said that he had not heard from me in a while and he hoped everything was fine but just assumed I was busy,\" says Comer, 31. \"Before I returned his e-mail, I sent the message to a close girlfriend with a blurb about what an idiot I thought he was and that dating him was a bad idea because he had no understanding of social cues.\" She thought she sent the \"he's an idiot\" e-mail only to her girlfriend. To her horror, Comer says, the spurned beau replied a few minutes later, calling her some not-so-sweet names and suggesting that she \"share THIS e-mail with your friends.\" \"I was speechless,\" says Comer, who chose to not respond. \"But eventually I was able to laugh at it.\" When errant e-mails are sent at work, however, there's often much more at stake than personal embarrassment. Three years ago, Jamie Diamond, 33, e-mailed his then-boss to ask about a client at the public relations firm where he was working. His boss wrote back, criticizing the client as incompetent and urging Diamond to \"go around him if you want to get anything done.\" Unfortunately, Diamond says, she also sent the e-mail to the client -- oops, make that ex-client. \"One click, and suddenly we'd lost a $5 million account,\" says Diamond, who is now self-employed as a publicist in Williams, Oregon. Can you turn back time? Short of erasing someone's memory, there is no surefire way to retrieve a missent e-mail. Microsoft Outlook has a \"recall\" function that can erase unread e-mails from the in-box of the recipient -- as long as the recipient is using the same mail client or server as the sender -- as does AOL, but only for messages between AOL users. (Both AOL and CNN are divisions of Time Warner.) Then there's BigString.com, an e-mail service which lets you tinker with (or even erase) messages that have already been sent by having the sender write e-mails that are created, stored and viewed on a remote server, where they can be edited or revoked at any time; recipients are actually accessing the e-mail on the remote server when they read the message, even though it looks like a regular e-mail. But old-fashioned vigilance is probably the best way to avert these snafus in the first place. Roger Matus, CEO of e-mail archiving company InBoxer Inc. and keeper of the blog Death By Email, believes the easiest way to avoid these mistakes is to forget that the \"reply all\" button even exists. \"Simply put, there is rarely a real reason to use it,\" he says. \"Often, when you hit it, you end up e-mailing people who were blind carbon copied without realizing.\" Matus offers the following tips on avoiding e-mail embarrassment: . \u2022 Type out the person's full name when addressing your e-mail. If you type just the first few letters and let your e-mail program fill out the rest based on your address book, it could easily misroute your message without your realizing it. \u2022 Double-check the addresses of your intended recipients before you hit \"send.\" Do you really want all the people to get this particular message? \u2022 Be sure to notify your company's legal department if there is any chance that governance, compliance or privacy regulations were violated as a result of something you sent by mistake. \u2022 Immediately notify the person who received the e-mail that it was a mistake and, if possible, ask them not to read the message -- or at least to delete it right away. LifeWire provides original and syndicated content to Web publishers. Anna Jane Grossman is a freelance writer in New York City.","highlights":"Author shares embarrassing stories of e-mail sent to wrong person .\n\"One click, and suddenly we'd lost a $5 million account,\" says publicist .\nService called BigString.com lets e-mailers tinker with or erase messages .\nExpert's advice: Type recipient's full name and never use reply-all .","id":"da8d56222e027b2ed1c87e2ae76045ea6b59e273"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- \"Amelia\" is a frustratingly old-school, Hollywood-style, inspirational biopic about Amelia Earhart that doesn't trust a viewer's independent assessment of the famous woman pictured on the screen. Hilary Swank plays Amelia Earhart and Richard Gere plays husband George Putnam in \"Amelia.\" The mystery we ought to be paying attention to is: What really happened on the legendary American aviator's final, fatal flight in 1937? But the question audiences are left with is this: How could so tradition-busting a role model have resulted in so square, stiff, and earthbound a movie? Why present such a modern woman in such a fusty format? Dressed for the title role in a wardrobe of jumpsuits, leather jackets, scarves, and slinky evening wear dashing enough to stop air traffic, Hilary Swank's Earhart doesn't so much talk as make stump speeches -- even when she's at her own breakfast table. And director Mira Nair (\"The Namesake\"), working from an overexplanatory script by Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan (based on dual biographies by Susan Butler and Mary S. Lovell), overloads the picture with a cargo of messages, so much so that she deadens her subject's spirit. Some of these talking points are aimed at today's teenage girls who might admire the subject's highly personal fashion sense; others go out to older women who cherish her feminist cred. All of them add up to banners that might as well be flown from an aircraft tail over a beach: Amelia Earhart lived free in life and love! And Fly! She! Must! Of course, she did, setting records as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 (she was a passenger, but still, ladies of the day generally didn't wear leather helmets and zoom through the air). Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932. She went on to launch her own brand-name fashion line. In 1935, she became the first pilot to fly solo from Hawaii to California. Sometimes the press dubbed her Lady Lindy, linking her fame to that of pioneering pilot Charles Lindbergh. Most famously, she vanished (along with her navigator, Fred Noonan) in the middle of the Pacific while on an around-the-world flight in 1937; her plane was never found, and she was declared legally dead in 1939. Along the way, the celebrity married George Putnam, the publisher and tireless promoter who shaped her public image. (Richard Gere does the honors as Putnam with all the dated, silver-head-in-hands poses required of him as a worried businessman\/spouse whose wife is also his client.) For a time, the freethinking woman also conducted a love affair with aeronautics pioneer Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), now best known as the father of writer Gore Vidal. Swank delivers long, carefully composed explications of Earhart's unorthodox attitude toward marriage and feminine autonomy, taken from her journal entries, in studied accents somewhere between those of the Kansas plains of Earhart's birth and those of Katharine Hepburn in her most famous trouser-wearing, gumption-gal roles. iReport.com: Share your movie reviews . \"Amelia\" dutifully conveys the salient biographical info with a trusty cinematic device: As Earhart and Noonan embark on their doomed flight, flashbacks catch the audience up on the events that got her there. (Christopher Eccleston, as Noonan, is the one understated player in this endeavor.) Those last 10 minutes or so of radio-communications loss, concurrent instrument failure, and dawning awareness of disaster are honestly gripping. But just in case the point isn't clear enough (She! Must! Fly!), throughout the drama composer Gabriel Yared lays on blasts of musical exclamations that are as distracting as sirens. Sometimes that music says, \"It's great to be in the sky and surfing the clouds!\" Sometimes it says, \"Look how pretty the landscape looks below -- kind of makes you miss the music in 'Out of Africa,' right?\" Sometimes the rumble of violins and horns hints, \"Uh-oh, we're getting to the tragic part of the story!\" Mostly, the busy orchestra backs up the starry cinematography to remind us, \"This slim, androgynous beauty, with her unusual love life and her driving need to take to the skies, sure was something, huh?!\" Whatever the message, there's no navigating around such intrusive messengers. EW Grade: C+ . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Amelia\" hits viewers over the head with its themes, says EW .\nFilm stars Hilary Swank as aviator Amelia Earhart .\n\"Amelia\" is flat and dull when it should be exciting .\nSome of the dialogue is delivered as speeches: yawn .","id":"9efbe4fbfc9f37c02af5d2d80454595347318e22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Friends and strangers across the country gathered on the streets and in schools, churches, bars and auditoriums to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. A diverse crowd in Los Angeles, California, cheers as Barack Obama takes the oath of office Tuesday. \"It's a great day to be an American,\" iReporter Roger Germann said at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, where revelers watched the inauguration on television monitors among exhibits of sharks and otters. Tuesday's inauguration brought together Americans from different walks of life, united in their hope that Obama will deliver on his promise to change the nation's course. Click the links to read views on President Obama's inauguration from people across the country. Reaction to speech What Obama means to Americans Hopes for Obama . Reaction to speech . Public inauguration-viewing parties were held in auditoriums, schools and arenas across the country, where the atmosphere mirrored the excitement in Washington. Watch people react at viewing parties \u00bb . \"People are cheering here as if they were there,\" Irene Koehler of Fremont, California, said of the atmosphere in Oakland's Oracle Arena. More than 200 parishioners from the First AME Church, the largest African-American Church in Los Angeles, gathered in the recreation hall to pray together and share in the excitement of an historic moment . Dressed in Obama shirts and hats, the level of audience participation had the effect of transporting the crowd to Washington. They stood when Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the crowd to \"please stand\" and bowed their heads in prayer. They sang along with Aretha Franklin and even took pictures of the screen when Obama appeared. A handful of viewers had tears in their eyes, but most were filled with \"pure joy.\" \"On Election Night, I was full of tears. I am all cried out -- it is all about joy now,\" said 72-year-old Shirley Turner-Haymer, the granddaughter of a former slave. Even young parishioners derived some significance from the event. \"It's really inspirational that we have a black president now ... because now I could see I can do whatever I want,\" said David Colvin, 10. Lynn Gabriel Thomas, far right, says she is watching the inauguration in honor of her father. Lynn Gabriel Thomas, daughter of Tuskegee Airman Daniel Moore, was one of about 300 people who crammed into the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena, California, to watch the inauguration. \"My father would be so thrilled to see this, Barack Obama being sworn in.\" Thomas said. \"He loved parades, and he hated crowds. I'm here for him.\" Across the country in New York's Bronx borough, students huddled in the halls of a school to watch the ceremony on a projection screen. \"They were cheering; they were clapping; they were in awe because everything we had talked about they were able to see,\" teacher Marta Rendon said. \"When they heard Obama's speech, they were right there clapping and screaming with the rest of us. It was really something. It was really amazing. Watch Obama promise hope over fear \u00bb . More than 100 people gathered at the central library in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, to watch the ceremony. \"It was really exciting to see people being excited about the country and really happy about there being a new president. And it was great to see such a collective sense of community ... hope and happiness,\" said Jessica Namakkal, a 29-year-old graduate student from Minneapolis. \"I think Obama's speech was great and that he really addressed the past eight years in a diplomatic and fair way, while also sort of pushing forward in a good way.\" The unusually bitter cold affected the turnout at Daytona Beach, Florida's, outdoor inauguration celebration, forcing people to take shelter at a local bar. Sean Mingo and his mother, Joan, watched the inauguration in Daytona Beach, Florida. More than 50 people packed into Mai Tai to watch the inauguration on television. Among them were Joan Mingo and her 13-year-old son, Sean, who stayed home from school to watch Obama take the oath of office. \"This is very historical,\" said Sean, who followed Obama's campaign and watched every debate. \"Obama is inspiring. I want to work in politics.\" Sean said his favorite line of Obama's speech was \"we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.\" As Obama was sworn in, the coffee-drinking bar patrons laughed, applauded and wiped tears from their eyes. \"Obama gives us hope, son, that you can be whatever you want,\" Joan Mingo said to her son. What Obama means to Americans . Obama's rise holds special meaning for Solas B. Lalgee, who was in New York's Times Square for the inauguration. View images from the inauguration \u00bb . \"I'm ecstatic,\" said Lalgee, 30, whose father is from the West Indies. \"It's the first time in my life I've ever had someone to look up to. I'm a mixed, multi-ethnic, multinational person, and I've never had someone I could look up to politically and say, 'That's somebody who can represent me. That's somebody who I can relate to. That's somebody that my family can relate to,' and the fact that he actually made it into office is just ... it gives me hope that I can do whatever I want to do in my life and not have a glass ceiling above me.\" \"To me, as an immigrant, it really means a lot to see a son of immigrants -- not only an African American but a son of immigrants -- come to the highest office in the land,\" she added. \"There's hope. And I hope to transmit that to my children.\" Chinoise Noble and her mother, Yolanda Lee-Singleton, watched the inauguration in Los Angeles' Nokia Plaza. In California at downtown Los Angeles' Nokia Plaza, 23-year-old Chinoise Noble clutched a photograph of her grandmother as tears streamed down her face. She said she brought the photo so her late grandmother could be with her on a day though that her grandmother never believed would come. She \"would never in a million years have thought there'd be a black president!\" Noble said. In Birmingham, Alabama, the site of racial turmoil during the Civil Rights era, Fred Jemison had high hopes for the Obama administration. \"The biggest thing that I look forward to, that I anticipate from this, is unity throughout the country, racially and politically,\" Jemison told CNN affiliate WBMA at Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium. At the Jewish Home, a senior living facility in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, about 70 residents and staff members watched the inauguration. \"This is wonderful and exciting,\" said 92-year-old Sylvia Segal, wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt. \"There's never been an inauguration like this one, with so many millions giving respect to the United States and an extraordinary man.\" Shelly Balzac, 81, said that he voted for Obama and that when he was a teenager, his father took him to Chicago's Soldier Field to witness Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaigning. \"It's momentous when you look at the conglomeration of all citizens of all colors and all creeds,\" said Balzac, a World War II veteran who said he witnessed the \"dehumanizing of blacks\" during those years and fought against it within the U.S. military. \"It is an emotional day for me,\" Balzac said. \"I realize the tremendous stride in making this a more unified country.\" Stan Keller and his daughter, Nancy, watch the inauguration at the Jewish Home in Los Angeles. \"I was crying inside all day,\" said Stan Keller, 88. He said Obama has inspired him to try to make a difference in the world. \"I came on Earth to make it a better place to live. I get that inspiration from this man,\" he said. iReporter Lee Ann Schmidt of Danbury, Connecticut, watched at home with her husband and two dogs. \"Just to be alive in this time to witness this, it means more to me than anything,\" she said. \"I'm 35. My generation has never really seen the entire country come together in a positive way like this. It really does give me hope for our country.\" In Raleigh, North Carolina, iReporter Sam Shaber watched the events with his parents at their house. \"We are all snowed in and have a bottle of champagne ready,\" he said. \"I am gay, and to have just any minority be elected is such a milestone in so many ways.\" Hopes for Obama . Jeff Teasley, a 49 year-old Navy veteran from Cheyenne, Wyoming, has been disabled since he hurt his back in 1990. Jeff Teasley, in his home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, hopes Obama is \"the best thing since running water.\" Teasley, a Republican who did not vote for Obama, was less enthusiastic over Obama's inauguration. Like many here in Wyoming, he fears that President Obama will expand the government and pass the cost onto people like him. \"With bigger government comes bigger taxes and with bigger taxes comes more strain on everybody's households.\" But Teasley said he is still rooting for the new president. \"I hope he pulls it off. I hope he's the best thing since running water because we need a leader, we need someone to direct these people in Washington.\" Others were more optimistic. In downtown Atlanta, Georgia, hundreds of people huddled together in freezing weather in Centennial Olympic Park to watch on two screens. Watch kids from Atlanta sing for Obama \u00bb . \"There's hope for a change,\" said Sonita Horn, a homemaker whose husband lost his job as an electrician in Atlanta and now travels three weeks out of four to Virginia for work. She said she hoped not only that Republicans and Democrats would find a way to work together but that the races would, too. \"Everyone will be treated equally,\" she predicted. \"We're now a United States of America, not a black America or a white America.\" CNN's Chris Welch, Michael Cary, Paul Vercammen, Lindy Hall and Jim Spellman contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Man says Obama inspires him to make Earth \"a better place to live\"\nNEW: Republican hopes Obama turns out to be \"best thing since running water\"\nTeen who took off school to watch speech with mom calls Obama inspiring .\n\"It's a brand new day for the country,\" man in New York says .","id":"ab50a080112b6bbcaa3166a05c1e369bb3289ccb"} -{"article":"(WIRED) -- With rumors piling up about a forthcoming Apple tablet, it appears more and more likely that such a device will emerge soon. This illustration imagines what an Apple tablet device might look like. But what's still unclear is how this gadget will set itself apart from Apple's multimedia-savvy product line, including the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the scores of failed tablet PCs that have come and gone. Judging from the company's past moves, we're betting that Apple's tablet will be a media-centric device, focused -- at least in part -- on shaking up the publishing industry. Apple is already prepared to blow Amazon and other e-book makers out of the water with one key weapon: iTunes. Having served more than 6 billion songs to date, the iTunes Store has flipped the music industry on its head. It also turned mobile software into a lucrative industry, as proven by the booming success of the iPhone's App Store, which recently surpassed 1.5 billion downloads. Apple has yet to enter the e-book market, and making books as easy to download as music and iPhone apps is the logical next step. What can Apple do better with e-books? For textbooks or anthologies, Apple can give iTunes users the ability to download individual chapters, priced between a few cents to a few bucks each. It would be similar to how you can currently download individual song tracks from an album. It might even have the same earthshaking potential to transform an entire industry by refocusing it on the content people actually want instead of the bundles that publishers want them to buy. (Of course, Apple would likely offer the \u00e0-la-carte purchase model in addition to the option to purchase the entire book as one download -- a more attractive option for shorter works such as novels.) College students would love this: Teachers rarely assign an entire textbook, so they would save hundreds of dollars by downloading only a few chapters of each textbook. Apple is already popular in the education sector, so here's even more money to milk from students, with the textbook industry worth an estimated $9.8 billion. Sci-fi fans might only want one story from an anthology, or a historical researcher might target certain subjects. All Apple has to do to secure the book publishers' enthusiastic cooperation is to offer them a generous cut of the revenues, like the 70 percent it currently offers app developers. Other than having the upper hand with digital distribution, an Apple tablet can compensate for other e-book readers' shortcomings. In a previous story, Wired.com polled students on their interest in Amazon's large-format Kindle DX reader. Several of them said they couldn't imagine ditching textbooks for a Kindle DX, foreseeing challenges with tasks such as notetaking, highlighting and switching between books while writing essays. Assuming its computing powers and interface design are anything like the iPhone's, a touchscreen tablet would make these student-oriented tasks as easy as a few swipes and taps -- far more pleasant than clunking around with the Kindle's cheap buttons and sluggish interface. Plus, we would imagine students would be able to type their papers on the tablet. Then there's the obvious: An Apple tablet would have color, making it better for displaying magazine pages, which could also be purchased through the iTunes Store. It wouldn't be saddled with a slow e-ink screen, so it could display video and browse the web with aplomb. Let's not forget to mention the multitude of other tasks an Apple tablet will likely be able to perform if developers decide to code applications for it. Think along the lines of an interactive remote control to enhance the movie-viewing experience on your TV, or a music video player to accompany the tunes blasting from your stereo. Or, heck, even an album-cover display screen for you to gaze at while listening to music. (For more on an Apple tablet's advantages versus current e-book readers, see Dylan Tweney's story \"Large-Screen Kindle Won't Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives.\") There's huge potential in a tablet if Apple can pull this off. The challenge lies in establishing the right partnerships. If Apple weaves e-books into the iTunes Store, will book publishers hop on board? Given Apple's success in numbers, we think so. As for a data provider, it would be even better if Apple could work with a carrier such as Verizon to subsidize the tablet, bringing it closer to $500 -- a more attractive price point for students. Because the device presumably would not feature a phone, the monthly plans could be priced significantly lower than an iPhone -- $30 to $40, perhaps, for an unlimited 3-G Internet connection. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"It appears more and more likely that an Apple tablet will emerge soon .\niTunes could make device a potent rival to Amazon's Kindle and other e-books .\nUsers could have the ability to download individual chapters, not entire books .\nAn Apple tablet would have color, making it better for displaying magazine pages .","id":"265081599f63a30cb0d7f5050ba5244fbcb5aa61"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is not often that football players are actively encouraged to play dirty -- unless of course they are taking part in a unique variant of the game called \"Swamp Soccer\" when it is virtually unavoidable. The competition is fierce in the 2009 Swamp Soccer World Championship held in Scotland . Originating from the bogs of Finland, the game was started by cross-country skiers who used the football matches in knee-deep mud to strengthen their leg muscles. The first tournament took place in 1997 with 13 teams, but now annual events take place in Sweden, Iceland, Russia and Brazil which can often feature over 200 teams. What do you think of Swamp Soccer? Do you prefer Beach Football of another form of the game? Let us know your thoughts on the 'Sound off' box below. Glasgow Rangers fan Stewart Miller imported the concept to the United Kingdom after a chance meeting with founder Jyrki Vaananen while on a business trip to Iceland. Miller launched the first UK tournament in 2005 and now teams travel from all over the globe to the Scottish village of Strachur to try and become the annual Swamp Soccer World Champions. Watch the action from the bog \u00bb. \"We had teams coming from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand to take part in the tournament this year so there is an international flavor to the event,\" Miller told CNN. \"There is a huge appetite to try out new things and I think that's why Swamp Soccer is able to capture the imagination of people. \"The basic rules of football also apply to Swamp Soccer with the exception that matches are played in thick mud with six players on an oversized five-a-side pitch. \"It's probably one of the only sports in the world where the worse the conditions are the better the sporting spectacle!\" There is no offside in Swamp Soccer while kick-offs, throw-ins, corner kicks, free kicks and penalties are taken by using the hands to drop the ball onto a chosen foot. Teams are also allowed to make unlimited substitutions although no shoe changing is allowed for the match duration. Miller believes that the oft-used quote that the state of a pitch can bridge the gap between two unevenly match teams is even more applicable with Swamp Soccer. \"You could put the Brazilian national side up against an amateur team and you wouldn't know who would come out on top -- the pitch really does prove to be a leveler in this instance,\" he said. \"Although professional footballers are precious commodities these days -- I'm not sure we'll see any stars getting caked in mud too soon, most of them are far to pampered for that. \"Nobody's ever been injured seriously playing in the swamp, sometimes somebody's got a cut or two but nothing big -- so maybe when they retire from the game they might be prepared to give it a go.\" The imaginatively titled Real Mudrid, Mudchesthair United and Cowdungbeath were unable to make it past the group stages in the 44-team event which was won by FC Full Gunge from Poole in England who retained their title with a 1-0 victory over The Chocolate Men. This year's Swamp Soccer tournament was held in a village in the Scottish countryside but Miller revealed that he intends to bring the mud game to metropolitan areas. He added: \"The future for Swamp Soccer is in the city and of course I'm certain we'll bring all the mud with us. It will certainly make a great spectacle if set up a swamp in the middle of Glasgow or Edinburgh, so watch this space.\" If you are interested in taking part in the 2010 Swamp Soccer World Championships visit the official Web site of the tournament.","highlights":"Swamp Soccer was started by cross-country skiers on the bogs of Finland .\nThe 2009 World Championships have just been held in Strachur, Scotland .\nCompetitors came from all over the world to take part in the tournament .","id":"52c71bdac6fb8bba6e0045457fdf2fc7b3eb19dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Ana threatened the Caribbean on Saturday, but it was too early to know how much trouble the first named storm of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season might cause. Forecasters expect Tropical Storm Ana to hit the Leeward Islands on Monday. Ana formed overnight and was expected to gain strength as it moved west toward the Leeward Islands, where forecasters expect it to hit on Monday. The Dutch Antilles issued a storm watch for St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected in the islands within 36 hours, according to the Miami, Florida-based National Hurricane Center. For now, the center has advised the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to monitor the storm's progress. As of 8 p.m. ET, Ana was about 730 miles (1,180 km) east-southeast of the Leeward Islands, according to the hurricane center. Ana, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), was moving west at about 17 mph (28 kph), the center reported. The storm is expected to turn west-northwest over the next few days, the center said. Ana may eventually hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but forecasters can't say whether Ana will strike the continental U.S. Further east in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Bill has developed and is expected to become a hurricane Wednesday. Forecasters say Bill could evolve into a Category 3 hurricane as it approaches the Leeward Islands by Wednesday or Thursday. Bill was about 820 miles (1,320 km) west-southwest of the Cape Verde islands at 5 p.m. ET.","highlights":"NEW: Ana is 730 miles east of Leeward Islands, moving west at 17mph .\nVirgin Islands, Puerto Rico advised to monitor storm's progress .\nStorm has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, hurricane center says .","id":"468a23a20ae9f369bd2f5e1ef531987ed69d14b1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Months after her father's prolonged campaign against President Obama's national security policies, Liz Cheney is spearheading a new organization aimed at organizing conservative opposition to the new administration's foreign policy approach. Liz Cheney formed Keep America Safe with William Kristol and Debra Burlingame. The new group, Keep America Safe, says its aim is to provide a cogent and organized rebuttal to a series of recent moves that expressly divert from the more muscular policies of the Bush administration. The group plans to tackle hot-button issues like the way forward in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense spending, CIA interrogation techniques, and the planned closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. \"We have watched with concern and dismay as the Obama administration has cut defense spending, wavered on the war in Afghanistan, and launched investigations into Americans serving on the front lines of the war on terror, while at the same time expanding legal protections for the terrorists that plot to attack this country,\" Cheney, along with the group's two other founders, wrote on its Web site. \"These policies, along with President Obama's abandonment of America's allies and attempts to appease our adversaries are weakening the nation.\" Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and Debra Burlingame, the sister of the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 -- the flight that crashed into the Pentagon on 9\/11 -- are also heading up the new effort. The new group says its goal is to focus media attention on continuing and emerging national security threats, and marshal grassroots opposition to the president's policies. \"Too often, significant events and thoughtful analysis in the war on terror are glossed over or ignored on nightly national newscasts,\" the group writes. \"Keep America Safe will highlight this information on our website and encourage dialogue between American citizens and their elected representatives in order to produce the legislative and executive action that will keep this country safe and strong. \" A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee responded forcefully to the creation of the new group, saying the Cheneys' foreign policy approach \"was deemed a failure.\" \"Last fall, the American people overwhelmingly rejected a radical foreign policy authored by Dick Cheney that alienated our allies, emboldened our enemies, depleted our resources, distracted our focus and made the nation less secure,\" DNC Press Secretary Hari Sevugan said. \"The Cheneys can continue to focus on securing their sullied legacy if they want to. But, the president will continue to focus on securing the country.\" Incorporated as a non-profit 501(c) 4, the organization is not subject to contribution limits, and is not required to disclose a list of its contributors to the Federal Elections Commission. However, it cannot engage in efforts directly aimed at influencing the outcome of an election. Kicking off a fund-raising drive Tuesday, Keep America Safe launched a one-minute, 30-second Web video that portrays Obama as a wavering politician whose ambitious foreign policy promises as a candidate have not matched his actions. \"Not enough time for a decision, but plenty of time for Letterman, golf, a beer summit, more golf, vacation, and a visit to Copenhagen,\" the video states. Cheney has been no stranger to the media spotlight since the Bush administration left office nine months ago. Regularly appearing on a series of cable news shows, the eldest daughter of former vice president has criticized Obama on a host of moves, once concluding that he has \"sid[ed] with the terrorists.\" The former vice president has also been a vocal critic of Obama, declaring earlier this year that the president's decision to cease the CIA's practice of aggressive interrogation practices has left the country more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.","highlights":"Keep America Safe says its goal is providing effective rebuttal to Obama .\nGroup's founders say it has watched administration with \"concern and dismay\"\nNEW: Democratic Party calls Cheney foreign policy a \"sullied legacy\"\nKeeping focus on national security threats is one of group's goals .","id":"c600ca5c752274a1044b51abda10f5e8997bd448"} -{"article":"MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov faced off again in Spain on Tuesday, 25 years after their epic first world championship battle in Moscow, in what organizers are calling a \"historic revenge match.\" Garry Kasparov, right, and Anatoli Karpov play chess at the Arts Palau in Valencia, on Tuesday. Revenge or not, the past chess champs will receive undisclosed sums for playing the three-day, 12-game match in the eastern port city of Valencia. There will be no additional cash prize for the winner of the exhibition event, which the regional Valencia government is organizing under the title \"Valencia, cradle of modern chess,\" event spokesman Rafa Carretero told CNN. But bragging rights, yes, and perhaps with more on the line for Kasparov, who dominated the chess world for 20 years. Kasparov carried on that legacy on Tuesday, winning the first two games in this rematch, Spain's state new agency EFE reported. Karpov was world champion when they began their initial five-month match in 1984 in Moscow. That match was controversially stopped by chess authorities, citing concerns about the health of the contestants after 48 grueling games. But the next year in Moscow, Kasparov beat Karpov in a rematch and went on to hold the number-one world chess ranking almost without interruption until his retirement in 2005. The two last met, in their fifth match, in 1990, with games played in New York and Lyon, France. Kasparov won. In a total of five world championship matches, Kasparov has the edge with 21 wins, 19 losses and 104 ties in a total of 144 games. Karpov, now 58, and Kasparov, 46, told Spanish newspaper El Pais they hoped the rematch in Valencia would put chess in the spotlight again. Karpov came from Russia to Valencia more than a week ago, with a team of elite trainers, organizers said. Kasparov arrived last Sunday from his home in Croatia, where he had been training. The match, at Valencia's Palace of Arts, has attracted interest from ticket buyers on five continents, organizers said. One of the highest-profile fans on hand is Sulaiman Al-Fahim, president of the chess federation of the United Arab Emirates and owner of England's Portsmouth football team. Dutchman Geurt Gijssen, who was referee for the last two matches between Karpov and Kasparov, will referee this match as well, the organizers said. Kasparov is now an opposition politician in Russia, running unsuccessfully against then-President Vladimir Putin in 2007. During their first match, in 1984, Kasparov was just 21 and Karpov was 33.","highlights":"Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov face off again, in Valencia, Spain .\nMatch comes 25 years after their epic first world championship battle in Moscow .\nKasparov wins first two games in the 12-game rematch .\nTheir 48-game Moscow match was controversially stopped citing health concerns .","id":"23b1711b12b8f8c49fda3695725087055e06abe7"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Typhoon Melor roared into central Japan on Thursday, leaving two people dead and lashing the region with heavy rain and gusty winds. Utility poles lie buckled in the wake of Typhoon Melor. The storm stayed west of Tokyo, but still caused enough trouble to shut down trains for a time and snarl commuter traffic. Numerous flights were canceled and delayed at the city's two major airports. In western and northern Japan, Melor tore roofs off homes, downed power lines and flooded roads. The storm contributed to the deaths of a 54-year-old newspaper delivery man in Wakayama, who ran into a fallen tree, and a 69-year-old man from Saitama, who was crushed by a tree. By late Thursday, Melor had weakened to a tropical storm and was heading out to sea. -- CNN's Kyung Lah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Typhoon Melor roars into central Japan leaving two people dead .\nStorm avoided Tokyo but caused major disruption to transport networks .\nStorm's victims were killed by falling trees .","id":"3abbd73af5e6ecfcbe7470478c88c1df05a5c021"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Police in Connecticut say they have arrested a woman suspected of robbing at least six banks in the past week. Police released photos of a suspect in the robberies of six New England banks. Detectives from the Major Crimes division of the Connecticut State Police took Heather Brown into custody at about 3:15 p.m. The 34-year-old resident of Norwich, Connecticut, will be formally charged with robbery in the first degree, police said. Investigators believe Brown robbed the banks, often while claiming to have a bomb. \"When she goes into the banks, she gives the teller information through a note or verbally that she has a bomb,\" said Sgt. Jim Keeney of the Connecticut State Police. \"However, there haven't been any reports of an actual bomb.\" Authorities say they believe the woman has held up banks in the Connecticut towns of Middletown, Montville, East Hartford and Windsor, as well as banks in West Springfield, Massachusetts and Westerly, Rhode Island. Women commit 6.2 percent of bank robberies nationwide, up from 4.9 percent in 2002, according to recent FBI figures. The one-woman crime wave in New England apparently began September 21 at the Citizens Bank in Montville, Connecticut. State police said \"a lone white female ... entered the bank with a bag in her possession. The suspect approached the teller indicated she was in possession of a bomb and demanded cash.\" The woman left the bag on a counter and bolted, police said. Four days later, a woman entered a branch of the New Alliance Bank in East Hartford, Connecticut. Investigators with the East Hartford Police Department said she \"left a note indicating that she had a bomb and demanded $1,000. She fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of money.\" Police suspect she struck again the next day in Windsor, Connecticut.","highlights":"Police say they have Heather Brown, 34, in custody .\nInvestigators say she held up at least six banks in the past week .\nShe informs teller she has a bomb, but no actual bomb has been seen, police say .\nPolice: Suspect lives in Norwich, Connecticut, has served time for bank robbery .","id":"a752429fe980ebfc8d67c2d26c254de58223ec82"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Muslims around the world woke up Sunday and welcomed the end of a long month of fasting with hearty greetings of \"Eid Mubarak,\" or happy festivities. Egyptian women perform the Eid al-Fitr dawn prayer at a stadium in Mansura, 120 km north of Cairo. The faithful were ushering in Eid al-Fitr -- three days of celebrations that Muslims mark with joyous community prayers, acts of charity, visits from far-flung relatives, gift-giving and elaborate feasts. \"Think Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's -- all rolled into one. It's that huge for us,\" said Sajjad Aziz of Hoboken, New Jersey. Islam follows a lunar calendar, and the timing of Eid al-Fitr varies around the world depending on when the crescent of a new moon is sighted. So, while most countries -- including the United States -- observed Eid on Sunday, some will begin their celebrations on Monday. The night before Eid, entire communities gather on rooftops, scanning the sky with giddy anticipation. \"It only needs one sighting of the moon in the whole country, and the whole nation erupts in cheers,\" said Qazi Arif, 35, of Sirajgong, Bangladesh. \"It's a divine feeling, hard to describe.\" Eid al-Fitr bids goodbye to Ramadan -- a month of dawn-to-dusk abstinence from food, drinks and other sensual pleasures. Muslims believe the Quran, the religion's holy book, was revealed to Prophet Muhammad during Ramadan more than 1,400 years ago. The Eid is one of two major holidays in Islam, alongside another called Eid al-Adha. The latter commemorates the prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, for God. On the morning of Eid, Muslims don new clothes and head to prayers that are often held in open fields to accommodate crowds too big to contain in mosques. Those who can afford it donate a small percentage of their possession or its equivalent to the poor and needy so they too can avail themselves for the celebrations. Feasts await at every house. \"It's a festival principally about community. We're even asked to take a different route when we walk back from prayers so that we can meet different sets of people to greet and celebrate with,\" said Wasim Iqbal of Karachi, Pakistan. For Muslims in North America -- and countries where they are the minority -- Eid is a more subdued affair. \"If you have family close by, then you can kind of capture the mood that you remember from back home,\" said Abdallah Gamal, a native of Egypt who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. \"But it's not the same.\" Because the U.S. Census does not ask about religious affiliation, it is difficult to gauge the Muslim population in the United States. The Pew Muslim American study conducted two years ago estimated it at 2.5 million, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations places it as high as 6 million. On Saturday, both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered greetings to American Muslims. \"We know there is more than unites peoples of faith than divides us,\" Clinton said. \"So as Ramadan draws to a close, let us hold on to that spirit of community throughout the year to achieve our common goals of peace, prosperity and stability.\" It is a message that Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, also shared during Eid prayers when he called on the Taliban to join the peace process in his war-weary country. The day wasn't one of universal comity, however. In Yemen, the government and rebels accused each other Saturday of breaking a cease-fire they both asked for to commemorate Eid. And Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei used his Eid sermon to launch another volley at the country's arch-rival Israel and at Western powers. \"We're not quite there, I'll will admit,\" said Mehreen Ali of Boston, Massachusetts. \"But have you seen an Eid prayer? Rows and rows of Muslims all prostrating together in unison. It's a feeling of such unity and brotherhood. You have to believe that with that spirit present, anything is possible.\"","highlights":"Eid al-Fitr marks end of Ramadan -- dawn-to-dusk abstinence from food, drinks .\nTiming of Eid varies around world depending on when crescent of new moon sighted .\nOn the morning of Eid, Muslims don new clothes and head to prayers .\nOn Saturday Barack Obama offered greetings to American Muslims .","id":"1c8dcd1087b0af58477215fa80716ad6523742a2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A superb second half goal from substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Barcelona a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Real Madrid to go back to the top of the Spanish La Liga on Sunday. Both teams ended with 10 men after Barca's Sergio Busquets went just after the hour mark for a second yellow card, with Real losing Lassana Diarra in the dying moments for two yellows. Ibrahimovic's goal was truly worthy of settling 'El Clasico' as the Swedish striker met a Daniel Alves ball from the right on the volley to leave Iker Casillas with no chance. The 55th minute strike in the Camp Nou came shortly after he replaced the ineffective Thierry Henry and followed an opening half in which visitors Real were the more threatening. Real had gone into the game with a one point lead in the standings over the defending Spanish and European champions and showed their quality on the break. Cristiano Ronaldo, making his first start in two months, might have put the visitors ahead in the 20th minute but was denied by home keeper Victor Valdes, who knocked his shot wide with his legs. Barcelona central defender Carlos Puyol also came to their rescue with two last-ditch challenges on Marcelo and Gonzalo Higuain from similar Real attacks. But the Catalans made the breakthrough as Ibrahimovic went some of the way to justifying his massive transfer fee and soon afterwards midfielder Xavi came within a whisker of a second from long-range. Further chances fell to Eric Abidal, who shot wide, and Argentine ace Lionel Messi, who was superbly denied by Casillas from close range. A tiring Ronaldo was substituted and his replacement, Karim Benzema, fired over the top in the 80th minute as Real pressed in vain for an equalizer. \"This was a very good test,\" Barca coach Pep Guardiola told gathered reporters. \"It's always difficult against Madrid but even more so when you go in as favorite and them as a big underdog. That's when Madrid is most dangerous.\" The three points leave Barcelona on top with 30 points from 12 games, two ahead of Real on 28. Sevilla, who drew on Saturday, have 26. In other action on Sunday, Deportivo La Coruna had a hard-fought 1-0 win at Racing Santander to move level on points with fourth-placed Valencia. Albert Lopo struck in the 76th minute to give the Galicians their eighth league success in 12 matches.","highlights":"Barcelona beat arch-rivals Real Madrid 1-0 in El Clasico on Sunday .\nZlatan Ibrahimovic scores only goal of the game in the Camp Nou .\nVictory leaves Barcelona two points clear of Real in La Liga .\nCristiano Ronaldo wastes best chance of the match for visitors .","id":"28cc33b07003e8599ae3c03385ab010c02c11dcc"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher on Saturday denied that he is the man shown pointing at the Google Street View camera as it drove past his local pub in London last summer. Liam Gallagher says the figure captured on Google Earth outside a pub in London is not him. \"Just saw google earth apparently that's meant to be me, who ... wears legwarmers with reeboks?? Not this kid!! LG,\" he wrote on Twitter. Though available for a while in the United States, Google Street View only launched in Britain last week. As in America, the launch in Britain prompted people all over the country to try to find themselves or spot funny images and famous faces on the service. Gallagher was apparently spotted outside The Queens pub in Camden, in north London, a place he's known to frequent. The picture shows a man dressed in a dark T-shirt and long shorts sitting at an outdoor table. He points at the camera, obviously having seen the Google car and its Street View camera drive by. The service blurs people's faces so it is hard to confirm whether it is Gallagher. Though the man isn't wearing legwarmers, Gallagher is apparently talking about the man's ankle-high shoes and thick black socks.","highlights":"Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher denies Google Earth appearance .\nFans said man captured on camera drinking outside London pub was singer .\nGallagher said the man was too embarrassingly dressed to be him .","id":"356388e5d21a574bfe3890694bdeef4cef6311e2"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- For many, the creative relevance of 3-D cinema remains very much an open question. But when the history of Hollywood's 21st century embrace of 3-D is written, it very well may point to this weekend as the moment when the format definitively established its commercial power at the box office. \"The Final Destination\" scared up by far the most box office receipts, banking $28.3 million. Despite a moviegoing weekend dominated with R-rated violent thriller-type films ostensibly shooting for the same audience, \"The Final Destination\" scared up by far the most box office receipts, banking $28.3 million for an easy No. 1 berth, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office. That's almost $10 million better than the opening frame for the last film in the creatively-dispatching-model-perfect-unknown-actors franchise (which, for those keeping track, was \"Final Destination 3\"). There's really only one reason why: Although just over half its 3,121 theaters were screening the flick in 3-D, fully 70 percent of its box office take was from 3-D theaters, which typically charge an extra few bucks per ticket for the privilege of watching the film with those comfy stereoscopic glasses. Rest assured, despite its title (and its abysmal \"C\" Cinemascore grade), this is by no means the final \"Final Destination\" movie. The folks at the The Weinstein Company, meanwhile, continue to enjoy good news for their much scrutinized bottom line: Quentin Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds\" landed at No. 2 with a rather spectacular $20 million, just 47 percent down from its opening weekend for $73.7 million total. TWC's sister company Dimension Films, meanwhile, saw its \"Halloween II\" debut at third with a nothing-to-sneeze-at $17.4 million. Granted, director Rob Zombie's second re-imagining of the 31-years-old slasher franchise made nothing close to the $30.6 million Labor Day weekend debut of Zombie's first night out with Michael Myers. But given the steep competition, and the film's $15 million budget, Dimension must be breathing a sigh of relief that their film will most likely see a decent profit. The box office love continued through much of the weekend's top 10: District 9 dropped just 41 percent with $10.7 million, strong enough to hold on at fourth place and, with a $90.8 mil running total, well on its way to joining the $100 million club. At number five, \"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra\" banged out $8 million, a 34 percent drop and $132 million total. And Julie & Julia savored a tiny 16 percent drop for sixth, with $7.4 million in its forth weekend for $70.9 million total. In fact, the only true disappointment for the weekend was Focus Features' \"Taking Woodstock.\" Director Ang Lee's trip back to the iconic three-day concert debuted at ninth with just $3.7 million, doubly disappointing since it opened wide in 1,393 theaters (after a Wednesday opening in New York and Los Angeles), with a feeble $2,691 per theater average. By contrast, two limited release debuts did rather well: Vogue magazine documentary \"The September Issue\" bowed on six screens with a very fashionable $40,000 per theater average; and the extreme-sports-fandom-gone-wrong dramedy \"Big Fan\" won $13,000 per theater on two screens. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Horror flick \"The Final Destination\" banked $28.3 million during its debut weekend .\nQuentin Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds\" landed at No. 2 with $20 million .\nAt number five, \"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra\" banged out $8 million .\nCheck out which other flicks made this weekend's top 10 at the box office .","id":"8400161f2130dbb2e395e40237d5d0d11b4bbe66"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two U.S. spacecraft are set to crash on the moon Friday. On purpose. And we're all invited to watch. An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket. NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite is scheduled to drop its Centaur upper-stage rocket on the lunar surface at 7:31 a.m. ET. NASA hopes the impact will kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS probe find the presence of water in the moon's soil. Four minutes later, the LCROSS will follow through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before crashing into the Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole. The LCROSS is carrying spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer. These instruments will help NASA scientists analyze the plume of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor. The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will watch, and photograph, the collisions. And hundreds of telescopes on Earth also will be focused on the two plumes. Watch animation of how the moon will be \"bombed\" \u00bb . NASA is encouraging amateur astronomers to join the watch party. \"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger,\" said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission. Ames will host \"Impact Night,\" an event with music and food starting Thursday evening before a live transmission of the lunar impact will be shown around 4:30 a.m. PT Friday. Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country will be hosting similar events. iReport: Are you planning to watch? \"The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth,\" Day said. The Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult. Watch CNN's Jeanne Moos ask if lunacy is behind the moon \"bombing\" \u00bb . The impacts will not be visible to the naked eye or through binoculars. If you don't have a telescope, or you live in areas where daylight will obscure the viewing, NASA TV will broadcast the crashes live. Coverage begins at 6:15 a.m. ET Friday. The two main components of the LCROSS mission are the shepherding spacecraft and the Centaur upper stage rocket. The spacecraft will guide the rocket to its crash site. Data from previous space missions have revealed trace amounts of water in lunar soil. The LCROSS mission seeks a definitive answer to the question of how much water is present. NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system. LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18. Friday's lunar impact will be visible best in areas that are still dark, particularly in the Western United States. The Fremont Peak Observatory near Monterey, California, will open up its doors early Friday to allow people to watch the event through its 30-inch telescope. It's \"the most accessible public telescope in the [San Francisco] Bay Area,\" said Dave Samuels, the observatory's vice president. So far, at least 50 people have signed up, Samuels said, noting that number is \"really phenomenal, especially on a school night [and] work night. It's really incredible.\" Students, retirees and board members are among those scheduled to attend. Samuels said a special low-light, infrared video camera will be hooked up to the telescope so that the audience can watch the rocket strike the moon. The observatory is in Fremont Peak State Park, which is on a list of California parks that could close because of recent budget cuts. Samuels said he hopes Friday's event triggers more interest in astronomy, particularly among young children, and possibly help the park to stay open. \"It's things like this that get kids interested [in science],\" he said. \"It will probably be a defining moment for them.\" Darrick Gray, who teaches atmospheric sciences at Ray-Pec High School near Kansas City, Missouri, said he's planning to take 17 students -- all juniors and seniors -- to watch the lunar impact . \"This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing,\" Gray said. He said he's arranged for a school bus to pick up the kids early Friday and take the class to the Powell Observatory in Louisburg, Kansas. \"It's weather-dependent; we've got rain right now,\" Gray said. \"It's going to be a call I make at 5 a.m.\" Gray, who is also the director of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, said his students will try to take photos of the impact through the eyepiece of their telescopes. He said he hopes the event will influence his students to pursue careers in science. \"Being as we do live here in Missouri, we're away from the hub [of astronomy],\" Gray said. \"We're not in Florida, we're not in Texas, we're not in Silicon Valley -- it's not something they're used to seeing. \"So any time you can show them something that's never been done, and they say, 'Oh this is pretty cool,' I think they buy into that.\"","highlights":"A NASA spacecraft is set to drop a rocket on the moon at 7:31 a.m. ET Friday .\nFour minutes later, the LCROSS probe will follow and crash onto the lunar surface .\nThe LCROSS probe will relay data back to Earth about water vapor in moon dust .\nThe debris plumes will be visible through midsize backyard telescopes .","id":"02bcf4a693c5d7ee6ca36f9a525978eaac91dcc1"} -{"article":"(Oprah.com) -- A businesswoman, a mother of four, an international fashion icon, a woman committed to making the world a better place for women and children -- Queen Rania of Jordan is truly changing the world. Queen Rania says cultural dialogue, education and increased opportunities are ways to combat terrorism. Rania Al-Yassin was born in Kuwait. Shortly after Saddam Hussein invaded that country in 1990, her family fled and settled in Jordan. After graduating from business school, Rania began working her way up the corporate ladder. When she was just 22, she went to a dinner party where she met Jordan's Prince Abdullah -- considered one of the world's most eligible bachelors. He didn't remain one for long after that night. Six months later, Rania and Abdullah had a royal wedding and started a family. And, though they planned for a life as royals, Abdullah assumed he'd remain a military officer for life. In 1999, while on his deathbed, King Hussein of Jordan stunned his country by announcing that his son Abdullah -- not his brother -- would succeed him as king. That made 29-year-old Rania the world's youngest living queen. Rania says that being queen is not the trait she defines herself by. \"I am not at all conscious of it,\" she says. \"I make a conscious effort not to be conscious of it. Because I'm Rania, you know? People call me 'Queen,' but, you know, that's not me ... I'm Rania.\" There are many perks to being queen, of course, but Rania stresses that there are also responsibilities. \"One of the major misconceptions about this position is that people think that I might be far removed, that I might not be in touch with reality,\" she says. \"The honest truth is that my life is very much about dealing with issues on the ground, dealing with ... the problems that our country faces. That's something I do on a daily basis.\" Watch how Queen Rania uses technology to reach young people \u00bb . When most people think of queens, they probably think of what they know from fairy tales. \"For me, it's just real life,\" Rania says. \"I am a mother. I care about my children. I worry about what they eat. I worry about the influences from their friends.\" Rania is not only sitting royalty in Jordan, she's raising the next generation of royals too. She is the mother of four children -- 14-year-old Hussein, 12-year-old Iman, 8-year-old Salma and 3-year-old Hashem. Rania says her family tries very hard to remain down to earth. The family has relaxed much of the ceremonial pomp and circumstance of their position. Rania prefers that people not refer to her as \"Your Majesty\" ... and King Abdullah loves to barbecue! The family never discusses the possibility that Hussein, their oldest child, could be the future king of Jordan, Rania says. Instead, she says the family strives to remain like any other family. For instance, to get the things they want, the children have to clean their rooms and do well in school. \"The most important thing is to instill them with the right values,\" Rania says. \"I just feel that values are the shield that you carry with you throughout life. It protects you from whatever life throws at you.\" Rania has become famous around the world for her efforts to improve educational opportunities for girls and the rights of women. \"In my mind, poverty is a 'she,'\" Rania says. Helping others is something Rania says she feels compelled to do. \"Once you feel that others are like you, then you want for others what you want for yourself,\" she says. \"And that way you start helping others.\" Rania explains that there is a direct relationship between increasing education and eliminating poverty. \"You can change the course of a nation through education,\" she says. \"One of the most important things you can do for a girl is empower her with her education. Once she has the education, she can then have control over her income, she can change her life, she can have choices.\" To understand what life is like for the women in Rania's kingdom, \"The Oprah Show\" spent a day with a few women in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. One woman named Muna worries about striking a balance between work and motherhood. Part of that means preparing lunch -- the most important meal in Jordanian culture -- for her family. Unlike in America, most children and husbands return home to eat with their families for lunch. Just like in America, Muna cooks a variety of meals, everything from traditional Arabic food to hamburgers and spaghetti. In this largely Muslim country, one religious tradition is increasingly a matter of choice. Approximately 60 percent of Jordanian women wear a veil. Though Queen Rania says she has never worn a veil, she understands why a woman would want to. \"We think it's a personal choice,\" she says. \"Unfortunately, in the West, people look at the veil as a sign of oppression or weakness. This is not true as long as a woman is wearing it because of her belief. I always say we should judge a woman according to what's going on in their heads rather than what's going on top of their heads.\" Rania says that when people focus on differences between cultures -- especially stereotypes and things like veils -- they fail to realize just how similar all people are. \"Once you go beyond the mannerisms, the language, the cultural idiosyncrasies, you realize that you're basically the same, you know?\" she says. Rania also wants to break down the stereotypes the West holds about her culture. \"I would like to dispel the misconception that Arabs are all extremists, that Arab people are violent and that women in the Arab world are oppressed and suppressed,\" she says. The struggle we feel today is not really Middle East against the West, Rania says, but rather it is between extremists and moderates of all religions. \"We need to speak up,\" she says. \"The biggest nightmare for the extremists is for us to get along, and that's why we have to get along. We have to communicate more.\" In the future, Rania says she hopes for a more open and secure world. \"We look at problems happening halfway across the world and we think, 'Well, that's their problem.' But it's not,\" she says. \"When you solve somebody else's problem, you're solving a problem for yourself because our world today is so interconnected.\" Rania says solving problems that stem from intolerance -- like terrorism -- require cultural dialogue, education and increased opportunities. \"We have to create opportunities for our youth so they have a chance in life,\" she says. \"Whenever you're frustrated and you feel like you don't have a future or you can't get a job, then you're more susceptible to be influenced by terrorism and extremist ideology.\" Oprah.com: Africa's first-ever elected female president . From \"The Oprah Winfrey Show\" Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Queen Rania is a businesswoman, a mother of four and a fashion icon .\nThe queen of Jordan says she has responsibility to help her country .\nShe is well known for efforts to improve education for girls .\nRania would like to break stereotypes the West has about Arab culture .","id":"b6f3fa0db13205addcb94c60bc324b54bca36d2f"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Volunteering with local law enforcement, Shaquille O'Neal has learned from his peers that domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous for police officers. NBA star Shaquille O'Neal praises Karen Earl for her efforts on behalf of domestic abuse victims. \"[It's] a very disturbing thing,\" said the NBA star, who has dealt mainly with children's cases. \"I don't really think a lot of women know what to do.\" That's where Karen Earl comes in. As executive director of the Jenesse Center, the oldest domestic violence intervention program in south central Los Angeles, California, Earl is a \"tireless and fearless\" champion of women and children living in abusive situations, O'Neal said. The Phoenix Suns center called Earl \"the pillow of women's society.\" For more than two decades, Earl has helped give victims a way out through the Jenesse Center, which provides shelter, education, outreach and legal services to more than 8,500 victims of domestic violence every year. \"Thank God for Miss Earl,\" O'Neal said. \"She takes women that have been involved in domestic abuse situations and gives them a place to come rest their head.\" According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year, and one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Earl has heard countless stories of domestic abuse and has seen a range of tipping points before victims seek help. She is working to lower these statistics. She recalled one woman whose husband beat her with an iron; for another, \"the beatings were standard, but when he sold their refrigerator and she couldn't keep her baby's milk cold anymore, she knew it was time to go.\" These women were able to find shelter and support -- and ultimately safety and success -- through the Jenesse Center. \"It is not normal to go to bed afraid,\" Earl said. \"And the thing that I know for sure is that there is help.\" When Earl began volunteering at the center in 1986, she said, she often thought of what her own mother went through. \"I remember us having to run out of the house at midnight with sheets wrapped around us. I know the impact it had on my mom, and of course the impact on me and my siblings,\" she said. \"I wish there were a place back then, but nobody talked about it. It was just family business; it was personal.\" Watch Earl discuss the center's mission to heal through art \u00bb . Today, Earl serves as Jenesse Center's executive director and calls her work with staff, fundraising and volunteer recruitment \"a 24-hour thing.\" The process of healing for victims generally starts with a phone call to the center's hot line, she said. The center provides counseling and literature and has a 30-day emergency shelter for women and their families. Earl said this emergency period \"is a time of regrouping\" and lets the women know that they're not alone and that they didn't do anything wrong. The center also provides long-term support. \"Women and their children can stay for two years,\" Earl said. \"Every able body, every day, gets up and takes classes. And when they're not taking classes, they're looking for employment, going through counseling sessions or [getting] legal assistance.\" For Earl, comprehensive care through a team approach is the key to the center's success. She said she has seen women at the center earn graduate degrees and become \"full-fledge\" professionals -- and that changing lives is what keeps her going. O'Neal said the center helps point women in the right direction and gives them the chance to overcome adversity. \"They'll help you get an apartment. They'll help you get a job. They help you get back on your feet and become the beautiful woman that you are.\"","highlights":"O'Neal's work in law enforcement taught him the serious nature of domestic violence .\nHis hero, Karen Earl, runs the Jenesse Center, which aids abuse victims .\nThe Los Angeles center helps more than 8,500 victims every year .\nThe center gives women a chance to overcome adversity, O'Neal said .","id":"b157cc180d3b433c60de988ab750f6ebb7e59a1e"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The A&E network quickly backed away from an earlier assurance that Michael Jackson's three children \"are not part of\" a reality show it is taping with four of the pop star's brothers. Before their father's death, Michael Jackson's children, Paris, Prince and \"Blanket\" were not often seen in public. The network said late Wednesday it was \"entirely possible\" that \"other members of the Jackson family\" could appear on the show, but it is too soon to know. US Weekly magazine quoted an unidentified source as saying that despite a sharp division in the Jackson family over the matter, Prince, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7, would be included in the show. \"The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty,\" which focuses on the lives of four of the Jackson brothers -- Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon -- was in the works before the singer's June 25 death. \"Filming is taking place right now,\" A&E said in the late Wednesday statement. \"As production moves forward, it is entirely possible that the brothers' paths will intersect with other members of the Jackson family, who may or may not be included in the finished series. However, we cannot at this point definitively know who else may make an appearance in the series.\" Earlier Wednesday, however, the network had seemed to rule out their appearance, saying, \"They are not part of the series.\" Jackson went to great lengths for years to keep his children out of the public eye, including covering their faces with masks and scarves. It was only at the public memorial service for Jackson that the world got a close look at them -- and began learning about their personalities. The magazine's source is quoted as saying that the oldest Jackson sister, Rebbie, \"feels Michael would spin in his grave if he knew his kids would be on this show.\" The public relations firm hired by the Jackson family soon after Michael Jackson's death issued a short statement Wednesday morning that did not dispute the US Weekly report. \"We are not going to comment,\" the statement said. The decision would be left to Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother, according to the lawyer appointed in August to represent the children in the probate of their father's will. Katherine Jackson was given guardianship over the children by a Los Angeles judge. The reality show is tentatively set to begin airing in December. CNN's Marc Balinsky contributed to this report.","highlights":"A&E to broadcast reality show featuring some of Michael Jackson's family .\nUS Weekly magazine says Jackson's children's will be part of the show .\nNetwork first says children won't be in show, then says they may .\nJackson, who died June 25, generally kept children from public view .","id":"5339e22309fb7590e72b6626b3aafa92d6d88a1a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Marjorye Heeney knew something was wrong when she saw a bulging cloud of black dust darken the sky. Drought-like conditions dried this Kern River bed last year near Bakersfield, California. She then heard an eerie, train-like whistle as fierce winds rattled her front door and windows. When she looked outside, hordes of grasshoppers and crows swarmed over her father's barren farm. After the storm broke, her father walked outside and muttered curses as he scanned the horizon for rain clouds. \"I can remember my dad just watching the sky so closely,\" Heeney says. \"A sprinkle would excite him so much.\" That's how Heeney, now 83, describes growing up on an Oklahoma farm during the Dust Bowl storms in the 1930s. For much of that decade, \"black blizzards\" -- formed by a prolonged drought and poor farming techniques -- ravaged much of the nation. Now a new generation of Americans is again anxiously looking to the sky. Drought has returned to the United States, and some warn that more tough days are ahead. The value of water is starting to become apparent in America. Over the past three years a drought has affected large swaths of the country, and conflicts over water usage may become commonplace in the future, climatologists say. \"Our focus is oil, but the critical need for water is going to make water the most significant natural resource that we're going to have to worry about in the future,\" says Larry Fillmer, executive director of the Natural Resources Management & Development Institute at Auburn University in Alabama. At least 36 states expect to face water shortages within the next five years, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, several regions in particular have been hit hard: the Southeast, Southwest and the West. Texas, Georgia and South Carolina have suffered the worst droughts this year, the agency said. Yet most people don't need scientists to tell them there's a water shortage. Plenty of cities have implemented water bans while state squabbles over water usage are common in some regions. What may surprise people, though, are the causes for the recent drought. It's not global warming, some climatologists say. The droughts are caused by rapid population growth and unwise agricultural choices. John R. Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, says the last three years have been drier than usual in many parts of the United States, but overall there's been no shortage of rainfall. He says the U.S. mainland experienced worse droughts in the 12th and 16th centuries. \"The demand for water has gone up,\" Christy says. \"The demand has skyrocketed in places like California and New Mexico because they've tried to grow crops in deserts.\" Even drought conditions in the Southeast can't be blamed on a shortage of rainfall, Christy says. The region's water delivery systems can't keep pace with the growth, he says. \"The rain is still falling, but you're out of water because the storage facilities are not big enough,\" Christy says. There's also a public perception that ordinary people are wasting more water, but that's not true, says Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. \"Per capita use of water is down because we're learning to be more efficient,\" Svoboda says. Water shortages don't have to remain a fact of modern life, drought experts say. Many offer the same solutions: Build better water delivery systems to accommodate population growth, develop more efficient uses of irrigation, and shift agriculture from the West to the East where it's easier and cheaper to water crops. Svoboda believes a change in attitude is even more vital than changing habits. \"We take water for granted,\" he says. \"We think it's a cheap commodity that's always going to be there.\" Heeney, the Dust Bowl survivor, doesn't appear to need that lesson. She remembers how precious water was in the 1930s when people fetched water in buckets. And when the rains finally ended the Dust Bowl, she vividly remembers her joyous father driving his family out into his fields just to watch the water settle into the soil. Heeney, who now lives in Topeka, Kansas, gets upset when she sees people throw away bottled water or use too much water to wash their cars. \"We don't value water and we're going to regret it,\" Heeney says. \"We forget. We're as dumb as we can be and we don't learn.\"","highlights":"Over the past three years a drought has affected large swaths of the U.S.\nReport: At least 36 states expect to face water shortages within the next five years .\nExperts say main causes are rapid population growth and unwise farming practices .\nMarjorye Heeney, 83, remembers the Dust Bowl storms of the 1930s in Oklahoma .","id":"ec5aa7a0ebd15c4a0d3381c5324ce13ee1f4e2d6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Saturday that U.N. nuclear experts can inspect a uranium enrichment plant, according to a report from Iran-funded Press TV. Iranian soldiers are shown in the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kms south of Tehran, in 2006. Ali Akbar Salehi said officials are trying to settle on a date for the inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. GeoEye, a U.S.-based satellite imagery company, released two photos dated Saturday from what it says is the second facility. The image shows quarry equipment, a surface-to-air missile site, and more construction equipment surrounding a mountain, according to image analysis by IHS Jane's, an intelligence firm. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility near the Shia Muslim city of Qom, about 100 miles southwest of Tehran. He said the plant won't be operational for about 18 months. Ahmadinejad told reporters Friday that Iran had met IAEA requirements by informing it about the plant at least six months before it is slated to begin operating. Watch Ahmadinejad hit back at Obama \u00bb . The watchdog agency confirmed that it received a letter Monday from Iran revealing the existence of the underground facility on a military base. Iran told the IAEA there is no nuclear material at the site, an agency spokesman said. Iran has denied its goal is to develop nuclear weapons, a concern of the United States and other Western nations. Esmail Kowsari, a senior Iranian lawmaker, said Iran's need for nuclear fuel is outpacing the limited amount of uranium it can enrich at its only other plant in Natanz. But Iran's activities, along with its anti-Western and anti-Israel rhetoric, have troubled international powers working to stop the development of an Iranian nuclear program. The country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it is planning to stage \"massive missile exercises\" or war games on Sunday to promote the armed forces' \"deterrent power,\" the semi-official Fars News Agency reported. The tests are code named \"Payambar-e Azam 4, or \"The Great Messenger,\" the corps said in its announcement. Iran's announcement came ahead of a planned meeting October 1 between it and the five permanent United Nations Security Council members, plus Germany. Leaders from the United States, France and Britain made a joint announcement, accusing Iran of violating international agreements by keeping the construction plan a secret. \"This is a serious challenge to the global non-proliferation regime and continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion,\" President Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio address. \"That is why international negotiations with Iran scheduled for October 1 now take on added urgency,\" he said. \"My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open. But Iran must now cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency and take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions.\" Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, told Press TV Saturday that Iran is \"very disappointed with the hasty, unjustified hostile reaction yesterday by three leaders.\" He was referring to Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Watch world leaders react to Iran \u00bb . \"What I suspect is a hidden agenda, which is going to jeopardize our excellent cooperation with the IAEA, and perhaps long-term jeopardize the integrity and credibility of the IAEA,\" he said. \"We are working with the agency in a very technical and smooth manner to arrange the inspection to the site.\" Other Iranians also reacted to the criticism over the new plant. iReport.com: Dissidents discuss Iran enrichment plants . \"God willing, this plant will be put into operation soon, and will blind the eyes of the enemies,\" Fars reported Saturday, quoting a senior Iranian official. The senior official, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, heads the office of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Also Saturday, the Web site of the Iran Student News Agency carried comments from an Iranian legislator who warned Western nations not to make Iran regret its cooperation with the IAEA. \"Western countries and the U.S. must not make Iran regret its cooperation with the IAEA beyond its legal obligations,\" said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chief of the Iran Parliament Commission for National Security and Foreign Policy. He said Western criticism of Iran's new facility is an \"illogical and unrealistic\" smear campaign. CNN's Ed Henry, Dan Lothian, Pam Benson, Matthew Chance and Moni Basu contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: News agency: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps plans \"missile exercises\"\nHead of Iran's atomic energy program says U.N. experts can inspect plant .\nIran told IAEA there is no nuclear material at the site, IAEA spokesman says .\nU.S. has known about unfinished site since Bush administration, officials say .","id":"9e69698efa8154333171c1675dd65312ecdd63c2"} -{"article":"CHAMBLEE, Georgia (CNN) -- Janet McBride had to send someone to fetch lunch for her Saturday. The cheerful auto dealer receptionist didn't dare leave her switchboard during the waning hours of the federal government's \"Cash for Clunkers\" program. Car shoppers browse a Honda showroom Saturday morning in Marietta, Georgia. \"Our phones have been ringing off the hook,\" said a giddy Pete Richards, general manager of Ed Voyles Honda in Marietta, Georgia. \"... It's been great. Phenomenal.\" McBride was compiling a list of customers for swamped salespeople to call back. \"I try to keep it under control,\" McBride said. \"I think we need one of those number things -- 'Now serving Number 5.'\" As of 11 a.m. Saturday, the Honda dealership just north of Atlanta said it had made 108 clunker deals since the Car Allowance Rebate System program began on July 1, and Richards expected to do plenty more before closing down Sunday night. Watch what car buyers need to know \u00bb . \"If I don't do 30 of these today, I'll be amazed,\" he said. A normal Saturday would produce about 12 sales, he said. The program has generated so much traffic and new-car buzz that even non-qualifying and used car sales have jumped, Richards said. \"We're having a ball. I haven't worked a Saturday in probably two years. But I woke up at 3 o'clock this morning. Couldn't wait to get here,\" he said. \"It's like Christmas!\" McBride added before her phone rang again. It's more like the letdown of late Christmas afternoon across town at Jim Ellis Chevrolet in Chamblee, Georgia, where General Manager Mark Frost just wants to be done with the headaches the clunkers program has caused. \"If President Obama came and sat behind a computer and saw how his program is being administered, he's crack some heads,\" Frost said. \"My impression is that he's about excellence and execution, and there's some dumbass [at the Department of Transportation] sitting there looking at this computer and rejecting deals that are perfectly good.\" The 12 Atlanta-area dealerships under the Jim Ellis name had made 350 clunker deals worth almost $1.5 million in reimbursements and received payment for none, Frost said. Among those making deals was Mark Gallo, an Atlanta antiques dealer who traded in his eight-cylinder 1998 Chevy van for six-cylinder 2009 model. He received a $4,500 allowance for his clunker, which he guessed was $1,500 more than he would have gotten otherwise. The gas mileage still isn't great, \"but it's better than it was,\" Gallo said. \"And I needed a van.\" He'd been thinking about trading up for a while, but the end of the program prompted him to pull the trigger. \"I thought it was going to last a lot longer than it actually did, ... but I saw that it was ending on Monday and I said, 'Oh, damn! Scramble!'\" Also scrambling to make a deal Saturday was Rick Wright of Woodstock, Georgia. The ironworker has been working in Orlando, Florida. But when his wife, bus driver Cindy Wright, traded in their 1998 Chevy Tahoe for an '09 Traverse, he needed to be there in person to show his driver's license and sign over the title. \"I'm working out of town at the present time, so she calls me up and says, 'Hey, they're going to cut this off at 1 o'clock. Do you want the car?' And I said, 'Let's go for it,'\" said Rick Wright, who made the seven-hour drive in time to sign the deal around 10 a.m. Saturday. \"That was the only way we could get it done.\" While the government says the program continues through the end of business Sunday, Frost decreed that the last deal at the Jim Ellis dealerships had to be made by noon Saturday and the paperwork submitted by 1 p.m. in anticipation of continued problems with the CARS submission process. \"It's the paperwork that's the biggest pain in the neck,\" said Jim Ellis salesman Neil Krieger, who sold Gallo his van. Salespeople have been working long hours and making big commissions at both dealerships. \"It's been good for me. Oh yeah,\" the Wrights' salesman, who goes by the single name Kya, said. It's a matter of delayed gratification for the dealers, who will have to wait for the government to sort through the mountainous heap of applications, approve the deals and issue $3 billion in reimbursement. \"This could be devastating for dealers if they don't get this going and do this right,\" Frost said. \"A month from now, if all of our deals get paid, then Obama's my hero,\" he said. \"If, in a month from now, if we still have ... $200,000 that we're not getting paid, it's a disaster.\" Frost worries too much, Honda dealer Richards said. \"We're going to get our money,\" he said. \"We're making sure the deals are straight. If everybody's got their documentation right, they've got the buy of lifetime.\" Despite his concerns, Frost tried to remain optimistic in the program's final hours. After all, his dealership's sales are up 30 percent from last year, he said. \"People are coming in,\" he said not long after opening Saturday. \"I smell clunker.\"","highlights":"Customers rush in for final weekend of \"Cash for Clunkers\" program .\nPhone at Honda dealer in Georgia \"ringing off the hook\"\n\"It's like Christmas!\" dealership's busy receptionist says .\nGovernment red tape giving auto group's general manager headaches .","id":"33eef46abedc5180d92118e0986fa0b1c45d9401"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- As Christmas season went into full swing this year, Glen Fullmer's 7-year-old son came home from school with an assignment: Make a poster illustrating his family holiday traditions. The boy wasn't sure how to proceed because he and his family are Baha'is, not Christians, and they have no holidays during the Christmas season. Thus, Fullmer encountered the \"December Dilemma\" -- the term used for the quandaries and anxieties non-Christians and interfaith couples face during Christmas season. Fullmer, a Baha'i faith spokesman who lives in Evanston, Illinois, said he saw the poster assignment as a \"teachable moment\" for his 4-, 7- and 10-year-old sons who associated holiday traditions with Christmas. He reminded his boys that Baha'is have a gift-giving and charity period in February called Ayyam-i-Ha, a stretch of time not unlike the Christmas season. And he helped his son design the poster about that holiday, which precedes a fasting period and then the Baha'i New Year in March. \"His classmates asked him questions about the holiday, and one of his friends came up to him and wants to celebrate that holiday,\" Fullmer said, pleased that his son's peers helped him reaffirm his identity. Navigating the Christmas season can be a challenge for the millions of people who don't celebrate the holiday. Many acknowledge and sometime embrace the season's customs, such as gift-giving and sending out greeting cards, while at the same time they are conscious of maintaining their own religious identities. \"They strongly try to maintain their own integrity, but they really want to find bridges across holidays,\" said the Rev. Dr. Paul Numrich, a professor at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus in Ohio. \"I think that's the majority.\" L.S. Narasimhan, chairman of the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, is a Hindu and doesn't celebrate Christmas. But he said he admires the Christian celebrations of his friends and has attended Christmas Eve services at several churches. \"Hindus are typically more open-minded and tolerant. Hinduism is very comfortable in accommodating a diversity of ideas,\" he said. \"It is very common for Hindu families to have Christmas trees at their homes, purely as a fun thing to do for their children. When they visit shopping malls, Hindu parents in general are comfortable with a photo-op for their little kids with Santa.\" But at the same time, there are pressures about the encroachment of Christianity on Hindu life. \"Television commercials, good selection of merchandise and great sale prices persuade Hindu-Americans to take advantage of the shopping spree,\" Narasimhan said. \"Several Hindu temples have risen up to the challenge and added some special Hindu prayers and ceremonies to engage Hindus who are on winter holidays but not on overseas vacations.\" Dr. Shefali Chheda, an Atlanta-area pediatrician, is a Jain -- practicing a religion with Indian roots. Growing up in Houston, Texas, she said her parents \"felt comfortable letting us celebrate Christmas,\" perhaps to help fit into American society and maintain a sense of normalcy. \"The spirit and meaning of Christmas, of helping others and of giving, are nice messages. Therefore, it is hard to consciously object to it,\" Chheda said. \"Jains, as a whole, are a minority in India. Many Jains celebrate Hindu holidays, so celebrating Christmas with Santa and a tree and presents is no different. Since Jains wholeheartedly believe in 'ahimsa' -- peace toward all living beings in thought, word and action -- the Christmas spirit is a very Jain-like philosophy.\" The religious aspect of Christmas -- believing Jesus is the savior and that December 25 is his birthday -- is not celebrated in Jainism, but the customs and symbols are interwoven into daily life, she said. \"Now that I have toddlers in the house, they come home with stories about Christmas. They sing songs about Rudolph and Santa, and Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. But it's Santa that everyone talks about, so they talk about him as well,\" Chheda said. \"I use Santa as a behavioral modification tool. 'Santa's watching you, so you better be good' works infinitely better than timeout. My kids will be living in this country; they will have a hard enough time anyway with their names and food and other cultural traditions; Christmas -- and the Christmas spirit -- is not one tradition that I want to take away from them.\" Jesus plays a role in the theology of other religions, such as the Baha'i faith and Islam, even though those faiths don't observe Christmas as a religious holiday. The Christmas season presented a struggle for Haris Tarin, director of the Washington office of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee. He grew up in Los Angeles, California, area schools, where he sang the ever-present Christmas carols and made the gingerbread houses in schools but didn't have a tree in his home. \"We definitely had a little bit of anxiety in childhood,\" Tarin said. But that changed as he grew up and refined his American Muslim persona amid the American atmosphere of diversity and tolerance. Now, where he and his family live in northern Virginia, \"we don't celebrate Christmas. We celebrate our holidays\" -- pointing, for example, to Eid al-Fitr after Ramadan and Eid al-Adha after the hajj pilgrimage. But he welcomes the goodwill of the season -- the gift-exchanges with non-Muslim neighbors and the requests from schoolteachers to talk about Muslim holidays. \"There's definitely going to be a level of discomfort, especially for those who aren't used to that diverse culture that we belong to,\" he said. But the unease spawns discussion, presenting a useful opportunity to help young people and newcomers, he said. For Jews, the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah happens to fall during the Christmas season. Hanukkah is wildly popular and observed, with its special foods, gift-giving and candle lighting, and with its symbols such as the menorah -- a candelabrum -- and the dreidel, a toy that spins like a top. Compared with other non-Christians, many Jews have drawn a sharper line in the sand when it comes to observing Christmas, a stance informed by historic, theological and self-preservation reasons. That attitude emerged recently during a young professionals' get-together at an Indian restaurant outside Atlanta sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and Young Indian Professionals. People there indicated that attending Christmas-themed holiday parties, exchanging greeting cards and wishing Christian friends \"Merry Christmas\" are surely not uncommon or unacceptable among Jews. But some practices are widely shunned -- such as plunking one's child on Santa's lap at the mall, and deplored -- such as assigning kids in public schools to write a letter to Santa Claus. \"It's a beautiful season. It brings out a joy,\" said Hannah Vahaba, who organized the Jewish-Indian event. \"But I'm not going to celebrate it.\" Interfaith couples celebrate their diversity during the Christmas season. Jeff Silver, a certified public accountant who is Jewish, and Shweta Gupta, a dentist who is Hindu, are planning their marriage next year. They will have an interfaith household and said they hope to raise children to understand both of their traditions. At their home in Atlanta, they've set up a holiday tree decorated with Hindu and Jewish ornaments. Non-religious Americans embrace a December \"secular holiday\" called HumanLight. Patrick Colucci, vice chair of the HumanLight Committee and member of the New Jersey Humanist Network, said the holiday can uplift \"atheist, humanist and nonreligious\" people who feel left out and isolated during Christmas. It was a perfect fit for him when it came along, he said, because \"it corresponds with my humanity-based ethics and values, without any supernatural or theistic beliefs. My 'holiday season' is HumanLight and New Year's Eve -- that's what I celebrate.\" \"The only dilemma, in my experience is, if Christmas is part of the larger family tradition, and then some family members reject us for not believing in it anymore. We're not out to take Christmas away from anyone who wants to celebrate it -- there is no 'war on Christmas,' \" Colucci said. How do Christians themselves see the presence and practices of non-Christians during Christmas? While many would like to see non-Christians convert to Christianity, they also recognize that the United States is a \"diverse society\" and that conversion \"is not even on their radar screen,\" said Numrich, the theology professor. \"There's a deep American virtue in respecting religious differences,\" he said.","highlights":"Non-Christians and interfaith couples often face quandaries and anxieties during holidays .\nMany acknowledge and sometime embrace customs of the Christmas season .\nOthers remain conscious of maintaining their own religious identities .","id":"9bd5a4a840c45c51ba1117bef4e75a83054b1cff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stonehenge, an enigma to visitors and scientists alike for so many years, became less of a mystery after a discovery announced to the world this week. A stone circle discovered near Stonehenge may suggest the prehistoric monument was part of a funeral route. Archaeologists have unearthed a new stone circle near Stonehenge that lends credence to the theory that the famous prehistoric monument in Britain was part of a funeral complex. University of Bristol archaeologist Joshua Pollard described the new find as \"incredible\" because it establishes Stonehenge as part of a larger ceremonial complex linked to the nearby River Avon. \"No one could have predicted there was another stone circle so close by,\" said Pollard, co-director of the excavation project that began in 2004. This, he said, changes the perception of the popular tourist destination 90 miles west of London. The new find, dubbed \"Bluestonehenge\" after the color of the 25 Welsh stones of which it was once composed, sits along the Avon a mile away from its famous sister circle, Pollard said. Neolithic peoples would have come down river by boat and literally stepped off into Bluestonehenge, Pollard said. They may have congregated at certain times of the year, including the winter solstice, and carried remains of the dead from Bluestonehenge down an almost two-mile funeral processional route to a cemetery at Stonehenge to bury them. \"It could be that Bluestonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge,\" said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield who co-directed the project with Pollard. \"Not many people know that Stonehenge was Britain's largest burial ground at that time,\" he said. \"Maybe the blue stone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself.\" Proof of life artifacts -- pottery, animal bones, food residues and flint tools used in the Stone Age -- are decidedly absent at Stonehenge but were found upstream in a village discovered by the excavation team in 2005, leading researchers to believe that Stonehenge was indeed a burial ground. But people have debated the purpose of Stonehenge for decades. Known for its orientation in relation to the rising and setting sun, the circle of stones represented a prehistoric temple to some. Others argued it was an astronomical observatory. Or that it was a marker of time. But Pollard is sticking to his theory. He said others have not based their suppositions on archaeological finds. Archaeologists began the latest excavation with the hope of tracking the course of the avenue that led to Stonehenge. They had no idea they would stumble upon a second circle that would help uncover the mystery of Stonehenge. The stones at Bluestonehenge were removed thousands of years ago, Pollard said, but the sizes of the remaining pits, about 33 feet in diameter, point to giant blue stones from the Preseli Mountains of Wales, about 150 miles away. Pollard said that Neolithic people dragged the pillarlike blue stones along the processional route to Stonehenge to incorporate them in a major rebuilding that took place around 2500 B.C. Archaeologists know that after 2500, Stonehenge consisted of about 60 Welsh stones and 83 local sarsen stones. Some of the blue stones that once stood on the river's edge probably now stand within the center of Stonehenge, Pollard said. Scientists plan to use radiocarbon dating techniques to better understand the history of the entire site. Stonehenge remains as striking as ever. But with each new find, the enigma fades just a little.","highlights":"Discovery of lost stone circle sheds new light on Stonehenge's purpose .\nResearchers say \"Bluestonehenge\" was starting point of funeral processional route .\nBluestonehenge is named after color of Welsh stones from which it was formed .\nSome have viewed Stonehenge as temple, astronomical observatory .","id":"79feef5845eb3fec37530107ea134ac8b237c799"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The powerful Service Employees International Union has decided that, because of the $700 billion financial-system bailout, it wants to organize bank workers. Banks that get taxpayer money need to \"ensure their workers have a voice,\" a union spokeswoman says. In an e-mail dated November 12 and obtained exclusively by CNN, a member of SEIU's Private Equity Project outlined initial discussions to organize bank workers \"since the banking industry is now being infused with billions of taxpayer dollars.\" The e-mail was written by SEIU's Inga Skippings to the director of the Washington office of the Association of Community Organizing for Reform Now (ACORN), a longtime ally and partner of the union. \"We need to get a handle on who these workers are, working conditions, etc.,\" Skippings wrote. \"Do you have ACORN members who work for banks or Freddie Mac\/Fannie Mae? Is there anyway [sic] you could check? The banks we're most concerned about are: . -- Fannie Mae -- Freddie Mac -- Chevy Chase\/B.F.Saul -- BB&T -- SunTrust -- Bank of America\/Countrywide -- Wachovia\/Wells Fargo -- PNC Bank\/National City -- Citigroup . \"Please let me know and if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.\" Skippings referred questions to a union spokeswoman, who confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail and that the union is considering targeting the banks for unionizing. \"We believe there is special responsibility for companies who receive taxpayer dollars to ensure their workers have a voice on the job,\" SEIU's Lynda Tran said. \"And those workers should have a seat at the table at the companies where decisions that impact the future of their families and the companies that employ them\" are made. \"We are talking to workers really broadly in banking,\" she said. SEIU is the fastest-growing trade union in North America, according to its own Web site, with a membership of more than 2 million, including health-care industry workers and state and local government employees. It also represents guards and janitors who work in commercial and residential properties. And its clout continues to grow. SEIU's $85 million in political donations made it the single-largest contributor to either party in the recent elections. The union worked vigorously for the election of Barack Obama, who has named a former union official as his White House political director, a post once held in the Bush administration by Karl Rove. The official, Patrick Gaspard, formerly was executive vice president of politics and legislation for Local 1199, the SEIU's United Healthcare Workers East. SEIU, which broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005, is known for its successful but sometimes controversial tactics: It often targets private equity groups' leaders, as well as banks and companies, with loud and demonstrative rallies. The union's hierarchy has made no secret it hopes to grow under the incoming Democratic administration. \"I would say that we've been very vocal about the optimism about the new administration,\" SEIU's Tran said. \"There are a number of newly elected members of Congress who agree with us on matters relating to working families.\" One labor professor said SEIU's timing in trying to unionize bank workers may be on target \"because financial institutions are at a moment of weakness.\" \"Low-wage earners are the growing sector of the work force,\" said Gregory DeFreitas, an economics professor at Hofstra University and director of its labor studies program. \"This is a very shrewd political move to tie this to the bailouts.\" DeFreitas said unions tend not to do well in attracting workers during economic recessions because jobs are scarce then. But he said recent surveys indicate a majority of workers would consider organizing, so the public's appetite for unions may be on the upswing. \"Bank teller jobs are one of the few jobs that are actually growing,\" DeFreitas said. \"And they are low-wage earners, so it makes sense that it fits into the SEIU model. SEIU has been very opportunistic in growing its membership. Success breeds success.\" The median annual earnings of bank tellers was about $22,000 in May 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A spokesman for the American Bankers Association said it had no one who could comment on labor issues. He said the association represents 95 percent of the industry's $13.6 trillion in assets.","highlights":"Union says it is considering targeting banks for unionizing .\nE-mail from union lists the banks it's \"most concerned\" about .\nE-mail cites $700 billion financial-system bailout as reason for move .\nSpokeswoman: Bailed-out banks have responsibility to ensure workers have voice .","id":"8ccb1ee8a178615a29a7d0e177cba207ac0fe602"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday he sees no change in U.S. policy toward Iran despite the U.S. promise of a \"new beginning.\" Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would change its policy when the U.S. did so as well. Khamenei said a change in rhetoric is not enough, and Washington must practice what it preaches, according to the English-language Press TV channel in Iran. He also promised that Iran will change its policy if the United States does so as well, Press TV reported. Khamenei's comments, which he made in a televised address to mark the start of the Iranian New Year on Friday, come a day after U.S. President Barack Obama reached out to Iran in a videotaped message. A spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned U.S. foreign policy Friday in response to the video. Obama's message spoke of \"new beginnings\" with the promise of a new year. \"My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community,\" the president said in his message Friday. Obama said the United States seeks engagement with Iran that is \"honest and grounded in mutual respect.\" The president's message is part of a dramatic shift in tone from that of the Bush administration, which branded Iran as part of an \"axis of evil\" along with North Korea and Iraq. It also echoes Obama's inaugural speech in which he told the Muslim world, \"We seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.\" Ahmadinejad said last month that Iran would welcome talks with the United States \"in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.\" Khamenei also said world powers have come to realize they are not able to block Iran's nuclear progress. He looked back on the February 25 testing of Iran's first nuclear power plant, at Bushehr, as one of the \"joyful developments\" of the past year. Last month, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released a report saying that Iran has reached \"nuclear weapons breakout capability\" -- it has enough uranium to make a nuclear bomb. The report was based on an analysis of data from the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, an IAEA official who asked not to be named cautioned against drawing such dramatic conclusions from the data, saying Iran's stock of low-enriched uranium would have to be turned into highly enriched uranium to be weapons-grade material. That hasn't been done, the official said. The United States has had tortuous relations with Tehran since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Meanwhile, the widow of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died Saturday morning after a long period of illness, the Iranian-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. A funeral for Khadije Saghafi was scheduled to be held Sunday in Tehran and she was set to be laid to rest in Khomeini's tomb, the agency reported. Khomeini was the leader of the 1979 revolution that led to the toppling of the shah of Iran and the ushering in of an Islamic state. He died in 1989.","highlights":"Iranian supreme leader: No change in U.S. policy despite Obama overtures .\nU.S. President Obama reached out to Tehran in Iranian New Year message Friday .\nAyatollah Ali Khamenei: Iran will change when U.S. changes .\nObama: U.S. seeks engagement that is \"honest and grounded in mutual respect\"","id":"14862c0e384d9c3768a2728e3bfa0e3642e70396"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A motorcycle bomb killed 20 people and injured 117 others south of Baghdad on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said. The bombing in the holy city of Karbala was one of four attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims as they headed toward the shrine of Imam Hussein on Wednesday morning, a ministry official said. Three people died and 23 were injured in the other attacks. In those explosions, a roadside bomb in western Baghdad killed one person, and a roadside bomb in the city of Hilla in Babil province, south of Baghdad, killed two people. A roadside bomb in southwestern Baghdad caused only injuries. Wednesday's attacks came two days after a suicide bomber killed 41 people and wounded 106 others in an assault on pilgrims in northeastern Baghdad. Iraqi authorities are trying to provide security to thousands of Shiite worshipers who are making their way to Karbala to mark the Arbaeen -- the end of the 40-day mourning period at the close of Ashura. Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in battle in Karbala in 680 A.D. That event helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bombers target Shiite pilgrims in the holy city of Karbala .\nTwenty people killed, more than 100 injured in a motorbike blast .\nAttack was one of four carried out Wednesday .\nThree people died and 23 were injured in the other attacks .","id":"7dd67d7b1bbd42c54b12ae904d49a5a4bce02df3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The bad news came via certified letter to Norma Jimenez, Edna Rodriguez and nearly 17,000 other Puerto Ricans this month. Thousands last week protest government layoffs in Puerto Rico. To cut spending, Puerto Rico announced last month that thousands of government employees would be fired in the second round of layoffs this year. More than 7,800 public employees were fired in March. \"I was fearful because of the uncertainty,\" Jimenez, 42, an auxiliary administrator for the U.S. territory's Department of Education told CNN. \"Will the letter come or not come?\" The letter came, and it said that under a measure authorized by an emergency fiscal bill, her last day of work would be January 8 of next year. Rodriguez, who worked for the education department for 11 years as a receptionist, got the same letter, but with a November 6 termination date. \"It was as if the world collapsed,\" she told CNN. And presumably, so it goes for the thousands of other public employees who were laid off. The austere measures are a bid by the government to stabilize a fiscal mess and save Puerto Rico's credit rating. According to government figures, the U.S. territory faces a $3.2 billion budget deficit -- proportionally, the largest shortfall in the United States -- and is entering a fourth year of recession. The severity of the plan reflects the aftermath of what experts say is years, maybe decades, of the lack of a forward-looking economic policy. Confronted with the fear that the credit-rating agencies might reduce Puerto Rico's rating to junk status, the administration of Gov. Luis Fortuno has taken strong, but controversial, steps. \"Every layoff letter has a name, and every name has a story,\" Puerto Rico Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock said in an interview with CNN. But, he said, \"Doing nothing was not an alternative.\" The governor and other officials cut their salaries and trimmed spending in other areas, but the massive layoffs were necessary to avert the downgraded credit rating, McClintock said. \"If that happened, we would become the first state in the history of the U.S. to have its credit downgraded to junk bond,\" he said. Puerto Rico's unemployment rate is nearly 16 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to government calculations, a downgraded credit rating would have pushed that figure toward 25 percent unemployment, McClintock said. The government is betting that the reduced spending, combined with $6.5 billion in combined federal and local stimulus funds, will be enough to get the territory back on solid footing. As a U.S. commonwealth, Puerto Rico exercises much autonomy, but still falls under U.S. jurisdiction. In addition to the federal stimulus money, Puerto Rican officials traveled to Washington last month to lobby for discretionary stimulus grants. How did Puerto Rico get into this predicament? \"This did not happen overnight,\" said Miguel Soto-Class, executive director of the Center for the New Economy, an independent think tank in Puerto Rico. For too long, the island has been dependent on a single industry at a time, Soto-Class told CNN. First it was coffee, then sugar, and most recently pharmaceutical production plants. Under the terms of a special tax break, U.S. companies were exempt from paying federal income tax on profits earned by their Puerto Rican manufacturing subsidiaries. This brought plenty of companies and jobs to the island until Congress voted to phase out the benefits between 1996 and 2006. When a number of foreign companies began to pull back, Puerto Rico saw that the local economy had not absorbed many benefits from the foreign plants, Soto-Class said. For instance, local restaurants didn't sprout near the plants because food was usually done in-house. Likewise, the foreign companies used their own accountants, leaving local CPAs few opportunities to grow. \"That wasn't the cause, but it laid bare that we hadn't had an economic development model in a long time,\" Soto-Class said. On the fiscal front, most the attention has focused on the large public workforce. With a workforce of some 200,000, Puerto Rico, with a population of about 4 million, has more public employees than any state in the union, with the exception of California and New York, McClintock said. For comparison, California has about one state employee for every 103 residents, while Puerto Rico has one public worker for every 20 residents. The public payroll had become bloated, he said. Edwin Melendez, director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, said that a large public workforce is not a bad thing, as long as it adds and keeps up to the territory's growth. But even when Puerto Rico's economy started declining, the public sector continued to swell. The territory's political parties had become dependent on government employment as a political tool, in effect creating a patronage system, Melendez said. \"We are where we are because the patronage system is bankrupt,\" he said. For Fortuno, a member of Puerto Rico's pro-statehood New Progressive Party and also member of the Republican Party, the challenges required immediate action. \"You can bring it down to a four word phrase: 'No pain, no gain,' \" McClintock said. The government has already spent more than $1 billion in stimulus funds that have created some 10,000 private sector jobs, he said. \"That's why we are stimulating the private sector to grow, so that it can pick up the slack that the government can no longer afford to employ on its own,\" McClintock said. Thousands of protesters who participated in a strike last week dispute that firing this many workers during a recession will help the territory. \"This worsens the situation by increasing unemployment,\" Roberto Pagan, president of the Puerto Rico Worker's Union, told CNN. \"We want the government to take alternative measures.\" The government's bet is that the negative impact of the laid off workers will be offset with positive effects of the stimulus funds, Soto-Class said. It's a risky bet, he said, adding that the Fortuno administration grasps the economics of the situation very well. Looking to the future, McClintock said the government expects to balance the budget in two years. Soto-Class said that recovery will also mean looking at diversifying the economic activity. Tourism and agriculture, for example, could become larger factors in the economy, he said. Pagan, the union leader, said he supports levying higher corporate taxes to increase revenue. The government, however, said it plans to continue to use tax incentives to lure companies to the island. Puerto Rico is \"still the pharmaceutical capital of the world, but we have to try to manufacture even more Tylenol to resolve our economic headaches,\" McClintock said. \"We have to manufacture even more Viagra than we already manufacture so our economic statistics will rise.\"","highlights":"Puerto Rico announced last month thousands of government layoffs .\nAlready more than 7,800 public employees were fired in March .\nPuerto Rico, population 4 million, has 200,000 public employees .\nCalifornia has 1 state employee for every 103 residents, Puerto Rico, 1 for every 20 .","id":"3a5bca04abc988e980fc4a61638d136d8659b63f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Such is the level of pressure heaped on football managers, it is unsurprising that now and then they might say or do something that gets them into trouble with someone. The latest incident has seen Manchester City boss Mark Hughes accusing Arsenal's Arsene Wenger of \"not knowing how to behave\" after the Frenchman refused to shake the Welshman's hand after the Gunners' 3-0 English League Cup defeat on Wednesday night. It is not the first time Wenger has made the headlines for the wrong reasons, but he is certainly not alone. Fanzone takes a look at football's top-five misbehaving managers. 1. Arsene Wenger . In recent years, Wenger has been involved in touchline confrontations with Tottenham Hotspur counterpart Martin Jol and West Ham's Alan Pardew, and exchanged words with Jose Mourinho. But his most bitter rivalry has been with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. For about a decade, the two clubs contested for the English Premier League, with the two coaches engaged in a volatile war of words. The rivalry reached a peak in 2004 when United ended Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 win at Old Trafford. After the match both coaches and players exchanged words before a slice of pizza was allegedly flung into Ferguson's face -- the incident has been referred to as 'Pizzagate' or the 'Battle of the Buffet' ever since. Tensions have since subsided. 2. Alex Ferguson . Ferguson's mind games over the past year have mostly been reserved for Liverpool's Rafa Benitez and referees. It was a stinging criticism of the latter that has arguably caused the Premier League's biggest controversy this season. After Manchester United grabbed a late equalizer at home to Sunderland, Ferguson in his post-match press conference proceeded to label referee Alan Wiley unfit in comparison to continental officials. After the threat of a lawsuit, Ferguson offered an apology -- albeit a fairly half-hearted one. 3. Luis Aragones . In his native Spain, Aragones will likely be remembered for leading the country to their first major trophy since 1964 when they won Euro 2008. Elsewhere it might be for when, in a training session in 2004, he was filmed making a racially offensive remark about Thierry Henry in an attempt to motivate the Frenchman's then Arsenal teammate Jose Antonio Reyes. The comment caused a particular storm in England, with many in the media calling for Aragones' job. He was later fined $3,425. 4. Diego Maradona . Maradona has been no stranger to controversy throughout his career, and has kept up that trend since becoming Argentina manager. In October he launched a scathing and foul-mouthed outburst at those who had criticized him during Argentina's qualifying campaign. The rant caused FIFA to ban him football for two months and fine him $24,603. 5. Jose Mourinho . For all his success in football management, Mourinho is equally well-known for his brash and cocky manner, a trait that has caused fans to love and loathe him in equal measure. His penchant for speaking his mind has seen him accuse referee Anders Frisk of consorting with then Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard at half-time during a Champions League tie (the official later retired due to the aftermath, having received death threats). Also while in charge of Chelsea, he once labeled Wenger a \"voyeur.\" Less verbally, he risked the ire of Liverpool fans when he proceeded to shush them during the 2005 League Cup final after Chelsea scored. The most memorable occurrence came during the London club's 2005 Champions League quarterfinal versus Bayern Munich. Banned from the game, it was reported that Mourinho was secretly wheeled in and out of the changing-rooms in a washing basket, and that during the game he fed information to fitness coach Rui Faria through an earpiece under his hat.","highlights":"Mark Hughes accuses Arsene Wenger of \"not knowing how to behave\" after a defeat .\nWenger has been involved in confrontations with several managers before .\nHe had a fierce rivalry with Alex Ferguson which subsided with Arsenal's declining fortunes .\nJose Mourinho has achieved particular notoriety, especially while at Chelsea .","id":"a730f7cdef5b80d4b09d2beed42f0007ae17b931"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The long list for the job that has been described as \"the best in the world\" has been announced. The successful applicant will based on Hamilton Island, center, off Australia's northeastern coast. A chef, a dance instructor and a scientist are among the final 50 applicants for the six-month post of \"caretaker\" on Hamilton Island, part of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia The successful candidate will enjoy a salary of $100,000, free home and generous perks on the island. \"Key responsibilities\" will include sending weekly reports via blogs and video on what is happening on the island, as well as cleaning the pool -- which comes with the free home -- and feeding the fish. Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle revealed Tuesday that the authority had received 34,684 applications from around the world for the position. \"Yesterday, a team of Tourism Queensland marketing and international staff along with a professional recruitment company made the very tough decisions necessary to cut the short-list to the Top 50,\" Boyle said. \"I understand it was a robust discussion but what it boiled down to was the motivation and professionalism of the applicants and their 'fit' with the job and Tourism Queensland.\" The 50 hopefuls come from 22 countries including the U.S., the UK, Russia, Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, India, China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Kenya as well as Australia itself. The shortlisted 50 will now be cut down to a final 11 -- 10 chosen by Tourism Queensland and an 11th by popular vote from videos submitted by the applicants. The videos show the 50 candidates employing a variety of attempts to woo their prospective employer, from wandering round a chilly city center in bikini with surfboard to making their application in the form of a street musical, complete with chorus singers. The successful applicant will also enjoy free return airfares from their nearest capital city, transport on the island, travel insurance, computer and camera gear and travel to other islands in the Great Barrier Reef. The appointment requires no academic qualifications -- the \"caretaker\" will just need to have strong communication skills, be a good swimmer and enjoy snorkeling. The final selection process will take place on Hamilton Island in early May, with the successful applicant announced on May 6 and beginning work on July 1.","highlights":"Tourism Queensland advertised dream island caretaking job for $100,000 .\nSix-month stint involves reporting on the Great Barrier Reef island off Australia .\nLong list of 34,000-plus has now been whittled down to long list of 50 .\nFinal 11 will be interviewed on the island itself in May, job will begin in July .","id":"9ba0c8307a8c1ab8f52198349149da3e4b169758"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Oscar-nominated director John Singleton accidentally struck and killed a pedestrian, a Los Angeles police spokesman said late Friday. John Singleton directed \"Rosewood,\" \"Baby Boy,\" \"Shaft\" and \"Four Brothers\" after \"Boyz N the Hood.\" Constance Russell, 57, of Los Angeles, died at a hospital a few hours after the accident Thursday evening, Los Angeles Police Officer Jason Lee said. Russell was not using a crosswalk when she stepped in front of Singleton's car, Lee said. According to a preliminary police investigation, Singleton was not under the influence of drugs, alcohol or any other substance and was permitted to leave after being questioned. However, Lee said because the victim was killed, the case has been turned over to the district attorney's office for review. Singleton, 39, earned two Academy Award nominations for his 1991 debut film \"Boyz N the Hood.\" That film also won him an MTV Movie Award as best new filmmaker. Other films he has directed include \"Rosewood,\" \"Baby Boy,\" \"Shaft\" and \"Four Brothers.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"John Singleton's vehicle strikes woman, 57, who stepped into street .\nSingleton sober, not charged, allowed to leave after questioning .\nDirector nominated for two Oscars for \"Boyz N the Hood\"","id":"df4d2efa06b881d43c5cf8640c3de5926d4e5107"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Singer Chris Brown has recorded a song with his girlfriend, Rihanna, after charges were filed against him for allegedly assaulting her, a source close to the record's producer, Polow Da Don, said Thursday. A music producer says Rihanna recorded a duet with Chris Brown, who is accused of assaulting her. The source, who did not wish to be named because she was not authorized to speak on the matter, did not have any further details . \"My heart goes out to both Chris and Rihanna for what has happened in the past,\" Da Don said in a statement. \"They are both great artists to work with, and I wish them well.\" The Los Angeles, California, district attorney filed two felony counts against Brown, 19, last week relating to a February 8 incident in which police said he assaulted Rihanna, 21. A police statement said the incident began when Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, found a text message on Brown's cell phone from \"a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with,\" according to court documents released last week. Brown issued a public apology to his fans last month. \"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,\" he said in a statement released by his spokesman. \"I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones, and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.\" When Brown made his first appearance in court last Thursday, Rihanna's lawyer asked the judge not to prohibit him from having contact with her while he faces the charges. Media reports have said the couple has reunited since the alleged incident; spokespersons for both have neither confirmed nor denied it. Watch some tough love for Rihanna \u00bb . Brown is due back in court on April 6 for his formal arraignment. If he is convicted, he could face as much as four years and eight months in prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. The case has been moved to L.A. County Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg who signed the search warrant in the case. Brown's attorney, Mark Geragos, requested a prearraignment hearing which is scheduled for March 23 in Schnegg's chambers. Brown is not required to be at the hearing. iReport.com: Chris Brown fans: Share your reaction . On Wednesday he withdrew his nominations for two Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, a spokesman said. Brown, 19, had been nominated for \"Favorite Song\" and \"Favorite Male Singer.\" \"Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the incident last month has shifted the focus from the music to whether he should be allowed to be among those nominated,\" the spokesman said in a written statement. \"While Chris would like to speak to his fans directly about this and other issues, pending legal proceedings preclude his doing so at this time. Once the matter before him has been resolved, he intends to do so.\"","highlights":"Music producer says Chris Brown and Rihanna recorded a duet this week .\nCharges have been filed against Brown in an alleged assault against Rihanna .\nMedia reports say the couple has reconciled, but neither has confirmed .\nBrown withdrew his nominations for two Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards .","id":"b96b3c191038d0d84b1ca012f199fa6d253e15c4"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- Fueled by a hefty dose of tweener love, Zac Efron's \"17 Again\" won this weekend's box office sweepstakes without breaking a sweat. Zac Efron stars in \"17 Again,\" which debuted in the No. 1 slot at the box office. The high school time-warp comedy, which costars Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann, earned $24.1 million, according to studio estimates from the box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI. The film's haul marked another No. 1 debut for Efron, who helped boost ticket sales with an appearance this weekend on Saturday Night Live. In 2007, the musical \"Hairspray,\" which co-starred Efron, opened first at $27.5 million. Last year, Efron's \"High School Musical 3: Senior Year\" bowed with $42 million, and while \"17 Again\" may have fallen short of that mark, it still represents an auspicious maiden voyage for Efron's post-Disney career. Despite the raft of critics who pooh-poohed the film, which received a 61 percent fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com, audiences were more favorably inclined, giving it a strong A- CinemaScore. Landing at No. 2, the Russell Crowe-Ben Affleck thriller \"State of Play\" pulled in $14.1 million. The film, which garnered generally positive reviews, is the latest of a string of adult-oriented dramas to lag at the box office, although its final tally actually came in somewhat higher than anticipated and was an improvement over the $12.9 million opening for Crowe's last outing, last fall's \"Body of Lies.\" While \"17 Again\" mopped up moviegoers on the younger end of the age spectrum, a whopping 75 percent of \"State of Play's\" audience was over 35. Holding steady at No. 3 for the second week in a row, \"Monsters vs. Aliens\" took in another $12.9 million. The film's impressive performance in its fourth weekend brings the grand total for the animated kiddie flick to $162 million the highest this year by a wide margin. \"Hannah Montana: The Movie\" dropped 61 percent from its opening last weekend, but the Miley Cyrus starrer still proved strong enough for the No. 4 spot with $12.7 million, boosting its cumulative gross to $56.2 million. Rounding out the top five, \"Fast & Furious\" still had plenty of gas in the tank, earning $12.3 million in its third weekend for an overall cume of $136.7 million. The same, however, can't be said for the Jason Statham action flick \"Crank High Voltage,\" which sputtered into a distant sixth place with a decidedly low-voltage $6.5 million. Overall box office was up for the fourth straight weekend, surging 21 percent over this same weekend last year. Recession? What recession? CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"17 Again\" debuted at No. 1 at the box office, pulling in an estimated $24.1 million .\nThe Russell Crowe-Ben Affleck thriller \"State of Play\" was No. 2 with $14.1 million .\nOverall box office earnings were up for the fourth straight weekend .","id":"d918707828de6b5d25263b56d3dea4c39a83dd9e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite his personal problems, golfer Tiger Woods received another accolade as he was voted PGA player of the year. Wood was chosen for the award by a vote from other professional golfers. \"The recognition by [his] peers is one of the highest compliments a PGA Tour member can receive,\" PGA Commissioner Timothy Finchem said in a press statement Friday. The statement mentioned the six tournaments Woods won in 2009 but made no mention of the infamous car accident and infidelity scandal that pushed the golfer to take an indefinite hiatus from pro golf. Earlier this week, Woods was also voted \"Athlete of the Decade\" by the Associated Press. Woods' woes started late in November when he crashed his car outside his Florida mansion. Authorities issued a citation for careless driving, and he was given a $164 fine. Woods was not required to talk to police about the wreck and declined to talk with investigators on several occasions. In the week following the crash, Woods apologized for \"transgressions\" that let his family down. The same day, US Weekly published a report alleging that Woods had an affair with Jaimee Grubbs, a 24-year-old cocktail waitress. US Weekly's report followed a National Enquirer article before the crash that the athlete was having an affair with New York nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel, an assertion she vigorously denied, according to The New York Post. After that several other women came forward alleging to have had liaisons with Woods. Last week on his Web site, Woods admitted to infidelity and said he was taking a break from golf to focus on his family.","highlights":"Tiger Woods voted PGA Player of the Year by his peers .\nWoods won six tournaments in 2009 .\nWoods recently announced he would take golf hiatus to focus on family after admitting infidelity .","id":"4a647738cf3e4755f4e82ca2ee1739fda9c8e1d0"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Officials are investigating reports that two fire department dispatchers trained in emergency medical care refused to help a pregnant worker who collapsed in a cafe they were visiting. The woman later died. Eutisha Rennix collapsed while working at an Au Bon Pain restaurant in Brooklyn on December 9 and died at Long Island College Hospital, according to the district attorney's office for Brooklyn, which is looking into the incident. A spokesman for the office said Rennix was pregnant. The district attorney's office identified the two dispatchers as Jason Green and Melissa Jackson. The New York Fire Department has suspended them without pay pending a department investigation, spokesman Frank Dwyer said. Although the two worked as dispatchers, they had been trained as emergency medical technicians, said Steve Ritea, another department spokesman. Emergency medical technicians receive several weeks of training in medical care, he said . Rennix's co-workers said Green and Jackson were in the cafe at the time Rennix collapsed, but left after telling her co-workers to call 911, local media outlets reported. Rennix's mother, Cynthia, said she was told that her daughter's co-workers tried to get the two to help, but they refused, according to CNN affiliate NY1. \"If they were really caring and concerned, they would have taken a minute to see and probably, possibility, something to do or some way the could help her,\" Rennix said. But Jeff Samerson, a spokesman for the EMT and paramedics union that represents Green and Jackson, told NY1 that Jackson herself called 911. \"These are people that are not in the field, that have not had patient contact in years. ... And they did the best they could,\" Samerson said. The fire department, however, issued a statement saying, \"All of our members have taken an oath to assist others in need of emergency medical care.\" Cynthia Rennix told CNN that she feels the EMTs were \"heartless\" and \"non-caring\" and hopes that her daughter's tragedy will prompt the city of New York to implement some sort of training or classes to ensure that a situation like this won't happen again. The victim's brother, Eudane Rennix, was overseas serving in the U.S. Army in Kuwait when he received the call about his sister's death. He came home on emergency leave and that is when, he said, the family broke down together. \"If this is your job, why wouldn't you want to help someone in need?\" he said. \"There's no excuse whatsoever.\" Eutisha Rennix's fiance and the father of her unborn child, Harry Woodsen, said the losses have been hard on the whole family. \"Everybody has two losses,\" he said. \"I lost a fiance, and I lost a child. Her brother lost a sister and niece. Her mother lost a grandchild and her daughter.\" The outrage at the incident has rippled beyond Brooklyn. Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed the EMTs at a news conference Monday. \"Somebody's dying down the street and they say 'Help them,' and they just sat there,\" he said. \"There's no excuse whatsoever, as far as I can see.\"","highlights":"NEW: Fire department says the two are dispatchers but have EMT training .\nEutisha Rennix collapsed while working at a Brooklyn cafe, later died at hospital .\nHer co-workers reportedly say two EMTs in the cafe refused to help, told them to call 911 .\nThe EMTs are suspended without pay while city investigates the reports .","id":"d6ec404c2a37fbc9af8e62e448d34f7dc3681c9d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addressed the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. Here is the text of that speech: . Former Gov. Mitt Romney says Sen. John McCain will rein in government spending. Romney: Thank you. Thank you so very much. Ann and I love you all. We have a deep feeling in our hearts for you. We respect you for the values you have and the vision we have for America together. Thank you so much, our dear friends. We sure love you. Thank you. You know, for decades now, the Washington sun has been rising in the east. You see, Washington has been looking to the eastern elites, to the editorial pages of the Times and the Post, and to the broadcasters from the -- from the coast. Yes. Watch Romney's entire speech \u00bb . If America really wants to change, it's time to look for the sun in the west, because it's about to rise and shine from Arizona and Alaska. Last week, the Democratic convention talked about change. But what do you think? Is Washington now, liberal or conservative? Let me ask you some questions. Is a Supreme Court decision liberal or conservative that awards Guantanamo terrorists with constitutional rights? It's liberal. Is a government liberal or conservative that puts the interests of the teachers union ahead of the needs of our children? It's liberal. Is a Congress liberal or conservative that stops nuclear power plants and off-shore drilling, making us more and more dependent on Middle Eastern tyrants? It's liberal. Is government spending, putting aside inflation, liberal or conservative if it doubles since 1980? It's liberal. We need change all right: change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington. We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington: Throw out the big-government liberals and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin. It's the same prescription for a stronger economy. I spent 25 years in the private sector. I've done business in many foreign countries. I know why jobs come and why they go away. And I know that liberals don't have a clue. They think that we have the biggest and strongest economy in the world because of our government. They're wrong. America is strong because of the ingenuity, and entrepreneurship, and hard work of the American people. The American people have always been the source of our nation's strength, and they always will be. We strengthen our people and our economy when we preserve and promote opportunity. Opportunity is what lets hope become reality. Opportunity expands when there's excellence and choice in education, when taxes are lowered, when every citizen has affordable, portable health insurance, and when constitutional freedoms are preserved. Opportunity rises when children are raised in homes and schools that are free from pornography, and promiscuity, and drugs, where there are homes that are blessed with family values and the presence of a mom and a dad. America -- America cannot long lead the family of nations if we fail the family here at home. You see, liberals would replace opportunity with dependency on government largesse. They grow government and raise taxes to put more people on Medicaid, to take work requirements out of welfare, and to grow the ranks of those who pay no taxes at all. Dependency is death to initiative, to risk-taking and opportunity. It's time to stop the spread of government dependency and fight it like the poison it is. You know, it's time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother. Our economy is under attack. China is acting like Adam Smith on steroids, buying oil from the world's worst and selling nuclear technology. Russia and the oil states are siphoning more than $500 billion a year from us in what could become the greatest transfer of economic wealth in the history of the world. This is no time for timid, liberal, empty gestures. Our economy has slowed down this year, and a lot of people are hurting. What happened? Mortgage money was handed out like candy, and speculators bought homes for free. And when this mortgage mania finally broke, it slammed the economy. And stratospheric gas prices made things even worse. Democrats want to use the slowdown as an excuse to do what their special interests are always begging for: higher taxes, bigger government, and less trade with other nations. It's the same path Europe took a few decades ago. It leads to moribund growth and double-digit unemployment. The right course is the one championed by Ronald Reagan 30 years ago and by John McCain and Sarah Palin today. The right course is to rein in government spending, lower taxes, take a Weedwacker to excessive regulation and mandates, put a stop to tort windfalls, and to stand up to the Tyrannosaurus appetite of government unions. The right course -- the right course is to pursue every source of energy security, from new efficiencies to renewables, from coal to non-CO2 producing nuclear, and for the immediate drilling for more oil off our shores. And I have -- I have one more recommendation for energy conservation: Let's keep Al Gore's private jet on the ground. Last week, last week, did you hear any Democrats talk about the threat from radical, violent jihad? No. You see, Republicans believe that there is good and evil in the world. Ronald Reagan called out the evil empire. George Bush labeled the terror-sponsor states exactly what they are: The axis of evil. And at Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: Radical, violent Islam is evil, and he will defeat it. This party... You're hearing it here. You're hearing it here, and they're hearing it across the country. You see, in this party, in this room tonight, and all over America, people in our party prefer straight talk to politically correct talk. Republicans, led by John McCain and Sarah Palin, will fight to preserve the values that have preserved the nation. We'll strengthen our economy and keep us from being held hostage by Putin, Chavez, and Ahmadinejad. And we will never allow America to retreat in the face of evil extremism. Just like you, just like you, there's never been a day when I was not proud to be an American. We -- we Americans inherited the greatest nation in the history of the Earth. It's our burden and our privilege to preserve it, to renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future. To this we're all dedicated. And I firmly believe, by the providence of the almighty, that we will succeed. President McCain and Vice President Palin will keep America as it has always been: The hope of the Earth. Thank you, and God bless America.","highlights":"Romney: The right course is the one championed by Ronald Reagan .\nRomney: Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk .\nRomney: It's time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother .","id":"8262ee7183e1e0ea43f13843debd1bd7bfbf4068"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An ill-tempered CONCACAF Gold Cup match between Mexico and Panama recently saw three players and Mexico coach Javier Aguirre sent off amid violent scenes in Houston, Texas. Newcastle teammates Lee Bowyer (left) and Kieron Dyer turn against one-another. The 1-1 draw, which saw the referee add on 10 minutes at the end for all the various stoppages, got Fanzone thinking about some of the most controversial match melees that have occurred. Do you agree with our worst 11? Post your comments in the Sound Off box below. 1 The Battle of Santiago, Chile v Italy, World Cup 1962 . Surely the most violent match in history. The tone was set when the first foul was committed after 12 seconds. Two Italian players were sent off as the teams spent the whole 90 minutes punching, spitting and scuffling with each other, with Chile managing to score two goals in-between the fighting. Police had to come onto the pitch three times to sort out the chaos while Italian Giorgio Ferrini had to be escorted off by armed officers when he refused to leave the pitch after his dismissal. Referee Ken Aston remarked: \"I wasn't reffing a football match, I was acting as an umpire in military maneuvers.\" 2 Valencia v Inter Milan, Champions League 2007 . Six yellow cards were handed out during the game, but it was events that followed which marred Valencia's passage through to the quarterfinals. On the final whistle, Inter midfielder Nicolas Burdisso came together with Valencia defender Carlos Marchena, sparking a brawl. Unused Valencia substitute David Navarro then ran onto the field, to join in - the result of which was a broken nose for Burdisso. Navarro, retreated to the sidelines chased and kicked by Inter players Julio Cruz, Ivan Cordoba. The melee continued in the tunnel, with the Spanish Civil Guard eventually needed to quell the problem. UEFA, European football's governing body, subsequently fined Navarro $200,000 and banned the player for eight games, Burdisso was slapped with an eight-match suspension, Maicon for six, C\u00f3rdoba for three games and Julio Cruz for two. 3 Turkey v Switzerland, World Cup play-off 2006 . Violence erupted after Turkey missed a place in the 2006 finals after going out on the away goals rule following a 4-2 win in Istanbul. Players and technical staff were seen throwing punches in the tunnel as the Swiss side ran for their lives against a torrent of Turkish anger. Turkey assistant-coach Mehmet Ozdilek was banned from all football for one year, while two Turkish players, and one Swiss, were handed six-match bans. Turkey were also ordered to play their next six competitive home matches behind closed doors at neutral venues. Have we missed a famous punch-up out? Leave your suggestions below . 4 Manchester United v Arsenal, English Division One 1990 . These two rivals have been involved in some juicy encounters over the years, but this is one of the most infamous. Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn went in late on Manchester United's Denis Irwin prompting chaos, as 21 players, with Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman proving the exception, joining in the fracas. Remarkably nobody was sent off but the English Football Association took a dim view and deducted Arsenal two league points and United one. Arsenal won the match 1-0 and still went on to lift the title. 5 France v Italy, World Cup final 2006 . The great Zinedine Zidane had led an unfancied and ageing French side to the World Cup final. With the match level in extra time, the attentions of notorious Italian hard-man and chief agitator Marco Materazzi finally proved too much for the France No.10 - who responded to some choice words by the Inter Milan central defender by turning around and viciously head-butting his rival in the stomach. Zidane was sent off. France eventually lost on penalties and the Real Madrid playmaker bizarrely went on to be voted 'Player of the Tournament'. 6 Kevin Keegan v Billy Bremner, Liverpool v Leeds Charity Shield 1974 . England striker Keegan blamed Bremner for \"taking him out\" in an off the ball. Bremner was not one for holding back and Wembley stadium, home of some famous boxing matches over the years, played host to another as these two diminutive players slugged it out like two featherweights challenging for the WBC world title. Unsurprisingly both were sent off and added to their charge list by hurling their tops to the ground and walking off the pitch bare-chested. Each player was fined \u00a3500 ($810) and banned for 11 games, although shirt-throwing accounted for eight of the matches! 7 Rudi Voeller v Frank Rijkaard, Netherlands v Germany World Cup 1990 . Not the most violent, but certainly one of the funniest. The pair were sniping at each other throughout the match. Rijkaard came in late on Voeller, who later took his revenge with a lunge on goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen. Rijkaard took exception and, after a melee, the pair were sent off, with the Dutchman then notoriously spitting as hard as he could into the German's curly perm as the disgraced pair left the pitch. 8 Lee Bowyer v Kieron Dyer, Newcastle v Aston Villa English Premier League 2005 . Punch-ups are rare in modern football, but between teammates they are non-existent. These two hot-heads got into a debate over Dyer's refusal to pass Bowyer the ball. Both players had made news for their off-field activities in the past - but they took their behavior to a new low when they exchanged blows in the middle of the Newcastle half soon after Villa had gone 3-0 up. The pair later appeared alongside manager Graeme Souness to apologize for their conduct, but pointedly did not say sorry to each other. 9 LDU Quito v Barcelona, Ecuador league 2006 . A mass brawl at the end of the match on the final day of the season shocked Ecuador - and resulted in a host of suspensions being handed out. A total of 11 players were banned for between two and 12 months for taking part in the punch-up which saw four Barcelona players receive injuries. The incident started with a clash between former Ecuador striker Agustin Delgado and his marker Victor Montoya. 10 Cruzeiro v Atletico Mineiro Brazilian league 2007 . Atletico Mineiro defender Coelho did not take kindly to the seal dribble of talented teenager Kerlon - who collected the ball on the edge of the penalty area, flicked it up and performed his trademark dribble by bouncing the ball on his head as he ran towards goal. Coelho crashed into him and was given a straight red card and a four-month suspension. Other Atletico players remonstrated angrily with Kerlon, leading to an angry pushing match which interrupted the game for five minutes. Atletico coach Emerson Leao warned that Kerlon could get seriously injured if he tried the trick again. 11 Chelsea v Arsenal English League Cup final 2007 . With Chelsea winning 2-1 Arsenal defender Kolo Toure reacted angrily to a late challenge. Both sides had a number of African players in their line-ups and a mass brawl erupted which saw three of them, Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor, Toure and Chelsea's John Obi Mikel sent off. Adebayor refused to leave the pitch and it needed respective managers - the hot-headed pair of Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho - to stride onto the turf and defuse the situation.","highlights":"Football Fanzone presents a rundown of 11 infamous pitch punch-ups .\nThe tension of competition has even seen teammates turn against one-another .\nLet us know what you think by commenting in the Sound Off box .","id":"7fa06213f8db31540925607d245f4bde289d2d47"} -{"article":"With the annual post-Thanksgiving multiplex malaise setting in and just one big new movie (Punisher: War Zone, which I'll get to later ... uh, much later) in theaters, the box office results remarkably resembled those of a week ago. Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn star in \"Four Christmases,\" which stayed at No. 1. So, yep, you guessed it: Four Christmases was No. 1 with $18.2 million, according to Sunday's estimates. That brings the holiday comedy's two-week sum to a sweet $70.8 million -- and it restores my confidence in Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as box office draws. For now, at least. The rest of the top five is comprised of the same movies we've been seeing for a while now. Twilight moved back up to the No. 2 spot with a tidy $13.2 million haul; its three-week sum is $138.6 million. Bolt (No. 3) followed with $9.7 million, a huge and surprising 64 percent decline from its impressive Thanksgiving weekend sum. Australia declined 53 percent to bank $7 million at No. 4. And Quantum of Solace (No. 5) grossed $6.6 million and crossed the $500 million mark worldwide. Among major new releases, the biggest was hardly the baddest: Punisher: War Zone (No. 8) grossed a mere $4 million in 2,508 theaters, a tally that's way off from the $13.8 million that The Punisher premiered with in 2004. More punishment: The Marvel franchise reboot failed to defeat even last week's action disappointment, Transporter 3 which was No. 7 with $4.5 million. Ouch! Meanwhile, the other sorta-substantial new movie, Cadillac Records (No. 9), fared a bit better, bringing in a decent $3.5 million in 686 locations. But the indie drama Nobel Son failed to take any prize (except, perhaps, that of Box Office Flop of the Week), grossing just $370,575 in 893 venues -- a redonkulously low average of $415 per theater. Nay, the only real news of note came in the ultra-limited-release sphere, where the buzzy drama Frost\/Nixon debuted with a tremendous $60,049 average in three theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. The Oscar contender will roll out wider in the coming weeks. Overall, the slow box office was actually up more than 6 percent from the same, even slower frame a year ago, when The Golden Compass produced disappointing returns. That makes this the fifth straight \"up\" weekend of the fall season, and all things considered, it should be enough to spread some holiday cheer in Hollywood. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Four Christmases maintained its No. 1 spot with an estimated $18.2 million .\nTwilight moved back up to the No. 2 spot with a tidy $13.2 million haul .\nAustralia declined 53 percent to bank $7 million at the No. 4 slot .","id":"51a83b351b4967f6332b08498e38f24d47b45794"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- She stood by her husband throughout the contentious 2008 presidential campaign and during heated health care reform debates during his presidency. First lady Michelle Obama listens to remarks during a health care forum at the White House on Friday. Now, as the debate is reaching a fever pitch, first lady Michelle Obama is weighing in on the issue by focusing on how health care can affect families. \"What she's doing is putting a personal and human face on the issue ... there's nothing more crucial,\" said Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn. \"Everybody gets sick, and everybody has someone in the family that gets sick.\" \"I think if you can humanize it and personalize it, it suddenly brings it home to people -- especially those who are screaming and yelling about the government taking over,\" Quinn said. On Friday, the first lady, a former hospital administrator, spoke about the issue to a crowd at the White House, highlighting her own family's experience with health care. In one touching moment, Obama recalled when daughter Sasha exhibited signs of potentially deadly meningitis when she was 4 months old. \"We didn't know what, but he [the doctor] told us she could have meningitis, so we were terrified. He said get to the emergency room right away,\" she said. \"Fortunately, things worked out.\" \"But it is that moment in our lives that flashes through my head every time we engage in this health insurance conversation. It's that moment in my life, because I think about what on earth would we have done if we had not had insurance.\" Mrs. Obama not only faced the issue as a mother, but also as a daughter. \"My father has multiple sclerosis. He contracted it in his 20s. ... He was able to get up and go to work every day, even though it got harder for him as he got sicker and more debilitated. And I find myself thinking what would we had done as a family on the south side of Chicago if my father hadn't had insurance.\" Watch more of Michelle Obama's message \u00bb . Quinn says that personal story is critical in the health care debate -- something that has been lacking in the president's message so far, which has often been deemed by pundits as too policy-oriented and too surgical in nature. \"What she's doing is she's humanizing the issue. And I think that has been missing in their [White House] campaign,\" she says. \"He's been so focused on the details and the strategy and the money that the individual problems and issues have seemed to have gotten lost in the fray.\" Gloria Borger, a CNN senior political analyst, agreed. \"I think she's always been a great asset to him,\" she said. \"She can help in this health care debate by not getting involved in the minutiae of the bills, but essentially emphasizing the reason we need health care reform. And that's what she will stick to.\" Michelle Obama was a lightning rod -- both good and bad -- throughout her husband's presidential campaign. Now, in her role as first lady, she has garnered greater support among American voters from both parties. A national survey by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press in April found that the first lady's positive ratings have increased since her husband took office. The poll found that 76 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of her, which is up from 68 percent in January. \"Much of the change has come among Republicans, especially Republican women,\" the organization noted. \"About two-thirds of Republican women [67 percent] have a favorable impression of Michelle Obama, a gain of 21 points since January.\" But a first lady's involvement in health care reform is nothing new. In the early '90s, first lady Hillary Clinton spearheaded the Clinton administration's push for reform, holding meetings, testifying before congressional committees and, in general, taking charge of the issue. \"Hillary Clinton was the architect of health care reform,\" Borger said. As for whether Michelle Obama is mirroring Clinton's role, the answer from both Borger and Quinn is absolutely not. \"I don't see any parallels at all. ... The Clintons came in, and they had run on the platform of buy one, get one free, a co-presidency and all of that. And she took over this huge thing herself. Bill wasn't doing it,\" Quinn said. She said the president, not Michelle Obama, was the was the one who pushed health care reform in his early domestic agenda. \"He promised in his campaign, and then he's the one that did it. This is not Michelle's plan. She hasn't been doing the town meetings and the national press conferences,\" she added. Borger said that the first lady is playing a completely different role. \"It's a much more supportive role, and it's a role out of the policy arena, but more in the arena of just why we ought to think we need reform.\"","highlights":"First lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks on health care reform Friday .\nObama recalls personal health stories about her daughter and father .\nAnalysts say her personal touch on the thorny issue could help her husband .","id":"1b29db07d10737274b210ca5a300152826e90142"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Target Corp. this month will open 27 new stores employing a total of more than 4,300 people, the company said. One of Target's two new Hawaii stores awaits its Sunday grand opening. The stores' openings will come just weeks after the retailer cut 600 people from its headquarters staff amid what it called weaker-than-expected sales. The retailer will hold grand openings for the 21 general merchandise stores and six full-grocery SuperTarget stores on Sunday. The new sites include the company's first two stores in Hawaii. Each general merchandise store employs 150 to 250 people, and each SuperTarget has 200 to 300 workers, the company said. In late January, Minnesota-based Target cut its headquarters staff by 9 percent and eliminated 400 open positions. The company, citing difficult economic conditions and sales that didn't meet expectations, also said it would soon close an Arkansas distribution center that employs 500 people and would cut back on planned new-store openings. \"We are clearly operating in an unprecedented economic environment that requires us to make some extremely difficult decisions to ensure Target remains competitive over the long term,\" Gregg Steinhafel, Target president and CEO, said in a news release that month. Retailers in the United States took a hit last year as a weak economy weighed on consumer spending. Retail sales fell six straight months until January, when sales rose 1 percent, according to the Commerce Department. However, retail experts said they were skeptical a rebound had taken hold. Still, two other retailers also announced plans to expand. Kohl's announced last month that it intends to open 55 stores in 2009, and Dollar General in February said it is looking to open more than 400 stores. Target reported its fourth-quarter net earnings were 40.7 percent lower than the same quarter a year earlier. Same-store sales in January were 3.3 percent lower than a year earlier. December same-store sales fell 4.1 percent. Target's new general merchandise stores are in Rogers, Arkansas; Santa Clarita, California; Pensacola, Florida; Bethlehem, Georgia; Honolulu and Kapolei, Hawaii; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Las Vegas, Nevada; Paramus, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Lebanon and Reynoldsburg, Ohio; Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; Philadelphia and Exton, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; Houston, San Antonio and San Marcos, Texas; Midlothian, Virginia; and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The new SuperTarget stores are in Kissimmee, Florida; Canton, Georgia; Hillside, Illinois; and Pflugerville, Allen and Lewisville, Texas. The new locations will increase the number of Target stores to 1,699, the company said. CNNMoney.com's Parija B. Kavilanz contributed to this report.","highlights":"Retailer's new stores to open in 16 states .\nNew locations to employ more than 4,300 .\nTarget in January announced headquarters job cuts, reduction of expansion plans .","id":"4145c99f1a10901fee986b28b1590440d6260a82"} -{"article":"FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- The Red River began to recede Sunday after rising to record levels, but officials cautioned residents not to let their guard down, especially in the face of an approaching snowstorm. A makeshift levee protects a house Sunday in Moorhead, Minnesota. \"We are very confident now that [the] river is in a slow decline,\" National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Gust said. \"Hopefully, it will be at about 38 feet by next Sunday.\" A winter storm warning was issued Sunday for the Red River Valley area between North Dakota and Minnesota, from midday Monday through Tuesday evening. Forecasters expected as many as 10 inches of snow in the area and wind gusts up to 35 mph. Officials said the wind will cause waves in the floodwaters that will put more pressure on the sandbag dikes along the Red River, but the river levels were expected to continue their gradual decline. At 7:15 p.m. Sunday, the river at Fargo was at 39.75 feet, lower than its early Saturday peak of 40.82 feet and below the previous record of 40.10 feet set in 1897, according to the weather service. River levels were expected to stay below 41 feet and slowly drop over the next three to seven days, the weather service said. The river is considered at flood stage in Fargo when it reaches 18 feet. Watch how Fargo residents are \"guardedly optimistic\" \u00bb . By Sunday morning, two deaths and 50 injuries had been reported in flood-related incidents. The injuries included victims of car wrecks caused by flooded roads, said Kirby Kruger, an epidemiologist with North Dakota Health Department. Other illnesses, including mental health issues, carbon monoxide poisoning and cardiac-related events were reported, Kruger said. Water seeped into two of five buildings at the Oak Grove Lutheran School primary and secondary complex after a flood barrier began to leak, officials said. School officials said the two buildings had about 6 inches of water in the basement. The school last flooded in 1997. \"We knew this flood was going to be different,\" school spokeswoman Ann Marie Campbell said. \"There was a lot of emotion this morning when we got the word we had a breach.\" The school has 493 students from kindergarten through high school, Police Sgt. Ross Renner told CNN. A contingency dike contained the water, said Mayor Dennis Walaker, but three homes between the contingency dike and the primary dike also flooded. \"What happened up in Oak Grove, again, is a wake-up call for the general public,\" Walaker said. \"Those things will continue to happen. I guarantee it.\" Watch front lines of flood battle \u00bb . The University of North Dakota has canceled classes until noon Monday, while the Fargo campus of the North Dakota State University has been shut down until April 6 as the state waits to see whether the worst has passed. Despite reports the river was dropping, Fargo officials have said they are holding their breath. \"In past flooding, you have to understand, we've had times in which people thought it crested and then it came back and went up,\" Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said. \"And our temperature is changing, so we will be reluctant to announce a crest until we truly feel there's been a crest,\" he said. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your photos, video . City Manager Pat Zavoral added, \"We cannot think that we've passed some milestone here.\" \"We've been under tremendous pressure to evacuate the city,\" Walaker said. \"We're not going to abandon our city. We've invested too much effort into this process.\" iReport.com: Home's residents cut through deck to build dike . Some residents, however, have evacuated some neighborhoods, hospitals and nursing homes. iReport.com: . A storm with snow was approaching the area, Gust said. \"The snow [is] coming with that winter storm Monday night into Tuesday -- and Fargo could have 6 to 7 inches of snow here, the South Dakota border could see a foot or more -- but that snow should not affect that rate of decline one iota,\" he said. However, winds associated with the storm could affect the dikes, he said. iReport.com: \"It's as if it were a lake, not a river\" Like the Fargo authorities, officials across the river in Minnesota said the revised forecast did not allay their concerns. Residents of Moorhead, Minnesota, warily waited to see if miles of levees and sandbags would hold. Watch how flooding is affecting Moorhead \u00bb \"We're all in this together -- so far, so good,\" said U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, at a Sunday news conference. \"Keep vigilant -- keep checking the dikes.\" Watch workers monitor the swollen Red River \u00bb . Evacuations in Moorhead were proceeding smoothly, Mayor Mark Voxland said on Sunday. No breaches of dikes were reported, he said. \"Sandbagging is ramping up again,\" said Mike Redlinger, Moorhead city manager. \"We're evaluating our supplies.\" Sandbagging operations came to a close in Fargo on Friday, after weary volunteers had filled about 3 million sandbags. See map of affected area \u00bb . About 1,700 National Guard members were checking dikes in the city of about 90,000 residents. Mahoney said the city -- North Dakota's most populous -- also had prepared \"sand balloons,\" about two tons of sand that could be dropped via helicopter onto any breach. President Obama said he was monitoring the situation carefully. The president has signed emergency and disaster declarations for Minnesota and North Dakota, freeing up federal funds for the region. Saturday's flood crest at Fargo set a new level that had held since 1897, when the Red River flooded and reached 40.1 feet at the city. The Red River approached the 1897 level in 1997, when it reached 39.6 feet, a level that many residents thought would be the highest they'd ever see. \"Everybody thought after '97 that we had seen the worst possible situation,\" Fargo resident Jim Shaw said. \"We thought we were safe, we survived that one, we're good for the rest of our lives. So believe it or not, even though this area is prone to flooding, this is a big shock, this is a big stunner, and it's probably a wake-up call,\" he said. \"Some people might reconsider wanting to stay here.\" CNN's Susan Roesgen, Steve Kastenbaum, Dina Majoli and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.","highlights":"Officials expect continued receding despite coming snow, but wind a concern .\nRed River at Fargo nearly foot below Saturday's level .\nFlooding of homes, school a \"wake-up call,\" Fargo mayor says .\nTwo deaths, 50 injuries blamed on flood-related incidents .","id":"8d6ff084cd65fbf690448924ca5272b88e239029"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I finally said goodbye to some old buddies. Omar (played by Michael K. Williams), \"The Wire's\" legendary stickup artist, hunts for a rival with his shotgun. One of them shot a woman at point-blank range after complimenting her on her hair. Another person maimed a rival with his shotgun. A third stole from his sister to finance his drug habit. Their names are as twisted as their deeds: Snot-Boogie, Bubbles, Dukie. And if I ever introduced you to them, you probably wouldn't be able to understand them. Their talk is filled with a bruising street poetry that's hard to decipher unless you've lived in their West Baltimore neighborhood -- as I once did. My \"friends\" are some of my favorite characters on the HBO series, \"The Wire.\" HBO (which, like CNN, is a Time Warner division) released the complete, five-season box set two weeks ago. The show focuses on a detective unit's quest to take down a ruthless drug crew, but it grapples with bigger themes: the collapse of public schools, the disintegration of working-class America and political corruption. Critics say \"The Wire\" offers the most realistic depiction of America's inner-city subculture ever seen. I decided to test that claim because I grew up in the West Baltimore community where \"The Wire\" is set. After watching all five seasons, my take on the show is ambivalent. Some of \"The Wire\" is real, but not in the ways you might expect. 'How do I get from here to the rest of the world?' \"The Wire's\" most unsettling scene for me took place in season four. It involved a murder -- of a gentle teenager's spirit. The character's name is Dukie, and he brought back memories of some people I knew. Dukie is lost. He has no family, his public school is paralyzed by violence and he's not tough enough to make it on the streets. He has a gift for computers but doesn't know what to do with his ability. Dukie looks one day for help from \"Cutty,\" an ex-con who runs a boxing gym in their neighborhood. Cutty tells Dukie that \"the world is bigger\" than the violent neighborhood both live in. \"How do I get from here to the rest of the world?\" Dukie asks Cutty. \"I wish I knew,\" Cutty sighs, and walks away. Why did Cutty give Dukie such a hopeless answer? Maybe it's because some people who never lived in a neighborhood like \"The Wire\" confuse hopelessness for authenticity. Yeah, I could shock you with stories of violence, but it's so easy to slip from revelation to titillation. I start off telling you a story about how tough my school was, and soon I'm shooting it out with five drug dealers who want to steal my homework. But I never remember West Baltimore being so hopeless. A man like Cutty wouldn't tell a young man that he had no way out -- adults rallied around kids with potential. I even checked with some childhood friends -- one who is now an undercover police officer who literally works a \"wire\" for the Baltimore Police Department -- and we all agreed that \"The Wire's\" bleakness was exaggerated. \"They made it seem like we grew up in Bosnia,\" my friend, another \"Wire\" fan, told me. Perhaps I had the luck of timing, or, to paraphrase one \"Wire\" character, I left just before \"the game got more fierce.\" I'm 44. I grew up on a street connecting two notorious Baltimore landmarks -- North Avenue and Frederick Douglass High School. Douglass is a school so bleak that PBS recently aired a documentary on its dismal state. North Avenue is known for its liquor stories and shootings. I left my neighborhood for good in the 1980s before crack cocaine really hit. Still, I shared some of the same struggles as some \"Wire\" characters. I spent much of my childhood in the equivalent of foster homes. I never really knew my mother. My father was an on-and-off-again presence. But my community was filled with what Barack Obama calls the \"quiet heroes.\" (Obama reportedly is a big fan of \"The Wire.\") There was my high school tennis coach. The dignified deacons in my church. The retired steelworker who watched Orioles baseball games on his porch next door. Relatives, teachers, even summer job programs (one gave me my first exposure to journalism) -- all inspired me. Yet those quiet heroes seem fated to fail in \"The Wire.\" The show implies that only a fantastic few ever escape the streets. What Cutty could have told Dukie . Despite my misgivings, I love \"The Wire.\" The dialogue crackles, the characters are rich and the minute ways it captures how Baltimoreans move and talk is uncanny. But the \"Complete\" story isn't the whole story. \"The Wire\" did, however, nail one childhood memory for me. The most realistic moment in \"The Wire\" for me didn't take place during any violent showdown. It took place in a steakhouse. The scene involved a \"Wire\" character called \"Bunny\" Colvin, a major in the Baltimore Police Department. Colvin helps run an experimental program for problem students at a local high school. One night, he decides to take three of a school's most disruptive students to a steakhouse in downtown Baltimore. The kids are loud and brash, but they're petrified when they have to sit down in a fancy restaurant filled with white people. They can't function and end up leaving the restaurant, still hungry and angry. I could relate. When I was asked in high school to join an academic team that would compete on television against elite, white high schools in Baltimore, I said no. When I attended my first year in college, I wouldn't speak in class and stopped going because I was so intimidated being around people who could actually speak proper English. I almost flunked out. I felt like an imposter. Sometimes, it's not enough to give kids who come from a world like \"The Wire\" the chance to get out. They also have to be convinced that they deserve it. I almost sabotaged myself because I wanted to go back to what was familiar. Even though the familiar was depressing, it was all I knew. Now I know something different because a lot of people convinced me that I deserved to be in that other world. I wish Cutty would have done the same for Dukie. I wish he would have told him he would find a way from \"here to the rest of the world.\" I hope the real-life Dukies know that. They deserve a chance to say goodbye to that world, too.","highlights":"HBO's \"The Wire\" is praised for realism, but how real is it?\nCNN.com writer who grew up in \"The Wire's\" Baltimore neighborhood renders verdict .\nWriter says show confuses \"hopelessness with authenticity\"\nBut dialogue crackles, the characters are rich, writer says .","id":"84190af471faa92a35a3c3c2a931ac600b638669"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Susan Atkins, a terminally ill former Charles Manson follower convicted in the murder of actress Sharon Tate, on Tuesday was denied a compassionate release from prison. Susan Atkins, Califorina's longest-serving female inmate, is shown in her most recent mug shot. Atkins, 60, has been diagnosed with brain cancer and has had a leg amputated, her attorney said. In June, she requested the release, available to terminally ill inmates with less than six months to live. The California Board of Parole Hearings' decision -- posted Tuesday on its Web site -- came after a public hearing on Atkins' request. It means the request will not be forwarded to the Los Angeles Superior Court that sentenced Atkins. The court would have had the final say on Atkins' release. Her attorney, Eric P. Lampel, called the parole board's decision \"unfortunate.\" \"[The board] ignored the vast majority of evidence presented,\" Lampel said. \"There was a huge amount of pro-compassionate release testimony from many witnesses. It apparently fell on deaf ears.\" Known within the Manson Family as Sadie Mae Glutz, Atkins and four others were convicted in connection with the deaths of five people, including Tate, in August 1969. According to historical accounts of the murder, Atkins stabbed Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and scrawled the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with director Roman Polanski. By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down and rejected her pleas for mercy, stabbing the pregnant woman 16 times. Atkins' request roused long-dormant memories of the two-day killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles and left seven people dead. It polarized those who were involved in the case -- and even those who weren't -- over whether she should die behind bars. Atkins told a 1993 parole board that Tate pleaded for her unborn child's life as she held her down. \"She asked me to let her baby live,\" Atkins said. \"... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her.\" Three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager visiting the home's caretaker in his cottage out back. Atkins was also convicted in the earlier murder of music teacher Gary Hinman. One of the first people Atkins confessed to was Virginia Graham, who shared a cell with her before investigators determined the Manson Family was responsible for the murders. Graham said last month she believed Atkins should die in prison. \"She showed that poor woman absolutely no mercy, none,\" Graham said. \"So why should anybody show her mercy at this time?\" Sharon Tate's sister, Debra, has staunchly opposed Atkins' release. \"She will be set free when judged by God,\" Debra Tate has said. \"It's important that she die in incarceration.\" Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said Monday he was strongly opposed to the release, saying in a letter to the board it would be \"an affront to people of this state, the California criminal justice system and the next of kin of many murder victims.\" Cooley noted in his letter that Atkins was initially sentenced to death, like others in the Manson Family, including its leader, Charles Manson. Their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty laws as they were written at the time. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he was also opposed to releasing Atkins. \"I don't believe in [compassionate release],\" the governor told reporters. \"I think that they have to stay in, they have to serve their time.\" Even if Atkins is dying, Schwarzenegger said, \"Those kinds of crimes are just so unbelievable that I'm not for the compassionate release.\" Earlier, Suzan Hubbard, director of adult prisons in California, also recommended against granting Atkins' request. Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Atkins and other members of the Manson Family, said he supported her release, if only to save the state money. Through Monday, the cost for Atkins' medical care since she was hospitalized March 18 totaled more than $1.15 million, and the costs for guarding her hospital room are more than $308,000, said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton. Terminally ill inmates rarely are allowed compassionate release, records show. In 2007, 60 such requests were made to the department, Thornton has said. Ten were approved. Atkins, who has been incarcerated since 1971, is California's longest-serving female inmate. According to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, she is now a born-again Christian. During her incarceration, the site says, Atkins worked to help at-risk youth, violent crime victims and homeless children, among others. The Web site does not mention Atkins' illness. Lampel said last month Atkins is paralyzed on one side. \"She can talk a little bit,\" Lampel said. \"She can't sit up in bed without assistance, and obviously she can't walk around because she's an amputee.\" Atkins has expressed remorse for her crimes. \"I know the pain I caused Mrs. Tate,\" she said at a parole board hearing in 1985. ln May, authorities dug for buried bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police became aware that testing had indicated human remains might be buried there. Nothing was found, authorities said. CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.","highlights":"Manson follower, 60, terminally ill, expected to die within six months .\nSusan Atkins is bedridden, can barely speak .\nAtkins stabbed pregnant victim Sharon Tate 16 times .\nAtkins, who was convicted of five 1969 murders, has brain cancer .","id":"7dafeadf8139247c29beaecbd708ab14461ca63f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In light of the botched Christmas Day airliner bombing aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration has announced new enhanced \"guidelines\" requiring airline passengers traveling from (and through) 14 different countries to undergo especially rigorous security screening before being able to fly into the United States. Under these new TSA guidelines, security screeners will conduct \"full pat-down body checks\" and extensive carry-on luggage checks for all passengers traveling from a country which the U.S. considers to be a \"security risk.\" These 14 countries are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Additionally, passengers traveling from any other foreign country may also be checked at 'random' as well. These new rules mean that \"every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening,\" the TSA said. On its face, this clear use of ethnic, racial and religious profiling will not achieve greater security in the long term for our country. In fact, by targeting only certain passengers for additional screening, \"blind spots\" can be easily identified and duplicitously exploited by violent extremists wishing our country harm. Defenders of the new rules might say they're only profiling people coming from certain countries, but the fact that 13 of the 14 are Muslim countries makes clear the religious nature of the profiling. This new policy deeply undermines the Obama administration's stated commitment to civil rights, equality before the law, and a much-needed effort to rebuild U.S.-Muslim world relations since the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush. Under international law, countries including the United States that use race, color, ethnicity, religion or nationality as a proxy for criminal suspicion are in violation of international standards against racial discrimination and multiple treaties to which the U.S. is a party. These include the U.N. Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The clear alternative is for law enforcement agencies to focus on actual criminal behavior rather than solely on characteristics such as race, religion, ethnicity, or nationality. Senior international security experts have suggested, for example, that such an approach would have increased the chances that suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid would have been stopped before he successfully boarded an airplane he intended to attack in December 2001. Among the red flags were that Reid bought a one-way ticket with cash and had no checked luggage. For years, the concept of \"racial profiling\" has reportedly undermined important terrorist investigations here in the United States. Most notably, these examples include the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in which the two white male domestic terrorists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were able to flee while officers operated on the theory that the act had been committed by \"Arab terrorists\" for the first 48 hours of the investigation. Similarly, during the October 2002 Washington-area sniper investigation, the African-American man and boy ultimately accused of the crime reportedly were able to pass through multiple road blocks with the alleged murder weapon in their possession, in part, because police 'profilers' theorized the crime had been committed by a white male acting alone. According to a report last summer by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination: \"Both Democratic and Republican administrations [in the United States] have acknowledged that racial profiling is unconstitutional, socially corrupting and counter-productive, yet this unjustifiable practice remains a stain on American democracy and an affront to the promise of racial equality.\" In fact, not only do such \"racial profiling\" practices waste limited resources, they simply make us less safe. For example, the arrests of John Walker Lindh (a white, middle-class man better known as the 'American Taliban') and Richard Reid (a British citizen of West Indian and European ancestry now serving a life sentence at the Supermax prison in Colorado) confirm that effective law enforcement techniques must rely solely on criminal behavior and not race, religion or nationality in order to ensure our citizens' security. As the San Diego Union-Tribune said in an editorial: \"The minute U.S. officials put out the word that they're not scrutinizing people with blond hair and blue eyes is the minute that al Qaeda starts recruiting people with blond hair and blue eyes. Would looking for Arab-Americans have turned up a passenger that resembled \"American Taliban\" fighter John Walker Lindh? Would applying extra scrutiny to people with foreign-sounding names have kept would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid off a plane?\" Of course not. Even conservative Republicans like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have argued that behavioral (and not racial\/ethnic) profiling is the best way to prevent terrorist attacks on our country. \"We need to have the knowledge to be able to profile based on behavior,\" Mr. Gingrich recently said on ABC's \"Good Morning America\" while discussing the recent Christmas Day foiled bombing. \"Not racial profiling or ethnic profiling, but profiling based on behavior and then, frankly, discriminating based on behavior,\" he continued during the same interview. As our national debate on the phenomenon of \"racial profiling\" emerges once again, let's remember these words of the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers of Michigan: . \"If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today ... he would tell us we must not allow the horrific acts of terror that our nation has endured to slowly and subversively destroy the foundation of our democracy.\" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Arsalan Iftikhar .","highlights":"New TSA rules amount to ethnic and religious profiling, says Arsalan Iftikhar .\nHe says profiling will create blind spots terrorists can exploit .\nIftikhar says scrutinizing behavior is the best way to detect terrorist plots .\nPolicy deeply undermines Obama administration's commitment to civil rights, he says .","id":"ca206d6e3b4a434ed67ebeeb4b133039d61a3460"} -{"article":"MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia's president launched a verbal volley at Georgia's leaders on Monday, as Georgia hit back with renewed accusations that the Russian invasion was premeditated. Russian soliders on patrol outside the Georgian city of Gori on Monday. President Dmitry Medvedev said: \"The world has seen that even today, there are political morons who are ready to kill innocent and defenseless people in order to satisfy their self-serving interests, while compensating for their own inability to resolve complicated issues by using the most terrible solution -- by exterminating an entire people. \"I think that there should be no mercy for that. We will do our best not to let this crime go unpunished.\" He was speaking at a visit to the military headquarters at Vladikavkaz, near the Russian-Georgian border. Each side accuses the other of \"ethnic cleansing\" during the conflict over South Ossetia, which erupted August 7. In Washington, Georgia's ambassador to the United States said the Russian push into Georgia the following day had been long planned. \"You just don't move more than 1,200 tanks and 15,000 soldiers into a country within 12 hours without previous planning,\" Ambassador Vasil Sikharulidze said. The conflict began more than a week ago when Georgian troops entered the breakaway territory of South Ossetia to attack pro-Moscow separatists. Russia responded by invading the country on August 8, prompting heavy fighting with Georgian forces that spread to another breakaway territory, Abkhazia. The Georgian troops withdrew and Russian forces took control of several areas -- prompting an international outcry. After diplomatic efforts led by France on behalf of the European Union, Georgia and Russian signed a cease-fire. France is the rotating EU head. Russia's military says its withdrawal from Georgia has begun, but a senior Pentagon official told reporters Monday evening that there has been little evidence of Russian troops pulling out. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Watch more on Russian withdrawal \u00bb . \"We're talking about pulling our troops away to the borders of South Ossetia. They will not be on Georgia territory,\" Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces deputy chief of staff, said Monday. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Russia needs to start pulling back \"without delay,\" saying the \"Russians have committed to withdrawing, and they need to withdraw. And so that is what we are looking for.\" A Georgian Interior Ministry official said there have been \"no signs\" of a Russian troop withdrawal despite Russia's pledge to start moving back on Monday. News footage showed Russian tanks pushing away Georgian police cars about 20 miles (32 km) south of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Watch tanks deal with the police car \u00bb . Witnesses said Georgian police cars had been blocking the road and the police told Russian tank commanders that they were carrying out orders. The tanks proceeded to plow ahead, damaging the police cars in the process. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said a Russian armored column had been seen moving a bit deeper into Georgian territory, traveling south from Kashuri to Borjomi. Kashuri is about 10 miles (16 km) south of South Ossetia. Another column was moving north from the Kashuri area to Sachkhere. Nogovitsyn told reporters Russian troops were leaving Gori on Monday, the Interfax news agency said. He did not say how many troops were withdrawing or how many would return to South Ossetia or Russia. However, CNN journalists in Gori, near South Ossetia, said it was still under Russian control and there was no evidence the Russians were pulling out. Also, Russian tank and artillery positions were seen extending nine miles (15 km) south of Gori. Nogovitsyn said Russia was not yet moving vessels in the Black Sea from their positions near Georgia, but they would return to Sevastopol after the settlement of the conflict. He said Russia's deputy foreign minister had presented the U.S. ambassador to the country with a timetable of the events that led to Russia's actions and clearly indicated Georgia's responsibility. He said a prisoner exchange involving the transfer of 12 Russians and 15 Georgians had been set up. \"We were all set and then the Georgians came up with a bunch of new requirements with no time for us to act so the time to exchange prisoners was interrupted,\" Nogovitsyn said. Georgia said Russia was spreading \"false\" accusations and that it was ready to pursue an exchange. The six-point deal gives no timetable for a Russian withdrawal, nor any other specifics, according to a copy of the agreement provided by Georgia's government. A U.S. defense official told CNN about evidence of Russian SS-21 missiles and launchers in South Ossetia. Lt. Gen. Nikolai Uvarov, a Russia Defense Ministry spokesman, disputed that, telling CNN that \"no, they are not present.\" The U.S. official said while \"Russian forces continue to consolidate their enclaves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,\" they \"are expected to slowly remove forces from Georgia.\" Diplomatic discussions continued Monday. Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, representing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was in Brussels, Belgium, to meet with representatives from the European Union, NATO, and the United Nations. The OSCE is working on a plan to increase its observers in the region to 100 people. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said there was \"mounting evidence that Russian and Georgian military used armed force unlawfully during the South Ossetian conflict\" and it emphasized that this \"highlights the need for international fact-finding missions in Georgia.\" \"This conflict has been a disaster for civilians,\" said Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia deputy director. The conflict has devastated parts of Georgia and South Ossetia, with many casualties reported. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 158,000 people had been displaced by fighting in Georgia, mostly from districts outside the breakaway territories where the fighting began. CNN's Bruce Conover, Jill Dougherty and Max Tkachenko in Moscow, Fred Pleitgen in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tommy Evans and Michael Ware in Gori, Georgia, and Barbara Starr at the Pentagon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Pentagon official: Little evidence that Russian troops leaving Georgia .\nRussia begins Georgia troop \"pullback,\" military chief says .\nRussian tanks pushed through a Georgian police road block, witnesses say .\nHuman Rights Watch: This conflict has been a disaster for civilians .","id":"a02bdfbcdf71b43ed88148289bbc542e515f8575"} -{"article":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe Saturday for the first time since leaving the country shortly after the controversial March 29 election. Morgan Tsvangirai has been away from Zimbabwe trying to seek support from international leaders. Tsvangirai -- who contends he won the presidential race against longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe -- returned despite what his party said was a plot by the country's military to assassinate him and other party leaders. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, after a long delay, ruled that neither candidate won a necessary majority of the vote and set a date of June 27 for Tsvangirai to again face Mugabe in a runoff vote. Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have called for international observers to be allowed to monitor the runoff election, but Mugabe's government has refused the demand. Tsvangirai is expected to tour hospitals in Harare to visit victims of post-election violence. An MDC spokesman said two party members were found dead Wednesday night after being abducted from their homes in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe said Saturday that the opposition leader and the entire MDC leadership are \"at risk from this brutal regime.\" When contacted by CNN, a Cabinet member denied that the government had any possible role in the alleged plot, and said the report was an effort by the MDC to gain international sympathy. Chen Chimutengwende, Zimbabwe's minister of public and interactive affairs, accused Tsvangirai of \"trying to paint a false picture of what Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe authorities are like.\" \"There is no plot against him and there has never been any plot against him and he knows that,\" Chimutengwende said. He called the reports from Tsvangirai's party \"an effort to get sympathy from the international community.\" There have been numerous reports from the MDC and church groups since the March balloting about kidnappings, torture, and other violence, including the deaths of opposition party members. They say the violence targets opponents of Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. Mugabe has ruled the southern African country since it became independent 28 years ago.","highlights":"Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai returns to Zimbabwe .\nTsvangirai says he feels safe despite fears of a possible assassination bid .\nTsvangirai faces a runoff election against President Robert Mugabe June 27 .","id":"baf2532bebf395e835aff0af8044f2ff60e20e84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Smoking is bad for you, and by now, most of us know it. An estimated 4.5 million U.S. adolescents are cigarette smokers. It seems that studies on the dangers of smoking come out every week. Just recently, after an article appeared in the journal Pediatrics, we were introduced to the concept of third-hand smoke, the potentially toxic residue that lingers in curtains, clothing, hair, etc. after the smoke itself blows away. To recap: Smoking exponentially increases your risk of developing lung cancer (and other lung diseases, like emphysema and chronic bronchitis) and puts you at higher risk for cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, bladder, pancreas, kidney, cervix and stomach. Smoking also elevates the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and insulin resistance. And, as if all that weren't bad enough, it causes wrinkles. Yet stand on virtually any streetcorner of any city or town in the United States, and you will see people smoking. So, who exactly -- in the face of all the mounting scientific evidence, social stigma and legal bans -- still lights up? According to the CDC, about 43.4 million Americans (19.8 percent of the population) smoke. Look around you. If you are in Kentucky, the state with the highest smoking rate, more than one out of every four people (28.3 percent) around you smokes. On the other end of the spectrum is Utah, with just over one person in 10 (11.7 percent) a smoker. Find the smoking rate in your state \u00bb . Here's the good news: \"Smoking prevalence in the entire country has gone under 20 percent for first time in over 50 years,\" said Dr. Richard Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic. \"For women, it's 18 percent in most places, and for men it's hovering at about 20 percent. We have gone from one in two men smoking to one in five -- a very dramatic change -- and one in three women to one in five.\" Here's the bad news: Smoking rates are unlikely to drop to the national health objective of 12 percent by 2010. Hurt, who is also a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, is a former three-pack-a-day smoker. Unlike most smokers, he picked up the habit during college; according to the CDC, about 90 percent of heavy smokers start in high school. And studies show that the younger you are when you start, the more likely you'll become a heavy smoker as an adult. According to the American Cancer Society, each day more than 3,500 people younger than 18 try their first cigarette, and 1,100 others become regular daily smokers. About one-third of these kids will eventually die from a smoking-related disease. Retired radio broadcaster and iReporter Gerald Dimmitt, 65, has smoked since he was 14. \"I've always smoked a pipe,\" he said. \"I have successfully quit about 40 times.\" But, he says, he always restarted, because \"it calms me down.\" iReport.com: Do you still smoke? Dimmitt has even more incentive to quit now, since developing lesions and irritation in his mouth. After speaking to his doctor, he received a prescription for Chantix, a pill to aid with smoking cessation. But when he went to pick up his prescription at the pharmacy, he was charged $139 (because it's not generic) for two weeks worth. Outraged, he left the Chantix behind. \"If smoking is so dangerous ... why then do they want to charge $139 to make me stop? There is something very wrong with that. I guess they would rather pay to take care of lung cancer,\" he said. Some would-be smokers pick up their first cigarette to fit in. \"I started smoking at 12 years old to be part of the 'in' crowd. It never got me into the 'in' crowd, but with my first cigarette, I was totally hooked,\" wrote Lori Jerome, 45, a former bartender and now full-time university student from Canada. Said Lisa \"Smith,\" 44, a recently laid-off administrator from Minnesota, \"I began smoking in junior high school because I wanted to fit in with a certain crowd. However, that group of friends is looooong gone from my life and I still have the nasty habit.\" Smith didn't want her last name used. Hurt says the reason many people start, and continue, is peer influence. But he also blames targeted promotions by tobacco companies (like Virginia Slims targeting women in the 1970s and other brands targeting inner-city minority groups today) and the movies. \"There is a lot of research right now that shows that smoking in the movies has made a comeback. ... It clearly affects start-up smoking among young people.\" As for things that prevent children from smoking, Hurt cites higher cigarette taxes and smoke-free zones, like offices and restaurants. \"Those two public health policies do three things: reduce smoking among continuing smokers, help people to stop smoking and reduce the chances of our children starting to smoke, because it de-normalizes it. ... The child interprets smoke-free as the social norm,\" he said. That's why children of smokers are much more likely to become smokers themselves: Smoke-filled surroundings is their norm. Of course, society's perception of smoking has changed a lot since the days of doctors actually endorsing one brand or another in the first half of last century. Dimmitt recalls \"ashtrays in church pews, smoking in the classroom and blowing pipe smoke all over the students!\" \"When I was born, my mother was allowed to smoke in the hospital room with me in there,\" Jerome said. \"When I had my adult children, we were allowed to smoke in the day room on the maternity ward floor, although the babies were not allowed in there. When I had my youngest children, ages 5 and 8 now, you couldn't smoke in the hospital. How the times have changed.\" Now, smokers in some places face smoking bans in certain public and private spaces, and unspoken -- and sometimes overt -- hostilities. Smith, a mother of six, wrote, \"It's so socially unacceptable where I live, and none of my current friends or relatives smoke. In fact, I don't even smoke out in public anymore -- unless it's dark and I'm in my car. I feel it's such a disgusting and stinky habit.\" Dulcie Long, 50, of Denver, Colorado, said, \"I won't say I feel actual 'social discrimination,' but it is something I feel a sense of shame about and do my best not to smoke in the presence of friends. None of my friends smoke, and I'm very uncomfortable doing it anywhere near them.\" Even Dimmitt switched from a pipe to cigarettes when he was working with youngsters so he wouldn't reek so much. Not only have attitudes towards smoking changed, the profile of smokers has changed, too. \"The demographics have changed so much that now, more often than not, it's the disadvantaged who are still smoking compared to the highly educated, highly trained people,\" Hurt said. \"It is pretty clear that the prevalence of smoking in groups of people is related to education status, which is a surrogate for income status. ... When you go down the income ladder, the smoking prevalence rises. Some groups of severely disadvantaged people have smoking rates of 30 to 40-plus percent.\" Hurt says that there is also a much higher prevalence of smoking among people with mental health disorders like depression, alcoholics, drug users and schizophrenics. But movers and shakers are not immune. President-elect Barack Obama has struggled with, and seems to have conquered, his habit. Former President Clinton was known to sit on the balcony of the White House and enjoy a cigar (his wife, Secretary of State-designate Hilary Clinton, officially made the White House a smoke-free zone). First lady Laura Bush admits to being an ex-smoker. Plenty of celebrities -- like actresses Salma Hayek, Katherine Heigl and Eva Longoria Parker -- have been caught, cigarette in mouth, by the paparazzi. Even actor Patrick Swayze, who is battling pancreatic cancer, admitted that he continues to smoke. Which brings us back to the inescapable fact that, worldwide, an estimated 4 million adults die each year of tobacco-caused diseases. Said Hurt, \"This is only product that I know on the face of the Earth which, if it is used as recommended by manufacturer, kills 60 percent of its customers.\"","highlights":"Despite health effects, bans and social pressure, 20 percent Americans smoke .\nAbout 90 percent of adult smokers start in high school .\nWorldwide, about 4 million adults die each year of tobacco-caused diseases .\niReport.com: Do you still smoke? Share your story .","id":"12644ffcf89550151b3c6d81323f39441e839619"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military plans to help the Afghanistan government recruit, train and arm local Afghans to fight a resurgent Taliban, U.S. military officials say. U.S. soldiers patrol near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Wednesday. U.S. officials describe the proposal as a \"community-based\" security effort. The main job of the local units is to be an \"early warning system\" and be armed mainly for defensive operations, a U.S. military official said. Participants will get uniforms so they can be readily identified, officials said. The first phase of the program is expected to begin next year in Wardak province, where the Taliban have overrun many local government institutions. For the United States, the most sensitive part of the proposal will be the use of American military funds to purchase small arms, most likely AK-47 rifles, that will be given to local Afghans, according to a U.S. military official. U.S. commanders acknowledge concerns that arming local groups is risky, as it could lead to new armed conflicts between tribes, putting American troops in the middle of unexpected firefights. The Afghan government will select men for the new security program. It will train them and technically arm them, although the funds will come from the U.S. military. The Afghans will be responsible for ensuring the loyalty of people in the program, but the United States will oversee the effort and collect biometric information, such as eyeprints and fingerprints, on all participants, according to the U.S. military official. U.S. officials are emphasizing that because of tribal diversity, the Afghan program differs from the Awakening Councils in Iraq, which include tens of thousands of Sunni gunmen and was credited with helping reduce violence there.","highlights":"\"Community-based\" security effort designed to counter Taliban gains .\nLocals to be \"early warning system,\" U.S. official says .\nProgram to begin next year in Wardak province .","id":"109024828505a357b8c6e9048ad4ddb53c5f2a09"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service spent more than $792,000 \"without justification\" on meals and events in one five-month period even as it reported losing $3.8 billion this year, the agency's inspector general says in a report. Employees spent $792,022 on meals and external events \"without justification for food purchases, purchased alcohol without officer approval and exceeded the dollar limit for meals,\" the report says. Among the purchases were crab cakes, beef Wellington and scallops at an installation ceremony for one of several postmasters in the United States, the report says. Despite the Postal Service's mandate to curtail spending, its inspector general found that \"imprudent spending continues to occur, including continued purchases of gift cards from unauthorized vendors and expensive items purchased as employee recognition awards and retirement gifts.\" Read the full report (PDF) Such purchases conflict with the agency's goal to drive down costs, according to the report, which covered spending during several months in late 2008 and early 2009. The Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion net loss for the 2009 fiscal year, despite cost-cutting and reductions in retiree health benefit payments. Asked about the expenses, a Postal Service spokesman pointed to an agency response included in the report. In that response, the agency's vice president and controller, Vincent Devito, agreed to enforce a spending limit on events and recognition awards as well as make sure employees justify business meal expenses. \"We agree that further policy enforcement is essential to ensure that the policy is followed and imprudent spending is no longer an issue,\" Devito wrote. \"It appears there is still work to be done in curtailing spending even further during this time of economic uncertainty.\" Among the report's findings: . \u2022 There was \"no business justification\" for $355,451 of food provided at a September 2008 national sales educational conference; it included a $96-per-person dinner and a $500 \"bartender charge.\" \u2022 An installation celebration for one postmaster -- the report didn't say where -- included \"unallowable food purchases\" totaling more than $17,000. The menu included \"crab cakes, beef Wellington, shrimp and scallops\" even though Postal Service guidelines allow for only \"light snacks\" at such events. \u2022 There was \"no business necessity or justification\" provided for $77,757 in breakfast meals for events between September 2008 and February 2009. The report, issued December 3, documented purchases for lodging, table linens, flowers and other items \"that we consider excessive during this challenging economic time.\" \"Such purchases are in direct conflict with the Postal Service's objective of driving down costs in all operations and processes,\" the report said. \"Moreover, the public's image of such purchases could have a detrimental effect on the Postal Service's public image.\" The report cited two Postal Service districts that purchased movie tickets for $14,140 to give incentives to employees after the postmaster general \"issued a memo directing a curtailment of spending.\" It also documented the purchase of 30 retirement watches, costing $216 each, in another district. A CNN investigation this year revealed that the Postal Service spent $1.2 million to buy the lakefront home of an employee who was relocating. The purchase was part of a policy that allowed the Postal Service to pay for employee homes when they moved, whatever the cost. Months after the story, the Postal Service changed its policy to limit home purchases to $800,000.","highlights":"Purchases included crab cakes, beef Wellington, scallops for postmaster installation ceremony .\nReport cites districts for buying $14,140 in movie tickets as employee incentives .\nPurchases conflict with goal to cut costs after reporting $3.8 billion loss in 2009 fiscal year .\n\"It appears there is still work to be done in curtailing spending,\" agency's vice president says .","id":"f76c1bdc13668ca81b992d29cf4898bf12752ffe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazilian authorities detained the wife of former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti as a suspect in his killing, according to local reports. Arturo Gatti pictured during the final fight of his career, a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez in 2007. Gatti was found dead Saturday in a hotel in Brazil, where he was taking a vacation with his wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, and their young child. The 37-year-old Canadian, who was born in Italy and made his name as a fighter based in New Jersey, was staying in the northeast seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas. Rodrigues, 23, was being held in a police station in the city of Recife in connection with the killing, a police official in Porto de Galihnas told CNN. Police official Osmar Silva Santiago confirmed local reports that Gatti's body was found Saturday morning in his hotel room with strangulation marks. \"This crime is being investigated by our homicide experts and we hope to have more answers tomorrow,\" Santiago said. Police recovered a blood-stained purse strap from the scene, according to media reports. Rodrigues became a suspect because of inconsistencies during her interrogation, local reports quoted homicide task force chief Josedith Ferreira as saying. Gatti made his name in a series of three fights against \"Irish\" Micky Ward, losing the first but triumphing in the other two. He held the IBF super-featherweight and WBC light-welterweight titles, and he also won the WBC junior welterweight belt but lost it to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2005. Gatti retired in 2007 after suffering a knockout defeat by Alfonso Gomez in his comeback, ending with a record of 40 wins and nine losses. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec, after leaving Italy at an early age, and returned to the city following his retirement. According to Gatti's official Web site, the Italian-born pugilist won \"Fight of the Year\" for three consecutive years. CNN's Helena de Moura contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, detained at Recife police station .\nNEW: Rodrigues' answers to interrogation reportedly had inconsistencies .\nNEW: Gatti's body was found Saturday in hotel room with strangulation marks .\nThe former world boxing champion was vacationing with his 23-year-old wife .","id":"278302cd0b62a6e400222e36ed796b810072d9b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jurors started to deliberate Friday after prosecutors and defense attorneys made closing arguments in the murder trial of an anti-abortion activist charged with killing a doctor who performed late-term abortion procedures. Scott Roeder is charged with murder in the death of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot to death May 31 in his church in Wichita, Kansas. Prosecutor Ann Swegle urged jurors to convict Roeder, reminding the jury of the defendant's testimony Thursday. \"His testimony was delivered very matter-of-factly, but its contents were chillingly horrific,\" she said. \"He carried out a planned assassination, and there can be no other verdict in this case ... other than guilty.\" Kim T. Park, chief deputy district attorney, told the jurors that Roeder's actions were unjustified and cowardly. \"Scott Roeder is not justified,\" she said. \"He is only and simply guilty of the crimes he is charged with.\" Mark Rudy, a defense attorney for Roeder, told jurors that Roeder believed he had to act. \"Scott thought that the babies kept on dying,\" he said. \"Scott formed a belief that he had to stop George Tiller from killing more babies.\" He admitted that Roeder killed Tiller but said only the jurors can decide if Roeder \"murdered\" Tiller. He said he was not asking jurors \"to check your common sense at the door\" and urged them to \"represent our little part of the nation well.\" \"No defendant should ever be convicted based on his convictions,\" Rudy said. Roeder testified Thursday that he shot and killed Tiller and did not regret it. \"There was nothing being done, and the legal process had been exhausted, and these babies were dying every day,\" Roeder said. \"I felt that if someone did not do something, he was going to continue.\" Tiller ran a women's clinic at which he performed abortions. Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert ruled after the end of testimony Thursday that the jury could not consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter against Roeder as the defense wanted. In making the ruling, Wilbert noted that Roeder had been talking about killing Tiller for 10 years, CNN affiliate WDAF reported. Several of Tiller's family members broke into tears as Roeder recounted the shooting. Roeder said he didn't regret what he did and felt \"a sense of relief\" when he learned that Tiller's clinic was shut down after his death. Roeder calmly testified that he thought about different ways to kill the doctor -- driving a car into his, perhaps, or shooting him with a rifle. He also considered cutting Tiller's hands off with a sword, but decided that would not be effective, as Tiller would still be able to train others. Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortion procedures. He had already survived one attempt on his life before he was killed. He decided to kill Tiller at his church, he said, because \"I felt that actually if he was to be stopped, that was probably the only place he could have been stopped. ... It was the only window of opportunity I saw.\" Roeder said he visited the church four or five times before Tiller's death. The week before the shooting, on May 24, he carried a .22-caliber handgun with him, he testified, but Tiller did not attend church that day. On May 31, though, the doctor was there, and \"I did what I thought was needed to be done to protect the children,\" Roeder said. \"I shot him.\" \"The lives of those children were in imminent danger if someone did not stop George Tiller,\" he said. The defense had sought to have former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline and current Deputy Attorney General Barry Disney testify, but the judge did not allow it. Kline unsuccessfully attempted to prosecute Tiller in 2006, and Disney charged Tiller with 19 misdemeanor counts, but a jury acquitted him. Wilbert said Roeder could testify about the cases and how they affected his beliefs, but to allow testimony from Kline would \"get into legal matters that do not concern this jury.\" And, the judge said, the cases do not give Roeder a basis to state absolutely that Tiller's actions were illegal, since the doctor had never been convicted. Defense attorneys claim Roeder was led to shoot Tiller in part because of authorities' failure to punish him through the judicial system. Roeder testified he was \"very frustrated\" by Tiller's acquittal, saying it \"seemed like that was the last attempt by the state of Kansas to find if there was anything at all going on illegally in George Tiller's clinic.\" Roeder could face life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. He also is charged with two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly pointing his gun at two other ushers as he fled the church.","highlights":"Scott Roeder accused of killing Dr. George Tiller at church in May 2009 .\nTiller ran a women's clinic where he performed abortions in Wichita, Kansas .\nRoeder testified he thought of various ways to kill Tiller .\nDefense attorney told jurors Roeder believed he had to act.","id":"62c5faa26c6b35fa96fc0ea7be510f96ba555802"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Floyd Mayweather Junior has confirmed that he will fight WBA welterweight super champion Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on May 1 following the controversial collapse of his much-hyped showdown with Manny Pacquiao. The 38-year-old Mosley, a three-weight world title winner, had already signed up for the bout at the MGM Grand, which will take place under the Olympic-style random blood testing drug protocols that Pacquiao refused to accept. The undefeated Mayweather, a six-time world champion at five different weights and Pacquiao's chief rival for the pound-for-pound bragging stakes, said in a statement that he was looking forward to taking on his fellow American. \"This one is definitely for the fans as I wasn't going to waste anyone's time with a meaningless tune-up bout and asked to fight Shane immediately,\" the 32-year-old said. \"I have said ever since I came back to the sport that I only wanted to fight the best. I think Shane is one of the best, but come May 1, he still won't be great enough to beat me. Mosley had been due for a unification bout on January 30 with Andre Berto, who claimed the WBC title that Mayweather vacated when he retired in 2008, but the fight was scrapped when his opponent lost family members in the Haiti earthquake. \"I have always wanted to fight Floyd, and now it is finally coming true,\" Mosley said. \"I am already in great shape and ready to show everyone on May 1 that I am stronger, faster and better than he is. I will have no problem beating him.\" Mosley's promoter Golden Boy took the chance to have a dig at Filipino star Pacquiao over his refusal to undergo blood testing in the lead-up to the planned fight with Mayweather. \"Shane Mosley is one of the greatest fighters of this era and I commend him for not only agreeing to the fight against Mayweather, but also agreeing to participate in a testing process that can only help the integrity of the sport,\" Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer said. Leonard Ellerbe, his counterpart at Mayweather Promotions, also weighed in on the matter. \"Floyd has been trying to make this fight for the last 10 years, so he is extremely excited about the opportunity to face Shane. He can't wait to extend his undefeated record and perform at the highest level,\" Ellerbe said. \"More importantly, he is also happy to set the precedent for random blood testing in order to ensure fair and safe contests for all fighters.\" Pacquiao will defend his WBO welterweight title against Ghana's Joshua Clottey in Dallas on March 13 before returning to politics as he seeks election in his local constituency.","highlights":"Floyd Mayweather Junior confirms he will fight Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on May 1 .\nMayweather turns to Mosley after collapse of his clash with Manny Pacquiao .\nFight will take place under blood testing procedures that Pacquiao refused to accept .\nMosley agreed fight after unification bout with Andre Berto was scrapped last month .","id":"d4441d2b64abc1fdc2ffd32c7ecc660c8b7d9e4f"} -{"article":"Fort Lauderdale, Florida (CNN) -- Just taking a sip of water or walking to the bathroom is excruciatingly painful for 15-year-old Michael Brewer, who was burned over 65 percent of his body after being set on fire, allegedly by a group of teenagers. \"It hurts my heart to see him in pain, but it enlightens at the same time to know my son is strong enough to make it through on a daily basis,\" his mother, Valerie Brewer, told CNN on Wednesday. Brewer and her husband, Michael Brewer, Sr., spoke to CNN's Tony Harris, a day after a 13-year-old boy who witnessed last month's attack publicly read a written statement: . \"I want to express my deepest sympathy to Mikey and his family,\" Jeremy Jarvis said. \"I will pray for Mikey to grow stronger every day and for Mikey's speedy recovery.\" Jarvis' older brother has been charged in the October 12 attack in Deerfield Beach, Florida. When asked about the teen's statement, Valerie Brewer -- who knows the Jarvis family -- said she \"can't focus on that.\" \"I would really like to stay away from that because that brings negative energy to me and I don't need that right now,\" she said. Her son remains in guarded condition at the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center. He suffered second- and third-degree burns over about two-thirds of his body, according to the hospital's associate director, Dr. Carl Schulman. The teen faces a lifelong recovery from his injuries, Schulman told CNN's Harris. \"Michael's still got a lot of major surgery ahead of him, a lot of rehabilitation and therapy,\" Schulman said. \"He's doing about as well as could be expected at this point in his recovery, but he's got a period of probably several weeks to a couple of months still left in the hospital if everything goes well, but the recovery is lifelong. This is truly a life-changing event.\" Valerie Brewer said her son's treatment is excruciating at times. Physical therapy, she said, is \"incredibly painful. He almost cries because it's so painful. He's burned badly on the backs of his knees and every time he moves his knee, it pulls, and if it's healing, it pulls the scab and it cracks, and it starts to bleed.\" The boy must undergo hour-and-a-half showers, she said, where \"they take a piece of gauze, and they wipe off all the dead skin. They give him painkillers for that, but it's incredibly painful and it breaks my heart every time they have to do it. ... That's what we call the torture hour.\" Heavy metal musician Ozzy Osbourne sent Brewer a CD, and he plays it on a boom box during the showers, she said. \"He focuses on Ozzy, and he gets through his torture hour.\" Police were able to interview Brewer on Monday for the first time since the incident. Hospital officials have said Brewer can communicate only in one- or two-word answers. Valerie Brewer would not go into details about what her son told investigators, but said that \"he answered the questions they asked.\" The interview was emotional for both the teen and the investigators, according to Maria Schneider, a prosecutor with the state attorney's office in Broward County. \"It was difficult for him to talk about. Difficult for us to listen to,\" she said of the interview. \"Just difficult all around, heart-wrenching. He's doing so much better, but it's such a terrible situation.\" Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, are accused along with a third teen, Jesus Mendez, 16, of being in a group that poured alcohol over Brewer and set him ablaze in a dispute over $40, a video game and a bicycle. All three pleaded not guilty in an appearance last week in Broward County Circuit Court. If convicted, they would face a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Detectives say eyewitnesses told them that Mendez used a lighter to set fire to Brewer after Jarvis allegedly poured alcohol over him. Bent allegedly encouraged the attack, police said. Brewer jumped into a pool at his apartment complex to put out the flames. Authorities have said Mendez admitted setting Brewer on fire. According to an arrest transcript, the boy said he made a \"bad decision.\" Jeremy Jarvis was arrested as a juvenile after Brewer was burned and spent about 30 days in juvenile detention. However, prosecutors have not filed charges against him and are still determining how to proceed. He still could be charged, as prosecutors have 90 days from his arrest to decide whether to move forward with the case. He has not been interviewed by police or prosecutors, Schneider said. \"He has invoked his rights to counsel and has invoked his rights to silence,\" she said. The boy's attorney, Stephen Melnick, said it appears the younger Jarvis was only a witness to the attack. Broward County schools expelled the seventh-grader after his arrest and he is currently being home-schooled, Melnick said. He described his client was a good friend of Brewer, and said the boy is troubled by Brewer's injuries as well as by his brother facing criminal charges that could land him in an adult prison if convicted. Valerie Brewer said it was \"heartbreaking\" when she and her husband learned that her son's attackers may have included kids that they knew. \"But we don't focus on that,\" she added. \"We focus strictly on Michael and his recovery. We don't need any negative energy coming into the recovery so we just stay away from it, period. We don't watch the news because we're living this nightmare and we don't need to see it on the TV. So we just stay away from it and stay positive for Michael.\" Her son's recovery has been filled with ups and downs, she said. \"It's been a roller coaster ride, the fear of the unknown,\" she said. \"The first time he spoke to us was joyous but watching him struggle every single day ... \"I'm proud of him, I'm very, very proud of him, 'cause I don't think I could do what he's doing.\" CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Teen uses Ozzy Osbourne CD to get through painful therapy, mom says .\nMother of burned teen says she's inspired by his strength as he struggles to heal .\n15-year-old Michael Brewer was set on fire last month, allegedly by other teens .\nThree youths are charged with the attack and have pleaded not guilty .","id":"11f98941a56820775d6e8e2424966ba6431f5950"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has refused a lower court's unusual request to decide whether a shocking 45-year-old civil rights crime can be prosecuted decades later. The justices Monday dismissed an appeal involving James Ford Seale, convicted in the 1964 kidnapping of two teenagers whose bodies were found in a backwater area of the Mississippi River. The reputed former Ku Klux Klan member had long been suspected in the crime, but it was officially unsolved until Seale was indicted in 2007, and later convicted. He is serving three life sentences. The move by the high court not to get involved keeps in place Seale's original indictment, but does not resolve the larger question of whether similar cases can be prosecuted. The issue could have enormous implications for several dozen \"cold cases\" involving racially motivated crimes dating back to the 1950s. Seale had appealed his conviction, claiming the statute of limitations had expired five years after the crime. The confusion arises over the fact that kidnapping could be considered a capital offense in 1964, and thus had no time limit for a prosecution. The high court in 1968 eliminated the federal death penalty for that crime, and Congress four years later changed the law to reflect that ruling. But lawmakers 15 years ago reinstated kidnapping as death penalty-eligible. So the justices were being asked to decide when the statute of limitations kicked in, if ever. Justice John Paul Stevens, supported by his conservative colleague Justice Antonin Scalia, thought the court should get involved. \"I see no benefit and significant cost to postponing the question's resolution,\" Stevens wrote in dissent. \"A prompt answer from this court will expedite the termination of this litigation and determine whether other similar cases may be prosecuted.\" Seale, a former sheriff's deputy, was convicted in June 2007 of kidnapping and conspiracy in the disappearances of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19. Federal officials had initially trumpeted reopening the Seale case. \"Today's indictment is one example of the FBI's strong and ongoing commitment to re-examining and investigating unsolved civil rights era murders and other crimes,\" FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said in January 2007. \"Under our Cold Case Initiative, we will continue to identify and pursue these cases of racially motivated violence to ensure justice is served wherever possible.\" Seale was not tried for murder, but prosecutors alleged that he and fellow Klansmen conspired to abduct, beat and murder Dee and Moore in May 1964. An indictment accused Seale and his cohorts of picking up the two men hitchhiking and driving them into the Homochitto National Forest in Franklin County, Mississippi, where the teenagers were beaten and interrogated at gunpoint. Dee and Moore were then bound with duct tape and weighted down by an engine block and railroad rail. They were still alive when they were thrown into the Old Mississippi River, where they drowned, according to the FBI. Their decomposed bodies were found two months later during a search for three other missing civil rights workers that would later be known as the Mississippi Burning case. Seale and another man, Charles Edwards, were arrested in the slayings in 1964, but were released on bond and never tried. The FBI turned the case over to local authorities, and the investigation was dropped after a justice of the peace said witnesses had refused to testify. The case was revived in 2007 when Moore's brother -- during a visit to Franklin County to help research the case for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary -- discovered Seale was still alive. Thomas Moore told CNN in January 2007 that he gave the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi FBI files on the case, which he had obtained from a Mississippi reporter. U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton helped form a task force that led to Seale's indictment. Seale was the only person convicted in the Moore and Dee murders, the Justice Department said. Since then, other notable cold cases from the civil rights era also have gone to trial. In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter for his role in the Mississippi Burning case. Adding to the unusual nature of the Seale case is that a lower court was unable to decide the matter. The full 18-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split evenly on the time-limit question. They then asked the high court to \"certify\" the question, a rarely used procedure that essentially asks the justices about how to proceed. The Supreme Court was under no obligation to accept the case in this fashion, under its \"Rule 19.\" That provision gives appeals courts the discretion to hand off to the high court \"any question of law in any civil or criminal case as to which instructions are desired, and upon such certification the Supreme Court may give binding instructions or require the entire record to be sent up for decision of the entire matter in controversy.\" The case is U.S. v. Seale (09-166).","highlights":"Appeals court asked high court if a civil rights crime can be prosecuted decades later .\nJustices dismissed appeal involving man convicted in 1964 kidnapping of two teens .\nJames Ford Seale appealed conviction in case, saying statute of limitations had expired .\nIndictment stands, but question of whether similar cases can be prosecuted is unanswered .","id":"760368cac175001a82623bdc3f0615a5ca6e6a9a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The U.S.-led war against the Taliban in Afghanistan has been a tough slog, a nearly eight-year conflict replete with gloom. U.S. Staff Sergeant Robert Brunner secures an area in the Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on August 22. Lately a lot of the news from Afghanistan seems particularly grim for the United States and its allies. More U.S. troops have been killed there in August than in any month since the war began. There are indications that more U.S. troops could be deployed to the country. The Afghan presidential elections this month were rife with charges of fraud. Corruption plagues the political system. The poppy trade is flourishing. And, in the words of the top U.S. military official, Adm. Mike Mullen, the \"Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated.\" Support for the war hit a new low among Americans, a CNN poll found this month. So why do the United States and its allies continue to pour money and troops into Afghanistan? \"The importance of the place is pretty substantial,\" said Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. Al Qaeda has used that part of the world as a sanctuary, he said. Neighboring Pakistan has been serious about vanquishing the militants there and that helps the fight against militants in Afghanistan. A victory for al Qaeda in a conflict there would represent an important public relations triumph for the militants, he said. He understands why Americans are displeased but said people need to feel that progress is being made in the region. \"We haven't been winning for eight years,\" O'Hanlon said. \"They want to know why.\" U.S. President Barack Obama has tackled the question head-on. The al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan represent an urgent threat to the United States, he said in March, just as they were when al Qaeda attacked the United States in 2001, when the then-ruling Taliban harbored the terror network. \"Many people in the United States -- and many in partner countries that have sacrificed so much -- have a simple question: What is our purpose in Afghanistan?\" the president said. \"After so many years, they ask, why do our men and women still fight and die there? And they deserve a straightforward answer. \"So let me be clear: Al Qaeda and its allies -- the terrorists who planned and supported the 9\/11 attacks -- are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. \"Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban -- or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged -- that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.\" The questions have come up in Britain, too, where the deaths of 15 British troops in July stirred outrage and criticism of Britain's strategy in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told his countrymen that British involvement in that country now is as crucial as it was after the 2001 terrorist attacks. \"In 2001 the case for intervention in Afghanistan was to take on a global terrorist threat and prevent terrorist attacks in Britain and across the world,\" he said. \"In 2009 the overriding reason for our continued involvement is the same -- to take on, at its source, the terrorist threat, and prevent attacks here and elsewhere.\" Obama said the Afghan insurgency \"feeds instability\" in Pakistan and Pakistan extremists have the proven ability to undermine the Afghan government. He cited the importance of confronting the heroin trade that finances the insurgency. Obama has listed several objectives in dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan, such as promoting an accountable Afghan government and self-reliant security forces, developing a stable government and strong economy in Pakistan, and disrupting terror networks. Pakistani security forces have been battling militants in the northwestern part of the country, and drone strikes thought to be conducted by the United States have been carried out from Afghanistan against militants in Pakistan. \"The future of Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the future of its neighbor, Pakistan,\" Obama said. \"In the nearly eight years since 9\/11, al Qaeda and its extremist allies have moved across the border to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier. \"This almost certainly includes al Qaeda's leadership: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. They have used this mountainous terrain as a safe haven to hide, to train terrorists, to communicate with followers, to plot attacks, and to send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan. For the American people, this border region has become the most dangerous place in the world.\" In Britain, Brown said the military effort to clear a region and establish security would be buttressed by Afghan plans \"to build basic services -- clean water, electricity, roads, basic justice, basic health care, and then economic development.\" \"This inevitably takes time, but the important thing is that work has begun, to give the people a stake in the future,\" he said. U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, Democrat-Virginia, said in a recent TV interview that he has \"a lot of concerns about the way we've articulated our national goals in Afghanistan.\" \"I think that it is extremely important for us to be able to articulate the end point of our strategy, just as it was in Iraq,\" he said. While there is grim news on the ground in Afghanistan, the picture painted by the president in March was a red alert for Americans: It's a tough but necessary fight that requires patience and resources. \"There are no quick fixes to achieve U.S. national security interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan,\" Obama said. \"The danger of failure is real and the implications are grave.\"","highlights":"Number of U.S. military deaths in August stands at 46, highest monthly toll .\nSupport for the war has hit a new low among Americans, says CNN poll .\nAmong allies, political leaders have had to defend sending troops to Afghanistan .\nU.S. military: Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated.\"","id":"b4078c1558d25a04ecb2dbaf206a493632acc48e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Indian batsman Virender Sehwag admitted he was not too disappointed after he fell seven agonising runs short of a world record third triple-century in the third Test against Sri Lanka. The 31-year-old opener had moved from his overnight score of 284 to 293 before he chipped a flighted delivery from Muttiah Muralitharan back to the bowler who claimed the catch at the second attempt. \"I am very happy I got at least 293 runs -- I am proud of what I have achieved,\" Sehwag told reporters at the close of the third day's play. \"Not many people have got two triple centuries and followed that with 293. So there is nothing to be disappointed about. \"I tried to take my time, but maybe the ball was not there to be hit. I misjudged the length and the ball went straight into Murali's hands. \"I always tell myself to bat the full day, and if there is a ball to be hit, just hit it. If I'm able to bat the whole day we will be in a good position.\" The innings, which lasted 254 balls and included 40 boundaries and seven sixes, was the backbone of India's highest-ever total of 726-9 declared in reply to Sri Lanka's 393. India skipper Mahendra Dhoni hit an unbeaten century before he opted to declare with a lead of 333 before Sri Lanka saw off a difficult few overs in their second innings to close on 11 without loss. Elsewhere, England claimed a 2-1 series victory over South Africa in Durban after the fifth one-day international was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Andrew Strauss' side became only the third team to beat the Proteas in a home one-day series after the umpires called the match off with the onset of another heavy downpour. Meanwhile, a century from Dwayne Bravo was the highlight of a competitive opening day of the second Test between Australia and the West Indies at the Adelaide Oval. The West Indies won the toss, elected to bat and finished the final session with momentum to be 336 for six at stumps.","highlights":"Indian batsman Virender Sehwag fell seven agonising runs short of a world record third triple-century.\nSehwag made 293 before he chipped the ball back to Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.\nIndia closed the third day of the third Test with their highest-ever total of 726-9 declared in reply to Sri Lanka's 393.","id":"c3117cc4244a309bc2b5286df60c0d14de032a43"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Those who knew Canadian folk musician Taylor Mitchell say her passion for her craft was matched by her affinity for nature. Fresh out of high school, she embarked upon a three-week tour of Eastern Canada earlier this month full of hope over her blossoming career and excited to explore the region with a new car and driver's license. The 19-year-old rising star was in between gigs when, according to a Nova Scotia Cape Breton Highlands National Park official, she was killed by coyotes during a hike on Tuesday afternoon. \"If there can be any comfort at all, it is knowing that Taylor was doing two of the things she loved most, sharing story and song on the road and spending time in nature's fold,\" her manager, Lisa Weitz said in an e-mail. \"She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity.\" Mitchell was a \"seasoned naturalist\" well versed in wilderness camping who wouldn't want the coyotes responsible for her death to be killed, her mother said Thursday. \"When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'please don't, this is their space.' She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own. She was passionate about animals, was an environmentalist and was also planning to volunteer at the Toronto Wildlife Centre in the coming months,\" Emily Mitchell said in a statement Thursday. \"Tragically, it was her time to be taken from us so soon,\" the mother said. When she was 15, Mitchell began vocal lessons with her future producer, Michael Johnston. \"Taylor inspired and impressed everyone from her musical peers to members of the Canadian roots-music community who were two and three times her age,\" he said in a statement. \"They saw in her the rarest of the gifts -- an ability to sing not only from the heart, but in a way that transcended her age and experience and became something universal.\" The Toronto-based musician's career began to take off earlier this year after the April release of her debut album, \"For Your Consideration.\" She was nominated for Young Performer of the Year honors by the Canadian Folk Music Awards, which will be awarded in November. On her Facebook page, she detailed her busy summer performance schedule, describing it as her \"craziest summer yet.\" In July, she said she took a Greyhound bus to perform in the Young Performers Program at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, her first show west of Ontario, which featured acts including Arlo Guthrie, Neko Case and Elvis Costello. She played more shows in the Toronto area, relishing the airplay her album was receiving, and worked on songs for her next album, Weitz said. Yet she managed to return to nature with her aunt, mother and best friend at the family cottage in Owen Sound, Ontario, delighting in its simple joys. \"Our cottage is on the shores of Georgian bay. It's 125 years old with three bedrooms that sleep two and one bedroom that sleeps four, plus a bunkhouse. It's old and creaky and absolutely beautiful. As I sit on my couch in my apartment, I'm homesick for the precariously slanted stairs, tennis courts, lake and wonderful memories,\" Mitchell said on her Facebook page. Before she set out eastward for her tour of the Maritimes, she shared her works in progress at the Ontario Council of Folk Music conference in Ottawa, impressing all those in attendance, Weitz said. \"Taylor Mitchell's vocal style and consummate songwriting craft belied her vernal years. Indeed, her songs told the tales of a seeker, a sojourner with a sage wisdom atypical of most, let alone one of such tender years,\" Weitz said. On her Facebook page, she had begun counting down the days to her East Coast tour in September, saying in a September 18 status update that she was \"feeling the pull of the road.\" In her last post on the site, she described playing a show in someone's home, calling it \"a welcome dose of normality after a whirlwind weekend\" at the Ontario Council of Folk Music. Those closest to her said they'll derive inspiration from her passion for life. \"Taylor was my shining light, my baby, my confidante and best friend,\" her mother said. \"I don't know how to move forward from here but I know that she would want that for me, and I will try to do that in her memory and celebrate her life in the way she lived it -- with passion, commitment and an unbridled loving heart.\"","highlights":"Taylor Mitchell was a \"seasoned naturalist\" versed in wilderness camping, mother says .\nShe wouldn't want coyotes responsible for her death to be killed, Emily Mitchell says .\nMitchell earned respect of folk music community for talent that belied her age, producer says .\nThe Toronto-based musician was touring Eastern Canada when she died in coyote attack .","id":"240b5c5c0a82be745f6cb38394f12aa380a181bb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nineteen former patients at a Denver, Colorado, hospital have tested positive for hepatitis C, federal prosecutors said Thursday as they announced new charges against a former hospital employee accused of exposing the patients to the virus. A hospital worker is accused of injecting herself and using unclean syringes for patients. Prosecutors charged Kristen Diane Parker with 21 counts of tampering with a consumer product and another 21 counts of obtaining a controlled substance by deceit or subterfuge, according to an indictment. Parker, 26, had previously faced three federal counts from earlier this month. Parker, who worked as a surgical technician at Rose Medical Center in Denver, is accused of injecting herself with syringes that held patients' pain medication Fentanyl, then replacing the pain medication in the syringes with saline, according to a statement from the office of the U.S. attorney for Colorado. In a statement to police during the investigation, Parker said, \"I can't take back what I did, but I will have to live with it for the rest of my life, and so does everyone else.\" Parker's attorney did not return a call from CNN on Thursday. Authorities said Parker knew she had hepatitis C, a contagious liver disease. Hepatitis C can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parker believes she contracted the virus through using heroin and sharing needles with other users while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities said. According to an affidavit filed by an investigator with the Food and Drug Administration, Rose Medical Center knew Parker tested positive for hepatitis C. She was counseled on how to limit her exposure to patients. Parker worked at Rose Medical Center from October 2008 to April 2009, said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for Colorado. Parker's employment was terminated after she failed a hospital-ordered drug test, said Leslie Teegarden, spokeswoman for Rose Medical Center. The tests were ordered after co-workers reported \"suspicious behavior,\" Teegarden said Thursday. Rose Medical Center contacted about 4,700 patients who may have been exposed to the virus, according to a statement on the center's Web site. Of those patients, 3,540 have been tested thus far, Teegarden said. She said the hospital plans to use tamper-resistant, pre-filled Fentanyl syringes to prevent intentional contaminations. Parker also worked at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York and Audubon Ambulatory Surgical Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Prosecutors have not charged her with any crimes related to her employment at the other two facilities. About 1,200 patients may have been exposed between May 4 and July 1 of this year, when Parker worked at Audubon, according to the center's Web site. As of last week, 545 of Audobon's former patients had been tested for the virus, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. One patient tested positive for hepatitis C, but that infection could not be linked to Parker, according to the department's Web site. Nearly 1,000 patients had been tested as of Thursday, said Audubon spokeswoman Amy Triandiflou. Details about what Parker may have done to expose Audubon patients to the virus are still sketchy, Triandiflou said. More than 2,700 patients could have been exposed at Northern Westchester Hospital, according to the hospital's Web site. The site did not indicate whether any infections had been detected. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. If Parker is convicted and if any one of the former patients suffers serious bodily injury because of her actions, she could face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said. If she is convicted and if any one of the former patients dies as a result of the infection, she could be sentenced to life in prison, according to prosecutors. CNN's Jim Spellman contributed to this report.","highlights":"Denver, Colorado, hospital worker accused of exposing patients to hepatitis C .\n19 former patients test positive for hepatitis C, which affects the liver .\nKristen Diane Parker accused of using syringes filled with pain medication Fentanyl .\nPolice say she refilled syringes meant for patients with saline solution .","id":"eaa7eaa6601b9d3c1c0ba8a7f6c39f44c9474eba"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Officials warned Wednesday that the bridge linking the California cities of San Francisco and Oakland will likely remain closed Thursday morning, promising more delays for Bay Area commuters. That work is intended to dampen vibration on the structure. Vibration may have played a role in causing pieces of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to fall Tuesday night from the span onto the roadway, resulting in its closure. The 73-year-old bridge spans the San Francisco Bay and carries an average 280,000 vehicles daily, according to the state's Transportation Department. \"Right now, we do not have a time when the bridge will potentially open,\" said Bart Ney, a spokesman for California Department of Transportation. \"The work has to be completed first.\" Once the new steel is in place and the rods have been made tense, at least three hours of testing will be carried out before the bridge will reopen to vehicular traffic, Ney said, refusing to speculate on when that might occur. \"The first thing that I would say to motorists is that you need to be at this point planning other routes over the next day or so,\" he said. The Federal Highway Administration and the Seismic Peer Review Board are scrutinizing the repair plans, he said. Wednesday's commute was a horror show for many. \"My wife actually drives over to the peninsula; she says it's taken her two hours to get to work so far and she's not there yet,\" commuter Seth Carp told CNN affiliate KTVU as he prepared to board a Bay Area Rapid Transit train. \"I tried to take the Golden Gate Bridge,\" said a woman who identified herself only as Yemi. \"It was a big mistake.\" She gave up and wound up taking BART. \"It was back-to-back bumper, there were rows of cars everywhere,\" said Christina Chou, who lives in Foster City near the San Mateo Bridge, which served as an alternate route for many. \"It was just horrible.\" Ridership increased on ferries, too, with some people finding a silver lining to the snafu. \"I have been looking for an opportunity to go across the bay in the ferry,\" said Jack Pierce of Oakland. \"I'm sorry the cable parted, but I am glad to get the opportunity.\" Ney said wind gusts of up to 50 mph slowed repair efforts on Tuesday, but the winds had diminished by Wednesday evening. Winds increased vibration by the rods that were fatigued and ultimately failed, he said. \"It was a contributing factor, but not necessarily the only factor, and we are analyzing what the factors are right now,\" he said. Travelers flocked to BART, which ran longer trains and extra trains. The rail line was on track to exceed its peak ridership of 405,000 in a single day, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. Were you there? Send photos and video . \"We have called in extra personnel to help us make sure we operate with every available train car we have in order to provide as much capacity as possible,\" said BART's assistant general manager of operations, Paul Oversier. Amtrak was running a shuttle between the San Francisco and Martinez stations for Coast Starlight and California Zephyr passengers. The pieces that fell -- a cross beam and tie rods -- came from the same section that was repaired in September over Labor Day weekend, when crews worked almost around the clock to fix a crack in the span. A 50-foot section of the bridge collapsed in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, killing one person and prompting efforts to make it quake-tolerant. The whole Bay Bridge is slated to be replaced in 2013, said Patrick Siegman, a transportation planner at Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates, a national transportation planning firm based in San Francisco. The bridge is \"really showing its age,\" he said. \"It's kind of a race against time to finish the new bridge before the next quake hits.\"","highlights":"San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge closes after parts of it fall to roadway .\nRepair work ongoing, but there's no word when bridge will reopen .\nTravelers flock to public transit, including trains and ferries .\nRepairs aim to stop vibration, which may have caused the problem .","id":"48ac4ca11d5f47eaf7343ec562bb840170edaf5a"} -{"article":"One doctor says the study \"very clearly shows that autism did not arrive through a vaccine.\" A new study published in the January 2008 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry found the prevalence of autism cases in California children continued to rise after most vaccine manufacturers started to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in 1999, suggesting that the chemical was not a primary cause of the disorder. Researchers from the State Public Health Department found that the autism rates in children rose continuously during the study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative, thimerosal, has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, except for some flu shots. The latest findings failed to convince some parents and advocacy groups, who have long blamed mercury, a neurotoxin, for the disorder. For years, parents have been concerned that a mercury-containing vaccine preservative may play a role in autism. But a study conducted in California found that autism rates increased even after thimerosal was removed from most vaccines. The study authors say this is evidence that thimerosal does not cause autism, although advocacy groups say it's too soon to determine whether autism rates have been affected. Do these findings suggest that autism isn't linked to mercury in vaccines? Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent: Let me explain. In 1999, manufacturers began removing thimerosal - which is a mercury-based preservative - from vaccines. Some people believed autism would decrease as a result, because they thought the two were connected. A new study in the Archives of General Psychiatry says this just didn't happen. Researchers looked at cases of autism in California after 1999. They reasoned that if mercury exposure in vaccines was a major cause of autism, the number of affected kids should have dropped after thimerosal was removed. Just the opposite happened. From 2004 to 2007, when exposure to thimerosal dropped significantly for 3- to 5-year-olds, the autism rate continued to go up, from 3 per 1,000 children to 4 per 1,000 children in California. A child psychiatrist who supported the study said it \"very clearly shows that autism did not arrive through a vaccine.\" But advocacy groups say it's too soon to determine whether autism rates were affected by removing thimerosal from vaccines. The National Vaccine Information Center says the study doesn't include children under the age of 3, which they say is the only group that was never exposed to mercury in vaccines. It says thimerosal wasn't completely off the shelves until 2002 or 2003. Their main point is that mercury is a neurotoxin, so why take a chance by putting it in vaccines? What do scientists think causes autism? As many as one in every 166 children in this country is found to have autism, and doctors still don't know why. Doctors point to genetics and environment as culprits, but it could be more complicated than that. The latest research shows these children are not necessarily born with autism but with the potential to develop it. What exactly are these outside factors? It's hard to pinpoint. What we eat, what we breathe, what we drink -- all these things could play a role. Some doctors say the increase is due to a change in the way the condition is diagnosed kids who were once labeled mentally retarded are now being labeled as autistic. What are possible signs of autism in your child? Doctors are now looking for signs of autism in children as young as 18 to 24 months. Some red flags that indicate your child may have autism: no babbling or pointing by 12 months, no single words by 16 months, no brief phrases by 24 months, loss of language or social skills. If you see any of these signs, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends seeing a pediatric neurologist, developmental pediatrician or child psychologist. What led companies to remove thimerosal from vaccines to begin with? Several things pushed companies in this direction. Over the past decade, more and more attention was given to the health effects of mercury on humans. And then in the '90s, the CDC added new vaccines to the list of routine shots that children should get. Some of them used thimerosal as a preservative. This was happening while the government was trying to decrease our exposure to mercury. So the FDA began looking into the issue. In 1997, Congress passed a bill that mandated review of products containing mercury, which led manufacturers to begin removing thimerosal from vaccines two years later.","highlights":"Removal of thimerosal from most vaccines hasn't reduced the number of autism cases diagnosed in the state of California.","id":"4981d2d34eef6c189da1cf5c504b3f6a3bf36365"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she did not come to Pakistan for \"happy talk.\" Her three-day trip is aimed at getting frank, open discussions going about the fight against terrorism, and that includes presenting U.S. concerns about how much success Pakistan is having, she said. In an interview with CNN, Clinton said it's time to \"clear the air\" with a key U.S. ally. She added, \"I don't think the way you deal with negative feelings is to pretend they're not there.\" \"I think it's important, if we are going to have the kind of cooperative partnership, that I think is in the best interest of both of our countries, for me to express some of the questions that are on the minds of the American people,\" Clinton told CNN's Jill Dougherty. The secretary's comments came a day after she seemed to question the commitment of some in the Pakistani government for going after the leaders of al Qaeda, who U.S. intelligence experts believe are taking refuge in Pakistan's remote tribal areas. \"Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,\" she told a group of Pakistani journalists Thursday. \"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to.\" She added, \"Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know.\" In the CNN interview Friday, Clinton said she was not suggesting that someone inside the government might be complicit with al Qaeda or might be failing to follow through in fighting the terrorist group. \"No, no,\" she said. \"What I was responding to is what I have been really doing on this trip, which is there exists a trust deficit, certainly on the part of Pakistanis toward the United States, toward our intentions and our actions. And yet we have so much in common, we face a common threat. We certainly have a common enemy in extremism and terrorism, and so part of what I have been doing is answering every single charge, every question.\" Trust \"is a two-way street,\" she added. While Pakistan's military operation has been \"extremely courageous in both Swat and now in South Waziristan, success there is not sufficient,\" she said. \"... I just want to keep putting on the table that we have some concerns as well. And I think ... that's the kind of relationship I'm looking to build here.\" Asked whether she had underestimated the level of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, Clinton said, \"No, because I've been following the research and the polling that's gone on for a couple of years. I knew that we were inheriting a pretty negative situation that we were going to have to address.\" That's why she wanted three days in the country, \"a long trip for a secretary of state,\" she said. \"I wanted to demonstrate that, look, we are not coming here claiming that everything we've done is perfect. I've admitted to mistakes by our country going back in time, but I've also reminded people that we've been partners and allies from the beginning of Pakistan's inception as a country. Pakistan has helped us on several important occasions, and we are very grateful for that. So let's begin to clear the air here.\" Clinton also commented on Iran, as the United States seeks clarification on whether the nation will agree to a deal brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at resolving a dispute about Iran's nuclear program. \"I am going to let the process play out, but clearly we are working to determine exactly what they are willing to do,\" Clinton said. The secretary made a vow to Israeli and Palestinian leaders during the CNN interview as well. \"We're going to do everything we can to try to clear away whatever concerns that the parties have, to actually get them into negotiations where they then can thrash out all of these difficult issues,\" she said. \"I think I'm pretty realistic about what has to be overcome for there to be the level of acceptance that is required to get into these negotiations,\" she added. \"But remember, prior to negotiations, people stake out all kinds of positions, and then in the caldron of actually getting down to specifics, that all begins to be worked out.\" She referred to the experience of former President Bill Clinton. \"I watched in the '90s as my husband just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, and good things happened. There wasn't a final agreement, but fewer people died, there were more opportunities for economic development, for trade, for exchanges. It had positive effects, even though it didn't cross the finish line. So I think that being involved at the highest levels sends a message of our seriousness of purpose.\"","highlights":"Hillary Clinton says she aims to address questions that Americans are thinking about .\nShe says she wants frank talk about fight against terrorism, including U.S. concerns .\nOn Thursday, she said she wondered why terrorists hadn't been found and dealt with .\nShe said she wasn't suggesting Pakistan was complicit with al Qaeda or didn't want to fight it .","id":"eeb5b18d00b148899ac6f9617fa1104ab96b7c24"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Chinese government increased its harassment of religious minorities before the Olympic Games, according to a U.S. State Department report released Friday. A Tibetan Buddhist monk in southwest China's Sichuan province. The State Department's Annual Report on Religious Freedom singled out China, Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan to \"blacklist\" because they are \"countries of particular concern\" when it comes to religious oppression. Over the past year, \"repression of religious freedom intensified in some areas\" in China, including in the Tibetan region and in Xinjiang province, where the Uighur Muslims live. As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approached, some unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing reported intensified harassment from government authorities and said the government cracked down on home churches, the report says. The State Department found that over the past year, Chinese officials also detained and interrogated several foreigners about their religious activities, alleged that the foreigners had engaged in \"illegal religious activities\" and canceled their visas. The government also undertook a \"patriotic education campaign,\" which required monks and nuns to sign statements personally denouncing the Dalai Lama. As a result, the reports says, protests led to violence in Lhasa, Tibet, in March, and the government detained an unknown number of monks and nuns or expelled them from monasteries. In addition to its continued crackdown on groups such as the Falun Gong, which China considers a \"cult,\" the government harassed Uighur Muslims and confiscated some of their passports to prevent their taking part in the hajj, the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Once again, the U.S. criticized the government of Myanmar, saying its \"repressive, authoritarian military regime\" had \"imposed restrictions on certain religious activities and frequently committed abuses of the right to freedom of religion.\" Most followers of registered religions were permitted to worship as they chose, but the government infiltrated and monitored activities of virtually all organizations, including religious ones. The report says that although the North Korean constitution provides for religious freedom, \"genuine religious freedom does not exist, and there was no change in the extremely poor level of respect for religious freedom\" over the past year. In Iran, the report says, \"continued deterioration of the poor status of respect for religious freedom\" last year. \"Government actions and rhetoric created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all non-Shia religious groups, most notably for Baha'is, as well as Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, and members of the Jewish community,\" the report says. \"Government-controlled media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Baha'is. Reports of imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs continued.\" The State Department found some progress in Saudi Arabia. \"While overall government policies continue to place severe restrictions on religious freedom, there were incremental improvements in specific areas,\" the report says. However, the report goes on to note that \"Non-Muslims and Muslims who do not adhere to the government's interpretation of Islam continued to face significant political, economic, legal, social, and religious discrimination.\" It also criticizes U.S. allies in Pakistan and Jordan for aggressiveness toward religious minorities. The governments of Iraq and Afghanistan were praised for endorsing religious freedom, but the State Department found that the war-torn countries have problems. In Afghanistan, \"the residual effects of years of Taliban rule, popular suspicion regarding outside influence of foreigners, and weak democratic institutions hinder the respect for religious freedom.\" In Iraq, \"violence conducted by terrorists, extremists, and criminal gangs restricted the free exercise of religion and posed a significant threat to the country's vulnerable religious minorities.\" In releasing the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is \"concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept,\" which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations. She was referring to the Organization of Islamic Conference, a grouping of 57 Muslim states that does not recognize the right of individuals to freely change their religion and has prevented consensus on resolutions at the United Nations that would prohibit defamation of all religions, not just Islam. \"Despite a pretense of protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, the flawed concept attempts to limit freedom of religion and restrict the rights of all individuals to disagree with or criticize religion, in particular Islam,\" the report says. \"Instead of protecting religion practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech, and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom,\" Rice said.","highlights":"Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan \"blacklisted\"\nTibetan region and in Xinjiang province in China stepped up oppression of Muslims .\nState Department: China detained foreigners for their religion .","id":"04592f1cb4a1cb4bdd04fb7b30986eb278cec9a4"} -{"article":"(AOL Autos) -- Over the decades, I've interviewed dozens of automotive engineers; engine engineers, transmission engineers, chemical engineers, tire engineers, etc. But never have I interviewed an engineer quite like Ford's Cristina Rodriguez. Cristina Rodriguez has been with the Ford Motor Company for 12 years. What separates Crissy (what she prefers to be called at work) from other engineers is that it seems as though she was born be where she is today; the Vehicle Dynamics Development Engineer of the 2010 Ford Taurus. The Taurus goes on sale this summer, and it is arguably the most important vehicle Ford announces this year. This thirty-something Puerto Rican is the only woman at Ford Motor Company to have achieved her status as a Vehicle Dynamics Development Engineer. The job is equal parts engineer, race driver and vehicle psychologist. \"As an engineer, I need to make sure the car is safe,\" Rodriguez said. \"As a (race) driver I have to make sure the car handles well. And then I have to tune the car to have the right personality for being the latest Ford.\" AOL Autos: Best sedans under $30K . She goes on to define what how cars exhibit personality. \"Some cars have a more relaxed personality, so everything about the way they drive is soft and slower to react,\" she said. \"Fords have a DNA that is sportier, more fun to drive, more responsive, more alive, so they need to feel that way.\" You'll be able to tell whether Rodriguez has done her job well when you get behind the wheel of the new Taurus. While we didn't get to drive the new Taurus, we did get an opportunity to ride in the high-performance Taurus SHO model at Ford Motor Company's Dearborn, Michigan proving grounds (a special test track for developing new cars and trucks). More on that experience later. AOL Autos: Best and worst automotive designs . Preparing for success . Rodriguez told us about her background in the automotive business. \"I've grown into this job because Ford's engineering group works on a model that emphasizes 'technical maturity.'\" AOL Autos: First drive of the 2010 Chevy Camaro . For Rodriguez, this means that because she first possessed the technical background for the job, she was then able to develop and prove her practical skills on her way to becoming one of the company's most influential engineers. She's been with Ford 12 years. Matter-of-factly, Rodriguez elaborates. \"In this job, your body has to become a precisely calibrated instrument that can understand what the car's mechanicals are doing,\" she said. \"It takes a while to tune your body, but I've been working on this particular chassis for eight years, so I really know what it's capable of and how to make it respond.\" While the 2010 Taurus is an all-new vehicle, it is related to other Ford products (the Lincoln MKS, Ford Flex, and the outgoing Ford Five Hundred\/Taurus). Rodriguez also contributed to the ride and handling on those vehicles, a task that began with the Ford Five Hundred back in 2001. Born to Cuban parents who fled Castro's communist regime, Rodriguez grew up in Puerto Rico. \"I learned to be a methodical thinker from my father, who was a chemical engineer,\" she said. \"But it was my mother who was the mechanical one. She encouraged me when I was growing up to figure out how things worked, and she never got too mad at me when I put things back together and still had a few pieces left over.\" While Rodriguez worked on her motor skills, another aspect of her life laid groundwork for her future success. \"I come from a very athletic family,\" she said. \"My grandfathers and uncles played Olympic basketball, so we were always active. I can remember that when my brother enrolled in little league baseball, he didn't want to join without a friend, so my mother enrolled me with him. I was the only girl in the league.\" We doubt Rodriguez throws like a girl. And if you thought we'd make a joke about her driving like a woman? Think again. We doubt anyone could keep up with her on a track, male or female. Regarding her education, her Bachelors in engineering came from Georgia Institute of Technology. She also earned a Masters from The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Mechanical engineering is a heavily male-dominated career path, but this hasn't slowed Rodriguez's progress. It is obvious that Rodriguez knows how to operate with the guys, without becoming one of the guys. Certainly, Rodriguez doesn't look like a mechanical engineer: pocket protectors and out-of-style glasses don't seem to be part of her wardrobe. Actually, she looks like she could be Indy Racing League driver Danica Patrick's sister. This comparison is fitting given the ride we were about to experience. Spicing up the bull . Rodriguez explained the process used to give a car a dynamic personality. \"First, we start with models generated by Computer Aided Engineering,\" she said. \"These give us starting points for (suspension) spring rates, dampers, bar thicknesses, etc. After that, everything we do is by the seat of the pants. That's why it's so important to have a feel for what's happening at the road, because you end up becoming a cook who is perfecting a recipe by trial and error. We add more of this or take away some of that. Each change is designed to wake you up and make you feel alive behind the wheel, just like eating a great meal.\" AOL Autos: 2009 best looking cars . The 2010 Ford Taurus has four distinct suspension calibrations; they are mechanical recipes, if you will. There's one each for the front-wheel-drive Taurus, the all-wheel-drive Taurus, the all-wheel-drive high-performance SHO and the ultimate SHO fitted with the Performance Package. Rodriguez noted that each model has unique suspension calibrations that are based on the specific model's equipment and personality. For example, the two non-SHO Taurus models must have the same feel even though one carries the additional weight of the all-wheel-drive system. \"The Taurus needs to be comfortably engaging,\" she said. \"It can't be stiff like a (Mustang) Shelby GT500, but it also can't be too soft like a Toyota Camry. We wanted to keep most of the suppleness of the Lincoln MKS sedan, but make it more responsive.\" AOL Autos: First drive of the 2010 Ford Mustang Shelby GT . The move from the regular Taurus to the SHO edition is dramatic. This is where about 10-percent more chili powder and cayenne pepper get added to the recipe. Nearly every tunable suspension component is changed between the base model and the SHO, resulting in a much more dynamic drive. The step up from the SHO to the SHO with the Performance Pack tightens everything even further (more chilies), including another 20-percent on the dampers (those would be struts and shock absorbers to non-engineers), then 9-percent stiffer rear springs, and a thicker rear anti-roll bar. These changes make the most performance-oriented SHO a more neutral handling car that drivers should find exceptionally agile and immediately responsive. Riding shotgun in the Ford Taurus SHO . Rodriguez was only too willing to take us for a ride to demonstrate what she had been talking about, \"This car is really my pride and joy. I think you're going to like it.\" With that, she moved the floor-shifter into Sport mode and took off. Riding along in the passenger seat, we couldn't help but feel how effortlessly the twin-turbocharged EcoBoost engine took the full-size Taurus well above legal speeds. Unlike turbocharged cars from decades past, the SHO did not seem to exhibit any turbo lag. And the turbochargers sounded quiet (no turbo whine or unrefined popping and hissing). The EcoBoost is efficient, too, although EPA numbers aren't yet available. From where we sat, the ride was firm but not harsh, even as Crissy drove us over test roads that were intentionally bumpy and pocked. By far, the most fun was riding along on the handling course. This smooth, serpentine ribbon features undulating hills and off-camber curves. Normally, one wouldn't expect a full-size car to be at home here. The steering would be too slow and the handing ponderous. We weren't behind the wheel, but we got the impression that the Taurus SHO is no traditional full-size car. The SHO's heavy-duty six-speed gearbox felt quick and smooth from a passenger's perspective, and as Rodriguez increased engine speed, the growl came from under the hood, not the exhaust. Rodriguez confirmed that the turbochargers absorb much of the exhaust noise. The faster Rodriguez drove, the smaller the Taurus seemed to get, easily carving lines between and through the corners. The roll of the body felt well controlled from a passenger's perspective, and it never wallowed. Watching Rodriguez dial in the steering, the car felt like it responded quickly and directly. Compared to an all-wheel-drive Taurus, the SHO's unit gets unique tuning with a greater power bias to the rear wheels for a more balanced feel, and the car seemed to rotate around the corners effortlessly. We can't wait to get behind the wheel ourselves later this spring, when we'll provide a full road test. \"After doing this for 12 years,\" Rodriguez said. \"I know what a car should feel like, and I don't get questioned anymore,\" Rodriguez said. In other words, Rodriguez earned the respect of other engineers, making it completely understandable why Ford would trust her to tune the ride of this very important new car. After about 30 minutes of trashing around Ford's Dearborn proving grounds, Crissy Rodriguez aptly demonstrated that she and the team she's part of knows how to dial in the suspension of a performance car. As she pressed the Start\/Stop button on the SHO's dash, Rodriguez said, \"I think I've got the best job at Ford.\" We'd agree.","highlights":"Ford's Cristina Rodriguez is an engineer and race car driver .\nAs child, she took things apart, put them back together, some parts left over .\nRodriguez designed Taurus 2010, one of Ford's most important vehicles .\nYour body has to be precisely calibrated instrument to understand car's mechanicals .","id":"4264ba3d48a2fc7ea379a15a99f306917e5dc501"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The reaction to Kanye West's hijacking of the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards came quickly and unequivocally. Kanye West took the microphone from Taylor Swift during her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Celebrities and fans alike expressed their disapproval of West interrupting Swift's win for Best Female Video to tout his appreciation of nominee Beyonce. \"Taylor, I'm really happy for you,\" West said after grabbing the microphone from a clearly stunned Swift. \"I'll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!\" Elliott Wilson, founder and chief executive officer of Rap Radar, sat in front of members of West's entourage at the live Sunday night awards show and said the mood quickly turned from one of surprised amusement to anger. Watch West grab the microphone from Swift \u00bb . \"At first, people weren't sure if it was kind of like a gag,\" Wilson said. \"You could feel everybody being nervous and not knowing if it was a prank or something. Then people started booing him really loud.\" Wilson said he believes that West -- who he said bounded on stage from his seat in the front row near Beyonce -- intended to have his say before allowing Swift to continue but said the rapper became angered by the crowd response in a moment that wasn't captured by the MTV cameras. \"The reaction to his tantrum was so strong ... and what happened was, he gave everybody the finger,\" Wilson said. Stars taking to Twitter returned the sentiment with some harsh words for the sometimes mercurial rap star. Singer Pink tweeted, \"Kanye West is the biggest piece of [expletive] on earth. Quote me,\" and Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte tweeted, \"All i'm saying is Taylor Swift is a young chic and you just walk up and grab the mic.\" Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said via Twitter that \"Taylor Swift deserved that award, damnit. It is what THE PEOPLE voted! My heart broke for her, she looked so sad at the end of that moment.\" Singer Katy Perry weighed in with \"F--- u Kanye. It's like you stepped on a kitten.\" VMA nominee Kelly Clarkson took to her blog to publish an open letter to West. \"What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough??\" she asked. On Monday, \"Taylor Swift,\" \"VMAs,\" \"Kanye's\" and \"Beyonce\" were top trending topics on Twitter. Watch Swift respond to what happened \u00bb . Wilson, a noted hip-hop journalist, said there was a great deal of tension inside the event Sunday night before West and his girlfriend, model Amber Rose, left the show. \"It was almost like wrestling, when the good guy turns bad and the crowd turns on him,\" Wilson said. \"Every time his name was mentioned, people booed.\" Wilson said he believes that alcohol may have played a part in West's actions, given that the rapper appeared both on the red carpet and inside the arena with a bottle of cognac. Wilson added that West is well known for such behavior. He appeared uninvited onstage at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, walked out of the 2004 American Music Awards after losing in the Best New Artist category and reportedly threw a backstage tantrum at the 2007 VMAs because he did not perform on the main stage. \"I think Kanye came in to be the bad boy, but he obviously had an emotional spaz moment because he is cool\" with Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z, Wilson said. \"I think the alcohol blurred his judgment.\" Wilson said attendees at the awards show were allowed to have drinks at their seats. Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence.com, said West may have gone too far with his antics this time. \"I think that it was not Kanye's place to speak for Beyonce or to ruin Taylor Swift's moment,\" Wilbekin said. \"It's OK for Kanye to rattle off about himself, but I think he crossed the line when he decided to speak for other people.\" Though West is known for having a healthy ego, Wilbekin said, his actions may be damaging the very legacy the rapper claims to want to leave. \"He's talked about wanting to be Elvis; he's talked about wanting to be the new king of pop,\" Wilbekin said. \"It's almost like he's overshadowing himself by getting in his own way with his mouth.\" West apologized to Swift via his blog. As for Swift, the young singer gave her acceptance speech after Beyonce graciously invited her onstage during her win for Video of the Year. West's disruption wasn't the only one the evening offered, Wilson said. During a performance by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, rapper Lil Mama rushed the stage. Wilson said that from his vantage point in the audience, the female rapper, who also serves as a judge on MTV's \"America's Best Dance Crew,\" was neither expected nor wanted as part of the performance. iReport: Is civility dead? The stars' behavior might have long-lasting consequences, Wilson added. \"I wouldn't be surprised if MTV banned alcohol [at the event] next year,\" he said.","highlights":"Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance speech .\nCelebs take to Twitter and blogs to express outrage .\nWest is well-known for shocking behavior .\nVMA attendee: \"Every time his name was mentioned, people booed\"","id":"2163a460e59eb5412c3c363c25a6cee35fb7d989"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Serena Williams has handed a three-year suspended ban from the U.S. Open after her verbal tirade at a lineswoman at this year's event. The incident occurred during her semifinal defeat to Kim Clijsters when Williams was called for a foot fault to give the Belgian mum match point and her profanity-laced tirade resulted in a penalty point that ended the match. The punishments handed down by the International Tennis Federation's Grand Slam committee could result in a U.S. Open suspension if Williams commits another major violation in any Grand Slam event in 2010 or 2011. Williams was fined a record $175,000 with the amount to be reduced to $82,500 if she stays on good behavior over two seasons. The fine amount included $10,000 Williams paid the U.S. Tennis Association in September after the incident, the maximum fine the group had the power to impose. The biggest prior fine imposed by the committee came when American Jeff Tarango was fined just under $50,000. Williams initially declined to issue an apology to the line-judge but subsequently issued a contrite statement in which she said: \"I need to make it clear to all young people that I handled myself inappropriately on this occasion. \"It's not the way to act -- win or lose, good call or bad call in any sport, in any manner.\" Williams was trailing Clijsters 4-6, 5-6 and serving at 15-30 when the baseline judge called a foot-fault on a second serve. She walked over to the official and waved her racket angrily as she unleashed her tirade at the official, who immediately reported what had been said to the umpire. Having earlier warned Williams for racket abuse, the official called for tournament referee Brian Earley and a penalty point was imposed which enabled Clijsters to claim the match. Replays indicated that the line judge may have got the foot fault call wrong.","highlights":"Serena Williams is handed a three-year suspended ban from the U.S. Open .\nThe punishment follows her outburst in the U.S. Open semifinal against Kim Clijsters .\nWilliams also fined a record $175,000 with the amount to be reduced to $82,500 for good behavior .","id":"20334f01cdb691696e356f6b8db0e0c3358a6c02"} -{"article":"MOUNT KENYA, Kenya (CNN) -- For as long as anyone cares to remember, the pastoralists of Kenya's Rift Valley have fled with their herds to the fertile slopes of Mount Kenya when times are tough. Hundreds of dead cattle litter the slopes of Mount Kenya, fatally weakened by long treks to the region. When the rains failed this year they set off once again in search of water and pasture -- but they found only despair. \"I could have stayed home, or I could have come here, but it is all the same. All that you find is death,\" said Peraguan Lesagut, an aging pastoralist who came five months ago with his herd. After years of persistent drought Lesagut left his two wives and 16 children and drove 200 cattle to the foothills of Mount Kenya -- Africa's second highest summit. Now, only 40 are left; the rest succumbing to cold, disease and exposure. Across the folds of this mountain everyone has the same story. Hundreds of dead cattle dot the forests, young herdsmen try to coax ailing calves onto their feet, knowing that if they don't get up, they will die. \"I am hopeless because I have seen almost all of my animals die,\" Lesagut said. \"If the rains are delayed for even another week two, then I will lose everything.\" Millions of Kenyans are facing the same stark reality. The World Food Program (WFP) says that, together with the Kenyan government, they will need to feed 3.8 million people across the country. Successive years of failed crops, drought and erratic rains caused by climate change have all had an impact. Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti all face similar crises. Despite this, the U.N. agency says that its emergency programs are facing massive shortfalls. \"We are facing a really difficult situation. We realize that the world economic crisis has affected the amount that countries can give to us,\" says WFP spokesperson Gabrielle Menezes, \"But at the same time we are seeing an awful situation in Kenya. If we don't start feeding people now, things are only going to get worse.\" For many Kenyan farmers, the situation is already bad enough. Eunice Wairimu has seen four successive crops fail. This is harvest time in Kenya but her corn plants barely reach her knees and she will have to use her meager harvest as animal feed. \"I don't even like to go to my farm because I become very upset,\" she said. \"There is nothing for me to get there for my family.\" Wairimu used to sell her surplus, but now she depends on food rations. She accepts them grudgingly. \"According to our tribal culture, we aren't used to being given food. We have always been willing to work hard. If it is the will of God to bring rain, he will bring rain. But he also brings drought.\"","highlights":"Millions of rural Kenyans at risk of starvation because of drought, crop failure .\nSomalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti all face similar crises, World Food Program says .\nHundreds of dead cattle dot landscape, driven in search of pasture by herdsmen .\nWFP warns situation will get worse unless shortfalls in resources addressed .","id":"712124f67e5a5e9159457df63b3733b3fb8c113f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Aerosmith announced the cancellation of the remainder of its summer tour Thursday, more than a week after the band's lead singer tumbled off stage in South Dakota. Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler fell off stage August 5 while dancing to \"Love in an Elevator.\" \"Due to injuries Steven Tyler sustained last week when he fell from the stage during a concert in Sturgis, South Dakota, doctors have advised the lead singer to take the time to properly recuperate from the accident that resulted in a broken shoulder and stitches to his head,\" the band said in a statement. The accident happened August 5 during a concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in western South Dakota. Tyler was dancing during \"Love in an Elevator\" when he fell. He was airlifted to a local hospital for initial treatment before returning to Boston, Massachusetts, for treatment with his own doctors. \"Words can't express the sadness I feel for having to cancel this tour,\" said guitarist Joe Perry. \"We hope we can get the Aerosmith machine up and running again as soon as possible.\" \"We never anticipated this tour coming to such a swift and unfortunate ending,\" guitarist Brad Whitford said. \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Steven for a speedy recovery and return to good health.\" Tyler's fall was the second mishap for the lead singer during their tour with ZZ Top. Five shows were postponed in July after Tyler sprained his leg. The band said refunds will be issued for all canceled shows.","highlights":"Lead singer Steven Tyler fell off stage during South Dakota show last week .\nHe broke his shoulder and received stitches to his head; doctors advise rest .\nFall was second mishap for Tyler during Aerosmith's tour with ZZ Top .\nBand says refunds will be issued for all canceled shows .","id":"a3a114fb7742dc3512c6f0a4fdea080f7fcad634"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Roger Federer has been hit with a $1,500 fine for swearing at the umpire during his shock U.S. Open final defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro. Federer argues with umpire Jake Garner during his five-set defeat to Del Potro. The world number one became embroiled in an argument with Jake Garner at the end of the second set after complaining Del Potro was taking too long to decide whether or not to make challenges. The Argentine successfully overturned an \"out\" call shortly before Federer's outburst, a point that led to him breaking serve and eventually taking the set. During the exchange Federer was picked up on microphones telling Garner: \"Don't tell me when to be quiet, okay? When I want to talk, I'll talk.\" Del Potro went on to claim his first grand slam, ending Federer's five-year unbeaten run at Flushing Meadows and denying the Swiss maestro a 16th grand slam title. Federer's fine pales in comparison to the one meted out to Serena Williams, who was docked $10,000 for an altercation with a line judge at the climax of her semifinal with eventual winner Kim Clijsters. Williams reacted angrily after being called for a foot fault, and unleashed a torrent of abuse at the official, who reported the exchange to umpire Louise Engzell. The resulting penalty point for a code violation handed the match to Clijsters. Williams later apologized for the incident. She was also fined $500 for racket abuse in the same encounter. Over $31,000 in fines were handed out in the final grand slam of the season with Daniel Nestor, from Canada, forced to pay $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct towards a fan he confronted. Vera Zvonareva of Russia and Austria's Daniel Koellerer were also fined $1,500 for audible obscenities. Federer will get an early chance to put his U.S. Open disappointment behind him when he plays for Switzerland in a World Group playoff tie against Italy this weekend in Genoa.","highlights":"Roger Federer fined $1,500 for his argument with umpire in U.S. Open final .\nFederer confronted Jake Garner in row over challenges by Juan Martin Del Potro .\nDel Potro went on to win his first grand slam in five-set thriller in New York .","id":"59ad3c3ef0dafccc4bab1e91a138814bdf4fe416"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- United Nations-backed nuclear inspectors on Sunday visited a newly disclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Qom, Iranian media has reported. \"IAEA inspectors today visited the... nuclear installation,\" the semi-official Mehr news agency said, referring to International Atomic Energy Agency staff. \"The IAEA inspectors arrived Saturday night and are scheduled to inspect the... site several times. The inspectors will leave Tehran Tuesday.\" Tehran sent shock waves through the international community in September by revealing the existence of the previously secret nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. The IAEA announced Saturday its inspectors were leaving for the much-anticipated inspection. The agency declined to give more details on Sunday. \"It is our policy not to comment on the itinerary of our inspectors,\" a spokesman for the U.N. nuclear watchdog told CNN. The inspectors will visit the installation to make sure it is being used for peaceful purposes, said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The inspection comes after Iran said Friday that it needs more time to decide whether to sign onto a deal that could help end the international showdown over its nuclear activities. That proposal calls for low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to be sent abroad for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is \"considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs until the middle of next week to provide a response,\" according to an IAEA statement. Delegations from Iran, France, Russia, the United States and the IAEA met in Vienna this week to work out details of the tentative deal reached in early October. France, Russia and the United States have indicated their approval of the arrangement. \"The Director General hopes that Iran's response will equally be positive, since approval of this agreement will signal a new era of cooperation,\" the IAEA statement said. After the current inspection, but before the end of the month, Iranian officials are expected to meet with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany to further discuss Tehran's nuclear program. Iran's leaders maintain that their nation's nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes, but many in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities. Low-enriched nuclear fuel can be further enriched into weapons-grade material. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"The IAEA announced Saturday its inspectors were leaving for the inspection .\nIran said Friday it needs more time to decide whether to sign onto a nuclear deal .\nIran says its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes .\nMany in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities .","id":"f7c78556d1e11f1c34eec106019e361ae4d634a4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Harry Patch -- the last surviving British soldier from World War I -- died Saturday at the age of 111, Britain's Ministry of Defence said. Harry Patch, pictured here on November 11, 2008, at an Armistice Day commemoration ceremony in London. Patch died peacefully at his care home in the southwestern English city of Wells, the ministry announced. His death came a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113. Patch was the last surviving soldier to have witnessed the horrors of trench warfare in the first World War . He fought and was seriously wounded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele, in which 70,000 of his fellow soldiers died -- including three of his close friends. Born in 1898, Patch became a plumber before being conscripted to the army in 1916. After training, Patch was recruited to The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a Lewis gunner assistant. The unit was rushed to the front line trenches of Ypres, where soldiers were urgently needed to replace those who were wounded and dying by the thousand. He fought in the trenches between June and September of 1917 and was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. In late September he was wounded when a light shell exploded above his head, bringing an end to his military service. He received battlefield treatment without anesthetic. After the war, Harry returned to his work as a plumber and later became a sanitary engineer. He married Ada Billington, a young girl he met while convalescing after the battle. They married in 1919 and had two sons. In World War II, Patch joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and helped tackle the fires caused by heavy German raids on the English cities of Bath and Bristol. At one point, he was sent to organize sanitary arrangements for soldiers at a camp near Yeovil, where he became friendly with some of the men. Patch remembered the shock of finding the camp deserted, with coffee still hot and meals half-eaten, on the morning that the soldiers had gone off to France, the Ministry of Defence said. His wife, Ada, died in 1976, and their two sons also later died. Patch remarried in 1980, but he became a widower for the second time four years later. Patch didn't speak about the war until he turned 100, the Ministry of Defence said. \"He tried to suppress the memories and to live as normal a life as possible; the culture of his time said that he was fortunate to have survived and that he should get on with his life,\" a Ministry of Defence biography says. \"That suited Harry; he could 'forget' his demons, the memories of what happened to him and to his close friends.\" In 1998, a television producer with an interest in the war talked to Patch, who then made the decision to speak of his memories, the Ministry of Defence said. He took part in a documentary on the war and began gradually to open up. It wasn't long before Patch became a spokesman for his generation, speaking about the horrors of the war as well as his own emotions and reactions, the Ministry of Defence said. \"In speaking about his experiences, Harry began at last to come to terms with his war, and was at peace with himself and his memories,\" the Defence Ministry said. \"His thoughts then turned to reconciliation, to the long-term effects of suffering and coming to terms with that suffering.\" Patch returned to Belgium in 2002, something he had said he would never do, and laid a wreath to his battalion, the Defence Ministry said. Two years later, he met and shook hands with a German artilleryman from the Western Front, Charles Kuentz. Patch later laid a wreath at Langemark Cemetery for the German war dead. In his last years, Patch was honored at Buckingham Palace and the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. On his 101st birthday France awarded him the Knighthood of the Legion of Honor, and this year President Nicolas Sarkozy upgraded that to the rank of officer. Last year, King Albert II of Belgium made Patch a Knight of the Order of Leopold. \"Harry was delighted to receive these awards and wore the medals with great pride, but he always made it clear that he wore these medals as a representative of the selfless generation he had come to represent,\" the Ministry of Defence said. Patch wrote a book detailing his life in 2007, called \"The Last Fighting Tommy.\" The name referred to the slang term for British privates. \"While the country may remember Harry as a soldier, we will remember him as a dear friend,\" said Jim Ross, a close friend. \"He was a man of peace who used his great age and fame as the last survivor of the trenches to communicate two simple messages: Remember with gratitude and respect those who served on all sides, (and) settle disputes by discussion, not war.\" Gen. Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff, issued a statement expressing his sadness about Patch's death. \"Self-effacing about his experiences in the trenches he was no less effective in describing the horror they represented when invited to speak to schoolchildren about the realities of war.\" Dannatt said. \"He was the last of a generation that in youth was steadfast in its duty in the face of cruel sacrifice and we give thanks for his life -- as well as those of his comrades -- for upholding the same values and freedom that we continue to cherish and fight for today.\"","highlights":"Harry Patch, dead at 111, was last British survivor of World War One trench warfare .\nPatch was seriously wounded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 at Battle of Passchendaele .\nPatch \"tried to suppress memories and to live as normal a life as possible\"\nFormer soldier gradually opened up about his experiences in final years of life .","id":"158082b74d9a82fde840b6ef0c5ed93ebc4d24b9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A union representing thousands of transit workers went on strike early Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shutting down buses, subways and trolleys that carry almost a million people daily. Transport Workers Union leaders walked out of contract talks just before midnight, saying they couldn't accept an offer from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority because of a shortfall in their pension fund and disagreements on some work rule issues. Joe Casey, general manager of the transit authority, said the offer presented to workers was competitive. Are you stranded by the strike? Share your story . \"For the life of me I can't believe the TWU walked away from that offer,\" he said. The strike means all buses, subways and trolleys in Philadelphia and on the Frontier line in Bucks and Montgomery counties stopped running at 3 a.m. Read local coverage from CNN affiliate WPVI . One train operator was as surprised as customers to discover the strike had begun. Sly Wagner showed up at the Fern Rock station ready to work, CNN affiliate Philly.com reported. \"I'm like everybody else,\" he said. \"The only way I found out was when I went to the station and the gates were locked.\" Commuters weren't taking it well. Comments on the Web site of CNN affiliate WPVI-TV were anti-strike by a ratio of 9 to 1 on Tuesday. \"These guys need to take a look around and see that we're facing 10 percent unemployment and an economy on the brink of collapse,\" Lee Henderson commented to the Web site. \"They should be grateful for good jobs and go back to work without further delay.\" Henderson commutes from Elkins Park, on the northern edge of Philadelphia. But a city resident who only gave his first name, Gary, backed the union. \"Local 234 is standing up for the union members; Philadelphia is a union city,\" he commented. \"Local 234 is just expressing its rights. Septa always pulls the economy into negotiations, but when it comes to their managers getting paid, they get what they want.\" Read local coverage from CNN affiliate Philly.com . Concern about crowds converging in downtown Philadelphia for the World Series surfaced in talks over the weekend and workers agreed to stave off the strike. But not long after the last out in Game 5 and the series heading back to New York, Local 234 went on the picket line. The transit authority urged riders to check its Web site for contingency plans.","highlights":"NEW: Commuters express outrage, but a few support the union .\nTransport Workers Union leaders walk out of contract talks .\nStrike affects buses, subways and trolleys that transport nearly a million people daily .\nTransit authority and union can't agree on pension funding and work rules .","id":"60027e242d122285ca098d417d9d9f6b2568c0e3"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Broadening the number of health care professionals who can administer vaccine, New York Gov. David Paterson issued a sweeping executive order Thursday officially declaring a state of emergency due to the increase in H1N1 cases, including 75 H1N1-related deaths in New York state. The announcement, which comes on the heels of President Obama's declaration of H1N1 flu as a national emergency, expands the categories of health care professionals who can give the vaccine to include dentists, pharmacists, podiatrists, midwives and emergency medical technicians, the executive order said. At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Paterson stressed that his order is not intended to incite panic but rather allocates the necessary resources to effectively combat H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu. \"If an enormous number of flu vaccines came into the state because of an epidemic and an emergency and we need to administer them as widely as possible, we have expanded the health care personnel who would be deemed to have the authority to administer the flu vaccine,\" Paterson told reporters. Under current state law, some health care professionals are prohibited from delivering the vaccine because of limits on their professional duties. The governor's order waives any law that would prevent these people from giving vaccinations, according to Claire Pospisil from the New York state department of health. \"It's called an emergency declaration, but what it does is that it provides New York the capability that once vaccine supplies become more available, it allows (health departments) to quickly vaccinate as many people as possible,\" Pospisil said. Dr. Mark Feldman, a retired dentist who serves as executive director of the New York State Dental Association, which represents 75 percent of the dentists in the state, said he would be more than willing to help administer the vaccine. \"If there is a shortage and they need more hands, I can do my part,\" Feldman said. Health care professionals named in the executive order may not administer the vaccine at their individual practices. Rather, they must do so at a New York state health department distribution center. Feldman thinks it would be wiser to allow these health care professionals to distribute the vaccine at their private practices. \"If there is a severe outbreak, to go to a mass distribution center, you risk being exposed,\" Feldman said. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement Thursday supporting Paterson's order. It will \"let a larger number of health care workers administer vaccines, and strengthen our health department's ability to track the use of vaccine supplies,\" the statement read. About 800,000 people in New York City became infected with the disease during the first wave of the virus last spring, according to the New York City Department of Health . The New York health department will provide training for administering the vaccinations, though the exact amount of training required is yet to be determined, according to Tom Dunn of the New York state education department, which issues vaccine licenses.","highlights":"Gov. David Paterson declared a state of emergency because of increase in H1N1 cases .\nOrder allows dentists, pharmacists, podiatrists, midwives to give vaccines .\nPaterson said increasing those who can give vaccine would help state in emergency .\nRetired dentist: \"If there is a shortage and they need more hands, I can do my part\"","id":"bbd4e8d84bff31f92b48e840a046161f9197ea85"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former President Carter warned members of Congress on Tuesday that America's failure to achieve energy independence is threatening the country's national security, undermining its long-term potential for economic growth and contributing to global warming. Former President Carter said Tuesday that the United States must end its energy-based vulnerability. \"Collectively, nothing could be more important than this question of energy,\" Carter said during a rare presidential appearance before a congressional committee. \"I would guess that our entire status as a leading nation in the world will depend on the role that we play in energy and environment in the future.\" Carter, who in 1977 famously declared the fight for energy independence to be \"the moral equivalent of war,\" told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that reaching that goal is crucial to ending the country's \"vulnerability to possible pressures and blackmail.\" Right now, he noted, \"whether we admit it or not, we are very careful not to aggravate our major oil suppliers.\" Watch Carter talk about energy and security \u00bb . He also asserted that more jobs will be gained than lost by transitioning the country away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner, renewable energy sources. Carter's testimony came as Congress continues its consideration of broad-reaching energy legislation with the potential to dramatically tighten emissions controls while reshaping America's environmental standards. Among other things, the American Clean Energy and Security Act would create a controversial \"cap-and-trade\" system establishing steadily declining limits on greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades. Under the bill, polluters would be able to buy and sell emissions credits while utilities would be required to generate an increasing amount of power from renewable sources. Congressional attention to the issue is being driven by President Obama, who, like Carter, has placed energy near the top of his domestic agenda. Carter suggested that energy reform advocates craft an omnibus proposal that could be considered collectively by Congress in order to minimize \"adverse influence of special interest groups\" opposed to any major changes. Powerful entrenched interests ultimately helped derail his administration's energy agenda, he said. Carter noted that his administration nevertheless succeeded in reducing net oil imports by 50 percent, from 8.6 to 4.3 million barrels per day. But after \"a long period of energy complacency,\" he said, daily imports to the United States are now almost 13 million barrels. America consumes 2.5 times more oil than China and 7.5 times more than India, he noted. On a per capita basis, the United States consumes 12 times more oil than China and 28 times more than India. \"Although our rich nation can afford these daily purchases, there is little doubt that, in general terms, we are constrained not to alienate our major oil suppliers, which puts a restraint on our nation's foreign policy,\" Carter said. The former president reminded committee members that, as part of his drive for renewable energy, he had ordered 32 solar panels to be placed on the roof of the White House in 1979. But the panels were removed \"almost instantaneously after [Ronald Reagan] moved into the White House, with assurances to the American people that such drastic action would no longer be necessary.\" Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, opened the hearing by noting that the price of a barrel of oil has fallen $90 below the record high hit in summer 2008. Unfortunately, Kerry added, the \"political will to take decisive action has dissipated\" as each past energy crisis has subsided. Carter \"had the courage to tell the truth to Americans [and] set America on the right path in the 1970s,\" Kerry said. \"Regrettably, the ensuing years saw those efforts unfunded [and] stripped away.\" Richard Nixon was the first president to set a goal of energy independence, Kerry noted. Nixon called for that goal to be reached by 1980.","highlights":"\"Our entire status as a leading nation\" will depend on energy role, ex-president says .\nEnergy independence would protect national security, create jobs, he claims .\nCongress continues to consider broad-reaching energy legislation .","id":"09056172e8fa5d9ff37148caeaec326ed963d188"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Federal investigators trying to determine why a Delta Air Lines jet landed on a taxiway instead of the runway in Atlanta on Monday morning say the runway was illuminated, but that approach lights and a ground-based instrument that helps pilots line up with the runway were off. The pilots of the plane that landed at the Atlanta airport have been relieved from flying duties pending probes. The incident happened at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world's busiest. But it occurred shortly before dawn, when airport operations are slow. Delta Flight 60, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was cleared to land on a main runway around 6:05 a.m., but it landed instead on nearby Taxiway M, which runs parallel to the runway, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. The departure taxiway, which can be filled with aircraft during peak hours, was empty at the time, and the plane landed safely, officials said. No one was injured, and there was no damage to the taxiway. The Boeing 767 aircraft had 182 passengers and a crew of 11. The FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board and Delta Air Lines are investigating. The pilots of the aircraft were placed on nonflight status, Delta said. The NTSB on Wednesday confirmed that a \"check pilot\" on the flight was sick, and the crew had declared a medical emergency. It was not clear what, if any, role that played in the mishap. Sources familiar with the incident say that Flight 60 originally was scheduled to land on Runway 27L (left), the active runway at that time, but was \"sidestepped\" to Runway 27R (right). Pilots commonly ask to be \"sidestepped\" to Runway 27R -- and air traffic controllers commonly offer 27R -- because it is closer to the terminal and pilots can shave minutes from a trip. In this case, it is not clear whether the pilot made the request, or the air traffic controllers made the offer. Nor is it clear why the change was made -- whether to shave time from the flight, or because of the medical emergency on the aircraft or some other reason. But after being given permission to land on Runway 27R, the plane went too far to the right, landing on Taxiway M. The runway was marked with yellow lights, while the taxiway was marked with blue lights, one person familiar with the incident said. The NTSB said the runway lights on 27R were illuminated, but a \"localizer\" and approach lights for the runway were off. Officials said the weather at the airport was clear, and the NTSB said the wind was calm at 10 mph. The sky was dark, with twilight still more than an hour away. The NTSB said a \"check airman\" was in the cockpit with the captain and first officer during the flight, but became ill and moved to the cabin for the remainder of the flight. Check airman are company pilots who watch over crew members during significant flights, such as when a first officer becomes a captain, when a pilot is making a maiden international flight, or over mountainous terrain for the first time. The NTSB said it is uncertain why the check airman was on the Delta flight. Delta spokesman Anthony Black said the airline is cooperating with the FAA and the NTSB and conducting its own investigation. The pilots of the flight have been relieved from active flying, he said. The incident came just two weeks after the FAA announced that serious runway incursions were down 50 percent this year. Close calls in 2007 at some of the busiest U.S. airports prompted the FAA to take action to reduce the risk of runway incursions and wrong runway departures. There were 24 serious runway incursions that year, eight of them involving commercial carriers.","highlights":"Delta Flight 60 from Brazil landed on taxiway instead of runway in Atlanta, Georgia .\nNo planes were on taxiway waiting to take off; jet landed safely with no injuries .\nInvestigation looking at approach lights, ground-based instrument .\nNTSB:\"Check pilot\" was sick before landing, crew declared medical emergency .","id":"b126c7297ab415aa187e9c2d75360013e8bb5e37"} -{"article":"Although you may think that bottled water is a safer option than tap, two new reports show that the store-bought stuff is actually less regulated than the water you get out of your faucet for free. What's in your water? You may be hard pressed to find out, reports the Environmental Working Group. The Food and Drug Administration has little authority to regulate bottled brands, according to a U.S. Congressional report released recently. While municipal water utilities are required to provide public reports of test results, bottled-water makers are not. (On the other hand, well water, which is found in many rural areas, isn't regulated as water provided by towns and cities is.) So although you may fork over a pretty penny for bottled water, that doesn't mean it's any better than what's coming out of your faucet. In fact, it could be worse and you'd never know it. The new research is backed by a second report from the Environmental Working Group. The nonprofit advocacy organization surveyed the labels and Web sites of nearly 200 popular bottled-water brands and found that less than 2 percent disclosed three important facts that can affect safety: the water's source, purification methods, and chemical pollutants in each bottle. (See the full report on bottled water at EWG's Web site.) \"We're really pushing for a consumer's right to know what's in their water,\" says Nneka Leiba, an environmental health researcher at the EWG. \"This isn't a doomsday scenario. It isn't that the claims are false; it's just that they are misleading.\" Reaching for the most popular bottled brands isn't necessarily a solution. In fact, the EWG report found that some of the best-known brands -- for example Whole Foods and San Pellegrino -- are the least likely to report where the water comes from and what it contains. Health.com: Plastic recycling gets easier . \"This probably has to do with the fact that they're imported, so the regulations are different,\" says Leiba. \"Some of the brands you think wouldn't be as transparent, like Walgreens or Sam's Club, scored higher than many of the popular brands.\" So what's a safety-conscious shopper to do? In recent years, some reports have suggested that tap water could be contaminated by trace amounts of pharmaceuticals or other substances. Health.com: Why caffeine and sugar are poor substitutes for sleep . Leiba says that activated carbon water filters -- like Brita pitchers or faucet attachments -- are a safe and affordable option for filtering tap water. If families can afford it, she recommends a reverse osmosis filter, which will eliminate all impurities. These reports come as food safety concerns seem to be at an all-time high. Lately, recalls of spinach, sprouts, peanut butter, and, most recently, cookie dough have made many consumers start to question the safety of the items they find on grocery-store shelves. Unlike tap water suppliers, bottled water companies don't have to have their water tested by a certified laboratory, and they aren't required to notify customers within 24 hours if they find elevated levels of contaminants. The FDA does require bottled water companies to test for contaminants and other problems, says Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., the agency's principal deputy commissioner. Health.com: Could your rug make you sick? If the companies fail, however, the public doesn't get to see the actual test results. \"There's clearly a difference in disclosure between municipal water and bottled water, but the FDA's laws focus on safety of food more than on disclosure of information,\" says Sharfstein. \"It's not a question of whether the FDA can do more; it's whether the government can do more through the food safety bill.\" Only changes in the current regulations would make it mandatory for manufacturers to make those kinds of records public, he says. Those regulations may change with the Food Safety Enhancement Act. Health.com: Drink this tea to lose that belly . The proposed Food Safety Enhancement Act covers many aspects of food safety, including better preventive control measures by food manufacturers, more frequent inspections of facilities, and greater FDA authority over food recalls. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Congressional Report: FDA has little authority to regulate bottled water brands .\nConversely, municipal water utilities are required to make test results public .\nWatchdog group's survey: Less than 2 percent of bottlers disclose important info .","id":"8a85405211ed055ec895e685455d57124cc4b070"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An agreement could be reached before week's end between Washington University students and an Illinois nightclub that allegedly barred six African-American students while admitting nearly 200 of their white classmates. Fernando Cutz, senior class president at the university in Missouri, said the aggrieved students have been in contact with lawyers representing Original Mother's, a bar in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. The two sides expect a resolution to their dispute as early as Wednesday, Cutz said. He did not, however, say what the students were demanding or why he was optimistic that a deal could be struck. The students complained to state and federal agencies after six African-American members from their senior class trip celebration were denied admission to the club on October 17. Bar personnel cited dress code violations -- specifically baggy jeans -- in barring the African-American students, Cutz said. A white student and a black student then exchanged jeans to see what would happen. The white student was admitted, while his classmate still was kept outside, Cutz said. Calls from CNN to the nightclub were not immediately returned. The bar told the Chicago Tribune newspaper that it was investigating. The celebration at Original Mother's was to top off a two-day senior class trip to Chicago, Cutz said. The party had been arranged with the bar in advance by the student class board, which includes two of the African-American students who were later denied entry, Cutz said. He said he was already inside the bar with some 200 other students, none of whom are African-American, when the first group of African-American classmates arrived. Cutz said he quickly learned that the manager of the bar had denied the six students entry, and he said the manager told the students their baggy pants violated the bar's dress code. Cutz, who is white, said he confronted the manager. \"These six [students] were better dressed than I was,\" Cutz told CNN. He told the students to \"go back to the hotel and change.\" But the manager of the bar stepped in to say that he had made his decision and that the six men could not return to the bar even if they changed clothes, Cutz said. The students became \"more agitated\" and \"set up an experiment,\" Cutz said. Class Treasurer Regis Murayi, who is black, exchanged jeans with a white student, Jordan Roberts, who -- being 3 inches shorter than Murayi -- looked \"substantially baggy.\" Roberts approached the same manager who had turned away the African-American students, paid the entry fee and was allowed in, Cutz said. CNN's Susan Candiotti also contributed to this report.","highlights":"Group: Bar kept African-American students out, let white classmates in .\nWashington University's senior class was celebrating at the Chicago bar .\nClass president: Bar cited dress code violations, but clothing swap didn't help .\nClass complains to Illinois attorney general, others; bar hasn't returned CNN's calls .","id":"4812d8902f47ec2938a34dc137d0319ef2b11bfd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Five people were detained off Somalia's coast Wednesday after pirates mistook a French ship involved in an anti-piracy operation for a commercial vessel, the French Defense Ministry said. A German-flagged warship taking part in the EU's anti-piracy mission is pictured in this April 2009 file photo. There were no injuries as a result of the attack on the BCR Somme, the ministry said. The pirates opened fire at midnight local time, about 250 nautical miles (463 kilometers) off Somalia's coast, officials added. An hour after the attack, the French command and supply ship chased down one of the pirates' skiffs, and detained five suspected pirates, it said. A second skiff involved in the attack got away. The BCR Somme was carrying supplies off Somalia's coast to forces involved in the European anti-piracy operation, called \"Atalante,\" the ministry said. Europe and other Western powers have stepped up their maritime patrols off Somalia's coast following a spate of pirate attacks over the past year. Somalia's transitional government, which has a tenuous grip on power, has been unable to stop the pirates, many of whom are based in Somalia's port cities. Those who have tracked pirate activity say it started in the 1980s in Somalia, when the pirates claimed they were aiming to stop the rampant illegal fishing and dumping that continues to this day off the Somali coast. Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. Some experts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the pirates.","highlights":"Pirates fire on French ship involved in anti-piracy operation off Somali coast .\nCommand and supply ship chased down a skiff; detaining 5 suspected pirates .\nBCR Somme carries supplies to forces involved in European anti-piracy operation .","id":"cfc3b70cfea4b9357880da57008fa8ebdce04a2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Law enforcement authorities have recovered 52 children and arrested 60 pimps allegedly involved in child prostitution, the FBI announced Monday. More than 690 people in all were arrested on state and local charges, the FBI stated. The arrests were made over the past three days as part of a nationwide law enforcement initiative conducted on the federal, state and local levels, the bureau said. \"Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces,\" Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, said in a written statement. \"There is no work more important than protecting America's children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization.\" The three-day operation, tagged Operation Cross Country IV, included enforcement actions in 36 cities across 30 FBI divisions nationwide. It is part of the FBI's ongoing Innocence Lost National Initiative, which was created in 2003 with the goal of ending sex trafficking of children in the United States. The initiative, conducted with assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has so far resulted in the recovery of almost 900 children, according to the FBI. It has also led to more than 500 convictions.","highlights":"3-day Operation Cross Country IV conducted on federal, state, local levels .\nFBI says more than 690 people in all were arrested on state, local charges .\n\"Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country,\" FBI says .\nOperation is part of initiative aimed at ending domestic sex trafficking of children in U.S.","id":"e6f7f4a5497085a9a84556fb8ab3ce71d9001924"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Former teen idol Leif Garrett posted a $10,000 bond Wednesday after spending two days in a jail on a drug charge, a Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman said. Garrett, 48, was arrested Monday at a downtown Los Angeles train station after police found heroin in his shoe, spokesman Steve Whitmore said. He was 16 when he scored his first pop chart hit, \"Surfin' USA,\" in 1977. It was followed by a four-year run of songs that kept young girls swooning and teens dancing. When deputies approached Garrett Monday morning at the Metrolink station, he was \"acting in a pronounced way, shaking and sweating,\" Whitmore said. Garrett told them he was \"nervous around law enforcement because of other meetings with them in the past,\" he said. The singer did jail time four years ago after he was arrested with heroin while he stood on a subway platform at another Los Angeles transit station. This time, Garrett told the officers that he had no drugs and he agreed to let them search him, Whitmore said. As they searched, Garrett told them he did have a little heroin in his shoe. \"That was found and it was black tar heroin,\" Whitmore said. Garrett was taken to the East Los Angeles sheriff's station, where he was booked and held on bond. His court date is February 24, Whitmore said. CNN's Michelle Wright and Alan Duke contributed to this report.","highlights":"L.A. County authorities: Leif Garrett posts $10,000 bond after two days in a jail .\nGarrett was found with heroin and arrested Monday, sheriff's spokesman says .\nThe former teen idol was arrested four years ago for possession of heroin .\nGarrett was 16 when he scored his first pop chart hit, \"Surfin' USA,\" in 1977 .","id":"855df1564af08c273e78fa77245b015d91a84a1d"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- The Orleans Parish district attorney said he plans to look into deaths at a New Orleans hospital in the days following Hurricane Katrina, but stopped short of calling it an investigation. Staff at Memorial were accused of hastening four patients' deaths in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. \"My office has not reopened an investigation into the deaths at Memorial hospital\" after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, Leon Cannizzaro said in a statement released Friday. \"As district attorney, I have a legal obligation to evaluate statements regarding possible criminal activity in this jurisdiction,\" the statement said. \"I am making that kind of evaluation, but that does not constitute an investigation by this office.\" The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported in a story Saturday that Cannizzaro will interview New Orleans coroner Frank Minyard and possibly other pathologists on the coroner's staff regarding the deaths of Memorial Medical Center patients. But the newspaper quoted Cannizzaro as saying an investigation would involve convening a grand jury and bringing in witnesses to testify, and he does not at this time have plans to do that. After speaking with the coroner, the district attorney said he would decide whether a more in-depth investigation is necessary. Cannizzaro's spokesman, Christopher Bowman, said Monday the DA's office had no further comment beyond the Friday statement. According to the Times-Picayune, Cannizzaro's conversation with Minyard was prompted by an article in The New York Times last month that quoted two doctors as saying that they gave Memorial patients morphine and other drugs in the days after the hurricane struck, knowing they would die. Cannizzaro told the newspaper he would be \"remiss in his responsibilities\" if he did not talk to Minyard about information in the article. \"That doesn't mean I am opening an investigation,\" he said. Katrina roared ashore near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line on August 29, 2005, rupturing three of New Orleans' protective levees and putting about three-quarters of the city under water. Then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. launched an investigation after officials from Lifecare, an acute-care facility operating on the seventh floor of Memorial, reported allegations that several seriously ill, mostly elderly patients had been euthanized by medical staff at Memorial as the floodwater rose around the hospital and conditions inside deteriorated. In 2006, Foti ordered the arrest of Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, on preliminary charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of four patients. Former Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who under Louisiana law was responsible for prosecuting crimes, gave Budo and Landry immunity in exchange for their testimony. In July 2007, the grand jury refused to indict Pou. Foti said his investigation revealed that the four patients -- ages 63, 68, 91 and 93 -- were given a \"lethal cocktail\" of morphine and midazolam hydrochloride, both central nervous system depressants. Pou, Landry and Budo all denied the charges, and their attorneys said they acted heroically, staying to treat patients rather than evacuate. In an interview with Newsweek magazine in 2007, Pou admitted giving the patients drugs. \"If in doing so it hastened their deaths, then that's what happened,\" she said. \"But this was not, 'I'm going to go to the seventh floor and murder some people.' We're here to help patients.\" The grand jury never heard testimony from five specialists who advised Foti that the patients were deliberately killed with overdoses of drugs after Katrina struck. All five were brought in by Foti's office to analyze the deaths, and concluded the patients were homicide victims. After the grand jury refused to indict Pou, Jordan called the case closed and said he would no longer pursue it. If Cannizzaro does decide an in-depth investigation is warranted, it could affect the outcome of a lawsuit in which CNN and The Times-Picayune are seeking the release of Foti's investigative file into the deaths. CNN was the first to report the allegations of euthanasia, six weeks after the hurricane. The case went to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which in July sent it back to the trial court to rule on whether criminal litigation in the case is reasonably anticipated, according to Lori Mince, the New Orleans attorney representing the media organizations. A reopened investigation could lead the court to rule that criminal charges may be forthcoming. Hospital workers identified only as John and Jane Doe had sued to block the public release of the file, claiming the records are covered by grand jury secrecy rules, that they should have been considered confidential informants and that releasing the documents would violate their privacy.","highlights":"Post-Katrina euthanasia was alleged at Memorial Hospital .\nGrand jury declined to file charges and case was closed .\nDifferent district attorney deciding whether to reopen investigation .\nCNN first reported allegations six weeks after Hurricane Katrina .","id":"ba4d55e76576d32c954e07208a53f70d5048586d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An Illinois woman and her boyfriend, already charged with aiding in the abduction of the woman's 6-year-old grandson, face new charges of tampering with a witness in the case, officials said Tuesday. Ricky Chekevdia, 6, allegedly was hidden with his mother in a secret room in his grandmother's house. Diane Dobbs and Robert Sandefur, both 51, are in jail pending the filing of formal charges in the case, said Beth Sandusky, victim services coordinator for the state attorney's office in Franklin County, Illinois. The two were charged previously with aiding and abetting child abduction, a felony, according to Sandusky and court records. They were released from jail on bond Monday, but were back in custody within hours, according to ABC News and CNN affiliate WSIL. Last week, authorities found Ricky Chekevdia, Dobbs' grandson, at her home. The boy was hiding along with his mother, Shannon Wilfong, in a secret room built to hide them -- an area about 5 feet by 12 feet, with a 4-foot ceiling, according to WSIL. Police say the boy had been hidden for nearly two years. Wilfong, 30, is jailed on felony child abduction charges and made her first court appearance Tuesday, Sandusky said. \"We let him out of the car and he ran around like he'd never seen the outdoors,\" Master Sgt. Stan Diggs with the Illinois State Police told WSIL. \"It was actually very sad.\" In an interview on ABC's \"Good Morning America\" on Monday, before she was arrested, Dobbs disputed the accusation that Ricky was hidden in the small room, saying that in two years he spent \"maybe five minutes\" there. \"My grandson had the run of the house,\" she said. \"When we were outside, we would go fishing, we would do weenie roasts. We've done fireworks on the Fourth of July. He's helped me plant my flower garden in the back.\" She said she would not plead guilty to the charges. \"We were on our own and we had to do what we had to do and that was make sure our grandson was safe,\" Dobbs said. Sandusky would not comment on the pending charges against Dobbs and Sandefur or identify the witness. However, a woman told WSIL she called police after Dobbs and Sandefur came onto her property and threatened her son's life. Diggs told WSIL that Ricky is \"in very good spirits for someone who's been isolated in that house. ... He's a very, very social, very polite, very talkative little boy.\" Wilfong and Ricky's father, Michael Chekevdia, had battled over custody since Ricky was born in 2002, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. They initially had joint custody, Chekevdia told the newspaper, but Wilfong would often fail to bring the boy for weekends or scheduled meetings, then in 2007 failed to show up for visitation hearings. A judge granted Chekevdia temporary custody, but by then Wilfong and the boy had disappeared. They were reported missing in November, and in December, prosecutors charged Wilfong with felony child abduction. Wilfong and Dobbs had accused Chekevdia of sexually abusing the boy, but authorities have said those allegations are unfounded, the Post-Dispatch said. Leaving court Tuesday, a tearful Wilfong denied any wrongdoing to reporters, and accused Chekevdia of making lewd comments about the child. She added that the boy feared returning to his father. But Chekevdia told WSIL that Wilfong and her family are \"accusing me unjustly.\" \"I was the best father I could be given the time that I had with him,\" he said. Ricky was taken into Illinois Department of Children and Family Services custody, and is staying with his father's family under child welfare supervision, WSIL said. The department declined comment. Chekevdia told the station he got to see his son smile for the first time at a Labor Day parade. \"It was just a wonderful feeling to see a little boy that's been in that situation for so long enjoy himself,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Boy's parents had battled over his custody since his birth in 2002 .\nGrandmother and her boyfriend are in jail pending formal charges .\nMother, Shannon Wilfong, tearfully denies any wrongdoing .\nBoy is staying with father's family under child welfare supervision, station reports .","id":"0dbaeb107adf17a04bcfa22ce54d7523e746d580"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rick Lyke was diagnosed with prostate cancer when he was 47. His response was to set up \"Pints for Prostates,\" an organization that uses the universal language of beer to reach men with its message about the importance of prostate cancer screening. In 2008, at the insistence of a colleague with prostate cancer, Lyke, from Charlotte, North Carolina, had himself tested for illness, even though he had no health problems. His doctor was initially reluctant to have him tested, as men under the age of 50 aren't considered to a high-risk group for prostate cancer, but tests came back positive and Lyke needed surgery to remove the cancer. His surgeon said that if Lyke had waited until he was 50 to be screened, he would probably have only lived another two or three years. \"I'm doing great now,\" Lyke told CNN. \"I have to get tested every six months for the next 15 years, but I really feel like I dodged a bullet.\" Prostate cancer affects one in six men American men, with 27,000 Americans expected to die from the disease this year. The American Cancer Society believes health care professionals should discuss the potential benefits and limitations of prostate cancer early detection testing with men before any testing begins. It says that should include an offer for yearly testing with the prostate-specific antigen blood test and digital rectal exam, beginning at age 50, to men who are at average risk of prostate cancer and have at least a 10-year life expectancy. But Lyke says other groups recommend that men should be screened once they reach their forties. \"I think it's a financial issue in a lot of cases rather than a health issue as to why that guideline is 50,\" he told CNN. \"The fact of the matter is not many men are going to have prostate cancer in their forties, but for those who do, if they wait until they're 50 to be tested, their numbers aren't going to look very good.\" Lyke founded \"Pints for Prostates\" to spread the message about need for regular prostate health screenings. The organization travels to beer festivals and tries to engage with men in an informal way. \"Beer is a universal thing for men,\" Lyke told CNN. \"Where women get together and talk about health issues, men really don't, so we try to use an atmosphere like a pub, where guys are a little bit more relaxed, to talk about prostate cancer.\" He says prostate cancer is a highly personal disease for men, in much the same way that breast cancer is for women. Treatment for prostate cancer can sometimes result in impotence. \"The pink ribbon campaign has really made it possible for women to talk about breast cancer, so we're trying to do the same thing for guys. They need permission to talk about it,\" said Lyke. As well as setting up stalls at beer festivals and organizing events in pubs, \"Pints for Prostates\" has run adverts in magazines and Lyke estimates its message has reached about 30 million people. A year after his own surgery, Lyke's first granddaughter was born. He is aware that by being screened for prostate cancer he has vastly improved his chances of seeing her grow up, and he hopes that by encouraging other men to be tested he will give them a similar opportunity. He told CNN, \"I'm hoping that there's a whole bunch of other guys out there who'll be able to experience the same thing [as me] -- see their families grow up and grow old.\" Mark Tutton contributed to this report .","highlights":"Rick Lyke set up \"Pints for Prostates\" after being diagnosed with prostate cancer .\nThe organization travels to beer festivals to educate men about the disease .\nProstate cancer affects on in six men American men and screening is recommended for men over 50 .","id":"ab8350494f3c6ded4a412e38a10797a606d3d699"} -{"article":"Detroit, Michigan (CNN) -- Six men appeared in federal court Thursday, a day after they were arrested in raids targeting an African-American Muslim group that the FBI said sought to establish an Islamic state in the United States. Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the alleged leader of the African-American Muslim converts, was fatally shot during one of Wednesday's raids in the Detroit area after he fired at law enforcement agents who were trying to arrest him and four other suspects. An FBI dog was also killed. Authorities say Abdullah was the imam at a Detroit mosque where he preached offensive jihad, including violence against the U.S. government and law enforcement. A criminal complaint states that he repeatedly told three confidential informants he would never be taken alive, saying \"If they're coming to get me, I'll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody.\" Abdullah was one of 11 men charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of firearms, and tampering with motor vehicle identification numbers, the FBI said in a news release. Eight suspects were in custody, including one man already in prison on an unrelated charge and another man who was arrested on Wednesday and added to the charging sheet, U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Susan Plochinski said Thursday. An additional suspect was taken into custody in Canada on Thursday, an FBI statement said. Two men remain at large. Mujahid Carswell, aka Mujahid Abdullah, was taken into custody in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, by Canadian authorities Thursday afternoon, the FBI said. According to the federal criminal complaint, Carswell, 30, is the eldest son of Abdullah, who was killed in the raid Wednesday. Canadian Border Patrol is holding him on immigration violations, the FBI said. Of the six suspects who appeared Thursday afternoon in court, Abdullah Beard was ordered held without bail; and Muhammad Abdul Salaam's bail decision was delayed, as was that for Gary Laverne Porter, a 38-year teacher who was arrested at an area school. Ali Abdul Raqib was given a $10,000 unsecured bond; Abdul Saboor was given a $100,000 bond, despite a prosecution request that he be held without bond. Another man, Acie Pusha, who was arrested Wednesday, was described by the prosecutor as \"minimally involved\" and given a $10,000 bond. The FBI criminal complaint says the group held target practice in a mosque basement, blowing holes in concrete walls. It includes references to possible attacks on the government, including Detroit's federal building and the FBI. There is also discussion about causing trouble at the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit. But the men were not arrested for any of that. Two law enforcement sources said the information about possible attacks was included in the charging document to add \"context for the crimes they're charged with, the purpose of the group.\" \"They had to earn money for their mosque and the Ummah,\" one of the sources said. \"And the purpose of Ummah was to set up a separatist state.\" Ummah refers to the nationwide group to which the suspects belonged, according to the complaint. It's a group made up of mostly African-American members, including some who converted to Islam while in prison. Ummah is led by Jamil Abdullah al-Amin -- formerly known as H. Rap Brown -- a 1960s radical and former member of the Black Panthers who once said \"violence was as American as cherry pie.\" He is serving a life sentence in Colorado's Supermax prison for killing two Georgia police officers. Andrew Arena, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, contacted local imams and civil rights leaders in Detroit during Wednesday's operation \"to bridge any gaps that could possible come over this,\" FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said. \"He'd rather they hear it from him,\" she added. \"We have a good relationship with the community and we want to keep it that way.\" In the 43-page criminal complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan and unsealed Wednesday, authorities said the arrests were made based on information gleaned from confidential sources identified only as S-1, S-2 and S-3. \"S-1 heard Abdullah encourage his followers to 'pick up guns and do something' rather than try to achieve their goals through peaceful means,\" the complaint said. S-2 recorded a conversation on December 12, 2007, in which Abdullah said, \"I got some soldiers with me, so it's not like I, I don't have, you know, nothing. Brothers that I know would, you know, if I say 'Let's go, we going to go and do something,' they would do it,\" the complaint said. S-3 said that, on March 21, 2008, Luqman Abdullah told him \"that the FBI is the enemy of Islam,\" the complaint said. The other men charged were identified as: . \u2022 Mohammad Abdul Bassir, aka Franklin D. Roosevelt Williams. He is serving a prison term at Ojibway Correctional Facility in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. \u2022 Mujahid Carswell. \u2022 Mohammad Philistine. \u2022 Yassir Ali Khan. \u2022 Adam Hussain Ibraheem. Acie Pusha was arrested on Wednesday and added to the charging sheet, Plochinski said Thursday. She would not provide details about the charges against Pusha. The two charged but still at large are Philistine, also known as Mohammad Alsahi, a 33-year-old resident of Ontario; and Khan, 30, who is believed to be a resident of Ontario and Warren, Michigan. All of the defendants \"are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years, and known to be armed,\" the FBI said. The complaint was filed by the FBI's counter-terrorism squad in the Eastern District of Michigan. CNN's Susan Candiotti, Carol Cratty and Ross Levitt contributed to this story.","highlights":"NEW: Six appear in federal court Thursday, a day after they were arrested in raids .\nAlleged group leader was fatally shot Wednesday after firing at law enforcement agents .\nFBI says men were members of Ummah, led by former H. Rap Brown .\nLaw enforcement sources say Ummah seeks to set up Islamic state in U.S.","id":"36580223c9761a7c5753cdb1d42973a5d48c3e48"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Diplomacy hasn't worked. Sanctions have achieved little. Relations between Iran and the United States are, at best, chilly. So why not try music? On Saturday night, for the first time, Iranians were the headline performers at New York City's famed Carnegie Hall. A father and son from Iran led American musicians in a hybrid session of traditional Iranian and classical Western music. Thirty-year-old Hafez Nazeri told CNN he was pleased to present \"another dimension of Iran and Iranian culture to the Western people.\" Nazeri, who now lives in the United States, said, \"We hear mostly about the other side -- bloodshed, chaos -- and I wanted to be able to present the reality of our culture, which is about peace and love and unity.\" Nearly 3,000 people, many of them Persians, flocked to Carnegie Hall for the concert. One patron said, \"The message was completely obvious: Love all the way. Peace!\" The Nazeris said it was an honor to be onstage at the historic music center. The younger Nazeri said his music might be able to bridge cultural divides between Iran and the United States. His father, Shahrem, still lives in Iran. Speaking in Farsi, the man known as the Iranian Pavarotti talked about the demonstrations that followed June's disputed Iranian presidential election. The tenor said some of the people in the streets are \"requesting something, and I think it's important to answer to their requests. The government should answer to their requests and they have to see what their people want.\" The Nazeris are two of the few Iranian musicians allowed to freely travel and perform in Iran. Western-style popular music is banned in Iran. With just a few musicians, they form a rare group, blending Persian traditional themes with Western classical style. It's very simple in presentation: a cello, percussion and an improvised setar -- a Persian instrument like a lute -- played by Hafez Nazeri. The Nazeris' music is based on the 13th-century Persian poet and philosopher Rumi. \"The idea of the music is to bring unity and to be able to create a music that is not just for Iranians, it's for people from all over the world,\" the younger Nazeri said. Rachel Cooper, director of cultural programs and performing arts at the Asia Society, said, \"You're seeing the Iranian culture and the Western culture in something that's a kind of hybrid, that I think represents the times that we live in.\" The Nazeris receive cultural support from the nonprofit New York-based Asia Society, Cooper told CNN. \"We've been going through this time period where we've been thinking about the Berlin Wall coming down, and throughout that period of the Cold War, cultural relations were always a really important component. So I think that cultural relations -- music in particular -- are a really important part of how we know each other as human beings,\" Cooper said. The Nazeris have performed in cities across the United States in recent years.","highlights":"Hafez Nazeri and his father Shahrem play hybrid of Iranian and Western music .\nThey played for enthusiastic crowd at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night .\nSon says he wants to show \"another dimension of Iran ... to the Western people\"\nNazeris' music based on 13th-century Persian poet and philosopher Rumi .","id":"d34fdcfb2b9eef771eaafa41c4835d11267fafb0"} -{"article":"Nashville, Tennessee (CNN) -- One-third of Americans have a favorable view of the Tea Party movement, but a plurality has no opinion at all, according to a new national poll. A CNN\/Opinion Research Corporation survey indicates that 26 percent of the public has an unfavorable view of the Tea Party movement and that 4 in 10 have not heard of the movement or don't know enough to form an opinion. The poll's Friday-morning release comes as what's billed as the first national Tea Party convention begins its first full day of meetings in Nashville. \"The Tea Party movement is a blank slate to many Americans, which is not surprising for a political movement that is only about a year old,\" said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. \"Not surprisingly, opinion breaks along partisan and ideological lines.\" According to the survey, Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party movement; Republicans like it by a 3-to-1 margin. Among independents, 35 percent of independents holding a positive view and 24 percent a negative view. What's the future of the Tea Party movement? On Saturday, Sarah Palin will serve as the convention's keynote speaker. The also poll indicates that Americans are split on the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, with 43 percent seeing her in a positive light and 46 percent holding an unfavorable view. \"Opinion on Sarah Palin also breaks down along party lines, with seven in 10 Democrats disliking her and seven in 10 Republicans with a positive view. She has a net-negative rating among independents: 42 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable,\" Holland added. \"She also continues to rate better among men than women.\" The Tea Party movement developed last year in protest to what its supporters saw as overspending in Washington -- by both Republicans and Democrats -- after the stimulus bill, the bank bailouts and President Obama's budget. The poll was conducted January 22-24, with 1,009 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.","highlights":"CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll: One-third in U.S. favor the Tea Party movement .\n4 in 10 in poll had not heard of Tea Parties or had no opinion about them .\nDemocrats by a 2-to-1 margin have an unfavorable view of Tea Party movement .\nSarah Palin to be keynote speaker at national Tea Party convention on Saturday .","id":"f3343b1d2cc2725c3f8bbe14dc113a671e5162b6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Colombia and the United States signed an agreement Friday that allows U.S. personnel to be stationed at seven military bases in the South American nation. The United States says it needs the bases to help in its fight against terrorists and narcotraffickers, especially since the closure a few months ago of a U.S. base in Ecuador. The United States maintains similar \"forward operating locations\" in El Salvador and Aruba-Curacao. Colombia's agreement to host the Americans has come under harsh criticism in Latin America, particularly from President Hugo Chavez in neighboring Venezuela. Chavez has likened the agreement to an act of war and accuses the United States of wanting to stage military personnel nearby to destabilize his leftist government. The U.S. forward operating location in Aruba-Curacao is off the northern coast of Venezuela. The United States linked Colombia's agreement to a trade pact the South American nation wants. Colombia also stands to gain from U.S. help in the nation's 45-year-old war against Marxist guerrillas known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly called FARC. Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez, Defense Minister Gabriel Silva and Interior and Justice Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio were joined by U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield in signing the document Friday in Bogota, the nation's capital.","highlights":"U.S. military personnel may be stationed at seven Colombian bases .\nU.S. says agreement will help fight against traffickers, terrorists .\nVenezuelan leader has called agreement an act of war .\nColombia wants U.S. aid in 45-year anti-guerrilla battle .","id":"290e6d84546d76de6295dabfd9c1a88011c7c6dd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I spoke at TED in 2006, the year they started to put the talks online. I'm told that since then, the talk has been downloaded more than 3.5 million times in more than 200 countries. The number of people who've seen it may be 20 times that or more. I have a stream of e-mails, tweets and blog posts round the world from young people, parents, students, teachers, cultural activists and business leaders of all sorts. They tell me how deeply they relate to the talk and often that they've seen or shown it many times at meetings, conferences, workshops and retreats. Parents tell me they've shown it to their children; young people tell me they've shown it to their parents. They say they've laughed and sometimes cried together and had a different sort of conversation as a result. Changing the conversation is one of the primary purposes of TED. Why has this talk had such an impact? I think there are several reasons. To begin with, the talk is short. The 18-minute talk is part of the genius of TED. In a world of instant messaging, rampant data and overspecialization, brevity is a virtue. (Even so, I've seen blogs that strongly recommend the talk but warn that it's almost 20 minutes long.) A second factor is that, based on the audience's reaction, the talk is entertaining and funny at times, which always helps. And I'd just had my hair cut. We may never know how much that simple act contributed to the global appeal of the talk. But the real reason for its impact is that what I'm saying clearly resonates deeply with people of all ages and across many different cultures. I believe that the argument is becoming more urgent by the day. What is the argument? In a nutshell, it's that we're all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially education, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster. In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests. The result is a disastrous waste of talent among students and their teachers. To sense the scale of this disaster, you only have to look at the alarming rates of turnover among faculty and the levels of drop out, disaffection, stress and prescription drug use among students. Even for students who stay the course and do well in education, the rules of success have changed irrevocably. Just look at the plummeting value of college degrees. The waste of talent in education is not deliberate. Teachers are as anxious about this as everyone else, but many of them feel trapped in the awkward groping of national reform policies, many of which misunderstand the problems as well as the solutions. The waste of talent isn't deliberate, but it is systematic. It happens in part because the dominant systems of education are rooted in the values and demands of industrialism: they are linear, mechanistic and focused on conformity and standardization. Nowadays, they're buttressed by major commercial interests in mass testing and by the indiscriminate use of prescription drugs that keep students' minds from wandering to things they naturally find more interesting. The tragedy is that meeting the many social, economic, spiritual and environmental challenges we now face depends absolutely on the very capacities of insight, creativity and innovation that these systems are systematically suppressing in yet another generation of young people. Reforming these systems is not enough. The truth is that we are caught up in a cultural and economic revolution. This revolution is global in scale and unpredictable in nature. To meet it, we need a revolution in the culture of education. This new culture has to emerge from a richer sense of human ability. To shape it, I believe we have to leave behind the manufacturing principles of industrialism and embrace the organic principles of ecology. Education is about developing human beings, and human development is not mechanical or linear. It is organic and dynamic. Like all living forms, we flourish in certain conditions and shrivel in others. Great teachers, great parents and great leaders understand those conditions intuitively; poor ones don't. The answer is not to standardize education, but to personalize and customize it to the needs of each child and community. There is no alternative. There never was. The good news is that all around the world there are wonderful examples of people and organizations that are making determined efforts to do things differently in education -- and in business, health care, architecture, communities and cultural programs. There are examples of these all over the TED Web site and in the expanding ripples of the TED prizes. TED itself is a great example of the spirit of collaboration and inter-disciplinarily that is the essential to a genuine culture of creativity. What are the principles of this culture? Towards the end of my talk, I mention a book I was working on called \"Epiphany.\" It was published this year under a much better title, \"The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything\" (Viking) and is now in 11 languages. It draws on conversations with people in science, business, education, the arts, sports and more on how they found in themselves the talents and passions that have shaped their lives. But the book is not about them: it's about you and your children, if you have any; and your friends too, if you have any of those. There's a wealth of talent that lies in all of us. All of us, including those who work in schools, must nurture creativity systematically and not kill it unwittingly. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sir Ken Robinson.","highlights":"Sir Ken Robinson: We're born with great natural talents .\nHe says schools systematically suppress many of those innate talents .\nSchools use testing and other systems to narrowly assess students, he says .\nHe says they devalue forms of creativity that don't fit in academic contexts .","id":"371a7713e46aa8ddeb73d7be7096981b25aec564"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The election victory of Massachusetts Sen.-elect Scott Brown is expected to be certified Thursday, which could allow him to be sworn in as early as Thursday afternoon to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Brown's win stripped Democrats of their 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate and raised fears among many congressional Democrats about a potential GOP landslide in November's midterm elections. Brian McNiff, spokesman for Massachusetts' secretary of state, said the final election returns from last month's special election were delivered to the governor's office Wednesday. Brown had asked for immediate certification. In a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Secretary of State William Galvin, Brown's attorney says the Republican senator-elect had planned on being sworn in on February 11, but he has been told that several Senate votes will be held before then. \"For this reason, he wants certification to occur immediately,\" attorney Daniel Winslow wrote.","highlights":"Victory of Massachusetts senator-elect is expected to be certified Thursday .\nHe could be sworn in Thursday afternoon to replace late Sen. Ted Kennedy .\nFinal returns from special election delivered to governor's office Wednesday .","id":"83b1d766bd5e079e8167cc9b8b45fca422f11939"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- High in the hills above the Haitian capital, artist Levoy Exil paints at his terrace studio. The man who began a career using beets, carrots, tomatoes and black beans for paint creates vibrant abstractions of life and nature. A year ago, he infused a celestial oil painting with hues of purplish red -- symbolizing blood -- after he gazed outward and for a moment the verdant landscape turned to black. He knew then that something bad was coming. He saw the blood he had imagined on the streets of Port-au-Prince on January 12 when the earth heaved and 150,000 people perished. It's now apparent that among the earthquake's widespread destruction were museums, galleries and other places that contained Haiti's artistic treasures, including Exil's work. They were a troubled nation's legacy, a key source of economic trade with the rest of the world -- and undeniable symbols of hope. Lost, perhaps, forever. The earthquake's blow to Haitian art is staggering: The Centre d'Art, which launched the Haitian arts movement in the 1940s, is severely damaged. The Musee d'Art Nader, which housed more than 12,000 pieces from the largest private collection in Haiti, collapsed. Murals in the Trinity Cathedral, assembled by some of Haiti's best-known artists, came crashing down. \"There is no art museum run by the government of Haiti,\" said Georges Nader Jr., who runs a gallery near the Nader museum opened by his father. \"This is for me like patrimony for Haiti. We were holding this collection for future generations. What will happen now? I don't know.\" The significance of art in Haiti may be hard for outsiders to understand. But with few functioning institutions, few outlets of expression, Haiti's brightly colored depictions -- some laced with spiritual traditions of voodoo culture -- of sun and sea, people and animals serve as memory for a country that has suffered under dictatorships and failed governments and is today the poorest in the Americas. With unemployment as high as 85 percent and a majority of Haitians reeling in abject poverty, art has also emerged as an economic lifeline. \"They're painting their lives. They're recording their history,\" said Camille Scully, executive director of Iowa's Waterloo Center for the Arts and co-president of the Haitian Art Society. \"And they're very accessible because of the colors and style. Everyone who sees Haitian art tends to buy it because they respond to it.\" Scully said efforts are under way to enlist conservationists to help Haiti, and a flurry of e-mails shared by collectors, curators, gallery owners and other interested parties show the urgency people are feeling to support the arts community. One key figure who's been weighing in on the need to save what can be saved is Gerald Alexis, a leading Haitian art historian, critic and curator. Haiti has a long enough history of not conserving its art, Alexis said from his Quebec City, Quebec, home. An earthquake in colonial times, fires and hurricanes, as wells as riots, revolutions and government-mandated raids of voodoo temples, destroyed much of the creativity that pre-dated the 1940s artistic boom. For this reason, salvaging art, including the oldest piece in Haiti -- an 1822 painting buried in the national palace -- matters. Haiti's art \"will tell future generations who they are and where they come from,\" Alexis said. \"It's our heritage. And although people think that in poor countries such concepts are unnecessary, they are indeed the only thing we have. Our cultural heritage is our pride.\" In Port-au-Prince, Nader has been frantically trying to rescue the thousands of pieces his father lovingly collected over four decades. Among the masters: Hector Hyppolite. Philome Obin. Prefete Duffaut. Wilson Bigaud. Nader pulled out an oil-on-cardboard floral still-life painted by Hyppolite in 1945 that now looks more like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing. Some of the artworks housed in the Centre d'Arts, which was in a wooden structure, will be more repairable, he said. What do you do when cement gouges cardboard or canvas? \"This? Only cement can do this,\" he said, picking up some of his punctured pieces. On the day of the quake, Nader's 79-year-old parents were in their bedroom on the top floor of the building that houses the museum. They were pulled from the rubble after the museum collapsed. Nader could not hold back tears when he thought of the suffering around him and stopped the conversation to recompose himself. The cultural loss can hardly compare. \"At that time, the paintings were my last concern,\" he continued. \"There were lives at stake.\" But since then, he has been going back to the rubble every day to salvage what he can. He knows he has to -- for the sake of his country. On the second floor of his gallery, he and his staff have been collecting damaged pieces, their vibrant colors dulled by the dust. \"This is like a hospital for paintings,\" he said, watching his staff strip off frames and backings. He picked up a damaged portrait of a fruit vendor by Antonio Joseph. He grew to manhood looking at the painting on his bedroom wall. It's one of his favorites. So far, Nader has rescued about 1,000 pieces; 70 percent need restoration. That was one room in the museum. Kent Shankle, the curator for Iowa's Waterloo Center for the Arts, which houses the largest public collection of Haitian art in the United States, said he hopes there is a silver lining to the tragedy. \"Hopefully this is raising awareness and shedding light on both the beauty of Haiti and its people, as well as the incredible needs there,\" he said. And, perhaps it will fuel a new wave of art that reveals the resilience of people here. \"We've survived. It's a blessing,\" said artist Jean Louis Maxan. Maxan depicted Jean-Bertrand Aristide's exit from Haiti in 2004, an acrylic-on-canvas painting of \"American Air\" waiting to take the disgraced president away. Now, he said, he will paint people screaming, piles of bodies and tents blanketing the city's open spaces. High above the misery, Exil, too, said he will paint again. When nature tells him it is right. \"It's a great loss for all of us,\" Exil said of the earthquake. \"But life continues and we will continue to create.\" He will rely on the lush, undulating landscape before him. The sun and the moon. And the distant sea. He will make beauty blossom from the ugliness below. For the future of Haiti. CNN's Moni Basu reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. CNN's Jessica Ravitz reported from Atlanta, Georgia.","highlights":"Among earthquake's destruction were museums, galleries with artistic treasures .\n\"They're painting their lives. They're recording their history,\" expert says of Haiti artists .\nArtist sifts through rubble to save artwork in order to preserve history .","id":"eb9ef940a3dbbb4662ff2eb869d64e9506ba1b04"} -{"article":"WUGANG, China (CNN) -- Authorities in China's south-central Hunan province are associating disgruntled parents of children stricken by lead poisoning with the outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong. A mother feeds her child in a village near the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Hunan province. \"Citizens of the Wugang area have received phone calls from members of the Falun Gong over the past several days,\" said Wugang Deputy Spokesman Zhen Zhaoxin. \"Any resident who receives any calls or information about the Falun Gong activities are encouraged to report to the police.\" He said the government, along with police, are investigating to determine the calls' origin. But villagers said they have suffered enough and the government's accusation is \"insulting.\" The friction comes after residents in Wenping township, governed by the city of Wugang, last month protested pollution from an area factory that left more than 1,000 children with lead poisoning. That was one of three separate lead poisoning incidents reported in August that affected large numbers of Chinese children. Watch more about the lead poisoning \u00bb . Residents of Wenping and nearby Simachong village denied any connection to Falun Gong. They said they were not even familiar with the religious sect. They just wanted their children to be well again. China banned Falun Gong in 1999 and has cracked down on practitioners. An August 26 public notice warned villagers to beware of Falun Gong members and instructed people to watch for \"reactionary propaganda\" sent online and by phone. The Wugang government issued similar information on its Web site. The villagers said the government wants them to keep quiet, but they are worried. \"They are insulting us,\" said one woman, holding up the public notice. \"They said we are spreading the rumors.\" The villagers' lives were shattered when, one by one, children began to fall ill. So far, 1,354 have tested positive for abnormal levels of lead in their blood. Many have stopped eating and are constantly fatigued. Others are not growing hair. Some parents worry they will not be able to provide medical care for long-term problems. Lead poisoning can cause irreversible damage in the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure, memory loss and loss of appetite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Xiao Aijun, the father of two sick children, was angered by the government's claims. \"My baby's been in the hospital for more than 20 days,\" he said of his 10-month-old daughter, Xiao Junmei. \"We have to go back in the month. Look at her hair, look at her hair. \"They said we're Falun Gong,\" he said. \"What is this all about? I have no idea. I don't even know what that is.\" Some villagers told CNN that 15 parents who protested factory pollution had been detained by police. CNN could not reach local police for comment, but Zhen, the Wugang spokesman, denied the reports. \"We would not detain parents. After all, they need to be with their children at this time,\" he said. \"This is definitely not the case.\" The lead poisoning in Wenping stemmed from the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant. Similar incidents were reported in northern Shaanxi province, where 851 children were affected, and in southwestern Yunnan province, where 200 children were sickened. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has dispatched inspectors to examine the plants in Shaanxi and Hunan. Wugang government officials say children who live as far as 20 kms (12.5 miles) from the polluting factories in Wenping and Simachong have been affected. One mother, whose son was hospitalized, said she would have moved long ago if she had known. Another Wugang government spokesman, Lei Zanning, said authorities are keenly aware of environmental protections. \"We can't sacrifice it for the sake of economic development,\" he said. But lead poisoning is a serious problem in China, according to Steven Ma of Greenpeace. About 10 percent of the nation's arable land and 12 million tons of annual food crops are contaminated with lead, he said.","highlights":"Spokesperson: Citizens of Wugang area received calls from members of Falun Gong .\nVillagers said they have suffered enough and government's accusation is insulting .\nFollows protests from local parents after pollution from local factory left 1,000 kids ill .\nChina banned Falun Gong in 1999 and has cracked down on practitioners .","id":"7cd0fbe14a1981f5e89c4cef39f7b00e950d4393"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- New data released Thursday suggests that the Arctic Ocean will be \"largely ice free\" during summer within a decade. As the Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears face extinction. The report, complied by the UK-based Catlin Arctic Survey and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is the latest research into ice thickness in the Arctic. Researchers predict that within 20 years ice cover will be completely gone during the warmer months. The expedition, which was completed in May, was led by UK explorer Pen Hadow. He and his team collected data by manually drilling into the ice and noting its thickness along a 450-kilometer route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea. They found that the area surveyed was comprised almost exclusively of first year ice. Scientists think this is significant because traditionally the region has been made up of much older, thicker ice. \"Discovering this area of younger ice provides another body of information that supports the rapidly emerging scientific consensus that it's going to be nearer 10 years from now that we will see roughly 80-85 percent free waters in the Arctic Ocean,\" Hadow told CNN. Measurements taken by Hadow and his team report that the ice-floes were on average 1.8 meters thick -- which, according to scientists, is too thin to survive next summer's ice melt. Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the UK's University of Cambridge said: \"With a large part of the region now first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone.\" Professor Wadhams, who has analyzed the expedition data, added: \"The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and much of that decrease will be happening within 10 years.\" Click here to see pictures of the expedition \u00bb . Martin Sommerkorn from the WWF International Arctic Program believes that the changes in sea-ice cover in the region are likely to increase global temperatures further. \"Such a loss of Arctic sea ice has recently been assessed to set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself,\" Sommerkorn said. \"Arctic sea ice holds a central position in our Earth's climate system. Take it out of the equation and we are left with a dramatically warmer world,\" he added. Hadow fears that the current climate models developed by scientists may not be extreme enough. But he is hopeful that this new data will spur world leaders into action. \"We are now in a loss period,\" Hadow told CNN. \"Maybe losing this sea ice, this roof on the top of our planet in going to be an important moment, a big visual aid to the science that in combination can bring about some sort of global agreement on emissions.\"","highlights":"New report says Arctic sea ice will largely disappear in summer within a decade .\nSurvey captured latest data on ice thickness in Northern part of Beaufort Sea .\nMeasurements show the ice-floes surveyed were on average 1.8 meters thick .\nScientists warn that Arctic ice melt is likely to set off \"powerful climate feedbacks\"","id":"bcb74d7639a8a79fdd9bb944e51a9de1558e6f94"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Rape has turned into a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the number of attacks on women having grown threefold over the past few years, human rights activists said Friday. A Congolese rape victim, left, at the Heal Africa clinic in Goma on August 8, 2009. Anneke van Woudenberg, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Christiane Amanpour that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Eastern Congo since 1998, and the condition of women has become more dire as the Congolese army has pressed a military campaign against armed groups in the countryside. \"Rape is being used as a weapon of war in eastern Congo. So we notice and we have documented that when armed groups walk into town, they will rape the women and girls, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, in order to punish the local population,\" she said. \"It's the easiest way to terrorize a community.\" Congo has witnessed one of the worst humanitarian crises since World War II, with a death toll estimated at more than 5 million. Most of the dead have come not from direct violence, but the consequences of the fighting: disease and starvation. While the war formally ended six years ago, fighting persists in eastern Congo, and women are paying a high price. CNN visits a devastated community \u00bb . \"One of the other sad realities is that the majority of those who are raped are adolescent girls, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds. Their lives are often ruined by this. And I think we've got to take more seriously -- protection of civilians is not just protecting them from death. It's protecting them from rape,\" van Woudenberg said. Listen to more from van Woudenberg . There have also been reports of members of the Congolese army, particularly high ranking officers, attacking women. In May, the United Nations handed over the names of five top military officers accused of rape. Two of the senior officers are being detained in the capital of Kinshasa and the three others must report to authorities under close observation. They are awaiting trial. Still more must be done, aid groups say, starting with the establishment of a special court made up of Congolese and international judges and prosecutors to investigate rape allegations. \"I think they've got to start holding to account the generals and colonels who are either themselves responsible or who allow their troops to rape. And so far, those are the guys that have been untouchable,\" said van Woudenberg. \"No general has yet been held to account in Congo for rape, and it's high time that that changes.\" Congo has taken some measures to try to curb the sexual violence. In 2006, its parliament passed a law criminalizing rape, with penalties ranging from five to 20 years. Penalties are doubled under certain circumstances, including gang-rape and if the perpetrator is a public official. Kabila's wife, Olive Lemba Kabila, has launched a public campaign speaking out against rapes of the nation's women and girls. The army has also started a zero-tolerance campaign in which commanders have emphasized to troops that they must respect human rights and protect civilians from harm, according to the U.N. The United Nations maintains in Congo its largest peacekeeping force anywhere in the world. But the forces have been ineffective at stopping rape. Jean-Marie Guehenno, the former head of U.N. peacekeeping, told Amanpour that the international forces face a serious problem: Too few troops assigned to the vast inaccessible reaches of eastern Congo. \"In the Kivu provinces, there are 10 million people,\" Guehenno said. \"If one applied the counterinsurgency ratios that the U.S. Army thinks of -- say, 20 per 1,000 -- that would mean 200,000 troops in Congo -- 200,000 accountable troops.\" \"The U.N. is in a tough spot, to be frank, because if it did not give any support to the Congolese army, probably the Congolese army might prey even more on the population,\" Guehenno said. Part of the problem stems from the tactic applied by the Congolese government to quell previous armed rebellions against Kinshasa by incorporating insurgents into the ranks of the national army, leading to a military that paid scant attention to human rights, and the rights of women in particular. \"What needs to be done is to have a state in Congo that can control its territory and that has the confidence of the people,\" Guehenno said. \"The violence in the Kivu, the violence in Ituri, it is the result of a vacuum, the fact that there is no administration, there is no credible state, there is no justice. And so that vacuum is being occupied by various militias. \"And, unfortunately, when the Congolese army integrates a militia without sorting between the killers and those who could be integrated, it just adds to the problem.\" Van Woudenberg called for international pressure to force the Congolese army to bring abusers to justice. \"My worst fear is that we're going to continue to see those individuals responsible for rape being promoted. My hope is that the women and girls of -- of eastern Congo in particular -- will continue to speak out. I think we've seen immense courage from those women and girls to say, 'No, we've had enough.'\"","highlights":"Human Rights Watch: 200,000 women, girls raped in Eastern Congo since 1998 .\nCondition of women more dire as the army fights armed groups in the country .\nMore than 5 million die in Congo from disease, hunger resulting from fighting .\nCongo has taken some measures to try to curb the sexual violence .","id":"d5b9009ea0ed3c4135c20587609c1ee8a73262c5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Forty years ago this week, three men in a tiny spacecraft slipped their earthly bonds and traveled where no one else had before, circling the moon 10 times and bringing back an iconic image of a blue-and-white Earth in the distance, solitary but bound as one against the black vastness beyond. Host Nick Clooney (left) and astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders answer questions in October. The voyage of Apollo 8 from December 21-27, 1968, marked humans' first venture to another heavenly body. \"We were flying to the moon for the first time,\" said Jim Lovell, one of the three astronauts aboard the historic flight. \"Seeing the far side of the moon for the first time. Coming around and seeing the Earth as it really is -- a small fragile planet with a rather normal star, our sun.\" But beyond the monumental aspects of such a scientific achievement, the feat was a major psychological and emotional boost for many Americans at the end of a particularly bad year in U.S. history. The Tet offensive in January 1968 had left many Americans shocked and doubting that victory in Vietnam was possible. In April, the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and streets throughout the nation erupted in fire and fury. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down two months later. That summer, the nation watched in horror as police and anti-war protesters battled in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. The launch of Apollo 7 in October was a major victory for NASA, putting the space program back on track after a 22-month interruption because of a launch pad fire that had killed three astronauts in January 1967. Then came Apollo 8. Gallery: Images of the Apollo 8 mission \u00bb . \"Providence happened to put everything together at the end of the year to give the American public an uplift after what had been a poor year,\" Lovell told CNN on Monday. Reaching the moon was \"a big psychological step,\" said Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham. \"The public said, 'Hey, human beings are going to another body in the solar system,' \" Cunningham told CNN in a telephone interview from his home in Houston, Texas. The mission produced one of the most famous photos from the space program, showing a large chunk of gray moon in the foreground and a dappled blue-and-white, three-quarter Earth rising in the distance. Apollo 8 also produced what to many was one of the most inspirational and soothing moments in history when Lovell and crewmates Frank Borman and William A. Anders took turns reading from the Book of Genesis. It was Christmas Eve and the whole world was watching. NASA said at the time it was expected to be the largest TV audience to date. The astronauts signed off with these words: \"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.\" The timing could not have been better, Lovell said. \"It happened that it all jelled,\" he said by telephone. \"The fact that we circled the moon on Christmas Eve. A screenwriter couldn't have done a better job.\" The success of the mission also gave the United States a major boost in its race against the Soviet Union to see who would get to the moon first. The United States would land two men on the moon in the summer of 1969 on Apollo 11, beating the Soviets and fulfilling a goal set by former President John F. Kennedy at the beginning of the decade. \"There was a great psychological significance of sending a spacecraft to the moon,\" Cunningham said. \"It was not a psychological leap for any of us [astronauts] to go to the moon.\" The astronauts, he said, were used to taking risks and knew they could do it. But NASA officials had some tough choices to make. \"For the people on the ground, it was a big step for them,\" Cunningham said. \"Making life-and-death decisions about somebody else's life is a lot more difficult than making one about your own.\" For astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth person to walk on the moon, the Apollo 8 mission signified a major milestone in human history, much like when the Phoenicians started exploring the Mediterranean Sea nearly 3,000 years earlier. \"We became citizens of the galaxy, as opposed to citizens of the planet,\" Mitchell said Monday. \"For my parents' generation, it was aviation,\" said Mitchell, who is 78. \"My generation went off the planet altogether. We became the first generation of spacefarers.\" For the astronauts, most of them former test pilots, going to the moon was just another job. Were they fully aware of the significance of what they were accomplishing, Lovell is asked. \"No,\" he says immediately. \"We were focused on trying to do the right thing. Focused on trying to accomplish something.\" Lovell went on to fly another historic mission, Apollo 13 in April 1970. That flight, which he commanded, became famous when an oxygen system aboard the craft blew up and the three astronauts had to limp around the moon and back to Earth using makeshift and improvised systems. Their triumph over adversity was immortalized in the movie \"Apollo 13,\" in which Tom Hanks played Lovell. Lovell was supposed to land on the moon that time, but did not make it. \"Twice a bridesmaid, never a bride,\" he said with a laugh, admitting that for years he harbored resentment that the mission had been a \"failure.\" It was only in later years, Lovell said, that he fully realized what a success that mission had been, as he and his two crewmates returned safely to Earth. \"It is mind-boggling in some respects,\" he said Monday.","highlights":"Apollo 8 came at end of difficult year in world history, 1968 .\nAstronauts circled the moon on Christmas Eve; they were first to go that far .\nFamous photo of Earth, reading from Genesis ended year on a better note .","id":"a7c5e1a727a905eeb73211829babf95c141d8c5c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In Mexico City, the government ran out of surgical masks after handing them out to one of every five residents. A mother and son wear face masks as protection from swine flu at Sydney international Airport in Australia. Manufacturers and pharmacies in Europe are also reporting a surge in demand for face masks. And a Texas-based surgical mask producer says it's ramping up to meet demand and expects a shortage of masks. But their real value seems to be in keeping people who are already ill from spreading the virus, rather than protecting healthy people, experts said. Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday in a press briefing that the \"evidence is not very strong\" for masks' value outside of health care settings, and outside of settings in which people come into face-to-face contact with a person with an infectious disease. \"We would not recommend that people generally wear masks in their workplace as a precautionary measure,\" he said. Watch for more on staying safe from swine flu \u00bb . The World Health Organization (WHO) also warns against relying on face masks, especially for those not infected with the virus. \"They are mainly useful for people who are already sick, to prevent spreading. Not so much to stop people from catching the virus,\" Sarah Cumberland of the WHO told CNN. The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency also told CNN that the use of face masks was not necessary or recommended for protection against the swine flu virus. Although it's not known for sure how much benefit a surgical mask has in preventing the transmission of swine flu, people who have the illness may consider wearing one as a way to reduce the amount they cough and sneeze onto others, said Dr. Arthur Reingold, head of the epidemiology division at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. \"I think that this is a perfectly reasonable thing for someone with a respiratory illness to do,\" he said. More effective than soft surgical masks is the N95, which is an example of a \"respirator.\" This kind of tight-fitting face covering protects people against breathing very small particles, which may contain viruses. The downside is that it's more expensive, uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time and has to be custom fit, Reingold said, so it's suited for people working in high-risk laboratories. Masks carry both physical and psychological benefits, said Dr. Julio Frenk, former health minister of Mexico and current dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. Masks are a \"reminder to people that they should avoid close contact with other persons,\" he said. \"They also have this effect of isolating people and reminding them that they should not be kissing people, shaking hands, things like that.\" For health care workers, it's important to have high-efficiency masks, which protect better against infectious diseases, he said. But people in the United States should generally not have to wear masks because the cases are localized, he said. By contrast, it is more of a widespread problem in Mexico, especially in the capital city, a \"huge urban conglomeration.\" Measures such as closing schools are the most effective in stopping the spread of the disease, he said. Mexico's schools are closed until at least May 6. By early Tuesday, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico was suspected in 152 deaths and more than 1,600 illnesses, the country's health minister said. Swine flu has reached phase 4 (out of 6) on the pandemic scale, according to the WHO guidelines, but has not yet attained the status of global pandemic. During a flu pandemic, people should consider wearing a face mask if they are sick with the flu, live with someone who has the flu or need to be in a crowded place, the CDC Web site says. If you are caring for a person thought to have pandemic flu or will be close to someone who may have it, consider a respirator, for example an N95 or high-filtering face piece respirator, the CDC Web site says. Some health care workers, such as nurses and doctors, use respirators when dealing with patients who have airborne diseases, the CDC said. iReport.com: Worried about swine flu? In the current swine flu situation, rather than masks, the CDC is pushing hand-washing, covering coughs and refraining from \"giving somebody that little kiss of greeting,\" Besser said. \"If you're in an infected area or if you have the swine flu, it's probably best not to, to not give a kiss, but we're not recommending an end of affection during the period. It's a period of time when we need a little more affection, but doing it in a way that isn't going to transmit a respiratory disease would be a CDC approach,\" he said.","highlights":"Manufacturers and pharmacies are reporting a surge in demand for face masks .\nIt is unknown exactly how much protection a surgical face mask provides .\nA more effective type of mask is called an N95, which is expensive .\nDoctor: Masks carry both physical and psychological benefits .","id":"701df40c916dba0bfe4396d391166fb92fe99b0a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six Nations winners Ireland ended the year unbeaten after defeating world rugby champions South Africa 15-10 in Dublin on Saturday thanks to an assured kicking performance from newcomer Jonathan Sexton. The fly-half, playing only his second international ahead of the veteran Ronan O'Gara, landed five penalties as the Irish overcame conceding the game's only try to Schalk Burger in the 16th minute. The injury-hit Springboks, who won the southern hemisphere's Tri-Nations title this year, were left to lament three missed kicks at goal by fly-half Morne Steyn and one by substitute Ruan Pienaar. The Irish fielded nine players who toured South Africa with the Lions earlier this year, when flanker Burger was banned for eight weeks for eye-gouging Luke Fitzgerald. Sexton landed an early penalty from long range, but Steyn helped to send blindsider Burger over the line and added the extras, before making it 10-3 with a drop-goal. Sexton reduced the deficit before halftime as Steyn three times missed from considerable distance. Ireland moved 12-10 ahead with two more Sexton goals despite struggling at the scrums, and the visitors started to wilt after Pienaar hit the post with a penalty attempt. New Zealand ended their northern hemisphere tour unbeaten after crushing France 39-12 in Marseille, running in five tries to none. The All Blacks have suffered an uncharacteristic four defeats this year -- three of them to the Springboks -- but took the chance to avenge the shock 27-22 home loss to Les Bleus in June. The Kiwis, who had earlier beaten Wales, Italy and England on tour, led 22-12 at halftime as backs Sitiveni Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina crossed for tries along with back-row forward Jerome Kaino. Winger Cory Jane and center Conrad Smith went over in the second half and mercurial fly-half Dan Carter kicked a total of 14 points while orchestrating the All Blacks' most free-flowing performance of the tour against a side who had earlier beaten South Africa and Samoa. New Zealand captain Richie McCaw was named the International Rugby Board's player of the year after the match, becoming the first to achieve the honor twice following his 2006 award. Scotland crashed back to earth following last weekend's first win over Australia in 27 years, losing 9-6 at home to bogey side Argentina. The visitors came back from 6-0 down at halftime in Edinburgh, where they have not lost for 19 years, and inflicted the first defeat on Scots coach Andy Robinson. Phil Godman kicked two penalties to give Scotland hope of winning all their November internationals for the first time since 2002, but paid the price for lock Nathan Hines' second-half sin-binning as Martin Rodriguez leveled with two kicks of his own. Rodriguez then landed a drop-goal two minutes from time to give the Pumas a fourth straight win at Murrayfield and their first victory on this tour. Australia, however, relieved the pressure on coach Robbie Deans by crushing Wales 33-12 in Cardiff, avenging last year's 21-18 defeat. Matt Giteau missed a last-gasp conversion against the Scots which would have won the match, but was to the fore this time as the Wallabies ran in three early tries. Center Digby Ioane, lock James Horwill, flanker David Pocock went over in the first 16 minutes, while Wales lost Shane Williams, try-scorer Leigh Halfpenny and Matthew Rees to injury as they surrendered a 23-12 halftime deficit. Substitute hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau crossed in the second half while Giteau kicked 13 points in total to hand Wales coach Warren Gatland, a New Zealander, his heaviest home defeat in front of a 74,339 crowd. Italy beat the touring Samoa team 24-6 for their first victory in four encounters with the Pacific Islanders, who had Henry Fa'afili sent off for a high tackle on first-half tryscorer Luke McLean.","highlights":"Six Nations winners Ireland ended the year unbeaten after defeating South Africa 15-10 .\nJonathan Sexton kicked five penalties as world rugby champions lose in Dublin .\nNew Zealand avenge June's home defeat by France with a 39-12 victory in Paris .\nScotland lose 9-6 at home to Argentina, while Australia triumph 33-12 in Wales .","id":"e1320272666b28a0f12a5af50f331ab2e7369ecc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan soldiers have embarked on a major operation against militants in the eastern Afghan region of Tora Bora, near the border with Pakistan, officials have told CNN. File photo of the remote mountain Tora Bora region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Air and ground strikes under way in the remote mountain region are aimed at large numbers of militant fighters. The troops are targeting \"hundreds of hardened al Qaeda and Taliban in dug-in positions,\" said officials familiar with the intelligence. The operation started two days ago in the region, where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was once thought to be hiding. The Bush administration has been criticized for not sending enough ground forces to Tora Bora in December 2001 to capture the militant after the invasion that toppled the Taliban. \"U.S. and Afghan forces engaged al Qaeda and other violent extremist fighters in eastern Afghanistan during a combined arms assault using precision munitions. There have been no substantiated reports of civilian casualties in this engagement,\" said Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman, a U.S. Army spokeswoman. \"The targets were carefully chosen to pinpoint enemy positions and eliminate the likelihood of harming innocent civilians,\" she said. \"This region has provided an ideal environment to conceal enemy support bases and training sites, as well as plan and launch attacks aimed at terrorizing innocent civilians, both inside and outside the region.\" Also Wednesday, a manager at a private British security firm in Afghanistan was shot and killed in the capital Kabul, a spokesman for the company said. \"We did lose a manager today in Kabul to unknown assailants,\" Christopher Beese, spokesman for ArmorGroup International, said Wednesday. He said next of kin have been notified and an inquiry into the incident has begun. The name of the man, a British national, was not released. \"It's bad news. He was a very well-respected man,\" Beese said, noting that the victim had experience in Afghanistan going back to the early 1980s. Beese -- who said the man's role was to run the administration of the 1,200-person-strong security presence in the country -- described the man as a \"logistics manager\" and \"all things to all people.\" The firm, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2002, mostly provides diplomatic protection and has contracts with the British and American governments. The man recruited and trained Afghan guards and was the most senior administrator at the company's Kabul base, Camp Anjuman, the company said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan soldiers embark on major operation in Tora Bora .\nThey are using air, ground strikes to target al Qaeda, Taliban .\nOsama bin Laden was once thought to be hiding in remote mountain region .\nU.S. Army: No substantiated reports of civilian casualties .","id":"d3236e9822293cdd614e5f59f01fbaadcc45703a"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Wearing a plaid green A-line spring skirt from her new fashion line, paired with a black patent leather belt and black leather gladiator sandal stilettos, \"Sex and the City\" actress Kristin Davis is the perfect combination of sweet and fierce when we meet up after her fashion show at the Belk department store in Atlanta, Georgia. Kristin Davis surrounded by models and Belk store official Arlene Goldstein. It's a look that totally says her character, Charlotte, with a little bit of screen pal Carrie. Davis is so much like her character, adorable and upbeat, I expect Carrie or Samantha to drop in on our conversation and say something to shock her. As any true fan knows ... OK ... as every woman knows, watching \"Sex and the City\" was like being front row at a fashion show with a plot. TV show and movie costume designer Patricia Field dressed the characters in haute couture as they skipped down the streets of New York City in $600 stilettos. But is this reality? Most sane women wouldn't choose to walk even one city block in high heels. And most women certainly can't spend a month's rent on a belt or bag, even if they have a truly fabulous party to wear it to. So, what about us, the fashionistas on a budget? Are we to be ignored, forced to wear boring clothing and practical shoes? Luckily, no; designers are catching on. Target features affordable lines from high-end designers like Alexander McQueen and Isaac Mizrahi. All of the pieces in Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line Bitten cost less than $20 before the clothing store that carried them went under. Davis is the latest celebrity to jump on the clothing label bandwagon, designing a line for Belk department stores. Will she meet the same fate as Parker? Davis has the following to be successful. Although her character was by far the most conservatively dressed (Carrie strolling through town in just a bra top, anyone?), she had the most wearable wardrobe, and Davis became a fashion icon along with the rest of the ladies. Her favorite piece from her line? \"I can't decide, impossible to choose!\" she says. So I choose for her: definitely the gladiator heels. \"It's important for women to have a strong shoe,\" she says. \"Then you can wear anything on top. With a strong shoe on, you're good to go.\" She admits she didn't have a defined style before meeting Field, who bluntly told her that \"Sexy Secretary\" was going to be her look. Davis' philosophy is a good one: Stick with what works. She takes the look that Field defined for her \"Sex and the City\" character. Original it's not, but everything coming down the runway is something the stylish Charlotte York would definitely wear. Davis is in touch with all of us real women out there, saying, \"I don't want to make clothing that only skinny actresses could wear.\" Her solution? Dresses, shoes and swimsuits worthy of a \"Sex and the City\" episode that you don't need Park Avenue pockets to afford. It's versatile enough to look good on every body type. \"Everyone has body issues. I really wanted to create pieces that looked good on different kinds of bodies. I had all of my family members trying on the outfits!\" she says with a laugh. Davis won't spill any secrets from the scripts of the \"Sex and the City\" movie sequel, which comes out in May 2010, but she admits it's a \"happy\" movie. She does hint that our famous foursome might have to cut back a little on their clothing expenses as art imitates life. And she's willing to share some fashion tips: How to look like you stepped out of the wardrobe room on the set of the next \"Sex and the City\" movie? Green. \"It's THE color\" she says. And hey, who doesn't need to save some green? It all works out perfectly. I left the meeting with Davis to check out her displays. Then I skipped out into the streets of Atlanta, in a pair of her new gladiator stiletto sandals. That I got on sale, of course.","highlights":"\"Sex and the City\" actress Kristin Davis says women need strong shoes .\nThe actress says her new fashion line fits different types of bodies .\nShe says \"Sex\" movie sequel will have characters spending less .\nGreen will be the hot color in the latest movie, Davis says .","id":"7e6e3c68fc106b48c7c6ac22f73e82eaa7d5b30a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An aircraft carrier named after the first President Bush was commissioned Saturday in Norfolk, Virginia. Former President George H.W. Bush waves aboard the aircraft carrier named after him Saturday. \"Those who are sitting out there, where I was, 65 years ago, preparing to serve aboard your new ship, I wish I was sitting right out there with you,\" the carrier's 84-year-old namesake told sailors at the commissioning ceremony. \"As you prepare to man this ship, I do know that you take with you the hopes and dreams of every American who cherishes freedom and peace, and you take with you the undying respect and admiration of the entire Bush family,\" he said. The 1,092-foot, 20-story USS George H.W. Bush was decorated with red, white and blue banners for Saturday's ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk. Watch video of the aircraft carrier \u00bb . The 41st president joined the Navy at 18 and served as an aviator in World War II. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for his Navy service in the Pacific during the war, according to the Department of Defense. His time in the Navy ended after about four years. About 17,000 people were expected to attend Saturday's ceremony. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Vice President Dick Cheney and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine were there, as was Bush's son President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura. \"Laura and I are thrilled to be here to help commission an awesome ship and to honor an awesome man, President George H.W. Bush,\" the president said. \"So what do you give a guy who has been blessed and has just about everything he has ever needed? Well, an aircraft carrier.\" The ship, comprising 47,000 tons of structural steel and about 500 tons of aluminum, is the last of the Nimitz class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The ship's construction began in 2003. It was finished nearly three years later. The vessel will carry about 6,000 Navy personnel, the Department of Defense said. After the ceremony, the president left Norfolk for Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base on what was probably his last Air Force One flight. From Andrews, he was expected to take a helicopter to Washington. White House spokesperson Dana Perino said the president wasn't aware that it was his last scheduled flight on Air Force One until he was told by an interviewer. Read about features of Air Force One \u00bb . President Bush leaves office January 20, and President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in.","highlights":"President Bush takes last scheduled Air Force One flight to attend ceremony .\nEx-president, a former Navy pilot, tells sailors: I wish I was sitting out there with you .\nAlso at ceremony: Rice, Cheney, Gates George W. Bush, Laura Bush .\nCurrent president: Carrier \"an awesome ship\" named after \"an awesome man\"","id":"f0af2e26df31eba336d6e3b5f81842f6ebd7ddcb"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Journalist Karl Penhaul spent several weeks tracking the gangs of the Mexican underworld, the corrupt officials who support them and the cops trying to halt the violence. This is the last of three exclusive reports. The first focused on the violent rules gangs live by and the second looked at how gangsters are honored in death. Forensic investigators and federal police dig bodies out of mass graves in the desert near Juarez. JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- Heat waves shimmer over the desert. A team of forensic experts clad in white overalls excavate three shallow graves. The sand gives up nine bodies -- seven men and two women. At least one of the victims' hands were cuffed behind their back. Others had been trussed up with duct tape. The stale stench reveals that the corpses had been dumped there several days earlier and were decomposing fast. That grisly find in mid-March came a week after thousands more soldiers had been deployed to Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The arrival of the soldiers and more federal police agents had coincided with a short lull in the killings. Snapping photos of the scene from behind the police line was Lucio Soria, photographer for Juarez's main newspaper, El Diario de Juarez, and its sister paper, PM. PM is a perfect example of Mexico's so-called \"red press,\" newspapers that specialize in covering violence. Soria seems like a perfect ambassador. \"I've gone for a week and a half without taking pictures of dead people. I was thinking 'Hell, what am I going to do?' At this rate I'll end up taking pictures for the social pages,\" he said. Soria realizes snapping pictures of blood and gore may seem heartless. But he stays cheerful, cracking dark jokes with colleagues, all while listening to police communications on a radio scanner and searching for clues about where to find the next drug war victim. \"It might seem ugly, but that's our job,\" Soria said. He and fellow photographers have been busy in recent months. Last year, Juarez became the poster city for Mexico's narco-violence, with more than 1,600 gang killings. Watch musicians play \"narco-ballads\" honoring hitmen \u00bb . This year, Mayor Jose Reyes is trying to turn a page on the killings and make Juarez a showcase for solutions. Military and federal police convoys patrol the streets around the clock. Cops armed with AR-15 assault rifles, identities obscured by ski masks, hang off pickup trucks that speed around in twos and threes. Watch cops round up gang suspects \u00bb . Soldiers strike a warlike pose behind heavy machine guns mounted on American-made Humvees. Whether it's working depends on whom you ask and how hard you read between the lines. \"I think this is very effective because it closes transport routes for the movement of [cartel] personnel and weapons,\" said a state officer, assigned to guide us, at a federal police checkpoint. The officer, known only by his call sign Trojan One, seemed confident. The agent in command of the checkpoint was less convinced. \"Of course organized crime is trying to avoid us. I'm not sure what methods they use to operate. We don't know how they work,\" said the officer, identifying himself only as Aztec One. On another day we ran into a three-truck federal police operation staking out a house in a middle-class Juarez neighborhood. See photos of police, gang life in Mexico \u00bb . The commander said his men believed they had made what he termed a \"major\" cocaine bust. When I met him they had already been waiting almost 24 hours for a judge to issue a search warrant. When they gained access they discovered some 500 half-gram bags of cocaine. In Juarez those bags sell for around $8. Now do the math, 500 half-gram bags at possibly 60 percent purity means around 150 grams of pure cocaine -- hardly a major strike in the drug war. Reyes' solution has been to hand the military all civilian police functions, even down to traffic control. Mexico's military has little experience in urban warfare, little experience in policing and has been unable to shake a decades-old reputation for human rights abuses. When I bump into Reyes at a transfer-of-command ceremony at city hall I ask him what he's doing about alleged corruption and complicity among politicians and businessmen, who permit the cartels to move their shipments and help launder the proceeds. \"My opinion in Juarez is that that kind of political corruption does not exist,\" he said adamantly. Two weeks later, in Monterrey, I caught up with outspoken lawyer Raquenel Villanueva. She knows a thing or two about politicians colluding with Mexico's mafia. Watch how drug lords pay tribute to a highway bandit, looking for luck \u00bb . Mexican media have dubbed her the \"devil's advocate\" for her role in defending a string of senior cartel figures and their hitmen. Last year, she was detained for 90 days, accused her of being a member of the Gulf Cartel. She was freed without charge. Throughout her career, she's survived four assassination attempts and taken 10 bullets, two of them in the head. Her office is crammed with religious iconography: crosses, paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe and a four-foot-high wooden statue of Saint Jude Thaddeus. Two bullets are encrusted in the effigy after the last attempt on her life in 2000. \"I know about official corruption and exactly who is doing what because my clients tell me,\" she said. \"To win the drug war you have to tell the Americans to take better care of their young people, tell them to stop being so cold and materialistic,\" Villanueva lectured. \"Then you have to end corruption and that means changing the government cabinets of half the countries in the world.\"","highlights":"Border city of Juarez last year had more than 1,600 gang killings .\nMayor turns to military to control trafficking, violence .\nOpinions vary on whether tactics are working .\nLawyer puts some blame on \"materialistic\" Americans .","id":"6c29b084cd0e5f5a5a20c5ef9f1ba83bf4b23acf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In order to maintain peace at home, President-elect Barack Obama might want to have some very important talks with his wife and mother-in-law before moving into the White House. President-elect Barack Obama's mother-in-law Marian Robinson joins him on stage on election night. Like some 4 million other multigenerational U.S. households Barack Obama's mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, will join the Obamas at the family's private quarters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In about 1.3 million American homes where the parents are head of the household, at least one grandparent lives with the family. Having a grandparent living with a family can be a wonderful and beneficial addition to the family, says psychologist Elaine Ducharme, but only if everyone can navigate the boundaries. The key issues that need to be discussed between grandparents and parents are privacy and the discipline of the children, says the psychologist, who practices in Hartford, Connecticut. Dannee Brown agrees and says having those discussions and setting ground rules ahead of time is better than making it up as you go along because then feelings can get hurt. Brown always knew her parents, Bill and Mary Lou Wade, would one day live with her and says she couldn't have survived without them after she and her husband separated. But disagreements over the disciplining of her two children sparked conflict. \"We've had some knock-down, drag-outs about discipline -- especially with my dad,\" the Fredericksburg, Virginia, woman says, \"I finally had to say, 'I'm the mom -- you're not -- don't tell me how to raise my kids.' \" On the flip side, Brown's mother would like to be just a grandmother who spoils Noelle and Ethan -- instead of having to play disciplinarian while Brown is working as a nurse-anesthetist. The Wades have a separate apartment in the lower level of Brown's home, but spend winters at their own home in Florida. That gives them all a break from each other. Brown describes it as a \"four-month time to really appreciate them\" for all the cooking, cleaning and home maintenance her parents do along with the childcare. She and the children miss the grandparents so much during this time that they usually make one trip to Florida so they can spend time with \"Nanny and Pop.\" The 'Aaah, go away!' effect . Along with establishing guidelines for everyone's role, Ducharme says both the parents and grandparents need to address privacy issues. \"I think privacy is key -- making sure that everybody has a place where they can have some privacy,\" says Ducharme. Brown says she sometimes wishes she could have a little more privacy in the evenings now that she is working days. She gets home from work and spends the evening with her children and after they go to sleep she looks forward to some time by herself. But sometimes her mother comes upstairs to chat. \"That's when I want to say, 'Ahhh, go away!\" says Brown. \"I don't say that, but I'm thinking it.\" And even if everyone agrees on a plan ahead of time, it would be wise to expect irritations to pop up every now and then, the therapist says. \"Trying to live together is really about problem solving,\" Ducharme says. She tells her clients if they all focus on finding a solution to the problem and making it a win-win for everyone involved, it takes the emotions and hurt feelings out of the equation. Clearing the air . Ducharme suggests holding a family meeting where either party could say he or she is feeling stressed about an issue or someone lacks enough privacy. But watch out for red flags during discussions prior to inviting your mother or mother-in-law to move in. \"If you really don't communicate well with this person, and when you try to communicate your feelings and ideas it always ends up in a battle -- then it's probably not a good plan to have them move in with you,\" says Ducharme. Stephanie Ware knows family meetings are a good place to clear the air and discuss problems. She had asked her mother, Betty Carradine, to move in to help her with childcare upon her return to work. But her mom moved in earlier than planned after granddaughter Kennedy arrived by Caesarean section. The Atlanta, Georgia, paralegal and her husband, Michael Ware, had discussed many issues with her mother and everyone laid out their expectations of each other, with the couple telling her mother that they would handle all the household expenses. But the Wares called another family meeting after Carradine moved in because they felt she was trying to help too much. \"We let her know that we wanted her here to just help us with Kennedy and she didn't necessarily have to do any housework as far as cooking or cleaning or fixing our lunches.\" Ware also makes sure Kennedy's bottles are prepared so that her mother's day goes a little smoother and grandma is not so busy while tending to her seventh grandchild. Ware says she thanks God daily for her mother's help because it gives her extra time to spend with her baby daughter in the morning. And Stephanie can carry Kennedy down the hallway to her mother's room instead of dressing the infant, and packing all her supplies and bottles into a diaper bag and driving her to daycare. Ware says she, her husband and her mother took several trips together while she was out on maternity leave. And every other weekend, her mother stays with Stephanie's sister's family. In the five-bedroom Ware house, personal space and privacy is not an issue. And the couple tries to get out once a month for \"date night.\" The only problem Ware is having with her mother living with her is Carradine's cooking: \"She is a great cook, and it's hard,\" Ware says with a laugh, \"but I'm staying very disciplined.\"","highlights":"Michelle Obama's mother is moving into White House with first family .\nExpert: Parents should discuss discipline styles, privacy with mother-in-law .\nMom: Those talks should take place before mother-in-law moves in .\nPsychologist: Living together successfully is about problem solving .","id":"d0340efc83b42cbc31aee9ce5b9f26cea4037ae9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jen Bucala has a lot of faith in her family's \"lucky\" numbers. \"I've been playing, or around playing, the lotto all my life,\" she says. She rattles off her numbers, citing family birthdays, and recounting numerical coincidences. \"Me, my husband, my father-in-law ... all our birthdays are in November. Just a week apart from each other,\" says Bucala, 31. One number that did surprise her was $10,000. After some quick figuring, Bucala estimates she has spent that amount on scratch off games and Megamillions since she started playing a decade ago. For Bucala, a Lindenhurst, New York, resident who works three jobs -- as a sales associate, an Avon Rep and a bridal consultant -- that is a lot of money. \"That ten grand could have gone toward a million and one bills I have -- my mortgage, car payments,\" Bucala says. \"We spend thousands of dollars every month on bills. I don't have kids either. That [lotto] money could have been a whole month for me for bills,\" she says. But like a lot of people, Bucala thinks $1 is a small price to pay for a dream. \"You gotta play in order to win. That's part of lotto. You never know,\" says Bucala. One of the seductive features of the lotto is the low entry fee says Frank Farley, a psychology professor at Temple University. \"It can be exciting, checking those winning numbers,\" says Farley. \"Maybe something big might happen. There's not a whole lot of other things in your life where you put a small amount of money in and maybe something big will happen. It gives you a sliver of hope that you could turn your life around.\" And sometimes there are winners. Mineola Oaks, is retired and living in Washington Heights, New York. She has played lotto every day, spending $3-$5 a day (and more on Tuesday) for over 20 years. (Just $4 a day for 20 years adds up to almost $30,000.) Two years ago she won $100,000. And with that money she paid off her bills and did some remodeling on her second home in Virginia. Oaks still buys lotto tickets, but she cautions that there's always something else you can put the money towards. \"I take care of things first,\" she says. \"Food, rent -- Then you can go out and spend a dollar on the lotto.\" Just don't expect to win. Let's take Powerball for example. Your chances of winning the jackpot is one in 195,249,054 says Michael Orkin, a statistician and dean of business, math and science at Laney College in Oakland, California. Let's say you buy 50 Powerball tickets a week, you'll win the jackpot about once every 75,000 years, he says. Cold, hard numbers aside, the lotto is entertainment. \"Almost everyone spends money on entertainment,\" says Stephen Brobeck of the Consumer Federation of America. \"People spend hundreds of dollars going to a sports event. Others spend a thousand dollars a year on premium cable channels. Purchasing a lotto ticket -- it's excitement and there's always the possibility, however slim, that they will strike it rich and win,\" he says. Cost of fleeting excitement adds up . Sodanys Paulino, 21, of Washington Heights, stood outside a lottery terminal one rainy Friday night. She bought two scratch off tickets and a mega millions ticket. When asked what else she could be doing with that money, she laughs. \"Two dollars? You can't buy anything for two dollars,\" she says. But $2 a week is about $100 a year. And $100 can buy you something. The problem is opportunity costs, says Farley. \"What opportunities are lost because you are putting discretionary income into the lottery when you could be putting it into something else?\" he asks. \"A small amount of money can be spent on dental floss,\" he says. The lotto sends the wrong message, says Farley. \"It's hard work versus chance. The lotto says success can be built on chance.\" A 2005 study by the Consumer Federation of America says 38 percent of people with incomes below $25,000 think that winning the lottery represents the most practical way for them to accumulate several hundred thousand dollars. \"Lower income people think their chances of winning are slim. And they think that the probability [for them to win] is greater than being able to accumulate savings over time. The lotto advantage . Peter Tufano, a Professor at Harvard Business School, harnessed this idea that people would rather have a small probability of a large payout when he came up with the \"Save to Win\" idea. It's part savings, part raffle ticket. And it's had major success in Detroit, Michigan, where eight credit unions have been offering it since January. Here's how it works. You open up a one-year certificate of deposit and for every $25 you save, you get the chance to win a $100,000 prize. Hank Hubbard, the director of Communicating Arts Credit Union in Detroit, Michigan, says when his credit union offered a 10 percent interest rate on a one-year CD, no one signed on, but with Save to Win, 14 percent of their membership signed up. \"I am surprised at the extent of the success. We really are showing people that they can afford to save,\" he says. And in the very worst case even though someone may not win the grand prize, at least they've already accumulated some savings. But when it comes to playing the real thing -- old habits die hard. \"I'm still going to buy my scratchoffs,\" says Bucala. \"I'm not going to go cold turkey,\" she says. \"No way! It's too exciting ... knowing you have the chance to win.\"","highlights":"Jen Bucala likes to buy lottery tickets; an estimated $10,000 in 10 years .\nPsychology professor: Low entry fee is part of lottery's seduction .\nStudy: 38 percent of poor think lottery best way for them to get hundreds of thousands .\nStatistician: Chances of winning Powerball is 1 in 195,249,054 .","id":"6c6000c2c074cc33773a11a8b6c3f47184ddfb3a"} -{"article":"PALO ALTO, California (CNN) -- Sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize helps underscore the urgency of the climate crisis, said former Vice President Al Gore on Friday. \"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now,\" said Al Gore. Gore's comments came hours after the Nobel committee announced he would share the award with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their work to raise awareness about global warming. \"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now,\" Gore said, speaking to reporters in Palo Alto, California. \"It truly is a planetary emergency, and we have to respond quickly.\" The former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization he founded to persuade people to reduce global warming by cutting pollution. \"That amount is very small compared to the enormous challenge that lies ahead,\" Gore said, including organizing a massive grass-roots movement and a mass advertising campaign focused on \"trying to change the way people think.\" Watch Gore describe what he calls a 'planetary emergency' \u00bb . Earlier Friday, a White House spokesman said President Bush was pleased that Gore, Bush's opponent in the 2000 presidential race, had won the award. \"Of course, he's happy for Vice President Gore, happy for the International Panel on Climate Change scientists, who also shared the Peace Prize,\" White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said. \"Obviously it's an important recognition, and we're sure the vice president is thrilled.\" Fratto said Bush would not be under any pressure to adopt mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, a policy Gore has advocated. Gore's ex-boss, former President Clinton, also said he's \"thrilled by this well-deserved recognition,\" and credited Gore with \"warning and educating us about the dangers of climate change for decades. He saw this coming before others in public life.\" The Nobel committee's announcement cited Gore and the IPCC \"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.\" The award ceremony will be held December 10 in Oslo, Norway. In recent weeks, Gore has been the target of a campaign to persuade him to enter the 2008 presidential race. A source involved in Gore's past political runs told CNN that he definitely has the ambition to use the peace prize as a springboard to run for president. But he will not run, because he won't take on the political machine assembled by Sen. Hillary Clinton, said the source. If the senator from New York had faltered at all, Gore would take a serious look at entering the race, the source said. But Gore has calculated that Clinton is unstoppable, according to the source. Gore repeatedly denied he has any plans to run again, but this week a group of grass-roots Democrats calling themselves \"Draft Gore\" took out a full-page ad in The New York Times in a bid to change his mind. Watch Gore discuss global warming and politics . \"Your country needs you now, as do your party, and the planet you are fighting so hard to save,\" the group said in an open letter. \"America and the Earth need a hero right now, someone who will transcend politics as usual and bring real hope to our country and to the world.\" The Nobel committee praised Gore as being \"one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians.\" \"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,\" said Ole Danbolt Mjos, chairman of the Nobel committee. In making the announcement, Mjos said, \"Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. \"Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming.\" Said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. panel: \"This is an honor that goes to all the scientists and authors who have contributed to the work of the IPCC.\" Renate Christ, secretary of the panel, called the award \"the most significant recognition that the IPCC has received.\" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 to study climate change information. The group doesn't do independent research but instead reviews scientific literature from around the world. The U.N.-sanctioned group was formed by the World Meteorological Organization and U.N. Environment Program. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was \"delighted\" with the news that Gore and the IPCC will share in prize. The Nobel caps a series of prestigious awards associated with Gore, including two Oscars this year for the 2006 documentary film, \"An Inconvenient Truth,\" which followed him on a worldwide tour publicizing the dangers of climate change. Last month, he also picked up an Emmy -- the highest award in U.S. television -- for \"Current TV.\" The show, which Gore co-created, describes itself as a global television network giving viewers the opportunity to create and influence its programming. Previous American recipients of the peace prize include former Presidents Carter in 2002, Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. In 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shared the award with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received the honor in 1964. See more on 2007 Nobel winners \u00bb . Gore was vice president for eight years before winning the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination and running against Bush. But he failed in his White House bid -- despite winning the popular vote -- when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his challenge over voting results in Florida, securing an Electoral College majority for Bush. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"NEW: Al Gore warns of \"planetary emergency,\" announces new ad campaign .\nEx-President Clinton says Gore has warned of dangers for decades .\nSource: Gore won't use prize as springboard to enter 2008 presidential race .\nWhite House: President Bush pleased that Gore, U.N. panel won peace prize .","id":"bb25fb1965a3223618fd455dfd06fe0633ebf44d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Basketball legend Michael Jordan has caused a furor at the President's Cup golf tournament after the former Chicago Bulls player was snapped smoking a cigar at the Harding Park course in San Francisco. Michael Jordan smoking a cigar at the Hardin Park golf course. Jordan -- who is acting as the honorary assistant captain for the U.S. team at the event -- puffed while playing a practice round despite the city's ban on smoking at public golf courses. Pictures were published in the San Francisco Chronicle of the 46-year-old flouting the rules, a move which prompted city officials to request the PGA Tour to remind Jordan of the law. \"It was sort of a gentle nudge reminding them that smoking is illegal and that we would appreciate their support,\" Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg told the Chronicle. The breaking of the smoking ban carries a $100 fine, however, Matt Dorsey, the spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, told the newspaper: \"Just don't expect me to ask him for it.\" Fred Couples invited Jordan to be an honorary assistant captain at the Presidents Cup, and the Hall of Famer spoke to reporters on Monday about his smoking. \"I heard this is a public place, so they limit what you can smoke, but this was a practice round and no one said anything,\" he told the gathered media. British Open champion Stewart Cink backed Jordan despite the outcry suggesting the cigar was unlit: \"The tobacco usage did become a little bit of a story out there, because I saw Michael with a cigar in his mouth that was unlit. \"He's trying to set a good example for the rest of the people who see on TV what we are doing out there, just try to set a good example and try to chew his tobacco instead of smoke it.\"","highlights":"Presidents Cup golf tournament is being held at the Harding Park course .\nUnder San Francisco law it is illegal to smoke while playing at the event .\nMichael Jordan was photographed smoking at cigar during a practice round .\nJordan is the honorary assistant captain for the U.S. team at the event .","id":"bf6d5964f8a46d9d9bf4f0f4da862c939f274251"} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- There's more to wearing the \"niqab\" -- the austere, all-covering veil favored by ultra-religious Muslim women -- than meets the eye. Cairo University students wearing niqab stand outside a university dormitory on Oct. 7 unable to enter due to the new rules preventing admission to niqab wearers. A recent declaration by a leading Egyptian cleric that women will not be allowed to wear the niqab in university areas frequented only by women has sparked demonstrations by female students in Cairo determined to wear the all-encompassing veil wherever they go. Egypt's Al-Azhar university, the highest seat of Sunni Islam, recently convened an all-male committee to rule on what women can wear at Egypt's public universities. The Shaikh of Al-Azhar, Shaikh Tantawi, announced after the meeting that a ban on the niqab, also known as the burqa, would apply to such university areas as female dormitories and all-women classes. Do you think Muslim women should wear the niqab? Tell us below in the SoundOff box . Even though that was a step down from a statement he made earlier that the niqab would be banned in all public universities, his ruling sparked controversy with the growing number of women in the country who choose to stay covered. The initiative from Al-Azhar is seen by many in Egypt as an attempt to counter the growing appeal of the strictest interpretations of Islam. An increasing number of young women in Egypt are turning to the niqab. The niqab is worn by many Muslim women throughout the Arab world and beyond and is most common in the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It is also commonly worn in Pakistan. \"The niqab should be worn under two circumstances,\" a cleaning lady who works at Al-Azhar, told CNN recently. \"A very beautiful woman should wear it to prevent men from fighting over her, and an ugly woman should wear it to hide her face.\" There is no consensus among Muslim scholars regarding the wearing of the niqab, the piece of cloth that covers a Muslim woman's face. Women who wear it usually also cover their hands. It is widely believed to be a tradition that comes from the Arabian peninsula, introduced to more liberal countries like Egypt by people who have lived and worked in ultra-conservative countries like Saudi Arabia. There's not much about it in the Koran, Muslim's holy book. The Koranic verse that applies to female head covering translates loosely as: \"O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks all over their bodies.\" And so consequently, there are plenty of interpretations. And all sorts of opinions in the Egyptian parliament. The opposition-led Muslim Brotherhood opposes the niqab ban. \"It's unacceptable that the niqab is treated as something bad that needs to be suppressed,\" Brotherhood member of parliament Muhamed Baltagi told CNN. \"It's unacceptable to violate private matters in this way.\" In Baltagi's opinion, it's a matter of personal choice and should not be dictated by the shaikh of Al-Azhar. Appointed by the president of Egypt, the shaikh of Al-Azhar is viewed as little more than an appendage of the authoritarian Egyptian government, and thus scorned as a state puppet by both religious and secular critics of the regime. Since the 1960s the shaikh of Al-Azhar has been appointed by the Egyptian president. In Europe, wearing the niqab has become a controversial issue too. Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy banned it from French classrooms. And British Justice Minister Jack Straw also recently asked women to remove them in his consituency office. In Cairo's main shopping district, the message on the niqab is decidedly mixed. The few niqabs on display are vastly outnumbered by far more risque outfits, including no shortage of mannequins sporting evening dressings with plunging necklines and naked arms. There are a few niqabs on display, but lots of less conservative clothing is on the shelves too. Outside Cairo University, some women go without any head covering at all. Most wear headscarves -- usually quite colorful ones. Those who choose to wear the niqab say the religious scholars should have asked a woman what she thought of the ban first. \"He should have taken at least one woman's opinion,\" said student Muna Abdel Fatah. \"Because the decision will impact on her.\" Daniela Deane contributed to this story.","highlights":"Recent ban on wearing the all-encompassing veil sparked demonstrations .\nBan of the veil, known as the \"niqab,\" seen by many as attempt to counter extremism .\nIncreasing number of young Muslim women want to cover themselves .\nNo consensus among Muslim scholars on covering up .","id":"38ce6b414ab7a52e9aece8f1c12c7650bc568ce0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station early Wednesday, completing a three-day orbital chase. \"Capture confirmed,\" the Johnson Space Center in Houston said at 12:06 a.m. ET. The delicate docking maneuver took place while both spacecraft were circling the globe at about 17,500 mph (28,165 km\/h). Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center early Monday. During the two-week mission, the six-member crew will deliver an Italian-built Tranquility node and a seven-windowed cupola to the station, which will be used as a control room for robotics. The mission also will include three spacewalks. The space station will be about 90 percent complete once the node and cupola are added, NASA said.","highlights":"Shuttle docked at 12:06 a.m. ET, according to the Johnson Space Center in Houston .\nEndeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center early Monday .\nThe two-week mission will include three spacewalks .","id":"2063ae58821dc2870cedf2acdfaf187277e7c72f"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- If you stared at empty seats around your Thanksgiving dinner table, Robert DeNiro's newest film could help. Parents who want their kids home for Christmas may do well by persuading them to see \"Everybody's Fine,\" which opens next Friday in U.S. theaters. \"I'm hoping it might catch the moment, and it might catch the Christmas spirit and the Thanksgiving spirit,\" director-writer Kirk Jones told CNN over coffee in Hollywood. The movie is targeted at people with parents, brothers, sisters or children, Jones said. \"Pretty much everyone,\" Jones said. \"It's about family.\" The story centers around a cross-country journey by DeNiro's character struggling to bring together his grown children for Christmas, several months after their mother's death. DeNiro reveals a sensitive, aging father who imagines that \"everybody's fine\" -- a solace for his lonely suffering. Each stop reveals how his wife had sheltered him from bad news about his kids -- played by Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell -- and how they did not know how to communicate honestly with him. His children were not living the lives he had fantasized for them. \"It's easier not to face up to the truth,\" Jones said. Audiences emerged from preview screenings thinking about their own parents or children, Jones said. \"People are coming out of the movie, almost without exception, saying 'I've got to ring my mom, I've got to ring my dad,'\" Jones said. The strongest reactions have come from people between 24 and 35, many of whom told Jones he's \"scratched a nerve,\" he said. \"They were saying 'That's me. That's my dad. Those are my parents.'\" \"Most people have got regrets,\" he said. \"When they leave their parents, everyone looks back and thinks, 'I should have invited them on holiday with us that time or I should have made it that weekend or I should have just called them more often.'\" It's a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 Italian film \"Stanno Tutti Bene\" -- English translation: Everybody's Fine. But Jones, a British director best known as the writer-director of the 1998 surprise hit \"Waking Ned Devine,\" made this into an American story. Jones took his own trip for inspiration before writing the screenplay, traveling by train and bus across the United States. He realized the telephone wires he saw, stretching from pole to pole for hundreds of miles along the tracks and highways, serve as a metaphor for his story. \"It's like a wave, a musical rhythm,\" Jones said. Frank -- DeNiro's character -- spent his life manufacturing the protective coating for the telephone lines. \"He protected the line of communication,\" Jones said. But decades of exposure to the chemicals made him ill, as did his years of insulation from honest communications with his family. \"The irony is, when he's traveling, the children are talking about him through his wires,\" Jones said. A personal irony for the director is that, for the 14 months Jones was making this movie about family togetherness in the United States, he was away from his own family in England.","highlights":"\"Everybody's Fine\" is targeted at \"pretty much everyone,\" director Kirk Jones told CNN .\nStory centers on a father's journey as he seeks to reunite his kids for the holidays .\nEach stop reveals how his wife had sheltered him from bad news about his kids .\nJones, who also wrote the screenplay, traveled the U.S. for inspiration .","id":"44c5cd11c5e1f7b8b295552f4d1bf23d2a4dc0c7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This is always a frightful time of year, but this year it got a bit scarier. You may have been prematurely spooked by an \"illegal alien\" costume threatening Halloween thrill seekers with an extraterrestrial countenance, orange prison garb and a green card. There's also a version with a baseball cap and droopy moustache. Frankly, I'm surprised the manufacturer, Forum Novelties, is not offering other stereotypical accessories, like low-rider flying saucers and glow-in-the-dark lawn mowers. The costume reflects ominous trends: the deterioration of the immigration debate, the rise of anti-immigrant hostility as a form of racism and the need for greater empathy to bridge the gap between those who view such attacks as harmless humor and those who are demeaned and hurt by them. According to a CNN.com article: \"Political satire and Halloween often merge. Costumes depicting former well-known political figures are often seen alongside those depicting Batman or Wonder Woman.\" But what if the inspiration for the satire is a group of disenfranchised people? When is a costume clever and funny and when is it an expression of uglier truths inside us? The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, California, joined the League of United Latin American Citizens and the United Farm Workers of America in condemning the costume, calling on retailers to drop it. Target was among those stores that quickly stopped selling it, while others, including BuyCostumes.com, chose \"trick\" over \"treat.\" \"Wearing this costume shows poor taste and ignores the painful reality -- for millions of immigrants who must live through constant taunting, discrimination and now mocking,\" the Coalition's director of communications, Jorge-Mario Cabrera, told me. \"The costume is a sign of the decaying dialogue on immigrants as a community in the U.S.\" Dreadfully, this costume contest also illuminates the evolution of discrimination in America. The Pew Research Center recently reported that 55 percent of adults say \"there are 'very strong' or 'strong' conflicts between immigrants and people born in the United States\" while \"39 percent believe there are serious conflicts between blacks and whites.\" The Pew report concludes that: \"Disagreements between immigrants and native-born Americans emerge as the most prevalent and serious type of social conflict.\" What we are witnessing this season is a metamorphosis of racism, from anti-black to anti-immigrant. It's like Darth Vader slipping into Voldemort gear. Still spine-chilling. But not all trick-or-treaters are repulsed by the specter of prejudice masquerading as freedom-loving, tongue-in-cheek revelry. William Gheen, of Americans for Legal Immigration, said he is buying the costume. \"The only people getting upset are the hypersensitive, over-politically correct, pro-amnesty, illegal alien-supporting nuts.\" he said. \"You can't attack people's freedom in this country.\" This reaction highlights the polarization of the immigration debate in America and the widely divergent views on discrimination among different social groups. According to the Pew survey, blacks, Latinos and women are significantly more likely than whites and men to say major conflicts exist between groups. Some of the widest perception gaps exist between blacks and whites on whether black\/white conflict persists: 53 percent of blacks said \"yes\" compared with 35 percent of whites. Gaps also exist between Latinos and whites on whether conflict exists between immigrants and native-born Americans: 68 percent of Latinos said \"yes\" compared with 53 percent of whites. It's interesting that racism and immigration-related conflict is most perceived by those experiencing its negative effects rather than those either perpetrating the prejudices or simply floating through life oblivious to them. What may be dismissed as a non-issue or joke by some tastes bitterly like insult and injury to others. It depends on who wears the costume and who is the butt of the joke. So before people brandish their right to ridicule and belittle entire ethnic groups, before such frivolous freedoms help stoke anti-immigrant fervor, let's pause and reflect. Just because we have a right doesn't mean we must exercise it. Even if we believe all undocumented immigrants should be shipped back to their nations of origin, we needn't mock their plight or demean their humanity. We don't have to don a costume that strips 12 million people of their dignity just for a few cheap laughs. Which America do we hope to see in the mirror when the Halloween party's over? How about trying to put ourselves in the shoes of that \"illegal alien\"? for no matter how you dress it up, it's cruel. So what are you going to be this Halloween? I have this suggestion -- and it goes for manufacturers, retailers, shoppers and activists on all sides of the immigration issue. This year, don't get a costume; get a conscience. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rudy Ruiz.","highlights":"Rudy Ruiz: \"Illegal alien\" costume has alien's face, wears prison garb, carries green card .\nRuiz: Just because we have a right, we needn't demean people or mock their plight .\nSays costume reflects the rise of anti-immigrant hostility as a form of racism .\nRuiz: If you're one of the people who are the butt of the joke, it's not so funny .","id":"cef58020b9f68b8aac6d88c822434e96d42ad64a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A polygamist sect member arrested following last year's raid of a west Texas ranch was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting an underage girl, authorities said. Raymond Jessop was found guilty last week of assaulting a girl under 17, with whom he had entered into a \"spiritual\" marriage, said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the state attorney general. Jessop also received an $8,000 fine, said Sheriff David Doran, of Schleicher County, Texas. The victim in the case was one of 400 children seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, in April 2008 by state child welfare workers. The children were returned after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state had no right to remove them and lacked evidence to show that they were in danger of abuse. Jessop belongs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church -- a 10,000-member offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church -- openly practices polygamy on the ranch, as well as in Arizona and Utah. Critics of the sect say young girls are forced into \"spiritual\" marriages with older men and are sexually abused. Sect members have denied any sexual abuse. CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"Raymond Jessop sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual assault of teen \"bride\"\nJessop must also pay $8,000 fine .\nGirl was one of hundreds seized after 2008 raid at Texas polygamist ranch .","id":"bc3a719145b9717ba2d00d89567be2262b918e84"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of Muslims gathered Friday on Capitol Hill for a day of prayer that organizers said was intended to inspire American Muslims and non-Muslims alike. People traveled from all over the United States to attend the Capitol Hill event, organizer Abdul Malik said. \"America is not perfect,\" Abdul Malik, an organizer of the event called Islam on Capitol Hill, told the crowd. \"But I will say something it took me my whole adult life to come to: America is not perfect, but I want to tell the truth: It is one of the best places in the world to live.\" Organizers had hoped that 50,000 people would show up for the Friday afternoon prayer session, which took place at the foot of the U.S. Capitol. There were also anti-Muslim protesters near the event. Earlier, Malik said, \"This is not a protest, it is a day of prayer, of devotion, hoping that we can work ... for the betterment of the world community.\" He added, \"We can come together and work together for the common good.\" He said that Muslims in the United States have a \"unique responsibility\" and that the event seeks to inspire Muslims and all Americans. \"America represents, still, a beacon of hope,\" he said. Malik said conversations about the event began only a few months ago. \"It's amazing,\" he said. \"The Web site has gotten more than 3 million hits already.\" Friday's event was focused on a 1 p.m. prayer, and a reception and banquet were planned afterward. Malik said attendees were traveling from all over the United States -- including Texas, Florida and Georgia -- as well as from other countries, such as Britain and Canada. \"The beautiful thing ... about this, is that we have a good representation of the uniqueness and beauty of what Islam stands for,\" he said. Besides the protesters, the event drew other criticism. Malik said he had received some \"very nasty e-mails.\" And one Christian leader warned of a strategy to \"Islamize\" American society. \"It is important for Christians to understand that Friday's Muslim prayer initiative is part of a well-defined strategy to Islamize American society and replace the Bible with the Koran, the cross with the Islamic crescent and the church bells with the Athan [the Muslim call to prayer],\" the Rev. Canon Julian Dobbs, leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America's Church and Islam Project, said in a written statement. \"The time has come for the American public to call Islam to account,\" he said.","highlights":"NEW: Speaker calls U.S. \"one of the best places in the world to live\"\nPrayer event sought to inspire Muslims and all Americans, one organizer says .\nEvent drew protesters, criticism from Christian leader, \"very nasty e-mails\"","id":"cb11661a2fdf380e07cad3ff6e0855c5634c7c2d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seiji Ozawa is Asia's most successful conductor, a maestro in a quintessentially Western art form, and a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan. But the affable 74-year-old is used to crossing cultural boundaries. Born in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation - his father a Buddhist, his mother a Presbyterian - he was raised in Tokyo, and greatly influenced by western culture and a Christian upbringing. His love of music was first explored through the church, but later he studied at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo. A career as a pianist was curtailed when the 16-year-old sports-loving Ozawa broke two fingers during a rugby match. From Toho he traveled to Europe and New York to further his studies. It was a steep learning curve where he learnt how to deal first-hand with other cultures and prejudices. \"I have many problem, beginning. Um... maybe now, I don't know, but beginning especially. It was difficult. Some people ask me, 'You came from China, you came from Japan, do you really understand Bach or do you really understand Mozart?'\" he told CNN. After years abroad, his return to Japan in 1962 to conduct the NHK Symphony Orchestra for six months was far from a happy homecoming; the orchestra rebelled and refused to play for him. \"I made mistake, and I think it was too soon [for me] to take a professional orchestra for six months and at the end I think they had enough. \"I think I was a little bit stuck up... I mean, I was conducting the best orchestra in Japan already I'm still 26 or 27. Very young. And I think I'm sure during rehearsal I say something not so nice. And in Japan very bad if conductor say something not so nice. But I learned, so I become more careful and I think I started more studying, so not make mistake. \"But in a way, it may sound very strange, but really it did me good that boycott.\" It meant Ozawa explored opportunities outside of Japan, directing festivals and orchestras across Europe, Canada and the U.S. He became musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra a post he held for 29 years until 2004. He left Boston for Vienna to embrace a new challenge with the State Opera. As well as the challenge of a new city and repertory, Ozawa believes it was a move that rounded out his musical education, even if he was 68-years-old at the time. When a young conductor his interest in opera had been fostered by his early tutor Herbert von Karajan. \"He said if you don't study this, one half of Mozart you'll never touch and almost 99 percent of Wagner, almost 100 percent of Puccini and Verdi, you know, half of Mozart is gone.\" While Ozawa will step down from his position at the Vienna State Opera next summer, he will remain active in directing, conducting and educating the next generation in classical music. \"I have big hope all Asiatic people and countries... everybody love music basically,\" he said. \"Teaching has become, I think, more and more important my life, really.\"","highlights":"Seiji Ozawa was musical director of Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years .\nSuccessful career has seen Ozawa conduct some of world's greatest orchestras .\nHad to deal with prejudice and expectation as Asian in Western dominated art form .","id":"7bd8200c21891c9e23163418fed7c514718c9327"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Mary Travers of 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, has died, according to her publicist. She was 72. Mary Travers performs at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Travers died from side effects of treatment from a bone-marrow transplant after battling leukemia, publicist Heather Lylis said. The singer was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in November 1936 and grew up in New York's Greenwich Village. As a teenager, she performed in a Broadway review, but stepped on to the folk music scene in the 1950s. She emerged as an iconic folk singer while performing with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey. Peter, Paul and Mary came together while singing \"Mary Had a Little Lamb\" in Stookey's New York City apartment. They went on to play gigs at coffee houses and later on the radio. \"As a performer, her charisma was a barely contained nervous energy -- occasionally (and then only privately) revealed as stage fright,\" Stookey said. Their music reflected the 1960s and the 1970s, a time of turmoil as the civil rights and anti-war movements moved into full swing. Travers applied her recognition to rally behind those progressive movements. In 1963, the trio performed its hit song \"If I Had a Hammer\" at the Washington march where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famed \"I Have a Dream Speech,\" her publicist said. \"We've learned that it will take more than one generation to bring about change,\" Travers once said. \"The fight for civil rights has developed into a broader concern for human rights, and that encompasses a great many people and countries. Those of us who live in a democracy have a responsibility to be the voice for those whose voices are stilled.\" Travers advocated against U.S. government moves in Central America in the 1980s. She went on a mission to El Salvador and later spoke out against the country's regime. She also opposed American funding of a militant group in Nicaragua set on overthrowing an elected government there, according to her publicist. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded hits still recognized now, including \"Leaving on a Jet Plane,\" \"Puff the Magic Dragon\" and \"Where Have All the Flowers Gone.\" They performed together for nearly 50 years, winning five Grammys and releasing 13 Top 40 hits, six of them in the Top 10 charts. Their debut album, \"Peter, Paul and Mary\" was on the Top 10 chart for 10 months. Travers also recorded four solo albums in the 1970s. \"Her talent was huge ... Mary was the difference maker,\" said Joe Smith, former head of Warner Brothers Records. \"Super bright, super talented, and a pleasure to know and work with.\" Their last performance was in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on May 20. Those closest to Travers say she valued her friendships. \"Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of my relationship with Mary Travers over the last almost 50 years is how open and honest we were with each other, and I include Noel Paul Stookey in this equation,\" Yarrow said in a statement. \"Such honesty comes with a price, but when you get past the hurt and shock of realizing that you're faulted and frequently wrong, you also realize that you are really loved and respected for who you are, and you become a better person.\" She is survived by her husband, Ethan Robbins; her daughters Alicia and Erika; her sister, Ann Gordon; and her granddaughters Wylie and Virginia.","highlights":"Mary Travers was a member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary .\nThe trio sang \"If I Had a Hammer\" and \"Puff the Magic Dragon\"\nShe died from side effects of treatment from a bone-marrow transplant .","id":"499038c4857d9151dc50af415c5e524e394c1a97"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pilot error was to blame in the April 2006 crash of an unmanned aircraft, despite the fact no pilot was on board, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its accident report issued Tuesday -- the NTSB's first-ever investigation into an incident involving a drone. A drone similar to this one crashed near Nogales, Arizona, on April 25, 2006. The agency also issued 22 safety recommendations for unmanned aircraft. It \"is an indication of the scope of the safety issues these unmanned aircraft are bringing into the National Airspace System,\" NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said in a statement. The unmanned aerial vehicles have been touted as a possible solution to several issues facing the United States, from drug trafficking to illegal border crossings. But, as the NTSB report shows, integrating them into the nation's airspace raises questions regarding their safety status -- and whether they should be held to a different standard than manned aircraft. On April 25, 2006, a turboprop-powered Predator B, operated on a surveillance mission by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, crashed in a sparsely-populated area near Nogales, Arizona. There were no injuries, but the aircraft, which has a 66-foot wingspan, was \"substantially damaged,\" the NTSB said. The probable cause of the accident was the failure of the pilot -- who was operating the aircraft remotely -- to follow checklist procedures when switching operational control from a console that had locked up, the agency said. That resulted in the fuel valve's being inadvertently shut off and a total loss of engine power to the aircraft. Another cause, the NTSB said, was the lack of a flight instructor in the ground control station. But in a meeting Tuesday, the board highlighted areas of interest including the design and certification of unmanned aircraft; pilot qualification and training; and audio records of all UAV operations-related communications, among others. The Federal Aviation Administration doesn't require a pilot's certificate to operate a drone. \"This investigation has raised questions about the different standards for manned and unmanned aircraft and the safety implications of this discrepancy,\" Rosenker said in the statement. \"Why, for example, were numerous unresolved lock-ups of the pilot's control console even possible while such conditions would never be tolerated in the cockpit of a manned aircraft?\" The pilot, the NTSB noted, was not proficient in emergency procedures. \"The pilot is still the pilot, whether he is at a remote console or on the flight deck,\" Rosenker said. \"We need to make sure that the system by which pilots are trained and readied for flight is rigorous and thorough. With the potential for thousands of these unmanned aircraft in use years from now, the standards for pilot training need to be set high to ensure that those on the ground and other users of the airspace are not put in jeopardy.\" Also, there is no equivalent of a cockpit voice recorder at a pilot console, the board said, and the pilot's communication with air traffic controllers and others was not recorded. The NTSB has recommended the FAA require all conversations, including telephone conversations, between pilots of unmanned aircraft and others be recorded and retained. Other recommendations, sent to the FAA and Customs and Border Protection, include: . \u2022 Requiring all unmanned aircraft operations to report incidents of equipment malfunctions that affect safety to the FAA , and require analysis of the data. \u2022 Requiring pilots be trained on the expected performance and flight path of an unmanned aircraft any time communication with the aircraft is lost. \u2022 Identifying and correcting the causes of the lockups in the pilot's control console. \u2022 Requiring that a backup pilot or another person who can provide an equivalent level of safety as a backup pilot be readily available during the operation of a UAV system. Board members also voted to convene a two- to three-day public forum on the safety of UAV operations and investigative procedures. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Agency issues 22 safety recommendations for unmanned aircraft .\nNTSB: The pilot is still the pilot, whether he is at a remote console or on board .\nAgency: Probable cause of 2006 drone crash was pilot error .","id":"3ce57896517a1f883ff50b27609b21871804647d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Winter travelers trek thousands of miles to the frozen north each year seeking the sky's \"dancing lights,\" which provoke awe, excitement and, some say, sex. CNN iReporter Bruce Barrett shot this rare red aurora in Canada's Whitehorse, Yukon. Scientists call the natural phenomenon aurora borealis: cascading beams of greens, yellows, blues, purples or reds -- which paint a breathtaking backdrop across the wilderness and attract thousands of tourists annually. \"Usually it starts slowly as kind of a hazy greenish color -- like a mist -- building up in frequency dancing across the sky ... and to me that's religion,\" said photographer Dave Brosha of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, who's seen more than 100 Canadian auroras. \"It's just one of the most incredible feelings a person can have -- sitting there watching that.\" To the west in Canada's Yukon province, tour operator Torsten Eder likes to tell a story about a marriage that was forged under the glowing curtains of light. See spectacular photos of auroras \u00bb . \"I had one guy from Mexico, and he wanted to surprise his girlfriend by proposing marriage with a ring under the northern lights,\" said Eder from his office in Whitehorse. \"We got lucky and the lights were visible ... so our guest went down on his knee and proposed to his girlfriend and she was totally blown away. The funny thing was -- she wouldn't wear gloves for the first three days -- so she could show the ring off.\" The otherworldly lights also have provided inspiration for almost sacred pilgrimages, Eder said. Guests who said they were going blind or battling cancer told him they wanted to view the auroras at least once in their lives. \"It puts enormous pressure on us,\" said Eder. \"You can't guarantee that the lights will be visible because it's a natural phenomenon.\" The display is generally visible at least every three days, he said. Scientists say the northern lights are created by the sun's super hot atmosphere, which blasts particles into the protective magnetic field surrounding the Earth. The magnetic field forces the particles toward the north and south poles. About 60 to 200 miles overhead, the particles bump into the Earth's atmosphere and become electrically \"excited\" -- throwing off light of various colors, said Prof. Dirk Lummerzheim of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. \"The forecast for this winter is a continued quiet sun, in general,\" he said. The sun is on the upswing of an 11-year cycle. \"Maybe we will have a few periods once a month where the aurora can get a little bit more active.\" Although the phenomenon occurs around the clock, the lights are only visible at night. The best time of year to see them is during winter, when darkness in the upper latitudes stretches up to 24 hours. See map where northern lights can be seen \u00bb . Eder's Northern Tales tour company picks up guests at their hotels about 10 p.m. and takes them to an area about 20 minutes outside Whitehorse's city lights. There, travelers can enjoy nature's colorful show from a heated, walled tent until around 2 a.m. \"We almost take it for granted sometimes,\" said Brosha. \"No matter how many times you've seen the aurora borealis -- when they really dance, when you get some really unique colors -- you just kind of say, 'Wow, I'm so lucky to see that.' \" A warmer way to enjoy the northern lights is a shallow, natural rock lake at Chena Hot Springs outside Fairbanks, Alaska, which allows bikini-clad guests to enjoy the lights in temperatures of 106 degrees Fahrenheit. \"I mean, honestly, it's the best way to see them,\" said spokeswoman Denise Ferree. \"Because you're warm and toasty and you're watching the northern lights above.\" Chena's owner, Bernie Karl -- who's often as colorful as the lights themselves -- said the auroras sometimes spark the libido. \"Having sex under the northern lights -- it's an awesome experience,\" Karl said. \"Have you ever been out in nature at 35 below zero with northern lights bouncing over your head and your bare ass? Well, you need to try it.\" If the hot springs aren't for you, Chena also takes guests up a nearby mountain to observe the auroras from heated Mongolian-style tents called yurts. The resort prides itself on its environmental initiative, which has led to the generation of clean electricity from geothermal heat produced by the hot spring. \"Iceland is probably one of the best places to see the northern lights,\" said Reykjavik tour guide Arni Magnusson of AM Tours. That's especially true as the U.S. dollar gains value against the Icelandic krona -- offering some attractive hotel and shopping opportunities. Guests are picked up at their hotel for a 20-minute drive outside the city to view the lights from higher elevations. \"People say they feel closer to Earth and to the forces of nature,\" said Magnusson. \"The lights totally overwhelm them.\" Dan Hershman's life changed dramatically after he photographed a spectacular aurora in Washington state in 2000, which was a peak year in the solar cycle. \"These things are just dynamic and they seem just alive and organic,\" said Hershman, who at the time was a high school music teacher. The photo was unique enough to attract the attention of NASA, which ran the image on its Web site, Hershman said. This spurred his interest in photography and soon, as Hershman put it, \"my hobby became my profession and my profession became my hobby.\" Now Hershman performs as principal bassoonist in local orchestras as a hobby -- and he teaches high school photography in Federal Way, Washington, as his profession. The trick to photographing the auroras, Hershman said, is choosing to take the picture when the lights aren't moving as much. \"Otherwise it looks like nothing but a big blob,\" he said. IF YOU GO . WHITEHORSE . Activities . Yukon Brewing Company offers tours of this award-winning brewery, the home of such libations as Espresso Stout, made with local espresso from Midnight Sun Coffee Roaster. Mac's Fireweed, an independent bookstore and a Whitehorse institution, offers a nice selection of magazines and a huge catalogue of book titles. Northern Tales tour company picks up guests at their hotels and takes them a short distance outside Whitehorse to view the auroras from heated, walled tents. Stay: . Just north of Whitehorse, see the northern lights from Takhini Hot Springs, which offers cabins and camping facilities. Two bed and breakfasts come recommended by Whitehorse residents: Casey's and Hawkins House, at 867-668-7638. YELLOWKNIFE . Activities . Enjoy warm tepees as well as food and drinks while viewing the northern lights at Aurora Village, which gets up to 20 hours of darkness in the winter months. FAIRBANKS . Stay: . Chena Hot Springs resort offers accommodations and viewing tours of the northern lights. Locals also recommend Mount Aurora Fairbanks Creek lodge for those seeking views of the spectacular lights. ALASKA WILDERNESS . Stay: . If you're looking for a trip deeper into the wilderness, Tolovana Hot Springs offers views of the auroras about 45 miles from Fairbanks -- accessible by trail or plane only. Northern lights tours: . Travel to the Brooks mountain range above the Arctic Circle can be arranged with Out in Alaska at 877-374-9958. Northern Alaska Tour Co. offers wilderness tours to see the auroras in Coldfoot. ICELAND . Northern lights tours: . Visitors interested in guided views of the northern lights can contact AM Tours at 011-354-898-6581. Activities: . Enjoy the hot springs and spa facilities at the famous Blue Lagoon. Find general information on touring Iceland at Iceland Travel.","highlights":"Sex under northern lights is an awesome experience, says resort owner .\nPeople diagnosed with terminal or blinding diseases seek out aurora borealis .\nBrilliant green, blue \"dancing lights\" inspire marriage proposals, says guide .\nSpectacular phenomenon occurs when solar particles hit near Earth's poles .","id":"910e34d1b576723f54f87c0b885d922fd4f90b77"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Do not go backstage at Cirque Du Soleil. It will only hurt your self-esteem. Anthony Gatto says he's been in training since he was 3 years old and performing since he was 8. In the performers' tent for the touring show \"Kooza,\" there are the chiseled men catapulting their partners onto each other's shoulders from a giant see-saw and the woman doing contortions on children's-sized blocks. You can only take so much of this before your ego needs normal. Normal might be that man in the corner, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers throwing balls in the air. How hard can that be? Your self-worth will be quickly dashed again when the man picks up a soccer ball, bounces it on his head and jumps rope at the same time. Moments later, he's juggling six or seven orange rings (they move so fast, it looks like a blur) and then does a pirouette -- while all the rings are in the air -- and then catches them on his arm. Watch the juggler in action \u00bb . You could say Anthony Gatto went into the family business. But his stepfather wasn't a farmer or a doctor. He was a juggler. \"By the time I was 8, I was entered into a juggling competition, and incidentally, that was the same competition that Patrick Dempsey, the actor, was in,\" Gatto said. \"He used to be a juggler. We competed against each other. I took first, he took second. Now he's a big actor and here I am, juggling.\" Gatto is being modest. In fact, he didn't audition for \"Kooza.\" The show went looking for him. \"I have right now 11 juggling world records,\" he said. \"Some of them I've held since I was 16 years old and they have yet to be beaten.\" Imagine a wearable disco ball. That's not too different from the form-fitting outfit Gatto wears onstage. Backstage, it's a long-sleeve T-shirt, gym shorts and sneakers. But there's nothing casual about his daily routine. He typically works out and practices six to seven hours a day to prepare for his 10 minutes in the spotlight. In fact, he is practicing until moments before he runs on stage. \"Juggling is something that is so delicate, you have to have a really good feel, you can lose that in minutes,\" he said. \"There are so many variables that can affect you. If it's a humid day, it's a very difficult task to get through the number that I do. The wind, if there's any air current in there and you're expecting to catch a ring and it blows an inch, you miss it.\" But he rarely misses -- at least not in his act. This performer, who relies on coordination and concentration 350 shows a year, admits his most embarrassing moment has nothing to do with balls, clubs or rings. It's acting that trips him up. \"I have fallen as the delivery-man character in the show. In fact, I have done this a few times,\" he said. \"I like to think it's because I put my heart and soul into the characters I'm portraying.\" Surrounded by all this talent and precision, there is some comfort in knowing one of the best -- maybe the best juggler in the world -- is also a klutz.","highlights":"Cirque Du Soleil's \"Kooza\" went looking for juggler with 11 world records .\nAnthony Gatto beat actor Patrick Dempsey in juggling competition .\nGatto practices six to seven hours to prepare for 10 minutes on stage .\nSays humidity and wind can affect his routine .","id":"2d047b05a2f34812c5686a5f890bd506b44854d2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists have discovered the first confirmed Earthlike planet outside our solar system, they announced Wednesday. An artist's impression shows what the planet may look like in close orbit with its sun. \"This is the first confirmed rocky planet in another system,\" astronomer Artie Hatzes told CNN, contrasting the solid planet with gaseous ones like Jupiter and Saturn. But \"Earthlike\" is a relative term. The planet's composition may be similar to that of Earth, but its environment is more like a vision of hell, the project's lead astronomer said. It is so close to the star it orbits \"that the place may well look like Dante's Inferno, with a probable temperature on its 'day face' above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) and minus-328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius) on its night face,\" said Didier Queloz of Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, the project leader. Hatzes, explaining that one side of the body is always facing the star and the other side always faces away, said the side \"facing the sun is probably molten. The other side could actually have ice\" if there is water on the planet. \"We think it has no atmosphere to redistribute the heat,\" Hatzes told CNN from Barcelona, Spain, where he is attending the \"Pathways Towards Habitable Planets\" conference. The astronomers were stunned to find a rocky planet so near a star, he said. \"We would have never dreamed you would find a rocky planet so close,\" he said. \"Its year is less than one of our days.\" The planet, known as CoRoT-7b, was detected early last year, but it took months of observation to determine that it had a composition roughly similar to Earth's, the European Southern Observatory said in a statement. Astronomers were able to measure the dimensions of the planet by watching as it passed in front of the star it orbits, then carried out 70 hours of study of the planet's effect on its star to infer its weight. With that information in hand, they were able to calculate its density -- and were thrilled with what they found, Hatzes said. \"What makes this exciting is you compare the density of this planet to the planets in our solar system, it's only Mercury, Venus and Earth that are similar,\" Hatzes, of the Thuringer observatory in Germany, told CNN. They were helped by the fact that CoRoT-7b is relatively close to Earth -- about 500 light years away, in the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. \"It's in our solar neighborhood,\" Hatzes said. \"The thing that made it easier is it's relatively close, so it's relatively bright. If this star was much much farther away, we wouldn't have been able to do these measurements.\" At about five times Earth's mass (though not quite twice as large in circumference), it is the smallest planet ever spotted outside our solar system. It also has the fastest orbit. The planet whizzes around its star more than seven times faster than Earth moves, and is 23 times closer to the star than Mercury is to our sun. The planet was first detected early in 2008 by the CoRoT satellite, a 30-centimeter space telescope launched by the European Space Agency in December 2006, specifically with the mission of detecting rocky planets outside the solar system. At least 42 scientists at 17 institutions on three continents worked on the project. They are publishing their findings in a special issue of the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal on October 22 as \"The CoRoT-7 Planetary System: Two Orbiting Super-Earths.\"","highlights":"The planet, known as CoRoT-7b, was detected early last year .\nIt took months to determine that it had a composition roughly similar to Earth's .\nThe planet is about five times more massive than Earth .\nAstronomer: It is so close to the star it orbits that it may \"look like Dante's Inferno\"","id":"8e960b16c8084499766e95e286b19e7fec3f188c"} -{"article":"Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- A defense lawyer for Amanda Knox made an impassioned plea to the jury Wednesday as the high-profile case neared its conclusion. Knox is the American student accused of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, at the villa they shared in Italy. \"We suffer at the memory of Meredith. But we look at the future of Amanda,\" Luciano Ghirga said in his defense summation. \"Meredith was my friend,\" he quoted Knox as saying, rejecting the notion that she hated her roommate, who was fatally stabbed in November 2007. Prosecutors say Kercher died during a twisted sex game in which Knox taunted Kercher, and two men -- Knox's then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 26, and acquaintance Rudy Guede -- sexually assaulted her. The prosecution says a knife found in Sollecito's house had Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's on the blade, among other pieces of evidence. But Ghirga rejected the accusations against Knox on Wednesday. He attacked the way police and prosecutors had treated the defendant, giving them a symbolic \"red card\" -- a referee's sign in soccer that a player is being expelled from the game for breaking the rules. Ghirga concluded an emotional oration -- sobbing as he came to the end -- by asking the judge and jury to acquit Knox, because her mother asked him to request it, because her family asked it. Knox's father, Curt, said Wednesday she had been a victim of \"character assassination,\" and expressed hope she would be found not guilty. Members of Kercher's family have declined repeated CNN requests for comment on the case. But prosecutor Giuliano Mignini accused the defense of \"lynching\" the Italian police who worked on the case. He defended the work of the police and the credibility of the prosecution witnesses as he responded to Ghirga's arguments Wednesday. And he called again for life sentences for Knox and Sollecito if they are found guilty. Italy does not have the death penalty. The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday, after the prosecution completes its summary. Another Knox attorney on Tuesday said the prosecution's theory doesn't fit the facts of the case and there is not sufficient evidence to find her guilty. Calling Knox a victim herself, Carlo della Vedova said the police had rushed to judgment following the murder, leaving Knox to fend off a myriad of false media reports regarding the crime. The lawyer showed photos published in the media, purportedly showing the crime scene, that weren't authentic -- including a photo of the bathroom -- and said false allegations and rumors about Knox's character created a bias from the start. Della Vedova also questioned the change in what prosecutor Mignini said was the motive for the murder. In preliminary hearings, Mignini argued Knox, Sollecito and Guede slashed Kercher's throat during a sexual misadventure as the two men vied for Knox's attention. In recent days, Mignini has focused more on what he says was a hatred between the two roommates. Defense lawyers have staunchly disagreed, claiming the two women were friends. Ghirga on Wednesday said the two had gone to a chocolate festival together days before Kercher was killed. The defense has argued that Guede, who was convicted in a separate fast-track trial and is currently appealing his conviction, was the sole killer. The defense has said there is no evidence tying the three suspects together or proving they planned Kercher's murder. Della Vedova also focused during closing arguments on the lack of evidence tying Knox to the crime scene. As defense lawyers have throughout the entire trial, he cast doubt on DNA evidence that prosecutors claim shows Knox's DNA on the handle of the alleged murder weapon. The defense has said the knife doesn't match Kercher's wounds or an imprint of the knife left on a bedsheet, and the DNA sample is too small to be conclusive. During the first day of closing arguments for Knox's lawyers, della Vedova stressed to the eight-member jury that they should also keep church law in mind as they decide whether to find Knox and Sollecito guilty or not guilty. He told the jury they needed to be \"morally certain of their decision.\" \"If you have the minimum of doubts, you must absolve this young girl -- a girl that is merely 22 years old,\" he said. Knox and Sollecito, who both deny any role in the murder, have been jailed for more than two years since they were arrested on charges of murder and sexual violence. Their trial began in January. CNN's Mallory Simon contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Prosecutor accuses defense of \"lynching\" police who worked on case .\nDefense lawyer for Amanda Knox becomes emotional during Wednesday's closing argument .\nLuciano Ghirga sobs as he tells the jury Knox is innocent and has been mistreated .\nKnox, an American student, is accused of murdering her British roommate in Italy .","id":"cd2926d4561e44c5a2edcdee17ca16a59ecda027"} -{"article":"Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- CNN takes an in-depth look at South Korea, including how the nation is working to become a brand leader on an international scale and on how the nation is recovering from the global economic recession. Included in the coverage are looks at architecture, cars, cuisine and the business climate in the East Asian nation. In addition to its \"Eye on South Korea\" coverage, CNN International's interview program \"Talk Asia\" will feature Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung starting Wednesday and K-pop icon and actor Rain. Among the highlights of the coverage has been South Korea's first lady offering her tips on her nation's cuisine to CNN anchor and correspondent Kristie Lu Stout. CNN's Kyung Lah also takes a look at hour South Korea is revamping its economy to environmental-themed businesses.","highlights":"CNN's \"Eye on South Korea\" programming focuses on East Asian nation .\nIssues covered range from business to lifestyle topics .\nSouth Korean first lady provides personal look at nation's cuisine .","id":"f0395272de67b4be699318a5291365a3df9f3466"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A celebrity gossip Web site has caught Maria Shriver a third time apparently violating California's law against using a cell phone while driving. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says \"swift action\" will be taken on wife Maria Shriver's driving \"violations.\" Web site TMZ posted a 17-second video Tuesday showing the California first lady apparently speaking into a cell phone while turning a corner in Brentwood in a black SUV. She puts the phone down part way through the video, but it's not clear whether she did so because she had finished her conversation or because she noticed cameras following her. The site also photographed Shriver allegedly chatting while driving on Sunday and on June 12. Shriver's husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, last year supported and signed into law a ban on using handheld communication devices while driving. Enforcement of the ban began July 1, 2008; it carries a $20 fine for a first violation; $50 for each subsequent offense. A similar law banning texting while driving took effect January 1 this year. Watch Shriver driving while on her cell phone . By the end of September, the California Highway Patrol had issued tickets for about 150,000 cell phone infractions, said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety. No one keeps track of infractions cited by county and local departments, he said. See where laws limit cell phone use in cars \u00bb . Shriver has not been cited. In Los Angeles County, where Brentwood is, the Superior Court has set the cost at about $93 for the first ticket and $201 for the next one, meaning Shriver would owe at least $300 in fines and court fees had she been caught by police, CNN affiliate KTLA-TV reported. On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger sent a Twitter message to TMZ editor Harvey Levin: \"Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There's going to be swift action.\" What that action might entail was not specified. Shriver on Wednesday issued an apology: . \"I'm sorry,\" she said in a statement. \"I will be donating my favorite old cell phone to my Women's Conference partner Verizon through their HopeLine program that helps domestic violence shelters. I invite anyone else who wants to recycle their old phone to join me. That's my version of swift action with a higher purpose.\" The traffic office referred questions about Shriver to the governor's office, which declined to comment. \"We don't really think that hand-held bans have a whole lot of impact,\" said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association in Washington. The association urges drivers not to use phones, including hands-free devices, while driving, but does not support laws banning them, he said. The attention to Shriver \"alludes to a bigger problem, and that's the fact that everybody does it,\" Adkins said. \"Not only are public officials doing it, but we have to educate the highway safety community. ... Cops frequently are on their cell phones when they drive. \"The Shriver case really underscores the scope of the problem. We have a lot of educating to do.\" Shriver's most recent alleged violations come on the heels of AAA Northern California's \"Heads Up Driving Week,\" during which the auto club urged motorists to get in the habit of driving without distractions such as cell phones, fast food and tuning the stereo. \"We hope that by driving distraction-free for a week, people can pick up the habit for life,\" AAA spokesman Matt Skryja said in a news release. Seven states and the District of Columbia ban all handheld cell phone use by drivers. Several other states allow localities to set their own limits on cell phone use.","highlights":"NEW: Shriver apologizes and says she will donate her cell phone to charity .\nCalifornia Highway Patrol issues 150,000 cell phone tickets in first year .\nGossip site catches Shriver apparently violating cell phone law; she's not cited .\nCalifornia first lady's gaffes point to bigger problem, safety advocate says .","id":"4c9b8420b4581428513e9404e09db12d98279f90"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manager Jose Mourinho was sent off as Italian leaders Inter Milan crashed to a 2-1 defeat at title hopefuls Juventus on Saturday night. Second-placed AC Milan are now four points adrift of their city rivals after a 3-0 home crushing of Sampdoria, who remained in fifth. Ten-man Juve went third, five points behind Inter, after ending the defending champions' eight-match unbeaten run in Serie A. Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo was credited with the 20th-minute opening goal in Turin as he deflected in a free-kick from compatriot Diego, and Mourinho was ordered from the dugout following his protestations about the foul being awarded in the first place. Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o leveled six minutes later with a header from Dejan Stankovic's cross, but new Italy international Claudio Marchisio gave the home side victory in the 58th minute after goalkeeper Julio Cesar blocked a shot by midfielder Mohamed Sissoko. Melo was sent off with three minutes left for his second yellow card after aiming an elbow at Mario Balotelli, who was also booked for his theatrical reaction. The defeat was a blow to Inter's confidence ahead of Wednesday's Champions League showdown with Russia's Rubin Kazan at the San Siro, with the winner earning a place in the knockout stages. AC Milan scored all three goals in the first half as striker Marco Borriello, who used to play for Sampdoria's city rivals Genoa, headed the opener in the first minute from Ronaldinho's cross. The Brazilian was in fine form, and also set up the second goal for Clarence Seedorf in the 21st minute as he threaded a neat pass to the veteran Dutch midfielder. Ronaldinho's compatriot Alexandre Pato made it 3-0 just two minutes later with his seventh goal of the season, netting at the second attempt after goalkeeper Luca Castellazzi blocked his initial effort following a header on by Borriello. It was Milan's fifth successive victory, with coach Leonardo taking Ronaldinho off at halftime as a precaution due to a slight knee problem ahead of Tuesday's Champions League trip to FC Zurich, which will determine whether the Rossoneri qualify for the knockout stages. Sampdoria slumped to a third defeat in a week, having been knocked out of the Italian Cup by lowly Livorno in midweek following the embarrassing 3-0 derby defeat to Genoa last weekend.","highlights":"Jose Mourinho sent off as Italian leaders Inter Milan lose 2-1 at Juventus .\nManager ordered from dugout for his protests following the opening goal by Juve .\nThird-placed Juventus are now five points behind the defending champions .\nSecond-placed AC Milan are four points behind their rivals after beating Sampdoria 3-0 .","id":"4d9208f19f49d79953f1b3f3844cc665df046a22"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With all of the recent deadly storms in the news, it may seem has though this year as been more active than a normal year. Since September 1 we have seen eight tropical cyclones, five of which became typhoons, two reaching Super Typhoon status, the strongest classification of tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific. A Philippines scientist points to a screen monitoring Tropical Storm Parma and Typhoon Melor. But when we look at the numbers, 2009 has actually been slightly below average. So far we have seen 19 tropical storms in the Western Pacific, which is slightly behind the pace needed to reach the yearly average of 27. Named storms, however, are a notoriously poor metric for measuring the ferocity of tropical seasons. Take this year in the North Atlantic for instance. Yesterday, Tropical Storm Henri became the eighth named storm, coming only a week after the National Hurricane Center would normally name the eighth storm on an average year. So while 2009 may contain an average number of storms, no one will argue that 2009 has so far been a dud of a hurricane season in the Atlantic. This is largely due to the fact a majority of the storms so far this season have been weak, short-lived, and not made landfall (Tropical Storm Grace did not even last one day). A better way to measure hurricane and typhoon seasons is with Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), a surprisingly simple mathematic calculation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a U.S. scientific agency that studies oceans and the atmosphere, uses ACE to approximate the energy contained in each cyclone. ACE is continuously monitored all around the globe by Ryan Maue, a doctoral student at Florida State University, and according to Maue's numbers the West Pacific is 20 percent below average for the season. For comparison, the North Atlantic is 50 percent below average for the year. Go here to see Maue's research . Despite the fact that 2009 has been below average for the season, the past month has been remarkable, with five of the eight storms making direct landfall in Asia. Typhoon Melor made landfall in central Japan early Thursday. In the Philippines, people are still recovering after two typhoons hit the nation in less than two weeks. Typhoon Parma made landfall last weekend, killing at least 16. Filipinos were still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which hit the country in late September. Hundreds of people were killed from that storm, primarily in the Philippines and Vietnam. Earlier in the summer, more than 600 people died in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot struck in August. Also in August, Typhoon Etau killed more than a dozen in Taiwan after it brought flash floods and landslides. What is behind this recent uptick in activity and why are all the storms seemingly coming at once, and late in the season? The answer may be El Nino, which refers to a periodic change in the atmosphere and ocean in the Pacific. During El Nino, the waters in the central and eastern Pacific are warmer than normal, and the effects on global weather can be drastic and far-reaching. According to Maue, we see more cyclones later in the season during El Nino years in the Western Pacific, and they tend to form farther east. With the warmer sea surface temperatures during an El Nino event, this would allow these storms more time over open water to grow into large and powerful typhoons. In fact, we tend to see more \"Super Typhoons\" during El Nino years, and this is true again this year, as Choi-Wan and Melor both reached Super Typhoon status. El Nino also is a likely culprit for the inactivity in the North Atlantic, since El Nino can cause more wind shear in the upper atmosphere, a condition that limits the ability of Tropical Cyclones to survive.","highlights":"Spate of deadly storms have hit East Asia in recent weeks .\nStatistics show number of storms in Western Pacific in 2009 is below average .\nEl Nino phenomenon likely culprit behind recent spate of Asia-Pacific storms .","id":"9f31767eb4f641940ea29960cff93657e9a1396b"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Six days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday and challenged U.S. lawmakers to tear down other walls. \"Today's generation needs to prove that it can meet the challenges of the 21st century. In a sense, we are able to tear down walls of today,\" she said. What that means, Merkel said, is \"creating freedom and security, creating prosperity and justice. And it means protecting our planet.\" Merkel, the first German chancellor to address a joint meeting of Congress, emphasized the need for an agreement on global warming. \"Icebergs are melting in the Arctic. In Africa, people become refugees because their environment has been destroyed,\" she said. \"We need an agreement on one objective: Global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius.\" She said she hopes that agreement will be reached at a the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month. Merkel also touched on the global financial crisis, saying that the \"near collapse of the markets has shown what happens when there is no underpinning order.\" \"A globalized economy needs a global order ... a global framework of rules,\" she said. \"Without global rules and transparency and supervision, we will not gain more freedom, but rather risk the abuse of freedom and thus risk instability.\" Merkel also recalled her years in East Germany before the wall fell. The United States, \"the land of unlimited opportunity was for me, for a long time, impossible to reach,\" she said. \"The wall, barbed wire and the order to shoot at those who tried to leave limited my access to the free world,\" she said. Merkel said she and her countrymen owed the United States for its friendship and support. \"To put it in just one sentence, I know, we Germans know, how much we owe to you, our American friends, and I personally shall never ever forget this,\" she said. Earlier, President Obama welcomed Merkel and thanked her for her country's \"sacrifice\" in Afghanistan. He also called her a leader on the issue of climate change. He said her opportunity to speak to the joint meeting of Congress was a \"great honor.\" \"It is, I think, a very appropriate honor that's been bestowed on Chancellor Merkel,\" he said. In 1957, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer addressed the House and Senate separately, Merkel said.","highlights":"Angela Merkel is first German chancellor to address a joint meeting of Congress .\nShe stressed protecting the planet, need for an agreement on global warming .\nMerkel: Near collapse of the markets shows what happens when there is no order .","id":"79c29b3267e43bc0fdb2388878d9e70f8122296a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- He got a standing ovation before the orchestra even played a single note. Gustavo Dudamel has been compared to the legendary Leonard Bernstein by one critic. For weeks now, anticipation has been growing for the arrival of fiery young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel to take over the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the crowd couldn't wait to roar its approval at his arrival. Dudamel, 28, engenders a passion among music lovers that is entirely new to the world of classical music. Tickets for his Saturday debut as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic disappeared within minutes -- the fastest sellout in the history of the 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl. \"He is a phenomenon,\" said Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times music critic. \"He generates excitement the likes of which hasn't come around in a very, very long time -- maybe since Leonard Bernstein.\" Watch the exciting Dudamel wield the baton \u00bb . Swed was in the audience two years ago when Dudamel conducted the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, delivering a reading of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony that left fans delirious. \"I haven't seen that kind of reaction from a crowd since I saw the Beatles at Dodger Stadium,\" Swed said. Dudamel's face has been a common sight for months in Los Angeles. His billboards look down on freeway commuters. He adorns city buses. At the famous Hollywood hot dog stand Pink's, there is even a dog named in his honor -- the \"Dude Dog,\" piled high with jalapeno peppers, guacamole and tortilla chips. While it's not exactly Venezuelan cuisine, in Los Angeles, there can be no surer sign that the conductor known as \"The Dude\" has arrived. So where did Dudamel get this musical magic? He said at least a part of his talent is inherited. \"I started studying music when I was 4,\" he said. \"I wanted to play trombone like my father.\" Soon young Gustavo entered into El Sistema, Venezuela's state-financed music education program. Hundreds of thousands of children have received instruments and music instruction through the nation's massive system of youth orchestras. \"You cannot imagine,\" said Dudamel, \"how it changes the life of a kid if you put a violin or a cello or a flute [in his hand]. You feel you have your world. You have your life there, and it changes your life. This happened to me.\" As music director of the philharmonic, Dudamel said he hopes to spread a little of the El Sistema magic in Los Angeles. He already has organized one youth orchestra in the run-down neighborhoods of south Los Angeles. Those music students opened for the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. The concert also featured student musicians playing alongside jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez and bluesman Taj Mahal rounded out an eclectic bill designed to pull in a broad cross-section of music lovers. But it was Dudamel and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that brought the crowd to its feet at the concert's end. It was a promising beginning for a man many are hailing as the savior of classical music. They hope Dudamel can bring a whole new audience to symphonic music, and believe the Los Angeles Philharmonic is the perfect podium for the young maestro. \"He fits in with this town in a lot of ways,\" Swed said. \"Obviously being Spanish-speaking in a city where the majority of people either speak Spanish or understand some Spanish ... you know he fits in. The youth culture? He is young. He is also great, which doesn't hurt.\"","highlights":"Gustavo Dudamel, known as \"The Dude,\" brings Beatles-like frenzy to Los Angeles .\nThe Venezuelan, 28, is the new conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic .\nHis Saturday debut sold out 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl faster than anyone ever .\nLos Angeles Times music critic calls Dudamel \"a phenomenon\"","id":"51fc1bf03a2acf0ea60c799c648e8e42a9b522c9"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Like most people, I'd given some thought to what meat actually is, but until I became a father and faced the prospect of having to make food choices on someone else's behalf, there was no urgency to get to the bottom of things. I'm a novelist and never had it in mind to write nonfiction. Frankly, I doubt I'll ever do it again. But the subject of animal agriculture, at this moment, is something no one should ignore. As a writer, putting words on the page is how I pay attention. If the way we raise animals for food isn't the most important problem in the world right now, it's arguably the No. 1 cause of global warming: The United Nations reports the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. It's the No. 1 cause of animal suffering, a decisive factor in the creation of zoonotic diseases like bird and swine flu, and the list goes on. It is the problem with the most deafening silence surrounding it. Even the most political people, the most thoughtful and engaged, tend not to \"go there.\" And for good reason. Going there can be extremely uncomfortable. Food is not just what we put in our mouths to fill up; it is culture and identity. Reason plays some role in our decisions about food, but it's rarely driving the car. We need a better way to talk about eating animals, a way that doesn't ignore or even just shruggingly accept things like habits, cravings, family and history but rather incorporates them into the conversation. The more they are allowed in, the more able we will be to follow our best instincts. And although there are many respectable ways to think about meat, there is not a person on Earth whose best instincts would lead him or her to factory farming. My book, \"Eating Animals,\" addresses factory farming from numerous perspectives: animal welfare, the environment, the price paid by rural communities, the economic costs. In two essays, I will share some of what I've learned about how the way we raise animals for food affects human health. What we eat and what we are . Why aren't more people aware of, and angry about, the rates of avoidable food-borne illness? Perhaps it doesn't seem obvious that something is amiss simply because anything that happens all the time -- like meat, especially poultry, becoming infected by pathogens -- tends to fade into the background. Whatever the case, if you know what to look for, the pathogen problem comes into terrifying focus. For example, the next time a friend has a sudden \"flu\" -- what folks sometimes misdescribe as \"the stomach flu\" -- ask a few questions. Was your friend's illness one of those \"24-hour flus\" that come and go quickly: retch or crap, then relief? The diagnosis isn't quite so simple, but if the answer to this question is yes, your friend probably didn't have the flu at all. He or she was probably suffering from one of the 76 million cases of food-borne illness the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated happen in America each year. Your friend didn't \"catch a bug\" so much as eat a bug. And in all likelihood, that bug was created by factory farming. Beyond the sheer number of illnesses linked to factory farming, we know that factory farms are contributing to the growth of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens simply because these farms consume so many antimicrobials. We have to go to a doctor to obtain antibiotics and other antimicrobials as a public-health measure to limit the number of such drugs being taken by humans. We accept this inconvenience because of its medical importance. Microbes eventually adapt to antimicrobials, and we want to make sure it is the truly sick who benefit from the finite number of uses any antimicrobial will have before the microbes learn how to survive it. On a typical factory farm, drugs are fed to animals with every meal. In poultry factory farms, they almost have to be. It's a perfect storm: The animals have been bred to such extremes that sickness is inevitable, and the living conditions promote illness. Industry saw this problem from the beginning, but rather than accept less-productive animals, it compensated for the animals' compromised immunity with drugs. As a result, farmed animals are fed antibiotics nontherapeutically: that is, before they get sick. In the United States, about 3 million pounds of antibiotics are given to humans each year, but a whopping 17.8 million pounds are fed to livestock -- at least, that is what the industry claims. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimated that the industry underreported its antibiotic use by at least 40 percent. The group calculated that 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics were fed to chickens, pigs and other farmed animals, counting only nontherapeutic uses. And that was in 2001. In other words, for every dose of antibiotics taken by a sick human, eight doses are given to a \"healthy\" animal. The implications for creating drug-resistant pathogens are quite straightforward. Study after study has shown that antimicrobial resistance follows quickly on the heels of the introduction of new drugs on factory farms. For example, in 1995, when the Food and Drug Administration approved fluoroquinolones -- such as Cipro -- for use in chickens against the protest of the Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of bacteria resistant to this powerful new class of antibiotics rose from almost zero to 18 percent by 2002. A broader study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed an eightfold increase in antimicrobial resistance from 1992 to 1997 and linked this increase to the use of antimicrobials in farmed chickens. As far back as the late 1960s, scientists have warned against the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farmed-animal feed. Today, institutions as diverse as the American Medical Association; the Centers for Disease Control; the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences; and the World Health Organization have linked nontherapeutic antibiotic use on factory farms with increased antimicrobial resistance and called for a ban. Still, the factory farm industry has effectively opposed such a ban in the United States. And, unsurprisingly, the limited bans in other countries are only a limited solution. There is a glaring reason that the necessary total ban on nontherapeutic use of antibiotics hasn't happened: The factory farm industry, allied with the pharmaceutical industry, has more power than public-health professionals. What is the source of the industry's immense power? We give it to them. We have chosen, unwittingly, to fund this industry on a massive scale by eating factory-farmed animal products. And we do so daily. The same conditions that lead at least 76 million Americans to become ill from their food annually and that promote antimicrobial resistance also contribute to the risk of a pandemic. At a remarkable 2004 conference, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) put their tremendous resources together to evaluate the available information on \"emerging zoonotic diseases\" or those spread by humans-to- animals and animals-to-humans. At the time of the conference, H5N1 and SARS topped the list of feared emerging zoonotic diseases. Today, the H1N1 swine flu would be the pathogen enemy No. 1. The scientists distinguished between \"primary risk factors\" for zoonotic diseases and mere \"amplification risk factors,\" which affect only the rate at which a disease spreads. Their examples of primary risk factors were \"change to an agricultural production system or consumption patterns.\" What particular agricultural and consumer changes did they have in mind? First in a list of four main risk factors was \"increasing demand for animal protein,\" which is a way of saying that demand for meat, eggs, and dairy is a \"primary factor\" influencing emerging zoonotic diseases. This demand for animal products, the report continues, leads to \"changes in farming practices.\" Lest we have any confusion about the \"changes\" that are relevant, poultry factory farms are singled out. Similar conclusions were reached by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, which brought together industry experts and experts from the WHO, OIE and USDA. Their 2005 report argued that a major impact of factory farming is \"the rapid selection and amplification of pathogens that arise from a virulent ancestor (frequently by subtle mutation), thus there is increasing risk for disease entrance and\/or dissemination.\" Breeding genetically uniform and sickness-prone birds in the overcrowded, stressful, feces-infested and artificially lit conditions of factory farms promotes the growth and mutation of pathogens. The \"cost of increased efficiency,\" the report concludes, is increased global risk for diseases. Our choice is simple: cheap chicken or our health. Today, the factory farm-pandemic link couldn't be more lucid. The primary ancestor of the recent H1N1 swine flu outbreak originated at a hog factory farm in America's most hog-factory-rich state, North Carolina, and then quickly spread throughout the Americas. It was in these factory farms that scientists saw, for the first time, viruses that combined genetic material from bird, pig and human viruses. Scientists at Columbia and Princeton Universities have actually been able to trace six of the eight genetic segments of the most feared virus in the world directly to U.S. factory farms. Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand, without all the science, that something terribly wrong is happening. We know that it cannot possibly be healthy to raise such grotesque animals in such grossly unnatural conditions. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film. We perhaps know more than we care to admit, keeping it down in the dark places of our memory -- disavowed. When we eat factory-farmed meat, we live on tortured flesh. Increasingly, those sick animals are making us sick. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jonathan Safran Foer.","highlights":"Jonathan Safran Foer: Inhumane way we raise animals for slaughter poisons us all .\nFoer: Factory farming tied to global warming, swine and bird flu, other illnesses .\nHe says animals loaded with antibiotics, live in gruesome conditions .\nSystem driven by food and pharmaceutical industries; Foer asks: Why no outcry?","id":"eab829ef92b6e3c70a2c0dbbffee718a063c979b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The news editor of the Zambian newspaper The Post has gone on trial for allegedly circulating obscene material to politicians, the newspaper states on its Web site. Zambia President Rupiah Banda has branded the childbirth photos pornographic. In early June, Chansa Kabwela wrote to the country's vice president, health minister and several non-governmental organizations to highlight problems in the country's health-care system -- especially the problems pregnant women faced during a strike by health-care workers. In her letter, Kabwela included several photos of a woman giving birth in a parking lot outside a hospital from which she had been turned away, according to Reporters Without Borders. The country's president, Rupiah Banda, branded the photos pornographic and called for Kabwela's arrest and prosecution, according to the press freedom organization. \"Kabwela's arrest is shocking and the grounds are ridiculous,\" the organization said in a statement on its Web site after the arrest. Now the trial into the alleged obscene photos has begun in the Lusaka magistrate's court, the newspaper Web site says. One of the first witnesses, Kenneth Ngosa, a senior private secretary to the vice president, told the court he was immediately disturbed by the pictures he found inside the letter, according to the paper. The Post described the courtroom as \"packed to capacity\" and said \"people from all works of life including musicians and opposition political party members\" had come to support Kabwela. Defense lawyer George Chisanga has asked the court to look into whether the president's order to arrest and prosecute Kabwela could influence the course of justice. A joint statement from several Zambian media organizations, published on The Post's Web site, calls for the government to amend the law on obscenity to clarify what constitutes obscenity and material that can corrupt morals. The statement concedes that the pictures were in bad taste, but notes that they were sent on behalf of a good cause: to end the strike. CNN efforts to obtain comment from both The Post and the Zambian government have been unsuccessful. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, in 2004 the mortality rate of children under 5 years old in Zambia was 182 per 1,000 live births. In the United States, under-5 mortality rate was 8 per 1,000 live births in 2006. Skilled health personnel attended only 43 percent of childbirths in Zambia in 2002, according to the health organization.","highlights":"News editor of Zambian newspaper on trial for circulating obscene material .\nChansa Kabwela sent pictures of a woman giving birth in a parking lot to President .\nShe says she wanted to highlight problems in country's healthcare system .\nPresident Banda branded the images pornographic and had Kabwela arrested .","id":"63f9da9327c1ee87a906133f7d19ef72f55332e5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- There was no mistaking the target: the eight huge cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, sending plumes of steam high into the watery blue sky of the English Midlands. A mix of peaceful protest and direct action took place at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, England. Instead the question in the minds of an estimated 1,000 protestors gathered in the surrounding woods and scrubland was how could they get in and shut it down. Surrounded by electrified fences, coils of razor wire and hundreds of police, this coal-fired power station run by German energy firm E.On was the target of environmental activists campaigning to stop climate change. Organizers of the protest, an amorphous group called the Camp for Climate Action, claim the plant is one of the UK's largest sources of CO2 emissions and had named last weekend's protest, \"The Great Climate Swoop\". \"Climate change is one of the most important and urgent problems facing us,\" one protestor called Emma, told CNN. \"Our politicians are not doing enough. We have to take action.\" \"We need to increase the pressure on [UK prime minister] Gordon Brown until he changes his mind about coal,\" said another called Magoo. \"I wouldn't be here if I thought we couldn't make a difference today.\" Many protestors were upbeat following a recent decision by E.On to shelve plans for a new coal powered power station at Kingsnorth, in southern England, and the site of a similar protest in 2008. E.On told CNN that the decision was \"purely economic\", and \"due to a marked fall in demand for electricity during the recession\", although many activists were claiming it as a victory for them. Determination to act . There was no doubting the activists' dedication. The weekend began peacefully enough with a procession snaking up from the East Midlands Parkway train station accompanied by a pedal-powered sound-system and a band. Several officers told CNN they were glad to be policing this event rather than a local football derby on the same day. Yet over 24-hours police say 57 protestors were arrested and both police and activists were injured in violent scuffles. The protest at Ratcliffe-on-Soar was the latest from a movement that has quickly come to define environmental activism in Britain, mixing elements of the mid-1990s road protest movement with the more targeted, professional approach of groups like Greenpeace and the mass civil disobedience modeled by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Although leaderless and non-hierarchical it has shown determination, organization and direction. There were several families with young children at the protests, as well as individuals of all ages, although the bulk were twenty- and thirty-somethings. While some wore bandanas to hide their faces, others were in dressed as clowns or scarecrows and seemed content to picnic within sight of the plant. Peaceful protest and police . In the spring James Hansen a climate modeler for NASA and prominent scientist lent his support for direct action, telling The Guardian newspaper: \"The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working... I think that peaceful demonstration is not out of order, because we're running out of time.\" The first action by Climate Camp for Climate Action was at Drax coal power station in 2006, followed by Heathrow airport in 2007 and Kingsnorth coal power station in 2008. In 2009 there have already been three events: a protest at the European Climate Exchange in London, to coincide with the G20; a camp on Blackheath, London, in August -- the site of the 1381 Peasant's Revolt - and now the protests at Ratcliffe. All have been characterized by a mix of peaceful protest around a \"camp\" that is intended to model low-carbon living, alongside militant direct action - and an increasingly tense relationship with police. At Kingsnorth a huge police presence carried out over 8,000 searches according to an official report by the National Policing Improvement Agency, which also criticized tactics as \"disproportionate and counterproductive\". The death of Ian Tomlinson after being pushed to the ground by an officer at the G20 protests this April led to a storm of criticism, and seems to have brought about some changes in police tactics -- arresting activists before they act, rather than confronting them in the field. Last week ten people intending to come to Ratcliffe-on-Soar were held by police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass, according to Police. Others have claimed they were phoned and told they would be arrested if they came -- something the police deny. Willing to be arrested . Some of the most dramatic scenes came on Saturday afternoon came when hundreds of protestors mobbed around the perimeter fence on the north side of the plant and attempted to pull it down. Ropes were attached to fence posts, with protestors clasping their hands over them as officers tried to cut the cords with knives and secateurs, as the crowd heaved down the fences. Others climbed up and hung on -- including one man and his young daughter. It was in this moment that a division seemed to emerge between those ready to confront the police head on, and those holding back. Above the few dozen actually at the fence were many more holding back, cheering, but wondering what to do, obviously frightened of being arrested. \"Come down!\" came the cry from one man at the fence. \"This is not a spectator sport!\" But few did. While the movement prides itself on inclusivity, and commitment is welcome at any level, it clearly needs people ready to be arrested. Whether the weekend's protests will inspire more of those who came to greater militancy next time around -- or scare them away - remains to be seen. But as dusk fell on Saturday night and camp was set the protestors were claiming victory -- and the next target was already clear As they packed up tents and sleeping bags the next day after a chilly night under the stars, cell phones chirruped as a message arrived: \"We did it! 24 hrs of truly inspirational action! Fences down, gates blockaded, railway occupied, a camp in the woods. \"Now onwards to Copenhagen!\"","highlights":"Eco activists gathered at power station in UK to protest against climate change .\nCalled \"The Great Climate Swoop\" it was latest direct action by UK eco activists .\nProtestors camped out over weekend, some tried to break into power station .\nEvent revealed difference between peaceful protestors and more militant element .","id":"bd0f6f36b89ed9f8b1f6796f229d320aeaf8b583"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A Swiss diplomat was released from jail Thursday after being arrested on a sex charge, the Iranian media reported. The first secretary of the U.S. Interests section of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran had been in an \"indecent sexual relation\" with an Iranian woman in his car, Iran's Press TV reported, citing Iranian police. Police spotted the car with diplomatic plates in a parking lot and caught the diplomat. The woman was \"improperly dressed and in an obscene situation,\" Press TV said. The \"sexual relation\" occurred after the diplomat, who was not named, promised he would marry the woman, Press TV reported. Both were released on bail. It was not clear what charges were filed against the woman. Press TV said it had contacted the deputy head of the U.S. Interest Section in Tehran, Elizabeth Bucher, but she would not comment on the report. The suspect is a Swiss diplomat who represents the United States in Iran in the absence of a U.S. presence. The United States and Iran have not had full diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution.","highlights":"Diplomat said to have been in \"indecent sexual relation\" with woman in car .\nSwiss embassy staffer was seen with woman \"in an obscene situation\"\nIncident occurred after diplomat promised to marry the woman, reports said .","id":"afc58cd4ea1e59a982e4e1089beb95579517b615"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A crew member aboard a U.S. Navy ship accidentally fired a machine gun into the Polish port city of Gdynia on Wednesday while cleaning the weapon, Navy officials said Friday. Three rounds were fired from an M240 machine gun into the town but no injuries or damage were reported, officials said. The gun, aboard the USS Ramage, a Navy destroyer, is used to defend the ship in close combat. Navy officials said a crew member was cleaning the weapon when it accidentally discharged. The incident happened as the ship was in port after returning from an international exercise in the Baltic Sea. It was preparing to leave later that day, the Navy said. Polish military police boarded the ship to investigate, and Navy officials said the crew of the Ramage fully cooperated. No U.S. sailors were taken into custody by Polish authorities, Navy officials said. There was no immediate word of a U.S. Navy investigation into the incident.","highlights":"Crew member cleaning a machine gun that fires into city of Gdynia .\nNo injuries or damage reported, officials say .\nGun is used to defend ship, USS Ramage, in close combat .","id":"5bb51faf8fff2c2f26b225b41bcc9c47ac332591"} -{"article":"OAKLEY, California (CNN) -- The black box sat inside a cabinet. Philip Garrido had given it to a friend for safekeeping, and that's where the friend kept it. The black box has jacks for plugging in headphones. Philip Garrido claimed it could speak his thoughts. \"He feels he can speak to you and me and everyone else using this box,\" said Garrido's friend and former business client, who spoke on condition of anonymity. \"He was a whack job, but he was a whack job who sounded like he had a really good heart,\" the friend added. Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were arrested last month and charged on more than two dozen counts, including kidnapping and rape. Authorities say the Garridos held Jaycee Dugard, 29, captive for nearly two decades in their backyard. Both have pleaded not guilty. Authorities have said Garrido, a registered sex offender, fathered Dugard's two children. A few days before his arrest, Garrido delivered some documents touting the device to the FBI. The black box is simple, with a handle, a metal switch and jacks for plugging in headphones. But it provides some insight into the mind of 58-year-old Garrido. Garrido told his friend and customers of his printing business that the box allowed him to communicate without speaking. \"He would move his lips and not speak ... and you would be able to hear his voice through the headphones,\" the friend said. Three years ago, Garrido demonstrated the box for clients of his printing business. The clients, some of them at least, went along with his claims for the device. \"I didn't want to tell him you're a kook and you don't know what you're talking about,\" said Tim Allen, who owns a glass shop in Antioch. Even so, Allen and several other former Garrido clients signed declarations saying the device worked. \"People believe in things. I didn't think it was my place to shoot him down,\" Allen said. Garrido so believed in the power of his invention that he wanted to have the device patented, so he solicited the help of a private investigator last year. \"He was speaking normal, dressed normal, acting normal,\" said Ralph Hernandez, who spent 30 years in law enforcement before becoming an independent private investigator. Hernandez said he agreed to help Garrido verify the testimonials that the product actually worked, but he never saw the box. Garrido told him it would be best if he didn't, the investigator said. Hernandez said he provided all the requested information to Garrido. \"This was like the last part before he would take whatever he had had to a lawyer to prepare for patenting,\" Hernandez said. Documents obtained by CNN include a news release that Garrido produced: . \"A Bay area man has made a major discovery concerning the phenomenon of voice,\" the release says, accompanied by a photograph of Garrido. Read the news release . Though it's not known whether Garrido hired a patent attorney, there's no record at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of a patent application or a patent granted to him. But 48 hours before he was arrested, Garrido gave the device to his friend for safekeeping. \"I can only guess that he knew something bad was going to happen,'' he said. Meanwhile, investigators will begin excavating part of the Garridos' California property Monday afternoon after two sheriff's dogs trained to find human remains alerted authorities of possible buried bones, officials said. The search is in the same area as a canine alert last week, said Lt. Chris Orrey of the Hayward, California, police department. Ground-penetrating radar also found an \"anomaly\" in that area, Orrey said Monday. Investigators have already found bone fragments at the property in unincorporated Contra Costa County but have not said whether they are human.","highlights":"Phillip Garrido told people box allowed him to communicate without speaking .\nHe would only move his lips, friend says, and you were supposed to hear his voice .\nGarrido and his wife face felony counts in case of Jaycee Dugard, abducted in 1991 .\nFor more on this story, watch \"Anderson Cooper 360\" Monday at 10 p.m. ET .","id":"ddcce8a6781b46ce51f46a3044268f903d24b4e9"} -{"article":"Forget about 20\/20. \"Perfect\" vision could be redefined by gadgets that give you the eyes of a cyborg. The surface of the eye can be used to measure much of the same data you would get from blood tests. The tech industry calls the digital enrichment of the physical world \"augmented reality.\" Such technology is already appearing in smartphones and toys, and enthusiasts dream of a pair of glasses we could don to enhance our everyday perception. But why stop there? Scientists, eye surgeons, professors and students at the University of Washington have been developing a contact lens containing one built-in LED, powered wirelessly with radio frequency waves. Eventually, more advanced versions of the lens could be used to provide a wealth of information, such as virtual captions scrolling beneath every person or object you see. Significantly, it could also be used to monitor your own vital signs, such as body temperature and blood glucose level. Why a contact lens? The surface of the eye contains enough data about the body to perform personal health monitoring, according to Babak Parvis, a University of Washington professor of bionanotechnology, who is working on the project. \"The eye is our little door into the body,\" Parvis told Wired.com. With gadgets becoming increasingly mobile and powerful, the technology industry is seeing a steady stream of applications devoted to health. A few examples include a cellphone microscope used to diagnose malaria, surgeons honing their skills with the Nintendo Wiimote, and an iPhone app made for diabetes patients to track their glucose levels. A contact lens with augmented-reality powers would take personal health monitoring several steps further, Parvis said, because the surface of the eye can be used to measure much of the data you would read from your blood tests, including cholesterol, sodium, potassium and glucose levels. And that's just the beginning. Because this sort of real-time health monitoring has been impossible in the past, there's likely more about the human eye we haven't yet discovered, Parvis said. And beyond personal health monitoring, this finger-tip sized gadget could one day create a new interface for gaming, social networking and, well, interacting with reality in general. Parvis and his colleagues have been working on their multipurpose lens since 2004. They integrated miniature antennas, control circuits, an LED and radio chips into the lens using optoelectronic components they built from scratch. They hope these components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs to display images in front of the eye. Think words, charts and even photographs. Sounds neat, doesn't it? But the group faces a number of challenges before achieving true augmented eye vision. First and foremost, safety is a prime concern with a device that comes in contact with the eye. To ensure the lens is safe to wear, the group has been testing prototypes on live rabbits, who have successfully worn the lenses for 20 minutes at a time with no adverse effects. However, the lens must undergo much more testing before gaining approval from the Food and Drug Administration. A fundamental challenge this contact lens will face is the task of tracking the human eye, said Blair MacIntyre, an associate professor and director of the augmented environments lab at Georgia Tech College of Computing. MacIntyre is not involved in the contact lens product, but he helped develop an augmented-reality zombie shooter game. \"These developments are obviously very far from being usable, but very exciting,\" MacIntyre said. \"Using them for AR will be very hard. You need to know exactly where the user is looking if you want to render graphics that line up with the world, especially when their eyes saccade (jump around), which our eyes do at a very high rate.\" Given that obstacle, we're more likely to see wearable augmented-reality eyeware in the form of glasses before a contact lens, MacIntyre said. With glasses, we'll only need to track where the glasses are and where the eyes are relative to them as opposed to where the eyes are actually looking. And with a contact lens, it will be difficult to cram heavy computational power into such a small device, even with today's state-of-the-art technologies, Parvis admits. There are many advanced sensors that would amplify the lens' abilities, but the difficulty lies in integrating them, which is why Parvis and his colleagues have had to engineer their own components. And when the contact lens evolves from personal health monitoring into more processor-intense augmented-reality applications, it's more likely it will have to draw its powers from a companion device such as a smartphone, he said. Layar, an Amsterdam-based startup focusing on augmented reality, shares University of Washington's vision of an augmented-reality contact lens. However, Raimo van der Klein, CEO of Layar, said such a device's vision would be limited if it did not work with an open platform supporting every type of data available via the web, such as mapping information, restaurant reviews or even Twitter feeds. Hence, his company has taken a first step by releasing an augmented-reality browser for Google Android smartphones, for which software developers can provide \"layers\" of data for various web services. Van der Klein believes a consumer-oriented, multipurpose lens is just one example of where augmented-reality technology will take form in the near future. He said to expect these applications to move beyond augmenting vision and expand to other parts of the body. \"Imagine audio cues through an earpiece or sneakers vibrating wherever your friends are,\" van der Klein said. \"We need to keep an open eye for future possibilities, and I think a contact lens is just part of it.\" Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Scientists developing contact lens with built-in LED, powered by radio waves .\nMore advanced lens could provide scrolling captions beneath what you see .\nSurface of the eye contains enough data to perform personal health monitoring .\nLens must undergo more testing before gaining approval from FDA .","id":"ddf5ab3e361a5e393e1f104847d5a89f6ce45093"} -{"article":"(Mental Floss) -- People have been eating pickles ever since the Mesopotamians started making them way back in 2400 B.C.E. Here are some even more important things you should know about them. Pickles have gotten credit for health and beauty and winning football games. 1. In the Pacific Islands, natives pickle their foods in holes in the ground lined with banana leaves, and use them as food reserves in case of storms. The pickles are so valuable that they've become part of the courting process, helping a man prove he'll be able to provide for a woman. In Fiji, guys can't get a girl without first showing her parents his pickle pits. 2. Cleopatra claimed pickles made her beautiful. (We guess it had more to do with her genes.) 3. The majority of pickle factories in America ferment their pickles in outdoor vats without lids (leaving them subject to insects and bird droppings). But there's a reason. According to food scientists, the sun's direct rays prevent yeast and mold from growing in the brine. Mental Floss: 8 disastrous product names . 4. In the Delta region of Mississippi, Kool-Aid pickles have become ridiculously popular with kids. The recipe's simple: take some dill pickles, cut them in half, and then soak them in super strong Kool-Aid for more than a week. According to the New York Times, the sweet vinegar snacks are known to sell out at fairs and delicatessens, and generally go for $.50 to a $1. 5. Not everyone loves a sweet pickle. In America, dill pickles are twice as popular as the sweet variety. 6. The Department of Agriculture estimates that the average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year. 7. When the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Dallas Cowboys in sweltering heat in September 2000, many of the players attributed their win to one thing: guzzling down immense quantities of ice-cold pickle juice. Mental Floss: 31 unbelievable high school mascots . 8. If it weren't for pickles, Christopher Columbus might never have \"discovered\" America. In his famous 1492 voyage, Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors to keep them from getting scurvy. He even grew cucumbers during a pit stop in Haiti to restock for the rest of the voyage. 9. Speaking of people who get credit for discovering America, when he wasn't drawing maps and trying to steal Columbus' thunder, Amerigo Vespucci was a well-known pickle-merchant. 10. Napoleon was also a big fan of pickle power. In fact, he put up the equivalent of $250,000 as a prize to whoever could figure out the best way to pickle and preserve foods for his troops. 11. During the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, H. J. Heinz used pick-shaped pins to lure customers to his out of the way booth. By the end of the fair, he'd given out lots of free food, and over 1,000,000 pickle pins. 12. Berrien Springs, Michigan, has dubbed itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World. In early December, they host a parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister, who tosses out fresh pickles to parade watchers. Mental Floss: Curious, bizarre and storied state symbols . For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year, according to Dept. of Agriculture .\nSouthern state treat: Dill pickles soaked for week in Kool-Aid .\nPhilly Eagles players said pickle juice helped them beat Dallas Cowboys in 2000 .\nChristopher Columbus and Napoleon were fans of pickle power .","id":"69c78a461786e8fda4b7ac03d7856af54c64ad17"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A high-ranking al Qaeda leader has called on China's minority Uyghurs to prepare for a holy war against the Chinese government. Security has been increased recently on the streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. \"There is no way for salvation and to lift this oppression and tyranny unless you ... seriously prepare for jihad in the name of God and carry your weapons against the ruthless brutal invader thugs,\" Abu Yahia Al-Libi said Wednesday in a video on an Islamist Web site. He delivered his message in Arabic. The Uyghurs are Muslims in western China's Xinjiang province. Some Islamists refer to the region as East Turkistan. Al-Libi's proclamation was in reaction to the violence that has recently shaken Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. There, long-simmering resentment between minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese erupted into riots and left more than 200 people dead in July. The following month, a series of stabbings -- with syringes used as weapons -- added to the unrest. \"What we saw and heard in the recent events in Turkistan was not accidental and didn't happen overnight. This is an intifada (an uprising) and a usual response to the decades of oppression, the organized cleansing and the systematic repression until the people had enough,\" Al-Libi said. \"This was not the first uprising that the oppressed Muslim people carried out, because they keep grieving and struggling to preserve their identity against the aggressors.\" Chinese officials could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Al-Libi regularly produces video messages and has, in the past, called on Pakistanis and Somalis to resist their \"apostate\" governments. He is considered one of al Qaeda's top strategists and one of its most vocal leaders in its propaganda campaign . In his latest message, Al-Libi called on Muslims worldwide to support the Uyghurs. And he vowed that China will suffer the same fate that the former Soviet Union did when it invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s -- only to be thwarted by Islamist fighters. \"To you, the state of atheism and obstinacy: You are coming to an end and you will face the same fate of the Russian bear of disintegration and division,\" he said. \"You will encounter the same defeat when your nation will fight in its own backyard the humble minority of Muslims who are stronger in faith.\" In July, a leader of an al Qaeda-linked group also denounced Chinese treatment of Uyghurs and threatened revenge. The leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party, in a video on Islamic Web sites, blamed the Chinese for \"genocide.\" The speaker urged Uyghurs to \"kill the Chinese communists where you find them, take them and besiege them and ambush them wherever you can.\" The U.S. State Department said the group has taken credit for violence in the past.","highlights":"Uyghurs are Muslims in western China's Xinjiang province .\nAbu Yahia Al-Libi's comments a reaction to recent violence in Xinjiang's capital .\nTension between Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese erupted into riots in July .\nAl-Libi considered one of al Qaeda's top strategists and most vocal leaders .","id":"33d067bee1d7ad9526b63d74643205e5d5819b39"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Greek voters will go to the polls to elect a new government two years early, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis announced Thursday. Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis says he wants to enact reforms in response to the international financial crisis. He called the early elections in response to pressure from the opposition Socialist Party, which threatened to block the election of a president in February if there was no general election first. Karamanlis is also seeking a mandate from the voters for reforms in response to the international financial crisis, he said. \"It's up to the citizens to decide who has the right plan to govern and face the economic challenges,\" he said in a speech to the country. \"We have two very difficult and critical years ahead of us,\" he said in the speech on Wednesday. \"There is only one path that offers hope and potential: We take -- without delay, without procrastination -- take all necessary measures to address these problems. By design and desire. We need to build the solid foundation that will ultimately get us out of this crisis stronger.\" He said the country needs \"stringent control on public spending,\" \"war on tax-evasion\" and \"bold structural reforms.\" The new elections will be held October 4, Karamanlis announced Thursday after meeting President Karolos Papoulias, who officially dissolves parliament. Karamanlis' term was not due to expire until September 2011. But Socialist party leader George Papandreou insisted on new elections before the end of Papoulias' term as president in February. The Greek constitution requires the two major parties to agree on the election of a president, giving either party an effective veto. Karamanlis called Papandreou's stance \"blackmail.\" Parliament will be dissolved on September 7, Karamanlis said on his Web site. Karamanlis' conservative New Democracy party suffered a sharp setback in European elections in June, when the Socialists matched New Democracy's tally of eight seats, with 36 percent of the vote. That election was seen as a litmus test for Karamanlis at a time of political and economic uncertainty with the economy shrinking and the country staring at a recession after nearly 15 years of high-profile growth. CNN's Efty Katsareas and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis announced elections Thursday .\nCalled early elections in response to pressure from opposition Socialist Party .\nPM called for \"stringent control on public spending ... war on tax-evasion\"","id":"c793aebb0560aa279e66e7ec5102551ccb059e49"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Israeli military action in Gaza is comparable to that of German soldiers during the Holocaust, a Jewish UK lawmaker whose family suffered at the hands of the Nazis has claimed. A protester confronts police in London last weekend at a demonstration against Israeli action in Gaza. Gerald Kaufman, a member of the UK's ruling Labour Party, also called for an arms embargo on Israel, currently fighting militant Palestinian group Hamas, during the debate in the British parliament Thursday. \"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed,\" said Kaufman, who added that he had friends and family in Israel and had been there \"more times than I can count.\" \"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.\" Kaufman, a senior Labour politician who was raised as an Orthodox Jew, has often opposed Israeli policy throughout his career. Israel has said it initiated the operation into Gaza -- which is controlled by Hamas -- to stop rocket fire on its southern cities and towns. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died in the operation in Gaza and from rocket strikes on southern Israel, according to the Israeli military. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, including many civilians, Palestinian medics said. During Thursday's debate, Kaufman also said that Israel needed to seek real peace and not peace by conquest, which would be impossible. He also accused the Israeli government of \"ruthlessly and cynically exploiting the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.\" But Kaufman added that while it is necessary to talk to Hamas, which had been chosen by an electorate, it nevertheless is a \"deeply nasty organization.\" Bill Rammell, the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said the UK government backed an EU presidency statement calling Israeli action disproportionate. But he also criticized Hamas rocket attacks on Israel during the cease-fire between June and December 2008, adding that the militant group's \"whole ethos is one of violence\" and that it had \"made a brutal choice to step up attacks against innocent civilians.\" \"Nothing, not the restrictions on Gaza nor its frustration with the peace process, justifies what Hamas has done and continues to do,\" Rammell said. \"In December, I was in Ashkelon near the Gaza border, and I heard the sirens. The fear was palpable: This is daily psychological and actual warfare.\" Rammell added that Hamas has \"committed acts of terrorism, it is committed to the obliteration of the state of Israel, and its statement last week that it was legitimate to kill Jewish children anywhere in the world was utterly chilling and beyond any kind of civilised, humanitarian norm.\" The debate came on the day that Saeed Siam, Hamas' third-ranking leader in the territory, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, the Islamic militant group reported. The United Nations' main relief compound in the territory was also hit and set on fire, which U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon blamed on Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed sorrow over the incident but said Israeli forces were responding to militant fire near the complex. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the shelling of the compound as \"indefensible,\" media agencies reported. Speaking to Ban during a call, Brown said the UK would increase its calls for a cease-fire and also deliver aid to Gaza once a cease-fire took hold. Britain has witnessed several demonstrations since the conflict in Gaza began late last month. Last Saturday, up to 20,000 people gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in London, Metropolitan Police said. Later, parts of the crowd began pelting officers with sticks, rocks and pieces of metal barriers, police said. A similar protest Sunday was peaceful. Rallies were also held in London and Manchester last weekend in support of Israeli action against Hamas.","highlights":"Jewish UK lawmaker calls on Israel to talk to Hamas, a \"deeply nasty organization\"\nUK government: \"Hamas made a brutal choice to step up attacks\" on civilians .\nUK PM calls shelling of U.N.'s main aid HQ compound in Gaza \"indefensible\"\nUK has seen several protests since conflict began, both pro- and anti-Israel .","id":"248826b18cd578159c43c5df340e9a30adce8eeb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Saturday Night Live\" was formed in the crucible of the mid-1970s, when Watergate brought respect for politicians to all-time lows, the counterculture was taking over comedy, and many television viewers were seeking out something fresh and bold. Fred Armisen played Barack Obama in a talked-about sketch Saturday night on \"Saturday Night Live.\" It was a powerful combination -- and after 34 years, the combination of \"SNL\" and politics can still strike sparks among political observers. The most recent example came this past weekend when Fred Armisen, as President Obama, chided \"those on the right\" for saying that he was \"turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.\" Not true, said Armisen as Obama. \"When you look at my record,\" he said, \"it's very clear what I've done so far -- and that is nothing.\" Watch the sketch -- and the reaction \u00bb . The sketch has caused a rumble among the inside-the-Beltway chattering classes and New York news nabobs. Wrote Washington Post blogger Jonathan Capehart, \"When your 'friends' start talking about you like this -- and friends with a huge megaphone and a feel for the national mood -- the White House should listen.\" \"Humor with some truth in it is always dangerous. Make no mistake, a drumbeat of belittlement can damage a president,\" added CNN political contributor Ed Rollins in a column. The White House had no comment when asked about the sketch by CNN. \"SNL\" cast members weren't available for interviews, an NBC representative said. \"SNL\" creator Lorne Michaels also turned down an interview request but has said the show doesn't take sides. \"I think 'SNL's' role is, the moment they're in power, we're the opposition,\" he told CNN's Alina Cho last year. \"We're not partisan. We're not, you know, we're not putting on anything that we don't believe is funny.\" Video gallery: \"SNL\" takes on presidents through the years \u00bb . The recent sketch is indicative of the end of Obama's honeymoon, Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson says, but he doesn't want to read more into it than that. \"Comedy is about going after the people in power,\" he said. The president has also taken recent shots from \"The Daily Show\" and \"Real Time with Bill Maher.\" \"What this says is that the comedy-industrial complex has turned its sights on the reigning president of the United States,\" he said. But, he added, \"I wouldn't put this into the meme category,\" referring to concepts that travel so quickly they take on a life of their own, such as Tina Fey's Sarah Palin sketches from last year. \"The [Obama] sketch wasn't that funny.\" Indeed, the show's overall impact is often mixed, observes Slate columnist and Rutgers media studies professor David Greenberg. It can \"capture or intensify\" a storyline that's being passed through the news media, but the show is more a barometer that can change with events. \"It's not incapable of influencing things,\" he said, noting the show's slash-and-burn '70s satire and Fey's Palin parody. \"But since the early '80s, those moments are pretty rare. ... You'll see good impersonations but not the underlying critique you had with, say, Dan Aykroyd as [Richard] Nixon.\" Besides, he added, the Obama sketch may have titillated the politico-media crowd, but he wonders whether its impact went any wider. \"I'm a political junkie,\" he said, \"and this is the first I've heard of it.\" Indeed, the ratings for the episode were a far cry from last year's Palin-fest -- from a 7.3 rating for the same week in 2008, to 4.7 -- and the Armisen sketch didn't get the frenzied online dispersion the Palin sketches did. iReport.com: 'SNL' won't hurt Obama . However, Obama should be concerned about one thing, observes Thompson. In general, \"SNL\" mocked previous presidents' personal characteristics, such as Clinton's outsized appetites or George W. Bush's struggles with spoken English. With Obama -- who lacks the same kind of easily caricatured traits, Thompson says -- the show went after his record. \"In some ways,\" Thompson said, \"he's vulnerable to more serious damage.\"","highlights":"Recent \"Saturday Night Live\" sketch attacked President Obama .\nPolitical pundits, media seized on sketch as meaningful .\nIt marks end of honeymoon, one observer says, but probably not much more .\n\"SNL\" can \"intensify\" storylines but is mostly a barometer, says expert .","id":"e4b37d48ecf8962be0c1d7374e8abeac8a5d341e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Stonehenge, an enigma to visitors and scientists alike for so many years, became less of a mystery after a discovery announced to the world this week. A stone circle discovered near Stonehenge may suggest the prehistoric monument was part of a funeral route. Archaeologists have unearthed a new stone circle near Stonehenge that lends credence to the theory that the famous prehistoric monument in Britain was part of a funeral complex. University of Bristol archaeologist Joshua Pollard described the new find as \"incredible\" because it establishes Stonehenge as part of a larger ceremonial complex linked to the nearby River Avon. \"No one could have predicted there was another stone circle so close by,\" said Pollard, co-director of the excavation project that began in 2004. This, he said, changes the perception of the popular tourist destination 90 miles west of London. The new find, dubbed \"Bluestonehenge\" after the color of the 25 Welsh stones of which it was once composed, sits along the Avon a mile away from its famous sister circle, Pollard said. Neolithic peoples would have come down river by boat and literally stepped off into Bluestonehenge, Pollard said. They may have congregated at certain times of the year, including the winter solstice, and carried remains of the dead from Bluestonehenge down an almost two-mile funeral processional route to a cemetery at Stonehenge to bury them. \"It could be that Bluestonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge,\" said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield who co-directed the project with Pollard. \"Not many people know that Stonehenge was Britain's largest burial ground at that time,\" he said. \"Maybe the blue stone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself.\" Proof of life artifacts -- pottery, animal bones, food residues and flint tools used in the Stone Age -- are decidedly absent at Stonehenge but were found upstream in a village discovered by the excavation team in 2005, leading researchers to believe that Stonehenge was indeed a burial ground. But people have debated the purpose of Stonehenge for decades. Known for its orientation in relation to the rising and setting sun, the circle of stones represented a prehistoric temple to some. Others argued it was an astronomical observatory. Or that it was a marker of time. But Pollard is sticking to his theory. He said others have not based their suppositions on archaeological finds. Archaeologists began the latest excavation with the hope of tracking the course of the avenue that led to Stonehenge. They had no idea they would stumble upon a second circle that would help uncover the mystery of Stonehenge. The stones at Bluestonehenge were removed thousands of years ago, Pollard said, but the sizes of the remaining pits, about 33 feet in diameter, point to giant blue stones from the Preseli Mountains of Wales, about 150 miles away. Pollard said that Neolithic people dragged the pillarlike blue stones along the processional route to Stonehenge to incorporate them in a major rebuilding that took place around 2500 B.C. Archaeologists know that after 2500, Stonehenge consisted of about 60 Welsh stones and 83 local sarsen stones. Some of the blue stones that once stood on the river's edge probably now stand within the center of Stonehenge, Pollard said. Scientists plan to use radiocarbon dating techniques to better understand the history of the entire site. Stonehenge remains as striking as ever. But with each new find, the enigma fades just a little.","highlights":"Discovery of lost stone circle sheds new light on Stonehenge's purpose .\nResearchers say \"Bluestonehenge\" was starting point of funeral processional route .\nBluestonehenge is named after color of Welsh stones from which it was formed .\nSome have viewed Stonehenge as temple, astronomical observatory .","id":"2659d3ee646ea9f169fe1b0c48c2996b88b56887"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The young man's call echoed throughout the remote village in northern Nigeria -- the marriage ceremony was about to begin. Umar Ahmed and his wife wait for anti-HIV drugs at a hospital in Nigeria. Under the dusty sun, the fathers of the bride and groom agreed to the marriage and this ancient Muslim tradition proceeded as it has for hundreds of years. But unknown to the gathered villagers, the couple is hiding a modern secret. Both bride and groom are HIV-positive and marrying with the support of a local government program that encourages such \"HIV-marriages\" in the hope of preventing the virus from spreading. After the ceremony and away from the village, the husband agreed to speak with CNN as long as he was not identified. \"The woman I marry loves me -- I love her,\" he said. \"And we promised that we can keep ourselves healthy and clean.\" According to the United Nations, Nigeria has the third-largest HIV population in the world, with about 3.1 percent of its 148 million people infected. Officials working for the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, known as BACATMA, hope to put a dent in those numbers -- not just by treating HIV-positive people with free antiretroviral drugs but, they say, by helping more than 100 HIV-positive couples marry. The agency offers to pay for the dowry, provide counseling and even employment within the agency. BACATMA officials hope that, by keeping HIV-positive couples together, they will keep AIDS from spreading to anyone not infected. \"If someone having HIV marries another HIV-AIDS person, that means there will be no HIV transmission to another negative person,\" said Rilwanu Mohammed, the BACATMA chairman. However, UNAIDS, the UN agency tackling HIV and AIDS, has its doubts, arguing such marriages do not prevent the spread of AIDS. \"There are better methods to address the prevention of HIV and AIDS rather than encouraging that kind of union,\" said Warren Naamara, the UNAIDS Nigeria coordinator. \"We have made it very clear from UNAIDS that the best way to address HIV infection is universal access to prevention, treatment and care.\" There is no evidence that such marriages stop the spread of AIDS. However, for many of the couples, the marriages support their personal fight against AIDS and the stigmatization it often brings from society, friends and family. That stigmatization can lead HIV-positive people to become outcasts, discriminated against and sometimes physically abused. Queuing for their antiretroviral drugs at a local hospital, Umar Ahmed and his wife said they married last year and have since had a child. \"Before, I was lonely,\" Umar said. \"Being with my wife, I feel great -- because we stay together, we discuss different issues together.\" For those couples who decide to have children, BACATMA tries to reduce the odds that the child will be born infected with HIV by ensuring that the parents have antiretroviral agents and medical advice. Still, the decision to have a child is a controversial one when the parents who decide to do so are sick and unlikely to be able to raise the child.","highlights":"Local agency will pay dowry, offer counseling, to get HIV-positive couples to wed .\nThe goal is to keep HIV from spreading to people not already infected .\nUN agency says marriage doesn't stop AIDS, prevention and treatment needed .\nFor some couples, the marriages reduce stigma of being HIV-positive .","id":"e73db2029dd6a2b0ba25455adb42f3da5ee8dce6"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A government school in southern India has tested pupils' karate skills by running over their outstretched arms with a motorcycle. K. Devarajan, the director of elementary education in Tamil Nadu state, told CNN that the event, held recently, was organized with the consent of parents. State education authorities have now asked schools not to carry out such activities because they violate safety guidelines, which he claimed were already in place in state educational institutions. Devarajan said officers visited the school after learning about the controversial show. Newspaper pictures Tuesday showed a motorcyclist driving over the limbs of a row of schoolchildren lying with their faces down in the state's Villupuram district. It also showed smiling adults standing behind the young children. The act aimed to show the strength the students had gained from their karate classes, Devarajan said. Nobody was injured, said P. Perumalsamy, a senior state education official. The students involved were aged between six and 13, he added.","highlights":"Indian schoolchildren run over by motorcycle in karate exercise .\nOfficials says parents approved of test of children's karate skills .\nSchool has been told not to hold such an exercise again .","id":"f323ae579b45322a58558adcbeea1dfd142e35ff"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Six Uyghurs who were imprisoned in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were transferred Saturday to the South Pacific island nation of Palau, the Justice Department said. Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori were resettled in Palau, the Justice Department said in a statement Saturday. Seven Uyghurs are still at Guantanamo Bay, where 215 prisoners remain. Uyghur is an ethnic group from western China. Since January, 25 detainees have been transferred to other countries. The United States has coordinated with Palau \"to ensure that the transfers take place under appropriate security measures and will continue to consult with the Republic of Palau regarding the individuals,\" the Justice Department said. The 13 Uyghurs were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan. Some of them have been cleared for release since 2003, and other Uyghurs have been released to other countries. The United States said it would not send them back to their homeland because of concern they would be tortured by Chinese authorities. The Chinese government has said no returned Uyghurs would be mistreated and has repeatedly warned other countries against taking the men. Beijing officials this summer again urged the United States to hand over all remaining Uyghurs instead of sending them elsewhere. China alleges the men are part of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization, that operates in the Xinjiang region. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang. On October 20, the Supreme Court tentatively agreed to accept an appeal from the 13 Uyghurs to be released into the United States from American military custody. CNN's Carol Cratty and Bill Mears contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Uyghurs -- Muslims from Southern China -- went to South Pacific island nation Saturday .\n7 Uyghurs still at Guantanamo Bay; U.S. won't send them back to China, citing torture concerns .\nThe 13 Uyghurs were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan .\nChina says returning Uyghurs won't be mistreated, warns other countries not to take them .","id":"0ad5d834479f8b88cc827c00fa26c3c617a39195"} -{"article":"Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Seeking to identify the man who shot dead another man outside a store in Naples, Italy, in the spring, an anti-mafia prosecutor distributed on Thursday a video showing the execution. The surveillance-camera video, shot May 11, shows a man wearing a baseball cap, dark jersey, blue jeans and running shoes entering a store, walking to the back and looking around, then walking out. As he exits, he pulls a pistol from his right front pants pocket and shoots a man standing outside the store. As the victim buckles to his knees and then sprawls headlong on the pavement, the killer approaches him from behind and squeezes off a second round into the back of his head, turns and strides unhurriedly out of camera view. Passers-by appear unfazed. One woman tries to lift the victim's head in an apparent attempt to see whether she knows him; a man steps over the body. \"Indeed, it is ugly to see people behaving as if that was not a dead body and going on their daily routine,\" a police spokesman said. \"Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly in Naples and in that neighborhood.\" He said fear led people to behave that way. The spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said anti-mafia prosecutor Sergio Amato released the video to the media in hopes that someone would recognize the killer and his apparent accomplice: a man who had been standing next to the victim and walked off just before the shooting. Police said no motive has been determined for the killing, which took place in the poor neighborhood of Rione Sanita, where Camorra -- the name for organized crime in Naples -- is strong. The victim was a bank robber, the spokesman said. Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities Maria Rosaria Carfagna called the video \"tragic.\" \"It shows us, finally, without any censorship, a disgusting side of the Camorra, which along with all the rest of its disgusting faces, has forced a city, a region, a territory, to be ashamed of itself and to hide its real face. \"A street homicide, in broad daylight, in the center of a great European city cannot be considered normal and even less be accepted by the conscience of all Italians as if it were a TV show,\" she said. \"The police forces are waging a battle against organized crime, as the number of arrests shows us. The state is there and in strong force. But, and I speak here as someone from the Campania region, Naples and all of Campania need not only a strong political force but the courage of all its citizens.\" Roberto Saviano, author of the book \"Gomorrah,\" which details the Camorra, called the video \"shocking.\" \"What is shocking about this video is the absolute serenity of the people around the victim,\" he told the daily newspaper La Repubblica. Saviano, who has lived under police protection since shortly after his book was published in 2006, added, \"Unfortunately, though, when a city is at war, its citizens undergo and live almost with normal indifference.\" Italy's Green Party is offering 2,000 euros ($2,963) to whoever helps investigators identify the suspects. \"The Camorra pays them to keep quiet; we pay them to speak,\" said Francesco Emilio Borelli, head of the Green Party in the Campania region. The police spokesman said Camorra has been blamed for about 60 killings this year in Naples and its surrounding county.","highlights":"Video shows man shoot another man twice outside Naples store during day .\nPassers-by appear unfazed by shooting in neighborhood where organized crime is strong .\n\"Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly in Naples,\" police spokesman says .\nItaly's Green Party offers reward for information on shooter and accomplice .","id":"53fc4b27ac5150462de4c64e38110ec67a5f1ecc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has been named the best player in Europe, becoming the first Argentine to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or award on Tuesday. Last year's winner Cristiano Ronaldo came second, with Messi's teammates from Barcelona's historic 2008-09 treble-winning side -- Spain midfielders Xavi and Andres Iniesta plus Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o (now at Inter Milan) -- rounding out the top five. The 22-year-old Messi helped the Catalan giants to the Spanish La Liga and European Champions League titles as well as the Copa Del Rey, while his Argentina side scraped into the World Cup finals after finishing fourth in their South American qualifying campaign. Messi told France Football magazine, organizers of the award, that he knew he was \"among the favorites because Barcelona had a profitable year.\" \"For me it's a big honor to win -- but also to become the first Argentinian in history to receive the trophy,\" he said. \"I dedicate it to my family, they were always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.\" Messi is the first Barcelona player to win the award since Brazilian forward Ronaldinho took it in 2005, and the sixth to have won it while at the club. He dominated the Ballon d'Or voting, polling 473 votes compared to second-placed Ronaldo's 233, and 27 more than the Real Madrid and Portugal winger received when he won it in 2008 for his exploits while with Manchester United. The rest of the top-10 was completed by: Brazil playmaker Kaka, Real Madrid's summer signing from AC Milan; Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who joined Barcelona from Inter in the off-season; England forward Wayne Rooney of United; Chelsea's Ivory Coast frontman Didier Drogba; and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard of England. The award was only open to European players before 1995, and that year AC Milan's Liberian star George Weah became the first from outside the continent to win it. Argentina-born Alfredo Di Stefano was named Europe's top player twice in the 1950s while at Real Madrid, but had acquired Spanish citizenship by that time.","highlights":"Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi crowned the 2009 Ballon d'Or winner .\nHe won 473 votes -- 240 more than second-placed Cristiano Ronaldo, who won last year .\nThe 22-year-old Messi is the first Argentinian to win the award, launched in 1956 .\nIt is organized by France Football magazine to recognize the best player in Europe .","id":"dad0f9ac0b6312a89e78b0da1f3d082c46a7550c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Scientists say a very rare find of some 20 fossilized pterodactyls has produced the first clear evidence of a controversial theory of evolution. This image shows the fossilized skeleton of Darwinopterus which was found in north-east China earlier this year. The fossils were found in northeast China earlier this year, embedded in rock dating back 160 million years, and have been called \"Darwinopterus\" after the renowned naturalist Charles Darwin. The creature's discovery has astounded scientists because their age puts them within two recognized groups of pterodactyls -- primitive long-tailed forms and advanced short-tail forms -- and they display characteristics of both. The combination of features indicates that the primitive pterodactyls evolved relatively quickly, and that certain groups of features changed at the same time. Traditional evolutionary theory suggests that one feature -- a tail for instance -- would slowly evolve over time. \"Darwinopterus came as quite a shock to us,\" said David Unwin, from the University of Leicester's School of Museum Studies, which identified the creature, along with researchers from the Geological Institute of Beijing. \"We had always expected a gap-filler with typically intermediate features such as a moderately elongate tail -- neither long nor short -- but the strange thing about Darwinopterus is that it has a head and neck just like that of advanced pterosaurs, while the rest of the skeleton, including a very long tail, is identical to that of primitive forms,\" he said. By comparing the fossil with others from earlier and later periods, scientists have been able to sketch a rough timeline of the pterodactyl's progression. \"The head and neck evolved first, followed later by the body, tail, wings and legs,\" Unwin said. The researchers say more study is needed to substantiate the idea of that evolution could occur relatively quickly, and that whole parts of a plant or animal's body could change at once. The fossils indicate Darwinopterus was about the size of a crow, with long jaws, sharp, pointed teeth and a flexible neck. It had \"hawk-like\" qualities, scientists say, which allowed the creature to kill and eat smaller, feathered dinosaurs which would later evolve into birds. Pterodactyls were prevalent during the Mesozoic Era between 220 and 65 million years ago. The research has been published in the \"Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.\"","highlights":"Researchers say rare fossil find provides evidence of one theory of evolution .\n20 fossilized pterodactyls found in China in rock dating back 160 million years .\nFossils show creatures had characteristics of two types of known pterodactyls .\nScientists say fossils show groups of features changed relatively rapidly .","id":"e9501800b21ebf86c84111e0a9b33adfbcd7df40"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Suspected Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier Wednesday with 22 crew members aboard, according to the European Union's Naval Force for Somalia. MV Filitsa was seized in the early morning about 460 miles (740 kilometers) northeast of the Seychelles as it headed toward Durban, South Africa, according to a news release from EU NAVFOR Somalia. The Marshall Island-flagged carrier -- with three Greek and 19 Filipino crew members -- \"has now turned around and is heading north,\" it said. The bulk carrier has a deadweight of more than 23,000 tons. There have been more than 100 pirate attacks and at least 39 hijackings off the east Africa this year, according to EU NAVFOR. In late October, Somali pirates seized a private yacht in the Indian Ocean, taking Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage. They have demanded a $7 million ransom for the British couple's release, but the government has refused to pay as a matter of long-standing policy. Two vessels were attacked the day after the Chandlers set sail. One of them -- a cargo ship -- was successfully boarded and seized off the Seychelles, while the other fought off its attackers near the Kenyan coast. Pirates are still holding a Spanish fishing boat, the Alakrana, which they seized on October 2 off Somalia's coast. Days later, they transferred three of the fishing boat's 36 crew members to land. Two pirate suspects had left the Alakrana in a small vessel heading toward land, authorities said, and the Spanish military swooped in to stop them on the high seas. They were later brought to Madrid, where a judge has charged them with piracy and kidnapping. The pirates holding the crew have demanded Spain release the two suspects. Spain is part of the European Union task force against piracy in the Indian Ocean off Somalia. The Spanish parliament last January agreed to increase Spain's presence with up to 395 troops and assets, including a frigate and aircraft. CNN's Al Goodman contributed to this report .","highlights":"22 crew aboard Greek-owned bulk carrier MV Filitsa .\nShip changed directions, now heading north European Union Naval Force says .\nMore than 100 pirate attacks off East Africa this year .","id":"d3ce7d615ecc15f094d8130654812ad77cd604a3"} -{"article":"SPRING HILL, Tennessee (CNN) -- General Motors idled its Spring Hill, Tennessee, facility as part of its bankruptcy plan Monday, leaving hundreds of employees -- and thousands of residents who rely on the plant's economic thrust -- in limbo. Johnny Miranda is trying to stay positive about the plant where he has worked for 16 years. Spring Hill, about 35 miles south of Nashville, is a town built on the jobs that the plant provides. The town has seen its population jump more than 1,600 percent in the almost 20 years since GM sent the first Saturn down the assembly line in June 1990. \"I want to think positive,\" said autoworker Johnny Miranda, who left a GM plant in Van Nuys, California, 16 years ago to work in Spring Hill. \"It could bring you down. It could really mess you up if you be thinking they're going to close it and you're going to lose your job.\" The future is uncertain for the plant's 3,000 employees. GM could shut down, phase out or sell the plant. Local media outlets report that the plant will end production toward the end of this year and that assembly of the Chevrolet Traverse will be moved to Lansing, Michigan. Watch Spring Hill residents share concerns \u00bb . The Spring Hill facility ceased building Saturns more than two years ago as sales slumped. After a yearlong retooling, it started pushing out Chevy's crossover sport utility vehicle instead. Saturn had originally billed itself as a \"different kind of car company,\" and GM had hoped the business plan and fuel-efficient vehicles would allow it to snatch sales away from its Japanese rivals. Watch GM workers ponder future \u00bb . GM made Saturn a separate division, built an innovative plant, embraced no-haggle buying, opted for plastic over metal for many of the vehicles' parts and brokered an agreement with the United Auto Workers that fostered teamwork between the union and management. For years the company enjoyed a cult-like following. Self-confessed \"Saturnistas\" attended \"homecomings\" on the Spring Hill campus. Web sites and fan clubs popped up across the country. One of the sites, saturnfans.com, garnered thousands of signatures on its \"Save Saturn\" petition in the months leading up to GM's bankruptcy. Ultimately, GM's aspiration to sell a half million of the cars a year didn't pan out. It sold only 8,000 Saturns in November 2008 and fewer than 200,000 for the entire year. Watch what drove GM to this point \u00bb . But Saturn's waning popularity was just one of a litany of problems facing the auto giant, which filed for bankruptcy and announced specifics of its restructuring Monday. In addition to shedding the Saturn brand, GM also plans to end its Pontiac, Saab and Hummer lines, as well. The company shut down a dozen facilities and put three, including the Spring Hill plant, on standby. It also will cut ties with about a third of its 6,000 U.S. dealerships. See which plants are closing \u00bb . Visit Spring Hill and it's tough to find anyone not affected by the plant's suspension. Every resident appears to know at least one person whose job is on the line. \"My father-in-law works for GM. He's worked for GM ever since the day he graduated college,\" Will Barnes said at a T-ball game Sunday. See GM's history \u00bb . Barnes' father-in-law is anxious, like thousands of GM employees, and has resorted to yardwork to calm his nerves, he said. \"He's cut his yard five times this week because this is the level of uncertainty for him, and I hate to see him in that situation,\" Barnes said. John Stansbury, 55, told The Daily Herald in Columbia, Tennessee, he has been working for GM since he was 18. His father spent 40 years with the automaker. Watch how the U.S. auto industry has risen, fallen \u00bb . Because of the Spring Hill plant's flexibility following its recent revamp and the competitive local labor agreement, Stansbury said he remains optimistic but uneasy. \"The mood of the whole plant is really unsure,\" he told the newspaper. \"We are all tense.\" iReport.com: What next for GM? When the Spring Hill plant opened in 1990, the town's population was 1,464, according to the Census Bureau. The latest count, from 2007, is closer to 24,000. In that time, numerous subdivisions have been constructed to accommodate the plant's workers. Economic officials told The Daily Herald that at least 5,000 jobs are tied to the plant. That's in addition to the restaurants, shops and other businesses that rely on autoworkers' dollars. Watch how the bankruptcy will have a ripple effect \u00bb . The Spring Hill plant also gives local governments more than $2 million in lieu of taxes, the newspaper reported. Though the fate of the plant remains contingent on market conditions, few are under the illusion that GM employees and Spring Hill residents will remain unscathed by changes to the city's lifeline. \"It's going to hurt,\" Miranda, the autoworker, said. \"No question, it'll hurt.\" CNN's Jim Kavanagh and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Spring Hill population jumped 1,600 percent since GM facility opened there .\nFuture uncertain for about 3,000 workers; GM could close, sell or phase out plant .\nFacility began building Chevy Traverse SUV instead of Saturn about two years ago .\nResident says anxious father-in-law mowed lawn five times last week .","id":"39e52dae06e85481f0bd47288afe9f4628910229"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- The new Navy assault ship USS New York steamed into New York harbor Monday, cutting through the water with a bow built using seven and a half tons of steel recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Its crew stood at attention and a 21-gun salute greeted the ship. Firefighters, bagpipers, and those who lost loved ones on 9\/11 lined the shore to watch the emotional arrival. The docking holds special meaning for many families of those who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. \"What better way for our young men and women that are going to be on the USS New York to feel the spirit of our country than to have this ship have the steel in the bow that represents not the bad but the good of our country,\" said Lee Ielpi, who lost his firefighter son, Jonathan, on 9\/11. The memory of the attacks is etched on the crest of the ship, which features a phoenix rising from the twin towers with the words, \"Never Forget.\" Watch USS New York sail up the Hudson . The ship weighs more than 25,000 tons and is as long as two football fields. Thirteen percent of the 361 crew members hail from the state of New York. Former New York Gov. George Pataki received special dispensation to name the $1 billion ship USS New York; only submarines normally can be named after states. Can you see the USS New York? Send your photos or videos . It is the first ship assignment for Ensign Timothy Gorman, who said, \"Of any ship in the Navy, this is one ship that you can be proud of commissioning, to remember on a daily basis why we are here and why the ship is so special. The steel in the bow, we are very mindful that we are representing victims of 9\/11 and the families and the people that died that day.\" Howard Lutnick takes great pride in the new ship. He is CEO of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices were in the World Trade Center. The ship, he said, is a memorial to his brother and 658 of his employees who died on that day more than eight years ago. Lutnick said he lives with the loss every day. Watch how steel from World Trade Center became the ship's bow . \"I really like the idea of people going out and avenging what happened to us and protecting us so that it should never happen again, because the pain that we went through, we want no one, no other family to have to go through it,\" Lutnick said. The ship also will be used to ferry disaster relief when needed. The USS New York will remain docked in the city through Veterans Day before heading back to its base in Norfolk, Virginia, for a year of crew training and exercises.","highlights":"USS New York greeted by 21-gun salute, emotional spectators, as it arrives in New York .\nShip's bow includes tons of steel from World Trade Center .\nShip to remain in New York until Veterans Day; it will be based in Norfolk, Virginia .","id":"92a3bd36e27e0efafc06212dd2b1152a2574ff7c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran tested a missile-launching system and several types of short- and medium-range missiles Sunday, the state-run Press TV said. A short-range missile is test-launched during war games in Qom, Iran, south of Tehran, on Sunday. Earlier, the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had said it would stage missile exercises beginning Sunday to promote the armed forces' defense capabilities. The tests, which are expected to last until Monday, are code-named \"Payghambar-e Azam 4\" or \"The Great Prophet 4,\" Press TV said. The missiles, fired at targets around the country Sunday, included the Fateh-110, a short-range ground-to-ground missile, and Tondar-69, a short-range naval missile, the station said. Several models of medium-range Shahab missiles were tested at night, Press TV reported. Watch Iranian missile tests \u00bb . The final stage of the tests will be held Monday morning, when Iran plans to test the long-range Shahab missile, the station said. In May, Iran said it tested a surface-to-surface missile that is capable of reaching parts of Europe. At the time, a White House official said actions in Iran were noteworthy. \"Of course, this is just a test, and obviously there is much work to be done before it can be built and deployed. But I see it as a significant step forward in terms of Iran's capacity to deliver weapons,\" said Gary Samore, special assistant to the president on nonproliferation. The latest test follows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disclosure Friday that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility. Watch analyst's view on missile tests, nuclear tensions \u00bb . The United States and Israel believe that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program. Iran has denied the allegation.","highlights":"NEW: Iran test-fires several types of short- and medium-range missiles .\nNEW: Tests are code-named \"The Great Prophet 4,\" state-run Press TV says .\nMissile tests come days after Iran admits existence of second nuclear facility .\nIn May, Iran tested surface-to-surface missile capable of reaching parts of Europe .","id":"e8ff1efb298e06ecb5221b62b0688d640340457e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A silent, invisible battle is being fought against roadside bombs in Iraq. Though the military doesn't like to advertise their use, electronic jamming systems are playing a key role in neutralizing the threat. Smoke billows from tires of a U.S. military truck hit by an IED near the Iraqi-Syrian border in October 2005. \"Any weapon we had against IEDs, [improvised explosive devices] was utilized including jamming technology,\" said Jason Spencer, 29, an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, engineer who served with the Army in Iraq in 2005. Vehicle mounted electronic jammers attempt to block a signal going to a radio-controlled IED. The military also uses portable backpack jammers. \"The sophistication of IEDs definitely increased during my time in Iraq,\" said Spencer. \"There was a definite increase in remote detonation.\" A signal going to a remote-controlled IED operates on a radio or infrared frequency. Jamming devices, known as Counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare, or CREW systems, attempt to intercept or block a signal before it reaches its intended target, preventing detonation. One common method is barrage jamming, which knocks out a broad range of radio signals. However, it also knocks out communications used by U.S. troops putting them at increased risk. \"Ideally what you want to be able to do is have something that can grab very precise signals, capture the signals and render them irrelevant without knocking out your own communication,\" said CNN military analyst retired Army Brig. Gen. James \"Spider\" Marks. These technologies represent the last line of defense, Marks said. \"We don't want to give our potential enemies an understanding of what we are doing to counter their efforts,\" he said. Along with jammers, troops use air surveillance, robots, blast-resistant vehicles and mine rollers as countermeasures. See counter-IED technologies in Iraq \u00bb . IEDs are the No. 1 source of U.S. and alllied casualties in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. From July 2003 to July 2007, 1,565 coalition forces were killed by IEDs, according to iCasualties.org. See the casualty toll inflicted by IEDs \u00bb . \"We dealt with hundreds of IEDs while in theater,\" said Spencer. \"IEDs were always on our minds during every patrol.\" Spencer says IEDs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. \"From a simple mortar round on the side of the road with a fuse and a wire running to a push-button, to complex explosives poured into concrete (shaped like curbs) with remote detonators and booby traps.\" Most roadside bombs are remotely detonated using common household devices: cell phones, garage door openers, burglar alarms, key fobs, doorbells, or remote controls for toy cars. Learn more about the IED threat \u00bb . \"Our enemy hides in plain sight. He buys his bomb parts in stores. It's standard commerce,\" said Marks. U.S. forces are dealing with an adaptive, innovative and flexible enemy, according to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, which is leading the counter-IED effort for the military. As insurgents modify their devices to outwit the military, the military in turn adapts its own jamming technologies. Many companies have been tapped to supply jammers to coalition forces. JIEDDO is interested in technologies that can be used in the field within two to eight months -- \"light speed\" in Defense Department terms. The Army's main CREW system is the Warlock Duke, a vehicle- mounted radio jammer developed by Syracuse Research Corporation. It's capable of jamming most radio-controlled IEDs, according to the Pentagon. The Navy, which oversees the CREW program, contracted BAE Systems to produce 3,800 wearable jammers to be fielded in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2008. Canadian firm Med-Eng is building jammers for the Marines, reports military contractor General Dynamics. By the end of 2007, JIEDDO will have funded more than 30,000 jammers for Marine and Army units. They have spent $1.6 billion on jamming technology for this fiscal year. \"This gear saves lives every day,\" wrote retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, in a column titled \"On the Offensive: The Battle Against IEDs.\" One in six IEDs causes casualties in Iraq, JIEDDO reports. To remain effective the enemy \"must expose himself more and take higher risks to do his ugly work,\" Meigs said. In January, the Government Accounting Office launched a review of JIEDDO and its efforts to counter IEDs. The Defense Science Board criticized the agency for focusing too much on defensive countermeasures \"to which the enemy quickly adapts, making these efforts less effective,\" in an April 2006 report. JIEDDO is fully cooperating with the GAO, said Col. Dewey Ford, director of strategic communications for JIEDDO. He added that Congress has long supported eliminating the IED threat. JIEDDO said it is aggressively going after the bomb makers, working to destroy their networks. The agency acknowledges that the mission won't be achieved merely by technical means. \"The best way to counter the IED threat is through understanding the network that allows an IED to even be assembled,\" said Marks, who supports JIEDDO's work. \"I'd rather have the guy who is going to put that IED in place get killed long before he's even part of the network. And I don't want him to know how I found him out because I want to find out where all his buddies are and kill them too.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Counter-IED technologies are troops' last line of defense in Iraq .\nSignal jammers used to block an IED from detonating .\nEnemy is adaptive, innovative and flexible .\nBest way to combat insurgents -- go after the bomb makers .","id":"07cf321dc35ffc3e4c7f48cf890a604452e681a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Tennessee detective's keen eye may have nabbed a serial killer. Tennessee police say trucker Bruce Mendenhall implicated himself as a serial killer. A long-distance truck driver gave statements implicating himself in six slayings in four states after Detective Sgt. Pat Postiglione discovered what appeared to be blood inside the cab of his rig, police said. Bruce Mendenhall, 56, an independent truck driver from Albion, Illinois, is facing homicide charges in the shooting death of Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25. Her body was found June 26 in the parking lot of a Nashville, Tennessee, truck stop, authorities said. Mendenhall made his first court appearance Thursday via closed-circuit television. A judge declined to set bond. Heading to the crime scene Thursday, Postiglione saw a tractor-trailer rig on the road that matched the description of a truck sought in the investigation. The rig pulled into the truck stop and stopped. Watch police search Mendehall's truck \u00bb . Postiglione knocked on its door. While talking with Mendenhall, Postiglione noticed what appeared to be blood on the inside of the driver's door. Mendenhall gave the detective permission to look inside the truck. Postiglione found \"some more evidence that I considered incriminating,\" he said. Mendenhall was detained, police said, because he gave statements implicating himself in Hulbert's slaying. Knowing that the slaying was similar to other recent homicides in the South, Postiglione questioned Mendenhall about those as well, police said. Mendenhall implicated himself in the death of Symantha Winters, 48, of Nashville, who was found shot to death June 6 in a trash container at a Lebanon, Tennessee, truck stop, police said. He also implicated himself in a homicide in Alabama, one in Georgia and two in Indiana, the statement said. Those victims were not named. Nashville police said they are in contact with agencies in those states regarding statements from Mendenhall, who is being held without bail. The truck was impounded and was being processed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Detective finds blood in truck that matched description of wanted vehicle .\nAlso found was \"more evidence\" that detective considered incriminating .\nPolice say driver gave statements implicating himself in 6 murders in 4 states .\nStates are Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee .","id":"e2eed27bab5e325461eea95c27450b06dabba551"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military said Tuesday that its forces have taken over a Taliban stronghold during the ongoing ground offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan. Pakistani security forces have secured Sararogha and have started to clear the town of weapons and ammunition, the military said. It comes a day after its forces gained control of Kaniguram, another key Taliban stronghold, which the military says its forces have now completely secured. According to the military, 21 militants and one Pakistani soldier died in the past 24 hours of fighting -- most of them in the raid on Sararogha. The military is trying to rout Taliban insurgents operating along the Pakistan-Afghan border. The restive and largely ungoverned region of South Waziristan is the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan's military suspects its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is still in the region backed by up to 8,000 militant fighters. Pakistan's army has launched three similar offensives in Kaniguram and Sararogha since 2004 without success, sometimes agreeing to peace deals that eventually fall apart. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas recently told CNN that this time a peace deal is not an option. \"Certainly there is no scope of a peace deal,\" Abbas told CNN. \"It is a fight to the finish.\" The military began its ground offensive in South Waziristan three weeks ago, however the region has been affected by a broader anti-Taliban offensive that has uprooted more than 180,000 people this year, according to the United Nations. Many of those people -- more than 94,000 -- have fled South Waziristan since June, the U.N. said last week. In recent weeks, Pakistan has been relentlessly rocked by a wave of attacks as Islamic militants retaliate against the military campaign. On Monday, the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi were hit by separate suicide bombings. A suicide attacker believed to be on a motorcycle targeted people outside a bank in Rawalpindi who were lined up to pick up their monthly checks, police said. That attack killed 30 people, police said on Tuesday. The attack happened in the Cannt area of Rawalpindi, close to Pakistan's military headquarters where the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was meeting with Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday. It was unclear if he was there at the time of the attack. Hours later, two suicide bombers detonated their explosives at a police checkpoint in Lahore, injuring 17 police and civilians. CNN's Samson Desta and Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistani forces secure Sararogha, clearing the town of weapons and ammunition .\nPakistan: 21 militants and one Pakistani soldier die in the past 24 hours of fighting .\nRestive and largely ungoverned region of South Waziristan is headquarters of Pakistani Taliban .\nPakistan's army has launched three similar offensives in Kaniguram and Sararogha since 2004 without success .","id":"42500035a1f7f21eced30d8259ed5c152b835a5a"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- For the beautiful people, Azza Fahmy may be one of the best-known names in Egypt. Designer Azza Fahmy consults her daughters on jewelry designs in her Cairo studio. A high-end jewelry designer, Fahmy's creations have adorned such beauties as supermodel Naomi Campbell and Queen Rania of Jordan. Her international luxury brand, Azza Fahmy Jewelries, blends Egyptian motifs and modern design to create high-end pieces. Working with precious metals and stones, Fahmy's work is inspired by the distinctive shapes, colors, textures and calligraphy of the country. Cairo, the largest city in the Arab world nicknamed \"The City of a Thousand Minarets,\" is Fahmy's home. She thinks she may have lived a previous life in old Cairo, which has now grown into a mega-city of almost 20 million inhabitants. See Azza Fahmy's picks of what to do, see and eat in Cairo . \"It's a strong feeling when I'm walking in the streets going to old houses, churchs and old mosques,\" Fahmy told CNN. \"It's something inside me which I can't describe, as if I've lived before in these places.\" In the 1960s, Fahmy was the first woman to apprentice in Cairo's jewelry district. She says she'd whither and die if she ever had to leave Egypt. She takes us on a personal tour of the beguiling Egyptian capital, where she finds inspiration in almost everything she sees. \"Everything in my mind is jewelry,\" she explains. \"I turn it into jewelry.\" Ibn Tulun Mosque . The sprawling Ibn Tulun Mosque, the largest mosque in Cairo in terms of land area, is also considered the oldest mosque in the city to have survived in its original form.Cairo fact file: How to navigate Mideast's biggest metropolis . \"It's one of my favorite mosques in Cairo,\" Fahmy says. \"The beautiful windows of this mosque give me a lot of joy.\" Fahmy says she's always fantasized about the windows of Ibn Tulun. \"One day I'll do a project called the Ibn Tulun collection, because they have 126 windows, I think, and each one is different. I see them as earrings, hanging earrings,\" she says, laughing. \"They are geometrical designs each one different from the other, \"she explains. Watch Fahmy tour Cairo \u00bb . The jewelry designer says Ibn Tulun makes her feel serene, inspires her to \"sit and meditate. The mosque is very strong, very discreet and very beautiful at the same time.\" The Hanging Church . Fahmy explains that the 7th century Hanging Church, known in Arabic as Al-Muallaqah (\"The Suspended\"), is the most famous Coptic -- a sect of Christianity native to Egypt and Ethiopia -- church in Cairo. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. \"Each civilization gives the other civilization something and each civilization takes something from the other civilization,\" Fahmy explains about the different faiths in the Egyptian capital. \"There is a continuity in the art.\" \"Look at the details of the wood carving!\" she exclaims there. \"Look how they mix the pattern,\" she says, gently tracing it with her finger. From apprentice to master: Fahmy's design inspiration \u00bb . \"You see this pattern? The cross in the middle and four rectangles around it? I want to do the design of this as a rectangle and then the motifs in metal.\" Fahmy says she she's always searching for beautiful text -- inspiring calligraphy -- to use in her work. The Egyptian designer describes calligraphy as an art in itself, \"the movement of the lines and the balance of the lines and the meaning in the text.\" El Moez Street . \"This is one of the oldest streets in Cairo,\" Fahmy explains as she walks along the colourful street bursting with life. \"This street is part of me. It's my history, my life, my youth. This is the real soul of Cairo.\" Fahmy stands in front of the Al Aqmar Mosque, known as \"the moonlit,\" and says she's inspired by the details in the architecture. Her eyes are immediately drawn to details throughout the city, she says. \"All my life is details, details, details. You become specific about everything.\" \"Do you notice these black and white stripes?\" she asks. Fahmy says she loves the way black and white are mixed together in Cairo to \"create all this balance.\" What inspires you about Cairo? Tell us in the SoundOff box below . \"Art is all about balance. They are perfect in how they balance things.\" Workshop . \"I used to work in this place, Rabeh El-Selehdar,\" Fahmy explains as she enters the workshop where she trained as a young jewelry-making apprentice. \"It was 40 years ago.\" \"I went to the workshop, I introduced myself to a man named Hajj Said and then I worked with him for about three years,\" she said, no small feat for an Egyptian woman in the 1960s. She warmly greets one of the men working at the workshop. \"He is the nephew of my master. He still remembers me,\" she explains. \"I used to sit on this table and I used to help them file and solder. It was the beginning of my life.\" Fahmy's business, which evolved into the first Egyptian designer brand, is a family affair. Her daughters, Fatima and Amina, work with her. \"I love the idea of the family business,\" she says. \"I'd like to give this to my daughters [to] continue. I want to have a design house which can continue with the same message of carrying the Arab culture to the world.\"","highlights":"Designer Azza Fahmy takes CNN on a tour of Cairo .\nShe was the first Egyptian woman to apprentice in Cairo's jewelry district .\nFahmy sees Islamic calligraphy as art and gets inspiration from mosques .\nAzza Fahmy Jewelries is a family affair run with her two daughters .","id":"43a7b8337743fe0f66d1e582635f69f9ec8f37b9"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The \"bongs\" of London's Big Ben stopped on Saturday for up to six weeks as the clock's chimes were shut down for maintenance work. The London landmark is undergoing maintenance work ahead of its 150th anniversary in 2009. At 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) the bells of the landmark Westminster clock tower were silenced for the final phase of a program of work ahead of the clock's 150th anniversary in 2009. An hour later, Londoners and tourists saw the unusual spectacle of workers abseiling down the south clock face to clean and repair it. Both hands of the clock were turned to 12. An electric system will keep the clock moving while work takes place on the mechanism. The stoppage will be the longest suspension of Big Ben since 1990. There were previous stoppages of both the hour and quarter bells in 1956 and 1934. The 96 meter (315 ft) clock tower of Britain's parliament is popularly known as Big Ben, although the name actually refers to the 13.5 tonne Great Bell inside. E-mail to a friend . Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.","highlights":"\"Bongs\" of London's Big Ben stopped on Saturday for up to six weeks .\nClock's chimes have been shut down for maintenance work .\nWork being carried out ahead of clock's 150th anniversary in 2009 .\nThe stoppage will be the longest suspension of Big Ben since 1990 .","id":"6509263dbee01ec8a06cc60aa704a7e09660f977"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has been called \"The King of Hearts\" by many of his countrymen, referring to what they believe are his compassionate attempts to reform his ultra-conservative kingdom. He used his power Monday to overturn a criminal court sentence of 60 lashes and a two-year travel ban imposed on female journalist Rosanna al-Yami. Under the travel ban, she could not have left Saudi Arabia. Al-Yami was sentenced for her work on an episode of the television show \"A Thick Red Line\" that featured a Saudi man who bragged about sexual escapades. The controversial show explores social taboos. It is carried by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp., for which al-Yami works as a coordinator and guest booker. \"King Abdullah's swift revocation of this punishment sends an important notice to the Saudi judicial system that it should not go after journalists for exercising free speech,\" said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. \"King Abdullah should also overturn the sentence against the man at the center of the case, who had spoken about sex on a television show, and initiate reforms to strengthen the rights to freedom of expression and to a fair trial,\" Human Rights Watch said in a written statement. In the episode, the Saudi man, Mazen Abdul Jawad, 32, bragged about his sex life. Saudi authorities put him on trial and sentenced him to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Shortly afterward, the court sentenced al-Yami. Jawad's attorney, Suleiman al-Jumeii, said al-Yami was not involved in setting up the episode in which his client appeared. The lawyer said he is attempting to pursue an appeal for his client and get the case heard in a special court that deals only with media matters. \"A Thick Red Line\" caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle. Saudi authorities shut down Lebanese Broadcasting's offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after the interview aired a few months ago. The king's pardon of al-Yami was unusual, but it was not the first time he has stepped in. In late 2007, the king pardoned a woman who, although she had been gang-raped, was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for appearing in public with an unrelated male, who also was pardoned, according to the Saudi justice minister. The king concluded in a letter pardoning the woman that her male companion, who was abducted along with her, had suffered torture along with her. Details of what happened to the two were not disclosed. Octavia Nasr, senior editor for Middle East affairs, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Saudi king overturns journalist's sentence of 60 lashes, two-year travel ban .\nFemale journalist worked on controversial TV show on sexual taboos .\nSaudi man was sentenced to five years in jail, 1,000 lashes for his role in show .\nHuman Rights Watch.calls on King Abdullah to overturn that sentence too .","id":"fccd40e4a87a9029e5389e48ede058ad6c988741"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- On the first anniversary of the historic 2008 election, retired Gen. Colin Powell, the first African-American secretary of state, talks one-on-one with CNN's Don Lemon for Essence Magazine about the most pressing issues facing black men in the age of President Obama. Don Lemon: President Barack Obama issued a national call to service. Do you think African-Americans have answered that call? Colin Powell: I really don't know that I know the answer to that question. I do know that in the work that I do and my wife does as the chair of America's Promise, we are seeing more and more people step forward to try to deal with the problems that we have, to include African-Americans and Hispanics stepping forward. But it's not just a one-time thing. You can't just have, let's have a day of service on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday or a day of service. We've got to get deeply involved in working with our kids on a continuing basis and not just one day a year. We need more African-American men, for example, to step forward and serve as mentors to young kids who don't have a responsible, caring adult male in their lives. If I could snap my finger and do one thing, I would make sure that every young American boy or girl, but especially African-American [children], have a responsible, caring adult in their lives. Hopefully, it's their parents, even if it's a single parent. ... But without that kind of family support, then we need Boys and Girls Clubs. We need Big Brothers and Big Sisters. We need mentors. Otherwise, these kids will find bad adults to copy from, and we're going to lose them. Lemon: I recently reported on youth violence and gangs in Chicago, Illinois. Most of the young men didn't have role models at home. Would it help if more African-American men had picked up the torch to help those young men? Powell: Of course it would. President Obama has spoken out rather clearly about this: Fathers have got to start doing their jobs. Every child has a father, and some of those fathers don't want to live up to the responsibility of being a father. Whether it's a father in a marriage or a father in a good home, that father is a father and owes that child financial support, owes that child companionship, owes that child an example in life. Those of us who have been blessed with some success ... you can look back and see family members who kept you in play. If it hadn't been for my relatives and my parents and my cousins and my priest and all the other people in my neighborhood, I wouldn't have made it. But they had a level of expectation for me. Lemon: How do you convince African-American men, especially, that service is a worthwhile effort? Powell: You tell them that without that effort, all of our achievements over the last 50 or 60 years are being put at risk. The statistics are frightening. Fifty percent of our African-American youngsters are not graduating from high school. And of that 50 percent, a higher percentage of boys are not graduating than girls. And when they get out of high school, if we can get them into the college, you will find six girls in college for every three or four boys who are in college. And those six girls will graduate at a higher rate than the three or four boys. This is a moral disaster for the African-American community. This is not why Rosa Parks rode in the back of the bus or why Martin Luther King Jr. and all of his colleagues marched. We didn't do it so that these kids could fail because they don't have adults in their life, teaching them how to succeed. We've got to teach them that you've got to behave. You've got to learn what it means to \"mind\" somebody. You've got to read to your kids. You've got to act like responsible fathers. Lemon: How did you become involved in President Obama's Renew America Together initiative, and what is your role? Powell: The president-elect was aware of the work that Alma and I had done together on America's Promise. As part of the transition effort, he intended to make this an important part of his administration, and he wanted to get started earlier. The White House asked if I would work with transition officials to launch his first initiative, which was called Renew America Together. I launched that for him on the 9th of January, 11 days before the inauguration. We also announced the Web site where people could sign up to get involved in service to their community. It's called usaservice.org. I'm so pleased that he has made this a major part of his administration and his agenda, because it fits right into what my wife and I have been doing for many years. LEMON: Did you have any African-American role models? What did they teach you? POWELL: They were, first and foremost, my family. When I was a young kid, born in Harlem, raised in the Bronx, it was my family that taught me how to behave, taught me what they expected of me, gave me a sense of shame and told me to \"mind.\" It's a word that's not used enough anymore. I tried to observe people who were successful in life. In the black community, we didn't have that many in those days. You had Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Ralph Bunche, Willie Mays, a lot of athletes. ... You had Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., the first black general in World War II. But it was still a country where people of color could not reach the heights. I was nevertheless inspired by these folks who did the best they could in the time in which they lived and showed that if you do your very, very best, you will be recognized and rewarded for it. I entered the Army five years after the last segregated unit was closed down. I entered in 1958, and at that time, the Army was fully integrated, the most integrated institution in American society. And what my commander said to me: \"We don't want to hear any sad stories about you were born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. Don't tell us anything about your immigrant family. We know you didn't go to West Point. \"We don't care where you went, and we don't care if you're black, white, blue. ... The only color we care about now is green. You're in the Army.\" The only thing that counts is performance. You can't perform if you don't get your education. You can't perform if you don't speak the English language well. You can't perform if you're not respectful. You can't perform and you won't get the opportunity to perform if you walk around with your pants dragging around your ankles and you're not behaving in a proper manner. Lemon: Amen, General. Thank you. Read Don Lemon's editorial on Essence.com about what Obama represents for all of us.","highlights":"Retired Gen. Colin Powell, wife founded America's Promise Alliance to support youth .\nPowell: \"Fathers have got to start doing their jobs\"\n\"All of our achievements over the last 50 or 60 years are being put at risk,\" Powell says .\nWatch \"Black Men in the Age of President Obama,\" weekdays on HLN at 4 p.m. ET .","id":"d2c4cac479022977e44dea09217db6946dc3de50"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's deputy minister of transport has been arrested after investigators taped him taking a $100,000 bribe, the Iraqi Integrity Commission said Monday. It's the latest sting aimed at what many Iraqis say is rampant corruption in the country. The anti-corruption body said Monday this was the first time such a high-level Iraqi official was caught in the act of taking a bribe. The announcement, made on the commission's Web site, said investigators detained Deputy Minister Adnan al-Obaidi last Wednesday. A spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, Aqeel Kawthar, told CNN on Monday that the deputy minister took office August 10, and his arrest came as a surprise to the ministry. He said there were no indications that al-Obaidi might be corrupt before this incident, but he said the Ministry of Transport \"supports and congratulates\" the Integrity Commission's work. A foreign security firm had approached the Integrity Commission alleging that al-Obaidi had asked for a bribe of $500,000 to renew the firm's contract, the commission said. \"The deputy minister was supposed to receive the full amount first, but the scenario was changed into him receiving $100,000 [in U.S. dollars] as a down payment, and the rest of the money would be delivered after the renewal of the contract,\" according to the commission's account. \"Orders were issued to security forces to deploy undercover in Karrada district\" in central Baghdad. Watch more about Iraq's war against corruption \u00bb . The statement said the security forces did not know who the target was and their orders were in coordination with the Integrity Commission's operations room. The commission said that five minutes before the arrest, the head of the commission, Judge Rahim al-Agili, informed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that a high-ranking government official had taken a bribe. The commission said al-Maliki responded by saying: \"I do not want to know his name, carry out the operation even if the wanted individual is Nuri al-Maliki. ... Whether he is from the Dawa party, a Sadrist, or a member of ISCI [all Shiite political parties, including that of the prime minister], he is only known to me as a bribe taker ... \" The Integrity Commission said the sting was caught on videotape, which it said would be posted soon on its Web site. \"The arrest of of the deputy minister of transport was a professional operation with no political dimensions to it, and we have not heard any political or parliamentary bloc objecting to it ... \" the commission's account said. \"The operation was carried out within 56 hours of continuous, nonstop, work. The head of the secret informant department and the men of the special operations branch [of the Integrity Commission] played a major role ... and the commission dedicated all its advanced capabilities to document and follow this.\" According to the monitoring group Transparency International, Iraq is one of the top three most corrupt countries in the world, along with Somalia and Myanmar. A recent report from the group said almost half the people it surveyed in Iraq had paid a bribe in the previous year. When CNN talked to people coming and going from Iraq's Interior Ministry, complaints were frequent. \"The employee inside said he will only finish my ID for an extra $40,\" one man said. Another said, \"You can't even talk to the janitor in a government office unless you're paying a bribe.\" Judge al-Agili told CNN his office is kept busiest by the Interior Ministry, but it is investigating 8,000 allegations of corruption against people through all departments and all levels of government. Al-Agili said he believes corruption is part of Iraq's culture, stretching back long before Saddam Hussein's regime. But he said he believes it can be beaten slowly, and that's why he set up the undercover special operations unit to carry out sting operations. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Phil Black contributed to this report.","highlights":"Integrity Commission says videotape shows Transport official taking $100,000 bribe .\nSting is latest aimed at what many Iraqis say is rampant corruption in the country .\nTransport spokesman calls arrest a surprise, congratulates integrity panel's work .\nIntegrity panel chief says Iraqi prime minister strongly backed operation .","id":"6b0ed324aa1218d4069f2cf7decb4ae0f7fa5206"} -{"article":"Fort Collins, Colorado (CNN) -- The lawyer of a Colorado father accused of carrying out a bizarre hoax involving his son and a huge balloon said Monday that official charges in the case could be filed next week. Authorities announced that Richard Heene and his wife, Mayumi Heene, face several felony charges, but David Lane said the sheriff was overreaching with the charges. \"It's piling on and it's using charges that really aren't designed to fit this sort of allegation,\" Lane said on \"Larry King Live.\" \"The attempt to influence a public official fraudulently, that's bribing a public official. That's not what happened here.\" The Heenes face charges of conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempting to influence a public servant, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said Sunday. The family also probably will be charged with filing a false police report, which is a misdemeanor, Alderden said. Lane has said that the couple is \"not running from the law\" and deserves the presumption of innocence. \"The sheriff having a press conference saying that they're guilty does not make them so,\" Lane told CNN's \"American Morning.\" Authorities say the event -- in which the tearful couple said their 6-year-old might have been trapped in the drifting balloon -- was staged. Richard and Mayumi Heene had met in a Hollywood acting school and pursued fame for their family in the world of reality TV, Alderden said. Lane, asked Monday by CNN about his client's state of mind, said it was \"what you would expect someone's state of mind to be after law enforcement searched your house, seized your property, held a press conference announcing you're about to be charged with felony criminal charges. Your state of mind would be rather upset and you would feel somewhat under siege, which is exactly how the family feels at this point.\" During the incident Thursday, as millions worldwide watched live TV coverage of the contraption floating above northern Colorado, authorities did not pick up on any deceptive behavior, Alderden said. But that night, during an interview on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" the boy, Falcon, gave authorities an \"Aha! moment,\" Alderden said. \"You guys said we did this for the show,\" Falcon said in the interview, when his father asked him why he had not come out from hiding when his parents were looking for him. Richard and Mayumi Heene said their son was simply confused. Lane said on \"Larry King Live\" on Monday that he thinks Falcon was referring to his demonstration to reporters of how he hid from view. But authorities enacted a game plan to get the truth, Alderden said. The plan included misleading the media on Friday when Alderden said authorities still believed the incident was not a hoax. They wanted to keep the couple's trust, the sheriff said. Investigators pursued separate interviews and polygraph tests with the Heene parents Saturday, then searched the couple's home early Sunday for computer records, phone records, video recordings and other potential evidence, Alderden said. \"The sheriff put both of them on a box, and they have not shared with us whether or not they passed or failed,\" Lane told \"American Morning\" on Monday. Polygraphs are not admissible in court, Lane added. Alderden said that, under Colorado law, authorities cannot announce whether polygraph tests were taken -- only that authorities pursued them. He added that authorities plan to seek restitution for the expenses incurred in the wild goose chase for Falcon. Because authorities aren't required to share evidence until charges are filed, Lane said he could not lay out the Heenes' defense. \"Until that point ... I'm shooting in the dark,\" he said, adding, \"If they have probable cause to make an arrest, then make an arrest and give me the evidence.\" iReport.com: \"Outraged\" over balloon hoax . Alderden, speaking at a news conference Sunday, said authorities are concerned about the safety of all three Heene children, ages 6, 8, and 10. Authorities spoke with Mayumi Heene about domestic violence and the children's safety, the sheriff said. \"But we didn't have enough that would allow us or child protection services to physically take the kids from that environment.\" A 9-1-1 call from the home earlier this year led authorities to a \"suspicious circumstance\" that the sheriff said might have involved \"domestic violence, perhaps against the wife.\" Lane told CNN affiliate KMGH on Sunday that he has \"no reason to believe they're anything but loving parents.\" iReport.com: \"Balloon boy saga is symptom, not disease\" Speaking to CNN on Monday, Lane said the Heene children were in his office Sunday, and that by his observations as a father of three, \"They seem to be perfectly, normal, happy, well-adjusted kids that are being insulated from this process as much as possible.\" During a round of live TV interviews Friday morning, Falcon was sick, which many speculate was because he was upset about the incident. One of the questions that remains unanswered is where Falcon was as the balloon drifted. On Friday, Alderden said it had been determined that the boy was hiding in an attic in the garage. Now, authorities are unsure. Alderden said the boy might not have even been in the home. The Heenes have previously appeared on the ABC program \"Wife Swap.\" Richard Heene also chases storms, brings his family along and takes videos. TLC, which produces the show \"Jon & Kate Plus 8\" -- told CNN that the Heenes had \"approached us months ago\" about a possible show, \"and we passed.\" Heene has been described as a meteorologist, but his education ended at the high school level, Alderden said. The sheriff said investigators want to interview researcher Robert Thomas, who worked with Heene for about two months this past spring. Thomas, 25, was paid by the gossip site Gawker.com to write about his experience with Heene for a story published on Saturday. In an interview arranged with the help of Gawker, Thomas told CNN that at one point they talked about the Roswell UFO incident of the late 1940s, when Heene said it would be easy to cook up \"a media stunt that would be equally profound as Roswell, and we could do so with nothing more than a weather balloon and some controversy.\"","highlights":"Authorities say story of boy in runaway balloon a hoax .\nFamily wanted publicity for reality TV jobs, sheriff says .\nOfficial charges in the case could be filed next week .\nLawyer says Heene family deserves presumption of innocence .","id":"6f8bfea808633e7aa3be5d54bed1363dbf3d07be"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- Jazz master Wynton Marsalis says the blues is the true American music -- the heartbeat and unifying principle of jazz, country, R&B, gospel and other styles -- but it's been relegated to the back of the bus by greed and the legacy of racism. Marsalis grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, son of Dolores and Ellis Marsalis. He was a trumpet prodigy, surrounded by top-notch musicians and steeped in the city's eclectic music. He was encouraged to excel by his father, a jazz pianist who instilled in his son a love of musical excellence and integrity. Marsalis plays classical and jazz music with equal mastery. He is artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and has won nine Grammy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize in music. He will be awarded the French Legion of Honor on November 6. In an interview Tuesday, Marsalis talked to CNN.com about the primary position of the blues in American music. The blues is our root music, American born-and-bred, but it's been treated like a stepchild of dubious origin, granted only secondary status, in Marsalis' view. It suffuses Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, rock 'n' roll, country-western, gospel, bluegrass and more, but never got its financial due or the respect it deserves. Marsalis says that's because of racism -- it was the music of a whole people granted only secondary status -- and its inability to make a lot of money. He also talks about his father, how slavery has affected the nation, and some lessons to be learned from jazz. CNN: You have a DVD out called \"Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Play the Music of Ray Charles.\" That's jazz, country and R&B. What do those styles have in common? WYNTON MARSALIS: The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel. The other is the down-home sensibility that's sophisticated. That's why Louis Armstrong could play with Jimmy Rogers. Ray Charles is actually the embodiment. He and Willie Nelson came 'round in young manhood at a time in the late '40s early 1950s when all of the American music, root music, was all combined. It became segregated in the mid- to late-'50s. Carl Perkins had a hit in 1955 -- \"Blue Suede Shoes.\" It was on the R&B charts, it was on the country charts, it was No. 1 on the rock and roll charts. [It was] basically the same music, so there was an intersection point. It's like in cuisine, that would be like fried chicken and red beans and rice, it would be like potato salad and barbecued ribs. Someone in Texas not going to eat barbecued ribs? CNN: What led to the compartmentalization of these kinds of music, that came from the same roots? MARSALIS: Money and racism. I don't know which one came first. CNN: Why was blues not regarded as something of value in this country? MARSALIS: It came from who we didn't like. That's what it was -- it wasn't that we couldn't see it. Who it came from, we did not like them. CNN: So do you include African-Americans in that? So black people didn't appreciate it? MARSALIS: They didn't appreciate it. They don't now. That's part of the whole kind of self-hatred that comes from that type of slavery that the black American still labors under. That racism was heavy. The legacy of it -- it wasn't just 50 years. It was seven generations, and if a generation is 33 years, ... seven or eight [generations]. That's a long time. And to recover from it has proven to be very difficult. CNN: So is that what's going on with rap? MARSALIS: No question. Rap is the repetition of the minstrel show. But it's not going to go away, it was too many people. If it had been 100,000 people, it can go away. ... But it can't be millions of people and their descendants. [Slavery] was a very powerful and successful system. And it went on for a long time. In the aftermath of slavery ... there was a retrenching, and [it turned into] the type of racism that was experienced by people who came to the North. That consciousness has begun to shift, in the last 30 years. And that's 20 or 30 years of just thawing and shifting that's attached to 330 years [of slavery], and the thought you can get up and you will be better ... that's just asinine, it's absurd. CNN: But didn't the blues come from this, being marginalized? MARSALIS: The blues was like a solution to that, an antidote to it. But the blues is not only Afro-American music. CNN: So, you've written that it's not just African, it's American. What about America gave rise to the blues? MARSALIS: It is America. It's that combination, those tensions, the east-west tensions, the kind of tension of being a slave in the land of freedom, and the land of freedom itself, the Western mind, the concept of soloing across time, the call-and-response of democracy, direct call and response, the kind of optimism that is American in nature, is in the blues. There are elements in it that are African and there are elements of the American take on Europeanism. It's integrated, it's like a person whose DNA is integrated. You start to try to figure it out -- but you can't. That's how the blues is, that's why it fits with everything, country-western, bluegrass -- everybody's playing the same music. CNN: You write that jazz leaves room for individual creativity, but you have to listen and allow the other musicians to participate equally. So what's the lesson for the nation? MARSALIS: We have to have an overall cultural objective, which we don't have. ... We then fight under the flag of a position, the left or the right, black or white, old or young. It's very simplistic. We don't know our cultural history, we don't know we are together, and because we don't know we are together we can't act in that way. And that's the main thing our music, and the history of our music, can teach us as a nation. The one concept that has to be at the heart of the American experiment is integrity. The integrity of the process is very important. If you come up on the bandstand you have to be at least trying to swing. If you don't really want to swing or play with the musicians, there's nothing they can do, because you have the freedom to destroy it. CNN: Your father set an example. It sounds like you got a lot of your ideas about integrity from him. MARSALIS: Yes, he sure did. From him. He wasn't segregated about any music, he didn't care, you could play pop music, funk, he'd say \"right, great man.\" He was a jazz musician. He wasn't uptight and always railing about somebody. What he did was very clear, and what he thought about being a man, he didn't look at a boy like that. I remember he sat in with our funk band one time. ... We'd go to his gig, there'd be six people. We'd go to our gig, there'd be thousands of people, dancing having a good time. We were playing a dance at a high school, he didn't know any of the music, but he played all of the music we had. We were laughing, we said, my daddy didn't know any of the music and he didn't know any of the tunes but he was playing better than us. CNN: When you were playing in a funk band in high school, did you look at your jazz musician dad as old school? MARSALIS: No, no, never, I never suffered from that misconception, because he was so much hipper than the people I was around. Philosophically, he knew more than we did. I'd bring people to see him. He never tried to act like a child, like a kid. I never thought I knew more than him, he was on the case. CNN: What are the components of jazz? MARSALIS: The main three components are the blues, improvisation -- which is some kind of element that people are trying to make it up -- and swing, which means even though they're making up music, they're trying to make it up together. It feels great, like you're having a great conversation with somebody. Sometimes you get in a good coordinated groove, and it just continues to happen. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Wynton Marsalis.","highlights":"Wynton Marsalis: The blues is at the root of all American music, but was never given its due .\nMarsalis: Blues unappreciated by blacks and whites alike, due to racism and money .\nSlavery was 330 years, shift away from racism's effects only in past 30 years .\nHe says Americans don't know their cultural history: There are solutions to divisions .","id":"166e8a8af599b51323edf24f1aa27c46dbc93486"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The 63-year-old bearded fireplug of a man erupted in tears, pulled a white handkerchief from his back pocket, carefully unfolded it and pressed it into his eyes, pulled it away, pressed it again to his eyes, this time with more force, pulled it away again just long enough to take a sip of water, then rubbed them again. Lula da Silva gets a kiss from bid committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman after the announcement Friday. \"I've never won a gift before,\" Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters. \"The first gift I ever had in my life I had to buy. It was an old bike with a broken belt and I had to fix it. Today, people who don't even know me gave me the greatest gift that a president could have: to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Rio deserves this because Rio is a city that has suffered.\" For Lula da Silva, Friday's announcement in Copenhagen, Denmark, that Rio de Janeiro will host the 31st Olympiad in 2016 signified a major achievement not only for his hemisphere (no city in South America has ever before hosted the games) but for him -- a former autoworker and union organizer who defied dizzying odds to become president. Lula da Silva was born to a peasant family in one of northeastern Brazil's most impoverished areas and migrated as a young man to a city near S\u00e3o Paulo, where he worked as a metalworker, losing his left pinky finger in the process. In the 1970s, he became a union leader, said Luiz Valente, chairman of the department of Portuguese and Brazilian studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. During the years of military rule from 1964 until 1985, the government cracked down on unions. But Lula da Silva acquired a reputation as a public figure by leading a successful strike in S\u00e3o Paulo, Valente told CNN in a telephone interview. \"He was able to negotiate a favorable contract for his union but, from a political standpoint, he demonstrated that worker strikes were possible again in Brazil,\" Valente said. During the early 1980s, as the military rulers' grip on control loosened, Lula da Silva helped found the leftist Workers' Party. In the late 1980s, he ran for Congress and won, but he chose not to run for re-election. Instead, he set his sights on the top job, waging a losing presidential campaign in 1989, the country's first presidential election since 1960. Successive tries in 1993 and 1997 were unsuccessful, but in 2001, he won and quickly surprised many observers. \"When he began, he was perceived as someone very much on the left,\" said Valente. \"He was perceived as being a socialist. However, he has not governed as a socialist. Instead, his economic policies were a continuation of the previous administration's.\" In fact, Brazil's economic policy has been \"pretty much middle of the road, some people would say pretty conservative,\" said Valente, who added that he has never voted for Lula da Silva. But Lula da Silva has worked to help the country's poor, introducing populist measures intended to lower the incidence of poverty and making other moves, Valente said. \"As a union leader during the military dictatorship, he learned how to negotiate with the so-called enemy,\" Valente said. \"So Lula is going to try to reach some kind of consensus, and he did. What he did was not a product of ideology but of a pragmatist attitude of the government of Brazil.\" Lula da Silva's moderate modus operandi has gained him popularity at home, where he has made no moves toward abolishing the term limits that preclude his running for a third term next year, Valente said. That pragmatism has served him well on the international front, where he is on good terms with the leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador as well as with the United States and the European Union. \"Lula knows how to play the game,\" Valente said. Like Brazil's president, Rio did not succeed on its first try, having been rejected in an earlier bid -- which inspired planners to be meticulous, Valente said. \"They were very well-prepared,\" he said. Indeed, the city two years ago hosted the Pan-American Games, which officials looked on as a trial run for the Olympics, he said. \"Everything ran without a hitch,\" said Valente. \"It was just a beautiful event.\" Lula's waterworks were no surprise to his countrymen, the professor said. \"He's a very emotional guy and Brazilians tend to be emotional. They're certainly not ashamed of showing their emotions ... It's not unusual for Brazilian men to cry in situations like that. Brazilians actually like to see men cry. They think it's good to show your emotions.\" Watch the reaction as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is named host city for the 2016 Olympics \u00bb . \"He always cries when he talks of his mother, who never saw him become president,\" said Fabiana Frayssinet, CNN's correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. \"He's a man who cries, who gets mad. He's an emotional man who says what he thinks whenever he wants.\" Emotions were on display Friday on Copacabana beach in Rio, where thousands of people flocked on the first sunny day after two weeks of rain and atypically cold weather. \"It was a mix of the end of a football championship with a ... carnival and all the Brazilian festivals,\" Frayssinet said.","highlights":"Lula da Silva calls announcement \"the greatest gift that a president could have\"\nBrazil's president rose from metalworker to union organizer to politician .\nHis election to the presidency in 2001 came after three unsuccessful tries .\nRio's hosting the Pan-American Games was seen as a trial run for the Olympics .","id":"2f1c1fa0c8202248255f55e52deab6e921e1aec1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sea The Stars showed a blistering turn of pace to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and confirm his status as one of the greatest race horses in history. Sea The Stars finishes clear of the field to win Europe's top horse race. It was the fifth consecutive win for the three-year-old colt, including the 2,000 Guineas and English Derby, as he claimed Europe's premier flat race on Sunday. Trained in Ireland by John Oxx, Sea The Stars was boxed in approaching the final furlong, but jockey Mick Kinane found a gap before bursting clear of the field. He relegated Youmzain, ridden by the returning Kieren Fallon, into second place with seven-time Arc winning trainer Andre Fabre's Cavalryman, under Frankie Dettori, in third. Breeders Cup Turf champion Conduit was finishing fast but could do no better than fourth. Sea The Stars started as a 4-6 favorite and was supported by a huge following, being cheered to the rafters in the ring even prior to the race. But the Aidan O'Brien-trained Set Sail and Grand Ducal set a blistering pace with the former leading by 15 lengths entering the home straight of the mile and a half (2,400 meters) race. Unbeaten French filly Stacelita then hit the front before 50-year-old Kinane and the superstar Sea The Stars worked their magic to emulate his dam (mother) Urban Sea who won the race in 1993.","highlights":"Sea The Stars wins Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race at Longchamps .\nCompletes treble after earlier wins in English Derby and 2,000 Guineas .\nIrish trained horse bursts clear of rivals under jockey Mick Kinane .","id":"b28893521acb439b6c5fd79bb5d982db603b3d99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pirates seized control of a cargo vessel near the Seychelles Thursday, one of two attacks that took place within minutes of each other off the coast of east Africa, according to the European Union Naval Force. The International Maritime Bureau say attacks off the east coast of Africa have increased this year. The EU maritime patrol responded to the early morning attacks, along with the Seychelles Coast Guard. The crew of the Panama-flagged MV Al Khaliq said two pirates had boarded the vessel before communication was cut off with the crew. The EU force confirmed that six pirates have boarded the 180-meter long bulk carrier, with two attack skiffs in tow. They hoisted the \"mother skiff\" onto the vessel with a crane, the EU force said. A second attempted hijacking took place at approximately the same time, but the Italian-flagged cargo ship evaded the attack, the EU said. Armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, pirates opened fire on the MV Jolly Rosso about 460 miles (740 km) east of Mombasa, Kenya. A Belgium warship, part of the EU force, responded to the attack, which caused no casualties. The 200-meter MV Jolly Rosso continued its voyage. Pirate attacks off the coast of east Africa have significantly increased this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. But successful attacks have gone down as a result of a strong presence of international monitors. The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year, the bureau reported on Wednesday. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, it said. More than half of this year's attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. Out of those attacks, Somali pirates successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight others were wounded, four more killed and one is missing, the bureau said. On Monday, pirates hijacked a Chinese merchant ship and its 25-member crew about 630 miles (1,000 km) northeast of Seychelles. The pirates appeared to be heading toward Somalia, the European Union Naval Force said. China plans to make \"every effort to rescue\" the crew members, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, told reporters. The bulk carrier De Xin Hai is one of four ships that Somali pirates are holding for ransom with 80 crew members as hostages, the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday. Maritime authorities say two recent trends have led to a rise in piracy: access and opportunity. As global commerce picks up, more and more of the world's fuels, minerals and other crucial commodities travel by ship. Ninety-five percent of America's foreign trade, for instance, moves by water, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. That cargo is an easy target for robbers in countries that lack the resources to secure their shorelines, such as Somalia. Somalia's transitional government, which has a tenuous grip on power, has been unable to stop the pirates -- many of whom are based in the country's port cities. This has prompted Europe and other Western countries to step up maritime patrols. \"In the Gulf of Aden, the number of attacks have gone up. But because of the presence of naval vessels, the success rate of the pirates have decreased,\" said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau. \"The navies are responding very very effectively.\" Piracy accelerated after the fall of the Somali government in the early 1990s and began to flourish after shipping companies started paying ransoms. Those payments started out being in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions. With the ransoms they collect, pirates can earn up to $40,000 a year, analysts say. That's a fortune for someone from an impoverished country. Some analysts say companies are simply making the problem worse by paying the piracies. \"Yes, the ransoms have probably caused the piracy to become a bit more rampant. But at the same time, from the owner's point of view, there is no other way currently to secure the safe release of the vessel along with the crew and the cargo,\" Mody said. \"It's basically a cycle.\" CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report .","highlights":"Pirates have taken control of cargo vessel near the Seychelles off east cost of Africa .\nEuropean Union Naval Force say six pirates boarded 180-meter long carrier .\nA second attempted hijacking took place at approximately the same time .\nPirate attacks off east African coast have increased this year .","id":"02385271c1f0335d4e77e7a4912e7bbf2ba15fa5"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- An employee of a luxurious New York hotel has been arrested in connection with the slaying of a woman in one of the hotel's residential condominiums, police say. The Jumeirah Essex House is a landmark on Central Park South in New York. Derrick Praileau, 29, faces second-degree murder charges in connection with the death of Andree Bejjani, 44. Police said Bejjani, who was originally from Lebanon, had moved to New York from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and had been staying in a residential condominium at the Jumeirah Essex House since August. Bejjani's nude body was found Saturday afternoon on the 10th floor of the hotel on Central Park South. Her throat was slashed, authorities said. Police have not revealed a suspected motive for the slaying. \"This incident occurred in one of the private condominiums at The Essex House complex,\" the hotel said in a statement provided to CNN. \"Our sincere condolences go out to the victim's family and we have offered our full support during this difficult time.\" The statement continued: \"We understand that a hotel employee has been arrested pending charges in conjunction with this incident. We continue to fully cooperate with the police throughout their investigation.\" A message left with Praileau's defense attorney was not returned. The hotel referred to Praileau only as an employee, but the New York Daily News said he was its housekeeping manager, citing Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The 44-story Essex House opened in 1931, a landmark Art Deco building. It recently underwent a $90 million renovation. The hotel has more than 500 luxury rooms and suites, along with several privately-owned residences. One six-room unit is currently on the market for $8.25 million.","highlights":"Lebanese native Andree Bejjani, 44, found dead in condo Saturday .\nDerrick Praileau, 29, faces second-degree murder charges .\nPolice commissioner tells newspaper that Praileau was housekeeping manager .\nAuthorities have not revealed suspected motive .","id":"9e5718e2c34ed267e4bf42e741edcf58cc1384cc"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian protesters are vowing to continue their anti-government demonstrations into Wednesday night, despite violent crackdowns and arrests. Witnesses in Tehran tell CNN the demonstrators number in the tens of thousands. The protests are timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy. Iran celebrates the embassy takeover as an official holiday, and tens of thousands showed up to hear anti-American speeches in front of the building that once housed the U.S. diplomatic corps. Many chanted \"Death to America.\" The anniversary was also an opportunity to reignite the anti-government protests that were sparked in June, following a disputed presidential election. Thousands of protesters ignored warnings from Iranian authorities to stay home, many chanting \"Death to the Dictator\" and others saying, \"Obama - Either you're with us or with them,\" referring to the U.S. president. Riot police and pro-government Basij militia turned out in force to quash anti-government protests. \"We were running from the police in the alleys off of the main streets,\" said Soheil, an opposition protester, who gave only one name for security reasons. \"Strangers were opening up their garages so we could hide until the police went away. I ran into a garage for about 15 minutes. When I went back into the main street, I saw riot police arresting a group of young men, then putting them inside a bank and locking the door. \"Only God knows what will happen to them after that.\" iReport: Iranians take to the streets . Soheil, like many other of the demonstrators, took part in the protests this summer. As with previous demonstrations, many images of Wednesday's protest were uploaded to the Internet on the site YouTube.com -- including video of protesters walking over an image of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Another clip showed a group of women being beaten by what appeared to be Iranian security forces. Witnesses said many Iranian women took part in Wednesday's demonstration, and were frequently targeted by the Iranian security forces -- which is what also happened during the summer protests. Video posted on YouTube showed many protesters beaten on the head with batons. Iranian reformists have chosen key anniversaries to protest the hardline government -- the same anniversaries chosen for government-sanctioned anti-American rallies. Wednesday's was the biggest annual anti-American observance of all. On November 4, 1979, Islamic students stormed the U.S. Embassy. They held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. There were also small pockets of protest on Wednesday in the southwest Iran city of Shiraz, according to a resident who witnessed the protests. Demonstrators marched down the main street of Shiraz, yelling \"Death to the dictator\" and \"We will not stand down to you, together we are united,\" according to Najmeh, who only gave her first name for security reasons. There was strong police presence on the streets, and the police force seemed much more organized than past occasions, she said. Earlier in the day, opposition supporters marched defiantly in Tehran's Haft-e-Tir Square, witnesses said. Many held up their hands in V-signs. Others shouted \"Allahu Akbar,\" or \"God is great,\" which has become a slogan of protest. Police blocked all roads leading to the square, creating massive traffic jams. Witnesses described helmet-clad security personnel beating demonstrators with batons and firing tear gas at Haft-e-Tir Square and in a neighborhood a few kilometers north. \"I had never seen that many riot police and security personnel,\" a witness told CNN. \"They were brought in by the busloads. As soon as crowds gathered somewhere, riot police were there within minutes.\" The opposition showed Wednesday that even after five months of government crackdown, people were still willing to take risks. The disputed June 12 presidential election triggered Iran's most serious political crisis since the Islamic revolution toppled the shah. Led by opposition candidate Mir Houssein Moussavi, thousands of Iranians protested what they believed was a rigged vote that returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office for a second term. In the election aftermath, the Iranian government arrested more than 1,000 people and accused reformists Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi of spreading anti-government propaganda and fueling anger among the public. But despite warnings from the government, Iran's reformists have largely refused to back down. They released the names of 72 protesters they say were killed in the unrest that followed the election -- more than double the government's official number. Both Moussavi and Karrubi were prevented from attending Wednesday's rallies, according to a reformist Web site, Norooz News. Karrubi's son told the Web site that his father tried to reach the Haft-e-Tir Square rally on foot, but he was blocked by anti-riot police, sparking clashes with his followers. Police fired tear gas toward Karrubi, hitting one of his guards on the head, and causing Karrubi and some of his supporters to fall to the ground, according to Norooz News. Karrubi and his followers returned to their vehicles and drove away when, at one point, security forces attacked and damaged Karrubi's vehicle, the Web site said. Video posted on YouTube showed Karrubi briefly opening his car door to a crowd of cheering supporters, who chanted, \"Honorable Karrubi, help the people of Iran.\" Iranian authorities had warned Karrubi to not participate in the marches, saying he might be the victim of a suicide attack, according to Norooz News. Moussavi was unable to join the demonstration after his car was prevented from leaving his office, according to his Facebook page and a report on a reformist Web site. Cell phone and Internet connections were cut in the area where his office is located, and dozens of plainclothes motorcycle riders blocked the entrance and chanted slogans against Moussavi, the Web sites said. Read analysis from Hamid Dabashi, author of \"Iran: A People Interrupted\" In Washington, President Obama said the world continues to bear witness to the Iranian people's \"calls for justice and their courageous pursuit of universal rights.\" \"Iran must choose,\" he said in a statement late Tuesday. \"We have heard for thirty years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for. \"It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity, and justice for its people,\" he said. Obama noted how the embassy takeover reshaped U.S.-Iranian relations. \"This event helped set the United States and Iran on a path of sustained suspicion, mistrust, and confrontation,\" he said. \"I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.\" Obama said America has demonstrated willingness to work with Iran over nuclear issues by recognizing its right to peaceful nuclear power and accepting a recent proposal by the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency. \"We have made clear that if Iran lives up to the obligations that every nation has, it will have a path to a more prosperous and productive relationship with the international community,\" Obama said. CNN's Reza Sayah, Sara Mazloumsaki, Mitra Mobasherat, and journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Reformist leaders stopped from attending anti-government rallies, Web site says .\nMarchers gather in Tehran on 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover .\nAnti-American rallies mark 1979 hostage-taking after students stormed embassy .\nProtests by reformists followed disputed June presidential election .","id":"70abe9133b39c53541c1dbecf87c62297940defa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It says something about the popularity of \"Dancing With the Stars\" that the show's professional dancers have become almost as famous as the celebrities they're paired with. Mark Ballas and Shawn Johnson celebrate after winning last season's \"Dancing With the Stars.\" Take Mark Ballas, who last season waltzed and tangoed his way to a first-place finish with Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson -- his second mirror ball trophy since he joined the hit series in 2007. At just 23, Ballas is already recognized on the street, he's in a band with fellow \"Dancing\" pro Derek Hough, and he's thinking about branching out into acting. For the new season of \"Dancing With the Stars,\" which begins Monday, Ballas is paired with Melissa Joan Hart, best known for her roles in the television series \"Sabrina, the Teenage Witch\" and \"Clarissa Explains It All.\" Ballas spoke to CNN about his new celebrity partner, his training routine and whether former \"American Idol\" judge Paula Abdul could find a new home on the show. The following is an edited version of that interview. CNN: What is Melissa Joan Hart like as a dancer? Mark Ballas: She's doing really well so far. I think she's going to shock a lot of people, and I think they will love her personality. She's really bright and bubbly. CNN: Does she have any dancing experience? Ballas: No, she's never danced before. I mean, she took a couple of ballet classes when she was a child, but everyone's done that. She's never danced like this before, so it's been a bit of a learning curve for her, but hopefully she'll smooth it out. CNN: Did you know who she was before you were matched? Ballas: Oh, yeah. I used to watch her shows all the time when I was younger. I would watch \"Clarissa Explains It All\" and \"Sabrina, the Teenage Witch\" after school. CNN: Do you get any input in what celebrity you are paired with? Ballas: No, we get no choice whatsoever. It's basically [dependent on] whether they think our personalities will be compatible and also on height. You have to be the right height, because if someone is 6 feet and your partner is 5 feet, it won't work out. CNN: How do you choreograph dances? Do you like to use certain routines over again? Ballas: I start fresh every time. Having a good song is definitely helpful, and when you get a new song, it's really inspiring and makes you want to move, and that's the fun of it. You always want to keep things fresh, and I always keep challenging myself, like how can I outdo what I did last time? CNN: The facial expressions seem so important in ballroom dancing. How do you teach that to your celebrity partners? Ballas: That's something you can't teach. Obviously, you explain what the dance is and how you have to act and what you should be thinking, but you don't choreograph facial expressions. That's got to come from the heart and the soul, and you just have to feel it. CNN: If you have a celebrity partner like Kim Kardashian, who was criticized for being wooden on the dance floor, is there anything you can do? Ballas: The best thing to do is to make them feel comfortable. Kim got very shy when the cameras were on, and she would always dance a lot better off camera. But sometimes, dancing just isn't for certain people. Kim and I had a great time together and still are good friends to this day. But dancing wasn't her thing, she just didn't take to it. CNN: Do you keep in touch with your former partners? Ballas: Yes, I talk to Shawn [Johnson] and Kristi Yamaguchi all the time; I talked to Kim Kardashian about an hour ago. We stay good friends. Kristi Yamaguchi was amazing to work with -- great temperament, really eager to learn, she was like a machine. Kim Kardashian was a doll. We talk all the time, we hang out when we can, she's a lot of fun. Shawn Johnson was just a joy to work with, from start to finish. Just an absolute sweetheart. We had a lot of fun, we laughed a lot. CNN: A lot of people were surprised that actor Gilles Marini didn't win last season. What's your take on that? Ballas: I definitely feel that Shawn was the better dancer. Gilles was a great performer, but technically -- if you were looking at technique and you're looking at dancing -- Shawn was the stronger dancer. Her routines were a lot harder, her technique was a lot stronger ... especially in the last four weeks. I definitely feel like it was a fair result. CNN: Your father, Corky Ballas, who is also a professional dancer, made quite a splash when he was paired with 80-something Cloris Leachman on \"Dancing\" last year. Is he coming back to the show anytime soon? Ballas: I hope so. It was a lot of fun having him around, and I thought he was amazing, of course. They were a great team, absolutely hilarious. I'm sure if they ask him back, which I'm hoping they do, that he would definitely come back. CNN: There were some suggestions that Paula Abdul might join the show as a judge. What do you think about that? Ballas: I think that Paula would be great as a contestant. If she wanted to be on our show, she should come on to compete and be partnered with one of us. As far as the judges, I love our judges. I think our judges are great, and I think we've got a great system, and I don't think there would be any need for an extra judge. I love Paula -- I've met her several times because \"American Idol\" is right next door to us. I would love for her to come on the show and be my partner. CNN: Are you recognized on the street? Ballas: I have loads of people come up to me. They ask questions about the season. It's really nice, and I really appreciate it. CNN: Your fellow pros on \"Dancing,\" Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, broke off their engagement recently. Is that going to affect the show in any way? Ballas: We're all very professional. These things happen. It will definitely not affect the show, we'll keep on dancing. You won't even be able to tell. I've talked to Max several times. He's doing OK. These things are never easy, and Max is a dear, dear friend of mine. I've known him for 13 years. CNN: What are your career goals beyond dancing? Ballas: I'm actually a guitar player and a singer\/songwriter. I studied musical theater and music and vocals. Anything to do with music is definitely a big goal of mine. I've studied acting for 10 years, so I'd love to do film at some point as well.","highlights":"Professional dancer Mark Ballas is paired with Melissa Joan Hart this season .\nThe two-time champ of \"Dancing With the Stars\" finds her \"bright and bubbly\"\nBallas: Paula Abdul would be great as a contestant, but isn't needed as a judge .\nMaksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff's breakup won't affect the show, he says .","id":"305d8231ecff5f407361095051f2ea7d4dbdec75"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Huddled on the top floor of her home after waist-deep water inundated the lower story, Doranne Lim is bothered by the debris -- and the smell. Residents remove mud from a home Monday as waters recede in Marikina City, suburban Manila. \"My house is super, super messy,\" she said, speaking from her home in the eastern Manila suburb of Pasig City. The mud left behind by receding floodwaters -- caused when the nearby river flooded its banks -- is \"really smelly.\" Her car won't start, probably because the engine is flooded. Her microwave and refrigerator won't function. Most of her possessions have been moved upstairs. Still, as one of the more than 1.8 million affected by recent floods, the 28-year-old Lim is counting her blessings. Her power is back on and she believes she can salvage most of her furniture. In addition, people she knows are still searching for missing friends and relatives in the flooding. Are you there? Share your story or pictures . \"My office mate, she lives in a village with actually really nice houses,\" Lim said. \"She was sitting on her roof for 15 hours. They didn't save anything, nothing.\" The floodwaters were beginning to subside in some areas Monday after a weekend that saw Manila hit with torrential rainfall caused by Typhoon Ketsana, which has since strengthened into a typhoon. Officials said the Philippine capital saw its heaviest rain in more than four decades. The water swallowed whole houses and buses. At least 240 people are dead, officials say. See incredible images of the flooding \u00bb . Lim said she is cleaning up the smelly mess, but no one she knows has begun fixing the damage -- because another typhoon could be bearing down on the island nation in several days. Tracking maps show Tropical Storm Nineteen approaching the Philippines later this week. Lim submitted a photo to CNN's iReport site of people traveling down a flooded road -- a main thoroughfare -- in Pasig City. Some are wading through thigh-deep water; others are being pulled on rafts. Some opportunists are charging others money to pull them on rafts, she said. At the end of the road is a church and a market, she said. The market is not flooded, but is \"really, really muddy,\" she said. \"Most of the vendors in the market said they are going to sleep in the market tonight because they don't have any place to go.\" Manila, on the island of Luzon, and the nearby province of Rizal bore the brunt of the storm. People like Lim's office mate huddled on rooftops Sunday waiting on army helicopters to pluck them to safety. Others used ropes to wade through waist-deep muddy waters. Watch how people of Manila are coping \u00bb . Power and water supply failed in some areas. Roads were rendered impassable, making rescue efforts challenging. Rescue crews were handing out food rations. \"Right now the challenge is to find out how many people have actually died and how many people we have to take care of in terms of people who've been displaced,\" said Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines National Red Cross. He estimated up to 300,000 people have been displaced on the island of Luzon alone. Another Pasig City resident, Arturo Fidelino, said 80 percent of his village was flooded. He counts himself lucky that his home was not inundated, but his family had to evacuate and move in with his in-laws because nearby streets were impassable. Fidelino said he and his wife have to get to work, and their 14-year-old daughter has to get to school. Fidelino said his family was stuck in their home for two days, before a relative who owns heavy machinery was able to remove them. \"It's our first time to experience that kind of flood,\" he said, estimating it could take about a month for the waters to completely recede. He said many of his neighbors remain stuck in their homes, as the homeowners' association organizes a removal effort. Other Pasig City residents were evacuated to temporary shelters set up in a municipal hall or gymnasium, he said. Officials worried that if the rains return, they could bring more floods if reservoirs burst. \"We're hoping that there will be no more breaching of the dams,\" Gordon said. \"That's one of the things that are very disconcerting to many people right now.\" Fidelino said many Filipinos aren't sure if the flooding was caused by the typhoon or by the opening of dams. \"It was so sudden,\" he said. \"It was sort of a flash flood.\" The floodwaters contained all sorts of animals as well -- snails, snakes, Lim said. Two crocodiles escaped from the zoo, she said -- \"it's funny, but it's scary.\" \"I'm happy that I'm a lot better off than so many other people I see on TV, clinging to electric posts, electric wires, so they won't be carried away (by the water),\" she said. \"I have friends who are still missing their siblings, missing their dogs.\" Both she and Fidelino said residents have banded together to help one another. Lim said that after her electricity was restored, she got on Facebook, where she saw numerous posts from people seeking missing friends or loved ones. Members of the media and even the government were trying to help on the social networking site, asking them to send more information. Some people are putting together \"relief bags\" of food and other items to distribute to those in shelters, while others were bringing canned goods, Lim said. \"Everyone is united right now to help feed everyone,\" she said. Others are just trying to feed themselves. John Gonzalez, 11, has been pushing a trolley through his flooded neighborhood in Manila's Marietta Romeo village for two days. \"The flood went above the height of a man,\" he said. \"Way above our heads. Today, the water just comes to my mouth. That's why we are out looking for food.\" CNN's Dan Rivers contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines.","highlights":"Survivors face mud and destruction, but they are thankful for their lives .\nFloods caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana kill at least 240 people .\nMore than 80 percent of capital was under water at one point Sunday .\niReport.com: Are you there? Send images .","id":"65efeaf0f88689efad48b0c11769113e1aedfeb4"} -{"article":"DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Texas terrorism suspect Hosam Smadi recorded a seven-minute video message for al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden before his arrest on charges of plotting to blow up a Dallas building, an FBI agent testified Monday. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi said through his lawyer that he understood the charges Friday. No details of the message were provided in court. But FBI Special Agent Thomas Petrowski said the video was recorded in a hotel room with the assistance of undercover FBI operatives and Smadi intended for it to be delivered to or seen by bin Laden, the fugitive leader of the terrorist network behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian living in the United States illegally, is charged with plotting to set off a bomb at the base of the 60-story Fountain Plaza office tower in downtown Dallas. He was arrested September 24 after federal agents said he tried to trigger an improvised bomb attached to a vehicle at the base of the building. At a brief hearing in Dallas on Monday, Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez ordered Smadi bound over for future hearings. Peter Fleury, the public defender representing Smadi, told reporters that his client remains held under immigration law, with no bail set. Fleury called his client \"a scared 19-year-old kid held away from his family,\" who could face additional charges from a grand jury. Prosecutors don't have to share the evidence against Smadi until after a grand jury acts, so lawyers don't know the full extent of the case against him, Fleury said. \"We have got a lot of work to do,\" he said. \"They have had the case since March. We just got the case. We're way behind them.\" Friends in the town of Italy, Texas, about 45 miles south of Dallas, said Smadi was outgoing and friendly -- but one told CNN last week that the teen started showing signs of depression about six months ago, around the same time the FBI started believing he was serious about carrying out a bomb plot. CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.","highlights":"FBI: Suspect recorded video in hotel; intended for Osama bin Laden to see it .\nHosam Smadi accused of plotting to bomb Dallas skyscraper .\nLawyer: Smadi \"a scared 19-year-old kid held away from his family\"\nJudge also ordered Smadi bound over for future hearings .","id":"4fb0485c632a2de4ed15aa492948e8e463f8b116"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Indigenous Indians located nine survivors of a plane that crashed in a river in the Amazon rain forest with 11 people onboard, according to the Brazilian air force. The nine passengers were in good health, the air force said Friday. Of the two people missing -- a passenger and a crew member -- one is believed to be dead. The air force did not provide further details. The plane was on its way to deliver health supplies Thursday when it crashed. It had taken off from Cruzeiro do Sul in Acre state and was headed to Tabatinga in Amazonas state. The plane landed in the Itui River between the tribe settlements of Aurelio and Rio Novo. Indians of the Matis tribe, who live in Aurelio, initially located the plane and alerted the Brazilian air force, which sent search planes to the site. Before the passengers were located, at least eight aircraft had been dispatched for the search operation, the air force said. Members of the Matis, an indigenous tribe of about 300, live deep in the rain forest. Other area tribes were helping in a search for the two missing passengers along the shores of the Itui. CNN's Mariane Teixeira contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two people missing; one believed to be dead .\nMatis tribe Indians find plane and alert Brazilian air force .","id":"b14aca5110261197339fd1c7862eeb3303024d74"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department has sold its London embassy building to a Qatari real estate company, the embassy announced Tuesday. The signing of the deal is another major step in the embassy's plans to relocate from its longtime headquarters in central London to a new site in Wandsworth, on the south bank of the River Thames. It wasn't immediately clear how much Qatari Diar Real Estate paid for the embassy building in Grosvenor Square, whose 1960s facade was recently given listed status, meaning its design can't be changed. The embassy will continue to operate from the current building until the new one is completed in 2016 or 2017, the embassy said. Construction is expected to begin in 2012 or 2013. It was a year ago that the embassy announced it was looking for a new site that is more modern, open, and secure than the current building in London's West End. It has now settled on a site in Wandsworth and is having a design competition for the new building. When the embassy does move to Wandsworth, it will mark the end of a more than 200-year association with Grosvenor Square, in the historic and exclusive neighborhood of Mayfair near Hyde Park. John Adams, who later became U.S. president, lived on the square from 1785 to 1788, when he was the first U.S. minister to the Court of St. James. The building in which he lived still stands in the square's northeast corner. The embassy moved to various locations in the West End before returning to Grosvenor Square in 1938. For years, it occupied a building on the east side of the square -- a building that now houses the Canadian High Commission. During World War II, the square was known as \"Little America\" because the embassy was on one side and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters were on the other. The embassy moved to its current site, occupying the entire west side of the square, when the building was completed in 1960. The concrete, four-story structure was designed by Eero Saarinen, who also designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, and the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the embassy has caused controversy locally by installing blast walls in a wide perimeter around the building. Neighbors complained the walls were unsightly, and the walls caused the road in front of the building to be closed to traffic. Sitting atop the building at the front is a huge gilded aluminum eagle with a 35-foot wingspan. It is not clear whether the eagle will be considered part of the building's listed status, meaning it will have to stay on the facade, or whether it can be moved to the new location, according to a spokesman for the realty firm Cushman and Wakefield, which advised the United States on the sale.","highlights":"Qatari firm buys landmark U.S. Embassy building in Grosvenor Square .\nState Department moving quarters to new building to be finished by 2017 .\nPost 9\/11 protections have drawn criticism from embassy's neighbors .","id":"1841199f084228d7aae4fde3b595594e431b9245"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how an international flight into Atlanta's major airport landed on a taxiway instead of a runway early Monday. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Delta Flight 60, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, was cleared to land about 6:05 a.m. Monday on Runway 27R but landed instead on Taxiway M, which runs parallel to the runway. The flight had 194 passengers and crew aboard, according to CNN affiliate WXIA. No other aircraft were on the taxiway, and there was no damage to either the taxiway or the plane, a Boeing 767, Bergen said. A runway or taxiway collision, particularly with one plane preparing to take off and carrying a full fuel load, would be catastrophic. Bergen said she isn't sure whether or when other aircraft have ever landed on the taxiway at Hartsfield. Both Runway 27R and Taxiway M are 11,890 feet long, Bergen said, but the runway is marked with white lights while the taxiway is marked with blue lights. Delta spokesman Anthony Black said the airline is cooperating with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board in their investigation, as well as conducting an internal investigation. The pilots of the flight have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations, Black said. Bergen and Black said a medical emergency was reported on the plane, but neither offered any details. The incursion came just two weeks after the FAA announced that serious runway incursions were down 50 percent from the year that ended September 30, 2008, over the year ending on the same date this year. The FAA said there were 12 serious incursions in 2009 and 25 in 2008. Only two of the serious incursions involved commercial airliners in 2009, compared with nine in 2008. The FAA defines a serious incursion as one in which a collision is narrowly avoided, or there was a significant potential for collision that resulted in the need to take quick corrective action.","highlights":"Plane landed on taxiway instead of runway Monday morning, FAA says .\nNo other plane was on the taxiway; aircraft wasn't damaged .\nThe taxiway is parallel to a runway, but they're marked differently .","id":"b05f4536c1b43f71ae1471f5732a3726c4e1eca2"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles firefighters and city crews worked for several hours Tuesday to rescue one of their own: a 22-ton firetruck that was nearly swallowed by a water-logged sinkhole. Two firefighters crawled out of the truck's windows after it sank Tuesday morning. No one was injured. The incident happened after four firefighters took the truck to the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Valley Village, where flooding had been reported after a water main break, just before 6 a.m. PT. After seeing running water in the road, a fire captain instructed the rig's driver to back up and had two firefighters get out of the truck to direct it. That's when the ground gave way and the front of the truck began quickly sinking. The driver and captain crawled out of the truck's windows to escape. The four firefighters were not injured. Workers had to simultaneously pull and lift the truck to get it out of the sinkhole. Watch workers pull truck from sinkhole . CNN's Carey Bodenheimer contributed to this report.","highlights":"Los Angeles firetruck nearly swallowed by sinkhole Tuesday morning .\nFirefighters in truck were responding to flooding call when incident happened .\nTwo firefighters escaped truck through windows; no injuries reported .","id":"bc480c13a5a23612065fd5ea56d909c9a091ef89"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- It may run contrary to the conventional image of a sport obsessed with the latest technological improvement but, from Stockholm to Shanghai, players are turning back the clock to take part in the latest craze -- hickory golf. The game, which involves using 19th century wooden-shafted clubs, has proved a hit as national championships in the United States, Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Sweden and Finland have blossomed. Companies too have been attracted to the format as a way of motivating staff. \"Golfers love a challenge,\" says Gavin Bottrell, who runs hickory golf days in Britain. \"There's a saying about modern golf clubs that you can buy any shot out of the shop. Playing with hickory makes people think more about their swing and be clever about their shots.\" Hickory clubs were used widely until the 1930s, when manufacturers turned to more modern materials for construction. However, despite their lesser performance, the attraction of dressing up in old-fashioned golfing garb and hacking around 18 holes with mashies, niblicks and cleeks -- the evocative names given to the clubs used by Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Henry Cotton -- has endured. The format has a huge following in the U.S. where devotees gather at historic courses to play an \"authentic\" round of golf. Hampton Munsey, who organizes the U.S. Hickory Open in Morganton, North Carolina, says the size of the field has almost doubled since the event was first held in 2008. This year's tournament already has entrants from Sweden and Germany, with players' ages ranging from 20 to 70. \"The camaraderie is almost as important as the game itself,\" says Munsey, a member of the Society of Hickory Golfers. \"People feel a certain level of pride at being able to play with the old clubs and do well with them.\" Bottrell, a university researcher, has been buying and selling hickory clubs since 1995. He now has 60 full sets, which he rents out to companies as a package for $934. Recently, he has noticed an increase in interest from abroad, with amateur golfers from Germany, South Korea and Australia all wanting their own slice of hickory history. But Bottrell's profit margins are nothing compared to one Scottish collector. In April last year, Edinburgh antiques dealer John Dixon sold 7,000 clubs to a Chinese entrepreneur for $193,500. The load has since been shipped to China in bundles of 20. \"I think he is tapping into a growing market over there. New golf courses are opening in China all the time,\" says Dixon. \"If they are building so many courses they need the merchandise and the memorabilia to go with it.\" At Bottrell's hickory golf days, participants try to enter the spirit of the era by dressing up in knickerbockers, neckties, flat caps and braces. \"They usually raid local charity shops and come up with some kind of outfit,\" he said. \"They sometimes look like they've stepped out of a pantomime. There's quite a lot of confusion as to what golfers were wearing in the early 1900s.\"","highlights":"Hickory golf is enjoying a revival in all corners of the world .\nCompanies in the UK are paying up to $934 to hire hickory clubs for corporate team-building days .\nThe U.S. Hickory Open draws entrants from Europe and Asia with ages ranging from 20 to 70 .\nLast year, a Chinese businessman paid $193,500 for 7,000 hickory clubs .","id":"2332824249737e5177e500f14fc902d2cc8937a7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bayern Munich stayed level on points with German Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen after beating Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in Saturday's late match. Unbeaten Leverkusen had defeated defending champions Wolfsburg 2-1 earlier in the day, but Bayern joined them on 48 points after 22 matches as Bayern came from behind with a victory that left the two teams separated by just one goal on for-and-against differential. Third-placed Schalke will seek to reduce their six-point deficit on the leaders with victory at home to Cologne on Sunday. Leverkusen took the lead three minutes after halftime at their BayArena ground as Stefan Reinartz pounced to score after veteran goalkeeper Andre Lenz spilled a free-kick by Toni Kroos. The hapless 36-year-old handed Leverkusen a second goal 20 minutes later in unfortunate circumstances as home striker Eren Derdiyok's header from another Kroos set-piece hit the bar, rebounded onto Lenz's leg and into the net. Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko pulled a goal back in the 79th minute but his side could not force an equalizer, and have now slumped to 14th place -- 23 points behind the leaders. Borussia Dortmund took a fifth-minute lead against Bayern Munich as Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations winner Mohamed Zidan profited from a mistake by defender Daniel Van Buyten. Bayern could already have been 2-0 down at that stage as Martin Demichelis and Mark Van Bommel cleared two shots off the line by Sven Bender. Van Bommel leveled in the 21st minute as the Dutch midfielder beat Dortmund goalkeeper Marc Ziegler from 20 yards, then compatriot Arjen Robben made it 2-1 five minutes after halftime when he was set up by France playmaker Franck Ribery, making his first start this year following injury problems. Ribery was again the provider as striker Mario Gomez sealed Bayern's ninth successive league victory in the 65th minute, cutting in from the left to beat Ziegler on the angle. Hamburg went three points clear of Dortmund in fourth place with a 3-1 win at Stuttgart as new signing Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored his first goals for the club. The veteran Dutch striker came off the bench in the 65th minute with the score at 1-1 to make his second outing since arriving from Real Madrid, scoring two typically opportunist efforts in three minutes as Stuttgart boss Christian Gross suffered his first defeat since taking the job in December. Sixth-placed Werder Bremen crushed third-bottom Hannover 5-1 away, scoring four times in the first half, while Bochum moved eight points clear of the bottom three with a 2-1 win at home to mid-table Hoffenheim. Basement side Hertha Berlin came from behind to earn a 1-1 draw at home to eighth-placed Mainz, but are still four points behind second-bottom Nuremberg, who lost 2-1 at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday night.","highlights":"Bayern Munich stay level on points with German Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen .\nUnbeaten Leverkusen defeat defending champions Wolfsburg 2-1 .\nBayern join them on 48 points with 3-1 victory against Borussia Dortmund .\nNew signing Ruud van Nistelrooy scores his first two goals for fourth-placed Hamburg .","id":"a36559f77635829adee26e69c8b754ef2dfef032"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police met a wayward jet that overshot the runway by 150 miles -- while not responding to control tower communications -- and said the pilots were \"cooperative, apologetic and appreciative.\" Authorities are reviewing the plane's cockpit voice recorder as well as its flight data recorder. The Minneapolis-St. Paul [Minnesota] Airport Police report on the incident, released Friday, said officers asked flight attendants to keep passengers in their seats while they checked out the cockpit, where, they said, \"the door was standing open.\" The police report identified the pilot as Timothy B. Cheney and the first officer as Richard I. Cole. \"The pilot ... indicated they had become involved in conversation and had not heard radio communications,\" the report said. \"They indicated there had been no involvement from anyone in the cabin.\" \"Both volunteered to a preliminary breath test with the result being .000 for both parties,\" the report said. The lead flight attendant, the report said, told officers that she was unaware there had been an incident aboard. Northwest Flight 188 -- carrying 144 people and five crew members -- flew past the Minneapolis airport during a mysterious 78 minutes of radio silence beginning about 7:56 p.m. ET Wednesday night. The Airbus A320 was carrying 147 passengers and an unknown number of crew members, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Air traffic controllers re-established radio contact after the plane had flown about 150 miles past its destination. Watch how Flight 188 drama unfolded \u00bb . The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, is hoping the plane's cockpit voice recorder will either confirm the pilot's account or provide evidence of another possible explanation, including whether the captain and first officer had fallen asleep. However, approached outside his home Friday, the first officer told CNN affiliate KGW that \"nobody was asleep in the cockpit and no arguments took place.\" Cole was referring to NTSB's earlier statement that said, \"The crew stated they were in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness.\" \"There's a lot of misinterpretation going on,\" Cole said, though he refused to comment further. The voice recorder is capable of recording only 30 minutes of audio, federal accident investigators said Friday. The plane was in the air for another 45 minutes after radio contact was restored, meaning that if the recorder was working properly, anything the pilots would have said during the time they were not answering radio calls would have been recorded over. But a former accident investigator told CNN the voice recorder may still provide valuable information, because the pilots could have discussed the earlier events on the way back to Minneapolis. The separate flight data recorder also could prove valuable because it would have recorded actions taken by the pilots during the 78 minutes they did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers, the former accident investigator said. The safety board said Friday afternoon that experts were reviewing the solid-state voice recorder. It said only that the recorder \"captured a portion of the flight that is being analyzed,\" and added there would be no further comment. Watch as former NTSB official calls long silence \"unacceptable\" \u00bb . Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which scrambled fighter jets for the wayward plane did not launch them, said it was reviewing procedures for launching the fighters to track potentially hijacked or suspicious aircraft. At issue, according to a senior U.S. official directly familiar with the timeline of the incident, is the FAA's apparent delay in notifying NORAD that the Northwest jet was not in contact with controllers. The official, who declined to be identified because both the military and the FAA are reviewing the entire incident, said that the FAA's request for military involvement came after the plane passed the Minneapolis airport. NORAD scrambled fighter jets at two locations. But as they approached the runway for takeoff, the FAA reported being back in contact with the Northwest flight, and the fighters stayed on the ground. \"My real question is why we did not know of the 'radio out' situation from the FAA sooner,\" the officials said. \"The FAA is also looking into that,\" the official told CNN. Since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, NORAD has regularly launched fighter jets to track aircraft in unusual situations such as when they deviate from flight plans, lose radio contact or enter restricted airspace. According to a second U.S. official, NORAD is in constant contact with the FAA so it can respond when situations arise. Reported instances of two pilots falling asleep are rare. In August, the safety board concluded its investigation into a February 13, 2008, incident in which two pilots aboard a Go airlines flight fell asleep and traveled 26 miles beyond the destination of Hilo, Hawaii, before waking and contacting air traffic controllers. Northwest Airlines is part of Delta Air Lines, which issued a statement Thursday, saying it is \"cooperating with the FAA and NTSB in their investigation, as well as conducting our own internal investigation. The pilots have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations.\" It said Flight 188 landed safely in Minneapolis just after 9 p.m. Delta suffered another major embarrassment this week when a Delta pilot landed a passenger jet on a taxiway at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport instead of the runway. The NTSB is investigating that case as well. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Airport police report identifies pilot and first officer .\nNEW: NORAD reviewing procedures after delay in learning of wayward airliner .\nNorthwest Airlines flight overshot Minneapolis airport by about 150 miles .\nNTSB: Crew said they were in \"heated discussion\" and \"lost situational awareness\"","id":"c389c050ecdae4351fe139e5a921f9631fb1c3a6"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A court order issued Monday blocks five Americans arrested in Pakistan last week from being deported or being handed over to the FBI, officials said. \"All the government functionaries, including federal government or provincial governments are directed not to hand over the alleged detainees [Americans] to any American agencies, or any other foreign agencies,\" the order said, according to Faisal Zaman, attorney for the government of Pakistan's Punjab province. The five were arrested Wednesday amid suspicion that they were plotting terrorist attacks. They were transferred Saturday from Sargodha, a small town where they were seized, to a more secure location in Lahore, police said. The court order was a response to a petition from Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani intelligence official and founder of an organization called Defense of Human Rights of Pakistan. Under Pakistani law, any citizen can file a petition with a court. The Lahore High Court scheduled a hearing for Thursday and ordered the government to respond to Khawaja's petition. A police report on the interrogation of the American suspects, dated Thursday, focused on one identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni, a 20-year-old born in Virginia. The report said he regularly goes online to watch attacks on the U.S. military in Afghanistan and that he left comments praising the actions. That caught the attention of militants, and he eventually was contacted by a person named Saifullah, the report said. After contact had been made, a Yahoo e-mail account was set up so the men and militants could communicate, the report says. E-mails were never sent from the account, but people would leave messages in the draft section of the e-mail account and delete them after reading them, the Pakistani police report said. \"This mode of communication enabled them to pass on messages without fear of interception by the FBI,\" the report said. It said the suspects made a plan with Saifullah to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan. They gathered in Karachi and left for Hyderabad on December 1. They tried to hook up with two militant groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, but neither of them showed interest. The FBI said Pakistani authorities detained the men -- four of whom it said were found to have American passports. Along with Minni, there were snapshots and brief profiles of four others -- Umar Farooq, Aman Hassan Yemer, Waqar Hussain Khan and Ramy Zamzam -- all from the Washington area. Police in Sargodha took a sixth man -- Khalid Farooq, father of Umar -- into custody, and he was undergoing questioning at a safe location. Authorities have said Khalid Farooq has not been considered a suspect. CNN's Samson Desta and Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistani court order bars deportation of five Americans .\nFive arrested last week amid suspicion that they were plotting terrorist attacks .\nPolice report says one of the Americans left comments online praising militants .\nMilitant contacted American after noticing online comments, report says .","id":"c976b762c6c112428f998dcd8b1aed004196b9a8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hondurans divided over an ongoing political crisis agree on one thing -- they don't think very highly of their leaders, according to a new survey. Almost half of Hondurans polled -- 48 percent -- said they disapproved of the job President Jose Manuel Zelaya was doing before he was ousted in a coup on June 28, said the 2009 Latinobarometro survey. The man who assumed power after the coup, de facto President Roberto Micheletti, received a disapproval rating of 65 percent for how he has handled the crisis, according to the survey. The annual Latinobarometro survey, named after the Chile-based non-profit company of the same name, is among the most highly regarded polls in the region. This year, the poll asked a number of questions that shed light on how Hondurans and other Latin Americans viewed the political crisis in Honduras. A new Honduran president, Pepe Lobo Sosa, was elected last month, though the international community is split on whether to recognize him because the vote took place under the rule of the de facto government. An agreement between negotiators for Zelaya and Micheletti had been reached earlier, but lost much credibility when its implementation didn't go as planned. Zelaya, who remains holed up inside the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital ever since covertly sneaking back into his country in September, has called the plan dead. Several attempts to find a resolution failed, despite strong international criticism of the coup. \"It can be said that the force of rejection of all the international organizations, which were raised in a singular voice against the coup and in favor of the restitution of the constitutionally elected president, were ineffective against the local political forces that had expelled Zelaya in an ignominious manner,\" the survey said. The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution to allow longer terms for the president. The country's congress had outlawed the vote, and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. Micheletti and his supporters say Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup. According to Latinobarometro, 58 percent of Hondurans disapproved of the coup, while another 28 percent said they approved of Zelaya's ouster. Those more heavily in favor of the coup included those with a higher education and the elderly, the survey found. Of those with university degrees, 40 percent approved of the coup, compared with 27 percent approval among those with only a basic education, the survey said. Zelaya faced long odds of returning to the presidency because the supreme court and congress, including lawmakers from his own party, were against his calls for the referendum that led to his ouster. These political power brokers, and in general, the Honduran elite that backed Micheletti, likely account for the discrepancy between education level and views of the coup. In Honduras, the elite are more likely to have completed university than others. The low approval ratings for Zelaya point to his thin election victory in 2005, according to Latinobarometro. The leftist Zelaya was elected with just under 50 percent of the vote. That margin hardly gave him a mandate to push the sweeping constitutional reforms he wanted, the survey said. \"Manuel Zelaya wanted to implement reforms that were beyond what the majority supported,\" the report said. Outside of Honduras, 24 percent of respondents in the other Latin American countries approved of the coup, the Latinobarometro survey found. Asked to rate Honduran democracy on a scale of 1 to 10, those outside of the country said the Central American nation merited a 5.2, the survey said. It was the first time that the firm asked for people to give their perception of democracy in a country that was not their own. Latinobarometro also asked respondents in the region whether they believed a coup was possible in their own country. The highest affirmative responses came from countries that have left-leaning presidents. Ecuadorians (36 percent), Brazilians (34 percent) and Venezuelans (30 percent) said a coup was possible in their country.","highlights":"The annual Latinobarometro survey is a highly regarded poll .\nThis year's poll focuses on Honduras political crisis .\nPoll: 48 percent of respondents disapprove of Zelaya .\nDe facto president gets disapproval rating of 65 percent .","id":"2fee336b4540eb685e2952f9baefe8c394efdf94"} -{"article":"MORROW, Georgia (CNN) -- Jobless for nearly a year, Michael Rivers was about to walk out of his house a few weeks ago to catch the bus for another daylong employment hunt when a radio announcement stopped him. With Ludacris at her side, single mom Joya Montgomery, 26, proudly displays keys to her car Sunday. \"This is Ludacris, and I'm giving away 20 free cars. ...\" The famous rapper was pulling an Oprah in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The rapper announced that if listeners were able to pay the taxes, registration, tags and insurance, they should go to his nonprofit Ludacris Foundation Web site and write 300 words about why they deserved new wheels. \"And make it good,\" Luda warned. Watch Ludacris talk about his \"stimulus\" plan \u00bb . Four thousand people took him up on his challenge, and in a few days, more than 2,000 essays poured into the Nissan South dealership in Morrow, Georgia, that had teamed with the rapper on the used-car giveaway. See and hear the winners tell their stories \u00bb . Rivers' essay was among them. \"I didn't even wait; I just continued out that door to the community center, sat at a computer and let all my emotions come out,\" he said. Rivers described riding the city bus with his 14-year-old daughter to make sure she arrived safely at school and how he recently celebrated the small victory of getting his 17-year-old autistic son, who can't tolerate crowds, to stand calmly for a few moments outside the bus stop. He doesn't live near a grocery store so he has to bring home the food he can carry on the bus. Rivers was laid off from his job as a court clerk in the summer of 2008, and making job interviews on time isn't easy when the bus is often late. But on Sunday afternoon, Rivers was giddy, slightly bouncing as he spoke. He stood shoulder to shoulder among the 20 winners and their friends and families waiting to see their cars. \"I don't care what it is,\" Rivers said. \"I'm grateful for any car with four wheels because it beats two heels.\" Winners received 30 days of free gas, which will be a big help to Joya Montgomery, a 26-year-old single parent of a 4-year-old, 8-year-old and 3-month-old. She has been waking before 5 a.m. and walking to the bus stop, while it's dark, with her children to begin a long journey to her job and to drop them off at school or a friend's home. \"It was scary at times,\" she said. \"You don't even know who's out there. I was always looking over my shoulder. \"I just can't believe I won. I'm real happy.\" In the parking lot, the crowd was dancing. But the bass of Ludacris' latest single blasting from the dealership's loudspeakers was secondary inspiration for one Atlanta grandmother. Fifty-one-year-old Vermelle Jackson was so excited to have a 2005 Mercury Sable to drive around grandchildren, nieces and nephews that she swiveled her hips around and dipped it shockingly low to the ground. \"Lord Jesus. ... He brought this car to me, baby!\" she shouted, arms raised. \"This is God's work!\" Actually, the giveaway idea came from Chris White, the jovial, hand-shaking manager of Nissan South. \"I knew someone who knew someone who knew Luda and, you know, we just made it happen,\" White said. The concept seemed like a winner for everyone. Like many dealerships, Nissan South has not yet been reimbursed for the money it spent upfront during the federal government's Cash for Clunkers program that allowed customers to trade in older cars for $3,500 or $4,500 credit. When the popular program ended August 24, the car dealer didn't want to turn away customers who kept streaming in, expecting to get the same discounts. So Nissan South continued giving customers identical low rates and taking their used cars. The Cash for Clunkers program and the continued discounts totaled nearly $800,000 in the hole for the dealership, said owner Scott Smith. \"We're grateful for the Clunkers program because it really helped business, but it's a lot of money to be without,\" he said. At the end of the year, the cars given away under the Luda program, which were not technically acquired during the Clunkers program, may be eligible as charity tax write-offs. \"We like to think of it as not being about the write-offs,\" White said. \"It's more like we had a chance to do something positive in the community that is going through a really hard time right now.\" White helped place a few radio spots and within two days, more than 2,000 essays had been sent in. That number quickly shot to close to 4,000. Ludacris and his mother, Roberta Shields, who directs his foundation and helped give away the cars Sunday, and the rapper's foundation staff of about a dozen helped read the essays. To validate the stories they found most compelling, they made phone calls and interviewed people who knew the finalists. \"We ended up calling a homeless shelter to reach one gentleman whose cell phone had gone out, and he was recharging it,\" Shields said. \"We didn't know if we'd get ahold of him, but we finally did. All he wanted was a car to help him go out for job interviews.\" Ludacris was particularly moved by the story of a Sudanese refugee who has experienced every hardship imaginable, the least of which was a broken-down car. The two sat down Sunday and had a long talk. \"That's one of those stories that really had me like, man, I thought I had faced some adversities in life,\" the rapper said in a quiet moment away from the crowd. \"But I've not faced adversities at all compared to what he's been through. I cannot imagine going through what he's gone through and still be that strong.\" Mading Duor, who escaped civil war and was providing for his four children on a school maintenance worker's salary, was crossing a street in Decatur, Georgia, when a driver ignored a crosswalk and hit and killed his 4-year-old son. Karen McCrea, who attends church with Duor, wrote the winning essay. \"I don't expect anyone to understand [what I have been through], but I know that people come to me with a good heart now,\" he said. \"I couldn't believe it when she called me to tell me. I said, 'You are kidding! It cannot be!' \" Neither McCrea, from Atlanta's affluent Buckhead area, nor Duor, neatly dressed in a shirt buttoned to the collar, seemed like Ludacris' demographic. They nodded their heads to his music anyway, smiling. \"Oh, I know his music, I know it, yes,\" Duor said. \"I will play it [in my car].\"","highlights":"Some 4,000 essays received after dealership partners with rapper for giveaway .\nAtlanta-raised celebrity gives used cars to single mom, laid-off worker, refugee .\nProgram also is way for dealership possibly to write off cars as charity .","id":"50b2e1107d76c2485b0983d6cc9d8dc36faf3e63"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 219-year-old document that stemmed from alcohol tariffs to pay off Revolutionary War debts -- and signed by Alexander Hamilton -- became the property of The National Archives on Thursday. This document, signed by Alexander Hamilton, discusses tools for customs agents to determine alcohol content for imported spirits. The historic letter, which has been the property of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for the past 35 years, chronicles the federal government's earliest efforts to regulate alcohol. In the document, Hamilton, the first United States secretary of the Treasury, discusses tools for customs agents to determine -- for tax purposes -- the alcohol content of St. Croix rum and other imported spirits. Historians said the document is a notable footnote in American history. In 1789 and again in 1790, Congress imposed alcohol tariffs to pay Revolutionary War debts. In response to the tax on imports, Americans began distilling their own spirits. And when the federal government began taxing those beverages, citizens staged the \"Whiskey Rebellion,\" harassing and threatening federal agents in several cities. But in 1794, the government squelched the uprising, helping to establish the federal government's authority in disputes with individual states. Even non-historians might appreciate the timelessness of the dog-eared document, given its skillful use of bureaucratic language to deliver bad news. One eye-glazing, 76-word sentence probably can be summarized as follows: \"We don't have the thermometers you'll need, so for now, use the ones you've got.\" The document, dated Dec. 18, 1790, is an original draft of a \"circular letter,\" an official memo that would have been hand-copied and sent to customs officers, historians said. \"In this circular letter, Hamilton attempts to provide customs officers with new tools to more efficiently do their jobs,\" said Kenneth Melson, acting director of ATF. Hamilton notes that he is sending a hydrometer -- used to determine the specific gravity or density of liquids -- to ports so that customs officers can determine the proof of imported beverages. Hamilton says he intends to provide two hydrometers to every port; one to be used as a standard or check. \"But it is not possible in the first instance to send both. Hence one only will accompany this letter,\" he writes. In a postscript, he adds that he is also sending a \"Tin Cylinder\" to hold liquor while its alcohol content is being measured. Archivists said the early history of the Hamilton circular is not known. But in the mid-1970s, an ATF spokesman and autograph collector -- Howard Criswell Jr. -- came across the letter in a catalog from an autograph dealer in New York City. He purchased it for about $100, intending to use it in an ATF bicentennial exhibit. Criswell, now 84, is retired and lives in Maryland. The document remained in an ATF safe until it was rediscovered by ATF employees during a relocation of its headquarters building in 2005. ATF officials said they had once planned to frame the letter, but were told that it would be damaged by exposure to light. The National Archives said the document will become part of its permanent holdings and will be preserved in a locked, temperature and humidity-controlled stack area at its facility in College Park, Maryland.","highlights":"Document chronicles the federal government's earliest efforts to regulate alcohol .\nItem is guide for customs agents to determine the alcohol content of imported spirits .\nDocument will become part of The National Archives' permanent holdings .","id":"b0a57467e85a0f41986d73aa281a70f145cdbf3a"} -{"article":"Yabuli, China (CNN) -- Insulated in designer skiwear against a temperature of -15\u00b0 Celsius, three of China's burgeoning ski set bundle into a gondola headed to a wind-swept mountaintop in Heilongjiang province, Northeastern China. These new members of China's skiing elite had traveled from Harbin three hours drive away for a day's skiing at Sun Mountain, Yabuli, and clearly relished hurtling downhill at one of the country's newest high-end resorts. \"Control your speed\" is good advice for any novice skier, but it could be equally applied to the growing number of businesses aiming to tap into the nascent Chinese skiing industry. Skiing is just the latest market in China touted to \"boom\" as an increasingly affluent middle class finds new ways to spend their wealth and leisure time. The China Ski Association put the number of skiers in China at 5 million in 2005, up from just 200,000 in 2000. The association predicts 20 million skiers by 2014. \"But around 80 percent will probably never do it again, because the experience is so bad,\" says Graham Kwan, CEO of Melco China Resorts the developers of Sun Mountain, Yabuli. It's a factor that has held back the momentum of the Chinese ski industry, where the image is still one of bumpy nursery slopes crowded with first-time skiers snow-ploughing into one another. \"The industry isn't developing as fast as it should,\" says Justin Downes, president of Axis Leisure, a Beijing-based resort industry consultancy. \"Ninety percent of skiers are still considered beginners and rent their equipment. The quality of the product and safety has often been questionable, service has been poor.\" Kwan hopes Sun Mountain will provide Chinese skiers with a five-star destination resort that keeps novices coming back to the slopes. Others developers are following suit. French resort company Club Med plans to open a dedicated ski village in China at the end of the year, the first of five the company plans to open by 2015. China's Wanda group have plans on a resort in the mountains bordering North Korea, and a resort called Beijing Secret Garden is being developed outside of Beijing near the Great Wall. Since opening last year Sun Mountain has gained accolades, including TIME Magazine's Best Resort Make-over in 2009. Yabuli was also the site of the World University Games in 2009, with a reported $400 million invested by the government in updating the facilities and improving transport links to the area, making it the base for China's national ski team. For Kwan, however, transforming a sleepy town with one aging hotel at the bottom of a mountain has been far from a smooth ride. \"To be perfectly honest, it's been a struggle,\" says Kwan. \"It's easy to have a mountain in China. People often ask, 'Why did you put [the resort] here?' There are beautiful mountains [elsewhere], but too far from the market. Chinese people travel like Europeans; they're North-South travelers.\" With over $100 million invested in Sun Mountain, Kwan hopes it will be the centerpiece of the new face of skiing in China, offering more than just well-groomed slopes and apr\u00e8s-ski with a Chinese twist. \"It's a combination of operations and real estate, you can't sell luxury homes if you don't sell luxury products,\" says Kwan. A new boutique hotel at the top of the 1000-meter mountain will open next year and capacity eventually expanded to 15 hotels. But it is the resort's real estate that will be just as important to how fast the area develops. Around 75 houses are already built with almost a thousand more nestled on the mountainside planned for the next 10 years. \"The concept of buying a recreational home in the mountains when it's -20\u00b0 Celsius is not something the Chinese have grasped yet,\" says Downes. \"The ski market [in China] is so small that you can't expect to put $100 million into a project and hope to recoup that any time soon off your ski operations. But the leisure real estate market is also immature in China.\" As well as selling the resort as an investment opportunity, nurturing the culture of skiing is part of the development. Its absence is something that Downes believes is really hampering the market. \"When I went to work in a ski resort it's because I wanted to ski all day and party all night. The people who go to work in Chinese ski resorts don't have any aspirations to do any of those things,\" says Downes. A few gold medals by Chinese skiers at the Winter Olympics could help create a buzz around the sport itself, but for Kwan and Downes, presenting a gold-standard lifestyle is just as important. \"All their gear is high-end, because of course it represents their status. And that's why we've chosen to go higher end, because those kinds of customers want to be with us,\" says Kwan, who plans to add VIP gondolas with heated seats and sound system at Sun Mountain, as well as slope-side tea service. \"You can't just pick up a Whistler or Three Valleys pop it into China and expect it to be successful,\" adds Downes. \"Because while Chinese skiers want all the positive trapping they also want something that is theirs -- food and cultural elements, but delivered at a much higher level. \"The younger generation is getting money, traveling and getting more adventurous, they're the ones who are going to define the industry.\"","highlights":"China's ski industry seen as a huge growth market for up-scale resort developers .\nChina predicted to have 20 million skiers by 2014 .\nNumerous international developers are building resorts across the country .\nCulture of skiing needs to be developed as much as resorts for success say analysts .","id":"4603d2aa6d00149865daecf37c60972a4d6e3925"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced a man who caused uproar by bragging about his sex life on television to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes, according to Ministry of Information officials. Mazen Abdul Jawad talked openly about his sex life on the controversial show. Mazen Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14. He made the comments on Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, which aired the interview a few months ago. Saudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after airing the interview on an episode of its popular show \"A Thick Red Line.\" Jawad was arrested shortly after the program aired and charged with violating Saudi Arabia's crime of publicizing vice. On the program, Jawad is also shown in his bedroom, where he holds sexual aids up to the camera. The room is decorated with Mickey Mouse and stuffed bears in sexually suggestive positions. The cameras gave audiences a glimpse of the room's nightclub-like chandeliers mixed with seafood-shaped wall sconces, perfume bottles and a book in Arabic, \"101 Questions About Sex,\" that Jawad calls his \"reference.\" Jawad, wearing a red shirt, explained that he put his phone number and details about his car -- a red Mini Cooper -- on his mobile phone's Bluetooth. He says women usually call him to ask if the car is for sale but, he boasts, \"some go out with me that same night.\" The episode ended with him cruising the streets of Jeddah in his car looking for women. The show that aired Jawad's story is as popular as it is controversial in the Middle East. It tackles taboos sometimes never discussed in public. In one instance, a guest admitted he put up his children for sale and tried to justify why he continued to look for the highest bidder even though his kids were begging him to change his mind. Most guests wear sunglasses, wigs and strange clothing to disguise their identities as their lives can be endangered for talking about such taboo subjects. Surprisingly, Jawad did not disguise his identity on the program. Watch report on the uproar over the broadcast \u00bb . The episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle. The segment in question has been posted on the video-sharing site YouTube since its initial broadcast last month, and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Speaking about promiscuous acts \"is a violation of the sharia regulations on the one hand and against Saudi customs on the other,\" police spokesman Suleiman Al-Mutawae told Arab News, an English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia. Before Jawad's detention, Arab News reported that he initiated a damage-control campaign, apologized for his comments and was considering filing a complaint against the show's producers for presenting him \"in the worst possible manner by taking two hours of footage and condensing it down to a minutes-long segment.\" Jawad's lawyer could not be reached for comment. The ministry officials spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity.","highlights":"Mazen Abdul Jawad, divorced father of 4, spoke openly about sex escapades .\nSaudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh over broadcast .\nEpisode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia .","id":"806221cd626affe729bbeda6be7217902aa09b9e"} -{"article":"Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (CNN) -- On a base accustomed to deploying Marines into some of the most hostile war zones, you would expect some hesitancy when units from here were asked to surge into some of the worst fighting since the start of the war in Afghanistan. This week, the first of 1,500 Marines will be part of the initial wave of President Obama's surge plan to head to Afghanistan's restive provinces to support Marines and soldiers fighting a dug-in Taliban force. However, many Marines we talked to in this coastal, scrub pine-covered North Carolina base are more than excited to go, despite the dangers that await them. \"I'm absolutely ecstatic about the situation. I've got a good group of Marines that are behind me, so I'm real excited about the deployment,\" said Sgt. Jason Bendett of the 3rd Platoon, A Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, based at Lejeune. But combat deaths in Afghanistan are up -- 305 this year, from 155 during 2008 -- giving pause to even the most motivated Marines. \"I think I wouldn't be human if I wasn't worried, obviously this being my first combat deployment, but the Taliban are an experienced group of fighters, and I'm not taking that for granted,\" 2nd Lt. John Auer, also of the 3rd Platoon, said during some of his final rifle range training before he deploys. Members of this unit say they have been waiting and waiting as they watched fellow Marines deploy ahead of them this year, and they say they are more than ready to go. They were supposed to go to Iraq in June, but as priorities shifted, they were reassigned to Afghanistan's Helmand province, where Marines are in daily battles with the Taliban. \"Having months to train and putting Marines out in the elements in Southern California, where we train, gives them a chance to see what the atmospherics are going to be like and to work as a team, so this is perfect, and we are really looking forward to this,\" Auer said. \"These guys have a lot of training under their belts, more than Marine units typically get in this situation. Senior military leaders have a lot of big expectations for this team,\" said the unit's first sergeant, Ronald Neff. Last week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, gave some of the deploying Marines an impassioned speech about what they will face. \"We don't have a lot of time. The slope on this insurgency is going in the wrong direction, and it has picked up, three years, each year to a significant degree,\" Mullen said, describing the deteriorating security situation. \"I believe the strategy that the president laid out, the decision that he's made, is the right decision. Both those are right, and we will now move out, given our orders, and we'll carry them out. And again, I couldn't be more confident and more pleased that you are going to be at the core of that,\" he told the hundreds of Marines in attendance. Many of the Marines there are young and are facing their first combat deployment. Although all the bravado of a newly minted Marine ready for combat looks and sounds ready to fight, their eyes showed worry and concern for the unknown as they listened to Mullen. \"Best thing you can hope for is that you personally know yourself, that you're not going to freeze up,\" Lance Cpl. Matthew Jenkins said after Mullen's speech. \"We'll see how I react when it goes down in a couple weeks,\" said Lance Cpl. Joshua Williamson. Questions remain, however, about how so many Marines without combat experience in Afghanistan can jump into a heated combat zone. Mullen admitted some concerns. \"We're obviously not in an ideal situation with respect to that. I understand that, but I have a huge amount of confidence in our Marine Corps based on their ability to adapt, what they did in Iraq,\" he said. There seems to be little worry among unit leaders in the 3\/2nd LAR, who have been training and watching their troops grow in skills and confidence in recent months. \"One thing about the Marine Corps is that you always have experience wherever you go,\" Auer said. \"So we've got Marines that have done deployments before and the training they have given me, I'm confident to where I can lead my platoon, but I'm also relying on staff NCOs (non-commissioned officers) that have years of experience. \"That experience we have from the different deployments in Iraq, I'm relying on all the NCOs to carry their weight, and with that I don't think there is anything that can get in our way,\" Auer continued. For the families of these Marines, deployments are never easy, especially when they know that their husbands and wives are moving to a region known for its hostility. \"I'm glad he's going where he's needed. It would be a waste for him to go where he's not needed and not be able to do his job,\" said Kim Durbin, wife of deploying Marine Lt. Dan Durbin. \"It's just not him in the Marine Corps, it's our family, and we are proud to be a part of it,\" she said. Kim Durbin and her three kids, ages 1, 3 and 5, will watch Dan Durbin leave for Helmand province on his first combat deployment in a few weeks. She appears strong for a young mother, but all the preparations a family does can sometimes bury reality. \"Well we're thankful he's going to be with us for Christmas, so we just want to enjoy the time we have together.\" But Kim Durbin's eyes close, and she fights back tears that become a sob. \"I think when we actually say goodbye, it's going to be hard, but we'll get through it, and we want to enjoy the time we do have together,\" she said. Families on this base are their own support system. Wives of Marines with husbands who have deployed numerous times help younger families get through the first deployments. \"It's very difficult, I think, for people outside the military community to understand what they have to go through,\" said Marine Capt. Eric Maedor, who returned from his third combat deployment to Afghanistan weeks ago. His wife, Teresa Maedor, a veteran of keeping the family together while Eric is away, agrees. \"I don't think when you have 'X' number of deployments under your belt that it makes it any easier; you just know what to expect. You know what to expect next time as far as how you need to manage things. Sometimes you worry about them more; sometimes you worry about them less,\" she said.","highlights":"Marines, part of initial wave of Obama's surge plan, to head to Afghanistan this week .\n\"I'm absolutely ecstatic about the situation,\" says Sgt. Jason Bendett .\nQuestions remain on how Marines without Afghan combat experience can jump right in .\n\"When we actually say goodbye, it's going to be hard, but we'll get through it,\" wife of Marine says .","id":"9c9b8d45dabb18701331721aa333870a85ae9ecf"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- At the House Republican strategy session in January, I stood before the Republican Conference and said, \"I am your worst nightmare.\" It was a figure of speech, of course, but my point was that our campaign helped change the political equation for winning elections. No longer is it enough to have big-name identification and big money to win. We demonstrated that principles and policy matter, and if you combine that with hard work and dynamic new media, young upstarts can beat incumbents in a big way. (I beat a 12-year incumbent in my own party, winning by 20 points.) In order to survive in the current political climate, it's paramount to be on the cutting edge of technical trends. As a young freshman, it is challenging to distinguish myself among 434 other members. If I want to be relevant and productive, I have to work hard to get my message across. Using social media is a great way to do just that. I stay in contact with people through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Other members of Congress have also jumped aboard the Online Express. These days, even John McCain is all-a-twitter over new social media. See the latest episode of \"Freshman Year\" Granted, my \"tweets\" will not replace town hall meetings or direct mail, but social media is an important outreach supplement. People like feeling connected to their elected officials. Residents of my district want their voices to be heard and want to be a part of the political process. It has been very important to me that my constituents don't have to wade through layers of bureaucracy to reach me. My Facebook page, for example, hosts hundreds of interactions each week from \"supporters.\" I post frequently and engage in the comments. I never outsource this type of communication to staff. It's done entirely by me. That kind of attention builds trust with people. They know what I really think, and they develop a connection with me -- even if we disagree. Twitter has become a particularly useful tool for me. I often tweet several times a day. Followers get an inside look at not only my job, but also my personality -- and sometimes my appetite. When I came to Washington as a newly elected member of Congress, I got a few headlines for bringing a cot to sleep on in my office. Taking my inspiration from FDR's Fireside Chats in the 1930s and '40s, I began producing \"Cotside Chats\" that are featured on my Web site. These chats give me the opportunity to talk directly with my constituents about the issues I think are important. Social media is a two-way street. It's a great way to deliver a message, and it's free. It also provides me with opportunities to listen to what is going on in the real world in real time. With today's easy Internet access and the surging popularity of social networking, there's no excuse for politicians to remain in the 20th century. For me, embracing new media and increasing the accessibility for my constituents is a winning formula. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jason Chaffetz.","highlights":"Rep. Jason Chaffetz: Campaigns today are driven by use of social media .\nHe says using social media is a great way to get a message out .\nHe says constituents want to hear from their representatives, and they want to talk back .","id":"9cc41312483ed9d4db0b111213844d7bcb3a85b8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hashim Amla compiled his first double century after Jacques Kallis again fell short of the landmark as South Africa continued to punish India's bowlers on day two of the first cricket Test in Nagpur. Amla was unbeaten on 253 when the tourists declared on 558-6 in the final session on Sunday, then India safely reached stumps at 25-0 in a clash between the top two teams in the five-day format. It is the highest score made by a South African No. 3 batsman, and the highest by any from his country against India. Amla extended his third-wicket partnership with Kallis to a South African record of 340 before his senior partner fell for 173, having added just 14 to his overnight tally in a subdued second part of his innings. It was the first time any pair have put on a triple century in any matches between the two nations. Kallis edged a delivery from off-spinner Harbhajan Singh onto his pads, and Murali Vijay took the catch at short leg to end a 351-ball knock that put the all-rounder into third equal on the all-time Test century-scoring list with 34. Amla then added another 108 with A.B. De Villiers, who made a brisk 53 off 88 deliveries, and rode his luck as he was dropped twice on 149, as they broke South Africa's record for the fourth wicket in matches between the two teams. De Villiers fell to part-time bowler Virender Sehwag and then Harbhajan removed J.P. Duminy for just nine to have the Proteas 476-5, but then Mark Boucher contributed 39 to a stand of 78 with Amla before becoming Zaheer Khan's third victim, and captain Graeme Smith called the innings to a close with 40 minutes left in the day. India openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag survived four overs from pace bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel with some positive batting, and will start Monday's play on 12 and nine respectively as they seek to make inroads into a massive first-innings deficit. They will do well to take the lead of Amla, who was steady throughout his 473-ball innings, hitting 22 boundaries and scoring 55, 45 and 38 in Saturday's three sessions. While India relied heavily on Harbhajan and Amit Mishra, who on a helpful pitch bowled only six maidens between them in 99 overs for combined figures 2-306, Smith has only one specialist spinner in Paul Harris plus all-rounder Duminy, with the medium pace of Kallis backing up Steyn, Morkel and rookie fast bowler Wayne Parnell. Meanwhile, Australia crushed the West Indies by 113 runs in the opening match of their one-day series in Melbourne on Sunday. Batting first, the hosts reached 256-8 in their 50 overs as opener Shane Watson top-scored with 56 in his 100th match, while captain Ricky Ponting made 49. All-rounder Kieron Pollard took 3-45 for the Windies, while seamer Ravi Rampaul claimed 2-43. The tourists then slumped to 143 all out in just 34.2 overs as opening bowler Ryan Harris and spinner Nathan Hauritz claimed three wickets each. Doug Bollinger also snared two early victims, including the key scalp of big-hitting captain Chris Gayle, as the West Indies were left reeling on 12-3. Pollard, signed for $750,000 in the Indian Premier League auctions last month, top-scored with 31 from 35 deliveries.","highlights":"Hashim Amla compiles his first double century as South Africa declare on 558-6 in Nagpur .\nHosts India reach 25-0 at stumps on the second day of the opening Test of the series .\nAmla extends third-wicket partnership to 340 with Jacques Kallis, who falls for 173 .\nHe then adds 108 with A.B. De Villiers and 78 with Mark Boucher, being unbeaten on 253 .","id":"9818e68a97e536b7fc8d27d6f4a603c833d9b8b4"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- British Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced a public inquiry Wednesday into allegations that Iraqis were killed and abused after a firefight more than five years ago in the southern part of the country. The allegations center around the aftermath of a fight in May 2004 at the so-called Danny Boy checkpoint in Maysan Province. Former detainees and the family of a slain Iraqi contend at least 20 people were killed and others were abused at Camp Abu Naji after a fight between British soldiers and Iraqi insurgents. That claim has been denied by the UK Ministry of Defence -- which says the 20 people died in battle and people detained were not mistreated. The probe is called the Al Sweady inquiry -- named after the family of the dead Iraqi. Thayne Forbes -- who retired from the High Court Bench last year -- will chair the inquiry into allegations. The inquiry will look into allegations of \"unlawful killings\" and the \"ill-treatment of five Iraqi nationals detained at Camp Abu Naji.\" Even though the probe will focus on five detainees, attorneys claim nine people were detained and abused. The defense ministry disputes those allegations. \"We have found no credible evidence that those detained, as a result of the attack on British troops and the prolonged firefight at Danny Boy checkpoint, were mistreated,\" the defense ministry said in a statement. The release of a photo published in British media and obtained by CNN about the incident shows an armed soldier standing near four people face down on the ground with their hands bound behind their backs and their faces covered. Attorneys for the men say they were beaten and evidence shows a breach of the Geneva Conventions prohibiting humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners. But, the defence ministry disputes that. \"It is important to remember that our first priority at the end of such attacks is to protect our personnel from further threats,\" the ministry said. CNN's Atika Shubert and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK to hold public inquiry into allegations Iraqis were killed and abused after firefight five years ago .\nAllegations center around aftermath of firefight in 2004 at checkpoint in Maysan Province, southern Iraq .\nFormer detainees and family of a slain Iraqi say at least 20 people were killed and others were abused .\nUK defense ministry says the 20 people died in battle and people detained were not mistreated .","id":"c828d4eab6dfff53f5a15be4944487e8633fd7e4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 30 people died and 70 were wounded in shelling on a marketplace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Thursday, according to journalists and emergency services. Members of Islamist militia Al-Shaabab patrol Bakara Market in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this month. A local journalist called the rocket fire on Bakara market \"unprecedented.\" \"This was the most brutal shelling,\" according to an ambulance service representative who said they had picked up 61 wounded, but expect the number to climb. Other victims were being brought to hospitals by family and friends. The source of the shelling could not immediately be determined. Journalists saw shell fire coming from AMISOM -- the African Union Mission in Somalia -- strongholds in a fortified district of the capital and from near the airport. AMISOM is the only force in the area believed to have the firepower capable of such an intense attack. However, AMISOM denied any involvement in the incident. The African Union has a 3,400-member peacekeeping force in Somalia, made up of troops from Burundi and Uganda. It operates under a U.N. mandate to support Somalia's transitional federal government. The peacekeeping force is charged with protecting key government and strategic installations in Mogadishu, including the port, airport and presidential palace. It is the de facto military force of the weak, transitional Somali government. African Union forces have been battling an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia in Somalia called Al-Shaabab. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al-Shaabab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power in early 2007. Ethiopia invaded Somalia with the support of Somalia's weak transitional government. Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.","highlights":"30 people killed after shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu according to reports .\nJournalists report shell fire coming from African Union Mission in Somalia stronghold .\nMilitary force AMISOM has denied any involvement in the incident .","id":"1b9e7e308b389d27a84a7fef7b9c22410947d575"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An investigation into an attack that killed eight U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan last year said the combat outpost was an \"attractive target\" because protection improvements hadn't been made and intelligence assets had been diverted. These were main points in the findings released Friday by the U.S. military into the probe of the October 3 attack on Combat Outpost Keating in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province. The attack killed eight U.S. service members and wounded 22 others. Based on the recommendations in the investigation, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top coalition military commander in Afghanistan, \"took appropriate action regarding Army personnel involved.\" The report also praised soldiers of B Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Calvary for repelling the assault by a force of 300 militants. Commanders must regularly assess \"the value and vulnerabilities\" of combat outposts, said the report, which \"made several recommendations to improve coalition tactics.\" The base had been scheduled to be closed before the attack occurred, and \"needed force protection improvements (which) were not made\" because of the imminent closure. \"Critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets which had been supporting COP Keating had been diverted to assist ongoing intense combat operations in other areas,\" the report said. It also said \"intelligence assessments had become desensitized to reports of massing enemy formations by previous reports that had proved false.\" All of these factors \"resulted in an attractive target for enemy fighters.\" The military says militants had been planning the attack for days, hiding mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns in the mountains. The assault started around dawn as bullets and rockets peppered the remote outpost October 3 and lasted for 12 hours, pinning down the exhausted troops. One soldier said afterward the insurgency was so fierce that the troops couldn't get to their weapons to fire back. They called in air support to help thwart the militants. \"They were under heavy enemy contact,\" Sgt. Jayson Souter said. Four servicemen -- Souter, a fellow soldier, an Apache helicopter pilot and a gunner -- talked to a military reporter about their roles during the Keating attack in an interview posted by the Department of Defense on Facebook and NATO's International Security Assistance Force YouTube Channel. Chief Warrant Officer Ross Lewallen, an Apache pilot, said a few aircraft were damaged in what was a \"time-consuming endeavor\" governed by tough terrain. He said the morning battle was \"significant,\" but later troops were able to identify targets and eliminate larger weapons. \"One of the primary reasons for the fight taking so long is that it is an extreme terrain,\" he said in the interview. The report said the troops killed 150 enemy fighters and \"found that the soldiers and junior leaders fought heroically in repelling an enemy force five times their size. \"Members of B Troop upheld the highest standards of warrior ethics and professionalism and distinguished themselves with conspicuous gallantry, courage, and bravery under the heavy enemy fire that surrounded them.\"","highlights":"Lack of protection improvements made combat outpost an \"attractive target\"\nIntelligence failures also made the base vulnerable to a strike from militants .\nOctober 3 attack on Combat Outpost Keating lasted for 12 hours .","id":"49553e94fc16ffed107bffc41ceccc325ba32c5d"} -{"article":"Harare, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- The trial of controversial Zimbabwean politician Roy Bennett took a new twist Tuesday when prosecutors told the judge they wanted to impeach their star witness. The prosecution called arms dealer Michael Peter Hitschmann to the stand to implicate Bennett in the procurement of the arms. Bennett is a senior official of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zimbabwe's deputy agriculture minister-designate. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of terrorism and inciting people to carry out terrorism. He could face the death penalty if convicted. The MDC -- led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai -- says the case against Bennett is politically motivated and was aimed at keeping him out of the unity government it formed with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party last February. Under questioning from Attorney General Johannes Tomana, Hitschmann testified he had seen Bennett on television and then had met him at a public gathering. But Hitschmann told the fully packed courtroom that he was not aware of some of the weapons the prosecution claims that he bought with the financial support of Bennett. In addition, Hitschmann -- who appeared relaxed throughout the proceedings -- cast doubt on the authenticity of e-mails that were produced in court which the prosecution said had been retrieved from his laptop and which allegedly reveal that he and Bennett were planning to commit terrorism. \"None of the contents was retrieved from my laptop in my absence or in the presence of my legal counsel (in 2006 when he was arrested),\" he said, adding, \"I don't know here they came from.\" After that, Tomana started questioning Hitschmann as if he were a hostile witness and not the star witness for the prosecution. Bennett's lawyers objected, saying the prosecution was trying to \"confuse\" people. At that point, Tomana indicated that he was in the \"preparatory stage\" to \"to lay evidence that Hitschmann was being inconsistent.\" \"The witness -- who is an accomplice witness by the way -- is getting to be a witness in favor of the accused; we are entitled to start impeachment procedures when the state witness starts showing that he is being unfavorably indisposed in favor of the accused,\" he added. Bennett's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said the prosecution had never indicated that it had e-mails which were purportedly written by her client and Hitschmann. She said Hitschmann had submitted an affidavit saying he does not want to testify against Bennett, adding that the statements about conspiracy that were purportedly made by him were done under \"traumatic and unfriendly circumstances\" in 2006, when he was arrested and later charged with terrorism himself. Mtetwa said the prosecution was attempting to take a statement Hitschmann made to the army and turn it into a statement against her client. \"That is an army-procured statement. What legal basis is there to change it to a witness statement? The statement was made when he was an accused facing conspiracy charges,\" said Mtetwa. \"During that time the prosecution did not indicate that he had acted in common purpose with the accused (Bennett).\" Hitschmann was acquitted of terrorism charges in 2006 but served a jail sentence for the lesser charge of possessing weapons without a license. The weapons allegedly included six sub-machine guns and two machine guns, which the prosecution produced in Bennett's trial as part of the state's exhibits. The judge in the case, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, who resumed the trial after adjourning it last November, is expected to rule Wednesday whether the state can proceed to impeach its own witness. Throughout the court proceedings, Bennett -- clad in a blue suit, matching blue tie and a light blue shirt -- sat motionless, gazing into the sky once in a while. He laughed out loud when Hitschmann said he first saw Bennett on television punching the justice minister in parliament.","highlights":"Attorney General tells court that prosecution wants to impeach star witness .\nMicheal Peter Hitschmann cast doubt on some of the prosecution's evidence during his testimony .\nZimbabwe politician Roy Bennett is on trial for terrorism, banditry and insurgency .\nBennett denies the charges, which his party alleges are politically motivated .","id":"99f7eafe3173d0206b45a2c7957e07b25275755d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Precious,\" a movie about a 1980s-era Harlem teen who strives to overcome abuse, neglect and illiteracy, pulled five Independent Spirit Award nominations Tuesday morning. Stars Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique were both recognized for their portrayals of a mother and daughter in a dysfunctional relationship, with a best female lead nomination for newcomer Sidibe and a best supporting female nomination for Mo'Nique. The film's success is not entirely a surprise, considering that the Oprah Winfrey- and Tyler Perry-backed Sundance darling has earned $27 million at the domestic box office and was received well by audiences during its slow rollout in cities across the nation in November. Sidibe's work in \"Precious\" has been one of the breakout roles of the year, and the young actress is rumored to be the star of a new series, \"The C Word.\" However, it hasn't been all smooth for \"Precious\": The film earned zero nominations for the Gotham Independent Film Awards, which were given out Monday night. The Gotham awards are a New York-based indie film honor. \"The Hurt Locker,\" by contrast, took home two Gotham awards Monday night, one for best picture and the other for best ensemble. There were no Independent Spirit Award nominations for this Iraq war drama, however, as it was nominated last year. For the Spirits, \"Precious\" is facing off against the Zooey Deschanel-driven \"(500) Days of Summer,\" \"Amreeka,\" \"The Last Station\" and \"Sin Nombre\" for best picture. \"Summer\" also snagged a nomination for best male lead, a nod for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. On top of the best picture nomination, \"The Last Station\" -- a biographical piece about Leo Tolstoy featuring James McAvoy, Helen Mirren and Paul Giamatti -- is up for best director, best screenplay, best female lead and best supporting male lead. Christian McKay, another relatively unknown actor in the United States, has gotten lots of love from critics for his portrayal of Orson Welles in Richard Linklater's \"Me and Orson Welles,\" and the Spirit Awards noticed, giving the British actor a nomination for best supporting male performer. In order to be considered, all films had to be 70 minutes long with a budget under $20 million, and had to have screened at one of the major film festivals, such as Sundance or Toronto. The awards ceremony is typically held the Saturday before the Academy Awards, but since the Spirit Awards are celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2010, they're moving out from under Oscar's shadow and will air live on the Independent Film Channel on March 5.","highlights":"\"Precious\" and \"Last Station\" both lead Independent Spirit Award nominations .\nAcclaimed indie \"Hurt Locker\" didn't earn any nominations, as it was nominated last year .\n\"(500) Days of Summer\" is up for best picture, along with \"Amreeka,\" \"Sin Nombre\"","id":"873a65ffada8279fea5dc5c86c7959b6d5e4e7a7"} -{"article":"This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Solferino which led to the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC is using the date to launch an awareness campaign of its work in conflict-affected countries, featuring photos taken by five award-winning photojournalists. This week we're bringing you stories from some of the world's most troubled countries, as told by the ICRC. CIT\u00c9 SOLEIL, Haiti (ICRC) -- Roudeline Lamy was 23 when she was shot in the stomach. The impact of the bullet sent the small baby she was holding tumbling to the ground. Roudeline Lamy shows the scar from her bullet wound. At 26, she's a widow after losing her husband to gangland violence. Roudeline still suffers from stomach pains and her daughter, now three years old, is paralyzed from the waist down. The mother and child sleep on the concrete floor of a shack that floods every time it rains. Since Roudeline's husband was killed by the gangs, she has had to rely on the charity of friends and her faith that God will not abandon her. With very few State services, God is all the poor in Haiti's sprawling seaside slum of Cit\u00e9 Soleil can believe in. Two schools and one state hospital serve the ever-expanding population, with aid agencies and religious groups trying to plug the gap. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been in Haiti since 1994 and in Cit\u00e9 Soleil since 2003. Rob Drouen, head of the ICRC delegation, explains, \"Haiti is a fragile state where armed gangs can be used to stir up trouble for political reasons and abject poverty fuels discontent.\" See photos taken by award-winning photojournalist Ron Haviv \u00bb . Even among the children. In Cit\u00e9 Soleil, a dozen street children start pummeling a young girl. It's not known why. But within seconds word has spread that a fight is on. Hordes of children with matted hair and ragged clothes race to the scene, glad of anything to relieve the monotony of yet another day with nothing to do. Weary parents pull their children away, leaving the shaken girl to escape. This is a far cry from the days when families ran for cover from daily gun battles. A few years ago, Cit\u00e9 Soleil was one of the most dangerous and destitute places on earth -- a shanty town torn apart by a vicious gang war for control of the area. United Nations troops have stabilized the security situation in Haiti, the western world's poorest country, and many gang members are either dead or behind bars. Nevertheless, violence still surrounds the 300,000 residents of Cit\u00e9 Soleil, fueled by hunger and the frustration of trying to survive on less than a dollar a day. I sidestep the brawling children and enter the home of a woman who has suffered more than most. A long-standing resident of Cit\u00e9 Soleil, 83 year old Elevanise Tidor was first caught in gangland crossfire in 1993. In 2004 she stepped into harm's away again when she was shot in the breast and stomach. As she undoes her faded dress to show the scars from her mastectomy, she tells me she was later hit by a car and now can hardly walk. Watch Elevanise Tidor tell her story \u00bb . Confined to a sparsely furnished corrugated iron shack, she worries about how her children and grandchildren are going to make ends meet. \"My body took the bullets, but my family has been hit the hardest,\" she says. \"I can't work or do anything for them. My grandchildren often go to bed crying with hunger.\" That the victims of violence can suffer for years after the event is well-known, but in Cit\u00e9 Soleil the suffering can last a lifetime. With the help of the ICRC, a group of victims of the violence is aiding fellow sufferers. In 2007, Pierre Wilber founded REVICIS (Regroupement des victimes de Cit\u00e9 Soleil) after gang members beat him up for political reasons. REVICIS has already identified 300 victims and is now trying to get funds for social, psychological and legal help. \"There are so many social problems in Cit\u00e9 Soleil that everyone here is a victim,\" he says. \"But we give priority to people visibly scarred by violence, because they have suffered a double blow.\" Brice Osmer is one of the rare victims who can still work. In April 2005, he was caught in a shoot-out between UN troops and gang members. He was hit three times and lost an arm. Since then he walks the streets selling mobile phone time cards and bags of water. \"On a good day I earn a dollar, but it's thanks to my wife who sells food from dawn to dusk that my children don't starve.\" In 2004, at the height of the gang warfare, the Red Cross ensured that people had safe access to water. Previously, they had been risking their lives crossing frontlines to fill up their buckets. Today, the ICRC works with the water board, maintaining and running 53 communal water points across Cit\u00e9 Soleil, turning them on for a couple of hours 20 days a month. Prospere Borgelin works with the ICRC on its water project. He also works with other international organizations to improve living conditions in Ti-Haiti where he lives (Ti-Haiti is Creole for Petit Haiti, or Little Haiti.) Like other community leaders, he has seen the benefits of working closely with the humanitarian agencies and with the Brazilian troops from the U.N. stabilization mission responsible for security in Cit\u00e9 Soleil. \"The troops have brought security. Communities are beginning to organize themselves. We see the results in that roads are being built, rubbish collected and sewage removed,\" he says. At considerable personal risk, Borgelin has helped the U.N. and the Haitian police arrest gang members in his neighborhood and continues to be vigilant. Like many in Cit\u00e9 Soleil, he fears that the U.N. will pull out before the Haitian police are ready to take over and that the streets will again echo to the sound of gunfire. \"Misery,\" he says, \"breeds violence. And there's still plenty of misery in Cit\u00e9 Soleil.\" For more about this topic go to the ICRC Website. Have you been affected by conflict? Send your photos and stories to iReport.","highlights":"Worst of the violence is over in Haiti, but life remains intolerably hard in slums .\nMany residents of Cit\u00e9 Soleil bear the scars of gang-related warfare .\nUnited Nations troops have stabilized the situation but poverty fuels unrest .","id":"43839ce2f1eb6c45db6fce5bb08a1e1ec2541e46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A leading Muslim-American civil rights group is advocating intense grassroots engagement among police and U.S. Muslim neighborhood leaders to thwart the emergence of homegrown Islamic terrorists. A report, issued Friday by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, reflects the shock among American Muslims over the Fort Hood massacre, the arrests of five American Muslims in Pakistan suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, and the arrests of eight Somali-American men on charges related to what prosecutors said were efforts to recruit youths to fight for a Somali guerrilla movement. Titled \"Building Bridges to Strengthen America: Forging an Effective Counterterrorism Enterprise between Muslim Americans and Law Enforcement,\" the paper stresses a division of labor and a collaboration between police and community groups. Police should fight crime, including terrorism, and neighborhood leaders should deal with the causes of radicalization, it says. At the same time, both need to work hand in glove, the paper said. \"We will capture the narrative from those who seek to misguide the young people,\" said Haris Tarin, the head of the council's District of Columbia office. He was speaking Friday at a news conference in Washington that introduced the 32-page paper. \"One incident of violent extremism is one too many,\" said Alejandro J. Beutel, the author of the report and the group's government liaison. \"Our community needs to develop more sophistication in dealing with this challenge.\" Beutel, who also spoke at the news conference, said there needs to be a greater emphasis on community policing, an idea that calls for closer ties between neighborhood residents and cops on the beat. Developing closer relations with local Muslims would help police tap \"unique cultural and linguistic\" skills that can spot and head off trouble. The study said police must surmount community distrust, which it says is common and calls \"an automatic barrier to police community outreach.\" \"Unfortunately, in the current political climate, the actions of certain law enforcement agencies -- whether spying on peaceful activist groups and houses of worship without reasonable suspicion, or religious profiling -- have added to difficulties,\" the report said. Such a \"heightened sense of fear and grievances also creates a greater pool of alienated people terrorists can tap into for recruitment,\" Beutel's report said. Tarin and Beutel said concern about radicalism in the Muslim community isn't new: Books have been published about the subject, and imams at mosques have raised the issue for many years. Speaking at the news conference, Tarin said that Muslim leaders need to \"think outside the box\" and engage young people in cyberspace, on social networking sites and in other social circles where they are coming together. And both men said that all Muslim groups need to work together to help confront problems like the emergence of radical thought and identify sources of discontent. Beutel said the U.S. Muslim community can learn from the experience of the British Muslim community. While there was initial surprise that local Muslims were involved in the July 7, 2005, London bombings, Muslims there later realized that militant leaders were tapping into the problems caused by youthful alienation and social issues such as racism, drug use and premarital sex. Beutel cites a study that says many militants had been secular before they embraced radical Islam, but they typically lacked mainstream religious knowledge. He said making communities \"religiously literate\" would help fight radicalism. \"Muslim communities must do their part to reach out and continue to assist law enforcement to bring real terrorist perpetrators to justice,\" Beutel wrote in the report. \"The role Muslim communities should play is in counterradicalization efforts through better religious education, social programs and long-term constructive political engagement.\"","highlights":"Group wants police, U.S. Muslim leaders to thwart emergence of homegrown terrorists .\nReport, cites Fort Hood tragedy, Americans' arrest in Pakistan, Somali-Americans' arrest .\nStudy says police must undo community distrust, which it calls a barrier to outreach .\nMuslim leaders asked to engage youths on social networking sites and in other social circles .","id":"8525234b393230977516e812c93b086447c8eb34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Anjali Thakur is living in fear in India. She is a mother afraid for her son. \"We are all having sleepless nights,\" Thakur says. Sourabh Sharma -- one of the Indian students attacked in Melbourne. Her son isn't in a war zone or even a country known to be dangerous. He is a student in Melbourne, Australia. \"Three years back when we sent him,\" she says, \"it was one of the safest places for the children to go.\" The Australian government says it is still safe but a spate of vicious attacks on Indian students in recent weeks has parents like Thakur and hundreds of students shaken and angry. From Melbourne to Victoria to Sydney Indian students say they are targets of racially motivated attacks. At least 10 Indian students have been attacked over the past month, the most severe case left an Indian student in a coma, another student was stabbed in the stomach, and a third left with a nasty black eye. So far more than a dozen arrests have been made. Australia authorities say they don't believe the attacks and robberies are racially motivated but instead crimes of opportunity against soft targets: students who typically travel alone at night on public transportation. But hundreds of Indian students see it differently. They have reacted with protests in at least three Australian cities. Police say at one point Indian students decided to take the law into their own hands and retaliate which has been condemned in both India and Australia. The situation has gotten so much attention Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made several statements on the matter, insisting the attacks are isolated incidents. In an interview on Australian radio he said: \"Every city has violence, let's put this into perspective, and Australia I'm advised on the statistics is one of the safest countries in the world for international students.\" In India though the perception of a safe Australia has been shattered partly due to the widespread publicity of the recent cases. The story has been front page news for days while local television media has been going with breaking news every time it receives a report of an Indian student attacked anywhere in Australia. Political tension has even bubbled up between India and Australia with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing the attacks and asking Australia does something to safeguard India's young people. Australia has responded with a 10-point action plan to help safeguard students. A helpline has also been set up. As for Anjali Thakur, she says her son has lived in Australia for three years and never experienced violence; in fact she says he didn't even know about the attacks in Melbourne where he lives until she called him to warn him. But Thakur has been watching the news in India and seeing a totally different picture of Australia. \"It's a lovely beautiful peaceful country,\" Thakur says, \"but now what you see on TV and what you hear, that's a total contrast to what we know of Australia.\" The Thakur family has responded by refusing to let the youngest son study in Australia and keeping their eldest son from enrolling in a master's program at his university. If that kind of sentiment spreads, it could have serious consequences for Australia's $12.6 billion-a-year education export industry. More than 80,000 students from India study in Australia. \"Any parent will tell you,\" Thakur says, \"they are not going to send a child for the best education in the world at the cost of his life.\"","highlights":"Spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia makes headlines in India .\nStudents say attacks racially motivated; authorities say they are crimes of opportunity .\nAttacks have stoked political tensions between New Delhi, Canberra .\nMore than 80,000 Indian students attend Australian universities .","id":"e21e40e5fab91e6c4ac519efb71bd891aea6720c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A woman who helped raise a child with her female partner in Vermont before the pair split can visit the girl in Virginia even though that state doesn't recognize same-sex unions, a court ruled Friday. Janet Jenkins with Isabella, the daughter she helped raise with former partner Lisa Miller. Virginia's Supreme Court ruled that Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller's civil union in 2000 gave Vermont, and its law on same-sex unions, jurisdiction over their subsequent custody and visitation disputes. Miller moved to Virginia with the child in 2003, and a Vermont court granted Jenkins visitation rights. But Miller took the case to a Virginia court, which ruled that Jenkins had no such rights there. The case was considered by legal experts to be the first conflict between two state courts over a major legal question arising from same-sex unions. Jenkins' attorney, Joseph Price of the Washington law firm Arent Fox, said Friday's ruling \"just affirms the old principle that when these kinds of custody and visitation disputes begin in one state, that's where they should remain.\" \"You can't shop them around to another state,\" Price said. \"Virginia really had no choice but to enforce judgments and judicial orders from Vermont.\" Vermont is one of the few states that allow same-sex partners to enter into a civil union. Two years after Vermont recognized Miller and Jenkins' relationship, Miller gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination. The relationship deteriorated, and Miller and the baby moved to Virginia. A Vermont court later granted Miller a dissolution of the civil union and granted custody of the child to her and visitation rights to Jenkins. Miller then asked the courts in Virginia -- which does not recognize same-sex unions or marriages -- to take jurisdiction of the dispute. A Virginia state judge eventually ruled that Jenkins had no \"parentage or visitation rights.\" The Virginia high court ruling Friday returned the case to Vermont's control, meaning Jenkins can visit the girl, who is now 6. Miller's attorney, Mathew Staver, said he was \"disappointed the state sidestepped the larger legal questions.\" \"This case shows that one state is not an island in the same-sex marriage dispute, and underscores having state laws that protect traditional one-man, one-woman marriages,\" said Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, a law firm that fights on behalf of what it calls \"traditional families.\" Miller said in 2005 that she was doing what was best for her daughter and was no longer a lesbian. \"I am Isabella's mom. I did conceive her; I birthed her,\" she said. \"I'm raising her. And in my opinion, Isabella needs to stay with me 100 percent of the time, because I am the only person that she identifies as a mom.\" Miller lives with Isabella in Winchester, Virginia. Jenkins did not offer an immediate reaction to the ruling but said in 2005 that she was only fighting for her rights as a parent. \"Justice will be served for Isabella,\" she said. \"I believe that. And I'll do whatever it takes. I'll be with her for as long as I can, or I'll be without her for as long as I have to, but I'm her mom. \"She's born here [in Vermont]. She's always here.\" Price said Jenkins, who lives in Fair Haven, Vermont, was supposed to visit Isabella last weekend, but Miller didn't appear with the girl. Friday's ruling comes a week after the California Supreme Court's refusal to delay its recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Massachusetts also allows same-sex marriages; Vermont and three other states permit civil unions, and 12 other states give gay and lesbian couples some legal rights. Virginia amended its constitution in 2007 to decree that marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman.","highlights":"Virginia ruling gives Vermont court jurisdiction over case .\nJanet Jenkins and Lisa Miller were in civil union in Vermont but later split .\nMiller moved to Virginia with child; Vermont court allowed Jenkins visitation .\nMiller got Virginia court to block visitation; Friday's ruling overturns that .","id":"bb2fc7c134c7be5bc20aa60625a996c19121740a"} -{"article":"(InStyle) -- Chanteuse Whitney Houston is back and she is better than ever! The one-of-a-kind star is happy, healthy and ready for what's next. The singer spoke with InStyle magazine and shared her comeback secrets in the magazine's January's issue. The 46-year-old sex symbol even gave some tips on how to be alluring. \"Sexy can be sexual without having to expose a lot of yourself,\" she said. \"Your body can express a lot without your having to take off a lot. I try to splash it in there a little bit, just by body movement. \" The stylish singer said for her, less is more. \"A smile, a little glance, the way you lean back says sexy without being too open or offending anyone,\" Houston revealed. \"Because once they've seen it all, they go, 'Man, I'm bored with that,' instead of 'Hmm, what's she going to do now?'\" Check out more of Houston's exclusive interview in the January issue on newsstands December 18th. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE! Copyright \u00a9 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Whitney Houston spoke with InStyle magazine about her comeback .\nSinger gave tips on how to be sexy and alluring without having to expose much .\nHouston said her strategy is less is more when it comes to sex appeal .","id":"1766b7863b2634a436d2b855e0c72ee0b7dbe666"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Africa pace bowler Dale Steyn ripped through India's batsmen on the third day of the first cricket Test in Nagpur, taking eight wickets as the hosts were forced to follow on. Steyn took a career-best 7-51 as India, resuming on 25-0 overnight, were skittled for just 233 to concede a massive first-innings deficit of 325 runs. The 26-year-old, whose previous best figures were 6-49, then took the wicket of first-innings centurion Virender Sehwag as India reached 66-2 at stumps on Monday. The haul took Steyn to 193 wickets in his 37th Test and gave South Africa a great chance of winning the two-match series against a side who usurped their No. 1 ranking in the five-day format late last year. He claimed five wickets in less than four overs after tea as India collapsed from 221-4. \"We actually had the ball changed when we came out after tea because the seam had popped open on the old one,\" Steyn told reporters. \"We hoped to get a bit of reverse swing -- it worked in our favor.\" Steyn's strike partner Morne Morkel set the tone when he had Gautam Gambhir caught by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher with his first delivery of the day, with the opener not adding to his overnight score of 12. Steyn then bowled Murali Vijay for four as the No. 3 failed to play a stroke, and he took the vital wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, the highest run-scorer in Test history, when he tempted the veteran to edge a drive to Boucher for just seven. The belligerent Sehwag then added 136 with debutant Subramaniam Badrinath as he smashed his 18th Test ton before giving away his wicket to Wayne Parnell with an easy catch to J.P. Duminy deep in the cover field. Sehwag hit 15 boundaries in 139 deliveries -- the same amount that the 29-year-old Badrinath faced in making 56, who took India safely to tea along with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But Dhoni fell to left-arm spinner Paul Harris in the first over of the final session, and Steyn had Badrinath caught at midwicket before running through the tail. Proteas captain Graeme Smith made the Indians bat again, despite Boucher not being able to take the field due to a back injury. Morkel again accounted for Gambhir as the opener misjudged an inswinger and had his castle wrecked after shouldering arms, and Steyn had Sehwag caught by Smith at slip for 16. Vijay (27) and Tendulkar (15) added 44 in the remainder of the 23 overs scheduled to be bowled before stumps, but will face a massive task to prevent India going 1-0 down in the series. Meanwhile, New Zealand took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the one-day series against visiting Bangladesh, winning the second match by five wickets in Dunedin on Monday. The tourists managed only 183-8 in their 50 overs as Mushfiqur Rahim top-scored with 86, and the Kiwis reached their target from only 27.3 overs with Ross Taylor smashing 78 off in a 52-ball innings featuring five sixes.","highlights":"South Africa paceman Dale Steyn takes eight wickets on third day of first Test in Nagpur .\nSteyn claims career-best 7-51 to skittle India for 233 to earn a huge lead of 325 .\nHe then dismisses first-innings centurion Virender Sehwag as India reach 66-2 at stumps .\nNew Zealand take unassailable 2-0 lead in one-day series against visiting Bangladesh .","id":"cc497c5d640772738fb8703d268e49b5067386b7"} -{"article":"(Entertainment Weekly) -- England doesn't yet swing in the transporting, ruefully tender coming-of-age drama \"An Education.\" Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard star as a couple in \"An Education.\" It's 1961, and Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a bright 16-year-old schoolgirl in a tidy London suburb, nurtures aspirations of sophistication that involve smoking cigarettes and dreaming of the day she can sit in a Paris cafe. Beatles-era grooviness and sexual liberation haven't yet reached this corner of the Empire, where cautious, 1950s-style postwar provincialism still prevails -- the same squareness the gents across the pond in \"Mad Men\" are just beginning to bend. Jenny's dad (Alfred Molina) is fearful and fussy; Mum (Cara Seymour) is resigned. So the good student studies her Latin, grinding for admisson into Oxford University. Life lessons don't begin until she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), who's in his early 30s, and Jewish, and suave. He's so charmant, he even dazzles Mum and Dad. Being included in David's exotic, if mysteriously shady, universe -- the travel, the jazz clubs that hint at wider horizons, and, oh yes, the sex -- is like a crash course in worldliness. And as this picture of times that were a-changin' demonstrates with quiet, though conventionally built, artistry, worldliness has its discontents. \"An Education\" is the vivid story of how one girl became a woman -- and how Olde England morphed into the youthquake center of '60s yeah yeah yeah. None of which would be quite so vivid without the beguiling performance of newcomer Mulligan. She's very much an It Girl, with her natural elegance in a brunet upsweep \u00e0 la Audrey Hepburn. And she's protectively partnered by Sarsgaard in the tricky job of playing sweet yet suspect, a balance he sustains with nonchalance. Equally important players: Dominic Cooper and the divine Rosamund Pike as David's ever-so-knowing pals, Olivia Williams as a teacher who hates to see her prize pupil make poor choices, and Emma Thompson, steaming forth like a battleship as Jenny's headmistress. The movie, in a palette of cloudy blues, is adapted from a vivid memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber and directed by gifted Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig from a screenplay of economical empathy by \"High Fidelity\" novelist Nick Hornby. Afterward, you'll want to listen to the Beatles sing \"She's Leaving Home.\" It might be a girl like Jenny the lads had in mind. EW Grade: A-minus . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Carey Mulligan does fine job as teen seeking greener pastures in \"An Education\"\nFilm is about a girl in 1961 Britain who starts dating 30-something man .\nGood performances all around, especially from Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson .","id":"9a2c795ebe633770e296cc632b846d3100116b12"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An additional 440,000 Honda vehicles are being added to a recall initially announced in November to repair a potential defect in airbag inflation systems, American Honda Motor Co. said Friday. The 2001 Honda Civic is among the vehicles covered by the recall. The recall involves driver-side airbags in certain 2001-02 Honda Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-03 Acura TLs, the company said in a news release. The affected vehicles will require the replacement of the steering-wheel-mounted airbag inflator. \"In some vehicles, airbag inflators can produce over-pressurization of the driver's [front] airbag inflator mechanism during airbag deployment,\" the release said. \"If an affected inflator deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator casing to rupture. Metal fragments could pass through the cloth airbag cushion material, possibly causing an injury or fatality to vehicle occupants.\" Honda spokesman Chris Noughtan said the potential defect has resulted in six known injuries and one known death. The company will send a recall notice in the mail over the next few months, the release said. Owners may check their car's recall status by visiting the Honda \"Owner Link\" Web site at www.owners.honda.com\/recalls or the Acura \"My Acura\" Web site at www.owners.acura.com\/recalls. \"Only certain vehicles are affected, and concerned owners of 2001-2002 Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-2003 Acura TLs are encouraged to wait to receive a recall notice in the mail before scheduling an appointment with their local dealer,\" the company said.","highlights":"2001-02 Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-03 Acura TLs included .\nAirbag inflators can produce over-pressurization, company says .\nAt least six injured, one killed by potential defect .\nOwners will receive recall notices in the mail .","id":"16f666b3502d564810e98eb8f0eb85287545dd42"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An infant falls to his death from a second-story window while his parents are making love. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe star in the Lars von Trier drama \"Antichrist.\" The mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is consumed with grief and guilt. She's hospitalized and sedated for days and weeks before her husband (Willem Dafoe), a therapist, insists she return home. He gets rid of all her medications. He will be her partner and her grief counselor, and he will see her through this, if only she will place her trust in him. Not a good idea for either of them, as it turns out. Halloween is nearly upon us, but \"Antichrist\" is a mighty strange kind of horror movie, a wrenching psychodrama for two-thirds of its running time before collapsing into a steaming heap of deranged sadism and supernatural symbolism in the outrageous third act. The movie's peculiarity can be accounted for in three words: Lars von Trier. The Danish provocateur twice won prestigious honors at the Cannes Film Festival (with \"Breaking the Waves\" and \"Dancer in the Dark\") and re-energized European art cinema in the 1990s with the Dogme movement's so-called \"Vows of Chastity.\" It's not often that an art-house director takes up the implements to make a horror film, and for a while, \"Antichrist\" compels with its anguished intensity and audacious stylistic choices, not least the severity that keeps the focus exclusively on this man and woman, neither of whom is named. The prologue -- the child's death -- is a luxurious, slow-motion rhapsody of explicit sex, black-and-white photography and baroque music, commingling with the infant's almost ersatz tragedy and finding perfunctory counterpoint in banal close-ups of the family's washer-dryer. (There may be a deliberate echo here of the famous sex scene in Nicolas Roeg's \"Don't Look Now,\" a far more keenly calibrated examination of grief succumbing to the supernatural.) Dafoe and Gainsbourg are riveting as the ill-matched couple. He's an implacable rationalist, urging her to confront her fears and venture into the darkest recesses of her psyche. She's not sure he's ready to share that torment with her. Their bitter, sometimes sourly funny back-and-forth fleetingly echoes the railing, pugnacious and remorseful men and women we find again and again in Strindberg and Bergman. Of course, when those great Scandinavian dramatists wanted to shock us with the ferocity of the battle of the sexes and show a married couple going at it tooth and nail, their only weapons were words. Mindful that he's up against \"Hostel,\" \"Saw\" and the like, Herr von Trier ups the ante considerably. Hiking to a log cabin in the mountains to uncover the apex of his wife's fears (it could be anywhere, but let's imagine we're in the neighborhood of Burkittsville), the doctor's little experiment in exposure therapy ends in crushed genitals and, uh, worse. Much worse. It's safe to say von Trier knows this climax is over the top: \"Chaos reigns!\" announces a fox, in perfect English, just as the movie goes off the deep end. Chaos reigns all right, and Gainsbourg's traumatized mom is transformed nonsensically into a raving psycho witch-bitch. This director has often been accused of misogyny for the punishments that befall his heroines -- spuriously, in my opinion. But this time the boot is on the other foot, and for once the charge seems to stick; no matter that the first half of the movie suggests Dafoe's smug therapist is due for a comeuppance. Apparently someone had a seizure when the movie showed at the New York Film Festival recently. When I caught up with it at the Vancouver International Film Festival two weeks ago, the screening was punctuated with the single loudest shriek I've ever heard in the theatre -- that would have been when Gainsbourg gets out the scissors for a spot of ad hoc auto-surgery. There also was a very vociferous walk-out: a gentleman who fairly barked \"You get what you pay for, folks\" as he made for the exit a full 20 minutes before the end. That unhappy camper had a point. Either von Trier is barking up the wrong tree, or he's pandering to the basest instincts of an audience that's seen it all before and still demands more, more, more. Beautifully shot by Anthony Dod Mantle and acted with raw conviction, \"Antichrist\" is a calamitous atrocity from a major filmmaker, nothing more and nothing less. If you don't believe me, go ask the talking fox. \"Antichrist\" is not rated and runs 104 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's review, click here.","highlights":"\"Antichrist\" has met with vitriolic reaction at film festivals .\nLars von Trier film stars Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg as troubled couple .\nHorror goes from moody to over-the-top and graphic .\nTo CNN.com's Tom Charity, the film is a \"calamitous atrocity\"","id":"46faaec753367617638d8f2d20bbf760c9ae4ce7"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the Bush administration's policies on the interrogation of terrorism suspects Sunday, saying former President George W. Bush would not have authorized anything illegal. Condoleeza Rice says George W. Bush was clear that interrogations during his presidency should break no law. \"He was also very clear that we would do nothing -- nothing -- that was against the law or against our obligations internationally,\" Rice said during an appearance at a Washington school. A Senate Intelligence Committee report released in April showed Rice was among top Bush advisers who approved the CIA's use of waterboarding -- a technique considered a form of torture for centuries -- on terrorism suspects in its custody. Recently released Bush administration memos showed Justice Department officials argued that waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other coercive practices did not violate U.S. laws against torture. The disclosures have led to calls for investigations of former Bush administration officials. But Rice said Bush \"was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country\" after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. \"I hope people understand that it was a struggle, it was a difficult time,\" she said. \"We were all terrified of another attack on this country because September 11 was the worst day of my life in government -- watching 3,000 Americans die because these people attacked us.\" But she added, \"Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal.\" President Obama has banned the use of techniques such as waterboarding, which he called torture. His administration released the Justice Department memos in response to a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, and he called the legal reasoning behind the memos \"a mistake.\" Unlike former Vice President Dick Cheney, who criticized the release of the documents, Rice did not criticize the Obama administration's decision. iReport.com: Share your take on interrogation techniques . \"I have said many times that the Obama administration is now in power, and he's my president, too,\" she said. \"And, I owe him my loyalty. I will not agree with everything that they do. I will not agree with everything that they say.\"","highlights":"Bush \"was only willing to authorize\" legal interrogations, ex-secretary of state says .\nSenate report says top Bush officials gave CIA approval on waterboarding .\nBush administration memos argued waterboarding did not violate U.S. laws .\nPresident Obama, calling waterboarding torture, has banned technique .","id":"efbde569f77e4c62eb33650f1dd101d4cf432d93"} -{"article":"BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- All that glitters may not be gold, but for Colombia's narco-molls the most important thing is that it glitters. Yovanna Guzman was 19 when she met drug boss Wilber Varela, and she says he showered her with luxuries. Beauty queens, fashion models, actresses or regular girls made good are lovers of drug capos and above all lovers of the finest luxuries that cocaine money can buy. Few are prepared to speak publicly and even less to appear on camera. Those who date mob bosses don't want to blow their cover. It could expose their boyfriends to arrest and themselves to retaliation. In addition, it could bring anti-drug police sniffing, ready to seize ill-gotten gains. One exception is Yovanna Guzman, a former beauty queen and model, with a mane of blond hair and a pneumatic figure -- a sure passport into the narco underworld where cup size is more important than IQ. For eight years, she was the lover of one of Colombia's most ruthless cocaine traffickers, Wilber Varela. He was head of the North Valle Cartel. \"He had two faces. I saw him so tender with the ones he loved, then you see the cartel killings. He always said he was the best of friends and the worst of enemies,\" Guzman said during an interview in Bogota. Watch Guzman describe Varela and how she met him \u00bb . The Colombian government accused Varela of running tons of cocaine to the United States via Central America in go-fast speedboats and to Europe in small jets. Should drugs be legalized? Sound off below . Authorities put a $5 million bounty on his head. He gained a reputation for brutality during a yearslong dispute with a splinter faction of the same cartel, led by Diego Montoya, who until his capture in 2007 was listed alongside Osama bin Laden on the FBI's list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives. Guzman was 19 when she met Varela. He told her he was a cattle rancher. She didn't ask questions and said she only found out the truth when she saw a Wanted poster with her boyfriend's mug shot. He wooed her with expensive gifts and sponsored her through Chica Med, a second-rate beauty pageant organizers concede was viewed as a cattle market by gangsters looking for new girls. Some mob bosses bought the beauty title as a gift for their molls, though it's not clear whether Varela paid for Guzman's title. \"There were the vacations, the cars and the luxury SUVs and, of course, jewelry. There was always jewelry. But there were small details too like flowers,\" she said. \"Of course, the luxuries don't make you fall in love, but they do dazzle you. When you get dazzled, you get carried away, but then you ask yourself where is the love and my principles?\" Guzman said Varela's first gift to her was a Rolex watch, followed by a Cartier watch, diamonds, jewelry, top-of-the-range sport utility vehicles and luxury apartments. She said she now realizes she was being bought and admits she sold herself. \"I feel all of us have a price up to a point. Sometimes you feel luxuries like the designer clothes, shoes and handbags are important. But afterward you realize you're empty inside,\" she said. Very quickly her drug lord boyfriend locked Guzman in a golden cage. He forbade her to do photo shoots or party with male friends, even though he had a stable of other top model girlfriends. \"He was very jealous, and what's his is his and belongs to nobody else and nobody can touch it, look at it or mess with it,\" she said. As Colombia's law enforcers stepped up the hunt for Varela, Guzman's time with him became less frequent. But she said he always seemed to know where she was or to whom she had talked. At one point, she said, a jealous Varela sent one of his lieutenants to shoot her in the leg. \"When I got shot, I was supposedly never going to walk properly again. The bullet could easily have hit me somewhere else and killed me. But I pulled myself together and I said I'm not going to be crippled,\" she said. What Guzman wouldn't explain was the reason for the punishment shooting. She giggled and promised to reveal the full details in a book she's writing. She said she hopes her experiences will serve as a cautionary tale for other young women on the trail of easy money. Whether or not they will take a leaf out of that book is another matter. Ordinary Colombians seem to have an unshakable attraction to glamorous narco-lifestyles judging by the sky-high ratings of two TV soap operas. The \"Cartel\" tells the story of the rise of the North Valle mob that Varela headed. The sequel, called \"Mafia Dolls,\" portrays women such as Guzman. One of the silicone-enhanced actresses who played a supporting role in both soaps said that since her TV appearances she has received offers from real-life drug dealers, both in Medellin and Cali. \"Those narcos watch TV and are always on the lookout for fresh meat. So I began getting the calls when I appeared in 'The Cartel,' \" she said. \"I got a phone call from a guy who is a showbiz publicist, and he told me a guy from Medellin was offering $7,500 for me to spend the evening with him.\" She said she refused that overture. Days later, a new BMW X5 SUV, with a bow on top, was left outside her home by the same drug trafficker who was trying to woo her. She said she returned the gift but gave no explanation how she found out the return address, given how secretive Colombian mob bosses are. \"All those narcos care about is how big your breasts are. If they want you, the first thing they do is send you to their plastic surgeons to have silicone implants. But it's them who decide how big you should be, not you,\" she went on. Guzman dares tell her story now for a simple reason -- Varela is dead. He was slain last year by one of his power-hungry lieutenants eager to take over the business. It marked the end of a nightmare she walked into with her eyes wide open. \"[When I heard the news], I didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Varela had his good side, but my freedom doesn't have a price,\" she said. \"I felt the golden cage had been flung open, and I could fly again.\"","highlights":"Former girlfriend of Colombian drug lord admits being bought by luxuries .\nYovanna Guzman dated cartel head Wilber Varela for eight years .\nGuzman says he bought her cars, vacations, jewels but also ordered her shot in leg .\nShe says she felt her \"golden cage\" had opened when he was killed last year .","id":"76061c000f9576ce72c2bf11739d81945bfb45ac"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She is only 37 years old, but violinist Midori Goto has already spent 25 years taking center-stage with the world's best orchestras. Midori first hit center-stage when she was just 11-years-old. Born into a musical family in Osaka, Japan, in 1971 -- her mother and brother are both accomplished musicians -- her own prodigious talents were spotted at an early age by Zubin Mehta, the conductor and one-time musical director of the New York Philharmonic. Inviting Midori to play with the New York Philharmonic in 1982, he helped to propel her onto the world stage which has been such a large part of her life ever since. She moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School of performing arts and has lead a life entwined with music. Unlike some prodigiously talented people there is no hint of resentment directed toward her and the life she has led. Nor is there any notion of a stolen childhood, despite her admission that she did harbor dreams of being all sorts of other things, from an archeologist or diplomat to a zookeeper or a nun. \"This was my life, I didn't know any other. I took it and I was very happy. Being a child performer opened up opportunities. From a fairly early age I was exposed to different cultures and was traveling round the world. It was a great education,\" she told CNN. Being given the opportunity to learn more about different people and experience different places was only one part of this education. While Midori has been practicing and honing her own skills, she has also been given the opportunity to give something back. In 1992 she set up Midori & Friends, a non-profit organization that brings musical education to young people in New York City. \"I was always interested in education; not just receiving, but also helping others and being part of the community,\" she said. From Midori & Friends came Music Sharing, a similar organization in Japan, offering programs in public schools and children's hospitals. While continuing to perform across the world with renowned orchestras she took some time out to further her own education with a degree in psychology in 2000 and in 2005 received her Masters in Psychology from New York University. But music is and remains her first love and the way in which it connects people and stirs emotions is something she believes is one of the most powerful aspects of music. The world today might be unrecognizable from the world of Bruckner or Bach, but for Midori the way people feel and respond to music and emotions remains the same. \"The very basics of being human hasn't changed. We may express ourselves differently, but the fact we do respond and do feel that is something very basic,\" she said. And while there are hardships involved in being one of the world's finest violinists, it still remains a pure pleasure. \"As musicians we're trained to be self critical so we can get better. But fundamentally we love music. It's a love that drives us to practice and keep working at it. It's something I love so much and gives me so much joy. \"With that comes hardships... there's never a state of perfection. You try and you try and you try, but at the end you know you can't be perfect. It's humbling, so that it becomes a motivating force,\" she told CNN. Continuing her work outside of the concert hall, Midori was made a UN Ambassador for Peace in 2007, a role she relishes. While it presents her additional opportunities to talk about issues close to her heart, it's also a position that nourishes her inquisitive mind and another means to connect with people indirectly through her music. These experiences make the world a little more vivid than it was before. And I'm grateful for that; it's also something that motivates me to continue to do it,\" she said.","highlights":"Violinist Midori Goto was child prodigy; played with NY Philharmonic at age 11 .\nSet up Midori & Friends musicial education group and is a UN Peace Ambassador .\nHas an MA in Psychology and travels the world playing with leading orchestras .","id":"68972cd71750dbc0ad152d4db18f1b8fb808c5e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Real Mallorca's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League were dented by a 1-0 defeat away to Spanish strugglers Tenerife on Monday night. Gregorio Manzano's islanders dropped out of the top four following the weekend's games, and Nino's early goal for relegation-threatened Tenerife meant they stayed fifth, two points behind Sevilla. Tenerife moved up to third from bottom, still a point away from safety as they seek to avoid an immediate return to the second division, after doubling their points tally earned from the previous eight matches. Last season's top scorer Nino netted his sixth goal of the 2009-10 campaign in the 14th minute as he ran onto Mikel Alonso's pass and buried his shot from the edge of the area despite claims of offside from the visitors. Nino missed a chance from a similar position soon after, and in the second half he was denied by Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Aouate, who also did well to save Julian Omar's rising shot. Mallorca substitute Pierre Webo headed wide with 12 minutes to go as his team, who have a 100 percent home record, extended a poor away run of just one win in 12 trips. Champions Barcelona lead Real Madrid by two points following Sunday's shock defeat by Atletico Madrid, while Valencia are third a further 10 points adrift.","highlights":"Real Mallorca's hopes of qualifying for Champions League dented by Tenerife defeat .\nMallorca fail to return to the top four in Spain as islanders' poor away form continues .\nPromoted Tenerife move up to 18th place but are still in the relegation zone .\nLast season's top scorer Nino nets the only goal of the game in the 14th minute .","id":"93bb4927a6d23b86e9678b6c2d6cb0479519f63f"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Singer Chris Brown earned a glowing probation report six months after he was sentenced to \"labor-oriented service\" for assaulting his pop star girlfriend, Rihanna, the judge said Thursday. Brown, 20, sat silently in court Thursday afternoon as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg reviewed his probation report. \"It looks like you're doing really, really well,\" Schnegg said. The police chief in Richmond, Virginia -- where Brown is being allowed to complete his sentence -- reported that he had worked 32 days of hard labor, she said. Schnegg said when she sentenced Brown that she wanted to see him do \"actual physical labor, as opposed to some type of community service.\" The report on his court-ordered domestic violence counseling said he had completed 17 out of 52 groups sessions, she said. The agency running the sessions reported \"you are participating and doing a very good job,\" the judge said. The judge rewarded Brown by signing an order allowing him to again travel outside the United States for concerts. When Brown returns to court on May 11, 2010, for his next probation progress report, he will be \"way over halfway there\" to completing his sentence, she said. Brown was sentenced in August to serve five years probation and to spend more than 1,400 hours in \"labor-oriented service\" for the assault conviction. Schnegg also put a restraining order in place, requiring Brown to stay 50 yards away from Rihanna, 10 yards if the two are at the same industry event. The judge issued a strict warning to Brown not to violate the order, which remains in place until 2014. Brown was arrested after an early morning argument inside a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street on February 8, 2009. According to Brown's probation report, the February argument began over an incident at a Beverly Hills party. An earlier, sworn statement by Los Angeles Police Detective DeShon Andrews said the incident began when Rihanna found a text message on his cell phone from \"a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with.\" The pair argued while in the car driven by Brown, the police statement said. It went on to describe the assault in great detail, saying Brown punched Rihanna -- identified in the statement by her real first name, Robyn, and the first initial of her last name, Fenty -- numerous times and put her in a headlock, restricting her breathing and causing her to start to lose consciousness. He threatened to beat her and kill her, according to the statement, and he bit her ear and her fingers. Eventually, the statement said, \"Robyn F. began screaming for help and Brown exited the vehicle and walked away. A resident in the neighborhood heard Robyn F.'s plea for help and called 911, causing a police response. An investigation was conducted and Robyn F. was issued a domestic violence emergency protective order.\" The detective said Brown sent a text message nine days later, apologizing. Rihanna's injuries included cuts and bruises inflicted by a large ring on Brown's right hand, which he used to punch her, the probation report said. \"Officers at the scene observed numerous contusions and abrasions to the victim's face and forehead, as well as bruising to her left arm near the bicep,\" it said. \"They also saw abrasions to her arms near both wrists and on her upper chest near her collarbone and around her neck. There were abrasions on her left leg and on the inside of her upper lips.\" Rihanna declined to speak to the probation investigator, so the probation report's details were gathered from police detectives who interviewed her soon after the attack. \"He beat me up,\" Rihanna told the police, the report said. Brown made a public apology in July in a video statement posted on his personal Web site. \"I have told Rihanna countless times, and I'm telling you today, that I'm truly, truly sorry in that I wasn't able to handle the situation both differently and better,\" Brown said in the Web site statement. \"What I did was unacceptable, 100 percent. I can only ask and pray that you forgive me. Please.\"","highlights":"Brown has done 6 months of sentence for beating girlfriend Rihanna .\nJudge reads reports that he is doing well on \"labor-oriented service\"\nBrown also \"participating and doing a very good job\" in domestic violence counseling .","id":"5587f58526fbcd378078c72ef66ce8036c590762"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Heavy snow in northern and central China has killed 21 people since Monday, the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs said Friday, according to state-run media. Xinhua news agency said the ministry did not provide the causes of the deaths, except to note that two school canteens had collapsed in Hebei and Henan provinces since Wednesday, killing four children. The snow began to fall Monday on northern and central Chinese provinces, including Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hubei and Shaanxi, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Xinhua reported. More than 9,000 buildings have collapsed since then, Xinhua said. Citing the ministry, it said the snow has caused an estimated 4.5 billion yuan (nearly $660 million) in damages. The ministry said about 159,000 people have been evacuated from their homes or stranded vehicles, Xinhua reported. Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju has ordered local authorities to provide food, water and clothing to those who are still stranded, \"and to make proper arrangements for people who lost their homes in the snow to get through the winter,\" Xinhua reported. It said the Civil Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Finance have allocated 20 million yuan (about $3 million) from their central budgets to Shanxi and Hebei provinces to help move those affected by the snow and to help them build houses. Heavy snow has also fallen on Beijing, but no deaths have been reported there, Xinhua said.","highlights":"The snow began to fall Monday on northern and central Chinese provinces .\nXinhua: More than 9,000 buildings have collapsed since Monday .\nXinhua: Civil Affairs ministry says 159,000 people evacuated from homes, vehicles .","id":"bc357d4334cb58645dbcbf9c0c40f36586756a03"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- As Toyota recalls millions of cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that an average of 25 percent of U.S. consumers who get recall notices don't follow through and fix their vehicles. The CNN Fact Check Desk wondered: Is there a way to ensure compliance with auto recalls? Most vehicle recalls involve free fixes for the consumer. \u2022 Clarence Ditlow with the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer watchdog group, says there is not a process to ensure that auto owners comply with recalls. The center says vehicle insurers have an incentive and a method to reach car owners who haven't complied fully with recalls. \"Insurers have the VIN [vehicle identification numbers], and they could contact the insured drivers who have failed to comply,\" Ditlow says. Because states are responsible for issuing a vehicle's registration, Ditlow sees an opportunity for state governments to force compliance. He says that states could refuse to renew registration until the manufacturer's fix has been made. However, he says, no states have taken this step so far. \u2022 According to Edmunds.com, some states do require owners to make the requisite repairs before they attempt to sell the affected car. \u2022 Jeanne Salvatore, with the Insurance Information Institute, says that auto insurers will pay damage claims caused by the current Toyota defects, then go after Toyota for reimbursements. \u2022 CNN Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis says that new car dealers are prevented from selling a defective car. \u2022 If recall communications are deemed insufficient, the NHTSA can require further efforts from the manufacturer. But there is not a mechanism at the federal level to ensure that drivers comply. \u2022 Bottom line: If the NHTSA's 25 percent noncompliance figure is any indication, there could be many affected Toyota models that do not get the requisite fix under the current recall. Although there have been suggestions for how to better enforce recalls, there is no mechanism in place to force drivers to make the change. CNN's Jen Haley and CNNMoney's Peter Valdes-Dapena contributed to this report.","highlights":"Most recalls involve free fixes, but NHTSA says 25 percent of consumers don't comply .\nConsumer watchdog group says there's no process to ensure that auto owners comply .\nInsurers could use VINs to find drivers, states could refuse registration to force compliance .\nAt federal level, there's no mechanism to ensure that drivers comply .","id":"1e601326e348945dfa5bb09a70d428ccc23cce6d"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. troops routinely face the threat of roadside bombs while fighting insurgencies in Afghanistan. They need the most protective clothing the market can bear, and they're getting it -- for now. North Carolina State University College of Textiles tests the flammability of different materials at this facility. Back home, a battle is brewing in Congress over the next lucrative contract for military uniforms. The issue boils down to the raw fiber used in their construction. Current uniforms are made in the United States, in Georgia, using a fabric called Defender M made by the TenCate company. It is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties. But the fabric is made with a type of rayon imported from Austria, which normally would violate the military's buy-American requirement. This specific rayon cannot be produced in the United States for environmental reasons, so Congress passed an amendment allowing it to be temporarily imported. The extension expires, or \"sunsets,\" in 2013, but that year's defense budget is being determined now. The idea of the sunset is to give U.S. manufacturers time to come up with a comparable product. At stake: a defense contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. American competitors have submitted alternatives, but after independent testing at North Carolina State University College of Textiles, the Defense Department concluded that TenCate's Defender M -- with its foreign-made fibers -- is the most flame-resistant. Dr. Roger Barker, who specializes in clothing flammability at the College of Textiles, conducted a demonstration for CNN. Based on his testing, the Army says Defender M resists fire the longest of other fabrics. \"What the new heat-resistant materials are able to do is add seconds of protection, so that seconds of protection can be the difference between a severe burn or a survival burn,\" Barker said. \"Life and death,\" echoes Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, regarding those extra seconds of fire protection. He asked the Senate to extend the waiver. \"So long as it's the best available in the world to protect our soldiers, we absolutely ought to maximize the use,\" Isakson told CNN. \"There is no American competitor that can meet or exceed it,\" Isakson said on the Senate floor. \"Obviously if there were, then that waiver would go away.\" The U.S. Army's uniform procurer says soldiers prefer TenCate's product. \"They have consistently exceeded our expectations. This has proven to be a valuable fabric and well-received by our soldiers,\" Jeff Myhre told CNN. In a letter to CNN, a top military official said the ability to procure the foreign rayon \"a valuable authority.\" \"Our periodic review of rayon requirements within the Military Services and testing of alternative items that are available domestically continue to support the determination that satisfactory quality and sufficient quantity of rayon yarn conforming to the domestic source requirements cannot be procured as needed,\" wrote Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology & logistics. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, opposed Isakson's amendment, debating on the Senate floor that it \"permanently extends this waiver and will end all efforts to produce a domestic material to make military uniforms.\" Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, agrees with Graham that U.S. companies won't have an incentive to invest in research and development. He says the exception was supposed to be temporary, and \"favors foreign suppliers of rayon over our own American companies.\" He argued on the Senate floor that in due time, U.S. companies would be able to demonstrate an ability to manufacture materials that meet Army requirements. He's also worried about jobs. \"Some companies, like DuPont, for example, have already lost hundreds of jobs owing to their inability to compete for Army contracts,\" he said. The Senate voted, and the nays had it. No extension, no more imports of this fabric as of 2013. What next? The House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill when members return from the August recess. Isakson is confident his argument will prevail. \"Facts are stubborn things. I think when the facts get out they'll understand it's the right thing to do. Our armed forces want it and it's the best thing for our soldiers,\" he said. Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"Uniforms made in Georgia by TenCate company, using a fabric called Defender M .\nIt is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties .\nFabric uses rayon from Austria, which normally violates buy-American requirement .\nAmendment at issue would continue to allow special rayon to be imported .","id":"f83667b3a55af0d5417ff84c9435c5e94d992a31"} -{"article":"Lexington, Missouri (CNN) -- Police arrested a sixth member of a Missouri family under investigation for allegations of child sexual abuse, police said. Darrel Mohler has been charged with two counts of rape, Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said at a news conference. Missouri police did not have Mohler in custody earlier. On the request of Missouri officials, Marion County authorities went to Mohler's home in Silver Springs, Florida, and caught him just before he pulled into the driveway, according to a news release from the Marion County Sheriff's Office. He was subsequently arrested. Mohler told police he \"was aware of what was going on in Missouri,\" and that he had not been there since the 1980s, according to the sheriff's office. Five members of the Mohler family of Lafayette County, Missouri, were arrested earlier this week after six alleged victims, who are relatives of the five suspects, made accusations of sexual abuse. A sixth person, described as an \"associate\" of the family, was arrested Thursday but released Friday, police said. The six alleged victims -- all now adults -- came to law enforcement authorities with stories of sexual performances, mock weddings, rape with various objects and a forced abortion during their childhoods, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB in Kansas City. CNN does not identify alleged sexual assault victims. Police did not have enough to charge Darrel Mohler earlier, but after examining the victims' statements, obtained enough information to charge him, Alumbaugh said. He added that he does not think Darrel is on the run. Darrel Mohler, 72, is the younger brother of Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, according to KSHB. On Tuesday, authorities arrested Mohler Sr. and his sons Burrell Edward Mohler Jr., 53; David A. Mohler, 52; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; and Roland Neil Mohler, 47. More charges against the family members are expected next week, the sheriff said. Current charges for some of the arrested include rape, deviate sexual assault and use [of] child in sexual performance, according to Missouri State Courts online case management system. Alumbaugh said that Larry Kidd, 55, of Kansas City, Missouri -- an \"associate\" of the Mohler family -- was picked up by police following a tip, cooperated with police and has been released. The alleged abuse took place from the mid-1980s until 1995 and possibly beyond, the sheriff said earlier. The documents provide graphic details of the alleged abuse provided by one of the alleged victims. All of the charges stem from those documents, Alumbaugh said. Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler are all lay ministers in the Community of Christ, the Independence, Missouri-based organization said in a statement. Lay ministers are volunteers who do not receive compensation, said the organization, and none of the three served in leadership roles or worked with children. Mohler Sr. went through the group's registered youth worker program, but \"his youth worker registration has been terminated and we understand he had no contact with children or youth in church programs,\" the statement said. Some lay ministers might help take care of the church, while others might speak at services, said the organization's spokeswoman, Linda Booth. The Community of Christ is an offshoot of the modern-day Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It split off from the Mormon church in the 1800s, and in 2000 changed its name to Community of Christ from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Investigators earlier this week searched several properties for evidence, but there were no plans to continue the searches, Alumbaugh said Friday. He declined to comment on any evidence found. CNN's Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Darrel Mohler, another relative, charged with two counts of rape Friday .\nFive relatives were arrested Tuesday after six people accused them of abuse .\nMore alleged victims have come forward since initial arrests, police say .\nAllegations date from the mid-1980s through at least the mid-'90s, the sheriff said .","id":"f28b31df14bbdc694941b00839c29fbd58f668f3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- American Airlines announced Tuesday it will resume commercial flights into Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Friday, making it the first airline to do so. Commercial flights ended on January 12, when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and damaged many of the country's buildings, including some at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, in the capital. The first flight will depart Miami International Airport in Florida at 6:40 a.m., arriving at 8:35 a.m. in Port-au-Prince, American Airlines said in a news release. \"This is that crack in the dam that we so badly needed and our passengers so badly wanted, to start moving regularly scheduled traffic into and out of Haiti,\" spokesman Tim Smith told CNN Radio. \"We'll start out with three main flights a day from south Florida, two from Miami and one from Fort Lauderdale. Then we'll also fly a JFK New York flight into Haiti four days a week.\" Smith said that, despite damage to the airport, the airline was prepared to deal with passengers. \"One of the things we did very soon after the earthquake is that, as we were going in carrying relief supplies, we also sent in some American employees and folks from a construction firm that we worked with on the mainland to actually begin working to repair our facilities there at the Port-au-Prince terminal.\" Haitian customs officials will work out of a cargo facility because of damage at the main terminal, Smith said. \"These flights serve as major milestones toward helping the country rebuild,\" Peter Dolara, American's senior vice president for Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America, said in the news release. \"With commercial air service restored, we can better connect loved ones and provide consistent transportation to and from Haiti.\" Also beginning March 12, American Eagle will commence new service into Port-au-Prince from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and daily flights from the Dominican Republic cities of Santo Domingo and Santiago. \"We have begun our journey to recover from the catastrophic earthquake, but with support from companies like American Airlines, we hope it won't be nearly as long,\" said Ralph Latortue, consul general of Haiti in Florida. American has served Haiti since 1971 and employs more than 100 people in Port-au-Prince, according to the airline. Since the day after the earthquake, American Airlines and American Eagle have continued flying into and out of Haiti -- carrying relief workers, medical personnel, humanitarian aid and evacuating hundreds of people. A spokeswoman for Spirit Airlines, which had a daily flight from Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince, said the company was working to gain approval to resume its flights beginning Friday. \"We're awaiting the response from the airport,\" said spokeswoman Misty Pinson. A spokesman for Delta Air Lines said it was working with Haitian authorities to reinstate service \"as quickly as possible.\" The work on the American Airlines terminal was carried out by Odebrecht, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based construction company that built American's terminal at Miami International Airport, said spokeswoman Renata Pinheiro. A cargo building that was undamaged by the earthquake was transformed into a terminal, and immigration and customs services were located there, she said. A terminal that suffered only minor damaged was fixed. \"It wasn't a reconstruction of the airport itself, it was really making it operational,\" she said about the effort. The company's workforce of 75 included 30 Haitian baggage handlers who \"became construction helpers,\" she said. \"Odebrecht's people trained them to do welding and painting. The really cool thing that we're super happy about is the fact that the whole thing came about in just three weeks.\" Among the toughest challenges was finding construction supplies, the company said in a news release. Odebrecht solved that by obtaining materials in Puerto Rico and sending them by barge to the Dominican Republic, then moving them by truck to the Haitian capital. \"This has been a genuine labor of love, but also one of absolute commitment,\" said Antonio Pinto, Odebrecht's project executive in Haiti. \"In the most basic human terms, it is essential to reopen this airport and to reconnect the people of Haiti with their families and friends abroad.\" The company's other projects include rebuilding and fortifying levees in New Orleans, Louisiana, under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.","highlights":"American will resume service Friday morning .\nThe airline has been working to repair earthquake damage to the terminal .\nSpirit Airlines is waiting for approval to resume daily flight from Florida .","id":"420425e97607b2673e93c365ba19a5c18f25734a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Investigators are searching property that once belonged to one of five members of a Missouri family arrested on multiple child sexual abuse charges for \"a body or bodies,\" the Lafayette County sheriff said Wednesday. Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said his department and other law enforcement agencies investigating the case are seeking witnesses and more possible victims. \"I believe that there is, and I believe every investigator here, after seeing the evidence, believes there's more victims,\" Alumbaugh said. \"Pedophiles don't stop at one.\" Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, and his sons Burrell Edward Mohler Jr., 53; David A. Mohler, 52; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; and Roland Neil Mohler, 47, are being held in the Lafayette County Jail with bails ranging from $30,000 to $75,000. Six children, who are siblings, came to law enforcement authorities with stories of sexual performances, mock weddings, rape with various objects, and a forced abortion, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB in Kansas City. The documents provide graphic details of the alleged abuse, provided by one of the children, whose names are being withheld. All of the charges stem from those documents, Alumbaugh said, adding that he expected additional charges based on other victim statements. Read story from CNN affiliate KMBC . Alumbaugh said investigators were also searching several properties for glass jars that some of the victims may have buried containing notes detailing the alleged abuse. Read story from CNN affiliate KCTV . The alleged abuse took place from the mid-1980s until 1995 and possibly beyond, the sheriff said. Additionally, he said, investigators are following other leads as well. Read story from CNN affiliate Fox4KC.com . \"There has been indications there are a body or bodies in various locations,\" Alumbaugh said. Investigators have been working the case since August, he said, when the first of the now-grown children came forward.","highlights":"Investigators search property linked to Missouri family arrested in child sex abuse case .\nOfficials searching for \"a body or bodies,\" sheriff said Wednesday .\nAlleged abuse started in mid-1980s, continued at least into '90s, the sheriff said .","id":"b3d1aaa257a5022f04846e84a3a82696072fbc86"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Washington manicurist Lidia Schaefer returned to her native village in Ethiopia, she was troubled by what she saw: children walking three hours each way to attend classes held not in a school, but under a tree. Lidia Schaefer sold her house and car and set aside tips and part of her salary to raise money for the school. When she learned in 1998 that one of the girls she'd met -- Medhine -- had been attacked and killed by a hyena after falling behind other children during the long trek home from school, Schaefer knew she had to act. She began setting aside a third of her salary and all of her tips, and later sold her house and car, to raise enough money to build a school for the village. \"She's definitely not your average manicurist,\" says Denise Abrahams, a longtime client. \"This is the kind of thing that you hear about Oprah Winfrey doing.\" Do you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes . For Schaefer, it was simply a matter of doing what felt right. \"I don't work with my head,\" she says. \"I really work with my heart.\" Watch Schaefer's clients and colleagues discuss her efforts \u00bb . Born in Feres Mai, a large village in northern Ethiopia, Schaefer moved to the United States in the mid-1970s when civil war broke out at home. During her troubling visit back home in the '90s, she recalls, \"I promised the children I was going to open a school for them.\" But she had no idea how to tackle such a big project, especially while raising her own two children and working 12-hour days, six days a week. Watch Schaefer speak with CNN's Larry King \u00bb . The motivation to fulfill her promise came with the news of Medhine's death. \"That really pushed me to do it,\" she says, \"to build a school so that wouldn't happen again.\" Schaefer lobbied the Ethiopian government to donate land in a central location so the school could serve children from several nearby villages. The decision was made to build a secondary school, since the nearest one was more than 18 miles away. Back in Washington, Schaefer began setting aside money for construction of the school. \"I was working two days for the school, four days for me,\" she recalls. Her clients and co-workers rallied to help, holding raffles and making contributions. Several clients bought individual doors or windows for the school. Watch Schaefer talk about the school \u00bb . But Schaefer realized it wouldn't be enough. To finish the school, she needed to do something drastic. In 2002, she gave up her symbols of the American dream, selling her home and car. It's a sacrifice that still stuns her colleagues and friends. \"I couldn't believe it,\" remembers salon manager Patty Gonzalez. But Schaefer saw nothing remarkable about her decision. \"I don't feel like I [gave] up a lot,\" she says. \"I want [the children] to learn, to get something out of their life.\" Schaefer ultimately raised more than $250,000 for the school, which was completed in 2006. When she went back for the dedication, Schaefer was honored with an elaborate procession through the village. For her, it was gratifying to see what she'd accomplished. \"I was so happy, I can't even describe it,\" she recalls. Today, nearly 1,500 students are educated in the school, which boasts an eight-building campus with 16 classrooms, a science lab and library. \"It's simple, but it's nice,\" Schaefer says. Though she'd hoped to name the school in memory of Medhine, the government -- which runs the school -- instead named it the Lidia Secondary School, telling Schaefer, \"We want it to be your name so that more people [will] be like you.\" Schaefer has indeed inspired many others to follow her example. When Ethiopian communities around the United States heard about what she'd been able to achieve, they launched an effort to build more schools in her region of northern Ethiopia. So far, they've raised enough money to build 12 schools, due to be completed by July 2009. Schaefer still sets aside her tips and wages to support her school and has kept up her fundraising efforts to buy supplies. A colleague at the salon designed T-shirts to raise money for desks for the students. Schaefer's next goal is to equip the school with computers. \"They need computers so they can talk to the whole world,\" she says. Her colleagues and clients say Schaefer serves as an important reminder that people don't need money or power to make a difference. \"She's very inspiring to me,\" says Gonzalez. \"I've learned from Lidia that even if the project is big, if your heart is in it, you can do it.\" Want to get involved? Check out Lidia Schaefer's Web site and see how to help.","highlights":"D.C. manicurist raised more than $250,000 to build school in native Ethiopia .\nInspiration came after seeing children walk three hours to classes held under tree .\nGirl killed by hyena while walking home motivated Lidia Schaefer to fulfill promise .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"03372fc545293a17d7b60a39aa900e3b87faa9cb"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Close to one million strollers have been recalled by their manufacturer following reports at least 12 babies or toddlers had their fingers amputated after they were caught in the hinges. British company Maclaren said the recall concerns Chinese-made models on sale in the U.S. that open with an \"umbrella\" mechanism. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said customers should stop using the strollers immediately. Maclaren said it was issuing a free repair kit make the hinges safe. The CPSC said the warning concerned models dating back to 1999 sold at stores including Target and Babies R Us. The mechanism \"poses a fingertip amputation and laceration hazard to the child when the consumer is unfolding,\" the CPSC said in statement issued jointly with Maclaren. Maclaren said its Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, Techno XLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno and Easy Traveller models -- which retail between $100 to $400 -- were affected. The manufacturer said its strollers met required safety standards, but the recall was being applied voluntarily to \"alert the operator when opening or closing the stroller of the possible risk of injury.\" In a separate statement, Maclaren's European arm said that no recall was being issued in the European Union, where there had been fewer reported injuries, despite higher sales. \"We wish to reassure our customers that they should continue to use their existing Maclaren buggies since they are safe when opened and closed correctly,\" it said. \"Our advice is that consumers should take the same level of caution and care as when opening or closing a car door or any other moving part that can be found in many other baby and toddler products. \"There are a lower number of similar reported incidents amongst the considerably higher number of Maclaren buggies sold in Europe. If a buggy is folded or unfolded in line with our operating instructions the risk of injury is non-existent.\" \u2022 U.S. consumers can contact Maclaren at 877-688-2326 or visit www.maclaren.us\/recall to receive the repair kit.","highlights":"Maclaren says some of it strollers pose a risk of finger amputations .\nRecall affects nearly one million strollers sold in the United States .\nManufacturer has issued kit to make hinges safe .","id":"429ee29819e1605d808b69312801eb2820998c5a"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- As Tehran approaches the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis, in which dozens of Americans where held against their will for 444 days, the Islamic republic is firmly warning against reformists taking to the streets to protest the government. Still reeling from the massive demonstration that followed the country's disputed presidential election, Iran on Wednesday will commemorate November 4, 1979, when a group of Islamist students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 53 hostages and effectively ending diplomatic relations with the United States. While the government will allow the \"faithful\" to celebrate the anniversary of the embassy seizure, those who \"intend to gather illegally and spread lies among people who gather to peacefully participate ... will be held responsible for their actions,\" said Ahmad Reza Radan, head of Iran's security forces, according to the semi-official Iran Student Correspondent Association. The government of Iran arrested more than 1,000 people in a massive crackdown after the June 12 election, in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner. In the aftermath of the fallout, the government accused several reformists, including opposition candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi, of spreading anti-government propaganda and fueling the anger among the public. Despite warnings from Iran's hardline leaders, the reformists have largely refused to back down. They released the names of 72 protesters they say were killed in the unrest that followed the election -- more than double the government's official number. Karrubi, a former parliamentary speaker, has been especially vocal about the claims of detainee rape. He publishing a firsthand account of one alleged victim on his Web site last month. He has been scorned by government hard-liners, whose credibility and legitimacy have been publicly questioned since the elections. On Wednesday, Islamic authorities tried to pre-emptively silence anti-government demonstrations and rhetoric. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Hossein Sajedinia, deputy of operations for Iran's security forces, said, \"The police will not allow a handful [of individuals] to disrupt the organization and safety of this day, by fooling people and the youth.\"","highlights":"Wednesday marks 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis .\nIran is firmly warning against reformists taking to the streets to protest the government .\nSecurity forces chief says the \"faithful\" will be allowed to to celebrate the anniversary .\nReformists have released names of 72 protesters they say were killed after June elections .","id":"4fb775dbf336219177779170f3dba495323fb90b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Actress Gina Gershon is demanding a retraction from Vanity Fair after the magazine reported \"high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip\" that former President Clinton \"has been seen visiting\" her in California. Actress Gina Gershon \"is extremely offended\" by the Vanity Fair article, her lawyers say. The lengthy article by the magazine's national editor, Todd Purdum, mentioned the actress along with several other women rumored to be associated with Clinton, all anonymously sourced. \"Todd Purdum's insinuation is a lie, and it is irresponsible journalism,\" said Gershon's publicist, Mara Buxbaum. \"We are demanding a retraction.\" A letter sent by Gershon's attorneys to Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, obtained by CNN, demanded a published correction and retraction and threatened possible litigation for defamation. The actress appeared in 1995's \"Showgirls\" and the more recent \"P.S. I Love You.\" Gershon \"is extremely offended by the false and defamatory inference that she engaged in an adulterous relationship with the President,\" the letter says, adding that the actress has been in the same room with Clinton three times, always in the presence of at least a dozen people. \"It is apparent that Vanity Fair was intent upon publishing unsubstantiated rumors, and that it avoided learning the true facts so that the truth would not get in the way,\" the letter says. \"Such conduct is reckless and malicious, giving rise to substantial liability for defamation.\" In a statement, Vanity Fair denied that the article indicates any \"improper relationship\" between Clinton and Gershon. \"The story merely examines the concerns of some of Clinton's aides about reports of his behavior,\" the magazine said. \"We don't believe that any correction is warranted.\" Purdum's article, \"The Comeback Id,\" quoted multiple anonymous sources questioning the former president's behavior since leaving the White House. The article suggested that Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart bypass surgery and said there were reports of Clinton \"seeing a lot of women on the road.\" Clinton issued a tirade against Purdum on Monday when asked by Huffington Post writer Mayhill Fowler what he thought of \"the hatchet job somebody did on you in Vanity Fair,\" according to a recording of the exchange posted on the Huffington Post's Web site. \"[He's] sleazy,\" Clinton responded. \"He's a really dishonest reporter.\" Clinton said that he had not read the article but that he was told that \"there's five or six just blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy.\" Calling Purdum a \"scumbag,\" Clinton said \"he's one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy -- can't help it.\" Purdum \"didn't use a single name, he didn't cite a single source in all those things he said,\" the former president said, adding that the article was \"part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. \"Anytime you read a story that slimes a public figure with anonymous quotes, it ought to make the bells go off in your head,\" he said. Jay Carson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's campaign, said late Monday that \"President Clinton was understandably upset about an outrageously unfair article, but the language today was inappropriate, and he wishes he had not used it.\" Purdum, a former New York Times reporter who covered the Clinton White House and is married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, defended his article on CNN's \"The Situation Room\" on Monday afternoon, saying he was \"very careful to say there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper.\" \"I reject the notion that I'm making an insinuation,\" Purdum said. \"But I'm very comfortable quoting the people I quote because I know who they are, and I know that they are very senior people who have known President Clinton for a very long time and work for him at very high levels.\"","highlights":"Gina Gershon accuses Vanity Fair reporter of \"irresponsible journalism,\" lying .\nMagazine stands by article and refuses to run a correction .\nFormer president called reporter \"a scumbag\" but later apologized .","id":"566680adb117f339bb4006ba0c7de16a8f3011ac"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made a U-turn Saturday -- first declaring that the military offensive against Islamic militants in South Waziristan had ended, then saying there is no timeframe for its completion. The Pakistani army is conducting an intense operation to rout militants from their haven along the country's border with Afghanistan. The militants, in turn, have launched a series of deadly attacks in retaliation. Answering a question from a reporter who asked whether the government will engage in dialogue with the Taliban in South Waziristan, Gilani said the operation was over. \"There was talk of dialogue even during the Malakand Operation. But now, the operation in South Waziristan is over. In fact, at the moment, there is talk of an operation in Orakzai Agency,\" he said. Malakand is another operation that the military is conducting in another region. Orakzai is one of seven districts that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Like South Waziristan, it is also considered rife with militants. Gilani's comments, made in the eastern city of Lahore, were aired on national television. But hours later, he backtracked. \"It could have been in a different context,\" he told reporters in Karachi. These remarks were also aired on television. Gilani also declined to say when the offensive might end. \"We will take military action wherever we get information about the presence of militants,\" he said. When reached for clarification, the prime minister's office pointed CNN to the second statement. The army did not comment on Gilani's remarks. A release it sends out daily made no mention of an end to the offensive on Saturday. Instead, Saturday's release provided the usual breakdown of operations in various parts of the country, including South Waziristan. CNN's Samson Desta and journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani tells reporter operation against Taliban is over .\nHours later he backtracks on national television and declines to say when operation may end .\nPakistani army conducting an intense operation to rout militants along Afghan border .","id":"4476284c92f02613d3f9fc2ec5777681431028f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- We're reviewing two $99 turn-by-turn navigation applications for the iPhone, TomTom and Navigon. Yes, that's right, a $99 application for your phone to take the place of a stand-alone device that doesn't cost much more than that. First off, if you plan to use your iPhone as a turn-by-turn navigator, you'll need some sort of mount that keeps it in constant view of the sky (and to keep you from wrecking your car while trying to look at the screen). As I was driving around downtown Atlanta, Georgia, both applications spent a good amount of time telling me they couldn't get a good GPS lock, even after I dug out a window mount from my box of bits and pieces. Both of these applications have most of the features you would expect; basically, put in a destination, and they tell you how to get there. Both can save favorites; both even have a walking mode (though I haven't played with this enough to recommend it). Both take up a ton of space, and both currently cost $99 (though the Navigon had an early buy-in price of $69). Navigon also has the TomTom beat on features: An early update added text-to-speech, which means Navigon's app says the street you should turn on and not just \"turn left.\" Navigon also just released a $24.99 (intro priced at $19.99) upgrade option that will give you live traffic information. I've asked TomTom about possible updates, and they say they're considering what features to add. My early call for the best interface goes to the Navigon app. And this held up the more I used both of them. I find it much more intuitive; things are where I expect them to be. When I want to change something on the TomTom, I often find myself repeatedly clicking through the categories, trying to find a particular setting. The Navigon's interface is better for me. An example of the interface conundrum: When I got the software, I hit the \"home\" icon to tell it to direct me to my house. Of course, I hadn't set that address up yet. The TomTom told me I had to add it from the \"manage favorites\" menu; the Navigon app asked me if I'd like to add it and let me do it right there. Bottom line . Overall, my preference for the Navigon app holds true. I like the look and feel of the maps better, how it switches to night view automatically and its on-screen and voice alerts. The TomTom, by comparison, seems very low-end -- the maps aren't as nice -- and without text-to-speech, the voice prompts fall short. I like to know what street I'm looking for without looking at the screen. The big feather (at an additional $120) in TomTom's hat is its car kit. Essentially a dock designed for your car, the device adds power, a bigger speaker and a better GPS chip. The bigger chip should help the application be more accurate with your location and provide quicker prompts when you need to turn. But at that point, you'll have spent more than $200 on a navigator that uses your iPhone as its brain. I just got my hands on TomTom's dock, and although it's nice and should improve the GPS performance, I'm not sure it's worth an extra $120. So, down to brass tacks: Is it worth it to pay $99 for a smart phone navigation application when you could buy a stand-alone model (likely with a better GPS chip) for the same or not much more? Personally, I like having it all on my phone, one unit that does everything (and I probably won't forget it in the car to be stolen). Other people will probably rather have the stand-alone. And of course, there's a big caveat: Google. The technology powerhouse has a turn-by-turn application in beta for its Android 2 operating system. It's free for phones that run Android 2.0, and word is that they're in talks with Apple to get it on the iPhone (word that brought a big hit to the stock of both GPS giants, Garmin and TomTom). Who knows what's in the future for these apps? But I'll bet they'll come up with something to remain at least somewhat viable.","highlights":"TomTom, Navigon iPhone apps use GPS to give detailed street directions .\nNavigon app ($99) is intuitive: Things are where reviewer expects them to be .\nTomTom car kit adds power, a bigger speaker and a better GPS chip .\nGoogle has beta turn-by-turn app for its Android 2 operating system .","id":"388b4c4979a4f5125d641661597d8b753ef136de"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Boston trolley operator killed in a crash last year likely had a sleep disorder and fell into a \"micro-sleep\" shortly before the collision, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday. Since last year's trolley crash in Boston, Massachusetts, there has been another incident on the same line. The safety board, completing a 14-month investigation, faulted operator Ter'rese Edmonds for ignoring a red signal along the tracks but directed harsh criticism at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority which operates the train system. The transit authority failed to screen operators for sleep disorders while enforcing a work schedule that could prevent train operators from getting enough sleep, the NTSB said. The NTSB's conclusion that Edmonds fell asleep is partly conjecture, the board acknowledged. Edmonds, a part-time trolley operator, had an opportunity for adequate sleep the day of the wreck, although investigators were not able to determine her sleep history. In addition, Edmonds had been given a break earlier in the day, had not complained to co-workers about fatigue and was found to be free of drugs and alcohol. \"We cannot say for certain that she did have it (sleep apnea),\" board member Dr. Mitch Garber said. But the NTSB concluded there was a \"high likelihood\" that Edmonds had an undiagnosed sleep disorder, largely because she was obese and because tests showed she had taken doxylamine, an ingredient commonly found in sleep aids, suggesting she had trouble sleeping during at least one of the nights leading up to the accident. In addition, there is a lack of other evidence to explain why Edmonds failed to slow or stop the train, the board concluded. Tests showed that the stopped train could be seen at a distance of 764 feet, and that \"there were multiple opportunities to slow and stop this (advancing) train,\" NTSB investigator Wayne Workman said. \"There was not any evidence that brakes were applied.\" Edmonds' westbound train was traveling at 38 mph when it struck the other train, which was traveling at 3 mph in the same direction. An estimated 185 to 200 passengers were on the two trains during the collision in the Boston, Massachusetts, suburb of Newton. Damage was estimated at $8.6 million. The board also noted that the MBTA had not installed systems on its Green Line to prevent two trains from occupying the same stretch of track, the NTSB said. The systems, known as \"positive train control\" systems, would have prevented the accident, the safety board said. One year after the fatal accident, more than 50 people were injured in another accident on the same line. The Boston accident highlights two issues that have risen to the top of the NTSB's concerns in recent years, positive train control and operator fatigue. The safety board says positive train control issues were involved in two other light rail incidents this year, a May 8 wreck on the same MBTA Green Line and a June 22 wreck which killed nine on Washington, D.C.'s Metro system. \"If technology exists... on the other (MBTA) lines, why would the Green Line not have everything possible... to prevent accidents from happening,\" NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker asked. \"I don't understand that as an operator; I just don't.\" The Metro system had a form of positive train separation, but investigators are exploring whether that crash resulted from a circuit malfunction. The safety board said fatigue issues affect all forms of transportation. It noted that two pilots fell asleep during a flight over Hawaii and that sleep issues played a role in a Cosco Busan ship incident in San Francisco, California, and a fatal bus crash in Mexican Hat, Utah. Rosenker said details that surfaced in the Boston trolley crash will guide the NTSB in the future. \"Now it is up to us, because we now are the advocates for these changes,\" Rosenker said. Recommendations resulting from the Boston crash \"raise the bar of safety not only in this system, but across the United States.\"","highlights":"Obesity, evidence that operator was taking sleep aid leads to conjecture .\nTransportation board criticized for failing to screen for sleep disorders .\nBoard also notes lack of systems to prevent trains from using same stretch of track .","id":"8344960457778ea0a4fdbba33e7eebb69aa979bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A major sponsor for Tiger Woods announced Sunday that it is dropping the golf star in light of recent controversy swirling around his personal life. Accenture, a management consulting firm, said on its Web site that \"given the circumstances of the last two weeks ... the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising.\" The move ends a sponsorship arrangement that lasted six years. Another major sponsor, Gillette, said Saturday it was \"limiting\" Woods' role in its marketing programs to give him the privacy to work on family relationships. Woods announced on his own Web site Friday that he is taking an \"indefinite break\" from professional golf. The 33-year-old golfer, who tops the sport's world rankings, has been mired in controversy since he crashed his car outside his Florida mansion late last month. In the week following the crash, Woods apologized for \"transgressions\" that let his family down, and US Weekly magazine published a report alleging that Woods had an affair with a 24-year-old cocktail waitress named Jaimee Grubbs. US Weekly's report followed a National Enquirer article before the crash that the athlete was having an affair with a New York nightclub hostess -- an assertion the hostess vigorously denied, according to The New York Post. The statement Friday on Woods' site was the first time he admitted to infidelity; in a previous statement, he referred to his \"transgressions.\" The golf phenomenon, who has won three U.S. Open titles and the Masters tournament and the PGA tournament each four times, said in the statement that he will spend his hiatus with his family. \"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father and person,\" Woods said in his Friday statement.","highlights":"Accenture: Woods no longer the right representative for our advertising .\nCompany cites \"circumstances of the last two weeks\"\nWoods announced Friday he was taking break from golf to focus on family .\nGolfer admitted to infidelity in Friday statement .","id":"f3c8e1d5d5e7ee591da95b15c0e78c3c2414eb96"} -{"article":"Lexington, Missouri (CNN) -- Police arrested a sixth member of a Missouri family under investigation for allegations of child sexual abuse, police said. Darrel Mohler has been charged with two counts of rape, Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said at a news conference. Missouri police did not have Mohler in custody earlier. On the request of Missouri officials, Marion County authorities went to Mohler's home in Silver Springs, Florida, and caught him just before he pulled into the driveway, according to a news release from the Marion County Sheriff's Office. He was subsequently arrested. Mohler told police he \"was aware of what was going on in Missouri,\" and that he had not been there since the 1980s, according to the sheriff's office. Five members of the Mohler family of Lafayette County, Missouri, were arrested earlier this week after six alleged victims, who are relatives of the five suspects, made accusations of sexual abuse. A sixth person, described as an \"associate\" of the family, was arrested Thursday but released Friday, police said. The six alleged victims -- all now adults -- came to law enforcement authorities with stories of sexual performances, mock weddings, rape with various objects and a forced abortion during their childhoods, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB in Kansas City. CNN does not identify alleged sexual assault victims. Police did not have enough to charge Darrel Mohler earlier, but after examining the victims' statements, obtained enough information to charge him, Alumbaugh said. He added that he does not think Darrel is on the run. Darrel Mohler, 72, is the younger brother of Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, according to KSHB. On Tuesday, authorities arrested Mohler Sr. and his sons Burrell Edward Mohler Jr., 53; David A. Mohler, 52; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; and Roland Neil Mohler, 47. More charges against the family members are expected next week, the sheriff said. Current charges for some of the arrested include rape, deviate sexual assault and use [of] child in sexual performance, according to Missouri State Courts online case management system. Alumbaugh said that Larry Kidd, 55, of Kansas City, Missouri -- an \"associate\" of the Mohler family -- was picked up by police following a tip, cooperated with police and has been released. The alleged abuse took place from the mid-1980s until 1995 and possibly beyond, the sheriff said earlier. The documents provide graphic details of the alleged abuse provided by one of the alleged victims. All of the charges stem from those documents, Alumbaugh said. Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler are all lay ministers in the Community of Christ, the Independence, Missouri-based organization said in a statement. Lay ministers are volunteers who do not receive compensation, said the organization, and none of the three served in leadership roles or worked with children. Mohler Sr. went through the group's registered youth worker program, but \"his youth worker registration has been terminated and we understand he had no contact with children or youth in church programs,\" the statement said. Some lay ministers might help take care of the church, while others might speak at services, said the organization's spokeswoman, Linda Booth. The Community of Christ is an offshoot of the modern-day Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It split off from the Mormon church in the 1800s, and in 2000 changed its name to Community of Christ from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Investigators earlier this week searched several properties for evidence, but there were no plans to continue the searches, Alumbaugh said Friday. He declined to comment on any evidence found. CNN's Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Darrel Mohler, another relative, charged with two counts of rape Friday .\nFive relatives were arrested Tuesday after six people accused them of abuse .\nMore alleged victims have come forward since initial arrests, police say .\nAllegations date from the mid-1980s through at least the mid-'90s, the sheriff said .","id":"20f590d8155dc579a0ebedd4be7c393fbef8a156"} -{"article":"Editor's note: This article contains profanity that some may find offensive. This is part one of a three part series showing different aspects of life inside Colombia's drug gangs. A gang member sniffs in a cloud of cocaine dust as he cuts the drug with other substances. MEDELLIN, Colombia (CNN) -- A young man with tattoos covering one arm rolls hundreds of marijuana joints in the half-light of a shack, perched on a hillside in a Medellin slum. A 9mm pistol and a .38 revolver lie on his work bench. An old battery-powered radio blares out the salsa music classic, \"Todo Tiene Su Final\" or \"Everything Comes To An End.\" \"I'm getting calluses on my tongue rolling all these spliffs,\" he laughs, telling me has enough marijuana for about 1,000 joints. He and his comrades plan to sell them for about 50 cents apiece. A few doors away, two other gang members have raided their mother's kitchen for soup plates, drinking glasses and a blender. They've just taken delivery of a kilogram (2.2 pound) brick of pure cocaine. Their job now is to cut it and package it in gram bags to peddle on street corners they control. Watch as cocaine is cut \u00bb . A female gang member shows up with two more bags, one containing powdered caffeine and the other lidocaine, a dental anesthetic used to dilute the pure cocaine. They mix business with pleasure. Every now and again one of the gang members pulls off the top of the blender and breathes in a cloud of pulverized cocaine. One of them coughs and keels over in the kitchen. Seconds later, he's back on his feet snorting cocaine off a spoon. \"Breathing that cocaine cloud mellows me out so I need a line to take me back up,\" he says. Standing in the background, snorting lines of pure cocaine off a pocketknife is the gang leader, a man in his mid-20s. His cohorts call him \"Chief.\" He tells me they'll sell the heavily cut cocaine for $1.50 a gram. Higher purity powder goes for about $4 a gram. That's much cheaper than the $50 or $60 a heavily cut gram costs on most U.S. and European streets, according to estimates from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. I agree to conceal Chief's true identity to protect him from the police and rival gangs. As we chat, he dismantles a small caliber pistol. Watch the gangs in action \u00bb . \"Around here the only law is the rules of the street,\" he explains. \"The rules don't change; they always will be the rules, here or anywhere else.\" A trusted source, who made the introduction for me, tells me Chief is a \"total animal living on borrowed time,\" who has earned so many enemies he cannot risk stepping outside the few hundred square yards of his home turf. \"I'm only human, of course I get afraid,\" he says. \"Afraid my life will end suddenly before I can do anything to get out of this war.\" Since the time when undisputed cocaine king Pablo Escobar held sway here, the \"northeastern commune\" district has forged a fearsome reputation as a recruiting ground for drug cartel hit men and violent gang wars. Medellin is once again in the grip of a vicious drug war. In January to September this year, city authorities say the murder rate has more than doubled with almost 2,000 killings. Officials at the Medellin public prosecutor's offices say the vast majority of victims were shot, likely victims of rival drug gangs and cocaine capos. Watch marijuana joints being rolled by the hundreds \u00bb . That makes Medellin as dangerous as Ciudad Juarez, the frontier town dubbed Mexico's most dangerous city as a result of the ongoing cartel war there. Authorities in Juarez say killings are up from last year and are hitting record highs. Colombian authorities estimate there are around 130 street gangs -- known as \"combos\" -- in Medellin, totaling some 6,000 members. Their only real loyalty is to the money that drug capos dole out to hire a gang's services. Capos will supply them with drugs to retail on street corners and occasionally issue them weapons to take on rival gangs loyal to another crime boss. Until earlier this year, Medellin's drug underworld was ruled by the so-called \"Office of Envigado,\" named after a district of the Medellin metropolitan area. The \"office\" was a syndicate of the top cocaine bosses who agreed on the basic rules of doing business in the area. They shared smuggling routes and acted as the ultimate enforcers if cartel members reneged on deals or debts. But the \"office\" has been ripped apart by infighting. Some senior members were arrested, some of those already in jail were extradited and others cut cooperation deals with U.S. authorities. That left the lower ranks fighting to fill the power vacuum. It's an internal battle that is still raging. Watch how CNN's Karl Penhaul got unprecedented access to the gangs \u00bb . \"The ones fueling this war are the ones from the other side. They've f***ed up Medellin,\" Chief says. \"They're from Medellin but they're traitors.\" \"They want to get control of all Medellin so they're shooting up one gang then another. They're getting paid to fight. These are wars between the big capos and we're paying the price out here on the streets,\" he adds. Chief and his allies have stopped rivals intruding on their turf by strictly enforcing what they call \"street rules.\" A day before our meeting, Chief says he helped bury one of his friends who had been gunned down when he ventured into the heart of Medellin with a girlfriend. \"I couldn't even bear to take a look inside the coffin,\" he began explaining. \"We don't really know who did it. But it was that crack head girlfriend who persuaded him to go down there. So we killed the bitch. \"You see that's street rules. You have to answer for our friend and the only way you can do that is pay with your life,\" he says. Chief shies away from questions about which cartel boss is bankrolling his gang. But clearly somebody has been supplying them with guns. They pose with a Czech-made .22-caliber rifle and an assortment of semi-automatic pistols -- as well as the wholesale supply of drugs they then sell on the streets. My conversation with Chief is interrupted when another gang member arrives at the improvised drug den. He mumbles to his boss that a local man has been beating up his wife. Chief authorizes his underling to go and thrash the accused man with a pool cue. \"I don't think we need cameras for this one please,\" he requests. As I get ready to leave I have one last question for Chief: I want to know if he ever had any dreams. \"I've tried to get out of this but it's never quite worked out,\" he says. \"I'd like to sail away in a sailboat. Alone and far away.\"","highlights":"Drug war raging in Medellin, Colombia, has seen almost 2,000 killings this year .\nGang leader says violence sparked by power vacuum as old bosses arrested .\nHis gang sells cocaine and marijuana and he rules through violence .\nBut he refuses to say which cartel boss is bankrolling his gang .","id":"6c7c0fc36d9a7cdfbd5d44e11312c12df758fb42"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nigerian footballer Stephen Worgu has been sentenced to 40 lashes after he was convicted of drinking alcohol in Sudan where he plays for first division side Al-Merreikh of Omdurman. The 20-year-old forward, who joined the northern Sudan outfit in October 2008, was found guilty of drinking alcohol and driving under the influence by an east Khartoum court. Alcohol is illegal in the Muslim north of Sudan according to Article 78 of the penal code, although it is not in the semi-autonomous and largely non-Muslim south. The court ordered Worgu to pay a fine of $20 for the alcohol consumption, $80 for driving under the influence as well as receiving 40 lashes for the incident which is said to have taken place in the capital Khartoum on August 21. The forward's lawyer has appealed against the punishment for the player who had previously admitted in interviews that he had struggled to adapt to the different culture and religious life in Sudan. Worgu, who has been a regular for the Nigerian Under-20 side, had moved to Al-Merreikh for $2.6 million from Enyimba in Nigeria ahead of Egyptian side Al-Ahly in what was one of the biggest transfers in African football. He had previously been the top scorer in the African Champions League in 2008 after he found the net 13 times but has largely struggled to recapture that form at Al-Merreikh.","highlights":"Nigeria footballer Stephen Worgu could receive 40 lashes after he was convicted of drinking alcohol in Sudan .\nAlcohol is illegal in the Muslim north of Sudan according to Article 78 of the country's penal code .\nThe lawyer for the Al-Merreikh forward has appealed against the punishment handed out to Worgu .","id":"fa0cf5bbb6b64946fc0f38b19ac42f98f0bf667c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nations honored those who sacrificed their lives in wars on Wednesday, in many cases for the first time without any surviving veterans of World War I. Services took place around the world to mark the 91st anniversary of the armistice signed between Germany and the Allies on November 11, 1918. Depending on where it is celebrated, the day is alternatively known as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, Poppy Day or Veterans Day. In Britain, Queen Elizabeth led Remembrance Day ceremonies in Westminster Abbey, a service also attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other senior politicians and military leaders. The day has special resonance because the last remaining veterans, William Stone, Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, all died this year. The dignitaries joined people around the country in observing the traditional two-minute silence. The Very Rev. Dr. John Hall, dean of Westminster, began the service by talking about the moment when the guns fell silent in Europe 91 years ago. \"We remember, with grief, the gas and the mud, the barbed wire, the bombardment, the terror, the telegram; and, with gratitude, the courage and sacrifice. Never again, they said; the war to end all wars. With resolution we remember,\" Hall said. In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a ceremony under the Arc de Triomphe. Australians observed one minute silence at 11 a.m., in memory of those who died or suffered in all of the nation's wars and armed conflicts. \"Their loss is a reminder that there is nothing glorious about war. Those called upon to fight know that better than anyone,\" Gen. Peter Cosgrove, chairman of the Council of the Australian War Memorial, said Wednesday. \"But they also know that, when all else fails, it is necessary to fight against the tyrannies that threaten liberty. That cause transcends the ages, and it is a noble one.\" U.S. military forces, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan, also were to observe Veterans Day, keenly aware of the costs of war. In the United States, the sacrifices of the military in the raging war in Afghanistan and the winding-down war in Iraq stand front and center in the nation's consciousness. President Barack Obama paid tribute Wednesday to those who have lost their lives in the nation's wars, as well as to the men and women who currently serve. \"There's no tribute, no commemoration, no praise that can truly match the magnitude of your service and your sacrifice,\" he said in a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, on a rainy, overcast Veterans Day. Earlier, the president had laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Millions were killed in World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918. France, Britain and the United States defeated Germany and its allies, such as Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.","highlights":"Nations honor those who sacrificed their lives in wars on Wednesday .\nIn many cases services took place for first time without any surviving veterans of World War I .\nServices mark 91st anniversary of armistice signed between Germany and Allies on November 11, 1918 .","id":"6a25e114a52488128612ca0138a52c212b1043df"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A 1965 Volkswagen van stolen 35 years ago in Spokane, Washington, was found by customs agents in a shipping container in the Los Angeles port last month, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official said. The blue van, in pristine condition, was bound for Germany along with several vintage Volkswagens, Customs and Border Protection Port Director Todd Hoffman said. The Arizona company that was shipping the van had no idea the vehicle was stolen from a Spokane auto shop in 1974, Hoffman said. Customs and Border Protection agents routinely run vehicle identification numbers through the National Insurance Crime Bureau database for all vehicles being loaded on ships for export, he said. They recover stolen vehicles about once a week, but they usually are high-end late-model luxury cars, he said. While it was likely worth just a few hundred dollars when it was stolen, the VW is now valued at about $27,000, he said. Allstate Insurance Company, which paid the original owner for the loss decades ago, now owns the van, according to Allstate spokeswoman Megan Brunet. The insurance company has not decided if it will sell the van at auction -- which is the routine -- or put it to other use because of it's history, she said.","highlights":"Van stolen in Spokane found in Los Angeles shipping container .\nCustoms checks VIN, finds van was stolen from an auto shop in 1974 .\nVan now worth about $27,000; insurance company is owner .","id":"163fafba7adee6e4d5b488d549b4f0f1961f4b6b"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- The British government has apologized and offered compensation to hundreds of people who suffered the effects of thalidomide, a drug once prescribed to pregnant women that later was linked to major birth defects. Thalidomide sufferers and campaigners hailed the move and said it was long overdue. British doctors prescribed thalidomide for expectant mothers from 1958 to 1962 to control the symptoms of morning sickness. The drug, developed by a German firm, was used internationally as a sedative and hailed because overdose simply caused prolonged sleep, not death. Thalidomide also was combined with other drugs to create medications for asthma, hypertension, and migraine, according to the Thalidomide Trust, which supports victims. Doctors and scientists began to notice gross limb malformations in infants starting in 1960, and scientists linked it to thalidomide the next year. By then, it had affected babies from Kenya to Peru to Japan, though most of the cases were in Germany, where the drug had been available over the counter. There are currently 466 people in the United Kingdom whose mothers took the drug when they were in the womb. Most of them have two or four limbs missing, and some also can't see or hear, according to the trust. One of them is Louise Medus-Mansell, who was born in 1962 with no arms or legs. \"It is a bonus, something that we didn't think would ever happen,\" she told CNN about the government's apology. \"There's a lot of people today that have been waiting for this apology from the government that have had partners die.\" Medus-Mansell, who recently had a kidney transplant, published an autobiography this year titled \"No Hand to Hold and No Legs to Dance On.\" Health Minister Mike O'Brien said the British government is creating a \u00a320 million ($32.5 million) fund over three years to meet the health needs of Thalidomide victims, who are between 45 and 51 years old. The money will be distributed by the Thalidomide Trust, he said, and will help reduce further degeneration of their health as the victims grow older. \"The government wishes to express its sincere regret and deep sympathy for the injury and suffering endured by all those affected when expectant mothers took the drug thalidomide between 1958 and 1961,\" O'Brien said in the House of Commons. \"We acknowledge both the physical hardship and the emotional difficulties that have faced both the children affected and their families as a result of this drug, and the challenges that many continue to endure, often on a daily basis.\" The problems caused by the drug led the British government to review the marketing, testing, and regulation of drugs, O'Brien said. That included the enactment of the Medicines Act 1968, which introduced more testing for medicines prior to licensing to make sure they meet safety standards. The Thalidomide Society, which was created in 1962 by the parents of thalidomide victims, said it welcomed the government's apology. \"I think it obviously makes a great deal of difference (to the children), but I think also for the parents who had dreadful, dreadful trouble in the very early years to convince people that something had happened and it wasn't their fault,\" said society secretary Vivien Kerr. \"For them, I think, it's something to be very grateful for and it's welcome.\" CNN's Phil Black and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.","highlights":"There are currently 466 people in the UK whose expectant mothers took the drug .\nDrug, prescribed from 1958 to 1962 for morning sickness, linked to birth defects .\nAlso affected babies from Kenya to Peru to Japan, most of the cases in Germany .\nHealth minister: UK government creating a $32.5M fund to meet health needs .","id":"5de722be3bf4c9bb5c8d3125e6ff881a37de9b69"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti installed himself as leader of a new unity government late Thursday, a move that drew condemnation from ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Making a late night public announcement, Micheletti said his entire cabinet had resigned to clear the way for a reconciliation cabinet to be named. \"This cabinet is a result of an ample participation of different sectors of civil society as well as the political parties,\" he said. \"Tonight with this new government, we're answering the call for the unity of all people of Honduras.\" He did not identify any of the new cabinet members. Representatives for Micheletti and Zelaya signed an agreement October 30 to form a reconciliation government that would rule until a new president, to be chosen in a November 29 election, takes office in January. The deal included the possibility of Zelaya's reinstatement to the presidency, but contained no guarantee. The pact called for the unity government to be named by Thursday. The agreement also stipulated that the nation's congress, in consultation with the supreme court and other institutions, would vote on whether Zelaya would be returned to power. That vote did not occur Thursday. Zelaya told local media that Micheletti's actions violated the accord, which he called \"a dead letter.\" The reconciliation government, he said, must be led by the democratically elected president of Honduras. \"How can a person who has not been elected by anyone lead a government?\" he said. Zelaya was flown out of the country by the country's military June 28 but secretly returned to Honduras on September 21, obtaining refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. Micheletti sent Zelaya a letter earlier this week asking him for the names of people the deposed president would like to have in the unity government. Zelaya did not answer the letter. Micheletti said Zelaya's refusal to answer gave the interim president the right to name all the members of a new government. \"With this agreement, we have made an important step to strengthen our democracy,\" Micheletti said. \"Despite the fact that Mister Zelaya did not send any of his representatives ... we're still looking for an opportunity for these citizens of Honduras to be integrated in the government of reconciliation.\" The Organization of American States, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. The United States and others imposed economic sanctions, which some analysts say have started to hurt Honduras. Many nations, including the United States, also said they would not recognize the winner of this month's presidential election if the vote is held under Micheletti's rule. The United States seemed to shift that position after last week's accord. Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told CNN en Espa\u00f1ol this week that the United States would recognize the winner of this month's presidential election even if Zelaya is not returned to power beforehand. Shannon played a key role in obtaining last week's agreement. The political crisis stemmed from Zelaya's desire to hold a referendum that could have changed the constitution to allow longer terms for the president. The country's congress had outlawed the vote and the supreme court had ruled it illegal. Micheletti and his supporters say Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup.","highlights":"Interim President Roberto Micheletti announces formation of new unity government .\nUnity government formed without input of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya .\nNegotiators for Zelaya and Micheletti reached unity deal last week .\nZelaya calls last week's accord a \"dead letter\"","id":"aad694b5c7f4c97f55a46a1b9b7943b3c49ddaa7"} -{"article":"Killeen, Texas (CNN) -- The civilian police officer hailed as a heroine for ending the shooting rampage at Fort Hood Army Post said Wednesday she was washing her patrol car just before she headed to the bloody scene. Sgt. Kimberly Munley was cleaning the car and topping off the gas tank, routine duties at the end of her shift, when she heard the report last Thursday that shots had been fired at the Army post, she told Oprah Winfrey via teleconference. The brief interview was taped to air later in the day on \"The Oprah Winfrey Show.\" Police Senior Sgt. Mark Todd also responded to the scene, where he said they were directed to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. Both Munley and Todd didn't know what they were about to face. \"The entire incident was very confusing and chaotic,\" Munley said. \"There was many people outside pointing to the direction that this individual was apparently located, and as soon as I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill was when things got pretty bad.\" Once inside, Munley, who has been trained in active-response tactics, began exchanging fire with the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a military psychiatrist, authorities said. They said her shots disabled Hasan and halted the attacks. Thirteen people -- 12 soldiers and one civilian -- were killed. Munley suffered three gunshot wounds, in both thighs and a knuckle, and remains at Metroplex Adventist Hospital in good condition, authorities said. \"The training does take over,\" she said when asked about her quick reactions. \"In that particular incident, we didn't have much time to think.\" \"When I got shot, it felt like a muscle being torn out of my leg,\" she told Winfrey, and added, \"I'm doing well.\" \"Every day is a progress for me, and things are getting better day by day. And emotionally, I'm just hoping that the rest of the officers and the injured and the families of the deceased are healing as well.\" Winfrey showed a clip of Metroplex's Dr. Kelly Matlock saying that Munley's first words after the shooting were, \"Did anybody die?\" The 34-year-old mother of two said she recalled asking that, and she never lost consciousness after being shot. \"I was very concerned as to who else had been injured,\" Munley said. Todd was not injured in the rampage. He said he has been a police officer for 25 years and, before that, was in the Army. This was the first time he had been forced to fire his weapon on the job, he said. He also said last Thursday began as a \"typical day\" for him, with only minor incidents. At first, when he heard the shots from Fort Hood, he thought the soldiers were practicing the traditional rifle volleys they do at memorial services. During the incident, Todd said he fired his gun over and over as he'd been trained to do. Munley, whose husband is in the Army, is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds. Winfrey asked her where she got her nickname, \"Mighty Mouse.\" Munley said her partner at a police department in North Carolina called her that after she was able to help when he was being wrestled for his weapon. The nickname stuck. Todd said he was grateful that he was able to return safely home to his family at the end of that day. \"I just thank God he missed me,\" he said.","highlights":"Pair who responded to gunfire at processing center say day of shooting started as a typical one .\nSgt. Kimberly Munley suffered three gunshot wounds in the November 5 shooting .\nOprah Winfrey spoke with her and another first responder, Sgt. Mark Todd .\n\"Every day is a progress for me,\" says Munley, who's in good condition at a hospital .","id":"f42166d0ab9b83d268c87c5d800bf78f656c9a0e"} -{"article":"MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- Dressed in fancy clothes, she applies eye liner, dabs her nose with a powder puff and the director shouts, \"Silence, rolling!\" Avika Gor, who plays child bride Anandi in the popular but controversial show. On cue, the star of the show delivers her lines. Meet Anandi, the main character of \"Balika Vadhu,\" an Indian television serial. Twelve-year-old Anandi is a child bride who was married off at the age of eight. She now lives with her husband and in-laws, bound by customs and traditions in their home. The daily soap is just over a year old and already one of India's most highly rated TV shows. An estimated 74 million people watched it in July. The CEO of Colors, the channel the show airs on, says viewers love it because it's based on reality. Rajesh Kamat said: \"There is enough research on child marriage, the evils of child marriage. We've based our storyline on that.\" Kamat added the concept the show was based on is very much real and most of the incidents depicted in the program still happen in parts of India. Even though the Indian legal age for marriage is 18 for girls and 21 for boys, the law is often ignored. Since it's an illegal act, it's very hard to find a record of how many child marriages take place -- but according to UNICEF, 40 percent of all child marriages in the world take place in India. Critics of \"Balika Vadhu\" say the premise -- that child marriage takes place in India -- is the only real aspect of the show. The driving force behind child marriage is poverty, says Puja Marwaha, of the children's charity Child Rights and You. She says child brides are often illiterate, malnourished, considered a burden on their parents -- and their lives bear no resemblance to the glossy images seen on TV. According to Marwaha, the serial glorifies child marriage. \"To show it as harmless, is a problem.\" \"Poverty is not pretty so the child is not going to be wearing party frocks and looking pretty, contented and happy because that's not what really happens. What really happens is the child is forced into adult responsibilities too early. Whether it's the responsibility of motherhood or whether it's linked to abuse, as is the case many times.\" That, according to Marwaha, is the reality of child marriage. The people behind the show say its goal is not to glamorize child marriage -- but to highlight its dark side. Kamat said: \"Have we depicted it in a way that is entertaining? Yes. Is the evil of child marriage highlighted? Yes. Are the evils associated with it highlighted? Absolutely.\" In between takes on the set of the show just outside Mumbai, Avika Gor, who plays Anandi, does her part to educate the audience. \"I feel very bad about what's happening to Anandi. Child marriage is very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad.\" Some Indian lawmakers argued the show violated the Indian Constitution and demanded the show be banned. The government looked into it and gave it a clean chit, so the cameras continue to roll on the sets, and the show goes on.","highlights":"Soap with child bride as central character is one of India's most watched TV shows .\nCritics says the show glosses over the brutalities of India's real child brides .\nExecutive defends show, says it does highlight evils of child marriages .\nChild brides problem is widespread in India despite 18 being legal age for marriage .","id":"bdcdae1593daa93d589d84e6ef6273388aff2be8"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A Washington-based imam told CNN on Monday that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan approached him for help finding a wife. Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, said Hasan came to him at least two years ago as the cleric conducted services at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. \"He said he wanted someone to help him serve, deploy and be understandable and understanding of his own military career,\" Hendi said. \"He saw himself as someone ... continuing his service with the U.S. military till the end of his career.\" The imam said he spoke with Hasan on at least two occasions about his search for a spouse. \"It's not easy to find, in general, someone who will be willing to travel with you and deploy with you every two years,\" Hendi said. \"But he did want a wife who would stand by him, is [a] loyal American, who will help him do his work and his service for the U.S. military.\" The imam's comments about Hasan's search for someone who would remain with him throughout his military career were at odds with some statements by Hasan's family. Relatives have said Hasan tried unsuccessfully to leave the military early -- requests that may have come after Hasan contacted Hendi. The cleric said he did try to help Hasan in his search, thinking of women he knew to whom he could introduce the Army psychiatrist, but he never heard from Hasan again. Authorities say Hasan opened fire at a military processing center at Fort Hood Army Post on November 5, killing 13 people. Hasan, who was seriously wounded in the incident, was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder -- charges that make him eligible for the death penalty. Two other imams have told CNN similar stories about Hasan's search for a wife, and about his conservatism and apparent devotion to Islam -- but those accounts seem to be inconsistent with behavior Hasan exhibited in the last few months. The manager of a strip club near Fort Hood has told reporters that Hasan visited the club a handful of times, staying for several hours each time. \"You know, for me, everything that he did is against the teachings of Islam. Killing fellow soldiers, fellow citizen men and women, the shooting, the bloodshed, speaks of someone who did not understand his faith very well. Islam is against going to strip clubs, but it's also against killing fellow citizens,\" Hendi told CNN. When taken as a whole, Hasan's actions in the weeks before the attack at Fort Hood -- the giving away of his possessions, his sometimes conservative dress in white Muslim clothing, and his previous defense of suicide bombings during presentations to classmates -- seem to be those of someone who was preparing for his own death, said CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. \"I think what he was doing was sort of a jihadist 'death-by-cop,'\" said Bergen, who based his observations on news reports about Hasan. \"Here's a guy who obviously had personal problems. He's a loner, he avoids women basically, has few friends, and then grafted onto that, he finds sort of a jihadist ideology as a way of making sense of everything, and he decides to martyr himself.\" Bergen and other experts say Hasan could be someone who engaged in what they call \"self-radicalization\": the idea that militant religion might provide an answer to psychological problems that someone already has. Hasan remained hospitalized in Texas, paralyzed from the waist down, his lawyer said. He was shot by a civilian police officer, who was also wounded in the attack.","highlights":"Imam: Nidal Malik Hasan wanted wife who could deal with his military career .\nYahya Hendi is third imam to tell CNN Hasan asked for help finding wife .\nManager of strip club tells reporters Hasan visited there several times .\nHendi says strip club visits violate Islam -- and so does \"killing fellow citizens\"","id":"e8c17da912ad7702762bd7667075972828d33c28"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five American security contractors were detained in connection with the killing of another American contractor last month inside Baghdad's Green Zone, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Saturday. The body of James Kitterman was found in a car in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone. Iraqi and U.S. personnel took the five into custody in an operation inside the Green Zone before dawn on Friday, according to an Iraqi official involved in the investigation into the killing of James Kitterman. The five, who have not yet been charged, were being held by Iraqi security forces Saturday at a jail inside the heavily protected zone, he said. The troops also confiscated weapons during the raid on the suspects' firm at about 4 a.m. (11 a.m. ET), said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The names of the suspects and the company they work for were not released. The U.S. military declined comment and referred questions to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Embassy officials did not immediately respond to request for comments. Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed in a car in the district, formally known as the International Zone, on May 22. The 60-year-old Houston, Texas, resident owned a construction company that operated in Iraq. The five suspects knew the victim, a source inside the Green Zone familiar with the investigation said. Both the Iraqi and the Green Zone sources noted that the FBI has been involved in the investigation from the start. Once the suspects are charged and referred to trial, the case would be sent to Iraq's Central Criminal Court, the Iraqi official said. If that happens, it would be the first time U.S. citizens were tried in Iraq since the United States returned the country's government to the Iraqis. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Alan Duke contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Weapons confiscated in raid of suspects' firm, official says .\nFive arrested in death of fellow contractor James Kitterman .\nKitterman found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed .\nVictim owned a construction company that operated in Iraq .","id":"c99af32972dd38be8f1d1b3ea878a5ca2e07dce1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Already hamstrung by generations of poverty, environmental catastrophe and strongman rule, Haiti will need years to recover from the devastation inflicted by last week's earthquake, according to U.S. and Canadian analysts. Haiti's struggling democracy has survived on international aid and the muscle of a U.N. peacekeeping mission since a 2004 revolt that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck outside Port-au-Prince has set back efforts to get the country back on its feet \"by many, many years,\" said Stephen Randall, a senior fellow at the Canadian International Council, a Toronto-based think tank. \"I don't think all of it is lost, but it's a very serious setback,\" Randall told CNN. President Rene Preval's government regrouped at a police compound near the Port-au-Prince airport after nearly all of government ministries suffered heavy damage in the January 12 quake. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive put the confirmed death toll at 72,000 on Tuesday, but estimates of the total number of fatalities run more than twice that high. Mark Schneider, who led the Caribbean division of the U.S. Agency for International Development during the Clinton administration, said much has been done to build a non-corrupt police force and judiciary over the past six years. \"Of the administration and sort of on the institutional side, I think a lot can be salvaged,\" said Schneider, now senior vice president at the International Crisis Group. But he said efforts to redevelop Haiti's long-ravaged economy may have been set back by \"decades.\" iReport: Search list of the missing and the found . Haiti's public infrastructure -- roads, power and sanitation systems, hospitals and schools -- was already in poor condition before the earthquake. The flimsy homes built across Port-au-Prince collapsed wholesale during the quake, and hospitals quickly ran out of medicine. Clogged roads, damaged communications and airport congestion slowed the delivery of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of international aid pledged in the week after the disaster, leading to widespread frustration and sporadic looting around the capital. Once the challenges of feeding, housing and treating hundreds of thousands of ill, homeless and hungry people are behind them, Schneider said, Haitians from all walks of society need to reach a new \"social compact\" aimed at ending its persistent problems. \"The mismanagement of the environment; the narrow, self-interested actions of the economic elite that deny taxes to the government so they can't provide education to the population; the failure to establish government agencies that can provide services -- all those things are not the consequences of natural disasters, but they make the country more vulnerable when disasters hit,\" he said. Though its economy has grown in recent years, Haiti is still the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with four-fifths of its 10 million people living in poverty. Its gross domestic product of $12 billion in 2008 is a tiny fraction compared to the $14 trillion generated by the United States, its largest trading partner. In addition, years of deforestation has left a mountainous country in the middle of the Caribbean's hurricane belt vulnerable to flooding and mudslides, like the ones that killed thousands in 2004. And poor construction left unknown thousands of people trapped in buildings that pancaked when the earth moved last week, said John Mutter, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University in New York. Full coverage l Twitter updates . Stricter building codes and honest enforcement are necessary, but \"people will never be able to build strong, expensive structures if they don't have a strong economy,\" Mutter told CNN's \"American Morning.\" \"The economy of Haiti cannot put Port-au-Prince back in place,\" he said. \"It's a perfect storm. It absolutely needs external intervention from the international community. We have to think of what we're doing.\" Haiti's governmental budget of about $1 billion per year is derived largely from customs fees and is wholly inadequate for the physical improvements needed, Randall said. Emigres send back more money than that every year, but that money goes to individual families, not to public projects. \"The international community has been pressing the Haitian government to put more stock in taxation, but in fact, the real taxation that's taking place are the remittances,\" Randall said. \"It's a form of taxation, family to family, friend to friend.\" But Schneider said the influx of reconstruction aid could be an opportunity for Haitians to rebuild its infrastructure with more concern for its environment -- and to create jobs for Haitians in its construction. \"That's the way you employ a lot of Haitians,\" he said. Reconstruction contracts should require \"both jobs and job training.\" High-resolution images of damage . The United States has been heavily involved in Haiti commercially, politically and militarily for most of the last century, including occupying the country for nearly 20 years in the early 1900s. The Clinton administration restored Aristide to power in 1994 after a 1991 coup, and a U.S. jet hustled him out of the country again in 2004 following a rapidly spreading uprising against his government. Aristide has called his removal a U.S.-backed coup, an allegation Washington denied. Now the United States is the largest contributor to the Haitian government, while Canada -- which also has a police contingent in Haiti as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH -- is the second-largest. CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Quake set back efforts to get Haiti back on its feet \"by many, many years,\" analyst says .\nHaiti's democracy survived after '04 revolt with aid, U.N. peacekeeping mission .\nInternational Crisis Group official: Efforts to build non-corrupt institutions can be salvaged .\nProfessor: Haitian economy cannot rebuild Port-au-Prince, so international aid needed .","id":"68f7309dfb41943166ac1fb64cff8f0da56c00d6"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Virginia Pozo buys a first-class ticket to Peru on TACA. But it turns out the ticket is in economy class. When she tries to get a refund on the fare difference, her online agency offers her a $400 voucher. Is that enough? And is she entitled to more? A passenger bought first-class tickets to Peru, but learned they were economy-class seats. Q: We bought two first-class airline tickets to Peru on TACA through Cheaptickets.com. But we soon found out they were economy-class seats. We've asked the airline for a $1,100 refund -- the price difference between first-class and economy-class tickets -- but it won't budge. Cheaptickets.com sent a $400 voucher that we don't want. We've disputed the ticket charges with American Express, but it has denied our claim. It's obvious to us we didn't receive what we paid for. We've never sued anyone and I would rather not have to go there. Do you have any other suggestions? -- Virginia Pozo, San Francisco, California . A: If you didn't get a first-class seat, you shouldn't have to pay for one. TACA owes you a refund of the fare difference between the two classes. And your online travel agency, Cheaptickets.com, should help you. At the very least, you would expect American Express to take your side in a dispute. So what happened? From what I can tell, you booked what you thought was a first-class ticket through your online agent. But the airline only delivered a seat in economy class. In fact, it never treated this as a first-class reservation in the first place. Was there a miscommunication between the agent and the airline? Or between your agent and you? Maybe. As far as I can tell, Cheaptickets doesn't have a service guarantee comparable to the other big online travel agencies, which promises everything about your trip will be perfect. But it's reasonable to expect that the products it sells will be on the up-and-up, and that if there's something wrong, it will fix it. Cheaptickets' $400 voucher was a nice gesture, but not enough. Why? Two reasons: First, it requires you to buy another ticket or hotel room, and second, it doesn't come close to making up the price difference between the two tickets. As I read your letter, it seems as if you spent some time on the phone with Cheaptickets and TACA. Writing to the two companies might have yielded a more favorable result. This is one of the rare times when you should have considered sending either a paper letter that included your confirmation and your boarding pass, or, if you're good with a PC and a scanner, an email with documents attached. Receipts are important to resolving this dispute. You need to prove you didn't get what you paid for. Since you were doing business with an American company -- Cheaptickets -- American Express should have sided with you. Invoking the Fair Credit Billing Act, the federal law that protects you from charges for goods and services you didn't accept or weren't delivered as agreed, might have encouraged American Express to see things your way. I think TACA, Cheaptickets and American Express failed to meet their customer-service obligations. But who's responsible for your refund? The correct answer is: The online travel agent who took your money and acted as an intermediary for the transaction. I contacted Cheaptickets on your behalf. A representative contacted you and said the company reviewed its phone transcripts and determined that it was at fault. The online agency refunded you $1,100 and let you keep the $400 voucher for the trouble. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"A customer purchased a ticket through Cheaptickets.com .\nShe paid for a first-class ticket, but the seats were in economy .\nShe asked for a refund and disputed the charges with no luck .\nTroubleshooter contacted Cheaptickets and the company refunded the difference .","id":"f8ba9a10ad93dd7aac33ed7028bb88d37ab1d61d"} -{"article":"Leogane, Haiti (CNN) -- More than three weeks after Haiti's devastating earthquake, many of the makeshift camps housing thousands are starting to function as mini cities. Small markets have blossomed. Some camps have even designated mayors and security personnel. But in others, life still looks as it did days after the January 12 quake. People have only what they dug out of the rubble with their bare hands or acquired somehow else for survival. Recently seen along a row of tents in a camp in Leogane was this hodgepodge of life before and after: . Turquoise hand-crocheted lace . Mazola oil . Ceramic jar that says: \"Fresh Cookies\" Propane stove . Barbie doll . A black rhinestone Bebe T-shirt . Boxes of \"Gourmet\" spaghetti . Bicycle chain . John McCain bumper sticker . NFL towel . Teddy bear . Set of disposable stacked plastic bowls . Amplifiers and scavenging pigs . Box of dog biscuits . Aluminum cooking utensil set . 32-ounce cans of tomato sauce . Cotton squares . Peppermint green . Clarins makeup bag . Plastic baby bottle . Jeans turned inside out to dry . Yellow flip flops . Pen and ink drawing of a woman . USAID bag of rice . Evaporated milk . Red roll-aboard luggage . Blanket . Wood-framed photograph . Bausch and Lomb soft contact lens case . Compaq computer monitor . Frayed Haitian flag . Crayolas . Travel-size SPF 30 sunblock . Pillows . One dust-laden Converse hightop -- hard to tell what color .","highlights":"Haiti makeshift camps are starting to function like mini cities .\nCitizens are digging out their belongings and what they need out of the rubble .\nEverything from turquoise hand-crocheted lace to Mazola oil seen recently at camp .","id":"4700f258040a09d4977b65a06452876a3c1c2ec8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 130 people have died and dozens are missing after heavy rains triggered flooding and mudslides that buried communities Sunday and left a swath of destruction in El Salvador, officials said Monday. The death toll was \"preliminary,\" said Raul Murillo, subdirector of the Department of Civil Protection in San Salvador. Another 13,680 people were staying in emergency shelters, he said. Laura Mata, communications manager for World Vision in El Salvador, said 40 percent of the dead were children. About 60 people were still missing Monday afternoon, said Carlos Alvarado, communications director for the government's rescue efforts. The most affected departments are San Salvador, La Paz, Cuscatlan, Usulatan and San Vicente. He described the latter as the most heavily affected. The government's Web site said there were 108 landslides, 209 destroyed buildings and another 1,835 damaged ones. In all, 18 bridges were affected, it said. Private, government and U.N. donations have all been promised, but the needs exceeded supplies, with high demand for food, construction materials, plastic sheeting, medications and -- with a cold front expected to sweep into the area Tuesday -- clothes, Alvarado said. Fumigation efforts were slated to begin Tuesday to reduce the chances of disease. \"There's a lot of work to do,\" he said. Guatemala, Spain and other countries were helping, Mata said. At the 139-bed Hospital Santa Gertrudis in San Vicente, 33 patients sought help overnight in the emergency room, mostly for trauma, broken bones and abrasions, said Dr. Ana Luisa Velazquez, the hospital director. Patients had to be removed from the pediatric unit and women's surgery unit, both of which were built on low-lying ground and were inundated, she said. Though the hospital had fresh water from its own well, fresh water was in scarce supply in San Vicente, she said. Mata visited the town Sunday. \"All three access roads were completely wiped off,\" she told CNN's Jonathan Mann. \"You could only get there by one lane. Everywhere -- mud, huge rocks.\" Electricity was largely out, she said. In addition to losing their homes, many people have lost their crops, she said. President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency and described the loss as incalculable. About 7,000 people lost homes in the disaster Sunday, officials said. Authorities said the death toll is expected to rise as rescuers scramble to reach regions where roads have been washed away. In some of the hardest-hit areas, such as the capital, San Salvador, roads are completely gone, Mata said. \"You would never imagine there were road systems there. ... Huge rocks, mud, water everywhere,\" she said. \"People have lost complete families.\" Landslides on the side of a volcano swallowed up a village in Verapaz, Mata said. iReport: Neighborhood slammed with mud and debris . Residents in affected areas climbed over boulders as rescue crews waded through muddy water, some carrying young children. Homes, trees and electricity poles, and mountains of mud, covered streets. The heavy rains in the impoverished Central American nation were unrelated to Hurricane Ida, said Saul Ezgardo de la Reyes, a government meteorologist in the Center of Prognostics. \"The rains in Salvador are due to the low pressure system,\" he said, adding that it was dissipating Monday. \"We're waiting for the arrival of fresh air and higher pressure.\" On Sunday, 355 millimeters (14 inches) of rain fell near the Saint Vincent Volcano, southeast of the capital, and 196 mm (7.7 inches) fell on the capital itself, he said. Sunday's inundations were unprecedented, he said. Hurricane Mitch dropped similar quantities in 1998, but those values were tallied in three or four days, he said. \"This was in practically four hours.\" A low-pressure system out of the Pacific triggered the disaster, said Robbie Berg of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.","highlights":"40 percent of dead are children, aid group spokeswoman says .\nAid is promised, but more is needed as cold front is due Tuesday .\nAt least 130 people killed, dozens missing after heavy rains cause flooding, mudslides .\nMudslides unrelated to Hurricane Ida, officials say .","id":"d0c035d0b3b973d79aaf666c0048aecf9464ab45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The relationship between China and the United States is \"the most important\" bilateral relationship in the world, a former Chinese foreign ministry official said Monday. Victor Zhikai Gao, now the director of the Beijing Private Equity Association, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the United States should deal with Beijing \"with respect\" and not be \"too abrasive.\" \"That's the minimum thing we can ask for, I believe,\" he said on the eve of talks between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Gao pointed out that China is now the United States' largest creditor nation, holding foreign reserves of more than $2 trillion, about two-thirds of which are assets that are denominated in U.S. dollars. \"China-U.S. relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world,\" Gao said. Obama appears keen to put past U.S.-Chinese disagreements behind him as he seeks Chinese cooperation on a host of issues from the global economy and climate change to nuclear proliferation. He's also looking to China for leadership on how to deal with repressive regimes such as Myanmar and Sudan, both of which are friends of Beijing and major energy suppliers to China. Critics of the U.S. president say he is downplaying what was once a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy, the promotion of human rights and democracy, in order to persuade China to help the United States achieve its foreign policy goals. But Obama insists America \"will never waver in speaking up for the fundamental values that we hold dear.\" Gao acknowledged global concern about China's human rights record, admitting the situation is not perfect. \"But if you look at today's human rights issues, and comparing that with what we had 30 years ago, 20 years ago, or 10 years ago, then China has made great improvements,\" he said. Gao said China and the Chinese people are great admirers of America. But he said, \"China's foreign policy is underlined by the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs. If it is only up to the United States to discuss human rights issues in China, this is unbalanced.\" He also tried to reassure critics in the United States, some of whom have accused China of manipulating its currency to keep the cost of Chinese goods artificially low, about the impact of China's rapidly expanding economic power. By some estimates, China's economy will be the same size as the U.S. economy by 2025, though there will still be a huge gap in economic output per person. \"Let me make the record straight. Over the past few months since the outbreak of the financial crisis, China has continued to purchase Treasury bonds issued by the U.S. government, rather than reducing them in any way,\" he said. \"So I think the American people need to realize that China has applied a very steady hand and very responsible hand in dealing with issues involving the dollar.\" Gao said China has no desire to be an enemy of the United States. \"Both China and the United States need to give each other due respect and need to incentivize each other. And then we can work together towards a better peace and better world.\"","highlights":"Victor Zhikai Gao is now the director of the Beijing Private Equity Association .\nGao says the United States should deal with Beijing \"with respect\"\nGao says China has no desire to be an enemy of the United States .","id":"8f1cc519c655d80ef0417304b9d991a810d73ae0"} -{"article":"Vilseck, Germany (CNN) -- The military released 77,000 of about 87,000 detainees locked up during the Iraq war because there was not enough evidence to hold them, CNN has learned. \"In most cases, if we don't have anything, eventually they'll be released,\" said Brig. Gen. David Quantock, who oversees detainee operations in Iraq. Quantock said \"many cases are driven purely on intelligence.\" \"Intelligence does not win a fight in a courtroom. It doesn't win the fight in a courtroom in the United States. It doesn't win in Iraq.\" According to the U.S. military, 76,985 detainees have been released out of the 87,011 captured during the Iraq war. A CNN investigation found that frustration over the Army's policy on detainees may have led to the 2007 killings of four Iraqi men by three decorated Army sergeants at a Baghdad canal. Former 1st Sgt. John Hatley, who led the mission that day, told CNN in a letter that the detainee policy has \"extensive flaws\" that repeatedly frustrated soldiers. On Army interrogation tapes obtained by CNN, other soldiers complained about the Army rules for evidence gathering. Despite the high release rate, Quantock said he has confidence soldiers can take basic evidence from a crime scene in Iraq. \"We're asking them to take basic evidence, which they've been trained to do,\" said Quantock, who oversees detainee operations in Iraq. \"We've got the greatest soldiers in the world. And I don't accept that they can't take basic evidence off of a crime scene.\" CNN asked Quantock to explain why, if it were so easy to collect evidence, so many detainees have been released. \"It took us a while to realize, it goes back to my point of we were trying to make the fight fit the Army as opposed to have the Army fit the fight,\" Quantock said. \"I think a lot of times we thought the insurgency would dissipate, we were working closely with the government of Iraq, we were trying to improve the Iraqi security forces, but at the end of the day, it didn't work out very well. We had to get better at taking evidence off the crime scene.\" A January 9, 2005, memo imposed detailed standards of evidence soldiers needed before taking in suspected insurgents in Iraq. Quantock told CNN the rules detailed in the memo were in effect through the end of 2008. The memo spells out that evidence of criminal activity should include photos of \"physical evidence,\" \"the detainee at the crime scene or place of capture,\" as well as photos \"of the detainee next to the evidence.\" Other evidence should include \"statements written by first-hand witnesses to the criminal activity,\" the memo states. At the start of this year, the rules got even stricter. A security agreement with the government of Iraq now requires an arrest warrant signed by an Iraqi judge to detain someone. Asked about the killings at the canal, Quantock told CNN: \"There's never an excuse to execute anyone. They become judge, jury and executioner.\"","highlights":"Four Iraqi detainees were killed by three decorated Army sergeants at a Baghdad canal .\nFrustration over detainee policy may have led to 2007 slayings, CNN investigation found .\nNearly 77,000 detainees have been released out of the 87,000 captured in the Iraq war .\nWatch Saturday, Sunday at 8 and 11 p.m. ET; read blog posts: Abbie Boudreau; Scott Zamost .","id":"521bbfdf85e6c4989fac7976dd436362d32c5dca"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Most of the world's 1.57 billion Muslims know that the Holy Quran states quite clearly that, \"Anyone who kills a human being ... it shall be as though he has killed all of mankind. ... If anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he has saved the lives of all of mankind.\" Accordingly, it should come as little surprise to any reasonable observer that when Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan recently committed his shocking acts of mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas, America's Muslim community of over 7 million felt an added sense of horror and sadness at this senseless attack against the brave men and women of the U.S. armed forces. True to form, many conservative media pundits wasted little time in pointing to reports that Hasan had said \"Allahu Akbar\" (Arabic for \"God is great\") at the start of his murderous rampage. News coverage continuously showed the looping convenience store black-and-white videotape footage of Hasan wearing traditional white Islamic garb. First of all, someone simply saying \"Allahu Akbar\" while committing an act of mass murder no more makes their criminal act \"Islamic\" than a Christian uttering the \"Hail Mary\" while murdering an abortion medical provider, or someone chanting \"Onward, Christian Soldiers\" while bombing a gay nightclub, would make their act \"Christian\" in nature. Simply put; murder is murder and has no religion whatsoever. Professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan once wrote that, \"One most certainly does insult Muslims by tying their religion to movements such as terrorism or fascism. Muslims perceive a double standard in this regard: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols would never be called 'Christian terrorists' even though they were in close contact with the Christian Identity Movement. No one would speak of Christo-fascism or Judeo-fascism as the Republican[s] ... speak of Islam-o-fascism. ... [Many people also] point out that [it was] persons of Christian heritage [who] invented fascism, not Muslims.\" According to Pentagon statistics, there were over 3,400 American Muslims serving in the active-duty military as of April 2008. The Wall Street Journal reported that many officials believe \"the actual number of [American] Muslim soldiers may be at least 10,000 higher than the Pentagon statistics.\" Thus, with thousands of patriotic American Muslim women and men proudly serving in our United States Army in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps it would behoove our army leaders to consider sending a strong message of American unity by appointing an American Muslim to be a part of the prosecution team against Hasan. This would help show that the mass murders allegedly committed by Hasan have nothing to do with the teachings of our religion. The United States Army can send a resounding message to all Americans and the rest of the world that the social fabric of our country will never become unraveled by murderous (and irreligious) gun-wielding felons -- whether it is a Muslim in Fort Hood, Texas, or a non-Muslim on a shooting rampage in an Orlando, Florida, high-rise less than a day later. By appointing a multicultural (and multireligious) legal prosecution team made up of military lawyers of all races and religions, we can set a good example to show the rest of the world that our American legal justice system is truly equal for all people, regardless of their race, religion or socioeconomic status. The larger point is that Muslims in America completely disavow and wash our hands of any acts of murder (or terrorism) claimed to be performed in the name of our religion. Acts of mass murder, regardless of their time or place, are simply ungodly criminal acts that have no religion whatsoever. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Arsalan Iftikhar.","highlights":"The Fort Hood killings were not a religious act, says Arsalan Iftikhar .\nHe says reports shooter said \"Allahu Akbar\" don't make slayings an \"Islamic\" crime .\nIftikhar says Islam forbids the taking of human life .\nThousands of patriotic Muslims serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, he says .","id":"47d8d81a865062cfe8361a5eeab8d04a98e8e9b5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The death of boxing champion Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter after a treadmill accident highlights the issue of hidden dangers in the home. Exercise equipment injures more than 25,000 children each year according to one safety organization. While most parents know enough about covering outlets and keeping poisonous household cleaning products locked away from the reach of their small children, most homes still have less obvious safety hazards that can have disastrous results for curious tots. \"Parents often overestimate their child's intelligence, and underestimate their abilities,\" explains Chrissy Cianflone, Director of Program Operations at Safe Kids USA, a nonprofit organization focused on preventing accidental childhood injury. Case in point: falls from windows. Though a parent might not regularly open windows in the house, it does not mean a child can't or won't. Placing furniture close to windows is a commonly overlooked safety hazard; it allows children to easily climb up and out of the opening. Relying on screens to protect against falls is an inadequate solution, since most screens can't hold the weight of a child. Window guards are a safe choice: they offer protection and cost less than $30 each on average. Window treatment cords are another common, hidden pitfall. To prevent accidents, parents should tie up any cords from blinds or curtains, high enough out of a child's reach, and make sure there is no furniture placed close by that would invite little ones to climb. Cianflone warns against unwittingly placing changing tables and cribs within reach of the window coverings. Dr. Gupta: Watch more on hidden dangers in the home \u00bb . Power cords are a source of manifold dangers. They can cause electrical burns, strangulation, tripping, and serious head trauma from appliances being pulled down by little hands or feet. Parents should unplug and secure power cords whenever possible, and move appliances out of the way. With respect to home gyms, more than 25,000 children each year are injured from exercise equipment, including stationary bicycles, treadmills and stair climbers, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Many of those injuries are related to power cords. Police in Phoenix, Arizona, say that Exodus Tyson was injured and later died after being strangled by a cord connected to the treadmill, possibly while playing with the machine. Her mother performed CPR after the accident but Exodus was in need of life support by the time authorities arrived. Since it's usually impractical to unplug a piece of exercise equipment after every use, parental supervision is the primary means of avoiding accidents. Cianflone warns that if you have a home gym, \"make sure to limit your child's access to that room. Keep the door shut and locked if you can, and if you have to leave the room, take the child with you.\" Furniture tip-overs are another major unsuspected hazard. A 17-year study published in May 2009 by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that capsized furniture sent an average of 15,000 children a year to the emergency room. The most commonly toppled furniture pieces are dressers and flat-screen television sets. Pulling out one or more dresser drawers decreases the stability of the piece if it isn't attached to the wall. Inexpensive wall mounting kits, available at hardware and baby stores, can secure up to 400 pounds of weight. Similarly, flat-screen TVs -- lighter and less stable than their predecessors -- should be mounted to a wall when possible. If that's not an option, Cianflone recommends positioning the set far back on a stand, enough so that a child climbing the stand would still be unable to reach it. Parents should also keep tabs on toy and product recalls, in case any purchases are found to be potential hazards. A simple method to stay aware is to sign up for recall alerts via email from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. A child's ability to get into certain types of trouble varies with the age and developmental stage of each individual child. For general guidelines, parents can go to Safe Kids for an age-based breakdown of hazards. Most critical is for parents to be aware of their particular child's abilities and level of curiosity. \"Nobody knows a child better than the parent, so it's important to be well-educated so a parent can take the steps necessary to mitigate hazards for their own child,\" says Cianflone.","highlights":"Death of Exodus Tyson puts spotlight on hidden household hazards .\nPolice: Mike Tyson's 4-year-old was accidentally strangled with treadmill cord .\nFalls from windows, furniture and flat screens that tip over cause many injuries .\nParents need to be aware of their own child's abilities and level of curiosity .","id":"fa93e9ae33c11640a21027b636731f9262b05e84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Britain's Prince Harry apologized through a spokesman Saturday after videos surfaced showing him using offensive language to describe people in his military unit. Prince Harry apologized for videos of him making offensive comments while on military duty in 2006. In one clip, a voice said to be Harry's calls a soldier a \"Paki.\" In another clip, the voice tells a soldier wearing a cloth on his head that he looks \"like a raghead.\" The British newspaper News of the World posted the videos on its Web site Saturday. It did not say how it obtained them. A spokesman for Prince Harry apologized in a statement released by St. James's Palace Saturday. The spokesman said the prince -- who is third in line to the British throne -- \"understands how offensive this term can be, and is extremely sorry for any offense his words might cause.\" It is not the first apology for offensive behavior by Prince Harry. In 2005, he was photographed wearing a Nazi uniform to a party. He said he was sorry for that incident. \"It was a very stupid thing to do and I've learned my lesson, simple as that really,\" he said in a September 2005 interview with Britain's Press Association, marking his 21st birthday. \"I'd like to put it in the past now. What's done is done. I regret it.\" The videos that surfaced Saturday were filmed by the prince himself during his military service in 2006, according to the News of the World Web site. \"Ahh, our little Paki friend... Ahmed,\" a voice says as the camera zooms in on a soldier from across the room. The video does not show Prince Harry's face. The soldiers were waiting for their flight to Cyprus for a mission, according to the Web site. The Royal family said the 'Paki' term was a nickname for a friend in his platoon. \"There is no question that Prince Harry was in any way seeking to insult his friend,\" the St. James's Palace statement said. The second video was filmed after arriving in Cyprus, according to News of the World, and shows a British soldier with a cloth over his head. A voice, which the News of the World claims to be Harry's, is heard saying, \"(expletive) me, you look like a raghead.\" St. James's Palace said, \"Prince Harry used the term 'raghead' to mean Taliban or Iraqi insurgent.\" Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry's grandmother, urged people to take the prince's words in context. \"Harry is not the same man as he was three years ago,\" Arbiter told Britain's ITN network. \"You don't think when you are shooting a video.\" And he pointed out that Harry was serving in the army, where language is not always delicate. \"It is quite common for names to be used in the military.... He's a serviceman first and foremost, but people see him as a prince first and he has to be careful of what he says.\" The British Ministry of Defense said it was not aware of any complaints against Prince Harry and would investigate the allegations of inappropriate behavior, according to a written statement released Saturday. \"Bullying and racism are not endemic in the Armed Forces,\" it said. David Cameron, the leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party, said Prince Harry's remark was \"obviously a completely unacceptable thing to say.\" But he told the BBC's Andrew Marr program that he saw no need for the prince to be disciplined. \"No, he has made an apology... and I think that's enough.\" --CNN's Katy Byron and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prince Harry apologizes for offensive language used while on duty three years ago .\nVideos surface of him calling one soldier \"paki,\" another called \"raghead\"\nBritish Ministry of Defense plans to investigate allegations .","id":"234c63c249f3f503dc180008f0a72fe4f182efb7"} -{"article":"Macon, Georgia (CNN) -- Bettye Webb-Hayes won't ever forget the day her son posed a question that stopped her in her tracks. \"Mom,\" the fourth-grader asked, \"am I white?\" It was a question she had never asked her own parents. It was something you didn't talk about in the days of the segregated South -- especially when your mom was white and your father was a mix of African-American and Native American. She went to the black schools of Macon, Georgia. Now, her son was asking probing questions. \"Why would you ask me that?\" she said. \"Because everybody at school calls me a honky,\" said the young Cordell, a light-skinned African-American. Twenty-seven years have passed since that conversation. Bettye and her son recently traveled back to Macon to face something that's been omnipresent their whole lives: the coming together of white and black. They returned for a one-of-a-kind 50th high school gathering. The classes of 1959, once segregated by race as well as gender, sat down together for the first time in history. Ruby Dean Dupree Mayes arrived two hours early for the festivities. She didn't sleep the night before. \"It's like waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. I'm so excited,\" said Mayes, who drove more than 330 miles from Tennessee to attend. Mayes went to Ballard-Hudson High, the city's black high school, whose most famous students include singers Otis Redding and Little Richard. She came this day \"to celebrate and commemorate.\" \"I could not pass this event up,\" she said. \"I never dreamed of this moment -- just the realization of knowing that we had come together, at last.\" As the 1959 graduates arrived, they welcomed one another. Many first greeted people of their own race. Some hadn't seen particular classmates in the 50 years since they earned their diplomas. Gradually, they began mixing and mingling. There was a commonality -- a need to come together for their children, their grandchildren and the generations to follow. Discuss the past, while moving forward in the present. Separated now by 'personal choice' It sometimes takes a son to see things in a new light. The idea for the meeting began four years ago, when a son told his father: \"Dad, think about how many friends you missed getting to know.\" Those were the words of Wyatt Johnson, a public school teacher in Santa Cruz, California. He and his father, Tom Johnson, were enjoying a father-son trip to Macon in 2005 to rediscover their roots. Tom Johnson is the former head of CNN and was once the publisher of the Los Angeles Times. He's traveled the world and left his own mark along the way. Yet despite all his accomplishments, there was something he'd never done: reach out to the African-Americans of Macon from 1959, the ones he never knew because of segregation. An idea was born. He wrote to graduates of the black school, Ballard-Hudson; the white girls' school, Miller; and the white boys' school, Lanier. \"We all have deep personal memories of our high school experiences that will remain with us forever,\" he wrote. \"We had lived in a separate black and white world in Macon. ... It is a different world today. We no longer are separated, except by personal choice.\" One white graduate responded with hate mail, a reminder that racism still exists. But on a day in early October, more than 200 people gathered at a Goodwill banquet hall. There was no shouting, none of the in-your-face name-calling seen in recent health care town hall meetings across the country. Here, there were tears, hugs and handshakes. Often, talk of grandkids took center stage at the 16 roundtables. They talked about race and the segregated past that prevented such closeness a half-century ago. \"You'd think we'd have grown up together,\" said Alice Bailey, a Ballard-Hudson grad. \"We still have a gift, and that's a gift of time,\" Johnson said. \"Blacks and whites together, we can do something to make the world better.\" They took out notepads. They scribbled ways to take action. They began making a to-do list of 59 things for the Classes of 1959. Their goals range from building a home for Habitat to Humanity to writing letters to service men and women from Macon serving in war. They'd love to persuade the one who sent the hate mail to attend the next gathering. They also want to set an example for the elders of other Southern cities. \"I'm glad we've left the past behind,\" said Michael Cass, the 1959 class president of Lanier. The daughter of one those in attendance stood and took the microphone. \"Today, you have inspired me so much,\" she said. Many in the crowd reached for tissues. Linda Carstarphen Gugin said her whole life had been leading to this moment. \"It was the most amazing thing,\" she said. \"It was just like almost immediate bonding between people.\" As the class president of Miller, she'd carried guilt for the last 50 years for not speaking out against segregation. \"I have tears about this,\" she said, crying. For Bettye Webb-Hayes and her son, the gathering underscored why the question \"Mom, am I white\" could be asked in one era and not another. Listening to his mother and her childhood friends, Cordell said, he was struck by how segregation was \"was so transparent to them at the time they were living through it. It was a way of life, so they didn't acknowledge its existence.\" \"I find it interesting how human nature teaches you to accept things that are -- and some people question the reality, and other people don't.\" His mother did test the reality of segregation on one occasion. Bettye and her sister went into a Woolworth's department store in Macon. They sat at a counter for food. The white waitress looked at them skeptically. She couldn't tell whether they were white or black. She grabbed a black cook for his input. \"Those are the Webb girls,\" he said. The two were kicked out. Webb-Hayes giggles about the story. She's proud she tried to break the rules. \"I think she really would've served us if she thought she could have gotten away with it.\" Watch Bettye tell story of her dad and 'stupid' Elvis . It was in 1963 when Webb-Hayes realized just how wrong the segregated South was. She marched in Washington, D.C., with Martin Luther King Jr. that year. \"It was almost like you were listening to God speak in person.\" Years later, Bettye -- the girl who was sent away from the Woolworth's counter -- would eat Thanksgiving dinner with President Jimmy Carter. Webb-Hayes was the music teacher for Amy Carter, the president's daughter. Her motto throughout life: \"Just do the very best you can.\" She calls the gathering of the segregated schools \"unbelievable.\" If it's the last trip of her life, Webb-Hayes, 68, feels her life's journey is now complete. \"I was glad to meet new friends today.\" A special thanks to Bright Blue Sky Productions for its help on this report.","highlights":"Students from former segregated schools of 1959 unite in Macon, Georgia .\n\"I never dreamed of this moment,\" says Ruby Dean Dupree Mayes .\nMichael Cass: \"I'm glad we've left the past behind\"\nThe group hopes to set example for elders of other Southern cities .","id":"2c2fef81904da3ceb73c9aeb55ff5cb7f3ed6fa5"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- With Wi-Fi access at airports, hotels, and aboard airplanes, business travelers don't have to look very hard for a wireless Internet connection. Wi-Fi hotspots at airports may put users' computers at risk, but no more so than at coffee shops, experts say. But with these public wireless hotspots becoming more prevalent, in addition to more travelers using smart phones for Web access, are business travelers putting themselves at a security risk? The short answer, some technology security experts say, is yes. But they add that the use of Wi-Fi at these spots is no riskier than at a coffee shop. \"It's a shared medium, and if you can connect to it, someone else can connect to it and monitor your traffic,\" said Marty Linder, a senior member of the technical staff at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CERT\/Coordination Center. \"That has nothing to do with the security of the network. It's just the nature of the beast.\" For Fran Hanna, the convenience isn't worth the risk. The sales representative from Chapin, South Carolina, would frequently bring her computer on business trips and access Wi-Fi through her hotels. Hackers tapped into her computer, resulting in inappropriate material being sent through her account. She had to get her computer restored twice, which cost her $900. And while she still isn't sure where she was when she picked up the malware, she said the only wireless device she will bring with her as she travels is a cell phone for voice calls. On the other hand, picking up public wireless isn't a major concern to Brian Fitzpatrick, the CTO of a technology firm in Alpharetta, Georgia, and a frequent business traveler. He generally avoids transmitting sensitive personal or company data using these hotspots. But as he sees it, having his information stolen \"is more likely to happen in some face-to-face transaction than it is even online.\" In addition to open networks, experts say the physical loss of devices poses a threat for business travelers. The combination of replacement cost, detection, forensics, data breach, lost intellectual property costs, lost productivity, and legal, consulting and regulatory expenses sets a company back an average of $49,246 per lost laptop, according to a study released in April by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by the Intel Corporation. However, lost laptops with encryption saved companies nearly $20,000, compared with those that did not have encryption, according to the Ponemon study. Encrypted disks safeguard data by scrambling information on them. They unlock that information only when the user enters the proper passcode. \"I don't know how many times we've heard about laptops being stolen and they have no encryption on them. And it pretty much means that the bad guys can get to your data. Immediately. They don't have to know your password or anything, they can just get to it,\" said Patrik Runald, chief security adviser for F-Secure, an Internet security company. And many businesses do not yet require their employees to use passwords on their smart phones, leaving lost devices \"woefully unprotected,\" said Pat Clawson, CEO and chairman of Lumension Security. Tips for staying secure . Despite the potential for security breaches, there are simple steps you can take to keep yourself armed as you connect wirelessly on your travels: . \u2022 Use an encrypted disk to safeguard the information on your laptop or smart phone, Linder said, and make sure you log off of your computer when you're not using it. In most cases, when you hibernate your computer, its memory is recorded unencrypted. \"You cannot for convenience close your lid, let your computer go to sleep and believe that if someone steals your computer, your data is protected, because it's not,\" Linder said. Runald recommended free software called TrueCrypt (truecrypt.org) that you can use to encrypt the content on your local drive and on USB flash drives. \u2022 Turn off your wireless and Bluetooth connections if you're not using them, said Clawson. \"Those are electronic doorways into your devices. On my BlackBerry, I can sit there and scan for open Wi-Fi peer-to-peer connections. I [can] then gain access to what's in your files you may have stored in there, your contacts.\" \u2022 Use an anti-glare shield on your computer to prevent others from spying, Linder suggested. With such shields, you must be face-to-face with the screen to be able to read it. \u2022 Regularly back up the data on your laptop or smart phone, Runald said. Several companies offer backup services, but you can also save information on other computers and disks. Even if your data is encrypted -- eliminating your fear of sensitive information getting stolen -- backing up the data will make it easy to transfer to a new phone or laptop, Runald said. \u2022 If you lose your smart phone and don't want others to access your information, call your provider and request that the device be wiped of information, Runald said. He also suggested considering software that allows you to send a text message to your phone that will remotely wipe it and block others from accessing its content. \u2022 To ensure that you're visiting an authentic Web site and not getting duped by a phishing scheme, some experts suggest logging onto those sites through your company's VPN connection. But technology company CTO Fitzpatrick says he hesitates to use VPN from a public Wi-Fi hotspot: \"Even though all the traffic is encrypted,\" he said, \"if your machine got compromised in some way, it is sort of a gateway into your network.\"","highlights":"Wi-Fi at airports, planes, hotels may be risky, but no more than at coffee shops .\nStudy: Loss of a single laptop costs a company $49,246 .\nUse encrypted disks to keep your information safe, experts say .","id":"6686f16d6dcc9e623e731018da6d2e0f1078f26f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Governors in three Eastern Seaboard states Friday called on National Guard troops to help evacuate people from flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida. Strong winds and rain from the powerful storm have left thousands without power. Ida lost momentum but not the ability to generate winds and rain as it made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast earlier this week, forecasters said. The National Weather Service had flood advisories in effect Friday for areas of coastal Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. At least 160 National Guard troops were deployed in sections of Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey to evacuate residents in high-water areas as well as provide cots, sandbags and potable water, according to the Pentagon's National Guard Bureau. \"About 40 members of the Delaware National Guard have provided support to civilian emergency relief agencies in Kent and Sussex counties,\" the bureau said. The New Jersey National Guard sent 18 guardsmen with trucks to help with evacuations in the Cape May and Atlantic counties, where the governor Thursday declared a state of emergency due to flooding, Guard officials reported . Almost 100 guardsmen with high-water vehicles were helping firefighters in Portsmouth, Virginia. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency, saying the remnants of Ida had combined with another storm to cause dangerous conditions in some areas. By early afternoon, at least 155,000 customers were without power in the state -- mostly in and around Norfolk, according to the Dominion Power Web site. \"With the National Weather Service indicating that eastern Virginia could experience flooding and storm surge comparable to the effects of a Category 1 hurricane, it's critical that Virginians make the necessary preparations,\" Kaine said. \"While we will continue to monitor conditions, the commonwealth is preparing for a period of coastal flooding through at least Friday evening.\"","highlights":"Strong winds and rain from the powerful storm have left thousands without power.\nFlood advisories were in effect Friday in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.\nNational Guard Bureau: At least 160 troops were deployed to assist in high-water areas .\nDominion Power: By early afternoon, at least 155,000 in Virginia had no electricity .","id":"fac19b446bb8a42ef034f8298107836b88db06f7"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday -- the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's inauguration for a second term -- that now is a \"critical moment\" for Afghanistan, because Karzai has a \"clear window\" to demonstrate what kind of government he will lead. Speaking to staff members at the U.S. Embassy, Clinton said there is a careful and thoughtful review of U.S. policy going on \"because we know this is a turning point.\" \"We want to be a strong partner to people of Afghanistan,\" she said, \"and to the government.\" Clinton met with embassy staff before meeting with U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Afterward, she had dinner with Karzai. The two, flanked by their senior aides, met at a second-floor reception room at Karzai's palace. They spoke about Clinton's travel schedule and about the planning for Karzai's Thursday inauguration. They also spoke about the difficulty in accommodating all the Afghans who want to attend the ceremony. The government expects about 800 people to attend in all; some will have to stand. Clinton's attendance at the inauguration will show U.S. support for Karzai's government after an election that was tainted by fraudulent balloting. Karzai is under intense international pressure to clean up corruption within his government, and Clinton was to deliver a tough message on the need to show results, a senior U.S. official tells CNN. The senior U.S. official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about details of Clinton's meeting with Karzai, said the Obama administration already is discussing with the Karzai government specific \"benchmarks\" that will require Afghan ministries to be certified as \"open and transparent\" if they are to receive direct payments from the U.S. government. If ministries are not certified as open and transparent, they can continue to receive technical assistance, but not direct U.S. funding, the official says. If the assessments determine that the ministry needs additional specific technical assistance to be certified, the U.S. will provide it. Clinton's first visit to Afghanistan as secretary of state comes as President Obama is deciding whether to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, as requested by McChrystal. A major factor in Obama's decision on how many troops to send to Afghanistan centers on the Afghan government's ability to partner with the United States to fight the Taliban. In the past several weeks, Eikenberry has sent two cables to Washington expressing reservations about troop increases amid lingering concerns about Karzai and the uncertainty about the government he will put in place. On Sunday, Clinton said she had \"made it clear\" that the United States won't provide civilian aid to Afghanistan's government agencies without an effective certification process that shows the money will be spent on its intended purposes. \"We believe that President Karzai and his government can do better,\" Clinton said on the ABC broadcast \"This Week,\" adding that Obama's administration was \"looking for tangible evidence\" that the Karzai administration would be more responsive to the needs of the Afghan people. She cited the need for the Karzai government to crack down on fraud and \"demonstrate there's not impunity for those who are corrupt.\" The senior U.S. official says the United States has certified departments in the Ministries of Public Health, Communications and Finance to receive direct U.S. government assistance. During the next three months, he says, it will assess the Ministries of Education; Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock; and Rural Rehabilitation and Development. Two assessments will be carried out -- financial and procurement -- at each ministry. If those assessments determine that the procurement, financial, and expenditure systems are adequate, the U.S. will certify them as having the capacity to accept direct assistance. The Afghan government already has announced it is creating a commission that will investigate allegations of corruption. It also says it will create a tribunal in the Justice Ministry that will prosecute corruption cases that the commission has investigated. This U.S. official says the United States is not trying to \"hector, lecture or look over the shoulder\" of the Afghan government, but it does want to make sure U.S. tax dollars are spent wisely. The U.S., he says, \"wants an Afghan-led process to fight corruption.\" Clinton told the NBC program \"Meet the Press\" on Sunday that the primary U.S. mission in Afghanistan is defeating al Qaeda, rather than making a long-term commitment to rebuild the country. CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. policy under review because \"this is a turning point,\" she tells U.S. Embassy staff .\nClinton meets with U.S. ambassador, military commander in Afghanistan .\nClinton will attend President Hamid Karzai's inauguration for second term .\nKarzai under pressure to clean up corruption in government .","id":"8ab54dddf4d279a8415532ee0be93ef5110e2dec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized on Monday to thousands of adults who, as impoverished British children, were brought to Australia with the promise of a better life but found abuse and forced labor. \"My hope today is to reach out to you all on behalf of this nation -- Australia -- and to speak what so often has been unspoken, and to offer this profound apology,\" Rudd told an audience of former child migrants gathered in the national capital of Canberra and scattered throughout the country. \"To apologize for the pain that has been caused. To apologize for the failure to offer proper care. To apologize for those who have gone before us and ignored your cries for help.\" The so-called Forgotten Australians -- children who came from British families struggling with severe poverty or from institutions in the UK -- were brought to Australia in a program that ended 40 years ago. The program scarred generations of children who were placed in state institutions and orphanages. They later told of being kept in brutal conditions, being physically abused and being forced to work on farms. \"There are tens of thousands -- perhaps hundreds of thousands -- of these stories,\" Rudd said, \"each with its own hurts, its own humiliations, its own trauma -- and each united by the experience of a childhood without love, of childhood alone.\" \"Whatever I might say today, the truth is I cannot give you back your childhood. I cannot rewind the clock on your suffering, nor can I erase the past,\" Rudd added. \"But what I can do with you is celebrate the spirit that has lived within you over the decades -- a spirit that has stubbornly refused to be beaten, a spirit that has turned you into the survivors that you are.\"","highlights":"\"Forgotten Australians\" were brought from Britain in program that ended 40 years ago .\nChildren came from British families struggling with severe poverty or from institutions .\n\"I cannot rewind the clock on your suffering, nor can I erase the past,\" Rudd says .","id":"42ead885ee853f9cca061bc68d9d398f46e06b06"} -{"article":"Adults who were exposed to large amounts of secondhand smoke during childhood have lungs that look different on CT scans from those of people who grew up in a smoke-free environment, a new study suggests. The harmful short-term effects of secondhand smoke are well known; the long-term consequences aren't as clear. Specifically, their lungs have slightly more, and larger, emphysema-like \"holes\" than those with less smoke exposure, says Gina Lovasi, M.P.H., Ph.D., of Columbia University, and her colleagues. Although breathing tests showed that the smoke-exposed lungs were functioning just fine, Lovasi said the changes could signal an increased vulnerability to developing emphysema and other lung problems down the road. Health.com: Should smoking around kids be illegal? Emphysema is a progressive lung disease characterized by shortness of breath, coughing, fatigue, and weight loss. About 24 million people in the United States have emphysema and\/or chronic bronchitis, which together are known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however about half of those people don't realize they have COPD. The lung condition is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States, and smoking is a major cause of COPD. Health.com: I'm a nonsmoker, but I have emphysema due to a rare genetic condition . \"The interesting part about this is that we don't know a lot about how the lungs change over time and whether they heal completely after being exposed to tobacco,\" says Lovasi, who is scheduled to present her findings on Tuesday at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego. \"We can still see a difference even decades later.\" The harmful short-term effects of breathing other people's cigarette smoke are well known, but the long-term consequences aren't as clear. To investigate, Lovasi and her team looked at CT scans of the lungs of 1,781 nonsmoking 45- to 84-year-olds taking part in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) trial. Health.com: 5 celebrities who had -- or are at risk of -- the lung disease COPD . About half of the study participants said that no one with whom they lived during childhood smoked cigarettes at home, 31 percent lived with one person who smoked at home, and 17 percent lived with two or more smokers. Lovasi and her team checked the lung CT scans for large areas where the density was similar to air (lung tissue is naturally denser than air), and also calculated what percentage of their lungs was made up of these \"holes.\" Health.com: My smoker's cough turned out to be emphysema . \"The lungs are supposed to have air in them, but it's important that the air is interspersed with blood vessels so that we can get the oxygen out of the air,\" she says. \"Small holes can expand over time and merge to form larger holes.\" For people who hadn't grown up with smokers, 17 percent of their lung tissue had this air-like density, while \"holes\" made up 20 percent of the lung area of people who had lived with at least two smokers during childhood. The more heavily smoke-exposed study participants also had more relatively large holes in their lungs. In comparison, \"someone with emphysema would typically have between 30 percent and 60 percent of the lungs classified as air-like (or emphysema-like) using the threshold we used for our study,\" says Lovasi. Health.com: 1 in 3 smokers would kick habit to protect pet . Lovasi says she and her colleagues will be following the MESA participants over time to see how their lungs change, and whether people with more early smoke exposure are indeed more vulnerable to lung problems later on. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright Health Magazine 2009 .","highlights":"Lungs of adults who had grown up with secondhand smoke had more \"holes\"\nMany \"holes\" --less dense areas of lung-- are characteristic of emphysema .\nEven though smoke-exposed lungs functioned fine, there's concern for future health .\nAbout 24 million people in the United States have emphysema, chronic bronchitis .","id":"95eda6672e3f5d465eec565af56670b0d30b0673"} -{"article":"iReporter Doranne Lim chronicles the flooding from Typhoon Ketsana in Pasig City, Philippines. This week in iReport, we received compelling images and stories from major international natural disasters: a tsunami in the Samoan Islands and flooding in the Philippines from Typhoon Ketsana. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hosted the G-20 summit, and iReporters chronicled the scene as protesters and police clashed in the streets. One iReporter, Chris Morrow, won an award at the San Diego Film Festival. Check out the video here , or get a better idea of the stories below. \u2022 Typhoon Ketsana: Floods from Typhoon Ketsana have left parts of the Philippines under water, killing at least 240 people. Residents in Manila say it's the worst flooding they've seen in decades. Residents constructed makeshift rafts to cross the water, some more successful than others. Some of the most compelling images come from photographer Doranne Lim, who showed us the flooding in Pasig City. We put together a gallery of her photos that chronicle the flooding. \u2022 G-20 protests: As Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 economic summit, iReporters were there documenting the scene. Businesses boarded up, parts of the city were closed off, and protesters and police clashed in the streets. Several citizen journalists captured photos and video of crowds backing away from tear gas and smoke bombs. \"As a person that's lived in Pittsburgh their entire life ... I have never seen something like this,\" iReporter Emily Rice said. \u2022 Tsunami strikes Samoan Islands: Towering tsunami waves triggered by an 8.0 earthquake left dozens dead and entire villages flattened or submerged in the Samoan Islands. iReporters in American Samoa and neighboring Samoa shared incredible images of the aftermath and compelling stories as rescue workers worked to reach outlying villages affected by the natural disaster. \u2022 Chris Morrow wins film festival: One of our superstar iReporters, Chris Morrow, made news of her own recently. Her film \"Wyland Earth Day\" debuted at the San Diego Film Festival in California and won the Best San Diego Film Award. The film follows environmental artist Wyland as he paints a huge mural of the Earth on the roof of the Long Beach Arena. Equally cool: that fellow iReporters were there to share the experience, including TommyYune, MelissaF, promisenews, TheVideoMan, mvalgal, madmurph, dpkronmiller, Thetalesend and cookiecutter. Together, they created the very first San Diego iReport meetup.","highlights":"Typhoon Ketsana slams the Philippines, flooding the capital .\nAn earthquake and tsunami left hundreds dead in the Samoan Islands .\nWatch Team iReport talk about these stories and more .\nShare your stories with CNN at iReport.com .","id":"360b51c738cde3fa09cef18c3d7672a1d20d3379"} -{"article":"Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- I'm a single father of a 12-year-old boy who every five minutes seem to switch personalities on me. One moment he's a starving student athlete hungry enough to eat a cow, the next he's a picky vegan. I'm told by people much smarter than me that this is normal for a child going through puberty. And so, while I am not an overly religious man, I have found myself meditating on I Corinthians 13:4 to help me get through. Love is patient, love is kind. I believe there is something each of us can pull from that Bible verse. We may not agree on spirituality or the existence of God, but we can agree that love is one of the most beautiful and mysterious forces. When I'm frustrated with my son, or a friend or even myself, I try to think about the characteristics of love described in I Corinthians before reacting. Be patient. Be kind. I felt the need to lean on that verse last week after yet another ballot defeat for marriage equality -- when voters in Maine repealed a state law allowing same-sex couples to marry. A visceral wave of anger swept over me as once again I was reminded of my second-class citizenship. I wanted to smash something. I wanted to punch somebody out. I wanted revenge. The last thing on my mind was I Corinthians. But at the very core of the debate over marriage equality is that scripture's concept of love. It's easy to love someone when there is no turmoil, no conflict. And it's no accident that \"patient\" is the first word Corinthians uses to describe love -- it's first because it is most important. No matter how strongly we may feel about each other, we will not always agree, and it is in those moments that we must tap into the mystery of love even more to find a way to first be patient, and then be kind. That is true in marriage and in parenting. And it's true in this much-accepted notion that we should love our fellow man. I'm not suggesting the gay community should not be upset -- patient and kind does not mean complacent and apathetic. We must continue pressuring politicians to end civil injustice, but we're not served if we allow hate and fear to dictate our words. We cannot begin to change the nation's mind if we cannot first speak to the nation's heart. With the economy and the swine flu and the recent tragedy at Fort Hood, it seems that everywhere there is a reason to hate and to fear. But I agree with my buddy Dierks Bentley, who sings in his song \"Beautiful World\": . \"There's tears and there's fears and there's losses and crosses to bear; . And sometimes the best we can do is just to whisper a prayer; . Then press on because; . There's so much to live for and so much to love.\" That might seem Pollyanna-ish, but the truth is that even if President Obama signed a law today to make all forms of discrimination based upon sexual orientation illegal, it would hardly mark the end of the gay rights movement. After all, true social change isn't revolutionary -- it's evolutionary. That means we will have to continue our forbearance with those who oppose us -- from the black pastor who preaches that gay people should not be allowed to marry, to the white, closeted politician so afraid of losing his position that he would vote to oppress his own community. Through all of that, we will still have to find a way to love. Many gay rights activists like to draw parallels between the gay community's struggles and those of blacks during the civil rights movement. It's not uncommon to hear them echo the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: . \"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.\" \"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.\" \"I have a dream...\" But as the frustration of the gay community grows, it is important that we -- and our allies -- do not forget another of Dr. King's powerful quotes: . \"Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.\" In other words, hate the sin but love the sinner. It may seem weird to think in those terms because many well-meaning Christians also like to use that last phrase to justify oppressing gay people at the polls. But here's what's curious: The quote is from Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu who said it in reference to his own people's oppressors, who happened to be Christians. This undoubtedly inspired another one of Gandhi's famous quotes: \"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.\" You don't have to like either in order to have love in your heart. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.","highlights":"LZ Granderson says gays should show patience after same-sex law defeated in Maine .\nHe says frustrated advocates must reject hate, focus on changing nation's heart.\nAs they face opponents, advocates should hate sin, love sinner, he says .","id":"d8182bec5b2174059b2035c2882a8ff19fdd3980"} -{"article":"Beijing, China (CNN) -- The world economy is placing a bet on its future with China, but some Chinese are placing bets on their future with plastic. In rebalancing the world economy, analysts have said U.S. citizens should take cues from the Chinese, where 40 cents of every dollar of disposable income is saved, compared to 3 cents of every dollar in the U.S. But there are worrying signs in China that some young consumers are starting to emulate the worst habits of U.S. consumers -- like 27-year-old Yuan Shuai in Beijing, whose credit card bets on his future have turned into overwhelming debts. In the last two years, he got seven cards from seven banks and wracked up $29,000 in debts. \"I spent money on eating and having fun,\" he said. \"That's all.\" Unemployed and studying to be a taxi driver, Yuan now has debt collectors from banks turning to his father, Yuan Yizhong, for bill payment. \"The banks told me they could lend to him because he's an adult,\" his father says. \"Now they hold me responsible and threatened me.\" With no laws for bankruptcy protection in China, those threats can be real. \"If you cannot pay it back you either have to go to parents or friends to pay back for you, or you got to jail,\" said Yeongwen Chiang, a consumer expert. Credit card issuance is up 32 percent in China in the past year, according to China Market Research and the National Bureau of Statistics. Credit card debt is up more than 130 percent to $838 million. That still pales compared to U.S. credit card debt, but the quick rise have some observers alarmed. With the decrease in exports during financial crisis, China has been working to build domestic consumption, offering subsidies on cars, home appliances and other big ticket items. That has helped China to continue to grow through the recession. During the October holiday week celebrating the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, Chinese poured $83 billion into the economy - a 20 percent increase in spending from the same holiday period last year. By comparison, retail spending in the United States fell 6 percent in September compared to the same time last year. But some of the increased spending in China is with money the consumers didn't have. In the first six months of this year, the number of Chinese consumer with credit card debts more than two months overdue rose 133 percent. For the Yuan family, credit card debt will take years to pay back. \"I have only one son, and he failed to live up to my expectations,\" Yuan's father said. CNN's Emily Chang, Fareed Zakaria and Kevin Voigt contributed to this report .","highlights":"Although Chinese credit card debt is far behind the U.S., it's beginning to mount .\nNew credit cards jumped 32 percent the past year .\nChinese card debts more than two months overdue rose 133 percent this year .","id":"a421f6c60773c90fa65010115ab3172fb3dee7cd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Colorado couple who said their 6-year-old son was aboard an escaped balloon pleaded guilty Friday to charges related to the well-publicized \"balloon boy\" case. Richard Heene pleaded guilty in Larimer County Court to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant. His wife, Mayumi Heene, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities. The Heenes' attorneys said prosecutors had agreed to a sentence of probation with the possibility of up to 90 days in jail for Richard Heene and up to 60 days in jail for his wife. The incident occurred in October, when a large silver balloon came loose from its moorings in the Heenes' yard and drifted over eastern Colorado. Mayumi Heene called 911 and said the couple's 6-year-old son, Falcon, was inside the craft. Millions of people across the country watched the saga on television for nearly two hours as military aircraft tracked the balloon in the air and rescuers chased it below. Mayumi Heene later admitted the whole thing was a hoax and that Falcon was safe in their home the whole time, authorities said. Watch the moment the hoax was revealed . The couple's attorneys have said that the threat of Mayumi Heene's deportation was a factor in the plea deal negotiations. Mayumi Heene is a Japanese citizen but is in the United States legally. \"Even though Mr. Heene would have a triable case, I believe, to avoid the risk that his wife is deported ... we have decided that the best course of action is to proceed as we are proceeding,\" Richard Heene's lawyer, David Lane, said Friday. The judge is allowing the Heenes to leave the state while they remain on bond. Lane said Richard Heene is going to seek employment in New York and also has plans to go to California. Mayumi Heene's attorney said she may accompany him on those trips. Sentencing will be next month. Court documents released last month said the couple hatched the plan about two weeks before the incident and \"instructed their three children to lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax.\" Their motive? To \"make the Heene family more marketable for future media interests,\" the documents said.","highlights":"NEW: Mayumi Heene pleads guilty to misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities .\nRichard Heene pleads guilty to charge of attempting to influence a public servant .\nProsecutors agree to probation with possibility of jail time, attorneys say .\nMillions of people watched the saga on television for nearly two hours .","id":"a069226a6a3f6d1721e525422ca4fb2072f9f532"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Italian government is vowing to fight a European court ruling that crucifixes in classrooms violate students' right to freedom of religion. The European Court of Human Rights found unanimously Tuesday that the display of a particular religious symbol -- such as the Christian cross -- in a classroom \"restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions, and the right of children to believe or not to believe,\" a court statement said. The case was brought by an Italian woman, Soile Lautsi, who objected to the crucifixes on the walls in her two sons' classrooms. Italian courts had ruled earlier that the cross was a symbol of Italy's history and culture, prompting Lautsi to take her case to the European court in Strasbourg, France. It awarded her 5,000 euros ($7,400) in damages Tuesday. The Italian government said it would appeal the European Court's verdict and leading Catholic figures expressed astonishment and anger. The ruling \"is cause for bitterness and many perplexities,\" the Italian Conference of Bishop said in a written statement. The bishops said they were still studying the ruling, but it appeared to result from \"ideological bias\" and a lack of understanding of \"the multiple significances of the crucifix.\" \"It does not take into account the fact that in Italy the display of the crucifix in public places is in line with the recognition of the principles of the Catholicism as 'part of the historical patrimony of the Italian people,' as stated in the Vatican\/Italy agreement of 1984,\" the bishops said. The Vatican in Rome, which has been the seat of the Catholic Church for most of its 2,000-year history, did not officially respond to the ruling. But Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told the leading Italian daily La Repubblica he could not understand it, and that no one with common sense could have expected it. \"When I think that we are talking about a symbol, the crucifix, an image that cannot but be the emblem of a universally shared humanity, I not only feel disappointed but also sadness and grief,\" he said. \"The crucifix is the sign of a God that loves man to the point of giving up his life for him. It is a God that teaches us to learn to love, to pay attention to each man ... and to respect the others, even those who belong to a different culture or religion. \"How could someone not share such a symbol?\" Italy has three months to file a request for a new hearing, court spokesman Stefano Piedimonte told CNN. A five-judge panel will examine the request, officially known as a referral, to determine if it raises sufficiently important issues for a 17-judge Grand Chamber hearing. Only the Italian government can appeal the verdict, but other interested parties can file briefs if the case goes forward, Piedimonte said. The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. CNN's Hada Messia in Rome contributed to this report.","highlights":"Italy vows to fight European court ruling banning crucifixes in classrooms .\nCourt ruled Tuesday that display of religious symbols violate students' right to freedom of religion .\nCase was brought by an Italian woman who objected to crucifixes on walls in her sons' classrooms .\nGovernment says it will appeal verdict; leading Catholics express surprise, anger .","id":"83354a959637b53e496639598f0d8a80c90c01b0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hunger is stunting hundreds of millions of children in the developing world, and more than 90 percent of them live in Africa and Asia, UNICEF says. Poor nutrition is one of the main killers of young children, the U.N. Children's Fund says in the new report \"Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition.\" \"The report we have launched draws attention to the fact that 200 million children under the age of 5 in the developing world suffer from chronic undernutrition,\" said Werner Schultink, UNICEF's associate director of nutrition. A lack of food can impair physical, mental and social abilities, the report says, adding that proper nutrition is important for mother and child. The 1,000 days from conception until a child's second birthday are the most critical for development, according to UNICEF. Undernourished children \"will perform less well in school, they will be able to do less well as an adult and, even worse, their health situation in adult life may be negatively affected,\" Schultink said. \"They are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, such as heart disease or diabetes.\" UNICEF says nutrition supplement programs have helped deliver vitamin A and iodized salt to vulnerable children in developing countries, boosting childhood mortality. Mothers also are being urged to breast-feed their children for at least the first six months to provide key antibodies and nutrients. Reducing and eliminating malnutrition is feasible, according to the report, which calls on the international community to provide urgent help or face the consequences. \"Global commitments on food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture are part of a wider agenda that will help address the critical issues raised in this report,\" said Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director. \"Unless attention is paid to addressing the causes of child and maternal undernutrition today, the costs will be considerably higher tomorrow.\"","highlights":"Poor nutrition is one of the main killers of young children, UNICEF report says .\nReport: 200 million children younger than 5 suffer from chronic undernutrition .\nUndernourished kids more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes .\nReducing and eliminating malnutrition is feasible, the report says .","id":"8d047398767f0f89789c895d8af949fdb80ded68"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- The British government said Wednesday it will appeal a European court ruling that certain police stop-and-search powers are a breach of human rights. Under Section 44 of Britain's Terrorism Act 2000, uniformed officers may stop any pedestrian or vehicle and search them, regardless of whether they have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. Human rights groups complain the rules are subject to abuse, but the British government calls the powers an important tool in the fight against terrorism. British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he was disappointed in Tuesday's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, because the appeals had previously gone through the British courts and been rejected. \"We are considering the judgment and will seek to appeal,\" Johnson said in a statement. \"Pending the outcome of this appeal, the police will continue to have these powers available to them.\" London's Metropolitan Police said that because of sensitivity and concerns about use of the stop-and-search powers, they are only being used at \"pre-identified significant locations\" like landmarks, tourist sites, and crowded places, or where certain police operations are taking place. The case began in September 2003, when police stopped and searched two British nationals who were on their way to a London demonstration. Kevin Gillan was on his bicycle and wearing a backpack when police searched him. He was allowed to go after about 20 minutes, the court said. Pennie Quinton is a journalist who was on her way to cover the demonstration when police stopped and searched her, the court said. Police ordered her to stop filming even though she showed her press cards; the official record of her search said she was stopped for about five minutes, though she says she thought it was closer to half an hour. Gillan and Quinton complained that the police use of the stop-and-search powers under Section 44 breached the European Convention on Human Rights -- specifically their right to liberty and security, right to respect for private and family life, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly and association. The case reached the Law Lords, Britain's highest court, but the Law Lords dismissed the appeal in March 2006 because they said they weren't convinced the police search disrespected the plaintiffs' private lives. Even if the search did not respect the plaintiffs' private lives, the Law Lords found, the procedure was in accordance with the law and was proportionate to counterterrorism efforts. Gillan and Quinton then appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which heard the case in May and issued its ruling Tuesday. \"It's fantastic news after a long struggle,\" Gillan said, in a statement issued by the human rights group Liberty, which took the case to court. \"I look to the government for a strong response.\" Said Quinton, in another statement issued by Liberty, \"There has to be a balance between private life and security. The court has shown that Section 44 is an invasion of people's right to liberty and privacy.\" The court found that the \"coercive powers\" of the anti-terrorism legislation amounted to a clear interference with the right to respect for private life. This interference was compounded by the public nature of the search, because it brings an element of humiliation and embarrassment, the court found. Legal safeguards were not adequate enough to curb the wide discretion police had to use the powers, the court found. It said that wide discretion was a cause for concern. \"The officer's decision to stop and search an individual was one based exclusively on the 'hunch' or 'professional intuition,'\" the court wrote in its decision. \"Not only was it unnecessary for him to demonstrate the existence of any reasonable suspicion; he was not required even subjectively to suspect anything about the person stopped and searched.\" Because officers have no obligation to show a reasonable suspicion, it is \"almost impossible to prove that the power had been improperly exercised,\" the court said. As a result, the court said, the stop-and-search powers were not in accordance with the law. Liberty called on the British government to ensure that Section 44 is only applied when authorities believe it is necessary to prevent terrorism. It should be applied to specific areas and for not longer than 24 hours, Liberty said, which would prevent authorities from applying the measures on a rolling basis and over large parts of a city. Liberty also called on the government to publish notice that authorization for Section 44 has been given.","highlights":"Britain will appeal ruling against police searches allowed by its anti-terrorism legislation .\nEuropean Court of Human Rights ruled that searches breached plaintiffs' human rights .\nCase was brought by two Britons who were stopped and searched by police in 2003 .\nBritain says the powers are an important tool in the fight against terrorism .","id":"bfc6e8ba6e477884abdaf3775bfb68645ef22848"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A U.S. serviceman was among six victims of an early morning shooting at a Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, strip club Wednesday, officials said. Unidentified gunmen entered the Amadeus club in the border city across from El Paso, Texas, just after midnight and fatally shot six men, Chihuahua state attorney general's office spokesman Arturo Sandoval said. An additional person was injured, he said. Two of the victims were identified as employees of the strip club, a waiter and a security guard, the spokesman said. Another was identified as an American citizen and member of the U.S. Air Force, Sandoval said. A statement from Holloman Air Force Base, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, confirmed that the airman was based there, and identified him as Staff Sgt. David Booher, 26. The gunmen appeared to have targeted the victims, Sandoval said. \"Everything indicates that these people were looking for these men,\" he said. Investigators recovered more than 30 shells from the scene. Because of drug-related violence, particularly in border cities, Juarez is considered off-limits for the U.S. military. At Fort Bliss in El Paso, for instance, a memorandum prohibits its soldiers from traveling into the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located. More than 2,000 killings have been recorded in Juarez this year. CNN's Mayra Cuevas-Nazario, Mike Mount, Dave Alsup and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Air Force Staff Sgt. David Booher shot with 5 others in Ciudad Juarez .\nGunmen appeared to have targeted the victims, Mexican spokesman says .\nJuarez is considered off-limits for the U.S. military because of drug violence .","id":"b05181e1ad5f7a51d8ee6911617b7f83218962f8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Charges of rebellion will be leveled against many of those arrested during martial law in the southern Philippines -- declared in the aftermath of last month's massacre of 57 civilians, the nation's justice secretary said. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera made the statement Saturday as the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo defended the martial law declaration, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported. Some lawmakers have challenged the legality of the declaration, which allows authorities to make arrests without a warrant. Martial law went into effect Friday night in the province of Maguindanao to impose peace following the politically motivated massacre, said army spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. He added that Congress would have to approve any extension beyond 60 days. Police and military reports of armed men massing in Maguindanao would lead to charges of rebellion, Devanadera said, according to ABS-CBN. Signs indicated that \"violence was imminent,\" said Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, operations chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the affiliate reported. The armed men were supporters of the politically powerful Ampatuan family, which has been implicated in the massacre, Pangilinan said. At least six members of the Ampatuan family have been arrested, including Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., according to ABS-CBN. Ampatuan, whose father is governor of Maguindanao, has been accused of directing the killings and has been charged with 25 counts of murder. One of the massacre victims implicated members of the Ampatuan family before she died, the affiliate reported. Over the weekend, authorities raided at least one warehouse and ranch belonging to the family. They confiscated firearms, ammunition and vehicles, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, deputy of operations for the eastern Mindinao command, told CNN. The military was looking at arresting at least 100 people tied to the massacre, ABS-CBN reported. The Philippine military is investigating its own forces in connection with the case as well, Brawner said. Asked why martial law was imposed 12 days after the killings, Cabangbang said authorities \"were trying to build a case, a tight case\" against suspects. \"But it is taking long to build a case, so I think the government gave us a free hand in arresting those who are suspects, and allowed us to search, even without warrant. So we really need this declaration of state of martial law.\" The president was to submit a written report to Congress on Sunday evening, justifying her declaration of martial law, the Department of Justice said, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency. Political debate had flared over how soon Congress needed to convene after the declaration of martial law, as required by the Constitution. The House of Representatives and the Senate might jointly convene on Tuesday to discuss the president's report, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said Sunday, according to the Philippine News Agency. Violence in the run-up to elections is not uncommon in the country. The Maguindanao massacre, however, is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history, according to state media. The victims included the wife and sister of political candidate Ismael \"Toto\" Mangudadatu, who had sent the women to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao. He said he had received threats from allies of Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the father of the accused mayor, saying he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself. Ampatuan Sr. has been taken into custody in the massacre, but was hospitalized after taking ill. Witnesses and local officials say the killings were an attempt to block Mangudadatu from challenging the younger Ampatuan -- a longtime ally of the Philippine president and a known warlord -- in the May gubernatorial election. A dozen journalists who had accompanied the women were also killed in the massacre. Group: Philippines most dangerous country for journalists . Suspicion fell on Ampatuan after a government construction vehicle was found at the hastily dug mass grave that held the bodies of the massacre victims. Maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly Muslim Mindanao, which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Christian Asian nation.","highlights":"NEW: Charges of rebellion will be leveled against many of those arrested during martial law .\nLegality of martial law declaration, allowing arrests without warrants, is challenged .\nSearchers make arrests, recover arms from a clan implicated in massacre .\nMartial law follows killings of 57 last week in Maguindanao province .","id":"8a57d62e5bc3bf52552317029364a05f5660ce70"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It isn't clear whether the United States will ever be able to declare victory in Iraq, the top U.S. commander there said Thursday. Army Gen. Ray Odierno speaks to reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. \"I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years,\" Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon. About 123,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq now, and President Obama says all combat forces will be gone by the end of August 2010, leaving as many as 50,000 noncombat troops to advise and train Iraqi forces before leaving by the end of 2011. Odierno has said he wants to draw down the U.S. forces at a faster rate than planned if the security situation allows it. On Thursday, he said he expected the number of U.S. troops to drop to 120,000 by the end of October, and to as few as 110,000 by the end of 2009. \"What we've done here is we're giving Iraq an opportunity in the long term to be a strategic partner of the United States, but more importantly, be a partner in providing regional stability inside of the Middle East,\" Odierno said. Odierno also highlighted continuing security issues inside the country, saying Iraqi security forces have recently seized several \"very large\" caches of Iranian-made rockets and armor-piercing munitions known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs. \"If you're training people ... in Iran to come back into Iraq, and you're providing them rockets and other things, I call that significant because it still enables people to conduct attacks not only on U.S. forces but on Iraqi civilians,\" Odierno said. At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Odierno said the main threat to stability in Iraq are Arab-Kurd tensions, adding there has been difficulty bringing the two sides together for possible joint patrols. \"We've had some very good meetings,\" he said. \"But we still have some ways to go on that.\"","highlights":"U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno makes remark to reporters at Pentagon .\nAbout 123,000 U.S. troops in Iraq; could drop to 110,000 by January, he says .\nOdierno: Iraqi security forces recently seized caches of Iranian-made weapons .","id":"1ba8c2f8fb408a26edfa36dcd84243b1d6763067"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It has long been the final destination for terminally ill patients who want to end their lives, offering what many consider to be a dignified way out of their suffering. But now, Switzerland is proposing legislation that would limit the practice of assisted suicide to people who are terminally ill -- or ban it altogether. If either proposal is adopted, people suffering from a chronic illness or who have a mental illness could no longer legally take advantage of assisted suicide. The Swiss Federal Council says it doesn't necessarily want to end the country's liberal laws, which allow someone to assist a suicide as long as they are not motivated by their own interests. But the council says organizations that provide assisted suicide in Switzerland -- such as the well known Dignitas clinic -- are increasingly testing the boundaries of the law, requiring the government to lay out specific guidelines and restrictions. Recent cases have drawn more attention to \"suicide tourism,\" in which people who can't legally seek assisted suicide in their home countries travel to Switzerland, where it is allowed. Dan James, a 23-year-old British rugby player, ended his life at a Swiss assisted suicide clinic last year. He had been paralyzed from the neck down in a rugby accident. His illness was chronic but not terminal. James' case drew headlines when his parents, who accompanied their son to Switzerland, returned home to questions from police. In the end, the Jameses were not prosecuted. Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy won a high-profile battle in June to have Britain's law on assisted suicide clarified. Purdy, who has said she wants the option of assisted suicide if her condition deteriorates, wanted to know at what point her husband might be prosecuted if he accompanied her to an assisted suicide clinic. Purdy's case went all the way to the Law Lords, Britain's highest court, who ordered the director of public prosecutions to issue a new policy on assisted suicide. He did so last month. Multiple sclerosis is chronic disease and some times can be terminal, leaving open the question whether Purdy might qualify if the new Swiss proposals are approved. At least 117 Britons have traveled abroad for an assisted suicide since 2002, at an average of two a month, according to Dignity in Dying, which advocates giving terminally ill adults the option of assisted suicide. Switzerland's Parliament is now considering two proposals from the federal council, the seven-member cabinet that heads the government. Consultations on the proposals will last until March. The first option would ensure that the person committing suicide is doing it of their own free will, and that the person assisting them is not driven by personal gain. It would also make assisted suicide an option only for those suffering from a terminal illness -- not for those suffering from a chronic or mental illness. The suicidal person would have to declare that he has given \"long and proper consideration\" to his decision,\" according to the council. That is intended to prevent spur-of-the-moment decisions that have not been thought through, the council says. Patients must also present two different doctor's certificates from two different doctors, one stating that they have the legal capacity to decide their options for themselves, and the other stating that they suffer from an incurable physical illness that will result in death within a short period. For those with chronic or mental illnesses, the council said it supports \"comprehensive treatment, care and support, in the sense of palliative medicine\" rather than suicide. Those assisting with suicide face criminal charges if they don't make sure of these steps, the council says. They must also discuss alternatives to suicide with the patient, and must not accept payment for their services that would exceed the costs and expenses of the suicide. \"This provision ensures that those assisting a suicide are not driven by personal gain, and that their prime motivation is to help the person who wishes to die,\" the council says. \"The Federal Council firmly believes that, by determining these duties of care, the negative aspects and abuse of organized assisted suicide can be prevented, and 'suicide tourism' can be reduced.\" The council says it prefers stricter legislation for assisted suicide, but it is also giving Parliament a second option for a complete ban on organized assisted suicide. \"This option rests on the belief that individuals working in assisted suicide organizations are never actually motivated by purely altruistic reasons, and may develop a close relationship with the suicidal person,\" the council says. Dignity in Dying said it welcomes the first option, restricting assisted suicide to terminally ill, mentally competent people. \"Individual patient autonomy has to be balanced against the need to protect potentially vulnerable people,\" the group said in a statement Thursday. \"This proposal seeks to address this balance.\"","highlights":"Switzerland has reputation for lax laws on assisted suicide .\nAuthorities proposing regulations that would put limits on the the practise .\nRecent cases have drawn attention to \"suicide tourism\"","id":"11ec81cd14148b13c2c9e44dc57e85d901cc2fef"} -{"article":"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office contacted the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan about reports the ambassador warned against sending more U.S. troops to the country, a Karzai spokesman told CNN Thursday. Two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that Ambassador Karl Eikenberry sent two cables to Washington expressing reservations about troop increases amid uncertainty over Karzai's government. One official, who spoke on condition of not being identified because of the sensitive nature of the cables, said the two communications \"expressed concern and reservations about troop increases in Afghanistan\" until more is known about Karzai's government after his recent re-election. Separately, a senior U.S. official also confirmed the existence of two Eikenberry classified cables. The official said Eikenberry expressed reservations about troop increases because of lingering concerns about Karzai and uncertainties about the government he is going to put in place. The second official also asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the cables. In Kabul, Eikenberry's office would not confirm to Karzai's office the reports about the cables, Karzai spokesman Seyemic Herawi said. Herawi said Karzai will not comment on the reports without more information from the U.S. Embassy. Should more troops be sent to Afghanistan? Share your thoughts . Eikenberry previously expressed worry about corruption in Karzai's government and its ability to partner with the United States to fight the Taliban. A senior State Department official told CNN that President Obama's administration has questions about Karzai's behavior, suggesting it has been inconsistent. Asked for an official response on reports of the cables, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said it does not comment on private messages, but did confirm that there had been correspondence between Eikenberry and the president. In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly declined to comment Thursday on Eikenberry's communications. \"We are not going to get into the details of this kind of advice,\" Kelly said. \"This is a privileged channel of communication. They have the right to receive this advice in a confidential way,\" Kelly said. \"Ambassador Eikenberry has been providing this kind of advice and analysis to the president and secretary since he arrived,\" he said. \"The president really deserves the right to be able to gather all of this information from all of the different principals, people involved in the shaping of this policy.\" Earlier, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, \"We won't discuss classified documents publicly, but, as we have said for months, success in Afghanistan depends on having a true partner in the Afghan government.\" Initial reports of cables sent by Eikenberry appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. All three newspapers attributed the reports to senior U.S. officials, without identifying them. The developments came as Obama told his war council Wednesday that the U.S. troop commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended, and then asked for revisions to options he previously received for sending more troops, a senior administration official told CNN. The war council -- comprising top Cabinet, Pentagon and administration officials -- met with Obama for the eighth time to discuss a request by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan for up to 40,000 more troops. The meeting lasted more than two hours, according to the senior administration official. \"The president and his team discussed the length of time that it would take to implement the options he's been presented,\" the senior official said. \"The president believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open-ended. After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time to ensure a successful transition to our Afghan partner.\" In particular, Obama pushed for revisions in proposed plans for troop increases to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, the official said. Earlier, a senior administration official and a U.S. military official independently told CNN that one option presented to Obama calls for sending about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, in addition to the 68,000 already committed to the country. The military official said the plan would send three U.S. Army brigades, totaling about 15,000 troops; a Marine brigade of about 8,000 troops; a headquarters element of about 7,000 troops; and 4,000 to 5,000 support troops. The combat brigades would be brought in gradually, in three-month intervals, according to the military official. The troops would be spread across the country, mainly focusing in the south and southeast, where much of the fighting is, according to the military official. The option has been a favorite at the Pentagon in recent weeks, the official added. That is only one option, the senior administration official emphasized. Three other options, the official said, would be \"different mixes,\" or \"different components of it.\" Despite reports to the contrary, Obama has not decided the number of U.S. troops he will send to Afghanistan, White House officials said. Such reports are \"absolutely false,\" Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. And anyone who suggests otherwise, \"doesn't have, in all honesty, the slightest idea what they're talking about.\" Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee urged Obama in a letter sent Wednesday -- Veterans Day -- to agree to the request for additional troops by U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan. The letter, signed by 10 Republican committee members, said success in Afghanistan will require enabling local leaders to govern and secure their country without substantial international assistance. CNN 's Barbara Starr, Elise Labott, Suzanne Malveaux, Mike Mount, Chris Lawrence and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.","highlights":"State Department says what ambassador tells president is confidential .\nHamid Karzai aides question U.S. ambassador's advice to Obama .\nAmbassador reportedly warns Obama against sending more troops to Afghanistan .\nAmbassador has expressed concerns about Karzai government in past .","id":"a092d39b39c766d2e43925ad404062465cb4e746"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"Top Chef\" host Padma Lakshmi is pregnant with her first child, her publicist confirmed to CNN on Thursday. Padma Lakshmi will be eating for two on Bravo's \"Top Chef.\" Lakshmi, 39, has not identified the father. Her representative told US Weekly that the television personality conceived after a long battle with endometriosis. \"Model, author, and Emmy-nominated Padma Lakshmi confirms that she is carrying her first child after years of struggling with endometriosis, a cause for which she has co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America,\" the representative told the magazine. Endometriosis is a medical condition where the uterus' lining grows in other areas of the body. The often painful condition can cause women to have irregular bleeding and possible infertility. Lakshmi's publicist also told US Weekly that \"As a result of her condition, this pregnancy has been referred to by her physician as nothing short of a medical miracle, and due to its delicate nature, we ask\/implore the press to respect Ms. Lakshmi's privacy at this time.\" Lakshmi is the ex-wife of famed author Salman Rushdie. She has hosted Bravo's hit show \"Top Chef\" since its second season and is herself a noted cookbook author.","highlights":"Lakshmi is expecting her first child, publicist confirms .\n\"Top Chef\" host had suffered from endometriosis .\nLakshmi, former wife of Salman Rushdie, has not named the father .","id":"d5479f618b51f6aba73ef060617f9fa2d549979d"} -{"article":"CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Authorities arrested a man accused of secretly taping ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews in the nude and posting the videos on the Internet, the FBI said Friday. ESPN reporter Erin Andrews claims someone videotaped her while she was nude and posted video online. Authorities arrested 48-year-old Michael David Barrett at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Friday. Barrett faces a charge of interstate stalking, the FBI said. Barrett is accused of taping Andrews while she was nude in two hotel rooms. He then made eight videos that he posted on the Internet, the FBI said. Barrett allegedly filmed seven of the eight videos at a hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee, in September 2008. FBI agents said they found evidence that a peephole to the door of Andrews' hotel room had been altered. The FBI learned that Barrett checked into the same hotel at that time and asked for a room adjacent to Andrews using his home address to register for the room. According to a criminal complaint, Barrett tried to sell the videos to celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com. Employees at the Web site also helped in the investigation providing Barrett's information to Andrews' attorney. Andrews works as a sideline reporter traveling around the country covering college football games. Barrett will have his first court appearance in Chicago at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) Saturday, authorities said. The maximum penalty for the charge of interstate stalking is five years in federal prison, the FBI said. CNN's Greg Morrison contributed to this report.","highlights":"Chicago man accused of secretly videotaping ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in nude .\nAuthorities say Andrews was filmed through peephole in hotel rooms .\nVideos were later posted on Internet, according to FBI .\nMichael David Barrett faces interstate stalking charge, authorities say .","id":"dcbff425f08580103f6d18ad5100c4b013d58bfb"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of ACORN on Tuesday sharply deplored recent videos showing some of the group's workers advising people how to set up a prostitution business. ACORN leader Bertha Lewis defends her group at the National Press Club on Tuesday in Washington. \"It made my stomach turn,\" Bertha Lewis, chief executive officer of ACORN, told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. \"It just made you sick.\" ACORN workers who did perform their tasks properly \"did not deserve to have co-workers who did not live up to their standards,\" Lewis said. \"So yes, I terminated those employees.\" At the same time, Lewis defended the community organizing group and punched back at widespread criticism, touting the group's efforts in helping poor people in the areas of housing and voting. She backed up the group's legal action in Maryland against the makers of one of the videos. Video, shot with a hidden camera, shows conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute. Lewis said that \"we want to hold them accountable\" for what she said was breaking the law. Similar videos were made at other ACORN offices. \"It is illegal, as Linda Tripp will tell you, to record someone in the state of Maryland without their permission. Just because we were embarrassed by these highly edited tapes, which don't tell the whole story again, and hopefully that will come out, doesn't mean that these people didn't break the law in order to embarrass and attack the organization,\" Lewis said. Lewis was referring to the former White House employee who recorded conversations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky about her sexual encounters with President Clinton, which ultimately led to his impeachment. ACORN -- which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- was in the headlines during last year's presidential campaign after GOP allegations of falsifying voter registration applicants. Some of its voter registration workers were prosecuted, and some other employees resigned. But after the recent release of videos, the political criticism grew. In the videos, some ACORN workers advised the undercover conservative activists how to set up a prostitution business involving underage, foreign girls. Along with firing employees, ACORN also is conducting an investigation through an independent auditor. The Justice and Treasury departments are investigating the group, too. The U.S. Census Bureau has terminated ACORN's involvement in its public outreach program, both chambers of Congress have voted to deny federal funding to the organization, and several states are looking into ACORN operations. In addition, ACORN suspended tax preparation services it carried out as part of an Internal Revenue Service program. And Bank of America announced it is pulling its funding of an ACORN housing affiliate until it is satisfied that all issues related to the organization have been resolved. Lewis contends the group also has been responsive to allegations that some canvassers falsified voter registration applications and turned in those who falsified voter registration forms. \"We were punished for following the law and doing the right thing, and that part of the story was never told,\" she said. \"And so nine months later it finally began to resonate with folks that we had not had one individual who voted fraudulently in the presidential election because of an ACORN registration -- not one Mickey Mouse, not one Donald Duck, not one New York Jet, Giant or any other fraudulent person.\" One of the shadows over ACORN is an embezzling incident involving Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke. Lewis acknowledged that the founder's sibling embezzled nearly $1 million from the group. She disputed reports that a subpoena from the Louisiana attorney general's office showed that the amount was up to $5 million. Lewis said the claim is \"speculation, \"completely false\" and not based on any documentation. She attributed the contention to two \"disgruntled former board members.\" Lewis' group works in poor precincts across the country considered Democratic turf. She said e-mails from Karl Rove, when he was Bush's top political adviser, show that ACORN was targeted to stop its voter registration efforts because \"we were moving too many minorities to vote\" and \"changing the power dynamics\" in local elections. Such critics of the group believe \"we needed to be stopped,\" Lewis said. \"I do think that after 40 years of going after the rich and powerful, I think you make some powerful enemies. I think since 2004, things have been ramped up.\" Lewis said ACORN has been demonized and news about it has served as a Republican fund-raising tool. She said this form of \"modern-day ACORN McCarthyism has got to stop.\" \"Last week, members of Congress were asked, 'Are you now or have you ever been members of ACORN? Everybody should take pause at that. Everybody should say, 'Wait a minute. This is not how we have discourse,' \" she said, making reference to the familiar phrase from McCarthy-era hearings in the 1950s: \"Are you now or have you ever been a communist?\" Appointed to her post in 2008, Lewis said she has been working hard to improve the group's management practices to \"restrengthen, reorganize and put together the 21st-century ACORN.\" \"I'm proud to say that they've made it clear to me that I will continue to be tortured for at least another year. If the board thought or our membership thought that I should resign, I would do it in a heartbeat,\" she said. \"I don't think, however, it is fair to judge me as I'm cleaning up a previous administration, and now we have real documentation that these are political attacks on us, which is unprecedented.\"","highlights":"ACORN leader defends community organizing group at National Press Club .\nSome ACORN workers advised undercover conservatives on prostitution in videos .\nACORN's Bertha Lewis says group targeted due to its voter registration efforts .\nLewis: ACORN has responded properly to allegations, fired workers in videos .","id":"0724f1ba975c9de9d78c483cfe0da00a1fdb4aaa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- I spoke at TED in 2006, the year they started to put the talks online. I'm told that since then, the talk has been downloaded more than 3.5 million times in more than 200 countries. The number of people who've seen it may be 20 times that or more. I have a stream of e-mails, tweets and blog posts round the world from young people, parents, students, teachers, cultural activists and business leaders of all sorts. They tell me how deeply they relate to the talk and often that they've seen or shown it many times at meetings, conferences, workshops and retreats. Parents tell me they've shown it to their children; young people tell me they've shown it to their parents. They say they've laughed and sometimes cried together and had a different sort of conversation as a result. Changing the conversation is one of the primary purposes of TED. Why has this talk had such an impact? I think there are several reasons. To begin with, the talk is short. The 18-minute talk is part of the genius of TED. In a world of instant messaging, rampant data and overspecialization, brevity is a virtue. (Even so, I've seen blogs that strongly recommend the talk but warn that it's almost 20 minutes long.) A second factor is that, based on the audience's reaction, the talk is entertaining and funny at times, which always helps. And I'd just had my hair cut. We may never know how much that simple act contributed to the global appeal of the talk. But the real reason for its impact is that what I'm saying clearly resonates deeply with people of all ages and across many different cultures. I believe that the argument is becoming more urgent by the day. What is the argument? In a nutshell, it's that we're all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially education, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster. In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests. The result is a disastrous waste of talent among students and their teachers. To sense the scale of this disaster, you only have to look at the alarming rates of turnover among faculty and the levels of drop out, disaffection, stress and prescription drug use among students. Even for students who stay the course and do well in education, the rules of success have changed irrevocably. Just look at the plummeting value of college degrees. The waste of talent in education is not deliberate. Teachers are as anxious about this as everyone else, but many of them feel trapped in the awkward groping of national reform policies, many of which misunderstand the problems as well as the solutions. The waste of talent isn't deliberate, but it is systematic. It happens in part because the dominant systems of education are rooted in the values and demands of industrialism: they are linear, mechanistic and focused on conformity and standardization. Nowadays, they're buttressed by major commercial interests in mass testing and by the indiscriminate use of prescription drugs that keep students' minds from wandering to things they naturally find more interesting. The tragedy is that meeting the many social, economic, spiritual and environmental challenges we now face depends absolutely on the very capacities of insight, creativity and innovation that these systems are systematically suppressing in yet another generation of young people. Reforming these systems is not enough. The truth is that we are caught up in a cultural and economic revolution. This revolution is global in scale and unpredictable in nature. To meet it, we need a revolution in the culture of education. This new culture has to emerge from a richer sense of human ability. To shape it, I believe we have to leave behind the manufacturing principles of industrialism and embrace the organic principles of ecology. Education is about developing human beings, and human development is not mechanical or linear. It is organic and dynamic. Like all living forms, we flourish in certain conditions and shrivel in others. Great teachers, great parents and great leaders understand those conditions intuitively; poor ones don't. The answer is not to standardize education, but to personalize and customize it to the needs of each child and community. There is no alternative. There never was. The good news is that all around the world there are wonderful examples of people and organizations that are making determined efforts to do things differently in education -- and in business, health care, architecture, communities and cultural programs. There are examples of these all over the TED Web site and in the expanding ripples of the TED prizes. TED itself is a great example of the spirit of collaboration and inter-disciplinarily that is the essential to a genuine culture of creativity. What are the principles of this culture? Towards the end of my talk, I mention a book I was working on called \"Epiphany.\" It was published this year under a much better title, \"The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything\" (Viking) and is now in 11 languages. It draws on conversations with people in science, business, education, the arts, sports and more on how they found in themselves the talents and passions that have shaped their lives. But the book is not about them: it's about you and your children, if you have any; and your friends too, if you have any of those. There's a wealth of talent that lies in all of us. All of us, including those who work in schools, must nurture creativity systematically and not kill it unwittingly. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sir Ken Robinson.","highlights":"Sir Ken Robinson: We're born with great natural talents .\nHe says schools systematically suppress many of those innate talents .\nSchools use testing and other systems to narrowly assess students, he says .\nHe says they devalue forms of creativity that don't fit in academic contexts .","id":"b37a5746055787d4aed0f102c263c5fdac5cbef6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, whose \"People Power\" movement pushed out longtime strongman Ferdinand Marcos less than three years after her husband's assassination, has died at age 76, her family announced Saturday. \"She was the agent of change in Philippine democracy,\" said Ray Donato, the nation's consul-general in Atlanta. Aquino, the first woman to lead the Philippines, had been battling colon cancer since March 2008 and died of cardio-respiratory arrest at 3:18 a.m. Saturday (3:18 p.m. Friday ET), said Mai Mislang, a spokeswoman for her son, Philippine Sen. Benigno Aquino III. Funeral arrangements were being set up, Mislang said. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has also announced a 10-day mourning period for the former president, said Ray Donato, the country's consul-general in Atlanta. \"She was the agent of change in Philippine democracy, and almost all the Filipinos I know revered her during her presidency,\" Donato said. Aquino had been born into a wealthy family and was educated in the United States. She had not been involved in politics before her husband, opposition leader Benigno \"Ninoy\" Aquino Jr., was gunned down at Manila's airport in August 1983 as he returned from exile. The political novice took over the leadership of her husband's movement after his death and challenged Marcos in a 1986 election, making a yellow dress her trademark and bolstered by the support of the country's Roman Catholic churches. Marcos had been backed by the United States, the former colonial power in the Philippines, for two decades as a stalwart anti-communist. He and his wife Imelda were friends of then-President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy. But widespread allegations of electoral fraud and a mutiny by the country's military led the Reagan administration to withdraw its support, and Marcos went into exile in Hawaii. Aquino took office in a country with a $28 billion debt, widespread poverty and a persistent Marxist insurgency. She put in place a U.S.-style constitution that limited presidents to a single six-year term and survived seven coup attempts -- including one that was supressed with American help. She also oversaw the closure of the major U.S. military bases in the country before leaving office in 1992. The bases had been a bulwark of American power in the Pacific since the early 1900s and employed nearly 80,000 Filipinos, but Aquino's opponents argued the country was too dependent on the United States. Aquino announced in 1990 that it was time to begin negotiating the \"orderly withdrawal\" of U.S. forces.","highlights":"NEW: Funeral arrangements are being set up, spokeswoman says .\nPresident Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announces 10-day mourning period .\nAquino had been battling colon cancer since March 2008 .\nShe took up opposition to Marcos regime after her husband's 1983 assassination .","id":"88185086ede22c557ee66df61032ae3d5755bd19"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- She's been called \"America's mom.\" Strangers stop her for hugs in the airport. And she still dishes up kindly parental wisdom daily in reruns of \"The Brady Bunch.\" \"Brady Bunch\" actress Florence Henderson founded a service to help older adults learn about computers. Now, actress Florence Henderson, otherwise known as Mrs. Brady, has a new mission: Helping older adults learn to use technology. Her new business, Floh Club, is a \"telephone-based technical support service\" focusing on people who didn't grow up with computers -- especially grandparents who want to stay in touch with family but are intimidated by webcams, Facebook, instant messaging or even e-mail. Henderson says Floh Club is \"like roadside assistance for your computer.\" She spoke with CNN's Josh Levs about her inspiration, her grandkids and \"Brady Bunch\" rumors as the show celebrates its 40th anniversary. See more of our chat with Florence Henderson \u00bb . CNN: What made you think of this? Florence Henderson: I was terrified of computers, Josh. I didn't grow up with them. And I have four kids, and they were always saying, \"Oh, Mom, please get connected.\" And I would go, \"No, I don't have time.\" But I was really scared. And so, a few months ago I decided that if I felt that way, there must be a lot of older adults that feel the same way, or maybe even some younger ones. I am now sending e-mails, I'm videoconferencing. I'm taking photos off my camera and actually putting them on the computer. Facebook, it is so exciting. I mean, I'm thrilled. CNN: What kinds of calls are you getting? What have people been calling and saying they need help with? Henderson: Things like as simple as learning how to send an e-mail. We have all North American-based technical experts standing by. Eighteen hours a day. Seven days a week. They are all very patient and very caring, and they will access your computer remotely, and they will talk you through any problem you may be having. They'll teach you how to use your computer. CNN: The plans and services range from $25 to up to $250 for an entire year. You have grandkids. Do you stay in touch with them this way? Henderson: You know what, Josh? That's one of the most exciting things for me is to be able to videoconference because I have a son and his wife and two children that live in St. Louis. I have a daughter in Florida. And they have two children. And now I can actually see them. I have a new granddaughter who is just a year old. I can watch her grow, and I can talk to them. To me, that is the most exciting thing. And so I'm encouraging older adults to really stay connected and use your brain. CNN: It's the 40th anniversary of the Brady Bunch. We see sitcom stars come and go. But you, 35 years after the show technically ended, you have stayed out there as an icon. What's your secret? What did you do that no one else figured out? Henderson: You know what, Josh? I think it's because I love what I do. I'm passionate about what I do. I've always kind of felt that my career was my vocation, and I love staying on top of things. Now I'm cybermom! I genuinely love to communicate. And I love people. CNN: I got to tell you, when I said I was going to talk to you today, every person I talked to said I have to get the truth about you and Greg (Barry Williams). You write about this on your blog. Just give everyone the real story. Henderson: The real story is that he always had a crush on me and he asked me to go on a date with him. And so I went. And he only had a driver's permit. And his brother had to bring him to my hotel, and then he could drive my car, you know, he had a permit. But it was so sweet and so innocent. And he's still a very dear friend.","highlights":"Florence Henderson launches a new service to help seniors learn about computers .\nThe \"Brady Bunch\" actress had to overcome her own fear of technology .\nFloh Club is a \"telephone-based technical support service\"\nIt helps grandparents and others stay in touch with family via e-mail, webcams .","id":"0540e8c4d7afd0dd356bfe8286b9a50bfded9b54"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A humanitarian plane carrying 17 people -- most of them relief workers -- has crashed during a storm in a mountainous region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said Tuesday. File image of a Beechcraft 1900 aircraft. Search and rescue crews were not immediately able to land their helicopter in the area and determine whether anyone survived the crash in the east of the country, said Christope Illemassene, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the capital city of Kinshasa. But Air Serv International, the relief group that operated the plane, said an aerial survey has indicated that all the occupants on the Beechcraft 1900 plane died. The plane was on a routine flight from Kinsasha to the eastern city of Goma on Monday, with three stops, Illemassene said. Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane when it approached Bukavu, the last of its three intermediate stops. The weather in the area was stormy at the time, Illemassene said. Search and rescue crews spotted the plane's debris Tuesday, about 9.4 miles (15 km) northwest of the Bukavu airport, Illemassene said. \"We're anxiously waiting for results from the search and rescue operation,\" he said. \"We're really hoping the peacekeepers are able to land near the site and confirm whether there are any survivors.\" Air Serv International, based in the U.S. state of Virginia, is one of several groups that provides transport services to relief organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.","highlights":"Flight operators: Aerial survey indicates occupants on aircraft died .\nSearch and rescue crews not able to land their helicopter in the area, U.N. says .\nPlane was on a routine flight from Kinsasha to the eastern city of Goma .","id":"5a04244c3df29dae5f50b8458641333922608252"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A new classified directive to coalition forces in Afghanistan puts restrictions on nighttime raids of Afghan homes and compounds, according to a senior U.S. official who has seen the document. The official declined to be identified because a declassified version of the document has not been made public. The directive is signed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, the official said. The directive comes as the coalition seeks to reduce tension between its military forces and Afghan civilians in an effort to maintain Afghan public support. Nighttime raids in which troops enter private homes have sparked problems for U.S. and NATO forces. The raids are viewed as overly invasive -- a violation of the privacy of the home in Afghan culture -- and they can turn violent. The document orders forces to use Afghan troops at night \"whenever possible\" to knock on doors of residences and compounds, and to use them if forcible action is required for entry, the official said. But the directive also orders troops to \"conduct an analysis\" of whether it is militarily essential to conduct a raid at night or whether it can be put off until daylight, the official said. If troops can keep a target under surveillance but wait for daylight, they then can enlist the aid of village elders, perhaps, in determining if a home or compound poses a threat, the official said. The official emphasized that troops always have the right to defend themselves and are given leeway to use their best judgment on the battlefield. McChrystal also is updating another directive, first issued last year, on conducting operations to minimize civilian casualties, the official said. The updated version, which is yet to be published, will include \"more clarity\" for troops on how to operate in \"escalation of force\" incidents, such as when a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in a potentially threatening manner and troops must decide whether, and when, to fire at it. The official declined to offer further details but said the aim is to make sure even the most junior troops have full understanding of rules and procedures. Some troops and local commanders have expressed concerns that recent rules can inhibit their ability to take action under fire. These directives come as the coalition has been involved in several recent incidents in which civilians were inadvertently killed, and as the coalition conducts major operations in southern Afghanistan. McChrystal released a video message to the Afghan populace apologizing for an incident this week in which 27 Afghan civilians were killed. \"I have made it clear to our forces that we are here to protect the Afghan people. I pledge to strengthen our efforts to regain your trust to build a brighter future for all Afghans,\" he said in the message. The official said the documents may be made public in the coming weeks, after current operations ease.","highlights":"U.S. official: Directive pertains to coalition forces' raids on Afghan homes, compounds .\nCoalition trying to lower tension between military and civilians, keep Afghan public support .\nRaids seen as violation of privacy of Afghan homes, and they can turn violent .\nNew rules are said to call for use of Afghan troops, analysis of whether night raid is essential .","id":"4b4988f5bd8d792e786114b97d2549616ef7065e"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian protesters are vowing to continue their anti-government demonstrations into Wednesday night, despite violent crackdowns and arrests. Witnesses in Tehran tell CNN the demonstrators number in the tens of thousands. The protests are timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy. Iran celebrates the embassy takeover as an official holiday, and tens of thousands showed up to hear anti-American speeches in front of the building that once housed the U.S. diplomatic corps. Many chanted \"Death to America.\" The anniversary was also an opportunity to reignite the anti-government protests that were sparked in June, following a disputed presidential election. Thousands of protesters ignored warnings from Iranian authorities to stay home, many chanting \"Death to the Dictator\" and others saying, \"Obama - Either you're with us or with them,\" referring to the U.S. president. Riot police and pro-government Basij militia turned out in force to quash anti-government protests. \"We were running from the police in the alleys off of the main streets,\" said Soheil, an opposition protester, who gave only one name for security reasons. \"Strangers were opening up their garages so we could hide until the police went away. I ran into a garage for about 15 minutes. When I went back into the main street, I saw riot police arresting a group of young men, then putting them inside a bank and locking the door. \"Only God knows what will happen to them after that.\" iReport: Iranians take to the streets . Soheil, like many other of the demonstrators, took part in the protests this summer. As with previous demonstrations, many images of Wednesday's protest were uploaded to the Internet on the site YouTube.com -- including video of protesters walking over an image of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Another clip showed a group of women being beaten by what appeared to be Iranian security forces. Witnesses said many Iranian women took part in Wednesday's demonstration, and were frequently targeted by the Iranian security forces -- which is what also happened during the summer protests. Video posted on YouTube showed many protesters beaten on the head with batons. Iranian reformists have chosen key anniversaries to protest the hardline government -- the same anniversaries chosen for government-sanctioned anti-American rallies. Wednesday's was the biggest annual anti-American observance of all. On November 4, 1979, Islamic students stormed the U.S. Embassy. They held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. There were also small pockets of protest on Wednesday in the southwest Iran city of Shiraz, according to a resident who witnessed the protests. Demonstrators marched down the main street of Shiraz, yelling \"Death to the dictator\" and \"We will not stand down to you, together we are united,\" according to Najmeh, who only gave her first name for security reasons. There was strong police presence on the streets, and the police force seemed much more organized than past occasions, she said. Earlier in the day, opposition supporters marched defiantly in Tehran's Haft-e-Tir Square, witnesses said. Many held up their hands in V-signs. Others shouted \"Allahu Akbar,\" or \"God is great,\" which has become a slogan of protest. Police blocked all roads leading to the square, creating massive traffic jams. Witnesses described helmet-clad security personnel beating demonstrators with batons and firing tear gas at Haft-e-Tir Square and in a neighborhood a few kilometers north. \"I had never seen that many riot police and security personnel,\" a witness told CNN. \"They were brought in by the busloads. As soon as crowds gathered somewhere, riot police were there within minutes.\" The opposition showed Wednesday that even after five months of government crackdown, people were still willing to take risks. The disputed June 12 presidential election triggered Iran's most serious political crisis since the Islamic revolution toppled the shah. Led by opposition candidate Mir Houssein Moussavi, thousands of Iranians protested what they believed was a rigged vote that returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office for a second term. In the election aftermath, the Iranian government arrested more than 1,000 people and accused reformists Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi of spreading anti-government propaganda and fueling anger among the public. But despite warnings from the government, Iran's reformists have largely refused to back down. They released the names of 72 protesters they say were killed in the unrest that followed the election -- more than double the government's official number. Both Moussavi and Karrubi were prevented from attending Wednesday's rallies, according to a reformist Web site, Norooz News. Karrubi's son told the Web site that his father tried to reach the Haft-e-Tir Square rally on foot, but he was blocked by anti-riot police, sparking clashes with his followers. Police fired tear gas toward Karrubi, hitting one of his guards on the head, and causing Karrubi and some of his supporters to fall to the ground, according to Norooz News. Karrubi and his followers returned to their vehicles and drove away when, at one point, security forces attacked and damaged Karrubi's vehicle, the Web site said. Video posted on YouTube showed Karrubi briefly opening his car door to a crowd of cheering supporters, who chanted, \"Honorable Karrubi, help the people of Iran.\" Iranian authorities had warned Karrubi to not participate in the marches, saying he might be the victim of a suicide attack, according to Norooz News. Moussavi was unable to join the demonstration after his car was prevented from leaving his office, according to his Facebook page and a report on a reformist Web site. Cell phone and Internet connections were cut in the area where his office is located, and dozens of plainclothes motorcycle riders blocked the entrance and chanted slogans against Moussavi, the Web sites said. Read analysis from Hamid Dabashi, author of \"Iran: A People Interrupted\" In Washington, President Obama said the world continues to bear witness to the Iranian people's \"calls for justice and their courageous pursuit of universal rights.\" \"Iran must choose,\" he said in a statement late Tuesday. \"We have heard for thirty years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for. \"It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity, and justice for its people,\" he said. Obama noted how the embassy takeover reshaped U.S.-Iranian relations. \"This event helped set the United States and Iran on a path of sustained suspicion, mistrust, and confrontation,\" he said. \"I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.\" Obama said America has demonstrated willingness to work with Iran over nuclear issues by recognizing its right to peaceful nuclear power and accepting a recent proposal by the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency. \"We have made clear that if Iran lives up to the obligations that every nation has, it will have a path to a more prosperous and productive relationship with the international community,\" Obama said. CNN's Reza Sayah, Sara Mazloumsaki, Mitra Mobasherat, and journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Reformist leaders stopped from attending anti-government rallies, Web site says .\nMarchers gather in Tehran on 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover .\nAnti-American rallies mark 1979 hostage-taking after students stormed embassy .\nProtests by reformists followed disputed June presidential election .","id":"4b3b77be326cc3fab689fafbda22541ff468f726"} -{"article":"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- There's an innocence to Jessica Biel, she says. The actress, who has starred in \"The Illusionist\" and \"I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,\" wanted to tap into her childlike side for \"Planet 51,\" a new animated film about an Earth astronaut who lands on a faraway planet that has much in common with 1950s America -- except for the aliens. \"I love that kind of throwback to a more of innocent time and a simpler time and more conservative,\" she told CNN. \"There's something just kind of attractive about that, those kinds of qualities to me, and I just thought it would be fun.\" \"Planet 51,\" which also features the voice work of Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson, Justin Long and Gary Oldman, opens Friday. Biel sat down with CNN to talk about the film, the challenges of voice work and the difficulty of finding good roles for actresses. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Why did you choose to do something animated? Jessica Biel: I think I chose this part because I'm kind of a kid at heart and I really thought the story was so sweet and fun. ... I wasn't doing anything. I was able to work in town, at home in L.A., which is so rare. CNN: You could probably wear your pajamas to work. Biel: Pretty much. Roll in, no hair and makeup. I just always wanted to be a voice in some great movie where some little girl loves my character. CNN: Did you get to meet [your co-stars] when you were doing the voices? Biel: I never saw them, never met them. I mean, I know Dwayne, I've known Dwayne for a long time. I met Justin before, but I never saw them once. It was such an interesting experience to be there by yourself kind of going through it. But ... it goes fast. You're there, it's fast, it's fun. CNN: Who's your character? Biel: I play Neera, who is this lovely 16-year-old girl. ... She's insecure about boys but also has a sense of confidence for herself, very independent, and is not listening to what the government is saying about this alien [the Earthling] who's landed on her planet. She is standing up on her own two feet, thinking for herself. ... So she's, you know, she's trying to find out who she is as a woman. CNN: You do have a strong female character and it's such a good role model for young girls. Is it hard to find that in films today? Biel: It is. It's very hard. I mean, honestly, it's just rare to find a story about a woman's experience, about a young girl's experience. For some reason nobody wants to make those movies. And it's really hard because there are so many talented women and there are not enough projects for everybody to really blossom and explore. So it's quite competitive because there's a small amount of material. CNN: Is it hard for Hollywood to write those kinds of roles? Biel: I don't know what it is. I'm still trying to decipher that.","highlights":"Jessica Biel lends her voice to animated film \"Planet 51\"\nActress wanted something that reflected her childlike side .\nBiel says it's hard to find roles for women that reflect strength and character .","id":"e1b77d419c63413740f393547aaf9529d2271ad7"} -{"article":"ONDO, Nigeria (CNN) -- In the dark of the early morning, the assembled drug agents murmur a short prayer before setting out on an early morning drugs raid. A agent torches marijuana plants found in the Nigerian forests but there could be hundreds more farms. After a few short orders, we set off into the deep undergrowth of southern Nigeria's forests on a tip-off that somewhere ahead are hidden farms illegally growing cannabis. \"It's dangerous because some of them have machetes and in the deeper forest they have pump action shotguns that they use,\" explained Gaura Shedow, Nigeria's narcotics commander for Ondo state. Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, or NDLEA, are battling to stop drugs illegally transited through the country, from Latin America and Asia into Europe and the U.S., spilling over into the streets of Nigeria. As we approach the farm, orders go for out for silence and torches out. The agents spill into an opening in the dense forest, and in the red-glow of the rising sun we can make out the unmistakable leaf of the marijuana plant. NDLEA suspects there may be hundreds of farms hidden in the forest - estimating the crop they've found this morning to be about $6,000. Despite NDLEA's efforts the farmers are nowhere to be seen, but Commander Gaura remains practical. \"The people that stay in these farms are not the big people. The big men stay in the cities -- they don't even come to the farmlands.\" Nigeria is on the frontline in the global war on drugs -- an international gateway for cocaine from Latin America and heroin from Asia to abusers in Europe and the United States. It's not known exactly how much is transited through Nigeria but NDLEA says last year they seized over 300 tons of narcotics. Focusing primarily on the main transit points -- roads, ports and airports - NDLEA claim to have convicted over 1,800 traffickers. Most of them are Nigerian. \"We do have a big expatriate community of Nigerians in Europe and United States,\" explains Dagmar Thomas at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Nigeria. \"And there is always the danger that these communities are tapped into by organized crime cartels.\" We spoke to one man arrested for trying to trafficking cocaine to Europe. A young graduate, he explained how after losing his job in Spain he was tempted by the offer of $5,000 to transport cocaine packets in his stomach. \"When you are swallowing - taking in this thing into your body it's just as if you are signing your death warrant ... but this is what many youths do today just to make a living.\" And with low-ranking NDLEA officers paid on average $200 a month corruption within the agency is a key concern. \"Yes, certainly there was a lot -- a lot, I think -- of corruption in the agency,\" explained Ahmadu Giade, the agency's chairman. \"But so long as I continue as chairman of the agency, so long I will continue to dismiss anybody who's involved in corruption -- I will never spare him.\" But neither do the drugs. Living under a bridge in Nigeria's over-crowded metropolis, Lagos, Mercy Jon sleeps behind a public toilet with five other people. She prostitutes herself to pay for her cocaine habit. \"Cocaine has destroyed my life - if it was not for the cocaine I'm taking, I would not be in such a place because I'm a learned somebody. My parents spent a lot to make sure I go to school, but because of cocaine I've ruined everything.\" Mercy Jon is being helped by one of only a handful of drug rehabilitation centers in Lagos -- Freedom Foundation. But struggling to find funding to cope with the number of addicts, their founder Tony Rapu is seeing a disturbing trend. \"I actually think its increasing -- in the past few years we've seen more cases of heroin and cocaine abuse and in the area of marijuana it's like its getting even more common.\" Watching his officers systematically set about cutting and burning the seized cannabis crop Commander Gaura gestures to the flames. \"We prefer to get to the grass roots and cut it down before it gets to the streets.\" But with the farmers and drug barons still in hiding Nigeria's drug war is far from over.","highlights":"Nigerian drug agents patrol southern forests hunting for hidden drug farms .\nNigeria is hub for trafficking and fears problem is spilling into its streets .\nCourier paid $5,000 to transport cocaine in stomach; drug agent paid $200 a month .\nEducated addict now living under bridge says her life was destroyed by cocaine .","id":"748834d20d47c20de69c4f2b9b83ad1c0c1f16c1"} -{"article":"Fort Lauderdale, Florida (CNN) -- Three teens accused of setting a 15-year-old friend on fire pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of attempted murder, a public defender for one of the boys said. Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16, are charged as adults with one count of attempted murder in the second degree in the October 12 attack in Deerfield Beach, Florida. They were arraigned in Broward County Circuit Court before Judge Dale Cohen and are being held without bond. Two other boys ages 13 and 15 have been charged as juveniles. Prosecutors say Jarvis, Bent and Mendez were in a gang that poured alcohol over Michael Brewer, 15, then set him ablaze in a dispute over $40, a video game and a bicycle. Brewer jumped into the swimming pool at his apartment complex to put out the flames, witnesses say. Brewer suffered burns over 65 percent of his body. He's reported in guarded condition at the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center, where he's been in a private room since the incident. Gordon Weekes, the attorney for Bent, denounced the fact that the teens were charged as adults. \"It's been decided by society that a 15-year-old can't vote, can't join the armed forces and cannot buy alcohol, because society has recognized that children do not have the ability to appreciate the long-term consequences of their actions,\" he said. \"But they can treat them as adults in court, when we have very capable remedies for them in the juvenile justice system, which is geared toward rehabilitation,\" he said. Weekes said he and the other two public defenders plan to make separate motions to the court asking that their clients be allowed to post bond. Detectives say witnesses told them that Mendez used a lighter to set fire to Brewer after Jarvis poured alcohol over him. They said Matthew Bent encouraged the attack. Authorities say Mendez admitted setting Brewer on fire, and that he made a \"bad decision,\" according to an arrest transcript. Detectives with the Broward County Sheriff's Office have been unable to interview Brewer. Until last week, he had been on a ventilator to keep him alive. \"We hope that we can maybe get a statement this week,\" said sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal. \"Detectives have been waiting for him to recover to the point where he's strong enough to give us a complete statement,\" he said. Doctors say Brewer is improving but his condition is tenuous because of the severity of his burns and the possibility of infections. Most of his burns are on his back and buttocks; his face and hands were largely spared, doctors say. Brewer's doctor told CNN the teen faces several more months in the hospital and will need multiple skin grafts and surgeries. \"They still have to perform several operations on him for skin grafting, but his parents are with him all the time,\" said Lorraine Nelson, a hospital spokeswoman. \"I don't tell him what happened,\" Brewer's mother, Valerie, told CNN affiliate WFOR-TV. \"I just tell him he's in the hospital and he's safe and he's getting better. \"And he'll say, 'Am I going to be OK?' And I say 'Yes, Michael. You're going to be fine. You're going to be just fine,' \" she said. Investigators believe Brewer owed Bent $40 for a video game. When Brewer did not pay, Bent stole Brewer's father's bicycle, police say. When Brewer reported him to the police, Bent was arrested. The next day, the group surrounded Brewer. The five boys called Brewer \"a snitch\" and set him on fire, witnesses said. The Brewer family told WFOR that none of the families of the accused boys have tried to contact them, but it doesn't matter. \"We can't focus on it. They'll get theirs is all we can say. I don't focus on it,\" Michael Brewer's father, also named Michael, told WFOR. If convicted they could face up to 30 years in prison. A court-appointed psychologist who has examined two of the five boys told CNN they are competent to take part in legal proceedings and assist their attorney. \"I can describe both of them as being afraid, being fearful,\" said forensic psychologist Michael Brannon, who did not identify the boys. \"I can describe both of them as being tearful at various times during the interview, especially when talking about the specific incident which led to the injuries of the victim,\" he said. Psychologists are often brought into cases involving teenagers and young adults to judge their mental capabilities and determine their competency to proceed. Psychologists also must evaluate whether the defendants can talk about what happened and communicate effectively with defense attorneys. \"I don't think they expected to have happened, what happened,\" Brannon said. \"It's a horrible event that occurred, but this was not their conceptualization, in my opinion, of what was going to happen.\"","highlights":"NEW: Attorney denounces charging teens as adults, will seek bond .\nMichael Brewer has burns on 65 percent of his body after being doused with alcohol, set ablaze .\nThree teens charged as adults with one count of attempted murder in the second degree .\nTwo other boys ages 13 and 15 have been charged as juveniles .","id":"7061a2b145035479ce1dbf998d7416a6257f0f4c"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan exile leaders, meeting in northern India to debate a potential new approach to Tibet's decades-long struggle for autonomy, have voted to stay with the Dalai Lama's current \"middle way approach,\" according to a spokesman for the spiritual leader. Some have sought Tibet's independence from China, but the Dalai Lama has sought autonomy. \"The majority of the people have spoken and have requested his holiness the Dalai Lama to continue with his middle way approach,\" said spokesman Tenzin Taklha. The meeting was called after the Dalai Lama acknowledged he had failed in his efforts to convince China to restore the territory's autonomy. He did not attend the week-long conference in Dharamsala, a town in the hills of north India where he lives in exile. He called the meeting, he said, to offer the exiles an opportunity to discuss \"the best possible future course of action\" for Tibet. Takhla said the Tibetans demonstrated that the Dalai Lama was their undisputed leader, and they hoped China would recognize him as such and negotiations toward a realistic solution could be held. There was a small minority who said they wanted to demand Tibet's independence, Takhla said. The \"middle way\" approach with Beijing is one in which Tibetans want a level of autonomy that will allow them to protect and preserve their culture, religion and national identity. In exchange, China could continue to claim Tibet as part of its territory. Some in Tibet have advocated independence from China, but the Dalai Lama has long called for genuine autonomy. Tibet is technically autonomous from the central Chinese government, but the Dalai Lama and others have said they favor real autonomy and resent the slow erosion of their culture amid an influx of Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China. Learn about Tibet's history of conflict \u00bb . The resentment spilled over in March, when Buddhist monks initiated peaceful anti-Chinese protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The demonstrations began March 14, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule that sent the Dalai Lama into exile. The protests soon turned violent, with demonstrators burning vehicles and shops. Some protesters advocated independence from China, while others demonstrated against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in Tibet and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations. The subsequent crackdown left 18 civilians and one police officer dead, according to the Chinese government. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140. China blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for the March riots -- a charge he has consistently denied.","highlights":"Tibetan exile leaders back Dalai Lama's current \"middle way approach\"\nThe Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, seeks genuine autonomy from Beijing .\nSmall minority want to demand Tibet's independence, spokesman says .","id":"ef6e7ee88adc48f680e91d00c065f268df7468f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jennifer Schuett's search for the man who snatched her from her bed when she was 8, sexually assaulted her and left her for dead on top of an ant hill ended Tuesday with the arrest of a suspect. Jennifer Schuett, 27, was abducted and left for dead at age 8. A suspect was arrested Tuesday. Now begins another chapter in Schuett's 19-year quest for justice. Standing in front of the television cameras, Jennifer Schuett blinked back tears. \"This is a huge day for me,\" she later told CNN over the phone. \"And I want to see this through the end. The rest will come out during the trial.\" Schuett, 27, joined a multi-agency team of investigators in her hometown of Dickinson, Texas, as they announced the arrest earlier in the day of Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The arrest came after new DNA testing and other evidence made it possible to identify Bradford as the suspect. Schuett's boyfriend and two police investigators who kept the case alive stood beside her. Fighting tears, she thanked them for their support. \"Throughout this journey, I've had two main goals,\" she said. \"And they were to find the man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and attempted to murder me 19 years ago so that he could not hurt anyone else. And to use my voice in telling my story to as many people as I possibly could over the years in hopes that I may encourage other victims of violent crimes to stand up and speak out against criminals.\" Watch Schuett explain why she's speaking out \u00bb . She continued, \"Today, I can say very proudly that I have accomplished both of these goals.\" Schuett spoke with CNN two weeks ago about her 1990 ordeal. CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett decided to go public with her story and her name to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker. Schuett was in her bed when a man crept in through a window on August 10, 1990. She remembers waking up in a stranger's arms as he carried her across a dark parking lot. She said he told her he was an undercover cop and knew her family. He drove her through the streets of Dickinson, pulling into an overgrown field where, she said, he sexually assaulted her. She passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was lying on top of an ant hill with her throat slashed and her voice box torn. She spent about 14 hours in the field before she was found and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. \"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description. The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong,\" Schuett said. She believes she got her voice back so she could tell her story. At the news conference, a driver's license photo of the suspect was shown next to the 1990 sketch based on her description. There was a clear resemblance. Watch the sketch artist's memories of Schuett \u00bb . Shauna Dunlap, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Houston office, said Bradford lived in North Little Rock, with his wife and two children -- a boy, 12, and a girl, 15. He also has three adult stepchildren. Bradford worked as a welder for United Fence in North Little Rock. A company representative said Bradford had been working there for 10 years and was a \"good guy\" who had mended \"his old ways\" and \"changed his life.\" He wouldn't go into specifics about what those \"old ways\" were. Court documents give some indication. In 1996, Bradford was accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and cutting the throat of a female victim. He was initially charged with attempt to commit first-degree murder, but prosecutors amended the charges to rape and kidnapping. A Garland County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of kidnapping but was not able reach a verdict on the rape charges. Arkansas corrections officials said he entered prison in March 1997, facing a 12-year-sentence, and was paroled in February 2000. Investigators also found Bradford lived slightly more than two miles from Schuett's residence and just a mile and a half from where she was found, according to an affidavit released Tuesday. \"It's truly a rare occasion when we have the opportunity to prosecute a case like this,\" said Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk. His office is charging Bradford with attempted capital murder. \"Jennifer has been a tremendous asset to this investigation from the beginning, an inspiration to all of us, and we are going to be very proud to have Jennifer by our side as we continue with our efforts to seek justice for you in the courtroom,\" said Sistrunk. The break in the case came after FBI agent Richard Rennison and Dickinson police Detective Tim Cromie persuaded the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team to get involved. \"The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive,\" Rennison said. \"In cases of child abduction, it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently, you recover a body. And most times, you never find them.\" In March 2008, the investigators found evidence collected 19 years ago -- the underwear and pajamas Schuett was wearing, as well as a man's underwear and T-shirt, which were found in the field where Schuett was left for dead. The clothes had been tested in 1990, but the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But newer techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell. The FBI lab recently informed Rennison that the DNA in the man's underwear matched Bradford's DNA profile. He was entered into the database after the 1997 kidnapping conviction in Arkansas. Bradford was arrested on Tuesday morning on his way to work. He awaits extradition to Texas. CNN's Mallory Simon contributed to this story .","highlights":"Jennifer Schuett waited 19 years for arrest of man who allegedly attacked her .\nWelder Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, arrested Tuesday in Arkansas .\nSchuett was grabbed from her bedroom and left for dead at age 8 .\nAdvanced DNA tests provided a break in the case; DNA was in clothing .","id":"3abad9903d5b7fd9b063146781e4e0b395f4c0f4"} -{"article":"GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama called on Iran to provide the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency with \"unfettered\" access to the newly disclosed Qom uranium enrichment site, and Tehran's nuclear negotiator said the country would cooperate with inspectors. President Obama said Iran must provide inspectors with \"unfettered\" access to the new site within two weeks. Iran says it plans to cooperate \"fully\" and \"immediately\" with the U.N. nuclear agency and will invite representatives of the body to visit its newly revealed uranium enrichment facility \"soon,\" said Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief. The IAEA has confirmed a trip to Iran by Director General Mohamed ElBaradei would take place soon, but no specific date has been announced. A senior U.S. official speaking on background told reporters that ElBaradei's trip to Tehran could come as early as this weekend. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said \"transparency is not something new\" for the Islamic republic's nuclear program. \"Iran has committed itself to follow all the obligations and the like,\" Jalili said, speaking through a translator provided by the Iranian delegation in Geneva. \"What I want to emphasize is that our cooperation with the agency and the way we look specifically regarding to nuclear energy is that we believe that nuclear warheads are illegitimate and no country should have these kind of weapons.\" He said nuclear energy for peaceful purposes \"is the right of every sovereign state and country.\" Watch more from the Jalili interview \u00bb . There were a number of developments at a meeting Thursday in Geneva between Iran and world powers over Iran's nuclear program; Solana said the meeting \"represented the start of what we hope will be an intensive process.\" \"I and all the representatives of the six countries were united in underlining the importance of fully transparency and of rebuilding confidence through practical steps. In the course of the day, we had both plenary meetings and bilateral discussions allowing for detailed exchanges on all issues,\" Solana said. The meeting occurred on the heels of the recent revelation that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom, a dramatic development that jacked up tension between Iran and international powers. International powers have threatened more sanctions if the Islamic republic doesn't change its ways. At a news conference Thursday after the talks, Solana said International Atomic Energy Agency experts are expected to visit the facility near Qom \"within the next couple of weeks.\" IAEA spokesman Gill Tudor said Director General Mohamed ElBaradei \"has been invited to Tehran by Iranian authorities. He will travel there soon to discuss a number of matters.\" Solana confirmed that world powers and Iran will hold another round of talks before the end of the month, but it is not known where or exactly when. \"An agenda for that meeting will be worked out through diplomatic channels. It will focus on nuclear issues, including proposals previously put forward by both sides. It will also deal with global issues that any of the parties wish to address,\" Solana said. Solana also said the world powers and Iran agreed in principle \"that low-enriched uranium produced in Iran would be transported to third countries for further enrichment and fabrication into fuel assemblies for the Tehran research reactor, which produces isotopes for medical applications.\" Details will be worked out at the next meeting, Solana said. The senior U.S. official told reporters that the enrichment would happen in Russia. \"The potential advantage of this, if it's implemented, is that it would significantly reduce Iran's [low-enriched uranium] stockpile which itself is a source of anxiety in the Middle East and elsewhere,\" the senior U.S. official told reporters in a briefing Thursday. Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, noted at a news conference Thursday that the parties hope to reach a framework for future talks. The Geneva talks also featured a proposal for Iran to send its enriched uranium to a third country for final processing to ensure that it would be used for medical purposes, rather than a nuclear weapons program. Of the third-party enrichment proposal, Obama said it might be \"a step towards building confidence that Iran's [nuclear] program is, in fact, peaceful.\" The president said Thursday in Washington that he expected to see \"swift action\" by Iran on the steps outlined in the Geneva talks. Watch Obama demand transparency \u00bb . \"This is a constructive beginning, but hard work lies ahead,\" Obama said, noting that an \"intensive period\" of negotiations with Iran will be occurring. \"Talk is no substitute for action,\" Obama said in urging Iran to take the necessary steps to meet its obligations under international non-proliferation agreements. \"This is about the global non-proliferation regime and Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy,\" Obama said. Iran participated in the talks along with the EU, Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. Top officials from the United States and Iran huddled on the margins of the Geneva talks on Iran's nuclear program. Jalili met with William J. Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs who was leading the U.S. delegation, a senior U.S. official and a diplomatic source confirmed. The men discussed the nuclear program, a sit-down described as the first face-to-face meeting over the Iran's nuclear program. The diplomatic source, who characterized the meeting as \"serious and frank,\" said world powers are pushing for a date for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to examine the nuclear facility in Qom. See a map of Iran's nuclear sites \u00bb . They also discussed human rights issues, including detained Americans in Iran. Among those held in Iranian custody are three hikers who strayed from Iraqi territory into Iran. The sources would talk only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing discussions with Iran. \"They certainly are historical talks,\" said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former weapons inspector. \"For the United States and Iran to sit down finally and start to talk about the significant differences between the two countries is extremely important, and I think it's long overdue.\" Watch commentators on concerns over Iran's nuclear program \u00bb . The existence of the second uranium enrichment facility prompted Obama and the leaders of Britain and France to publicly chide the Islamic republic last week at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh and threaten further sanctions. Iran claims that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes, but many in the international community have accused the country of trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability. CNN's Andrew Carey, Matthew Chance, Christiane Amanpour and Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S., Iran hold talks on margins of multilateral meeting on Iran's nuclear plans .\nObama says talks are \"constructive\" start but demands more .\nForeign policy chief confirms another round of talks coming .\nNewly revealed Iranian uranium facility is focus for world powers .","id":"69c1ea8b1bad5489bf31f5e8347a1377613b4ed7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The two people who died and the 19 others who fell ill at a central Arizona resort after spending time in a sauna-like \"sweatbox\" were attending a program by self-help expert James Arthur Ray, authorities said Saturday. Two people died and were 19 injured after spending up to two hours inside this \"sweatbox\" at an Arizona resort. The dead were identified as James Shore of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Kirby Brown of Westtown, New York, Sheriff Lloyd Waugh told reporters. They were among the 50 or so visitors at the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona attending Ray's \"Spiritual Warrior\" program. Nineteen others were treated for injuries sustained in the sweatbox, a dome-like structure covered with tarps and blankets. Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in the enclosed environment. Waugh said investigators are looking into evidence that \"may turn this into a criminal prosecution.\" Investigators are looking into similar events held previously in other locations by Ray, who refused to speak with officers at the scene, Waugh said. A follow-up interview is expected to happen. Ray's publicist, Howard Bragman, did not immediately return calls from CNN on Saturday. Ray posted a noted late Friday on his Twitter page, saying: \"I'm shocked & saddened by the tragedy occurring in Sedona. My deep heartfelt condolences to family & friends of those who lost their lives.\" On Saturday he posted another message, saying he's \"spending the weekend in prayer and meditation for all involved in this difficult time; and I ask you to join me in doing the same.\" The self-help guru is widely known for his programs that claim to teach individuals to create wealth through all aspects of their lives -- financially, mentally, physically and spiritually. Ray, whose company is based in Carlsbad, California, has appeared on a variety of national programs, including CNN's \"Larry King Live.\" In that appearance, Ray was about to address 3,000 people in Phoenix, Arizona. Asked what he thinks about critics of his teachings, Ray told King: . \"Well, you know, it's interesting, Larry, because any time a new idea comes to the fore, it goes through three phases. It's first ridiculed. Then it's violently opposed. And then it's finally accepted as self-evident, normally after the opposition dies.\" Angel Valley Resort advertises itself as \"a place to relax and heal ... where powerful earth energies are present and active.\" It was founded in April 2002 by Michael and Amayra Hamilton, both of whom are teachers and counselors there. The resort is on 70 secluded valley acres 20 minutes from Sedona, surrounded by thousands of acres of national forest, according to the Web site. It has Internal Revenue Service nonprofit status as a religious organization, its Web site says. \"There are twenty marked vortexes and angel sites to experience connection with Earth and spirit, deep relaxation, and balancing,\" an online brochure says. \"Angel Valley offers two labyrinths and an Angel Wheel for going inward, finding answers and getting insights.\" No information about the sweat lodge could be found on the Web site Saturday morning, and numerous internal links were not functioning. The use of sweat lodges for spiritual and physical cleansing is a part of several Native American tribes' cultures. A traditional Native American sweat lodge is a small dome-like structure made up of willow branches carefully tied together and covered in canvas. Rocks are heated in a nearby fire pit and placed inside the lodge, and water is poured over them to create steam. \"We are curious to find out what happened there,\" Richard Moreno, a member of Pira Manso Pueblo tribe, told KPHO-TV. \"I've been participating in the sweat lodge since the age of 3 and I've never recalled being sick from being in the sweat lodge.\" Moreno told the station he has never been to a lodge that held more than 20 people. CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Illnesses occur during event led by author James Arthur Ray, reports say .\nNEW: Evidence \"may turn this into a criminal prosecution,\" sheriff says .\nAbout 50 people had spent up to two hours inside the \"sweatbox,\" officials said .\nResort is nonprofit religious organization, Web site says .","id":"dfba8e88acba6e39b39088d7988965a83586afa3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- His father and uncle fall to the ground, crying uncontrollably. After 11 years of not knowing, relief of finding a child they thought had been lost forever pours out of them. Christian Norris is reunited with his uncle and grandmother in Beijing. That child is Christian Norris -- he's 17 now and he stood there unmoved as his father and uncle wept; perhaps because to him both men are distant memories. \"I don't really remember my dad that much,\" Christian said quietly \"I just remember my uncle, who raised me much of the time.\" His low-key, almost stone-faced demeanor was in stark contrast to his father Jin Gaoke. \"There are no words to describe the joy I felt when I saw him. He is like a piece of flesh from my own body.\" His uncle Jin Xiaowang chimes in. \"The hair on his arms makes him look American, he has lots of hair on his arms.\" Christian set this day in motion three years ago when he asked his adopted mother Julia Norris to find his Chinese family; a search from Maryland in the United States, to a remote village in central China, which would eventually involve hundreds of China's savvy Internet users. Despite her background as a federal and private investigator and her work on the TV show \"America's Most Wanted,\" Julia's search kept proving fruitless. Police and orphanage records were incomplete and Christian's memories were vague. \"The first obstacle was that I was focusing on the wrong province. He remembered being from Shanxi province ... and he remembered the name of (his) village as Dongjiagou, and so I searched and searched.\" Both the village name and the province were wrong -- Julia was looking in the wrong place hundreds of miles to the east. Watch the emotional reunion \u00bb . Everything changed in April this year when she contacted lawyer Zhang Zhiwei, who works with volunteers in China, reuniting lost children with the parents. \"Based on Jiacheng's (Christian's) memories we did some analysis, like his eating habits,\" Zhang said. \"He likes vinegar, which should be in northern China and close to Shanxi. He also likes garlic ... and from his memory his family grew potato and corn, which gave us a hint of the region he used to live.\" But the search really took off after Zhang posted a blog. \"When I posted the story many Chinese netizens were also moved by the selfless love and actively participated, providing as much detail as possible, all hoping to fulfill her dream of finding her son's hometown,\" he said. Through their Internet searches the netizens discovered that Christian's birth parents were doctors and tracked them down to a city called Longde in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region through a medical essay they had written. But Christian's birth parents weren't who he remembered; for the first six years of his life he had been raised by his uncle Jin Xiaowang -- always thinking he was his father. \"My older brother wanted to have two children, an older one and a younger one. They broke the one-child policy. They were afraid it might affect their jobs (and) they brought him (Christian) to me once he was born,\" Jin said. So Christian grew up in a poor village called Donggou. When he was 6 years old his uncle says he was sent away to school in the city to live with his birth parents, but was told they were a foster family. After just a few months, Christian wanted to return to the village, so his father put him on a bus, and that was the last his family saw of him. Details are vague and records incomplete, but it could have been up to a year later when police found him hundreds of miles away from his home, then took him to a nearby orphanage in Luoyang, Henan Province. The orphanage and the place they found him were in the same city. That's where he was adopted by Julia, who was doing volunteer work there. \"When I found out that the birth family actually lost him at a crowded bus station and did not mean to relinquish him, my heart was broken for both Christian and the family. It was just sad.\" Christian still has much to talk about with his Chinese family, \"but I'm pretty clear that I wasn't abandoned.\" But simply talking won't be easy -- he's forgotten how to speak Mandarin, and his birth relatives don't speak English. But this is just for a few days in China before returning to the U.S. where he has lived most of his life. His Chinese relatives all say they respect his decision about where to live but hope that just maybe he will want to stay. \"He has grown taller, he has grown bigger, but inside Chinese blood is still flowing in his veins,\" said his birth father Jin Gaoke.","highlights":"Christian asked his adopted mother to find his Chinese family three years ago .\nPolice and orphanage records were incomplete and his memories were vague .\nThe search really took off after a blog was posted on the Internet .","id":"e21ef6e52316809b7c92162008e1e09f1bb14ed0"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The news on the housing market continues to be bleak as bleak can be. In just one example, the January numbers from the Case-Shiller index -- a popular collection of data about repeat sales of single-family homes -- show that home values in Phoenix are down almost 50 percent from their peak in July 2006. Clark Howard has bought several foreclosures over the years and has his eye on another. There are similarly dismal numbers in Las Vegas and Miami (both down more than 40 percent) and San Francisco and San Diego (both down 40 percent). But you've got to realize that housing stats are skewed by bubble markets such as these, where people were trying to get rich quick on someone else's money. Yet still, sometimes you can be left feeling like there's no good news in all of this. Well, I have some for you. Half of all home purchases in February were by first-time homebuyers, according to The Financial Times of London. Those buyers were taking advantage of incredible interest rates and low housing prices, not to mention new tax incentives for first-time homebuyers. How about you? If you want to get in the game, you've got to look REO -- and I'm not talking about the classic rock band REO Speedwagon! REO stands for real-estate owned property. It's where you buy directly from the bank after they foreclose on a property. Banks are notoriously bad property managers. It's not uncommon for them to let a property go unloved and neglected for several months. Before long, the property starts looking like a haunted house on Halloween. The grass is unkempt, the shutters are falling off and windows may be broken. That's when you can really swoop in and steal a deal. I've bought a number of foreclosures over the years. My most recent purchase was last year, but I'm thinking about buying another foreclosure I saw while filming with my HLN show crew. Watch Clark finding a bank-owned bargain \u00bb . I'm particularly a fan of houses that smell! The odors can usually be eliminated very easily. But buyers are quickly turned off by a stinky house, and that means I can really underbid on my offer. If you want to start looking for REOs in a specific part of town, try finding a real estate agent who farms that area. You can also try searching the web by visiting sites such as HUD.gov, HomeSales.gov, EmailForeclosures.com and Trulia.com. When searching for foreclosures or distressed property in the single-family home market, be on the lookout for several things: an established neighborhood that's 10 years or older; a neighborhood that is mostly owner-occupied; and a house that is structurally sound with cosmetic damage only. My rule of thumb has always been that you want to buy 20 percent below fair market value for homes and 30 percent below fair market value for condos. Speaking of condos, the condo market in particular has a lot of hazards. When you buy a condo, you're buying an obligation and a commitment in a condo association. Do not buy in a building that has been recently constructed. You want to look for established condo buildings that have been there six years or longer. With established buildings, you know that most people are paying their condo fees. And finally, remember that foreclosures and REOs are just part of a larger category of \"people problem\" houses. These are the kinds of houses that sit on the market as wounded ducks because the owners endured job loss, divorce, relocation or any other of a host of troubling scenarios. The real key to finding a deal is to know the local market conditions where you're buying. Go after the properties that are REOs for 45 days or longer. Lenders are usually unrealistic about the pricing of properties on their books for about the first 6 weeks. Remember, out of adversity comes great opportunity.","highlights":"Half of all home purchases in February were by first-time homebuyers .\nIn REO, real-estate owned, you buy directly from bank after they foreclose on property .\nClark is a fan of houses that smell, since he can really underbid his offer .\nThe key to finding a deal is to know local market conditions .","id":"7413e72478b684fee54db89127ec845b27c59245"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- More than 80 Michael Jackson collectibles -- including the late pop star's famous rhinestone-studded glove from a 1983 performance -- were auctioned off Saturday, reaping a total $2 million. Profits from the auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York's Times Square crushed pre-sale expectations of only $120,000 in sales. The highly prized memorabilia, which included items spanning the many stages of Jackson's career, came from more than 30 fans, associates and family members, who contacted Julien's Auctions to sell their gifts and mementos of the singer. Jackson's flashy glove was the big-ticket item of the night, fetching $420,000 from a buyer in Hong Kong, China. Jackson wore the glove at a 1983 performance during \"Motown 25,\" an NBC special where he debuted his revolutionary moonwalk. Fellow Motown star Walter \"Clyde\" Orange of the Commodores, who also performed in the special 26 years ago, said he asked for Jackson's autograph at the time, but Jackson gave him the glove instead. \"The legacy that [Jackson] left behind is bigger than life for me,\" Orange said. \"I hope that through that glove people can see what he was trying to say in his music and what he said in his music.\" Orange said he plans to give a portion of the proceeds to charity. Hoffman Ma, who bought the glove on behalf of Ponte 16 Resort in Macau, paid a 25 percent buyer's premium, which was tacked onto all final sales over $50,000. Winners of items less than $50,000 paid a 20 percent premium. Darren Julien, president and CEO of Julien's Auctions, said people were hungry for such tokens of Jackson's life, as evidenced by the 3,500 who registered as bidders for the auction. \"Michael was very generous,\" Julien said. \"If you were friends with Michael Jackson or an important part of his life, occasionally he would give something away, and that's a very big reason that these things got out in the public.\" A signature black synthetic blend jacket from Jackson's 16-month Bad World Tour, his first concert tour as a solo artist, sold for $270,000. Featuring black straps with silver buckles and zippers, the jacket came to symbolize Jackson's \"Bad\" era. Tori Renza, whose father bought her the Bad jacket when she was just 4 years old, said she grew up singing and dancing to Jackson's songs around her house. \"It just became part of our family,\" said Renza, who planned to use the money from the auction to pay back student loans. Jackson's famed fedora, which he sported at the 1995 MTV Music Awards, sold for $73,800. It was one of three hats Jackson wore during a 10-minute medley before hurling it into the crowd. The hat was auctioned at a charity event that year, and the letter of verification is signed \"Lisa Marie Presley Jackson,\" the daughter of Elvis Presley who was married to Jackson for nearly two years. \"To my knowledge, there were not a lot of letters that she signed with her full name,\" Julien said. Handwritten lyrics of the 1983 smash hit \"Beat It,\" which Jackson scribbled on a piece of white paper, went for $60,000. One of the more bizarre items up for bidding, an upper mold used to fit Jackson with animal fangs for the 1983 video for \"Thriller,\" sold for more than $10,000. The auction also allowed the world to see photographs of Jackson engaged in simple activities, like driving. His 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL, which he ultimately gave to an aunt as a birthday gift, was auctioned for $104,500. \"What's even more significant is that we have photos of Michael driving the car,\" Julien said. \"When have you seen Michael driving a car? He was always chauffeured or driven.\" There were also a number of autographed photos, as well as signed books, collectibles and artwork. Even Jackson's doodles and sketches of the likes of Frankenstein, Mickey Mouse and Charlie Chaplin were up for sale. Lee Tompkins, a renowned pencil artist who said he came to know Jackson in the early 1980s and owns approximately 75 of Jackson's artworks, auctioned two of Jackson's pieces: one of a vagabond and the other of Charlie Chaplin. They sold for $20,000 and $33,280 respectively. \"He's more than just a singer and dancer. He was an artist first,\" Thompkins said. Before Saturday's auction, the items were exhibited in Santiago, Chile; Dublin, Ireland; and Tokyo, Japan, where crowds lined up for hours get a glimpse of them, Julien said. \"Michael Jackson is looking down and has to be happy,\" he said after the auction, adding, \"We lost an icon.\"","highlights":"Among items auctioned Saturday: jacket, song lyrics, sketches, dental mold .\nFamous rhinestone-studded glove fetched $420,000 .\nHat's letter of verification signed by Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley .","id":"a2a25e700212b7bf7fba0b5224eb1150a2509d6c"} -{"article":"TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- Some Florida minimum-security inmates want to know: Can you handle the heat? Inmates work with peppers at the Hillsborough County Jail in Tampa, Florida. Hot sauce heat, that is -- Jail House Fire Hot Sauce, cooked up by inmates at the Hillsborough County Jail and now offered for sale. The idea to make Jail House Fire Hot Sauce came from a Cuban former inmate who thought food in the big house was bland. Allen Boatman, the head of the jail's horticulture program, remembers what his former trusty said: \"We're growing these peppers. Why don't we use them?\" Peppers are grown as part of the jail's horticulture program, which is voluntary and offered only to minimum-security trusties. The inmates learn about growing plants, ornamentals, trees, herbs and vegetables -- including more than 1,200 varieties of peppers. \"I thought that was a great idea, so I started doing research on some of the recipes,\" says Boatman. The research led to a variety of hot sauces that can be bought for $7 a bottle at the jail in Tampa, Florida, or online at www.jailhousefire.org. There are three different sauces for sale: . Coming soon is a fourth sauce: Misdemeanor. Watch the inmates at work on hot sauce \u00bb . Orders for the Jail House Fire sauces have come in from as far away as Germany, England and even Australia. The inmates make no money from this product. The money goes back into an inmate fund that pays for things like the greenhouse where the peppers are grown. The horticulture program pays for itself, says Boatman, so no taxpayer money is used. Several times a year the program hosts a sale of its ornamentals, shrubs and trees, and the locals turn up to support the program. The money raised is used to purchase necessities like fertilizer and soil. A green thumb is not the only thing that inmate and program member Deline is developing, he says. \"We learn a lot about professionalism, respect, teamwork, ya know -- all that helps,\" Deline says. And working in the fields is good for the inmates' self-worth, Boatman says. \"They actually see something growing that they've been involved in. It gives them a lot of sense of pride and accomplishment,\" says Boatman. \"Possibly that'll give them some momentum when they are released to go and get a job and start being a productive member of society.\" Boatman doesn't just wish his trusties a good future; he gives them an opportunity. When the inmates are released, they are given a certificate of completion in vocational horticulture. This certificate comes from the school board, with no mention of the program behind bars. Deline hopes this will work in his favor when he starts looking for a job. \"Florida is full of a lot of landscaping [and] landscaping companies, a lot of nursery companies,\" Deline says. \"Maybe I can use the experience to better myself in the future.\"","highlights":"Florida minimum-security jail raises peppers, uses them in hot sauce .\nThree inmate-produced sauces available: \"Original,\" \"Smoke\" and \"No Escape\"\nProceeds from sale of sauces goes back into jail's horticulture program .\nJail program also teaches job skills to soon-to-be-released inmates .","id":"74ad55108d8d34925112326345d482aeee375002"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World champion race driver Jenson Button has joined the McLaren Formula One team, McLaren announced Wednesday. The jump to powerhouse McLaren -- already the home of previous world champion Lewis Hamilton -- creates the first team to start a season with the two previous world champions racing together, McLaren said. British media reports said the deal was worth $30 million over three years. Both Button, 29, and Hamilton, 24, are British. Button visited McLaren headquarters earlier this month as he was being lured to the team, he said in a statement Wednesday. \"It wasn't simply the technical resources and the incredible standards of excellence that impressed me,\" Button said. \"I was equally struck by the ambition, the motivation and the winning spirit that flow through everybody there. And then there's the team's epic history: put it this way, the trophy cabinets seem to stretch for miles.\" The Guardian newspaper reported that Button's former team, Brawn GP, offered to double Button's salary to keep the driver for 2010, but the terms were rejected. News of the decision coincides with an official announcement from German carmaker Mercedes-Benz that their allegiance has moved from McLaren to Brawn; the current champion constructors will compete under the Mercedes banner next season. Button's switch comes after news that former world champion Kimi Raikkonen will not race in Formula One in 2010, after failing to secure a team. The Finn's manager, David Robertson, told the BBC he had been trying to secure a deal with McLaren for the former Ferrari driver but the offer had not been enough for the 30-year-old to sign. It seems Raikkonen will now turn his attention to the World Rally Championship instead: \"It wasn't in his interests to race for what [McLaren] were offering so he's going to go rallying,\" Robertson said. What do you think of Button's move? Have your say in our Sound Off below.","highlights":"Jenson Button signs a three-year deal with McLaren according to British media reports .\nButton visited McLaren headquarters earlier this month as he was being lured to the team .\nFormer world champion Kimi Raikkonen will not race in Formula One in 2010 .","id":"b49b0ea512ef0c849d65a915df9c63a18a5f2c7a"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Haitian police shot and killed a man they suspected of stealing rice in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince on Thursday, leaving his body on the sidewalk for hours as his family mourned. The dead man's mother identified him as Gentile Cherie, a 20-year-old carpenter. A companion with him was wounded, and a third man nearby was hit by what he said was a stray bullet. Witnesses said no one was looting at the time. Josef Josnain, the owner of a shop near the city's airport, said the five bags of rice the men were found with fell from a truck and passers-by picked them up. And Cherie's wounded companion, who did not give his name, said a truck driver gave them the rice. \"A truck stopped and we jumped on, and the driver gave us the rice as a gift,\" he said. \"But the cops shot us.\" A CNN crew spotted police stopping the two men Thursday afternoon. They stopped to film the arrests, but while they were getting out of the car, they heard four gunshots and saw the men on the ground. Both had been shot in the back. A third man, Auxilus Maxo, was wounded by a stray bullet near the scene. He told CNN he was hit in the side while waiting for a bus -- after applying for a job as a police officer. Marc Justin, a senior police officer in the area, said he would investigate the killing and said there was no shoot-to-kill order for suspected looters. \"Nobody can do this in any country,\" Justin said. \"Even if somebody was stealing a bag of rice, nobody has a right to do this.\" Justin said he had called for an ambulance for the wounded man, but none appeared. Instead, the man was picked up by members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH who happened on the scene after the shooting. Shopkeepers retrieved the rice left behind. CNN sought comment from the Haitian government about Thursday's incident. There was no immediate response. Twitter updates l Full coverage . Sporadic looting has broken out in Port-au-Prince, where relief workers have struggled to get food, water and medical aid into the hands of survivors of last week's magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Reports of police firing on looters have surfaced as well, but CNN has been unable to independently confirm them. The Haitian National Police have been criticized for alleged abuses for years. A 2009 report by Human Rights Watch criticized its officers for the use of \"excessive and indiscriminate force,\" including involvement in kidnappings, torture and arbitrary arrests. Meanwhile, the force \"is largely ineffective in preventing and investigating crime,\" it found. List of missing, found in Haiti . Reforming the national police is one of the major goals of the U.N. mission dispatched to Haiti after the 2004 revolt that forced then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office. But a 2009 report for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded, \"The relationship between the population and the Haitian National Police is still characterized by suspicion, accusations of brutality, human rights violations and complicity with criminal and corrupt elements.\" Are you there? l Impact Your World . An Amnesty International report last year found the number of reported abuses appeared to be on the decline -- but at least two people died in police custody, and reports of excessive force, fatal shootings and warrantless arrests continued. Two-and-a-half hours after the shooting Thursday, Cherie's body remained on the sidewalk.","highlights":"Dead man's mother identified him as Gentile Cherie, a 20-year-old carpenter .\nCompanion with him was wounded, and third man nearby says hit by stray bullet .\nA CNN crew spotted police stopping the two men Thursday afternoon .\nCNN crew heard 4 gunshots while getting out of the car, saw 2 men on ground, shot in back .","id":"dbe0fe9c7d659029685178dcc6ef3fc19496026d"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal judge on Monday ruled against a Web site operator who was seeking to publish an encyclopedia about the Harry Potter series of novels, blocking publication of \"The Harry Potter Lexicon\" after concluding that it would cause author J.K. Rowling \"irreparable injury.\" Steven Vander Ark speaks to the media outside the U.S. District Court on April 15, 2008 in New York City. U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson awarded Rowling and her publisher $6,750 in statutory damages and permanently blocked publication of the reference guide. Harry Potter fan Steven Vander Ark sought to publish the book, a reference guide to the Harry Potter series, through a small Michigan-based publishing house called RDR Books. Vander Ark operates a Web site called \"Harry Potter Lexicon.\" Rowling sued RDR Books in 2007 to stop publication of material from Vander Ark's Web site. Vander Ark and RDR Books claimed the book should not be blocked from publication because it was protected by the \"fair use\" doctrine, which allows for commentary and critique of literary works. Patterson, in his ruling, said the defendants failed to demonstrate fair use. Rowling issued a statement after Monday's ruling, saying, \"I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably.\" Vander Ark did not immediately return calls from CNN on Monday. \"We are obviously disappointed with the result, and RDR is considering all of its options, including an appeal,\" attorney David S. Hammer said. Rowling, who said she has long planned to publish her own encyclopedia, and Warner Brothers Entertainment, producer of the Potter films, filed suit to stop RDR from publishing the book. Warner Brothers is owned by Time Warner, CNN's parent company.","highlights":"Web site operator wants to publish encyclopedia about Harry Potter novels .\nJudge awards \"Harry Potter\" author J.K. Rowling and publisher $6,750 in damages .\nRowling says she has long planned to publish her own encyclopedia .","id":"86f30844d0c2682851f1cb92ac3a11f89d74745e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A controversial policy that limits the amount of time NATO troops can hold Afghan detainees is under review by U.S. Defense Department officials, a spokesman for the department told CNN. The review of what's known as the \"96-hour rule\" is under way as CNN questioned whether the policy was putting soldiers in danger. Under the rule, NATO troops have 96 hours to either turn over detainees to Afghan authorities or release them -- a rule put in effect to avoid Abu Ghraib-like offenses. \"We are currently reviewing the 96-hour rule, but have yet to make decisions about how we wish to proceed in light of some of the obvious problems associated with it,\" Geoff Morrell, deputy assistant secretary of defense, told CNN in a statement. \"As soon as we have something concrete to say about our way ahead with respect to this aspect of detainee operations, we will of course share it with the Afghan government, our allies in the fight and, of course, the public at large.\" NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan have operated under the 96-hour rule since December 2005. But soldiers interviewed by CNN said it could put them in danger because it forces them to release detainees in a short time span. The rule, contained in a directive outlining International Security Assistance Force detention policies, resulted from consultations with U.S. military and Afghan commanders, said James Appathurai, spokesman for NATO. CNN's Abbie Boudreau's blog: At the 96th hour . \"We have to balance the requirement for protecting our soldiers with the reality that Afghanistan is a sovereign country, that there must be limits on the time we can detain Afghans before handing them over to Afghan authorities,\" Appathurai said. \"The Afghan authorities can also talk with detainees to extract information. It is not as though the interrogation needs to end when we hand them over to the Afghan authorities.\" Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. Central Command, however, said he was not convinced that 96 hours was enough time -- particularly for high-value targets. \"Ninety-six hours is not enough if you are going to ensure that they stay behind bars, obviously,\" he told CNN after a question and answer session in Atlanta. \"Again, there has to be a process by which the individuals that need to be detained are detained, or that if they're handed off to Afghan officials that there's confidence in the system working.\" Appathurai announced the rule in December 2005. At CNN's request, NATO compiled statistics on what has happened to detainees since the agency began keeping such records in 2006. Under the 96-hour rule, about one in four detainees has been released. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who was in Afghanistan last year and who is a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, said the rule puts soldiers in danger. \"The one story I hear told over and over and over again [is] 'Senator Graham, this policy makes no sense. It is putting our folks at risk for no higher purpose. It needs to change,'\" Graham said. \"So the level of frustration is now turning to anger, and quite frankly, here's what's going to start happening -- we're going to take less prisoners. They're going to start shooting these folks.\" Graham said he is not satisfied about how the rule was first implemented. \"I've been asking for months now, 'Who the hell made this rule up? Why did you pick 96 hours versus 80 hours or a hundred hours? What's the source document? What analysis went into whether or not this is an effective tool to deal with problems that we have in Afghanistan?'\" he said. \"I can't get anyone to tell me how this thing was formed, whose idea it was and how it became policy.\" The case of Roger Hill, a former Army captain who received a general discharge for his role in the questioning of 12 detainees, prompted CNN's investigation of the 96-hour rule. Those 12 men had worked on his base in Afghanistan, including one who was his trusted interpreter. Hill was the commander in charge of the Wardak Province in eastern Afghanistan for much of 2008. He said he feared the enemy was tracking his every move and suspected an inside threat. \"Out of a 90-man company, we had 30 wounded, to include two killed in action,\" he said. He told CNN that his headquarters sent a team to the base to detect possible spies. The team screened cell phone activity to find out which Afghan civilians working on the base might be working for the Taliban. \"It turned out that it wasn't just one or two or three, but we actually had a full dozen,\" Hill said. Hill's trusted interpreter was one of them. Angry and frustrated that the interpreter might be sabotaging missions, Hill detained all 12 men in a small building on the base. When he took the men in the building, the 96-hour countdown began. The rule is designed to give the Afghan government control over detainees and avoid abuses like what happened at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. But Hill said the rule does not work, and many times dangerous suspects are released because there's not enough time to gather evidence. The other problem, he said, was that the evidence against the 12 men was too sensitive to hand over to the Afghans. Hill was ordered not to share classified intelligence with the Afghans for fear it could be used against U.S. soldiers in future battles. \"So we're in this Catch-22, where they're saying, 'Hey we'll take these guys off your hands, but give us the evidence,'\" Hill said. \"And I'm saying, 'I can't do that because there are technologies and techniques utilized that I can't sacrifice for this one particular case that will be used again in a fight later on.' 'Well, if you can't give us the evidence, then we can't take these guys off your hands.' So, the clock continues to tick.\" As the clock ticked toward the 96-hour NATO deadline, Hill made a decision that would cost him his military career. \"I decided that I needed to break protocol and interrogate them myself,\" he said. \"I took three gentlemen outside, sat them down, walked away, and fired my weapon into the ground three times, hoping that the men inside, left to their own imagination, would think that they really needed to talk.\" Hill walked back inside. \"And sure enough, some of the detainees started to talk,\" Hill said. What the detainees told him was enough to convince the Afghans to take all 12 men into custody, including Hill's interpreter. Hill said he felt he had made the correct decision to protect his soldiers, but the Army charged him with detainee abuse, leading to his discharge from the military. And the 12 men ended up being released, despite the confessions, according to Army investigators. No one knows where they are now and what they're doing.","highlights":"Roger Hill, a former Army captain, was discharged after a mock execution of Afghan detainees .\nNATO has 96-hour rule for detention of suspects .\nU.S. military is reviewing policy; some say suspects get released too soon .\nThe full investigation on AC 360 tonight at 10 p.m. ET .","id":"db5246d36e90e0bb4a06680d55f4320944af4359"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The Pentagon on Wednesday identified two U.S. soldiers who disappeared in Afghanistan this month, announcing the death of one of the men and saying that the whereabouts of the other remain unknown. Both soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division disappeared in the Morghab River near Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan on November 4. The Pentagon announced the death of Army Sgt. Benjamin Sherman, 21, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Army Sgt. Brandon Islip, 23, remains missing. Islip is from Richmond, Virginia. Both men were on a resupply mission when they disappeared, the Pentagon said. Last week, military divers found Sherman's body. Family members said he jumped into the river when he saw a fellow soldier struggling in the water. \"I know, that day, he jumped into the river to try to save his comrade was because he didn't just see another soldier in the water; he saw his brother,\" Sherman's sister, Meredith, said in a statement to CNN affiliate WCVB in Boston, Massachusetts. \"He didn't jump in because he was trained to but because that's what his heart told him to do.\"","highlights":"Two sergeants disappeared near border with Turkmenistan this month .\nDivers found body of one last week .\nFamily said he jumped into river after seeing fellow soldier struggle .","id":"66ed4014b903c2620423ad27e7bd3777eded165a"} -{"article":"(CNET) -- With its launch of iPhoto 09, Apple has begun showing some reasons why it's worth enduring the hassle of geotagging your photos. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president, unveils iPhoto 09 at Macworld Tuesday. It's generally not easy right now to label your photos with information about where you took the pictures -- the process usually is done with special software to marry the photos with location data taken from a separate GPS receiver. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, demonstrated what you can do with iPhoto at the Macworld 2009 keynote Tuesday. iPhoto 09 works best with photos that already have been tagged. That's getting more common, as GPS hardware support becomes less of a rarity. For example, Nikon's Coolpix P6000 has a built-in GPS receiver, and Nikon has begun selling its GP-1 GPS receiver, which can plug into its SLR's flash mount so location data is embedded in the photo. Apple's iPhone can geotag its own photos, and camera manufacturers say GPS support in cameras has become a matter of when, not if. But the software also can help you tag your own images. Clicking a photo flips it over, letting you type in a location, then showing the spot using a map. (Google supplies back-end mapping services). Helpfully, iPhoto then can spread that location data to other photos with similar time stamps, and they can be bundled together into a group called an event. OK, but what can you do? Once you have geotagged photos, what can you do with them? For one thing, sift through them geographically using iPhotos' new Places interface. Viewing an iPhoto event can show an associated collection of pushpins on a map, and clicking each pin shows the photo. For another, you can search for photos based on where you took them, not on whatever filing system you might use. iPhoto can handle geographic hierarchies, so if you labeled a photo with \"Eiffel Tower,\" it'll find it with a search for \"France\" or \"Paris.\" Last, you can create photo books based on location. For people who want to create albums of their travels, this is a good idea, especially since you can use the tags both for selecting photos to print and to add maps into the book itself. There's no support for the painful part of geotagging, though: extracting location data from a GPS unit. There are other programs that can handle that chore, including Microsoft's Pro Photo Tools, Breeze Systems' Downloader Pro, or GPS Photo Linker. iPhoto is bundled with Macs, along with other members of the iLife suite: iMovie, Garage Band, iWeb, and iDVD. People who have earlier versions can upgrade to iLife 09 for $79. Tag, you're it . In some glorious future, computers might be able to understand the content of your photos just by \"looking\" at them, letting them retrieve just what you want when you ask. But for now, it's mostly up to you to add metadata, textual information such as titles, captions, star ratings, and geotags. If you want to find pictures of the Sydney Opera House, you'll have to know when you took them, what folder you tucked them into, or hope you labeled them with appropriate tags. iPhoto 09, like Google's Picasa Web Albums, adds another major tagging automation feature, though: face recognition. The software finds faces, lets you put a name to them, then offers other views of what it judges to be the same person. After you're done, you can view photos of a specific person. And if you've tagged people in Facebook, it'll slurp up those tags through a synchronization process. Yahoo's Flickr, which has extensive tagging and geotagging abilities, also benefits from this synchronization ability. So what's the upshot here? Good news and bad news. The good news is that the world of digital photography is moving to a new organizational scheme, finally shedding the filing-cabinet metaphor of a hard drive's file system or the shoebox full of prints. The new tag-based world is more flexible and approachable in several ways, and it is still fully compatible with the older methods. The bad news is that in order for it to work, you have to do a little more work getting the tags right in the first place. I, for one, think that it's worthwhile. Here's an example why: my sister needed photos for an end-of-year letter, and because I am the de facto family photographer, she looked to my online shots. The way she found photos of her family members was simply by searching my photos by her family members' names at Flickr. That's far superior to clicking on every photo album for the year and seeing what's within. \u00a9 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.","highlights":"Software marries photos with location data taken from a separate GPS receiver .\nApple's iPhone can geotag its own photos .\nGeotagging lets you search for photos based on where you took them .\nManufacturers say GPS support in cameras has become a matter of when, not if .","id":"a4a72b9b94a8536851901175f69a681d46c555ef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- If you're on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site, you could be the next victim. Experts say cybercrooks are lurking just a mouse click away on popular social networking sites. That's because more cyberthieves are targeting increasingly popular social networking sites that provide a gold mine of personal information, according to the FBI. Since 2006, nearly 3,200 account hijacking cases have been reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. It starts with a friend updating his or her status or sending you a message with an innocent link or video. Maybe your friend is in distress abroad and needs some help. All you have to do is click. When the message or link is opened, social network users are lured to fake Web sites that trick them into divulging personal details and passwords. The process, known as a phishing attack or malware, can infiltrate users' accounts without their consent. Once the account is compromised, the thieves can infiltrate the list of friends or contacts and repeat the attack on subsequent victims. Social networking sites show there is ample opportunity to find more victims; the average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. \"Security is a constant arms race,\" said Simon Axten, an associate for privacy and public policy at Facebook. \"Malicious actors are constantly attacking the site, and what you see is actually a very small percentage of what's attempted.\" As some social networking sites experience monstrous growth, they are becoming a new -- and extremely lucrative -- frontier for cybercrime. Facebook says it has 300 million users, nearly the size of the U.S. population, and it continues to attract users outside the college student niche. From February 2008 to February 2009, Twitter, a micro-blogging site where users post 140-character messages known as tweets, grew 1,382 percent to more than 7 million users. \"They [cybercriminals] are very adept to using social engineering,\" said Donald DeBold, director of threat research for CA, an Internet security company. \"Your friend is in trouble traveling in another country, 'I lost my wallet. I need help.' They exploit the curiosity aspect out of human nature.\" A few decades ago, malicious software and viruses were usually the result of a prank, but Internet security experts say today's attacks are profit-driven. A study from the Indiana University in 2005 discovered that phishing attacks on social networks operated with a 70 percent success rate. These users had fallen for the scam, opened the foreign link and released personal information. Cybercriminals are employing phishing and malware attacks for a number of reasons, including trying to redirect users to sites where profit is fueled by the number of visitors. They also try to elicit private information like passwords and bank account numbers to perform scams. Early this year, Twitter experienced several phishing attacks in which a Web page that looked identical to the widely recognized light blue Twitter page was a hoax. The company warned users to double-check the URL to ensure they were visiting the correct site. The Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 72,000 complaints about Internet fraud in 2008 that were referred to law enforcement agencies for further investigation. These cases involved financial losses amounting to $264.6 million, an increase from 2007. Each person lost an average of $931. \"Most of us would want to help a friend in need, but if it's an online friend, and they want you to wire money, you should double-check,\" FBI spokesman Jason Pack said. Security experts said it makes sense that cybercriminals are turning to social networking sites. Personal information is abundant on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Each time users give out valuable information like birth dates or addresses, they could be providing hints about their password, security experts say. The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed concern about the information visible through Facebook quizzes and applications. \"They'll have access to all that information, so they can sell it, they can share it, they can do an awful lot with it,\" Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for privacy-related issues with the ACLU, told CNN.com in September. Many Internet security experts consider the first virus attack on the PC to have occurred in 1986. By the early 1990s, viruses transmitted on floppy disks became ubiquitous. When the World Wide Web became widely available that same decade, viruses, worms and malware became problems in e-mail accounts, frustrating users who clicked on messages thought to be legitimate. In the new millennium, the most common form of malware attack has become known as drive-by downloads. While surfing on Google or Yahoo, spyware or a computer virus is automatically and invisibly downloaded on a computer, requiring no user interaction for the computer to be infected. \"We are on the verge from shifting from the Web being the No. 1 victim of infecting to social network,\" said Mikko H. Hypponen, chief of research technology at F-Secure Corp. His company sells anti-virus software and malware protection programs. \"It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.\" Social networks are fighting the aggressive attacks from cybercriminals. Most sites have information pages dedicated to educating users about the risks of Internet scams. Users can become a fan of \"Facebook Security\" and receive updates on how to protect their accounts. One of the most common pieces of advice given by security experts is to change passwords frequently. Facebook has also developed complex automated systems that detect compromised accounts. They spot and freeze accounts that are sending an unusually high number of messages to their friends. Company security officials said Facebook is a closed system, which can be helpful in erasing phony messages from all accounts. At News Corporation's MySpace.com, the company creates blacklists of phony accounts to prevent people from clicking on a faulty link. Hemanshu Nigam, first chief security officer for MySpace, said the firm warns about suspicious links and educates users about the harm phishing and malware attacks can bring. \"We are prepared for them,\" he said.","highlights":"The FBI reports nearly 3,200 account hijacking cases since 2006 .\nOnline scam losses amounting to $264.6 million reported in 2008 .\nFacebook has automated systems that detect compromised accounts .\nMySpace.com creates blacklists of phony accounts .","id":"94f8e9b6bbc1a7088c3e5354d9d3c45d93b1b06c"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Breathlessly, they came, carrying suitcases, plastic bags and just about anything that would hold the few belongings they still had. Thousands of Haitian people, most of them homeless, have flooded the port, hoping for a ticket to hope, on board a ferry, being paid for by the Haitian government. This ferry, the Trois Rivieres, is headed for Port Jeremie on Haiti's far western tip, far away from the hopelessness that has become Port-au-Prince. \"The government gave us 1500 gallons of fuel to go back to Jeremie to evacuate more people,\" said Roger Rouzier, director general of Marinetec, the ferry boat owner. Anaika Clement has been here three days with her mother and her friend. Their homes have been destroyed. She and the others wait at a filthy wharf, littered with garbage and human feces, with cracks in the ground, from the day the earth moved in Haiti, last week. In creole, Anaika told CNN's Ivan Watson that they came here after Wednesday morning's 5.9 aftershock. \"I don't know how many days we're going to stay here,\" said Anaika. Wednesday's seismic rattle appeared to have pushed desperate people into action. For some, it didn't matter where the ferry would take them, as long as it left Port-au-Prince. With the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship in sight of them, mothers, fathers, children, infants, and their belongings, packed themselves into small, overcrowded row boats. Latest updates l Full coverage l Twitter . In the words of one man, \"All of our hopes are with the international community. We are not able to sustain ourselves,\" he said. Many of the rowboats sat with too many people, too low in the water, and had the look of a potentially new tragedy. They would row about a mile, to the Trois Rivieres ferry, which was docked at the other end of the port. The owner docked it far away so that people could not board it, while it sat awaiting fuel from the government. iReport: Search list for missing and found . \"First of all I have to put fuel on board. And I would prefer to put fuel on board before the people get in,\" said Roger Rouzier, the ferry boat owner. \"It's a little bit dangerous while you are refueling to have people on board,\" he said. Seeing the ferry boat, the people used the row boats to make their way out to the ferry, to board themselves. Once there, they climbed up the side of the boat, and designed their own assembly line of people to help pass luggage, and children, from one person to the other, on board the ferryboat. CNN witnessed one infant passed up along a sea of hands from their dinghy all the way to the top of the ferryboat. iReport: Are you there? \"No one is helping us with crowd control here. No one. We don't have any help from no one. Even from the government,\" said ferry owner, Roger Rouzier. \"The government gave us fuel and told us to evacuate people to Jeremie and that's it,\" he said. CNN watched as one lone Haitian coast guard vessel tried to approach the ferryboat to curtail the rowboaters, but they were quickly overpowered by the sea of people fleeing. The ferry's owner told CNN his ferry is licensed to carry 600 people, but on the last trip to Port Jeremie, there were over 3000 onboard. With no serious crowd control and no lifeboats on board, Rouzier's only option to stop the crowds, is to leave. \"They'll do anything to get on the boat. And then it becomes very, very dangerous,\" he said. CNN took their own rowboat onto the Trois Rivieres, and saw a boat, slowly filling with the desperate refugees. They all appeared to relax once onboard. Perhaps, now they can begin to have hope about tomorrow.","highlights":"Thousands of Haitians try to board government ship to Port Jeremie on Haiti's far western tip .\nFamilies packing themselves into small, overcrowded row boats to try and reach offshore ship .\nPeople climbed up sides of boat, passing belongings, children up the side .\nFerry owner on desperate Haitians: \"They'll do anything to get on the boat\"","id":"4b2108a665d67642b6f688c47ad54539a4e98e45"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's doubtful there's ever a perfect time or place to end a marriage, but for Dean McDermott, that time and place was in a Palm Springs, California, hotel room after playing a round of golf. Mary Jo Eustace said she's been able to take her 2006 divorce from Dean McDermott and turn it into a positive. The actor told his then-wife, Mary Jo Eustace, that he'd been having an affair with Tori Spelling and that he'd found his soul mate, Eustace recalled Tuesday on HLN's \"The Joy Behar Show.\" \"[He said], 'I'm leaving you -- she loves me unconditionally,' \" Eustace said. Eustace replied that \"you've known her [for] three weeks. I actually thought it was a joke. I thought I was being punked. But it was true,\" she told Behar. Eustace offers life lessons she learned from the 2006 split with McDermott in her book \"Divorce Sucks: What to Do When Irreconcilable Differences, Lawyers Fees, and Your Ex Husband's Hollywood Wife Makes You Miserable,\" which arrived in bookstores Monday. Watch Eustace describe her shock \u00bb . Donald Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples; Dina Matos, ex-wife of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey; and Lance Armstrong's ex, Kristen, also appeared on Behar's show to break down what happens during and after very public breakups. When Eustace found out her 13-year marriage was ending, she said she was \"in a really ugly bikini -- missing like padding on one side, holding my daughter in my arms,\" but at least the bomb wasn't dropped in front of news cameras. Matos was standing right next to her husband when he admitted at a press conference that he'd had an affair with another man. \"I was in shock because I had only learned three days before that he had been involved in a relationship,\" Matos recalled on Tuesday's show. \"I was there in the moment. I was there physically but mentally, you know; I was just trying to maintain my composure and not fall apart in front of the cameras.\" When a marriage ends, \"you think this is the end of your life as you know it,\" Matos said. \"And in some ways it is. You feel powerless.\" Especially once the media picks up on the crumbling matrimony. \"The first week that my divorce was announced ... I saw a picture of my ex-husband with his new wife's legs wrapped around his head,\" Eustace said. \"You're in complete survival mode.\" Although Lance Armstrong's post-marriage flame, Sheryl Crow, wasn't the reason his five-year marriage to Kristen ended, she told Behar it was still difficult to watch. And yet the hardest part for Kristen Armstrong was disliking her former husband's new love. \"I really wanted to dislike her,\" Armstrong said. \"I really did. [But] she's beautiful. She's smart. She's funny. She was great with the kids. For as much as I wanted to dislike her and I tried, I couldn't.\" Matos said it's different when your husband leaves for another man. \"When your husband leaves you for another woman, at some point you know there was love in the marriage, and you had something,\" she said on Tuesday's show. \"But when your husband is not the person that you think he is, you know, he's an impostor -- then you start questioning every aspect of your life together. What was real? Did he ever love me? Why did he marry me? Later I found out why,\" she said. After McGreevey announced his affair, Matos said she found papers that appeared to be the outline for a book that said McGreevey married her \"for political gain,\" she said. \"He married me because he wanted to become governor and perhaps president. That's very painful.\" All of the ex-wives said they've been able to use their divorces as a time to grow. \"You feel dehumanized, horrible,\" Eustace said of divorce. \"With lawyers and fighting and feeling unloved and unlovable, and the media thrown into it, you really have to take care of yourself and to take care of your kids,\" she said. \"It really can be life-affirming ... a wonderful second opportunity in your life. It can be actually, I think, very positive.\"","highlights":"Joy Behar invited women who went through public divorces onto her HLN show .\nMary Jo Eustace talked about how hard it was to watch Dean McDermott move on .\nLance Armstrong's ex-wife, Kristen, said she couldn't hate her husband's new love .\nDina Matos said ex-New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey married her for political gain .","id":"55eefe0b6fac0f13c140e160c0622112e9a2704f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former \"Manson Family\" member Susan Atkins, who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and now is terminally ill, was denied parole Wednesday, prison officials said. Susan Atkins, shown here after her indictment in the Manson murders, was denied parole again Wednesday. The parole hearing was the 13th for Atkins, 61, who is battling terminal brain cancer. Held at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California, the hearing stretched to more than six hours. The panel set another hearing for Atkins in three years, said Michele Kane, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Atkins was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead and terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. She and the others -- Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles \"Tex\" Watson -- were initially sentenced to death in the slayings of five people, including Tate, and two additional deaths the following night. Their sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down the nation's death penalty laws in 1972. Watch Atkins, victims' kin speak \u00bb . By her own admission, Atkins, known as Sadie Mae Glutz within the Manson family, held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress 16 times. Tate was eight months pregnant. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate \"asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her.\" After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the slayings, Atkins scrawled the word \"pig\" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home, but three of Tate's house guests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage. In an interview scheduled to air Friday on CNN's \"Larry King Live,\" Linda Kasabian, a former Manson follower who was the prosecution's star witness against Manson and Atkins, recounted the Tate slayings. Watch Kasabian recall killings \u00bb . \"I started hearing like horrible screaming and I started running toward the house and Sadie came running out and I just looked at her and I said, 'Sadie, please make it stop,'\" Kasabian said. \"And she said, 'I can't. It's too late.' ... It was unreal. It was so real that it was unreal.\" On whether she asked Atkins and the others why they were killing, Kasabian said, \"It wasn't that kind of a scenario. All that I said was, 'Sadie, make it stop.'\" For her safety, Kasabian asked to wear a disguise during the interview, which was conducted last month. As of earlier this year, Atkins was paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and could not sit up in bed or be moved into a wheelchair, according to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse. She has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson. But Tate's sister, Debra Tate, told CNN in an e-mail in March that she does not think any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were \"so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back.\" \"The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated,\" Tate said. \"They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do.\" In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins wrote that \"this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day.\" \"Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and, no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community, I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'\" Atkins' brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7.","highlights":"Susan Atkins held Sharon Tate down and stabbed the pregnant actress 16 times .\nParole hearing was the 13th for Atkins, who is battling terminal brain cancer .\nThe panel set another hearing for Atkins in three years .","id":"4d9d536b80dbbbdb3e85c058c3db10257dfeee66"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- The White House on Friday began releasing the names of visitors as part of a Barack Obama campaign promise to run a more transparent administration. Last month, Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, said records of White House visitors would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis beginning in December. \"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside it,\" he said. \"Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process.\" As part of that initiative, he offered to look back at records from before the announcement. Eisen said Friday that 110 disclosure requests from September have been processed, yielding nearly 500 visitor records that have been posted on the White House Web site. Since the release covers only those records that are at least 90 days old, the first records cover January 20 to July 31. \"This first release is only the latest in a series of unprecedented steps by the president to increase openness in government,\" Eisen said. Given that up to 100,000 people visit the White House each month, the names published Friday included people with some very familiar names -- including William Ayers, Michael Jordan, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright and R. Kelly -- that did not belong to their more famous counterparts, he said. \"The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House,\" Eisen said. The names can be seen at www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/disclosures\/visitor-records .","highlights":"During his campaign, Barack Obama promised to run a more transparent administration .\nRecords of visitors will be available on an ongoing basis beginning in December .\nUp to 100,000 people visit the White House each month .","id":"5faf2b207bcfde7a4cf3a8285141543ff5275ff2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Rwandan accused of \"complicity\" in the massacre of students at the college he headed during the country's genocide 15 years ago has been arrested in Italy, where he served as a clergyman, an international police agency said. Interpol hailed arrest of Uwayezu as a demonstration of effectiveness of international police co-operation. Officers from the Italian Carabinieri and Interpol's National Central Bureau in Rome, Italy, arrested Emmanuel Uwayezu -- who had been wanted in Rwanda, the international police organization Interpol said Wednesday in a news release. Uwayezu, 47, is accused of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. He is in Italian custody and is awaiting extradition to Rwanda. According to Interpol's statement, the Rwandan arrest warrant says Uwayezu was alleged \"to have acted individually and as part of a conspiracy to plan and commit genocide by instigating Hutus to kill Tutsis in the area of Gikongoro, as director of the Groupe Scolaire Marie Merci college in Kibeho.\" He is accused of \"participating in meetings with government and military authorities which allegedly planned the extermination of the Tutsi ethnic group\" and \"complicity in the massacre of some 80 students in May 1994 in the college which he headed.\" Uwayezu arrived in Italy in 1997, took an alias, and was working as a vicar at the Church in Empoli commune near Florence when he was seized, Interpol said. The man was identified after Interpol's fugitives unit received information and pictures from Rwandan authorities. The Archdiocese of Florence issued a statement about the arrest two days ago, saying it hopes the justice system will come up with the truth about the case. But, it said, \"we stand by the fact that Don Emmanuel has always declared his estrangement to the events in question and we accompany him in prayers.\" One Italian news report noted that Uwayezu is a priest of Hutu ethnicity and lived and worked as vice-parish priest in Ponzano, part of the county of Empoli. Don Guido Engels, the head of the parish and a priest, told the ASCA news agency that \"Don Emmanuel never cultivated feelings towards another ethnic group. He always wanted peace.\" \"The arrest of Uwayezu demonstrates the power and effectiveness of international co-operation between police worldwide in obtaining information in relation to the identification, location and apprehension of fugitives around the world,\" said Jean-Michel Louboutin, Interpol's executive director of police services. \"This operation is a credit to law enforcement officers and agencies in Italy and Rwanda.\" Two years ago, Interpol created a unit dedicated to searching for fugitives in the genocide who were wanted by Rwanda and the U.N.-sponsored International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. So far, seven people wanted by Rwanda and five wanted by the tribunal have been arrested. Police in Uganda recently arrested and extradited a man who is among the most wanted suspects from the Rwandan genocide. Idelphonse Nizeyimana was picked up at a hotel in Rubaga, a suburb of the capital, Kampala. The arrest, by Ugandan police, was part of an operation between the tribunal, Ugandan authorities, and Interpol. Nizeyimana was transferred Tuesday to a U.N. detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, where the tribunal is based. The 1994 Rwandan genocide left an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead over a 100-day period, the United Nations and Interpol say. Millions more were raped and disfigured, and nearly an entire generation of children lost their parents.","highlights":"Emmanuel Uwayezu accused of genocide, crimes against humanity .\nAlleged to be part of a conspiracy to kill Tutsis in area of Gikongoro, Rwanda .\nUwayezu arrived in Italy in 1997, took an alias, and was working as a priest .\nWas identified after Interpol received information and pictures from Rwanda .","id":"c911df53bdfb16de998b336c4b538faed581c154"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jacmel was the artsy town Kathryn Bolles would travel to on weekends, a respite from the bustle of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. But when a colleague with the Save the Children organization returned from once-scenic Jacmel on Friday, Bolles said he was traumatized. \"He said it's horrible what's happened there,\" said Bolles, the emergency health and nutrition director for Save the Children in Haiti. \"People are lost, dead, missing. Houses are down and facilities are down. It sounded similar to what we're seeing here in Port-au-Prince.\" Attention has focused on Port-au-Prince since Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, as it is the country's most populous city -- at more than 1.2 million people -- and has suffered tremendous devastation. Thousands of homeless victims have taken to sleeping in the streets, without food, water and medical attention. Others are buried beneath the rubble, and rescuers have miraculously pulled out survivors who were entombed by the debris. Elsewhere, though, preliminary reports are telling of how the crisis has gripped residents beyond the capital. \"What we're hearing from text messages, from e-mails is that all along the coast going west and then down south, towns are absolutely destroyed,\" said Bolles, who has worked in Haiti since 1999 and spoke to CNN from Port-au-Prince. She learned of the extent of the damage from colleagues, people on the street and other aid groups. Just to the west of Port-au-Prince is Carrefour, a city of 442,000 that felt violent shaking during the quake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Damage there is expected to be heavy -- reports have yet to come in, the agency said. West of that is Leogane, a city, like Carrefour, that is passed on the road to Jacmel. More than 30 miles further west of the capital is Petit-Goave -- all towns, Bolles said that are reeling from the quake. Leogane's main hospital was flattened, as were numerous other buildings, Bolles said. She said she heard the \"whole town had collapsed.\" Among the other areas, she said she was told an orphanage full of 1,500 children collapsed, and many people were dead or missing. CNN has yet to independently verify damage or casualties outside the capital, but reports continue to build in bits and pieces. About a three-hour drive south of the capital in Jacmel, there were reports of an orphanage that toppled, and of a hospital for women that collapsed, said Alana Salcer, spokeswoman for Cine Institute, a film school in Jacmel. Staff at the school and students there have written Salcer about the dire situation in that city, and even shot footage of buildings ripped open and survivors lying in streets. To keep the lights on and communication open, the school has had to rely on a generator after power lines went down. The home of the school's editing teacher, Andrew Bigosinski, fell down a hill when the earth violently shook, and many others lost their homes, Salcer said. Just east of Port-au-Prince, makeshift camps have been erected in the public squares of the densely populated area of Delmas, Cine Institute founder David Belle told Salcer in an e-mail shared with CNN. Belle described a harrowing scene on the road to Port-au-Prince: . \"Moving into the city ... the destruction gets worse and worse and the street is lined with piles of swollen, rotting bodies. ...Periodic road blocks have been set up by residents, protesting the lack of any aid presence and angry at stench and indecency. Huge tractors and dump trucks were just beginning to arrive and load bodies as we passed thru.\" American Red Cross logistics expert and relief worker Colin Chaperone said the biggest obstacle outside the capital was getting medical treatment to the injured. Chaperone arrived in the capital Wednesday and had driven east toward the border with the Dominican Republic to escort an American Red Cross Emergency Response Unit into Haiti, said Red Cross spokesman Jonathan Aiken. Chaperone told Aiken that about 30 minutes out of Port-au-Prince, he was still seeing significant and widespread damage. Medical care was limited, as local clinics were overwhelmed by demand, he said. Makeshift treatment facilities were established for those who fled the capital, many of whom had broken bones and other serious injuries, Chaperone said. Exacerbating the dangerous situation was the reality that medical supplies were running out. Roads are slowly becoming easier to navigate, but aid is still slow to get outside the capital. Bolles said that her team plans to travel as far as they can to assess the situation and offer help. \"There really needs to be a humanitarian response and it needs to be immediate,\" she said. \"Outside of Port-au-Prince there really hasn't been anything.\"","highlights":"Jacmel, Leogane, Carrefour and Petit-Goave are towns that are reeling from earthquake .\nEast of Port-au-Prince, makeshift camps have been erected in public squares .\nHumanitarian response \"needs to be immediate,\" says Kathryn Bolles of Save the Children .","id":"c1c00115f6ee7e583338d3c9581e75fa1681506a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manchester United are now just one point behind leaders Chelsea at the top of the English Premier League, after a double from in-form Wayne Rooney helped them to a comfortable 3-0 home win over West Ham on Tuesday evening. England striker Rooney, who is enjoying the best goalscoring run of his career, has now scored 27 goals this season, as well as finding the net in United's last six league matches at Old Trafford. Former England striker Michael Owen added a late third goal, to ensure that United head into Sunday's League Cup final against Aston Villa at Wembley in good heart. Rooney opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time, superbly converting a diving header from Antonio Valencia's cross. And the 24-year-old doubled his advantage in similar vein in the second half, again finding space to head home another pin-point Valencia cross. West Ham arrived at Old Trafford on the back on consecutive victories that had seen them move away from the relegation zone, but they were always second best here and their fate was sealed when Owen netted his eighth goal of the season from a Paul Scholes through-pass.","highlights":"Wayne Rooney scores twice as Manchester United defeat West Ham 3-0 .\nMichael Owen scores the other goal to help United claim a comfortable win .\nThe result leaves United just a point behind Premier League leaders Chelsea .","id":"f6e69fcaa4bfcf0053a71fe3725e13508480dd9a"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The son of the late Gambino family crime boss John Gotti is set to stand trial in federal court in New York on Monday on murder and racketeering charges that could put him in prison for life if he is convicted. 'Junior' Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, talks with reporters outside the federal courthouse. Three previous racketeering trials against John \"Junior\" Gotti, 45, have ended in mistrials in New York. The government says it has learned since his previous trial, \"that Gotti had participated in three murders, that Gotti had run a multi-million dollar cocaine trafficking network, that Gotti had overseen a systematic effort to tamper with trial juries, grand juries and witnesses, and that Gotti had participated in various other violent crimes,\" according to court documents filed by prosecutors. The defense claims the newest round of charges is part of the government's ongoing quest to convict Gotti. The current case was moved to New York in December from Florida, where the original indictment was handed up. A superseding indictment was filed in the case on August 3. In the first indictment, Gotti was only charged with violating the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. The superseding indictment formally charged Gotti with the drug-related murders of two men -- allegations mentioned as part of the first indictment -- along with the RICO charge. The RICO law is used to target organized crime groups -- in this case, the Gambino crime family. Gotti's defense attorneys, however, allege in court filings that \"the prosecution has engaged in a 'win at all costs' campaign riddled with misconduct.\" \"The prosecution charges the same conspiracy, albeit with new garnishments,\" said one filing from July. \"After having received frustrating results in three separate trials, the case was hijacked to the Middle District of Florida in a shameful attempt to forum shop or judge shop or both.\" Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, say in court filings that Gotti's allegations he is a victim of a government vendetta are unfounded. Since Gotti's previous trials, prosecutors maintain, they have \"uncovered extensive new evidence of Gotti's criminal conduct in the course of investigating and prosecuting another Gambino family captain.\" The indictment alleges that Gotti was at times an \"associate, soldier, captain and de facto boss\" in the Gambino family, and also served on a \"committee of captains\" formed in the early 1990s to assist in family administration. \"The principal purpose of the GCF (Gambino crime family) Enterprise was to generate money ... for the GCF Enterprise members,\" the indictment says. \"This purpose was implemented,\" the indictment continued, \"through various criminal activities, including criminal acts involving the felonious manufacturing, importing, receiving, concealing, buying, selling and otherwise dealing in narcotics and other dangerous drugs, extortion, armed and unarmed robbery, armed home invasions, illegal gambling, extortionate credit transactions, theft and bribery.\" To further their activities, family members threatened and caused economic injury, the indictment says, as well as threatening and using physical violence \"ranging from simple assault to murder.\" The two murders Gotti is charged with are those of George Grosso, who died in December 1988 in Queens, and Bruce John Gotterup, slain in November 1991 in Queens. The indictment also accuses Gotti in connection with a third murder, that of Louis DiBono in October 1990 in the parking garage of the former World Trade Center, but does not allege that murder was drug-related. Although the murder charges carry a potential death sentence, prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty against Gotti. The trial will be the latest chapter in a long legal saga. In late 2006, a third mistrial was declared in a federal case against Gotti on charges including racketeering and extortion. Prosecutors said they would not retry Gotti, who was accused of ordering attacks on radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa after the Guardian Angels founder criticized Gotti's father on his program. Sliwa was shot three times but recovered and testified against the younger Gotti. At the time of Gotti's arrest in August 2008 on the latest charges, his attorney, Charles Carnesi, told reporters he \"was very disappointed to have to go through all this again.\" Carnesi continued, \"You can imagine the toll it took on him and his family to have to fight three times in the course of a year, to feel that, OK, perhaps it's over ... because the government itself came to the conclusion, no more. It's very disheartening for him to be back here again.\" Gotti's father, John Gotti Sr., was nicknamed the \"Teflon Don\" because prosecutors had trouble making charges against him stick. He died in prison of throat cancer in 2002.","highlights":"Junior Gotti, son of late \"Teflon Don,\" set to go on trial in federal court .\nGotti is accused of racketeering, participating in two drug murders .\nOriginal indictment was filed in Tampa, Florida; case moved to New York .\nGotti's lawyers say case is part of government effort to convict him at any cost .","id":"518ddc0c8e663859f7805bb0fc8207098b0ea386"} -{"article":"Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Police announced 15 new suspects in the January killing of a Hamas leader at a Dubai hotel, bringing to 26 the number of people suspected of involvement in his death. Authorities previously had released a list of 11 suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founding member of Hamas' military wing. Al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room January 20. Police believe he was killed the night before and suspect the Mossad, the secretive Israeli foreign intelligence unit, was behind his killing. Among the new suspects are six more people who allegedly used British passports in the commission of the crime, four others using Irish passports, two other French passport holders and three people, including a woman, traveling on Australian passports, police said in a statement Wednesday. The total number of suspects using British passports is now at 12, police said, along with six Irish passport holders and four French passport holders. Another suspect using a German passport was announced earlier this month. The three Australian passports are new. \"Friendly nations who have been assisting in this investigation have indicated to the police in Dubai that the passports were issued in an illegal and fraudulent manner, adding that the pictures on the travel documents did not correspond to the original owners,\" the police statement said. Dubai authorities have informed Australia of the possible use of the three Australian passports, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Thursday (Wednesday ET) in a statement to Parliament. The passports were issued in 2003 to Joshua Bruce, Adam Korman and Nicole McCabe, he said, adding that Australian officials have been cooperating with Dubai authorities. \"The Australian government is very gravely concerned that these Australian passports appear to have been used fraudulently,\" he said. Preliminary analysis shows that the passports \"appear to have been duplicated or altered,\" he said. \"At this stage, Australian officials have no information, no information to suggest that the three Australian passport holders were involved in any way, other than as victims of passport or identity fraud.\" He said he had told the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, that Australia expected Israeli authorities \"to cooperate fully and transparently with the Australian Federal Police investigation into this matter.\" The European Union earlier this week said it \"strongly condemns\" the use of false EU passports in connection with al-Mabhouh's slaying. Officials have said the passports are not fake or forged but were authentic passports meant for other people. While authorities have not said how he died, al-Mabhouh's family was told there were signs of electric shocks on his legs, behind his ears, on his genitals and over his heart. Blood on a pillow led police to believe he was suffocated, the family was told. The killers left some of al-Mabhouh's medicine next to his bed in an apparent effort to suggest his death was not suspicious, police said. Police said Wednesday they have traced the suspects' travel routes and their destinations before and after al-Mabhouh's death. \"The suspects gathered in Dubai and dispersed to various locations before pairing up again in different teams and heading off to other destinations,\" the statement said. The Australians, for instance, are believed to have departed Dubai in a boat for Iran. Police released a diagram showing the travel routes. The suspects are believed to have departed Dubai for places including Paris, Hong Kong and Rome following al-Mabhouh's death. In addition, police said in a statement that 14 of the suspects used credit cards issued by MetaBank, based in the U.S. state of Iowa, to book hotel rooms and pay for air travel. Payoneer, an online payment distribution service, issues the types of cards the suspects are said to have used through MetaBank. Someone \"loads\" the cards by paying Payoneer, which then contacts MetaBank to issue the card, according to Payoneer. \"We are aware of the news reports,\" Mary Kae Marinac, a spokeswoman for Payoneer, said Wednesday. \"We are cooperating with [MetaBank] and the authorities to explore the matter\" and identify the accounts. A spokeswoman for MetaBank confirmed the bank's relationship with Payoneer and said the company is investigating the allegations. Meanwhile, the new list of 15 suspects \"includes people who offered prior logistical support and preparations to facilitate the crime and others who played a central role,\" police said. \"Dubai police investigators are not ruling out the possibility of involvement of other people in the murder.\" The 26 do not include two Palestinians arrested in Jordan earlier and returned to the UAE. In an interview Wednesday, Khairi Aloridi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, called al-Mabhouh's death \"a major terrorist crime.\" The European Union is concerned the killers acquired passports and credit cards by swiping the identities of EU citizens, Baroness Catherine Ashton said Monday. She did not name Israel, although foreign ministers in countries whose passports were doctored called in Israeli ambassadors last week to discuss the issue. In Israel, as many as seven people whose names were on the travel documents said they have no knowledge of al-Mabhouh's death. The British Foreign Office said Wednesday it was planning to contact the British citizens named by Dubai authorities as suspects -- because the passports bear their names -- and \"we will be offering them counselor services. \"We continue our investigation into this matter and repeat that we expect full cooperation from Israel in relation to this matter,\" the office said in a statement. Dubai's police chief said Thursday he was \"99 percent\" certain that the Mossad, the secretive Israeli foreign intelligence unit, is behind al-Mabhouh's slaying. Hamas has called al-Mabhouh's death an \"assassination.\" Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, meanwhile, has said there is nothing more than \"media reports\" linking Israel to al-Mabhouh's death. Asked if he believed the Mossad was responsible, Aloridi said Wednesday, \"All the evidence and the clues point to an Israeli involvement.\" In a report from the information office of the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said he believes Israel was behind the killing and called for \"the Zionist war criminals\" to be held accountable. CNN's Paula Hancocks, Caroline Faraj, Saad Abedine and Hugh Williams contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Australian officials cooperate with Dubai authorities over passports .\nNEW: Police say MetaBank issued credit cards to suspects; company says it's investigating .\nNEW: Senior Hamas leader reported to say he believes Israel is behind killing .\nDubai police name 15 new suspects in murder of Hamas official .","id":"ba97d662b60324508d96e9be6f2c35df0205622f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya will not be reinstated as head of state, an overwhelming majority of the Honduran congress voted Wednesday. In an hours-long process, 111 lawmakers voted in favor of a motion not to return Zelaya to office. A majority of 65 votes in the 128-member body was required to reject his reinstatement. Zelaya was removed from office in a military-led coup on June 28 and replaced by congressional leader Roberto Micheletti. On Wednesday, lawmakers voted one by one and addressed the chamber as they cast their vote, making for a slow process. The vote was a key part of a U.S.-brokered pact that representatives for Zelaya and Micheletti signed October 29, giving Congress the power to decide Zelaya's fate. The United States expressed disappointment Thursday over the latest rebuff to its diplomatic efforts to end the political crisis in Honduras. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela continued to call on the Honduran government to allow Zelaya's return and to create a unity government in the interim period before the new president takes office next month. \"We are disappointed by this decision since the United States had hoped the [Honduran] Congress would have approved his return,\" Valenzuela said in a conference call with journalists in Washington. \"Our policy since June 28 has been consistently principled. It has condemned the coup d'etat and continued to accept President Zelaya as the democratically elected and legitimate leader of Honduras throughout this political crisis.\" The United States continues to call for Honduras to engage in national reconciliation and creation of a truth commission to investigate the crisis, in addition to the unity government. \"The absence of democratic, constitutional order is the unacceptable status quo,\" a senior U.S. administration official said on the conference call, remaining anonymous under the ground rules of the call and because of the sensitivity of the situation. \"The election is a step toward a day where Honduras will have an electorally legitimate government in place.\" Zelaya, who says he does not recognize the election, also has said he would not accept the post even if Congress voted him back in. Accepting the job, he said, would legitimize the coup. Many nations said before the Sunday's election they would withhold recognition if Zelaya were not returned to power. Some countries, such as the United States, Colombia and Costa Rica, have said they will recognize Lobo. Others, such as Argentina, Brazil and Spain, have said they will not. Despite the diplomatic pressure from abroad, lawmakers were voting the will of the people, Congressman Juan Angel Rivera Tabora said. \"History will judge us, and I'm certain it will judge us positively,\" he said. \"Congress didn't make this problem. The problem came to us.\" Those voting against Zelaya echoed those sentiments. After the coup, the same body voted to install Micheletti as interim president. Wednesday vote only happened because the agreement between the two sides called for it, many lawmakers repeated. Zelaya's supporters argued that the coup was an illegal act that only restitution could heal. Congress sought opinions from the nation's Supreme Court and other bodies before holding the vote. The court ruled last week that Zelaya cannot return to office without facing trial on charges that he acted unconstitutionally when he tried to hold a vote that could have led to the removal of presidential term limits. The Supreme Court ruled before the coup that the vote was illegal and Congress had forbidden it. The coup came on the day the term-limits vote was to have been held. Micheletti and his supporters have insisted that Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power, not a coup. But the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the European Union and most nations -- including the United States -- condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated immediately. He wasn't. Zelaya, who was flown out of the country while still in his pajamas on the day of the coup, has been staying at the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras' capital since secretly returning to the country September 21.","highlights":"111 of 128 lawmakers vote against reinstating ousted leader Jose Manuel Zelaya .\nVote part of U.S.-brokered pact between Zelaya, de facto President Roberto Micheletti .\nZelaya was removed as president in June 28 military-backed coup .\nHondurans elected a new president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, on Sunday .","id":"da43802980224e5d7dde5058146a8824ed630950"} -{"article":"SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNN) -- You've got your spot on a lounge chair angled into the hot Caribbean sun, with tall, slender palm trees jutting out over your head. As you gaze at the calm turquoise waters and sip that refreshing rum drink, you may ask yourself, \"What more could I possibly want?\" Visitors can climb the tower at Fortaleza Ozama for a view over the rooftops and out to sea. For many travelers to the Dominican Republic, that chair -- usually secluded inside a mega all-inclusive resort complex -- is the sole destination. And don't get me wrong, it's a great one. The Dominican Republic's stretches of sand are some of the best on the planet. But if you never leave the high walls of your tourist compound, you're missing out on a gem of a capital city. Santo Domingo is the New World's first city, with 16th-century buildings, quaint colonial streets, romantic ruins and a lively atmosphere. All you need is a full day to experience the city's architecture, culture and food. Plus, it's only a $9 coach bus ride from Punta Cana. So when you begin to tire of the antics of the \"animation team\" at the resort, and the color of your skin starts to resemble the papaya or watermelon you're eating, consider a short trip to Santo Domingo. Founded soon after Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World, and run by his son Diego, the city became the colonial capital of the Americas and launch pad for further Spanish expeditions. Despite several raids by pirates, the oldest section of town remains largely intact. Known as the Zona Colonial, it contains many European \"firsts\" in the Western Hemisphere including the first street, cathedral, hospital and university. How to see it all in a day . Start at the heart of the zone, Parque Col\u00f3n, a square that borders the cathedral and is always full of life. You can sit and watch children chase pigeons as you gaze up at the simple beauty of the oldest cathedral in the Americas. Next, head over to the oldest fortress in the New World, Fortaleza Ozama, built in the early 1500s. There you can climb the tower for a view over the rooftops and out to sea. Back on street level, walk up a couple blocks to the expansive Plaza Espa\u00f1a, site of two museums and a hangout for locals, especially in the evening, when kids crisscross the square on scooters or fly kites, and couples sit quietly together. The Museo de las Casas Reales and the Alc\u00e1zar de Col\u00f3n -- Diego Columbus' palace -- show you how the wealthy Spanish lived when they came to the early colonies and provide some history of the island's colonization -- all for a buck or two. Next, head over to a pair of impressive ruins. Gaze up at the towering walls and arches of the Americas' first hospital, Hospital de San Nicol\u00e1s de Bari. Then, just up a picturesque bend in the road lined with colorful houses, you'll find the large ruins of Monasterio de San Francisco. Pirate attacks and earthquakes brought down the monastery. The hospital was merely abandoned in the 18th century, and later dismantled for safety. Now let yourself wander a bit through the streets, checking out the colorful surprises around every colonial corner. You'll discover the varied architecture of people's homes, and get a view into Dominican city life. In just a few blocks, I ran across a pickup game of baseball, the national sport and passion, in the middle of the street, with adults using just a broom handle and roll of tape; several \"kiddie\" pools in the streets, where both children and adults were cooling off in the afternoon heat; and a handful of corner parks alive with activity. After exploring, your final destination is the zone's main drag, Calle El Conde. This pedestrian-only street is the place to shop. You'll find street sellers hawking colorful artwork; music stores to pick up that merengue and bachata music you've heard blaring out of everyone's stereos; and jewelry shops featuring native amber and the sky-blue stone larimar found only in the Dominican Republic. By now, you've certainly worked up an appetite walking in the hot sun. Parque Col\u00f3n and Plaza Espa\u00f1a each have a row of chic sidewalk caf\u00e9s, although they're a bit pricey and touristy. Consider wandering a bit through some side streets to find a more local establishment, where you can feast on typical cuisine such as la bandera dominicana (a red beans and rice dish), several stews, fried plantains or yucca and delicious tropical fruits. And if you still feel like dancing the night away, hop in a taxi to the Malec\u00f3n, Santo Domingo's seafront boulevard, where the large hotels have popular dance clubs pumping merengue until the wee hours of the morning. The bus ride . Getting to the capital city from the beach areas is cheap and relatively easy. Expreso B\u00e1varo runs from the Punta Cana area for $9 in an air-conditioned and comfy coach bus. On your four-hour ride, you'll get a glimpse of some smaller Dominican towns, a towering modern cathedral, distant mountains and vast sugarcane fields. Metro and Caribe Tours provide similar services from the beaches on the north coast around Puerto Plata. The buses to\/from Punta Cana don't run long into the evening (they leave each side at 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.), so you'll want to make this an overnight trip. The Zona Colonial has several boutique hotels that are quaint, clean and reasonably priced. You could even arrange to fly out of Santo Domingo's Las Americas airport, rather than Punta Cana.","highlights":"Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's capital, was the New World's first city .\nExplore 16th-century buildings, colonial streets, romantic ruins and Dominican city life .\nCheap, comfortable buses connect to the city from beach areas .","id":"bbadb497f7525ef59b40ed9a88c87bb69d3223c6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's just one thing after another for Richard and Mayumi Heene. They've caused such an uproar after last week's alleged balloon boy hoax that Lifetime won't air a re-run of their \"Wife Swap\" episode. The Heene family's \"Wife Swap\" episode has been pulled from Lifetime's programming schedule. Those who pay close attention to TV Guide would have noticed that the Heene family's first episode for the ABC reality show was scheduled to air on Lifetime on Thursday, October 29, at 2 p.m. ET. \"It was on the schedule long before the incident,\" a Lifetime spokesperson said. The incident refers to the giant, homemade balloon that sailed over Colorado on Thursday, purportedly carrying 6-year-old Falcon Heene. The bubble burst when authorities discovered Falcon had been hiding in a box in the attic. During an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, the Heene's asked Falcon why he didn't come out as they searched for him, and the boy replied, \"You guys said we did it for a show.\" That triggered an investigation that revealed the frightful incident was a hoax, police said. Richard and Mayumi Heene are now facing a number of local charges, and the Federal Aviation Administration has begun its own balloon boy investigation, officials said. As a result, Lifetime has decided to erase the family's \"Wife Swap\" past from the network. \"Once we found out\" [it was allegedly a hoax], the spokesperson said, \"we decided to pull it off the air. At this time, we don't have any plans to air it in the near future.\" The episode depicted Karen Martel, whose husband runs a child-proofing business, as being shocked \"as the Heene kids jump off banisters and run wild, and appalled by Richard's attitude to women,\" according to the description on ABC's Web site. \"Wife Swap\" asks its participants to switch places for two weeks. \"Meanwhile, at the Martels',\" the description continued, \"Mayumi Heene sees safety gates everywhere and wonders how the family [has] fun. She asks the kids about their anxieties and confronts Jay about the climate of fear in his house.\" Lifetime plans on filling the time slot with a \"Wife Swap\" episode that features another family, but rest assured, the Heene's reality TV debut can still be found on YouTube.","highlights":"Lifetime had scheduled a Heene \"Wife Swap\" episode for October 29 .\nIt was scheduled long before the balloon boy incident, a spokesperson says .\nNow that hoax allegations have surfaced, network removes the episode .","id":"d30e8d7275a337f2a8355bcac18e1110e590a3f8"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- A leading Muslim-American group lashed out at the federal government Friday for moving to seize assets -- including four mosques -- that belong to a foundation and a corporation believed linked to Iran. \"The American Muslim and faith communities must not allow houses of worship to become pawns in geopolitical struggles,\" said Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation. \"The tension between the United States and Iran must not be played out in the mosques of America.\" Federal prosecutors say their actions against assets belonging to the Alavi Foundation and the Assa Corp., which also include a Manhattan skyscraper, are not an effort to target mosques. \"There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants,\" said Yusill Scribner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in a written statement Thursday. \"The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they have before today's filing.\" A senior Justice Department official told reporters that the government is moving against the Iranian landlords of the buildings, not seizing mosques as religious-oriented facilities. The mosques -- in New York, Maryland, California and Texas -- just happen to be among the tenants of the buildings in question, the official said. But the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation called the actions an \"unprecedented encroachment of religious freedom.\" The group said \"it is an abiding concern among the American Muslim community that this action is just the beginning of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting tragedy.\" A Muslim-American soldier is accused in a Fort Hood, Texas, shooting spree that left 13 people dead and dozens injured. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, another leading Muslim-American group, issued a statement Thursday saying the government's actions may have First Amendment implications. \"Whatever the details of the government's case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide,\" said Ibrahim Hooper, the national communications director for the council. The controversy erupted after prosecutors in New York filed an amended civil complaint seeking forfeiture of all assets of the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corp. They include properties owned by the foundation in several states. A 36-story office tower in midtown Manhattan is owned by the 650 Fifth Avenue Company, a partnership between Alavi and Assa, the Justice Department said. The complaint alleges that the Alavi Foundation provided services to the Iranian government and transferred money from 650 Fifth Avenue Company to Bank Melli, Iran's largest state-owned financial entity. U.S. and European Union officials last year designated Bank Melli as a proliferator for supporting Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and funneling money to the Revolutionary Guard and Quds Force, considered terrorist groups by the United States. Bank Melli issued a statement last year denying involvement in deceptive banking practices. Prosecutors allege the properties at issue were \"involved in and [were] the proceeds of money laundering offenses,\" and that the owners violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, executive orders and U.S. Department of Treasury regulations. \"As today's complaint alleges in great detail, the Alavi Foundation has effectively been a front for the government of Iran,\" Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said on Thursday. \"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws. The Alavi Foundation's former president remains under investigation for alleged obstruction of justice, and both the criminal and civil investigations are ongoing.\" John Winter, a New York lawyer representing the Alavi Foundation, said his client would challenge the complaint. \"We're obviously disappointed that the government brought this action because we have been cooperating with the government since this investigation began about a year ago and we intend to litigate this matter,\" he said. \"It may take some time, but at the end of this litigation, we're of the mind that we're going to prevail here.\" The buildings remained open and were continuing to operate as usual. When a CNN reporter arrived at one of the seized mosques -- in Queens, a New York City borough -- he found it to be operating normally. There was a copy of the federal complaint taped to the front door of the building, but the doors were open and people were coming and going. Calls to the Iranian Mission for comment were not immediately returned. A report Friday on the Web site of Iran's state-run Press TV did not contain any responses from Iranian officials. CNN's Terry Frieden, Brian Todd, Deb Feyerick, Eddie DeMarche and Ross Levitt contributed to this story.","highlights":"Group says houses of worship should not be \"pawns in geopolitical struggles\"\nAlavi Foundation, Assa Corp. accused of transferring money to Iran .\nGovernment seizing assets of Alavi, including four mosques .\nU.S. Attorney: \"Alavi Foundation has effectively been a front for the government of Iran\"","id":"690b6a6a5566d4b631f6fadcfee80b35b8099f17"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Paksitan (CNN) -- At least 41 people were killed and dozens wounded in a blast Monday at a security forces checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, authorities said. A girl places flowers at a shrine to army soldiers killed by militants who stormed Pakistan's army HQ. About 45 people were injured in the explosion in the Shangla district in the volatile Swat Valley, said Syed Altaf Hussein, a senior government official in the area. The explosion targeted a military vehicle, officials said. The blast is the latest in a string of attacks in the country. On Saturday, militants attacked the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, killing 11 military personnel and three civilians, according to the Pakistani military's press office. Nine militants died in the attack. A total of 39 hostages were freed Sunday morning after being held by five militants at the army headquarters. In a news conference Monday, the top spokesman for the Pakistani military said Saturday's attack was planned by the Taliban based in South Waziristan. Gen. Athar Abbas said intelligence agents intercepted a phone call in which Pakistani Taliban commander Wali-ur Rehman was informed about the start of the attack. Rehman responded by calling for a prayer for the operation to succeed, Abbas said. Abbas said the leader of the operation, who was captured alive, is from Pakistan's Punjab province. Four other militants were from Punjab as well. Five others were from South Waziristan. During the standoff, two of the militants held 22 hostages in a small room, Abbas said. One of the militants wore a suicide vest connected to a mine and a bomb. He sat in the middle of the 22 hostages. Abbas said this room was the focus of the operation and security forces were successful in storming the room and killing the militant with the suicide vest before he could detonate his bombs. Military officials said they have tightened security around army headquarters. The attacks will not deter Pakistan from launching an offensive in South Waziristan, the Interior Ministry said. South Waziristan is one of seven districts in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border. Intelligence analysts consider it a haven for Islamic militants who have launched attacks in Pakistan and targeted U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan. A date for the offensive in the area has not been announced. The Shangla district east of Mingora is one of the areas where the military conducted search-and-destroy operations earlier this year. Troops targeted terrorist hideouts and reported the arrest of one militant leader and the death of another. Mingora is the largest city in the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani military is battling Taliban militants for control. CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report.","highlights":"41 killed in blast at security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan .\nExplosion occurs in the Shangla district in the volatile Swat Valley .\nIntercepted phone call tipped officials to Saturday's attack, general says .\nSwat Valley has been scene of clashes with Taliban militants .","id":"729ed6223642aef79524e44bbdb44d092cd5051b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Murder and rape charges will be filed against a North Carolina man in the death of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, police said Thursday. Mario Andrette McNeill had already been charged with kidnapping the Fayetteville, North Carolina, girl. She was reported missing last week, and her body was found Monday beside a road near Sanford, about 30 miles northwest of Fayetteville. Preliminary autopsy results indicate the child was asphyxiated, Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine told reporters Thursday, but testing is still being completed and a final report has not been issued. McNeill will be charged with first-degree murder and rape of a child, Bergamine said. The new arrest warrants were being served Thursday night. The girl's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and other offenses. Police have said they believe Davis was prostituting the child. According to police, surveillance video taken November 10 from a hotel in Sanford, North Carolina, shows Shaniya in the company of McNeill. Authorities had said Wednesday they would need to determine where Shaniya was killed before filing additional charges. Fayetteville is in Cumberland County, while Sanford is in Lee County. Bergamine said Thursday jurisdiction in the case would remain in Cumberland County. \"We started it from the beginning and wanted to finish it out,\" he said. Police still are not sure exactly where Shaniya was killed, Bergamine said. Police earlier had said they believe the child was alive when she left the hotel. \"Current charges on Ms. Davis are standing as they are right now,\" Bergamine said. But he told reporters the investigation was ongoing. He and other officers spoke about the emotional toll the investigation has taken on them. Grief counseling has been under way for officers at the department, he said. \"It's been a tough case,\" said Fayetteville Police Capt. Charles Kimball, the toughest in his 14 years, he said. \"Our mission was to find Shaniya and we did it.\" \"This case here has reached out and touched all of us,\" Bergamine said. Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, made a tearful appeal before reporters Tuesday afternoon, asking that \"everybody makes it a point not to ignore, to look past a situation where a person, a child, or anybody might be in danger ... so that we don't have another tragedy like Shaniya.\" The girl went to her mother's last month, he said. CNN's Gabriel Falcon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mario Andrette McNeill will be charged with murder, rape, police say .\nShaniya Davis' mother also has been charged in North Carolina case .\nThe girl's body was found about 30 miles from where she was reported missing .","id":"bede26f4152244cc4a60c9e5df0591556fe8f67a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- At least 51 people have died and at least 21 others are missing after torrential rains and subsequent flooding pummeled the Philippines on Saturday, the government said. Filipino pedestrians in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila, brave Tropical Storm Ketsana's floodwaters. Tropical Storm Ketsana spawned the flooding, which caused at least six of the deaths in Manila, the nation's capital. Manila and the nearby province of Rizal bore the brunt of the downpour, said Gilberto Teodoro, secretary of national defense and chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council. Two of the dead in the capital city were victims of a wall that collapsed, he said. Five thousand people were rescued without boats, and another 3,688 were rescued with boats, he said. Another governmental official reported four injuries. \"My neighborhood rarely gets a bad flooding and I guess this is the worst,\" said CNN iReporter Jv Abellar from Quezon City, Philippines. \"Traversing through the flood is like walking through rapids.\" In all, 41,205 people had sought refuge in 92 evacuation centers, Teodoro said. By 8:30 a.m. Sunday (8:30 p.m. Saturday ET), the torrential rains ended and slight rainfall was reported. Some roads in the capital metropolitan area had reopened, but \"we do not encourage people to travel these roads,\" Teodoro told CNN in a telephone interview. \"They can be a hindrance to efficient relief and rescue operations.\" The federal government began massive relief efforts to aid the local governments, and set up aid centers addressing pressing problems such as sanitation and water purification. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered pay parking lots at malls in Manila to be opened so motorists can leave their cars there without charge, Teodoro said. iReport.com: Share images of Philippines flooding . Manila's Nino Aquino International Airport and nearly all of the country's other international airports had reopened, he said. Though the Philippines is no stranger to floods, Saturday's downpours approached a record, with 341 mm (13.4 inches) falling between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., he said. The average rainfall for the entire month of September is 391 mm (15.4 inches), he said.","highlights":"NEW: .\nMore than 50 are dead in Philippines in flooding from Tropical Storm Ketsana .\n5,000 rescued without boats, another 3,688 rescued with boats, official says .\nIn all, 41,205 people sought refuge in 92 evacuation centers, official says .","id":"b6cdedc2ed9f81b26474cec4df5b733727972778"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Bad weather, poor planning, a lack of safety equipment. Any one could put a boater in the kind of peril that befell two NFL players and their two friends off the coast of Florida last weekend, Coast Guard officials say. Ex-college football player Nick Schuyler clings to an overturned boat Monday in this Coast Guard photo. And such incidents happen all too often. The capsizing of the 21-foot fishing boat carrying the four men to a favorite fishing spot in the Gulf of Mexico was the latest of 200 such incidents reported to the U.S. Coast Guard in the past five months. \"The oceans are an unforgiving environment,\" said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil. \"Weather can be unpredictable. Any time you are in an open environment, you are taking a certain amount of risk.\" That risk includes being lost at sea like Victor \"Marquis\" Cooper, an Oakland Raiders linebacker; Corey Smith, a Detroit Lions free-agent defensive end; and their friend William Bleakly. The fourth member of the group, Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player, was found around noon Monday clinging to the upturned boat in rough seas about 35 miles west of Clearwater, Florida. The four men had left for a fishing trip from Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater Pass on Saturday. The U.S. Coast Guard is unable to provide specific numbers of how many people go missing from boating accidents like this past weekend's, but officials say that since last fall there have been three people who have not been found after triggering Coast Guard searches. Those incidents can range from an unaccounted swimmer to a passenger gone missing after a boat sinks, said O'Neil, at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington D.C. Capsizing is one of the leading boating accidents, according to the Coast Guard's most recent report on recreational boating in 2007. Officials report there were 398 accidents from capsizing, causing 204 deaths and 284 injuries in 2007. Capsized boats cost nearly $1.8 million a year in property damages, officials say. Collision with vessels or fixed objects and falling overboard are other major boating accidents. Last weekend, Florida state officials recovered the bodies of a 48-year-old man and his 7-year-old granddaughter after their 15-foot bass tipped over in Lake Okeechobee, according to CNN affiliate WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida. \"The steering cable broke and the boat went out of control,\" family member Isabelo Santiago Jr. told WPTV. To remain safe on any body of water, Coast Guard officials stress having the proper safety equipment and being wary of changes in the weather. The NFL players' boat capsized off Florida in waves up to 10 feet high while being buffeted by winds up to 45 miles per hour, Coast Guard officials said. They reported 110 cases since this fall where a boat has been beset by weather. Boaters should wear a life jacket at all times, officials say, because an accident can occur so quickly that passengers may not have time to put their life jackets on. A life jacket that is bright or has deflecting tape to help catch the eyes of rescuers is recommended. Boaters should also keep a bag with flotation and communication devices, officials said. The Coast Guard encourages boaters to purchase Emergency Position Indicating Radiobeacons (EPIRBs) that can cost between $200 to $1,500. This technology enables emergency signals to be sent out automatically or manually when a boat sinks. Some EPIRBs have global positioning devices that can help provide the rescuers with a more exact location. After a boat capsizes, passengers should always stay near the vessel to make it easier for rescuers to find them, especially in waves and high winds. Whitecaps on waves can also confuse Coast Guard searches. Schuyler, who was rescued on Monday, was easier to find because he was near the boat, Coast Guard officials say. Wayne Cathel says he and six of his friends were in a similar situation in 1993 when their boat capsized during a spear fishing trip in John's Pass in South Florida, according to CNN affiliate Bay News 9 in St. Petersburg. The group was stranded for 18 hours before being rescued by a helicopter. \"We all had to cling on to the hull of the boat for the whole time until we were finally rescued,\" Cathel said. \"You never leave the largest object in the water,\" he said. \"I mean that's what you stick with.\" Sticking with the overturned vessel also helps the Coast Guard use advanced computer technology to find it, officials said. Called SAROPS, or Search and Rescue Optimal Planning Systems, the program takes into account external conditions such as weather, ocean patterns and information available about the case such as which dock the boaters departed from to map locations in the ocean where officers can search. The program, which has been used by the Coast Guard's Seventh District for nearly two years, helps officers narrow down the location, especially critical during the beginning of a search, said Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson of the Seventh District. For the program to work best, Coast Guard officials say, boaters need to be sure to tell people where are they leaving from and their final destination. Even with the technology, a sea rescue is no easy feat, Johnson said.\"It's very difficult to locate someone.... It's like trying to find a basketball in the ocean.\"","highlights":"Officials report capsized boats caused 204 deaths and 284 injuries in 2007 .\nCoast Guard recommends boaters carry beacons and emergency devices .\nTwo NFL players and another boater remain missing; one boater was found Monday .\n\"It's like trying to find a basketball in the ocean,\" says Coast Guard official .","id":"e571df4a56105d30157356b99c7a47da27f6f33a"} -{"article":"(Wired) -- The early hours of \"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2\" take gamers around the world and back again, but the new game's story hits close to home. Military scenarios, violent police actions and straight-from-the-big-screen massive firefights take place in such far-flung locales as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Brazil. But things don't really get interesting until the action moves to Russia and the player is embedded in a squad of terrorists. And then, inevitably, the fight comes to U.S. shores. \"Modern Warfare 2,\" a first-person shooter released Tuesday for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, is a greatly immersive experience that embeds players in the battlefield. Limited edition of Xbox 360 . There's no place in the world where a skirmish can't go down, from airport security lines to the neighborhood burger joint to your own backyard. It's an unsettling notion and one sure to inspire plenty of parental hand-wringing, particularly for those who buy their kids the live-the-action box set that includes a pair of night-vision goggles. Night-vision goggles experience . (Spoiler alert: The moments I'm about to relate describe the plot of \"Modern Warfare 2\" -- not where the game finally goes, but the early incidents that establish the conflict and tension of the game. Some readers may consider these to be spoilers.) Russia is where the already-controversial \"No Russian\" scene goes down. As Army Ranger Pvt. Allen, players go undercover with Vladimir Makarov -- an underling of the villain from \"Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.\" Along with Makarov and other terrorists, the player finds themselves in the midst of a terrible situation. The fully armed Makarov and crew waltz into a Russian airport and open fire on civilians standing in a security line. As Allen, the player can take part in the bloodshed or simply walk alongside the cold-blooded killers as they execute hundreds of innocents. Either way, the scene is powerful. It's also the oldest trick in the book: The quickest way to turn audiences against your villain is to show them doing dirty deeds, and Makarov's murderous spree is a doozy. Allen doesn't walk away from the bloodbath. Once outside the terminal, players must fend off waves of incoming SWAT teams. If there's any kind of karmic debt that Allen owes for his role in the slayings, the guy pays it: At the end of the tarmac firefight, Makarov puts a bullet in Allen. He knew all along that the Ranger was a rat. Allen's body at the scene of the tragedy triggers Russian outrage and, eventually, a \"Red Dawn\"-style invasion of the United States. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2009 Wired.com.","highlights":"Military scenarios, violent police actions, firefights play out in 'Modern Warfare 2'\nLocales in game include Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Brazil and Russia .\nThe player in 'Modern Warfare 2' is embedded in a squad of terrorists .\nIn the game, fighting comes to shores of United States .","id":"f09633dc7af20b1f6da3deac4c72873d9aec21e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- They say that breaking up is hard to do, especially when millions of eyes are there to witness every caustic comment and verbal volley. Kate and Jon Gosselin are going through a very public and contentious divorce. No one knows that better than Jon and Kate Gosselin, whose divorce is playing out on a world stage, complete with tabloid covers, he-said-she-said television appearances and court orders. Such public spats can do a great deal of harm, said divorce attorney Randall M. Kessler, who's handled several celebrity cases. \"I just gave a presentation where I said, 'When can press hurt you? It's when clients start talking,'\" Kessler said. \"The hard thing for [famous people] to do is to not speak out, because they are so used to everything they say being quoted and helping them, but this is the opposite. Talking about a divorce is never good.\" The Gosselins join a growing list of celebrities whose marital woes have been well-documented by the media and paparazzi. See a gallery of celebrity custody battles \u00bb . Kessler has represented quite a few clients involved in celebrity divorce cases, including Tameka Foster Raymond (who is in the midst of a divorce with superstar singer Usher) and rapper Mack 10 (ex-husband of TLC member Tionne \"T-Boz\" Watkins), as well as some high-profile paternity and child support lawsuits. Celebrities often want to protect their reputations and the wrong sound bite can ruin that, Kessler said. Yet, at the same time, it can be difficult for the famous to take direction, he said. \"They are so used to being in charge of their own destiny and being able to decide what's best for them that it's very hard for them to listen to attorneys, accountants or anyone that is trying to advise them,\" Kessler said. Viewers have questioned who, if anyone, Jon and Kate Gosselin are taking cues from in their very public marital battle. In May, Kate defended her husband against rumors that he had been cheating on her and stepping out while she stayed home with their twins and sextuplets. Weeks later they used their enormously popular TLC reality show, \"Jon & Kate Plus 8\", to admit what fans had begun to suspect: Their marriage was on the rocks. Soon they announced that they were divorcing, but would continue filming -- albeit separately -- their series, which for four seasons had chronicled the highs and lows of their family life. It all appeared to be relatively civil until Jon began stepping out with his new girlfriend, moved to a bachelor pad in New York and appeared to be living the high life with shopping sprees and designer duds. Jon took to the airwaves to reveal that he \"despised Kate.\" Kate lamented that she missed \"the Jon I knew.\" TLC announced in October that the reality show would continue as \"Kate Plus 8\" and Jon immediately called a halt to filming, claiming the series was doing damage to their children. Within days, Kate accused Jon of making off with more than $200,000 from their joint bank account. A judge ordered him to return $180,000 to the account. Watch a discussion about the Gosselin's money madness \u00bb . Through it all, both have maintained they each have the best interests of their children at heart. Child psychologist Joanne Pedro-Carroll said the Gosselins are in a precarious position. \"It's very concerning, especially given how public this is and the children's young ages, which makes them especially vulnerable,\" Pedro-Carroll said. \"One of the things we know with really young children is that they are prone to misconceptions about the reasons for the breakup.\" While Jon and Kate haven't so far added a bitter custody dispute to their matrimonial melee, Pedro-Carroll said she worries about the long-term effect on the young Gosselins. \"Sadly, the things that are happening now, with all of this conflict and having it be so public, puts these children very much at risk for having problems,\" said Pedro-Carroll, author of the forthcoming book \"Putting Children First: Proven Parenting Strategies for Helping Children Thrive After Divorce.\" \"I worry about the children being pulled into loyalty conflicts, thinking about who the good person here is and who's the bad person, when children very much need two loving, responsible parents in their lives.\" Kessler said he advises his celebrity clients to, when possible, keep the children out of the media and receive training in cooperative parenting. Lisa Pecot-Hebert, an assistant professor at the College of Communication at DePaul University, said she believes many viewers can relate to the Gosselins' divorce drama. Fans can also view the family's situation as a cautionary tale, she said. \"I think viewers can learn that sometimes when people let cameras into their personal lives for our entertainment, oftentimes it ruins what was theirs to begin with,\" Pecot-Hebert said.","highlights":"Jon and Kate Gosselin's divorce is playing out before the public .\nThey join a growing list of celebs whose marital woes have been documented .\nCelebrity lawyer says it is sometimes hard for stars to listen to advisers .\nProfessor: Gosselins can be a cautionary tale for viewers .","id":"a55ee44d208448dc3cbeec9f4485e437349ad2e8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Seth Meyers will remain the lone talking head on the \"Saturday Night Live\" Weekend Update desk, at least in the near future, according to the comedian. Seth Meyers is thankful that politicians \"did not stop being crazy\" after the 2008 elections. \"It looks like for right now, we're going to stick with doing it solo,\" Meyers said Monday in New York as he was getting ready for the show's 35th season premiere on September 26. Meyers, SNL's head writer, hosted the popular sketch alone after Amy Poehler left the show last season. Last week, several online sites were reporting that featured player Kristen Wiig was set to become Meyers' partner on the show's longest-running recurring segment. \"I'm so heartbroken that the Internet, for the first time, was wrong about something,\" Meyers joked. \"How are we ever going to trust the Internet again?\" Meyers called Wiig \"almost too valuable,\" saying making her a full-time co-anchor would mean she could never play guest characters during the segment. Poehler reportedly will join Meyers for some segments of \"Weekend Update Thursday,\" a 30-minute, prime-time version of the skit that debuted during the 2008 presidential election and that the network hopes will have similar success during the upcoming season. \"I owe a big thanks to politicians,\" said Meyers. \"They did not stop being crazy and disingenuous after the election. So we have that going for us.\" Poehler won't be the only cast member from last year missing on the September 26 premiere, hosted by actress Megan Fox with musical guest U2. Fans were surprised last week about news that regulars Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson had been sacked. Both said they were surprised that their contracts were not renewed. \"I think that the two who are leaving are going to be incredibly successful wherever they go,\" Meyers said, declining to elaborate on his thoughts about the decision by creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels. In their places will be Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad, both veterans of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. \"They came and auditioned and were outstanding,\" Meyers said. \"We looked at them a couple of times this summer. I think they're both great writers as well as performers.\" While change can be unsettling, Meyers said turnover among the \"SNL\" cast helps keep its humor fresh. \"It's always nice to have new people,\" he said. \"They'll give new looks at things and see things in new ways. Any time you get new voices in, that tends to help.\"","highlights":"\"SNL\" is \"doing it solo\" on Weekend Update, Seth Meyers says .\nInternet was wrong about Kristen Wiig rumor, according to Meyers .\nSNL's Watkins, Wilson to be replaced by Upright Citizens Brigade members .\n35th season premieres September 26, with Megan Fox and U2 .","id":"5f51a733de111b6810c562deda15c3c5c3a29be9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Varsha Vinod's exceptional abilities are hard to spot at first. She's an adorably cute 5-year-old girl from southern India, small, pretty with big brown eyes. To gain her black belt, Varsha had to learn up to 15 karate moves. When we meet for our interview, her hair is tied up in two pigtails, with bright hair clips and a glittering headband. She is as shy as most kids her age would be when confronted by a strange man and a television crew. Some child stars can be precocious but Varsha doesn't act like one. In fact, it would have been impossible to imagine her as a karate black belt if it wasn't for her white martial arts outfit and her actual black belt. Like many young girls she would love to be a dancer and she smiles when I tell her that we are doing the interview in a dance studio. It's got varnished wooden floors and ceiling-high mirrors. The venue was chosen because it looks a bit like a dojo, or martial arts school. I'm not sure Varsha understands what a dance studio is and it's hard to discover her thoughts on many things. She only speaks a few words of English and, even when we use an interpreter, she has to be prompted by her father before whispering short, quiet responses to my questions. At first I was concerned her dad was feeding her the answers rather than helping her say what she really thinks. However, it soon becomes clear that this is a healthy father-daughter relationship instead of a case of \"pushy parents.\" Vishwas Vinod can be stern with his daughter but she clearly worships him, hanging on his every word and happy to follow his instructions. When the pair practice karate together their movements are surprisingly well synchronized despite the huge difference in size. Varsha's father is her inspiration. He was India's karate champion for four successive years from 1999 to 2002. His daughter started watching him teach the sport and, at the age of 2, she asked to try. Vinod insists it was Varsha's idea not his. Initially, he only gave her some small training and stretching exercises but Dad soon realized that his daughter possessed what he describes as a God-given talent. Vinod says what Varsha has done in 3\u00bd years takes most people eight years to learn. To gain her black belt, Varsha had to learn up to 15 katas. A kata is a sequence of complicated karate moves. Varsha can punch, kick and wield different weapons: the Chinese stick, which is almost as big as she is, and a nunchaku, two short sticks connected by a metal chain. There is no doubt that Varsha's abilities are impressive. You only have to enter the phrase \"nunchaku accidents\" into YouTube to see how easily things can go wrong. However, she is no freak of nature. Her karate is a feat of memory and technique more than agility and power. To be frank, she couldn't beat me up -- although I was obviously far too proud to find out by taking her on in a sparring session. Varsha trains for at least two hours every day but says she still has time for other games. As well as her dancing, she likes to play football and badminton. She tells me that her friends have all started taking up karate after seeing how good she has become. Unlike her friends, Varsha's gift has given her the chance to see London. She was invited to England by a PR company to promote a new video game. Her trip appears to have been handled carefully, with as much time set aside for sightseeing as media work. The day after we filmed with Varsha she was due to go on the London Eye and was very excited about it. Varsha says she would like to continue her karate in the years ahead. She is a black belt first dan, or grade, and there are 10 grades in total. She is already a mini master but if she makes it to second dan she can start teaching -- just like her father.","highlights":"She's an adorably cute 5-year-old girl from southern India, small and pretty .\nShe is as shy as most kids her own age especially when being interviewed .\nTo gain her black belt, Varsha had to learn up to 15 katas .\nVarsha trains for at least two hours every day but has time for other games .","id":"ad61eb84269497ea2e8d9e6f3b1a504d9bf82d7f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A multiagency search is under way for the killers of two U.S. citizens in northern Mexico, according to Chihuahua state officials. A girl stands at the coffin of Mormon church leader Benjamin LeBaron in Chihuahua State. Benjamin LeBaron, 32, and his brother-in-law, Luis Widmar, in his mid-30s, were beaten and shot to death after armed men stormed into their home in Galeana on Tuesday morning. The killers have yet to be identified, but the case seems to be connected to local drug lords, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. Sandoval said a note was found on LeBaron's body, but he could not confirm the contents. Local media reported that the note indicated the slayings were in retribution for the capture of 25 drug suspects in a nearby town. LeBaron's younger brother, Eric, was kidnapped in May and returned unharmed after a week. The incident prompted LeBaron to become a nationally recognized anti-crime activist who moved the local community to take a stand. \"There are no leaders here, or we are all leaders,\" LeBaron's brother, Julian LeBaron, told CNN television affiliate KINT in El Paso, Texas. \"If they kill my brother another three will take his place, and if they kill us, another hundred will take their place. We are not giving up. No way.\" The LeBaron brothers belonged to the \"Community of LeBaron\" in the Municipality of Galeana, a township founded by ex-communicated Mormons.","highlights":"Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law are shot dead in their home .\nThe killers have yet to be identified, but the case seems tied to local drug lords .\nLocal media: Slayings retribution for capture of drug suspects in town nearby .\nLeBaron was a nationally recognized anti-crime activist .","id":"69959d29796c7480b195b19852f7ae43d64b6739"} -{"article":"PARIS, France (CNN) -- French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Thursday he will not resign over accounts in a book he wrote in 2005 about paying to have sex with \"boys\" in Thailand. Frederic Mitterrand admitted to paying for sex with \"boys\" in his 2005 autobiography, \"The Bad Life.\" In an interview with French television network TF1, Mitterrand said he \"absolutely condemn[s] sexual tourism, which is a disgrace, and ... pedophilia,\" in which he insisted he has never participated. Despite the use of the French word \"garcon\" in his 2005 book \"The Bad Life,\" Mitterrand, 62, has previously said the term did not mean \"little boys.\" He said the males he paid for sex were his age, or maybe five years younger, but not underage -- and the relations were consensual. \"Anyway, you can recognize someone who's 40 years old ...\" he told TF1. A 40-year-old man \"doesn't look like a minor,\" he added, suggesting that his partners were middle-aged men. His actions, Mitterrand said, were \"without a doubt, an error,\" but \"a crime, no,\" he said in the interview. Despite recent calls to resign from the far-right National Front and the left-leaning Socialist Party, Mitterrand, who is openly gay, vowed to stay in his job. He said he met Thursday morning with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and that the president supports him. In a July interview with the weekly French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Sarkozy said he had read Mitterrand's book, and found it \"courageous and talented.\" The controversy over the revelations in his book -- which he called neither autobiography nor memoir -- erupted anew after Mitterrand deplored the arrest last week of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who fled the United States in 1977 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The culture minister told TF1 that he was \"too emotional\" when he denounced the filmmaker's arrest in Switzerland as \"horrifying.\" \"To see him thrown to the lions for an old story that really has no meaning, and to see him alone, imprisoned, when he was going to attend a ceremony where he was to be honored, that is to say, he was trapped, it's absolutely horrifying,\" he said October 4, according to Agence France Presse. The far-right National Front organized an anti-Mitterrand demonstration in Paris on Thursday evening. \"Send this message on to everyone who will not put up with this indecency!\" the party's Web site said. The party's vice president, Marine Le Pen, has demanded Mitterrand's resignation for what she termed his sexually deviant acts. Mitterrand responded, saying, \"It's an honor to be dragged through the mud by the National Front.\" Mitterrand's acts of \"sexual tourism\" have left \"a dark smudge\" on the government, Le Pen said. The group is also gathering signatures on a petition, online and on paper, from those who want Mitterrand to step down. \"We really hope he will resign,\" National Front communications director Julien Sanchez told CNN. \"It's an embarrassment for our country, that our culture minister has done this. It affects our international image. It's not right,\" he added. Watch report on the controversy surrounding French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand \u00bb . On the other side of the political spectrum, the left-leaning Socialist Party suggested Sarkozy should consider Mitterrand's position. \"It's up to President Sarkozy to decide whether or not we can be involved in the fight against child prostitution and sexual tourism, and whether or not the acts written in an autobiography -- written by a minister -- are acts of sexual commerce,\" said party spokesman Benoit Hamon. \"If everything is relative and Mr. Mitterrand can be excused because he's famous, well, I don't excuse his behavior,\" Hamon said. Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialist Party, said she would wait until she had read the book before making any judgment. Mitterrand said on TF1 that he had had sexual relations with boys -- using the French word \"garcons\" -- but added, \"you must not confuse pedophilia with homosexuality.\" He also described his book as a mixture of his life and the life of others, and denied accusations that it was a glorification of sexual tourism. The minister said he never had sex with \"young boys\" and denounced those who accused him of such acts, saying that maybe they were confusing their own fantasies with what the book was really about. Mitterrand told an interviewer in 2005 that assertions that he liked \"little boys\" were untrue. \"It's because when people say 'boys' we imagine 'little boys,'\" he said then. \"How to explain that? It belongs to this general puritanism which surrounds us, which always makes us paint a black picture of the situation. It has nothing to do with that.\" Mitterrand was a television personality, not a government minister, when the book was published. It caused a stir upon its publication, as well, and has been the subject of heated debate several times since then. In one passage, published by the French newspaper Le Monde on Thursday, Mitterrand describes in detail a sexual encounter with a \"boy\" he said was called Bird. \"My boy didn't say a word, he stood before me, immobile, his eyes still straight ahead and a half-smile on his lips. I wanted him so badly I was trembling,\" he wrote. Mitterrand also wrote about visiting clubs to choose young male prostitutes in Thailand -- where prostitution is illegal and sexual intercourse with a minor is statutory rape and is punishable by imprisonment. \"Most of them are young, handsome and apparently unaware of the devastation that their activities could bring them. I would learn later that they didn't come every night, that they were often students, had a girlfriend and sometimes even lived with their families, who pretended not to know the source of their breadwinner's earnings,\" the book said. \"Some of them were older and there was also a small contingent of heavier bruisers, who also had their fans. It was the artistic side of the exposition: Their presence made the youthful charm of the others stand out.\" He also wrote that while he had read reports and seen documentaries on the evils of \"le commerce des garcons\" (the boy trade) -- the misery, the piles of money from which \"les gosses\" (the kids) got only a few crumbs, the ravages of drugs -- \"all of these rituals of the fair of the youths, the slave market, excited me enormously.\" \"The profusion of very attractive boys, immediately available, put me in a state of desire that I no longer had to restrain or conceal.\" Mitterrand -- the nephew of the Socialist former president Francois Mitterrand -- joined Sarkozy's center-right government this summer. Wikipedia, the user-edited online reference Web site, has locked down Mitterrand's entry, preventing changes to it, in a possible sign of the intensity of the debate surrounding him. CNN's Jen Carswell in Paris, France and Alanne Orjoux in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"Culture minister condemns sexual tourism, denies he is a pedophile .\nFrederic Mitterrand, in 2005 book, wrote of paying for sex with \"boys\" in Thailand .\nLe Monde on Thursday published steamy excerpts from \"The Bad Life\"\nMitterand came to the defense of Roman Polanski after the filmmaker's arrest .","id":"a9a8ee9839b0dd6f8d716971b1bffa43f8b92216"} -{"article":"Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNN) -- Argentina's capital city was beset by strikes Thursday, with teachers, doctors and transit employees refusing to work over money matters. Teachers and doctors in Buenos Aires went on strike Wednesday and are scheduled to go back to work Friday, the government-run Telam news agency and other outlets reported. Subway workers will go on strike Thursday night for a few hours, they said. This is the fourth work stoppage in the past six months for doctors. Only emergency cases are being treated. The doctors are not only seeking better salaries, but also improvements to the public health system. They are protesting \"the lack of money in the public system, the possibility that the health budget will be reduced by 500 million pesos (about $130 million), the lack of professionals, the lack of labor to solve the problems in Argentina's public health,\" said Alicia Kobylarz of the Federal Syndicate of Health Workers. The nation's public hospitals treat the poor and needy. Health professionals want the government to employ more doctors to meet rising patient loads and an increase in diseases and epidemics such as H1N1 flu and dengue fever. The hospitals depend on funding from the provinces, leading to major differences in each area's needs and what local health care facilities can offer. \"Provinces that have petroleum income, for example, are provinces that have better budgets, that have better hospitals\" said Aldo Neri, a former national health minister. \"There is much inequality in the treatment that the poor receive in Argentinean public hospitals depending on which province they live in. That's why I say the inequalities have increased.\" The current health minister, Juan Manzur, said next year's health budget will have an increase of more than 15 percent, greater than the national budget, which will have a 12.4 percent increase. Teachers also want greater pay and announced Thursday they would go back on strike Tuesday because of failed talks with Buenos Aires Education Director Mario Oporto. The teachers say they want their raises by year's end. Oporto said there's no money for raises now, the official Telam news agency reported. \"The province's posture is very clear: There won't be raises in 2009 because there already have been,\" Oporto told a radio station, according to Telam. \"We're sorry about the work stoppage, and we are ready to keep working. This time we are very firm: There will be no raises in 2009.\" Daniel Scioli, governor of Buenos Aires Province, said public education \"is our top priority\" but also emphasized there would be no raises this year, the news agency reported. Teachers' union leaders complained Thursday that government officials went to schools Wednesday to find out which teachers were there and which had joined the work stoppage, Telam said. Subway workers in Buenos Aires announced they will walk off the job at 7 p.m. Thursday. They, too, want pay raises. Educators also are on strike in neighboring Chile, where professors say they are owed a \"historic debt.\" The indefinite strike entered its fourth day Thursday and negotiations are scheduled to resume Friday. Jaime Gajardo, president of Chile's College of Professors, told a local TV station there has been improvement in negotiations with the government and the talks could advance noticeably in the next few days. Pablo Zalaquett, the mayor of Santiago, the capital of Chile, said the two sides are closer on a pay bonus the professors want. CNN's Javier Doberti contributed to this report.","highlights":"Teachers, doctors in Buenos Aires scheduled to go back to work Friday .\nSubway workers were set to go on strike Thursday night for a few hours .\nDoctors seek better salaries, improvements to public health system .\nArgentina's neighbor Chile also seeing strikes by educators .","id":"17f4be0058b1492af6c627348ade8e48f85dbc59"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- An American who founded a home for needy children in Haiti more than 10 years ago has been accused of sexually abusing some of the same boys he set out to help, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday. Project Pierre Toussaint operated on this street in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. An American allegedly abused boys there. Douglas Perlitz, 39, who was indicted this week by a grand jury in Fairfield County, Connecticut, faces 10 counts related to the sexual abuse of nine boys for about a decade, the Justice Department said. Seven of those counts are for traveling outside of the United States with the intent to have sex with minors, and three counts are for engaging in sexual conduct with minors in a foreign place, according to the indictment. Perlitz was arrested Wednesday morning at his home in Colorado, but he had lived for years in Haiti, the Justice Department said in a news release. The Haiti Fund Inc., the nonprofit fundraising arm of his project, was incorporated in Connecticut, where Perlitz had attended Fairfield University. A U.S. magistrate ordered Perlitz detained pending a federal court hearing Friday in Denver. Perlitz was in custody Thursday, and it was not clear whether he had retained an attorney. The Justice Department said Perlitz used his position as director of the Project Pierre Toussaint in Haiti to manipulate and abuse the boys. He allegedly enticed the nine boys with promises of food and shelter and with gifts such as cell phones and cash, the indictment states. If convicted, Perlitz faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and fine of $2.5 million, according to the department. Haiti's abject poverty, threadbare social-service network and barely functioning legal system combine to make the country's street kids particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Despite its lush tropical setting, the country is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and has the highest rates of mortality among infants and children under five years of age. One-third of Haitian children under five suffer chronic malnutrition, according to United Nations statistics; just over half of school-age kids are enrolled in schools. With the state unable to alleviate those ills, private foreign charities work hard to fill the void. Perlitz -- and his Project Pierre Toussaint -- were seen as bright young examples of how outside agencies could make a difference in the lives of destitute Haitian children, offering food, education and sanctuary from the perilous life on the streets. In 2002, Fairfield University, Perlitz's alma mater, honored his efforts by making him its commencement speaker. One volunteer who traveled twice to Project Pierre Toussaint to run a soccer and basketball camp there said the charges against Perlitz were shocking. \"I don't believe one ounce of it,\" Matt Pawlick of Miami, Florida, told CNN. \"He had a passion and love to help those kids grow.\" According to the indictment, Perlitz first traveled to Haiti as a student at Fairfield University and became inspired to build a school there. In 1997, he received a grant from the Roman Catholic Order of Malta to start a center to help street children, which grew into a boarding school for boys that provided meals, sports activities and classroom instruction, the indictment states. The school was in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Once the Haiti Fund was created, it raised more than $2 million between 2002 and 2008, funds that were transferred to Perlitz to run the project, the indictment said. According to the court document, Perlitz would take some of the minors to a restaurant, give them food and alcohol and then encourage them to spend the night with him. The indictment alleges that Perlitz showed homosexual pornography to some of the youths as well. In 2007, Haitian journalist Cyrus Sibert was the first to report about rumors of sexual abuse at the school. \"I found many children who told me the situation at the project,\" Sibert told CNN, referring to the allegations. His reports spurred investigations by Haitian authorities as well as by the board of directors of the Haiti Fund. The indictment alleges that \"Perlitz used his relationship with a religious leader and influential board members to continue to conceal, and attempt to conceal, illegal sexual conduct,\" in one instance by barring investigators from entering his room, and by helping remove two computers that were locked in a safe. As attention over the allegations grew, the board ultimately dismissed Perlitz in 2008, Paul Kendrick, an advocate for victims of abuse by clergy familiar with the case, told CNN. Kendrick, a fellow Fairfield University graduate who met Perlitz during a visit to Haiti, said the removal proved controversial among the backers of Project Pierre Toussaint. By early 2009, the school was closed, Sibert said. Board members referred questions from CNN to an attorney, who was not immediately available.","highlights":"Feds: Douglas Perlitz, 39, faces 10 counts in alleged abuse of nine boys .\nPerlitz was arrested at his home in Colorado, but had lived for years in Haiti .\nPerlitz was director of the Project Pierre Toussaint in Haiti .\nIf convicted, Perlitz faces up to 30 years in prison and fine of $2.5 million .","id":"bb874898c72722831a871b43e541253844d2fde8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Brazil has confirmed 657 fatalities caused by the H1N1 flu, the highest number of deaths in the world, the nation's Health Ministry said. Brazil registered 7,569 new cases of the virus also known as swine flu from August 25 to 29, the Health Ministry said. However, new cases of the virus had dropped in the past three weeks. In terms of mortality rate -- which considers flu deaths in terms of a nation's population -- Brazil ranks sixth and the United States is 12th, the Brazilian Health Ministry said in a news release this week. Argentina ranked first per capita, Brazilian health officials said.","highlights":"Brazil has 7,569 new cases of the virus from August 25 to 29, Health Ministry says .\nHowever, new cases of the virus had dropped in the past three weeks .\nIn terms of mortality rate, Argentina ranks sixth, Brazil sixth and the U.S. is 12th .","id":"4389b96165e23e929204738b0931dbe9f2cb8753"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Three U.S. researchers have won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for solving \"a major problem in biology,\" the Nobel Committee announced Monday. Jack Szostak, from left, Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn will share the $1.4 million prize. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak are credited with discovering how chromosomes are protected against degradation -- a field that could shed light on human aging and diseases, including cancer. \"The award of the Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies,\" the committee said in a news release. The three will share the $1.4 million prize. It is the 100th year the prize will be awarded, and the first time that any Nobel in the sciences has gone to more than one woman. The work that won them the prize took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It centers on structures at the end of chromosomes called telomeres and an enzyme that forms them, called telomerase. As cells divide, chromosomes need to be replicated perfectly. Work by the researchers determined that telomeres protect DNA from degradation in the process, and that telomerase maintains the telomeres. Though there had been some speculation that the three scientists were being considered for the Nobel, the committee keeps its work top secret -- and all three researchers said they were surprised. Szostak told CNN he got the news in \"that classic early morning phone call from Stockholm.\" He described it as \"surprising and exciting\" -- perhaps particularly for him because he has not worked on the subject for the past 20 years. \"I've been working on other things,\" he said. \"It started off as a collaboration with me and Liz [Blackburn] -- Carol [Greider] was a student of hers.\" The work began as \"a long-standing puzzle that we were interested in solving,\" he said. \"It was only over later years that it emerged, through the work of many people, that this was probably important for aging and cancer.\" How it might help fight such diseases is not yet known, Szostak said. \"It will take a while yet for that to be figured out.\" Blackburn and Greider did not immediately return calls from CNN. In a telephone conversation with the editor-in-chief of the Nobel Prize Web site nobelprize.org, Greider said she had been attracted to the field of research because \"it seemed like the unanswered question.\" She also said telomere research has a higher proportion of women than other fields because in its early days, the lead researchers brought women into the field. She called it a situation in which \"you have someone that trains a lot of women and then there's a slight gravitation of women to work in the labs with other women.\" She added, \"I think actively promoting women in science is very important because the data has certainly shown that there has been an underrepresentation. And I think that the things that contribute to that are very many ... subtle, social kinds of things.\" Blackburn, in a separate conversation posted on the Web site, said the proportion of women in telomere research is \"fairly close to the biological ratio of men and women.\" \"It's all the other fields that are aberrant,\" she added, laughing. The field of study intrigued her because \"it's so intricate and complicated, and you want to know how it works,\" she said. Blackburn was Greider's supervisor at the University of California, Berkeley. Now Blackburn is at the University of California, San Francisco. Greider is a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Szostak was previously at Harvard Medical School and is currently professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Married with two children, he told CNN he has \"no idea\" what he'll do with his portion of the monetary prize -- about $467,000. CNN asked whether he thinks his children, ages 9 and 12, will suddenly think dad's work is \"really cool.\" \"Well,\" Szostak said, laughing, \"maybe.\" CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Nobel Committee says prizewinners solved \"a major problem in biology\"\nWinners studied structures at the end of chromosomes called telomeres .\nTheir research relates to understanding aging, diseases including cancer .\nElizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak will share $1.4 million prize .","id":"e35de0707780de2888a3253940c86fb0163cc115"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Manny Pacquiao returned home to a hero's welcome in his native Philippines on Friday after wresting the WBO welterweight title from Miguel Cotto on a 12th round technical knockout in Las Vegas. 'Pacman' has a fanatical following in the Philippines which has been further enhanced by his record breaking victory as he claimed his sixth world title at a different weight by beating Cotto on Saturday night. \"Welcome home, the world's bext boxer of all time,\" read a banner as thousands of fans greeted the 30-year-old. Following his hard-fought victory over Puerto Rican Cotto, all the talk is of a cash-rich superfight with American Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year. Leading promoter Bob Arum said he is ready to put the pay-per-view extravaganza at the 147-pound welterweight class, with Las Vegas the preferred venue. Pacquiao played down the possibility as he talked to reporters on his return. \"We are not forcing a fight with him. It is right that he is the one challenging me, because my fights score more on pay-per-view,\" he said. Pacquiao has greatly enhanced his reputation with successive wins over Oscar de la Hoya, Britain's Ricky Hatton and Cotto. Mayweather returned to the ring with a comfortable win over Juan Manuel Marquez and has the reputation for grossing massive receipts from his pay-per-view appearances. For the moment, Pacquiao will spend time at home with his wife, Jinkee, and three children and is also set to pursue his ambition to enter Filippino politics, standing for a congressional seat in his home island of Mindanao.","highlights":"Manny Pacquiao returns home to Philippines after Las Vegas triumph .\nPacman won world title at sixth different weight after beating Miguel Cotto .\nCash-rich fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the offing in the United States .","id":"7a1c8ec381301bed4ee1e7eca8c5d01c625503fe"} -{"article":"Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- To most people these days, an \"app\" is something you download on your smartphone to help you do a specific task -- say, find a good nearby restaurant. But big tech companies, seeing how applications have boosted the appeal of gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, are starting to view apps as low-cost enhancements for a broader range of products, from netbooks to TVs and beyond. At the International Consumer Electronics Show here this week, microchip maker Intel launched an app store geared towards netbook computers. Not to be outdone, Samsung announced it will open its own app store for HDTVs, Blu-ray players and mobile phones. Even unlikely players such as Ford Motor Co. are getting in on the app act. Ford announced Thursday that several applications, including one that will read aloud Twitter tweets while you're driving, will be available on many of its vehicles later this year. What's driving this sudden app movement? \"Mobile computer chips have gotten so powerful and affordable, and it's so easy to get on the Internet, that it doesn't make much sense to ship a gadget with dedicated, stagnant functionality,\" said Brian X. Chen, who covers technology for Wired.com. \"Add an Internet connection and a software platform open for third-party programmers to develop for -- i.e., open an app store -- and you can enhance the capabilities of a gadget, thus future-proofing it, at no cost.\" Sales of the apps, which typically cost a few dollars apiece, also create a new source of revenue for the device's manufacturer, Chen said. And consumers win, too: They get more value out of their product without having to keep buying new hardware. Software applications have been around for decades, but it took the recent success of the iPhone and Apple's App Store -- with their can-do slogan, \"there's an app for that\" -- to make apps sexy on the consumer level. Developers have created more than 100,000 apps for the store -- at no cost to Apple, which takes a cut of revenues. Less than 18 months after the store launched in 2008, owners of the iPhone and iPod Touch have downloaded more than 3 billion applications. Rival smartphone makers such as Palm and Research in Motion soon followed with app stores of their own. It's now standard for Web properties such as Facebook, Google and eBay to have mobile apps that let users share updates or make purchases on the go. The number of people who use Internet-enabled mobile devices is expected to pass 1 billion by 2013, according to industry analysts, meaning that demand for apps will only grow. And as more people grow accustomed to using apps to quickly check the weather or send a tweet on Twitter, more manufacturers will develop apps-ready products, experts say. On Thursday Intel launched a beta version of its app store, called the Intel AppUp center, for netbooks, the smaller, simpler cousins of laptops. About 100 apps, in such categories as entertainment, games, health, social networking, are now available for download at www.intelappup.com. The beta store will host apps for both Microsoft Windows and the open-source Moblin operating system, which target the popular netbook computer category powered by Intel's Atom processor. \"Apps have been defined in people's minds as these little things that run on the iPhone. Our focus is on getting lots of smart people to think of the netbook as a device they can target [for developing apps],\" said Peter Biddle, who run's Intel's Atom software program. Eventually, Intel and its partners expect to expand the store to include applications for smartphones, TVs and even consumer electronic appliances. Meanwhile, Samsung is betting that as television merges with the Internet, more channel-surfers will enjoy being able to order a movie from Netflix or scroll through photos on Picasa without having to leave their couch. Samsung is calling Samsung Apps \"the world's first HDTV-based application store,\" although it's not expected to launch until later this year. Samsung has opened the store to third-party developers and hopes to have more than 150 apps available for download by the end of 2010. Many content partners have already signed up. \"There's going to be an application for everything,\" said Samsung product training manager Jermain Anderson, who envisions guys sitting around a living room, playing Texas hold 'em poker on a big-screen TV while holding their virtual cards on their smartphones. Suddenly, a TV becomes more than a TV -- it's also a computer screen and a gaming console. \"The idea is to make everyone's life more convenient without them having to go to more than one place to do it,\" Anderson said. \"Down the road, the app store will bring a lot of different Samsung products together.\" Soon, apps will even be coming to the highway. Ford has signed agreements with three partners: the Pandora music service, Stitcher Internet radio and OpenBeak, which helps users send and receive messages via Twitter. Drivers will not be able to read the tweets on the dashboard -- instead, a computer voice will say them aloud. The three apps would live on users' smartphones but would be controlled in the vehicle through Ford's SYNC system, which allows motorists to operate mobile devices through voice commands or steering-wheel controls. The apps will be available later this year for any Ford vehicle with a SYNC system. \"When we saw the apps craze ... [we realized] there's a consumer demand there,\" said Alan Hall, a technology communications manager at Ford. Hall was quick to say that Ford would not approve apps -- such as video games -- that might distract the driver. \"Apps are becoming the norm for how people quickly and easily access the information they want,\" Hall added. \"People are used to getting information on demand. They have a digital life outside the car -- they should have a digital life inside the car.\"","highlights":"Companies are opening app stores and bringing applications to TVs, netbooks and even cars .\nIntel launched an app store for netbooks at the Consumer Electronics Show this week .\nSamsung will launch an app store later this year for HDTVs and Blu-ray players .\nFord Motor Co. will make select apps available for new vehicles later in 2010 .","id":"ae100ad15d2f50a5f3eac78423daf7398f856adb"} -{"article":"KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- Police in Uganda have arrested and extradited a man who is among the most wanted suspects from the Rwandan genocide. The 100-day killing rampage led to the loss of an estimated 10 percent of Rwanda's population. IIdephonse Nizeyimana was picked up at a hotel in Rubaga, a suburb of the capital, Kampala, by the National Central Bureau of Interpol, according to a news release from the U.N.-sponsored International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday. He was transferred Tuesday to a U.N. detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, where the tribunal is based. Top officials who allegedly took part in the genocide, such as army generals and politicians, are tried by the tribunal. \"Nizeyimana is one of the four top accused who are earmarked by the prosecutor to be tried by the tribunal in Arusha after their arrest as part of the ICTR completion strategy,\" the tribunal's news release said. Of a list of 13 fugitives, he is the second to be arrested in less than two months, it said. In the attacks that started in April 1994, Hutu militias and members of the general population sought out Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and went on a 100-day killing rampage. Civilians and children got incentives to take part in the atrocities, including promises of land belonging to their Tutsi neighbors. It was one of the most brutal genocides in modern history. Some figures put the number of dead at 1 million -- 10 percent of the population of the central African nation. Millions more were raped and disfigured. A whole generation of children lost their parents. Nizeyimana was a captain the Rwanda Armed Forces, the tribunal said. He is accused of exercising authority over soldiers and personnel through a chain of command, and allegedly sent a section of soldiers to execute of Rosalie Gicanda, a former queen of Rwanda who was a \"symbolic figure for all Tutsis,\" it said. The tribunal noted this marks the second time Uganda has cooperated with it to make an arrest. \"The tribunal has commended the Interpol and the Ugandan authorities for their close cooperation,\" the news release said. Samson Ntale contributed to this report for CNN.","highlights":"IIdephonse Nizeyimana was picked from a hotel north of Ugandan capital .\nExtradited to Tanzania, where International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based .\nPolice: He (Nizeyimana) is among the top three most-wanted suspects .\nSome figures put number of dead from attacks on ethnic tutsis at 1 million .","id":"98e230e598af23dda32f104eac5c5063638ea544"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bernie McDaid was an 11-year-old altar boy when his priest began molesting him, one of 50 boys who have said they were molested by the same man. Olan Horne, from left, Faith Johnston and Bernie McDaid met with the pope Thursday. Like with so many victims of abuse, McDaid's young life spiraled. He turned to drugs and alcohol in his teen years, struggling to cope with what \"Father B\" had done to him. On Thursday, he finally got a chance to do something he'd hoped for decades: He met with the Holy Father and told him about the abuse he had suffered. \"I basically told him that I was an altar boy ... a young boy praying to God at the time that I was abused,\" McDaid said. \"It wasn't just sexual abuse, it was spiritual abuse, and I want you to know that.\" \"And then I told him that he has a cancer growing in his ministry and needs to do something about it. And I hope he hears me right, and I touched his heart. And he nodded.\" Watch victims describe abuse and pope's apology \u00bb . McDaid was part of a small group of victims of the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church who met with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday. They shared their stories with the pope in a Washington chapel in what the victims called an emotional, frank and ultimately hope-filled meeting. Faith Johnston clutched her mother's rosary beads as she tried to speak to the pope. But her emotions took over. \"I didn't end up saying anything. I got up to him, and I burst into tears,\" said Johnston, who at 14 was molested by her priest. \"I think just my tears alone spoke -- just spoke so much.\" She added, \"I hope that other survivors can hear about this, see this and get the same hope that we've gotten from it.\" Olan Horne said the pope first apologized to them in what he called an \"unscripted\" and \"free-flowing\" meeting. \"We were all able to answer all of the questions that needed to be asked and for him to respond to. And he did -- and he did forthright,\" Horne said. \"He seemed to intrinsically understand what we were talking about. And he spoke to those issues to each one of us in a spiritual way, in a pastoral way. And he also was very respectful of where and what we wanted to talk about.\" Horne added, \"My hope was restored today from what I heard. And I believe we received a promise.\" Horne and McDaid both accused the same priest, the Rev. Joseph Birmingham, of molesting them. Birmingham died in 1989. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said the pope listened to everyone's \"personal accounts and offered them words of encouragement and hope.\" The surprise meeting came during the pope's visit, the first trip to the United States by the Holy Father since the abuse scandal rocked the church in the early 2000s. The meeting is believed to be the first between a pope and the victims of clergy sexual abuse. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims, said it was pleased that the pope met with the victims but hopes the church will do more. \"This is a small, long overdue step forward on a very long road. We're confident the meeting was meaningful for the participants, and we're grateful that these victims have had the courage to come forward and speak up,\" the group said. \"But fundamentally, it won't change things. Kids need action. Catholics deserve action. Action produces reform, and reform, real reform, is sorely needed in the church hierarchy.\" Earlier Thursday, celebrating Mass in center field at Washington's new ballpark, the pope gave a 20-minute homily that focused on hope, repentance, unity and reconciliation among the 70 million Catholics in the United States. \"It is in the context of this hope, born of God's love and fidelity, that I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as the result of sexual abuse of minors,\" Benedict said. \"No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.\" McDaid was sitting in the audience with his mother when he heard those words. Watch pope's apology 'blew me away' \u00bb . \"I had tears in my eyes that I wasn't ready to have. It was an incredible moment for me,\" he said. Now, he hopes the church will follow through. \"We're at the beginning of a new start, and there's real hope this time. It's not just words. I think there's going to be action following this moment now.\" E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Victim: I was \"a young boy praying to God at the time that I was abused\"\nGroup of sex abuse victims met with pope Thursday; pope apologized .\n\"He seemed to intrinsically understand what we were talking about,\" victim says .\nVictim support group says \"real reform is sorely needed in the church hierarchy\"","id":"2ea952a7c4f1f9d5730b1644bb2eaee3299bb115"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A controversial Colombian senator who has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by Marxist guerrillas is the leading candidate to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Friday, said an independent research institute in Norway. Sen. Piedad Cordoba, right, of Colombia reportedly is one of three top contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sen. Piedad Cordoba is the most likely recipient among three leading contenders, said the Oslo-based International Peace Research Institute. The others the institute named are Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Islamic faith at Jordan University, and Afghan physician and human rights activist Sima Samar. Though the institute considers Cordoba the front-runner, no single candidate has emerged as the clear-cut favorite, as sometimes happens, said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the peace institute. \"It really is quite open this year,\" Harpviken said. This year's peace prize nominees include 172 people and 33 organizations. The committee does not release the names of the nominees. The 50-year-old peace institute, which is often called PRIO, has no connection with the Nobel committee that awards the peace prize. Harpviken said he believes the prize will go to an individual or organization engaged in the resolution of a protracted armed conflict. \"This is a [Nobel] committee that will perhaps be more proactive and will award somebody involved in a standing process rather than rewarding someone for past accomplishments,\" he said. Cordoba, 54, heads Colombians for Peace, a group trying to end to the 45-year-old war between the government and the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. Since 2007, she has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by the FARC and has gotten commitments from the rebels for the release of several more. Colombian officials have said the guerrillas are holding about 700 captives. A government critic and longtime peace activist, Cordoba was kidnapped by a right-wing paramilitary group in 1999. She was released after several weeks and then fled to Canada with her family, where she stayed for 14 months before returning home. There have been at least two assassinations attempts against her. \"While it is the hostage releases that have brought Cordoba and her organization the most attention, her role as a principal proponent of peace negotiations and of long-term reconciliation is probably more important to her candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize,\" PRIO said in a release. Harpviken said he had received many complaints because of his prediction about Cordoba, whom critics accuse of being too close to the rebels. \"I do realize that this created some debate in Colombia,\" he said. \"That's not terribly surprising.\" Cordoba was nominated by Argentinean human rights activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, winner of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize. Harpviken said Muhammad, an Islamic scholar known for trying to bridge gaps with other faiths, also is a leading candidate. \"Certainly, the purpose ... he stands for makes him very strong,\" Harpviken said. A member of the Jordanian royal family and educated at Princeton and Cambridge universities, where he received a doctorate, Muhammad, 42, \"is playing an increasingly central role as an advocate of interfaith dialogue,\" PRIO said. In 2005, the prince brought together 170 Islamic scholars from 40 countries for the Amman Initiative to work out what they called a \"theological counter-attack against terrorism.\" Two years later, Muhammad and other prominent Islamic scholars wrote a letter called \"A Common Word Between Us and You\" that urged mutual understanding and peace with Christians. The letter, PRIO said, was partly a response to Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 lecture that many saw as an attack on Islam. Backing his words with his deeds, Muhammad gave what was considered a broadly accommodating welcoming speech when the pope visited Jordan this year. \"The importance of Prince Ghazi's initiatives to date lies first and foremost in the way he engages Islamic theology, institutions and leaders in a debate on the relationship between Islam and other faiths, thereby contributing a wider platform for interreligious dialogue for Muslims in general,\" PRIO said. \"A prize to Prince Ghazi would also be recognition of the long-standing efforts of the Jordanian royal family, including King Abdullah, who have been long-standing proponents of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East.\" If Muhammad does not win, Harpviken said, it could be because his work is not done. \"He still has a way to go so that his ideas have an impact,\" Harpviken said. The third PRIO front-runner is Samar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the U.N. special envoy to Darfur in Africa. A medical doctor, Samar also established the Shuhada Organization, which focuses on health care, particularly for Afghan women. After obtaining her medical degree in 1982, Samar and her son fled to Pakistan in 1984 when the communist regime then ruling Afghanistan arrested her husband. Samar, 52, remained in exile until 2002 when she was appointed as a women's affairs minister in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's transitional administration. \"She has been under frequent attacks both from conservative religious leaders and from Islamist radicals, and she is a prominent voice for the rights of women,\" PRIO said, adding that she \"does invite respect by being a principled and outspoken proponent of human rights and the need for a true reconciliatory process.\" According to other published reports, another possible pick is monk Thich Quang Do, head of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He has been under house arrest since 2001 and has been in and out of jail since his first detention by communist authorities in 1977. Quang Do, 80, was awarded the annual human rights prize by the Rafto Foundation of Norway in 2006. Four recent Rafto winners have gone on to garner the Nobel Peace Prize: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (also known as Burma), Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, Kim Dae-jung of South Korea and Shirin Ebadi of Iran. Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist Malahat Nasibova was awarded the Rafto this year and also is considered a possible Nobel prize winner. Chinese dissidents Hu Jia, Gao Zhisheng and Wei Jingsheng also are contenders, other observers said. After months of house arrest, Hu, 36, was detained in December 2007 during a crackdown on dissidents and sentenced to 3 1\/2 years in April 2008 for \"inciting subversion of state power.\" Hu started his activism focusing on HIV\/AIDS in 2001 and co-founded a grassroots organization dedicated to helping children from AIDS families. The international human rights group Amnesty International said Hu's focus broadened and he began reporting on a wider human rights violations in China, even giving interviews to international journalists. Amnesty said Hu has been repeatedly beaten and harassed by police for his outspokenness. Before being arrested, he had publicly expressed concerns over human rights abuses by police in Beijing. Gao, who was born in 1966, is a self-taught lawyer and People's Liberation Army veteran who was a Nobel Peace Prize candidate last year. He disappeared in February after being taken away by Chinese police. Fellow activists say he is believed to still be alive. In 2007, he wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress urging the United States to boycott the Olympic Games held in Beijing the following year. In it, he described a wide array of human rights violations by the Chinese government -- from lack of property and religious rights to environmental disasters to Tibet. \"I ask to you to seriously consider the true value of morality, justice, and humanity, as well as to what extent such values are undermined in China,\" he said. Wei, 59, was first arrested in 1979 and sentenced to 15 years. He was released in 1993 but arrested again within six months and sentenced to 14 years. In 1997, Chinese authorities put him on a plane to the United States, where he has lived since. Perhaps the best known of the Chinese dissidents, Wei has been awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award, the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the National Endowment for Democracy Award and the Olof Palme Memorial Prize. He has been nominated seven times for the peace prize. Harpviken said he doubts the Nobel committee will choose any Chinese or Russian dissidents this year because they \"don't want to anger powerful governments.\" \"Although the committee takes pride in being independent,\" he said, \"there are certain limitations on their being independent.\" That does not mean he doesn't expect the committee to \"take daring decisions.\" Harpviken said he believes that \"the most likely expression of the committee's courage this year will be to award the prize either to an unconventional kind of candidate or to somebody whose work is likely to be directly helped by a prize award.\" The peace prize is one of five awarded annually since 1901 by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The other four prizes are for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. Starting in 1969, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel also has been awarded. While the other prizes are awarded by committees based in Sweden, the peace prize is determined by a five-member panel appointed by the Norwegian parliament. The Nobel recipient receives a prize of 10 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.4 million. CNN's Arthur Brice contributed to this report.","highlights":"Independent research institute cites three top contenders for Nobel Peace Prize .\nNo candidate emerges as clear-cut favorite; winner to be announced Friday .\nColombian senator, Jordanian prince, Afghan rights activist among contenders .\nVietnamese Buddhist monk, Chinese dissidents also could be awarded prize .","id":"04f1de50ad0b8ab517c3b5de44cca5a12c8c59c6"} -{"article":"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Mexican federal police have arrested a fugitive on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, Mexican authorities said. Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco allegedly murdered his girlfriend and her two young sons. Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco is wanted in Elmore County, Idaho, on charges that he shot and killed three people, the FBI said. The charred remains of a woman and her sons, ages 2 and 4, were found inside a burned-out vehicle on August 11, 2002, it said. Each victim had been shot in the head or chest. The FBI was still working Friday to confirm the identity of the man in custody, said Debbie Dujanovic, a spokeswoman in the agency's Salt Lake City, Utah, field office. The Salt Lake City office has jurisdiction in the case. An extradition order was issued in January 2007, the Mexican attorney general's office said in a news release Thursday. A reward of up to $100,000 was being offered, the FBI said. Lopez, 33, was captured in Zihuatanejo, a city northwest of Acapulco on the Pacific Coast in southern Mexico, the Mexican attorney general's office said. Zihuatanejo is in Guerrero state, but Lopez was transferred to a jail in neighboring Michoacan state, officials said. The arrest came about after investigation and intelligence work by Mexican authorities, the attorney general's office said. According to the FBI, Lopez abducted his girlfriend, Rebecca Ramirez, and her two young sons from her father's house in Nyssa, Oregon, on July 30, 2002. The car he had been driving was found nearly two weeks later on a rural road near Mountain Home, Idaho, officials said. It had been torched with the three bodies inside. The suspect's brother, Simon Lopez Orozco, and Simon's wife, Maria Cruz Garcia, have been charged with accessory to first-degree murder, the FBI said. Garcia was arrested in California three years ago, but Simon Lopez Orozco is believed still at large. Mexican officials captured another FBI Top 10 fugitive on July 17. Emigdio Preciado Jr. was wanted in connection with the shooting of two Los Angeles County, California, sheriff's deputies in September 2000. He had been charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, attempted murder of a police officer.","highlights":"Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco is wanted in Elmore County, Idaho, .\nFBI was still working Friday to confirm the identity of the man in custody .\nWanted on charges he shot and killed three people, the FBI said.\nCharred remains of woman and her sons, ages 2 and 4, were found August 11, 2002 .","id":"f00c6cb004fb91722ac4c674b86b8cd0a1c44a3b"} -{"article":"Miami, Florida (CNN) -- From the custom-made, hand-beaded white dress to silver-studded high-heeled shoes, diamond jewelry and tiara, Jenny Ferro is preparing for a day she's dreamed about since she was 3 years old. \"I'm really excited,\" says Jenny, eagerly nodding her head. \"Really, really, a lot!\" She isn't getting married. The 15-year-old is preparing for her quincea\u00f1era, a coming-of-age ritual in Latin culture, marking a young girl's entrance into womanhood. The centuries-old tradition began as a ceremony to introduce girls to society on their 15th birthday and signified that they were ready for marriage. Today, many quincea\u00f1eras have become much more elaborate. Jenny and her mother, Marlene Ferro, have worked out every detail of the party well in advance, from the rehearsal to the reception to the flower girl and the music. The theme of the party is bedazzled. First, there is the dress, which Marlene had designed specially for her daughter. It cost about $800. Then there are the shoes, high-heeled and silver to match the dress. During the party, the high heels will be ceremoniously slipped onto her feet to replace her flat shoes -- a symbolic transition of her journey from childhood to womanhood. \"It makes her look like a princess,\" gushes Marlene Ferro. Quincea\u00f1eras are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. One reason for their popularity is a greater acceptance of Latin culture in America, according to Michele Salcedo, author of \"Quincea\u00f1era!\" a comprehensive guide to the celebration. \"The 15th birthday, culturally, is a milestone. It doesn't have to be celebrated with a party at all, but it is generally marked by something quite special,\" Salcedo says. Experts believe the quincea\u00f1era is rooted in Mayan, Aztec and European traditions. Today, many coming-of-age ceremonies resemble lavish \"Sweet 16\" celebrations. Beyond the elaborate apparel, food and festivities, modern quincea\u00f1eras often feature a court of 15 people, typically consisting of family and friends. As the event continues to grow in popularity, the makeup of the court has also changed. \"It has gone beyond Latinos, so that a lot of Latino girls will have not only family members in court but they will reach out to non-Latino friends,\" says Salcedo. \"So it's a way of reaching out and extending social ties and bringing people in who might not otherwise have an opportunity to know a Latino family and to know the culture.\" Family plays the largest role in the quincea\u00f1era, leading up to and during the party. Mothers, fathers, grandparents and godparents can spend years preparing a night to remember for the young girl. The tradition is just as important to the family as it is to the young woman. The large, extravagant celebrations often symbolize a family's hard work and success. How has America changed Latinos? Marlene Ferro, who emigrated from Cuba as a child with her parents, says Jenny's quincea\u00f1era was a gift to both of them. The 43-year-old, single mother of three, saved for years and estimates that she spent at least $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era. \"I was able to accomplish something that I had been looking forward to for 15 years,\" says Marlene Ferro. The parties can be as big and expensive as a family can imagine and costs can escalate into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Salcedo. She recommends that families manage expectations before the party planning even begins. iReporter Alexis Fernandez's quincea\u00f1era was a big event in Alaska . \"Sometimes people go way overboard and [spend] much more on the celebration than they can afford and that's the downside of the quincea\u00f1era,\" says Salcedo. \"Because when it's done right it can be a beautiful family celebration and a celebration of a milestone that a young girl goes through.\" Quincea\u00f1eras have changed over the years. Even though her tiara was taller than her daughter's, Marlene says her quincea\u00f1era was simple. It was a small gathering at her sister's apartment with family and friends. She wore borrowed jewelry from a family member, had a homemade cake and danced with her father. Marlene Ferro's 15th birthday present was a telephone in her bedroom. \"I didn't have a big quince party. I chose to have a small party with my friends,\" she remembers. \"My dress was really easy ... I didn't have an option. It was this one or that one. Now, we give our kids the option.\" iReporter Diamond Ramirez's mother, grandmother never had quincea\u00f1eras . There's a spiritual element to these celebrations as well, says Salcedo. The church plays a role in helping to prepare teenage girls for this transition to womanhood. Ceremonies and classes before the coming-of-age celebration teach the young women that with adulthood come certain responsibilities, both physical and spiritual. \"When it's done in the spirit that it probably should be, the girl has certain responsibilities and by the end of the process, she's met them and she has showed her mother that she can, in fact, be responsible and she does acquire ... a bit more maturity then she [had] before,\" says Salcedo. As the celebrations become more popular in the United States, they also offer an opportunity for more Americans to participate. \"It's a way to push back a lot of the negativity that a lot of Latinos feel is directed at Latinos,\" says Salcedo. \"It is a way for people who have recently arrived, or maybe not so recently arrived, to say 'I have done well here' ... I'm throwing this party for my daughter and I'm inviting all of you to partake of my generosity so that you can see exactly how well we've done.\"","highlights":"Quincea\u00f1eras, or 15th birthday celebrations, mark a girl's transition to womanhood .\nJenny Ferro, 15, has been preparing for her celebration since she was 3 years old .\nMarlene Ferro estimates she spent $20,000 on her daughter's quincea\u00f1era .\nExpert: The elaborate parties are a way for Latinos to say 'I have done well here'","id":"02f38b9303d877764469796fb5c9528f3ff23071"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- When the first book of the \"Twilight\" series was released in October 2005, no one could have guessed the phenomenon it would become. Four years later, 70 million copies have been sold worldwide. The books have spent 143 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and the first movie in \"The Twilight Saga\" grossed $380 million at the box office. The story, a love triangle between a vampire, a human and a werewolf, has ignited an international frenzy, and the woman behind it all is 35-year-old author Stephenie Meyer. Once a stay-at-home mom, Stephenie says the idea for \"Twilight\" came to her in a dream. \"It was two people in kind of a little circular meadow with really bright sunlight, and one of them was a beautiful, sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal, and they were having this conversation. The boy was a vampire, which is so bizarre that I'd be dreaming about vampires, and he was trying to explain to her how much he cared about her and yet at the same time how much he wanted to kill her,\" Stephenie says. \"It really captured my imagination.\" That dream became Chapter 13 of \"Twilight.\" Oprah.com: Get your Twilight\" primer . Before the night of the dream, Stephenie says she had lost herself a little in the work of motherhood. \"I was really burned out. I really had gotten into that zombie mom way of doing things where I wasn't Stephenie anymore,\" she says. \"[Writing \"Twilight] was a release. That was the dam bursting. I'd been bottling up who I was for so long, I needed an expression.\" Though she'd been married for 15 years, Stephenie says she didn't tell her husband at first about her new passion. \"My husband thought I'd gone crazy. I'd barely spoken to him because I had all these things going on in my head, and I wasn't telling him about this weird vampire obsession because I knew he'd freak out and think I'd lost my mind,\" she says. At first, Stephenie was documenting her dream only to make sure she would remember it, she says. \"The dream was just something I was so interested in, and it was so different from what my everyday was at the time,\" she says. \"I just wanted to remember it so badly. That's why I started writing it down -- not because I thought this would be a great story for a novel.\" Oprah.com: Read an excerpt from \"Twilight\" Though Stephenie had been an avid reader all her life, she says she was never a writer before \"Twilight.\" \"It seems kind of presumptuous to me [to think] anyone else would want to read the things that are in my head,\" she says. \"I didn't think of it [as a book]. I did the dream. And then I wanted to see what would happen with them. It was just me spending time with this fantasy world, and then when it was finished it was like, 'This is long enough to be a book!'\" Before \"Twilight,\" Stephenie says she read every type of book except for horror. \"That was the genre I just knew I was too chicken for,\" she says. \"I read a little bit of everything. ... When I was 8, I was reading \"Gone with the Wind\" and \"Pride and Prejudice\" and all that, not knowing it wasn't my reading level.\" Oprah.com: Gift ideas for every reader on your list . Now that \"Twilight\" is a huge success, it's hard to imagine any literary agent rejecting it. But Stephenie says she'd submitted it to plenty of people before she was signed. \"I got nine rejections, five no answers and then one 'I'd like to read more,'\" she says. Stephenie says it was her sister who really pushed her to keep submitting it to more agents. \"She was the only one in the world who knew what I was doing,\" she says. These days, the \"Twilight\"series is more than just a literary hit. The first two movies have also created a stir and catapulted three young stars into the limelight. British actor Robert Pattinson, who plays the lead vampire Edward Cullen, is now an international heartthrob. \"I knew that the problem was going to be Edward, because he's the perfect vampire,\" Stephenie says. \"How do you cast that from your pool of human actors?\" When producers found Robert, Stephenie says it was a perfect fit. \"He's got something about him. He doesn't look like everybody else. There's something unusual,\" she says. \"There are moments where he looks exactly like he did in my head.\" Stephenie says casting Bella, the book's protagonist, was a bit easier. \"There's plenty of people who look like the girl next door,\" she says. \"We were really lucky [to cast] Kirsten Stewart, who is a phenomenal actress. I didn't know if we were going to get that caliber.\" Though Twi-hards, as fans are called, know most everything about the series, Stephenie says there is one secret she's never revealed before. \"There was a different ending to \"New Moon\" originally,\" she says. \"It was a much quieter book. It was very much all in Bella's head.\" Oprah.com: Are you a Twi-hard? Take the quiz! Stephenie says fans have her mother to thank for \"New Moon's\" current dramatic ending. \"My mom's like: 'You know, Stephenie, maybe a little more action at the end would be a good idea. Maybe you need that,'\" Stephenie says. \"And she was right, as usual.\" Find out more about \"New Moon\" Her mother's suggestion prompted Stephenie to introduce the Volturi, an all-powerful coven of vampires living in Italy, sooner than she'd planned. \"That's kind of my favorite part now, and it's there because my mom told me it would be better that way.\" From The Oprah Winfrey Show \u00a9 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"\"Twilight\" author Stephenie Meyer reveals her inspiration for the book .\n\"I really had gotten into that zombie mom way of doing things ...\" before a dream .\nNine people rejected her book, five ignored it, one said \"I'd like to read more\"\nCoven of vampires added to \"New Moon\" after her mom suggested more action at end .","id":"1f86d7d88613793cc882104bdb88f52aee2d2836"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A suspect has been arrested in the slaying of a 19-year-old Puerto Rican man found Friday decapitated, dismembered and partially burned, police said Tuesday. Members of the U.S. gay community are asking authorities to investigate whether the slaying was a hate crime because the victim, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, was gay, said Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. \"The brutality of the slaying and the fact that he was openly gay leads us to believe it was very possibly a hate crime,\" Serrano said. Authorities are investigating whether the killing involved sex, Guayama police Commander Hector Agosto Rodriguez told CNN affiliate WLII TV. Guayama prosecutor Jose Bermudez identified the suspect as Juan A. Martinez, 26. Police had earlier described him as a 27-year-old man from the interior Puerto Rican town of Cayey. Martinez was scheduled to attend a court hearing Tuesday night at which charges would be lodged, said Luis Bernier, a spokesman for the Guayama police district, which has jurisdiction in the case. The hearing was postponed several times throughout the day. Officials were waiting for a prosecutor from a nearby district, causing the delay, Bernier said. The FBI was not directly involved in the investigation Monday, said FBI Agent Harry Rodriguez of the San Juan office. \"The FBI is monitoring this investigation by police in Puerto Rico,\" Rodriguez said. \"Any assistance that the police requests or requires, we would be more than happy to provide.\" Puerto Rican authorities may ask for help with forensics or other advanced investigative tools the FBI could provide, Rodriguez said. The U.S. attorney's office, in consultation with local officials and other agencies, would determine if the slaying was a hate crime, which is a federal offense. \"It's at a very preliminary stage,\" said Lymarie Llovet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, which means federal agencies have jurisdiction. \"There's the potential for a federal investigation,\" Rodriguez said. The suspect was arrested Monday around 11:30 p.m. AST (10:30 p.m. ET) at his home in the Mogote de Cayey neighborhood, said Wilson Porrata Mariani, another spokesman for the Guayama police district. Police impounded two cars and also are investigating a home in another neighborhood, Huertas del Barrio Beatriz de Cidra. Lopez Mercado's body was found on Puerto Rico Road 184 in another part of town, Barrio Guavate de Cayey, police said. The slaying has reverberated throughout the gay and lesbian community in the United States, where supporters started a Facebook page called \"Justice for Jorge Steven Lopez -- End Hate Crimes.\" The group demands an investigation by Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno and prosecution of the slaying under the Federal Hate Crimes Law. The law was enacted in 1969 to guard the rights of U.S. citizens engaged in any of six protected activities, such as voting, going to school, applying for a job or attending a public venue. Last month, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends federal protection against illegal acts motivated by a person's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Gay activist Serrano said he does not believe anti-gay sentiment is any stronger in Puerto Rico's Latin culture than anywhere else. \"That's a long-debunked myth, that our culture is more homophobic,\" Serrano said. Instead, he attributed any ill will toward gays to \"hate rhetoric\" by some religious and political leaders. One politician, he said, recently referred to gays as \"twisted and mentally ill.\" \"That's the kind of rhetoric that incites violence against gays,\" Serrano said. Equality Forum, an international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights organization, asked for a federal investigation. \"Equality Forum calls on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to have the FBI investigate,\" said former federal prosecutor Malcolm Lazin, the group's executive director. \"The Matthew Shepard Amendment empowers and requires the federal government to prosecute this horrific murder.\" Serrano said Lopez Mercado was a \"very, very dear friend\" he had met through a mutual acquaintance. \"Jorge was a person who you only needed one minute to fall in love with,\" Serrano said. Lopez Mercado often volunteered for gay causes, Serrano said. The teen's family is coping, considering the circumstances. \"It has been horrible, but they are very grateful that it has come to a quick resolution,\" Serrano said.","highlights":"NEW: Activist attributes ill will toward gays to some religious, political leaders' \"hate rhetoric\"\nPuerto Rican gay community wants police to see if slaying was a hate crime .\nFBI is monitoring investigation and is prepared to offer help, agent says .\nSuspect, 27, was to attend Tuesday court hearing, which was postponed several times .","id":"a67a50c71e58144aa8091fe92735115114f1d41e"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- State visits to the White House are full of show and symbolism, and Tuesday's visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is no exception. But Singh's visit, the first state visit hosted by the Obama administration, reflects India's growing political and economic importance to the United States and the deepening partnership between Washington and New Delhi. The 2005 civil nuclear cooperation deal between the two countries symbolized a new status in U.S.-India relations. But that deal, yet to be ratified by the Indian parliament, was not in a vacuum. The Bush administration followed that up with agreements for increased cooperation on security, science and technology and education. Singh's visit this week will build on that, with announcements expected on a range of areas from the economy and defense to climate change and energy. India is a fellow democracy, and there is a strong Indian-American community in the U.S. So as it rises to power, India is a natural U.S. ally. On every big global issue today -- from the economy to climate change to fighting terrorism and curbing nuclear proliferation -- Washington needs New Delhi's cooperation. India is one of the biggest donors in Afghanistan, with $1.2 billion in aid. Although this has been met with suspicion in Pakistan, it has helped the United States, sharing some of the burden of stabilizing Afghanistan and providing civilian support. India is also considered a critical U.S. partner in dealing with other instability in the region, in places like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Even as the U.S. deepens its cooperation with China on global issues, both Singh's government and the Obama administration want to manage China's meteoric rise. Strong U.S.-India ties help both countries ensure that the \"Asian century\" is not merely the \"Chinese century.\" India has also become a major trading partner with the U.S., with $61 billion in trade in 2007. The U.S. is India's second-largest trading partner. And India is a major exporter of technology software and services to the U.S., and that's expected to increase as India strengthens its role as a global leader in technology. The relationship is not without its irritants, however, the biggest one being India's nuclear neighbor, Pakistan. India believes the U.S. has failed to curb Islamabad's backing of anti-India extremists based in Pakistan, and tensions between India and Pakistan remain high, especially with Pakistan's slow progress on the investigation into last year's Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. Before coming to Washington, Singh said that Pakistani objectives in Afghanistan aren't necessarily those of the U.S. Pakistan has long seen instability in Afghanistan as critical to its war strategy against India. India is also nervous about a possible integration of some Taliban into power in Afghanistan. Climate change is another point of friction. The U.S. wants India, one of world's the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, to accept limits on its carbon emissions. India maintains it is still a developing country and wants developed nations, like the U.S., to assume the lion's share of burden in dealing with climate change. Another potential difference looms over Iran. India has been careful not to support Iran's government, but if U.S. diplomacy with Iran fails, it remains to be seen if New Delhi will support tougher sanctions if the U.S. decides to go that route. As India's economy grows, so will its capability to be one of the U.S.' great partners. But as its international position strengthens, New Delhi's interests may not always be aligned with Washington's. Obama must work to convince India that the U.S. sees it as an important ally and that its rise to power is in the U.S.' strategic interest. The symbolism of giving Singh the administration's first state visit will be a good start.","highlights":"Visit by Indian PM reflects India's growing political, economic importance to the U.S.\nVisit will build on deals for unity on security, nuclear, science, technology, education issues .\nU.S. wants good relations with India as it seeks stability, influence in Asia .\nNations' frictions include relations with Pakistan, climate change legislation .","id":"86e78cf1f3a6f4b04b600be44d8b7c3234d0c97e"} -{"article":"TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A Newsweek journalist accused of making false accusations against the Iranian government in the wake of the disputed presidential election in June was released from prison Saturday, Iranian media reported. Various organizations and individuals signed petitions asking for release of journalist Bahari, Newsweek says. Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian correspondent based in Tehran, was among the more than 100 journalists, reformist leaders and former government ministers who went on trial in August in Iran's Revolutionary Court. Bahari was released from Evin prison on nearly $300,000 bail after spending four months behind bars, a revolutionary court spokesman told the news agency. The conditions of his release were not disclosed. Newsweek, which has firmly rejected the allegations against Bahari, reported Saturday that authorities did not specify why the journalist was released. Bahari, 42, is expecting his first child October 26, and \"the mother has experienced serious health complications,\" Newsweek said in an article on its Web site. \"Humanitarian considerations were presumed to have played a role in the decision,\" the article said. \"We are relieved that Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari is home with his family today. We would like to thank all of those who supported Maziar through this long and uncertain period,\" the magazine said in a statement. Newsweek said various organizations and individuals signed petitions asking for his release. Bahari's case was among those raised at recent talks between the United States and Iran in Geneva. The government of Iran arrested more than 1,000 people in a massive crackdown following the June 12 election. Iran's election commission declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner of the race, prompting hundreds of thousands of Iranians to fill the streets of Tehran in protest, contending the election was fraudulent. Bahari was accused of propagandizing against Iran, favoring opposition groups; sending false reports through the foreign media; and disturbing the peace by participating in the post-election demonstrations, according to Fars. The Iranian Labour News Agency said the reporter also was accused of possessing classified documents. According to Fars, Bahari confessed after his arrest at a news conference. CNN was unable to confirm the agency report. Human rights groups have accused prison guards of coercing false confessions among other forms of detainee mistreatment.","highlights":"Maziar Bahari was accused of making false accusations against Iranian government .\nThe Newsweek journalist stood trial in August in Iran's Revolutionary Court .\n\"Humanitarian considerations\" thought to play role in release, Newsweek says .\nThousands arrested, more than 100 stood trial after disputed presidential election .","id":"3fa15b1d70dfc67b90542c382bc4ba92cb4ede2b"} -{"article":"Guangzhou, China (CNN) -- In a new book, the half brother of President Obama claims the father they shared was often drunk and physically abusive. \"My father beat me,\" Mark Obama Ndesandjo told reporters in China, where he lives. \"He beat my mother. You just do not do that. I shut these thoughts in the back of my mind for many years.\" Ndesandjo, who took the last name of the man his mother remarried, has dodged the media in the year since his half brother was elected U.S. president. However, he spoke out Wednesday regarding his semi-autobiographical book, \"Nairobi to Shenzhen.\" An engineer by trade, Ndesandjo moved to Shenzhen, China, after losing his job in the United States seven years ago. He owns a small chain of restaurants in Shenzhen and teaches piano to orphans. Watch as the president's half brother instructs kids on the piano . He said that he struggled with the name Obama for years, telling few about his family. But he said something happened to change that after he watched Obama's victory celebration in Chicago, Illinois' Grant Park following the 2008 election. His own despair turned into hope, he said. \"I saw millions of people who loved or supported my brother Barack, and in the process, in some weird way, I came to terms with many things that I had shut out of my life, including the Obama name,\" he said. In his book, \"Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,\" Obama writes that he grew up in Hawaii, raised by his mother and her parents, after his father, Barack Obama Sr., returned to Africa. He recalls a monthlong visit with his father when he was 10 and going to Kenya after the elder Obama's death. In the book, Obama acknowledges his father was an alcoholic. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to Ndesandjo's comments. Ndesandjo said he has met with Obama infrequently over the years but said he would like to introduce his half brother to his Chinese wife when Obama makes his first official visit to China this month. Presidential brothers, such as Billy Carter and Roger Clinton Jr., historically have not had an easy ride. However, Ndesandjo said he wants to live his life and tell his own story, not have others tell it for him. CNN's John Vause contributed to this report.","highlights":"Mark Obama Ndesandjo is President Obama's half brother .\nIn a new book, Ndesandjo says their father was abusive .\n\"My father beat me,\" he tells reporters in China .\nPresident has said in earlier book that his father was an alcoholic .","id":"efe32f5af5a7a4e7143eb9fbc5cd33cd34453536"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Police in Connecticut say they have arrested a woman suspected of robbing at least six banks in the past week. Police released photos of a suspect in the robberies of six New England banks. Detectives from the Major Crimes division of the Connecticut State Police took Heather Brown into custody at about 3:15 p.m. The 34-year-old resident of Norwich, Connecticut, will be formally charged with robbery in the first degree, police said. Investigators believe Brown robbed the banks, often while claiming to have a bomb. \"When she goes into the banks, she gives the teller information through a note or verbally that she has a bomb,\" said Sgt. Jim Keeney of the Connecticut State Police. \"However, there haven't been any reports of an actual bomb.\" Authorities say they believe the woman has held up banks in the Connecticut towns of Middletown, Montville, East Hartford and Windsor, as well as banks in West Springfield, Massachusetts and Westerly, Rhode Island. Women commit 6.2 percent of bank robberies nationwide, up from 4.9 percent in 2002, according to recent FBI figures. The one-woman crime wave in New England apparently began September 21 at the Citizens Bank in Montville, Connecticut. State police said \"a lone white female ... entered the bank with a bag in her possession. The suspect approached the teller indicated she was in possession of a bomb and demanded cash.\" The woman left the bag on a counter and bolted, police said. Four days later, a woman entered a branch of the New Alliance Bank in East Hartford, Connecticut. Investigators with the East Hartford Police Department said she \"left a note indicating that she had a bomb and demanded $1,000. She fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of money.\" Police suspect she struck again the next day in Windsor, Connecticut.","highlights":"Police say they have Heather Brown, 34, in custody .\nInvestigators say she held up at least six banks in the past week .\nShe informs teller she has a bomb, but no actual bomb has been seen, police say .\nPolice: Suspect lives in Norwich, Connecticut, has served time for bank robbery .","id":"dc1272e4c1629f61027f58532f14f81a4c64b84d"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Pvt. Joseph Foster was filling out routine paperwork for his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan on Thursday when he heard a shout quickly followed by a burst of gunfire from just a few feet away. \"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire,\" Foster said Monday on CNN's \"American Morning.\" Foster, 21, did not forget his basic training, which may have saved his life and the lives of others. \"[I] got down on the floor, moved to cover. One soldier had peeked his head around the cubicle I was hiding in ... and I pulled him in,\" Foster said. Foster realized he had been shot in the hip but was too consumed by adrenaline to think about his injury. \"Another soldier had come in as soon as the assailant had moved away from us,\" he said. \"Those two got up and got out, and I got out shortly behind him.\" Once outside, Foster said, he hid behind a military shipping container \"and started doing what I was trained to do.\" \"[I] started helping get people into the next building and get them under cover,\" he said. Despite his injury, Foster, who has a wife and two young children, said he still plans to deploy to Afghanistan in January. \"I'm still a soldier day in and day out,\" he said. \"I'll do my job.\" Authorities are trying to figure out what prompted the gunman to begin shooting at Fort Hood Army Post, killing 13 people and wounding 42. Fifteen soldiers are still hospitalized, including eight patients in intensive care, Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said Monday. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post, is the suspected shooter. He was shot several times, ending the attack, and is now conscious and talking, a spokesman at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio said Monday. It is unclear if Army investigators have spoken to Hasan. The intense investigation into the mass shooting remains largely shrouded in silence. Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about the motive, warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers. Several bystanders, like Foster, reported Hasan shouted \"Allahu akbar,\" Arabic for \"God is great,\" which terrorists have used as a battle cry. The Army leadership at Fort Hood will \"take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this,\" Cone said Monday. \"Hasan was a soldier, and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has,\" Cone said. \"We have to look across our entire formation, not just in a medical community, but really look hard to our right and left. That's the responsibility for everybody, from the top to the bottom, to make sure we're taking care of our own.\" Cone said Monday that he has instructed commanders at Fort Hood to \"immediately take a hard look and make sure if there's anybody out there struggling [that] we're going to address their issues.\" Sen. Joe Lieberman said he plans a Senate committee hearing into whether the shootings were a terrorist act and whether the Army should responded to reported signs of Islamic extremism by the suspected gunman. If Hasan was showing signs of being an Islamic extremist, the Army should have acted on that earlier, and \"he should have been gone,\" said Lieberman, a Connecticut independent and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He spoke on \"Fox News Sunday.\" The shooting, on the nation's largest military base, sparked outrage. In his Saturday radio address, President Obama said it was \"an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred any place in America.\" But, he said, \"it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.\" All but one of those who were killed were soldiers. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend a Tuesday memorial service for the victims. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will also participate in the memorial service, but he will not speak, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Gates on Monday night will go to Fort Hood, where he will meet with the victims' families as well as Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan as they shot at each other. Gates will also meet with military officials at the Army base, including Fort Hood's commanding general, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, according to Morrell. CNN's David Mattingly and Victor Hernandez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pvt. Joseph Foster was doing paperwork when he heard a shout, then gunfire .\nShooter \"stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire,\" he says .\nHe says he was too consumed by adrenaline to think about being shot in the hip .\nFoster, who has a wife and two young children, said he still plans to deploy to Afghanistan .","id":"5046addda6215033a27eb5226ea6ce40da7e2cca"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Within weeks of British student Meredith Kercher's death in the vibrant college town of Perugia, Italy, prosecutors and police declared the case closed. They'd seized two knives in their search for the murder weapon. They took DNA from the room where Kercher was killed. And at least one suspect had confessed to being at the murder scene. Or so they said. Kercher had been stabbed in a sexual misadventure, officials said. And they knew the killers. American Amanda Knox, Kercher's roommate; Italian Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend; and Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede, a drifter known in the area, had their pictures splattered across the world's media. Knox's photo was even hung in the police plaza alongside Italy's most infamous mobsters and criminals. The prosecution case seemed a sensational slam-dunk, almost too good to be true. Knox's supporters say that's because it is. \"In the beginning, all of this supposed evidence was being leaked, showing what sounded like a pretty convincing case,\" Anne Bremner, a lawyer and former prosecutor working with the group Friends of Amanda, told CNN. The case couldn't look more different depending on where you stand. Knox's murder trial is entering its final stages, with closing arguments beginning November 20. The jury will begin deliberating December 4. But there is still no agreement on the key pieces of evidence that prosecutors say convict her and the defense says clear her. Behind the Scenes: How we examined the evidence . In Knox's corner: her friends and family from Seattle, Washington. For them, she is the victim - railroaded by an overzealous Italian prosecutor, who faces charges of prosecutorial misconduct in another case. Knox's supporters say he's tried to force the evidence to fit his theory of what happened. And with negative and often false details about the case appearing in the press - all for the jury to read - Knox supporters fear she could be convicted regardless of the facts. On the other side: Perugia's prosecutor Giuliano Mignini. For him and his colleagues, the answer is simple - Guede, Knox and Sollecito are all responsible for leaving Kercher partially clothed, strangled and with her throat cut on November 2, 2007. See a timeline of the case . The knife . The crime scene was gruesome. The 21-year old British student was found under a duvet on the floor by her bed, covered in blood. A bloody handprint was streaked on the wall above her. A source close to the prosecution says Kercher was held down while she was strangled and stabbed. The source says Sollecito's 6 \u00bd-inch kitchen knife was used to slit her throat and then taken back to his apartment. It is perhaps the biggest piece of evidence the prosecution has presented against Knox. Knox's DNA is on the handle and that of Kercher is on the blade, said a source close to the prosecution who did not wish to be identified discussing an ongoing case. Kercher had never been to Sollecito's apartment and wouldn't have come in contact with the knife, he said, yet there was her DNA. Those \"unmistakable facts\" show the knife played a role in the murder, the source said. Bremner and experts testifying for the defense say there is no way the knife could be the murder weapon. Dr. Carlo Torre, a leading forensics expert in Italy, testified that the knife taken from Sollecito's apartment wouldn't have made the wounds on Kercher's body. \"It doesn't match the size or shape [of the wounds,]\" Bremner told CNN. \"And Sollecito's knife also doesn't match a bloody outline of a knife left on the bedding.\" Bremner, who offered her legal advice pro bono to the Knox family, questioned the validity of the DNA evidence, saying the knife had been \"improperly transported in a shoe box.\" Watch Amanda Knox's parents discuss the case . Furthermore, Bremner said the jury heard from defense expert Sarah Gino, a geneticist and private coroner in Italy, who said that the DNA sample was too small to be definitive. Bremner said the presence of Knox's DNA on the knife handle was no surprise, as the couple had dinner at his house occasionally. Prosecutors say just because the knife doesn't match everything doesn't mean it wasn't used. The source close to the prosecution said it was possible, based on the wounds, that several different items made them. Damning DNA or 'Fellini Forensics' On the night Kercher was killed, Knox and her boyfriend say they were at his house watching a movie and smoking hashish. Their recollection of events, they admitted, was hazy from the drugs, but both swore they went back to the house the next morning. Knox says she was unable to gain entry - and called police. For their case, prosecutors had to prove that Knox and Sollecito - who had recently started dating - were lying and place them at the home when Kercher was killed. Some reports spoke of a scurry of people - more than one - on the night of the murder around the house. It was a positive lead for prosecutor Mignini - but came to nothing in court. But the prosecution had more evidence in the form of a bra clasp, one that fell to the floor after the murderer cut Kercher's bra in half before she was killed. And on it was Sollecito's DNA. Bremner says that evidence on the clasp is fundamentally flawed, like much from the crime scene collection, calling the work \"Fellini forensics.\" \"In the [crime scene] video, you can see it went from being white in color to nearly black because it got so dirty being moved around,\" Bremner said of the clasp, noting that tainted the only evidence that placed Sollecito at the scene. Bremner described other errors she saw on the crime scene video. \"They were putting their fingers in Kercher's wound, they were shaking out evidence, picking up hairs and dropping them,\" she said. \"Some people didn't wear gloves or had their hair draping on the floor, they crashed into a window at one point and threw aside evidence. It was just wrong on all levels.\" The prosecution source maintains the crime scene was handled properly, and the evidence shows what it shows. The source says it's up to the defense to prove otherwise. Biggest case for Italy or the 'greatest travesty' ever? Knox's introduction to the world came in a whirlwind of tabloid headlines. The prosecution touted hard evidence early that they said unquestionably showed they had their killers. There was a footprint in Knox and Kercher's bathroom that was attributed to Sollecito - though later analysts admitted it belonged to Guede, who was convicted of Kercher's murder in 2008. The prosecution also presented what they called a confession by Knox, but Knox later said any apparent admission she was at the scene was made when investigators told her to imagine what she might have seen if she had been there. The argument became moot when a higher court ruled the alleged confession could not be used because the statement was made without an attorney or translator present. The tabloid headlines continue as the trial closes. Media around the world focus on Knox's sexual history, what clothes she wears to court and whether a bump on her lip means the girl they dubbed \"Foxy Knoxy\" has herpes. It's all a distraction from the lack of evidence, Bremner said. \"It's the greatest travesty of a prosecution ever,\" Bremner said. \"It's so ludicrous. You've got to have a theory, or a motive, but the theory has to fit the facts somehow. And in this case, there's no solid evidence, no motive and no match whatsoever.\" Knox's supporters maintain that the prosecution did get one thing right - putting Guede behind bars. He chose a fast-track trial, separate from Sollecito and Knox, and was convicted of murder and attempted sexual assault and sentenced to 30 years. They believe he was Kercher's sole killer. He is appealing the verdict. They believe Knox and Sollecito are only being prosecuted because they were flaunted so publicly as the killers, and it would look bad for officials to admit they got it wrong. The prosecution source rejects that, and portrays Knox, Sollecito and Guede as three people who together ended the life of the young British woman. And they say the way Knox originally pointed the finger at another man - who was cleared with an alibi - shows she had something to hide. Both sides agree the truth is in the evidence, and it will soon be for the jury to decide which version they believe. CNN's Hada Messia and Amy Sahba contributed to this report.","highlights":"Trial of Amanda Knox, accused of murdering fellow student in Italy, is nearing end .\nKey pieces of evidence that once seemed to signal closed case are disputed by defense .\nOpposing sides argues over what is revealed by alleged murder weapon, DNA evidence .","id":"538cb0c8900d3e5f2de349fb3a199441dba905e4"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The British journalist recently freed in a NATO military operation described his Taliban hostage-takers as \"hopelessly inept,\" and praised his Afghan colleague who died in the rescue. Journalists carry flowers to the grave of Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi in Kabul on Thursday. New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell described his four days in captivity in a blog on the newspaper's Web site, posted late Wednesday just hours after he was freed. Taliban militants kidnapped Farrell and Afghan journalist, Sultan Munadi, on Saturday. During a pre-dawn raid Wednesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force plucked Farrell to safety, but did not retrieve the body of Munadi, who died during a fierce firefight between troops and Taliban militants. A British commando was also killed, as were a woman and child. There has been criticism about the rescue operation as well as the initial decision to go into the region which Farrell points out in his blog, \"was becoming more troubled by insurgents.\" International troops, including British forces, have expressed their unhappiness about having to extract a Western journalist from the area, a Western military source in Kabul told CNN. Meanwhile, NATO has come under fire from a coalition of Afghan journalists working for foreign news outlets who called the pre-dawn raid \"reckless and double-standard behavior.\" The Media Club of Afghanistan issued a statement Thursday saying it \"holds the international forces responsible for the death of Mr. Munadi because they resorted in military action before exhausting other nonviolent means.\" \"There is no justification for the international forces to rescue their own national, and retrieve the dead body of their own soldier killed in action, but leave behind the dead body of Sultan Munadi in the area. The MCA deems this action as inhumane.\" British Prime Minister Gordon Brown intends to send a \"private\" letter of condolences to Munadi's family, a spokeswoman for his office told CNN. In his first-hand account of the kidnapping, Farrell praised Munadi for \"trying to protect me up to the last minute.\" The two had gone from Kabul to the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Friday to investigate reports of a NATO airstrike in a Taliban-controlled area. Farrell said he and his colleagues believed the attack, which destroyed two tankers, would be \"a major controversy involving allegations of civilian deaths against NATO claims that the dead were Taliban.\" He said they took precautions, including waiting until the next day to drive along the main highway in daylight. While they were interviewing locals about what happened along the riverbank, Farrell said \"a crowd began to gather, time passed, and we grew nervous.\" \"I do not know how long we were there, but it was uncomfortably long,\" he said. \"I am comfortable with the decision to go to the riverbank, but fear we spent too long there.\" All of a sudden, some of the villagers shouted, \"Taliban\" and their driver fled with the keys, he said. Farrell and Munadi tried to escape too, but they were captured. Munadi was struck with a Kalashnikov rifle, but Farrell said apart from that incident, the two were not \"subjected to any beatings, torture or ill-treatment over the next four days.\" Their Taliban captors operated freely in the area southwest of Kunduz, and appeared to be the only armed presence, Farrell wrote. \"It became a tour of a Taliban-controlled district of Afghanistan, and that control appeared total,\" he said. \"At no point did we see a single NATO soldier, Afghan policeman, soldier or any check to the Taliban's ability to move at will.\" Farrell said he and Munadi were \"paraded\" around by their captors. \"We were paraded to the children in the street: the infidel and his translator, to be laughed at and mocked,\" he wrote. The captors operated with relative impunity and, at times, \"their operational security was hopelessly inept\" -- using Farrell's name over their mobile phones \"heedless of who was, almost certainly, monitoring the calls.\" They even played songs on the radio that praised the Taliban, he said. \"They were not making it hard,\" Farrell wrote. At one point, he said they drove near what they said were watchtowers, manned by the Afghan government and NATO, \"gleeful at their daring.\" \"They drove with headlights full on at night as they moved us from house to house, at least three different buildings a day,\" according to Farrell. He said the Taliban captors seemed to be welcomed by some Afghan villagers, while others appeared \"more wary and formally polite.\" During their captivity, Farrell said \"there were good hours, and bad ones,\" as well as \"progress and setbacks.\" It became harder for the captors to find safe houses, he said. On the third night, there was what appeared to be an attempt to free them, but their captors took them to another refuge within minutes. Then, on the next night, the aerial activity increased and their Taliban captors grabbed their weapons and headed outside -- leaving Farrell and Munadi behind. They ran out later, Munadi in front, and then became separated. Then, Munadi appeared again, holding out his hand to steady a faltering Farrell and they ran across a narrow ledge on the outer wall of the compound. \"I could hear Taliban voices shouting and shooting from trees to our left, I thought,\" Farrell wrote. \"I could also hear indistinct voices ahead. We continued 20 yards along the wall until it suddenly reached the corner.\" Munadi walked beyond that corner, out into the open, raising his hands and shouting, \"Journalist.\" \"There was a burst of gunfire and he went down immediately,\" Farrell wrote. \"In the dark, with firing all around, trees everywhere and my view obscured by him and the wall, I did not know whether the bullets came from in front, to his right or to his left.\" At the sound of gunfire, Farrell reared back and dived into a wet ditch. After a few minutes, he heard British-accented voices and then screamed, \"British hostage,\" flashing a camera light from the ditch. He said he told the soldiers that Munadi was lying behind him, and had possibly been shot. \"The body was lying motionless in the ditch where I had seen him go down,\" Farrell said. \"I hoped he had dropped and was lying still. I knew it wasn't the case.\" The soldiers told him that \"they had his picture and would look for him, then dragged me away.\" \"It was over,\" he wrote. \"Sultan was dead. He had died trying to help me, right up to the very last seconds of his life.\" Farrell said he was then taken onboard the aircraft, as the soldiers, most of them British, carried on some celebrations. But they fell silent after learning one of the rescuers died from the wounds sustained in the raid. \"His blood-soaked helmet was in front of me throughout the flight,\" Farrell wrote. \"I thanked everyone who was still alive to thank. It wasn't, and never will be, enough.\" CNN's Ingrid Formanek in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Freed British journalist: Taliban hostage-takers were \"hopelessly inept\"\nNew York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was freed by NATO forces in Afghanistan .\nAfghan journalist killed with British commando; woman, child die in crossfire .\nMedia Club of Afghanistan: Action \"reckless and double-standard behavior\"","id":"f3ae98c143d3ef2f77066e1a29dd0618273dbcfc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When the Connecticut Huskies take to the field to play West Virginia on Saturday, their helmets will carry the initials of cornerback Jasper Howard, who was stabbed to death over the weekend. The incident happened at 12:33 a.m., shortly after a sponsored student dance on campus. \"It'll be good to get on the practice field tomorrow,\" UConn head football coach Randy Edsall told reporters Monday. Asked whether the team considered postponing the game, he said, \"I know Jasper wouldn't want us to do that. I just know that.\" Howard, a 20-year-old cornerback who started in every game for the team last season, was killed in a fight after a student dance on campus Saturday night, authorities said. Edsall said two other UConn players were with Howard at the time of the incident, but declined to identify them. On Monday, the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Howard died of a stab wound to the abdomen. The death has been classified as a homicide, said Bill Farrell, an investigator in the medical examiner's office. During the dance at the university's student center, a fire alarm was pulled at 12:26 a.m., campus police Maj. Ron Blicher told reporters. More than 300 people who were attending the dance left the building and spilled out into the street. A fight broke out between two groups, and Howard and another person were stabbed, police said. Watch family, friends react to loss \u00bb . The incident happened at 12:33 a.m. Howard and the other victim were taken to a local hospital. Howard was then airlifted by helicopter to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, where he later died, police said. The second victim, who was treated and released, was 19-year-old Brian Parker, a redshirt freshman on the UConn football squad, according to CNN affiliate WTNH. Johnny F. Hood, 21, was arrested in connection to the fight -- not for the stabbing -- and charged with interfering with an officer and breach of peace, according to a police report. He was released on $100,000 bond. Hood's attorney said his client was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, WTNH reported Monday. UConn police and the Connecticut State Police are investigating the incident. They don't have a suspect in the stabbing, but they \"don't believe it was a random act,\" Blicher said. Both students and nonstudents were in the area at the time. Authorities are investigating whether alcohol was involved and what the altercation was about, he said. Anyone with information is asked to contact UConn police. Howard, a father-to-be, was a cornerback for the Huskies, who are 4-2 this season. The team's Web site says he started in every game last year and led the Big East conference in punt returns. On Saturday, the Huskies beat Louisville 38-25. Howard was awarded the game ball after the game, Edsall said. Howard's mother, Joangela, said her son called her after the game, which she watched from her Miami home. Just hours after that chat, she received another call from Edsall, who told her Howard had been stabbed. \"He was a good child, a wonderful, sweet, loving child,\" Joangela Howard told CNN affiliate WSVN. \"I just hope whoever did it turns himself in. [Jasper] didn't deserve this.\" Edsall said Howard's family would be arriving in Connecticut Monday afternoon. CNN's Gabriel Falcon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jasper Howard, 20, killed after a sponsored student dance on campus .\nHoward's death has been classified as a homicide .\nNo suspects, but police \"don't believe it was a random act\"\nSlain football player a \"wonderful, sweet, loving child,\" his mother says .","id":"1e30085ad8913ec1bf9f859a25e02dbf2048f3f4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Alanis Morissette was the definition of \"fierce\" when she arrived on the American music scene with one of the big break-up songs of the '90s, \"You Oughta Know.\" But behind that tough exterior were secrets of a difficult past. \"As a teen, I was both anorexic and bulimic,\" Alanis Morissette recently told Health magazine for its December issue. \"I was a young woman in the public eye, on the receiving end of a lot of attention, and I was trying to protect myself from men who were using their power in ways I was too young to know how to handle.\" By the time Morissette was 14, she had already starred in a popular Canadian children's show, started her own record label and had a publishing contract with MCA Canada, according to her Web site. \"Disappointment, sadness and pain hit me hard, and I tried to numb those feelings through my relationship with food. For four to six months at a time, I would barely eat. I lived on a diet of Melba toast, carrots, and black coffee,\" she said. \"I began recovering at 18, when a sweet friend confronted me.\" Now that she's older, Morissette, 35, said she's no longer starving herself and has begun to look at eating as \"a sort of spiritual practice.\" Her healthier view of food and nutrition is thanks in no small part to a book she discovered a few years ago called \"Eat to Live.\" \"It's become my bible, pushing me to completely reorient my thinking about what to put into my body. ... Now I concentrate on eating high-nutrient foods like fruit, nuts, collards, kale and spinach. I'm obsessed with them. I even put spinach in my smoothies,\" the Canadian musician admitted. The seven-time Grammy Award winner has also sworn off dairy, on a tip from Woody Harrelson, no less. \"Woody Harrelson [told] me I needed to get rid of the dairy in my fridge to clear up my skin,\" she said. It's had a positive effect: Morissette said her skin \"looks great now.\" But all of that health consciousness doesn't mean Morissette has lost appreciation for the more delectable things in life. \"Don't get me wrong,\" she said in the interview, \"I still indulge in a glass of wine or chocolate -- treats are mandatory. Without deviating from the day-to-day healthy diet once in a while, it wouldn't be sustainable for me, and that's what I wanted: an approach to eating to last my entire life.\" Resolving her issues with food and body image has helped Morissette to develop clarity in other areas of her life as well. \"I'm really clear about what my life mission is now. There's no more depression or lethargy, and I feel like I've returned to the athlete I once was. I'm integrating all the parts of me -- jock, musician, writer, poet, philosopher -- and becoming stronger as a result,\" she said. \"I hope my effort shows any woman battling an eating disorder or poor body image that she's not alone -- support is out there -- and inspires her to discover her inner athlete. It doesn't matter what your fitness-skill level is.\" Health magazine's December issue hits newsstands November 24.","highlights":"Alanis Morissette told Health magazine that she had an eating disorder as a teen .\nMorissette now is focusing on her diet as \"a sort of spiritual practice\"\nHer new outlook has spread to the way she views balancing all aspects of her life .\nShe hopes to be a role model for other girls struggling with eating disorders .","id":"a66bd8f271703a7b9965732927324ad6385053b9"} -{"article":"ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- The governments of Armenia and Turkey will sign a peace agreement in Zurich on Saturday that would normalize relations after nearly a century of animosity between the neighboring nations, the Swiss government said Friday. The Swiss-mediated peace deal would also open the border between the countries, which has been shut since 1993. The signing ceremony comes more than a month after Armenia and Turkey announced they had agreed to start six weeks of \"internal political consultations\" on two protocols aimed at establishing diplomatic and bilateral relations. The Swiss-mediated peace deal would also open the border between the countries, which has been shut since 1993. The border was closed after Turkey objected to Armenia's war with Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabagh. Neither country has an embassy in the other's capital. Turkish-Armenian relations have often been overshadowed by the dispute over the massacre of ethnic Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, more than 90 years ago. Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing genocide, killing more then a million Armenians starting in 1915. Modern-day Turkey vehemently rejects the allegations. The proposed protocols for normalizing relations call for creating a committee of international experts to research archives and \"restore mutual confidence between the two nations.\" There is no mention of the disputed territory of Karabagh, which Armenian troops have controlled since the 1993 Armenian-Azerbaijan war. But the success of the protocols is still uncertain, as the parliaments of both countries still must ratify the agreement. A senior U.S. State Department official -- authorized to brief reporters without attribution because of diplomatic sensitivities -- said the situation remains \"difficult.\" \"There's opposition both in Turkey and in Armenia,\" the senior official said Thursday, \"but both governments realize ultimately it's in their interest to have normalized relations and an open border after years of tension and the economic isolation, particularly of Armenia.\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the signing, along with dignitaries from several other countries, including the European Union, according to the Swiss government.","highlights":"Swiss-mediated deal would normalize relations between rival nations .\nAccord also open the border, which has been closed since 1993 .\nAnimosity dates back to Ottoman Empire and massacre of ethnic Armenians .\nBoth countries still must ratify the protocols, and difficulties remain .","id":"c028802662c456c736e4066a14d59755dc985475"} -{"article":"Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- European Union leaders named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first \"president of Europe\" Thursday, edging out former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a still-vaguely defined job. \"I did not seek this high position, and I didn't take any steps to achieve it,\" Van Rompuy said in accepting the job. \"But tonight, I take on this task with conviction and with enthusiasm.\" Van Rompuy, a 62-year-old, soft-spoken fan of Japanese poetry, will become the face of European Union and represent its 27 member nations at summits overseas. His conservative government took office in December 2008. The Belgian is \"well known as a consensus builder,\" said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who added the selection was unanimous. And Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission -- the executive arm of the EU -- called Van Rompuy's selection \"a tribute to Belgium,\" the EU's host country. \" I think the European Union also expressed its gratitude for the work of Belgium and the constant support that this country at the heart of Europe has given to our common project,\" he said. In his speech, Van Rompuy pledged to lead the EU through a process of \"dialogue, unity and action.\" \"A negotiation that ends with a defeated party is never a good negotiation,\" he said. \"As president of the council, I will listen carefully to everyone, and I will make sure that all deliberations turn into results for everyone.\" The presidency was created by the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, which came into force this month after years of torturous negotiations. Van Rompuy will serve a two-and-a-half-year term, replacing the six-month presidency of the bloc that rotated among the heads of its member states. But while the EU prides itself on being a club of democracies, the process of choosing its new leader was far from transparent or open. The people of Europe are getting no say, not even through their parliamentarians. Van Rompuy's new job was announced after a closed-door dinner for the EU's heads of state and government. The Belgian defended the process, telling reporters the selection was made by leaders \"who were all democratically chosen.\" \"I was chosen on the basis of a treaty,\" he said. \"The treaty stipulates the procedure. The treaty was democratically approved by 27 member states.\" The EU leaders also named Catherine Ashton, a British trade commissioner and member of the House of Lords, as the union's High Commissioner -- its equivalent of a foreign minister. Unlike Van Rompuy, who was chosen by leaders of the EU's member states, Ashton must be confirmed by the European Parliament. Blair, who led Britain from 1997 to 2007, is currently the EU's Mideast envoy. He had been the early favorite for the presidency in recent weeks -- but Brown, his successor, realized that he lacked support among key decision-makers for new post, a Brown representative told CNN earlier. According his backers, who at first included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was just the sort of world-renowned figure to win attention for the EU and enable it to exercise its weight in world affairs. One Indian official told CNN before the announcement, \"If the EU chooses as its worldwide representative the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg, I am not sure our leaders will have the time to meet him.\" But others were soon arguing that Blair's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and his close alliance with former U.S. President George W. Bush made him a divisive figure in Europe. And as the one man who might have been able to take Britain into the European single currency, he had not even attempted to do so while he was Britain's prime minister. Public backing from Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, a joke figure to much of Europe and another Bush ally, did not help. Brown had realized earlier that Blair did not have enough support among key decision-makers to snag the new post, a Brown representative told CNN earlier. CNN Political Contributor Robin Oakley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy appointed first \"president of Europe,\" British PM Gordon Brown says .\nTony Blair ruled out after his successor as UK PM realized Blair had insufficient support .\nPresident of EC will be first permanent chief of the European Council of Ministers .\nSelection conducted by heads of state and government, not by Europe's parliamentarians .","id":"b4edcadb203560dc910d0e9a1ab225ebeddb7598"} -{"article":"Vilseck, Germany (CNN) -- The wives of three Army sergeants in prison for premeditated murder say their husbands are war heroes who should not be in prison. \"I can sympathize with them that they felt like there was nothing else they could do,\" said Jamie Leahy, wife of Sgt. Michael Leahy, a 28-year-old medic. She said her husband and the other two sergeants were heroes for protecting other soldiers. Leahy, 1st Sgt. John Hatley and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo killed four Iraqi men whom they had taken into custody at a canal in Baghdad, Iraq. During the investigation of the killings, Leahy told Army investigators that the same men they had captured would be shooting at them again if they had released them. \"It's like somebody keeps coming and breaking into your house, and you told the cops, 'This is who it is, I saw them, they were in my house,' \" Jamie Leahy told CNN's \"AC 360\u00b0.\" \"And that's not enough, and they are able to keep coming in and breaking into your house. \"I know it's more severe than that, but I mean if somebody kept coming in and breaking into your house, I think that the person would either want to get a gun or something to protect themselves because you feel like in your own home, you can't even be safe.\" Earlier this year, Leahy, Hatley and Mayo were convicted of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder in the killings of the four Iraqi detainees in March 2007. Documents obtained by CNN, as well as Army interrogation tapes, reveal that Hatley believed that if the men were taken to a detainee holding area, they would be released because there was not enough evidence to hold them. \"It's like you're letting somebody go so they can come back and terrorize you again and try and kill you and maybe be successful next time,\" Jaime Leahy said. Kim Hatley made a video in a field in Schweinfurt, Germany, where she and her husband lived before he was sent to the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In the video, she holds up cards asking for help in freeing \"three American heroes.\" \"They served their country, and they've been through a lot, and so have the family members,\" she told CNN. \"But, in life, with any challenge, you can't just look at one incident. This does not define who these soldiers are.\" Kim Hatley says her husband is a \"good man.\" \"I don't think my husband should have gone to prison,\" she said. \"I don't think that was fair. I don't think any of our soldiers should have gone to prison.\" And Johana Mayo said her husband has been punished enough. \"I think that he's given and sacrificed a lot,\" she said. \"I think he's a war hero. He's not a criminal and he's ... being treated as a criminal, and he shouldn't be.\" The Mayos have three children, ages 15 months, 6 and 11. Johana Mayo is legally blind and cannot drive. \"I was used to relying on my husband for everything,\" she said. \"You know, and he was the one that drove the kids around. He was the one that took care of their homework and anything -- grocery shopping -- everything. I relied on him for everything, and now I feel like I have to turn to my daughter a lot, and she's only 11.\" All three wives have set up Web sites to support their husbands: defendjohnhatley.com, defendjosephmayo.com and supportsgtleahy.com. Hatley, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, got clemency with his sentence reduced to 40 years. Both Leahy, who also received a life sentence, and Mayo, who got 35 years, had their sentences reduced to 20 years. All three sergeants were reduced in rank to private and sent to Fort Leavenworth. \"I think that what happened was done to protect the soldiers, to keep our soldiers safe from getting harmed or killed,\" Johana Mayo said.","highlights":"Wives say three Army sergeants convicted of murder should not be in prison .\nThey say their husbands were heroes for protecting other soldiers in Iraq .\nAll three wives have set up Web sites to support their husbands .\nWatch Saturday, Sunday at 8 and 11 p.m. ET; read blog posts: Abbie Boudreau; Scott Zamost .","id":"8f11c6d253952d039aeb0c4680ab91feb2eefd74"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Elizabeth McCutchen and a friend were walking to book club two weeks ago in quaint Farmville, Virginia, when they strolled by a home on First Avenue. \"Something smells dead,\" her friend said. Richard Samuel McCroskey has been arrested in connection with the killings of four people in Virginia. They were thinking animal. A dog, a cat, something like that. They never imagined they were smelling the remains of massacred humans. It was Thursday, September 17. But another 24 hours would pass before police made the gruesome discovery. Richard Samuel McCroskey III -- a 20-year-old rapper in the underground genre of \"Horrorcore\" who sang of chopping people into pieces -- has been arrested in connection with the slayings. The crime scene was so horrifying police would not even describe it, saying only that the victims died of blunt force trauma. The victims were Mark Niederbrock, 50, the beloved pastor at Walker's Presbyterian Church; his 16-year-old daughter, Emma Niederbrock; Melanie Wells, Emma's 18-year-old friend from West Virginia; and Niederbrock's estranged wife, Debra Kelley, 53, a professor at Longwood University. McCroskey has been charged only in the killing of Mark Niederbrock. Police and the prosecutor's office did not return repeated phone calls from CNN. But in late September, authorities said more charges are pending. Emma was described as a fan of Horrorcore and had met McCroskey through their mutual affection for the little-known music genre. Police said she invited McCroskey to fly from his northern California home, stay with her in Virginia and then attend the Strictly for the Wicked Festival, a Horrorcore fest in Michigan featuring bands with names like Dismembered Fetus and Phrozen Body Boy. Nobody saw what would come next. The slayings have been the talk of Farmville, a town of 7,000 that is home to Longwood University and nearby Hampden-Sydney College. Senseless is the word you hear most. It's not just the macabre nature of the killings that has people talking. It's the grotesque lyrics of the Horrorcore singer; it's that it happened under their noses. McCroskey is a young man with no criminal record who took delight in the blend of horror hip-hop that celebrated macabre killings. He went by the name Syko Sam. In one YouTube video, he holds a hatchet and sings about killing people and putting their remains in black bags: \"Last night I was the murderous rage. Now, I gotta get rid of the bodies before the corpses start to get to rotting.\" 'Stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled' Authorities have not specified when the Virginia killings occurred, but at 4 a.m. on Friday, September 18, tow-truck driver Elton Napier was called out to Poor House Road to help McCroskey, whose car was stuck. Napier said McCroskey was wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and \"was really smelling bad, like real bad. I can't describe it.\" McCroskey was driving Mark Niederbrock's Honda. Napier said two sheriff's deputies were at the scene and McCroskey was ticketed for driving without a license. At the time, authorities didn't know the pastor had been slain. When McCroskey hopped into Napier's flatbed, the tow-truck driver said he started gagging from the odor and immediately rolled down the windows. \"I just held my head out the window so the wind would hit me in the face,\" he said. \"That was the stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled.\" Napier drove McCroskey about four miles to a convenience store. McCroskey told Napier he was visiting his girlfriend and her father lent him the car. McCroskey fetched a black bag from the Honda before they parted. Napier went inside to get a cup of coffee. According to police, McCroskey eventually caught a cab to Richmond International Airport. By mid-afternoon that same day, police found the bodies at the home on First Avenue. McCroskey was arrested the next day at the airport, where he had spent the night. When he was being led to jail, McCroskey told reporters, \"Jesus told me to do it.\" Suspect's family, community grieve . Sarah McCroskey of California told CNN-affiliate WWBT that her brother had been looking forward to his visit to Virginia for weeks. She mourned his arrest and struggled with the accusations against him. \"I want to hear his voice. I am so concerned, so worried -- not just for him [but] other people, other families involved dealing with this loss,\" she said. Read WWBT's special coverage . Defense attorney Cary Bowen told CNN, \"I don't want to say he's in shock. That's a medical term, but it's a big experience for him. ... I'm not sure he gets the severity of everything right now.\" The community is still devastated by the events as it struggles to move forward. Memorial services were held over the weekend for Emma Niederbrock and her mother, Debra Kelley. The Rev. Sylvia Meadows of Farmville United Methodist Church baptized Emma at age 5 and her father when he was an adult. The pastor said the church has invited an occult specialist to speak with members of the community to help them come to grips with the dark side of humanity. \"We have looked evil in the face and cannot deny that it exists,\" Meadows said. \"God is stronger than evil. God is bigger.\" Luther Glenn, a member of Walker's Presbyterian Church where Niederbrock was pastor, took issue with McCroskey's comment about Jesus telling him to act. \"I think it's deeply rooted in Satan, if you want to know the truth.\" Elizabeth McCutchen, who passed the First Avenue home some time after the slayings, said the killings have affected every fabric of the community: the churches, the colleges, and their youth. \"This is the kind of town that goes to the rescue of survivors, but there's nobody [left] -- we can't do anything about it,\" she said. \"It's been really, really upsetting.\" CNN's Gary Tuchman and Susan Chun contributed to this report.","highlights":"20-year-old rapper of \"Horrorcore\" accused of Virginia slayings .\nLittle known underground music genre celebrates macabre killings .\nTow-truck driver gave suspect a lift; said he was \"stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled\"\nDefense lawyer said he's unsure Richard McCroskey \"gets the severity of everything\"","id":"b07aedde6d44ed5dc527490961d91f8c8125a3f2"} -{"article":"New York (CNN) -- More than 80 Michael Jackson collectibles -- including the late pop star's famous rhinestone-studded glove from a 1983 performance -- were auctioned off Saturday, reaping a total $2 million. Profits from the auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York's Times Square crushed pre-sale expectations of only $120,000 in sales. The highly prized memorabilia, which included items spanning the many stages of Jackson's career, came from more than 30 fans, associates and family members, who contacted Julien's Auctions to sell their gifts and mementos of the singer. Jackson's flashy glove was the big-ticket item of the night, fetching $420,000 from a buyer in Hong Kong, China. Jackson wore the glove at a 1983 performance during \"Motown 25,\" an NBC special where he debuted his revolutionary moonwalk. Fellow Motown star Walter \"Clyde\" Orange of the Commodores, who also performed in the special 26 years ago, said he asked for Jackson's autograph at the time, but Jackson gave him the glove instead. \"The legacy that [Jackson] left behind is bigger than life for me,\" Orange said. \"I hope that through that glove people can see what he was trying to say in his music and what he said in his music.\" Orange said he plans to give a portion of the proceeds to charity. Hoffman Ma, who bought the glove on behalf of Ponte 16 Resort in Macau, paid a 25 percent buyer's premium, which was tacked onto all final sales over $50,000. Winners of items less than $50,000 paid a 20 percent premium. Darren Julien, president and CEO of Julien's Auctions, said people were hungry for such tokens of Jackson's life, as evidenced by the 3,500 who registered as bidders for the auction. \"Michael was very generous,\" Julien said. \"If you were friends with Michael Jackson or an important part of his life, occasionally he would give something away, and that's a very big reason that these things got out in the public.\" A signature black synthetic blend jacket from Jackson's 16-month Bad World Tour, his first concert tour as a solo artist, sold for $270,000. Featuring black straps with silver buckles and zippers, the jacket came to symbolize Jackson's \"Bad\" era. Tori Renza, whose father bought her the Bad jacket when she was just 4 years old, said she grew up singing and dancing to Jackson's songs around her house. \"It just became part of our family,\" said Renza, who planned to use the money from the auction to pay back student loans. Jackson's famed fedora, which he sported at the 1995 MTV Music Awards, sold for $73,800. It was one of three hats Jackson wore during a 10-minute medley before hurling it into the crowd. The hat was auctioned at a charity event that year, and the letter of verification is signed \"Lisa Marie Presley Jackson,\" the daughter of Elvis Presley who was married to Jackson for nearly two years. \"To my knowledge, there were not a lot of letters that she signed with her full name,\" Julien said. Handwritten lyrics of the 1983 smash hit \"Beat It,\" which Jackson scribbled on a piece of white paper, went for $60,000. One of the more bizarre items up for bidding, an upper mold used to fit Jackson with animal fangs for the 1983 video for \"Thriller,\" sold for more than $10,000. The auction also allowed the world to see photographs of Jackson engaged in simple activities, like driving. His 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL, which he ultimately gave to an aunt as a birthday gift, was auctioned for $104,500. \"What's even more significant is that we have photos of Michael driving the car,\" Julien said. \"When have you seen Michael driving a car? He was always chauffeured or driven.\" There were also a number of autographed photos, as well as signed books, collectibles and artwork. Even Jackson's doodles and sketches of the likes of Frankenstein, Mickey Mouse and Charlie Chaplin were up for sale. Lee Tompkins, a renowned pencil artist who said he came to know Jackson in the early 1980s and owns approximately 75 of Jackson's artworks, auctioned two of Jackson's pieces: one of a vagabond and the other of Charlie Chaplin. They sold for $20,000 and $33,280 respectively. \"He's more than just a singer and dancer. He was an artist first,\" Thompkins said. Before Saturday's auction, the items were exhibited in Santiago, Chile; Dublin, Ireland; and Tokyo, Japan, where crowds lined up for hours get a glimpse of them, Julien said. \"Michael Jackson is looking down and has to be happy,\" he said after the auction, adding, \"We lost an icon.\"","highlights":"Among items auctioned Saturday: jacket, song lyrics, sketches, dental mold .\nFamous rhinestone-studded glove fetched $420,000 .\nHat's letter of verification signed by Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley .","id":"fe05c61a7e48461f7883cdec387567029614f07b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Thousands of fans, many weeping, packed a Hannover, Germany, stadium Sunday to pay their last respects to Robert Enke, captain of the Hannover 96 soccer club, who died last week in what police believe was a suicide. Footage from the event showed Enke's flower-bedecked coffin carried through the stadium to the accompaniment of Bette Midler's song \"The Rose\" as the crowd cheered. Many of the spectators waved Hannover 96 banners as they wiped tears from their eyes. Enke, 32, was the goalkeeper for both Hannover 96 and the German national soccer team. He died Tuesday about 6:25 p.m. after he apparently stepped in front of a train. He had played in eight games for the team and was widely expected to be the German team's goalkeeper in the 2010 World Cup. \"Preliminary police investigations indicate a suicide,\" Hannover 96 spokesman Stefan Wittke said last week. The stadium funeral service followed another memorial in a church and a mourning march through Hannover initiated by fans, the team said in a statement on its Web site. \"Robert's wife Teresa has expressed the wish to have all his friends and fans of her deceased husband bid farewell to him in the AWD Arena,\" the statement said. \"Hannover 96 supports Teresa Enke in her wish to have Robert and his friends, fans and teammates part with one another in an appropriate and worthy setting.\" \"A few days have passed since Robert's tragic death, but our inner shock remains,\" the team said. \"One thing is certain: We are not alone in our sadness. Robert Enke was not only perceived by you as a successful football player but above all as a special human being.\" Funeral speakers included German football league president Theo Zwanziger, the team said, as well as team chairman Martin Kind and other dignitaries. Afterward, the team said Enke would be laid to rest \"in the presence of (his) closest family members.\" Teresa Enke told reporters following Enke's death that her husband had been battling depression for six years, but had kept his condition from being public knowledge. He left a suicide note, she said. The Enkes' biological daughter, Lara, died in 2006 at the age of 2 from a heart condition. The couple recently had adopted an 18-month-old girl they named Leila. \"I tried to be there for him, said that football is not everything,\" Teresa Enke said. \"There are many beautiful things in life. It is not hopeless. \"We had Lara, we have Leila,\" she said. \"I always wanted to help him get through it. He didn't want (the depression) to come out because of fear. He was scared of losing Leila.\" Have you lost a loved-one to suicide? Share your story . Fellow players said they knew Enke had been struggling. \"He was unstable,\" Kind said just after his death. \"But he kept it under wraps. In the wake of Enke's death, the German national soccer team canceled its friendly match with Chile on Saturday. Hannover 96 is currently 10th in Germany's Bundesliga top division. Enke had been capped by his national side eight times since making his debut at age 29. The shot-stopper had also appeared for teams including Carl Zeiss Jena, Borussia Monchengladbach, Benfica, Barcelona, Fenerbahce and Tenerife in Spain. --CNN's Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands flock to Hannover 96 football stadium to play tribute to goalkeeper .\nStadium service followed another memorial in church, mourning march through Hannover .\nRobert Enke, 32, was expected to start for Germany in 2010 World Cup .\nEnke's wife says he suffered from depression for six years .","id":"9d86720166a5235767413925d1923675f7717ace"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Fort Hood, Texas, is -- for all intents and purposes -- a city. With as many as 30,000 residents, it has all the trappings of an American metropolis: malls, softball fields, subdivisions and as many as nine schools. But in other ways, Fort Hood is like no American city. It is a transition point for troops who have served overseas, soldiers who have seen the worst that war has to offer and are returning to life at home. At least 13 people were killed and 30 wounded in shootings on the post Thursday, officials said. The alleged gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was wounded. Some of those killed or wounded were at the Readiness Center, a soldier's last stop before deployment, said Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone. It is also one of the first places a soldier goes after returning from war. Officials: Gunman opens fire at Fort Hood . Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who served at Fort Hood in the late 1990s, said the nearly eight years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq have created difficulties for the U.S. armed forces. \"This is a very complex situation, a situation we have not dealt with in the Army before. We have never been at war this long before in modern history,\" he said. \"And many of these soldiers have been deployed multiple times, so this has put a lot of stress on these soldiers and their families. \"One of the biggest things on re-entry that the Readiness Center does is to help those soldiers cope with being back home and dealing with the extremes of [post-traumatic stress disorder],\" Honore said. It is also where soldiers \"do everything from finalizing your next of kin, inspect your immunization record, as well as make a will,\" he said. Fort Hood is the largest U.S. military installation in the world by size, and on any given day, it is home to 25,000 to 30,000 people, according to an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. The post also houses the families of service members and other civilians. iReport.com: Are you there? Send pics, video . \"Some of these soldiers have lost some of their closest friends, seen some of the horrific things associated with warfare including these roadside bombs,\" Honore said. \"They've seen and experienced -- many of them -- some very horrific events.\" Services and programs offered on the post range from helping troops who are leaving the armed services find employment or pursue education to helping soldiers deal with combat-related illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder. One such program, called the Warrior Stress Reset Program, is \"designed to help address those common and normal reactions to war experiences,\" says a military Web site. \"It is well documented that participation in a major conflict ... has a way of leaving its mark on the psyche of our soldiers,\" the Web site reads. The program lasts three weeks and provides counseling and treatment. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said the post has a robust support system for families of deployed troops, which would help troops and civilians there handle Thursday's violence. \"The people who are there will surround the families and take care of them, the ones who have had loved ones who were killed,\" she said. The Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command, are based at Fort Hood. Fort Hood measures about 340 square miles across and is approximately 160 miles south of Dallas\/Fort Worth, Texas. CNN's Barbara Starr, Adam Levine, Mike Mount and Chris Lawrence contributed to this report.","highlights":"General says ongoing wars have put stress on troops and their families .\nFort Hood is largest U.S. military installation in the world by size .\nOn any given day, there can be at least 25,000 to 30,000 people .\nIt is also a transition point for troops returning to civilian life .","id":"82a70f3d16e06a2afeebe7fb0ad49f2b1b3b7c8a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Like all zombie movies, \"Zombieland\" has hundreds of zombies doing awful things, such as attacking and eating humans, but you could argue it's not a zombie movie. Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson find themselves battling the undead in \"Zombieland.\" Zombie hordes do chase the main characters in a post-apocalyptic world, but the focus is on the comedy's stars, including two Oscar nominees -- Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin -- along with Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone. (Spoiler alert: A third Oscar nominee makes a remarkable cameo appearance, but this story will avoid spoiling the surprise by naming him.) \"We wanted to make a cool, kick-ass road movie about a dysfunctional family traveling across the country and zombies provide us the antagonists, the threat that our characters need to come together,\" said Paul Wernick, who wrote the screenplay with partner Rhett Reese. In fact, Wernick had only seen one zombie film before writing this script. Reese, who is a fan of the genre, kept the story on a track that would feed zombie fans' hunger for blood-and-guts action. \"[The] zombie genre is so well traveled, there is really no reason to get into it unless we could do it in a fresh, different way,\" Reese said. \"We were almost forced to think outside the box to make it an entertaining zombie movie.\" \"Zombieland\" is set in the United States months after a fast-moving virus begins turning most people into flesh-eating zombies. A handful of survivors come together to fight back. Wernick and Reese literally rewrote the rules for zombie films in this movie. Eisenberg's character is an obsessive-compulsive man who developed 47 rules -- such as \"fasten your seat belt\" -- designed to help him survive in Zombieland. While Eisenberg journeys to find his parents, he joins Harrelson, a zombie killer who is searching for the last Hostess Twinkie before its expiration date. Stone and Breslin play sisters who survive on their con artist skills. Their goal is to reach a California amusement park, which they think could be free of zombies. The cross-country trip these four characters share resembles \"National Lampoon's Vacation\" -- if written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Watch the stars of the film talk about zombie fans \u00bb . Wernick said they wanted to be \"very freewheeling.\" The movie \"gives the audience the thrill of the journey,\" he said. \"We wanted to take some wild turns.\" \"The rules that we lived by when writing this is in fact that there are no rules,\" he said. \"Zombieland\" may be to zombies what Tarantino's \"Inglourious Basterds\" is to Nazis. Wernick and Reese, who have been close friends since high school, often finish each other's sentences as if they were an old married couple. \"When we were trying to get 'Zombieland' off the ground back in the early days, we ...\" Wernick said. \"... assaulted Tarantino at an awards show, to try to get him to read the script,\" Reese said. \"That didn't work out,\" Wernick said in conclusion to their joint thought. \"He thought we were zombies coming after him.\" \"Zombieland,\" directed by Rubin Fleischer, offers many of the same elements as a Tarantino film. \"[Tarantino] is all about dialogue, character, irreverence, pop culture and we love all those things over the years,\" Reese said. \"We have always been inspired by him.\" The writers had to run through a number of actors before finding the person for the 10-minute cameo. Among them was Patrick Swayze, the writers' first choice. Swayze, who died just two weeks before the movie's release, turned down the role because of ill health earlier this year. Also asked: Joe Pesci, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson, Matthew McConaughey, Mark Hamill, Kevin Bacon and Sylvester Stallone. They were asked, but either didn't want the role or were not available, according to Wernick and Reese. With just a few days before filming the scenes, they asked Harrelson to look in his cell phone for names and numbers. He came up with a man who's been an Oscar nominee and Emmy winner. And now, he's got a key role in a zombie film.","highlights":"In new movie \"Zombieland,\" focus is on the stars and the comedy .\nMovie's performers include Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin .\nOne of film's writers had seen just one zombie film in his life .\nAmong movie's surprises: a cameo from an Oscar-nominated actor .","id":"c44ebd2eee30746df889f636912f97f1f84cf5ec"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- CNN has learned from two senior Democratic sources that former President Bill Clinton will attend the Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon Tuesday to address the caucus about health care. A notice obtained by CNN went out to Senate Democrats saying, \"All Senators should be aware that former President Clinton will be making a presentation on Health Care at tomorrow's caucus lunch. Senator Reid has requested that all Democratic Senators attend.\" A constant refrain from Democratic leaders is that wavering Democrats must heed what they say is a lesson of the Clinton administration: fail to pass a health care reform bill, and congressional Democrats will suffer on Election Day. With this visit at a critical time for health care in the Senate, the former president will be able to deliver that message in person. Democrats in the House of Representatives approved a health care bill over the weekend. If the Senate passes a bill, a congressional conference committee will need to merge the House and Senate proposals into a consensus version requiring final approval from each chamber before moving to President Obama's desk to be signed into law. The House bill is more expansive -- and hence more expensive -- than the Senate Finance Committee bill. The House bill, projected to guarantee coverage for 96 percent of Americans, will cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. CNN's Dana Bash, Brianna Keilar,Ted Barrett and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Clinton will attend Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon Tuesday, sources tell CNN .\nClinton will push message that failure to pass health bill will have election consequences .\nHouse of Representatives passed health care bill over the weekend .","id":"ce82dd2c529855946b366aa5b24b8eddd074be99"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A jury Thursday acquitted a former Louisville, Kentucky, high school football coach of all charges connected to the heat-related death of a player last year. David Stinson leaves the courtroom Thursday after being found not guilty in the death of a high school player. The jury found former Pleasure Ridge Park football coach David Jason Stinson not guilty of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the death of 15-year-old Max Gilpin, who collapsed during a practice on August 20, 2008. The teenager died three days later. Gilpin's body temperature reached 107 degrees, officials say. Stinson also was acquitted on a charge of wanton endangerment. Watch Stinson after his aquittal \u00bb . Prosecutors said Stinson ran a tough practice on a hot day that made several of his players sick. \"The defendant said to his kids, 'We're going to run until someone quits,' \" prosecutor Jon Heck alleged in his closing argument. \"A young man given that ultimatum, he ran until he collapsed. He turned white, his eyes rolled back. He could no longer support himself. ... He lost his consciousness, was ultimately taken to the hospital where his body temperature exceeded 107 degrees,\" Heck said of Gilpin. The defense argued that nothing was wrong with the practice and that other factors may have contributed to Gilpin's heat stroke. \"We're the first place in this country to indict a coach for a homicide or a felony involving a practice that nobody says they would have stopped,\" defense attorney Alex Dathorne said in his closing argument. \"There's nothing wrong with the practice; there's nothing wrong with it.\" The defense presented witnesses who said Gilpin had complained that he wasn't feeling well the day he collapsed. Gilpin's parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against six coaches at the school. The suit claims they were negligent in their actions and that more than 20 minutes passed between the time Gilpin collapsed and the time one of the coaches called paramedics, according to CNN affilliate WHAS. Stinson is the only person who has been charged with a crime. Days after he was charged, Stinson told supporters that his \"heart is broken.\" \"Part of my life has been taken away,\" he said, according to WHAS. \"I no longer teach, and I no longer coach at the school that I love. ... \"The one thing people keep forgetting in this is that I lost one of my boys that day,\" he said. \"It was a boy that I loved and a boy that I cared for and a boy that meant the world to me. That's the thing that people forget. And that's a burden I will carry with me for the rest of my life.\"","highlights":"Jury found Jason Stinson not guilty of all charges in the death of Max Gilpin .\nStinson, ex-coach at Pleasure Ridge Park was charged with reckless homicide .\nGilpin, 15, collapsed during practice in August 2008 and died several days later .\nGilpin's death was determined to be related to heat exhaustion, authorities said .","id":"25e6c5901ffbaed729fb8a40f1511d9770b38691"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Keith Felch is admittedly a big guy, but more than a few super-fit cyclists in Southern California have been left wondering how that dude just went flying by. Keith Felch calls his electric bike a \"hill eraser\" because he can ride it to work without breaking a sweat. And then his wife, Mary, comes motoring past. \"They stare, like how can a girl go past me,\" she says, laughing. It takes the other riders a few seconds but then they figure it out. They have electric motors. The Felches, who live in Aliso Viejo, California, used to drive everywhere, except when they used their bikes for recreation. That changed when they got their new e-bikes, made by a company called Optibike. Now, they ride to go shopping and to go to breakfast -- but mostly they ride to work. Keith Felch says the couple has cut 50 percent of their car-use since they started electric biking. And there are other benefits. Keith Felch dropped 30 pounds and his blood pressure fell 10 points in the first six months he owned the bike, he says. The Felches don't exactly classify themselves as \"environmentalists,\" although Mary said it is important to have a positive effect on the planet. \"I learned that the worst amount of smog that you put out [in an automobile] is in the first mile, so if we can make even some of those shorter trips on our bicycles, it makes a big difference,\" she says. Who wants one? Brent Meyers, director of sales for Ultra Motor US, says electric bikes attract different types of buyers. Many are looking to make a green imprint. Some are \"active adults\" who have ridden bicycles for years who -- as they get older -- are unable to do the same kind of riding they did when they were young. Other buyers want to ride their bikes to work quickly -- and avoid a sweaty entrance into the office. Oddly -- or perhaps not -- Ultra Motor US sees its strongest sales when the price of oil skyrockets, says Meyers. Two wheels, a motor and 100 million riders . Electric bikes are still somewhat of a novelty in the United States, but in China they're everywhere. In fact, Chinese electric bikes number more than 100 million -- which is about four times the number of Chinese private cars, according to Electric Bikes Worldwide Reports. The bikes are popular in Europe as well. Sales figures for the United States are hard to pinpoint. In the United States, about 200,000 electric bicycles were sold last year, said Ed Benjamin of the Light Electric Vehicle Association -- about twice the number sold in 2005. But the industry has hit a bump in the road from the recession, as sales were down about 10 percent in 2009, he said. E-bikes are mostly made by specialty companies, but the growing sales trend has been noticed by the big boys. Trek, a worldwide leader in bike sales, has been making electric bikes for three years, but only introduced them in the United States in the past year. Other well-known companies like Schwinn and Giant are increasing their presence in the e-bike field. At Interbike, the biggest bicycle industry convention in the United States, there were more than 20 companies displaying e-bikes this year. Meyers said only a few years ago, it was about five. Prices range from a few hundred dollars -- the E-Zip Trailz Hybrid costs $398 at Wal-Mart -- to more than $13,000 for OptiBike's top-end model. Prices increase as battery technology and components get better. Steve Roseman of The Electric Bike Network in San Francisco, California, said most buyers he sees don't balk at the price, which can be as much as a good road or mountain bike. They are mostly concerned with how far they can go on a battery charge and how fast. What's an 'e-bike'? By law, electric bikes must have no more than 1 horsepower and go no faster than 20 mph (on motor power alone). Basically they are much like traditional bicycles with small motors that power the bike or assist a rider with pedaling. Many have gears like a regular bike. \"It's just adding the throttle aspect, other than that it handles like a regular bicycle,\" Keith Felch said. He says he uses the throttle all the time, choosing one of two modes -- eco [half power] or fast [full power]. He says he once tried a regular bike for his 4 \u00bd-mile ride to one of his music studios where he teaches jazz improvisation. But the hills nearly got him. He calls his electric bike a \"hill eraser.\" It also makes the ride to his farthest studio -- 22 miles away -- seem much closer. He says he gets about 35 miles on his primary battery and has an additional one for long rides. Shifting views . But as they tout the virtues of electric bikes, advocates also realize that there will have to be a shift in the way Americans view them before they become as popular as they are in Europe or China. \"There are two possible sides to the equation,\" Roseman said. \"One would be a change in the way people view transportation. There are still a lot of SUVs out there. ... People still have a hard time thinking about riding a bicycle unless they are 10 years old, it seems. So there needs to be a little shift in mentality.\" \"But having said that, I think there is a growing awareness about health and transportation and environmental issues so it could be that we are just reaching a juncture where things will change [for e-bikes].\" Meyers says people also have a preconceived notion about electric bikes. Some view them as expensive or poor quality or uncomfortable. And Meyers admits, e-bikes are not for everybody. As Roseman says, people who live in Spandex will probably always prefer a really good road bike and hard-core city cyclists may well stick to their fixed-gear bikes. Meyers says Ultra, which sells its bike for $2,700, isn't for those kinds of people. \"That's not our customer,\" he says. \"Our customer is someone who wants some form of electric transportation, green transportation, that can get them from Point A to Point B comfortably.\" The Felches say taking a test drive will change a skeptic's attitude. \"If you ride one, it will blow your mind,\" Keith Felch says. \"When you get on one it's like being in a flying dream you've had. It's like everything you've dreamed your bicycle should do in your wildest dreams -- it's doing it.\"","highlights":"Electric bikes can run either on pedal-power or their tiny motors .\n\"It's like being in a flying dream ... it will blow your mind,\" says rider .\nE-bike commuters like saving gas and arriving at work without breaking a sweat .\nChina has more than 100 million electric bikes -- four times the number of cars .","id":"ed192091f4e7a24c11e56d3cac6760d25a4beea1"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- In the tight circle that surrounds President Obama, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is in the inner bubble. He's the 3 a.m. wake-up call when North Korea fires a test missile, or when the Nobel committee picks the president for the top award. \"Trust me, it is a job I would gladly give to anybody who would volunteer,\" Gibbs said. Or would he? After all, he's an adviser, a friend and a mouthpiece for the administration with more access than recent press secretaries. \"I can walk in and ask him a question at any given time, pick up the phone and talk to him about anything at any given time. I think [that] makes my job easier,\" Gibbs said in an exclusive interview with CNN. The president and the press secretary first connected in 2004 when Obama was a virtual unknown outside of Chicago, Illinois, and was campaigning for the U.S. Senate. They clicked and grew close, leading Obama to tell the Wall Street Journal in a 2008 interview, \"Robert is the guy I want in the foxhole with me during incoming fire. If I'm wrong, he challenges me. He's not intimidated by me.\" Gibbs chuckled while recalling the comment and quipped, \"That is when we called him 'Senator' or by his first name.\" While challenging Obama when he was on a campaign bus is much different than pushing back in the Oval Office, Gibbs insists that Obama still seeks opposing opinions and dislikes an atmosphere where everyone tells him he's right. Ten months into his job in the White House, Gibbs, who grew up in Auburn, Alabama, says he's finally starting to get more comfortable, even though he admits that the 24\/7 pace \"is certainly a challenge. It can wear you down.\" Especially when it comes to the daily main event. Gibbs briefs the White House press corps, usually for about 45 minutes. He rarely shows up on time, but he's always ready to spar. The mouthpiece for the president often uses humor or sarcasm to deflect a tough question. In one exchange about the tit for tat over cable chatter and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Gibbs uttered, \"I'll plead guilty to counterproductivity.\" In another about managing the message, Gibbs said, \"Is there any evidence currently going on that I'm controlling the press? Poorly, I might add!\" Is this an effective strategy to handle the media? \"You tell me,\" Gibbs said. \"Look, there's no doubt that using a little humor to get out of a series of bad questions isn't an altogether bad technique.\" Watch Gibbs talk about his job . Especially since he's involved in a daily high-wire act, as he calls it. The cameras are always rolling. A bad day for the White House spokesman usually means a bad day for the administration. \"My father likes reminding me he always thought my mouth would get me into sizable trouble, which it can on any given day,\" Gibbs said. Before starting his job, Gibbs studied former press secretaries and sought out their advice. He still relies on their guidance \"fairly frequently,\" he said. For example, Gibbs revealed that just last week he reached out to former Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry to get \"feedback on a question that was sort of nagging me a little bit.\" When probed on what that question was, Gibbs replied, \"I'm not going to get into that, but good try.\" Even with the major policy issues the White House is juggling, from Afghanistan to health care to the economy, Gibbs says he's still having fun. \"If you didn't enjoy the job that I have, it would be the worst job in all of Washington,\" he said. What he doesn't like, he said, is the fact that he's now a celebrity. \"People that I don't know recognize you walking down the street. It's awkward,\" he said.","highlights":"White House spokesman has more access to president than recent predecessors .\nRobert Gibbs says he can walk in or call Obama any time he has a question .\nObama has praised Gibbs' willingness to challenge him, tell him he's wrong .\nGibbs known for using humor to deflect tough questions from media .","id":"4a79b87297d848e57928540741d4a56d24c0b98a"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Six Haitian orphans, seized by national authorities last week as they prepared to journey to the United States, will be able to leave the earthquake-devastated country Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy retained custody of the children Tuesday and they were handed over to three American women who have been trying to escort them out. The women had attempted to leave Saturday when angry Haitians demanded to see their paperwork. Police suspected that a key document the women were carrying -- a permission signed by Haiti's prime minister -- was a fake, something the women and U.S. officials deny. There is no chance the paperwork is fake, said Sarah Thacker, one of the three women. Thacker, from Minnesota, was in Haiti to bring home her newly adopted son. Police did not arrest the women, but temporarily placed the children under government custody at a local orphanage. The women said Tuesday that they had been given permission to take the children to the United States. The women were staying with the children at a friend's house in Port-au-Prince. Full coverage of Haiti earthquake . The incident came nearly a month after the arrest of 10 U.S. missionaries accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country without proper paperwork. Eight of them have been released on bail and have returned to the United States. The question of Haitian children being removed from the country illegally came to the foreground after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake devastated parts of the country on January 12. Authorities feared that children left on their own -- because their parents died or they were separated from them -- would be targeted by child traffickers. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has backed Thacker's efforts. \"They have filled out all the paperwork,\" she said. \"This is a legitimate orphanage that has brought other children to America. And I feel like these little babies are just caught up in this international dispute, and it's just not fair.\" CNN's Gary Tuchman and Ismael Estrada contributed to this report.","highlights":"Haitian orphans set to leave for United States on Wednesday .\nU.S. women say they were given permission to leave country with orphans .\nPolice had suspected a permission signed by Haiti's prime minister was a fake .","id":"f5555fe0a875a8660c6f2694fb9743db277a3887"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Real Salt Lake sealed an upset win over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday night with a 5-4 penalty victory, after extra-time in the Major League Soccer Cup final that ended with the score at 1-1. Robbie Russell netted the vital spot kick after Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando made two saves and MLS Most Valuable Player, and LA Galaxy captain, Langdon Donovan sent his shot sailing over the crossbar. Salt Lake's win at the Qwest Field arena in Seattle, ended David Beckham's bid to claim a third national title in as many different nations, having previously won the English Premier League with Manchester United and La Liga with Spain's Real Madrid. The Galaxy struck first, with midfielder Mike Magee drilling a 41st-minute shot into an open net. His strike came after Beckham passed to Donovan, who set-up Magee at the far post. Seattle: America's soccer city. Real Salt Lake hit back with 25 minutes left when Robbie Findley reacted first after Yuri Movsisyan's attempt on goal was blocked, tying the match and setting up the penalty shootout. Beckham got the Galaxy off to a good start in the shoot out as he scored with confidence, but his team could not follow in the same manner. Jovan Kirovski's shot was blocked by Rimando, but Saunders followed by stopping the effort of Salt Lake captain Kyle Beckerman before Donovan blazed over the crossbar to leave the score 5-4. Galaxy came into the game as favorites, but flattered to deceive as it was revealed Beckham had played with an injured right ankle. \"We all want to win titles and personally I'd love to be successful but I think we have been successful this year without winning tonight,\" Beckham told reporters after the game. \"We have quietened a few people along the way which is always nice but we couldn't finish it off. \"I wouldn't say it's tougher to lose on penalties but it's Russian roulette, that's just the way it is. It's not a nice way to lose. \"The people that step up are brave enough to step up and if you score, great and if you miss it's hard to take, but it just wasn't our night,\" Beckham added. Beckham is due to return to AC Milan in January for another loan spell as he bids to secure a place in England's World Cup squad for next year's finals in South Africa. The English midfielder's future in the U.S. had appeared in doubt earlier in the season when his commitment was called into question following a loan spell with the Italian club during which he had indicated an apparent desire to continue playing in Italy. Beckham had earlier said that playing in Sunday's final ranked alongside winning the Primera Liga title with Real Madrid in 2003 and a trophy-laden spell at Manchester United that included six English Premier League titles and the 1999 Champions League crown. \"Anytime you reach a certain part of the season, whether it's being in a cup final or winning leagues, it's always special,\" Beckham said. \"Being involved in finals never gets old.\"","highlights":"Galaxy strike first, with Mike Magee scoring in the 41st minute .\nRobbie Findley nets Real Salt Lake's only goal as games ends 1-1 .\nBeckham scores in shootout but Galaxy lose 5-4 .\nBeckham is due to return to AC Milan in January on loan .","id":"545574e8b8cac6ac72a030dc65862cfb58804340"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- David Beckham believes the furore that followed his return to the LA Galaxy from his loan spell with AC Milan earlier this year has galvanized the team. The Galaxy won the MLS Western Conference Championship with a 2-0 win at home to Houston Dynamo on Friday night, Beckham setting up Gregg Berhalter's 102nd-minute opener. They will face Real Salt Lake, who upset the favored Chicago Fire 5-4 in a penalty shootout to win the Eastern Conference title on Saturday to reach the MLS Cup final in Seattle next Sunday. Beckham had been subjected to abuse by his own fans after missing the start of the MLS season when he was in Italy, while Galaxy captain Landon Donovan questioned his commitment to the LA franchise. However, the England midfielder -- who missed Saturday's 1-0 friendly defeat by Brazil in Qatar to play for his club -- thinks the situation helped bring the team together. \"There's nothing wrong with a bit of controversy in a club, it brings players and teams together and it's done that,\" Beckham told ESPN in a post-match interview. \"I don't have to say anything about myself, I leave that down to other people to decide. \"I love playing soccer. I work hard for my teammates, myself, my manager, the fans and I hope that's enough for people.\" Beckham joined the Galaxy from Real Madrid in 2007 but they struggled to make an impact during the Englishman's time with the team until the arrival of former USA national team coach Bruce Arena. Beckham, who returns to Milan in January as he bids to win a place in England's World Cup squad, believes this season's achievements have already gone some way for making up for the previous two seasons. \"We want to win next week but reaching it is the biggest thing,\" he told the UK Press Association. \"We've done that, done the hard work and this team deserves it.\"","highlights":"LA Galaxy beat Houston Dynamo 2-0 to win the MLS Western Conference Championship .\nBeckham believes controversy over his first loan spell with AC Milan brought team together .\nThe Galaxy can win their third MLS Cup when they face Real Salt Lake in Seattle next weekend .","id":"0e6eb7cbb1be6150a6fa88f5bd697395622ec79c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Two people were killed and 21 others were injured Wednesday when a tour bus went out of control and overturned on a freeway outside Austin, Minnesota, state authorities said. The bus, which was carrying senior citizens, overturned on Interstate 90 about three miles west of Austin, landing in a ditch off the right side of the roadway. At least 10 ambulances and several medical helicopters were called to the scene. \"All 23 people on board were either injured or killed,\" said Andy Skoogman, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Weather conditions were good when the bus, headed east, crossed the highway median, crossed over westbound lanes and overturned, Skoogman said. Watch video of tour bus crash site . The cause of the accident was not immediately known, he said. Investigators talked with some passengers, he said, but had not yet talked with the driver. CNN affiliate KAAL reported the bus was returning to Rochester, Minnesota, from a trip to a casino in Northwood, Iowa.","highlights":"Bus carrying senior citizens returning from casino trip in Iowa overturns in Minnesota .\nMinnesota official: \"All 23 people on board were either injured or killed\"\nAt least 10 ambulances, several medical helicopters rush to the scene .\nWeather conditions were good when the bus lost control on Interstate 90 near Austin .","id":"457e424c1eb1a8fad4a7bc14beb0db8e9cb2d84a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Don Shows was a computer geek until he lost his job and took a road trip. JetBlue promises to refund some tickets purchased before a traveler is laid off from a job. While the 56-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, was away on his eight-day post-layoff adventure, he decided he really wanted to be a photojournalist. \"I ran into some interesting situations when I was out touring around the backcountry\" of the Midwest, he said. \"The road map is handy, but sometimes the road you're looking for is not there.\" Stories like Shows' are more common these days. The unemployment rate was at 7.6 percent in January, and, strange as it may seem, at least one travel company, an airline and a travel-bag maker are now catering to the layoff crowd -- both the recently let go and the future unemployed. For those who buy a plane ticket before they get the ax, JetBlue is offering to refund fares. The JetBlue Promise promotion is good for customers laid off on or after February 17 and applies to ticket purchases made between February 1 and June 1. The program is designed to appeal to people who haven't been downsized but worry they might be, said Alison Croyle, a spokeswoman for the airline. \"It's something that we felt would provide an advantage to customers who otherwise might be too stressed to book future travel plans,\" she said. Then there's the already-laid-off demographic. On some packages, Intrepid Travel is giving a 15 percent discount to people who've recently been let go. The deal, with the tongue-in-cheek title, \"Laid off? How about taking off?\" has gotten a few dozen takers in the two months it's been offered, said Leslie Cohen, spokeswoman for the travel company. Cohen said the discount is designed to give people a chance to clear their heads during a tough transition. Some of the deals start at less than $1,000, she said. The company is \"not suggesting you use your life savings,\" she said. \"It's really just a chance to catch your breath and see something else and come back in a little bit of a different frame of mind.\" For those looking to hit the skies on the job hunt rather than escape it, SkyRoll, maker of a $149.99 garment bag, says it's giving a discount. \"If you recently lost your job and need to travel for an interview, we will take 50 percent off the price of a SkyRoll to help you arrive looking your best,\" the company says on its Web site. To get the discount, SkyRoll requires customers to e-mail the company a layoff notice. Travel discounts like the one from Intrepid may be great for unemployed people who have hefty savings accounts or large severance packages, but the program also could prey on the unemployed, said Madeline Hughes, who runs a consulting and outplacement group in Denver, Colorado. The cost of a big trip \"could be lunch money for somebody for the next six months,\" she said. Hughes tells her clients who are laid off they need to come up with a career plan -- and quickly -- because the job market is so competitive. If a person truly has a thick enough checkbook to afford a post-layoff vacation, Hughes said she would tell the person to send out plenty of resumes before hitting the beach. \"If you really do want to get away, then at least get somewhat of a plan so when you're on vacation you're not fretting about what you're going to do when you get back,\" she said. \"People can't relax if they're afraid and they don't have a plan and they're sort of panicked.\" Daphne Domingo, a life coach in Seattle, Washington, said people who've been laid off should take vacations so they have time to reassess their lives -- but they should gauge the scope of their travel on their savings account. \"Be a tourist in your own town\" if you don't have the money to travel, she said. \"That way, you can save money on accommodations.\" Domingo and Hughes said all job seekers should weigh their situations individually. Jonathan Hagelstein, a 32-year-old from New York, plans to use Intrepid's package to travel to Africa and Europe for nearly a month. This is the second major trip he's taken since being laid off from a finance job in June. But Hagelstein says he's a \"compulsive saver\" and wants to make use of the free time while he has it. \"Time is something that you can never get back. You can always earn more money,\" he said. \"I'm not getting any younger. ... This is an opportunity -- I feel -- of a lifetime.\" With each trip, he hopes the job market will be better when he returns. He said he has no leads on a job. Shows -- the man from Ohio, who first shared his story on iReport.com, CNN's user-submitted content site -- took off on a road trip as a way to reanalyze his life. See Shows' story on iReport.com . He said he hadn't taken a substantial trip during the decade or so he worked in information technologies at LexisNexis, a database and information company. So he saw the layoff partly as a gift of free time. Shows said he has a stable enough income since he is also a retired police officer. But he said his car trip was relatively cheap. The adventure took him to six states and cost less than $1,000, he said. Plus, it helped him reconnect with his passion. \"If I could do anything I wanted to do in life, it would be to take the camera out and go out to talk to people and get stories,\" he said. Shows said he plans to take photojournalism classes at a local community college this spring.","highlights":"Travel companies and an airline are catering to the layoff crowd .\nJetBlue will refund some tickets if you get laid off after you purchase them .\nIntrepid travel offers a 15 percent discount for people recently laid off .\nConsultant: Trip costs \"could be lunch money\" for the unemployed .","id":"9191f4fc5f1d9b9841452d780071fc94ebbd636a"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa denied Saturday that a Colombian guerrilla group donated money to his 2006 presidential campaign, asking his country's civil commission to investigate the allegation. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, as pictured in June, says a probe into FARC's claims will clear his name. Colombian media broadcast a 2008 video Friday in which guerrilla leader V\u00edctor Julio Suarez Rojas, better known as Mono Jojoy, said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia donated money to Correa's campaign. The guerrilla group, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, also has had conversations with Correa's emissaries and has reached \"some accords, according to documents that we have,\" Suarez said in a videotape. Correa denied the allegations and said he wants the nation's civil commission to see \"if the Ecuadorian government, if the Alianza PAIS [political party] has received 20 cents from any foreign group, not just from the FARC.\" The leftist president said that during the campaign, some opponents accused him of receiving money from leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, from drug cartels and from the FARC. \"They just don't know what else to say,\" Correa said. \"It is up to you to decide who to believe: the same people as usual or those who endanger their lives to save the country.\"","highlights":"President Rafael Correa strongly denies Colombian guerrilla group's claims .\nCorrea calls for investigation to prove FARC did not donate to his 2006 campaign .\nLeader of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) makes claims in video .\nCorrea: Probe will find if he \"received 20 cents from any foreign group, not just FARC\"","id":"6d12c800a7c3512865627e4e1b9472e5fe81dcf7"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama huddled with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top military advisers at the White House on Friday as the administration continued its sweeping review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Each branch of the armed services was given a direct opportunity to tell Obama the effect on the military if a large number of additional forces are sent to Afghanistan, two military sources told CNN's Barbara Starr. The meeting was the seventh in a series of high-level discussions being held in part to forge a consensus on how best to confront Taliban and al Qaeda militants threatening the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. \"The president wants to get input from different services,\" White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said earlier this week. \"It's a chance to consult with uniformed military leadership as a part of his [Afghanistan-Pakistan] review.\" The potential for a major expansion of the number of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan comes with some misgivings from the military chiefs. The Army and Marine Corps have expressed concerns that it could make it tougher to give troops promised time at home with their families between overseas tours. The White House strategy review is being conducted against a backdrop of rising U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and increased Taliban violence. October has already become the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war began in late 2001, with the deaths of 56 American troops. Taliban militants have become increasingly bold. This week, they attacked a U.N. guesthouse in central Kabul, killing five U.N. staff members. There also is political turmoil surrounding a planned November 7 Afghan presidential election runoff. On Friday, a source close to the Afghan leadership told CNN that President Hamid Karzai's runoff opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, would withdraw from the race. The presidential campaign has become increasingly contentious as Abdullah demanded the removal of the country's election chief and 200 other staffers of the election commission to ensure a fair runoff. Abdullah and others have charged that massive fraud occurred in the first round of voting on August 20. The initial results gave Karzai the win, but a subsequent review by a U.N.-backed panel of election monitors threw out nearly one-third of Karzai's votes because of \"clear and convincing evidence of fraud.\" The result left Karzai short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. After a flurry of meetings with U.S. and U.N. officials, the Afghan president agreed to the runoff.","highlights":"Obama meets with national security advisers on Afghanistan .\nObama weighing whether to send additional troops to war zone .\nArmy, Marine Corps say increase will affect promised time off for troops .\nMeeting comes amid rise in U.S. troop casualties, political turmoil .","id":"963eee0b8baa570aba4cf1dfa760feec10762d84"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The man who accused pop star Michael Jackson of molesting his son in 1993 killed himself in his New Jersey condo earlier this month, police said. Evan Chandler, 65, was found by the building's concierge November 5 after a doctor, who was treating him for cancer, said he missed an appointment, the Jersey City, New Jersey, police report said. Chandler was \"extremely ill\" with cancer, the report said. He was working as a dentist in Beverly Hills, California, in 1993 when he said his son, who was 13 at the time, told him that Jackson had molested him. His son revealed it, he said, when he put him under anesthesia to pull a tooth. The Los Angeles County district attorney did not pursue criminal charges against Jackson, but Chandler and his son reached a confidential financial settlement with the singer after filing a lawsuit. Reports at the time said the Chandlers got between $16 million and $20 million from Jackson's insurance company. The Chandler accusation became a key part of the prosecution's case when Jackson was tried and acquitted of molestation a decade later in Santa Barbara County, California. The elder Chandler was found \"on his bed in a lifeless state with a gun in his hand,\" the investigator's report said. \"The victim had a silver revolver in his right hand which was pressed against the right side of his head,\" Officer J.S. Sielski wrote. Chandler, who was estranged from most of his family, owned the .38-caliber pistol he used to kill himself, Jersey City spokesman Stan Eason said. No suicide note was found, Eason added. Chandler's brother -- a lawyer in Santa Barbara County -- told CNN in 2003 that Chandler feared for his life because of threats made by angry Jackson fans. \"There's a hard-core group, there was and probably still is, of fanatical fans who see him as a deity,\" Ray Chandler told CNN's Larry King. \"Some of them will go to any lengths that, you know, there's some who will just go as far as threatening, there's some who will go -- who will be violent, and you know, you never know how far it is going to go.\" Ray Chandler has not responded to calls from CNN for comment about his brother's death.","highlights":"In 1993, Evan Chandler said Michael Jackson had molested son .\nChandler, a dentist, and son reached undisclosed financial settlement with Jackson .\nAccusation was part of case in 2003 when Jackson was tried, acquitted of molestation charges .\nChandler, who was ill with cancer; apparently shot himself .","id":"d018e66f35d6d69be645ecdb0111dc622d1998f8"} -{"article":"Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- The niece of the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, once lived with murder suspect Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender charged with murder after the remains of 11 victims were found at his home, a spokeswoman for the mayor said Monday. Lori Frazier, niece of Mayor Frank Jackson, had a relationship with Sowell that ended two years ago, said Andrea Taylor, a spokeswoman for Jackson's office. Taylor said it is unclear whether the relationship was romantic. \"I just want to know why, why he would do this,\" Frazier told CNN affiliate WOIO on Friday. \"He took care of me, good care of me. I never would have thought there were some bodies in the house.\" \"I lived with him from 2005 to 2007 and he didn't kill me, but he killed all these girls,\" she said. Sowell, 50, is facing five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths. All the victims were African-American women. All that remains of one of them is a skull, wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement. Sowell served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 1989. He was released in 2005. So far, nine of the 11 victims found at Sowell's home have been identified. The latest two were identified Monday by the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, police said. They are Janice Webb, 49, and Kim Yvette Smith, who was 43 when last seen. Both women were from Cleveland. Webb was last seen on June 3 and was reported missing on August 2, police said. Smith was last seen January 1, but was not reported missing until November 2. A grand jury on Monday returned an indictment against Sowell in connection with an alleged assault and rape of a 36-year-old woman September 22, Cuyahoga County prosecutors said in a news release. The investigation into that incident was what led police, armed with a search warrant, to Sowell's home, where they discovered the bodies late last month. The alleged victim encountered Sowell while walking in the neighborhood, and he took her back to his home, where he became violent and raped her, prosecutors said. \"While raping her, he strangled her with a cord until she lost consciousness,\" the statement said. \"When she regained consciousness, he led her out of the house.\" Sowell faces a charge of attempted murder in the incident, along with two counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of felonious assault, authorities said. Sowell will be arraigned on the new charges Friday, authorities said. The charges are first-degree felonies except for the assault charges, which are second-degree felonies, prosecutors said. If convicted, he would face a sentence of up to life in prison. The investigation into the homicides continues, prosecutor Bill Mason said in the news release. \"Upon completion of the investigation, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office working with the Cleveland Police Department will present evidence to the grand jury seeking the death penalty for these heinous murders committed by Sowell.\" Residents of the area near the home said they had noted a smell in the neighborhood, but assumed it was from nearby Ray's Sausage Company. Asked whether she had noticed a foul odor, Frazier told WOIO, \"Yeah, I smelled stuff, but he always told me that -- at first he said it was his stepmother downstairs. And then I guess after she left, he told me that it was Ray's Sausage.\" Frazier said Sowell brought other women to the home when she was not there. \"I love my niece very much and while she has made some decisions that have not been in her best interest, she has my full support,\" Jackson said in a written statement. \"As a family, we are extremely fortunate that she was not a victim in this case as she did have a prior relationship with the suspect that ended approximately two years ago. My focus continues to be on making sure the loved ones of the victims get the attention, closure and justice they deserve and it is my hope that everyone remains committed to that goal.\" Hundreds of Cleveland residents gathered outside the house Sunday night to remember the victims. \"It's hard, because I want to burn it down,\" said Inez Fortson, whose daughter Telacia, 31 and a mother of three children, is among the dead. Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to Sowell's public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after the case goes before a grand jury, the next expected step. Police recovered the first bodies after they went to Sowell's home to follow up on a rape accusation. In a separate incident, neighbors on October 20 reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. But the woman told officers that she was at the home \"partying,\" when she fell off the roof, and no charges were filed. Agents from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit are assisting Cleveland police, Cleveland FBI spokesman Scott Wilson has said. The agents are preparing a profile of Sowell for police, tracing his life and habits, and his DNA will be entered into a national database to see whether it can be linked to any unsolved crimes. \"Our experts tell us it's likely he's done this before,\" said Frank Figliuzzi, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office. \"He's probably done it elsewhere, and so we need to determine whether or not he's responsible for other unsolved murders and rapes around the country.\" In addition, the FBI is investigating whether Sowell might be linked to crimes abroad, Figliuzzi said. \"We know, for example, he was a Marine, he was assigned to California, he served in Okinawa, Japan, and we'll be matching all the facts from these crimes here in Cleveland with the crimes that remain unsolved in our database, and we'll specifically be looking at those locations where he's previously lived.\" Allen Sowell, the suspect's half-brother, told CNN he last saw his brother more than 20 years ago. Their stepmother, who lived in the house after Anthony Sowell got out of prison, said she knew of nothing odd going on at the time, Allen Sowell said. The stepmother tried to get Anthony Sowell evicted from the house in 2007 because he wasn't paying rent, Allen Sowell said. Anthony Sowell said he shouldn't have to pay rent on a house that belonged to his father, who died in 2004. Anthony Sowell remained in the house when his stepmother had to be hospitalized in 2007, his half-brother said. Allen Sowell said he was aware of his half-brother's prison record, but \"just couldn't fathom\" the accusations now facing him. \"I didn't think he was in that bad of a mental state,\" Allen Sowell said. \"You never think it would happen to your family. It's a horrible feeling.\" At 66, Allen Sowell is 16 years older than his half-brother, and the two didn't meet until Anthony Sowell was 9. He added, \"He deserves whatever he gets from the justice system.\" CNN's Susan Candiotti, Edmund Demarche and Ross Levitt and CNN Radio's Brendan Gage contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Mayor Frank Jackson: \"I love my niece very much ... she has my full support\"\nNEW: FBI says it's likely suspect has \"done this before;\" looking at places he lived in past .\nLori Frazier, mayor's niece, says she lived with Anthony Sowell from 2005 to 2007 .\nSowell charged with murder, rape, other crimes after 11 bodies found at home .","id":"d2b1578751b94be2482d620e7e312e36440a66f8"} -{"article":"CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Egypt is suspending ties with France's famous Louvre museum until the latter returns artifacts that it knew were stolen when it purchased them, the head of the country's antiquities council said Wednesday. Egypt accuses the Louvre museum of failing to make good on promises to return antiquities. Zahi Hawass, director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he wrote a letter seven years ago to major museums around the world asking them to consult with Egyptian authorities before buying any ancient Egyptian artifacts from outside sellers. Hawass said the Louvre had bought five murals chipped off the walls from a tomb in Thebes and been stolen by antiquities robbers in the 1980s. He sent a letter to the Louvre a year ago asking that the stolen paintings be returned, he said. The museum promised to return the items but has not followed through, he said. Until it does so, Egypt will suspend its cooperation with the Louvre, Hawass said. A Louvre spokesman declined to comment on Egypt's claims. Egypt maintains antiquities exchange programs with museums around the world. The Louvre is one of the biggest repositories of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world, much of it treasure taken during the time of the French and British occupation of the country. Egypt's position is that artifacts taken by European powers during that period are a fait accompli, but anything taken illegally since Egypt's independence must be returned. This has been one of the major emphases of Hawass since he became head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002. Egypt took similar steps against museums in England and Belgium in the past. Those ties were restored after the artifacts in question were returned, Hawass said.","highlights":"Egypt suspends ties with France's famous Louvre museum .\nCountry accuses museum of failing to return stolen antiquities .\nLouvre is one of world's biggest repositories of ancient Egyptian antiquities .","id":"8bb18563da1d7a6ecf039ed419de5dbcc8e6fdb0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Botswana has been hailed as one of Africa's success stories and a beacon for democracy on the continent. It's home to Africa's longest continuous multi-party democracy and has remained politically stable since gaining independence in 1966. President Ian Khama took office in April 2008 promising steady progress. At its helm is President Ian Khama, the country's former vice president and son of Botswana's founding president. The diamond trade and disciplined government have helped to transform Botswana from one of the world's poorest nations to a middle-income country. But there are still large problem facing the country, including the world's second high level of HIV infections, according to the World Bank, and a slowing of the countries economic growth. The 56-year-old Khama took over office in April 2008, succeeding Festus Mogae who had been in power for 10 years, promising no radical departure from his predecessor's policies. Khama was born in southern England and trained at the UK's Sandhurst Military Academy before returning to Botswana and later becoming the commander of the Botswana Defence Force. He left the military in 1998 to take up the position of vice president. As the son of Botswana's most popular former president, political analysts inside the country have expected Khama to unite the factions in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and continue steady economic and political progress. While Khama has only been in power for 11 months, there has been some criticism that his style is too authoritarian. Citing Afrobarometer, an independent research group, Botswana's newspaper Sunday Standard recently wrote that there was a growing public perception that Khama has issued more directives compared to his predecessors. One area in which he has taken a definite line is on his policy towards neighboring Zimbabwe, publicly opposing the government of President Robert Mugabe and declaring it illegitimate. A general election is set for October 2009, with the BDP expected to win. No other political party has held power in Botswana and some commentators fear the emergence of a political dynasty that would affect Botswana's democracy.","highlights":"Botswana's President Ian Khama talks to CNN on 'African Voices'\nFormer military general and son of Botswana's first president .\nBotswana is one of Africa's success stories although HIV and Aids are rife .","id":"c60446c92bac47ee95446861395877b61f155509"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Out-of-shape swimming superstar Michael Phelps again struggled as an unprecedented 16 records were set at the World Cup short-course event in Berlin this weekend. Six new marks were set on Saturday and another 10 on Sunday, but the American could only manage a second in the 200 meters individual medley and a fifth in the 200m butterfly while failing to reach the final of the 200m freestyle. The 14-time Olympic champion chose to wear an old-style suit as he did with a similar lack of success in the previous leg in Stockholm during the week, and took a back seat to those wearing high-tech outfits -- which will be outlawed from January 1. \"I prefer not to lose, but I knew coming in that it would be very, very hard to win anything,\" the bearded Phelps told reporters. \"I raced as hard as I could, I've gotten some racing under my belt, and that's what we set out to do. Maybe it's better for me that I lost today. It gives me better motivation for the future. \"I am pleased with the week as much as I can be, with how much training I've done -- which is little, and it shows.\" He performed better on Sunday as he finished runner-up in the medley behind South Africa's Darian Townsend, who set a world-record time of one minute 51.55 seconds -- beating Phelps by 1.85 seconds. On Saturday, his much-anticipated showdown with world 200m freestyle champion Paul Biedermann never eventuated as he finished 12th in the heats, while the supersuit-clad German set a new record in the final and also smashed Grant Hackett's seven-year-old milestone in the 400m freestyle. Among the women's records to be broken, Australia's Liesel Jones followed up her two gold medals from the Beijing Olympics by setting a new mark on each day. The 24-year-old won the 200m breaststroke on Sunday in a time of 2:15.42, shaving more than a second off the previous record, while the day before she topped her own leading time in the 100m breaststroke.","highlights":"An unprecedented 16 records fall at the World Cup short-course event in Berlin this weekend .\nSwimming superstar Michael Phelps again struggles as he chooses to use an old-style suit .\nHigh-tech suits will become illegal from January 1 as officials seek to stem tide of new marks .","id":"f1d41fa6f1af9e9aec2fe270c0af863f70c74f14"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Authorities on Saturday released the names of three more victims found last week in or around the home of a registered sex offender in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office identified the bodies of Amelda Hunter, 47; Crystal Dozier, 38; and Michelle Mason, 45, all of Cleveland. Anthony Sowell, who served 15 years after pleading guilty to attempted rape in a 1989 case, was arrested last week, two days after police discovered the first bodies at his home. He faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping, police said, and was denied bond at a hearing Wednesday. Police have discovered the bodies of 10 people and skull of an 11th victim at or near Sowell's home. Authorities have identified seven of the victims. Remains of six victims were found inside the home. police said, and five outside. The skull was wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement, police said. Hunter was not reported as a missing person at the time of the discovery of the victim's bodies at Sowell's residence, according to the Cleveland Police Department. Her family reported her missing on November 3, telling police that she was last seen on or about April 18. Dozier also was never reported missing to police. She was reportedly last seen in October 2007, police said. Mason was reported missing on October 12, 2008. She was last seen earlier that month, according to police. At the time, it was reported that Mason suffered from bipolar disorder and was not taking her prescribed medications, police said. Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after a grand jury files an indictment, she said. Sowell is being held in a solitary cell in the Cuyahoga County jail, wearing a white paper gown, County Jail Warden Kevin McDonough told CNN. Every 10 minutes, a guard checks on him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. Occasionally, Sowell is allowed out of his cell under escort to shower and use a dayroom with books and magazines, but no television, McDonough said. He gets three meals a day. Lights are out at 10 p.m. \"He's been quiet and compliant,\" McDonough said. \"He understands what incarceration is like.\" Sowell was released from jail in 2005. According to court documents, Sowell completed several programs while in jail, including \"Living Without Violence,\" \"Positive Personal Change\" and \"Cage your Rage.\" In another court document filed shortly before his release and obtained by CNN, handwritten notes state Sowell \"would be likely to re-offend because he still denies the rape.\" Previously, the coroner's office said it had identified the bodies of Nancy Cobbs, 43; Tonia Carmichael, 52; Telacia Fortson, 31; and Tishana Culver, 31. Police initially went to Sowell's home last week to follow up on a rape accusation. Last month, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor, but no charges were filed. Neighbors called 911 after the October 20 incident. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. The woman told officers that she was at the home and \"partying,\" when she fell off the roof. \"They were doing coke, drugs, getting high,\" Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said. A man described as her boyfriend -- Sowell -- told police the same story. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police have discovered 10 bodies and a skull at home of sex offender Anthony Sowell .\nAuthorities identify Amelda Hunter, 47, Crystal Dozier, 38, Michelle Mason, 45 on Saturday .\nTwo of the three women had not been reported missing before bodies discovered .\nSowell is on suicide watch in jail after being denied bond on charges of murder, rape, assault .","id":"75977c0b216a1460b052f84ba87d6bccf046e6f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A major investor in convicted swindler Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme drowned in his swimming pool in Florida after a heart attack, his attorney said Monday. The medical examiner's office confirmed the report. Jeffry Picower, 67, was found unconscious in his pool shortly after noon Sunday at his Palm Beach, Florida,, home by his wife, Palm Beach police said. He was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital. Picower's attorney, William Zabel, told CNN that Picower drowned after suffering a massive heart attack. Sue Jaffe, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County medical examiner, confirmed those details. In September, Forbes magazine ranked Picower No. 371 among the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth of $1 billion. In March, Madoff was convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme and defrauding thousands of investors. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to 11 felony counts of fraud, money laundering and perjury. Prosecutors have said it was the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person, totaling billions in losses to investors. When the Picower Foundation of Palm Beach announced it was shutting down early this year because of Madoff losses, it initially appeared that the prominent philanthropist had been an unfortunate victim of Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Picower's 2007 tax return had valued his foundation's portfolio at $955 million. However, in May, court filings by Madoff trustee Irving Picard changed the picture. The trustee's complaint claimed that Picower had been a key beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme for more than 20 years, and \"knew or should have known that [he] was profiting from fraud because of the implausibly high rates of return\" on his accounts. Those \"anomalous and astronomical rates of return\" -- as high as 500 percent in one year and 950 percent in another year -- \"were neither credible nor consistent with legitimate trading activity, and should have caused any reasonable investor ... to inquire further,\" the court filings said, referring to Picower as \"a sophisticated investor, accountant and lawyer.\" Citing backdated account filings and other bogus paperwork, the complaint contends that \"Picower and the other defendants also knew or should have known that they were reaping the benefits of manipulated purported returns, false documents and fictitious profit.\" The Picowers recently told The New York Times that the publicity and controversy surrounding their connection to Bernie Madoff had been a great source of heartache. \"We always have been private people, and having all this play out in the media has taken a big toll on our health,\" the couple wrote in response to questions posed by reporters. \"We feel stunned, betrayed, angry, sickened, devastated,\" they said, and were only able to draw strength and consolation \"from each other and from the knowledge that we did nothing wrong.\"","highlights":"Jeffry Picower, 67, found unconscious in his pool in his Palm Beach, Florida .\nPicower drowned after having a heart attack, his attorney and medical examiner say .\nPicower had invested with Bernie Madoff, who was convicted in Ponzi scheme .\nForbes magazine ranked Picower No. 371 among the 400 richest Americans .","id":"0d33a39f89ed93832ba396402364b68991081b66"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Burt Reynolds checked into a drug rehab clinic \"to regain control of his life\" after becoming addicting to painkillers prescribed following back surgery, his manager said. Reynolds won Golden Globe for his role as a porn producer in the 1997 hit movie \"Boogie Nights.\" A short statement, issued by manager Erik Kritzer on Wednesday, did not say when or where Reynolds entered rehab. \"After a recent back surgery, Mr. Reynolds felt like he was going through hell and after a while, realized he was a prisoner of prescription pain pills,\" Kritzer said. \"He checked himself into rehab in order to regain control of his life. \"Mr. Reynolds hopes his story will help others in a similar situation,\" Kritzer said. \"He hopes they will not try to solve the problem by themselves, but realize that sometimes it is too tough to do on their own and they should seek help, as he did.\" Reynolds was an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for his role as a porn producer in the 1997 hit movie \"Boogie Nights.\" His film career, which started in 1961, also included starring roles in the classic movies \"Deliverance,\" \"Smokey and the Bandit\" and \"Cannonball Run.\"","highlights":"Reynolds is addicted to painkillers prescribed after back surgery, manager says .\nNot clear where or when the legendary film and television actor entered rehab .\n\"He checked himself into rehab in order to regain control of his life,\" manager says .\nHis film career includes starring roles in \"Deliverance,\" \"Smokey and the Bandit\"","id":"beee365a3bc4d80bde9ef94c97c46d834d02e874"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Kitty Kelley, biographer of the rich and famous, is getting ready to release an unauthorized biography on talk show queen Oprah Winfrey. The 544-page book, \"Oprah: A Biography,\" will be released on April 13, with a first printing of 500,000 copies, according to the Crown Publishing Group. \"We are excited to be publishing the first comprehensive biography of one of the most influential, powerful and admired public figures of our time, by the most widely read biographer of our era,\" said Tina Constable, a vice president with Crown. The author spent three years researching for the book and conducted 850 interviews, Crown said. Kelley's previous books have chronicled the Bush family political dynasty, the British royal family, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Nancy Reagan. Winfrey's Harpo Productions had little to say about the book. \"Oprah hasn't participated in or read Kitty Kelley's book, so she is unable to comment,\" said Winfrey spokeswoman Lisa Halliday.","highlights":"Unauthorized tell-all on Oprah Winfrey set to hit store shelves on April 13 .\nBiography will be written by famed biographer Kitty Kelley .\nKelley had written prior biographies on Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor .","id":"9f51c1837e0287d86b275efffc0002e4c54cc193"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest person, has died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 115, according to the home where she lived and Guinness World Records said Saturday. Gertrude Baines said she attributed her longevity to not drinking or smoking. Gertrude Baines passed away at the Western Convalescent Hospital at 7:25 a.m. (10:25 a.m. ET) Friday, Guinness World Records said. Born in 1894, Baines became the world's oldest person in January after the death of another 115-year-old, Maria de Jesus, from Portugal, Guinness World Records said. At her 115th birthday party in April, Baines shook her head in disbelief when presented with the certificate saying she was now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest person. \"She told me that she owes her longevity to the Lord, that she never did drink, never did smoke, and she never did fool around,\" her doctor, Dr. Charles Witt, said in April. Baines, whose grandparents were slaves, worked as a maid in Ohio State University dormitories until her retirement, and lived at the Los Angeles convalescent home for more than 10 years. Last November, she became the oldest African-American to vote for President Obama and received a letter from him on her 115th birthday, Guinness World Records said. Witt said Baines planned to vote for Obama again in 2012. Asked why she voted for Obama, Baines said it was because \"he's for the colored people,\" according to footage from The Los Angeles Times. She said she never thought a black man could become president. \"Everybody's glad for a colored man to be in there sometime,\" Baines said. \"We all are the same on the skin. It's dark, and theirs is white.\" Baines had few complaints, her doctor said. She fussed about the bacon not being crisp enough and the arthritis in her knees, Witt said. The smooth skin on Baines' face belied her 115 years, but she didn't attribute that to any anti-wrinkle cream or miracle product, according to her best friend, Lucille Fayall. She said Baines simply washed her face in cold water.","highlights":"Gertrude Baines dies at age 115, was world's oldest person .\nBaines credited longevity to God, not drinking or smoking .\nBaines was oldest African-American to vote for President Obama .","id":"d922da602c285ec15be10c35ff4c980fabe4a05d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Arizona police are looking for an Iraqi man who they allege ran down his daughter and her friend because he believed his daughter had become \"too Westernized.\" Police say they're looking for Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who they say struck two people with a vehicle Tuesday. Peoria, Arizona, police said Wednesday that Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, struck his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, and her friend Amal Edan Khalaf with a vehicle he was driving in a parking lot Tuesday afternoon. Faleh Hassan Almaleki was angry with his daughter \"as she had become too 'Westernized' and was not living according to [the family's] traditional Iraq[i] values,\" Peoria police said in a statement released Wednesday. Noor Faleh Almaleki is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, according to the statement. Khalaf, 43, received injuries that are not life-threatening but is still in the hospital, police said. Noor Faleh Almaleki lives with Khalaf, police said but did not elaborate on how the two women knew each other. Faleh Hassan Almaleki was last seen in a gray or silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, police said. No further details were immediately available. Peoria is about 13 miles northwest of Phoenix.","highlights":"Police: Man struck daughter, her friend with vehicle on Tuesday in Arizona .\nMan thought daughter, 20, wasn't living according to family's Iraqi values, police say .\nWoman has life-threatening injuries, police say .\nPolice seek Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48 .","id":"50913b41bfd0814a660aff36edf86d6883ea8f84"} -{"article":"Lima, Peru (CNN) -- Peru will turn over to Chilean authorities all evidence into allegations that a Peruvian air force officer was spying for the neighboring country, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Monday. Garcia ordered his foreign minister and justice department to hand over all details of the investigation so Chile could \"give the corresponding explanations,\" he said in a televised address. The alleged spying by Chile, Garcia declared, was the result of fear and an inferiority complex by the Chileans. He added that Peru will not let the incident become a full-blown crisis between the two nations. The suspect, Victor Ariza Mendoza, remained imprisoned at a maximum security facility north of Lima, authorities said. Two other Peruvian air force officers, accused of being collaborators, also were detained, as were two Chilean military officers who were alleged accomplices, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported. Mendoza could face charges of treason, which carry a minimum sentence of 25 years. News of the spy case caused Garcia to prematurely end a trip to Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Garcia and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, had planned to attend a workshop Saturday with other world leaders, but the Peruvian leader canceled his agenda to return to Lima. Chile has dismissed the espionage allegations. \"Chile has nothing to do with this case,\" Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez told reporters after a meeting with his nation's ambassador to Peru. According to local media, the suspected spy once worked at the Peruvian Embassy in Chile and sold secrets to the Chileans since 2002, CNN en Espa\u00f1ol reported. Chile and Peru have a history of animosity, having fought in the War of the Pacific from 1879 to 1883. Hard feelings linger to this day. The two nations nearly came to war in 1975, when left-wing Peruvian leader Juan Velasco, who was backed by Cuba, wanted to invade Chile, which was led by right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The invasion was called off, and Velasco was deposed in a coup a short while later. Tensions rose again when Peru discovered a Chilean spy mission, but war was averted. More recently, tensions between the two South American nations flared in December after the revelation that Peru's top army general said at a party that Chileans in Peru would be sent back in coffins or body bags. Both countries said they would work to heal relations after the general's comments. Journalist Gisu Guerra contributed to this report.","highlights":"Peruvian president says Chile spied on neighbor because of inferiority complex .\nPeruvian officials ordered to turn over evidence of espionage to Chile .\nSpy suspect, Peruvian air force officer, remains in prison north of Lima .\nChile has dismissed allegations .","id":"6f5fe28fb0616c8c35ec979be9fbaec942c768bd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A self-help expert said Tuesday that he has hired his own investigators to determine what happened at his Arizona retreat last week, when two people died after spending considerable time in a sweat lodge. Self-help author James Arthur Ray has hired investigators to investigate two deaths at an Arizona sweat lodge. Tuesday's tearful speech before about 200 supporters was the first time that best-selling self-help author James Arthur Ray had publicly discussed the case. Authorities said James Shore of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Kirby Brown of Westtown, New York, died Friday at the Angel Valley Resort after spending up to two hours in the sauna-like sweat lodge. Nineteen others were treated for injuries. \"I have no idea what happened. We'll figure it out,\" Ray said, adding that he had hired investigators. \"I've lost people I love and really care about.\" Police are also investigating the incident at the central Arizona resort, located in a secluded valley 20 minutes from Sedona. Ray is the author of the best-selling book \"Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want.\" Ray, described on his Web site as a \"personal success strategist,\" has appeared on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the \"Oprah Winfrey Show,\" and is featured in the self-empowerment film \"The Secret.\" On Tuesday, Ray told the crowd that he is struggling with the deaths. \"These are challenging times,\" he said. \"I've faced many; none like this. I don't know how to deal with it really.\" The use of sweat lodges for spiritual and physical cleansing is a part of several Native American tribes' cultures. A traditional Native American sweat lodge is a small dome-like structure made up of willow branches carefully tied together and covered in canvas. Rocks are heated in a nearby fire pit and placed inside the lodge, and water is poured over them to create steam. CNN's Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.","highlights":"James Arthur Ray says he hired investigators to look into sweat lodge deaths .\nTwo dead, 19 injured at Ray's retreat meant to provide for spiritual cleansing .\nRay: \"I have no idea what happened\"","id":"f993b377d030ad37a41dc06c6c9f2d2c64972ba2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The $410 billion budget President Obama signed Wednesday will make it easier for U.S. residents to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. It also could facilitate the sale of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba. The residents of Havana, Cuba, often rely on bicycle taxis for transportation. Three provisions attached to the omnibus spending bill loosened restrictions enacted by then-President George W. Bush after he came to office in 2001. Analysts see the move as a way for the new Obama administration to start thawing relations with Cuba one month before the Fifth Summit of the Americas brings together the U.S. president and 33 other leaders from the Western Hemisphere in Trinidad and Tobago. \"[Cuba] is the issue of greatest symbolic importance,\" said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. \"It will be seen as a test of real U.S. readiness to change in the hemisphere. What he says about Cuba will make headlines.\" Hakim testified about Latin American policy Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Cuba and the United States have had a troubled relationship since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The United States broke off diplomatic relations in 1961 and imposed a trade embargo in 1962. Bush tightened some of those restrictions in recent years, most notably limiting travel to the island to once every three years for a limit of 14 days. Under the new provisions, relatives will be able to go once a year and stay for an unlimited time. In addition, the definition of relatives has been broadened to include uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces. The new measures also increase the amount of money visitors can spend. Otto Reich, who served presidents Reagan and both Bushes in a number of high-level Latin American posts, also testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Reich and Hakim have different perspectives on how far Obama should go on improving relations with Cuba, but they agree that attaching the latest measures to the spending bill was the wrong way to do it. \"It's important to open up Cuba, but it should be done systematically,\" Hakim told CNN. \"This is very important for the Cuban American community. It ought to be done with them at the table. If they're not involved, they're going to push back.\" Initial opposition from two Democratic senators with large Cuban American communities in their states put the spending bill in jeopardy. Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Bob Menendez of New Jersey voted for the budget Tuesday after receiving personal letters from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner assuring them that the new provisions will not alter U.S. policy. Reich said he did not like the Cuba provisions in the budget because the United States gets nothing in return. \"I'm opposed to it because of the way it was done,\" he said. \"There's a way it can be done to advance the conditions of the people in Cuba. I don't approve of the unilateral way it's being done. The embargo is a negotiating tool. We should not negotiate with ourselves, and that's what we're doing.\" Hakim warns that too much should not be read into the new measures, saying, \"The fact is that this is very minor.\" Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said in a policy statement Wednesday that the new provision \"suffers from being too little and too late.\" Similar measures have been attached to previous spending bills in the past eight years but Bush threatened to veto the legislation, so the language was scrapped. Senators Nelson and Menendez were most concerned with the provision that allows cash advance sales of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba. Before Bush, \"cash advance\" used to mean that money would have to be paid as soon as the goods reached Cuba. But the Bush Administration said \"cash advance\" had to mean money was sent before the cargo was loaded on ships in the United States for Cuba. The language in the new spending bill reverts the meaning to the previous \"cash-on-delivery\" method favored by U.S. farmers and exporters. Some members of Congress also were concerned the new provisions would allow credit sales, which would poke major holes in the economic embargo. But Geithner's letters to Nelson and Menendez assured them this would not happen. He did tell the senators, though, the Obama administration is reviewing its policies toward Cuba. CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott contributed to this report.","highlights":"Three provisions are attached to $410 billion spending bill signed by Obama .\nTravel restrictions to Cuba from U.S. loosened; it will be easier to send money there .\nSales of U.S. agricultural and pharmaceutical products could be easier now .\nSome critics say measures should not have been attached to spending bill .","id":"7f14f1b487f09ff687a30f34e5835c5974636692"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Country music artist Taylor Swift has told CNN she never dreamed she would shoot to stardom so quickly. At just 19 years old, she is one of the most successful recording artists of the decade in the United States. Her album \"Fearless\" is certified quadruple platinum, and her 60-date tour of the U.S., UK and Australia sold out in minutes. Talking to CNN's Becky Anderson, she said: \"I think for me the most satisfying thing is going out with my first headlining tour and having every show sell out. That was something that I never dreamed would be so quick to happen. \"Putting Madison Square Garden on sale and having it be sold out in 59 seconds. Like I can't believe that. I'm still completely blown away by that. \"And I think my parents are most proud of the moment when where we were all sitting in the crowd at the CMA Awards and they heard my name announced as entertainer of the year. \"I think my parents cried more for that moment than any other moment.\" She has had two number one albums in the Billboard Charts, and in 2009, Swift became the first country music artist ever to win an MTV Video Music Award. Asked what she would have thought had someone told her 10 years ago that she would be famous by the age of 18, she said: \"I thought I was going to do what my parents did. They went to college. They went into business and I loved music and I never imagined that I would actually get to do that as a job. It's wonderful.\" Asked why it is that her songs are considered country music, she said: \"I think that what categorizes country music, to me, in my head. I think a country song is when you are singing about being proud of your life. \"I sing about love and boys and that's my life. So that's what fascinates me, feelings, and so I think if you are singing and writing songs about the way that you live your life, that's a country song.\" On reports that she is dating teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner, Swift said: \"He's a great guy and we're really close.\" But she refused to be drawn on her thoughts about Kanye West, who cut her off as she accepted the award for Best Female Song at the MTV Music Video Awards ceremony. \"I just haven't really changed my mind and that I don't like to talk about it,\" she said.","highlights":"Most satisfying thing is having every show in her tour sell out, she tells CNN .\nAt 19 she is one of the most successful U.S. recording artists of the decade .\nOn teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner, she says: \"We're really close\"","id":"7864590032f1fac6e275338d1a07e1f151989e4e"} -{"article":"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb blast near a voter registration site killed 16 people, 14 of them children, and wounded 58 in southeastern Afghanistan on Sunday morning, according to a senior police official and the U.S. military. The U.S. military released this photo of the blast near a voter registration site. A Taliban spokesman said one of his group's fighters carried out the attack. When security guards stopped the car at the entrance to the Mandozai district headquarters, the driver detonated the explosives inside the car, Khost provincial security chief Mohammad Yaqoub said. A security guard and an Afghan National Army soldier were among the dead. There were no military casualties, said U.S. Col. Gregory Julian. Coalition and Afghan forces worked together to evacuate the wounded to military and civilian hospitals, he said. The military released photos of the incident, saying they \"provide further proof the Afghan militants are not interested in the welfare nor benefit of the Afghan people.\" Dozens of tribal elders were meeting nearby in the district administrative office at the time of the bombing, the police official said. The Mandozai district is in the Khost province. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, said the suicide bombing was carried out by Qari Hameedullah, a Taliban fighter. Elsewhere, a rocket attack in Kabul killed three teenage sisters and injured four other people Saturday night, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement. The girls died when one of two rockets fired on Kabul crashed into a house in the southern part of the city. In the statement, Karzai called those who fired the rockets \"enemies of Afghanistan\" who \"can't achieve anything by firing rockets but the killing of innocent civilians.\" The president called the suicide bombing an \"un-Islamic act\" and said those behind it \"are not aware of the Islamic teachings which outlaw the killing of innocent people. Those who ordered and executed this attack cannot escape the revenge of Afghans and God's punishment.\" Journalist Farhad Peikar contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suicide car bomb in southeastern Afghanistan kills 16, including 14 children .\nTaliban says it carried out attack near voter registration site .\nRocket attack in Kabul also killed three teenage sisters .","id":"f0aa1a561102400d5c297f0c0278261d6039b720"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court offered unanimous support for police Wednesday by allowing drug evidence gathered after an arrest that violated state law to be used at trial, an important search-and-seizure case turning on the constitutional limits of \"probable cause.\" The Supreme Court unanimously gave police broader powers to search for and seize evidence. \"When officers have probable cause to believe that a person has committed a crime in their presence, the Fourth Amendment permits them to make an arrest, and to search the suspect in order to safeguard evidence and ensure their own safety,\" Justice Antonin Scalia wrote. David Lee Moore was stopped by Portsmouth, Virginia, officers five years ago for driving his vehicle on a suspended license. Under state law in such incidents, only a summons is to be issued and the motorist is to be allowed to go. Instead, detectives detained Moore for almost an hour, arrested him, then searched him and found cocaine. At trial, Moore's lawyers tried to suppress the evidence, but the state judge allowed it, even though the court noted the arrest violated state law. A police detective, asked why the man was arrested, replied, \"Just our prerogative.\" While some of the justices expressed concern about that level of discretion at oral arguments in January, their 9-0 ruling raised few such doubts. \"The arrest rules that the officers violated were those of state law alone,\" Scalia said. \"It is not the province of the Fourth Amendment to enforce state law.\" The state had argued an arrest is constitutionally reasonable if officers have probable cause to believe a suspect has committed a crime. \"This standard represents the best compromise between the needs of the citizens and the duty of the government to combat crime,\" Stephen McCullough, Virginia's deputy solicitor general, had told the high court. But Moore's attorney, Thomas Goldstein, called an \"extreme proposition\" the idea that it would be reasonable \"to go out and arrest someone for a non-arrestable offense and not only do that, but having committed that trespass at common law, to further search them.\" There has been widespread judicial confusion over how such police searches should be handled. Some lower courts had ruled that when state arrest law is violated, the Constitution provides a remedy in the suppression of any evidence resulting from the arrest and a related search. But the justices agreed with the majority of courts that said constitutional requirements are satisfied when an officer has probable cause to make an arrest, even if some provision of state law was violated in the process. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a concurring opinion suggesting Virginia change its law to make driving on a suspended license an arrestable offense. During arguments, Ginsburg spoke for several colleagues when she pointed out that if a summons had been issued in Moore's case, any incriminating evidence would have been excluded. \"Would you explain the logic to saying that when the police violate state law, then the evidence can come in, but when they comply with state law, it can't,\" she asked. The ruling means Moore's original jury conviction and 3-\u00bd year prison term will stand. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Case involves Virginia man stopped for driving with suspended license .\nInstead of issuing ticket, police detained him and searched his car .\nArrest violated state's law, but trial judge allowed evidence of drugs .\nJustices ruled that officers had probable cause for search .","id":"2bda316df5f9f3cf14141ff63353bcdccfc37f2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The family of a Chicago teenager whose beating death was caught on video hope that the attention the incident has garnered will spur healing locally, a relative said at a news conference Wednesday evening. Derrion Albert, 16, was beaten to death last week. His death was captured on video. \"It should've never happened, but it's never too late,\" said Rose Braxton, great-aunt of 16-year-old Derrion Albert. \"It's time for healing to start getting our communities together so this won't happen to anyone else's child ever again.\" Four suspects have been charged with first-degree murder in the September 24 killing of Albert, and police say they are looking for three more people in connection with the beating captured on videotape. Prosecutors said that Albert, an honors student, was an innocent bystander who ended up in the middle of a street fight between two factions of students from Fenger High School. The incident caught the attention of the White House, too. The footage of the incident, which shows Albert being hit by a railroad tie, \"is \"chilling\" and one of the most shocking things \"you can ever see,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday. President Obama's concern over the killing didn't provide additional comfort to the family, \"but I'm glad that it's out there so everyone can see it and they know that, yes, this is happening,\" Braxton said. \"This was vicious. How do you just come out and decide that you're going to attack someone with a two-by-four?\" Braxton said. She spoke to reporters together with area community and church leaders. \"Maybe this will wake up and shake up people,\" the Rev. Jesse Jackson said at the press conference, noting that three teens were killed in Chicago this week. Braxton said her message to the White House was simply, \"Do something.\" \"We need to get to our children,\" she said. \"Why are they so angry, so full of venom, that you would even consider doing something like that to another human being?\" Albert's funeral was scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. at Greater Mount Hebron Baptist Church in Chicago. An amateur videotape shot by a witness, which has been broadcast widely, showed the attack unfolding. A local TV station that received the tape turned it over to police. When school let out at 2:50 p.m. on Thursday, Albert was on his way to a bus stop when two groups of students converged on the street, said Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County States Attorney. The factions, one that lived near the Altgeld Gardens housing development and one in an area known as \"The Ville,\" began fighting after an earlier shooting that police called gang-related. According to Simonton, Albert was approached by two members of \"The Ville\" faction and struck in the head with a long wooden railroad tie, then punched in the face. After being briefly knocked unconscious, Albert regained consciousness and tried to move from the fight, but was then attacked by a second group of five members from the opposing faction, Simonton said. Albert was taken to Roseland Community Hospital and then to Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said he asked the U.S. Secret Service to try to enhance the video so that others involved in the fight can be identified. Weis pleaded with anyone who may have information not to withhold it. \"The culture of 'no-snitch' is unacceptable,\" he said. \"On Thursday, a young man with a promising future lost his life to senseless violence, yet few have come forward.\" Authorities are also considering charging people who participated in the fight but did not come into contact with Albert, he said. Asked about the killing as Obama prepares to travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, to lobby the International Olympic Committee to award Chicago the 2016 Games, Gibbs described the videotape of the attack as \"among the most shocking that you can ever see.\" \"The killing of an honor student ... who's beaten to death, is chilling, chilling video,\" Gibbs said. Obama has emphasized parental responsibility in addressing chronic problems in low-income urban communities including school dropouts, drug use, gang activity and violence. Gibbs offered no explanation for the Chicago killing, saying, \"in many ways a lot of these crimes are amazingly hard to explain.\" Whatever led to this specific attack, \"you can't regulate the hard issue,\" Gibbs said. \"This is not a problem that government alone, as the president often says, at any level is going to be able to solve,\" Gibbs said. \"This is going to take community involvement, it's going to take parental involvement, it's going to take the involvement of everyone to address what is obviously a sad and shocking problem.\"","highlights":"Victim's great-aunt: Stop this from happening to \"anyone else's child ever again\"\n\"Maybe this will wake up and shake up people,\" the Rev. Jesse Jackson says .\nDerrion Albert, 16, was beaten to death last week; beating was captured on video .\nPolice still seeking other suspects related to Albert's death .","id":"ea09c88361d847adbe93a60b4053cd803d98a32c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- He is perhaps the most recognizable man in fashion, almost never seen without his dark glasses, a silver ponytail and fingerless gloves. And while the German-born fashion designer has been the creative force behind fashion house Chanel for more than a quarter of a century, he's still thriving on new ideas, designs and what the future may hold. \"I don't look back... Life is not something made by order, we have to fit in the pattern of what life is all about now, and I'm a person who fits easily into this kind of situation because I like change,\" he told CNN in Shanghai. While his own image is enduring, he is the creative force of the Chanel fashion house, whose eponymous designer, Coco Chanel created some of the most iconic outfits of the 20th century. He may have upset the traditionalists when he first took over the reins, but for the forward-thinking Lagerfeld, it was not a concern. \"My job is to put in people's brain the idea what Chanel was all about, even if it was not about such a large choice of things... I pushed [Coco Chanel's] symbol, like the change of pearls, in a way much more than she did herself. I could play with everything and mix it with everything that's going on in fashion because fashion is about that. It's not retrospective, it has to be something you want to wear now,\" he said. As for the notoriously harsh world of fashion, Lagerfeld sees it merely as a reflection of the way the world works. \"This is a world with no pity or that you can complain, 'I couldn't do it because things are against me.' No, things are against nobody, if you have something to offer, or if you can be something,\" he said. \"If you want to be successful in the fashion world, as well as the movie world and music world, it's something else that you need, but you cannot decide that you have it. It's up to you to sew it, but it's up to the others to use it. In a way it's the worst of worlds, but if you made in the world, it's beyond pleasant.\" Confident and unabashed Lagerfeld is looking forward to more creative inspiration and hard work. His contracts with Chanel and Fendi are for life. \"Chanel died doing her last collection in her 90s, so I have time. I don't think like this. It's my projection, always six months, six months, six months. I don't know. People laugh at me to disappear but I'm not ready for that one. \"I am born for the battlefield. Competition is healthy you know. Some people would like the idea of no competition so they can keep the position for the rest of their lives, but no, there has to be a kind of danger all the time. I think it's very healthy, it makes you better.\" Watch the full Talk Asia show with Karl Lagerfeld on CNN from Wednesday, December 23.","highlights":"German-born fashion designer is one of the most recognizable figures in fashion .\nHas been creative force behind Chanel for over 25 years .\nTold CNN he thinks little of the past, successes or failures, focused on the present .\n\"I am born for the battlefield. Competition is healthy,\" he told CNN .","id":"9b442e55b71c11c6bade08da38b36c721b841dbd"} -{"article":"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- An explosion killed at least 22 people and wounded 60 others Tuesday in the central Pakistani city of Dera Ghazi Khan, said a rescue service official. The dead included two children, three women and 17 men, said, Mubarak Ali Athar, the regional police chief in Dera Ghazi Khan. Three people were critically injured, he said. The blast ripped through a market located near the house of a senior adviser to the chief minister of Punjab province, said the official, Mohammed Hasnain. The adviser, Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa, is a former provincial governor and a senior opposition party politician. He said he was the target of the attack, though police initially said he was not the intended target. Khosa told CNN that none of his family members were in the house when the attack occurred. He also said that he had never before received any threats against his life. The attacker detonated his car in front of the main gate at Khosa's house, said Hassan Iqbal, a senior government official. About 20 shops in the market were left in heaps of rubble. Journalist Umar Aziz Khan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attack on market in Dera Ghazi Khan leaves 22 dead, 60 wounded .\nAttacker detonated car in front of Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa's home .\nFormer provincial governor claims he was intended target of attack .","id":"2946982c10e0d8951c944c54aef8e88b4a219b57"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iceland is losing its only three McDonald's restaurants as a result of the poor economic situation in the country. Businessman Magnus Ogmundsson, who owns the only McDonald's franchise in Iceland, said it had become too expensive to operate the restaurants after Iceland's currency, the krona, plunged in value. \"The krona is quite weak and we are buying everything in euros, and we have very high tariffs on imported agricultural products,\" he told CNN on Tuesday. In January 2008, it cost more than 95 Icelandic krona to buy one euro, according to the Central Bank of Iceland. Tuesday, that price had shot up to more than 186 krona. That means the currency is worth half as much today as it was in January 2008 -- and things priced in euros now cost twice as much to buy. Ogmundsson said the McDonald's Corporation worked with him to find a solution, but in the end he had no choice but to close. There was \"good cooperation\" with McDonald's, Ogmundsson told CNN. \"No hard feelings.\" McDonald's said it had become financially prohibitive to continue operating in Iceland because of \"the unique operational complexity of doing business in Iceland combined with the very challenging economic climate in the country.\" It said there are no plans to seek a new franchise partner in that country. The three stores will close at midnight Saturday, but they will reopen as an independent chain called Metro, with more domestic ingredients and fewer imported products. \"We believe we can be more successful with our own brand,\" Ogmundsson said. A McDonald's Big Mac hamburger currently sells for the equivalent of $5.29, making Iceland one of the most expensive places in the world to buy the sandwich. Only Norway and Switzerland charge more, according to the countries listed on the Economist magazine's Big Mac Index, published in February. A Big Mac costs about $3.54 in the United States, $2.19 in Australia, $5.07 in Denmark, $1.66 in South Africa, and $1.52 in Malaysia.","highlights":"Iceland is losing its only three McDonald's restaurants after economic collapse .\nFranchise owner said restaurants now too expensive to run after Iceland's currency plunged in value .\nKrona worth half as much now as it was in January 2008 -- and imports are priced in euros .","id":"fa0a09c7addb0486b70eb925412491f883bd7b86"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A man accused of screaming racial slurs while beating an Army reservist in front of her daughter outside a restaurant in Morrow, Georgia, was jailed and held without bond Wednesday after being indicted on felony charges. Troy Dale West Jr, of Poulan, Georgia, is being held without bond on new felony charges. Troy Dale West Jr., of Poulan, Georgia, is facing one count of aggravated assault, two counts of battery, two counts of disorderly conduct, false imprisonment and cruelty to children for allegedly beating Tashawnea Hill outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant on September 9, according to a Clayton County Court online docket. West had been arrested on misdemeanor charges following the incident, but Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson took the the case to a grand jury asking for more serious charges. Hill's attorney Kip Jones told CNN that several hundred supporters, believed to be with the NAACP, Al Sharpton's Political Action Network and Rainbow Push, gathered outside the courtroom Wednesday morning in support of more serious charges against West. Jones said he and Hill were pleased with the new indictment. \"We look forward to a conviction as Tasha and her 7-year-old daughter move forward to recover from this heinous incident,\" he said. West's lawyer, Larry King, had no comment about the indictment, according his assistant. Hill, 35, said the attack occurred after she warned West to be careful after almost hitting her 7-year-old daughter with the restaurant's door as she was leaving. West, according to a police report, admitted striking Hill \"after she spit on me and accused me of trying to hit her daughter with a door.\" During an interview on CNN following the attack, Jones denied that she spat on West or did \"anything to provoke the attack.\" Hill, an African-American, told police that West, 47, yelled racial epithets at her during the attack. Police said witnesses confirmed her account. \"He did punch me with a closed fist repeated times. My head is still hurting today. I have knots on my head,\" Hill told CNN. She also said she was kicked. Police say Hill stated that \"West punched her in the left cheek, forehead, kicked her body in several places, and punched her head in many areas several times.\" Hill's attorney said he was \"convinced this was a hateful, racist attack ... based on the N-word, the B-word, etc.\" \"The language was vile. It was racist. It was sexist. It was completely offensive, completely unprovoked,\" Jones said. Morrow is a racially diverse city in the southeast suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, with a population of about 4,900, according to the 2000 census.","highlights":"Man accused of racially charged attack at restaurant held without bond .\nGrand jury on Wednesday indicted Troy Dale West Jr. on new felony charges .\nArmy reservist said West yelled racial slurs, beat her in front of her child .\nCharges against West include aggravated assault, battery, false imprisonment .","id":"8025c4c8088bbc5b9e7d9b42482688f59f0bb730"} -{"article":"(Tribune Media Services) -- Gabriel Medina can't reach his hotel in New Orleans because there's a police barricade in front of it. A manager promises to \"help\" him cancel the reservation, but three days later, his credit card is charged $113. Now his credit card has sided with the hotel. Is there anything else he can do? Q: I don't know where else to turn. I recently booked a room at the Holiday Inn French Quarter-Chateau Lemoyne in New Orleans through its central reservations phone number. When I arrived, the New Orleans Police Department had the entire block closed off. I immediately called the hotel and told a manager I couldn't access the hotel. He said he did not know when the blockade would be lifted and couldn't help get my car or luggage to the hotel. He couldn't cancel my reservation because I had made it through Holiday Inn's central reservations number. After several more attempts to reach the hotel, he agreed to help me cancel my reservation. I stayed at another hotel that night. Three days later, a $113 charge appeared on my credit card from the Holiday Inn. I disputed the charge, but they told me I couldn't get a refund because I could not prove that they refused me the room. When I called guest relations they said they needed a cancellation number before they would consider a refund. Otherwise the hotel itself would need to reverse the charge. When I call the hotel, I get only voicemail. Can you help? -- Gabriel Medina, Elk Grove, California . A: If a hotel representative says your reservation is canceled, you shouldn't be charged for your stay. But a review of your correspondence raises a few red flags. First, a manager told you that it was impossible for him to cancel a reservation made through Holiday Inn's 800-number. Then, a few minutes later, the same manager agrees to \"help\" you cancel the reservation. I would assume that \"helping\" you means your reservation is officially canceled, but what if he just looked into it and then decided it couldn't be done, and left your original reservation intact? Since Holiday Inn didn't have a cancellation number, it probably means there was no cancellation. Here's what you did right: You noted the name of the manager with whom you spoke. You followed up with Holiday Inn, and you were persistent but polite. Here's what you overlooked: You should have called the central reservations number and asked for a cancellation number. If they refused to give you a number, you should have given a representative the name of the manager you spoke with. I would have followed up with the manager and not let Holiday Inn off the hook until you had a number. But getting a number isn't enough. Instead of continuing to call Holiday Inn, I would have sent it a short, cordial email asking for a verification of your cancellation in writing. If you send an email through a hotel company's Web site (Holiday Inn) you'll typically receive a meaningful answer in a matter of days, if not hours. With that information, your credit card dispute would have probably been a slam-dunk. Before getting to the resolution on your case, let me add one more thing. As far as I can tell, Holiday Inn was under no obligation to refund your money. You couldn't reach the hotel because of a police barricade, which the property couldn't control. But since a manager assured you that he would help you make a cancellation, I think it's reasonable to expect a refund. I contacted Holiday Inn on your behalf. It reviewed your case and apologized for the way in which your refund was handled. \"Clearly the inability to access the hotel was beyond your control, and in as such, you should be relieved of the $113 charge you have received,\" a representative wrote to you in a letter. You're getting your $113 back. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org. Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.","highlights":"Guest finds his hotel blocked by police barricade and calls the hotel manager .\nThe manager promises to help him cancel the reservation, and he stays elsewhere .\nDays later, he finds his credit card charged for unused, blocked hotel room .\nHoliday Inn hotel apologizes and returns the man's $113 .","id":"2d2b6a9f30410f8d5425d6a59d3da1e67a85461c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An extensive federal report released Monday concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness. A U.S. soldier wears protection against chemical weapons during the Gulf War in a February 1991 photo. That illness is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas. The 452-page report states that \"scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans.\" The report, compiled by a panel of scientific experts and veterans serving on the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, fails to identify any cure for the malady. It also notes that few veterans afflicted with Gulf War illness have recovered over time. \"Today's report brings to a close one of the darkest chapters in the legacy of the 1991 Gulf War,\" said Anthony Hardie, a member of the committee and a member of the advocacy group Veterans of Modern Warfare. \"This is a bittersweet victory, [because] this is what Gulf War veterans have been saying all along,\" Hardie said at a news conference in Washington. \"Years were squandered by the federal government ... trying to disprove that anything could be wrong with Gulf War veterans.\" The committee's report, titled \"Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans,\" was officially presented Monday to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. Noting that overall funding for research into Gulf War illness has declined dramatically since 2001, it calls for a \"renewed federal research commitment\" to \"identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues.\" Watch CNN's Elizabeth Cohen report more on Gulf War illness \u00bb . According to the report, Gulf War illness is a \"complex of multiple concurrent symptoms\" that \"typically includes persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems, and other chronic abnormalities.\" The illness may also be potentially tied to higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease -- among Gulf War veterans than veterans of other conflicts. The illness is identified as the consequence of multiple \"biological alterations\" affecting the brain and nervous system. iReport.com: Do you know someone affected by Gulf War illness? While it is sometimes difficult to issue a specific diagnosis of the disease, it is, according to the report, no longer difficult to identify a cause. The report identifies two Gulf War \"neurotoxic\" exposures that \"are causally associated with Gulf War illness.\" The first is the ingestion of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills, given to protect troops from effects of nerve agents. The second is exposure to dangerous pesticides used during the conflict. The report does not rule out other possible contributors to Gulf War illness -- including low-level exposure to nerve agents and close proximity to oil well fires -- though it fails to establish any clear link. The report concludes there is no clear link between the illness and a veteran's exposure to factors such as depleted uranium or an anthrax vaccine administered at the time. \"Gulf War illness isn't some imaginary syndrome,\" said Ken Robinson, the senior intelligence officer for the initial Department of Defense investigation into Gulf War illness in 1996-97. \"This is real, and it has devastated families. Now is the time to restore the funding cuts that have been made in the Veterans Administration. Our mission has to be to ensure that these veterans get help and become whole again.\" Robinson noted that soldiers in the field today are not at risk for Gulf War illness, because the military is no longer using the PB pills or pesticides that led to the illness in 1990 and 1991. The report backs Robinson's conclusion, noting that no problem similar to Gulf War illness has been discovered among veterans from the conflict in Bosnia in the 1990s or in the current engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. The committee report also backs Robinson's call for more effective treatments among veterans suffering from Gulf War illness. Noting that overall funding for research into Gulf War illness has declined dramatically since 2001, it calls for a \"renewed federal research commitment\" to \"identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues.\" Specifically, the report calls for at least $60 million in new annual federal funding on research committed to improving the health of Gulf War veterans.","highlights":"NEW: Officer who investigated illness: \"This is real, and it has devastated families\"\nOne in four Gulf War veterans suffer from Gulf War illness, report says .\nPesticides, drug used to thwart effects of nerve gas called most likely to blame .\nIllness termed \"a real condition with real causes and serious consequences\"","id":"f75a18f3783a3006a5c3b59513b5238fca5d38b9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Peruvian authorities say they have arrested four members of a gang that specialized in selling to European labs fat obtained from dead humans. Officials are investigating the disappearance of at least 60 people they believe were killed by gang members in two mountainous states in central Peru, lead prosecutor Jorge Sanz Quiroz said Friday. The four suspects have been charged with murder in the September slaying of a Peruvian man, the prosecutor said. \"They killed to obtain human fat because there were European laboratories that would pay them,\" Sanz Quiroz said. The suspects told authorities they were paid $15,000 for a liter (about 1 quart) of human fat. Officials did not disclose what possible use laboratories could have for the human fat, but fat can be a component of cosmetics and is used in reconstructive or cosmetic surgery. The use of human fat for any purpose is extremely rare, however, physicians say. Other suspects, including the Peruvian ringleader, have eluded capture, Sanz Quiroz said. Authorities have the names of two Italian suspects who are being sought by Interpol, the 188-nation worldwide police agency, the prosecutor said. He declined to reveal their identities. Sanz Quiroz acknowledged the uniqueness of the allegations. \"We are not making this up,\" he said. \"They have confessed to this. That's what's coming out now.\" One of the suspects told officials he had been committing the murders for five years. According to a criminal complaint Sanz Quiroz filed November 18, officials discovered on September 22 a small container containing a fat-like substance that had been stored at the Bella Durmiente bus station in Lima, Peru's capital. On November 3, the complaint says, suspect Serapio Marcos Veramendi Principe was arrested after he retrieved three bottles from the Estrella Polar bus station. The bottles contained a substance authorities believe is human fat, the complaint says. Lab tests are being performed to determine what the substance is. Authorities identified the three other suspects as Elmer Segundo Castillejos Aguero, Hilario Cudena Simon and Enedina Estela Claudio. The suspects identified each other for police in photo lineups, the complaint says. In addition to murder, Veramendi Principe and Castillejos Aguero face weapons charges. Castillejos Aguero, Veramendi Principe and Estela Claudio also face drug charges, authorities said. They are accused in the September 16 killing of Abel Matos Aranda, the criminal complaint says. Authorities believe the substance found at the bus stations is body fat obtained from Matos Aranda. Officials unearthed a partially buried male body November 13 in Huanuco state. They believe it was Matos Aranda. Sanz Quiroz referred to the suspects as \"brujos,\" the Spanish word for witches. He noted that the suspects are part of an Andean mountain culture that believes bodies can be used to ward off evil and prevent disasters. For example, he said, bodies are often buried at the entrances to mine shafts and bridges in the belief they will keep the structures from collapsing. Authorities are calling the suspects \"pishtacos,\" which are Andean mythological creatures. In his 1996 book \"Death in the Andes,\" Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa mentions pishtacos extensively, saying they are half-white ghouls who live in caves, lurk along dark isolated roads and suck the fat out of anyone careless enough to travel Andean roads at night. Andean myth holds that the fat is used to make soaps, lubricants, healing potions and cosmetic creams. Until the arrests, few believed that anything resembling pishtacos existed. \"It's an Andean myth that we've now been able to prove,\" said Miguel Jimenez Torres, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office. Some physicians say human fat is used in some medical procedures, but a few products were taken off the market because they were considered unsafe. The longevity of implants that use human tissue often is not as good, said Atlanta cosmetic surgeon Harold Brody. Nor is there any advantage, he said, to using human fat in cosmetic creams or lotions. \"They're a little behind the times,\" Brody said. \"It makes a great moisturizer, but it has no advantages over good moisturizers that don't use human fat.\" New York dermatologist Barry Goldman said he had never heard of human fat being sold on the black market. \"The idea that anybody would use an injectable where you didn't know where it came from would be laughable if it weren't unethical and potentially dangerous,\" he said. Still, the notion of black market human fat seemed possible to him. \"They steal kidneys, so why not this?\" he asked. \"It is sick, but in the Holocaust they did use skin for lamps.\"","highlights":"Peruvian authorities reported to have arrested gang who are selling human fat .\nOfficials investigating disappearances of at least 60 people .\nTwo suspects arrested with a plastic container with human fat in it .","id":"45b868d2bd6810632ce40018de9c02b8d7e34064"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- In the same way a Christmas playlist is incomplete without a tipsy, eggnog-drinking grandmother having an unfortunate accident with reindeer, the melodrama of certain shows and films improves when a boozy grandmother is written in. The minor role is normally reserved for television, but it makes the jump to movie theaters this year in \"The Lovely Bones,\" Peter Jackson's cerebral thriller based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel, with Susan Sarandon playing the hard-drinking Grandma Lynn. \"She's such a strange grandmother,\" Sarandon told the Australian press about her first role as a family matriarch. Although Sarandon, 63, said she's old enough to play one, her Grandma Lynn isn't \"a granny grandmother.\" \"She's the comic relief in this very deep, very hard movie; she comes in and the movie gets lighter,\" said movie reviewer Kit Bowen. \"She's trying to vacuum while ash is falling from her cigarette.\" Television critics say it's hard to nail down when this character first made an appearance, but the anti-grandmother role we know today was more than likely inspired by the spirited older women on \"Golden Girls,\" and has since become a television staple. Kelly Bishop played a version of the difficult, drinking grandmother for seven seasons as Emily Gilmore on \"Gilmore Girls,\" and Holland Taylor has taken her vodka neat as Evelyn Harper on \"Two and a Half Men\" and as Peggy Peabody on \"The L Word.\" The Upper East Side hour-long melodrama \"Gossip Girl\" has the scheming Celia Rhodes -- whose signature scent is Chanel No. 5 with a top note of gin -- and Jessica Walter has perfected the role as Lucille Bluth on \"Arrested Development\" and Tabitha Wilson on \"90210.\" \"These women, they're not knitting -- they're more interested in mixing their drinks than watching kids,\" said Entertainment Weekly's pop culture writer Tim Stack. \"They're more inclined to offer a witticism or a barb than to give you sweet advice. These ladies aren't cooking -- I don't think they even eat. They drink their lunch. And their dinners. And their breakfasts. ... Maybe they eat the olives.\" They're the exact opposite of the stereotypical grandmother, said TVGuide.com's senior editor Mickey O'Connor. \"They're supposed to be the truth-tellers -- whether it's liquid courage or lowering their inhibitions, I don't know,\" O'Connor said. \"But everyone can relate to having an older relative that embarrasses you to some degree,\" he added. \"Shelley Long just did a drunken grandma on 'Modern Family.' There was a wedding scene where she got drunk, gave a toast and ended up kicking the cake over. It's about the universality of how we deal with our older relatives. If you make them drunk, there's some way to at least codify what embarrasses us about them, or to excuse their outrageous behavior.\" With O'Connor's own grandparents, though, \"it's less often an indication of how much they've had to drink and more often just who they are.\" Because it's a role that's virtually paint-by-numbers -- drunk grandmothers are nearly always wealthy, white and cruelly witty, with poor parenting skills -- it demands a strong actress who can keep the potentially two-dimensional from falling flat. Case in point for film reviewer Bowen is the difference between the Grandma Lynn in Sebold's novel and Jackson's cinematic version. \"I loved the book, but the funny thing is that I don't remember the grandmother,\" Bowen said. \"She definitely is more memorable in the movie, and I'm glad her character is in the movie because it adds another layer to it. \"Which, of course, has everything to do with Susan Sarandon,\" Bowen added. The talent of the women who have taken these minor roles and turned them into iconic characters is what has kept the \"drunk grandma\" role from veering into clich\u00e9 territory, O'Connor said. \"Even with the criticisms people had of '90210,' they liked Jessica Walter and what she was doing,\" O'Connor said. \"She brought some reality. The teen drama tends to be a little stylized in terms of its emotional truth, and she's kind of there to cut through the artifice.\" Stack, who also lists Walter's \"Development\" character as one of his favorites, thinks these roles are always such a hit because, regardless of what series they land in, they always manage to \"punch it up.\" (Need proof of Walter's comedic timing? Do a search for \"Lucille Bluth Chicken Dance\" on YouTube.) \"They're the Tabasco to a Bloody Mary,\" Stack said. \"Walter was sharp, funny, mean and heartless --- and at the same time, she was fabulous in a Chanel suit like it was always happy hour somewhere. She made it look like such a blast.\" While their alcohol-induced shenanigans are obviously trumped up for comedic effect, the idea of a grandmother who's independent, technologically savvy and having fun isn't the foreign notion it used to be, said Mary McHugh, the 81-year-old author of \"How Not to Become a Little Old Lady.\" McHugh herself has spent her post-child-rearing years traveling the world. \"When people think of a grandmother, their eyes glaze over. But now, many of us are doing things we love doing. We're not sitting somewhere and rocking in a rocking chair,\" said McHugh, who herself enjoys a glass of wine or two to cap off her evenings. But, despite the truth that these characters are reflected in the real world more than ever, television and film still doesn't have anything close to the godmother of the grandmother character, \"Golden Girls.\" \"Hopefully, it's not the drunk grandmother [character] that have made it better for older actresses, but you never know,\" O'Connor said. \"Maybe it's become, play a drunk grandmother and you get to work past the age of 60.\"","highlights":"Susan Sarandon plays hard-drinking Grandma Lynn in \"The Lovely Bones\"\nKelly Bishop played drinking grandmother Emily Gilmore on \"Gilmore Girls\"\nExpert says these grandmas are \"exact opposite of the stereotypical grandmother\"","id":"70099af084add87b30660f69a9c1e5173579385c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four suspects are sought in connection with the shooting death over the weekend of a Houston, Texas, doctor, Austin County authorities said Monday. Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzales was found shot to death at his ranch in rural Texas on Saturday, police say. Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzalez, 56, was chief of the critical care section at Houston's Methodist Hospital and \"a pulmonary medicine leader,\" according to the hospital system's Web site. He was found dead Saturday when deputies responded to a 911 call of a burglary in progress shortly after noon, said Austin County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Paul Faircloth. The responding officer was met by vehicles leaving the location, Faircloth said, and a person in one vehicle fired on the officer. The officer and his car were not struck, and the officer did not return fire, Faircloth said. The officer was able to provide a detailed description of the vehicles, he said. At the home, which Faircloth said is in a rural, wooded and isolated area, officers found Gonzalez shot to death and another person wounded. The second victim was airlifted to an Austin, Texas, hospital. Watch Dr. Gonzalez's son talk about his father \u00bb . Gonzalez's wife and small child were found unharmed inside the home, Faircloth said. CNN affiliate KHOU identified the woman as Charleen Gonzalez, 29, and the couple's 2-year-old son, and reported the two hid in a closet. Authorities do not know whether the incident was a burglary or an intended home invasion, Faircloth said, and \"we do not know if this is random or targeted.\" Several leads were being followed Monday morning, he said, and numerous agencies were involved in the investigation. The motive for the killing had not been determined on Monday. The slaying took place at Gonzalez's ranch outside Bellville, Texas, said Lisa Block, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Gonzalez, his wife and child arrived at the ranch about 11 a.m. Saturday, she said, and \"the suspects were at the house when they arrived.\" Gonzalez's wife ran inside with the child and called 911, she said. Ranch worker Noel Galvan was the second victim, Block said. He was listed in critical condition, she said. Faircloth said earlier Monday five suspects were being sought, but later said police were seeking four. The vehicles seen leaving the home were a late '90s white Ford F-150 pickup, occupied by two Hispanic males, Faircloth said, and a red Honda or Acura with dark tinted windows sitting low to the ground, with one Hispanic male inside. The shots were fired from the white pickup, he said. Another vehicle mentioned earlier Monday was a two-toned silver and black Ford F-150 that had two Hispanic males inside. Faircloth said Monday afternoon that vehicle had been located and was not thought to be involved. However, police released a video of a gray Lexus on Monday, and would like to question its owners, Faircloth said. The drivers are believed to be an older couple. The car was seen before the officer encountered the white and red vehicles. \"The manhunt continues on the ground,\" Faircloth said. The suspects are considered armed and dangerous, he said. Faircloth said he had no information on whether the home had surveillance equipment. Family members told KHOU that Gonzalez went to the ranch nearly every weekend. \"It's deeply saddening for all of us,\" an older son of Gonzalez, Juan Mauricio Gonzalez, told KHOU. \"We are a tight-knit family and he was just a perfect man, a perfect father and a great physician.\" The Methodist Hospital System said Gonzalez will be missed, \"both as a friend and an outstanding clinician and researcher. Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family during this tragedy.\" \"This man had nothing to do with anybody,\" Juan Gonzalez told KHOU. \"He was a peaceful man. He was a wise man. He was just here to make people better and nothing else.\" A reward totaling $26,000 was offered for information in the case leading to an arrest. CNN's Melanie Whitley contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspects were at doctor's house when he, wife and child arrived, police say .\nPolice responded to 911 call of burglary at rural home of Houston, Texas, doctor .\nPolice found Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzalez shot to death and a ranch worker badly injured .\nGonzalez's wife and toddler found unharmed; they reportedly hid in a closet .","id":"f225d5678bb139b4e3d296fd0b5d52c759446078"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- His shooting spree left at least 10 dead and millions terrified of bullets coming from an unseen sniper. But Mildred Muhammad believes she was the ultimate target of her ex-husband, John Allan Muhammad, the man dubbed the \"D.C. Sniper.\" And for some time, Muhammad said she felt extreme guilt for the victims that were gunned down in grocery store parking lots and gas stations. The youngest was a 13-year-old boy who was shot while walking to his Maryland school. Muhammad spoke about the guilt she felt after the killing spree on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" on Monday night, the day before her ex-husband was scheduled to be executed. Muhammad said she has gradually gotten over her guilty feelings and focused on her three children. \"I felt that way initially because I had done everything I knew how to do to bring attention to how dangerous he was to me,\" Muhammad said. \"I had no idea his anger would extend beyond me, to include all people in his killings.\" John Muhammad, the mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at a state prison near Jarratt, Virginia. During two lengthy trials -- including one featuring testimony from young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo -- and in several years of legal appeals, John Muhammad has continued to profess his innocence. Prosecutors say John Muhammad intended the killings to provide a smokescreen to cover up his real goal -- killing his ex-wife Mildred and gaining custody of his three children. Muhammad said she divorced John Muhammad because of abuse and has not visited him since he was in prison. \"I feel that all of my efforts, all of my energy is to help my children through this emotional turmoil that they are going through,\" said Muhammad. \"I don't have an emotional attachment to John.\" John Muhammad's other ex-wife, Carol Williams, also talked to King Monday. Williams, John Muhammad's first wife, said she plans to visit him in prison with their son Tuesday before the execution. Williams also brought letters that John Muhammad wrote her from prison. \"Carol, I have missed my family for the past eight years. I don't want to be missed the day that these devils murder my innocent black (expletive),\" John Muhammad wrote in one of the letters. Williams said she was not surprised that John Muhammad still believed he was innocent. \"I'm praying for myself, for my son, and also for the families of the victims,\" Williams said.","highlights":"John Muhammad's second ex-wife, Mildred, believes she was ultimate target of sniper spree .\nMuhammad: For long time, I felt extreme guilt for victims that were gunned down .\nCarol Williams, his first ex-wife, plans to visit Muhammad before execution and bring son .\nMuhammad has maintained his innocence in the deaths of at least 10 people in 2002 .","id":"bb92572edff814cdfdd45920b2de6b79c9ac1bcc"} -{"article":"BEVERLY HILLS, California (CNN) -- Here's what happens when you go to interview Aretha Franklin: Her publicist will e-mail the cell phone number of her security man to your BlackBerry. Once you reach the lobby of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, you call the cell phone. Someone will come down to get you and bring you up to her suite, where you'll be greeted by Carlton, her longtime makeup artist. Aretha Franklin was voted the No. 1 singer of all time in a Rolling Stone survey. Then you look around, and you notice Aretha -- the Queen of Soul and recipient of 18 Grammys -- is quietly padding around the room in jeans, a turquoise T-shirt and flip-flops. She'll offer you \"a seat and Cokes\" -- then proceed to shoot the breeze, while you and your camera crew invade her room to set up for the interview. Then it hits you. You may be an Aretha Franklin groupie, but Aretha is a groupie of CNN. She loves to talk politics, and she's up-to-the-minute in terms of information. President-elect Barack Obama is her man. After seeing his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, she invited him to be her honored guest at an event in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan. He couldn't come, but she's been a loyal supporter since then. She'll sing at his inauguration in January. In the meantime, Rolling Stone magazine, in a poll of music industry heavyweights, just named her the No. 1 singer of all time. And there's her new holiday album, \"This Christmas, Aretha.\" In a career that's spanned more than 50 years, it's the first seasonal CD she's ever made. Aretha helps us set the stage for Santa (eggnog optional). Aretha Franklin: The snow is lightly falling -- you get the picture -- you're by the fireside with your sweetie, and no Aretha! There's no Aretha in the music! What's going on?! So I had to do an album. CNN: You've been wanting to do a holiday album for a long time. Franklin: For many years, I've wanted to do one, and I've always mentioned it to the chieftains, and they would say things like, \"Oh well. Christmas albums don't sell,\" and things like that. But that's not the point. Christmas albums are important. The music is important. The season is important. CNN: On \"This Christmas, Aretha,\" there are some traditional songs and some more contemporary tunes. Franklin: We did \"Silent Night,\" \"Angels We Have Heard on High,\" \"14 Angels\" -- which comes from the classic \"Hansel and Gretel,\" the opera. What else did we do? \"This Christmas\" by Donny Hathaway and \"Christmas Ain't Christmas (Without The One You Love)\" by the O'Jays. Those two are my favorites. They're the first two records that are going to play in the Franklin household every Christmas. CNN: What was Christmas like for you growing up? Franklin: Christmases past, my sister, Carolyn, and I -- we'd been waiting for Santa all night. Nothing! Where is this man? And we're looking all up in the sky all night long, until I guess about 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. Finally, we just fell out. We couldn't take it anymore. [We'd wake up in the morning and] come downstairs, and everything was under the tree! We couldn't believe it! Where did these things come from? You know, we just couldn't believe it. CNN: Did you believe in Santa Claus for a long time? Franklin: For a while, I did. And then I started getting the idea that it wasn't Santa -- it was Dad. CNN: What's Christmas like now? Do you cook, or do you have someone help you cook? Franklin: Oh absolutely, puh-leeze! Nobody else better cook on the holidays except me! I do everything -- the traditional fare. You have the turkey, the baked ham with the brown sugar glaze. We have the mixed greens, we have fried corn, we have the sweet potato pies, you have the potato salad -- the whole nine yards is on the table. Everything is from scratch. Men don't like eating out of cans. And I don't like eating out of cans too much, either. CNN: Have you ever done a cookbook? Franklin: No, I haven't, but I plan to. CNN: Do you gather 'round the piano and sing Christmas carols? Franklin: After dinner, we do. We sing a little bit. We might be playing cards, we might be playing Monopoly. The children are just running in and out of the rooms, and up and down the steps. They love the workout room. CNN: How many people do you generally have over? Franklin: Usually, about 15 or so. My neighbors, my friends and family. My nieces, my grandchildren. CNN: On election night, I hear you all got together to watch the presidential returns. Franklin: We had an Obama pajama party -- and it was really cool -- at one of the casinos in Detroit. We sat there and watched the returns. Started at 6 o'clock, and we had like three or four screens going -- and, of course, we had CNN going, and I'm not just sayin' that because I'm sitting here. At that magic moment, the room just erupted. It was like, \"Whoa!\" All of the screaming and just -- I can imagine what people thought outside in the hallways! CNN: Did you ever think you'd see a black man elected president in your lifetime? Franklin: Absolutely. Absolutely, I did, yes -- after Reverend [Jesse] Jackson made his run, and Shirley Chisholm, so long before. I thought maybe even Colin Powell might run after Reverend Jackson. I did. CNN: Do you already have your dress for the inauguration? Franklin: Honey, I've had my dress for months! CNN: I hope you have a hotel reservation -- otherwise, you'll be begging for a bed at a youth hostel. Franklin: Oh, no. I don't stay at those places. CNN: You want a job in Barack's Cabinet? Franklin: Yeah, I want a job in Barack's Cabinet. How about a job, Mr. Obama? Please?! PLEASE?!! (She cracks up.)","highlights":"Aretha Franklin's new holiday album is \"This Christmas, Aretha\"\nFranklin had never done a Christmas album, thought it was about time .\nFamed singer will be performing at Barack Obama's inauguration .","id":"9933508c6e8421c86f711d4e75f8e8eb638494f3"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- A federal advisory board's recommendation that women in their 40s should avoid routine mammograms is not government policy and has caused \"a great deal of confusion,\" Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday. \"My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an important life-saving tool in the fight against breast cancer, and they still are today,\" Sebelius said in a statement. \"Keep doing what you have been doing for years: talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions and make the decision that is right for you.\" With her statement, Sebelius waded into the controversy over Monday's announcement by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. Sebelius' statement is aimed at \"making it clear these recommendations are not ours,\" a White House source said. The report \"shouldn't be dismissed,\" Sebelius said on CNN's \"The Situation Room.\" But she added, \"There are other groups who have disagreed with this information.\" The task force is \"making recommendations, not coverage decisions, not payment decisions.\" Government health programs such as Medicaid will continue to cover routine mammograms, she said. \"We will continue to recommend it, and the health plans have indicated that they will do the same,\" Sebelius said. \"If the health care provider recommends a mammogram for a patient, they intend to cover that payment.\" Though the Preventive Services Task Force is independent, the Department of Health and Human Services' Web site calls the panel's recommendations the \"gold standard,\" and insurance companies look to the panel for guidance on which preventive care practices they should cover. With the Obama administration fighting to push a sweeping overhaul of U.S. health insurance through Congress, Republicans quickly jumped at the chance to attack the mammography report. \"This is how rationing begins,\" said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee. \"This is the little toe in the edge of the water. And this is where you start getting a bureaucrat between you and your physician.\" The White House disputes that, saying the recommendations \"cannot be used to deny treatment\" on their own. Sebelius said the task force won't make coverage decisions. \"Mammograms have been a huge step forward for millions of American women, but we still have about 21 million women and girls in America who don't have a doctor, who don't receive any kind of mammogram screening on any kind of basis regardless of their age,\" she said. \"The health reform debate is about closing that gap.\" Criticism of the recommendation has come from quarters other than opponents of the Democratic health care bills. The American Cancer Society said it disagrees with the findings of the task force and continues to recommend annual screening, including mammograms, for all women beginning 40 and over. \"With its new recommendations, the [task force] is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them,\" said Dr. Otis Brawley, the group's chief medical officer. And Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Florida, who was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer at 41, called the panel's recommendations \"really disturbing\" and \"absolutely irresponsible.\" \"It's a very patronizing attitude that these scientists have taken,\" she said. \"It's pretty outrageous to suggest that women couldn't handle more information.\" Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health, has announced that he will lead hearings into the advisory board's recommendations. Wasserman-Schultz said those hearings \"will help us reach the appropriate policy conclusion, which I believe is that these recommendations should be set aside.\" Breast cancer is the most common cancer for U.S. women, with nearly 200,000 women expected to be diagnosed with the invasive form of the disease this year, according to the American Cancer Society. For women 50 to 74, it recommended routine mammography screenings every two years. Risks and benefits for women age 75 and older are unknown, it said. While roughly 15 percent of women in their 40s detect breast cancer through mammography, data show that many other women experience false positives, anxiety, and unnecessary biopsies as a result of the test, according to the task force. The Preventive Services Task Force reviews medical data and bases recommendations on effectiveness and risks involved. It is composed of 16 health care experts, none of whom are oncologists, though a team of cancer experts presented its findings to the group. CNN's Danielle Dellorto and Gloria Borger contributed to this report.","highlights":"Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says findings aren't part of government policy .\nGOP criticizes health care \"rationing\"; White House disputes claim .\nAdvisory board has said women in 40s shouldn't get routine mammograms .\nHealth secretary: Government will continue to recommend mammograms .","id":"9c238a59ef69eebb35e3a791537f3b3998182956"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Hurricane Ida moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico Sunday, prompting a declaration of emergency in Louisiana and concern along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The storm regained hurricane intensity overnight Saturday, becoming a Category 2 hurricane, but forecasters said it is expected to weaken as it moves north. Ida drenched Nicaragua after making landfall last week as a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm before resuming strength. In El Salvador, at least 91 people died in flooding and mudslides, according to the government, but a low-pressure system out of the Pacific -- not Hurricane Ida -- triggered the disaster, forecaster Robby Berg of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. A hurricane warning, meaning hurricane conditions are possible within 24 hours, extends from Pascagoula, Mississippi to Indian Pass, Florida, forecasters said. From Grande Isle, Louisiana, to west of Pascagoula, Mississippi, a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch are in effect. This area includes New Orleans, which the center earlier excluded from the watch, and Lake Pontchartrain, the hurricane center said. In anticipation of the storm's arrival, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Sunday afternoon. Hurricane Ida \"threatens the safety and security of those citizens\" along the state's southeast coastline, he wrote in the declaration. The declaration gives the director of the governor's office of emergency preparedness authority \"to undertake any activity authorized by law which he deems necessary and appropriate\" to prepare for the possibility of a hurricane. Track Ida's progress, potential path . Alabama's Baldwin County commission urged that residents living in mobile homes, coastal communities or low-lying, flood-prone areas voluntarily evacuate. The county is under a local state of emergency and opened a shelter, according to a Sunday night statement from the county commission. As of 10 p.m. ET Sunday, Ida had maximum sustained winds near 105 mph (165 km\/hr) with higher gusts. But the storm was expected to weaken on Monday and possibly begin losing tropical characteristics on Tuesday, the hurricane center said. The center of Ida was located about 400 miles (645 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, forecasters said. It was moving north-northwest at nearly 14 mph (22 km\/hr) and was expected to increase in speed. The storm was expected to be near coastal areas of the northern Gulf by Monday night or early Tuesday, the hurricane center said. As Ida moves in the Gulf of Mexico, conditions are expected to be unfavorable for any additional development, said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. Ida is expected to weaken because of a combination of wind shear, cooler water temperatures and the storm's interaction with a strong frontal system pushing off the Gulf Coast, he said. But Ida is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves in the northern Gulf toward the U.S. coast, the center said. Florida's Division of Emergency Management asked residents to have disaster plans in place. \"Whether Ida maintains a storm or loses tropical characteristics, the Florida Gulf Coast region has the potential to see several inches of rain, strong winds, isolated tornadoes and dangerous surf and coastal flooding beginning Monday evening and continuing into Wednesday,\" the office said in a statement. The area stretching from Indian Pass, Florida, to Aucilla River, Florida, is also under a tropical storm warning. Tropical storm conditions are possible within 24 hours, the center said. Ida could drop between 1 and 3 inches of rain on portions of western Cuba, with isolated amounts of 8 inches possible in some spots, forecasters said. The central and eastern areas of the Gulf Coast northward to eastern Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachian Mountains could see 3 to 5 inches of rain with some areas getting as much as 8 inches, the center said. Ida is the Atlantic region's ninth named storm. The Atlantic hurricane season ends November 30. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras and journalist Merlin Delcid in El Salvador contributed to this report.","highlights":"Louisiana governor declares emergency after watch issued for parts of Gulf Coast .\nIda expected to weaken before it reaches U.S., but could bring heavy rain .\nHeavy rains expected in parts of the Southeast this week because of Ida .\nNational Weather Service: 91 deaths in El Salvador due to separate system, not Ida .","id":"53da87577d19fd7d1d35bc8b5e6c8213e3bd6e79"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- Fearlessly demonstrating the majesty of U.S. justice or acquiescing to terrorists by giving them undeserved rights and a public platform? The decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, admitted mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, and four other suspects to a New York courtroom, rather than a military tribunal, was described in stark contrasts Sunday by officials on opposing sides of the political spectrum. Democrats hailed Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the men in a civilian court as a demonstration of America's might and moral certainty, while Republicans called it a bad idea based on politics rather than pragmatism. \"We have a judicial system that's the envy of the world,\" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said on the CBS program \"Face the Nation.\" \"I don't think we should run and hide and cower. Let's use our system.\" But Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, speaking on the CNN program \"State of the Union,\" questioned why foreigners who allegedly are terrorists at war with the United States should be given full judicial rights of U.S. citizens. \"These people are evil people,\" Gregg said of the defendants. \"They represent a cause which wants to destroy this nation. If they have the opportunity and were to get free, they would try to destroy this country. There's no reason we should have them in the criminal justice system.\" Former New York Major Rudy Giuliani, considered a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2012, called military tribunals created for terrorism suspects who have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a better option than a civilian court. Military tribunals are \"a better choice for the government,\" Giuliani said on \"Fox News Sunday.\" \"This choice of New York is a better choice for the terrorists. Why would you seek to give the terrorists a better choice than you're giving the public?\" In a separate interview on CNN's \"State of the Union,\" Giuliani said a New York court trial would cause unnecessary stress and expense for the city's police force. \"Anyone that tells you that this doesn't create additional security problems, of course, isn't telling you the truth,\" Giuliani said. \"And the best indication of it is, just look at the additional security that's going to be employed when this happens. That also happens to cost millions and millions and millions of dollars.\" Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, warned that bringing the suspects to New York raised the risk of further attacks on the United States. \"Why move them into the United States while we are still under the threat from radical jihadists?\" Hoekstra asked on the CBS program. However, Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said on \"Fox News Sunday\" that scores of terrorism suspects were successfully prosecuted in civilian courts under the Bush Administration. \"What was a statesmanlike decision by the Bush administration can't be a political decision by this administration,\" Reed said. Holder announced the decision on the trial Friday. He said he expected all five suspects to be tried together and for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. The trial would be open to the public, although some portions that deal with classified information may be closed, Holder said.","highlights":"Democrats: Decision is a demonstration of America's might and moral certainty .\nMilitary tribunals would have been better choice, says ex-N.Y. mayor Giuliani .\nRep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Michigan: Bringing suspects into U.S. raises threat of attacks .\nSen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island: Prosecuting terrorism suspects in civilian courts not new .","id":"45e9cd00e871c70f5797f8f1dcb4b177ac962824"} -{"article":"Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- In the aftermath of Haiti's devastating earthquake, a small radio station became an informational lifeline for people in Port-au-Prince and beyond. The radio station, Signal FM, managed to stay on the air during the earthquake, leaving music playing while its employees fled the building. The station's studios and broadcasting tower withstood the 7.0-magnitude quake, and with electricity provided by multiple generators, it became one of the few places stunned Haitians could turn for information and directions in the following days. \"We say that the only way communicate with the people and the world to is to stay on,\" station manager Mario Viau told CNN. \"And we stayed on.\" Signal FM has stayed on the air throughout the nearly two weeks since the quake, though occasionally broadcasting at reduced power. At first, it had only three days of fuel to keep its generators going, but the Haitian government and private organizations contributed more. Interactive map of where to find aid, hospitals in Haiti . Viau said he went on the air shortly after the earthquake, telling listeners \"that we have been hit by an earthquake, and, you know ... say the radio station is there. We gonna talk to you.\" The station quickly organized a panel discussion with reporters, talking about what happened and getting dire reports from the surrounding city. \"People would come, and say I have this problem ... people are dead this way, why don't you send somebody that way. That was the first day,\" Viau said. \"The second day, they were saying we need water there, we need doctor there, we need food there. That's how it started.\" The station's broadcast signal reaches about 3 million people around Port-au-Prince. And it has international reach via the Internet, allowing people to get messages to relatives all over the world. \"Somebody would call and say if you're alive, come in front of Signal FM [and] I'll meet you at this time,\" Viau said. Others have used it to inform search-and-rescue workers about sites where people may still be buried alive, as well as food and water distribution sites. People now bring letters and notes to the station to be read on air. One woman went on the air, out of desperation, to ask for help in finding her husband. When it worked, Viau got the bear-hug of a lifetime from the man. \"You should have seen him. He was almost choking me,\" Viau said. Radio is a powerful tool in a country with a literacy rate of about 62 percent, according to UNICEF. And with tens of thousands of people now living in tents or makeshift shelters, aid agencies have been distributing portable radios to keep them in touch. CNN iReport: Looking for loved ones in Haiti . The U.S. Army has been handing out solar-powered and hand-cranked radios to an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 Haitians now housed at a former golf course in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville. The military will be broadcasting on three different radio stations. \"We'll pull people out of the audience and we'll ask, what's one thing you want to know and what's going on out there, that we don't know,\" said 1st Lt. Jeff Wozencraft of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. The tents and tarps sprawling across the Petionville green has been sectioned off into communities, with an area to buy food and clothing, and even to get a haircut. Some vendors use car batteries to charge cell phones for 50 cents a pop. One of the tens of thousands now housed here is 22-year-old Louis Richardson, whose mother, father, brothers and sisters died in the quake. Taking shelter under a tree from the stifling heat, he told CNN that Signal FM is \"the most important source of information now.\" But as he spoke, he wasn't listening to news. He was listening to \"You Are Not Alone\" by Michael Jackson. A small Port-au-Prince radio station stays on air after the January 12 earthquake, helping people coordinate aid distribution.","highlights":"Haitian radio station Signal FM says on during, after earthquake .\nStation has informed listeners where people need food, rescue .\nStation is \"the most important source of information now,\" Haitian says .","id":"25fc6a820391a41417402b28521ce891cd20b622"} -{"article":"Mecca, Saudi Arabian (CNN) -- A teenager and three elderly people in Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage have died of the H1N1 flu virus, the Saudi Health Ministry said. The victims of the virus were a 17-year-old Nigerian female and a Sudanese man, an Indian man and a Moroccan woman who each were 75 years old. \"These cases were discovered too late,\" said Dr. Khaled Al-Marghalani, the ministry spokesman. \"Some were old, and the others had pre-existing chronic conditions.\" Al-Marghalani said the Sudanese man initially went to a doctor who treated him, but not for H1N1. \"So when his doctor sent him to the hospital, and he was treated for H1N1, it was too late,\" he said. The annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is required of Muslims at least once in their lives, and millions of people around the globe make the trek to attend. This year, the hajj begins Wednesday, and many pilgrims have been arriving days and weeks ahead of the event, which coincides with flu season. When Arab health ministers met in Cairo, Egypt, a few months back, it looked like several groups might even be banned from this year's event because of the flu. They were children under 12, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses. The Saudis didn't ban anybody from coming and left the responsibility to the pilgrims' countries of origin. In effect, officials issued guidelines only for people at risk. Two days ago, Saudi Arabia's health minister, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, gathered representatives to discuss efforts to detect the ailment. \"It would be nice to have more time to prepare [for the possibility of H1N1 spreading in Saudi Arabia] ahead of the hajj, but I am very satisfied with all the measures taken and have great confidence,\" he said before the meeting. Al-Marghalani said the \"safe weapon\" for the kinds of H1N1 cases that resulted in the deaths is Tamiflu, the drug used to fight influenza. \"If we lose Tamiflu, we will lose the war. But Tamiflu is only effective in the first 48 hours of when the symptoms appear,\" he said.","highlights":"Virus kills teenager, three elderly people on hajj pilgrimage .\nArab ministers considered barring some groups from this year's event .\nSaudis left responsibility to pilgrims' countries of origin .","id":"b5542847929b2a008717346220fcab66f18640f9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The death of Hannover 96 and Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke from an apparent suicide has stunned the football world. The German media reaction to the death of a man many tipped to represent the country at the 2010 World Cup, has been one of shock. Berlin based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported \"Robert Enke is dead.\" Despite his absence from the German squad for the upcoming friendlies, they wrote manager Joachim L\u00f6w had \"clearly signaled that he would continue to be favourite for the number one spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.\" \"He threw himself before the train\" was the headline in the Hamburger Morgenpost, the newspaper going onto recall the death of his two-year-old daughter Lara in 2006. \"This difficult time greatly influenced Robert Enke.\" They added that he and his wife had adopted a two-month-old girl earlier this year and Enke had been \"shining with happiness, confidence written on his face.\" Der Bild said it had been revealed \"Enke wrote a departure letter.\" \"Goalkeeper Robert Enke is dead. On November 10 at 18.17 the 32-year-old threw himself under a train. \"Now the police have confiemd: Enke wrote a farewell letter. Thus there is no doubt a sucicide of the player.\" S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung was in agreement, writing \"Enke leaves suicide note.\" The Munich paper also wrote of the shock of the \"colleagues and fans who appreciated him very much. \"But Robert Enke had many setbacks in his career to cope with of a private and professional nature.\" The football world has also been quick to express their condolences too. Barcelona, who Enke played for between 2002 and 2004 wrote on their official Web site: . \"The club deeply regrets his death and would like to pass on their sympathies to his current club and his family.\" Enke enjoyed a more successful spell at Benfica, making his reputation before the Barca move. Chairman Lu\u00eds Filipe Vieira said: \"Nobody is ever prepared to face the loss of someone with whom they have lived together and enjoyed good memories. \"When a tragedy reaches someone with the age of Robert Enke the frustration is still bigger.\" Enke's former team-mate Nuno Gomes added: \"I remember how he was just a young kid when he came here but, from day one, he made a great effort to learn our language and did it very quickly. \"He was a young kid with a huge desire to reach his goals and learn, a man with a capital M.\"","highlights":"Hannover and Germany international goalkeeper Robert Enke, 32, dies in apparent suicide .\nEnke's death has sent shockwaves throughout Germany, its media reporting the player left a suicide note .\nMany in football including his ex-teammates have expressed their condolences .","id":"b4b1c5dda44cbd5a2d0cb1481b29780ba8bfda2f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South African runner Caster Semenya will be allowed to keep the gold medal she won in the women's 800-meters at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany, in August, the country's sports ministry announced Thursday. In a statement on their official Web site the ministry added that Semenya had been found innocent of any wrongdoing but the widely anticipated results of gender tests conducted would not be made public. \"We have agreed with the IAAF that whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor,\" the statement read. \"As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things.\" The world governing body for athletics, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), have refused to comment on the announcement, only reiterating a statement published on their official Web site on Wednesday that the release of their gender-test findings would be delayed until \"further notice.\" The IAAF had been expected to release its findings on February 20, but confirmed it had been in discussions with the South African Ministry of Sport and Recreation with a view to \"resolving the issues surrounding Caster Semenya's participation in athletics.\" The IAAF went on to say that the medical tests on Semenya had still to be completed. \"There will be no discussion of Semenya's case at the forthcoming IAAF Council Meeting to be held in Monaco on 20-21 November 2009. No further comment will be made on this subject until further notice,\" their statement read. Reports in two newspapers in September said the results of the tests showed Semenya has both male and female characteristics. The IAAF has declined to confirm those reports. The South African ministry added they had been unhappy with way the testing had been handled: \"We have asked the IAAF to apologize at the way the whole Caster Semenya saga was dealt with. \"Their response is: 'It is deeply regrettable that information of a confidential nature entered the public domain.' The IAAF is adamant that the public discourse did not originate with them. \"We also cannot prove the contrary. It is our considered view that this chapter of blame apportioning must now be closed. The sport bodies must be allowed to deal with the rest of the investigations in terms of their own regulations,\" the statement added. The controversy over Semenya erupted after she crushed her rivals in the 800 meters and secured victory in one minute, 55.45 seconds -- the best women's time in the world this year. Semenya's masculine build and dominant performance fueled existing questions about her gender, and the IAAF -- which oversees the sport worldwide -- ordered tests to be carried out.","highlights":"South African Olympic runner Caster Semenya will keep her gold medal, the country's sports ministry announced Thursday .\nMinistry added in a statement that the results of a gender test would not be made public .\nThe world governing body for athletics, the IAAF, have refused to comment on the announcement .","id":"c654aed97baa6f633fcbba2be6ca244f701e7da4"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- After a weekend of rumors, it's finally official: Heidi Klum and Seal are now the proud parents of a baby girl, Klum's representative confirmed. Heidi Klum met Seal in 2004, and the couple married a year later. The \"Project Runway\" host gave birth Friday night. Klum and Seal named their new bundle Lou Sulola Samuel. The couple, who married in 2005, have been busy babymaking ever since. Lou Sulola is the youngest of four: Henri, 4, Johan, 2 and Leni, 5, whom Klum had from a previous relationship. \"It's difficult to imagine loving another child as much as you love your existing children,\" Seal said of the birth in a statement Tuesday. \"Anyone who has a family will tell you this. Where will one find that extra love? If you love your existing children with all of your heart, how then can one possibly find more heart with which to love another?\" The answer to that question, the Grammy-winning singer said, \"came in the form of our fourth child and second daughter. \"Lou Sulola Samuel was born, and from the moment she looked into both of our eyes, it was endless love at first sight. She is beautiful beyond words, and we are happy that she chose us to watch her grow over the coming years,\" he said.","highlights":"Heidi Klum and Seal have confirmed their daughter was born Friday .\nThe couple named her Lou Sulola Samuel .\nShe has three siblings: Henri, Johan and Leni .\nSeal said when Lou Sulola was born, it was \"endless love at first sight.\"","id":"760351288c6eeaff352e6a27cbabe9da8c6d2e00"} -{"article":"O'Fallon, Missouri (CNN) -- Nathan Halbach is 22, with a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. He knows that \"horrible stuff\" lies ahead. His mother, Pat Bond, has been taking care of him full time. But when she needed help, she reached out to the Roman Catholic Church. After all, his father is a priest. Nathan was born in 1986, during a five-year affair between his mother and Father Henry Willenborg, the Franciscan priest who celebrated Nathan's baptism. In a story first reported in the New York Times, it was revealed that The Franciscan Order drew up an agreement acknowledging the boy's paternity and agreeing to pay child support in exchange for a pledge of confidentiality. Now her son -- the youngest of four children -- may have just weeks to live. And when the Franciscans balked at paying for his care, she decided she was no longer bound by her pledge of confidentiality. \"I never asked for extraordinary amounts. I asked for the basic needs and care of my son,\" Bond told CNN's \"AC 360.\" But she said the church told her, \"No, we are not Nathan's biological father, we have no legal obligation to your son.\" Willenborg, whose priestly vows require celibacy, has been suspended from his most recent assignment, in northern Wisconsin, as Catholic leaders investigate allegations that he was involved with another woman -- then in high school -- around the same time he was seeing Bond. Willenborg has acknowledged his relationship with Bond, but denies any inappropriate relationship with the other woman while she was a minor, according to his current bishop. And his order acknowledges its agreement to support his son, telling CNN they have paid about $233,000 to support Nathan over his lifetime. Since the affair has become public, the Franciscan Order has agreed to pick up Nathan's medical bills and the costs for the funeral that now appears likely. Willenborg refused to speak to CNN. But a statement to his parishioners in Ashland, Wisconsin, in September, said, \"My failure to be faithful to my vows has caused me and many others pain and disappointment. I have regretted this for a long time.\" And in October, he told The New York Times, \"We've been very caring, very supportive, very generous over these 20-something years. It's very tragic what's going on with Nathan.\" Bond, then Patricia Halbach, said she and Willenborg began their affair in 1983. At the time, Willenborg was a priest in her hometown of Quincy, Illinois, about 130 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri. Bond, then a 27-year-old, married mother of three, went to a retreat for women with troubled relationships. Willenborg was the retreat's spiritual director, and she said he was a \"terrific\" priest -- \"incredibly charismatic, very sought-after.\" He began to counsel her on a regular basis. After about three months, at the end of one of their sessions, she said he kissed her. Bond said she went home and immediately asked her husband for a separation, and she said she began a romantic relationship with Willenborg. Bond said she knew he was forbidden to have sex with her. But she said when in love, \"You don't think clearly.\" \"I make stupid decisions in my life,\" she said. \"I am not perfect, far from sainthood, and I loved him.\" During their relationship, Bond was a lay leader in the church, and \"We were a very good team, a very dynamic team,\" she said. But in 1985, she learned she was pregnant. The pregnancy ended with a miscarriage that October. She said in its aftermath, she ended her sexual relationship with Willenborg, only to resume it the following spring. It was during that period that Nathan was conceived, she said. Nathan was born in December 1986. Willenborg had to disclose the affair and Bond's pregnancy to his superiors. A deal was negotiated by Father Robert Karris, who told CNN the Franciscans insisted on confidentiality \"to protect Nathan, his mother, and the priest.\" But Karris, now on the research faculty of the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York, also acknowledged the goal in part was to protect the church. The agreement was reached about a year after Nathan's birth. Afterward, Willenborg was removed from his job, and it was 17 years before he would lead a congregation again. He told his superiors that his relationship with Bond was over, but she said it continued. \"That was the statement, and they bought it,\" Bond said. \"But the truth of the matter is during those eight month of negotiations, we were living together physically, sexually and every form of relationship there was under their nose.\" The relationship went on until Nathan was nearly 2 years old, Bond said. She and Willenborg went on family outings, including a trip to Florida, with Nathan and her children from her previous marriage. Back in Quincy, where she grew up, Bond said she had a simple answer to questions about Nathan's parentage: \"He's my baby.\" But things ended in 1988, after Bond learned that Willenborg was seeing another woman. She eventually moved from Quincy to a St. Louis suburb. \"You had to go away, you had to take your story, you had to take your children, you had to get out of this town. We're a small community, everybody knew everybody,\" she said. Nathan grew up as a popular, athletic boy, a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club and the Blues hockey team. He has autographs of the entire hockey team and a Cardinals uniform signed by All-Star first baseman Albert Pujols. For years, he said, he wanted a relationship with his father. \"He's popped in and out of my life, but I've never gotten the full respect and love out of him that I would always want,\" he said. But several years ago, after Willenborg took him out to dinner on their first night out in years, he said his father didn't seem to want to have anything to do with him. \"When it comes to this person who's my dad, who should be helping me out more than a person on the street, he hasn't done so throughout my 20-plus years of life,\" Nathan said. Nathan was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. Over the summer, he and his mother went to New York's Sloan-Kettering cancer center in a last-ditch effort to halt the disease. It was unsuccessful, and doctors give him a prognosis of weeks. \"If I just live my life as happy as I can, I can have a lot of fun until this horrible stuff happens,\" he said. The church had paid for some medical expenses and gave her $1,000 toward travel expenses for the trip, but not room and board or treatment costs, Bond said. And in the past week, she said, the church was questioning the cost of a looming funeral. \"They were concerned with getting us out of their lives, and I guarantee you, the day my son goes, the church will rejoice,\" she said. Since she went public, the Franciscans wrote a letter to Bond telling her they will cover 100 percent of her son's funeral costs -- and added, \"Please advise if there is any additional assistance that the Franciscans can provide to Nathan at this time in connection with his day-to-day expenses and comfort.\" The order also has since said it will not take Bond to court for breaching the confidentiality of the agreement. For four years before September, Willenborg was a priest at Our Lady of the Lake church in Ashland, Wisconsin. Bishop Peter Christensen, whose diocese includes the church, said Willenborg was a good priest -- but added, \"Because of his behavior 23 years ago, the community is now suffering.\" Nathan will not be going back to the hospital and will die at home, Bond said. She can't afford a part-time nurse to help take care of him in his last days, but said she hopes the church lives up to its word.","highlights":"Nathan Halbach's father is the priest who baptized him, Henry Willenborg .\nNathan's mother made a confidential agreement with the church to keep Willenborg's identity secret .\nHis mother went public about the secret agreement after he contracted cancer .","id":"dfb1a8f4be3ef9a338c7d75c75e7dbfbb18dad86"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Torrential rains and flooding since June have affected 600,000 people in 16 West African nations, the United Nations reported Tuesday. People walk in the flooded streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, last week. The worst hit have been Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana and Niger, said Yvon Edoumou, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. So far, 159 people have died, he said. Sierra Leone has also been hard hit, according to the U.N. Edoumou said removing water from flooded areas is a top priority, but powerful pumps are in short supply. \"Some people refused to leave their homes so they are living in floodwaters,\" he said. The United Nations has not yet received reports of waterborne diseases, but Edoumou said a real threat exists of diarrhea or, worse, cholera. The U.N. World Food Programme said Tuesday it has begun distributing food to tens of thousands of homeless flood victims. WFP has set a goal of feeding 177,500 people, mainly in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where 150,000 people have been affected and key infrastructure -- including a central hospital, schools, bridges and roads -- has been damaged. The flooding in Burkina Faso is the worst in 90 years, WFP said. Many of those in Ouagadougou most needing help were already receiving aid from WFP, but those rations were lost in the floodwaters, the U.N. reported. \"It is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from floods like these as their few remaining assets are swept away, leaving them hungry and destitute,\" WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said. Roads and buildings have been ruined from Mauritania to Niger, the U.N. reported. In Agadez, Niger, a town about 458 miles (738 km) north of the capital, Niamey, close to 988 acres (400 hectares) of vegetable crops and hundreds of livestock were washed away. Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of OCHA in West Africa, said natural disasters have a lasting effect that unravels years of progress against poverty. \"The situation is very worrying,\" he said in an OCHA statement issued Tuesday. The rainy season in West Africa begins in June and continues through late September. In 2007, 300 people died and 800,000 were affected by the storms. This year, fears abound that more heavy rain will fall in already waterlogged areas. Despite the misery, Edoumou said the rains are a mixed blessing for countries dependent on agriculture. The harvest this year will be more bountiful, he said.","highlights":"U.N. begins distributing food to tens of thousands of homeless flood victims .\nU.N. says 159 have died due to flooding; key infrastructure damaged .\nWaterborne diseases like cholera are a concern, U.N. official says .\n\"It is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer the most from floods,\" official says .","id":"ce872ebfc218a7deaa72d2a89c77fdeefe98fd50"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jennifer Valdivia scooped up the baseball after it sailed into the right-field stands. The 12-year-old smiled and giggled over the keepsake from her first Major League ballgame. Jennifer Valdivia, 12, holds the record-setting baseball after it was returned this week to her. She'd have to sue to get the ball back. This is the story of a baseball and the big leagues, of a young girl, a slugger and a lawsuit. It's about another stain on America's pastime -- commercialism colliding with a kid's innocent joy. Jennifer's big catch was the 200th home run for Ryan Howard, an All-Star for the Philadelphia Phillies. The 29-year-old first baseman achieved the milestone faster than any player in Major League history, in his 658th career game, 48 fewer games than the previous record. The ballclub wanted to give the ball to its star player. And that's where things got complicated. Watch Jennifer smile as ball is returned \u00bb . It was mid-July. The Phillies squared off against the Florida Marlins at Land Shark Stadium near Miami. Jennifer was in the stands with her 69-year-old grandfather, her 17-year-old brother and one of his friends. Howard launched his history-making homer in the sixth inning, a solo shot to right field. The sixth-grader beat her older brother to the ball. Nearby, fans said they couldn't believe a girl came away with the prize. \"I was rubbing it in my brother's face,\" Jennifer later recalled. He'd been to many games before, but had never caught a homer ball. \"I got a ball and you didn't,\" she teased. Switcheroo leaves mom steaming . Excitedly, Jennifer called her mom on the phone. \"Mom, I got the ball!\" Moments later, the Marlins sent a team representative to the stands. Jennifer and her brother, Gian Carlos, were escorted to the Phillies' clubhouse. Their grandfather, a Cuban immigrant who doesn't speak English, stayed in his seat. A Phillies employee, Jennifer says, told her if she handed over the ball, she could come back after the game, meet the slugger and get him to autograph it. She gave the ball up. In exchange, she got cotton candy and a soda. Jennifer went back to her seat but returned to the clubhouse after the game -- this time, with her grandfather and the rest of her party. They waited. The Phillies slugger never showed up. A security guard walked up and gave Jennifer a ball autographed by Howard. But it wasn't the one she caught. This ball was clean and polished. Jennifer calls it \"the fake one.\" \"I was, like, really sad.\" Howard told reporters after the game that he was proud of his feat. He eclipsed Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, who played on three teams from 1946 to 1955. Kiner's record had stood for more than a half-century. \"It's a nice record to have,\" Howard said. \"I'll take it and run with it.\" When Jennifer's mother, Delfa Vanegas, got wind of what happened, she wasn't happy. She grilled her daughter about giving up the prized possession. \"What do you want me to do, Mom?\" Jennifer said. \"They were asking for the ball.\" Vanegas' motherly instinct kicked in. She felt her daughter had been duped, robbed of something potentially worth thousands of dollars. \"It's my daughter,\" the steamed mom says. \"It's my blood.\" She contacted the Phillies and asked for the ball. In baseball parlance, the Phillies balked. But the team did offer to give the family VIP tickets the next time they played in Florida. \"I don't want tickets,\" Vanegas replied. \"I want the ball back.\" Entering the batter's box: attorney Norm Kent. He first approached the Phillies in July with his simple demand: Give the girl her ball. True value, and memories . Letting fans keep the home-run balls they catch is a time-honored tradition. It's a way for ordinary fans to connect with the superstars -- and to cash in on the catch if history has been made. When Salvatore Durante snagged Roger Maris' 61st home-run ball -- the one that broke Babe Ruth's single season home-run record in 1961 -- his life changed forever. Durante offered to give it to Maris, but the Yankees slugger declined. \"He said: 'Keep the baseball and try to make some money with it,'\" Durante once told the Baltimore Sun. He sold it for $5,000 -- what amounted to a year-and-a-half's salary for Durante. See where historic baseballs are now . Howard's ball is small potatoes in the world of sports memorabilia, maybe worth a couple thousand bucks on the open market. But it's hugely sentimental to the player -- and to the girl who caught it at her first ballgame. So, Kent's efforts to get the ball back for his young client met with resistance. There was no way of knowing \"with any degree of certainty whether the ball delivered was in fact the home-run ball,\" Phillies attorney William Webb wrote in a brush-back letter dated August 6. If the girl wants the baseball, Webb continued, contact Howard's agent, \"since the player now has the ball.\" By Monday of this week, with the regular season over and no ball in hand, Kent took the extraordinary measure of suing on behalf of Jennifer. He sought the ball and a judgment \"in excess of $15,000.\" The ball was promptly returned. \"Ryan Howard 200th career home run,\" it says in capital letters across the ball, now encased. \"My ball,\" Jennifer says with a smile. The Phillies, in the middle of a pitched playoff battle, have declined comment on the ball brouhaha. Howard's agent, Terry Prince, told CNN affiliate WSVN: \"He's willing to give the ball back to her without any strings attached. Free of charge.\" As part of the settlement, Kent said Howard and the Phillies agreed to pay his attorney fee, about $1,000. Jennifer has no plans to sell. She keeps the ball in her room, hidden near her bunk so friends can't take it. \"When I grow up and everything, I'm going to show it to my kids,\" said Jennifer, who wants to be a pediatrician. \"Then, they're going to tell their kids, and their kids are going to tell their other kids.\" Her message to ballclubs and millionaire players? The next time a child catches a home-run ball, let the kid keep it. Or, if you're going to take it away, at least ask a parent first.","highlights":"Girl gets historic baseball back after suing Phillies and Ryan Howard .\nBall was 200th homer for Howard, the fastest any player had achieved the feat .\nGirl was first given cotton candy and an autographed ball in questionable exchange .\nOutraged mom came to her defense: \"It's my daughter. It's my blood\"","id":"2956f52851b82e11db13ecf228a92818ee1d37a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sen. John Ensign of Nevada admitted Tuesday to an extramarital affair with a woman who had worked for him. Sen. John Ensign of Nevada is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. Ensign, 51, would not identify the woman but said she and her husband had been \"close friends.\" Her husband, he said, also worked for him. \"Last year, I had an affair,\" the Republican senator said outside his office in Las Vegas. \"I violated the vows of marriage. It's absolutely the worst thing I've done in my life. \"I take full responsibility for my actions. I know I have deeply hurt and disappointed my wife, Darlene, my children, my family, friends, my staff and those who believed in me. And to all of them, especially my wife, I'm truly sorry,\" he said. The senator's office also released a statement from Ensign's wife, saying, \"Since we found out last year, we have worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation. This has been difficult on both families. With the help of our family and close friends, our marriage has become stronger. I love my husband.\" Ensign's spokesman, Tory Mazzola, said Ensign and a campaign staff member carried on the affair from December 2007 through August 2008. Her husband was an official Senate staff member for the senator. Neither remained in Ensign's employ as of May 2008. Ensign, a veterinarian, is considered a rising star within the Republican Party. A member of the party's Senate leadership, Ensign last year took over as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. He was elected to the Senate in 2000 and comfortably won re-election in the midterm elections of 2006, when Democrats won back Congress. He is up for re-election in 2012. This month, Ensign spoke to a conservative group in Iowa, stoking speculation that he might have interest in running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ensign doesn't name woman but says she and her husband worked for him .\n\"I take full responsibility for my actions,\" he says .\nStatement from senator's wife says couple have come to a reconciliation .\nSenator has sparked speculation about 2012 presidential race .","id":"66fbdd1e33df041b1ce6f0c470b33e87284362d0"} -{"article":"Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- The most coveted property on Hong Kong island is called \"The Peak,\" overlooking the city's stunning Victoria Harbor. But these days, the prices are what is taking people's breath away -- a modest apartment here now can go for $30 million. Recently what is claimed to be the world's most expensive apartment -- a 6,200-square-foot duplex -- sold for a record $57 million. While an implosion of property prices sparked the financial crisis in the United States, property prices in Hong Kong are booming in part because of mainland cash pouring into the city. China's superrich are purchasing homes and sweeping luxury brand items off the shelf here. \"There would be no good turnover of luxury brands in Hong Kong if it wasn't for the Chinese shopper,\" said Francis Guten, a luxury brand consultant in Hong Kong. Although total retail sales have dropped 4 percent this year, luxury brands are doing brisk business thanks to mainland shoppers. \"They come to Hong Kong because Hong Kong was always the first window on the world for luxury goods for the Chinese,\" Guten said, adding that the purchase of \"genuine\" luxury goods -- rather than the fakes that proliferate the mainland -- is actually cheaper in Hong Kong because of lack of sales taxes or tariffs. And how are they purchasing these goods? \"With cash,\" Guten said. \"Because they have the cash.\" The real estate boom by mainlanders is a way for China's rich to diversify their investments close to home. \"If you look at the history of China, despite the fact that the economy is very strong on a global basis right now, there's been a very volatile period,\" said Francis Cheung of CLSA. \"(If) you have 100-percent wealth in China, you just naturally want to diversify.\" They are not only buying property and Gucci bags, but stock -- the Hang Seng stock exchange is up 50 percent this year. Research firm CLSA expects the market to rise another 20 percent in 2010. CNN's Andrew Stevens and Eunice Yoon contributed to this report.","highlights":"An apartment in Hong Kong recently sold for a record $57 million .\nAnalyst: Mainland investors buying in HK to diversify investments .\nHang Seng stock exchange up 50 percent this year; expected to rise 20 percent next .","id":"20be7bdd7a4913c742e2ea6116b63612545c8864"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Soccer mom Meleanie Hain, who made national headlines last year by having a loaded, holstered handgun at her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game, has been found shot dead in her home along with her husband, police said Thursday. Meleanie Hain was found shot dead in her home along with her husband Thursday. Information from 911 calls shows that it took a SWAT team nearly an hour and a half to gain entry to the Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home Wednesday evening. Inside, they found the bodies of Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, police Capt. Daniel Wright said. Police have avoided labeling the incident a murder-suicide. However, they do not believe that another person was involved, Wright said. A full investigation is under way, he added. \"Who [Meleanie Hain] is does not change the course of this investigation,\" he said. The autopsies are scheduled for Friday. Watch why Hain caused controversy \u00bb . Meleanie Hain's attorney, Matthew B. Weisberg, said she told him a few months ago that she and her husband were separating. It was not immediately clear whether they were still living together. The couple's three children were unharmed and took refuge at a neighbor's house before police arrived, Wright said, and the children remain in a neighbor's care. During the incident, police told neighbor Ann DiJohnson to avoid rooms with windows in fear of a possible shootout. \"It was frightening,\" DiJohnson said. \"I'm still shaking.\" Thomas Shaak, who lives a block from the Hains, said the couple hardly socialized with neighbors. The avid gardener said he occasionally saw Scott Hain working on his yard, but the two did not greet each other. He said Hain worked as a security officer and often kept odd hours. Meleanie Hain became an overnight celebrity and, to some, a steward of Second Amendment rights when she carried a Glock strapped to her belt to her daughter's soccer game September 11, 2008. Days later, on September 20, her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo, who claimed that she showed poor judgment at the child's game. County Judge Robert Eby later reinstated the permit. Weisberg, Hain's attorney, said the sheriff's action violated Hain's First, Second, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. A lawsuit was filed against DeLeo on Hain's behalf for compensatory damages. She sought punitive and statutory damages, Weisberg said, along with reimbursement of attorneys' fees and lost wages. Although Weisberg called the Hains a \"loving\" and \"unified\" couple, he said that about four months ago, Meleanie Hain told him that they were separating and that she wanted to remove his name from the $1 million lawsuit. Although there was no indication of abuse, Weisberg said, Meleanie Hain was contemplating getting a \"stay-away order.\" \"It's shocking,\" Weisberg said of the shooting. \"And sadly ironic.\"","highlights":"Meleanie and Scott Hain shot to death in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home .\nMeleanie Hain brought loaded gun to daughter's soccer game in 2008 .\nPolice are avoiding calling Wednesday night shooting a murder-suicide .\nTheir three children are unharmed and in neighbor's care .","id":"0e520dee576a2f341aaf0f33b399e4e5e9b4f55b"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A former Alabama judge is standing trial on charges he checked male inmates out of jail and forced them to engage in sexual activity such as paddling in exchange for leniency. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas denies all the charges, his attorney says. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas at one point faced more than 100 criminal counts in the case, including kidnapping, sexual abuse, extortion and sodomy. Prosecutors filed cases relating to 15 alleged victims, with multiple counts in each case. But four of those cases have been dismissed -- some thrown out by a judge because the statute of limitations expired and others because prosecutors decided not to present evidence relating to them -- leaving 11 alleged victims and 51 counts, according to defense attorney Robert Clark and CNN affiliate WKRG-TV. Retired Marengo County Judge Claud Neilson dismissed jurors Tuesday while attorneys argued whether the jury should be allowed to consider kidnapping, extortion or assault charges, WKRG reported. Neilson already has ruled there is enough evidence for jurors to consider the sex abuse charges. Thomas, 48, has pleaded not guilty and has denied any wrongdoing. Clark told CNN on Tuesday that Thomas was trying to mentor the inmates and did not assault them. \"The whole thing is, he tried to help people in this community,\" Clark said. \"He helped thousands to grow up and be productive citizens.\" The judge does not deny bringing the inmates into his office, Clark said. \"He was mentoring them. He was trying to get them to do right, to be productive citizens.\" One of the alleged victims testified Monday that he doesn't know why his semen was found on the carpet of a small room used as an office by Thomas, according to The Mobile Press-Register newspaper. But he did say Thomas spanked him with a belt on several occasions, the newspaper reported, and that the paddlings took place inside a jury room, in the small office and at a Mobile fraternity house. Another man testified that after he was charged with kidnapping and robbery in 2002, Thomas visited him in jail and urged the man to let Thomas decide the case instead of a jury, according to the Press-Register. Thomas convicted him of lesser charges, he testified, and sentenced him to a 90-day boot camp. He said Thomas also beat him with a belt on his bare buttocks about a dozen times at the courthouse, the newspaper reported. Neither man was identified. \"All of them [the alleged victims] were given preferential treatment at some point,\" Nicki Patterson, chief assistant district attorney for Mobile County, told CNN earlier this month. \"And ultimately, when some of them refused to continue participating [in the activities], they were given what I would view as excessive sentences. But certainly while the inmates were involved with the activities we allege, the state would say, it was extremely lenient sentences.\" However, \"two of the individuals said he [Thomas] did nothing bad to them,\" Clark said Tuesday. \"That he didn't paddle them. That he only helped them. ... I mean, the last guy that testified was a murderer. And he's complaining he got assaulted. 'I got assaulted,' -- yeah, right.\" Asked whether Thomas admits paddling the men, Clark said, \"I didn't say either way. ... I'm saying there ain't no sexual innuendoes.\" Neilson has heard arguments on whether an expert should be allowed to testify about sexual fetishes for the prosecution. Clark said the expert has not interviewed any of the alleged victims and that he fails to see how the testimony fits into the case. Neilson was brought in to hear the case after all the Mobile County Circuit judges recused themselves -- standard procedure in a case involving another judge. Thomas resigned from the bench in October 2007 before he was scheduled to stand trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on multiple ethics violations charges. The complaint, dismissed after the resignation, accused him of \"extrajudiciary personal contact\" with some defendants but does not refer to any sexual contact. In April, Thomas told WKRG the allegations against him are false, but the most important thing for him was making sure his wife and two daughters were taken care of. \"I'm not guilty, and I look forward to being a part of the community that's supported me and I've supported my entire life,\" he said. The Alabama State Bar suspended Thomas' law license in January after a grand jury handed up the first of two indictments against him. In April, the bar's disciplinary commission upheld the suspension, WKRG reported, despite the fact that Thomas under oath denied all the allegations in the first indictment. The second indictment was returned in August. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Defense lawyer: Ex-Alabama judge was mentoring inmates, not seeking sex .\nEx-Judge Herman Thomas accused of paddling inmates in exchange for leniency .\nEleven alleged victims and 51 counts involved after some cases dismissed .\nThomas has denied allegations .","id":"36303a764dec325c00dfb830591a5badfd28939b"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- After four years of \"Jon & Kate Plus 8,\" Jon Gosselin said he's decided it's not healthy for his children to be on a reality show. Jon Gosselin appears on \"Larry King Live\" Thursday. He said he doesn't want his kids to continue with TV show. \"The reason I don't think it's healthy for them is that we're going through a divorce right now, and I don't think it should be televised and I think my kids should be taken off the show,\" Gosselin told CNN's Larry King on Thursday night. \"They're 5 and 8 now; let them experience a normal childhood,\" he said. His lawyer said the TLC reality series about the Gosselin family is dead because no judge would ever \"subject the children to the show if the father believes it's detrimental.\" Jon and Kate Gosselin announced their separation and divorce filing -- after 10 years of marriage -- on a special one-hour episode in June. They agreed to share custody of their 5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins. \"I had an epiphany one day,\" Gosselin told King. \"I just looked in the mirror and I said, 'I don't want to be this person anymore.' I made mistakes. I know I messed up. I do regret a lot of things. But I have to learn from those mistakes and move forward.\" Watch Jon Gosselin talk with Larry King \u00bb . He blamed some of his mistakes on his not having a lawyer when he and his wife signed the show contract four years ago. \"He had no manager, he had no lawyer, he had no idea what he was signing,\" said Mark J. Heller, the lawyer recently hired by Jon Gosselin. \"Now I have a sense of empowerment,\" Gosselin said. \"Before, I didn't have any representation. I take blame for not being an initiator. I was an avoider. I was passive.\" Kate Gosselin said she was \"saddened and confused by Jon's public media statements.\" \"Jon has never expressed any concerns to me about our children being involved in the show and, in fact, is on the record as saying he believes the show benefits our children and was taping on Friday with the kids,\" she said. She said her estranged husband only changed his mind about their eight children's involvement after TLC \"announced the name change of the show and indicated that Jon would have a lesser role in the show.\" \"It appears that Jon's priority is Jon and his interests,\" Kate Gosselin said. TLC announced Tuesday that it was retitling the show \"Kate Plus 8\" because of \"recent changes in the family dynamics.\" Jon Gosselin's lawyer said the network only fired him \"before he fired the show.\" The state labor department is investigating whether TLC violated child labor laws by not properly paying the children or getting permits for the past four seasons, Heller said. \"These kids have been working without compensation for four years,\" Heller said. Gosselin revealed to King that the family was paid $22,500 per episode, with none of the money specifically designated for the eight children. TLC, in a written statement Thursday, said it had halted \"direct filming of the children\" until Jon and Kate Gosselin have \"further conversations.\" The network said Jon Gosselin's \"latest comments are grossly inaccurate, without merit and are clearly opportunistic,\" noting he and the family were taping as recently as last Friday. \"Despite Jon Gosselin's repeated self-destructive and unprofessional actions, he remains under an exclusive contract with TLC,\" the network said. Heller said, however, the contract the Gosselins signed four years ago with TLC was \"null and void\" because the network dropped Jon Gosselin. TLC gave King a written statement insisting the changes were allowed by the contract. The new show will take \"a deeper focus on Kate's role in the family and her journey as a single mother building the next chapter in her life,\" TLC said Tuesday. Jon Gosselin will still appear, \"but on a less regular basis,\" it said. Kate Gosselin's divorce lawyers told King that Jon Gosselin does not have the legal right to stop the children from appearing on the reality show because of the separation agreement the couple signed. \"He signed an agreement that party with physical custody will decide if they will be on taping,\" Mark Momjian said. \"He must go to court to change that.\" Jon Gosselin said his relationship with TLC began to deteriorate at the beginning of the year when network executives began calling him, warning him that he was in breach of his contract. \"They put me on house arrest\" with bodyguards watching him around the clock, he said. As for his relationship with Kate, he said she told him a year ago she wanted to lead a life separate from him. He said he has not talked to Kate in almost a month, although he has tried calling and sending text messages. \"I want to work things out,\" he said. \"We know we're not going to be husband and wife, but we will always be mom and dad. We have to get our kids off television.\" The eight children have continued living in their Wernersville, Pennsylvania, home. Their parents have rotated in and out of the home during their time with them.","highlights":"Because of his divorce with Kate, Jon says children should no longer film show .\nJon Gosselin tells Larry King he hasn't talked with Kate in about a month .\nKate: I've been \"saddened and confused by Jon's public media statements\"\nJon on relationship with TLC: \"They put me on house arrest\"","id":"1f65be04e08cd41f373c52ca591e1f502e565dbe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- When Charles Wolf watched President Obama's speech on Afghanistan, he nearly broke down in tears. He doesn't have a son or daughter headed off to war. But to him, his wife of 12 years was a war casualty: She was killed on September 11. When Obama described the attacks \"and he described how the whole world was with us, it emotionally took me right back to that moment,\" Wolf said. \"It was all I could do to keep from totally losing it.\" Wolf's wife, Katherine, worked as an executive assistant for Marsh & McLennan on the 97th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. She sent an e-mail just two minutes before the first plane hit. \"Her office took a direct hit by the plane, and she was vaporized. There was nothing ever found of her,\" Wolf said. It's been eight years since the attacks of September 11 killed 2,976 people. A lot of memories have faded, Wolf said, but he still thinks of the little things: \"holding her hand, falling asleep next to her, waking up next to her, the companionship, the partnership.\" \"She was great.\" And so Wolf was glued to his television Tuesday for Obama's speech. He wanted to hear from the president how the nation is going to finish the job in what Wolf calls \"the womb of 9\/11.\" \"To address these issues,\" Obama said, \"it is important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. \"They struck at our military and economic nerve centers. They took the lives of innocent men, women and children without regard to their faith or race or station. Were it not for the heroic actions of the passengers on board one of those flights, they could have also struck at one of the great symbols of our democracy in Washington and killed many more.\" Those words brought it all home: the memories of his wife with the beautiful smile and short-cropped red hair. \"I was biting my lip,\" he said. That said, Wolf is critical of the president's strategy, mostly his announcement to begin withdrawing the American contingent in July 2011. \"That is a tactical and strategic mistake,\" he said. \"If you're playing chess, do you tell your opponent your next move? \"To broadcast that for the sake of politics, to me, that is very wrong.\" And so he was divided: pleased about the renewed commitment to the Afghanistan war but upset by the planned pullout date. iReport: Share your views on Afghanistan . Veteran New York firefighter Lee Ielpi lost his son, Jonathan, a fellow firefighter, on September 11. \"I support President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan and the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban,\" he said. A combat veteran of Vietnam, Ielpi added, \"The president and Congress need to ensure America has a clear strategy for our military in order to not repeat the strategic mistakes of Vietnam. I also strongly believe our country needs to do more to support returning veterans.\" The office of Joe Daniels overlooks ground zero, an every-day reminder of what happened on September 11, 2001. He was standing outside the Twin Towers when they were hit. Daniels is now the president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, charged with the monumental task of building a living tribute to those who perished that day. \"In the aftermath of 9\/11, there were a lot of citizens who signed up to do what they felt was a patriotic duty to respond to what happened, and many of them went to Afghanistan,\" Daniels said. \"So I think it's important that we don't forget that the history of 9\/11 is still being written. There are still a lot of important things that have to be done in Afghanistan.\" He added, \"After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, we lapsed into complacency. And to have a focus on finishing what needs to be done, I think, is important. We can't fall back into that sense of isolation and complacency.\" Wolf agreed. By returning in force to Afghanistan, he said, \"We are going in now to keep ourselves from being attacked again. \"This is not a war of choice,\" Wolf said. \"This is a war of necessity.\" He hopes the American people understand that. It's why he can hardly speak when he sees U.S. soldiers in uniform. \"I am so grateful of the fact that they will lay their lives on the line for us,\" he said. For military families who will soon send their loved ones off to Afghanistan, Wolf said, \"Thank you. It's all you can say. Thank you for making the decision to do it. Thank you for loving your country.\" \"I just ask every person out there if it was your wife who went to work one day and never came home,\" he said, \"would you do anything to make sure it doesn't happen again?\" Wolf paused at the end of the conversation and said simply: \"We have to remember 9\/11.\"","highlights":"Time to go after \"womb of 9\/11,\" says man who lost his wife .\nCharles Wolf says he's pleased by Afghan focus, upset by withdrawal plan .\nFirefighter who lost son on 9\/11: Nation must not repeat Vietnam .\nHead of 9\/11 memorial says nation can't fall back into isolation .","id":"c24e5805afd5145bc48410e876db91d44a06be5e"} -{"article":"ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The murder trial of American student Amanda Knox in the death of her housemate two years ago resumed Monday in Italy after a summer break. The trial of American college student Amanda Knox, 22, resumes Monday, September 14. Knox, 22, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito also face charges of sexual assault. They are accused of killing British student Meredith Kercher, Knox's housemate in Perugia, a scenic university town north of Rome. Kercher, 20, died in what prosecutors called a \"drug-fueled sex game.\" She was found half-undressed in bed, with a stab wound to her neck on November 2, 2007. Knox and Sollecito were both present at Monday's court session, Kercher's attorney Francesco Maresca said. Sollecito's defense attorneys requested the annulment of DNA analysis, which investigators say shows Sollecito's genetic material on the clasp of the victim's bra. The judge rejected the request. The next hearing is scheduled on Friday, Maresca said. Knox, from Seattle, Washington, took the stand in June and testified that she was not at the girls' villa the night her roommate died, which authorities think was the evening of November 1. She said she was visiting her then-boyfriend, Sollecito, at his home, where the two watched a movie, smoked marijuana, had sex and went to bed. On her return to their villa the next morning, Knox said, she noticed \"strange things,\" such as the front door left open, dried blood in the bathroom sink and a locked door to Kercher's room. When Knox returned to Sollecito's house, he suggested they call police in case the house had been burgled, she said. Police found Kercher's body in the house. Prosecutors say evidence places the defendants at the scene. They also said the suspects gave investigators confusing and contradictory statements about their whereabouts the night Kercher died. Knox said she gave conflicting answers at the interrogation on November 6 because of police pressure and her confused state. \"When I would say that I was with Raffaele, they would say, 'You are a liar,' and they repeated this,\" she said in June, speaking about the police. \"'You will go to prison for 30 years. ... You must remember.'\" During the trial, she said police had slapped her on the head during questioning, a charge she had made before. The case has attracted worldwide media attention. During her testimony in June, cameras were barred from the courtroom because the prosecutor said he wanted to avoid sensationalism. A third person, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in the case in October and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction.","highlights":"Knox accused of killing her flatmate, British student Meredith Kercher .\nTold court in June she was not in the villa the night her roommate died .\nProsecutors say evidence places Knox and Raffaele Sollecito at the scene .\nKnox and ex-boyfriend Sollecito also facing charges of sexual assault .","id":"b9d5c264b0d45afcce97b3381efc6237ef53daab"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Responding to President Obama's State of the Union comments about the \"deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works,\" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that \"the American people don't care about process.\" Yet Americans have indicated that they are quite unhappy with how their government is working. According to a recent NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll, only 28 percent of those polled believe that the federal government is \"working well,\" while seven out of 10 believe that the \"unhealthy\" government is in need of reform. Almost 93 percent said there was too much partisanship; 84 percent said special interests had excessive power. We must always take these kinds of poll numbers with a grain of salt. Polls frequently show that Americans do not like how their government works, especially Congress. The U.S. is a country that has always expressed strong distrust of government. There have been a few exceptional periods, like the progressive era or the 1960s and 1970s, when this frustration turns into a concerted movement for government reform. During the 1960s and 1970s, liberal Democrats and Republicans concluded that much of their policy agenda would be impossible to achieve if the political process did not change. They perceived Vietnam and then Watergate as the outgrowth of deep flaws in how our government worked. During the 1970s, they were able to pass a series of significant reforms, such as a campaign finance system that included public funds for presidential campaigns and contribution limits. Reforms opened up more of the political process through sunshine laws and retrenched the power of the senior committee chairmen in Congress who had usually done as they pleased, ignoring the will of the majority. Ethics laws regulated the behavior of executive and legislative branch. Even the sacrosanct filibuster underwent an overhaul in 1975: The Senate lowered the number of required to end a filibuster from two-thirds of the Senate, 67; to three-fifths, 60. Many of the reforms did not work, some had unintended consequences, and others were gradually unraveled. But substantive reform was possible and, for a moment, changed the way that politics as usual worked. In addition to diminishing citizens' trust in government, the flaws of the political process constrain and limit what kinds of policies are even possible. If President Obama, Democrats and Republicans are serious about building trust among citizens and creating a more productive political process, they should work together to do something about it. If Washington is serious about reforming the political process, three specific areas deserve immediate attention. Filibuster reform: The 60-vote supermajority Senate has become dysfunctional. Both parties have expressed frustration with their inability to move legislation through the process. Both parties have used the filibuster as a normal tool of procedural warfare. Because of the rampant use of the filibuster since the 1960s, senators expect that 60 votes are now required on almost every piece of legislation. Reform can happen again. One option would be to switch to a majority-based system in which 51 votes can end debate. Another, more feasible, option would lower the number of senators required for cloture to 55. To improve the political prospects for any change, some observers have suggested that any reform would not take effect until after the 2012 election. Making it easier to end a filibuster is one of the most important concrete steps that Congress could take to actually diminish partisanship. The sources of partisanship are deep-rooted and hard to change. But filibuster reform would disarm both parties by weakening or removing one of their most powerful weapons. Campaign finance reform: A recent Supreme Court decision eliminated many of the barriers to corporate donations and third-party advertising. The power of private money in campaigns has been a huge political issue for over a century. Because politicians depend on interest group support to obtain funds for their campaigns, they constantly find themselves constrained when it comes to making policy. The influence of private money also diminishes public trust in government. Every story about another lobbyist like Jack Abramoff confirms their worst fears about corruption. It is not difficult to understand why Congress has crafted a health care bill that avoids making any huge changes to the basic infrastructure of the health care industry. According to The New York Times, citing the Center for Responsive Politics, the health care and insurance industry spent at least $648 million on lobbying in 2009 -- and 20 percent of the year-end reports were not in yet. Pharmaceutical companies spent about $245 million, which the Times said was more than any other single industry has ever spent lobbying on behalf of any issue. Several changes have been discussed in recent years. The administration has talked about placing certain kinds of fund-raising restrictions on companies that do business with the government. A second proposal is to build on local and state reforms by providing matching public funds to candidates who raise a certain minimum of private donations. In the end, offering an alternative source of funds to candidates and parties is the only way to change the system, or candidates will be forced to keep going back to the well of interest group money. Congressional earmarks and tax breaks: Pork-barrel politics is as American as apple pie. But in recent decades, the system by which legislators pass appropriations targeted to key interests has become pervasive. Legislators are comfortable putting provisions that are tailor-made for lobbyists or particular interests into bills. These earmarks are not subject to hearings or oversight. The use of earmarks by Senate Democrats to close the health care legislation that passed last month made the public uneasy. The other way in which Congress distributes hidden benefits is through tax breaks. During the 1960s, reformers named these \"tax expenditures\" to convey the point that the government essentially spends money by forgiving certain groups of their obligation. We have not had a major tax reform initiative since 1986. The time has come to clean out the tax code once again and reduce the number of provisions that are in the law. There is also bipartisan support for reforms that would limit the use of earmarks by legislators and make certain that they are fully disclosed upon being requested. Although voters tend to be more interested in bread-and-butter issues, as well as questions about war and peace, there are a few exceptional moments when public anger about the political system becomes so intense that we enter into a period of substantive reform. We might be reaching one of those points, but in the end it will require the initiative of the president and congressional leaders to make sure that calls for reform are not just empty rhetoric. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.","highlights":"Julian Zelizer: Public unhappy with government partisanship, ties to special interests .\nZelizer: Political process flaws limit change in policies .\nObama, Democrats and Republicans must work together to restore trust, he writes .\nZelizer urges reforms in filibuster system, campaign financing, earmarks and tax law .","id":"85716fc0ce68ba7eb8a6a49334b28ea879763708"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Midway Atoll, a small stretch of sand and coral in the middle of the north Pacific, is home to one of the world's largest populations of Laysan albatrosses. Until 1993, U.S. Navy aircraft thundered down the runway of the military base on the island, but now ocean going birds nest and embark on their own epic cross-ocean journeys from the overgrown landing strip. Yet the impact of humans and increasing consumer waste from thousands of miles away continues to have a direct effect on the island's wildlife, as photographic artist Chris Jordan discovered when he traveled there in September. The American photographed the remains of albatross chicks that had died from consuming plastic waste found in the surrounding oceans. According to the artist, not a single piece of plastic in any of the photographs was moved, placed or altered in any way. The nesting babies had been fed the plastic by their parents, who collected what looked to them like food to bring back to their young. From cigarette lighters to bottle caps, the plastic is found in what is now known as the great Pacific garbage patch that stretches across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean. Fed a diet of human trash, it is thought that every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity and choking. Jordan has examined the environmental effects of consumer society in his previous work. Pieces in his \"Running the Numbers\" exhibition, use digitally manipulated drinks cans and plastic waste from the Pacific gyre, respectively, to create copies of Hokusai's \"Behind the Great Wave off Kanagawa\" and Seurat's \"Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte\".","highlights":"Artist Chris Jordan photographed albatross remains on Midway Atoll in Pacific .\nRemains show that albatross chicks choke or are poisoned by being fed plastic .\nPlastic waste found across thousands of miles in North Pacific gyre .","id":"4fd2e39393b228ec5fc0208c8f2fd978748fa39b"} -{"article":"PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- American student Amanda Knox, accused of killing her housemate two years ago, testified in her murder trial Saturday that she was intimidated by Italian police during questioning. American college student Amanda Knox, 21, testifies Friday at her murder trial in Perugia, Italy. Knox, 21, is charged in the death of British student Meredith Kercher, who was her housemate in Perugia, a university town north of Rome. Kercher, 20, died in what prosecutors say was a \"drug-fueled sex game\" after suffering a sexual assault. She was found half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck, in her bed November 2, 2007. Saturday was the second day of testimony for Knox, who is from Seattle, Washington. The public prosecutor, her defense lawyer, the attorney for her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and the judge asked her about what happened the night of Kercher's death and the following day. Both Knox and Sollecito, 25, are charged with murder and sexual assault. Knox tried to explain Saturday why she gave conflicting answers to police when they interrogated her on November 6. She said it was a combination of police pressure, their suggestions, and her confused and frightened state of mind. \"When I would say that I was with Raffaele, they would say, 'You are a liar,' and they repeated this,\" she said, testifying in fluent Italian. \"You will go to prison for 30 years. ... You must remember,\" Knox recalled the police as saying. Knox said the police were standing behind her and officers were going in and out of the interrogation room. A policewoman next to her was constantly pressing her to give them a name, and an interpreter on her right said people under trauma tend to forget things, she said. \"I was confused. ... I had so much fear,\" Knox said. She testified that she thought, \"Hell, perhaps they're right and I have forgotten.\" Knox repeated Saturday that police slapped her on the back of her head while questioning her. As she spoke, she hit her head a few times with her right hand and gestured broadly. Knox testified Friday that she was not at the women's villa the night Kercher died, which authorities believe was the evening of November 1. She said she was at Sollecito's house. Watch Knox take the stand \u00bb . Knox testified Friday that the couple had dinner, watched a movie, smoked marijuana, had sex and went to bed on the night of November 1. She said she returned to her and Kercher's villa the next morning to take a shower. That's when she said she noticed \"strange things\" such as the front door being left open, dried blood in the bathroom sink and on a bath mat, feces in the toilet, and the door to Kercher's room locked. Watch Knox in court \u00bb . When Knox returned to Sollecito's house, she said, he suggested they call police in case the house had been burglarized. Police then found Kercher's body. All cameras were barred from the courtroom Saturday because the public prosecutor said he wanted to avoid \"sensationalism.\" Cameras were allowed at the beginning of the session Friday but then ordered out. Knox's father, Curt, defended his daughter Saturday. \"What we've seen over the past five months is a character assassination, and now, hopefully .... a different point of view of who she is is coming out,\" he told reporters. People are beginning to see that \"she is not this dark angel she's been portrayed as,\" he added. \"Amanda did a great job\" on the stand, Curt Knox said. \"She was very articulate in her answers. She answered all of the questions truthfully. She was not quivering in her voice. She was looking the judge in the eyes.\" Her attorney, Carlo della Vedova, described his client as \"very confident.\" \"She has repeated exactly what happened that night, on the fifth and sixth, when she was arrested. She gave all the information that was requested\" during her testimony, he said. The trial is to resume next Friday, but Knox isn't expected to testify again. A third person, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in a fast-track trial in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing the verdict.","highlights":"NEW: U.S. student Amanda Knox says questioners badgered, slapped, confused her .\nKnox, ex-boyfriend on trial in death of Knox's British housemate, Meredith Kercher .\nKnox contends she was at boyfriend's house the night Kercher was killed .\nIvory Coast native Rudy Guede sentenced to 30 years for Kercher's murder .","id":"9030a7824ef66eca6aa330a8d593858e8e37de73"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Police have identified the man whose shooting of another man outside a store in Naples, Italy, was captured by a surveillance camera, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday. The announcement came two days after police released the video of the brazen daylight shooting in hopes it would lead someone to come forward. Police did not release the man's name. The video, shot May 11, shows a man wearing jeans, a dark jersey and a baseball cap, walking into the store and looking around, turning and walking back out. Passersby appear unfazed. One woman tries to lift up the victim's head in an apparent attempt to see if she knew him; a man steps over the body. Police said they had been without any clues before the release of the video. A source who was not identified publicly said the killer was a man in his 30s from Naples' northern Sanita district who had recently left the city. A third man seen in the video was thought to have been an accomplice, but he told Il Mattino newspaper that he had nothing to do with the killing. \"I am the man of the film, but I have never been a lookout, and now I am afraid,\" the 39-year-old man said. \"I was taking a breath of air, waiting for my daughter to go shopping.\" The man said he had been living \"in terror\" since acquaintances called him from Germany to tell him they had seen him on the video. Police said they knew of no motive for the killing, which took place in the poor neighborhood of Rione Sanita, where Camorra, the name for organized crime in Naples, is strong. The victim was a bank robber, the spokesman said. A police spokesman said Camorra has been blamed for about 60 killings this year in Naples and its surrounding county.","highlights":"Surveillance video shows man shooting another man outside a store in Naples, Italy .\nPolice released the video in hopes it would lead someone to come forward .\nRelease of the video provided clues, police say; source says killer is a man from Naples .\nThird man in video was thought to be accomplice, but he tells newspaper he wasn't involved .","id":"82e3419244e08ea5976e5adb51cbfea9f8b623f1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The South Carolina Ethics Commission has charged Gov. Mark Sanford with 37 counts of violating state ethics laws, according to a complaint released by the commission on Monday. The complaint follows a three-month investigation into Sanford's use of taxpayer money. Sanford is accused of using tax money to buy business-class airfare on domestic and international flights, flying on a state-owned aircraft to political gatherings or events \"which involved no official business,\" and spending campaign funds for personal use such as buying a ticket to attend President Obama's inauguration in January. South Carolina law requires state officials to buy the lowest fares available for flights, and bars the use of state aircraft for personal use. Sanford's office did not respond to requests for comment about the charges. The governor, once a rising star in the Republican Party before he revealed an extramarital affair in June, faces a hearing along with his legal team before a three-member ethics panel. Cathy Hazelwood, general counsel to the state Ethics Commission, said no date has been set for the hearing. After arguments are presented, the panel will determine if Sanford broke any state laws. The ethics case involves civil charges that are punishable by fines, and Sanford can appeal decisions up to the state Supreme Court. Only the state attorney general, Henry McMaster, can decide to pursue criminal charges against the governor. McMaster is reviewing the allegations to determine if any laws were broken. The new charges compound Sanford's political problems, which have been simmering for months as investigators scrutinized his finances. State legislators already have filed an impeachment resolution against the governor for leaving the state this summer to visit his Argentine mistress without installing a proper chain of command or informing his staff. A special House subcommittee will meet in Columbia on Tuesday to formally consider the resolution for the first time. State Rep. Greg Delleney, a Republican and one of the sponsors of the impeachment resolution, said he expects the subcommittee to look over the ethics commission results during the Thanksgiving holiday and decide whether to adjust the measure to include material from the ethics complaint. Delleney said he thinks Monday's report will give new momentum to the impeachment push. \"The sheer volume of the violations might be useful in bringing some more representatives over to the side of impeachment,\" Delleney said. If the special subcommittee decides to move forward with impeachment, the resolution will be passed onto the Judiciary Committee, which will then vote on whether to bring it to the floor of the legislature when lawmakers return to the state capital of Columbia in January. For Sanford to be forcibly removed from office, two-thirds of the South Carolina House and and two-thirds of the state Senate must vote to impeach him.","highlights":"Sanford is accused of using tax money for personal travel .\nSanford announced affair with Argentine woman in June .\nEthics case involves civil charges that are punishable by fines .\nLegislators already have filed an impeachment resolution against Sanford .","id":"2354384a293ae4e895dcc4b4f4f4796c5f20ba7e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which a woman was beaten to the ground in front of her child at the entrance to a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Morrow, Georgia, south of Atlanta. Troy Dale West, of Poulan, Georgia, is facing battery and cruelty to children charges after the incident. Troy Dale West Jr., of Poulan, Georgia, is facing charges including misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct after allegedly beating Army reservist Tashawnea Hill, 35, after the two had words at the entrance of the Morrow, Georgia, restaurant the evening of September 9. Hill, an African-American, told police that West, 47, yelled racial epithets at her as the attack took place. \"He did punch me with a closed fist repeated times. My head is still hurting today. I have knots on my head,\" Hill told CNN Wednesday night, adding she also was kicked. Police said witnesses confirmed her account. The FBI has \"initiated an investigation in the matter to determine if a civil rights violation occurred,\" the agency said in a statement. Because the alleged incident happened in full view of Hill's 7-year-old daughter, the Clayton County district attorney's office added a felony charge of cruelty to children. \"[The woman's daughter] was visibly upset the night of the attack,\" according to Capt. James Callaway of the Morrow Police Department, who said he was on the scene shortly after the alleged attack. A police report of the incident said Hill's daughter was \"crying uncontrollably and her body [was] shaking\/trembling\" from witnessing the attack. Watch Hill discuss ordeal with CNN's Rick Sanchez \u00bb . Hill told police the incident started when she and her daughter were entering the restaurant at the same time West and his wife were exiting. \"The man slung open the door pretty hard and fast and I had to push my daughter out of the way,\" Hill told CNN affiliate WSB-TV. \"I turned to the man and I just said, 'Excuse me sir, you need to watch yourself; you almost hit my daughter in the face.' And from there it just went downhill.\" West, according to the police report, admitted striking Hill \"after she spit on me and accused me of trying to hit her daughter with a door.\" Appearing on CNN Wednesday night, Hill and her attorney, Kip Jones, denied that she spat on West. Jones said he saw surveillance video of the incident. \"At no point did Ms. Hill do anything to provoke the attack. She did not spit on Mr. West. She spoke to him. He attacked her,\" Jones said. Police say Hill stated that \"West punched her in the left cheek, forehead, kicked her body in several places, and punched her head in many areas several times.\" The Cracker Barrel's manager told police he stepped between West and Hill to stop the alleged assault. Cracker Barrel spokeswoman Julie Davis said Wednesday that the restaurant was cooperating fully in the police investigation. \"It's just terrible when something like this happens anywhere, let alone in one of our stores,\" Davis said. \"It's worth noting that Cracker Barrel employees did their best to assist Hill as soon as they became aware of the situation.\" Jones said he was \"convinced this was a hateful, racist attack ... based on the N-word, the B-word, etc.\" \"The language was vile. It was racist. It was sexist. It was completely offensive, completely unprovoked,\" Jones said. CNN's efforts to reach West at his home and business were unsuccessful. Police said they had no indication West had an attorney. He is free on bond awaiting a hearing in the incident, the Clayton County jail said. Hill was treated at a hospital after the attack and released. The Clayton County district attorney has forwarded surveillance video of the incident to the FBI. Edward DuBose, president of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, said Wednesday his organization was concerned about the alleged assault. \"We do know that to see a young mother beat [and] grabbed the way this young lady was, raised concern to us in this community,\" DuBose said at a news conference in Morrow. \"Certainly it raised concern in this incident that some of the language ... was used toward this mother.\" He said he hoped the FBI would ensure \"that justice is served.\" He said his organization hadn't spoken to Hill, but that it planned to reach out to her.","highlights":"Woman: I'm still in pain a week after attack .\nThe FBI is investigating to see whether \"a civil rights violation occurred\"\nPolice report says \"West punched [Hill] in the left cheek, forehead\"\nTroy Dale West said Tashawnea Hill spit upon him; Hill denies it .","id":"e6a96c4c73c8396584ac67c8dec98853bc3e0d51"} -{"article":"MAMONI VALLEY PRESERVE, Panama (CNN) -- A famed primatologist says the plight of chimpanzees helped inspire Michael Jackson to write the song \"Heal the World.\" Michael Jackson loved chimpanzees, said Jane Goodall: \"They made him smile.\" But the theme and the lyrics of the song turned out to be about a better world for humanity. \"He wrote what he told me he thought was his most powerful song ever, but it didn't end up for animals,\" Jane Goodall said in a CNN interview Thursday night. Goodall spoke exclusively to CNN in a Panamanian rain forest where she is exploring a partnership on behalf of Roots & Shoots, her global youth education program. The interview comes as a new version of the song, first released on Jackson's 1991 \"Dangerous\" album, is being recorded by a collection of artists for release in late October. Goodall became friends with Jackson about 20 years ago when he invited her to his Neverland Ranch, where \"he talked about his dreams for the place to have animals running, looking free like they would in the wild. ... It was just a very charming day, very low key, nobody else was there,\" she said. Goodall, famous for her 50 years of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Africa, said Jackson invited her because \"he loved what I did.\" \"He loved chimpanzees,\" she said. \"He loved to watch them feeding. He liked their faces. They made him smile.\" Years later, she met Jackson's chimp, Bubbles, and has visited him at his retirement refuge in Florida, she said. \"He's extremely handsome,\" she said. \"He's a beautiful, beautiful chimp. So, he was rescued in time from this life of being inappropriately dressed up and carted around like a little symbol.\" Goodall, whose life has been spent understanding chimpanzees, said she found Jackson to be \"a sad person.\" \"In some ways, he was like a child, and a very sweet and gentle child, and he wanted me to tell him many, many stories,\" she said. \"Stories about the chimpanzees, the forests, animals, anything. He told me he liked the way I told stories.\" Goodall, who travels the world to promote protection of endangered chimps, said she had hoped Jackson would help get her message out. \"I said to him, 'You know, Michael, if you want to help, you could do a concert and give us a percentage. Or much better, write a song,' \" she said. Jackson asked her for tapes of animals in distress because \"he wanted to be angry and cry\" as he wrote the song, which became \"Heal the World,\" she said. The original CD cover notes credited Goodall for inspiring the song, she said. But, she added, the Jane Goodall Institute never saw any money from the song. Jackson later created the \"Heal the World Foundation,\" which he funded with a series of concerts. The group delivered millions of dollars of relief to children around the world.","highlights":"Jane Goodall says Michael Jackson loved chimpanzees .\nJackson wrote \"Heal the World\" to call attention to chimpanzees' problems .\nSong became a call to peace for humanity .\nGoodall said she found Jackson to be a \"sad person\"","id":"95f06b1c7d5214de2e444cc8acd77de486f3cc46"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran on Sunday released on bail four journalists and a retired professor whom it had held for two months, the semiofficial Iran Labour News Agency reported. The five prisoners had been held since they were arrested during a December 27 protest, according to ILNA. The journalists are Abdolreza Tajik, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Behrang Tonkaboni and Mohammad Javad Mozafar, who is also a prisoners' rights activist, ILNA said. The news agency reported that the retired professor is Mohammad Sadeq Rabani. Separately, ILNA reported that Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said Sunday that \"detainees of recent unrest will be released due to the upcoming Iranian new year,\" which falls on March 21. At the same time, ILNA quoted Doulatabadi as saying that those arrested on the Muslim holy day of Ashura, when the five prisoners freed on bail Sunday were rounded up, could face stiff penalties later. \"The judiciary will imply more strict policies, and those who were arrested on Ashura Day will be confronted heavily by the judiciary,\" he said. Mozafar and Tajik were released on $100,000 bail, according to Parleman News, the Web site of the minority reformists of the parliament. It did not mention the bail amount for the other two journalists. CNN was not immediately able to independently verify the bail amount. The protests around Ashura were Iran's deadliest clashes since protests broke out last summer after incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed more than 62 percent of the vote in national elections. At least seven people were killed and hundreds were arrested on Ashura, witnesses said. The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone, blaming reformists for the violence. Doulatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, said Sunday that the judiciary and police forces will be on high alert near the Iranian new year. The judiciary and police will \"confront those who disturb the norms of society with high explosives,\" he said. The five prisoners were released Sunday from Tehran's Evin prison. ILNA did not release the professional affiliations of the journalists, but they were listed on opposition Web sites. According to some main opposition Web sites, Tajik is an editor for Farheekhtegan, a weekly magazine, and a freelance journalist. Shamsolvaezin has edited many of post-revolutionary Iran's first independent newspapers, including Kayhan, Jame'eh, Neshat and Asr-e Azadegan, according to opposition sites. Many of those have been closed down. Tonkaboni is the editor of the magazine Farhang va Ahang, or Culture and Music, according to opposition sites. Javad Mozafar is publishing director of Kavir, a publishing house, and vice president of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, according to opposition sites. Sadegh Rabbani is a retired science professor at the University of Tehran, according to opposition sites.","highlights":"Four journalists, professor released on bail, Iran Labour News Agency reports .\nFive held since arrests during a December 27 protest, ILNA reported .\nReport: Prosecutor suggests detainees of 'recent unrest' will be released .","id":"9a533821da342c44ef1f3be4d91d621c669b84e6"} -{"article":"RAJASTHAN, India (CNN) -- Some call him the River Maker, others the Rainman of Rajasthan. His real name is Rajendra Singh. His nicknames come from his self-imposed mission to solve his state's water problems, one raindrop at a time. Rajendra Singh is trying to solve water issues in Rajasthan -- one of India's driest states. \"Today with global warming and climate change so many things are going on. Yes, this is the global problem. This is the modern problem. The solution is indigenous water conservation,\" Singh says. Singh lives and works in Rajasthan, one of the driest states in India. It is the country's largest state in land mass but has only about one percent of the country's water resources. Singh has spent the last 25 years of his life practicing what he preaches there. His message is always the same. He says rainwater is a resource we cannot afford to waste, instead we should capture and utilize it. \"If the drops come from the cloud, we can catch it!\" He says with his hands stretched to the sky. \"And that drop go[es] into the under[ground] aquifer and fulfills the aquifer. If that drop comes back so [it will] make springs, make a river.\" We caught up with him in Rajasthan's Alwar district. One of India's so-called \"princely states\" once ruled by Indian royalty. Back in the 1980s the government declared the area a dark zone: An area villagers could no longer pump up clean water because the water table had gotten so low. \"When there was a famine there was a drought I had to leave.\" Farmer Narin Joshi told us who has lived in the area his whole life. \"I had to work as a laborer in Delhi to make ends meet. There was no way I could earn any money here. I had to go.\" That meant leaving his wife behind to raise their children and try to keep them fed. \"If there is a harvest we benefit from the farm.\" His wife Kalawati Devi his wife says. \"And if there is no harvest we get nothing.\" For 10 years Joshi worked as a snack seller in Delhi sending back money to help his family survive. He says that all changed after Singh and his organization Tarun Bharat Sangh showed up. The group came to teach the villagers something their forefathers once practiced: The building of traditional dams called Johads. The dams are made of earth and rock. They are fashioned to capture the rain so the water will trickle down and replenish the aquifer eventually giving rise to water in the wells and bringing dead rivers back to life. But the work takes a community effort. One family is not enough to get it done. Singh says his role is to teach and motivate the community. \"There are more than 10-thousand water harvesting structures we [have] made in last 25 years. And all these structures came through the community effort. I just motivate and realize to the community and [the] community joined hands with us and they made it!\" It is easy to see the result when water becomes available again. Everything from water buffalo to majestic peacocks. Water snakes gather at the watering holes. Over the years Singh says his organization and the villagers of Rajasthan have revived seven rivers across the state helping more than a thousand villages. Now instead of traveling long distances carrying heavy vats of water, or migrating to the cities to make a living, the villagers can stay put and begin to enjoy their surroundings more. The availability of water brought the Joshi family back together again because the husband could finally make a living here. \"I have planted many kinds of trees. For my livelihood I do farming.\" He says \"My family and I are leading very peaceful lives.\"","highlights":"Rajendra Singh has devoted his life to solving Rajasthan's water problems .\nRajasthan is India's largest state and also one of the driest .\nSingh says rainwater is a resource we cannot afford to waste .\nTen thousand water harvesting structures have been made in the last 25 years .","id":"66ce2f66ec507c1c6cb6b323ac77f480736c1f25"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Phenomenon is back. You may not have recognized him when he came on as a substitute for Corinthians in a Brazilian Cup match, though. After all, he's a few kilos heavier than the Ronaldo we grew to know and love in the last decade. Comeback Brazilian: Ronaldo is playing competitive football again -- but will he reach his former glory? However, at 32 years of age, Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima is attempting another comeback. Will it be a successful one? As far as I am concerned, it won't. Debate: Do you think Ronaldo can return to his former glory? Tell us in the Sound Off box below. I have had the privilege of interviewing Ronaldo various times, and spent some one-on-one time with him in Italy and France. He's a great guy, friendly, humble and fun-loving. However, that last personality trait has contributed to a turbulent career and lifestyle. Wherever he has gone, the striker has always made his mark, on and off the field. While he was helping Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Brazil win a multitude of titles, he also found himself in the headlines a multitude of times for all the wrong reasons. It's true that Ronaldo has always been unfortunate with injuries - he has undergone three major knee operations. However, his love for a night out and for a playboy lifestyle may have also contributed to the breakdown of his body. In my opinion, this is the reason he will struggle to stay fit and motivated for Corinthians this season. There are too many temptations for him in Brazil, and I don't see him being able to resist all of them. Furthermore, he has won practically everything there is to win in the world of football, with the exception of the Champions League. So it would be fair to say that he's not going to bend over backwards to make sure his new team wins some silverware this season. He will score the odd goal and make the odd highlight, but I don't expect his latest comeback to be a success.","highlights":"Brazilian Ronaldo is back playing competitive football for Corinthians .\nThe 32-year-old has been out for 13 months after needing knee surgery .\nCNN's Pedro Pinto predicts Ronaldo won't reach his former glory .","id":"9f6a28503731cf468ff08967f03d5645e866bf26"} -{"article":"BAUCHI, Nigeria (CNN) -- The truck driver kept his hand on the horn, but resorted to shifting into first gear and used the full weight of his container truck to force his way through the over-crowded and narrow market street. In Nigeria, men burn broken computer equipment to collect reusable metals like copper. But the truck's rattling bulk, over-charged exhaust, and zealous horn only added extra rhythm to the cacophony of hawkers, hagglers, trucks and generators. This was just one of the many deliveries this morning for the big importers of Lagos's second-hand electronics Alaba market. \"A lot of people are interested in buying computer -- just to know what is going on in the world,\" explained Gabriel Okonkwo, as he watched his latest shipment arrive. The doors of his container were thrown open to reveal an Aladdin's cave of second-hand treasures -- computers, stereos, printers and televisions. All were quickly passed down to a mob of eager hands, where they are quickly sold to the local electronic stores. Nigeria is desperate for cheap electronic goods to try and bridge the digital divide with the West. Watch a report showing piles of e-waste in Nigeria \u00bb . It is estimated five hundred containers of second-hand electronics are imported to Nigeria every month. It is also estimated that three-quarters of these imported products are broken beyond repair. The figures come from a US-based Environmental group -- BASEL Action Network -- who warns that the broken electronics discarded at local dumpsites are a mounting environmental disaster. At one of the local dumpsites, young boys sift through the electronic waste looking for anything of worth. Cables and wires are burnt to get at re-usable metals like copper wire, a practice which releases toxic metals and chemicals harmful to the local population. \"If you don't control it, there will be serious contamination and exposure of large populations to heavy metals from e-waste. Because it's a huge volume of waste we're talking about. And it's spreading,\" explains Oladele Osibanjo, the director for BASEL Nigeria. The irony is that many of these electronics were discarded by their original owners in the West for recycling. But not all second-hand computers shipped to Nigeria end up on the dumpsites. Traveling to northern Nigeria, we visited the Iya Abubakar Resource Center's IT training course -- attended by students, businessmen, and women. The Centre imports computers, but from charities like Computer Aid in the UK, to ensure they are reliable. For Aisha Hussain, the Center's director, it would be a waste not to use the business and education opportunities provided by the second-hand computers. \"Once you empower someone you do not consider it as waste,\" she explained. \"You empower the person socially, financially -- that shouldn't be referred to as waste because you've given that person a life.\" The Nigerian government has ordered a crackdown on the importation of harmful and waste electronics, and is supporting plans to build a recycling plant in the region. Over-seeing the re-sale of his small mountain of televisions and computers, Gabriel Okonkwo is aware of the environmental problems but insists business must be taken into account. \"Both of them have to come hand-in-hand so we can live. If I don't do business I will die, and if the environment is bad I can die,\" he explained. \"So I have to do business in a way that will not affect the environment.\" CNN Business Traveller airs from Wednesday, April 8 at the times below: (ALL TIMES GMT) Wednesday, April 8: 0830, 1730 Saturday, April 10: 0730, 1800 Sunday, April 11: 0430, 1730 Monday, April 12: 0300 .","highlights":"E-waste imported from the West is sold in local electronics stores in Nigeria .\nMost of the imported hardware doesn't work and is abandoned at dumpsites .\nLocals endanger their health by burning cables, dismantling old equipment .\nComputer Aid distributes working computers to local villagers, businesses .","id":"9c4ebafd978f77482ddf6fb1d500b16adcedd95f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- From Captain Kirk on \"Star Trek\" to Denny Crane on \"Boston Legal,\" William Shatner has been a fixture on television for decades. William Shatner has a new talk show and has written an autobiography. Even as his latest series comes to an end, the actor is busier than ever. He has written an autobiography, \"Up Till Now,\" and he has a new talk show -- \"Shatner's Raw Nerve\" on the Biography channel --billed as an \"edgy and off-beat celebrity interview series.\" Shatner talked with CNN's Kyra Phillips about his career, past and present. CNN: \"Boston Legal,\" what a finale: a wedding between Denny and fellow lawyer and best friend Alan. Don't they know that Proposition 8 [passed]? Shatner: It was all a financial guise, as you learned to your dismay. There was nothing sexual about our marriage. It was all designed to bequeath my fortune to him as [my character] got ready to die. CNN: \"Boston Legal\" was a brilliant show: the writing, your famous wit. You must have had a blast doing the show. Shatner: We laughed our way through five years of great joy, great entertainment, and we got some wonderful awards during the years and the beauty of it all was that when we came in this season, we knew we were going to do 13 shows and be out. So the writing reflected the fact that we knew we were ending and it wrapped the whole show up. CNN: I cannot believe you have a porn queen [Jenna Jameson] on your talk show. Shatner: We like to call her an adult film star. She turns out to be highly sensitive, vulnerable. ... This is a remarkable interview of a woman who is terribly vulnerable and expresses it. It was so good, we're doing a two-parter. CNN: Who has been your favorite leading lady? Shatner: They go down in the hoary mists of history. The effects of age -- they all meld into one and it looks like my wife. CNN: You reveal a lot in your book. Who would you say your ultimate mentor has been through your life? Shatner: I've thought about that over the years and it comes up that I don't have anybody who ever mentored me, ever was particularly interested in furthering my career. I had to do it stumbling around, trying to do it as most people do themselves.","highlights":"William Shatner is host of \"Shatner's Raw Nerve\" on the Biography channel .\nThe actor has also written an autobiography, \"Up Till Now\"\nShatner on \"Boston Legal:\" \"We laughed our way through five years of great joy\"\nShatner: \"I don't have anybody who ever mentored me\"","id":"3610b0951b7c6f5b8c848318b62703e85c982878"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Procter & Gamble is recalling Vicks Sinex nasal spray in the United States, Britain and Germany after finding it contained bacteria, the company said. Procter & Gamble said it announced the voluntary recall after finding the bacteria in a small amount of product made at a plant in Germany. There have been no reports of illness from the bacteria, but it could cause serious infections for people with weakened immune systems or those with chronic lung conditions such as cystic fibrosis, Procter & Gamble said late Thursday. The bacteria poses little risk to healthy people, the company said. Cincinnati, Ohio-based Procter & Gamble said it detected the problem during routine quality control at the plant. Analysis so far shows the problem is limited to a single batch of raw material mixture involving three lots of product, which were sold only in the three countries affected by the recall, the company said. In the United States, the recalled product is Vicks Sinex Vapospray 12-hour Decongestant Ultra Fine Mist with lot number 9239028831. In Britain, the company is recalling Vicks Sinex Micromist Aqueous Nasal Spray with lot number 9224028832. In Germany, the recalled product is Wick Sinex Schnupfenspray Dosiersystem with lot number 9224028833. All recalled products are in the 15-milliliter size. Lot numbers are listed on the outer carton and the bottle, the company said. Consumers with the product should discard it, and they may call the company for a replacement coupon or refund, the company said. More information is at the company's Web site, www.pg.com.","highlights":"Vicks spray recalled after small amount of product found to contain bacteria .\nBacteria poses little risk to healthy people, Proctor and Gamble says .\nNo reports of illness from the bacteria, it says .","id":"d173e3c13e109bd31c589baf28c9d730eccbfc47"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Quentin Tarantino's new movie \"Inglourious Basterds\" comes with a film inside the film, a Nazi propaganda movie promoting the glory of Germany's Third Reich. Eli Roth and Brad Pitt star in \"Inglourious Basterds.\" Roth also directed a short film within the film. Tarantino said he's not worried people might be offended by the short film, which is being promoted by a trailer that is now a viral video on the Internet. \"You would have to have absolutely, positively no sense of humor at all not to get it,\" Tarantino said. \"Stolz der Nation\" -- which translates into English as \"Nation's Pride\" -- was produced true to the style of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister, but by Eli Roth, the director-actor who also plays one of Tarantino's \"Basterds\" known as the \"Bear Jew.\" \"There was something that we enjoyed immensely about the idea of a Jew making a Nazi propaganda movie,\" Tarantino said. Watch Tarantino talk about how \"Nation's Pride\" was made \u00bb . Roth, well known for his R-rated horror flicks such as \"Hostel,\" said while growing up as a Jewish boy in Boston, Massachusetts, he never dreamed he would make a Nazi propaganda film. \"After 'Hostel 2,' I thought 'God, what can I make that's more offensive and upsetting than this film,' but somehow I did it with 'Nation's Pride,'\" Roth said. Roth viewed the black-and-white film as a character in \"Inglourious Basterds,\" a World War II fairy tale about a squad of Jewish-American soldiers who infiltrate behind enemy lines to terrorize the German army. Their plot to assassinate Hitler focuses on a small Paris, France, theater where Germany's leadership is gathered for the premiere of Goebbels' movie. The black-and-white film glorifies a fictional war hero played by Daniel Bruhl \"and the glory of the swastika and the power of Germany,\" Roth said. \"His courage was bound by duty. His legend was baptized in blood. His name will be crowned in glory,\" the trailer's narrator says as Pvt. Fredrick Zoller picks off dozens of American soldiers from a sniper's nest. \"Being Jewish, I wanted to make it a real propaganda film,\" Roth said. \"I was, like, I want to show what these movies are like. I don't want to do a sanitized version.\" Using just 20 extras and five stuntmen, Roth shot the five-and-a-half-minute film in three days in Gorlitz, Germany, the same town where \"The Reader\" was filmed a year earlier, he said. \"The whole time we were shooting, we were, like, not only does this have to impress Quentin, this has got to impress the Fuhrer,\" he said. \"Hitler has to see this and go 'This is your finest work.'\" \"The German crew were going 'God, normally, we can't do this. This is so illegal.' And I was, like, 'this is what they did,'\" he said. \"This is what Joseph Goebbels would have done, and this has got to be honest and accurate.\" While only parts of \"Nation's Pride\" are seen in \"Inglourious Basterds,\" Roth said Tarantino will likely include the complete film as a bonus on the DVD. \"Inglourious Basterds,\" starring Brad Pitt, opens across the United States on August 21.","highlights":"\"Inglourious Basterds\" features Nazi propaganda film .\nFilm was made by Jewish director Eli Roth, who also stars in \"Basterds\"\n\"Basterds,\" the latest from Quentin Tarantino, opens August 21 .","id":"2563a7b2617b339bbd9692cd20b2c0fad15c4138"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 3,000 U.S. troops scheduled to deploy to Iraq won't go after all, as the military tries to draw down troop levels in the war-torn country, a Pentagon spokesman said Saturday. U.S. troops speak to an Iraqi child in Baghdad on Monday. The 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division will not replace a North Carolina National Guard unit already in Iraq, Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh told CNN. The 3,500-troop combat team, based in Fort Drum, New York, was to leave in January, he said. \"[The cancellation] reflects a thorough assessment of the security environment in Iraq and continued improvement in the ability of the Iraqi security forces to safeguard Iraqi citizens and institutions,\" Butterbaugh said. The National Guard unit is still on schedule to return home, which will speed up the drawdown of forces, he said. The troop withdrawal in Iraq coincides with a debate in the Obama administration on whether to send as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. As of Friday, 250 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, according to a CNN tally based on Pentagon numbers. The United States plans to withdraw all its combat troops from Iraq by August, leaving 50,000 in advisory roles. Those advisers are to leave by the end of 2011. Concerns that a delay in the upcoming Iraqi elections could put a dent in scheduled withdrawals was rejected Friday by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill. \"As for our schedule of troop withdrawal, we've been pretty clear about when the troops would be withdrawn,\" he told CNN. \"So our plan is to draw down the troops as we've said we're going [to] do.\" The polls are scheduled to open January 16, but both the United States and the United Nations are worried because Iraq still has no election law. If a new law isn't adopted, the government may have to change the election date or rely on the law used in the 2005 elections, some officials say. A vote on the new law is expected Monday. Pentagon officials also must weigh the impact of continuing violence in the country. Hill said the violence is a concern, as are insurgent efforts to undermine attempts at reconciliation in the divided country. \"Reconciliation is a tough business. I mean I've been in some of these meetings with people, you know, they don't like each other, you have to get them to work together, get them to understand their futures are together, and then you get a bombing, which makes it even tougher,\" Hill said. \"Again, I think the Iraqi people have really signaled that they are really sick and tired of this stuff.\" Meanwhile, violence continued in Iraq on Saturday. Four soldiers were killed and 10 people, including civilians and security forces, were wounded when a bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint exploded in Falluja, an Anbar province town, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Elsewhere in Anbar, a suicide truck bomb hit a police checkpoint on a bridge west of Ramadi, wounding a police officer. The blast badly damaged the bridge, which carries a highway linking Iraq with Jordan and Syria, the official said. Traffic had to be rerouted to an another road. Anbar province, a massive region populated mostly by Sunni Arabs, had been a major front in the Iraqi war. The al Qaeda in Iraq militant group once held great sway in Anbar, but its influence lessened with the advent of U.S.-backed groups called Awakening Councils. CNN's Scott Spoerry and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"Cancellation reflects improved conditions in Iraq, official said .\nIraqi elections won't delay scheduled withdrawals U.S. says, Ambassador Chris Hill .\n\"Our plan is to draw down the troops as we've said we're going [to] do,\" says Hill .\nThe United States plans to withdraw all its combat troops from Iraq by August .","id":"cbc39640032439729fc852608280d9b301bd77fb"} -{"article":"GAALKACYO, Somalia (CNN) -- The U.S. government is delaying \"tens of millions\" of dollars in crucial humanitarian aid over concerns that the money is being diverted to a notorious militant group, a senior U.N. official said. Al-Shabaab militants ride through Mogadishu, Somalia, after a religious gathering in September. The U.S. government, concerned about the challenges in delivering assistance in a country wracked by civil war, says allegations that Al-Shabaab is stopping aid from reaching the people are under review. Although one U.S. government source said aid continues to flow to Somalia and hasn't been suspended, another said aid might not reach \"some parts of the country\" because of Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked terror group that is trying to overthrow the government. Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia has long been a lawless, war-ravaged nation. The United Nations says that nearly half the population is dependent on humanitarian assistance, and one in five children are acutely malnourished. Somalia has suffered through five consecutive seasons of drought, and the ongoing conflict has caused more than a million people to be displaced. Kiki Gbeho, head of office for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia, said the United States is reviewing whether its aid helps fund Al-Shabaab. The U.N. office, in a report issued in September, said the U.S. delay in reaching a decision on humanitarian funding \"is already impacting on many agencies and their programmes.\" The United Nations estimates that 60 percent of the people it needs to reach with emergency assistance live in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab. \"According to humanitarian principles, we have to serve people and need to deal with those in charge,\" Gbeho said. Peter Smerdon, chief spokesman for the World Food Program, the agency responsible for delivering aid to Somalia, would not comment on the U.S. funding controversy but said investigations into whether Al-Shabaab is assisted by U.N. aid assistance are \"ongoing.\" Food supplies could run out for millions of Somalis in the next few weeks, according to the United Nations. The U.S. government is traditionally the biggest donor for food assistance. The issue of breakdowns in humanitarian aid in Somalia has long concerned the United States. A senior administration official and an administration official spoke about the issue on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The senior U.S. administration official said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Transitional Federal Government President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed discussed in August how the \"delivery of services\" to the Somali people be broadened. Clinton said publicly in Nairobi that the United States continues to provide \"humanitarian assistance to the Somali people where delivery is feasible and effective.\" The administration official said that the aid has never stopped, adding that food bound for the World Food Program in Somalia is on a vessel and should arrive in a few weeks. The senior administration official said, \"We are working with groups there to ensure that we can deliver assistance without having to pay off Al-Shabaab in the process. It does mean that aid may get to certain parts of the country but not others.\"","highlights":"Washington reviewing claims that money is being diverted to militant group .\nU.N. estimates 60 percent of people who need aid live in militant-controlled areas .\nMillions could run out of food in the next few weeks, U.N. says .","id":"e82efa89684e806e6b76e864310349d976ae42a9"} -{"article":"PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) -- As many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia, United Nations officials said Saturday. Indonesian soldiers crawl under the rubble of a collapsed building to search for victims. Local disaster management officials put the death toll from the quakes at 540. Earlier U.N. figures that put the death toll at 1,100 were just estimates, said El-Mostafa Benlamlih, a U.N. humanitarian coordinator. A 7.6-magnitude quake struck Sumatra on Wednesday and a 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit Thursday morning in the same region. Wednesday's quake reduced buildings to rubble in the city. People used hammers, chisels and bare hands to dig through debris for survivors and belongings. Watch CNN's Arwa Damon report on search-and-rescue efforts \u00bb . Staff at a local hospital treated the injured outside the semi-collapsed building as bodies of the dead lay in makeshift morgues. An area that now looks like a flattened mess of destruction was, just days ago, a group of three villages. Officials believe 90 percent of the residents -- as many as a few hundred people -- were buried, just one piece of the devastation from two large earthquakes that struck Indonesia in as many days. The stench of dead bodies fills the air. Indonesia's health ministry and ministry of social affairs said Friday they believe thousands remain buried beneath rubble. The West Sumatran capital, Padang, with about a million residents, is near the epicenter. CNN's Arwa Damon spoke with a few dozen survivors from these villages in the area, most of whom only made it through because they weren't home during the quake. They remained huddled together in a tent, in shock over what had happened. One older woman said eight of her family members were buried. She had been buried up to her chest and had to dig herself out. Another survivor, a 27-year-old man, told CNN four of his family members were killed. His home used to be on top of a cliff in the area. Now, there is only mud. Search and rescue teams are working with the military, but so far, only 25 bodies have been recovered. With each passing day, the scope of the devastation grows. Watch aftermath at house leveled by quake \u00bb . President Obama spoke with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday after trying several times to reach him, the White House said. Obama received an update on the situation on the ground from Yudhoyono in the five-minute call. The White House statement says Obama \"offered, on behalf of the United States, to do everything we can to help alleviate the suffering and provide assistance to the relief operation.\" The U.N.'s Holmes told reporters Thursday that hundreds are believed to be injured. \"These numbers, I fear, will rise as more information becomes available,\" he added. Telecommunications are difficult in the region, roads are cut off, and the hardest-hit area, including Padang, lacks power and other services, Holmes said. In addition, heavy rainfall has hindered search and rescue efforts. Some have suggested the damage may be worse than that of a 6.3-magnitude quake centered in the central Java city of Yogyakarta in May 2006, Holmes said. That temblor killed more than 5,000 people and triggered fears of an eruption from a nearby volcano. Many people wandered the streets of Padang stunned and dazed. Some searched the rubble for survivors. Staff at a local hospital treated the injured outside the semi-collapsed building as bodies of the dead lay in makeshift morgues. Several of the hospital's buildings were severely damaged. Damage in the town itself was spotty; some buildings remained intact near others in ruins. \"Aftershocks can be just as devastating as the initial quake,\" said Adjie Fachrurrazi, emergency response coordinator in Indonesia for the CARE aid organization, in a statement. \"After an earthquake of this size, we know the immediate needs are going to be getting safe water, food and emergency supplies to the survivors. The question now is: How bad is it? We're hoping for the best, but the information so far is not looking good.\" Amelia Merrick, the operations director for World Vision Indonesia, described the situation as \"quite devastating.\" \"Bridges have gone down, phone lines are in total disrepair,\" she said. \"It's difficult for us to assess the situation.\" Earlier this month, an earthquake in West Java killed 57 people. CNN's Arwa Damon and Ben Adams near Padang, Indonesia; Andy Saputra in Jakarta, Indonesia; and Tricia Escobedo in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.","highlights":"United Nations fears 4,000 buried beneath rubble, current death toll 540 .\nRescue efforts hampered by heavy rain, power outages, impassable roads .\nPeople use hammers, chisels, bare hands to dig through rubble for survivors .","id":"f4238e599c1d35f439271e223ba70eaed1f176fa"} -{"article":"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Before a cheering crowd at a town hall meeting in New Orleans, President Obama fired back at critics who accuse him of accomplishing little in his nine months in office, saying \"I'm just getting started.\" President Obama speaks at a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans on Thursday. \"I never thought any of this was going to be easy,\" said Obama, speaking at the University of New Orleans in his first visit to the Gulf Coast city since taking office. He poked fun at his critics, asking, \"Why haven't you solved world hunger yet? It's been nine months. Why?\" \"What'd I say during the campaign? I said change is hard,\" Obama said. \"Big change is harder. ... I wasn't kidding about it being hard.\" \"Those folks who are trying to stand in the way of progress ... let me tell you, I'm just getting started,\" he said. \"I don't quit. I'm not tired. I'm just getting started.\" Before taking questions, Obama discussed the recovery effort in New Orleans, a city struggling to get back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina. \"It has now been just over four years since that terrible storm struck your shores,\" the president said. \"And [in] the days after it did, this nation and all the world bore witness to the fact that the damage from Katrina was not caused just by a disaster of nature, but also by a breakdown of government, that government wasn't adequately prepared and we didn't appropriately respond.\" Obama said that when he took office, he pledged to make Gulf Coast rebuilding efforts and disaster response top priorities of his administration. \"So far, I'm pleased to report that we've made good progress,\" he said. \"We've got a long way to go, but we've made progress.\" He said he has sent more Cabinet members to the Gulf Coast than any other region -- \"not just to appearances, but to listen and to learn and help you move forward.\" Also, he said, his administration has helped eliminate red tape and turf disputes in order to get stalled programs moving, and freed up $1.5 billion in recovery funds. He said his administration is tackling \"corruption and inefficiency\" that has plagued the New Orleans Housing Authority for years -- remarks that drew applause from the crowd -- and has helped move families out of emergency housing, helping homeowners rebuild and helping renters find affordable options. The government has also invested in supporting health centers and recruiting primary care providers, nurses and other professionals to fill shortages left by the 2005 hurricane, he said. Watch bloggers debate Obama's handling of New Orleans \u00bb . Before the meeting, Obama toured the Martin Luther King charter school -- the first charter school to reopen in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, the hardest-hit portion of the city. The president called the school \"an inspiration for this city.\" However, \"it's clear how far we have to go before we can call this recovery a real success,\" he said, adding that much remains to be done to repair roads, hospitals and schools and rebuild neighborhoods. \"We will not forget about New Orleans,\" he said. \"We're going to keep on working.\" He also touched on the economy and on health care reform. \"Too many Americans have waited too long for this to happen,\" he said, drawing wild cheers from the crowd. \"We are going to pass health care reform by the end of the year.\" Meeting the challenges faced by the nation, he said, \"requires diligence and perseverance and patience ... it requires a renewed spirit of cooperation among our citizens.\" He took questions from the crowd on topics ranging from the school dropout rate to immigration. One man asked Obama, \"Why is it four years after Katrina we're still fighting with the federal government for money to repair our devastated city? ... I expected as much from the Bush administration, but why are we still being nickeled and dimed in our recovery?\" The president responded, \"I make no excuses for the fact that the federal government did not work effectively with state and local governments immediately in the aftermath of the storm to make sure that everybody got the help they needed right away. And we are still working through the backlog of problems that existed.\" \"My expectation is that by the time that my term is over, you guys are going to look back and you're going to say, 'This was a responsive administration on health care, on housing, on education, that actually made sure the money flowed and that things got done the way they were supposed to get done,\" he said. A fourth-grade boy asked Obama his final question: \"Why do people hate you? They're supposed to love you. And God is love.\" \"Well, now, first of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now,\" Obama said. \"... If you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time. ... Some of it is just what's called politics, where, you know, once one party wins, then the other party kind of feels like it needs to poke you a little bit to keep you on your toes.\" In addition, he told the boy, some people have lost their jobs and are frustrated. \"When you're president of the United States, you've got to deal with all of that,\" he said. \"... I'm a pretty tough guy. Are you a tough guy?\" Four years after Katrina, evidence of the storm's devastation lingers. About 1,500 people in Louisiana are still living in temporary housing, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, although that is down from a high of more than 90,000. And the Army Corps of Engineers is only a third of the way through a $15 billion system to provide 100-year flood protection for the city. However, the agency says 76 disputed projects in Louisiana have been resolved since Obama took office, and more than $1.4 billion in aid has been sent to Louisiana, along with more than $160 million to Mississippi. And it says that more than 89,000 Louisiana households and 45,044 Mississippi households displaced by Katrina -- and by Hurricane Rita, which hit a month later -- have found longer-term housing solutions. The emergency agency also says more than $1 billion from the stimulus program has been targeted for New Orleans. The Obama administration's efforts have been praised. In August, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, \"there is a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done.\" Still, the length and nature of Obama's visit Thursday drew some ire. The president was to spend less than four hours in New Orleans and will not visit other areas of the Gulf Coast affected by Katrina, such as the Mississippi coast. \"The people of New Orleans deserve more than a 'drive-through daiquiri' summit with the president,\" Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said in a news conference Monday. And Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, wrote in a letter to Obama that \"if the town hall is the only major event of the visit, I truly think it will be deeply disappointing to most citizens.\" The White House said that Obama has been to New Orleans five times since Katrina, and that since Obama took office, there have been 35 trips to the Gulf Coast by more than 20 senior administration officials. \"The president made a promise to come to New Orleans and wanted to fulfill that promise as soon as his schedule allowed,\" White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro said.","highlights":"NEW: \"I never thought any of this was going to be easy,\" he says at university .\nPresident not visiting other Gulf Coast areas damaged by Katrina in 2005 .\nSome local Republicans have decried Obama's visit as too short .\nBut White House cites other visits by him, senior officials since storm .","id":"4c7194406223a0020f44aa0c63c3f5d47937c88b"} -{"article":"New York City (CNN) -- Four years ago, the devastating Hurricane Katrina affected millions in the United States. The initial medical response was ill-equipped, understaffed, poorly coordinated and delayed. Criticism was fierce. The response to Haiti has been the same. The point no one seems to remember is this: Medical response to these situations cannot be delayed. Immediate access to emergency equipment is also crucial. Within 24 hours of the earthquake, Dr. David Helfet put together a 13-member team of surgeons, anesthesiologists and operating room nurses, with a massive amount of orthopedic operating room equipment, ready to be flown directly to Port-au-Prince on a private plane. We also had a plan to replace physicians and equipment -- within 24 hours, we could bring in whatever was necessary on a private jet. We believe we had a reasonably comprehensive orthopedic trauma service; as trauma surgeons, we planned to provide acute care in the midst of an orthopedic disaster. We expected many amputations. But we thought we could save limbs that were salvageable, particularly those of children. We recognized that in an underdeveloped country, a limb amputation may be a death sentence. It does not have to be so. We thought our plan was a good one, but we soon learned we were incredibly naive. Disaster management in Haiti was nonexistent. The difficulties in getting in -- despite the intelligence we had from people on the ground and Dr. Helfet's connections with Partners in Health and Bill and Hillary Clinton -- only hinted at the difficulties we would have once we arrived. We started out Friday morning and got a slot to get into Port-au-Prince on Friday. That was canceled when we were on the runway and was rescheduled for the next day. We were diverted to the Dominican Republic and planned on arriving in Port-au-Prince on Saturday. That Saturday morning slot also was canceled and postponed until the afternoon. The airport had one runway and hundreds of planes trying to land. But nobody was prioritizing the flights. Once we finally landed, we were taken to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince with our medical supplies. We had been told that this hospital was up and running with two functioning operating rooms. Once we arrived, we saw a severely damaged hospital with no running water and only limited electrical power, supplied by a generator. Surgeries were being performed in the equivalent of a large storage closet, where amputations were performed with hacksaws. This facility could not nearly accommodate our equipment nor our expertise to treat the volume of injuries we saw. We quickly took our second option: Community Hospital of Haiti, about two miles away. There, we found about 750 patients lying on the floor. But the facility had running water, electricity and two functional operating rooms. We found scores of patients with pus dripping out of open extremity fractures and crush injuries. Some wounds were already ridden with maggots. About a third of these victims were children. The entire hospital smelled of infected, rotting limbs and death. Later on, we would judge our surgical progress by the diminishment of the stench. In our na\u00efvet\u00e9, we didn't expect that the two anesthesia machines would not work; that there would be only one cautery available in the entire hospital to stop bleeding; that an operating room sterilizer fit only instruments the size of a cigar box; that there would be no sterile saline, no functioning fluoroscopy machine, no blood for transfusions, no ability to do lab work; and the only local staff was a ragtag group of voluntary health providers who, like us, had made it there on their own. As we got up and running and organized the patients for surgery, we told our contacts in the United States what we needed. More supplies were loaded for a second trip. Those included a battery-operated pulse lavage, a huge supply of sterile saline and the soft goods we needed desperately in the operating room. The plane landed as planned Sunday night, and the new equipment was loaded onto a truck. Then that truck, loaded with life-saving equipment, was hijacked somewhere between the airport and the hospital. We had planned to run a marathon round-the-clock operation and leave at 11 p.m. Tuesday. We worked for 60-plus hours without stopping. The plane that would take us home would bring with it not only a new medical staff, but also equipment that was nonexistent in the hospital, or even the country. These pieces of equipment, two of each, were urgently needed: portable anesthesiology machines; electrocautery machines to stop bleeding after amputations; portable monitors for the recovery room; autoclaves to sterilize equipment; and a lot of orthopedic equipment, which we were quickly using up. The other items were those that were on the previous flight and had been hijacked. Officials at the Port-au-Prince airport canceled that plane's 6 a.m. Tuesday slot, and the plane never made it to us on time. We had started to see daylight Monday night, having performed about 100 surgeries, which were mainly amputations, fixing broken limbs and soft tissue debridements. Many of the patients were children and babies. But on Tuesday morning, a huge number of new patients arrived. The Haitians had heard we were trying to save limbs, and families were bringing their injured loved ones to us. The hospital was forced to lock down, closing its gates to the angry and frustrated crowd outside. On Tuesday morning, we saw that many of the patients we had operated on were becoming septic and would require additional surgeries. We finished operating at noon Tuesday, our last surgery assisting an obstetrician on a Caesarean section and helping to resuscitate a newborn who was not breathing. We decided the situation was untenable. Our supplies were running out, our team was past exhaustion, safety was rapidly becoming a concern, and we had no firm plan to leave or resupply. A hospital benefactor helped us get to the airport. First, Jamaican soldiers with M-16s escorted us out of the building as the crowd outside saw us abandoning the hospital. We made it to the airport on the back of a pickup, got onto the tarmac, hailed a commercial plane that had carried cargo to Haiti and was returning to Montreal, Canada, and had a private jet pick us up from there. We were unprepared for what we saw in Haiti -- the vast amount of human devastation, the complete lack of medical infrastructure, the lack of support from the Haitian medical community, the lack of organization on the ground. No one was in charge. We had the first hospital in the Port-au-Prince area with functioning operating rooms, yet no one came to the hospital to assess how we did it or offer help. The fact that the military could not or would not protect the critical resupply medical equipment on Sunday, or allow the Tuesday flight to come in, is devastating and merits intense investigation. There was no security at the hospital. We needed a much higher level of security with strong and clear support of the military from the very beginning. The lack of support for our operation by the United States is shocking and embarrassing and shows how woefully unprepared we are for the realities of disasters. We came to understand that our isolated operation may work in a mission, but not in a disaster. We first thought we would support those at the helm but soon realized we were almost the only early responders with the critical expertise and equipment to treat an orthopedic disaster such as this. Still, nobody with a clear plan is in charge, and care is chaotic at best. Doctors are coming into the country with no plan of what they are going to do, and nobody directing them how to do it. Surgeons who expect to show up and operate will be mistaken. Without a complement of support staff and supplies, they are of limited to no value. We left feeling as if we abandoned these patients, the country and its people, and we feel terrible. Our role back in New York is to expose the inadequacies of the system in the hopes of effecting change immediately. Patients who are alive and still have their arms and legs remain in jeopardy unless an urgent response is implemented. The quickest and most efficient way to really help now and support the medical staff on the ground is to assess needs, provide equipment and personnel in necessary quantities, and bring them safely and expeditiously into the country and to the hospital units caring for patients. Upon our departure, we witnessed pallets of Cheerios and dry goods sitting on the tarmac helping nobody. Yet our flight of critical medical equipment and personnel had been canceled, and the equipment that did get through was hijacked. We implore an official organization to step up and take charge of the massive ongoing medical effort that will be necessary to care for the people of Haiti and their children. And to do it now. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Drs. Dean Lorich, Soumitra Eachempati and David L. Helfet.","highlights":"Doctors gathered sophisticated team and equipment for Haiti on private plane .\nThey found nobody in charge, chaos, hospitals had nothing, not even elementary equipment .\nPlane sent with equipment; supplies hijacked; resupply plane not allowed in .\nThey say the \"lack of support for our operation by the United States is shocking\"","id":"e845dd89dd4837b1ae0fcc18b13e6b2f6285a270"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A court in Zambia has acquitted a newspaper editor who was tried on obscenity charges for mailing photographs of a woman giving birth. Chansa Kabwela, the editor of the Post, wanted to highlight the conditions in which women were being forced to give birth during a hospital strike last summer. She mailed pictures to government ministers of a woman delivering a baby in a hospital parking lot. But Zambian President Rupiah Banda described the photos as pornographic and Kabwela was ordered arrested. On Monday, a judge in the capital Lusaka ruled there was no evidence the photos were obscene or could corrupt public morals. He dismissed the case. Kabwela was out of the office Wednesday and could not immediately be reached. But as she exited the courtroom, she told Reporters Without Borders that she was relieved. \"My victory is also a victory for all those who suffered during the health sector strikes,\" she said. \"I am happy the court acquitted me. I had no intention of causing anyone any harm. The letter I wrote to the vice-president was very clear. I just wanted to draw his attention to the situation in the hospitals.\" The month-long nurse's strike in June was over pay and benefits. It shut down hospital wards, turning away hundreds of patients. At the time, a woman's husband snapped pictures as she gave birth in the hospital parking lot after being denied admission. The baby later died, said the Committee to Protect Journalists. The husband gave the photos to the Post who deemed them to graphic to publish. Kabwela then included them in a letter she wrote to the vice president, the health minister and several non-governmental organizations urging that the strike be settled. Soon afterward, Banda ordered police to take action against Kabwela. Journalism advocacy groups believe Banda retaliated against the newspaper because of its frequent criticism of his policies. At least six members of the newspaper's staff have been physically or verbally attacked by leaders of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy since the year began, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.","highlights":"Chansa Kabwela wanted to highlight conditions in which women were being forced to give birth during a hospital strike .\nShe mailed pictures to government ministers of a woman delivering a baby in a hospital parking lot .\nZambian President Rupiah Banda described the photos as pornographic and Kabwela was ordered arrested .","id":"b37a4599efbe788ce601a9a4ec4e6f8a6cb3d9e9"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 18 people have been killed and 80 injured in a car bomb blast in central Baghdad as deadly violence returned to the streets of the Iraqi capital for a second day. The blast was caused by a suicide bomber who drove through the checkpoint, toward a government forensic office, Iraq's ministry of information said. Tuesday's attack followed three vehicle bombings near hotels in the city on Monday which killed 36 people and wounded 71 others. The latest bombings come amid concerns over security and fears of a fresh wave of sectarian violence between the country's rival Shia and Sunni factions as the country prepares for crucial national elections on March 7. The buildup to that vote has been dominated by controversy over the legitimacy of hundreds of candidates banned from participating because of alleged links to former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime. The 511-name \"blacklist\" issued by Iraq's Accountability and Justice Commission, which is charged with purging former members of Hussein's Baath Party from public life, includes many prominent Sunni Arab politicians. Banning such candidates has raised fears of alienating the Sunnis -- an issue during the 2005 elections that analysts say was a contributing factor to the years of sectarian violence that followed. Monday's bombings also followed the execution earlier in the day of Hussein's cousin and notorious henchman Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- also known as \"Chemical Ali.\" In a statement issued Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad condemned the attacks on the hotels. \"The terrorists who committed these senseless crimes aim to sow fear among the Iraqi people. We are confident, however, that the Iraqi people will stand fast and work together to build their common future in peace and security,\" the embassy said. CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.","highlights":"Car bomb detonated near a government forensic office in central Baghdad .\nAttack comes a day after three vehicle bomb attacks killed 36, injured 71 .\nAt least 18 dead, 80 injured in latest attack .","id":"0d0047deacd74ef50d81464ad73518ae0049a3a0"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Sri Lankans went to the polls on Tuesday in the island nation's first peacetime presidential election in 26 years, despite explosions and mortar fire in the capital of Northern Province hours before polls opened. Once a stronghold for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Northern Province city of Jaffna was a frequent battleground for the rebels and Sri Lankan government troops until a government offensive last year crushed the Tigers. While it wasn't clear what the explosions were, they were nothing new for Jaffnans, who have lived under military control for decades. More than 14 million Sri Lankans are expected to elect their sixth executive president to a six-year term. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking a fresh mandate for his government, but he faces a tough challenge from his one-time confidante and former Army commander, retired General Sarath Fonseka. Rajapaksa cast his vote in his ancestral town of Medamulana, near the southern town of Tangalle. \"I am very confident of victory,\" he told journalists. Fonseka was expected to visit a polling booth in Colombo. Queues were large outside most polling booths in Colombo and principal towns, election officials said. \"I waited in a queue for 45 minutes before I could cast my ballot,\" said Damayantha Perera of the Colombo suburb of Maharagama. \"I also had to wait for almost an hour,\" said W. Ramiah, a resident of Nugegoda, also of Colombo. Fonseka, who won wide acclaim for leading troops to military victory against the rebels, broke ranks with the Rajapaksa administration after he was elevated to the largely ceremonial post of chief of defense staff in July after retiring as Army commander. After Fonseka announced his presidential bid, the main opposition parties -- with widely diverse political ideologies -- closed ranks behind him to make him their common candidate. \"There has been abuse of power, corruption and nepotism. We want to abolish the executive presidency and make the parliament more answerable to the people. The best person to do this is the one who defeated terrorism,\" Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party, told CNN. Many of Rajapaksa's family members, including his brothers, hold key positions in the government: Chamal is a Cabinet minister, Gotabhaya is Defense Secretary, and Basil is a member of parliament and senior presidential adviser. Other members of the family hold important positions locally and in Sri Lanka's diplomatic missions abroad. The coalition of parties backing Fonseka includes a main opposition right wing party and a leftist Marxist outfit, as well as the Tamil National Alliance. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a branch of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, said the situation in Sri Lanka, however, is \"a picture of dysfunction and breakdown.\" There have been allegations of interference with mail-in ballots, according to the group. Most of the complaints have been against members of Rajapaksa's government, it said. There have been more than 700 reports of violence ahead of the election, with at least four deaths reported, Saravanamuttu said. Sri Lankans are casting their ballots in more than 11,000 voting booths across the nation. Local leaders have urged a peaceful voting day amid the escalating violence, including the shooting deaths of two people -- one a supporter of the opposition and the other of the government. A contingent of 85,000 police officers have been deployed to maintain law and order, said Mahinda Balasooriya, the inspector general of police. Each polling station has two to three police officers on duty, he said. The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that the U.N. chief was \"concerned about the growing violence in the lead-up to the presidential election.\" \"The peaceful conduct of the first post-conflict national election is of the highest importance for long-term peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka,\" he added. CNN's Sara Sidner and Iqbal Athas contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Queues were large outside most Colombo polling booths, election officials say .\nNEW: President Rajapaksa casts his vote in ancestral town of Medamulana .\nHe faces tough challenge from retired Gen. Fonseka .\nPolice: Contingent of 85,000 police officers deployed to maintain law and order .","id":"8c7dda7bb26815d3581c5e1a776c32d022bbb41e"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Calling the ruling \"huge,\" New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Thursday reacted to a federal judge finding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' failure to maintain a shipping channel led to catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina. Nagin said he hopes the court decision will \"open up the floodgates\" for others to file lawsuits against the federal government, including his Louisiana city. However, he acknowledged it's likely the federal government will appeal Wednesday's ruling. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said in an e-mail the government is reviewing the decision and has made \"no determination as to what future steps it would take in this matter.\" U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. ruled that the \"negligence of the Corps\" by failing to maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet waterway \"was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and short-sightedness.\" \"For over 40 years, the Corps was aware that the Reach II levee protecting Chalmette and the Lower Ninth Ward was going to be compromised by the continued deterioration of the [waterway]. ... The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly, the expression 'talk is cheap' applies here.\" Duval issued the ruling in a lawsuit brought by six plaintiffs affected by the 2005 hurricane, who alleged the Corps of Engineers was liable for damages. The judge ruled against one couple, who lived in New Orleans East, but awarded the others, from the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish, damages ranging from $100,000 to $317,000. Nagin said he had thought the ruling was a long shot. \"This was a surprise but a pleasant one,\" he said. The decision applies not only to the six plaintiffs, attorney Pierce O'Donnell said, but also to some 100,000 homes and businesses in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward. Under the precedent set by Duval's ruling, they too will be entitled to compensation, O'Donnell said. At a news conference Thursday, Craig Taffaro, president of St. Bernard Parish, said, \"It's a bittersweet victory in the sense that yes, we are at the table, yes, we are grateful for the judge's ruling and for the legal team to deliver us to this point, but what a shame that we had to go through such devastation and destruction to get here.\" At one point a Category 5 hurricane, Katrina had weakened to a Category 3 storm with top sustained winds of 127 mph when it made landfall on the morning of August 29, 2005, between Grand Isle, Louisiana, and the mouth of Mississippi River. Its winds were only slightly diminished when it passed over more populated coastal areas hours later. More than 1,800 people died in the storm, including nearly 1,600 in Louisiana. In New Orleans, the city's levee system failed and widespread flooding occurred. Overall, the storm damage covered more than 90,000 square miles and displaced nearly 300,000 people, causing more than $81 billion in damage. Ivor van Heerden, a researcher who warned of the potential for catastrophic damage from a hurricane, said the ruling is \"total vindication for everybody who was involved.\" \"I think he's called a spade a spade,\" van Heerden told CNN by phone. The former deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center said the university fired him because of the investigation he led into the levee failures. The probe put much of the blame for the disaster on the Corps of Engineers. He alleged Thursday that the university blocked him from being an expert witness in the case, but said he \"put together a lot of the science\" and reviewed the defense's explanation to find the holes. \"Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was a manmade catastrophe with a hurricane trigger,\" he said. \"I saw the suffering of the people in New Orleans. ... Finally there is the potential of compensation.\" He said he intends to file a lawsuit against LSU, which he said has to pay him through the end of his contract, which ends in May. LSU did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday. CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Judge: Army Corps of Engineers liable for catastrophic flooding during Katrina .\nNew Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says ruling may \"open up the floodgates\" for more suits .\nNagin calls decision \"a surprise,\" says he expects feds to appeal .\nPlaintiffs awarded damages from Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish .","id":"c7d509baf5a15accf00507098e5418ab283beef1"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A man charged with stalking sports reporter Erin Andrews is now accused of making nude videotapes of her in one more city than previously thought, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Michael David Barrett, 48, is accused of surreptitiously videotaping the ESPN reporter through hotel peepholes and posting the videos online. Authorities previously had said they believed most of the videos were made at a Nashville, Tennessee, hotel in September 2008. But the information filed Wednesday alleges that Barrett also taped Andrews through an altered peephole in a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2008. Barrett stayed in the hotel room next door to Andrews, the information said. He is charged with interstate stalking, which carries a potential sentence of five years in prison, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California. Barrett was arrested in Illinois, but will make an initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, Mrozek said. He is scheduled to be arraigned on November 23 and will be asked to enter a plea. An Illinois judge last month released Barrett on bail. Barrett waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury, Mrozek said, and authorities on Wednesday filed a criminal information against him in place of an indictment. Investigators found that Barrett reserved a room at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hotel where Andrews was staying in July 2008, but did not check in, according to prosecutors and the initial criminal complaint against him last month. The complaint accused him of making seven videos from the surreptitious tapes. In Nashville, the door peephole into Andrews' room was altered with a hacksaw, and the peephole to her room in Milwaukee was altered in a similar way, the criminal complaint said. Authorities believe the videos were taken with a cell phone camera. In addition, the complaint said that Barrett \"traveled from Illinois to Victim Andrews' home state\" in August 2008, but did not specify which state. Barrett allegedly attempted to sell the videos to celebrity gossip site TMZ in January 2009. TMZ did not purchase the images, but employees of the Web site assisted in the investigation by providing information to Andrews' attorneys, authorities said. However, the videos were posted to other Web sites by Barrett, the criminal complaint said, with labels like \"Sexy and hot blonde sports celebrity shows us her all.\" Andrews, 31, is a sideline reporter for ESPN, traveling around the country covering college football games. The criminal complaint said she became aware of the videos in July and that their posting has caused her distress, anxiety and trouble sleeping.","highlights":"Man accused of surreptitiously taping Andrews nude, posting videos online .\nPreviously, most of the tapes were thought to have been shot in a Nashville hotel .\nCourt documents filed Wednesday claim videos also were made in Columbus, Ohio .\nStalking charge carries a potential five-year prison sentence .","id":"f3c387478b7a704f9938c453bff1b67e3a786910"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A lock break occurred on the Ohio River near Warsaw, Kentucky, on Sunday, stopping barge traffic for several hours as the Army Corps of Engineers investigated. The lock break stopped traffic on the Ohio River about 65 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky. The incident involved structures, and there were no reports of injuries. All traffic on the river was stopped in both directions at about 9 a.m. ET, Corps spokesman Todd Hornback said. By 8 p.m., an auxiliary lock was set up to start allowing the half-dozen blocked barges through. \"It's going to take more time, but we're keeping the river open tonight,\" Hornback said. The river is a major artery for commodities shipping, with more than 50 million tons of cargo passing through the affected area annually, according to a waterways organization. It was not known what caused the break at the Markland Locks and Dam. Engineers were going to the site, about 65 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky, Hornback said. The lock's gates are 1,200 feet long and 110 feet wide. A smaller auxiliary lock is 600 feet long and 110 feet wide. Watch traffic backed up on Ohio River \u00bb . A lock is a section of a waterway, such as a river, that is closed off with gates. Vessels in transit enter the lock and the water level is raised or lowered in order to raise or lower the vessel to adjust to elevation changes. One of the broken portions is known as a miter gate, Hornback said. The Corps of Engineers, on its Web site, says a miter gate \"has two leaves that provide a closure at one end of the lock.\" They are so named because the two leaves meet at an angle pointing upstream and resembling a miter joint, the Web site said, referring to a joint meeting at a 45-degree angle, such as the corner of a picture frame. A public policy organization, in a February 2008 report, graded the locks' performance as a D, \"based primarily upon risk of failure due to unreliability of miter gates.\" The federal government allocated $10.6 million to install new chamber miter gates, according to Waterways Council Inc., which describes itself as an organization \"advocating a modern and well-maintained national system of ports and inland waterways.\" Hornback said the work was scheduled for 2011, adding that it's unclear whether Sunday's break will speed that up. \"The risk is very high that a failure of the lock gates will occur, forcing traffic through the auxiliary lock for an extended period, causing huge delays and costs to the towing industry,\" the council said in the report last year. Engineers hope to have the river back open as soon as possible, Hornback said, but an exact time frame was not known. Some 55 million tons of commodities pass through the Markland Locks each year, according to the Waterways Council. The principal commodity passing through Markland is coal, which fuels numerous electric power plants along the Ohio River, and those plants typically stockpile only about a 30-day supply, the council said.","highlights":"NEW: Auxiliary lock used to relieve blocked river traffic .\nLock broke Sunday morning; cause not known, Army Corps of Engineers says .\nBreak happened about 65 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky .\nIn locks, vessels are raised or lowered to match elevation ahead .","id":"4bfe78c3d6016605a9c07d366b51979192aeae0d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Abe Pollin, the longtime owner of the Washington Wizards professional basketball franchise, has died, the Wizards said Tuesday. He was 85. No further details were immediately available. The Wizards said information would be released as it became available. The Pollin family asked that their privacy be respected, the basketball team said. Pollin and his wife, Irene, have owned the NBA franchise, previously known as the Washington Bullets and before that the Baltimore Bullets, for 45 years. As the majority owners of Washington Sports & Entertainment Limited Partnership, the Pollins oversaw the Washington Wizards, Washington\/Baltimore Ticketmaster and in-house promoter Musicentre Productions, as well as the management of the Verizon Center and George Mason University's Patriot Center, according to the Verizon Center's Web site. Pollin at one time also owned the Washington Capitals hockey team and the Washington Mystics WNBA team. Pollin moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Washington area when he was 8, according to the Verizon Center's biography of him. He attended George Washington University and worked for his family's construction company for more than a decade, it says. He and Irene, a St. Louis, Missouri, native, launched their own construction company in 1957 and built several large apartment houses and office buildings. They have two sons and two granddaughters, according to the Web site.","highlights":"Abe Pollin was 85 years old .\nPollin and his wife have owned the Wizards, formerly known as the Bullets, for 45 years .\nPollin also once owned Washington Capitals hockey team .\nSurvived by wife, two sons and two granddaughters, according to Web site .","id":"14178c325228ff25afcd325500a6f1f01313f5d8"} -{"article":"Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi Olympic Committee said Saturday it stands by its decision to disband the country's soccer association -- a move that led to the association's suspension from international football. World governing body FIFA said Friday it had decided to suspend the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) because of the Iraqi Olympic Committee's move to disband it. FIFA described that as governmental interference. The suspension means Iraqi soccer clubs and teams may not play in international matches or receive financial assistance, though FIFA made an exception for Iraqi female players to play in a weeklong under-16 regional football festival in Jordan starting Sunday. FIFA said it learned Monday that the Iraqi Olympic Committee had disbanded the IFA and that governmental security forces had seized control of the IFA headquarters. FIFA officials gave the committee 72 hours to revoke the decision and hand the headquarters back to the IFA. \"The deadline has expired without revocation of the decision by the Iraqi Olympic Committee and the IFA has not been restored to its headquarters,\" FIFA said in a statement Friday. \"The FIFA Emergency Committee has therefore decided to immediately suspend the IFA until the decision of the Iraqi Olympic Committee is revoked and the IFA retakes possession of its offices.\" The Iraqi Olympic Committee's actions are in \"total contradiction\" to FIFA statutes, which require national teams to have full independence, FIFA said. Two top Iraqi officials said Saturday the decision to disband the IFA was based on financial and administrative irregularities and violations, and that they were not surprised by FIFA's decision and had expected it. Samir al-Moussawi, a senior member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, told CNN he was hopeful the issue could be resolved with FIFA in the coming days, and that the Olympic committee had international lawyers working on the issue. He denied, however, that government security forces had seized IFA headquarters, saying the men were protection services personnel guarding the building. Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman who has been delegated for months to deal with the International Olympic Committee, told CNN he will work on cooperating with FIFA's demands and holding transparent IFA elections. He said the suspension \"will not have a major effect\" on Iraqi football because the national team has no international matches scheduled over the next six months. It is the second time FIFA has suspended Iraqi football. The first time was in May last year, after the Iraqi government dissolved the national Olympic committee and all national sports federations. FIFA lifted the ban after the Iraqi government excluded the IFA from dissolution. Iraqi soccer has come a long way since the days of Saddam Hussein, when Hussein's son, Uday, was president of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and regularly threatened players with physical violence and torture if they played poorly. The national soccer team has continued playing, however, and has been viewed as something that has united Iraqis across sectarian lines. Although Iraq has not qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa, the national team was able to celebrate becoming the Asia champions in 2007. In July, Iraq played its first home game since 2002, beating its Palestinian opponents 4-0. Tens of thousands attended the match in the capital after FIFA lifted its ban on international games in Iraq. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iraqi Olympic Committee stands by decision to disband Iraqi football association .\nFIFA banned Iraq from international competition following move .\nIraq won Asian championship in 2007 but failed to reach next year's World Cup .","id":"29a7ec67253cca779fee3bfe9e2fc4c50049f885"} -{"article":"Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Relations between Cambodia and Thailand took a further turn for the worse Tuesday, after ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in Phnom Penh to begin his new job there. Thaksin arrived in Cambodia Tuesday to begin his first day as an economic adviser, a move that has infuriated Thailand. In response to the relationship with Thaksin, Thailand has suspended its cooperation with Cambodia, a Thai government official said Tuesday. Thailand has also suspended a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia, an agreement that governs an overlapping waterway between the two countries, said Panitan Wattanayakorn, a Thai government spokesman. Thai officials also plan to send out an extradition request to Cambodia for Thaksin, the spokesman said. The actions are the latest moves in worsening relations between the southeast Asian countries that were sparked by Cambodia's hiring of Thaksin. Last week, Thailand withdrew its ambassador to Cambodia and, in response, Cambodia pulled its top diplomat to Thailand. Cambodian officials said Thaksin arrived Tuesday and had a welcome luncheon with Prime Minister Hun Sen and the two were expected to have a friendly dinner later. Cambodia had not received extradition papers from Thailand, government spokesman Phay Siphan said. Thaksin, a billionaire businessman who served two terms as prime minister, was ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006. Thaksin fled Bangkok last year while facing trial on corruption charges that he said were politically motivated. Though he has fled the country, he remains a controversial figure in Thailand, and there have been violent clashes in the country between pro and anti-Thaksin groups. CNN's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ousted Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra arrives in Cambodia to work as economic adviser .\nThai officials say they will issue extradition request for Thaksin .\nThailand suspends cooperation with Cambodia, withdraws ambassador .\nThaksin fled Thailand last year while awaiting trial on corruption charges .","id":"b66d18969555bde5bb76cd399d2345ef8176ed87"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Irish football officials have lodged an official complaint with world ruling body FIFA after Thierry Henry confessed that he handled the ball in the build-up to the goal which sent France to next summer's World Cup. Television cameras showed Henry guiding the ball with his hand twice, before William Gallas scored from his resulting cross to give \"Les Bleus\" a narrow win in the two-legged World Cup play-off against the Republic of Ireland. \"I will be honest. It was a handball but I am not the referee,\" the Barcelona striker told reporters after the match in Paris. The Irish Justice Ministry confirmed to CNN that Dermot Ahern had asked the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to demand a replay in the interests of fair play. \"Thierry Henry has admitted handling the ball, claims he told the ref he handled it. Millions of people worldwide saw it was a blatant double handball -- not to mention a double offside -- and we should put the powers that be in the cozy world of FIFA on the spot and demand a replay,\" Ahern said in a statement sent to CNN. \"They probably won't grant it as we are minnows in world football but let's put them on the spot. It's the least we owe the thousands of devastated young fans around the country. Otherwise if that result remains it reinforces the view that if you cheat you will win.\" The FAI later confirmed that it had taken the matter to FIFA. \"I really believe the integrity of the game has been questioned last night,\" chief executive John Delaney told reporters. \"The governing body of world football have to step up to the plate and accede to our call for a replay.\" Delaney said the FAI had also written to the French football federation. \"They need to look at themselves in this situation. Henry is their captain and a wonderful footballer, but does he want to be like Diego Maradona and his legacy to be this handball, this goal that got them to the World Cup in an unjust manner? If we had qualified in this manner, I wouldn't be happy,\" he said. \"It is up to the people who govern the game now. Every time I go to a FIFA congress I hear about fair play and integrity. This was a defining game with the whole world watching, and if FIFA believe in fair play and integrity, this is their opportunity to step forward.\" The FAI has argued that there is a precedent for the result to be struck out, following FIFA's ruling that Uzbekistan had to replay a play-off against Bahrain for the 2006 World Cup in Germany after the referee made a mistake in awarding a penalty. \"The Football Association of Ireland is hoping that FIFA and its disciplinary committee will, on behalf of football fans worldwide, act in a similar fashion so that the standards of fair play and integrity can be protected,\" the FAI said. FIFA confirmed it had received the Irish request for a replay, but gave no timescale on a decision. However, it said that under its regulations the referee's decision cannot be changed. \"Law 5 states that the decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final,\" it said. \"The referee may only change a decision on realising that it is incorrect or, at his discretion, on the advice of an assistant referee or the fourth official, provided that he has not restarted play or terminated the match.\" Irish captain Richard Dunne, who spoke to Henry on the final whistle, said he felt cheated by the goal. \"He admitted he handled it, but it doesn't make me feel any better because we are not going to the World Cup finals,\" the defender said. \"FIFA will probably be happy. Yet again the big decisions have gone for the bigger team.\" Football's international governing body had faced criticism from several Irish players that the seeding system for the play-off draw favored more powerful nations such as France. Blog: When will FIFA see what's staring them in the face? Dunne's teammate Robbie Keane admitted it was \"hard to speak,\" as he struggled to come to terms with the result. \"With the way we played, we certainly deserved to win the game and it killed us near the end with that handball,\" he was quoted by the FAI Web site as saying. \"I've seen the replay but we knew anyway (it was handball). You could see by the reaction of the players, especially Shay (Given) who was two yards away from it. You don't get a reaction like that. It was a clear handball. \"He (Henry) almost caught the ball and actually ran into the net with it. We're devastated.\" Ireland team manager Giovanni Trapattoni told reporters that the referee had time to ask the linesman and then Henry. \"It would not have been the first time a player would have asked and it would not have been out of turn. \"We are angry,\" the Italian continued. \"It is a bitter evening for me. I would prefer to have gone out on penalties.\" Fanzone: Five of football's most famous injustices . But former France international David Ginola was emphatic that Henry should not have \"owned up.\" \"You don't do that,\" he told CNN. \"Henry was doing his job. You can't blame him for doing everything he could for his team and country to get them to South Africa. \"But it was a shame to finish the game like that as Ireland had played very well. \"Referees need more help on the pitch, so as not to allow things like that. Obviously the referee was not well-positioned and couldn't see.\" English Referees Union chief Alan Leighton told CNN that Swedish official Martin Hansson had clearly missed a huge decision. \"I think the incident was more of instinct than deliberately attempting to cheat but it does seem that the ball hit his hand twice and therefore there is an issue.\" But on the wider issue of cheating, Leighton said: \"It is all very well to blame the referees for not spotting it but fundamentally it starts with the players. \"I think the players have to think about the game, think about the reputation of the game and their own reputations and say look actually there is a line that we will not cross.\"","highlights":"NEW: Republic of Ireland officials lodge official complaint with world ruling body FIFA .\nNEW: FAI also writes to French counterparts asking for World Cup play-off to be replayed .\nCameras showed France's Thierry Henry guiding ball with his hand twice, before William Gallas scored .\nEx-France player David Ginola said Henry was only doing his job for his country and should not be blamed .","id":"00fa48a209242751af7814a89fd893895387a81d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries met Monday to discuss how to rebuild Haiti after the devastating January 12 earthquake. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive also attended the one-day meeting of the Friends of Haiti group of nations in Montreal, Quebec. The United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and European Union also sent representatives, according to Canada's Foreign Ministry. In Haiti, desperate residents of Port-au-Prince, the capital, waited for two hours in lines around the heavily damaged Presidential Palace to get their first relief supplies, bags of rice or beans. U.N. troops brandishing automatic weapons kept order. Any spilled food prompted fast scavenging by those hanging around the distribution point. One woman, Via Maria Rosile, took off her shirt to collect a small pile of dropped beans. Watch images of a shattered palace . \"I am very unhappy,\" Rosile said. \"So far, until now we have received nothing.\" The aim of the Montreal meeting is to develop a strategy for early recovery and longer-term reconstruction of Haiti. Once the strategy is set, a donors' conference to secure funding would take place. Clinton told reporters traveling with her to the meeting that the donors' conference would take place in \"the next 30 to 60 days.\" \"There's a tremendous desire to help, but we've got to create the mechanisms so that it can be done effectively, and we've got to get the Haitian government's capacity to lead put together,\" she said. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the meeting's attendees that the challenge is enormous. Interactive map: Where to find aid . \"It is not an exaggeration to say that 10 years of hard work awaits the world in Haiti,\" he said, according to CNN affiliate CTV, a Canadian television network. He noted the initial outpouring of money and relief aid for Haiti, which he called generous in the face of human catastrophe. \"The difficulty we face, then, is not one of concern but rather one of coordination,\" Harper said. \"We must ensure that every resource committed -- every relief worker, every vehicle, every dollar -- is used as effectively as possible.\" The United States has committed $100 million in emergency aid to Haiti, and Clinton said Monday \"there will be more to come.\" At the same time, Clinton noted to reporters that even before the quake, Haiti had an economic development plan worked out with the United Nations and others that was intended to modernize the economy after decades of political and social instability. The earthquake required a revision of the plan, rather than scrapping it entirely, she said. \"It was a legitimate plan. It was done in conjunction with other international donors, with the United Nations,\" Clinton said. \"And I don't want to start from scratch, but we have to recognize the changed challenges we are now confronting.\" Bellerive, in comments at the meeting reported by CTV, also said Haiti must achieve a new development path rather than simply returning to the same situation that existed before the earthquake. \"What we are speaking about is relaunching our country on a path of development. It is not a question of going back to the status quo,\" he said, according to CTV. Port-au-Prince will have to be rebuilt and public institutions decentralized to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Haitians expected to relocate to rural areas, CTV reported Bellerive as saying. In addition, Monday's meeting provided an opportunity for the donor community, the Haitian government and the United Nations to review progress so far in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Haiti. A senior European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to reporters in Washington, said the countries attending the Montreal meeting want to avoid pouring money into Haiti in ways that previously have yielded little result. Priorities might include agriculture, reforestation and building new roads, with projects carried out in coordination with the Haitian government, according to the diplomat. The diplomat also said France is ready to host a donors' conference on the Caribbean island of Martinique. A spokesman for the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry said Monday that the nation donated $50 million to Haiti for relief aid. The spokesman, Usama al-Nugali, said the money has already been received by the United Nations. Monday's meeting came as Haitians reacted with anger and frustration to news that efforts to rescue possible survivors had been called off. Looking for loved ones in Haiti . Thousands of people pushed Sunday for rescue efforts to continue after a 24-year-old man was pulled alive from rubble Saturday, 11 days after the earthquake. He had no injuries, but was dehydrated. His brother said he had survived on cookies and beer from the store of the Hotel Napoli Inn, where he worked. He is recovering in a hospital. Families of Americans who were staying at the Hotel Montana started an online petition Saturday in an effort to get search efforts to continue \"until all the survivors are accounted for.\" As of Sunday morning, 2,395 people had signed the petition and sent 6,216 messages to the Senate, Congress and the White House, said Sue Keller, a friend of a family whose relatives are among the missing. So far, 59 Americans, including three children, are confirmed dead in the magnitude-7.0 earthquake, the U.S. State Department said Monday. The deaths include one U.S. embassy employee, previously identified as Victoria DeLong, and three children of embassy employees, according to Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley. Another 37 Americans are presumed dead, Crowley said. About 11,500 Americans and some of their Haitian family members, who had medical emergencies or other circumstances, have been evacuated from Haiti, according to Crowley. The Haitian government has said the earthquake is believed to have killed at least 150,000 people. Tired of stench, Haitians torch bodies in plaza . The rescues that occurred over the past week sparked hope among families of the missing. International search teams have rescued at least 132 people, the United Nations said. More than 600,000 people have been left homeless in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. CNN's Jill Dougherty, Mohammed Jamjoom, Elise Labott and Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. has committed $100 million in aid to Haiti, with more to come, Clinton says .\nTen years of hard work needed to rebuild Haiti, Canadian PM tells meeting .\nTop officials from more than a dozen countries meet in Montreal on Monday .\nFamilies of the missing fight Haiti's effort to shift from rescue to recovery mode .","id":"d739265e3b49bd120330c2d6b5e0d7d7c8e691db"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- World No. 2 Novak Djokovic was on track to defend his Dubai Tennis Championship title when torrential rain, thunder and lightning halted play in Saturday's final against Mikhail Youzhny. The Serbian led 7-5 2-0 when the heavens opened on the desert emirate and flooded the court, and after a long delay it was decided to resume play on Sunday afternoon. Top seed Djokovic won a topsy-turvy first set in 63 minutes as there were five breaks in serve overall, then rain forced a half-hour delay. He was 30-15 up in the third game against the Russian seventh seed when the weather intervened again, and umpire Mohamed Lahyani ruled that the court was too wet for further play. Workers tried to clear the water, but to no avail. Djokovic is seeking to avenge his semifinal defeat by Youzhny at the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam a fortnight ago and claim his 17th ATP Tour title. Youzhny lost to Robin Soderling in the Dutch final after suffering a hamstring injury, leaving him with five career titles. Meanwhile, world No. 7 Elena Dementieva will face fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova in Sunday's final of the inaugural Malaysian Open as she seeks to win a third title this year. Top seed Dementieva defeated Austria's Sybille Bammer 6-3 6-1 in her semifinal on Saturday, while Kleybanova beat Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-4 6-1.","highlights":"Novak Djokovic leads Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 2-0 in Dubai Tennis Championship final .\nWorld No. 2 must wait until Sunday to complete successful defense of his title .\nRussian seventh seed Youzhny beat Serbian in Rotterdam semifinals two weeks ago .\nElena Dementieva will face fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova in Sunday's Malaysian Open final .","id":"be73b911b28d8df5cd5c0638d6f0b81af9e08404"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Iran will not send its partially enriched uranium abroad to be turned into material for medical research, its foreign minister said Wednesday, rejecting a key plank of a deal designed to ease international fears that Tehran aims to build nuclear weapons. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran might allow its nuclear material to be reprocessed inside Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. The deal hammered out last month with the help of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency aimed to reduce the amount of raw material Iran has to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies that it wants to do so, saying its nuclear program is to produce civilian nuclear energy and do medical work. The watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that it could not confirm or deny that Iran had rejected any part of the proposal. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said, \"This is the IAEA's proposal, and Iran has to give their response to the IAEA, and that's what we're waiting for. That's what the IAEA is waiting for.\" But, he said, \"until the IAEA gets the response and formally says this is ... Iran's response, I don't consider a statement to the press necessarily a response.\" On October 1, the IAEA proposal \"was accepted in principle by all the parties including Iran,\" Kelly said. \"And there was also an agreement that each of the parties would provide a written response to the proposal. \"Russia, France and the United States have provided a written response,\" he said. \"We expect Iran to provide a written response. And we expect the IAEA to pronounce on that response. So we will wait for the IAEA to make a formal response to this.\" In a report published Monday, the IAEA expressed concerns about Iran's nuclear program. The Islamic republic's disclosure of a previously secret nuclear facility near Qom raised questions about the existence of other such facilities, and its delay in acknowledging the facility \"does not contribute to the building of confidence\" in Tehran, the IAEA said in the report. Tehran has not convinced the agency its nuclear program isn't military, said the report, published on the Institute for Science and International Security Web site. A source with direct knowledge of the report confirmed its authenticity to CNN. Tehran shocked the international community in September by revealing the existence of the nuclear enrichment facility. On Monday, Kelly said in a statement that the report \"underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully with its international nuclear obligations.\" IAEA inspectors visited the newly revealed facility last month, according to the report. During a meeting in Tehran, Iranian officials told the inspectors that construction of the site had begun during late 2007, the report said, and it would not be operational until 2011. However, the IAEA inspectors told Iran that \"it had acquired commercially available satellite imagery of the site indicating that there had been construction at the site between 2002 and 2004, and that construction activities were resumed in 2006 and had continued to date,\" the report said. IAEA member states also allege that design work on the facility, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, began in 2006, the report said. Iranian officials told inspectors that the nation has no other undisclosed nuclear facilities either under construction or in operation, the report said, and promised that any future facilities would be disclosed. A letter sent this month asks Tehran to confirm that it has not decided to construct or authorized construction of any undisclosed facility, the report said. Iran remains bound by the terms of a 2003 agreement under which it must provide information to the IAEA regarding nuclear facilities as soon as the decision to build is made or construction is authorized. \"Even if, as stated by Iran, the decision to construct the new facility at the Fordow site was taken in the second half of 2007, Iran's failure to notify the agency of the new facility until September 2009 was inconsistent with its obligations,\" the IAEA said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said construction of the facility violates U.N. Security Council resolutions, Kelly said. \"Iran's delay in submitting such information to the agency does not contribute to the building of confidence,\" the report said. \"While the agency has confirmed that the plant corresponds to the design information provided by Iran, Iran's explanation about the purpose of the facility and the chronology of its design and construction requires further clarification.\" The agency is waiting for Iran's reply to its request to meet officials in regard to those issues and others, according to the report. \"Further analysis of the information available to the agency underscores the importance of Iran engaging with the agency in a substantive and comprehensive manner, and providing the requested access, so that the remaining outstanding issues may be resolved.\" The agency encouraged IAEA member states who have provided it information on Iran to share that information with Tehran as well. CNN's Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.","highlights":"Iran says it won't send partially enriched uranium abroad for medical research .\nProposal was key part of deal brokered by U.N. nuclear watchdog .\nU.S. says proposal \"was accepted in principle by all parties including Iran\"\nU.S., EU nations concerned Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons .","id":"e52ef5b9fe51942316a0e2e366f4e8035955e758"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- \"Oh, the humanity.\" When these three words were uttered by aghast radio journalist Herbert Morrison -- as the LZ129 Hindenburg airship crashed and burst into flames in New Jersey in 1937 -- it was seen as the end of airships. The other remaining Zeppelin-class dirigible, the Graf Zeppelin II, was destroyed by the Nazi administration who felt the materials could be put to better use with more conventional aircraft. The Aeroscraft ML866 is a prototype for future cargo vehicles that could have a payload of up to 60 tonnes . But, 70 years on, could the Hindenburg-style airship be experiencing a renaissance? There are two types of craft that are commonly called \"airships.\" The first is basically a balloon filled with a lighter-than-air gas, with an attached pod for the pilot and passengers, and tilting propellers to aid with descent and maneuvering. These are known as 'blimps' and are commonly used for promotional activities, for filming sporting events and by law enforcement agencies for surveillance. But their limited payload make them unsuitable for other purposes. The other type of airship is the dirigible. Like a blimp, a dirigible airship is filled with lighter-than-air gas but it has an internal skeleton. This greater rigidity allows dirigible airships to carry larger payloads than blimps. See pictures of airships through the ages. \u00bb . While the Hindenburg crash dented public confidence in the dirigible airship concept, the principal cause of the disaster wasn't bad design but propaganda. The Germans were desperate to show off their technical achievement. But the United States, the world's primary supplier of the inert gas helium (which was used to inflate and lift the airships), had imposed a military embargo on the gas. So the Hindenburg was filled with the massively explosive gas, hydrogen. And it exploded. Massively. In recent years the concept of the dirigible airship has been reevaluated because of the environmental need to find lower-carbon methods of freight transportation; and the military and humanitarian need to deliver supplies to remote locations not served by airports. One failed attempt to resuscitate the airship content came from the German company Cargolifter AG in the mid 1990s. It planned a large airship, the CL160, to be used as a transporter for large and heavy loads. A giant hangar, one of the world's largest structures, was built in Brand, near Berlin in Germany, for storage and manufacture of these giant craft. But Cargolifter became insolvent in 2002. The hangar was sold for a fraction of its construction cost and now houses an indoor water park. In 2005 the Aeros corporation of Montebello, CA. resurrected the airship concept. Responding to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s \"Walrus\" program the company was given a $3.2 million grant to develop: \"a very large airlift vehicle concept designed to control lift in all stages of air or ground operations including the ability to off-load payload without taking on-board ballast other than surrounding air.\" What distinguishes a \"Walrus\" craft from a Hindenberg-style airship is that it would not be lighter than air. Rather it would generate lift from a combination of aerodynamics, propellors and gas buoyancy. This would allow for a quicker descent without the expulsion of lift gas, for instance. DARPA terminated the Walrus program but Aeros is continuing to develop the technology with a view to creating an enormous civil airship utilizing a glass-fiber and carbon-fibre semi-monocoque envelope structure. The planned Aeroscraft ML866 could be the next generation of corporate transportation. With more than 465 square meters (5000 square feet) of interior floor space, the ML866's interior could house a floating boardroom or an opulent flying home. Because it would be flying at a lower altitude than a passenger jet (6,000 to 12,000 feet, as opposed to 25,000 to 35,000 feet) the cabin would not be pressurized. The technological legacy of the Walrus program is the COSH (control of structural heaviness) system. By compressing and decompressing stored helium, the aircraft can become lighter for take-off and heavier for landing. If Aeros secure funding to develop the ML866, it would be offered with a choice of turboprop engines (for either greater speed or heavier payload). But could large airships supplement the role of large passenger aircraft? Flight International's technical reporter Rob Coppinger is skeptical: . \"Whether it is cargo, corporate or mass transpiration I think the issues with airships are; can [airships] carry enough people\/cargo between two popular destinations and do it fast enough to carry a sufficient volume of cargo\/people to generate enough revenue to pay for the development, certification and running costs? \"I think if it were easy to financially justify, they would exist already.\" Coppinger concedes, however, that airships could have potential military applications. Aeros plans to begin testing a non-rigid airship, the Aeros 40D, in 2008 to demonstrate the helium compression and decompression system. Production of a prototype Aeroscraft ML866 has begun, with a test flight planned for 2010. ...................................... Are dirigibles just a load of hot air? Would you travel by airship? Share your views and read others' thoughts in the Just Imagine forum.","highlights":"Airship concept all-but abandoned after 1937's Hindenburg disaster .\nNew-style airships will be heavier-than-air and use helium, not hydrogen .\nAeros hopes to have a prototype of its \"floating boardroom\" flying in 2010 .","id":"c8e4173555768685d9fede07f14cb85a1d64059c"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced a man who caused uproar by bragging about his sex life on television to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes, according to Ministry of Information officials. Mazen Abdul Jawad talked openly about his sex life on the controversial show. Mazen Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14. He made the comments on Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, which aired the interview a few months ago. Saudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after airing the interview on an episode of its popular show \"A Thick Red Line.\" Jawad was arrested shortly after the program aired and charged with violating Saudi Arabia's crime of publicizing vice. On the program, Jawad is also shown in his bedroom, where he holds sexual aids up to the camera. The room is decorated with Mickey Mouse and stuffed bears in sexually suggestive positions. The cameras gave audiences a glimpse of the room's nightclub-like chandeliers mixed with seafood-shaped wall sconces, perfume bottles and a book in Arabic, \"101 Questions About Sex,\" that Jawad calls his \"reference.\" Jawad, wearing a red shirt, explained that he put his phone number and details about his car -- a red Mini Cooper -- on his mobile phone's Bluetooth. He says women usually call him to ask if the car is for sale but, he boasts, \"some go out with me that same night.\" The episode ended with him cruising the streets of Jeddah in his car looking for women. The show that aired Jawad's story is as popular as it is controversial in the Middle East. It tackles taboos sometimes never discussed in public. In one instance, a guest admitted he put up his children for sale and tried to justify why he continued to look for the highest bidder even though his kids were begging him to change his mind. Most guests wear sunglasses, wigs and strange clothing to disguise their identities as their lives can be endangered for talking about such taboo subjects. Surprisingly, Jawad did not disguise his identity on the program. Watch report on the uproar over the broadcast \u00bb . The episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle. The segment in question has been posted on the video-sharing site YouTube since its initial broadcast last month, and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Speaking about promiscuous acts \"is a violation of the sharia regulations on the one hand and against Saudi customs on the other,\" police spokesman Suleiman Al-Mutawae told Arab News, an English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia. Before Jawad's detention, Arab News reported that he initiated a damage-control campaign, apologized for his comments and was considering filing a complaint against the show's producers for presenting him \"in the worst possible manner by taking two hours of footage and condensing it down to a minutes-long segment.\" Jawad's lawyer could not be reached for comment. The ministry officials spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity.","highlights":"Mazen Abdul Jawad, divorced father of 4, spoke openly about sex escapades .\nSaudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh over broadcast .\nEpisode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia .","id":"926180d165d0457a3aff258ccdcd10aff64cc938"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- South Korean star Park Ji-sung has signed a two-year contract extension at English Premier League champions Manchester United. The 28-year-old Park has been handed a contract extension at Manchester United. The attacking midfielder is now tied to Old Trafford until 2012 as reward for his dogged displays for United since joining from PSV Eindhoven in 2005. \"I am so pleased to have a new contract,\" Park told www.manutd.com. \"We have achieved great success over the last four years and won many trophies.\" Park has had to work hard to establish himself as a regular member of United's starting line-up and was devastated to be left out of the squad for their 2008 Champions League final success against Chelsea. But last season he was a key figure as United completed a hat-trick of Premier League titles. Park also gained selection for the Champions League final against Barcelona, becoming the first player from Asia to play in the European club showpiece. His popularity in his home region is undoubted and United have been able to capitalize with two highly-profitable visits to the continent with Park a key draw. Park, who will be a driving force in South Korea's World Cup challenge in South Africa next year, has played 127 times for United, scoring 12 goals. \"We are always pleased to secure the future of our star players and Ji-Sung has proved himself to be a fantastic professional as well as an important versatile player in our squad,\" said manager Alex Ferguson. Park has been rewarded with an improved deal worth a reported $5.9 million per year.","highlights":"Park Ji-Sung given two-year extension to his contract at Manchester United .\nSouth Korea star was first player from Asia to play in Champions League final .\nPark has made 127 appearances for United since joining from PSV in 2005 .","id":"fd75a5e8062aad223d7e0106c04a8dfa1e254efa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Prosecutors asked Wednesday for a 25-year sentence for Argentina's last dictator, who is on trial on charges that he violated human rights during his 17-month rule in the early 1980s. Former Gen. Reynaldo Benito Bignone is accused of torturing 56 people and depriving them of their liberty, as well as committing illegal searches. He ruled Argentina from June 1982 until the nation's return to democracy in December 1983. More than 100 people have testified at his trial since it started in November, the government's Judicial Information Center said. The trial is expected to last until March. Also facing the same charges are former intelligence chief Fernando Ezequiel Verplaetsen and ex-military officials Santiago Omar Riveros, Eugenio Guanabens Perello, Carlos Alberto Tepedino and German A. Montenegro. Prosecutors also asked for 25-year sentences for Verplaetsen and Riveros and a 20-year incarceration for Tepedino, the Judicial Information Center said. They want sentences of 12 years for Perello and two years for Montenegro. The alleged crimes occurred at the secret Campo de Mayo torture center in Buenos Aires, court papers say. Campo de Mayo was the main torture center during the 1976-83 right-wing dictatorship. Few who were taken there walked out alive. Up to 30,000 students, labor leaders, intellectuals and leftists who ran afoul of the dictatorship because of their political views disappeared or were held in secret jails and torture centers during the eight-year \"Dirty War.\" Bignone, 82, has been under house arrest. He faces two other trials: in the abduction and disappearance of doctors and nurses at the Hospital Posada and of two soldiers when he was head of the Military College. The three-judge panel in the current trial was scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday from two groups representing Argentineans who were victims of the Dirty War. Trial will resume February 25 with the first defense testimony, the Center for Judicial Information said.","highlights":"Former Gen. Reynaldo Benito Bignone is accused of torturing 56 people .\nMore than 100 people have testified at his trial .\nTrial is expected to last until March .","id":"e4a0251d31c43fb970fb992feed8a9a46e99b41b"} -{"article":"RIVERDALE, Georgia (CNN) -- In his darkest moment, Kenneth Brown lost it all. His wife and kids, the housebroken dog, the vacation home on Cape Cod all vanished when he was sent to prison for an arson in 1996. Kenneth Brown, a former inmate, learned to meditate during his nine years in prison. Trapped in his gloomy cell and serving a 20-year sentence that felt like an eternity, Brown, then 49, found himself stretched out on the floor. He was silent. His eyes were shut. His body did not move. Brown, a man raised as a Baptist and taught to praise the Lord and fear the devil, was meditating. \"I try to focus on the space between two thoughts, because it prevents me from getting lost,\" said Brown, who discovered meditation, yoga and Buddhist teachings three months into his sentence. \"This helped me stay on track and get me through prison,\" he said. Eastern religions encompassing meditation techniques have captivated hippies, 20-somethings and celebrities like actor Richard Gere. But since the 1960s, the art of meditation also has found a growing number of unlikely followers behind prison bars. The inmates say meditation -- an ancient practice that develops mental awareness and fosters relaxation -- is teaching them how to cope in prison. \"Mostly, the people in Buddhist community are going into the prisons, providing programs, and word of mouth gets from one inmate to another,\" explained Gary Friedman, communications chairman for the American Correctional Chaplains Association. \"It's a break from all the hustle and noise of the prison environment.\" There is no group tracking the number of inmates converting to Buddhism or engaging in meditation practices. But programs and workshops educating inmates about meditation and yoga are sprouting up across the country. Meditation can help the convicts find calmness in a prison culture ripe with violence and chaos. The practice provides them a chance to reflect on their crimes, wrestle through feelings of guilt and transform themselves during their rehabilitative journey, Buddhist experts say. In the past five years, books like the \"Prison Chaplaincy Guidelines for Zen Buddhism\" and \"Razor-Wire Dharma: A Buddhist Life in Prison\" have emerged. \"This is transformative justice, as opposed to punitive,\" said Fleet Maull, founder of the Prison Dharma Network, one of the largest support networks helping inmates learn meditation and Buddhist teachings. Since its inception in 1989, Prison Dharma Network has grown from one person -- Maull -- teaching Buddhist principles to more than 75 member organizations corresponding with 2,500 individuals, many of them inmates. For the past seven years, Maull's group has taught a weekly meditation class in Boulder County Jail in Colorado. Some inmates follow Zen Buddhism, a practice that originated in China, and meet weekly to focus their minds. Others practice Vipassana, a Buddhist practice founded in India, which consists of completing hundreds of hours of meditation in a short period of time. Buddhism has gained momentum in the United States over the past 25 years, becoming the third most popular religion in America behind Christianity and Judaism, according to the 2008 report from the the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. About 1.7 million Americans call themselves Buddhists, and many of them are converts, the study said. According to the American Religious Identification Survey in 2008, there were 1.2 million self-identified Buddhists. Some inmates, like Brown, may not label themselves official Buddhists, but they meditate, practice yoga and follow Buddhist principles on truth, responsibility and suffering. The practice of meditation seeped into the heart of the Bible Belt in 2002. The Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Alabama, was notorious for violence. But a group of male inmates, including several murderers, completed a Vipassana meditation retreat that required more than 100 hours of meditation in 10 days. One inmate, who was featured in the 2007 documentary \"The Dhamma Brothers,\" said Vipassana was harder than the 8\u00bd years he had spent on death row. More than 120 men in Donaldson have gone through Vipassana at least once. Watch a clip of \"The Dhamma Brothers\" \u00bb . \"They don't feel so close to exploding,\" said Jenny Phillips, director of the film. \"They aren't afraid to have conversations with people and to express themselves. They aren't always on edge.\" Critics, including some prison officials, doubt that meditation works. They worry that it may be a tactic to convince parole boards to lighten a sentence. In areas that are heavily Christian, some wardens are uncomfortable with introducing Eastern religions. Alabama prison authorities were initially skeptical about meditation but next year will designate an open dormitory for inmates going through Vipassana, said Ron Cavanaugh, director of treatment for the Alabama Department of Corrections. He said corrections officers have seen lower levels of violence among Donaldson inmates who meditate. In California, a state where the swollen prison population has resulted in dangerously overcrowded prisons, teaching conflict management is critical, said Anne Seisen Saunders, a Zen Buddhist instructor who was raised Christian. Her Prison Meditation Project, based near San Diego, began a decade ago in one prison yard. Today, the program has expanded to five prisons, with an average of 20 inmates participating in each location. Last week, the autumn sky transformed from a deep purple to light blue outside Kenneth Brown's meager studio apartment. Inside, Brown sat on his bed, barefoot and deep in concentration, in front of a makeshift altar holding books a photo of the Buddha. Traces of incense billowed in the air. Brown, now 62, resides in Georgia to be near his family. He says he was wrongfully convicted of arson. In 2005, a Massachusetts appeals judge reduced his sentence from 20 years to nine. His body was motionless, his eyes closed and the palms of his hands facing upward. These days, Brown's practice of mediation helps him tackle the challenges of being unemployed with a felony record. The college graduate has been rejected from jobs catching stray dogs and cleaning hotel rooms. But he's got a lot to be thankful for: His daughters, his grandchildren -- and meditation, he said. \"I finally feel at peace.\"","highlights":"Programs across the country educate inmates about meditation and yoga .\nMeditation has helped reduce violence in Alabama prison, official says .\n\"They don't feel so close to exploding,\" documentary director says .\nBuddhism is third most popular religion in United States .","id":"de8382117ea54a069fe3b2bff14ce75801726322"} -{"article":"LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- The theater was packed as Garth Brooks shared stories about why he decided to officially step out of retirement after nine years. Garth Brooks played two secret concerts in Vegas earlier this summer. Now he's signed on for an engagement. Camera crews and journalists filled the front section. Executives flanked the sides. And then smack dab in the middle of the audience was a row of chefs, enthusiastically applauding in their toques and kitchen whites. Yes, the media was buzzing about the much-anticipated announcement, but hotel employees at the Wynn Encore in Las Vegas were equally excited -- maybe even more so, because of the part they played in persuading the country music superstar to enter into a five-year weekend residency at the establishment beginning December 11. This summer, as the media threw itself head-first into the death of Michael Jackson, the Oklahoma native quietly took the stage at the 1,500-seat Encore Theater in two hush-hush shows attended by hotel workers. One was an intimate acoustic performance; the other a concert with his full band. He sang. He charmed. He won over staffers who never thought they'd be caught dead tapping their toes to country music. And that, ladies and gentleman, exemplifies the uncanny ability of Garth Brooks to connect with human beings, and explains why he -- not Michael Jackson -- is the best-selling solo artist of all time in any genre. (You can look it up.) \"I think my gift truly is I'm an average guy. What I like, an average guy likes. It's that simple. The music that I love, I find that most guys around me love, too,\" he told CNN in his dressing room after Thursday's news conference in Las Vegas. There's a big old-fashioned star on the door that says \"Garth Brooks.\" It suits him. Even though he's pushed boundaries and rewritten rules in the music industry, he's still an old-fashioned guy with old-fashioned values -- work hard, stay humble and family first. It's the latter that led to his decision to hang up his mic and his Stetson in 2000. \"We were retiring because I gotta get back to Oklahoma and raise my girls. Sandy and I were getting a divorce at the time, so I couldn't expect her to do my job for me any longer,\" he said. \"We told the people that's what I'm going to do, and the people -- 99 percent of them -- said, 'Go. Go do what you gotta do. We'll be here when you get back,' and we'll see if they are.\" Watch Brooks talk about new course \u00bb . Brooks' three daughters -- Taylor, August and Allie -- are now 17, 15 and 13. When he retired, he famously stated that he wanted to be able to drive his kids to school every day. His new Friday-through-Sunday gig will allow him to keep his pledge of seeing them off to class until they head to college. Of course, the commute from his farm in Owasso, Oklahoma, to Vegas will be made a little faster with his new private jet -- an 11-seat Challenger, courtesy of Steve Wynn, the billionaire CEO of Wynn Hotels. \"I don't know anything about jets,\" Brooks downplayed with a shrug. \"It's got a cool interior, cool paint job, I don't know. But it gets me here (to Vegas), and it gets me home to see my girls. And so in that case, it's fabulous.\" \"He's been happy being at home, attending every soccer game and knowing what his kids like to eat for breakfast,\" said singer Trisha Yearwood, whom he married in 2005. \"We both came from a family where our parents were there every single day, and so we don't know any other way.\" On most weekends, Yearwood will be making the two-hour trip to Sin City -- and every now and again, she'll make an appearance with her husband on stage. \"It's a 'Beauty and the Beast' thing, you know?\" said Brooks. \"I can start a song in one octave and end it up in three keys, not knowing that I've changed. She's precision -- perfect with feeling -- and that's impressive to anybody you bring out.\" From time to time, Brooks will bring out special guests, but for the most part, it's a one-man show -- just him, an acoustic guitar and a bunch of great songs and intimate stories. And, of course, there's the audience. \"As long as my gift is here, as long as I open my mouth and it works,\" he said, \"then I think my job is to keep doing it, you know?\"","highlights":"Garth Brooks coming out of retirement to play special Las Vegas engagement .\nBrooks describes himself as \"an average guy\"\nTo go back and forth from Oklahoma to Vegas, he's been given a jet .\nWife Trisha Yearwood: She and Brooks like being at home for kids .","id":"03e95b5f785d408566b2d46d53cd8d793418ff63"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Federal prosecutors said Friday that they will seek the death penalty for a 22-year-old man accused in the shooting death last year of Eve Carson, student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Police said UNC student body President Eve Carson was taken from her home and killed. A grand jury indicted Demario James Atwater on October 27 on federal charges of carjacking resulting in death, carrying and using firearms in relation to carjacking, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possessing a short-barreled shotgun not properly registered to him. He also faces state first-degree murder charges in Orange County, North Carolina, along with 18-year-old Lawrence Alvin Lovette. \"Both federal and state law violations are implicated in the tragic events of March 5, 2008, and we will vigorously prosecute the violations of federal law committed in connection with the death of Eve Marie Carson,\" said Anna Mills Wagoner, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, at the time of Atwater's indictment. An autopsy report showed that Carson, an honors student, had multiple gunshot wounds when she was found lying on a Chapel Hill street. The autopsy report listed six gunshot wounds but said two of the wounds were probably from the same bullet. Court documents released in the North Carolina case said Carson was taken from her apartment and forced to provide her abductors with ATM access to her bank account before she was shot to death in the early hours of March 5. Applications filed for search warrants said a confidential informant told police that Atwater said he and Lovette entered Carson's home through an open door and forced her to accompany them in her car. The informant said she had talked with Atwater after a picture was shown on television of someone attempting to use Carson's ATM card at a convenience store two days after her body was found. The informant said the two men drove Carson to an ATM, obtained her PIN from her and then shot her. The witness told police that Atwater said the two got about $1,400 from Carson's account. Bank records show that was approximately the amount taken from the account over a two-day period, the documents said. Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall has said he also will seek the death penalty against Atwater, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. Authorities cannot seek the death penalty against Lovette because he was 17 at the time of the slaying, the newspaper said. Carson's death shocked the community and drew national attention. An estimated 10,000 people turned out for a service in her honor. The Athens, Georgia, native was a pre-medicine student double-majoring in political science and biology. She was a recipient of the university's prestigious Morehead Scholarship and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, according to UNC.","highlights":"Feds will seek death penalty for 22-year-old Demario James Atwater .\nFeds cannot seek death for Lawrence Alvin Lovette because of his age .\nAtwater and Lovette are accused of abducting Carson, shooting her .\nCarson was honor student, student body president at UNC-Chapel Hill .","id":"37161ce92f26f89e673948a7f7ca5c6201b340b3"} -{"article":"Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Army investigators on Sunday asked troops and civilians for help in the probe of a deadly mass shooting at Fort Hood last week, saying some who fled the gunfire might have evidence. \"The Fort Hood office of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command is seeking any military or civilian personnel who may have left the scene ... with gunshot damage such as damaged privately owned vehicles, personnel clothing, etc.,\" investigators said in a written statement. \"CID is also seeking any military or civilian personnel who may have inadvertently left the scene of this incident with material that could be used as firearms residue related evidence such as shell casings inside the boot, etc.\" The statement said such objects would help Army investigators and the FBI \"in their bullet trajectory analysis of the scene, to insure the comprehensiveness of the ongoing investigation.\" Thirteen people -- a dozen soldiers and a civilian -- died Thursday in the shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post. Some 42 people were wounded, according to the post's public information office. It was unclear how many of those suffered gunshot wounds. Among the wounded was Pvt. Joseph Foster, 21, who was preparing for his January deployment to Afghanistan when he was hit in the hip during the attack. With his wife and 6-week-old daughter beside him, he told reporters gathered outside his home Sunday that it was difficult to accept such an attack on his own post. \"Not here at home -- but as we've seen, anything is possible,\" Foster said. \"We are at war.\" As of Sunday, 16 gunshot victims remained hospitalized plus the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, spokesman Col. John Rossi told reporters. He did not say where all those hospitalized were being treated. Of the 16, seven were in intensive care, he said. When Staff Sgt. Alvin Howard's wife heard he was hurt at the post, her feelings were \"indescribable,\" she said Sunday. Kaneesha Howard told reporters her husband was set to deploy to Afghanistan in January. In 2003, he was deployed to Iraq, she said. Daughters, Alanna, 9, and Kristen, 7, were shaken by the event. Alanna said of her younger sister: \"She started crying when we went to the hospital because she [had] never seen her dad bandaged up like that.\" Howard was shot in the shoulder and was recovering in the hospital, his family said. They were unsure when he would be released. Rossi said Hasan, a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post, is no longer on a ventilator, but remained in critical but stable condition and in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center. Authorities have not identified a motive in the attack at Fort Hood's military processing center, where soldiers report before they head to war. Efforts to assist those affected by the incident, including family members of soldiers at the post, were ongoing, Rossi said. Fort Hood was awaiting the arrival of two specialists in child psychology and disaster management, he said. \"This is not just for those directly affected by this tragedy,\" Rossi said, noting that effects from trauma sometimes are not immediately apparent. However, he said, soldiers are trained to respond to violence by controlling and securing the scene. \"Their training kicks in, and that's what we saw,\" Rossi said. \"The troubling part of it is it happened here in our own house.\" Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said Saturday that all evidence indicates that the suspect acted alone and there was no indication of \"friendly fire.\" The processing center has been moved to another location so its work can continue while investigators work at the crime scene, Rossi said Sunday. He told reporters he did not know Hasan's schedule on the day of the shooting, but \"my understanding is that there was no purpose for him\" to be in the processing center. The remains of those killed are currently at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, undergoing the same process as the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. \"These heroes are being treated the same way,\" Rossi said. Rossi said he had visited with Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley -- the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan in a shootout -- and with an injured soldier. \"Truthfully, it was an honor just to be in their presence,\" he said. But, he said, \"I cannot tell you how many times they reiterated to me that this is not about them.\" Munley has drawn national praise for her actions. Her husband has been brought in from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be with her, Rossi said. In a statement Saturday, Munley's family said she had undergone a second surgery and was in good condition. The suspect's brother, Eyad Hasan, released a statement Saturday saying the family was in a \"state of shock and disbelief over this dreadful news.\" He wrote, \"I've known my brother Nidal to be a peaceful, loving and compassionate person who has shown great interest in the medical field and in helping others. He has never committed an act of violence and was always known to be a good, law-abiding citizen.\" Eyad Hasan said the family has faith in the legal system. An earlier statement from another family member said Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, had been telling his family that he wanted to get out of the military but had been unsuccessful in doing so. Rossi said Saturday that Hasan had a late November deployment date to Afghanistan. It was to have been his first overseas deployment. The shooting, on the nation's largest military base, sparked outrage. In his Saturday radio address, President Obama said it was \"an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred any place in America.\" But, he said, \"it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.\" Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend a Tuesday memorial service for the victims.","highlights":"NEW: Soldier wounded in Fort Hood attack: It's difficult to believe this could happen .\nObama: Massacre and response showed worst and best of human nature .\nThirteen dead, 42 wounded, according to the Fort Hood's public information office .\nSuspect and 17 others still hospitalized, spokesman says .","id":"69b2f995eab2334aba25d3f004042ca1a00cde2c"} -{"article":"Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- International officials arrived in Iran on Sunday to inspect a newly disclosed nuclear facility near the city of Qom, state media reported. Inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog -- the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- will visit the installation to make sure it is being used for peaceful purposes, said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The three-day visit comes after Iran said Friday that it needs more time to decide whether to sign onto a deal that could help end the international showdown over its nuclear activities. That proposal calls for low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to be sent abroad for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is \"considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs until the middle of next week to provide a response,\" according to an IAEA statement. Delegations from Iran, France, Russia, the United States and the IAEA met in Vienna this week to work out details of the tentative deal reached in early October. And France, Russia and the United States indicated their approval of the arrangement. \"The Director General hopes that Iran's response will equally be positive, since approval of this agreement will signal a new era of cooperation,\" the IAEA statement said. Tehran sent shock waves through the international community by revealing in a letter to the IAEA the existence of a second nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. \"It is important for us to send out inspectors to do comprehensive verification ... to assure ourselves that it is ... fit for peaceful purposes,\" ElBaradei said earlier this month. After the inspection, but before the end of the month, Iranian officials are expected to meet with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany to further discuss Tehran's nuclear program. Iran's leaders maintain that their nation's nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes, but many in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities. Low-enriched nuclear fuel can be further enriched into weapons-grade material.","highlights":"NEW: Visit comes after Iran says it needs more time to mull deal over uranium production .\nTehran has revealed the existence of a second nuclear enrichment facility .\nIran says its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes .\nMany in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities .","id":"fd0731e9fd7ad71ee59b95d6b2e9020e2e231a42"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Watch \"The Situation Room\" at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday for more from CNN's Brooke Baldwin about the dog rescue. Authorities raided a residence in Laurens County, Georgia, and found dogs scarred and malnourished. LAURENS COUNTY, Georgia (CNN) -- It was 8 a.m. October 15. Our CNN crew had been up for a while, waiting. We still didn't have an address. My producer, Susan Brown, and I had several questions: What would the living conditions of these dogs be like? What about the man whose door the Sheriff's Office was about to knock on? He was unaware of the raid that was about to occur in his backyard. Despite all of our planning, unknown variables were at play. First stop was the Sheriff's Office in Laurens County, which is in central Georgia. Starting with information from a tip line, authorities had uncovered clues that led them to believe they needed to intervene and investigate. The plan was this: The sheriff would drive to the property to execute the search warrant for particular objects generally associated with dogfighting, and for the dogs themselves. Watch the dog raid unfold \u00bb . Expressing concerns about the conditions at this private residence where dogs were suspected of being bred for dogfighting, Laurens County Sheriff Bill Harrell said, \"If anything is going wrong, we want to get it stopped.\" Private investigators with Norred and Associates Inc. will work alongside Harrell and his deputies, leading tactical teams. The teams were made up of veteran investigators donating their time, effort and expertise, along with volunteers of the Dublin-Laurens County Humane Society, who would collect and care for the dogs. All of the team members had experience with animals, particularly pit bulls. Based on information from the tip line, they were starting the day prepared to find as many as 60 dogs chained up in the woods behind one man's house in East Dublin, Georgia. These men and women waited, braced for battle -- only the war they were waging was on animal cruelty. \"I want to thank everybody for coming. It's for a good thing. It's for the dogs.\" Chuck Simmons, a private investigator and former police chief, was mapping out the search area on a dry erase board. He was warning his crew about snakes, water from recent rains and nonsocialized dogs. After loading up crates on several trucks, everyone headed out. With the address of the raid location in hand, our crew joined a convoy of half a dozen cars down several rural roads to our final location. We arrived at a one-story ranch house with several acres of grounds. The sheriff beat us there. He and his deputies were already roping off this man's front yard with yellow crime tape. Rollin Monta \"Monty\" Loyd, the property owner, appeared furious. As the teams moved into the woods behind his home, our crew was stuck in front and across the street. We could not go on the property to get the shots we wanted, because that would be trespassing. We couldn't see the dogs, but we could hear them. The private investigators, who were part of the raid, videotaped the operation. Half an hour into the raid, reports began to come in. The good news: The dogs were still there; news of the raid hadn't leaked. The bad news: There weren't 60 dogs, as anticipated; there were more. The final count was 97. Most of the dogs were pit bull terriers; many were puppies. They were found cowering in cages or chained. Some older dogs were scarred -- possible signs of fighting, investigators said. Others were malnourished, simply skin and bone. Their conditions were atrocious, according to Terry Wolf of the Dublin-Laurens County Humane Society. \"Their chains are too short to reach shelter, those who have shelter. The water that they have seems to be recent rainwater with algae in it, and I've seen no food bowls. Most of them are very timid,\" Wolf said. \"They seem to be human-friendly, but they're attention starved, and they're definitely not socialized. You can tell they've been living hidden in the woods, out of sight.\" Irene Sumner, director of the Dublin-Laurens County Humane Society, talked through tears, overcome before the count had been completed. She told us about a puppy found dead and tossed aside into a used plastic bag. \"I wouldn't do that to anybody. How can they -- what do you need 80-plus dogs for? There's no reason for it. It would be totally different if it was a kennel situation where they were housed, fed, vetted, all of the above. We don't know all of the information on that yet, but you can visually see that that's not the case here,\" Sumner said. The Sheriff's Office says no evidence of dogfighting or training was found on the property, but veterinarians will examine the dogs for any physical signs of fighting. Test results will take several days. As volunteers continued to count dogs and buzzards circled overhead, property owner Loyd waited out front with members of his family. He was angry. CNN tried to speak to him, to give him a chance to tell his side of the story. He didn't want to talk. Instead, he shouted to go see his lawyer. When reached, Loyd's attorney said: \"My client has not participated in dogfighting and is not charged with dogfighting.\" Loyd was arrested and charged with animal cruelty. Neighbors and family members whom CNN spoke with came to his defense, saying Loyd loved the dogs and they were bred to be pets. The founder and CEO of the private investigation firm heading up this raid isn't buying it. Since the story broke about NFL player Michael Vick's dogfighting ring, Greg Norred has been donating his firm's time and expertise and his own money to rescuing dogs. \"I'm an animal lover. I've always been an animal lover. And in the wake of the Michael Vick case, I always thought there might be something I could do about animal cruelty, and with the type of business that I'm in and the resources that I have, it seems like dogfighting is the best vehicle that I can use to do something about animal cruelty.\" In the past two years, Norred's team has volunteered for at least 16 raids. They've helped put 20 people behind bars and saved 200 dogs. Make that almost 300 after this most recent raid. Several hours into the raid, the first group of dogs was transported from the woods to an undisclosed location. A CNN crew was allowed to go but could shoot only from inside this building. Investigators feared that if there were any identifiable marks outside the property, someone might recognize it and steal the dogs. Authorities couldn't take that chance. But they did allow video of some of the dogs from inside the cages. They had taken many puppies, which looked helpless. Volunteers feared one puppy wouldn't make it through the night. The next step for these dogs is to determine which ones are healthy enough to possibly be adopted. Some, sadly, won't share that fate. They'll have to be put down.","highlights":"The plan: Laurens County sheriff would execute search warrant on home .\nThe claim: dogs at private residence allegedly bred to fight .\nAuthorities find: Almost 100 dogs chained, some malnourished, others scarred .","id":"fe4b425b77b87f2030fe8efbf8f30619b51e5ce4"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Have you seen those ads being run by the debt-settlement outfits on bad late-night TV? Their promise is always the same -- to reduce your credit card debt to just pennies on the dollar without making you file for bankruptcy! Clark Howard says debt-settlement firms promise to help consumers lower their debts. Are they for real? It turns out that promise is just an illusion. Most debt-settlement outfits require you to pay an upfront fee, plus a monthly retainer. Their strategy is to get you to stop paying on your bills. They typically have you take the money you would have paid toward monthly minimums and stash it in savings. The basic idea is to make the credit card companies so desperate that they'll settle with you. This may end up being the end result, in some cases. However, along the way your credit suffers greatly. In fact, complaints about debt-settlement firms have increased dramatically in North Carolina, Florida and Oregon, according to The New York Times. Watch how Clark helped a caller pay off a massive debt \u00bb . Many people wonder why these companies even exist. That goes back to 2005, when the bankruptcy laws changed in our nation. At that time, the giant banks that control the credit card portfolios stopped being cooperative with affiliates of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), which helps consumers manage and eliminate their debt. The banks were cynically trying to force people into a position where they had no choice other than to pay up. That environment created an opportunity for the debt-settlement firms to pop up with their false promises that they alone knew how to defeat the banks. The irony here is that the banks have now agreed to work with the NFCC again. There's an initiative known as \"Call to Action\" that is essentially a 60-month payment plan. Its aim is to help consumers who are struggling with credit card debt avoid bankruptcy. Under the Call to Action initiative, the 10 largest credit issuers have agreed to modify the terms and conditions of their repayment policies. That means they may waive late and over-the-limit fees, in addition to reducing interest rates. In industry terms, this kind of arrangement is known as a hardship debt-management plan. The goal here is to increase the chance that you'll pay off your debt instead of bankrupting out of it. But you've got to know that the lenders have not agreed to a reduction of your outstanding balance. Participating credit card issuers include American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase Card Services, Citi, Discover Financial Services, GE Money, HSBC Card Services, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo Card Services. Keep in mind that not everyone will be eligible to participate in Call to Action. Visit NFCC.org or call 800-388-2227 for more details to see if you qualify.","highlights":"Most debt-settlement firms require you to pay an upfront fee, plus a monthly retainer .\nComplaints about these companies have increased in many states .\n\"Call to Action\" aims to help consumers with credit card debt avoid bankruptcy .","id":"64cd2bac26ff371e30d1120ea8cffcb611173169"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- He's the other hero. After pulling child to safety, firefighter Jimmy Senk went back into burning building in case another was inside. Jimmy Senk is a Bronx, New York, firefighter who went inside a burning apartment with black smoke billowing out of the windows on Wednesday, pulled out a 4-year-old boy and handed him to a bystander. \"I'm just glad he's alive, you know?\" Senk told CNN. The boy has since been released from the hospital. The bystander, shopkeeper Horia Cretan, climbed four floors up a fire escape to try to help the boy before firefighters arrived. Cretan couldn't reach the youngster. But when firefighter Senk and his fellow battle blazers arrived on the scene, they sprung into action. Senk couldn't use the fire escape. Too many apartment residents were using it to get out. \"When I looked up,\" Senk said, \"I could see the boy's arm sticking out the window.\" But the window was blocked by a bunk bed. Senk couldn't fit through the window. One of Senk's fellow firefighters put him on a ladder and got him to a different window. But then the boy did something unexpected. He disappeared into the black smoke back inside his bedroom. \"What am I gonna do now?\" Senk recalled. \"I masked up and went in.\" Senk says there was intense heat. The smoke was so thick that he couldn't see a thing. He felt around for the boy with his hands. Senk found him near a doorway. In video that's been aired repeatedly on local, national, and international TV, Senk is seen leaning out the window and handing the boy to Cretan. Senk says he knew the boy wasn't in good shape. \"He was unconscious. The body was limp. He was foaming at the mouth.\" \"I didn't think he was going to make it,\" Senk added. Watch Senk talk about the rescue with CNN's Susan Candiotti \u00bb . He says he yelled to his team to get some oxygen. Then, thanks to the helping hand from Cretan, he went right back in. Senk said he had to. He remembered seeing that bunk bed. \"You see bunk beds; you gotta figure there's two kids in there, right?\" Meantime, Cretan said he was holding the boy. \"He was lifeless. I cleaned up his mouth and his nostrils,' said Cretan. He pushed on his chest and he says the boy opened his eyes. 'Once he did that, I was happy,\" said Cretan. Then, he carried the boy downstairs and into the waiting hands of firefighters. Senk didn't find anyone else inside the bedroom. When he eventually made it to the ground, his team patted him on the back. \"I said, 'I just hope that kid lived. And he [another firefighter] goes, 'He lived.' He was talking before he left,' \" said Senk. \"It was just incredible. I couldn't believe it because he was completely unconscious.\" Cretan has been congratulated on several TV shows for his efforts, but he acknowledged the role firefighters played. \"Trust me. Firefighters are heroes,\" Cretan said. Senk says such rescues are a team effort. \"It's the greatest job in the world. You get to save lives every day,\" he said.","highlights":"Horia Cretan became a hero for carrying boy from burning building .\nThe other hero is firefighter Jimmy Senk, who went into the building .\nSenk saw boy disappear back into the smoke, so \"I masked up and went in\"\n\"I didn't think he was going to make it,\" Senk said .","id":"3d508d4845160289425e1cfed1696c50918d7052"} -{"article":"NEW YORK (CNN) -- For the fourth year in a row, Iraqis top a growing roster of people seeking asylum in an industrialized nation. They are just ahead of people fleeing wars in Afghanistan and Somalia, said a report published by the U.N. refugee agency Wednesday. Iraqi refugees leave the plane after arriving at the airport in Hanover, northern Germany, on March 19, 2009. The refugee agency said 13,200 Iraqis applied for asylum. An additional 12,000 claims were from Afghans and 11,000 from Somalis. In all, the United Nations said 185,000 people filed for asylum in the first six months of 2009, a 10 percent increase over last year. Those people were fleeing homelands that also included China, Serbia (including Kosovo), Russia, Nigeria, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The United States received the most asylum applications -- 23,700, or 13 percent -- while 38 European nations received 75 percent of the applications. \"These statistics show that ongoing violence and instability in some parts of the world force increasing numbers of people to flee and seek protection in safe countries,\" said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. \"There is an acute need for countries to keep their asylum doors wide open to those who are in genuine need of international protection,\" he said.","highlights":"For fourth year, Iraqis top list of people seeking asylum in an industrialized nation .\nThey are just ahead of people fleeing wars in Afghanistan and Somalia .\nThe U.N. refugee agency said 13,200 Iraqis applied for asylum .\n185,000 people applied in first half of 2009, a 10 percent increase over last year .","id":"f6e7829f5cfdecdf890f39dcb2e76116c1d02c85"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- British Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced a public inquiry Wednesday into allegations that Iraqis were killed and abused after a firefight more than five years ago in the southern part of the country. The allegations center around the aftermath of a fight in May 2004 at the so-called Danny Boy checkpoint in Maysan Province. Former detainees and the family of a slain Iraqi contend at least 20 people were killed and others were abused at Camp Abu Naji after a fight between British soldiers and Iraqi insurgents. That claim has been denied by the UK Ministry of Defence -- which says the 20 people died in battle and people detained were not mistreated. The probe is called the Al Sweady inquiry -- named after the family of the dead Iraqi. Thayne Forbes -- who retired from the High Court Bench last year -- will chair the inquiry into allegations. The inquiry will look into allegations of \"unlawful killings\" and the \"ill-treatment of five Iraqi nationals detained at Camp Abu Naji.\" Even though the probe will focus on five detainees, attorneys claim nine people were detained and abused. The defense ministry disputes those allegations. \"We have found no credible evidence that those detained, as a result of the attack on British troops and the prolonged firefight at Danny Boy checkpoint, were mistreated,\" the defense ministry said in a statement. The release of a photo published in British media and obtained by CNN about the incident shows an armed soldier standing near four people face down on the ground with their hands bound behind their backs and their faces covered. Attorneys for the men say they were beaten and evidence shows a breach of the Geneva Conventions prohibiting humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners. But, the defence ministry disputes that. \"It is important to remember that our first priority at the end of such attacks is to protect our personnel from further threats,\" the ministry said. CNN's Atika Shubert and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK to hold public inquiry into allegations Iraqis were killed and abused after firefight five years ago .\nAllegations center around aftermath of firefight in 2004 at checkpoint in Maysan Province, southern Iraq .\nFormer detainees and family of a slain Iraqi say at least 20 people were killed and others were abused .\nUK defense ministry says the 20 people died in battle and people detained were not mistreated .","id":"c27a068a88a9f282acab4130c04ad10fb1f91ba7"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- When it comes to bagging the best jobs behind the camera, Hollywood A-lister Charlize Theron says that women have to make their own luck. Charlize Theron in \"The Burning Plain,\" which she both stars in and executive produces. Indeed, the 33 year-old's career could be seen as a template for what women can achieve in the industry. As an actress, Theron is famous for roles in films as diverse as serial killer biopic \"Monster\" and Will Smith superhero movie \"Hancock,\" switching with apparent ease between small independent movies and big-budget blockbusters. Theron also represents a small minority of women who work behind the camera in Hollywood. During the 15 years she has worked in the U.S. film industry she has also produced four films. The latest is Guillermo Arriaga's \"The Burning Plain,\" which she both stars in and executive produces. At a time when women are picking up increasingly varied roles in front of the camera, statistics show they are failing to make the same headway behind the scenes. Last year, women made up just 16 percent of all directors, producers, writers and cinematographers who worked on the 250 top grossing films in the U.S. But, says Theron, there is no point in complaining about the tough time women have getting work behind the scenes in the movies. Do you think breaking through through the glass ceiling is still an issue for women in Hollywood?? \"I try not to kind of bitch and complain about what [women] don't have,\" Theron told CNN. \"It's a tricky thing because, I think, if you want to find that lynchpin, you can, in anything. \"I look at the work that I've done and I feel incredibly proud that I've had the chance and the opportunity to work on the material that I have.\" Originally born in South Africa, Theron is best-known for her harrowing depiction of prostitute turned serial killer Aileen Wuornos in \"Monster.\" \"Monster\" was also the first film Theron produced, taking a huge risk on a low-budget project with a script penned by a first-time director -- and with no previous experience of producing herself. Theron saw the film as an opportunity to move away from the lighter roles that are often thrown in the direction of a starlet with looks to spare. \"It's what I've been dying to do with my career,\" she told UK paper The Observer at the time. \"The work I've been doing the last couple of years is not really what I wanted. If you're not careful, you get typecast. I was getting stuck.\" She was awarded a Best Actress Oscar for her role in 2004 and \"Monster,\" which was made for just $8 million went on to gross over $60 million worldwide. It is unsurprising, then, that Theron's attitude towards women in Hollywood is one of stand-up-and-be-counted. Although, she says that she will only produce films she feels she can bring something to. \"The things that I've produced have been because I really feel like I can lend some kind of knowledge to making a certain film. \"When I meet a certain director and there's a certain amount of chemistry and we see the same film, and we just kind of feel like we want to set out and make a film together, it just kind of happens.\" Like \"Monster\" -- and Theron's other producing credits, Cuban rap documentary \"East of Havana,\" and indie drama \"Sleepwalking\" -- her latest film \"The Burning Plain\" is also by a first-time director. The difference this time is that Arriaga is already a well-established, Oscar-nominated Hollywood screenwriter. The Mexican filmmaker first came to prominence through his close relationship with fellow Mexican Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu. Arriaga wrote the screenplays for \"Amores Perros,\" Oscar-nominated \"Babel\" and \"21 Grams,\" all of which were directed by I\u00f1\u00e1rritu. Arriaga, famed for his nonlinear narrative style, also wrote the screenplay for \"The Burning Plain,\" a project of such personal resonance for the writer that it was a natural progression for him to also direct the film. Despite Theron's success in bringing Arriaga's vision to the big screen, Theron says she is not ready to move into producing bigger films yet. \"There's no way that I, right now, could produce a massive blockbuster,\" Theron told CNN. \"I just don't feel prepared for that. \"I wouldn't produce something where I didn't feel like I had the skill.\" However, Theron feels positive about not only her own position in Hollywood, but also that of her female peers in the industry, such as fellow Oscar winner Kate Winslet. \"I thought Kate Winslet did an amazing job. I do think that it's in our hands to make sure we keep working with the right people who want to go and explore those themes and want to push the envelope and want to tell great female stories.\"","highlights":"Theron says women must make their own success behind the camera .\nIn her 15 years working in Hollywood, she has produced four films .\nShe produced \"Monster,\" for which she was awarded a Best Actress Oscar .\nTheron on being a woman working in Hollywood: \"I try not to bitch and complain\"","id":"71aec24c16c708c086cf10e925cce6cec22baf04"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Pakistan cricket is embroiled in a new controversy after the national team were accused of deliberately losing two games at the Champions Trophy by a government official. Younis Khan's future as Pakistan captain is in doubt following accusations of match-fixing. The chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on sports claimed in a television interview that Pakistan lost to Australia to knock traditional rivals India out of the limited-overs tournament in South Africa. Australia won by two wickets by running a bye on the final ball of the closing Group A tie on September 30, which ensured they reached the semifinals and ended India's hopes. Captain Younis Khan then dropped a simple catch as his side lost to New Zealand by five wickets in Saturday's semifinal. \"We went with a pre-determined mind to lose the match against Australia,\" Jamshed Ahmed Dasti told Pakistan TV channel Geo TV on Tuesday. \"Our intention was to keep India out. It was a deliberate decision to lose the match against India.\" Dasti said that the team also intentionally lost the match to New Zealand, who were beaten in Monday's final by defending champions Australia. \"That's why the NA Standing Committee on Sports has called in captain Younis Khan, coach Intikhab Alam and [Pakistan Cricket Board] chairman Ijaz Butt for investigations,\" he said. One report in Pakistan claimed that Younis and Intikhab had already been sacked by the PCB, but others said that Pakistan cricket's ruling body was happy with the team's performance. \"The team played well and tried hard. It is unfortunate they couldn't qualify for the final, which every player wanted to do, but they had one bad day against New Zealand,\" PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar told the Express Cricket Web site. \"As far as we are concerned, the team did well in the Champions Trophy and their performance was satisfactory.\" Former captain Rashid Latif criticized Dasti for making serious allegations without backing them up with proof. \"I was one of those who first raised the issue of match fixing in international cricket, so I know what I am talking about. I can say the team did its best and played hard in the tournament -- a few mistakes cost them a place in the final,\" Latif told Express Cricket. \"I think parliamentarians should first look at the corruption in the government before talking about cricket. It is unfortunate that when the team needs backing, a parliamentarian should make such allegations.\" The accusations are another blow for Pakistan's cricketing fortunes. The sub-continent nation lost the rights to host the Champions Trophy due to security issues -- it was postponed last year and switched to South Africa -- and was then ruled out of staging the 2011 World Cup. Earlier this year, veteran fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar missed the Twenty20 World Cup after needing treatment for genital warts. Akhtar, once Pakistan's most feared weapon, has constantly clashed with the PCB, which banned him for hitting a teammate with a bat in 2007 and threatened him with court action following a public feud which ended with a five-year suspension that he successfully appealed. The PCB also punished him for testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug nandrolone in 2006, while fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif was arrested in Dubai for possession of illegal drugs last year.","highlights":"Pakistan's cricket team has been accused of deliberately losing two games .\nGovernment official alleges Pakistan lost to Australia to knock out rivals India .\nPakistan progressed to Champions Trophy semifinals after last-ball defeat .\nJamshed Ahmed Dasti also claims Pakistan lost semi to NZ on purpose .","id":"6686cc26eeec067b3f17be8215da7fc9cdad4aef"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The same day a cease-fire agreement was to go into effect, a high-ranking Yemeni official accused rebels of trying to assassinate him. Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Mohammed Bin Abdullah al-Qawsi told Almotamar, the newspaper of the ruling party, Friday that \"his car came under intensive fire shots in an attempt to assassinate him.\" He added that he was in the northwestern city of Saada to inspect security forces and accused Houthi rebels of carrying out the attack, according to the state-run Saba News Agency. Also in Saada Friday, troops and rebels exchanged fire, killing one and injuring others, Saba reported. The rebels did not immediately respond to the reports, which followed the announcement of an end to a six-year battle between the government and Shiite Muslim Houthi rebels. Despite the reports of violence, the truce deal was still intact, said a Yemeni government official who is not authorized to speak to the media. A \"few skirmishes\" occurred, including an attack on a security official's motorcade, he said. He would not say whether that official was al-Qawsi. Such violence is common in the early stages of peace deals, he said. \"There are many reasons why this happened, and they were expected,\" the source said. \"One, some of the militia fighters have not been informed yet that the truce was executed. Two, there were revenge killings -- some of the Houthi tribesmen carried out attacks against government forces. These could be considered tribal revenge killings.\" The government agreed to end all military operations against the Houthis beginning midnight Friday, an apparent end to violence that even tumbled into Saudi Arabia. Houthi rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi earlier signed off on the cease-fire and took to his Web site to order his followers to respect the agreement. The cease-fire conditions include clearing mines, not interfering with elected local officials, releasing civilians and military personnel, abiding by Yemeni law, returning looted items, and ending attacks within the country's northern neighbor, Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni government official said rebels were expected to free seven captured Saudi soldiers Saturday. The revolt by the Houthis in northern Yemen began in 2004. The conflict is believed to be both separatist -- over who will have power in the area -- and sectarian -- whether Shiite Islam will dominate, even though the majority of Yemenis are Sunni. The rebels are supporters of slain Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Truce deal still intact, a Yemeni government official says .\nNEW: Official cites revenge, truce info not yet reaching militia fighters as reasons .\nYemeni Interior official tells newspaper that Houthi rebels fired on his car .\nTroops and rebels exchange fire, killing one, state-run media reported .","id":"83b1263ca2e0624bb0aa135a3f8925bb6c485c37"} -{"article":"NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The father of a baby born with his heart protruding from his chest has told CNN about the 1100 km train journey he made to save his son's life. Chander Majhi's son was born with his heart outside his chest and faces complex surgery. Chander Majhi, 24, became a father last week but he had to leave his wife behind in hospital and make a train journey from a remote region along India's border with Nepal to the capital New Delhi. His son was born with his heart protruding from his chest, an extremely rare condition called ectopia cordis, which only affects five to eight cases in one million live births. The parents did not know about the defect until the child was born on August 25 at a government facility in Majhi's home state of Bihar in eastern India. \"We didn't go for any (pre-natal) tests,\" Majhi told CNN. Doctors at the government facility referred him and the baby to New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Professor of cardiothoracic surgery at AIIMS, A.K. Bisoi, told CNN the baby was admitted to the hospital with dehydration and a severe infection which he probably suffered because of the arduous train journey. Doctors were surprised that the child had been able to survive despite so many complexities, he said. Doctors at the state-run AIIMS are now planning a complex surgery on Thursday for the boy, referred in their records as \"baby of Vibha,\" his mother. His heart has been covered with a synthetic membrane and infected blood fully replaced from his body, said A.K. Bisoi, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at AIIMS. Surgeons may now plan a total circulatory arrest procedure that will also involve creating a home for the heart in the chest, said Bisoi. The baby, who suffers from immunodeficiency, will be put in a state where his blood will be cooled down to 18 degrees (64 Fahrenheit) for a half-an-hour stage of the operation, he explained. \"We could carry it out in one go, if the child is able to tolerate. If not, we will do it in stages,\" he said. \"We are working with hope,\" Bisoi remarked when asked about chances of success. And it was the same hope that drove Majhi to Delhi. \"That is why I am here. There's hope. My child is a fighter,\" he said. In 2006, doctors in the U.S. state of Florida carried out a similar operation on Naseem Hasni who was born with his heart outside his chest. The operation was carried out immediately after Naseem was born by caesarean section at a Florida hospital. Doctors wrapped his heart in Gore-Tex, a waterproof, breathable fabric used in outdoor clothing and medical applications. His heart was then wrapped in a layer of his own skin, to substitute for his missing pericardium, the sac that encloses the heart. The heart was then slowly eased inside.","highlights":"NEW: Father speaks about 1100 km train journey to save his son .\nNewborn baby with heart protruding from his chest faces complex surgery Thursday .\nThe baby has severe infection and hole in his heart .\nDoctors in New Delhi say only five to eight cases of this kind in one million live births .","id":"abb52af31c85fd803b0ec3f5fd808f8ceaa177fc"} -{"article":"Paris, France (CNN) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad says peace talks with Israel could resume if the Jewish state showed willingness to fully engage in the process. \"This peace process cannot only be relaunched by one party. Syria wants peace and we have a mediator, Turkey, which is ready to use its mediation role as well as the European partnership. What we are missing is the Israeli partnership, and we need it in order to renew peace talks and obtain results,\" Assad told reporters. Assad traveled to France, sat down with President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday for a one-hour lunch, and held a press briefing, where he blamed Israel for the stalled talks with Syria. Turkey recently had mediated indirect talks between Israel and Syria, neighboring countries that have been adversaries for years. Among their many differences are Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and Syria's ties with Iran and anti-Israel militants. His visit to Paris comes days after the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Questioned on Netanyahu's statement that Israel was ready to relaunch peace talks Syria without pre-conditions, Assad emphasized that if Israel is serious about talks, Syria is ready to send experts to Turkey and begin discussions with Israeli experts. Asked if he was ready to meet Netanyahu in person at some point without conditions, Assad didn't say he would or wouldn't, but said it would depend on the subject of the discussion. \"Are we talking about the menu or about land restitution? We must talk about territory restitution. For this matter, mechanisms and a framework exist. The negotiators know the mechanisms. It is neither me nor Netanyahu,\" he said. Asked about the role of France in the peace process, Assad said he hopes France backs the relaunch of the peace negotiations through Turkey and persuades Israel to accept this mediation process. As for the peace process in the wider Middle East, he said it will only work if Israel stops tearing down the other side's rights and demands. Assad said he and Sarkozy discussed living conditions in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of Gaza -- reeling from the ongoing conflict with Israel, including the fierce Israeli offensive against militants that began late last year after constant rocket attacks on Israel by Gaza guerrillas. Saying a civilian was shot on Friday by Israeli troops, Assad said he asked Sarkozy to stop violence against civilians in the territory. Israel Defense Forces and Gaza security sources both confirmed an incident, but the sides had different accounts. The IDF said soldiers identified a number of suspected terror operatives who appeared to be planting explosive devices adjacent to the northern Gaza security fence near \"the Karni humanitarian crossing.\" The soldiers opened fire and identified hitting two of the suspects -- one of which was transferred to an Israeli hospital; the other operative died of his wounds. Three other suspects were taken for questioning. The Palestinian security sources said a special force opened fire on a number of youths near the border fence with Israel in central Gaza. One of the youths was killed and four others were taken by the Israeli soldiers. Assad said he and Sarkozy also discussed Iran's nuclear program and Lebanon. Journalist Claire Boube contributed to this report.","highlights":"Turkey mediated indirect talks between Israel and Syria, neighboring countries that have been adversaries for years .\nSyrian President Bashar Assad: We need Israel partnership in order to renew peace talks and obtain results .\nAssad traveled to France for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy, where he blamed Israel for the stalled talks with Syria .\nAssad said he and Sarkozy also discussed Iran's nuclear program and Lebanon .","id":"27cf294a32f592d37a329318379954bcd54b17e3"} -{"article":"Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli government ministers Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a temporary freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank in an effort to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. The Security Cabinet voted 11-2 in favor of the measure which calls for a 10-month freeze on new building permits and the construction of new residential buildings in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it \"a very big step toward peace\" and said he hoped the Palestinians would \"take full advantage\" of the opportunity to restart talks during the 10-month window. \"I hope the Palestinians and the Arab world will work with us to forge a new beginning... for our children and for theirs,\" he said. In Washington, the top U.S. envoy for the region, George Mitchell, said he hoped to use the time to begin negotiations on permanent status issues, which include security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem. \"My personal and fervent wish is that we will, during this process at some point, have a resolution of borders so there will no longer be any question about settlement construction,\" Mitchell told reporters. \"It falls short of a full settlement freeze, but it is more than any Israeli government has done before, and can help move toward agreement between the parties,\" Mitchell told a briefing at the State Department. He said he plans to return soon to the region. Mitchell shrugged off a suggestion he might be discouraged after more than 10 months of failing to relaunch peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. \"You can't take as final the first 'no,' the second 'no' or even the hundredth 'no,' \" said Mitchell, who helped negotiate a peace agreement in Northern Ireland and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. \"You can't get discouraged by setbacks and you can't be deterred by criticism. You have to be patient, persevering and determined.\" Mitchell also released a statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which said the announcement helps move the issue forward. \"We believe that through good-faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements,\" the Clinton statement said. \"Let me say to all the people of the region and world: our commitment to achieving a solution with two states living side by side in peace and security is unwavering,\" the Clinton statement added. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a representative of the Middle East Diplomatic Quartet made up of the European Union, the United States, the Russian Federation and the United Nations, called the announcement \"an important step towards creating the possibility for serious and credible negotiations for a two-state solution. \"The key, as I have said consistently, is to combine a credible political negotiation with real change on the ground, in institution-building, security performance and economic development,\" Blair said. But Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset from Netanyahu's Likud Party and chairman of the Settlers Council, opposed the announcement. \"If the prime minister will implement the ideology of the left, he will not get the support of his own party,\" he said. \"All the things he wrote in his books, said in his speeches, he so eloquently preached for, he does exactly the opposite,\" said Danon, calling the move a \"disappointment.\" Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the proposed temporary freeze would be inadequate: \"The exclusion of Jerusalem is a very serious problem for us,\" he told reporters on Wednesday. Palestinian officials, including Fayyad, have called on Israel to freeze construction in Jerusalem as well. The Palestinians want Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state. In recent weeks, Netanyahu and other members of his cabinet have made clear that a construction freeze would not be implemented in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. Israel views Jerusalem as a separate issue to be hammered out in final status talks with the Palestinians. The measure would not affect buildings already under construction for the existing Jewish residents in the West Bank, Netanyahu said. Construction of public building would also continue, government officials have said. The Israeli government is under tremendous pressure -- particularly from its ally, the United States -- to halt settlement construction in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Continued construction has been a key stumbling block in restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Israeli Security Cabinet is a subset of the larger Israeli Cabinet. It has historically been used by prime ministers to approve quick action on defense and diplomatic matters. CNN's Michael Zippori and Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"Security Cabinet voted 11-2 in favor of the measure which calls for a 10-month freeze .\nIsrael under pressure -- particularly from United States -- to halt settlement construction .\nContinued construction a key stumbling block in restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks .\nPalestinian PM Salam Fayyad said proposed freeze would be inadequate .","id":"4776859089a777c567f574bc2145e8af2305fdf8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Did you know that there exists an all-natural remedy for memory loss? Weight gain? Macular degeneration? Prostate enlargement? These products are so successful that clinical testing has already begun! Just listen to the following testimonial from an unidentified person ... As these ads blare at you from your favorite AM radio station, perhaps you wonder: How can this be legal? Since the late 1960s, aspirin makers have been trying to win the right to tell the public that a daily low-dose tablet can help prevent heart disease. They have been told no, and no, and no again. Federal regulators are so nervous about over-selling aspirin's benefits that they have restricted statements about aspirin to the most bland and basic. Yet while the statements about aspirin have to be cushioned in the vaguest generalities, snake oil flim-flam can be huckstered in the most truth-defying way, thanks to a 1994 law coaxed through Congress by the people who make these drugs. The law bears the long title of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. It was sponsored in House of Representatives by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, and in the Senate by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. The DSHEA law draws a line between synthesized medicines like aspirin and remedies made from herbs, minerals, vitamins and amino acids. This latter group was recategorized as \"dietary supplements\" -- that is, as foods rather than drugs. \"Drugs\" are subjected to exacting scientific trial to prove them both safe and also effective. Sellers of dietary supplements are not required to prove that their remedies work. They are not even required to prove them safe -- as \"foods\" they are presumed safe unless shown otherwise. \"Drugs\" must disclose any risk of side effect. (That's why those erectile dysfunction ads terrify TV audiences with their references to four-hour erections.) Dietary supplements bear no such burden -- which is why St. John's wort can be sold as an anti-depressant, without any mention of the disturbing indications that the herb weakens the effectiveness of birth control pills. \"Drug\" advertising must be pre-approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which minutely reviews the ads' accuracy. Dietary supplement advertising is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. So long as supplements avoid promises to cure a specific disease, their sellers can say pretty much whatever they want, provided only that they have some kind of supporting evidence on file. That evidence does not have to meet any kind of scientific test: pretty much any pattern of ink on paper will do the job. I cannot say, \"My rosemary-sage-thyme-and-oregano tablets cure AIDS.\" But if I pay my cousin $100 to do a few experiments, I can claim, \"My tablets boost the immune system -- and clinical trials are under way!\" (There is an exception to the permissive rules about advertising natural products: wine. There is substantial evidence that a glass of red wine a day reduces the risk of heart attack. The laws of most states forbid any hint or suggestion that moderate alcohol use might confer health benefits. Still, if you ask the scientists, wine has better grounds to call itself a health food than does, say, echinacea!) Fifteen years after receiving the favor of Congress, dietary supplements have grown into a $24 billion a year industry. Most of the products sold by the industry are merely useless. For those who eat a balanced diet, scientists have found no quantifiable benefit from taking multivitamins. On the other hand, multivitamins probably won't do any harm. It would be better to give the $10 you spend on a jar of pills to the Salvation Army, but at least you are not poisoning yourself. The same could not be said, alas, for the unfortunate customers of a Belgian herbal dispensary who bought a supplement that contained the herb Aristolochia fangi. The A. fangi herb is rich in aristolochic acid, a carcinogen -- and users experienced an outbreak of urinary tract cancers. A. Fangi has since been banned in the European Union. It remains legal in the United States. As outrages go, Congress' special favor to the herbal supplement industry might seem relatively small stuff: a splash in the torrent of the $2 trillion per year that Americans spend on health and wellness. And yet in the midst of a great national debate over health care, this small outrage has some serious implications. Advocates for the herbal supplement industry justify their special sweet deal by championing the right of consumers to make their own \"health choices.\" Individual choice certainly sounds like the American way. But the fact is that most of us are not well positioned to make intelligent health choices. If we try to play our own doctor, we are going to expose our health -- and our money -- to risk and exploitation. As individuals, we have trouble distinguishing between anecdotes: \"My neighbor took zinc for her cold and she said it really helped,\" and data: Most colds last four days, so you could smoke yak-dung cigarettes on day three and feel better on day four. We are poor balancers of risk: Look at the rising number of Americans who resist taking vaccines because of astronomically remote chances that something might go wrong. We are vulnerable to placebos: \"Hey -- I took the 30-day free sample and I feel sure my vision did improve!\" We are swayed by prejudice and ideology: The film-maker Spike Lee wrote in Rolling Stone in 1992: \"I'm convinced AIDS is a government-engineered disease.\" The reason we should defer to experts is not that the experts know everything. Of course they don't. It's just that they know more than non-experts do. It's not that science has all the answers. It doesn't. It's just that astrologers, shamans, and natural healers have none of them. Americans spend over 50 percent more per person on their health than anyone else on earth. For all that extra money, Americans see very little benefit. Americans rank 42nd on earth in life expectancy, 29th in infant mortality. Improving and rationalizing this costly and dysfunctional system is a gigantic, maybe impossible, task. But one small reform could strike a meaningful blow for reason and cost-effectiveness: Apply the rules governing the advertising of aspirin to the advertising of oregano tablets. Repeal the DSHEA law and give the Food and Drug Administration full authority over every manufactured substance that purports to promote health or relieve illness. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.","highlights":"Consumers get constant pitches for herbal supplements as remedies .\nDavid Frum says a 1994 law exempted supplements from scientific review .\nHe says people who try to be their own doctor take on unnecessary risk .\nFrum: Government should regulate supplements as it does drugs .","id":"b39226e755234e692fe4bce75e6287ac4ca1aa2d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia delivered the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday night. Here is a transcript of the speech. McDonnell: Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Bob McDonnell. Eleven days ago, I was honored to be sworn in as the 71st governor of Virginia. I'm standing in the historic House Chamber of Virginia's Capitol, a building designed by Virginia's second governor, Thomas Jefferson. It's not easy to follow the president of the United States. And my 18-year-old twin boys have added pressure to me tonight by giving me exactly 10 minutes to finish before they leave to go watch \"SportsCenter.\" (LAUGHTER) I'm joined by fellow Virginians to share a Republican perspective on how to best address the challenges facing our nation today. We were encouraged to hear President Obama speak this evening about the need to create jobs. All Americans should have the opportunity to find and keep meaningful work, and the dignity that comes with it. (APPLAUSE) Many -- many of us here tonight -- and many of you watching -- have family or friends who have lost their jobs. In fact, 1 in 10 Americans is unemployed. That is unacceptable. Here in Virginia, we've faced our highest unemployment rate in more than 25 years, and bringing new jobs and more opportunities to our citizens is the top priority of my administration. Good government policy should spur economic growth and strengthen the private sector's ability to create new jobs. (APPLAUSE) We must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation so America can better compete with the world. What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class. It was Thomas Jefferson who called for \"a wise and frugal government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.\" He was right. Today, the federal government is simply trying to do too much. Last year, we were told that massive new federal spending would create more jobs immediately and hold unemployment below 8 percent. In the past year, more than 3 million people have lost their jobs, and yet the Democratic Congress continues deficit spending, adding to the bureaucracy, and increasing the national debt on our children and our grandchildren. The amount of debt is on pace to double in five years and triple in 10. The federal debt is now over $100,000 per household. This is simply unsustainable. The president's partial freeze announced tonight on discretionary spending is a laudable step, but a small one. The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper limited role of government at every level. (APPLAUSE) Without reform, the excessive growth of government threatens our very liberty and our prosperity. In recent months, the American people have made clear that they want government leaders to listen and then act on the issues most important to them. We want results, not rhetoric. We want cooperation, not partisanship. (APPLAUSE) There is much common ground. All Americans agree that we need health -- health care system that is affordable, accessible, and high quality. But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government. Republicans in Congress have offered legislation to reform health care, without shifting Medicaid costs to the states, without cutting Medicare, and without raising your taxes. And we will do that by implementing common sense reforms, like letting families and businesses buy health insurance policies across state lines and ending frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up the cost of your health care. And our solutions aren't 1,000-page bills that no one has fully read, after being crafted behind closed doors with special interests. In fact, many of our proposals are available online at solutions.gop.gov, and we welcome your ideas on Facebook and Twitter. (LAUGHTER) All Americans agree that this nation must become more energy independent and secure. We are blessed here in America with vast natural resources, and we must use them all. Advances in technology can unleash more natural gas, nuclear, wind, coal, alternative energy that will lower your utility bills. Here in Virginia, we have the opportunity to become the first state on the East Coast to explore for and produce oil and natural gas off-shore. (APPLAUSE) But this administration's policies are delaying off-shore production, hindering nuclear energy expansion, and seeking to impose job-killing cap-and-trade energy taxes. Now is the time to adopt innovative energy policies that create jobs and lower energy prices. (APPLAUSE) All Americans agree that a young person needs a world-class education to compete in the global economy. As a young kid, my dad told me, \"Son, if you want a good job, you need a good education.\" Dad was right, and that's even more true today. The president and I agree on expanding the number of high-quality charter schools and rewarding teachers for excellent performance. More school choices for parents and students mean more accountability and greater achievement. A child's educational opportunity should be determined by her intellect and work ethic, not by her ZIP Code. (APPLAUSE) All Americans agree that we must maintain a strong national defense. The courage and success of our armed forces is allowing us to draw down troop levels in Iraq as that government is increasingly able to step up. My oldest daughter, Jeanine, was an Army platoon leader in Iraq, so I am personally grateful for the service and sacrifice of all our men and women in uniform, and a grateful nation thanks them. (APPLAUSE) We applaud President Obama's decision to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. We agree that victory there is imperative for national security. But we have serious concerns over the recent steps the administration has taken regarding suspected terrorists. Americans were shocked on Christmas Day to learn of the attempted bombing of a flight to Detroit. This foreign terror suspect was given the same legal rights as a U.S. citizen and immediately stopped providing critical intelligence. As Sen.-elect Scott Brown has said, we should be spending taxpayer dollars to defeat terrorists, not to protect them. (APPLAUSE) Here at home, government must help foster a society in which all our people can use their God-given talents and liberty to pursue the great American dream. Republicans know that government cannot guarantee individual outcomes, but we strongly believe that it must guarantee equality of opportunity for all. That opportunity exists best in a democracy which promotes free enterprise, economic growth, strong families, and individual achievement. Many Americans are concerned about this administration's effort to exert greater control over car companies, banks, energy, and health care, but over-regulating employers won't create more employment, overtaxing investors won't foster more investment. Top-down, one-size-fits-all decision-making should not replace the personal choices of free people in a free market, nor undermine the proper role of state and local governments in our system of federalism. As our founders clearly stated, and we governors clearly understand, government closest to the people governs best. (APPLAUSE) And no government program can ever replace the actions of caring Americans freely choosing to help one another. The scriptures say, \"To whom much is given, much will be required.\" As the most generous and prosperous nation on Earth, it is heartwarming to see Americans giving much time and money to the people of Haiti. Thank you for your ongoing compassion. (APPLAUSE) Some people say they're afraid that America is no longer the great land of promise that she has always been. They should not be. America will always blaze the trail of opportunity and prosperity. America will -- must always be a land where liberty and property are valued and respected and innocent human life is protected. Government should have this clear goal: Where opportunity is absent, we must create it. Where opportunity is limited, we must expand it. Where opportunity is unequal, we must make it open to everyone. (APPLAUSE) Our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to create this great nation. Now we should pledge as Democrats, Republicans and independents -- Americans all -- to work together to leave this nation an ever better place than we found it. God bless you, and God bless this great land of America. Thank you very much.","highlights":"Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia responds to State of the Union speech .\nAmericans don't want to turn health care over to government, he says .\nMcDonnell: GOP has serious concerns about Obama's terrorist policy .","id":"4d4ea58f0771c94c9c3ba8c2f844a15ef44e5937"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A slightly higher number of Americans will travel Thanksgiving holiday weekend compared with last year, but those traveling by air is expected to decline, AAA said. The association, which surveyed 1,350 American households, projects that 38.4 million Americans will travel over the holiday weekend, up from 37.8 million last year. However, the number traveling by air is expected to decline to 2.3 million, the automobile association said. In 2008, 2.5 million Americans traveled by plane for Thanksgiving. \"We do this every year,\" said Mindy Potter of Atlanta, Georgia, who was flying with her husband and 6-year-old son. \"It's insanity every year.\" Potter said she and her family were headed Wednesday to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, to see her husband's family. See the FAA's flight delays map . She said they were allowing themselves plenty of time at the airport. \"My husband's a stickler for going early,\" she said. \"If I was in charge of it, we'd probably have a frenzied rush.\" AAA said the slight increase in the number of Thanksgiving travelers from last year reflects improved consumer confidence as well as \"a growing sense among many consumers that the worst of the global economic crisis is behind us.\" Travelers are still concerned about the economy, said AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom, and the numbers remain well down from two years ago. \"Clearly, there was a huge drop-off in the number of people traveling last year,\" he said. According to the association, Thanksgiving travel dropped 25.2 percent last year, compared with 2007. Still, Sundstrom added, \"We are encouraged that the numbers have stabilized and turning up from what they were a year ago.\" The bulk of Thanksgiving travelers -- about 33.2 million -- will be traveling by car, AAA said. Jennifer Burrell of Tucker, Georgia, said she, her husband and their two daughters were driving Thursday morning to the Asheville, North Carolina, area, and will return Sunday. She said she wasn't expecting traffic on the way there but \"it always gets heavy\" on the return trip. In addition to those traveling by car, some 2.9 million will travel by train, watercraft, bus or a combination of transportation modes, and 2.3 million will travel by air, the automobile association predicted. Citing excess baggage fees and surcharges for jet fuel, along with delays and flight groundings, Sundstrom said that it's \"not a very friendly environment this decade for the airline industry or the airline traveler.\" As in earlier years, the Federal Aviation Administration said military airspace will be opened to commercial flights along the East and West coasts and in the Southwest in an attempt to alleviate congestion. The airspace will be opened from Tuesday to Monday, spokesman Paul Takemoto said. As of Tuesday afternoon, the FAA Web site was reporting slight delays because of \"weather\/wind\" at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Of course, some Americans are not traveling at all. Heather McKinnon of Broomfield, Colorado, said she is staying home with family for Thanksgiving. \"I don't like to fly and really rarely like flying on holidays,\" she said, adding that she would consider driving. \"I know what it's like going through the airport,\" she said. Plus, she added, \"Everything I love is here.\"","highlights":"AAA attributes slight increase to improved consumer confidence .\nNumber of travelers still well down from two years ago .\nAAA predicts 38.4 million Americans will travel over the holiday weekend .\nThose traveling by air is expected to decline to 2.3 million, from 2.5 million last year .","id":"661364d2e6abeb0f88539565f38ce93d086dffd6"} -{"article":"Tottenham Hotspur humiliated Wigan 9-1 with England striker Jermain Defoe scoring five to move into the Champions League spots in the English Premier League. The incredible rout sees them draw level on points with North London rivals Arsenal and into fourth place ahead of Aston Villa, who they visit next weekend. Defoe's five equaled a Premier League record and, along with Manchester United's 9-0 thrashing of Ipswich Town in the 1994\/95 season, it is the most goals scored by a Premier League side in a single game. The highest tally recorded by a team in English football league history is 13. Fellow England striker Peter Crouch scored the only goal in the first half before the floodgates opened, Defoe grabbing his first two before Wigan's Paul Scharner replied with what looked a handball. Defoe completed his hat-trick only a minute later on the 58th before Aaron Lennon made it 5-1, with Defoe then adding his fourth. A final blitz from Tottenham gave Defoe his fifth, with David Bentley's deflected effort off Chris Kirkland and Niko Kranjcar completing the rout with double figures looking on the cards when the referee ended the misery for the visitors. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said Defoe, who was returning after a suspension, was a \"fantastic talent\" and paid tribute to his side's eight-goal salvo after the break. \"We came out in the second half fantastic, pressed them worked them and took the opportunities,\" he told Sky Sports News. In other English Premier League action on Sunday, Blackburn Rovers beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 away to climb up to 11th in the table. Without manager Sam Allardyce who is to undergo a heart operation, Blackburn went in front through a David Dunn curled effort before a mix-up with his goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen saw Bolton's Sam Ricketts head into his own net. In the late kickoff, Portmouth stayed bottom after losing 1-0 at Stoke, who grabbed a 74th minute winner through Ricardo Fuller after great work by winger Matthew Etherington. Pompey, who lost England goalkeeper David James to injury in the warm up, missed an eighth-minute penalty through Kevin-Prince Boateng and had chances to secure at least a point at the Britannia Stadium.","highlights":"Tottenham Hotspur beat Wigan Athletic 9-1 to go back into the Champions League places .\nJermain Defoe scored five goals, with Peter Crouch, Aaron Lennon, David Bently and Niko Krancjar also scoring .\nDefoe and Tottenham's goal feats equal Premier League records .\nBlackburn Rovers and Stoke secure wins over Bolton and Portsmouth .","id":"717f56ba8f8d6ef9525ca7ef82bb504fb1538e84"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama mentioned an $8 billion investment in high-speed train systems across the country in his State of the Union speech on Wednesday. Details released Thursday said the investment would be grants from the government's $862 billion economic stimulus package to begin the planning and initial work on creating the first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service. Overall, projects and planning involving the rail corridors will take place in 31 states, according to a White House statement. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were scheduled to travel to Tampa, Florida, Thursday to formally announce the program. Other Cabinet members and administration officials also were visiting sites of the program in other states on Thursday and Friday. According to the statement, the corridor between Tampa and Orlando, Florida, would have trains capable of traveling up to 168 mph with 16 round trips a day. The time to travel by train between the cities would be about an hour, compared with about 90 minutes by car, it said. \"This project will create jobs and generate economic activity as 84 miles of track are constructed, stations are built or enhanced, and equipment is purchased,\" with work expected to be completed in 2014, the statement said. \"The projects announced today are part of President Obama's strategic long-term plan to transform travel in America by building and sustaining a comprehensive passenger rail program,\" the statement said. \"In addition to the $8 billion awarded today, the plan also included $1 billion a year for five years in the federal budget as a down payment to jump-start the program.\" The statement described the program as \"a long-term venture in which states will need to plan projects, purchase and lay track, build and assemble equipment, and construct or upgrade train stations, tunnels and bridges.\" \"Spain spent two decades and $35 billion developing its high-speed rail system,\" it said. \"South Korea took 12 years and more than $10 billion to build a line stretching from Seoul to Busan, comparable to the distance between Boston and New York.\" Train corridors in the program include: . \u2022 San Diego - Los Angeles - San Luis Obispo in California . \u2022 Oakland - Sacramento in California . \u2022 Portland - Eugene in Oregon . \u2022 Seattle - Portland in Washington and Oregon . \u2022 Chicago - St. Louis in Illinois and Missouri . \u2022 St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri . \u2022 Minneapolis\/St. Paul - Madison in Minnesota and Wisconsin . \u2022 Madison - Milwaukee in Wisconsin . \u2022 Milwaukee - Chicago in Wisconsin and Illinois . \u2022 Cleveland - Columbus - Cincinnati in Ohio . \u2022 Detroit\/Pontiac - Chicago in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois . \u2022 Tampa - Orlando in Florida . \u2022 Raleigh - Charlotte in North Carolina . \u2022 Washington - Richmond in District of Columbia and Virginia . \u2022 Raleigh - Richmond in North Carolina and Virginia . \u2022 New York - Albany-Buffalo in New York . \u2022 New York - Montreal in New York and Quebec, Canada. \u2022 Boston - New York - Washington in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, New York, and District of Columbia . \u2022 Brunswick - Portland in Maine . \u2022 Philadelphia - Harrisburg - Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania . \u2022 Springfield - East Northfield in Massachusetts . \u2022 New Haven - Springfield in Connecticut and Massachusetts .","highlights":"President Obama to announce $8 billion in stimulus funds for high-speed train plan .\nProposed rail system would span across 31 states .\nWork is expected to be finished by 2014, according to White House .","id":"7d409d74050ede5fa125a9e006eb5ce34308a873"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- News that U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize has been as polarizing as his embattled healthcare reform plans. After Obama's win, Spanish newspaper El Pais published a cartoon showing the president as a black peace dove. Minutes after the news broke, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook were flooded with comments. Half of the trending topics on microblogging site Twitter were about the prize and the U.S. President. Opinion was largely divided on Twitter between those who think Obama is a worthy recipient -- and those who question how he won the prize after just eight months in office. Watch Internet reaction to news \u00bb . Numerous tweeters said President Obama should refuse the prize. One, jester from London, UK, wrote: \"I think he should give it back until he has achieved real world peace.\" A sentiment shared by mzaher from Utrecht, who said: \"Dear Obama. You have my support, love and respect, I just don't think you deserve a Nobel Prize yet. If I were you, I would give it back.\" However for Antwanp tweeting from Nacogdoches, USA, the news was \"a great day for the United States,\" while kmariiezy called it a \"beautiful thing.\" \"Wooow!! Obama wins the Nobel peaceprize. Think it's kind of early, but he is a symbol for hope, so... Congratulations!!\" was gier008 from Norway's opinion. Aaronmagner from Australia wrote: \"Filled with happiness and hope by Obama's Nobel peace prize.\" DAPdave from Holly Springs, North Carolina, sounded a note of caution with his tweet saying: \"I hope Obama proves to us all that he deserves this Nobel Peace Prize.\" Equally vocal were those who did not think the U.S. President deserved the accolade, the first awarded to a White House incumbent in 90 years. iReport.com: Share your reaction to Obama's win . Ahlheid from Germany wrote: \"Ridiculous! Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize. I am wondering what for? Replacing Bush? So far he has accomplished virtually nothing!\" While Michael Lipkin in Tehran, Iran, wrote: \"If Obama deserves the Noble Peace Prize then so does every Miss America contestant who babbles about world peace.\" Boston-based Marcela_Elisa wrote: \"Can someone explain? I thought award was for accomplishments, not intentions.\" Others like Mohammed, from Johannesburg, South Africa, point to the irony of awarding the peace prize to someone who is presiding over two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wrote: \"So Barack Obama wins Nobel prize for literature for his books and not peace - cos last I heard Afghanistan is still a war zone.\" While Poipoi91, from Paris, wondered if \"they couldn't find anyone else for the title.\" Some users, such as nurdfighter joked that the prize is \"a pathetic way of getting Obama to visit Norway.\" Meanwhile kzamri writing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said: \"How can Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize hours before the U.S. is supposed to bomb the Moon?!\" in reference to NASA's attempt to crash a probe into the lunar surface a few hours after Obama's win. Spain's leading newspaper El Pais published a cartoon by political cartoonist Forges depicting President Obama as a black peace dove holding an olive branch.","highlights":"Twitter, Facebook users react to Obama's Peace Prize win .\nOpinion largely divided but most wonder if it prize came too soon .\nOthers state they believe the President does not deserve the award .\nNews of the award was half of all trending topics on microblogging site Twitter .","id":"e1edbfddadbc00baec4ccd2132f9809db7a54d67"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met Monday night with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House announced. It was the ninth meeting of the president's war council to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, as requested by the U.S. commander on the ground there. The White House made no statement after the meeting ended at 10 p.m. ET (0300 GMT). The meeting included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, Afghanistan commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and other senior officials, the White House said earlier. At the last war council meeting -- on November 11, Veteran's Day -- Obama pushed for revisions in proposed plans for troop increases to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government. Obama would seek answers to the questions he posed on November 11 about \"not just how we get people there, but what's the strategy for getting them out,\" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said before the meeting. No matter what happened at the meeting, Gibbs said, Obama will not announce a decision on troop deployment until at least next week. One option calls for sending about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in addition to the 68,000 already committed to the country, with other options involving variations of that plan, sources told CNN. Before the November 11 meeting, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, told CNN that the decision-making process was approaching completion. Petraeus emphasized the need to focus on the mission of ensuring that Afghanistan \"does not once again become a sanctuary or safe haven for al Qaeda and the kind of transnational extremists that carried out the 9\/11 attacks.\" The Obama administration has expressed concerns about Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's viability and has ratcheted up pressure to end corruption in order to combat an intensifying Taliban insurgency. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a trip to Afghanistan last week to attend Karzai's inauguration after his recent re-election, reiterated the U.S. concerns in a dinner meeting with Karzai and encouraged him to seize the \"clear window of opportunity\" before him at a \"critical moment\" in Afghanistan's history. The United States and other countries are increasing their civilian presence in Afghanistan to bolster efforts to stabilize the country, the the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters on Monday. Asked about the corruption problem, Holbrooke noted that some Afghan government ministers have \"extraordinary records\" of accomplishment. The United States will work with those ministers, while recognizing that years of civil war and social woes have weakened overall leadership capabilities in Afghanistan, he said. \"This is one of the main reasons we're increasing our civilian role,\" Holbrooke said. \"And it's extremely delicate to get the mix right. We want to help the Afghans help themselves. We do not want to replace a sovereign government with internationals.\" Republican opponents are pushing Obama to quickly agree to McChrystal's reported request for up to 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan as part of a counterinsurgency strategy. \"This won't be perfect or easy, but it will allow America's fighting men and women to leave Afghanistan with honor, and it will enable Afghans to build a better, more peaceful future,\" said a letter to Obama from 10 Republican senators sent on Veteran's Day.","highlights":"NEW: White House makes no statement after meeting ended .\nObama will not announce decision until at least next week .\nMeeting included Biden, Gates, Mullen, McChrystal, Eikenberry, White House says .\nObama wanted clarification on how, when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility .","id":"b3ff9525f3843092e9f2379852685596d43567b9"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- After 2,000 years of Christian prayer, many faithful still don't know how to pray effectively, pastor Daniel Henderson says. \"Most Christians pray out of crisis or pray a grocery list,\" he said, making \"God a lifeline of last resort.\" Henderson teaches that prayer should be about worshipping God, having a one-to-one relationship through prayer. \"Every believer wants to be intimate with God and experience his power in a personal way,\" he said. \"Many are hungry to be more effective, because they haven't been taught.\" Teaching is what sends Henderson across the country. He's on \"The Creative Prayer Tour,\" a series of workshops that will have stopped in 14 cities by year's end. Henderson also is an author and head of a group called Strategic Renewal, based in Forest, Virginia, which aims to strengthen churches through worship-based prayer. The prayer workshop was life-changing, said pastor Jeremy Johnson of Arcade Church in Sacramento, California. Johnson said the training helped turn him from an angry recovering alcoholic to a spiritual life pastor. \"It changed my perspective on prayer from being ask, ask, ask to building a relationship with God,\" Johnson said. \"It went from God being a vending machine to actually having a relationship with him, acknowledging who he is as opposed to what he does.\" Such is the demand for the prayer summits that Henderson speaks at 20 to 30 churches and to as many as 13,000 college students annually, he said. Even pillars of the Christian faith struggle with prayer. \"As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear,\" Mother Teresa told the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet in 1979, expressing her concern about decades seemingly going by without her prayers being answered. Henderson cites The Lord's Prayer in the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew as the blueprint for Christians, containing what could be called the four Rs of prayer. He breaks down the passage this way from the New Living Translation of the Bible: . Reverence -- \"Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.\" Response -- \"May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.\" Requests -- \"Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.\" Readiness -- \"And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.\" The Lord's Prayer is a simple invocation that is recited weekly at many Christian churches and comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, a compilation of his teachings. \"It's OK to use a set formula\/pattern,\" according Cyndi McDonald, an associate minister at First United Methodist Church in Marietta, Georgia. \"The disciples asked Jesus how to pray, and he gave The Lord's Prayer.\" No matter how people pray, it's a part of American life, according to a recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The study shows that 75 percent of Americans of all faiths -- including Christians, Jews and Muslims -- report praying at least once a week, while 39 percent attend services weekly. McDonald said the numbers could use some interpreting. \"What do they mean by pray? A quick blessing over a meal? An hour spent in solitude?\" she asks. For Henderson, the prayer statistics point to a yearning for God. \"The hunger is there for a personal faith. It indicates a spiritual hunger that won't be satisfied,\" he said. \"It's a personal thing and very real beyond the walls of church.\"","highlights":"Pastor Daniel Henderson: \"Most Christians pray out of crisis or pray a grocery list\"\nHis 14-city \"Creative Prayer Tour\" seeks to transform how Americans pray .\nHenderson cites The Lord's Prayer as the blueprint for Christians .\nRemember the four R's: Reverence, Response, Requests, Readiness .","id":"0f81711c5e859d5473c41a0b988549ce4007eb03"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Dalai Lama, accepting a human rights prize from a U.S. foundation Tuesday, chastised the United States for not fully addressing the economic divide between its poorest and richest citizens. The Dalai Lama sits with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the awards ceremony on Tuesday. \"Huge gap, rich to poor. This is unhealthy,\" he said. \"You have to think seriously about those less-privileged people. They're also human beings.\" The \"real greatness of America,\" he said, \"is your ancestors' principles,\" and he urged the nation to preserve those principles. \"When I think of America, I think of the idea -- concept of freedom, liberty, equality. I think these are real human values,\" he said. The inaugural Lantos Human Rights Prize, presented to the 74-year-old Dalai Lama by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, honors his commitment to ending global injustice. The Dalai Lama called the award, from the New Hampshire-based Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, \"a great privilege, especially because it is named after an individual I admired deeply.\" He was referring to the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-California, whom the foundation describes as a champion of human rights during his 27 years in Congress. Lantos, who was the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, died of cancer in February 2008. His image is on the large medal. Before presenting the award, Pelosi said people continue to be inspired by the Dalai Lama's messages of peace and nonviolence. The medal, the California Democrat said, contains the words \"The rights of one are the rights of all.\" \"The Dalai Lama is one of the most highly honored peacemakers of our time,\" she added. Tuesday's program focused largely on the work of Lantos, who co-founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus about 20 years ago. The name of the caucus has been changed to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and part of its mission is to \"promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights norms in a nonpartisan manner,\" according to its Web site. The group is a formal entity of Congress, said Howard Berman, D-California, who was at Tuesday's event. Also at the ceremony was Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who called Lantos \"an inspiration.\" \"When he died we lost one of the better angels of our national conscience,\" McCain said. According to the foundation, created by Lantos' daughter, Katrina Lantos Swett, the Lantos Prize is meant to focus attention on the \"often unsung heroes of the human rights movement.\" The foundation's Web site says the prize \"will be awarded on an annual basis to the individual or organization that best exemplifies the foundation's mission, namely, to be a vital voice standing up for the values of decency, dignity, freedom and justice in every corner of the world.\" The Dalai Lama is visiting Washington this week for a conference and to meet with Undersecretary for Global Affairs Maria Otero, who has just been named as President Obama's special coordinator on Tibet, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday. The Dalai Lama won't meet with Obama, who instead plans to visit with him after a presidential trip next month to China, Kelly said. The Dalai Lama and Tibet are dicey issues in Washington, since Beijing considers the Himalayan province a part of China and accuses the spiritual leader of advocating Tibetan independence. The Dalai Lama -- whose name is Tenzin Gyatso -- has repeatedly said he seeks autonomy for the region, not independence, and advocates the \"middle way\" of nonviolence. China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops to \"liberate\" the region from what it said was serfdom under the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama's emissaries have held sporadic talks with Chinese officials. But the talks, encouraged by the United States and other countries, have failed to break the impasse. In a 2007 trip to Washington, the Dalai Lama met with then-President George W. Bush, who awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor. Asked whether the lack of a meeting between the Dalai Lama and Obama represents a change in U.S. policy toward China or Tibet, Kelly said, \"I wouldn't necessarily read ... anything into the decision beyond what it is.\" \"Our position regarding China is clear, that we want to engage China. We think China is an important global player. We also don't try and downplay some of the concerns that we have about China ... in the areas of human rights, religious freedom, and freedom of expression.\" The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Prize for advocating peace, but he has not been allowed to return to Tibet since fleeing his homeland in 1959. On Thursday and Friday, he is scheduled to participate in a conference called \"Educating World Citizens for the 21st Century.\" On Saturday he is to spend the morning teaching on \"The Heart of Change: Finding Wisdom in the Modern World,\" an event organized by the Conservancy for Tibetan Art and Culture. He then is slated to return to India before traveling to Japan, Australia and New Zealand.","highlights":"NEW: Dalai Lama lauds U.S. founding principles, decries gap between rich and poor .\nPelosi calls Dalai Lama \"one of the most highly honored peacemakers of our time\"\nDalai Lama is in Washington for conference and to meet U.S. officials .\nHe won't meet with President Obama, who plans to visit him next month in Asia .","id":"dcdfffe71cb5d3cb72e3ef42316dd980b9620be2"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- The governing body of world football, FIFA, has turned down the request from the Irish Football Association (FAI) to replay their deciding World Cup play-off game against France. The controversial match, that was played on Wednesday, has caused a diplomatic storm after French forward Thierry Henry admitted to illegally using his hand to set-up the goal that gave his team a 2-1 aggregate victory to seal qualification to the tournament. But despite a letter sent to FIFA by the FAI, and calls from both the Irish prime minister Brian Cowen and Irish justice minister Dermot Ahern for the game to be replayed, the sport's organizing body has refused the request. In a statement on their official Web site FIFA stated: \"The result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed. As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final.\" Irish football officials lodged an official complaint with FIFA on Thursday and sent a letter to the French Football Federation (FFF) in a bid to get the game reconvened. The world's worst football injustices . \"The governing body of world football have to step up to the plate and accede to our call for a replay,\" FAI chief executive John Delaney told reporters. The FAI pointed to a precedent set in 2005 when a World Cup qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain was replayed after the referee was found to have committed a technical error in the application of the laws of the game. But a FIFA spokesman said the precedent did not apply because the referee in the match \"saw the incident in question and simply failed to apply the proper rules\". Irish prime minister Cowen raised the issue with French president Nicolas Sarkozy at a European Union (EU) summit in Brussels, where the two leaders were meeting to vote for the next president of Europe. Cowen told the Irish Independent newspaper: \"I didn't ask for a replay. I said, you know: 'What do you think?' and he said: 'Look, I understand totally the sense of disappointment that you feel about the game. I'm not trying to mix politics and sport in this respect. We just had a chat. [But] it's not going to be resolved by he and I.\" Mr Sarkozy, however, said he did not want to get involved: \"I said to Brian Cowen, who is a friend of mine as you know, that I was sorry for them and how I was struck by the talent and vigor of the Irish team. \"Now do not ask me to stand in for the referee of the game or the football decision -- be they in France or in Europe,\" he said. \"What will be done will be done. But leave me out of it, please. And to be perfectly frank with you that is the sort of answer I want to give,\" he added. Despite Sarkozy's comments, French finance minister Christine Lagarde said she supported moves for a replay. \"I think it's very sad. I'm of course very happy that the French team will play in the World Cup, but I find it very sad that it did qualify with... you know... an act of cheating,\" she told RTL radio station. The game between France and Ireland was one of six play offs played on Wednesday which decided the final 32 teams heading South Africa in 2010. Video replays showed Henry used his hand to stop the ball going out of play in extra-time, before he passed to William Gallas who booked his nation's place with a headed goal. The draw for next year's finals is due to be made in Cape Town on December 4.","highlights":"FIFA turn down a request from the Irish Football Association (FAI) to replay their deciding World Cup play-off game against France .\nFIFA: \"The result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed\"\nFrench president Nicolas Sarkozy said: \"I was sorry for [Ireland] but do not ask me to stand in for the referee of the game\"\nNEW: Former Ireland captain Roy Keane accuses FAI of hyprocrisy in their appeal to FIFA .","id":"fb0fdc14aa0316bca2aea4579322010c9f56be4f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Uga VII, the University of Georgia mascot whose deeply furrowed face was a fixture at the school for more than a year, died early Thursday, the university said. He was 4 years old. The purebred English bulldog died of heart-related causes in Savannah, Georgia, according to its owner, Frank \"Sonny\" Seiler. Fans knew Uga VII had arrived when the white dog, sporting a spiked collar and red Georgia University jersey, made his short strides along the football field's sidelines. He made his first appearance at the August 30, 2008, season opener, when Georgia faced off against Georgia Southern, the university said. He was nearing the end of his second season with the team, the university said. He was preceded by his father, Uga VI, the university's winningest mascot, who died of congestive heart failure. \"This is a very sad day for the Seiler family but also for all Georgia people,\" said Damon Evans, University of Georgia director of athletics in a university news release. \"Just as his ancestors, he had captured the hearts of college football fans everywhere as the country's No. 1 mascot. He had been truly embraced by all those who follow the Georgia Bulldogs across the country. We will miss him dearly.\" Uga VII's given name was Loran's Best, the university said. His death was unexpected. \"We are all in a state of shock,\" Seiler said in the release. \"We had no warning whatsoever.\" A wreath will be placed on Uga VII's doghouse on the sideline, the university said. There won't be a live mascot to take his place at Saturday's game against Kentucky. Officials have not decided who will replace the white bulldog, but the decision is expected next year, Seiler said. Until then, fans and Seiler will mourn the loss of the school's favorite pooch. \"He was 10-3 last year, which is not bad for a freshman,\" Seiler said. \"Uga VII was not as active or mischievous as his father but more distinguished. He realized his role when he put his shirt on. He was well-behaved and always appreciated the significance of his role.\"","highlights":"Uga VII was in his second season as University of Georgia mascot .\nPurebred English bulldog died of heart-related causes .\nOfficials expected to decide next year who will replace the white bulldog .","id":"8474541f2de5bcc8808353409af156b61b902d60"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Akbar Ganji is a leading Iranian dissident and pro-democracy activist. He served a six-year sentence in Tehran's Evin prison for his reporting on human rights abuses in Iran. The London-based human rights organization, Article 19, has described Ganji as the \"Iranian Vaclav Havel\" and he has received more than a dozen human rights, press freedom and pro-democracy awards. He is the author of \"The Road to Democracy in Iran\" (MIT Press, 2008). Akbar Ganji says Iran's leaders should be held to account for denying its citizens their liberties. (CNN) -- This week world leaders will gather in New York for the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be among them, Iranians reject his claim to leadership. They strongly oppose any meeting or recognition of Ahmadinejad, especially by President Obama. The pro-democracy movement in Iran today unanimously believes that he enjoys his current position because he was \"reappointed\" president after stealing several million votes in June 12 presidential election. Popular protests against this state of affairs have been met with bullets from the Iranian regime. Thousands were arrested and dozens were killed. Opposition supporters have been tortured in jail and credible reports of rape have surfaced. In recent years the Western media has not focused on the systematic human rights violations in Iran but rather on Iran's nuclear ambitions and Ahmadinejad's rhetoric toward Israel and the Nazi Holocaust. Iranians are deeply upset by the general inattentiveness of the media and world leaders to their political protests. If you listen to the democratic voices of Iranians and leaders of Iran's Green Movement there is a unanimous view that Ahmadinejad's policies have severely undermined Iranian national interests and he has inadvertently better served the interests of Israel. Although the regime has been able to reassert control due to severe repression recent events have led to important social transformations in Iran. Today there are many prominent names publicly opposing the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Many open letters have been circulated that for the first time directly criticize him. U.S. policy under Obama has also played a constructive role. The absence of military threats and new economic sanctions has given democracy activists more room to maneuver, posing new challenges to the regime. In order to deal with this internal crisis Khamenei's only option is to shift attention to Iran's relationship with the outside world -- the United States in particular. By increasing verbal attacks on the West and exacerbating regional conflicts he hopes to draw the attention of both Iranians and the world away from the systematic violations of human rights in Iran. Iran's nuclear ambitions should not be considered the primary weak point for the regime. To a limited extent Khamenei and his disciples can manipulate the nationalist sentiment of Iranians around this issue. The Achilles heel for the regime today is the widespread and systematic violations of human rights against it own people. Greater exposure and scrutiny of this key issue will generate more popular discontent toward the leaders of Iran. Khamenei cannot maintain regime loyalty or acquiescence in the face of these massive human rights violations. It is precisely these organized repressive measures that the International Criminal Court, in other contexts, has called \"crimes against humanity.\" Although Iran, like the United States and Israel, are not members of the ICC, charges can be brought against the Iranian regime via the U.N. Security Council -- similar to the process that led to the arrest warrant for Omar Al Bashir, the leader of Sudan. We in the Iranian human rights movement can document, with certification from a team of international lawyers, that leaders of the Iranian regime are guilty of crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Today, the people of Iran are in need of the moral and spiritual support from people around the world. In the current circumstances the most important form of support would be to assist with the campaign of charging the leaders of Iran with \"crimes against humanity\" and to help disseminate this initiative so that it becomes the main avenue of engagement with Iran by the international community. We are seeking to place this issue at the top of the international agenda so that leaders of the Iranian regime will think twice before traveling abroad as well as to make it morally unacceptable for leaders of democratic countries to extend a hand to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This article was translated by Nader Hashemi, Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.","highlights":"Akbar Ganji: World leaders gathering for U.N. General Assembly .\nHe says Iranians reject Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim to represent them .\nHe says the U.S., other nations, should avoid any recognition of Ahmadinejad .\nGanji: Charges should be brought against regime in international court .","id":"ddff3cea65945ff8021319f3401c5339affda3cf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- This week on Inside Africa -- . A photographer's powerful pictures cover the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then, Nkepile Mabuse catches up with a World Cup legend spreading football excitement in South Africa. And David McKenzie introduces us to a modest Angolan football squad and looks at the passion behind their play. Violence in Congo . The Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in bloody conflict for more than a decade. The violence has killed millions and displaced hundreds of thousands. Photographer Peter Biro turned his lens on this grim reality when he visited the country late last year. And he hopes his photos will shed light on one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. He shared with us, some of his pictures -- and the stories behind them. Africa's buzz . Over the next few months, some of football's biggest names will descend on South Africa, ahead of the FIFA World Cup. And the sporting world was abuzz when Argentine coach Diego Maradona took his turn touring the country. Nkepile Mabuse caught up with the controversial football star in South Africa, where he remains a hero to many fans. Football in Luanda . While many of the continent's top players are in state-of-the-art stadiums, many footballers in Luanda still struggle to find a decent place to play. David McKenzie visits an Angolan team getting the most out of their makeshift field. Madonna's adoptions . Celebrity charities and their causes can attract more attention to countries in need. In Malawi, an American pop star's connection to the country has helped to do just that. Madonna became more invested in the nation when she adopted two children there. Alina Cho talked to the singer about efforts to help other orphans in Malawi.","highlights":"Inside Africa catches up with a World Cup legend spreading football excitement in South Africa.\nDavid McKenzie discovers the passion of the Angolan football squad and.\nAlina Cho speaks to Madonna about her efforts to help other Malawi's orphans.","id":"4612f792250e9a7d18290c1236c1e969cda72afe"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Dutch court Friday ruled against letting a 14-year-old girl sail solo around the world, saying she is not experienced enough to make the trip on her own. Laura Dekker would be allowed to travel from July 1 of next year if she fulfills certain requirements the court established for her to sail. In August, Dutch authorities placed Dekker under state care for two months, following her parents' refusal to prevent her from undertaking the potentially dangerous voyage. Dekker is seeking to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. The current record holder is 17-year-old British teenager Mike Perham who completed his nine-month voyage in August.","highlights":"Dutch court rules 14-year-old Laura Dekker cannot embark upon solo sailing trip .\nPlans to ensure Dekker's safety during planned trip insufficient Judge said .\nDutch authorities placed Dekker under state care in August .","id":"9e15060460a6725fc9742aa2310ad005441421f8"} -{"article":"FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Shin Fujiyama's life has been highlighted by second chances. Shin Fujiyama's organization, Students Helping Honduras, has raised more than $750,000. Born in a fishing village in Japan, Fujiyama, 25, recalls a childhood dominated by health concerns. Doctors told his parents that he had a hole in his heart and \"they didn't think I had lot longer to live.\" But during a later visit to the doctor, Fujiyama says, his family learned the hole had closed. \"Somehow I was cured and I became a normal kid,\" Fujiyama says. \"And I had a second chance.\" During his sophomore year at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, he volunteered in Honduras with a campus group and was struck by the extreme poverty he saw -- barefoot children collecting cans and sleeping in the streets. Fujiyama says he realized he could help give other children their own second chance. Today, his organization, Students Helping Honduras, brings education and community projects to children and families in need through student service trips and fundraisers. Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes . \"Seeing the country and being able to make a difference really opened my eyes to a lot of things,\" he says. \"I saw such a great need. I wanted to keep helping.\" He started by telling his friends about his experience and collecting spare change at his two campus jobs, but Fujiyama found that organizing other students didn't happen so easily. \"When I had my very first meeting, I got all dressed up. And only two people showed up,\" he says. \"I knew I had to keep fighting.\" He enlisted his younger sister, Cosmo, then a student at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, to the cause. \"She's dynamite,\" he says. \"When she talks in front of a crowd, she can move mountains. Knowing that she was behind it, I knew I could do anything.\" Since 2006, the siblings' grass-roots campaign to help Honduras has grown to 25 campuses and raised more than $750,000 to fund projects, including the construction of two schools and the establishment of scholarships to help young women attend college. Fujiyama says students are deeply committed to the organization because they are involved on every level: They raise money and then travel to Honduras to help build houses. \"We make friends with all the kids, all the families -- no matter where we're from. We've had people from all over the world come to Honduras with us. And it's a great network we've made,\" he says. Watch Fujiyama and his group in action \u00bb . While Fujiyama spends his summers in Honduras working alongside volunteers, he spends a large portion of the year on the road visiting colleges to organize chapters and raise funds. Cosmo Fujiyama, 23, lives in Honduras full time to coordinate the group's building efforts on the ground. Students Helping Honduras is working with community members of Siete de Abril to build a new village. Many of the families lost their belongings to Hurricane Mitch in 1998. \"A lot of them are single mothers. They don't own the land. They all live in cardboard houses. They don't have access to clean water [or] health care, and they didn't have a school,\" Shin Fujiyama says. Fujiyama's group helped villagers purchase a new plot of land to rebuild. Its members have helped build 44 homes in the village that has been newly named Villa Soleada (\"Sunshine Village\"). The organization also is raising funds to build a water tower, an eco-friendly sanitation system and a library and to help provide electricity. Watch Fujiyama describe how the village came to be \u00bb . For Fujiyama, who deferred medical school to dedicate himself to his mission in Honduras, the lifestyle is a far cry from private practice, but he says he loves what he is doing. Watch Fujiyama describe how a second chance and a trip to Honduras changed his life \u00bb . \"I feel like we're making a huge impact. Some people might think that you have to be somebody famous or a millionaire or a doctor to do something,\" he says. \"But we're just everyday students -- people in their 20s. We can do so much. We've got so many things going for us. ... It's just about leveraging what we have. And we have done a great job at that.\" Want to get involved? Check out Students Helping Honduras and see how to help.","highlights":"Shin Fujiyama's Students Helping Honduras aids children and families in need .\nThe campaign has grown to 25 campuses and raised more than $750,000 .\nGroup members are helping to rebuild a village devastated by a 1998 hurricane .\nDo you know a hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com\/Heroes .","id":"83cf64b439d88324c6a809af8698ef743060a2ed"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Grace, Kara and Trichelle were created to fill a void for young black girls who for so long have been playing with dolls that don't look like them. Stacy McBride-Irby, creator of the new Barbie, poses with the dolls. The new black Barbies released by Mattel have fuller lips, curlier hair and other features that the company says more accurately represent African-American women. Some have cheered the new dolls. Others jeered them, saying they're not black enough. \"I love the black Barbie. It's about time,\" Jua Simpson said on CNN's iReport, a user-generated news community. \"But the hair is still a step backwards, since most of our hair is not straight and light brown.\" Others disagree with critics who say the dolls should have had more natural black hairstyles, such as afros or braids. \"Many people have criticized the dolls for either having hair that's too long or too straight, but I have long, straight hair that I straightened. But it's my hair and a part of me,\" said Tanisa Zoe Samuel, an African-American iReporter from the Turks and Caicos, in the Caribbean. \"Black women come in all shades, shapes and varieties that there is just no way to capture everyone with three dolls.\" iReport.com: Samuel shares her thoughts on the new Barbie . The dolls were created by Stacy McBride-Irby, an African-American who watched her daughter play with dolls and wanted to create a doll that looked more like her. McBride-Irby said she has heard the criticism, but she also has received many kudos. \"They mean so much to me because they did come from a positive place,\" McBride-Irby said. \"My daughter loves the dolls. I've had dads thank me for creating this line of dolls that represent their little girls. These dolls are for girls all over the world.\" This is not the first time Mattel has released an ethnic doll that drew criticism. See photos of the black Barbie dolls \u00bb . In 1997, Mattel collaborated with cookie maker Nabisco to create Oreo Fun Barbie. The black version of the doll, which sported an Oreo-shaped purse, was criticized by some who noted that \"Oreo\" is a derogatory term in the black community. The word is used to describe someone who is perceived as black on the outside and white on the inside. For some, the talk about dolls is not just child's play. Some think early play with dolls can affect a girl's self-esteem later in life. Actress Nia Long, who appears in comedian Chris Rock's new documentary, \"Good Hair,\" recently talked about the issue on CNN. \"Historically, the Afrocentric features have not been celebrated,\" Long said. \"This makes us question the integrity of our beauty standard for ourselves.\"","highlights":"New black Barbies have fuller lips, curlier hair, more African-American features .\nSome have cheered the dolls; others have criticized them for being unrealistic .\n\"I love the black Barbie. It's about time,\" said CNN iReporter Jua Simpson .\niReport.com: Share your thoughts on the new black Barbie .","id":"8fed8925a9dd30f749647988c107dca3bb5fa9bf"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Temple Grandin sees her autism as a gift, not a disability. The professor at Colorado State University, who has become a prominent animal rights activist, spoke at the recent TED Conference in California about how people's brains work in different ways -- and how that's something that should be appreciated, not stigmatized. Grandin, for instance, thinks in pictures, \"like Google for images,\" she said. She also grabs hold of details, a brain function she feels could help politicians. \"I get satisfaction out of seeing stuff that makes real change in the real world,\" she said. \"We need a lot more of that and a lot less abstract stuff.\" Video: Watch Grandin's talk at the TED Conference . One of her biggest real-world accomplishments, she said, was when a mother recently told her that her autistic child had gone to college because of Grandin's inspiration. Grandin's life also is the subject of a new HBO film, in which she's played by actress Claire Danes.","highlights":"Temple Grandin is a professor at Colorado State University who is autistic .\nShe sees autism as a gift, not a disability .\nGrandin: My mind works \"like Google for images\"\nGrandin is the subject of an HBO film starring Claire Danes .","id":"84c61d6281925406a282bc0407bddd89a07a4904"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An American soldier in Iraq has been sentenced to two years in military prison on child pornography charges, the U.S. military said Tuesday. At a general court-martial Monday at Baghdad's Camp Victory, Army Pvt. James R. Bickerstaff pleaded guilty to attempted possession of child pornography and communicating indecent language to a child under 16. Bickerstaff also received a bad-conduct discharge. The soldier was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, in August 2006 when he \"engaged in a discussion with a 12-year-old girl in an attempt to initiate physical contact of a sexual nature,\" the military said. In April and May, he downloaded pornographic videos to a personal laptop and an iPod and attempted to download child pornography, the military said. Bickerstaff is with Charlie Company, 1-16th Infantry Battalion, 787th Combat Service Support Battalion, 507th Corps Support Group, at Al Asad Air Base. E-mail to a friend .","highlights":"Soldier stationed in Iraq convicted in court-martial .\nPrivate solicited sexual contact with girl, 12, military says .\nSoldier gets two years in military prison, bad-conduct discharge .","id":"dbd0f4e3acbd58b298b83c93ef6b5bcf4100c0a1"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl on the campus of Richmond High School in Northern California while 10 or more witnesses, most of them students, looked on has sparked familiar questions: \"Why are our kids so messed up?\" \"Why didn't these students try to stop the crime?\" \"What's happening in our schools?\" These are fair questions, and commentators in the media have provided familiar answers. The purported rape is another sad example of today's self-absorbed and uncaring youth. It was the media's glorification of violence that caused it. The horrific act shows how sociopathic brains develop. But it seems as if the majority of commentators have settled on the idea that the Richmond students did nothing because of the \"bystander effect\": The more people involved in a criminal incident, the less likely any one of them will intervene to do something about it. Unfortunately, this \"What's wrong with our children?\" approach leads to a dead end, because it results in a sweeping moral condemnation of the schools, families and students in this community. These perpetrators committed a heinous act that should be widely condemned. But a discussion that focuses exclusively on the immorality of these deviant young men does not provide solutions that prevent gang rape from happening. Talking only about the bystander effect wrongly suggests that the vast majority of teens would not call for help. Take Richmond. Claims of depraved acts by a few kids have served to demonize an entire student community. Rather than demonize all teenagers in Richmond High School, we should be asking another question: \"What can we do to prevent such heinous acts from happening?\" The answer to that question leads to a wholly different kind of dialogue, one that may surprise. It is primarily students, the reputed problem, who can best prevent acts of violence on campus. Make no mistake about it. The alleged two-hour-long gang rape on October 24 was an extreme form of school violence. It unfolded not far from the gym where the school-sponsored homecoming dance, supervised by school staff and police officers, was being held. And students, police say, largely perpetrated it. Research since the massacres at Columbine High School (1999) and Virginia Tech (2007) has taught us a lot about how to prevent such school violence. Chief among them is that school staff and security should patrol campuses, especially violence-prone areas, during and after school events. According to a CNN report, a friend of the alleged victim saw blatant failures in safety precautions. She said, \"I looked outside of the gym, and I saw 12 to 15 guys, sitting there, with no IDs. The officers -- not only did they not check the IDs of those students or men sitting outside of of our campus, but the security officers who are employed here did no job of checking either.\" Virtually all students and teachers at a school can identify these dangerous hot spots. At Richmond High School, one such spot is \"a dark alley near the back side of the school,\" the site of the purported rape. As CNN reported, school officials had even requested that video cameras and more lights be installed in the area, but they were never installed. The alleged rapists and student bystanders probably knew that no one would be patrolling the area. As important as campus patrols are in reducing campus violence, the most powerful form of prevention is believing that students can help stop crime from happening. They didn't stop the purported rape at Richmond, a skeptic might say. A possible reason is that they were not educated on how to stop it. . Research shows us that students often know ahead of time when and where violence will flare up on campus. Strong social networks and the widespread use of cell phones and text messaging rapidly convey such information. This dynamic can fuel violence, as officials say it did at Richmond High School. It can also prevent violence. Thousands of potential school crimes, including violent ones, have been averted on campuses across the country because students alerted school officials before the crime occurred. Students and families using a hot line in Colorado were credited with preventing more than 206 incidents of school violence from 2004-06. As of summer 2009, this one hot line fielded 1,687 reports that resulted in crime prevention or intervention. Alert students have also helped prevent replays of the tragedies that occurred at Columbine and Virginia Tech by tipping off school officials. Several years ago, student reports stopped a Columbine-style massacre plot, employing bombs, napalm and automatic weapons, at a high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This year, tips from students and alert teachers and police disrupted a student-massacre plot, featuring pipe bombs and firearms, at Hillside High School in San Mateo, California. Since Columbine, school shootings have been averted in New Bedford, New York, and Covina, California, to name some others. And at Richmond, it was an 18-year-old bystander, overhearing others talking about the incident, who reported the crime. Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware of these frequently heroic acts by high school students and their teachers because they don't often get national media attention. That lack of information has helped obscure the important roles that students and their responsive teachers play in preventing school violence. But the evidence is clear. Students who know what to do when they witness school violence, or when they have a strong sense of impending violence, will become anonymous heroes. But they need to be taught what to do, which phone numbers -- including hot lines -- to call and which school officials or police department can be trusted to act on their reports. Students also need to feel confident that they can report trouble without fear of retribution from their peers or being called a snitch. It is up to the teachers and administrators who run schools to teach their students these procedures. They need to convince students that they will listen and respond consistently to their reports of violence or possible violence. Yes, local police need to develop trusting relationships with students and the overall community, or nothing will be reported. But the job of preventing violence on campus belongs primarily, if not solely, to the schools. Rather than wring our hands about the so-called immorality of today's students, we should embrace them as full partners in the prevention of violence on campus. Morality is not the issue. If students are educated on what to do when the threat of violence arises and are encouraged to follow the procedures, they can be trusted to do the right thing. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ron Astor.","highlights":"Commentators focused on why students didn't report alleged rape, Astor says .\nStudies of school violence show ways it can be prevented, he says .\nAstor: Training can prepare students to alert police and avert violence .","id":"8d03d31442450b5f063f31bd2d89a1cc21ac11c3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A mother's plot to blame a stranger for killing her sons went awry when one of the boys survived and told police how Michelle Kehoe cut his throat, then moved on to his younger brother, an Iowa prosecutor said Thursday. Police found the 7-year-old covered in dried blood in the family van the morning of October 27, 2008, in a secluded area near a pond east of Littleton. Beside the van, his 2-year-old brother lay dead, his throat also slashed. \"She cut me,\" the boy said in a high-pitched voice in an audio recording that was played Thursday in Kehoe's first-degree murder trial. Kehoe, of Coralville, Iowa, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and child endangerment causing serious injury. Before the trial, her lawyers filed a notice of intent to present an insanity defense, according to court records. Kehoe's lawyers chose to reserve their opening arguments for the start of their case. Dressed in a blue and white striped blouse, Kehoe frowned as she listened to her son's voice on the recording, occasionally bowing her head. The boy had locked himself in the van overnight after his mother slashed him and his younger brother the previous day and left them for dead, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Andrew Prosser said in his opening statement. Kehoe then walked to a nearby pond and attempted to kill herself by slashing her throat with the same weapon, a camouflage-handle Winchester hunting knife she bought the month before, Prosser said. When it became apparent she was not going to die, the prosecutor said, she staggered half a mile down the road to the nearest home and told a story she'd concocted weeks before of how a stranger abducted the family, killed her sons and tried to kill her. But when authorities went searching for the stranger, they instead found her 7-year-old son in the car and his younger brother dead outside the driver's side. \"Do you know where you're injured at?\" Deputy Stephen Peterson asked the boy in the recording. \"Just my throat,\" the boy said. \"Who did that to you?\" \"My mom.\" The boy said his mother also put duct tape over his eyes, nose and mouth, but that he pulled them off after his mother left him. \"She was hurting my baby brother,\" he said. Kehoe began plotting the attack the month before with the purchase of the knife and the duct tape, Prosser said. She allegedly chose the date of the incident to coincide with when her husband, Gene, was scheduled to take a yoga class, telling him they were going to visit her mother at a nursing home in Sumner. Police also say they found signs of a cover-up at the scene, including pieces of a first-aid kit scattered around the scene and a handwritten note documenting the attack, Prosser said. The note detailed how a man broke into the car when the family stopped at a gas station and forced them to the area where the van was found. Kehoe tried to fight him off with pepper spray but he knocked her unconscious, the note said, according to the prosecutor. Police said Kehoe later told them she had written the note in the midst of the attack to explain what had happened to those who would find the scene, according to the prosecutor. \"And the note, which you'll see, ends with, 'Oh no, here he comes again...' \" Prosser told the jury. Kehoe faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder for her son's death.","highlights":"Michelle Kehoe slashed sons' throats, left them for dead, tried to kill herself, prosecutor says .\nIowa jury hears tape of surviving boy telling police his mother cut him, hurt brother .\nProsecutors say Kehoe hatched plan month before to blame attacks on stranger .\nKehoe's lawyers have filed a notice of intent to present an insanity defense .","id":"ba7df697f03cc017f5235c3b580ac6bb6ed33cbd"} -{"article":"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Just as police were starting a manhunt in the killing of four people, the suspect drove back to the crime scene in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. Richard Ringold is accused of shooting five people in the home he lived in. \"He was in the Dodge Intrepid that we told the media to look out for,\" said Gwinnett County police Cpl. Illana Spellman. \"He pulled up and said he heard we were looking for him. We handcuffed him.\" The man, Richard Ringold 44, is accused of shooting five people in the home he lived in. Two women and one man died at the residence near the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, Spellman said. A woman in her 20s died later at a hospital, she said. The fifth victim, a 4-year-old child, underwent surgery late Thursday, and another person escaped unharmed, Spellman said. Police were initially working on a theory that the shootings could have been related to an ongoing domestic violence issue, she said. It was believed that Ringold was dating one of the women who lived in the home, Spellman said. He was arrested on four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. Gwinnett County is northeast of Atlanta. -- CNN's Lateef Mungin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Four of five people shot are dead; fifth victim underwent surgery late Thursday .\nSuspect Richard Ringold heard police sought him and returned to crime scene .\nRingold faces four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault .","id":"8acd594ae3007b6fc2b2a4bb6206b9d62a96a0e6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Life goes on for people who jump out of airplanes, even a day after two fellow parachutists died when their canopies apparently became entangled. Jumps continue at the Parachute Center, where two parachutists died Sunday. On Monday, the Parachute Center near Lodi, California, was open, just like it is any other day. The two jumpers who died Sunday had taken off from the parachute facility in central California. \"Everybody's sad. Everybody's unhappy,\" said Parachute Center owner Bill Dause. \"But everybody here is here because they enjoy jumping. Neither one of them would have wanted us to shut the doors,\" he said, referring to the jumpers who died Sunday. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call for assistance at 12:53 p.m. Sunday, said Deputy Les Garcia. The sheriff's spokesman confirmed there were two deaths, but referred questions to the Federal Aviation Administration. \"We're investigating,\" said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor, adding that two investigators were on their way to the jump center. The inquiry could take months, Gregor said. \"One of the main things we want to do is get a hold of a video that was supposedly taken,\" Gregor said. The FAA has purview over such issues as how the parachutes were packed -- by whom, when and how -- and whether weather conditions were correctly considered. \"Obviously, in a situation like this, we certainly want to look at how the parachutes were packed,\" he said. \"But it's possible that what happened is beyond our regulatory capability.\" Garcia said he could not identify the two victims. \"The ID and notification of next of kin is pending,\" he said, because \"one of the victims has two names.\" Parachute Center owner Dause and media reports have identified the victims as Robby Bigley and Barbara Cuddy. They were among eight parachutists from a competition team who jumped from an airplane at 9,000 feet to practice making a \"canopy-relative formation,\" a maneuver in which they stacked parachutes near each other to form a wedge, Dause said. \"The last two individuals docking experienced canopy problems,\" Dause said. One jumper's chute rotated into another jumper's canopy and they smacked into a third parachutist, Dause said. The third parachutist managed to wriggle free, Dause said, but the other two remained entangled and spiraled down from 5,000 feet. They were unable to deploy their reserve chutes. They landed in a vineyard, Dause said. One victim was dead at the scene and the other died at a local hospital, reports said. Bigley and Cuddy are listed on the United States Parachute Association Web site as national record holders for formation jumps. Bigley's record jump occurred this year and Cuddy's in 2007. The jump team was preparing for a national competition in October. According to the United States Parachute Association, there were 30 skydiving fatalities last year. No figures were available for this year. The most fatalities occurred in 1998, when 44 people died. The fewest in recent years was in 2007, with 18, according to the association. Dause said there have been previous fatalities at the Parachute Center, but he did not elaborate. \"We've been open for a long time,\" he said.","highlights":"Jumpers die when parachutes tangle during a formation .\nParachutists were part of an 8-person team practicing for competition .\nFAA will investigate how parachutes were packed, possible role of weather .","id":"b40197dd7f7de124c892b34bc03700f71b3da749"} -{"article":"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The highly fortified International Zone in Baghdad came under fire the same day that Vice President Joe Biden paid a surprise visit, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. Vice President Joe Biden talks to the media Tuesday in Baghdad's fortified International Zone. Biden was not injured, according to CNN's Chris Lawrence, who was traveling with the vice president. But at least one round seems to have landed in the U.S. Embassy grounds, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill said. The zone houses the embassy and many government buildings. Lawrence said he heard the blasts but saw no damage. CNN's Cal Perry said he heard four loud \"booms.\" Warning alarms were sounded, and security was stepped up in the International Zone, which is informally known as the Green Zone. It is not clear what weapons were fired or if Biden was near the location where the rounds hit. For security reasons, reporters traveling with the vice president are not allowed to report his location. Watch as Lawrence reports on the attack \u00bb . A U.S. military spokesman said he could confirm only that one round hit, and he said it did not land in the International Zone. \"Initial reports indicate one round of indirect fire impacted near the International Zone, not in it,\" Lt. Col. Phillip Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, told CNN. But Hill told reporters that some sort of projectile landed in the east end of the embassy complex. He said the projectile was the reason for a \"duck-and-cover\" alarm that journalists traveling with Biden heard during a briefing by top U.S. officials in Baghdad. The alarm sounded intermittently throughout almost the entire 35-minute briefing by Hill and the top U.S. general in Iraq, Ray Odierno, Lawrence said. Odierno and Hill did not seem concerned, he said. No one jumped up or tried to run out of the building. They paused if they were talking when the alarm sounded, and picked up when it stopped. There was an \"all-clear\" as the briefing ended. Hill said it is kind of unusual to get this type of attack now. He said they used to happen 10 to 12 times a day, but now are few and far between. Biden's visit was widely reported on Iraqi television, Perry said. He is in Iraq to meet with the country's leaders and visit U.S. troops, his office said. Journalists on the plane with the vice president were not told where they were going until after they were on the way. Biden was due to sit down with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as well as Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and other officials. He was greeted at the airport at dusk by Gen. Odierno, Ambassador Hill and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Watch Biden arrive in Iraq, greet troops \u00bb . He flew by helicopter to the International Zone. Biden, Hill, Odierno and Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg, who is traveling with Biden, then went into a meeting. They did not speak to reporters. This is Biden's third trip to Iraq this year, after visits in July and January. \"The president has asked the vice president to provide sustained, high-level focus from the White House on Iraq, and this trip is part of that mission,\" the White House said in a statement issued as Biden arrived. The United States is less than a year away from its goal of withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq. Hill has said the next 12 months are \"very critical\" to establishing security in Iraq, but the goal of withdrawing most U.S. troops by August 2010 is \"absolutely achievable.\" Biden said Odierno is \"optimistic\" that Iraqi forces will be ready in time to allow U.S. withdrawals to go ahead as planned, according to Lawrence. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Zone not hit, military says; ambassador says projectile landed near embassy .\nVP Joe Biden, on a surprise visit, not injured, according to pool report .\nIt's not clear what arms were fired or if Biden was near location where round hit .\nRocket, mortar fire aimed at area was common in past, but has become much rarer .","id":"fd25cb60c2575ff14c7cf08a0f25918d43c655f7"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A Tennessee man -- accused in a fatal attack at a military recruiting center in Arkansas in June -- wants to plead guilty and claims to have ties to al Qaeda in Yemen in a letter he wrote to the judge presiding over his case. In the handwritten letter dated January 12, Abdul Hakim Muhammad said he did not want a trial and insisted the shooting was \"justified\" under jihad. \"This was a jihadi attack on infidel forces that didn't go as plan,\" he wrote. \"Flat out truth.\" It was not immediately clear whether the judge, Herbert Wright Jr., would accept the plea. Muhammad's lawyer, Claiborne Ferguson, called the letter \"highly inappropriate.\" \"If my client had the intention of pleading guilty, it is misguided and misinformed as to Arkansas law,\" Ferguson said from Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday. \"He can't plead guilty to a capital crime.\" That response is why Muhammad said he decided to bypass his lawyer with a letter to Wright. He wrote that he believed it was \"a lie\" that he could not plead guilty. Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, is charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. The attack happened on June 1 at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas. In June, Muhammad pleaded not guilty to one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act. Before pleading not guilty, Muhammad waived his Miranda rights and gave a video statement indicating political and religious motives, authorities said. He \"stated that he was a practicing Muslim ... that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,\" Detective Tommy Hudson wrote in a police report at the time. Muhammad told police \"he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them,\" according to Hudson's report. In his letter to the judge, Muhammad claimed he had links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, a group that has claimed responsibility for the attempting bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day. \"My lawyer has no defense,\" he wrote. \"I wasn't insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this act. Which I believe and it is justified according to Islamic laws and the Islamic religion jihad -- to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.\" CNN's Charley Keyes contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attorney: Man suspected in 2009 recruiting center shooting writes to judge, pleads guilty .\nIn letter, Abdul Hakim Muhammad claims to have ties to al Qaeda in Yemen .\nMuhammad accused of killing soldier, wounding another on June 1 in Little Rock, Arkansas .","id":"8388ef8430907f4332fd08fe1825e37c430993a3"} -{"article":"PANAMA CITY, Panama (CNN) -- A helicopter crashed into a building in Panama City on Thursday, killing 11 of the 12 people aboard, including Chile's federal police chief, a Panamanian government official said. The incident occurred during the afternoon in a commercial zone of the city as the Panamanian helicopter was carrying several Panamanian police officials and six members of a group from Chile. They had been attending a regional forum in the city of Colon, the official said. Witnesses said a rotor blade hit a three-story building, causing the helicopter to fall in a ball of fire. Several people on the ground were burned, and the building -- which houses a clothing store -- also caught fire. Watch emergency workers at the scene \u00bb . It took firefighters hours to control the flames and to keep the blaze from spreading to other buildings. \"The principal problem is the smoke and the toxic gases; that's what makes the work more difficult,\" said Cecilio Lasso, one of the firefighters. Chilean police chief Gen. Jose Alejandro Bernales and his wife were among the dead, the official said. A delegation from Chile was expected to arrive late Thursday to help identify the bodies. No cause was immediately identified for the crash. \"It's an old but well-maintained helicopter,\" said Daniel Delgado Diamante, minister of government and justice. \"It was in good shape. Of course, now there will be a process of validating that.\" The Chilean government has declared three days of mourning.","highlights":"11 of 12 people on helicopter were killed, including Chile's national police chief .\nIncident occurred during the afternoon in a commercial zone of Panama City .\nWitnesses said a blade of the rotor hit a three-story building .\nNo cause of the crash was immediately identified .","id":"5b81187fdefa59a9dcac4a2848b23825be72dab9"} -{"article":"NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) -- Raymond J. Clark III, charged with murder in the death of Yale graduate student Annie Le, was smart, amiable and loved his dog, say those who knew him. Raymond Clark III was arrested Thursday and charged with murder in the death of Annie Le. One researcher said he often went by the lab in the Yale School of Medicine building where Le was found strangled and stuffed in a wall. Lufeng Zhang worked with Clark, he said, and thinks the police may have the wrong man. \"He's a nice man, always,\" he said. Clark, 24, the same age as Le, was a technician in the school of medicine's Animal Resources Center. While Le, who was pursuing a doctorate in pharmacology, conducted experiments on mice, Clark took care of the rodents and cleaned their cages. Police will not say whether Clark and Le were acquainted or why they homed in on Clark after Le went missing September 8, less than a week before she was scheduled to marry a Columbia University graduate student who was her college sweetheart. Watch police announce arrest \u00bb . \"They work in the same building, passed in the hallways,\" New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said of Le and Clark. \"Anything beyond that, I won't talk about.\" Though details of the investigation are scant, police said they arrested Clark on Thursday and charged him with Le's murder after collecting more than 250 pieces of evidence. Clark was an honor student at Branford High School in suburban New Haven. He graduated in 2004, and according to the school's yearbook, he was a member of the Asian Awareness Club his senior year. High school friend Lisa Heselin remembers Clark \"as a jokester, kind of a class clown,\" she said. \"Everybody knew him. Everybody liked him.\" She and others who knew Clark in high school are shocked that he was arrested in connection with Le's murder, she said. Watch what acquaintances say about Clark \u00bb . \"They can't believe it, and then, of course, you're reminiscing, like, 'Oh my God, remember when we went over to his house and we all hung out?' You don't expect somebody you grew up with to be involved in something like this,\" Heselin said. Maurice Perry, who said he has been friends with Clark since first grade, told CNN on Thursday night that he doesn't believe his longtime pal is guilty. \"This is not the Raymond Clark that I know,\" he said. \"I've known him so long, I just can't picture him doing something like this.\" Asked if he ever knew Clark to be violent, Perry replied, \"Not at all. I've known him to be outgoing, happy, athletic, fun. Violent, not at all.\" Most of his current neighbors in Middletown, about 30 miles northeast of New Haven, said they moved in after Clark or knew him only in passing. Many said he shared the second-floor apartment with his girlfriend and a dog. Police said he drove a Ford Mustang, which was seized as evidence. Neighbor Ashley Rowe described Clark as \"decent\" and said he asked a lot of questions when he spoke to people and wanted to know their full names and where they were from. Rowe also remembered the first time she met his dog. \"His dog was very excited and he was just like, 'Oh, don't worry. He's friendly.' You could pet him,\" she said. \"Pretty much, he just loved his dog and he walked around with his dog all the time.\" Police arrived at his apartment Tuesday night to collect DNA samples and released him into the custody of his lawyer early Wednesday. Neighbors say they didn't see him return to the apartment. See investigation's timeline \u00bb . Clark was arrested early Thursday at a Super 8 motel in nearby Cromwell. There were reports that Clark was scheduled to wed his roommate and girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, also a lab technician in Yale's Animal Resources Center, in December 2011. CNN could not confirm the report, and an Internet wedding page purportedly announcing the impending nuptials had been taken down Thursday. Hromadka's MySpace page was private as of Tuesday evening, but several media outlets reported she had posted messages about Clark last year after hearing a \"rumor of a fling.\" \"My boyfriend, Ray, if you don't know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at [the Yale Animal Resources Center] as anything more than friends,\" she reportedly wrote. She said Clark had a \"big heart\" and tried to see the best in people, even if he didn't always make the best decisions. \"He is a bit naive, doesn't always use the best judgment, definitely is not the best judge of character, but he is a good guy,\" she reportedly wrote.\"He thinks everyone deserves a second chance and has a hard time hurting people's feelings, and it takes him getting burned to learn.\" Watch reporter, profiler discuss case \u00bb . Perry, Clark's friend since first grade, said he hadn't spoken to Clark in some time, but would send him a letter. \"I have always wanted to catch up with him, but I didn't want this to happen for me to try to find out how he was doing,\" he said. Clark is being held on $3 million bond, Lewis said, but he would not provide details of what prompted Clark's arrest or whether DNA linked Clark to Le's murder. He said Clark's arrest warrant was sealed, so he was prohibited from discussing the evidence. Yale President Richard Levin said the school's administration is \"relieved\" by the news of an arrest, but warned, \"We must resist the temptation to rush to judgment.\" CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Mary Snow, Tom Foreman and Larry King contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Longtime friend says Raymond Clark III \"outgoing, happy, athletic, fun\"\nAnother friend says she remembers him \"as a jokester, kind of a class clown\"\nClark charged with murder of Annie Le, who was found dead on her wedding day .\nGirlfriend reportedly defended Clark on MySpace after \"rumor of a fling\" last year .","id":"2d09753456e494c0c1eb474d232aaccf7161619d"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A 7-year-old boy from El Paso, Texas, was gunned down across the border in the violent city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office told CNN Tuesday. Raul Xazziel Ramirez had been visiting his father in Juarez on Friday evening when unknown gunmen fired on their vehicle at a roundabout, spokesman Arturo Sandoval said. At least 18 rounds from a 9 mm weapon were shot at the white 2000 Geo Tracker driven by Ramirez's dad, Sandoval said. The father, Raul Ramirez Alvarado, 35, died in the driver's seat. The younger Raul escaped from the vehicle, but was apparently shot in the back, Sandoval said. The boy's body fell forward in front of the vehicle. The shooting happened just before 8 p.m. Friday. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday, the spokesman said. Raul Xazziel Ramirez was a third-grader at Glen Cove Elementary School in El Paso, Ysleta Independent School District spokeswoman Patricia Ayala told CNN. \"It's a senseless tragedy that we're trying to come to terms with,\" she said. According to El Paso County records, Raul was just three weeks shy of his eighth birthday when he was killed. The boy lived with his aunt and uncle in El Paso, Ayala said. It was the first semester that Raul was registered with the district. Raul's classmates were spared the details of his death, but the school was nonetheless shocked at the boy's passing. Grief counselors were made available for both students and teachers, Ayala said. More than 2,200 killings have been recorded this year in Ciudad Juarez, out of a population of approximately 1.5 million people. A bloody turf war between warring drug cartels that started last year has made the city one of the most violent in the world. According to statistics from local prosecutors, Ciudad Juarez records about 10 murders a day. The bloodiest month this year has been September, with 476 killings reported. The violence has not spilled over significantly across the border to El Paso, but as Friday's shooting showed, the pain of one of the sister cities is shared by the other. Because of the ongoing investigation, Sandoval declined to say whether drug cartel activity was suspected in the killings of Raul and his father, but added that at least 90 percent of the city's homicides are drug-related. Raul was not the youngest victim slain this year. In early 2009, a 3-year-old girl was killed together with her father inside a vehicle that was targeted, Sandoval said.","highlights":"NEW: Raul Xazziel Ramirez was just three weeks shy of his eighth birthday, records show .\nRamirez was killed Friday along with his father in Ciudad Juarez.\nThe boy managed to escape the vehicle but was shot in the back, police say .\nMore than 2,200 slain this year in Juarez; Ramirez was not the youngest .","id":"941637011843300963c1626945f5fd1cb20fb6c2"} -{"article":"Vancouver, British Columbia (CNN) -- The tragic death of a trainer at Sea World last week revived a number of long simmering questions. While we still grapple with \"how did this happen?\" the central question for many revolves around the role of large mammals -- like Tilikum the killer whale -- in zoos and aquariums: Should they be there or not? Animals in zoos, aquariums and museums play an important and powerful part in our cultural and formal educational processes. Humans are inherently interested in nature. We are not very far removed from a time when being knowledgeable about nature was vital to life; you either knew how to find your dinner or you were dinner. Today, with well over 50 percent of our populations living in cities, we are rapidly becoming divorced from the realities of the animal world. The dialogue we see in the media, read on blogs and hear in conversation makes it clear that many people have lots of ideas about what's happening in our natural world, much of it not correct. This lack of knowledge is concerning in a world beset by environmental problems, where species are disappearing at an alarming rate. We need people to understand the changes taking place in our natural systems and appreciate that each of our actions has an impact. More interest and knowledge, not less, is essential. Zoos and aquariums provide access and a vital connection to the world of wildlife and our environment, helping to foster an understanding of nature and how it works, and an appreciation for why it matters. Most professionally operated zoos and aquariums, such as those accredited by the Canadian or American Associations of Zoos and Aquariums, are dedicated to increasing engagement and raising awareness and participation in conservation issues. They conduct active programs that aid species survival, research and conservation, both at their public display facilities and in the field. The Vancouver Aquarium has operated our Marine Mammal Rescue (MMR) program since the mid 1960s. Each year, hundreds of marine mammals are rescued from situations of distress and rehabilitated by our dedicated team of staff and volunteers, led by our veterinarian. Their goal is to return marine mammals to good health so they can be released back to the ocean. The Vancouver Aquarium has not had killer whales on exhibit since 2001. However, our orca research continues in the field with experts working off the British Columbia coast to observe and study social interaction, behaviors, migrations, and feeding patterns. We do have beluga whales, including two calves born recently. Belugas are ideally suited to an aquarium environment. The calves' births have allowed researchers to study the social structure of a beluga family, and in collaboration with the University of British Columbia we have conducted beluga vocalization studies since 2002 to understand contact calls and other forms of communication between these beautiful and communicative animals. As our visitors see beluga whales and learn about their communication, natural history and the challenges they face due to climate change in the Arctic, a unique chain is created, moving from initial amazement of observing these creatures to the inspiration to care about them and finally to take action, in large or small ways, to protect their future by conserving their natural environment. We see our role as more important now than ever before. The time of simply displaying animals merely as curiosities is, thankfully, over. Our aquarium, and many others like it, represents often the only -- and the best -- opportunity for urbanites (particularly youth) to establish a connection with the natural world of animals. Sadly, many of us will never experience the joy and wonder of encountering animals in their natural habitat. But can get learn about them up close and personal in a modern and reputable aquarium or zoo. If you have had the good fortune to spend time in such an institution, and have seen the sense of awe and wonder on the faces of youngsters meeting a sea otter, for example, for the first time, you'll know what this is all about. What's more, having access to, and learning about, Tilikum and other whales in aquariums and marine parks since such amazing creatures were first displayed in the mid-1960s, has totally changed people's perceptions about them. Before then, killer whales were feared, termed \"wolves of the sea\", and even had a bounty on their heads in some places; being able to see them personally helped spark people's curiosity and interest. The resulting change in public perception was dramatic and swift, leading to their protection by the U.S. government in the 1970s under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Today, most people revere killer whales and understand a great deal more about the challenges this species faces around the world -- with overfishing depleting their food supply, the impacts of climate change and pollution threatening their environment and their ultimate survival. With so many changes confronting nature and the animals that make it their home, human understanding and appreciation is critical. Animals that people are privileged to see in professional zoos, aquariums and similar institutions are vital to engagement, inspiration and conservation. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dr. John Nightingale.","highlights":"John Nightingale says death of whale trainer raises questions about displaying captive animals .\nUrbanization make zoos, aquariums vital to education, understanding, he says .\nSuch institutions show why preserving environments is important, he says .\nNightingale: Seeing creatures up close makes people more inclined to conservation .","id":"01b7ed864e966ca34db640a774a8288988f84ba3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- \"The LHC is back,\" the European Organization for Nuclear Research announced triumphantly Friday, as the world's largest particle accelerator resumed operation more than a year after an electrical failure shut it down. Restarting the Large Hadron Collider -- the $10 billion research tool's full name -- has been \"a herculean effort,\" CERN's director for accelerators, Steve Myers, said in a statement announcing the success. Update: First collisions at the LHC on Monday . Experiments at the LHC may help answer fundamental questions such as why Albert Einstein's theory of relativity -- which describes the world on a large scale -- doesn't jibe with quantum mechanics, which deals with matter far too small to see. Physicists established a circulating proton beam in the LHC's 17-mile tunnel at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) Friday, CERN said, a critical step towards getting results from the accelerator. \"It's great to see beam circulating in the LHC again,\" said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. \"We've still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we're well on the way.\" Located underground on the border of Switzerland and France, the LHC has been inching towards operation since the summer. It reached its operating temperature -- 271 degrees below zero Celsius -- on October 8 and particles were injected on October 23. Now that a beam is circulating, the next step is low-energy collisions, which should begin in about a week, CERN said. High-energy collisions will follow next year. The collider has been dogged by problems. It made headlines early this month when a bird apparently dropped a \"bit of baguette\" into the accelerator, making the machine shut down. The incident was similar in effect to a standard power cut, said spokeswoman Katie Yurkewicz. Had the machine been going, there would have been no damage, but beams would have been stopped until the machine could be cooled back down to operating temperatures, she said. The collider achieved its first full-circle beam last year on September 10 amid much celebration. But just nine days later, the operation was set back when one of the 25,000 joints that connect magnets in the LHC came loose and the resulting current melted or burned some important components of the machine, Myers said. The faulty joint has a cross-section of a mere two-thirds of an inch by two-thirds of an inch. \"There was certainly frustration and almost sorrow when we had the accident,\" he said. Now, \"people are feeling a lot better because we know we've done so much work in the last year.\" Mark Wise, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, said he's just as excited about the results that will come out of the LHC as he was last year and views the September 2008 accident as a delay rather than a devastating event. Wise noted that Tevatron, the collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, has also had its share of failures but is generally considered to work just fine. \"It's a horribly complicated piece of equipment, it's not like there's not going to be problems along the way,\" he said. \"They will surmount those problems.\" The LHC will probably be in operation more than 20 years, Myers said. But it won't be that long before scientists could potentially discover new properties of nature. The as-yet theoretical Higgs boson, also called \"the God particle\" in popular parlance, could emerge within two or three years, Myers said. Evidence of supersymmetry -- the idea that every particle has a \"super partner\" with similar properties in a quantum dimension (according to some physics theories, there are hidden dimensions in the universe) -- could crop up as early as 2010. For some theoretical physicists such as Wise, finding the Higgs boson and verifying every prediction of the Standard Model of physics would be the worst outcome. He wants the LHC to deliver surprises, even if that means no Higgs. \"When push comes to shove, the name of the game is 'what is nature,' and we're not going to know until our experimental colleagues tell us,\" Wise said. ATLAS and CMS are the general-purpose experiments designed to find the Higgs boson and other rare particles that have never been detected before. ALICE, another experiment, will explore the matter that existed some 10 microseconds after the Big Bang, said John Harris, professor of physics at Yale University and national coordinator of ALICE-USA. At that time, there was a \"hot soup\" of particles called quarks and gluons at a temperature of around 2 trillion degrees above absolute zero, he said. Although they have never been directly seen, these particles are theoretically the building blocks of the bigger particles -- protons, neutrons and electrons -- that form the universe as we know it. CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this report.","highlights":"LHC restarted more than a year after being shut down by electrical fault .\nThe full scientific program for the LHC wil probably last more than 20 years .\nThe LHC will look for the Higgs boson, quarks, gluons and other small particles .\nRestarting $10B research tool described as \"herculean effort\"","id":"1a022047c638cdc1a9530d2c382e5efa845d4a86"} -{"article":"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Health officials on Friday reported a slight decrease in H1N1 flu activity nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 43 states now have widespread flu activity, compared with 46 states last week and 48 states at the beginning of November. \"It's still much greater than we would ever see at this time of year,\" Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a news conference. Schuchat added that while some parts of the country are seeing a small decline in flu cases, other areas, including Maine and Hawaii, have seen a bit of a surge. It's too early to know if the worst is over in terms of the flu season, she said. \"Even though we saw a little bit of a decrease this week, it is still higher than the peak activity in many years,\" she said. Flu season doesn't usually start until December. But when the H1N1 virus emerged in April, the spread of the flu never stopped, effectively stretching last year's flu season into the new one. The CDC also said 21 more deaths from H1N1 in children were reported in the past week, bringing the official toll of confirmed pediatric H1N1 deaths in the United States to 171. Schuchat said the number doesn't reflect the true picture. \"We believe the estimates we provided last week give a better picture of the full toll that the virus has taken in the first six months of the pandemic,\" she said. Last week the CDC reported that it estimated 540 children had died from complications of this flu virus so far. In an effort to limit further spread of the virus as millions of Americans begin traveling for the holidays, the CDC has launched a public awareness campaign. Schuchat urged everyone to take simple precautions. \"Travel only when you are well,\" she told reporters. \"Wash your hands often. ... Cover your cough and sneeze with tissues or with your sleeve. ... And get vaccinated against flu, particularly if you're in a targeted population.\" Watch why Santa wants a flu shot . More people will be able to get vaccinated, according to the CDC, because more vaccine continues to be available. States have been able to order a total of 54.1 million doses of H1N1 vaccine so far, Schuchat said. \"That number is 11 million doses more than we were at a week ago.\" In response to a report from Norway that a couple of people died from a mutated form of the H1N1 virus, Schuchat said the CDC is aware that the mutated form had been identified, but that H1N1 vaccine and antiviral medications still are effective against H1N1. Some cases of H1N1 that show resistance to the antiviral Tamiflu have been identified in North Carolina and Wales. But Schuchat said Tamiflu-resistant influenza viruses have been \"quite rare\" so far. Tamiflu doesn't cure the flu, but can reduce symptom severity and duration of illness by about a day if taken within the first day or two of getting sick.","highlights":"43 states have widespread flu activity compared with 48 at beginning of month .\nPrevalence still higher than the peak activity in recent years, CDC says .\nSo far, states have been able to order 54.1 million doses, 11 million more than a week ago .\nCDC cautions against traveling if you're sick; suggests getting vaccine, sneezing into sleeve .","id":"3287f99a23e55ec8da787e73c17cf2f55b719e35"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Judith Boutelle plopped herself down on Wednesday and prayed for a helicopter -- the only way out of town. She's one of the hundreds of tourists stranded by days of heavy rain near the majestic Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, in the mountains of southern Peru. The rain triggered mudslides that blocked a rail line leading out of a city near the ruins. Authorities have evacuated many by helicopter, but bad weather has posed challenges for them. \"There's stress,\" Boutelle said by phone to CNN, \"but we're comfortable.\" She and her husband, Jerry -- 65-year-olds from Petersburg, Illinois -- went to Peru to see the famous ruins. They've been stuck in a town near the ruins for the last three days, waiting for choppers to whisk them out. News reports say the rain and floods have killed at least seven people in the region, including a tourist from Argentina. An estimated 10,000 people have been affected by the rain and 2,000 homes have been ruined in and around Machu Picchu, authorities said. James Fennell, spokesman of the U.S. Embassy in Lima, told CNN the Peruvians are saying about 2,000 people need to be evacuated from the region. Several hundred tourists have been stranded in Aguas Calientes, a town at the base of popular tourist attraction. There also have been reports of stranded people on the Inca Trail, a popular hiking trail that leads to Machu Picchu. Peru's Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Martin Perez said Wednesday that the elderly, children and pregnant women have priority for evacuation. He denied reports of preferential treatment for foreigners, saying 103 of 475 tourists evacuated Tuesday were Peruvian. Watch iReport account of Peru flooding . Quoted by state media, Perez said authorities were planning to evacuate 120 tourists an hour but need \"the weather's help.\" He said authorities could evacuate 840 tourists if they could get seven hours of decent weather. On Wednesday, poor weather threatened the ability of authorities to conduct evacuations, he said, and the forecast calls for rain through Friday. Fennell said some Americans might have left by Peruvian aircraft on Monday and 50 were evacuated by U.S. and Peruvian choppers on Tuesday. He said that as of Wednesday, officials estimate about 200 U.S. citizens were in Aguas Calientes. Fennell said four U.S. government helicopters arrived on Tuesday and two more were expected to help Peru in the evacuation. The Peruvian helicopters can accommodate up to 20 people but the U.S. aircraft carry only five. Peru also is bringing in food and water to the region, Fennell said. \"The evacuation operations were planned to continue today, weather permitting. The embassy is totally focused on getting Americans out,\" he told CNN. \"We're very grateful for their efforts,\" Fennell said of the Peruvian government. \"We're totally focused on working with them and getting everybody out quickly and safely.\" The embassy says that the train to and from Cusco and Machu Picchu has been canceled because of landslides, and the roads in and out of Machu Picchu have been closed. One bridge had collapsed and water has covered the other. \"Peruvian authorities are working to open a route out of Machu Picchu,\" the embassy said in a message. Cusco is the closest major city to Machu Picchu. That's where Pamela Alvarez, 29, works as a receptionist at the Royal Inka Hotel. She said a Brazilian guest went to Machu Picchu, got stuck there with everyone else and has been unable to come back to the hotel for two days. \"All the people are in the train station, waiting for helicopters so they can get out to go to Cusco,\" she said. Boutelle said she and her tour group visited Machu Picchu on Sunday and stayed overnight on Monday, but she hadn't been able to leave since then. She said she and others have been been well-sheltered and well-fed at a hotel, but endured inconveniences. For example, people came to Machu Picchu for the day from their hotels in Cusco without the proper amount of clothing or medication for an extended period. Boutelle said she and her husband are among a handful left from their group, most of whom have been airlifted out. They had hoped to leave on Tuesday after wearily standing in an evacuation line for hours during a chaotic day where people jostled to get on helicopters. But they never made it out and were hopeful that they could leave as soon as possible. \"We hope today, but we're pessimistic about it,\" she said. \"It's going to take a long time to evacuate.\" Several people fretted about the predicament. Roberto Rocafort, a 64-year-old tour manager, said officials in the town haven't been prepared to deal with the eventuality and he said conditions resembled a \"war zone\" for many of the people stranded. News reports say people are sleeping on the street, in gyms, schools, trains and tents. Wearing days-old clothing, sleeping outside, and lacking money and access to proper medications add up to an \"alarming, difficult and scary\" situation, Rocafort said. Rocafort said he's worried food supplies will dwindle greatly in days if help isn't accelerated. \"We need the U.S.A. to help us,\" Rocafort said. Rocafort said that thousands of Argentines enjoying their summertime are in the town. Argentine Consul in Lima Gabriel Volpi said that about 600 Argentine tourists were trapped and that one of them has died. A weather alert has been issued for southern Peru, which has received record rainfall over the past three days, according to the Peruvian national weather service. More rain is expected through Friday, though less than what's already drenched the region. A state of emergency has been declared in southeastern Peru, which includes Machu Picchu, according to Javier Velasquez, the president of Peru's Cabinet. Machu Picchu is the ancient Incan city on a mountain in the Andes, standing nearly 8,000 feet -- 2,340 meters -- above sea level in a tropical mountain forest. Known as the \"Lost City of the Incas,\" Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and draws tens of thousands of international tourists every year. CNN's Claudia Rebaza and Mark Bixler contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Hundreds of tourists are stranded by days of heavy rain in southeastern Peru .\nNEW: Some 10,000 people have been affected and 2,000 homes ruined, authorities say .\nNEW: \"Weather's help\" needed to speed evacuations, Peruvian official quoted as saying .\nMudslides cut train line to ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu .","id":"2f20ab6706aa5e082d0f987a887357544fe8605f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina finally made it official Wednesday: She's running for Senate in California. The first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company made the announcement at an event in conservative Orange County, pledging that her focus will be on \"economic recovery and fiscal accountability\" \"The decisions made in Washington impact every family and every business, of any size, in America. Throughout my career, I've brought people together and solved problems, and that is what I plan to do in government: Set aside ego and partisanship and work to develop solutions to our problems,\" she told supporters. \"I will not settle for a jobless recovery, and we must start the important work of getting our financial house back in order,\" Fiorina added. \"Washington must show discipline to cut spending and create policies that encourage and empower businesses and put people back to work.\" Fiorina, considered to be a moderate Republican with little history on social issues, will face off against conservative California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore for the GOP nomination. In a friendly statement Wednesday, DeVore said he looks forward \"to engaging [her] on the issues Californians care about.\" A recent Field poll suggested that both Fiorina and DeVore polled at about 20 percent, with 60 percent of Republican voters undecided. The ex-Fortune 500 CEO, who left Hewlett-Packard in 2005 with a severance package estimated to be worth between $21.5 million and $40 million, is expected to enjoy a significant financial advantage over DeVore, who entered October with just $144,000 in the bank. The Fiorina-DeVore matchup has all the makings of another Republican battle between the conservative wing of the party and national leaders seeking the most electable candidate. Fiorina has claimed that the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee is backing her bid, though an NRSC spokesman said no official endorsement has been made. Still, NRSC Chairman John Cornyn pointed to Fiorina in September as an example of a \"strong female candidate\" running as a Republican in 2010. A string of conservative bloggers have lined up behind DeVore, and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint said Tuesday that he was backing the assemblyman. The winner of that race will face three-term Sen. Barbara Boxer in November. Boxer's favorable rating stood at 48 percent in a recent Field poll, a number that gives Republicans hope she is vulnerable against a well-funded opponent. Boxer is known to be a formidable political opponent, but Fiorina said Wednesday that she's ready for the challenge. \"After chemothereapy, Barbara Boxer just really isn't that scary any more, especially when you know what to expect,\" said Fiorina, who battled breast cancer last spring. \"She has always taken the low road to high office.\" Though spending most of her life outside of politics, Fiorina is no stranger to the campaign trail, having served as one of then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain's chief surrogates in 2008. Fiorina was eventually sidelined from that campaign after telling an interviewer that she didn't think either member of the GOP presidential ticket was qualified to run a major company. In an election season in which the state's economic condition is set to dominate the debate, Fiorina is now the second high-profile former CEO running for statewide office in California. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman announced last month she is running for governor. National Democrats, meanwhile, appear eager to take on Fiorina, who left Hewlett-Packard five years ago amid controversy. \"The hallmark of Carly Fiorina's r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is her tenure at Hewlett-Packard, where she laid off 28,000 Americans while shipping jobs overseas, just before taking a $21 million golden parachute,\" National Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Eric Schultz said. \"Given that record, the United States Senate is the last place Carly Fiorina should go next.\"","highlights":"Former Hewlett-Packard CEO was first woman to lead Fortune 500 company .\nShe will face off with conservative assemblyman for GOP nomination .\nRecent poll found 60 percent of state's Republican voters undecided .\nWinner will face incumbent Barbara Boxer in November .","id":"d42cfab7081f5d5c32a93464d4c1d59b684e5036"} -{"article":"White Plains, New York (CNN) -- Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik on Thursday pleaded guilty to charges of lying to Bush administration officials who vetted his unsuccessful 2004 nomination to be homeland security secretary. Kerik admitted to eight counts as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, who are recommending a 27- to 33-month prison term. U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson set Kerik's sentencing for February 18. In court papers, prosecutors said Kerik denied to a White House official that there was \"any possible concern\" about his relationships with the contractors involved in renovations to his apartment or that he had any financial dealings with prospective city contractors. Kerik, 54, had been scheduled to go to trial next week on a variety of corruption charges, including allegations that he received and concealed benefits of about $255,000 in renovations to his Riverdale, New York, apartment from a company seeking to do business with the city of New York. He pleaded guilty to that charge and several tax-related counts during Thursday morning's hearing. Robinson said he would take into account Kerik's life and career, which he said \"included good\" as well as wrongdoing. Kerik put his head in his hands at that point. Kerik has spent the past two weeks in jail after a judge revoked his bail. According to court papers released in late October, he violated the terms of his bail by leaking confidential evidence about his case to a lawyer who published the material online. Kerik served as New York police commissioner from 1998 to 2002 -- a tenure that included the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed more than 2,700 people. He spent a brief stint in Iraq training the country's police force after the U.S. invasion in 2003, and was nominated by President George W. Bush for the post of homeland security secretary in 2004. However, he withdrew from consideration after allegations surfaced that he employed a nanny whose immigration status was murky. In 2006, Kerik pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts while he worked as city corrections commissioner, but under a plea agreement he paid $221,000 in fines and avoided jail time. His admission dogged the 2008 presidential campaign of his longtime patron, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said his endorsement of Kerik had been \"a mistake.\" Kerik made an unsuccessful appeal for clemency to Bush in late 2008, according to court papers released in October. CNN's Mary Snow and Julian Cummings contributed to this report.","highlights":"Prosecutors recommend 27- to 33-month sentence for Bernard Kerik .\nFormer NYPD commissioner to be sentenced on February 18 .\nKerik had been scheduled to go on trial next week on several corruption charges .\nHe also indicated he would admit tax violations as part of a plea deal .","id":"1f7662cbb43b169a409b7cb4bd2313df79951acd"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- A series of spooky lights above parts of the northeastern United States Saturday sparked a flurry of phone calls to authorities and television news stations. NASA said strange lights seen in the Northeast on Saturday were caused by an experimental rocket. CNN affiliate stations from New Jersey to Massachusetts heard from dozens of callers who reported that the lights appeared as a cone shape shining down from the sky. However, the lights were the result of an experimental rocket launch by NASA from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, a spokesman told CNN. Keith Koehler said the Black Brant XII Suborbital Sounding Rocket was launched to study the Earth's highest clouds. The light came from an artificial noctilucent cloud formed by the exhaust particles of the rocket's fourth stage about 173 miles high. Natural noctilucent clouds, also called \"polar mesospheric clouds,\" are \"found in the upper atmosphere as spectacular displays that are most easily seen just after sunset,\" according to a NASA statement published earlier in September. \"The clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesosphere around 50 miles altitude.\" Normally, noctilucent clouds are not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen when illuminated by sunlight below the horizon. The launch took place at 7:46 p.m. Saturday, just as the sun was setting for the day. Observation stations on the ground and in satellites will track the artificial noctilucent clouds created by the rocket for months, NASA said. \"Data collected during the experiment will provide insight into the formation, evolution, and properties of noctilucent clouds, which are typically observed naturally at high latitudes. \"In addition to the understanding of noctilucent clouds, scientists will use the experiment to validate and develop simulation models that predict the distribution of dust particles from rocket motors in the upper atmosphere,\" the NASA statement said. CNN's Greg Morrison contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dozens in Northeast report seeing cone-shaped lights in sky .\nNASA says lights came from exhaust particles of research rocket .\nBlack Brant XII rocket will study highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere .","id":"f70b1f6fd03f2feaace9d474c10dd7b31dd47db8"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The suspected link between Chinese drywall and toxic effects reported by thousands of U.S. homeowners was strengthened Monday by three preliminary reports issued by the federal government. The strongest link came from an analysis of air sampled inside dozens of homes containing drywall made in China. \"While the study of 51 homes detected hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde ... at concentrations below irritant levels, it is possible that the additive or synergistic effects of these and other compounds in the subject homes could cause irritant effects,\" the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in its executive summary of the study. Two other preliminary studies found copper sulfide corrosion in metal components taken from homes containing the Chinese drywall. The drywall in question was imported from 2005 through 2007, when a housing boom and two active hurricane seasons created a shortage of building materials in the southern United States. Since then, the product safety agency has received nearly 2,100 reports from 32 states -- but mostly from Florida, Louisiana and Virginia -- of homeowners complaining of a rotten-egg smell, sickness, failed appliances, and corroded wires and pipes. Many have moved out of their homes. In some cases, insurers have refused to reimburse them. The air study tested 41 houses containing Chinese drywall and compared those findings with air from inside 10 homes in the same geographical areas whose homeowners had not complained, said Jack McCarthy, president of Environmental Health & Engineering Inc., which carried out the work. The investigators also examined materials such as copper pipes and wiring for corrosion, and looked at indoor air humidity, temperature and air exchange, he said. Copper and silver strips were left in the homes for two weeks and then examined for corrosion, he said. The result: in the 41 homes containing the problem drywall, there was a \"strong association\" between the high levels of hydrogen sulfide and the corrosion of the metals, he said. \"Temperature, humidity and air-exchange rates also appear to be contributing factors,\" McCarthy told reporters on a conference call, noting that higher moisture and temperature levels and lower air-exchange rates were connected with more corrosion. Formaldehyde, also a potential source of irritation, was found in both complaint and noncomplaint homes, he said. Though McCarthy cautioned that the study was not intended to examine health effects, \"we can say that the levels of the pollutants we found, particularly the hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde, could possibly contribute to some of the health problems that have been reported to the CPSC.\" McCarthy also said that not all Chinese drywall may be alike. Its risk \"depends on what it is made of, not necessarily what country it's from,\" he said. The next step is to determine how to identify homes with the corrosive materials and how to fix them, said Scott Wolfson, the product safety agency's director of information and public affairs, who noted that the investigation is the largest in the agency's history. He said none of the tainted drywall entered the United States this year. Hundreds of thousands of suspect boards have been stockpiled in warehouses; their owners have been told it will not be sold, he added. Several weeks ago, agency representatives traveled to China, where they visited mines, factories and government officials to determine the scope of the problem, which is still not clear, Wolfson said. \"The CPSC is working hard to determine how many homes in how many states are affected,\" he said, adding that the data do not support the widely reported figure of 100,000 homes. Wolfson said the Chinese helped investigate. \"They're committed to helping us with the technical side of this investigation,\" he said. Though the study raises suspicions that the drywall is responsible for the health effects reported by some families, Wolfson said a causal association has not been proved. \"The work continues,\" he said. \"The work toward an exact nexus between drywall and effects is still ongoing.\" Wolfson called on the news media to help alert homeowners in affected houses to report the problem. Some may be hesitant to report because they are afraid their insurers will drop their coverage, he said, but he pointed out that the reports can be made confidentially. \"We will make sure that you are not harmed in any way by reporting to the government,\" he said. Monday's report did not surprise Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, who said the product safety commission's chairwoman, Inez Tenenbaum, told him Monday she did not know when further testing would be completed. \"I am very disappointed with the whole process, and especially that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] can't say whether drywall is harmful to people's health,\" he told CNN. \"Common sense says otherwise, but we still lack definitive answers.\" Joan Glickman, who moved out of her townhouse in Pompano Beach, Florida, after her wiring and air conditioning failed, said Monday's report told her nothing new. \"It was a huge letdown because it still didn't tell me how to fix it, who's going to fix it, how do we go about fixing it, where the money comes from,\" said Glickman, who moved in with her mother. \"This has left us in such a mess.\" CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this story from Miami, Florida.","highlights":"Air samples from 41 homes containing drywall made in China are analyzed .\n\"Strong association\" found between high hydrogen sulfide levels, corrosion in the homes .\nNearly 2,100 reports detail smell, sickness, failed appliances, corrosion in homes .\nDrywall in question was imported during U.S. housing boom, from 2005 through 2007 .","id":"cb0ce455073f3254424fe3222fd1786bf5db7c10"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Refugees at a settlement in southwestern Uganda have barricaded all roads into the camp to protest a food-aid disruption they say has caused the deaths of several children, refugee leaders said Tuesday. \"We have spent three months without any food supplies from government nor from any food relief or humanitarian agency,\" Congolese refugee leader Serugendo Sekalinda said by telephone. The protest began Tuesday after the deaths of three children Monday night, refugees said. Those were the latest of dozens of children who have died in the past two weeks due to hunger, refugee leaders said. But Needa Jehu Hoyah, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency, known as the UNHCR, told CNN by telephone from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that no children have died in the Nakivale settlement, which has tens of thousands of refugees. \"We have a malnutrition program [in Nakivale] for children, [but] no children have died of hunger there,\" she said. The UNHCR, along with the U.N.'s World Food Program and the Ugandan government, will deliver a food shipment to the settlement Wednesday, Hoyah said. Uganda's disaster preparedness and refugees minister, professor Tarsis Kabwejyere, told CNN that the refugees living in that camp -- most of whom fled fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- would have their full rations Wednesday. For a time they've been getting half rations, he said. \"By tomorrow there will be no food crisis at that settlement,\" Kabwejyere said. \"We do our best to make sure humanity survives, even in the hardships in refugee settlements, so people have a reasonable existence.\" The food shortage came about as a result of a disruption in the food supply chain and a shortage of money for food, the minister said. Hoyah agreed that there \"were issues with the food pipeline.\" Protesters at the Nakivale settlement, about 400 kilometers (248 miles) southwest of Kampala and 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the Ugandan border with Tanzania, gathered at the homes where the most recent deaths of children have occurred, Sekalinda said. \"We are demanding to be relocated to another country where we can be protected from death caused by hunger,\" he said. While the settlement's population is composed mainly of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, it also houses refugees from conflicts in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Kenya. Nakivale is the largest and oldest of the five refugee settlements in Uganda, having opened more than two decades ago. People living there are provided small plots of land on which to grow crops, and they often build huts made of mud, water and thatched grass. As many as 155,000 refugees live in all the camps in Uganda, according to the UNHCR. As of January of this year, there were also an estimated 853,000 internally displaced persons, or IDPs, the UNHCR says on its Web site. The IDPs were forced from their villages in the past decade by attacks from the Lord's Resistance Army, which wants to create a democratic government in Uganda based on the Bible's Ten Commandments. Last week, an African Union summit in Kampala endorsed a declaration to end the forceful displacement of people in all of Africa. Delegates to the poorly attended summit also pledged to aid refugees and IDPs by training them in vocational skills so they could find work during and after their forced displacement. Journalist Samson Ntale in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lack of food causing deaths of children, refugees at Ugandan settlement say .\nProtest began after three children died Monday, refugee leader says .\nUnited Nations refugee agency denies any child has died of hunger at Nakivale .\nBut agency acknowledges supply problem, says food coming Wednesday .","id":"fa8d41eacd49716df89d2c94430e0eecbb4db139"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95. Norman Borlaug received a Congressional Gold Medal from then President George W. Bush on July 17, 2007. Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said. A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university. Borlaug started at Texas A&M in 1984, after working as a scientist in a program that introduced scientific techniques for preventing famine in Mexico, according to the university. Until recently, he traveled worldwide working for improvements in agricultural science and food policy, said Kathleen Phillips, a university spokeswoman. Borlaug was known as a champion of high-yield crop varieties, and other science and agricultural innovations to help fight hunger in developing nations. iReport.com: Tour Borlaug's boyhood farm . \"We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted,\" Borlaug said recently in an interview posted on the university's Web site. \"There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is a commonplace, and famine appears all too often.\" He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, according to the university's Web site. The agriculture institute at the university was named after him in 2006. Borlaug also created the World Food Prize, which recognized the work of scientists and humanitarians who have helped fight world hunger through advanced agriculture, the university said. A memorial service will be held at the university at a later date.","highlights":"Borlaug died at the age of 95 from complications caused by cancer .\nIn 1970, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to science .\nHelped develop disease-resistant wheat, worked to ease world food shortages .\nBorlaug: \"There has been great progress.. but famine appears all too often\"","id":"8435150be66ea9792999dfc233cc690f9c2fe2d0"} -{"article":"PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- A judge Tuesday convicted Rudy Guede, a native of the Ivory Coast, in last year's murder of a British woman in Italy and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Briton Meredith Kercher was found dead in her Perugia apartment last November. Judge Paolo Micheli also ruled that adequate evidence exists to try an American woman, Amanda Knox, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, in the killing of Meredith Kercher, said defense attorneys and Francisco Maresca, the lawyer for the victim's family. Their trial will begin December 4. Guede, Knox and Sollecito have all denied wrongdoing. Guede's attorney said he will appeal the conviction and sentence. Kercher, a 21-year-old exchange student at the University of Perugia, was found nearly a year ago, dead in her bed, with a knife wound to her neck. Official reports said Kercher may have been sexually assaulted before she died and that she bled to death. Members of Kercher's family spoke to reporters following the court proceeding. John Kercher Jr., one of the woman's brothers, said it was \"overwhelming\" to be in the same room as Guede when the judge convicted and sentenced him. But Lyle Kercher, a second brother, said that \"pleased\" wasn't the right word for the family's feelings, noting that his sister was murdered. \"Satisfied\" was more appropriate given the circumstances, he said. At his lawyers' request, Guede, hoping for a lesser sentence, received a separate fast-track trial from Knox and Sollecito. Lawyers for Sollecito, 24, and Knox, 21, asked that their clients -- who have been in jail since shortly after the murder -- be allowed to stay under house arrest if indicted. However, Sollecito's attorney, Luca Maori, and Knox's attorney, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said the judge had not ruled on their request. They expect an answer in coming days, they said. Prosecutors allege Guede committed sexual violence against Kercher with the help of Knox and Sollecito. They have said the three then strangled and stabbed the British student and took money, credit cards and cell phones in an attempt to make it look like the crime occurred during a robbery. Guede has admitted being in the villa when Kercher was killed, but has said an unknown assailant killed her while he was out of the room. Police say a bloody footprint from a shoe next to Kercher's body came from Sollecito. They also say investigators found traces of blood belonging to both Knox and Kercher mixed together in a bathroom adjacent to the room where Kercher died. Both Knox and Sollecito have given what prosecutors have said are confusing and contradictory accounts of what happened the night Kercher was killed. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.","highlights":"NEW: Man sentenced to 30 years jail for murder of British student Meredith Kercher .\nJudge orders two others, one American, one Italian to stand trial for alleged roles .\nKercher was found dead in Italian villa last November .\nProsecutors say the three killed her after sexual assault .","id":"8f72fbd618a1d7f73cf1b5f5e556440ac7bd5a25"} -{"article":"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The five Americans arrested in Pakistan amid suspicion that they were plotting terrorist attacks were transferred on Saturday from the small town where they were seized to a more secure location in a larger city, police said. The U.S. citizens were taken from the town of Sargodha, where they were arrested at a home on Wednesday, to Lahore. A police interrogation report dated Thursday focused on one of the suspects, identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni, a 20-year-old born in Virginia. The report said he regularly goes online to watch attacks on the U.S. military in Afghanistan and that he left comments praising the actions. That caught the attention of militants, and he was eventually contacted by a person named Saifullah, the report said. After contact had been made, a Yahoo! e-mail account was set up so the men and militants could communicate, the report says. E-mails were never sent from the account, but people would leave messages in the draft sections of the e-mail account and delete them after reading them, the Pakistani police report said. \"This mode of communication enabled them to pass on messages without fear of interception by the FBI,\" the report said. It said the suspects made a plan with Saifullah to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan. They gathered in Karachi and left for Hyderabad on December 1. They tried to hook up with two militant groups -- Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa -- but neither of them showed interest. The FBI said Pakistani authorities detained the men -- four of whom it said were found to have American passports. Along with Minni, there were snapshots and brief profiles of only four others -- Umar Farooq, Aman Hassan Yemer, Waqar Hussain Khan, and Ramy Zamzam -- all from the Washington D.C. area. The five had been formally arrested. A sixth man -- Khalid Farouk, father of Umar -- had been taken into custody by police in Sargodha and was being questioned at a safe location. Authorities have said Khalid Farouk has not been considered a suspect. CNN's Nasir Habib contributed to this report.","highlights":"Suspected terrorist plotters were moved to a more secure location in Lahore, police said .\nThe 5 U.S. citizens were arrested Wednesday in the town of Sargodha .\nInterrogation report focused on online postings and contacts of Virginia-born suspect .\nAccording to report, suspects planned with a contact to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan .","id":"8f405638de5e5fc0d322bbb144af313c0b123c61"} -{"article":"London, England (CNN) -- Police in London have reached a settlement with the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, whom officers shot dead in 2005, mistaking him for a suicide bomber. The police offered \"a further unreserved apology\" for the death of de Menezes in 2005, plus an undisclosed compensation package, the police and the de Menezes family said in a joint statement. \"All litigation between them arising out of the tragic death of Jean Charles de Menezes has been resolved,\" the statement added. De Menezes was killed on a London Underground train weeks after four suicide bombers struck on the London transport system on July 7, 2005. The controversial shooting of the unarmed Brazilian man sparked a number of investigations, including one that found police acted illegally. A jury found in 2007 that London's Metropolitan Police Service broke health and safety laws in the shooting. It did not examine the cause of death. Jurors at a 2008 inquest found that the police who shot de Menezes did not shout a warning before firing at him. They also found that de Menezes did not advance toward armed officers on the subway train, which would have given them a reason to shoot. But the coroner at the inquest, who acted as the judge, had told the jury members they could not return a verdict of unlawful killing. They returned an open verdict in the case, meaning the jury was unable to establish a cause of death. De Menezes' family called the proceedings a \"whitewash\" because jurors were not allowed to consider a verdict of unlawful killing. De Menezes was killed July 22, 2005, a day after four failed bombings aboard the London transit system. Two weeks earlier, four suicide bombers blew apart three London subway trains and a bus, killing 52 people and wounding 977. The city was on edge as police sought the four failed bombers. Officers staking out a home in south London saw and followed de Menezes, 27, believing he was one of the suspects. They trailed him as he traveled on a bus and into a subway station, where they chased him onto the platform and into a train, and shot him dead. The Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded in 2007 that de Menezes was innocent of anything that might have justified police action. \"We made a most terrible mistake,\" Acting Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said at the time, adding police needed to learn from the incident. \"I am sorry.\" The shooting was one of several issues that led to the resignation last year of Police Commissioner Ian Blair. CNN's Melissa Gray in London contributed to this report.","highlights":"UK police reach settlement with family of Jean Charles de Menezes, whom police shot dead in 2005 .\nOfficers mistook de Menezes for suicide bomber .\nHe was killed on Tube train weeks after four suicide bombers struck on London transport system .","id":"22d0b66840421e4ce7dbe3121cb967e0a37f2b6c"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- People in big cities walk past them every day -- street performers, or buskers. Some are talented, some are not, and most aren't performing for a cause greater than themselves. But on Monday, 12-year-old Abby Miller was. Abby Miller sings for her friend Taylor Love outside Washington's Union Station on Monday. She was performing outside Washington's Union Station to help her 4-year-old friend, Taylor Love, who is suffering from cancer. Abby sat in front of the station with a couple of her friends, singing songs and strumming a guitar. Passers-by seemed to notice the girl's singing talent, stopping to listen in the chilly weather, with a few putting money in a bucket at Abby's feet. Abby said the money will help support Taylor's family. A few more stopped to write messages on \"Love Notes,\" little cards designed to encourage Taylor Love through the tough time. \"Her mom reads them to her before she goes to bed at night,\" Abby said. \"Taylor gets excited for them and she loves getting them read to her because she likes knowing that people are supporting her and people are actually thinking of her.\" Taylor has neuroblastoma, a cancer that affects the nervous system. According to her Web site, she is in remission, but this type of cancer has a high risk of recurrence. There has been little research on the illness, of which there are about 650 new cases in the United States each year. Mike Gillette, a family friend of both Taylor and Abby, brought the two girls together. While raising money and support for Taylor is important, he said, he thinks Abby's outreach can help bring more critical awareness for the devastating disease. \"She really wanted to reach people all over the country,\" he said. Gillette said he has taken Abby to do similar performances in the District of Columbia, New Jersey and Virginia, and estimates they've raised thousands of dollars and have gotten people to write several hundred \"Love Notes.\" Abby does more than just raise money and awareness for her friend. Taylor's mother, Aimee, said that although Abby is eight years older than Taylor, the two see each other often and have a special connection that helps her get through her daughter's illness. \"I think it's amazing for a 12-year-old Abby to be drawn to my daughter, who is 4 and wants to inspire other children,\" Aimee Love said. \"The joy I see in Taylor when she sees Abby brings a light into my life.\" Taylor's family said her treatments are terribly painful. But Abby said Taylor has enormous character. \"She's the most happy girl in the world, which I think is just incredible,\" Abby said. \"She's so much fun to be around. She's a little 4-year-old girl but she's got a heart of like a thousand grown adults.\" Aimee Love said her daughter feels the same way about Abby. \"It gives her someone to aspire to, someone to be inspired by,\" she said.","highlights":"Abby Miller sings, plays guitar to help 4-year-old friend with cancer .\nAbby collects donations, has people write notes of support for Taylor Love .\nTaylor has neuroblastoma, a cancer that affects the nervous system .","id":"557fd3f6fc104f27dc6071bd80dc7c0b2c19cafa"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- It's a good thing he didn't go with \"@andrew.\" Drew Olanoff wants to benefit the LiveStrong charity because of the support the foundation has given him. Drew Olanoff, cancer-fighter and blogger, is auctioning off his enviable Twitter username \"@drew\" to benefit the LiveStrong foundation. Since Tuesday, its value has already been raised to $1 million, thanks to that other Drew -- last name Carey. \"I thought we would find a Drew who would bid $10,000 on the last day and that was it,\" Olanoff said. \"I certainly didn't think Drew Carey would get wind of it.\" Get wind he did. The Cleveland comedian raised the stakes on Saturday, first tweeting an initial bid of $25,000 only to quadruple it, offering up $100,000 if his Twitter followers totaled 100,000 by the auction's closing at midnight on November 9. Olanoff was taken back by Carey's generosity, whom he's never met nor spoken to, but it seems Carey wasn't done yet. In the middle of an interview yesterday with CBS (the corporation writing Carey's checks, as he's the host of the network's \"The Price is Right\"), he upped the ante from $100,000 to a cool $1 million if he gets the same amount of followers by midnight on December 31. Judging by how quickly the follower count increases every time his @DrewFromTV Twitter page is refreshed -- on Thursday evening, he was rapidly approaching 66,000 followers -- Carey is well on his way to doing so. Of course, if he doesn't reach a million followers, the donation will be prorated: If there are 500,000 followers when the clock strikes midnight, then $500,000 will be given to LiveStrong. It may seem like Carey's gotten himself into some sort of popularity game, but it's not about amassing millions of followers or the Twitter name, Olanoff said. \"There are obviously going to be skeptics, but Drew Carey is new to Twitter. Celebrities can get followers; Ashton Kutcher has 3 million,\" Olanoff told CNN. \"What he's saying is, 'Follow me; you're worth a dollar, and it's going to LiveStrong.' \" This isn't the first time Olanoff's stirred up the \"Twitter-verse.\" From the minute he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in late May, he decided his cancer was of the social variety, and turned to Twitter to air his frustrations. \"I'm a very public person, I'm a geek, and I've been on Twitter for years,\" Olanoff said. \"I realized this is serious, and I started to blame things on my cancer. I'm not a whiny person and I didn't want to get negative [so the site] it was a nice way for me to focus all of my anger and being upset and worrying. \" With the help of a friend who's also suffered from Hodgkin's disease, Olanoff set up BlameDrewsCancer.com, where tweeters can blame his cancer for any and everything that's gone wrong, in 140 characters or less. Lance Armstrong, LiveStrong's founder, blamed a broken collarbone on it, while Alyssa Milano found Drew's cancer to be at fault for her inability to resist chocolate drizzled popcorn; she then tweeted an offer to help out Drew's cancer awareness campaign in whatever way she could. Famous or not, Olanoff found comfort in those tweets. \"When I would go through my chemo treatments every two weeks, for me it felt like I had a huge support group, because when you're diagnosed with [cancer] you can feel alone,\" he said. As a result, Olanoff has decided to keep blaming cancer even though signs are pointing towards improved health; his last chemo treatment is November 2. Until midnight on November 9, his 30th birthday, Olanoff's resolved to round up as many @DrewFromTV followers as he can, and maybe accept Carey's invitation to meet up when Olanoff's back in Los Angeles. For now, Olanoff is resting up and tossing around new Twitter names. One in the running is @TheOtherDrew, but no word on how much that one could go for.","highlights":"Drew Olanoff has placed his Twitter username up for auction to benefit charity .\nDrew Carey said he'd donate $1 million if he gets 1 million followers by Dec. 31 .\nOlanoff never expected his auction to get attention from other Drews like Carey .\nThe L.A.-based blogger is also behind the @BlameDrew'sCancer username .","id":"c601114f55cf470a012afece9ed26518ea695fe4"} -{"article":"LONDON, England (CNN) -- An $80 million research project aimed at giving people 50 active years after the age of 50 was launched by scientists at the University of Leeds in northern England Tuesday. The challenge is to ensure old people stay as fit as Brisbane centenarian Ruth Frith, seen competing at shot put during World Masters Games in Sydney this month. About half of the babies born in Western countries today will live until they are 100 years old, according to recent research published in the medical journal The Lancet, so the challenge is to ensure they remain active throughout their old age. While most of us will live longer than our parents and grandparents, the aging population means that in coming decades more people will suffer from age-related conditions such as osteoarthritis, heart disease and chronic back pain. Obesity and increased physical activity also put more pressure on our joints, causing them to wear out faster. Scientists at Leeds University envisage that many of the body parts that flounder with age could be upgraded using own-grown tissues and more durable implants. This will mean artificial hips, knees and heart valves, for example, lasting far longer than the current 20-year typical lifespan. \"Our work is driven by the concept of 50 more years after 50 -- that is, making our second 50 years of life as healthy, comfortable and active as our first, so we can enjoy a higher quality of life,\" explains Professor John Fisher, who is an expert in artificial joints and tissue regeneration. \"We now have the technology available to do astonishing things, such as repairing the body by growing healthy new tissue through biological scaffolds and stem cell therapy. And a new generation of prosthetic hip and knee joints that last longer will avoid the need for further replacements.\" Fisher says the center also hopes to gain a better understanding of degenerative diseases to allow for early diagnosis, rather than having to treat someone when they are already in crippling pain. \"For example, we're developing biosensor tools that can detect the presence of antibodies and proteins in the blood. All of these technologies will ultimately reduce suffering in patients through more timely interventions, shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery times.\" So how do you feel about this. Are you looking forward to your old age? Do you believe you will remain active? Click here to send us your comments and we will try to use as many as possible in tonight's show.","highlights":"$80M research project launched aimed at giving people 50 active years after 50 .\nHalf of babies born in Western countries today will live until 100 years old .\nLeeds University projects aims to ensure people remain active into old age .\nScientists believe many body parts that flounder with age could be upgraded .","id":"947edc335e1614c8bb0cb3fa7d38d0558164fbad"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Jordan Belfi has a great job: He plays Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage,\" a comedy series that takes a look at the life of a young actor, Vincent Chase, and the old friends who surround him in Hollywood. Jordan Belfi arrives at the premiere of \"Entourage\" season six in Los Angeles, California. Davies is one of the few characters on the show who has the ability to shake one of the central figures: the unshakeable agent Ari Gold. Belfi has been around since the early days of \"Entourage\" and remembers the humble beginnings of his character's career as an agent under Gold's direction. Since that first season, Davies has risen to become Ari's chief rival on the show. Belfi believes conveying the tension between him and Ari is easy, based on the great material he's given. \"It's a testament to the writing by Doug Ellin, the creator of the show. It's just on the page,\" Belfi said. \"When you get setups and writing and dialogue and scenes that good, it makes your job that much easier.\" CNN talked to Belfi, who's also in the movie \"Surrogates\" (opening Friday), about his experiences on the show and his inspiration for the role. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: A lot of fans really missed that rivalry between you and Ari Gold. Talk a little about how you and Jeremy Piven kind of prepare for that and try to make that real on screen. Belfi: Adam Davies has become ... one of the few characters on the show that really knows how to get under Ari's skin and push his buttons. Ari is an entertaining character, and it's fun to watch him go after things, but people really enjoy kind of when Ari's off balance. That interplay, that back and forth, particularly the sort of thing that's happening now [on the show], the constantly one-upping each other, is just really fun to watch. It's entertaining. And I get that response from a lot of the fans of the show. They love Adam Davies for that reason because he just knows how to do it. Jeremy ... [is] an actor with so much power and force and impact that you're sort of forced to up your game. You're really present in the moment. And when you're there and you're really going back and forth, that's when the sparks really fly. CNN: Talk little bit about the inspiration you draw from to play Adam Davies. Belfi: I started way back on season one in the beginning of the show. And back then, Adam Davies was still in his cubicle. So a lot of the inspiration came from meetings I had when I was starting out -- you know, behavior I experienced from agents and other industry people when I was starting out. I was in a not-too-dissimilar position. ... And I think that's what people really respond to. There's an absolute foundation of truth -- almost scary truth -- to the things Adam says, the things Ari does, all that kind of stuff. And it's why it's such a visceral experience for people in the industry and fun for people that happen not to be in the industry. CNN: What are your thoughts on Adam Davies as a person? Belfi: What gives Ari a little bit of his soul, his heart, is that we have all these scenes with his wife and his family, and you really get to see him as a dad. ... [But] we haven't gotten to see any of the personal life of Adam Davies. So I don't know if there's anything yet to kind of balance out those ruthless qualities he has. But I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have if you're that actor trying to go after that job. You want that agent who's going to beg, borrow and steal to help prove that you're the guy. So in that respect, it seems like he's someone you'd want on your side. And the thing is, I think that's what made the rivalry between him and Ari so great. You know when he was coming up, he probably did a lot of the same things [as Ari] and ran over people in similar kinds of ways. They're really kind of the same in a lot of ways. So you're either best friends or mortal enemies when you share that much in common with somebody. CNN: Exempting Davies, who's your favorite character on the show and why? Belfi: Ah! Impossible question! I have to exempt Adam Davies from the answer? ... If I absolutely, gun-to-my-head have to choose, there's a quality about [Chase's brother] Drama that I've always loved. And it was maybe more prominent in the first couple of seasons than it is now because it's evolved slightly. The quality that I always found the most entertaining, is that Drama was always this mix of desperation and simultaneous pride. And that's really funny. You know at the beginning he was just scratching, begging for something, some chunk of the game or to get back in the game. But he simultaneously kind of knows it all. And that mix is a great comedic mix, comedic recipe. It was both funny and heartbreaking. CNN: Of course, our diehard \"Entourage\" fans would love to get some scoop on the coming story lines. You've gotta give us something. Belfi: A little something? Well, I don't think I'd be giving away too much to say that Adam might get Lloyd. In terms of the story line, there's some stuff that I'm told with Drama and his going after this role on \"Melrose Place\" and the screen test for that role and the ups and downs of that. And also, some big things happen between Eric and Sloane. But in terms of the really exciting stuff between Adam Davies and Ari, I guess I'll say this: At the end of season two, when Ari is trying to form his coup, to break up the agency, and Adam is the one who rats him out and gets him fired and humiliated and causes that whole thing ... In the amazing way that Doug has constructed it, all that stuff from the end of season two comes full circle. There's this one thing that happens that will really stand out and that people will talk about. So some fun, exciting stuff to look forward to.","highlights":"Jordan Belfi plays acting agent Adam Davies on the HBO show \"Entourage\"\nBelfi has played Ari Gold's nemesis on the show since the first season .\n\"I think he's the kind of agent that I'd certainly like to have,\" Belfi says of Davies .\nA little something about coming story lines: Belfi says Adam might get Lloyd .","id":"54eb9326a1bdf2b80d093d18e45bb640f59d3479"} -{"article":"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House communications director Anita Dunn fired back at criticism from TV commentator Glenn Beck on Friday, saying that a Mao Tse-tung quote Beck took issue with was picked up from legendary GOP strategist Lee Atwater. White House communications director Anita Dunn she picked up Mao Tse-tung from a legendary Republican. \"The Mao quote is one I picked up from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater from something I read in the late 1980s, so I hope I don't get my progressive friends mad at me,\" Dunn told CNN. As for Beck's criticism: \"The use of the phrase 'favorite political philosophers' was intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat -- at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing.\" On Thursday night's program, Beck showed exclusive video of Dunn discussing the communist leader, who was responsible for a cultural revolution in 1966 that included re-education camps and setting the army and students on witch hunts against his opponents. Millions of Chinese suffered or died, most notably teachers, writers, political opponents or anyone deemed a \"reactionary.\" Dunn, taped in a speech in what appears to be a church, said the leader's philosophies were a guidepost for her own strategy on politics. She also praised the philosophy used by religious icon Mother Teresa. \"The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers: Mao Tse-tung and Mother Theresa -- not often coupled with each other, but the two people I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point which is 'you're going to make choices; you're going to challenge; you're going to say why not; you're going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before.\" The comments set Beck into a tirade. \"It's insanity. This is her hero's work,\" he said. \"She thinks of this man's work all the time? \"It would be like me saying to you, 'you know who my favorite political philosopher is? Adolf Hitler.' Have you read Mein Kampf? [She wants to] fight your fight like Hitler did,\" Beck said. Dunn recently blasted Fox News saying that the cable news organization often operates as either \"the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.\" \"When he [Obama] goes on Fox, he understands that he's not really going on it as a news network at this point. He's going to debate the opposition. And that's fine. He never minds doing that. \"They're widely viewed as a part of the Republican Party. Take [the GOP's] talking points, put them on the air, take [the GOP's] opposition research, put them on the air,\" Dunn said. Fox News in a statement to CNN said its programming was comparable to the editorial page of a newspaper. Still, Beck wasted no time Thursday in using Dunn's comments to blast the Obama administration for promoting what he deems a radical agenda. \"America, how many radicals is it going to take? How many radicals surrounding our president before you understand that when the president said he wants to transform the country, he wants to transform it all right,\" Beck said. Dunn pointed out that during his presidential campaign and since being elected President Obama has been interviewed by Fox News and will be again in the future. Watch more of Dunn's comments \u00bb . \"He'll go on Fox because he engages with ideological opponents,\" Dunn said. \"He has done that before, and he'll do it again.\" But it's not just Dunn, a Democrat, who has used Mao as someone she reads. Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog group, points out that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, also a Fox News contributor, quoted Mao in a 1995 Roll Call profile. \"War is politics with blood; politics is war without blood,\" Gingrich said, citing Mao. Karl Rove, another Fox News contributor, wrote in a December 2008 Wall Street Journal op-ed that President Bush \"encouraged me to read a Mao biography.\" Beck led the charge against Obama's former green jobs czar Van Jones over a petition Jones signed in 2004 calling for an investigation into whether government officials deliberately allowed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to occur. Jones said of the petition on the Web site 911truth.org: \"I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.\" Jones has also come under fire for comments he made, also before his White House job, including those in a video on YouTube. In it, he uses a vulgar expression to describe Republicans. Jones resigned from his post in September, saying in a statement that he came to Washington to \"fight for others, not for myself.\" \"I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future,\" Jones' statement said. Jones is a co-founder of colorofchange.org, a group that recently has been pressing advertisers to boycott Beck's program after Beck called Obama a racist. CNN's Martina Stewart contributed to this report.","highlights":"Dunn says she got Mao quote from GOP strategist Lee Atwater .\nFox News host Glenn Beck showed video of Dunn quoting Mao .\nBeck: \"It's insanity. This is her hero's work\"\nOther Republicans have quoted Mao in the past .","id":"8999d61663ef55af7d58fa8d9a2adab2b09e35c3"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- One of eight people killed in a southeast Georgia mobile home last month recently had been awarded $25,000 in a civil lawsuit, officials said. Guy Heinze Jr. faces eight counts of first-degree murder in last month's killings in a Georgia mobile home. Guy Heinze Sr., 46, was granted the award by the McIntosh County, Georgia, Magistrate Court in a suit over a mobile home that he owned, court officials said. He had not received the money as the ruling was under appeal. Heinze was found dead August 29 in his Brunswick mobile home along with six others. An eighth person died later at a hospital. Police said all of the victims died from \"blunt force trauma,\" but they did not provide any further details. Heinze's son, Guy Heinze Jr., 22, faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths. Police suspect he acted alone, according to a statement from the Glynn County Police Department. The younger Heinze has made his initial court appearance via closed-circuit television from the Glynn County Detention Center, his attorney, Ron Harrison, said Tuesday. His preliminary hearing likely will come next week, Harrison said. The elder Heinze told relatives about the award days before his death, family members said. Court officials said the ruling was issued August 11, and an appeal was filed six days later. Harrison said he was aware of the award in the lawsuit but would not comment on it. Police also are aware of it, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said, but he declined comment on whether it is being explored as a possible motive in the slayings. Watch hints of a possible motive \u00bb . Harrison said he last saw his client on Friday, as he was not required to appear with him to hear the charges read. The younger Heinze \"continues to deny any involvement in the murders and urges anyone with information to contact authorities,\" he said Tuesday. He described his client as \"not good, disappointed, upset, angry.\" Heinze called 911 to report the slayings, telling the dispatcher, \"My whole family is dead.\" He was arrested just afterward and initially was charged with tampering with evidence and making false statements to a police officer as well as facing drug charges. Hear the 911 call \u00bb . An arrest warrant said he provided police \"with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading to him calling 911 to report the deaths of his family members\" and that he removed a shotgun from the mobile home and hid it in his car. He was arrested on the murder charges hours after being freed from jail on the initial charges. Family members said he was on his way to attend the visitation for the victims but was arrested before arriving. A police chaplain called relatives to tell them of the arrest, family members said. Police have not released the cause of death for any of the victims. Heinze told dispatchers in his 911 call they appeared to have been beaten to death. Funerals were held Saturday for seven of the eight victims. Besides the elder Heinze, they were Brenda Gail Falagan, 49; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Chrissy Toler, 22; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held mid-month. A ninth victim, a 3-year-old, was on life support at a Savannah, Georgia, hospital as of Saturday, her grandmother said. Guy Heinze Sr.'s father, William Heinze, told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida, at the funerals that he doubted his grandson was responsible for the deaths. \"We want to know what really happened,\" he said. \"The police may think they know what happened, but we want to really know the truth.\" Brunswick is about 300 miles southeast of Atlanta on Georgia's Atlantic coast. CNN's Ashley Hayes, Sean Callebs and Chris Youd contributed to this report .","highlights":"NEW: Police said all of the victims died from \"blunt force trauma\"\nThe $25,000 award from suit was under appeal .\nWarrant lists eight counts of first-degree murder for Guy Heinze Jr.\nHeinze is the son of the man who won the lawsuit .","id":"151179b38bee1c6c3f356db396b5c9a9c47d31dc"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police have arrested a man whose DNA linked him to the bodies of nine women killed over 21 years, officials said at a news conference Monday night. Walter E. Ellis, 49, was arrested after police matched a DNA swab taken from him last week to the victims. Walter E. Ellis, 49, was arrested after police matched a DNA swab taken from him last week to DNA left on the bodies of nine women killed since 1986. Police said eight of the women were prostitutes and one was a runaway involved with drugs. They were all killed within a 3-square-mile area of Milwaukee's north side. \"This case was solved with shoe leather and science,\" Milwaukee Police Chief Edward A. Flynn said. \"Continuing advances in DNA technology have enabled us to link these homicide cases, and it was good police work pursuing numerous leads that led to the arrest of a suspect.\" The homicides occurred between 1986 and 2007, police said. See where the bodies were found \u00bb . Ellis was charged Monday with two counts of first degree murder relating to two of the deaths: 41-year-old Joyce Mims, who was killed in 1997, and 28-year-old Ouithreaun Stokes, who was killed in April 2007. Police said more charges are likely. It wasn't immediately clear whether Ellis had obtained an attorney. Police said other victims linked to Ellis through DNA were: Tanya L. Miller, killed in 1986; Deborah L. Harris, killed in 1986; Sheila Farrior, strangled in 1995; Florence McCormick, strangled in 1995; Irene Smith, killed in 1992; Carron D. Kilpatrick, killed in 1992, and Jessica Payne, killed in 1995. Flynn told CNN it was hard for investigators to discern a geographic pattern for the homicides. In the 20-year period, more than 2,000 slayings occurred in Milwaukee, he said -- 200 of them in the same area where the bodies were found. Another challenge investigators faced was the developing technology of DNA evidence. The technology in 2009 far exceeds that available in 1986 or even 2002, he said. It was only this year that police were able to link the nine homicides with the same DNA pattern. Even then \"we did not have anyone to match our DNA profile against, until we were able to get [Ellis'] toothbrush,\" he told CNN. A Wisconsin law passed in 2000 mandated the DNA collection from convicted felons. Ellis was released from prison in 2001 without having his DNA sample collected, Flynn said. Because his name had surfaced in the investigation and because he was also listed in two FBI databases, authorities decided to investigate him further and were able to obtain the search warrant that allowed them to collect his DNA from his toothbrush, the police chief said. News of Ellis' arrest shocked those who knew him. \"That was just my ex-boyfriend,\" his former girlfriend, Chanita, told CNN affiliate WISN-TV. She asked that her last name not be used. \"I didn't know nothing about nothing like this. I'm getting shivery now cause you're talking about some strangling stuff. Lord have mercy on me. I'm just a wreck right now. I can't believe this. I'm trembling in here. I'm shakin'.\" Chanita said she dated Ellis for four years. \"I can't believe it. This is a shock,\" she told WISN. \"I got like goose bumps on my arms instantly when you told me that. I'm like no way -- not Walter -- I can't see him hurting nobody.\" For relatives of the victims, the news brought mixed emotions. \"I knew they was gonna get him, I knew it,\" Patricia Donald, best friend of victim Deborah Harris, told WISN. \"Finally he can't hurt nobody anymore.\" For her and others, like Sandy Farrior, whose daughter Sheila was linked to Ellis, it was news that helped bring closure. \"Late justice is better than no justice,\" he told WISN. In addition to advances in DNA technology, officials attributed the break in the case to the repeated investigation of cold cases by the Milwaukee Police Department's Homicide Task Force Cold Case Unit. Although Mims and Stokes were strangled about a decade apart, similar DNA on their bodies helped lead police to a suspect. Watch where cops got DNA sample \u00bb . Mims was found strangled and lying on her back wearing only socks on June 20, 1997, in a small closet near a living room in Milwaukee, according to court documents. Police found DNA on her body, but there were no matches in the system, the court documents show. On April 27, 2007, Stokes was found strangled, partially clothed and lying face down in a living room in Milwaukee, according to court documents. When lab technicians tested the DNA found on her body, they found it directly matched the DNA found on Mims. On August 29 of this year, armed with a search warrant, police took a toothbrush and razor from Ellis' home. Testing showed the DNA found on Mims and Stokes was a match to Ellis, according to court documents. Ellis has been charged at least 10 times with varying offenses ranging from violent crimes to property crimes between 1981 and 1998, though some of the charges were dismissed, online court records in Wisconsin show. He was sentenced to five years in state prison after he pleaded no contest to a reckless injury charge in 1998. None of the victims linked to Ellis was killed during the time he was in jail. However, two men were charged in slayings later linked to Ellis, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Curtis McCoy was charged in October 1994 with killing Kilpatrick, but he was later acquitted by a jury, the newspaper reported. It also said Chaunte Ott, who was convicted of killing Payne, served 13 years in prison before being released in January, after DNA analysis showed semen found on the girl's body was not his. CNN's Gabriel Falcon contributed to this report.","highlights":"DNA found on bodies of nine women matched to Walter E. Ellis, police say .\nEllis charged in two killings and more charges likely, police say .\nPolice chief hails arrest: \"This case was solved with shoe leather and science\"\nThe women were killed between 1986 and 2007 .","id":"e843c10b7d6023d8de2b001ba027541c9bd379b9"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Somali pirates demanded a $7 million ransom for a British couple kidnapped aboard their yacht last week, a British agency said Friday. The British government says it won't pay. \"The government will not make substantive concessions for hostage takers, including the payments of ransom,\" the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were snatched last week from their yacht in the Indian Ocean, had been held aboard a Singaporean cargo ship hijacked by pirates. They have been moved to a hijacked Spanish ship that pirates have stocked with more supplies and armed men, a local journalist in contact with the pirates said Friday. The pirates moved them to the Spanish vessel after elders in the Somali town of Haradhere refused a pirate request to allow the Chandlers ashore, the journalist said. The journalist's identity is not being disclosed for security reasons. After hours of negotiation, the couple spoke with Rachel Chandler's brother, Stephen Collett, on Friday -- a phone conversation that was videotaped by CNN's British affiliate ITN. In the conversation, Rachel Chandler confirmed only that they had been moved from the Singaporean cargo ship, but not their current location, the network reported. \"We're managing. They tell us that we're safe and that we shouldn't worry and that if we want anything, they will provide it in terms of food and, you know, water,\" an emotional Rachel Chandler told Collett. \"They're very hospitable people, so don't worry. ... Physically we're fine; physically, we're healthy.\" Paul Chandler spoke slowly and carefully in the interview: . \"Rachel and I are here. We are fine,\" he told Collett. \"We know nothing here. It is nice to speak to you. I can only say we are well and that's as far as I can say.\" Collett read a message to the captors, asking them to release his sister and her husband to show \"your compassionate nature.\" ITN reporter Angus Walker noted that Paul Chandler's tone sounded more strained than during their conversation Thursday, when he laughed at one point and sounded more relaxed. In their Thursday conversation, Chandler told ITN that men with guns had boarded the couple's yacht, demanding money and taking everything of value. Paul Chandler spoke later with the BBC's Somali Service, reportedly saying, \"We are well and being looked after OK.\" He said they were being fed and \"food is OK at the moment.\" The pirates abandoned the Chandlers' yacht, the 38-foot Lynn Rival, which the British Royal Navy found drifting in international waters Thursday. The Chandlers set off from the Seychelles islands on October 21 bound for Tanzania, according to their blog. A distress beacon was activated on October 23, according to naval officials. Britain's Foreign Office said it has been in close contact with the couple's family. Pirates have been very active off the east coast of Africa in the past several years, operating out of lawless Somalia. Two vessels were attacked the day after the Chandlers set sail. One of them -- a cargo ship -- was successfully boarded and seized off the Seychelles, while the other fought off its attackers near the Kenyan coast. Thursday, pirates attacked and boarded a Thai-flagged fishing vessel about 200 miles north of the Seychelles, according to the European Union Naval Force. Attacks in the region have significantly increased this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. But successful attacks have gone down as a result of a strong presence of international monitors. The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year, the bureau reported October 21. From January 1 through September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of 2008, it said. More than half of this year's attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates off the east coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping route between Yemen and Somalia. Out of those attacks, Somali pirates successfully hijacked 32 vessels and took 533 hostages. Eight people were wounded, four were killed and one is missing, the bureau said.","highlights":"NEW: British government says it won't pay ransom .\nPirates move kidnapped British couple to hijacked Spanish ship .\nPirate source says ship has more men and weapons on board .\nBritish couple left Seychelles for Tanzania on October 21 .","id":"fcf45dfa92c23ca104f81efb95d0c02aaec2dce2"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Despite some signs that the economy is on the mend, a lack of confidence from consumers and companies alike may hamper job growth during the next few months, economists say. Unlike this point last year, there are some indicators for optimism about the U.S. economy. The market seems to be on a rebound, with stock prices growing steadily since March. Meanwhile, the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, a broad indicator of the economy's strength, grew during the third quarter. It was the largest such growth since the summer of 2007. However, the unemployment rate is staggering. The national rate hit 10.2 percent last month, the first time it has been double digits in more than 25 years. The jobless rate increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia in October, according to a recent Labor Department survey. Thirteen states reported an unemployment rate above the current national rate. Track unemployment numbers by state and industry . There is also concern that the GDP growth is largely the result of the economic stimulus implemented by the federal government and other government initiatives like the \"Cash for Clunkers\" program for automobiles. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, said recently that economic conditions were better than they were a year ago, and a modest recovery was on the horizon. Sounding a note of caution, he said: \"Some important headwinds -- in particular, constrained bank lending and a weak job market -- will likely prevent the expansion from being as robust as we would hope.\" Polls suggest many Americans are not confident about the economy. \"Some economic indicators may suggest that the economy has turned the corner -- but try telling that to the American people,\" said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. More than eight in 10 Americans say that economic conditions are in poor shape, according to a recent CNN\/Opinion Research Corp. poll. Of that number, 43 percent described the conditions as \"very poor.\" See the poll results (pdf) Ali Velshi, CNN's chief business correspondent, said it may not feel as if the economy is in a recovery until the jobless numbers decrease. That may partly explain the poll's findings. Velshi described the American economy as being founded on three pillars. One is the value of a home growing at a rate faster than the cost of owning it, he said. The other is the value of investments -- think of a 401(k) plan or an IRA or savings for kids' education -- increasing at a rate faster than inflation. The third, and most important one, is income, Velshi said. \"You can live without a [buying a] house. You can live without a 401(k). You can't live without an income.\" On that front, Bernanke sounded somber during his remarks to the Economic Club of New York on November 16. \"The best thing we can say about the labor market right now is that it may be getting worse more slowly,\" he said. \"Jobs are likely to remain scarce for some time.\" Read Bernanke's remarks (pdf) Bernanke said jobs will likely be created next year but a high unemployment rate may still hold through 2010. So, why does unemployment continue to rise while Wall Street seems to be rebounding? \"There's this real disconnect between Wall Street and Mainstreet,\" said Peter Rodriguez, an economist at the University of Virginia. \"Wall Street can benefit from forward-looking financial markets and they've already begun to rise. \"But that doesn't give anyone any new jobs.\" Rodriguez said there was \"an ample amount of what you might think of as underemployment in the active workforce.\" Let's say you're a manager and you have 50 employees. During tough economic times, you might minimize the pain by cutting people's hours. Instead of working 40 hours, they work 35 hours, and your company limps along during the recession without having to lay off people. \"What that means is, on the return to normalcy, rather than hiring people, you just raise work hours,\" Rodriguez said. Bernanke brought up the dynamic as well last week. \"Recently, we've seen the interesting phenomenon that firms have come out of recessions in aggressive cost cutting mode and in doing so, they've actually created productivity gains,\" he said. CNNMoney: Are things really getting better? Consequently, the number of part-time workers who say they would like a full-time job but can't find one has doubled since the recession began, he noted. However, those gains companies made while cutting back on workers are likely \"limited and probably temporary,\" he said. \"If demand, production and confidence pick up, they will find their labor force stretched thin and they will add new workers,\" he said. The trend might not change until companies and business owners feel confident enough in the economy to start hiring. There are a number of factors that could influence that perspective, including access to credit, lending from banks and overseas competition. They have to feel assured of a recovery to discard their caution and put their money at risk, Rodriguez said. \"They feel better, but not better enough to invest in growth,\" he said. \"They're becoming slightly less timid, but we're still deep in the rehabilitation phase.\"","highlights":"The national unemployment rate is 10.2 percent .\nLabor Department: The jobless rate increased in 29 states in October .\nFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sees modest growth on the horizon .","id":"41e8f94939b3f2e1e988d5c6ba43f9f6c8b6343a"} -{"article":"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's father wants a judge to order the pop star's estate to pay him a monthly allowance, according to papers filed in court Friday. Joe Jackson, the 80-year-old Jackson family patriarch, was not named in Michael Jackson's 2002 will, which left his wealth to his mother, Katherine Jackson, his three children and undisclosed charities. Brian Oxman, Joe Jackson's lawyer, filed the petition Friday asking for him to be included in the family allowance. The matter will be considered Tuesday when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff convenes the next hearing on matters related to the probate of Jackson's will, Oxman said. The filing does not publicly specify how much Jackson's father is requesting. Howard Weitzman, one of the lawyers for the estate's special administrators, said Joe Jackson's request \"will be considered as are all requests for money from Michael's estate.\" \"It was quite surprising to learn of the request,\" Weitzman said. Michael Jackson's mother and his three children receive a court-ordered allowance from the estate totaling more than $86,000 a month, according to court documents. The money is in addition to the maintenance of the home -- which is owned by the estate -- in Encino, California, where Katherine Jackson lives with her grandchildren, the papers said. Although Joe and Katherine Jackson are still married, Joe Jackson lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Joe Jackson is credited with launching and guiding his family's show business success, but Michael Jackson had publicly criticized his father's parenting skills. Tuesday's hearing could also see a new challenge by the Jackson family of the 2002 will. Michael Jackson died June 25, but the probate of his will has been slowed by a series of court squabbles between Katherine Jackson's lawyers and the two men now in control of the estate. John Branca and John McClain, who are named as executors in the will, were appointed temporary special administrators to run the estate until the process is completed. Katherine Jackson replaced the lawyers representing her in the estate case last month with attorney Adam Streisand. Another Jackson family lawyer said the change was made because the case was about to take a \"new direction\" based on \"new evidence\" uncovered by the family. Attorney Londell McMillan pointed to questions about the authenticity of the signature on Michael Jackson's will. Tuesday's estate hearing will be Streisand's first appearance in the case. A trial has been tentatively set for December to decide any challenge of the will, although Streisand said last month he expected it to be set for early next year. The A&E network announced Friday that \"The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty\" television series will launch with two hours of programming on Sunday night, December 13. Four of Michael Jackson's brothers -- all except Randy Jackson -- are involved in the show \"as they prepare for a Jackson Five reunion, while also coming to terms with Michael's tragic loss,\" the network said. An A&E programming executive said the \"deeply intimate portrait will provide viewers with a raw and honest look inside a musical dynasty.\"","highlights":"Joe Jackson, who was left out of will, wants judge to give him allowance .\nMichael's mother, Katherine, Michael's children get bulk of the estate .\nMichael Jackson had publicly criticized his father's parenting skills .","id":"f02eb9d1f5c53275909bea46742303341b880738"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The second installment in the \"Twilight\" saga, starring Robert Pattinson as vampire Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart as his star-crossed love and Taylor Lautner as the wolfboy who loves her, has already ripped through a box office record. According to Hollywood trade magazine Variety, \"New Moon\" is the biggest midnight showing in history, grossing $26.3 million when it opened in 3,514 theaters at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The film even surpassed the supernatural cinema force that is \"Harry Potter,\" collecting more than the $22.2 million that \"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince\" earned during its midnight showing this summer. \"New Moon\" has also easily beaten its own predecessor, \"Twilight,\" which earned $36 million on opening day last year. And while \"Twilight's\" opening weekend was $69.7 million, early reports are that \"New Moon\" will do even better. But along with the ticket sales bounty is backlash. The Vatican released an announcement Friday denouncing the film, which is based on Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster series. \"This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern,\" warns the Vatican's culture council leader, Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, in a statement timed to the release of \"New Moon,\" according to E! Online. \"This theme of vampires in 'Twilight' combines a mixture of excesses,\" he continued, \"that, as ever, is aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element.\" Yet the kids these days appear to dig the \"excesses\" of \"Twilight.\" Still, only time will tell if \"New Moon\" will also outsell the current \"best opening day\" titleholder, \"The Dark Knight,\" which grossed $67.2 million when it opened July 18, 2008.","highlights":"\"New Moon\" grossed $26.3 million from midnight showings alone .\nThe vampire romance is set to surpass \"Twilight\" for first-day sales .\nBut with sales comes backlash; the Vatican has spoken out against \"New Moon\"\nOnly time will tell if it will also surpass \"The Dark Knight\" for \"best opening day\"","id":"388820fb4fd6ada8a1993ea074dcd086ab5ee46f"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The wife of a Colorado father at the center of the \"balloon boy\" saga told authorities that the giant helium balloon was specifically created for a hoax to draw media attention, according to court documents released Friday. The Heene family -- including Falcon, second from right -- on CNN's \"Larry King Live\" last week. Mayumi Heene told Larimer County investigators that she and her husband, Richard Heene, knew that their 6-year-old son Falcon was hiding at their Fort Collins home the entire time, even as police and military scrambled to search for the boy, according to the documents. The admission by Mayumi Heene was made October 17, just two days after the balloon was released, according to the documents. The Heenes initially told authorities that they believed their child had flown away on the balloon, and when the balloon landed without him, they expressed concern that he may have fallen out of the device. The couple hatched the plan about two weeks before the incident and \"instructed their three children to lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax,\" according to the documents. Their motive? To \"make the Heene family more marketable for future media interests.\" Calls to David Lane, Richard Heene's attorney, and Lee Christian, Mayumi Heene's attorney, were not immediately returned Friday. Richard and Mayumi Heene are each facing a number of local charges, including conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempting to influence a public servant, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said Sunday. Lane told CNN earlier that the sheriff was overreaching and that the family deserve the presumption of innocence. The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating the incident. Richard and Mayumi Heene met in a Hollywood acting school and pursued fame for their family in the world of reality TV, Alderden has said. The Heenes have appeared on the ABC program \"Wife Swap.\" Richard Heene also chases storms, brings his family along and takes videos. TLC, which produces the show \"Jon & Kate Plus 8,\" said the Heenes had \"approached us months ago\" about a possible show, \"and we passed.\"","highlights":"Mayumi Heene says she and husband knew 6-year-old was safe during scare .\nThey told authorities child might have blown away inside giant balloon .\nCouple told children to lie to authorities and media, document says .","id":"3caa1ca4a65ed10ce30856f711d10a0d28764f34"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- The woman who was denied a marriage license by a Louisiana justice of the peace because he refused to marry interracial couples said the official should lose his job. Beth McKay says a Louisiana justice of the peace denied her a marriage license since it was an interracial union. Beth McKay said she never could have expected what she heard from Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell when she called his office a week ago to officiate her marriage to her African-American fiance, Terence. McKay spoke with Bardwell's wife to make arrangements for the ceremony. \"At the end of the conversation, she said that she had to ask me a question. She asked if this was an interracial marriage.\" When McKay replied yes, she was told, \"Well, we don't do interracial weddings or marriages.\" McKay said she was beyond shock. \"We are used to the closet racism, but we're not going to tolerate that overt racism from an elected official.\" Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is calling to have Bardwell's license revoked, and Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is calling for his dismissal -- a notion shared by McKay. \"He's not representing all the people that he is supposed to be representing,\" McKay said. \"He's only representing the people with his same opinions.\" McKay later married Terence with the help of another justice of the peace in the same parish. Bardwell has not returned repeated calls from CNN, but he told a local newspaper in a story published Thursday that he was not a racist and he was concerned for the children who might be born of the relationship. Bardwell also said, in his experience, that most interracial marriages don't last. \"We're just kind of hurt, you know?\" McKay told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday. \"This doesn't take care of the problem. He's been in his position for 34 years. So, it doesn't take care of the problems that we have to deal with on a daily basis.\" Watch why justice nixed interracial marriage \u00bb . McKay said her friends and family have been extremely supportive and she believes this situation occurred for a reason. \"I just think that God puts you in the right positions at the right time in order to stand up to people who -- who choose to live their lives with hate,\" she said. The Supreme Court struck down laws against interracial marriage in the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. Richard and Mildred Loving, who got married in Washington, D.C., were arrested in their Virginia home with their marriage license framed and hanging on the wall, for the simple fact of being husband and wife. Watch Bardwell explain his decision \u00bb . In the unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said that \"Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state.\" The number of interracial marriages have skyrocketed, nearly quadrupling between 1970 and 2005, the most recent year for which there is census data. As of 2005, nearly 8.5 Americans are living in interracial marriages.","highlights":"Beth McKay says she's hurt after Louisiana justice of peace denied marriage license .\nKeith Bardwell says he won't wed interracial couples, but denies he's racist .\nState officials have called for Bardwell's dismissal .","id":"b369206a0f16a48c7332084b5c048959970287a6"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Taping of \"The Real Housewives of Atlanta\" reunion special, scheduled for last week, has been postponed as the cast deals with the death of Kandi Burruss' former fianc\u00e9, Ashley \"A.J.\" Jewell, an NBC Universal spokeswoman told CNN Monday. The Atlanta \"Housewives\" have been touched by tragedy this season with a loved one's death. The show is now winding down its second season on the network, and the two-part episode was expected to air on October 29 and November 5. Cast member and purported \"sixth housewife\" Dwight Eubanks told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was \"shocked\" when he heard of Jewell's passing but does expect the taping to resume eventually. \"I don't see them editing [Jewell] out,\" he told the newspaper. \"It's television. It's reality. We just have to prepare and gear up for next year.\" So far, Bravo hasn't erased Jewell's presence from the series. Although scenes with Jewell weren't a part of last Thursday's episode, \"Housewives\" viewers did watch as Kandi debated the future of her engagement to Jewell with castmate Kim. Blog: What happened on \"Housewives\" But commercials for this Thursday's episode showed clips from therapy sessions with Burruss, her mother and Jewell. Eubanks told the Journal-Constitution that he doesn't know if Burruss will continue with the \"Housewives\" or not. \"She's had such a dramatic year,\" Eubanks said. \"She had her uncle die, too. She has her own career to focus on. Now her life has changed with her daughter and taking temporary custody of [A.J.'s] twins.\" Jewell, who died at 34 after a fight outside of an Atlanta strip club on October 3, was buried on October 9.","highlights":"\"Real Housewives of Atlanta\" was scheduled to tape reunion special last week .\nTaping has been postponed in aftermath of death of A.J. Jewell .\nJewell was former fianc\u00e9 of \"Housewives\" cast member Kandi Burruss .\nJewell's presence still part of show, which was taped weeks ago .","id":"9991dfeb668e9cb3cb95aeee3ade9762ab7e6cd3"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Joy Behar's new nightly show debuts Tuesday, September 29 on HLN at 9 PM ET. Joy Behar says Ukranian officials are wrong to try to block Elton John from adopting a 14-month-old boy. NEW YORK (CNN) -- On a recent tour of a Ukrainian orphanage, Elton John and his partner met Lev, a 14-month old HIV-positive boy. They immediately fell in love with the child, but their possible bid to adopt the adorable tiny dancer was rejected by Yuriy Pavlenko, Ukraine's Family, Youth and Sports Minister. Mr. Pavlenko, here are some tips about family, youth and sports. Family doesn't mean a huddle of orphans sharing a few soiled mattresses, it's not youth if you die of AIDS before you reach kindergarten, and wrestling over dinner scraps is not a sport. But that could be Lev's fate now, because the Ukrainian government said Elton and his beau David Furnish are too old to adopt the boy. It sounds like the real reason is they're too gay. John and Furnish tied the knot in 2005, becoming one of Britain's first gay civil unions, but Ukraine doesn't recognize gay unions. Ukrainian Orthodox Church spokesman Father Georgy Gulyaev called Elton John a sinner and said, \"thank God it's impossible under Ukrainian law for [him] to adopt a child.\" Apparently in the Ukraine, God's No. 1 priority is preventing gay couples from giving sick kids a better life. God would never want something like that to happen. Father Gulyaev said homosexuality \"represents the dead end of human development.\" That's odd, I thought the dead end of human development was represented by 14th century thinking like his. This guy's head is stuck in the Dark Ages. He hasn't even progressed to the Middle Ages yet. Some conservative religious leaders like to harp about the \"damage\" to families done by gay marriage, as if traditional marriage is so perfect. Since many of them have taken vows of celibacy, they've never witnessed firsthand the damage dinner with the in-laws can cause (one of the few advantages of the celibate life, I guess). There are even a few married Bible-thumpers spending their time trying to keep sex out of our lives -- yet they talk about sex more than anyone! Sex is usually the first and only factor they consider when judging -- I mean, when \"dispensing enlightenment upon\" -- others. Watch Joy Behar speak about adoption \u00bb . Sure, Elton John may be gay, but he's also a renowned musician, a celebrated humanitarian, and has been knighted by the Queen of England. In fact, for some people he is the Queen of England. Plus, there's no downside to gay adoption. In the United States, organizations like the National Adoption Center, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all agree that having homosexual parents does not negatively affect children. But you know what does negatively affect children? Growing up with no parents. So now 14-month-old Lev is stuck in some depressing orphanage that makes Guantanamo Bay look like the presidential suite at the Waldorf. He'll likely end up in foster homes and -- if he lives long enough -- maybe he can turn into a bitter, vodka-swilling drunk. All because the Ukrainian government won't let him be adopted by two loving gay parents who are fabulously rich and want to give him a home with the best healthcare available, dressed in Versace jammies and cashmere Huggies. Not to mention all the play dates with Brangelina's kids. Let's hope Sir Elton finds a different, more tolerant country willing to let him be a poor child's loving father. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joy Behar.","highlights":"Joy Behar: Elton John, partner mulled adopting 14-month-old boy .\nShe says Ukrainian officials were wrong to reject idea of adoption .\nShe says their real objection seemed to be to a gay couple adopting a child .\nBehar: Experts say there's no downside to gay adoption .","id":"c8e81d049cb0c3451fa8e1c0d8617a619955fd11"} -{"article":"(CNN) -- Four days of heavy rains triggered a landslide that killed 12 children and eight adults near Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania, authorities said Friday. Five of the children were under six, said Suzan Kaganda, a police department spokeswoman. The death toll could go up as rescue crews search the area for people reported missing, Kaganda said. Most victims of the late Tuesday landslide live in the Kilimanjaro region near the mountain by the same name, Kaganda said. The mountain is the highest peak in Africa and is a major tourist attraction. U.N. officials warned last month that east Africa is facing mudslides, crop destruction and waterborne diseases as a result of heavy downpour triggered by El Nino weather patterns. Most east African countries have been water-starved in the past few years, exacerbating the results of floods, because a lot of greenery disappeared in the drought.","highlights":"Most victims of the landslide live in the Kilimanjaro region near the mountain by the same name .\nU.N. warned east Africa is facing mudslides, crop destruction and waterborne diseases related to El Nino weather patterns .\nThe mountain is the highest peak in Africa and is a major tourist attraction .","id":"7071e8a1b784b6fce2f5837ed116c5d0deabe2d4"} -{"article":"(OPRAH.com) -- He can saw himself in half, sing a selection of Broadway showtunes and swing on a flying trapeze. Neil Patrick Harris says he'll try to make viewers feel like they're in good hands with him as Emmy host. When Neil Patrick Harris, one of the stars of the hit CBS sitcom \"How I Met Your Mother,\" isn't dabbling in the extraordinary, well, he's probably hosting an awards show. In the late '80s, Neil -- known as NPH to his fans -- landed the starring role on \"Doogie Howser, M.D.\" After years of child stardom and teen heartthrob status, Neil left the small screen for the stage. He became a respected Broadway actor, starring in shows like \"Rent,\" \"Cabaret\" and \"Proof,\" before returning to television. Now, millions know Neil as Barney Stinson, the womanizing, slap-happy sidekick on \"How I Met Your Mother,\" which begins its fifth season September 21. Like Billy Crystal and Johnny Carson before him, this man-of-many-talents is also making his mark as an awards show host. On Sunday, September 20, Neil will host the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. He shares his thoughts on fate, finding balance and making out with his co-star. Kari Forsee: How are you preparing for Emmy night? Neil Patrick Harris: I'm just trying to make sure all the comedy host elements are in place. We'll have a good opening bit and a couple surprise things throughout. We want to balance respecting the show and the doling out of the awards with the sort of random things that will keep the audience's attention in other ways. So that's kind of been my job. You want to make it unique and, yet, classic. That's a tricky dynamic. Oprah.com: Planning an Emmys party? Get 4 entertaining solutions . KF: I can imagine. How often are you rehearsing? NPH: Well, it's sort of a litany of e-mails and phone calls all day with the producers. We had a great opening short film we are going to shoot, and it would be the first thing you shot. That was going to be with Alec Baldwin, and he withdrew at the last minute. So that got scrapped, and we're off to plan D, E or F. It's sort of like now you go: \"That's fantastic, great. We've got that person,\" or \"Oh, that person didn't work. Now what do we do?\" A lot of \"now what do we do?\" questions. KF: Now at the Tony Awards, you sang a, may I say, legendary closing number. Will you be singing at the Emmys, or is dancing more the focus? NPH: I suspect you won't see me dancing very much. That's not my forte. But yeah, I might throw some sort of singing into it. I haven't quite decided. I sort of feel like the Emmys are so classy and glamorous and black tie, the host really needs to respect his job title. I think too much \"Look at me! Look at me!\" as the host of a show that big is counterproductive. So long as I make you feel confident that you're in good hands with me as the host, then it's my real responsibility to introduce you to a lot of other people and elements -- other presenters who are then going to talk to you or other introductions of next sections. That's my role. It's not really to be a song-and-dance man. KF: Did you look back at past Emmy hosts for inspiration? NPH: Very much. Steve Allen hosted the first televised awards, which was the 7th Annual Emmy Awards, in, I think, 1955, and he was great. That was sort of my inspiration for all of this. He just had such a dry wit, a commanding voice, a great presence. You knew when you were watching it that if something went wrong, you could look to him, and he would steer you through it. It was always with great dignity and a dry sense of humor, and he was sort of out there all the time. He was definitely the \"host.\" He definitely helped the show, so I like that. Johnny Carson, too, was great. KF: Hypothetically, what would you do if your name was called for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series this year? NPH: Oh my, I would graciously accept, try to keep my speech to a minimum, and then quickly set it backstage, because I have a lot more to do for the next couple hours. KF: Is the award given out early on in the show? NPH: I think it will be within the first hour. It's a nice and refreshing win-win for me, because if I do happen to win, it will be awesome-tastic, and oddly, a bit of a distraction. And if I don't win, it just provides lots of comedy fodder for the rest of the show. So I'm pretty safe either way. It's a tough category, for sure. KF: So the day after the Emmys, a new season of \"How I Met Your Mother\" premieres. Last season's finale left us wondering if your character, Barney Stinson, will finally settle down and start dating Robin Scherbatsky. NPH: They certainly take a stab at it. I know there will be lots of necking and making out. Lots of canoodling between Robin and I. My lips are chapped. They have strong physical chemistry, apparently. KF: \"How I Met Your Mother\" puts a lot of stake in fate. Are you a believer in fate? NPH: I don't know what to make of fate. I certainly don't think you can predetermine things. It feels like if you go out of your way to try to make something happen, it rarely does. But if you allow for good things to happen, they seem to. I think a lot of that is more perception, you know? A lot of people would take getting rear-ended in their car as an example of why their life continues to be one road block after another, and I think a different person can see that same fender bender and be grateful it wasn't worse. That allows them an opportunity to learn something from it -- sort of take some sort of positive elements from that. I think if you try to angle your life in those ways, then fate, destiny, karma opens itself up to you and allows for more growth. Oprah.com: How to get lucky in love and life . KF: I'm curious, how did your father meet your mother? NPH: They were college, fraternity and sorority sweethearts. This was in Albuquerque. She was in Alpha Chi Omega. And he was in, something Pi? They did the whole, you know, he gave her his pin. She was pinned, and they were a couple. Then, they were married, and they've only been with each other. I'm very extraordinarily lucky with my parents. ... We didn't have a lot of money growing up, but we were never made to feel poor. They had amazing senses of humor, senses of music and really treated us like regular people when we were kids. So I lucked out. KF: Did your parents help you survive child stardom? NPH: They were definitely grounding forces during years in my life that were very tumultuous. They're remarkably grounded and were not at all blinded by the light of stardom and fame. Their main concern was just my well-being and my brother's well-being during all of our crazy times, whether they be intimate or very public. They're remarkable people. Oprah.com: Get your fall TV premiere guide! By Kari Forsee from Oprah.com \u00a9 2009 . Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now! TM & \u00a9 2009 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"Neil Patrick Harris taking classy route at Emmys Sunday night .\n\"How I Met Your Mother\" actor may do some singing, probably no dancing .\n\"Mother\" begins new season; Harris' Barney character gets physical with Robin .","id":"8b66f5754a70c62dbacda0e7ab9d1a369b0b6f2e"} -{"article":"Beijing, China (CNN) -- In some of the photos, the young children are wearing bibs and slight smiles can be seen on their chubby faces. But these are not your normal baby pictures. The Chinese government is trying to find the parents of these 60 homeless children, some of them so young that they had not yet developed the strength to hold their own heads up. This week the Chinese Ministry of Public Security posted pictures of these rescued children on its Web site. Many of them had similar stories. They were kidnapped, stolen or sold and somehow had been rescued by authorities. Police tried to find their parents but could not find them through the national DNA database, state-run China Daily reported. And for the first time, the Ministry of Public Security posted their pictures. \"Even if I can't find my boy's photo on the Web site today, it's a blessing for desperate parents like us who have nearly lost hope,\" Tang Weihua, a mother who lost her 5-year-old son in 1999, told China Daily this week. About 30,000 to 60,000 children are reported missing every year, but it is hard to estimate how many are involved in child trafficking cases, the Ministry of Public Security told China Daily. Police have rescued 2,000 children this year since China launch a nationwide anti-trafficking campaign, China Daily reported. But after rescuing the children finding the parents can prove difficult. One issue is that in some cases the parents sold the children. Earlier this week China's state media reported that police arrested dozens in an alleged child trafficking ring that sold at least 52 babies. The traffickers bought 19 boys and 33 girls from impoverished rural families in Shanxi and Hebei provinces in the past two years, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The ring started crumbling after three men were arrested with a baby boy in their van, Xinhua said. The three suspects said they had bought the baby from a woman and her daughter in Hebei, according to Xinhua. The women had sold 12 other babies to the men, and were arrested, Xinhua said.","highlights":"China posts photos of kidnapped, stolen or sold 60 children who were rescued by authorities .\nPolice could not find their parents through the national DNA database .\n2,000 children have been rescued so far this year since China launch a nationwide anti-trafficking campaign .\nEarlier this week, police arrested dozens in an alleged child trafficking ring .","id":"38852adcb6852b64cb2f36b22c89613bfcc04d6e"} -{"article":"SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea bade farewell to former President Kim Dae-Jung Sunday in a ceremony attended by thousands of citizens, dignitaries and politicians. South Korean Buddhist monks pray in front of a portrait of former president Kim Dae-jung during his funeral Sunday. The solemn Sunday afternoon ceremony was held outside parliament, with a large portrait of Kim placed on a shrine surrounded by flowers. The funeral followed six days of mourning for Kim, who died Tuesday of a heart failure. Kim's age at the time of his death was in dispute, with some reports saying he was 85 while others placing it at 83. Kim's state funeral was the second such ever given in the country, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. Another president, Park Chung-hee, was also accorded a state funeral after his assassination while in office in 1979. Kim -- who was president from 1998 to 2003 -- won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for trying to foster better relations with North Korea. The watershed moment of his presidency came in June 2000 when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, becoming the first South Korean leader to do so since the Korean War unofficially ended in 1953. But rapproachment talks between the two sides hit a wall after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a tougher stance toward the North than Kim and his successor, Roh Moo-hyun. Ahead of the funeral, President Lee met with a visiting North Korean delegation, who delivered a message from Kim Jong Il expressing hopes for improved relations between the two countries. Lee, in turn, reiterated his government's firm stance, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan was quoted as saying by Yonhap. But in a possible sign that icy relations between the two rival nations are nevertheless thawing, South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek met with North Korean unity leader Kim Yang Gon on Saturday. It was the first high-level, cross-border contact in nearly two years. The meetings between officials of the two Koreas are in stark contrast to the tense public statements they made about each other earlier this year. Tensions between the two were heightened in July when North Korea launched seven short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan. The launches came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and threatened the United States and South Korean ships near its territorial waters. South Korea condemned the action, calling the launches \"provocative\" and \"unwise.\" CNN's Jake Perez contributed to this report.","highlights":"South Korea bade farewell to former President Kim Dae-Jung .\nKim won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for fostering better relations with the North .\nReport: Top unification officials of the rival nations met Saturday .\nNorth Korean delegation in Seoul to mourn the death of Kim Dae-Jung .","id":"72e2f1bda9d105000849e5137ddd06f84225155a"} -{"article":"Editor's note: Gloria Borger is a senior political analyst for CNN, appearing regularly on CNN's \"The Situation Room,\" \"Campbell Brown,\" \"AC360\u00b0\" and \"State of the Union With John King\" as well as other programs during special event coverage. Gloria Borger says President Obama's plans are running into Americans' widespread mistrust of government. (CNN) -- So now comes the hard part. Now that a key Senate committee has finally moved a health care bill, President Obama can get to work to try and figure out a final version of reform. Now that Gen. Stanley McChrystal has recommended a large troop buildup in Afghanistan -- setting off an internal debate about recalibrating strategy -- the president can decide what he wants to do about the war. And now that the stock market is on the rebound -- while unemployment remains high -- Obama can figure out how to come up with a \"son of stimulus\" package that targets jobs. Tough decisions are part of the president's job description, after all. But here's the tricky part: how to convince the public that you -- and government -- will do the right thing, or are even capable of it. Sure, distrust of government is as old as government itself. And there's an inherent conflict in current public thinking, as scholars William Galston and Elaine Kamarck point out: While people want government to solve big problems like health care, they don't trust the government to do it. \"There is nothing new about this ambivalence,\" they write in an essay aptly titled \"Change you can believe in requires a government you can trust.\" They write, \"But how ... the president deals with it may make the difference between success and failure.\" So what's a president with a big agenda to do? He could have narrowed it, but instead decided to play \"all-in.\" Because he was so popular, and because voters were so ready for a change, there was some thought the country might buy into the notion that good leadership could actually change the ethos of bad government. Obama probably believed it, too. So when the economic stimulus package was hatched, with hardly a Republican vote, the White House remained hopeful that, in the end, its success would restore confidence in their work. And they have since toiled mightily to brag about the stimulus package as evidence that government can work. After all, if FDR could do it, why not Barack Obama? Instead, the stimulus has become a handy target. Wall Street may be doing well, both conservatives and liberals rail, but the jobs elsewhere are not coming back. And as the president now moves to ask the nation to support an overhaul of health care, voters are still asking: Why should we trust the government to do that? Consider these numbers: At the end of the Bush administration -- with an unpopular president -- just 17 percent of the American public trusted the government to \"do the right thing\" all or most of the time. And for all of the popularity of Barack Obama, that number now stands at a measly 23 percent. After Bill Clinton lost health care reform -- and control of the Congress -- trust in government in 1994 was at an all-time low: 21 percent. We're almost there now. Ronald Reagan understood, and used to his benefit, the antipathy toward government. He used to joke that the scariest words in the lexicon were \"I'm from the government and I'm here to help.\" He wanted to make government smaller, and his overall success with that notion prompted President Clinton to famously tell Congress \"the era of big government is over.\" Well, it's back. The question is whether President Obama can convince us that more government is what we want -- and need. As Reagan once told us, \"Trust, but verify.\" If only we could. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger.","highlights":"Borger: Now the heat is on Obama to make crucial decisions .\nShe says White House bet that Americans would become more pro-government .\nShe says reality is that most people are still distrustful of government .\nBorger: Can Obama convince people that we need more government?","id":"eca51e8c78b9034cac9f1d32895ef82a6f6e809d"} -{"article":"TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Even before one reaches the front door of Canon's headquarters in Tokyo, one can sense the virtual stampede of employees pouring out of the building exactly at 5:30 p.m. Japan's birth rate of 1.34 is below the level needed to maintain the country's population. In a country where 12-hour workdays are common, the electronics giant has taken to letting its employees leave early twice a week for a rather unusual reason: to encourage them to have more babies. Japan is in the midst of an unprecedented recession, so corporations are being asked to work toward fixing another major problem: the country's low birthrate. Tell us what you think . At 1.34, the birthrate is well below the 2.0 needed to maintain Japan's population, according to the country's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Keidanren, Japan's largest business group, with 1,300 major international corporations as members, has issued a plea to its members to let workers go home early to spend time with their families and help Japan with its pressing social problem. Watch more on this story . One reason for the low birth rate is the 12-hour workday. But there are several other factors compounding the problem -- among them, the high cost of living, and social rigidity toward women and parenting. In addition, Japan's population is aging at a faster pace than any other country in the world. Analysts say the world's second-largest economy faces its greatest threat from its own social problems, rather than outside forces. And the country desperately needs to make some fixes to its current social and work structures, sociologists say. The 5:30 p.m. lights-out program is one simple step toward helping address the population problem. It also has an added benefit: Amid the global economic downturn the company can slash overtime across the board twice a week. \"It's great that we can go home early and not feel ashamed,\" said employee Miwa Iwasaki.","highlights":"Japanese electronics maker Canon encourages workers to have more babies .\nJapan's birthrate of 1.34 is below 2.0 needed to maintain its population .\nCountry's population is also aging faster than any other in the world .","id":"13c6ef48c6c1eb89f3613c04c861666d2c071ac8"} diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/validation.jsonl b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/validation.jsonl deleted file mode 100644 index 613b661bf5..0000000000 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/validation.jsonl +++ /dev/null @@ -1,401 +0,0 @@ -{"article":"(CNN)Share, and your gift will be multiplied. That may sound like an esoteric adage, but when Zully Broussard selflessly decided to give one of her kidneys to a stranger, her generosity paired up with big data. It resulted in six patients receiving transplants. That surprised and wowed her. \"I thought I was going to help this one person who I don't know, but the fact that so many people can have a life extension, that's pretty big,\" Broussard told CNN affiliate KGO. She may feel guided in her generosity by a higher power. \"Thanks for all the support and prayers,\" a comment on a Facebook page in her name read. \"I know this entire journey is much bigger than all of us. I also know I'm just the messenger.\" CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the page. But the power that multiplied Broussard's gift was data processing of genetic profiles from donor-recipient pairs. It works on a simple swapping principle but takes it to a much higher level, according to California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. So high, that it is taking five surgeons, a covey of physician assistants, nurses and anesthesiologists, and more than 40 support staff to perform surgeries on 12 people. They are extracting six kidneys from donors and implanting them into six recipients. \"The ages of the donors and recipients range from 26 to 70 and include three parent and child pairs, one sibling pair and one brother and sister-in-law pair,\" the medical center said in a statement. The chain of surgeries is to be wrapped up Friday. In late March, the medical center is planning to hold a reception for all 12 patients. Here's how the super swap works, according to California Pacific Medical Center. Say, your brother needs a kidney to save his life, or at least get off of dialysis, and you're willing to give him one of yours. But then it turns out that your kidney is not a match for him, and it's certain his body would reject it. Your brother can then get on a years-long waiting list for a kidney coming from an organ donor who died. Maybe that will work out -- or not, and time could run out for him. Alternatively, you and your brother could look for another recipient-living donor couple like yourselves -- say, two more siblings, where the donor's kidney isn't suited for his sister, the recipient. But maybe your kidney is a match for his sister, and his kidney is a match for your brother. So, you'd do a swap. That's called a paired donation. It's a bit of a surgical square dance, where four people cross over partners temporarily and everybody goes home smiling. But instead of a square dance, Broussard's generous move set off a chain reaction, like dominoes falling. Her kidney, which was removed Thursday, went to a recipient, who was paired with a donor. That donor's kidney went to the next recipient, who was also paired with a donor, and so on. On Friday, the last donor will give a kidney to someone who has been biding time on one of those deceased donor lists to complete the chain. Such long-chain transplanting is rare. It's been done before, California Pacific Medical Center said in a statement, but matching up the people in the chain has been laborious and taken a long time. That changed when a computer programmer named David Jacobs received a kidney transplant. He had been waiting on a deceased donor list, when a live donor came along -- someone nice enough to give away a kidney to a stranger. Jacobs paid it forward with his programming skills, creating MatchGrid, a program that genetically matches up donor pairs or chains quickly. \"When we did a five-way swap a few years ago, which was one of the largest, it took about three to four months. We did this in about three weeks,\" Jacobs said. But this chain wouldn't have worked so quickly without Broussard's generosity -- or may not have worked at all. \"The significance of the altruistic donor is that it opens up possibilities for pairing compatible donors and recipients,\" said Dr. Steven Katznelson. \"Where there had been only three or four options, with the inclusion of the altruistic donor, we had 140 options to consider for matching donors and recipients.\" And that's divine, Broussard's friend Shirley Williams wrote in a comment her on Broussard's Facebook page. \"You are a true angel my friend.\"","highlights":"Zully Broussard decided to give a kidney to a stranger .\nA new computer program helped her donation spur transplants for six kidney patients .","id":"a4942dd663020ca54575471657a0af38d82897d6"} -{"article":"(CNN)On the 6th of April 1996, San Jose Clash and DC United strode out in front of 31,683 expectant fans at the Spartan Stadium in San Jose, California. The historic occasion was the first ever Major League Soccer match -- a brave new dawn for the world's favorite sport in a land its charms had yet to conquer. Summarizing the action for ESPN, commentator Ty Keough eagerly described the momentous \"birth of a new era for American soccer.\" Looking back at footage from that balmy evening now it's hard not to feel a certain nostalgia. Baggy shirts, questionable hairstyles and strange rule adaptations to make games more exciting were all part of the formative MLS experience. Countdown clocks were employed to provide drama at the end of each half. Even more bizarrely, tied games were settled by shootouts that saw attacking players run with the ball from 35-yards out before attempting to beat the opposing goalkeeper. As the MLS prepares to mark the beginning of its 20th season, it's hard to comprehend just how much the league has progressed in the intervening period. Long gone is the desire to tamper with the rules of the game for a start. Attendances are higher than ever before while the number of teams involved has doubled from 10 in the 1996 campaign to 20 in 2015. A further four are set to be added by 2020. On top of this, the new season is the first of a new domestic TV and media rights deal with FOX, ESPN and Univision worth $700 million over eight years. This figure may pale beside the $5.1 billion recently paid by UK broadcasters for the English Premier League, the richest football league in the world, but it represents a tripling in value of the previous MLS deal. According to Phil Rawlins, co-primary owner and president of the new MLS franchise, Orlando City Soccer Club, \"the industry and the game itself has moved on dramatically\" in the U.S.. He believes what would equal 50 years growth in most other industries has been experienced in the first two decades of the MLS. Rawlins' club is a prime example of this rapid transformation. He describes players being pushed out of changing facilities because of a schedule clash with a yoga class not so long ago. This weekend 60,000 fans are expected to witness Orlando City's opening weekend fixture against New York City, another new club making their MLS bow. World Cup winners Kaka and David Villa will turn out for Orlando and New York City respectively. \"We're just on the crest of the wave at the moment,\" Rawlins said of football's American progress. \"Can it be the number two, number three sport in this country? Yes, I think it can. And it can be in a short space of time.\" These positive assertions are backed by the huge interest U.S. fans showed in last year's World Cup in Brazil. Team USA's group stage clash with Portugal attracted 25 million viewers, according to figures from TV ratings firm, Nielsen. That's considerably more than the 15 million baseball's 2013 World Series averaged on FOX or the similar audience that tuned into the 2014 NBA finals on ABC. Anyone who saw 20,000 pumped-up young fans pack out Chicago's Grant Park to cheer on their country via big screens, meanwhile, would find it hard to argue against soccer in the U.S. now being anything other than a big deal. Reaching this promising stage, however, has been anything but a smooth ride. The MLS was reported to have lost as much as $250 million in its first five years while average attendances initially dwindled after the inaugural season. Three teams -- Miami Fusion, Tampa Bay Mutiny (both in 2001) and Chivas USA (2014) -- were disbanded along the way due to a mixture of lack of fan interest and ownership troubles. A report by Forbes at the end of 2013, meanwhile, claimed that only 10 out of 19 MLS teams were profitable. And as recently as this week, MLS players looked like they could be going on strike over wages and the right of players to become free agents when their contracts end. Then there's the way the league develops, attracts and trades players. A salary cap restricts the amount teams can spend on playing squads. Each side, however, has a number of spaces that can be allocated to \"off budget\" signings which are not included within the cap. This includes promising Generation Adidas players who enter the MLS through the draft systems before completing their college education. Homegrown players from club's development academies are also exempt as are a maximum of three designated players (DPs), usually stellar international names whose wages and transfer fees will be covered by club owners or sponsors. One of the main criticisms of the MLS and its complex player acquisition rulebook is that while it does entice prominent stars of the game like David Beckham, Freddie Ljungberg and Thierry Henry to appear in the MLS, it only does so when their careers are on a downward trajectory. Why would an exceptional player want to move to a league that can only attract a handful of top talents at any one time, after all? And herein lies one of the leagues biggest challenges in attracting and keeping the talented players fans want to see. Although the likes of the salary cap encourages fiscal probity, it means MLS teams are restricted by rules clubs in other markets are not. Head coach of Sporting Kansas, Peter Vermes, highlighted these difficulties in comments carried by the Kansas City Star newspaper last year. \"We're in a place where at times you can't compete with foreign clubs because of the kind of dynamics they have in regards to finances. We have a salary cap. They don't,\" Vermes said. According to Paulo Teixeira, a football agent who has worked to bring in and sell players from the league in recent years, current philosophies with regards player-trading may be have to be tweaked to help the MLS grow yet further. He describes the importance of placing an emphasis on attracting younger players with European passports. Such talented individuals will have a sell-on value that can be recouped by the league and their clubs if they move on from the MLS to the biggest and wealthiest leagues across the Atlantic. Theoretically, at least, this money can then be reinvested in the league, player development and attracting yet more promising players to the MLS. This in turn will raise the standard further. An early example of this strategy can perhaps be found in the transfer of Oriol Rossell, a Spanish midfielder who moved from Sporting Kansas to Sporting Lisbon last year in a deal brokered by Teixeira. Rossell arrived on a free transfer aged 20 after being released by FC Barcelona in 2012. He excelled at Kansas, winning the MLS Cup before being sold to the Portuguese giants at a profit in June 2014. Teixeira is quick to make clear such plans would need good scouting systems to truly flourish. It could also be achieved by signing DPs closer to the peak stage of their career, he added. This last point is something that appears be happening already. \"Before they used to have a lot of big names who could no longer run in Europe,\" Teixeira said. \"(But) Villa is not an old guy, (Frank) Lampard is still going strong\" and both could still offer something to teams in Europe, he said by way of example of New York City's first DP signings. Nevertheless, he continued, the signing of more young players with big potential \"is probably something we'll see more of.\" Whether Teixeira is correct will become apparent in the months and years ahead. Either way, that brave new MLS dawn that broke over San Jose back in 1996 has turned into a bright morning. CNN's Don Riddell contributed to this story.","highlights":"The 20th MLS season begins this weekend .\nLeague has changed dramatically since its inception in 1996 .\nSome question whether rules regarding salary caps and transfers need to change .","id":"4157bc4da185971e2742f349d69a037343bc0d95"} -{"article":"(CNN)French striker Bafetimbi Gomis, who has a history of fainting, said he is now \"feeling well\" after collapsing during Swansea's 3-2 loss at Tottenham in the Premier League on Wednesday. The worrying incident occurred in the first half at White Hart Lane -- after Tottenham scored in the seventh minute -- but the 29-year-old left the pitch conscious following about five minutes of treatment. The Guardian added that he was wearing an oxygen mask. Play was temporarily stopped before resuming. As the match progressed, Swansea tweeted that Gomis was \"fine,\" with manager Garry Monk using the same word to describe Gomis' condition. Gomis spent the night in hospital as a precaution, Swansea said on its website. \"I wanted to reassure you concerning my health,\" Gomis told the website. \"It actually looks much scarier than it is physically dangerous, and I am feeling well now. \"I have been under a great deal of stress and fatigue due to my father's health, which requires me to go back and forth from France. \"I was disappointed that I couldn't help my team tonight, but now everything is back in order. I also want to thank everyone for their support and get well messages.\" Gomis had similar fainting spells in France, which prompted the president of his former club, Jean-Michel Aulas of Lyon, to tell French television in 2009: \"We can't not be worried, it scares you each time.\" Swansea ran tests on Gomis, said Monk, prior to signing him on a free transfer last July. \"He just has a little bit of low blood pressure which causes you a little bit of problems,\" Monk said in a televised interview on Sky. \"It's been part of his life. We were well aware of that when we signed him. He's done all the hospital checks and all the medical checks you can possibly do and it's just part of his life. \"It's no problems whatsoever. It's not as serious as it looks.\" Gomis has scored two league goals for Swansea this season, mostly in a backup role. He became the Welsh side's top striker when Wilfried Bony signed with Manchester City in January. Almost exactly three years ago at White Hart Lane, then Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was near death, according to Bolton, but survived after being treated at the London Chest Hospital. He subsequently retired. Other footballers, including Cameroon international Marc-Vivien Foe in 2003 and Spanish international Antonio Puerta in 2007, didn't survive after collapsing on the pitch.","highlights":"Bafetimbi Gomis collapses within 10 minutes of kickoff at Tottenham .\nBut he reportedly left the pitch conscious and wearing an oxygen mask .\nGomis later said that he was \"feeling well\"\nThe incident came three years after Fabrice Muamba collapsed at White Hart Lane .","id":"60736693e3b1b32d14337a317190c6606e879a85"} -{"article":"(CNN)It was an act of frustration perhaps more commonly associated with golf's fictional anti-hero Happy Gilmore than the world's reigning No 1. player. But when Rory McIlroy pulled his second shot on the eighth hole of the WGC Cadillac Championship into a lake Friday, he might as well have been channeling the much loved Adam Sandler character. Before continuing his round with a dropped ball, the four-time major winner launched the 3-iron used to play the offending shot into the water as well. \"(It) felt good at the time,\" a rueful McIlroy later said of the incident in comments carried by the PGA Tour website. \"I just let frustration get the better of me. It was heat of the moment, and I mean, if it had of been any other club I probably wouldn't have but I didn't need a 3\u2011iron for the rest of the round so I thought, why not.\" The club \"must have went a good 60, 70 yards,\" he joked. McIlroy composed himself to finish with a second round of 70, leaving him one-under for the tournament and eight shots off the pace set by leader JB Holmes. While an improvement on last weeks performance at the Honda Classic event, where he failed to make the cut, the Northern Irishman's frustration with elements of his game was still clear. \"I think every golfer feels it because I don't hit shots like the one I hit on 8 on the range,\" he said. \"That's what really bothers me, the fact that I get out on the course and I hit shots that I'm not seeing when I'm in a more relaxed environment. \"So it's a little bit of mental, a little bit of physical. It's just everything is not quite matching up.\" Elsewhere on the course, Ryan Holmes scored a two-under-par 71 to remain in second position overall, two shots behind Holmes. Former world No 1., Adam Scott carded an impressive 68 to finish the day three shots off the pace at six-under while Bubba Watson and Henrik Stenson are tied for fourth on four-under.","highlights":"Rory McIlroy throws club into water at WGC Cadillac Championship .\nNorthern Irishman frustrated after pulling shot into water hazard .","id":"8cdf9cc3ed0276b7a7944cc18ba459355b5984ad"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Pennsylvania community is pulling together to search for an eighth-grade student who has been missing since Wednesday. The search has drawn hundreds of volunteers on foot and online. The parents of Cayman Naib, 13, have been communicating through the Facebook group \"Find Cayman\" since a day after his disappearance, according to close friend David Binswanger. Newtown Police say Cayman was last seen wearing a gray down winter jacket, black ski pants and hiking boots. He could be in the Radnor-Wayne area, roughly 20 miles from Philadelphia, or may have purchased a train ticket to Philadelphia, according to an alert posted on Facebook. \"We think that he got a email from school and was upset by it and left as an impulsive act,\" Farid Naib, Cayman's father, wrote Thursday on the group page. \"We have spoken to his friends and they do not know where he is. Cayman does have his phone, we don't know if he has any cash, he does not have his wallet.\" The parents said that his phone was out of power at the time. \"Cayman left within 30 minutes after he received an email from school regarding overdue home work (we do not blame the school) and most probably did not do any pre planning ... He is a good kid, and has no substance abuse or other issues, this is the first time he has ever done anything like this,\" his father and mother, Becky Naib, posted Friday. The parents wrote Saturday that Cayman was not wearing waterproof clothing and that he did not take his backpack. Binswanger said weather limited search efforts Wednesday, the night Cayman went missing. Wednesday it was rainy and Thursday there was 6-8 inches of snow. Hundreds of volunteers have stepped up to pass out fliers and to canvass areas, according to posts. A post late Saturday explained search efforts included \"advanced, geo-spacial tracking software to determine the exact locations where searchers went,\" and added that the search would be taken to the skies Sunday with deployment of the Civil Air Patrol. In many posts, the families appealed directly to their son. \"Cayman, if you read this please know that you are forgiven for everything, and I mean everything, you have the ultimate free pass. Just come home, we are so worried about you\" the family posted Saturday. A message to families from the head of The Shipley School, which Cayman attends, read in part: \"Cayman's sister Savannah is in ninth grade at Shipley and his parents, Farid and Becky, are terrific people. They have contacted police and are aware that we are sending you this email. We hope that Cayman is ok and are saying our prayers.\" CNN could not immediately get in touch with police or the FBI.","highlights":"Cayman Naib, 13, hasn't been heard from since Wednesday .\nPolice, family, volunteers search for eighth-grader .","id":"2e6613d531843515bf5401286cc3e45c4df530d2"} -{"article":"(CNN)My vote for Father of the Year goes to Curt Schilling. The former Major League Baseball pitcher recently fired off a series of fastballs and mowed down a group of Twitter trolls who made the mistake of tweeting vulgar and sexually-explicit comments about Schilling's teenage daughter. The drama started, innocently enough, on February 25, when Schilling played the role of a proud father. He sent a tweet congratulating his daughter, Gabby, on being accepted to Salve Regina University, where she'll play softball. It read: \"Congrats to Gabby Schilling who will pitch for the Salve Regina Seahawks next year!! \u2014 Curt Schilling (@gehrig38)\" Almost immediately, responses came in from young men, complete strangers who apparently followed Schilling on Twitter. The tweets quickly went from immature, to creepy, to repugnant. Threats of rape were common. The tweets were deleted, and the accounts were closed after this story went viral. But not before Schilling captured some of the images and posted them on his blog. What was said about 17-year-old Gabby Schilling wasn't just obnoxious. It was vile and obscene. What was said wasn't just mean and ugly. It was threatening and scary. As a parent, it's the kind of thing that makes you rethink your opposition to public caning as a logical punishment for such transgressions. These misogynistic cowards may have thought they could hide in the darkness of anonymity, the sort that many have come to expect from social media sites, where you feel free to be a despicable human being because, you think, no one will ever find out who you really are and hold you accountable for your words. If so, they thought wrong. They couldn't hide. They were found out, and they got the throttling they so richly deserved. Thanks to dad. According to Schilling, who made it his mission to track down these cretins and make sure those they associate with know who they really are, two people have already paid a price due to their tweets. One was a student disc jockey at a community college in New Jersey, who was suspended, and the other was a part-time ticket seller for the New York Yankees, who was fired. Concerned that this is an example of exactly the kind of cyberbullying that leads some teenagers to commit suicide, Schilling is also thinking about taking legal action against some of the other people involved. Bravo for him. I'm sure that, all across America, dads with daughters -- after reading some of the horrible things that were said about this young girl -- are marveling at Schilling's self-control. I have two daughters of my own, and he's a better man than me. If ever there was a case where profanity-spewing malcontents deserved to have their mouths washed out with soap, this is it. So what additional insights can we draw, and what larger lessons can we learn, from this unexpected but predictable collision of old-fashioned parenthood and newfangled media? There are a few. The first is about accountability, the very thing that the young men who posted these hurtful messages were trying to avoid. But Schilling wouldn't let them. At their best, social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others allow the sharing the information and the building of a sense of community. At their worst, they become digital sandboxes and locker rooms where people think have a license to misbehave without having to worry about consequences. We need to applaud efforts like this that promote greater online accountability. There's also something to be said about protective parents, and how essential they are to a working society. We should still be concerned about those overprotective parents who hover like helicopters from little league to job interviews. We shouldn't bubblewrap our kids, and keep them from playing outdoors, and then sit around wondering why they're soft, timid, and risk-averse. But protective parents -- the kind who shield their kids from real danger -- never go out of style. A parent's top job is to protect his children. Schilling did his job. Finally, it's worth reminding everyone that freedom of expression does not mean freedom from rules, standards, and expectations that should guide your behavior. There are things you don't say. There are boundaries, ways that we expect you to behave so you don't terrorize other people or bring shame upon yourself, your friends, and your family. If you don't have social skills, you don't belong on social media. The tweets make you wince. But in this story, you'll still find plenty to smile about. This whole drama unfolded because Schilling was proud of his daughter. Now, given how he reacted, we all have reason to be proud of him. \u200b .","highlights":"Ruben Navarrette: Schilling deserves praise for taking on online haters for offensive comments about his daughter .\nNavarrette: In protecting his child, Schilling set a model for parenting and taught us a lesson about social media .","id":"fbc5ac3a3a7bb6c4d628cfbeef92b67bb18562f9"} -{"article":"(CNN)Another one for the \"tourists behaving badly\" file. Two American women have reportedly been arrested for carving their initials into a wall with a coin inside Rome's Colosseum. Daily Italian newspaper La Stampa says the women, aged 21 and 25, were spotted carrying out the act by fellow tourists, who then told security. The two letters -- J and N -- were about eight inches in length and scratched on a brick wall at the historic Roman amphitheater. The women, both from California, reportedly snapped a selfie of themselves with their initials before they were arrested. Their names have not been released. The American pair may now face a fine for \"aggravated damage\" on a building of historical and artistic interest. If one Russian's experience is anything to go by, the price won't be cheap. Last November, authorities in Rome slapped a 20,000-euro ($21,685) penalty on a Russian tourist caught carving his name into the famed landmark. The 42-year-old man was apprehended after a guard at the Colosseum saw him carve the letter \"K\" in a section of brickwork. After police caught up with him, the man was found guilty of causing aggravated damage, fined and given a four-month suspended sentence. The Russian was one of five tourists caught carving graffiti on Colosseum walls in 2014. The earlier incidents involved two Australians -- a father and son -- and a Canadian and a Brazilian, both teenagers. Rome isn't alone in having to deal with inappropriate tourist behavior this month. Egypt is now looking into reports that one of its most historic sites was the backdrop for a Russian porn flick. According to Al Arabiya News, authorities have confirmed that an X-rated film was shot next to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx and are now investigating. The video was reportedly made by Russian tourists, who then uploaded it to the Internet nine months ago. Al Arabiya reports that Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh al-Demati says the issue has been referred to the public prosecutor and new surveillance cameras are being installed in the area. The incident comes as a reminder that no world landmark is safe from the salacious urges of tourists -- no matter how sacred it might be to the locals. Cambodia's Angkor Archeological Park experienced its own string of nudity-related incidents this year. In February, U.S. tourists and sisters Lindsey Kate Adams and Leslie Jan Adams were deported after allegedly getting caught taking partially nude photos at Preah Khan temple, one of the sacred sites inside Cambodia's Angkor complex. They received six-month suspended prison sentences, a one-million riel ($250) fine and were banned from entering the country for four years. In January, a group of photos featuring a topless dancer leaning against the ruins surfaced on Facebook. Early last year, Peru officials were forced to respond to a chain of \"naked tourism\" incidents at Machu Picchu, also a World Heritage Site. They detained four American tourists, two Canadians and two Australians for stripping down for pictures at the site. CNN's Barry Neild contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two American women arrested for carving initials into a Colosseum wall .\nMeanwhile, Egypt investigating Russian pornography film reportedly shot at Great Pyramids .\nCambodia's Angkor Archeological Park experienced a string of nudity-related incidents this year .","id":"d093aa07380f75e63265793fcaa171772a6f4616"} -{"article":"(CNN)Following last year's successful U.K. tour, Prince and 3rdEyeGirl are bringing the Hit & Run Tour to the U.S. for the first time. The first -- and so far only -- scheduled show will take place in Louisville, Kentucky, the hometown of 3rdEyeGirl drummer Hannah Welton. Slated for March 14, tickets will go on sale Monday, March 9 at 10 a.m. local time. Prince crowns dual rock charts . A venue has yet to be announced. When the Hit & Run worked its way through the U.K. in 2014, concert venues were revealed via Twitter prior to each show. Portions of the ticket sales will be donated to various Louisville charities. See the original story at Billboard.com. \u00a92015 Billboard. All Rights Reserved.","highlights":"It will be a first time for the tour stateside .\nFirst show will be in Louisville, Kentucky .","id":"0485e4f199828cd03857391cbe573142193ca953"} -{"article":"(CNN)A shooting at a bar popular with expatriates in Mali on Saturday killed five people, including French and Belgian citizens, authorities said. One French citizen, one Belgian and three Malians were killed in the attack in the capital of Bamako, said Gabriel Toure, director of a local hospital. An additional eight people were wounded, he said. Authorities called the shooting a \"criminal and terrorist act.\" \"Mali remains committed to seeking peace and will not be intimidated by those who have no other motives than to do away (with) the prospects of peace and harmony amongst the Malians,\" the government said in a statement. A North African jihadist group, al-Murabitun, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar. The purported claim came in an audio message in which the group said it carried out the attack in retaliation for the killing of one of its leaders, Al Akhbar said. \"Al-Murabitun may be considered a regional competitor to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM),\" according to the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based research and analysis firm. The U.S. State Department said in January that al-Murabitun is a \"newly-formed\" militant group that has presence in northern Mali. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the victim from his country was 31 years old. French President Francois Hollande released a statement condemning the attack. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his condolences to the victims' families in a news conference in Paris on Saturday. \"This is an act of cowardice,\" he said. \"But an act of opening fire in a restaurant filled with innocent civilians -- in the end, that only strengthens our resolve to fight terrorism in all of its forms, wherever it exists.\" The French Embassy in Bamako warned its citizens to be on alert if they go out in public. Though it's unclear whether any rebel group is responsible for the attack, Malian forces have battled Islamist militants in the northern part of the nation for years. Fabius said the Malian government was interrogating some suspects. Mali plunged into chaos after soldiers staged a coup three years ago. As a result, Tuareg fighters capitalized on the power vacuum to launch an insurgency that ended with their takeover of the north. After the Tuareg fighters seized the region, a power struggle erupted with local Islamist radicals. The extremists toppled the tribe and seized control of a large piece of northern Mali, an area the size of France. Since then, the nation has battled various rebel factions, mostly in the northern region, with the help of French and African forces. CNN's Brian Walker, Joshua Berlinger and Christabelle Fombu contributed to this report.","highlights":"A jihadist group claims responsibility in an audio recording, news agency reports .\nThe Malian government calls the shooting a \"terrorist act\"\nOne French citizen, one Belgian and three Malians are killed .","id":"c6df0bbd0b5eaa67e1f2b70892bf0a5dfb761895"} -{"article":"(CNN)Manchester United defender Jonny Evans and Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse have been charged by the Football Association for allegedly spitting during an altercation in Wednesday night's Premier League game at St James' Park. In a statement, English football's governing body said the players had been charged \"in relation to an alleged breach of FA Rule E1[a] in that in or around the 38th minute of the game the two players spat at each other. \"The incidents were not seen by the match officials but [were] caught on video.\" The players have until 6pm GMT on Friday to respond to the charge, and could face six-game bans if found guilty. Both Evans and Cisse released statements the day after the incident, with Evans saying: \"I would like to make it clear that I did not spit at Papiss Cisse.\" Cisse's statement said: \"I reacted to something I found very unpleasant. Sometimes it is hard not to react, particularly in the heat of the moment. I have always tried hard to be positive a role model, especially for our young fans, and yesterday I let you down.\" Spitting at another player is considered beyond the pale by professional footballers, and former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann, now a TV pundit, told the BBC's Match of the Day programme the incident had been \"disgusting.\" \"This is not acceptable,\" he said. \"There are kids watching. Something has to be done. The behaviour towards each other and the referee is deteriorating on a weekly basis.\" Ex-Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes said he did not believe Evans had deliberately spat at Cisse, telling BT Sport: \"Look, it's not very nice. I think Jonny is spitting on the floor. \"I know Jonny -- he's not that type of person. If he wants to do that then it's not hard to miss, is it? He's only stood a yard away from him. What Cisse does afterwards is unforgivable.\" And former Liverpool player Steve McManaman told the channel: \"Cisse stands up and spits right at Jonny Evans' neck from about six inches. It's absolutely disgusting. \"Two wrongs do not make a right. If Jonny Evans has spat at him then it's wrong, but for Papiss Cisse to get up and react like that is absolutely disgusting. We talk about bad tackles, but that is worse.\"","highlights":"Alleged incident happened in match at St James' Park .\nPlayers face six-match ban if found guilty .\nEvans denied spitting in statement .\nCisse statement says: \"I let you down\"","id":"4a323dd3a1be975d93e941361082937cd2aafc88"} -{"article":"March 10, 2015 . We're truly international in scope on Tuesday. We're visiting Italy, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Himalayan Mountains. Find out who's attempting to circumnavigate the globe in a plane powered partially by the sun, and explore the mysterious appearance of craters in northern Asia. You'll also get a view of Mount Everest that was previously reserved for climbers. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"bdf542b05c1717ae9ef064e5fafa4a2946785d09"} -{"article":"(CNN)Nine foreign workers are believed to be in the hands of ISIS-affiliated militants after an attack on a Libyan oil field, according to officials. Libya's internationally recognized government has blamed \"ISIS militias\" for the attack Friday in which the Al-Ghani oil field was set on fire. The kidnapped foreigners were working for VAOS, an Austrian-owned oil services company whose headquarters are in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. They include four Filipinos, an Austrian, a Czech and a Ghanaian, according to the Philippine foreign ministry. The Bangladeshi government said one of its citizens was also taken hostage. The nationality of the ninth worker was unclear. The abductions come amid Libya's deteriorating security situation in which Islamic militias, some of them pledging allegiance to the extremist group ISIS, have thrived. Egypt carried out airstrikes against ISIS militants in Libya last month after the killings of Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped while working in a Libyan city. The Philippine foreign ministry said Monday that its Tripoli embassy had \"stepped up coordination\" with the Austrian company and Libyan authorities \"to locate the abducted Filipinos and ensure their safe and immediate release.\" Martin Weiss, a spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry tweeted Monday that \"credible sources\" had confirmed that the Austrian citizen and other international workers were in the hands of ISIS \"terrorists.\" The attack on Al-Ghani is the latest in a recent spate of violence by militants targeting oil fields in Libya. The Libyan National Oil Corporation said over the weekend that it had warned VAOS more than two weeks ago to leave the area because of security concerns. VAOS wasn't immediately available for comment Tuesday. The Philippine foreign ministry said 52 other Filipinos are employed by VAOS but were relocated out of Al-Ghani \"much earlier\" and are now in Tripoli. Three other Filipinos have been missing in Libya since they were seized at the Mabruk oil field in February, the foreign ministry said. \"These cases underscore the escalating threat to the safety and security of Filipino oil workers in Libyan oil fields which have been targeted by armed groups in recent weeks,\" said foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose. He said Philippine authorities were unsure at this point whether the kidnappers were ISIS members. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Marilia Brocchetto, and journalists Ayman Kekly and Arlene Samson-Espiritu, contributed to this report.","highlights":"The abducted workers were seized in an attack on an oil field last week .\nThey are from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Austria, the Czech Republic and Ghana .\nMilitants have carried out a series of attacks on oil fields in recent weeks .","id":"c2be332536700d93414c42c72ae38e21c98dee63"} -{"article":"(CNN)Think back to your high school's senior prank. Maybe you and your pals slipped a pig into the building or greased all the door handles or turned all the chairs upside-down. So it's no surprise that Wichita high school Principal Sherman Padgett was reluctant to play along last week when a student showed up and told him to stand in the hallway holding a bucket. \"She didn't say anything about why. She just said 'hold the bucket,' \" the North High School principal told CNN affiliate KWCH. \"I'm not going to hold the bucket unless I have a little inkling of why it could be.\" Good thing he changed his mind. Once he did, student after student streamed by, dropping notes of praise and thanks into the bucket. \"Thank you for making high school the best years of my life,\" one said. \"You've made my first year experience in America one that I will always fondly remember,\" read another. One student recalled how Padgett \"helped me get through my eating disorder and helped me get into therapy.\" The notes were the idea of senior Emily Jones. She decided she wanted to do something nice for the principal and cooked up the plan with her mother. \"Padgett's an awesome principal,\" she said. For Padgett, who has been principal at North since 2006, the experience was priceless. \"Became a little emotional on some of them,\" he said, \"I kind of read them and thought, 'man, this is better than a paycheck. This is why I do the things that I do.' \"","highlights":"Wichita, Kansas, high school students surprise principal with kind-hearted senior prank .\n\"This is why I do the things that I do,\" the principal says .","id":"14c1b26ea2b78196c2d1cf3a5882aedb2f6558aa"} -{"article":"(CNN)The search for a comic book artist missing in the Cayman Islands since Thursday is now being called a recovery mission. Norman Lee, an artist for DC and Marvel comics, went missing while snorkeling with his wife off the eastern coast of Grand Cayman, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. Strong currents hindered the search, which lasted until Friday evening, Cayman 27 reported. \"It is unlikely that we will make any recovery at this stage,\" Chief Inspector Brad Ebanks told Cayman 27. Lee, 47, of Weymouth, Massachusetts, was known and for his work on \"Wolverine Annual,\" \"Supergirl,\" \"Starman\" and other comic book titles. Tributes flooded his Facebook page and Twitter from friends, fans and colleagues who knew him from art school and comic conventions. \"I cannot express how shaken I am that I will never get the chance to see that smile again, and it saddens me that this world has lost a wonderful man in Norman Lee. To his wife Jan, and his family and all his friends and fans that loved him, my sincerest condolences,\" friend and fellow graphic artist Chris Kinniery said on Facebook. \"I'm so sorry to hear about Norman Lee's disappearance. My condolences go out to his family. ... He was an amazing talent in the industry and it was always a pleasure to work with him,\" freelance artist .","highlights":"Comic book artist Norman Lee went missing in the Cayman Islands on Thursday .\nAuthorities called off search on Friday evening .","id":"f4a21564e3c65809f110b832138f2a3cf5b019cc"} -{"article":"March 9, 2015 . This week marks the anniversary of several historic events: a civil rights march to Selma, Alabama's Edmund Pettus Bridge, the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight, and the commemoration of International Women's Day. We'll cover all of them this Monday on CNN Student News, and we explain why the latest U.S. unemployment report is a mixed bag. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"0bcc5c7a3e66e114aaa39dcca83d4656d5978022"} -{"article":"(CNN)Jessie Usher, the lead of Starz's series \"Survivor's Remorse,\" has been cast in Fox's sequel \"Independence Day 2.\" Liam Hemsworth has also been cast in a lead role and Jeff Goldblum will reprise his role as David Levinson from the original. It has been nearly 20 years since the Will Smith-starring sci-fi film hit theaters, grossing more than $800 million worldwide at the box office. Director Roland Emmerich will return to helm the film. \"Independence Day 2\" is set for release on June 24, 2016 \u2014 almost exactly 20 years from when the first film hit theaters on July 3, 1996. Dean Devlin, Emmerich and Harald Kloser are producing. Independence Day 2 is a big get for Usher, who will play a central character in the new film as the son of Smith's character. Smith's role in the first blockbuster helped establish him as a star, kicking his career up to the next level. Usher stars in the Lebron James-produced Starz TV series \"Survivor's Remorse\" as Cam Calloway, a basketball player who moves with his family to Atlanta after he signs a pro contract. The first season premiered Oct. 4, 2014, and Starz quickly renewed the show for a second season, which will air later this year. The rising star's film credits includes TriStar football drama When the Game Stands Tall, which hit theaters in August. On the TV side, he previously starred in the Cartoon Network's series Level Up. He's repped by Paradigm and Williams Unlimited. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Jeff Goldblum set to reprise his role in \"Independence Day 2\"\nLiam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher also cast in key roles .\nSequel will be released 20 years after the original box office smash about an alien invasion .","id":"43276372450d31aad099a3cfc1f5fe931a419329"} -{"article":"(CNN)Former Vice President Walter Mondale was released from the Mayo Clinic on Saturday after being admitted with influenza, hospital spokeswoman Kelley Luckstein said. \"He's doing well. We treated him for flu and cold symptoms and he was released today,\" she said. Mondale, 87, was diagnosed after he went to the hospital for a routine checkup following a fever, former President Jimmy Carter said Friday. \"He is in the bed right this moment, but looking forward to come back home,\" Carter said during a speech at a Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis. \"He said tell everybody he is doing well.\" Mondale underwent treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The 42nd vice president served under Carter between 1977 and 1981, and later ran for President, but lost to Ronald Reagan. But not before he made history by naming a woman, U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York, as his running mate. Before that, the former lawyer was a U.S. senator from Minnesota. His wife, Joan Mondale, died last year.","highlights":"Walter Mondale was released from the Mayo Clinic on Saturday, hospital spokeswoman said .\nThe former vice president, 87, was treated for cold and flu symptoms .","id":"10f9d53382cb52d77c1090e9ebf062bf8cb64f59"} -{"article":"(CNN)The only thing crazier than a guy in snowbound Massachusetts boxing up the powdery white stuff and offering it for sale online? People are actually buying it. For $89, self-styled entrepreneur Kyle Waring will ship you 6 pounds of Boston-area snow in an insulated Styrofoam box -- enough for 10 to 15 snowballs, he says. But not if you live in New England or surrounding states. \"We will not ship snow to any states in the northeast!\" says Waring's website, ShipSnowYo.com. \"We're in the business of expunging snow!\" His website and social media accounts claim to have filled more than 133 orders for snow -- more than 30 on Tuesday alone, his busiest day yet. With more than 45 total inches, Boston has set a record this winter for the snowiest month in its history. Most residents see the huge piles of snow choking their yards and sidewalks as a nuisance, but Waring saw an opportunity. According to Boston.com, it all started a few weeks ago, when Waring and his wife were shoveling deep snow from their yard in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a coastal suburb north of Boston. He joked about shipping the stuff to friends and family in warmer states, and an idea was born. His business slogan: \"Our nightmare is your dream!\" At first, ShipSnowYo sold snow packed into empty 16.9-ounce water bottles for $19.99, but the snow usually melted before it reached its destination. So this week, Waring began shipping larger amounts in the Styrofoam cubes, which he promises will arrive anywhere in the U.S. in less than 20 hours. He also has begun selling a 10-pound box of snow for $119. Many of his customers appear to be companies in warm-weather states who are buying the snow as a gag, he said. Whether Waring can sustain his gimmicky venture into the spring remains to be seen. But he has no shortage of product. \"At this rate, it's going to be July until the snow melts,\" he told Boston.com. \"But I've thought about taking this idea and running with it for other seasonal items. Maybe I'll ship some fall foliage.\"","highlights":"A man in suburban Boston is selling snow online to customers in warmer states .\nFor $89, he will ship 6 pounds of snow in an insulated Styrofoam box .","id":"9b040dde80ca3388e9ce9512bb270c2a9e72f1de"} -{"article":"(CNN)Farah fled the civil war in Syria with her husband in the middle of the night, hitching rides on trucks until they finally crossed into Jordan. Two days later, she gave birth to a girl in a country where they hold no status. Like 70,000 other refugees from Syria, Iraq, Sudan and the Palestinian Territories, Farah (her name and the others in this article have been changed to protect their anonymity) now lives with her family in Zarqa, a poor Jordanian city teeming with factories and crumbling apartment blocks. Men dominate public spaces, and many women stay at home, isolated. Two years ago, Farah was a nurse and her husband a lawyer. Here, he found work tiling construction sites, but was arrested three times for working illegally. \"Now my husband stays at home, depressed and afraid of being sent to the camps,\" Farah said. She is now the family breadwinner, working at a local organization providing educational programs to Syrian and Jordanian children. Every day she navigates the dangers of Zarqa's crime-ridden streets and ignores sexual advances from men. Yet Zarqa is also a pocket of hope. Some 384 female refugees working with the Near East Foundation have been able to re-establish savings, restore dignity, strengthen their capacity to bounce back and rebuild their lives. Many of them choose to become earners for the first time. They belong to a network of Jordanian and refugee women -- coaches, mentors and peers -- who lean on each other and offer business and social support, exchange tips and build friendships. Some 80% of the refugees in this network have chosen to invest in building a small home-based business. Fatiya, who escaped Iraq during the 2003 invasion, was surviving on charity until six months ago. Now she runs her own leather goods home-based business, making belts, wallets and key chains for tourists from the safety of her home. These days, Fatiya is busy rebuilding her life. \"I make my own way,\"she says. Zainab, also an Iraqi refugee, is now a hairdresser in Zarqa. On the side, she teaches the art of hairdressing to young women, walking alongside them in their first steps to become economically independent. On March 8, we celebrate International Women's Day and the empowerment of women globally -- including the nearly 6 million refugee women and girls who, like Farah, Fatiya and Zainab, continue to adapt to life in their new surroundings with determination, creativity and skill, despite increasingly limited options. Aid agencies must match the strength of these women's resilience. To truly assist them, we must empower them with opportunities and choices. Of the 10.5 million refugees registered with UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, less than 1% are eventually resettled. The rest remain in limbo, forced to forge new lives in places where they often have no right to work. Refugees are displaced for an average of 20 years, and more than half disappear into urban sprawls where they struggle to integrate and start their lives over. Humanitarian assistance and media attention tend to fixate on \"immediate\" aid -- distribution of cash, food and subsistence items. This is unsustainable. UNHCR provides critical cash assistance to refugees in Jordan -- but this can be as little as $71 a month, 16 times below the country's poverty line. Refugees need to supplement their allowances, yet they cannot legally find employment, and working in the informal sector can be dangerous. Farah, Fatiya and Zainab are among hundreds of women who are finding a world of options as they build their vocational skills and financial literacy. But their increased role as earners challenges cultural norms, exposing them to heightened abuse and violence. Women's ability to generate income does not guarantee economic independence. To help this network of women control the income they earn, the Near East Foundation facilitates discussions with male family members about their wives' and daughters' newfound roles. \"In the beginning, these women were tremendously shy -- they didn't talk,\" says Hamdan Eliemat, who heads the Bani Hasan Islamic Society, a community organization supporting the women. He laughs. \"And now they won't stop talking. And we men, now we have to listen.\" The international community must advocate for refugees' right to survive. We must ensure that beyond immediate aid, women have access to skill-building, financial resources, social networks and protection from violence and harassment, so they have the chance to build their own futures.","highlights":"Jina Krause-Vilmar: On International Women's Day, focus on helping refugee women adapt to new lives .\nShe says aid agencies like hers aim to help these women build job skills and financial literacy .\nShe says the effort includes educating men about wives' and daughters' new roles .","id":"dc0f01376a2e0cfe8dff118a43eae341ac24cf41"} -{"article":"(CNN)Real Madrid fell to a lacklustre 1-0 defeat at the hands of Athletic Bilbao Saturday, potentially handing the La Liga advantage to arch rival Barcelona. A stunning header from Aritz Aduriz shortly before half time was enough to win the day for an organized and impressive Bilbao. Real piled on the pressure for much of the second half but couldn't find a way past a staunch opponent despite finishing the match with four strikers on the park. Gareth Bale struck a post with an extraordinary shot from close to the halfway line as full time approached while Arduriz almost doubled Bilbao's lead with another headed chance late on. The result means second placed Barca can now take top spot should it win at home to mid-table Rayo Vallecano Sunday. Of more immediate concern to Real boss Carlo Ancelotti after the game, however, was his side's lack of cutting edge. \"I think the problem we are having at the moment is quite clear,\" Ancelotti told reporters. \"We are not finding a way through like we did in the games before. We've only scored one goal, from a penalty, in two games. \"That is the problem we have to fix. We lack efficiency up front.\" Real are now without a win in two league games while the 4-0 February hammering at the hands of city rivals Atletico Madrid, the clubs biggest derby defeat since 1947, is still fresh in the memory. With the second El Classico fixture of the season against Barcelona only a fortnight away, Ancelotti is looking for a quick fix to his side's attacking inhibitions. However, such worries are of little concern to a Bilbao side celebrating its first win over Real in five years. After a slow start to the season the Basques are now up to eighth position. \"We are very proud of how hard we worked,\" goalscorer Arduriz said in comments carried by the AFP news agency. \"The three points will prove a huge boost.\" \"The fans have enjoyed it a lot and they deserved that after the poor performances at San Mames earlier in the season.\" Bayern Munich continued its seemingly inexorable march to a third consecutive Bundesliga title with a come from behind 3-1 victory away to Hannover. Hiroshi Kiyotake gave the hosts a surprise lead after 25 minutes but Xabi Alonso levelled shortly after. A second half brace from Thomas Muller ensured the Bavarians would increase their league at the top of the Bundesliga to 11 points as second place Wolfsburg fell to a 1-0 defeat at Augsburg. Elsewhere Saturday, Borussia Dortmund's winning streak came to an end with as Jurgen Klopp's revitalized side were held to a 0-0 draw with Hamburg. Paris Saint Germain returned to the top of the Ligue 1 table, for 24 hours at least, with a convincing 4-1 win over Lens at the Parc de Princes. David Luiz opened the scoring as the first half came to a close before Zlatan Ibrahimovic doubled the Parisian's advantage from the penalty spot on the hour mark. Substitutes Blaise Matuidi and Javier Pastore secured the win after Yoann Touzghar had pulled one back deficit for Lens. Lyon will return to the Ligue 1 summit should it dispose of Montpelier Sunday. Read: .","highlights":"Real Madrid slump to defeat against Athletic Bilbao .\nSolitary goal from Aritz Aduriz enough to give the Basques victory .\nBayern Munich continue Bundesliga domination .","id":"223f2d2ff1fa774a816c9dbd0253e8d158b6bc7d"} -{"article":"Tokyo (CNN)Police in Japan say they have arrested a 40-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing five neighbors in a farming community in Sumoto city. The man has admitted stabbing three women aged 59, 76 and 84, as well as two men aged 62 and 82, Deputy Police Chief Keizo Okumoto told CNN. He said the accused refused to comment further as he was awaiting his lawyer. The victims -- two couples and the 84-year-old woman -- lived within 100 meters (330 feet) of the suspect's home, police said. According to local media, the accused and the victims shared the same surname, but it is unclear if they are related. Sumoto city is on Awaji Island, Hyogo prefecture, in Japan. CNN's Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report from London.","highlights":"Police in Japan say they have arrested a man, 40, after five neighbors were fatally stabbed .\nThe accused shares the same surname as the victims, aged 59 to 84, local media say .\nA police official says the man has admitted to the stabbings but refused to comment further .","id":"ae99cbf7b2eff2e7468c3282a992863556b0f3b1"} -{"article":"(CNN)A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near a police vehicle in the capital of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on Tuesday, killing seven people and injuring 23 others, the province's deputy governor said. The attack happened at about 6 p.m. in the Bolan area of Lashkar Gah city, said Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, deputy governor of Helmand. Several children were among the wounded, and the majority of casualties were civilians, Rasoolyar said. Details about the attacker's identity and motive weren't immediately available.","highlights":"Car bomb detonated near police vehicle in Lashkar Gah, deputy governor says .","id":"64d7ee44a6d3c726d4f5d197c325fd728e02ec53"} -{"article":"(CNN)Pakistan's highest court Friday ordered the release of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks, calling his detention illegal. Lakhvi, a top leader of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was not present at Friday's court proceeding. The terror attacks in India left more than 160 people dead in November 2008. In the attacks, heavily armed men stormed landmark buildings around Mumbai, including luxury hotels, the city's historic Victoria Terminus train station and a Jewish cultural center. On Friday, India summoned the Pakistan high commissioner \"to convey our strong feelings about (the) Lakhvi verdict,\" said India's external affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin. Last year, the court granted Lakhvi bail, a decision the Pakistani government had said it would challenge. Many in India are still angry over the attacks and had criticized the bail decision. \"It is very disappointing that the accused of the Mumbai attacks has been granted bail,\" the nation's home minister, Rajnath Singh, said in December. India executed the last surviving gunman from the attacks in 2012. Other suspects were all killed during the series of attacks, which went on for three days. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.","highlights":"The terror attacks in India left more than 160 people dead .\nA court granted the suspect bail last year .","id":"e7203d308fc92da3852e54616a1cfe7bc3d2066c"} -{"article":"(CNN)An officer, responding to reports of a suspicious person, shot and killed an unarmed man who was running around in a metro Atlanta apartment complex naked. The officer fired two shots when the man charged at him, said Cedric Alexander, the public safety director of DeKalb County. But given that the man was not carrying a weapon, the police department immediately turned over the case to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations for an independent probe. \"What I have requested here [is] a result of what's going on currently across this country as it relates to police shootings,\" Alexander told reporters. The officer was white; the deceased man was African-American, Alexander said. The incident took place Monday afternoon at an apartment complex in Chamblee, a suburb of Atlanta. Someone called 911 to report a man \"acting deranged, knocking on doors and crawling around naked,\" Alexander said. When the officer arrived, the man charged at him, Alexander said. \"The officer called him to stop while stepping backward, drew his weapon and fired two shots,\" he said. The man, struck twice in the upper body, died. Police later learned he was a resident at the complex. \"I can only reasonably assume that if he was running around the apartment complex naked, I believe we can make the assumption there may have been some mental health experience that he might have been having,\" Alexander said. DeKalb County police officers undergo some degree of training on how to deal with the mentally ill. But this, and other incidents, highlight the need for more, the public safety director said. \"That's becoming more and more apparent,\" Alexander said. \"We have already, as many departments have begun to do, look at how to expand our mental health training when we find it certainly necessary to do so. Because it appears that we're seeing more and more of these cases across the country in which police are engaging with those who appear to be in distress.\" Police did not release the officer's name, but said the seven-year veteran was placed on administrative leave. During the incident, the officer had access to his stun gun and pepper spray, Alexander said. Why he chose to draw his weapon will come out during the investigation. \"I think in all fairness we need to wait and see what the outcome of the investigation is because I can't tell you, beyond what I have told you so far, what kind of measures that officer may have taken,\" he said. As fatal police shootings come under increased scrutiny in the current climate, police departments also appear to be more forthcoming in proactively releasing information for transparency's sake. Such is the case in Madison, Wisconsin, where Madison Police Chief Mike Koval has been out front and outspoken about the shooting death of 19-year-old Tony Robinson at the hands of an officer. And it seems to be the case in this DeKalb County incident. \"If you look at the state in this country and the things we're going through right now across this country with police-involved shooting, certainly it's a concern to many Americans. And there has certainly been recommendations that have been made in regards to moving towards more independent type of investigations,\" he said.","highlights":"Police: Officer fired two shots when the man charged at him .\nThe case was immediately turned over to the GBI .","id":"8d730691304ac1b2aa00f033bca162d41a35bb4b"} -{"article":"London (CNN)A photo of a weasel hitching a surprise lift on the back of a flying woodpecker near London has gone viral on Twitter, with more than 7,000 users retweeting the original post of the image. It was first posted by photographer Jason Ward on Monday and credited to Martin Le-May. After #WeaselPecker gained momentum, British media soon picked up the story, and television channel ITV interviewed Le-May. The amateur photographer from Essex, near London, told the broadcaster he had been walking with his wife in Hornchurch Country Park, Essex, when they heard \"a distressed squawking\" noise and spotted the woodpecker. \"Just after I switched from my binoculars to my camera the bird flew across us and slightly in our direction; suddenly it was obvious it had a small mammal on its back and this was a struggle for life,\" Le-May said. Eventually, Le-May told ITV, the weasel -- known as a \"least weasel\" in some countries -- lost its grip and the bird flew away. Marina Pacheco, chief executive of Britain's Mammal Society told CNN the image looked genuine and that it was possible an omnivorous weasel would take on a woodpecker. \"Weasels will go for anything that looks like food -- they've got a high metabolism and they've got to eat a lot,\" she said. \"It doesn't surprise me that a weasel took a punt -- I've seen a photo of a weasel charging a group of sparrows, they're very hungry animals.\" But she said the weasel, which would generally try to break the neck of its prey to subdue it, may have exceeded its abilities in this case. \"I think it was a bit of a long shot -- it looks like it tried to grab the neck of the woodpecker to break it,\" Pacheco said. \"I think that it probably doesn't have a big enough jaw to bite through the spine of the woodpecker.\" Weasels would not normally target green woodpeckers, Pacheco said -- their predators are normally the size of a stoat or larger. But the birds are known to spend a fair amount of time on the ground pulling up worms and hunting insects. \"If the woodpecker had managed to hit the weasel with its beak it would have been the end of the weasel,\" she said. \"They're quite gung-ho little creatures.\" The pluckiness of the weasel spawned a number of parodies on Twitter, with manipulated images showing the creature in turn being ridden by Russian President Vladimir Putin, popstar Miley Cyrus, football star John Terry -- and even what appears to be a dog red panda dressed in a Darth Vader costume. (Update: Twitter has now educated us on the difference between a dog and a red panda. Sorry, Darth!) As for the bird? The green woodpecker is also known as a \"yaffle\" for its laughing call. After the shock of being targeted by a hungry weasel wears off, we can only hope it lives up to its nickname.","highlights":"A photo of a green woodpecker flying with a weasel on its back has gone viral on Twitter .\nThe image was snapped by amateur photographer Martin Le-May near London .\nIt sparked the hashtag #weaselpecker and has spawned numerous memes .","id":"2ccf1b3c6c99f113f51997fa901e13504ca11a49"} -{"article":"(Rolling Stone)Kanye West fans are used to seeing thousand-dollar price tags attached to the rapper's Air Yeezy sneakers when they're put up for sale on eBay, but the auction site is now being overrun by sellers offering up plastic bags full of air allegedly captured at West's concerts. The gag started Friday when one ambitious seller attempted to sell a Zipperseal bag with \"Air From Kanye Show,\" with 90 bidders driving the price tag to over $60,000, the Telegraph reports. While that auction was ultimately pulled from the auction site, eBay has since been flooded with similar auctions promising air bagged from a Yeezus show, even though the copycats lacked certificates of authenticity proving the air -- likely carbon dioxide -- was grabbed at a West concert. eBay has apparently stopped trying to swat down the new \"bagged air\" auctions, so buyer beware at this point. Rolling Stone: Kanye reveals new album title . The bagged air gag has inspired a rash of similar items like \"Ziplock bag of air from Garth Brooks concert\" and \"Kanye West Concert Air-Infused Bay Leaves,\" with the latter tagged with a $4,999 opening bid. Another seller is pushing a bag of \"Flatulence from Kanye\" for the Buy It Now price of $5. Rolling Stone: Watch Kanye's speech on racism at BET honors . In other Kanye eBay news, following the soft launch of his Yeezy 750 Boost, his first footwear collaboration with Adidas, pairs of those sneakers are now littered throughout the site with prices ranging from $1,700 to $5,000. Those asking prices come in direct conflict of what West hopes to achieve with his new sneakers, as he recently told Style.com that he hoped his Yeezy Boosts would be \"super-inexpensive\" so that everyone could afford them. Copyright \u00a9 2011 Rolling Stone.","highlights":"A wag decided to sell \"air from Kanye West concert\" on eBay .\nBidding got to more than $60,000 before plug was pulled .\nOthers are now doing similar auctions .","id":"a808527fc922d43981f743e8ef253783205deaf0"} -{"article":"(CNN)The flight crew of the Delta Air Lines plane that skidded into a fence at LaGuardia Airport last week cited brake issues during the landing, according to an update on Monday from the NTSB. The crew said they did not sense any deceleration from the wheel brake upon landing, despite the auto brakes being set to \"max,\" according to an ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The runway appeared all white in the moments before landing, according to the report. They based their decision to land after receiving a brake action report of \"good\" from air traffic control, the NTSB said. \"The automatic spoilers did not deploy,\" the crew told the NTSB, \"but that the first officer quickly deployed them manually.\" The captain said he was unable to stop the aircraft from drifting left, according to the report. The Boeing MD-88 sustained significant damage to the left wing, flight spoilers, the nose of the plane and the left wing fuel tank, according to the NTSB. Delta Flight 1086 departed from Atlanta shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. LaGuardia was dealing with snow and freezing fog as the flight approached its destination about two hours later. The aircraft briefly circled New York because of issues with snow and ice before touching down shortly after 11 a.m. The plane slid off the runway with its nose busting through a fence before skidding to a halt mere feet from frigid waters. Twenty three passengers received minor injuries, and others were transported to the hospital for evaluation. An NTSB meteorologist is examining the weather conditions at the time of the accident, said the report. The cause of the accident has not been determined.","highlights":"Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 skidded into a fence last week at a LaGuardia Airport beset by winter weather .\nThe NTSB says the crew reported they did not sense any deceleration from the wheel brake upon landing .","id":"08ac0d3791342869695f24bbb18e0e78b0771ff1"} -{"article":"(CNN)More than 100 schools in Pakistan have been renamed in honor of the children killed in a Taliban siege at a Peshawar school last year. According to the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 107 local schools now bear the name of a student killed during the December 16 attack on the Army Public School. Government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani told CNN that the gesture was a way to remember the bravery of the students who were taking exams in an auditorium when Taliban militants strapped with explosives laid siege. Some six hours later, 145 were dead, 132 of them children, according to authorities. In February, Pakistani authorities arrested a suspect, accusing him of commanding the attack. The Army Public School is home to about 1,100 students and staff, most of them sons and daughters of army personnel from around Peshawar. CNN's Sophia Saifi and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 100 schools renamed in honor of students killed in a Taliban schoolhouse attack .\nA six-hour siege at a Peshawar school killed 145 people in December .","id":"03fefc8c93587d4241eb782e25dd7525b0963392"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Salvation Army in South Africa is using #thedress to spread a different kind of message about the colors black and blue. The organization is using the viral sensation to spread awareness about domestic violence. An ad shows a model wearing a white and gold dress resembling the one that caused an Internet meltdown last week as people debated whether the garment wasn't actually black and blue instead. The model also sports bruises on her face and body. The caption reads \"Why is it so hard to see black and blue? The only illusion is if you think it was her choice.\" The ad has received mostly positive response. The dress, which is sold by the British company Roman, is actually black and blue. Julia Haller, the ophthalmologist-in-chief at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, explained that different people saw different colors because eyes perceive colors in a slightly different way, based on genes.","highlights":"#thedress was an Internet sensation: Is it blue and black or white and gold?\nThe Salvation Army in South Africa is using it to raise awareness .\nThe reaction has been mostly positive .","id":"e3e023362d6b02ff98eaa7b9608655a3519a0001"} -{"article":"(CNN)NASCAR announced Wednesday that it has lifted its suspension of driver Kurt Busch, making him eligible to return to the sport immediately -- albeit \"under indefinite probation.\" Busch was suspended after a Delaware civil court found that he probably committed domestic violence against his former girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. She accused the standout driver of grabbing her by the throat and slamming her head against a wall in his motor home at Delaware's Dover International Speedway in September. Twice, the NASCAR 2004 Cup champion appealed his indefinite suspension and lost both times. That meant he missed the season-opening Daytona 500 as well as two subsequent Sprint Cup races. But he should be able to compete through the fall, and NASCAR says that it will waive its requirement for him to compete in all championship events. The case against Busch took a significant turn last week, when the Delaware Department of Justice announced that charges would not be filed against him. \"As I have said from the beginning, I did not commit domestic abuse,\" Busch said then. \"I look forward to being back in racing as soon as possible and moving on with my life.\" A Kent County, Delaware, family court commissioner ruled in February that Busch must stay away from Driscoll for a year. NASCAR officials decided to lift Busch's suspension because he complied with the requirements of the racing circuit's reinstatement program, completed behavioral assessments and got the OK from a behavioral health care expert to race again. He's not totally out of the woods. In a news release, NASCAR said Busch must \"undergo additional steps to address the behavior for which he was penalized.\" Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said the lack of charges against Busch expedited his return. \"We have made it very clear to Kurt Busch our expectations for him moving forward, which includes participation in a treatment program and full compliance with all judicial requirements as a result of his off-track behavior,\" O'Donnell said. CNN's Jill Martin contributed to this report.","highlights":"The lack of charges against Busch expedited the decision, a NASCAR official says .\nKurt Busch was accused of grabbing his ex-girlfriend by the throat, slamming her head .\nHe twice appealed NASCAR's indefinite suspension and lost .","id":"b6d33bd44b3bdb42695474583a168d382ae4ffd5"} -{"article":"Kuala Lumpur (CNN)The initial hours after the disappearance of flight MH370 were characterized by confusion and chaos, as air traffic controllers struggled to comprehend the situation and radar operators failed to take notice, according to data contained in an interim report. The report -- released one year after the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew --- provides a detailed picture of delays and protocol violations before the launch of the search and rescue. An astonishing five hours and 13 minutes passed between the last communication from the flight crew and Kuala Lumpur's first distress signal concerning the missing plane. And it was another five hours before the first search flights took off to try to find it. CNN's aviation correspondent Richard Quest said he believes the delayed response was the most disturbing thing revealed by the interim report -- \"the lack of somebody pushing the big red button that says crisis and panic.\" A year later after the plane's disappearance, not a single trace of Flight MH370 has been found despite extensive search efforts. Investigators believe the wreckage lies somewhere on the bottom of the Indian Ocean, based on the analysis of satellite communications data. The first sign that something was wrong with flight MH370 came after plane failed to check in with Vietnamese Air Traffic Controllers after leaving Malaysian airspace. According to protocol, Ho Chi Minh ATC should have informed their Kuala Lumpur counterparts (KL ATCC) about this within five minutes. Instead they waited 20. When Ho Chi Minh finally did inform Kuala Lumpur, the confusion was evident, as seen in transcripts of the conversation released Sunday. KL ATCC asked three times at what point Ho Chi Minh lost contact, then went on to express concern at the delay, asking \"Why you didn't tell me first? Within five minutes you should be (sic) called me.\" The confusion only got worse after Malaysia Airlines mistakenly told Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Controllers they could see the flight somewhere over Cambodia. It took an hour and a half to clear this up, after Malaysia Airlines admitted to controllers they were only looking at the projected flight track. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the misinformation was a momentary lapse by a company employee. \"Our information was only to be as a guide. We are not an ATC per se. We don't have radar,\" he told CNN. The watch supervisor then waited another two hours to activate the rescue coordination center. Still another hour went by before before Kuala Lumpur issued the distress signal. No explanation for the delay is given in the interim report, which is composed of factual data and provides no conclusions or recommendations. After the air traffic controllers lost contact with MH370, the plane continued to fly within the range of multiple radar systems belonging to four different countries. Yet little seems to have been done with the data in the immediate hours after the plane disappeared. The interim report says that \"for unknown reasons\" Indonesia's Medan Radar did not see the flight. And Thailand \"did not pay much attention,\" since MH370's flight path did not fall within its borders. Malaysian military radar tracked the flight for an additional hour, including its turn back across the Malay Peninsula. Despite this information, search and rescue teams did not begin expanding the search area for a full day. Though the interim report makes no mention of it, a failure by the Malaysian military to alert others to the relevant radar data may be blame. A briefing document prepared by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said military authorities failed to share the final radar fix of MH370 with their civilian counterparts for 20 hours. CNN approached Malaysia's Ministry of Defence for comment but is yet to receive a response . Another working document notes that MH370's turn back might have been discovered much earlier, if the military and non-military agencies had coordinated better. \"In essence, a week or more was lost in the initial search because of poor civil\/military cooperation,\" reads the ICAO working document. The interim report released by Malaysian investigators on Sunday provides no information about when the military radar data was shared with other authorities. It's impossible to know if a speedier response from air traffic controllers, or more immediate access to radar data, would have changed the course of events for MH370. But it would have provided authorities with more time, either to track the flight or to search the ocean before the batteries died in the emergency locator beacons. Looking back at the series of miscommunication between air traffic controllers and the radar lapses also provides valuable lessons that could help future search and rescue operations. Though the MH370 investigation team did not draw lessons in the current report, it plans to provide safety recommendations in the months ahead. Journalist Chan Kok Leong contributed to this report.","highlights":"Interim report exposes delays and inaction after MH370 disappeared .\nFlight carrying 239 people and crew has not been found, one year later .\nTook 10 hours for the first search flights to take off, according to report .","id":"8569a517d115d140fbf3550ee0c14bc42477b108"} -{"article":"Naypyidaw, Myanmar (CNN)Twenty-one people are dead and 21 missing after a ferry capsized in the Southeast Asia nation of Myanmar. Myanmar's Ministry of Information said in a statement that the ship capsized Friday night as it sailed, in bad weather conditions, around the city of Sittwe. That's when a large wave crashed into the ferry, causing it capsize near Myaybone and Myaukkyine islands. Authorities have managed to rescue at least 167 people, according to the information ministry for Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. Pictures from the government showed rescue workers helping people off a boat onto the land. Sittwe is the capital of Rakhine state and sits on the Bay of Bengal, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) from the Bangladesh border. This weekend's weather forecast for the city calls for some clouds giving way to clear skies, with high daytime temperatures expected to be in the 30s Celsius (80s to 90s Fahrenheit). Fatal ferry disasters are nothing new to the region. Last month, at least 68 people died when a packed double-decker ferry sank while on the Padma River north of neighboring Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, officials said. A cargo vessel hit the ferry, causing it to overturn and trapping passengers on its lower deck. Forty-five people died in an accident on the same river in August. In May 2013, several boats carrying as many as 150 people were thought to have capsized near Myanmar's western coast ahead of a storm approaching the area. Those boats were carrying Rohingya, members of Myanmar's long-suffering Muslim minority, Thailand-based U.N. official Kirsten Mildren said at the time. Journalist Manny Muang reported from Myanmar, and CNN's Greg Botelho wrote this story from Atlanta.","highlights":"167 people have been rescued, Myanmar's government says .\nThe ferry capsized after being hit by a large wave in bad weather conditions .","id":"ed7fb1f13618a418f28ca9af248f9597a1632528"} -{"article":"(CNN)Myanmar warplanes fighting rebels dropped a bomb at a sugarcane field in China, killing four civilians, the latter's state media reported Saturday. In addition to the fatalities, nine others were wounded, according to Xinhua news agency. Shortly after the incident Friday, China sent fighter jets to patrol over their shared border. The jets are there to \"track, monitor, warn and chase away\" Myanmar military planes, China's air force told state media. China summoned Myanmar's ambassador in Beijing after the incident in the border city of Lincang. Liu Zhenmin, the vice foreign minister for China, called on Myanmar to investigate and bring those behind the attack to justice. Myanmar forces have been battling ethnic separatist rebels in the rugged border region across from Yunnan province. In recent incidents, stray gunfire has damaged property on the Chinese side of the border, prompting Beijing to warn Myanmar to ensure safety. There was no immediate reaction from Myanmar.","highlights":"China sends fighter jets to patrol over border with Myanmar following the incident .\nReport: In addition to the fatalities, nine others were wounded .","id":"d8e8c223ea7158f4d5f6724c29c14cd8d425ec0b"} -{"article":"(CNN)When I was a child, a pale specter used to call our house most evenings, eager to chat with my doctor father about her myriad medical concerns. We called her the \"White Bread Lady,\" a moniker she earned for one particularly inane call in which she panicked to my father after consuming white bread. She wasn't breaking out in hives or having any adverse effects to the bread. No, she was just concerned that some future illness could befall her given that one particular dietary decision. Although we all laughed at the time, it was with a bit of shifty-eyed shame. Because most of us (including if not particularly the illustrious Ehrlich family) have lurking within us our very own \"White Bread Lady,\" ready to convince us that each cough, sniffle and less-than-nutritious meal might be a detriment to our health. And, naturally, that White Bread Lady looms even larger when we can type our worries into a search bar and unlock a bevy of potentially distressing information. Yup, so quoth Google, we all have cancer. According to the Pew Research Center, 80% of Internet users have looked up health information online. While that practice can be beneficial in some respects, the abundance of (variably valid) information online can turn us into e-hypochondriacs. (Or, worse, can lead us to neglect getting the care we need.) Read on for five mistakes -- courtesy of a selection of health care professionals -- that people make when diagnosing themselves online. Searching blind . Your eye is twitching like an overly caffeinated college student sitting behind a pretty girl in lecture hall, twirling his pencil and hoping to catch a whiff of her lovely shining hair. You type \"eye twitch\" into Google and come up with a really rad website that explains that this newfound spasm is actually an indication that your third eye is fixing to open, revealing to you wonders untold. You are the chosen one. Too bad that this trove of \"medical information\" is actually some dude's fan-fiction site. Sure, the above is an extreme example, but, as Dr. Kevin Pho of KevinMD.com pointed out, \"There's a lot of bad information on the Web and information that can be dangerous.\" Especially if you're not considering who put up that information in the first place. Pho urges users to favor Web addresses ending in .org and .edu when looking for reputable health-care info, and to check who is funding the collection of that information. \"There's so much information from organizations trying to sell products or push their agenda on the Web,\" he said. He suggests turning to sites like Mayo Clinic as well as troves of information curated by doctors (like Pho's own website) when trolling the web for info. And, of course, if a site mentions trolls and third eyes, one should definitely press on. Flailing in forums . If there's one thing people like to do online, it's talk about their problems -- especially mundane things like coughs and headaches and their babies' various and sundry discharges. That's all well and good; sharing experiences with others is enriching! Unless the people you're sharing with are idiots. \"You can easily fall into that rabbit hole and find some forum that really isn't relevant but maybe sounds kind of close,\" warned Craig Monsen, co-founder of symptom-checker app SymCat. On the other hand, \"sometimes you'll stumble on exactly the right forum where someone has your same exact problem, and their solution does help.\" \"Health care forums are definitely another tool that individuals can use in order to crowdsource a diagnosis based on their symptoms,\" added Dr. Natasha Burgert of KC Kids Doc. \"I think that these can be a really powerful tool not only for discussing potential diagnosis or symptom relief but also finding a forum of individuals in which you can discuss emotional and psychological parts of an illness and develop a wonderful online support community.\" The trick is to be wary about the issues being discussed in forums and how germane they are to you. And, you know, if people start talking about homemade remedies fashioned from bleach, maybe click off and see a doc. Getting emotional . You know that game \"6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon\"? There should seriously be a version of that called \"6 Degrees of Cancer\" -- as in, when looking up your symptoms online, how long does it take to deduce that you have a life-threatening disease instead of, say, a simple cold? According to Burgert, the root of this whole \"worst-case scenario\" thing is getting too emotional. \"For most intents and purposes, when you're looking for online health information, it's about yourself or a family member,\" she said. \"When you're looking through that lens, it's very hard to keep emotional distance. So you can read about a diagnosis that either makes you very scared or calms your fears -- and that's the path you'll continue down, whether it's correct or not.\" Burgert suggested using online symptom checkers simply to \"understand possible diagnoses, find some initial steps for relieving the symptoms and determine if this is something that needs further evaluation or that can be managed at home.\" SymCat and Mayo Clinic's symptom checker let you type in what you're experiencing and unearth a spectrum of diagnoses and suggestions for when to seek a doctor's aid. Your doctor's website might also have such a tool. Voila, you just increased your separation from cancer by at least a couple of degrees. Keeping mum around MDs . \"I think, traditionally, many physicians are a little apprehensive when that stereotypical patient comes to their office with big stacks of printouts from the Internet,\" Pho said. \"But I think more and more doctors are accepting it. Personally, I think that transparency of information is helpful in a way.\" Translation: Help your doctor help you. If you're worried about a particular medical situation and did some research to help narrow down what's ailing you, share that info with your physician. \"I really appreciate when patients bring in information that they found online, because it allows me to guide my instruction and plan based on their true concerns,\" Burgert said. \"People get scared when they get sick and hurt, and they want to use multiple sources of information to help themselves. The Internet adds to that physician's expertise in order to do that.\" Remember, though, knowing how to use the Internet doesn't make you a doctor. Google doesn't count as a second opinion. If you're unhappy with your doc's diagnosis, go get one the traditional way. Putting off the inevitable . If your ailment isn't going away, all the symptom-checking and Mayo Clinic-ing in the world isn't going to help you. Make a doctor's appointment. Like, right now. Sites like ZocDoc make it super easy (and free; doctors pay to be listed) to set up an appointment ASAP, so no whining that you'll have to wait two weeks to see a doc and maybe by then \"it\" will have gone away. Unless, of course, \"it\" is that white bread you just ate. In that case, please stop calling my dad.","highlights":"According to a Pew report, 80% of Internet users have looked up health info online .\nSites like Mayo Clinic and others curated by doctors are safer than online forums .","id":"d83332b67ad10eebe60beba30160869dc942f8ff"} -{"article":"(CNN)A grand jury in Clark County, Nevada, has indicted a 19-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his neighbor in front of her house last month. Erich Nowsch Jr. faces charges of murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder and firing a gun from within a car. Police say Nowsch shot Tammy Meyers, 44, in front of her home after the car he was riding in followed her home February 12. Nowsch's attorney, Conrad Claus, has said his client will argue self-defense. The Meyers family told police that Tammy Meyers was giving her daughter a driving lesson when there was a confrontation with the driver of another car. Tammy Meyers drove home and sent her inside to get her brother, Brandon, who allegedly brought a 9mm handgun. Tammy Meyers and her son then went back out, police said. They encountered the other car again, and there was gunfire, police said. Investigators found casings from six .45-caliber rounds at that scene. Nowsch's lawyer said after his client's first court appearance that Brandon Meyers pointed a gun before anyone started shooting. He said the family's story about a road-rage incident and what reportedly followed don't add up. After zipping away from the first shooting, Tammy Meyers drove home and the other car, a silver Audi, went there also. Police said Nowsch shot at both Tammy and Brandon Meyers. Tammy Meyers was hit in the head and died two days later at a hospital. Brandon Meyers, who police said returned fire at the home, was not injured. The driver of the silver Audi has yet to be found by authorities. That suspect wasn't named in Thursday's indictment. Nowsch was arrested five days after the killing in his family's house, just one block away from the Meyers' home. He is due in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.","highlights":"Erich Nowsch will face three charges, including first-degree murder .\nHe is accused of killing Tammy Meyers in front of her home .\nThe two lived withing walking distance of each other .","id":"048b04230002a98f36bc94b37bcde361940ad254"} -{"article":"(CNN)With the ongoing protests over the shooting death by police of black teenager Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin, the racist chanting of fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma, and now the inexcusable shootings of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, it's safe to say that the always-strained race relations in this country are being pushed to the breaking point. And the point with the most stress is the delicate relationship between police forces and the minority communities that they serve. To approach things from a more positive angle, the situation is dire enough that we absolutely have to try to uncover the good and not dwell on the negative. The best time to make things better is when it seems that everything is getting worse. This unacceptable status quo can motivate us to take the necessary steps to address the problems, which are not going to disappear unless we honestly deal with them. When things are going wrong, responsible people can begin by saying the right things. President Obama said on Twitter, \"Violence against police is unacceptable. Our prayers are with the officers in MO. Path to justice is one all of us must travel together.\" The Congressional Black Caucus issued a statement saying, \"The CBC understands the frustrations in Ferguson, but a response of violence is not the answer during this transformative moment in our country.\" And Attorney General Eric Holder noted, \"This was not someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson. ... This was a damn punk, a punk who was trying to sow discord.\" For the most part, authorities in Missouri have been careful not to blame the peaceful protesters. Surely, not all responses have been as measured, but the gravity of the situation will hopefully bring out the best in people. While we pause for a moment to let passions cool, we can use the time to consider how best to move forward with common resolve instead of mutual recrimination. The way forward is to engage citizens in the community -- to bring them into the room when decisions are being made about policing policies and procedures to make sure that those policies and procedures address the community's real concerns. And it's about putting law enforcement officers in the community as welcome members of that community -- as guarantors of the safety and security of the people instead of intimidating outside forces. This approach would benefit both the community and the police. I'm certain that officers would rather be appreciated and valued by the people they serve than be pressured to fill city coffers by issuing unnecessary citations, as noted in the DOJ report on Ferguson. Nobody becomes a cop because they secretly long to be a collection agent. One of the easiest ways to integrate law enforcement officers into the community is to physically put them on the sidewalks by increasing the number of cops who work good old-fashioned foot beats. Officers who view the world through a patrol car window are separated from the people they serve by more than a sheet of glass. Being encased in a vehicle alienates a person from the world around them. The cop on the beat is not just a quaint notion from old movies, he can be a bridge between police forces and the people they serve. Another idea is to give cops bicycles, which has brought so many law enforcement officials in touch with other cyclists in the community. Lack of community policing is one of the shortcomings cited in the DOJ report on Ferguson. In areas where the gulf between law enforcement and the neighborhood is too wide, mediators can be used to initially bring the two sides together. After all, both sides ultimately have the same goal of safe and peaceful neighborhoods. Both police departments and members of the community can take proactive steps to come together on more than a purely professional level. A tech services company in the South Bronx recently hosted a video game competition with police officers and residents of the neighborhood. The event left local teenagers saying things about the cops like \"basically they're like us.\" Ultimately, police should be considered members of the community -- a notion that needs to be encouraged by police departments and neighborhoods alike. Communities can make the local cops part of their neighborhood celebrations. New Orleans Police Det. Winston Harbin became a minor Internet celebrity for his impromptu dancing with local people during Mardi Gras. Besides just being fun, Harbin's interaction with the community helped foster the type of mutual appreciation and respect that are essential to effective community policing. Fear and mistrust among minority communities toward police are the legacy of many decades of racism, unequal treatment, bias, subjective stereotyping and lack of opportunity. It is times like now, when that anger and resentment are boiling, that we address it. With the right approach, we can begin to change the attitude between the black community and the police from \"HandsUpDon'tShoot\" to \"HandsTogetherInTrust.\"","highlights":"Latest Ferguson shootings push strained race relations to breaking point .\nDonna Brazile: Relationship between police forces and minority communities must improve .","id":"fee1bf4f253bb464e5efb38197d881adf7f4d82d"} -{"article":"New Delhi, India (CNN)The North Korean ambassador in Bangladesh issued an apology after one of the embassy's diplomats was caught carrying 27 kilograms (59 pounds) of undeclared gold into the country's main airport in Dhaka, according to officials in Bangladesh. North Korean officials could not be reached for comment. Meanwhile, state media in the largely isolated communist country has not yet reported on the incident. Kazi Muhammad Ziauddin, a top official in Bangladesh's customs agency, told CNN his officers discovered the gold on the afternoon of March 5th, after the diplomat arrived on a Singapore Airlines flight. Ziauddin said customs officials had received a confidential tip that a North Korean diplomat would be carrying \"illegal items.\" \"It was very tough. We have to be very careful and sensitive when we deal with a diplomat,\" Ziauddin said, referring to the Vienna Convention, which affords diplomats certain degrees of consular immunity. He said the suspect, whom he identified as Son Young Nam, the first secretary of North Korea's embassy in Dhaka, initially refused to allow his baggage to be searched. \"He said there is no way we can open or scan his bag,\" Ziauddin said. \"At first he said 'This is an electric motor.' After further questioning he changed his mind and told us, 'These are cipher machines and very confidential.'\" Eventually, customs officers opened the diplomat's bag and found the undeclared goods, that included 170 gold bars and golden ornaments. At current market prices, the gold would be valued at around $1 million. Entering Bangladesh without declaring this quantity of precious metal is a violation of the country's customs regulations. An official with Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary, speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity, said his government lodged a protest with the North Korean ambassador. It's far too early to jump to conclusions about whether the alleged gold smuggling incident could be an isolated example of corruption or an effort to move official funds. Due to international sanctions, North Korea faces substantial obstacles when trying to access international banking systems. \"It would be interesting to see if [the diplomat] is disciplined when he gets back\" to North Korea, said John Delury, associate professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies. \"That would be a way of saying whether or not he's a corrupt diplomat.\" According to the Foreign Secretary's office in Bangladesh, the North Korean diplomat allegedly caught carrying the gold has since left the country. CNN's K.J. Kwon contributed from Seoul .","highlights":"North Korea apologizes to Bangladesh after one of embassy's diplomat caught with 59 pounds of gold .\nGold was undeclared, says Bangladeshi government .","id":"5d17d709e4ad2b44efd809f03236ec7614d782ab"} -{"article":"(CNN)The father of baby Lily, found by rescuers after her mother's car flipped into a river, says she's doing great and that he feels blessed. Rescuers found the toddler Saturday hanging upside down in the car, which had crashed into a frigid Utah river a day before. Lily's mother, Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, died in the crash that had landed their car on its roof in the Spanish Fork River. She was 25. Deven Trafny, 34, was out of town on a job at the time of the accident, CNN affiliate KUTV reported. He rushed to his daughter's side as soon as he heard. \"(I) came in, I put my finger in her hand, and I told her her Dad was here, and I love her,\" he told reporters Wednesday. \"I haven't left her bedside since, and I've just been here just sitting next to her waiting for her to get better so she can come home.\" Trafny said that Lily is awake and has been singing nursery rhymes. Video of the two of them at a hospital shows her waving at a camera. \"She knows everything she knew before anything happened. It's amazing. Doctors say it's amazing,\" he said. How did toddler survive car crash in Utah river? Lily might have died unseen with her mother had a man not gone fishing in that particular spot Saturday. The angler waded into the river around noon, then noticed the car wheels-up in the water. The fisherman called emergency dispatch. The water was so cold that, when the rescue was over, seven of the men involved had to be treated for hypothermia. They heaved the car onto its side and saw Groesbeck in the driver's seat. It was clear to them that she was dead. Lily was still strapped into her seat, where she may have been for 14 hours, if the wreck occurred at about 10:30 Friday night, as police believe. Trafny described Groesbeck as the love of his life, according to KUTV: \"I'm going to miss her a lot. I still have to deal with that.\" But he also considers himself lucky to still have his daughter -- healthy and alive. \"I'm just blessed. I'm counting all my blessings right now,\" said Trafny. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"Baby Lily was trapped in the car in the cold river for as long as 14 hours .\n\"She knows everything she knew before anything happened. It's amazing,\" father says .\nLily's mother, Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, died in the crash .","id":"2db430e31faccedc5ba3806b67d12a1927f12b97"} -{"article":"(CNN)A medical helicopter carrying at least three people crashed late Thursday in Eufaula, Oklahoma, the Federal Aviation Authority said. It was flying from Tulsa to McAlester when it went down west of Lake Eufaula, near the Canadian River. Three employees from medical air transport company EagleMed LLC were on board, according to FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford. FAA investigators are headed to the crash scene. The McIntosh County Sheriff's Office is handling the crash for local law enforcement, but a spokeswoman said early Friday that it had no information to give out so far. Earlier this week, an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed in waters off the Florida Panhandle. All 11 service members aboard are believed dead, an Air Force official said Thursday. The military has been working to recover the helicopter, which searchers found at the bottom of the Santa Rosa Sound near Eglin Air Force Base, as well as the bodies of all seven Marines and four Louisiana Army National Guard members who were aboard. CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.","highlights":"The chopper was registered to an air ambulance company .\nIt was en route from Tulsa to McAlester .","id":"4dd4a5ca12b891bf25bbddd5e8213729cb82f73d"} -{"article":"(WIRED)Screens are rectangles. Even the 3-year-old playing with your iPad could tell you that. But what would the digital world look like through a different sort of frame? Say... a circular one? Monohm, a startup based in Berkeley, California, was founded around this very idea. For the last year, the three-person team has been working a circular, palm-sized device dubbed Runcible. They cheekily refer to it as the \"anti-smartphone,\" a description that goes for both its form factor and its value system. The round device is meant to be the antidote to our feed-obsessed, notification-saturated digital existence. It's a challenge to the rectangular status quo and everything it represents. That's a quixotic dream, but an interesting one. Display technologies have a long and rectangular history. Before smartphones there were movie screens, TVs, and computers, not to mention paintings and pages of print. And then of course there are windows\u2014in some ways the original glass rectangles. In each case, the rectangle's prominence can be attributed in large part to practicality. Whether you're talking about film or glass or stone, rectangles are easy to make. They don't leave much wasted material. As frames for shaping the world, however, different types of rectangles can produce vastly different effects. 14 of the Best Architecture Photos From the Past Year . In her book The Virtual Window, which traces the rectangular frame from Renaissance painting up through Microsoft Windows, media theorist Anne Friedberg offers an example from the history of architecture, centering on a public feud between French builder August Perret and the preeminent modernist architect Le Corbusier. Perret was a strong advocate of the traditional French casement window, which was oriented vertically. Its main function, he said, was to let light into a room. Le Corbusier, making use of new manufacturing techniques, designed his buildings around long, horizontal windows, which were as much about framing the outside world as illuminating the space within. The disagreement influenced architecture for decades to come. The simple act of turning a rectangle on its side gave us entirely new ways to think about space. Rectangles are still subtly dictating our behavior today. Movie screens, chased by TVs, have gotten bigger and wider, encouraging us to sit back and lose ourselves in the spectacle. (In 1930, Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein lamented how the cinema's \"passive horizontalism.\" He wanted the screen to be square.) Smartphones, with their slender, touch-controlled displays, have become a distinctly more active rectangle. Paired with the never-ending vertical feeds that fill apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, they've become an irresistible, inexhaustible diversion. The point is this: Frames matter. They suggest certain things about how we should approach them. They shape the type of stuff that's made for them. And if just turning a rectangle on its side can make such a big difference, imagine all the interesting things that might happen if you left the rectangle behind altogether. Runcible isn't meant to be a smartphone replacement so much as an alternative. \"I think we've become really, really good at getting interrupted and creating conduits for interruption,\" says Monohm CEO Aubrey Anderson, who met his co-founders during a stint at Apple. \"It's time now to use technology to get a little quieter.\" If miniaturizing the computer is what got us the smartphone, Runcible asks what a gizmo might look like if you started by souping up a pocket watch. And the shape of the device is central to that thinking. A circular frame, after all, is no good for browsing a Twitter feed. 12 Most Ancient and Magnificent Trees From Around the World . So what is it good for? That's the question. At this point, Runcible as much a provocation as an actual product. The three-person team, which has been working with the San Francisco design studio Box Clever on the concept for nearly a year, has some prototype hardware and a crude sketch of an operating system, but they've still got a long way to go. They've got a few vague ideas for applications. One is a sort of dashboard that gives you an overview of activity on your social media accounts. Another is a compass-style mapping system that encourages wandering instead of pure A-to-B efficiency. But they're more enthusiastic about the philosophy behind it all: They want to see applications that distill information and streamline interaction, software that constrains the smartphone experience as it exists today. All this is easier said than done, of course. Throwing out centuries of rectangular thinking and starting from scratch ain't easy. Plus, it's not clear that people really want constraint to begin with. Smartphones are distracting, sure, but they're also incredibly useful and immensely entertaining and maybe a little distraction is a fair price to pay for all the good stuff. Still, even as a hint of a possible device, Runcible is compelling. For one thing, the company's hardware model feels great in the hand (The team's hardware guy, George Arriola, came from Sony, where he helped design the PlayStation 4.) The model's curved back brings to mind the very first iPhone\u2014and makes you consider how each successive generation has become a little bit harder to hold. And though unformed, the vision for the software is interesting too. If today's interactive rectangles and infinite feeds signal that there's always more stuff just outside the frame, circles could offer something more self-contained, more complete. Maybe even something actively inefficient. Rectangles are beautiful and functional. Circles are zen. A circular device would sever the link to the printed page, the TV and the computer, and invite developers to look elsewhere for metaphor and inspiration. Pocket watches and compasses. Microscopes and telescopes. Peep holes, port holes, and wormholes. Dials, buttons, and other circular controls. 15 Incredible Photos That'll Remind You to Be Awed by Planet Earth . If nothing else, the concept could be valuable simply for helping us identify some of the assumptions and habits that underlie our existing devices. Maybe thinking about circles could help us make our rectangles better. Runcible is just one scrappy, literal attempt to abandon the rectangle. But similar thinking is happening elsewhere. Android Wear, Google's smartwatch operating system, reconsiders what apps should look like on a tiny circular display. Apple Watch is in some ways another rectangle, but its real estate is limited enough that it will also encourage new, less rectangular thinking. (Note how its home screen ditches iPhone's grid of icons for a blob of circular ones. Also note the recent rise of circular avatars over the traditional square ones in apps and interfaces of all kinds). We've seen how sensors can be harnessed to choreograph experiences that happen outside of the frame entirely, as with Disney's Magic Bands, which usher you through the company's parks. And then of course there are technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality, where your nose is effectively pressed so close to the glass that the frame disappears entirely. Here, the screen is less of a window, more of a lens. The only frame is your field of vision. Rectangles will endure. They're easy, they're efficient. But as new components and manufacturing techniques make it easier to experiment with other forms, we'll likely find people exploring the unique effects they can produce. Just recently, in fact, we saw an instance of a tech industry giant leaving the glass rectangle behind in a very big way. In a 10 minute video, Google proposed a new headquarters that would leaves boxy buildings behind in favor of tent-like structures draped in glass. These buildings don't have vertical windows or horizontal windows. They're nothing but windows, or maybe they're so radical that the concept of \"window\" doesn't even really apply. Whatever the case, there's nothing rectangular about them, and Google's convinced they're the future. Read more from WIRED: . There's a Super-Fast Method for Boarding Planes, But Airlines Aren't Using It . 21 Awesomely Well-Designed Products We're Dying to Own . What Cities Would Look Like if Lit Only by the Stars . Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2011 Wired.com.","highlights":"A Californian startup has developed a circular smartphone called \"Runcible\"\nThe provocative anti-phone is meant to be an antidote to our obsession for digital devices .","id":"aa9a164b2f592570b64063546dda4eed22133a0e"} -{"article":"(CNN)If you feel a ripple in the Force today, it may be the news that the official Star Wars universe is getting its first gay character. According to the sci-fi website Big Shiny Robot, the upcoming novel \"Lords of the Sith\" will feature a capable but flawed Imperial official named Moff Mors who \"also happens to be a lesbian.\" The character is the first gay figure in the official Star Wars universe -- the movies, television shows, comics and books approved by Star Wars franchise owner Disney -- according to Shelly Shapiro, editor of \"Star Wars\" books at Random House imprint Del Rey Books.","highlights":"Official \"Star Wars\" universe gets its first gay character, a lesbian governor .\nThe character appears in the upcoming novel \"Lords of the Sith\"\nCharacters in \"Star Wars\" movies have gradually become more diverse .","id":"b2eeb57b43f802ec4f4af5c1cc82beba5f512adf"} -{"article":"Karachi, Pakistan (CNN)Suicide bombers attacked a Christian community in eastern Pakistan on Sunday, setting off two blasts that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more, officials said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadly attack and warned of more to come. The explosions, which struck the Nishtar Colony area in the city of Lahore, wounded at least 78 people, said Dr. Muhammed Saeed Sohbin, medical superintendent at Lahore General Hospital. Video from the scene aired by CNN affiliate GEO News showed twisted metal, shattered glass and panicked residents outside a church compound. Ambulance and security personnel were seen moving in. Later footage showed water cannons arriving to disperse the crowd. Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said by telephone that his group was responsible for the suicide bombings, declaring that such attacks would continue until Sharia law is implemented in Pakistan. After a period of disunity, the terrorist group's three major splinter groups announced last week that they were joining forces again under the name Tehrik-i-Taliban, or TTP. The Pakistani military has been waging a campaign against the militant group in North Waziristan, one of the loosely governed tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose government held unsuccessful peace talks with the TTP last year, strongly condemned Sunday's attack, according to a statement from his office. Sharif asked provincial governments to tighten security and \"take all possible measures\" to protect people and property, the statement said. The last major attack on Pakistan's Christian community took place in 2013, when suicide bombers struck a church in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 people. More recently, a Christian couple were burned to death in November by mob that accused them of blasphemy. \"The Christian community is a soft target for militant outfits in Pakistan,\" said Rabia Mehmood, a researcher at the Jinnah Institute, a Pakistani think tank. \"But generally Christians and other religious minorities are under a constant threat by the extremist elements in the society and rampant religious intolerance.\" On Sunday, Pope Francis said he learned of the attacks \"with pain, with much pain.\" He called for peace in Pakistan and said that persecution of Christians doesn't get the attention it deserves. The Pope prayed that \"this persecution against Christians, which the world tries to hide, might end, and that there be peace.\" Other minorities in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation have also been targeted this year. Last month, an attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar killed at least 19 worshipers and injured dozens of others. The Pakistani Taliban reportedly claimed responsibility for that attack, too. CNN's Sophia Saifi reported from Karachi, Pakistan, and Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Brian Walker and journalists Saleem Mehsud and Adeel Raja contributed to this report.","highlights":"The Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for the suicide bombings .\nAt least 78 people were wounded in the attack, hospital official says .","id":"86219a3b1f63b7e2e093aac91c499ceb48eba6bd"} -{"article":"(CNN)They are very convincing when they call. They have a Washington phone number and can cite your financial history down to the cent. They say you're under investigation, in danger of losing your home, or worse, your freedom -- unless you pay thousands of dollars on the spot. But they're not real. And you're not in trouble. Not unless you take it seriously. This is a scam. Email your story ideas and tips to CNNtips@cnn.com. A big one. Federal authorities say it's the largest IRS impersonation scam they've ever seen -- swindling victims out of more than $15 million since it began in 2013. \"They have information that only the Internal Revenue Service would know about you,\" said Timothy Camus, deputy inspector general for investigations with the Treasury Department. \"It's a byproduct of today's society. There's so much information available on individuals.\" Using identity theft technology, the thieves have successfully victimized more than 3,000 people in the past two years, although the Treasury Department cautions that number is only documented cases and the true number might be higher. Camus said they've recorded more than 366,000 reports of contact with the scammers, and it's increasing at a rate of 10,000 to 12,000 a week. Authorities believe the thieves are operating out of India, using phishing technology to make it appear they're IRS agents in Washington. Call 1: 'The IRS is filing a lawsuit against you' Call 2: 'Your address is under state investigation' The Federal Trade Commission, which goes after scammers like these from a civil standpoint, and the Treasury Department, which leads the criminal probe, both have open investigations. The largest loss reported was a staggering $500,000, Camus said. Most have lost about $5,000. One of those victims was former NFL player Frank Garcia, who is now a sports radio host in Charlotte, North Carolina. When he got the call, it sounded so authentic, he left the radio station in a panic, scramming to get the money they wanted. 12 scams to avoid . \"The only thing running through my head is, I'm going to jail. I'm gonna be on television, in handcuffs, for tax evasion,\" he recalled. \"I had to follow specific steps not to be arrested. That the authorities had been contacted and in fact, they are on the way and will be there in 30 minutes.\" Garcia says he spent five hours driving to various stores around Charlotte, depositing $500 each time into a PayPal account set up by the woman on the phone. He ended up losing about $4,000. He, and other victims, told CNN the swindlers never let their victims hang up the phone. \"I have never been arrested in my life and was very scared,\" said Kin Ko, a New Jersey resident who lost about $5,000 after he says the impersonator told him he was facing five years in prison, and the IRS was about to confiscate his assets: His car, his house and all the money in his bank account. The person had a badge number, read him an arrest warrant from a nearby police jurisdiction. The thieves are incredibly smart and convincing. They harness stolen identities and use programs such as Google Earth to identity locations where their victims can transfer money. \"It sounded as legitimate as could be,\" said Al Cadenhead, a pastor in North Carolina who also fell victim. \"They knew where I was. He told me where to go -- to the Rite Aid, up two streets turn left to the Rite Aid. The names of the streets, it was really just incredible.\" Cadenhead told CNN he didn't come to his senses until he'd signed over $16,000. Identity theft tops list of consumer complaints . \"It was like I came out of a coma and realized this was not normal and this is not how you do business,\" he said. \"I know other people who've heard the story say 'How did a guy with a PhD fall victim?' I was the perfect victim. I've never been audited, never paid a traffic ticket. I don't know how to pay fines. How do I know they aren't stern and serious about everything?\" Camus said many people are afraid when they hear from the IRS, so they do whatever the caller says. In December, federal authorities found and arrested two U.S.-based \"runners\" who admitted to transferring almost a million dollars from pre-paid cards to foreign bank accounts. In many cases, victims are warned and stopped from sending more money by bank tellers or clerks at money wiring locations. Ko said that it was a bank teller who told him this was a scam when the impersonator asked him to go through a second round of depositing money. If you think you have been a victim of an IRS impersonation scam, you can report it to TIGTA's web site or call 800-366-4484. For Frank Garcia, the light came on when the woman on the phone asked him for another $8,000 after he thought his debt had been paid. He says he decided to hang up and await what the woman promised would be an arrest -- which, of course, never came. How hackers are stealing your tax refund . \"I felt taken advantage of. I felt small. And I was naive,\" he said. \"I wasn't aware. I didn't understand the system. And didn't blame anybody but myself for not taking more time to understand those things.\" Often, Camus says, immigrants are targeted and threatened with deportation. The elderly are also a popular target, although the scam has grown so large, people of all ages, income levels and status are getting these calls. Treasury Department officials say if you get one of these calls, the best and simplest way to handle it is to hang up. Camus himself, a Treasury Department investigator, even got one. He told them, \"Your time is coming.\" Watch The Lead with Jake Tapper weekdays at 4pm ET. For the latest on The Lead with Jake Tapper click here.","highlights":"IRS scam has swindled victims out of more than $15 million since 2013 .\nScammers warn of seizing property, prison time .\nFTC and Treasury department have open investigations .","id":"c0e36dab32e1d20b77446427e5440494dbf0ace7"} -{"article":"(CNN)The attempts by some in the GOP to undermine President Barack Obama's Iranian policy certainly seem extraordinary. First, the Republican leadership invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, and he duly warned against softening of the West's line on Iran. Now, 47 senators have written an open letter to the Iranian regime to advise that any deal agreed to with Obama could be reversed after the 2016 presidential election. It is an astonishing move. But this is not, strictly speaking, unique. People in both parties have done far more remarkable things in the past. Back in 1983, Sen. Edward Kennedy tried to set up a personal diplomatic channel with the Soviet Union -- effectively sidestepping President Ronald Reagan. Working through proxies, he suggested that he visit Moscow to meet with the communist leadership and offered to help them make their case to the American people as to why they preferred dialogue over confrontation. As Washington Post journalist Vincent Bzdek notes in his book \"The Kennedy Legacy,\" this occurred close to a U.S. presidential election, and some conservatives have interpreted it as an act of treason -- perhaps even a breach of the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens from engaging in diplomacy with the goal of changing foreign policy. One might argue that the senator was motivated by high ideals: He had a clear record of campaigning to reduce Cold War tensions and thought Reagan was mishandling the Soviets. On more than one occasion, Kennedy politicized foreign policy while in the Senate. In my book on the 1980 Democratic presidential primaries, I note that Kennedy opposed Jimmy Carter's hard-line stance on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -- a position that was well-intentioned, prophetic and somewhat advantageous to Kennedy's campaign for the Democratic nomination. But it's not only Democrats who have done that. Step forward, Richard Nixon. In 1968, the presidential election looked close. With the Johnson administration edging toward a peace deal in Vietnam, Nixon's team rolled the dice. According to an account in Politico, Anna Chennault, a Republican activist, was given a message to pass onto the South Vietnamese government: If they undermined the peace talks by being stubborn, the Democrats would lose the election and Nixon as the next president would offer them better terms. The South Vietnamese indeed proved intransigent, and the Republicans won the White House. No evidence exists directly tying Nixon personally to the conspiracy, but we now know for sure that it happened and it's far hard to imagine that it would have gone ahead without his knowledge. There is a view that it bordered on treason and -- again -- makes the 2015 GOP efforts look tame by comparison. The extreme lengths that Kennedy and Nixon went to behind the scenes underlines the point that foreign policy has always been a deeply partisan matter that can often end in a challenge to executive authority. It's true that the spirit of the Constitution indicates that the country is expected to speak with one voice on foreign policy through the President. But such harmony hasn't always been possible. Recall that Congress and the Carter White House tore themselves apart over the Panama Canal Treaties. That the Reagan administration's policy in Nicaragua was so controversial that his staffers sent aid to the rebels through back channels, and the then-Democratic House speaker, Jim Wright, was accused of presenting a private peace plan to the left-wing government. That Bill Clinton's 1994 nuclear deal with North Korea was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats. Or that liberal Democrats did their best to defund the Iraq War. As Damian Paletta writes, foreign policy is generally conducted quietly by the White House through executive agreements that pass without comment. But the idea that foreign policy is beyond partisanship is na\u00efve, and disagreements have gone public when the political conditions are appropriate. The particular matter of the Iran talks is sensitive for the Republicans because it involves the electoral holy trinity of Obama, Israel and the presidential primaries. They weren't going to walk away from this one, and we can hardly be surprised that they haven't. The Democrats would do the same if the situation were reversed, as they have many times in the past. In a republic purposefully designed to have limited executive power, with a competitive two-party system bolted on to keep its politics fluid, this was arguably inevitable.","highlights":"Timothy Stanley: GOP senators' letter to Iranian leaders seems extraordinary .\nBut undermining a president's foreign policy is not at all unique, Stanley says .\nHe says both left, right have gone around administrations to deal with foreign leaders .","id":"daf173d2e00e6b8ae792983c980ef02903933d0c"} -{"article":"(CNN)Pope Francis, who succeeded a resigning pontiff exactly two years ago, told a Mexican television network Friday that he expects his pontificate will be brief. \"Four or five years,\" he told Televisa. \"I do not know, even two or three. Two have already passed. It is a somewhat vague sensation. Maybe it's like the psychology of the gambler who convinces himself he will lose, so he won't be disappointed and if he wins, is happy. I do not know.\" Francis, who was elected in March 2013 after Pope Benedict XVI stepped down, said his predecessor had reopened a door to more popes emeritus. When asked whether he likes being Pope, he enthusiastically responded: \"I do not mind.\" Francis, 78, said he feels God only wanted him to lead the Roman Catholic Church for a short time \"and nothing more.\" He said that he would not support putting an age limit on the papacy. He also enjoys calling on the Pope Emeritus. \"It's like having a wise grandfather at home. One can seek advice,\" Francis said. Francis made similar retirement comments in August when he praised Benedict for \"his beautiful gesture\" and said he might do the same thing one day. He told Televisa he misses the ability to go out in public without attracting a huge crowd. \"I would like ... to go out one day, without being recognized, and go to a pizzeria for a pizza,\" he said. Also Friday, while at a communal penance service at St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope announced a \"Jubilee of Mercy\" will start in December. The theme will end November 26, 2016, the Vatican said. There have been 26 jubilees since the first in 1300. The most recent was in 2000. Pope says it's OK to spank children if you don't demean them . CNN's Livia Borghese contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pope has talked of retirement before, but this time he says he think papacy will end after no more than five years .\nFrancis says he doesn't like the idea of an age limit .\nPonitff announces a rare jubilee to begin in December .","id":"ce7f51dc71d8367bc6d5265c290531351355a337"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Facebook post by actor Ashton Kutcher lamenting the lack of diaper changing tables in public men's rooms has parents talking. The new father -- he and partner Mila Kunis welcomed baby Wyatt Isabelle in October -- complained to his followers that he had yet to encounter a changing table in the public bathrooms he visits. He offered to give a social media shout-out to the first business where he found a diapering table in the men's room. The post had logged more than 230,000 comments as of Wednesday morning. Lots of folks offered up places Kutcher should patronize, such as Walmart and Cracker Barrel, where they say changing tables abound. Some dads said they didn't have a problem finding changing tables, but it may be because they're frequenting more down-to-Earth establishments than the Hollywood star. Other posters said \"family restrooms\" would take care of the problem altogether. Do modern dads get enough credit? Many praised Kutcher for raising the issue: \"Thank you for doing this. This is not just an issue for dad's such as yourself who are awesome, but so many of the families I know who have two daddies have this issue ALL The time,\" wrote one poster. Another mom agreed: \"My boyfriend was taken aback when he had to get a key for the family change room instead of just going into the men's with our son because they had no change table. It doesn't make ANY SENSE. Gender equality needs to go both ways.\" No update yet on whether Kutcher has encountered a diapering station in a men's room. Dad blogger's death prompts renewed push to rename 'Amazon Mom'","highlights":"Actor Ashton Kutcher complained on Facebook that men's rooms don't have diapering tables .\nHe offered to give free publicity to the first establishment where he encountered one .\nKutcher and his partner, Mila Kunis, welcomed baby Wyatt Isabelle in October .","id":"efa996e2bc36eac33348ebd3768a9f7ed02c5e49"} -{"article":"(CNN)Closed for over a decade, a trail that's been described as \"the world's most dangerous path\" will no longer be off limits to the public thanks to a massive reconstruction project. Due to reopen March 26, Spain's stunning Caminito del Rey features a cliff face boardwalk that hangs 100 meters above the Guadalhorce River. The trail, which begins in the village of El Chorro in southern Malaga province, has been around since the early 1900s, originally built to provide access to two waterfalls for hydroelectric workers. Over the years, the boardwalk deteriorated and, following a string of fatal accidents in 1999 and 2000, the government demolished the access points to the walkway. The reopening, which comes over a year since reconstruction efforts kicked off, coincides with Spain's annual Holy Week celebrations. According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the provincial government allocated 5.5 million euros ($5.8 million) to the project. The entire route is 7.7 kilometers long, with boardwalks covering 2.9 kilometers of the trail. The most famous section includes the Balconcillo de los Gaitanes bridge, which spans the Gaitanes Gorge. Tourism officials say it takes between four and five hours to walk the entire route, which includes some steep slopes. Entry will be free for the first six months after the attraction reopens on March 26. Visiting hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. from April 1 to October 31, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. from November 1 to March 31. Those who want to visit need to book a spot on the official website, Caminitodelrey.info.","highlights":"Spain's '\"most dangerous path\" due to reopen this month after extensive reconstruction efforts .\nOriginally built in the 1900s, the trail's boardwalks deteriorated over time, forcing the local government to close it .","id":"98d60a600a8a01799064cdf615347c58c3d5a980"} -{"article":"(CNN)Outside of Israeli politics, Isaac Herzog is not a well-known name. That may change on March 17, when Israelis head to the polls for election day. In the final round of polling before the elections, Herzog's Zionist Union party is in the lead, holding a four-seat edge over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. \"I believe in a certain type of leadership that is not always customary in this region. I'm not a general. I don't give orders. I know how to work together,\" he says. Throughout the campaign, Herzog has been seen as an underdog, lacking the charisma and the English fluency of Netanyahu. Herzog says that doesn't bother him at all. \"I have always suffered from a certain underestimation,\" Herzog said, \"and I have always surprised.\" He promised, \"I will surprise again, and I will show my leadership and stamina.\" Herzog began his political career in 2003, when he first won a seat in the Knesset with the Labor Party. He held a variety of ministerial positions, including minister of housing and construction, minister of tourism, and minister of welfare and social services, before becoming leader of the Labor Party in 2013. In those elections, he also became the leader of the opposition, as Benjamin Netanyahu won another term as prime minister. But when Netanyahu called for early elections in 2014, Herzog pegged his bid for the premiership on social reform. \"What I run for is social justice. I will change the nature of the division of wealth in a fair and more balanced way, close inequality and give a sense of purpose to the people here in the workplace, in the housing, and in the cost of living,\" promised Herzog. Before the election, the issue of a nuclear Iran garnered international headlines as it further aggravated tense relations between the White House and Netanyahu. Herzog, in a speech almost immediately after Netanyahu's address to Congress, promised to work with the United States and European powers, not against, to ensure the safety of Israel. He echoed that sentiment in an interview with CNN's Elise Labott. \"A nuclear-armed Iran is dangerous to world peace, is dangerous to our region, is dangerous to Israel. As leader of Israel, I will never accept a nuclear-armed Iran. Never. And all options are on the table.\" In these elections, negotiations with the Palestinians haven't been one of the major issues, but Herzog promised to restart the stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. \"I will do my best to ignite a political process with our Palestinian neighbors. ... Although I cannot promise 100% results, I promise 100% effort.\" Herzog comes from Israeli political royalty. His grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, was the first chief rabbi of the state of Israel. His father, Chaim Herzog, was an Army general, an ambassador to the United Nations and the president of Israel. Herzog believes it is his destiny to be the next prime minister of Israel. \"What I carry with me is a unique legacy, a family legacy, but most important, an experience that brings me to be able to lead our nation.\"","highlights":"Polls show Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union party four seats ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's party .\nIsraeli parliamentary elections will be on March 17 .","id":"0d4ed9505a6c0de008eb1e4919acbeb7156deeec"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across Brazil this weekend, incensed by serious economic woes and a massive scandal involving the country's oil company. The demonstrators have called for President Dilma Rousseff to be impeached. CNN correspondent Shasta Darlington, who lives in Sao Paulo, explains who the demonstrators are, why they're mad and what could be in store for the President and the country. What do the protesters want? They're angry about the country's economy being in shambles at a time when political corruption at the highest levels of government is alleged. If it were just one of those things, maybe we wouldn't be seeing this kind of turnout because Brazilians have lived with corruption for decades and the economy was not doing well before the presidential election in October. But it's all come to a head. Political corruption -- let's break that down. What's the scandal about? Petrobras is the national oil company. It's one of the most powerful, richest companies in the country -- and has been counted among the largest in the world. It was very respected. People invested in it. Rousseff, who won election in October by a slim margin, was -- before becoming President -- the chairwoman of Petrobras' board of directors. She was chairwoman during much of the time that former oil company executives have told investigators that bribes were paid to Petrabras executives and politicians in order to secure contracts from Petrobras. In early March, the country's highest court authorized the investigation which involves about 40 politicians, many of them from the President's ruling Workers' Party and the speakers of the House and Senate. But Rousseff hasn't been accused of anything, right? Right. She's not being investigated. Protesters' call for impeachment -- the formal process of accusing, because she's not been accused of anything -- looks very unlikely. But, the public perception is that even if she didn't personally profit for this scheme, she was still the chairwoman at a time when it was supposedly happening and she should be held accountable. Has she responded to the protesters? She has. What she says is that she will not stand for corruption and she's rooting it out. As proof, she contends, she's given her attorney general free rein to investigate who is stealing from the state oil company. It's important to know that the Petrobras scandal has been known publicly for at least a year and during Rousseff's election campaign, she said over and over that she would root out corruption. It's also interesting that she isn't lashing out at protesters. She is saying she won't put up with violence -- and so far the protests haven't gotten violent. But she says that Brazil is a democratic country and people have the right to protest. She comes from a left-wing background so that approach is fitting. You brought up that she is from the left-wing Workers' Party. How is that significant? The protests were mostly organized by the right-wing party that opposes Rousseff...organized by people who didn't vote for her. There aren't people out today protesting. The next demonstrations are scheduled for April 12. I guess that goes to how organized these demonstrations really are -- setting an advance date like that. Yes, well, that's Brazil. It's so the word can get out on social media. If she's not accused of anything and the protests are politically motivated, will the protests affect her presidency? Rousseff has four years ahead of her, it could end up being very hard for her govern. She won a little over half the vote in October and the people who didn't vote for her are still making their voices heard. And this Petrobras scandal is a problem. Why was the election so close? You have to bring it back to the economy. It had been slowing down, and traditionally the wealthier parts of the country like Sao Paulo haven't voted for Rousseff's party, the Workers' Party. The country is at 7.5% inflation. The April 12 protest is ahead but three or four months down the road, what might happen? The Senate and House speakers are Rousseff's allies and they are among those implicated in the Petrobras scheme. What if she isn't able to get badly needed legislation? What will she do? What will be party do? These questions are hard to answer now. CNN's Ashley Fantz in Atlanta talked with CNN's Shasta Darlington who lives and reports in Brazil.","highlights":"CNN's Shasta Darlington, who lives in Sao Paulo, explains who protesters are and what they want .\nDemonstrators are angry about a massive scandal involving state oil company .\nProtesters also are incensed about a stumbling economy .","id":"b215c248153b2220bf59c279c87b1069a31b62e4"} -{"article":"Jakarta (CNN)Turkish officials have detained 16 Indonesian citizens who confessed they were planning to cross the border into Syria, Indonesia's foreign ministry said. The group comprises a man, four women, three girls and eight boys, said spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir. The ages of the children have not been released. Nasir told reporters on Friday that the group was stopped in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, just north of the city of Aleppo in Syria. They admitted to officials they planned to enter Syria, Nasir said. The Indonesian government is sending a security team to Turkey to investigate the group's objectives and plans and to increase cooperation with Turkish security officials, Nasir said. This group of 16 Indonesians is different from another 16 Indonesians who reportedly deserted their tour group recently in Turkey and are feared to have crossed into Syria. Nasir confirmed these are two separate groups.","highlights":"The group is made up of one man, four women, 11 children .\nThey were stopped just north of Aleppo, Syria .","id":"bec2f55e57f8858060be09014d10339ce4060710"} -{"article":"New Delhi (CNN)Thankfully, no one was wounded after crude bombs were hurled at a Tamil news station in India on Thursday. But the loud explosions injured a vital part of the world's largest democracy: free speech. Last week, when India's government and a British documentarian faced off over a film featuring a man imprisoned for a 2012 gang rape in South Delhi, a little-known channel hundreds of miles away in southern India was waging its own battle. Hardline Hindu groups were angry with broadcaster Puthiya Thalaimurai for filming a show about the relevance of a traditional necklace -- called mangalsutra in Hindi and thaali in Tamil -- worn by married Indian women. For them, the contents, as shown in the promos, were offensive to Hindu culture. The station planned to release the program Sunday, International Women's Day. But it canceled the telecast after demonstrations took place outside its office. Protesters allegedly attacked one of its cameramen. Four days later, the channel came under fire again, when four men on two motorbikes threw bombs into its compound in a predawn attack, authorities say. Six people involved in the bombing have been arrested, said S. George, the commissioner of the southern Indian city of Chennai. Their leader turned himself in separately, claiming responsibility for the attack, police said. \"The show wanted to give women a platform. We welcome all opinions and thoughts. But you cannot strangle freedom of free expression by violent means and threats,\" said Shyam Kumar, the CEO of New Generation Media Corp., which runs Puthiya Thalaimurai. \"We condemn the attack in the strongest possible terms,\" he told CNN. 'India's Daughter,' the film banned by India: What did it show? But India is no stranger to censorship imposed legally or forced by rowdy protesters. The country's constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but not without restrictions. Communities or people claiming their religious sentiments were hurt by anyone else's opinion can file a lawsuit. Authorities can seek restraining orders from local courts -- as they did to ban the recent BBC documentary \"India's Daughter\" -- by citing potential disorder. Earlier last year, Penguin India withdrew \"The Hindus: An Alternative History,\" a book by American academic Wendy Doniger, after a local advocacy group accused the writer of denigrating Hinduism. In December, a Bollywood movie, \"PK,\" came under attack over similar accusations when mobs tore apart its posters in parts of India. A satire on religious rituals, \"PK\" became a roaring success by being one of the country's highest-grossing movies. But India, home to one of the world's largest film industries, has blocked several movies from screening. At least two films were not allowed last year. One of them featured the lives of the Sikh assassins of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the other centered on the violence in Sri Lanka in the closing months of its civil war. Hounded by protests over his novel, Perumal Murugan, a Tamil author, announced quitting writing in a dramatic post on Facebook in January. \"Perumal Murugan, the writer is dead. As he is no God, he is not going to resurrect himself. He has no faith in rebirth. As an ordinary teacher, he will live as P Murugan. Leave him alone,\" he said on Facebook two months ago. Religious and caste-based organizations had slammed his novel \"Madhorubhagan,\" which depicted a childless wife taking part in an ancient festival allowing consensual sex between strangers. Just last week, India blocked the BBC from airing \"India's Daughter\" because it included comments from one of the men convicted of raping a young student in a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012. The reason: The inmate's views could create unrest. \"There's a growing intolerance towards different shades of opinion. It's a medieval mindset. What India needs is a concerted effort to move beyond it and embrace free expression in totality,\" said Kumar, the New Generation Media chief executive.","highlights":"Indian broadcaster Puthiya Thalaimurai drew protests for a show about traditional necklaces worn by married women .\nThis comes after India banned a film featuring a man imprisoned for a gang rape in South Delhi .\n\"There's a growing intolerance towards different shades of opinion,\" a broadcasting company CEO says .","id":"0b211d7f63c08a6163488096fc3710f901d46453"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"This is going to be a test for Serena Williams. We're going to find out what she's made of. How mentally tough she really is.\" Those were the words of tennis analyst Mary Joe Fernandez in 2001, early into Serena Williams' decider with Kim Clijsters in the final of one of tennis' most prestigious tournaments. The match was being televised on one of the biggest sports networks in the world, ESPN. The then 17-year-old Clijsters had just held to love amid vociferous cheers and -- in a breach of tennis etiquette -- a large portion of the fans on center court at the event now known as the BNP Paribas Open roared approvingly when Williams struck a double fault to begin the next game. Despite Williams growing up about 130 miles away in a suburb of Los Angeles, while Clijsters hailed from Belgium, there was clearly no home-court advantage. Williams' father, Richard, and older sister, Venus, were booed as they made their way to their seats prior to the finale, with Richard claiming in USA Today he was the victim of racial abuse. Venus Williams, meanwhile, said in a press conference at her next tournament she \"heard whatever he heard.\" It was Richard Williams who shaped his daughters into grand slam winners from a humble background, bereft of the type of money used to help manufacture many a champion. \"One guy said, 'I wish it was '75, we'd skin you alive,'\" Richard Williams told USA Today. \"I had trouble holding back tears. I think Indian Wells disgraced America.\" Charlie Pasarell, then the tournament director, said in the same story that he didn't discount Richard Williams was racially abused. CNN.com did not hear back from Pasarell when it put in an interview request for him and Clijsters declined an interview request. The fans' reaction apparently stemmed from the sisters' semifinal -- or lack of it. Venus Williams pulled out a mere minutes prior to the start, citing a knee injury. Whispers of Richard Williams pre-determining the outcome grew, no doubt aided by the comments of Elena Dementieva. After Venus Williams beat Dementieva in the quarterfinals, the Russian said the sisters' father would \"decide\" who won. Serena Williams, who was 19 back then, ultimately passed the 'test' that day against Clijsters, judging by the result: A three-set win. Serena Williams has certainly, too, shown her mental toughness over the years, adding 18 grand slam singles titles to the one she won prior to 2001. But what transpired tarnished the tournament, the sport and hurt one of tennis' all-time greats to such an extent that she stayed away from Indian Wells. Until now. Serena Williams plays her first match in Indian Wells in 14 years on Friday, saying she was \"following her heart\" in deciding to return. In the years that have passed since 2001, Williams went from teen to young adult to veteran, all the while collecting major titles elsewhere. \"It has been difficult for me to forget spending hours crying in the Indian Wells locker room after winning in 2001, driving back to Los Angeles feeling as if I had lost the biggest game ever -- not a mere tennis game but a bigger fight for equality,\" Serena Williams told Time.com in February. \"Emotionally it seemed easier to stay away. \"There are some who say I should never go back. There are others who say I should've returned years ago. I understand both perspectives very well and wrestled with them for a long time. \"I'm just following my heart on this one.\" Raymond Moore, a former owner of the tournament and now its chief executive, was \"elated\" to have Serena Williams back in the field. \"In the past, the things that happened, there were no winners,\" Moore told CNN.com. \"I think it was a terrible incident. Regrettable from all sides. Now, Serena has been able to change that. We're grateful, excited and happy and we're going to welcome her with open arms. \"In terms of her reception, I would like her to be here feeling that her decision was received with the greatest and warmest reception possible.\" But Serena Williams will be the lone Grand Slam winner in her family attending. Serena speaks about nerves before 1st match back at Indian Wells . Even with the best efforts of the tournament -- now owned by billionaire Larry Ellison -- Venus Williams is continuing her boycott, as is Richard Williams, according to Moore. The siblings' mom, Oracene Price, will be alongside Serena Williams, though, added Moore. Serena Williams told reporters in Indian Wells on Thursday that her father, mother and Venus Williams gave her their blessing when she contemplated coming back to Indian Wells. \"We wanted to get Venus,\" said Moore. \"In fact we'd like to welcome the whole family. But Venus I think is not quite in the same place as Serena is. And so we've not been successful in enticing her to enter or take a wild card. \"But Oracene is coming and so are some other family members.\" Serena Williams scoffed at suggestions that the sisters' match in Indian Wells -- or any other between them -- was fixed. \"Throughout my whole career, integrity has been everything to me,\" she told Time. \"It is also everything and more to Venus. The false allegations that our matches were fixed hurt, cut and ripped into us deeply. \"The under-current of racism was painful, confusing and unfair. In a game I loved with all my heart, at one of my most cherished tournaments, I suddenly felt unwelcome, alone and afraid.\" Reflecting on the incident, Bart McGuire, the chief executive of the women's tour in 2001, said Venus Williams had been suffering from a genuine injury and that the notion that Richard Williams dictated the outcome of matches between his daughters was off the mark. But he admitted things could have been handled better. Venus Williams, for example, might have explained her withdrawal to fans on court and then signed autographs, he said, citing the example of last year's World Tour Finals. Roger Federer withdrew from the final in London -- but not before he addressed fans and signed autographs. What happened in the final between Serena Williams and Clijsters was awful, said McGuire. \"I thought it was horrible,\" he told CNN.com. \"I thought it was very tough on the players. \"By that time I'd known enough to know that Venus had been significantly injured and that it was not a set-up of any kind. I thought it was unfair to Serena and Kim.\" Serena Williams is twice a champion at the tournament and winning this year would be \"fantastic,\" said Moore. But even if not, he added: \"I think it's a wonderful ending in closing an ugly chapter. We're just looking forward, we're not looking backward.\"","highlights":"Serena Williams makes her return to Indian Wells on Friday .\nShe hasn't played at the tournament since 2001 .\nHer dad said he was racially abused at the tournament in 2001 .\nVenus Williams still has not returned to the California event .","id":"a50425d6ca191e2184f8e6d3cc926bb5fed5c40a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Could mobile technology turn the tide in the fight to eliminate racism from football? Anti-racism organization Kick It Out (KIO) says there's been a 35% rise in fans reporting abusive behavior committed by other fans -- and that's largely due to a new phone app. \"The app has had a massive impact,\" KIO media and communications manager Richard Bates told CNN, noting that it accounted for 27% of all complaints. \"Self-policing is so important when it comes to stamping out racism in football. People are confident that their complaints will be taken seriously.\" The 184 reported incidents recorded during the last five months of 2014 covered racial and religious discrimination, as well as sexual orientation, gender and disability offenses. The increase was measured against the same period the year before. KIO's mobile phone application, which was released in 2013, encourages fans to report incidents anonymously by pressing a \"Report It!\" tab and entering the name of the football ground, positioning of the offender, and incident details. Although contact details of the person reporting the incident are requested, KIO emphasized that the anonymity of the tool is key. Every single objection logged by fans, either on the phone, via email, or on the app, triggers an investigation by the English Football Association (FA). These include 73 incidents on social media (a 24% increase), which have so far led to 21 instances of the offender being identified, and at times having their accounts deleted. The FA, which released its own witness complaint guidelines in 2013, encouraged fans to be proactive in flagging up incidents. \"Reporting abuse, whether witnessed or experienced, is an important part of the game's overall anti-discrimination work,\" said an FA spokesperson. \"There are clear ways for players and fans to do this, and these improved procedures should result in more reports in the future.\" Bates admitted that it takes \"bravery and courage\" for fans to record photographic evidence on their phones, but pointed to the effect British expatriate Paul Nolan has had after he filmed Chelsea fans physically stopping a black man from getting on the Paris metro last month. The amateur video obtained by The Guardian newspaper, and posted on its website, shows the man make multiple attempts to board a train at Richelieu-Drouot station, only to be pushed away each time by a group of passengers. The Chelsea fans can then be heard chanting: \"We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it.\" Chelsea were in France to play Paris Saint-Germain in a Champions League first-leg tie - Europe's premier football tournament -- which finished 1-1. Five people have been identified and suspended by Chelsea, who have launched an ongoing investigation. Later in February, KIO says it contacted the police over social media footage which showed men, thought to be West Ham fans, singing anti-Semitic songs on a train while traveling to Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane ground ahead of an English Premier League game. \"Would we know that these Paris and London incidents had happened if they weren't on video?\" Bates asks, adding that KIO is considering an option to upload video and still images of offenders directly to a complaint log on the app. \"If you have video footage and you can issue that retrospectively, it can make it easier to identify the perpetrators,\" he says. In a report released in 2013 entitled \"English Football's Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Action Plan\", the FA explicitly talks about \"raising confidence in the reporting and disciplinary process at grassroots level.\" KIO's jurisdiction extends to all of English football, including the amateur ranks. It is one of the few independent bodies in world sports which solicits complaints from fans in order to weed out abusive behavior. It also polices the actions of players, which has embroiled the organization in controversy of its own in the past. In 2012, Rio Ferdinand refused to wear a KIO T-shirt before a match while playing for Manchester United. He was protesting a perceived lack of response by the governing bodies against John Terry after the Chelsea defender was accused of racially abusing his brother, Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers. Terry was banned for four matches and fined \u00a3220,000 by the FA for his actions.","highlights":"Thirty-five percent increase in abuses reported .\nAll complaints lead to an inquiry by England's Football Association .\nSelf-policing fans encouraged to be careful .","id":"2e13d42873ad0537b9684b9ae0c339ece7d6d1be"} -{"article":"(CNN)The news was stunning to hear: A young woman, 18-year-old Michelle Carter, was charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly sending text messages urging her friend to commit suicide. How could a young person -- who was a close friend of the deceased, Conrad Roy, 18 -- allegedly do such a horrifying thing? And what are the legal ramifications of what a teen says online or in a text? But a lesser discussed point this tragic story raises is how quickly a teen can go from normal everyday life to facing severe, life-altering legal consequences. That is why Lisa Green, author of the informative new book \"On Your Case: A Compassionate (and Only Slightly Bossy) Legal Guide for Every Stage of a Woman's Life,\" believes every parent of a teen should have a criminal defense lawyer in mind and at the ready -- just in case. \"To me this is the unrecognized area that parents, particularly parents of teens, miss all the time,\" said Green during a recent interview at CNN's studios. \"So many of our friends have armies of tutors, extracurricular activities, all sorts of angles covered ... but when it comes to the law, there's this black hole.\" Mom arrested for leaving 9-year-old alone at park . Green, a journalist, lawyer and television legal analyst, says people often think of the law as scary and intimidating and believe they don't need to worry about it because their kid is never going to get into legal trouble. Whether it's a case as serious as Carter's involuntary manslaughter charge, or a simple allegation of vandalism, parents need to be prepared, Green said. \"I cannot count the number of kids I know, good kids, who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time,\" said Green. \"I have now two young adults, and when they were going through their teenage years, it was a simple matter of a party that went wrong, a group of kids in the park when the police stop by and have some questions, bringing something to school they shouldn't have. \"And in each of those cases, a little bit of knowledge of the law, a little bit of knowledge of what their rights are, the right way to behave, would have saved parents a heck of a lot of grief.\" Green thinks parents should think about the issue in the same way they would track down a good orthopedist if their child breaks a bone, or the best tutor if their child is struggling before the SAT. Parents' house seized after son's drug bust . \"I am not saying that parents need to go out and get their own law degrees ... but just dipping your finger into the topic will help you understand what's available to you to help you parent better,\" she said. She gives some real-life examples especially in the social media age. For instance, what if a teen is asked by a school administrator to turn over his or her cell phone based on allegations the teen was sending inappropriate texts? What parents should know, Green said, is that a school can't open a cell phone for no reason at all. \"They need to have reasonable suspicion that something's wrong,\" said Green, who said parents would be wise to talk to their teens about what's appropriate and what's not when it comes to handling such requests from school officials. \"If you're asked, as a child, for a locker search, to open a phone, to open a laptop, if it's your property, pause and ask if you could call Mom and Dad,\" she said. \"We can act whether we're lawyers or not as that first line of defense.\" Green also says that parents of college-bound teens should spend a few minutes looking online at the school's code of conduct. \"They don't tell you about it during that fantastic tour with the kid walking backwards as your child is looking around to say, 'Who can I party with?' But it's a really important set of information because different schools have different levels of tolerance\" for activities such as drinking on campus, she said. And even before teens head off to college, parents should know about social host laws, where parents could be held criminally responsible or face civil damages if teens drink alcohol in their home and then go off and do something inappropriate or even tragic. Scary consequences for parents hosting underage drinking . More than 150 cities or counties and 24 states currently have such laws on their books, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. In some cases, parents can be held liable even if they didn't know the drinking was taking place. \"It doesn't have to be you with the shaker, like an episode of 'Mad Men,' serving up Manhattans to a group of grateful teens,\" said Green. \"If you've made it possible in your home, if you don't lock your liquor cabinet -- I never did -- and all of a sudden kids are drinking, that could be a problem as well.\" While Green is passionate about educating parents on why they need to think about the law, she stresses that bad behavior by teens still needs to be punished either legally or at home. \"I am not advocating that kids should be absolved of responsibility. If a kid does something wrong, if they broke the law, they ought to be punished appropriately by it. But we also live in a society where we have legal rights, and I want parents to know that they should be aware of what those are so they can help their child use better judgment.\" So if after reading this, you are moved to try to find a criminal defense lawyer, how on earth do you go about finding one? Green's advice is to ask friends and colleagues for referrals and also consult with your state bar association, since you would want someone in your state who has experience with criminal defense issues. Then she says you should call up and interview a few lawyers, asking them everything from how much their services would cost (that can vary), to who would handle the work, to what their philosophy is about the law and teens' rights. \"You may or may not end up being friends afterwards, but that's not as important as feeling secure that your lawyer is approaching the situation in a way that feels right for you.\" Do you think it's important for parents of teens to be aware of the law and their children's legal rights? Share your thoughts with Kelly Wallace (@kellywallacetv) on Twitter or CNN Living on Facebook.","highlights":"Parents of teens should have a criminal defense lawyer in mind -- just in case, says author .\nAuthor Lisa Green calls this the \"unrecognized area\" that parents of teens \"miss all the time\"\nIn 24 states, parents can be held liable for teen drinking in their home .","id":"26758ed3e0fecca99b6e8287857fa4bfda4bd67d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Thirty years ago, a journey across Europe meant a passport full of stamps, a wallet full of different currencies and plenty of time spent waiting in line to be glared at by border officials. That all began to change in June 1985, when the continent's countries began signing up to the Schengen agreement -- a deal that lifted frontier controls between cooperating neighbors. Today, 20 years after it came into force, with more than 26 states now participating, Schengen has completely altered the experience of traversing Europe. Nowhere is this more visible than at the old crossing points -- places that were once hives of activity but are now ghostly, vacated shells of their former selves. Not entirely forgotten though. Spanish photographer Ignacio Evangelista spent several years criss-crossing the continent to capture these abandoned checkpoints on camera for a project he calls \"After Schengen.\" The result is a fascinating gallery of images that charts the unusual architecture of places whose fate has been intertwined with Europe's ever-evolving political and economic allegiances. \"I don't know why but from many years ago, I feel very attracted to situations or places where the natural and the artificial come together, sometimes a little bit in conflict,\" Evangelista tells CNN, explaining his interest in frontiers. He says he spent his formative years poring over the World Atlas, marveling at the straight-line borders carved by colonialists across the map of Africa and wondering why Europeans couldn't iron the kinks out of their own squiggled frontiers. \"When you are a young child in front of a map you feel ... you have the whole world in front of you and you can travel with your mind of course, with your imagination,\" he says. As a young adult in the early 1990s, Evangelista experienced many of these borders firsthand when he embarked on an Interailing trip -- a country-hopping rite of passage that sees many young Europeans take advantage of cheap pan-continental train tickets. \"Before, when I was young, if you traveled from Spain to Germany you had to cross three countries and take three currencies,\" he recalls. \"Once I was traveling with my friend, Interailing ... from Italy to Greece, we had to cross the old Yugoslavia. \"I think into the night, 2 or 3 a.m., we cross the border from Italy into Yugoslavia and the train stopped. We were sleeping, of course. Then three or four soldiers come into the train and shouted at everybody, very aggressively, like in a spy movie. \"We waited half an hour, then half an hour later the train went on. It was exciting, even funny as I was 18 years old, but now it's not so funny.\" As Evangelista points out, in a Europe cleaved by the Cold War, many borders were not just the cultural dividing lines they are today. Back then they were fortifications demarcating places of oppression and freedom. The checkpoints themselves were sometimes places of fear, of hostile bureaucracy -- a past Evangelista says lingers on in the buildings left behind. \"For me it's fascinating because you can see the passage of the time, the human footprint. \"These places had a very strong coercive role, people had to stop the car and the policeman had to ask you who you are, you showed your passport, maybe you had to open your bags. The police had the power to not let you go on. \"It's interesting to me, looking at these places now they are a little bit spooky, because at most of them you can feel this ghostly atmosphere.\" The frontier buildings range in size and style, from giant Soviet declarations of authority that loom over major highways to tiny huts in deep, dark forests. Europe's richer countries tend to maintain old posts, while less wealthier states seem content to let them deteriorate, Evangelista says. Some, he says, are gone completely, marked only on maps and located using GPS trackers or by talking to locals. A strong supporter for an open Europe at a time when some of the continent's nations are talking about severing the close economic and political bonds they share with their neighbors, Evangelista recalls one encounter that underscored the human side to his project. While setting up his camera at a checkpoint on the Austria-Hungary frontier, he watched as a man drove in from the Austrian side and parked, followed by a woman, two minutes later, from the Hungarian side. \"They began to speak and they were kissing very much. After 10 minutes they went back their separate ways, and I thought, before the Schengen agreement, this couple had no future.\" Follow Evangelista's ongoing project at www.ignacioevangelista.com .","highlights":"Spanish photographer Ignacio Evangelista's \"After Schengen\" project captures images of abandoned European checkpoints .\nSchengen agreement came into force 20 years ago, lifting border controls between participating European nations .\nBorder checkpoints range from giant Soviet statements to small huts in deep, dark forests .","id":"eff894f0573a1264986708d1744eeb929c786d0e"} -{"article":"(CNN)When man relies on machine, there is always something that can go wrong. And there is no more unforgiving environment than the high-stakes world of Formula One. \"Racing is one of those... probably a crueler sport in that there's so many other variables,\" says Red Bull's No.1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, ahead of Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix. \"Unfortunately it's not like tennis where all the racquets are pretty much the same and you can't blame anyone but yourself.\" Ricciardo experienced the full extent of F1's cruelty at last year's Melbourne race. The Australian crossed the line in second place -- seemingly becoming the first Aussie to finish on the podium at Albert Park -- but jubilation soon turned to despair. He was disqualified hours after the race when officials ruled his car had exceeded the maximum fuel flow rate, a rule which states each car is limited to 100 kilograms of fuel per race and was introduced to make the sport more fuel efficient. \"It's frustrating, I mean it's a part of the sport which will always be frustrating,\" said the 25-year-old, reflecting on what was his Red Bull debut. \"I'm sure even Lewis (Hamilton) and Nico (Rosberg) last year were frustrated at the times because you never have the perfect car,\" he added, referring to the two Mercedes drivers, who finished first and second last season. \"But it is what it is, I signed up for that a long time ago, and you just learn to accept it.\" It's a sport where even driving ability often fails to overcome mechanical failures -- eventual world champion Hamilton was forced to retire from last year's race at Albert Park. But technical blunders don't always end in disaster -- Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix after experiencing mechanical faults early in the race, and Finnish driver Valterri Bottas lost a wheel in 2014's opener before roaring to a fifth-place finish. Despite Ricciardo's previous disappointment, he's can't wait to race on his home turf again next Sunday. \"I definitely feel privileged to have a home race... it just increases all the hype and all the excitement\" said Ricciardo, adding that he would use \"all the Australian flags and all the cheers to my advantage.\" After last year's disaster Ricciardo is looking to make things right, \"There's a little bit of redemption, I'm confident we can get it back.\"","highlights":"Red Bull's No.1 driver Daniel Ricciardo says Formula One is a \"crueler sport\"\nLast year Ricciardo was disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix after finishing second .\nThe 25-year-old is looking for redemption in Melbourne on Sunday .","id":"6873f1e30dbab706788eb7a66da998633e47a020"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Cinderella,\" the latest live-action retelling of a classic, sparkled like a glass slipper in its opening weekend, with an estimated debut of $70.1 million. That's well above expectations of $50 to 60 million, and it tops last year's $69.4 million opening for \"Maleficent,\" another take on the classic fairy tale, which featured Angelina Jolie and a darker tone. This version, however is sweetness and light, thanks to veteran director Kenneth Branagh. Small-screen stars Lily James (\"Downton Abbey\") and Richard Madden (\"Game of Thrones\") play Ella and her Prince, who overcome personal grief and uncertainty with courage and goodness. Oscar winner Cate Blanchett provides venom as the wicked stepmother. Reviews for \"Cinderella\" have been strong, with a current Rotten Tomatoes rating of 83%. Disney timed the release well: It's been more than a month since a family film hit theaters (if you can call the \"SpongeBob\" sequel a \"family\" film), and some American school districts just began spring break. Liam Neeson's latest thriller, \"Run All Night,\" opened in a very soft second place. Neeson has been a solid draw since he reinvented himself as an action star six years ago with \"Taken,\" but \"Run All Night\" debuted even more weakly than last year's dismal \"A Walk Among the Tombstones.\" This time out, he plays a former hit man whose family is targeted by his old boss, played by Ed Harris -- but it seems people would rather see Neeson attack and fight than run. In limited release, the critically acclaimed horror thriller \"It Follows\" made $163,000 in just four theaters, far and away the weekend's best per-theater average. Among returning films, Colin Firth and \"Kingsman: The Secret Service\" shone the brightest, topping the $100 million mark in total domestic grosses and actually rising a spot on the chart, while last weekend's winner, \"Chappie,\" and runner-up, \"Focus,\" duked it out for fourth place. Next weekend, Shailene Woodley returns in the young adult action sequel \"The Divergent Series: Insurgent,\" while Sean Penn tries the action genre with Idris Elba and Javier Bardem in \"The Gunman.\"","highlights":"Live-action retelling of \"Cinderella\" has an estimated box office debut of $70.1 million .\nLiam Neeson's latest thriller, \"Run All Night,\" opens in soft second place .","id":"81a22da9afd5fecd86a959c7c35c35bb9ddd27d3"} -{"article":"(CNN)The march toward publication of another book by the reclusive \"To Kill a Mockingbird\" author continues forward. Many people who know her have raised questions about 88-year-old Harper Lee's ability to consent to publish another book, while others have said she knows what she's doing, according to a New York Times report. Alabama officials have found Lee wants to publish the book. Since Lee wrote \"To Kill a Mockingbird\" in 1960, she had steadfastly refused to publish another book. Lee now lives in an assisted living facility in Monroeville, Alabama, and some friends say her forgetfulness makes her unable to knowingly consent to publishing the book, \"Go Set a Watchman.\" After receiving an anonymous complaint of elder abuse about Lee, the state of Alabama sent investigators from the Alabama Securities Commission to talk to her and others around her. \"It was clear to our investigators that she fully understood the questions that were being asked, that she indicated she certainly wanted her book published, and she had her opinions that were voiced during the interview,\" Joseph Borg, the agency's director, told CNN. \"And at that point we decided that she certainly knew what was going on.\" Lee wrote \"Go Set a Watchman\" before \"To Kill a Mockingbird,\" and it features some of the same characters. Lee lawyer Tonja B. Carter found the \"Go Set a Watchman\" draft in the author's belongings in August and negotiated a publishing deal with HarperCollins. For now, \"Go Set a Watchman\" is still scheduled to be released by HarperCollins in July. The Securities Commission investigation is closed. \"Should something come up a later date that shows something was wrong, which we have no indication of, we could take another look,\" Borg said. \"But since we had no complaint from the person who in the middle of it all, so there was no reason to maintain the case open.\"","highlights":"Elder abuse claim filed about elderly \"To Kill a Mockingbird\" author .\nHer second book is out in July but people question her consent to publish .","id":"e8fe379b4050435e88e3c7d4cdade178859c63b5"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's a striking image: a new baby cradled in the American flag, held by a Navy sailor whose face we can't see. But is it a patriotic photograph or desecration of the American flag? Navy veteran Vanessa Hicks, a Virginia Beach photographer whose website is filled with sweet images of babies and their parents, shot the picture of the sailor and his baby and posted it to her Facebook page. \"I do believe that this picture right here shows what it means to be an American,\" Hicks told CNN affiliate WTKR.\"That flag, the uniform, that baby -- exactly what every service member is out there fighting.\" Not everyone agreed with Hicks, herself a Navy wife whose husband is deployed. A Facebook page titled \"You call yourself a photographer?\" posted her photo and said that the use of the flag as a prop was a desecration -- and a bad picture. The U.S. Flag Code does state that the flag should never be used as \"wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free,\" according to a Congressional Research Service report (PDF). Nor should it be \"used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.\" The threatening private messages, which she has reported to Facebook, saddened her. But she decided to keep posting the picture and to take pictures of other members of the military who request the same picture with their babies and the flag. Most people posting to the critical Facebook page disagree with the criticism of the picture. Wrote one poster, \"I am a veteran and find this picture beautiful. Clearly the military member loves his country and baby.\" \"The photo is making a point,\" another photo fan posted. \"The flag represents our republic, the republic is supporting our future. There is nothing disrespectful about this use of our flag. It is beautiful.\"","highlights":"A picture of a newborn cradled in the flag raises questions .\nFacebook critics call it desecration of the flag .\nA Navy veteran whose husband is deployed took the picture .","id":"49045b9f988c35b8310c114ffcf4599a6b84d3b3"} -{"article":"(CNN)I'm Candida Moss and I am professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame. I was an adviser on the \"True Cross\" episode and served as one of the many on-camera experts in CNN's \"Finding Jesus\" series, which currently airs on Sundays. Viewers were invited to tweet and post their questions on the \"Finding Jesus\" Facebook page during the show. Below are some of the more interesting questions and my answers to them. My apologies to everyone I didn't get to. Feel free to tweet your questions to me directly. Herb Scribner: Can anyone explain to me what the Bible's deal is with 40 days\/nights? Moss: It's more an interest in the number 40. In the Hebrew Bible the people of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years before they reach the Holy Land. The flood lasts for 40 days and nights; Moses spends 40 days and nights on the mountain; Goliath spends 40 days encouraging the Israelites to challenge him before David steps up; 40 is a common age for people to be when they get married; in the book of Judges it is always 40 years between judges; and David and Solomon each reigned for 40 years. What we can take away from all of this is that people in the ancient world saw 40 as suggesting a full, complete period of time. It's sort of like a narrative stock number, in the way that modern jokes follow the rule of three. Yalanda M. Price: Was there any division between the followers of Jesus and the followers of John the Baptist? Moss: One of the interesting things about the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist is that John doesn't lay down his tools and follow Jesus after he baptizes him. Nor, it seems, did John's disciples. They had separate ministries and, while there may have been contact between the two groups, they were also de facto competitors in the ancient religious marketplace. There are some hints in the New Testament that Jesus and his followers had to differentiate themselves from John by stating that Jesus' baptism was better (Acts 11:6) and countering the idea that Jesus was actually John raised from the dead (Matthew 14:2) Some scholars argue that these references are evidence of tension between followers of Jesus and followers of John. Mark Goodacre answers your questions about the Shroud of Turin. Jeffery Graff: Can the DNA tests on the bones indicate whether he is a Jew or even whether he is of the tribe of Levi? Moss: I'm so glad someone brought up DNA. The DNA tests on the Bulgarian bones yielded only mitochondrial DNA (DNA passed down by the mother), not the more reliable nuclear DNA (the kind of DNA referred to in forensic investigations). In the original study of the Bulgarian relics (of which I was a part) the mitochondrial DNA revealed that the Bulgarian relics were of \"probable Semitic origin.\" Thinking back to my time in the laboratory with the Copenhagen scientists, I recall that the lead investigator estimated that the probability was about 75%. The episode last night stated things a little too sharply when it said that the bones were from a Middle-Eastern man. As for the more specific question about the genetics of Jews and members of the tribe of Levi: Current scientific technology does not reveal this kind of information even if start-up genetic testing companies promise this kind of information. Cyndi Rosenthal: Are there any other historical references of John the Baptist outside of the Bible? Daniel Jos\u00e9 Camacho: Any extra-biblical sources that shed light on historical figure of John the Baptist? Moss: (These questions are on a similar topic, so I've chosen to answer them together.) Actually there is external attestation for the life and importance of John the Baptist. This is important because it's fairly rare to find this kind of evidence for ancient figures outside the writings of their followers. The Jewish historian Josephus mentions John the Baptist in his book, \"The Jewish Antiquities.\" Josephus describes John as a \"good man\" who possessed \"virtue\" and had \"great influence\" over the people. According to Josephus, Herod put John the Baptist to death because he was afraid that he might raise a rebellion. This gives us another -- arguably more historical -- perspective on why John was executed and provides further evidence about just how important John was in his own day. Watch the latest full episode anytime on CNNgo . Daniel Jos\u00e9 Camacho: Wait, how did Jesus get \"Our Father\" prayer from Johnny B??? Didn't catch that. Moss: I'm also really glad someone brought this up, because I wondered about it too. In the Gospel of Luke, one of Jesus' disciples says, \"Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.\" It's an interesting request that tells us something about John the Baptist's ministry and the demanding characters of Jesus' disciples! In Luke, Jesus responds to this request by teaching them the Lord's Prayer. We don't know that the Lord's Prayer came from John, and personally I don't think it did; I think this is just how Luke shaped his version of events. But if you were just reading Luke you could come to that conclusion.","highlights":"Religion professor Candida Moss appears in each episode of the program .\nMoss was part of the original study to determine if relics found in Bulgaria could be the bones of John the Baptist.","id":"00ac882e1a7f4862fa9f1e863b738966625f554d"} -{"article":"Andre Spicer is Professor of Organizational Behavior, Cass Business School at City University London. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. CNN is showcasing the work of The Conversation, a collaboration between journalists and academics to provide news analysis and commentary. The content is produced solely by The Conversation. LondonApple CEO Tim Cook has released the much-anticipated Apple watch -- his company's first new product since the iPad. Cook said the new watch, in addition to telling the time, was a \"comprehensive health and fitness companion.\" But we're unlikely to hear much about how people will actually use this new product for some time. Our research has found that smartwatches certainly do have some benefits for users. But they also have a hidden, darker side which the companies selling them are unlikely to talk about. As part of a research project with Alberto Rizzoli, we have tried to understand what drives people to invest in smartwatches. One participant, a judge, hoped he could keep track of the deluge of emails during long hours in the courtroom when he had to pay attention -- and be seen to pay attention. The dilemma is familiar to many of us. We spend our days engaged in social interaction. Huge proportions of our time are taken up with meetings or impromptu encounters with colleagues. However when we are in these meetings, our smartphone is buzzing away reminding us that our inbox is filling up. We may want to check these incoming messages, but know it would be rude to glance at our phone. When one of the first smartwatches came to market, the judge thought he had found the solution to this problem. We found that heavy smartwatch users valued how the devices helped them track information as it arrived while still appearing socially attentive. It also saved users the hassle of having to dig through their pockets or handbags to find a buzzing phone. Surprisingly only about half the people we spoke with actually used all the health tracking technology built in to the watches. They were more interested in keeping abreast of their inbox than their calorie count. We also noticed a worrying side to these new devices as heavy users of the watches incorporate them into their daily routines -- we call it the \"phantom device effect.\" They would compulsive check their watch not just for the time, but for a wide range of information. In some cases their new gizmo would become such an instinctive part of their life that even when not wearing one they would check their bare wrist. Some would feel a phantom buzz, notifying them of an imaginary incoming email. The phantom device effect leads us to ask about just how ingrained in our daily habits these devices might become. Recent research has suggested that average smartphone users check their phone 150 times a day, starting just minutes after waking up. We also know this has the effect of extending work into all areas of our lives -- monitoring work emails late into the night or during social or family events. We used to worry that the average American watched television for six hours a day. Now we accept as a matter of course the fact that we tied to our devices for most of the time we're awake. Indeed many of us go to bed with our smart devices quietly monitoring our rhythms as we sleep. This raises the question of what impact it will have on our lives. In the work Carl Cederstr\u00f6m and I have done on the hidden dangers of wearables, a big big concern is privacy. The Apple Watch, like most wearables, is essentially a tracking device, recording heart rate, sleep patterns, movement, whereabouts, and much more depending on the apps installed. All this is packaged and transmitted to datacentres for analysis. The result? A database of personal information of which the Stasi could only have dreamed. As well as sucking up personal information, wearables could fuel an unhealthy obsession with personal wellness. By pumping health and wellbeing information at us non-stop, we start to become a little too focused on our bio-rhythms. Data which would have been generated only in the most unusual situations now becomes commonplace, making people not just health conscious, but also self-obsessed. Instead of checking in with social networks, we spend more time checking in with our own bodily rhythms. As a result other people start to become more interested in what is going on inside themselves rather than what is happening in the world. As we pay more attention to our feed of personal biodata we're likely to become more anxious about things that we may never have given a second thought to in the past. Not walking your allotted steps in a day or finding you had a poor sleeping pattern at night can become a source of significant personal guilt or worry. As a result, we pour more attention into monitoring and controlling ourselves, giving us less time to do the things which actually make us happy. If Apple's projections are indeed correct and tens of millions of people purchase smartwatches, it's likely to create a step change in our lives. We already see people routinely posting on social media information they would have only shared with their doctor a few years ago. Widespread use of smartwatches could mean that instead of relieving our boredom by answering emails, people will spend their time sifting through their biodata stream, planning ways to maximize their personal wellness ratings. Rather than talking about what was on television last night, people will start comparing charts of their sleeping patterns. When this happens we will know that the internet of me has arrived. READ: Will your Apple Watch program YOU? Copyright 2015 The Conversation. Some rights reserved.","highlights":"Smartwatches have hidden, darker side the companies selling them are unlikely to talk about, says Andre Spicer .\nSpicer: Average smartphone users check phone 150 times a day, starting just minutes after waking up .\nWe're also likely to become more anxious about things we may never have given second thought to, he adds .","id":"d880a8ef6c527db2e1d9378399e4312a2267101e"} -{"article":"(CNN)Police raided millionaire heir Robert Durst's home in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday, a day after he was charged with first-degree murder. Dick DeGuerin, Durst's attorney, confirmed that investigators were searching the home. It was not immediately clear what they were looking for inside Durst's 14th-floor condo, where he has lived for many years, CNN affiliate KTRK reported. The raid comes days after FBI agents arrested Durst in a New Orleans hotel. The Los Angeles County District Attorney filed a first-degree murder charge against him on Monday, accusing Durst of shooting and killing his close friend Susan Berman in December 2000. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. \"I think it's ridiculous for them to be making a search 15 years after Susan Berman was killed, and they're searching a place in Houston,\" DeGuerin told CNN. Durst remains jailed in New Orleans, where he's facing drug and weapons charges stemming from his arrest over the weekend. Durst's alleged connections with Berman's death and two others were the focus of HBO's true crime documentary, \"The Jinx.\" DeGuerin has claimed it's no coincidence authorities moved in to arrest Durst just as the documentary's finale was about to air. And on Tuesday, he said he wasn't surprised about the Houston raid either. \"I'm not surprised they're acting like a bunch of keystone cops, particularly after being embarrassed by the TV program,\" he said. \"And I'll be even more surprised if they find anything of any evidentiary value whatsoever.\" Prosecutors accuse Durst of \"lying in wait\" and killing Berman, a crime writer and his longtime confidante, because she was a witness to a crime. She was shot in the head shortly before investigators were coming to speak with her about the disappearance of Durst's first wife in 1982. Durst has long maintained he had nothing to do with Berman's death or his wife's disappearance, though some have questioned whether comments he made at the end of the documentary -- muttering under his breath in the bathroom that he \"killed them all\" -- could be interpreted as a confession. DeGuerin told reporters Monday that his client didn't kill Berman. \"He's ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial,\" DeGuerin said. But it's unclear when a trial could take place. Durst waived his right to fight extradition to Los Angeles, but because prosecutors in New Orleans are pursuing charges against him, he remains jailed there. Durst had a Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver on him when he was arrested, according to New Orleans Police Department records. Investigators found marijuana and a \"substantial\" amount of cash in Durst's hotel room, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. He was booked in New Orleans Monday on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with a controlled substance. He may be moved soon to a different Louisiana prison where inmates with \"an acute medical condition\" are sent, DeGuerin said. Court documents filed Tuesday say Durst will receive medications while imprisoned, \"including but not limited to hydrocodone as needed for pain.\" CNN's Dave Alsup, Holly Yan and Chris Welch contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police raided Robert Durst's Houston condo, his lawyer says .\nThe millionaire real estate heir was arrested over the weekend in New Orleans .\nHe's charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of his longtime friend in 2000 .","id":"dca7049cecc39257ac97e1b98d592b8ed259a634"} -{"article":"(CNN)America may be growing less hateful. That's according to an annual Southern Poverty Law Center report that says the number of hate groups in the United States remains on the decline for the second year in a row. In the \"Intelligence Report\" released Tuesday, the SPLC says the number of hate groups operating in the U.S. declined 17% between 2013 and 2014. They are now at their lowest levels since 2005, the watchdog organization said. \"Patriot groups, which are animated by a series of conspiracy theories about the alleged evils of the federal government, fell even faster, to 874 groups from a 2012 peak of 1,360 groups. In just the last year, the number of Patriot groups declined by 20%, from 1,096 groups to 874,\" the report said. \"But those numbers may be somewhat deceiving. More than half of the decline in hate groups was of Ku Klux Klan chapters, and many of those have apparently gone underground, ending public communications, rather than disbanding.\" The decline may be due to a number of factors, including the rebounding economy, law enforcement action and leadership issues within the groups, the SPLC said. The \"high social\" cost of being associated publicly with a hate group is also noted as a factor for decline, the group said. \"The atmosphere has changed,\" Mark Potok, editor-in-chief of the \"Intelligence Report,\" told reporters on a conference call. \"Overall, the groups are less important.\" People publishing messages of hate directly to the Internet is also cited as a possible reason for the decline in the organized groups. California and Florida have the largest number of hate groups, with more than 50 each. Alaska and Hawaii are the only states with no hate groups, according to the SPLC. The report tracks the number of chapters or groups, not individual members, so while the number of groups is on the decline, it's possible that some of the groups that remain have increased membership. The Ku Klux Klan experienced the largest decline of all hate groups, according to the report, losing more than 50% of its chapters. One of the oldest and most infamous hate groups in the United States, the KKK took its foothold after the Civil War, terrorizing the African-American population with intimidation and violent actions, including lynching. The Klan's growth slowed after the establishment of Jim Crow laws in the American South, according to the SPLC. The KKK's last resurgence came during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The group was again responsible for large-scale terror against the South's African-American population. In 1990, the SPLC started to keep track of the number of KKK chapters, which reached a high of 221 in 2010, in response to President Barack Obama's election, according to the report. Since then, the numbers have been on the decline. The SPLC now reports 72 chapters, down from 163 a year ago. Under Obama, 4 in 10 say race relations worsened . The reason for the decline of the Ku Klux Klan is not totally clear, though the report even suggests the groups may be going deeper underground. \"It appears that most of the groups simply faded as their leaders and members got older, but it is also very possible that many simply stopped announcing where their chapters were,\" the report said. The center estimates that between 5,000 and 8,000 people are Klan members in the United States. Opinion: America facing anti-Muslim bigotry . The SPLC report also notes that more people may be operating as so-called lone wolves. The overall number of hate groups peaked in 2011 and has been on the decline since. However, the number of registered users to Stormfront -- a website claiming to be \"the voice of the new, embattled White minority!\" -- has doubled since 2008. It now has nearly 300,000 users. Lone wolves are a concern, the report said, because 90% of all domestic terror attacks since 2009 were carried out by individuals or pairs. Lone wolf planned attack on U.S. Capitol, FBI says . The report points to neo-Nazi Frazier Glenn Miller, who allegedly killed three people in Kansas who he thought were Jewish, and an incident in Las Vegas, where an anti-government couple killed two police officers before being killed themselves, as examples of radical criminal elements acting alone. The SPLC refers to this and other indicators to say that many individuals may be moving from organized groups to the Internet, to become more anonymous. Looking towards next year, SPLC is \"expecting a real wave of Islamophobia\" because of the proliferation of ISIS and the heavy media coverage of the extremist group, Potok told reporters.","highlights":"Media coverage of ISIS could spur \"real wave of Islamophobia,\" report's editor says .\nThe number of hate groups across the U.S. dropped 17% from 2013 to 2014, the report says .\nIn particular, the number of KKK chapters dropped from 163 to 72 in a year, it says .","id":"b6f63bd8eb5ecab05b353a48a242fd6042d87816"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Rev. Fred Craddock, the pulpit giant who was \"like no other preacher you have ever heard,\" has died, his church announced. Craddock, who redefined the art of preaching, died Friday in Blue Ridge, Georgia. The cause has not been disclosed. The 86-year-old had been in declining health due to Parkinson's disease in recent years, according to the United Methodist Reporter. \"Fred Craddock was a national treasure and a devoted servant of the church and Jesus Christ. His impact on preaching -- in terms both of scholarship and practice -- is incalculable,\" said the Rev. Thomas Long, a friend and a pastor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. Craddock faces his toughest convert . Preachers studied classic Craddock sermons such as \"Have You Heard John Preach?\" and \"Grace and Disgrace,\" much like aspiring jazz musicians listened to saxophonist John Coltrane and amateur boxers studied tapes of Sugar Ray Robinson -- for clues to greatness and inspiration. Craddock elevated preaching to an art. He was often called a preaching genius. Rather than deliver a sermon like a lecture -- an intro, three main points and a conclusion -- he developed an \"inductive\" conversational style of preaching. His sermons unfolded like a short story -- there was foreshadowing, plot twists, dialogue; language of startling beauty and surprise endings. The way he ended his sermons was as memorable as what he said. He would abruptly stop, turn from the pulpit, and quietly sit as the audience sat in silence. People didn't applaud or shout hallelujah after his sermons. They were too busy absorbing what he had just said. The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, an author and world-renowned preacher, once said of Craddock: \"He spoke of Kierkegaard as easily as he spoke of the Indianapolis 500. He quoted Kafka as helpfully as Corinthians... but he was also someone who noticed a lot about ordinary human life on earth.\" Craddock, who taught preaching at the Candler School of Theology until his retirement, was selected as one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world in a poll of 341 seminary professors and editors of religious periodicals in 1996. I had a chance to meet Craddock, as well as hear him. I spent several weeks with him in the autumn of 2011 to write a profile about his relationship with his father. He was just as impressive outside the pulpit. He would ease his rotund little body in a wooden chair and share touching stories about growing up poor in the small town of Humboldt, Tennessee, during the Depression with an alcoholic father. He'd talk about the infirmities of old age -- I remember saying with a chuckle that \"I should have something\" when referring to his bout with Parkinson's because he was getting old. He was funny, folksy, witty and his eyes danced with glee when he told a story. Sitting in Craddock's presence was like listening to a wise uncle or grandmother. He had courtly, Southern manners, and he gave the impression that he had all the time in the world for you. I never once heard him criticize anyone. It's not uncommon to meet great people who, to borrow a phrase that Craddock used, have \"domestic wreckage\" at home. But the Craddock family was among his biggest fans. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Nettie, for more than 50 years, and they had two children, Laura and John. Laura named her son after her father. And John, who became a CEO instead of a pastor, said his father was the most remarkable man he knew. \"I don't care if it's a guy on the street asking for a dollar or the president of the United States, he makes you feel as if you're the most important person in the world when he's talking to you,\" said John Craddock. \"I won the lottery as far as great fathers go.\" Over the years, I kept in contact with him. I'd go to preaching workshops at his beloved Craddock Center, a non-profit ministry that served needy children in North Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. The center provides books, hot meals, storytelling and music. Perhaps Craddock saw something of himself in the kids he helped. One thing is certain: He wasn't content to preach compassion. He lived that message. Craddock's funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Cherry Log Christian Church in Blue Ridge, Georgia. People we've lost in 2015 .","highlights":"Fred Craddock revolutionized art of preaching .\nCraddock was selected as one of the world's best preachers .\nHe died Friday at 86 in Georgia .","id":"d4e931e515096bd5350290b55738ccbad83c11cb"} -{"article":"(CNN)The State Department only last month started automatically preserving dozens of high-level officials' emails, according to a department spokeswoman, a revelation that comes amid the controversy surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's own email use. This is key because Clinton, in her news conference on Tuesday to answer questions about why she exclusively used a private email address to communicate during her tenure, told reporters she'd thought her communications to senior department officials were always saved. That's an important point, given legal requirements for preserving federal records. \"In meeting the record-keeping obligations, it was my practice to email government officials on their State or dot-gov accounts so that the emails were immediately captured and preserved,\" she said. The news about the State Department's archiving practices -- and the change that started in February -- could refuel the furor of Republicans over Clinton's choice to not use her government email account, to have a private server in her family home house her emails, and to decide (with her staff) which emails to delete and which to turn over to the State Department for review. Rep. Susan Brooks, a member of the select committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack, said in the Republicans' weekly media address Saturday, \"You see, right now there is no way for us to know whether we have all of the State Department communications that rightfully belong to the American people.\" \"The only way to truly know is by having access to Secretary Clinton's personal server,\" the Indiana Republican added. \"We are asking Secretary Clinton to turn her server over to a neutral, third-party arbiter. After a complete inventory, this arbiter can make a determination as to which emails should be public and which should remain private. These decisions would be completely impartial and independent.\" So far, Brooks' committee had gotten just under 300 of Clinton's emails from the State Department. Last year, as it was trying to update its records, the State Department asked former secretaries of state for nonpersonal emails from their personal accounts that could be work-related. That request prompted Clinton to turn over 30,490 emails -- about 55,000 pages. Clinton has asked for those emails to be made public, and department officials are reviewing them to make sure no sensitive information is released. Clinton's office had said her account contained 62,320 sent and received emails from March 2009 to February 2013. \"About half were personal that were not in any way related to work. I had no reason to save them,\" Clinton said at her press conference. The fact that all emails from senior officials weren't automatically saved until recently doesn't mean they are gone, according to the State Department. \"I wouldn't state it's lost to history, because there are always -- there are technical means of gaining access to past information,\" spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday. At the same time, Psaki said the State Department chose to change its approach -- by automatically saving all emails -- \"because it's an imperfect system.\" \"This is a more efficient and better way,\" she said of the new system. \"But, obviously, there were ways to preserve (emails), and employees and individuals were expected to do that prior to this new process.\" Separately, Psaki said that a letter was recently sent to former State Department staffers asking for their help in the preservation effort. \"If they should become aware ... of federal record in their possession -- such as an email sent or received on a personal email account while (they were) serving in their official capacity at the Department -- that ... record (should) be made available to the Department,\" Psaki said the ex-staffers were told. Even before last month's chance, emails of current Secretary of State John Kerry, who uses a government address, were already being saved automatically. CNN's Adam Levine contributed to this report.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton used a private email address while Secretary of State .\nShe's said she thought her communications to officials were always saved .\nHowever, a State Department official says emails weren't automatically archived until last month .","id":"d3a8c8f3aa8aeb9fbc24151a223e3a4b17447644"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two more American aid workers who had high-risk exposure to Ebola in Sierra Leone arrived back in the United States on Monday for monitoring. Neither is sick or known to be infected with the disease. Eight of their colleagues have already been flown back to the United States, where health authorities are watching them closely for signs of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The returning workers are clinicians for Partners in Health, a Boston-based aid group. They all had contact with a colleague who's been diagnosed with the disease and is being treated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The heath care worker with Ebola was in critical condition Monday, the NIH said. That changed from the NIH saying on Friday that the patient was in serious condition. Details about the patient's identity weren't released. While in West Africa, the workers \"came to the aid of their ailing colleague,\" according to a Partners in Health statement. As the CDC investigates who else might have had contact with the Ebola patient, more workers might be flown back to the United States, according to Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC. The workers are being housed near hospitals that specialize in treating Ebola patients, and if they show signs of the disease, they'll be admitted as patients -- as was the case with one worker in Nebraska. The person developed symptoms Sunday evening and \"out of an abundance of caution\" was taken to the biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. \"At this point, this person has not tested positive for the Ebola virus,\" Phil Smith, M.D., medical director of the unit, said in a statement Monday. \"However, because of a change in symptoms, we decided the most prudent course of action was to bring the individual to the Biocontainment Unit, where we can better monitor symptoms and safely perform testing. However, some of the symptoms which prompted the move to the Biocontainment Unit have resolved this morning.\" None of the other aid workers are showing symptoms of Ebola. Nurse who contracted Ebola sues hospital company . State health authorities say all 10 of the workers are deemed to have had high-risk exposure to Ebola. This includes people who were not wearing protective gear and were exposed to the bodily fluids of someone with Ebola while that person was symptomatic, or someone who lived in the same household and provided direct care to a symptomatic Ebola patient. The first of these workers arrived Friday night in Atlanta showing possible signs of Ebola, but testing over the weekend came back negative, according to a government official who did not want to be named. The worker is being isolated in housing near Emory University Hospital for 21 days. \"Twice a day, we'll have visual monitoring, either face to face or we'll Skype with them, or do FaceTime,\" said Nancy Nydam, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Public Health. \"And if it's Skype or FaceTime, they'll have to be in a place where we can clearly identify that they are where they're supposed to be.\" The next set of aid workers returned back to the United States on Saturday evening and went into isolation in housing on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, according to spokesman Taylor Wilson. As in Atlanta, these workers have voluntarily agreed not to leave their housing. \"They will be monitored so they'll stay there,\" Wilson said. Another set of three workers arrived Sunday morning at housing near the National Institutes of Health. These workers will have more freedom to move around than the ones in Georgia and Nebraska. According to Christopher Garrett, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Health, his state will follow the CDC's guidelines, which forbid monitored individuals from getting on public transportation but allow them to go outside as long as they stay at least 3 feet away from other people. '1686: That's my number' Two more workers arrived Monday morning in Atlanta and were isolated in housing near Emory. A third worker was expected to arrive Monday in Atlanta, but health authorities deemed this person to be lower risk and allowed for monitoring at home, according to a government official. The patient now at NIH is the second with Ebola admitted to the NIH hospital. Safety at Ebola funerals . Nina Pham, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, was admitted to NIH in October after she contracted the disease while treating Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan. Pham recovered and was released free of disease. Duncan died. Emory, the NIH and Nebraska are three of only four hospitals in the United States that have biocontainment units to deal with a highly infectious disease such as Ebola. More than 10,000 people have died in a West African epidemic of Ebola that dates back to December 2013, according to the World Health Organization. Almost all of the deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. CNN's Carma Hassan, Joe Sutton and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.","highlights":"After developing symptoms, a worker is moved to Nebraska's biocontainment unit .\nCondition of Ebola patient at NIH hospital is changed from serious to critical .\nEight aid workers have already returned, and two more are back Monday .","id":"5835a18806e91c65ab75e37e4bb65248de9b9743"} -{"article":"(CNN)Former Manchester United star Danny Welbeck returned to haunt his old side to send holders Arsenal into the semifinals of the FA Cup with a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford Monday. The England striker was surplus to requirements at Louis van Gaal's United, but was quick to capitalize on a mistake by Antonio Valencia to grab the winner just after the hour mark. A disappointing night for United was compounded by a late red card for Argentina international Angel Di Maria, who was given his marching orders after manhandling referee Michael Oliver. Di Maria was initially booked for simulation and took his protests too far by grabbing the official, which led to his instant dismissal. With 10 men, United was never able to exert any real pressure on Arsenal and it took two fine saves David De Gea to deny further goals from Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez for the away side. Victory for Arsenal booked a return to Wembley for a last four clash with either Reading or Bradford City, who are replaying their quarterfinal tie next Monday. Liverpool or Blackburn Rovers will play Aston Villa in the other semifinal. Arsenal had taken a 25th minute lead through Nacho Monreal, the Spanish defender converting after fine move which involved Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. But the advantage was short lived with Di Maria finding Wayne Rooney to score with a diving header. United looked to press ahead for the winner, but home hopes were dashed when Valencia made a hash of a back pass and Welbeck was quick to latch on to the loose ball and beat De Gea. 'I believe it was justice for him to score he worked extremely hard today,' Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said of Welbeck. His counterpart van Gaal will now, barring a miracle, be left without a trophy in his first season in charge of the English powerhouses, with the pressure now on to seal a top four place in the EPL to guarantee Champions League football next season.","highlights":"Arsenal beats Man Utd 2-1 in FA Cup quarterfinal .\nFormer Manchester United player Danny Welbeck scores winner .\nHolders Arsenal took the lead through Nacho Monreal before Wayne Rooney equalized .\nAngel Di Maria sent off for shoving referee in second half .","id":"1aa5251dfaa1d93f782d21b2950144917dbec27b"} -{"article":"Ferguson, Missouri (CNN)Loistine Hoskin cared for her old car as a sentimental possession, missing a tire while parked beside her home, until one day the city ticketed her for having a \"derelict vehicle in driveway.\" A tow truck took it away in 2009. So began an odyssey with Ferguson police, municipal court and city hall that left her with $1,200 in fines that to this day she still doesn't fully understand. She paid the sum because endless court hearings about the car wore her down. \"I don't have a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer. It's me going up against the city of Ferguson when the attorneys won't help,\" Hoskin said this week. She never saw again her 1996 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight with 168,000 miles. Its location is a mystery. She accepts the loss because at least she's not in jail, where city authorities threatened to put her at one point, she said. While Hoskin's surrender of both car and $1,200 to the city may seem a matter of personal choice, the U.S. Justice Department revealed this week a \"pattern and practice\" of racial discrimination within Ferguson that may lend credibility to Hoskin's account of a government run amok. Just about every branch of Ferguson government -- police, municipal court, city hall -- participated in \"unlawful\" targeting of African-American residents such as Hoskin for tickets and fines, the Justice Department concluded this week. The millions of dollars in fines and fees paid by black residents served an ultimate goal of satisfying \"revenue rather than public safety needs,\" the Justice Department found. To the outside world, the federal findings were staggering, but to Hoskin and other longtime residents, the conclusion was nothing new. They've felt it all along, they say. It's only now that federal authorities have documented the institutionalized racism, as part of a civil rights investigation after a white police officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, 19, last summer. The officer, Darren Wilson, was cleared of federal civil rights violations this week and was earlier cleared of criminal wrongdoing. The Justice Department is expected to pursue a court-supervised consent decree that requires the city of Ferguson to make changes to its police and courts. \"It's definitely a vicious cycle,\" said Hoskin, 64, a retired airline reservation agent. \"Unfortunately for most people who are in this cycle, they continue to be in a downward spiral because they can't get jobs, they can't do anything, they can't pay the fines.\" Hoskin's household has experienced its share of ugly encounters with Ferguson police, the family said. Hoskin's daughter was ticketed by police in what she described as racial profiling, she said. In 2007, Kimberly Hoskin got a $124 ticket for driving her sister's car, which wasn't insured in Missouri, and then had to pay an additional $100 fine when she missed a court appearance because of an emergency appendectomy. The court, she said, rejected her medical excuse and issued a warrant for her arrest. She paid a total of $224 in fines because she was in the middle of a job search and didn't want an outstanding warrant to prevent her from getting a good job. \"Why is it that all the people in court are black?\" Kimberly Hoskin said of defendants in municipal court. \"I've had so many police officers make a U-turn, follow me, run my plates, find out everything is OK, then turn around and go back in the direction they were going. \"There's nothing we can do. In Ferguson, the police do what they want to do. Ferguson does what it wants,\" said Kimberly Hoskin, 35, who now works the overnight shift on a General Motors manufacturing line. City officials and police declined to respond to CNN's requests this week for comment about the Hoskin family's assertions. Last September, the City Council repealed administrative fees imposed by police when overseeing the release of a towed vehicle, the mayor said. The city also no longer has a specific offense for failing to appear in court, which eliminates certain additional fees and court costs, the mayor said. The Justice Department's report details how Ferguson operated a vertically integrated system -- from street cop to court clerk to judge to city administration to city council -- to raise revenue for the city budget through increased ticketing and fining. Ferguson's budget increases were so sizable that city officials exhorted police and court staff to levy more and more fines and tickets against violators, who turned out to be largely African-American, the Justice Department said. The demands for revenue were so intense that the police department had \"little concern with how officers do this,\" even disciplining officers who failed to issue an average of 28 tickets a month, the Justice Department report said. Officers competed \"to see who could issue the largest number of citations during a single stop,\" the Justice Department said. One apparent winner was an officer who issued 14 tickets at a single encounter, according to the federal investigation report. Many police stops of civilians \"have little relation to public safety and a questionable basis in law,\" the report said. Ferguson police chief mum on federal report . Indeed, Ferguson enjoyed so much success in issuing tickets and fines that Ferguson, population 21,000, was ranked in the top eight of the 80 municipal courts in St. Louis County by having more than $1 million in revenue in 2010, the report said. When Ferguson court revenues exceeded $2 million in 2012, the city manager responded to the police chief in an internal email: \"Awesome! Thanks!\" according to the federal report. Even municipal judges were pressured to boost revenue. \"The city has made clear to the police chief and the municipal judge that revenue generation must also be a priority in court operations,\" the federal investigation found. The city finance director said in a 2011 report that the municipal judge had been successful since 2003 in increasing court collections, and that internal 2011 city report noted a judge's statement that \"none of these changes could have taken place without the cooperation of the court clerk, the chief of police, and the prosecutor's office,\" the Justice Department investigation found. Cash filled the city treasury. By 2013, revenue from enforcing municipal codes reached $2.46 million, the federal report said. By 2015, the city anticipated that fines and fees would account for 23% of the budget, or $3.09 million of $13.26 million in general fund expenses, the Justice Department found. Just five years earlier, court fines and fees made up only 12% of the budget, or $1.38 million of $11.07 million in general fund revenues, the Justice Department found. The fines were among the highest of surrounding municipalities. For example, area parking fines ranged from $5 to $100, but Ferguson's parking fine was $102. A fine for \"weeds\/tall grass\" was $5 in one nearby city, but Ferguson's fine ranged from $77 to $102, the Justice Department found. The federal government made a forceful conclusion: . \"City, police and court officials for years have worked in concert to maximize revenue at every stage of the enforcement process, beginning with how fines and fine enforcement processes are established,\" the federal report said. After the Justice Department's announcement this week, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told reporters that he, Police Chief Tom Jackson and City Attorney Stephanie Karr met with federal officials about their findings and initiated several initiatives, including reforms to the municipal court. Knowles said municipal judges have created a docket for alleged offenders having trouble paying fines. Also, a defendant may ask a judge or prosecutor about different payment plans or alternative sentencing, the mayor said. Defendants have been required to pay an entire fine at once, regardless of ability to pay, the federal report said. The city also passed an ordinance last September to cap municipal court revenues at 15% of the city's overall budget, the mayor said. That figure is half Missouri's legal limit, he added. All the reforms are intended to \"move this city, its residents and our entire community forward,\" the mayor said. Back at her home, Loistine Hoskin recalled the height of absurdity in her fight against the city, which occurred shortly after her husband, Calvin, died in 2008 of complications from paralysis he suffered in a car accident three years earlier. She had been his caregiver. She appeared in court to appeal the citation, but an officer arrested her and put her in the back of the squad car. Her offense? Failing to appear in court, she said. She spent four hours in jail. She insists she made every court date. For now, she lives in fear of the police, even at home. \"We just got to a point where we said we're just not going to have anyone over -- because they were fearful when they left they would get some ticket, and they didn't even live here,\" Hoskin said. CNN's Ed Lavandera and Tristan Smith contributed from Ferguson. Michael Martinez reported and wrote this story from Los Angeles.","highlights":"Loistine Hoskin gave up fighting the city, paying $1,200 in fines over a broken-down car .\nHer daughter recounts how she was racially profiled for a $124 ticket .\nFerguson mayor announces reforms so his troubled town can move forward .","id":"65782db0b98c399d1bcbae5a99e0d57c232eeb43"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared in a series of photos released by the Kremlin on Friday after a week in which canceled engagements led to speculation over his health. The three images showed Putin meeting with the head of the Supreme Court in Moscow on Friday, the Kremlin said. State broadcaster Russia 24 also aired video footage of the meeting. CNN cannot independently confirm that the meeting took place as stated. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought to quell the rumors of ill health on Thursday, joking that they were down to \"spring fever,\" Russia's state-run Tass news agency reported. \"When the sun comes up in spring, and as soon as spring is in the air, then the fever begins,\" Peskov said. \"Someone dreams of (Rosneft CEO Igor) Sechin resignation, others -- of government resignation, while others have not seen President Putin on TV for several days,\" he said, according to Tass. \"We are calm on this fever, and respond to the questions with patience,\" Peskov said. Speaking to Russian radio station Echo of Moscow, Peskov also urged people not to worry, saying that Putin was \"absolutely\" healthy. Asked if the President's handshake was firm, he replied that Putin \"can break a hand.\" Last fall, rumors also circulated about the health of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, after he was absent from the public eye for more than a month. He eventually reappeared, with North Korean state media releasing photographs of him walking with a cane. The speculation about Putin began after a planned meeting in the Kazakh capital, Astana, between the Russian leader and the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus was postponed at short notice. Peskov confirmed Wednesday that the leaders had agreed to delay it for several days but did not give a new date, Tass said. The Kremlin press office said Friday that Putin would meet Monday with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Almazbek Atambayev, in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, Tass said. Putin's last public appearance was Sunday, on International Women's Day. Since then, he has had a number of meetings, but no video was released, only stills uploaded to the Kremlin's website. In the course of his many years in power, Putin has cultivated the image of a strong and vigorous leader. His exploits, captured on film and released to the media, have included riding horses while shirtless, exploring the seafloor in a submersible, handling a tranquilized tiger and, just last year, earning a karate black belt. The Russian President has been in the international spotlight in recent months after Moscow's intervention in Ukraine, which has prompted heightened tensions with the West. Opinion: Why has Putin gone missing? CNN's Alla Eshchenko reported from Moscow, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London.","highlights":"Kremlin releases images of a meeting it says President Vladimir Putin held Friday .\nPutin spokesman dismisses rumors of ill health sparked by Putin's cancellation of planned talks .","id":"0438c398c68f93e1907f48e4a99bf5469f91353f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Thiago Silva's path to redemption took a mere 12 minutes. For that short period of time the Brazilian must have been panicking that his needless error had cost his Paris Saint-Germain side a place in the last eight of the European Champions League. His handball had gifted English Premier League leaders Chelsea a 2-1 aggregate advantage in extra time, but this was one tale that would be adorned with a Silva lining. Seconds after being denied by a world class save from Thibaut Courtois, Silva looped a header into the net to send PSG through on away goals. Not only did he save himself from a barrage of criticism, he also got colleague Zlatan Ibrahimovic out of jail too. The maverick Swedish striker's dismissal after 31 minutes made PSG's passage into the quarterfinals all the more remarkable, as it battled the best team in England with 10 men for an energy-sapping 90 minutes. Gary Cahill looked to have ended PSG's resistance with a 81st minute goal before former Chelsea defender David Luiz equalized with four minutes left. Eden Hazard converted from the spot in extra time after Silva's misdemeanor before the 30-year-old popped up at the death to make amends and avenge PSG's defeat at the same stage by Chelsea last season. \"We played a great game,\" Luiz told Sky Sports. \"It was amazing tonight, the spirit, the players gave everything. When we lost Ibra we said we had to keep it simple and keep the ball. \"It's amazing for the club and the city. We tried to win the game even with one less man. We have a long way to go to win the Champions League and we keep our feet on the floor.\" The first tie ended 1-1 in Paris three weeks ago but most of the headlines related to an ugly incident of racism on the city's Metro system. A group of supporters, apparently Chelsea fans, were caught on camera appearing to prevent a black man from boarding a train before chanting: \"We're racist and that's the way we like it.\" The UK's Metropolitan Police announced on Wednesday that it had summoned five men to appear in court later in March, while Chelsea has vowed to ban for life any of its fans that are found guilty. The club extended an invitation to the man who was the the subject of the abuse, known as Souleymane S, but the 33-year-old refused. The opening stages were tense and feisty, just as they were in the French capital during the first leg, but the match in London ignited after a flashpoint just past the half hour mark. Ibrahimovic, so often the hero for PSG, turned villain after being dismissed for a forceful tackle on Chelsea's Brazilian playmaker Oscar. The home side surrounded referee Bjorn Kuipers who duly produced a red card -- the fourth of the Swede's often controversial career in the Champions League. But replays suggested the 33-year-old was perhaps unfortunate to see red, having tried to pull out of the tackle at the last second. Despite having a man advantage, Chelsea struggled to create clear cut openings as PSG defended resolutely. Kuipers was in the spotlight again as the half came to a close -- a mazy run from striker Diego Costa ended when he was felled by PSG's Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani. The referee took a long look at the incident but decided to wave play on, much to the chagrin of Chelsea's players and manager Jose Mourinho. Mourinho's travails continued after the break as the Blues toiled in its attempts to open up a determined PSG rearguard. A half chance for Gary Cahill came and went before the visitors came to the fore. First Cavani played in Maxwell, whose ball across the face of goal was begging to be tapped in, before the Uruguayan had a chance to tilt the tie firmly in his side's favor. Played in on goal by Argentinian Javier Pastore, Cavani rounded Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois but could only glance a shot off the near post from a tight angle. Pastore then got into the area after neat approach play and, though he got a powerful low shot away, Courtois was equal to it and palmed it clear. Chelsea began to reassert its dominance as PSG tired. Substitute Ramires weaved into the area and was denied by a fine save at his near post by Salvatore Sirigu. From the resulting corner a miskick from Costa presented the ball at the feet of England defender Cahill, who lashed home from 12 yards out. But Chelsea were unable to hold out. Luiz, who won the Champions League with Chelsea during a three-year stint at the club, had been booed throughout the game for a running battle with Costa. And he rose highest to power a header into the net and make the tie level on aggregate with just four minutes remaining. PSG began the extra half hour in sluggish fashion and were punished when Silva needlessly handled a looping cross into the area as he went up to challenge substitute Kurt Zouma for the ball. Belgium international Eden Hazard duly tucked the penalty away, to restore Chelsea's lead and ensure the tie would not go to penalties. Still Chelsea looked edgy. Courtois was forced to make a world class save from Silva, as the Brazilian desperately tried to make amends for his handball. But despite that warning, Silva netted with a fine header from the very next corner, looping a brilliant header over the goalkeeper from 14 yards out. After the game Mourinho admitted PSG had \"clearly\" been the better side: \"Our performance was not good enough,\" he told Sky Sports. \"We had the game in our hands twice but I think PSG were stronger than us and coped better with the pressure of the game.\" German champions Bayern Munich cemented its place in the last eight with a comprehensive 7-0 dismantling of Shakhtar Donetsk. After a 0-0 draw in the first leg in Ukraine, Shakhtar's task became an uphill one inside four minutes when Olexandr Kucher was dismissed for bringing down Mario G\u00f6tze inside the penalty area. Thomas Muller tucked home the resulting penalty, and Bayern subsequently laid siege to Shakhtar's goal. Robert Lewandowski nodded Rafinha's cross against the post before Pep Guardiola's side doubled its advantage just after the half hour mark. Defender Jerome Boateng had the simple task of tapping home from point blank range after former Dortmund striker Lewandowski's effort had been saved. Bayern ran riot after the break, France international Franck Ribery grabbing the third with a fine low finish after a powerful run into the area. Muller grabbed a second moments later before Holger Badstuber made it five with a thumping header. Lewandowski finally got on the score sheet before G\u00f6tze completed the rout.","highlights":"French side Paris Saint-Germain knock Chelsea out of the European Champions League .\nA goal in extra time from Thiago Silva sends French champions through on away goals .\nPSG played 90 minutes with 10 men after Zlatan Ibrahimovic's first-half dismissal .\nBayern Munich hammer Shakhtar Donetsk 7-0 to book its place in the last eight .","id":"6464ef6fceb6dd700fd1672f5253d9afeeb4b9af"} -{"article":"(CNN)The UK's Metropolitan Police has summoned five football fans to answer allegations of racism. It relates to an incident captured on camera, prior to Chelsea's European Champions League match with Paris Saint-Germain last month. In the French capital before the match an apparent group of Chelsea fans are caught on camera, appearing to prevent a black man boarding the Paris Metro. The video, widely shared on social media, also depicted the group of men chanting: \"We're racist, we're racist and that's the way we like it.\" The man in the video was blocked several times from boarding the train and shoved off at least twice. He was later identified as Souleymane S, a 33-year-old Parisian on his way home from work. London's Met Police had appealed for help to identify those responsible but in a statement released Wednesday, said five men were due in court later this month. It read: \"On 10 March and 11 March, the Metropolitan Police Service served summonses on five men involved in incidents on the Paris Metro before the Paris Saint-Germain v Chelsea Champions League fixture on Tuesday 17 February. \"They have been summonsed to appear at Waltham Forest Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, 25 March regarding a police application for football banning orders.\" The authorities have not identified any of the alleged perpetrators. Chelsea were quick to condemn the group, saying in a statement after the incident that the chanting was \"abhorrent\" and something that \"has no place in football or society.\" Manager Jose Mourinho said he was \"ashamed\" by the flashpoint, while the club moved quickly to suspend the five men involved. It said they faced a life ban should they be found guilty. \"I watched the image the next day, I didn't want to watch again, I watched only once,\" Mourinho told reporters a few days after the match in Paris. \"It is enough for me, it is sad enough for me. It is a humiliation for that gentleman, I imagine myself in that same situation, I want to go home after a day of work and a couple of guys they kick me out of my public transport.\" A club spokesperson also confirmed that Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich was \"disgusted\" by the incident whilst French President Francois Hollande personally spoke to Souleymane. Chelsea invited him to attend the return fixture at Stamford Bridge but he declined the offer. \"I won't go,\" he was quoted as saying by French radio station RTL. \"They can't buy me with a little piece of paper. I'm not a child. \"I don't want to sit in that stadium next to those people who pushed me. I still hear the voices of those people who pushed me because of the color of my skin.\" Football banning orders can last for between three and ten years, and any breach can result in a criminal offense, with a prison sentence of up to six months.","highlights":"UK's Metropolitan Police summon five people to answer allegations of racism .\nThe group, believed to be Chelsea fans, abused a black man on Paris Metro .\nVideo of the incident showed a black man being prevented from boarding a train .\nChelsea has suspended five fans and will issue life bans if they are found guilty .","id":"84af8c29d60894882743d38105aacf598ea349c0"} -{"article":"(CNN)If you enjoy laughing at the England football team -- calling all Germans and Scots -- and you have a spare $900,000, then Sotheby's has the very thing for you. The auction house is offering an untitled work by Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan that chronicles -- in painstaking and painful detail if you are English -- every defeat suffered by the England team between 1874 and 1998. Cattelan has carved all the defeats into a large (and it would have to be, wouldn't it?) piece of black granite, meaning the lucky buyer can be constantly reminded of a succession of ignominious afternoons and evenings. The artist says of his memorial stone-style work simply: \"I guess it's a piece which talks about pride, missed opportunities and death.\" Known for his humorous and satirical art, Cattelan had plenty to work with as he recorded defeats starting with a 2-1 loss to Scotland in Glasgow in 1874 and ending with another 2-1 setback against Romania at the 1998 World Cup. Since then, of course, he'd have had a fair few more to immortalize, including the two to Italy and Uruguay in Brazil last summer that were part of the worst-ever England display at a World Cup. The artist, whose other works include La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), which depicts Pope John Paul II being struck down by a meteorite, first put his football piece on display at an exhibition in London in 1999. It's not known whether any England managers and players, past or present, came along to have a sneaky look. Current England boss Roy Hodgson is known to be a bit of an Italophile, but the former Inter Milan coach needs to be quick if he wants catch a glimpse -- Cattelan's work is on public exhibition at Sotheby's New Bond Street galleries until Tuesday 10 March. It will then be offered as part of the single-owner 'Bear Witness' sale.","highlights":"A monument to England's football failure is set to go on auction in London .\nMaurizio Cattelan's sculpture chronicles every England defeat between 1874 and 1998 .\nThe black granite artwork is expected to fetch up to $900,000 .","id":"b77ce0c538a5e1435fb56263a5329d27bb964582"} -{"article":"(CNN)A crowd of tens of thousands filled Yitzhak Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, calling for a change in Israeli leadership amid growing discontent with the current administration. The rally, called \"Israel Wants Change,\" was put on by One Million Hands, a grassroots movement that focuses its efforts on two major issues: a two-state solution and a reduction in the cost of living. On both of these topics, founder Dror Ben-Ami says, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed. \"We think that the only way to go forward on that account is to change government and to get this current government out of office. To get Bibi out of office,\" says Ben-Ami. Organizers are not promoting any specific candidate or pushing voters toward any political party in the March 17 balloting. Instead, they are encouraging voters to change the current administration. Police estimated the crowd at 40,000 people. Headlining the rally was Meir Dagan, the former head of Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and a vocal critic of Netanyahu. In recent weeks, Dagan criticized Netanyahu's decision to speak before the U.S. Congress, and he continued his criticism at the rally, saying that he has never seen such stagnation in Israeli politics. Netanyahu still has broad support in Israel, and his Likud party is doing well in the polls. The Zionist Union is Likud's primary challenger. In the initial round of polling immediately following Netanyahu's speech before Congress, the Zionist Union was expected to win 24 seats in the Knesset while Likud was expected to win 23 seats. The poll comes from CNN affiliate Channel 2 Israel. Because of the nature of Israeli politics, Netanyahu's Likud party could lose the election while Netanyahu still becomes prime minister. In many ways, this rally was reminiscent of a similar social movement that began in the summer of 2011. Hundreds of thousands of protesters packed the streets of Tel Aviv, demanding improvements in the cost of housing, education, and health care. What started as a small social media campaign turned into a nationwide movement that spread to other major cities. This time, the issues are different. But the growing sense of discontent and the calls for change remain.","highlights":"Group One Million Hands sponsors event in Tel Aviv .\nThey want to see a new prime minister .\nIsraeli elections come March 17 .","id":"8c7d698c1a968ed619f06669e765cf828cb71c17"} -{"article":"(CNN)Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, Beck, and John Legend are ready to rock Cleveland. On Wednesday the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced an array of A-list presenters and performers for its 30th Annual Induction Ceremony, which takes place at Cleveland's historic Public Hall on Saturday, April 18. Seven artists and musical groups will be honored with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the ceremony. The newly announced presenters list includes: . Paul McCartney (inducting former Beatle Ringo Starr) Stevie Wonder (inducting '70s soul singer Bill Withers) Patti Smith (inducting late Velvet Underground front man Lou Reed) Peter Wolf (inducting The Paul Butterfield Blues Band) Fall Out Boy (inducting punk rockers Green Day) John Mayer (inducting late electric guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn) Steve Cropper (inducting soul group \"5\" Royales) Joan Jett & the Blackhearts round out the 2015 class of inductees. On a day that celebrates the best in rock 'n' roll, expect musicians to bring down the house. Two of this year's most recognized artists are set to perform. Beck, who ruled the Grammys with three wins, including album of the year, will sing at the ceremony. John Legend will also take the stage, after winning best original song at this year's Academy Awards. See all the 2015 Grammy winners . The ceremony will feature other lively performances from blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, former Eagles band member Joe Walsh, and Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be broadcast on HBO Saturday, May 30. (CNN and HBO share a parent company.) The ceremony will be accompanied by a series of events during Cleveland's Rock Week (April 11-18), including live music sessions and a new 2015 Inductees exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.","highlights":"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces the presenters for its 2015 induction .\nPaul McCartney will introduce Ringo Starr; Stevie Wonder will induct Bill Withers .\nThe ceremony will take place in April and will be broadcast on HBO in May .","id":"9080d450985d274780ce0a2fd99e6ae8c7009ccb"} -{"article":"(CNN)A U.S. Air Force veteran who allegedly tried to join ISIS in Syria but was turned back by Turkish authorities before he could get to the war-torn country entered a not guilty plea to terror-related charges Wednesday in a federal court in New York. Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, accused of making the foiled attempt in January, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of trying to give material support to the terror group and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Justice Department said in a two-count indictment announced Tuesday. Among the evidence, prosecutors allege: Investigators discovered on his laptop computer a letter saying he wanted to \"use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States,\" and a chart of crossing points between Turkey and Syria, where ISIS controls some territory. Who has been recruited to ISIS from the West? Pugh, a 47-year-old convert to Islam and a former New Jersey resident who served in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990, was arrested upon his return to the United States in January, the Justice Department said. \"Pugh, an American citizen and former member of our military, allegedly abandoned his allegiance to the United States and sought to provide material support to ISIL,\" Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Carlin said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamist terror group that controls territory in parts of Iraq and Syria. At his arraignment Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Pugh appeared in a black T-shirt and khaki pants and stated his name. He pleaded not guilty through his attorney, Michael Schneider. The defendant, a former avionics instrument system specialist in the Air Force, flew from Egypt to Turkey on January 10, weeks after being fired from a Middle East-based job as an airplane mechanic, U.S. authorities allege. Why is ISIS so successful at luring Westerners? But Turkey denied him entry. In the indictment, U.S. authorities said Turkey was likely suspicious Pugh was headed for Syria. Instead Turkish officials sent him on a return flight to Egypt, where he was detained. In Egypt, he was carrying multiple electronic devices, \"including four USB thumb drives that had been stripped of their plastic casings and an iPod that had been wiped clean of data,\" the Justice Department said in a statement. Pugh had purposefully tampered with the devices to prevent others from getting access to his electronic media, the indictment said. Pugh was deported to the United States, where agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force obtained a warrant for his devices, including the laptop, the department said. Investigators found a letter from January addressed to a Misha, whom they believe is his wife, authorities said. In it, the writer says: \"I am a (mujahedeen). I am a sword against the oppressor and a shield for the oppressed. I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States.\" In addition to that letter and the Turkey\/Syria border chart, agents also found recent Internet searches for information on \"borders controlled by Islamic state,\" as well as \"Internet searches for 'Flames of War,' an ISIL propaganda video,\" and \"downloaded videos, including one showing ISIL members executing prisoners,\" the Justice Department said. They also found what the government said was another 180 jihadist propaganda videos. Pugh was arrested in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on January 16. While in the Air Force, Pugh was trained in installing and maintaining aircraft engine, navigation and weapons systems, the Justice Department said. Pugh converted to Islam after moving to San Antonio in 1998, according to the indictment. The indictment said he took a job as a mechanic with American Airlines in or about 2001. The airline has not responded to a request for comment. In 2001, an American Airlines co-worker alerted the FBI that Pugh \"sympathized with Osama bin Laden, felt that the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies overseas were justified, and expressed anti-American sentiment,\" the complaint said. One year later, an associate told the FBI that Pugh had expressed interest in traveling to Chechnya to \"fight jihad.\" From October 2009 to March 2010, he worked in Iraq as an Army contractor for DynCorp, according to the complaint. According to Pugh's LinkedIn page, he listed himself as a maintenance manager for Gryphon Airlines, a Kuwait-based charter airline, since September 2014. But the airline told CNN that Pugh was only under consideration to work for it in 2014. \"In third quarter 2014, Mr. Pugh was under consideration for a future Gryphon project, but did not meet the qualifications,\" the airline said in a statement. \"Gryphon declined to hire Mr. Pugh. Gryphon personnel are cooperating with the authorities.\" His last known U.S. address was in Neptune, New Jersey, but he had lived in Egypt for about the last year, the indictment said. If convicted, Pugh could be sentenced to up to 35 years in prison. CNN's Ray Sanchez, John Newsome and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh enters not guilty plea to terror-related charges .\nPugh flew to Turkey on January 10, authorities say .\nAuthorities allege a letter on his laptop told his wife he was a mujahedeen .","id":"66af1b070749683fb7a18ddc76e1fbb1439882db"} -{"article":"(CNN)We have no problem taking Wall Street executives to task for decisions that leave American families financially devastated, yet we give Silicon Valley billionaires a pass when they do the same thing. America needs to realize that instead of creating jobs, Silicon Valley is erasing them, leaving millennials financially stranded before their careers can get off the ground. Silicon Valley is tossing millennials aside like yesterday's laptop. The commonly held belief is that with hard work and a good education, a young person in America can get a good job. But despite falling unemployment, college grads age 22 to 27 are stuck in low-paying jobs that don't even require a college degree. The percentage of young people languishing in low-skill, low-paying jobs is 44%, a 20-year high. Only 36% of college grads have jobs that pay at least $45,000, a sharp decline from the 1990s, after adjusting for inflation. Perhaps most depressingly, the percentage of young people making below $25,000 has topped 20%, worse than in 1990. In other words, those with a bachelor's diploma were better off before the digital revolution. If this comes as a surprise, that's because images from popular culture push the idea that young college graduates are shrugging off bad employment prospects with their do-it-yourself attitude. In our collective imagination, millennials are saying, \"No jobs? That's OK \u2014 I'll create my own!\" And then they solve their own problems by heading to Silicon Valley with little more than an iPhone and an idea to create the next hip app that supposedly will turn them into overnight millionaires. A fictional example of this new breed of young idealistic entrepreneur would be Mike Bean, founder of Internet behemoth Gryzzl on the show \"Parks and Recreation.\" Played by Blake Anderson, Bean might best be described as \"barefoot and pregnant with ideas.\" The bumbling entrepreneur conquers the world practically by accident, armed only with his digital savvy, a can-do spirit, and a penchant for invading users' privacy. You get the idea that his success came easily. Privacy concerns aside, the Mike Beans of America are just about as rare as the Mark Zuckerbergs. In fact, the percentage of people under 30 who own private businesses has reached a 24-year low. Garages across the country are not exactly humming with millennials launching tech startups. But wait \u2014 won't the digital economy eventually lead to better jobs? After a period of adjustment, won't things get better? Unfortunately that's not the path we're on. One of the biggest misconceptions about the digital economy is that for every middle-class job rendered obsolete by technology, there's a new, equally good (or better) job created by Silicon Valley. But exactly the opposite is happening. The digital economy is vaporizing the good jobs and replacing them with two kinds of jobs: minimum wage jobs (think Amazon warehouse employees) and so-called \"sharing-economy jobs\" (think Uber drivers). The sharing-economy jobs are even worse than minimum wage jobs because they offer no stability or protections for workers. Sharing economy jobs aren't really jobs at all; they're freelance gigs. Sure, Silicon Valley doesn't owe America jobs. But something is wrong with the picture of a handful of tech billionaires overseeing a kingdom of falling wages, decreased worker protection and zero job security. This \"winner-take-all\" digital economy is not sustainable. People on both sides of the political spectrum are worried. Liberal luminary Robert Reich, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and former secretary of labor under Bill Clinton, calls the sharing economy the \"share-the-scraps\" economy. Speaking of tech companies that utilize on-demand labor, such as Uber, Instacart and Taskrabbit, he says, \"The big money goes to the corporations that own the software. The scraps go to the on-demand workers.\" Meanwhile, conservative columnist Ross Douthat fears a dystopian future in which \"a rich, technologically proficient society will no longer offer meaningful occupation to many people of ordinary talents.\" Put simply, Silicon Valley's utopia is the rest of America's dystopia. And those who are punished more than anyone else are recent college graduates, whose lifetime earning potential has already suffered an irreversible setback. And if you think your own job is safe, think again. New research predicts that nearly half of all jobs are susceptible to automation over the next two decades. This is a giant leap backward, but it's deceptively described as technological \"progress.\" As anyone who's talked to an automated system on the phone lately can attest, \"automated\" usually means \"worse.\" What can be done? How can we fight this slide back toward the Middle Ages? If we take no action, we're headed toward a kind of digital world feudalism where there are a handful of kings, a lot of peasants and no middle class. There's no easy fix, but we can do three things immediately. First, we can stop glorifying tech titans and start talking openly about Silicon Valley's questionable tactics and its real job creation record (i.e., just follow the numbers). Second, we can encourage more lawsuits against the abusive practices of \"sharing-economy\" powerhouses. Third, we can elect leaders who are vocal about holding Silicon Valley accountable for their power over the entire American workforce, including white-collar employees. The fictional Gryzzl's tagline borrows some millennial slang: \"Wouldn't it be tight if everyone was chill to each other?\" Indeed it would. And if we want a better future for millennials and the generations after them, we need to challenge the prevailing Silicon Valley ethos before it's too late.","highlights":"David Wheeler: Silicon Valley doesn't create jobs; it's wiping out middle-class jobs .\nYoung college graduates are struggling with lack of jobs, yet many still idolize Silicon Valley .","id":"b4fdd95dfcf0a6898ea0152c3837f266e76aae35"} -{"article":"(CNN)Life on a Civil War ship in the Deep South was no pleasure cruise. Heat, humidity, the rigors of military life and bouts of boredom could frustrate a fella. So it may be no surprise that among the first artifacts to be brought up from the wreck of the CSS Georgia in Savannah are two sets of leg irons. \"We all know about discipline in the Navy,\" said Jim Jobling, a project manager with Texas A&M University's Conservation Research Laboratory. \"It is for restricting the mobility of a prisoner who wanted to desert or had committed a crime.\" Of course, the leg irons could have been used on a Federal sailor or soldier taken captive. But that didn't occur with the Confederate ironclad. It was scuttled in December 1864, having never fired a shot in anger while it defended the city. About 400 artifacts have been brought up by divers in the initial stage of the recovery of the CSS Georgia, which must be moved for a deepening of the shipping channel. \"We have scratched the surface as far as the artifacts are concerned. There are a lot more to come up,\" Jobling told CNN on Thursday. Texas A&M is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah to conserve many of the artifacts for eventual display. Archaeology isn't just about cool artifacts. It's about making a connection with the humans that used these items. And while experts haven't gleaned much about the daily life of the crew from the early dives, they have found some items that would have been used by an individual: An ironstone plate commonly used in the South, a musket trigger guard and the butt stock of a gun. Visibility at the site is practically nonexistent. Divers have to depend on feel to locate and remove smaller items. Much of it is is detritus of the wreck: small iron plates, nails and spikes. Among the items cataloged since the dives formally began at the end of January are two pieces that helped with the business end of the CSS Georgia: its cannons. Four of the artillery pieces are amid the wreckage about 40 feet down on the floor of the Savannah River. One iron piece had eyes, or holes, that connected a gun carriage to ropes that the ironclad's crew manipulated to move the gun forward and backward. Another piece, a trunnion cap, helped hold the cannon to the carriage. Divers and archaeologists are following a timetable and grid in the recovery, with smaller items being brought up by hand. A previous salvage effort and damage from dredging displaced some of the artifacts. Other items remain right where they fell. \"Someone undid the engine, moved it and was dropped\" into the depths, said Jobling. Contract divers are out on the site every day, weather permitting, not more than a couple miles east of the city's famous River Street and waterfront. The $15 million removal of the CSS Georgia is necessary for the state and federal harbor deepening project, which will see the channel go from 42 to a uniform 47 feet so massive cargo container ships can use the port without relying on the tide. In June or July, U.S. Navy divers are expected be on site, to bring up the larger pieces: two engines, the propeller, a steam condenser, the four guns and the casemates that housed them. One of the casemates is large: 68 feet by 24 feet. Four artillery shells will be recovered, with the U.S. Marine Corps to render them safe for museum display. The wooden lower hull no longer exists. The CSS Georgia didn't have enough power to maneuver and effectively trade artillery rounds with any enemy vessels that might approach from the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, the vessel became a stationary floating battery, bristling with artillery pieces. The Yankees refused to take on the CSS Georgia or other nearby defense obstructions. Archaeologists have the challenge of preserving portions of the CSS Georgia through chemical and other means, making her iron stable so the remains one day can be displayed. Conservation of selected artifacts and parts will be done at Texas A&M and will take about two years to complete. State and local officials hope conserved pieces will be exhibited somewhere in the city. Much of the CSS Georgia is corroded, and archaeologists are gauging the integrity of each piece for conservation. But many pieces remain in pretty good shape. An X-ray of one of the leg irons shows a fair bit of corrosion. Experts will inject epoxy to fill those gaps and remove any concretion on the iron, said Jobling. Officials need more artifacts and investigation to tell the story of the crew. \"Hopefully, there is a section of the wreck that will tell the human side of the CSS Georgia,\" said Jobling. While salvage operations soon after the Civil War removed a lot of iron from the site, there's a chance personal items survive, especially if they are below the sediment line and protected from the ravages of oxygen. Interestingly, the vessel's crew had to run the main engine constantly, just to keep it afloat. Why? That's because the CSS Georgia's green wood made it susceptible to leaks. So on December 21, 1864, just as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's hordes of soldiers reached Savannah, the ironclad's crew likely opened its water valves. The CSS Georgia silently slipped below the surface. The sailors used small boats to get to shore and began a 20-mile walk from Savannah. \"They took what they could carry with them,\" Jobling said.","highlights":"A Civil War ironclad must be moved so the shipping channel can be deepened .\nWreckage lies a couple miles from Savannah's famous River Street .\nThe CSS Georgia never fired a shot in anger during the Civil War .","id":"4793dff763a70bb2242d599a453c44ea885549cf"} -{"article":"(CNN)Vigilante motorists in New Zealand have taken to snatching the car keys of foreign drivers amid rising concern over dangerous driving by tourists. New Zealand media have reported five cases this year of locals forcibly taking the keys of foreign motorists after witnessing driving that concerned them. All the incidents -- which have been condemned by authorities -- took place in the South Island, which draws tourists from around the world for its rugged scenery, including lakes and mountains featured in director Peter Jackson's \"Lord of the Rings\" films. The incidents occurred amid heightened public concern over tourist driving standards, with eight people killed in crashes involving foreign drivers in the space of a fortnight last month. Among the dead were a family of four from Hong Kong who were killed when their car crossed the center line and collided with a logging truck. The key snatchings have even prompted Prime Minister John Key to weigh in on the issue, advising that \"people taking the law into their own hands is not sensible.\" New Zealand Police Assistant Commissioner of Road Policing Dave Cliff said the confiscations existed in a legal gray area, as there was no explicit statute dealing with the issue. Although there might be exceptional circumstances where taking someone's keys could be legally justified, such as preventing drunken driving, he said, \"in the vast majority of cases, it won't be.\" \"That extends to physically assaulting or abusing someone in response to their driving, which is simply not acceptable, and anyone found doing so should expect to face the consequences,\" he said. Diesel mechanic Robert Penman of Dunedin made headlines last month after he took the keys of a Chinese couple who had stopped their car on a narrow single-lane road to take pictures, causing a backlog of vehicles behind them. \"I was coming into town with my wife and son and came around the corner, and there was a car stopped in the middle of the road,\" he told CNN affiliate TVNZ. He called police and took their keys as \"a safety thing, you know, timeframe for police to get there,\" he said. The New Zealand Transport Agency later revealed that Penman was driving on an expired license himself. Penman told local media it was not the first time he had taken a tourist's car keys. Only 6% of crashes in New Zealand involve foreign drivers, according to the latest figures provided by the Ministry of Transport. But in some remote regions of the South Island particularly popular with tourists for their scenery -- such as the Mackenzie, Southland, Queenstown-Lakes and Kaikoura districts -- foreign drivers are involved in about a quarter of all crashes. In Westland District, on the South Island's rugged West Coast, foreign drivers are involved in 37% of road crashes resulting in death or injury. Tony Kokshoorn, mayor of the neighboring Grey District, said tourist driving behavior was a major problem in the region and attributed the issue to tourists from countries that drive on the right. New Zealanders drive on the left. \"There's a huge number of tourists coming through to these destinations because of the scenery, but the scenery is a problem,\" he said. \"There's so many beautiful sights to see that they're not concentrating on their driving. Once they lose their concentration, they tend to fall into old habits and drive on the right. Even for 20 seconds, it can cause damage.\" A Ministry of Transport spokesperson said that while this was a factor, figures showed that Australian and British drivers were involved in the most crashes overall, \"so unfamiliarity with which side of the road to drive on is not the only factor.\" Kokshoorn said that he had seen three cases of tourists driving on the wrong side of the road recently but that the vigilante approach -- which had seen a visitor to his town punched in the face as he was stripped of his keys last month -- was \"disgraceful.\" He said the best approach was better education on local driving conditions for foreign drivers, particularly at the rental companies where they picked up their vehicles. Anyone with a foreign drivers license or permit is able to drive in New Zealand for up to a year. Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss said the government recognized that \"many people are concerned with poor driving behavior on challenging roads in and around popular tourist destinations\" and had established a project in response. The measures include improvements to roading, such as \"keep left\" signage and no-passing markings on the extensive stretches of single-lane highway, and educational resources targeted at visiting drivers, including many targeting the growing Chinese market. Kokshoorn said it was important to \"strike the right balance\" in getting the message to foreign drivers to take care on the unfamiliar roads. \"We value tourism and the dollars it brings to New Zealand, especially to our region here. We don't want to put tourists off, but we want them to be safe in our country,\" he said. \"You cross that center line, and anything's possible.\" CNN's David Molko contributed to this report.","highlights":"Five tourists have had their car keys snatched by vigilantes this year .\nThe confiscations have taken place amid rising concern over tourist driving behavior .\nIn popular Westland, 37% of serious crashes have involved foreign drivers .","id":"44a2204653e544cd264e4e9663f41a8aaaedc11b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Relief workers reported \"unbelievable destruction\" after Tropical Cyclone Pam smashed the capital of Vanuatu, the Australian Red Cross said Saturday. The Australian Red Cross said via Twitter that \"humanitarian needs will be enormous. Many people have lost their homes. Shelter, food and water (are) urgent priorities\" in Port Vila. Meteorologists said the storm has weakened some, but it was still pounding the islands after hours of fierce winds and torrential rain. \"#CyclonePam still tearing through #Vanuatu. 'Much bigger than expected,' says our colleague in Port Vila. Initial reports of devastation,\" the Australian branch of UNICEF said on Twitter earlier. Pam, one of the strongest storms seen in the South Pacific in years, earlier made a direct hit on the capital, raising fears of mass destruction. In its 8 a.m. Saturday update, the Vanuatu Meteorological Services warned of \"very destructive hurricane force winds\" of 155 mph (250 kilometers per hour) in Shefa and Tafea provinces, with several others facing \"very rough to phenomenal seas with heavy swells.\" The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, said the cyclone had weakened from the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane to a Category 4. It has dumped more than 9 inches of rain on the capital in a 36-hour period and has wind gusts of up to 190 mph (305 kph). Track the storm . Pam is forecast to move southeastward along the western edge of the southern islands of Vanuatu. It isn't expected to make any additional landfalls before dissipating. It will continue to weaken as it crosses cooler waters and encounters higher wind shear. Pam is expected to pass east of New Zealand on Sunday and into Monday. It could bring heavy rainfall to North Island, including Auckland. The capital, the biggest city in the Vanuatu island chain, sits on the coastline, which is vulnerable to storm surges during powerful cyclones. Tropical Cyclone Pam is the strongest storm to make landfall since the devastating Super Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013. Chloe Morrison, an emergency communications director for the humanitarian organization World Vision, told CNN that she could see some light between her boarded-up windows but it was still hard to see the totality of the destruction outside the house where she and seven others huddled in a back room during the storm. \"Seven hours hunkered down and it's still not safe to go outside,\" she said. \"The winds are still really howling. We're really lucky to be in a concrete house.\" Part of the tin roof twisted off the house and landed by one of the windows, she said. She also noted that two trees outside didn't get uprooted, but they had not one bit of fruit or any leaves remaining. Despite the \"quite terrifying ordeal,\" Morrison said, their house didn't have any damage. Through the night, the wind and torrential rain made it sound like an angry ocean was just outside their doors, she said. World Vision, which says it's been based in Vanuatu for more than 30 years, said its emergency assessment team would head out to view the damage when it is safe. The staff helped prepare communities on the islands for the cyclone by positioning water, food, blankets, tarpaulins, and shelter, hygiene and kitchen kits in key places, it said, as well as advising on disaster preparedness. Residents have been advised to seek shelter in places such as churches, universities and schools. \"The strongest thing they've got is cement churches,\" said Inga Mepham, program director for CARE International for the Vanuatu program. \"Some of them don't have that. It's hard to find a structure that you'd think would be able to withstand a Category 5 (storm).\" Earlier, photographer Michael McLennan -- who said the storm is being called the \"Vanuatu Monster\" -- told CNN that the \"strength of winds is incredible.\" Video footage he shot earlier Friday showed palm trees being whipped by wind and rain. Evacuation alerts have been issued for several parts of the country. Even before the sun rose Saturday, Vanuatu was already getting hit hard, with most communication and power cut off due to the storm. \"The wind outside is terrifying,\" Michael Wolfe, World Vision's national director in Vanuatu, told that organization. \"I can't imagine what it's like for families out there who weren't able to find safe shelter before the storm.\" The archipelago nation northeast of Australia contains 83 small islands, many of which have little infrastructure and lack the strong housing structures that can endure a walloping storm. Because of the tropical climate in Vanuatu, some of the housing is made of lighter building materials, including straw and corrugated metals. Residents prepared for the storm, boarding up windows and chopping down trees that stand close to buildings in case they could become debris or cause further damage or injury. CNN host Bill Weir, who was recently in Vanuatu on assignment, said that while Port Vila has some modern development in the form of an airport, large hotels and a convention center that's under construction, life on some of the islands has remained almost unchanged for thousands of years. \"For search and rescue, for bringing food and supplies and medicine, it's extremely challenging,\" he said. Pam has triggered watches and warnings in the Solomon Islands and New Zealand. CNN's Greg Botelho and Derek Van Dam contributed to this report.","highlights":"Red Cross says Tropical Cyclone Pam destroyed many homes .\nUNICEF tweets there are reports of devastation in Vanuatu's capital .\nStorm has made a direct hit on the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila .","id":"d69e536c3406921639c7f99d567a092b16106089"} -{"article":"Esfahan, Iran (CNN)If you're looking for the Jewish community in the Iranian town of Esfahan, you won't have to search for long. The main synagogue is on Palestine Square, right in the heart of Iran's third largest city. There are public prayers several times a day -- sometimes with more than a hundred people in attendance. The Jewish community in Iran does not hide its heritage. At the synagogue, Michael Malakon leads the prayer service. He says he is proud of his Jewish identity. And even in a country that is so hostile towards Israel, Malakon says he can practice freely and that he has many Muslim friends. \"I hang around with all kinds of young people and I have a lot of Muslim friends,\" Malakon tells CNN after finishing the noon prayer on a Monday. About 20 people were in attendance, usually from local businesses around the synagogue. None of them tried to hide the fact that they were Jewish -- and inside the synagogue the Star of David is proudly displayed in many places, alongside passages from the Torah. There have been Jews in Iran for more than 2,500 years. Many left the country after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. Khomeini said Iran wanted to destroy Israel, but he also issued a fatwa, a religious decree, saying that Iranian Jews were different to those in Israel and should be considered an integral part of the Islamic Republic. Sion Mahgrefte is the head of the Jewish community in Esfahan. He declined to comment directly on political matters, especially in the current heated environment, but he did say that the members of his community felt very much at home in Iran. \"Israel and Iran are countries,\" he said. \"And we consider ourselves Iranian Jews, not Israeli Jews. So the hostilities between Israel and Iran do not affect us.\" There is even a Jewish representative in Iran's parliament. And aside from the vibrant Jewish community in Esfahan -- there are 13 synagogues in the city -- there are also several Orthodox Cathedrals representing a sizable Christian community. Most of Esfahan's Jews are business people. In the center of town there is a shopping mall, known to people here as the \"Jewish Passage\" because so many businesses are Jewish-owned. When our crew arrived there they found Muslim and Jewish shop owners joking around. One of them is Said Shemyon, who owns a clothing store. His friends call him \"Mordechai,\" and he showed us some Hebrew prayer books he always keeps in the store. Like most others, Shemyon was not keen to talk about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent address to U.S. Congress, or the problems between Israel and Iran. He says those politics have no place here. \"We just want peace,\" he said. \"We really hope that all these problems can be solved one day, God willing. We are just hoping for unity and peace.\" There are about 1,500 Jews in Esfahan these days. The community's leaders conduct religious studies for the younger members of the congregation. While Sion Mahgrefte is adamant that they have no problems with their Shia neighbors, he does acknowledge that friends living abroad often worry about them. \"Of course sometimes people we know who live in Israel or elsewhere are very concerned about us, and they tell us we are crazy to live here,\" he says. \"But then we tell them how things are and they calm down.\"","highlights":"Jews have been living in Iran for more than 2,500 years .\n1,500 Jews call Esfahan home despite tensions between Iran and Israel .\nCommunity leader: \"Israel and Iran are countries, and we consider ourselves Iranian Jews\"","id":"95c1913b38e0975ab5bc94ce4aec4c72ac977b6d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Are the upcoming elections in Israel crucial? Will the results -- a fourth term for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a first for opposition leader Isaac Herzog -- change Israel's policy in a significant way? As Israelis prepare to go to the polls, the answer seems to be negative. Many observers in Europe and the United States seem to be under the impression that during Netanyahu's time in power, Israel was hijacked by right wing zealots -- and that Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union opposition party, is the man who will save the country and return it to the path of sanity. But the fact is that when it comes to the most crucial question regarding the future of Israel and the Middle East -- what to do about the Palestinians -- the difference between the two candidates is negligible, a divergence that is short on substance but long on style and rhetoric. While Netanyahu's insistence on Israel's continued ruling over millions of Palestinians is expressed in aggressive, often religious and nationalistic language, Herzog's justifications for doing the same thing would sound much softer and easier to digest in the Western world. But at the end of the day, neither Netanyahu nor Herzog have any real intention to put an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu says it clearly and openly; Herzog and his coalition partners only hint at it. READ MORE: 5 key issues for next Israeli leader . This whitewash has been so evident throughout the entire election campaign that a foreigner arriving in Israel would have had a hard time understanding anything about what is really going on here. The main issues that have been discussed during the campaign are economic ones -- cost of living, housing prices, government oversight -- but even then, slogans and populist promises have largely replaced the in-depth debates we should be having. But the topics that seem to have consumed most of the headlines range from pure gossip to scandals, some of them concerning the behavior of Netanyahu and his wife Sara. There was the \"bottlegate\" affair -- claims that the wife of the Prime Minister had pocketed cash from bottle recycling at their official residence. The Netanyahus say they reimbursed the government. Israel is a country that is still looking for its way forward; one that lacks internationally recognized borders; one that has not yet decided whether it is a Western society or a Middle Eastern one; one that cannot decide whether it wants to be religious or secular, Jewish or bi-national. All of these critical issues -- none of them decided on -- have been cast aside, ignored, covered up or denied by a country that has busied itself with the important business of recycled bottles at the prime minister's residence. There is a big elephant in the room, but Israel is turning its back to it. There is a big elephant in the room, but Israel believes that if nobody talks about it, the elephant does not exist. This elephant is absent from the Israeli discourse on a day-to-day basis, and it is absent during elections -- a time when public discourse should be only be focused on what really matters. The elephant in the Israeli room is the unending occupation of Palestinian territories, and nobody is talking about it. Most of the parties running in the elections have not even bothered to try to answer questions about what their plans are for the Palestinians. But the occupation also continues to be a non-issue for too many ordinary Israelis, who know very little -- and care even less -- about the cruel reality for the millions of Palestinians who live without civil rights in the West Bank and who are kept under siege in Gaza. For those who regard Herzog and the center-left as the great hope of this campaign, it is important to remember that it was the Israeli Labor Party who established the occupation and settlement projects in Palestinian territory. Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin: Those Labor leaders, so beloved by the West, are the founding fathers of the most significant venture of modern Israel -- the illegal transfer of a Jewish population to stolen land. It was a project whose purpose was to prevent any kind of equal division of the land, or a settlement with the Palestinians -- and as such it has been a great success story. Labor never had a real plan for the Palestinians, except to time and again renew the endless peace process, which may be the longest in history. This is still true now, on the eve of elections that stand a real chance of bringing the Zionist Union to power. The more than 500,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have created what may be an irreversible reality, but Herzog's only answer to it is to get back to the negotiation table. In private circles he mentions five years as the time he needs to conclude the process. There is no better indication that Herzog has no intention of ending the occupation any time soon. Numerous peace plans have already been worked out in great detail; all that is needed is for one courageous Israeli leader to implement any one of them. Herzog, at least at this stage, does not seem to be the one capable of doing this. On Tuesday the \"only democracy in the Middle East\" will elect a new parliament and a new government, in what is frequently described as a celebration of \"people power.\" But the reality is that here in Israel, it is only the masters who will vote and decide on the future -- not only for themselves, but for the millions of Palestinians who have for nearly half a century been living under their control, directly in the West Bank and indirectly in Gaza. And yet, it seems, their fate is not a topic worthy of discussion. To call this a democracy in 2015 is rather problematic.","highlights":"Levy: Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory has gone mostly undiscussed ahead of Tuesday's election .\nLevy: Netanyahu, Herzog don't have the courage to end the occupation .","id":"d4094bbe4c1d30d4920d41fe21751a8277f4b95c"} -{"article":"(CNN)A video purportedly shows three British schoolgirls preparing to cross the Turkish border last month into Syria, where the teens are believed to have traveled to join ISIS, a Turkish TV network reported Friday. If authentic, the video would represent the first publicly released images showing the girls at the Turkey-Syria border. The video, released by Turkish TV network A Haber and distributed by Reuters, shows three warmly dressed females who resemble the missing teens standing with luggage outside a car and talking to at least one man who is helping them with the bags. The footage purportedly was recorded February 19 in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, just north of Aleppo, Syria, A Haber reported. Two days before, East London classmates Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, boarded a Turkish Airlines plane from London's Gatwick Airport to Istanbul without their families' knowledge, according to British police. \"Put your bags. ... Hurry, don't stop here,\" a man says in the video. The girls in the video wear coats, two with fur-lined hoods covering their heads. A third wears a hijab. One appears to be looking at a cell phone. \"He just hung up,\" one of them says. A man takes a bag from the trunk of a yellow vehicle. The vehicle's license plate has a number that indicates it is registered in the Gaziantep area. It wasn't immediately clear how A Haber obtained the video. CNN couldn't immediately verify the footage's authenticity. The video's release came a day after Turkey's foreign minister said his country arrested a \"spy\" who allegedly helped the British girls get into Syria. The alleged agent was working for a country that is part of an international anti-ISIS coalition, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday. Separately, a Turkish official speaking on condition of anonymity said that the suspect is not Turkish, and is not a citizen of the country for which he was working. This month, a Turkish broadcaster released images that it said showed the British girls boarding a bus in Istanbul after they arrived from London. They are thought to have crossed the Turkish border into Syria within days. A trip to Gaziantep would have been long: The border town is more than 525 miles to the southeast of Istanbul. Authorities have said they have no reason to believe the girls are still in Turkey and believe they have crossed into Syria, parts of which have been taken over by Islamist terror group ISIS. The girls' parents have publicly begged for them to come home. Days before they left for Turkey, at least one of the girls allegedly contacted a young woman, Aqsa Mahmood, who left her home in Scotland to travel to Syria in 2013 and is accused of trying to recruit others via social media. She has posted tips for girls and young women wanting to travel to Syria to marry jihadis, as she did. Her blog also has links to advice posted by another jihad supporter, which recommends that those traveling to Syria seek to pack the essentials but not too much, since they may need to move often and at short notice, while remaining inconspicuous.","highlights":"In video, someone helps three females with luggage in Gaziantep, Turkey, network reports .\nTurkish network: Video was shot February 19, two days after trio boarded plane to Istanbul .","id":"a582ecfe9f014d54603a04245128558882324249"} -{"article":"(CNN)Kerry Washington is headed for HBO. The \"Scandal\" star has signed on to play Anita Hill and executive produce a TV movie for the premium cable network, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Called \"Confirmation,\" the telepic \u2014 which is in development from HBO Films \u2014 will detail the explosive 1991 Clarence Thomas-Hill Supreme Court nomination hearings, which brought the country to a standstill and forever changed the way people think about sexual harassment, victims' rights and modern-day race relations. See more on-set with the gladiators: inside the fast-paced world of ABC's 'Scandal' Academy Award nominated writer Susannah Grant (\"Erin Brockovich\") will pen the script and executive produce the drama, which is being produced by Groundswell Productions in association with ABC Signature Studios. Groundswell CEO Michael London (ABC's upcoming soap \"Astronaut Wives Club\") and production president Janice Williams will executive produce alongside Grant and star Washington. Sources tell THR that Rick Famuyiwa (Sundance hit \"Dope,\" \"The Wood\") is in talks to direct the pic, but no deal is in place. See more: 40 Years of HBO . Confirmation comes as Washington was poised to film Warner Bros.' feature drama \"Unforgettable\" in the summer for director Amma Assante but the HBO project may take over the \"Scandal\" star's hiatus from her ABC Shonda Rhimes series. For HBO, \"Confirmation\" comes as the premium cabler is building its roster of original films. The cabler this week tapped Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti to play tennis legends Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, respectively, in a movie detailing the duo's legendary Battle of the Sexes match. Additionally, HBO is also prepping an adaptation of Bryan Cranston's Tony winner \"All the Way\" with Jay Roach attached to direct. Read more: TV Ratings: 'Empire' Audience Grows, Though Demo Finally Holds . The \"Confirmation\" deal also marks a big off-network sale for ABC Signature, the boutique arm of ABC Studios. It's also HBO's latest buy from an outside studio following series including Warner Bros. Television's \"The Leftovers\" and upcoming \"Westworld.\" Grant is repped by CAA and Kleinberg Lange; Washington is with CAA, Washington Square Films and Hansen Jacobson; Famuyiwa is with CAA, Oasis Media Group and Del Shaw. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"\"Scandal\" actress Kerry Washington to star as Anita Hill in HBO movie .\nHill is the former colleague of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who accused him of sexual harassment .","id":"b1dec4b7075b6c18797bd0345d24c726369773f0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Just when you didn't think Republicans could top themselves in finding ways to disrespect the President of the United States, on Monday, 47 Republican Senators -- that is, all but seven -- sent a letter to Iran that appeared aimed at scuttling President Obama's diplomatic efforts to prevent Tehran developing nuclear weapons capacity. The move comes on the heels of House Republicans inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress -- without even informing the White House of the plan to issue an invitation. But this latest measure went a step further, seeing Republicans in Congress literally stepping on the constitutional toes of the executive branch and formally intruding on U.S. diplomacy. Under the Logan Act passed by Congress way back in 1799, U.S. citizens are prevented from influencing \"disputes or controversies\" involving the United States and a foreign government, without express authority to do so. Now, it appears the Iran letter was carefully drafted by Sen. Tom Cotton, a smart constitutional lawyer, to come as close as possible to the line of legality without crossing it, specifically by not explicitly taking a position against the Iran negotiations. Yet the intent to interfere with the executive branch is clear. It's one thing for Congress to demand it ratify such a deal (as Democrats did in 2002 when President Bush negotiated arms reductions with Russian President Vladimir Putin). But it's something else entirely to undermine the authority of the White House by sending a partisan letter to a foreign government (something Democrats didn't do with Russia). Sadly, this is only the most recent and extreme example of dishonor and disrespect. In the Washington Post, columnist Jonathan Capehart recently outlines what he sees as the top six instances of disrespect toward President Obama. His list includes the example of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani saying, \"I do not believe that the President loves America.\" Also on Capehart's list are the time a reporter from the conservative Daily Caller website interrupted the President during remarks at the White House about immigration reform in 2012, and the time South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson, a Republican, heckled the President during his speech to a joint session of Congress about health care reform. (Wilson shouted \"You lie!\" in response to remarks by the President that, it should be noted, were in fact quite true). And there are plenty more examples of Republican slights against President Obama. Most famously, there was the widespread questioning of Obama's citizenship and academic credentials that included signs at conservative rallies describing Obama as a \"lyin' African.\" And there was the Republican women's group that created an image of \"food stamp dollars\" with Obama's face on them (as well as a bucket of KFC and watermelon). There was also Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich decrying Obama's \"Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.\" Plus there was then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer waving her finger at President Obama when she greeted Air Force One on the tarmac. Brewer later alleged she \"felt a little bit threatened\" by the President. Taken as a whole, this list suggests a troubling pattern of profound disrespect for the President. But more than this, it seems to reflect an anti-Obama fever that has gripped the Republican Party -- one that the letter to Iran suggests shows no signs of breaking, and is a sure sign of sickness in the Republican Party. Is the lack of respect being shown toward President Obama about race, as some have suggested? Yes and no. Certainly, for a segment of the country, it really is about being uncomfortable with a black president. Indeed, even former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, noted what he described as a \"dark vein\" of intolerance in the party and parts of the country in general. But beyond that hopefully shrinking share of the population that is explicitly racist, there is a far wider issue of implicit racial bias -- an unconscious, yet nonetheless real tendency, to subject President Obama to extra scrutiny because of the color of his skin. None of this is to suggest that all of the criticism aimed at President Obama stems from implicit racial bias. But such bias appears to be a factor in the ease and extremity of disrespect aimed at America's first black president. And this disrespect mirrors the disrespect shown against black Americans in general. \"Honorable people can disagree over policy,\" Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement Tuesday. Yes, and they should do so honorably. Whatever Republicans' gripes about President Obama's vision and leadership, the party and its followers are too often expressing their critiques in an ugly way. And that rampant pattern of disrespect -- for any fellow human being, let alone the president of the United States of America -- is what truly undermines the principles and values of our nation.","highlights":"On Monday, 47 Republican senators sent an open letter to Iran .\nSally Kohn: Only most extreme example of dishonor and disrespect .","id":"9372ed891a0d89f50761e59bdefa2a5a5254a059"} -{"article":"Aberdeenshire, Scotland (CNN)The Scottish Highlands on a wintry morning in January made for an awe-inspiring interview setting. We traveled along narrow roads winding among snow-capped mountains, eventually arriving at Birkhall -- the Scottish home to Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. I had pitched for interviews with the couple several times over the years and finally Prince Charles accepted. I wanted to speak to them about their 10 years of marriage and their upcoming U.S. tour. The couple's first tour as newlyweds was also to the United States, so it felt like an appropriate moment to take stock. When you reach the house, it strikes you as an idyllic royal hideaway. It has the sense of a castle but is welcoming like a farmhouse. It has a pinkish hue and green window frames that take in the stunning views. We went in the back entrance and were escorted through the house to the dining room at the front where we set things up. Rarely have cameras been allowed in, and never to this part of the house. As we were getting ready, an aide announced someone wanted to say hello. The Duchess of Cornwall appeared from around the corner, keen to welcome the crew. We spoke about what all Brits talk about -- the weather. Prince Charles opens up about love and life . She is not what you might expect when you meet her. She's more charismatic, which is something I hope comes across in the CNN special, \"Spotlight: Charles and Camilla.\" Unfortunately she had declined our request to be interviewed. She's never done one and doesn't plan to. She wants the limelight to be on her husband. The Duchess of Cornwall had however allowed our cameras to get close enough to pick up sound during some of her public appearances. That would give viewers a greater sense of her character than they had had before. When Prince Charles arrived, he also insisted on meeting the crew, which was great but was also eating into our interview time. In the end, we had the full 20 minutes as planned. You can make your own judgements of the TV special, but I think we did manage to give you a good sense of him. He was comfortable enough to be himself. He was the same person on camera as off. Afterward, we walked through the house and into the garden for some additional shots. The Duchess of Cornwall joined us on the way and was worried I would be cold without a coat, but the coat was inaccessible and I didn't want to hold things up. You can't tell an awful lot about someone by spending just a morning with them, particularly as a journalist, but my impression was that they are close, connected and have fun. I then left them to take a stroll on their own with the crew, who captured some shots that I think have a small place in royal history -- a glimpse of a couple enjoying each other's company in their private wilderness, before he ascends to the throne.","highlights":"Max Foster spent time with Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall .\nCamilla declined to be interviewed .\nFoster says couple seem close and connected .","id":"9d0105127d8657cff3b472f0c1d91e255d0e7640"} -{"article":"(CNN)University of Virginia student leaders have scheduled a campus forum with police Friday to discuss allegations of brutality following the bloody arrest of a 20-year-old student that prompted protests at UVA. The incident early Wednesday involved uniformed alcohol control agents and Martese Johnson, an African-American student at UVA. It made headlines around the country and prompted Gov. Terry McAuliffe to order an independent Virginia State Police investigation into what happened. The on-campus forum is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday. In a Facebook post, the university's Student Council said representatives from Charlottesville, Virginia, police, Albemarle County police and the state Alcohol Beverage Control were to attend the forum \"to engage in a conversation about their relationship with students, or lack thereof, and about the issue of police brutality.\" Johnson's arrest prompted protests among students demanding \"Justice for Martese\" after images circulated showing his bloodied face and clothing. While what happened Wednesday remains under investigation, video from the incident shows Johnson pinned to the ground, screaming: \"I go to UVA! ... You f****** racists! What the f***? How did this happen?\" An officer can be heard telling the man to stop fighting. According to the student's attorney, Daniel Watkins, \"just before handcuffing him, police took Martese to the ground, striking his head on the pavement and causing him to bleed profusely from the gash on his head.\" He needed 10 stitches to close the gash in his head, Watkins said. Johnson was charged with public intoxication and obstruction of justice, according to the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which acknowledged he suffered injuries during his arrest. The agents were placed on administrative duties during the investigation, the agency said. The Black Student Alliance said the arrest reminds black UVA students \"of the gruesome reality that we are not immune to injustice.\" In a news release, the university called the arrest disturbing, and University President Teresa Sullivan issued a statement saying that \"every member of our community should feel safe from the threat of bodily harm and other forms of violence.\" Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring appealed for patience. \"Certainly the images that we've all been looking at in Charlottesville are shocking, but it's really important that we get the facts out and understand exactly what happened,\" Johnson said. Friday's forum will be held at a theater on the UVA campus. The Student Council said media would not be allowed to ask questions or bring cameras into the forum but said the event would be live-streamed on the Internet. \"This is a student space -- a chance for students to ask the questions they feel are most pressing to Virginia's most senior law enforcement officials,\" the group said on Facebook. Students leaders asked their contemporaries to tweet questions in advance. As of midmorning Friday, only a handful of tweets had crossed using the proposed hashtag \"#policedialogue.\" \"Is the problematic influence of implicit bias discussed at all during police training,\" Twitter user yaejmeister asked. Among other questions, one student asked why alcohol control agents have police powers. A third wondered \"is catering to UVa's hypersensitivity preparing our students for the world outside of 'grounds'?\" The incident comes amid a continuing nationwide debate over the use of force by police, particularly involving African-Americans, following the deaths last summer of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York. Grand juries in both communities declined to indict white police officers in the deaths, leading to angry protests nationwide and calls for renewed attention to claims of police bullying and brutality.","highlights":"Forum set for Friday afternoon to discuss Martese Johnson arrest .\nArrest prompted protests after images circulated showing student's bloodied face .","id":"b1872c537d38b6cafacf62fdd4fe05f872f4213d"} -{"article":"(CNN)I met Kelly Gissendaner in January 2010 in a nondescript classroom at Metro State Prison for Women in Atlanta. She arrived for class beaming with excitement about the journey she was about to begin -- participation in a yearlong academic theology program sponsored jointly by four Atlanta seminaries. Since she has been sentenced to the death penalty and lives in solitary confinement, Kelly was particularly eager to share community with others, if only one morning a week. And she was grateful for the opportunity to explore the Bible and theology in a rigorous manner that would nurture and deepen her devotional life. That image of her on the first day of class remains vivid to me because it captures the core of who Kelly is \u2014 who she has become: someone full of contagious joy and gratitude, open to others and to new experiences for growth and ministry. Kelly's process of transformation began shortly after she arrived in prison following her conviction for murder in the death of her husband, Doug Gissendaner. A pastor began visiting her and initiated a series of difficult, yet compassionate, conversations that urged her toward courageous self-reflection. This same pastor has been visiting Kelly for almost 16 years. Her commitment to Kelly, along with that of the prison chaplain and chaplaincy interns, provided steady, ongoing love that fostered change. So by the time I met Kelly in 2010 she had already undergone a significant transformation. She was, in the words of the Apostle Paul, a \"new creation\" (2 Cor. 5:17). In the theology program, Kelly found her own voice and came to see that her reflections on Christian faith could be a gift to the wider church \"on the outside,\" as well as in prison. By studying historical and contemporary Christian thinkers, Kelly became part of the conversations that make the Christian tradition dynamic. She asked honest questions about her relationship to God, others and the world. She read scripture and grappled with centuries-old theological questions. She discovered her authentic theological voice in the midst of this work. \"From the start of the theology class I felt this hunger,\" she said in her 2011 graduation speech. \"I became so hungry for theology, and what all the classes had to offer; you could call me a glutton.\" One of the great joys of being a theology professor is getting to know students holistically, not only as thinkers, but also as human beings wrestling with some of life's most urgent questions. My relationship with Kelly had this quality from the start. But it deepened six months into the year when a new warden arrived at the prison. In her graduation speech, Kelly described this moment: . \"There came a time when ... my worst fears became my reality -- I was pulled from the courses. I was taken from my theological community. Being pulled from the program devastated me as badly as if someone had just told me one of my appeals had been turned down. \"Since I couldn't go to the theology class ... the instructors came to me. Still, this was far from being ideal because now I had to have class and community through a gate. It was hard ... but I pushed on. I pushed on because of that hunger. That gate ... was meant to keep everyone and everything separated from me. But that gate couldn't keep out the knowledge that I was so hungry for, nor friendship and community. And it sure couldn't keep out God.\" This change afforded us the chance to have two hours of one-on-one conversation every Friday. We continued to read theological texts together, including a book by then-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Williams describes healing and restoration as the act of facing our painful memories, \"the ruins of the past,\" and building from them here and now. Restoration, Williams writes, \"is going back to the memories of the painful, humiliating past and bringing them to redemption in the present ... to Christ [who] comes to repair the devastation.\" I sat with Kelly as she went back over some of her own painful memories, took responsibility for them and showed profound remorse about who she had been and what she had done. Indeed, the power of these moments -- when Kelly looked me in the eye and confessed concrete sins, when we spoke of God's love and forgiveness -- will stay with me forever. Kelly embraced what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor-theologian and Nazi resister, calls \"costly grace.\" For Bonhoeffer, \"cheap grace\" is seeking God's forgiveness as a \"cover-up for one's sins, for which one has no remorse and ... even less desire to be set free.\" In contrast, costly grace requires rigorously following Jesus in a way that leads to continuous, visible transformation, what the New Testament calls the fruits of redemption. The fruits of Kelly's redemption are now well-documented: reconciliation with her children, ministry to inmates full of despair, counsel to troubled youth and daily concern for others. On the night Kelly thought would be her last, she spent the evening writing a letter to her fellow inmates, urging them not to worry about her, but to be encouraged. Most poignant for Kelly are the writings of German theologian J\u00fcrgen Moltmann, who is widely known as the \"theologian of hope\" and with whom Kelly began corresponding in 2010. Moltmann shows that biblical hope is not a hope that gives up on this life and looks for something better beyond the grave. Rather, hope makes manifest the kingdom of God now --God's intended social order \"on earth as it is in heaven\" (Matt. 6:10). Biblical hope \"revolutionizes and transforms the present.\" It is the hope of the psalmist who \"looks for the goodness of God in this life\" (Ps. 27:13). In the words of Kelly's favorite scripture, it is a hope that proclaims: \"I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord\" (Ps 118:17). In Kelly's own words: . \"The theology program has shown me that hope is still alive and that, despite a gate or a guillotine hovering over my head, I still possess the ability to prove that I am human. Labels on anyone can be notoriously misleading and unforgiving things. But no matter the label attached to me, I have the capacity and the unstoppable desire to accomplish something positive and have a lasting impact ... Even prison cannot erase my hope or conviction that the future is not settled for me, or anyone.\" Many people have asked me in recent days how I have been transformed by my friendship with Kelly and by Kelly's journey of hope. While I struggle to find adequate words, what I do know is that Kelly's story pushes the logic of Christian faith to its outermost limits. It pushes Christians to reexamine and reaffirm the truths we proclaim about repentance, forgiveness, redemption and hope. Indeed, even professional theologians and life-long pastors struggle with the weight of the claims we make. Today, Kelly's life hangs in the balance. The state of Georgia on Monday issued a last-minute postponement of her execution, citing concerns about the drugs that were to be used to kill her. The Department of Corrections has said that it plans to resume executions once an analysis of the drugs is complete. While Gov. Nathan Deal does not have the formal power to commute Kelly's sentence to life in prison, I join more than 1,100 faith leaders from across the nation, including more than 500 from Georgia, who have signed a letter urging the governor to use his political influence to save Kelly's life and to speak out publicly against her execution. I call on all people of good will to reach out to Gov. Deal and to Georgia state legislators to demand a more just, merciful, and accountable system of justice -- for Kelly and for all. As theologian Richard Amesbury wrote, \"If the life even of a convicted murderer can be turned around and so radically redirected, then none of us is without hope.\" We need to hear Kelly Gissendaner proclaim to us -- as much as we proclaim to her -- that the promises of God are real.","highlights":"The execution of Kelly Gissendaner was postponed due to concerns over injection drugs .\nMcBride: In her time on death row, Gissendaner has discovered hope through theology .","id":"50f309d789f0a7a27ca49fb80976b6b34fd084c5"} -{"article":"Boston (CNN)Eight minutes of sheer terror. That's what police officers from Watertown, Massachusetts, described in heart-stopping detail Monday, revealing details of a chaotic shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. One of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died from injuries he sustained that day -- wounded in a gun battle, then run over by his brother, Dzhokhar. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev managed to escape, but was later caught by police. Now he's on trial, facing 30 charges for the marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. The shootout with police in the early morning hours of April 19, 2013, marked one of the most dramatic chapters in the manhunt for the suspects who paralyzed the Boston metropolitan area for days. It started, patrolman Joseph Reynolds testified, soon after he locked eyes with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who he spotted driving an SUV that matched a description of a stolen vehicle. Reynolds called for backup. It wasn't long before Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were firing guns, throwing bombs and trying to run officers over with a stolen SUV, Reynolds said. \"Tamerlan Tsarnaev got out of the driver's side door and began shooting at my cruiser,\" Reynolds said. Soon, the officer said he ran out of bullets. Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese saw what looked like muzzle flashes as soon as he arrived at the scene. \"I put my vehicle in park, I took a round through the windshield, I was sprayed with glass and I knew, OK, we were being fired on,\" said Sgt. John MacLellan. Then the two brothers began throwing improvised explosives, including pipe bombs and a pressure cooker bomb, the officers testified. \"I noticed one was bigger than the other, and they had different styles when they were throwing the devices,\" MacLellan said. \"One was throwing like a baseball.\" MacLellan said the pressure cooker bomb \"was incredibly loud. I had to holster my weapon. My eyes were shaking violently in my head. I couldn't see.\" Pugliese said he opened fire when he saw one of the men, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, charging toward him. Pugliese fired and the man threw his pistol at the officer, hitting him in the bicep. Pugliese tackled him. And with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was wounded from gunfire, on the ground, the three officers tried to put him in handcuffs. They thought they'd be able to arrest him. But then something changed. \"We were wrestling with Tamerlan, and all of a sudden I could hear an engine revving,\" Reynolds said . The SUV, Reynolds said, was heading straight toward the officers. The dramatic descriptions of the shootout Monday sounded like a scene from a Hollywood film, said Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen. But the most extraordinary revelation in court, he said, was that the night could have ended very differently. \"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not have to go back and run his brother over. He actually did a three-point turn and reversed the vehicle. He could have sped off and run away,\" Cullen told CNN's \"The Lead with Jake Tapper.\" He was in a much better position to flee. But apparently he decided to do a U-turn and come back.\" The sight of the stolen SUV speeding toward them caught the officers by surprise. \"I reached down and I grabbed Tamerlan by the back of the belt and tried to drag him out of the street so he wouldn't be hit,\" Pugliese said. \"The black SUV, it was right in my face. ... I kind of laid back and felt the wind from the vehicle as it went by.\" But they didn't move Tamerlan in time. His body became hung up in the rear wheels and he was dragged a short distance, Pugliese said. The prosecutor asked Pugliese if there was something in the road that forced the SUV driver to go directly at the officers. \"No,\" he said. \"It was accelerating at a very high rate of speed.\" Later that day, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at a local hospital, with the cause listed as \"traumatic injuries\" to the head and torso. His fingerprints led to the identification of the suspects. Officers discovered that Richard Donohue, a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, had been hit by friendly fire during the shootout. He survived, but nearly bled to death. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested about 8:45 p.m. that same day, hiding in a boat called the \"Slip Away\" that was stowed in a backyard in Watertown. Jurors saw photos of the boat last week. But on Monday, they got a chance to see the boat, which has become a key piece of evidence in the trial, in person. Before the trial started, prosecutors and defense attorneys had sparred over how much of the boat jurors would get to see. The prosecution sought to remove a panel on which Tsarnaev allegedly scrawled incriminating messages so that jurors could see it with their own eyes. Defense attorney David Bruck argued that cutting out a panel would take the written words out of context and wouldn't fairly reflect Tsarnaev's state of mind. In South Boston, about a mile from the courthouse, jurors intently looked at the entire boat Monday. It had been loaded onto a semi truck and moved to the location for viewing by the jury. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wearing a dark jacket and no handcuffs or shackles, watched the jurors but showed little emotion or expression. Jurors appeared to strain to make out the words Tsarnaev scrawled inside the boat. The boat was riddled with more than 100 bullet holes -- some of which punctured Tsarnaev's words. Aaron Cooper reported from Boston. Catherine E. Shoichet and Ralph Ellis wrote the story in Atlanta. CNN's Jake Tapper and Ann O'Neill contributed to this report.","highlights":"3 police officers described an intense gun battle with Boston Marathon bomb suspects .\nThey said the 2 men shot at them, threw bombs and tried to run them over .\nJurors see the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid before his arrest .","id":"a63465aa8744a4a65c2c7050b301c21e4bf53e8a"} -{"article":"(CNN)All 11 service members aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in waters off the Florida Panhandle two days ago are believed dead, and the operation has transitioned from rescue to recovery, an Air Force official said Thursday. The military is now focused on recovering the helicopter, which searchers found at the bottom of the Santa Rosa Sound near Eglin Air Force Base, and the bodies of all seven Marines and four Louisiana Army National Guard members who were aboard, Air Force Col. Monte Cannon said. Also ahead: Trying to determine why the aircraft went down in thick fog during a training mission Tuesday, Cannon said. \"The decision to suspend is always difficult,\" said Layne Carter, search and rescue mission coordinator of the U.S. Coast Guard. \"With heavy hearts, we have decided to suspend active search and rescue operations. Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of the members involved in this tragedy.\" The bodies of at least two National Guard members were recovered Thursday, and the remains of the other two were believed to be in the underwater wreckage 25 feet below the surface, the Guard said. The troops were with 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion from Hammond, Louisiana, according to a statement from the Louisiana National Guard. The military had previously said that some remains had washed ashore Wednesday. Military officials declined to say Thursday how many bodies still were missing, and they did not release the names of the service members involved in the crash. Two Black Hawk helicopters were training near Eglin in heavy fog when one of them went down in the sound -- a narrow body of water between mainland northern Florida and a barrier island -- about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the military has said. A couple of military boats already were in the water for safety purposes as part of the exercise, but \"nobody saw anything because of the dense fog,\" said Mark Giuliano, chief of the Eglin Air Force Base's fire department. \"People said they heard a loud bang, and that was it,\" Giuliano said Thursday. The second Black Hawk -- which, like the first, was assigned to the 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion based in Hammond, Louisiana -- safely returned to the base, some 40 miles east of Pensacola. \"Whatever the trouble was with the one aircraft, it did not involve the second helicopter that was participating in the exercise,\" Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland said earlier this week. Giuliano said his fire department, which has a unit on Santa Rosa Island near the crash site, was called to help at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, roughly 90 minutes after the crash. The military boats that were part of the mission already had been searching for survivors and wreckage, he said. Investigators from the Army and the Marines will try to determine what caused the wreck, Cannon said Thursday. Military officials have said it's too early to know whether the fog contributed to the crash. The 11 service members, all men, were involved in a seven-day training exercise of amphibious operations, said Capt. Barry Morris, a spokesman for the U.S. Marines Corps Special Operations Command. It involved small boats, and inserting and extracting Marines from the water via helicopter. Morris would not say which phase of the training the Marines were in Tuesday night. The seven Marines were with a Marine Special Operations regiment out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The initial search was hampered by dense fog, to the point that searchers on boats \"could not see,\" Giuliano said. On Wednesday morning, after searchers got a sonar hit, a diver found the bulk of the wreck at the bottom of the sound, Giuliano said. Divers then went into the water \"to start retrieving the aircrew,\" Giuliano said, without specifying how many bodies were recovered. The helicopter had broken into several pieces in a \"high-impact crash,\" he said. The Coast Guard has hired a salvage company from Mobile, Alabama, to take the wreckage from the water, but that company might not arrive until Thursday evening, and weather conditions may delay the recovery until Friday, Giuliano said. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed his condolences on Wednesday. He said the crash was \"a reminder to us that those who serve put themselves at risk, both in training and in combat.\" \"We will work with the services to ensure that ... their family members will be well cared for.\" A Marine died Wednesday when a T-59 Hawk, an aircraft operated by a civilian contractor, crashed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. The aircraft hit a government vehicle, killing the Marine. The pilot and passenger of the plane were examined and released by emergency services. CNN's John Newsome, Brian Carberry, Victor Blackwell, Jamie Crawford and Brad Lendon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Guardsmen aboard were based in Louisiana .\nFour National Guard aircrew members and seven Marines were aboard the helicopter .\nCrash happened Tuesday in foggy conditions, which hampered initial search .","id":"7e9b9e134b2d70e5754c329a46cab2b790a005ce"} -{"article":"Tunis (CNN)The bodies of four Italian tourists slain in a terror attack on Tunisia's Bardo Museum three days ago arrived back in Italy on Saturday, an official with the Tunis Crisis Center told CNN, but 14 victims' remains still lie in the morgue. As Tunisia gets back on its feet, the investigation into Wednesday's shooting at the Tunis landmark continues. Most of the 23 victims were foreigners, making the process of identification more complicated. Nineteen of them were tourists who'd been on two cruise ships that docked in Tunis. French, Spanish, Italian, British, Japanese, Russian and Colombian citizens are among those to have been formally identified so far. The bodies of the Italians were met in Rome by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who paid his respects to the victims and their families in a brief ceremony. Eleven people who were injured in the attack remained in the hospital in Tunisia on Saturday, the official at the Tunis Crisis Center said. Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid identified two suspects in the attack, Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaou, in an interview with French radio station RTL on Thursday, though it wasn't immediately clear if they were the pair killed at the museum by Tunisian security forces. He said Yassine was \"known to the security services, he was flagged and monitored,\" but not known or being followed for anything special. Authorities have arrested nine people in connection with the attack, including four directly linked to it, according to a statement from Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. An uncle of Yassine Labidi, Abeld Malik Labidi, told CNN on Friday that no one he knew had seen any signs of extremism in his 26-year-old nephew. But he said Yassine Labidi was one of the two gunmen killed at the museum. \"It's true that Yassine carried out this terrorist attack, he was killed; his head, his body, we don't have it back,\" he said. But, he said, he believed Yassine and other young Tunisians like him were also victims of terrorism -- of the recruiters who paid them money, organized the logistics and took them to places like Syria and Libya to train as fighters. He had known his nephew well, he said. \"After the revolution of 2011 he started to pray, before he would drink beers from time to time, like a young Tunisian. He wasn't extreme in any way.\" The only thing that raised questions was that Yassine had disappeared for about a month, he said. Although his nephew said he'd gone to the Tunisian city of Sfax to work, his family now suspected he had been in Libya because of the phone numbers he called from. \"When he came back his behavior was the same: he was still himself, calm, serious. Nobody noticed anything, even the neighbors I spoke to,\" said Abeld Malik Labidi. \"He said hello to everyone, he prayed, he took his coffee, even on the day of the attack he took his coffee with his family and went to work.\" Abeld Malik Labidi said Yassine's father, sister and brother had undergone lengthy interrogations by anti-terror police since the attack. Officers had seized his nephew's computer and phone, as well as taking samples of his fingerprints, he said. A cousin of Yassine, who asked not to be named, told CNN that the family was shocked by what had happened. \"We are all shocked, we lost someone even if what he did was wrong, may God forgive him. Those he killed were innocent, why would you go and harm Australians or Japanese ... our Islam doesn't mention about killing people, Islam has never been this,\" he said. He also said he had no idea how his cousin had been radicalized, saying he was \"a normal Tunisian guy ... but not an extremist.\" Security Minister Rafik Chelly said on Friday that the two extremists who attacked the museum got weapons training at camps in Libya. The suspects were activated from sleeper cells in Tunisia, he said. He did not say which group activated them, or with whom they trained. \"They left the country illegally last December for Libya, and they were able to train with weapons there,\" he told private broadcaster AlHiwar Ettounsi TV. Like Tunisia, Libya saw its longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi ousted during the regional wave of revolutions known as the Arab Spring. But unlike its neighbor to the west, Libya has been fraught with more instability and violence -- much of it perpetrated by Islamist militants. In an audio message posted online Thursday, ISIS claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, which it said targeted \"crusaders and apostates\" with \"automatic weapons and hand grenades.\" CNN cannot independently verify the legitimacy of the audio statement. That bloodshed is \"just the start,\" the ISIS message warned -- a threat that may or may not be hollow, but nonetheless adds extra urgency for Tunisian investigators. CNN's Claudia Rebaza reported from Tunis and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Radina Gigova and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.","highlights":"The bodies of four Italian tourists killed in Tunis are returned to Italy .\nThe uncle and cousin of one of the suspected gunmen say they had no idea he had been radicalized .","id":"2bb29e5d18490afac413f23c95b0f6becee7f25b"} -{"article":"Ferguson, Missouri (CNN)Ferguson's police chief and other city officials are already out. Now some residents have told the Missouri city they'll try to oust the mayor, too. Five residents Friday filed an affidavit saying they'll try to force a referendum on whether to remove Mayor James Knowles -- capping a tumultuous week in a community grappling not only with last year's fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown, but also Wednesday's wounding of two police officers shot during a protest. A group supporting the filing, Organization for Black Struggle, a 35-year-old St. Louis-based activist group, said the five would try to collect enough signatures -- 15% of the city's registered voters -- in the next 60 days. The five \"initiated recall (attempt) due to Mayor Knowles' failure to adequately rein in an out-of-control police department during the protests following Mike Brown's death,\" the activist group said. The city government acknowledged Saturday that it received the affidavit. Earlier this week, the police chief and the city manager resigned in the wake of a U.S. Justice Department report alleging institutionalized racism at just about every level of Ferguson's municipal government, including the police department. Residents elect City Council members, who in turn appoint the city manager. The city manager directs and supervises all city departments, including police. The top municipal court clerk was fired earlier in connection with racist emails. This month's Justice Department report was initiated after one of Ferguson's police officers, Darren Wilson, shot and killed African-American teen Michael Brown in August, a shooting that spurred months of protests. Wilson, a white officer who said he shot Brown in self-defense, will not be charged in the case -- a grand jury declared it wouldn't indict him in November, and the Justice Department said this month that it would not bring federal civil rights charges in the case. Wilson resigned from the department in November, citing security concerns. Knowles indicated Friday he won't be stepping down. \"I think it's important to recognize that there's a lot of people who may be angry at the situation; there's a lot of people who are frustrated in this community with the way things have gone down,\" the mayor, who is white, told CNN. \"But there's a lot of people who still -- and who have expressed this to me -- express confidence in both my willingness, and members of the (City) Council's willingness, to listen, to be responsive, and to make changes as necessary,\" he continued. \"People in the community recognize this, now, not everybody. I didn't win every time with 100% of the vote. But I can tell you there are ways to remove me if that is the will of the people,\" the mayor said. Blake Ashby, a white resident of Ferguson, said Friday that he believed Knowles has \"consciously tried to reach out to all parts\" of the city of 21,000 people. \"If we lose Mayor Knowles, we lose a force for change, and it will be harder to make the changes that the DOJ (Department of Justice) is asking for,\" Ashby said. Rasheen Aldridge, a black member of a commission charged with recommending reforms in Ferguson, said that Knowles needed to resign in the wake of the DOJ report. \"He knew what was going on during his watch,\" said Aldridge, a member of the Ferguson Commission, which Gov. Jay Nixon formed last year. Investigators still are seeking breaks in the case of two police officers who were shot Wednesday night during a protest in Ferguson. While the demonstrators' focus was Ferguson, neither of the wounded officers works for that police department. One is from Webster Groves, a St. Louis suburb 13 miles south of Ferguson. The officer -- a 32-year-old with seven years' experience -- was shot at the high point of his cheek, just under his right eye, police said. The other was hit in the shoulder and the bullet came out the middle of his back. He is a 41-year-old officer with the St. Louis County Police who has been in law enforcement for 14 years. Both were treated and released. \"I cannot tell you an arrest is imminent, and there's certainly no one in custody,\" St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told reporters Friday afternoon. \"The detectives are working this investigation around the clock, and they will not rest until we have a conclusion in this investigation,\" the chief said. Police have \"several leads,\" he said. \"I think we have a pretty good general idea of where we think the shots came from.\" Sara Sidner reported from Ferguson, Missouri. Jason Hanna reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Ed Payne and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Group says mayor failed to rein in police during protests after Michael Brown's 2014 death .\nMayor won't step down, saying \"there are ways to remove me\"","id":"a81ea0b6e6f1b47fba659d97b3fde63d0e088b5f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Her murder shocked a nation, but according to the slain woman's father, it also woke Turkey up. Ozgecan Aslan's body was found last month, burned and abandoned, just days after her family reported her missing. She allegedly fought off a sexual assault before being killed by the driver of a bus she'd taken to go home. Her death sparked widespread protests. \"A country woke up,\" Aslan's father, Mehmet Aslan, told CNN in a phone interview. \"There was no way for so many people to come together over a single killing. But, I know that my Ozgecan was sent for a reason. And as devastating it is, it was her part, her destiny to wake people up.\" Aslan, 20, was a first-year university student. She studied psychology. \"My Ozge lived for peace,\" her father said. \"For peace, love and beauty. She believed in a better tomorrow.\" Since her death, hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets and online, demanding Turkey do more to protect women. They say the problem is cultural; it's also criminal. Bianet, a Turkish group that tracks violence against women, reports that at least 281 women were killed in Turkey in 2014 -- up 31% from the previous year. According to Hulya Gulbahar, a Turkish activist and women's rights lawyer, laws are irregularly applied. \"In a majority of Turkey's female abuse cases, the perpetrators receive mitigations in their sentences due to court's detection of consent granted by the victim,\" Gulbahar said. \"In some cases, wearing a miniskirt or some cleavage got the woman's rapist mitigation in his punishment, while in some cases the consent was attached to her wearing red.\" It's unclear what will happen in Aslan's case. Three suspects have been arrested in her death, Turkey's semiofficial news agency Anadolu has reported. The agency identified the main suspect as 26-year-old Ahmet Suphi Altindoken and said that he had confessed. Aslan reportedly fought him using pepper spray, which had been given to her by her mother. Although he is heartbroken and angry, Mehmet Aslan isn't out for revenge. In fact, his family has received donations from across the country and is planning to use those to set up a rehabilitation center -- not for women who are abused but for men who abuse. \"We must surrender to love,\" he told CNN. \"Otherwise, we all lose.\" Aslan's murder is similar in many ways to well-known case in India. There, a student was attacked by five men on a public bus in 2012. She was raped and later died from her injuries. Like Aslan's murder, her death triggered massive outrage and nationwide protests. And like Turkey, India has a serious problem when it comes to women's rights. Out of 142 countries, Turkey ranks 125th (India ranks 114th) on the World Economic Forum's 2014 gender gap index. On Sunday, some 3,000 women marched in Istanbul to mark International Women's Day, Anadolu reported. The female-only rally was dedicated in Aslan's memory. \"Ozgecan's screams have indeed been heard. Maybe not that very instant, but later -- and in millions of hearts,\" said Mehmet Aslan.","highlights":"Ozgecan Aslan allegedly fought off a sexual assault before being killed .\nHer death triggered widespread protests, including one on International Women's Day .","id":"3e40e0f0adb95e32d6e7a32ba85dead155e8ef6a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Lindsey Vonn may have missed out on gold at last month's world championships, but the American skier has set her sights on end-of-season glory after claiming a record-extending 65th World Cup win on Sunday. Vonn's victory in the super-G event at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany gave her the outright lead in the speed discipline ahead of this month's finals in France. Having finished seventh in Saturday's downhill, the 30-year-old rebounded by coming home 0.2 seconds ahead of overall World Cup leader Tina Maze, whose coach set up the course. It put Vonn eight points ahead of super-G world champion Anna Fenninger, who placed third to give back the 20 points she'd earned over Maze the day before -- when their positions were reversed. \"I think it was set probably against Anna,\" said Vonn, who took bronze behind Maze at last month's world championships in Colorado. \"That was a wise choice by Tina's coach. But it also really suited me and I liked it.\" \"It's going to be a close fight in downhill and super-G, so I will really have to ski my best at the finals in Meribel. Hopefully I can get two titles,\" added Vonn, who is 35 points ahead of Fenninger in the downhill standings. But Vonn is well off the pace in the fight for the overall crown -- which she last won in 2012, her fourth success -- in third place almost 200 points behind the Austrian. Maze is another 44 points ahead of Fenninger, with just two slalom events in Sweden next week before the March 16-22 finale. \"Of course it's a great result but I prefer to win,\" the Slovenian said. \"Lindsey was simply better today and she deserves this win. \"My whole team stands behind me and supports me and I am really thankful to them. Valerio did a great job setting the course. It was a fast and nice course set with not too many turns.\" Fenninger, who also won the world giant slalom title at Beaver Creek, said she will focus on her strengths after claiming a 12th podium this season. \"It was a fast super-G and that's maybe not what I am the best at,\" said the 25-year-old. \"Overall it's been a good weekend. Honestly I thought Tina was going to be better than me in the downhill and that I would catch up in the super-G. It turned out to be different. \"I am focusing on my strengths, this is why I am not going to race slalom next week. Now I have to train giant slalom in order to show my best skiing and maximize my chances to win the giant slalom globe.\" Meanwhile, Kjetil Jansrud clinched the men's Super-G title with victory on home snow in in Kvitfjell on Sunday. The Norwegian, who missed out on securing the downhill crystal globe when he finished seventh on Saturday, opened up an unassailable 123-point lead over Italian Dominik Paris. \"This is the first globe of my career,\" said the 29-year-old. \"It's good to not have to go into the final weekend feeling like there are two guys pushing me on the cup and I have to fend off both of them. That's a big thing because I can leave the super-G and focus on the downhill.\" Jansrud has a 20-point lead over Hannes Reichelt in the downhill, but is less confident of overhauling his 52-point deficit on another Austrian, three-time defending champion Marcel Hirscher, in the overall standings. The men next travel to Slovenia for slalom events next weekend. \"I think he will gain some extra points in Kranjska Gora, so I'm not very concerned about the overall,\" Jansrud said of Hirscher. \"I think he'll pull through. But it might get exciting. He has no room for error and anything can happen.\"","highlights":"Lindsey Vonn notches the 65th World Cup win of her skiing career .\nAmerican has an eight-point lead in super-G discipline ahead of finals .\nVonn bounces back after Saturday disappointment in downhill .\nTina Maze and Anna Fenninger are battling for overall World Cup crown .","id":"51f087a4dc97417edce6494e39ee2d57fdbd7d5d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Melissa was sold into the sex trade by a family member when she was only 12 years old. Her life became a prison: Chained to a bed in a warehouse, she endured regular beatings, rapes and once was even set on fire by her captors as she was forced to serve 5 to 30 men every day. The experience was enough for her to wish she was dead. And this all took place in Texas -- right here, in our own country. Melissa miraculously escaped her captors but, as is the case with so many other victims, she struggled for years to distance herself from her past, even finding herself in jail on multiple occasions. And while institutionalized slavery has long been cast from America's history books, thousands of children still suffer from the bonds of sex trafficking. Indeed, with the average age of a victim only 13 years old, these horrific crimes are stealing the innocent childhoods of kids across America. And the problem isn't confined to one part of the country. In, Minnesota, for example, a 12-year-old girl received a text message that she thought was from a friend. It invited her to go to a party and asked her to go to a fast food restaurant nearby. But she didn't get to a party. Instead, she was taken to a hotel and raped by a 34-year-old pimp, forced to take explicit photos of herself that were then posted on Craigslist, before being forced to have sex with two more men who saw the post. These heartbreaking stories demonstrate what is broken about our current system, and why we both feel committed to fixing it. Instead of treating people like these young girls as the victims they are, they are often thrown into the criminal justice system, labeled prostitutes and left with few options but to return to a nightmare that shockingly still exists in the United States. Meanwhile, instead of treating their perpetrators as child rapists and traffickers, they are often simply treated as \"Johns\" who, if caught, often pay a fine and go on their way. This is outrageous, and should not be tolerated any longer. That is why we've joined forces with more than 200 advocacy groups to fight this modern-day slave trade and provide hope and opportunity for its victims. Two bills we have introduced to combat this horrific crime recently passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with strong support and will have the opportunity for consideration by the Senate. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA) would support victims by taking fines and criminal assets from convicted human traffickers and directing them toward services and treatment to help victims restore their lives. The JVTA doesn't only help victims, it also arms law enforcement with more tools to go after human traffickers. It ensures these criminals, including \"Johns,\" are brought to justice under our laws, because a financial transaction should not mask assault on a child. The second bill is modeled after Minnesota's \"Safe Harbor\" law, which helps make sure minors sold for sex aren't prosecuted as defendants, but are instead treated as victims. The Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act (SETT) would give incentives for all states to have a safe harbor provision. When a state passes a safe harbor law, it means that kids sold for sex are steered towards child protection services, rather than being arrested, charged, or convicted under a state's criminal statutes. All across the country, from Texas to Minnesota, young people are being robbed of their innocence and subjected to unthinkable horrors and abuse. We must do everything we can to free them from the shackles of sex trafficking. We must join together and take action to combat this modern-day slavery once and for all.","highlights":"Sens. Cornyn and Klobuchar: Trafficking stealing kids' childhoods .\nTwo bills introduced to combat problem passed Judiciary Committee, they say .","id":"33d029ed40440d694a53497a80e491bb1c81234c"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"I will come to Tunisia.\" It's a bold pledge, some might say. But people across the globe are making that vow despite the deadly attack in the Tunis on Wednesday. Twenty-three people, most of them tourists, were killed after gunmen opened fire inside the Bardo Museum, a stone's throw from the parliament building. The \"I will come to Tunisia\" social media campaign is aimed at protecting the North African nation's tourism industry -- which is critical to the country's economy. The social media campaign features users holding up signs saying they will travel to the North African country. \"I will travel to Tunisia this summer,\" reads a sign held up by a girl from China. A Dutch man's paper says: \"Heroes! I will visit Tunisia and celebrate your Independence Day.\" Tens of thousands of people online have expressed support and solidarity with #JeSuisBardo (\"I am Bardo\"), #JeSuisTunisien (\"I am Tunisian\"), and #PrayForTunisia trending on Twitter. Some one in five Tunisians rely on tourism for their living, the nation's tourism minister said in 2013. Travel warnings in place in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries could cripple Tunisia's economy. It's a fresh wound after a painful few years in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. Visits to the country dropped significantly after the unrest of the 2010-2011 Jasmine Revolution, but the numbers had been bouncing back before the museum attack. An online advertisement to visit Tunisia, posted long before the attacks, shows people holding hands at some of Tunisia's most treasured landmarks. Human chains form across beaches, mountains, ancient ruins, the desert. The message: \"All united to welcome you.\" This week, those words were repeated in social media. A Tunisian woman, also part of the campaign, holds a sign: \"Welcome To Tunisia. We are not terrorists,\" followed by the hashtag #notafraid. In this online campaign, fear itself is the enemy. A Tunisian lawmaker spoke to that this week, sharing with the world: . \"We are not afraid.\"","highlights":"Campaign to support Tunisian tourism takes hold on social media .\nTourism official: One in five Tunisians depends on tourists to make a living .\n#JeSuisBardo and #PrayForTunisia are trending .","id":"94dfb72d5b9be666da12a5c89a9121dd1ecd5f87"} -{"article":"(CNN)To come back or not come back? That is the question former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli posed on Twitter, prompting a raft of replies and retweets. The Frenchwoman was crowned champion at the All England Club in July 2013, but announced her retirement a mere one month later due to persistent injury problems. But now it appears the former world No. 7 is pondering a return to the court, with eight-time grand slam champion Jimmy Connors warning Bartoli to only consider it if she is fully committed. Bartoli wouldn't be the first women's star to come out of retirement. Veterans Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati and Kimiko Date-Krumm all chose to reenter the fray after saying their initial farewells. Bartoli won eight WTA titles during a 13-year professional career, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian and U.S. Opens and the last four of her home grand slam in Paris.","highlights":"Marion Bartoli asks whether she should make a comeback over Twitter .\nShe won Wimbledon in 2013 but retired one month later due to injuries .\nBartoli won eight WTA titles during a 13-year professional career .","id":"7cbac82527ee6f0e72f2003fd0fe8d479d4becfa"} -{"article":"(CNN)Actress Liza Minnelli has entered a rehab facility for her addictions, a spokesman said. \"Liza Minnelli has valiantly battled substance abuse over the years and whenever she has needed to seek treatment she has done so,\" said spokesman Scott Gorenstein. \"She is currently making excellent progress at an undisclosed facility.\" The 68-year-old has struggled with addictions to alcohol and painkillers in the past. Minnelli won an Oscar in 1973 for her performance in \"Cabaret.\" CNN's Topher Gauk-Roger contributed to this report .","highlights":"Minnelli won an Academy Award for her performance in \"Cabaret\"\nShe has struggled with addictions to alcohol and painkillers in the past .","id":"3db08e257fdde47bea1536efba30f52e747511da"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)The primary suspect jailed in connection with the shooting death of Boris Nemtsov withdrew his confession Wednesday, saying he had been under duress during his admission and isn't guilty. Zaur Dadayev told two members of Russia's human rights council that he pleaded guilty after being detained because he was scared. He told Eva Merkacheva and Andrey Babushkin he had been tortured and the well-being of his family and friends were threatened. Dadayev was one of two suspects recently charged in the case. Three other suspects have not been charged. Merkacheva and Babushkin were accused of \"interfering\" with the investigation and will be summoned for questioning over their motives, authorities said. Russia's Investigative Committee stated that the two rights activists violated the law when they visited and questioned Dadayev in a Moscow jail. Amnesty International condemned the Russian officials' decision to go after the activists, saying that a \"threat to bring criminal charges\" against the rights activists \"raises alarming questions over the fairness of the investigation.\" Anton Tsvetkov, the head of the Public Chamber's commission for public security, said Dadyev and two other suspects denied being involved in the shooting of the Russian opposition leader. He said a doctor found no signs of torture during an examination of the three men. Shagit Gubashev and Anzor Gubashev had no bruises or wounds despite the fact they allege they were beaten by police, Tsvetkov said. Dadayev did have a cracked tooth and handcuff marks on his wrists. Nemtsov, one of President Vladimir Putin's most outspoken critics, was shot in the back on a Moscow bridge as he walked with his girlfriend near the Kremlin in February 27. The three suspects visited by Tsvetkov deny they are guilty and have appealed their arrests, he said. Putin has condemned Nemtsov's killing and ordered three law enforcement agencies to investigate, the Kremlin has said. He also wrote to Nemtsov's mother, saying he shared her grief, and promised to bring those behind the killing to justice. CNN's Matthew Chance and Alla Eshchenko reported from Moscow, and Steve Almasy wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Elwyn Lopez and Karen Smith contributed to this report.","highlights":"Zaur Dadayev says he was tortured while he was in custody and, because he was scared, he confessed .\nTwo other suspects reported they were tortured .\nAll three tell officials they are innocent .","id":"3205cbb47e4dc0e27e0868b9d1364c96f6788060"} -{"article":"(CNN)Empathy. Confidence. Passion. These are the traits the next police chief in Ferguson, Missouri, will need to shrink the ocean of distrust between community and police. So says Cecil Smith. And maybe he should know. Smith is the police chief in Sanford, Florida, another community rocked by racial tensions and poor police-community relations after the high-profile shooting of a black teenager -- the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin. And if Smith's experience is any guide, it will take \"a lot of prayer and a little goading\" to convince someone to step into the job vacated this week by Chief Thomas Jackson. \"That community, as we see, has been hurting and struggling for some time now,\" he says. And how: . -- The community remains deeply scarred by the events last year, after the August shooting death of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown by a white Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson, and the November decision by the St. Louis County Grand Jury not to charge Wilson, who later resigned. Occasionally violent protests and sometimes heavy-handed responses by police deepened divisions and distrust. -- The police department was already groaning under the epic weight of months of nearly constant protest and last week's release of a damning Department of Justice report that found evidence of discriminatory conduct on the part of Ferguson officials. -- Add to that the obvious fears facing officers following the shooting early Thursday of two police officers only hours after Jackson resigned. The decision for Jackson to step aside was a mutual one between the chief and city, Mayor James Knowles told reporters. He'll get severance and a year of health insurance and will turn the reins over to Ferguson police Lt. Col Al Eickhoff next week. The city will launch a nationwide search for a permanent replacement, Knowles said. \"The City of Ferguson looks to become an example of how a community can move forward in the face of adversity. We are committed to keeping our police department and having one that exhibits the highest degree of professionalism and fairness,\" said Knowles -- who has himself been targeted by protesters demanding he resign. To get there, it might look to Sanford for guidance. There, trust in the police department bottomed out in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting. While no police officers were involved in the shooting, anger over their perceived failure to arrest the teenager's killer, George Zimmerman, pushed relations in the community to a boiling point, eventually resulting in the firing of Chief Bill Lee. Zimmerman eventually was arrested, and a jury acquitted him. Smith watched the chaos play out from Elgin, Illinois, where he was deputy police chief. A former boss in Illinois suggested he look at the job, so he traveled to Florida on his own time, getting to know the community and learning what divided residents and police. He still isn't sure how to explain why he took the job. \"The first year, I was still wondering, was it a smart move?\" Smith joked. But things are better now, he says. After taking the job, Smith made it a point of spending time \"walking and talking\" in Sanford, building relationships with community leaders and everyday residents. Inside the department, stepped up training in engagement and ethical policing. He also stepped up recruitment of African-American officers. \"One of the things that's going on is we don't have people who look like us in the community,\" said Smith, himself an African-American. He handed out long-delayed promotions. And he even presided over a makeover, enlisting officers to help choose new uniforms. The new chief in Ferguson will likely need to do some of the same things, Smith says. Community leaders and other officials agree. \"We need to deal with the culture issue here to make sure whoever is coming in behind Chief Jackson is not a new face and a new name on the same type of issues,\" Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson Township,\" told CNN Wednesday. \"We need to seriously deal with the culture of the police department and the municipal courts and the way the city is run.\" New York police Commissioner William Bratton said there are two issues confronting the heads of police forces. There is the lack of trust on the community's part and the lack of confidence some officers have in their leadership. On the first issue, he said: \"You need to be willing to embrace that there is a need to change.\" To police leadership consultant John Vanek, whoever takes over the Ferguson department will need to have the same leadership traits valued in boardrooms across the world -- the ability to form partnerships across organizational lines, to think differently, to turn failure into success and to do it all in a harsh media spotlight. But that's easier said than done. \"There's going to be a lot of hostility in Ferguson for a long time,\" he said. So will the new chief need to be African-American to help defuse the racial tensions roiling the city? Here's the politic answer: Find the right candidate, regardless of race. \"You want to find the best candidate to be police chief,\" said attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. \"But diversity is very important. It's very important that the police officers understand the communities, at least want to engage with members of the community they are going to be protecting and serving.\" \"There's an old saying in the black community that everybody else is protected and served but we are policed,\" Crump said. \"We don't want to be policed. We want to be protected and served as any American citizen.\" CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.","highlights":"NYPD commissioner: Chiefs need to embrace need for change .\nFerguson might look to Sanford, Florida's experience when choosing a new chief .\nThat city also had to find ways to heal divisions between community and police .","id":"b130dc8131c488416cc9ea176b36ab4d18f3b3b1"} -{"article":"(CNN)There can be no March without the madness. When it comes to college basketball, the first month of spring ushers in a frantic slew of games to determine seedings for one of the most fervently watched sporting events in the U.S., known simply as the NCAA Tournament, or more often, March Madness. Like English soccer's FA Cup, much of the 68-team tournament's appeal is its egalitarian system of pitting traditional powerhouse programs like Duke, UCLA and Kentucky against relative minnows like Saint Mary's, Butler and Davidson. And both competitions offer the carrot of being able to impress scouts from top pro teams -- a first-round NBA pick can expect to earn anywhere from $755,000 to $5.75 million. Not bad for a graduate. Last year's tournament reached 102 million viewers, while almost 740,000 fans attended the 36 sessions. \"When you go to college, maybe your number one goal before you graduate is you want to be able to play in the NCAA tournament,\" says Bryce Drew, head coach and former player at Valparaiso University in Indiana (28-5, Horizon League champions). \"It's the biggest stage for college basketball, and it's one of the biggest national events in all of America.\" Drew knows just how big an impact that high-profile stage can have on aspiring professionals from beyond the major college ranks. His last-second shot for Valparaiso to beat the University of Mississippi in the first round of the 1998 tournament is one of the most replayed moments in March Madness history. How it works: . Selection Sunday (March 15) A 10-member panel determines seedings for the 68 teams that make the knockout tournament . First Four (March 17-18) A format started in 2011, 8 teams compete to qualify in the main draw . Second round (March 19-20) 64 teams split into 4 regions: Midwest, West, South and East . #1 plays #16 in each group . Third round (March 21-22) Down to 32 teams . Regional semifinals (March 26-27) Known as the \"Sweet Sixteen\" Regional finals (March 28-29) The \"Elite Eight\" National semifinals (April 4) The \"Final Four\" is played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; minimum capacity 70,000 . Championship Game (April 6) One of the most-watched events in U.S. sport . \"I had always dreamed of winning the game in the NCAA tournament (and) always dreamed of making the last-second shot. For God to bless (me) with both of things at one time is something that I'll always cherish and remember,\" Drew says. His father, Homer Drew, was Valparaiso's coach at the time, and his brother Scott (now men's basketball coach at Baylor University) was an assistant, completing the Hollywood scenario. \"I don't think any of us realized that they would show that replay the next year, and even the next year, and the next year. We were just so happy in the moment and never thought that we'd be able to talk about it over a decade later,\" he says. Showing the highlight is virtually a prerequisite whenever Drew coaches a nationally televised game, and is sure to come up next week when his Crusaders play in the \"Big Dance\" (one more nickname for the tournament.) Drew was a senior nearing graduation at the time. Although he had heard about professional scouts attending his games, being drafted by an NBA team was still considered a longshot. After all, the last time a Valparaiso graduate dribbled a basketball in the NBA was in 1956. But that was before \"The Shot.\" Although Drew says private workouts for pro teams solidified his spot as the first Valparaiso player to be drafted in the NBA's first round (as the 16th pick,) he confesses that tournament attention is likely what got his foot in the door. \"It helped me get my name out there, because they got to see me play against a different type of athlete in the NCAA tournament on a different stage,\" he says. Observing athletes during March Madness -- when competition is at its highest level -- is the best way to gauge if they will succeed as pros, according to one player representative. \"It definitely helps an agent to learn how a player will perform under a national stage,\" says Jared Karnes, co-founder of A3 Athletics agency in Knoxville, Tennessee. \"If they want to play in the NBA, they are going to be expected to play under a tremendous amount of pressure and attention.\" Michael Beasley, the second overall selection in the 2008 NBA draft, is one of Karnes' clients who has failed to live up to that pressure so far. Now 26, he recently found his way back to the NBA with the Miami Heat after a spell in China. Karnes, a former player himself at little-known Belmont University who \"had the unfortunate assignment of having to guard Bryce Drew,\" says he enjoys recruiting clients from smaller programs because they lack the air of entitlement that can weigh on household names. \"A lot of times they've had to work their way into the spotlight, and so they develop a hard work ethic,\" he says. \"They really have an appreciation about what's happened to them; the more you can identify a talent with a level of high character, as an agent you've just found a terrific prospect.\" Among the most successful small-program players in the NBA is former Davidson standout Stephen Curry -- the current MVP frontrunner with the Golden State Warriors. Norris Cole, who played at Cleveland State and won two championships with the Miami Heat, and Gordon Hayward, a starting forward for the Utah Jazz, have also made their mark. Cole strikes a particular chord with Drew since they both came out of the unheralded Horizon League, a Division One conference made up of nine Midwestern schools. It was the less glamorous side of the game that set Cole apart from other prospects. \"His defense is what helped him get drafted from our league,\" says Drew, who suited up for four NBA teams in six seasons before playing in Italy and Spain. \"A lot of guys can score and shoot, but when you get to the NBA, really being able to defend someone separates you.\" Hayward led Butler -- a so-called \"mid-major\" program that exited the Horizon League two years ago -- all the way to the 2010 National Championship Game against Duke, only to watch his desperation half-court shot narrowly miss at the buzzer. Although Hayward turned pro after the two-point loss, Butler's exposure to potential recruits allowed the Bulldogs to return to the championship game the next year, and to the third round in 2013. With an enrollment of only 4,500 students, it is the smallest school to play in the final for over 30 years. In 2013, Butler's 36-year-old Brad Stevens became the youngest head coach in the NBA when he signed a $22 million contract with the Boston Celtics. \"Even though they are so wildly successful as a team (now,) Butler right before that wasn't well known,\" says Karnes, adding that it was Hayward who first put it on the map. \"You can find diamonds in these smaller schools.\" Drew hopes to emulate Butler's past success this postseason. He's already led Valparaiso to its highest victory total and winning percentage in school history. Led by 6-foot-10-inch Jamaican senior Vashil Fernandez (five blocked shots against Green Bay in the Horizon League tournament final) and 6' 9\" sophomore Alec Peters, the Crusaders are hoping for a high seed when a 10-member committee meets this \"Selection Sunday\" to rank the tournament's 68 participants. Valparaiso's nightmare scenario would be an early-round pairing with last year's runner-up Kentucky. The Wildcats (31-0) aim to become the first team to go undefeated and win the national championship since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1976. Drew calls coach John Calipari's team -- powered by a front line of 7-footers Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson, along with 6' 11\" Karl-Anthony Towns -- as the deepest he's ever seen in college basketball. Six of Kentucky's players are considered worthy of June's NBA draft. While Karnes remains guarded about which college basketball players he's scouting, inking deals with Kentucky players after the tournament is probably a longshot. \"You talk about these smaller schools that are out there, we're that way as a boutique agency,\" he says.","highlights":"Field of 68 gives small colleges a chance to shine .\nBryce Drew turned tournament fame into lasting pro career .\nPro scouts look for diamonds in the rough .","id":"08ba69af952088f99d307f76f6e566b4cb9ecf7f"} -{"article":"(CNN)This week, Google CFO Patrick Pichette made headlines when his resignation memo announcing his retirement surfaced in the media. But the uproar wasn't that Pichette was quitting so much as why. \"After nearly seven years as CFO,\" he began, \"I will be retiring from Google to spend more time with my family.\" What he wanted now was to enjoy life at home and abroad with his wife, to \"grab our backpacks and hit the road -- celebrate our last 25 years together by turning the page and enjoy a perfectly fine midlife crisis full of bliss and beauty.\" The letter, which he said he wrote in part because, \"so many people struggle to strike the right balance between work and personal life,\" has been held up as a manifesto for the \"work\/life balance\" ideal that's become something of the new American dream. The media has described it as \"powerful\" and \"unusually reflective.\" Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page said, \"Well worth reading, it will warm your heart.\" But if Pichette's work\/life balance was achieved by quitting his job to go see the world, what message does it send to the rest of us seeking work\/life balance? What message does it send to those workers -- and in particular women -- who are constantly told they can \"have it all,\" or who can be at the top of their field and have a family? What does it say to all those women to whom we say that, with a little \"leaning in\" or \"playing big\" they don't have to choose between work and life? Successful women from Sheryl Sandberg to PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi have spoken out about the pressure to \"have it all,\" and how, perhaps, there's really no such thing. Research backs them up. A November 2014 study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that women show more signs of depression as they move up the career ladder. Similarly, a survey of Harvard Business School grads found that the pressure women put on themselves to balance work and family is causing them significant stress. The survey also found that the majority of men expected their partners to take primary responsibility for childcare -- and indeed that happened in more than 70% of cases. And yet in recent years, \"work\/life balance\" has been held up as a legitimately attainable ideal, one that you can achieve if only you give your personal life as much attention as your professional one. But if you look at those we tend to hold up as models of that ideal -- those who leave work earlier, silence their cellphones more, retire, as in the case of Pichette, at 52 -- are they really striking a balance? Which is why talking about work\/life balance at all is a perilous business, an invitation to fail. Having it all is very difficult, if not downright impossible. Pichette, after all, did not practice work\/life balance. He wrote, \"I was always on -- even when I was not supposed to be.\" Like many successful men (and women), he was likely able to work as hard as he did while still having a family because he had the support of someone at home. \"When our kids are asked by their friends about the success of the longevity of our marriage, they simply joke that Tamar and I have spent so little time together that 'it's really too early to tell' if our marriage will in fact succeed.\" It's in jest, of course, and yet likely rooted in some serious reality. This is a man who didn't achieve work\/life balance as an executive. Of course, one could argue that the idea of balancing work with life may be harder for men than for women, who are the traditional breadwinners and the ones more likely to find self-worth through their work. This is one reason we see many wealthy, powerful men working well into their 80s. At the same time, it's undeniably easier for these men to make a decision to leave the whole thing early. Pichette retires as Google's highest paid executive, with millions in stock incentives. He can afford to retire and not even have to work for the remainder of his life. The rest of us are nowhere close to having that luxury of choice. Corporate America, it should be noted, shoulders much of the blame for keeping balance at arm's length, with increasingly long days and ever-tightening limits on vacations, paid leave and other \"benefits.\" We shouldn't have to leave our jobs to achieve balance, and the fact that some do, means that companies need to make real changes. That includes staffing workplaces reasonably, putting workers' well-being on par with profits, showing workers you don't expect them to be \"on\" all the time. Only then will real work\/ life balance start to take shape. Until then: \"Google CFO Patrick Pichette's Goodbye Note Will Make You Dream of Quitting Your Job,\" so reads a headline at ABC News. Indeed, that's the kicker. Pichette can \"carpe diem\" and \"find balance,\" if that's what he's doing, at 52, because he truly does have choices. But for most of the workers in America, finding that sort of balance -- or choosing life over work -- will remain an impossible dream.","highlights":"Google CFO Patrick Pichette's memo announcing his resignation in order to seek work\/life balance went viral .\nPeggy Drexler: Most Americans who want to find work\/life balance don't have the luxury to just quit their jobs .","id":"3f30ddc2b0b2dfaa6455dc53c06858354dd552be"} -{"article":"(CNN)A.J. Pero, a longtime drummer for the metal band Twisted Sister, has died, the band posted on its Facebook page. \"The members of Twisted Sister are profoundly saddened to announce the untimely passing of our brother, AJ Pero,\" said the post. \"The band, crew and most importantly the family of AJ Pero thank you for your thoughts and prayers at this time.\" Pero was 55. Pero died of what appears to be a massive heart attack, his longtime agent Dan Stanton told CNN. \"He had been complaining of a sore arm all week and took a few days off from his tour with the band Adrenaline Mob,\" says Stanton. Pero had been on a tour with the band in Poughkeepsie, New York, and was scheduled to play tonight, according to Stanton. Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French told CNN that Pero was found this morning in his tour bus. He was taken to a hospital and died there. \"We are devastated. He was a great guy and one of the best drummers,\" French said. \"To lose someone you have depended on for 33 years ... I don't know what it is going to be like to be on stage without him. I can't even think about what it will be like.\" Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider tweeted about the death. \"Today I lost a brother. Anthony Jude Pero passed away,\" Snider said in a statement. \"His sledgehammer assault on the drums helped drive Twisted Sister and I to greatness and inspired me to rock every single show. My heart breaks knowing I will never feel the power of his beat behind me, or turn to see his face smiling broadly from the sheer joy he got from doing what he loved.\" Pero joined Twisted Sister, best known for its 1984 song \"We're Not Gonna Take It\" and accompanying comedic video, in 1982. Though he left for a time in 1987 to join another band, he reunited with Twisted Sister in the 1990s and was with the band for the past 12 years, according to Loudwire.com. In the \"We're Not Gonna Take It\" video, which also starred \"Animal House's\" Mark Metcalf, Pero can be seen in concert, hitting a drum that brings up a cloud of glitter. In recent years, he was also the drummer for the band Adrenaline Mob. CNN's Tony Marco contributed to this story.","highlights":"A.J. Pero, the longtime Twisted Sister drummer, dies at 55 .\nPero played on \"We're Not Gonna Take It\"\nMembers of the band are \"profoundly saddened\"","id":"6561228f2de49a532933531cddd5b14a0876491a"} -{"article":"(CNN)The world of Mexican wrestling wrestling has been deeply shaken by the death of star fighter Hijo del Perro Aguayo, who collapsed after being kicked during a bout. The lucha libre fighter, whose real name is Pedro Aguayo Ramirez, was left slumped against the ropes after a flying kick from one of his opponents, Rey Mysterio, during the match Friday night. The other wrestlers continued with the fight as Aguayo's limp body slid down onto the mat, according to video footage of the bout posted on social media. The video showed ringside personnel repeatedly shaking Aguayo and talking to him without any response. He eventually received medical attention and was rushed out of the arena in the city of Tijuana. But doctors were unable to revive him. AAA, the wrestling promotion company for which Aguayo worked, said it was informed of his death around 1 a.m. Saturday. He was 35 years old. \"Mexican lucha libre is in mourning over the death of one of its star talents,\" the AAA said in a statement. Questions remained over what exactly caused Aguayo's death and why it took so long for him to receive medical treatment. Ernesto Franco, the duty doctor at the fight, told Mexico's state news agency Notimex that at the time of Aguayo's collapse, he was attending to other injured wrestlers, according to CNN Mexico. Franco said Aguayo's injury was the result of a blow to the neck region, adding that he spent about an hour trying to revive him using \"all possible resuscitation measures.\" The Associated Press reported that the state prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into possible manslaughter. The AAA said Friday's fight was organized by another promotion company named The Crash. Aguayo's death prompted an outpouring of grief on social media from fans and members of the wrestling industry. \"I will miss you and carry you with me for the rest of my life,\" tweeted Rey Mysterio, who landed the flying kick on Aguayo. \"Rest in peace, Hijo del Perro.\" He posted two images on Instagram that appeared to show him and Aguayo at a young age and again later in life. \"I had the privilege to share a ring for the first time with Hijo del Perro Aguayo in his debut as a professional wrestler and an honor to be in the ring with this great legend for the last time!\" he wrote. \"You will be missed, Perro.\" WWE wrestler Mark Henry tweeted, \"Respect to fallen brother in arms!\" \"I and the WWE universe pray for your peace and comfort to your family!\" Henry wrote. Aguayo is the son of one of the giants of Mexican wrestling, Pedro \"Perro\" Aguayo. The younger Aguayo began his career in 1995 at the age 15, according to the AAA. But he emerged from his father's shadow to become a big name in his own right. \"El Hijo del Perro Aguayo was among the most decorated AAA stars in recent memory as a three-time Mexican National Tag Team champion as well as a former Mexican National Light Heavyweight champion and Mexican National Atomicos champion,\" wrote Bleacher Report columnist Mike Chiari. \"There is no question that El Hijo del Perro Aguayo was among the most popular and successful luchadores in Mexico,\" Chiari said.","highlights":"Pro wrestler Hijo del Perro Aguayo collapses in the ring after being kicked .\nDoctors were unable to revive him; he died at the age of 35 .\n\"Mexican lucha libre is in mourning,\" wrestling promotion company says .","id":"61a34a0926cdd21fcf0c5a12191d7a4cd167b047"} -{"article":"(CNN)New Zealand police have revealed a threat to contaminate infant formula and other dairy formula with poison, in an apparent attempt to blackmail the government over its pest control policies. Police appealed for public help to find the alleged blackmailer, at a press conference in Wellington Tuesday. They revealed an investigation had been underway since November, when anonymous letters were sent to giant dairy cooperative Fonterra and a farmers' lobby group. The letters were accompanied by small packages of milk powder containing a concentrated form of 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate), a poison used by New Zealand's Department of Conservation to control introduced pest species such as possums and rats. The letters threatened to contaminate infant and other formula with 1080 unless New Zealand stopped using the poison for pest control by the end of March, police said in a statement. The letters said the threat would be made public if the demand was not met. New Zealand's heavy use of 1080 -- it uses about 80% of the world's manufactured stocks, according the country's Environmental Protection Agency -- has been a controversial issue, with conservationists and farmers generally supporting the measure, and some hunters and animal rights activists opposed. Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy said the threat amounted to \"eco-terrorism.\" Prime Minister John Key said at a press conference that police had advised that there was a low likelihood of the threat being carried out. Meanwhile, government officials said supplies of formula had not been contaminated, and urged consumers to continue using the products. \"We are confident that New Zealand infant and other formula is just as safe today as it was before this threat was made,\" said Scott Gallacher, Deputy Director-General of the Ministry for Primary Industries. \"People should keep using it as they always have.\" He said more than 40,000 samples had been taken without finding a trace of 1080, and food security measures had also been boosted in response. These included a strengthened security measures in retail stores and a boosted presence at manufacturing sites, and enhanced milk and product testing, including the introduction of a test for 1080. \"This criminal threat is designed to cause fear in order to generate a political outcome. It is using food as a vehicle but should not undermine confidence in our world-class food safety system or in any manufacturer,\" he said. He urged consumers to check formula packaging for any signs of tampering as a result of the threat. Police said an Auckland-based investigation team was pursuing a number of lines of inquiry in locating the source of the threat, but the time was right to appeal to the public. \"Whilst there is a possibility that this threat is a hoax, we must treat the threat seriously and a priority investigation is underway,\" said Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement. \"You might be aware of someone who has strong views on the 1080 issue and made threats, or has discussed how to access supplies of 1080.\" He also called on the alleged blackmailer to come forward. \"The letter writer may not have really considered the implications of their actions when this communication was drafted. Now is the time to put this right by picking up the phone and calling us.\" Blackmail carries a maximum sentence of 14 years jail in New Zealand. New Zealand is the world's leading dairy exporter, and dairy cooperative Fonterra is the country's biggest company, with revenue of $16.3 billion last year. CEO Theo Spierings described the threat in a press conference as \"a despicable crime.\" The global diary giant has been beset by problems before, most recently in 2013, when it ordered a global recall of products -- including infant formula -- after fears they might contain bacteria that could cause botulism. The fears proved unfounded, as the bacteria detected was not a botulism-causing strain. New Zealand Infant Formula Exporters Association chairman Michael Barnett said eyes were now on the response to the threat in key markets such as China, the biggest consumer of New Zealand dairy exports. \"This could be extremely damaging for New Zealand's exports offshore,\" he told CNN affiliate TVNZ. \"Our whole reputation as an exporter of food is at risk because of this nutter.\" Trading in all New Zealand-listed dairy companies was halted Tuesday with the announcement of the threat. CNN's Charles Riley contributed to this report.","highlights":"New Zealand police reveal threat to poison infant formula .\nLetters were sent containing contaminated formula and a demand to government .\nThe letters called for government to halt use of 1080 poison in pest control efforts .","id":"3d7c727b0dc57e1afcfad5219a4b5442a0ab7a9d"} -{"article":"(CNN)Sigma Alpha Epsilon is under fire for a video showing party-bound fraternity members singing a racist chant. SAE's national chapter suspended the students, but University of Oklahoma President David Boren took it a step further, saying the university's affiliation with the fraternity is permanently done. The news is shocking, but it's not the first time SAE has faced controversy. SAE was founded March 9, 1856, at the University of Alabama, five years before the American Civil War, according to the fraternity website. When the war began, the group had fewer than 400 members, of which \"369 went to war for the Confederate States and seven for the Union Army,\" the website says. The fraternity now boasts more than 200,000 living alumni, along with about 15,000 undergraduates populating 219 chapters and 20 \"colonies\" seeking full membership at universities. SAE has had to work hard to change recently after a string of member deaths, many blamed on the hazing of new recruits, SAE national President Bradley Cohen wrote in a message on the fraternity's website. The fraternity's website lists more than 130 chapters cited or suspended for \"health and safety incidents\" since 2010. At least 30 of the incidents involved hazing, and dozens more involved alcohol. However, the list is missing numerous incidents from recent months. Among them, according to various media outlets: Yale University banned the SAEs from campus activities last month after members allegedly tried to interfere with a sexual misconduct investigation connected to an initiation rite. Stanford University in December suspended SAE housing privileges after finding sorority members attending a fraternity function were subjected to graphic sexual content. And Johns Hopkins University in November suspended the fraternity for underage drinking. \"The media has labeled us as the 'nation's deadliest fraternity,' \" Cohen said. In 2011, for example, a student died while being coerced into excessive alcohol consumption, according to a lawsuit. SAE's previous insurer dumped the fraternity. \"As a result, we are paying Lloyd's of London the highest insurance rates in the Greek-letter world,\" Cohen said. Universities have turned down SAE's attempts to open new chapters, and the fraternity had to close 12 in 18 months over hazing incidents.","highlights":"Sigma Alpha Epsilon is being tossed out by the University of Oklahoma .\nIt's also run afoul of officials at Yale, Stanford and Johns Hopkins in recent months .","id":"00716be72be8cf48cc23ac3b4b8924e569628be2"} -{"article":"(CNN)Comic books of the past few years have seen a lot of changes (a female Thor, anyone?) but not quite so many at one time. Three major characters -- Superman, Wonder Woman (both of DC Comics, a Time Warner company, like CNN) and Archie Andrews -- came out with new looks (and costumes in two cases) Thursday. Superman and Wonder Woman are no stranger to change over time, but these are pretty different from what we're used to. Wonder Woman is back to wearing pants (similar to her style circa 2010, not to mention a brief time in the 1970s) along with something of a turtleneck and body armor. Superman looks the most casual that we've ever seen him, simply in a t-shirt and jeans, and decidedly shorter hair. He also looks like someone you might not want to come across in a dark alley. As for Archie (who never really died, by the way), he's getting ready for his promised TV show by debuting a modern look -- one that makes it much easier to see why Betty and Veronica have been fighting for his affections all of these years. It's been a whirlwind time for comic book fans, and there will be a lot to get used to.","highlights":"Superman, Wonder Woman and Archie all debuted new looks Thursday .\nThree of the most well-known comic book characters of all time look radically different .","id":"19b241b7e71da6871edb367890bf170b9cccced0"} -{"article":"Jerusalem (CNN)Either Benjamin Netanyahu just staged the most dramatic political comeback in Israeli history and beyond, or something was very wrong with the polls before and during the election. Polls predicted a tight race coming down to the wire, with Netanyahu in a virtual tie with his main challenger, Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party. Only four days before the election, polls showed Herzog taking a four-seat lead into the final weekend before the election. Exit polls on the night of the election showed Netanyahu had closed the gap. The polls suggested he was in a dead heat, with a very even split between right-wing and left-wing parties. Then came the results. Not more polls or surveys, but actual counts from the ballot boxes. Netanyahu wasn't in a fight for his political life after all. He was the clear winner, running away with the election and facing a fairly clear path to create a coalition government. Although the results are unofficial, it seems almost certain that Netanyahu will remain the Israeli prime minister. Avi Degani, a pollster, professor at Tel Aviv University and president of the Geocartography Knowledge Group, saw very different results from his own polls. He never anticipated a Zionist Union victory. Instead, he says, he always saw Likud holding a lead. The mistake that others made, according to Degani, was in the methodology. \"The Internet does not represent the state of Israel and the people of Israel,\" he said, referring to modern statistical methods. \"It represents panels, and the panels are biased strongly to the center -- Tel Aviv, better-educated, more participants in this kind of conversation. And people who are in the periphery and so on and have the stronger tendency to vote Likud, I think, are poorly represented.\" \"I have tested sometimes at the same night, doing by telephone as I do always -- and very specifically geographically, and very well-weighted and very well, having cell phones and other phones and so on -- and at the same time I did on the Internet. And I got results which are very, very different.\" But Mina Tzemach, the polling expert for CNN affiliate Channel 2 Israel, suggests Netanyahu was in a tight race the entire way and managed to close the gap \"like a magician,\" using the election polls as his final trick. \"The polls showed that they are going to lose. It gave very important information both to the public and to the politicians. Netanyahu used it,\" said Tzemach. \"Many voted what we call strategic voting. They did not vote to the party that is their first preference, but they voted for the Likud.\" Likud voters did not participate in exit polls, according to Tzemach, and that skewed the results, leading many to believe that Herzog had tied Netanyahu. \"We had ballots in an area where there are a lot of immigrants from the former Soviet Union,\" explained Tzemach. \"In these ballots, more than 30% did not participate in our polls, and they are Likud supporters.\" Another factor that may have worked in Netanyahu's favor was his Likud party cannibalizing votes from other right-wing parties. In the days before the election, Netanyahu moved to the political right, making a big push for right-wing voters to choose his party over other ideologically similar parties, such as Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home party and Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. During the weekend before the election, Netanyahu took part in a right-wing rally in Tel Aviv's central Rabin Square. He continued his shift to the right in a series of interviews with local media leading up to the election. His most controversial statement came the day before the elections when he reversed his publicly stated position on a two-state solution. \"Anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state, anyone who is going to evacuate territories today, is simply giving a base for attacks to the radical Islam against Israel,\" he said in a television interview. \"This is the true reality that was created here in the last few years.\" In 2009, in a speech known as the Bar Ilan speech, Netanyahu committed to negotiations for a two-state solution, saying, \"Let us begin peace negotiations immediately without prior conditions. Israel is committed to international agreements, and expects all sides to fulfill their obligations. I say to the Palestinians: We want to live with you in peace, quiet, and good neighborly relations.\" Tzemach estimates that Likud took four seats from Jewish Home and two more seats from Yachad, a party that did not receive enough votes to warrant inclusion in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Exit polls in Israel have been wrong before. In the most recent elections in 2013, exit polls showed Yair Lapid's centrist Yesh Atid party winning between 12 and 13 seats in the Knesset. But when the final results were tallied, Lapid won 19 seats, becoming a major player in the government. This time, the unexpected surprise worked in Netanyahu's favor, turning the campaign race into an election night rout. Likud had never polled better than approximately 25 seats, but it grabbed at least 29 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, according to unofficial numbers from the Israeli election committee based on 99% of the vote. Netanyahu has worked this sort of magic once before. In the 1996 elections, early results showed the Labor Party's Shimon Peres as the winner, but as more results came in, Netanyahu eked out a victory by fewer than 1% of the votes. Degani said this election reveals the truth behind Israeli politics. \"This last election it showed very clearly that we do not have right and left. We have only right and extreme right, which is not nice sometimes. And in the right, you have the Likud mostly, and in the Likud, you have mostly Netanyahu.\"","highlights":"Polls predicted a tight race coming down to the wire, with Netanyahu in a virtual tie with Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party .\nBut actual results show Netanyahu running away with the election .\nPossible causes: Poll methodology, Netanyahu's last-minute turn to the right .","id":"4be570a7ae1250de649fd7289f323d439df225c2"} -{"article":"(CNN)More than 20 years after his death from suicide, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain continues to fascinate. On Wednesday, the trailer was released for an eagerly anticipated HBO documentary on the singer's life. \"Montage of Heck\" is directed by Brett Morgen and offers an intimate portrayal of one of the architects of grunge music. The trailer features bits of interviews with those closest to the performer, including family members; his wife, musician Courtney Love; and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. A companion book containing art and archival documents from Cobain is being produced to accompany the film. Morgen, who also directed the documentary \"The Kid Stays in the Picture\" about producer Robert Evans, said the soundtrack for the documentary will include \"a mind-blowing 12-minute acoustic Cobain unheard track.\" Unreleased Kurt Cobain song to appear on 'Montage of Heck' soundtrack . \"Montage of Heck\" has won raves on the festival circuit and will premiere on HBO on May 4.","highlights":"The trailer surfaced on Wednesday .\nThe documentary is winning raves .\nIt premieres on HBO on May 4 .","id":"ced392d138a86ddf7042e16deebed60aac5af938"} -{"article":"(CNN)U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that \"we need to close ... gaps\" with Iran in talks about its nuclear program, adding that those negotiating with Iranian officials \"are deeply committed to ensuring that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.\" Iran faces a March 24 deadline to reach a deal about its nuclear program. Several interim agreements have been made in recent months, though a long-term pact so far has been elusive. Speaking in Paris alongside French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Kerry said progress has been made \"but there remain gaps, divergences.\" He acknowledged \"the days are ticking by,\" but that doesn't mean there's an urgent rush to reach an agreement. \"We have to get the right deal,\" the top U.S. diplomat said. Kerry said one thing all members of the P5+1 group -- which consists of the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France, plus Germany -- agree on is that it's imperative Iran doesn't develop nuclear arms. Iranian minister: Some consider peace an 'existential threat' Officials in Tehran have publicly insisted they want a nuclear program for energy purposes, not to create atomic weaponry. \"We will find out whether or not ... Iran's prepared to take the steps to answer the questions that the world has a right to get answers to,\" Kerry said.","highlights":"Iran faces a March 24 deadline to reach a deal with world powers on its nuclear program .\nU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry: \"We have to get the right deal\"","id":"5062f2cdce9c69e9f71253f4828fd4eb02729416"} -{"article":"(CNN)They were known for their quiet professionalism and dedication. One recently received a high military honor for rendering aid to a wounded comrade in Afghanistan while under enemy fire. One had served a tour in Kosovo. The 11 service members who died in an Army Black Hawk helicopter crash Tuesday off the Florida Panhandle weren't only a loss to their country. They leave behind wives, fiancees, parents, children and friends. They will be missed. And remembered. Seven of those on the helicopter were Marines based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Four served with the Louisiana National Guard. A 21-year member of the Guard, Griffin had served in Iraq in 2004-05 and 2008-09. He'd also been deployed during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Isaac, said Maj. Gen. Glenn Curtis, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard. \"G. Wayne Griffin was born to be an Army aviator,\" said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Reggie Lane on the state Guard's website. \"He had a tremendous passion for flying.\" Griffin, a resident of Delhi, is survived by his wife and four children. The Alexandria resident was known for his outsized personality. \"He was more like a force of nature,\" said Maj. Andre Jeansonne of the 135th Aviation Regiment. \"His huge heart touched the lives of all he met.\" Strother had deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and just last year to Kosovo. He also served during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Isaac. He commissioned as a warrant officer but went on to become an instructor pilot with more than 2,400 flight hours, including more than 700 combat hours. Strother leaves behind a wife, a son and a stepdaughter. Bergeron enlisted in the Marines in 1998 and joined the National Guard in 2001. He'd deployed to Iraq twice and served during state deployments for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Isaac. Sgt. 1st Class Brian Marquez called Bergeron one of the most qualified crew chiefs in the Guard, with more than 1,300 flight hours, including 377 combat hours. \"He was a subject matter expert in his job,\" Marquez said. The Thibodaux resident is survived by his wife and two children. Florich came from Fairfax County, Virginia, and enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard in 2007 as a Black Hawk repairer. He served during state deployments for Operation Deepwater Horizon and Hurricane Isaac, the Guard's website said. \"Tom was full of life, and his personality could light the room,\" Marquez said. \"He will be greatly missed by the unit and the flight facility.\" Florich is survived by his wife, father and stepmother. He was posthumously promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant. Theresa D. Hipple was thrilled her stepdaughter, Erika, planned to marry Bawol this October. After all, the Warren, Michigan, Marine \"was an all-around wonderful guy -- the kind of guy you would want your daughter to marry,\" Hipple told The Macomb Daily in Michigan. High school chums told the newspaper they jokingly called Bawol \"The Patriot\" because he always seemed to do the proper thing. He was a stand-up guy you could depend on. Friends said Bawol enjoyed hunting trips and was in peak physical shape. Bawol had completed a tour in Afghanistan. \"The pain will linger,\" Hipple said. \"I don't know that you ever get over it.\" Bawol joined the Marines while attending Olivet College to play baseball. The Orion Veterans Memorial in Lake Orion, Michigan, contains a brick with Blaylock's name and the words \"U.S. Marines.\" For his wife and two daughters, the meaning of that brick this week took on new meaning, police Chief Jerry Nash told the Oakland Press. \"He gave everything he had to ensure that we're free and safe, and that's all that we can ever ask of our servicemen,\" Narsh said. Blaylock, a swimmer in high school, attended Henry Ford Community College before enlisting. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and 2008. He was deployed to Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014. Flynn hailed from Reading, England, and moved to Queens, New York, in 2002. He enlisted four years later and was sent to Iraq the next year. A stint in Afghanistan followed, from January to September 2012. He saw service there again from November 2013 to June 2014. Kemp, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, moved as a child to Port Washington, Wisconsin. He was proud to be a Marine, husband and a dad. His daughter turns 1 later this month. The sergeant was a pretty private guy and didn't talk a lot about his service, his sister-in-law told CNN affiliate WISN-TV in Wisconsin. But he knew how to have fun. When he wasn't golfing or at the ocean on his time off, Kemp horsed around with his nephews, WISN reported. \"He would wrestle with them. He really got into that, the wrestling and playing. He'd carry them around on his back,\" said sister-in-law Lora Waraksa. Kemp saw service in Iraq as a machine gunner and went to Afghanistan from November 2013 to June 2014. Just last week, the Fairbanks, Alaska, native received the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry while rendering aid to a wounded buddy in Afghanistan. Seif and his small team moved in on a compound on July 24, 2012, while searching for an expert on improvised explosive devices. A sergeant was wounded by gunfire. Seif, without waiting for reinforcements, \"dynamically and courageously\" secured the compound, took out the enemy insurgent and tried to help his comrade, all while under enemy fire. The wounded sergeant did not survive. \"Marines never leave anybody behind,\" Marine Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman said at the ceremony at Camp Lejeune. Seif's wife was with him during the medal presentation. Seif was named the USO's Marine of the Year in 2013. The organization cited his heroism in Afghanistan and his commander's description of the Marine's \"tenacity, vigor and common sense that he applies to every task or endeavor he undertakes.\" His family moved to Holland, Michigan, when he was a teen. He deployed to Iraq in 2008 and was sent to Afghanistan a couple years later. Saunders lived in Williamsburg, Virginia, a city important in the early history of the Colonies and the move toward independence from Britain. He was born in Bonn, Germany, and graduated from high school in Virginia. His deployments included Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marine Corps Association and Foundation named Saunders the \"critical skills operator of the year\" in 2014. The Marine leaves behind his wife and son. A native of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, Shaw was captain of the varsity lacrosse team and high school student government president at Ridge High School. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and became a Marine officer. Shaw was deployed to Anbar province in Iraq in 2007 and returned there in 2009. He also saw service in Japan. CNN's Barbara Starr, Justin Lear and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Eleven service members died in helicopter crash last week off Florida Panhandle .\nSeven were Marines; four served with Louisiana National Guard .","id":"9cc5a56acf7b95e0d7394485adea2b940a340460"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)If it looks like a treaty, walks like a treaty and talks like a treaty, is it a treaty? According to the White House, only if the President of the United States says it is. That's infuriating Republicans and even some Democrats, who are demanding that the Obama administration submit any final nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for approval. \"This is clearly a treaty,\" Arizona Sen. John McCain told reporters Tuesday. \"They can call it a banana, but it's a treaty.\" Kerry denounces GOP letter to Iran leaders . The GOP position could jeopardize the long-term survival of any Iran deal, and it represents the party's newest clash with President Barack Obama over the limits of executive authority, as Republicans object to a pact they warn could eventually give Tehran a nuclear bomb. It's that skepticism that has largely led the White House to define the deal as a \"nonbinding agreement\" rather than a \"treaty,\" which the Constitution requires Senate \"advice and consent\" on. The distinction -- and whether it can legitimately be used to shut out Congress -- turns on complicated and unresolved questions of constitutional law. While Republicans call foul, the administration defends the differentiation as perfectly sound, and no surprise. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed Wednesday that the administration never intended to negotiate a treaty. \"We've been clear from the beginning. We're not negotiating a 'legally binding plan.' We're negotiating a plan that will have in it a capacity for enforcement,\" he said at a Senate hearing. That doesn't sit well with Republicans, many of whom believe the Senate's constitutional role is being bypassed. Idaho Sen. James Risch dismissed the administration's argument: \"Let there be no mistake, this is a treaty that is being negotiated. It's a treaty and should be treated as such.\" Did 47 Republican senators break the law in plain sight? Republicans see criticism of the administration's maneuver as a way to gum up the works on the current deal, and to push their larger assault on the White House's exercise of power. At the Senate hearing Wednesday, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul explicitly tied the administration's bid to keep the deal away from Congress to other accusations of White House overreach. \"This is an administration that seeks to legislate when that is not in their purview, whether it be immigration, whether it be health care,\" he charged, noting that he had joined 46 other GOP senators in signing a letter to the Islamic Republic informing them of Congress's role in approving binding agreements. \"I signed the letter to Iran. But you know what? The message I was sending was to you,\" he told Kerry. \"I signed it to an administration that doesn't listen, to an administration that, every turn, tries to go around Congress because you think you can't get your way.\" But legal experts say that though a court challenge along the lines of pending GOP cases on immigration and health care is possible in theory, it would be a long shot. There is no currently no suit on the issue being discussed on Capitol Hill, and it's far from clear that Republicans would be standing on firm legal ground with such a challenge. The debate, rumbling for decades, has yet to be definitively resolved in case law. \"It is a very interesting question,\" said Nicholas Burns, a former senior U.S. diplomat, arguing that it is essentially up to the administration to decide whether it is negotiating an agreement that formally binds the United States to commitments under international law; i.e., a treaty, or a less stringent arrangement. Senators grill Obama officials on Iran . Jim Walsh, a specialist on the Iran nuclear program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Iran deal, which commits the United States to waive or lift sanctions, does not rise to the level of a formal treaty. \"Treaties traditionally have involved reductions in armaments, nuclear weapons, conventional forces. They require us to take something away that we have already built or established.\" In this case, the United States would lift sanctions, but would not be changing its military posture. \"We have had all sorts of agreement that were never ratified by Congress,\" Walsh said. But David Rivkin, a constitutional and international law expert who worked for President George H.W. Bush, said that any international agreement requiring major undertakings on the part of the United States -- such as the proposed Iran deal -- must be sent to the Senate for advice and consent. \"The Constitution is quite clear,\" he said. Republicans point to none less than the vice president of the United States to bolster their case. When Vice President Joe Biden was a senator in 2002, he wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell charging that a planned strategic arms reductions deal with Russia constituted a treaty subject to Senate approval since it would require \"significant obligations by the United States.\" But Biden's 2002 letter didn't keep him from unleashing his fury at the GOP letter to Iran on Monday. \"Around the world, America's influence depends on its ability to honor its commitments,\" Biden said in a statement. While Congress approves some agreements, \"as the authors of this letter must know, the vast majority of our international commitments take effect without congressional approval.\" Indeed, in the letter he penned to Iran, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton acknowledged that the administration could seek a mere \"executive agreement\" free of congressional review. Obama, Iranian official slam GOP letter on deal . Presidents claim inherent powers to conclude executive agreements under Article II of the Constitution. U.S. law stipulates that an agreement is only viewed as a treaty once it has been made with \"the advice and consent of the Senate,\" a study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service noted. But administrations often choose to conclude deals with foreign states that don't satisfy that requirement. Such an \"executive agreement\" is still considered a treaty that is binding under international law, but does not reach the same standard under U.S. law, according to the study. Examples of \"nonbinding\" documents include a U.S.-Russia to remove Syria's stocks of chemical weapons and the Proliferation Security Initiative to stop the global shipment of the weapons of mass destruction components. Biden argued Monday that this practice is as old as the United States itself. \"Under presidents of both parties, such major shifts in American foreign policy as diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China, the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis, and the conclusion of the Vietnam War were all conducted without congressional approval,\" he said in his statement opposing the GOP letter. The White House would clearly prefer a binding agreement with Iran, which would have a better chance of longevity. But the strength of opposition in Congress makes that route impossible. According to Republicans such as Cotton, the only deal the Senate would approve is one that completely bans Iranian uranium enrichment. Obama has said that goal is simply not realistic. So Republicans, dissatisfied with what's emerging from negotiations, are seizing on the vulnerability of a deal that lacks treaty status. Many see that as a more viable path for disruption than the case on administration overreach. \"If Congress doesn't approve this deal, Congress won't accept this deal, now or in the future,\" Cotton told CNN. In the letter, he informed Iranian leaders that many senators will serve terms longer than Obama, so they would have to reckon with the Senate at some point. Lawmakers can refuse to lift sanctions down the road or try to choke off funds for the deal's implementation. The administration acknowledges that Congress will have to get involved at some point. Obama currently has the power to lift or waive certain sanctions against Iran for the duration of his presidency and encourage U.S. international partners to follow suit. But he does not have the power to lift sanctions imposed by Congress, which include some of the most punitive measures against Iran. \"Part of the agreement is going to involve sanctions relief to the Iranian government that is meted out over time,\" Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told CNN. \"At some time in the duration of this agreement, Congress will have to be heard on sanctions relief.\" Senior U.S. officials have acknowledged that the clamor among lawmakers for a role, as well as their public criticisms, also implicitly highlights the vulnerability of their case and an ultimate agreement. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia who has signed onto a bill calling for the White House to put any deal up for a vote in Congress, said that Obama is within his rights to do what he is doing -- up to a point. \"It is not a treaty. If it were a treaty, there is a clear process. It would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.\" But Kaine told CNN on Wednesday that lawmakers did have a role to play at the point when sanctions mandated by Congress are bargained away to ensure Iran sticks to limits on its nuclear program. \"Congress has got to weigh in at some point,\" Kaine said.","highlights":"White House, many Republicans disagree over deal terminology, requirements .\nAt some point, Congress will weigh in on some aspect of a prospective agreement .","id":"8eb61c46da40092647f63f53a9ac11d9cf61954e"} -{"article":"London (CNN)Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson was suspended for allegedly hitting a producer, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The BBC said Clarkson, one of the corporation's highest earners, had \"a fracas with a BBC producer\" in a statement released yesterday. \"Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation,\" they said. \"No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday.\" The BBC reported that the next two episodes, and possibly the third and final show of the series, will not be aired. Fans of the presenter expressed dismay at the decision. At the time of writing, more than 300,000 people have signed a petition seeking his reinstatement. Using the hashtag #BringBackClarkson, which is trending worldwide, some Twitter users lamented that the show would not be the same without him. Clarkson himself also took to Twitter, posting an apology (of sorts) to Labour leader Ed Miliband -- for knocking him down the news agenda. \"Save Clarkson?\" his co-host James May tweeted. \"Save empty cardboard boxes and off-cuts of string. They're far more useful.\" But a \"Sack Jeremy Clarkson\" petition is also doing the rounds, gathering 2,814 signatures so far. Some will be glad to see the back of him. Former CNN host Piers Morgan, who has had a series of run-ins with the presenter, also waded in with a cheeky jibe. This is not the first time that Clarkson has been at the center of controversy. In May last year, the television presenter asked forgiveness after using a racist term during a taping of the show. Clarkson had mumbled the n-word while reciting a children's nursery rhyme, but that version of the take was never aired. Last year, the BBC show hit the headlines when Argentina complained about a \"Top Gear\" special filmed in the country in which the number plate H982 FKL was used -- interpreted by some as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War. Forced to stop filming and leave the country, Clarkson said on the BBC Newsbeat website that the use of the plate was purely coincidental. Top Gear was named as the world's most widely watched factual program in the Guinness World Record 2013 Edition book, with an estimated 350 million global viewers. The show is sold to 214 territories worldwide. In a previous article on their website, the BBC said \"Jeremy Clarkson is not a man given to considered opinion.\" In their statement, the corporation declined to comment any further.","highlights":"Presenter was involved in an encounter with a BBC producer .\nTop Gear was due to air this Sunday, episode pulled from schedule .","id":"219c198858e62278a4136e6b18fe394213ca7003"} -{"article":"(CNN)Dolce & Gabbana went familial for fall at its fashion show in Milan on Sunday, dedicating its collection to \"mamma\" with nary a pair of \"mom jeans\" in sight. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are behind the Italian brand, sent models down the runway in decidedly feminine dresses and skirts adorned with roses, lace and even embroidered doodles by the designers' own nieces and nephews. Many of the looks featured saccharine needlework phrases like \"I love you, mamma\" and \"Per la mamma pi\u00f9 bella del mondo\" (for the most beautiful mother in the world) as a tableau vivant of moms and daughters stood and posed as a backdrop for the runway. Even the usually stoic-faced front row couldn't help but applaud and smile as a few models carried their own high-fashion progeny down the runway.","highlights":"Dolce & Gabbana dedicated their fall fashion show to moms .\nSome of the models carried their own babies down the runway .","id":"0788d4e58a76a3f2b9f0d67e5cc1b9902e716d41"} -{"article":"(CNN)An Israeli Arab man who is shown being shot by a child in a recent ISIS video has no connections to Israeli intelligence, the country's defense minister said Wednesday. In the video released Tuesday, ISIS claims the man, 19-year-old Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam, is an Israeli spy. But Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon denied the allegation on Israeli radio. The ISIS video shows Musallam's Israeli passport and claims he's an agent sent to infiltrate the group. Musallam's family on Tuesday told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS. Musallam is an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent. \"Mohamed told me and his brother that ISIS took him,\" according to Said Musallam, his father. \"They sent him money through the Western Union. They said you will have girls, money, cars, villas, paradise, but afterwords he discovered that there is nothing.\" It wasn't long before Musallam's family members didn't recognize him when they talked to him on Skype. The man they knew as a kind and funny brother and son who was once a volunteer firefighter had grown a long beard and was carrying a rifle. His father tried to help him get home, sending him money and even enlisting the Red Cross. But his son never made it back to Israel. About a month ago, Said Musallam said, he was told his son was taken by ISIS when he was on his way back and trying to cross the border. A video posted Tuesday on ISIS-affiliated social media accounts shows a man who appears to be Musallam on his knees, wearing an orange jumpsuit. An adult ISIS fighter and a child -- both in fatigues -- stand behind him. The adult, speaking French, gives a command to the child to go forward with the killing. The child steps in front of the man and raises what appears to be a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and shoots Musallam in the forehead. The man immediately falls forward to the ground. The child appears to then fire at least two more shots into the body. An issue last month of ISIS' English-language propaganda magazine, Dabiq, included a purported interview with Musallam and described his alleged work for the Israeli spy agency. In the ISIS video, Musallam seems to be reading what appears to be a prepared confession, saying he is an Israeli intelligence agent working for Mossad, sent to infiltrate ISIS. Musallam's family members said they believe he was coerced in the video, forced to lie about ties to Israeli intelligence. \"Mohamed is not an agent. Mohamed doesn't have a shekel. If he was an agent he would have lived a beautiful life,\" his mother, Hind Musallam, said. \"We could have been living a different life and I would not be working cleaning houses so we can live.\" This isn't the first time ISIS has used children to drive home its message. An ISIS propaganda video released in January -- one that CNN could not independently verify -- shows a boy with a pistol apparently shooting two men in the back of the head. The boy then stands over one of the bodies, fires two more times, and later raises his pistol high. Last August, a photo posted to Twitter from an ISIS stronghold showed a 7-year-old boy holding a man's severed head and his father's words, \"That's my boy.\" ISIS has featured children as fighters before, calling them the \"cubs of the caliphate\" (the adult jihadis call each other \"lions\") and has encouraged foreign fighters to bring their families. It has taken over schools to indoctrinate children. Human Rights Watch says ISIS and other extremist groups \"have specifically recruited children through free schooling campaigns that include weapons training and have given them dangerous tasks, including suicide bombing missions.\" CNN's Abeer Salman contributed to this report.","highlights":"An ISIS video claims to show the killing of Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam .\nThe militant group claims the 19-year-old Israeli Arab is an Israeli spy .\nBut Israel's defense minister denies the allegation .","id":"b3d8c848dc4706cccef76e478eaa10e6b402059f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Ferguson is crumbling. The cowardly and reprehensible shooting Wednesday night of two police officers came in a tumultuous seven days for the Missouri town, which had already seen Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson announce his resignation after a damning Justice Department report on its police department. The report, which was ordered in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown last year, highlighted a predatory policing problem and a department that was biased, prejudiced and that has regularly targeted, arrested and fined African-Americans. Residents understandably want justice. But what's worse in all this is that Ferguson is illustrative of a broader problem across the country as increasingly militarized majority-white police departments demonstrate consistent racial bias toward majority-black communities. It's a combustible mix. In three-quarters of all U.S. cities with populations 50,000 or more, the police presence is \"disproportionately white relative to the local population,\" according to The Washington Post. And tensions are being exacerbated by the use among police departments of military weapons, and stipulations that these former war zone weapons must be used within a year of acquisition. All this suggests a need for a completely new mindset on how we try to understand and implement policing practices across America. Indeed, a wholesale review of policies and approaches to law enforcement is needed, something that will likely necessitate drastic reforms in some departments so they can better represent, integrate, problem solve and liaise with the communities they are serving. First and foremost, our police departments must better reflect the diverse demographics of our increasingly diverse nation, whether it be race, creed, sexual orientation and more. America is changing fast, but police departments aren't keeping up. Training and recruitment of minorities is critical, yet far more needs to be taking place. With this in mind, amplifying community policing models that work and scaling them up immediately is essential if we are to stem the growing and sometimes overwhelming tide of frustration, anger and cynicism welling up among young African, Asian and Hispanic Americans. Second, we must radically rethink the trend toward the indiscriminate procurement and use of surplus military grade weaponry, which under the Department of Defense's 1033 program is flowing from battlefields to our local police forces. When the weapons of war come home from Iraq and Afghanistan to help police America's cities and towns, then you know something has gone terribly wrong with this country. Mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, tanks, drones, grenades and assault weapons should not replace the community policing of our Main Streets. Ferguson is an excellent example of how the deployment of heavy weaponry inflames rather than de-escalates a crisis situation. Having military equipment on our streets does not make citizens feel safer, which is why the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act was recently reintroduced in Congress. We do not need our officers looking like \"Robocop\" when they patrol our streets. It's that simple. Yet until such a bill is passed, war weapons will continue to flood our streets; Congress must act to stem this tide. We understand that times have changed and that new security threats require new solutions and procedures. But it doesn't justify the 150 raids per day by special weapons and tactics units for incidents that can be as benign as a Department of Education warrant. This kind of aggressive approach doesn't engender the kind of engagement necessary for identifying real risks lurking in a community. In fact, the opposite happens. Intelligence opportunities are dead on arrival, and potential allies who would otherwise be ready to help shut down immediately. Aggressive military-type action is quickly turning Americans against fellow citizens who they are ostensibly there to serve and protect. We therefore trust that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will take decisive action, working hand in hand with police departments all across this country. Yes, the White House's task force on police militarization was a start, but more concrete measures are needed if we want to reverse the rising anger in Ferguson and elsewhere. The time for a change is now. If we don't press our police departments to reflect the makeup and needs of our communities, then towns like Ferguson will unravel further.","highlights":"Two police officers were shot Wednesday in Ferguson .\nHank Johnson, Michael Shank: Policing style needs rethink .","id":"00c45eb98a06f9218170edf5767617cc20991840"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two Chinese men have been jailed for selling military intelligence, including hundreds of photos of China's first aircraft carrier, to foreign spies, state media reported. According to the Dalian Daily, the two men, surnamed Han and Zhang, were sentenced to eight and six years in prison respectively earlier this year. The report said that Han, 30, was approached by a person claiming to be a journalist via the instant messaging app WeChat. The \"reporter\" assigned Han to work in a military base, taking photos of \"sensitive areas\" of a major military project with his phone in the name of news gathering. Last summer, he traveled to Beijing and Liaoning, in China's northeast, to take photos, including images of exhibits at a national defense technology promotion show. He later passed recordings and photos to his \"employer,\" the report said. \"Although the enemies' tricks are cunning, they are totally preventable,\" the paper said. When contacted by CNN, Dalian's Public Security Bureau confirmed the media report was correct but declined to give further details. The other man, Zhang, 23, had sent more than 500 pictures of the Liaoning aircraft carrier, named after the province where it was refitted, to a person who claimed to be an editor with a foreign magazine before being detained last August. Two months earlier, Zhang had quit his original job for this better-paid side job, the paper said. The paper published photographs of their \"spying equipment\" -- iPhones, computers and cables. Some Internet users questioned whether it was really espionage to take photos of China's aircraft carrier -- even former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited the vessel in 2014. \"I have photos of the aircraft carrier, too,\" one person with the handle @gablio posted on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter. \"When I flew from Dalian to Beijing two years ago, I saw the vessel clearly on the plane. Countless people have photographed it.\"","highlights":"Two Chinese men have been jailed for selling military intelligence .\nMaterial includes hundreds of photos of China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning .\nThey were jailed for six to eight years .","id":"6ec87637a43d17ae35fc144774dcf9be7bf0fa0c"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)Melissa Benoist is suited up and ready to fly in CBS' \"Supergirl.\" Producer Warner Bros. Television has released the first-look photos of the \"Glee\" and \"Whiplash\" breakout in the official costume as DC Comics character Supergirl. See more: The Faces of Pilot Season 2015 . The costume was designed by three-time Oscar-winner Colleen Atwood, who also served in the same capacity for WBTV\/The CW's DC takes 'Arrow\" and \"The Flash.\" \"In designing Supergirl, I wanted to embrace the past but more importantly, thrust her into the street-style action hero of today,\" said Atwood, who earned Oscars for \"Into the Woods,\" \"Snow White and the Huntsman\" and \"Sweeney Todd.\" Production on the pilot started this week in Los Angeles. Read more: TV Pilots 2015: The Complete Guide . The drama centers on Kara Zor-El (Benoist), Superman's cousin, who was born on the planet Krypton and escaped amid its destruction years ago. After arriving on Earth, Kara was taken in by a foster family, the Danverses, who taught her to be careful with her extraordinary powers (which she shares with her famous cousin). \"Brothers & Sisters\" and \"Ally McBeal\" alum Calista Flockhart co-stars as DC Comics character Cat Grant, \"True Blood's\" Mehcad Brooks is set as Jimmy Olsen; \"Homeland's\" David Harewood is DC Comics character Hank Henshaw; and \"Grey's Anatomy's\" Chyler Leigh plays Alexandra \"Alex\" Danvers, the confident foster sister of Kara. Laura Benanti will recur, while former Supergirl Helen Slater and former Superman Dean Cain will guest-star in the pilot. \"Arrow\" and \"Flash's\" Greg Berlanti and his \"No Ordinary Family\" cohort Ali Adler (\"The New Normal\") as well as \"Arrow\" and \"Flash\" EP Andrew Kreisberg will pen the script and executive produce the drama via Berlanti Productions' Warner Bros. Television-based banner. Berlanti Productions' topper Sarah Schechter also is on board to executive produce. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Photo of Melissa Benoist as Supergirl released .\nNew show about character currently in production for CBS .","id":"fdb5b78087d569751eade988212b77bfb2cb71c1"} -{"article":"(CNN)For those who hoped that the coming presidential election would usher in the dawn of a new, more inspiring politics, this past week has been deeply discouraging. In two key moments, leaders from both sides of the aisle have acted like the Bourbons of France, who famously remembered nothing and forgot nothing from battles of their past. The first and substantively more important moment was the sending of that letter by Republican senators to the Iranian regime. The second, and perhaps more important politically telling moment, was Hillary Clinton's handling of her emails. The two cases are oddly related. In both instances, the principals started with legitimate concerns but have wound up making things worse. In both cases, the principals have also created divisive issues that will deepen polarization through the campaign and probably into the next presidency. Both have diminished the chances for breaking out of today's ugly politics. Republicans in Congress have reason to press hard with their views as negotiations with Iran enter the home stretch. They, like many others -- including a sizable number of Democrats, the current Israeli government, and friendly Arab nations -- fear the Obama administration will cut a weak, leaky deal that will allow Iran to come perilously close to having nuclear weapons. Just as importantly, Republicans believe, with cause, that as he negotiates, President Barack Obama has tried to sideline Congress in general and them in particular. Who can blame them for arguing that if the President insists any agreement needs only executive approval -- not approval by Congress -- then the next chief executive should not be legally bound by its provisions? Their basic concerns were not unreasonable. Thus, if they had sent exactly the same letter to the President, they would have caused a stir but would have been seen as within the norms of politics and statecraft. Instead, they made the mistake -- a wicked one -- of sending it to the terrorist leaders of Iran, leaving a clear impression they were out to sabotage both the deal and the President. We have had renegade members of Congress try to interfere with presidential negotiations in the past -- remember Sen. Jesse Helms? -- but never 47 members of the United States Senate tossing a hand grenade into delicate, life-or-death negotiations conducted by seven major nations and led by the United States. Ayatollah Khamenei made clear this week that he may use the Republican letter as a pretext for rejecting any deal. Where do we go then? Will talks collapse? Will an Iranian rush toward the bomb set off a nuclear arms race, starting in Saudi Arabia, which is already taking preliminary steps? Will the United States then be compelled to use military force against Iran? Who knows for sure? What we do know is that Iran is now almost certain to become a central issue in the 2016 presidential campaign and that the Republican nominee will be under relentless pressure from the right to adopt a hard, unyielding line. One can just imagine a number of GOP candidates pledging that if elected, they will abolish Obamacare on Day 1 and an Iranian agreement on Day 2. This is hardly a way to restore steady, bipartisan foreign policies, as we so badly need. And why have Republicans forgotten so soon the damage done from voters thinking the last GOP president was too hard line and reckless? On the other side of the aisle, Hillary Clinton had absolutely legitimate concerns about the security of emails she might send as secretary of state. As one who spent a year and a half at the Clinton White House and State Department, I could see first hand how they -- more than any president since Nixon -- were hounded by enemies and reporters trying to ferret out secrets to cause trouble or win a prize. It is small wonder that both Clintons still have scar tissue. Hillary Clinton's mistakes did not start with creating an email protection system. No, they started when she and her team failed to coordinate up front with the State Department system and record all official exchanges within the government system on a prompt, air-tight basis. That did not break laws. But it did run afoul of government procedures and, when revealed, naturally gave rise to suspicions about what she might be hiding. In her press conference, she did accomplish her obvious mission: she began cutting legs off the story. In essence, she said one half of her emails (the official ones) are now safely with the State Department and, at her request, will gradually be made public. The other half (who knows what's in there?) have been deleted and she is keeping the server. In effect, she says, they are gone ... and gone forever, beyond Congressional subpoena, FOIA requests, and even hackers. What fresh revelations can the press now pursue? Not many. And how can Republicans browbeat her in hearings without looking like bullies? Hard to do. In short, the story may soon die. You just have to trust me, she says. Clever. But the very fact that instead of inviting a neutral, trusted party like Lee Hamilton to review all the emails, she chose to cut off the story by destroying the evidence comes with a price: she has freshly renewed public doubts whether she plays straight or by her own rules. Loyal Democrats will continue to invest their faith in her, but for many others, the controversy leaves a lingering sense of unease. And polarization deepens. She was always going to face a rough campaign, but now she will begin with clouds already gathering. More to the point, they will obscure her very real strengths as a leader. Around the world, many women look upon her with heartfelt admiration from her years of promoting their empowerment. And she has also has a strong case to make that she and her husband know something about job creation: 22.9 million were created in the eight Clinton years, more than in any other presidency since World War II (Reagan was second at 16.1 million; there have been some 6.4 million in the first six Obama years.). In short, she is worse off than she was before this controversy broke -- and so are American politics. Bill Clinton likes to say that politics is always about tomorrow -- and he is right. But candidates also need to remember and learn from yesterday. After this last week, they might start by reading a wonderful book by historian Barbara Tuchman published some 30 years ago: \"The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam.\" There she argues that leaders often start out trying to do the right thing but take a wrong path, stubbornly stick with it despite all evidence and eventually wreck. Tuchman calls their refusal to learn from experience \"wooden-headedness\". We have seen too much wooden-headedness these past days.","highlights":"David Gergen: Iran almost certain to become big issue in 2016 campaign .\nClinton's mistakes did not start with creating email protection system, he says .","id":"f923b40b5ea26659e4c7d74a7c5b23d4bc6c83fc"} -{"article":"(CNN)By the time Cynthia Falardeau read about Alex Pring, a little boy who got a battery-powered robotic arm last summer, she had made peace with her son Wyatt's limb difference. Her premature baby had been born with his right arm tangled in amniotic bands. At a week old, doctors amputated his dead forearm and hand. They were afraid his body would be become infected and he would die. Falardeau mourned her boy's missing arm for years but, in time, embraced her son as he was. Wyatt also learned to adapt. They tried a couple of prosthetics when he was younger and each time the toddler abandoned the false limb within months. \"His main interest was to create a shocking response from onlookers by pulling it off in the grocery store,\" Falardeau wrote on CNN iReport. In truth, she had been more concerned about getting him therapy for his autism-related delays -- the limb difference was secondary. So when a friend shared a story from the \"Today Show\" with Wyatt in mind, about a team of University of Central Florida (UCF) students and graduates that made an electronic arm for 6-year-old Pring using a three-dimensional printer on campus, Falardeau was defensive. \"He doesn't need this,\" she thought. Her fifth-grader had a different reaction: \"I want one of these robot arms!\" Falardeau remembers Wyatt telling her and her husband. \"I could ride a bike! I might even be able to paddle a kayak!\" There were other things the 12-year-old boy said he would do if he had two hands. A proper somersault. Clap with two hands. Dance with a pretty girl with one hand on her back and the other leading. Stuff she hadn't really thought about but he clearly had. Falardeau got in touch with the Orlando students through E-Nable, an online volunteer organization started by Rochester Institute of Technology research scientist Jon Schull to match people who have 3-D printers with children in need of hands and arms. The organization creates and shares bionic arm designs for free download at EnablingTheFuture.org that can be assembled for as little as $20 to $50. Middle and high school student groups and Girl and Boy Scout troops are among those donating their time and materials to assemble limbs for kids and give them to recipients for free. The UCF team, which operates a nonprofit called Limbitless Solutions, is special because it's the only group in the 3-D volunteer network making electronic arms. Most 3-D arms are mechanical, which presents a challenge for children without elbows. With mechanical arms, the child opens and closes their hand by bending their elbow. The students came up with the idea for an electronic arm with a muscle sensor that allows the child to open and close their hand by flexing their bicep. \"It's really just a step-by-step process of solving problems. The first problem we solved was: how do we make the hand move electronically? And then: how do we attach this arm to a child?\" said sophomore Tyler Petresky. \"It's just one problem after another we keep solving. That's what engineering is all about.\" The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 1,500 babies in the United States are born with upper limb deformities each year. Comprehensive statistics aren't available for the number of children with amputations, such as Wyatt. The UCF project started when Albert Manero, an engineering doctoral student, heard a story on the radio about one of the inventors of the 3-D printed hand. He got involved with E-Nable and met Alex, a local boy teased because of his missing arm, and set about designing a robotic replacement. They gave it to Alex for free. \"My mother taught us that we're supposed to help change the world,\" Manero said at the time. \"We're supposed to help make it better.\" The students were blown away by what happened after that. The \"Today Show\" and other national news outlets featured stories about Alex and Manero, and then they got international attention. Families in more than 25 countries have asked the UCF students to help their children. In February, Microsoft highlighted the team in a social media campaign celebrating students using technology to change the world. Each electronic limb takes about 30 to 50 hours to make and assemble. The students use the printer in the school's manufacturing lab and cover the cost of materials -- about $350 -- through donations. Petresky got involved with the design of Pring's hand because Manero knew he was good with electronics. \"He bribed me with some pulled pork sandwiches. I went over to his house and helped him out with electronics,\" he said. \"I found out he was working on an arm, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.\" Eventually Manero moved to Germany for a Fulbright scholarship and left Petresky in charge of running the operations in Orlando. Petresky says they ask every family about the child's favorite color, superhero and interests, so the new limb can \"not just be a piece of plastic ... but be a part of them.\" As they've designed the bionics, they've learned that kids don't necessarily want to blend in. Children have requested colorful designs inspired by superheroes, Disney's \"Frozen,\" and in Wyatt's case, the blue-skinned men from \"Blue Man Group.\" For Christmas, the group upgraded Alex's plain vanilla white arm to a new one resembling Optimus Prime from \"Transformers.\" \"We quickly found out this is much less about fitting in and feeling normal, and much more about expressing yourself,\" Petresky said. \"There's a large aspect of being artistic and being creative.\" The team has made electronic arms for five children and are working with three more kids including Wyatt. He traveled with his mom to UCF last week and practiced flexing his muscle to make the hand open and close. He expects to get fitted with his new arm later this month. His mom, Cynthia, was most excited about seeing Wyatt being celebrated for who he is. \"The adoration of college students was an affirmation that money can't buy. He was wrapped in the joy of leading and advising students on how to help children like himself,\" she wrote in her iReport. \"Wyatt felt like he was making a difference for himself and other children.\" As they got ready to leave the campus, her son told her he can't wait to see what he will accomplish with his new arm. And someday, he said, he wants to go to UCF and help other kids like him.","highlights":"Around the world, volunteers with 3-D printers are making limbs for children.\nMeet some Orlando engineering students changing the world.","id":"6898d75d23516990efd7affaa5f2d20a301f7386"} -{"article":"(CNN)I grew up watching \"Leave It to Beaver.\" Most episodes, Ward Cleaver would come home from work in his suit and tie and there would be his wife June, always in the kitchen, her apron as white as the picket fence outside. June made dinner, of course, and Ward and Wally and the Beav sat at the table and ate. As I recall, June usually cleaned up. Maybe once or twice the boys helped with dishes. Maybe. I would watch the black and white show during dinner, sitting on the couch with a plate of food on my lap that had not been prepared by my own mother. My mother was in her generation's first cohort of \"working moms.\" She had a successful career as an executive at AT&T and then Lucent Technologies. She left for work early each morning, but was always home by five or six -- in time to spend time with me, not to cook. My dad also had a full-time job, and across the entirety of my life, I don't recall him so much as opening a can of soup. He's only recently learned to use the microwave. Both my parents worked equally hard, but there was no doubt when I was growing up that cooking was my mom's responsibility -- even if that meant buying prepared meals from the Allentown Farmer's Market, spooning it onto plates, pressing \"Power\" then \"Start.\" In other words, as I ate my dinner in the 1980s while watching a TV show based on life in the 1950s, it was easy to see that some things had changed and some had not. Life inside the house -- food, dishes, cleaning, tidying, clothing, hygiene -- was my mom's responsibility, just as it was June Cleaver's. Outside the house -- the lawn, the cars, anything made or stored in the garage, sports, bike riding -- that was my dad's domain. And to be clear, when the car would break down, it was a big deal, but one that came up far less frequently than our need for meals and laundry. This daily labor weighed more on my mother. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild coined this the \"second shift\": how even though more and more women started working outside the home, they were still expected to do the same amount of domestic work at the end of the day. Studies say that when it comes to fair division of household labor, gay couples, like my partner and I, generally do a better job. Unfettered by the ready expectations of traditional gender roles, same-sex couples \"are more likely than members of heterosexual couples to negotiate a balance between achieving a fair distribution of household labor and accommodating the different interests, skills, and work schedules of particular partners,\" wrote social scientist Lawrence K. Kurdek. In fact, after a no-doubt bumpy period of adjustment (editorializing from personal experience here), Kurdek wrote, \"This pattern of negotiation holds true even when couples have children living with them.\" In my own family, my partner does most of the laundry, though to be fair that's partly because she's picky about what's washed on what cycle and what gets hung to dry, versus tossed in the dryer. On weekends, she does most of the cooking -- because, she's a better cook and enjoys it more. But I'm faster, so I end up cooking breakfast and dinner most of the weekdays. About 99% of the time, if our bed is made it's because Sarah did it. And 99% of the time, if the dishes are washed, it's because I washed them. Sarah likes to buy groceries because I have a bad habit of buying massive quantities of things we don't need. And she buys our daughter's clothing (same reason). I pay the bills and do our taxes. On weekends and after school we take turns ferrying our 6-year-old to and from activities and play dates. What, you're wondering, about other traditional \"male\" gender roles in our male-less family? Admittedly, I more often wear pants more than my partner and I more often take on these tasks. When our car breaks, I take it to the mechanic. I load the car up for trips. I put crap in the basement. I smush millipedes. I fix the leaky sink. But I also sew my daughter's Halloween costume every year and sew on buttons when they fall off. Our same-sex family has not so much created new gender role arrangements, but deconstructed such arrangements altogether. I get to smush millipedes and sew costumes, not because of my chromosomes or some pre-determined gender role, but because I enjoy doing so. While I now pay most of our bills online, I find it unbelievably gratifying to put a check in the actual mail. I have a giant, eclectic pile of postage stamps for this reason. It should be noted that the experience of gender roles is highly defined by class. What my partner and I have in common with my parents is the financial ability to have additional help, including, in our case, regular babysitters and a weekly house cleaner. What's more, any conversation about household gender roles would be incomplete without noting that some upper-middle class Americans pay their domestic workers so painfully little that these workers -- predominantly immigrant women of color -- can't afford to put healthy food on their own families' tables, if they even have time to cook between cobbling jobs together to make ends meet. Meanwhile studies show that in working-class straight couples, even where the women work outside the home and the men don't, women still do a disproportionate amount of housework. It seems that in too many situations, no matter the configuration, women are getting screwed. This is partly why LeanIn.Org today launched #LeanInTogether, a public service campaign in partnership with the National Basketball Association and the Women's National Basketball Association emphasizing how men benefit from equality and providing practical tips for men to do their part at home and at work. The campaign encourages men to \"show the world they're for equality\" and women to \"celebrate men leaning in for equality\" by posting with the hashtag #LeanInTogether. Patriarchy is not the fault of all men, but it is the responsibility of all men to do something about it. After all, whether you want to blame biology or early economic incentives or the cultural indoctrination of \"Leave It to Beaver,\" men have consistently failed to do their fair share of household labor in America. The solution? More gay households or even sister-wife-type scenarios alone won't transform household gender roles. We have to value household work as work, which means everything from paying domestic workers livable wages to more men cleaning and cooking and teaching their sons that doing so is honorable and equitable, not demeaning. While fairness in gender roles has improved since the era of June and Ward, the subtle and not-so-subtle inequities are still a mess. Men need to shift from expecting or enforcing traditional gender roles to becoming role models for more equitable relationships. In other words, clean it up, fellas -- literally and figuratively.","highlights":"Sally Kohn: Decades after \"Leave It to Beaver,\" women still shoulder most of housework, childcare .\nShe says a new public service push aims to engage men in sharing these jobs, encouraging young men to do the same .","id":"3ad0b6b8a6f988e5475ac090ff7fc624256f5cdc"} -{"article":"(CNN)This weekend marked the official opening of \"Fish in the Dark,\"\u200a\u200athe Broadway debut of Larry David of \"Seinfeld\" and \"Curb Your Enthusiasm\" fame. Of course, the odd conventions of live theater mean that \"Fish\" wasn't quite fresh-to-table at its premiere: It's been playing for several weeks now to sold-out preview crowds, to build buzz and iron out production kinks. And sold out really means sold out: The show has destroyed box office records for the vintage Cort Theatre and might yet set new ones for a nonmusical despite its limited run. That's because David has a huge built-in audience for his unique brand of humor, which \"Curb\" fans know to be as abrasive as sea salt and as astringent as lemon, unyielding in the face of social niceties, epic humiliation or even common human decency. It's polarizing, and the poles are pretty clearly drawn: By and large, fans of David's work tend to loudly proclaim that as long as abuse is sprayed pari passu\u200a -- \u200ae.g., proportionately in all directions\u200a -- \u200ano one should take offense. The nonfans tend to respond that this kind of comedy rests on an assumption defined by another common Latin phrase, ceteris paribus\u200a -- \u200ae.g., \"all other things being equal.\" And all other things are never equal in our world, by definition. When a group of affluent white protagonists in an almost exclusively white \"New York\" behave badly toward a handful of cartoonish parodies of working-class ethnic nobodies (a pretty fair synopsis of many \"Seinfeld\" episodes), it's hilarious if you belong to the former category. It's much less so when you belong to the latter. So it's not entirely surprising that some of the whispered early concerns with \"Fish\" related to the character of Fabiana, the Puerto Rican maid of the late patriarch of David's fictional family, the Drexels. Fabiana, played by Rosie Perez, and her son Diego play a pivotal part in the show, which takes place in the immediate wake (er, shiva?) of the passing of the elder Drexel; without spoiling the plot, suffice it to say that it hinges on upstairs-downstairs romantic antics and their inevitable consequences. And yes, some reviewers are using the \"R\"-word in calling out the depiction of Fabiana, eye-rolling over YASHDASM (Yet Another Stereotypical Hispanic Domestic And Single Mom) whose comic function is largely to mispronounce words and make cultural stumbles like bringing cuchifritos to a Jewish memorial service. But the conversation about race and representation isn't, and shouldn't be, absolutist based on content; context is just as important\u200a -- \u200aperhaps more so. What's the threeway balance of power between the author, the actors and the intended audience? Are a performance's questionable aspects racially exceptionalized? Does the role pivot on the ethnic identity of the characters and performers in a way that prevents them from being seen as more than just the color of their skin and the accent of their speech? And finally, is the vehicle in which it's taking place innovative, eye-opening, horizon-expanding, or does it reduce, repress and restrict? As \"Fish\" was finishing its preview run, a theater-world drama of another color was erupting nearby. The National Asian Artists Project\u200a, \u200aa nonprofit theater company that produces works from the traditional Broadway canon featuring all-Asian casts, had announced its next production would be a big-budget, Asian American adaptation of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's \"Show Boat,\" to be developed and directed by Broadway wunderkind Tommy Tune. The problem, as Asian American actor and blogger Erin Quill immediately called out, is that unlike NAAP's prior projects, which have included shows such as \"Oliver!\" and \"Carousel,\" \"Show Boat\" is set in the Deep South, among the laborers and performers working on and about the Cotton Blossom, a paddleboat theater offering entertainment to audiences up and down the Mississippi. \"This show ... is about the great racial divides within the Deep South\u200a -- divides that are, without question, black and white,\" wrote Quill. \"[Asians] were not 'toting that barge' or 'lifting that bale'. Asian Americans were not recovering from being ripped from their homeland and bound in chains due to the color of their skin. It is not 'our' story to tell.\" The fundamental mission of NAAP and other theatrical companies that cast productions against type is twofold: They seek to showcase overlooked talent and to challenge the racial conventions of the aptly dubbed \"Great White Way,\" disrupting the notion that phenotypic reference points are necessary for a performer to believably portray a role. In that latter context, they're exercises designed to highlight the fundamental magic of live theater: Its power to get audiences to suspend disbelief. NAAP's all-Asian \"Show Boat\" would seem to be not very different from the Public Theater's present production of \"Hamilton,\" featuring a multiracial set of American Founding Fathers -- including Puerto Rican author and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda as the titular Hamilton and African American actor Leslie Odom Jr. as his rival, Aaron Burr. And yet, there is a fundamental difference. Having actors of color play characters written for white actors, who are cast in 79% of all Broadway roles (by contrast, Asian Americans and Hispanics are cast in just 3% each and African Americans in 14%), is an act of disruptive defiance. Having actors of color play characters written for other actors of color is shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic at best and at worst, a categorically ill-conceived recipe for insensitivity. Could NAAP have weathered the spectacle of Asian performers speaking in Southern black dialect, performing a plot that's entirely dependent on black history? Could an Asian Steve have cut an Asian Julie's hand, sucking her blood, then declared defiantly to an Asian sheriff that if Julie was a \"mulatto,\" so was he, because he now had \"black blood\" in him? After a contentious town hall, in which numerous other performers of varied race and background expressed their vehement doubts, the Asian American theatrical community, and ultimately NAAP as well, decided it couldn't. The context of the show, and the charged climate it would be arriving in, would make its content impossible to swallow. NAAP canceled the production. The costs of the cancellation aren't known, \u200abut they clearly aren't insignificant. But what, by contrast, of \"Fish\"? The reality is that Fabiana (performed by Rosie Perez more or less as Rosie Perez) doesn't stand out as offensive when compared with the rest of the play's characters; for that matter, there's nothing inherently Hispanic about the role, which, if the show had an unlimited run, could easily be recast as Asian, black or white, losing very little in the process. By contrast, nearly all of the rest of the cast fit familiar comedic portrayals of Jewish family members -- most intensely so, the neurotic protagonist, Norman (performed by Larry David himself more or less as Larry David). The truth is, if non-Jews were to put on a production of \"Fish in the Dark,\" it would be difficult not to experience it as anti-Semitic. These are the new and fascinating challenges presented by pop culture in our era of surging diversity, and they're coming fast and furious from every direction. Interesting times and sure to get more interesting still.","highlights":"Larry David's play opens on Broadway, faces some criticism over a Hispanic character .\nJeff Yang: An Asian American group rightly cancels staging of \"Showboat\"","id":"ac7a70285370c1e840de74deadf7f1bd372dfeaa"} -{"article":"(CNN)Everyone's favorite male models made a surprise appearance at Tuesday's Valentino show at Paris Fashion Week. And, no surprise, they were really, really ridiculously good-looking. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reprised their roles as the vacuous models from the popular 2001 film \"Zoolander\" at Tuesday's women's couture show. There was no mistaking Stiller for anyone other than the fierce Zoolander as he sashayed down the runway in a Valentino trench, casting Blue Steel in every direction. He was followed by nemesis Hansel McDonald, played by Wilson, showing off another Valentino coat over a pair of \"lovely\" pajamas, Wall Street Journalist fashion columnist Christina Binkley said. The duo is gearing up for \"Zoolander 2,\" which is slated for release in February 2016. \"Apparently Derek and Hansel have come to terms on #Zoolander2,\" Ben Stiller joked in a selfie posted on his Instagram account. Publicity stunt, perhaps, but we're not complaining about an opportunity to bring back the phrase, \"he's so hot right now.\"","highlights":"Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reprised their roles as male models at Paris Fashion Week .\nThey walked in the Valentino show as Derek Zoolander and Hansel McDonald .","id":"abd98e40a44ab6c43fe0e9d7e2d5286f28bdcc04"} -{"article":"(CNN)As a controversy over a racist video continues, the University of Oklahoma is announcing a plan to hire a vice president who will oversee diversity programs. A video of a racist chant by the university's now-disbanded Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity made headlines nationwide this week. It shows students on a bus clapping, pumping their fists and laughing as they chant, \"There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me. There will never be a ni**** SAE.\" In announcing the new position Wednesday night, university President David Boren said he decided to make the hire two months ago -- before the video came to light -- and is in talks with an African-American candidate. The school newspaper and a student organization publicized the nine-second video clip after receiving it via anonymous messages. Shortly after it surfaced, the university cut ties with Sigma Alpha Epsilon, as did the national fraternity. Two students spotted in the video, Parker Rice and Levi Pettit, have been expelled for their alleged leadership role in the chant. \"I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and reckless,\" Rice said Tuesday in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. \"I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and encouraging others to do the same.\" A statement from Pettit's parents said their son made a horrible mistake and apologized to African-Americans, students and university faculty. \"He is a good boy, but what we saw in those videos is disgusting. While it may be difficult for those who only know Levi from the video to understand, we know his heart, and he is not a racist,\" Brody and Susan Pettit said. CNN has reached out to both students. A spokesman for the Pettit family confirmed that Levi Pettit was in the video but declined CNN's request for an interview. Boren has ordered a shutdown of the fraternity house in Norman, and said it was no longer affiliated with the university. \"Livid, just extremely heartbroken,\" Jay Vinekar, a founder of the university's SAE chapter, told CNN affiliate KTRK . \"I don't want it in my house, and I don't want those people to wear my letters, claiming to represent me. The problem is not just a couple of guys on that bus, the problem is that house, it's a cancer that needs to be cut out.\" Local SAE alumni apologized on behalf of other members, saying the fraternity has had problems for years. \"The OU SAE Board of Trustees has discovered that a horrible cancer entered into the OU chapter of SAE three to four years ago, and was not immediately and totally stopped,\" the organization said in a statement Wednesday. \"It should have been.\" The fraternity said it is investigating other incidents involving other chapters that were brought to the attention of its national office. It's unclear whether more students will be punished for the video. Boren has said the fraternity won't return during his tenure if he can help it. CNN's Alina Machado, Tristan Smith and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.","highlights":"University President David Boren says he decided to make the hire two months ago .\nA video of a racist chant by a university fraternity made headlines nationwide this week .","id":"2dfa441adef69ee577e2570256c0b1afbba2874b"} -{"article":"(CNN)A well-heeled employer goes back to his hotel after a hard(ish) day's work and finds no hot dinner on the table. He snaps, lashing out (allegedly) at the nearest underling who could be held responsible. Within days, almost 1 million people sign a petition for him not to lose his job, while the suspension of the TV program he presents loses the BBC 4 million viewers. Why is this man so popular that he can be accused of abusing his staff (not to mention members of other ethnic groups and nationalities) and seemingly get away with it? A serial offender, Jeremy Clarkson seems to enjoy a charmed life. But, with the BBC now deliberating over his future, has his luck finally run out? Not a chance. Clarkson, like so many celebrities, sees his stock grow with every controversy. Every indiscretion seems calculated to raise his profile and boost his esteem among his fervent followers that little bit further. The \"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe\" incident, which saw the N-word slip out -- whoops, did I really hear what I think I heard? -- was designed to achieve just the right effect: offensive enough to generate howls of protest, but trivial enough for his fans to spring to his defense, crying \"over-reaction\" and \"storm in a teacup.\" The presenter later apologized, saying his efforts to obscure the offending word \"weren't quite good enough.\" On this latest occasion, was it the beleaguered producer lodging a complaint, or, like any normal person who's been punched in the face by a thug, pressing charges with the local constabulary? No, it was none other than Clarkson who willingly gave himself up to the corporation. Go on, sack me, he seemed to be saying, when he told a reporter that his dismissal \"is coming, isn't it?\" See how my adoring public likes that. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho are, like Clarkson, seasoned experts in rebranding themselves (or their team) as the victims, even when they seem to have everything going for them bar the position of the stars. They have all perfected the glum, hangdog expression that invites sympathy, begging forgiveness for each misdemeanour. It makes their success all the sweeter if they can convince us that they achieved it in the face of hostility. While waiting for the BBC to deliver its verdict, Clarkson penned an article for The Sun in which he likened himself to a \"dinosaur\" whose time is about to run out, knowing full well that his followers will protest: no, of course you're not washed up and irrelevant, Jeremy. Britain needs you to stand up to Johnny Foreigner! It is almost tempting to wonder whether there might be a political role ahead of him should the Beeb decide to give him the push for once and for all (I use the word \"political\" advisedly here). The Romans had a goddess, Fama, who fanfared both good and bad deeds for all eternity. Badly behaved celebrities have their trumpets blown by the massed forces of the media, which are of course only too pleased to have such good copy. Clarkson is already assured of immortality, if only through YouTube or its futuristic equivalent, but while waiting to shuffle off this mortal coil he -- like all celebrities -- acts as a conduit of divinity. He is the chain that binds the earthly audience to the goddess Fama, and this is why we allow him to act in such a beastly way, without complaining (too much). In the east of India, holy intermediaries called Kalasis beat devotees with canes. The devotees flinch with the mortal pain, but they receive it as a blessing. Contestants on the X Factor queue all night for the opportunity to be verbally abused by Simon Cowell. Bruises, actual and emotional, are worn with pride, whether delivered by the Kalasis cane, Cowell's tongue, or Clarkson's fist (allegedly). They are blessed that are touched by celebrity. So how about Oisin Tymon, Clarkson's hapless producer, who, according to the Daily Telegraph, had to seek hospital treatment for a cut lip following the \"fracas?\" Had he presented poor, weary Jeremy with a nice succulent steak on his arrival that evening, he would still be languishing in the realms of the unknown. And don't feel sorry for the hotel owner either: just watch bookings at Simonstone Hall, the Yorkshire hotel where the alleged incident took place, go through the roof. They may as well start engraving that blue plaque now.","highlights":"Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson allegedly lashed out a producer, prompting BBC to cancel broadcast of program .\nClarkson, like so many celebrities, sees his stock grow with every controversy, says David Giles .\nClarkson is already assured of immortality, says Giles, adding that like all celebrities -- the presenter acts as conduit of divinity .","id":"740b6e0d2a34842daeebf32675b8ec91127b527e"} -{"article":"(CNN)A video appears online. In it, fraternity members from your university are chanting a hateful, racist song about lynching African-Americans. The video goes viral. You're president of the university. Imagine being in that situation. What would you do? There are two ways to answer the question. The first is in the moment of crisis. The second is about the long term. As most everyone knows by now, David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, faced just this situation Monday. And I've been thinking about it intensely, not only because I care about race and civic leadership in America, but also because Boren was my first boss, when he was a U.S. senator. I'm not from Oklahoma but ended up working for Boren through a college internship. He was a mentor to me during my years in Washington, and a model for me when he left the Beltway to be of greater use and service as an educator. Though we haven't talked since the crisis broke, I see familiar patterns of leadership. Boren responded to the crisis swiftly, with a statement that went viral. Boren told the students from Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) he had a message for them: \"You are disgraceful. You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves Sooners\" (the OU nickname). Boren went on to sever all ties between OU and SAE. The national fraternity closed the local chapter. Later, Boren said he'd be glad if the students in the video left campus because \"we don't provide student services for bigots.\" The next day he expelled two of them. His actions have resonated across the country. On social media, people shocked by the video find themselves also stunned by Boren's response. Why? Because he did something rare in public life today. He expressed a decisive, judgmental view with moral clarity. Then he followed through. His statements have been free of mushy lawyer-talk or euphemism. He's led authentically, from the heart. Of course, people have carped. Some question whether Boren has the legal authority, as head of a public institution, to expel students on the basis of their free speech, even racist hate speech. Some lament that what he should have branded as disgraceful was the students' actions, not the students themselves. Legitimate concerns, perhaps. The First Amendment question, certainly, is being debated by legal scholars. But these concerns are eclipsed by the bigger picture. Boren wasn't just condemning wrongdoers; he was shifting social norms for all. A cynic might consider laughable a refrain from Boren's statement about \"real Sooners.\" Boren said that real Sooners are not racists or bigots; they believe in equal opportunity, treat people with mutual respect and love each other like family. A cynic might say Oklahoma is a state both very white and very red, not known for flying the banner of anti-racism. Indeed, the original Sooners were the white settlers who raced in to claim land that had been wrested from Native Americans. But the point of Boren's \"real Sooners\" riff is not to describe or sanitize today's reality; it is to issue a challenge. It is to bind people to a creed, a standard of being and belief that is easy to assert but hard to achieve. Not unlike being a true patriot. So now begins the longer term. Here, another opportunity arises to lead by example. David Boren can now examine the institution he works for and ask how and why such attitudes and behaviors -- racism so casually vicious -- could ever take root among people as young as freshmen. He can explore the ways in which everyone -- not only the obviously guilty parties at a frat party -- is touched by unconscious bias and institutional racism. He can now ask his community to face the inequities of history and race. We can all do that. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, is doing this at his company. He was moved after the incidents of Ferguson and Staten Island to hold truly open forums with employees about the pain and anguish of racial division. But you don't have to be a college president or a CEO. You don't have to be a white man in charge to start a tough reckoning with racism (though it'd help if more did). Whoever you are, you can start a new kind of conversation in your neighborhood. On your campus. At your house of worship. Ask what the history is. Ask why there are such imbalances of power and voice. Ask what it would take to be truly inclusive. Then, in word and deed, start answering your own questions. We can all do that. The sooner, the better.","highlights":"David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, responded to offensive video .\nEric Liu: Boren did something rare in public life today -- he acted with moral clarity .","id":"c74777cdc98e6690df563a40d1e3af4625d83f77"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Palestinian man rammed into a cyclist and four Israeli border police while he was driving in Jerusalem on Friday, authorities and first responders said. Witnesses said the man drove off the side of the road to hit his victims. They were taken to the hospital with light to moderate injuries. Authorities are treating the incident as a terror attack, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. The suspect tried to escape, but was shot by a security guard and severely wounded before being taken into custody, police said. Israeli police identified the attacker as a Palestinian man in his early 20s from East Jerusalem. Hamas applauded the attack. \"Hamas movement blesses this heroic act and considers it a natural response to the Occupations crimes, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, posted on Facebook. Regional tensions . Tensions over the killings of Israeli teens and Palestinian boys marked the run-up to the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas this summer, which took dozens of Israeli lives and more than 2,100 Palestinian lives. CNN's Oren Liebermann, Amir Tal and Michael Schwartz contributed to this report .","highlights":"Four Israeli border police and a cyclist were hit.\nThe suspect was shot and severely wounded .","id":"67d9ee1b961f670771c14ae072fa93ab2686a9d0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Want to take a self-portrait using your snazzy new selfie stick in front of London's National Gallery? That's fine. But don't try to use it inside the museum. The National Gallery has become the latest museum to ban the handy (or irritating, depending on your point of view) device. Selfies turn museums into playgrounds for a day . The British museum joins the Smithsonian, New York's Museum of Modern Art and a host of institutions around the world banning what the New York museum calls \"camera extension poles.\" Before you pout that the ban is going to ruin your selfie for #MuseumSelfie Day next year, know that Mar Dixon, the day's creator, supports the ban. \"I'm all for photos in museums as that is a memory -- a personal memory -- of your visit,\" Dixon wrote in an email. But not selfie sticks, which she says allow you to invade other people's personal space. \"They're just as bad IMO as tripods or opening an umbrella. \"There is also a risk, while lining up your shot with a selfie stuck inside a museum or gallery, of knocking other people around you or worse, the art,\" Dixon wrote. \"Selfie sticks are brilliant, don't get me wrong, but not inside museums and galleries. Outside and for other attractions they are perfect!\"","highlights":"London's National Gallery is the latest museum to ban the selfie stick .\nEven the creator of #MuseumSelfie Day supports the ban .","id":"58bab91c95bcbfa31cb7caa0082a111a5831ae20"} -{"article":"(CNN)Last November, the American people placed a great amount of trust in Republicans when they gave them complete control of Congress. Voters bought the illusion that a Republican Congress would govern effectively, help the middle class and focus on important issues like jobs and the economy. Now, after two months, that illusion has been shattered. Over the last two weeks, we have seen the Republican Congress manufacture, then escalate, a political crisis by threatening to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. There is no government task more basic than keeping citizens safe. And yet Republicans are recklessly putting our national security at risk to protect their own political security. By failing to do a full extension of DHS funding \u2014 holding it hostage with demands that the legislation roll back the President's immigration actions -- Republicans are leaving uncertain the livelihoods of more than 240,000 men and women who proudly serve as employees of the Border Patrol, Transportation Security Administration and other DHS agencies. Local law enforcement will continue to be denied access to the grants that help them keep our streets safe. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies that respond to natural disasters, like major winter storms, would have their operations disrupted. All so Republicans can try to score a few cheap political points with their base. But while this shutdown crisis is scary, what is even scarier is that this dysfunctional governing style is becoming a pattern with the Republican Party. The Republican Congress seems more intent on bickering with itself, pushing an agenda to help special interests and catering to the most extreme wing of the party, than working for the middle class. These last two months have been a disgrace, a disservice to our country, and the American people won't soon forget what a reckless disaster Republicans in Congress have turned out to be.","highlights":"Ben Lujan: Americans voted in a GOP Congress on promise of effective governance that prioritized middle class .\nHe says that was an illusion. On DHS funding, other issues, GOP has prioritized catering to its extreme wing and special interests .","id":"32d4bad025644097b0192d256a99e51f2d1ac585"} -{"article":"(CNN)Cody Simpson just wants to make the world happy. That's why the Australian-born pop star is in Austin, Texas, this week, where he will be performing at a United Nations\/MixRadio brunch at the SXSW festival. Simpson, 18, is the spokesman for the #HappySoundsLike playlist, promoting the U.N.'s International Day of Happiness on Friday, March 20. The singer and other celebs selected tracks for the playlist. \"There is honestly nothing I can think of that I like to do more than make other people happy through live music,\" said Simpson, who will perform a few acoustic tracks at the SXSW brunch. The International Day of Happiness is a global celebration that came about after the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2011 recognizing happiness as a \"fundamental human goal.\" The observation was decreed in 2012 after the first U.N. conference on happiness, and the first Day of Happiness was held on March 20, 2013. Simpson said it makes sense to have music as such an important part of the day. \"I want to be able to share a message of happiness,\" the singer said. \"I think music is such an escape for people.\" He selected Bob Marley's \"Three Little Birds\" for the playlist. Britney Spears selected Prince's \"Kiss,\" and Pharrell picked Talking Heads' \"This Must Be the Place.\" Ed Sheeran, David Guetta, Charlize Theron, John Legend and James Blunt are also among those taking part. Simpson recently released a cover of Marley's \"No Woman No Cry\" and said the legendary reggae artist is a personal inspiration. \"The majority of music today has no substance,\" said Simpson, who is an independent artist. \"You want to be able to feel something true.\" As for what makes Simpson the happiest (other than music, of course), he said it's the simple things like relaxing with his family and just slowing down. \"Happiness is kind of taken from you if your mind is too busy,\" he said. \"Be present in that moment.\" Fans are being encouraged to post the song that makes them the happiest using the social media hashtag #HappySoundsLike.","highlights":"Simpson helped curate the playlist to celebrate the UN's International Day of Happiness .\nHe will mark the day by performing at the SXSW festival .\nFans are encouraged to share the songs that make them happy .","id":"d6892ac7ddc7caf57de8bc1074ada64adc9e8b46"} -{"article":"(CNN)President Barack Obama shared jokes about pot and Hillary Clinton's email controversy at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington on Saturday. The club's dinner brings together Washington's media elite, with noteworthy politicians typically attending, as well. Despite being held by a media organization that raises scholarship funds for journalism students, the dinners are generally closed to cameras. Organizers only allowed a select few pool reporters to enter while the President spoke. The lack of media glare allows guests to let some of their guard down, perhaps unleashing a few more jokes than they might if the cameras were rolling. At one point Obama, clad in a white tie, predicted he would get more laughs this year than in the past. \"I'm not saying I'm any funnier. I'm saying weed is now legal in D.C.,\" he said. Voters in the District of Columbia legalized small amounts of marijuana last year, much to the chagrin of some in Congress. The President also touched on the controversy over the archiving of Clinton's emails while she was secretary of state. Obama lamented that while he was once a tech-savvy candidate, Clinton now seemed more up to speed. \"Now I'm yesterday's news, and Hillary has got a server in her house. I didn't even know you could have one of those in your house. I am so far behind. Did you know that? I would have gotten one,\" he joked. The domain name for Clinton's private email address was @clintonemail.com. Obama wasn't the only politician attending this year's dinner. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also dropped in. He's of course rumored to be in contention to run for president in 2016. Walker, a Republican, acknowledged some headlines of his own, like when Rudy Giuliani said at a Walker event last month that he doesn't think Obama loves America. To date, Walker hadn't said whether he agreed with Giuliani or not. \"I want to get this out of the way once and for all. I believe President Obama loves America and every single American in it. Except for Rudy Giuliani,\" Walker said, according to a transcript provided by his staff. \"If I did not love America, I wouldn't have moved here from Kenya,\" Obama later countered in a joking reference to unsubstantiated theories that he wasn't born in the United States. Every president since 1885 except for Grover Cleveland has attended the 130-year-old organization's dinner. Obama has attended three times as president and last attended back in 2013.","highlights":"\"If I did not love America, I wouldn't have moved here from Kenya,\" Obama quips .\nHe was attending the annual Gridiron Club dinner where politicians crack jokes .","id":"edb76783b709bf26afc2e8e60df384ec4ed8e09f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Chinese relic experts claim that a 1,000-year-old mummified monk encased in a Buddha statue was stolen from a village temple in Eastern China in 1995, state media reported. The mummy made international headlines last year when it first showcased at Drents Museum in the Netherlands. The Cultural Relic Bureau in Fujian province launched an investigation and found photos and historical records suggesting the statue belonged to a village temple where it was worshiped as an ancestor. The bureau will continue the investigation and report to national cultural authorities to seek repatriation in compliance with normal procedures, a spokesperson told the state-run Xinhua news agency on Sunday. The statue, currently in possession of a Dutch private collector, was being housed at the Hungarian Natural History Museum as a part of a European tour. The museum announced on their website that the mummy, originally scheduled to be on display until May, has been pulled from the exhibition at \"the request of the loaning partner\" -- the Drents Museum. It's unclear exactly when or how the statue made its way to a market in the Netherlands where a private buyer bought it in 1996. Drents Museum said the owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, had bought it legally. The mummy was discovered when the owner brought it to an expert for restoration. But it wasn't until a team of researchers and scientists did a CT scan -- a comprehensive three dimensional X-ray image -- last year, did they discover the mummy's organs were missing. \"We thought it would be lung tissue, but instead we found little scraps of paper covered with Chinese characters,\" said Vincent van Vilsteren, an archaeology curator from Drents Museum. The mummy was found sitting on a bundle of cloth covered in Chinese inscriptions, revealing its identity as a Buddhist monk called Liuquan who may have practiced \"self-mummification\" to prepare for life after death. The process of self-mummification is a known tradition in countries like Japan, China and Thailand, and was practiced more than a thousand years ago. The elaborate and arduous process includes eating a special diet and drinking a poisonous tea so the body would be too toxic to be eaten by maggots. The few monks that were able to successfully complete the process were highly revered. \"We suspect that for the first 200 years, the mummy was exposed and worshiped in a Buddhist temple in China ... only in the 14th century did they do all the work to transform it into a nice statue,\" said van Vilsteren. Researchers are still waiting on DNA analysis results to help trace the mummy back to its exact location in China.","highlights":"Chinese relic experts claim that a mummified monk encased in a statue was stolen .\nThe statue was bought in 1996 at a market in the Netherlands .\nResearchers believe the monk practiced \"self-mummification\"","id":"ef64bd06adb3f582a0c2f05601346126bbf36b90"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Pennsylvania State University fraternity has been suspended after allegedly posting on a private Facebook page compromising photos of women, including some who appeared to be asleep or passed out. The suspension of Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) fraternity comes as State College Police as well as university officials investigate the fraternity's alleged use of the online page with up to 144 active members, including current and former students. \"No arrests are being made at this time,\" State College Police Lt. Keith Robb said. \"Unfortunately, we aren't able to identify any suspects right now because the accounts on Facebook were sanitized, wiped clean.\" Robb said it has not yet been determined if any crime occurred. In a statement, college administrators said the fraternity's local chapter had been suspended for one year by the Penn State Interfraternity Council and that police and university officials were investigating. The statement said the fraternity used the private Facebook page to post \"highly inappropriate photographs ... of activities and events that are in direct violation of the standards and values of a recognized student organization at Penn State.\" The images allegedly included nude and partially nude women -- some seemed to pose, others appeared incapacitated. \"The evidence offered by the Facebook postings is appalling, offensive and inconsistent with the University community's values and expectations,\" the statement said. Penn State University President Eric Barron said in a separate statement Wednesday that the university will work with Kappa Delta Rho's national headquarters to determine whether the fraternity should be reinstated. The university is also considering whether fraternities will continue at Penn State, Barron said. \"It ... brings us to a point where we must ask if a re-evaluation of the fraternity system is required,\" he said. \"Some members of the University senior leadership believe it is, and we are considering our options.\" David Clohessy, director of the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said in a statement that the latest allegations call into question the university's handling of sex crime reports. \"For years now, Penn State enthusiasts have repeatedly reassured everyone who'd listen that the university's problematic culture about sex crimes had been 'reformed,\" Clohessy said. \"The latest allegations -- that fraternity members posted nude pictures of women on Facebook, some of whom appeared to be sleeping or passed out -- raise serious doubts about those claims.\" In 2012, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sexually molesting boys and sentenced to a 30- to 60-year prison term. Sandusky, who has maintained his innocence, is appealing. \"The Kappa Delta Rho is a wake-up call,\" Clohessy said. \"But the Sandusky case should have been a wake-up call too.\" A former member of Kappa Delta Rho alerted police to the page, telling them in January that it had been used by members to share photos of \"unsuspecting victims, drug sales and hazing,\" according to a copy of a police affidavit. The drugs allegedly included \"marijuana and edibles, concentrates, ADD medication, and some cocaine,\" the affidavit said. The former frat member who tipped off police told authorities that a second Facebook page called \"2.0\" allegedly had been created around April 2014 following complaints from a woman whose photo was posted on it, the affidavit said. The earlier version of the page was titled \"Covert Business Transactions.\" Rape, nude photos, racist behavior: Do fraternities make men behave badly? The ex-frat member told police that the victim was visiting the fraternity when she saw a topless photo of herself after a member accidentally left his Facebook page logged in, the affidavit said. The affidavit included photos of women and screen shots of cellphone text exchanges, including one from a woman who allegedly had no recollection of a sexual encounter and whether birth control was used. In the Sandusky case, the sensational trial featured the testimony of eight young men who said they were sexually abused by Sandusky -- either groped in a car, soaped by him in the shower or sexually assaulted on a basement waterbed. The scandal gripped the nation and ended a torturous chapter for the victims and Penn State's vaunted football program, including the dismissal of the late legendary coach Joe Paterno and one of America's highest-paid university presidents, Graham Spanier. It also tarnished Penn State's celebrated reputation in collegiate athletics. \"We hope that Penn State officials will stop patting themselves on the back and start instituting real reforms to make the campus safer for students,\" said Clohessy, whose group includes members who were allegedly molested by religious figures of all denominations. Attempts to reach the university and interfraternity council were unsuccessful. CNN's Laura Ly and Sara Ganim contributed to this report.","highlights":"University president: Penn State considers \"re-evaluation of the fraternity system\"\nPenn State University fraternity suspended over alleged private Facebook page .\nThe page allegedly includes photos of nude or partially nude women .","id":"396869086f621617bfe738c297f0badff29ed48f"} -{"article":"March 25, 2015 . Featured this Wednesday: The U.S. announces it will maintain its troop levels in Afghanistan through the rest of the year, Israel denies accusations that it spied on U.S.-led negotiations with Iran, a passenger plane crashes in the French Alps, and we feature a Character study involving a CNN Hero who's helping young people keep their eyes and ears healthy. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"79941d61c117f204e1069ca0db952a664898e82c"} -{"article":"(CNN)In fairy tales, it's usually the princess that needs protecting. At Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley, the princess is the one defending the castle. Meet Parisa Tabriz, the 31-year-old with perhaps the most enchanted job title in engineering -- \"Google Security Princess.\" Her job is to hack into the most popular web browser on the planet, trying to find flaws in the system before the \"black hats\" do. Indeed, much like the good and bad witches of the Wizard of Oz, hackers are described as having \"white\" or \"black\" hats. To defeat Google's attackers, Tabriz must firstly think like them. In this cyberspace battle, the data of around a billion Chrome users hangs in the balance -- and Tabriz wasn't going to settle for any old moniker. \"When I started, my official job title was 'Information Security Engineer,' which I thought was a bit boring and not really meaningful,\" said the Iranian-Polish-American, speaking a million miles an hour over the phone from Google HQ. \"So I changed it to 'Security Princess' as more of a tongue-in-cheek thing. I've never been exceptionally girly or fit the stereotype of a princess, so it was a bit ironic for me to go by that name -- and then it stuck!\" Tabriz's role has evolved dramatically in the eight years since she first started working at Google. Back then, the young graduate from Illinois University was one of 50 security engineers -- today there are over 500. \"Our users include presidents of foreign countries -- I hope Obama uses Chrome too. It includes really highly-targeted individuals, political dissidents, journalists, and people who just want to casually use the internet,\" she said. \"Google depends on those users trusting us with their data. So if we can't protect it, we have no business.\" Cybercrime has come a long way in the past decade -- from the cliched Nigerian Prince Scam to credit card theft, and suspected government surveillance over emails. Tabriz's biggest concern now is the people who find bugs in Google's software, and sell the information to governments or criminals. To combat this, the company has set up a Vulnerability Rewards Program, paying anywhere from $100 to $20,000 for reported glitches. \"What we've seen in the last couple of years is what we suspect to be governments trying to intercept communications,\" said Tabriz. \"In one case, there were Iranian-region Gmail users whose connection was being intercepted.\" \"These incidents are especially scary since they seem to be carried out by large, well-funded organizations or governments,\" she added. It's a world away from Tabriz's computer-free childhhod home in Chicago. The daughter of an Iranian-American doctor father, and Polish-American nurse mother, Tabriz had little contact with computers until she started studying engineering at college. Gaze across a line-up of Google security staff today and you'll find women like Tabriz are few and far between -- though in the last few years she has hired more female tech whizzes. She admits there's an obvious gender imbalance in Silicon Valley, but for once is stumped on the fault. \"Clearly the numbers make you think 'what is the problem that there aren't more women working in security, that there aren't more women working in technology?\" she said. \"And it does make me think what is the problem here? Is it the culture or the atmosphere?\" Funnily enough, during training sessions Tabriz first asks new recruits to hack not a computer, but a vending machine. \"There's this idea that you need to be a super genius computer geek to be a hacker. But in reality, I think anybody can be a hacker in the real world -- just think of all the non-software examples,\" said Tabriz. \"A lot of people ask me what's the best answer I've been given to the vending machine problem, and the real answer is there is none. Some people think about how they'd steal their favorite snack; some people figure out how to steal the entire machine of snacks; and some people figure out how they could add some sort of functionality to the machine that wasn't there before\" Tabriz's job is as much about technological know-how, as understanding the psychology of attackers. \"Anybody who's working in defense -- police officers, security, or law enforcement -- has to stop and think 'what is the enemy or the attacker going to do?'\" she said. \"Because you always want to stay one step ahead of them.\" Read more from Make, Create, Innovate: . The world's largest machine gets ready to restart . You will you soon be able to 'swallow the doctor' The end of electronics as we know it?","highlights":"Parisa Tabriz is the 31-year-old computer whizz paid to hack into Google .\nThe self-styled 'Security Princess' finds bugs in the software before attackers .","id":"734ec4840f2c8c2236b4de9f4e2a6ada2d591d1b"} -{"article":"(CNN)A previously unknown group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division posted the names, photos and addresses of about 100 U.S. troops online, calling for attacks against them. Whoever created the file, posted online Saturday before being removed, claimed to have hacked military databases and said it was leaking 100 names \"so that our brothers residing in America can deal with you.\" The possibility of lone-wolf attacks in the United States, the type that this message calls for, is a threat officials take seriously. Attorney General Eric Holder said last month that the threat of a lone-wolf attack inside the United States is one thing that keeps him awake at night. But there was nothing to immediately validate the claims made by this unknown group. A Defense Department official told CNN that it cannot confirm the validity of the online posting, but is looking into the claim. The FBI is also looking into it, a law enforcement official told CNN, adding there are questions about the credibility of those behind it. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service notified the Marines named in the file about this \"presently unverified threat,\" a Marine Corps spokesman said. The Navy reminded service members to make sure to limit the amount of personal information available online about themselves. The Army said in a statement Sunday that it was working with the Defense Department to \"determine the validity of any potential threats,\" and it echoed the Navy in advising soldiers \"to take prudent measures to limit the sharing of personal information online.\" A U.S. law enforcement official said that all 100 or so troops named in the file are being contacted. It is believed that ISIS members and sympathizers have been scouring social media sites trying to glean as much information as possible about service members, and have even threatened the spouses of military personnel online. The file appeared to include information that is already available publicly, through social media accounts, online phone directories and other accessible public records. In late November, the FBI issued a warning to U.S. military members that ISIS was calling for attacks against them, a law enforcement source told CNN. The source said that \"overseas based individuals are looking for like-minded individuals in the U.S. to carry out these attacks.\" The warning asked members of the military to \"review their online social media presence for any information that might attract the attention of violent extremists.\" The bulletin also said authorities were concerned that ISIS members were \"spotting and assessing\" individuals in the United States who may be interested in carrying out attacks inside the country against members of the military, a U.S. counterterror official told CNN. CNN's Barbara Starr, Pamela Brown, Kevin Bohn and Mary Kay Mallonee contributed to this report.","highlights":"An previously unknown group publishes a threat against U.S. troops .\nA threat has not been confirmed, and the credibility of the group is unknown .","id":"eab5d58a023bda80f8df876c0f40cb26a2094fed"} -{"article":"(CNN)Serena Williams has won 19 grand slam singles tennis titles, including six U.S. Opens and five Wimbledons. She has four Olympic gold medals. For years, she's had a reputation as one of her sport's top players. Yet for all her myriad accomplishments, Williams says one of her \"biggest ... and proudest moments\" came Friday night -- in the second round of a tournament in Indian Wells, California. It's not who she was playing, but where. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden is where Williams was booed during the 2001 finale. Her older sister, Venus, got similar treatment in the stands, and her father Richard told USA Today he was subjected to racial abuse. Afterward, Serena Williams vowed she'd never go back. She kept true to that promise for 14 years, a time when she often dominated her sport. On Friday, Williams was back. And instead of jeers, there were cheers. And tears, shed by Williams during the crowd's loud, boisterous, more than minute-long ovation. \"I knew that I really wanted to do it,\" Williams said afterward of her return to Indian Wells. \"But up until that moment, I didn't really know if it was the right thing for me to do. \"And I feel like that's when I felt it was the right thing,\" she said of her welcome. \"... Receiving the love from the crowd here, it really meant a lot to me.\" The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, just east of Palm Desert, California, isn't a grand slam but is one of the top tournaments in tennis. As such, top players go there to battle the best and prove their mettle. That's what brought Serena Williams to Indian Wells in 2001. The then-19-year-old got to the finals after her scheduled semifinal foe -- sister Venus -- pulled out minutes before the matching, citing a knee injury. Amid whispers he'd predetermined the outcome, Richard Williams told USA Today that he \"had trouble holding back tears\" given the treatment he got in the stands. According to him, one man said, \"I wish it was '75, we'd skin you alive.\" (Charlie Pasarell, the tournament director at the time, denied any racial abuse in the same story; CNN didn't hear back from him after requesting an interview.) Serena Williams scored a three-set win over Kim Clijsters. But she didn't celebrate. She spent hours crying in the locker room. \"(I drove) back to Los Angeles feeling as if I had lost the biggest game ever -- not a mere tennis game but a bigger fight for equality,\" Serena Williams wrote in TIME magazine in February. \"Emotionally it seemed easier to stay away.\" Serena speaks about nerves before 1st match back at Indian Wells . The roller-coaster ride back to Indian Wells started when Williams accepted a wild-card invitation to play in this year's tournament, a difficult decision she recounted in TIME. Her father and sister, Venus, still stayed away. While she's been on her sport's biggest stage for well over a decade, the world's No. 1-ranked played admitted being nervous in the weeks, days and hours leading to her opening match. Those feelings broke out in the open as she walked onto the court, a response she called \"overwhelming\" and said she \"wasn't really prepared for.\" The match itself wasn't easy, either. Romanian-born Monica Niculescu, the world's 68th-ranked player, challenged her for more than two hours. Still, Williams managed to overcome her competitor and her emotions to win in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5. Declining to reflect on the past, Williams simply said afterward, \"Today was a wonderful day for me, for women's tennis, ... for tennis in general, and for everyone.\" The 33-year-old still has a lot of matches ahead of her. That includes more at Indian Wells, whose talented field includes Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki. Still, for all her competitive fire, Williams isn't feeling much pressure to win. She feels like she has already won. \"I don't feel like I actually have to hold the trophy at the end of this,\" she said. \"I feel like I'm already holding the trophy. And I've never felt this way. 'I feel like just being here is a huge win, not only for me but for so many people. And it's a wonderful feeling.\" CNN's Ravi Ubha contributed to this report.","highlights":"Serena Williams' father claimed he was racially abused at Indian Wells in 2001 .\nShe returned to the event Friday night, being met with raucous cheers -- not jeers .","id":"0ce9f705e1e5e9df6efbfdd652dddae81d5eb442"} -{"article":"(CNN)There was a street named after Chuck Norris, but they had to change the name because nobody crosses Chuck Norris and lives. Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice. Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience. Chuck Norris is celebrating his 75th birthday -- but the calendar is only allowed to turn 39. That last one is true (well, the first part, anyway). The actor, martial-arts star and world's favorite tough-guy joke subject was born March 10, 1940, which makes him 75 today. Or perhaps he IS 39. Because maybe YOU can't beat time, but Chuck Norris can beat anything. Happy birthday!","highlights":"Tuesday is Chuck Norris' 75th birthday .\nThe actor and martial arts master is now known as subject of tough-guy one-liners .","id":"ca8c2f4d682b65e82ea7b911df34cd3440119553"} -{"article":"(CNN)Serena Williams had a big decision to make earlier this year, and she wanted to run it by her parents. She was nervous. She wanted to see whether they would support her going back to Indian Wells, California, to play in a tournament she had skipped 13 times since winning in 2001. The last time she was there, she had been booed loudly and lustfully. The fans were upset and sensed some sort of conspiracy that she didn't have to face her talented older sister in the semifinals. Venus Williams had withdrawn 10 minutes before their match with a knee injury. Many fans didn't buy it and thought it was orchestrated to give the younger Williams a chance for extra rest. Two days later, during the championship match, Serena Williams, 19 at the time, was jeered when she did well and cheered when she fared poorly. Then days after the tournament, which she won, her father, Richard, told USA Today that as he and Venus walked down the stairs to their seats, people kept calling him the N-word and one man said: \"I wish it was '75; we'd skin you alive.\" Neither Serena nor Venus has played in the tennis tournament since. That will end Friday when Serena Williams, the world No. 1, faces Monica Niculescu, the 68th-ranked player in a second-round match. The end of the boycott took a lot of conversations with a lot of people, Williams told reporters Thursday. Two of the most important were with her parents. \"It was a really emotional time for me,\" she said, saying the prospect of the talks made her a little nervous. She told them she wouldn't go back if they didn't want her to go. But they both said to play. Her dad said it would be a big mistake not to come back, she said. Williams said her mother said, \"I will be there for you.\" Venus Williams, the No. 11 singles player, isn't playing in the tournament, but Serena Williams said her older sister was 100% behind her. She is \"very happy that I am here. And even encouraged me to come,\" Serena Williams said. Serena Williams announced her return to the event in a TIME magazine first-person piece in February, writing she would ended her boycott in the spirit of forgiveness. She said Thursday that she didn't just have to forgive the fans at Indian Wells. \"In order to forgive, you have to be able to really let go of everything. I kind of let go a long time ago, and I kind of forgave, but I wasn't at point where I was ready to come back,\" she said. The timing seemed right this year, she said. She added that she will be a little nervous in her first match at the BNP Paribas Open. Still she was \"looking forward actually to kind of stepping out on center court and letting the whole world know that it doesn't matter what you face -- whether it's something that wasn't right, something that hurt you, hurt your family. You can just come out and be strong.\" CNN's Chris Borg and Tom McGowan contributed to this report.","highlights":"In 2001, her father said the family was the subject of racial slurs .\nNeither Serena or Venus Williams has played in the tournament since .\nSerena Williams says playing shows the world you can be strong in the face of intolerance .","id":"8d12cced408e62d539275392fc08d8127ac2e1fc"} -{"article":"(CNN)Pi Day is going to be extra special this year, as 2015 stretches the symbolic March 14 celebration out a little longer to 3.1415. And if you mark pi at 9:26.53 in the morning or night, you're just a little more in line with the celebrated irrational number that never ends. To 31 decimal places, pi is 3.1415926535897932384626433832795. A few more tidbits about pi and Pi Day: . About pi . Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It's not equal to the ratio of any two whole numbers, so an approximation -- 22\/7 -- is used in many calculations. Pi is essential in architecture and construction and was used frequently by early astronomers. Pi has been known for about 4,000 years, but it started to be called by the Greek letter only in the 1700s. The origin of Pi Day . Pi Day started 27 years ago at San Francisco's Exploratorium. Physicist Larry Shaw, who worked in the electronics group at the museum, started celebrating pi on March 14, 1988, primarily with museum staffers. The tradition has grown to embrace math enthusiasts from all walks of life. Celebrations . This year, the Exploratorium is hosting a day-long celebration at its facility on Pier 15, including a Pi Procession, servings of pie and a pizza pie dough-tossing event. Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday. In Princeton, New Jersey, where Einstein lived for more than two decades, signs of the scientist permeate the Pi Day festivities, from birthday parties at the Historical Society of Princeton to an Einstein lookalike contest. Plus the requisite pie-eating, pie-throwing and pizza pie creation. For more about pi, visit www.piday.org. CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this report.","highlights":"Pi Day is celebrated March 14 in honor of the famed irrational number .\nSan Francisco's Exploratorium and Princeton, New Jersey, go all out .","id":"eb21aeea0199f535253b80b7c2773306fa4351f3"} -{"article":"London (CNN)The discovery of the remains of Richard III beneath a car parking lot in the English city of Leicester in 2012 sparked excitement around the world. Now those bones are to be reburied following a series of commemorations full of the pomp and circumstance befitting of a royal farewell. In the years since it was exhumed, the King's skeleton has given up plenty of secrets -- and research continues to find out more. Say the name Richard III to most people, and the image that will spring to mind is of Shakespeare's villain, a cruel, conniving figure whose nasty character is reflected in his physical abnormalities, a \"poisonous bunch-backed toad.\" History, they say, is written by the victors, and according to the Tudors and their most famous playwright, Richard was hunchbacked, with a withered hand and limping gait, \"deformed, unfinished ... and that so lamely and unfashionable that dogs bark at me as I halt by them.\" For the archaeologists searching for Richard's remains, the sight of the freshly-uncovered skeleton's twisted spine was the moment the hairs began to stand up on the back of their necks; tests later revealed the King suffered from idiopathic adolescent-onset scoliosis. But while the skeleton's curved vertebrae are striking, experts say the resulting disability would not have been obvious in Richard III when he was alive. It would have meant his right shoulder was slightly higher than the other, but this was likely disguised by clothing, and so only apparent to the King's closest family and confidantes. READ MORE: Richard III's spine twisted, not hunched . The most famous portraits of Richard III depict him as dark-haired and steely eyed, but they were painted some 25 to 30 years after his death, and DNA tests on the remains suggest they are far from accurate. Genetic specialist Turi King, from the University of Leicester, said analysis of various genetic markers offered clues to the King's appearance, suggesting he was actually fair haired and had blue eyes. \"[There are] genes that we know are involved in coding for hair and eye color,\" she told CNN in December 2014. \"The genetic evidence shows he had a 96% probability of having blue eyes, and a 77% probability of having blond hair, though this can darken with age.\" This would mean that the painting of Richard III held by the Society of Antiquaries of London is the closest approximation we have to his real appearance: It shows him with grey-blue eyes and lighter brown hair than other portraits. READ MORE: DNA clue to Richard III's appearanceREAD MORE: Is this the face of Richard III? It is perhaps not surprising that a monarch would have a taste for the finer things in life, but heron -- really? Well yes -- in the medieval period wildfowl such as heron, egret and even swan would have featured heavily on the high-protein menus of the aristocracy. Scientists at the British Geological Survey measured the levels of isotopes including oxygen, strontium, nitrogen and carbon in Richard III's remains, revealing clues to what he ate and drank. They spotted a dramatic change in the last few years of his life -- suggesting his dietary habits became markedly richer once he became King. \"Obviously, Richard was a nobleman beforehand, and so his diet would be reasonably rich already,\" explained isotope geochemist Angela Lamb, who led the study. \"But once he became king we would expect him to be wining and dining more, banqueting more. \"We have the menu from his coronation banquet and it was very elaborate -- lots of wildfowl, including real 'delicacies' such as peacock and swan, and fish -- carp, pike and so on.\" READ MORE: King's bones reveal luxury lifestyle . Something in that rich diet made Richard III sick: Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Leicester found evidence the King was suffering from a roundworm infection when he died. Researchers examining soil samples from the pelvis and skull of the skeleton spotted roundworm eggs in the area where the dead monarch's intestines would have been. Roundworm eggs -- in this case Ascaris lumbricoides -- are ingested via contaminated food, water or soil; once hatched and matured, the worms can grow up to a foot long. \"Despite Richard's noble background, it appears that his lifestyle did not completely protect him from intestinal parasite infection, which would have been very common at the time,\" said Dr Jo Appleby, from the University of Leicester, who exhumed the King's remains. \"We would expect nobles of this period to have eaten meats such as beef, pork and fish regularly, but there was no evidence for the eggs of the beef, pork or fish tapeworm,\" said Dr Piers Mitchell of the University of Cambridge, adding that the lack of tapeworms suggested the food Richard III ate was thoroughly cooked. READ MORE: Richard III had roundworm infection . Richard III was the last English King to die in battle, at Bosworth on August 22, 1485. In his \"Anglica Historia,\" the Italian Polydore Vergil, recorded that: \"King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies.\" When archaeologists studied the remains unearthed in Leicester, they found evidence of 11 of wounds inflicted at or around the time of his death: Nine to his skull and two to other parts of his body. The position of the injuries suggest that Richard had lost both his horse and his helmet when he was set upon by opposition troops. \"The most likely injuries to have caused the king's death are the two to the inferior aspect of the skull -- a large sharp force trauma possibly from a sword or staff weapon, such as a halberd or bill, and a penetrating injury from the tip of an edged weapon,\" said Professor Guy Rutty, who said the wounds were consistent with accounts of what happened to him at Bosworth. Tests also found an injury to the inside of Richard III's pelvis which supports contemporary reports that his body was subjected to acts of ritual humiliation after his death. READ MORE: Richard III's fatal wounds revealed .","highlights":"Skeleton of Richard III found under English parking lot in August 2012 .\nRemains have been examined and researched, yielding some surprising discoveries .\nThe king -- the last English monarch to die in battle -- will be reburied in Leicester .","id":"a8bd5caaae3c27d8df270feb22f1862699be3cdd"} -{"article":"(CNN)We had no idea how much we would really, really, really, really like Tom Hanks lip-syncing to a Carly Rae Jepsen song, but we really do. Hanks shows up in the new video for \"I Really Like You,\" \"singing\" Jepsen's part throughout. The Oscar-winning actor is apparently playing himself, signing autographs for fans, and generally being a very cheery movie star, before he and Jepsen take part in a flash mob. So what exactly is Tom Hanks doing in this video in the first place? Turns out he is good friends with Scooter Braun, manager for Jepsen (and Justin Bieber, who also appears in the video). He even sang and danced at Braun's wedding. ABC reported that Hanks suggested himself to play the role, after Jepsen said it would be amusing for a man to lip-sync her song. The result, as you can see, is kind of magical.","highlights":"Tom Hanks makes surprise appearance in Carly Rae Jepsen video dancing and lip-syncing .\nHanks is friends with Jepsen's manager, Scooter Braun .\nHanks volunteered to be in the video .","id":"d2eadc7fcf8732d816d0dfcb3dc15735fc55a709"} -{"article":"(CNN)A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to release photos that allegedly show detainees being abused in detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration. The photos won't be made public right away. In an order issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York granted the government 60 days to appeal. The ACLU sued the Defense Department in 2003 to have the photos made public. It's not clear how many photos are involved or where the pictures were taken, but in an August opinion Hellerstein said the government acknowledged having at least 29 pictures from at least seven different locations in Afghanistan and Iraq and may have hundreds or thousands more. Some of the photos may have come from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In 2004, photos became public that showed American soldiers abusing Abu Ghraib detainees and putting them into humiliating sexual positions. People in the Mideast and Americans were outraged and shocked by the photos, which added to the national debate on the use of torture in the war on terror. Hellerstein said the government failed to prove its argument that releasing the photos would endanger American soldiers or civilians overseas. In July 2011, the judge blocked release of the photos at the urging of the secretary of defense because U.S. troops were still fighting in Iraq. By December 2011, most U.S. ground troops had withdrawn from Iraq, the judge wrote, and he didn't know whether release of the photos would affect military operations. \"Three years is a long time in war, the news cycle and the international debate over how to respond to terrorism,\" he wrote. The judge also said the government failed to convince him a collective review of the photos met the requirements of the Protected National Security Documents Act. The ACLU argued the Defense Department must individually review each photo and explain why its release would put Americans in danger. Jameel Jaffer, ACLU deputy legal director, said in a statement that the photos are \"the best evidence of what took place in the military's detention centers, and their disclosure would help the public better understand the implications of some of the Bush administration's policies.\" A response by the Pentagon to the judge's decision was not immediately available. The Pentagon has refused to release the photos requested by the ACLU, saying publication could endanger American soldiers and civilians overseas. Several U.S. military leaders who saw some of the pictures made that argument in a December 19 filing in the lawsuit. They pointed to public demonstrations in Mideast countries that followed reports of Quran burnings, the release of the video \"Innocence of the Muslims\" and the 2012 release of a video that showed Americans soldiers urinating on dead enemy combatants. Navy Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Islamist extremist groups like ISIS use \"imagery associated with United States detention practices\" as part of their recruiting efforts. The ACLU responded by saying the military leaders didn't see all the photos, just a sampling selected by an army lawyer. The ACLU also said the leaders didn't explain how the photos were \"similarly inflammatory.\" Their prediction of anti-American violence was only speculation, the ACLU said. \"To allow the government to suppress any image that might provoke someone, somewhere, to violence would be to give the government sweeping power to suppress evidence of its own agents' misconduct,\" Jaffer of the ACLU said.","highlights":"The ACLU sued the Department of Defense in 2003 for photos of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan .\nGovernment has said publication of the photos could endanger American soldiers and civilians overseas .","id":"67b5d9d1a87d78b64bc62d1377ba9af237e1ca2e"} -{"article":"(CNN)Singer-songwriter David Crosby hit a jogger with his car Sunday evening, a spokesman said. The accident happened in Santa Ynez, California, near where Crosby lives. Crosby was driving at approximately 50 mph when he struck the jogger, according to California Highway Patrol Spokesman Don Clotworthy. The posted speed limit was 55. The jogger suffered multiple fractures, and was airlifted to a hospital in Santa Barbara, Clotworthy said. His injuries are not believed to be life threatening. \"Mr. Crosby was cooperative with authorities and he was not impaired or intoxicated in any way. Mr. Crosby did not see the jogger because of the sun,\" said Clotworthy. According to the spokesman, the jogger and Crosby were on the same side of the road. Pedestrians are supposed to be on the left side of the road walking toward traffic, Clotworthy said. Joggers are considered pedestrians. Crosby is known for weaving multilayered harmonies over sweet melodies. He belongs to the celebrated rock group Crosby, Stills & Nash. \"David Crosby is obviously very upset that he accidentally hit anyone. And, based off of initial reports, he is relieved that the injuries to the gentleman were not life threatening,\" said Michael Jensen, a Crosby spokesman. \"He wishes the jogger a very speedy recovery.\"","highlights":"Accident happens in Santa Ynez, California, near where Crosby lives .\nThe jogger suffered multiple fractures; his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening .","id":"0044e296ecfe3ba57a351ad2a36d034491e878ce"} -{"article":"(CNN)Airstrikes started Wednesday in Tikrit, where Iraqi and coalition forces are battling to wrest control from ISIS. \"These strikes are intended to destroy ISIL strongholds with precision, thereby saving innocent Iraqi lives while minimizing collateral damage to infrastructure,\" said Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, commanding general of the international coalition, led by the United States. \"This will further enable Iraqi forces under Iraqi command to maneuver and defeat ISIL in the vicinity of Tikrit,\" he said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. At the request of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the coalition is providing \"airstrikes, airborne intelligence capabilities, and advise and assist support to Iraqi Security Force headquarters elements,\" it said. According to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the first wave of airstrikes was intended to hit about a dozen preplanned targets. Tikrit, best known to Westerners as the birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, fell in June to ISIS, which has captured large areas of Iraq and Syria for what it says is its Islamic caliphate. On March 1, al-Abadi ordered Iraqi forces to retake Tikrit and Salaheddin province. There have been several failed attempts to recapture Tikrit since the second half of 2014. If Iraq regains control of the city, it could mean that retaking Mosul -- a city 10 times bigger -- is possible. CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"These strikes are intended to destroy ISIL strongholds with precision,\" U.S. general says .\nCoalition is providing help asked for by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi .","id":"cc22964893de5237d1e093629489e18d73a7f4a5"} -{"article":"(CNN)Denise Huskins, who was reported kidnapped two days ago in Vallejo, California, has been found safe more than 400 miles away, authorities and her father said Wednesday. Huskins' boyfriend Monday afternoon called police and said she had been abducted that morning from his home in the Bay Area. About 48 hours later, she was located an hour south of Los Angeles. Officers from the Huntington Beach Police Department found Huskins at her father's apartment complex, department spokeswoman Jennifer Marlatt told reporters. Huskins, 29, is in good condition and had no apparent injuries, Marlatt said. Huskins left with police to meet several family members. Vallejo police Lt. Kenny Park said that the case was being treated as a kidnap for ransom and investigators hoped to get a clearer picture of what happened by talking to Huskins later that night. It was unclear whether that would happen in Vallejo or whether detectives would have to travel to Huntington Beach, some 420 miles away. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that her father, Michael Huskins, said in a telephone interview that he received a voice mail from his daughter Wednesday morning saying she had been dropped off at his apartment. He called police to ask that the authorities pick her up and make sure she was safe, he told the newspaper. \"I almost had a heart attack,\" he said, according to the Chronicle. \"I tried to get authorities to pick her up, but they kept asking me a bunch of questions. I said, 'Send a squad car.' I was hyperventilating.\" Earlier, Michael Huskins had made an emotional appeal through CNN affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco directed at the kidnappers: Don't hurt her, please don't hurt her.\" \"The biggest fear is the horror she might be going through ... that's my biggest fear. The horror, she doesn't deserve that, not from anybody.\" \"It's like a nightmare that I can't wake up from,\" her father told the affiliate. \"This is not supposed to happen.\" Police have not ruled anyone out as a potential suspect, Park told reporters. He declined to give much information about the case, including whether a ransom had been paid. He said he was unaware of any relationship between the man and woman. Park did say the man is both a witness and a \"potential victim.\" Michael Huskins has said the couple had been dating for seven months. When asked whether police have considered that this might not be a kidnapping, Park said: \"We're looking at all possible angles.\" The FBI is involved, he said. The Chronicle posted an audio clip on which Denise Huskins says she has been abducted. Her father confirmed the voice on the recording is hers. In it, she says: \"My name is Denise Huskins. I am kidnapped, otherwise I'm fine. Earlier today there was a plane crash in Alps and 158 people died. And one thing that people know about me is that I went to my first concert, me and my mom, to Blink 182 (last word is inaudible): . The editor in chief of the Chronicle, Audrey Cooper, said in a written statement that the newspaper received a link to the audio file in an email. The Chronicle reported the anonymous email said Huskins would be \"returned safely (Wednesday). We will send a link to her location after she has been dropped off. She will be in good health and safe while she waits. Any advance on us or our associates will create a dangerous situation for Denise. Wait until she is recovered and then proceed how you will. We will be ready.\" CNN's Dan Simon, Tony Marco, Faith Karimi, Elan Bird, Michael Martinez, Stella Chan, Rosalina Nieves and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police say case is still being treated as a kidnapping for ransom .\nFather of missing woman tells newspaper she called him from his apartment .\nAbductors seized Denise Huskins on Monday, her boyfriend told authorities .","id":"c64377701f058b7c93ce36ad86bd0b635093e8a7"} -{"article":"(CNN)Retired NFL star Darren Sharper changed course and pleaded guilty Monday to one count of sexual assault and one count of attempted sexual assault. Sharper has been in jail in Los Angeles since last year, but this case was in Arizona. Sharper and his attorney had a telephone meeting with Judge Warren Granville, where the former player and television analyst changed his plea. The judge sentenced Sharper to nine years in prison with no eligibility for early release, Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman Jerry Cobb said. Sharper will also be placed on lifetime probation afterward. Sharper, a five-time Pro Bowl player, originally faced five counts of drugging and raping three women in Scottsdale, Arizona, in November 2013. Before being indicted in Arizona, Sharper was arrested in California on charges of drugging and raping two women in that state. He was also under investigation in other states. Florida prosecutors announced last year they would not prosecute Sharper on similar allegations, but he faces federal charges in Louisiana. Sharper played for the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints from 1997 through the 2010 season. The five-time Pro Bowl player intercepted 63 passes in his career, tying for seventh all-time. He is tied for second all-time in interceptions returned for touchdowns with 11, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. He later worked as an analyst for NFL Network. Sharper will get about 300 days credit for time already served in California, Cobb said. CNN's Steve Almasy contributed to this report.","highlights":"Former NFL star Darren Sharper pleaded guilty to sexual assault .\nInitially he had pleaded not guilty .\nHe is facing additional charges in other states .","id":"d15b5900dca22139b21a96a11436210c58e7740d"} -{"article":"(CNN)A quick descent. No distress call. The pilot's actions. It will be months, or longer, before the causes behind Tuesday's crash of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 are known, but there are initial clues that aviation experts say will be the most important to investigators. Speculation comes in the wake of any tragedy such as this, but experts say certain facts can be significant for those who want to know what happened. The most useful clues so far: . One of the plane's \"black boxes\" has been recovered, the French interior minister said. The data recorder will be the most useful in determining the cause of the crash. Its contents are still unknown, but it is a good sign that it was found just hours after the crash. France's aviation accident investigation bureau will examine the device immediately, the interior minister said. Real-time flight data available to the public tells a key part of the story. According to online flight trackers, the Germanwings plane had been flying at 38,000 feet when, about 30 minutes into the trip, it started descending. Six minutes later, it was recorded at 24,000 feet -- a drop of 14,000 feet. It continued to descend after that -- it's last recorded altitude was 11,400 feet. The rate of descent indicates that the pilot was still controlling the plane to some extent, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said. If the engines had stalled, the plane would have crashed in less time, she said. Departure: Barcelona, Spain, at 10:01 a.m. (26 minutes late) Destination: Scheduled to land in Dusseldorf, Germany, at 11:39 a.m. Passengers: 150 (144 passengers, six crew members) Airplane: Airbus A320 (twin-jet) Airline: Germanwings (budget airline owned by Lufthansa) Flight distance: 726 miles . Last known tracking data: 10:38 a.m. Last known speed: 480 mph . Last known altitude: 11,400 feet . Last known location: Near Digne-les-Bains, France, in the Alps . Sources: CNN and flightaware.com . The initial data about the plane's descent means that the pilot could have been trying to make an emergency landing, or that the plane was gliding with the pilot's guidance, Schiavo said. A scenario where the plane was gliding is potentially more dangerous because wide fields for landing would be hard to come by in the mountains, she said. Another aviation analyst, David Soucie, said the quickness of the descent shows something went wrong, but also that the plane was not out of control. The plane was descending \"faster than an elevator at that point. You're feeling it down. It's pulling you down, and you can sense that,\" Soucie said. A telling piece of data is that the plane maintained speed as it descended, he said. It could show that the pilot was aware that something was wrong and was controlling the speed as the plane went down. \"It was a controlled descent, and there was something that had gone wrong that he had no control over or he would have controlled it,\" Soucie said. The data on air traffic accidents are clear: A majority of accidents happen upon takeoff or landing. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, even though 83% of a plane's flight time is taken up with the climb, cruise and descent phases, less than 16% of accidents happen during this period. Soucie described the timing of the crash as an \"anomalous thing that happened.\" It is \"incredibly rare to happen in the middle of the flight,\" he said, meaning the pilot would have to act fast. Contrary to some early reports, the French Civil Aviation Authority told CNN that the crew of the Germanwings plane did not issue a distress call. It was air traffic controllers who sent out a distress call after radio contact with the plane was lost. The lack of an emergency call can raise a red flag to a nonpilot. Why would a pilot not alert someone that there is an emergency? Does it hint to an incursion in the cockpit or a pilot's motives? It might sound counterintuitive, but calling for help is not the first thing on a pilot's checklist when things go wrong. Soucie said the principle that a pilot follows during an emergency is this: Aviate, navigate and communicate. In other words, before turning on a distress call or transponder, the pilot's first concern is to fly the plane, and secondly, to find the safest option for a crash landing, if it comes to that. The Germanwings pilot \"was definitely aviating and navigating from what we can tell,\" Soucie said. The pilot was conceivably looking for a place to try to land, he said. A distress call -- had it happened -- could have signaled a different story. Schiavo explained that there are codes that pilots have -- certain words that if uttered by the pilot indicate to air traffic controllers that there is a hijacking. The initial reports are that there was no hijack code transmitted from the plane. A big part of determining the cause of the crash will be whether such a code was sent or not. \"I don't think you'd rule anything out at this point,\" CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien said. \"It's not like it appears as if it was an in-flight breakup. So what was going on in the cockpit is what we're going to be talking about in the coming days.\" O'Brien pointed out the known details of the crash -- a rapid descent, no radio call and a flight that continues into the mountains -- are not part of a \"typical emergency scenario.\" There were no reported weather issues during the plane's flight, but that does not mean you can rule these out as a possible cause, pilot and CNN aviation analyst Les Abend said. One thing Abend was looking at was a cold front progressing in the area where the plane was. It indicated some precipitation at lower altitudes. So there may not have been bad weather at the cruising altitude, but \"at lower altitudes, as they were beginning the descent, their visibility may have been obscured,\" Abend said. Reduced visibility in and of itself is not a huge issue, but the weather may have deteriorated as the plane descended and be a possible factor in the crash, he said.","highlights":"CNN aviation analyst says this is not a typical emergency incident, but all possibilities are part of probe .\nThe cause behind the crash of the Germanwings plane is unknown .\nThere are early clues, however, that will be key to investigators .","id":"e1c4c9f9a3e90a914377de7786b1e41a7f51f43c"} -{"article":"(CNN)The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that it plans to admit to its Maryland hospital an American health care worker with Ebola. The person was volunteering at an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone, and will be flown back to the United States on a chartered aircraft and admitted Friday, the NIH said. No other details were immediately available. The patient will be the second with Ebola admitted to the NIH hospital. Nina Pham, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, was admitted to NIH in October after she contracted the disease while treating Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan. Pham recovered and was released free of disease. Duncan died. Nurse who contracted Ebola sues hospital company . NIH is one of only four hospitals in the United States that have biocontainment units and has been practicing for years to treat a highly infectious disease such as Ebola. More than 10,000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, mostly in the countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. CNN's Athena Jones contributed to this report.","highlights":"American being flown from Africa to Maryland hospital; to arrive Friday .\nNIH has one of only four U.S. hospital biocontainment units .","id":"505c44648e3df070b3da96f9911b390c4a30db72"} -{"article":"(CNN)Last summer, amid startling news reports of manipulation, mismanagement and possibly death caused by failures at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress came together and passed legislation to overhaul veterans' access to health care. I was proud to sponsor the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 (the Choice Act), and deliver good news to veterans: They would have a choice when it comes to accessing health care they deserve, and many would have the option of seeing their local physician. Now, the VA is trying to take the choice away. A mere six months after the Choice Act was signed into law, and only three months after veterans began to receive their Choice Cards, the President's budget attempts to reallocate the law's emergency funds that are solely meant to pay for veterans' health care in their communities. The VA says these funds aren't being used quickly enough because veterans aren't interested in getting care from their local physicians. That could not be further from the truth. Thousands of veterans are struggling to access the care they were promised through the Choice Act because of the VA's flawed implementation of the law and foolish interpretation of the 40-mile rule in the distance criteria. When Congress passed the Choice Act, the intent was that veterans be allowed to access local health care if they cannot receive the VA care they need within 40 miles of their home, or their wait time for an appointment is more than 30 days. Unfortunately, the VA decided to narrow the interpretation of the 40-mile rule, choosing to take into account only the distance of a VA medical facility from a veteran's home and not whether the VA facility can actually provide the services the veteran needs. Veterans are being told they cannot use their Choice Cards because they live within 40 miles of a VA facility, even though that facility does not offer the care they require. The VA is denying the access the law was intended to provide and forcing veterans to choose between traveling hours to a VA medical facility, paying out of pocket or going without care altogether. Veterans simply want what they were promised in the Choice Act: the choice to access the care they deserve in their community. In my hometown of Hays, Kansas, a veteran is forced to drive 200 miles several times a month for routine cortisone shots because the VA outpatient clinic just 25 miles from his home does not offer the shots he needs. One would think this veteran could use his Choice Card to visit a local physician or local hospital to get the shots he needs -- but the VA is denying access to this care. Thousands of veterans across the country are facing this same frustration. Why is common sense not prevailing at the VA? Why is the VA not bending over backward to take care of veterans? As a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I have questioned VA Secretary Bob McDonald and other VA officials for months in hearings, personal meetings, phone calls and correspondence about the VA's flawed interpretation of the 40-mile rule and what can be done to fix the problem. Congress specifically included language in the Choice Act that gives the VA the authority and flexibility it needs to provide veterans with access to care outside the VA when the care needed by a veteran is \"either unavailable or not cost-effective to provide at a VA facility.\" But for some reason, the VA refuses to use the authority Congress gave it and put the best interest of veterans first. Enough is enough. In the absence of VA action, I authored legislation that would make certain veterans are not dismissed or forgotten just because of where they live. The Veterans Access to Community Care Act of 2015 (S. 207) would require the VA to utilize its authorities, including the Choice Act, to offer community care to veterans who are currently unable to receive the health care services they need from a VA medical facility within 40 miles of where they live. This legislation enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress and has been endorsed by numerous veterans' organizations, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, Vietnam Veterans of America and the National Guard Association of the United States. When Congress passed the Choice Act, we called on the VA to live up to its commitment to care for those who have sacrificed for our country -- and we will not back down. We ought to always err on the side of what is best for the veteran, not what is best for the Department of Veterans Affairs.","highlights":"Veterans' Choice Act was signed into law in August 2014 .\nJerry Moran: VA is denying the access the law was intended to provide .","id":"c32b3142cf3fba3f4de6a61f1a46cfd4188eb218"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two years after she underwent a double mastectomy to cut her cancer risk, actress and U.N. envoy Angelina Jolie has had surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes for the same reason, she wrote in The New York Times on Tuesday. Jolie, 39, carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which sharply increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Her mother was diagnosed with the latter at age 49 and died seven years later. In her New York Times op-ed Tuesday, Jolie said she had been planning the latest preventive surgery for some time. Doctors: Angelina Jolie did the right thing . But a blood test that revealed worrying markers accelerated the process, the Hollywood star said. Her doctor told her he wanted her to see a surgeon immediately to check her ovaries. \"I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt,\" she wrote. \"I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.\" Her husband, Oscar-winning actor Brad Pitt, was on a plane back from France within hours, she wrote. \"The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity. You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarizing, and it is peaceful,\" she wrote. Further tests came back negative for tumors, Jolie wrote. \"There was still a chance of early stage cancer, but that was minor compared with a full-blown tumor. To my relief, I still had the option of removing my ovaries and fallopian tubes and I chose to do it.\" Jolie stresses that not all women with the same BRCA1 gene mutation should feel they must automatically leap to surgery, but she urges them to explore their options and take control. Her family history -- she lost her grandmother and aunt to cancer, as well as her mother -- combined with the gene mutation meant that in her case, the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes seemed the best course. While not as complex as the mastectomy surgery, its effects are more severe, Jolie said, since it puts a woman into forced menopause. She must now take estrogen and progesterone in order to keep a hormonal balance. She will not be able to have more children and foresees physical changes, she said. But Jolie acknowledged she was lucky because she already has a family, unlike some women who face this difficult decision. \"It is not possible to remove all risk, and the fact is I remain prone to cancer,\" she said. \"I will look for natural ways to strengthen my immune system. I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family. I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer.'\" Opinion: I know how Jolie feels . The actress has been in a relationship with Pitt since the mid-2000s. They have three biological and three adopted children. She wrote two years ago that her preventive double mastectomy had cut her risk of developing breast cancer from 87% to 5%. Jolie serves as a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and has visited refugee camps around the world. She is also a vocal global campaigner on the issue of sexual violence against women.","highlights":"Jolie says she'd been planning to have the surgery for some time but test results speeded the process .\nShe urges other women at high risk of developing cancer to explore their options and take control .\nJolie: \"I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer'\"","id":"d725b9c40fa11bf6ad0ac1102a9ce3a7e1aab852"} -{"article":"(CNN)The BBC has suspended Jeremy Clarkson, the host of car show \"Top Gear,\" following \"a fracas with a BBC producer,\" the broadcaster said in a statement. \"Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation,\" they said. \"No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday.\" Fans of the presenter expressed dismay at the decision. At the time of writing, more than 147,000 people had signed a petition seeking his reinstatement. Using the hashtag #BringBackClarkson, some Twitter users lamented that the show would not be the same without him. Clarkson himself also took to Twitter, posting an apology (of sorts) to Labour leader Ed Miliband -- for knocking him down the news agenda. \"Save Clarkson?\" his co-host James May tweeted. \"Save empty cardboard boxes and off-cuts of string. They're far more useful.\" This is not the first time that Clarkson has been at the center of controversy. In May this year, the television presenter asked forgiveness after using a racist term during a taping of the show. Clarkson had mumbled the n-word while reciting a children's nursery rhyme, but that version of the take was never aired. Last year, the BBC show hit the headlines when Argentina complained about a \"Top Gear\" special filmed in the country in which the number plate H982 FKL was used -- interpreted by some as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War. Forced to stop filming and leave the country, Clarkson said on the BBC Newsbeat website that the use of the plate was purely coincidental. In a previous article on their website, the BBC said \"Jeremy Clarkson is not a man given to considered opinion.\" In their statement, the corporation declined to comment any further. Jeremy Clarkson: Hated by liberals, loved by the elite .","highlights":"Presenter was involved in an encounter with a BBC producer .\n'Top Gear' was due to air this Sunday, episode pulled from schedule .","id":"2cd984b2fa48faf554a5f4c9e2cfc40c22df7324"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States, says the church has strong measures in place to prevent the sexual abuse of scouts, as claims have been made it hasn't done enough. In the first interview about allegations of abuse in Mormon church-sponsored scouting troops, Church Elder L. Whitney Clayton told CNN that the church is at the forefront for prevention of child abuse. \"We feel like there is really no other organization that we know of -- a church or something like a church -- that does as much as we do,\" Clayton said. \"We have a zero tolerance policy or position with respect to child abuse, and we train our people, we teach our people, we work with leaders, we provide materials online and in hard copy.\" Over several months, CNN examined allegations of abuse that were detailed in at least five lawsuits filed against the church and the scouts. But Clayton said the church today is proactive, even constructing its buildings \"in such a way as to try to avoid any situation where child abuse could occur.\" \"For instance, if you walk down the hallway in an LDS chapel, a Mormon church, and look at the Sunday school classes, you're going to see windows in the doorways into those Sunday school classes so people can look inside and walk by,\" he said. The interview with Clayton followed a CNN investigation into the case of Melvin Novak, who was sexually abused by his scoutmaster, a member of the Mormon Church, beginning when he was 14 years old in 1998, according to the lawsuit Novak filed against the church and the Boy Scouts of America. The scoutmaster, Vance Hein, had been forced in resign from scouting in the early 1990s after reports surfaced that he failed to report a fellow scoutmaster who was engaged in homosexual activities. That scoutmaster ended up going to prison for sexual assaults on minors. Hein's name was added to the Boy Scouts of America's ineligible volunteer files, which are widely known as the \"perversion files.\" The documents, which were made public in 2012, are lists of scout leaders suspected of sexual abuse or homosexual activity. However, three years after being kicked out of scouting, Hein was allowed to rejoin the scouts after getting letters of recommendation attesting to his character. One of those letters was from Hein's influential Mormon Bishop Jack Moyer, who wrote that Hein was \"highly respected and liked.\" Moyer, who is now retired, declined to speak to CNN. But in a deposition taken as part of the lawsuit last year, he acknowledged that he would not have written the letter knowing what he later found out about Hein. The lawsuit charged that Hein \"actively groomed young boys under his charge for later sexual molestation.\" Hein eventually was convicted of molesting Novak. He is now in prison for violating probation in the Novak case. Ken Rothweiler, who is Novak's lawyer, said what happened in the case is outrageous. \"This case is probably the most egregious of all of the cases against the LDS church, and the reason I say that is because the LDS church knew that Vance Hein, this pedophile, was already kicked out of scouting by the Boy Scouts of America,\" Rothweiler said. However, church attorney David Pittinsky said it was the Boy Scouts organization that should have done something. \"If the Boy Scouts had disclosed to Bishop Moyer the information they had in their files, there is no way that Vance Hein would have ever become a scoutmaster, and he would have been subject to excommunication by the church,\" Pittinsky said. In a statement to CNN, the Boy Scouts of America said Hein was removed from scouting \"for reasons unrelated to child abuse.\" The group added, \"Our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong. We extend our deepest apologies to victims and their families.\" Read the full response from the Boy Scouts . The case ended last year with a confidential settlement paid to Novak, who is now 31. All but one of the five lawsuits filed against the church and Boy Scouts of America have been settled. Hein was sentenced to probation in 2000 after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting Novak. While on probation, he was arrested for possession of child pornography and was sentenced in 2012 to 15 to 30 years in prison. \"Any case is alarming to me. It's a tragedy,\" Clayton said. \"I'm a father. I have seven children, four boys and three girls. I have 19 grandchildren. The thought of one of them as a child or youth being abused is absolutely horrific to me.\" Asked what he would say to Novak, Clayton said, \"I say to him and anyone else who has been abused in the church or other churches -- I'm sorry that you've gone through what you've gone through. It's a horrible thing for anyone to be abused. No child, no youth should ever have to go through that.\"","highlights":"Church elder says LDS church is at forefront of preventing child abuse .\nCNN investigated abuse allegations detailed in at least five lawsuits .\nChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in U.S.","id":"574c8507f8a5acc2290180a105fbe073901db715"} -{"article":"(CNN)Can't see Harry Potter's Albus Dumbledore as gay? Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has a terse message for you. Rowling revealed that the Hogwarts School headmaster was gay after \"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,\" the final book in the boy wizard series, was released in 2007. Fan Ana Kocovic started the exchange by asking the author, \"I wonder why you said that Dumbledore is gay because I can't see him in that way.\" \"Maybe because gay people just look like ... people?\" Rowling wrote in her March 24 reply. Rowling's fans loved it.","highlights":"A Harry Potter fan took to social media to say she didn't see Dumbledore as gay .\nAuthor J.K. Rowling's quick response won the day on Twitter .","id":"6977ce0cd7ca3f614ea06783822586c0b79a37e3"} -{"article":"(CNN)The reported kidnapping of a Vallejo, California, woman for ransom this week was nothing but a hoax, police said. Vallejo police Lt. Kenny Park went as far as to call it a \"wild goose chase\" that wasted department resources. Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn, who reported the kidnapping Monday, are no longer cooperating with police, Park said. Huskins was found safe on Wednesday, more than 400 miles away in Huntington Beach. Officers from the Huntington Beach Police Department talked with Huskins, 29, at her father's apartment complex, department spokeswoman Jennifer Marlatt told reporters. The case has authorities scratching their heads. Huskins initially indicated she would be happy to talk with Vallejo police and provide details of what happened, according to Park. Anxious to talk with her, Vallejo police and the FBI sent a jet to Huntington Beach to fly her back to the Bay Area. When it was time to go, Huskins was a no show. \"As of right now, we have not heard from Miss Huskins and we are no longer in contact with any of the family members,\" Park said late Wednesday. The family has retained an attorney. Like Huskins, Quinn isn't talking. Charges are possible in the case, Park said, but those will be decided by the district attorney once the investigation is complete. The quickly changing developments left authorities frustrated. Quinn called on Monday afternoon to report that his girlfriend had been kidnapped several hours earlier from his home. At the time, Park said that the case was being treated as a kidnap for ransom. Huskins' father, Michael, made an emotional appeal through CNN affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco directed at the kidnappers: \"Don't hurt her, please don't hurt her.\" \"The biggest fear is the horror she might be going through ... that's my biggest fear. The horror, she doesn't deserve that, not from anybody.\" \"It's like a nightmare that I can't wake up from,\" her father told the affiliate. \"This is not supposed to happen.\" Then, the San Franciso Chronicle posted an audio clip. On it, a woman who identified herself as Denise Huskins says she has been abducted. \"My name is Denise Huskins. I am kidnapped, otherwise I'm fine,\" the voice says. \"Earlier today there was a plane crash in Alps and 158 people died. And one thing that people know about me is that I went to my first concert, me and my mom, to Blink 182 (last word is inaudible).\" The editor in chief of the Chronicle, Audrey Cooper, said the newspaper received a link to the audio file in an email. The Chronicle reported the anonymous email said Huskins would be \"returned safely (Wednesday). We will send a link to her location after she has been dropped off. She will be in good health and safe while she waits. Any advance on us or our associates will create a dangerous situation for Denise. Wait until she is recovered and then proceed how you will. We will be ready.\" Then came Wednesday. The Chronicle reported that Huskins' father said he received a voice mail from his daughter saying she had been dropped off at his apartment. He called police to ask that the authorities pick her up and make sure she was safe, he told the newspaper. \"I almost had a heart attack,\" he said, according to the Chronicle. \"I tried to get authorities to pick her up, but they kept asking me a bunch of questions. I said, 'Send a squad car.' I was hyperventilating.\" Authorities are unclear what exactly is going on. Or , if they know, they're not saying. Police said the requested ransom amount was $8,500. The FBI is investigating the Huskins' financial records. About 40 detectives from various agencies and 100 support personnel \"worked around the clock\" on the case, leaving the community on edge, Park said. \"I can tell you that our investigation has concluded that none of the claims has been substantiated,\" he said. \"And I can go one step further to say this: That this was not a random act and that the members of our community are safe and that they have nothing to fear.\" \"It's disappointing. It's disheartening,\" he said. CNN's Dan Simon, Tony Marco, Faith Karimi, Ashley Fantz, Elan Bird, Michael Martinez, Stella Chan, Rosalina Nieves and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police call the case a hoax, a \"wild goose chase\"\nAbductors seized Denise Huskins on Monday, her boyfriend told authorities .","id":"a9cafc78f155e2de083c51e544e320dfaa201edb"} -{"article":"(CNN)As a youngster, Rohana Rozhan had a nickname that summed her up perfectly: \"Rohana the Piranha.\" Even as a little girl growing up in Malaysia, the future CEO of a $4.6 billion media company was small but deadly. \"I was born independent, fiercely so,\" 51-year-old Rozhan told CNN's Kristie Lu-Stout. \"I always had a chip on my shoulder that I had to prove to everyone that I'm independent.\" Today she's proved it -- and then some. Rozhan heads Astro Malaysia, one of the biggest media and entertainment firms in the region. She's in charge of producing over 9,000 hours of original content a year -- ranging from radio broadcasts to hits on the silver screen. \"We have 52% women working at Astro, but one of the things we are very very passionate about, is that each woman has to be the best person for the job.\" \"If you grow up a good Muslim, Malay girl, one of the things you have to learn is you can be the smartest kid on the block, but you have to be respectful.\" \"You have to want it, but you can't just want it without the work. You have to want it, yet understand, that it's not going to be easy.\" Inspire: Patricia Arquette's rallying cry . Get involved: International Women's Day events you'd be crazy to miss .","highlights":"Meet Rohana Rozhan, boss of multi-billion dollar Astro Malaysia .\nSays secret to success is reflecting audience within workforce .","id":"95e6d14f5786c17ff2c3ac5397be936e0166945c"} -{"article":"(CNN)Actor Jon Hamm, who plays hard-drinking Don Draper on the hit AMC show \"Mad Men,\" has recently completed a 30-day stint in rehab for alcohol abuse, TMZ reports. The celebrity-news site says Hamm checked himself into the high-end Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, at the end of February. \"With the support of his longtime partner Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm recently completed treatment for his struggle with alcohol addiction,\" said representatives for Hamm in a statement to TMZ, People and other media outlets. \"They have asked for privacy and sensitivity going forward.\" The news comes less than two weeks before \"Mad Men,\" which explores the lives of New York advertising executives in the 1960s, begins its final eight-episode run on April 5. Filming for the final episodes was completed months ago. Missouri native Hamm, 44, toiled in near-obscurity for years in Hollywood before finding fame in 2007 as the tormented, womanizing Draper, for which he won a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV drama. He has been nominated for an acting Emmy seven times for \"Mad Men\" but has never won.","highlights":"Report: Actor Jon Hamm of \"Mad Men\" has completed a 30-day stint in rehab for alcohol abuse .\nAMC's \"Mad Men\" begins its final eight-episode run on April 5 .","id":"12cbbcabdbaac8e4bb7afb1b4c86be396c311393"} -{"article":"(CNN)Creflo Dollar is hoping a few folks will see fit to bless him. The minister, known for being a prosperity preacher at his Atlanta-area World Changers Church International, is seeking \"200,000 people committed to sow $300 or more (to) help achieve our goal to purchase the G650 airplane.\" The figures were presented Friday in a nearly six-minute video on the Creflo Dollar Ministries website and total more than $60 million needed to buy the Gulfstream G650, which goes for a reported $65 million. The page featuring the video and information on the fundraiser has been taken down, but those wishing to donate are still able to do so on the church's gift page. The project isn't limited to member donations, as the site states that \"we are asking members, partners and supporters of this ministry to assist us in acquiring a Gulfstream G650.\" The request goes on to detail that the luxury jet will transport Pastors Creflo and Taffi Dollar and member of the Dollars' church around the globe to help them spread the gospel. Prosperity gospel is a theology that promises wealth and health to those who tithe 10% of their income to the church. The video includes parishioners, a pilot, a project manager and even the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, advocating on behalf of the pastor. On the video, the pastor chronicles incidents involving his current jet, which has been in service for more than three decades: The right engine went out en route to Australia, but the plane was able to safely land at its destination thanks to the experience of the pilot and crew. During another trip, mechanical failure caused the jet to skid off a runway in London while Taffi Dollar and their three daughters were aboard. Dollar attributed his family's safe arrival to \"a grace working on that airplane, that brought my girls back home to me, you understand what I am saying?\" he said from the pulpit to thunderous applause. Dollar said that after those incidents, he \"knew that it was time to begin to believe God for a new airplane.\" The Gulfstream G650 would comfortably allow the ministry make its way around the world. It seats up to 14 passengers with berthing for six, according to gulfstream.com. The jet comes with two Rolls-Royce engines, high-speed Internet and two multichannel satellites and allows for a four-and-a-half-hour commute from New York to Los Angeles. \"The G650 is the biggest, fastest, most luxurious, longest range and most technologically advanced jet -- by far,\" according to the site. In soliciting the donations, Dollar's site states, \"We need your help to continue reaching a lost and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ. Your love gift of any amount will be greatly appreciated.\" Attempts to contact Dollar's ministry for comment were unsuccessful.","highlights":"Link to video asking church members to pledge goes to error page .\nThe preacher wants to buy a new jet, as his current one is more than 30 years old .\nThe jet would be used to help spread the gospel, Dollar says .","id":"08328783270424a5bb579392813a6dca5f079a26"} -{"article":"(CNN)The next time someone accuses you of acting like a Neanderthal, don't be offended. Just say \"thank you.\" A new study published this month suggests Neanderthals were more \"cognitively advanced than we give them credit,\" Kansas University's David Frayer said in a release. Frayer, a professor emeritus of anthropology, was a part of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE that looks at eagle talons found in present-day Croatia. The talons are among the thousands of human remains, animal bones and tools originally excavated between 1899 and 1905 in the area by Croatian scientist Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger. Only recently, however, did Frayer identify the cut marks and notches on the 130,000-year-old bones as ones modified by humans. \"I was stunned,\" Frayer said of the discovery. \"It's so obvious that these are cut.\" The markings, including polishes and areas where the bones were \"rubbed together,\" show that the talons were \"manipulated into a piece of jewelry,\" Frayer said. Frayer co-wrote \"Evidence for Neanderthal Jewelry: Modified White-tailed Eagle Claws at Krapina\" with three other Croatian scientists. Their research indicates Neanderthals were more than just the cavemen-like characters depicted in Geico commercials, but sophisticated creatures concerned with ornamentation and possibly even an \"advanced level of prowess\" in catching birds, according to Frayer. \"We can't prove it, but we suspect that they were catching these birds,\" he said. Even with modern technology, catching an eagle is an enormously difficult thing to do. Frayer believes Neanderthals must have had excellent \"planning skills and ritual\" they would've used in catching the bird. \"Neanderthals are often thought of to be simple-minded mumbling, bumbling, stumbling fools,\" Frayer said. \"But the more we know about them the more sophisticated they've become.\"","highlights":"Researchers say marking on eagle talons prove Neanderthals made jewelry .\nEagle bones used in study more than 130,000 years old .\nScientist: \"It really shows a level of technical sophistication\"","id":"a53cdeb674ea3a31a1814f8c7a401686accb3594"} -{"article":"(CNN)One is a former high school cornerback who also loves baseball. The other is a football fan who also played competitive golf. The two University of Oklahoma students at the center of a racist fraternity video have more than sports in common. They're both under fire since the nine-second clip showed them making racial slurs against blacks. In it, students at the now-disbanded Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity clap, pump their fists and laugh as they hurl racial slurs and make a reference to lynching. School officials have expelled Parker Rice and Levi Pettit because of their alleged \"leadership role\" in the racist chant. Here's what we know about the two students: . Rice, 19, was raised in Dallas, where he recently graduated from Jesuit College Preparatory School. In high school, he was an avid sportsman, and he played cornerback on the football team, in addition to baseball, The Dallas Morning News reported. His father, Bob Rice, is a real estate agent in Dallas, where he volunteers for various organizations, including a baseball league and the local YMCA, according to the newspaper. Earlier this year, a sibling of the younger Rice described their close relationship in an interview with their high school newspaper. In the article, the brother says they enjoy playing video games and watching movies together. Rice has apologized for the video, calling his actions wrong and reckless. \"I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and encouraging others to do the same,\" he said in a statement Tuesday. His family has fled their home, where protesters gathered Wednesday. They've also wiped out their social media accounts. As the university tries to heal after days of controversy, some are rallying to Rice's defense. Matthew Lopez, a friend and fellow student at the university, said the video is not a reflection of who he is. \"That video does not represent his core personality,\" Lopez said. \"Unfortunately though, as things are, that might define him for a while. But it does not define him personally, I feel.\" Lopez described him as a \"charismatic, good person, with a good soul and a good spirit\" who experienced a lapse in judgment. \"His behavior is a result of his influence of the fraternity system and the traditions that have been embedded since pre-civil war times, when the fraternity was made, which obviously weren't the most tolerant times,\" Lopez said. The second student expelled, Pettit does not have much of a digital footprint. What appears to be his now deleted Twitter page mainly focuses on his musings about college football. Pettit played golf at his alma mater, Highland Park High School, The Dallas Morning News reported. In a statement, his parents said their son made a horrible mistake and apologized to African-Americans, students and university faculty. \"He is a good boy, but what we saw in those videos is disgusting,\" Brody and Susan Pettit said. \"While it may be difficult for those who only know Levi from the video to understand, we know his heart, and he is not a racist.\" CNN has reached out to both students but has not heard back from Rice. A spokesman for the Pettit family declined CNN's request for an interview.","highlights":"\"That video does not represent his core personality,\" a friend of Parker Rice says .\nLevi Pettit, the second student expelled, mainly focused on college football on social media .","id":"17f8604e99f5b766c6bc98607388fc19f4c0869b"} -{"article":"London (CNN)A British mother is standing by her decision to let her son, 11, wear a \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" costume to his school's World Book Day celebration. \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" tells the tale of a naive college graduate's energetic trysts with a billionaire -- Christian Grey -- who has a penchant for bondage. The Manchester Evening News reported that Liam Scholes arrived at Sale High School in northwest England dressed as Grey, complete with cable ties and an eyemask on Thursday. The school contacted Liam's mother and told her the costume was inappropriate. Nicola Scholes told the newspaper she and her son had thought the idea was funny. \"We were walking home from school and he had the idea of going as Christian Grey,\" she said. \"At first we laughed it off but then we discussed it with a few friends and saw the funny side and decided it was quite a good costume idea.\" The school called her to say the costume was not appropriate and that Liam would not take part in the book day event or appear in any photographs, Scholes told the paper. A teacher from the school had dressed as the fictional serial killer Dexter, Scholes said: \"I don't see why sex is more offensive than murder.\" Scholes told BBC News that her son had not read the book or watched the movie spin-off but had been aware of the media around the tale. \"He understood what the cable ties were supposed to represent, as did other children of his age.\" Scholes told the BBC the costume was light-hearted: \"It was a laugh, it was tongue in cheek and there was no offense.\" On Friday Scholes tweeted an image of Liam with the caption: \"Liam's offensive book day costume, it was that inappropriate that they told him to change his character and wouldn't include him on any photos. It also required a phone call home regarding the matter. \"Yet it was appropriate for a teacher to dress up as a serial killer and other students to come in with 'guns.' I thought Christian Grey was the most talked about book character for the past few years. #nosenseofhumour.\" Sale High School issued a statement saying its actions reflected its \"high standards in terms of student behavior, welfare and safeguarding.\" \"The student was not excluded from taking part in any of the activities as has been wrongly reported, his costume was modified and he was then able to fully participate and enjoy the day with his peers,\" headteacher Lynn Nicholls said. \"The aim of our world book day events was to celebrate and encourage reading and we are disappointed that what was a fantastic day for our students, has been marred by this issue,\" the statement concluded.","highlights":"A UK boy, 11, dressed as \"Fifty Shades\" character Christian Grey for World Book Day .\nLiam Scholes' school said that the costume was inappropriate and insisted it be modified .\nScholes' mother told British media the costume was meant to be light-hearted .","id":"e795b03f4d2475cfda320fa8f47c0e11bdf76eb5"} -{"article":"(CNN)Call it \"The Most Interesting Traffic Ticket in the World.\" A Washington state trooper caught a driver using a cardboard cutout of Jonathan Goldsmith, the Dos Equis beer pitchman known as \"The Most Interesting Man in the World.\" The driver, who was by himself, was attempting to use the HOV lane. \"The trooper immediately recognized it was a prop and not a passenger,\" Trooper Guy Gill told the New York Daily News. \"As the trooper approached, the driver was actually laughing.\" Gill sent out a tweet with a photo of the cutout -- who was clad in what looked like a knit shirt, a far cry from his usual attire -- and the unnamed laughing driver: \"I don't always violate the HOV lane law...but when I do, I get a $124 ticket! We'll give him an A for creativity!\" The driver was caught on Interstate 5 near Fife, Washington, just outside Tacoma. \"He could have picked a less recognizable face to put on his prop,\" Gill told the Daily News. \"We see that a lot. Usually it's a sleeping bag. This was very creative.\"","highlights":"A driver was caught in the HOV lane with a cutout of \"Most Interesting Man\"\nHe earned a ticket -- and a tweet admiring his tenacity .","id":"61cbcde3757e9ef6559f10e6be2d836840490601"} -{"article":"(CNN)Cleanup crews on Thursday started assessing the damage caused by storms that slashed across Oklahoma on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring about two dozen others across the state. A reported tornado ravaged a mobile home park, destroying dozens of trailers just west of Tulsa in the suburb of Sand Springs. Authorities said the man who died at the River Oaks Mobile Home Park had been trying to help his father, who was injured, according to CNN affiliate KJRH. One woman at the mobile home park told KJRH that she was cooking when the storm hit. \"Within 5 minutes it was dark and the sirens were going off and you couldn't hear yourself think,\" Brandy Richards said. \"And you just grab the kids and we ran across the street. My best friend has the only house that's back there, and we barely got into the house and it took the garage. It was so fast.\" \"It looks like there's been a little war zone around here,\" Tammi Hart told CNN affiliate KTUL. The storm flattened a Sand Springs gymnastics studio, where 60 kids and adults were huddled underground. \"We were just in the middle of practice and the sirens started going off and we just had to get all the kids to the basement,\" according instructor Kelsey Haggard, who said she heard a \"big boom\" when the building was hit. \"Just really happy everyone got out safe,\" said Haggard. \"It was really scary ... it just seems so surreal.\" In addition to the death at the mobile home park, KTUL reported two other people were taken to the hospital in critical condition. The Oklahoma State Department of Health said two dozen people were injured across the state, according to CNN affiliate KOKI. Storm damage was reported across the Tulsa metro area. Gov. Mary Fallin toured the damage in Sand Springs on Thursday and declared a state of emergency for 25 counties. \"Our hearts and prayers go out to the family that lost a loved one and certainly to those who were injured or lost their home or business,\" she said. Severe weather also tore through the Oklahoma City area, including Moore, which has seen more than its share of devastating storms. A massive tornado hit Moore nearly two years ago, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds of others. The Moore Police Department said a 2-mile square area had significant damage, mainly roofs off homes and downed trees. Trees had to be cleared so law enforcement and emergency vehicles could get through. \"You know, this isn't the first time we've done this so ... unfortunately, we've gotten pretty good at getting people back into their residences as quick as we can,\" said Sgt. Jeremy Lewis with the city's police. Until Wednesday, there hadn't been a single report of a tornado in the United States during March. CNN meteorologist Judson Jones said there were preliminary reports of seven tornadoes on Wednesday. An average year would produce 80 twisters in March, he said. March is typically a transitional month, where warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cold Arctic air to produce severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. This year, however, the jet stream pattern responsible for all the cold air and snow in the East had remained stuck in more of a winter mode. But that changed this week as an Arctic cold front began crashing to the south, bringing together the stormy mix. CNN's Sean Morris, AnneClaire Stapleton, Jeremy Grisham and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"It looks like there's been a little war zone around here\"\nNational Weather Service: There are preliminary reports of 7 tornadoes .\n\"It looks like there's been a little war zone around here,\" Oklahoma resident says .","id":"dfd574fd9f9b3b75e3ff9d46fc3dcb4d993c8b40"} -{"article":"(CNN)With majorities in both chambers of Congress, it is time for Republicans to begin rolling back six years of failed Obama administration policies. Our highest priority during the ongoing budget debate should be undoing the damage caused by defense sequestration and the hundreds of billions of dollars of defense cuts made by the Obama administration. Regrettably, military strength is seen in many quarters as the cause of military adventurism. A strong, robust defense is seen not to deter aggression, but to provoke it. For years, we have systematically underfunded our military, marrying a philosophy of retreat with a misplaced understanding of our larger budgetary burdens and the real drivers of the debt: our entitlement programs. As expected, almost four years after the passage of the Budget Control Act, virtually nothing has been done to address the unsustainable growth of our entitlement programs, while essential defense programs have been sacrificed. Political leaders in Washington need to be reminded that our defense is the single most important responsibility of the federal government. Instead of starting the process by setting arbitrary defense spending levels and then forcing our military to cut vital programs in order to meet these levels, the budgeting process should start by taking into account all the threats against us, listing the programs and capabilities we'll need to protect our people and interests around the world, and then funding those efforts. Even though we've been able to keep the homeland safe for more than a decade, the threats to Americans at home and abroad are growing. From the rise of the Islamic State and the spread of Islamic terrorism, to Russia's aggression in Europe, to Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, the threats to American security are growing. Yet, even as the world outside our borders is filled with more doubt and uncertainty, the United States has been steadily reducing our spending on defense. Even before sequestration, President Obama made defense cuts of $487 billion over 10 years and redirected the savings to already bloated domestic programs. This was followed by tens of billions more in defense cuts each year because of sequestration, which, when combined with Obama's prior cuts, will total $1 trillion over the coming decade. All of these reductions were enacted despite the warnings of four secretaries of defense and our entire military leadership. The results of these cuts have been disastrous for our military and for our ability to project power and deter our enemies. The slight increase in President Obama's proposed 2016 budget won't significantly change that. At the end of this process, our military will be significantly smaller, dramatically less capable and dangerously unready to deploy if these budget cuts remain in place. The Army is on the path to be reduced to pre-World War II levels. The Navy is at pre-WWI levels. And our Air Force has the smallest and oldest combat force in its history. Our force reductions have been felt throughout the world -- by our friends and our enemies. They have presented not just a crisis of readiness for America, but also a perilous strategic weakness. Our adversaries have been emboldened by what they perceive as our diminished military presence. History has shown that every time we have unreasonably cut resources from our military in anticipation of a peace dividend, it has only cost us more to make up for the deficit we create in military readiness and capability, and the expected era of perpetual peace fails to materialize. We think we are saving money, but in the long run, we end up paying more and creating more risk and uncertainty. We can afford the military we need, but we must make it a priority. For this reason, we introduced an amendment to the Senate budget resolution this week to address the dangerous funding gap our military currently faces. We believe we must increase the resources available to our military to the levels proposed by (former) Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his FY12 budget, the last defense budget based solely on an assessment of the threats we face and the requisite military needs to deal with those threats. It is the budget that the bipartisan, congressionally-mandated National Defense Panel stated was \"the minimum required to reverse course and set the military on a more stable footing.\" Now that Republicans control both house of Congress, it is time to support a defense budget that actually reflects the world in which we live, not the world the way we wish it was. Until now, our approach as a country and a party since the Budget Control Act has not been one of American strength. Continuing on the current path will only invite war and conflict through weakness. We need to heed the bipartisan warnings of our nation's military leaders and get back on track toward a defense budget that reflects the realities of the challenges we face and is worthy of our brave men and women in uniform. In the end, it is they who will suffer the most if sequestration is not reversed and our readiness and equipment continues to degrade. As members of Congress, we have a sacred obligation to ensure that they have the best possible training and equipment so they can successfully complete their missions. Despite the fiscal constraints imposed on our military, they are doing their part and are holding up their end of the bargain. It's time that we hold up ours.","highlights":"Senators Rubio, Cotton: As threats have grown, U.S. defense budget has faced cuts .\nThey say spending to strengthen U.S. forces is a necessity .","id":"e7af525ba44d4fa65225b7950f6149afa33608bc"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's not quite from sea to shining sea, but the latest winter storm gets an \"A\" for effort (or is that an \"E\"?). For its sheer size, this one is a monster, stretching from New Mexico to southern New England. If you're keeping track on your maps at home, that's 2,000 miles of snowy misery and 94 million people under some sort of winter weather warning, watch or advisory. \"Enough,\" cries a winter-weary nation. Enough of the sleet and ice in the Dallas area. More than 640 arrivals and departures were canceled at Dallas\/Fort Worth International Airport on Wednesday. Another 540 have been scrubbed for Thursday. \"Dear Mr. Heat Miser, please reclaim Dallas from your obnoxious half brother Snow Miser,\" tweets Dandy Killeen. Enough snow to hide your energy drink. \"The snow is almost 1 energy shot deep in OKC,\" tweeted Damon Lane. Enough snow to cover the yard and street. Some areas will get 6 to 10 inches. Hundreds stranded in snow on Kentucky highway . \"Snow really coming down in Lexington, KY. A solid 1\"+ per hour snowfall rate!\" tweets T.G. Shuck. Enough snow for a snow emergency. The federal government is closed on Thursday. \"DC snow emergency to go into effect at 7 am Thursday. Move your vehicles from these routes!\" tweets Fox 5 DC. Enough snow to eat ice cream. \"Just celebrated the coming snow with a bowl of Moose Tracks,\" tweets country music legend Charlie Daniels. Enough snow to ... Actually, New Mexico is weird. Aaron Goodwin of \"Ghost Adventures\" fame likes the white stuff. He tweeted: \"Snow :)\" But he likes hunting for ghosts too so use your own judgment. Enough snow for a snow day. \"Snow day tomorrow. Stay safe and stay warm, everybody,\" tweets Sean Nunan, the associate principal at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft. Enough snow and rain to cause problems. The area will get up to 4 inches of rain before it turns to snow. The National Weather Service warned that flooding could be an issue, especially across the lower Ohio Valley and western Mid-Atlantic regions. CNN affiliate WCHS reports a mudslide in Mingo County, West Virginia, sent one woman to the hospital. Enough snow to go totally nuts. So far this season Boston has seen 105.7 inches -- almost 9 feet -- of snow. That's just 1.9 inches short of the record set nine years ago. More snow is expected from this system, but it's not likely to be enough to break the record as the forecast models indicate the majority of snow will stay south of the city. There is a slim chance of snow on Thursday, followed by days of sunshine and temperatures near 40 by Monday. Enough cold to wrap yourself in blankets . \"Another #SnowDay? Auto-Swaddle yourself in softness,\" recommends Downy. CNN meteorologists Dave Hennen and Matt Daniel contributed to this report.","highlights":"More than 1,000 flights into or out of the U.S. are canceled .\nPeople in Kentucky will have plenty of snowman-building material .\nBoston is close to a season snow record, but it's iffy this system will provide enough to top the mark .","id":"dc9e2fd1a2d6564e99da4706a88f216af3ba5392"} -{"article":"(CNN)Police in Detroit made a gruesome discovery Tuesday. A bailiff performing an eviction on a home on the east side of Detroit called 911 after discovering the body of a female child inside a freezer. While investigating the body, authorities found a second body, a male, according to a release from the Detroit Police Department. Both bodies were inside a plastic bag, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. There are tentative plans to begin the autopsy tomorrow said Ryan Bridges, spokesman for the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. He added that the office was waiting to allow the bodies to thaw naturally in order to preserve forensic evidence. The mother of the children was apprehended at a separate location, and was later arrested on child abuse charges, pending the \"results of the medical examiner's report,\" a release from the police department said. Police have not yet released her name. The names of the children have also not been released , but Craig said the boy was approximately 11 years old and the girl was approximately 14. There were two older children living in the home. They have been placed in protective custody, according to Craig. The chief said it's too early in the investigation to determine what happened. \"It's unknown what factors were involved in this,\" he said. Moreno said the department is asking for the public's help to come forward with any information pertaining to the crime. CNN's John Newsome contributed to this report.","highlights":"Bodies of boy and girl found in Detroit freezer .\nBailiff performing an eviction makes the initial discovery .\nMom arrested on child abuse charges, pending results from medical examiner .","id":"d77deef90e81a053e75dba9ebc25ca16058b9296"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared in public Monday for the first time in about 10 days as he met with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Putin isn't generally one to shy away from the limelight -- posing with a (tranquilized) tiger, riding a horse while shirtless, earning a karate black belt. So his unexplained absence fueled speculation about his health, grip on power and even his love life. Although the Kremlin and the Russian state media released photos and video footage of Putin last week, they did not quell the rumors about his whereabouts, because it was unclear when they were taken. So all eyes were turned to St. Petersburg on Monday for Putin's scheduled meeting with Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan. His appearance before the press, looking healthy and relaxed, should help put some of the rumors at least to rest. And he made light of his absence, saying: \"It would be boring without gossip.\" In another sign Putin has a firm hand on the tiller, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the President had ordered Russia's Northern Fleet to be placed on full combat alert from Monday morning for snap checks, Russia's state-run Tass news agency reported. The checks are intended to test the fleet's capacity to ensure Russia's military security in the Arctic, Tass said. Also on alert are Russia's Western Military District and certain airborne units, with some 38,000 military personnel involved in total. Here's what gave some doubters grist for the rumor mill: On Friday -- three days before the scheduled meeting -- a Russian state media broadcaster prematurely aired a report that Putin had a meeting with Atambayev -- although the event had not yet occurred. The station acknowledged the error, but it only heightened the speculation over Putin and his whereabouts. Social media has been swirling with questions, with hashtags such as #Putindead and #putinmissing. Was he ill? Was he holed away somewhere with his girlfriend and a new baby, as some in the European media speculated? There were even dark rumors of a palace coup in which various Kremlin factions vying for power might have ousted him. The Kremlin vigorously denied that anything was amiss, with Putin's spokesman saying the President was healthy and that his handshake \"can break a hand.\" But his absence came at an uneasy time as the country deals with economic turmoil and strained international relations over the war in Ukraine. \"Does Putin ever catch a cold? Does he ever get sick? The Kremlin doesn't want to allow Putin's image of virility and strength to become tarnished by the weaknesses of mere humans,\" CNN analyst Frida Ghitis wrote. \"Putin rules in the old-fashioned style of a personality cult. The system requires propaganda and image control. It needs Putin to be larger than life.\" Last week, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought to allay questions, telling Russian radio station Echo of Moscow that people should not worry and that Putin was \"absolutely\" healthy. \"No need to worry, everything is all right. He has working meetings all the time, only not all of these meetings are public,\" Peskov said Thursday. He also dismissed European media reports that Putin had a love child. \"I am going to ask people who have money to organize a contest on the best media rumor,\" the Kremlin spokesman said. Rumblings about Putin began last week after a meeting in the Kazakh capital, Astana, between the Russian leader and the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus was postponed at short notice. A Kazakh official told Reuters that Putin had fallen ill. On Thursday, he missed his meeting with the Federal Security Service, Russia's counterintelligence agency. Putin's last public appearance was supposedly on March 8, International Women's Day. But some keeping track say he hadn't been seen since even earlier -- March 5. In the course of his many years in power, Putin has cultivated the image of a strong and vigorous leader. His exploits, captured on film and released to the media, have been many. And he enjoys a whopping 86% approval rating, although some critics question the validity of polling they say is carried out in a climate where people are afraid to voice opposition to Putin's government. \"Moscow always has been a center for rumors and speculation,\" said Jill Dougherty, an expert on Russia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former CNN correspondent. \"As soon as the President does not show up, which is really kind of rare for him, people begin to question. \"You have to look at this in terms of, why all of this insanity? And one of the problems is, people are very nervous, legitimately. Where is Putin? Is he in charge?\" CNN's Matthew Chance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Official: Vladimir Putin has put Russia's Northern Fleet on alert to check its capacity .\nPutin makes light of his absence, saying, \"It would be boring without gossip\"\nThe Russian President meets with President of Kyrgyzstan in St. Petersburg, Russia .","id":"899ef6ce707b5007e9ff6c3f2b66b6acca8bc862"} -{"article":"(CNN)It turns out that Jupiter may be more than just an enormous ball of gas spinning a few hundred million miles farther out in the solar system. We earthlings might have the giant planet to thank for our very existence. Two scientists are suggesting that the inner solar system once played host to a bunch of \"super-Earths\" -- planets that were larger than our own but smaller than Neptune. Jupiter, however, put an end to those early occupiers of the inner orbits, bulldozing in and sweeping them into the sun, according to a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jupiter's epic, planet-shattering journey toward the sun and back out again laid the foundations for the creation of Earth and the other smaller planets nearby -- Mercury, Venus and Mars. \"Our work suggests that Jupiter's inward-outward migration could have destroyed a first generation of planets and set the stage for the formation of the mass-depleted terrestrial planets that our solar system has today,\" said Konstantin Batygin of Caltech, one of the authors of the paper. The theory attempts to explain why our solar system is a bit of an oddball in our galactic neighborhood. Most other systems that have planets orbiting around a star similar to our sun look very different. They generally have at least one planet significantly larger than Earth that's in a closer orbit than Mercury's. But they don't have many objects farther out. Maybe that's because of Jupiter's destructive romp in the early history of the solar system. \"There is no reason to think that the dominant mode of planet formation throughout the galaxy should not have occurred here,\" Batygin said. \"It is more likely that subsequent changes have altered its original makeup.\" He and his co-author -- Gregory Laughlin of University of California, Santa Cruz -- are building on a scenario of Jupiter's migration that was previously put forward by other scientists. Known as the Grand Tack scenario, it describes Jupiter getting drawn toward the sun in the early era of the solar system thanks to its huge mass. What stops it from being sucked right into the sun is Saturn. The two gas giants start to exert gravitational influence on one another, entering a planetary dance that eventually sends them back farther out into the solar system. Batygin and Laughlin suggest that during its inward journey, Jupiter dragged a load of planetary building blocks, known as planetesimals, along with it. That sent the planetesimals smashing into debris in the inner solar system, causing them to break apart and fall into the sun at a faster rate. The scientists say they ran a simulation of what would happen if there were also a number of super-Earths in the vicinity as well. They found that a wave of decaying planetesimals would steer the super-Earths into the sun over the course of 20,000 years. \"It's a very effective physical process,\" Batygin said. \"You only need a few Earth masses worth of material to drive tens of Earth masses worth of planets into the sun.\" On its way back out, Jupiter left some remaining planetesimals in its wake -- the building blocks that over millions of years would come to form Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars.","highlights":"Scientists: An epic migration by Jupiter led to destruction of \"super-Earths\"\nThe planet-shattering journey laid foundations for Earth, they say .","id":"c5b9ba0b9ae841fb0cfd6330b4f469dd0e1b987d"} -{"article":"(CNN)An Army National Guard member and his cousin have been arrested in Illinois for allegedly conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist organization ISIS, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The alleged plot included a plan to attack a U.S. military installation in Illinois. In the past 18 months, the Justice Department's National Security Division has prosecuted or is prosecuting 32 cases of people attempting to travel abroad to join or providing support to terrorist groups. Of those cases, 18 allegedly involve support to ISIS. Spc. Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested Wednesday night at Chicago Midway International Airport while attempting to travel to Egypt to eventually join ISIS, according to Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and other federal officials said. His cousin, Jonas \"Yunus\" Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his home in Aurora in connection with an alleged plot to carry out an armed attack on an unspecified U.S. military facility in northern Illinois where Hasan Edmonds had been training. The two U.S. citizens were charged, in criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, with one count each of conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. The cousins made an initial appearance Thursday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan. Why is ISIS so successful at luring Westerners? After an undercover FBI informant posing as an ISIS fighter outside the United States sent Hasan Edmonds a Facebook \"friend\" request in late 2014, he began to receive private messages from him indicating that he and his cousin were willing to travel to overseas and fight for ISIS, according to the court documents. \"InshAllah we will complete our task or be grants [sic] shahada [Arabic for martyr] I look forward to the training,\" Hasan Edmonds is alleged to have told the informant in January. \"I am already in the American kafir army and now I wish only to serve in the army of Allah alongside my true brothers.\" They continued to communicate over the following weeks, with Hasan Edmonds expressing concerns about Jonas Edmonds' criminal record and whether he would be allowed to travel overseas. \"They try hard to keep people like him trapped in America,\" he told the undercover FBI employee. \"I know several Muslims have been caught attempting the Turkey route so tell me why not many Americans take the Egypt route. I am open to either way,\" Hasan Edmonds told the informant, according to court documents. On February 2, Hasan Edmonds contacted the undercover informant again and said his cousin was willing to carry out an attack on U.S. soil. \"Honestly we would love to do something like the brother in Paris did,\" Hasan Edmonds stated, referring to the French terror attacks in January in which 16 people were killed. Prosecutors said Jonas Edmonds contacted the informant to arrange travel accommodations. \"Number one on my list is Mosul,\" he stated, referring to Iraq's second-largest city. \"If I find myself stuck here [in the United States], I intend to take advantage of being so close to the kuffar.\" Jonas Edmonds this week accepted that he would be unable to travel and told the FBI informant of his intention to buy AK-47s and grenades to carry out an attack on the military facility. He would use his cousin's uniform and \"anticipated a body count of 100 to 150.\" He was given a list of officer rankings by his cousin and advised to \"kill the head,\" according to court documents. Prosecutors said Jonas Edmonds planned to carry out the attack after Hasan Edmonds left the country. Hasan Edmonds' sister said that the family does not believe the allegations against the cousins. \"It's all a shock, we don't suspect any of these accusations,\" Manchinique Bates told CNN affiliate WLS. \"We do not believe that any of these alleged charges are true. I honestly do not feel as if my brother is in the U.S. military, but yet leaving the country to join ISIS. That's ludicrous. They aren't terrorists.\" A federal complaint alleges that Hasan Edmonds came to the attention of the FBI in late 2014. The complaints uses the acronym ISIL, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Hasan Edmonds planned to use his military training to fight for the terrorist organization, prosecutors said in a statement. Hasan Edmonds booked airline travel to depart Wednesday from Chicago and arrive in Cairo on Thursday. The cousins presented an undercover informant with plans to attacks the military facility, prosecutors said. Who has been recruited to ISIS from the West? \"Disturbingly, one of the defendants currently wears the same uniform of those they allegedly planned to attack,\" Carlin said in the statement. Conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The number of foreign fighters traveling to join ISIS's ranks is increasing at an alarming rate, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said last month. More than 20,000 fighters, from more than 90 countries, have traveled to the ISIS battlefield, according to the testimony of Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, before the House Homeland Security Committee. The rate of foreign fighters traveling to Syria \"exceeds the rate of travelers who went to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any point in the last 20 years,\" Rasmussen said. Of those fighters, an estimated 3,400 are believed to have come from Western countries, including more than 150 from the United States, officials said. A U.S. Air Force veteran, who allegedly tried to join ISIS but was turned back by Turkish authorities before he could get to Syria, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to terror-related charges in a federal court in New York. Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, accused of making the foiled attempt in January, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of trying to give material support to the terror group and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Justice Department said in a two-count indictment. CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Two cousins from Illinois charged with conspiring to support ISIS .\nArmy National Guard Spc. Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport .\nHis cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his home in Aurora .","id":"3b89d00750a21dbb02b82d30653f0a5315013f7c"} -{"article":"London (CNN)At the time it probably seemed like fun: Jeremy Clarkson and a crew from the top-rated BBC TV show Top Gear driving a Porsche in Argentina. The only problem was that the car's registration plate, H982 FLK, appeared to refer to the 1982 Falklands War between the UK and Argentina, fought over a remote British colony off the coast of Patagonia, which both countries claim. The conflict, which claimed the lives of 655 Argentinian servicemen and 255 Britons, ended with a British victory. Clarkson and the rest of the production team were in the country filming a TV special on a remote highway that passes through Chile and Argentina, and the number plate sparked anger among locals over the perennially touchy subject of the war. As the crew attempted to flee by road to Chile, they were attacked by an angry crowd who hurled rocks and bricks at the Porsche and other cars in the convoy. Clarkson, who fronts Top Gear, later said an angry mob tried to attack them with pickax handles and shouted \"burn their cars.\" \"This was not some jolly jape that went awry. For once, we did nothing wrong,\" he told The Sun. Top Gear producers said the numbers and letters on the registration plates had not been chosen deliberately. The motoring show, fronted by Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, has made a name for itself globally with risky stunts and a brand of blokish humor that often treads the line and regularly steps over it. Clarkson is determinedly anti-politically correct among the topics he rails about, both on the show and in his newspaper and magazine columns. Favored topics include environmentalism, traffic laws and liberals. The latest \"fracas\" has seen Clarkson suspended by the BBC, which broadcasts Top Gear, for allegedly hitting a producer. The presenter, who is one of the BBC's highest earners, has previously caused offense during shoots in foreign countries and regularly court controversy at home. In July 2014, Clarkson came under fire for a racist comment made during a Top Gear special in Myanmar. The slur came during a show segment which showed hosts Clarkson, Hammond and May looking at a bridge they had built over the River Kwai as a local man walked over it. \"That is a proud moment. But there's a slope on it,\" Clarkson said. \"You're right,\" co-star Hammond replied. \"It's definitely higher on that side.\" Following complaints, the UK's media watchdog, Ofcom, said the use of the word \"slope,\" which is a derogatory term, was offensive and that the episode broke broadcasting rules. The show's executive producer Andy Wilman said in a statement, that they \"[regretted] any offense caused,\" adding, \"when we used the word 'slope' ... it was a light-hearted word play joke referencing both the build quality of the bridge and the local Asian man who was crossing it.\" Over the years, Clarkson has been in trouble for an apparent series of racist comments including characterizing Mexicans as \"lazy and feckless\" and saying that everyone who traveled to India got \"the trots.\" He was also accused of using the \"n-word\" while filming the motoring show by UK newspaper The Mirror. \"Eeny, meeny, miny moe ...,\" he sang in video footage published by The Mirror, \"Catch a nigger by his toe.\" Initially, Clarkson vehemently denied the accusation on Twitter but following public condemnation and calls for the BBC to fire him, he begged viewers for forgiveness in a video statement posted online. \"I'd actually used the word I was trying to obscure. I was mortified by this, horrified. It is a word I loathe,\" Clarkson said. Among the condemnations was a sternly worded statement from 10 Downing Street, the office UK Prime Minister David Cameron -- a friend of Clarkson's -- saying he would \"certainly not\" use the n-word. According to the BBC, the PM's spokesperson added that he felt it was \"absolutely right that there has been an apology.\" Both Clarkson and the UK prime minister have homes in an affluent, rural part of central England known as the Cotswolds. They are part of a wealthy group of media, politics and showbiz acquaintances who live in and around Cameron's Oxfordshire constituency. They have been dubbed \"The Chipping Norton Set.\" Among them is former News International CEO and editor of The Sun and The News of the World, Rebekah Brooks, who came to prominence during the News International phone hacking scandal, for which she was acquitted. They also include former Blur musician Alex James and Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. In an article for the Daily Telegraph, former chief political commentator Peter Oborne described \"The Chipping Norton Set\" as \"an incestuous collection of louche, affluent, power-hungry and amoral Londoners.\" Clarkson's popularity also comes from regular columns in venerated newspaper, The Sunday Times and tabloid The Sun. A recent Sunday Times column with the headline \"Phrasebook, tick. Local currency, tick. Tracksuit, tick. I'm off to the north\" attracted the ire of people from the northern English city of Liverpool. He wrote: \"People up there (north) earn less, die more quickly, have fewer jobs and live in houses that are worth the square root of sod all.\" Local newspaper, The Liverpool Echo, which pointed out that Clarkson is a northerner himself, published a series of responses to the piece from local people who described him as \"stuck in the past\" and \"a fake southerner\" whose comments were \"as dated as his double denims.\"","highlights":"Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson is determinedly anti-PC; courts controversy .\nBroadcaster has caused offense for racist remarks in the past .\nFriends with UK PM David Cameron and former news head Rebekah Brooks .","id":"fddd541a608cfad60865672c3309179db31542d2"} -{"article":"(CNN)When Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs came out in October 2011 -- less than three weeks after Jobs' death -- it crystallized many popularly held perceptions of the Apple co-founder. Yes, Jobs was brilliant. And yes, Jobs also could be a bastard. Isaacson's book contained numerous examples of Jobs' cruel behavior, such as verbally abusing employees whose work didn't meet his exacting standards. Now a new book is presenting a kinder, gentler portrait of the mercurial tech exec. \"Becoming Steve Jobs,\" by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, seeks to humanize Jobs through interviews with those who knew him in the latter, wildly successful phases of his career, when some of his rough edges had softened. The book, which went on sale Tuesday, has created a strange irony. Unlike Isaacson's book, it's an unauthorized bio, one that was not given Jobs' blessing before he died. And yet Apple, mindful of Jobs' legacy, has clearly endorsed this new vision of their former CEO over the Isaacson version. \"I thought the Isaacson book did him a tremendous disservice. It was just a rehash of a bunch of stuff that had already been written, and focused on small parts of his personality,\" says current Apple CEO Tim Cook in the new book. \"You get the feeling that (Steve's) a greedy, selfish egomaniac. It didn't capture the person. The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time. Life is too short.\" Other Apple execs also have heaped praise on \"Becoming Steve Jobs\" while criticizing Isaacson's bestseller. \"Best portrayal is about to be released - Becoming Steve Jobs (book). Well done and first to get it right,\" tweeted Eddy Cue, Apple's chief of software, last week. And Jony Ive, Apple's head of design, said in a New Yorker profile last month, \"My regard (for Isaacson's book) couldn't be any lower.\" Isaacson, for his part, told the New York Times recently that he tried to present a balanced view of Jobs: \"My book is very favorable and honest, with no anonymous slings,\" he said. Although Jobs' life and career have been well chronicled, the new book contains some fresh tidbits: . -- In 2009, when Jobs was dying of cancer, Cook offered his boss a piece of his liver but Jobs refused, saying, \"No, I'll never let you do that.\" -- What was likely the last movie Jobs watched before his death was an odd choice: \"Remember the Titans,\" the sentimental Disney drama about a racially integrated high school football team in 1971. \"I was so surprised he wanted to watch that movie,\" Cook recalled. \"I was like, 'Are you sure?' Steve was not interested in sports at all.\" -- And Jobs' famous commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 almost got derailed before it started. A police officer turned him and his family away from the campus, saying the parking lot was full, and expressed skepticism that the scruffy Jobs, wearing his usual jeans and black T-shirt, was really the event's keynote speaker. Raves from Apple aside, early reviews of \"Becoming Steve Jobs\" have been mixed. \"'Becoming Steve Jobs' offers a more rounded portrait of the man not only because it doesn't lean as heavily on its interviews or stretch for historical weight like Isaacson's book, but because it brings in Schlender's personal interactions with the Apple co-founder,\" wrote Mic Wright for The Next Web. \"But the closeness of Schlender's connection with Jobs is also problematic,\" added Wright, saying \"... there's a sense of seeking to explain away bad behavior.\" \"While the book never attempts to portray Jobs as a saint, it provides ample evidence to suggest that the brash, perpetually impatient young millionaire learned how to control his worst tendencies, eventually becoming a loving father and respected mentor,\" wrote Jeremy Horwitz in 9 to 5 Mac. \"Like other good books that have been written about Jobs, it doesn't provide the definitive story of his life, but instead adds some new and interesting details that are worth considering alongside what was previously known.\"","highlights":"New book, \"Becoming Steve Jobs,\" offers a gentler vision of the mercurial CEO .\nApple execs have praised the new book over Walter Isaacson's 2011 bestseller .\nAmong new book's tidbits: When Jobs was dying, Tim Cook offered piece of his liver .","id":"1c80bb615e6f95b33eb7d4cb14b58c1bef108bf6"} -{"article":"(CNN)Actress Taraji P. Henson is apologizing for claiming her son was racially profiled during a traffic stop in Southern California last year. The Glendale Police Department released dash cam video of the encounter Friday, which contradicted her son's claims. Police released the footage after Henson commented about the alleged profiling in an Uptown Magazine interview published last month. In her interview, the star of the hit television show \"Empire\" said her son, Marcell Johnson, 20, was racially profiled in Glendale and at the University of Southern California, where she accused campus police of stopping him for \"having his hands in his pockets.\" After her son's claim, she vowed to send him to Howard University in Washington instead. \"I'm not paying $50K so I can't sleep at night wondering is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus,\" she said. Even the University of Southern California stepped in, with its public safety director, John Thomas, saying he was disturbed by the report of the profiling, and was investigating it further. \"We encourage reporting of allegations of bias and I hope for the opportunity to have a conversation with the young man and his mother,\" Thomas said. But Henson retracted her accusations Friday, and publicly apologized to the Glendale Police Department. \"A mother's job is not easy and neither is a police officer's,\" she said in a post on Instagram. \"Sometimes as humans we overreact without gathering all of the facts. As a mother in this case I overreacted and for that I apologize. Thank you to that officer for being kind to my son.\" Police Chief Robert Castro said his agency researched the traffic stop after her comments to the magazine. The incident started when a Glendale officer pulled over Johnson in October for failing to yield to a pedestrian at a cross walk. During the traffic stop, Johnson admitted to having marijuana, an infraction and Ritalin without a prescription, a felony, according to Castro. He consented to a search of the vehicle, and officers found marijuana, honey oil (concentrated marijuana), a marijuana grinder and a knife, Castro said. Johnson was not driving while impaired and was only cited for possession of marijuana, he said. \"Misinformation that was reported in the story in Uptown Magazine with Taraji P. Henson impairs and weakens the relationships between law enforcement and the communities,\" Castro said. The Glendale Police Department said Friday it appreciated Henson's apology and is sharing it with its officers.","highlights":"Glendale authorities release dash cam video of the encounter .\nIt contradicts her son's claims .","id":"acef15de28a186c68b3051ee8c9f1bd6953ede4b"} -{"article":"(CNN)When we asked our viewers to tweet their questions about the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, we received hundreds of responses. We put them to our experts and here are answers to six of the most interesting ones. 1. \" Does the rate of descent tell you anything? If co-pilot was determined to crash, why would he set it so slow?\" 2. \"New cars can stop themselves before a crash. Why isn't there tech to prevent a plane from landing anywhere but the runway?\" 3. \"Why don't we have live cameras on planes, so when we detect something wrong, we can help the innocent and take over and help?\" 4. \"Is there a possibility the plane was hacked, and that the co-pilot was framed?\" 5. \"[The] plane was presumably full of fuel, why wasn't there a fiery explosion upon impact? Does the wreckage show any burn marks?\" 6. \"What about under the influence of medication or other drugs? How often do they go through drug screening?\"","highlights":"CNN received hundreds of questions about the Germanwings plane crash .\nReporters and experts responded with answers to the most interesting ones .","id":"cdf809c9d255d706368dff0de1b3a9abb3fc3ecf"} -{"article":"(CNN)Gareth Bale scored twice for Wales as they beat Israel 3-0 in Euro 2016 qualification, taking them to the top of their group and on course for a first major finals since the 1958 World Cup. The Real Madrid striker dominated the game in the northern city of Haifa, setting up Arsenal's Aaron Ramsay for the first goal before scoring twice in the second half to help Wales easily beat an Israel team who had been early pacesetters in the group. Club v country . Much of the build up had focused on Bale. After an impressive first season at Madrid he has come under attack in the Spanish press for putting country before club. He was awarded 0\/10 by Spanish newspaper Marca following Barcelona's recent 2-1 El Clasico win and saw two fans attack his car as he left the ground after the match. But Bale didn't appear to be showing any signs of rust as he took Israel apart, a team that hadn't lost a competitive game in two and a half years. \"To come out on top is amazing. The first half was very hard. We did a lot of running, closed them down well, and luckily got the goal which gave us a lot of confidence,\" Bale told British broadcaster Sky Sports after the game. \"We came out in the second half buzzing and showed what a good team we are.\" he added. Italy, Czech Republic held . Meanwhile Italy narrowly avoided defeat against Bulgaria. A flurry of first half goals in Sofia had given Bulgaria a 2-1 lead, a lead they looked to have held on to. But late in the game Brazilian-born striker Eder scored on his debut to spare Italy's blushes. The Czech Republic also narrowly avoided defeat, against lowly Latvia. Vaclav Pilar's last-minute equalizer in Prague was just enough to keep them top of the group, with Iceland hot on their heels after a 3-0 victory against Kazakhstan.","highlights":"Gareth Bale scores twice as Wales beat Israel 3-0 in Euro 2016 qualification .\nHe'd been criticized by Real Madrid for putting country before club .\nMore shocks as Bulgaria hold Italy .","id":"f7a2794d2ff9848cab449d5309b0d626a890fe00"} -{"article":"(CNN)African safaris conjure up images of four-wheel drive cars trundling through games parks carrying tourists with binoculars clamped to their eyes. But if you want to get a bit closer to some of nature's most beautiful beasts then heading out on four legs, not four wheels, might be your best bet. Venturing into the continent's game reserves on horseback may seem a little daunting but is one of the best ways to experience the environment, says Philip Kusseler, co-owner of Wait A Little horse safaris. Kusseler has been leading outings into South Africa's Karongwe and Greater Makalali Game Reserves near the famous Kruger National Park for more than a decade. His stable of around 40 horses at a farm in Ofcolaco in the northwest of the country includes warmbloods, native Boerperds and former thoroughbreds. The ex-racehorses may be more used to chasing on the turf than exploring the bush, but Kusseler says that once trained they make for great tour guides. \"When you get a retired racehorse, you have extremely fit horse right from the beginning which is of course very good to work with. Secondly, you get a horse that likes to excite itself and learn new things,\" Kusseler told CNN's Winning Post. Most racehorses face an uncertain future when their track days come to an end -- usually at the age of around six or seven. A lucky few are sent to stud while others, like double Gold Cup winner Kauto Star, try their luck at different equestrian disciplines. Some will see out their days at animal sanctuaries but many are simply slaughtered because owners are unable or unwilling to foot the bill for upkeep once their racing days are through. Kusseler is looking to grow his current stock of three ex-racers which are prepared for their new role by his wife Gerti, a former dressage rider and FEI coach. \"We train all our horses in basic dressage,\" she explains. \"It's very important that they are responsive and trust the rider and trust the aids of the rider. The basic training and dressage helps a lot to make them responsive and fun to ride as well.\" All horses spend a minimum of two years being schooled at a purpose-built riding arena at the farm and also in the bush where they learn to deal with some of nature's most intimidating creatures. \"When an ex-racehorse sees a lion,\" explains Philip Kusseler, \"you can feel it's heartbeat through the saddle but he soon learns to cope with it and they are just as cool as any other horse breed.\" \"Trekking with horses is extremely dangerous because the horse fits the lions prey preference perfectly. But they are so well-trained and so well disciplined that they don't react like a prey animal would, so the lions get quite confused.\" Along with the \"Big Five\" game (lions, elephants, rhinos leopards and buffalo) Wait A Little's intrepid guests can expect to come across zebras, wildebeests, hippos and giraffe amid 35,000 hectares of game park. But as Gerti concedes, seeing these beasts up close from the saddle is not everyone's idea of a good time. \"We have had people that were too scared. I can't say it's 100% safe because it isn't. But it is very, very safe when you go out with Philip because he has such huge experience,\" she says. \"He gives his horses a lot of confidence and sometimes some horses need that. I always say the animals are the least dangerous -- the most dangerous thing is riding horses.\" Of course, there are other modes of transport with anything from trains to camels ready to carry you through the bush. Most tourists still opt for a traditional four-wheel drive vehicles but the Kusselers wouldn't swap their thoroughbred horsepower for anything else. \"They are just lovely,\" says Philip Kusseler. \"As long as you are able to stimulate them in the bush by having wonderful outrides you will have a horse that keeps on smiling.\"","highlights":"Horseback safaris offer a different way to experience the African bush .\nSouth African company Wait A Little organize tours into game reserves .\nHusband and wife team train horses to cope with demands of facing game animals .\nHorses, including thoroughbreds, keep calm even when stalked by lions .","id":"3122b54466ba2b135accbcdd16fb48c89a21cc47"} -{"article":"(CNN)Nigeria's military says its forces have retaken the northeastern town of Gwoza, which Boko Haram militants last year declared the headquarters of their \"caliphate.\" The announcement comes on the eve of the West African country's general elections. \"Just this morning, the gallant troops of the Nigerian military in a concerted and well-coordinated land and air operations have liberated Gwoza, the headquarters of their so-called caliphate,\" Major General Chris Olukolade said in a Defense Ministry statement Friday. Olukolade said the troops had routed Boko Haram fighters in towns and villages leading to Gwoza. \"Several of the terrorists have died and many of them captured in the process. A lot of arms and ammunition have been recovered and the administrative headquarters completely destroyed. A massive cordon and search has commenced to locate any of the fleeing terrorists or hostages in their custody,\" Olukolade said. Boko Haram declared its own \"caliphate\" after seizing the area around Gwoza, in Borno state, in August 2014, according to the Chatham House think tank. The militant group has purportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and says its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between the majority Muslim north and the mostly Christian south. Nigeria's general elections take place Saturday . The polls had been scheduled for February 14, but on February 7, Nigeria's election commission announced they would be postponed for six weeks due to security concerns, with the military needing more time to secure areas controlled by Boko Haram. The controversial decision was unpopular among many Nigerians and led to widespread protests. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running for reelection, has been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram. On Friday, Jonathan referenced the Gwoza victory in a broadcast to the nation, praising Nigeria's armed forces for their \"immense sacrifices\" in defending the nation. \"We are also glad that our gallant armed forces have successfully stemmed the seizure of Nigerian territories in the northeast by the terrorist group, Boko Haram,\" Jonathan said. \"They have recaptured most of the communities and territories formerly occupied by the insurgents, making it possible for thousands of internally displaced Nigerians to begin returning to their homes and communities.\" Jonathan said security agencies were fully prepared to deal decisively with \"any group or persons who attempt to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections.\" \"Those who may harbor any intentions of testing our will by unleashing violence during the elections in order to advance their political ambitions should think again as all necessary measures have been put in place to ensure that any persons who breach the peace or cause public disorder during or after the elections are speedily apprehended and summarily dealt with according to our laws,\" the President said. On Thursday, Jonathan and Maj. Gen. Muhammad Buhari, the other leading presidential candidate, issued a pledge reaffirming their commitment to \"free, fair and credible elections\" following their signing of a nonviolence pledge -- the Abuja Accord -- in January. The International Criminal Court also issued a warning that anyone inciting or engaging in electoral violence \"at a time when abhorrent levels of violence already plague parts of the country\" is subject to prosecution, \"either by Nigerian Courts or by the ICC.\" \"No one should doubt my Office's resolve to prosecute individuals responsible for the commission of ICC crimes, whenever necessary,\" ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in the statement. Boko Haram attacks have killed at least 1,000 civilians so far this year, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement released Thursday. Citing interviews with witnesses, it said the militants rounded up 300 Gwoza residents when it overran the town, then took them to a camp in the Sambisa Forest. \"After five months during which other residents remained trapped on the hills, hiding in caves and weakened by hunger, Boko Haram attacked the civilians there, killing many and forcing others to escape over the border into Cameroon,\" the rights group said. \"Each week that passes we learn of more brutal Boko Haram abuses against civilians,\" said HRW researcher Mausi Segun, adding that Nigeria \"needs to make protecting civilians a priority in military operations against Boko Haram.\" The rights group said Nigerian security forces had \"failed to take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population\" when fighting Boko Haram but noted that, according to the government, military police were investigating those claims. Amnesty International said in September that reports of alleged abuses by Nigerian security forces had increased since the government stepped up its fight against Boko Haram. The rights group alleged systemic use of torture by the police, based on hundreds of witness testimonies and other evidence gathered over a 10-year span. A spokesman for the Nigeria Police Force disputed the claims, saying torture and abuse were not \"repeat, not an official policy of the Nigeria Police\" and that the Amnesty report contained \"some blatant falsehoods.\" Earlier this month, ISIS purportedly said it welcomed Boko Haram after the latter pledged allegiance to it. In an audio message purportedly from an ISIS spokesman, the group announced that it had accepted a pledge of allegiance from Boko Haram. ISIS supporters posted the audio online. CNN cannot independently authenticate the 28-minute message. The message said that ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, had expanded to West Africa and congratulated \"our jihadi brothers\" there. It followed the posting online of an unauthenticated audio message purportedly from Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, on March 9 in which the speaker announced that the terror group wanted to join ISIS. Since 2009, Boko Haram, whose name translates as \"Western education is sin,\" has waged a campaign of terror aimed at instituting a stricter version of Sharia law in Nigeria. Boko Haram's tactics have intensified in recent years, from battling Nigerian government soldiers to acts disproportionately affecting civilians -- such as raids on villages, mass kidnappings, assassinations, market bombings and attacks on churches and unaffiliated mosques. Much of this violence has taken place in Nigeria. But neighboring countries, such as Cameroon and Chad, have also been hit increasingly hard and have committed troops to fight the militants. An African Union-mandated Multinational Joint Task Force has also been formed, involving troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin as well as Nigeria. On Friday, the UK Foreign Office announced Britain would provide 5 million pounds ($7.4 million) to help the task force tackle Boko Haram. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond expressed hope that the United Nations Security Council would adopt a resolution, currently being negotiated, to endorse the task force. Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report from Atlanta and Susannah Cullinane wrote from London. Christian Purefoy contributed from Lagos.","highlights":"Nigeria's military says it has retaken the northeastern town of Gwoza from Boko Haram .\nThe announcement comes on the eve of the West African nation's general elections .\nBoko Haram declared Gwoza the headquarters of its \"caliphate\" last August .","id":"ebdb3a6c8ee44d972f237d3a2d791edc7f7d47ce"} -{"article":"Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)A few months before Nigeria's national elections, both main candidates embraced and promised a peaceful election. That pledge is now under serious threat. Protesters fired gunshots and torched a local electoral office in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers state as they marched to protest national elections held to elect Nigeria's next President. \"There's been so much violence in Rivers state that it's just not tenable,\" said Lai Mohammed, spokesman for the main opposition party, the All Peoples Congress. The All Peoples Congress says the vote has been rigged, voters intimidated and demanded that the elections held in Rivers state be canceled. The ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, refutes the accusation, saying the election was \"credible and the result reflects the overwhelming wish of the people of Rivers state to support President Goodluck Jonathan.\" Heavy rain eventually forced the protesters home, but there are fears that it will take more than rain to stop further protests and violence. \"We are concerned by what seems to be happening,\" said Attahiru Jega, Nigeria's election chairman, about events in Rivers state. Nigeria has just held what are thought to be the closest elections since a return to democracy in 1999 after decades of military rule. The two main candidates are incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and retired general Muhammedu Buhari. What is at stake in the protests in Rivers state is not whether Nigeria can hold an election, but can it hold a \"close\" election. Voting is now over and the results are being counted. Jega says the final result will likely be announced within 48 hours. The fear is that the results may not be accepted by whomever loses. And if the opposition believes it has been rigged out of victory by the ruling party, then the protests in Rivers state could spread to northern Nigeria. Over 800 people were killed in post-election violence across the north after the 2011 elections were thought to be illegitimate. And so both candidates have taken to social media to call for calm. \"I want to urge all Nigerians to also wait patiently for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to collate and announce results,\" stated Jonathan on his Facebook account. \"Fellow Nigerians, I urge you to exercise patience and vigilance as we wait for all results to be announced,\" said Buhari on Twitter.","highlights":"Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and retired general Muhammedu Buhari faced off in election .\nIt could be the closest elections since a return to democracy in 1999 after decades of military rule .\nThere are fears that results may not be accepted by the losers .","id":"a9cc0e3e2abebb5a36f389951aa9f7e5ae94681b"} -{"article":"Rome (CNN)As the dust settles after Italy's high court ruled on Friday to overturn the latest guilty verdicts for Amanda Knox, 27, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 31, in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, many questions still linger in the case. Knox and Sollecito were tried together and convicted of murder by two separate courts. But now they are free now, forever cleared. There won't be any civil trials like in the O.J. Simpson case because, according to Italian penal code, Italy's high court decision is final across all courts in the country. According to Italian lawyer Nicola Canestrini, who works on extradition and criminal cases between Italy and other countries, . \"The high court decision is seen as the truth for the whole system.\" What now for the Kerchers? Francesco Maresca, lawyer for the Kercher family, told CNN that his clients are disappointed with the final ruling. \"We expected more from the Italian judicial system,\" he said. \"This is a failure to find justice for Meredith.\" Maresca says the Kerchers could try to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and argue that Italy failed to find those culpable of killing their beloved daughter and sister but they have yet to make that decision. \"If they think Italy hasn't fulfilled the duty, they could sue Italy,\" Canestrini told CNN. Such a claim could be made based on the final conviction handed down to Rudy Guede, a man from the Ivory Coast who was convicted for his role in Kercher's murder in 2008 in a fast-track trial that is still under seal. When the high court ruled definitively on his case in 2010, they wrote explicitly in their reasoning that he was one of three assailants but did not name who they were. Knox and Sollecito both spent four years in prison during their initial trial and first appeal. They applied to Italy's high court to be put under house arrest but because Knox was a foreigner and deemed a flight risk, they were both denied. Sollecito may now have cause to sue Italy for false imprisonment. Italy pays around \u20ac12 million every year for locking up people who are later cleared of charges, according to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who is introduced measures to reform the judicial system. But, Canestrini says if Sollecito at any time lied to investigators before he was arrested, he may forfeit his right to reimbursement for being held. Sollecito changed his story more than once before finally settling on an alibi with Knox, so a legal battle could focus on whether anything he told investigators led directly to his arrest. Canestrini also says that Knox could potentially sue Italy for one year of false imprisonment, but because she admittedly lied to investigators early on which led to her arrest, she would likely not have much of a case. \"Because she initially admitted to a role in the crime, she wouldn't likely win. If a suspect lies to investigators before they are arrested, it is difficult to prove they were falsely imprisoned,\" Canestrini says. In one of her initial interrogations in 2007, she told investigators she was in the house when Kercher was killed at which time she accused Patrick Lumumba, her boss at a pub where she worked, of the murder. She later recanted that statement, but Lumumba spent two weeks in prison because of her false claim. In 2013, Italy's high court ruled definitively on a slander charge against her for the false accusation and upheld a three-year prison term and ordered her to pay Lumumba $40,000 euro. Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova told CNN that Knox doesn't feel any revenge or resentment towards Italy. In fact, he said she will go back one day. \"This has been an nightmare for her, so we finally got the right decision,\" he said. \"We always thought this was the only decision possible.\" Sollecito's lawyers were equally pleased with the outcome. \"The verdict that we just received doesn't prove us partly right, It proves us completely right,\" Giulia Bongiorno told reporters outside the court. \"There were two possible verdicts: (One was to) overturn this verdict, but go back to it later. Instead, the overturn is without any referral. Among all the possible and imaginable overturning options, this is the one which says \"be advised, we won't ever even make the hypothesis of an implication of Raffaele Sollecito in this case ever. Enough, enough, enough.\" Knox, too, made her own statement from her mother's home in Seattle after hearing the news. She thanked all those who supported her innocence, and said she needed to take time to digest what being free really means. When asked if she had a message to the Kerchers about their daughter, she said, \"She deserved so much in this life. I'm the lucky one.\"","highlights":"Knox and Sollecito were tried together and convicted of murder, but now cleared .\nFamily of victim Meredith Kercher \"expected more from the Italian judicial system\"\nKnox's lawyer says Knox doesn't feel any revenge or resentment towards Italy .","id":"c81b4dafbb52311915c60dfcce7cb4f9f4888725"} -{"article":"Port Vila, Vanuatu (CNN)Tropical Cyclone Pam had already been battering Vanuatu's capital for hours when the River Prima suddenly flooded its banks. A wall of water and mud surged through Sam Upan's house, toppling the walls of the neighboring church where he serves as a deacon. It was midnight on Friday, and he had no choice but to wade out into the gale force wind and darkness. \"The water was up to my waist!\" he says. Upan eventually made it to higher ground, taking shelter on a parked van. Fortunately, he had sent his family away before the storm to a shelter in the center of the capital, Port Vila. But on Monday, three days after the storm struck, Upan and his daughters sit in the debris strewn rubble of their home. On Sunday, he built a temporary shack for them to sleep under. A bundle of bananas donated by a friend lies nearby in the mud. It's the only food the family has to eat. Nearby, Upan's daughter Elsie slowly scrubs mud out of a shirt. Other families all across this tropical town are facing similar difficulties in the aftermath of the storm. To many Westerners, Vanuatu is a holiday destination boasting crystal blue waters and luxury yachts. But it's also one of the poorest nations in the Pacific, and many of its 260,000 inhabitants live in flimsy houses built of thatch or metal sheets. Those vulnerable homes were dealt a fearsome blow over the weekend by Cyclone Pam, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall. The aid group Oxfam is warning that the cyclone may have caused \"one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific.\" The storm rampaged across Vanuatu's sprawling archipelago of more than 80 islands on Friday and Saturday, wielding 155 mph (250 kph) winds. About 65 islands in the archipelago are inhabited. The full extent of the devastation remained unclear Monday. With communication lines to many of the outer islands cut, it could take days or even weeks to emerge. Eleven people have so far been confirmed dead, according to Vanuatu authorities said. But the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the toll was expected to rise. The agency said 3,300 people were taking shelter in 37 evacuation centers. How to help Vanuatu residents . Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale told CNN the destruction was the worst his country had ever experienced, describing the storm as \"a monster.\" He said it would take the developing nation \"a couple of years\" to get back to where it was before Pam struck. In the capital, Port Vila, residents were still reeling from the storm's impact. Thousands of people have been left homeless and many who rely on subsistence farming to get by have seen their main source of food wiped out. Most people live on root crops, said Jonathan Napat, a ranking natural disaster official. \"What the people depend on entirely is just wiped out.\" He was overwhelmed by the dimension of the food loss. \"Just unbearable. Just too much to contain,\" he said. A CNN team that arrived in the capital Monday saw more than 100 people taking refuge in church. In one valley, trees were snapped in two or stripped of leaves. Many residents said it was the worst storm that they can remember. And that's in a Pacific nation that's regularly hit by cyclones. Officials say Cyclone Pam destroyed or badly damaged 90% of the houses in Port Vila, as well as flooding parts of the hospital and trashing schools and churches. There were some small signs of progress around the capital. A lack of electricity and running water hasn't stopped residents from starting the hard work of clearing away fallen trees and branches, as well as the corrugated metal roofing that Pam ripped off thousands of buildings. The sound of chainsaws and handsaws can be heard throughout the shell-shocked community. The main airport is back in business, allowing military aircraft from Australia and New Zealand to bring in aid workers and supplies. The first commercial flight since the storm landed Monday. But the big unknown remains the scale of the destruction the huge storm wrought on the outer islands to the north and south of the capital. \"It's certainly deeply concerning because those islands down there were incredibly hard hit,\" said Tom Perry, a spokesman for the aid organization CARE International. Many people now lack the basics of life: clean water, food and shelter. \"Homes have been lost, crops are destroyed. The damage is enormous, and people need our help,\" said Aurelia Balpe, head of the Red Cross in the Pacific. \"Yet it will still take some time before we really understand the full extent of the damage.\" Some 60,000 children are in need of assistance, UNICEF reported Sunday. Vanuatu has officially declared a state of emergency, opening the door for other countries to help. The country's remote location adds to the challenges facing the international response. Port Vila is more than 1,770 kilometers (1,100 miles) northeast of Brisbane on Australia's east coast, and some 2,200 kilometers north of Auckland, the closest city in New Zealand. CNN's Ivan Watson reported from Port Vila, and Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Pamela Boykoff, Kristie LuStout, Madison Park and Lynda Kinkade contributed to this report.","highlights":"The death toll of 11 is expected to rise, a U.N. agency says .\nVanuatu's President tells CNN the cyclone has set his nation back by years .\nAid agencies say they fear severe destruction in communities on outlying islands .","id":"1dacd42143c3ef6e64ff85e0f1c1ff1761985a1b"} -{"article":"(CNN)In Washington, we are seeing the re-emergence this year of a phenomenon that many Americans were afraid had gone extinct: real live no-joke bipartisanship. Heavyweights from both parties are attending the March 26 Bipartisan Summit on Criminal Justice Reform. The event is co-produced by Gingrich Productions (on the right) and by my project, #cut50 -- an initiative that aims to safely halve the number of people behind bars within 10 years. Attorney General Eric Holder will be speaking. So will Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House speaker. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, will be there. So will Democratic strategist and CNN commentator Donna Brazile, a co-host of the summit. Republican power players like former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will address the gathering by video. So will President Obama. Progressives like myself will rub shoulders with representatives from Koch Industries. Everyone keeps asking me, \"How is this possible?\" I have five words for you: \"Liberty and justice for all.\" The ever-expanding incarceration industry has begun to violate some of the deepest and most sacred principles of BOTH major political parties. Therefore, conservatives, libertarians and liberals have their own objective interests in reform -- and their own values-based incentives to make real changes. For example, the right takes very seriously the concept of \"liberty.\" Conservatives and libertarians want to defend the rights of every individual to pursue his or her dreams. They favor limited government. They hate massive, failed, bloated government bureaucracies that suck up more and more money and get more and more power, no matter how badly they perform. In America today, we have 5% of the world's population -- but we have nearly 25% of the world's incarcerated people. Nearly 1 in 100 American adults is behind bars. One out of every four people locked up anywhere in the world is caged in America's prisons and jails. And most people come out more damaged, more hopeless and less able to thrive than when they went in. (So much for \"corrections\"!) That's the opposite of limited government -- and liberty. On the other hand, progressives like me care passionately about the \"justice for all\" part -- including racial justice and social justice. We are incensed by a system that locks up the poor and racial minorities in numbers that are massive -- and massively disproportionate. We oppose a system that forever tars people as \"felons,\" deemed permanently unfit for employment or the right to vote, possibly because of one mistake, early in life. When any system violates the principles of both \"liberty\" AND \"justice,\" Americans of all stripes should stand together to change it. That is exactly what is starting to happen. This year, we are seeing the birth of an honest-to-goodness \"Liberty and Justice for All\" coalition. Still struggling to believe me? I was on \"Anderson Cooper 360\" on Monday night to discuss the movement for criminal justice reform. Here is a quote: . \"A lot of kids I grew up with, grammar school, middle school, high school, were in prison. They were the poor kids and they had drug addictions. They had drug problems, they didn't have any money, they got caught, and they got caught in the poverty cycle, and they are at the bottom of society and they can't get out of it. ... People with drug problems, people who have mental illnesses, they probably shouldn't be in the criminal justice system. And people who make mistakes, let's not write them off forever, let's give them a chance to reintegrate and reenter society.\" There is just one catch: I'm not the one who said that. That is a direct quote from Mark Holden, senior vice president of Koch Industries. On practically every other issue, the Koch brothers and I are still fierce opponents. I doubt if we will ever agree on tax policy, campaign finance reform, environmental rules or the Keystone Pipeline, to name a few. But on criminal justice reform, it's different. Mark speaks eloquently about the way the criminal justice system violates the Bill of Rights and criminalizes behaviors that should not result in prison terms. And he is not alone, on the right. Fiscal conservatives decry the money wasted on a system that is too expensive and produces poor results. That's one reason that red-state governors, like Georgia's Nathan Deal, have acted boldly. Leaders with roots on the religious right, including summit co-host Pat Nolan, insist on the Christian value of redemption and second chances for those behind bars. Our values may not always be identical, but they can find common expression in fixing this broken prison system. Progressives and conservatives don't have to trust each other -- or even like each other -- to vote together on this issue. Usually, \"bipartisanship\" is just another word for cheap, political gamesmanship. It is too often invoked by one side, simply to gain advantage and to cloak a more narrow set of interests. But on criminal justice reform, something different is happening. Criminal justice reform is the one place where many Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians actually agree -- and are willing to work together to get something done. Over the last 30 years, both parties helped lead us down the path to mass incarceration. It will take both political parties to reverse course. Perhaps the March 26 Bipartisan Summit will represent the first major bend in the road back toward sanity.","highlights":"Van Jones: America locks up far too many of its citizens, and there's a bipartisan effort to change that .\nHe says President Obama, the Koch brothers, Newt Gingrich, Cory Booker and others agree on it .","id":"b4adfbb8c0cb95eb4a91a04af7d80acf744f38f3"} -{"article":"(CNN)That sound you just heard was the crash of hearts breaking all over the world. Zayn Malik is leaving One Direction. \"After five incredible years Zayn Malik has decided to leave One Direction,\" the band said on its Facebook page and tweeted out to its 22.9 million Twitter followers. \"Niall, Harry, Liam and Louis will continue as a four-piece and look forward to the forthcoming concerts of their world tour and recording their fifth album, due to be released later this year.\" Rumors about such a move had started since Malik left the band's tour last week. At the time, a rep told Rolling Stone he had \"been signed off with stress\" after a scandal erupted following the publication of a photo showing Malik holding hands with someone other than his fiancee. Fans on Twitter immediately responded with teary Vine videos and the #AlwaysInOurHeartsZaynMalik hashtag. Even the Girl Scouts got in on the act with a sweet tribute to the singer. The band's Wikipedia page was also quickly updated with a sentence, \"Zayn Malik was formerly a member.\" And Spotify said that global streams of One Direction songs were up 330% Wednesday in the hour after the news was announced -- a \"spike of sadness,\" as the music service called it. In the U.S. alone, streams of the band's music were up 769%. To mark the occasion, Spotify created a special playlist of 1D songs. Malik, 22, has been part of the very popular British boy band since it was formed (at the urging of Simon Cowell, according to some stories) in 2010 after members auditioned separately for the UK version of \"The X Factor.\" Cowell became a mentor and signed them to his label. The group has put out four albums, and its hits include \"Best Song Ever\" and \"Story of My Life.\" Their latest album, \"Four,\" came out in November.","highlights":"Malik had left the band's tour last week, citing \"stress\"\nOne Direction is one of the most popular bands in the world .","id":"639d4aa890b2d287775c4a8611241e7b388cce3f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Former One Direction member Zayn Malik spoke for the first time since leaving the group this week -- and said he's sorry for the pain he's caused. \"I feel like I've let the fans down, but I can't do this anymore,\" he told the UK's outlet The Sun. \"It's not that I've turned my back on them or anything, it's just that I just can't do that anymore, because it's not the real me.\" He said that he had been feeling uncomfortable in recent months and that his departure was best for everyone concerned. \"I did try to do something that I wasn't happy doing for a while, for the sake of other people's happiness,\" the 22-year-old said. But now, he added, \"I've never felt more in control in my life. And I feel like I'm doing what's right -- right by myself and right by the boys, so I feel good.\" iReport: Fan says 'We need Zayn' He's getting along fine with the other members of the band, he observed. According to Us magazine, Malik has started working on a solo project. One Direction, which also included Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne, will continue as a foursome. The group's hits include \"Best Song Ever.\" The band's announcement Wednesday that Malik was leaving caused mass disbelief among fans all over the world, with many taking to the Internet to express their sadness and devastation.","highlights":"Zayn Malik says that being in One Direction was \"not the real me\"\nHe told the UK's Sun that he feels \"like I'm doing what's right\"\nThe band announced Wednesday that Malik was leaving .","id":"7fc7a81fc13c3570ba5a07790b4b3844cd8e3d5b"} -{"article":"(CNN)James Bond's latest mission has been revealed in the first trailer for \"SPECTRE\" which was released Friday. Daniel Craig reprises his role of everyone's favorite spy in the 24th Bond film, scheduled for release November 6. Christoph Waltz, L\u00e9a Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, David Bautista and Andrew Scott also star in director Sam Mendes' second Bond film. The acronym stands for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, a fictional global terrorist organization that Bond attempts to infiltrate after a cryptic message from his past returns to haunt him. Though lacking in stunts and explosions we have come to expect from Bond teases, the first look at \"SPECTRE\" was packed with clues to the movie's closely guarded plot. It picks up where the last chapter, \"Skyfall,\" left off, with a shot of the smoldering remains of the bombed MI6 headquarters. Bond's assistant, Moneypenny, presents him with \"personal effects\" recovered from the ruins of the \"Skyfall\" house: a singed old photo of two boys and a man and a temporary certificate of guardianship. \"You've got a secret, something you can't tell anyone because you don't trust anyone,\" she says. Then, there's an abandoned home in the mountains, the new Aston Martin DB10, and a secret meeting of shadowy men, including one who addresses Bond as \"James.\" What does it all mean? See for yourself and let the speculation begin: . Weigh in on our Facebook page: .","highlights":"Next James Bond film, \"SPECTRE,\" is scheduled for release November 6 .\nNew trailer hints at secret from Bond's past that sets him on mission to uncover sinister group .","id":"ce3d89d1bffcc341a394097b271a73583f8088e3"} -{"article":"(CNN)Vladimir Putin is not a self-effacing man. That's why when the Russian president suddenly disappeared from view people took notice. When Russian officials tried to trick the public by passing off old photos as new appearances, speculation about Putin's whereabouts went viral. Hashtags such as #Whereisputin and #\u041f\u0443\u0442\u0438\u043d\u0423\u043c\u0435\u0440 -- Russian for #PutinIsDead -- became the tip of a giant social media iceberg, much of it streaked with dark humor. In Ukraine, the neighboring state besieged by Putin's forces, someone reportedly left a large funeral wreath at the gate of the Russian embassy. A handwritten message addressed Putin with an expletive, telling him, \"Thank you for croaking.\" The fast-moving iceberg of speculation may melt as fast as it emerged. The Kremlin has now started pushing harder against the rumors, trying to prove that Russia's foremost -- nay, only -- major political leader, is alive and well. Early on Friday, officials released what they said was a picture of Putin taken the day of. But on social media, onlookers accused officials of dusting off old images. Those keeping track insist Putin has not been seen since March 5. Regardless of how or when this speculation ends, it tells us much about the political realities of Russia. This whole thing started after Putin's trip to Kazakhstan was canceled on Wednesday and a Kazakh official told a reporter that the Russian President had fallen ill. Then the Kremlin released a picture of Putin speaking with the leader of the Republic of Karelia. But it turns out that happened on March 4. On Thursday, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the President would miss his regular meeting with the Federal Security Service (FSB). When asked about his boss's health, Peskov said he is \"absolutely healthy,\" his handshake so strong he could \"break your hand.\" To illustrate the point, the Kremlin's Russia Today posted a picture of the mighty President slamming a judo opponent hard against the ground. Peskov says Russia is in the grips of a \"spring fever\" that is causing people to dream up harebrained scenarios. Amateur sleuths and creative minds have speculated wildly about Putin's health problems. The Swiss magazine Blick said Putin is in Lugano, where his girlfriend just gave birth to their baby. Some have said he has cancer; others report a heart attack or a stroke. There are even suggestions that he went off to join ISIS, or is playing hide-and-seek a la Where's Waldo. Does Putin ever catch a cold? Does he ever get sick? The Kremlin doesn't want to allow Putin's image of virility and strength to become tarnished by the weaknesses of mere humans. That's hardly surprising. Putin is not your average president. On paper, Russia is a democracy. But no objective observer believes that. Putin is the state. Every important decision is made by him. Putin rules in the old-fashioned style of a personality cult. His approval ratings are stratospheric, even if his brazen policies would warrant more significant levels of disagreement. Approval ratings nearing 90% are the product of suppression of dissent and media maneuvers demonizing, ridiculing, and ultimately silencing critics. The system requires propaganda and image control. It needs Putin to be larger than life. The recent murder of Boris Nemtsov, Putin's foremost critic, has spawned fears that there is a hit list, a roster of Putin critics whose days are numbered. There are rampant rumors of intrigue inside the Kremlin. The level of fear is said to be higher than it has been in years. The term \"Kremlinology\" became the study of intrigue and power machinations in inscrutably dark systems. Russia has a long history of concealing the illnesses of its leaders. In the Soviet era, some mysterious disappearances were followed by funerals. In those days, there was usually a succession plan. And in the post-Stalin days, the passing of one leader meant that the party chose the next strongman. In 1991, the last USSR leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, went to his summer home in Crimea. He was visited by a group of high-ranking Soviet officials. The next day, the Russian people were told that Gorbachev was ill, and could not perform his duties. Gorbachev was held against his will. There was a coup in progress. Putin's mentor, President Boris Yeltsin, also had a history of \"disappearing\" from view. He was really ill and\/or drunk. Even if Putin is in perfect health and the social media whirlwind turns out to have just been an outlet for creativity, talk of Putin's disappearance raises important questions. What would Russia become if he suddenly left power? Is there a successor in place? Is there anyone who would continue Putin's policies? If there is a power vacuum, a conceivable scenario given just how thoroughly Putin dominates, what would the consequences be? Whatever Putin is doing at this exact moment -- whether he is hunting tigers, visiting with friends, or convalescing from an illness -- and no matter what he does in the days ahead, the Internet tempest of the past few days is a reminder that the man who embodies today's Russian state, who dismantled the country's once-fledgling democracy, won't be around forever. Which raises the question, what then?","highlights":"Frida Ghitis: It's unclear where President Vladimir Putin is at the moment .\nGhitis: Speculation about his whereabouts went viral as Russian officials posted old photos .","id":"1301c5ddee50bcb7c7e41f17abc05799555d2b56"} -{"article":"(CNN)Charlottesville Police said Monday that investigators found no \"substantive basis\" to support a University of Virginia female student's story that she was raped at the Phi Kappa Psi house, an account that Rolling Stone published last November. \"Jackie\" told the magazine that in late September 2012, she was assaulted at the house, the article said. Police Chief Tim Longo noted that just because police found no evidence to support her account, \"That doesn't mean that something terrible didn't happen to Jackie\" on the day in question. Longo said he welcomed any information that might still be out there about the case. The Rolling Stone story generated controversy from the moment it came out, first sparking a debate about the prevalence of rape on college campuses throughout the country. But then the controversy turned toward the story's content when apparent contradictions and discrepancies in the article came to light. Rolling Stone said it did not get the accounts of those accused in the piece, and apologized. Editors vowed to conduct their own investigation, which is expected to be published in early April. Longo said Jackie did not give police a statement during their investigation. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin said it's not unusual for a sexual assault victim to avoid the criminal process. \"Sometimes they can't deal with the probing that occurs. They don't want to submit to a rape kit. They're embarrassed. They know that they will be scrutinized, quite frankly. So that in and of itself ... doesn't make this young woman a liar,\" she said. Hostin pointed out that only about 2% of rapes that are reported are false, and only about 40% of rapes that occur are even reported: \"So the suggestion that she just sort of made this entire thing up flies in the face of the statistics.\" Nine out of 11 people at the fraternity house at the time the sexual assault allegedly occurred talked to police, Longo said. None of them said they knew about a rape, he said, and investigators further determined that it was unlikely a party even happened at the fraternity house on the day in question as was alleged in the Rolling Stone story. The Rolling Stone reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, talked to police, authorities said, but there were some questions she declined to answer for journalistic reasons. It's unclear what those questions were. In total, authorities spoke to 70 people as part of their investigation, and just two believed that Jackie was the victim of something, Capt. Gary Pleasants told CNN's \"Erin Burnett OutFront.\" \"The two of them were fairly convinced that something had happened -- not the way it was described, the way it was written. But they thought, again, that something had probably occurred,\" he said. After the story's publication, UVA suspended the fraternity's activities, and outrage spread throughout campus as many struggled to comprehend the horrific experience that Jackie said she endured. The article also suggested the school failed to respond to the alleged assault. Phi Kappa Psi released a statement Monday, saying the \"discredited\" story has done significant damage, while acknowledging the \"importance of sexual assault issues on America's college campuses.\" The fraternity asked Rolling Stone to \"fully and unconditionally retract its story.\" Rolling Stone editors said they chose not to contact the man who allegedly orchestrated the attack on Jackie, or any of the men she said participated in her alleged assault, \"because the editors feared retaliation against her,\" the magazine said, adding that it regretted that decision. \"In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie's account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced,\" Rolling Stone said in December. Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will Dana later tweeted that \"the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story.\" Rolling Stone issued an apology for discrepancies in its article and began to fact-check it. Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, has been leading the independent review, CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter reported Sunday. Stelter said there has been much speculation about Coll's findings. Columbia University's review will be published in early April in the magazine. \"I can't really say I'm surprised since so much of the evidence was already called into question,\" a former friend of Jackie's said in response to what police found. \"I think it's great that they're staying open to considering any new evidence that comes up.\" Ryan Duffin added: \"I've resigned myself to realize that I might never know what did or didn't happen.\" CNN's Sara Ganim and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"Police: No evidence found to support claims made by UVA student that she was raped .\nAn independent review by a journalism school dean is underway .","id":"41c065b37bb214ab7d9b522cb6f90fca97e94d13"} -{"article":"(CNN)She's a multi-award winning singer, a fashion icon, a designer, entrepreneur, actress and philanthropist. And now, far from reigning it in, Kylie Minogue will be unleashing her talent at Dubai's internationally renowned equine event. The 46-year-old pop star will be performing a 90-minute show of her hits at the \"world's richest day of horse racing\" -- the 20th Dubai World Cup hosted at Meydan on Saturday, March 28. Prize money totaling $30 million will be up for grabs over a variety of races, culminating in a top prize of $10m in the Dubai World Cup race -- a rendition of Minogue's \"I should be so lucky\" would certainly be apt. Luxury brands Longines and Jaguar will be sponsoring two of the races as well as giving prizes to the \"Best Dressed Lady\" and \"Most Elegant Lady\" on the night -- offering a 42 diamond studded watch and a Jaguar F-TYPE Coup\u00e9 to the winners. Australia's Minogue is worth approximately $75 million after charging to fame following her role as tomboy mechanic \"Charlene Robinson\" in Neighbours almost 30 years ago. \"Growing up in Melbourne, horse racing is a major and exciting part of our annual calendar. So to be able to bring my show to the Dubai World Cup is something I'm very much looking forward to,\" said the star. She is currently performing her 14th concert tour titled \"Kiss Me Once.\" Since scoring her first top ten UK hit in 1987 she's released eleven studio albums and sold over 68 million records. \"It will certainly be an unforgettable experience\" she said of the event.","highlights":"Pop star Kylie Minogue will sing at the 20th Dubai World Cup horse racing event .\n\"The world's richest day of horse racing\" will see prize money worth approximately $30m up for grabs .\nMinogue will be performing a 90 minute show to conclude the internationally renowned event .","id":"6694132bef6df7d37d190a9f74466a15c7717012"} -{"article":"Tunis, Tunisia (CNN)Thousands of demonstrators marched in Tunisia's capital Sunday, protesting against terrorism less than two weeks after gunmen attacked a museum and killed more than 20 people there. \"We came to express our support and to fight this danger that's threatening our society and our stability,\" said Rafik Abdessalem, Tunisia's former foreign minister, who was among the crowd. \"Fortunately, all Tunisians are united here today. We will be able to defeat terrorism, which is threatening Tunisia and all the neighboring countries.\" As a heavy police presence stood guard, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi marched alongside dignitaries and world leaders, including French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who led the crowd to the steps of the Bardo Museum. Protesters held banners that said \"We are not afraid\" and \"Je suis Bardo\" as they chanted \"Tunisia is free, and out with terrorism.\" On March 18, the art, culture and history museum was the site of a drastically different scene, as gunmen opened fire on tourists in a siege that also forced the evacuation of the neighboring Parliament. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in an audio message posted online the next day. Hours before Sunday's demonstration began, Tunisia's Prime Minister announced that Algerian national Khaled Shayeb, the alleged architect of the museum assault, was one of nine suspected militants killed in a raid in the south of the country. Arab Spring aftermath: Revolutions give way to violence, more unrest . CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Thousands march in a protest against terrorism in Tunisia's capital .\nDemonstrators hold signs that say \"We are not afraid\" and \"Je suis Bardo\"\nTunisia's Prime Minister says a suspect in the Bardo museum attack was killed in a raid .","id":"75f02c1a17a1bca50928e94a5b0938177658dd27"} -{"article":"London (CNN)Cabinet-maker Michael Ibsen has just put the finishing touches to a coffin; built of highly-polished, honey-colored English oak and yew, it has been a labor of love, pondered over and painstakingly crafted. Because this isn't any ordinary commission: the casket will be the final resting place of one of Ibsen's distant relatives, Richard III, who died more than 500 years ago. \"It is a unique privilege,\" says Canadian-born Ibsen, whose DNA was used to establish the identity of the English King, found buried beneath a car parking lot in the city of Leicester in August 2012. \"There's a wonderful serendipity in a sense that someone involved in the identification of the remains should happen to be furniture maker who can do this. \"When you're working away you just focus on joining two bits of wood, but at the end of the day when you stand back and think 'I'm building Richard III's coffin,' it's incredible.\" Ibsen says he's been on an \"extraordinary journey\" in the two-and-a-half years since he gave a DNA swab to genetics specialist Turi King on the off chance that experts searching for the burial place of his seventeen-times great-uncle might strike it lucky. Back then even the man in charge of the dig, archaeologist Richard Buckley, didn't expect to find anything -- he told colleagues he'd \"eat his hat\" if they turned up the long-lost King's remains. \"When we were planning the project, I never made any secret of the fact I thought it very unlikely we'd be successful,\" Buckley told CNN. \"The chances of hitting the right spot were very slim.\" Call it a fluke, or call it fate, but as it turned out they hit the right spot almost immediately: Richard III's skeleton was found on the very first day of the dig, in the first trench dug by the team. At the time, all the experts knew was that they'd found a set of leg bones, chopped off at the feet by building work at some point in the intervening centuries. It wasn't until days later, as archaeologist Jo Appleby carefully exhumed the rest of the skeleton that she spotted the distinct curve of its spine, and the devastating damage medieval weapons had left on its skull. For Philippa Langley, founder of the \"Looking for Richard\" project, who stood watching with bated breath as the bones were uncovered, the discovery was a vindication of the years she had spent trying to get people to search for the King's remains -- and to look again at his reputation. Say the name Richard III to many people, and the image which will spring to mind is that of Shakespeare's villain, hunchbacked and murderous, who met a grisly end on the battlefield at Bosworth after killing his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Years of research had convinced Langley of two things: firstly, that his remains lay underneath a car park, in what had once been the Grey Friars' monastery, and secondly, that he was much-maligned, the victim of bitter Tudor propaganda after his death. Two-and-a-half years on, Langley believes the discovery -- which proved her first theory to be correct -- and the scientific research carried out since, have forced a rethink of Richard III's story. \"As a writer my view of Richard has always been that he was a very complex, very conflicted, very flawed individual -- that's the human condition: We are all flawed, complex, conflicted -- but there was something heroic about him, he was courageous on and off the battlefield,\" she explains. She says DNA evidence that the King was blue eyed and fair haired -- in contrast to portraits and written descriptions which painted him \"as a hunchback, with a withered arm and a crippled gait, with 'evil' dark eyes and hair\" -- had \"blow[n] the mythology out of the window.\" \"It makes people question, drop their preconceptions, forget their assumptions, and go back to the beginning,\" she says. This weekend, Richard III's skeleton will leave the laboratory at the University of Leicester, where it has been kept since it was found, and be taken back to Bosworth, scene of his death in 1485, for a commemoration ceremony, before being returned to Leicester ahead of its reburial next week. And while his body last made that trip slung unceremoniously over the back of a horse, this time the journey will be done in style: carried in the coffin made by his great-nephew. Inside, the smaller bones from his hands and feet will be tucked into linen bags -- each one decorated with a rose, representing the House of York, Richard III's family -- sewn by children from Leicester's King Richard III Infant School. \"I feel very proud because I've never made a bag for a king before,\" said Xi Chen, who helped make the pouches. \"It's like I'm a servant doing something for a King,\" added his classmate Irfan Sheikh. Lead conservation specialist Jon Castleman -- who previously helped to restore the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem -- will be the last person to set eyes on the skeleton, as he welds the ossuary inside the casket shut. Well-wishers are expected to line the route as the cortege winds through the Leicestershire countryside, stopping at several churches along the way for prayers and religious services before making its way back to Leicester Cathedral, near the site of the archaeological dig, where a new tomb has been built for the King. Historian John Ashdown-Hill, who discovered the genealogical link between Richard III and Michael Ibsen, says it is important that the King's Catholic beliefs are recognized in the ceremonies. Ashdown-Hill, who shares Richard III's faith, has had a rosary, featuring the white Yorkist rose and a crucifix like one thought to have been owned by Richard III's mother, made to be placed inside the coffin. For Langley, the procession and celebrations are key to repairing past damage. \"The ethos and aim of the project was to give Richard what he didn't get in 1485,\" she says. \"The reason we wanted to do that was to recognize what went on in the past but not repeat it, to make peace with history.\"","highlights":"Richard III's remains were found beneath a car park in Leicester in 2012 .\nLong-lost King's skeleton is to be reinterred in the city's cathedral later this week .\nBones will be buried in a coffin made by Richard III's descendant, Michael Ibsen .","id":"5ad3f17bb3b392f23b4278f0a2aa3270bf9d7083"} -{"article":"(CNN)Sen. Harry's Reid's perfunctory announcement on Friday that he won't seek re-election next year -- leaving a vacancy for leadership of the Senate Democrats -- was followed, hours later, by a matter-of-fact statement in an interview with The Washington Post: \"I think Schumer should be able to succeed me.\" That would usher in a whirlwind of activity on Capitol Hill in the next year as New York's senior senator prepares to seize the reins of power -- and retool the party as a center-left powerhouse that can win and hold a majority in 2016 and beyond. Left-leaning activists have begun scrambling to block Chuck Schumer's rise. The progressive organization Democracy for America is calling for Sen. Elizabeth Warren to seek the leadership post, and the left-leaning Daily Kos website is circulating a poll seeking other challengers and denouncing Schumer as too close to the \"Wall Street wing\" of the Democratic Party. With more than a year to go before Senate Democrats will choose a new leader, anything can happen. But after watching Schumer in action for more than 20 years, I'd be surprised if he gets outsmarted in a political moment he has literally been working for a generation to create. With more than $13.4 million on hand in his campaign coffers, Schumer has more money than all but one member of the Senate -- and is the only Democrat in the top 10 in that category. He ran the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee when it took the majority in 2006 -- and while Democrats lost the majority during his second stint in the job in 2012, the field looks far more promising for them in 2016: Republicans must defend 24 seats, while Democrats need to protect only 10. Schumer brings an extraordinary level of personal political skill to the leadership fight. Even among the 100-member Senate -- home to a great many ambitious politicians with big egos -- Schumer has long operated at a high-octane level of smarts and media-savvy brashness that impress and occasionally startle his colleagues. Republican Bob Dole, a longtime lion of the Senate, once quipped that the most dangerous place to be in the Capitol is between Schumer and a television camera. The joke stuck -- but behind the gag is a sign of grudging respect for a man who excels at the basic block-and-tackle necessities of political life. Schumer is attuned to television and radio (growing up in the world's media capital will do that). In fact, he popularized a practice of holding press conferences on Sunday, a slow news day guaranteed to draw reporters -- and ensure him prominent placement in the Monday newspapers. But he is also a consummate street politician: At 64, he maintains a habit of biking around New York City neighborhoods without fanfare or an entourage, quietly noting local problems and occasionally inviting himself into a block party or parade. When a reporter once casually asked him to name all 62 counties of New York state, Schumer did her one better, and hand-sketched a map of the state with all the counties filled in. (He visits every county in the state every year.) Schumer isn't the only politically ambitious kid from Brooklyn -- before attending Harvard, he graduated from a public school, James Madison High, whose alumni include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sen. Bernie Sanders and ex-Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota (a childhood pal of Schumer's). But Schumer's political climb been a long-term work in progress. He emerged on the national stage as a prime sponsor of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a law that banned assault weapons; in the run-up to the final vote, New Yorkers practically couldn't turn on television without seeing Schumer, then a congressman, on the floor of the House, waving a rifle over his head as he argued for the ban. The higher profile served him well a few years later, when Schumer took on -- and defeated -- three-term incumbent Sen. Alfonse D'Amato. As a senator on the rise, Schumer attracted politically ambitious staffers who moved on to high-profile positions where they can help their former mentor. A very partial list of those includes Howard Wolfson, Phil Singer and Blake Zeff, who went on to help run Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign; Ben Lawsky, who is now shaking up the world of finance as New York's top banking regulator; Preet Bharara, who has become an anti-corruption powerhouse as a U.S. attorney; and Rodney Capel, who is executive director of the state's Democratic Party. With allies, money and the blessing of Reid, Schumer is in a prime position to implement the ideas contained in his important and overlooked 2007 book, \"Positively American,\" which lays out a vision for how Democrats should lead America. Like Schumer himself, the book is savvy, hopeful and politically attuned to the desires of middle-class voters. Those who wonder what a Schumer Senate leadership would look like should take a look as Democrats prepare for what could well be the start of the Schumer era on Capitol Hill.","highlights":"Harry Reid wants Chuck Schumer to succeed him as Senate minority leader .\nErrol Louis: But some on left want to block Schumer's rise to leadership post .\nLouis says Schumer is tuned into middle-class voters, could create new Democratic era .","id":"982f05b056d5aa93d05530a1d435b468687f5e03"} -{"article":"(CNN)Seven college-age people, some who came to Panama City Beach, Florida, for spring break, were wounded in a late-night shooting, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said in a press release. Officers met \"complete chaos\" when they tried to find out what happened not long after midnight Friday, Sheriff Frank McKeithen told CNN affiliate WMBB when interviewed on the scene. Video showed the streets teeming with young people. Three people with gunshot wounds were found inside a house, one outside the house, one in the median of the road and two on the other side of the road, the sheriff's office said in a press release. \"We have about 100 witnesses or so that we are trying to separate and interview,\" McKeithen told WMBB. \"We have a mess.\" The scene was so mixed up that deputies from five adjacent counties and officers from the Florida Highway Patrol and Panama City Beach police were called in to assist. The shooting occurred at a residence on Thomas Drive, the main drag in the beach town. Several of the victims were students from Alabama A&M University who were visiting town for spring break, the sheriff's office said. They're between 20 and 22 years of age. During February and March, up to six million young people visit Panama City Beach, which some have been dubbed \"the Spring Break Capital of the World.\" The Panhandle town has a resident population of about 12,000. Some of the young people were shot multiple times. They were taken to area hospitals, where three were listed in critical condition and three in stable condition, the sheriff's office said. The seventh person was in surgery when the press release was issued and no update on his condition was provided. Authorities arrested David Jarmichael Daniels, 22, of Mobile, Alabama, on seven counts of attempted murder. A .40-caliber pistol was found in the backyard of a residence. Officials did not mention a possible motive. The shooting was one of six firearms-related incidents of the night, with four guns seized in drug cases, the sheriff's office said in a press release. Other details were not provided. On Saturday night, the Panama City Beach City Council held a special meeting to talk about the violence. \"It's time to stop the bloodshed,\" said council member Keith Curry, according to WMBB. \"We're lucky that we don't have seven dead people.\" \"This is a hostile takeover, an attempt at a hostile takeover,\" said Sparky Sparkman, owner of Spinnaker Beach Club. \"And if anyone here doesn't think what's going on out there is hostile, just ride up and down the street.\" The council considered banning alcohol on the beach through mid-April, but that measure was voted down, WMBB said. The council approved more funding for extra enforcement on the beach.","highlights":"Seven young people were wounded in a late-night shooting in Panama City Beach, Florida .\nThe large number of spring breakers made the investigation difficult .\n\"It's time to stop the bloodshed,\" a city council member says .","id":"d354041834d5a8d18a8761d001bd829bb7571770"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"A picture of horror.\" That's how German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the site where a Germanwings Airbus A320 plane crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday. \"The grief of the families and loved ones is immeasurable,\" Steinmeier said, after flying over the area in the Alps in southeastern France. \"We must stand with them. We are all united in great grief.\" Departure: Barcelona, Spain, at 10:01 a.m. (26 minutes late) Destination: Scheduled to land in Dusseldorf, Germany, at 11:39 a.m. Passengers: 150 (144 passengers, six crew members) Airplane: Airbus A320 (twin-jet) Airline: Germanwings (budget airline owned by Lufthansa) Flight distance: 726 miles . Last known tracking data: 10:38 a.m. Last known speed: 480 mph . Last known altitude: 11,400 feet . Last known location: Near Digne-les-Bains, France, in the Alps . Sources: CNN and flightaware.com . Flight 9525 took off just after 10 a.m. Tuesday from Barcelona, Spain, for Dusseldorf, Germany, with 144 passengers -- among them two babies -- and six crew members. It went down at 10:53 a.m. (5:53 a.m. ET) in a remote area near Digne-les-Bains in the Alpes de Haute Provence region. All aboard are presumed dead. Helicopter crews found the airliner in pieces, none of them bigger than a small car, and human remains strewn for several hundred meters, according to Gilbert Sauvan, a high-level official in the Alpes de Haute Provence region who is being briefed on the operation. Authorities were not able to retrieve any bodies Tuesday, with the frozen ground complicating the effort. Wednesday may not be much easier, with snow in the forecast. Spanish and German officials moved to join hundreds of French firefighters and police in the area, working together to help in the recovery effort and try to figure out exactly what happened. As of Tuesday evening, there were few clues. One of the aircraft's data recorders, the so-called black boxes, has been found, according to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, but it was too early to tell what it would say about the crash. \"We don't know much about the flight and the crash yet,\" German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. \"And we don't know the cause.\" Relatives of those believed to be on the flight, fearing the worst, gathered at the Barcelona airport, where a crisis center was set up. French authorities set up a chapel near the crash site. Lufthansa Group said the company will look after the relatives of those on board. \"There will be a contact center established in France; relatives who would like to take advantage of this will be transferred to the contact center at no cost -- and their accommodation paid for -- just as soon as the center has been established,\" Lufthansa said. Those aboard included a \"high number of Spaniards, Germans and Turks,\" according to Spain's King Felipe VI. Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann said it's believed 67 people, or nearly half those on the plane, are German citizens. Germanwings crash: Who was on the plane? Sixteen students and two teachers from one German high school, called Joseph Koenig Gymnasium, were among those booked on Flight 9525, according to Florian Adamik, a municipal official in Haltern, the town where the school is located. A crisis center has been established at the city hall in Haltern, which is about 77 kilometers (48 miles) north of Dusseldorf's airport. Winkelmann confirmed the 16 students and two teachers were on the plane. Haltern's mayor, Bodo Klimpel, said they had been heading home after taking part in a foreign exchange program. \"The whole city is shocked, and we can feel it everywhere,\" Klimpel said. A Dutch citizen and a Belgian -- the latter a resident of Barcelona -- were among those on the flight, according to those countries' foreign ministries. Two Australians and two Colombians were also believed to be on board. Germanwings started in 2002 and was taken over by Lufthansa seven years later as its low-cost airline, handling an increasing number of midrange flights around Europe. It was forced to cancel some flights Tuesday because there were crews that didn't want to fly upon hearing news of the crash. The valley where the plane went down is long and snow-covered, and access is difficult, said the mayor of the nearby town of Barcelonnette, Pierre Martin-Charpenel. It was well populated in the 19th century but there are almost no people living there now, he said. It's an out-of-the-way place with magnificent scenery, he said. The sports hall of a local school has been freed up to take in bodies of the victims of the plane crash, said Sandrine Julien from the town hall of Seyne-les-Alpes village. Seyne-les-Alpes is about 10 kilometers from the crash site. Mountain guide Yvan Theaudin told BFMTV the crash was in the area of the Massif des Trois Eveches, where there are peaks of nearly 3,000 meters (1.9 miles). It's very snowy in the area and the weather is worsening, he said, which could complicate search and rescue efforts. Responders may have to use skis to reach the crash site on the ground, he said. Sandrine Boisse, president of the tourism office at the Pra Loup ski resort, said she heard the plane crash and called the police and the local government office to find out what had happened. \"It was about 11 (a.m.) here. I was outside the garage, and we heard a strange noise, and at first we thought it was an avalanche,\" she said. \"Something was wrong. ... We didn't know what.\" A mountain guide who heard a plane fly at alarmingly low altitude shortly before the crash, Michel Suhubiette, said helicopters may be the only way to get to the crash site. According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, just under 16% of aviation accidents occur during the cruise portion of a flight -- meaning after the climb and before descent. Accidents are more common during takeoff and landing. The twin-engine Airbus A320s, which entered service in 1988, is generally considered among the most reliable aircraft, aviation analyst David Soucie said. The captain of the crashed plane had flown for Germanwings for more than 10 years, and had more than 6,000 flight hours on this model of Airbus. The plane itself dates to 1991 and was last checked in Dusseldorf on Monday, according to Winkelmann. So what happened? CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said the plane's speed is one clue. According to Germanwings, the plane reached its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet, and then dropped for eight minutes. The plane lost contact with French radar at a height of approximately 6,000 feet. Then it crashed. This could indicate that there was not a stall, but that the pilot was still controlling the plane to some extent, Schiavo said. Had there been an engine stall, the plane would have crashed in a matter of minutes, she said. That small piece of information about the descent means that the pilot could have been trying to make an emergency landing, or that the plane was gliding with the pilot's guidance, Schiavo said. A scenario where the plane was gliding is potentially more dangerous because wide fields for landing would be hard to come by in the mountains, she said. The crash spurred officials in several countries to offer their condolences and pledge solidarity and cooperation to help those affected and determine what happened. \"Our thoughts and our prayers are with our friends in Europe, especially the people of Germany and Spain, following the terrible airplane crash in France,\" U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters. \"It's particularly heartbreaking because it apparently includes the loss of so many children, some of them infants.\" Germany's Merkel said she was sending two ministers to France on Tuesday and would travel to the crash site on Wednesday to see it for herself. \"We have to think of the victims and their families and their friends,\" she said. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the German government had set up a crisis center in response to the \"terrible news\" and was in close contact with the French authorities. \"In these difficult hours, our thoughts are with those who have to fear that their close ones are among the passengers and crew,\" he said. CNN's Mariano Castillo, Hala Gorani, Laura Akhoun, Stephanie Halasz, Lindsay Isaac, Josh Levs, Richard Greene, Karl Penhaul and Sara Delgrossi contributed to this report.","highlights":"The plane reached 38,000 feet, and then dropped for eight minutes, Germanwings says .\nVictims from Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Holland, Colombia, Australia .\nOne data recorder found from Germanwings plane that crashed in Alps .","id":"95ecfc3b12bb6bd0bee29ea2b52519634ac4279e"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)It's official: AMC's \"The Walking Dead\" companion series has a title. Executive producer Robert Kirkman announced Friday that the companion series, which starts as a prequel to the original, will be titled \"Fear The Walking Dead.\" Read more: \"Walking Dead\" from comics to the small screen . The news comes as the companion went through development season -- and was picked up to series and preemptively renewed for a second season \u2014 under code names including \"Cobalt\" and \"Fear The Walking Dead.\" On March 9, AMC announced the series pickup and renewal for the then-untitled series. Kirkman, who created \"The Walking Dead\" comic series, co-wrote the pilot with Dave Erickson of \"Sons of Anarchy.\" Kirkman and Erickson will executive produce alongside \"Walking Dead's\" Gale Anne Hurd and Dave Alpert. Erickson will serve as showrunner, and Adam Davidson will direct the pilot. \"Walking Dead\" visual effects guru Greg Nicotero will also executive produce the series. While AMC has been tight-lipped on the series' premise, sources tell \"The Hollywood Reporter\" that the drama is a prequel that takes place in Los Angeles at the onset of the zombie outbreak. AMC confirmed that the companion series is set in Los Angeles but revealed nothing more beyond that it will focus on new characters and storylines. Read more: \"The Walking Dead's'\"Most Shocking Deaths . Cliff Curtis (\"Gang Related\") stars as Sean Cabrera, a teacher who shares a son with his ex-wife. \"Sons of Anarchy's\" Kim Dickens is set to co-star as Nancy, a guidance counselor who works at the school with Sean and is seeing him romantically. Frank Dillane (\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\") co-stars as Nancy's son Nick, who has battled a drug problem. And Alycia Debnam Carey (\"Into the Woods\") is will play Nancy's ambitious daughter, Ashley, who is the polar opposite of Nick and dreams of leaving Los Angeles for Berkeley when the apocalypse strikes. \"Fear The Walking Dead\" will premiere in the late summer with season two set for 2016. An official premiere date has not yet been announced. The season five finale of the flagship series airs Sunday at 9 p.m. Read more: How \"The Walking Dead\" stumbled in its storytelling this season . \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Show will star \"Sons of Anarchy's\" Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis of \"Gang Related\"","id":"0aa95701af1de32c1d4fdcf406b962ee74609989"} -{"article":"(CNN)Kentucky is so awesome right now you are probably watching the NCAA men's basketball tournament to see who is going to get second. The undefeated Wildcats were scary good Thursday night in crushing West Virginia. The score was so lopsided the game was over before the first television timeout. While the Wildcats won in a blowout, Notre Dame and Wisconsin also advanced to the Elite Eight with less-than-comfortable wins. The Fighting Irish pulled away from Wichita State while the Badgers shook off pesky North Carolina. During the nightcap a lot of televisions -- outside the commonwealth of Kentucky -- probably changed channels. The good news was Arizona and Xavier played a terrific game in the final contest of the night. Perhaps you shouldn't provoke the beast that is Kentucky. In the week leading up to the game, West Virginia's Daxter Miles said, \"I give them them their props. Salute them getting to 36-0. But tomorrow they're gonna be 36-1.\" Mr. Miles missed his guaranteed win by miles. The Wildcats smoked the Mountaineers 78-39 Thursday night in a Midwest Region contest that was never a contest. Kentucky raced to an 18-2 lead -- they should have stopped it then -- and had five players score in double figures on the night. Trey Lyles was the Wildcats' top scorer with 14 points. West Virginia couldn't guard anyone, except maybe the official who went down when he tripped over a Mountaineer waiting at the scoring table. Kentucky's 37-0 record is the best start in NCAA history, which has Kentucky superfan Ashley Judd super excited. It wasn't a pretty game for the Wildcats' offense, but Arizona scratched its way past Xavier 68-60 in a West Region semifinal. Arizona shot 40 percent, while Xavier wasn't much better at 43 percent. The Wildcats tightened their defense toward the end, closing out with a 19-7 run that pushed them to a win and a meeting Saturday with Wisconsin. It's a rematch of an Elite 8 game last year, which the Badgers won by one point. T.J. McConnell topped all Arizona scorers with 17 points while Matt Stainbrook led Xavier with 17 points. The Irish found the right balance in the second half, putting the Shockers away for a 81-70 victory in the Midwest Region. Notre Dame trailed by 1 with 16:43 left when it went on a spurt that saw six different players score as the lead grew to double digits. Demetrius Jackson, who started the run with back-to-back three-pointers, led the Irish with 20 points. Two-sport star Pat Connaughton had 16. Steve Vasturia, who one CBS analyst called a baby-faced assassin, chipped in 13 points. Jerian Grant, a national player of the year candidate, had a rough night shooting, so he set up his teammates for buckets instead. He had nine points but 11 assists. Junior Fred VanVleet led the Shockers with 25 points while Darius Carter maneuvered inside for 22. Wisconsin played cool and shot hot from the free-throw line in holding off North Carolina 79-72. Sam Decker was trending on Twitter but the Tar Heels were concerned about Sam Dekker (two Ks, folks!), the Wisconsin forward who wasn't having any trouble scoring against the fourth-seeded Tar Heels. Dekker, who was guarded by the Heels' best defender, J.P. Tokoto, sliced his way for 15 first-half points to keep the Badgers in the game. The junior had a career-high 23 points on the night while Frank Kaminsky, one of the best players in the country, struggled. But the 7-foot tall center hit a big three and big free throws as the minutes wound down. The Badgers were 20 for 23 from the free throw line. Kaminsky hit all eight of his attempts. Folks also got worked up over seeing Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and actress girlfriend Olivia Munn at the game. Seems like TBS cut to a shot of the two at every break in the action. How'd you like to be the guy next to Rodgers? He won two U.S. Open golf titles, yet isn't famous enough to get all the way in the celebrity fan shot. It's OK, Andy North.","highlights":"Kentucky destroys West Virginia .\nNotre Dame's offense gets hot in the second half, led by Demetrius Jackson .\nWisconsin holds off ACC's North Carolina with superb free-throw shooting .","id":"0e427e05ef1af1a80ade4052783acb4ef09790b1"} -{"article":"(CNN)Lewis Hamilton will begin Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix in pole position after dominating qualifying in torrential conditions. The Mercedes driver, and current world champion, beat Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel into second place who himself snatched a front row berth away from countryman Nico Rosberg in the final seconds of qualifying. \"It was a fantastic job for the team to have us both up here again,\" Hamilton said, referring to teammate Rosberg's third place finish. Tension? Initially it had appeared that the tensions that had marked last season's title race had re-emerged. Hamilton aborted a flying lap after it looked like Rosberg had blocked him. But both men played down the incident in the post-qualifying press conference. Rosberg, for his part, was more annoyed that Vettel had managed to steal second place at the death. \"I just didn't drive well enough, I'm annoyed by that,\" Rosberg said. \"Third place is not good enough.\" Deluge . Qualifying took place amid spectacular thunderstorms which delayed qualifying by half an hour. Indeed, Malaysia has become known for such conditions. The 2012 race was halted for an hour and in 2009 abandoned altogether and awarded to Jenson Button after 31 laps. But Hamilton made light work of the conditions, looked the quickest throughout and will try to build on his season opening win in Australia. Yet perhaps the most impressive performance of the day came further down the grid. Toro Rosso's 17 year old driver Max Verstappen will start the race in sixth in only his second race for the team.","highlights":"Lewis Hamilton will start the Malaysian GP in pole position .\nBeat Ferrari's Vettel into second place in torrential rain .\nMax Verstappen, 17, will start sixth .","id":"63be5f6be2383dcc6e7e9e9055c2eaca02df2832"} -{"article":"Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)In just a few weeks, good relations with neighbors have become a matter of survival for Yemen's President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. On Saturday, he joined his allies in Egypt, while battles raged on in his country. After Houthi rebels occupied the capital Sanaa weeks ago, his government fled. When Hadi called for military intervention to beat back their attempt to overthrow him, adjacent countries answered with a grand airstrike operation. In the darkness of early Saturday, their jets increased the hail of ordnance on Sanaa, as Saudi led operation al-Hazm Storm went into its third day. And Hadi waited in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to meet with the region's leaders at the Arab League summit. This past \"night was by far the scariest night since the raids started,\" said journalist Hakim Almasmari in Sanaa. \"The strikes were so strong and continuous.\" The jets bombarded Hadi's weapons caches and other military assets, Houthi and Yemeni government officials said. Saudi Arabia has blockaded the Houthis, effectively cutting off their supply lines, and its air force controls Yemeni airspace. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have spoken about the possibility of putting boots on the ground. The Arab League is expected to give its official blessing to al-Hazm Storm on Saturday, which could clear the way for a ground invasion, CNN's Becky Anderson reported. But a few member nations, such as Shiite majority Iraq or possibly Algeria, could give military action a thumbs down. Though the Saudi kingdom has taken the lead with some 100 warplanes, the coalition partners include the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt. Arab Spring wasn't supposed to turn out like this . Together they comprise about a third of the Arab League's membership. They are majority Sunni Muslim nations, and the Houthi rebels are Shiite Muslims allied with Iran. Having Yemen become an Iranian satellite country on its border would be perceived as a major threat by neighboring Saudi Arabia, which sees the Houthis as proxies of Tehran, Saudi Arabia's bitter rival on the Persian Gulf. Iran has sharply denounced the armed intervention. The United States, on the other hand, strongly approves of it and is supporting it logistically, and aiding coalition forces in locating targets, but it is not participating in active battle. A small contingency of U.S. forces had been stationed in Yemen to help in the fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but left once Houthi rebels took the capital. Dozens of people have died in the strikes, and on Saturday, Human Rights Watch said many of the victims were civilians, perhaps as many as 34. \"Reports of air strikes and anti-aircraft weapons in heavily populated areas raise serious concerns that not enough is being done to ensure their safety,\" HRW regional spokesman Joe Stork said. A Saudi Arabia defense official blamed civilian deaths on the Houthis, saying they were using them as human shields. Brig. Gen. Ahmed bin Hasan Asiri said the kingdom's military was using precision weapons to avoid collateral damage, state-run Saudi News Agency reported. Media outlets have come under fire as well. An hour after Hadi ordered the closure of all Houthi-controlled media -- including Yemen TV and Saba TV -- Houthis raided two TV channels and the prominent Al Masdar newspaper. Al Jazeera's office in Sanaa was also targeted, the Qatar-based network said, with Houthis looting security cameras and damaging equipment. Opinion: Why Yemen has come undone . Journalist Hakim Almasmari reported from Yemen, and CNN's Ben Brumfield wrote this story from Atlanta. CNN's Becky Anderson, Salma Abdelaziz and Mustafa al-Arab contributed to this report.","highlights":"Yemen's President rallies support on Saturday in Egypt .\nArab League blessing of military action may set the stage for a ground invasion .","id":"ede0b2dbd4c6bed4bdeca804db8e7c7bb5f568cb"} -{"article":"(CNN)Twenty-one people were injured Saturday when a commuter train collided with a car and derailed near the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, authorities said. The collision happened at about 10:45 a.m. near Exposition Boulevard and Watt Way when an eastbound Hyundai turned north onto the tracks as an eastbound light-rail Metro train approached, said Sgt. Michael Verlich of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. \"The vehicle got wedged in between a pole and the train, causing the train to dislodge,\" Verlich said. Of the 21 injured people, 10 were transported to hospitals for treatment, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department Twitter account. One was in critical condition and one in grave condition, the tweet said. The derailment was expected to cause traffic problems for the 6:30 p.m. Saturday soccer game between Mexico and Ecuador at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum across from the USC campus. Metro Los Angeles, the transit and transportation agency for Los Angeles County, said it has requested shuttle buses to accommodate the crowds.","highlights":"Commuter train and car collide near the USC campus .\n21 people hurt; 10 are taken to the hospital .","id":"ceaafef3f060c34cd6a529d715284decd2c7e836"} -{"article":"(CNN)There were screams. Then the sounds of a commercial jetliner slamming into the mountainside. And finally silence. Deathly silence. That much is known about the final few minutes for the 144 passengers on Germanwings Flight 9525. Beyond that, it's a matter of imagination and speculation -- about what they saw and what they felt as their plane approached and then crashed into the Alps. None of them can speak for themselves, nor can any of the flight's six crew members. But authorities have given some clues, based on what investigators know about the aircraft's trajectory and what they've heard on a mangled cockpit voice recorder recovered at the crash site. It all began on what seemed like most any other Tuesday as citizens of 18 countries packed into the Germanwings plane in Barcelona, Spain. The passengers came from all walks of life, using Lufthansa's low-cost carrier to get to Dusseldorf, Germany. They were high school students, heading home after a week in Spain. They were parents and children enjoying their vacation. There were businessmen, scouting out store locations. There was a 26-minute delay before takeoff because air traffic controllers didn't give the OK to start the plane's engines earlier and there was a small wait in the takeoff rotation, according to Lufthansa. For any frequent flier, that kind of delay is nothing abnormal. Nor, it seems, was takeoff. The Airbus A320 left and headed northeast at 10:01 a.m. (5:01 a.m. ET) on what should have been a 726-mile journey. The plane leveled off at 38,000 feet, its cruising altitude. By this point, passengers would be OK to unbuckle, head to the restroom or get their bags out of the overhead bin. A seemingly innocuous act changed everything: The aircraft's pilot had to use the restroom, according to Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, telling the co-pilot that he was stepping out. It's possible that passengers saw the captain in the cabin, going to or from the restroom. They also could have noticed that the aircraft was going down -- even though they were about a half-hour into a nearly two-hour flight, with the Alps ahead of them. The passengers couldn't have known it, but the co-pilot -- identified as 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz --\"manipulated the buttons of the flight monitoring system to activate the descent of the aircraft\" while the pilot was out, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said Thursday. This was around 10:45 a.m. It wasn't like the plane suddenly jerked down, plunging straight into the ground. Authorities described a steady descent at a rate of about 3,000 to 3,500 feet (or roughly 1,000 meters) per minute. Still, it is the kind of descent you'd expect while nearing an airport -- not traversing the Alps. If passengers didn't notice that fall, they might have caught wind of what was happening at the front of the plane. Students, singers among the victims . Inside the cockpit, the only sound was that of Lubitz breathing steadily. But outside the cockpit, the noises apparently grew louder and more frantic. The pilot tried to open the door but couldn't get in. He likely knocked on the door. He used a video conference system to talk to the co-pilot, Robin said. None of it worked. Nor did his last-ditch attempt, as recounted by a senior French military official involved in the crash investigation to The New York Times. \"You can hear he is trying to smash the door down,\" the official said. Did the passengers hear this commotion upfront? It's hard to imagine they didn't. And if that wasn't reason enough to cause worry, they just had to look outside -- at the mountain chain that should have been far below them instead of getting closer and closer and closer. The voice recorder didn't indicate any abnormal noise in the cabin until the final few moments. Still, even if the passengers didn't know it at the time, all it took was eight minutes for a seemingly normal flight to become a nightmare. The nightmare ended in a violent crash into rugged, remote terrain. So did the screams and the lives of all 150 people on Flight 9525 -- a death that Robin described as \"instantaneous.\" Who was co-pilot Andreas Lubitz?","highlights":"Germanwings Flight 9525 had a slight delay before taking off from Barcelona, Spain .\nAfter leveling off at 38,000 feet, the plane descended steadily before hitting the Alps .\nScreams were heard in plane's cabin in minutes before crash, according to audio recording .","id":"bcd382e5355142e590412e175a3a79498c411deb"} -{"article":"London (CNN)A supporter of suspended \"Top Gear\" host Jeremy Clarkson delivered a petition with nearly 1 million signatures calling for his reinstatement to the BBC's headquarters in London on Friday -- driving an armored tank up to the building. Clarkson was suspended for allegedly hitting a producer, the BBC reported last week, and \"Top Gear\" -- a highly popular show with a big global audience -- was not broadcast as scheduled Sunday. The BBC's decision to take the show off the air pending an investigation has outraged many of Clarkson's die-hard fans. More than 990,000 of them have signed the petition posted on Change.org by Guido Fawkes, a right-wing political blogger, just a week ago. Whether the show of support will have any impact on the BBC's response is unclear. Clarkson tweeted his thanks Friday night to those who are calling for his reinstatement, saying he is \"very touched.\" The findings of the internal investigation are due to be presented to the corporation's director general next week, the BBC said Thursday. \"Once this has been considered, we will set out any further steps,\" a statement said. The BBC said in an earlier statement that Clarkson, one of the corporation's highest earners, had \"a fracas with a BBC producer.\" In an indication of its popularity, \"Top Gear\" was named as the world's most widely watched factual program in the Guinness World Records 2013 Edition book, with an estimated 350 million global viewers. The show is sold to 214 territories worldwide. Clarkson vented his apparent frustration in an expletive-filled speech Thursday night in what seemed to be a spontaneous appearance at a charity auction in north London. A CNN reporter who was at the event heard Clarkson swear liberally as he talked about his suspension from the show, saying the BBC \"have f***** themselves\" and that it had ruined a great show. Clarkson also auctioned what he said would be one final lap of the \"Top Gear\" track in Surrey, outside London -- used in the show for putting vehicles through their paces -- for \u00a3100,000 ($148,000.) It's not clear whether he had the authority to offer the use of the track for auction -- but his words seem to suggest he doesn't expect his BBC career to continue, even if no decision is expected before next week. \"I didn't foresee my sacking, but I would like to do one last lap,\" Clarkson said. \"So I'll go down to Surrey, and I'll do one last lap of that track before the f****** b******* sack me.\" Whoever placed the winning bid would be able to ride in a car with him on that lap, he said, or in a rare LaFerrari supercar owned by a friend. Clarkson, who's been presenting the show since the late 1980s, added, \"I'll be a bit tearful when I do it.\" The controversial star has at least one influential ally -- UK Prime Minister David Cameron. \"I don't know exactly what happened,\" Cameron told the BBC last week. \"He's a constituent of mine, a friend of mine. He's a huge talent. \"Because he is such a huge talent and he amuses and entertains so many people, including my children, who'd be heartbroken if 'Top Gear' was taken off air, I hope this can be sorted out, because it's a great program and he's a great talent.\" Opinion: Why we crave the abuse of Jeremy Clarkson . It is not the first time that Clarkson has been at the center of controversy. Last May, the television star asked for forgiveness after using a racist term during a taping of the show. Clarkson had mumbled the N-word while reciting a children's nursery rhyme, but that version of the take was never aired. Last year, the BBC show hit the headlines when Argentina complained about a \"Top Gear\" special filmed in the country in which the number plate H982 FKL was used -- interpreted by some as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War. Forced to stop filming and leave the country, Clarkson said on the BBC Newsbeat website that the use of the plate was purely coincidental . In a previous article on its website, the BBC said \"Jeremy Clarkson is not a man given to considered opinion.\" Journalist Monica Sarkar contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Top Gear's\" Jeremy Clarkson tweets his thanks to those supporting him .\nA petition with nearly 1 million signatures calling for Clarkson's reinstatement delivered to BBC .","id":"cb51887a50d135d46d1eae736beef45afe08100b"} -{"article":"(CNN)From the community of Montoursville, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., to the community of Haltern am See, Germany: . We offer our heartfelt condolences for the pain you must be feeling at this time after the loss of 16 students and two teachers in the horrendous crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. There are no words of comfort that we could express that would ever be adequate. We know something about this sorrow. Almost 19 years ago our community lost 16 high school French Club students, along with five chaperones, in the crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island, New York. It is impossible to be prepared for such a horrific tragedy that touches so many so personally. During the dark hours of waiting for word of possible survivors from Flight 800, the pain for the family members was excruciating. As word came that there were no survivors, that all hope was extinguished, the anguish became almost unbearable. Students, former students, teachers and other community members began to fill the hallways of the high school building because they didn't know where else to go to find consolation. Local pastors, priests, teachers and counselors were also gathering at the school to offer whatever comfort could be offered in such a moment. Within hours, phone calls began pouring in from former students and teachers who were now living outside the area, offering condolences and prayers for all. Since the disaster occurred over water, the recovery of loved ones took days, and even weeks in some cases. Positive identification of each individual lost took even longer, which only added to the anguish. The identifications came in one at a time over a period of several days; the waiting was nearly impossible to bear. School was not in session during the summer months, so students and school staff members were able to express their sense of loss as they felt necessary at any time. A community prayer service was arranged and held in the high school gymnasium to provide a place to weep together, and to share each other's pain. Local pastors and priests provided ongoing support to the families who had lost family members, and this continued for several months. Some struggled so deeply that professional counseling was suggested. Because we are a community of about 5,000 with just one high school, almost everyone opened their arms of support to those in deepest need by providing meals, baby-sitting, housecleaning and laundry services. Funeral services were held one at a time, some in the high school and others in local churches. Long lines of mourners waited in silence for the opportunity to at least offer condolences to family members. Twenty-one funeral services over a period of several days left many in the community without any more tears to cry. Within a couple of months, a memorial service was held on the local athletic field and attended by thousands. The hope was to bring closure for the community so it could attempt to return to a somewhat normal daily routine. This helped for some, but families that experienced direct loss still had a long and painful journey ahead of them. When a parent, or someone serving as a parent, loses a child, an empty spot occurs in the heart that never heals. They may find comfort in the thought that their child is in the arms of a loving God, but that assurance does not mend the broken heart. Over time, the various families that lost their children in the tragedy formed support groups to share their loss. Many of the folks have reached out to others going through a similar type of loss to offer their comfort, and have found a little bit of personal healing in the process. In the years since the crash, many of the pastors and priests who served the families have moved away or retired from pastoral service. Those of us who counseled from the beginning have at times needed the support of one another to restore our strength and spirits to then be able to serve our own parishioners. This is the beginning of a very long journey for all those willing to serve those in such great pain at this time. At this writing I am shedding tears just recalling the events that started almost 19 years ago. If any of our experiences can assist your community of Haltern am See in getting through this horrible event, then know that it is in pain we achieve our greatest victories.","highlights":"16 high school students and 5 chaperones from Montoursville, Pa., were aboard TWA Flight 800 in 1996 .\nHaltern am See, Germany, lost 16 students and 2 teachers in Germanwings Flight 9525 .\nJerry Upling: Communities can find healing by reaching out to others, but the journey is a long one .","id":"64868c5ed196654f46cb8a4cda9596f305af32ce"} -{"article":"(CNN)It is now generally accepted that Germanwings first officer Andreas Lubitz did indeed lock his captain out of the cockpit, put their airplane into a steep descent, and then sit back and wait calmly for the end to arrive. He did it with premeditation, having discarded a doctor's note that would have excused him from work that day. He joins the short and infamous list of airline pilots, a handful over the past two decades, who have used their airplanes to combine suicide with mass murder. Why is this thought at once so fascinating and so horrifying? It is because of the incompatibility between what we want to believe about flying and what we now see. Air travel presents itself as a highly controlled, stringently professional activity, stripped of every unpredictable element. Flight crews wear military-style uniforms not because they could not fly equally well in street clothes, but because uniforms convey to passengers a subliminal suggestion that they are of a different breed, as far from ordinary folk as a world-class athlete is from a duffer. Not only are pilots smarter and better-trained than ordinary people, those stripes and caps say, but they also must be less forgetful than we, less distractible, better rested, not prone to irritability or sadness or smoldering resentments. Like soldiers, they must be just a little bit robotic, efficient, brave and purified of the trash that infests the souls of common humans. Because they have earned their stripes, we feel safe -- even when it seems impossible for us to understand, or apparently for anyone to explain, what keeps those huge metal contraptions up in the air. The truth, as the voluminous history of airplane accidents reveals, is that pilots are not different from other people. They can be careless, lazy, inattentive and reckless. They can drink too much. When pilots talk among themselves, the mistakes, the close calls, the disasters averted by sheer luck are favorite topics. But if pilots slip up in little ways from time to time, the sweeping drama of aviation, in which they are the actors and we the audience, eclipses their faults. Besides, most flying is routine -- hours of boredom, the clich\u00e9 goes, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. The glitches have long since been ironed out, and the airplanes are so wonderfully engineered that they usually protect even the worst pilot from himself. Nor are pilots of a higher moral type than the rest of us. Despite the pieties they occasionally utter, pilots do not consciously shoulder the burden of hundreds of lives or feel more responsible for a full airplane than for an empty one. Pilots, by and large, are proud. They identify with the airplane; it is an extension and enlargement of the self, and the pilot feels the same motive to deliver it safely to its destination as you feel when driving a car on a crowded freeway. A pilot values a smooth landing because it demonstrates skill, not because the people in back are still alive. The greatest guarantee you have that your pilot is devoted to your safety is the fact that he or she is in the airplane with you. So we should not be overly astonished if from time to time a pilot does something completely incompatible with our confidence. Pilots are drawn from the diverse pool of human types. The human mind is the blackest of boxes; no one, neither colleague nor psychologist, can reliably peer inside it. Desperate, cataclysmic acts occur almost daily all over the world; why should they not occur, once in a long while, in cockpits? Perhaps, with time, we will understand better who Andreas Lubitz was and what he did. Today, we still know very little.","highlights":"Experts suspect first officer Andreas Lubitz locked pilot out of the cockpit of plane .\nPeter Garrison: Pilots don't exist on different moral plane than the rest of us, and the human mind is the blackest of boxes .","id":"39be21103604f9e784a44302c73bfaf3b5295a69"} -{"article":"March 30, 2015 . Monday on CNN Student News: Find out what issues were on the minds of Nigerians, as voters in Africa's largest democracy went to the polls. Discover how an astronaut on a 340-day mission to the International Space Station will become one of the experiments being conducted. And lend your ears to an invention that aims to extinguish fires with low-frequency sound waves. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"7af6d7b1d9dc6fd6408089acdfd36d19d3fdc271"} -{"article":"(CNN)Manchester United and skipper Wayne Rooney significantly boosted its own chances and delivered a probable knockout blow to Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of Champions League qualification with 3-0 home win Sunday. First half goals from Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Rooney effectively ended the EPL match as a contest, with the win leaving United in fourth spot, but only two points adrift of second-placed Manchester City. Tottenham is seventh, six points adrift of the top four. Rooney's third after another piece of disastrous defending from the visitors led to an impromptu and topical goal celebration, which was certainly the main talking point. A national newspaper had posted a video on on social media Sunday which appeared to show Rooney being felled by fellow EPL footballer and former United teammate Phil Bardsley as both donned boxing gloves for a \"friendly\" fight in his kitchen. After he had converted following a mistake by Nabil Bentaleb, Rooney threw a few mock punches then keeled over backwards on to the Old Trafford turf. Tottenham's players and fans were probably the only people not to see the funny side, but the joke was on them, having gone into the match seeking a third straight away win at United and five games unbeaten against the Red Devils. From United first significant attack on nine minutes, an unmarked Fellaini was found by Carrick and the Belgian international beat Hugo Lloris with a low shot. Fellaini caused chaos in the Tottenham defense for the second with Carrick left free to head home from distance. Rooney's emphatic strike after Bentaleb gifted him possession, proved the icing on the cake. The victory eases the pressure on manager Louis Van Gaal and his expensively assembled side after some lackluster recent performances and last Monday's disappointing FA Cup exit to Arsenal. It meant Tottenham, off the back of two straight wins and with Harry Kane in top form, was favored going into the crucial match, but the young striker barely had a glimpse of goal, until having his side's first shot on target after fully 88 minutes as United dominated. Earlier, Chelsea extended its lead at the top of the EPL to six points but was held 1-1 at home to Southampton in another less than convincing performance from Jose Mourinho's team. Off the back of a disappointing Champions League exit to Paris Saint Germain, Chelsea again struggled to find its best form at Stamford Bridge despite going in front from Diego Costa's 18th league goal. Dusan Tasic equalized from the spot for the Saints after Nemanja Matic was adjudged to have fouled Sadio Mane, with Chelsea protests waved away. Chelsea found Fraser Forster hard to beat and the visiting goalkeeper made fine saves from Oscar, Eden Hazard and Juan Cuadrado to deny the leaders three points. However, it has a commanding lead plus a game in hand over chasing Manchester City, which lost 1-0 to Burnley Saturday, in a severe blow to hopes of retaining the title. In Sunday's other EPL clash, Everton eased its relegation fears with a 3-0 win over Newcastle, who had Fabricio Coloccini sent off for a foul on Aaron Lennon, who is on loan at Goodison from Tottenham. In La Liga, Gareth Bale snapped a recent lean spell of scoring form with both goals as Real Madrid beat Levante 2-0 in the Bernabeu. The record signing struck first in the 17th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo's acrobatic effort was cleared off the line and the Welshman scored the rebound. The same combination was at work for the second in the 40th minute with Ronaldo's strike helped into the visiting net by Bale. Ronaldo might have added to the tally and missed several opportunities but Real was never threatened by Levante and eased to the three points. It leaves them a point adrift of Barcelona ahead of next weekend's El Clasico, which could go a long way to determining the title race.","highlights":"Manchester United thrashes Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 .\nWayne Rooney celebrates his goal by pretending to be knocked out .\nChelsea held 1-1 at home but extends EPL lead at top to six points .\nGareth Bale scores twice as Real Madrid keeps pace in La Liga .","id":"1b923f80410bd3c19b0556911b8038ebecbea452"} -{"article":"(CNN)Thousands of Singaporeans gathered in pouring rain Sunday to bid farewell to Lee Kuan Yew, the Southeast Asian city-state's founding prime minister who charted its spectacular economic rise. Draped in the national flag, Lee's coffin was taken on a solemn procession through the sodden streets of the tropical city, where crowds of mourners defied the downpour to pay their last respects. The funeral service was attended by dozens of foreign dignitaries, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. \"The light that has guided us all these years has been extinguished. We have lost our founding father Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, who lived and breathed Singapore all his life,\" Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is one of Lee's sons, said in a eulogy. Lee died early Monday morning at age 91, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes from around the world. He had been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia on February 5. Born in 1923, Lee co-founded Singapore, a former British colony, in 1965 when it declared its independence from Malaysia. He served as its prime minister for more than three decades, shaping the once poor trading post into a wealthy financial center. He continued to play an important role in government until his final years. After Lee's death, hundreds of thousands of people joined huge lines to pay respects to the former leader as his body lay in state at Singapore's Parliament House for several days last week. The procession Sunday weaved past a number of notable Singapore landmarks on the way to the University Cultural Centre, where the state funeral service took place. \"Together, we came not only to mourn. Together, we celebrate Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's long and full life, and what he has achieved with us, his people,\" his son said in his eulogy. Lee was also honored by a 21-gun salute and a minute of silence, as well as displays by the Singapore Air Force and the Singapore Navy. The funeral service was to be followed by a private cremation. Other international figures attending the funeral included Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Leader of the U.K. House of Commons William Hague and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Although Lee is admired for the economic success he helped Singapore achieve, he also drew criticism for curbing media freedoms and the treatment of political opponents. \"While remembering his deeds that helped build Singapore up to what it is today, the government should also mark the passing of Lee Kuan Yew, by making a break from the politics of yesteryear that were too often marked by restrictions on basic civil and political rights,\" Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said in a statement Sunday.","highlights":"\"The light that has guided us all these years has been extinguished,\" Lee's son says .\nCrowds line the streets fo the city-state to pay final respects to Lee, who died Monday .","id":"4afeef10d820a1a9ad06fbe6eae3868f8a325a33"} -{"article":"Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)Rebels seized an international airport in Yemen Sunday as a U.N. envoy warned that the country was at \"the edge of civil war.\" Houthi militants took over the airport in Taiz as they swept through the city and surrounding province, two officials with the Taiz provincial government said. One civilian was killed and 82 others wounded when the rebels fired at local residents protesting their presence, the officials said. The rebels have also seized security and intelligence buildings in Taiz and set up checkpoints in the area, the officials said. Taiz, about 390 kilometers (240 miles) south of Sanaa, is Yemen's cultural capital. The rebels -- Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- surrounded the presidential palace in January. Yemen's President and his Cabinet resigned days later. Ousted President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi says his resignation wasn't valid and maintains that he remains the country's leader. In a statement Sunday, the United Nations Security Council backed Hadi, calling for all sides to end armed hostilities and work out differences at the negotiating table. \"Peaceful dialogue is the only way forward,\" said Jamal Benomar, the U.N.'s special adviser on Yemen. But he gave a dire assessment of the current situation, saying the country is in a \"rapid downward spiral\" and at \"the edge of civil war.\" This isn't the first time the U.N. Security Council has weighed in on the mounting tensions. Last month the council slammed the rebels for taking over democratic institutions and holding officials under house arrest. But so far, it seems calls for calm from around the world have done little to quell the violence. Last week, a Yemeni jet commanded by the Houthi fired missiles at a palace housing Hadi in the port city of Aden. No one was injured, but the direct strike marked an escalation in the deadly fighting between the two sides. That same day, Yemeni military forces -- some under the Houthis, others led by officers loyal to Hadi -- battled in Aden, leaving at least 13 people dead in the clashes, Aden Gov. AbdulAziz Hobtour said. There are growing concerns that terror groups such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS could take advantage of the chaos to mount attacks and spread their reach. Bombings at two mosques in Sanaa last week killed at least 137 people and wounded hundreds more. ISIS claimed responsibility in a statement posted on a site that has published previous statements from the group. On Saturday the State Department said the U.S. military had pulled its remaining personnel out of Yemen due to the deteriorating security situation. Journalist Hakim Almasmari reported from Sanaa, CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta and CNN's Richard Roth reported from the United Nations. CNN's Anas Hamdan, Greg Botelho, Hamdi Alkhshali, Ed Payne and Laura Koran contributed to this report.","highlights":"The U.N. Security Council backs Yemen's embattled President .\nU.N. envoy says Yemen is in a \"rapid downward spiral,\" urges dialogue .\nHouthi rebels have taken over the Taiz airport and set up checkpoints nearby .","id":"f7c1af4e680f7475a8da0f99e7fe75724f441a0d"} -{"article":"(CNN)The white-haired woman's face beams as the camera gets closer to her face. She's sitting on a couch, with a University of Oklahoma shirt draped behind her and a rap song playing in the background. Suddenly, the words spew from her pink-painted lips: \"Ni****, ni****, ni****, ni****, ni****, ni****, ni*****!\" The release of the Vine video, featuring the house mother of the campus' Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter, couldn't come at a worse time -- just days after video surfaced of frat members singing a racist song. But Beauton Gilbow, the fraternity's house mother, insists she's not racist. And two black alumni of the fraternity house agree with the woman they call \"Mom B.\" \"I have been made aware that a video of me that is circulating on social media and in the news,\" Gilbow said in a statement. \"I am heartbroken by the portrayal that I am in some way racist. I have friends of all race and do not tolerate any form of discrimination in my life. The song in the background was the sound of \"All Gold Everything\" from Trinidad James -- a black, Atlanta-based rapper. \"I was singing along to a Trinidad song, but completely understand how the video must appear in the context of the events that occurred this week.\" William Bruce James II, the most recent black member at the fraternity chapter, said no one should use the n-word in any context -- even if it's just a song. \"That word needs to die,\" James told CNN Tonight. \"With that being said, I don't believe that Mom B. has hatred in her heart. I was there with her for four years. She took great care of me ... she cared about me, she cares about my family. She had pictures of me, my wife, my children on the entryway table in that house. Mom B means a lot to me.\" James said he has reached to Mom B. after the Oklahoma Daily newspaper posted the clip, which was shot in 2013. \"I essentially said, 'Hey, don't ever use that word again, even in a song. But from me, you're forgiven.' \" Black OU SAE alumnus: 'They are not my brothers' Jonathon Davis, the first African-American member of the campus' SAE chapter, also defended \"Mom B.\" \"I wouldn't even hesitate for a split second to say that Mom B. is undoubtedly not a racist,\" Davis said. \"I see her as being caught up in the moment. She does like to mix it up socially, and she likes to have fun with the guys and their dates they bring over to the house. And I see this as maybe her getting caught away with the moment.\" OU's Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter unraveled this week after video showed frat brothers singing about excluding black students and alluding to lynching. \"There will never be a ni**** SAE,\" some chanted. \"You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me. There will never be a ni**** SAE.\" Two students expelled over racist chant . After the fraternity chapter was suspended -- but before her own video was publicized -- Gilbow told CNN affiliate KOCO-TV that she was blindsided by the controversy. \"I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me,\" she said. \"This has been my life for 15 years. And it's tough.\" In the end, the SAE chapter was forced to close. Two students have been expelled. And it's not clear what the next chapter is for Mom B. Opinion: Are frats 'a form of American apartheid'? CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.","highlights":"Beauton Gilbow says she was singing along to a song but understands how the video must appear .\n2 African-American alumni of the chapter say \"Mom B\" is not a racist .\n\"I am heartbroken by the portrayal that I am in some way racist,\" house mom Gilbow says .","id":"884dd30c1c01f2f426066cb5e22a5f6610ea29e1"} -{"article":"(CNN)Marine biologists at the South Carolina Aquarium are treating a rare, 475-pound leatherback sea turtle that washed up Saturday on a nearby beach. The episode marks the first rescue of a leatherback sea turtle in South Carolina and is believed to be only the fifth live rescue of this species in the United States, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. The endangered turtle was found stranded on the Yawkey-South Island Preserve, a wildlife refuge near Georgetown, South Carolina. Rescuers named it Yawkey. Because the turtle is believed to be a juvenile -- rescuers say it's probably less than 10 years old -- and has not reached sexual maturity, biologists can't yet determine its sex. Rescuers found no external signs of trauma to the reptile, although it was hypoglycemic. Staffers with the aquarium's sea turtle rescue program gave it antibiotics, vitamins and some time to recover at their facilities. The treatments appear to be helping. Aquarium officials said the turtle was more energetic Tuesday than when it was first admitted. Even so, leatherback turtles historically don't do well in captivity. For that reason, aquarium staffers are working with the state's Department of Natural Resources to determine the best place and time to release the turtle back into the ocean -- most likely within the next few days. Leatherbacks are the largest turtles on Earth and can grow up to 2,000 pounds. They are found throughout the world's oceans and have been spotted as far north as Norway and as far south as South America.","highlights":"Staffers at the South Carolina Aquarium are treating a rare, 475-pound leatherback sea turtle .\nThe turtle washed up Saturday on a nearby beach and may be returned to the ocean soon .","id":"8f3f1608917d65f3d133c2d60513ea13130f7e24"} -{"article":"(CNN)ISIS apparently claimed responsibility Thursday for the deadly terrorist attack at a landmark museum in the heart of that country's capital, a mass shooting that has shaken the birthplace of the Arab Spring and stirred questions about militants in the country. In an audio statement posted online Thursday, ISIS identified two men -- Abu Zakariya al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi -- it said used \"automatic weapons and hand grenades\" to kill and injure what it called \"crusaders and apostates\" in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Tunisian Health Minister Said Aidi said 23 people are believed to have been killed, including at least one who died at a hospital overnight. And that bloodshed, the ISIS message warned, is \"just the start.\" CNN cannot independently verify the legitimacy of the audio statement. A U.S. official told CNN there is no reason to doubt the claim's authenticity. That said, American officials are checking the platform that the statement went out on, including the extent to which it's tied to the group calling itself the Islamic State. The current U.S. thinking is the attack may have been carried out by local \"franchise\" adherents to ISIS, rather than centrally directed by the Islamist extremist group's leadership, which is now thought to be in Syria. The two attackers were carrying explosives, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said in an interview Thursday with the French broadcaster TF1. He credited Tunisian security forces for responding so quickly to the attack to avoid a larger tragedy because \"terrible explosives were found on these (attackers) and they didn't have time to use them.\" Tunisia has been viewed as the lone democratic success story in the Arab Spring. But the North African nation is not without its issues, including an uneven economy and the distinction of having more citizens -- up to 3,000 Tunisians -- thought to have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight as jihadists than any other country, according to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in London. Authorities there have already arrested nine people in connection with Wednesday's attack, including four directly linked to the bloodshed, according to a statement from Essebsi. Earlier Thursday, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid identified two suspects, Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaou, in an interview with French radio station RTL. It's not clear if those two men were the pair killed at the museum by Tunisian security forces, or if it's possible they're the same people as those identified -- using new names -- in ISIS' audio statement. Labidi was \"known to the security services, he was flagged and monitored,\" Essid said. But he added the man wasn't known or being followed for anything special. The siege took place just days after a Tunisian jihadist tweeted that a pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was coming soon, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist propaganda. In his message, the jihadist claimed to belong to Jund al-Khilafah in Tunisia, a group that in December pledged allegiance to ISIS, even though that vow hadn't seemed to have fully registered with the Islamist extremist group. His post comes after an ISIS fighter in the extremist group's stronghold of Raqqa in Syria recently appeared in a video questioning why militants in Tunisia had not pledged fealty. \"This raises the possibility that the museum attack could be ISIS' debut on the Tunisian stage, timed to precede a pledge of allegiance from Tunisian jihadis for maximum impact,\" CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said. The attack may have been in and about Tunisia, but the vast majority of the victims were foreigners. They came from various backgrounds, from a Spanish couple to a Colombian mother and son. In addition to those pairs, the dead included three Italians, three Japanese, two French, two Poles, a Belgian, a Russian and a Briton, according to cruise ship companies and their respective governments. Three Tunisians, one of them a security officer and another a job applicant, also were killed, according to Aidi. Twelve of those killed had been aboard the MSC Splendida, a cruise ship with more than 3,700 passengers and nearly 1,300 crew that docked in Tunis hours before the bloodshed, its parent company said in a statement. Five more victims came from a similar vessel, the Costa Fascinosa, which was at port in the Tunisian capital at the same time, according to Costa Cruises. Another 36 people remain hospitalized, while eight others were treated and released. The Bardo had been a logical stop for these tourists, housed next to Tunisia's Parliament in a 19th century palace and cast as a \"jewel of Tunisian heritage,\" with its exhibits showcasing the country's art, culture and history. Its prominent place in Tunisia's economy -- which banks heavily on tourism, with millions visiting the country each year -- also made it a logical target for terrorists. \"They hit the heart of our livelihood,\" said Mohammed Ali Troudi, a taxi driver in Tunis. It's too early to tell how tourists will react to the attack. Both the MSC Splendida and the Costa Fascinosa have since left Tunis, even as the search continues for some of their missing passengers -- at least four from the Splendida and two from the Fascinosa, according to their respective companies. The question is whether more passenger-packed cruise ships, as well as commercial airliners filled with tourists, will come to Tunisia in the future. Travelers warned of risks as Tunisia reels from attack . The economy and terrorism are linked in Tunisia, in the sense that high youth unemployment and sparse opportunities are thought to have contributed to the large numbers becoming jihadists -- whether abroad or at home. Attacking what Tunisian lawmaker Sabrine Ghoubantini called \"a symbol of sovereignty in Tunisia\" likely won't help. \"It's really sad,\" Ghoubantini told CNN from Tunis, \"and I hope that it won't really affect our economy.\" The government has been battling a jihadist presence in the Chaambi Mountains. And in February, the country's Interior Ministry announced the arrests of about 100 alleged extremists and published a video allegedly showing that the group possessed a formula for making explosives and a photograph of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. Mehrezia Labidi, another parliamentarian, says it's imperative that the message gets across to would-be jihadists that \"life in democracy is better than\" what terrorist recruiters are telling them. \"We have really to work on the culture, the level of ideas,\" she said. Meanwhile, she and others stressed that the vast majority of Tunisians -- including secular-minded citizens and moderate Islamists -- need to come together for their country and against these extremist views and tactics. \"They are trying to terrify us. But the whole Tunisian people is unified -- all the parties, all the civil society organizations, all the countries are unified,\" Ghoubantini said. \"... I'm sure that we will fight terrorism and that we will really eradicate it from our country.\" CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali, Barbara Starr, Karl Penhaul, Marilia Brocchetto, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Arwa Damon, Salma Abdelaziz and journalists Yasmine Ryan and Livia Borghese contributed to this report.","highlights":"Attackers were unable to use their explosives, Tunisia President tells broadcaster .\nISIS statement: Attackers used weapons to target \"crusaders and apostates\"\nTunisian authorities arrest 9 in connection with the Bardo Museum attack .","id":"37b24ca5e6a2c2e8b19aefad533900a7fd79487f"} -{"article":"Lausanne, Switzerland (CNN)Nuclear talks intensified Sunday between world powers and Iran, but key sticking points remained unresolved as the countries tried to reach a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program ahead of a Tuesday deadline. As the negotiations entered their fourth day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the agreement coming together is worse than Israel's deepest fears. The talks had hit a snag on Saturday, with diplomats describing Iran as refusing to budge, but as the French, German and Chinese foreign ministers arrived, the mood seemed more optimistic. The British and Russian foreign ministers were expected late Sunday. U.S. officials and Western diplomats described the negotiations as tough and intense, which was expected as the talks reached the endgame. They said the contours of a deal are becoming clearer, but they were unsure it could be reached. Two core issues are still unresolved: 1) Limits on Iranian research and development on advanced nuclear technology in the end years of the deal; and 2) The pace of lifting United Nations sanctions. The U.S. officials stressed all of the elements were interrelated and nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to, comparing the final deal to a puzzle. But they indicated most of the other elements were solvable if those two major hurdles could be overcome. The speed of which U.N. sanctions could be lifted remains in dispute. Iran wants them lifted immediately after the deal goes into effect. While diplomats say Iran could see unilateral sanctions relief in the areas of trade, oil and banking, sanctions adopted by the United Nations are more complicated. Many are related to proliferation and transfer of missile technology and are tied to certification by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran's nuclear program does not have a military dimension. On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif made clear the issue of sanctions remains a stumbling block, saying he believes the world powers \"have realized that sanctions, pressure and an agreement will not go together. It's only to translate that understanding and realization into the agreement that we are negotiating.\" U.S. officials said that all sides, including Iran, agree that sanctions would be lifted in phases over time as Iran confirms its compliance to the deal. But they acknowledge there is still disagreement on the actual formula. Iran also wants the ability to continue to research and develop more advanced centrifuges while the deal is in effect. Those machines can enrich uranium much faster than its current machines. U.S. and European officials worry that could enable Iran to quickly produce enough uranium for a nuclear weapon. Diplomats say the first 10 years of the 15 year deal would have the most stringent restrictions, with others being relaxed over the next five. \"We will see if they are ready to swallow what we proposed,\" a Western diplomat said. \"We are not asking them to do nothing, but they want to do more than we want them to do\" referring to how much research the Iranians want to be able to still undertake. But the diplomat added, \"after 15 years, they can do what they want.\" A senior Iranian diplomat told CNN on Sunday: \"It's not fair to characterize the state of affairs as Iranian resistance on those issues. It can also be characterized as the other side's intransigence in the talks.\" Diplomats said Iran has agreed to a cap of fewer than 6,000 centrifuges that it can operate to enrich uranium, a process that can lead to weapons-grade material. The figure is down from the 6,000 the sides were speaking about when the talks started on Thursday, but substantially more than the several hundred the United States had originally wanted. Iran currently runs about 10,000 centrifuges, but it has around 19,000 in its stockpile. U.S. officials maintain the number is abstract, because there will be other restrictions on the levels of enrichment and type of centrifuges Iran can operate, which they believe will extend the time Iran would need to have enough fissile material produce a nuclear weapon -- known as the \"break-out time\" -- to at least a year. On Monday, a senior State Department official said negotiators had not yet decided anything about the disposal of fissile material. There had been word previously that Iran might export it to Russia, but an Iranian negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, told journalists Sunday that Iran had not agreed to it. \"The export of stocks of enriched uranium is not in our program, and we do not intend to them abroad. ... There is no question of sending the stocks abroad,\" he said. Netanyahu voiced alarm at the emerging deal. After meeting with visiting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, Netanyahu said, \"this agreement as it evolves is fulfilling our deepest fears and even worse.\" \"In parallel to the gathering for this dangerous agreement, the proxies of Iran in the Middle East are carrying out a wide occupation of Yemen,\" he said. \"The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is very dangerous to mankind and needs to be stopped.\" The parties are seeking agreement on the basic parameters of a deal before March 31. A comprehensive deal including technical annexes is supposed to be concluded by June 30. Tuesday is seen as a critical milestone to the U.S. negotiators, who are trying to thwart a threat from Congress to impose additional sanctions without the framework. That could prompt Iran to withdraw from the talks and scuttle the chances of a deal altogether. But even if a pact is reached, it is unclear what form it would take. U.S. officials say they will need to publicize something that quantifies Iran's commitments before submitting it to Congress. But U.S. and Western diplomats say that Iran is looking simply for an \"understanding\" of what has been agreed to before a formal accord is reached. CNN's Jim Sciutto contributed to this report.","highlights":"One key sticking point: What would be the limits on Iranian nuclear research?\nAnother sticking point: When would U.N. sanctions be lifted?\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns the deal would be a disaster .","id":"5a7e729e9e69ca44f74cadc9f3ff2169f126f351"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)Good artists borrow. Great artists steal. On Tuesday, a California federal jury delivered its own message to artists everywhere that inspiration can rise to copyright infringement. The verdict was reached after eight days of trial testimony examining whether Robin Thicke's and Pharrell Williams' \"Blurred Lines,\" one of the most successful songs of the young century, was improperly drawn from a soulful hallmark from the prior one \u2014 Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit \"Got to Give It Up.\" Ultimately, a jury comprised of five women and three men heard dueling opinions regarding \"Blurred Lines\" and decided to order Thicke and Williams to pay $4 million in copyright damages plus profits attributable to infringement, which for Thicke was determined to be $1.8 million and for Williams was determined to be $1.6 million. Both escaped statutory damages as the infringement was found not to be willful. Read more: Robin Thicke sues to protect 'Blurred Lines' from Marvin Gaye's family (exclusive) The hardly predictable outcome over a song that made more than $16 million in profits will resonate in the music industry where copyright lawsuits are commonplace, but few such suits ever make it to trial. Most never get past the summary judgment phase because judges carefully draw the line on any lawsuits alleging misappropriation of non-protectable ideas. The highest profile disputes like the one between Tom Petty and Sam Smith over \"Stay With Me\" usually settle. Not only did the \"Blurred Lines\" case go the distance, both sides brought esteemed entertainment litigators to convince the jury. Howard King, representing Thicke, Williams and rapper T.I (a.k.a. Clifford Harris Jr.), spoke how artists need wide berth in their creative pursuits. During opening arguments, he told the jury, \"We're going to show you what you already know: that no one owns a genre or a style or a groove. To be inspired by Marvin Gaye is an honorable thing.\" Over the next week-and-a-half, King would execute a two-pronged strategy: First, he emphasized that Frankie and Nona Gaye only owned compositional elements in the \"Got to Give It Up\" sheet music, leaving out more recognizable elements of the recording like the percussion and singing. Second, he had witnesses testifying both to the differences of \"Blurred Lines\" and \"Got To Give It Up\" as well as the similarities in other famous songs. The case has been tough on Thicke thanks to depositions revealing he lied in media interviews and was drunk and high on Vicodin. But the singer attempted to do himself a favor by showcasing that songs can be stitched together with ease and that perceptions about similarity can be deceiving. On the witness stand, he sang a medley of U2's \"With Or Without You,\" The Beatles' \"Let It Be,\" Alphaville's \"Forever Young,\" Bob Marley's \"No Woman No Cry\" and Michael Jackson's \"Man In the Mirror.\" Read more: Robin Thicke admits drug abuse, lying to media in wild \"Blurred Lines\" deposition (exclusive) Williams also testified about his song creation process, admitting to jurors that \"Blurred Lines\" channels \"that '70s feeling\" and that he looked up to Gaye, but that to feel, isn't copyright infringement. \"The last thing you want to do as a creator is take something of someone else's when you love him,\" said Williams, expressing a point-of-view that's in contrast to the maxim that good artists borrow and great artists steal. Richard Busch, attorney for the Gayes, appeared to know he'd need to overcome the celebrity charisma of his counterparts. \"They will smile at you and they will be charming,\" he said in opening arguments. \"Keep one thing in mind: They are professional performers.\" Read more: 'Blurred Lines' trial--Robin Thicke performs piano medley in court . The Gaye family was handicapped by U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt's decision to preclude use at trial of the original sound recording of \"Got to Give It Up\" because Gaye's copyrights on the song were limited to the sheet music compositions. Before the trial began, Busch wondered whether his side would get a fair trial, and while the judge eventually allowed a stripped-down version of Gaye's song to be played for the jury's ears, the attorney was disturbed by comments made by the Thicke side that he argued had \"poisoned\" the trial. The judge dismissed those concerns. Any lingering unhappiness over the judge's decision leading to the jury's verdict will likely be taken on appeal. To demonstrate copyright infringement, Busch instead leaned on the musicologists, who testified of similarities in signature phrase, hook, keyboard-bass interplay, lyrics and theme of the songs. Although \"Blurred Lines\" was the headliner, the Gaye family also attempted to prove that Thicke's \"Love After War\" was an infringement of Gaye's \"After the Dance\" too. Then, there was the rare peek at \"Blurred Lines\" financial success as the Gaye family made their case for damages. Busch had accounting experts speak about all the money made \u2014 including $5.6 million in profits to Thicke, $5.2 million to Williams and $700K to T.I. and the rest of the $16.7 million in overall profits to record companies Interscope, UMG Distribution and Star Trak. The Gayes also wanted some of the $11 million in touring income attributable to \"Blurred Lines\" success as well as money for overhead costs and statutory damages for willful infringement. All told, the Gaye family was seeking more than $25 million \u2014 a mammoth demand that would shatter the song plagiarism high-water mark of $5.4 million that a California court ordered Michael Bolton and Sony to pay two decades ago for infringing The Isley Brothers' \"Love is a Wonderful Thing.\" In closing arguments, Busch raised the issue of Thicke's credibility, telling jurors, \"\"What it boils down to is 'Yes, we copied. Yes, we took it. Yes, we lied about it. Yes, we changed our story every time'... It boils down to this: Who do you believe?... Are you going to believe Robin Thicke, who told us all he's not an honest person?\" King offered a rebuttal. \"Why would Mr. Williams need to copy anyone to create a hit?\" he asked the jury. \"Why would Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams endure a proceeding like this, where their personal financial details are revealed to the world?\" In what might now be the landmark legal controversy over songcraft, the jury decided to find that Thicke and Williams infringed both songs. The two were only punished $9,375 for \"Love After War,\" but it will be the multimillion dollar verdict regarding \"Blurred Lines\" that will sound out for ages. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Marvin Gaye's family sued over similarities between 'Blurred Lines' and 'Got to Give It Up'\nA jury has awarded the family $7.4 million in the suit .\nThe Gaye family was seeking more than $25 million .\nThe decision was reached after eight days of trial testimony .","id":"81ed420e63024df0cb783d1c3a79ebc95ef00d7a"} -{"article":"(CNN)For the first time in history over half the world's population live in cities -- more than 54% of us did in 2014. Mass urbanization is proving to be \"the single most important transformation\" the world is seeing in the 21st century, according to Jamal Saghir, director of sustainable development at the World Bank, and it shows no signs of letting up. By 2050, the U.N. predicts 66% of us will call a city our home. It is generally accepted that cities are the engines of economic growth, and nowhere are these engines firing harder, or populations growing faster, than in the developing world. With burgeoning higher education systems and enviably young workforces, African cities in particular are booming. Commended for their diversity, adaptability and enterprise, investors are taking note. Global auditing firm PwC has now quantified and ranked Africa's urban hubs in a new report listing the continent's top \"Cities of Opportunity.\" With the caveat that only one city per country could be assessed, PwC set out ranking locations in terms of infrastructure, human capital, economics and society and demographics. North African cities dominated the top five, with Cairo claiming pole position, followed by Tunis, Johannesburg, Casablanca and Algiers. Analysts cited the age of North African cities as a determining factor, with strong infrastructure across the board, incubating an environment for human capital to thrive. However, sub-Saharan cities registered among the highest in terms of society and demographics, excelling in diversity and population growth, both useful when looking towards future investment. Indeed, the report also offered an alternative ranking, gauging the strongest trajectories in terms of investment. GDP growth, ease of doing business, attracting FDI, middle class and overall population growth all took precedent. Under these criteria, Cairo could only achieve a mid-table ranking and was the only city in the top 10 north of the Sahara. Dar es Salaam, Lusaka, Nairobi, Lagos and Accra made up the top five, suggesting a new generation of African powerhouse economies is waiting in the wings. That being said, one city's development does not preclude another's. What is certain is that the battle for economic dominance is on. Read this: Africa's 10 most prosperous countries . More from Marketplace Africa . Editor's Note: CNN Marketplace Africa covers the macro trends impacting the region and also focuses on the continent's key industries and corporations .","highlights":"New PwC report has sought out the best cities for investors in Africa .\nNorth African capitals dominate, but there are signs that sub-Saharan cities will come into their own in the near future .","id":"def59004166473d2b3bdc2b154c882b3f7c2f1d0"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"The Daily Show\" is getting a new host. On Monday, the show announced that comedian Trevor Noah will take over for Jon Stewart, who announced in February that he was leaving after 16 years. Stewart himself succeeded Craig Kilborn and saw the news program's popularity skyrocket. Jon Stewart to sign off 'Daily Show' \"You don't believe it for the first few hours,\" Noah told the New York Times from Dubai, where he's on tour. \"You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you're in a place where you can't really get alcohol.\" Noah, 31, who is South African and biracial, debuted on \"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart\" in December. TV too diverse? Why it's only a start . Stewart approves of his replacement. \"I'm thrilled for the show and for Trevor,\" Stewart said in a statement. \"He's a tremendous comic and talent that we've loved working with.\" Under Stewart, the Comedy Central show has become extremely popular, with its satirical view of the news and current events. Noah has made three appearances on the show. How Jon Stewart changed politics . The nightly show has been good to its contributors. It spun off \"The Colbert Report\" with Stephen Colbert, and former correspondents Larry Wilmore and John Oliver went on to host \"The Nightly Show\" and \"Last Week Tonight,\" respectively. \"Daily Show\" correspondent Samantha Bee is reportedly heading to TBS to helm her own show. Fellow comic Chris Rock had one of the funniest reactions on Twitter. Noah tweeted that \"No one can replace Jon Stewart,\" but he seems excited to take on the role.","highlights":"Trevor Noah made his first appearance on the hit show in December .\nStewart approves of the South African comedian as his replacement .","id":"25d182e0cdd88364fe06fe165d392dd9526774aa"} -{"article":"Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)It's a unique world where friendships are forged, deals struck and more than the occasional argument breaks out. Welcome to Nigeria's free readers associations -- where mostly young men gather around newspaper vendors to read the headlines and debate the issues of the day. They are called \"free\" because nobody actually buys the newspapers they are reading. Discussions among the free readers are loud and furious and have only intensified as Nigeria goes to the polls to decide who will be the next president. Newspaper vendor John Mgbachi, a former shoemaker from Eastern Nigeria, who has a stand in Tinubu Square on Lagos Island said that far from being bad for business, he welcomes the free readers. \"They are passionate about the news and and their presence is an advert for me,\" he said. Mgbachi told CNN that he often sees a big rise in numbers around football tournaments, mostly the Premier League, and also during the election campaign period. To avoid losing out on sales too much, Mgbachi has developed an interesting business model: \"I decided not to make (reading) completely free. For some of the dailies, its 20 naira,(10 cents) 30 naira (15 cents) for the sports papers and 50 naira (30 cents) for the magazines. \"It's not really a static price, it depends on the bargaining power of the person,\" he added. Some even take out a monthly subscription to read the newspapers. The free readers come from all walks of life and CNN spoke to analysts, an accountant and unemployed youth at the stand we visited. They talked about the excitement of discussing the current affairs with others while reading the daily newspaper. One told us he had made two very good friends and even landed a job offer. Mgbachi added there has a been a sharp decline in readers because most people now read their news on the internet. He added that the dire economic situation in the country meant that many Nigerians cannot afford to buy newspapers. Most of Nigeria's $70 billion oil wealth is concentrated in the hands of a politically connected elite while many of its citizens struggle to make ends meet.","highlights":"Men gather around newspaper vendors to read headlines, debate issues of the day .\nCalled free readers associations because no-one actually buys the papers they read .\nDebates loud and furious as Nigerians go to the polls to choose a new president .","id":"17826cf095dd6517a4c8b7baf46ed2cbc5522d23"} -{"article":"(CNN)India's highest court has reversed a controversial law that gave the authorities sweeping powers to arrest and potentially jail people for comments posted on social networks and other Internet platforms. The Supreme Court ruled that Section 66A of the 2008 Information Technology Act was \"unconstitutional\" and \"hit at the root of liberty and freedom of expression, the two cardinal pillars of democracy.\" Under Section 66A, alleged offenders could face up to three years in jail for posting material that is \"grossly offensive,\" has \"menacing character,\" -- or perhaps even more ambiguously -- causes \"annoyance or inconvenience.\" The court said this wording was \"vague\" and could be \"misconstrued,\" according to Ranjeeta Rohatgi, an advocate who was present at the hearing in Delhi Tuesday. India's cyber laws have ignited a furious debate about curbs on freedom of speech in recent years. In 2012, a university professor was arrested for circulating a cartoon that poked fun at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The cartoon, which was a parody of a scene in a popular Indian movie, went viral on social media. He was charged with a range of offenses including defamation, insulting a woman and sending offensive messages from a computer. Mahapatra called the charges a misuse of the law \"in the name of surveillance, to curb democratic rights, freedom of speech and human rights of common people.\" A year earlier, Delhi went one step further with its digital crackdown when the so-called \"intermediary guidelines\" implicated web platforms themselves. The rules now require Internet companies to take down any content seen as \"disparaging,\" \"blasphemous,\" or \"defamatory\" within 36 hours of a user submitting a formal request for removal. In Mumbai, India's financial center, police spokesman Dhananjay Kulkarni told CNN in February that some 650 posts and pages were blocked last year under these regulations. Google says in the last half of 2013 it removed 540 items from its pages in compliance with orders issued by Indian courts, government agencies, and law enforcement. It's a similar story with Facebook. The social networking site took down nearly 5,000 pieces of content reported by the Indian government in the first half of 2014. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh and Kunal Sehgal in Delhi, as well as Mackenzie Sigalos in Hong Kong contributed to this report.","highlights":"Supreme Court rules Section 66A of the 2008 Information Technology Act was \"unconstitutional\"\nOffenders previously faced up to three years in jail for posting \"grossly offensive\" material .\nCourt said this wording was vague and was misused by police .","id":"134c4d387dff4a09cf0d0c2bd56b9077bf5837bd"} -{"article":"Los Angeles (CNN)Three area residents were arrested and charged Wednesday for allegedly operating four Southern California schools for Korean and Chinese students who never attended classes and lived in other states on student visas in a \"pay-to-stay\" scheme. The three educators collected as much as $6 million in annual tuition from an enrollment of about 1,500 foreign students who were largely from South Korea and China, said federal prosecutors. The arrests came after a federal grand jury indicted the three defendants Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, money laundering and other immigration offenses. An allegation in the indictment would also require the defendants to forfeit property and proceeds derived from the fraudulent scheme, authorities said. Hee Sun Shim, 51, of Beverly Hills, is the owner and manager and of the postsecondary schools and is charged with 13 counts of use or possession of an immigration document procured by fraud, authorities said. The two other defendants are each charged with one count of that same offense: They are Hyung Chan Moon, also known as Steve Moon, 39, of Los Angeles who assisted in the operation and management of the schools; and Eun Young Choi, also known as Jamie Choi, 32, of Los Angeles, a former employee who also assisted in the operation and management of the school. Shim, who also went by Leonard Shim and Leo Shim, is also charged with three counts of encouraging illegal residence, as well as two counts of money laundering, prosecutors said. The three defendants and their attorneys couldn't be immediately reached for comment Wednesday. \"Immigration fraud schemes potentially compromise national security and cheat foreign nationals who play by the rules,\" Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said in a statement. \"In this case, officials at several schools allegedly abused their responsibility to ensure that only legitimate foreign students were allowed to the stay in the country. This type of fraud against the United States will be thoroughly examined to bring those responsible to justice and to protect the integrity of our immigration system,\" the federal prosecutor said. Three of the schools are in Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood: Prodee University\/Neo-America Language School; Walter Jay M.D. Institute, an Educational Center (WJMD); and the American College of Forensic Studies (ACFS), authorities said. The fourth school is currently operating in Alhambra, California: Likie Fashion and Technology College, authorities said. \"What we've broken up is a pay-to-stay scheme,\" said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. \"That's a scheme where institutions purport to be schools, but are really not doing any education whatsoever,\" he said. \"Any scheme where someone gains access to the U.S. through fraud is also a national security vulnerability,\" Arnold said. \"Although we don't have any information that any of these people wish to do harm to the U.S., the point is anyone could take advantage of a vulnerability like this. Which is why it is so important that we identify these vulnerabilities and shut them down.\" Prodee University\/Neo-America Language School was located on the fifth floor of a Los Angeles office tower near the Koreatown neighborhood, but Homeland Security Investigations agents said they found the school \"abandoned\" during their raid on Wednesday. The agents allowed CNN to attend the raid. The school featured classrooms, administrative offices and a small library, but no one occupied the spaces. In fact, the abandoned school brought to mind a movie set, filled with props and decorations, but no actors. In one small room, a CD player serenaded empty desks with classical music. The tiny library featured USC and UCLA pennants. The television wasn't even plugged in. One federal agent said many of the students listed on the school rolls were older, in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Prodee's 2011-2012 catalog describes the facility as an English as second language school and states \"It is our mission that all students be able to flourish in their ability to use and understand English in all facets of life by providing a top quality ESL educational environment,\" according to a copy of the document on the website of the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. \"Our enthusiastic and qualified instructors concern themselves with teaching a rigorous, but innovative curriculum of interactive and beneficial courses and materials leading to higher TOEFL scores and admission to U.S. colleges and universities,\" the catalog says. Another document with the state bureau indicates Prodee had a 73% graduation rate in 2011 and a 60% rate in 2010. But the indictment alleges that students actually lived Nevada, Texas, Washington state and Arizona. The schools were authorized by the federal government to issue a document that certified a foreign student had been accepted to a school and would be attending classes full time in the United States, authorities said. The document, called a Form I-20, made a student eligible for a F-1 student visa. In exchange for that form, students paid $1,800 tuition to enroll in one of the schools for six months, authorities said. During their investigation, authorities interviewed 35 students, mainly from South Korea, and found none resided in Los Angeles, officials said. An unannounced federal inspection of Prodee's main site in 2011 found only one English class with three students, though the school listed an enrollment of 900 students for its two sites, prosecutors said. On the same day, federal authorities also visited the American College of Forensic Studies found only one religion with one student, though the school claimed an enrollment of more than 300 foreign students, prosecutors said. Some students transferred to one of the four schools after attending other U.S. schools also participating in the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program, prosecutors said. The conspiracy count carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. The immigration fraud charges each carry up to 10 years in prison, and the money laundering charges carry a potential penalty of 20 years, authorities said. Wednesday's arrests follow last week's federal raids of more than three dozen \"maternity hotels\" in Southern California where foreign women give birth, allegedly for the sole purpose of having a U.S.-citizen baby, authorities said. The \"maternity tourism\" sites included apartment complexes in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties where authorities believe the businesses housed the foreign nationals about to give birth, federal officials said. Those targeted residences are believed to have catered largely to women from China, who paid $15,000 to $50,000 for lodging, transportation and food, according to a statement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Those fees don't necessarily include medical care, authorities said. Specifically, authorities in the maternity tourism raids obtained search warrants for 37 location and conducted searches at more than 50 locations, including sites that consented to a federal search, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.","highlights":"CNN attends federal raid, finds school abandoned, resembling movie set .\nThree defendants collected as much as $6 million in annual tuition from about 1,500 students .\nStudents largely came from South Korea and China, feds say .","id":"1179da8a0e289586168ebc0b0723db6a3480da83"} -{"article":"(CNN)Enjoy the latest pictures of the former Kate Middleton. They're the last you'll see for a while. The Duchess of Cambridge made her last official appearance Friday at a variety of spots across London, enjoying tours of a learning center and a church that hosts a youth charity. The former, the Stephen Lawrence Centre, is named for an aspiring architect who was stabbed to death at age 18 in 1993. His mother, Baroness Lawrence, escorted Catherine and her husband, Prince William, around the facility. Catherine, 33, is scheduled to give birth in mid- to late April, she said this month. It will be the second child for her and Prince William, 32. Their son, Prince George, was born in July 2013.","highlights":"Duchess of Cambridge makes last official appearance, due to give birth next month .\nKate and Prince William have a son, George .","id":"a651f2ff5fb05b386b3cc09cfa1e35f39facba63"} -{"article":"(CNN)As relatives and friends mourn the loss of their loved ones aboard Germanwings Flight 9525, the world community is stunned by the sequence of events that led to co-pilot Andreas Lubitz purposely crashing the plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. I happen to have several personal connections to this tragedy: a recent graduate of Drexel University -- where I teach -- and her mother were on the ill-fated flight, I lived in Germany for 18 years and I am a psychologist who has researched the psychology of terrorism and developed psychiatric tests that are used to determine pilot flight fitness. While the engineering of the Airbus aircraft is fascinating and the world of air traffic control absorbing, what is even more complex and challenging to understand is the human mind of the co-pilot investigators say is responsible for the crash -- the machine that flies the machine. When complex engineering systems interact with human factors, it is most often the human that causes the anomaly. Humans are far less reliable than machines. The average aviator has superior intellectual and cognitive abilities, and is psychologically stable and reliable. While it is not surprising that when it comes to aviation accidents, the first line of inquiry is into what went wrong with the plane. However, very often, as apparently is the case here, something went wrong with the human flying the plane. Pilots are typically tested for emotional stability and screened for the presence of mental illness when they are selected. The U.S. Navy has strict testing programs related to fitness for duty protocols for their pilots during the length of their careers. But we have learned that the German company Lufthansa and its budget airline affiliate Germanwings do not use psychological testing once the pilots have made it through the selection process. Psychological assessment and screening is not held in as high esteem in Germany as it is in the United States. Perhaps it should be. A fitness-for-duty evaluation asks this important question: Can the pilot safely and effectively perform his job from a mental health and cognitive standpoint? The deliberate destruction of Flight 9525 by a single person, most likely related to some grievance or other unknown intrinsic motivation that he took to the grave, can also be considered an act of terrorism. The action constitutes the unlawful use of violence against the passengers on the flight to further some yet unknown objective. Research on the perpetrators of terrorism has revealed that a single person is capable of executing odd, unexplainable violent actions. Their behaviors may be related to a political or social framework, or it may be associated with something deeply personal. Examples include Richard Reid, the failed shoe bomber; Eric Rudolph, the Olympic bomber; or Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber. In 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army officer and psychiatrist, went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 32. And in 2012, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old father of two, opened fire and killed 16 innocent Afghan civilians. When examining Germanwings Flight 9525 from the \"cockpit of the human mind,\" one must ask this question: How can we ever predict or prevent tragedies like these when we can never truly know what lurks in the mind of another human being? As a psychologist, I would, of course, advocate for more rigorous psychological screening and regular testing for pilots, as well as instituting additional security measures to prevent future incidents like this. Just as aircraft are inspected and maintained, it is important to regularly evaluate one of the more fragile components of modern aviation -- the pilots operating the plane. But, just as the overwhelming majority of automobile accidents are caused by driver error, with a human mind at the helm of an aircraft, there will always be an element of unpredictability present. And, unless we had a \"flight recorder\" for the human brain, we will never really know what took place inside the mind of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. One thing is for sure: the tragic events of Flight 9525 will surely renew conversation about what happened to Flight MH370 -- the biggest aviation mystery since Amelia Earhart vanished in 1937 -- and the role that human factors may have played in its disappearance.","highlights":"Eric Zillmer: It's hard to predict or prevent tragedies like the Germanwings crash .\nHe says German airlines should consider more rigorous psychological screening and testing for pilots .","id":"541b149eda08b33415f4c6f2ce5bd57eb9cff4da"} -{"article":"(CNN)The \"Fifty Shades\" series will have to handcuff a new director. Sam Taylor-Johnson, who directed \"Fifty Shades of Grey,\" told Deadline.com that she won't be back for the sequel, \"Fifty Shades Darker.\" \"Directing 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' has been an intense and incredible journey for which I am hugely grateful,\" she said in a statement to the site. \"While I will not be returning to direct the sequels, I wish nothing but success to whosoever takes on the exciting challenges of films two and three.\" 'Fifty Shades of Grey': What fans hoped for? The first film in the best-selling book series has been hugely successful, pulling in more than $550 million worldwide since it premiered in mid-February, but there have been rumbles that creative clashes were in the offing for the sequel. Author E L James has a great deal of control in how her books are presented on screen, and she made it clear that she wanted to write the screenplay for the second film, Variety reported last month. Kelly Marcel wrote the screenplay for \"Fifty Shades of Grey.\" The story behind Mr. Grey's suits . The film stars Jamie Dornan as billionaire Christian Grey -- a man of certain sexual proclivities -- and Dakota Johnson as his romantic partner, Anastasia Steele.","highlights":"Sam Taylor-Johnson bows out of the \"Fifty Shades\" sequel .\nAuthor E L James wanted more control over the second pic .\nThe first film has made $550 million worldwide .","id":"0d0735b0096127220c4e5b9a9285f154761f07f5"} -{"article":"(CNN)He may be suffering from the effects of a dislocated shoulder -- but golf legend Arnold Palmer has vowed that won't stop him from hitting his ceremonial opening tee shot at the Masters in Augusta next month. The 85-year-old, speaking to reporters at the Trump Doral resort where he was opening a villa named after him, said he would look forward \"to being out on that tee even if I fan it.\" Palmer's injury happened when he had a fall at the Father-Son Challenge in Florida shortly before Christmas. He explained: \"I was going to make a speech at the Father-Son and I tripped on a carpet and did a 360.\" But the four-time Masters champion, who hit his first ceremonial opening shot back in 2007, said nothing would prevent him from joining fellow greats Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player on the course on April 9 -- even though doctors won't allow him to swing a golf club just yet. \"Oh yeah, I plan on it,\" Palmer, known as 'the King,' said. \"I haven't been practicing... I'm not allowed to swing yet. [But] I will whatever.\" Palmer's Masters triumphs came in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964, and he made his final competitive Masters appearance -- and his 50th in all -- in 2004.","highlights":"Four-time Masters winner suffered dislocated shoulder in December .\nHe has struck ceremonial opening tee shot at Masters since 2007 .\nDoctors won't allow him to swing a golf club yet .\nHe vows to be \"out on that tee even if I fan it\"","id":"149faf0f84414ada3206851365fe82e1947b7b76"} -{"article":"(CNN)A nuclear deal with international powers on Iran's nuclear program is within reach and achievable, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told reporters Saturday. Rouhani said negotiators from both sides have found new common ground in recent days, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The President believes that \"clinching a general deal is easy,\" according to the IRNA story, but hammering out agreements on certain details \"will be a very tough and complicated job.\" Iran has been largely isolated for years for its nuclear program, one that its leaders say the country wants for peaceful purposes. Others, like the United States, have challenged that assertion and instituted strict sanctions, fearing that Tehran actually plans to develop nuclear weapons. After years of basic stalemates, Iranian officials and representatives of the P5+1 have managed to reach short-term agreements as they try to strike a larger deal. The sides have been working toward that end in Lausanne, Switzerland, hoping to get a framework pact in place ahead of a March 31 deadline. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, joined these talks Monday. All sides took a break Friday, but are expected to return to the negotiating table soon. Kerry, addressing reporters Saturday in Lausanne before leaving for London, said \"substantial progress\" had been made toward reaching a deal but that \"important gaps remain.\" He insisted that the international powers involved in the talks, the P5+1 -- consisting of Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- were united in their determination to ensure that Iran's nuclear program is purely peaceful. The stakes are high and the issues complicated, Kerry said. \"Let me once again be clear: We don't want just any deal,\" he said. \"If we had, we could have announced something a long time ago.\" There has been \"genuine progress\" over the past 16 months since a joint plan was agreed and in his conversations with Zarif of the past few days, Kerry said. The international powers won't rush the process, he said, but the negotiations are at a decisive point. \"We recognize that fundamental decisions have to be made now and they don't get any easier as time goes by,\" he said. \"It is time to make hard decisions. We want the right deal that would make the world, including the United States and our closest partners and allies, safer and more secure, and that is our test.\" U.S. President Barack Obama has made clear that he wants to achieve a \"comprehensive and durable agreement\" that is based on intensive verification of its implementation rather than trust, Kerry added. \"We have not yet reached the finish line but, make no mistake, we have the opportunity to get this right,\" he said. While in London, Kerry met with his counterparts from the UK, Germany and France, as well as the European Union foreign policy chief, to discuss their coordinated approach. British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond spoke for the group, echoing Kerry but saying while \"substantial progress has been made in some areas,\" there were other areas that lacked agreement. \"The time has come now for Iran in particular to make some very tough decisions if we are going to see progress made,\" Hammond said. Kerry also spoke Friday by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The Iranian President's guarded optimism Saturday -- which also happens to be Nowruz, a holiday marking the start of spring and beginning of a new year in the Persian calendar -- jibes with the progress cited recently by the Iranians' counterparts in the talks. Western officials said Friday that the ongoing negotiations have led to compromises on some crucial issues that have long divided the West and Iran. Specifically, the parties are coalescing around an idea that Iran could keep 6,000 centrifuges in any deal, down from the 6,500 that had been under discussion, two Western diplomats told CNN. The pace of relief from sanctions is a sticking point for Iran, according to a Western official. Iranian negotiators want them lifted immediately, while U.S. and European negotiators prefer they be phased out over several years, contingent on Iran meeting its end of the bargain. The debate has generated heated disagreements not only in Switzerland, but also in Washington, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on March 3 at the invitation of Republican leaders to warn about any nuclear deal with Iran. The speech was made without the approval of U.S. President Barack Obama. The next week, an open letter signed by 47 Republican senators, addressing Iran's leadership, noted that any agreement made with the U.S. administration that is not approved by the Senate could be nullified by Obama's successor. Late Thursday, Obama reached out \"directly to the people and leaders of Iran,\" in a video message recorded ostensibly for Nowruz, to urge them to back a deal curtailing Tehran's nuclear program. \"This year we have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries,\" Obama said. \"... Together we have to speak up for the future we seek ... I believe our countries should be able to resolve this issue peacefully with diplomacy.\" But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his own Nowruz address on Saturday, noted the political divisions within the United States over the nuclear talks, Iran's state-run Press TV reported. He suggested the U.S. President's Nowruz message \"included dishonest assertions and his claim of friendship for Iranian people was not sincere,\" he is quoted as saying. Khamenei also said Obama had claimed falsely that some people in Iran did not back a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue. What they are in fact resisting is the bullying approach of the United States, he said, according to Press TV. The Ayatollah also insisted that the removal of sanctions should be part of the negotiations, not a step that only followed the implementation of a deal. \"Iran will never accept this,\" he said. \"This is the Americans' ploy. Removal of sanctions should be part of any agreement.\" CNN's Laura Koran, Elise Labott and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.","highlights":"British FM: \"The time has come now for Iran ... to make some very tough decisions\"\nU.S. secretary of state says substantial progress has been made but important gaps remain .\nIranian President says getting a general deal is easy, but ironing out the details may be hard .","id":"e5f13a0bea8f2105dda65260734e7ac339a2575f"} -{"article":"Chao Hu, Anhui, China (CNN)Six-year-old Lu Yiming is a handful. One minute, he's on the concrete roof of his two-story house, the next he's fiddling with fireworks. Now, he's skating down an alley. \"Come back here!\" yells his grandmother. \"I have such a headache raising this child,\" 72-year-old old Tang Xinying confides. Lu's mother abandoned him after he was born and his father works as a carpenter in Shandong province hundreds of miles further north. He comes back perhaps once a year. In China, Lu is what's called a \"left-behind child.\" Conservatively, there are at least 61 million such children in China -- that's a staggering one in five. They struggle at school, have higher rates of mental health issues, and suffer from more behavioral problems than their contemporaries. \"I tell him 'your father is working and your mother doesn't want you,'\" says an exasperated Tang. In Chao Hu, a village in the inland province of Anhui, a dead-end track passes by half-finished housing projects and abandoned fields. A yellow haze hangs in the air leaving a metallic taste in the mouth. China's industrial pollution made it out here, but the jobs haven't. Everyone of working age in Chao Hu has gone to the cities to find work, leaving the old and very young behind. Lu holds my hand as we walk through the tiny village. A group of old women sit on three-legged wooden stools listening to Chinese opera on a small radio. Another walks by knitting. Some old men make bootleg liquor in an oil drum. \"We don't have fields that we can farm, if you don't go out to work, then how do you earn an income?\" says Tang. \"Their parents have to work outside of town and they cannot bring their children with them.\" The All China Women's Federation, a state- backed organization, paints a bleak picture for left behind children. A steady stream of state media reports highlights the abuse suffered by left behind children. And crimes are often blamed on them. \"It has a huge impact on society and the generation of people who grow up without parents,\" says Ines Kaempfer, of the Center for Child-Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility. \"There is a generation of Chinese society that lacks security and trust. It could have a potentially disastrous effect.\" Unintended consequences of mass urbanization and migration are not unique to China. But draconian rules have made the problem worse. China's much-hated hukou system registers families as either rural or urban. Most migrants can't change their household registration when they move. They struggle to access healthcare and other social services in urban areas. Their children can't go to public schools -- even if they are born in the cities. Critics say the hukou system has created a vast underclass of cheap labor to help drive China's manufacturing revolution. Recognizing some of its failures, the Chinese Communist Party has proposed reforms of the hukou system including doing away with temporary residence permits. The topic is under discussion this week at the annual meeting of China's National People's Congress, the country's rubber-stamp parliament. \"Though it is better than before, the hukou system is a huge problem,\" says Professor Fan Bin, of the Huadong Technology Institute. \"Migrants can't afford to keep their children in big cities, the rent is high and the wages are low, and they can't pay the tuition for private schools.\" In Chao Hu village, Tang is cooking a meal of rice and spinach for her grandson. She swirls peanut oil on her simple stove top. \"I can't teach my grandson well. This boy should be educated by his father and mother,\" she says, \"I cannot catch him when he runs away from me. I cannot discipline him when he misbehaves.\" Tang is convinced she can't give her grandson the support he needs. \"We don't have a choice, even if the situation isn't good. If I don't take care of him who will,\" she says. CNN's Serena Dong contributed to this report.","highlights":"One in five Chinese kids are \"left behind\"\nTheir parents are migrant workers who leave rural areas for the cities .\nThey struggle at school, have higher rates of mental health issues, .","id":"40fa3da5e45daa3649e3d3af8135afccb134c2c5"} -{"article":"(CNN)The first official visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Washington comes as excitement mounts over the possibility that direct peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are imminent. The visit, which began Sunday, offers the opportunity for discussion and progress on a number of fronts, the coming face-to-face talks with the Taliban almost certainly among them. But while the start of such talks would certainly be a positive development, it would hardly be a sign that peace is about to descend upon a land ravaged by decades of war. The reality is that an agreement with the Taliban that is good for the Afghan government is probably impossible right now. Negotiations to end the Taliban insurgency face a series of significant challenges, and an imperfect deal could harm Afghanistan's nascent unity government, encourage the formation of splinter groups of hardened fighters, boost existing terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS and plunge the country into an era of renewed violence and instability. That said, the United States should remain broadly supportive of these talks by promoting conditions that could make the possibility of success more likely down the road -- history has shown that successful negotiations most often occur when each party has some vulnerability to the other. Militarily, the Taliban is not the Afghan government's equal, but that does not mean the insurgents lack a strong negotiating position. For a start, the international presence in Afghanistan is declining, freeing the Taliban to operate more openly in the rural corners of the country. Meanwhile, Afghan security forces are being killed at rates that are probably not sustainable and civilian casualties are at an all-time high. Most troublingly, the new national unity government has yet to clearly demonstrate its ability to govern. All this means that until the new government shows that the diverse interests within it can coexist, and it articulates a cohesive strategy to counter the Taliban, the insurgents can make a strong case for postponing peace in the hopes of a better situation in the future. A second key to negotiating a path toward peace in Afghanistan is devising a strategy to contain splinter groups. Often in the course of negotiations, those unsatisfied with the peace process flock to new organizations to continue the fight. These can include so-called \"bitter enders,\" hardened fighters who want no part of peace. The emergence of splinter groups is an expected part of any peace negotiation process, but it must be minimized for an agreement to take hold. In the case of Afghanistan, there is no shortage of groups willing to absorb fighters, from outlaw bandit groups to al Qaeda. Recently, as Ghani has highlighted, there have even been stories of fighters declaring allegiance to terrorist group ISIS. It goes without saying that the spread of ISIS's particularly violent form of extremism within Afghanistan would make an already complex and precarious security situation all the more so. Finally, negotiations must happen at a time when a peace agreement can reasonably be enforced -- it is one thing to craft a compromise and quite another to carry it out. Too often in peace negotiations, an agreement is viewed as a finish line, but any deal can easily be derailed by unpopular political accommodations, economic incentives and rebel fighters who refuse to drop their arms. To take hold, peace agreements require a legitimate and effective government capable of communicating new realities to the public and executing policies that are often untried and complex. At the moment, the Afghan government is struggling to carry out existing policies, while juggling the country's many divergent interests. While a peace agreement would certainly boost the legitimacy of a national unity government, a stillborn accord would only lead to disillusionment and doubt. Ultimately, the chances that talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban will succeed are remote at best. Yet the United States should do everything it can to help create the underlying conditions to support productive negotiations -- if not now, at some point in the future. What can the U.S. do? Two things: . First, the Obama administration could agree to the Afghan government's request to slow American troop withdrawals. This would allow the United States to assist the Afghan government to stabilize the country and contain any splintering anti-government factions. Second, the U.S. could remain actively engaged in promoting the success of the Afghan national unity government. This means not merely maintaining existing development and economic efforts, but finding opportunities to assist the new government to boost its legitimacy. For example, the United States could support emerging efforts to build a meaningful relationship between Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, which would increase public confidence in the government's ability to protect its people. It also could lend a hand advising political leaders, including the many first-time cabinet officials, on governance and public service. Sowing the seeds of future success in bringing peace to Afghanistan requires no new U.S. boots on the ground or extravagant financial commitments. Rather, it takes a willingness to continue to engage with Afghanistan's dynamic set of political challenges in small, but meaningful ways.","highlights":"Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is visiting the United States .\nRebecca Zimmerman: U.S. doesn't need more boots on ground .","id":"db94d04d928ca5c09ea910d4f1d6d9df8a3315ee"} -{"article":"(CNN)Iraqi forces say they've captured key areas in their offensive to take back Tikrit, which has been under ISIS control since June. The security forces, backed by Shia militias, raised the Iraqi flag over the governorate and the main hospital buildings in the city Monday night, a security official with the forces in Tikrit told CNN. The gains, according to the official, came after a slow advance into the city as the forces dealt with more than 300 improvised explosive devices planted in the city's streets. At least 26 militants were killed in the operation, the official said. Earlier Monday, Iraqi federal police said in a statement aired on Iraqi television that the forces had liberated four neighborhoods in southern Tikrit. The renewed push into Tikrit comes days after a series of U.S.-led airstrikes aimed at ISIS targets around the city. The goal of those airstrikes was to pave the way for Iraqi forces to go in. Now security forces and fighters from Hashd Al-Shaabi, a predominantly Shia paramilitary force that has doing much of the fighting in the critical battle to take Tikrit back from ISIS, say they're gaining ground. Iraqi forces have tried multiple times to win back Tikrit since ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, conquered the city in June as part of its campaign to amass an expansive Islamic caliphate. And each time, so far, they've failed. The latest push began after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on March 1 ordered Iraqi forces to retake Tikrit and Salahuddin province. Militants have been under pressure ever since in the battleground city, which is the birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad. ISIS responded by adjusting its positions in and around the city, hiding in buildings and other key infrastructure, said Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for al-Abadi. This movement led Iraq's military to pause its operation, out of growing worries that a full-on invasion could produce heavy Iraqi military and some civilian casualties. The situation spurred the Iraqi Prime Minister to request help from the U.S.-led coalition, which conducted airstrikes around Tikrit last week. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Catherine E. Shoichet, Ashley Fantz, Ben Wedeman and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.","highlights":"A push to retake Tikrit stalled as ISIS repositioned its forces around the city .\nSpokesman: Iraq's leader requested help because coalition has \"advanced\" capabilities .\nLeaders of predominantly Shiite militia fighting in area had resisted such intervention .","id":"757dfeb241ae6a7dd404a910b4f721cfb5d9dd5f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hillary Clinton is back in the middle of an unfolding controversy. The revelation that as secretary of state she maintained a private email account, and that she had a private computer server in her New York home, sent shock waves through the world of politics last week. Questions arose about whether Clinton conducted her official business on private email, possibly violating regulations that were written to ensure that the activities of government officials remain accessible to the public. Republicans jumped on the story. \"It makes you wonder,\" said Reince Preibus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. \"Did she use the private emails so she could conduct diplomacy and fund-raising at the same time?\" Even many Democrats are worried about the implications of this recent story. Their front-runner, their \"inevitable\" nominee for 2016, now seems vulnerable. Many in Washington are anticipating that the scandal is only getting started. This is not the first time that Hillary Clinton has found herself in this situation. She has spent much of her political career battling scandals. When her husband, Bill Clinton, was president of the United States, she was one of the first targets of the earliest investigations into the administration -- \"Travel-gate,\" \"File-gate\" and the Whitewater affair. She stood by her husband's side later in his presidency when House Republicans moved to impeach him for having lied about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Although Clinton enjoyed a bit of a break when serving in the Senate, the controversies resumed once she became secretary of state under President Obama. During her tenure, Republicans became consumed with multiple investigations into her role in the tragic Benghazi attacks. Although the investigations failed to find any evidence of wrongdoing, the issue became a rallying point for conservative activists and fund-raisers. Some Republicans now claim that the emails will provide the data that they have been looking for to prove what they were saying. But those observers who are predicting her demise should remember that Hillary Clinton has proven to be remarkably resilient over the years. Each time she or her family has been hit with a scandal, she has survived. She has proven to be an extraordinarily tough fighter who turns these challenges into opportunities to become stronger. As Kate McKinnon, playing Hillary Clinton on \"Saturday Night Live\" said, \"Nice try. ... This is NOT how Hillary Clinton goes down.\" Based on her history, what can we expect from the Clinton scandal playbook? Attack the accuser and the investigative process: Nobody has done this better than Hillary Clinton. When her husband first confronted charges about his affair, Clinton famously went on television and spoke about a \"right-wing conspiracy\" that she claimed was driving the scandal. Although the revelation that the affair did occur brought her family great embarrassment, her charge became part of a larger counterattack from the administration that proved to be extremely effective. The Clintons zeroed in on the hyperpartisanship of some members of the GOP, such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich, claiming that the Republicans in Congress were on a mission to pull off a political coup. She employed a similar strategy with the Benghazi investigations, arguing that the inquiry was more a political tool used to rally the base than a serious investigation. We are likely to hear similar arguments now, particularly since the email controversy has opened up right as the campaign season is taking off. As more Republicans can't resist jumping on the issue, Clinton will push back, focusing public attention less on the issue than on the idea that this is part of a political narrative to bring her down. Stick it out: One thing that Hillary Clinton and her husband understand well is that the news media love a good scandal feeding frenzy, but that soon enough reporters move on. The American public, which is now used to fast-paced and constantly changing news stories, will follow the coverage as it shifts to a new story even after weeks, or months, of attention on one single issue. Remember the Ebola crisis? Not many people do, though for a time it was all anyone was talking about. As Brendan Nyhan wrote in The New York Times: \"If there's one thing we've learned from past presidential campaigns, it's that most supposed game-changers like this quickly fade from the memory of the political class, having never been noticed by most Americans in the first place.\" When dealing with scandal, Hillary Clinton and her husband have avoided taking any rash action, ignoring whispers about resignation or discussions about major apologies. Instead they strike back against their opponents and wait out the news cycle until the frenzy dies down. People should not expect Clinton to do anything drastic in the near future. Her first move, via Twitter, was to announce in straightforward fashion that she has asked the State Department to review and release some of the email as soon as possible. While some Democrats are champing at the bit to use this opportunity to push other members of their party (Elizabeth Warren!) into the political fray, Clinton is not going to give them any space to do this. She will wait until reporters and Congress move in a different direction. Rally the party base: If there is one thing that the Clintons understand, it is that their party is desperate for a good fight. After years of dealing with congressional Republicans and the hardball tactics of conservative activists, the Clintons appreciate that members of their party are searching for leaders who will take on their opponents. Democrats are tired of elected officials who roll over too easily when attacked by Republicans. This has been one of the major complaints from Democrats about Obama. Even when many Democrats were furious with the White House following the Monica Lewinsky revelation, the Clintons appealed to partisan instincts and rallied the troops to fight for them as a way to push back against the GOP. By 1998, they had transformed the issue from being about Clinton and perjury to a struggle to protect the Democratic Party. Clinton will do this again. Democrats are feeling particularly vulnerable ever since former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush entered the race, bringing star power to a GOP campaign that seemed filled with lightweights and flawed candidates. Given that Democrats feel the stakes are enormously high to keep control of the White House so that the next president can protect Obama's programs from Republican attack, Clinton will appeal to that instinct to carry her through. Will it work? That remains to be seen. It will depend on the scale and scope of the upcoming revelations and what her opponents decide to do with the material. But the Clinton playbook is pretty clear and road-tested. If Clinton's critics and opponents expect her to just roll over, they really haven't been studying their history.","highlights":"Zelizer: The former secretary of state has decades of experience in managing controversy .\nHe says Clinton and her husband know how to turn controversy into a tool to energize Democrats .","id":"8a89f747d5984e96f1f1e82610bf238f53c7cf2c"} -{"article":"(CNN)Swedish prosecutors have asked Julian Assange's legal representatives whether the WikiLeaks founder would consent to be interviewed in London and have his DNA taken via a swab. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about 2010 allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another. Swedish prosecutors have previously balked at coming to Britain to question Assange. However, a number of the crimes Julian Assange is suspected of will be subject to a statute of limitation in August 2015, according to a statement from Marianne Ny, the director of public prosecutions. \"If Assange gives his consent, the prosecutor will promptly submit a request for legal assistance to the British authorities to further continue the investigation,\" the statement said. A request will also be made to the Ecuadorian authorities for permission to \"perform investigative measures\" at its London embassy, the statement said. Ecuador granted Assange political asylum in 2012. Assange's defense lawyer, Per E. Samuelsson, said he called Assange on Friday morning with the news from the prosecution authority -- and that in principle they viewed the request positively. \"I think I woke him up, but he knew I was calling with news about the case since I called so early,\" Samuelsson said. \"He was, of course, very happy that something is finally happening but he is irritated that it has taken such a long time.\" This is a step that Assange and his team have been requesting for four years, Samuelsson said. Ny explained the logic behind the Swedish authorities' change of approach in her statement. \"My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorian embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial in the future,\" Ny said. \"This assessment remains unchanged. Now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies to the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward, particularly as there are no other measures on offer without Assange being present in Sweden.\" The Australian national has not been charged and denies the claims. He's said he fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing government secrets through WikiLeaks. Samuelsson said Assange's legal team would travel over to London as soon as possible to discuss Ny's request and that it expects to respond next week. \"The problem is that there are two more countries involved in this request so it might take some time to make all this happen,\" Samuelsson said. Samuelsson also said Friday's development was not a great surprise since Sweden's Supreme Court had last week asked the prosecutor general for an opinion on the case. \"We think that the prosecutor general, who has taken over the case, probably told Prosecutor Ny to interview Assange in London,\" he said. Assange has previously said the arrest warrant should be thrown out because, in part, Swedish authorities declined to interview him at the Ecuadorian Embassy, thereby prolonging a preliminary investigation that he said should have concluded long ago. London's Metropolitan Police said last month that the cost of the operation to guard the embassy to prevent Assange fleeing had spiraled to more than 10 million pounds ($15.3 million.) overall . CNN's Claudia Rebaza contributed to this report .","highlights":"Lawyer for Assange says they view the request positively but will have to discuss response .\nSwedish prosecutors will ask Julian Assange's lawyers if they can question him in London .\nHe is wanted for questioning over sexual abuse claims in Sweden; he denies the allegations .","id":"b79e4ee279a47ec43c3e136c9234199b0c1360f7"} -{"article":"(CNN)New Zealand are on course for a first ever World Cup title after a thrilling semifinal victory over South Africa, secured off the penultimate ball of the match. Chasing an adjusted target of 298 in just 43 overs after a rain interrupted the match at Eden Park, Grant Elliott hit a six right at the death to confirm victory and send the Auckland crowd into raptures. It is the first time New Zealand has ever reached a World Cup final, and it will play either Australia or India on Sunday. Te pair face each other in Sydney on Thursday. Not the first time in the sport, rain played a part. South Africa were motoring with the bat before a two-hour delay for poor weather. Though its total was escalated by the Duckworth\/Lewis method -- used to calculate a revised target in the event of a rain delay -- New Zealand held firm thanks to Elliott. His 84 not out underpinned its innings and it was fitting that he delivered the final blow, smashing Dale Steyn for six off the second last ball to spark jubilant scenes at Eden Park. \"I don't think this win is for myself or the team, but everyone here,\" Elliott said at the post-match presentation. \"The supporters have been amazing. \"I think we timed the pace of the innings to perfection. I wasn't as calm as I looked. When you have 45,000 fans screaming at you every ball... \"It has been an absolute pleasure playing in front of this crowd. We have had a good run. It is the first final we have been in as New Zealand. \"We are a very level team, we will approach it as any other game. Nothing going in my mind when I hit the six. I don't even know where the ball went.\" South Africa, who themselves have never reached the final, have been accused of choking in past installments of the one-day competition. But that indictment cannot be leveled at it after one of the most dramatic matches in World Cup history. It had recovered from 114-3 in the 27th over to 216-3 after 38 overs thanks to some fierce hitting from captain AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, before the rain came. With the game stopped for two hours, it finally reached 281 off its reduced 43 overs, du Plessis top scoring with 82. New Zealand's target was upgraded via Duckworth\/Lewis, a calculation that takes into account how many overs were left and how many wickets had been lost, to 298. Kiwi skipper Brendan McCullum got it off to a fast start with a 22-ball half-century but after he was dismissed it wobbled, and needed 139 from 22 overs. But Elliott was the steadying hand, judging his innings perfectly. And though he was dropped in the penultimate over, he struck the telling blow off Steyn to seal victory and inflict a fourth semifinal defeat on South Africa. \"It was a great advertisement for cricket,\" McCullum said at the post-match presentation. \"Everybody involved will remember this for the rest of their lives. \"What a great innings from Grant. He came out of wilderness not long ago. The greatest time of our lives. We have enjoyed the experience. \"I hope the crowds are all dreaming the way we are. Gee it would be nice to win it. We don't mind whom we face in the final. \"They are both quality sides, but we know if we play the way we want to we are a good chance.\" Should Australia beat India at the Sydney Cricket Ground, then the joint hosts of the World Cup will meet in the final in Melbourne. \"It was an amazing game of cricket,\" AB de Villiers said. \"Probably the most electric crowd I have ever heard in my life. I guess the best team has come out on top. We gave it our best. No regrets. \"We left it all out there. It is hurting. It is going to take a while to recover. The bigger picture is for the people back home. We play for them. I hope they can still be proud of us.\"","highlights":"New Zealand edge a thriller against South African to reach cricket World Cup final .\nGrant Elliott hits a six in the final over to seal Kiwi victory in front of Auckland crowd .\nSouth Africa had posted a total of 281 in a rain affected match .\nNew Zealand will face either Australia or India in the final on March 29 .","id":"37b376358f354ef9c218d6e405a129bfd7f5271b"} -{"article":"Beijing (CNN)Five years ago, Beijinger Robert Zhao went on a trip to Tibet. What he encountered left him confused but intrigued. A science graduate from China's elite Tsinghua University, he had been taught to mistrust superstition and religion, but in the culture and devotion of the Buddhists he met he found something worth knowing. Now 25, he is considering giving up his job and becoming a monk. \"It means I will have to give up everything of the ordinary world,\" he told CNN. While Buddhism has a long history in China, entering via missionaries from India during the Han dynasty, it was repressed during the Maoist era -- many monasteries and temples were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and monks actively punished for believing in \"superstition.\" But now, a growing number of Chinese are rediscovering the country's dormant Buddhist traditions. Some, like Zhao, are looking for a spiritual anchor in a competitive, fast-changing society. Others take comfort in meditation and enjoy volunteering. However, it's not always easy to combine Buddhist beliefs with the demands of modern life. Zhao works as an assistant to the boss of an environmental company. His religion means it's difficult to entertain clients and partners -- a key part of the role. \"Not drinking, smoking or eating meat affects my socializing. So the company has to send someone else to go with me, which creates extra expenses,\" he says. Zhao has not told his family about his desire to become a monk yet, fearing that they might oppose it. Fenggang Yang, the director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, Indiana, says it's difficult to explain exactly why so many young people are turning to Buddhism. Some discover it at university, where Buddhist groups are active and famous monks and lamas give lectures. Others have devout parents and grandparents. He also says that the Chinese Communist Party policy has \"moved toward treating Buddhism more favorably than other religions.\" Christianity has also been growing in popularity in recent decades but church leaders say there has been a crackdown on Christians, with authorities demolishing churches and removing crosses from skylines. In particular, it's the Tibetan strain of Buddhism, rather than the Chan (also called Zen) tradition once popular in China, that is attracting new converts, particularly students, young professionals and businesspeople, he says. \"It appears that both the chanting and the physical, spiritual practices of Tibetan Buddhism are appealing to some people,\" Yang added. To what extent these new converts are committed to Buddhism as a religion, with its strictures and rituals, is an open question. A former leader of a university Buddhism group, who didn't want to give his name, told CNN he thought its members were more interested in the religion as a lifestyle choice. Activities that his group organized focusing on relaxation and stress relief were always more popular than reading groups and lectures that examined Buddhist scriptures, he added. Yang at Purdue University says that for most people in China, Buddhism is treated more as culture than a religion. They may visit temples or read Buddhist books, but few people treat it as a religion that requires serious commitment. \"Indeed, people who identify as Buddhists do a lot of non-Buddhist spiritual things, such as believing in feng shui, consulting fortune-tellers, practicing qi gong and sampling books and practices of other religions,\" he says. On a recent weekend, more than four hundred people attended the annual gathering of Beijing Ren Ai Foundation, a Buddhist charitable organization, at Longquan Monastery on the mountainous outskirts of the capital. Zhong Ying, the group's 32-year-old deputy secretary general, said the group's most active volunteers were between 20 and 35 years old. In the past five years their numbers had doubled to 200. For attendee Geng Hui'er, a 26-year-old who works and lives in Beijing, Buddhism was something she rediscovered after returning from studying abroad in England. Growing up, her family had raised her Buddhist although she says she never really \"felt it.\" She now regularly attends meditation activities in monasteries or study groups organized by volunteers. Geng says Buddhism has given her a fresh outlook on life and past difficulties. It's also helped her establish a network of people she can talk to and socialize with. \"We sit together, sharing things that have happened in our lives and how we dealt with them, which is more helpful than reading books\", she says. For Zhao, the aspiring monk, Buddhism has been a balm while dealing with poor health, as well as work and relationship problems. \"My life has been tough for years. (Buddhism) keeps me away from the negative thoughts, like a reminder that's always there, which has helped me a lot.\" Journalist Dou Yiping contributed to this report.","highlights":"A growing number of Chinese are rediscovering the country's Buddhist traditions .\nIt's not always easy to combine Buddhist beliefs with the demands of modern life .\nBuddhism has a long history in China but was repressed during the Maoist era .","id":"b09e2035a7b7aea2ec3b3590517fe267829cfcab"} -{"article":"(CNN)An explosive-laden truck blew up at a camp for Egyptian security forces Tuesday morning, killing a civilian and injuring 44 people, state-run media reported. The attack took place in Al-Arish, in the country's North Sinai province, tha Al-Ahram news agency reported, citing the local health ministry. As the truck headed toward the camp's gate, guards shot at it, and the truck exploded. The injured included 42 Egyptian soldiers and two civilians. The driver of the truck was also killed, Al-Ahram said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. North Sinai has been the site of dozens of recent deaths. In January, at least 26 people were reportedly killed and dozens more wounded, in a series of militant attacks on army and police positions in Egypt's volatile Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian army is battling an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai that has spiked since the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsy. CNN's Salim Essaid contributed to this report.","highlights":"The injured include 42 Egyptian soldiers .\nThe Egyptian army has been battling an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai .","id":"4cb17e441922c28c1fc9c62803b901012e2ff6ea"} -{"article":"Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN)Islamic militants with the extremist group Al-Shabaab mounted a bloody attack Thursday on government administration offices in Baidoa, Somalia. Initial reports to police indicate that nine people, including four attackers, were killed after gunmen in military uniforms attacked the house of the former Somali parliament speaker and current president of the newly established southwest regional administration, said Col. Mahad Abdi, a Somali police officer. The attack began when a car bomb detonated at the gate of the state palace in Baidoa city, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Mogadishu. Heavy gunfire broke out between Somali troops backed by Ethiopian forces inside the house of the regional president, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. Explosions and gunfire were still going on over an hour after the initial assault, Abdi said. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. A broadcast by the group's official radio station, Andulus, said that Al-Shabaab gunmen had entered the regional president's house and killed seven Ethiopian soldiers. The African Union's special representative for Somalia, Ambassador Maman S. Sidikou, condemned the attack, saying it had targeted troops who have worked to restore peace to Baidoa. \"I am deeply saddened by news of the attack in Baidoa this morning,\" he said in a statement released by AMISOM, the African Union mission to Somalia. Sidikou said he had also received reports of an attempted attack at a Mogadishu hotel Wednesday night. \"These are desperate attempts by Al-Shabaab to seek relevance, following the massive defeats they continue to suffer from the Somali National Army working together with AMISOM troops,\" he said. Al-Shabaab started with a goal of waging a war against the Somali government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or Sharia. It has since shifted focus to terrorist attacks in Somalia and beyond, even calling, in a video released last month, for attacks on shopping malls in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. U.S. authorities downplayed the threat. How big a threat is Al-Shabaab to the United States? CNN's Laura Smith-Spark and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.","highlights":"The African Union's Somalia representative condemns the attack, says it targeted troops .\nAl-Shabaab says its militants attacked the state palace in the city of Baidoa .\nPolice say initial reports indicate nine people are dead, including four attackers .","id":"13ab781de6cc935158714597e74cac5fc8e36a66"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's Canada's ultimate pairing. World No.7 and Wimbledon runner up Eugenie Bouchard posted a photo of herself on Twitter with compatriot and heartthrob Justin Bieber as they teamed up for a game of tennis. Bouchard credited the pop star's \"nice serve\" and once said the \"Baby\" singer would be her ideal date during an awkward on-court interview at 2014's Australian Open. Bieber courts a lot of interest on social media with a Twitter following of 61.3 million -- roughly the entire population of Italy -- but the 21-year-old has yet to respond to Bouchard's tweet. The pair played doubles at the Annual Desert Smash event hosted by Will Ferrell at California's La Quinta Resort in aid of Cancer for College, a charity that provides scholarships for students who have battled with the disease. Danish tennis star and recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Caroline Wozniacki also had her photo taken with the singer estimated to be worth $80m, tweeting: \"Just another night in the desert #beliebit.\"","highlights":"World No.7 tennis player Eugenie Bouchard partners up with pop star Justin Bieber in game of doubles .\nBouchard has previously said she would like to date the Hollywood starlet .\nFormer World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki also got a snap with \"the Bieb\"","id":"390e73ccb5a0f2d9b09b0e1789fe8dcd121c7394"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Iran nuclear negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, reportedly have made substantive progress, inching closer toward a provisional agreement between the P5+1 and Iran. While the talks continued to unfold this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his concern about an agreement with Iran, vowing \"to continue to act against any threat.\" If an agreement is reached, the international spotlight will turn to Israel, in anticipation of its possible reaction. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe \"Bogy\" Yaalon stated that a deal is \"a tragedy for the whole world.\" The question is, however, what can Israel really do once a deal is signed? In recent days, notable conservatives in the United States have attacked President Barack Obama's handling of the negotiations with Iran, arguing that a bad deal will force Israel's hand, leaving it with no choice but to attack Iranian targets. But is this a realistic conclusion? Israel's stated \"all options are on the table\" policy toward Iran has been in place for years and is based on the assumption that if a diplomatic solution to the nuclear problem cannot be reached or is not to its liking, Israel can decide to opt for a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Thirty-four years after the successful Israeli bombing of the Osirak nuclear facility in Iraq, military experts have little doubt that the Israeli Air Force today is capable of reaching Iranian airspace and bombing targets above and below ground. Therefore, the question is not one of military capability but more about domestic political and geopolitical strategy. With an Iran deal in place, the Israeli leadership may face stern objections from the heads of the Israeli defense establishment, which will make it difficult but not impossible to take such a decision. Nevertheless, if it remains keen on pursuing a military option, the Israeli leadership will have to consider the following set of consequences that will likely result from such a decision: . \u2022A successful military strike on Iranian installations may degrade Iran's nuclear program, setting it back several years, but it would not completely eliminate Iran's nuclear capabilities. Iran would likely be able to resume activity in new facilities soon after such an attack, with more international legitimacy to embark on a military nuclear program, in the face of future military challenges to its sovereignty and stability. A deal between the P5+1 (the United States, China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and Germany) and Iran is expected to include a 10-year (or more) \"sunset provision\" that is much longer than the period it will take Iran to get its program back on track in case of an Israeli attack. \u2022A military attack against Iran after a deal is signed would put Israel on a collision course with the P5+ 1, who were negotiating the contours of a deal with Iran, as well as with other members of the international community. Bilateral ties and cooperation with member states of the P5+1 may suffer, as well as intelligence sharing between the relevant intelligence agencies. In addition, countries are likely to seek ways to \"punish\" Israel for its actions, in the form of a U.N. General Assembly or Security Council resolution condemning Israeli behavior, calling for operative measures against the Jewish state. \u2022An Israeli attack would likely lead to the collapse of the international sanctions regime on Iran, which Israel has worked to consolidate and which has been a very effective mechanism in pressuring Iran. \u2022The understanding between Israel and moderate Arab regimes on the need to prevent a nuclear Iran would not be likely to dissipate in the aftermath of an attack, but Israeli-Arab coordination and cooperation on this issue is bound to suffer. \u2022Finally, an Israeli attack would spark a direct Iranian military reaction against Israel, as well as an indirect reaction against Israel in the region by Iran's proxies Hezbollah (from Southern Lebanon and war-torn Syria) and Hamas (from Gaza and perhaps the West Bank) and against Israeli targets abroad. In the aftermath of a deal with Iran, Israel's response is expected to be harsh. It will include strong public criticism of the deal, a vow to continue the fight against the agreement in the U.S. Congress and other relevant venues, a call for the international community to continue the sanctions regime, and a pursuit of coordinated public messaging with moderate Arab regimes on this issue. These Israeli public diplomacy measures will be complemented by continued intelligence monitoring of Iran's activities in the nuclear sphere as well as its involvement in regional conflicts. Opting for a military strike against Iran, however, must take into consideration the consequences of such a decision. In light of all that is at stake, it does not seem like a plausible option at present.","highlights":"Dan Arbell: Israel's leaders can criticize a potential deal with Iran on its nuclear program .\nHe says a military option could set back Iran's nuclear program but would be too costly politically and diplomatically .","id":"5060b51b0f583b2772644c5e944abbda4bc73dfa"} -{"article":"(CNN)If you were the lucky recipient of a bunch of fragrant roses this Valentine's Day, it's likely that they came from Kenya. The country is the third largest exporter of cut flowers in the world, accounting for around 35% of all sales in the European Union. Famed for being long-lasting, Kenya's roses, carnations and summer flowers are also popular in Russia and the U.S. where last week several growers showcased their blooms at the World Floral Expo in Los Angeles. The event is one of the industry's largest and gathers over 80 exhibitors from across the world, with several Ethiopian growers also representing the African continent alongside Kenya. The country's flower power is attributed to its sunny climate, which enables high-quality blossoms to be grown year-round without the need for expensive-to-run greenhouses. Kenya also has excellent transport links to Europe, and from there, the rest of the world through Nairobi airport, which has a terminal dedicated specially to the transport of flowers and vegetables. This means that delicate floral cargo which is perishable in nature can be shifted from growers to consumers swiftly. More than 500,000 people in the country depend on the trade according to the Kenya Flower Council, with roughly half of the country's 127 flower farms concentrated around Lake Naivasha, around 90 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. \"Naivasha is a big center because it's a freshwater lake and it is not very far from Nairobi, which makes transport easy,\" says John Kihia, technical director of Floralife Africa, a company which provides hydration, transport and storage for the cut-flower industry. \"People have been growing flowers there for a long time so there is a skilled labor force in place,\" he adds. Activists have expressed concerns over the environmental impact that the booming trade could inflict on the lake, but local farmers have been working with the WWF in order to make sure that water levels are not affected: \"It's about putting together a strong business case about why it's good for growers to save water and ways to manage that,\" says Drew McVey, WWF technical adviser who calls the collaboration \"a story of success.\" Naivasha Lake's location 1,884 meters above sea level is particularly fertile ground for medium-sized roses which are often found in the floral sections of EU supermarkets, whereas farms in higher altitudes yield bigger blooms popular in Russia: \"It's a consumer preference. In Moscow people will buy a single rose, so if it's bigger it naturally looks more spectacular, whereas in the UK they buy bunches more often,\" says Kihia. Big business . Horticulture has been one of the top foreign exchange earners for Kenya, and the flower industry alone raked in around $600m last year, exporting 124,858 tonnes valued at around $507m in 2013. Nearly two thirds of exports are destined for Holland, where they are resold to florists through auctions which present a safe avenue into the market for less seasoned growers: \"If you sell through an auction and you have a good quality product, people will be competing for your flowers which will give you a better price,\" Kihia says. While Europe remains the biggest destination for Kenyan flowers due to its relative geographic proximity and good transport links, this has left producers vulnerable to turmoil on the continent, such as the recent recession. \"It has had an impact on the sector and we have experienced a slowdown in demand, which slows down business,\" says Jane Ngige, CEO of the Kenyan Flower Council. Kenyan exports also suffered when in October of last year the EU imposed import taxes on cut flowers from the country, but the levy was lifted on Christmas Day allowing Kenyan producers to storm Valentine's Day sales. Jane Ngige says that the industry is now exploring other markets such as Australia, Canada and Japan, and adds that direct flights from Nairobi airport play a crucial role in helping the Kenyan flower business take off globally: \"A direct flight to the destination is key owing to the fact that this is fresh produce and it needs to get to the end user quickly in order to guarantee quality. It also makes it less expensive,\" she says. Kenyan growers are now lending their floral expertise to neighboring Rwanda by partnering with the country's government to create a 35 hectare flower park 60 kilometers from Rwanda's capital Kigali. It's hoped that the park will eventually produce three million stems per year and kick-start Rwanda's floriculture sector, which could pump more than $200 million into the country's economy by 2017. Editor's Note: Each week, Africa View explores the trends, figures and initiatives shaping Africa. From education and energy to technology and innovation, it showcases topics and influential sectors driving countries on the continent.","highlights":"Kenya is one of the biggest flower exporters in the world .\nAround one in three flowers sold in Europe come from the country .","id":"2ef2ed7c8ce4d271c2960b0a52789bcc892086c0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson had a way better weekend than you. The actor hosted \"Saturday Night Live\" and rocked out in some memorable sketches, including a live-action \"Bambi\" remake with some of the \"SNL\" cast portraying actors from the \"Fast and Furious\" franchise. \"Whan I was a boy, they took away my mother,\" Johnson said in character as a muscle-bound, gun-wielding Bambi. \"And now it's time for them to pay ... dearly.\" He also transformed, Hulk-style, into \"The Rock Obama\" in a sketch in which President Obama is angered by some members of Congress. The former professional wrestler spoofed the WWE in a promo on \"SNL.\" But that was just a warmup to the actual Wrestlemania 31 on Sunday, when the Rock thrilled fans with a surprise appearance with UFC champion Ronda Rousey to take on WWE executives Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. The actor is the son of retired professional wrestler Rocky Johnson and wrestled under the name \"The Rock\" for years before he transitioned to an acting career.","highlights":"Dwayne Johnson hosted \"SNL\" and appeared at Wrestlemania .\nOn \"SNL,\" he played a gun-toting Bambi and a bulked-up Obama .","id":"f434c1ec5d1a67a3bb2df0460a2a2f488e125806"} -{"article":"(CNN)Vatican City is accustomed to welcoming millions of visitors to its grounds each year, but Thursday a very special tour group got a look inside. Approximately 150 homeless people were divided into three groups and ushered through the Petriano entrance next to St. Peter's Square, according to Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano. \"The poor, who usually see only the steps outside the colonnade of St. Peter's Square, will also have a chance to enjoy the Vatican's artistic patrimony,\" the paper wrote. The Office of Papal Charities arranged the special visit, which included a visit to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Other stops included the Domus Sanctae Marthae, behind St. Peter's Basilica, through the piazzale della Zecca, the main path of the Gardens and the Cancello di Gregogio. The paper said the visit would be led by Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, who heads the department \"charged with exercising charity to the poor in the name of the Holy Spirit.\"","highlights":"Approximately 150 homeless people invited to tour Vatican City .\nThe visit, organized by Office of Papal Charities, includes stops to museums, Sistine Chapel .","id":"5aeba68d0a25028d58e1d600c30cd882fdcc6126"} -{"article":"London (CNN)Previously secret correspondence between Britain's Prince Charles and government officials is to be made public after a Supreme Court ruling Thursday. The Guardian newspaper had been fighting for the communications to be released since 2005. Charles is next in line to the British throne and as King would constitutionally be required to maintain strict political neutrality. Some commentators say letters to officials suggest he could be a \"meddling king,\" attempting to influence politicians. After the judgment was released Thursday, Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger said the paper was \"delighted\" about the Supreme Court's decision after what he said was a \"brilliant 10-year campaign by Guardian reporter Rob Evans.\" \"The government wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to cover up these letters, admitting their publication would 'seriously damage' perceptions of the Prince's political neutrality. Now they must publish them so that the public can make their own judgment,\" Rusbridger said. Max Foster, CNN's royal correspondent, says the letters are part of a broader discussion about the role of the heir to the throne. \"These were private letters, never meant for public consumption, which is why the Prince's office has resisted their release,\" he said. \"But they play into a much bigger debate about the role of monarchy. Should Charles be getting involved in politics at all when, as head of state, he'll be expected to be politically neutral? He's not in that position yet so feels he has some leeway.\" Prime Minister David Cameron said the judgment was \"disappointing\" and the government would now look at how to release the letters. \"This is about the principle that senior members of the royal family are able to express their views to government confidentially. I think most people would agree this is fair enough,\" he said. Cameron suggested the legislation might need revision in light of the decision: \"Our FOI (freedom of information) laws specifically include the option of a governmental veto, which we exercised in this case for a reason. If the legislation does not make Parliament's intentions for the veto clear enough, then we will need to make it clearer.\" The Prince's official residence, Clarence House, issued a brief statement about the decision. \"This is a matter for the government. Clarence House is disappointed the principle of privacy has not been upheld.\" The anti-monarchy group Republic welcomed the news but warned that 2010 changes to the Freedom of Information Act to remove the public interest clause put future releases at risk. \"The government must now act to end royal secrecy. Any risk to the monarchy must pale against a risk to democracy from having an activist prince acting in secret,\" CEO Graham Smith said. \"We can't have a situation where we don't know what influence Charles is having on government policy.\" In a statement issued on the eve of the decision, Smith branded the monarchy one of Britain's \"most secretive institutions.\" \"Charles clearly has his own political agenda, yet his name won't be on the ballot in May. So we all need to know what influence he is trying to exert and what impact he is having on policy.\" Evans, the Guardian reporter, had been fighting a legal battle to get the letters published since 2005 when he requested disclosure of communications between Charles and various government departments under the UK's Freedom of Information Act and environmental regulations. After the departments and the information commissioner denied his requests, Evans appealed to the Information Tribunal, which referred the matter to the Upper Tribunal. The Guardian reported in 2009 that Charles had written to Treasury, Foreign Office and Education Department ministers over the previous three years and that his aides had also written letters to government officials. \"The disclosures will fuel growing concern that the prince is continuing to interfere in political matters when many believe he should remain neutral if he wishes to become king,\" the paper said. The Upper Tribunal ruled in 2012 that many of the letters, \"advocacy correspondence,\" should be disclosed, but its decision was vetoed by Britain's attorney general, who issued a certificate overriding it. Explaining his decision, the attorney general said that in that his view, the correspondence was \"undertaken as part of The Prince of Wales' preparation for becoming King\" and contained nothing that outweighed \"strong public interest against disclosure.\" The Guardian challenged the veto in court, but three high court judges dismissed it, so Evans appealed to the Supreme Court, which on Thursday ruled that the attorney general was not entitled to issue the certificate.","highlights":"Letters from Prince Charles to officials must be released after a Supreme Court judgment .\nBritain's Guardian newspaper fought for 10 years to have the documents made public .\nClarence House and Prime Minister David Cameron call the decision disappointing .","id":"4b1b71be6ded90be7b2e64cac2520c94147949b8"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man.\" I still remember the first time I read the passage from \"The Jungle Book,\" heart racing beneath my pajamas covered with The Six Million Dollar Man. \"The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs, rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers,\" Rudyard Kipling wrote. I probably understood that tiger attacks were fairly rare in Milwaukee, but to my 11-year-old brain, Kipling was dropping wisdom that just might keep me alive on the next expedition into the weedy lot behind Piggly Wiggly. \"The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him.\" Reading that passage 35 years later, while rolling through the very forest that inspired the classic, the irony in that line finally clicks. When we hear the woof of a frightened deer and my guide kills the engine, my grown-up heart pounds once again. It is a sign that there may be big cats nearby. \"I wonder who will be the last person to see a tiger in the wild? And are they alive today?\" These are the questions that launched this stop on \"The Wonder List,\" and they led us to a much bigger question about life in the 21st century: Is the planet still big enough for man and man-eater? India is about one-third the size of the continental United States, with four times as many people. That kind of human pressure has changed Kipling's \"Law of the Jungle\" in dramatic ways. According to the animal conservation group Born Free, there are more tigers in cages in Texas than in the forests of India. So I set out to understand how and why. Having covered the poaching of African animals to feed the huge market for Asian medicine, I assumed the demand for tiger-skin rugs in Dubai or tiger-bone wine in Beijing would be the biggest threat to this endangered cat. Can tigers claw their way back from the brink? But it turns out that tiger-human conflict is a much bigger problem. Almost half a billion rural Indians have no plumbing and answer nature's call by squatting in the forest. Most tiger attacks happen when these people are mistaken for prey, and most tiger kills come in the angry hours that follow, as friends and neighbors of the victim seek revenge. And so, a new specialty in conservation is the art of tiger conflict mediation. It is not easy to convince a frightened farmer that the cat that ate his cow is more valuable alive than caged or dead. But these efforts, along with a more pointed anti-poaching campaign, seem to be paying off. The latest tiger census counted 2,226 big cats in India, a 30% increase over the previous count in 2011. If the estimates hold, this would make India the only country in the world with a growing tiger population. But the human population is growing much faster. Maintaining a healthy population of apex predators is just one new challenge on a planet that will welcome a couple billion more people in just the next generation. You'll be surprised by the others as we seek India's magnificent treasures -- both natural and man-made -- on the next episode of \"The Wonder List.\"","highlights":"There are more tigers in cages in Texas than in the wild in India, a conservation group says .\nTiger-human conflict is a major problem affecting the big cats .","id":"ec1c094bf1f0511520fa9e95149d2edca31f0219"} -{"article":"(CNN)When Indiana Gov. Michael Pence signed his state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), he apparently did not anticipate the resulting uproar. Many of Indiana's businesses fear that the law could be used to allow store owners to deny service to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. The NCAA has expressed concern about the Final Four, which Indianapolis is hosting this weekend, and other companies have threatened to move their businesses outside of the state. But, when pushed on the issue, Pence insisted that the law is \"not about discrimination\" but instead is \"about protecting the religious liberty of every Hoosier of every faith.\" When asked whether he would allow an amendment to clarify that the law will not preclude anti-discrimination protections, the governor doubled-down, noting that \"we're not going to change this law.\" But members of the Indiana legislature beg to differ with the governor, pledging to \"fix\" Indiana's RFRA. And now, the Governor has changed his tune, also calling for a fix to the bill. Can there really be an easy \"fix,\" short of repealing the Act? The answer is, of course, it depends. Under RFRAs like Indiana's, people are not free to disobey any law in tension with their religious convictions. Instead, RFRAs create a standard to balance a person's religious interests against the governmental policy at stake. Under Indiana's RFRA, the government must show that its policy interest advances a compelling state interest and is the least restrictive means to address the problem at issue. The question would then become whether anti-discrimination laws advance a compelling interest in the least restrictive means. The answer to that question is easy: yes. The adoption of such laws have long been viewed as advancing compelling state interests, and the only way to eliminate discrimination is to ban it, so they are the least restrictive means. At present in Indiana, there is no state-level law that protects LGBT persons from discrimination by private parties. In certain cities and other, local jurisdictions, however, there are ordinances prohibiting such discrimination. Indiana would have two ways to \"fix\" the RFRA problem. The first would be to adopt state-wide nondiscrimination laws that protect LGBT persons. Such an act would confirm that, as a matter of state policy, protecting the LGBT community is viewed as a compelling state interest. This would bring Indiana into alignment with Illinois, which has a RFRA, but which also has a comprehensive nondiscrimination statute, ameliorating any concerns about the RFRA being used in discriminatory fashion. Given the wishy-washy answer that Gov. Pence provided when asked whether he thought discrimination against LGBT persons was appropriate, the likelihood of Indiana adopting a comprehensive nondiscrimination statute seems remote at best, eliminating this fix as an option. Another possibility would be to amend the statute to confirm that any federal, state, or local nondiscrimination laws constitute a compelling state interest for the purposes of the RFRA. Importantly, federal law does not protect LGBT persons from discrimination by private actors, and neither does Indiana state law. But this language would expressly carve out local ordinances from the scope of the RFRA, such as the nondiscrimination ordinance in Indianapolis. In essence, this would preserve much of the law as it existed before the RFRA: absent local nondiscrimination laws, persons are free in Indiana to discriminate against LGBT persons on any basis. This amendment, however, would make clear that the state-level RFRA cannot be used to trump local city ordinances that protect the LGBT community. What are the odds of this second fix? Well, that precise amendment was proposed -- and adopted -- in the Georgia legislature as it considered a RFRA comparable to Indiana's. The result: the bill's sponsors tabled it, noting that the exception for local nondiscrimination laws would \"gut\" the bill. That reaction shines a light on the true motivations for these RFRAs. If these acts aren't about discrimination, then why would ensuring nondiscrimination protections \"gut\" the bill? It's because these bills truly are about permitting discrimination against the LGBT community. All of the hand-waving by Gov. Pence and others cannot distract from the truth: RFRAs are the first responses to LGBT advances.","highlights":"Tim Holbrook: Indiana's law allows discrimination against the LGBT community .\nHe says the state governor and others are using religion act as an excuse .","id":"cb88b39bad8ff23a70f88acdbfcbf19e8f2eafcd"} -{"article":"(CNN)Jordan Spieth has Rory McIlroy and the world No.1 spot firmly in his sights after winning the Valspar Championship on Sunday. Spieth won a three-way play-off with a 28-foot birdie on the third extra hole to become only the fourth player since 1940 to win twice on the PGA Tour before turning 22. It is a feat that not even McIlroy mastered with Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Robert Gamez the only players to have achieved that particular accolade in the past 75 years. But it is the Northern Irishman that is within Spieth's focus heading towards Augusta. \"I like studying the game, being a historian of the game,\" Spieth told the PGA Tour website. \"It's really cool to have my name go alongside those. \"But right now currently what I'm really focused on is Rory McIlroy and the No.1 in the world. That's who everyone is trying to chase. \"That's our ultimate goal to eventually be the best in the world and this is a great, great stepping stone. But going into the four majors of the year, to have closed one out in this kind of fashion is going to give me a lot of confidence.\" Spieth has long been heralded as the next big thing in golf -- shining in the amateur ranks with two U.S. junior titles and leading last year's Masters after the third round before eventually finishing tied for second, three shots behind Bubba Watson. On Sunday, he held his nerve at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, to hold on for the victory. He first rescued par on the 16th with a 60-foot bunker shot and needed a 32-foot putt to ensure his place in the playoff, which he duly holed. It was a putt of similar length that ensured a second Tour win to add to his John Deere Classic success in July 2013, which he also won courtesy of a playoff making him the youngest PGA Tour winner for 82 years at the time.","highlights":"Jordan Spieth only the fourth player since 1940 to seal two PGA Tour wins under age of 22 .\nGolfing's newest star sets his sights on usurping Rory McIlroy as the world's No.1 .\nConfidence is high going into the Masters, in which he finished second a year ago .","id":"8a4a7411645006447b2a230d36a57fd60a4e3b7c"} -{"article":"April 1, 2015 . A trip around the world starts things off this Tuesday, with coverage of events in Nigeria, Switzerland and West Africa. Then, at the start of Financial Literacy Month, we're taking a look at wages in the U.S. and how they're hampering the economy. And could cyborg cockroaches give pests a new role as rescuers? Discuss the ethics, the debate and the science from today's show! On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"7a35a4889e481b2dd97ffb62ddfb1d33e3a79b9a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Britain's Lewis Hamilton made the perfect start to his world title defense by winning the opening race of the F1 season in Australia Sunday to lead a Mercedes one-two in Melbourne. Polesitter Hamilton controlled the race on the Albert Park street circuit to win from teammate Nico Rosberg of Germany. Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel took the final podium position for his new team Ferrari, holding off Felipe Massa in the Willams. It was the 34th career victory for two-time world champion Hamilton and underlined the continued dominance of Mercedes as he and Rosberg pulled well clear of their nearest challengers. Hamilton, who was forced to retire early in last year's Australian Grand Prix, was taking the checkered flag in Melbourne for the first time since 2008, when he claimed his first world title for McLaren. It had all gone completely to plan until coming face to face on the victory podium with movie legend Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was conducting the post-race interviews. \"Hey man, WOW,\" said a surprised Hamilton. \"It is an incredibly feeling to continue winning but also great to be up here with you.\" Then taking his courage in his hands, Hamilton cheekily told 'The Terminator' \"I thought you were taller!\" After getting the thoughts of Rosberg and Vettel, who said it was a \"very big honor\" to gain his first points for Ferrari, Schwarzenegger turned his attention back to Hamilton. The pair signed off by saying together: \"I'll be back,\" the catchphrase from Schwarzenegger's iconic 1984 film. With Hamilton winning his seventh race from eight starts, his F1 rivals would probably rather he stayed away and Rosberg admitted \"he was driving to his max\" but could not match the pace of his teammate. Only 11 cars finished the race from a depleted grid of 15 cars, with Valtteri Bottas unable to start for Williams due to a back injury. Pastor Maldonado crashed out on the first lap as the safety car was deployed, while his teammate Romain Grosjean retired early in the 58-lap race to complete a miserable afternoon for Lotus. Britain's Jenson Button in an uncompetitive McLaren was the only driver to finish without a point in 11th place. His regular teammate Fernando Alonso sat out the race after his nasty crash in pre-season testing in Barcelona, while stand-in Kevin Magnussen retired after the warm-up lap. Kimi Raikkonen looked set to underline Ferrari's improvement when running in fifth place, but had to retire the car, with TV replays indicating his left rear tire was not fitted properly after a pit stop. It left the way clear for rookie Felipe Nasr of Brazil to claim an unexpected fifth place for Sauber, which went through the 2014 season without claiming a single point, and also took eighth spot with Marcus Ericsson. Home hopes rested with Daniel Ricciardo, third in last year's title race, but he looked off the pace in the Red Bull in sixth place. Force India pair Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez finished seventh and 10th, with Carlos Sainz Jr. impressing on his F1 debut for Toro Rosso in ninth. Dutch teenager Max Verstappen made F1 history by becoming the youngest driver to compete in an F1 race at 17 years and 166 days, but his hopes were dashed when forced to retire in his Toro Rosso on the 34th lap.","highlights":"Lewis Hamilton wins opening race of 2015 F1 season in Australia .\nMercedes 1-2 with Nico Rosberg in second place .\nWorld champion Hamilton had started from pole position .\nSebastian Vettel claims final podium place for Ferrari .","id":"08aae4362b6c5319c9d6c9c30353059a87494b8b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Michael Douglas' son Dylan had a run-in with anti-Semitism -- and the actor wants to do something about it. In an opinion column for the Los Angeles Times, the producer and \"Wall Street\" Oscar winner described an incident last summer in an unidentified country in \"southern Europe.\" The older of his two children with actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, 14-year-old Dylan, came to his father in tears. \"A man at the pool had started hurling insults at him,\" Douglas writes. It wasn't because of anything Dylan did, he continued: \"Suddenly I had an awful realization of what might have caused the man's outrage: Dylan was wearing a Star of David.\" Douglas went to talk to the man -- \"it was not a pleasant discussion,\" he writes -- and the incident has stayed in his mind. The 70-year-old actor, who was raised by a Jewish father, Kirk Douglas, and a non-Jewish mother, said he didn't identify as Jewish while growing up but noticed anti-Semitic remarks others made. \"With little knowledge of what it meant to be a Jew, I found myself passionately defending the Jewish people. Now, half a century later, I have to defend my son,\" he writes. \"Anti-Semitism, I've seen, is like a disease that goes dormant, flaring up with the next political trigger.\" Douglas, who is also a United Nations messenger of peace, observes that anti-Semitism has been on the rise due to a number of factors, including income inequality, religious extremism and hatred of Israel. \"Some find Jews to be a convenient scapegoat rather than looking at the real source of their problems,\" he says. He praises leaders such as Pope Francis, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York for their efforts at reconciliation and community-building. But it isn't enough, he adds. \"All of us\" must fight anti-Semitism, he says. \"If we confront anti-Semitism whenever we see it, if we combat it individually and as a society, and use whatever platform we have to denounce it, we can stop the spread of this madness,\" he writes. \"My son is strong. He is fortunate to live in a country where anti-Semitism is rare. But now he too has learned of the dangers that he as a Jew must face. It's a lesson that I wish I didn't have to teach him, a lesson I hope he will never have to teach his children.\" Douglas received the 2015 Genesis Prize for \"exceptional people whose values and achievements will inspire the next generation of Jews.\"","highlights":"Michael Douglas' son was insulted at a pool because of his Judaism .\nDouglas warns that anti-Semitism is on the rise .\nThe award-winning actor wants more action to \"confront anti-Semitism\"","id":"9bc2bd43633afe70df0f7670d42135c2872def3b"} -{"article":"London (CNN)It might sound like a really old wives' tale, but a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion for eye infections may hold the key to wiping out the modern-day superbug MRSA, according to new research. The 10th-century \"eyesalve\" remedy was discovered at the British Library in a leather-bound volume of Bald's Leechbook, widely considered to be one of the earliest known medical textbooks. Christina Lee, an expert on Anglo-Saxon society from the School of English at the University of Nottingham, translated the ancient manuscript despite some ambiguities in the text. \"We chose this recipe in Bald's Leechbook because it contains ingredients such as garlic that are currently investigated by other researchers on their potential antibiotic effectiveness,\" Lee said in a video posted on the university's website. \"And so we looked at a recipe that is fairly straightforward. It's also a recipe where we are told it's the 'best of leechdoms' -- how could you not test that? So we were curious.\" Lee enlisted the help of the university's microbiologists to see if the remedy actually worked. The recipe calls for two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine and oxgall (bile from a cow's stomach) to be brewed in a brass vessel. \"We recreated the recipe as faithfully as we could. The Bald gives very precise instructions for the ratio of different ingredients and for the way they should be combined before use, so we tried to follow that as closely as possible,\" said microbiologist Freya Harrison, who led the work in the lab at the School of Life Sciences. The book included an instruction for the recipe to be left to stand for nine days before being strained through a cloth. Efforts to replicate the recipe exactly included finding wine from a vineyard known to have existed in the ninth century, according to Steve Diggle, an associate professor of sociomicrobiology, who also worked on the project. The researchers then tested their recipe on cultures of MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a type of staph bacterium that does not respond to commonly used antibiotic treatments. The scientists weren't holding out much hope that it would work -- but they were astonished by the lab results. \"What we found was very interesting -- we found that Bald's eyesalve is incredibly potent as an anti-Staphylococcal antibiotic in this context,\" Harrison said. \"We were going from a mature, established population of a few billion cells, all stuck together in this highly protected biofilm coat, to really just a few thousand cells left alive. This is a massive, massive killing ability.\" Diggle said the team also asked collaborators in the U.S. to test the recipe using an \"in vivo\" wound model -- meaning it's in a live organism -- \"and basically the big surprise was that it seems to be more effective than conventional antibiotic treatment.\" The scientists were worried they wouldn't be able to repeat the feat. But three more batches, made from scratch each time, have yielded the same results, Harrison said, and the salve appears to retain its potency for a long time after being stored in bottles in the refrigerator. The team says it now has good, replicated data showing that the medicine kills up to 90% of MRSA bacteria in \"in vivo\" wound biopsies from mice. Harrison says the researchers are still not completely sure how it works, but they have a few ideas -- namely, that there might be several active components in the mixture that work to attack the bacterial cells on different fronts, making it very hard for them to resist; or that by combining the ingredients and leaving them to steep in alcohol, a new, more potent bacteria-fighting molecule is created in the process. \"I still can't quite believe how well this 1,000-year-old antibiotic actually seems to be working,\" Harrison said. \"When we got the first results we were just utterly dumbfounded. We did not see this coming at all.\" She added: \"Obviously you can never say with utter certainty that because it works in the lab it's going to work as an antibiotic, but the potential of this to take on to the next stage and say, 'yeah, really does it work as an antibiotic' is just beyond my wildest dreams, to be honest.\" Lee, who translated the text from Old English, believes the discovery could change people's views of the medieval period as the \"Dark Ages.\" \"The Middle Ages are often seen as the 'Dark Ages' -- we use the term 'medieval' these days ... as pejorative -- and I just wanted to do something that explains to me how people in the Middle Ages looked at science,\" she said.","highlights":"Researchers say a medieval remedy made of garlic, onion, wine, bile may be able to defeat MRSA superbug .\nAncient recipe was found in 10th-century medical book at the British Library .","id":"380530e65e5c95453415082fd5cac5127e7eb0a2"} -{"article":"Jerusalem (CNN)Within 48 hours of his election night victory, Benjamin Netanyahu rolled back his pre-election comments that there would be no Palestinian state if he were Prime Minister, but the damage may already have been done to relations with the two other major players in the negotiations: the United States and the Palestinians. In an interview with NBC, Netanyahu said, \"I haven't changed my policy, I never retracted my speech six years ago calling for a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state. What has changed is the reality, Abu Mazen (nickhame of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) the Palestinian leader refuses to recognize the Jewish state, and he's made a pact with Hamas that calls for the destruction of Israel. And every territory vacated these days in the Middle East is taken up by Islamist forces and we want that to change so we can realize the vision of real sustained peace. I don't want a one-state solution, I want a sustainable two-state solution.\" Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says he believes the pre-election statement that Netanyahu will not allow a two-state solution. He says the Palestinians will keep pursuing statehood through the international arena instead of through negotiations. \"I've negotiated with them for 20 years, and I complained to the international community that there is a big difference between someone being a tough negotiator which is legitimate and someone being a non-negotiator,\" Erekat said. \"All Netanyahu needs to do to gain the credibility and the trust, not only of me but of the international community, he needs to stand tall and tell the Israeli people that in order to live in peace with our neighbors we're going to have to recognize the state of Palestine.\" Erekat says the Palestinians may try again for recognition once more at the United Nations, a forum where they fell one vote short of recognition as a full UN member state in December. A new United Nations Security Council consisting of different member states may be more favorable to a second Palestinian bid. So where does that leave the United States? The White House said it would \"reassess\" the relationship between the United States and Israel. The broad relationship includes security cooperation, financial assistance, and strong diplomatic ties. Both leaders reaffirmed the strength of those ties in the weeks before the Israeli elections. But the United States has also used its veto power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to block resolutions unfavorable to Israel. Some of that protection could be at stake here as the White House urges both sides back to negotiations. The last peace talks, moderated by Secretary of State John Kerry, broke down in April 2014 after nine months of negotiations. As the talks deteriorated before the scheduled deadline, Israel withdrew from the negotiations when Fatah announced a reconciliation with Hamas, a militant Islamic group, and an intention to form a unity government. In a phone call with Netanyahu, President Barack Obama congratulated Netanyahu and stressed the importance of a two-state solution. But with so much skepticism on both sides, a lasting peace remains a distant goal.","highlights":"The White House says it would \"reassess\" the relationship between the United States and Israel .\nThat comes after Netanyahu made campaign statements against a Palestinian state .\nNetanyahu rolled back the comments after his election victory .","id":"b8ccb86c2daa148130493cefb1368500ab73fc14"} -{"article":"(CNN)It was nothing if not predictable. Take combustible issues like religion and sexuality, stir in a new law and talk of a boycott, then -- boom! -- the debate on social media explodes. And so it has proved with Indiana's new \"religious freedom\" law, signed Thursday by Gov. Mike Pence. The new law could allow businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers if serving them would contravene the business owner's religious beliefs. Supporters of the bill say it protects their right to believe as they choose. Opponents say it is nothing but bigotry dressed up as liberty. The debate is nothing if not vitriolic. And colorful, too. \"Libs SHUTUP,\" reads one tweet, which goes on to assert that Indiana's \"Relgious Freedom Restauration Act (sic)\" is modeled on federal legislation signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. People on the other side of the debate are equally emphatic -- and, it seems for the moment, more numerous. Some have likened the new law to permitting businesses to discriminate against black people, if perchance their religion dictated that. Others say that Indiana seems out of step with modern times. And then there is the business reaction -- both the nascent boycott from outside the state and the rush by some businesses inside the state to declare that, law or no law, they have no intention of turning anyone away. \"My team just canceled travel to IN due to the #ReligiousFreedomRestorationAct,\" tweeted a user under the name Mark C Somerville, who says he works for @salesforce. \"We stand against discrimination.\" And a tweet from a the St. Elmo Steak House, a business in Indianapolis, the state's capital and its largest city, pledged in capital letters to continue serving ALL. The word Freedom should only be used when it's inclusive and fair for all. Supporters of the law, however, made it clear what they thought opponents should do with their proposed boycott. \"Before you go and get too self-righteous w\/ your #BoycottIndiana,\" a user called Caleb Parke tweeted, \"@GovPenceIN is protecting #religiousfreedom for EVERYONE! #EqualRights.\"","highlights":"Social media supporters of Indiana's \"religious freedom\" bill say it protects their right to hold their own beliefs.\nOpponents of the bill say its \"freedom\" is a cover for bigotry against gays and lesbians.\nSome Indiana businesses tweet that they will continue to serve all customers, regardless of orientation.\nSome users take to social media in attempt to organize boycott of Indiana .","id":"f266b76bb17050fda317afa5e9757aa0281348fe"} -{"article":"(CNN)From an iconic marble statue of a heavily pregnant disabled artist to the more recent giant blue cockerel, London's Fourth Plinth art project has always provided a controversial modern twist to the traditional landmarks around London's Trafalgar Square. The latest offering, \"Gift Horse,\" which took up residence in the Square's northwest corner Thursday, looks set to continue the tradition with a work that explores the link between power, money and history, according to organizers. Unveiled by London's Mayor Boris Johnson, the sculpture created by German-born conceptual artist Hans Haacke portrays a skeletal riderless horse with an ribbon-shaped electronic ticker tied to its left leg showing live market data from London's Stock Exchange. \"'Gift Horse' is a startlingly original comment on the relationship between art and commerce and I hope it will stimulate as much debate as other works that have appeared on the plinth,\" Johnson said. The 13-feet high bronze skeleton is a \"wry comment,\" organizers say, on the equestrian statue of King William IV originally planned, but never realized for the plinth more than 150 years ago. Further nods to the past and the sculpture's location can be found in the pose which is based on the engraving \"The Anatomy of a Horse\" by English artist George Stubbs, whose famous equine portraits hang on the walls of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square's north side. One of London's most famous landmarks, Trafalgar Square is popular with tourists. Named after a famed 1805 British naval victory against the French, its centerpiece is a column commemorating Lord Horatio Nelson, who died during the conflict. In a career spanning half-a-century, Haacke has frequently explored the interconnectedness of art, power and money through installations, paintings, photography and written text. Many of Haacke's most famous works have explored systems, be it physical -- as evidenced by his famous 1960s work \"Condensation Cube\" -- or the social and political as seen in \"MoMA Poll\" (1970), \"A Breed Apart\" (1978) and more recently his \"Der Bev\u00f6lkerung\" (The People) installed in Germany's Reichstag building in Berlin in 2000. \"It's a very prominent spot,\" said the 78-year-old, reflecting on the \"Gift Horse's\" positioning in Trafalgar Square, \"It's very beautiful. Everybody sees it.\" \"There are other statues and the idea of having the empty plinth which has been made available periodically for artists is a great idea,\" added Haacke. Around Trafalgar Square there was mixed reaction to the sculpture. \"It definitely doesn't look like a horse's head, does it? Looks more dinosaur-ish to me,\" said a slightly baffled female day-tripper from Wales, while another tourist seemed equally confused. \"My first impression was that it looked like an alien, because you see it and then you think, huh? What is it?\" said Toni, visiting from Switzerland. Local reaction was more positive though. \"I just think it's very witty,\" said Londoner Tony Francis. \"I can see the (George) Stubbs influence. And I love the Stock Exchange (ribbon) scrolling round and the way they merge into each other.\" \"Gift Horse\" is the 10th artwork to sit on the plinth and follows the \"Hahn\/Cock,\" created by German artist Katharina Fritsch which was in residence from July 2013 to February this year.","highlights":"A new sculpture for Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth unveiled Thursday .\n'Gift Horse' by German-born artist Hans Haacke will sit on plinth for 18 months .\nHaacke's is the 10th artwork to be displayed on the plinth .","id":"bf021e9986c394b2285a4b3481850018966faf29"} -{"article":"(The Hollywood Reporter)The skies over Gotham City might become bright once again in 2016, with Adam West and Burt Ward promising a return to their career-high roles of Batman and Robin as part of an upcoming animated project next year. The comments took place at the Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, NC this weekend, with Ward somewhat uncertainly telling the crowd that they \"can look forward to a new animated \"Batman\" full length, 90-minute feature, coming out on the 50th anniversary.\" (That would be the 50th anniversary of the 1960s Batman TV series, which launched Jan. 12, 1966.) Why more 'Star Wars' actors haven't become stars . The animated movie is described by Ward as \"one of possibly two, but for sure one, that Adam and I are going to be doing the voices for,\" although he didn't say anything else about the project. In fact, as video from the event shows below, he seemed unclear about whether he should talk about it at all, prefacing his comments with \"I don't know... whether we can talk about the new Batman movie...\" (Adam West declares they can, in a suitably Batman-esque authoritative tone.) How Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman have changed their looks through the years . The profile of the 1960s Batman series has been raised considerably in recent years, with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment releasing a line of merchandise and comic books based on the series under the brand Batman '66, leading up to last year's release of the full series on DVD and Blu-ray. Batman through the years . Warner Bros. declined to comment about a potential 50th anniversary animated project when contacted by THR. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"Adam West and Burt Ward say they will reprise their Batman and Robin roles in an animated movie .\nMovie is due out in 2016 for the 1966 TV series' 50th anniversary .","id":"3ee85f906f406e530178660ea19fedc41ad11ee2"} -{"article":"Lausanne, Switzerland (CNN)Talks to reach a deal on a framework agreement on Iran's nuclear program will be extended an extra day, U.S. officials said Tuesday. \"\u200eWe've made enough progress in the last days to merit staying until Wednesday. There are several difficult issues still remaining,\"\u200e State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the talks in Lausanne would continue another day as \"long as the conversations continue to be productive.\" Diplomats and negotiators worked late as an initial deadline approached, but more time appeared necessary to reach a framework deal. How long talks will continue was unclear. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius informed the Iranians that he will return to Paris at dawn Wednesday in an apparent effort to force the Iranians' hand, Western diplomatic sources told CNN. Hamid Ba'idinejad from Iran's Foreign Ministry said earlier Tuesday there are no \"artificial\" deadlines and a deal will be reached, when each issue has been resolved. Diplomats told CNN that there has been progress, but gaps remain. For Iran, that means there's a light at the end of the tunnel for crippling sanctions. For the West, it means real hope that it's possible to loosen up on Tehran while still being confident that it won't develop nuclear weapons. The international sanctions relief issue has been resolved, according to Ba'idinejad. \"We have had long discussions on this, but there are issues that are related to sanctions that are still under consideration,\" Ba'idinejad said. He added that is not the only issue that needs to be worked out. The thing is, nuclear physics is complicated. So are the international dynamics anytime you're talking about Iran and the West, with mutual distrust and contempt a shared sentiment for years. That's why it's taken so long to even get to this point, and why what's happening in Lausanne matters. Before you can iron out nitty-gritty technical details in a permanent, comprehensive pact -- which carries the more important deadline of June 30 -- you have to agree on what you're going to talk about. What happens if Wednesday passes and there's no framework agreement? In the short term, it appears, not much. Iran's power rises, with or without deal . The real deadline isn't for three months, after all. As for the March 31 date, there's nothing to stop the parties from continuing to talk -- though an Iranian official told state-run Press TV that no one had raised the idea of an extension as of late Monday. \"All emphasize that the chance should not be missed, and they are all doing their best,\" Ba'idinejad said. So far, there's been a lot of meetings, with occasional smiles for cameras followed by foreign ministers talking behind closed doors. After working through the previous night, representatives from the key players -- most of them foreign ministers -- met all day Tuesday to try to resolve differences in what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described as \"the final stage\" of \"these marathon-like negotiations.\" The parties are either on the verge of a milestone agreement or still separated on some crucial points, depending on who you listen to. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is among the optimists. Russia has been closer than most to Iran even as it's gone along with sanctions. \"Prospects for this round of talks are not bad, I would even say good,\" Lavrov said before heading to Switzerland for the final round of negotiations, according to state-run Sputnik news agency. \"The chances are high.\" But in comments Monday to CNN, a more cautious Kerry conceded there was \"a little more light there today, but there are still some tricky issues.\" \"There still remain some difficult issues,\" the top U.S. diplomat said. \"We are working very hard to work those through ... with a view to get something done.\" 21 questions on Iranian nuclear talks . Iran has been under intense international pressure and has faced crippling sanctions over its nuclear program for years. The sides began moving away from stalemate with Iranians' 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani, who has insisted that Iran wants a peaceful nuclear energy program but not weapons. Viewed as a moderate -- especially compared with other powerful figures in Iran, including the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- Rouhani campaigned on a platform that he'd work to help Iran's economy by reducing its rifts with the outside world. His government has had some success easing those tensions, spearheading interim agreements that have loosened some sanctions. But a comprehensive and final deal has remained elusive. There's been discussion on what to do with Iran's existing fissile material -- which is important because, as long as it's still around, that will make it easier to produce a nuclear weapon more quickly. Still, U.S. officials suggested Monday the debate over this has been overblown, with Harf calling it one outstanding issue though \"it hasn't, quite honestly, been one of the toughest ones.\" More important are three points that have dominated the talks in Lausanne: . \u2022 How quickly or slowly Iran will be allowed to advance its nuclear technology in the last five years of the 15-year agreement. \u2022 How quickly the crushing U.N. sanctions will go away. \u2022 Whether sanctions will snap back into place if Iran violates the deal. Iran wants them gone for good. Lavrov claims that the U.N. Security Council will lift the sanctions right away, but other international negotiators want to merely suspend them, so they can be reapplied as leverage if Iran does not keep its end of the bargain. Agreement on those points is crucial, a Western diplomat said. \"There cannot be an agreement if we do not have answers to these questions,\" the diplomat said. Another point of contention: what to do with the nuclear substances Iran already has. Diplomats had told journalists about a plan for Iran to ship its fissile material to Russia. The idea is that if Tehran doesn't have a nuclear stockpile at its fingertips, it will have a longer \"breakout time\" to make a nuclear weapon should negotiations fall apart. Iran isn't ready to do that, one of its negotiators said Sunday. \"The export of stocks of enriched uranium is not in our program,\" Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, \"and we do not intend to send them abroad.\" But on Monday, U.S. officials said the rumblings in the media about the stockpile issue were overblown. Negotiators had not yet decided any specifics about the disposal of fissile material, and Iran has made the comments many times before, a senior State Department official said, citing a list of previous examples of such statements in press reports. With or without a deal, a lot can change in the next three months. For one, the devil is in the details -- any one of which could throw everyone back to square one. Then there's the possibility that a deal ironed out in Switzerland is rejected by any of the key players. That's been raised as a possibility in the United States, even though a Washington Post-ABC News Poll conducted in the past few days found that 59% of respondents support a deal in Iran that would restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Earlier this month, 47 Republican senators wrote directly to the Iranian government, reminding it that any deal it reaches with U.S. President Barack Obama might be moot once his term ends in less than two years. One person leading the charge against a possible deal, even though he'll have no direct part in shaping it, is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reiterating points he made earlier this month to the U.S. Congress, Netanyahu said Tuesday \"the greatest threat to our security and safety and our future is Iranians' attempt to become nuclear.\" \"And the agreement that is being formed in Lausanne,\" the Israeli leader said, \"is paving the road to that result.\" CNN's Elise Labott reported from Lausanne, and Steve Almasy and Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta. Jethro Mullen wrote and reported from Hong Kong. CNN's Ben Brumfield, Jim Sciutto, Nimet Kirac and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Sources tell CNN that French foreign minister has told Iranians he is leaving early Wednesday morning .\nNetanyahu: \"Agreement ... in Lausanne is paving\" way for Iran nuclear weapons .\nIran, world powers talking to set up parameters for framework deal on Iran's nuclear program .","id":"484404da98a365350bd76d7b3bf8c98291052999"} -{"article":"(CNN)The BBC's director-general, Tony Hall, has allegedly received death threats days after \"Top Gear\" host Jeremy Clarkson was dropped. \"Police in Westminster are investigating an allegation of threats to kill,\" the Metropolitan Police confirmed to CNN in a statement. The allegation was reported to the police on Wednesday. \"The threat was made by email,\" the police added. \"The content of the message suggests (it was sent) from outside the UK.\" The alleged threats come shortly after Hall took the decision to dismiss popular presenter Clarkson from \"Top Gear,\" one of the most-watched television shows in the world. \"Top Gear\" was suspended March 10 after an apparent altercation between the motor show host and producer Oisin Tymon on March 4. At the time, the BBC issued a statement saying that there had been a \"fracas\" between the host and a BBC producer. More than 1 million fans of Clarkson and \"Top Gear\" signed a petition to reinstate the host. The document was delivered to the BBC's headquarters by a fan dressed as the \"Stig\" -- the incognito racing car test-driver who appeared regularly on the show -- driving an armored tank. On Wednesday, the British broadcaster announced that it would not be renewing Clarkson's contract as host of \"Top Gear\" after he allegedly busted his producer's lip and hurled verbal abuse at him. Hall issued a statement online following the decision. \"It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract,\" he announced. \"It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon.\" Placing emphasis on Clarkson's legacy, Hall added that the BBC will be looking into a new host for \"Top Gear\" in 2016. \"This will be a big challenge and there is no point in pretending otherwise,\" he said. Inquiries are ongoing to establish where the threat came from, the police said. A representative for the BBC told CNN: \"We don't comment on security matters.\"","highlights":"Metropolitan Police say they're investigating \"an allegation of threats to kill\"\nAlleged threats received after dismissal of popular \"Top Gear\" host Jeremy Clarkson .","id":"5c7a4df78431100241cef2c2924ac13720639a7c"} -{"article":"(CNN)I was deeply moved watching Julianne Moore win the Oscar for \"Still Alice,\" a movie I was proud and privileged to be an executive producer on. Julianne gives a harrowing performance as a brilliant 50-year-old college professor who loses her brain and herself to early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This is a huge moment for Julianne -- and a huge moment for all of us who have been trying to focus public attention on this staggering disease. Witnessing Alzheimer's progress on the big screen is as terrifying as it is in real life. I know, because I'm a child of Alzheimer's. The mind of my father, Sargent Shriver, had always been a finely tuned instrument that left people in awe and inspired. But my family and I watched Alzheimer's erase that brain -- slowly, inexorably, completely. It was terrifying, too, because back then, the disease was surrounded by shame and silence. Alzheimer's still carries a stigma of the unknown -- even though today more than 5 million Americans have it. That's right. Every 67 seconds, another one of us develops Alzheimer's. Women in their 60s are about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's as breast cancer. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day, there will be 13.5 million of us with Alzheimer's by 2050. And many people don't understand that Alzheimer's isn't a natural part of aging. Alzheimer's is a disease that kills. The truth is, we're right in the middle of an epidemic, but we as a nation are in denial. An Oscar for \"Still Alice\" is shining the brightest light yet on Alzheimer's, but light isn't enough anymore. Attention isn't enough. It's time to get serious. Alzheimer's is exerting a powerful impact on American families -- on our health, our finances, and our futures. And women are disproportionately affected. Why women? Back in 2010, when we published \"The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Takes on Alzheimer's,\" we reported that women were more than half the individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's and nearly two-thirds of the unpaid caregivers of those who had it. Now those numbers are far worse. Today nearly two-thirds of those with Alzheimer's are women -- that's more than 3.2 million women. And more than 60% of caregivers for people with Alzheimer's and dementia are women, with many having to reduce their own workload or even drop out of the workforce altogether to care for loved ones. Opinion: Why 'Still Alice' is about you . Women are the epicenter of this crisis, which is why I believe they also have to be the solution. So, in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association and so many inspiring women already working on the front lines to fight this disease, we have launched the Wipe Out Alzheimer's Challenge, a multipronged campaign powered by women's brains. Our mission is to enlist women of all ages to get educated, engaged and empowered to instigate change. Women around the country will go out and raise the alarm, raise awareness, raise the stakes and raise millions of dollars to fund serious research into women's brains. And there's so much research to do and so many questions to answer. Why is the incidence of Alzheimer's higher for women? Nobody knows. And why is it that women in their 60s are so much more likely to get Alzheimer's than breast cancer? Nobody knows. What's the exact role of estrogen? We don't know. Is there an Alzheimer's connection with depression or with diabetes? What about genetics? What can be done during the 20 or so years when the disease develops, before a woman even becomes symptomatic? What's the impact of diet, stress level, exercise, sleep and cardiovascular condition? It's time to find out. We have to fund this research, because for some reason it's not a priority for the government. In 2015, Washington will spend an estimated $6 billion on cancer research and $3 billion on HIV\/AIDS research, but only $586 million on Alzheimer's. Yet, as the Alzheimer's Association tells us, \"the costs to all payers for the care of people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will total an estimated $226 billion, with Medicare and Medicaid paying 68 percent of the costs.\" I don't get it, but I'm not going to wait anymore. So Wipe Out Alzheimer's is stepping in. We're asking women to put together their own \"brain trusts\" in their communities -- groups that will go out and do some muscular fund-raising. But equally important, these brain trusts will gather to discuss and disseminate information about what the disease is and isn't. What are the warning signs we should look for in ourselves and our parents? What's the difference between normal forgetfulness, dementia and Alzheimer's disease? Can brain games or meditation slow cognitive decline? Do dietary supplements help? Local brain trust groups will also learn about the devastatingly high cost of Alzheimer's -- how neither Medicare nor the Affordable Care Act covers long-term care, and the cost of a semiprivate nursing home room averages more than $80,000 a year. They'll reach out to help and encourage women whose loved ones have Alzheimer's. They will be politically engaged and encourage political candidates who support increased funding for Alzheimer's research. They'll push their own doctors to get better-educated about cognitive health. It's time for the narrative around Alzheimer's to change. I remember when an HIV\/AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence. I remember when cancer was a dirty word, and the prognosis was always grim. But AIDS and cancer activists are helping to take these diseases from terrifying to treatable, from hopeless to hopeful. We want to do the same with Alzheimer's. We want to understand it, prevent it, treat it and beat it. Wipe Out Alzheimer's is creating a global community of women activists, agitators and agents of change to do just that. We used to think that the mysterious condition called Alzheimer's disease happened only to folks in their 80s and 90s. \"Still Alice\" shows us that's just not true. The race for the Oscar may be over, but the race to wipe out Alzheimer's is on.","highlights":"Maria Shriver's father was stricken by Alzheimer's, a growing scourge in U.S.\nWomen are disproportionately affected as sufferers and caregivers, she says .\nWipe Out Alzheimer's Challenge is launching to fill in for lagging government funding, she says .","id":"0322839ca00b6659c8a3a4bdd4d36889314f9469"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Canadian tourist was killed after a small inflatable tour boat collided with a whale off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, authorities said Thursday. The victim was identified as Jennifer Karren, 35, according to the Baja California Sur Prosecutor General's Office. Karren is a Canadian from Calgary, Alberta, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Two other people aboard the Cabo Adventures' vessel were injured in the incident that happened Wednesday a quarter-mile from the Bay of Santa Maria, the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office for the Protection of the Environment said. That federal agency is investigating the incident, it said. The inflatable boat, called the Cabo Adventure 9 and designed for recreational diving, was carrying nine people and was returning from a snorkel tour when a side of the craft collided with the whale, authorities said. The skipper, Jos\u00e9 Salazar Tendis, tried to avoid the whale, officials said. Salazar couldn't be immediately reached for comment. Karren fell in the water, and a tour guide and another passenger jumped in and brought her back on the boat, the federal agency said. The vessel captain immediately informed naval rescue officials, and the boat returned to shore as first aid and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation were performed on Karren, the federal agency said. A tourist aboard the watercraft who was also a nurse performed CPR, authorities said. The Canadian woman was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the Baja California Sur Prosecutor General's Office. The tour company's general director, Felipe Diez-Canedo, released a statement through Mexican authorities that expressed regret that one of its guests died, despite receiving first aid and being transported to the hospital. CNN's Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Jennifer Karren, 35, of Calgary, Alberta, falls overboard and later dies, authorities say .\nTwo other tourists are injured on the small inflatable boat .","id":"04c3af1560b61393b9bfff19c178f0323d390826"} -{"article":"(CNN)A court in Ivory Coast has sentenced former first lady Simone Gbagbo to 20 years in prison, the official AIP news agency said. Gbagbo was convicted Monday for her role in carrying out crimes against humanity following post-election violence in 2010 which left more than 3,000 people dead. Her husband, former president Laurent Gbagbo, is in the custody of the Hague-based International Criminal Court awaiting trial over similar charges. The charges stem from the aftermath of Gbagbo's husband's election defeat in 2010. Laurent Gbagbo, then the incumbent president, refused to step down after Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner of the election. The standoff sparked months of violence between supporters of the two sides, leaving thousands dead. In 2012, the ICC issued a warrant against her, alleging that as a member of the president's inner circle, his wife was an \"indirect co-perpetrator.\" She attended meetings where plans were discussed and carried out to persecute Ouattara supporters, according to the warrant. Her husband surrendered to the ICC in December of that year, and is currently awaiting trial at The Hague on crimes against humanity for the civil unrest and deaths. Both have denied the charges. But Ivory Coast refused to transfer Simone Gbago, saying it would try her in a domestic court instead. On Monday, it did. CNN's Faith Karimi contributed to this report.","highlights":"Her husband is in ICC custody over similar charges .\nIvory Coast refused to transfer Simone Gbagbo to ICC .","id":"b27cfe53f31128646368411a53a2afc41f4059b3"} -{"article":"(CNN)With a little bit of help from Donald Trump, Rory McIlroy was re-united with the golf club he famously threw into the lake at Doral -- but probably wished the golf-loving tycoon had not bothered. Never one to miss a media opportunity, Trump, the owner of the Blue Monster course in Florida, got a scuba diver to retrieve the 3-iron club which world No. 1 McIlroy had thought he had seen the last of during Friday's second round at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. The 68-year-old American entrepreneur presented it to McIlroy before his final round Sunday, telling him that it was unlucky to continue playing with 13 clubs as against the usual 14 allowed under golf's rules. \"He's never one to miss an opportunity,\" McIlroy told the official PGA Tour website after his round. \"It was fine. It was good fun.\" Not that opportunity knocked for McIlroy when he chose the 3-iron to play his third shot to the 18th and final hole of the tournament and promptly found the water again. The Northern Irishman feigned to repeat his earlier antics, before placing it back in the bag. His mistake led to a double bogey six and left him tied for ninth at one-under-par, eight shots behind winner Dustin Johnson. McIlroy had promised to return the club to Trump after the round and was as good as his word. \"We're thinking about auctioning it for charity or doing a trophy case for Doral, putting it on a beautiful mount,\" Trump said. Johnson is looking set to be one of McIlroy's main rivals in the first major of the season, the U.S. Masters at Augusta, next month and his victory completed a triumphant comeback to the PGA Tour. The 30-year-old American took a six-month break from the Tour last July to cope with \"personal problems\" and returned earlier this year. Johnson finished with a three-under 69 in testing conditions to leave him one ahead of long-time leader JB Holmes and two clear of Bubba Watson, the reigning Masters champion. Johnson celebrated on the 18th with his fiancee Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of ice hockey legend Wayne, and their newly-born son.","highlights":"Rory McIlroy re-united with the 3-iron he threw into lake at Doral .\nPresented with the club by owner Donald Trump .\nRepeats mistake with same club on final hole of WGC-Cadillac Championship .\nDustin Johnson wins tournament after six-month absence from PGA Tour .","id":"bd88d236ea4e2b9809a02e4812c848b6cdf8ae37"} -{"article":"Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)With partial results reported in the Nigerian presidential election, it appears opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari is leading incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. Reuters, which has collated results from three-quarters of Nigeria's states as they're broadcast live on state TV, reported that Buhari has so far obtained 11.5 million votes, Jonathan 9.5 million. Electoral officers from each of the 36 states are taking turns declaring results from their respective states at the Independent National Electoral Commission. The vote count was stopped Monday night and will resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday (5 a.m. ET), according to a tweet from Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the electoral commission. Jega will be the one to announce final results. Violent protests after Nigeria's presidential elections Saturday sparked calls for calm from the two main candidates and a warning by the United States and Britain against political interference. Protesters fired gunshots and torched a local electoral office in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers state on Sunday as they marched to protest the elections, amid claims of vote-rigging and voter intimidation. Heavy rain eventually forced the protesters to leave, but there are fears it will take more than rain to stop further protests and violence. More than 800 people were killed in post-election violence across Nigeria's north in 2011 after charges that those elections were illegitimate. Now Nigeria has just held what are thought to be the closest elections since a return to democracy in 1999 after decades of military rule. The two main candidates are incumbent Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party and retired Buhari of All Progressives Congress. Jonathan and Buhari last week issued a pledge reaffirming their commitment to \"free, fair and credible elections\" after their signing of the Abuja Accord in January. After the protests in Rivers, Buhari's All Progressives Congress demanded the elections there be canceled. \"There's been so much violence in Rivers state that it's just not tenable,\" party spokesman Lai Mohammed said. But the Peoples Democratic Party disputed the accusation, saying the election was \"credible and the result reflects the overwhelming wish of the people of Rivers state to support President Goodluck Jonathan.\" \"We are concerned by what seems to be happening,\" said Jega, the election chairman, about events in Rivers. Voting ended after problems with ballot papers and digital voting cards saw it extended to Sunday in some areas. Read more: Nigerian election extended one day . Britain and the United States entered the fray Monday with their top diplomats issuing a statement welcoming a \"largely peaceful vote\" but warning any political interference would contravene Jonathan and Buhari's peace pact. \"So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process. But there are disturbing indications that the collation process -- where the votes are finally counted -- may be subject to deliberate political interference. This would contravene the letter and spirit of the Abuja Accord, to which both major parties committed themselves,\" U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. Responding to their joint statement, electoral commission spokesman Kayode Idowu said: \"For all that I know there is no sign of political interference in the collation procedure.\" Idowu said the collation procedure \"cannot be subject to interference as long as our representative is present.\" The fear is that the results may not be accepted by the loser. If the opposition believes it has been rigged out of victory by the ruling party, then the protests in Rivers could spread to northern Nigeria. Both candidates have taken to social media to call for calm. \"I want to urge all Nigerians to also wait patiently for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to collate and announce results,\" Jonathan said on his Facebook account. \"Fellow Nigerians, I urge you to exercise patience and vigilance as we wait for all results to be announced,\" said Buhari on Twitter. Nigeria's vote had been scheduled for February 14, but on February 7, Nigeria's election commission announced it would be postponed for six weeks because of security concerns, with the military needing more time to secure areas controlled by extremist group Boko Haram. The controversial decision was unpopular among many Nigerians and led to widespread protests. Jonathan has been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram, which is waging a campaign of terror aimed at instituting a stricter version of Sharia law in Nigeria. On Saturday, residents in the northeastern state of Gombe said at least 11 people were killed and two more injured in attacks at polling stations, apparently by Boko Haram extremists. In other attacks not believed to be related to voting, suspected Boko Haram militants decapitated 23 people in a raid Saturday night on Buratai village in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, according to residents and Ibrahim Adamu, a local politician in the village. Meanwhile on Monday, Nigeria's police force issued a statement saying police and a \"local vigilante group\" had foiled an attack by unknown gunmen on the town of Tafawa Balewa in northeastern Bauchi state. The assailants had \"stormed Tafawa Balewa town in a convoy of 18 Hilux vehicles and started firing sporadically,\" the statement said. After being forced to retreat and abandon four vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns, the attackers went to Jitar village, where they killed three \"male vigilante members,\" police said. Security forces had cordoned off the surrounding area, they said. Read more: Democracy was the real winner . Christian Purefoy reported from Lagos and Susannah Cullinane wrote from London.","highlights":"Vote-counting postponed until Tuesday morning, election leader says in tweet .\nPartial vote count shows opposition candidate leading in Nigeria, Reuters reports .\nIncumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari faced off in election .","id":"79c9f7c234eb43aaef887b4194f1ef41b0171f6a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg resumed where they left off last season as the 2015 Formula One season kicked off in Melbourne. The Mercedes duo, who took pole position in all but one of last season's qualifying sessions and won 16 of the 19 races, were dominant in first and second practice for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. Rosberg, who won last year's GP at Albert Park, was fastest around the Melbourne street circuit on Friday, finishing 0.1 second ahead of Hamilton with Sebastian Vettel taking third spot for his new team Ferrari -- the German four-time world champion finished 0.715 seconds off the pace set by his compatriot. Vettel's Finnish teammate, Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, 1.1 seconds behind the lead with Williams' Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Kvyat, who was making his debut for Red Bull since his switch from Toro Rosso, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. \"It was great to be back in the car at this awesome track,\" Rosberg said, the official Formula One site reported. \"Today we have the evidence that our Silver Arrow is quick again and it was a great start for the team,\" he added. \"It seems again that it's very close between Lewis and me and he is a great driver, so I need to nail the setup every time to come out on top. This year will be a big battle again against him, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to the first weekend of the new season with all the great fans out there.\" Hamilton, who was forced to retire from last year's race with engine trouble, was satisfied with his pace. \"It feels great to be back on track and back into a race weekend. In general it's been a good first day,\" Hamilton said. \"Today seemed to confirm that we have pretty good pace. But there are still other quick cars out there and we can't go into tomorrow's sessions not thinking that they will be close.\" The opening day's racing was somewhat overshadowed by an ongoing dispute between Sauber and the Swiss team's 2014 reserve driver Giedo van der Garde. The 29-year-old Dutchman recently started legal proceeding against the Swiss team claiming they had reneged on a promise to make him one of the lead drivers for the 2015 season. Van der Garde won the case held in a Swiss court earlier this month, with the decision being upheld by Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia on Tuesday after Sauber had appealed the original ruling. During practice Van der Garde could be seen in the Sauber garage wearing his race overalls, but he did not make an appearance on track as Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr completing both practice sessions. Following the initial court ruling, team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said that changing drivers hours before a Grand Prix could be dangerous. \"What we cannot do is jeopardize the safety of our team, or any other driver on the track, by having an unprepared driver in a car that has now been tailored to two other assigned drivers,\" she said, Formula1.com reported. Brazilian Nasr was the highest placed of the two finishing 11th while Swede Marcus Ericsson was 15th. Elsewhere there was also a uncertain start for McLaren who finished way down the pecking order. Jenson Button was 13th, almost four seconds off the pace for the CNN-sponsored team while teammate Kevin Magnussen, who was deputizing for the absent Fernando Alonso, was 16th following second practice. Local favorite Daniel Ricciardo completed just nine laps of practice after his Red Bull suffered engine failure. Qualifying for Sunday's race gets underway on Saturday.","highlights":"Nico Rosberg fastest ahead of team Lewis Hamilton in Australia GP practice .\nMercedes duo dominated last season winning all but three of 19 races .\nGiedo van der Garde doesn't race for Sauber despite court ruling .\nSebatian Vettel makes good start for new team Ferrari finishing second practice in third .","id":"32a155a30e9525a8dc963602d8d5494439e35924"} -{"article":"(CNN)The HBO documentary \"Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck\" is already drawing rave reviews on the film festival circuit, including sold-out showings at both Sundance and the True\/False fests before its television premiere on May 4th. However, anticipation for the film's soundtrack is about to hit fever pitch as director Brett Morgen revealed that the accompanying album will feature \"a mind-blowing 12-minute acoustic Cobain unheard track,\" the filmmaker tweeted (via Loudwire). Kurt Cobain documentary set to premiere at Sundance . Morgen didn't share any other details regarding the song other than it will feature on the \"Montage of Heck\" soundtrack. While an April 7th release date has been scheduled for the film's companion book, which features \"a mixture of animation stills, rare photography and other treasures from Kurt Cobain's personal archive,\" no date or further information has been announced regarding the film's soundtrack. Kurt Cobain doc 'Montage of Heck' adds rarities-filled companion book . Rolling Stone talked to Morgen at the Sundance Film Festival, and the filmmaker revealed that the documentary's score \"is all unreleased Cobain music.\" \"They don't have titles. Before people saw the movie, there were these weird press releases focusing on the unreleased music. And it's like: It's a movie. We're not going to stop it and play a song for four minutes,\" Morgen said. \"But nobody in Kurt's life \u2014 not his management, wife, bandmates \u2014 had ever heard his Beatles thing [a snippet of 'And I Love Her']. I found it on a random tape. It's a Paul [McCartney] song. How's that for shattering the myth?\" Sundance 2015: Intimate 'Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck' doc stuns at premiere . Morgen added that he hoped to put out one of the Cobain's personal cassettes - \"Tape 59: Montage of Heck\" - as a special release on \"Independent Record Store day, like unannounced, but it didn't happen.\" See the original story at RollingStone.com. Copyright \u00a9 2015 Rolling Stone.","highlights":"The album will feature a 12-minute acoustic Cobain unheard track .\nThe doc is already winning rave reviews .\nFilmmaker wants to release one of the Cobain's personal cassettes .","id":"0b4ab590b50e8a7c9bd734ed7f7cbaf17c44971a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Before he was Jihadi John, he was little John -- a young version of the same Mohammed Emwazi who authorities say later became the English-speaking face of ISIS terror. His earlier, innocent image can be seen in video obtained from Britain's Channel 4. It shows a teenage boy in the schoolyard of a West London secondary school. He walks through a sea of fellow students in his zippered sweatshirt over his polo shirt, wearing a backpack and carrying a plastic bottle. At one point, a basketball rolls toward him and he returns it with a deft kick. He looks playful at times as when he skips and lightheartedly pushes two other boys, more serious in others. In other words, he appears to be not much different than any other teenager. But he's not. The boy in the video is Emwazi, his former headmaster at Quintin Kynaston Community Academy told CNN. Who Mohammed Emwazi used to be . Jo Shuter noted that her former student could be shy at times, but overall he was far from a troublemaker and not much out of the ordinary. \"He was bullied a little bit, because he was quiet and reserved,\" Shuter said. \"Generally, he was fine. There (were) no issues with him. There were no problems.\" Emwazi became even more focused in his last few years at Quintin Kynaston Community Academy, she said. \"He was working hard, he achieved great grades for him, and he went to the university of his choice,\" Shuter told CNN this week, referring to London's Westminster University, from which Emwazi graduated in 2009. Contrast that perception with that of the masked, deep-voiced, British-accented man who months ago was dubbed Jihadi John. There is nothing shy, nothing gentle, nothing playful about him. He starred in grisly ISIS videos depicting the beheading of hostages, punctuating his horrific actions with taunts at the United States. A man who says he is Emwazi's father told the Kuwaiti newspaper al Qabas that \"there is nothing that proves\" the man known as Jihadi John is his son, Mohammed. His Kuwait-based lawyer, Salem Al-Hashash, told CNN that the family plans to sue anyone who makes the connection, calling the father Jassem Emwazi a \"victim of libel.\" Yet Western authorities have made just such a link. They say that the Kuwaiti-born Mohammed Emwazi went from being a typical \"boy next door\" type growing up in West London to being one of the most high-profile recruits of ISIS, the Islamist extremist group behind a campaign of terror and conquest in Syria and Iraq. More than a dozen British administrative court documents obtained by CNN indicate that, as far back as 2009, British security services believed Emwazi was part of a radical West London recruitment network for terrorist groups in East Africa. And in late February, two U.S. officials and two U.S. congressional sources confirmed reports in British and other media that Emwazi went on to join ISIS and is the man known as Jihadi John.","highlights":"Video shows a young Mohammed Emwazi in a West London schoolyard .\nHe covers his face at times, skips and playfully jostles with students at others .\nU.S. authorities say Emwazi grew up to be the ISIS terrorist known as Jihadi John .","id":"1e77252d56cbfd963e7249e79931c75c744cd0d7"} -{"article":"(CNN)The murder earlier this month of 27-year-old Farkhunda at the hands of a mob that beat her to death, burned her body and tossed her into a river shocked Afghanistan, a country in which unspeakable things often hit the headlines. The young woman from Kabul was falsely accused of burning pages in the Holy Quran. What followed was the horror of mob rule, all captured on video while bystanders looked on. Soon after the incident, the images of her brutal slaying went viral on social media, noted Afghanistan's TOLO News. And this time, the outrage led Afghans to the streets, with assistance from Facebook and other social media. These platforms have served both to disseminate the images of her savage beating and murder and as a means for convening those who are mobilizing and organizing to protest her killing. Last week, crowds chanted for days, calling for justice for Farkhunda and \"death for her killers.\" And,TOLO News reported, protests were held in different parts of the country, calling for the \"ultimate penalty to the perpetrators.\" Indeed, technology and connectedness have played a role in changing the old narratives in Afghanistan, as Farkhunda's killing shows. Not only was her murder captured and shared online, but some of those men arrested for her killing were found to have confessed via social media posts. And now a country's anguish is shared in those same online and virtual neighborhoods. Some Afghan civil society leaders see the protests that have resulted as yet another sign of an evolving Afghanistan -- a nation whose recently elected leaders, now sharing a unity government, visited Washington, D.C., in an effort to turn the page on the past. \"When we are talking about this case, what is it showing us? First of all, when we are talking about women's rights, we see that we have succeeded; people will not tolerate what they tolerated a decade ago,\" said Nargis Nehan, founder and executive director of Equality for Peace and Democracy, a non-governmental organization created to promote \"a culture of peace, tolerance, transparency and accountability.\" She was speaking last Tuesday at a roundtable at Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security, organized around the visit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. \"If this was the Afghanistan of a decade before and this would have happened, a small group of Afghan women would have come to the streets to be seeking justice. Today we have men seeking justice.\" Nehan explained that the younger generation, a progressive generation, wants to have a peaceful Afghanistan. \"But at the same time, we have conservatives who have been power-holders for many decades in Afghanistan and they don't want to see that. Change always has a cost and unfortunately in this case we see that a very innocent girl like Farkhunda has paid that.\" Nehan and other leaders from Afghanistan could be seen checking Facebook frequently for updates on what was happening on the streets of their capital. What they found was an online community sustaining the strong sense of injustice over Farkhunda's killing that prompted the Afghan President to announce, even before he left for the United States, a fact-finding commission to investigate her murder. Yet some Afghan leaders worried that the brutality of this murder marked another troubling turning point in a country wrestling with a great many transitions -- economic, security and political -- all at once. \"It never (before) happened to women at this level; this was really one of the shocking acts of violence publicly within the capital,\" said Sima Samar, head of the Afghan Human Rights Commission, at the Georgetown panel. \"It is not far from the palace, less than one kilometer.\" \"My personal concern is that if we do not manage the case properly, it might be used against us and against women's rights in the country,\" Samar added. Women have gained a great deal in the roughly 13 years since the Taliban was ousted from power. Today, 3 million girls attend school. Women serve in the country's security forces -- albeit in very small numbers. They sit in Parliament and work as entrepreneurs, teachers and civil society advocates. Still, violence against women remains rampant and widespread. The practice of child marriage is outlawed but still common in some parts of the country. And security and the economy are still major challenges, particularly in the more remote provinces of the country untouched by the modernization gripping the nation's more urban centers. Indeed, Samar and other human rights advocates and civil society leaders who have played a role in post-Taliban Afghanistan say they are determined that Farkhunda's death will not be in vain. They say they will continue to fight to keep her case in the spotlight and to see justice served. Their commitment to seeking public justice for a public horror may well be one of the most powerful signals yet of an Afghanistan that is indeed a very different nation than it was only a decade ago.","highlights":"Murder of 27-year-old woman by mob in Afghanistan set social media ablaze with calls for justice .\nLemmon: Outrage, Afghan President's call for probe signal a changing nation years after Taliban rule .","id":"cdf87ccc1ee5dbbdf1aa94e547bc1a8b20ad3d08"} -{"article":"(CNN)North Korea has arrested what it claims are two spies who worked for South Korea's intelligence service, a North Korean official said Thursday on condition of anonymity. The men, identified as Kim Kook Kie and Choi Chun Kil, are accused of committing crimes of \"terrorism\" and bringing in \"large quantities of forged currency,\" the North Korean source said. The official said Kim had made a declaration of guilt. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the declaration or whether, if Kim made one, it was made under duress. South Korea's National Intelligence Service told CNN that \"the information you've obtained is not true.\" \"We don't have any information that members of NIS were arrested in North Korea,\" an NIS representative said.","highlights":"Two men accused of committing crimes of \"terrorism\" and bringing in forged currency .\nSouth Korea's National Intelligence Service denies claim .","id":"de2874887a4e02a1fbf5e48daf1797e4360e5dc5"} -{"article":"(CNN)Things just got messy with that One Direction breakup. Just when folks were starting to heal from the shock of Zayn Malik's decision to quit the super-successful boy group on Wednesday, a social media dustup has fans all a-Twitter. Zayn Malik leaving One Direction . Music producer Naughty Boy got into a war of words with One Direction's Louis Tomlinson after the producer retweeted a user going by Naughty Boy\/Zayn (@naughtyboymus). The tweet was captioned \"The truth\" and contained a video of a little ditty in which an electronic voice croons \"Naughty Boy saved my life\" and mentions \"Zaughty.\" Malik is reportedly working with Naughty Boy, and \"Zaughty\" is a combination of their names. Tomlinson -- who is BFFs with Malik -- responded with \"Wow @NaughtyBoyMusic you're so inconsiderate pal, seriously how f***ing old are you? Grow up! #masterofallwisdom.\" The producer replied by calling the singer a not-nice word, appearing to have misunderstood the reason behind Tomlinson's ire. The singer corrected him and accused Naughty Boy of trying to get fans worked up. Directioners (as the fans are called) got into it, and the hashtags \"Zaughty\" and \"masterofallwisdom\" started trending. Hours later, Naughty Boy decided to \"let the music do the talking\" and tweeted a link to a song titled \"I Wont Mind,\" which is labeled as a demo from him and Malik. Several fans were not at all happy. After leaving the group, Malik expressed sadness at disappointing fans. \"I feel like I've let the fans down, but I can't do this anymore,\" he told the UK's The Sun. \"It's not that I've turned my back on them or anything, it's just that I just can't do that anymore, because it's not the real me.\" Zayn Malik: 'I've let the fans down'","highlights":"Producer Naughty Boy tweeted a demo song .\nMalik recently left the group .\nFans are not happy .","id":"e3061df1c20abe009a0ebb1575722046e15fbbfd"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"A pilot called me last week, concerned he might have Marfan syndome,\" a health care provider told me recently at a meeting. \"But if I find he has the disease, do I have to report him to the Federal Aviation Administration? And if so, should I call him first and tell him that? Would he lose his job?\" She was totally unsure what to do. Several other providers were present, and none of them knew, either. \"You should definitely call him and tell him,\" a health care lawyer, who was present, said. \"You have to provide full disclosure.\" \"But presumably, he knows that you might do so,\" I said. \"And if you told him, he might not come in for the check-up.\" Marfan syndrome affects connective tissue and can lead to sudden tears in the aortic artery, causing sudden death. Yet if treated, it poses much less risk, though not necessarily zero. The case raised several specific quandaries about what the responsibilities of medical professionals are and should be -- legally or ethically -- in evaluating pilots. The FAA requires that pilots self-report any diagnoses. But health care professionals have no obligation to notify anyone. They may know that a pilot has a medical problem that is poorly or not treated and may endanger passengers, but these providers have no obligation to do anything about it. These issues are crucial, given that Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the Germanwings Flight 9525, killing 150 passengers. We still don't know why he committed suicide-murder, but the latest reports indicate he was treated for suicidal tendencies before getting his pilot license. The Germanwings disaster has demonstrated that current standards of medical and psychiatric evaluation are inadequate. The FAA requires only that pilots fill out a psychological questionnaire, asking whether they have had psychological symptoms. But pilots are not assessed in person by a psychiatrist. Such face-to-face assessments can provide crucial information that self-report forms might miss, partly because pilots might answer inaccurately. Moreover, the FAA requires only that 25% of pilots have a single random drug screen per year. Pilots may pass drug tests in January and realize that the odds of undergoing subsequent tests that year are nil. They may hence use more alcohol and recreational drugs. We need to consider changing current policies. Some alterations are relatively easy. The FAA should consider requiring far more drug testing -- for all pilots, perhaps every few days. Other possible reforms pose difficult ethical dilemmas, and thus need broad, careful discussion -- e.g., what role providers should play and how much privacy pilots should have. Medical exams and records over time can indicate key problems that a single visit to an FAA doctor may miss. But requiring more information from pilots diminishes their rights to privacy. Indeed, such rights impeded investigators from knowing initially the reason Lubitz took a six-month leave and the nature of his medical condition. Physicians have to break patient confidentiality when third parties may be endangered. The legal precedent for breaking patient confidentiality in this way is the so-called Tarasoff case, in which a young patient told his psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley that he wanted to kill his girlfriend, Tatiana Tarasoff. The psychologist alerted the campus police, though not the city police or Tarasoff. Unfortunately, the patient then killed Tarasoff. A court found the psychologist liable. These violations of patient confidentiality make us providers uncomfortable. As a physician, I have had to report patients whom I even suspected might be abusing a child. I remember one patient who came to the emergency room for psychiatric problems mentioning that she sometimes hit her toddler son with the end of an electrical cord, swinging it until the thick part banged him. As I asked more, she began to cry. I felt terrible for her and was unsure how dangerous her actions were, but I erred on the side of protecting the child's safety and contacted social services. When I told her, she nodded, then whispered thank you. She knew she needed help. Still, in Germany and several states, providers do not have to break patient confidentiality, even when they think the patient may endanger others. Critical dilemmas arise, though, of what threshold should be used concerning which diagnoses and how much their successful treatment should matter. Some diagnoses may be treatable and thus permissible if doctors examine the pilot more frequently than once a year. Early in the HIV epidemic, for instance, some critics argued that HIV-infected pilots should be barred from flying, since the virus could cause neurological problems. Fortunately, the FAA decided that evidence of actual neurological deficits -- not infection alone -- should ground these employees. Physicians arguably should consider reporting pilots who have, for instance, epilepsy, manic-depression or diabetes that leads to coma if these conditions are not well controlled with medications. Yet stigma can make pilots fear job loss and thus hide diagnoses and not seek treatment. The FAA could require that pilots seek treatment in order to fly, but some pilots may still simply cover up problems. Ideally, the clinician should be able to talk with the pilot about the need not to fly and arrange a leave for a few months to improve treatment. Good employee assistance programs and trust are also needed. In addition, we need research to find how much physician reporting would reduce risks or lead pilots to camouflage problems. Questions still arise of whether even the suspicion of a problem that could impede function should warrant reporting. An individual may seem fine weeks or even days before becoming seriously depressed. Careful, transparent discussion, involving medical experts, pilots, policymakers and others, to establish policies with clearly established cutoffs are thus vital. Unfortunately, suicides, for instance, are impossible to predict. But much can be done to improve the current system.","highlights":"Robert Klitzman: Physicians should consider reporting pilots who have medical problems such as depression .\nYet stigma can make pilots fear job loss and thus hide diagnoses and not seek treatment .\nThe FAA could require that pilots seek treatment in order to fly, but some pilots may still simply cover up problems .","id":"ccd95ba2ebadf1e5c0e8c889bc110f1c2dd8315e"} -{"article":"(CNN)A swarm of insects tends to startle us -- chaotic yet organized, fascinating and beautiful. Take it one step further. Instead of bees hovering around a tree, imagine cheese balls. Solo cups in the place of birds, glow sticks as locusts. What seems like a figment of a wild imagination becomes reality in Thomas Jackson's \"Emergent Behavior\" series. Jackson grew up in Rhode Island and worked in publishing in New York for 13 years, ultimately landing his dream gig as an editor with Forbes magazine. But somewhere along the way, he picked up a camera. He found photography \"effortlessly fulfilling\" compared to the frequent challenges of writing. So he dove in, lens first. After a charming series featuring a robot, he struck a cadence in creating \"swarms\" with inanimate objects such as Post-it notes and plastic plates. \"I started creating these whimsical, fantastic scenarios in which the environment is exploiting us,\" Jackson explained. That's what initially catches the eye -- the uncanny. The bizarre gathering in the behavior of insects or birds, made up of something that shouldn't be there. At first, he relied on digital enhancements to polish his illusions. But as the series evolved, he relied less on editing and more on the installations themselves. More than half of Jackson's \"Emergent Behavior\" series is digitally untouched. How Jackson gets a tubful of cheese balls to hang purposefully around the trunk of a tree seems nonsensical. He only hints at the mechanics. It's just \"wires,\" he said, casually, not revealing enough evidence to ruin the magic. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. \"But if you look close enough, it will reveal all of its secrets.\" He spends about a day building the installations, and he usually shoots his photos at dusk. The photo of the pink Solo cups was shot against mountainous terrain in Wyoming. The cups, already at odds with nature, look as though they are a flock of birds flying along the rocks. Jackson seemingly casts a magic spell of manic movement, creating what an Internet commentator calls \"a frat party being sucked into a black hole.\" The idea of a swarm -- be it insects or \"thank you\" bags -- fascinates Jackson. They are disconcerting and familiar at once, creating a conundrum that warrants a closer look. \"Maybe because they fly in the face of how we see the world,\" he said. Thomas Jackson is a photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. You can follow him on Instagram.","highlights":"Thomas Jackson has staged everyday objects to look like swarms in nature .\nAmong the items used: Solo cups, Post-it notes, cheese balls and plastic plates .","id":"e9571190e464540fd1d0970b243bfdeb973c1432"} -{"article":"(CNN)At first Raymond Goldstein thought he'd received a spam email. The message to the Cambridge University physicist was asking for help working out the dynamics of hair, specifically the shape of ponytails. Goldstein thought he'd \"won the Nigerian lottery.\" Poised to click delete, he scrolled through the message one more time and discovered it was from global consumer goods giant Unilever. Curiosity piqued, he met with a company representative, and the rest, as they say, is history. Assembling a team of balding physicists, Goldstein set out to tackle the subject, publishing their research in a peer review journal. It detailed the fluid mechanics of hair, drawing on a rich seam of scientific observation stretching back to Da Vinci. They even coined a new term: hairodynamics. Attention from the scientific community soon followed, and within a year they were collecting a Nobel Prize. An Ig Nobel Prize, that is. A satirical cousin to the more esteemed Swedish award, the Ig Nobel seeks to highlight research that first makes you laugh, then makes you think. This year marks their 25th anniversary, so what better time to celebrate the Ig Nobels' contribution to the research community? Every year thousands vie for the awards -- \"always sourced from the cheapest materials\" according to founder Marc Abrahams -- held at Harvard University. The ceremony is bathos at its finest. Winners receive their awards from genuine Nobel laureates, but speeches are curtailed by a screaming girl declaring her boredom. Each year a cast of professional singers and scientists perform a mini-opera. Last year's was set to Mozart and featured a chorus of microbial bacteria. Past recipients include a man who dressed up as a polar bear to scare reindeer and a study of homosexual necrophilia among mallard ducks (commended by Abrahams for \"its high literary quality\"). However, not all winners can have such high scientific kudos. The Ig Nobels skewered the U.S. Government in 2012, awarding them the Prize for Literature \"for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.\" You can read it here. In 2009 the Math Prize went to Gideon Gono, then head of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for printing a Z$100 trillion note (while also printing 1c). Last year the Italian National Institute of Statistics landed the Economics Prize for bringing the country out of recession through the use of prostitutes, drugs and smuggling. (The Italian government ended up setting a precedent in Europe, with the UK soon including the so-called \"black economy\" in its figures -- national GDP jumped by 5% that quarter, equivalent to $15 billion.) As proved by the Ig Nobels, the line between ridiculous and serious research has always been blurred. This is no better reflected than in Dutch-British physicist Andre Geim. In 2000 Geim scooped the Ig Nobel for Biology for using magnets to levitate frogs. Ten years later he went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for his \"groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.\" It is hard to say which is the greater achievement. Abrahams is currently touring the UK touting the Igs, supported by previous winners such as Goldstein and potential candidates like David Dunstan, who found fame by conducting a two year study into the homing properties of garden snails (his modus operandi: throwing them over the garden fence). Soon Abrahams will have to settle down and sift through what he predicts will be about 9,000 entries, before the anniversary ceremony on September 17. Despite his longstanding and much admired pastiche of the Nobels, he is still yet to be invited to Stockholm for the awards proper. Asked if he would attend if offered the opportunity, Abrahams demurs, saying \"he wouldn't want to be a distraction.\" And as for what the Nobel Prize could learn from his own mischievous creation? \"Absolutely nothing.\" Read more from Make, Create, Innovate: . Great photos from the world's smallest satellites . So long, transistor: How the 'memristor' could revolutionize electronics . Laser procedure can turn brown eyes blue .","highlights":"The Ig Nobel Prizes will celebrate their 25th anniversary in September this year .\nPrevious winners of the satirical awards have gone on to win an actual Nobel Prize .","id":"c6a472b1147afda5567112e3fe51f9f36579c905"} -{"article":"(CNN)As an offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens, John Urschel already has a lot on his plate. He regularly goes head to head with the top defensive players in the NFL and does his best to keep quarterback Joe Flacco out of harm's way. But besides his endeavors on the field, Urschel also keeps up another demanding pursuit that is rarely associated with NFL players: mathematical research. Not content with the respect of the locker room, he also seeks the esteem of top mathematicians around the globe. \"I have a Bachelor's and Master's in mathematics, all with a 4.0, and numerous published papers in major mathematical journals,\" Urschel wrote in a recent article for The Players' Tribune. His latest contribution to the mathematical realm was a paper for the Journal of Computational Mathematics with the impressively esoteric title, \"A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians.\" Urschel, 23, makes no effort to hide his unusual combination of talents: his official Twitter handle is @MathMeetsFball. As word of his double life spread on social media in recent days, users responded with fascination and admiration. \"You are my goddamn hero (football fan and aspiring complex\/functional analyst here),\" tweeted Roy Cardenas, who describes himself as a math Ph.D. student. But Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has \"a bright career ahead of me in mathematics.\" After every season, he says in the Players' Tribune article, his mother tries to discourage him from continuing to play football. The Penn State graduate says the reason he keeps going isn't for the money (he drives a used Nissan Versa and lives on less than $25,000 a year) or \"for some social status associated with being an elite athlete.\" It's simpler than that. \"I play because I love the game. I love hitting people,\" he writes. \"There's a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you.\" \"This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else,\" he explains. He shared his thoughts after San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland announced last week that he was retiring from professional football at age 24 because he was worried about the long-term effects of head trauma. Urschel says he envies Borland but doesn't feel able to quit. \"When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around,\" he writes. \"This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work.\" And as if two areas of overachievement weren't enough, there is one other thing at which Urschel excels. \"I'm also an avid chess player,\" he says. \"And I have aspirations of eventually being a titled player one day.\"","highlights":"The NFL player has published numerous papers in major math journals .\nHe keeps playing football despite the risk of potential brain injury .\n\"I play because I love the game. I love hitting people,\" he says .","id":"353aac1a6dfe98babad28111d8f8d718aa250507"} -{"article":"Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)At any moment, Saudi troops could march through Yemen, heating up an already intense conflict that could have ramifications across the Middle East. On Monday, a Saudi-led coalition of nine countries continued airstrikes against Shiite Houthi rebels, who have captured key parts of Yemen and ousted that country's President, and who could spread Iran's influence in the region. And the notion of an Iranian proxy power in Yemen is unacceptable to many -- especially Iran's staunch rival Saudi Arabia. 'Tricky issues' remain in nuclear talks with Iran . \"I think the Saudis ... feel directly, physically threatened by what is happening,\" said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. But if the coalition takes the fight to the ground in Yemen, the consequences could be severe. Houthis are battle-hardened guerrilla fighters and could cross into Saudi Arabia. They've already threatened suicide bomb attacks inside Saudi Arabia. And Yemen, already the home base to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, now teeters on the brink of becoming a failed state and an even more fertile breeding ground for extremism. Here's the latest on the crisis in Yemen and its impact around the world: . Saudi-led airstrikes targeted Houthi military posts and weapons depots in the capital city of Sanaa on Monday, two Houthi commanders told CNN. Yemen's Defense Ministry said a Saudi airstrike hit Al-Mazeraq refugee camp in Haradh, near the Saudi border, killing at least 40 internally displaced people and injuring 250. The group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) tweeted that one of its teams had received \"30 wounded plus 15 dead bodies following airstrike on IDP camp today.\" Previously, airstrikes hit Houthi militant groups, smashed their air defense guns and crumbled key infrastructure, a Saudi official has said. Egyptian warships fired on the road that runs from the Yemeni port town of Zinjibar into the key coastal city of Aden but did not fire on Aden directly, according to an official with Yemen's Southern Movement. The road is the eastern approach to Aden and is one of the three main roads into the city. The Egyptian naval barrage is intended to block the Houthi advance on Aden and push those fighters back, the source said. Egyptian warships had deployed to the Bab al-Mandab strait last Friday, according to media reports, intent on protecting that passage that is the only access from the Arabian Sea to Egypt's Suez Canal. The coalition's campaign has been dubbed Operation al-Hazm Storm. The Arabic term \"al-Hazm\" can be translated as \"determinant\" or \"decisive.\" Saudi Arabia and Egypt have both talked about the possibility of putting boots on the ground. On Saturday, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen said he expected coalition troops to be in Yemen within days. Saudi leaders have said that if troops do go in, they won't leave until they have degraded the Houthis' ability to fight. The Houthis are apt guerrillas. A fight on the ground could prove bloody and lengthy. The conflict splits the region along religious lines. Operation Decisive Storm's largely Sunni coalition includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Sudan. On Monday, Pakistan's government said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had chaired \"a high-level meeting\" of senior officials to review the situation in the Middle East. \"The meeting concluded that Pakistan remains firmly committed to supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Pakistan,\" it said in a statement. \"It was emphasized that Pakistan stands committed to playing a meaningful role in arresting the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. In the same context, and to facilitate early resolution of the crisis and to promote peace and unity of the Muslim Ummah (community), the Prime Minister would be contacting the leadership of brotherly countries,\" the statement continued. The Shiite Houthis are allied with Iran, a majority Shiite nation. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of boosting the Houthis' weaponry for their offensive. Iran has sharply denounced the Saudi-dominated intervention in Yemen. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of trying to use the conflict in Yemen to \"take over the whole Middle East.\" The United States has supported the coalition's efforts. While it is helping the Saudi-led team with logistics and locating targets, the U.S. is not participating in active battle. Dozens have died in the airstrikes, Houthi commanders said. The rebel commanders also said the coalition struck the Houthi-controlled Al Anad air base, which was used as the headquarters for U.S. counterterrorism operations before Houthi rebels took control of it. The Houthis claimed they shot down a Sudanese jet and captured the pilot on Saturday. They distributed photos of a pilot and wreckage to back up the claim. The Yemeni crisis erupted when Shiite Houthi rebels, who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni country, began seizing the capital and other parts of the country last fall. Houthis moved into Sanaa in September, sparking battles that killed hundreds of people. Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi fled the capital over a month ago. In January, Houthis surrounded the presidential palace. Hadi resigned and was put under house arrest. He escaped in February and went to the coastal city of Aden, but declared he was still the country's leader. Last week, Hadi went to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to attend the Arab League summit, where he is rallying support for Operation Decisive Storm. Even from afar, Hadi had strong words for the Houthis: . \"You violated the sovereignty (of Yemen),\" he said, \"and you bear the responsibility for what happened and what is going to happen.\" That Arab League summit produced a notable agreement: the Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration, which paves the way for a united Arab force that would be ready to fight insurgents if a member country came under attack. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi actually called for a joint Arab force last month to fight ISIS. But the agreement over the weekend carries extra significance amid the battle against Houthis in Yemen. Egypt: It's time for an Arab coalition against ISIS . The logistics and details of the joint Arab force have yet to be worked out. But the declaration also urges the Houthis to immediately withdraw from Yemen's government institutions and to surrender their arms to \"legitimate authorities.\" Many U.N. representatives have had to flee the chaos. And Saudi naval special forces have rescued dozens of diplomats, a Saudi official said. The conflict in Yemen also led to the withdrawal of U.S. special forces earlier this month, seriously undermining counterterrorism efforts in a country that has been a stronghold for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Haass, of the Council on Foreign Relations, said what's happening in Yemen could devolve into a long, protracted religious war. \"You have civil wars, you have proxy wars. You have regional wars all in one,\" he said. \"And these things have so many logs on the fire, to use the metaphor, that they ... burn and burn and burn for a long time.\" Journalist Hakim Almasmari reported from Sanaa; CNN's Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Anas Hamdan, Tim Lister and Ian Lee contributed to this report.","highlights":"Saudi airstrikes kill 40 at refugee camp, Yemen's Defense Ministry says .\nEgyptian warships shell road leading to key port city, said official with Yemen's Southern Movement .\nYemen's foreign minister says he expects coalition ground troops to arrive within days .","id":"5afaf062f5ece639d266efbeaf9e1788069baba1"} -{"article":"(CNN)An ancient ring has shed new light on the ties between Vikings and the Islamic world, more than a century after its discovery. The finger ring found in a 9th century Swedish grave is inscribed with Arabic Kufic writing. The letters appear to read \"AL_LLH, researchers say, which they interpret as meaning \"for\/to (the approval of) Allah.\" In a paper published in the journal Scanning, the researchers say it is the only ring with an Arabic inscription ever found at a Scandinavian archaeological site. The object was originally discovered during a late 19th century grave excavation in the town of Birka, on Bj\u00f6rk\u00f6 island, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Stockholm. Birka was a key trading center during the Viking age and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. The ring is part of the Swedish History Museum's collection, originally cataloged as being made of gilded silver and violet amethyst, bearing the inscription \"Allah.\" Researchers led by Stockholm University biophysicist Sebastian W\u00e4rml\u00e4nder say they used \"scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to analyze the ring's composition and found that it was in fact made of silver alloy and the \"amethyst\" was colored glass. \"For the stone, we must remember that even though colored glass might today be perceived as a 'fake' material of lower value, this was not necessarily so in the past,\" the team cautioned. \"Even though glass production began around 5,000 years ago in the Levant it was still an exotic material in Viking Age Scandinavia.\" More significantly, the researchers found no trace of the gold that had been assumed to coat the ring and noted the presence of filing marks. \"Together with the absence of gold on the metal surface ... the file marks clearly show that the previous description of the ring as gilded was mistaken: if the surface had been gilt and the gold layer had worn away, also the file markings would be gone. But the metal surface displays no wear, and as the original file marks are still in place, this ring has never been much used.\" The team, therefore, believes the ring was passed from an Arabic silversmith to the woman, with few or any other owners in between. While imported coins were also found in the grave -- many from Afghanistan -- they were \"usually worn and torn ... from passing many hands along the established trade routes\" researchers said. The owner of the ring was found wearing traditional Scandinavian clothing, but the researchers said it was impossible to determine her ethnicity due to the decomposed state of the bones in the grave. \"It is not impossible that the woman herself, or someone close to her, might have visited -- or even originate from -- the Caliphate (which then stretched from Tunisia to the borders of India) or its surrounding regions,\" they said. While travel between the Islamic caliphate and the Viking world was recorded in ancient texts, tales of such journeys often included references to \"giants and dragons\" making it hard to tell fact from fiction, the researchers said. \"The importance of the studied Birka ring is that it most eloquently corroborates ancient tales about direct contacts between Viking Age Scandinavia and the Islamic world. Such contacts must have facilitated exchange of goods, culture, ideas, and news much more efficiently than indirect trade involving several merchants in-between,\" they concluded. Modern relationship . This new evidence of ancient ties between the Vikings and the caliphate comes at a time when Sweden's relationship with the modern Islamic world seems to be problematic. The country's foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, has recently come under scrutiny after criticizing human rights in Saudi Arabia. In January, she tweeted that the flogging of blogger Raif Badawi was \"a cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression,\" which needed to be stopped. Saudi Arabia blocked Wallstrom from giving a speech to the Arab League in Cairo on March 9, in which she planned to refer to human rights and the rights of women. Sweden subsequently announced that it would not renew its memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia on military cooperation -- and in turn Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates withdrew their ambassadors to Sweden. The United Arab Emirates said it had summoned Sweden's ambassador to protest \"the abusive remarks by the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Margot Wallstrom, against Saudi Arabia.\"","highlights":"Swedish researchers have used scanning to examine a ring found in a Viking grave .\nThe ring carries an Arabic inscription thought to be \"for\/to (the approval of) Allah, they say .\nTheir analysis suggests the ring was little worn, meaning trade ties could have been close .","id":"ea6e69a3041fe2b2b3ae7d9da2eac05b340f024a"} -{"article":"(CNN)The Syrian military claims to have shot down a U.S. drone, state media reported Tuesday. \"Syrian Air Defense systems shot down a U.S. UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) north of Latakia Province,\" the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said. The U.S. military lost contact with a MQ-1 Predator drone over Syria, a U.S. official said Tuesday. Claims that the drone was shot down by Syrian forces are still being investigated, the official said. The drone was believed to be conducting a reconnaissance mission near the Port of Latakia. The United States has used drones for surveillance and targeted killings, allowing missions to be carried out without risking the lives of U.S. military personnel. But it's not alone. More than 70 countries now have some type of drone, according to The New America Foundation. CNN Explains: U.S. drones . CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.","highlights":"An official says the U.S. military lost contact with a drone over Syria .\nSyria's military claims it shot down a U.S. drone north of Latakia Province .","id":"d7bd2ebefbc38c2644fdc8fb51a83d1b81223936"} -{"article":"Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)The U.S. military is in the process of evacuating about 100 Special Operations forces members from the Al Anad airbase in Yemen due to that country's deteriorating security situation, sources in the region familiar with the situation told CNN. Those being evacuated are the last American troops stationed in the Arab nation, which is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group also known as AQAP. The United States closed its embassy in Sanaa last month, after Houthi rebels took over the Yemeni capital. And hundreds of al Qaeda members escaped two Yemeni prisons Thursday and Friday, raising further security questions. For years, the U.S. military has worked closely with Yemen's government to go after AQAP, together carrying out numerous attacks like the 2011 drone strike that killed prominent al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki. And U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed this cooperation as a pillar in his anti-terrorism campaign. \"Yemen has never been a perfect democracy or a island of stability,\" Obama said in January, promoting the policy of \"partnering and intelligence-sharing with that local government\" as the best approach in a bad situation. \"The alternative would be for us to play whack-a-mole every time there is a terrorist actor inside of any given country,\" the President said. But while there have been drone strikes as recently as last month, these cooperative efforts have been hampered by Yemen's growing difficulty in maintaining unity and peace. These include the rise of the Houthis, their battles with forces loyal to ousted President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and the presence of not only al Qaeda fighters but other militants. On Friday, for instance, ISIS purportedly claimed responsibility for bombings at two mosques in Sanaa what, if true, would mark that group's first large-scale attack in Yemen. The claim came in a statement posted on a site that previously carried ISIS proclamations, but couldn't be immediately authenticated by CNN. Those blasts killed at least 137 people and wounded 357 others, according to Yemen's state-run Saba news agency. While ISIS and al Qaeda are both Sunni groups that espouse extreme versions of Islam and violent opposition to the West, that doesn't mean they will be working together anytime soon. In fact, AQAP strongly rebuked ISIS in a video released in November, characterizing its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's declaration of an Islamic caliphate as illegitimate. More than anything, the idea of the group calling itself the Islamic State violently flexing its muscles speaks to the chaotic situation there. With no one really in control, that means numerous groups -- including those with a history of killing civilians and lashing out at the West -- have been more room to operate and a better chance potentially to take over. Meanwhile, the main players for control of Yemen's government -- those siding with Hadi, who still claims to be president after being deposed earlier this year, and the Houthis, a minority group that's strongest in the northern part of the country -- remain very much at odds. Just two days ago, a Yemeni jet commanded by the capital's Houthi conquerors fired missiles at a palace housing Hadi in the port city of Aden. No one was injured, but the direct strike nonetheless marked an escalation in the deadly fighting between the two sides. The airstrikes came on the same day opposing Yemeni military forces -- some under the Houthis, others led by officers loyal to Hadi -- battled in Aden, said Aden Gov. AbdulAziz Hobtour. At least 13 people died and 21 others were injured in those clashes, according to Hobtour. Hadi took to the airwaves of Adan TV, a station he recently started, on Saturday in his first televised speech since escaping house arrest. He called on all political factions to take part in upcoming talks in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, condemning the Aden strike and urging Yemeni troops to refuse orders from Houthi officials. Hadi tied the Houthis to Iran, which he was said supported the \"coup\" that led to his departure from Aden. \"The Iranian agenda of the Houthis will not last,\" he said. Needless to say, the Houthis aren't convinced. Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, a top member of the Houthi Political Council, said Hadi's speech won't help Yemen reach a peaceful resolution and accused him of reneging on a deal last September to transfer power. \"We blame Hadi for not implementing this deal that drew the road map that would have solved Yemen's ongoing crises,\" Al Bukhaiti said. \"Hadi will be held responsible for the country's failures and that chaos that could follow.\" Journalist Hakim Almasmari reported from Sanaa, and CNN's Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta.","highlights":"Yemen's deposed president lashes out at Houthi rebels in a speech .\nSources: U.S. special operations forces are being evacuated from Al Anad airbase .\nThe U.S. military had worked with Yemen's government to go after terrorists there .","id":"a1bc1f5f5c20618577898f7be4d94f2f007bedb5"} -{"article":"(CNN)NATO jets scrambled to intercept Russian military aircraft as they neared Latvian airspace, officials said on Wednesday. Estonian radar detected the aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday night, NATO said. Other than the lead aircraft, NATO said, none of the other Russian military aircraft was on a flight plan. NATO sent jets to identify the planes and later reported that the military aircraft flew on into Russian airspace. NATO didn't say how many Russian aircraft were involved. The flights come as Russia's Northern Fleet has been placed on full combat alert for military exercises involving nearly 40,000 troops and 50 warships. The exercises have rattled nerves in nearby NATO states, including Latvia, where U.S. troops and equipment recently arrived for NATO training, and where fears are growing about Russian President Vladimir Putin's next move. At the same time on Wednesday, Putin joined a celebration in Moscow's Red Square, where Russians celebrated the one-year anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. NATO has condemned the annexation as an illegal territory grab and is boosting its troop presence in the region in what officials say is an effort to discourage Putin from encroaching into other countries. Putin describes the annexation as a \"reunification,\" saying that Crimea's residents overwhelmingly voted to be part of Russia. CNN's Don Melvin and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russian military aircraft are intercepted by NATO jets .\nNATO says the military aircraft weren't on a flight plan .\nRussia is conducting military exercises .","id":"c06b730354484dd559f18f6daad169a3553fcd78"} -{"article":"Kano, Nigeria (CNN)Troops from Niger and Chad discovered a mass grave with more than 90 decomposed bodies near a northern Nigerian town recently retaken from the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, security sources from both countries said Friday. The corpses, some of them beheaded, were found in a shallow mass grave under a bridge just outside the Nigerian town of Damasak, near the border with Niger, the sources said. Troops from Niger and Chad took back the town from Boko Haram last week during a joint operation, the security sources said. Damasak is in Borno, one of several northern states inhabited by the Islamist militant group. Borno is in the northeast corner of Nigeria and borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches, mosques and civilians. It has kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April 2014 and remain missing. The group, its naming meaning \"Western education is forbidden,\" has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria. Journalist Aminu Abubakar reported from Kano, Nigeria. CNN's Melissa Gray wrote and reported from Atlanta.","highlights":"The shallow mass grave is under a bridge near the town of Damasak .\nMore than 90 decomposed bodies .\nTroops retook the town from Boko Haram .","id":"d63c9244ef5dcf94004c20c289a620553b82b717"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd,\" wrote Miguel de Cervantes, the Shakespeare of Spain. And the quest to find his remains has sometimes seemed both, even (dare one say it) quixotic in a time of recession. But forensic scientists have persevered, and appear to have triumphed. Almost 400 years after Cervantes' death, a team led by Francisco Etxeberria announced Tuesday that they were confident they had found Cervantes' coffin in the crypt of the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in the Barrio de Las Letras (Literary Quarter) in Madrid. Historical records indicated Cervantes had been buried there, but the convent had been substantially rebuilt since. (Etxeberria, incidentally, performed the autopsy on former Chilean President Gen. Salvador Allende, confirming he had committed suicide.) At a news conference in Madrid on Tuesday, Etxeberria said that while there was no mathematical proof or DNA test available to completely verify the findings, there were \"many coincidences and no discrepancies\" in the examination of \"Osario 32,\" a common grave in the crypt that contained the remains of 16 people. \"We have Cervantes, represented in some form in this group of bones that are unfortunately very degraded and very fragmented,\" Etxeberria told national television. The search for Cervantes' coffin -- using radar -- began last year, funded by the Madrid City Council. It first mapped more than 30 burial cavities in the walls and nearly 5 meters beneath the floor of the church. Mass spectrometry dated fragments of wood and cloth found in these cavities to the 17th century, an encouraging but far from conclusive development. One crumbling coffin found in January had the initials \"M C\" hammered in nail heads, along with a jumble of skeletal remains. Even then Exteberria urged caution, but further research has narrowed the odds. The forensic team had been hoping that some of those remains would positively identify Cervantes, who suffered gunshot wounds in the chest and left hand at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. But they are not in sufficiently good shape, and some of the remains found may be of Cervantes' wife, Catalina de Salazar. Nor will DNA analysis be much help, for there are no known descendants of Cervantes. Catalina was not Cervantes' first partner. As a teenager he ran away from home with a barmaid, Josefina de Perez, before enlisting with the Spanish Navy. It was only in the 1580s that he started to write, publishing \"La Galatea\" in 1585 and his most famous work, \"Don Quixote,\" in 1605 -- or to give its full title, \"The Adventures of the Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.\" But \"Don Quixote\" would hardly be noticed in Cervantes' lifetime, and he was almost penniless when he died, having joined the Third Order of St. Francis in his declining years. He knew he was dying when he wrote in the prologue of a posthumously published novel, \"Perhaps the time may come when I mend again this broken thread and say what words fail me here and what needed to be said. Farewell, waggish jokes; farewell, wittiness; farewell, merry friends, for I am dying and longing soon to see you, happy in the life to come.\" Cervantes was buried on April 23,1616 -- in the same week William Shakespeare died. There are now plans to reinter Cervantes at the convent and build a new entrance to the crypt in time for the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' death next year. Tyler Fisher, a lecturer in Hispanic studies at Royal Holloway College in London, says that such exhumations \"ignite public attention, inspire re-readings, and invest an all-but-forgotten corner of the city with a renewed, imaginative depth.\" Cervantes might enjoy all the attention. Many literary critics say he was not aware of his own genius. John Ormsby, a scholar and translator of Cervantes' work in the 19th century, wrote of \"Don Quixote,\" \"Never was a great work so neglected by its author.\" CNN's Helena Cavendish de Moura contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientists say they've found the burial place of the influential author .\nMiguel de Cervantes died in 1616 .","id":"5ed9781473b4363c8214d6f46e7a80bf335f2593"} -{"article":"(CNN)Marvin Gaye's children have penned an open letter in the hope of \"set[ting] the record straight on a few misconceptions\" in the media's coverage of their successful lawsuit against the writers of Robin Thicke's 2013 hit \"Blurred Lines.\" Nona Gaye, Frankie Gaye and Marvin Gaye III's joint letter mainly dives into the background and legacy of Marvin Gaye's \"Got to Give It Up,\" the 1977 single the court found to have been copied by Thicke and co-writer Pharrell Williams. Read more: Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly': A track-by-track guide . In the letter, the siblings imagine how their father would have handled the situation. \"If he were alive today, we feel he would embrace the technology available to artists and the diverse music choices and spaces accessible to fans who can stream a song at a moment's notice,\" the siblings wrote. \"But we also know he would be vigilant about safeguarding the artist's rights. He also gave credit where credit is due.\" Read more: Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Fall Out Boy to induct Hall of Famers . Even though the outcome of the lawsuit favored the Gaye family, the children claim that all of this could have been avoided if Thicke and Williams had approached the family before releasing the single, especially since the similarities were deemed to be not coincidental. \"Like most artists, they could have licensed and secured the song for appropriate usage,\" the family stated. \"This did not happen. We would have welcomed a conversation with them before the release of their work. This also did not happen.\" Read more: Kelly Clarkson talks 'Since U Been Gone,' going country and upbeat new LP . Thicke and Pharrell Williams lost the copyright suit on March 10th. Following the court's decision, the lawyer representing Marvin Gaye's family has sought to halt all sales of \"Blurred Lines.\" Since the proceedings, the family had noted some similarities between Gaye's \"Ain't That Peculiar\" and Williams' \"Happy,\" though the family has confirmed in the open letter that they \"have absolutely no claim whatsoever concerning 'Happy.'\" Read the full open letter from Marvin Gaye's children below: . An Open Letter from the Children of Marvin Gaye 3\/18\/15 . We want to extend our deepest appreciation and gratitude for the outpouring of love and support we have received from all of our father's fans and friends, as well as artists and industry folks who contacted us surrounding the recent events concerning his song, \"Got to Give It Up.\" Your kindness and encouragement gave us incredible strength and perseverance. We are so incredibly grateful for your support as well as the hard work and dedication of our amazing legal team and experts. We thank you all. We especially want to thank our mom Jan for her belief in what we were doing all along, and for her never ending support. We will celebrate what would have been our dad's 76th birthday next month, and though we miss him every day -- just like the many thousands of well-wishers who have expressed their heartfelt goodwill - it is through his music that we find our compass and our paths moving forward. We are his children, but we too are his fans and we hold his music dear. It is in that spirit and on behalf of all those who Dad always considered an extended family, his fans, we take this opportunity to set the record straight on a few misconceptions echoing through some news and social media platforms about our intentions, our plans, and the so-called 'larger' ramifications of this case within the music industry. Originally released in 1977, \"Got to Give It Up\" became one of our dad's most cherished hits, still a favorite at backyard barbecues, weddings, parties, on the radio, or on your iPod. As Oprah said, it is one of her \"favorite party songs of all time.\" The comments on social media, emails and calls we received after the verdict affirmed for us that the song continues to touch in even deeper ways, becoming part of the soundtrack to so many lives. \"Got to Give It Up\" is also recognized by Billboard Magazine as the fourth biggest single of the 30 charting hits our dad created during his extraordinary career. It has been nearly 38 years since its initial release: tastes change, trends evolve, but we should all be able to agree that it's a testament to the enduring power of \"Got to Give It Up\" that we have arrived at this juncture with Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams, at all. The fact that they have openly acknowledged their respect and admiration for the song is public knowledge, and further proof of its resonance with an entirely new generation of music fans. However, most songwriting begins with an organic approach; a songwriter brings his or her influences to the table and then works creatively from a blank slate in the crafting of their song to ensure originality and the integrity of their creation. If Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams had tried to create a new song and coincidentally infused \"Got to Give It Up\" into their work, instead of deliberately undertaking to \"write a song with the same groove,\" we would probably be having a different conversation. Like most artists, they could have licensed and secured the song for appropriate usage; a simple procedure usually arranged in advance of the song's release. This did not happen. We would have welcomed a conversation with them before the release of their work. This also did not happen. Instead of licensing our father's song and giving him the appropriate songwriter credit, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams released \"Blurred Lines\" and then filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against us, forcing us into court. They sought to quickly affirm that their song was \"starkly different,\" than \"Got to Give It Up.\" The Judge denied their motion for Summary Judgement, and a jury was charged with determining the \"extrinsic and intrinsic similarities\" of the songs. The jury has spoken. We wanted to also make clear that the jury was not permitted to listen to the actual sound recording of \"Got to Give It Up.\" Our dad's powerful vocal performance of his own song along with unique background sounds were eliminated from the trial, and the copyright infringement was based entirely on the similarity of the basic musical compositions, not on \"style,\" or \"feel,\" or \"era,\" or \"genre.\" His song is so iconic that its basic composition stood strong. We feel this further amplifies the soundness of the verdict. Like all music fans, we have an added appreciation for songs that touch us in mysterious ways. Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams certainly have a right to be inspired by \"Got to Give It Up\" but as the jury ruled, they did not have the right to use it without permission as a blueprint for a track they were constructing. Great artists like our dad intentionally build their music to last, but we as the caretakers of such treasures, have an obligation to be vigilant about preserving the integrity of the music so that future generations understand its origins and feel its effect as the artist intended, and to assure that it retains its value. We feel as many do that, our father, Marvin Gaye, is an artist for the ages. But whether we're talking about a work created 50 years ago or a work created 50 years from now -- protecting the legacy of original artistry is not a personal obligation, but a universal commitment in support of enduring creative achievement, encouraging future artists to also aim for new ground and their own legacies. That is what copyright laws help us do; they give people the incentive to write original songs and then help protect those songs. Our dad spent his life writing music- that is his legacy to us all- he wrote from his heart and was a brilliant songwriter, arranger, producer and one-of-a-kind vocalist. If he were alive today, we feel he would embrace the technology available to artists and the diverse music choices and spaces accessible to fans who can stream a song at a moment's notice. But we also know he would be vigilant about safeguarding the artist's rights; a sacred devotion to not only the artist, but key in encouraging and supporting innovation. He also gave credit where credit is due. Howard King, the attorney for Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams stated after the verdict: \"We owe it to songwriters around the world to make sure this verdict doesn't stand. My clients know they wrote the song 'Blurred Lines' from their heart and souls and no other source.\" We never for a minute suggested that Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams' hearts weren't in it. But a jury of eight men and women have ruled that the source for \"Blurred Lines\" was the song \"Got to Give It Up,\" a song our dad wrote from his heart, and delivered to the world with pure joy. With the digital age upon us, the threat of greater infringement looms for every artist. It is our wish that our dad's legacy, and all great music, past, present, and future, be enjoyed and protected, with the knowledge that adhering to copyright standards assures our musical treasures will always be valued. And finally, we want to put to rest any rumors that we are contemplating claims against Pharrell Williams for his song, \"Happy.\" This is 100% false. We have absolutely no claim whatsoever concerning \"Happy.\" Love and Respect, . Nona, Frankie, and Marvin III . Copyright \u00a9 2015 Rolling Stone.","highlights":"Marvin Gaye's children wrote an open letter about the \"Blurred Lines\" lawsuit .\nThe family recently won its copyright infringement claim against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams .\nNona, Frankie and Marvin III say their father would have embraced new technology but safeguarded his creations .","id":"752763d0b799f8b585da86c90f7bdc1cf179b9ab"} -{"article":"(CNN)On \"Family Matters\" we knew him as Eddie Winslow. This week, as inmate 402282. Actor Darius McCrary was jailed on Wednesday for failure to pay child support. He wasn't behind bars long, McCrary was released before the day was over, according to Carrie Rudzki with the jail in Oakland County, Michigan. McCrary, 38, took to Twitter as news of his arrest spread. \"All I'm trying to do is raise my son,\" he tweeted. \"#BeingDadIsNotAnOption\" But critics were quick to recall when McCrary's Eddie character got into trouble on the show and used it to take a swipe at him. \"Ohhh Eddo...\" tweeted Happy Famiree. \"I guess family doesn't matter.\" But McCrary wasn't having it. \"I've spent all my career in Hollywood and have NEVER been arrested once,\" he said on Twitter. \"I fly in to Oakland County 2 resolve issues and u guys got jokes?\" Apparently stung by the reporting, McCrary released a string of tweets defending himself, including one where he appears to compare himself to a late civil rights leader. \"If they did it to Dr. King... Who am I?\" McCrary said. McCrary has stayed busy since his days on \"Family Matters\" in the 1980s and 1990s, according Internet Movie Database. IMDb lists 51 acting credits, including stints on \"Anger Management\" with Charlie Sheen and a two-year run on \"The Young and the Restless\" as Malcolm Winters. He provided the voice for the Autobot Jazz on \"Transformers.\" CNN's Tina Burnside and Henry Hanks contributed to this report .","highlights":"Darius McCrary played Eddie Winslow on 'Family Matters'\nHe was jailed for failure to pay child support .","id":"b3249f306213aa8e337d3950ab021d01d9a5c491"} -{"article":"(CNN)What happens when John Stamos shows up outside the \"Full House\" home that made him a star? Nothing, apparently. For reasons unknown to us, Stamos was recently lurking outside the popular San Francisco attraction when a group of tourists showed up. It appears they were too busy gawking at the house to realize \"Uncle Jesse\" was standing next to them. It appears that Stamos was amused and posted an Instagram of him standing next to them. The caption? \"Boy, these youngsters have 0.0 idea what they're missing. #Fullhousehouse. #TURNAROUND.\" Hopefully, he found some consolation in the 46,000 likes and thousands of comments from swooning fans. Otherwise, Stamos is keeping busy with guest roles on \"Two and a Half Men\" and \"Galavant\" amid rumors of a possible \"Full House\" reunion.","highlights":"John Stamos took a photo next to tourists looking at the \"Full House\" home .\nThe San Francisco house is a popular tourist attraction .","id":"d386f20e1dfe79cdfe9645bccebdce19c32e5e54"} -{"article":"(CNN)A severe solar storm created a stunning display of light in the night sky over parts of the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand early Wednesday morning, spotted by those lucky enough to be awake in the wee hours. Called aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, the lights were the product of large geomagnetic blasts from the sun that arrived Tuesday about 10 a.m. ET (1 a.m. Wednesday in Sydney). Both the aurora borealis and the aurora australis were sparked by a particularly strong solar storm that sent charged particles toward the Earth, said CNN meteorologist Todd Borek. \"When these particles bombard the Earth's magnetic field in the upper atmosphere, the collision often creates brilliant colors,\" Borek said. \"Most of the time, auroras appear green -- when these particles collide with oxygen in the atmosphere -- but there were reports this past aurora australis also appeared to have a reddish tint, which suggested the collision with high-altitude oxygen was also seen on Earth.\" Share your photos of the aurora with iReport . The stronger the storm, the farther south it can be seen, said Borek. And this geomagnetic storm was rather powerful, reaching as a high as a G4 on a scale from 1 to 5 Tuesday night, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. The storm was expected to last 24 to 36 hours, and NOAA's latest reports say it's down to a G1. Though the storm could affect GPS technology and power grids, NOAA said Tuesday that it had no reports of disruptions. The most visible impact as been this stunning light display. If the auroras are seen again tonight, Borek said, they won't be as pronounced and most likely won't reach as far south as Tuesday night. People in northern Michigan, northern Minnesota and Maine may be able to spot them, although he warned that clouds from Minnesota to Montana may impede visibility Wednesday night.","highlights":"A particularly strong solar storm created a stunning light display .\nStronger storms can be seen farther south, CNN meteorologist says .\nSome in northern U.S. may see lights again tonight .","id":"a6180037ffd16363a18b64ff528ab9ab29d162b4"} -{"article":"Aberdeenshire, Scotland (CNN)In an exclusive interview ahead of his U.S. tour -- and ahead of his 10-year wedding anniversary -- Prince Charles paid tribute to the \"brilliant\" way his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has taken on the \"real, real challenge\" of defining her public role. \"It's always marvelous to have somebody who, you know, you feel understands and wants to encourage. Although she certainly pokes fun if I get too serious about things. And all that helps,\" Prince Charles told CNN. The couple first visited the U.S. together as newlyweds in 2005, and Camilla was confronted by hardcore Princess Diana fans with abusive placards. Polls at the time found that between 57% and 73% of Brits opposed Charles' new wife being known as queen. If you go back even further, to 1997, the year Diana died, an Ipsos MORI poll put it at 86%. Reporter's notebook: Interviewing the royal couple . But there's been a change in sentiment since they married. A new poll conducted by Comres for CNN found that only 35% now oppose Camilla being known as queen. Nearly one in four said they liked her more now than they did 10 years ago. This coincides with a change in palace strategy -- away from the aggressive spin machine of the 1990s to simply allowing Camilla to be herself. When she appears in public, she's either seen supporting her husband or promoting a set of causes she has a genuine connection with. Prince Charles praised how his wife has handled herself. \"She's done an enormous amount for the whole issue around osteoporosis, which of course runs in her family,\" he said, noting that Camilla's mother and grandmother both suffered from the bone disease. He also points to other issues Camilla is associated with, including literacy and preventing sexual violence. The Duchess of Cornwall, by sticking to what she knows and cares about, is able to connect with the people she meets, which doesn't always come across on camera. When Charles and Camilla married in 2005, there was huge sensitivity around the legacy of Diana, who was expected to be queen herself. With this in mind, royal aides announced that Camilla would not use the title of Queen when Charles becomes King. Instead she would be known as Princess Consort. That still stands, although the public of today looks less likely to oppose the title of Queen.","highlights":"Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, preparing for U.S. trip .\nCharles praises Camilla for how she has defined her public role .\nThe two are coming up on their 10-year wedding anniversary .","id":"14efad7a0b97edbb91956ebe3fbd23cc4e880c48"} -{"article":"(CNN)Windell D. Middlebrooks, the actor best known as the straight-talking Miller High Life delivery man, died Monday morning, his agent told CNN. Middlebrooks' family also posted a statement on his Facebook page Tuesday confirming the 36-year-old's death. No cause of death was provided. \"The Middlebrooks, with sorrowed hearts, announce the passing of a young, black star. Windell took his final bow and with great joy exited stage left in the early morning of March 9th, 2015,\" the statement read. \"It was Windell's biggest wish that his final scene not be lived on social media. Further details will be forthcoming once the family members plans have been finalized. At this time we have no further information for the press and ask that space is given to his family and friends in their time of mourning.\" Middlebrooks also had recurring roles on \"Body of Proof,\" \"Scrubs\" and \"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.\" Fans shared condolences on social media. Miller High Life also honored his memory with a message on Twitter. People we've lost in 2015 .","highlights":"Windell D. Middlebrooks was best known for playing the Miller High Life delivery man .\nHe also had recurring roles on \"Body of Proof,\" \"Scrubs,\" \"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia\"","id":"2052f6e46e141cb483eda21c0cb7a97879ad80ae"} -{"article":"(CNN)U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg is recovering from a gunshot wound after an apparent robbery attempt in Detroit. The FBI confirms he was shot Thursday night. CNN affiliate WDIV is reporting that the judge was shot in front of his home and that Detroit police say they think it \"happened during a robbery attempt, which likely had nothing to do with his profession.\" Berg was nominated by President Obama to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in April 2012. Berg also was an assistant U.S. attorney for over 20 years, specializing in fraud and technology crimes, according to his District Court biography. \"Detroit police said two men approached Berg, a struggle ensued and a shot was fired, striking him in the leg. The two men, likely in their teens to early 20s, escaped the scene in a dark-colored Dodge Charger,\" according to WDIV reports. The affiliate says Berg was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Berg was born in Detroit in 1959. He is married and has three children. CNN's Tina Burnside and Jennifer Moore contributed to this report.","highlights":"U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg was shot in front of his home, CNN affiliate reports .\nDetroit police say there was a struggle after two men approached him, report says .\nAffiliate says he has non-life-threatening injuries after a shot struck him in the leg .","id":"221a7362a67a5a9523137a67951c3120f077248f"} -{"article":"(CNN)Arsenal crashed out of the Champions League at the last 16 stage for the fifth time in succession after falling agonizingly short in Monaco. The Premier League side recorded a 2-0 victory on the night but went out on away goals after the tie finished level at 3-3 on aggregate. Monaco, which won 3-1 in the first leg, was overwhelmed for much of the contest and was fortunate to escape without being dumped out of the competition. Olivier Giroud's first half strike and Aaron Ramsey's 79th minute effort ensured a tense finale but the visiting side was unable to find a winner. No team had ever overcome a two-goal first leg deficit away from home in the Champions League and progressed -- but Arsenal's first half display gave it hope. Giroud, who has often been criticized this season for failing to take his chances, lashed in from close range with nine minutes of the first half remaining. Ramsey, a substitute, drove the ball into the net after Theo Walcott's effort had struck the post and Monaco's defenders hesitated. Giroud had a chance late on to cap a dramatic fightback but his effort was saved on the line. \"The best team went through,\" Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker told ITV. \"Monaco deserved it because they played much better in the first leg. We played well today but it was a massive deficit, and it wasn't enough tonight. \"We came here and tried absolutely everything, and when you look at the game we could have scored more than two. \"Monaco deserve it and that's absolutely fine. They caused a lot of problems away from home. We have to admit that we regret the first game. \"But if we continue to play like that we'll do well in the FA Cup and the league. But play as badly as we did in the first game and you're out of the Champions League. Monaco deserved it.\" Arsenal's exit means Manchester City is England's sole representative remaining in the competition. It faces Barcelona on Wednesday needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit. Monaco, which which the final in 2004, joins Paris Saint-Germain in the quarterfinals.","highlights":"Arsenal out of the Champions League despite 2-0 win at Monaco .\nPremier League club exits on away goals .\nOlivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey on target for visiting team .\nMonaco won first leg 3-1 in London .","id":"f7f13918c41ed3c6dbe208b9a71df995c2009ff4"} -{"article":"(CNN)The aircraft carrier USS Ranger, which saw action in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm and had appearances in the movies \"Top Gun\" and \"Star Trek IV,\" is on its final journey, a five-month cruise at the end of a tow cable from Bremerton, Washington, to a scrapyard in Texas. The 56,300-ton warship, which was launched in 1956, was decommissioned in 1993 but kept in storage for possible reactivation until March 2004 when it was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and made available for donation to a group that could preserve it and turn it into a museum. But attempts by groups in Long Beach, California, and Fairview, Oregon, to do so came up short of meeting U.S. government requirements for donation. The Long Beach group called itself Top Gun Super Carrier in reference to the Ranger's role in the 1986 Tom Cruise movie. The carrier was used for interior shots in the film, which also featured appearances by the carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Enterprise, according to Internet Movie Database. In December, the Navy paid International Shipbreaking of Brownsville, Texas, a penny to take the carrier off its hands. The shipbreaker makes its profit by selling the parts of the ship for scrap. The Ranger, which left Bremerton on Thursday, follows two of its predecessors in the Forrestal class of carriers -- the Forrestal and the Saratoga -- to scrapyards in Brownsville. Another carrier, the USS Constellation, part of the Kitty Hawk class, was towed to Brownsville last year. Like the Ranger, the Constellation was stored in Washington and because of its size had to be towed all the way around the southern tip of South America, as it would not fit through the Panama Canal. The Ranger's final journey is expected to take four to five months, the Navy said.","highlights":"Aircraft carrier USS Ranger's final journey likely will take four to five months, Navy says .\nRanger, which was launched in 1956, appeared in movies such as \"Top Gun\" and \"Star Trek IV\"","id":"120d47f1261c7bdd8460d2af9e5ae63de3daef3b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Could a simple blood test someday tell if you're genetically predisposed to post-traumatic stress disorder? That's what a team of international researchers is hoping after finding a genetic marker linked to PTSD in the blood samples of Marines stationed in conflict zones. \"We'll draw the blood and have a way to do this very rapidly and start to tease apart who is a little more at risk and who is a little more resilient for PTSD,\" says principal investigator Dr. Dewleen Baker of the University of California-San Diego. \"It's exciting.\" PTSD can occur after many types of trauma: rape, torture, child abuse, natural disasters and car, plane, and train wrecks, to name a few. According to the PTSD Alliance, more than 13 million Americans have PTSD and the societal cost is in the billions. Women are about twice as likely as men to develop the disorder. Symptoms tend to cluster into three areas: . \u2022Reliving the event via nightmares or vivid images, along with an extreme reaction such as uncontrollable shaking, chills or heart palpitations. \u2022Avoiding reminders of the event, including becoming emotionally withdrawn and detached from friends, family and everyday activities. \u2022Being hyperaroused, easily startled, irritable, angry, or having difficulty sleeping or concentrating. As one might expect, service members are hardest hit. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 30% of all Vietnam vets have experienced PTSD. Among troops recently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, PTSD can run as high as 20% in any given year. But why does severe emotional trauma trigger PTSD in some people and not others? The idea that your genes play a role in whether you develop PTSD is a popular focus of recent research. Scientists have discovered genes that help regulate fear reactions in mice. The lack of a fear-regulating brain chemical called gastrin-releasing peptide led to greater fear response among the rodents. In another study, mice without a protein necessary to form \"fear memories\" were less likely to freeze up and more willing to explore unknown spaces. Studies of twins show heredity accounts for about 30% of the differences in response to trauma, with identical twins much more likely to both develop PTSD than fraternal twins. Other research has looked into the role of inherited brain differences, mental disorders, or addictive tendencies. An unusual avenue of research is how our immune systems may contribute to the development of PTSD symptoms. Prior studies of people diagnosed with PTSD compared to control groups without the disorder suggest differences in genes related to inflammation may play a role. \"The body is built to keep us alive and it functions as one big system,\" says Baker, discussing the interface between stress and immune chemicals. \"The systems all talk to each other.\" The recent study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, is unique because it compares blood samples from 188 Marines taken before and after they were deployed to combat zones. Another group of 96 Marines was also studied to verify the results. \"Under this experimental design, not only can we identify differences between U.S. Marines with PTSD and without, but we can go back in time, so to speak, to see if any of the Marines who eventually developed PTSD\" showed evidence that it would emerge, says the study's co-senior author, Christopher Woelk. \"In this vein, we are able to start labeling findings as being putatively 'causal' in nature.\" In the blood of Marines ultimately diagnosed with PTSD, the study found biomarkers associated with gene networks that regulate innate immune function -- the body's first line of defense -- and interferon, a protein responsible for kicking the immune system into action. In addition, this hypervigilant immune response occurred before and after exposure to trauma. \"Why do certain people start out with slightly higher immune response and others have less? Is it somehow just built in or have they been exposed to some kind of pathogen?\" asks Baker. Instead of pathogens, another possible explanation is that the inflammatory response is activated by the stress of going off to war. \"You could try to dampen down the activation and see if that improves symptoms or prevents development of PTSD,\" says Baker. Baker stresses these questions are purely hypothetical at this time and that the study needs to be replicated and expanded. \"We're early in the process of having some clues as to what might predict risk and resilience, and with more research we'll begin to have effective preventions and treatments,\" says Baker.","highlights":"More than 13 million Americans have PTSD .\nGenes account for about 30% of risk .\nImmune system plays a role in risk and resilience .","id":"a41bb9bdb819874af0c530d29b257adaac80771c"} -{"article":"(CNN)Smoking Man, time to light another cigarette. Fox announced Tuesday that \"The X-Files,\" the series about the paranormal that ran for nine seasons in the '90s and early '00s, is returning for a special six-episode \"event.\" Stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are both back to play Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, those FBI agents who always got a little too close to the truth. \" 'The X-Files' was not only a seminal show for both the studio and the network, it was a worldwide phenomenon that shaped pop culture -- yet remained a true gem for the legions of fans who embraced it from the beginning. We're ecstatic to give them the next thrilling chapter of Mulder and Scully they've been waiting for,\" Fox executives Dana Walden and Gary Newman said in a statement. Anderson wasted no time in tweeting the news. \"The X-Files\" concerned Mulder, an FBI agent who believes in paranormal phenomena, and Scully, who served as a check on his impulses. The series produced some memorable characters -- particularly the Smoking Man, a key focal point of the series' various conspiracy theories -- and resulted in two movies. Vince Gilligan, who later created \"Breaking Bad,\" got his start on \"The X-Files\" and occasionally paid tribute to the show on his later series. Show creator Chris Carter, who will also oversee the new series, said he thought of the hiatus between 2002, when the \"X-Files\" went off the air, and this year as \"a 13-year commercial break.\" But the timing is perfect, he added in a statement. \"The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories,\" he said. No premiere date was announced.","highlights":"The rumors are true: \"X-Files\" is returning .\nDavid Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and producer Chris Carter are all back .\nCarter: \"The world has only gotten that much stranger\" since the show went off the air in 2002 .","id":"fa5c2fef15dfe4cfe795e0cf8e18ec8d2aa8ba8b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Kids, being kids, like to climb on things. More often than not, that's OK. But when the thing in question is a war memorial? That's the question burning up online parenting groups and in family rooms after an amateur photographer snapped a picture of two children scampering on top of the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington. The photographer, Matt Munson, described the shot on Facebook as \"two little brats climbing over war memorial right in front of a veteran.\" The parents, he said, were laughing. \"It actually drew a crowd of spectators and the parents realized how evil they were being and quickly took off before I could take a picture of them all,\" Munson wrote. \"The more I look at this photo the angrier I get.\" He has plenty of company there. As the photo went viral, comment after comment poured in on Facebook and Twitter, chastising the parents for allowing the kids to play on the statue, part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that depicts three women tending to a wounded soldier. One nurse cradles the wounded fighter while another looks despairingly into an empty helmet. The third looks skyward, to a rescue helicopter or perhaps God, according to the memorial foundation's website. In Munson's photo, a visitor to the memorial seems to grimace at the sight as he pushes an older man in a wheelchair. The older man, wearing a Navy ballcap, and a woman also look on. The children's parents aren't shown. Disgusting. \"Disgusting,\" Facebook user Trisha Davidson wrote of the children's actions. \"So wrong,\" Twitter user karsonwithak chimed in. But not everyone was upset. \"I fully take why people can get annoyed and respect that,\" Reddit user z3k3 wrote. But the writer said a grandfather who was a veteran of World War II \"loved watching the kids play on the local memorial.\" \"He saw it as a way for the next generation to take some joy out of something so terrible and at the same time gave them a link to the past as many would stop to read the names or even get interested enough to read up on the subject a little,\" z3k3 wrote. Fair enough, some said. But some memorials are meant to be interactive. Others aren't. And a statue depicting a nurse caring for a gravely wounded man just doesn't seem to be the place for play, a Reddit user with the screen name nickfree wrote. \"Unless the memorial is designed to be climbed on -- unless the message of the memorial is clearly 'use me, interact with me, to help carry my message' (e.g. memorial benches), the default is leave it respectfully alone,\" nickfree wrote. On the Mommyish parenting blog, associate editor Maria Guido wrote that \"there's nothing wrong with children who may not understand how gleefully playing all over a memorial may seem inappropriate to some.\" \"If these kids were just doing that -- gleefully playing all over a memorial -- I wouldn't find anything wrong with the image, actually. But they're not,\" she wrote. \"These parents were disrespectful,\" she wrote. \"The kids were being kids and following their directives.\" Though the National Parks Service, which operates the memorial, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund urged visitors to treat veterans memorials -- sites of powerful and often emotional pilgrimages for many who served -- with respect. \"Please remember to be respectful to memorials honoring and remembering our nation's veterans,\" the group wrote on Facebook. \"We hope our visitors understand this moving forward.\"","highlights":"A photo of children playing on Vietnam Women's Memorial draws anger .\nMany say the kids and their parents were showing disrespect to veterans .","id":"ece92ffd3a149ecbf4b9702527b36a22d96e497a"} -{"article":"Los Angeles (CNN)Even as major airports across the country clamp down on employee screening, a lone wolf could still potentially slip through security, a top airport official said. Email your story ideas and tips to CNNtips@cnn.com. Patrick Gannon, police chief of Los Angeles International Airport, said the 54,000 employees with security badges undergo recurring criminal background checks and random screening. But even that may not be enough. \"I agree that in any airport throughout the United States and here also, there is never a 100% guarantee that somebody who wanted to do something illegal or wrong couldn't make that happen,\" Gannon said. Only two major airports in the United States -- Miami and Orlando -- conduct full employee screening by requiring all employees with access to secure areas to pass through a metal detector, a CNN investigation found. Other airports like Los Angeles conduct random screenings. Many airports don't do any screenings at all other than a criminal background check before employees are hired. The crackdown on employee screening comes after the arrest of a Delta baggage handler and passenger accused of gun smuggling at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in December. Both Atlanta and Los Angeles have since begun restricting access by closing access doors that lead to the airfield. Nevertheless, Gannon acknowledged that the potential of a lone wolf committing a crime at the airport worries him. \"It concerns me all the time,\" he said. With so many employees, \"[T]here is no way that you are going to have the ability to screen every single person that comes to work in the airport.\" At LAX, employees punch in a code and swipe their badge to access the airfield. Gannon said about 18 out of approximately 300 access doors have been closed as the airport evaluates employee screening procedures. He said, \"the more you limit the access doors, the more you can focus things like spot checks and screenings and cameras.\" Even at Miami International Airport, Gannon said, \"they still can't 100% say that they can keep contraband or any type of item out of their restricted area.\" Lauren Stover, Miami airport security director, agreed that ID badges alone \"are not enough [to] stop malicious intent.\" \"You can vet employees for basic information on their backgrounds, but it's not going to prevent them from carrying out some kind of malicious activity against an airport. And airports need to know their threats. For us, we have threats from criminal activity to being targets of a terrorism attack,\" Stover said. In the wake of congressional scrutiny of airport employee screening procedures, private security guards at Atlanta's airport last month began checking employee bags as the first step toward moving toward full employee screening. The airport also plans to reduce the number of secure access doors from 70 to 10. \"In the last six months ... people are being recruited to engage in terrorist acts,\" said Miguel Southwell, the airport's general manager. \"People are being recruited from the United States. So now we have a greater insider threat.\" The TSA is conducting a review of the feasibility of full employee screening, although previous government studies have concluded that would be too expensive and inefficient. Watch Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0 weeknights 8pm ET. For the latest from AC360\u00b0 click here.","highlights":"Airports are stepping up employee screening .\nStill, there's never a 100% guarantee of safety, airport official says .\nCNN investigation found only two major U.S. airports conduct full employee screenings .","id":"e1a21f7a78ec391be45076d31018d912b950a275"} -{"article":"(HLN)Nick Gordon, romantic partner of Bobbi Kristina Brown, sat down recently with Dr. Phil McGraw for his first on-camera interview since Whitney Houston's daughter was rushed to the hospital in January after being found face down in her bathtub. The interview aired Wednesday on NBC. When his team traveled to Atlanta and initially approached Gordon about the interview, Dr. Phil says they found him in a hysterical state. Video showed an intoxicated Gordon crying and mumbling about missing Krissy, as Brown's family calls her. Brown was found unresponsive in her Roswell, Georgia, home on January 31 and remains hospitalized. Authorities say they're approaching her case as a criminal investigation. See more: Who's who: Bobbi Kristina's small family circle . Dr. Phil first spoke with Nick Gordon's mother, Michelle Gordon, who said her son had admitted to her his desire to take his own life. Even though she's never known him to abuse drugs or alcohol in the past, she said she has recently spoken to her son on the phone when he appeared to be drunk or high. \"He has blamed himself for [Krissy] being in the condition that she's in, he's torn up by that,\" Michelle Gordon told Dr. Phil. \"He's dealing with it by drinking. I've begged him to stop.\" She said repeatedly that Nick Gordon is at a breaking point and that he's even attempted to kill himself by taking Xanax and Unisom. \"Left to his own devices, he'll be dead inside a week,\" Dr. Phil told her. That's when Dr. Phil went up to Nick Gordon's hotel room to persuade him that he needs an intervention. On the way back to the interview room, Gordon admitted that he'd had two shots of alcohol earlier that morning and later started crying in the elevator while showing Dr. Phil his new tattoo: Bobbi Kristina's name on his forearm. Read more: Bobbi Kristina Brown's life in the public eye . Throughout the interview, Gordon appeared distracted and distraught. He stood up and walked out of the room multiple times, only to come back to continue the interview. He constantly interrupted both Dr. Phil and his own mother with random interjections about Krissy's engagement ring or how much he hates Bobby Brown. \"I miss Krissy and Whitney so much!\" Gordon repeated several times, adding that he's lost \"the most legendary singer ever\" and that he cannot lose Krissy, too. Gordon kept switching from crying in his mother's arms, to laughing at Dr. Phil's multiple requests to go to rehab, to agreeing that he needs to get sober in order to help Krissy. He admitted to drinking too much and taking too many pills, only to say he's fine and doesn't care about rehab later in the interview. He told Dr. Phil he hasn't been sleeping and has been waking up in the middle of the night, praying for Krissy. He also explained to the host how much emotional pain he's in, saying, \"My heart hurts. I have panic attacks.\" At one point, Gordon broke down crying, uttering, \"I'm going to seem so weak in front of the world.\" Read more: What's the truth about Bobbi Kristina's marriage? \"Doc, please help me see Krissy,\" Gordon pleaded with Dr. Phil, to which the doctor responded, \"We've got to get you cleaned up first.\" Eventually, he shook Dr. Phil's hand, promising, \"as a man,\" to go directly to rehab after this taping. The audience didn't see him leave with the representatives from Willingway, an addiction treatment center in Georgia, but Dr. Phil later told the media Gordon did check into the facility after the interview, according to Fox News.","highlights":"Originally set up as an interview to tell the world his side of the story, Nick Gordon's time with Dr. Phil turned into an intervention .\nAn unfocused Gordon pleaded to see Bobbi Kristina Brown before finally agreeing to attend rehab .","id":"9ab1211b2ddafbae66896af67fffb14f3fdc9c67"} -{"article":"(CNN)Creflo Dollar's new scheme to raise $60 million to purchase a luxury Gulfstream G650 airplane is the latest chapter in a long and sordid history of televangelists exploiting their churches' tax-exempt status -- and their congregants -- to line their own pockets. Preaching the word of faith, or \"prosperity gospel,\" and capitalizing on lax government oversight of his church's finances has enriched Dollar and his family to the detriment of his followers and the American taxpayer. World Changers Church International, Dollar's 30,000-member church, is a tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code. That means the church's donors receive a tax exemption for their donations (including for Dollar's new jet ambitions), and the church pays no tax on the revenue. What's more, because it is organized as a church, the federal government does not require World Changers to file a publicly available tax return, as other nonprofit organizations are required to do. Those tax returns provide at least some financial information to donors and the public about the organization, including its revenues, assets, expenditures and executive compensation. Dollar is known for his custom suits, luxury homes and private jets that ferry him, among other places, from his home base in College Park, Georgia, to his satellite church in Manhattan, where he and his wife reportedly have a $2.5 million apartment. For Dollar, though, these excesses aren't embarrassments. Instead, they are proof that his theology works, that God blesses the faithful with abundant riches. Dollar tells his congregants to \"sow a seed\" with him, promising that a plentiful harvest will be their own blessing and, essentially, a return on their investment. To promoters of the word of faith, or prosperity gospel, \"sowing a seed\" with your pastor is required for God's blessing, even if you're taking it out of your rent money or the last remaining cash in your wallet. Many Christians find word of faith a heretical theology, an embarrassing distortion of Jesus' teachings, not to mention a fraud on congregants. While the government cannot constitutionally mediate theological disputes or otherwise interfere in a church's internal affairs, it can use its oversight powers to ensure that preachers who use their pulpits for profit don't exploit the tax advantages afforded to ordinary houses of worship to pursue their legitimate charitable purposes. In 2007, the Senate Finance Committee, under the chairmanship of Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, launched an investigation into the financial practices of six televangelists, including Dollar. The committee requested documents from Dollar and his wife, Taffi, explaining that taxpayers \"should be assured that their donations are being used for the tax exempt purposes of the organizations.\" The documents sought by the committee included audited financial statements for World Changers, information about related for-profit and nonprofit entities, and data on executive compensation and the church's real and personal assets. More than three years later, after an outcry from the televangelists, most visibly Dollar's mentor Kenneth Copeland, the committee opted to abandon its efforts to instigate any sort of regulatory changes. Instead, the committee called on the ministries to engage in \"self-reform,\" even though the committee staff's findings plainly demonstrated that four of the ministries, including Dollar's, were unwilling to engage in any sort of meaningful transparency or accountability. Of the six televangelists from whom the committee sought financial data, Dollar was deemed the \"least cooperative.\" Without Dollar's cooperation, the committee was left to piece together a puzzle about his finances through public documents, third parties and news reports. It concluded that in 2006, World Changers had received $69 million in contributions at its Atlanta church alone, that the Dollars owned two multimillion-dollar homes in Georgia, and that the church and related business entities had at various points owned four aircraft flown for personal use -- although none was nearly as pricey as the luxury Gulfstream Dollar now seeks to acquire. The committee staff was clearly troubled by the array of business entities, \"including private airports and aircraft leasing companies,\" that raised red flags \"about the use of the church's tax-exempt status to avoid taxation.\" Precisely because of Dollar's lack of cooperation, the staff concluded, \"we are unable to determine whether and the extent to which they are reporting and paying taxes on income earned in those entities.\" Dollar is now looking to raise $60 million for this new aircraft, purportedly \"to continue reaching a lost and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ.\" Four years after the abandonment of the Senate Finance Committee's televangelist investigation, it looks like the absence of government oversight has only emboldened Creflo Dollar.","highlights":"Sarah Posner: Televangelist Creflo Dollar asking congregants to help finance a $65 million Gulfstream G650 .\nShe says government should oversee tax-exempt churches that essentially operate as for-profit enterprises .\nPosner: Senate committee took up this issue but dropped it; this seems to have emboldened Dollar .","id":"947c29b12e21ae62574de2b85cd36aa1f26f2ee7"} -{"article":"(CNN)British actress Emma Watson made an impassioned plea to women around the world: \"Don't let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do, or cannot achieve. \"Just don't allow it. It's wrong. It's so wrong. Be what you want to be -- and prove them wrong.\" The emotional Harry Potter star took to the stage at Facebook's headquarters in London on Sunday, March 8, to talk about gender equality as part of International Women's Day celebrations. CNN was among the live audience of around 150 people -- with millions more watching the live stream across the world --as the 24-year-old UN Goodwill Ambassador spoke about her own feminist journey. Emma's Facebook moment . Of the dozens gathered at the event, the majority were bespectacled young men -- not so unlike Harry Potter himself. Describing the \"surreal\" moment she gave a speech at U.N. headquarters, later watched by 17 million, Watson said: \"Gender equality historically has been a woman's movement. \"And how it's affecting men hasn't been addressed,\" she told moderator Greg James. During the hour-long conversation, Watson gave the audience a rare glimpse into her private life -- and the difference between chivalry and sexism. \"I love having the door opened for me, isn't that just polite?\" she said. \"But I think the key is, would you then mind me opening the door for you?\" \"Chivalry should be consensual.\" And it's not just women affected by gender inequality -- men suffer too, she added. \"I get disturbed by this idea that men can't cry,\" she continued. \"They can't express themselves and I think that's the saddest thing in the world. Being able to express yourself is what makes you human -- it's not what makes you a girl.\" When internet trolls threatened to release naked photos of the actress, following her UN speech, she said it only made her more determined in her campaign. \"If they were trying to put me off -- they did the opposite,\" she added. Almost 230,000 men and boys across the world have since joined the HeForShe campaign, including U.S. President Barack Obama, and actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matt Damon. \"I read a letter of support from a 13-year-old boy that was equally as passionate as a CEO,\" said Watson, adding that she often read their stories before going to bed at night. \"I asked my younger sister: 'What would be the one thing you'd want from boys in your life?' She said: 'I just want them to play with us.' And I think that really translates at every level. We just want to be included.\" Watson also talked about the inspiring influence of her mother, Jacqueline, who was a \"single working mother and type one diabetic.\" \"She wanted me to be my own person and said a bit of rebellion was good,\" said Watson, adding: \"She was actually thrilled when I got my first detention... I think I failed a Latin exam.\" Answering questions submitted via Facebook, Watson said the recent lack of female representation at the Academy Awards showed that the fight for gender equality was far from over. \"Why are women not directing their own stories?\" she said. \"The human race is a bird -- and it needs both its wings to fly. And at the moment one of its wings is clipped,\" said Watson, paraphrasing famous American feminist, Gloria Steinem. When asked what things we can all do to affect change, the actress said it wasn't necessarily about grand actions -- but small ones. \"It's everyday, it's individual, it's on a case by case basis,\" she said. \"Whether it's speaking up or trying to change the way someone else thinks about an issue.\" In the audience, a man wearing a Hogwarts jumper asked Watson whether women should be paid the same as men, when they are more likely to take maternity leave. She answered: \"I don't think in the grand scheme of things [maternity leave] is going to hinder a woman being incredibly effective in her field. \"I think men should be equal partners in raising children.\" Those missing out on a place still got watch it live on Watson's Facebook page. See the whole conversation in the videos below. Part 1: . Part 2: . Part 3: . Part 4: . To see Watson's best moments as they happened see our live twitter feed @CNNIwomen and join the conversation.","highlights":"British actress Emma Watson held a Facebook chat to mark International Women's Day .\nThe HeforShe campaigner calls for men to support women in their bid for equality .","id":"742163e2d890b106ef93dcee1354deea845db7f4"} -{"article":"(CNN)Starbucks charges more than $5 for a large (\"venti\" in Starbucks speak) Caramel Frappuccino, yet no one bats an eye. But when the CEO of Starbucks announced a plan he hoped would ease racial tensions, the response was immediate outrage! This latest controversy started Monday when Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz unveiled a new initiative in which Starbucks baristas would write the words \"Race Together\" on coffee cups to help spark a dialogue on race. Schultz even took out full-page ads in The New York Times and USA Today touting this effort. Twitter immediately lit up with a flurry of angry tweets -- apparently from people who have consumed far too much caffeine. Surprisingly, though, the backlash came from all sides. One self-described conservative tweeted this: . A person who noted her support of progressive causes in her Twitter profile tweeted: . Even people in the middle expressed scorn with tweets such as: . I, on the other hand, applaud Schultz's efforts, at least in theory. As Schultz correctly stated when discussing the genesis for \"Race Together,\" \"If we just keep going about our business ... and ignoring this (racial issue), then I think we are, in a sense, part of the problem.\" Sure, I also see some logistical problems with the \"get your iced Mocha Frappuccino with a shot of racial tolerance\" approach. First, I live in New York City, where New Yorkers barely have the patience to wait for a cup of plain old coffee to be poured let alone stand in line longer while people engage in a nuanced discourse on race. I can envision awkward situations where the baristas ask a customer, \"So how do you want your coffee?\" to which the customer responds, \"Black.\" For some reason saying \"black\" in the context of this program could feel uncomfortable. Next thing you know, Starbucks will have to coin politically correct terms for \"black\" coffee. And as a practical matter, only 40% of Starbucks employees are minorities. Consequently, in most Starbucks, the conversation about racial tolerance will between be between two white people. But let's put those issues aside. The swift and angry backlash against Schultz's idea proves once again that not only don't we live in a post-racial America, we live in a hyper-racial one. In fact, a recent CNN\/ORC poll found 40% of Americans believe racial relations have become worse during the six years Barack Obama has been in the White House. It's strikingly obvious that if we are going to improve this situation, we need to have a candid and brutally honest discussion about the underlying factors contributing to racism, the lack of empathy for people of other races, etc. And that's simply what Starbucks' \"Race Together\" stated goal is: \"to stimulate conversation, compassion and positive action regarding race in America.\" Starbucks' senior vice president of communications, Corey duBrowa, deleted his Twitter account Monday after \"feeling personally attacked in a cascade of negativity\" and being \"overwhelmed by the volume and tenor of the discussion\" in response to \"Race Together.\" But duBrowa was back on Twitter on Tuesday night. Why? Because he truly believed in \"the power of meaningful, civil, thoughtful, respectful open conversation.\" DuBrowa's reaction may just be a teachable moment on discussing race. It's truly not an easy topic to broach. The initial response by some, like duBrowa, may be to shut down when racial discussions become uncomfortable. But then, hopefully like duBrowa did later, the conversation can be rejoined within a framework that's respectful to all involved. But to be blunt, one of the biggest obstacles in even starting this conversation is that most white Americans don't want to discuss race, as polls have confirmed. For example, after the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, didn't indict police Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of teenager Michael Brown, a poll found that 80% of blacks felt that the shooting raised important issues about race that needed to be discussed. How many white people agreed? Only 37%. And personally I have seen some white friends become defensive when race issues are raised. Why? Because many view it as an accusation that they are somehow racist (or at least complicit in racism) as opposed to a starting point for a productive conversation. The question is how can we begin that talk about race that our nation desperately needs to have? True, the line at Starbucks might not be the best place. But it has to start somewhere if we are going to close the racial gap that many, including myself, feel is growing.","highlights":"Response mostly negative after Starbucks launches initiative to talk about race relations .\nDean Obeidallah: Starbucks might not be best place, but how do we start a talk about race?","id":"23ee8c2dc6f757fd8a105ba41c0e474d5264d089"} -{"article":"(CNN)A salary dispute between North and South Korea has sent jitters through factory owners operating at an industrial complex that is supposed to be a symbol of cooperation for the divided Korean peninsula. The disagreement started in late February, when the North Korean government demanded an increase of around $8.60 a month for North Korean employees working in the Kaesong Industrial Complex. South Korea is working on a response to the demands, leaving factory owners worried about the threat of a factory shutdown. \"I'm already nervous about the situation because of the traumatic experience in 2013 when the North closed down the complex,\" said Yoo Chang-geun, the South Korean head of an automobile parts manufacturer that employs 400 North Koreans in Kaesong. Yoo's company, SJ Tech, operates out of Kaesong, which is just north of the Demilitarized Zone in North Korean territory. He was referring to North Korea's monthslong closure of Kaesong in 2013, during a period of heightened tension on the peninsula. About 125 South Korean companies operate out of Kaesong, employing more than 50,000 North Korean workers. An official from the South Korean government's Unification Ministry, who according to policy spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, says companies at Kaesong pay their North Korean workers an average of $155.50 a month. North Korea is demanding an increase of roughly 5.5%, to an equivalent $164.10 a month. The South Korean government argues that the salary hike is a breach of an existing agreement for the industrial park, which first opened in 2004. The official called the North's request a \"one-sided demand.\" The official did not rule out the possibility that penalties could be imposed on South Korean companies if they individually agree to raise employee salaries. Manufacturers in Kaesong rely on the government in Seoul to represent them in negotiations with Pyongyang. \"It feels like we're entering a very difficult phase where innocent corporations are being beaten up by political fights between the North and South,\" Kim Seo-Jin, the director of Corporate Association of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, said Wednesday. Experts say this isn't the first time the North and South have butted heads over employee salaries in Kaesong. The industrial park was established as a symbol of cooperation at a time when a previous government in South Korea was pursuing a \"Sunshine Policy\" of friendship with its northern rival. South Korean companies benefited from the extremely low cost of North Korean labor. Meanwhile, North Korea gained a valuable stream of hard currency revenue by appropriating an undisclosed amount of salary from its citizens working in Kaesong. South Korean employers also made a practice of giving small food bonuses to some hungry employees. For a time, this came in the form of \"Choco Pies,\" a packaged South Korean dessert. The snacks reportedly became highly-prized items on the black market in the communist North's rigidly controlled economy. Eventually, employers transitioned to giving workers instant noodles, as one former Kaesong factory owner told CNN in 2014, \"in order to provide a more substantial snack.\" \"The whole project is built with an understanding that North Korean wages should and will continue to rise,\" says John Delury, associate professor at Yonsei University's graduate school of international studies in Seoul. But one factory owner said the communist regime's most recent approach to the salaries is problematic. \"The amount of the pay raise demanded this time is small,\" said SJ Tech's Yoo Chang-geun. \"But having this kind of precedent may lead to losing control of the operation in the complex.\" Experts say Seoul and Pyongyang's approach to the Kaesong salary dispute will serve as an important barometer for the direction of future relations between the rival governments. \"Kaesong is the last living legacy of the Sunshine Policy,\" says professor Delury of Yeonsei University. \"If something like wage disputes lead to the shutdown or freezing of Kaesong, that would be a major blow.\"","highlights":"The disagreement started in late February .\nNorth Korea demanded a pay increase; South Korea's working on a response .","id":"65fb03d0a0ca34f87b07f6792f71c7e33ea3dd18"} -{"article":"(CNN)As planets go, Mercury doesn't get a lot of love. People spend more time on Google searching for Queen singer Freddy Mercury than planet Mercury ... and Freddie's been gone for nearly a quarter-century. Not even NASA spends much time there, making it the least-explored inner planet in the solar system. But one question has long perplexed scientists: Why's the darned thing so dark? Compared with our own moon, which is about the same size, Mercury reflects much less light. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Brown University and the Planetary Sciences Institute say they may have found the answer: It's been \"effectively painted black,\" in the words of Megan Bruck Syal, a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore. Over the eons, the researchers argue in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, microscopic meteorites spawned from carbon-rich comets may have contributed enough dark-hued carbon to reduce the amount of reflected light. The pieces seem to fit together: There's a lot more carbon dust thrown off from comets close to the sun, where Mercury orbits -- about 50 times as much for Mercury as for our moon, the researchers say. And tests using a big NASA gun made to simulate planetary impacts on a small scale seem to show the theory is plausible, the authors say. \"We show that carbon acts like a stealth darkening agent,\" said Peter Schultz, a professor emeritus of geological sciences at Brown University. \"From the standpoint of spectral analysis, it's like an invisible paint.\"","highlights":"Mercury was \"painted black\" by millions of years of micrometeorites, researchers say .\nThe research could solve the puzzle of why the planet appears so dark .","id":"5f4d876423cdcc3511fabefa003c50937c6d68bb"} -{"article":"(CNN)You may not know it, but comedian Trevor Noah actually made a bit of history even before being named to succeed Jon Stewart as host of \"The Daily Show.\" The 31-year-old South African comic has made only a few appearances on that show since popping up as a correspondent in December, but he's better known within the world of standup comedy. In 2013, Noah became the first African comedian to perform on \"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.\" He's been on the cover of Rolling Stone in South Africa, where he's extremely popular. He's joked about being the son of a black African woman and a white Swiss man who met when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa. \"My mom would be arrested. She would be fined, and still she was like 'ooh, I don't care, I want a white man, ooh,' \" he once told an audience at London's Soho Theater during his standup show \"The Racist.\" \"And my dad was also like, well, you know how the Swiss love chocolate.\" Why mixed-race comic was 'born a crime' Race, identity and ethnicity have figured in prominently in his act. Because of his parents' then-illegal relationship, he joked, \"In the streets, my father couldn't walk with us. He would walk on the other side of the road and wave at me like a creepy pedophile. And my mom could walk with me, but every time the police went by, she would drop me. I felt like a bag of weed.\" Noah has said in his act that he lost touch with his father for several years because of apartheid. In 2012, he told NPR that he was fascinated by how Americans discuss race. \"I got to Baltimore, and I was expecting ... because urban means built up and new, you know,\" he said. \"So I got there, and I was, 'Whoa, it's not as urban as people told me.' ... But it's very black. I'll tell you that much.\" Noah told CNN's \"African Voices\" in 2013 that after finding success in his homeland -- where he starred on a soap opera, hosted his own radio show and was the subject of the 2012 documentary \"You Laugh But It's True\" -- he moved to the United States for a year to try to raise his profile. He returned to his country with new material shaped by his time spent in the States, he said. \"Comedy is really getting quite popular in South Africa,\" Noah said. \"It's moving from the bastard child of entertainment into the mainstream, which is very good. I think the reason it's doing so well is because South Africans need to laugh and South Africans want to laugh.\" Noah has moved to the U.S. permanently and told Newsweek, \"I've always wanted to be a comedian in the world. I don't want to be labeled a South African comedian.\" On \"The Daily Show,\" he debuted as a correspondent with a bit titled \"Spot the Africa,\" which juxtaposed modern-day South Africa and the United States. What remains to be seen is whether what the Guardian has described as \"his combination of terribly polite, butter-wouldn't-melt stage presence and biting, often brutal gags\" will translate into success on \"The Daily Show.\"","highlights":"Noah is the son of a black South African woman and a white Swiss man .\nHe's very popular in South Africa .\nNoah's act often focuses on race and ethnicity .","id":"52ce9bc3f3b8b8c8ff5fe2def83f269550515fd5"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)No deal is better than a bad deal, say critics of President Barack Obama's nuclear talks with Iran. But what if Republican and Democratic opponents succeed in their intensifying effort to derail the diplomacy? The price of failure could be an ugly blame game and cascade of political reprisals leading to nuclear chicken between Iran and the West -- potentially leading to war. \"We would have to deal with a resumption of Iran's nuclear activities, which we don't want to see take place. Iran would have to deal with the resumption of sanctions, which they don't want,\" said Gary Samore, a top nonproliferation official during Obama's first term. For now, the grave consequences of a breakdown in talks are one reason the United States and Iran are still at the table, as a grueling diplomatic process reaches critical deadlines and painful political decisions beckon. Iran deal: A treaty or not a treaty, that is the question . Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif are haggling over the remaining issues in Lausanne, Switzerland, ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline for a framework agreement, which then must be finalized by July 1. But time may be running out for a deal in which six world powers would lift sanctions that have throttled Iran's economy in return for assurances that Tehran will continue to stay a year or so away from developing a nuclear bomb. The White House puts the chances of a deal at only 50-50: Disputes still rage over the scale of nuclear infrastructure Iran will be allowed to keep, the pace of sanctions relief and the extent of nuclear site inspections. Despite the controversy stoked last week in Washington when 47 GOP senators sent a letter to Iran's leaders warning that the future of a deal was not guaranteed, many analysts believe that the talks will go on, even if the end-of-March deadline slips. \"Not because all sides are desperate to keep talking. But I think sufficient momentum has been created in the last month or so that they see real possibilities,\" said Robert Einhorn, a former senior U.S. State Department arms control official. Obama may now have slightly more political leeway on the talks than before -- ironically because of attempts by U.S. and Israeli critics to pen him in. A few weeks ago, skeptical Democrats appeared to be lining up with Republicans and approaching a veto-proof Senate majority that could have forced Obama to submit a deal to Congress or accept the passage of new sanctions. Either move could have killed the agreement. But the Republicans' letter and a fiercely critical speech to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the proposed deal prompted some skeptical Democrats to close ranks, at least temporarily. But Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN's Dana Bash on \"State of the Union\" that Obama was on the cusp of agreeing a \"very bad\" deal that would allow Iran to keep its nuclear infrastructure intact. He said that if an agreement is reached, he would bring up legislation that would give Congress 60 days to back or reject a deal, despite fresh pleas from the White House for the GOP to hold off. If no deal is reached, McConnell said on Sunday that he would press ahead with toughening sanctions on Iran, he said. Republican sources, meanwhile, said that despite the furor over the letter from the senators, no Democrats had yet formally pulled support for legislation requiring the Senate to have a say on the deal. That leaves the real possibility of a pitched political showdown on Iran in the coming months. The opening for diplomacy is meanwhile not endless. And if no deal emerges by July, political pressure for a tougher administration stance towards Iran may be unstoppable. If diplomacy fails, how events unfold will be dictated by how the process collapses; who gets the blame; and the political pressures exerted on Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Washington and Tehran. \"If, at the end of June, there is not a deal, and talks have broken off, I think that it is inevitable that the Congress will adopt new sanctions legislation,\" said Einhorn, now with the Brookings Institution. \"What that will mean is the Iranians will reciprocate.\" Iran could start up centrifuges halted during the nuclear negotiations, bring more advanced machinery online and enrich uranium to the potent 20% level that would get it closer to a weapon. And if it bars international inspectors, the world would have no idea how far Iran is from making a bomb. What's in the Iran nuclear deal . The administration thinks that if the United States gets the blame for using hardball tactics that derail talks -- if, say, Congress imposes more sanctions, as administration critics want -- there is no way its international partners would keep existing sanctions in place, let alone double down and impose new ones. In addition to unilateral U.S. sanctions Congress has imposed, the United Nations, European Union and other countries have put in place their own sanctions cutting off Iran from international partners and not just the American economy. Cornelius Adebahr, a European security specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, predicted Iran would reap a propaganda victory. \"It would give ammunition for Iran to say the U.S. is not reliable,\" he said. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Jim Walsh, a specialist on the talks, said the Iranian government would have little choice but to hit back at a tougher U.S. stance. \"The Iranians are just not going to take it. They are going to feel condemned to respond. Both sides will take their shovels and dig the holes deeper.\" Walsh continued, \"We would be between a lame duck (U.S.) president for whom negotiations had just failed, a weakened Rouhani, for whom negotiations have just failed, and a coming U.S. presidential election -- not exactly the best environment to return to talks and accomplish a diplomatic settlement.\" Aborted negotiations that leave Iran rededicated to its nuclear program raise the specter of Tehran with a bomb -- or some enemy country taking military action to stop it. Did 47 Republican senators break the law in plain sight? But critics of the deal being worked out in Switzerland don't agree that such an outcome is the likeliest scenario. GOP hawks and Israel believe Tehran is so desperate for sanctions relief, especially at a time of low oil prices, that it will have no choice but to offer a better deal than the one currently on the table and agree to the complete halt to uranium enrichment that Israel and conservatives demand. \"If Iran threatens to walk away from the table -- and this often happens in a Persian bazaar -- call their bluff. They'll be back, because they need the deal a lot more than you do,\" Netanyahu maintained in his Congress speech. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made the case in a USA Today op-ed Friday that Obama should \"walk away from a flimsy nuclear agreement.\" Those opposed to the deal reject the administration that follow their advice would likely blow up the talks and set Washington on an inevitable path to war as the only remaining way to disable Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Instead, GOP congressmen counter that several bills they are pushing, with significant Democratic support, do not forestall the possibility of continued diplomacy if talks fail. They say that extra sanctions would increase Obama's leverage in diplomacy, not weaken it. Even if talks do succeed this year, the long-term future of an agreement still wouldn't be assured. The diplomatic effort has powerful critics among hardliners in Tehran who, whatever's written on paper, could push to illicitly expand Iran's nuclear program and close in on a bomb. It's not just Republicans who fear Tehran may violate any deal or test the limits of compliance. Some people who back the talks admit that may be the case, too. In Washington, Congress will be required to lift the existing sanctions on Iran to sustain the agreement in years to come -- a step that is hardly a given. And the stiff Republican opposition means a deal is not assured of surviving the arrival of a new president in the White House come 2017. A future Republican president could reverse Obama's sanctions waivers fairly quickly, as the senators warned in their letter to Iran. Whether the new president would want to do so is another matter, however, especially if Iran lives up to the terms of a deal, which would include stringent verification by international inspectors. He or she would risk a heavy political price. A unilateral Washington pullout would likely infuriate U.S. partners and leave the rookie president facing a boiling crisis that could overwhelm the new administration's nascent foreign policy. \"That's what the administration is counting on -- if there is compliance and the deal is working well,\" said Einhorn. Kerry reminded Congress this week that Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia would all be cosignatories of a deal. \"If all those countries have said this is good and it's working, (will a new president) just turn around and nullify it on behalf of the United States?\" he asked. \"That's not going to happen.\" Congress would face the same cost-benefit calculation when it comes to the sanctions only lawmakers can expunge. In the event of a Democratic White House victory in 2016, the congressional math could also change in favor of a deal. And if Republicans keep their majorities, lawmakers who are bent on thwarting Obama may be less willing to handcuff a new GOP president.","highlights":"Iran negotiations have large diplomatic and political implications .\nOutcome could affect next president .","id":"f66f4b73a257483761fe7729319c36c98ce953c8"} -{"article":"(CNN)The fury of Tropical Cyclone Pam, one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall, has moved on, but the misery it left behind in the islands of Vanuatu is just starting to become apparent. Aid workers described scenes of extensive devastation in the capital, Port Vila, and expressed fears of even more destruction farther afield. Thousands were in need of shelter, food and water, the Red Cross said Sunday. \"Homes have been lost, crops are destroyed. The damage is enormous, and people need our help,\" said Aurelia Balpe, head of the Red Cross in the Pacific. \"Yet it will still take some time before we really understand the full extent of the damage.\" The storm flattened houses, scattered trees across roads and inflicted damage on key buildings meant to serve as safe havens, such as the hospital, schools and churches. \"It's becoming increasingly clear that we are now dealing with worse than the worst-case scenario in Vanuatu,\" said Helen Szoke, executive director in Australia for the aid group Oxfam. \"This is likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific.\" At least 90% of housing in Port Vila has been badly damaged, parts of the hospital are flooded and the state mortuary took a hit, Oxfam said. Some 60,000 children are in need of assistance, UNICEF reported Sunday. How to help Vanuatu residents . At least six people have been confirmed dead. But communications with many of the 80-plus islands in the archipelago are down, so the fear is that the toll will climb as more information emerges. The confirmed deaths, reported by the National Disaster Management Office, are just from Port Vila. For most of a 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday, the cyclone pummeled Vanuatu, where some 260,000 people live, many in flimsy homes built of thatch. It is unclear how many thousands of people have been displaced by the massive storm, which had the power of a Category 5 hurricane when it made landfall. Aerial assessments are being carried out by military aircraft from New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand. Relief workers are raising concerns about a lack of clean water and sanitation for the many people left homeless. Aid has started to trickle in. The Australian government said a first contingent of officials and supplies arrived in Port Vila around noon Sunday and more flights were expected to follow. \"In Port Vila, there's a lot of activity now -- people are starting to emerge,\" said Tom Perry of the aid group CARE International. \"You can see trees that are strewn across roads being chopped down. The evacuation centers are beginning to be set up.\" Perry, who arrived on one of the first Australian military flights into Port Vila, told CNN the damage there was \"very significant\" with trees that looked like \"snapped toothpicks.\" \"It's like a bomb has gone through,\" said journalist Michael McLennan, who lives in Port Vila. \"It's really quite apocalyptic.\" Most buildings in the capital were destroyed or damaged, he told CNN on Sunday. Many roads were blocked by fallen trees or power lines. The main objective now is to get disaster response teams into Vanuatu and kick-start the humanitarian operation, Sune Gudnitz, regional head for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told CNN from Fiji, about 600 miles away. His aid agency has had word of much destruction on Efate, the island where Port Vila is located, and from the southern island of Tanna, he said. Only a little information has so far trickled out from beyond the capital, but Gudnitz said he fears the worst. \"Unfortunately, the more that comes out, the worse it looks,\" he said. Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale, who was at a U.N. conference on disaster risk reduction in Japan on Saturday, issued an appeal to the global community to help his shattered nation. Vanuatu has officially declared a state of emergency, opening the door for other countries to help. Vanuatu's remote location adds to the challenges the international response faces. Port Vila is more than 1,770 kilometers (1,100 miles) northeast of Brisbane on Australia's east coast, and some 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) north of Auckland, the closest city in New Zealand. Reaching the more isolated communities will also take time. Vanuatu's archipelago -- comprising 83 small islands, about 65 of them inhabited -- is roughly 850 kilometers (528 miles) long. Many of the people are subsistence farmers, said CNN's Bill Weir, who visited Vanuatu recently. He recalled talking to a resident who built the first indoor bathroom on his island and sought advice on where to find a toilet paper dispenser. \"It's setting them back years,\" Weir said of the storm. People away from the capital live much as their ancestors did generations ago. Homes are built of weak materials, including straw and corrugated steel, that stood little chance against Pam's raging winds. \"When you've got a Category 5 cyclone that essentially just sat here for 24 hours -- where do you go when you have a storm that powerful?\" Perry of CARE International said. \"It's very terrifying to think about what people have been through.\" While international teams are finding a way in, it will be up to humanitarian agency staffers on the ground and the local communities themselves to do what they can to get by amid the wreckage. Aid workers said the most immediate challenge is to get clean water to people. Many people will be spending another night in emergency shelters. Track the storm . Pam is the South Pacific's second strongest cyclone since record-keeping began in 1970. And it's the strongest of any type since Super Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippines in 2013, killing more than 6,000 people. CNN's Ralph Ellis, Ben Brumfield and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.","highlights":"Situation is \"worse than the worst-case scenario,\" Oxfam says .\nHomes, hospital, schools and churches all damaged, aid group reports .\nAid officials and supplies start to arrive in Vanuatu's capital from Australia .","id":"21adcd1e2e87cebb0069d3faf2f12097b8bd237a"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)Calling state bans on same-sex marriage \"incompatible with the Constitution,\" the Obama administration Friday filed a brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of couples who are making challenges in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. \"The marriage bans challenged in these cases impermissibly exclude lesbian and gay couples from the rights, responsibilities and status of civil marriage,\" Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. wrote. He said the states have \"burdened petitioners in every aspect of life that marriage touches, from the mundane to the profound.\" The brief marks the first time the administration has formally made a filing with the high court supporting its position that bans on gay marriage should be declared unconstitutional nationwide. The court will hear arguments in the state cases on April 28. Verrilli said the laws \"impose concrete harms on same-sex couples and send the inescapable message that same-sex couples and their children are second-class families, unworthy of the recognition and benefits that opposite-sex couples take for granted.\" The bans, he said, \"cannot be reconciled with the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws.\" He said there is \"no adequate justification for such a discriminatory and injurious exercise of state control.\" Verrilli stressed that throughout history lesbian and gay people have encountered numerous barriers that have \"prevented them from full, free, and equal participation in American life.\" In an op-ed earlier this week , published in USA Today, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote, \"Marriage equality is an idea whose time has come.\" President Barack Obama's position on same-sex marriage has evolved. In May 2012, in an interview with ABC News, he announced his support for gay marriage. \"At a certain point,\" he said, \"I've just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.\" At his 2013 inauguration he said, \"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.\" In February 2013, the administration filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of couples challenging California's ban on same sex marriage. Verilli argued that California law provided same sex couples registered as domestic partners all the legal incidents of marriage, but denied them the \"designation of marriage.\" Ultimately, the Supreme Court dismissed that case. Supporters of the state bans have until the end of the month to file their briefs. Thursday was the deadline for briefs in support of petitioners. James Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the case, came to the court Friday as the Human Rights Campaign delivered a brief signed by over 200,000 individuals in support of same-sex marriage. In an interview, Obergefell said his journey began when he challenged Ohio's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage on death certificates. He was legally married to his partner, John Arthur James, in Maryland in 2013, but after Arthur died, Ohio officials refused to recognize Obergefell as his spouse. Asked what it would mean to him if his side wins, Obergefell said, \" It will mean John and I matter. It will mean we have the same rights and responsibilities as other Americans.\"","highlights":"Administration files a brief before Supreme Court hears cases .\nBrief says bans on same-sex marriage violate the Constitution .\nThose in favor or bans will file their arguments later this month .","id":"5aba6f1c62af8441697c68bd5fbde54fac204871"} -{"article":"(CNN)So now we know. The Germanwings aircraft that crashed earlier this week was deliberately brought down by a co-pilot who had managed to lock himself in the cockpit as he set the plane on a course for destruction, according to officials. We all wish it weren't so, and the investigation, instead of looking at possible deficiencies of the plane, will now look to the co-pilot, who -- by all accounts -- showed no signs that this would be his horrific legacy. The irony would be rich, if it weren't so tragic. The locked door, the very mechanism put into place to protect the cockpit from unruly or dangerous passengers -- made more secure in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- was used against a pilot who, for reasons still unknown, left the cockpit. It may be too early to draw conclusive lessons from what has happened, but as this unfolds and before we begin constructing a narrative about the pilot that may be filled with rumors, innuendo and half-truths, there are structural issues to address immediately. First, we have seen that there is a real risk of pilots bringing down planes. We have built no back-up plans into the secure cockpit programs. It might be necessary to devise secure and classified entry access passwords or electronic keys that are available only to both pilots or a pilot and the lead flight attendant. No system of security should rely on a single point of entry and while the post-9\/11 security planning made sense then, it may have outlived the threat now. Second, regardless of pilots' backgrounds and ideologies, airlines as sophisticated as Lufthansa may need to implement more than voluntary stress-relief assessments. The zeitgeist of pilots is very similar to the military: tough, strong, with psychological challenges viewed as \"sissy.\" Perhaps airlines will need to guarantee that pilots who seek counseling will not be unjustly punished. And instead of sitting back and waiting for someone to approach counselors, regular and consistent check-ins might be necessary. Finally, the \"t\" word. Before the news today, the Obama administration quickly rejected a notion that this was terrorism. And that may still be accurate. But as someone who has been a part of counterterrorism efforts, I am impressed with the French prosecutor's honesty in a search for the right words. This is obviously terrorism in the general sense to elicit fear in a general population, but whether it was done for some political or ideological reason (in the absence of any group taking credit, it does not fit the model of most major airline terror attacks) we still do not know. And it isn't as if there is a national response that we can expect from Germany, such as going to war. Still, it clearly isn't just suicide. This is different. If there is some nefarious ideological motivation, this may be one of a few incidents where a \"loner\" is able to create massive, simultaneous deaths. Most lone wolf terror is almost always of low consequence. It may be that we are in an era when we don't have the right words to describe the threats we face from loners with the capacity for mass casualties. As Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said, \"If a person kills himself and also 149 other people, another word should be used -- not suicide.\" And that honest assessment is what we heard today.","highlights":"Juliette Kayyem: Now we know co-pilot brought down Germanwings plane; this shows need for structural changes to post 9-11 security .\nShe says airlines must devise new ways to allow secure access to cockpits; better evaluate mindset of pilots; rethink what is \"terror\"","id":"539eb3c46507002312042ed78f0b907f38b1356e"} -{"article":"(CNN)There's a steady stream of blood flowing down his face from a cut just above his eye. His rapid, open-mouth breathing inadvertently draws some of the blood inside, discoloring his teeth. He appears dazed, probably with a concussion. But there are no trained physicians around to evaluate. And even if there were, it's doubtful anything a doctor could say would stop him from fighting. The crowd that has gathered in this backyard of a Miami suburb won't let him. They have too much money invested. Besides, this illegal fight is the safest way he can make money. And his best chance of reaching the American Dream. When I first saw this footage from the documentary \"Dawg Fight,\" I recoiled. Here we are recognizing the 50th anniversary of \"Bloody Sunday\" in Selma, Alabama, and in the next state over there are desperate, unemployed black men beating the hell out of each other for a hundred bucks. While the 1999 cult classic \"Fight Club\" made organized street fights look like a sexy form of psychotherapy for repressed men (and some of the guys who participate in street fights do fit the bill), the vast majority in the documentary just need the money. Because in the Miami area the poor reportedly live on $11 a day. And in West Perrine, the suburb where \"Dawg Fight\" takes place and where nearly 75% of the residents are black, unemployment remains high. \"This is the future of America,\" said the film's director, Billy Corben. \"When you look at the incarceration rate, especially for black men, and income inequality, the life you see in 'Dawg Fight' is where we are headed. \"We have these ridiculous drug laws, which makes it nearly impossible to get a job once you've been arrested. And if you can get a job, it doesn't pay enough to feed a family.\" The numbers speak for themselves. The United States has 5% of the world's population but 25% of its prisoners -- by far the most of any country. Meanwhile, between 2009 and 2012, the top 1% of Americans captured 95% of all income growth. So while it is true unemployment is down and Wall Street is booming, the combination of a debilitating criminal justice system and low wages has created an environment in which men such as those featured in \"Dawg Fight\" feel backyard fights are actually one of the less nefarious ways they can make money. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, have become interesting bedfellows as they work to address the country's runaway prison industry. This week, the pair, along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, introduced a medical marijuana bill as another step toward decriminalizing the drug. This is a welcome step, because of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001-2010, nearly 90% was for simple possession, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. And while whites and blacks use the drug at the same rate, blacks were arrested four times as often, the ACLU said. That's not to say all of the ex-cons in the 12-by-12 ring are nonviolent drug offenders. Some, by their own admission, have done worse. But they are out of jail now, and don't have the luxury of waiting to see if debates going on in Washington actually result in laws. \"I don't promote violence, I promote hope,\" said Dada 5000, who started West Perrine fights in his mother's backyard and who was once a bodyguard for mixed martial arts fighter Kimbo Slice. \"A lot of these men paid their debt back to society; they did the rehab, but they still can't get a job. They don't blame society for their life. ... (T)hey are back here in these streets, and they would like a second chance, a chance to do the right thing, but those chances are not there. We are an alternative to the bad things.\" I asked if the election of the first black President provided any inspiration at all, and he said, \"Obama's black, but he didn't grow up black, not like this. \"He never had to make do, to go without. He never was put inside those situations, those circumstances where desperation pushes you to the edge. He's had what he thinks are hard times, but it's nothing like this. If he came down here, he would be blown away.\" Corben echoes the sentiment. \"The unemployment rate is all well and good for people in Washington, but those are not the people who are trying to make it,\" he said. \"People think of Miami, they think of beaches and Ocean Drive and all of that. This is the part of Miami people don't want to talk about. \"But you know what? Miami is not unique. There are a lot of cities like this,\" he adds. \"Dawg Fight\" certainly doesn't sugarcoat anything. The fights are raw, vicious. But then so is the reality in which it is based. Two of the fighters featured are dead -- including one on whom police used a Taser. With prize money as little as $100, the chances this lifestyle alone can elevate a family out of poverty is slim to none. But what are the alternatives? I grew up in a rough neighborhood on the eastside of Detroit. I was mugged in elementary school by a grown man. And even I don't claim to know the desperation these men see on a daily basis. \"We don't have Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson coming down here to this level of hood,\" Dada said. \"This is the real Miami. We may not want to acknowledge it, but it is. \"And I bet if you go to some of the other cities where men don't have any skills, they don't have an education, they may have a record ... you'll find the same thing,\" he added. \"What I'm doing isn't barbaric, it's a message.\"","highlights":"The documentary \"Dawg Fight\" shows men fighting in a Miami suburb for money .\nLZ Granderson: It's the only chance for some ever to reach the American Dream .","id":"fbd22d5f685ec8d006201c41e36fd092e26d6bd3"} -{"article":"(CNN)Novak Djokovic led Serbia to the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup World Group after answering a late call to play in Saturday's last 16 doubles victory over neighbor and rival Croatia. Teammate Viktor Troicki had been due to play in the doubles rubber alongside Nenad Zimonjic, but a draining five-set singles match with Croatian teen starlet Borna Coric on Friday convinced Serbia coach Bogdan Obradovic to draft in the fresher Djokovic. It was an inspired choice. The Serbian pair took less than two hours to defeat Franko Skugor and Marin Draganja 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, securing an unassailable 3-0 aggregate lead in the best of five tie after singles wins for Djokovic and Troicki over their Croatian opponents Friday. \"We wanted to finish the job today, to take advantage of the fact that we won the first singles and that was done,\" Djokovic said in quotes carried by the AFP news agency after the match. The World No 1. singles player has looked strong all week after losing in straight sets to Roger Federer at the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships seven days ago. He was cheered on by a packed and passionate home crowd at the Kraljevo Sports Center. Serbia has won the Davis Cup once before, in 2010 when it defeated Croatia on the way to the final. France marches on . In the day's other Davis Cup ties, France secured a last 16 slot for the sixth consecutive year. Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut's comfortable doubles victory over Germany's Benjamin Becker and Andre Begemann pushed the French over the line 3-0. The Bryan brothers fought back to secure doubles victory for the U.S. over Great Britain in Glasgow, reducing the 2-0 deficit built up by singles victories from Andy Murray and James Ward Friday. Meanwhile, defending champions Switzerland, playing without Roger Federer or Stan Wawrinka, are on the brink after falling 2-1 behind Belgium as Michael Lammer and Adrien Bossel lost 1-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 to Ruben Bemelmans and Adrien Bossel.","highlights":"Novak Djokovic answers late call to help Serbia to Davis Cup victory over Croatia .\nFrance through to last 16 but Great Britain made to wait .\nReigning champions Switzerland on brink after doubles loss against Belgium .","id":"7e3553b21d46e705791524f771adb3e91ea6c722"} -{"article":"Kiev, Ukraine (CNN)Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk have withdrawn all heavy weapons from the front lines in accordance with a recent peace deal, the rebel group Donetsk People's Republic said Saturday. On the other side, the Kiev-backed Donetsk regional authority said Ukrainian forces also withdrew all heavy weapons from the front lines in Donetsk, but added that in a 24-hour period from Friday to Saturday pro-Russian militants carried out 46 attacks, all of which were repelled, according to Col. Valentin Fedichev. A shaky ceasefire has been in place in Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region, the center of a months-long conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces. The estimated number of people killed in eastern Ukraine since April 2014 now exceeds 6,000 \"in spite of successive ceasefires,\" the United Nations Human Rights Office said earlier this week. The escalation in fighting in recent weeks, particularly near the Donetsk airport and in the Debaltseve area, resulted in hundreds of deaths, both civilian and military, according to the United Nations report. The report paints a picture of \"merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure,\" said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. He called for all sides to adhere to the peace deal, reached last month in Minsk, Belarus, which calls for a ceasefire in many of the conflict's hotspots. Victoria Butenko contributed from Kiev. CNN's Michael Martinez wrote from Los Angeles.","highlights":"The withdrawal comes after last month's peace deal .\nA shaky ceasefire has been in place in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk .","id":"7236be26ef801511a6c0ce97d7ca5513525761cc"} -{"article":"(CNN)When Vladimir Putin reappears, he does it with style -- and an in-your-face attitude. The Russian President attended a large concert in Moscow's Red Square on Wednesday to commemorate the first anniversary of his country's annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, an act condemned by many in the international community as illegal. Only Putin doesn't call it annexation. He calls it reunification. According to the presidential website, Putin attended the \"We're Together!\" concert and meeting \"celebrating the first anniversary of Crimea and Sevastopol's reunification with Russia.\" The peninsula became part of the Soviet Union in 1917, following the Russian Revolution. But in 1991, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it became part of a newly independent Ukraine. On March 16, 2014, Crimea held a referendum on whether to continue as part of Ukraine or to cast its lot with the Russian Federation. The result was overwhelming, at least among those voting: 95% said they wanted to become part of Russia. A mere two days later, Russia annexed the territory. Putin said later that he had been planning the move even before the referendum was held. \"Friends!\" the President said in Red Square on Wednesday, according to his website, \"Exactly one year ago, Russia, which we are speaking of so much right now, and the Russian people showed amazing togetherness and patriotism in supporting the aspirations of the people of Crimea and Sevastopol to return to their native shores.\" The issue, he said, was \"our history, our spirituality and our statehood, the things that make us a single people and single united nation.\" Also participating, the website said, were \"popular Russian music groups and singers.\" Putin was recently out of sight without explanation for 10 days, during which time various meetings were canceled. He reappeared only Monday. Lest anyone doubt he was still in charge, Putin, who prides himself on his fitness, has been displaying a different form of muscle this week -- the military kind. He mobilized Russia's entire Northern Fleet in a military exercise that reportedly ranks among the largest since the breakup of the Soviet Union. NATO reported that, on Tuesday, Estonian radar detected an unspecified number of aircraft over the Baltic Sea. NATO sent jets to identify the planes and later reported that \"the Russian military aircraft\" flew on into the airspace of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.","highlights":"Putin attends concert in Red Square to celebrate anniversary of Crimean annexation .\nNATO reports Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea .","id":"c711b9817e3af9612c61a1baeec1a8117c5293cd"} -{"article":"London (CNN)An 18-year-old British man has been arrested on suspicion of preparing to join ISIS in Syria, UK police say. Counterterrorism officers arrested the man at his home in Hodge Hill, in the city of Birmingham, early Monday, West Midlands police said. \"The operation was pre-planned and intelligence led. There was no immediate threat to public safety,\" they said in a statement. The arrest follows that of three teenagers from northwest London on Sunday after they were intercepted by Turkish police in Istanbul. The two 17-year-old boys and a 19-year-old man were arrested \"on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts,\" the Metropolitan Police said. They have since been released on bail. The investigation started Friday, after police learned the two 17-year-olds were missing and were believed to be traveling to Syria. They were traveling with a 19-year-old, police said. British authorities shared intelligence regarding the 17-year-olds with Turkish officials Friday, and that night, they landed in Istanbul on a flight from Barcelona, Spain, a Turkish official told CNN. The teens were stopped with another person seen as suspicious by Turkish intelligence at the airport's risk analysis center, which monitors risky flights and runs checks on suspicious passengers trying to enter Turkey. Turkish authorities questioned the teens, the Turkish official said, and the Metropolitan Police said the three returned to London shortly before midnight Saturday and were arrested. Last week, Turkish authorities said they had arrested a person -- working for an undisclosed nation's intelligence service -- on suspicion of helping three British girls who are thought to have entered Syria to join ISIS. British police say they think the three east London classmates -- Shamima Begum, 15; Kadiza Sultana, 16; and Amira Abase, 15 -- traveled to Syria after flying from London to Istanbul on February 17. Metropolitan Police on Monday announced a new media campaign to deter young people from traveling to Syria. Radio and press advertisements highlighting the influence a mother could have on her daughters would be placed in ethnic minority media, police said. The campaign said that it was mothers who often noticed changes in behavior that could signal an intention to travel to Syria, they said. There was increasing concern about the number of women traveling to Syria, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said. \"It is an extremely dangerous place, and the reality of the lifestyle they are greeted with when they arrive is far from that promoted online by terrorist groups,\" she said. \"The option of returning home is often taken away from them, leaving families at home devastated and with very few options to secure a safe return for their loved one,\" Ball said.","highlights":"Metropolitan Police announce a media campaign to deter young people from traveling to Syria .\nThe Birmingham man, 18, was detained at his home in a preplanned operation, they say .\nPolice said there was \"no immediate threat to public safety\"","id":"4d0dc9e3be989c3ade6fac9713441b8ba5b438fa"} -{"article":"(CNN)There have been a few times in my career when I've been thoroughly disappointed -- even disgusted -- with my fellow women in the workplace. No, I certainly don't expect all my female colleagues to go out of their way for me and sing \"Kumbaya\" together in the office, but I'm always stunned when a woman who could have been helpful to me wasn't, when a woman who could have been a mentor chose not to be, when a woman tried to hurt me because of her own fear, anxiety or what have you. I'd love to say more about each of the women I've met along the way who fit those descriptions, but my point is not to single anyone out. My goal is to ask the question, \"Why?\" Obviously, not all women are like this and there are plenty of men guilty of the same behavior, but why do so many women try to tear each other down instead of lift each other up? I figured this would be a perfect question for Sophia Nelson, author of a new self-help book for women called \"The Woman Code,\" and she didn't disappoint. Unlocking 'The Woman Code': 4 tips to know your value . \"From the time we're little girls, we're taught to compete,\" said Nelson during a recent conversation at CNN. \"I need to be prettier, taller, smarter, my hair needs to be straighter, curlier, whatever it is. I need to get the better looking guy. I need to always be better than because we're taught to come from a place of lack as women.\" The way Nelson, an award-winning author and journalist, radio and television personality and motivational speaker, sees it, we women need to start operating like the boys. Men \"operate from a sense of, there's this whole pie, and I want my piece, and I don't care if he gets his piece, and maybe we even have to work together to start that business, start that company,\" said Nelson. Of course, it's easier for a man not to worry \"if he gets his piece\" since there are plenty of pieces of pie available for men in terms of management positions in corporate America, but that isn't the case for women. Today, just 5% of S&P 500 chief executives are women and only 14% of the top five senior leadership positions at those companies are held by women, according to a CNN Money analysis. Sheryl Sandberg teams up with NBA to get men to #LeanIn . Decades ago, the situation was even worse. When I was just starting my television news career in 1990, women who were in their 40s and were in high-level positions were the only women in a position of influence. Naturally, many of them often viewed other women as threats who could take their job. \"Because they didn't think there could be ten of them, they only thought there could be one of them,\" said Nelson. \"Fast forward 20 years later. Now there ... are a number of women partners at big firms, a number of women in Congress. I could keep going on and on so ... there is a place for more of us.\" Which means we can lift as we climb, we can help our younger sisters and even our cohorts while still moving up and on in our careers, says Nelson. \"How exactly do we do that?\" I had to ask. Nelson came armed with five tips on how women can work with as opposed to against each other. First, Nelson says be mindful of the people you surround yourself with and careful about \"who's in your row.\" \"If you hear another woman say, and I've heard this, 'I don't do women friends, I don't have women friends,' believe her and leave her alone. I mean that, listen to me now,\" said Nelson. There are too many women who believe in the sisterhood of women, so don't invest any time, if possible, with people who don't, she says. If you are in a meeting and you have a great idea, don't feel like you have to hoard it to yourself, said Nelson. \"Collaborate, share, collaborate. ... So you lift other women as you climb by collaborating versus competing.\" Competition is healthy and we can compete, but we ought to take a page from our male colleagues' playbook, she said. \"The guys collaborate better than we do because they operate from a place of 'I want the dollars. I want to win the contract. I want to get the business.' We have to get in that same mindset.\" We're all busy but we've got to slow down and mentor, said Nelson. \"We have to build a bench,\" she said. \"Men do this well again. You've seen it in corporate, I've seen it. The guys go out and golf. They do things together and they're building up the next young man leader. Whatever field we're in ... we're less likely to do it because we're busy. We've got to mentor.\" When you lift other women as you climb, said Nelson, you realize it's reciprocal. \"It's not all about you.\" We women win when more women are in executive roles in organizations, I added. \"The right women,\" said Nelson. \"I want to caveat that. And again, I don't mean to be mean or catty but ... I know a lot of women in power positions that don't help other women but there are a lot of women in power positions that do.\" This is a tough one for us, says Nelson. We need to be willing to say to another woman that we didn't like something she did or said and do it in a respectful and private way where we are still building her up, not pulling her down. \"Don't go tell 10 of your friends not to like her. You'd be amazed at how silly we can be. We're still in kindergarten some of us,\" said Nelson. \"Gossip is still one of the most rampant, nasty things we do as women to each other. And it hurts. It really damages women.\" Why do you think women too often tear each other down instead of help each other in the workplace? Share your thoughts with Kelly Wallace on Twitter @kellywallacetv or CNN Living on Facebook.","highlights":"CNN's Kelly Wallace wonders why women too often don't lift each up in the workplace .\nAuthor of \"The Woman Code\" says women need to start operating like the boys .\nWomen need to realize they win when they help other women get ahead, says author .","id":"b53289769a71f634c9b7bc93f33089592b091441"} -{"article":"(CNN)Entertainers are paid for entertaining and it's time athletes received financial recompense for taking part in the Olympics, says 100m hurdler Sally Pearson. In 2014,while the winner of Wimbledon received $2,600,000 and the Augusta Masters champion picked up $1,620,000, when Pearson won gold in the Olympics three years ago she received zero prize money. \"People come for the entertainment from the athletes -- we are entertaining them, we are entertainers\" the Australian, who set an Olympic record of 12.48 seconds in her 2012 winning run in 2012, told CNN anchor Alex Thomas. \"Entertainers get paid every single time they step up onto a stage, and that's exactly what we're doing in a sporting sense.\" Billions might have tuned in to watch London's 2012 Olympic Games which saw over 10,000 athletes compete across 302 events in a battle for golden glory, but the International Olympic Committee's current policy is to (IOC) hand out gold, silver and bronze medals as well as a bouquet of flowers to athletes, but no financial remuneration. \"I can see why they don't, and I'm sure they want to keep it like that, they want to keep it pure,\" added Pearson. \"To be honest we're all still going to turn up whether we get paid or not. But the Games wouldn't happen without the athletes.\" It also wouldn't happen without sponsors. The IOC has just signed a new eight-year sponsorship deal with car manufacturing giant Toyota -- reportedly worth just under $1 billion -- adding to their list of partners that include McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Athletes usually fund themselves through sponsorship deals, government support, grants and part-time work. In 2012 only half of American track and field athletes -- who were ranked in the top 10 in their nation -- earned more than $15,000 a year from their sport. The fifth fastest 100m hurdler in history, Pearson told the Australia's Daily Telegraph in 2013 how a year after her Olympic gold medal in London she still wasn't attracting enough sponsors. No stranger to hard work -- the hurdler sometimes vomits after intense training sessions -- she decided to chase down her own deals rather than sit on her hands waiting for private sponsorship. While she has some support from Qantas, AMP and Adidas, appearance fees and prize money in the Diamond League -- an annual series of track and field meetings -- also provides revenue earning potential for the 28-year-old. Now targeting more medal success at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Pearson achieved a resounding win at the Queensland Track Classic on March 7 with a time of 12.74s. Even so the issue of Olympic prize money still clearly grates. \"I think the times have changed from 1896 to 2016, I think it might be time to at least have a think about it, and discuss it because there's no such thing as the Olympics without athletics or athletes,\" said Pearson.","highlights":"Olympic 100m gold medal winner Sally Pearson says IOC should think about paying athletes .\nPearson won gold at the London 2012 Olympics .","id":"c53070f540de54590470200a180bef478d9f1048"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's hardly news to state that air pollution is bad for people's health. What might be more surprising to learn, though, is that air pollution is bad for the health of an unborn child, long before his or her lungs ever take their first breath. A growing body of research indicates that various forms of air pollution have a measurable impact on the health of babies, both in utero and after birth. We imagine the infant to be protected inside its mother's body, but pollutants can reach the baby the same way nutrients and medicine do. Lead, mercury and particulate matter are among the types of air pollution we know can impact the health of infants before and after birth. Ozone, or smog, is the next candidate for addition to the list of air pollutants known to be harmful to fetal health. Over the past several years, a number of studies have indicated a likely link between higher levels of maternal ozone exposure and poor health outcomes in infants, including changes in lung structure and function, low birth weight and neuro-behavioral abnormalities. Many of these health effects can be expected to have lifelong consequences. These are deeply concerning results that require more investigation to understand fully. These studies add to a substantial amount of evidence showing the ill effects of ozone for people of all ages. Estimates place the toll in 2007 at 15,000 premature deaths related to ozone among individuals of all ages. Ozone also causes shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing, asthma attacks, increased risk of respiratory infections and increased need for people with lung diseases -- such as children with asthma -- to get medical treatment or be admitted to the hospital. How can a pregnant woman protect herself and her growing fetus from the harm caused by ozone? After all, ozone is usually invisible (except in certain cases, as smog) and high levels are undetectable to the average individual. Summertime air quality alerts may help in some cases, but some pregnant women cannot avoid exposure. In addition, studies confirm that these daily pollution alerts are inadequate to protect our health because they are based on the present federal ozone standard, which does not include evidence from current, critical health science. In other words, the alerts sometimes fail to accurately indicate when the air is dangerous to breathe. Thinking that it's safe to work or play outside when ozone pollution levels trigger a yellow air quality alert (indicating a \"moderate\" level for ozone pollution) can significantly threaten the health of many vulnerable individuals. In order to truly protect our children, we need strong, national standards limiting ozone. Ozone forms in the air from emissions from a number of sources, but the biggest culprits are cars, trucks and other motor vehicles, as well as power plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new ozone standards in November that would bring limits in line with the science. EPA is accepting comments from the public on the standard until Tuesday, March 17, and both of our organizations have expressed support. An updated standard would help ensure we have access to accurate information about the air we breathe, and help drive reductions in ozone pollution to protect the health of all Americans. \u200bStrengthening the ozone standard to reflect the best current science will help save lives and protect our families, including pregnant women and their babies.","highlights":"EPA has proposed stricter ozone standards .\nAuthors: New anti-pollution rules would bring ozone level standards in line with what science tells us .","id":"48c751b1b392376dfef846b9abfa12d7cabddd48"} -{"article":"(CNN)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent speech to the U.S. Congress has received disproportionate media attention across the world: the leader of America's most important client state in the Middle East defies the reservations of the White House, abusing Congress as a platform for his Israeli election campaign. Disregarding Israel's already strained bilateral relations with the United States, Netanyahu readily risked the consequences of humiliating the Obama administration in exchange for less than an hour of political self-manifestation -- typical for a man who is domestically known to be not much of a statesman. Netanyahu is a charismatic speaker and a passionate Israel-advocate, however, his personal and political interests have always taken precedence over serving Israel's national interests. Political survival has been the maxim of his domestic and foreign policies. Netanyahu joins a long list of Israeli politicians overwhelmed by the plurality and polarization of domestic public opinion. So far he has been just another Israeli leader seeking \"easy\" short-term answers to fundamentally strategic problems, thereby further protracting an already protracted conflict. As a puppet of ideological, conservative playmakers who whole-heartedly reject a two-state solution, Netanyahu has been held hostage by the likes of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett who pursue a discriminatory policy of sectarian segregation intending to contain Palestinian public dissidence through mere coercion. Consequently, Netanyahu's foreign policy vis-\u00e0-vis the peace process has been a disaster. He took over from Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni -- two politicians who at least believed in a two-state solution and were ready to make sacrifices to keep the peace process alive. Israeli leaders typically fall into two categories: those who believe in peace and those that have the power to make peace. Olmert was the former, and Netanyahu long seemed like he could become the latter. In reality, however, Netanyahu is neither. He has given in to a toxic form of Jewish nationalism, disregarded Israel's relatively good regional position vis-\u00e0-vis its otherwise-occupied Arab neighbors; he has continued to build settlements out of spite, thought of ever new preconditions for bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians and waged a ruthless war against Gaza without a clear strategic endgame -- a war that was lost militarily and in terms of international reputation. Apart from the tragic effects of Netanyahu's policy on the peace process, his stubbornness has alienated allies in Europe and Washington. While the Arab world has been widely apathetic about the Israel-Palestinian issue amid regional disintegration, partners on both sides of the Atlantic have tried to facilitate the revitalization of constructive peace talks. Yet, Netanyahu chose to ignore external initiatives, retracting to a Jewish nationalist rhetoric founded on security paranoia, self-victimization and the illusion of Israeli autarky in security and defense. As a consequence, Israel's foreign relations with its most important strategic partners have noticeably cooled. Obama's Middle Eastern focus has shifted from the Israel\/Palestinian issue to a rapprochement with Iran. European lawmakers are considering recognizing Palestinian statehood despite Israeli objections. More importantly, many traditionally pro-Israel Western publics have turned their back on the Jewish state. Younger generations in particular refuse to accept the narrative that shaped their parental generation: Israel as the David in a fight against Goliath. Israel's monopoly on victimhood has been undermined by an inflexible, uncompromising short-minded policy towards a Palestinian people under occupation whose narrative of victimhood increasingly finds attentive ears in the West. At first sight, then, the prospect of four more years of Netanyahu, does not sound too promising -- at least in regards to the peace process. At a closer look, however, a continuation of Netanyahu's policies might actually help the Palestinian cause. His implicit rejection of the two-state solution; his prioritization of short-term security over sustainable security solutions; his pursuit of a toxic Jewish nationalist agenda justifying an intensification of sectarianism between Israel and the Occupied Territories as well as within Israel, are all factors that will leave Israel increasingly isolated. His Israel-first narrative might win Netanyahu votes within a highly polarized electorate that in recent years has become more and more right-wing amid a top-down constructed climate of fear. Hamas' and Hezbollah's mid-tech missile capability, Syria's socio-political disintegration and subsequent rise of Islamist non-state actors, have been used by the Netanyahu government to create an Arab bogyman ostensibly threatening the Jewish state's very existence -- a new bogyman coexisting side-by-side with Netanyahu's \"favorite\" bogeyman, Iran. Despite Netanyahu's pre-occupation with security, the derailment of the peace process has not been much of a topic during the campaign so far. If Netanyahu receives another mandate on Tuesday, Israel will be further driven into the international offside, pressure from the West will increase and thereby the Palestinian cause will receive ever more attention and support from policymakers and publics across the world. Netanyahu has become somewhat of a villain in the West -- an untrustworthy, short-sighted politician who in comparison to his counterparts in Ramallah appears to lack the willingness to compromise, cooperate and empathize. Thus, while another term of Bibi will not be in the national interest of Israel, it will very likely serve the Palestinian interests.","highlights":"Political survival has been maxim of Netanyahu's domestic and foreign policies, says Andreas Krieg .\nKrieg: Netanyahu's foreign policy vis-\u00e0-vis the peace process has been disaster .\nNew term for Netanyahu will not be in national interest of Israel, it will serve Palestinian interests, Krieg adds .","id":"8215a8d8dd9d94a4a0b4e01d2161914a1a855f29"} -{"article":"(CNN)What's your company doing this year for March Madness? If your workplace is like most, the answer is a big fat nothing. Instead of leveraging the NCAA's annual tournament and turning it into a genuine bonding experience between colleagues, most organizations pretend it isn't happening. On the surface, ignoring a sporting event that takes place during regular work hours might appear like sound business practice. After all, companies need to generate profit, and it's hard to generate profit when your employees are huddled around a television, right? Wrong. What this perspective overlooks is that productivity isn't simply a function of how many hours we spend at the office. It also depends on the quality of our workplace experience. And one critical feature of that experience is how closely connected we feel to our colleagues. Research has consistently demonstrated that we are more effective at our jobs when we feel attached to the people around us. How do strong colleague relationships elevate our performance? For one thing, they make us more motivated. When you and your colleagues are close, failing to perform your duties generates more than a dissatisfied customer or an unhappy manager -- it means letting down your friends. The social pressure to achieve results can serve as a stronger motivator than anything a boss can say. Closer connections also foster a sense of trust and more candid dialogue. Studies comparing the collaboration patterns of friends to mere acquaintances indicate that friends are more willing to ask for help and more comfortable speaking up when a colleague is off on the wrong track. Performance aside, workplace friendships benefit organizations for another reason: Employees with richer friendships tend to stay on with their company for longer periods of time. Despite these considerable benefits, at most companies, friendships are an afterthought. To motivate employees, managers tend to rely on bonuses, promotions, and salary increases, ignoring the fact that as humans, we all have a basic psychological need for meaningful relationships. Yet the research is clear: When we feel valued and respected by those around us, we're not only more motivated -- we're also happier, healthier, and more productive. For too many organizations, investing in quality employee relationships means one thing: team-building exercises. Think ice breakers, trust falls and scavenger hunts. Every year, corporations spend millions on off-site retreats and weekend getaways packed with cringeworthy activities that purportedly foster better communication. But here's the truth: While awkward collaborations may spark brief experiences of closeness, they rarely translate into lasting friendships. So what does? Studies suggest three factors are essential to the development of authentic, meaningful friendships: familiarity (being around the same colleague often), similarity (finding commonalities in your background), and self-disclosure (revealing personal information about yourself every now and then, and having your co-worker do the same). Few activities include all three of these elements. This explains why close relationships usually take years to develop. But interestingly, office game-viewing parties come close. They present opportunities for colleagues to mingle with those from other departments and connect over shared interests. For many, the NCAA basketball tournament is associated with their experience at college, which leads them to share stories about their past, prompting co-workers to do the same. Unlike team-building experiences that compel employees to engage with one another, game-viewing parties position people to connect voluntarily. And that feature can make all the difference. In recent years, a number of forward-thinking workplaces have begun leveraging March Madness in intelligent ways. Ogilvy & Mather, for example, an international marketing agency based in New York, invites employees to watch tournament games on projection screens in conference rooms and the office cafeteria. To address the fact that not everyone has the time to follow college basketball, a Virginia financial services firm called The Motley Fool offers a free \"Bracketology\" class, where nonenthusiasts can get caught up on this year's favorites and collect advice before filling out their brackets. A number of organizations, including office furniture manufacturer Turnstone, even serve game-day snacks, such as pizza, popcorn, and chicken wings, to simulate the viewing experience of a sports bar, minus the alcohol. In addition to organizing a vibrant workplace gathering, there are also opportunities for making better use of the office tournament pool. Here's one idea: Instead of having employees pay an entry fee (which discourages nonfans from joining in), sponsor prizes so that everyone participates. Then, go beyond recognizing individual contestants and reward the team or department with the highest average score. This way, employees have reason to root for one another, fostering a sense of collaboration. Another approach worth considering: using the office pool as a motivational tool. Some years ago, NetTel Partners, a sales organization in Philadelphia, launched a competition among its salespeople in the weeks before the NCAA tournament. The more appointments a salesperson secured with potential clients, the sooner he or she could select a team in the office draft. The results were astonishing. Total cost to NetTel for furnishing prizes: $300, plus the price of a personalized basketball jersey. Total impact on the business: a 35% jump in appointments, not to mention a boost in office morale. As the NCAA tournament tips off this month, organizational leaders would be wise to re-examine their approach to March Madness. Instead of treating the tournament as a nuisance that prevents employees from working, perhaps it's time we considered embracing it for what it is: an inexpensive opportunity for bringing our work teams closer together. Without the trust falls.","highlights":"Friedman: Companies should encourage their employees to bond over NCAA tournament games .\nResearch shows the value of cultivating friendships among co-workers .","id":"bc92f08cb6ec54303296d2de7108e189235a4330"} -{"article":"(CNN)The sounds recorded on one of the \"black boxes\" recovered from downed Germanwings Flight 9525 firms up investigators' theory that the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and then crashed the plane. \"For God's sake, open the door!\" Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer screamed as he banged on the cockpit door, pleading with the co-pilot. Thirteen minutes later, the plane slammed into the French Alps. The audio from the plane's cockpit voice recorder has not been released, but the German newspaper Bild published Sunday what it claims is a summary of the transcript from the recording. CNN translated Bild's report -- which the newspaper says is based on the 1.5 hours of audio that was on the cockpit voice recorder -- but cannot independently verify the information. France's accident investigation agency, BEA, told CNN that the agency is \"dismayed\" by the voice recording leak to Bild. Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the leak could not have come from a BEA agent. She said the agency considers the report mere \"voyeurism.\" According to Bild's report, Sondenheimer told co-pilot Andreas Lubitz that he didn't manage to go to the bathroom before takeoff. Lubitz tells him he can go anytime. Lubitz is believed to have locked the pilot of Flight 9525 out of the cockpit before putting the plane on a rapid descent into the mountains, French authorities have said. The flight took off 20 minutes late. After reaching cruising altitude, Sondenheimer asked Lubitz to prepare the landing. Once that's finished, Lubitz again tells the captain he \"can go anytime.\" There is the sound of a seat being pushed backward after which the captain says, \"You can take over.\" At 10:29 a.m., air traffic radar detects that the plane is starting to descend. Three minutes later, air traffic controllers try to contact the plane and receive no answer -- shortly after which an alarm goes off in the cockpit, warning of the \"sink rate,\" Bild reported. Next comes the banging. Sondenheimer begs Lubitz to let him in. Passengers then begin to scream, according to the transcript obtained by Bild. Another three minutes pass. A loud metallic bang is heard at 7,000 meters (almost 23,000 feet). A minute and half later and 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) lower to the ground, an alarm says \"Terrain -- pull up!\" \"Open the damn door!\" the pilot says. It's 10:38, and the plane is at 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet). Lubitz's breathing can still be heard on the voice recorder, according to Bild's report. Two minutes later, investigators think they hear the plane's right wing scrape a mountaintop. Screams can be heard one final time. Cockpit recordings are some of the most sensitive and closely held parts of aviation crash investigations. They're never officially released, according to CNN aviation reporter Richard Quest. Quest called it \"unbelievable\" that the black box audio would be leaked in this manner. Communications between air traffic control and a plane's cockpit can be downloaded privately, but that's less common in Europe than it is in the United States. An edited and redacted version of the transcript is usually published in part of a final report on an incident. Although search teams have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder remains missing. That device could reveal crucial details about what happened during the final moments of the flight. Jean Pierre Michel, lead investigator for the French inquiry, said on Saturday that investigators are not ruling out any scenario with respect to the crash out at this point. But French authorities have said that Lubitz appeared to have crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately into the Alps on Tuesday as it flew from Barcelona, Spain, toward Dusseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board. Much attention has focused on Lubitz's state of mind since then, with suggestions that he may have had mental health issues. Lubitz, 27, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination in summer 2014, a German aviation source told CNN. An official with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health. The official also said that the company was never given any indication Lubitz was depressed, and that if he went to a doctor on his own, he would have been required to self-report if deemed unfit to fly. A Dusseldorf clinic said he'd gone there twice, most recently on March 10, \"concerning a diagnosis.\" But the University Clinic said it had not treated Lubitz for depression. The speculation about Lubitz' mental state is based on a letter found in a waste bin in his Dusseldorf apartment. The note, which was \"slashed,\" said Lubitz was not able to do his job, city prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said Friday. The fact that investigators found \"ripped, recent medical leave notes, including for the day of the offense, leads to the preliminary conclusion that the deceased kept his illness secret from his employer and his professional environment,\" prosecutors said. Germanwings corroborated that assertion, saying it had never received a sick note from Lubitz. A handful of publications, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Lubitz suffered from various psychological maladies. CNN has not been able to confirm these reports. Lubitz suffered from \"generalized anxiety disorder,\" and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday, citing sources close to the investigation. In 2010, Lubitz received injections of antipsychotic medication, the paper said. He was also prescribed a medication that influences neurotransmitters, but it's unclear when that happened, according to Le Parisien. The newspaper said investigators found a handful of pills in his apartment in addition to two sick notes, which forbade him from working from March 16 to March 29. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Lubitz suffered from mental illness and kept his diagnosis concealed from his employer. A subsequent report from the Times on Saturday, citing two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz sought treatment before the crash for vision problems that might have put his career at risk. However, an official with Lufthansa, said that if Lubitz had vision problems, they would have been discovered during his pilot recertification medical examination. Authorities have not ruled out the vision problems could have been psychosomatic, according to the Times. Citing an unidentified senior investigator, German newspaper Die Welt said that Lubitz suffered from a severe \"psychosomatic illness\" and that German police seized prescription drugs that treat the condition. Lubitz suffered from a \"severe subjective burnout syndrome\" and from severe depression, the source told the newspaper. News reports also stated that antidepressants were found during the search of his apartment. Investigators are expected to question his relatives, friends and co-workers as they try to pin down what could have prompted the co-pilot to steer a jetliner full of people into a mountainside. Lubitz had a girlfriend, a teacher at a school in Dusseldorf not far from his apartment, according to German media. Who was co-pilot Andreas Lubitz? Dozens of people attended a remembrance ceremony Saturday for the victims of the crash at a church in a nearby town, Digne-les-Bains, France. Most of the people on the plane were from Germany and Spain. Relatives of the victims and local residents also gathered Saturday afternoon by a simple stone memorial set up near the crash site, in the village of Le Vernet. Flowers have been laid there, in the shadow of the snow-covered peaks of the French Alps. The mayor of one local community said he had seen Lubitz's father on Thursday evening, describing him as \"a man in deep distress.\" \"We get the impression that that man is bearing the whole weight of the disaster on his shoulders,\" Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bleone, said Saturday. \"I can tell that this is a man whose life is totally broken,\" Bartolini said. \"He had so much emotion in him.\" CNN's Steve Almasy, Laura Smith-Spark, Frederik Pleitgen, Sandrine Amiel, Jethro Mullen, Lynn Franco, Margot Haddad and Tim Lister contributed to this report.","highlights":"France's accident investigation agency, BEA, \"dismayed\" by the voice recording leak .\nGerman newspaper Bild releases a timeline of the flight's final moments .\nAndreas Lubitz suffered from \"generalized anxiety disorder,\" and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reports .","id":"a3f70ed2c5c9cec8d56964a3f819fdb7cc1d1664"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)Hillary Clinton is pressing the reset button -- yet again. She's quietly fighting back a week after her awkward and occasionally combative news conference on the furor over the private email server she used while running the State Department. Clinton's Twitter account is buzzing this week with posts that test political messages on health care, college affordability, civil rights and jobs -- issues she hopes will help mobilize President Barack Obama's Democratic coalition and pave her way to the presidency. Meanwhile, her nascent operation is leaking details of future staffers in an unmistakeable message to Democrats spooked by the email flap that the campaign-in-waiting will become an official effort, possibly as soon as next month. A CNN\/ORC International Poll out on Wednesday found that she's miles ahead of any potential Democratic challenger and would beat all potential Republican candidates by at least 10 points. Despite fretting among some Democrats who worried that the party's best -- and perhaps only -- viable Democratic candidate appeared to be in trouble, early signs suggest Clinton is doing what the Clintons do best: mounting a comeback. \"The interest in the story is collapsing onto itself. I don't see an organic clamoring for more information,\" said a longtime Clinton ally who didn't want to speak for a campaign that hasn't yet been announced. This person, who has spent time in Iowa, argued that outside the community of political reporters and consultants in Washington and New York who fixated on the story, the people who really count -- voters -- weren't really interested. \"People very much want to know what the campaign is going to be about ... what is she going to do about student loan costs, for example?\" Tharon Johnson, a Democratic strategist who was Southern regional director of Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, agreed. \"If and when Hillary Clinton decides to run, she will have to address this issue, but I believe the American people are more interested in her addressing the kitchen table issues that matter most to them,\" he said. Of course, Clinton still faces plenty of challenges and the email saga raised questions about whether she can run a more sophisticated, no drama campaign than the one she managed in 2008. But the CNN poll revealed that those critical of Clinton's role in the email affair appear to break close to party lines and her favorable rating remains at 53%. A slow recent decline in that rating appears to coincide with Clinton's slow re-entry into partisan politics and does not necessarily reflect her recent stumbles. Perhaps the most intriguing figure in the poll is that only 1% of respondents had never heard of Clinton. That supports the idea expressed by some Democrats that Clinton may be the most vetted figure in public life. There are people who will never vote for her and those who are dedicated to her quest to be the first female president, but very few whose minds may not be made up. A less well-known candidate might have made a terrible first impression if faced with the kind of hyper-covered flap Clinton was. But Republicans believe the email scandal could be a political gift that keeps on giving, as it touches on a narrative that the Clintons are secretive, resistant to transparency and often blur the rules. There are also other problems -- including the question of foreign funds sent to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton's whopper speaking fees -- that Republicans believe could reach a political mass and fan doubts about the likely Democratic nominee's character. Then there are the foreign policy questions, including a now damaging photo op in which Clinton offered a \"reset\" button to Russia only for the country to revert to a Cold War-esque posture. She was also a central player in Obama's foreign policy, which often appears to be overtaken by the Middle East's swift descent into chaos. \"For everything that I can see, the Democrats have put all of their eggs in one basket here,\" said Sean Spicer, communications director of the Republican National Committee. \"That is more of a downfall in the general election than in the primary.\" Spicer argued that even with younger voters, who do not remember the Clinton years, the question of impropriety over her emails could provide an entry point into past scandals. Though Clinton is the prohibitive Democratic front-runner, her support in the party is not universal. But where she faces resistance, it is more likely to be over policy than emails, as grass-roots Democrats are suspicious over her centrist, pro-business and hawkish foreign policy leanings. \"As this discussion was playing out inside the Beltway, our members were focused on issues,\" said Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org, which wants Elizabeth Warren to challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Galland said activists were preoccupied with the preservation of the social safety net, constraining Wall Street and those on the \"ragged edge\" of the middle class. Similarly, the young voters who flocked to Obama in 2008 and who will be crucial to Clinton's hopes of mobilizing an effective Democratic coalition in 2016 may also offer Clinton a political cushion. This group is hazy over historic references to long ago Clinton scandals like Filegate, Travelgate and even the Monica Lewinsky episode that led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment. \"The media loves a Clinton scandal,\" said one Democratic source who didn't want to be named because he doesn't work for Clinton. \"But young people are more likely to know her as secretary of state, and someone who ran for president in 2008.\" Polling bears out the theory. The CNN survey shows Clinton's favorability among voters age 18 to 34 with a 22 point positive differential. But she's barely in positive territory among voters age 50 to 64, who are likely to have strong memories of her time as first lady, and is underwater among those 60 or older. Another well-connected Democrat who didn't want to go on the record criticizing Clinton admitted that the email issue did play into GOP caricatures about the allegedly \"conspiratorial\" politicians and that it could challenge the former secretary of state's early efforts to get her message out about her ideas and rationale for running for president. But Democratic operatives think that once Clinton is actually running, with an infrastructure behind her, and striking messages about the minimum wage, college debt and middle-class economic issues, voters will engage. In many ways, the email furor was a story the media couldn't wait to write, so it may be that journalists have inflated the importance of the episode, at least in the absence of any evidence that Clinton broke the law or made classified information vulnerable. Political reporters have pined for weeks for Clinton to swing her campaign into action, and her failure to offer a storyline opened a vacuum that was easy for unflattering stories to fill. Her slow response breathed new life into a question that only Clinton can answer: Will her 2016 campaign be as dysfunctional, reactive and distracted as her chaotic and unsuccessful 2008 effort? But there were a few lessons. It's clear the Clinton machine is not about to morph into a humming, scandal-free effort in the image of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign. And Clinton's bitter relationship with political reporters seems as bad as ever. The days when she partied with a State Department press corps more preoccupied with policy than politics seem like ancient history. But here also, Clinton is trying a reset. Her nascent campaign has made it known that she is staffing up her campaign and press operation. John Podesta, who is expected to take a leadership role in her campaign, is respected by reporters, as is Jennifer Palmieri, the outgoing White House communications director expected to take on a similar role for Clinton. On Tuesday, it emerged that Clinton would name Brian Fallon, who has also good ties with reporters, to be lead press secretary.","highlights":"Hillary Clinton fights to put furor over a private email server behind her .\nEarly signs suggest Clinton is doing what the Clintons do best: mounting a comeback .","id":"e5594b30e42ecef06ea9117892a707592f62ca4d"} -{"article":"(CNN)NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has started a trip to the record books. He plans to spend 342 days on the International Space Station -- the longest stretch of time any U.S. astronaut has spent in space. Kelly lifted off Friday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket that launched from Kazakhstan. The rocket docked at the ISS at 9:33 p.m. ET, according to a tweet from NASA, with hatches between the Soyuz and the space station scheduled to open about 11:15 p.m. ET. Kelly will stay twice as long as any U.S. astronaut has ever stayed on the space station, giving scientists a chance to study how the human body responds to long-duration space flights. On Earth, scientists will perform parallel studies on Scott Kelly's identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly. \"It's a lot of fun,\" Kelly said at a media briefing in January. \"Space station is a magical place.\" Two cosmonauts are riding up with Kelly: Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka. Kornienko also will stay up for a year. Padalka will only stay up for six months. The trio will join three crew members already on the space station: U.S. astronaut Terry Virts, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Other crew members also will rotate in and out during their year in orbit so it will never be just Kelly and Kornienko on the station. Kelly, 51, hopes to break the record for the longest mission on the space station set by NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. They spent over seven months on the ISS -- from September 18, 2006, to April 21, 2007. He is expected to spend 342 days off the planet on this mission. When added to his previous space missions, that would give him a total of 522 days in space, breaking the record of U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke. Fincke spent a combined 381 days, 15 hours and 11 minutes in space, according to his official NASA bio. While Kelly shoots to set space station and other U.S. records, Padalka is on schedule to set a record for the most total time in space for a human. He's already spent more than 710 days in space, including stays on Russia's Mir space station and three previous stints on the International Space Station. Why do it? Why stay up on the station so long? NASA wants to know more about the impact of long-duration spaceflights on the human body to help plan missions to Mars and deeper into space. And the space station, in orbit 250 miles above Earth, is the best place available to study that. Spending that much time in a weightless environment will take a toll. NASA says space station astronauts have vision changes, bone loss, muscle atrophy and other problems. NASA says the experiments should have benefits on Earth, such as helping patients recover from long periods of bed rest to improved monitoring of people whose bodies are unable to fight infections. The space station has about the same living space as a six-bedroom, two bathroom house. And it has a 360-degree bay window with a great view. But astronauts and cosmonauts still report feeling isolated and confined at times. Kelly will document his feelings about being away from his two children and the rest of his family. \"I'm going to keep a personal journal of the experience,\" Kelly said. He also will share some of his journal with researchers studying the psychological impacts of long-term space flight. Will he tell all? \"I plan to be completely honest about it,\" he said, but ... \"who knows, maybe there are some crazy thoughts I'll have at the end that I wouldn't want to share.\" Mark Kelly has volunteered for NASA's \"Twins Study\" to see how the identical twins change over the year in two very different environments. He is the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who left office after being wounded in a January 2011 assassination attempt. \"He thinks it's great that he can still be a participant in this,\" Scott Kelly said. So Mark will be on Earth getting poked and prodded by researchers -- while Scott makes history in orbit. Final candidates announced for one-way trip to Mars .","highlights":"Scott Kelly aims to set a record for longest stay on the International Space Station .\nRussian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka will add to his all-time human spaceflight record .","id":"614eb283cbec592a063f7314b5f4476b1053c11a"} -{"article":"(CNN)Roberto Mancini says he carries Manchester City's supporters in his heart -- but there's not much love being shown towards the man who replaced him as manager of the Premier League champions. Manuel Pellegrini is a man feeling the heat -- and the current City manager has come under fire from his predecessor just 24 hours after insisting he is not under pressure to win a trophy every season. Mancini, the man who led Manchester City to its first Premier League title in 44 years back in 2012 says Pellegrini is \"lucky\" to have inherited the side he left behind after being sacked exactly a year to the day since winning England's top division. Pellegrini, who led City to the domestic title last season, is under fire with City trailing Chelsea by six points in the league and facing elimination in the European Champions League. \"I think Pellegrini was really lucky because he got this team that is a strong team and he has a chance to put in more good players,\" Inter Milan coach Mancini told CNN's Don Riddell on the eve of City's crucial game with Barcelona in the Champions League. \"I think City can win a title every year and have a chance -- it should and must try to win a title every year.\" Nicknamed \"the Engineer,\" Pellegrini has seen the wheels come off his side's title charge in recent weeks. The Chilean is reportedly on the brink with his team having apparently surrendered its Premier League title with another meek showing in the 1-0 defeat by minnow Burnley last weekend. His team have managed just three victories in their past 11 games -- its season could be more or less over by tomorrow night. City faces a daunting task to reach the last eight of the European Champions League -- a competition it has struggled in despite spending $482 million on players since the start of the 2011-12 season. It must overturn a 2-1 deficit against Barcelona at Camp Nou on Wednesday after being outplayed for the majority of the home fixture. Only once in nine attempts has Barcelona won the first leg of a two-legged Champions League knockout tie and not progressed. Pellegrini has spent heavily since arriving at City but a number of those purchases have failed to impress. Eliaquim Mangala, who arrived from Porto for $47million has endured a dismal first season in English football, while $32million man Stevan Jovetic has also struggled to make an impression since arriving from Fiorentina. \"It's my opinion that City is the best team in the Premier League,\" said Mancini. \"It's in second and six points behind Chelsea but I think it's the best team. \"In the Premier League anything can happen right up to the last game, in the last minute,\" perhaps a nod to City's last gasp English Premier League title win in 2012, thanks to Sergio Aguero's stoppage time winner against Queens Park Rangers. \"I think they should think that they have a chance to win the title.\" Mancini, who replaced Mark Hughes in December 2009, enjoyed great success during his three-and-half-year tenure. He led the club to the FA Cup in 2011 before winning the league title the following season. Under Mancini, the club attracted star players such as Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, David Silva and Aguero. He signed a new five-year deal with the club in July 2012 but results dipped with rival Manchester United regaining the league title and City suffering a shock FA Cup final defeat by Wigan. Mancini was criticised for his side's lack of success in the Champions League, where the failure to negotiate the group stage playing a key role in the decision to relieve him of his duties. The Italian, 50, was also involved in a series of high-profile disagreements with Carlos Tevez, the Argentina striker, which cast doubts over his ability to handle the big names in the City squad. In the 12 Champions League ties under his stewardship, City managed just three victories -- a damning indictment on the team's failure on the European stage. At the time of his sacking, the club said that Mancini failed to hit \"stated targets\" and that it wanted to \"develop a holistic approach to all aspects of football\". \"I had a fantastic time in England,\" he added. \"We won the Premier League after many years. I have all City's supporters in my heart and all those moments in my head because it is impossible to forget this. \"Maybe I miss the Premier League because I worked there for three-and-a-half years. I built the team that is now in second position. \"I think they play with the same players and I am very proud of this.\" Mancini faces a struggle of his own at Inter with the club unlikely to qualify for European competition next season. Inter is eighth in Serie A and is eight points off the qualifying places for the Europa League. It faces German side Wolfsburg in the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday having lost the first leg 3-1.","highlights":"Roberto Mancini says Manchester City still the best team in the Premier League .\nItalian says City should win a title every year .\nManuel Pellegrini under growing pressure at club .\nCity faces Barcelona in Champions League on Wednesday .","id":"c113b79356a82d26537187d65ab047cb7cb4822b"} -{"article":"(CNN)The desert and dun-colored cliffs around the town of Tataouine were once the backdrop for the movie \"Star Wars,\" much of which was filmed in this neglected corner of Tunisia in 1976. This struggling town on the fringes of the Sahara still draws a few fans of the movie but now finds itself part of a real conflict, as a way-station for jihadists crossing the Libyan border 60 miles to the east. Earlier this month, before the gun attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis, three young men were arrested here as they allegedly made plans to cross into Libya to join a terrorist network. A local official told CNN they had since been taken to Tunis for questioning. Two arms caches have also been found in the region this month, one of which included rocket-propelled grenade launchers and more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition, thought to have been removed from a Libyan armory in the aftermath of Moammar Gadhafi's ouster in 2011. Driving near the border, it's quickly obvious why the Tunisian government is so anxious about Libya's implosion and the emergence there of an ISIS affiliate whose tentacles stretch half-way across the country. This open space is vast and sparsely populated. Smugglers' tracks criss-cross the endless scrub and steep, arid hills that run along the border. Gasoline, drugs and other contraband have long been smuggled across the frontier. Near the town of Remada, south of Tataouine, a couple of soldiers manned a checkpoint. They wore protective jackets -- whether for show or because of the perceived threat from Islamist militants, it's hard to know. When we arrived, passports were requested and phone calls made. We were escorted into the town and politely but firmly told we could go no further without written authorization. Exactly four years ago we had passed through Remada unchallenged. Tunisians had just launched the Arab Spring. There was a mood of heady optimism and the security apparatus of the Ben Ali regime had melted away. But already Libya was falling apart, as different groups of rebels fought to oust Gadhafi. Thousands of foreign workers were then trying to escape the violence through the few official border crossings. Now Libya's descent into chaos means those crossings are sometimes closed, and it's foreign fighters using the smugglers' trails that Tunisia must worry about. At the national guard building in Remada the officer in charge -- a burly figure in his mid-40s - was wearing a \"New York 1999\" sweatshirt and appeared to be one of many plainclothes security personnel in the town. He was happy to talk but didn't want his name reported. Ignoring calls on his cell phone, he lamented the state of the Arab world and the expansion of Daesh, as ISIS is frequently called. Look at Iraq, Syria, Libya....of course Tunisia is threatened, he said. The Tunisians are doing what they can, he said. There is now a 1.8-mile no-go zone inside the border, and the military has built fortified positions every couple of miles. The security presence has been boosted seven- to ten-fold, but even so there weren't enough men or equipment. The border, after all, is 380 miles long. A much wider buffer zone -- 12 miles deep -- has also been created, which people can only enter with permission. This has not gone down well with local herders whose goats and sheep live off the desert scrub. Other measures taken by the Tunisian authorities, according to the official in Remada, include a ban on men aged 18-35 from going to Libya unless they have residence papers and proof of employment there. Another source said the ban applied to men under 30. Even so the two gunmen who stormed into the Bardo Museum last week -- both of them in their twenties -- had been able to cross illicitly into Libya in December, according to Tunisian State Security Minister Rafik Chelly. Chelly told a Tunisian network that the pair had received weapons training in the ISIS stronghold of Derna. The mood among many Tunisians seems much harder and more pragmatic than it was four years ago. A shopkeeper in a small village between Tataouine and Remada said there needs to be a security crackdown. He said people in the area led simple lives -- but they knew each other and noticed strangers. Bassim, a taxi driver on the island of Djerba, some 60 miles to the north of Tataouine, was of a similar view. \"The people need to be the third eye of the security forces\" he said. \"And we need to think of the safety of visitors like we think of the safety of our families.\" Bassim and hundreds of thousands of other Tunisians have reason to be worried. They rely on tourism to make a living, and fear that ISIS will -- as it has threatened -- launch further attacks against foreigners visiting Libya. Bassim ferries tourists around Djerba, whose luxury hotels and beaches are a popular destination for French and German tourists. It took the tourist industry years to recover from a terror attack on a synagogue on the island in 2002 in which 21 people were killed. Bassim says he's heard all too many horror stories about events in Libya from the oil workers he took to Djerba's airport. Others, mainly in the capital Tunis, are apprehensive that the democratic gains of four years ago may be eroded or lost in a new security clampdown. They point to new anti-terrorism legislation that strengthens detention powers and the right of the authorities to monitor suspects' phones and social media. The measure was being discussed in parliament Wednesday when the attack was launched on the adjacent museum. Tunisians say their country is at a crossroads as it tries to fend off the jihadist contagion seeping across North Africa. Their democracy is young and vulnerable. \"We want to be the hope of the Arab world,\" said Bassim, \"like we were four years ago.\" \"We still have hope, but now we have fear too.\"","highlights":"Tataouine, near \"Star Wars\" set, lies just 60 miles from the Libyan border .\nTunisian officials worry about the area because of its proximity to Libya, and ISIS .","id":"7a84783a2628fed1d86957aa6d010a21911c47cb"} -{"article":"(CNN)December 16, 2014 was a dark day, not just in our nation's history, but the world's. Young innocent children were brutally massacred in a school in Peshawar along with their teachers. It shook a nation that had already seen more than 55,000 of its innocent civilians die in the hands of terrorism in the last 10 years, to a whole new level. Naturally, I was in no less despair. Hailing from a humble background, where both my parents have served in the field of education their entire lives, the strong emphasis on education in our house was probably another reason why this incident had affected me so deeply. READ MORE: Bloodstains, bullet holes mark Peshawar classrooms . I canceled my tours and concerts and couldn't gather myself to do much in coming weeks. However, being an artist, I had to express myself; even more so because I have always believed that an artist should be more than a tool for his art to resonate through. He must also resonate the voice of his surroundings by being socially aware and strive to contribute to his environment for the better in whatever little or large manner that he decides for himself. I thought that each one of us needed to wake up to this call and help and inspire the other to do more for our future. So I picked up the phone and started calling all my colleagues from film, fashion, TV and music. I was pleasantly surprised that all of them agreed with my initiative and came on board without a second thought on such a short notice. We all got together because we all want a progressive, peaceful, tolerant and positive Pakistan. And the response to the song and video further solidified my belief that every Pakistani wants the same. They just need someone to show them the way. And to me, education is the way forward. It's the the key to progress and peace. I also feel that there is a lot more to Pakistan than what the world gets to see. Pakistan is a beautiful land with beautiful people who -- like those in any other nation -- want to live in harmony with themselves and the world. A place where people sing, dance and play. Unfortunately because of an extremist minority, it is sometimes seen as an extremist country. But no society is void of extremism in one way or the other. This is something that we all need to work towards -- the international community and us. Pakistan needs your help. It has been fighting this battle for years and lost countless lives in the process. Its economy has also suffered. The world needs to see Pakistan in a whole different light to help us out of this darkness. They need to partner with us towards progress. They need to understand the complexities of this society and the fact that it's not easy to survive through all that this country has been through. Today the entire nation stands as one for this cause. And that is what I have tried to show the world in this video. A Pakistan that stands united to make sure that the lives of those innocent children did not go to waste. I also didn't want this to be just a song. I wanted to practically help towards a cause dear to me -- education. So, I collaborated with a leading Pakistani educational non-profit organization, The Citizens Foundation (TCF) and 141schools.org (141 SCHOOLS), a new citizen web movement. Together, they are building 141 schools across Pakistan. Each school will be dedicated to the children and teachers who lost their lives in attack on December 16, 2014. All proceeds from the downloads of the song will go towards building schools for the children of Pakistan and ensuring a bright future. I aspire to build at least one school which would cost around 20.7 million pkr ($202,900). If you want to help, click here.","highlights":"Taliban gunmen attacked a school in Peshawar, Pakistan killing more than 140 people .\nPopular singer Ali Zafar says the massacre took violence in Pakistan to a new level and affected him deeply .\nZafar says he has expressed himself through music and is trying to raise money for schools .","id":"058463ca59a6e6386e14fc865fe4762fcf189489"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Captain America\" actor Chris Evans met some \"true superheroes\" on Saturday at Seattle Children's Hospital in a visit with \"Guardians of the Galaxy\" star Chris Pratt. It was their second hospital visit as part of a Super Bowl bet that ended in a win for everyone. The bet: If Pratt's team -- the Seattle Seahawks -- won the Super Bowl, Evans would visit Seattle Children's Hospital dressed as Captain America. If Evans' team -- the New England Patriots -- won, Pratt would visit Christopher's Haven in Boston dressed as \"Guardians of the Galaxy\" character Star-Lord, wearing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's jersey. Even though the Patriots won, the two Chrises visited both hospitals. Pratt wore his Star-Lord costume to visit Boston Children's Hospital in February, and Evans donned his Captain America duds to visit Seattle Children's on Saturday, bearing gifts in the form of Marvel action figures and accessories. \"Meeting Captain America and Star-Lord is an experience our patients will always remember,\" Seattle Children's said. \"The kids were beyond excited to meet Captain America and Star-Lord.\" The superhero actors met Oskar Beechum, 7, who has been at Seattle Children's for four months for epilepsy treatment. \"Meeting them was a nice reprieve for us,\" Oskar's mom Kelli Beechum said. \"So many of our visitors are doctors, and the conversations are medical. I can't wait to watch the Captain America movie with Oskar. It will be like he knows him personally now.\" The visit made an impression on Evans, too, who said he felt inspired, blessed and touched after meeting \"some TRUE super heroes!\"","highlights":"Chris Evans, Chris Pratt visit young patients at Seattle Children's Hospital .\nThe pair visited children's hospital in Boston in February in Super Bowl bet .","id":"2984280983cf3c3302f922504f1255146caf84a0"} -{"article":"(CNN)In the midst of all the shouting over Indiana's new religious-freedom law, which many fear will lead to increased discrimination against LGBT people, culture warriors marked the grim anniversary of another conservative \"victory,\" one that left more than 10,000 needy children without their pledged financial support. A year ago this week, I rose each morning with red, puffy eyes and heavy sense of exhaustion. I hadn't slept soundly since March 26, a day many of my friends and readers mark as the last day they wanted anything to do with organized Christianity. It all started when World Vision, a humanitarian organization I had long supported and promoted, announced a change to its hiring policy allowing people in same-sex marriages to work in its U.S. offices. In response, conservative evangelicals rallied, and within 72 hours, more than 10,000 children had lost their financial support from canceled World Vision sponsorships. Ten-thousand children. In addition, funding for schools, hospitals, water projects, and medical care was threatened as churches vowed to cut off support to an organization that hired LGBT people. As one of my readers, Anthony, recalls, \"Our church leadership vowed that they would pull all support, including over $2 million to build two hospitals in Zambia.\" To try and stem some of the bleeding, I joined with other World Vision bloggers to encourage my readers to sponsor children or make one-time donations to the organization. We had raised several thousand dollars and multiple sponsorships -- many coming from gay and lesbian couples -- when the CEO of World Vision announced the charity would reverse its decision and return to its old policies discriminating against gay and lesbian employees. It had worked. Using wells and hospitals and child sponsorships as bargaining chips in the culture wars had actually worked. Never in my life had I been so angry at my own faith tradition. Many conservative evangelicals count the World Vision reversal as a major victory in the culture wars. Eric Teetsel, director of the Manhattan Declaration, told Christianity Today he considered it \"the best news of 2014\" for evangelical Christians. \"This was Christianity at its best,\" he said. But as I survey the battlefield a year later, I can't help but wonder if even the most strident culture warriors would consider the World Vision campaign worth its many casualties. There are, of course, the families around the world affected by the sudden drying up of funds meant to support their hospitals and schools, not to mention the kids who used to receive letters and gifts from their sponsors, but whose pictures were casually ripped from the refrigerator and tossed into the garbage can once they were deemed expendable collateral in an American political battle. Then there are the many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, (especially LGBT Christians caught in the middle), for whom the campaign represented yet another blow to their humanity. I remember a gay friend of mine telling me, through tears, \"Christians don't even think I'm worthy of answering phones in the office of a humanitarian organization. What makes them think I would be welcome in their churches?\" And then there are the many Christians and former Christians for whom the World Vision campaign was the final straw in a drawn-out disillusionment with organized religion. When I marked the anniversary with a Facebook status on the topic, I was surprised by how many of my readers marked March 26 as the day they left the church. \"I don't think I can ever get over this,\" wrote Kelly. \"Changed my views on evangelicalism and my faith forever.\" Anthony, who once taught Sunday school at his church, only rarely attends now. This is the tragic irony of the culture wars: The casualties tend to be the very people Jesus went out of his way to serve: the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the outcasts, the people ostracized and deemed \"sinners\" by the religious elite. And when the world sees Christians hurting rather than helping such people, in the name of political gain, our testimony is profoundly diminished. We have lost the way of Jesus when we are more committed to self-preservation than service, more occupied with waging war than washing feet. In all likelihood, Indiana's religious-freedom law will not directly affect many people. But the conversation that has surrounded it, in which discrimination against LGBT people has been characterized as a \"deeply held religious belief,\" will have far more lasting effects, not unlike the effects of the campaign against World Vision. So to the culture warriors, I plead: Before you wage the next campaign, assess the potential collateral damage and ask yourself if it's worth it. Remember that the fruit of the Spirit is not power or might, influence or entitlement. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, and \"against such things, there is no law\" (Galatians 5:23). And to the wounded, I offer only this: You are not alone. Please know there are field medics -- pastors and priests, artists and activists, poets and parents and healers and dreamers -- ready to welcome you back to faith and to church whenever you're ready. We can walk the long road to healing together, even if it's with a limp.","highlights":"Indiana's religious freedom law will not directly affect many people, but conversation around it, will have lasting effects, writes Held Evans .\nThe casualties of the culture wars tend to be the very people Jesus went out of his way to serve, says Evans .","id":"ec0d3753a74f30f8c6fb0374caf3dbf3b8732643"} -{"article":"London (CNN)Tunisia's ultra-radical fringe has come back to bite a government born out of the most successful experiment in constitutional reform to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions. Wednesday's attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis was grimly predictable, coming from what the Tunisian Interior Ministry calls a violent ultra-radical Islamist fringe forced underground -- but not crushed -- by security services. Jihadist firebrands representing thousands of active militants at home and abroad have been threatening retribution on Tunisia's outward-looking, investment-friendly majority. The attack was carried out by two gunmen, believed to have been supported by at least two accomplices. It may torpedo efforts to revive Tunisia's employment-generating tourism industry and may discourage other big-spending visitors. It will probably lead Tunisians -- who have shown a sage propensity to unite in the face of greatest adversity despite a marked appetite for political bickering -- to support a robust response by elected President Beji Caid Essebsi. The attack adds to the global narrative by which Islamic revolutionaries -- increasingly flying under the flag of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) -- pose an existential crisis to moderate states, often Western allies, in the Arab world. Tunisia is the sole country to have emerged from an Arab Spring revolution with its political process intact -- current president, Essebsi, who was elected in November 2014, and his ruling coalition, are the products of a long constitutional process. In four tumultuous years they have competed hard with, but also showed a capacity to work with, opposition parties, led by the \"moderate Islamist\" Ennahda, which is represented in government and parliament. Islamists of a very different hue were responsible for the Bardo attack. Local Salafist groups (of whom the best known is Ansar Al-Sharia) as well as multinational units including ISIS have been most effective in recruiting disaffected young Tunisians in the capital's poorer quarters and in dusty towns of the south and interior, where the original revolution that removed Ben Ali in February 2011 surged up. Legitimate claims for more jobs and resources in these underprivileged areas during the four subsequent years have largely come to nothing, adding to frustrations. Radical jihadists -- some with back bases in Libya and Algeria -- have posed a major security challenge to successive governments, murdering two prominent \"secular\" politicians in 2013. The Tunisian armed forces, supported by Algeria's more experienced and better equipped military, have been fighting jihadist radicals in the Mount Chaambi region for nearly three years. They have yet to declare final victory, pointing to the resilience of underground groups. While successive governments have acted against radical Salafist groups, thousands of Tunisians have gone underground; they are widely believed to make up the biggest national group fighting with jihadists in Syria (over 3,000 by many accounts), and are present in Libya and other failing states. In January 2013, Tunisians and Libyans made up the majority of jihadists who attacked a strategic gas plant operated by BP and Statoil in southern Algeria. So, the Bardo attackers are a known enemy. Prime Minister Habib Essid has promised a robust security response. But the Tunis tragedy is unlikely to have any immediate impact on the political process. A majority of Tunisians remain foursquare behind preserving \"republican institutions,\" even if they vocally disagree on the detail of policy. It will remind Tunisia's many friends that the country's transition is brittle, and that Tunis needs commitments of support to become reality, with more military and wider financial assistance, and, above all, investment that can kickstart an economy in the doldrums since 2011. Massacre at the Bardo places Tunisia more centrally within the global ISIS narrative, which has recently expanded to neighboring Libya. It is a ghastly way to remind the world that Tunisia's experiment in democratic reform needs all the help it can get.","highlights":"Jon Marks: Ultra-radical fringe has previously threatened Tunisia's liberal majority .\nMajority of Tunisians likely to support robust response from president, he writes .\nAttacks a reminder that Tunisia's transition to democracy is \"brittle,\" Marks says .","id":"8ddd79adc0c21b44fc37917f9120b5d90b5dac52"} -{"article":"(CNN)The debate over health care reform once again blooms in D.C., but this time Democrats and the President whose legacy rests on the Affordable Care Act are tending a garden challenged by some rather invasive species. The GOP has kicked off its season by pulling Obamacare up by the roots in its proposed 2016 House budget. But this budget will not become law. And so Republicans are also preparing strategic plays if the Supreme Court rules in their favor this summer, or if a Republican wins the White House next year backed by complementary majorities in the House and Senate. Either scenario would mortally wound Obamacare. But this isn't a zero sum game. Smart Republicans already know they don't win just because the other side loses. Upending Obamacare may poison the GOP's standing with 16.4 million Americans who will face adverse, even dire consequences without legislative patches to the law, or a swift switch to a solid alternative health care policy. This week, the conservative weekly The Washington Examiner aimed to mark Obamacare's fifth anniversary by asking a panel whether to \"reform, replace or restart\" the law. A gas leak scuttled the event. Once they've regrouped for their next panel, Republicans should instead entertain a different R: Revise. So far every plan Republicans are offering strikes out any mandate to purchase insurance, which, oddly for a party celebrating self-reliance, encourages some people to continue shifting their adult responsibilities onto others. Many of the GOP plans replace the subsidies that make exchange plans affordable for low-income Americans with tax credits. Tax credits don't make much sense when you don't have a lot of taxes to pay in the first place. These alternatives appear to be thinly veiled transitions away from the key Obamacare principle of providing guaranteed access. To date the law has reduced the rates of uninsured Americans by a whopping 35%. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lifted his veil even during his own plan's debut by insisting \"every last word of Obamacare must be repealed\" while promoting his own Health Care Choices Act that ditches subsidies and the mandate. Republican presidential front-runner Jeb Bush shares Cruz's preference to dismantle the \"monstrosity\" altogether, describing his preference for cheaper catastrophic insurance that helps people with massive bills but leaves poor Americans to fend for themselves when it comes to needless perks -- like insulin and blood pressure pills. And besides repealing the ACA, House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Georgia, wants to tear into President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society achievements as well. His budget proposal dismantles the federal Medicaid program by slashing its funding and devolving it to the states, while asking seniors on Medicare to try their luck with a voucher-discounted private insurance. What these approaches don't get is that we live in a country entirely populated by citizens who want and expect to receive medical care when they need it, yet not all of these citizens want to pay anything for the privilege. The beating heart of Obamacare is its mandate to purchase health insurance, which keeps costs down for everyone, makes it fiscally feasible to cover patients with pre-existing conditions, and makes government subsidies possible for those who can't afford any insurance without them. If Republicans shift their focus to revising Obamacare, there are an array of spots to trim and weeds to pull, and they can expect many Democrats to join in the work. But after dealing with a withering onslaught of over 60 Republican attempts to kill the bill, Democrats can't make even the most basic fixes for fear of losing everything. But there are some places to look. Even ACA supporters can acknowledge some specific anti-competitive features in the law. This should interest Republicans. The ACA's push toward offloading risk onto hospitals rather than insurers is encouraging hospital consolidation, with large hospital corporations seeking to build economies of scale to offset future risk This trend may drive up costs as hospitals face less competition. Meanwhile consumers shopping the exchange plans can select from few in-network hospitals and physicians, again making the health care marketplace less competitive. The United States may be graced with institutions offering stellar care in complex conditions that attract patients across state lines as well as across the world, centers that contribute to medicine generally through their research and training. But going out of state to seek such care isn't an option for many patients on exchange plans. Cruz proposes opening up health insurance markets nationally, an idea that we should build on. Years of a rough economy have left many consumers without the income or savings to pay the high copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums that Obamacare uses as a cost-control measure. Among families making 250% to 400% over the federal poverty line, 55% to 68% can't make their deductible, depending on their plan. The numbers are considerably worse for families under that threshold, and even for families making over 400% of the poverty line, 25% to 38% can't pay the out of pocket maximum if they become seriously ill. Despite these costs, the ACA penalizes responsible consumers further by capping flexible spending accounts. Furthermore, Obamacare is in part more expensive than it might be because it takes a gamble covering preventive testing for people with no sign of disease for \"free,\" yet makes patients with chronic conditions pay deductibles even when we know their care will save money in the long run. That's not the most rational distribution of funds if we're trying to do the greatest good for the greatest number at the lowest cost. Since Jeb Bush is interested in focusing on the big-ticket items and not sweating the small stuff, perhaps this is an area where he can throw his support. Obamacare isn't a work of art by any means. It's a messy, pragmatic attempt to reach a goal the majority of Americans want: access to affordable health care when it's needed. Some rather fundamental revisions lie ahead, like a forthcoming administrative decision on whether to continue allowing state variability among the prescribed Essential Health Benefits it covers. So, my advice to Republicans is that they pick one or two specific aspects of Obamacare they'd like to improve, let's have the policy debate, then introduce your legislative fix to the existing law, leaving its beating heart intact. Show you're open to constructively improving the ACA and I'm sure we'll see Democrats start coming to the table with their own pet peeves about the law. 2016 doesn't have to be a hyperbolic, hyperventilating contest for the fate of 16.4 million Americans.","highlights":"Ford Vox: With its budget proposal to kill Obamacare, or hopes the Supreme Court will do the same, the GOP makes a mistake .\nHe says 16.4 million Americans benefiting. Smart Republicans know this; should instead tease out problematic parts of ACA to revise .","id":"a9f7cb03b545006bfeb014904c80d8dd58b080b8"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Breast is best\" -- you could call it a mantra of sorts that sums up much of today's research on breastfeeding. Not only does breastfeeding have clear short-term benefits, such as protection from infectious diseases and a reduction in mortality, it's also been shown to be associated with an increase in intelligence. Prior studies have shown an increase of up to 7.5 IQ points in elementary age children who were breastfed, as well as an increase in verbal, performance and comprehensive IQ in adults. The latest addition to this perspective is a long-term study of infants born in Pelotas, Brazil, in 1982. Published in Lancet, the study interviewed 5,914 new mothers about their plans for breastfeeding and then followed up to see how they did. \"Information on breastfeeding duration was collected very close to the time when weaning happened, so we had a very precise information on the duration of breastfeeding,\" said study author, Dr. Bernardo Lessa Horta, in a podcast on Lancet. What makes this study unique is that it followed the subjects all the way to age 30. \"We were able to follow about 68% of the participants, which is a very good follow-up rate,\" said Lessa Horta. \"We observed that breastfeeding was positively associated with performance and intelligence at 30 years old, as well as with education, school achievement and higher monthly incomes.\" In fact, Lessa Horta said the subjects who had been breastfed for 12 months or longer had a higher IQ (about 3.7 points), more years of education and earned roughly 20% more than the average income level. \"It's suggesting that the positive effect of breastfeeding on IQ leads to a higher income,\" he said. \"This is our main finding at this moment.\" One possible reason for the advantage of breast milk, Lessa Horta added, is that it is \"rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids which are important to brain growth and development.\" Called LCPUFA for short, these essential fatty acids are found in salmon and shellfish and have been added to infant formulas since the 1990s. However, the benefit to mental or psychomotor development from adding LCPUFA to infant formula is unclear. Because the study did not measure home life, intellectual stimulation or bonding between mother and child, it was not able to tease out whether these factors may have also contributed to the increase in IQ. That leaves it open to critics, such as Texas A&M Professor Joan Wolf, author of \"Is Breast Best? \"This study does not address the very real possibility that mothers who choose to breastfeed, regardless of income or education, distinguish themselves from those who bottle-feed in all kinds of ways that are likely to promote intelligence,\" Wolf wrote CNN. For Lessa Horta, the implications of his study are clear: \"The finding supports the promotion of breastfeeding. It's more evidence that besides the clear short term benefits, breastfeeding also has long term consequences in terms of human potential.\"","highlights":"Long-term study finds that IQ at age 30 was nearly 4 points higher for babies breastfed for a year or more .\nStudy conducted in Brazil also associates longer breastfeeding with higher income and education levels .\nCritic points out that the study doesn't account for other possible contributing factors .","id":"77f6e278700ac486bfad5a6c273f1975eef4d000"} -{"article":"(CNN)The country's largest Presbyterian denomination has changed its definition of marriage to include gay couples -- though not explicitly. Presbyterian Church (USA) approved an amendment to its constitution after most of its 171 presbyteries -- or governing bodies -- voted for it, PC (USA) said Tuesday. Before, the definition said marriage was between \"a man and a woman.\" The new definition says, in part, that \"marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives.\" Already, PC (USA) ministers can perform same-sex marriages in states where such marriages are legal, the group said. But no teaching elder or session can be forced to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies if they do not believe they are appropriate. Not all members supported the decision. In a post on PC (USA)'s website, Jean and Robert Gorney accused the church of going against the Bible and threatened to leave. \"We are not to change the Bible,\" their post said. \"I don't care who disagrees.\" But the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which says it supports \"a fully inclusive church,\" welcomed the news Tuesday night. \"The change aligns the church's constitution with a reality that has long been true: Both same-gender and opposite-gender couples have been living in relationships that demonstrate covenant faithfulness, shared discipleship and mutual love,\" the group said. \"We are also aware that the discussion has been a difficult one for many, and that some will feel a deep sense of pain over this decision. The Covenant Network is committed to fostering healthy dialogue and working with those who hold a view different from ours, seeking opportunities for us to model an authentic and productive unity.\" The amendment will take effect on June 21. CNN's Daniel Burke contributed to this report.","highlights":"Presbyterian Church (USA) will define marriage as a \"commitment between two people\"\nThe marriage amendment will take effect June 21 .","id":"bba80de822a3d91abbbca1a97210e6eeb076b61c"} -{"article":"(CNN)The sack and pillage of the Mosul museum by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria displayed a violence rarely seen since the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyian. The bulldozing of the archaeological site of Nimrud marked a new step in the cultural cleansing underway in Iraq. These acts are a deliberate attack against civilians, minorities, heritage sites and traditions. In the minds of terrorists, murder and destruction of culture are inherently linked. It is appalling to see the ravages of this violent extremism in a region that is a cradle of civilization, whose temples, palaces and frescoes have born witness to the glory of Iraq and Mesopotamia for the last 3,000 years. It is important we understand the true nature of this conflict. This war against culture is a war against people. It is part of a strategy to crush free thinking and to ensure domination through oppression. This is why extremists attack schools, media, or other places of culture. Through modern methods of communication and information, they use warped learning and distorted academic texts to hijack young minds. They forbid girls to go to school, kill journalists and vandalize museums: all symbols that embody freedom of thought and respect for cultural diversity. There can be no justification whatsoever for the systematic destruction of the heritage of humanity, and I wholeheartedly support the many religious leaders who have taken such a firm position denouncing these destructions and the perverted use of religion. When culture is under attack, we must respond with more knowledge, and with ever greater effort to work to explain the importance of humanity's shared heritage. This is why we appeal to all cultural institutions, museums, journalists, professors, and scientists to share knowledge widely about the Mesopotamian civilization. We need to remind \u200eall of the history of this land which led the Islamic golden age. And we also call on all people everywhere -- and especially youth, in Iraq and elsewhere -- to claim this heritage as their own. Pre-Islamic heritage in Iraq belongs to all Iraqis, just as the Pyramids are written into the identity of all Egyptians. What is happening goes far beyond the domain of archaeologists and discourse on the \"irreparable loss of treasures of humanity.\" What is happening is a security issue. The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime. We see how terrorists are using such destruction to destabilize populations, spread terror, and encourage violence. We see also how extremists use heavy military vehicles to transport artifacts from looted\u200e\u00a0sites, and how illicit trafficking is directly funding terrorism. With this in mind, we have joined forces with all partners and neighboring countries to halt these crimes. The acceleration of such violence must be met with an acceleration of global solidarity and action. Faced with such crimes, we hope we can better understand the values we all share, and stand united in respect of humanity.","highlights":"ISIS bulldozed site of ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq .\nIrina Bokova: Appalling to see the ravages of this violent extremism .","id":"c22434b63c045cb979b368056595cb1497062a7a"} -{"article":"(CNN)They say time and tide wait for no man, as Henrik Stenson discovered at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida when he complained he had been decisively rushed after being put on the clock in the closing stages of his dramatic defeat. The Swede -- who lost to defending champion Matt Every by one stroke -- was ticked off that he and playing partner Morgan Hoffman were subjected to time constraints from the 15th hole onwards because of alleged slow play Sunday. Under competition rules, players are put on the clock if they have fallen behind the allotted time for each hole and well behind the preceding group of players. Once the measure is imposed, shots are timed and players given a one-stroke penalty for the second shot -- but not the first -- on which they are found to have taken too long. Stenson said the decision \"got to me, and obviously I was rushing\" as he three-putted both that hole and the 16th, opening the door for Floridian Every to seal the title with a round of 66 crowned by a long-range putt on the final green. Officials at the Bay Hill course said Stenson and Hoffmann's had been the slowest pairing of the day Sunday. But the frustrated 38-year-old Swede said he \"could not see the point\" of being put on the clock. \"When someone is sitting there with a stopwatch it affects you a little bit,\" he explained, accusing officials of \"influencing, potentially, the outcome of this tournament towards the end.\" \"I didn't really have much time to look at my putt [on the 15th] and rushed that one a little bit, the first one, and three-putted,\" the PGA Tour website quoted him as saying. \"Morgan got a bad time on his second shot on 16, and again I kind of rushed my putting on 16 and three-putted that one. That's really what cost me the tournament, those two three-putts on 15 and 16. \"We might have been a couple minutes out, for sure -- but then again it's normally not the quickest when you're playing in the last group. \"[There are] more people, more movement. You have to back off every now and then for some mobile phones and stuff like that.\" The PGA Tour was not immediately available for comment about Stenson's remarks. Stenson told reporters that \"it's hard when you don't feel like you can take the time you want,\" adding that he was \"disappointed with the rules official for pushing us up late in the round for no obvious reason.\" And he was unimpressed when told that part of the reason for the imposition of the ticking clock could have been a desire to complete play before live TV coverage came to an end at 18.00 local time. \"I thought we were here to play golf, not to finish at 6pm,\" he snapped. Meanwhile, a delighted Every was left to reflect on the 17ft birdie putt on the final green that took him to the title. \"You watch tournaments on TV where guys make putts like that to win and everybody goes nuts -- it's cool to close one out like that,\" he said.","highlights":"Swede and Morgan Hoffman subjected to time constraints from 15th hole .\nHe said decision \"got to me, and obviously I was rushing.\"\nStenson blamed three-putting 15th and 16th for failing to win .\nHe claimed decision had effect of 'influencing, potentially, the outcome of this tournament'","id":"cc1ba6b053c02c8b123a410800f4c4d9246b3eb6"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's playing out like a scene from \"Night of the Living Dead\"-- in the boardroom of one of Italy's most famous clubs. Director George A. Romero's horror cult classic revolved around a swarm of slow-moving cannibalistic corpses snacking on the inhabitants of a shopping mall and Parma general manager and team legend Alessandro Melli talks in similarly apocalyptic tones as he details the financial crisis engulfing the Serie A club. \"It seems like we are zombies, working without knowing where we are heading,\" Melli told CNN's Don Riddell. Rooted at the bottom of Italy's top flight, Parma has debts of approximately $100 million and faces a looming financial collapse -- barring a miracle ownership rescue. The club has been docked points twice this season for failing to pay its players and faces a bankruptcy hearing on March 19. \"Every day they take away a part of our work and piece of our hearts. Bits of the club are foreclosed every day and we come here to work just because we love our work and our team, but we cannot do our job,\" added Melli. \"We're living in a nightmare, whichever way you look at it. Because this is not just about the money, even though we can't ignore it, there is a lot more that they are taking away. Dignity, the smile; they took away our respect and it hurts.\" Last season Parma finished sixth in Serie A, only to be barred from taking part in European football's second tier competition -- the Europa League -- over an income tax bill. Between 1992 and 2002 Parma won two UEFA Cups, the 1992 European Cup Winners' Cup and three Italian Cups in a successful spell between 1992 and 2002. In 1997, led by current Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti and with the caliber of players like Gianfranco Zola, Faustino Asprilla and Hernan Crespo, Parma finished runners-up in Serie A. \"Look at the team we had,\" said Angelo Manfredini, president of the Parma supporters club, referring to those halycon days, as he rattled off other players including Melli, Fabio Cannavaro and longtime Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who now plays for Juventus. \"All were players who meant something to football.\" Fast forward to more austere times and Parma's current players haven't been paid since August. They're so fed up they've threatened to go on strike -- that is if the games are allowed proceed in the first place, with two of Parma's recent fixtures having been called off given the club's problems. Parma was once owned by the world's leading dairy company, Parmalat Spa, which collapsed under financial fraud in 2003. The club has already changed hands twice this season after a Russian-Cypriot conglomerate sold the club to Giampietro Manenti. A despairing Melli depicted a club that is being seemingly taken apart seat by seat, screw by screw. \"One day, we won't have the laundry anymore,\" said Melli. \"The next day, computers (will be) taken away, then we don't have emails anymore. \"And then the physical objects related to sport, like benches, like the team bus...everyday it's like being stabbed.\" For his part, Manenti has reportedly said he will not sell the club, which will likely mean another spell in administration for Parma, the second time in the past 10 years. Their next scheduled match is a home game on March 22 against Torino, but Melli is more concerned about what the future holds in store for Parma rather than the next 90 minutes. \"I hope to have a new owner to sort out our debts and save the brand, starting again from Serie B and to start again with new management that loves what they are managing,\" said Melli. \"Slowly, we can rebuild. It will take time and patience, with the right people in the right places. Only in this way can Parma be reborn like a Phoenix. \"Objectively, it's unlikely this will happen. This is just the hope of a lover, trying to find his lost love. But he needs the help of others, we can't make it by ourselves.\"","highlights":"Legendary club of Cannavaro and Buffon faces bankruptcy court March 19 .\nParma has changed hands twice in past year, administration likely .\nPlayers have not been paid all season .","id":"7bc5094942a513366018fa1f28626d90456d14ba"} -{"article":"(CNN)Brace yourself Europe -- \"Moneyball\" is coming to a football pitch near you. Spend-thrift baseball executive Billy Beane -- made famous by Brad Pitt's Oscar-nominated portrayal in \"Moneyball\" -- is taking up a position with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar. \"I'm truly excited for the opportunity to be part of AZ Alkmaar in an advisory role,\" Beane told the AZ website. \"Despite being a great football club with a storied history, they face many of the challenges we have with the Oakland A's. My love for football and AZ's vision of the future of the club made this an attractive pursuit.\" The idea behind \"Moneyball\" is to obtain maximum value for each player bought or sold. Beane has had a longstanding fascination with European football, citing Arsenal's Arsene Wenger as a manager he admires for his blend of performance on the pitch and financial prudence. The American has said in the past that it was his dream to be an executive at a football club once his baseball career ended. It turns out he didn't have to wait that long. \"I think it's interesting and exciting for him personally,\" said Chris Anderson, co-founder of the sports analytics consultancy Anderson Sally. \"He's been a football fan for many, many years and is very well informed about the sport and industry. This is not as much a stretch as one might imagine; he actually knows football.\" Beane will retain his general manager duties with the Oakland A's, a team that remains competitive despite sporting one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball (MLB). The A's have qualified for MLB's playoffs each of the past three seasons, only to be knocked out before the World Series every time. Critics of baseball's sabermetrics system -- using data to analyze the sport as exposed in Michael Lewis' \"Moneyball\" book which inspired the film -- are quick to point out that Beane has never won a title with the A's. In Holland, Beane won't need to start from scratch, as AZ currently sits comfortably in fourth place in the Dutch Eredivisie. AZ's director of football Earnie Stewart is a known \"Moneyball\" fan himself, having organized a screening for his fellow AZ execs shortly after joining the club. The former U.S. midfielder, who scored against Colombia in the 1994 World Cup, is half-Dutch and hopes the collaboration with Beane can give the club an extra edge. \"We've had a lot of contact with Billy In the last few months\", Stewart told the club's website. \"His knowledge and ideas are impressive. Also Billy's soccer network is excellent. We have already noticed that Billy thinks two steps ahead in the area of innovation. That's what really connects with the ambitions of AZ.\" Like the A's, AZ have managed to compete with the big boys of the Dutch league -- chiefly PSV and Ajax -- on a limited budget, winning the domestic league twice -- most recently in 2009 -- while finishing in the top five in three of the past five seasons. Beane's philosophy is shaped by getting maximum bang for your buck in the transfer market. \"There is a misconception that you never pay much for anybody, but that is not true at all,\" Beane told the Telegraph in 2011. \"You want to make sure you are getting more value than you are paying. That may come in the form of a very expensive player, it may come in the form of a very young player, but it's not about being cheap or not spending money.\" But it's questionable whether \"Moneyball\" principles can be applied to football, a sport where -- unlike in U.S. sports leagues -- players are rarely traded for one another. Instead, athletes are sold for prices determined by a marketplace, untethered by salary caps. However, Anderson argues Beane could be about to exploit a gap in the market. \"I would say unequivocally that markets for players are much more inefficient in soccer than in baseball,\" said Anderson, who also wrote \"The Numbers Game: Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong.\" \"The combination of a global market plus inefficiency means that is a huge opportunity in soccer that there isn't in the same way in baseball.\" Either way, Beane is likely to relish the challenge of imparting his knowledge to the boardrooms of European football, perhaps even as a pre-cursor to a full time job in the sport. \"I think he certainly would be open to the possibility of taking on a role,\" said Anderson, adding that Beane could be using the advisory position to dip his toe into the shark-infested waters of football player transfers. \"In football we're still in a pre-'Moneyball' era,\" added Anderson. \"So the baseball equivalent of the mid-1990s. is the football equivalent of 2015.\"","highlights":"Baseball's Billy Beane to join top-tier Dutch club as executive .\nSmaller clubs seeking advantage over big -pending giants .","id":"4bf4203ff9fa2801614dbb06d9bef55cc75ed57c"} -{"article":"(CNN)With his KISS makeup on, frontman Gene Simmons always looked a little scary. So maybe this new venture makes sense. The rocker and reality-show star is teaming with WWE Studios to launch Erebus Pictures, a label that will finance and produce horror movies. The joint venture kicks off with a three-picture deal starting with \"Temple,\" expected to begin shooting this summer. \"The horror genre continues to fascinate me as it proves to be endlessly thrilling and engaging for audiences,\" said Simmons, who with KISS has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. Erebus Pictures is named after the Greek mythological deity that personifies darkness. It has a logical marketing platform in the WWE Network, a subscription-based streaming service known for pro-wrestling shows such as \"Monday Night Raw\" and \"SmackDown\" that appeal to primarily young male fans, arguably the core of the horror-movie audience. WWE says \"Temple\" is about a team of highly trained operatives who find themselves trapped inside an isolated military compound after its artificial intelligence is suddenly shut down. While investigating the source of the malfunction, the crew begins to experience strange and horrific phenomena as they try to uncover who or what killed the team previously stationed at the compound. The studio says a director for \"Temple\" will be announced shortly. Erebus Pictures' second feature will go into production later this year. WWE Studios' most lucrative film has been \"The Call,\" a 2013 thriller starring Halle Berry, which earned $68 million worldwide.","highlights":"KISS' Gene Simmons is teaming with WWE Studios to launch Erebus Pictures .\nFirst film will be \"Temple,\" about operatives trapped inside an isolated military compound .","id":"768932ab905ec13c5b3a144fef70b045240dd8e0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Ferguson City Manager John Shaw resigned Tuesday in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report. The report blames Ferguson, Missouri, police and courts for abusive behavior that disproportionately targets African-American residents. \"Over the last several months I have done everything in my power to work with countless groups to bring about positive change and strengthen our community,\" Shaw wrote in his resignation letter. He continued: \"During this time I have also worked closely with the Department of Justice to identify opportunities to improve, and then moved quickly to implement its recommendations for change. \"And while I certainly respect the work that the DOJ recently performed in their investigation and report on the City of Ferguson, I must state clearly that my office has never instructed the police department to target African Americans, nor falsify charges to administer fines, nor heap abuses on the backs of the poor. Any inferences of that kind from the report are simply false.\" Shaw's resignation was announced the same day the City Council voted 7-0 on a mutual separation agreement with Shaw. Residents elect City Council members, who in turn appoint the city manager. The city manager directs and supervises all city departments, including the Police Department. Along with other officials, Shaw was heavily criticized by the Justice Department report, which found that authorities in Ferguson frequently saw residents as \"sources of revenue.\" In fact, the city enjoyed so much success in issuing tickets and fines that Ferguson, population 21,000, was ranked in the top eight of the 80 municipal courts in St. Louis County by having more than $1 million in revenue in 2010, the report said. In one March 2012 email, the captain of the patrol division reported to Shaw that court collections the previous month reached $235,000 -- the first month collections exceeded $200,000. The city manager reported the email to the City Council, congratulating police and court staff on their \"great work,\" the report said. When Ferguson court revenues exceeded $2 million for the whole of 2012, the city manager responded to the police chief in an internal email: \"Awesome! Thanks!\" according to the federal report. The DOJ's probe came after public outcry over the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in August. Wilson, who was not indicted on any charges, has resigned from the police department. But when Ferguson resident Sue Schmidt defended Wilson at Tuesday's City Council meeting, she heard vocal objections from those in the crowd. \"I'd like to say a lot of people in this room owe Darren Wilson an apology,\" Schmidt said, prompting laughter by some in the audience. \"The same justice report that you're basing all your opinions on cleared him 100%.\" CNN's Jennifer Feldman, Holly Yan, Sarah Aarthun and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.","highlights":"John Shaw: \"My office has never instructed the police department to target African Americans\"\nA Department of Justice report blames Ferguson police and courts for abusive behavior .\nFerguson resident: Many people owe former Officer Darren Wilson an apology .","id":"047ad1e61c29e1f0d17a7ae08c3cd02160115887"} -{"article":"(CNN)Spirit Airlines has a new fare deal and is announcing it with sex jokes. The low-cost carrier just acquired its 69th plane and is celebrating with $69 round-trip fares in April and May that include taxes and fees -- although additional baggage charges may apply. Round-trip purchase is not required, so you could actually pay $34.50 for a one-way flight. But the airline is getting more attention for its cheeky ad copy, which obliquely references a sexual act. \"We've been waiting to hit 69 planes for years,\" reads the offer on Spirit's website. \"It's our favorite number -- ever since we were twelve and found that magazine under our brother's bed (the one with the fantastic articles). Use your mouth to spread the word: Spirit is in an even better position to get you where you're going.\" Some observers say the promotion is sophomoric and has crossed the limits of good taste. \"You can't object to that price point, but you certainly can object to the discount airline's marketing strategy, which is so juvenile it led us to wonder if Spirit's website was hacked,\" wrote Aaron Rupar of KMSP in Minneapolis. Spirit spokesman Paul Berry, in a prepared statement, said the promotion reflects the airline's quirky culture. \"Spirit isn't your typical airline and we don't want to be. We enjoy being different than other airlines,\" said Berry, Spirit's director of corporate communications. \"When it comes to advertising, different means we don't spend a lot of money on advertising -- because that just increases fares. But we're also different because our ads are fun, provocative, sometimes silly and often irreverent. They get lots of attention,\" he added. \"The vast majority of our customers find these types of ads humorous and accept them for what they are. We understand there is a small group of people who feel differently.\" The $69 fares must be booked by the end of the day Tuesday. Questionable taste or not, the promotion may be working: People were complaining on Twitter that they couldn't access Spirit's website to book flights. Based in Florida, Spirit Airlines is famous for charging fees for almost everything it possibly can. The airline's defense is simple: Pay for what you want on your flight, and don't pay for what you don't want. Airline plans $15 flights to Europe .","highlights":"Spirit Airlines is offering suggestive $69 fares .\nThe airline announced them with a pitch that may remind us of high school jokes .\nThe cheeky airline is known for charging for almost all extras .","id":"f237c468e2e9cb25a09c59b8743a066890b6c6eb"} -{"article":"(CNN)Wildlife services in California are being pushed to their limits this year. Since January 2015, every month has set a record in sea lion \"strandings,\" mostly sea lion pups, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. \"There has been an unusually high number of sea lions stranded since January,\" said Justin Greenman, assistant stranding coordinator for NOAA on the West Coast. \"Stranding does happen, but just to give you perspective, 1,800 [sea lion] pups have been responded to this year alone. We responded to 1,600 strandings total during the entire year in 2013,\" he said. Stranding is the official term to describe marine life that \"swim or float into shore and become beached or stuck,\" according to NOAA. Strandings are taking a toll on the resources available in coastal counties from San Diego to Santa Barbara. Local care facilities have taken in more stranded sea lions this year than 2004-12 combined, and it is only mid-March. Greenman said he expects the problem to continue beyond April, when weaning normally occurs, when the pups are 10 or 11 months old. Dave Koontz, director of communications for SeaWorld San Diego, said SeaWorld has rescued nearly 500 sea lions this year. \"This is a new record for Sea World,\" Koontz said. \"In 1983 we rescued 474.\" Some of the sea lions responded to have had to be euthanized. \"They [sea lion pups] have to be able to eat and fish on their own before they can be released back into the wild, and a lot of these pups haven't even been weaned,\" Greenman said. Greenman said California has had warmer weather than usual this year, and, while NOAA is still conducting studies on the Channel Islands to get a more proven explanation, warmer water drives the food source farther out or deeper into the ocean, where the colder water is. When food is farther away, the mothers are away from the pup too long in search of food, and return with little food or too few nutrients for a growing sea lion. \"We have been seeing emaciated or dehydrated sea lions show up on beaches,\" Greenman said. However, he said, the species has made a comeback since the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. California's sea lion population has grown to 300,000 from an estimated population of 10,000 in the 1950s, according to the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. People who observe stranded sea lions are advised not to touch them or attempt to rescue them, because it can be dangerous and it is illegal. Instead, call any of the rescue agencies listed on NOAA West Coast Region's website. If the animal has died, the local dead animal pickup service should be alerted.","highlights":"\"There has been an unusually high number of sea lions stranded since January,\" NOAA representative says .\nThe speculation is mothers are having difficulty finding food, leaving pups alone too long or malnourished .","id":"02d88ca0edf19c7da024b8a95c4227d3c7dc67dc"} -{"article":"Beijing (CNN)When it came to the environment in China, it was hazy through much of the weekend -- literally and figuratively. As a thick layer of toxic air blanketed Beijing and much of northern China on Friday, censors smothered a wildly popular but controversial documentary on the country's air pollution, removing it from all major video streaming sites. At a standing-room-only press conference Saturday, the newly appointed minister of environmental protection ignored raised hands of foreign journalists eager to ask about the development and made no mention of the documentary that he had praised just a week earlier. Without a hint of irony, he promised to be more transparent and reassured the masses of their right to oversee the government's fight against air pollution. \"Under the Dome\" -- a slickly produced two-hour documentary on journalist Chai Jing's dogged quest to find the causes and solutions to China's severe smog problem -- attracted over 200 million views online in just one week, an unprecedented number even in the world's most populous nation. Supporters and detractors of Chai, a famous former anchor and reporter at state-run national broadcaster CCTV, began a war of words almost immediately after the video's release on February 28. Admirers compared it to \"An Inconvenient Truth,\" the Oscar-winning documentary on former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's effort to raise awareness on the dangers of global warming. Critics, on the other hand, portrayed it as a piece of shoddy investigative journalism filled with bad science and biased conclusions, which blamed the problem largely on the entrenched interests of the state oil industry. Some even called it propaganda for President Xi Jinping, who had declared keeping the sky blue a top policy priority. The new environment minister's initial response to the video -- in the form of a widely reported text message of gratitude to Chai -- reinforced some doubts over Chai's claim of editorial independence for her self-funded project. Many more people, however, perceived it as an encouraging sign of the government's adoption of a more open attitude to a politically sensitive topic, as Xi and other leaders started to publicly acknowledge the severity and urgency of the issue. But such optimism was dashed 24 hours after the documentary's launch, as censors moved to reign in increasingly heated online debates surrounding air pollution and beyond, and removed all mention of the video from homepages of major websites. As the week progressed, leaked state media memos -- widely circulated on social media -- revealed ever-harsher wording from propaganda authorities as they scrambled to limit the continuing impact of the video. Finally, after millions of clicks, \"Under the Dome\" vanished from much of Chinese cyberspace Friday as heavy smog descended on the capital. Also in Beijing were almost 3,000 delegates who had gathered to attend the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament that meets in full once a year to approve the ruling Communist Party's legislative proposals. Pollution has remained a hot topic at this year's session, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, adding that Xi vowed to legislators Friday \"to give an iron hand to any polluters in the smog-choked country.\" With Chai's viral video also encountering an iron hand, analysts explained that the seeming contradiction makes perfect sense in a one-party dictatorship with little tolerance for open dissent. \"Smog is like any other problem in China -- dig it too deep and you touch the issue of political system,\" said Yao Bo, a well-known news commentator with more than 1.2 million followers on Chinese social media. \"The video doesn't do that but comments on it had started to question the system.\" \"I think the video caught censors off guard,\" he added, dismissing the idea that its fate reflected infighting among China's senior leaders. \"The censors eventually acted as expected, after going through this bureaucratic process that is always half a step behind.\" As gusty winds blew away Beijing's smog Sunday afternoon, this much became clear to the public: In China, the government cares about the environment as much as you do, but only one of you is free to talk about it.","highlights":"Film on China's air pollution problem drew praise from environment minister when it came out .\nA week later, after getting millions of clicks, \"Under the Dome\" disappeared from all major websites in China .","id":"dbc1d7ee38a7df1c138959d9f6ca708722a99aae"} -{"article":"Beijing (CNN)China's premier on Sunday offered a sobering assessment of the world's second largest economy amid fears of a sustained slowdown but brushed aside concern that it could face a full-blown economic crisis. \"I don't deny that the Chinese economy is facing downward pressure and multiple risks,\" said Li Keqiang at a nationally televised press conference. \"The key is to find the balance between stable growth and structural adjustments under the new normal (of slower growth).\" \"We haven't adopted the policy of strong short-term stimulus in recent years -- in other words... we still have plenty of tools in our toolbox,\" he offered. Earlier this month, the People's Bank of China -- the central bank-- cut interest rates to guard against deflation and the country set its lowest growth target in 25 years. Li, the No. 2 leader in China behind President Xi Jinping, also promised a further streamlined government to strengthen the role of free market in the economy. \"The pain of reform is still there, actually the pain is becoming more acute and in more places,\" he said. \"During the course of reform, vested interested will be tested -- but this is not nail clipping, this is like cutting off one's limb with a sword and we have to do it despite the pain.\" Li held the highly choreographed annual press conference -- often the only occasion a senior Chinese leader faces the media -- after China's rubber-stamp parliament approved the government budget and concluded this year's 10-day session. Li answered questions from pre-selected journalists that focused on the economy and touched on the government's stance on the anti-corruption campaign, the environment and foreign policy. Before he was ushered out of the ornate room, the premier responded to a question shouted from the audience about Myanmar, whose warplanes reportedly dropped a bomb Friday in a Chinese border town and killed four civilians. \"We have the responsibility and capability to firmly safeguard the stability of the Chinese-Myanmar border -- and will firmly protect the lives and property of our citizens,\" Li said to applause from Chinese reporters.","highlights":"Chinese premier says economy faces multiple risks .\nReform is like 'cutting off a limb,' he adds .\nHighly choreographed press conference only time leader faces media .","id":"f0c791f4c9626ecab9787af94e0403b4790b568e"} -{"article":"(CNN)In tennis, a hitting partner is someone who often does more than just practice with a big star. They sometimes have to be psychologists, waiters, chauffeurs and even bodyguards. They may get to travel the world but the job isn't without its perils. Two years ago, for example, the father of Bernard Tomic, one of the most hyped players in the last decade, was found guilty of assaulting the player's former hitting partner, Thomas Drouet. Now, one of the longest lasting relationships -- and one of the highest profile -- has come to an end. Sascha Bajin, a constant in Serena Williams' life the past eight years, suggested on Twitter earlier this week that he was no longer working with the 19-time grand slam winner and has instead begun a partnership with Williams' friend and tennis rival, Victoria Azarenka. Williams wished him well. Their split was confirmed by Williams' agent, Jill Smoller, in an email to CNN.com, and Azarenka's coach, Wim Fissette, confirmed that Bajin is indeed the two-time grand slam champion's new hitting partner. They practiced together for the first time this week. \"I'm very excited about having Sascha in the team,\" Fissette told CNN.com in an email. \"Sascha is a great guy ... and has so much experience in working with Serena. \"I saw Sascha hit many times so I know he is just a very good tennis player. To give the player the best rhythm is extremely important. \"On the other hand I think it's very good there is someone else in the team with experience winning grand slams. That's always very important. Sascha knows what it is like to be in semifinals and finals in grand slams.\" No one has disclosed what led to the parting of ways but Bajin wasn't with Williams as she won the Australian Open in January. Bajin said he was injured, with Frenchman Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy replacing him. Fissette, who was formerly alongside Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep and Sabine Lisicki when they either won or reached grand slam finals, said he was \"very surprised\" that Bajin became available. \"Sascha was working so many years with Serena and I felt they had an excellent relationship, more than just player and hitting partner,\" he said. \"I felt they were very good friends. \"But it's not my business to know what went wrong. Maybe they both needed a new challenge. I think everybody will remember the many years they worked together and the excellent results she had during that time.\" Williams, about to make her return to Indian Wells after a 14-year absence, once likened Bajin to a brother. \"Outside of my parents, I think he's probably the most important person on the team,\" Williams told USA Today in 2013. \"He's much more than a hitting partner. He's my older brother. He's family.\" Bajin's alliance with Azarenka serves as another change for the Belorussian. Azarenka split with coach Sam Sumyk -- who quickly moved on to Eugenie Bouchard -- and hired Fissette in his place in February. Azarenka is attempting to recapture top form after foot and knee injuries derailed her in 2014. \"From the first meeting, I felt a good connection (with Azarenka) and after the first two weeks I feel a very good connection,\" said Fissette. \"Vika is very motivated to get back to the top and wants to become a better player. That is what I feel on court and I believe it can be a great year for her. \"I believe it's also great for women's tennis that Vika is back. She is a great tennis player and an excellent entertainer.\"","highlights":"Serena Williams is no longer working with hitting partner Sascha Bajin .\nBajin, who worked with Williams for eight years, is now with Victoria Azarenka .\nBajin skipped this year's Australian Open as Williams won major No. 19 .\nAzarenka's coach, Wim Fissette, is thrilled to have Bajin in her team .","id":"c83ae40bb6ad12f6678c46a20b5dbfda99ff9a30"} -{"article":"(CNN)The University of North Carolina will pay whistleblower Mary Willingham $335,000 to settle her lawsuit with the university, following the largest academic fraud scandal in NCAA history. Willingham is the former athletics literacy counselor who blew the whistle about the fake classes that went on for nearly 20 years at the prestigious university. Willingham spent years fielding attacks from university officials -- including accusations that she was lying when she said that officials within the athletic department steered underprepared athletes into the fake classes to keep them eligible. For nearly five years, UNC denied those claims, but Willingham refused to keep quiet. She first told her story to the News & Observer in Raleigh, and then to national media when the university refused to admit that the classes were well-known to faculty. The added attention forced UNC to hire a new investigator and launch a new probe in 2014. That latest review, led by Ken Wainstein, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Justice Department, found exactly what Willingham had always claimed -- widespread and systematic cheating. Willingham left her job last spring after complaining that she was being retaliated against. \"The University's settlement with Mrs. Willingham resolves all of the outstanding legal issues in the case,\" said Rick White, associate vice chancellor of communications and public affairs. \"We appreciate the efforts of the mediator to help us achieve a successful and timely conclusion to the mediation. We believe the settlement is in the best interest of the University and allows us to move forward and fully focus on other important issues.\" When she sued, Willingham said she hoped to accomplish what no other investigation has done -- to subpoena documents and to depose university officials under oath. Her lawsuit never got that far. Instead, she says she's hoping that will be accomplished by a larger class-action lawsuit filed by powerhouse attorney Michael Hausfeld on behalf of two former UNC athletes. Devon Ramsay and Rashanda McCants both sued in January, saying they were promised an education but didn't get one because of the paper class scandal. Hausfeld is the attorney who beat the NCAA last summer in federal court on behalf of former UCLA player Ed O'Bannon, winning a case that will forever change college sports by forcing the NCAA to eliminate the rule that forbids schools from paying players. That lawsuit is the reason Willingham says she was OK with entering into mediation in her whistleblower suit. She shared the settlement document with CNN. \"It's about the students and not about me. I don't need it to be about me,\" Willingham said. \"I got an education, but those students left without one, and we still have a system that doesn't work. And so I'm hopeful that (the Hausfeld lawsuit) will move forward and prove that (NCAA Division I) schools all across the country have a flawed system where a promise of an education isn't happening, and therefore these students are getting nothing.\" Willingham is co-founder of Paper Class Inc., which serves as a portal and rallying point for the college sports reform movement and includes a program to give students reading help in middle school. CNN Analysis: Some college athletes play like adults, read like fifth-graders .","highlights":"Mary Willingham accused UNC of holding fake classes that helped athletes stay in school .\nThe university denied the charge for years, but independent investigation confirmed it .","id":"25dee817e80cd51790fa62967dba6479ad657482"} -{"article":"(CNN)Scientists at NASA are one step closer to understanding how much water could have existed on primeval Mars. These new findings also indicate how primitive water reservoirs there could have evolved over billions of years, indicating that early oceans on the Red Planet might have held more water than Earth's Arctic Ocean, NASA scientists reveal in a study published Friday in the journal Science. \"Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much water was lost to space,\" said Geronimo Villanueva, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. \"With this work, we can better understand the history of water on Mars.\" To find answers to this age-old question about Martian water molecules, scientists used the world's three major infrared telescopes, in Chile and Hawaii, to measure traces of water in the planet's atmosphere over a range of areas and seasons, spanning from March 2008 to January 2014. \"From the ground, we could take a snapshot of the whole hemisphere on a single night,\" said Goddard's Michael Mumma. Scientists looked at the ratio of two different forms -- or isotopes -- of water, H2O and HDO. The latter is made heavier by one of its hydrogen atoms, called deuterium, which has a neutron at its core in addition to the proton that all hydrogen atoms have. That weighed down HDO more, while larger amounts of hydrogen from H2O floated into the atmosphere, broke away from Mars' low gravity and disappeared into space. As a result, water trapped in Mars' polar ice caps has a much higher level of HDO than fluid water on Earth does, the scientists said. The scientists compared the ratio of H2O to HDO in Mars' atmosphere today to the ratio of the two molecules trapped inside a Mars meteorite, a stone that broke off from Mars -- perhaps when an asteroid hit -- and landed on Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. They were able to determine how much that ratio had changed over time and estimate how much water has disappeared from Mars -- about 87%. The findings indicate that the Red Planet could have had its fair share of blue waters, possibly even yielding an ocean. According to NASA, there might have been enough water to cover up to 20% of Mars' surface. That would amount to an ocean proportionally larger than the Atlantic on Earth. \"This ocean had a maximum depth of around 5,000 feet or around one mile deep,\" said Villanueva. NASA scientists say that much of this water loss happened over billions of years, along with a loss of atmosphere. And as the planet's atmospheric pressure dropped, it was harder for water to stay in liquid form. Heat also contributed to its evaporation. As a result, the remaining primeval ocean water continued to move toward the poles, where it eventually froze. \"With Mars losing that much water, the planet was very likely wet for a longer period of time than was previously thought, suggesting it might have been habitable for longer,\" said Mumma. CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.","highlights":"Scientists studied water in Mars' atmosphere with three giant infrared telescopes .\nThey compared the ratio of certain molecules on the planet with that of a Mars meteorite that landed on Earth .","id":"c94eabb566000ac59b92e230195316f1ec8cedd7"} -{"article":"(CNN)Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who authorities say deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 in France, passed all his tests and medical exams and gave no voluntary indication that he was unstable or mentally ill, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told CNN Thursday. \"We have at Lufthansa a reporting system where crew can report without being punished their own problems or they can report about problems of others without any kind of punishment. That hasn't been used either in this case, so all these safety nets we are so proud of here have not worked in this case,\" Spohr said. Lubitz had been with Germanwings since September 2013 and had completed 630 hours of flight time after training at the airline's flight center in Bremen, Germany, the company has said. Germanwings is the budget carrier for Lufthansa. The CEO said he didn't know much more than what has been released by French authorities: The captain left the cockpit, tried to regain access by knocking on the door and \"the door was either kept locked or not opened in the way it was supposed to be, and that for sure is a clear indication that the remaining pilot -- the co-pilot -- didn't want the captain to return.\" Had the copilot suffered a medical emergency -- as some experts speculated in the initial hours after the accident -- there are safety procedures in place so that the pilot can re-access the cockpit, he said. That is, \"unless the person on the inside locks it and this apparently has happened here,\" the CEO said. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, cockpit doors were manufactured to withstand manual force and small weapons, so there was \"no way to get back to the cockpit for the captain,\" he said. Spohr was asked why Lubitz was allowed to be alone in the cockpit. American airlines require that any pilot leaving the flight deck be replaced by a flight attendant, so that two people remain in the cockpit at all times, but that's not the case with all airlines internationally, CNN aviation analyst David Soucie said. An 8-minute descent to death . A Lufthansa spokesman previously said that the airline complies with all German and European aviation regulations, something Spohr reiterated in his CNN interview. \"Most airlines around the world follow the same procedures as Lufthansa that in flight phases with low workload, the pilot can leave the cockpit -- especially for physical need -- and then he returns to the cockpit as fast as he can. That's a global thing, most accepted procedure, which we have used at Lufthansa for many, many years,\" Spohr said. Asked if the airline might reconsider this policy in light of Tuesday's crash, Spohr said it was possible. \"I think we look at that as well, but we should not put the whole system at stake just because of this terrible single accident,\" he said. The airline will be consulting with its own experts, aviation authorities and experts with other airlines to determine what, if any, of its procedures need to be bolstered to prevent future such accidents from occurring, Spohr said, adding that he stood strongly by the manner in which Lufthansa operates airplanes and trains its employees. \"We understand emotions after this terrible accident, but for us as professionals we need to ensure the safety focus of Lufthansa is in no way touched -- and I promise you it's not -- and we will do our very, very best to even improve it further.\" Who was co-pilot Andreas Lubitz? CNN's Frederik Pleitgen conducted the interview in Cologne, Germany, and Eliott C. McLaughlin wrote the story from Atlanta. CNN's Tim Hume contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"So all these safety nets ... have not worked in this case,\" Lufthansa CEO tells CNN .\nThere's clear indication co-pilot \"didn't want the captain to return,\" Carsten Spohr says .","id":"e68c496b3f47360af3cebda02d9b5c4a5b779aac"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two days after Odin Lloyd was found dead, New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez looked into the eyes of team owner Robert Kraft and said he was innocent, Kraft testified Tuesday in Hernandez's murder trial. Kraft, answering questions from a prosecutor and one of Hernandez's attorneys on the witness stand in a Massachusetts courtroom, recalled a private conversation that he had with the star Patriots tight end on June 19, at the Patriots' Gillette Stadium, as news spread that Hernandez was being investigated in Lloyd's death. \"He said he was not involved,\" Kraft testified in the courtroom in Fall River. \"He said he was innocent.\" Hernandez has been charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating the death of Lloyd, a semipro football player who was found dead in Massachusetts on June 17, 2013. Hernandez also has pleaded not guilty to a gun and ammunition charge. His co-defendants, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, also pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately. Kraft testified that he asked to speak with Hernandez in an office near a weight room in the stadium, and asked the player to look him in the eye and tell him if he was involved in Lloyd's death. According to Kraft, Hernandez told him during that meeting that he hoped the time of Lloyd's death \"came out,\" because Hernandez had been at a club that night. According to testimony from Hernandez's fianc\u00e9e, Shayanna Jenkins, the player had not been at a club, but was at dinner with her and some friends before the shooting. Mel Robbins, a CNN legal analyst, called Kraft's testimony \"explosive.\" \"What a great, great witness for the prosecution,\" she said. \"Basically what happened is Aaron Hernandez lied to his boss. And the only way you rebut it is if you put him on the stand.\" How did Hernandez know when the murder happened, Robbins asked, unless he was there? The Patriots' owner also testified, when asked by a defense attorney, that he'd never had any problems with Hernandez, and that the player was always respectful to him. The billionaire magnate of The Kraft Group, a company with interests ranging from paper and packaging concerns to sports and entertainment, said Hernandez always greeted him with a hug and kiss. Asked by the defense why Hernandez was signed to a $40 million long-term contract, Kraft said simply: \"He's a very good player.\" At times during his 30 minutes or so on the witness stand, Kraft seemed uncomfortable. \"Do you work?\" Bristol County District Attorney William McCauley asked Kraft. \"I think so, yes.\" Asked where he worked, Kraft responded, 1 Patriot Place, or Gillette Stadium, where the Super Bowl champions play their home games. \"What do you do for work?\" \"Whatever they ask me to do.\" Outside court, surrounded by cameras, Kraft expressed sadness over Lloyd's death. \"A man died,\" he said. \"This is about a man being killed. It's unfortunate.\" Later, Mark Briggs, head of security at Gillette Stadium, testified that he also asked Hernandez whether the former star was telling the truth about Lloyd. \"He swore on the baby's life that he was telling the truth,\" Briggs said. Hernandez was arrested in connection with Lloyd's death a week after that meeting with Kraft. The Patriots released Hernandez less than two hours after the arrest on June 26, 2013. Jenkins, 25, and Hernandez are the parents of a young daughter. Jenkins' sister Shaneah was dating Lloyd, 27, who was shot six times, according to prosecutors. The trial began in late January.","highlights":"Aaron Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Odin Lloyd .\nPatriots' owner testifies that Hernandez was always respectful with him .","id":"83afebf84087782161f19c821094d72069e9434f"} -{"article":"(CNN)They thought they had found a paradise. They thought wrong. The resolution of the Alexandria story arc is the first of six things you should watch this week. 1. \"The Walking Dead,\" 9 p.m. ET Sunday, AMC . \"The Walking Dead's\" season-long plotline involving a group that headed north from Atlanta all comes to a head in a 90-minute season finale on Sunday night. It's been a season in which Sonequa Martin-Green's character, Sasha, stood out: She's on the verge of insanity after the deaths of her brother and many friends. \"We went to a very deep place,\" Martin-Green said. \"It was hard, depressing, bad and thrilling all at the same time. A lot of the stuff was quite challenging for me. It was something I can definitely look back on and be proud of.\" With Rick having gone on a blood-soaked, gun-wielding rant in front of the leaders of the Alexandria community, his fate and that of his fellow survivors hangs in the balance. \"There's gonna be all the twists and turns you would expect and twists and turns you did not expect,\" Martin-Green said of the episode. \"The finale is probably the most jam-packed episode there's ever been. Things are packed into it like sardines. All of the life is squeezed in there. They lengthened it to 90 minutes because there's just so much. It's a supersized monstrosity.\" Her co-star Josh McDermitt added, \"There's so much good stuff in this episode they didn't want to do the hourlong version. I can't wait for people to see it. And personally, I think it's going to go down as one of the best episodes the show has ever done.\" 2. \"Call the Midwife,\" 9 p.m. ET Sunday, PBS . The fan favorite retro British series returns for a fourth season in the U.S. Though the ladies of ladies of Nonnatus House may not be quite as big as \"Downton Abbey,\" fans of that series should enjoy this one. 3. \"The Dovekeepers,\" 9 p.m. ET Tuesday and Wednesday, CBS . Roma Downey and Mark Burnett had a ratings smash two years ago with \"The Bible\" (and they have a sequel, \"A.D.,\" coming next week on NBC). CBS has their follow-up in a two-part miniseries. It's based on a novel following the journey of four women in the year 70, one of whom is played by \"NCIS\" alumna Cote de Pablo. 4. \"Weird Loners,\" 9:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, Fox . Stop me if you've heard this one: A group of single men and women has to live in close proximity in New York. Fox's latest sitcom, which hopes to build from the \"New Girl\" lead-in, stars two actors who have deserved their own shows: Zack Knighton (\"Happy Endings\") and Becki Newton (\"How I Met Your Mother\"). 5. \"Olympus,\" 10 p.m. ET Thursday, Syfy . Syfy takes on Greek mythology in this new series with plenty of magic, creatures and interesting costumes. 6. \"Outlander,\" 9 p.m. ET April 4, Starz . The Scottish time-travel romance returns to finish off its first season, as Claire and Jamie's relationship is tested. No matter what happens, the hardcore fan base will be there every step of the way.","highlights":"\"The Walking Dead\" has a 90-minute season finale on Sunday .\nCo-star Sonequa Martin-Green says it's the most jam-packed finale yet .\nThe Fox comedy \"Weird Loners\" premieres .","id":"a4c99a65c06e08e6e97cde3fbbfa64c387807549"} -{"article":"Istanbul (CNN)A prosecutor involved in a controversial case died Tuesday after he was shot during a hostage siege in an Istanbul courthouse. Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz died in the hospital from injuries he suffered during the attack, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, speaking to reporters on Turkish television. The two gunmen who took the prosecutor hostage were killed in a shootout with police after a standoff that lasted for hours. Kiraz was assigned to the controversial case of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who was injured during the anti-government Gezi Park protests in June 2013. The teen died the following March after having spent nine months in a coma. The case, with its overtones of possible police overreaction, has been politically contentious, just as the protests themselves were. In an online post widely cited in Turkish media, the left-wing Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front claimed responsibility for the attack. The post said the gunmen were seeking to avenge Elvan's death. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the gunmen as terrorists and said they were disguised as lawyers when they entered the courthouse. \"This is not to be taken lightly,\" he said. The gunmen took the prosecutor hostage around 12:30 p.m. in his office on the sixth floor of the Caglayan district courthouse, the semiofficial Anadolu Agency reported. Police evacuated that floor of the building, the agency reported, and snipers were deployed. An explosion, followed by sounds of more gunshots, could be heard coming from the courthouse Tuesday evening, hours after the siege began. Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altinok said Kiraz had been shot before Turkish security teams entered the room where the hostage crisis was unfolding. \"There is nothing else to do but to pray at this moment,\" Erdogan said. The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, known as the DHKP-C, is viscerally hostile to the Turkish state, the United States and NATO, and has had links with the far left in Europe. The Marxist-Leninist group claimed responsibility for a 2013 suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. Among other attacks attributed to the DHKP-C was the assassination of a former justice minister, Mehmet Topac, in 1994, as well as the murders of a number of senior police and military officials and, 1996, a prominent businessman, Ozdemir Sabanci. CNN's Gul Tuysuz reported from Istanbul. CNN's Don Melvin reported from London. CNN's Nimet Kirac reported from Atlanta. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister contributed to this report.","highlights":"The left-wing Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front claims responsibility .\nProsecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz dies after a hostage siege in Istanbul .\nProsecutor was assigned to the case of a teen who was injured in anti-government protests .","id":"4a5fa853af8ddf40b47b0d9298f64d6470eb9cfb"} -{"article":"(CNN)If you haven't yet been asked by friends or co-workers to Meerkat, chances are you will soon. The livestreaming app was the \"SXSW sweetheart\" this year, despite having only launched on February 27. It's been adding users rapidly ever since -- even Jimmy Fallon is streaming his life using Meerkat. As part of CNN's Instant Startups series, CNNMoney correspondent Laurie Segall reached out to Meerkat's Ben Rubin with some questions. And he agreed to answer them -- on Meerkat, of course. You can see a few moments from the chat in the video above. Rubin is actually the co-founder and chief executive of Life On Air Inc., a livestreaming company with many tentacles. But recently Rubin decided to dedicate his entire team to work on Meerkat after the app's popularity exploded. Still, Rubin said, he doesn't consider the app an \"instant startup\" per se. It took years of work to reach this moment, he said. The half-hour chat between Rubin and Segall was informative and entertaining. Several people said it broke their record for the longest Meerkat stream they had ever watched. We heard more about Meerkat and Rubin's vision for the future; for example, he sees the app branching out to work with other platforms, like Facebook or Tumblr. Rubin also revealed who he'd like most to join in the fun. Startup wannabes also got some great advice from this successful entrepreneur. Launching a new business or product is difficult, and requires flexibility, Rubin said. Entrepreneurs need people they can trust -- who won't be afraid to call \"b.s.\" on a bad idea. For more, check out our Instant Startups page.","highlights":"Meerkat launched February 27 but has caught on quickly .","id":"cefc383a6f30c1636e3afe54fa0ea9178d53676f"} -{"article":"New York (CNN)Korean Air's \"nut rage\" case has made its way back to New York, with the flight attendant who served the offending macadamia nuts filing a lawsuit against the airline and a former executive. Heather Cho, a Korean Air executive and daughter of the airline's chairman, is serving a one-year prison sentence in South Korea after throwing a fit on a New York flight because her nuts were served in a bag instead of a porcelain bowl. In a civil suit filed this week in state Supreme Court in Queens, New York, Cho -- whose name is listed as Heather Hyun A-Cho in court documents -- is accused of \"verbally and physically\" attacking flight attendant Kim Do-hee in December on a Seoul-bound flight departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport. At the time, Cho, who was seated in first class, demanded that the plane go back to the gate so Kim could be kicked off the flight, according to the lawsuit. The episode, which was widely reported, was a \"prime example of the corrupt and entitled behavior of the members of elite South Korean business families,\" the lawsuit states. The suit describes Cho as the \"princess\" of the \"so-called royal\" family that controls Korean Air, and says the executive screamed obscenities at Kim before hitting, shoving and threatening the flight attendant. On her return to South Korea, the lawsuit states, Kim was \"pressured to lie to government regulators in order to cover up the incident, and to appear in public with Cho as part of an orchestrated effort to try and rehabilitate Cho's public image.\" A South Korean judge last month said that Cho's actions threatened the development of the aviation industry and inconvenienced passengers, and ruled that she violated aviation law, changed a flight path and interfered with operations. She was sentenced to a year in jail. The judge blasted Cho for her conduct, saying that she had used the plane as if it were her personal car and that as a passenger, she could not override crew members and give orders during a flight. The case is emblematic of growing resentment over the perceived privileges and nepotism of the families that control the country's top companies. Cho resigned as vice president at the company a few days after the incident and publicly apologized, saying she accepted \"full responsibility.\" Last month, she appeared in a South Korean court wearing a green prison uniform. She gazed downward. Her hair hung in her face. \"I don't know how to find forgiveness,\" she said. Park Chang-jin, the chief steward who was booted from the flight instead of Kim, has said the former executive treated crew members like \"feudal slaves.\" Park and Kim, the flight attendant who served the nuts, had knelt in front of Cho in apology. Kim testified that Cho berated them about the service and later shoved and cursed her. When the flight arrived in Korea, the flight attendant said another airline manager, Yeo Woon-jin, pressured her not to talk to investigators about Cho's physically abusing her and Park. Yeo was found guilty of interfering with an investigation. Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho apologized to the flight attendants and the public following the public uproar over the incident. In a statement, Kim's lawyer, Andrew Weinstein, called Heather Cho's behavior \"humiliating, degrading, and damaging to Ms. Kim, but ... also emblematic of Ms. Cho's unbridled arrogance and disturbing sense of entitlement.\" The incident has damaged Kim's \"career, reputation, and emotional well-being,\" and efforts to settle the case out of court have been unsuccessful, according to the statement -- which didn't specify how much was being sought in damages. Attempts to reach representatives of Korean Air as well as lawyers for Cho were unsuccessful. CNN's David Shortell contributed to this report.","highlights":"A former Korean Air executive is named in lawsuit after interrupting a flight over how nuts were served .\nHeather Cho is accused of \"verbally and physically\" attacking flight attendant Do Hee Kim .\nKorean Air is also named in the lawsuit .","id":"33265ab62fbc242f8e50b353c8c7432ac6ca181a"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded medals Monday to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and to Andrei Lugovoi, the suspect in the murder of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, among more than 30 other honorees. Kadyrov was given the Order of Merit. The decree signed by Putin states: \"For work achievements, active social activities and many years of diligent work the Order of Merit is awarded to Ramzan Kadyrov, the President of the Chechen Republic.\" Lugovoi, the suspect in the poisoning death of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, was given a second-class medal of the Order of Merit for the Motherland, according to Putin's decree. Sergey Kislyak, a diplomat who's been serving as Russia's ambassador to the United States since 2008, was also among the honorees. He was cited as an \"Honored employee of a diplomatic service.\" Lugovoi is an MP in Russia's lower house of parliament for the nationalist and pro-Kremlin Liberal Democratic Party. He is deputy chairman of the lower house's security and anti-corruption committee. He also has hosted a show called \"Traitors\" on Russian TV and runs a restaurant in Moscow. Kadyrov has spoken out about the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, defending Zaur Dadayev, one of the Chechens charged in the shooting. \"Zaur Dadayev was a Russian Interior Ministry officer who served with distinction,\" Kadyrov said on his Instagram account. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a coincidence that the arrest of suspects in Nemtsov's killing happened around the same time as the award to the Chechen President. In an interview with Russian business outlet RBC, he stressed that the decree on awards was filed several months ago.","highlights":"Russian President honors more than 30 people, including Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov .\nAlso honored: Andrei Lugovoi, charged by the UK with London murder of former Russian security agent .\nRussian ambassador to the U.S. is cited as \"honored employee of a diplomatic service\"","id":"cb8596b1398e5bd71ac5bbbda404d25284465fa0"} -{"article":"Havana, Cuba (CNN)So what has U.S. State Department subcontractor Alan Gross been up to since he was released from a Cuban prison exactly three months ago? It turns out a lot more than most of the rest of us. Gross, 65, has started to make up for the five years he spent imprisoned in Cuba by traveling abroad, attending the State of the Union address as a guest of the Obamas and last week meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican to personally thank him for his role in helping to win Gross' freedom. After five years of being disconnected from the outside world, Gross now frequently posts on social media, writing of family reunions, eating the foods he longed for in prison and the reminders he experiences of his time in Cuba. \"I can't get away from Cuba,\" Gross wrote after hearing a Cuban song playing in an airport on his travels. While visiting Israel, he posted a photo of Cohiba cigars advertised for sale in a Tel Aviv tobacco shop. In 2009, Gross was arrested by Cuban state security agents and eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned communications equipment to the island. Gross said he was merely helping the island's small Jewish community get online, but Cuban officials accused of him being part of a U.S. government plot to destabilize the island's single-party Communist government. Cuba has highly restricted Internet access, and most people are not able to access the Web in their homes or on their phones. On December 17, 2014, Gross was freed, along with three Cuban intelligence agents and a Cuban man convicted of spying for the United States. It was part of a deal between the Cuban and U.S. governments to reestablish diplomatic relations after five decades of Cold War animosity. Gross, his wife, Judy, his attorney and three U.S. congressmen flew from Havana to his home state of Maryland aboard a U.S. military jet, one of the smaller versions of Air Force One used to transport President Barack Obama. The image of Gross celebrating his freedom aboard the flight home with CNN reporting the news of his release on a TV screen in the background became the picture he would use on his @AlanPGross Twitter page. The night of his release, he enjoyed a meal of spicy Thai food with family and friends, a far cry from the bland rations he was forced to eat in prison. In January, Gross changed the status of his Facebook page to read that he had left his job as \"hostage\" at the Carlos Finlay military hospital where had been held in Havana. Later, he shared pictures of a visit to the dentist's office to replace the teeth that he lost while he was held in Cuba. With his dental concerns met, he moved on to food. Gross also recounted savoring long-denied bowls of chili and bagels loaded with lox and cream cheese. Many of the posts are the daily jottings of a man returning to his life after an extended absence: Gross renewing an expired driver's license or visiting a Starbucks for the first time in five years. But in other posts, he writes about taking in a sunset on the beach in Israel, seeing the snow fall in Washington and believing citizens in every country should have unimpeded access to the Internet. A spokeswoman for Gross turned down a CNN request for an interview with him but confirmed that the social media accounts are his. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrat representing the Maryland district Gross hails from, called it \"incredibly moving\" that a man who spent five years in a Cuban prison has since sat next to first lady Michelle Obama and met the pope. More than that, he's come to signify the changing dynamics between officials in Washington and Havana. \"Alan did not ask for this special role in history,\" Van Hollen said, \"but he's become a catalyst for this new chapter in American and Cuban relations.\" The photos that Gross posted online show a smiling man, slowly putting back on some of the 100 pounds he lost in prison, no longer the gaunt-faced, hollow-eyed prisoner who had gone on hunger strikes to protest his conditions while he was held in Cuba. \"The distance we've come since December 17th 2014 has been a rewarding journey,\" Gross wrote in a Facebook post Saturday. \"For which we're grateful.\"","highlights":"Rep. Van Hollen: Alan Gross became \"a catalyst\" for next chapter in U.S.-Cuba relations .\nGross has been a guest of the Obamas, got to meet Pope Francis since release from Cuba .\nHe's also been to the dentist, watched a D.C. snowfall and indulged in some good food .","id":"e30b9d0c05637667dcb8ec13e6b27b90a470afee"} -{"article":"(CNN)The news that the U.S. military will charge Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion for abandoning his post in Afghanistan revives a deeply disturbing and morally wrenching incident in America's troubled war in Afghanistan. From the moment last year that the world learned about the prisoner-swap deal that secured his freedom, the questions that surrounded Begdahl's disappearance gained significance. After all, the United States had agreed to a very high price for his release. Based on the evidence that has come to public light, desertion seems the right charge against Bergdahl, whose comrades say he walked away, abandoning his commitments as a soldier in a war and creating new and greater dangers for them. But even before the charges were filed, there were other question whose answers are emerging. Was the United States right to negotiate a high-price trade? Did \"leave no man behind\" trump \"no negotiating with terrorists\"? And if it did, did the importance of saving one man outweigh the dictate not to pay ransom even if that man was a traitor or a deserter? New information about his disappearance and life of the people freed in exchange for Bergdahl make the case all the more troubling. Bergdahl, you will recall, spent five years as a prisoner of the Haqqani network, a group allied with the Taliban organization, America's principal enemy in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters had captured him in June 2009, just after Bergdahl, apparently disenchanted with the military, left his post in southeastern Afghanistan. The Taliban handed the American soldier to the Haqqanis, who shuttled him between locations as they and their partners negotiated for his release, seeking to maximize the profit from their valuable captive. In May 2014 they struck a deal. Five Taliban commanders were flown out of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, freed in exchange for the American soldier whose disappearance many had already labeled a desertion. The images became iconic. A strikingly pale Bergdahl, blinking painfully against the bright sun as he was handed over to U.S. officials. The scene contrasted sharply with a video of the Taliban chiefs' receiving a heroes' welcome in Qatar, where they prepared for a new life after their American captivity. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Bergdahl had served with \"honor and distinction.\" If that had been the case, the trade would have proved much less controversial. But from the moment Bergdahl went missing there had been questions. In the letters he wrote home before vanishing, Bergdahl showed a steady erosion of his faith in the military and belief in the mission. \"The future is too good to waste on lies,\" he told his parents. \"And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others.\" Men who had served with Bergdahl said he had simply walked off the base carrying little more than a compass. Not only would such a move constitute near-suicidal foolishness, it also put his comrades in great danger, particularly as they set out on a desperate quest to find him. What has been the cost of Bergdahl's odyssey? Some said the search for him cost the lives of six American soldiers. The specific circumstances are complicated, but it is clear that the six died in Paktika Province in the months after Bergdahl vanished, during a period in which every mission, even if not directly aimed at finding Bergdahl, included some element of a search. As one former team leader told CNN, \"when those soldiers were killed, they would not have been where they were if Bergdahl had not left.\" One of them, 2nd Lt Darryn Andrews, received a posthumous Silver Star for saving the lives of five soldiers during a mission that had shifted from searching for a Taliban target to looking for Bergdahl. Andrews left behind a pregnant wife and a 2-year-old son. Then there is the cost of signaling to the Taliban, of telling all of America's enemies, that if they capture a U.S. service member they could trade him for a ransom. This could endanger other Americans. And there is another potential cost: The men who were freed in exchange for Bergdahl could go on to fight again. The more you learn about the details of their post-Guantanamo lives, the more distressing the transaction looks. Under the terms of the deal, Qatar agreed to keep the former prisoners from leaving the country for one year. In the meantime, they are said to be living a life of fantastic comfort and luxury, courtesy of their gracious Qatari hosts. According to reports, they have each been allowed to bring five more families to keep them company. The 35 Taliban households are living in the lap of Qatari luxury, but the fighters are getting restless. At least two of the former Guantanamo detainees reportedly want to go back to the battlefield, perhaps adding to the eventual tally of the Bergdahl transaction. Now Bergdahl will face his punishment; he could be sentenced to life in prison for what the military says was desertion and misbehavior, and what his comrades said was a shameful betrayal -- one that cost lives. The question remains, should the United States have traded for this man? My sense is that the United States has a duty to the soldiers it sends to war. All soldiers should know that their country will do what it takes to bring them back. America could not leave Bergdahl to die in a mountain cave, especially if it did not know with certainty the circumstances of his disappearance -- but even if it did. Whether the Obama administration negotiated as effectively as it could have is another matter. On that count, I am skeptical. The trade -- Bergdahl for several hardened prisoners -- was a heart-splitting dilemma, but it was the right call.","highlights":"Frida Ghitis: Desertion charges against Bowe Bergdahl revive questions: Was swap deal for him correct? What has his odyssey cost?\nShe says swap may have sent dangerous message to America's enemies, cost American lives. Still, retrieving U.S. soldier was right call .","id":"ed0326c7cbce97a4b1875e8018578f4b820e6805"} -{"article":"(CNN)When it comes to the U.S. fraternity and sorority system, it's a disturbing truth: Life is largely segregated by race, money and power; and, yet, most of us find that unsurprising. This week, however, we got more evidence this callous status quo needs to change. The push came in the form of a nine-second YouTube video, which I'm sure you've seen by now. It reportedly shows members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma chanting these chilling lines: \"There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me.\" \"The students on the bus clap and pump their fists as they boisterously chant,\" CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin writes, describing a clip that rocketed around social media, leading OU's president, David Boren, to rightfully shutter and ban that fraternity from the school. The video is hard to watch, but I have a feeling it's one we need to see, both because it hints at the inner workings of certain Greek organizations, and because it shows the persistent racism that still exists in the United States. I'm thankful someone -- someone who was on the bus to witness the racist chants -- was brave enough to film this and to help it become public. That alone should give some reason for hope. Others weren't, but I was shocked by the video. This, in 2015? In my home state? Both of my parents participated in Greek life in Oklahoma, but at a different university. I know from their stories that these groups can be the basis for lifelong friendships and civic engagement. What happened on the bus at OU doesn't negate their positive experiences. But it should cause us to question a system that is inherently built around the concept of exclusion. Sometimes students are excluded from Greek life, in theory, because they're seen as uncool or don't \"fit in\" with a particular chapter. But we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't realize that, often, a person's race -- or sexual orientation, for that matter -- factors into this you're-in, you're-out process. Oklahoma school's response to video caught between racism, Civil Rights Act . And it's hard for me not to see the SAE video as a manifestation -- an admittedly extreme one -- of this exclusionist ideology. This is a case of dangerous group-think run amok. In a system that remains largely divided by race, perhaps videos like this shouldn't be so surprising. That's the view of Matthew Hughey, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut who studies racial dynamics in American Greek life. The U.S. fraternity and sorority system is \"a form of American apartheid,\" he told me in an interview on Monday. Instead of thinking of the Oklahoma fraternity members as \"bad apples,\" he said, we should see them as part of a \"bad orchard.\" That orchard includes, but isn't limited to, Greek organizations, he told me. It also includes the rest of us and our country's racist history. \"Largely, these organizations reflect a supersegregated and unequal system that is made up of college and alumni members all over the world,\" he said. Sigma Alpha Epsilon is no stranger to scandal and sanctions . Comparative data on the racial make-up of these organizations is impossible to come by, but anecdotal evidence suggests these groups are starkly divided by race. From 2003 to 2006, Hughey spent time interviewing students from Greek organizations at three colleges on the East Coast. \"At the time of interviews, the average membership size of the organizations was 63 members, and there was an average of 2.4 nonwhite members per organization,\" he wrote in a 2010 paper published by Society for the Study of Social Problems. That's 3.8% minority members, in those instances. Hughey's sample size is small but his results also echo what anyone who's spent time on a college campus knows to be true: There are white fraternities and there are black ones. Sometimes we even dare call them that. Far too many of us, especially those of us with friends and family members who have participated in Greek life, either are in denial about this -- or we choose to see egregious cases of racism, sexism and violence in the U.S. Greek system as somehow isolated. It's clear that's not the case. \"In 1992, Texas A&M University fined its chapter $1,000 after it threw a 'jungle party' attended by frat brothers in blackface. Then in 2002, Syracuse University suspended its chapter after one of its members went to a bar in blackface. As recently as 2013, the fraternity got suspended following allegations it had photographed African American students while pledges recited rap lyrics laced with racial slurs,\" according to The Washington Post's Terrence McCoy. All of that was just SAE. Other examples are easy to come by, too. According to The New York Daily News, here's the text of an invitation to a 2013 Asian-themed Kappa Sigma party at Duke University: \"We look forward to having Mi, Yu, You and Yo Friends over for some Sake. Chank You.\" And in January 2014, according to The New York Times, Arizona State University investigated an MLK-day party hosted by the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity in which \"nonblack students mocked blacks by donning loose basketball jerseys, flashing gang signs and drinking from hollowed-out watermelons.\" It's clear there is a recurring problem here -- one that needs fixing. One easy place to start would be simply getting more information. Why don't universities force these organizations to report their demographics so we can see exactly how segregated this system really is? Hughey told me that data isn't available. Then we could know the answers to some interesting questions: How segregated are Greek organizations? Are certain schools or organizations more integrated than others? What's the trend over time? Is there progress? John Lewis on Oklahoma students: 'They should be gone' Universities also should assess how and why they support these organizations. Do traditionally black and Latino fraternities get as much school funding and attention as the white frats? If not, why? And why are these groups so incredibly divided in the first place? What does that do to the student body as a whole? I'm not calling for an end to the Greek system. But it's a system that needs to take a hard look in the mirror and make some real changes. \"Any time there are racist remarks made, we must speak up as Americans,\" Boren, the OU president, said in a news conference. He added that he hopes the SAE students \"think long and hard\" about the incident as they pack up and vacate their fraternity house early this week. \"I hope they think long and hard about how words can injure and hurt other people,\" he said. The rest of us should do that, too.","highlights":"CNN's John Sutter talks with a sociologist about race in the fraternity system .\nThis follows controversy over racism in a University of Oklahoma fraternity .","id":"9126ba03e1fb1526c21bd0bffb243c42cc635765"} -{"article":"Paris (CNN)French lawmakers are weighing a ban on extremely thin models. New legislation debated in Parliament Tuesday would require modeling agencies to get medical certificates from models proving that their body mass index is at least 18. Models would also be required to undergo regular weight checks. And agencies that violate the law could face fines and even possible prison sentences. Dr. Olivier Veran, a doctor and French lawmaker who's proposing the measures, said it's time to put a stop to the practice of pressuring models to be so thin that it's dangerous for their health. \"We want to combat the idea that an agency could urge a model to stop eating; for example eating cotton balls to lose their appetite, to always lose more weight,\" he said. Seeing models' bones as they parade down the catwalk is a troubling trend, Veran said. \"We have had chief editors of prestigious magazines tell us that more and more often, they are obliged to use Photoshop, not to make the models look slimmer,\" he said, \"but to erase the tracks of bones under the skin, to make them look bigger.\" Vernan's proposed amendments to a health bill would also target the dark online world of pro-anorexia websites that promote self-starvation and encourage young women to post photos of their emaciated frames. The average BMI for a woman in France is 23.2 -- the lowest average in Western Europe, according to a 2009 study from France's National Institute of Demographic Studies. In France, Veran said, 30,000-40,000 people suffer from eating disorders, mainly teenagers. Marisol Touraine, France's minister of social affairs, expressed her support for the new anti-anorexia measures in an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV. \"The approach is good,\" she said, adding that the government will have to examine the wording of the new legislation in further detail. Extreme cases such as that of French model Isabelle Caro have sparked calls for change for years. Caro died in 2010, three years after she posed nude in a controversial ad campaign against anorexia. Similar concerns in Spain, Italy and Israel prompted those countries to adopt laws against the use of ultra-thin models on catwalks and in advertising campaigns. Israel even has strict rules on how model's bodies are Photoshopped; any changes must be clearly marked on the photo. Some in the industry are supportive of the proposed laws, but say they don't strike at the real issue. \"The fact of the matter is, fashion creatives have to think about the messaging they are promoting around body image ideals and the fact they are normalizing an unachievable physical appearance,\" said Caryn Franklin, a fashion commentator. Veran's legislation is set to go before the French Parliament at the end of the month for discussion. And he wants to outlaw what he calls starving models by the end of the year. \"I think that by the end of 2015,\" he said, \"we will no longer have anorexic models on the catwalk.\" CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.","highlights":"French lawmakers are considering measures setting limits for how thin models can be .\n\"We want to combat the idea that an agency could urge a model to stop eating,\" lawmaker says .\nSpain, Italy and Israel have passed similar measures .","id":"533d1d33383a63aadf4d431ddbf2ff5f0c0abf4e"} -{"article":"Barrington, New Hampshire (CNN)U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was delivering his normal rhetoric during a New Hampshire speech on Sunday, hitting the current administration on the economy, Obamacare and national security. \"And the Obama-Clinton foreign policy of leading from behind -- the whole world is on fire,\" the senator from Texas declared. But he was stopped by a 3-year-old girl sitting in the front row. \"The world is on fire?\" she yelled out. Cruz took it and ran with it. \"The world is on fire -- yes! Your world is on fire,\" he exclaimed, seizing the moment as the crowd burst out into laughter. \"But you know what? Your mommy's here and everyone's here to make sure that the world you grow up in is even better.\" The scene -- while cute -- captured Cruz's determination to remain unwavering in his views and language, never backtracking. There was no \"just kidding\" or \"that was only a metaphor\" to assuage the little girl. Instead, the first-term senator continued with his speechifying and used the moment to illustrate his point that while things are bad now, they could get better -- especially, cough cough, if he becomes president. A woman who identified herself as the child's mother named Michelle later told the WRKO's Kuhner Report that her child's reaction came in a \"high question kind of voice,\" but that her daughter was \"quite happy\" in the aftermath. \"She really, basically was like 'oh, oh, this is a great man.' He's the firefighter in her mind as a three-year-old. And was quite happy and she wanted a cookie.\" Cruz is bringing the resolute disruptor brand that he's built in Congress out on the trail as he lays the groundwork for a White House bid. This weekend, he was on a two-day swing through New Hampshire, stopping Sunday afternoon at an event put on by the Strafford County GOP. In the same way Cruz challenges establishment Republicans in the Senate, he's trying to build a campaign that breaks from the mold and showcases his firebrand conservatism. For example, his first question from the audience came from a woman who wanted to know how Cruz was going to make campaign finance reform a reality, a huge issue in the first-in-the-nation primary state. But Cruz argued that not only is money a form of speech, it emboldens speech. \"The answer is not to muzzle citizens; it's to empower citizens across the country,\" he said. Throwing a bone to his questioner, however, he said he supports requiring that campaign donations be disclosed. He took the same steadfast approach last weekend in Iowa, when he and other contenders were asked about the ethanol mandate requiring that gasoline contain a certain amount of ethanol -- a popular regulation in Iowa where corn is king. While nearly every other potential candidate expressed at least some measure of support for the mandate, Cruz flatly opposed it, saying in front of close to a thousand Iowa farmers that he doesn't think the government should be involved in the private sector. Gov. Scott Walker, who's vying with Jeb Bush for frontrunner status, said he supported the mandate in Iowa, despite previously opposing it in his home state of Wisconsin . Asked by reporters Sunday about accusations that Walker is a flip-flopper, Cruz first praised his potential rival but made sure to mention that candidates need to be challenged on their actions. \"It's easy for candidates to give an answer,\" he said, but added: \"The proof is in the pudding. What I've urged Republicans to ask of every candidate is: Have you walked the walk? Show me your record.\" Cruz got heavy applause when he said he wanted to \"repeal every word of Common Core,\" a set of testing standards that Jeb Bush staunchly defended when he appeared at a nearby event in Dover, New Hampshire just two days earlier. Common Core, however, was not legislation approved by Congress. Rather, it was created by a bipartisan group of governors and state leaders, and states received financial incentives by the government to adopt the standards. Still, Cruz played somewhat coy with his White House aspirations, aware of the tight federal regulations that would start holding contenders to different standards once they admit they're running for president. When voters pressed him Sunday to make a White House bid, Cruz told them to \"stay tuned.\" \"I'm looking at it very, very seriously,\" he told the audience. \"I would point out a week ago I was in Iowa, yesterday I was in South Carolina, and today I'm in New Hampshire.\" But he truly charmed the crowd when he said that after he and his wife got their daughters a puppy recently, one of the girls gave her approval for Cruz's presidential aspirations. \"If you win, that means Snowflake will finally get a backyard to pee in,\" his daughter said, according to Cruz. In terms of energy and turnout, Sunday's event stood out from other events held by potential White House contenders who were in New Hampshire this weekend, in part because it was open to the public, unlike other events headlined by Walker and Bush. His remarks were met with boisterous applause, and he was frequently urged to run for president by people who shook his hand before and after the event. Halfway through Cruz's remarks, a small-business owner in the audience was called on to ask a question but instead stood up proudly next to the senator and went off into a two-minute rant about how other Republicans in Washington aren't representing their conservative constituents. \"It is D-Day in America folks,\" he said, getting the crowd on their feet. \"We can't wait for another Republican. We need Ted Cruz.\" The man said his wife wrote a blank check for Cruz and pulled out his wallet, only to throw it on the ground at Cruz's feet. \"For those who believe in miracles, this gentleman just threw his wallet at a politician,\" Cruz said, getting a big laugh from the crowd. \"And he actually got it back.\" Cruz could not accept the money because he's not yet a candidate. One man, Bill Higgins, stood outside in the snow for four hours hoping Cruz would meet his goat named Izak, an apparent fixture on the campaign trail which was wearing a hat that said \"I voted\" and who happened to bite Jon Huntsman in 2011. Cruz waved hello at Higgins as the senator exited the building Sunday afternoon but didn't stop to greet the goat. \"He'll be back again,\" Higgins said, trying to appear unfazed. \"I'm sure he wants to get to his next stop.\"","highlights":"U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz visits New Hampshire, hits the White House on economy and Obamacare .\nA little girl in the crowd thinks the rhetorically speaking senator is warning of a literal global conflagration .\nMeanwhile, a goat that once bit Jon Huntsman doesn't get the same chance with the Texas senator .","id":"b73ac41e0eb186d05067ad6615826131a6f4a1e5"} -{"article":"London (CNN)Best-selling British fantasy author Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66, his website said Thursday. Pratchett, who wrote more than 70 books, including those in his \"Discworld\" series, had been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease in 2007. A statement on the website announced the news of his death at home Thursday with \"immeasurable sadness.\" \"I was deeply saddened to learn that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds,\" said Larry Finlay, managing director at Transworld Publishers. \"In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, 'Discworld' was his vehicle to satirize this world: He did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humor and constant invention.\" Pratchett continued to write following his diagnosis, completing his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014. Revealing his illness in 2007, the author -- who had a strong following among fans of fantasy fiction -- said he had been diagnosed with \"a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's,\" which he described as \"an embuggerance.\" He said then, \"Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet.\" According to Thursday's statement, he had posterior cortical atrophy, a progressive degenerative condition involving the loss and dysfunction of brain cells, particularly at the back of the brain. The last posts on his verified Twitter account, run by Pratchett with close friend Rob Wilkins, give a poignant farewell -- and have already been retweeted thousands of times. \"AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER,\" the first tweet in the series reads -- an apparent reference to Death, a recurring and generally sympathetic character in the Discworld books, who always speaks in ALL CAPS. \"Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. \"The End.\" Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, a charitable organization, said Pratchett -- who spoke out publicly about his condition and called for greater funding for Alzheimer's research -- had \"fundamentally changed the way dementia is seen and understood.\" \"His vehement determination to reduce the stigma of dementia meant he helped drag it out of the shadows -- kicking and screaming at times,\" he said. \"Shouting from the rooftops about the absurdity of how little funding dementia research receives, and fighting for good quality dementia care, he was and will remain the truest of champions for people with the condition.\" Pratchett was also a patron of the British Humanist Association, which paid tribute Thursday to the humor and dedication with which the author \"turned his suffering into a positive campaign.\" Pratchett, who began writing while a provincial newspaper journalist in the 1960s, became a full time writer in 1987 and received the Order of the British Empire \"for services to literature\" from Prince Charles in 1998. People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report.","highlights":"Author Terry Pratchett has died age 66, his website says .\n\"In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him,\" says publisher .","id":"75ab8abb1995c17f2211f9b958232dea6cd7ad29"} -{"article":"(CNN)From the moment we are born, the first question our parents are asked is, \"Is it a boy or a girl?\" The answer to that seemingly simple question quickly establishes the child's path and trajectory for years to come; however, the question is not simple. The question is tragically flawed and here's a newsflash for everyone who has ever asked new parents that question: You're asking the wrong people. I realize that parents are simply sharing a bit of biological information based on their baby's physical \"parts,\" but only that beautiful baby can accurately and authentically tell you what gender he or she is. You may want to give it a little time before you paint that nursery bright pink or pick out junior's first baseball glove -- it's just not that simple. I may only be 15 years old and will be the first to admit that I know very little about this great big world, but I know way too much about gender and being mislabeled. Why transgender teen Jazz Jennings is everywhere . You see, the doctor told my parents, \"It's a girl,\" but he couldn't have been more wrong. Aside from my biology, I knew I was a boy from the age of 2. I was 100% sure of who I was and biology was an insignificant part of the conversation. Keep in mind that this was a time before I had even realized that being a boy trapped in a girl's body was anything beyond normal, and this was long before I could possibly articulate what was happening. However, there was no need to articulate anything. I was a little boy expressing myself based on what was in my heart and mind -- not yet distorted by biology, other people's confusion, or fear. It was when I was older that other people let me know something was \"off.\" No matter how many times I was told differently, I was a boy and the people that mattered knew it too, for the most part. I want to address the moment where people, gender, and respectful communication part ways. That is the moment when the word \"sexuality\" creeps into the conversation. That is when people get scared, cite religion, start whispering, and disconnect. It's a sad moment, but I get it. People have always mocked what they don't understand, and this is a tough one for most to grasp. That said, it has to change and I believe it is changing. The transgender life: What to know, say and understand . I cannot stress to the world enough, gender and sexuality are two completely different things, and the moment people incorrectly connect them is the moment when most people start looking for an exit or a fight. Save your fear people. This is not something to be afraid of; it's an opportunity for us to evolve. Nothing is completely black or white, hot or cold, here or there, or male and female; there are varying degrees of everything and the quicker we respect that, the faster we all grow and allow people to be who they are. It all starts by taking sexuality out of the initial conversation. I first heard the term \"gay\" in the second grade, long after I had my first \"girlfriend\" and had proudly written \"a penis\" at the top of my Christmas list. Not until after I learned that there was such a thing as sexuality and homosexuality did I become afraid of who I was. It wasn't until I learned that there were people out there that considered homosexuality \"abnormal\" or that people needed to put labels on our feelings toward others that I became terrified that I was \"different.\" I knew I liked girls and I was technically a girl, biologically, but I was a boy and my feelings about girls were normal boy feelings. I was not gay -- but try to explain that to someone without his or her eyes glazing over. Thankfully, I grew up in a household that taught me that I could love anybody I wanted to and it was fine because it is fine. Anyone can love anyone and there is nothing wrong with that. Fortunately, people have developed more of an understanding of that over time, but there are always going to be people that think differently and we all have to accept that. Do they matter? Of course they do because we all matter, equally; however, ignorant people are here to help us learn how to better communicate; everyone is reachable with the right circumstances and I look forward to the battles as much as the victories. As long as you're happy, you're indestructible. That said, I knew being gay wasn't a bad thing, but I also knew it didn't describe me. I was a straight boy who liked girls and there is nothing wrong with that, either. I was afraid of being thought of differently. The most crippling fear came from people not understanding that I was a boy trapped in a girl's body and simply labeling me something I'm not. That's what I was truly afraid of. Experience how one family reacted when their daughter said she's a boy. CNN Films presents \"Raising Ryland,\" a short film available exclusively on CNN Digital on Wednesday, March 18. Discovering that I was transgender was a miraculous moment. I finally found the key that unlocked the cage I'd been trapped in for 14 years and that's why I call this journey, \"My Transcension.\" With the support of my parents, I am sharing my story. Breaking free and owning your sexuality is something you find within yourself and is spectacular, but it is just the tiniest part of the greater transgender conversation. I am going beyond that and my journey is one that is constantly moving forward and upward. I'm taking the body I was born into and transforming it into the body I know I'm supposed to be in -- thanks to my family, friends, Dr. Jo Olson, the support groups, the science, and lastly, myself. See, that's the irony, I was the first person and truly the only person capable of answering the \"is it a boy or girl\" question -- not the doctor, my parents, or anyone who thinks they know better. That is the lesson, let each of us dictate our own path and respect everyone's choice. I realize that it's easier said than done but if you read this and find yourself open to a new conversation about gender, I consider that a win for us all. Truthfully, I'm most proud of myself for having the courage to find my own way and owning it, to proudly begin my transcencion from someone I wasn't -- into the man I always knew I'd become. Whether I'm a boy or a girl, white or black, rich or poor, gay or straight, it's completely irrelevant. What truly matters is the fact that I'm Avery Wallace and I've always known exactly who I was. I'm here to share my journey and hopefully, help someone else recognize theirs.","highlights":"Avery Wallace says he knew he was a boy from age 2 .\n\"I knew being gay wasn't a bad thing, but I also knew it didn't describe me,\" Avery says .\nPeople mock what they don't understand, he says .","id":"d3366a6d632b47336184f758231c083b078fe2cc"} -{"article":"(CNN)What does 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer have to talk about with World No. 4 Andy Murray? Hairstyles, apparently. Federer crashed the Scot's Q&A Twitter session on Thursday to tease Murray about his lustrous locks, asking \"how do you get your hair to be so curly?\" with the hashtag \"helpabrotherout.\" Murray joked back: \"I don't take as good care of mine as you! I saw you checking your hair out during the photo shoot yesterday #silkysmooth,\" before posting an image of himself from 2008 with a curly mane, adding \"let me know if you ever want to go down this route.. Think it would be good for your image.\" Earlier this month, Federer suffered some embarrassment of his own when a small boy played a point against the 33-year-old -- outmaneuvering the Swiss legend with a perfect lob at an exhibition match in New York. Both Federer and Murray are competing in the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this week. Four-time winner Federer is aiming for his 50th match win at the Californian tournament while Murray is looking to improve on his runner-up finish in 2009.","highlights":"Tennis legend Roger Federer exchanges hairstyle tips with Andy Murray .\nThe men discuss curls, smoothness and \"being worth it\" over Twitter .\nThe sport is no stranger to funky hairstyles over the years .","id":"75ff320dd964c53f5ccda423bc9650c7bd634553"} -{"article":"(CNN)Two million illnesses. 23,000 deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that's the human toll from antibiotic-resistant \"superbugs\" each year in the United States. To fight the growing problem of infections that can't be treated, the administration of President Barack Obama is implementing a five-year national action plan at a cost of $1.2 billion. Those funds, part of the President's 2015 budget, which must still be approved by Congress, would nearly double the amount of federal money allocated to the fight. The plan calls for creating a \"one-health\" approach to testing and reporting superbugs around the country, as well as establishing a DNA database of resistant bacteria. New, rapid tests to detect emerging resistant bacteria will be developed. Research for new antibiotics and vaccines will accelerate. The plan calls for two new options for people, and three for animals, by 2020. Global surveillance and cooperation is also stressed, including a global database for animals. A key goal is to slow the growth and spread of superbugs by reducing the use of antibiotics when they aren't needed. The plan calls for a 50% reduction in inappropriate antibiotic use in doctor's offices and a 20% reduction in hospital use by 2020. \"This is a lofty goal,\" said internist and Emory Associate Professor Dr. Sandra Fryhofer. \"It's important for both patients and professionals to be on board.\" There are still details to work out. \"Who determines what's appropriate?\" asked Atlanta pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Shu. \"Are we going to have a checklist of requirements that have to be met? I think it might be a bit tough to measure, but I think improvement can definitely happen.\" A recent survey of 796 health care professionals found 63% of the sample prescribed antibiotics when they weren't absolutely necessary, at least 10% of the time. A top reason: the patient requested it. \"Some patients put a lot of pressure on doctors to give them an antibiotic, and they may think they're not getting good care if they're not given one. But that's just not true,\" said Fryhofer. \"It's become like an insurance policy but it's an insurance policy that doesn't give good dividends.\" \"I do find there is a lot of education that has to go on with patients that might expect antibiotics when their child is sick,\" said Shu, \"but I think in recent years I have seen more of an awareness, and many of my patients are more hesitant to ask.\" Another part of the plan pledges to eliminate the widespread use of antibiotics to boost the growth of animals raised for food. It will also phase in oversight by veterinarians for other uses of antibiotics in feed and water. While applauding the spirit of the pledge, critics say the limits are still too voluntary and limited in scope. \"The problem we have with the plan is that it only removes the growth claims from the label,\" said senior analyst Steve Roach at Keep Antibiotics Working. \"What we hoped for in the plan was a commitment from FDA to identify which antibiotic uses other than growth promotion need to be changed.\" \"With 80% of the antibiotics produced in the United States being used in agriculture mostly for prevention,\" said Louise Slaughter, D-New York, who has an alternate proposal in front of Congress, \"any meaningful solution to the looming antibiotic resistance crisis must begin with limits on the farm. Trusting a voluntary policy that lets industry police itself will not bring about real change.\"","highlights":"Antibiotic resistance is a pressing public health issue, CDC says .\nPlan would nearly double the amount of federal monies allocated to the fight .\nPatient use of unnecessary antibiotics will be curtailed .","id":"05febee2aa5eb5e5808156664246842e9e3f4289"} -{"article":"Leicester, England (CNN)Richard III, the King found beneath a car parking lot, has been reburied in a solemn but celebratory service, 530 years after his death in battle. The remains of the medieval monarch were sensationally rediscovered beneath a blanket of tarmac in the center of Leicester in August 2012. They have been pored over by scientists at the city's university ever since, but after more than two years of legal wranglings, the bones were finally laid to rest Thursday in a coffin built by Richard III's distant relative, Michael Ibsen, whose DNA helped prove their identity. It was standing room-only at Leicester Cathedral -- which had been partially rebuilt for the occasion -- as Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led prayers for the long-dead King, swinging incense and sprinkling holy water over the casket, before scattering it with earth from key locations marking his birth, life and death. Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant cousin of England's last Plantagenet King, read a poem dedicated to Richard III, written by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. \"My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil, a human braille. My skull, scarred by a crown, emptied of history. Describe my soul as incense, votive, vanishing; your ownthe same. Grant me the carving of my name.\" Queen Elizabeth, represented at the ceremony by the Countess of Wessex, sent a special message to mark the reinterment, which she hailed as \"an event of great national and international significance.\" \"Today we recognize a King who lived through turbulent times and whose Christan faith sustained him in life and death,\" it read. But though it bore many of the hallmarks of grief -- polished coffin, empty tomb, relatives clad in gloomy, pitch-dark suits -- this was not, the organizers insisted, a sad occasion. \"This is not a funeral at which we mourn,\" said Professor Gordon Campbell, of the University of Leicester, welcoming the congregation to the cathedral, just yards from that famous parking lot. Instead, the aim of the service was to offer Richard III a fitting farewell, and a lasting memorial -- neither of which he was granted following his death at Bosworth in 1485. Back then, his body was slung over a horse and carried back to Leicester -- legend has it that his head struck Bow Bridge on the way -- before being put on display for three days, to prove to friends and foes alike that he really was dead, before being slung into a hastily-dug grave at the Church of the Grey Friars. Now Richard's bones, accompanied by a specially-crafted rosary, recognizing his Catholic faith, rest in a lead-lined coffin of English oak, his grave marked by a 2.3 ton block of pale Swaledale fossil limestone resting on a plinth of black Kilkenny marble carved with his name, dates, coat of arms, and his symbol: a white boar. Speaking before the commemorations, Philippa Langley, founder of the \"Looking for Richard\" project, said she did not expect to feel upset at the reinterment: \"Richard died over 500 years ago, so I don't think there will be a sense of sadness there at all. I hope there's perhaps some joy, that something has been done well and right and that we've made peace with the past.\" But Ibsen admitted he found Sunday's service at which the remains were carried in to the cathedral surprisingly moving: \"there was a slight dampening of the eyeballs, which caught me completely unawares,\" he said phlegmatically. \"Leicester born and bred\" sisters Susan Foster and Sharon Stirling were among the crowds waiting outside the cathedral to listen in on the service and catch a glimpse of the guests arriving. \"This is history, isn't it, it's never going to happen again,\" said Foster. \"We grew up with all the stories of Richard III. We lived close to Bow Bridge, so we know all the legends about him.\" Stirling said she thought the Richard III story would be a big bonus for the city: \"I think it will boost the economy and bring visitors in -- he's got quite a fan club, after all.\" Leicester has always been proud of its links to Richard III; the city boasts pubs and schools named in his honor, there's a walking tour and a brand new visitor center built over his original grave. But in recent days, interest has risen to fever pitch: shop windows are full of Richard-themed displays offering everything from wooden toy castles to chain mail jewelery. The florist around the corner from the cathedral is doing a roaring trade in white roses, which people have been leaving at Richard III's statue, and his face is emblazoned on all manner of souvenirs, from paperweights and pens to mugs and bars of chocolate. There's even a \"Return of the King\" beer -- locally brewed and promising \"a distinctive regal flavor.\" Some 35,000 people lined the bunting-and-flag-draped streets of Leicester and its surrounding villages on Sunday to watch as the King's coffin was carried in a procession out to the scene of his death and back again. Another 20,000 lined up for hours to file past the casket and pay their respects as it lay \"in repose\" at the cathedral in the days since, watched over by an honor guard of veterans. Among them was Jane Gregory, who traveled two hours by bus from her home in South Derbyshire twice in a week to be there. \"It was just something I had to see and experience -- it's part of history,\" she told CNN outside the reburial service on Thursday. \"I came on Monday too, to view the coffin -- it was a great experience. I queued for two and a half hours and it was worth every minute.\" History enthusiast Paul Eames stood in the drizzle and watched the service on his iPad after missing out on a ticket -- to his wife Karen: \"I applied for tickets for both of us; I could have cried when I saw the envelope with her name on it.\" \"I didn't originally want to go,\" Karen admitted, smiling. \"But he told me 'you'll be part of history, you don't realize!' The service was amazing, really lovely.\" Not everyone was there just to celebrate Richard III, though. Leicester student Sherry Xie said she was \"proud\" of her university's role in the discovery of his bones, but she and her classmate Wendy Jiang admitted they'd come along with an ulterior motive: \"to see Benedict!\" In his sermon, the Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens said those who had joined the commemorations \"(came) not to judge, condemn or praise, but to stand in silent, humble and reverent attentiveness at the meeting place of time and eternity.\" Stevens said the search for Richard III had \"broken open not just a car park, but a nation's story.\" It also provoked bitter quarrels between rival factions over where and how he should be buried, and how much scientific testing he should be subjected to. But Campbell insisted that the service was held in a \"spirit of reconciliation,\" a thought echoed by Stevens: \"Whether we bear a white or a red rose, whether for Richard or Henry ... whether for Leicester or York, we recognize at the graveside that all our journeys lead us to this place, where reputation counts for nothing and all human striving turns to dust.\" Langley, the driving force behind the search for the King, said Thursday's service would mark the end of one chapter in the long-running saga; but she said work to re-examine Richard's life and legacy would go on. \"It's the conclusion to his story in that he's been found ... and we're laying his physical remains to rest. But in terms of Richard's story, that is only just beginning.\"","highlights":"Remains of Richard III were sensationally rediscovered 530 years after death .\nActor Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant cousin of king, reads poem at celebratory service .\nHistorian Phillippa Langley said discovery had prompted researchers to rethink the king .","id":"52c9a9cdbf4aa742511a2615bd47042f3b707604"} -{"article":"(CNN)Under harsh lights in a private, rented room in Berlin, women face each other in violent, sometimes bloody battles of brute strength. There are no official rules to this female fight club. The fighters are both beginners and professionals, anywhere from age 20 to 50, said photographer Katarzyna Mazur, who spent months documenting the club in 2013 and 2014. Led by founders nicknamed Anna Konda and Red Devil, a match might pit a bodybuilder against a martial arts master. They can wrestle, throw punches or \"cat fight.\" There's no judge, just someone who knows the parameters they've decided for the match. The small audience is mostly made up of men, but it's a place for women to shed the roles they play outside. \"When I saw this kind of fighting for the first time, I was quite shocked. I had never seen something like that before, and it was really interesting to experience all of this so close,\" said Mazur, who photographed the fight club as part of her work toward graduation from photography school. \"Inhibition and fear do not exist on the mat.\" At first, Mazur said, she shot the fight club in color, but the look of the blue mat and neon lights didn't satisfy her. She shifted to black-and-white images and reduced her point of view, getting as close as she could to the action. \"It was not easy to work like that, because the matches were going very quickly and were unpredictable,\" she said, although fighters were respectful and would stop if someone was seriously hurt. \"I had to be very careful not to get hit. Fortunately, there are chairs on the side, so I could jump on them if the female fighters suddenly rolled under my feet.\" For all the aggression built into fighting, Mazur said, the project required a lot of sensitivity. She had to work quickly, and she didn't always know her subjects well. The bouts, the motivations, the scene can all leave a lot of room for interpretation. Mazur said she had to examine her own limitations, questioning \"How far can I go? Do they trust me? Am I allowed to do that?\" Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. \"I enjoy exploring new worlds, especially a world which exists in a gray area,\" she said. She also had to remember that the fighters pushing and pummeling inside the club have lives outside, too -- they're mothers, partners, friends. Their actions on the mat might contradict how they live the rest of their lives. Even years later, the fight club is still running and is \"better than ever,\" Mazur said. \"Very often, I was very moved after seeing and editing the pictures, realizing what exactly happened there,\" Mazur said. \"It is important to always remember my role as a photographer and to always approach the subject with interest and (an open mind).\" Katarzyna Mazur is a Polish photographer based in Berlin. You can follow her on Facebook.","highlights":"Katarzyna Mazur spent months photographing a female fight club in Berlin .\n\"I enjoy exploring new worlds, especially a world which exists in a gray area,\" Mazur said .","id":"a224fec6f63273a1fd19414f68ba2c52d5e169d5"} -{"article":"Hong Kong (CNN)Taipei is fast becoming the go-to Asian city for some of Hollywood's biggest hitters. Martin Scorsese is filming his latest opus \"Silence\" there, and French director Luc Besson chose Taipei over seven other Asian cities for his sci-fi thriller \"Lucy,\" starring Scarlett Johansson. And this May \"The Walking Dead\" star Andrew Lincoln will begin filming in the city for a movie project. Tasked with attracting international film makers, Jennifer Jao, head of the Taipei Film Commission, said that 92 foreign film crews shot in the city last year, up from 56 in 2013. \"We hope the whole island can be like a big studio,\" she told CNN while in Hong Kong Thursday. It wasn't always this way. For years, Taiwan, while home to acclaimed filmmakers like Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, was overlooked in favor of its ritzier neighbors Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. And even when Hollywood came knocking, the city didn't always have its act together. The producers of \"Mission Impossible III,\" released in 2006, had wanted to film at Taipei 101, at that time the world's tallest skyscraper. But faced with red tape and reluctance, they ended up choosing the 53-story Shanghai Bank of China Tower for Tom Cruise's memorable bungee jump. \"We lost an opportunity for the world to get to know Taipei,\" says Jao. Jao's commission was set up in 2008 to court international film makers but it wasn't until director Ang Lee, who was born in Taiwan, filmed the Oscar-winning hit \"Life of Pi\" on the island that it began to earn a reputation as an accommodating and affordable place to shoot. Lee filmed the memorable and technically difficult scenes of a shipwrecked boy and a tiger at a purpose-built facility at abandoned airport in the Taiwanese city of Taichung. With its relatively unknown cityscape, Taiwan can also function as a generic Asian backdrop. The island, which was a Japanese colony, is already being used as a stand-in for Japan. Japanese director Takashi Miike used Taiwan's high-speed rail system in a bullet-strewn action sequence for crime drama \"Shield of Straw,\" which competed at the Cannes International Film Festival. Japanese rail authorities turned him away. And Scorsese's \"Silence,\" due to release in 2016, is a historic drama about two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan. Taiwan is also a popular alternative to China, where there are many restrictions on filmmakers -- authorities can censor scripts considered politically sensitive or obscene. Hong Kong director John Woo used both Taiwan and China as locations in \"The Crossing.\" Dubbed China's \"Titanic,\" it focuses on a ship that sank when the Nationalist government fled China for Taiwan in 1949 as the Communists took over -- a sensitive period in Chinese history. Taiwan and China are still governed separately. Chinese authorities asked Woo to tone down the heroics of a Nationalist soldier, according to the South China Morning Post -- not something that Taiwan would ever require, says Jao. The commission offers incentives for international film crews. Up to $2 million is available per movie -- half of that as a cash subsidy. But just as important is the island's versatility as a location, says Jao. While many of the film crews are from neighboring Asian countries, the city has hosted crews from Latvia and Germany, while the BBC shot some of its newly released drama \"X+Y\" in the city. \"It's a small island. Within half an hour, you can go from the streets to the mountains to the sea.\"","highlights":"Taipei is attracting more international film crews .\nMartin Scorsese is shooting his latest movie in the city .\nTaiwan often acts as a stand in for China and Japan .","id":"809dff6b69adee612066a20684b722ad9dde95b0"} -{"article":"(CNN)In 2011, journalists flocked to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to cover the presidential election and the violence leading up to the vote. Photographer Leonard Pongo had different plans. \"I could have focused on the election, but I chose to follow people around,\" Pongo said. \"I wanted to experience what life in the country was like ... to understand another side of those events -- not those usually reported, but one that was much more personal.\" It was Pongo's burning personal quest that brings us \"The Uncanny,\" a black-and-white series that helps us experience the Congo in flesh and blood. These rich portraitures and compositions of Pongo's family members give us a vivid emotion of what it is like to be human as your country spirals into chaos. It is also a photographic detour from the cliche images of the Congo -- a subtler but deeply psychological representation of how war affects daily lives. War is something only experienced marginally by Pongo, who was born and raised in Belgium to a Belgian mother and a Congolese father. Stories of the Congo were narratives whispered into his European upbringing. \"I had never been,\" to Congo, he said. \"It was a latent desire I had for a very long time to go there. I don't feel particularly drawn to Belgium ... but going (to Congo) made me feel even more lost.\" Connecting with his family in the Congo, the photographer attended baptisms and weddings, exorcisms and political rallies. Everywhere he looked, he felt a challenge to his core beliefs as he went down his DNA chain. \"I felt very challenged in my identity, sometimes as a 'white,' others as a 'black' person,\" Pongo said. \"This led to many conflicts, internal and external; many arguments; and it also directed the way I photographed.\" While feeling the warm welcome of his family, Pongo still felt a certain reticence when they looked at the camera. Their trust was not always unshakable, and that state of awareness become synonymous with the Congo. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. He uses a photo of a family reunion -- the first in the gallery above -- as an example. \"I find that photo a little disturbing, because all the gazes are going into different directions,\" Pongo said. \"There are clearly some mixed emotions here. And that is the DRC. It is a very complex country, and it is not always easy to read which signs are being communicated. There is a state of tension and confusion.\" Working with the approach of an artisan, Pongo plays with light to create a certain magic in the aura of the people he portrays. It is a useful tool in a place with so many contrasts. \"I like to remain loyal to the principles of film development and darkrooms,\" said Pongo, who shot \"The Uncanny\" on a digital camera. \"The light is a combination of using flashes and taking advantage of the amazing presence of the sun. The humid atmosphere, fog and dust renders some interesting possibilities ... like a natural filter.\" Pongo went back in 2013 and said his journey through the country is not over yet. \"I think I reached my objective, to embed into the daily life in the Congo, which clearly transformed me,\" he said. \"I was allowed into the life of people who were former strangers ... and got a deeper understanding of what daily life in the Congo could feel like. \"I was also deeply impressed to discover how much life there is in this country, how much more there is to discover, how complex it is to understand, and how much work that will require.\" Leonard Pongo is a photographer from Belgium. You can follow him on Tumblr.","highlights":"Photographer Leonard Pongo documented daily life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .\nThe African country has struggled over the years with civil war and election violence .","id":"7f8c2b9c6f7578d7302acbb29f9087f5f5f260f3"} -{"article":"London (CNN)CNN International presented the CNN Journalist Award for excellent international coverage to up-and-coming journalists from Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland at an exclusive dinner at the London Century Club last week. The event, in the award's 10th year, was hosted by Greg Beitchman, VP for content sales and partnerships CNNI, who talked about its commitment to recognizing those who stand out, stand up and make an impact. Gerhard Zeiler, President Turner International, delivered key remarks focusing on the importance of accurate and passionate story-telling, and London Bureau Chief Tommy Evans underlined that in journalism, it's all about authenticity. London-based anchors Hala Gorani and Nina dos Santos, and Turner's MD for Germany, Austria and Switzerland Hannes Heyelmann, were among other colleagues attending the event, and Daniel Puntas Bernet and J\u00f6rg Thadeusz from the awards jury were also on hand. As the presentations got under way, the next big stars of German-speaking journalism covering international issues were honored in the categories of TV, Radio, Print, Online and Photography. Stephanie Doetzer (DRadio Wissen), winner in the Radio category, was revealed as CNN Journalist of the Year 2015 for her moving radio piece \"Take care, Habibi.\" The ceremony was followed the next day by a series of masterclasses held at Turner House where guests heard from CNN producers and editors about how CNN International deals with data, its approach to social media and what it takes to produce a successful online video. Award winners were then hosted at a special lunch by London Bureau Chief Tommy Evans and Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour. The awards were an inspirational testament to the power of good journalism and everyone involved with the event was thrilled to host the winners for this special program of events. CNN Journalist of the Year 2015 and Winner in the category Radio: Stephanie Doetzer: \"Take care, Habibi\" (DRadio Wissen) Stories about the civil war in Syria are often quite abstract. Yet, a war is very real. It is not only about the destruction of residential areas and fighting militia. It is also about families that argue about what happens, about friends who don't talk to each other anymore and relationships that fall apart. Political life becomes private, and personal life becomes political -- for all Syrians but also for those who feel connected with Syria. \"This contribution is written as a first-person narrative that is very compelling and emotional. It forces you to see what is happening in Syria, and there was no doubt that it had to win the award. The contribution has won our hearts by a long way, we are completely convinced,\" says jury member Ingrid Thurnher. Photography: Jelca Kollatsch (\"Houses without People and People without Houses\", ver.di Publik) The photo series by Jelca Kollatsch shows the effects of the financial crisis on people in Spain who live in Andalusia, the region with the country's highest rates of unemployment and evictions. \"The contribution covers an important issue, and it tells a story, almost following the structure of a drama: With breathtaking rigor, the artist goes from the sources of the problem to the eviction of the people in the end,\" the jury said. Online: Christian Salewski and Felix Rohrbeck (\"The GPS chase. What happens with our waste?\", ARTE Future) AND Trainees of Deutsche Welle: \"My Granny, the Regime and I\" (DW) This year, the jury chose two winners in the category Online: \"Digital journalism has a lot to offer. The two prizewinners represent a different approach in an interesting way and show how journalism generally evolves with multimedia possibilities,\" explains the jury. In the first contribution, Christian Salewski und Felix Rohrbeck track the disposal of electronic scrap in Germany and find out that it isn't always legal and fair. In the second contribution, a group of Deutsche Welle trainees asked their grandmothers from Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Kenya and Germany about their personal experiences in times of dictatorship or autocracy. They created a multimedia online project with videos, words and images, combining the stories of the grandmothers with the history of the different countries. Print: Alexandra Rojkov and Jan Ludwig (\"You think you can help me?\", Der Tagesspiegel) The contribution of the two authors tells the personal story of an escape from Syria and asks how far we would go in a safe country like Germany to help people in war and crisis zones. \"The authors touch their audience by transferring the ongoing conflict in Syria to the fate of two individuals,\" says jury chairman Franz Fischlin. TV: Lukas Augustin (\"Unforgiven\", NDR) Twenty years after the civil war in Rwanda, the victims and the offenders live door to door. Lukas Augustin presents a documentary about the efforts made to foster forgiveness. The movie provides insight into the tangle of guilt and atonement in modern Rwanda. \"This contribution is more than a TV documentary. It is a film about a country that deals with its own history in an incredibly spectacular and exceptional way,\" says jury member Ingrid Thurnher. The jury members of this year's CNN Journalist Award were: Franz Fischlin (Tagesschau host, editor and reporter SRF), Frederik Pleitgen (CNN senior international correspondent), Stefan Pl\u00f6chinger (editor-in-chief sueddeutsche.de & member of the editorial board S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung), Ingrid Thurnher (host and editor ORF), Hans Demmel (managing director n-tv),Daniel Puntas Bernet (editor-in-chief of the magazine Reportagen) and J\u00f6rg Thadeusz (host, author, journalist). About the CNN Journalist Award . The CNN Journalist Award is presented by CNN International to young foreign journalists. Each year, it recognizes outstanding print, radio, TV, online and photographic work by young journalists. As well as awards for each category, an overall winner is named the \"CNN Journalist of the Year.\" Entry is open to journalists who were no older than 34 at the time their work was published. Back in 1995, CNN launched the CNN African Journalist Award. Since then, the award has been extended to Brazil, India, Indonesia and the German-speaking countries. Click here for more information about the CNN Journalist Award.","highlights":"CNN International presented CNN Journalist Award for excellent international coverage to up-and-coming journalists .\nAwards were inspirational testament to the power of good journalism .","id":"d7721fa46f2cbeebb45484dc06f705c0750ac6a5"} -{"article":"(CNN)On any other Wednesday morning, the steps in front of the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium would be packed with kids on their way to class, discussing homework, chattering about last night's TV shows, or laying out plans for the coming weekend. But not today. Instead, students approached in silence, carrying photographs and flowers. In small groups, the teenagers lined up to lay tributes to their lost classmates before hugging each other wordlessly, or dissolving into tears. At 10:53 a.m. Tuesday morning, this school in the small western German town of Haltern was changed forever by events more than 1,000 km (about 620 miles) away. A Germanwings plane carrying 16 of its pupils and their two teachers home from a school exchange trip to Spain crashed in the French Alps, killing all of those on board. Headmaster Ulrich Wessel said when the first reports of a crash came through he was still hopeful, thinking \"perhaps they had missed the plane, or perhaps there was a second Germanwings flight at the same time.\" Instead, the worst was confirmed, leaving him \"stunned and somewhat speechless,\" the community devastated and the classmates of the dead struggling to understand their loss. \"A week ago Tuesday we sent 16 happy young people and two young colleagues off on a trip,\" Wessel told reporters. \"What was intended as a school exchange ended in tragedy.\" Of the 16 teenagers killed, 14 were girls, and two boys; one of the two female teachers who died was a newlywed. In a post on the school's website, Wessel and other school representatives announced the names of the dead, \"who will never again return to us,\" leaving all those concerned \"unutterably sad.\" The teenagers who died were: Linda Bergjurgen, Elena Bless, Lea Druppel, Selina Eils, Gina Michelle Gerdes, Ann-Christin Hahn, Julia Hermann, Marleen Koch, Paula Lutkenhaus, Fabio Rogge, Rabea Scheideler, Lea Schukart, Helena Siebe, Steffen Strang, Aline Venhoff and Caja Westermann. The two teachers were identified as Sonja Cercek and Stefanie Tegethoff. As news of the crash spread, the area at the entrance to the school became a makeshift memorial, filled with red and white candles, notes and swiftly-painted signs. \"Yesterday we were many, today we are alone,\" reads one. \"Why?\" demands another, with painful simplicity. Philippa, a friend of many of those who died, told CNN she was shocked by what had happened: \"I knew all of them, they were in my grade. To some I was very close. \"We had already planned things for the future, what we were going to do when they returned from their trip. It is very hard to believed that we cannot do that.\" Grief counselors, chaplains and psychologists have been brought in to the school to help all of those involved come to terms with the disaster. \"I've told the students and teachers that we have to accept the sorrow and grieve,\" said Wessel. \"I hope we will all get through it, if we share it.\" As the world's media descend on the town, messages of support have come flooding in too. The local newspaper is running an online book of condolence, in which people can leave messages of sympathy and \"light\" virtual candles to match the real ones flickering on the steps of the school. \"A silent hug says more than many words,\" wrote Manuela Donovang. \"Wishing the families, friends and relatives strength and comfort in the difficult days and months ahead.\" In his message, Udo Hentschel said the suffering of the parents, friends and families was \"incomprehensible, unfathomable\" and offered them his condolences: \"This, the worst of all fates, will bind us all -- friends and strangers -- closer together.\" In an attempt to show that solidarity, schools across the region will share a moment of silence in memory of the dead on Friday at 10:53 a.m., the time the plane crashed. For the classmates of those who will never return, that silence will go on, as the seats they left empty remain unfilled in the weeks and months to come. \"Our school is no longer what it once was,\" said Wessel. \"In Haltern we had 1,283 students. It is horrifying that now we have 16 fewer.\"","highlights":"German town of Haltern in mourning after loss of 16 students and two teachers in plane crash .\nGroup was returning from school exchange trip to Spain when aircraft went down in French Alps .\nHeadteacher says school is in mourning, classmates struggling to understand what happened .","id":"a6e2e396d15263100a8c1683aa2f0a9c9f018ad0"} -{"article":"(CNN)After decades in private hands, a spaceship from the classic film \"2001: A Space Odyssey\" will go on display for the first time to the public. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that presents the Oscars, purchased the spacecraft at auction Saturday for $344,000. The academy will display the ship in its museum of movie history, scheduled to open in 2017 in Los Angeles. \"We're excited to add such an iconic piece of movie history to our collection,\" the academy told CNN in a statement. \"We look forward to sharing the '2001' Aries 1B Trans-Lunar Space Shuttle with the public once the Academy Museum opens.\" In case you're wondering, the craft is the spherical lunar lander that transports Dr. Heywood R. Floyd to the moon in \"2001.\" Sorry, it's not the Discovery One, the spaceship where mission pilot Dave Bowman later famously implored the ship's computer to \"open the pod bay doors, HAL.\" A collector and former art teacher in the UK had kept it for the past 40 years. According to the auction house, the spaceship is one of the few sets left from the 1968 film. Almost all the props, sets, models and costumes from \"2001: A Space Odyssey\" were destroyed by director Stanley Kubrick so they could not be used in other productions, the Premiere Props auction house said.","highlights":"A shuttle from \"2001: A Space Odyssey\" was purchased by the motion picture academy .\nIt will be put on display to the public for the first time .\nThe 1968 classic is considered one of the most influential science-fiction movies ever .","id":"b08bab7ef9179d339ee2c4db0f59cd611228638b"} -{"article":"(CNN)The prospect of a Palestinian state is nil so long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in office, Netanyahu said in a Monday interview. Asked by an interviewer with the Israeli news site, NRG, if it was true that a Palestinian nation would never be formed while he's prime minister, Netanyahu replied, \"Indeed.\" His interview with NRG came as he courted conservative supporters a day before Israelis head to the polls for national elections. \"Anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state, anyone who is going to evacuate territories today, is simply giving a base for attacks to the radical Islam against Israel,\" he said. \"This is the true reality that was created here in the last few years.\" Netanyahu went on to say that any opponents on the left who might argue otherwise are \"sticking their head in the sand, time and time again.\" He further said a strong government led by his Likud Party is necessary to beat back international pressure to divide Jerusalem and return Israel to its pre-1967 borders, according to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report on the NRG interview. \"I do not give in,\" Netanyahu told NRG. \"We stood fast against huge pressure, and we will continue to do so.\" Following Netanyahu's interview, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is also a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the Israeli Prime Minister's stance is nothing new. \"Netanyahu has done everything possible to bury the two-state solution,\" he said. \"Netanyahu's statement at the illegal settlement of Har Homa is a response to all those governments who tried to block Palestinian diplomatic initiatives. He couldn't have done that without counting on full impunity from the international community. Now the world must learn its lesson and understand that impunity won't bring peace, only justice will.\" Earlier in the day, Netanyahu continued his efforts to drum up support during a campaign speech in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem, which he boasted that he helped establish in 1997, during his first prime ministerial term. Israel considers Har Homa part of a unified Jerusalem, while Palestinians consider the neighborhood an illegal settlement. If he is re-elected, Netanyahu said, he will continue to promote construction in Jerusalem as a means of national security, he said. \"The pressure around this decision back then was enormous. But I insisted -- I ordered the construction and it paid off,\" he said. \"Today, Har Homa is a flourishing neighborhood in which tens of thousands of Israeli civilians are living. As we proved in the past, my friends in the Likud Party and I, we will keep Jerusalem protected and keep developing it.\" Opposition leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union, he alleged, are \"ready to surrender to every dictate.\" Livni, he said, has denounced previous calls for more construction in Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods, while Herzog would strive to establish a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. \"I will not let that happen,\" he said. \"My friends and I in the Likud will keep Jerusalem united in all its parts, and we will keep fortifying it so that dividing it will not be possible and it will always remain united. We will keep developing our eternal capital.\" A vote for Herzog or Livni is a vote for the establishment of \"Hamastan,\" Netanyahu said, referring to Hamas, the Islamist group which dominates Gaza. He further alleged that his opponents would yield to international pressure and \"huge financial support coming from abroad, from left-leaning tycoons and foreign governments.\" He closed his speech saying, \"The meaning of this is simple: We will not be able to keep Israel safe and secure and the terror against us that once emerged through these hills with machine guns will turn into missile fire.\" CNN's Kevin Flower contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Impunity won't bring peace, only justice will,\" chief Palestinian negotiator says .\nCreating Palestinian state is \"simply giving a base for attacks to the radical Islam,\" PM says .\nBenjamin Netanyahu's words come as he courts conservative voters a day before elections .","id":"cbe86affa7a7064d97c3edb23855e5f039cccac4"} -{"article":"(CNN)NBC is upping its live musical game. The network on Monday announced that \"The Wiz\" will be its next live musical performance \u2014 with Cirque du Soleil boarding the project with plans to bring the show to Broadway in 2016. NBC's \"The Wiz,\" set for Thursday, Dec. 3, will again be executive produced by Sound of Music and Peter Pan duo Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, with Tony-winning director Kenny Leon attached to direct both the live event as well as the Broadway revival in 2016-17. Tony winner and Broadway icon Harvey Fierstein will contribute new material to the original book by William F. Brown and work alongside Zadan, Meron and Leon. Leon won a 2014 Tony Award for directing \"A Raisin in the Sun,\" and earned a nomination for \"Fences.\" Fierstein, as a writer, won Tonys for \"La Cage Aux Folles\" and \"Torch Song Trilogy.\" He's also written books for musical hits including \"Kinky Boots\" and \"Newsies.\" As an actor, he's won Tonys for best actor in a musical (\"Hairspray\") and best actor in a play (\"Torch Song\"). \"We love this yearly tradition and we're more excited than ever to not only bring another Broadway musical to America's living rooms, but also see it land on Broadway as well,\" NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said. \"It's a natural next step for our live musical events, and we're so pleased to be in business with this award-winning creative team and Scott Zeiger, president and managing director of Cirque du Soleil's new theatrical division. Cirque's incredible imagination will help bring the fantasy world of Oz vividly to life and give this great show a modern spin on the age-old story we all love.\" Broadway musicals that have sung their way to the big screen . Zadan and Meron will reunite with Leon, with whom they worked on \"Steel Magnolias\" and \"A Raisin in the Sun.\" Universal Television will produce. Casting for both the NBC telecast and Cirque's Broadway production will be announced at a later date. \"The Wiz\" is adapted from L. Frank Baum's \"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,\" with a book by Brown and music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. The production opened on Broadway in 1975 at the Majestic Theatre and won seven Tonys, including best musical. It ran for four years. TV ratings: 'Peter Pan Live!' falls from 'Sound of Music' \"The Wiz\" is a retelling of \"Oz\" in an African-American\/multicultural context. It was adapted as a film in 1978 starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. It centers on Dorothy, a young woman from Kansas, who is swept up in a tornado and relocated to a fantasy world inhabited by munchkins, good and bad witches, and flying monkeys. She eventually takes a path down a yellow brick road to find a wizard who can help her go home. Along the way, she meets a scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion, who all learn to help one another. NBC chief tackles Bill Cosby, live musicals and comedy woes . For NBC, \"The Wiz\" combines two of TV's biggest trends: live programming and the growing appetite for diversity \u2014 both in terms of casting and programming that best reflect society today. It comes as networks continue to look to live programming like sporting events and awards shows in a bid to break through the clutter in a crowded DVR landscape. In terms of diversity, the success of Fox's hip-hop drama \"Empire\" and other scripted entries including \"Black-ish\" as well as \"Fresh Off the Boat,\" \"Cristela,\" \"Scandal\" and \"How to Get Away With Murder\" have prompted a crush of diverse castings again this pilot season. \"The Wiz\" was one of two productions NBC had been eyeing (alongside \"A Few Good Men\" and \"Music Man\"). Greenblatt confirmed in January that he had optioned both properties. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"NBC following up \"Sound of Music\" and \"Peter Pan\" with \"The Wiz\" in December .\nAfter airing on live TV, the musical will return to Broadway .\n\"The Wiz\" is a retelling of \"The Wizard of Oz\" in a multicultural context .","id":"20c5610498aee84543ef60f3baeead4e41890eb1"} -{"article":"Delhi (CNN)A court in New Delhi Wednesday summoned India's former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, as a suspect in a trial over alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, a spokeswoman for the investigating agency told CNN. Singh and his former government have repeatedly denied accusations they cost the treasury billions of dollars in lost revenue by selling coalfields to private companies, without allowing competitive bidding. The 82-year-old leader, who served as the nation's prime minister for two successive terms until last year, was not named as a defendant in the original dossier of charges, said Kanchan Prasad, the spokeswoman for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Nevertheless, the trial court summoned him and some other corporate leaders to testify in person on April 8, she said. The case Singh has been asked to appear for relates to the licensing of a coal block to a private firm some 10 years ago, when he was also guardian of the nation's coal ministry. The summons has been issued under India's anti-corruption law. Singh said he was open to legal scrutiny. \"(I) Am sure that the truth will prevail and I will get a chance to put forward my case with all the facts. I have always said I am open for legal scrutiny. Of course I am upset, but this is part of life,\" he said in a text message issued by his office. Singh's Congress Party also came to his defense. The former prime minister functioned with \"utmost probity and utmost transparency\" during his term, said senior Congress Party leader Manish Tiwari. He said Singh's legal team would thoroughly examine the summons, and indicated it may be challenged in a higher court. The Oxford-Cambridge educated Singh has been credited with ushering in economic reforms in India as its finance minister in the 1990s. In his first term as prime minister, he initiated a historic nuclear deal with the United States that ended the South Asian nation's decades-old isolation in the global nuclear market. His second tenure was hit by the unearthing of a series of scandals spread across various sectors. In 2012, the national auditor alleged a widespread scam in the allocation of coal blocks. India depends heavily on coal for power. The fuel is abundantly available in the country, but that's still not enough to satisfy the demand for energy in Asia's third-largest economy. For the current financial year, national demand for thermal coal to produce energy has been estimated at 551.6 million tonnes, according to official figures. Of it, at least 84.7 million tonnes is being met through imports, coal minister Piyush Goyal told the Indian parliament in December. The state-run monopoly Coal India Limited (CIL) accounts for more than 80% of the output. Plans by current Prime Minister Narendra Modi for future privatization of the industry faced resistance recently, when CIL workers stopped work in January. The two-day strike -- the biggest of its kind in four decades -- not only severely limited the ability of the companies to meet their production quotas, but forced the government to go slow on reforms.","highlights":"Court summons former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh .\nDue to appear on April 8; case relates to the licensing of a coal block to a private firm 10 years ago .","id":"bcdc423e4693792ce7664200012b96a23e5c6c1f"} -{"article":"(CNN)As the U.S. and several Eastern European NATO countries conduct a series of military exercises near Russia's border, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his Northern Fleet \"to full alert in a snap combat readiness exercise\" in the Arctic, state-run media reported Monday. At least one Russian leader described the drill as routine and unrelated to the \"international situation.\" The fleet got its orders at 8 a.m. Monday, according to Sputnik, launching a land, sea and air drill that will involve 38,000 troops, 41 ships, 15 submarines and 110 aircraft. \"The main task of the (combat readiness drill) is to assess the armed forces from the Northern Fleet's capabilities in fulfilling tasks in providing military security of the Russian Federation in the Arctic region,\" Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergey Shoigu told the media outlet. \"New challenges and threats of military security demand the further heightening of military capabilities of the armed forces and special attention will be paid to the state of the newly formed strategic merging (of forces) in the North.\" The drills will run through Friday, Sputnik reported. A flotilla of minesweepers will support the Northern Fleet's nuclear submarines in the Barents Sea as part of the drill, the Tass news agency reported, citing a Defense Ministry statement. \"Mine-sweeping groups of the Kola Flotilla have moved to the designated areas of the Barents within the framework of a snap check of combat readiness of the Northern Fleet forces for supporting the deployment of the main forces of the fleet, including the deployment of nuclear and diesel submarines of the Northern Fleet,\" the statement says. The ships will conduct magnetic, acoustic and contact demining sweeps during the drill, Tass reported. Despite a number of countries participating in various military drills in Eastern Europe, a Kremlin spokesman described the Northern Fleet inspection as routine practice aimed at improving military capabilities. \"The practice of snap checks will become regular, as it is beneficial for improving the mechanisms of control and operation of the armed forces. This is an absolutely regular process of the armed forces' operation, of preparation and development of Russia's armed forces,\" Dmitry Peskov told Tass on Monday. Conversely, a diplomat told Tass that Russia was \"deeply concerned\" about NATO drills near its border. \"It is especially surprising that this is happening in Northeastern Europe, which is the most stable region not only on our continent, but also maybe in the whole world,\" Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said. \"Such NATO actions lead to destabilization of the situation and increasing tensions in Northeastern Europe.\" Among the recent drills in Eastern Europe: . \u2022 In its largest military operation in decades, Norway sent 5,000 troops to conduct military exercises between Alta and Lakselv in Finnmark county, which borders Russia, according to the Barents Observer. \u2022 About 100 U.S. soldiers are expected to conduct an exercise this month using a Patriot missile battery and a Polish air defense brigade \"at a location on Polish territory,\" Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said. The exercise is part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which began in response to Russia's involvement in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea last year, the U.S. Defense Department said. \u2022 Also as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the U.S. Army will soon send armored Stryker vehicles on a 1,100-mile convoy through six European countries to show solidarity with its allies. The \"highly visible\" convoy will travel through Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic en route to Vilseck, Germany, a U.S. Army Europe spokesman told the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes. \u2022 In a \"regularly scheduled\" exercise aimed at demonstrating NATO's commitment to \"collective defense\" in the Black Sea, the Standing NATO Maritime Group Two -- a collection of warships -- will train with the Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish navies and visit Varna, Bulgaria, to meet with local authorities and navy officials, NATO said. \u2022 The U.S. Air Force moved a dozen A-10 Thunderbolt \"tankbuster\" attack jets to an air base in Germany and the U.S. military placed hundreds of tanks and military vehicles in Latvia, where they'll be matched up with 3,000 troops from Fort Stewart, Georgia. CNN's Brad Lendon contributed to this report.","highlights":"Russia's land, sea and air drill will involve 38,000 troops, 41 ships and 110 aircraft .\nKremlin calls drill routine, but diplomat says Russia is \"very concerned\" by NATO drills .\nOperation Atlantic Resolve billed as response to Russian actions in Ukraine, Crimea .","id":"929a6096f20000dd528ac2841341ee96d9604ccb"} -{"article":"(CNN)In some ways, America's president pilots our ship of state as a captain pilots a jumbo jet, and this analogy suggests one possible way to avoid a repeat of the Germanwings massacre: Give the plane's flight crew certain powers akin to those given to America's Cabinet in the rare and terrifying situation when the president and vice president are at swords' point. Some background. Both presidents and plane captains must be shielded from lunatics and terrorists. This is why airlines across the world hardened cockpit doors after 9\/11 and why Americans of all stripes are outraged by stories that the Secret Service on several occasions has failed to maintain proper security at the White House. Both presidents and plane captains are human, and subject to all the frailties of humans, from temporary disabilities created by bathroom breaks (for pilots) and scheduled surgeries (for presidents) to sudden death. Transitions in both the Oval Office and the cockpit should be made as smooth as possible. Hence the need for a vice president at the ready, able to take over at a moment's notice. The obvious aviation analogy here is the second pilot in the cockpit. In case of sudden death, the vice president or co-pilot simply takes over immediately. In case of a temporary disability -- say, a scheduled surgery under general anesthesia -- the president can hand over control to the vice president and then take back control when the disability ends. It is exactly what happened when President George W. Bush underwent planned colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007. On both occasions, Bush handed the tiller to his trusted co-pilot, Dick Cheney, and then resumed control when ready, under rules clearly laid out by the Constitution's 25th Amendment -- an amendment drafted and ratified after the shocking assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But what happens if a president is unable to predict his own future disability, or unable to recognize a genuine disability when it arises? The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to take over control in this situation, but to do so, the vice president needs the support of a majority of Cabinet officers -- officials previously appointed by the president himself and thus unlikely to support any inappropriate vice presidential power grab. On a jumbo jet, a co-pilot may likewise take over in certain situations. But current airplane architecture fails to use the crew in the optimal way. When one officer has barricaded himself in the cockpit and the other officer is banging on the door demanding entry, current airplane design enables the man in the cockpit unilaterally to block the demand for entrance with the flick of a switch. Think of this as an absolute veto. (Some airlines get around the problem with a rule that a flight attendant must replace a pilot so that there will always be at least two people in the cockpit.) But suppose instead that airlines were to borrow sensibly a page from America's Constitution. The man in the cockpit could temporarily block entrance, but this veto could be overridden if -- and only if -- the door-banging officer is backed by a majority of the flight attendants. The need for some sort of secure cockpit lock is obvious. Perhaps the officer banging on the door has gone mad, or is being held hostage at knifepoint, or is a terrorist mole. But the need for an override is also obvious. Perhaps the man in the cockpit is the bad guy. And just as America's Cabinet officers are well-positioned to decide any dispute between a president and vice president wrestling over the key to the Oval Office, so too with an airplane's crew: The cockpit lock button could be electronically overridden whenever a majority of flight attendants punched in their own individual passcodes in sequence on a keypad somewhere outside the cockpit door. This proposed technological fix will not prevent all future tragedies. No human system is foolproof. But giving the crew a collective key brings more human minds into the equation -- as does the 25th Amendment's rule empowering the Cabinet to resolve certain terrifying disputes at the highest level of executive power. On planes, as in a constitutional democracy, there is often safety in numbers.","highlights":"Akhil Amar: When a leader is irrational or incapacitated, we need an override mechanism .\nAmar: Airlines could learn from system used in U.S. Constitution to replace disabled president .","id":"a4ae41944e55f64cabb89745dcc62a2f1ab47525"} -{"article":"New York (CNN)Kayla Mueller, Peter Kassig, Alan Henning, David Haines -- just a few of the aid workers who have been abducted and killed by ISIS in the past year. The exact number of aid workers currently being held is unknown; a level of secrecy tends to surround details of those currently captive. What we do know is ISIS holds at least one female aid worker, and possibly more. The International Federation of the Red Cross confirmed three aid workers who disappeared in October 2013 remain missing, but would not comment on their identities or who kidnapped them. Abductions and killings of aid workers are, unfortunately, nothing new, but the numbers are. According to Aidworkersecurity.org, at least 155 aid workers were killed in 2013, a 121% increase on 70 recorded killings the year before. Not all were victims of ISIS, a relatively new phenomenon given life by the chaos in embattled Syria. In fact, according to the same report, it is the Taliban who have historically kidnapped in the greatest numbers, in large part in Afghanistan. Here's the difference: ISIS is changing the game. The Taliban may have many reasons for abductions (flexing their muscles, negotiating prisoner releases), but they also have a record of frequent hostage release. The need for aid in a specific region and the level of the acceptance by the community matters, or mattered. For ISIS, it appears to matter less. Abducted aid workers are usually either a source of considerable income (ISIS demanded at least $6 million for Kayla Mueller, and reportedly $200 million for two Japanese hostages) or, failing that, their killings provide a lurid display of brutality for the world to witness. So far the number of hostages of all backgrounds freed by ISIS is extremely low, save for those whose ransoms were paid. The freeing of 19 kidnapped Assyrian Christians shocked many, because release is not a common part of ISIS' playbook. These tactics can serve as models to other extremist groups worldwide, who may look to emulate ISIS' model of abduction and violence. One example is West African extremist group Boko Haram, which released a video purportedly showing the beheading of two men claimed to be spies, an approach disturbingly similar to ISIS'. \"Humanitarian work has always been risky, but it's never been more dangerous than it is now,\" says Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. \"There used to be a time when an organization's flag provided a great deal of protection. That's no longer the case.\" The response in large part from aid agencies has not been to pull out of Syria and its environs altogether, but to rely almost exclusively on local staffers. Still, outside workers like Mueller, Kassig, Henning and Haines were inside Syria when they were taken, and the regional directors of aid agencies continue to travel there frequently in order to oversee operations. Not only that, but simply by virtue of working for a large aid agency, local staffers become bait. Indeed, the majority of victims have been working in their own countries. ISIS doesn't just target aid workers. Journalists, soldiers and anyone who conceivably could fetch a ransom are high on their hit list. But in the Wild West that is Syria and its borders, few of these remain, save for aid workers. In a space devoid of government, refugee camps and aid agencies are frequently seen as the only authorities, the new front line in the war on terror, a sometimes unwelcome association. And as ISIS spreads beyond Syria's borders, the risks grow further afield. Yet despite these risks, thousands of aid workers continue to work in a region where the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates the number of refugees from conflict at more than 8 million. While some aid agencies rely on security personnel for protection, many are completely unarmed and are particularly vulnerable when in transit. Their security and locations for the most part are under constant review. When CNN approached a number of reputable aid agencies asking to speak to those who work or travel in the region about their experiences, and what drives them to remain despite an unprecedented threat level, many declined, in large part due to security concerns. For this reason, some of those mentioned below are wholly or partially anonymous. If I think back, I've been doing this work for about 20 years, and I remember we used to have this sense that there was some sort of protection, some sort of ... humanitarian space ... it feels very much like that is shrinking ... our job is becoming much, much more difficult; we're asking people to put themselves in harm's way in some circumstances. I mean, we don't do that, but it's not the exception any more. My family is not thrilled at all because what they see on the news is Westerners being kidnapped and beheaded ... when they worry, I worry about them and that doesn't help me be in a good state of mind to do my work. I'm very selective about where I say I go. I need to find ways to switch off and do silly things and not worry about the dire situation that's here, not just the humanitarian situation but ... being responsible for the people I'm responsible for in this region. I don't think people see the human side so much ... innocent people who through no fault of their own have been forced to flee their home one, two, three times -- who don't see a future for their children... Someone has to be there to help and support and provide some sense of safety and security, and I mean that in the personal sense of a mother who, when she goes to sleep at night with her children, she knows she has a blanket to keep them warm and something to feed them the next day. Fear is always there in the back of everyone's mind. We just need to continue what we're doing, stopping is not an option, halting our operations is not an option, and we are taking great risks, our staff are taking great risks. It is a difficult thing to tell family, to tell colleagues. Oftentimes I just don't mention all the details of where I go because they just don't need to know. But it needs to be done, we also can't run an operation remotely. ... I'm not going to the front lines, I'm not going to where the conflict is actually hot ... we're not adrenaline driven people. We want to be able to help the people and do our work and to do our work does entail taking some risks, but it's about calculated risks. We don't want to put ourselves directly in front of danger. If we say we give up on it for whatever reason -- security, morale, pressure from here, pressure from there -- no one else is going to come to take our place. There's not going to be another organization that's going to come and do more humanitarian aid and cover the gap that IOCC may create, that's not going to happen. So that puts more responsibility on the shoulders of our staff and the shoulders of our organization; we feel that responsibility that we've got to deliver on this thing. Donate to IOCC . There's an internal motivation that keeps you going. You feel that there are populations and people that need aid and require assistance, and know it's a choice that one makes and dedicate your life service. So yes, you need be of course strong, motivated, passionate, and of course feel the need to assist and deliver. It's an unprecedented time, and what we're calling the new normal ... as we've seen in the last year, the complete radicalization of these spaces with extremist groups, who have a very hard view in terms of cooperation with neutral and humanitarian organizations such as ours ... we're not the U.S. Army, we don't have a physical ability to repel. There may be in people's perceived minds there was a golden age of humanitarian acceptance: like if you were a charity and waved a white flag and drove a white car, you'd be protected by bad guys and loved by the community. I think that golden age is more myth than reality, but regarding today's reality it's extremely dangerous it's so true. And your flag, your neutrality, your white car, all the good intention you have, that recipe is very difficult in these complicated emergencies. There's a phrase that the U.N. uses and a lot of NGOs use which is \"stay and deliver,\" so we have a humanitarian imperative to be there, but we always have to be in a risk management role; we have to critically look at: do the risks outweigh the benefits we hope to get? The fear factor comes in just managing the emotional toll it takes with your family and friends, and that has more of a toll, I think, with individual staff members than actual external environment ... frankly, sometimes I don't tell them till I'm already on my way so I don't have to have those calls before I even get on an airplane. It's hard; there are some areas where the family and friends don't understand why you're going there, and you re-articulate, \"If not you, then who?\" and you ask, \"Would you want this in your neighborhood next door where no one comes to help you if something bad happened?\" Donate to Mercy Corps . For ways to donate to organizations working to help refugees from ISIS and from the conflict in that region, go to CNN.com\/ impact. CNN's Betsy Anderson and Julia Chan contributed to this report.","highlights":"Numerous aid workers remain in Syria despite dangers .\nWith a lack of government, more than 8 million refugees rely on aid agencies for food, shelter and medical care .\nMany aid agencies have no means of armed defense against attack .","id":"e202b2deb3ebba2907dafc864dd754be1d090813"} -{"article":"(CNN)As a person-of-color, African-American, veteran minority journalist and longtime enthusiast of all things \"Daily Show,\" I am of course as happy, proud and thrilled as the wife of a successful Apollo astronaut over the impending ascension of Trevor Noah, the biracial comedian from South Africa, to Jon Stewart's anchor chair on what's believed by many to be the most trusted half-hour of news and information in America. As a person who believes in fair play and equal opportunity for all, I am also moved to wonder when a woman will get the chance to preside over a talk show after sunset? Look. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. After generations of near-to-total invisibility on mass media airwaves, it's bracing to find a whole one-hour block of high-profile cable television infotainment anchored by men who look like me. Indeed, in pushing forth both Noah and Larry Wilmore, the writer, comic and erstwhile National Black Correspondent for \"The Daily Show,\" to preside over both halves of Comedy Central's much-coveted 11 p.m.-to-midnight bloc, Stewart is acknowledging what the mainstream of the country truly is: i.e. not as pale-faced as it once thought it was. And so far, Wilmore's \"The Nightly Show,\" which premiered earlier this year as a replacement for the very different \"Daily Show\" companion once hosted by Stephen Colbert, is gradually establishing its own identity as an equally cheeky hybrid of sketch satire and celebrity forum with its own multicultural flavor. Still, one does wonder what happened to the groundswell of support building among \"Daily Show\" constituents for Jessica Williams, a three-year veteran of the show and an early favorite for Stewart's spot after he announced last month he was leaving. Williams, who is black, tweeted back to her supporters her grateful opinion that she was \"extremely under-qualified for the job.\" Maybe, but what about Samantha Bee? She's the \"most senior correspondent\" for \"The Daily Show\" and is taking her penchant for performance artistry and provocation to TBS, where she'll create her own satiric news franchise. Her track record bodes well for her prospects there. But it's difficult to find any evidence that she was considered a Stewart successor -- though her announcement that she was leaving the show came a month after Stewart's. Besides Bee? No one, least of all those affiliated with Comedy Central, have disclosed any candidates besides Noah. There was even less buzz about the Stewart opening than Colbert's a year ago, during which time there were many willing to say that now was the time to finally give a woman a shot at late-night TV for the first time since the late Joan Rivers' Fox Network effort, \"The Late Show\" came in 1987-- and went in 1988. And yes, we aren't neglecting Chelsea Handler, whose \"Chelsea Lately\" was for seven seasons on the E! Network a bawdier late-night alternative to whatever Letterman, Stewart and others were putting down beyond prime-time. She's supposed to start streaming a new show through Netflix sometime next year. So one supposes she's pretty busy. It will happen, perhaps sooner than one now expects. Look how long it took before Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric were given their shots to anchor evening news broadcasts on ABC and CBS respectively. Hmmm ... wonder what they're doing after 11 p.m. these days.","highlights":"As a black man, Gene Seymour thrilled Trevor Noah tapped for \"Daily Show.\" But in service of fair play he asks: Why not a woman for the job?\nJessica Williams, Samantha Bee would have been good candidates. When will women finally get their shot at late night?","id":"ea7c9bed0a3a221de32caf127c5f995cb5677095"} -{"article":"(CNN)When Kyesha Smith Wood heard that her teen daughters were rude to another patron who asked them to be quiet at a local movie theater, she was furious. The Birmingham, Alabama, mom made them write an apology note, but she didn't know who should get it. That's why Wood posted a plea on her local community's closed Facebook page on Saturday to track down the woman, according to CNN affiliate WMBA. The Jefferson County's Sheriff's Office reposted her note the same night, and the post has been liked more than 250,000 times. \"My son later told me, much to my humiliation and embarrassment, that my girls were rude and obnoxious during the movie. The woman I'm looking for addressed them and asked them to be quiet and they were disrespectful,\" Wood wrote on her Facebook post. \"After the movie she approached my girls and told them that her husband had been laid off and this was the last movie she would be able to take her daughter to for a while and my girls ruined that for her,\" wrote Wood, who asked the woman to contact her. \"This rude, disrespectful, and awful behavior is unacceptable and they owe you an apology.\" Wood promised that her daughters would pay for another movie for the family out of their allowance. The woman Wood was trying to reach is Rebecca Boyd, who saw the sheriff's department post and contacted her. \"The note from their mom brought me to tears and shows there is still good people in the world,\" Boyd wrote on the sheriff's department Facebook page. \"I have no hard feelings towards them and I am proud of their parents. The girls are not not bad...they are children. Glad they are learning a lesson. I hope if my teenagers are out and they act up...I hope someone says something to them.\" Wood called Boyd the real hero of the story. \"She took it upon herself to correct my girls and nobody else did.\" \"She's the most gracious and kind and forgiving woman. I am so humbled by that.\" The two moms are now Facebook friends.","highlights":"After her girls act up at a movie theater, a mom takes to Facebook to apologize .\nShe looks for the mom who confronted their rude behavior, and they become Facebook friends .","id":"0405123835a31093b56097e1a24e16e06c0ae922"} -{"article":"(CNN)Richard Glatzer, who directed a powerful film about a professor battling Alzheimer's as he faced his own harrowing health struggles, has died. Glatzer died in Los Angeles on Tuesday after having ALS for four years, his publicist said. He was 63. Glatzer co-directed \"Still Alice\" with his husband, Wash Westmoreland. The 2014 film earned a number of major awards for its lead actress, Julianne Moore. Directing the movie was a challenge that Glatzer embraced, even as he faced a growing number of health obstacles after his ALS diagnosis in 2011. \"On set, he inspired the cast and crew with his perseverance, (co-directing) the film by typing with one finger into a text-to-speech app on his iPad,\" his publicist's statement said. In a Twitter post Wednesday, Westmoreland said he was devastated. \"Richard was my soul mate, my collaborator, my life,\" he said. \"A true artist and a brilliant man.\" Opinion: Why 'Still Alice' is about you . When she accepted her Academy Award for best actress last month for her role in the film, Moore noted Glatzer's absence. \"Finally, to our filmmakers, Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, who had hoped to be here tonight, but they can't because of Richard's health,\" she said. \"When Richard was diagnosed with ALS, Wash asked him what he wanted to do. Did he want to travel? Did he want to see the world? He said he wanted to make movies. And that's what he did.\" People we've lost in 2015 . CNN's Topher Gauk-Roger contributed to this report.","highlights":"Richard Glatzer, who co-directed \"Still Alice,\" has died .\nHe had been battling ALS for four years .","id":"172f3a6449f4e80f95377f245be6dfa688de0956"} -{"article":"(CNN)Buddy Elias spent much of his life preserving the memory of his cousin Anne Frank. His death Monday brought back memories for me. We met three years ago in an Atlanta hotel conference room. He and his wife, Gerti, were touring the United States to promote a new book. I could tell instantly that he was related to Anne. His face resembled hers so much that it felt almost as though I was meeting her in person. \"Anne Frank's Family\" had just been published, based on 14 boxes of letters, postcards, photos and documents that Gerti accidentally discovered in the attic of their house in Basel. Elias told me that it wasn't just Anne who loved to write; everyone in the family did. The 6,000 recovered documents told a story of a family torn apart by war and anti-Semitism. That day in Atlanta, I listened to Elias tell me about loved ones he lost. He told me he was lucky that his family had remained in neutral Switzerland when World War II broke out. I thought back to our conversation Thursday when I learned the news of Elias' death. He died peacefully at his home in Basel, Switzerland, at 90, said an announcement posted on the website of Anne Frank Fonds, the foundation that Elias headed. Like millions of people who read \"The Diary of Anne Frank,\" I was deeply influenced by her words and in awe of her family's courage. Anne received her diary on her 13th birthday and wrote in it for the two years that her family hid from the Nazis in the secret annex of an Amsterdam apartment. I was only in seventh grade when my father bought me the book in 1975. After the family was discovered, they were sent to Auschwitz. Later, Anne and her sister Margot were taken to Bergen-Belsen, where they both died in March 1945. Her father, Otto Frank, was the sole survivor of the family, one of only 7,000 people who made it out alive from Auschwitz. In the course of my two hours with Elias, I learned new things about the young, Jewish girl whose journal is arguably the most famous in the world. She called him Bernd, short for Bernhard, Elias' formal name. In his youth, Elias was an actor and a skater with Holiday on Ice. He was her first cousin and 4 years older. They adored one another. \"Bernd, maybe we can skate as a pair together someday,\" Anne wrote in January 1941 from Amsterdam. \"But I know I'll have to train very hard to be as good as you are.\" In another letter, Anne outlined the steps to their skating routine and drew a picture of the blue, fur-trimmed dress she would wear when she finally skated with Elias. \"She never did get to do that,\" Elias said. On his 17th birthday in 1942, she asked him how it was going with a girl he had met. It was an ordinary letter that one keeps like any other. But it turned out to be her last to him, and he preserved it like a relic, as proof of his cousin's affection, as something to treasure. \"That was the last sign of life I had with Anne,\" Elias told me. After the war, Otto Frank searched frantically for his family and eventually learned their cruel fate. He published Anne's diary in 1947 and helped transform it for the stage and film. He created the foundation in her name in 1963. The first edition of the diary was in Dutch. Elias told me he had to wait several years for a German language edition before he could read it. That was when he came to truly understand his childhood playmate. By the time he read her words, he had not seen Anne in many years. In his mind, he treasured the image of a spunky girl who loved the Jack-in-the-Box puppet shows Elias staged and played hide-and-seek. \"Anne,\" he said, \"was always good at hiding.\" I wondered whether he caught the irony of his own words. Otto Frank kept alive his daughter's legacy until he died in 1980 and passed on that role to Elias. He was devoted to the task until the day he died. In 2012, he helped create the Frank Family Centre in Frankfurt, where archives of his extended family will be made accessible to the public, according to the Anne Frank foundation. Elias was my closest personal encounter with a girl who opened my eyes to the cruelty of this world. Anne Frank never gave up on humanity, despite everything she endured. It was her goodness that amazes every reader of her diary. In Elias, I saw that same goodness.","highlights":"Anne Frank was extremely close to her first cousin Buddy Elias .\nA discovery in Elias' attic led to the a book revealing new details about Anne's famiy .\nElias became the preserver of Anne's legacy after her father, Otto Frank, died in 1980 .","id":"edad2b59e80869d9213a3ed5fac10689700e23d0"} -{"article":"(CNN)Here's a dog tale about a pooch with a literal \"spring\" in his steps. Brutus, a 2-year old Rottweiler, is walking again thanks to modern technology and months of training. He's said to be only the second dog ever known to have four prosthetic limbs. \"You can't explain to an animal why you are putting these contraptions on their feet. You can't explain to them, that it's to help them,\" foster mom Laura Aquilina told CNN affiliate KDVR. The Loveland, Colorado, dog's paws suffered extreme damage from frostbite. His feet were then reportedly amputated by his trainer. Brutus has been adopted by Aquilina who's been walking and exercising the dog to learn balance. \"He just has these little peg legs to get around on and he does a pretty good job inside the home,\" says Aquilina. But his challenge has been walking outside where his \"high-stepping...resembles a bucking bronco.\" He was fitted with the devices last year, first in the rear and then front feet came 6 to 8 weeks later. His artificial limbs are made by Orthopets of Denver. \"Brutus is an amazing case of a beautiful dog who was dealt a short hand,\" said Martin Kauffman, founder of the company that makes prosthetics for about 250 animals worldwide a year. New and improved prosthetics are on the way and he'll be undergoing physical therapy at Colorado State University's vet hospital. And soon enough, Aquilina hopes Brutus will be playing with other dogs and going on hikes. CNN's John Fricke contributed to this report .","highlights":"Brutus' legs were amputated because of frostbite .\nHe's learning to walk on the prosthetics with help from his foster mom .","id":"932a91b2f2632900f97e82c6cd4d720b9f975547"} -{"article":"(CNN)Tina Fey's follow-up to \"30 Rock\" is getting a lot of attention, not all of it good. Her new Netflix series, \"The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,\" is being criticized online for dealing in offensive humor and stereotypes. The show, which had been picked up by NBC but ultimately dropped, stars Ellie Kemper (\"Bridesmaids,\" \"The Office\") as an upbeat woman stuck in the 1990s after being kidnapped by a doomsday cult leader: not exactly fodder for humor, on its surface. After she's released from an Indiana bunker, Kimmy moves to New York to start a life, and much of the humor comes from her misunderstanding of the modern world, her seventh-grade education and her relationships with a diverse cast of pals. Since its debut, Buzzfeed has declared that the show has a \"major race problem,\" and others criticized its treatment of an Asian character named Dong. Slate says that the critics \"aren't wrong ... but they are missing the point.\" \"Tina Fey's high-wire act is all about the alchemy of making it OK to laugh at big, heavy issues -- like kidnapped women, the experience of undocumented Vietnamese immigrants, and people with Native American ancestry passing as white -- by skimming over them with a light touch,\" Arthur Chu wrote on Slate. The Daily Dot's Jacqueline Keeler wrote that she once hid her Native American past, just like Kimmy's employer, a wealthy woman played by Jane Krakowski. Keeler said that watching the show made her uncomfortable but at the same time praised Fey's \"genius\" writing. But Tituss Burgess, who plays Kimmy's black gay roommate, Titus (whom some have called a stereotype), says the whole controversy is \"ridiculous.\" He told the Huffington Post, \"I just find it hilarious that people are trying to arrest us for doing the opposite of what everyone thinks we're doing.\" The show is certainly not afraid to go right up to the edge with jokes about race, age, class, gender and sexuality. Consider these biting one-liners and bits of dialogue. 1. \"WHITE WOMEN FOUND; Hispanic woman also found.\" An onscreen news graphic zings the media after Kimmy and her bunker-mates are freed. 2. Julian: \"My first wife ...\" Jacqueline: \"... turned 50. And I would never do that to you.\" Kimmy's wealthy employers, Julian and Jacqueline Voorhees, consider their marital difficulties. 3. \"We came all this way in the great iron sky eagle. I'm kidding. I know what planes are; I was in the Air Force.\" Jacqueline's father, Virgil, explains how he and Jacqueline's mother, both Native Americans, traveled to New York to see their daughter. 4. \"You know Disney lies to little girls. Stepmothers aren't scary, and nannies aren't magical, and dwarves do not let you sleep in their house without expecting something.\" Xanthippe Voorhees, the spoiled teen stepdaughter of Kimmy's wealthy employer, offers up a cynical take on the new nanny's Pollyanna-ish (or emotionally stunted) attitude. 5. \"Well, I had a cellphone, Xan, obvs, but I lost it at the zoo. A monkey took it, and she wouldn't give it back. Yeah, Xan, the monkey was a woman. Women can be anything these days.\" Kimmy was underground as cell phone use exploded -- but she hides that truth from most people, especially the vengeful Xanthippe. 6. \"My dad cannot find out about this, please! He'll kill me! Or marry me off to one of his Saudi friends!\" Xanthippe begs for a break like any teen but gives a glimpse at the life of a 1% adolescent. 7. \"I'm not even gonna know what box to check on the hate crime form.\" Such is the life of Titus, Kimmy's roommate, a gay black man from Mississippi, trying to make an acting career in New York. (Warning: The following video is not suitable for kids, or work.) 8. \"Straight guys can be vegetarians. Hitler was a vegetarian.\" Charles, Kimmy's colleague and potential love interest, defends his diet in the most awkward way. 9. \"Yeah, it's real popular now, like taking pictures of your food or being biracial.\" Cyndee, Kimmy's closest friend from her days in the bunker, offers swift commentary on how the world has changed in the 15 years she was away. 10. Kimmy: \"Dong is the name of the Vietnamese guy in my class. He's good at math.\" Titus: \"That's racist!\" Kimmy: \"But he is good at math.\" Titus: \"I don't make the rules.\" Kimmy and Titus have a conversation about race, as if over cups of Starbucks coffee. 11. Lillian: \"I will not bury another beautiful black man. You know my dear husband Roland was killed in our very own apartment.\" Titus: \"Yes, I've heard this story before.\" Lillian: \"He got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and on his way back to bed, he was shot in the face.\" Titus: \"By you, Lillian.\" Lillian: \"Well, it was dark out, and a black guy was trying to get in bed with me. It was the '70s!\" Lillian, Kimmy and Titus' loony landlord, schools her young tenants on race relations of past and present.","highlights":"Tina Fey's series \"The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt\" has staunch critics and defenders .\nSome accuse \"Schmidt\" of dealing in offensive jokes and stereotypes .\nActor Tituss Burgess says the controversy is \"ridiculous\"","id":"8fa8d1f0bb3096ce76dddaee65f27fe70ba506b1"} -{"article":"(CNN)For over two decades, bassist Mike Porcaro was a rock star with the band Toto, playing venues around the world. Now, the music world is mourning the death of Porcaro, who died after a battle with Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. He was 59. \"Our brother Mike passed away peacefully in his sleep at 12:04 AM last night at home surrounded by his family,\" Porcaro's brother Steve, the band's keyboardist, posted on Facebook on Sunday. \"Rest in peace, my brother,\" About 10 years ago, Porcaro started noticing weakness in his fingers and hands. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2006. Former members of his band -- known for hits such as \"Africa\" and \"Rosanna\" -- rallied to help. They reunited for a brief European tour in 2010 in support of Porcaro. Toto vocalist and guitarist Steve Lukather also called Porcaro a brother. \"My brother Mike Porcaro is now now at peace,\" he tweeted. \"I will miss him more than I could ever put into words. My deepest love to the family. God Bless\" ALS is a fast-moving, usually fatal disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It affects more than 30,000 people at any given time.","highlights":"Mike Porcaro was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS, in 2006 .\nMembers of Toto rallied to help him .\nALS affects nerve cells of brain and spinal cord .","id":"a950e86cca615adbd518d7942973ebdde36ee9ac"} -{"article":"Washington (CNN)In a strongly worded letter, the White House Saturday told Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) a bill he is drafting would likely have a \"profoundly negative impact\" on the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program. Corker is working on legislation that would force the Obama Administration to submit any deal reached with Iran for a vote by Congress. The White House earlier threatened to veto such a measure. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, in the three page letter released publicly Saturday evening, told Corker his legislation could be detrimental to the talks with Iran by \"emboldening Iranian hard-liners, inviting a counter-productive response from the Iranian majiles (Majles, the Parliament); differentiating the U.S. position from our allies in the negotiations; and once again calling into question our ability to negotiate this deal.\" As the U.S. and Iran prepare for the next round of negotiations this coming week, there has been a growing debate between Republicans on Capitol Hill and the Obama Administration about how much authority Congress has regarding the fate of the agreement. \"The legislation you have introduced in the Senate goes well beyond ensuring that Congress has a role to play in any deal with Iran. Instead, the legislation would potentially prevent any deal from succeeding by suggesting that Congress must vote to 'approve' any deal and by removing existing sanctions waiver authorities that have already been granted to the President,\" McDonough wrote. The chief of staff said that only Congress can terminate the existing Iran sanctions that are included in laws, but the President can relax some sanctions put into place by executive order unilaterally. One of the major issues between the U.S. and Iran is the timetable for lifting of the sanctions. \"If congressional action is perceived as preventing us from reaching a deal, it will create divisions within the international community, putting at risk the very international cooperation that has been essential to our ability to pressure Iran. Put simply, it would potentially make it impossible to secure international cooperation for additional sanctions, while putting at risk the existing multilateral sanctions\" now in place, McDonough said in his letter. For his part, Corker on Sunday released a statement: \"On this issue where Congress has played such a vital role, I believe it is very important that Congress appropriately weigh in before any final agreement is implemented.\" Corker also urged the President not to go to the United Nations for a vote regarding lifting of the sanctions on Iran, as Reuters reported was being considered. \"Enabling the United Nations to consider an agreement or portions of it, while simultaneously threatening to veto legislation that would enable Congress to do the same, is a direct affront to the American people and seeks to undermine Congress' appropriate role,\" he wrote. The chief of staff told Corker, \"The Administration's request to the Congress is simple: let us complete the negotiations before the Congress acts on legislation\" and added \"we will aggressively seek public and congressional support for a deal -- if we reach one -- because we believe a good deal is far better than the alternatives available to the United States.\" McDonough also mentioned a separate letter sent to Iran's leadership and signed by 47 Republican senators. Corker did not sign it. The letter maintained that a future president could reverse some of what is agreed to in these ongoing negotiations and said any agreement reached would need congressional approval. It has generated much controversy. It also drew rebuttal from Iran's foreign minister, who called it a propaganda ploy. On Sunday, Iran's speaker of parliament and former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said the letter signed by the senators tarnished Washington's reputation internationally, according to state-run Tasnim news agency. He said it showed that the United States is untrustworthy, and he advised current negotiators to be wary. McDonough also said the letter's premise was incorrect. \"Non-binding agreements -- like the deal we are negotiating with Iran...are an essential element of international diplomacy and do not require congressional approval,\" McDonough said. Secretary of State John Kerry, who heads back to Switzerland on Sunday for more talks with Iranian representatives, again blasted that letter from the 47 Republicans. \"It is a direct interference with negotiations in the executive department,\" he said at a news conference in Egypt. \"It is completely without precedent, and it is almost inevitable it will raise questions in the minds of the folks with whom we are negotiating.\"","highlights":"A Republican senator is drafting legislation to allow Congress to vote on negotiations with Iran .\nThe White House sent a letter saying it would further threaten talks over Tehran's nuclear program .","id":"9ad7797975caa5f91b2cfa28950ff786365a8daa"} -{"article":"(CNN)The irrepressible Mario Balotelli has a message for his critics: \"shut up!\" Liverpool's Italian international has started only one game since November, scoring just four goals in 24 appearances for the Anfield club after his $23 million move from AC Milan. He missed their 1-0 away win over Swansea City on Monday due to illness. Perhaps a bit fed up, he posted a video on his Instagram page giving the world a piece of his mind. \"Do you know me?\" asks the 24-year-old Balotelli, looking directly into the camera. \"Did you ever talk to me, personally? \"Do you know what I've been through in my life? \"You just saw me play football on the pitch so, man, shut up.\" In December, Mario Balotelli was banned for one match and fined \u00a325,000 after being found guilty of breaching English Football Association rules by posting a controversial image of Super Mario on Instagram. Balotelli's had reposted a Nintendo character Super Mario image that underneath had the words \"jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a jew.\"","highlights":"Mario Balotelli asks \"Do you know me? Did you ever talk to me personally?\"\nBalotelli has scored four goals in 24 appearances at Liverpool .","id":"9aef9de42d459a9c53007ffd496f91445f6b1f4c"} -{"article":"(CNN)Three Florida police officers were fired and a fourth resigned after exchanging a series of racially offensive text messages and a video that portrayed President Barack Obama in a derogatory way, Fort Lauderdale police said. Jason Holding, James Wells and Christopher Sousa were terminated after a five-month internal affairs investigation found sustained department misconduct, conduct unbecoming of a police officer and engaging in \"conduct prejudicial to the good of the order of the police department.\" A fourth officer, Alex Alvarez, resigned but authorities said Friday that he would have been fired had he not done so. In the text message exchanges, the former officers used racially derogatory terms to refer to people they encountered while on duty, included racially insensitive material from the film, \"Django Unchained,\" and talked about getting drunk and \"killing n*****,\" according to investigative documents. The men allegedly criticized co-workers, including African-Americans, making crude comments about their grammar, appearance and work ethic. One message referred to an entire shift as \"lazy f****,\" the documents state. Alvarez created a faux movie trailer with the title \"The Hoods,\" with offensive language and images of Obama, the Ku Klux Klan and African-Americans. \"There was no criminal behavior detected during this investigation, however, the four officers' conduct was inexcusable and there is zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department,\" Chief Franklin Adderley told reporters. \"Its attempt was to damage the image of our agency and I just hope that the people and the public realize that we're not going to tolerate it and anyone that's engaged in this behavior will be addressed immediately,\" he said. In a statement, the Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police said the officers deserve their due process, CNN affiliate WSVN reported. \"The Fraternal Order of Police is a multicultural organization which does not tolerate racism,\" the group's president, Jack Lokeinsky, said in the statement. \"Our officers take great pride in our commitment to diversity. Our dedicated officers have positive relationships with residents in every community we serve.\" The officers worked in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. \"I am very disappointed, disgusted and shocked by this incident,\" Mayor Jack Seiler said. \"The inappropriate racist behavior exhibited by those involved is unacceptable and reprehensible, it violates the trust we place in our law enforcement officers, it damages the bond we have established in our community and undermines the standards in which each and every city employee is held accountable,\" Seiler said at a news conference. Police officials were alerted of the existence of offensive material by Alvarez's ex-fiancee, who discovered it when the couple agreed to check each others' phones, according to the documents. The woman told police she thought their behavior was wrong, but feared he would hurt her if she told anyone. After the 10-month relationship ended, she went to the authorities. Adderley said that four officers had not exhibited a pattern of race-related complaints. Holding was recently disciplined with a two-day suspension for mishandling property of a suspect. The police department is implementing a mandatory \"diversity class\" for officers and a screening process for new hires, said Adderley.","highlights":"Fort Lauderdale officers exchanged racially offensive text messages .\nThree officers were fired, a fourth resigned .\nPolice chief: \"There was no criminal behavior detected\"","id":"74075f1acd00ddf98be7cecf740fdf2c548749df"} -{"article":"Moscow (CNN)In his first substantive comments since Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov's death, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called the killing a \"disgrace\" and lashed out at what he called \"extremists\" and protesters. Nemtsov had been one of Putin's harshest critics and had been arrested several times for speaking against the President's government. The 55-year-old opposition leader was gunned down Friday night in Moscow as he walked across a bridge about 100 meters (330 feet) from the Kremlin with his girlfriend, Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya, 23. His slaying spurred thousands to rally in his honor in Moscow, with many calling him a true Russian patriot at his funeral Tuesday. Nemtsov isn't the first of Putin's critics to turn up dead, with others including Anna Politkovskaya (who was fatally shot) and Alexander Litvinenko (who was poisoned). The Kremlin has staunchly denied accusations that it's targeting political opponents or had anything to do with the deaths. The Russian leader has condemned Nemtsov's killing and ordered three law enforcement agencies to investigate, the Kremlin has said. He also wrote to Nemtsov's mother, saying he shared her grief, and promised to bring those behind the killing to justice. Yet those expressions came in Kremlin statements. Wednesday was the first day Putin spoke at length on the subject, remarks that were reported by state media outlets. Referring to \"the daring killing of Boris Nemtsov in the very heart of our capital city,\" he said, \"Russia should be made secure, at last, from the disgrace and tragedies of (this) kind.\" The President added, according to the official Tass news agency, \"The most serious attention should be paid to high-profile crimes, including those having political motives.\" No one has been arrested in connection with Nemtsov's death, though Russia's Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov did say there are suspects, Tass reported. The same agency, citing Russia's Finance Ministry, said that investigators are looking for a car that belongs to a state enterprise that provides services to that ministry. Putin didn't identify any person or group that might be directly responsible. But Wednesday he took the opportunity to lay blame generally at what he called \"color technologies,\" an apparent reference to using mass street protests and overseas funding to try to overthrow a government. \"The actions of extremists are becoming more and more widespread,\" the President said. \"We are running into attempts of using so-called color technologies, from organizing illegal street protests to open propaganda (expressing) hatred in social networks.\" CNN's Alla Eshchenko reported from Moscow, and CNN's Greg Botelho wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark and Matthew Chance contributed to this report.","highlights":"Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead while walking near Kremlin with girlfriend .\nVladimir Putin: Russia should be safe from \"disgrace and tragedies\" like Nemtsov's killing .\nRussian President criticizes \"extremists\" for use of \"illegal street protests\" and social media .","id":"437a279f41f504409ea870db331d640733d748a2"} -{"article":"(CNN)It was always going to take an extraordinary performance from a very talented swimmer to beat Michael Phelps at his favorite event in an Olympic final. For more than a decade, the great American had vanquished all comers in the 200 meters butterfly on both the world and Olympic stage, but then along came Chad le Clos. When the South African chased down Phelps in the final 50 meters of the race to snatch a dramatic fingertip victory by 0.05 seconds he created one of the defining moments of the 2012 London Olympics. As a 12-year-old, le Clos had gazed into his television set at home in Durban watching in awe as Phelps, widely regarded as the greatest swimmer of all-time, won six Olympic gold medals at Athens in 2004. So perhaps it's not surprising that lining up alongside his hero in an Olympic final eight years later took on a slightly surreal air. \"My dream was always to swim like Michael Phelps so when I raced against him in the final it was actually a crazy feeling,\" le Clos tells CNN's Human to Hero series. \"When I touched at 150 (meters) I think I was 1.5 meters behind him. When I turned I actually looked at him underwater and I thought I was him -- I know it sounds absolutely crazy, but I saw myself as him going past someone else.\" \"I remembered how he used to come off the last turn and, you know, smoke everyone ... I thought, he's done this for so many years and I remembered that when I was swimming. I don't know what it was but it was magical.\" The mind-altering moment quickly morphed into a life-changing experience for the then 20-year-old who edged out Phelps in the final stroke. \"It was such a huge moment for South Africa. Obviously, to represent your country is a huge honor but to beat Michael Phelps at the Olympics was amazing,\" he says. \"As a young kid everyone wants to be like their heroes but you don't actually think one day that you're going to beat them.\" The remarkable victory was memorable not just for le Clos' reactions -- which went from joy to disbelief immediately after the race -- but for those of his father Bert, whose elated response and subsequent TV interview have become an enduring part of the swimmer's story. The excitable tribute to his \"down-to-earth, beautiful boy,\" which included repeated mentions of the word \"unbelievable,\" touched the hearts of viewers and turned le Clos senior into something of a household name himself. \"I never knew my father was such a celebrity until like five, six days after the Games -- I was so wrapped up in (my own) bubble,\" le Clos explains. \"We were walking down the street and everyone was taking photos of me, but I couldn't find my dad, and I saw him and there were a line of people taking photos of him and I was like: 'Dad! You are stealing my thunder here. C'mon!' It was incredible. \"Everywhere he goes he's that famous dad and that's amazing because he really is. Nothing was put on for the cameras -- that's how he is back home. To my other brothers and sister he's a great dad.\" Success in the pool has been rich reward for Bert, who steered the Chad towards swimming when a football career looked more likely. \"My parents were hugely influential in helping me make decisions throughout my life, especially my sporting career,\" he says. \"When I was young I played football until I was about 13 or 14 years old -- I played for the state team (Natal). I had to make a decision and my dad realized that I was a better swimmer, even though my family had a football background. \"Ninety-nine percent of fathers would have told their son to play football ... I still thank him every day for helping me make that decision.\" There is now another le Clos in the pool -- teenager Jordan is hoping to follow in his brother's large footsteps, having already competed at South Africa's national championships. \"You know, 2020 is very important to me,\" says Chad. \"Hopefully my brother can make the Olympics then and swim in the same relay team.\" Originally a breaststroker, le Clos switched to butterfly after he tore both his abductor muscles (in the groin) in 2008 when he was 16 years old. \"Butterfly movement is really different. It's unlike freestyle or other strokes where it's very, very technical. I compare it to dancing -- I'm a terrible dancer! -- it's about getting your hips right, your kick is very important. I just really enjoy it. It's a fast stroke, so I guess the injury was a blessing in disguise for me.\" While swimming's toughest stroke remains his favored discipline, le Clos has also struck gold in the individual 200m freestyle -- at the short-course world championships in Doha last year -- and the 400m medley (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. But it is butterfly where he has dominated in recent years. After pipping Phelps in the 200m in London, le Clos had to settle for silver behind the American in the 100m, but he hasn't missed a stroke since. A 100m and 200m double at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona was followed by gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland last August. He capped a brilliant 2014 in December with three more titles (50m, 100m and 200m) at the short-course worlds in Doha before being crowned FINA World Male Swimmer of the Year -- an award he is incredibly proud of. \"The Olympic gold will always be there and it will be the most outstanding moment of my life, but to win the 2014 Swimmer of the Year award was up there. Not many people have won the Ballon d'Or of swimming, so it was a very special moment for me.\" For le Clos, who turns 23 in April, the best is almost certainly yet to come with another Olympics fast approaching. He concedes that it will be \"very, very difficult\" to get anywhere near Phelps' record haul of 18 Olympic gold medals (and 22 overall), but he may get the chance to race him one more time. Phelps, who announced his retirement following the 2012 London Games, made a shock return to the pool last year although things haven't exactly gone to plan -- the \"Baltimore Bullet\" is serving a six-month ban imposed by USA Swimming after he was arrested for drink-driving last September. The ban has put his planned appearance at this year's FINA World Championships in doubt, but Phelps is still hopeful of qualifying for his fifth Olympics in 2016. \"I really, really hope that he and his team decide to swim in Rio, I really believe it will be great,\" le Clos told Reuters last year. \"It's added motivation for me ... with Michael back, it's really sparked my fire, so to speak. I don't think he will be worse in Rio, I think he'll be back where he wants to be. He's a champion in all respects but I believe I can beat him again.\" If he can, then le Clos will have taken a giant step towards his ultimate aim of swimming and sporting immortality. \"I want to cement myself in the sport as one of the greats. In swimming terms, I want people to remember Chad le Clos -- the guy that not only beat Michael Phelps, but who is the best fast swimmer of all time,\" he says. \"In South Africa we have a rich history of great champions -- rugby players, cricket players, a lot of great golfers -- so I'm among really tough competition, but I believe that after 2016 and 2020 I can hopefully be the greatest.\"","highlights":"South African swimmer stunned Michael Phelps at 2012 London Olympics .\nAfter defeating his childhood idol, le Clos has dominated 100m and 200m butterfly .\nHis father Bert is also famous for joyful celebrations following son's win in London .\nThe 22-year-old is hoping to square up to Phelps again at Rio in 2016 .","id":"d5c33d72b3f93661cf34192d00285ac32defc787"} -{"article":"(CNN)Each week, Passion to Portfolio brings you inspiring profiles of people who dared to chase their dreams and turn their passions and hobbies into successful careers. Now we want to hear from you -- who do you think should be featured on our program? Is there someone you know of who took the plunge and made a career change that he or she pined for? The person you nominate could be featured on Passion to Portfolio. They don't need to be famous -- they can be a friend, relative or neighbor, as long as they successfully changed professions to pursue something they were passionate about. To see a few of the interesting people we featured before, have a look through the gallery above. So let us know who you would like to see on Passion to Portfolio next and why, by leaving a comment, below, with their website or social media details.","highlights":"We want to know who you want to see featured on Passion to Portfolio .\nIt can be anyone who successfully turned their passion or hobby into a career .\nLet us know by leaving a comment below the story .","id":"66037a5b5cdda77aa3fa15ad82c672399e0cc19e"} -{"article":"(CNN)I was finishing my studies when the war began four years ago. I had only two subjects remaining before I graduated from university with a degree in English literature. Since I was 10 years old, I have loved English and dreamed of becoming a teacher. I want to teach the younger ones, especially now, because children are the ones who will rebuild our country. They are Syria's future, and they deserve our significant investment. Three years ago, my family was forced to flee our home near Damascus, in east Ghouta. Thankfully, we got out before chemical warfare was used there. We stayed in Syria for the next year, moving from one house to another, from one village to another. With each move, we felt no comfort, no safety. When you feel unsafe in a place that is being bombed nearly every day, you eventually must make a choice: Ours was to leave. And with only two packed bags, we did. We went to Jordan. I've thought of returning to Syria. I want to be part of my country's rebuilding, but sadly, I don't expect this to happen any time soon. When we arrived in Jordan, I thought I would return soon to Syria -- in only a few weeks. We all thought so. It's been two years. And while I still hope to go home one day, my biggest question is: \"When?\" I want to return so that I can teach. As a child, I was inspired by my third-grade teacher, who believed children are the future and who challenged us at that young age to create a better world. I think it's rare for a teacher to instill this so passionately in her students, but I want to try. Although I hope to follow in my teacher's footsteps, my path for now is blocked by the uncertainty of living far from home, by a war that has driven me here, by tuition costs in Jordan that are prohibitively expensive. Being away from home presents many challenges. You feel like a stranger in a foreign place. You're not among people who know you, or who want to know you. As a Syrian refugee, it is nearly impossible to get permission to be officially employed, and I've no money to complete my studies. Overnight, my dreams changed. In one moment I was at home with family and friends dreaming of studying English, of becoming a schoolteacher. In the next, it all feels lost. It's impossible to work, impossible to study. We hope to meet our needs today, not so much to fulfill our dreams tomorrow. In Syria, I was responsible to my parents, now I am responsible for them. I dreamed of being a teacher, but because my parents are old, I must try each week just to protect them, to cover their basic needs of shelter, food and medicine. I needed some way to support my family. While most Syrians are not permitted to work, we can volunteer. I found a role with the poverty-fighting organization CARE in the urban refugee center in East Amman, Jordan, where I earn a stipend doing meaningful volunteer work. I have enjoyed it so much. After working there, I have become more social, and no longer feel isolated. It's not like sitting at home, feeling powerless, losing confidence, wondering what I can do to help my family, to help my people. Instead, I feel empowered. I recognize my potential. And, because of that, I refuse to give up on my dreams. My hope is to resettle for the short term in another country so I can continue my studies. I want to complete my education -- and reclaim my dream of teaching Syrian children. Resettling could help shape my future so that I can help shape theirs. One day, I will tell them of the crisis we faced in the Syria that I left. We must be aware of this history, and learn from it. We must empower children to speak up and then be sure that their voices are heard. Change starts with them. And it starts with us. Each person has the right to pursue an education, to meet their most basic needs, to express themselves. When those rights are stifled, so, too, is a person's potential, her opportunities, her power to create a better world, and in my case, a better Syria. My question to the U.S. people and the international community is this: Imagine your life has been turned upside down after you lose everything in a matter of hours: What do you believe in then? What do you cling to? The answer, I think, is: your dreams. We all have them. Mine, for the time being, have been deferred.","highlights":"Four years of war means four years without schools and education in Syria .\nHiba was nearly done with university when she was forced to flee her home near Damascus .\nTo help Hiba and the many other displaced Syrian students, go to CARE .","id":"211072f73fad608bbc58055a9ccbb4f3d4be6bb3"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero.\" It was a routine sign-off, an all-is-well. On March 8, 2014, at 1:19 a.m., someone spoke those last words from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to air traffic controllers before the Boeing 777 vanished. A year later, searchers have no new clues as to where it went with 239 people on board. Radar and satellite reports have provided hints, but searchers still have nothing to hold in their hands. No wreckage seen floating at sea or beached on shore. No fuselage resting on the sea floor. Experts have said the data indicate the flight path from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing unexpectedly veered, putting the commercial jet over the southern Indian Ocean. But the water's vast and intricate depths have revealed no secrets. And as clarity has eluded grasp, analysts have made many speculations about what happened. The most controversial idea: Is the maritime search area all wrong? Did the plane land clandestinely on solid ground? Here are some expert theories about what happened to MH370. Investigators have since cast doubt on some of their details. Who radioed those last words to air traffic control? Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah? First officer Fariq Abdul Hamid? There was much speculation over that, but the Malaysian inspectors in April said it was Zaharie. The pilots were supposed to check in with new air traffic controllers in Vietnam, but never did. One theory is that one pilot may have incapacitated the other, then guided the plane to its end, taking the passengers down with him in a dramatic suicide. Mark Weiss, a retired American Airlines captain, has flown a Boeing 777. He believed shortly after the crash that there may have been a struggle. \"It was one of the pilots that maybe had a meltdown or did something nefarious to the airplane,\" he said. But Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya has vehemently defended his employees, particularly the pilot. \"We do not suspect any one of our crew until there's such evidence. ... Captain Zaharie is a very capable man,\" he said. \"We have no reason to suspect (him).\" Weiss also thought there could have been another person -- a crew member or someone else -- in the cockpit who \"was bent on perhaps committing suicide or doing some destruction on the aircraft.\" Copilot Hamid, 27, reportedly once invited a woman and her friend into the cockpit on a 2011 flight between Thailand and Malaysia. \"That's an enormous breach of security,\" Weiss said. But investigators punched holes in the idea, saying there was no indication of a third party in the cockpit, CNN reported in April. The difference between hijacking and commandeering is nuanced. The former term is often used when the hijacker issues a demand such as being taken to a safe-haven country or receiving ransom to release passengers. When people commandeer a plane, they might keep the motives secret, said political analyst Peter Bergen. They may want to steer it themselves at a target, like the September 11, 2001, terrorists did. In 1994, a FedEx employee burst into the cockpit of FedEx Flight 705 with a hammer and spear gun. He wanted to crash the plane into the company's Memphis, Tennessee, headquarters. The crew thwarted that takeover. \"Commandeering would fit with the few facts that we do know, and (it's) certainly a theory that we haven't heard a lot of that isn't a conspiracy,\" Bergen said. Experts are divided on this theory, partly because no terrorists have claimed responsibility at a moment when they would have the world's attention -- unless potential terrorists were waiting for something. MH370 went to Kazakhstan. Outlandish conjecture or genius insight? The theory that Russian actors on board MH370 found a way to get the plane through the border territory of China, Pakistan and India to a Kazakh landing strip leased to Russia comes from science journalist and private pilot Jeff Wise. Fleets of ships and search aircraft are looking in the wrong direction, he says. The airliner went north, not south. Investigators may have misinterpreted a key component of the Inmarsat satellite data. \"This is not a normal investigation. They need to throw out the book,\" Wise has said. Another aviation analyst, David Soucie, also cast doubt after MH370 went missing on the most widely held belief that the plane hit the Indian Ocean. \"If it had crashed in the way that we think it did, which is to run out of fuel and hit the water and break up into pieces, there would be pieces somewhere,\" he said. But Michael Exner, an engineer with decades of experience in the mobile satellite communications industry, says the data \"accurately and unambiguously\" shows MH370 went down near the so-called 7th arc, a path along which the search has been focused. \"The current ATSB search strategy remains the best search strategy,\" he said. In a less sinister but equally lethal explanation, some experts theorized the plane mysteriously crashed somewhere because of mechanical malfunction. Perhaps the electronics died, or a fire broke out, preventing the pilots from communicating. Maybe they turned to look for a landing strip but couldn't steer the plane properly. Pilots had trouble embracing the thought. \"I've been running that in my brain now ever since this thing happened,\" said Jim Tilmon, an aviation expert and retired American Airlines pilot. \"One possibility would be a total electrical failure which is very, very hard to imagine because (the plane) has so many generators coming from different places,\" Tilmon said. If they fail, there are other backups. He has said he's never heard of anything like it happening before. For months after MH370 disappeared, Malaysian officials reported details of the search to next of kin and the public. Something would be spotted, hopes rose, and then it didn't pan out. Hopes were dashed; anguish returned. Sunday, a year to the day after the plane disappeared, the international independent investigation committee released an interim report on the disappearance of MH370. It found no indications of unusual behavior among the aircraft's pilots and cabin crew before it took off, and said that Zaharie had had no personal or financial problems that would cast suspicion on him. The interim report also revealed that the battery of the underwater locator beacon on the plane's flight data recorder had expired more than a year before its disappearance. The battery on the plane's other so-called black box, the cockpit voice recorder, had been replaced as scheduled, and remained within its expiry date, the report said. CNN's Pamela Boykoff and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.","highlights":"Many experts believe the plane went down in the South Indian Ocean .\nThe most controversial theory: Russians hijacked the plane to Kazakhstan .\nElectrical failure is another theory .","id":"aafc78b914521d432f5b224157d88d08f36dcb9a"} -{"article":"Peshawar, Pakistan (CNN)A former lawyer for the doctor who helped the CIA look for Osama bin Laden has been shot dead in northwest Pakistan, police said. Unidentified gunmen attacked the lawyer, Samiullah Afridi, in his car near the city of Peshawar on Tuesday, said Mian Saeed, a police superintendent in Peshawar. Two different militant groups claimed responsibility for the killing. The lawyer had represented Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who was convicted of treason in 2012 by a Pakistani tribal court and is now serving a 23-year prison sentence. The two men are not related. The doctor helped the CIA set up a fake vaccination campaign in an attempt to collect DNA samples from relatives of Bin Laden in an effort to verify his presence in a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. The Qaeda leader was killed in a U.S. raid on the compound in May 2011. It was unclear which of the two groups claiming responsibility for the attack was actually behind it. Fahad Marwat, a spokesman for the militant group Jundallah, told CNN that Afridi was on the group's hit list. But Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, said his group had carried out the assassination because Samiullah Afridi defended the doctor, whom he described as \"a friend\" of bin Laden's killers. CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen said Jundallah is \"kind of a splinter group\" of the Pakistani Taliban that's \"been around for a long time.\" \"They're extremely violent,\" he said. \"They've been killing all sorts of religious minorities in Pakistan.\" Last month, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a Shiite mosque in the city of Rawalpindi. Bergen said Dr. Afridi is \"a very unpopular figure in Pakistan\" because of the perception that he was involved in helping find Bin Laden. \"And his lawyer, by extension, would also be seen as an unpopular person because of that perception,\" he said. But Bergen said he didn't think the doctor played a key role in the hunt for Bin Laden. \"The idea was the doctor and his staff would take DNA samples from the Bin Laden kids as part of this 'vaccination program,'\" he said. \"That never happened because the kids never came out.\" Although Dr. Afridi was working for U.S. intelligence, \"the CIA wasn't telling the doctor, you're helping us find bin Laden,\" Bergen said. After the killing of bin Laden, health workers administering polio vaccinations have come to be viewed with suspicion by many Pakistanis. The vaccination teams have repeatedly been targeted by militants. The latest instance came Wednesday when unidentified attackers killed one polio vaccination worker and wounded another in Bajaur agency in northwestern Pakistan, local authorities said. Journalist Zahir Shah reported from Peshawar, and CNN's Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Sophia Saifi and journalist Saleem Mehsud contributed to this report.","highlights":"A second militant group claims responsibility for the killing .\nSamiullah Afridi had represented Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who was convicted of treason .","id":"8bf0dbe396c98874df40433214716dc94bf9b9c9"} -{"article":"(CNN)Ryan Reynolds gave us a sneak peek at his new costume last week, and followed it up with a first look on video. The actor posed on a bearskin rug to show off how he looks as masked Marvel character Deadpool in a post that quickly got positive responses from fans on social media. The photo is a parody of Burt Reynolds' famous nude image from a 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan and is very much in keeping with Deadpool's wisecracking, tongue-in-cheek persona. (Here's the original, in case you were born after 1972 or chose to delete the image from your mind.) Deadpool's costume, a favorite among comic book fans and convention cosplayers, includes a mask that covers the entire face, so we might not see the face of 2010's sexiest man for much of the movie. Reynolds played Deadpool in 2009's \"X-Men Origins: Wolverine,\" but he never wore the famous red and black attire. Instead, he wore an unremarkable black suit bearing none of the hallmarks of the costume worn in the comics. As the vanity shot indicates, Reynolds will be fully suited when returns to the role in first the feature-length \"Deadpool,\" scheduled for release in 2016. In response to skepticism online who was beneath the mask, screenwriter Rhett Reese confirmed via Twitter that Reynolds was indeed in the suit. Then as a special treat for April Fools' Day, Reynolds was \"interviewed\" by \"Extra\" host Mario Lopez, about the debate over whether the movie should be rated PG-13 or R. The ultraviolent Deadpool would seem to lend himself to an R rating, but Reynolds settled all that in memorable fashion, \"killing\" Lopez in the process.","highlights":"Ryan Reynolds debuts first look at his Deadpool costume .\nNot to be outdone, Hugh Jackman announced he is retiring the Wolverine character .","id":"a27352e8255e8f17efb24f403de2516a0aa51887"} -{"article":"(CNN)Deep within the Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador live the Huaorani. Photographer Trupal Pandya traveled about 30 hours by air, water and land to reach this native community and take their portraits. The Huaorani, which means \"the people\" or \"human beings,\" are believed to have inhabited the rainforest for thousands of years. Until about the 1960s, they never had any contact with the outside world. Pandya said there is a contrast between the modernization of the younger generation, who travel to areas outside of their community, and the older generation, who make efforts to maintain their traditional ways of living. Diverse changes have taken place within the community: the introduction of radios within many Huaorani homes, the consumption of food from cities and the adoption of Westernized clothing. For Pandya, these changes were a significant factor in his decision to photograph the Huaorani. \"The biggest (reason) was to just go out there and photograph the change before everything changes,\" Pandya said. \"I think if I would have (photographed the Huaorani) 10 years back down the line or a little later than that, I don't think I would have got what I just got.\" Another aspect of modernization has to do with language. Many Huaorani, who for years have only communicated using a regional dialect, now speak the Ecuadorian native language of Spanish. Pandya speaks English, so he needed translators to interact effectively. But it is apparent from his experiences with the Huaorani that actions can certainly not only speak louder than words, but be more effectual than words when attempting to convey one's intentions. \"I never started photographing when I (first) saw (the Huaorani),\" he said. \"I didn't even have my camera. I waited to let them get used to me around them. I gave myself time to get a little easier around them. Even if you cannot talk in the same language, I feel that you definitely connect to them as a human being.\" Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. Prior to creating formal portraits using his professional camera equipment and lighting, Pandya took Polaroid photos of the Huaorani that they were then able to keep. \"I think some of them saw the Polaroid for the first time, so they were really happy to see themselves like that,\" Pandya said. For his formal portraits, Pandya placed his subjects in front of a solid white background in order to portray the Huaorani in a very direct and concise manner, eliminating the presence of any distractions. \"The main reason was to have the focus only on the people and their clothes and nothing else but them as an individual, them as a human being,\" he said. Pandya's decision to use a white background also proved effective in highlighting the coexistence between the Huaorani and the different kinds of animals they encounter daily in their natural environment. Creating portraits of the Huaorani has been a \"fascinating, challenging\" experience for Pandya, who is studying photography in New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After witnessing firsthand the simplicity in which the Huaorani live in harmony with their environment, Pandya said he finds himself thinking about and reflecting upon what it truly means to be satisfied and content with life. \"I think the question I ask myself is: 'Who's richer?' \" he said. \"(This has been) a really big learning curve of how to just live a very beautiful, normal life.\" Trupal Pandya is an Indian photographer studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.","highlights":"Photographer Trupal Pandya took portraits of the Huaorani people in Ecuador's rainforest .\nThe community is beginning to modernize, but it still maintains its traditional ways of living .","id":"8717f1cce9997d617d7ec67bf7bb77f09c79df68"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Saturday Night Live\" cast member Kate McKinnon got rave reviews for her impression of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she delved into the topic we're all wondering about. So, what does the fake Clinton have to say about her use of personal email address to conduct government business? \"Those emails are clean as a whistle. This is not how Hillary Clinton goes down,\" McKinnon's wild-eyed Clinton said, laughing at the idea that the emails would be her undoing. \"There will be no mistakes on my rise to the top -- if I decide to run. Who knows?\" she said, throwing her hands in their air. She offered a peek at her take on \"mature romance\" by showing a \"Happy Anniversary\" email to U.S. President Bill Clinton addressed \"Dear Sir or Madam.\" \"SNL\" viewers on Twitter thought she nailed Clinton's cool-as-ice demeanor.","highlights":"Kate McKinnon hit another \"SNL\" impression out of the park as Hillary Clinton .\nHer \"Clinton\" discussed the controversy over a private email account .","id":"3cfd17453012f8facc316246ceb465733041d9ae"} -{"article":"(CNN)As a well-traveled photographer, Pieter ten Hoopen is no stranger to refugee camps. But he never experienced any like the Mayo camp, which is outside the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Ten Hoopen was at the camp to photograph a new medical clinic for Emergency, a humanitarian group from Italy. He also hoped to document what life was like for refugees there. His hopes were dashed, however, when he was told he couldn't photograph outside the hospital compound. \"I had very, very hard restrictions from the Sudanese government. ... They are very well-skilled in keeping the media at bay,\" ten Hoopen said. With no freedom of movement, much like the refugees themselves, ten Hoopen resorted to an old trick he had used before while traveling in Africa. With the help of refugee hospital workers, he built a makeshift photo studio using hospital bed sheets and other materials available. The studio quickly became a sensation. Once hospital employees volunteered to have their photo taken, lines of refugees began snaking around the hospital grounds waiting to have their portraits taken. One by one, these people sat solemnly to be photographed. It was their time to be acknowledged. There was gravity, earnestness to the way they posed. This was the moment their story would be registered. \"This was one of the reasons why I built the studio: to get more material and more narratives from the people,\" ten Hoopen said. The project quickly became a catalog of the history and identity of the refugees. The photos span several generations -- some of the subjects were born at the refugee camp, some have been there for decades. Women wearing the traditional Sudanese tobe spell out their class and origin by the way it is wrapped. From the Muslim north, women are fully covered -- a contrast to women from the Christian south, who we also see represented in these photos. Whether from Sudan, South Sudan or Eritrea, the faces become, individually and collectively, a portrait of the endless wars that have shaped the Horn of Africa. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. The word refugee often conjures up images of faceless crowds fleeing conflict, their existence only registered in terms of statistics and graphs. Ten Hoopen wanted to give his subjects the ability to express themselves freely. \"They got very serious, they sat down upright. ... I tried to say as little as possible,\" he said. \"I do believe in their own expressions, their own narrative ... and their unique perspective.\" The studio had a comforting effect. It was a haven from the hustling and bustling of the camp hospital. It gave the photographer an opportunity to meet his subject matter eye to eye, giving each person their deserved attention. Aesthetically, it created an aura around each person, beaming light on his or her personal narrative. It had some uplifting effects as well. \"I always try to put some extra thought to (projects). So I build classic photo studios like they have in any small towns in the African continent or in Europe ... just to give people a little bit of the feeling they are special for a short time and that someone really photographs them in an official way,\" ten Hoopen said. He said some patients at the hospital \"had being laying there for months in their room. ... Then you take them out, it's a little treat to get them out of their own misery. ... That's why you see the line growing, because they see people laughing when they come out of the studio.\" Ten-month-old Buseiwa was not laughing when she entered the studio. Having just had a blood test for malaria, she clearly looked uneasy. Gazing to someone who is holding her hand, her eyes connect with this parental figure as a source of strength. Hawa Haranan, 40, came from the war-torn Darfur region before getting a job as a cleaner at the hospital. As she wears a simple tobe, one can almost see the emotions behind her leonine stare. Her life and struggle, as with the other individuals photographed, is accounted for with the testimony of a camera. Ten Hoopen used tilt-shift lenses, which are normally used with the large-format cameras used in classic photography. \"I really can appreciate old portraiture ... when people got their portrait taken in a way that was loaded, I think, with respect and it was a very serious moment,\" he said. \"It's a slow way of working where you have to put all your focus into one person sitting in front of you.\" How did ten Hoopen gain the trust of so many uneasy refugees, some severely traumatized and living in fear? \"It wasn't hard,\" he said. \"I just told them to relax and have fun. \"Kids sometimes got nervous, and I don't blame them. I am a tall, white, bald European guy. ... I am not only funny to look at, but it is hot in that country so I am usually very red when I am photographing. ... I have tattoos everywhere. ... They thought I was a quite interesting creature.\" Pieter ten Hoopen is a photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.","highlights":"Pieter ten Hoopen took portraits of refugees at the Mayo camp in Khartoum, Sudan .\nHe set up a makeshift studio near a hospital, and it quickly became a sensation .","id":"f5cda2fb1455a37af718d9f85f038d5dd136697a"} -{"article":"(CNN)A Delta airplane had a close call Thursday, skidding off a snowy runway and stopping within feet of icy waters. Any accident raises questions, and the National Transportation Safety Board is sending people to New York's LaGuardia Airport to investigate. Although the cause of the crash is not yet clear, officials will no doubt be looking at the conditions on the runway. Was it cleared and ready? Did the pilot have all relevant information? CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo breaks down the responsibilities around runways. \"There are a couple of things that airports have to do,\" she said. \"The airport has to go out and measure whether the airport runways have friction, meaning when those tires touch down that they will have some contact with the runway.\" That information is then relayed to the air traffic control tower, according to Schiavo. \"As to whether the runways are slippery, that is breaking action, and the airport gets that from the reports of previous pilots,\" she said. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Patrick Foye told reporters that the runway in question had been plowed shortly before the incident. Pilots on previous planes reported \"good braking action,\" he said. Just minutes after the Delta plane landed, all of LaGuardia Arport shut down to air traffic. One runway reopened at 2 p.m. ET. The other remained closed. Miles O'Brien, another CNN aviation analyst, highlights how difficult it is to understand all the elements in play. \"The wind was changing. The temperatures were changing. It was moving from rain to freezing rain, ultimately into snow. So you had a very dynamic weather picture, and let's not forget, it's kind of a subjective thing,\" he said. \"One pilot might say, 'oh that was no problem,' but he might have learned how to fly in northern Canada.\"","highlights":"Port Authority chief: Runway was just plowed, other pilots reported \"good braking action\"\nThe NTSB is sending people to New York's LaGuardia Airport to investigate .","id":"7f507186e8093d8f2693f37ac4869d36d16d668b"} -{"article":"(CNN)\"Attenzione, the wine!\" That is an old punchline in the Weir home, thanks to plastic cups of Chianti, a low bridge and a gondolier named Marco. His concerned bark broke the spell as my wife and I smooched and gaped, moon-eyed dorks on our first night in Venice. When I told my dad I was taking my wife to Italy for our first anniversary, he snorted. \"Where you gonna take her for your 10th? The moon?\" He was right. It was perfect. Pigeons in San Marco, sunset over the Grand Canal, Bellinis and cheeseburgers at Harry's. Venice entered our bloodstream that trip. But in the years since, I've heard very different stories from disappointed folks back from their first trip to La Serenissima because the city of water and love now has too much of both. Too much water, and way too many lovers. Because this impossible city of palazzos and cathedrals is built atop wooden posts driven into the muddy floor of a lagoon, Venice has been slowly sinking since Casanova canoodled down its canals. When aquifers were tapped to build massive petrochemical plants on the nearby mainland, Venice sank faster. And then folks noticed that the sea level was on a slow but steady rise. In the 1920s, there were about 400 incidents of acqua alta, or high water, when the right mix of tides and winds drives the liquid streets up into homes and shops in the lowers parts of the city. By the 1990s, there were 2,400 incidents -- and new records are set every year. But, the Italians have a plan. It is called the MOSE Project. MOSE is an acronym for \"Experimental Electromechanical Module,\" but it is also the Italian word for Moses, a guy known for parting the sea and protecting the faithful. It's a system of 78 massive gates mounted to hinges on the ocean floor. The gates are filled with air, and designed to rise and create a temporary sea wall. Since the plan was hatched, low-lying cities from Miami to Mumbai have taken a keen interest to see if the idea can work. Everybody is still waiting: MOSE is now 10 years behind schedule, and $5 billion over budget. And on one early morning in 2014, police rounded up 35 people at the highest levels of MOSE, including Giorgio Orsoni, the mayor of Venice. While several went to prison on plea bargains, the now-former mayor is fighting charges of corruption and kickbacks. But while I went back to Venice to do a story on rising water, instead I found a surprising drama about the rising tide of humanity. People know Venice is special and fragile, so they come -- to the tune of 20 million tourists a year. Meanwhile, the watery headaches and cost of living has created a mass exodus of native Venetians: 100,000 have moved to the mainland in a single generation, and around 60,000 remain. On a busy summer day, in the most popular section of the city, tourists can outnumber Venetians 600-1. In Manhattan, that number is 8-1. When a cruise ship dumps thousands of people into Venice at once, they squeeze down jammed medieval streets where purveyors of overpriced pizza and cheap masks have replaced the shops of artists and artisans. Each year, more people come. Each year, less get to enjoy the city we found on that first magical night. People have been worrying about the impending death of Venice for centuries, but the place is in trouble, now more than ever. And in an age of rising seas and exploding populations, Venice is a test. A test to preserve beauty, history and harmony from the greatest threats: time, tide and greed.","highlights":"Venice, Italy, has slowly been sinking .\nThe city is testing a new system that would combat the rising tides .\nCNN host Bill Weir travels to the Italian city for an episode of \"The Wonder List\"","id":"b7493f58be544b436a59d52e699c052fca24b756"} -{"article":"(CNN)Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams didn't just blur the lines, they crossed them, a California jury ruled this week. Their song \"Blurred Lines\" ripped off the Marvin Gaye soul classic \"Got to Give It Up,\" jurors found, ordering the performers to pay millions for copyright damages and infringement. It's not the first time singers have turned to the courts to settle an accusation of musical theft. Talk about getting blasted: Thicke and Williams were ordered to pay $7.4 million. Their song: . Marvin Gaye's: . Tom Petty stands his ground: Young British pop sensation Sam Smith's 2014 tune \"Stay With Me\" has a riff in the chorus similar to that of the 1989 Tom Petty hit \"I Won't Back Down.\" Reports say the two settled out of court, and the official credits now list Petty as a co-writer of the Smith song. Petty says there are no hard feelings. Sam Smith's song: . Tom Petty's: . Who ya gonna call? My lawyer! The 1980s rocker Huey Lewis accused Ray Parker Jr. of copying a \"Ghostbusters\" song riff from the 1984 hit \"I Want a New Drug\" by his band, Huey Lewis and the News. Reports at the time said they settled and signed a confidentiality agreement. In 2001, Parker accused Lewis of breaking it in a televised interview. The movie theme song: . Huey Lewis and the News: . Can't you hear, can't you hear the flute riff? Australian band Men at Work lost a case that all but accused them of stealing from children. A court found that the flute solo in their global hit \"Down Under\" had plagiarized the children's tune \"Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree,\" written for the Scouting organization the Girl Guides. (It was the publisher of the song, Larkin Music, that sued. Marion Sinclair, who wrote \"Kookaburra\" in 1934, died in 1988.) Men at Work: . The children's song: . Yes, there's a problem. Vanilla Ice hit it big for the first and only time with \"Ice Ice Baby\" in 1990, rapping over a catchy bass riff that sounded suspiciously like the one in the Queen and David Bowie hit \"Under Pressure.\" Reports at the time said a lawsuit was settled out of court. Vanilla Ice: . Queen and David Bowie's tune: . Not free to do whatever you want. Some fans of the Beatles spoof band the Rutles noticed what they thought were similarities between the Oasis hit \"Whatever\" and the Neil Innes tune \"How Sweet to be an Idiot.\" Headlines suggested that Innes was going to sue Oasis, but in a 2013 interview, the songwriter said it was the music publisher EMI who took action and settled out of court, giving a quarter of the monies from \"Whatever\" to Innes and a quarter to EMI. Innes later winked at the incident in the opening notes of the song \"Shangri-La.\" Oasis: . Neil Innes, 14 years earlier: . If everybody had their own tune: There's some controversy about how the Beach Boys' first big hit, \"Surfin' U.S.A.,\" came to be written since the melody seems to be lifted straight from the Chuck Berry single \"Sweet Little Sixteen.\" It's listed now as having been written by the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Berry. On his website, Berry calls \"Surfin' U.S.A.\" a cover of his tune. The Beach Boys: . Chuck Berry: . Not so fine: One of the most famous copyright disputes in music history targeted former Beatle George Harrison's song \"My Sweet Lord,\" which was found to have copied \"He's So Fine\" by the girl group the Chiffons. Harrison was ordered to pay nearly $2 million and was quoted as saying he never made any money off the song -- but he struck back with \"This Song,\" a hit about the incident. It included the line: \"As far as I know, it don't infringe on anyone's copyright.\" The song that got Harrison sued: . The Chiffons: . And Harrison's song about the dispute: . CNN's Todd Baxter, Nick Hunt, Andrew Carey and Tommy Evans contributed to this report.","highlights":"\"Blurred Lines\" ripped off a Marvin Gaye '70s classic, jury finds .\nSam Smith, Beach Boys and \"Ghostbusters\" tune have all been hit by accusations .\nGeorge Harrison lost a copyright suit and responded with a song about it .","id":"f0820d191b6c11edd64c4d156b0f14f648452f52"} -{"article":"(CNN)A 17-year-old male fatally shot an Iraqi man watching his first snowfall in his new American hometown, targeting him and then continuing to fire as the immigrant rushed to get inside, Dallas police said Friday. Authorities don't believe the suspected shooter knew the victim, Ahmed Al-Jumaili, Dallas Police Maj. Jeff Cotner said reporters, nor do they believe he knew Al-Jumaili's ethnicity. And they haven't given any indication Al-Jumaili had anything to do with what led the teen to head out armed in the first place -- a purported shooting at his girlfriend's apartment, if that in fact happened. Cotner said that, while there have nearby shootings that might be tied to gangs, \"we (have been) unable to substantiate ... whether or not there was an actual shooting at the apartment.\" What police do believe, based on witness testimony and other evidence, is that the teenager shot and killed Al-Jumaili, for whatever reason. \"When he saw Mr. Al-Jumaili and their family, he targeted them, he shot at them with intent,\" Cotner said of the suspect, who is under arrest. \"And as Mr. Al-Jumaili ran back toward his apartment, he tracked him with his rifle and continued to fire.\" Dallas police named the suspected shooter, though CNN is not identifying him yet since he's a minor and it's not clear if he'll be charged as an adult. The teen turns 18 in May, police said. Until the fatal shots ended Al-Jumalli's life, March 4 had been a day of fun and joy for Al-Jumaili and his family. The 36-year-old, who had immigrated to the United States 20 days earlier, joined his brother and wife taking pictures in the parking lot of a Dallas apartment complex amid the snow. \"Just like all of us, a pretty snowfall brings the child out in us,\" Cotner said. Then came the gunshots and Al-Jumaili's cry, \"I'm hit!\" A few hours later, the Iraqi immigrant was dead. Three days later, a Dallas detective found surveillance footage from a nearby elementary school showing four people coming from the apartment complex. The black-and-white soundless surveillance video shows one person apparently carrying a rifle is seen running just ahead of a second person seemingly carrying a hand gun, Dallas police Officer Monica Cordova said. Approximately 13 seconds later, another person comes into view and passes by the camera, followed by a fourth individual who is walking, she said. Then, on Tuesday, a witness walked into the Richardson, Texas, police station and provided a nickname of a possible suspect -- Kaca. That nickname eventually led to the 17-year-old police believe shot Al-Jumaili. Investigators interviewed him for the first time Thursday, at which time he denied ever leaving his girlfriend's apartment. Then, authorities got the OK to search his apartment and found an unfired rifle cartridge, Cotner said. The teen was brought to Dallas police headquarters for another interview, and he changed his story. Yes, he had been at the scene of Al-Jumaili's killing. But no, he hadn't done it. Yet that's not what someone who'd been with him said. According to Cotner, this witness said he saw Al-Jumaili taking pictures in the snow, . \"The witness stated that he observed (the suspect) raise the rifle,\" the police major said. \"... The witness then heard one shot, followed by several more.\" Then all of them bolted. The incident caused waves in Dallas' Muslim community. While police haven't given any indication this was a hate crime, though Alia Salem -- executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the Dallas and Fort Worth area -- noted \"a heightened sense of awareness with regard to hate crimes against Muslims.\" Speaking Friday on behalf of Al-Jumaili's family, Salem expressed gratitude to police and others for their work on the case and said \"our community has been at a loss for words and very saddened by this tragic death.\" \"We just want to see justice happen here,\" she said. \"And this is the first step in that.\" CNN's Pat St. Claire and Vivian Kuo contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ahmed Al-Jumaili, who'd come from Iraq weeks earlier, was shot while outside watching snow .\nPolice: Suspected shooter went out angry thinking someone shot his girlfriend's apartment .\nThere's no indication Al-Jumaili had anything to do with that or knew the suspected shooter .","id":"ffb0a760633cec05349cbe11391b208551c76505"} -{"article":"Hong Kong (CNN)The search is on for China's teen top guns. China said Monday it has selected 16 high schools to offer pilot training as the country's armed forces seek to attract better qualified recruits. The schools, in 11 provinces across the country, will recruit 1,000 male junior high school students aged between 14 to 16, the China Daily reported. Successful applicants will receive flight training and \"military standard\" physical training in addition to their regular high-school studies. It's the latest attempt by the People's Liberation Army's air force to attract more talent. Last year, it said it would require wannabe pilots to take psychological assessments and a flight simulation test. China's military has traditionally been focused on winning land battles and is now making efforts to improve its air and naval power in the pursuit of what President Xi Jinping has called \"balanced strength.\" \"China has made many strides in the development of advanced aircraft, but it must make sure there can be sufficient, well-trained pilots to fly them,\" Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine told The China Daily last month. The recruits will receive a stipend and board at the schools. Traditionally, serving in the military has not been a sought-after career in China and a U.S. report on China's military transformation released last month singled out the quality and professionalism of new recruits as a major challenge. Many are still drawn from rural areas with limited education, while country's one-child policy, which has created the \"little emperor\" phenomenon of spoiled children, produces recruits who \"may not be tough enough to withstand military discipline,\" the report added. To this end, China has been making efforts to recruit more high school and college graduates as it modernizes its armed forces. On completing the three-year program, students will take a pilot selection test, and those who pass will join a PLA flight academy and those who fail can choose to enter other military universities or civilian institutes.","highlights":"China wants 1,000 male junior high school students for pilot training .\nThe country seeks to strengthen its navy and air force .","id":"c86d503af0d1daa5782a2fecbedf2e594c3d7fb2"} -{"article":"March 18, 2015 . Israelis have voted in a globally significant election. U.S. aid workers who've been exposed to an Ebola patient are being monitored. ISIS terrorists have destroyed some of Iraq's treasured artifacts. A professional football player has walked away from a dream job over health concerns. And a roving camera in the shape of a bowling ball could depict the future of surveillance technology. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"ee6ab07bfbd589c317f6851b0b0e22e0dedcd3ee"} -{"article":"Fall River, Massachusetts (CNN)Shayanna Jenkins, the fiancee of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, revealed for the first time Monday she suspects marijuana was in a box she was instructed to remove from the couple's home the day after the slaying of Odin Lloyd in 2013. Hernandez has been charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating the death of Lloyd, the boyfriend of Shayanna Jenkins' sister and semipro football player who was found dead June 17, 2013. Hernandez has also pleaded not guilty to a gun and ammunition charge. His co-defendants, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, have also pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately. For the first time, Shayanna Jenkins told jurors on Monday the box smelled \"skunky,\" making her think it was marijuana. Her new description came during cross-examination. Earlier, she told prosecutors during direct examination that she didn't know what was in the box, said Hernandez never told her, nor did she look. Jenkins testified Friday that on the day after Lloyd's slaying, her fiance called her with instructions that it was important to discard the box. On Monday, she described his tone as \"normal\" when he made the request and said she had never been asked by prosecutors what she thought the box smelled like. \"Were you ever asked what you thought was in the box?\" asked Hernandez lawyer Charles Rankin about her previous testimony to the grand jury. \"Never,\" said Jenkins. \"Were you ever asked if it had any smell to it?\" he asked. \"Never,\" she replied. Jenkins' revelation contradicts the prosecution's previous suspicion that the weapon used in the slaying was in the box. No weapon in the case has been recovered. Home surveillance video played inside the courtroom Monday showed Shayanna Jenkins hoisting a black garbage bag from her home and putting it in a trunk of her sister's car. At the time, Shaneah Jenkins had been at her home grieving over the death of her boyfriend. Shaneah Jenkins was present in court on Monday and cried while listening to the testimony and watching the video of her sister Shayanna carrying the trash bag. The two sisters now barely speak to each other. Shaneah Jenkins sits next to Lloyd's mother in the courtroom on the opposite side of Hernandez's defense team. After concealing the box with her daughter's clothing, Shayanna Jenkins said she disposed of it at a location she cannot remember. \"I found a random dumpster, and put it in there,\" she told Bristol County District Attorney William McCauley. When questioned about her inability to remember the dumpster's location and other details, Shayanna Jenkins said she had been unsettled at the time. \"I was nervous. I had to comfort my sister. Everyone's emotions were on me, and it was a form of breaking down at that point,\" she said. On Monday, Shayanna Jenkins was asked about what she called an \"on-again, off-again\" relationship with Hernandez, her high school sweetheart. She recalled spending time apart from Hernandez after discovering evidence of infidelity on Hernandez's phone. She told the court that before getting back together with him, she had to make a difficult choice about her future with the football star. \"I made a decision that if I was going to move back in with Aaron, I would need to compromise with his behavior, including his infidelity,\" she told the courtroom and then started to cry. After Hernandez proposed in October 2012, Jenkins said she continued to tolerate his infidelity. Jenkins admitted giving some different answers during her grand jury testimony, in part, she said because of confusing questions by prosecutors. She faces possible jail time if found guilty of perjury charges. Jenkins has pleaded not guilty. This week, the jury is expected to hear from Alexander Bradley, Hernandez's former right hand man, who has accused Hernandez of shooting him in the face in February of 2013. However, a judge has barred him from discussing that. Bradley is jailed in an unrelated shooting. The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Susan Candiotti and Lawrence Crook reported from Fall River, Massachusetts. CNN's Karen Smith wrote from Atlanta.","highlights":"Aaron Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Odin Lloyd .\nHernandez's fiancee testifies that he asked her to discard a box after she had learned Lloyd was killed .\nNo weapon has been found in Lloyd's slaying .","id":"3e4f374aa9a8c01c51e79cca0a939b84175c4a1a"} -{"article":"(CNN)This is what it's come to. Starbucks asked its local baristas to have conversations about race. Not the federal government or Congress. Not academia or the NAACP. But a national coffee shop chain waded into an area of social conflict that is as old as the slave ships and as modern as stop-and-frisk policing. Then people went crazy. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was accused of ruining that magic morning moment when customers fork over $4.15 for a \"grande\" coffee with warm skim milk and vanilla extract. A barista writing \"Race Together\" on cups was called an affront to mornings and coffee -- such important conversations belonged inside a hallowed institution, not a common coffee shop, where apparently people no longer chat. A lot of the reaction came via snipes on Twitter from people calling Schultz out on Starbucks' diversity, the hue of his mochaccinos, or his liberal \"brewing\" of controversy. The nastiness drove the company's communications chief briefly off Twitter. Then, after barely a week, Starbucks shut down the whole darned thing, pushing ahead with a hiring and media initiative instead. But treating Twitter as an important voice of American conscience is like focusing on the annoying beep emitting from your smoke detector instead of addressing the fact that the battery's run dry. What's trending is not necessarily what matters. People do need to talk about race. Not because of a harmless coffee cup, but because we have a real race problem and we need solutions. Starfish Media Group just finished a nationwide tour of American colleges, universities and communities called \"Black in America 2015.\" It's based on our CNN documentary series that takes a close look at the challenges and triumphs of being black in America: from the hopes of the Martin Luther King era to today's unlikely brew of un-kept promises and vast opportunities. There were plenty of conversations about race among the thousands of black and white college students and panelists like rapper Chuck D and Cedric Alexander of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. They lined up to talk about how their experiences mirrored those of the people in the documentaries: black families finding common roots with whites, the politics of skin color, or the black-and-blue conflict over the police engaging in racial profiling. The topics and perceptions were an unending thread. Not only did people talk when they were offered the chance; they wanted to talk. At Stony Brook University, one of our tour stops, a young white male student asked our panel if effecting change in racial discrimination today was even harder to achieve than it was during the Civil Rights era when racism was more overt. What a good question. There are no longer signs segregating our bathrooms and water fountains, but police are being caught on cell phone videos in apparent attacks on young black men -- the new signposts of racial inequality. New technology has multiplied and spread symbols of racial injustice, but that has created new challenges and new reasons to talk. In this country we sometimes pretend we are so far past the ugly days of Jim Crow and middle-of-the-night cross burnings as to have no racial issues to discuss. We did, after all, elect a black president who, like me, has both a black and a white parent and descends from immigrants. But blacks and whites don't see things the same, and that is a big problem we need to discuss. Pew Research Center asked people of both races this year how much more needs to be done to achieve racial equality. Seventy-nine percent of blacks said \"a lot\" more work needs to be done. Just 44% of whites thought the same. Our country is more diverse than ever -- 13% African-American and 17% Latino, according to the U.S. Census -- but we still live in different worlds. Blacks have more debt, higher unemployment, less financial security, are less likely to be married or own homes, and are less likely to be represented in corporate boardrooms, the tech industry or even Congress. Perhaps more alarmingly, 75% of black students are going to schools where the majority of the students look just like them. It has been 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education was supposed to bring our schoolchildren together on an equal playing field. That is something worth talking about. Recently, Bryan Stevenson, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, examined the details behind 3,959 lynchings in 12 Southern states from 1877 to 1950. He wants to raise money to memorialize the sites. We may not live in that land any more, though the FBI is investigating the death of a black man found hanging among the walnut trees this month in Mississippi. But we do live in a land where there is a modern terror digging roots in the minds of young black men. In 2014, our CNN documentary \"Black in America: Black & Blue\" showed police officers talking fearfully about facing off against young criminals on familiar streets and African-American men in fear that they would become the victims of police shootings. The documentary was released just as grand juries chose not to indict the police officers in the Eric Garner and Ferguson, Missouri, cases. To me, it reveals how damaging the rift in our perceptions can be. A young man named Keeshan Harley talked about being frisked over 100 times. Why? \"Because I fit the description,\" said the black college student. Seventy percent of blacks believe, just like Keeshan, that the police treat racial and ethnic groups differently and do not hold police officers accountable for misconduct, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The percentage of whites who agree with that perception hovers in the mid-30s. Much of the white community doesn't perceive or understand the persecution of a Keeshan Harley. But when they see a videotape, as in the Eric Garner case, many finally recognize there is a problem. We need to consider how a lack of confidence in government and law enforcement is dangerous in a civil society. A young man named Luis Paulino shared a cell phone video with me when I was reporting \"Black & Blue.\" It shows tall white police officers beating Luis on the street for no apparent reason. He couldn't call the police for help. These were the police. What if there had been no tape, I asked him. \"Nobody would have believed me,\" he said. \"It would have been my word against 15 police officers.\" That is modern-day terror, and worth at least a coffee shop chat. Black people talk about race all the time, from processing comments about our freckles to recounting how someone rolls their fingers through our child's curly hair. We don't get or expect an even playing field at work. We don't ever get to cross a street in a hoodie at night without the other pedestrians making a string of assumptions. We don't have some mutable characteristic. We wake up and go to bed black, and that makes a difference in this country. CEO Howard Schultz was left wondering why it was such a bad idea to encourage people to talk about race. His initial letter to his staff made it clear he believes his #racetogether coffee cup campaign can contribute to starting an important conversation. \"What if our customers ... had a renewed level of understanding and sensitivity about the issue, and they themselves would spread that to their own sphere of influence?\" What a good question it was. What if?","highlights":"Starbucks quickly shut down its program of asking baristas to talk to the public about race .\nSoledad O'Brien: Forget the storm of tweets criticizing the coffee company; we need a vigorous conversation on race .","id":"6d6dbecf8c31bda20830bdf03ce3071a22fdccef"} -{"article":"(CNN)There are two main ways visitors to Ho Chi Minh City cross the streets. One approach is to step with zen-like calm into the swirl of honking scooters and serenely stride across the road without breaking step. Like locals, they're part of the flow, part of the (exhaust-choked) stream of traffic. The other is to stand anxiously on the edge of the curb, toes curled like a diver's, waiting for a non-existent stoplight, then plunge into the melee while letting out a small yelp before slaloming across the street like a demented Frogger. Some, like Steve Mueller, would question why cross the road at all. If you can't beat them, join them. Which is what the South Carolinian did -- he now runs the city's Vietnam Vespa Adventures. It's a tour company that provides two-wheel thrills on the Italian vintage scooters, Vespa, around Ho Chi Minh City, out into the Mekong Delta and beyond. Being on a scooter in Ho Chi Minh is the best way to feel a part of the city, says Mueller. \"It's really an authentic experience,\" he says. \"Being side by side with the locals.\" Day tours take in popular sights like the Opera House and central post office designed by Gustav Eiffel, but also stop at local eateries and offbeat locations. One popular early morning pit stop is Tao Dan park where Ho Chi Minh City's bird fanciers puff themselves up like their caged pets in a display of tweeting one-upmanship. Unfortunately\/thankfully, you're not the one driving. All the mopeds are driven by local, experienced drivers who have no problem with the swarm of vehicles on the roads. A local tour guide rides along, too, to add context to the sights, smells and sounds experienced from the back of a two-stroke motor. Mueller took a circuitous route to setting up the company. After traveling around Southeast Asia in 1997 he settled in Vietnam the following year and discovered a glut of classic Italian scooters that needed a bit of TLC. He bought his first one after just three days in the country and spying an opportunity to tap into international Vespa enthusiasts' desire for authentic rides, set up a restoration and export business. It became so successful he was in danger of putting himself out of a job, so in 2006 he decided to start a tour company offering multi-day tours outside of Ho Chi Minh City. According to Mueller, his business was kick-started by Vietnam's appearance on the TV program \"Top Gear,\" which showed the country's beautiful countryside and underused roads. Longer trips are still offered by Vespa Tours, taking willing riders as far as the Vietnam Highlands and the coastal city of Nha Trang over seven days. Most of the scooters in Mueller's garage hark back to the golden age of Vespas, the late '60s and 1970s, refurbished with replacement parts from Piaggio-licensed machinists in India. True to their reputation, the 100 or so classic scooters owned by Vespa Adventures break down frequently -- mechanics are on hand for running repairs -- but Mueller believes its all part of the charm in a city where two wheels beats two legs. Vietnam Vespa Adventures, 169a De Tham, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; +84 12 2299 3585\/ +84 9 3850 0997 .","highlights":"American Steve Mueller started a tour company in Ho Chi Minh City offering tours on Vespa .\nMueller says it's the best way to see the city and beyond, riding side by side with locals .\nScooters are driven by experienced local drivers with tour guide and mechanic accompanying each tour .","id":"dcdef8bbd0588c07de408bc8a5ac0cf5c0618311"} -{"article":"March 19, 2015 . From a terrorist attack in Tunisia to an election update from Israel to an upcoming eclipse over the Faroe Islands, today's show is taking you around the world. We're also featuring a Character Study on a 13-year-old who started working to fight hunger at age 4. And we're looking into the NCAA \"March Madness\" tournament and its effects on some athletes' class time. On this page you will find today's show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL . For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!","highlights":"This page includes the show Transcript .\nUse the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .\nAt the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call.","id":"6bd75c94c7432c18face90c957d000780db4951f"} -{"article":"(CNN)After enduring about four days at sea under stressful conditions, Tyke, an African elephant, escaped during a circus performance, crushing her trainer to death and injuring dozens of others while storming through the streets of Honolulu. Tyke suffered a slow and painful death after being hit by a barrage of bullets fired by police officers. That incident happened 20 years ago, but the welcome announcement last week by Feld Entertainment -- parent company to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus -- that it plans to retire elephants from its circuses by 2018 is a reminder of how that controversy lingers. In analyzing the horrific experience involving Tyke, it was reported that the elephant had been rebellious before she arrived on our shores, and she is said to have had a history of acting out and being unpredictable. And though she was not submissive and was difficult to train, her owners sent her to Honolulu anyway. Sadly, performing animals in circuses and traveling shows are too often subjected to inhumane conditions, especially in their training. Reward-based training takes time and patience, which are things that many circus trainers do not have. Instead, these trainers frequently resort to other inhumane means, involving beating the animals, using electrical prods, depriving them of food, chaining them and other brutal methods to force the animals into submission. Following this sort of brutal training, the animals may appear tame, but they are still wild and their original wild instincts will appear if provoked. Meanwhile, animals that are no longer useful to the circus or traveling shows due to age or temperament may be given away or sold to other less reputable organizations. They lack proper veterinary care, and what little quality of life they did have is diminished further. The welfare of the animal is not taken into account. Rather than being treated as a commodity by the owner, animals should be protected and well cared for. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has said it prides itself on providing a healthy environment for animals. Yet whatever provisions they may make, the reality is that circuses are particularly unsuited to meet the unique needs of elephants. These extremely intelligent animals live in large family groups when in the wild, and they form close social ties with other elephants. But the circus environment keeps them isolated and provides little to no interaction with their own species. Their herd-like behavior is ignored when they are being trained to perform. These very social animals, simply put, should not be living in solitary confinement. Animal welfare advocates have often been criticized as being against \"fun.\" We are told that circuses and traveling shows are about education. But what could one possibly learn about animals from watching these shows? Observing wild animals perform unnatural tricks while dancing in tutus only teaches the public that the sole purpose of animals is our entertainment. Are these really the values we want our children to learn? Wildlife sanctuaries and accredited zoos should exist for conservation, preservation and propagation of species and for public education. This is where learning should occur. Wild animals should be permitted to exist undisturbed in their natural environments, and when they must be confined, it should be in a natural setting consistent with their physical and behavioral needs. This is the proper setting for education and study. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has come a long way in its thinking, and for that we congratulate the company for its decision to move the elephants to its sanctuary in Florida. Rather than fighting the many cities and counties that have taken steps to pass anti-circus and anti-elephant ordinances, the company instead is putting its resources toward the study and protection of elephants. With this step, we look forward to the day that it, and other circuses, phase out all wild animals, including the lions and tigers that also are featured in their shows. After all, wild and exotic animals are not meant to entertain us. The Hawaiian Humane Society feels strongly about the humane treatment of all animals, whether domesticated or wild. Our organization, like others in the animal welfare movement, seeks to prevent any practice that might produce pain, stress, injury or suffering to any animal. This is an important part of creating a more humane society -- for people and all animals.","highlights":"Feld Entertainment plans to retire elephants from its circuses .\nPamela Burns: We congratulate the company for its decision to relocate elephants .","id":"e2724c642d19d9753becd846bbc739fdaca44b73"} -{"article":"(CNN)While Boston and other New England cities have suffered through their snowiest seasons, other parts of the country have some unexpected good news to go along with the record-breaking winter conditions. All that cold air and a stuck weather pattern are keeping tornadoes to historic lows so far this year. March is typically a transitional month, where warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cold Arctic air to produce severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. This year, however, the jet stream pattern responsible for all the cold air and snow in the East remains stuck in more of a winter mode. \"We're in a persistent pattern that suppresses severe weather, and the right ingredients -- moisture, instability and lift -- (have yet to come together),\" said Greg Carbin, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The group is responsible for issuing the tornado and severe thunderstorm watches that warn the public of impending severe weather. So far this year it's been extremely quiet. By this time in mid-March the center would have issued 52 tornado watches nationwide. This year they have issued a paltry four. Both January and February were well below normal. March has been even quieter. At a time where the tornado season usually ramps up considerably, there has not been a single report this month of a tornado. \"We are in uncharted territory with respect to the lack of severe weather\" Carbin said. In fact if we make it through the entire month of March without any tornado reports it would be a first, according to the center. There have been around 20 tornadoes reported since January 1, well below the 10-year average of 130 for the period from the beginning of the year until mid-March. This year comes on the heels of what was has been a welcome lull of tornadoes across the United States the past several years. In 2014, we ended the year with a count of 881, well below the average of 1,253. Meteorologists don't fully understand why we have seen the recent drop in tornadoes, but one possible answer is the development of El Nino, a warming in the equatorial Pacific, which can influence weather patterns globally. Recent studies point to lower tornado counts in the United States during these events. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently said that a weak El Nino had developed. So while all agree this is good news so far this year, it is clear that it is no guarantee that the rest of the season will remain this quiet. Weather patterns can change quickly. In 1984, for instance, there was a very similar slow start through mid-March and the number of tornadoes ended up well above average by the end of June, according to data from the storm center. It's also important to note that even in years where the tornado counts are low, you can still have very violent tornadoes -- 2013 being a perfect example. The year ended being roughly 30% below normal for the number of tornadoes, yet included some of the strongest tornadoes on record. The twisters in Moore and El Reno, Oklahoma, occurred in May of that year with devastating results. Tornadoes Fast Facts .","highlights":"There have been only four tornado watches in 2015 .\nEl Nino might be helping keep the numbers down .\nSlow start doesn't mean it will be quiet for entire season .","id":"0c54ed7d7bbfc5bf975690fb6b5e9e3050076456"} -{"article":"(CNN)Americans like to complain about the endless political gridlock in our capital. But if we're honest we need to look in the mirror too. Many of us abandoned the field by not voting in last year's midterm elections. Those of us who did vote elected more fire breathers than bridge builders to Congress. What's more, when we're invited to tell our representatives what we want, we can be as demagogic as they are. Remember the Town Hall meetings in the summer of 2009, which erupted in shouting matches between citizens and legislators over health care? Who can forget the Massachusetts woman holding a picture of President Obama defaced to look like Hitler, who demanded to know why former Rep. Barney Frank supported the \"Nazi policy\" of extending health care to all? His frank response: \"Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.\" Rather than blame our leaders for the dysfunction, we need to change the game. We can turn to public forums to tackle big issues of the day. Consider two efforts to move beyond the contentious debate about climate change. In Washington, the Senate made a splash by voting for the first time to acknowledge that global warming is really happening. Unfortunately, senators couldn't agree on whether humans are changing the climate and what to do about it. Stalemate. Outside of the Beltway, in Southeast Florida, it's been five years since the region adopted a comprehensive climate action plan with 110 steps aimed at mitigating its dangers and reducing the region's carbon emissions. As research by Dan Kahan of Yale Law School shows, these counties took action not because Floridians are less divided over political issues, or less partisan, or more scientifically literate than the rest of America. No one sang Kumbaya or hugged a polar bear. Instead, Florida officials engaged their constituents through scores of open forums convened by governments, businesses and community groups. Local leaders appealed across party lines by framing the issue as one of protecting residents from rising sea levels and storm surges, rather than as a divisive referendum on whether to believe in climate science. Rather than seeing citizens as targets of a political campaign, officials governed with the diverse residents of their community to develop practical solutions that garnered broad support. \"We recognize each other's differences,\" explained Susanne Torriente, Fort Lauderdale's assistant city manager, \"but also recognize that if we work together we can make South Florida more resilient.\" Given what Florida accomplished, Gov. Rick Scott's ban on using the terms \"climate change\" in state policy discussions to avoid polarization looks smart, not smarmy. Florida is not alone. Our research identifies many successful examples of political deliberation in well-designed forums where citizens and officials engage in give-and-take discussion and arrive at solutions. These forums have developed \"participatory budgets\" in many cities, energy policy in Texas and Nebraska, community policing in Chicago and much more. Some of these forums are healing the rotting roots of democracy. For example, gerrymandering of political districts has become one way to protect the party in power and create safe seats for incumbents, sapping their incentive to represent constituents from the opposing party or craft bipartisan legislation. As a North Carolina state senator once said, \"We are in the business of rigging elections.\" In response in 2010 Californians used their power to approve ballot initiatives to create a nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission, which redrew political districts that better reflected the state's communities and helped elect a legislature that could work together more productively. This is one reason why the state's budgeting process, once an endless game of chicken that paralyzed public services and rang up huge deficits, has become less rancorous and more fiscally responsible. Let's hope the Supreme Court doesn't kill this reform. But not every ballot initiative is as enlightened. Many are highly technical proposals pushed by special interests, and multiple initiatives can overwhelm the public's ability to evaluate them all. Oregon's legislature responded by creating a Citizens Initiative Review Board, which researches proposed ballot measures, deliberates about their pros and cons, and makes recommendations on how fellow citizens should vote. Many Oregonians rely on the board's recommendations, which are published in the state's voter guide and mailed to every household. Unlike politics as usual (and those infamous Town Hall meetings), these forums put citizens at the center of decision-making. Citizens are challenged to deliberate with each other and forge agreements, with officials and experts joining the effort by giving testimony and feedback. Moderators challenge people to treat other respectfully and consider a wide range of arguments and evidence, rather than engaging in hand-to-hand political combat. Grandstanding and obstructionism don't play as well in these forums as they do on the Senate floor, partisan media outlets or the local tavern. It's still politics, but it's a politics that offers better odds of success by engaging both citizens and officials productively. The people who participate, many of whom regard typical public meetings like Ebola, say they actually enjoy talking politics with other citizens and officials, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Can you imagine that? While there are experts who know how to design good forums, it's no easy task. As the health care Town Hall Meetings showed, simply throwing open the doors is not sufficient. Most people don't have the time to attend a forum, so they need to know whether people like them deliberated and the rules of engagement were fair. It's important to ensure that citizens can participate on equal terms. If we want to move beyond political stalemate, we should strengthen these innovative forums for citizens to deliberate with each other and officials. When these forums work, they put citizens and leaders on the same side of the chessboard.","highlights":"Americans like to complain about the political gridlock in Congress where nothing much gets done .\nChristopher Karpowitz and Chad Raphael: Public forums can be used to successfully tackle big issues .","id":"496fd2b406c07667a04f179afba07ed870d6236f"} -{"article":"(CNN)The 1-0 scoreline that took Barcelona through to the Champions League quarterfinals made their clash with Manchester City all seem rather academic. Yet it was anything but as Lionel Messi's masterful first-half display had some purring once again about his status as the greatest footballer of all time. Meanwhile, the second half witnessed another masterclass as England international Joe Hart somehow kept City in a lively encounter with save after save. In between, the man that City usually rely on to dig them out of tight spots -- Sergio Aguero -- failed to score a late penalty that could have set up a tense finish. In truth, the English champions deserved little over the two legs as Barcelona built upon their 2-1 victory in Manchester three weeks ago to go through as 3-1 aggregate winners. The four-time champions may not have added the goals they deserved but they did reach the last eight for the eighth year in a row, a competition record. \"It was a game with a lot of chances where we could have finished it off a lot earlier,\" Barca coach Luis Enrique told reporters. \"We got what we wanted which was to go through to the next round and I am happy with the display. We played well and this is a big boost for us at this stage of the season.\" The high-profile scrutiny of the relationship between coach Enrique and Argentine superstar Lionel Messi suddenly seems a distant memory with Barca still capable of repeating their wonder year of 2009. On that occasion, they won the Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Super Cup under the guidance of Pep Guardiola, who was one of many enthralled spectators inside the Camp Nou. Now in charge of fellow quarterfinalists Bayern Munich, Guardiola was out of his seat -- seemingly in celebration -- as Ivan Rakitic opened the scoring after 31 minutes when lifting the ball over Hart following a fine pass from Messi. The diminutive Argentine flashed two free-kicks from distance onto the top of the goal netting while also displaying an array of twists, turns and embarrassing 'nutmegs' for his opponents. It was enough to make former England international Gary Lineker, the top scorer at the 1986 World Cup, proclaim him the best footballer ever. While that engrossing debate rumbles on, Messi set about trying to put the tie to bed but he met fierce resistance from Hart, who had kept City in the tie in the first leg when saving the Argentine's injury-time penalty. England's number one made 10 saves, the most of any keeper in any Champions League this season, not only repelling Messi but also Neymar and Suarez, both of whom were also denied by the post in the first half. To their credit, the Premier League side -- who were looking to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time -- improved after the break but found chances hard to come by. That was until Aguero won a penalty after going down under a challenge from first Gerard Pique, and then Argentina colleague Javier Mascherano, with just over ten minutes left. But Dutch keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen dived right -- in both senses -- to beat away the spotkick and ultimately seal City's fate. Barcelona can now prepare for Sunday's superclasico clash with Real Madrid, whom they lead in the La Liga table by one point. \"We've gone out to a magnificent side for the second time in two years,\" Joe Hart told Sky Sports television. \"They will get a lot of plaudits but we had a big chance with the penalty.\" Questions will now be asked of coach Manuel Pellegrini, who had been expected to perform better in the Champions League after Roberto Mancini twice failed to get out of the group stages. It means that for the second time in three years, no English team have made the last eight, where Barca have joined Madrid sides Real and Atletico, Bayern Munich, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto and Juventus. The latter made it through after beating Borussia Dortmund 3-0 in Germany to secure a convincing 5-1 aggregate victory. On a night when Manchester City had failed to score, it was not lost on many that their former striker Carlos Tevez netted twice and made one, converted by Alvaro Morata, for the Italians. \"It was a game to forget. It started badly and did not get any better,\" Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp, who led his side to the 2013 Champions League final, told reporters. \"We deserved to be eliminated.\" The draw for the quarterfinals will be held on Friday.","highlights":"Barca and Juve join Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Monaco, PSG, Porto and Bayern Munich in Champions League quarterfinals .","id":"d45ec7a88c6e72a28b3cf9e62892971a22c17c06"} -{"article":"(CNN)Well-off North Koreans really love baguettes -- and the country is dispatching citizens outside its borders to learn how to make them, says a report by a pro-North Korea newspaper based in Japan. According to the Choson Sinbo, a North Korean factory sent its staff abroad in an attempt to improve its food products -- which include baguettes and sweet potato cakes. No word yet on whether they've succeeded. But it's not the first time North Korea has sent its citizens into the world to seeking culinary skills. Last April, officials from the reclusive authoritarian state traveled to the National Dairy Industry College in Franche-Comte, eastern France, in an attempt to master the art of cheese making. But they were turned away at the door. \"There is no basis to go further with North Korea because such a partnership does not fit into our priorities and strategy,\" its director Veronique Drouet told AFP. North Korea's Kumkop food plant isn't just focused on French food, though. In January, North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim Jong Un toured the factory and asked it to produce chewing gum. Food security remains poor for most North Koreans. The World Food Programme reported a \"severe\" food availability situation in the country last September, with rations dipping to their lowest level in three years.","highlights":"A North Korean food plant has sent staff abroad to try to learn how to make baguettes .\nLast year, North Korean officials went to France to look for cheese recipes .","id":"e8f38c40aba0343c979933823b631b2b27b37d2c"} -{"article":"(CNN)It's called the Grand Renaissance Dam -- and the clue is in the name. With some 8,500 laborers working around the clock on its construction, the imposingly-named dam is surely one of Africa's most ambitious infrastructure projects, reaffirming Ethiopia's ambitions of becoming a big regional player and a major exporter of power. When completed, the project will generate around 6,000 megawatts of electricity for both domestic use and exports. The most striking aspect of the nearly $5 billion enterprise is, however, that it is entirely funded by Ethiopia, without any foreign investment. According to the authorities, 20% of the project is financed from bond offerings to Ethiopians, and the remaining 80% from tax collection. \"It was seen as a strategically important initiative that the government and the Ethiopian people are financing it 100%,\" says Zemedeneh Negatu, managing partner at Ernst & Young Ethiopia. \"They have come up with a very creative and innovative way that I think will be a lesson for other African countries who want to embark on such large infrastructure projects, and want to have the flexibility to do it themselves,\" he adds. Hydroelectric powerhouse . So far, Ethiopians at home and abroad have contributed about $350 million, and the government says that the 170 meter tall dam is on track for a 2017 opening, with 40% of the work already complete. Ethiopia's per capita income might be one of the lowest in the world, but the country has enjoyed an impressive economic growth since 2000, averaging 10.9% annually, which has resulted in a 33% reduction of people living in poverty. If the Grand Renaissance Dam and other hydroelectric projects, such as the Gibe III dam on the Omo river, are completed on time, The World Bank estimates Ethiopia could earn $1 billion a year from electricity exports. Negatu says that this would make the country the largest exporter of power in Africa, and second only to South Africa when it comes to installed capacity. Unhappy neighbors . Yet, not everyone is happy about Ethiopia's energetic drive to harness its water resources. The Grand Renaissance Dam is being built on Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River which has been powering the agriculture of Sudan and Egypt -- through which it flows -- for millennia. These countries have opposed the project in the past, fearing that the dam will reduce their share of the Nile water. The ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi had even threatened to defend \"each drop of Nile water with our blood if necessary\" back in 2013. Passions have been calmer more recently, and today the Reuters news agency reported that representatives of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia reached a preliminary agreement in Khartoum on how to operate the dam. Negatu is convinced that a compromise will be reached, as he thinks that the dam will ultimately benefit not just Ethiopia but most other East African nations. \"This is actually a regional project because up from Egypt all the way down to Rwanda, countries are going to buy the power that's generated by this dam,\" Negatu says, adding that both Rwanda and Kenya have already agreed to purchase thousands of megawatts once the project is finished. A lack of reliable power has long stunted Africa's development, with 600 million people on the continent not connected to the grid and getting by on a mix of generators, kerosene lamps and candles. In Ethiopia, only 15 to 20% of the population has access to power according to a study by Chatham House. \"It's Africa's Achilles' heel,\" says Negatu. \"With anyone who wants to build a factory in Africa, the first thing they ask is infrastructure, and within infrastructure, whether there is sufficient electricity. Industrialization has always been about electricity, and this [dam] addresses this basic need.\" He adds that, after depending on exporting raw commodities for decades, governments across Africa should be pursuing a strategy of industrialization, following the example of China. \"We've got to move up the value chain, and it's what Ethiopia is doing right now. Its strategy is industrial-based -- not to export commodities but to manufacture value-added things, and other African nations are trying to emulate that. But without electricity there won't be industrialization in Africa.\" More from Africa View . Read this: New railway links to transform West Africa . Read this: Fast-rising aviation hub spreads its wings . Brandon Clements contributed to this report.","highlights":"Ethiopia is building the largest hydro-electric dam in Africa .\nThe country says the $5bn Grand Renaissance Dam is funded entirely by the government and its people .\nNeighboring Sudan and Egypt fear that the dam will affect their water supply .","id":"472321fee1cb96a918a1dced112d9d7f04030c30"} -{"article":"(CNN)Hillary Clinton worked hard last week to put the \"dead end\" sign on the State Department email story by announcing there was nothing to find. But in her rush to control the narrative, Clinton may have (once again) missed the bigger picture: In politics as much as in business, authenticity matters. Her press conference had the familiar ring of a controlled performance -- the carefully parsed explanation, the combative posture -- that stretched our belief that what she's telling us is really the whole story. People wonder: Is she playing it straight with us? Why the nagging suspicion that Brand Hillary does not include bringing to the public table who she really is? As the author Joe McGinniss reported in his classic book on the 1968 Nixon campaign, \"The Selling of a President,\" political consultants long ago began marketing candidates like bars of soap. The practice has accelerated since the '60s as campaigns have concluded that political brands face the same tests among voters that consumer brands do among customers. And among consumers today, authenticity means more to success than at any other time in the history of brands. The desire for authenticity is a tangible driver of revenue for brands. Increasingly, people want to give their money to brands -- political as well as commercial -- that have a set of values they can also buy into. As author James H. Gilmore told The New York Times, a sense of authenticity reinforces trust in what is real \"in an increasingly staged, contrived and mediated world.\" A recent global study found that 63% of consumers would buy a brand they perceive as authentic over its competitors, and more than 60% would recommend an organization they perceive to be authentic. Ignoring the importance of authenticity to voters is a significant risk, as both Mitt Romney and Al Gore learned too late. And they were running in a perceptual environment more forgiving than today's. Voters easily identified the space between who these candidates really were and how they wanted us to perceive them. Romney, the successful entrepreneur and moderate politician, struggled to seem ordinary and \"severely conservative,\" while Gore was perceived as having such an overblown sense of himself that the claim of having invented the Internet stuck to him like mud, even though he'd never said it. The two shared what will likely also be Clinton's destiny: winning a party nomination by default as there were few compelling alternatives. For Clinton, an uncontested rise to the Democratic nomination could mislead her campaign into believing that she doesn't have a problem with authenticity. She does, especially among Independents and Republicans. To be fair, Clinton's appeal as potentially the first woman to reach the White House makes her seem virtually bulletproof among certain voting groups. A recent Gallup Poll shows \"first female\" status as the \"best thing about a Hillary Clinton presidency,\" leading the positives mentioned by 30% of Democrats and 17% of Independents. But the next-closest best thing about Clinton is a long way off: Her experience is mentioned by only 16% of Democrats and 8% of Independents. A fledgling campaign apparatus, with powerful political recruits like John Podesta and Robby Mook and marquee brand wizards from Coca-Cola and Microsoft, might want to be looking hard at the dangerously lukewarm voter sentiment about experience and suitability that is lingering just beneath the surface of the \"first female president\" juggernaut. Part of the heightened danger coming out of her press conference lies among millennials, who will be a critical voting group for Democrats in the 2016 presidential election. And authenticity is of paramount importance to millennials in how they relate to everything in their lives, including politicians. As one commenter on a MediaPost article on millennials put it, \"If brands can't be authentic Millennials will call them on it. Want to win our hearts? A little self-deprecation and humility never hurt.\" Forty percent of millennials in the U.S. admit to full-blown cynicism about the way they are approached by brands of all kinds. According to the MediaPost article, authenticity and the allied trait of trustworthiness are two of the top brand attributes millennials look for before they make a decision to hand over their money and, one could argue by extension, their vote. These days, too, it's trickier than ever for brands to stay in step with the conversations that move people to make judgments. Whether they're consumers or voters, people are more in tune with each other than at any other time in human history. They can gang up more easily to support or reject a person, an idea, and, yes, a company, brand or politician. Brands are left on the outside looking in, puzzling out how to insert themselves into a meaningful relationship with constituents who can turn on them at any second. This trend of demanding more authenticity from brands they invest in, and rewarding brands for it, has been accelerating with consumers across the U.S. over the course of the very same seven years since Clinton last ran for president. Since consumers are also voters, it stands to reason that any political brand -- including Hillary Clinton -- should look even more seriously today at how to increase its value by focusing on perceptions of its authenticity.","highlights":"Martha Pease: Hillary Clinton struggled last week to put the email story behind her .\nPease: Consumers are increasingly valuing brands perceived as authentic. Does the Clinton brand qualify?","id":"92e4bc6af392b2de35f04980a514f7f336bf78e1"} -{"article":"(CNN)On the heels of the magical success of Disney's live-action \"Cinderella,\" the studio is eyeing another live-action retelling: \"Mulan.\" Disney bought a script by writing team Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek that centers on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, the female warrior who was the main character in Disney's 1998 animated film. Chris Bender and J.C. Spink (\"We're the Millers) are producing the new project. From Cinderella to Elsa (and Back to Cinderella): The Evolution of Disney Princesses . The 1998 film, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, followed a young woman who disguises herself as a man so she can take her father's place in the army and go to war. With the help of her trusty dragon sidekick Mushu, she becomes a skilled warrior and, eventually, one of the country's greatest heroines. It earned $304.3 million worldwide, earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations and resulted in a 2005 direct-to-DVD sequel, \"Mulan II.\" Disney has been on a roll with its live-action versions of its classic animated films. \"Cinderella,\" starring Lily James, has earned $336.2 million worldwide to date since hitting theaters three weeks ago. In 2010, the reimagined \"Alice in Wonderland\" grossed a staggering $1.02 billion and when \"Maleficent,\" starring Angelina Jolie as the iconic villainess, opened in May 2014, it went on to earn a stunning $758.4 million worldwide. 'Beauty and the Beast': Meet the Cast of Disney's Live-Action Retelling . Disney is also making a live-action retelling of \"Beauty and the Beast,\" starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens. Audra McDonald just joined the cast of the project, which will be directed by Bill Condon. It hits theaters on March 17, 2017. And in 2016 Disney will release a new version of \"The Jungle Book\" and the sequel to\"Alice in Wonderland.\" Finally, a live-action version of \"Dumbo,\" which will be helmed by Tim Burton, is also in the works. Best bad guys: The scariest Disney villains . Writing team Martin and Hynek met in high school, among other projects, have written for the Know Theatre of Cincinnati and rewrote a script for Amazon Studios. \u00a92015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.","highlights":"After the buzz from 'Cinderella' and 'Maleficent,' Disney is planning a live-action take on 'Mulan.'\nMulan is a female warrior and star of the 1998 animated film.\nLive action remakes of 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Dumbo' are already in the works.","id":"2836c333657b2abd73059e1c7e6c413ebc840408"} -{"article":"(CNN)When photographer Richard Ross wants to talk to a child at a juvenile detention center, he knocks on their cell door. He asks them if he can come inside. The 67-year-old Californian is used to taking off his shoes when he enters homes, so he does the same in a cell. \"Most of the kids, they've never had that kind of respect,\" he said. \"But I give it to them, I give them the power. I sit on the floor so they're looking down on me.\" Ross doesn't begin by hammering them with questions. He wants to have a conversation. \"I say, 'What's gone on in your life?' \" The result of that tenderness and patience is Ross' latest collection of photos, \"Girls in Justice.\" The images are unflinching. They convey the ugliness of a young person's life behind bars. The pictures are replete with the unique loneliness, anger and boredom of a juvenile detention center. But the girls also tell their stories alongside the images. One photo shows a girl in a tan jumpsuit, hand on her head, sitting alone in a drab, cavernous room. \"I've been here 17 times,\" one girl says. Many of the stories are bleak, reflecting adults who endangered the girls or, at the very least, failed repeatedly to protect them. \"Mom's a stripper. Dad was an alcoholic, drug addict, murdered last year,\" said one girl explaining her past. \"They took my brother and I away because my dad chained us in the house and tried to burn it down. I lived with my grandma and uncle. The people who are supposed to love you never do.\" The photos show girls wasting the day in their bunks, staring at the wall. Some struggle with mental illness. The girls obscure their faces or are turned away from the camera. That works to protect their identities, but it also evokes shame. Ross seems to be saying the shame isn't the girls' -- it's ours as a society for jailing children. His images aren't always literal. A photo shot toward an azure sky is framed by concertina wire. A straight-forward photo, of a utility wall holding dozens of scissors, turns the stomach after reading the caption -- the guards need the scissors to cut away any cloth a teenager might use to trying to hang herself. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. Ross recalled one particularly agonizing interview with a girl who kept telling him, \"I can't wait to get out of here so I can kill myself.\" \"She was just a kid, but she was at that place where you have no hope,\" he said. \"I feel all these stories, but that one just hit me hard. I was sobbing. You want to say, 'It will get better,' but you also know the system and you know that you can't say that.\" Ross, the son of a New York City police officer, had a happy upbringing in a home of modest means. He got into a decent amount of trouble growing up, and he said he could have easily wound up in the justice system. But times were different then, he said, and there's been a cultural turn in America toward criminalizing a child's bad behavior. He recalls a detention-center director in Reno, Nevada, who asked him to visit and take photos. At intake, he photographed a fifth-grader who had been taken to jail because he had acted up in class. \"This fifth-grader came up to my belt buckle,\" Ross recalled. \"He was drinking warm milk, like someone gave him a cardboard thing of milk. I can still smell that milk. That intake area smelled like elementary school.\" The child's single mother couldn't pick him up for hours. She was holding down a job that wouldn't allow her to leave until after 6 p.m. The detention-center director sent Ross' photo to every principal in the area to make a point: Children do not belong in lockup, so find another solution. Ross is adamant that he's making photographs to bring about \"immediate change.\" He speaks across the country to law schools and works closely with child welfare advocates. His work has been shown during legislative sessions to illustrate how sorely the juvenile justice system needs fixing. \"I'm trying to wake people up, make them realize there are lives at stake,\" he said. \"At the same time, I don't, I can't, position myself as the great hope. I might not be able to do much but listen. But I think I'm a good listener, and I think these kids deserve to tell their stories.\" Richard Ross is a photographer based in California. You can follow his Juvenile in Justice project on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.","highlights":"Photographer Richard Ross shows what life is like for girls in a juvenile detention center .\nHe wants to \"wake people up\" about the system and bring about \"immediate change\"","id":"69ae23ddcdea05626d23044de73bcf8ad75b8239"} -{"article":"(CNN)It shouldn't come as a surprise that Yemen has collapsed -- again. A country that has split and been pulled together before, has the youngest and fastest growing population in the region, is running low on oil and water, and possesses a \"personalist\" government rather than stable institutions, was on the top of every expert's list as the fragile state most likely to fail next. What is surprising is that U.S. policy ignored all of this and proceeded on the premise that simply drone-bombing al Qaeda terrorists could keep Yemen intact and stable. Indeed, last fall, when President Barack Obama pointed to U.S. policy in Yemen as an example of a \"success\" and a model for the plans that would roll back the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), I shivered. For as September ended, Shi'ite Houthi rebels from the north moved south and took the capital city, Sanaa. By January, the Islamic State was noticeably increasing its recruitment in Yemen, and that same month the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for organizing the deadly Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. Last week, the Islamic State bombed two Shi'ite mosques in Yemen, killing more than 130 worshippers at prayer. This week, the Houthi forces are closing in on Yemen's second major city, Aden, on the south coast, and the U.S.-supported President, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has reportedly fled the country. As the United States has closed its embassy and withdrawn its last troops, Yemen has slid into total chaos, with rebels and jihadists on both sides capturing military bases and seizing tanks and heavy weapons. The situation is so dire that a coalition of Sunni nations, led by Saudi Arabia, has launched massive airstrikes against the Houthis, with a Saudi adviser threatening to bring up to 150,000 ground troops into Yemen to restore the Hadi regime. Yemen does have value as a lesson -- this is what happens when you ignore the basic foundations of social stability. These include legitimate leadership with stable succession plans; a united elite; institutions to bridge regional and ethnic divisions and assure fairness in political and economic access and a functioning economy with capabilities for providing employment and growth. Rather than working to secure these things, the U.S. administration has succumbed to the illusion that precision bombing or other surgical interventions to remove \"dangerous elements\" will sustain broader social and political stability. Anyone could see that the conditions for collapse were progressing in Yemen and that aerial attacks on al Qaeda terrorists would have no effect on them. Those attacks were a sideshow -- like firing a lousy band performing on the deck of an ocean liner, while a hull full of holes is taking on water fast. What we have now is an area with about 24 million people, more than twice the population now under the rule of the Islamic State in eastern Syria and western Iraq, that is virtually ungoverned and up for grabs and is falling into the grips of an all-out civil war between Iran-supported Shi'as and al Qaeda\/ISIS-aligned Sunnis. It is a war that the West loses no matter who wins. It is now too late to do much of anything except watch and try to either support any moderate elements if they should emerge as capable of holding regional or national power, or contain any dangerous jihadist elements if they should do so. Either task will be difficult, and provide yet another costly distraction to efforts to restore peace in Syria and Iraq. In other words, what has happened in Yemen, although predictable, is about the worst outcome imaginable for U.S. policy. That America ever deluded itself into thinking airstrikes were enough to deal with the problems of failing states in the Middle East and North Africa -- and the crisis of ISIS -- is a notion that could only be made more frightening if it keeps on doing it.","highlights":"Goldstone: U.S. policy of drone-bombing al Qaeda terrorists ignores need to build social stability .\nHe says country now in chaos, virtually ungoverned and vulnerable to jihadist elements .","id":"aa9597c144fdaeb7f33e031805f86048c927d51d"} -{"article":"Atlanta (CNN)The daughter of the late singer Whitney Houston, in a medically induced coma after being found unresponsive in January, has been moved to a rehabilitation facility, a source close to the family said Friday. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, had been treated at Emory University Hospital. No details about the transfer to a rehab facility were given. Brown, Houston's daughter with singer Bobby Brown, was found unresponsive January 31 in a bathtub at her home in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell. The extent of her injuries isn't known. Last month, doctors at Emory removed her breathing tube, allowing Brown to be ventilated through a hole in her throat. At the time, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said the procedure suggested she would need to be on such support for \"weeks and months to come.\" Police have said they are treating Brown's case as a criminal investigation. When Houston died in 2012, she was also found in a bathtub. A coroner ruled her death an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. Brown is Houston's only child. Brown's boyfriend, Nick Gordon, says he performed CPR after finding Brown in the tub. Gordon has complained that Brown's family has not allowed him to see her, but Bobby Brown said last month that Gordon simply refused to abide by the family's terms for a visit. CNN's Sunny Hostin contributed to this report.","highlights":"Brown has been in a medically induced coma .\nShe was found unresponsive in a bathtub in January .\nThe extent of her injuries isn't known .","id":"693c46e81b87466ff746147a4c55e81952232211"} -{"article":"(CNN)[Breaking news update, posted 9:04 p.m. ET] . The live stream from what is believed to be the wreck of the World War II battleship Musashi in the waters around the Philippines began at 9:03 a.m. local time (9:03 p.m. ET) Friday. An underwater camera showed various sections of the ship, which displaced 69,000 tons when it was built, putting it in the largest class of battleships at that time. [Previous story, posted at 7:47 p.m. ET] . It's a journey beneath the waves and back in time. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen plans to live-stream an underwater tour of a wreck off the Philippine coast that's believed to be the remains of a long-lost World War II Japanese battleship. Allen, a philanthropist, said last week that he and his research team had discovered the wreck of the Musashi, which was once one of the two largest warships in the world. They had been searching for the ship for more than eight years. After the discovery last week, the team shared photos and video footage of parts of the vessel. Now, they're planning to take viewers on a real-time tour of the wreck with the unmanned submersible they used to find it at a depth of around 1 kilometer (3,280 feet). The live-stream is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Friday, Philippines time (9 p.m. Thursday, ET). It's expected to show various parts of the warship, including the bow and stern sections and the conning tower. Launched in 1940, the Musashi was, at the time, the largest class of warship ever constructed, displacing more than 69,000 tons. It was one of two Yamato-class battleships constructed by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship sank on October 24, 1944, during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the central Philippines. According to U.S. Navy documents, torpedo planes from U.S. aircraft carriers scored at least 10 hits on the battleship over the course of four hours. Navy dive bombers also hit the ship 16 times, but it was the torpedo hits that doomed the Musashi. More than 1,000 of the Musashi's crew were killed during the battle and sinking. Over 1,300 survivors were taken aboard by other Japanese warships, according to the U.S. Navy report. \"We are proud to have played a role in finding this key vessel in naval history and are honored to share it with the survivors, the families of those who perished and the world,\" Allen said in a statement. He has said his long fascination with World War II history was inspired by his father's service in the U.S. Army. Last week, he tweeted images of the wreck, including one that he said showed the bow of the ship -- featuring a distinctive chrysanthemum, the emblem of Japan's royal family -- and a big anchor. Another photo showed valves on which the Japanese characters for \"main valve handle\" and \"open\" are legible. Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Allen's Vulcan company, who will provide commentary during the live-stream, spoke more about the process. \"We used historical records from four countries, detailed undersea topographical data and advanced technology to identify the wreckage as the Musashi,\" he said. \"That moment of discovery was exhilarating.\" Kazushige Todaka, the director of Japan's Kure Maritime Museum, said last week after viewing the information posted by Allen that it appeared that the vessel was the Musashi, although pictures of the entire body of the ship were needed to know for sure. Todaka said, given the location and the depth at which the wreck was found, he was \"90% sure\" that the ship was the Musashi. \"I was really surprised because the location of the sunken ship has never been identified since it went down,\" he said. \"I have heard countless stories in the past that the ship was discovered, but they all turned out not to be true.\" Todaka said Allen's team had been in contact with the museum about the expedition and the ship's potential location. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki and Brad Lendon contributed to this report.","highlights":"A live-stream tour of the ship is underway .\nJapan's giant battleship Musashi was sunk off the Philippines in World War II .\nA team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen said last week it had found the wreck .","id":"d40a97ce4bc5886e548077b321677f1c3a26375b"} -{"article":"(CNN)Legendary fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are in a public spat with pop music icon Elton John over some eyebrow-raising comments the pair made about gay parenting. Long against same-sex marriage, the Italian designers -- who are not only openly gay, but were once a couple -- took their counterintuitive rhetoric to the next level this weekend when Dolce said in an interview: . \"You are born to a mother and a father -- or at least that's how it should be. I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.\" John, who along with his husband David Furnish is raising two children that were conceived through IVF, took to Twitter to essentially say \"Oh no he didn't,\" followed by \"#BoycottDolceGabbana\" because nothing expresses anger quite like a hashtag. Not to be outdone, the pair responded with #BoycottEltonJohn. So what should we make of all this boycott talk? Combined, the three men are worth an estimated $3 billion. The openly gay Ricky Martin, who is raising two boys via a surrogate mother, sided with John (but he's only worth an estimated $60 million, so I'm not sure if anyone noticed). Regardless, while I find the archaic thinking of Dolce and Gabbana disappointing, the truth is my budget boycotted their clothing years ago. Some of it's really nice. But I just can't afford to spend $500 on a T-shirt. And even if I could, I don't know how I would justify doing so with a kid to put through college. That's why I find this whole ultra rich on ultra rich violence so disconnected from the reality most of us on Twitter are living. Boycott? Besides the 1%, who the hell is buying Dolce and Gabbana regularly enough to actually call the act of not buying their clothing a \"boycott\"? That's a little like me saying I'm upset with the way James Dolan is running the New York Knicks so I refuse to play for him. Even misguided consumers wallowing in debt and living way above their means likely do not have enough credit cards to keep up with the purchasing power of the Elton Johns of this world. (No lie -- the online store has a pair of \"Polka Dot Print Slim Fit Denim Jeans\" for $795. And you still have to pay for shipping. And there's also a cotton vest on sale for $795. A COTTON VEST!!) Here's an idea: Considering it can cost about $20,000 for each attempt at IVF, and the procedure has roughly a 40% success rate, I would say the vast majority of people who were the direct targets of Dolce's words are not using their expendable cash to buy their clothing anyway. If John, Martin, Courtney Love and other ultra-rich celebrities really want to leverage their celebrity to ignite a movement we can buy into (pun intended) take that would-be Dolce and Gabanna money and start an endowment for those who can't afford IVF treatments. Or consider \"Modern Family's\" Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who tweeted he wanted to unload his Dolce and Gabanna suits in a way that would help those who can't afford the IVF treatments. Retweeting a hashtag is a great way to publicly shame. But crowdsourcing among the 1% could make a difference in the lives of people who so desperately want to be parents that they mortgage their homes trying. It also creates a medium in which us regular folks can legitimately express our disappointment in the designers' words and not take the convenient route via blogs and hashtag activism. And yes, I realize I'm criticizing myself as well. But I have some self-awareness. When you tweet \"Je Suis D&G\" -- thus comparing your PR nightmare to the one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in recent Europe history -- you don't.","highlights":"Elton John called for D&G boycott over IVF remarks .\nLZ Granderson: Who can afford their products anyway?","id":"407a225c46b24d7fd7d9e12a905b78630fae43e1"} -{"article":"(CNN)For four years, William Bruce James II called the University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon his home. He walked its halls, bunked in its rooms, held office as one of its leaders, considered his fraternity brothers his dearest friends. He was proud to be SAE. Now that pride is tainted. A video shot this Saturday of party-bound shows SAE members clapping, pumping their fists and chanting in unison: \"There will never be a ni**** SAE,\" they sing. \"You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me.\" These young men are talking about him, James said. That's because not only is he an SAE alumni, he is also African-American. How do you make sense of the fact that those behind these hateful words wore the same pledge pins, occupied the same house, preached \"the same motto that I hold dear to my heart\" as James did? \"I couldn't look at myself,\" he said, \"still claiming to be that.\" Since the video surfaced Sunday, students have been expelled and SAE's Oklahoma chapter has shut down. The episode has left James disgusted, horrified that members of a fraternity that once welcomed him could espouse such hatred. Students expelled over racist chant . \"I don't know what happened to the culture of my home,\" he told CNN on Tuesday. \"That is not my home. That is not SAE. They are not my brothers.\" While the Oklahoma frat has never had a lot of black members, that didn't matter to James when he joined in 2001. SAE was where he forged lifelong friendships, where he and others grew into men. \"We were becoming something while I was there,\" he said. \"Something that I don't think these kids grasped. ... I don't think they know what it means to be a brother of any fraternity, let alone mine.\" James doesn't believe the racist chant was an isolated incident, not given how many on the bus seemingly sang it so easily and enthusiastically. Nor does he think that only those leading the chant deserve punishment. Just as easily as one person could have started it, someone else could have called for it to stop. That's what James thinks that his own fraternity brothers would've done, whether he was around or not. They understood the importance of stepping up to say: \"This isn't right, this isn't what I stand for, this isn't gentlemanly, this isn't even human,\" he said. \"That's what being an SAE is.\" \"My pledge class ... wouldn't let that happen,\" he said. \"And I don't know what's happened to (the Oklahoma SAE chapter) since then.\" Many members of that pledge class, as well others who he knew from SAE, have reached out to James in recent days by text, phone, email and Facebook. He knows he is not alone, including in his support for disbanding Oklahoma's SAE chapter. \"That entire house has accepted the culture that accepts that song, those words, that imagery,\" James said. \"So the whole house has to be punished.\" His former frat brothers are different from him, of course. Their skin color wouldn't have stopped them from getting into SAE if the twisted chant reflected reality. Still, James feels their pain is real and sincere. Those on this weekend's video may not be his brothers, but those he knew from 2001 to 2005 still are. \"I don't think that they can fully encompass the pain and betrayal that I feel,\" James said of his white friends from the fraternity. \"But by holding me so close in their life, they know that their brother was hurt.\" \"So it's a thing they're feeling in their family. I'm family to them.\"","highlights":"William Bruce James II was in Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter from 2001 to 2005 .\nHe's disgusted by the racist chant tied to the frat; \"the whole house needs to be punished\"\nWhile those involved are \"not my brothers,\" James calls his former frat brothers \"family\"","id":"c851a367964b36332c40314e06f317858456f2f4"} -{"article":"(CNN)After weeks of controversy and the sudden departures of two co-hosts, \"Fashion Police\" is going on an extended break. The fashion commentary show on E! channel announced Tuesday that it will be on hiatus until September. \"We look forward to taking this opportunity to refresh the show before the next awards season,\" it said in a statement. The announcement caps a rocky few months. Last week, co-host Kathy Griffin bid the show bye-bye after seven episodes, saying her style did not blend in with her co-hosts. She made a dig at the show on her way out. \"There is plenty to make fun of in pop culture without bringing people's bodies into it,\" she said in a statement. \"I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.\" Shortly before her departure, co-host Giuliana Rancic faced backlash last month for suggesting that Disney star Zendaya Coleman's dreadlocks smelled of marijuana. Rancic later issued an on-air apology to the 18-year-old after social media jumped to the teen's defense. But her apology was not enough for co-host Kelly Osbourne, who criticized her remarks and quit a few days later. Rancic and fellow co-host Brad Goreski will return in September, along with executive producer Melissa Rivers.","highlights":"Fashion commentary show will be on hiatus until September .\nCo-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski will return in September .","id":"08fb1e8132b29d2ef42e35113be4715054bd1856"} diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb index 39721cbad3..a63ec8826a 100644 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb +++ b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ "This sample shows how to use `summarization` components from the `azureml` system registry to fine tune a model to generate summary of a news article. We then deploy it to an online endpoint for real time inference. The model is trained on tiny sample of the dataset with a small number of epochs to illustrate the fine tuning approach.\n", "\n", "### Training data\n", - "We will use the [CNN DailyMail](https://huggingface.co/datasets/cnn_dailymail) dataset. A copy of this dataset is available in the [news-summary-dataset](./news-summary-dataset/) folder for easy access. \n", + "We will use the [CNN DailyMail](https://huggingface.co/datasets/cnn_dailymail) dataset. \n", "\n", "### Model\n", "Models that can perform the `translation` task are generally good foundation models to fine tune for `summarization`. We will use the `t5-small` model in this notebook. If you opened this notebook from a specific model card, remember to replace the specific model name. Optionally, if you need to fine tune a model that is available on HuggingFace, but not available in `azureml` system registry, you can either [import](https://github.com/Azure/azureml-examples) the model or use the `huggingface_id` parameter instruct the components to pull the model directly from HuggingFace. \n", @@ -85,9 +85,9 @@ "except:\n", " workspace_ml_client = MLClient(\n", " credential,\n", - " subscription_id=\"\",\n", - " resource_group_name=\"\",\n", - " workspace_name=\"\",\n", + " subscription_id = \"\"\n", + " resource_group_name = \"\",\n", + " workspace_name = \"WORKSPACE_NAME>\",\n", " )\n", "\n", "# the models, fine tuning pipelines and environments are available in the AzureML system registry, \"azureml-preview\"\n", @@ -175,10 +175,24 @@ "> The [CNN DailyMail](https://huggingface.co/datasets/cnn_dailymail) dataset is larger than 1GB when uncompressed. The [download-dataset.py](./news-summary-dataset/download-dataset.py) has supports downloading a smaller fraction of the dataset. The files in the [](./news-summary-dataset/) folder contain about 3% of the original dataset rows. \n", "\n", "A copy of the dataset is available in the [news-summary-dataset](./news-summary-dataset/) folder. \n", + "* Download the dataset.\n", "* Visualize some data rows. \n", "* We want this sample to run quickly, so save smaller `train`, `validation` and `test` files containing 20% of the already trimmed rows. This means the fine tuned model will have lower accuracy, hence it should not be put to real-world use. " ] }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# download the dataset using the helper script. This needs datasets library: https://pypi.org/project/datasets/\n", + "import os\n", + "exit_status=os.system(\"python ./download-dataset.py\")\n", + "if exit_status != 0:\n", + " raise Exception(\"Error downloading dataset\")" + ] + }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": null, @@ -193,7 +207,9 @@ "# load the train.jsonl, test.jsonl and validation.jsonl files from the ./news-summary-dataset/ folder and show first 5 rows\n", "train_df = pd.read_json(\"./news-summary-dataset/train.jsonl\", lines=True)\n", "validation_df = pd.read_json(\"./news-summary-dataset/validation.jsonl\", lines=True)\n", - "test_df = pd.read_json(\"./news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl\", lines=True)\n", + "# this dataset doesn't have test data, so split the validation_df into test_df and validation_df\n", + "test_df = validation_df.sample(frac=0.5, random_state=42)\n", + "validation_df.drop(test_df.index, inplace=True)\n", "# drop the id column as it is not needed for fine tuning\n", "train_df.drop(columns=[\"id\"], inplace=True)\n", "validation_df.drop(columns=[\"id\"], inplace=True)\n", @@ -504,10 +520,8 @@ "import json\n", "\n", "test_df = pd.read_json(\n", - " \"./news-summary-dataset/test.jsonl\", orient=\"records\", lines=True\n", + " \"./news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl\", orient=\"records\", lines=True\n", ")\n", - "# drop the id column\n", - "test_df.drop(columns=[\"id\"], inplace=True)\n", "# take 1 random sample\n", "test_df = test_df.sample(n=1)\n", "# rebuild index\n", @@ -605,7 +619,7 @@ "name": "python", "nbconvert_exporter": "python", "pygments_lexer": "ipython3", - "version": "3.8.16" + "version": "3.8.13" } }, "nbformat": 4, From a47236427e86462f8a5bda93b740c521921b5c42 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Manoj Bableshwar Date: Thu, 4 May 2023 15:33:32 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 2/4] fix to cli sample to remove dataset from repo --- .../summarization/download-dataset.py | 83 +++++++++++++++++++ .../finetune/summarization/news-summary.sh | 25 ++++-- .../summarization/summarization-config.json | 5 ++ 3 files changed, 105 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) create mode 100644 cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py create mode 100644 cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/summarization-config.json diff --git a/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..a5f544ed8f --- /dev/null +++ b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +# import library to parse command line arguments +import argparse, os +import pandas as pd +import os + +parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() +# add an argument to specify a dataset name to download +parser.add_argument("--dataset", type=str, default="cnn_dailymail", help="dataset name") +# add an argument to specify the config name of the dataset +parser.add_argument( + "--config_name", type=str, default="3.0.0", help="config name of the dataset" +) +# argument to save a fraction of the dataset +parser.add_argument( + "--fraction", type=float, default=0.05, help="fraction of the dataset to save" +) +# add an argument to specify the directory to download the dataset to +parser.add_argument( + "--download_dir", + type=str, + default="./news-summary-dataset", + help="directory to download the dataset to", +) +args = parser.parse_args() + +# create the download directory if it does not exist +if not os.path.exists(args.download_dir): + os.makedirs(args.download_dir) + +# import hugging face datasets library +from datasets import load_dataset, get_dataset_split_names + +for split in get_dataset_split_names(args.dataset, config_name=args.config_name): + print(f"Loading {split} split of {args.dataset} dataset...") + # load the split of the dataset + dataset = load_dataset(args.dataset, args.config_name, split=split) + # save the split of the dataset to the download directory as json lines file + dataset.select(range(int(dataset.num_rows * args.fraction))).to_json( + os.path.join(args.download_dir, f"{split}.jsonl") + ) + +train_df = pd.read_json(os.path.join(args.download_dir, "train.jsonl"), lines=True) +validation_df = pd.read_json(os.path.join(args.download_dir, "validation.jsonl"), lines=True) +# this dataset doesn't have test data, so split the validation_df into test_df and validation_df +test_df = validation_df.sample(frac=0.5, random_state=42) +validation_df.drop(test_df.index, inplace=True) +# drop the id column as it is not needed for fine tuning +train_df.drop(columns=["id"], inplace=True) +validation_df.drop(columns=["id"], inplace=True) +test_df.drop(columns=["id"], inplace=True) + + +# save 20% of the rows from the dataframes into files with small_ prefix in the ./news-summary-dataset folder +train_df.sample(frac=0.2).to_json( + os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_train.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True +) +validation_df.sample(frac=0.2).to_json( + os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_validation.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True +) +test_df.sample(frac=0.2).to_json( + os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_test.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True +) + + +# generate sample scoring data +# read ./news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl into a pandas dataframe +import pandas as pd +import json + +test_df = pd.read_json( + os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_test.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True +) +# take 1 random sample +test_df = test_df.sample(n=1) +# rebuild index +test_df.reset_index(drop=True, inplace=True) +# rename the highlights column to ground_truth_summary +test_df.rename(columns={"highlights": "ground_truth_summary"}, inplace=True) +# create a json object with the key as "inputs" and value as a list of values from the article column of the test dataframe +test_json = {"inputs": {"input_string": test_df["article"].tolist()}} +# save the json object to a file named sample_score.json in the ./emotion-dataset folder +with open(os.path.join(args.download_dir,"sample_score.json"), "w") as f: + json.dump(test_json, f) diff --git a/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.sh b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.sh index 0609a0fdf9..d289f0ed77 100644 --- a/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.sh +++ b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.sh @@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ set -x # the data files are available in the same folder as the above notebook # script inputs -subscription_id="" -resource_group_name="" -workspace_name="" +subscription_id="21d8f407-c4c4-452e-87a4-e609bfb86248" #"" +resource_group_name="rg-contoso-819prod" #"", +workspace_name="mlw-contoso-819prod" #"WORKSPACE_NAME>", registry_name="azureml" compute_cluster="gpu-cluster-big" @@ -27,15 +27,15 @@ deployment_sku="Standard_DS3_v2" # training data -train_data="../../../../../sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl" +train_data="./news-summary-dataset/small_train.jsonl" # validation data -validation_data="../../../../../sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_validation.jsonl" +validation_data="./news-summary-dataset/small_validation.jsonl" # test data -test_data="../../../../../sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl" +test_data="./news-summary-dataset/small_test.jsonl" # evaluation config -evaluation_config="../../../../../sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/summarization-config.json" +evaluation_config="./summarization-config.json" # scoring_file -scoring_file="../../../../../sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json" +scoring_file="./news-summary-dataset/sample_score.json" # finetuning job parameters finetuning_pipeline_component="summarization_pipeline" @@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ number_of_gpu_to_use_finetuning=$gpus_per_node # set to the number of GPUs avail num_train_epochs=3 learning_rate=2e-5 + + # 1. Setup pre-requisites if [ "$subscription_id" = "" ] || \ @@ -73,6 +75,13 @@ else } fi +# download the dataset + +python ./download-dataset.py || { + echo "Failed to download dataset" + exit 1 +} + # 2. Check if the model exists in the registry # need to confirm model show command works for registries outside the tenant (aka system registry) if ! az ml model show --name $model_name --version $model_version --registry-name $registry_name diff --git a/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/summarization-config.json b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/summarization-config.json new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..899d0c33b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/summarization-config.json @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +{ + "metrics": ["rouge1", "rouge2", "rougeL", "rougeLsum"], + "aggregator": true, + "stemmer": true +} From d26188e956d68ba121deb62f508cfe95c525f610 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Manoj Bableshwar Date: Fri, 5 May 2023 16:05:29 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 3/4] typo fix --- .../system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb index a63ec8826a..75b878c18c 100644 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb +++ b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ "except:\n", " workspace_ml_client = MLClient(\n", " credential,\n", - " subscription_id = \"\"\n", + " subscription_id = \"\",\n", " resource_group_name = \"\",\n", " workspace_name = \"WORKSPACE_NAME>\",\n", " )\n", From afa2be00c356cb76a32782be6555e10bb66b5101 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Manoj Bableshwar Date: Mon, 8 May 2023 17:49:43 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 4/4] formatting --- .../finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py | 16 ++++++++++------ .../finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb | 9 +++++---- 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py index a5f544ed8f..e2b98eac10 100644 --- a/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py +++ b/cli/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/download-dataset.py @@ -40,7 +40,9 @@ ) train_df = pd.read_json(os.path.join(args.download_dir, "train.jsonl"), lines=True) -validation_df = pd.read_json(os.path.join(args.download_dir, "validation.jsonl"), lines=True) +validation_df = pd.read_json( + os.path.join(args.download_dir, "validation.jsonl"), lines=True +) # this dataset doesn't have test data, so split the validation_df into test_df and validation_df test_df = validation_df.sample(frac=0.5, random_state=42) validation_df.drop(test_df.index, inplace=True) @@ -52,13 +54,15 @@ # save 20% of the rows from the dataframes into files with small_ prefix in the ./news-summary-dataset folder train_df.sample(frac=0.2).to_json( - os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_train.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True + os.path.join(args.download_dir, "small_train.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True ) validation_df.sample(frac=0.2).to_json( - os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_validation.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True + os.path.join(args.download_dir, "small_validation.jsonl"), + orient="records", + lines=True, ) test_df.sample(frac=0.2).to_json( - os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_test.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True + os.path.join(args.download_dir, "small_test.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True ) @@ -68,7 +72,7 @@ import json test_df = pd.read_json( - os.path.join(args.download_dir,"small_test.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True + os.path.join(args.download_dir, "small_test.jsonl"), orient="records", lines=True ) # take 1 random sample test_df = test_df.sample(n=1) @@ -79,5 +83,5 @@ # create a json object with the key as "inputs" and value as a list of values from the article column of the test dataframe test_json = {"inputs": {"input_string": test_df["article"].tolist()}} # save the json object to a file named sample_score.json in the ./emotion-dataset folder -with open(os.path.join(args.download_dir,"sample_score.json"), "w") as f: +with open(os.path.join(args.download_dir, "sample_score.json"), "w") as f: json.dump(test_json, f) diff --git a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb index 75b878c18c..452776503f 100644 --- a/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb +++ b/sdk/python/foundation-models/system/finetune/summarization/news-summary.ipynb @@ -85,9 +85,9 @@ "except:\n", " workspace_ml_client = MLClient(\n", " credential,\n", - " subscription_id = \"\",\n", - " resource_group_name = \"\",\n", - " workspace_name = \"WORKSPACE_NAME>\",\n", + " subscription_id=\"\",\n", + " resource_group_name=\"\",\n", + " workspace_name=\"WORKSPACE_NAME>\",\n", " )\n", "\n", "# the models, fine tuning pipelines and environments are available in the AzureML system registry, \"azureml-preview\"\n", @@ -188,7 +188,8 @@ "source": [ "# download the dataset using the helper script. This needs datasets library: https://pypi.org/project/datasets/\n", "import os\n", - "exit_status=os.system(\"python ./download-dataset.py\")\n", + "\n", + "exit_status = os.system(\"python ./download-dataset.py\")\n", "if exit_status != 0:\n", " raise Exception(\"Error downloading dataset\")" ]